Big Ten | The Electron Pencil

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THE QUOTE

“Nothing exists except atoms and empty space; everything else is just opinion.” — Democritus.

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THE BIG 10’S BIG STORY

Herald Times sportswriter Andy Graham stopped in to the Book Corner earlier this week to pick up a Big 10 football preview magazine.

It was his last stop in town before setting off for Chicago, where he’s covering this week’s Big 10 Media Days dog and pony show.

You think anybody’ll be talking about anything other than Penn State?

A Prison Of His Own Design

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Check out Graham’s piece on the scandal that ran in Friday’s edition.

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… AND LO-OVE WILL STEER THE STARS…

It’ll be a great night for a meteor shower.

The Delta Aquarids shoot through the eastern sky late tonight. Seemingly emanating from the Aquarius constellation, they’ll be a teaser for the year’s biggest shooting star show, the Perseids, in fifteen days.

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Tonight’s display will be special, though, because the moon won’t interfere with it. The moon is waxing gibbous in the west in the early evenings these days.

Best viewing hours for the Aquarids are midnight through dawn.

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NEWLY ATTRACTIVE PREDATORS

Liza Pavelich of Bloomington says she was on the receiving end of a Facebook ad for something called Yummy Mommy Makeover.

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The ad features a testimonial from a now-scrumptious mother. It reads, according to LP: “It’s great. Now I get hit on by teenaged boys all the time!”

Which Liza characterizes, rightly, as “gross.”

She also points out that her memory of teenaged boys was such that any sane human being would shun their advances, considering how virtually sub-human they are.

Then again, it’s hard to imagine that anyone who spends the $300 to become a “yummy mommy” is actually, you know, sane.

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Here’s how I waste my time. How about you? Share your fave sites with us via the comments section. Just type in the name of the site, not the url; we’ll find them. If we like them, we’ll include them — if not, we’ll ignore them.

❏ I Love Charts — Life as seen through charts.

I Love Charts: Interactive History Of States & Territories

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❏ XKCD — “A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.”

❏ Skepchick — Women scientists look at the world and the universe.

❏ Indexed — All the answers in graph form, on index cards.

❏ I Fucking Love Science — A Facebook community of science geeks.

❏ Present and Correct — (New Listing) Fun, compelling, gorgeous and/or scary graphic designs and visual creations throughout the years and from all over the world.

❏ Flip Flop Fly Ball — Baseball as seen through infographics, haikus, song lyrics, and other odd communications devices.

❏ Mental Floss — Facts.

❏ Caps Off Please — Comics & fun.

❏ Sodaplay — Create your own models or play with other people’s models.

❏ Eat Sleep Draw — An endless stream of artwork submitted by an endless stream of people.

❏ Big Think — Tapping the brains of notable intellectuals for their opinions, predictions, and diagnoses.

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❏ The Daily Puppy — So shoot me.

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Electron Pencil event listings: Music, art, movies, lectures, parties, receptions, games, benefits, plays, meetings, fairs, conspiracies, rituals, etc.

◗ City Hall, Showers Plaza — Farmers Market; 8am-1pm

◗ Brown County Playhouse, Nashville — Indiana State Fingerstyle Competition; 11am-3pm

◗ Monroe County Fairgrounds — Opening day, 2012 Monroe County Fair, Queen’s Day, Grand Opening ceremony at 10am, Truck & Tractor Pull at 7pm, Queen contest at 7:30pm, (no carnival until Monday at 4:00pm); Noon to 11pm

◗ IU Wells-Metz Theater — “The Taming of the Shrew”; 2pm

◗ Brown County Playhouse, Nashville — Indiana State Fingerstyle Competition evening concert; 6-7:30pm

◗ IU Fine Arts Theater — Ryder Film Series: “Kumaré: The True Story of a False Prophet”; 7pm

◗ Muddy Boots Cafe, Nashville — Finger Picking Competition; 7-9pm

◗ IU Wells-Metz Theater — “The Taming of the Shrew”; 7:30pm

◗ The Player’s Pub — Joe & Jan Edwards; 8pm

◗ IU Woodburn Hall — Ryder Film Series: “Gerhard Richter Painting”; 8pm

◗ IU Memorial Union, Whittenberg Auditorium — UB Films: “Sixteen Candles”; 8pm

◗ Cafe Django — Post Modern Jazz Quartet; 8pm

◗ The Comedy Attic — Baron Vaughn; 8 & 10:30pm

◗ IU Fine Arts Theater — Ryder Film Series:”Oslo: August 31st”; 8:30pm

◗ The Bishop — Eleni Mandel, Henry Wolfe; 8:30pm

◗ The Bluebird — Led Zeppelin 2; 9pm

◗ Max’s Place — Kayle Truman; 9pm

◗ The Root Cellar at Farm Bloomington — Depeche Mode dance party; 9pm

◗ Muddy Boots Cafe, Nashville — Brett Holcombe; 9:30-11:30pm

◗ Max’s Place — Odkoga; 10pm

◗ Max’s Place — The Gentle Shades; 11pm

Ongoing:

◗ Ivy Tech Waldron Center — Exhibits:

John D. Shearer, “I’m Too Young For This @#!%”; through July 30th
Claire Swallow, ‘Memoir”; through July 28th
Dale Gardner, “Time Machine”; through July 28th
Sarah Wain, “That Takes the Cake”; through July 28th
Jessica Lucas & Alex Straiker, “Life Under the Lens — The Art of Microscopy”; through July 28th

◗ IU Art Museum — Exhibits:

Qiao Xiaoguang, “Urban Landscape: A Selection of Papercuts” ; through August 12th
“A Tribute to William Zimmerman,” wildlife artist; through September 9th
Willi Baumeister, “Baumeister in Print”; through September 9th
Annibale and Agostino Carracci, “The Bolognese School”; through September 16th
“Contemporary Explorations: Paintings by Contemporary Native American Artists”; through October 14th
David Hockney, “New Acquisitions”; through October 21st
Utagawa Kuniyoshi, “Paragons of Filial Piety”; through fall semester 2012
Julia Margaret Cameron, Edward Weston, & Harry Callahan, “Intimate Models: Photographs of Husbands, Wives, and Lovers”; through December 31st
“French Printmaking in the Seventeenth Century”; through December 31st

◗ IU SoFA Grunwald Gallery — Exhibits: Bloomington Photography Club Annual Exhibition; through August 3rd

◗ IU Kinsey Institute Gallery — “Ephemeral Ink: Selections of Tattoo Art from the Kinsey Institute Collection”; through September 21st

◗ IU Lilly Library — Exhibit, “Translating the Canon: Building Special Collections in the 21st Century”; through September 1st

◗ IU Mathers Museum of World Cultures — Closed for semester break

◗ Monroe County History Center — Exhibits:

“What Is Your Quilting Story?”; through July 31st
Photo exhibit, “Bloomington: Then and Now” by Bloomington Fading; through October 27th

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THE QUOTE

“”Many people consider the things government does for them to be social progress but they regard the things government does for others as socialism.” — Earl Warren

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BOOK IT — WE’VE GOT BOOKER

How cool is it that Booker T. Jones received an honorary doctorate during commencement ceremonies at IU this weekend?

Booker T.

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You know, growing up in Chicago and living within the city limits every day of my adult life until March 20th, 2007, I’d come to the conclusion — like most of my city-mates — that Indiana University was the place where Bobby Knight threw tantrums, won a few NCAA championships, got himself fired for being a jackass, and then the school went out of business.

That’s not much of an exaggeration. Of all the Big Ten schools, IU is probably the most anonymous. Perhaps Minnesota and Iowa might give IU a run for the title, but, nah, Indiana wins it.

If you can find three people in Chicago who know what town IU is in, I’ll give you a prize. I wonder if even a hundred people in Indianapolis know what town IU is in.

Northwestern is where all the future wealthy businessmen and doctors go. A few journalists, too. Illinois is known for Chief Illiniwek and the controversy of using the symbol of a wiped-out race to drum up support for its sports teams — at least it’s known for something. Purdue puts out engineers. Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State are sports factories. Penn State tolerates child sodomizers. Nebraska has a funny team name, Cornhuskers.

This Man Has A PhD In Cornhusking

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And Minnesota, Iowa, and Indiana may as well be in Bulgaria, especially Indiana.

Chicagoans no more know that Booker T. Jones, among many, many, many other great and fabulous musicians, studied at the Jacobs School of Music than they know that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was born in Kuwait City. (In fact, many Americans assume KSM was born in the same nebulous African/Asian tribal town that Barack Obama hailed from — and for all the average American knows, all three men went to a madrahsah there.)

Booker T. gave the commencement address at one of the two undergraduate ceremonies Saturday. According to the IDS, he told the grads that he used to walk to class at the Jake every morning at 7:15.

I recall listening to an interview with him on Terry Gross’s Fresh Air show on NPR when his “Potato Hole” disc came out. He told Gross that he still practices his scales every single morning and he works on his music eight hours every day. Booker T., it should be noted, is 67 years old.

Booker T. Jones — he’s someone Indiana University ought to be known for.

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TIME IS TIGHT

This is my absolute fave Booker T. and the MGs hit, from back in 1969.

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THE PRESIDENT IS A SOCIALIST!

Looks like Obama-haters will finally get to see what an honest-to-gosh Socialist looks like now.

François Hollande beat darling of the Right, Nicolas Sarkozy in the French national election for president this past weekend. Hollande is a card-carrying member of the French Socialist Party (or Parti Socialiste, in French — the French are so bizarre, Steve Martin once observed, they have a different word for everything.)

Hollande — Ayn Rand Is Spinning In Her Grave

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Not only that, Hollande lived in sin with a woman, fellow Socialist pol Sègoléne Royal, for more than 30 years, and then the two split up in 2007 when Hollande found himself a younger tomato named Valérie Trierweiler. Oh, and Hollande is a Jew.

Trierweiler — So, What Is It With French Presidents And Gorgeous Women?

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A guy like Hollande would be as electable in these Great United States, Inc. as, well, Khalid Sheikh Mohhamed.

Now get this — the French Socialists are considered a Center-Left party in that country. Center-Left! There are, apparently, des gauches even more, um, gauche than the Socialists in France. Either that or we have lost all perspective on the political spectrum in this holy land, considering that the very word Liberal is dirty here.

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Electron Pencil event listings: Music, art, movies, lectures, parties, receptions, benefits, plays, meetings, fairs, conspiracies, rituals, etc.

Monday, May 7, 2012

◗ IU Mathers Museum of World Cultures — Exhibits, “Blended Harmonies: Music and Religion in Nepal”; through July 1st — “Esse Quam Videri (To Be, Rather than To Be Seen): Muslim Self Portraits; through June 17th — “From the Big Bang to the World Wide Web: The Origins of Everything”; through July 1st

◗ IU Kinsey Institute Gallery — Exhibit, “Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze”; through June 29th

◗ Ivy Tech Waldron Arts Center — Exhibits at various galleries: Angela Hendrix-Petry, Benjamin Pines, Nate Johnson, and Yang Chen; all through May 29th

◗ Trinity Episcopal Church — Art exhibit, “Creation,” collaborative mosaic tile project; through May 31st

◗ Monroe County Public Library — Art exhibit, “Muse Whisperings,” water color paintings by residents of Sterling House; through May 31st

◗ Monroe County History Center — Photo exhibit, “Bloomington: Then and Now” by Bloomington Fading; through October 27th

◗ The Venue Fine Arts & Gifts — Exhibit, Daniel Lager; through May 17th

◗ Cafe Django — The Bloomington Short List variety show, featuring comedians, musicians, dancers, etc.; 7pm

◗ The Bishop — DJ Betsy Shepherd; 8pm — Arrah and the Ferns, Chandelier Ballroom; 9pm

Arrah And One Of Her Many Ferns

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