-
+
arts & culture
KANSAN.COM |THURSDAY,MAY 4.2017
HOROSCOPES
>> WHAT'S YOUR
SIGN?
Aries (March 21-April 19) Someone attractive has your attention. You're especially clever and charming. Misunderstandings fade with Mercury direct in your sign for the next three months. Open a dialogue.
Taurus
(April 20-May 20)
Home and family have your focus. Words and traffic flow better with Mercury direct.
Journal your plans and strategies. Articulate your feelings. Share experiences and memories
(May 21-June 20) Communication barriers evaporate. Team coordination comes together naturally, now that Mercury is direct. The fog clears, and you can hear each other again.
Gemini (May 21-June 2)
Cancer
(June 21-July 22)
Manage financial transactions.It's easier to advance professionally, with Mercury direct for three months.Brain-storming gets more productive and creative.Negotiate, collaborate and network.
Leo
( July 23-Aug. 22 )
(July 23-Aug. 22)
Now you're cooking. It's easier to travel and launch projects with Mercury direct.
Traffic flows better. Long-distance connections come together. Confirm reservations.
Get your message out
Get your message out.
Dogs wait to be adopted at the Lawrence Humane Society in spring 2016.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
There's less confusion now. Money, invoices and payments flow better with Mercury direct. Buy, sell and discuss financial transactions. Sign contracts and negotiate
Missy Minear/KANSAN
(Sept. 23-Oct. 22) Teamwork thrives. Lines of communication clear up, with Mercury direct. Partnership misunderstandings diminish. It's easier to persuade, compromise and reach consensus. Send love letters and invitations.
Libra
Scorpio
(Oct. 23-Nov. 21) New collaborative efforts come together naturally. Together, you're an unbeatable team. Advance a level in your relationship under this New Moon. Partnership blooms. Support each other.
Saaittarius
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Focus on career goals. It's easier to concentrate and communicate, with Mercury direct. Mechanical equipment powers on. Messes are fewer and farther between.
Capricorn
(Dec. 22-Jan.19) Discuss possible financial solutions. Family communications flow clearly, with Mercury direct. Express the future you want to create. Share your visions. Speak up.
Aquarius Jan. 20-Feb.18)
[Jan. 20-Feb. 18] Collaboration percolates. It's easier to learn and express, now that Mercury's direct in Aries. Creative efforts take a leap forward. Sign papers, post and publish.
(Feb. 19-March 20) Physical action satisfies. Practice your moves. Banking matters take a turn for the better, with Mercury direct. It's easier to discuss finances.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
After two decades, Lawrence Humane Society to get new, improved facilities
Eat well.
▶ COURTNEY BIERMAN
@courtneyberman
@courtbierman
The medical facilities at the Lawrence Humane Society are about the size of a dorm room. Fluorescent light bulbs flicker over the bodies of several small dogs gently placed on the floor on top of towels.
The animals are sleeping off anesthetic. Even if there were space for a proper recovery area, there aren't resources to furnish it. If they're lucky, someone will kneel down and fall in love with a wet nose and a pair of soft brown eyes. But before that, they'll have to endure some of the scariest, most stressful days of their lives in a facility that simply doesn't meet their needs.
But after more than two decades in the current facility, the Lawrence Humane Society is getting a new building, and staff are asking the Lawrence community for donations. The $7.5 million project is more than 70 percent funded thanks to the City of Lawrence and private donors, but it has just shy of $2 million to go.
Executive director Kate Meghjin said the new shelter has been a long time coming. The current 21-year-old building is noisy, cramped, and difficult to clean. Natural light is scarce, and airflow is poor, she added.
Since she came to the
Lawrence Humane Society in 2014, Meghji said she's longed for a new building. Almost immediately after she took over the position, the air conditioner broke not a small problem for a building that houses 200 furry bodies at any given time.After that, it was one crisis after another, which increasingly made Meghji realize the need for a wstate-of-the-art building rather than regularly spending thousands of dollars on repairs that were only temporary fixes.The board of directors was on her side
Katy Ibsen, chair of the Lawrence Humane Society Board of Directors, said the board realized that it wasn't
sustainable to keep sinking money into a building that wasn't going to last anyway.
"The board stepped back and said maybe if we build, we'll be able to build a better building that will last even longer so that the next generation of animals that comes through, the next generation of staff, volunteers, adoptive parents would also be able to experience that." Ibsen said.
Meghji first took her proposal to the City of Lawrence in 2015 and was rejected. She tried again the following year, and the city agreed to fund $2.5 million of the project.
"So we decided to build," Ibsen said.
Plans for the new facility which will be built on the same property as the current one, includes another 2,000 feet of space; new enclosures for cats, dogs, and small mammals; a clinic for treatment and diagnostics; meeting and work spaces for employees and community members; and other things Meghji said the Humane Society needs to help as many animals as it can.
"We provide a service that the community really needs, and I think we deserve a better animal shelter," she said.
The Humane Society provides shelter and care to roughly 3,800 animals a year by its own count.
43,000 needy animals, including 22,000 adopted pets, have received some type of service at the Lawrence shelter since 2008. Meghji and the board of directors expect that the new facility will increase these numbers.
Stone is looking forward to having an isolation room for contagious animals—and simply having more space to do her work. She said the thing she's most excited to have is the radiology equipment, which she expects the veterinary staff will use every day for diagnostic work. Much of their current treatment of shelter animals has to be outsourced to private veterinary clinics in Lawrence.
The medical facilities at the Lawrence Humane Society have already slowly improved over the years, according to staff veterinarian Jennifer Stone.
If the shelter is successful in raising the remaining $2 million—and those involved in the fundraising said they expect they will be—the new building will likely be completed in early 2018, at which point the current building will be demolished. The animals will stay in the current facility until construction is complete in order to minimize stress.
Grant Babbitt has worked on major film and TV projects in Los Angeles after graduating from the University in 2011
- Edited by Casey Brown
After working on '22 Jump Street' and 'Game of Thrones,' a KU alum is coming back to Lawrence
Contributed Photo
HANNAH COLEMAN
@hecoleman33
He remembers his first freelance job as a cinematographer right out of college, what he describes as a whirlwind of unexpected events. He accepted a gig in Los Angeles to set up the lighting and camera for a televised celebrity interview. Grant Babbitt remembers the crew saying, "Tom will be up soon."
Babbitt, a University alum, jumped straight out of the film and media studies program and into Los Angeles as a successful freelance cinematographer after graduating in 2011. Babbitt finished his last final exam at the University and then, immediately drove straight to the big city.
Little did he know, that would be Tom Cruise.
His transition from Lawrence to a big city - working with celebrities and other prominent figures on the
"I started doing a bunch of interviews with actors, working with all of these A-list people, being only out there for a year or two," Babbitt said. "I was working with some of the top talent. Kind of being thrust into that world was very interesting. It's kind of evolved from there."
Babbitt has worked on several notable movies and TV shows, such as "Game of Thrones," "Dexter," "The Lego Movie," "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," "22 Jump Street," "Guardians of the Galaxy," and the list goes on.
Because of Babbitt's extensive experience in the field, he plans to come to the University next fall to talk to the current film students about his experiences and moves that have helped him become a successful freelance cinematographer.
film stage — was unbelievable, Babbitt said.
"I know [film students]
Film students can often be intimidated by bigger cities like Los Angeles, Babbitt said, but by coming to the University, he plans to illustrate the reality of the industry.
probably feel like they're just kids from Kansas, and even though you love to make movies, [they think] would you go to L.A. and try to make it?" Babbitt said.
Babbitt said that his immediate success in the industry was mostly due to his constant efforts and work during his time at the University.
Babbitt and his friends created a total of 26 films while at the University, and in addition to his films, Babbitt also worked at Kansas Athletics as the camera operator for the entire first season of "The Gridiron," which won a Mid America Emmy Award. He also worked at Jayhawkers, LLC, as the associate producer
Another major step to Babbitt's career involved his trip to Los Angeles before graduation with a group sponsored by the University called the "Hollywood Hawks," that go to the city to scope out the industry — the Los Angeles life — and meet other people in Kansas working in the industry. That helped Babbitt make valuable connections.
and kickstarter campaign producer on the feature film "Jayhawkers."
"One of the things that helped at KU is like the ability and freedom to just try different things and try stuff and fail," Babbitt said. "We basically lived at OldFather Studios. We really were there nonstop. That's one of the things that helped me. Immersing myself in that filmmaker's mindset, in that creative mindset."
For now, Babbitt is enjoying work as a freelance cinematographer, but plans to
work as a cinematographer for a major film or TV show, and eventually wants to produce his own show.
Film and media studies professor Matthew Jacobson worked closely with Babbitt during his time in the program, and said Babbitt's success in the industry is due to his hard work and involvement in the film program at the University.
"He was definitely one of the most involved students we had in production here at that time," Jacobson said. "He and his friends really stood out from a lot of the other students just in the way that they were always working and always making movies. The best students are always the ones that jump at the chance to make their own movies and to work on movies for other people, and that was always Grant."
- Edited by Ashley Hocking
+ .