Red Baraat Link: http://www.redbaraat.com/
Listen to selections of Chaal Baby here: http://redbaraat.bandcamp.com/album/chaal-baby

Previous Lotus Fest Posts:
Artist Spotlight: http://www.zaptownmag.com/2010/09/nationbea
A Look at the 2010 Lotus Festival: http://www.zaptownmag.com/2010/09/lotus-world-music-art-arts-festival-september-16-19
Pop in Chaal Baby and you will turn any foul mood into something of exuberance. From the first notes, there is so much energy and excitement that pours through their music, you find yourself wanting to start a street party of your own.

About three years back, I was in Washington DC for the American Library Association Annual Meeting. It was a Friday night and DuPont Circle was hopping. As I ascended the “Stairway To Heaven” from the Metro Stop, I was greeted with a roundabout of horn wailings, people dancing and an army of brass, ripping up some serious jams. All you could do was stop and be intrigued. The more you watched, the more you tapped your foot. The more you tapped your foot, the more you moved your hips. By the time you did that, you were sucked in. This was music by the people, for the people. In the end and into the deep of the night, I finally pulled myself away.

And that is where Red Baraat comes in. Chaal Baby is an album that integrates into your consciousness as you become as much a part of the album as the album is to you. If the “Punjabi Wedding Song” sounds like this, then I think the states wedding custom has a lot to learn when it comes to celebration. The unity of the title track is inspiring as “Dum Maro Dum” makes you wonder who is more sonic, them or Mucca Pazza.

Combining North Indian rhythm Bhangra with brass funk, there is no limits to this band. Consider Chaal Baby to be a snapshot as to what this band can accomplish. Sunny Jain leads a group of eight where saxes collide with a sousaphone, trombones challenge trumpets and the percussion keeps it all together. I only wish that this band was around during my marching band days so I could lobby just who is doing it right.

And speaking of marching bands, Red Baraat has been chosen to be the entertainment during this years festival parade, beginning Saturday, 8:15 p.m. Whether you plan on seeing them on stage or on the streets, you better plan to move because I’m afraid there is no other choice when it comes to Red Baraat.

Red Baarat at Lincoln Center:

When you step into Nathan Monk’s garage, you get the feeling like you are standing in the middle of a constant state of chaos. Either that or you are looking into someone’s mind and experiencing a salvage yard of ideas and possibilities.

Nathan Monk shows off and explains some of the uses for things in his garage studio (Photo by Kim Brown).

Scrap wood lies piled up. Plastic bins and cardboard boxes speckle the floor. A makeshift plexiglass bin is filled with packing peanuts. Old frames look like accent pieces.

When you step into Monk’s studio, the stockpile of things is nothing out of the ordinary for a typical aged garage that isn’t solely used to store a vehicle.

But then you look closer, and you notice the stickers. On the wall you get a glimpse of an octopus-like creature spray painted on the wall with tentacles dripping down. You see pictures glued here and there, there is a collection of paint brushes and spray paint cans, surrounded by paint and colors of various kinds. It’s like turning on the special features portion of a movie and getting a glimpse into all the extra elements that go into his artwork and you can feel the creative process at work.

One of the cabinets in his studio (Photo by Kim Brown).

“It’s kind of amazing to go from being out in your studio making art to having people out in your studio asking about your art,” he said.

You see, the piles of clutter and materials that would be thrown away by many is seen as potential by Monk. His specialty as an artist lies in mixed media and found objects. Sometimes his canvas is a piece of wood or a closet door. Sometimes it is an object he stumbled upon at a thrift shop like 8-track tapes, for example, that went into a piece now on display at Indy Hostel. Titled “ I Like My Music Well Done,” the piece had Monk make two 8-track tapes look like toast coming out of a toaster that is plugged into a speaker.

"I Like My Music Well Done," Variable Size, 2009 (8 Track Tapes, Spraypaint, Shellac, Paper, Toaster, Wood Shelf, Speaker) (Photo courtesy of Nathan Monk).

“When I find these objects, I look at how they fit together and how they look on the wall. That’s where my short attention span comes in to use. I have to constantly work with different things. I don’t want to stay in one form.”

What appears on the surface as an eco-friendly way of recycling materials, it did not start out that way.

“When I first started doing this, it wasn’t that I wanted to be environmentally conscious and green. We lived in an old house in Danville. My mother collects antiques and plates. Dad is a pack rat. I would tease him about the state of his garage, but now I’ve taken up that trait. I like to make use of things. Working with found objects is challenging. When working with a wide amount of material it takes effort to make your work recognizable.”

Nathan Monk surrounded by potential (Photo by Kim Brown)

But now, using things like reclaimed wood or packing supplies is a common practice for his frugal way of thinking. Peer into his kitchen and you see a paper-making kit set up with paper in various stages of production.

“I have all of these old books that I cut out the pictures. What do I do with these old books? I’m trying to be less wasteful these days.”

Different factors go into the construction of a piece. Depending on what material you use for a canvas, you will get different effects along with textures. For Monk, it has been a simple procedure of trial and error. And much of what he creates, he creates simply for what it is. There is no plan or mapped out procedure. For him if a piece works, it works. If it does not, he moves on.

"Blame It On The Compact Disc," 12 x 6.5, 2009 (Cassette Tapes, Cassette Tape Holder, Wood, Glue, Spraypaint, Shellac)(Photo courtesy of Nathan Monk).

“For my collage work, I use wood glue, a lot of wood glue. I am really messy with it, too, because of its texture to the paper. I use shellac for style. I can either use a thin coat and it warms up the painting, or I can really cake it on and it turns completely brown.”

The result is something that sometimes looks as if it came from another planet while others look as if it was expelled from an alternate reality, but every one of his works is an extension of himself. Monk’s pieces can reflect a certain degree of urbanization coming from a fondness for the city and the buildings towering over him, when he would drive into the city and see the Indianapolis skyline from the west. Others deal with a fixation and desire to draw certain elements like his quest for the perfect circle or fascination with tentacles, going back to the octopus on the garage wall, which is a creature that Monk calls a Molaropus. In consists of a molar tooth with tentacles coming out of the roots, designed based on a phobia of losing or breaking his teeth.

The Molaropus creature that Monk painted on the wall in his studio (Photo by Kim Brown).

“I started drawing tentacles at school. We had to draw plants and I took the root of the plant and made them look like tentacles. The usage of squids and octopi tentacles are really big in the design world. You find out that what you do that is original catches on and you have to move on. I was going to stop doing the tentacles, but I realized that I was putting my own spin on it.”

It was the same with bubble wrap. While working for Michaels, he became fascinated with bubble wrap that evolved into using it as a dripping, honeycomb effect.

“One day I was watching HG TV and one of the home makeover shows used bubble wrap as a wall accentuation. A part of me died thinking that what I was doing was one of a kind and original. So now I just focus on coming up with new things and new ways of using those things.”

All of this stemmed from his experience in school, attending the Herron School of Art and Design for several years before dropping out of school and taking a hiatus from art when he found out his wife was pregnant with his son, Jonathan. While he was in school, he was not really concentrating on what he had to do, but realizing what he didn’t want to do.

Monk started out as a photography major and was immediately drawn to taking photos of the mundane: old door knobs, rusty items, things that people would walk by without noticing.

His Michael’s co-worker convinced him to change his major from photography to sculpture. But once he dug deeper into his major, the more he realized the aspects that did not please him, and thus began what he calls his downward spiral at Herron.

“I didn’t take things seriously. My friend and I would get in trouble because we would laugh at everything. There are so many artists out there that their work is not so aesthetically pleasing, so they have to justify it with some kind of deep concepts of the world and that to them justifies the ugly out.”

So what did Monk do? He decided that if you cannot be good in the true definition of an artist, then be different. In art school, there is a lot to be expected of you when all Monk wanted to do was simply paint and create.

"Monophonic Sound Destruction," 23.5 x 29.5, 2009 (Spraypaint, Shellac, Acrylic, Paper, Glue, Cassette Tapes, Carbon Fiber on Cardboard (Framed)) (Photo courtesy of Nathan Monk).

That perspective paid off. Just in the past year, it landed him a slot in 2009’s Oranje event, a showing at the Be Indypendent event at the Arts Garden, the Indy Hostel exhibit and a variety of other events around the city.

Not only that, but his paintings are actually moving as more and more people are showing interest in his work. It’s helped him go from working in what he described as a life-sucking warehouse job to working with this guy who does interior renovation with, you guessed it, recycled material and reclaimed wood.

"33 And A Third City," 22 x 19.5 x 4, 2009 (Wood, Acrylic, Fiberglass, Carbon Fiber, Spraypaint, Shellac, Glue, Record Player Cover)(Photo courtesy of Nathan Monk).

And even though Monk grows increasingly busy doing the very thing that he loves, and he transitions from painting to painting, his garage will continue to maintain that flux of chaos.

“I went back and thought, why do I use these materials,” he said. “It caters to myself as a person and my personality. You can see someone’s artwork and learn what kind of person they are like a gateway into their soul. You look at my paintings and see me.”

As part of the Broad Ripple Music Festival – Beta Male performed last Saturday at Birdy’s in front of a very enthusiastic crowd. This particular show was brought to us by The Midwest Emerging Artists.

Beta Male
http://www.myspace.com/betamale

Check out an interview Zaptown did with Beta Male prior to the festival below:

Band Spotlight: Beta Male

Is it cliche to begin something with “it was a dark and stormy night?” Probably, but for the Lotus Festival, it was raining — HARD! Kirkwood became a river and water streamed in and around the tents strategically placed around downtown Bloomington. This may have made it difficult to get from tent to tent and fully experience everything that was Lotus, but it did not deter the masses from coming out and celebrating the best in traditional and contemporary world music.

With the weather, we focused on one tent for the night and three bands.

Rupa & The April Fishes started out the evening with their agit-pop blend of French postmodern chansons, latin interpretation and celebratory explosions. They stayed close to their latest release Extroadinary Rendition along with a sampling of their upcoming release esta mundo. You can sample a new track from the upcoming album here: http://rupaandtheaprilfishes.bandcamp.com/track/free-download-culpa-de-la-luna

By the end of Rupa’s set, the crowd completely filled up the tent. Once Los De Abajo took the stage, people grabbed up what little space that was left to dance to the merengue, ska, and mariachi sounds that sometimes blurred the lines of punk rock and spontaneous chaos. The performance was energetic, powerful, and loud, really loud. Overall Los De Abajos sent out a powerful message to today’s world culture and proved that the youth were still getting restless.

And if that was not enough to exhaust you, then Bajofondo did it with their blend of acoustic tango and electronic music. This Rioplatense band consisting of members from Argentina and Uruguay brought so much energy to Bloomington that people kept piling in to catch a glimpse of the band’s sexy hip shaking sound.

Collaborating with the finest in contemporary musicians from Elvis Costello to Nelly Furtado, Mardulce became a smash success around the world. And the band has not stopped being gracious for that success, stopping after nearly every song to give thanks to the people who were in turn giving respect to them. The band jumped around, while the crowd jumped even higher and before it was all over, the stage was a festival of its own as people climbed up to dance around with the band. Most spectators had no clue that at some point, the rain stopped and the moon draped a warming glow over the Lotus Fest.

Links:

Rupa & The April Fishes: http://www.myspace.com/aprilfishes
Los De Abajos: http://www.myspace.com/losdeabajoska
Bajofondo: http://www.myspace.com/bajofondomardulce

Rupa & The April Fishes

Los De Abajos

Bajofondo

This artist spotlight is part of a special ZapTown series in correlation with the 2009 Broad Ripple Music Fest: http://www.broadripplemusicfest.com/

Other BRMF interviews:
Heavy Hometown
Daniel Fahrner
Thunderhawk
Matt Mitchell Project
Deep Cricket Night
DJ Deanne

WHO: Stationary Odyssey
WHERE: Local’s Only, 1 p.m.; presented by Transpanther, Standard Recording, and Joyful Noise.
LINKS: http://www.stationaryodyssey.com/

SAMPLE MP3:

With a new release on the horizon  — Sons Of Boy (Joyful Noise) is due out November 10 — Stationary Odyssey returns with their glitched out intergalactic rock and roll. Indianapolis should not be shy to the band as their new effort is one of several releases in their career. Whether it’s angular math rock or power blasts of sonic intensity, this band always keeps things fresh and moving.

Stationary Odyssey is revving up their rocket ships and heading out on the road later this fall. For now, we can smell the jet fumes at the BRMF. Aaron Tanner and Brett Siler ride in the cockpit.

It’s been three years since “Head!” What took so long in between releases?

Aaron: Good question! I guess time does really start to get away from you the older you get. I mean, we all had a lot of personal stuff going on… played some shows here and there. I bought a house and fixed it up. Brett built a recording studio. Plus, once we decided to get moving on the album, it was literally one thing after another. Like it says in the press release, a lot of bad stuff happened to the both us. We’d go to record, something terrible would happen, we’d get discouraged and then take a few weeks (or more) off to refocus and then repeat the cycle.

Brett: Well, we put out a split EP with Child Bite in ’07, and “Sons of Boy” was supposed to be done in ’08. We had a lot of crazy stuff happen to us; some good and some bad. Aaron got a house, I built a studio, my house flooded, one of us got drugged and jumped, jailed twice, relatives in the hospital, women trouble. The list goes on. So, it didn’t get done until 2009.

What has changed for the band in that timeframe and what is the focus with “Sons Of Boy?”

Aaron: With “Sons of Boy,” we tried to make it sound more like our live show. In the past, we could really only pull off about half of the material from each album as a 3-piece. But now, I think there’s only one track off of the new album that isn’t doable. We’ve always referred to this one as the “rock album.”

Brett: Basically, I started writing more music we could play live. A lot of it was written with a 3-piece rock band in mind.

You have a pretty impressive tour lined up. What are you doing to gear up for that and what do you have planned this time around? According to the website, why two CD release shows (one in Indianapolis and one in Evansville)?

Aaron: We haven’t done a proper tour in a while and really felt that we should push this record hard. We’re doing one week in the Midwest, breaking for Thanksgiving, a week and a half on the East Coast, breaking for xmas and then touring the West Coast and parts of the South. The reason we opted for two CD release shows is because we felt that we should do one in our hometown and then another where Joyful Noise is based. Completely different cities and crowds, but we’re strongly tied to each.

Brett: To get ready for the tour, I’m just practicing a lot and trying to save up or sell things so I have money. Also trying to shrink my stomach so I will be used to going on little food.

The band has utilized a varied amount of talent within the recordings, as “Sons Of Boy” is no different? What is the philosophy behind that and how does that transform to how the band currently plays live?

Aaron: Stationary Odyssey started out as just a recording project with little desire to play live… much less tour. I just wanted to record songs with friends and then burn CD-Rs to give away. But then Shawn Knight from Boyarm asked to put out our first EP, Komondor. And ever since, I’ve taken it more seriously. The process went something like this: record/write the album with a number of people, find musicians willing to learn the material and then tour with it. It wasn’t until Brett Siler was added as a permanent recording and performing band member that the group has seemed more “band-like.”‘

Brett: On the new album, it was written to where it could be performed by a 3 piece… but there are some songs that friends added little bit of instrumentation to spice the song up a bit. However, what they added wasn’t enough to totally change the song. It would just be a keyboard part in section of a song or slide guitar or something. The main meat of the songs, though, are me, Aaron and our drummer (who is currently my brother, Scott Siler). Generally, in the past, we looked at the album and live as two different ways of approaching our songs. It’s still kinda like that, but the new songs translate a little easier.

How many times have you played the BRMF? What are your views for a festival like this and how it benefits a band like yours? What this means to the culture of the city as well as music community?

Aaron: This is the first time we’ve played the Broad Ripple Music Fest so we don’t really know what to expect. Regardless, I do think community-based festivals are extremely important to both the music goer and to the bands they’re seeing. Anything with a sense of community is… record labels, festivals, whatever.  Pairing yourself with likeminded individuals only strengthens your cause. Whatever that cause may be.

Brett: I only like the Fall Festival in Evansville, IN. You can get a meal called a chunky diaper.

This band spotlight is part of a special ZapTown series in correlation with the 2009 Broad Ripple Music Fest: http://www.broadripplemusicfest.com/

Other BRMF interviews:
Heavy Hometown
Daniel Fahrner
Thunderhawk
Matt Mitchell Project

WHO: Deep Cricket Night
WHERE: La Jolla’s Wasted Space, Indianapolis Songwriter’s Cafe
LINKS: http://www.myspace.com/deepcricketnight

Sample MP3:

Deep Cricket Night sounds like they belong more on the outskirts of a dust-filled country road, not Chicago. But the Windy City is where they maintain a balance of roots rock, Americana and folk intricacies. Listening to the band’s music gave me that same feeling when I first heard R.E.M.’s Murmer or Dead Letter Office.

Their back country songs will be sure to peak your fascination. If you dig the song sample above, then you can listen to the full release here: http://musicalfamilytree.com/band/deep_cricket_night. They visit the Broad Ripple Music Fest for the first time this year at La Jolla’s Wasted Space in part of the Indianapolis Songwriter’s Cafe. Lance Drake indulges in the bands current happenings, his influence of growing up in Indiana, and the excitement to be a part of the festival.

One thing that is great about your band is how you all fill out the space and create a thick, gorgeous sound. What can you say about your music and what people might want to get out of it?

The fun and really creative thing about Deep Cricket Night is that we are able to record & perform either stripped down w/ the more folk-alt country vibe (like we’ll be doing at Wasted Space) or amped up as a full band, a more indie rock sound if you will. From the beginning, we always wanted to make eclectic music and to be able to present that music to whatever the bill, room, or club calls for. I think it’s a somewhat rare quality that we posses to be able to do both sounds live.

You are currently recording or getting ready to record, how is that going and what can you tell us in regards to how things are shaping up versus past recordings and what the band’s plan is?

This fall and winter, I’m recording a soundtrack to a movie I’m shooting (all on a circuit bent PXL 2000 Fisher Price b/w camera) and a new DCN EP in my home studio, Ravenswood Loon. In spring 2010, we plan to record 3-4 songs at Engine Studios here in Chicago, hopefully with Brian Deck at the producer/ engineer helm. He and that studio is pretty much a sonic Mecca for all of us- a personal, creative goal we want to experience as a band.

What drew the musicians to focus on an American roots style and what the band has become over the years, especially in the Chicago scene?

I think the music has a certain indie twang to it that I personally credit to my experience growing up in Indiana and the amazing Bloomington music scene of the 90′s. Translating that into the Chicago scene has been both rewarding and challenging at times (ha). At the end of the day, you expel the voices and inspirations that reside in your head, come hell or high water.

Is this your first Broad Ripple Music Fest experience? What are your thoughts on a festival like this?

First time playing. We passed Indy and attended BRMF ’08 touring to Austin last October. In terms of music meeting charity and doing viable good for people & communities, I think it’s a fantastic, innovative festival to be a part of and we’re proud to play it.

Amazing Baby
http://theamazingbaby.com/

The Lotus World Music & Arts Festival returns to Bloomington, once again transforming Indiana into a creative, diverse, and multi-cultural destination for the world. In its 16th year, Lotus runs from September 24 through the 27th on and off the streets of downtown Bloomington (http://www.lotusfest.org/09LotusVenues.html).

Beyond the simple celebratory fun and festive nature of the event, everything that surrounds Lotus encompasses the philosophy behind the Foundation’s mission: to create opportunities to experience, celebrate, and explore the diversity of the world’s cultures, through music and the arts.

“Especially with all of the cultural tensions that exist in the world these days — tensions that we certainly see played out frequently in the U.S. — we hope that the Lotus World Music and Arts Festival encourages people to discover more about people and cultures different from their own,” said LuAnne Holladay, Assistant Director.

Not only is it a celebration of the world coming to Bloomington, it’s equally as much about Bloomington reaching out to the world.

“Because we have our festival in downtown Bloomington, Indiana, this international music experience is meshed with an experience of our particular town and local community, so it’s a nice fusion of local and global,” she continued.

The weekend will feature music from around the world including countries like Uganda, Argentina, Mexico, Iraq, Mongolia, China, Hungary, France, and many other regions.

The artist roster for this years festival is as follows (check with the website because performances and schedules are subject to change):

• Deborah Asante / Storytelling and jazz
• Rahim AlHaj / Virtuoso Iraqi oud
• Bajofondo / Electrotango from Argentina
• BLK JKS / Psychedelic, Afro-futuristic rock from South Africa
• Phyllis Chen /Virtuoso toy piano
• Cara Dillon / Irish traditional song
• Dragon Knights / Stilt walking street performance
• Gerard Edery & Maria Krupoves / Jewish and Christian songs
• EE: Magic Circus Marching Band
• Forro in the Dark / Northeastern Brazilian party music
• Hanggai /Folk music from Inner Mongolia & China
• The Horse Flies / Contemporary American folk
• Huun Huur-Tu & Carmen Rizzo / Electronica meets throat-singing from Tuva
• Jefferson Street Parade Band
• Kaia /World a cappella
• Kinobe & Soul Beat Africa / Ugandan song, dance, & drumming
• Srinivas Krishnan & Madras Broadcast / Indian fusion
• Little Cow / Ska/rock/funk/Gypsy fusion from Hungary
• Los de Abajo / Salsa, punk, and rock from Mexico
• Lotus Dickey Song Workshop / Old-Time song traditions
• *NEW!* The Megitza Quartet / Roma and East European world fusion
• *NEW!* Occidental Brothers Dance Band International / Central & West African dance music
  
• Orchestra of Tetouan / Traditional vocal & instrumental music of Andalusia & North Africa
• Parno Graszt / Hungarian Gypsy music
• Rupa and the April Fishes / Global agit-pop
  
• Saffire—The Uppity Blues Women / Acoustic blues
• Salaam / Middle Eastern & North African traditional music
• Stairwell Sisters / American Old-time
• That 1 Guy / 21st-century one-man band
• Väsen / Contemporary instrumental folk music from Sweden
• Vishtén / Acadian traditional music, song, and dance
• Watcha Clan/Global fusion from France
• The Zolfonoon Ensemble of Iran / Classical Persian

One of the highlights for Lotus this year will be the expanded parade finale on Saturday night that will create a climactic and interactive experience for the attendees. Holladay explains:

“This year we’ve got several bands involved, including EE: Magic Circus Marching Band (from Chicago), a small new parade band based in Bloomington (the Jefferson Street Parade Band), the IU Brazilian Percussion Ensemble, a couple of stiltwalker/puppetteers, and some special guests. It should be a blast.”

World music has always been an important extension to the culture and environment for not only the identity of the country it comes from but for the understanding of the world.  Be it a reaction, a representation, or extension to the essence of life, festivals like Lotus help focus and bring the traditional and non-traditional into the modern world. And as radio programs like KXCI’s “Global Rhythm Radio” in Tucson (or the once exceptional and now extinct WICR radio program “Around The World”) among a few other dedicated and knowledgeable programs around the country , do its best to preserve and bridge the gap, the Lotus Festival is a rare find and a tradition that is worth exposing generation after generation to the senses and lifeblood of world music.

For links to ticket and complete festival information, maps, schedules, and more, visit the Lotus Music Festival website at: http://www.lotusfest.org/index.html

But then in the Fall of 1960, the Indiana Theater opened up after its remodeling for the grand unveiling of their Cinerama screen.

Cinerama had been around since the early 1950s, screening mainly travelogues, much the way the current IMAX megaformat process has. The process involved three 35 mm projectors, each showing a separate, synchronized panel that made up a whole panorama. The Indiana, to generate some buzz, opened the facility to Cub Scout troops all over the state for a free screening.

I was the Beetle Bailey of Cub Scouts, languishing in Bobcat for the extent of my career, which didn’t stop me from being envious of little Petie (not his real name, but he seemed like a Petie, if you know what I mean) who joined the scouts and took advantage of his advanced age to get an automatic promotion to Wolf.

The concept of behavioral problems was still many decades in the future, but Petie’s late enlistment in the Scouts was one of his mother’s last, desperate attempts to get the poor kid on the straight and narrow, before he dropped off the emotional precipice that is adolescence. Petie had some problems with bullying, with stealing, disobedience, and any other trouble that an eleven year old kid living next to a cornfield could think of. I should have been more charitable, but when you’re nine, that’s hard to do.

So, Petie, Bobby, Alan, my brother and I piled into a car for the two-hour trip to downtown Indiana, all attired in our crisp, blue uniforms and strangely foppish yellow scarves and little CSA beanies. The trip was a hard one with small bladders and en route, we stopped for gas and candy.

In the chaos of young boys running back and forth in a small, understaffed gas station, Petie took the opportunity to fill his pockets with an assortment of candy items, which he was kind enough to share with us. I condemned the act, but helped eat it anyway. The station attendant, if he noticed, would tell his friends about how the Cub Scouts came in and ripped him off. Petie was admonished by our parental escorts, but we didn’t turn around. It was a long drive to downtown, and we had to hurry.

A full decade before the multiplexes began invading the suburbs, the downtown movie palaces—the Circle, Loew’s, the Indiana—had a magic about them that few theaters today can match. For one thing, they were freaking big; at its peak, with the balcony section intact, the Indiana seated 3000, and for this, the place was full of blue-suited Cubbies.

For a kid, it was like entering some kind of baroque Superdome, with the ornate tile ceilings and original sculptures. Being late, we ended up in the balcony, but that was okay. I’m trying to remember if Petie committed any other deviant acts that day; it certainly would have been tempting to drop stuff on the unsuspecting Scouts in the mezzanine…

And the screen, or screens. The biggest Cinerama screens wrapped around in 140 degrees; the biggest screen was in the Denver Cooper, which measured a whopping 105 by 35 feet! The Indiana’s screen was a more modest 67 X 25, and curved at a still impressive 120 degrees, which was plenty enough to fill the field of vision from any seat in the house. This first screening was of the original This is Cinerama feature, a series of brief pastiches strung together to fill up two hours. First up was a roller coaster ride; that stomach lurching demo was like something I had never seen, and really, haven’t since.

The process wasn’t perfect; at the juncture between the panels, there was an occasional blurring of the image, but otherwise, dazzling to the eyes and ears accustomed to small black and white TVs.

A few months later, buoyed by a rebounding economy, my father found work in the tool and die trade, and we moved back to the Big City suburbs. I lost track of Petie. Not everyone gets an automatic promotion to Bear; I hope that it was a life-changing development.

The theater went on to screen a small selection of high concept movies, such as How the West was Won, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World, and others. I only saw one more movie at the Indiana. But it was a good one….

NEXT: 2001: A Space Odyssey

The MUDKIDS had a CD release show last night for their newest album ‘MKEP’ at the The Vollrath Tavern in Indianapolis. Emily Wells opened up and was really impressive. Check out the photos below!

Emily Wells
http://www.myspace.com/emilywells

MUDKIDS

http://www.myspace.com/mudkids