✍

THE QUOTE

[From the Ed: No quote and few pix today, kiddies. I’m in a big rush. Don’t fret, though, my verbal and literary genius are still on display. Enjoy, as always.]

▲

PSST, WANNA HEAR SOME OF THE GOOD STUFF?

How do you like your erotica?

And, honestly, I’m not just using the term as the sensitive guy’s euphemism for porn.

If you dig it tastefully done, by a woman, and with a dash of stereotype-smashing and anti-chauvinism, then I’ve got the stuff for you.

Bloomington author and fedora-chick-about-town Joy Shayne Laughter reads Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” in a six-part podcast available on WFHB online.

Chopin‘s work was so steamy for the turn of the previous century that she was one of the most banned authors of her time. She grew up among abolitionists and was an early feminist and a believer in a nascent sexual liberation for women.

She was, in other words, hot stuff.

So is Joy’s reading.

▲

A HUNGRY SYMPHONY

So, the Indy Symphony Orchestra will go back to work.

Huzzah.

Only its musicians are taking a 30 percent pay cut.

Several WFIU voices seem to be thrilled that the work stoppage is over. Sadly, the limited pay stoppage is just beginning.

Anyway, thanks again to our friends in investment banking and the creative financial instrument Mafia for tanking the world’s economy five years ago.

Many municipalities and arts and humanities organizations have struggled for their lives ever since.

Last I heard, none of the no-good bastards who drove us to the brink have missed a meal since the crash. More than a few Indy musicians probably will this season.

▲

DEBATE DEBACLE

As my bustling throngs of loyal readers know, I never listen to or watch the debates.

I’ve got a million reasons and here’s one: Barack Obama and Willard Romney signed a shady deal covering the debate schedule, formats, and exclusions.

Dealmakers

✍

No other minor party candidates would be allowed to participate and the scope of questioning and topics was narrowed in such a way as to ensure our boys would never really have to talk about this holy land as it really is.

Go to Democracy Now! where reporter Nermeen Shaikh interviews George Farah of the Open Debates group for more dope on devilish pact (Shaikh’s report begins at about the 11:49 mark.).

All politics is theater, babies.

▲

CRAZY FOR GOD: A NEVER-ENDING SERIES

Yeah, I make fun of the right and the religionists of this holy land.

But our god-fetishists got nothin’ on our brothers in the Muslim world.

A gang of Muslim world diplomats recently spent some 13 years trying to get the United Nations to declare a ban on insults to religion — primarily, one would assume, their own.

An organization called the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, comprised of 57 member nations, began lobbying the UN to ban blasphemy worldwide in 1998. The secretary general of the OIC, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu of Turkey, says his group’s effort has been stymied by European nations and the United States.

Their objection? A little thing we like to call free speech.

Ihsanoglu said this week the West has a “strange understanding” of free speech. Of course, his understanding of the term means speech can be restricted.

If this guy opened a nudist camp, he’d make it a rule that everybody had to be clothed.

Islamic radicals in September killed some 75 poor souls in an effort to prove to the Big Daddy-o in the Sky that they won’t take insults against him lying down.

The mobs that took to the streets in more than 30 countries after the release of some knuckleheaded video called “The Innocence of Muslims” were — surprise! — exclusively male.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, some fellows in Allah’s army need to start spending some time around women. It’d be a start.

▲

The only events listings you need in Bloomington.

✍

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012

Brought to you by The Electron Pencil: Bloomington Arts, Culture, Politics, and Hot Air. Daily.

STUDIO TOUR ◗ Brown County, various locations — The Backroads of Brown County Studio Tour, free, self-guided tour of 16 local artists’ & craftspersons’ studios; 10am-5pm, through October

DISCUSSION ◗ IU Memorial Union, Sassafras Room — “Blue State, Red State: Can Labor Change Indiana’s Color?” Led by Marquita Walker; Noon

LECTURE & BOOKS ◗ IU Art Museum, Special Exhibitions Gallery — Rachel Berenson Perry discusses & signs “Barry Gealt: Embracing Nature“; 12:15pm

BOOKS ◗ IU College of Arts & Humanities — Penelope Anderson discusses & signs “Friendship’s Shadows: Women’s Friendship and the Politics of Betrayal in England“; 5:30pm

MUSIC ◗ Malibu Grill — Alki Scopelitis; 6-9pm

BOOKS ◗ IU Hutton Honors College, Great Room — Sandra Chapman discusses “The Girl in the Yellow Scarf“; 6pm

CLASS ◗ Monroe County Public Library — Lights, Camera, Write: An Introduction to the Art of Screenwriting; 6:30-8:30pm

MUSIC ◗ Muddy Boots Cafe, Nashville — dwBrykalsi; 7-9pm

MUSIC ◗ IU Ford-Crawford Hall — Senior Recital, Matthew Berg on tuba; 7pm

STAGE & BENEFIT ◗ Unitarian Universalist Church — Staged reading of “The Cats that Can,” For Feral Cat Friends; 7pm

LECTURE ◗ Pictura Gallery — Dr. Gerardo Gonzalez discusses the works of pohotographers Tyagan Miller & David Moore, who will be present; 7-8:30pm

PERFORMANCE ◗ Unity of Bloomington Church — Auditions & rehearsal, Bloomington Peace Choir; 7pm

STAGE ◗ Brown County Playhouse, Nashville — Drama, “Last Train to Nibroc“; 7:30pm

SPORTS ◗ IU Bill Armstrong Stadium — Hoosier men’s soccer vs. Butler; 7:30pm

MUSIC ◗ Max’s Place — Open mic; 7:30pm

FILM ◗ IU Woodburn Hall — “Brother Sun, Sister Moon“; 7:30pm

STAGE ◗ IU Auditorium — Musical, “Chicago“; 8pm

MUSIC ◗ The Player’s Pub — Postmodern Jazz Quartet; 8pm

GAMES ◗ The Root Cellar at Farm Bloomington — Team trivia; 8pm

MUSIC ◗ IU Auer Hall — Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, & Concert Band, Jeffery Gershman & Eric Smedley, conductors; 8pm

ASTRONOMY ◗ IU Kirkwood Observatory — Open house, Public viewing through the main telescope; 8pm

DANCE ◗ Harmony School — Contra dancing; 8-10:30pm

MUSIC ◗ The Bluebird — The Hot Sauce Committee; 9pm

MUSIC ◗ The Bishop — Giving Tree Band, The Underhills; 9:30pm

✍

ONGOING:

ART ◗ IU Art Museum — Exhibits:

• “New Acquisitions,” David Hockney; through October 21st
• “Paragons of Filial Piety,” by Utagawa Kuniyoshi; through December 31st
• “Intimate Models: Photographs of Husbands, Wives, and Lovers,” by Julia Margaret, Cameron, Edward Weston, & Harry Callahan; through December 31st
• “French Printmaking in the Seventeenth Century;” through December 31st
• Celebration of Cuban Art & Film: Pop-art by Joe Tilson; through December 31st
• “Threads of Love: Baby Carriers from China’s Minority Nationalities“; through December 23rd
• “Workers of the World, Unite!” through December 31st
• “Embracing Nature,” by Barry Gealt; through December 23rd
• “Pioneers & Exiles: German Expressionism,” through December 23rd

ART ◗ Ivy Tech Waldron Center — Exhibits:

• “Ab-Fab — Extreme Quilting,” by Sandy Hill; October 5th through October 27th
  
• “Street View — Bloomington Scenes,” by Tom Rhea; October 5th through October 27th
• “From the Heartwoods,” by James Alexander Thom; October 5th through October 27th
• “The Spaces in Between,” by Ellen Starr Lyon; October 5th through October 27th

ART ◗ IU SoFA Grunwald Gallery — Exhibit:

• Buzz Spector: Off the Shelf; through November 16th
• Small Is Big; Through November 16th

ART ◗ IU Kinsey Institute Gallery — Exhibits:

• “A Place Aside: Artists and Their Partners;” through December 20th
• “Gender Expressions;” through December 20th

PHOTOGRAPHY ◗ IU Mathers Museum of World Cultures — Exhibit:

• “CUBAmistad” photos

ART ◗ IU Mathers Museum of World Cultures — Exhibits:

• “¡Cuba Si! Posters from the Revolution: 1960s and 1970s”
• “From the Big Bang to the World Wide Web: The Origins of Everything”
• “Thoughts, Things, and Theories… What Is Culture?”
• “Picturing Archaeology”
• “Personal Accents: Accessories from Around the World”
• “Blended Harmonies: Music and Religion in Nepal”
• “The Day in Its Color: A Hoosier Photographer’s Journey through Mid-century America”
• “TOYing with Ideas”
• “Living Heritage: Performing Arts of Southeast Asia”
• “On a Wing and a Prayer”

BOOKS ◗ IU Lilly Library — Exhibit:

• “Outsiders and Others:Arkham House, Weird Fiction, and the Legacy of HP Lovecraft;” through November 1st
• “A World of Puzzles,” selections form the Slocum Puzzle Collection

PHOTOGRAPHY ◗ Soup’s On — Exhibit:

• Celebration of Cuban Art & Culture: “CUBAmistad photos; through October

PHOTOGRAPHY ◗ Monroe County History Center — Exhibit:

• “Bloomington: Then and Now,” presented by Bloomington Fading; through October 27th

ARTIFACTS ◗ Monroe County History Center — Exhibits:

• Doctors & Dentists: A Look into the Monroe County Medical Professions
• What Is Your Quilting Story?
• Garden Glamour: Floral Fashion Frenzy
• Bloomington Then & Now
• World War II Uniforms
• Limestone Industry in Monroe County