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Go to Bloomington
Posted: Jan 30, 2008 in Things to do
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Take a drive on the Ruel W. Steele Memorial Highway and visit the lovely college town of Bloomington Indiana. I like to visit Caveat Emptor used book store right off, never a problem finding something to read during lunch at the Irish Lion, fish and chips and a pint of Guiness. Sufficiently fueled, ready for a visit to the Indiana University art museum, a microcosmic collection surveying centuries of art history. www.indiana.edu/~iuam/iuam_home.php A vast Stuart Davis canvas, a couple of Picassos and a Kurt Schwitters collage are highlights. Across the street from the museum is the Lilly Library, which always has a fascination display of rare books and manuscripts based on clever themes. Currently in the works is an exhibit of works by 18th and 19th century women writers, displayed in conjunction with a special conference on the subject in March. http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/index.php There's a show this Saturday February 2nd, at the Art Hospital, an arts and music collective venue. The scheduled line-up: Capillary Action w/ Push-Pull, The Alarmists (Calm Down), and Mouthbreather www.arthospital.net/home.php Enjoy the music and the therapeutic art displayed on the healthy walls of the Art Hospital. Check their website for shows already scheduled through April.
Ah, yes, but you failed to mention some of my favorite hotspots!!! Snow Lion Restaurant (amazing Tibetan and incidentally owned by the Dalai Lama's nephew) Any 6th Street restaurant for that matter - a small sampling of world cuisine around every corner. Shopping up and down Kirkwood; a quick game of Sink the Biz at Nick's; a game of darts at The Vid (well, before their last remodel anyway...) And, while it's often necessary to sign over your first born and show proof of citizenship just to get in, if it's at all possible to gain admittance to the Kinsey Institute and their galleries, it's worth the work.
Might I suggest that, if you're not in a HUGE hurry to get to Bloomington, you would do well to take a beautiful little detour I discovered a few years ago. Approximately 3.5 miles south of the IN-37/IN-39 interchange on the south side of Martinsville, there is a small road on the east side of IN-37 called "Old IN-37 S". It's a 13 mile scenic drive full of hills and curves, through Morgan-Monroe State forest. On this short drive, you'll see tree-line and sun dappled lanes swerve past working farms, apple orchards, limestone cliffs, and the tiny (but scenic) Bryant Creek Lake. Without a doubt the best time to take this drive is in the fall, when the brilliantly colored leaves fall all around you.