Indianapolis is My Home

06
Jun

Divers and Dragons Event on Indy Cultural Trail

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Art, Competitions, Downtown, Indiananpolis Cultural Trail, Sports, Things To Do in Indy

A morning of fun for your entire family Cultural Trail Ribbon Cutting Ceremony,

Kids Fun Run, & Walking Tours

9:00 a.m. @ Alabama & Market Streets

Join Mayor Greg Ballard, Central Indiana Community Foundation President Brian Payne and other dignitaries for the official opening of the Alabama Street Corridor of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail:

A Legacy of Gene & Marilyn Glick. 

Following the Cultural Trail Opening Ceremony, there will be a one-block fun run for children and walking tours for all ages of the finished trail from Market St. to North St.

Divers & Dragons near the Indianapolis Cultural Trail

10:00 a.m. @ Alabama & North Street

On the English Foundation Building parking lot

Cap-off the morning enjoying a very unique, FREE, Olympic Diving Trials community event:

• Elite divers will “jump, twist & tuck” on trampolines demonstrating diving skills
• Indiana Association of Chinese American dancers will perform a Lion Dance
• Children will “climb, bounce and slide” through two inflatable obstacle courses
• Participate in painting a giant “paint-by-numbers” type Dragon Mural

28
Jan

The Souls of Our Feet at Pike Performance Arts Center

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Art, Concerts, Cultural Events, High Schools, Northwest Side, Pike PAC, Theater, Things To Do in Indy

On Saturday, January 19th it was a frigid day to be outside, but it was also a good night to be at the Pike Performing Arts Center with my daughter. You see, we went on a Daddy Daughter Date to go see "The Souls of Our Feet: A Celebration of American Tap Dance".

My daughter has taken some dance classes, including tap, to introduce her to the art and she got exposed to the true art of dance that night.

"The Souls of Our Feet" is part of a National Endowment for the Arts "American Masterpiece: Dance" production for the 2007-2008 season. The dance group is Tapestry Dance Company (Jaqueline Coleman, Katelyn Harris, Jason Janas, Brenna Kuhn, Tasha Lawson, Tony Merriwether and Matt Shields), Executive-Artistic Director is Acia Gray and special guest was Dianne Walker who was a cast member of the great tap movie entitled "TAP" with Gregory Hines.

The production was great. They would start off with a video projection of a specific scene from history that highlighted the roots of tap dance in performance. Then the jazz trio would start playing the music and the video scene would fade as the live dancers stepped into the light and began doing the routine that was introduced in the video segment. The transition and fading from recorded audio and projected video to live sound and dancers was a tremendous expression.

I found a YouTube video of clips of various segments from the performance as it was done in an opening performance back in November. The clips are almost identical to what we got to see live at Pike PAC.

What a great show.

See the video after the jump

Read the rest of this entry »

26
Nov

A Little Caricature Error

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Art, Conseco Fieldhouse, Indiana Pacers, Local Artists

One of the things my son and I were able to do at the Pacer’s game this weekend at Conseco Fieldhouse was get our caricature drawn. It was really cool because it was free. I’m not sure if they’re always free or not, but afterwards I noticed one reason it could have been free. I might have to get someone a prize for the first person to comment on why it could have been free.

I’m not sure if the artist, Josh Smart, would ever find this post, but if he does I’d like to tell him “Thank You” again.

Josh did a good job of capturing the essence of how we look. Luckily my son recently got a haircut. He  looks pretty darn close to that image. I guess the picture of me looks pretty good as well, for some reason though I think my face looks like Paul Giamatti.

Speaking of local artists, do you know anyone that would like some exposure? If so, just send me their name and contact information. If they already have a website that’s even better.

14
Aug

All-Indy Pass

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Art, Business, Childrens Museum, Colleges, Concerts, Dining, General, Indiana Fever, Indiana Pacers, Indianapolis Indians, Indianapolis Zoo, Special Events, State Fair, Theater, Things To Do in Indy

My wife and I have been wondering lately why Indianapolis doesn’t have a citywide pass that would get you into a variety of attractions for a single, annual fee.

We’re members of the Indianapolis Zoo, The Indianapolis Children’s Museum already and would be interested in buying a membership to NCAA Hall of Champions, Indiana State Museum, Connor Prairie, Eagle Creek Park, etc.

There are loads of different events that happen across the city on a regular basis, it seems like an Indy City Pass would be a great idea for somebody to implement. You could even incorporate restaurant discounts, free parking and similar items.

Even thinking about it a little bit more, it would be great to be able to choose one game to attend for each sports team: Pacers, Colts, Indians, Fever, Ice and maybe even local college sporting events.

11
Jul

It’s a Mobile Day Today

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Art, Coffee Shops, Local Artists, People

Today was an interesting day for me. I was like a little geeky, nomad wandering the Indianapolis byways looking for a free wi-fi to get some work done.

Actually I wasn’t looking, I ventured out to a couple of my favorite places and connected right up and got down to business.

First I started off at Strange Brew coffee shop (their MySpace page) on the far south side of Greenwood. It’s located in a little strip of commercial stores on Smith Valley Road, just east of Morgantown Road. This has become one of my favorite places to hang-out when I need to get some work done, but don’t want to drive into the office. I come here when I can’t focus at home and get stuff done. My drink of choice is the Large Vanilla Almond Chai, which is absolutely delicious and I highly recommend.

It of course helps my opinion of the place since they have a very large aquarium that I can listen to bubbling while I work. One of the other things I love is that they showcase different artist’s work on a rotating basis. Right now they’ve got pictures from a photographer named Travis Taylor I believe. He’s done some really great stuff with photographs and matting with writing over the mat and sometimes even the photograph itself.

Around lunchtime I headed a little ways east on Smith Valley road and landed at Qdoba Mexican Grill. They also offer free wi-fi, but more importantly a Naked Queso Chicken Burrito with fiery habanero salsa. Their China Mist Jasmine tea is one of my favorite drinks among all restaurant chains as well.

Where are some of your favorite places in the city to go for some free wi-fi, amazing atmospher and all-around laid back couple of hours?

11
Jul

A Great Downtown Indy Photo

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Art, General

A friend recently forwarded me this photo. It was being used by some organization they’re a part of but I can’t remember who he said was using it, if he even did.

Anyway, I thought it was a great photo showing the downtown area overlooking the Circle Center Arts Garden.

Have you taken some great photos of the Indianapolis area? Do you have photos of any special events? I’d love to see them!

If you’ve got them posted on your site, just let me know and I’ll take a look and give you a link back.

If you’d like for me to post them on this site and give you full credit, just e-mail me at bnpositive@gmail.com

I look forward to having 1,000’s of words flying at me via e-mail soon!