Bees are pollinators, you know. We aim to feed your mind, or at least give it something to chew on, through commentary serious and sly, and reportage from and about our hive in Bloomington, Indiana. — Mike Leonard
Four years after his last live gig, longtime Bloomington resident opens a mammoth new tour at the IU Auditorium Mellencamp shows no signs of slowing down at age 71. Courtesy Photo. In the four years since John Mellencamp took on concert tours across the U.S. and beyond, his fans got more than a little nostalgic…
Longtime Bloomington musician returns to B-town for a show of original music with local icon Tom Roznowski Nell Levin chuckles about her lifelong musical journey from her birthplace in San Francisco to befriending some guy no one had heard of in Greenwich Village named Bob Dylan, to churning out progressive bluegrass from Bloomington, Indiana, in…
She won’t be born until 2336, but the Star Trek star, actress Kate Mulgrew, will come to her character’s future Bloomington birthplace to celebrate Janeway, the first female captain in the fascinating Star Trek universe. Sometimes I want to stop by the Capt. Janeway bust and information display on the B-Line Trail when I see…
The sixth Bloomington Blues & Boogie Woogie Piano Festival weathered the pandemic and may showcase the best celebration yet. WHEN pianist Craig Brenner launched the first Bloomington Boogies Festival in 2015, many music aficionados weren’t sure what to expect but even the term, boogie woogie, suggested high energy entertainment and a good time. In its…
Bloomington native Christy Heitger-Ewing helps others when she writes about the difficult subject of suicide in your own family It is a grief that never goes away, and often only becomes bearable when it gets pushed into that locked closet in our brains, where people put things they feel they’ll never understand, never reconcile and…
It could be the success of small market teams, or Lindsay Lohan, or Crest toothpaste, or jobs for IU graduates. So the phone pings and like the Pavlovian dog I’ve become, I drool, grope for the phone, and see a message from Heavy Ed. “How ‘bout them Bengals.” I write back. “WTF you aren’t a…
Heavy Ed takes stock of Hoosier pols I noticed Heavy Ed sitting on a bench and apparently reading something on his phone as I rode my bike down the B-Line through Switchyard Park. I pulled up and stopped. “Nice park, huh?” I asked. “Yeah, it is,” Ed said, putting the phone down. “Everybody bitches about…
A well-respected environmental activist calls BS on a Forest Service plan to “restore” (read: log) a place it calls Buffalo Springs, a made-up name for a place locals call home. By Andy Mahler There is something that doesn’t sit right about the Forest Service’s plan to punch logging roads into the heart of the hardwood…
When they say it’s not about the money, it’s about the money By James Alexander Thom A note from the editor: Some background on “The Endangered Forest”: The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture is moving forward with a massive plan to “improve” the Hoosier National Forest near Bloomington through means including logging, prescribed fires, applying herbicides…
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