Indianapolis is My Home

17
Aug

Indianapolis Air Show Next Weekend

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Cultural Events, East Side, Outdoor Recreation, Special Events, Things To Do in Indy

A couple of year’s ago I went to the Indianapolis Air Show at Mt. Comfort airport a couple of years ago with my family and we had an absolutely great time! The kids loved it, it was a beautiful day and it was just an all-around great experience.

Last year we missed it, but there’s a great story even missing the event. We were at my son’s youth football game and at half-time, it just so happened that the Blue Angels flew right over our football field on their way to the Mt. Comfort airport. Not sure about you, but don’t know how many other youth football organizations get a fly-over (and they were low!) from the Blue Angels.

Getting back to the event though, they’ve got another great sounding line-up in store for us this year with the following acts scheduled to appear:

• U.S. Air Force Heritage Flight
• U.S. Navy Legacy Flight
• U.S. Navy F/A-18C Hornet East Coast Demonstration Team
• U.S. Army Golden Knights Parachute Team
• U.S. Air Force Combat Command F-22A Demonstration Team
• Gene Soucy
• John Klatt
• Aldridge Airshows
• Greg Koontz
• and more

There’s also loads of planes and other air vehicles on the tarmac that you can see up-close and even sometimes take tours through and sit in. Another great memory for me and my kids were the pyrotechnic and explosion displays on the airfield. Just too much fun!

Here’s the deal though, I want to help promote this great event in the city and I’ve gotten contacted by the organizers and promoters to help do that. I want to hear about your experience at the Indianapolis Air Show. For the first 20 bloggers that write-up a post (or have already written a post) on their blog and link back to this site, I’ll get you a free pass to the event.

Just write-up a post, link back to this post and e-mail me if you have any questions. First 20 bloggers win!

Once I get notification of the posts, I’ll update this one with direct links back to your post as well.

Here are the current winners:

1. Indianapolis Air Show - BeingSavvy Indianapolis
2. Thank God for model airplanes… - Jennyese, My Language on Life
3. 2008 Indianapolis Air Show (Free Tickets) - Carry On Citizens by Jeff Stanger

We’d love to hear your comments about the show afterward so come back and let us know what you thought.

16
Aug

Lucas Oil Stadium Tour

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Downtown, Indianapolis Colts, Lucas Oil Stadium, Real Estate, Sports

I was one of the few (me and another 9,999) people that were able to score some tickets for the inaugural public tour of the Grand Opening of the new Lucas Oil Stadium here in Indianapolis.

The stadium and functionality of it are very impressive. The crowd control for the event wasn’t very impressive. If there really were only 10,000 people allowed into each tour, their ability to move people into the stadium quickly left something to be desired.

The tour was basically self-guided, you couldn’t go anywhere you wanted, but you basically just wondered around at your own pace and could linger where you wanted. The problem was that you only had two hours. We arrived at the stadium right at 10am when we were supposed to and didn’t make it into the front doors until after 10:30am. We walked around a bit and eventually decided to work our way down to the field itself.  Once you make it down to the field you can’t come back up into the street level concourses, so you’re on your way out at that point. You’re then faced with the decision of just going straight-out the back loading dock ramp or divert to walk past the locker room.

When we started in the line for the locker room, it was 11:10am, we walked out of the stadium, done with our tour, at 12pm. Didn’t get to go "into" the locker room, just walk by it and take a quick picture.

You can see all my photos in my slideshow below.

14
Aug

Scaffolding Accident at M & I Building Downtown

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Downtown, News, Real Estate, WRTV - TV Channel 6

The big news downtown today was about three workers that fell from scaffolding on the M & I building downtown. You can read about the event on the IndyChannel website.

The workers were on scaffolding on the south side of the M&I Bank building at Ohio at Pennsylvania streets when the scaffolding malfunctioned, sending them plummeting to between the 12th and 14th floors of the 28-story building, Indianapolis fire Capt. Gregg Harris said.

The power of digital cameras and the Internet allows us to see photos up-close and personal that you won’t be seeing on the news.

Check-out the photos Stephen James has shared on his flickr account that were taken by Joe Black. Stephen works on the 7th floor of the building, the accident occurred on the 12th floor.

14
Aug

Tommy Davidson at Morty’s Comedy Club Tonight

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Celebrities, Comedy, Humor, North Side, Things To Do in Indy

Who can forget this scrawny little comedian that made some of the funniest moments in television and movies? My favorite is probably his African warrior character from Ace Venture 2: When Nature Calls.

Now you can catch him live and in person at Morty’s Comedy Club tonight through Sunday night. Get all the details here at Morty’s Comedy Club website.

09
Aug

Pan American Plaza by Polina Osherov

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Downtown, Indianapolis Colts, Indianapolis History, Local Artists, Lucas Oil Stadium, RCA Dome, Real Estate

Polina Osherov is a local photographer here in Indianapolis and she recently shared this photo with me that she took of the Pan American Plaza area downtown. I just thought this was a great photo showing some of the history of sports in this city.

From the Pan Am Plaza that was built for the Pan American Games that the city hosted in 1987.

You can see the RCA Dome, home of the Super Bowl Champion Indianapolis Colts that was built in 1984 at a cost of $82 million.

Then in the background to the south you’ve got the soon to be opened Lucas Oil Stadium, the new home of the Indianapolis Colts and the home of the 2012 Super Bowl!

05
Aug

How Not to Promote the Indy Air Show by Zack Legend

Author: Jason Bean, Category: East Side, Outdoor Recreation, Special Events, Things To Do in Indy

Here’s a great video promoting the Indy Air Show, or maybe not promoting. Depends on your viewpoint and what you’re looking for out of Zack Legend the Indy Air Show.

I’ve been to this show and it’s a great event for the family, just put it on my calendar for this year so hopefully we can be sure and go again. I’d advise getting there early for the best seats. The show takes place August 22-24th this year out at Mt. Comfort Airport just east of Indianapolis.

Visit the Indy Air Show website for all the details on this year’s event.

02
Aug

Indianapolis Teen on USA Olympic Gymnastics Team

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Carmel, Charities, Local Residents, Sports, Students

Did you know we have an Olympic Gymnast in our town? Bridget Sloan is from Carmel and she will be representing the United States in Beijing, China along with the other members of the USA Gymnastics Team.

Now the question is how would you feel if it were your daughter that was representing the United States in the Olympics, in China, and you couldn’t afford to take yourself over there? That’s the challenge that faces Bridget’s parents and you can help. You can visit Bridget’s home gym website and donate money to their efforts to send her parents to China.

You can get more information about how you can support their efforts as a family or if you’re a business and would like to help you can get that information as well.

Visit their website at www.sharpsboosters.org

01
Aug

Brightpoint Moves HQ and Returns Home

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Business, Local Businesses, Northwest Side, Real Estate

It was almost 20 years ago that Brightpoint started their existence on the Northwest side of Indianapolis. They announce today that they’ll be moving their headquarters back to the Indy and not very far from where they started.

Brightpoint will be moving HQ from Plainfield and into the new building being finished by Interactive Intelligence.

The company, which has about 65 headquarters employees and about 1,000 workers in Indiana, plans to share a new building with software developer Interactive Intelligence Inc. and engineering firm Woolpert Inc. along Interstate 465 north of West 71st Street. The space will allow the company to implement an expansion that calls for up to 60 new headquarters employees in the next seven years.

It’s always good to hear about a company moving to make room for expansion, but I’m sure the loss will be felt by Plainfield as well.

Source: Brightpoint to move HQ to Indy on IBJ

29
Jul

Lead Foots Beware – Smokey’s Got a Brand New Car

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Areas, Government, Indianapolis Star, Traffic & Transportation

The Indiana State Police are the proud owners of 18 new, unmarked, 2008 Mustang GT’s to patrol Indiana highways. One car has been assigned to each of the Indiana State Police posts, but they also hunt together in “wolf packs” to catch speeders. It seems to be working.

The officers of the 18-car Mustang Unit wrote more than 4,600 speeding citations in June. That averages to about seven tickets per day, per car.

I passed two of these cars last week on the southwest side of I-465. A red one and a blue had pulled over a red pickup truck. My standpoint still remains the same. I’m regularly pushing the speed limit by 5-10mph but I also accept the fact that if I get pulled over I’m speeding.

The topic of law enforcement and speeding has been a popular one on this site. Anyone think it’s unfair for the police to use these types of unmarked cars? In the IndyStar story they mentioned one speeder going 127mph in his Corvette on SR37. That’s along my route to home and work so getting that guy in the pocket book sounds good to me.

29
Jul

Neil Diamond Turns On His Heartlight Tonight

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Concerts, Conseco Fieldhouse, Downtown

As a child I used to grab rummage through my parent’s album collections and listen to all my favorites as I’d play in my room or out in the living. Usually I was playing with Legos or building a card house, but many times the album I’d be listening to would be one of Neil Diamond’s.

I didn’t realize how prolific of an artist he really was until he was the guest on American Idol this past season. This guy has really produced some hits for himself and others and has been doing it a long time.

You can have the opportunity to see the legend perform tonight at Conseco Fieldhouse downtown Indianapolis.

You can get more information about the event from Eventful.com. If you’re already going, let me know what you think about the concert afterwards. Grabbing some fan photos would be great too! If you post them on your site or on flickr, just let us know.