Ann Still Dancing Downtown

 

 
Ann Dancing by artist Julian Opie in front of Old Point Tavern on Mass. Ave. The art installation is part of the permanent public art collection in the city.

MoFoCo and Founders "Beer Share" This Wednesday

Grand Rapids, Michigan microbrewery Founders Brewing Company, well known for its handcrafted ales and lagers, is partnering with popular Broad Ripple eatery Monon Food Company for a special one day “Beer Share.”

The Founders Day Beer Share takes place this Wednesday, October 13^th  at 7pm, and offers food and beer aficionados the opportunity to sample 5 different Founders micro brews and a specially-prepared menu of food "nibbles" and desert all for one special tastings price of $25.
  

 

Explaining the subtleties of each brew will be John Host, Regional sales representative for Founders Brewing Co., who’ll introduce attendees to Founders’ Centennial IPA, Red’s Rye P.A., Dirty Bastard, Porter and Breakfast Stout.  MoFoCo chefs have married each beer with ‘nibbles’ designed to highlight the unique quality of each micro brew. On the menu will be: apple walnut lettuce wraps; smoked salmon with fava bean puree and sun-dried tomato tapenade; coffee-seared beef with porter-hazelnut cream sauce and portabella mushrooms; and for desert a chocolate stout brownie with raspberries and crème Anglais.

We the People Demand Justice

Around 50 people, many of them on motorcycles, gathered this afternoon at 56th Street and Brendon Way South Drive demanding justice for the family of Eric Wells. Wells was killed when he and the group of motorcyclists he was with including Mary Wells and Kurt Weekly -- were struck by a speeding police car while waiting at a traffic light. Behind the wheel of the squad car, a drunken police officer, whose blood alcohol far exceeded legal limits, plowed into the group.  The accident killed Eric Wells and seriously injured the other two riders, but because of sloppy police work by his fellow officers, the responsible drunken cop was not charged with being under the influence.

Public outrage has barely simmered down in the two months since the accident, and the family and supporters pledge to keep the heat and public attention on full blast to ensure that justice is done. 

Today they did that with prayers, their gathered presence and banners that read "Remember Eric Wells, killed by a drunk driver August 6, 2010" -- the word driver had been crossed out and replaced with COP" and "We the people demand justice for the Victims." 

The somber roadside crowd stood gathered around a small shrine, prepared a sunset candle vigil and waved to the approving honks of passing cars.

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Tonic Ball #9: All You Need Is Love

Indy music and art fans lined the four corners at the intersection of Virginia and Woodlawn in Fountain Square last Friday, necks craning northward, following the sounds of "Get Back", which blasted from the rooftop of the Murphy Art Center.  A faux British bobby, in full regalia, paced through the collected crowd, while fans waved placards emboldened with the Fab Four's philosophic proclamation: "The love you make is equal to the love you take."

Performing under the "You Are Beautiful" sign was Beatles cover band, #9, an ensemble of local musicians  featuring Matt Mays, Scott Woolgar, Brian Deer, Bill Mallers and Andy Teipen, who formed especially for the event.

The street theater was all part of a guerrilla marketing effort announcing this year's Tonic Ball, at which local bands will perform their favorite Beatles' songs to help fight hunger in Indianapolis. The rooftop concert, an obvious nod to the notorious scene from Let it Be, was the brainchild of Ken Honeywell, creative director at Well Done Marketing and founder of Tonic Ball, an event that over the past nine years has become one of Indy's most popular nights of music and art -- benefiting one of the city's best charitable causes, Second Helpings.

"We started Tonic because we wanted to do something that would start to cross-pollinate the local music scene and give back to the community -- and hunger was the most important issue we could think of." Honeywell told Indy Social Media. "We took the idea to Second Helpings, they loved it, and here we are -- year nine."

Every year the city's best musicians and artists donate their time and work to the community kitchen which converts surplus food from local restaurants and groceries into nutritious meals for thousands of hungry children and adults every day.

"Hunger isn't going away," Honeywell noted. "Sadly, the need for Second Helpings' services continues to grow.  Second Helpings still does amazing work: feeding our hungriest neighbors and training underprivileged people for jobs in food service, all with food that was going to be thrown away."

Over the past decade, Tonic Ball has grown dramatically -- with some 40 local bands expected to take their turns on the stages of the Fountain Square Theater and popular nightclub Radio Radio on November 19th.

"Every year, the event becomes becomes more popular. More bands want to play, more artists want to donate, more people show up to be part of it all. We always want to make sure the show lives up to the hype," Honeywell said. "It always has. It's the one show of the year that, were I not involved, I'd still tell everyone they had to see."

 

Weekend Wiener: Sausagefest 2010

Local bands, beer and brats. Who could want anything more than that on a beautiful summer weekend in Indianapolis? How about a little gambling and a chance to dunk your favorite priest? The sixth annual St. Thomas Aquinas Sausagefest 2010 was that and more.

A wiener of a weekend! Indy's own Sun King Brewery provided the excellent beer, and a host of local bands (including Indy Social fave The Reacharounds -- Scott Sanders, Keith Carey, Ben Wah Salami with special guest guitarist John Byrne sitting in for master axeman Scott Ballantine -- pictured above) provided the goove. Parishioner volunteers and donations made the event possible, with all proceeds going towards maintenance and repair of the parish.

Pig in a Port

 
Anyone who has ever had an Indiana tenderloin knows that Hoosiers are hog-wild about their pork. This year, that love has been taken to a new level. Officials declared 2010 the "Year of the Pig" at the Indiana State Fair,  and to celebrate all things swine, a pig statue -- painted in the colors of the Hoosier Flag -- has been erected center stage at the Indianapolis International Airport.

Indy Lets It's Geek Flag Fly at Gen Con

 

Calling all nerds. They came from near and far to let their geek flags fly: video gamers, fantasy freaks, card-playing kids and adults alike. Some came in costumes, outfitted as their favorite characters, others in kilts or covered in blood. They came for the promise of "the best four days in gaming" to the Indiana Convention Center this week to play Magic the Gathering, World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons, Spoil or hundreds of other entertainments that made up Gen Con Indy.

Thousands of roleplayers filled the auditorium and corridors of the convention center, and spilled out into the halls and across the skywalks to the connected hotels. There were large rooms where attendees set up their games on long tables. There were official tournaments, draft games and pickup games alike. Not just fun and games. When not playing, Gen Conners gathered in an adjoining hall where a huge trade show took place. A full fledged bazaar where new wares were showcased, and festively-clad merchants and advents engaged in the the buying and selling of cards and dice, books, art and all things for the gamer enthusiast.