how boring must indiana be to think of this as fun

xxpost

Is anyone close to Indy or Muncie who can give me a weather report? I'm shooting there this week and want to know what it looks like out there. if it snows, will it settle?

Considering Muncie is in such poor financial shape that they recently considered closing the animal shelters (and just letting the animals run free) and shutting off the street lights, I hope for your sake that there's no accumulation. Because that shit will probably just sit there, untouched.

P.S. Why in the name of god are you going to/near Muncie?

I'm making an experimental film there.

Also I like that bar, on the main street. You can smoke in there. The Ha-Bar or something?

I am living in Indiana for the next few weeks...in Petersburg. I have been here a week and have formed some pretty strong opinions. I am open to being educated on this state. Tell me what to eat here, what to try, see, drink etc.... as I would like to enjoy myself while I am here. Checking out Bloomington on Sunday.

I am quite sure the casserole was born in Indiana. There is no good food here. Old men walk into restaurants just to order a cup of water and look at a wall. They have the right idea because what I have eaten here is the worst stuff I have ever had in my life. I had deep fried portobello mushrooms that were nothing more than tiny sponges loaded with grease. I nearly cried when the little, red, plastic basket with red and white checkered paper arrived at my table and saw the contents of a horribly massacred mushroom. What I haven't tried is cornbread salad. It looked like a real bad cornbread stuffing and it is served cold. The bean salad I had is something with one type of bean(could't make it out) drowning in a mayonnaise soup. It had tiny bits of relish and onion and a cheese square.

The Mexican food has been great but you won't find mole,aguas frescas or horchata at the restaurants because they said the clientele doesn't go for such exotic things. Lots of cheese enchiladas: filled with cheese and covered with a melted cheese. The waitress said it is what the gringos like.

I get stared at everywhere go. It is hard not to think it is because I am Hispanic and the only people of color I see are in the one Mexican restaurant in town. The waitress told me, counting me, there are five of us in the town. She said the bigger, small town down the road had a larger Hispanic population. It does and they even have tiendas that sell curios, Bimbo bread and all the spices you need for a good mole. I don't feel the hard stare so much there.

People say the South has a slower pace of living but in Indiana, the snails seem to be at everyone's heels. People walk very slow here, take their time to answer you, take their time forming the sentences and just getting along. I am from a small, west Texas town where we have speed limits of 25mph, the pace of life is pretty slow there, I thought. But in Petersburg it is so slow I get creeped out. The corn and soybean fields are also creeping me out. While I have never in my life been creeped out by senior citizens (enjoyed working closely with them when I worked at a gym for seniors) the ones in Indiana have managed to really creep me out.

The Amish are also creeping me out. They shop for bread at Wal-Mart. I didn't think that was allowed. I thought they had to make their own bread in a hearth or something. Wikipedia says one thing but I am clearly seeing something else in Indiana. So if you know about the Amish, I open to learning about why they don't do the buggy thing and why they now own mansions, restaurants and can't bake bread.

The place has beautiful sunsets and the CVS and Wal-Mart sell liquor, that's cool.

I really thought I would be loving it way more here. Just a really off vibe.

Are you saying that my nawnee is a bad cook? Or that she's creepy? I could go for some corn fields right now, and nawnee's cheese potatoes and sweet corn and a barn and a basement game room and an above-ground pool. I wanna be like Dennis Christopher in Breaking Away and ride my bike 70 mph drafting a semi.

Bloomington has noise and folk-punk. They probably have some good food. I was born in Lafayette. They have mini-golf and a cool three-storey fountain and probably a couple decent record stores.

My nawnee used to work in this factory, and when they would recycle the florescent bulbs, she said, they would drop them into a grinder that turned them into powder.

I was on the west end of town the other day, by the ports, and it smelled like pig shit and seawater and reminded me of papaw, no shit.

Summer in Indiana must be glorious. I'm so envious of you right now.

I am quite sure the casserole was born in Indiana

this is so great, i would read the rest of the novel that started this way. "We make ourselves casseroles in order to live".

I really liked Lafayette when I was there, but it is a long drive from downstate. I haven't been to southern Indiana in ages, it was really pretty though.

tera, the "Amish" people you see might be Mennonites? They're a little more accepting of the English world/modernity so you might see them accepting rides or eating in restaurants and stuff (although I never saw any driving, themselves).

Like this post a lot, otherwise. OTM re Mexican food, I'm frankly amazed it's not cheddar cheese and ground beef on a crispy Old El Paso shell. Enchiladas are actually kind of elevated fare for the rural Midwest.

The Grain Belt isn't sinister, it's just really, really boring.

I am quite sure the casserole was born in Indiana. There is no good food here. Old men walk into restaurants just to order a cup of water and look at a wall. They have the right idea because what I have eaten here is the worst stuff I have ever had in my life.

Such a good opening.

The Grain Belt isn't sinister, it's just really, really boring.

idk, all those Tom Raper billboards on I-70 are pretty creepy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9D2-sC8wus

The Grain Belt isn't sinister, it's just really, really boring.

― it's not that print journalists don't have a sense of humour, it's just (Laurel), Friday, July 29, 2011 10:33 AM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

I had thought that Indiana was a Klan stronghold. Also, my car broke down there in the middle of the night during a snowstorm along with an Indian and a Korean friend of mine. We hitchhiked and eventually got picked up by a man who told my friends that they were going to hell for their religions.

The last part is standard for everywhere in at least a 3-state radius. The Klan thing I don't know about.

(*If you count Western PA as its own state, I guess)

My own mother probably believes everyone who hasn't accepted Christ as their personal savior is going to hell, that's not really news.

Southern Indiana (where Petersburg is) is really Appalachia, & so quite different from what's north of Indianapolis. I lived in Northern Indiana for six years, just south of the Michigan border, & that's really part of greater Chicagoland. It is Klan Kountry though, & ICP, & the 70s never ended. I call it the armpit of the USA. I would live there again, though.

I've only got two Indiana experiences - ate dinner at a Shoney's in Evansville one night. I had never seen so many striped polo shirts in my life. (Later I realized that Garth Brooks had played in town and it was 1994, after all.) Also stopped at a country store that had canned vegetables way past their expiration date from the first Bush administration and a sunglasses rack where all the lenses were coated in dust.

Now. I know what it's like to live in a state that offers awful first impressions, but Indiana was just a different beast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTsuhJCW5RY

my gf is going to Indiana today for PIEROGIFEST

http://pierogifest.net/

3 Floyds' Brewing is in nw IN too, one of the better beers in the region

I've seen Amish/Menonite-looking people piling into minivans after stocking up on snacks at a gas station...maybe they were a rogue sect, who knows.

We used to see them eating at Pizza Hut once in a while, and that's going back about 20 years. Which is why I say they may have been Mennonites.

There are lots of Mennonites in northern Indiana who, aside from dressing kinda old-fashioned (bonnets!), live more or less normal Indiana lives.

so really they're just hipsters on some other shit

The Amish can ride in a van, if they have to, they just can't drive. There was a recent fatal accident that involved the Amish.

I used to see Mennonites all the time at the hospital I delivered sandwiches to. Also remember a truckstop in northern Missouri where a guy would tie his horse to a pole and sell pecan pies to travelers. They'll take Yankee cash, if you've got it.

I drove thru IN on tuesday. I stopped at a Stuckeys!

Growing up in central Indiana and having just spent a week there, I'll agree you really have to look to find good restaurant food. Especially anything that is not fried (pork tenderloin anyone?). And it might be nearly impossible to find in a smaller town. When the sweet corn starts coming in though, and the tomatoes, I do miss living there.

It was a huge Klan enclave when I was living there (until 1990) and it wouldn't surprise me if it still is.

The Klan was originally a Southern organization, but the 20th Century revival started in Indiana, where blacks were "migrating north" and "taking jobs" from whites. (sound familiar?)

Indiana may suffer the same Midwestern fate as St. Louis when it comes to cuisine: worst of the north with the worst of the south. Fried sheep brains, anyone?

bunch of aristocrats

Okay, so I have now been to Vincennes and got a whole different feel. I love the old buildings downtown and met this really nice Robert Mitchum lookalike at a record store who was super sweet and nice. We ate at Guppy's and it was the best food I have had in the state. Really not bad. So things started to look up. Driving back to Petersburg though, my depression returned. It's this small town. It doesn't matter what I do here, this particular place is just rank, has a sleazy vibe, racist vibe, I am not myself here at all, I don't even have my usual thoughts. I can usually deal with a bad situation watching TCM but the motel doesn't have that channel. Very challenging.

Yesterday we went to Terre Haute and Bloomington. Loved both places! Bloomington reminded me of Austin circa 1989, maybe even 1986. I was a big fan of Breaking Away and this sweet bartender was patient enough to put up with me geeking out to the film and asking him where the different scenes from the film played out. Had a great glass of wine from Argentina there too, lots of friendly smiles, there were bookstores, nice restaurants, cool buildings really enjoyed the day.

Back to Petersburg where I have just woken feeling blehk despite the awesome day long excursion yesterday. We are here till mid-August. I am planning on spending time out of Petersburg during the week with trips to Vincennes. I have never had such an aversion to a place. I have felt uncomfortable in some places, temporarily, maybe just for a moment, but never like this, where I loathe to wake up here.

Interesting gossip: This Hispanic waitress at a Mexican restaurant in Washington told me the "gringas" like to go hang out at the Mexican store at the edge of town and pick up Hispanic men. I had just been to that store and was impressed with their sundries. It's like little Mexico in that store, they even sold nopales. Anyway the place was packed with men, I figured it was a day labor site. They were polite and friendly, told me where I could find more of my people and liked that I was from Texas asking me about the work there and all. The waitress said that in Washington, IN, White men are not interested in Latina women and so there is a lot of animosity towards the White women because they take the Latino men. The waitress said it's because they are just so bored. I couldn't help but think, yeah, day laborer site for sure.

There are good beers here... that is for sure.

bamcquern: I apologize. I sincerely never want to insult anyone's nawnee. It isn't the whole state, it's this town. I wish I could even say only a few individuals in this town, but it is the whole town.

BTW: Every little town we passed from Bloomington back to Petersburg last night had a library. I really liked that.

growing up in Louisville, Ky right on the border there was an ambient dislike of Indiana that was a kind of civic pride, plus lots of basketball rivalry, no real outcome other than corny / nasty remarks about the Hoosiers on the wrong side of the river- since KY has an identity crisis about whether it is the MidWest or the South, I guess the Hoosiers helped us to feel more Southern maybe?

Oh Kentucky, sweetie, you're the South.

I admit though, it weirds me out thinking about states that are part of Appalachia where the mountains are to the East.

Kentucky's not the South. They're the pie crust for Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

Sounds like tera* is writing a Shirley Jackson book.

and crafts for sale with unlicensed professional sports teams logos

lots of franchised restaurants = lots of american dreams dreamt

each city has 3 breweries instead of the standard 30

Someone should really airlift Bloomington to a more promising state already.

― The First Time Ever I Fly @ U Face (Old Lunch)

fuck no it's a great racket

you live in indiana for four years and get a cheap and good education, and then as soon as you get your degree and are employable you get the fuck out of there and get hired without having a billion dollars in student loans to pay off

source: i am an iu grad

there's a good mayoral candidate running in Bloomington IN (Amanda Barge)

― Emperor Tonetta Ketchup (sleeve)

that's good. Indiana needs to just get rid of its whole Democratic party on a state level, they're so awful and incompetent

"each city has 3 breweries instead of the standard 30

― say it with sausages (Sufjan Grafton)"

excuse me, saying that indiana doesn't have breweries is just factually wrong, fuckin' three floyds is out of there

no, it doesn't have as many breweries as, say, oregon, but quantity isn't the same thing as quality

like i said, there are good people in indiana.

Breaking Away is a damn good movie

pigeon shits in ref's eyes

indianapolis is a nice town.

boring and kindof sad though

man too much coastal elitism shitting up this thread, come on people we're pretty much all old, do you really want to go to three different parties in a night? if not, indianapolis isn't actually "boring" or lacking in culture or any of that shit. oh no indianapolis only has 500 independent locally owned restaurants instead of five million, how could anybody live in such a cultural backwater? god as much as i try to shit on indiana it does have cool and innovative art collectives like big car and good shit going on and people trying to survive and enjoy life despite being constantly strangled by megachurches and racists and people who call their wives "mother".

i'm glad i don't have to live there anymore, but shit, chain restaurants? like there's any city in america that isn't choked to the gills with chain restaurants? it's not a question of whether or not i'd live there if you paid me me to, because you get paid a lot more to live on the coasts, it's a question of it doesn't cost hardly anything to live there, just like it doesn't cost hardly anything to live in alabama or mississippi. people don't want to leave because it's the only home they've ever known, people don't want to leave because they can't afford it. and having to live with all of the horrible people, in a land owned and controlled by horrible people, twists you, it's hard work not to be like them, at least if you have the same color skin as they do.

yeah, i'm glad i could get out. i was lucky.

Largely otm but this inner conflict you're manifesting is very Hoosier imo. I know of what I speak.

At any rate, I don't by any means dis the people as a whole (many/most of my favorite people in the world still reside there) but the dis-worthy people are most of the reason I'm glad to not be there anymore.

Indiana wants me/Lord I can't go back there

OL: Right, I have lots of feelings on the topic, and most of them I'm not comfortable discussing on the public Internet.

I saw a truck on fire this morning on the way to the South Bend airport. So it’s not all boring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcPgddNVqpc

xp i once saw an elephant ear food trailer burning down in a 7eleven parking lot in indiana

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZWU2YzIxNGMtNzEyMC00NGY1LTgxZmItOGNkOTM5MTI3NjYwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjgyNjc4MTc@._V1_.jpg

Really great movie - probably my fave of last year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xddh70XyDTw

https://www.npr.org/2019/11/14/779339897/3-indiana-judges-suspended-after-white-castle-brawl-that-left-2-of-them-wounded

Watching judges brawl at a White Castle kind of is the apex of Hoosier fun, it's true.

Mike Pence and Pete Buttigieg remind me why I left Indiana in 1982 and never moved back.

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) February 27, 2020

had a wife and kids in Terre Haute, Jack
I went out for a ride and I never went back