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NealTaflinger's Blog (14)

Here Comes the Sun: Matty Bennett

Clay Robinson didn’t know Matty Bennett when he began planning his brewery but the interior designer was destined to have a hand in it. Bennett was born on the Summer Solstice, the centerpiece of the Mayan calendar, which coincidentally inspired Sun King Brewing Co.’s name and logo. The designer behind Taste’s expansion and renovation as well as th… Continue

Added by NealTaflinger on April 16, 2009 at 4:02pm — No Comments

CrossFit Day Two: Pain don't hurt

I've been walking like an old freakin' man since Saturday morning, which didn't give me a lot of hope for my 30s. CrossFit is always nasty but its especially so when your body isn't accustomed to the work load. I hobbled around all weekend with soreness and stiffness in my quads, hamstring and groin, wincing every time I sat down, stood up, or walked up or down stairs. Bosslady aka Indy.com editrix in chief Amanda Kingsbury went as far as to tell me that CrossFit makes me cran… Continue

Added by NealTaflinger on April 13, 2009 at 10:27pm — 1 Comment

The business of happiness

“This is a business of happiness,” Dave Colt says while sipping a beer he crafted. “What you do here is going to change someone’s life today. There is someone having a shitty day and all they can think about is five o’clock, coming here and drinking a beer that they love.” Colt, the head brewer at the RAM downtown, resigned on April 2 to pursue the business of happiness with his good friend and former employee Clay Robinson as co-ow… Continue

Added by NealTaflinger on April 7, 2009 at 11:00am — No Comments

Here Comes the Sun: Baby steps

“We’re relatively serious about this now in case you didn’t notice,” Omar Robinson said. A fine layer of concrete dust coats the floor inside the chilly warehouse that will become Sun King Brewery. The ambulance service’s trucks have been moved out of the room as has a custom party bus that was parked in the corner. Omar’s son Clay Robinson explains to me that the cuts have been made for plumbing not just for the brewhouse… Continue

Added by NealTaflinger on March 26, 2009 at 10:41am — 1 Comment

What do you think about the local art scene?

What do you think about the local art scene? On the Cusp wants to know. Continue

Added by NealTaflinger on March 25, 2009 at 7:21am — 1 Comment

Banks are not our friends.

I decided a long time ago that banks were not my friends. It's not like I felt singled out or conspired against...hold on, I did feel conspired against. My bank was bought out every couple of years for most of my adult life and each time I felt more and more like I was being drawn down by the bank, whittled away by software that seemed to maximize the chances of incurring fees and penalties. Now I'll fess up to being a financial imbecile but the bank was not a place you went for help, at least n… Continue

Added by NealTaflinger on March 24, 2009 at 9:55pm — No Comments

Neil Postman Always Rings Twice

I know this is, like, so last week, but Jon Stewart's face off with "Mad Money"'s Jim Cramer was of particular interest to me. For days Stewart took Cramer and CNBC to task over what he perceived to be media malfeasance, pumping up a market that was build on little more than pixie dust and gypsy tears. I recently finished reading "Amusing Ourselves to Death," Neil Postman's polemic on the death of typographic culture and the silliness of television culture, and one of his final points resonated… Continue

Added by NealTaflinger on March 18, 2009 at 10:42pm — 4 Comments

It's a-Live! It's a-Live!

Last night Star photographer Michelle Pemberton and I headed out to Shelbyville with Indy.com's Leslie Bailey and Jesika Gunter to check out the grand opening of Indiana Live! casino's new permanent facility. We're putting together a big package for Indy.com the Magazine in a few weeks but here is our quick and dir… Continue

Added by NealTaflinger on March 14, 2009 at 9:20am — No Comments

Wanna partner with a great local event?

Hey Smoosiers, Taffy here. My wife organizes the INDIEana Handicraft Exchange, "a D.I.Y. urban craft fair and bazaar with a full offering of unique handmade goods." She is currently planning the next event and she's asked me to reach out to ya'll in the hopes of finding some local businesses interested in partnering with her. With more than a thousand visitors last year and vendors from as close as Indy and as far as Toronto, word of the… Continue

Added by NealTaflinger on February 28, 2009 at 2:02pm — 2 Comments

Thank god I don't cover the state legislature.

You wanna know why there aren’t more people involved in the legislative process? It’s boring. Really boring. After waking up at an obscene hour to talk about Indy.com with a room full of public relations professionals at the Indiana History Center, I rushed to the Statehouse to make it to a Senate Pensions & Labor committee hearing to determine whether or not the State Senate would hear a bill on the statewide regulation of mixed martial arts during the 2009 legislative session. I walked t… Continue

Added by NealTaflinger on February 18, 2009 at 7:30pm — 3 Comments

Here comes the Sun

At first I chafed at the idea of the Indianapolis Star's forced furloughs, but two beers into a Friday afternoon lunch at Spencer’s Stadium Tavern I was pretty ok with it. I had those beers with Clay Robinson, a professional beer brewer… Continue

Added by NealTaflinger on February 15, 2009 at 11:17pm — 3 Comments

How to grow up in one day - Taffy becomes a guest lecturer and gets an accountant

On the recommendation of a co-worker, Indiana University professor Nancy Comiskey invited me to Ernie Pyle Hall in Bloomington to speak to her feature writing class about multimedia storytelling. I rarely feel like an adult but standing at the front of that class, dispensing career advice to men and women eight, nine, 10 years younger than me - well, I felt like a grown-ass man. I have spent a large chunk of my life in front of crowds or in the public eye yet I found myself getting anxious in t… Continue

Added by NealTaflinger on February 6, 2009 at 9:07am — No Comments

Taffy facts

Lorryn Langton suggested I do this, so here you go! 1. My parents gave me a name that couldn't be shortened and chose the least common spelling of it. 2. Neal means champion in Gaelic. Think figuratively, not literally. 3. I've spent time on three different Native American reservations. 4. I once slept for 20 hours on the dingy floor of a run down warehouse in Brussels, Belgium. 5. A van I was riding in flipped and slid more… Continue

Added by NealTaflinger on January 22, 2009 at 1:58pm — 6 Comments

You're killin' me, Smalls.

Just took the Smaller Indiana survey despite my place of employ being listed as "INtake Weekly" a year after the name change. D'oh. Continue

Added by NealTaflinger on December 1, 2008 at 10:59am — 4 Comments

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