B:

This is a genuine academic paper submitted for class credit at Indiana University circa 1994.

Hangin' with 13ers

by Allan Murphy

I elected to study a group of Bloomington people in their early to mid twenties. My principal informant was Bart Everson, who, along with friend Joe Nickell, produces a weekly counterculture television program which airs on the local community- access station.

"ROX" is a comedic, stream-of-consciousness look at slacker life as lived by Joe and Bart (J & B) and their creative circle of friends. Between them, Joe and Bart write, tape, edit, and are the principal actors in the program. I felt that, given their creative bent and their ability to observe and comment on the lifestyle in which they are immersed, they might provide a rich perspective on their generation...or at least the subset to which... [More...]

B: I'm sorry to have to report that Alan Murphy died Tuesday night.

Murf was seen in our most notorious episode. He was doing a participant-observer thing for a class at IU. We tried to keep his role low-key, but he ended up on MTV with the rest of us. He was also running HR for the HT back then, so it was a slight embarrassment.

He was Xy's godfather, her dad's best friend. He always had a kind word for me and really seemed to take a genuine interest in my doings.

He was also fiendishly good at Scrabble. He will be missed by many.