Category Archives: Charlotte Zietlow

04/01/2015
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Bloom Magazine Book Club, Charlotte Zietlow, FARMbloomington, Finch's Brasserie, Julia Karr, Malcolm Abrams, Michael Shelden, Scott Russell Sanders, The Root Cellar

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By The Book

A quick one today because I was very lazy this AM and then I had my regular afternoon book writin’ session with Charlotte Zietlow. BTW: The Zietlow memoir is coming along fabulously. We’re working on her 1974 campaign for US Congress right now. Phew — 41 years ago — Charlotte looked like a kid, for pity’s sake!

Here’s a sneak preview of some pix I’ve taken of items from her vast treasure trove of files and images:

Window Card

 

Window Card

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Tri-fold Pamphlet

Tri-fold Pamphlet

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H-T Front Page

Good News, Bad News

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In the above Herald-Telephone piece, Charlotte is anointed the coming star of the Democratic Party in Indiana because she ran such a strong campaign against well-known state senator Elden Tipton. She’d only decided to run in February for the May primary and whupped the bejesus out of four other Dems, including Mayor Frank McCloskey’s chosen candidate.

Man, this stuff is fun.

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Sanders Speaks

Bloom magazine threw its second Book Club bash yesterday evening at FARM Bloomington’s Root Cellar Lounge. Just like the first one, featuring author Michael Koryta, last night’s soiree packed the house.

Scott Russell Sanders talked about how he came to write Divine Animal, the book selected by Bloom boss Malcolm Abrams. Frankly, I haven’t read it yet — my queue of books is about as tall as Sally the Dog standing on Steve the Dog’s head. But believe me, Divine Animal‘s in the stack now.

The audience peppered Sanders with Qs for a good hour and a half. He explained precisely when and where he got the idea for the book, how the characters came to him, and his process for letting the characters tell their stories to him before he writes them all down.

This Bloom mag Book Club is the atom bomb, I’m telling you.

You wanna get in on the next one? Okay. The third Book Club selection is Young Titan, a biography of a youthful Winston Churchill penned by Bloomington’s own top-notch Anglophile, Michael Shelden. We’ve got a big order in at the Book Corner so you can start buying it later this week. So far, our two best selling titles for 2015 have been Koryta’s Those Who Wish Me Dead and Divine Animal. We oughtta pay Malcolm a salary.

The meeting for Young Titan will be Tuesday, June 9, 5:30pm, at Finch’s Brasserie.

Here are some snapshots from last night’s get-together:

Abrams/Sanders

Malcolm Abrams (L) & Scott Russell Sanders

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Here’s something I hadn’t known: A teenaged Sanders had a choice between studying physics at Brown University or accepting a basketball scholarship at another school. He chose physics, natch.

Karr/Stoll

Author Julia Karr & Her Friend, Caren Stoll

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Karr just finished writing the first draft of the last book in her Young Adult trilogy featuring teen Nina Oberon and her travails in a near-future dystopia. Book one was entitled XVI (or Sixteen, for those of you who don’t recognize Roman numerals) and its sequel was Truth. The third has no title yet; Karr’s only begun revisions and corrections within the last few days.

Sanders

Sanders Tells His Tale

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The title of Sanders’ book comes from a line written by Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay, “The Poet.” Emerson’s line reads:

As the traveller who has lost his way, throws his reins on his horse’s neck, and trusts to the instinct of the animal to find his road, so must we do with the divine animal who carries us through this world.

Sanders & Fans

Sanders Chats With Fans

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Alright, get going on Young Titan.

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01/22/2015
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Charlotte Zietlow

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The Book, Revealed

Here’s how much that mysterious book to which I’ve been referring of late has entered not only my consciousness but my subconscious: I woke up all of a sudden this morning at three o’clock with the outline to Chapter 1 in my head. It was magic, I tell you.

So, I got up and wrote it down.

And now that I’m actually, y’know, sorta writing the damned thing rather than just gathering material for it (which is why I’m on hiatus from the daily chore of penning this blog), I figure I may as well reveal officially and for the first time in a public setting what it’s about.

Since August I’ve been working with Bloomington’s beloved political maven and dowager, Charlotte Zietlow, on her memoir.

April 2009

Charlotte Zietlow

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For those of you who don’t know Charlotte, she’s the very embodiment of South Central Indiana’s Democratic Party. She and a cadre of similar newcomers and boat-rockers smashed Bloomington’s Republican Party hegemony back in the early 1970s, turning this from a one-party town into…, well, another one-party town.

I met this delightful woman back when I first arrived in town. Margaret, the owner of the Book Corner, intro’d me to her. “You should know this person,” Margaret whispered to me the first time I saw Charlotte flounce into the store.

Charlotte, then as now, cut a dramatic, dynamic figure. She still runs around town like a 25-year-old — she turned 80 last year — wearing her trademark big floppy hats, her handmade artisanal jewelry, and her flowing scarves.

April 2014

Charlotte With Marc Tschida & County Prosecutor Chris Gaal

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More than four decades ago, she and the other Democrats transformed this town and county from a strictly Republican stronghold. Strange as it may sound, up until that time many college towns were exclusively Republican. Then the majority of them flipped with the rise of political activism in the 1960s and the 18-year-old vote in 1971.

Anyway, her story is that of a determined, ambitious young woman who grew up in an era when there were precious few role models and mentors for young women. Her mother never failed to remind her that she was “independent” — and that was no compliment. She was a brilliant student, earning her PhD in Linguistics from the University of Michigan. When she looked for work, she applied to the CIA and the State Department. She got interviews at both places and was told twice that she could have been a great spy or diplomat but that, more practically, she’d make a terrific wife of one instead. She was enraged by those interviews but not hindered in her will to do something in the world other than keep house.

She began her political career ringing doorbells for JFK in the summer of 1960 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she and her husband were working on their doctorates. Their studies brought them to Mainz, West Germany, and Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, where she saw first hand the crushing effects of a demandingly conformist culture and a police state. When she got back to America, she was determined to make sure that the voice of the people would always be heard and that powerful special interests would always be resisted.

She was a city council member, a county council member, and ran for Congress in the late 1970s. Democratic women here see her as a leader and an inspiration. She still serves on countless civic boards and has had the ear of the mayor, the governor, and our district’s Congressional representatives through the years. The county named its courthouse after her a couple of years ago.

Sept 2009

Charlotte With Mayor Mark Kruzan

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So, we’re writing her memoir. At least one publisher is extremely interested in her story, having asked her to do it years ago. I harangued her for a couple of years to get going on it (with me helping her, of course). Then, one day last summer, she said, “Michael, are you serious about this?”

“Serious as a heart attack,” I said.

“Good,” she said. “Let’s get to work.”

It’s been exciting and fun. If you don’t know her yet, trust me, you’d love her. By the way, she’s also a crackerjack chef. She and a business partner opened a boutique kitchen supply store called Goods for Cooks in 1975 on the west side of Courthouse Square. (They’ve since sold the business but it’s still thriving.)

Charlotte and I have been laughing and crying together for five months now as she tells me of her life, the digital recorder catching every word, every guffaw, and every sniffle. As I gain a more complete picture of her years on this mad, mad planet I’ll be crafting the story of an ambitious, caring, important human being who today rightly serves as a role model and a mentor to women young and old, here and elsewhere.

Stay tuned for further progress reports on the project. And stay tuned, too, for the return of my (almost) daily screeds and screeches here.

Peace, love & soul.

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09/28/2014
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Barack Obama, Bloom Magazine, Bloomington Playwrights Project, Charlotte Zietlow, Conspiracy Theory, Fraud, ISIS, Malcolm Abrams, Michelle Obama, Ray Hanania, The U.S. Patriot

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[MG Note: Pardon the weird paragraph leading today; WordPress is eff-ing up.]

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Scandal!

Just when you think the Far Right-wingnut mob can’t get any farther or nuttier (and how many times have I had to type a version of that lead over the last few years?) they up and shock the bejesus out of me.
And any other sane person, for that matter.
Are you sitting? Okay. That latest deranged rumor about Barack Obama is that he and Michelle are not the biological parents of Malia and Sasha.
Obama

The Mother Of All Frauds

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Yep. A gang of Obama-obsessed jingoists on a website called The US Patriot (“home to the best Conservative news on the net”) has uncovered this earth-shattering news that’s sure to make Watergate and Iran-Contra and the October Surprise look like childish indiscretions.
“[S]ome Americans,” the site intones, gravely, “feel that the two girls have very little resemblance to their parents.” Later, the post’s author reveals, “[N]o one has ever claimed to see a picture of the First Lady pregnant or with a newborn.”
Hmm. What could be up here? No doubt something horribly devious, considering this Prez is the worst America-hating non-citizen who’s ever lied, cheated, and defrauded his way to the leadership of the Free World — which won’t be free very much longer after he and his pals enslave us all.
Whoever wrote this scoop — there is no byline — says unimpeachable sources (“others claim…”) have unearthed evidence the two kids might have been born in Morocco and then adopted.
Thank god for people like those who staff The US Patriot! Why, without them, we’d all be speaking Morroccan now.
[h/t to Ray Hanania.]
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False Flag

Not to be outdone, the loons on the Left have their own brand spanking new mad, mad conspiracy delusion.
ISIS, acc’d’g to one or two as-yet-uncommitted mental patients on the Wingnut Left, flat out doesn’t exist.
Meme
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All of which makes me wonder why scads of folks are so bored by the vagaries and complexities of real life that they must create spectacular fictions to get themselves through the day.
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Fogey Fun

The Loved One and I had a lot of fun out with the Fergusons and Joneses last night at the Bloomington Playwrights Project production of Kalamazoo and then, post-show, at Ferg. world HQ.
Kalamazoo

“Kalamazoo” At The BPP

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Kalamazoo was a rare bit of entertainment dealing with the lives, loves, hopes, and dreams of, well, old people. As in, Ick, old people.
The play was written by Michelle Kholos Brooks and Kelly Younger. Brooks is the daughter-in-law of legendary funny man Mel Brooks and his influence shows in the play. The gags and one-liners — lots of them Borscht Belt mots buffed up to a contemporary sheen — come rapid fire as two old fossils, widowers both, hook up on an old-person dating site and fall, by fits and starts, in love.B-town luminaries in attendance for the opening night performance included Bloom mag publisher Malcolm Abrams and political doyenne Charlotte Zietlow.
And Tyler Ferguson’s late evening jambalaya feed was fab.
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06/14/2014
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Big Talk, Bill Moyers, Bill Nye, Charlotte Zietlow, Climate Change Denial, Daily Beast, Earth System Science Center, Herald Times, Indiana University, Michael Mann, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Penn State University, The Ryder, WFHB

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Scientists: Come Out Of The Closet!

Hey, kids, I realize we live in the most informed, brilliant, and sensitive burgh this side of Berkeley, California, but still some of us might come up against a simian thinker who, say, doesn’t believe all this socialist, bike-riding propaganda about climate change.

Baboon

What Do All Those Scientists Know?

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You know, it’s all a plot to destroy America and so on.

So you might have a need to destroy his ignorance and put him in his proper place (A zoo cage? A mental institution?) should you run into him bleating his views in a bar or at your coffeehouse headquarters.

Many of us emerge from such a tête-à-tête ruing our inability to deliver just the right bon mot that would send him scurrying out of the place, humiliated to the point of wondering whether he should just end it all. (Imagine, too, using pretentious Gallicisms to finish him off — pure bliss, no?)

Anyway, Bill Moyers this morning offers us a good guide to winning these “arguments” via Penn State U. climatologist Michael Mann. He runs PSU’s Earth System Science Center. He thinks climatologists and other scientists ought to get out into the arena more and fight the good fight for knowledge and investigation.

Which I agree with. These days, we have what I’d call science’s designated hitters: Bill Nye and Neil de Grasse Tyson. Their Q-ratings nearly approach those of fictional brains such as Frank-n-Furter, Dr. Strangelove, and Professor X.

Movie Scientists

Scientists

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Don’t get me wrong, I dig NdGT and Nye the most. Still, to the gen. pub., they’re pretty much the alpha and omega of smart guys. OTOH, we get all sorts of un-scientists spewing their mouth refuse about things scientific. People like Sen. James Inhofe, Rep. Michelle Bachmann, and Rush Limbaugh — and there are dozens more where they come from. Corporate news purveyors find these chuckleheads by the score whenever there’s a climate debate or an evolution debate or even a flat-Earth debate.

Guys like Michael Mann toil in anonymity in their labs and classrooms, discovering things, learning things, and being, well, all scientific while the populace of this holy land learns about the physical world from Steve Doocy and Elizabeth Hasselbeck.

So, go, go. go, M. Mann et al. As for you, loyal Pencillista, read his piece on climate change and go into your next argument on that topic armed with the best info.

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The Old Pro

My complete interview with Charlotte Zietlow is now up on The Ryder website. It’s a long one but it’s a good one. Take some time and read it — and feel better about politicians for a brief moment, armed with the knowledge that that vocation’s roster has included decent souls like CZ.

Zietlow

Charlotte Zietlow

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If you’re pressed for time, catch my eight-minute mini-interview with the Dem doyenne that ran on WFHB’s Daily Local News a couple of weeks ago.

End of commercial.

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All The News That’s Old

Now we learn that 40 percent of the Indiana University student pop. is from out of state. This thanks to the Daily Beast‘s ranking of the decade’s “hottest” schools (via the Herald Times).

IU, acc’d’g to the D. Beast‘s rankers, is the third most thermal institution of higher education in Murrica, after USC and Vanderbilt.

Good journalist that I am, I googled “hottest schools decade IU daily beast,” just to verify the story and, perhaps, to provide a link to the Beast’s piece (which the H-T hadn’t).

Lo and behold, I found that the DB‘s list of hot colleges was done in 2009. It ran December 13 that year, which makes sense, considering it was an “of the decade list.” Such things aren’t done in the middle of a ten-annum.

NYT

Didja Hear The News?!

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So thanks, Herald Times, for the five-year-old news. If I’d paid the $8.95 the paper wants every month for an online subscription, I’d be steaming about now. Luckily, I’ve figured out a way to get it free, which is what it’s worth.

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05/23/2014
5 Comments
Big Talk, Career Workplace Specialists, Charlotte Zietlow, Indiana State Board of Education, Indiana State Teachers Association, Pedagogy, Teresa Meredith, The Ryder, WFHB, WFIU

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Those Who Can…

I’ll be making a lot of teachers mad today. That’s nothing new; some four and a half decades ago I was an unruly little shit terrorizing any number of trained experts in the art of controlling and forming the minds of feral beastlings like me.

The Indiana Board of Ed last week voted to allow non-professional teachers to teach in state schools. Professional teachers, naturally, are up in arms.

The Board sez it would like to okay something called Career Workplace Specialists, folks who’ve made their daily bread in specific fields and who then would be qualified to teach our kids that stuff. Well, your kids. I don’t have any. You’re welcome.

Anyway, the state teachers union thinks this is the worst thing since MERS. Union boss Teresa Meredith told WFIU reporter Brandon Smith that teachers need intensive “pedagogy training” before they can be allowed to face a classroom full of brats like I was.

Blackboard Jungle

From The Movie “Blackboard Jungle”

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That quote alone is enough to convince me I’m going to side with the Board. The teaching profession has become a priestly caste with an obfuscating language all its own. The entrenched pro teaching people forget that we’re all teachers; the very nature of civilization forces each and every adult to be a life-certified pedagogista.

This is not to say that pro-teachers haven’t learned a thing or two about imparting knowledge, getting kids to think critically, and preventing impromptu riots from breaking out. Problem is, it seems the teaching profession has been, for all intents and purposes, restricted only to the third pillar of those qualifications. What with a rigid common core, teaching to the test, and the alarming popular distaste for science and empirical facts, teachers are hamstrung these days.

Let’s be clear: the teaching profession, by and large, has opposed the general trend away from getting kids to learn how to think and toward producing standardized, docile little graduate lambs. Sadly, the efforts of teachers unions and the pedagogical academia have had next to no effect on the educational paradigm of turning out kids who know how to spit back facts but have absolutely no acumen for analyzing and critiquing. So, it can be said the only thing teachers unions have left to fight for is their own jobs.

And now, they fear, they’re going to be losing them to people who aren’t professional teachers.

But, as I say, we’re all teachers. And I’d rather have, say, a professional chemist teaching me chemistry than a person who finds it necessary to use the term pedagogy.

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Hear Charlotte Here

Here’s your link to hear the WFHB Daily Local News feature on my Big Talk interview with Charlotte Zietlow.

Zietlow

Charlotte Zietlow (Photo: David Snodgress/Herald-Times)

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The latest issue of The Ryder magazine hits the streets today, carrying the entire hour-long chat I had with the doyenne of the Democratic Party here in Bloomington and Monroe County. The piece will go up on The Ryder website in about a week.

Tune in to WFHB and read The Ryder each month to catch the long and short versions of the monthly Big Talk series. And stay right here on The Electron Pencil for updates on who I’ll be interviewing next.

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05/21/2014
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Antisemitism, Big Talk, Charlotte Zietlow, Islamophobia, Maclean's, The Ryder, WFHB

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Big Talk

Tune in this afternoon at 5:30 to WFHB’s Daily Local News for a sampling of my Big Talk conversation with Charlotte Zietlow.

The eight-minute feature is a snippet of a lengthy conversation I had with the old pro of Bloomington politics. Charlotte’s history in the public arena reaches back to the great transformation of Bloomington and Monroe County from a frumpy Republican stronghold to a crunchy Democratic kingdom.

Zietlow

Charlotte Zietlow (Photo/Jill Jolliff)

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I’ll post the link to the feature just as soon as News Director Alycin Bektesh and DLN editor Drew Daudelin post it on the station’s website. Many thanks to them and studio producer Sarah Hetrick for their help and support on the radio side. Peter LoPilato of The Ryder comes in for a pat on the back, as always.  And, of course, kudos and laurel leaves to The Loved One for her support on the interwebs operation.

Make sure to catch the entire interview in this month’s Ryder magazine. The Ryder hard copy will hit the streets Friday and articles will be posted online a week later.

Big Talk with Big Mike is a joint production of WFHB, The Ryder, and The Electron Pencil.

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Ignorance Is Bliss

This holy land came in for a smackdown in last week’s edition of Maclean’s magazine, Canada’s venerable news magazine.

Entitled “America Dumbs Down,” the article, penned by Jonathon Gatehouse, takes the population of the Earth’s current empire to task for being, well, blissfully and voluntarily stupid. Gatehouse offers several eye-popping stat showing how uninformed and unread we happily are.

He concludes, “If ignorance is contagious, it’s high time to put the United States in quarantine.”

Stupid

American Idiot

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Yikes. You, of course, knew that already, being a loyal reader of this communications colossus and, for that matter, a sentient human being in a land of glassy-eyed cementheads.

An underlying theme in the piece is the author’s suggestion that it’s democratization that’s responsible for America’s dopiness. We fetishize the unwashed common folk at the expense of a demonized expert elite. Gatehouse writes:

The term “elitist” has become one of the most used, and feared, insults in American life. Even in the country’s halls of higher learning, there is now an ingrained bias that favours the accessible over the exacting.

For my part, I dig being accessible. My writing style time and again has been characterized as “folksy.” That’s cool. But I’d like to think my thought processes are more complicated, even sophisticated. I may not be there yet, but I’m trying.

Other than that little quibble, I but Gatehouse’s thesis hook, line and sinker. Lack of knowledge in a person doesn’t bother me one bit; intentional stupidity bugs me a great deal.

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Ad Nauseam

I just got finished scrolling through a scary site called Stop Islamisation of Australia.

The group’s stance, apparently is that Muslims are all wild-eyed, murderous, cut-throat, suicide-bombing, West-hating psychopaths. And that they’re a hair’s-breadth away from taking over all the Christianist nations on Earth.

The only positive I can possibly glean from exposing myself to such sewage is that at least it’s not an American group, although I have little doubt one or more such bunds exist. Realist though I am, I’d hate to think all the hateful, paranoid, ignorant gangs of people come from this holy land.

Then again, one member of this Australian batch of loons points out some ads that festoon Washington DC buses these days. Here’s an example:

Propaganda

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Yeesh! Aljazeera America offers some info on the people responsible for the ads. Calling themselves the American Freedom Defense Initiative, the group says the ads are a response to a pro-Palestinian lobbying group that has painting Israelis in a similarly outlandish light.

I’d say god help us but the creator of the Universe is prob. too busy trying to decide whom he loves more, the Jews or the Muslims.

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05/18/2014
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Big Talk, Charlotte Zietlow, Democratic Women's Caucus of Monroe County, Herald Times, Indianapolis Star, Joani Crean, Regina Moore, Republican Party, Susan Sandberg, The Ryder, Voter Suppression, WFHB

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Blue Skies Ahead

Just wondering: Can it be any more perfect in Bloomington this morning?

Fair

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The sky is a rich, deep blue and cloudless. The high should be near 70. The next two days should be clear and mild as well.

This is what we wait all winter for.

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From Ho-hum To Wow!

Do I need to point out the difference between, say, the Herald Times of Bloomington and this communications colossus?

I mean, one very well-respected member of our community has told me that he’d much rather read about a pressing local issue here in The Pencil than in B-town’s daily newspaper. The Pencil’s take, he sez, is always more interesting and provocative.

Far be it from me to brag. In fact, I’ll point out that The Pencil hardly scrapes the surface of Bloomington and South Central Indiana’s news because, hell, I’m only one guy and I have a day job, too. I hammer on local issues only when they strike me. Plus, I have an irresistible need to pontificate on national and world happenings as well as pop culture, art and science, all of which eat up space here.

The day the Bloomington City Council counts among its members someone as entertaining as Michelle Bachmann, I’ll begin fixating on that person. Although Steve Volan is trying in his own inimitable way. And Susan Sandberg does wield a fiery ukulele.

Anyway, back to the Herald Times. The paper’s lead feature this gorgeous Sunday is a profile of the wife of IU basketball coach Tom Crean (paywall). I’m not going to reveal any details of the piece, mainly because I haven’t read anything more of it than the first paragraph. Why? Because I don’t care.

H-T

Do You Care?

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All I know is, the new Big Talk interview series continues Friday with an eight-minute feature on WFHB’s Daily Local News at 5:30pm and the release of this month’s Ryder magazine, which will carry the full-version of my hour-long chat with Bloomington’s political doyenne, Charlotte Zietlow.

I have my doubts that Coach Crean’s wife can tell me about living under tyrannical rule in Czechoslovakia or upending a decades-long political order here in Bloomington in 1971. Charlotte can.

Big Talk is a joint production of The Electron Pencil, WFHB, and The Ryder. We tie together this town’s cutting edge media outlets. And unless an IU coach’s wife discovers a remedy for global warming, you won’t have to worry about us profiling her herein.

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On The Other Hand

The H-T today does carry an excellent piece (again, paywall) on the Democratic Women’s Caucus here in Monroe County. The article points out that back only a decade ago, in the 2003 election, our town could boast only two female candidates for public office: Regina Moore and Uke-baby Sandberg.

Moore

City Clerk Regina Moore (right)

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The article quotes one political scientist who claims that voters seem to prefer women candidates for office but the problem is females are not as eager to run as men are. Women, this expert suggests, need to be dragged into the political arena. Read the piece.

UkeTones

Susan Sandberg (right) And The UkeTones

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BTW: You know who’s a big deal in the Dem Women’s Caucus? That’s right, Charlotte Zietlow. Just sayin’.

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It’s On Us

Speaking of politics, we can wail, moan, and gnash our teeth all we want over the Republican strategy to reduce voter turnout around the nation, but really we have nobody to blame but ourselves.

The Indy Star today offers a piece explaining that embarrassingly low turnouts in many counties and precincts for the May 6th primary were due to, well, folks being too gosh darned busy.

Vintage Voting Machine

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Which is bullshit of the highest order. The article quotes no-show potential voters as saying things like traffic was too bad and they had to, presumably, do housework. The least thing a citizen can do in a democracy is to vote. And if you can’t find a half hour to vote every two years, then you don’t deserve democracy.

You can wring your hands all you’d like at Republican effort to suppress voter turnout but the GOP has far too many aiders and abettors in their efforts. To mangle a quote: We have met the enemy and they are us.

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10/19/2012
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Alan Dixon, Babbit, Charlotte Zietlow, CREEP, Dinesh D'Souza, George W. Bush, John McCain, Karl Rove, Newsweek, Newt Gingrich, Rat Fuckers, Richard M. Nixon, Robert Gibbs, Sinclair Lewis, Tomi Allison

The Pencil Today:

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THE QUOTE

“Being a man given to oratory and high principles, he enjoyed the sound of his own vocabulary and the warmth of his own virtue.” — Sinclair Lewis, Babbit, Ch. 6

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ROVE SHOW

A number of people asked me yesterday morning if I was going to attend the Karl Rove smut-fest at the IU Auditorium.

Rove was the lightning rod. The event was billed as a sort of colloquy between the one-time “rat fucker” and evil genius behind George W. Bush’s presidency and Robert Gibbs, President Obama’s former mouthpiece, but for all the residents of this people’s republic were concerned, Gibbs would be nothing more than a bit player. The two were to dope out the 2012 Election and everybody expected a hockey game to break out.

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Only no punches were thrown and the entire affair, according to observers, was rather tepid.

I wouldn’t know because I wasn’t there.

I told my interrogators yesterday morning I wasn’t going. They know I loathe Rove more than the genetic heart defect that’ll eventually kill me so they were surprised I wouldn’t grab the chance to hiss him.

Unh uh.

I didn’t go for the same reason I don’t watch TV news. It’d make me edgy. I’d fall into that old us-versus-them trick bag the corporate media loves to suck us into.

Some of this town’s most notable citizens gathered outside the Auditorium to shout at its walls how much they object to the very notion that the human species has resulted in something so vile as Karl Rove.

Tomi Allison & Charlotte Zietlow Serenade Rove

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Again, that’d be a no-go for me. It plays into the show business aspect of Rove-mania. He’s not only still a mover and shaker on the political scene, but he’s the designated villain in the pro wrestling spectacle that civic debate has become. The mini-mob outside the Auditorium only heightened the buzz and sense of spectacle of the thing.

Rove’s never been accused of outright vote stealing. No, his sins are worse. He peddles tainted information. He manipulates resentments. He games the system. Rove is a diabolical archcriminal.

I wouldn’t give him a dime of my hard-earned dough even if it was just to throw rotten tomatoes at him.

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DEATH OF THE ‘WEEK

You’ve heard the news that Newsweek will cease publication this year.

Good.

Newsweek actually saw fit to give Karl Rove his own weekly column after his former boss left the White House.

“News”week

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I wonder if the following items on the Rove resume convinced Newsweek’s editors to take him on:

In 1970, Rove, using an alias and pretending to volunteer for Alan Dixon’s reelection, gained access to the Illinois Senator’s campaign office. He worked only for a day. Actually, a mere few hours.

His sole desire was to make off with a few reams of stationary bearing the Dixon campaign letterhead. Rove then printed up phony invitations promising “free beer, free food, girls, and a good time for nothing” at an upcoming invitation-only Dixon rally. Rove then distributed the faux ducats at dive bars, flophouses, homeless shelters, and rock concerts where he sought out the scruffiest and foulest-smelling stoners.

The Dixon campaign was shocked when its rally was invaded by the rather unsavory battalion.

Rove went on to do much volunteer work for the Richard Nixon reelection campaign. He was so valuable to CREEP that Watergate prosecutors actually considered indicting him but decided not to only because he was small potatoes. His artistry in the field of dirty tricks was not yet fully honed.

For instance, working for George W. Bush in the 2000 South Carolina Republican primary, Rove floated the rumor that Bush’s biggest rival, John McCain, had fathered a black “love child.” McCain, at the time running ahead of Bush, suffered a surprising defeat in that state, long a bastion of racism.

Bushy & The Brain

✍

I could fill ten posts with a laundry list of Rove violations of the public trust. Suffice it to say he’s a baddie.

So, if Newsweek wanted this brand of reprobate to pen a weekly column then it deserves to suffer a painful death.

▲

MARRIAGE: GOVERNMENT REGULATION RUN AMOK

Speaking of Right Wingers whose dark souls emit a nauseating reek, that darling of the Tory classes, Dinesh D’Souza, has gotten his bully club caught in a wringer.

Following in the tradition of Republican stalwart, Newt Gingrich, D’Souza has thrown his wife over for a younger woman.

D’Souza Goes For The Youth Market

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D’Souza, who regularly wows conservative Christian audiences with his railings against the morally bankrupt liberal, secular world, has been toting around a young chickadee whom he introduces as his fiancee.

This even as D’Souza’s ever-loving wife of 20 years, Dixie, has kept the home fires warm for him.

Some observers on my side of the fence say this is typical of the hypocrisy of podium-thumping evangelicals and conservatives.

Pure

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I say nonsense. In fact, I believe the whole incident proves D’Souza is philosophically consistent to a fault. His devotion to the “free market,” obviously, extends to all areas of his life.

▲

The only events listings you need in Bloomington.

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Friday, October 19th, 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

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

MUSIC ◗ IU Willkie Auditorium — Friday Noon Concert Series: Jeeyoon Kim on piano; Noon

ART & LECTURE ◗ IU Woodburn Hall — Ken Kewley talks about his works in the “Small Is Big” exhibit; 1pm

LECTURE ◗ IU College of Arts & Humanities — “The Myth of Host Desecration in Medieval Aragon & Paris,” Presented by Robert Clark of Kansas Sate University; 3pm

SPORTS ◗ IU Field Hockey Complex — Hoosier women’s field hockey vs. Michigan; 4pm

HISTORY ◗ Monroe County History Center — Opening reception for the exhibit, “The Girl Scouts“; 5:30-7:30pm

ART & LECTURE ◗ IU Grunwald Gallery — Buzz Spector talks about his current exhibit, “Off the Shelf“; 5-6pm — Opening reception; 6-8pm

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

ART ◗ The Venue Fine Art & Gifts — Opening reception for the exhibit, “Carved Wood, Native American Inspired Art“; 6pm

FILM ◗ IU Cinema — “Detropia“; 6:30pm

FILM ◗ IU Fine Arts Theater — Ryder Film Series: “Side by Side“; 6:45pm

AUTHORS ◗ Sweet Claire Gourmet Bakery — Lemonstone Reading Series, Presented by Writers Guild of Bloomington, tonight Emily Bobo reads and Zach Moon & Lawrence Washington play music; 7-8:30pm

MUSIC FEST ◗ Various locations, Bloomington — BloomingTONE Music Festival, purchase tickets for single events, all events on one night, or a full two-day pass, Friday & Saturday, Tonight’s events:

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

MUSIC ◗ IU Ford-Crawford Hall — Octubafest, Daniel Perantoni, director; 7pm

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

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

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

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

FILM ◗ IU Woodburn Hall Theatre — Ryder Film Series: “2 Days in New York“; 7:30pm

ASTRONOMY ◗ Lake Monroe, Paynetown SRA Beach — Star Gaze with the IU Astronomy Club, weather-permitting; 7:30-9pm

ART ◗ IU McCalla School — The Fuller Projects: “Kissing Bachelard: Urban Spaces Conceived,” Paintings by Maggie Crowley; 7:30pm

OPERA ◗ IU Musical Arts Center — “The Merry Widow“; 8pm

BENEFIT ◗ The Bishop — XO Variety Show, for Middle Way House; 8-11pm

FILM ◗ Bear’s Place — Dark Carnival Film Festival: “Found,” Plus annual costume contest; 8pm-Midnight

MUSIC ◗ IU Auer Hall — Master’s Recital: Haewoon Yang on piano; 8pm

MUSIC ◗ The Player’s Pub — LottaBLUESah: Snakedoctor, Michael Kelsey; 8pm

FILM ◗ IU Memorial Union, Whittenberger Auditorium — UB Films: “The Dark Knight Rises”; 8pm

FILM ◗ IU Fine Arts Theater — Ryder Film Series: “Stars in Shorts“; 8:30pm

MUSIC ◗ The Bluebird — Rod Tuffcurls and the Benchpress; 9pm

MUSIC ◗ Muddy Boots Cafe, Nashville — Whiskey Mystic; 9:30-11:30pm

FILM ◗ IU Cinema — “Chicken with Plums“; 9:30pm

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

FILM ◗ IU Cinema — “Beyonf the Black Rainbow“; Midnight

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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

The Ryder & The Electron Pencil: Bloomington’s Best

07/24/2012
Leave a comment
Annalee Newitz, Bloomington Herald Times, Charlotte Zietlow, Guns, io9, Maxxwell Bodenheim, Sally Ride, Sesame Street, Susan Sandberg, Truman Capote

The Pencil Today:

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THE QUOTE

“A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That’s why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.” — Truman Capote

♢

SUSAN WATCH

Charlotte Zietlow reports that Susan Sandberg has been moved to a progressive care unit. Bloomington’s at-large Common Council representative isn’t out of the woods yet, but at least she isn’t in ICU anymore.

Hurry up, heal up, and hit the streets, Susan!

♢

ONE MORE THING

Alright, I’m still reasonably new to these parts and perhaps I don’t know all the mores and folkways here.

And I know the Sandberg family wants some privacy.

But people, Susan Sandberg is a public official, one of the key members of the city’s Common Council. The Herald Times has not printed a word about her grave illness.

Do Your Job

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I don’t like it one bit.

♢

A FOR ASTRONAUT

I wonder how many little girls decided to grow up to be scientists or adventurers after watching Sally Ride appear on Sesame Street in January, 1984.

Sally Ride flew. So does time. She’s dead now. Farewell, astronaut!

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BTW: It took this holy land a full twenty years after the Soviets first did it to get a woman up into space.

BTW2: Here’s a kick in the right wing’s ass — Sally Ride was a lesbian.

♢

WHERE HAVE ALL THE PEOPLES GONE?

Writer Annalee Newitz on io9 presents a list of ten civilizations that simply vanished.

No wars, no floods, no dramatic, apocalyptic events that have been determined so far. The civilization were once mighty and well-populated and now they’re gone.

Here they are, identified by their present day locations:

  • The Maya — Mexico
  • The Harappan — India, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan
  • The people who built the Moai statues — Easter Island in the Pacific

Who Built These Guys And Where Did They Go?
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  • Catalhöyük — Turkey
  • Cahokia — Southern Illinois
  • Göbekli Tepe — Turkey
  • Angkor — Cambodia
  • Turquoise Mountain — Afghanistan
  • Niya — Xinjiang province, China

Curious? Newitz has more info on each people here.

♢

MAY I SEE YOUR LICENSE AND REGISTRATION, PLEASE?

h/t to Maxxwell Bodenheim of Forest Park, Illinois, for this one.

♢

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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.

❏ 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.

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

From Flip Flop Fly Ball

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❏ 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.

❏ The Daily Puppy — So shoot me.

♢

✍

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

◗ People’s Park — Lunch Concert Series: Sad Sam Blues Band; 11:30am

◗ KRC Catering — Girls, Inc. Annual Luncheon; 11:30am-1pm

◗ Madison Street Between Sixth and Seventh streets — Tuesday Farmers Market; 4-7pm

◗ IU Metz Carillon Tower — Summer Music Series: Lee Cobb carillon recital; 5-6pm

◗ IU Wells-Metz Theatre — Musical, “You Can’t Take It with You”; 7:30pm

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

◗ The Player’s Pub — Blues Jam, hosted by Fistful of Bacon; 8pm

◗ Cafe Django — Jeff Isaac Trio; 8-10pm

◗ IU Auer Hall — Summer Arts Festival: Dorothy Papadakos, “Phantom of the Opera” on pipe organ; 8pm

◗ The Bishop — Keeping Cars, the Brown Bear Coalition, the Vorticists; 9pm

◗ Bear’s Place — Lame Drivers; 9pm

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:

  • Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show; through July 21st
  • Bloomington Photography Club Annual Exhibition; July 27th 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

♢

05/15/2012
Leave a comment
Campaign Finance Disclosure, Charlotte Zietlow, Federal Election Commission, John Mellencamp, Mark Kruzan, Michael Franti, National Women's Political Caucus, Open Secrets, Shelli Yoder, Spearhead, Todd Young, US Congress, Yell Fire

The Pencil Today:

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THE QUOTE

“I don’t want to be a politician. I don’t like politics. It’s petty; it fights dirty.” — John Mellencamp

♢

YODER’S GOT TO GET HER HANDS DIRTY

Shelli Yoder‘s campaign is chugging up to full steam in her bid to unseat first-term Congressman Todd Young from Indiana’s 9th District. She’s been endorsed by all the likely suspects including Dem powerhouses Mayor Mark Kruzan and Bloomington doyenne Charlotte Zietlow, as well as the National Women’s Political Caucus.

But I have it on fairly reliable authority that Yoder right now lacks the one talent that usually separates the winners from the losers in today’s political world. She’s not, I’m told, all that great at raising money.

Yoder Can’t Hide From Political Reality

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Yoder, as of the last Federal Election Commission filing date, has collected $40,277 (including $1555 out of her own pocket.) She spent more than $15,000 to win the primary and has nearly $25,000 on hand.

The Todd Young campaign, according to Open Secrets, had nearly $700,000 in the bank as of April 18th.

My source tells me Yoder won’t be even be considered a player this year until she can amass $100,000.

To do that, Shelli will have to start working the phones. It’s a dirty job, but Yoder has to do it.

♢

YELL FIRE

Michael Franti and Spearhead proved six years ago that the political protest song is not dead.

♢

 

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