You-review-it Monday: Super Bowl Village and more

January 30, 2012
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For me, the weekend included a few trips to the NFL Experience (see blog posts here and here) and a walk through Super Bowl Village.

What about you? Did you get to see any of the concerts at Super Bowl Village? Catch the closing weekend for the latest shows by Dance Kaleidoscope and/or the Indiana Repertory Theatre? Visit "Turf"?

What did you do on the A&E front last weekend?

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  • vonnegut
    peggy sabensJanuary 30, 2012 1:51 PM
    went to a wonderful evening at KVML-reading of "Happy Birthday, Wanda June" the only play Vonnegut wrote.
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  • Russian music with the ISO
    CConradJanuary 31, 2012 12:02 AM
    I attended two performances of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra last week. The Thursday morning concert featured Shostakovich ever popular Festive Overture, the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto and the first movement of the Prokofiev Fourth Symphony. The Friday night concert added the remaining movements of the Prokofiev. Rossen Milanov, longtime Assistant Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra and currently conductor of Symphony in C, the Princeton University Orchestra and the New Symphony in his home in Sofia, Bulgaria, was the guest conductor. The soloist was Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili. The Superbowl festivities downtown caused this series of concerts to be performed at Clowes Hall, home of the ISO from 1963 until the orchestra moved to the Circle Theater in the early 1980s. Milanov, who has conducted the ISO on several occasions, had the orchestra sounding full and with much energy. I really enjoyed watching him conduct, as he is very much a visual projection of the music. The Shostakovich overture started out in a slower opening fanfare than I usually hear, and that helped exaggerate the brilliant allegro that follows. David Bellman played the famed clarinet melody with smooth grace and the balance of the ensemble was terrific. The two performances of the Rachmaninoff were very different, especially in the beautiful slow second movement. The soloist must have felt very comfortable with the conductor and ensemble, as she worked many rhythmic nuances that were quite effective, and this was so much more interesting and personal than are some performances of this beloved work. Solo woodwinds played very well, as did the violins in that marvelous moment that they repeat the theme of the second movement. One instrument caught my attention. The cymbals are usually mentioned only if there is some disaster. Braham Dembar had the cymbal assignment on the first two pieces, which required the extreme ranges of sound and techniques; the overture calling for loud and flashy crashes while the concerto required extremely soft and precise crashes that accompany wind chords. Both were done very well indeed. Ms. Buniatishvili played different encores, the famed Liszt work Liebestraum on Thursday and a slow Chopin Etude on Friday.
    The Fourth Symphony of Sergei Prokofiev is an extraordinary work that is rarely performed. These were the first ever performances by the ISO, and Milanov led them through the full spectrum of emotions. The work has all of the energy of the more famous Fifth Symphony but has none of the bubbling optimism. This is music that could only have come from the Soviet Union, and it is most comparable in some ways to the Fifth Symphony of Shostakovich, with almost schizophrenic changes from factory floor poundings to tender caresses. Again the solo woodwinds sparkled, particularly in the exposed wandering melodies, often in octaves. The moments were a bit reminiscent of the woodwinds in Peter and the Wolf, but this music is anything but light hearted. Bravo to the orchestra, guest conductor and piano soloist for an outstanding weekend of Russian music, some new and some familiar and beloved.
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  1. City-County Councilor Angela Mansfield and Bob Lutz have a case of wishful thinking.

    They obviously don't really care about the cost.

    They should.

    Extending Federal Benefits to Same-Sex Couples Will Cost $898M, CBO Says

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/22/extending-federal-benefits-sex-couples-cost-m-cbo-says/

  2. Brett, be careful what you lie about, the truth always comes out.

    "IMS's George Honored: Tony George, Indianapolis Motor Speedway president and chief executive officer, received the inaugural Pioneering and Innovation Award at the Autosport Awards Dec. 5 in London for his leadership in the development of the Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) Barrier. George received the award at the annual gala at the Grosvenor House on behalf of the creators of the SAFER Barrier from Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the leader of the Bahrain International Grand Prix circuit. This is the fourth major award that has been presented to honor George and the SAFER Barrier development team. The SAFER Barrier also received the Louis Schwitzer Award, SEMA Motorsports Engineering Award and GM Racing Pioneer Award in 2002. The SAFER Barrier was installed in all four turns of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway a pioneer in safety for drivers, cars and tracks -- in time for the 86th Indianapolis 500 in 2002. It since has been installed at more than a dozen other tracks, and the latest iteration will be installed at the Speedway in the spring.(IMS PR), see more on my Indy Track News page.(12-7-2004)"

    As far as the cart safety team, I cannot find anything on its date of creation. The Delphi Safety team was created in 1996. For some reason there is not much info out there on defunct racing series.

  3. Great article Anthony. Glad IMS is finally being run like a business and not a personal check book to finance the "Vision".

    Things are looking up but 15 years of scorched earth won't be fixed overnight. Unfortunately the TV ratings are still poor and that won't change anytime soon with the brilliant 10 year contract signed under the former regime.

  4. Brett not sure why you wonder what he said in his quote. "''I would like to jump in a time machine, go back to 1995, and tell the owners and Tony George not to split,'' Franchitti said. ''As soon as my time machine is done, I know where I'm going.''"

    Pretty clear, he would love to go back and tell TG and the team owners not to split.

    I am not sure there is anyone who wanted the split, and I don't think there is anyone who would not like to go back and prevent the split. But, as has been discussed ad nauseum, without the split carts management by team owners would have run all of ow racing into bankruptcy. If cart had such a wonderful product, then losing IMS would not have forced it into bankruptcy. If NASCAR lost Daytona or Charlotte, it would not fail like cart did.

    Truth,

    So you predicted that cart would go into bankruptcy and cease to exist while Indycar would continue on? I missed that prediction.

  5. I want to live in a city that has a garage structure to be proud of for it's innovating design!

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