Hope you’ve mastered your camera phone—the celebs are already starting to pop into town for Super Bowl-related activities. Comedian, actor, and official Super Bowl ambassador Mike Epps returned home to Indy to film a Super Bowl commercial, and tonight, four-time Super Bowl champ Terry Bradshaw speaks at the Indiana Chamber of Commerce awards dinner at the JW Marriott.
Photos courtesy of Carl Van Rooy
Is there a Super Bowl volunteer on your holiday-shopping list? Consider a fanny pack—the committee is recommending that volunteers wear one because they won’t have a place to store a purse or a bag while they are working. And believe it or not, the much-maligned accessory favored by mallwalkers and men who don’t know better has made a comeback on runways lately. So look for this, not this.
Life imitates art today on the Circle, where around 280 black-clad student-stylists from the south side’s Paul Mitchell school are embracing anyone within arm’s length. Even those with split ends. The mass squeezing is a national Paul Mitchell campaign in its third year, and a late shift will run from 7 to 9 p.m. Air kisses optional.
Get your Chicago Dog and tots while you can. This Friday is King David Dogs’ last day before moving exactly one block north, where the hot dog eatery will triple its seating. The hiatus will last a week or so. Owner Brent Joseph hopes to be back open at 135 N. Pennsylvania Street by the first of October. And then, the world is his hot dog bun. Regarding King David’s future plans, Joseph says, “A northside location is definit
And another message, for the Colts defense: Mind the gap. Your turn! Caption the photo in the Comments field. (Poster by Art Press, a local screenprinter, spotted in the window of the WIBC studio on the Circle. Art Press donated a limited number of posters to People for Urban Progress, and we hear that the nonprofit organization will make them avai
Gusty conditions have delayed the return of “Victory” to the top of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument for the last three days (including today), creating what optimists might call a “wind-win” situation as passersby have scored some extra face time with the iconic statue for the first time since she was created 118 years ago.
Have you heard about Indy’s connection to Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure Island? How about the reason the eye of Monument Circle was once called the “mud doughnut?” No? Then clear a couple of hours on your schedule some Friday or Saturday and join the free walking tour offered by Indiana Landmarks, the largest statewide historic-preservation group in the country.
Nothing gets Mayor Greg Ballard’s attention like a cycling event. Toward the end of the lunch hour today, Ballard stopped by the Circle to chat with Indiana police officers promoting a 1,000-mile fundraising ride that starts on Monday. The ride, Cops Cycling for Indiana, lasts 13 days and circumnavigates the state. Proceeds benefit the Indiana chapter of Concerns for Police Survivors, a support system for survivors of officers killed in the line of duty.
Amid national news last week that federal funding for bike trails is in danger of coming to a screeching halt, Indianapolis announced progress in the other direction. The Indy Bike Hub YMCA, including the city’s first commuter facility for bikers, is on track to open in August.
Go figure. Just when Indy was getting some flash-mob momentum (both the IMA and Butler dance students, pictured, busted hot moves on the Monument’s steps last year), the city’s best stage for these impromptu performances went dark for the whole season. With the Monument closed for repairs, the exhibitionists have been going elsewhere to spring song-and-dance numbers on the masses. In case you missed it, an unidentified group performed “Do-Re-Mi” in Circle Centre on January 3; members of the Dead Unicorn Society stood still for a freeze mob in the airport on April 2; the Indianapolis Opera made dramatic use of the City Market mezzanine on May 4; and the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir powered through “Carmina Burana” at the airport on May 28.
Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times ran a love letter glowing travel article about Indianapolis that featured one blush-worthy compliment after another as it built toward the writer’s final gush: “Plenty to do, too much to eat, too much to see. Really, does any destination require more?”
You might be a Hoosier if you know the location of a secret backroad persimmon tree that supplies you with free, foraged fruit for baking. Charlotte and Kent Waltz of Persimmon Pleasures in Bedford are most definitely Hoosiers. They’re so Hoosier, in fact, Charlotte’s cousin is said to have discovered a variety of persimmon on his Southern Indiana farm some 50 years ago. He used it to win the 1957 Mitchell Persimmon Festival (which still exists) and subsequently named it the Morris-Burton persimmon. That’s what you’ll taste inside one of Charlotte’s persimmon-chocolate-chip cookies newly available at Conner Prairie (13400 Allisonville Rd., Fishers, 776-6000). The persimmon pulp that gives the treat its chewiness carries the Indiana Artisan seal of approval.
