Movie theater photos by Bruce Wicks

150 exterior photos, mostly small-town Illinois and Indiana. Some great marquees in this bunch.

Living in a metro area where a mere handful of theaters built before 1960 remains, it amazes me how many of these oldtimers are still left

Previous Movie Stuff:

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Hey, it worked for “climate science”

PolitiFact^® Florida:

[The] ...methodology and objectiveness [of the Reason Foundation’s analysis of Florida’s proposed high-speed rail project] are suspect.  Consider:

• The author of the study, Wendell Cox, is a known rail skeptic, and Robert Poole, a Reason Foundation director whose name was on the report, served on Scott’s transition team for transportation issues.

Because skeptics can’t do honest research?

And should the same thinking apply to journalists?


Related:

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None dare call it...

Four quotes:

Karl Rove:

You don’t accuse the chairman of the Federal Reserve of being a traitor to his country, of being guilty of treason.  And, suggesting that we treat him pretty ugly in Texas.  You know, that is not, again, a presidential statement.

If Rick Perry were to be elected president, he’d be saddled with Ben Bernanke who has a term. ...The president couldn’t even ask him to resign.  So, this is, I hope this is not the first of sort of over- the-top statements.

Rob Blackwell, American Banker:

I’m not sure what’s worse—that Perry made the comment, or that the crowd around him actually applauded when he said it.  There should have been audible gasps, not clapping.  It speaks volumes of the popularity of the Fed, or lack thereof, that many do not realize the central bank is at least trying to help.

Glenn Reynolds:

None of this is going to hurt Perry. In fact — do I really have to spell this out to our lame punditry?  I guess so — they’ve played right into Perry’s hands.  First, he’s building a narrative that consumer inflation, currently accelerating, is the fault of reckless Obama spending and the Bernanke money-printing that supported it...  Second, when former Bush people attack him for dissing Wall Street and the Fed, it’s helping him put distance between himself and Bush...  And watch him attack Obama for being too close to Wall Street and the Fed before this is all over.

The New York Post:

Perry’s words fall heavily upon the ears.

On substance, however, Gov. Perry was quite right.  For whatever purpose -- policy or politics -- simply printing money in large amounts is a recipe for catastrophe...

Indeed, the substance of Perry’s message was so unremarkable as to go largely uncriticized.

As to the efficacy of his words -- well, he’s been in public life for some time now, and the governor of the nation’s second-most-populous state for over a decade.

So he’s entitled to his views, and to the rhetoric of his choice.

We suspect ordinary Americans -- worried sick about inflation and the economy -- will be far more forgiving of Perry than the pundits.

Elsewhere:
Related:
Credits:

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Remember: Come 2012 we can vote out *Republicans*, too...

And I can think of a few who’d be better in retirement...

Chris Hodapp:

In July, 10-year-old Lydia Coenen and her 9-year-old sister Vivian set up a lemonade stand near their Appleton, Wisconsin home, to sell lemonade to people heading to a car show.  A police officer informed them their stand was prohibited by a new Appleton city ordinance that bars unlicensed vendors from selling food and drinks within a two-block radius of a special event.

It sounds so crazy that it could only happen in a Monty Python routine, yet at least four other similar episodes happened across the U.S. in July alone, in Georgia, Maryland, Texas and Iowa.  In Maryland, the children’s parents were threatened with a $500 fine.  Is that what we want here in Indianapolis?  It’s clearly what City County Councilman Angel Rivera [R-at large] wants with his Proposal 188...

The proposal prohibits private ticket sales within a one mile radius of any event involving 500 or more people at Lucas Oil Stadium, Conseco Fieldhouse, Victory Field, Hinkle Fieldhouse, Murat Theatre, the Indianapolis Convention Center, the Indiana State Fairgrounds, and White River State Park, unless one of the parties involved in the sale has a license. So if you are stuck with an extra ticket to a game or show, now you will need a license to sell it outside the venue.

But the biggest wave of draconian new regulations involve "special events.” Events as innocuous as a neighborhood block party now will fall under the scrutiny of the city requiring new permits and fees. More troubling are the establishment of so-called "clean zones” that require new licenses to sell merchandise, food, souvenirs, et cetera, whether you are on city property or your own private property, during certain events.

Revenue grab, or some "protection” for Rivera’s campaign contributors?  Doesn’t matter.  Out!

Indianapolis Star:

The state is letting the NFL use the government center's two parking garages and one surface lot when Indianapolis hosts the Super Bowl on Feb. 5.  Fans who park in them will be paying an undetermined fee, with the money going to the NFL.

Connie Smith, spokeswoman for the state Department of Administration, said it's the first time the state has not kept the fees collected when the public uses the state garages for special events...

...because the National Football League needs the money SO much more than our cash-strapped state.  Right.

And then there’s always Mitch Daniels’ appointee Supreme Court Justice Steven David.  You remember him, the guy who repealed the Fourth Amendment in Indiana?

Three reasons that remind me why I call myself a conservative, not a Republican.  One scratched ballot, coming up.


Previously:

Credits:  Hodapp via Nathan, Star via Advance Indiana.

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Next Indy Blog•Meet: Sunday, August 28

(Arrangements by Tam, art by Roberta.)
Better arrive early, looks like there’ll be a large attendance!

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The Department *LEAPS* into action!

Advance Indiana:

A separate story by WRTV indicates that the Department of Labor will investigate why the employer of stagehand Nathan Byrd, who was one of the five victims of Saturday's night's tragedy, failed to report his occupation-related death within 8 hours as required by state law.

Somebody dies, and we get bureaucrats bitching about paperwork. I see another agency ripe for defunding.

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Clipfile - August 16, 2011

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First rule of TV news: NEVER forget the logo!

Even if it covers up the action:

or the subject:

or the heroes:

and especially when it comes up to the interviewee’s chin:

Posted by: Old Grouch in The Press at 16:23:23 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Ill Wind

Don’t have a lot to say coverage-wise about Saturday night’s wind-induced stage rigging collapse at the Indiana State Fair.  I was home watching the radar as the storm moved through, and wound up following the coverage (of which more anon) until the 1:30am press conference.  Gary Welsh has three videos up (and a follow up post), and Roberta has some thoughts here.  Would note (as Roberta does) that the collapse involved only the stage’s roof and rigging (the stage itself is a concrete podium), not that it makes any difference to those killed and injured.  Would also note with gratitude (and a bit of amazement) the hundreds of audience members who rushed forward to help rescue those trapped beneath the wreckage.

Meanwhile, brace yourselves for endless post-mortems (and litigation), along with the usual number of uninformed comments.  The classic so far: "Structures don't come crashing down in storms, absent negligence.” O RLY?  I wonder what folks in Joplin, Missouri (or, more relevantly, Ottawa) would say about that.

Since there’s no chance that I’ll be asked to do an engineering evaluation of what happened, I’m free to engage in my own uninformed speculation:  From my viewing of the videos, I would say the 60-mph wind gust was trapped under the stage’s roof, which lifted the entire structure.  The lifting appears to have caused the vertical trusses on the audience-left side to separate, and once that happened, the whole thing could only go over.

Elsewhere:

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Send some good kitty thoughts, please...

(Thanks, Tam)

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