Grab three of your best basketball-playin’ buddies and come to Fort Wayne for the latest installment of the Gus Macker 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament, August 13 & 14, at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.

The Coliseum’s spacious parking lot will be converted into an outdoor hoops wonderland for the 2-day, double-elimination tournament event. Opening ceremonies are at 8:00 a.m. on August 13.

The Gus Macker Tourney will be held at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum on Aug. 13 & 14.

Special events on Saturday include Slam Dunk, 3 Point, Dinky Dunk, Free Throw and Half Court Shot opportunities. A clinic by the University of St. Francis’ basketball programs and a Kids Fun Zone will also be held.

Registration for a 4-person team is just $132 and includes a minimum of three (3) scheduled games. The nice thing about Gus Macker’s format is that they offer different divisions of competition for all ages and skill levels. Teams are placed into male and female divisions within one of the following categories: Junior (ages 18 & under), Adult (ages 19 & over) and Top (most experienced).

The postmarked registration deadline for mailed applications is July 22, but you can register online at www.macker.com, through July 25.

Fort Wayne’s Macker tournament is being run by the SAFY Foster Care and Adoption Agency and the University of St. Francis basketball programs. The host hotel for the event is the Holiday Inn at IPFW and Memorial Coliseum, directly across the street from the complex. They can be reached at 260-482-3800 or online.

For more information or to download registration materials, rules and regulations, visit www.macker.com.

Gwen adding some touch-ups to a Barn Project painting in her Fort Wayne Studio.

Some people love gardens, others love birds. Gwen Gutwein loves barns. She is an artist, historian, and champion for old, dilapidated barns. Her passion is to rescue a fast disappearing part of our history, the Midwestern hay barn.

Growing up on a farm in northwest Indiana, Gutwein first fell in love with barns while playing hide and seek with her siblings in the barn on her family homestead. Today, she is trying to capture on canvas each barn’s uniqueness and beauty for all to see. Her barn paintings comprise The Barn Project Calendars. These calendars offer a unique history of each barn and focus attention on all the perilous situations facing the rapidly dwindling barns in Indiana.

This year’s calendar marks the fourth consecutive year with the fifth in the works. Calendars can be purchased throughout Fort Wayne at several stores including the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Artlink, Wild Birds Unlimited, and all the Hallmark stores. It can also be ordered on Gutwein’s web site at www.gwengutwein.com.

Gwen's studio is open by appointment.

Gutwein works from a studio in her Fort Wayne home at 925 Forest Avenue and welcomes visitors to call the studio at 484.1282 to set up a time to come and see the studio and the original artwork. She loves to talk with people about her project and welcomes visitors interested in looking through or purchasing a calendar. Proceeds from the sale of the calendars support the furthering of The Barn Project.

If you’re interested in seeing the barns up close and personal, Gutwein’s calendar has information on all the barns, including location. Just pick up a calendar and take a leisurely road trip for a couple hours – or spend an entire day perusing the beautiful Indiana countryside in search of our historical barns.

Midwest summers mean several things: heat, humidity, corn and County Fairs. And one of our favorites? The 2011 Allen County 4-H Fair – running July 19-24 at the Allen County Fairgrounds.

The annual 4-H fair provides an opportunity for area 4-H’ers to showcase their hard work. From raising hogs, cattle or bunnies to sewing a quilt or taking a world-class photograph, the Allen County Fair has it all. In addition to showing livestock and projects, the fair is also the main venue for a variety of contests and entertainment, sure to highlight a summer day or evening.

A summer staple - the Allen County Fair.

This year the contests include Rickshaw races, a redneck relay and pedal car races. There will also be a pie-baking contest, Karaoke contest and a youth talent contest. The athletic crowd will look forward to the free throw contest and a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. If you’d rather just watch a contest, rather than participate, there will also be a draft horse pull, demolition derby and the ever-popular Fair Queen Pageant.

Live entertainment for the 2011 Allen County Fair include Country recording artists Kali Rose (Wednesday) and Brooke Roe (Thursday); Biff and the Cruisers (Friday); JTaylors and Lincoln Highway (Friday), as well as a teen dance featuring Noise Pollution. The fair ends Sunday evening with a concert by Christian group The Living Stones.

Admission to the Allen County Fair is just $5 per person; you may purchase five admission tickets for $20. Children age 5 and under are admitted free.

2011 Allen County Fair

2726 Carroll Rd., Fort Wayne, IN 46818

(260) 449-4444

For more information, click here.

In the midst of the steamy, summer concert touring season, Keith Urban is giving his fans a chance to “get closer” to him, while enjoying a show in air conditioned comfort. Urban will bring his “Get Closer 2011 World Tour” arena production to Fort Wayne and the climate-controlled Allen County War Memorial Coliseum on Sunday, July 31 at 7:30 p.m.

Keith Urban will bring his "Get Closer 2011 World Tour" to the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne on Sunday, July 31.

Tickets can be had for as little as $25.00 and are available from www.ticketmaster.com or charge-by-phone at (800) 745-3000. Other price levels are $42.50 or $59.50. Add in a hotel stay on Saturday night, and it makes for a perfect summer weekend getaway.

Critics have called Urban’s shows “one of the best reasons in the world to attend a live concert.” They’ve said that fans would be “hard-pressed to find a better country – or rock – show anywhere.” Urban’s catalogue of hits; “Better Life,” “Somebody Like You,” “Days Go By,” “You’ll Think Of Me,” “Sweet Thing” and his latest, “Put You In A Song,” combined with an all new production, will give his fans a unique concert experience that has earned Urban a reputation as one of music’s best live performers.

What should make the Keith Urban show in Fort Wayne even better, is that the Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne is one of the smaller venues on his summer circuit. That means fans can get even closer to the award-winning, international superstar – who just happens to be married to actress Nicole Kidman.

The tour started June 18 at the St. Pete Times Forum in Florida and has made stops in the Carolinas, Missouri, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Connecticut. The recent tour stop at the i wireless Center in Moline, Illinois was reviewed by Quad-Cities Online’s Jonathan Turner.

“A wildly enthusiastic Moline audience welcomed back the 43-year-old Aussie with open arms, and most stood, sang, screamed, danced and thrilled during the duration of the electrifying, exhilarating 2-hour-and-25-minute affair of the heart,” Turner wrote.

“The most exciting and satisfying live acts know how to really, sincerely involve an audience, and Mr. Urban did that wonderfully, with boyish confidence and easy-going charm. The boisterous i wireless crowd was clearly in the mood to sing, and the 27-song set list generously accommodated that fevered wish.”

Up-and-comer country traditionalist Jake Owen is opening for Urban on the tour.

Local radio station, WQHK, will host a pre-show party for the 21-and-over crowd in the Coliseum’s Rooftop Lounge starting at 5:30 p.m., where they will give away ticket upgrades to get you even “closer” to the action. Be sure to stop in for a beverage and a sandwich before the enjoying the show in the adjacent arena.

For more information, visit www.keithurban.net or www.memorialcoliseum.com.

Catch the Padres of tomorrow in Fort Wayne this weekend!

The TinCaps may be heading to Burlington and Peoria for some away-game play, but that doesn’t mean Parkview Field will be void of a little baseball action. This weekend, downtown’s new ballpark will facilitate a tough competition between Triple-A teams the Tucson Padres and the Las Vegas 51s.

Both teams (and several of the players) have played in Fort Wayne previously, but this is their first experience at Parkview Field. Come welcome the teams as their four-game series starts this Thursday, July 14, and runs through Sunday, July 17. And who knows, you might be watching next season’s MLB rookie of the year!

Visit us online for more information.