Shooting Stars and Comet Tails

 

August 21, 2021

Shooting Stars and Comet Tails

The last few days that I spent in Indianapolis before flying home to Key West, I took some time to do a little exploring. Even though I spent the first half of my life there and visit often, at least once a year, there are still new things to discover. Places and things that I have never seen even though they were basically right in front of me. I suppose anyone could say that about a place they have lived or spent a lot of time. There is always more to see and do, more to discover.

I started by taking a drive to Crown Hill Cemetery. Located on 38^th Street, a couple of miles north of downtown, Crown Hill is the third largest private cemetery in the United States covering 555 acres since it was established in 1863.  There are currently over 225,000 souls buried there, but it was one in particular that drew me to visit. Famed outlaw John Dillinger. Having recently visited the location where Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed and killed in Louisiana piqued my interest in the Hoosier outlaw who was gunned down after being betrayed by the woman in red outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago.

My next stop was at a museum devoted to another iconic figure in Indiana history, The Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library. Vonnegut is from Indianapolis, attended Shortridge High School and though he moved away about as soon as he could, he would often visit Indianapolis and I would see him at times when he visited family in Indianapolis and would come into Hamaker Pharmacy and charge things to his family’s account.

The museum opened in its current location in 2019. Located along the famous jazz corridor near Indiana Avenue in what was once a famous jazz club on Senate Avenue, and is pretty damn cool. Highlighted attractions of the library include a museum, art gallery, and reading room. The museum features rare remnants from Vonnegut's life, including the author's Purple Heart medal awarded to him for his service in Germany during World War II , the author's Smith-Corona Coronamatic 2200 typewriter, an unopened box of the author's Pall Mall cigarettes discovered by his children behind a bookcase following his death, an unopened letter sent overseas (in the course of World War II) to the author from his father, a series of rejection letters sent to the author by magazines which are periodically rotated, and a complete replica of his writing studio.

Perhaps the coolest thing to me personally on display is a letter that Vonnegut wrote to my friend Jake Query, apparently Vonnegut took Jake’s aunt to the Shortridge Prom and he responded to Jake’s request inquiring if there were prom photos that he might have. 

Finally, I attended two more concerts during my final few days in Indianapolis. The first was at what is one of my favorite venues, the Hi Fi in Fountain Square where I went to see actor Billy Bob Thornton and his band the Boxmasters. It isn’t often you get a chance to see an Academy Award winning actor leading a band, but this was not frivolity as Thornton and his band have been together since 2007, have toured extensively and released multiple albums.

While not the greatest band ever, they are not bad either and they have a ton of fun while playing to a pretty packed venue. It was a good time and it felt good to be out at a small club show again, though I did wear my mask, one of the few on hand that did, for the entire evening.

The last night in town before heading home to Key West, I was at a larger venue, The Amphitheater at White River State Park where I was seeing my all-time favorite band, Counting Crows. The openers were two acts, neither of which I had seen previously but had been hand picked by Adam Duritz, Matt Sucich and Sean Barna. They were both really good and set the tone for me getting to see the Crows for what I believe is my 103^rd time. 

This was my first show of theirs in two years, thanks to Covid and my first time seeing them since Adam cut off his trademark dreadlocks. Their show was solid, very good I would say, but certainly not among the best I have seen of them. Touring in support of a new release, this time the “Butter Miracle” album that came out earlier this year, the band played a 19 song set, that featured most of the new ep as well as a nice selection of their more popular hits.

https://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/

https://www.theboxmasters.com/