July 13, 2009
Bruce HetrickA gentleman from Fort Wayne died last month. The cancer caught up to him just a few days before his 80th birthday. Like many
of us native Hoosiers, this fellow was born of working folks. His dad was a traveling hardware salesman,
his mom a homemaker.
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July 13, 2009
Bill BennerReports of a Hulman-George family feud proved dead-on accurate when matriarch Mari Hulman-George issued a statement June
30 confirming the ouster of her son, Tony, as CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the family business empire. Shortly
thereafter, Tony George also resigned as CEO of the Indy Racing League.
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July 13, 2009
Lou HarryIf you’re in Broad Ripple and hungry for pizza, you’ve got lots of options. But what do you do if it’s the
middle of the night on a Thursday and you and your entourage have the munchies? Well, for that very specific
demographic group of pizza eaters, there’s now ’Za, which is open until 4 a.m. Wednesday
to Saturday.
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July 13, 2009
Lou HarryThis year’s Indianapolis International Film Festival gets rolling later this usual, with a bump to summer precipitated
in part by the moving on of its founder to the Nashville Film Festival and in part by the move of most of the fest (minus
parties) to the Indianapolis Museum of Art. We’ve spent the last few weeks reviewing most of the
features in competition.
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July 7, 2009
Kathleen McLaughlinIndiana and Indianapolis arts agencies will receive more than a half-million dollars in federal stimulus money to help save
jobs at local organizations, the National Endowment for the Arts announced today. A second round of American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act funding includes $250,000 for the Arts Council of Indianapolis.
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July 6, 2009
Jim CotaHard drives fail—almost all of them, at one point or another. Back-ups are a little clunky to set up
and keep up with, so most people I know ignore it. I finally decided I couldn’t avoid it any longer.
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July 6, 2009
Bill BennerLast week’s column about the wide array of events on our July sports calendar in Indy was glaringly lacking in
one aspect: The Indiana Fever. As of this writing, they are the hottest team in the WNBA, reversing an
0-2 start and racing to six straight victories.
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July 6, 2009
Anthony SchoettleA locally born initiative to make a movie about the first Indianapolis 500 has cleared a major obstacle to getting its project
to big screens nationwide by May 2011in time for the race's centennial.
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July 6, 2009
Peter SchnitzlerIndiana's struggling gambling industry didn't get the relief it sought during the special session of the Indiana General Assembly.
But embedded within the budget bill approved June 30 is a provision creating a gambling summer study committee. Its recommendations,
due by Dec. 1, may make or break several of Indiana's casinos.
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July 6, 2009
Lou HarryI entered "Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharoahs" (at the Children's Museum of
Indianapolis through Oct. 25) with a limited knowledge of Egyptian historyand by limited, I mean
loose threads picked up from a handful of Mummy movies, the Bible, and a few too many productions of "Joseph and the
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat."
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July 6, 2009
Lou HarrySearch the Web for Naisa and you may come up with the North American International Auto Show or the Native American and Indigenous
Studies Association. Neither has anything to do with the new Naisa Pan-Asian Cafe (1025 Virginia Ave., 602-3708), where the
name comes from simply reversing the letters in the word Asian.
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June 29, 2009
Andrea Muirragui DavisOne of just three Maker’s Mark restaurants in the country—the others are in Louisville, Ky., and Kansas City,
Mo.—the upscale eatery would have been a good fit in downtown Indianapolis or in one of the suburban dining-and-shopping
meccas.
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June 29, 2009
Frank BasileThere's nothing like following the wildly influential thinker Charles Darwin's own footsteps, which I
had the pleasure of doing by visiting the beautiful, mysterious, isolated and enchanted Galapagos Islands.
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June 29, 2009
Bill BennerFor all the heat and sunshine, July can be a cold, dark hole in the Indianapolis
sports calendar. Other than the ever-beloved Indianapolis Indians, sometimes there's not much going on.
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June 29, 2009
Kathleen McLaughlinThe gilded exhibit, a happy byproduct of the museum's close relationship with an Egyptian institution, is more of a gift than
a major moneymaker.
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June 27, 2009
Lou HarryThis week, catching "Octopus" at the Phoenix and opening night on the Prairie.
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June 22, 2009
Lou HarryWhen you play Skee-ball and aim for the
100-point hole, you miss most of the time. However, if you aim for the 30, you have a much better chance
of scoring. You might not get a high score, but you'll win enough
tickets to want to play again. How does that translate into my dining
experience at the new Dave & Buster's?
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June 15, 2009
Andrea Muirragui DavisIt felt weird to pull into a gas station parking lot in search of lunch. But we forgot we were in a former auto repair shop
as soon as we walked into Maxine's
Chicken & Waffles, attached to the Citgo station at Ohio and East streets.
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June 15, 2009
Kathleen McLaughlinJeremy Efroymson recently agreed to return to the financially flailing Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art as its executive
director and work for free. Efroymson, one of the museum's early leaders, has a strategy for seeing IMOCA through a financial
rough spot, but what remains unclear is how the museum will wean itself off his support.
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June 8, 2009
Lou HarryBinkley's Drug Store occupied the corner of Kessler and College from 1928 to the early
1970s. Its namesake now occupying the same spot, Binkley's Kitchen & Bar, seems equally built
to lasta friendly neighborhood joint that glances back without wallowing in nostalgia and stays progressive without
being
trendy.
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June 8, 2009
IBJ StaffConner Prairie has $2.2 million riding on a ballooning exhibit that opened June 6. One thing that won't stand in the way of
its success is a competing ride--at least not at White River State Park.
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June 1, 2009
Jim CotaStitcher bills itself as "a leading mobile audio company that provides a revolutionary media service which allows audio content
to be easily aggregated, organized and shared on mobile devices." It's sort of like DVR for radio.
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June 1, 2009
If you don't get your fireworks fix on July 4, you'll no longer have another chance this year to be awed by the colorful displays.
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June 1, 2009
The Skyline Club has reserved one wall of its main dining room for local artists and will also host a series of artist receptions
for its members and the general public.
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June 1, 2009
Anthony SchoettleSome industry insiders worry that, while Indianapolis is busy chasing bigger conventions, adjoining counties may raid the
cupboard made plentiful by investments within Marion County, particularly downtown.
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Doug Henning!
These guy were thugs — they grew up in freaking Haughville! Smh, sigh. If the mayor needs/wants "quality" Black Hoosiers who are NOT corrupt, give me a call — I know plenty. Land bank info here - http://www.kubepharm.com/indylandbank/IndyLandBank.html
Magician and illusionist!
The basic idea of nice apartments with parking and retail is a good one, but this design seems overwhelmingly big/tall for Broad Ripple. The size could be disguised a bit with lots of big trees/landscaping, but the complex is too massive to blend in easily. That section of canal between College and Westfield will also need to be upgraded on both sides. Nice apartments facing onto a nice promenade with shade trees/plantings could bring together the canal towpath/Monon recreation, the outdoor seating at existing restaurants, and this project into something that upgrades the whole area. A plan for the whole stretch makes more sense than facing nice new housing onto what looks like a ditch. Is there a plan? Does the public have input? Who pays? The apartment idea seems to be reasonable, but Whole Foods is not a good idea for appropriate retail. Besides the store being physically too big, there are already Fresh Market at 54xCollege and Whole Foods in Nora for fancy groceries. Good Earth and Kroger are within walking distance of the Shell site. There are at least 7 grocery stores within a safe bike ride. Whole Foods would add nothing but traffic congestion. This design is on the right track, but there needs to be more work done to ensure that it blends in with and enhances the existing community. A project that large will set a tone for that whole part of town. It could be a real asset, but only if done right.