Entertainment

The ninth Indy Film Fest, also known as the Indianapolis International Film Festival, started on a high note with a successful opening night, July 19, and continues through July 29. The movies vary in length, genre, and origin. Films in the first weekend represented filmmakers as far-flung as the Philippines, Iran, Italy, and South Africa, not to mention a number of films from the United States, some with connections to Indiana.

Starved for a little culture, or perhaps a little starlight? This weekend, there is ample opportunity to satisfy your need for both. After a year-long hiatus, Heartland Actors Repertory Theatre's Shakespeare on the Canal has happily returned to White River State Park.   This season's play—Othello—is the fourth that HART has staged (for free) i

Honestly, I didn’t pay that much attention while reading Slaughterhouse-Five in high school English class. Even though it was short compared to other required books—I’m looking at you, Crime and Punishment—I didn’t fully understand the themes. So when assigned to check out a public media event for a new exhibit fashioned by Ball State University students for the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, I was a bit apprehensive. My Vonnegut knowledge was slim. Yes, I knew that he was from Indiana and that I should be proud of that. I also knew that he had one heck of a mustache. And that’s about it. So when I walked into the KVML yesterday, I was a clean slate personified, although my soul felt dirty for the Slaughterhouse-Five crime.

The Circle City IN Pride Festival saw a spike in attendance in 2012, both in terms of volunteer manpower and goers at every one of a week's worth of events from June 2 through 9. Here, Stephanie Swanson, 2012 Indy Pride chair, shares her thoughts on the successes, shortcomings, and opportunities that Indy Pride, Inc., and the Indianapolis LGBT community have both now and moving forward.

Tens of thousands came out for the annual Circle City IN Pride Festival on June 9, and the organizers' final numbers are in. Per Indy Pride's own by-the-numbers Facebook post on June 26 and Stephanie Swanson, chair of Circle City IN Pride, here are some figures from that Saturday festival and the week of events leading up to it:

Those old Doc Martens you haven’t worn since the 1997 Lilith Fair are back in style again—if only for this weekend, the final showings of Rent at Footlite Musicals. (For the record, wearing them to the theater would amount to a tribute, not irony. And rain on your wedding day is just bad luck.)

In the early 2000s, I was a Pokemon addict. I carried my beloved cards in a Lisa Frank binder and built a shrine to Pikachu, the game’s most iconic character, on top of my dresser. I wasn’t alone—the country was so addicted to Pokemon that TIME had featured the characters on its cover in 1999. But as I grew up, Pokemania faded. I thought my childhood obsession was something children no longer cared about.

AGE: 46  GIG: Actor and racecar driver  DREAM ROLE: The Grey’s Anatomy star will race in the IMS’s inaugural Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series event on July 27 as part of the Super Weekend at the Brickyard.

Pretzel necklaces and sun dresses, boat shoes and big sunglasses—that's Brew-Ha-Ha in a nutshell. And what a gloriously sweaty nutshell it is, this beer festival now in its 17th iteration. The annual street party takes place on Park Avenue between Mass Ave and St. Clair Street for four afternoon hours each late June.

If you braved the heat a month ago at the 42nd Broad Ripple Art Fair, you probably remember cooling off indoors and wandering around one of the Indianapolis Art Center’s spacious, white-walled galleries. This month through August 5, you need not be hard-pressed for a reason to come back.