You-review-it Monday
I wish I had more to report from the weekend, but I was under the weather and didn’t get to take advantage of Indy’s offerings.
If nothing else, I had hoped to get out to The Jazz Kitchen for Sunday night’s…
Arts & Entertainment
Articles
Two central Indiana racinos debut amid tough economy
The next few weeks will be critical for the state’s two new racinos, which need to open with a splash to meet their ambitious
projections of drawing more than 3 million visitors apiece annually. Hoosier Park in Anderson will open June 2, and Indiana
Downs in Shelbyville will follow a week later.
Bigger names at Indiana casinos
It seems like Indiana’s casinos are starting to step up when it comes to consistent summer showroom entertainment. Now it’s just a matter of figuring out how to…
Concerts: the great outdoors?
This week, Sheryl Crow launches the season for the Lawn at White River State Park and Eric Clapton plays Verizon Wireless Music Center.
It seems an appropriate time for you to offer what you see as the pros and cons of…
On Sydney Pollack
The sad thing—well, one of the sad things—about the death of filmmaker Sydney Pollack yesterday is the nagging feeling that there should be more to be excited about on his directing resume.
Pollack, a native of Lafayette who grew up…
500 winners: Florence, Jim and us.
I’d like to add one brief A&E thought to all of this weekend’s Indy 500 coverage: Two of the reasons why it’s still possible to love the race–even if you aren’t an open-wheel racing fan–are Jim Nabors and Florence Henderson.
That…
Central Canal might get floating stage
A floating stage for concerts and a submarine memorial are in the works for Indianapolis’ Central Canal, adding to the downtown
waterway’s growing base of attractions. Efforts to develop a one-acre site at the heart of the canal, meanwhile, remain stalled.
Greatest plays of all time?
A few days ago in this blog, I mentioned Daniel S. Burt’s book “The Drama 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Plays of All Time.”
While we can all agree that such a list is highly subjective, we can probably…
‘Rent’ at a theater near you
Yes, “Rent” — the movie — already played movie theaters (and didn’t do particularly well). But now it looks like it’s getting another shot. Not a second run of the film, though. This will be a from-the-stage performance of the hit…
In you face: 3-D on the way
1500 movie screens across the country will be upgraded to 3-D. So announced Regal Entertainment Group on Tuesday.
What was once a gimmick, now looks to be the standard for future moviegoing. This summer’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth”…
Beyond ‘Dancing with the Stars’
So TV’s “Dancing with the Stars” has another winner.
Hooray.
I caught some of the finals last night without having seen the rest of the series. And having been to Dance Kaleidoscope’s season ending performance Sunday, I’m curious as to whether the huge…
Arts and depression
Two books I’m in the midst of reading combine to raise questions about the future of art and audiences.
The first, “Against Happiness,” posits that our society’s increased emphasis on smoothing over the rough edges of life (through pharmaceuticals and…
You-review-it Monday
For me, the weekend included a local premier at Theatre on the Square, a popular revival at Beef & Boards and a mix of old and new with Dance Kaleidoscope. Plus a stroll through the Broad Ripple…
MusicCrossroads initiative aims to draw not-for-profit performing arts groups
Indianapolis’ success at living up to its self-proclaimed status as the amateur sports capital of the world is legendary.
Now city and civic leaders are trying to build a similar hub of not-for-profit music organizations through a lower-key initiative
dubbed MusicCrossroads.
Let the art fair season begin
This weekend marks the unofficial launch of the summer art fair season, with the Broad Ripple Art Fair sure to attract mobs to the Indianapolis Art Center grounds (weather cooperating, of course).
I’m a fan of BRAF and its end-of-summer-IMA-bookend,…
Art auction record shattered
Last night at Sotheby’s auction house in New York, a 1976 angst-infused triptych by Francis Bacon sold for $86.3 million. Apparently that’s the highest price ever paid at auction for a piece of contemporary art.
My instinct was to ask…
Robert Rauschenberg R.I.P.
Few artists in history have changed the rules the way Robert Rauschenberg, who died Monday at age 82, did.
By incorporating found objects (a pillow, a stuffed goat…) into his paintings, Rauschenberg challenged contemporary art and artists to connect their work…
The ‘Times’: Nothing in Indy
Readers of the New York Times received their “Summer Stages” preview in Sunday’s Arts & Leisure section.
The annual piece offers a rundown of what’s happening around the country in Dance, Theater, Pop/Jazz and Classical Music. And while the Cleveland and…
Black history museum loses site, may land on Indiana Ave.
The clock is running out on plans to build the Indiana Museum of African American History in White River State Park, but the
ambitious project may find a new home on nearby Indiana Avenue. Less than two weeks before the museum’s option on a two-acre
parcel of park land expires, backers were talking with IUPUI about locating the museum on unspecified university-owned land
along Indiana Avenue.
You-review-it Monday
It was a low-key weekend for me, with my only arts stop being a visit to Fountain Square for Primary Colours’ Allotropy event–which I may get to in a later blog.
Okay, I also watched “Lucky You,” the terrible Drew Barrymore/Eric Bana poker romance…