"King Lear" and More at Butler This Week

Actors From The London Stage are in residence at Butler University this week. In addition to leading acting workshops for Butler theatre majors, the group will also lead classes for a wide variety of courses across campus.

And, as a bonus, five actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre will play all the roles in an inventively-staged full version of King Lear at 7:30 p.m. in the Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall tomorrow (21 October) and Thursday (22 October). Running time is approximately 2 hours 45 minutes with 1 intermission. Tickets, available at the door, are $20.

Anyone for Peterson for Mayor?

"If you're like me, you supported Greg Ballard's election in 2007, in part, because he opposed higher taxes. He opposed the 65% increase in the local option income tax, and he promised to fight for the repeal of property taxes. After he got elected, he made the income tax increase permanent, even after the State picked up Indianapolis' huge public safety pension liability as part of a 1% increase in the state sales tax, he supported the $27 million a year tax increase and borrowing plan to bail out the Capital Improvement Board, he has pushed double-digit rate increases for water and sewer, he wants to raise parking fees, and he's raised a host of other fees. To add insult to injury, Ballard is pushing adoption of the Wishard referendum but is chiming in with the proponents in falsely claiming that it proposes no property tax increase. He also promised to end the big public give-aways that personified the Peterson administration. That didn't stop him from pledging more than $20 million of your tax dollars to help political contributor Tadd Miller develop his retail/housing project downtown. Had enough Indy?"

From Gary Welsh's Advance Indiana blog. This Indianapolis Observer thinks he's on a roll!

Why Should We Give Sports Teams Any More Money?

Gary Welsh hits the nail on the head in his blog:

"I'll be damned if we give more subsidies to these billionaire sports team owners when we can't even fund our city parks and repair our crumbling infrastructure. Enough is enough."

This Indianapolis Observer agrees. Why are we subsidizing sports team owners in the first place? If there aren't enough fans to fork over the dough "needed" by the Pacers or the Colts, let 'em go to a city where there are enough fans. Good riddance.

Big Changes at Indiana State Museum

According to the Indianapolis Business Journal, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is planning to merge the Indiana State Museum, 12 historic sites and state library under one new agency, according to sources close to the museum. The new agency would be run by an appointee of the governor."

Contract with IBM Kaput

Governor Mitch Daniels said today the state has terminated its contract with IBM for the delivery of welfare services. The contract was canceled because the company did not make satisfactory progress to improve services to welfare applicants and recipients under a plan to correct deficiencies.

There's more here.

Heartland Film Festival Opens Thursday

Among the 87 films that will screen at the 18th annual Heartland Film Festival are nine films with ties to Indiana, including a few native Hoosier filmmakers as well as some transplants. These Official Selection films will screen Saturday (17 October) through 24 October at AMC Castleton Square 14 (6020 East 82nd Street) and AMC Greenwood Park 14 (461 South Greenwood Park Drive).

For more information, check the website.

The nine films with ties to Indiana that will screen during the Heartland Film Festival are feature-lengths: D Tour, Spooner and My Name is Jerry, and shorts: The Best Part of My Day, Chicken Cowboy, Free Wall, Grande Drip, Ragman and Weathered.

Sure: It's All About Politics, Again

You'd think that the City-County Council would want to CONSERVE money in this recession-influence budget cycle, but, no. They want to spend close to $300K on absolute political maneuvering.

As Advance Indiana notes:

"I, along with many of my friends in the Republican Party, strongly object to what the council Republicans are trying to do here. The law clearly mandates that redistricting must occur the second year after the decennial census data becomes available. The Republicans are convinced they will lose control of the council in 2011 under the current map. This must be largely based on their belief they cannot win the four at-large council races, which tend to follow the outcome of the mayor's race. In other words, they don't believe Greg Ballard has a snowball's chance in hell of being re-elected. Assuming a redistricting occurs next year, an argument could be made that Indiana law would require a second redistricting to occur in 2012."
This Indianapolis Observer says: Contact your C-C councillor and tell 'em you object to this stupid waste of money!