Sunday. January 7, 8pm at the Well Well Well, 909 W. Ninth Street
Mayor Daley (Chicago)
for fans of Deerhoof, DNA, and dresses made out of Aldi bags
Brett Gand is Dead (Chicago)
plays are the new band
Bitter Homes and Gardens (Bloomington)
ex-Piedmonster and punkin pie
fucked up punk, circling the drain
plus more TBA
please bring donations for the touring bands
PEACE BABY
Jan 16th
Guilty Pleasures house
corner of 2nd and washington
Japanther
Jerk Alert
Pretty Hot
8pm
Here’s the menu:
Hors D’oeuvres
Salads
Entree
Desserts
Everything is vegan friendly.
Check out www.matrixmag.com for more info.
Boxcar Books, 310-A South Washington St. in Bloomington, is happy to announce an upcoming art exhibit at their location. On Friday, January 5th, 2007, from 5:00-7:00 p.m., Boxcar books will host a reception to kick off a month-long exhibit of featured paintings from artists of the Horizons Art Therapy Program at Center for Behavioral Health. Refreshments will be provided at the free event.
The exhibit originally debuted at the Buskirk Chumley Theatre on December 2nd to an appreciative crowd as part of the “Art of Mental Health,†and Boxcar Books is happy to provide space for patrons to enjoy it at length during the month of January.  Artists of these works use their art as a tool in treatment for coping, creativity, leisure, and building friendships.
For more information, contact Steven Slothard (steven [at] boxcarbooks [dot] org) or Boxcar Books at 812-339-8710.
Hoosiers for a Common Sense Health Plan will hold a public meeting beginning at 4pm. Formed in the Fall of 2005, HCHP’s goal is to develop and promote a bill in the Indiana State Legislature that will be introduced in January of 2007 that will promote Universal Healthcare. For more information, please visit www.hchp.info
One of the things that’s nice about living in a town as small as Bloomington is that the connection between different dynamics and forces is much more clear. Two development plans that will really affect Bloomington in coming years are Finelight’s proposal for a new headquarters downtown. Finelight is requesting that the city help provide parking for it’s employees, claiming that parking downtown is scarce. A local group conducted a study questioning perceptions of parking scarcity downtown and this study has become central in the debate around Finelight’s plans. I’ve also been paying attention to bike issues and the proposal for the B-Line bike path on the old railroad grade that runs north/south through Bloomington. Tonight on WFHB’s interchange, they had guests from Bloomington Transportation Options for People, the group that conducted the parking study as well as a transportation planner from Portland, Oregon.
Two new strategies or tools regarding shared use of roads that I had never heard of: “bicycle boulevards” and “sharrows”.
Link to WFHB’s programming archive where this episode of interchange should be available for download soon.
So I started reviewing CDs for the local community radio station, WFHB, after realizing that, being on tour so much, I couldn’t easily have a show. It’s a small thing, but hopefully it’s helpful. I’m going to start posting some of the reviews of things that I find to be pretty enjoyable.
Label: Art of the Underground
artist:Â Â Â Lemuria/Kind of Like Spitting
title:   Your Living Room’s All Over Me
file under:Â Â Â Power Pop, Pop-Punk, Indie Rock
grade:Â Â Â B
Review:
Lemuria is a newer band that plays power-pop or pop-punk in a way that sounds like a less aggressive version of Discount, with catchy hooks, male/female vocals, and personal lyrics that, at times, border on the melodramatic. Kind of Like Spitting features members of Death Cab for Cutie and The Thermals. The songs are less polished than the former but more musically ambling than the latter. Their sound reminds me a bit of The Dismemberment Plan if they had made more lo-fi recordings with less dynamic songs but with more present lead guitar parts.
comments / tracks of interest:
Tracks 1-7 are by Lemuria, 8-12 by Kind of Like Spitting
3 – “Bugbear†– a driving, bitter track about severed relationships
7 – “Sophmore†– a poppy reproach that will remind the listener of their college days
10 – “You I Seek†– Faster and more straightforward than the other KOLS tracks, it sounds as good as anything ever released by The Thermals.
FCC: 1, 5, 6, 11
Link to sample track Hours by Lemuria
Link to sample track You I Seek by KOLS
Agencies say proposed NAP changes will harm four local agencies
H-T Report
December 26, 2006A group of Bloomington agencies say proposed changes to the Neighborhood Assistance Program will significantly harm four local agencies:
In a letter sent to Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman, state Sen. Vi Simpson, state Rep. Peggy Welch and state Rep. Matt Pierce, 12 Bloomington community agencies say the changes will result in significant cuts to:
• Monroe County United Ministries, which would be forced to cut eight children from its nationally accredited, sliding fee-scale child-care program. This would result in the removal of 18 percent of the children, mostly from urbanized areas, who utilize the sliding fee option.
• The Bloomington Area Arts Council, which would need to reduce programming access for 2,500 economically disadvantaged youth and low-income senior residents of Monroe and surrounding counties. These youth would miss the positive link between youth arts exposure and higher SAT test scores, reduced dropout rates and decreased disciplinary problems at school.
• Middle Way House, which uses NAP resources to leverage the HUD funds that sustain The Rise, the transitional housing program that has been recognized as effective in assisting very poor, homeless women and children successfully reintegrate into the mainstream community in the aftermath of traumatic violence. A cut in fundraising potential would threaten the leveraged funding and, therefore, the program.
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Central Indiana, which will see a reduction in staff and volunteer time totaling 3,272 hours. This drastic decrease in service hours will primarily touch the amount of time spent assisting each child and supporting volunteers. More than 60 hours each week will be lost under this proposed change. About 15 children a week will lose the ability to work with a mentoring adult.
The Neighborhood Assistance Program is administered by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.
The letter also raises the following concerns:
• The ability of strong agencies to adequately serve the community will be artificially limited by the proposed guidelines.
• The new rules may work against the state’s interest in ensuring that NAP resources are used in the most effective manner.
• The period to comment on the proposed rules does not allow thorough analysis of the impact of these significant program changes.
The letter asks that implementation of the guidelines be delayed for one year.
“We believe the ability of strong agencies to adequately serve our community will be artificially limited by the proposed guidelines,†the letter states. “In Monroe County, four agencies were authorized to sell the maximum of $50,000 during 2006. We feel confident that all will reach that goal.â€
The letter says during 2007, those agencies will not again be eligible for $50,000. Under the proposed thresholds, the expected cuts will have significant negative effects on the Bloomington community.
The agencies signing the letter are Rhino’s Youth Center, Middle Way House, Martha’s House, Community Kitchen of Monroe County, Bloomington Area Arts Council, Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, Hoosier Hills Food Bank, People and Animal Learning Services, Shalom Community Center, United Way of Monroe County, Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Central Indiana, Monroe County United Ministries and WonderLab .
Browsing through boing boing at work, I found a link to a page and a book detailing inventions that people created out of necessity in prison. The project is described:
This project was a collaboration with Angelo, an incarcerated artist. He illustrated many incredible inventions made by prisoners to fill needs that the restrictive environment of the prison tries to supress. The inventions cover everything from homemade sex dolls, condoms, salt and peper shakers to chess sets. We collaborated on this project with Angelo for over two years. We had many additional collaborators who made a book, exhibition of re-created inventions and a prison cell possible. This page offers an overview of the project thus far.
Angelo, the incarcerated collaborator on this project says:
“When first approached with the idea of illustrating examples of inmate inventiveness, I was skeptical, thinking that there would be little of real interest to depict. When I set my mind to the task, though, I recognized the surprising range of inventions and innovations that I had witnessed. I had just become so used to it all that the uniqueness no longer registered.”