There’ve been only a couple brief, mild mentions of Senator Obama. Other than that, everything else was directed at squarely the Bush administration and eight years of disastrous policies and unequaled incompetence.

“it took a Clinton to clean things up after the first Bush, and it’ll take a Clinton to clean up after the second Bush.”

…”I don’t mean to pick on dick cheney, but….” (laughter , applause)

“I worked hard to bring about universal health care and I wasn’t successful, but one thing about me I never give up.”

And this was big applause line in this large public high school: “and I will end the unfunded mandate known as ‘no child left behind’” whoa, red meat!

The audience seems to be for the most part middle-aged or beyond. And rather, um, homogeneous — something Colleen noticed since it’s in marked contrast to the demographics of the school district. Lots of union representation, with signs and shirts and all.

Good music selection while waiting, though — lots of upbeat, getting-things-done, bringing-about-change kinda songs. Springsteen, U2, Dixie Chicks, Sheryl Crow, oh, and Mellencamp too, of course

We don’t expect to be converted, but since it’s at the high school in Colleen’s school district and since it’s not often a presidential candidate comes to Indianapolis, Colleen, Christopher and I decided to come see Hillary speak at the Ben Davis High School gym this morning.

Huge line of people outside waiting to get in. And now, with an hour to go before it starts, the gym is completely full.

All the volunteers helping out are teachers, so of course Colleen is stopping to talk with someone she knows every two minutes or so.

(don’t tell anyone, but I’ve got my Obama tshirt on under my jacket)

More later.

(Photo taken with, and posted from, my Treo — let’s see you do that on an iPhone!)

After I moved back to the States from Germany in 1986, one of the first experiences I had in my new adopted hometown of Indianapolis was attending a speech made by Kurt Vonnegut at North Central High School.

At the time, I simply couldn’t believe that I was in the same room (albeit a very large one) as one of the greats of American literature. I knew he was from Indianapolis originally, but I hadn’t known that although he lived in New York, he still maintained close ties with the Indianapolis community and often visited for public and private events.

To learn of this ongoing tie between a world-famous author and his midwestern hometown was actually quite a bit reassuring to someone who was still a bit dubious about what kind of a city Indianapolis would be like to live in (after coming here from the likes of Heidelberg and Ann Arbor).

Colleen also encountered Vonnegut in Indianapolis, though in a much closer and more personal way — and even managed to speak a few words of German with him.

She happened by chance to run into him in July 2004 at the Indianapolis Art Center as she was picking Melinda up after her painting class at the Center. Vonnegut was chatting (and smoking of course) with a few members of the art center staff outside the building just before the premiere of an art exhibit featuring works by various members of the Vonnegut family. Colleen joined the group outside, shook Vonnegut’s hand, exchanged some small talk about speaking German, and (of course) took some pictures before excitedly going back inside to fetch Melinda from her class.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was to have spoken here in two weeks as part of the events surrounding Indianapolis’s "Year of Vonnegut." He will be missed.

Overall, it was a good parade, with — as usual — all the drivers in the race, a few B- or C-grade TV celebrities, a lot of marching bands, and floats and balloons.

Here’s a video that’s kind of a melange of photos and a few short movie clips:

(Wasn’t Danica Patrick sweet? When her car had to wait for the parade to get going again, she just gamely signed autographs for anyone who came up to her car, for as long as they were stopped.)

Only he wasn’t wearing gym shorts and a white towel over his shoulders… but he was looking directly at me. I quickly looked back down at my email and replied to Colleen out the corner of my mouth, “yep, um, that’s Ron Artest.”

Ordinarily, Colleen wouldn’t recognize the name of any Pacer other than Reggie Miller (who she happened to meet once when he spoke at Cathedral and came into her classroom afterwards), but this name she knew. We were in Chicago with Katharina last November when we turned on the TV in the motel and saw the first news report of a brawl in Detroit that we then found — to our horror and embarassment — involved Indiana Pacers.

The big man sitting across from us at the airport seemed fairly even-tempered — just tired like the rest of us from waiting for too long for the delayed flight. And whenever someone gingerly came up to him to ask for an autograph, he not too unwillingly took the headphones out of his ears, spoke a few words with the fan, and signed whatever they put in front of him.

Nonetheless, I didn’t have enough nerve to break out of my cool, world-wise demeanor to go up to him and do the same. I did, however, have the presence of mind to be very, very careful with my Coke when I walked by him to throw something away in the trash.

Tags: Ron Artest, Pacers

One of the highlights of the summer for Colleen undoubtedly was one day running into Kurt Vonnegut (if not exactly one of Indiana’s most favorite sons then certainly one of its most famous) at the Indianapolis Art Center.

Colleen was picking Melinda up after her painting class at the Center, and Vonnegut was chatting (and smoking) with a few members of the art center staff outside the building just before the premiere of an art exhibit featuring works by various members of the Vonnegut family. 

Colleen joined the group outside, shook Vonnegut’s hand, exchanged some small talk about speaking German, and (of course) took some pictures before excitedly going back inside to fetch Melinda from her class.

Tags: Kurt Vonnegut, Indianapolis Art Center, German Americans