interviews

“Maybe it’s not as glamorous as working with Stevie Wonder, but the work in a studio is very much like the work in a laboratory,” he says, speaking as a rock star/neuroscientist hybrid.

“These glasses are comfortable, lightweight, and durable, and I hope to have them forever,” he says.

Says Bird about his return to the NBA team based in Indianapolis: “I don’t know if I’d be doing this if it was anywhere but here.”

Says Hicks, “I get things done. I’m analytical. Being in front of a camera was very, very foreign to me. At one point I wanted to be an actuary.”

“The fact that I’m a woman is the hustle. I could be No. 1 in the world, and some local guy would think, ‘I can beat her.’”

“I grew up seeing The Nutcracker over and over, so I was excited to direct my own take. I thought, instead of Clara’s sweet little dream, I’ll make it a fever dream—one of those creepy delusions you have when you’re a kid and sick. They’re not exactly nightmares. They’re just weird.”

“I’ll wrestle ‘Hannah the Ferocious Banana’—cute little girl, but don’t let her fool you. She is not a nice person in the ring. Sometimes, we have to lift her off the ground by her ponytails.”

The native Hoosier and Ball State grad plays a character now who’s a far cry from the previous role she revealed to local audiences. See her thoughts on obsessed Wicked fans, life on the road, and more.

The former ISO musical director joins his old colleagues for a reunion concert Nov. 1–2 at Hilbert Circle Theatre. We conducted a brief interview before the show.

On Oct. 4 at iMOCA, the local rockstar and architecture buff launched an exhibit of works by his grandfather Jan Ruhtenberg, a modernist designer. Here, a minimalist interview.

The Hoosier rocket man talks about life in the International Space Station.

“I went to IU, so I try to keep an eye on what’s happening in Indiana. Any state with a great school like that is going to have a solid startup culture. I know it worked for me!”

Find out why the queen teen magazine thinks this young Hoosier game-changer is “pretty amazing.”

“A hilljack is somebody that’s smart enough to take what you got and make what you need. I don’t own a gun. Guns are expensive, so I made a potato gun, which is cheap.”

“We have [been to a lot of state fairs], but they all have a different vibe. The one thing they all share is great food stands. I’m going to eat a fried Snickers bar!”