Summer on the tube

Since “The Sopranos” staged its final hit, “Desperate Housewives” became, well, desperate, and “American Idol” lost some of its water-cooler luster, I’m hearing fewer people outside of the media talk about television shows. (Except for…

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Crow kicks off Lawn season

I’ll admit that I never quite got a handle on Sheryl Crow. As catchy as some of her songs are, her hits always seemed all about the chorus. No harm there—just nothing that made me want to go out…

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The man who improved improv

Half my lifetime ago, I journeyed across the country from East Coast to West and found myself on my own for a few days in Los Angeles. Looking for some cheap entertainment, I picked up a $6 ticket to see…

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IBJ Movie Night: Get Smart

Want to join IBJ for a screening of the new comedy “Get Smart,” starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway?

It’s happening June 17 at AMC College Park

For a pair of tickets, just take both of the following steps:

1. Post a comment…

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You-review-it Monday

I wish I had more to report from the weekend, but I was under the weather and didn’t get to take advantage of Indy’s offerings.

If nothing else, I had hoped to get out to The Jazz Kitchen for Sunday night’s…

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Bigger names at Indiana casinos

It seems like Indiana’s casinos are starting to step up when it comes to consistent summer showroom entertainment. Now it’s just a matter of figuring out how to…

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Concerts: the great outdoors?

This week, Sheryl Crow launches the season for the Lawn at White River State Park and Eric Clapton plays Verizon Wireless Music Center.

It seems an appropriate time for you to offer what you see as the pros and cons of…

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On Sydney Pollack

The sad thing—well, one of the sad things—about the death of filmmaker Sydney Pollack yesterday is the nagging feeling that there should be more to be excited about on his directing resume.

Pollack, a native of Lafayette who grew up…

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500 winners: Florence, Jim and us.

I’d like to add one brief A&E thought to all of this weekend’s Indy 500 coverage: Two of the reasons why it’s still possible to love the race–even if you aren’t an open-wheel racing fan–are Jim Nabors and Florence Henderson.

That…

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Greatest plays of all time?

A few days ago in this blog, I mentioned Daniel S. Burt’s book “The Drama 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Plays of All Time.”

While we can all agree that such a list is highly subjective, we can probably…

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‘Rent’ at a theater near you

Yes, “Rent” — the movie — already played movie theaters (and didn’t do particularly well). But now it looks like it’s getting another shot. Not a second run of the film, though. This will be a from-the-stage performance of the hit…

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In you face: 3-D on the way

1500 movie screens across the country will be upgraded to 3-D. So announced Regal Entertainment Group on Tuesday.

What was once a gimmick, now looks to be the standard for  future moviegoing. This summer’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth”…

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Beyond ‘Dancing with the Stars’

So TV’s “Dancing with the Stars” has another winner.

Hooray.

I caught some of the finals last night without having seen the rest of the series. And having been to Dance Kaleidoscope’s season ending performance Sunday, I’m curious as to whether the huge…

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Arts and depression

Two books I’m in the midst of reading combine to raise questions about the future of art and audiences.

The first, “Against Happiness,” posits that our society’s increased emphasis on smoothing over the rough edges of life (through pharmaceuticals and…

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You-review-it Monday

For me, the weekend included a local premier at Theatre on the Square, a popular revival at Beef & Boards and a mix of old and new with Dance Kaleidoscope. Plus a stroll through the Broad Ripple…

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Let the art fair season begin

This weekend marks the unofficial launch of the summer art fair season, with the Broad Ripple Art Fair sure to attract mobs to the Indianapolis Art Center grounds (weather cooperating, of course). 

I’m a fan of BRAF and its end-of-summer-IMA-bookend,…

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Art auction record shattered

Last night at Sotheby’s auction house in New York, a 1976 angst-infused triptych by Francis Bacon sold for $86.3 million. Apparently that’s the highest price ever paid at auction for a piece of contemporary art.

My instinct was to ask…

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Robert Rauschenberg R.I.P.

Few artists in history have changed the rules the way Robert Rauschenberg, who died Monday at age 82, did.

By incorporating found objects (a pillow, a stuffed goat…) into his paintings, Rauschenberg challenged contemporary art and artists to connect their work…

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