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THE QUOTE
“Affluence creates poverty.” — Marshall McLuhan
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GAME ON
I have a feeling Rep. Todd Young (R-Indiana) is getting a little concerned about Shelli Yoder.
She Works Hard For The Money
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The Dem challenger, you may recall, came out of nowhere a couple of weeks before the primary filing deadline and proceeded to trounce four opponents, two of whom were actually serious candidates.
Yoder’s been criss-crossing the 9th District, shaking hands, marching in parades, and listening to folks talk about the state of the nation in diners and church basements. She’s been raising dough, too.
The former Miss America second runner-up is looking more and more like the real deal.
Ergo, the Todd Young campaign is hitting up contributors for what might turn out to be a contest. He’s raised $1.2M so for this election season, according to the Herald Times.
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TYLER EARWORMS ME
The inimitable Tyler Ferguson (Kaka Caliente of the Bleeding Heartland Rollergirls) blew into Soma Coffee this AM, singing “Mandy.”
You remember “Mandy” don’t you? The Barry Manilow hit of 1974 wherein, according to legend, he sings lovingly — some say a little too lovingly — of his lapdog. He wasn’t, of course; the song was written by someone else years before Manilow turned it into his first chart-topper.
Please Forgive Me
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Anyway, Tyler/Kaka was pumped because the selfsame Manilow, she gushed, will be playing in these parts soonly. “You can get tickets for ten dollars!” she said. “I’d pay that for him. Nothing more, though.”
Where? I demanded, so I could leave the region while he was in it.
“I dunno,” Tyler said. “Somewhere.”
Which, come to think of it, is the definitive Tyler/Kaka answer.
So, here’s the deal. Manilow will play in Indy on August 3rd and in Louisville, July 27th. Bloomington will be, in other words, surrounded by Barry Manilow.
And now I have “Mandy” looping in my brain.
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WE’RE BROKE (EXCEPT FOR THAT TWO BILLION BUCKS WE FOUND)
I’ve never pretended to understand high finance. It’s as baffling to me as Higgs Boson is to a kindergartner.
All I know is Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and his legislative co-conspirators within the last couple of years have moaned and groaned about how the economy has ruined state finances and, therefore, school funding must be slashed to the bone.
Sorry, Kids
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Now, all of a sudden, there’s a $2.15B surplus in the Indiana state treasury? And now, all of a sudden, the state’ll be to be mailing out $100 checks to each and every taxpayer in the state? During an election year?
Are you confused about this, too? I have a sneaking suspicion, though, it all makes perfect sense.
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ROMNEY’S SMART
Say what you will about Mitt Romney, he played a brilliant hand when he spoke to the NAACP the other day.
In fact, he took a page out of the playbook of the Republicans and Cro-Magnon Democrats of the ’60s by putting himself in a position to be booed by attendees of the venerable civil rights organization’s annual conference the other day.
Ladies And Gentlemen Of The Negro Race….
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The likes of Dick Nixon and George Wallace occasionally would speak before hostile crowds and withstand their jeering just to remind their core constituencies which side they were on. Wallace was particularly adept at the tactic; he loved ranting and raving before college crowds, knowing full well he’d get verbal tomatoes (and sometimes the actual vegetable/fruit) thrown at him. His anti-intellectual base would read of the rude response in the papers or see it on TV news and be reminded how much they hated pointy-headed liberals.
You College Kids Hate Me, Donchya?
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Romney told the NAACP shindig that President Obama’s health care reforms were garbage. Natch, the NAACP-ers gave him the raspberry.
Some wags say Romney failed miserably in his effort to court black voters. Now there’s a misreading of the situation for you. Honestly, do you think Mitt expects to get any meaningful portion of the black vote?
Neither do I. But now the Me Party-ists and the shootin’ iron-totin’ back country Republicans know for sure that them blacks (saying the word with scorn and rage) are agin’ Romney almost as much as real Americans hate Obama.
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Electron Pencil event listings: Music, art, movies, lectures, parties, receptions, games, benefits, plays, meetings, fairs, conspiracies, rituals, etc.
◗ Stable Studios, Spencer — Bluegrass festival 2012, tonight: Open jam — tomorrow: The Travelin’ McCoury’s, The White Lightning Boys, Rumpke Mountain Boys, Flatland Harmony Experiment, New Old Cavalry, the Stuttering Ducks, The Seratones; 1pm-midnight
The White Lightning Boys
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◗ IU Dowling International Center — English Conversation Club, for non-native speakers of American English; 1pm
◗ The Venue Fine Arts & Gifts — Opening reception, ‘Our Fine Feathered Friends” exhibit by William Zimmerman, John Gould, James Tracy, Joanne Shank, and Julia Ferguson; 6pm
◗ IU Auer Hall — Summer Music Series: String academy final student recital; 6-8pm
◗ IU Art Museum — Jazz in July series, Mahluli-McCutchen Quartet; 6:30pm
◗ IU Fine Arts Theater — Ryder Film Series, “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”; 7pm
“Jiro Dream of Sushi”
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◗ Muddy Boots Cafe, Nashville — Whipstitch Sallies; 7-9pm — Bonz; 9:30-11:30pm
◗ Monroe Lake, Paynetown SRA — Dedication for new Activity Center, ice cream social; 7-8:30pm
◗ IU Wells-Metz Theatre — Musical, “You Can’t Take It With You”; 7:30pm
◗ Brown County Playhouse, Nashville — Musical, “Footloose”; 7:30pm
◗ The Comedy Attic — Chelsea Peretti; 8 & 10:30pm
◗ Cafe Django — Earplane, Latin-Brazilian jazz; 8pm
◗ Max’s Place — Sad Sam Blues Jam; 8pm — Ziona Riley; 10pm
◗ IU Musical Arts Center — Summer Arts Festival: Symphonic series, conductor Carlos Kalmar, works by Rossini, Dvorak, and Brahms; 8pm
◗ IU Fine Arts Theater — Ryder Film Series, “Elles”; 8pm
◗ The Player’s Pub — Crossover; 8pm
◗ IU Fine Arts Theater — Ryder Film Series, “Gerhard Richter Painting”; 8:30pm
◗ Bear’s Place — The Brown Bottle Flu, Hotel, War, Coralus; 9pm
◗ The Bishop — Film, “Own Worst Eenemy”; 9pm
◗ The Bluebird — Dot Dot Dot; 9pm
◗ Uncle Elizabeth’s — Vicci Laine & the West End Girls; 10pm & midnight
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
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