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The Pencil Today:

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THE QUOTE

“Don’t follow leaders, watch your parkin’ meters.” — Bob Dylan

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WORDS, NOT PIX

From the ED: No images today, kiddies, and very few links. I’m in too much of a hurry. Sorry.

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NO EASY WALK IN THIS PARKING GARAGE

At last count, the number of petitions being circulated opposing metered parking downtown has reached into the high five figures.

The way it stands now, virtually every citizen in Monroe County can sign her or his own personal petition. Nevertheless, all these petitions are filling up faster than Bloomington Hospital’s ER on a hot Friday night.

I signed. I urge everyone to sign. Metered parking will dissuade people from taking that spur-of-the-moment shopping trip down to the Courthouse square. Shopowners, restaurateurs, and bars all around downtown Bloomington stand as one against this scheme.

Was it even a half dozen years ago that the city sawed off all the parking meters downtown? Now this.

All that said, the city’s going to go through with Mayor Mark Kruzan’s plan, no matter if a million people sign the petitions. Concrete pourers, engineers, architects, stripe-painters, and and all the rest of the trade laborers who built Bloomington’s white elephant parking garages want to get paid for their work. People are funny that way, no?

Anyway, the city floated municipal bonds to pay for the work and the bonds are coming due with very little of the projected revenue the garages were supposed to generate keeping pace. No one cares to park in the garages, so Kruzan and the city’s accountants are feeling a tad panicky.

Meters, they feel, will force people to park in the garages.

Guess what: It ain’t gonna happen. We’ll be right back here in a year or two, still trying to figure out how to pay off our bonds.

I hope I’m wrong.

The crash brought on by Wall Street deregulation and faux-supervision, as well as two off-budget wars, has put every municipality in the same type of ugly situation Kruzan finds himself in now.

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FREE TO BE ME; FORGET YOU

The Young Americans for Liberty raised a squawk yesterday about free speech on the IU campus.

Now, generally, I’m all in favor of free speech. In fact, you might call me a free speech fetishist.

And, I suppose, I endorse the YAL push for fewer restrictions on public expression.

If you sense my support for the YAL effort is tepid, you’re right. The Young Americans for Liberty is a nationwide college organization whose members, by and large, swoon over the likes of Grover Norquist, Ayn Rand, Ron Paul, the Me Party, and others who advocate the position that a good American’s highest calling is to care for himself and not give a shit about anybody else.

At least in this instance the YAL isn’t equating gobs of dough with speech. No, they actually are talking about human beings — individuals — discussing and advocating political, philosophical, and moral positions out of doors.

Still, the YAL is up in arms over the University’s restrictions on what you and I might refer to as hate speech.

The IDS writes: “IU’s Code of Student Rights requires all student speech to be ‘civil’ and prohibits ‘verbal abuse’ as well as ‘expressed or implied threats,’ while IU’s Residence Hall Rules and Regulations police restricts speech on ‘areas frequented by the public’ that can be construed as being ‘offensive’ or ‘inappropriate.'”

So yeah, I’m as big on free speech as the YAL, only it makes me itch to admit it.

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UGH, HIM?

Admit it: Whenever you see one of those lists of celebrities who endorse candidates, you look at the ones who back the guy you’re against and you say to yourself, Hah, I never liked his music/acting/TV show.

I thought about this because yesterday Meatloaf appeared at a Willard Romney event and told the crowd that the solar system would split apart if Barack Obama is reelected.

Danged if the first thought that entered my mind wasn’t, Well, Meatloaf sucks anyway.

I mean, look at the roster of celeb endorsers of Willard Romney. It includes Trace Adkins, Alice Cooper, Gene Simmons, Chuck Norris, Erik Estrada, Victoria Jackson, Scott Baio, Donny & Marie Osmond, Adam Carolla and others who’ve robbed the public of their entertainment dollars.

Then, every once in a while, someone like Clint Eastwood — a true giant in filmmaking — throws his or her lot in with the enemy and I have to scratch my head. C’mon now, I think, he made some really great movies. How can he like Romney?

So okay, here are some very talented souls who dig the Mitt:

And…, and…, and…, well, that’s all I could find. The rest are a bunch of palookas, dumb blondes, hillbilly geetar strummers, and reality show D-listers.

It figures.

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The only events listings you need in Bloomington.

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Friday, October 26th, 2012

VOTE TODAY ◗The Curry Building, 214 W. Seventh St.; 8am-6pm

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

POETRY & BOOKS ◗ Various locations around IU campus & Bloomington — Sylvia Plath Symposium 2012, celebrating 50 years since the publication of her “Ariel” collection, Through Saturday, Today’s highlights:

ARTS FEST ◗ Foxfire Park, Nashville — Fall Fine Arts Festival; 11am-6pm

LECTURE ◗ IU Ballantine Hall — “Power Transitions and Inter-Korean Dialogue in the Early 1970s,” Presented by Seongji Woo; Noon

MUSIC & LECTURE ◗ IU Morrison Hall, Hoagy Carmichael Room — Tomás Lozano performance & lecture on Spanish traditional romance genre; Noon-1pm

LECTURE ◗ IU Cinema — James Naremore Lecture: Jacqueline Stewart; 4pm

BICYCLING ◗ Assemble at IU Sample Gates , Kirkwood & Indiana avenues— Critical Mass; 5:30pm

TEENS ◗ WonderLab — Teen Night; 5:30pm

ART ◗ IU School of Fine Arts — Open Studios, tours and exhibitions; 6-10pm

MUSIC ◗ Cafe Django — Craig Brenner; 6pm

MUSIC ◗ Malibu Grill — Bob Straight & Guest; 6-9pm

FILM ◗ IU Fine Arts Theater — Ryder Film Series: “All Together“; 7pm

POETRY ◗ City Hall Atrium — Readings by Ann Haines, Doris Jean Lynch, Shanna Ritter, and Sue Swartz, Sponsored by Writers Guild of Bloomington & Indiana Arts Commission; 7-8:30pm

STORYTELLING ◗ Bryan Park (alternate rain location: Monroe County Public Library) — Festival of Ghost Stories; 7-8:30pm

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

HALLOWE’EN ◗ TC Steele State Historic Site — “Ghost Tours, Stories, and Owls… Oh, My!“; 7-9pm

MUSIC ◗ The Bishop — Snowbird Vintage Pop Up Show; 7pm

SPORTS ◗ IU Gymnasium — Hoosier volleyball vs. Michigan State; 7pm

SPORTS ◗ IU Bill Armstrong Stadium — Hoosier women’s soccer vs. Ohio State; 7pm

HALLOWE’EN ◗ Haunted Hayride and Stables — Scary hayrides; 7-11pm

HALLOWE’EN ◗ Bakers Junction Railroad Museum — Haunted train; 7pm

STAGE ◗ IU Wells-Metz Theatre — “Richard III“; 7:30pm

HALLOWE’EN ◗ IU Auditorium — Dennis James Hosts Halloween; 7:30pm

FILM ◗ IU Woodburn Hall Theater — Ryder Film Series: “All Together“; 8pm

COMEDY ◗ The Comedy Attic — Michael Winslow; 8pm

MUSIC ◗ The Player’s Pub — Jenn Cristy; 8pm

MUSIC ◗ IU Auer Hall — “Salón Latino,” Inaugural Latin American Music Center Chamber Series Concert, Erick Carballo, director; 8pm

FILM ◗ IU Memorial Union, Whittenberger Auditorium — UB Films: “The Campaign“; 8pm

FILM ◗ IU Fine Arts Theater — Ryder Film Series: “Side by Side“; 8:30pm

MUSIC ◗ Rachael’s Cafe — Ritmos Unidos; 9-11pm

MUSIC ◗ The Bluebird — Main Squeeze; 9pm

MUSIC ◗ Max’s Place — The Vallures, The 220 Breakers; 10pm

COMEDY ◗ The Comedy Attic — Michael Winslow; 10:30pm

FILM ◗ IU Memorial Union, Whittenberger Auditorium — UB Films: “The Campaign“; 11pm

FILM ◗ IU Cinema — “In a Glass Cage“; Midnight

MUSIC ◗ The Bishop — The Cell Phones, Fly Painted Feathers; Midnight

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ONGOING:

ART ◗ IU Art Museum — Exhibits:

ART ◗ Ivy Tech Waldron Center — Exhibits:

ART ◗ IU SoFA Grunwald Gallery — Exhibit:

ART ◗ IU Kinsey Institute Gallery — Exhibits:

PHOTOGRAPHY ◗ IU Mathers Museum of World Cultures — Exhibit:

ART ◗ IU Mathers Museum of World Cultures — Exhibits:

BOOKS ◗ IU Lilly Library — Exhibit:

PHOTOGRAPHY ◗ Soup’s On — Exhibit:

PHOTOGRAPHY ◗ Monroe County History Center — Exhibit:

ARTIFACTS ◗ Monroe County History Center — Exhibits:

The Ryder & The Electron Pencil. All Bloomington. All the time.

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