Arts & Culture

Hoosier basketball fans and broadcasters from Bloomington’s Assembly Hall to New York and San Diego were up in arms in the best way.

Day Job: Off-highway product planner for Cummins Inc., developing the global plans for the engine products that will be used by Cummins Power Generation

Let’s see if we understand this correctly. Indianapolis has the Super Bowl. And the Super Bowl, as much as football, means beer commercials.

Dec. 10, 2011: Indiana’s Christian Watford hits a game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer to beat No. 1 Kentucky. This sealed IU’s first victory over a No. 1-ranked team since besting Duke in the 2002 NCAA Tournament.

First, in defense of Madonna as halftime show performer, the erstwhile Material Girl has just that—oodles of material—to work with. And yet she has been passed off as a “karaoke singer” (et tu, Gene Simmons?) and an over-the-hill, washed-up pop diva. Smacks of ageism, if you ask me. (And you didn’t.)

To spread the love of the big game to those who can’t quite make it to Lucas Oil Stadium, the Super Bowl Host Committee announced 20 Super Celebration sites around central Indiana to offer family-friendly entertainment and up the excitement for the main event.

The funnyman shills for Old Milwaukee beer on a Terre Haute railroad track. Why not?

So you’ve been kicking yourself for not signing up to volunteer at the Super Bowl. Now you have another chance to express yourself: Super Bowl Productions and our local Stage Crew Committee are enlisting volunteers—reportedly 500 of them. McKenze Rogers, marketing and communications coordinator for the Host Committee, verified that the recruitment is legit. The Halftime Show rig has to be set up in eight minutes, which is one of the main things the star is fretting about. The rehearsal schedule is demanding, but if you can’t hack a few dry runs, you probably shouldn’t be working around Madonna.

Name: Pierre Garcon

Officially, the Sudler Trophy is the top honor that college marching bands can earn. But any band geek would trade the Sudler for the gig that the IU Marching Hundred just landed: playing the Super Bowl.

Amid all the Monday-morning quarterbacking today, the web rehashed the NFL’s confirmation (via this commercial) that Madonna will headline this year’s Super Bowl halftime show—the most-watched musical event of the year—accompanied by Cirque du Soleil and a very good choreographer that no football fan has heard of. 

Green Bay versus Pittsburgh, again—according to Super Bowl Host Committee Chairman Mark Miles, that’s the matchup Naptowners should root for now that the Colts are well out of the picture.

This month, Steele Johnson, a phenom-in-the-making from Carmel, will take on some of the country’s best divers at the USA Diving Winter National Championships in Knoxville, Tennessee. Even though Johnson, 15, will compete against Olympians, his coach, John Wingfield, expects him to medal in the individual and synchronized 10-meter platform events. (Wingfield should know: He coached the 2008 U.S. Olympic team.)

Age: 55  Gig: Director and CEO of the Indianapolis Museum of Art  Good showing: Under his leadership, the IMA organized the U.S. Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale, opened a sculpture park, acquired the Miller House, and added a formidable Design Arts collection

A: Shoveling one’s walk is barely even a “courtesy thing” these days, judging from the number of people in The Hoosierist’s own neighborhood who never lay a gloved finger on the drifts in their front yards. But if you think the law doesn’t care, you’re wrong. “Businesses and homeowners are responsible for clearing sidewalks of snow and ice to allow for safe pedestrian travel,” says Kate Johnson at Indy’s lively Department of Code Enforcement.