Indy Cultural Tidbits: The Just Before New Years Edition

For those folks who complain there is NOTHING to do in Indy I present you the following.

International Arts & Crafts Exhibition at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. I took my mom to it yesterday. She likes to get out of the house, but won't go anywhere by herself. $14 to get into the exhibit itself, but it also covers the rest of the museum. You can get a free audio guide. I liked most of the informative commentary, but a few of the items were far too long as if Peter Jackson decided to produce the commentary. It was interesting to see the differences in the style as it went from a handbuilt craft in England to a mechanized creation in American and Germany to an odd fusion of Eastern/Western styles in Japan.

Personally the stained glass pieces and several writing desks were the most interesting to me. A full sized c.1905 living room looks very comfy. One wall had Frank Lloyd Wright pieces and designs demonstrating his brilliance. IMA is only one of two American cities getting this exhibition so unless you want to fly to San Francisco see it here.

Thursdays are a free general admission day in case you want to see the rest of the museum, but not the exhibition. Why would you want to do that? $7 get you into the exhibition today. Oh you also get a free key chain and if you save the ticket stubs you can get free admission for a future visit. Heck they're almost paying you to visit the exhibition. Oh, no cameras allowed. Bummer.

Lord Of The Rings Exhibition at the Indiana State Museum until Jan. 3, 2006. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm told it is fantastic. Props and costumes are all over this exhibit. Models of the characters are incredibly realistic. If you liked the movies you'll like the exhibit. It also gets into the technology of modern movie making so some should find the exhibit interesting from that perspective.

Downside it ends Jan. 3 so let's go see it now. NOW!

Indianapolis Auto Show in the Convention Center. $6 to see over 400 cars. It was nice. I'll post about it soon hopefully. A few interesting concept cars, but you can see such real world juggernauts as the Ford GT, Chevy Corvette, Dodge Viper, two Bentleys that are roped off to prevent commoners like me from drooling on them, Chrysler 300 SRT8 (I want to hear 6.1 liters of Hemi V8 rumble with 425 horsepower please), Jaguars, BMW, Mercedes, Lexus,....oh I am drooling now sorry.

If you're thinking about purchasing a new car in the next year the Auto Show has them all in one spot. You can't take them for a test drive naturally, but you can get in and out of them to see if you like the roominess, materials, and functionality.

Sometimes you do get locked in the back seat due to child safety locks. That happens to me at least once every year at the show. Just ask a passing 6 year old to pull on the outside handle to let you out.