The Indiana Humanities Council

Yes, I have gotten really lazy with the blogging, as MJ calls me out in a comment on the last link blog post I just put up.

  • "the Council encourages Hoosiers to think, read ­and talk. How? By creating its own programs, such as Community Conversations, Evenings at the House and Novel Conversations; by providing grants for humanities programs throughout the state; and by providing a space–physically and digitally–for people to connect and converse."

On Nov 29, 2010, MJ commented on links for 2010-11-29
I’d love to know the context for this link. I miss your bloggy-type words that used to wrap around the links. Do you have any of them for this one? Pleeeeeeease?

Yes. Yes, I do….

I decided to look up this not-for-profit the other day because I remembered them from the Pecha Kucha presentations as a part of the Spirit and Place festival that took place in November. I failed to blog about those, too.

Pecha Kucha is a lightning-fast presentation – 20 slides, and 20 seconds of explanation about each of them. It started in Tokyo in 2003 as a way for designers to present their work, and became instantly popular there. Organizations around the world have taken up the style of presentation. This past year I did one myself at work presenting on how the new ways that fonts can be displayed on websites. Yes, I really should get a hold of the video of that an put it here on my blog, too, because I was really proud of how it came out. Lazy lazy blogger. Bad me.

There is an Indianapolis organization that hosts a Pecha Kucha competition – presenters give an idea for a not-for-profit business they’d like to start, voting happens and the winner is awarded prize money to start the business. The competition we witnessed in November was apparently the 11th one in Indianapolis. Blow me down – I had no idea it was even going on. How does this shit managed to sneak by me? I’m curious and (I thought) reasonably well-informed as to the goings on in town, but this is something I hadn’t heard of until this year.

I went to the presentation with Stephanie and MJ, and noticed that the Indiana Humanities Council was one of the sponsors. That one made me go HMMM? also. I haven’t heard of them before that event, but this group seems right up my ally; promoting reading and the arts. Who are these people doing stuff I’m interested in and not informing me about it? Sheesh, man.

IHC has a very beautiful website, and I poked around on it trying to figure out how long the organization has been around, without quite putting my finger on the answer. They have a blog on the site – that would be the “think.read.talk” tab on the site – that goes back to March of 2010, but that only indicates the blog page was started then. There’s not indication in the “about” materials of when the organization formed, or it’s history. They have some big league people on their board of directors.

And notably most of all – they’re located in my neighborhood – Old Northside – in the Meredith Nicholson house. I didn’t realize that house was still in existence – a good chunk of the historically significant houses in Old Northside have been torn down, unfortunately. Meredith Nicholson was an nationally prominent author in the late 1800s and early 1900s in Indianapolis, and a pal of James Whitcomb Riley. He lived in the house at 1500 North Delaware Street while writing most of his books, including the The House of a Thousand Candles the most famous of his works and one I read just last year.

We’ve been living in the neighborhood for almost 5 years and we’ve toured or visited pretty much every significant house in the neighborhood. Most of them are discussed or linked to on the neighborhood website, but this one hasn’t been discussed much. Odd.

So – the Indiana Humanities Council. They have first Fridays events, although it looks like there isn’t one is scheduled for December. [First Fridays is a art tour that takes place on the First Friday of every month, sponsored by the Indiana Downtown Artists and Dealers Association – something that I’ve also failed to write about, although we went to several First Friday events this summer. Lazy blogger. No cookies for me.]

We need to go, MJ, to one of these IHC event dealios. Because I have clearly been out of touch with what’s going on in the city for some time. And I need to get up to speed.

2022-03-12 Update: I live 5 blocks from the Indiana Humanities House and I still have not visited there. So yeah, I really got on that one.
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Fishers, Indiana and “Best Places to Live 2010”

Money Magazine ranks Fishers, Indiana number 8 on the list of “best places to live” in 2010. The criteria? “These terrific small cities — even now — boast plenty of jobs, great schools, safe streets, low crime, lots to do, charm, and other features that make a town great for raising a family.”

Interesting idea. I haven’t broken down all the charts to try to see behind the curtain at how they put together these rankings, but I sure have some reactions.

Among them:

1) Indianapolis is a small city. Fishers is a town.

2) I’d rather blow my brains out than live in Fishers. That is completely personal and a reaction to having grown up in the suburbs, but I can’t get past the “Little Boxes” song whenever I visit that town or any other in Hamilton County.

3) The data seems to me to suppose that you’re white, middle class and and that you have 2.5 kids as a basis for finding these places desirable to live in.

4) Yay for Hamilton County, but is Marion County doomed as a result? The success of one is a direct result of the degradation of the other due to decades of white flight – Indianapolis and surrounds being such a shining example of that phenomenon that it was literally institutionalized into Indianapolis government through Unigov. The key to Marion County reviving itself is somewhat dependent on the reversal of white flight and attracting some of those fliers back into the metropolis – if that’s even possible in Indiana.

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Dan Coats bumper sticker

Just spotted a Dan Coats for Indiana sticker on minivan on College Ave. I thought the Republicans were really ignorant, but that’s just chillingly nihilistic. He’s such a terrible candidate for the state of Indiana that there’s no way to plead ignorance on the issue – if you’ve got the brains to go get a bumper sticker for him, then you have to actually know what he’s about. And if you know what he’s about, how could you possibly advertise for him? I just assumed Republicans would be on the down low for him; voting for him in private but not admitting it in public. If they’re opening admitting they want one of the shittiest candidates in Indiana history in the U. S. Senate – dog help us all.

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links for 2010-02-04

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Indiana Girl sues school over prom tux denial

I so shocked by this that I can’t believe it. I’m giving the school a call later today to tell them what I think, because I can’t imagine how on earth this principal dares to do such a thing. The audacity. You have GOT to be kidding me about this. There is no way in 2009 that such a thing should happen. And good for that girl to sue them – way to go, kid! Way to go. That reminds me, I need to send in my ICLU membership money.

Hey, look there at the staff of the schools administration – Check out the women wearing suits to work! Get those off, ladies, you have to wear elegant prom dresses similar to these two piece prom dresses now!

From the Indy Star:

A 17-year-old Boone County girl has sued Lebanon Schools after her high school principal told her she could not wear a tuxedo to the school’s April 25 prom but would have to wear a dress.

The Lebanon High School senior, whose name is not revealed in the lawsuit, is a lesbian and does not wear dresses because she sees them as expressing a sexual identity that she does not embrace, court filings said.

Her attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana has asked a federal court to issue an injunction that would require the school to let her wear the same formal attire to the prom as male students at the school.

In the filing, ACLU of Indiana legal director Ken Falk argued that the district’s policy violates the stipulations in the U.S. Constitution that the government treat a female student the same as male students and not limit students’ freedom to express beliefs.

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Mary Ann Sullivan for State Representative

Mary Ann Sullivan is the Democratic candidate for my district – Indiana House District 97. She’s running against ‘cut and run’ Jon Elrod, who was going to leave the District high and dry to run against Andre Carson, but then ran back to District 97 when he realized he couldn’t beat Andre.

I’ve met Mary Ann several times and she’s the smart, capable person we need in HD 97 – someone who will actually serve the people and not use the office as a stepping stone to the next job.

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Jill Long Thompson gaining in Indiana Gov. Race

The latest Indy Star poll that showed Obama edging out McCain by 3 percent also shows Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Jill Long Thompson moving up in the polls – within spittin’ distance of ol’ Ditch Mitch, actually.

Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels holds a four-point lead in his bid for a second term, including support from one in five voters who plan to back Democrat Barack Obama for president, according to a new Indianapolis Star-WTHR (Channel 13) poll.

Daniels leads Democratic challenger Jill Long Thompson 46 percent to 42 percent. The poll’s margin of error is 4 percentage points.

Help Jill out — Donate some money to her campaign.

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Indiana as a swing state

Last night we were watching Anderson Cooper’s 360 and the identified Indiana as one of the five states they’re watching as “battleground” states. No kidding — we were not red, but “pink” on their chart.

Blue Indiana notes that a new Star poll coming out will show Obama on top, and sure enough — WTHR and Star Polling shows Obama leads McCain in Indiana by 47% to 44%.

Given the massive number of Obama signs and bumperstickers around town for the past several months, we’ve been expressing wonderment at the disparity between polls and visual evidence. I chalked it up to urban living, but I wonder if there’s not just a bit more to it.

But given that McCain has declared war on Spain (!?!) in the past couple days (The Rain In Spain Mainly Falling on McCain! Ha!) — hey, maybe Indiana is just a big fan of bullfighting.

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Hoosier Political Report

Taking Down Words was one of my favorite local political blogs for a long time, and I really miss it. Since Jennifer Wagner switched over to a new URL and format — Hoosier Political Report — things just haven’t been the same, and sadly, it’s going to get booted from my feed reader soon.

Rather than the astute and funny local political commentary contained on the old blog, the new one is composed almost completely of press releases from political candidates (YAWN), videos of recent campaign commercials (I fast forward through them on TV, so why would I waste my time on the internet?) and collected links from local newspapers (I get the headlines from the papers I care about in my feed reader already, so this is just redundant.)

The one thing I thought would be even mildly interesting – The Capitol Report – (where Jennifer sits down in a political pundit style video format with opposing viewpoint radio guy and erstwhile blogger Abdul Hakim Shabazz) just sets my teeth on edge the two times I’ve tried to watch it. Jennifer seems to be trying to remake her image from “witty political gadfly” into “sober political commentator” and the transition just doesn’t sit well with me – mainly because sober political commentators in Indiana are a boring dime a dozen, but witty political gadflies are a rare and desirable creature.

And it’s no secret that I can’t stand Abdul. Given his dubious past running the libelous and in one case criminal Indy Undercover blog (he compromised an arson investigation and endangered the life a police informant by posting her name on the blog) I have trouble with the idea of lending him a sheen of respectability that he just doesn’t merit.

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