Music

Terrapin Moon came on after the white-hot fireballs known as Electric Orange Peel (should say 'Atomic' Orange Peel). A Grateful Dead cover/tribute band whose version of China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider was spot-on, the mournful Rider insertion choking me up, my dear beautiful brother Bob having passed last year and it was like he was singing to me, "gonna miss me when I'm gone."

Before the song was over I was pedaling home, overcome by the sad refrain, missing my gone brother, the sunglasses I found in his basement hiding the tears pouring out of my sad eyes.

Two years of no music. Then one refrain from one Dead song with a borrowed blues motif and I'm reduced to nothing but humanness. Trust me, I don't think I'm special. But he was, my dear brother Bob. And so was that song.

"This guy cannot sing."

 That was my initial impression of the husky hippie guitar player fronting the band who followed The Neil Show!, namely Electric Orange Peel, on the late Friday afternoon white Gazebo Stage.

Soon I thought, "But who cares? These cats can PLAY!"

Talk about contrasts. The shire's ambassadors of the forest glade Show! were replaced by the single most ferociously dynamic ball of firebird jam bands I have EVER seen.

Lay your arms down at the feet of the keyboardist, he's taking prisoners. The dude dominated like a hellion, playing his organ like a pair of conga drums, smashing chords with both hands chop chop chop, going full metal roller ball like a head-on collision with Mad Max. No mercy! All action.

The song had started out badly sung in a lolling tempo, then went from verse and pseudo chorus to a seven-minute anthemic coda in the key change of FAST. So no real song in between. Fine with me.

Two years of death and disease and no live music---I hardly recognize myself. Thus it was Comfest '22 gently re-immersed this battered, drifting soul into the mildly healing waters of outdoor song-and-jamfestival-born. Better that way, among the trees, our original friends.

The Park's Gazebo Stage was the site of the first band I've seen and heard since a town named Wuhan changed America and the world. Friday, June 24, I liked how my personal siege was lifted. First force to the rescue entered the freshly opened city gates: The Neal Show!

Neal Havener is every mother's delight: genteel, pleasant, kindly, warm, fuzzy, youthfully middle-aged. Many mellow bones connect in his slim countenance. His music very much like early Simon and Garfunkel--earnest, thoughtful, crafted with respectable chord changes to almost be proud of.

Comfest returned this year. Comfest celebrated a 50 year anniversary last weekend.

Comfest began in 1972 as a community concert founded with a group of political activists, artists, craftspeople, local business owners, musicians, and plenty of dreamers near 16th avenue off the Ohio State Campus.

Our Columbus Free Press was amongst the founders of Comfest.

Comfest’s principal goal aims for elimination of prejudice against people on the basis of age, class, ability, income, race, sex and sexual preference/orientation.

In 1983 Comfest relocated to Goodale Park in the Short North.

I know I like freedom, justice, and equality, and outdoor drinking.

Last year, Comfest existed virtually last year because of COVID.

It was really weird thinking about the fact all of Columbus wouldn’t drink together in 2021.

Everyone was stuck inside.

Last weekend, I looked at the Comfest program guide as 2022’s Comfest returned to the Short North.

I didn’t know which music group I would watch but I knew I would find vegan food.

The necessity of food insured this.

I took the number 1.

Community Festival (ComFest) kicks off Friday, June 24 at noon in Goodale Park.

After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, ComFest is back live and will feature over 150 musical performances, workshops and community-oriented programming over three days.

In 2022, ComFest is celebrating 50 years of community, social activism and education.  In addition to the line-up of the city’s best music spread over four stages, workshops, comedy and other special programming will be featured at the Peace and Healing Pavilion. The much-loved Street Fair also returns with one-of-a-kind vendors, arts and crafts, local food and progressive community organizations.

Visit the ComFest Museum located in the air-conditioned Goodale Park Shelterhouse and travel back to the early years of Columbus’ favorite festival.

Senior Crawl is this thing where graduating Ohio State students all wear white shirts, and walk from the various bars while signing each other’s shirts.

I didn’t graduate college so it’s usually this thing where you analyze the idea of signatures. As a graffiti writer, the idea of writing your name seems relevant. But because booze is involved, writing on a drunk college girl’s shirt seems problematic.

While I will quickly respond I-O if someone yells O-H…I wasn’t a senior graduating from Ohio State.

Interacting with normal people used to be a sort of exoticism for me.

Awhile ago, a white sorority girl was crying out of empathy for some things she had heard had occurred to me. The fact a white sorority girl even knew I existed….

The weirdest thing about this conversation. I told a white sorority girl she had been the first white sorority girl I’ve interacted with to my knowledge.

Many Black women leaders are from sororities so interacting with Black sorority members isn’t all the unusual. Black Sorority Life exists in my interactions because of Hip Hop as well as female leadership.

I don’t know if it’s supply and demand. I don’t know if it’s Covid. I don’t know if Trump, and his friends are waging economic sanctions within our country for criticizing the January 6th attack. I don’t know if someone wants to punish Chairman of the Budget Committee Bernie Sanders for tweeting criticism of wealthy companies by name. I don’t know if this correlates with the raised wages at places like Kroger, and Walmart.

I don’t know if this correlates with the fact Russia invaded Ukraine. Our country is supplying Ukraine with weapons which appears there is some sort of conflict between our country and Russia.

I don’t know if Republican Governor Abbot blocking agriculture shipping which cost our country $240 million dollars had something do with it.

http://www.cnn.com/2022/04/17/opinions/greg-abbott-texas-border-policies...

Texas governor reversed this costly block which Texas Agriculture’s Commission called "Political Theater."

First things first.

This was my first show since quarantine. 

Last time I was watching someone rap live, Organized Konfusion’s “Extinction Agenda” was a Hip Hop classic. Organized Konfusion wasn’t a soundtrack for 2021 because of COVID.

I breezed through the Schottenstein Center at 1pm. There was a line.

I went home because Schottenstein Center website said the first act wasn’t performing until 7pm. 

I was imagining teenagers having parents drop them off earlier. 

Rationale was: 

They haven’t attended very many shows. 

Fans didn’t want to miss anything.

 Why wouldn’t you make a day of it?

Akin to bachelorette’s events, Schottenstein Center Shows are probably really big events in someone’s year.

Someone works all year, attends school , and a favorite group is finally rocking Columbus.

Or in similar to where I was coming from….

Tyler’s show was the first show where someone could rap, and make songs corresponding with

The fact our country was finally recovering from a COVID. 

I want to have fun.

Sometimes you need a reminder that human beings are capable of kindness. Come From Away—a touring production of which is now playing Columbus’s Ohio Theatre—is just such a reminder.

The Irene Sankoff/David Hein musical is a breezy and heartwarming account of what happened in Gander, Newfoundland, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

When commercial airlines were ordered to land their planes out of fear that more could be commandeered and turned into flying bombs, the small Canadian community was forced to accept 38 or them. That nearly doubled its population and presented it with the sudden need to feed and house 7,000 strangers, many of whom didn’t even speak English.

As the musical reveals, the Newfoundlanders responded with ingenuity and generosity, providing food, shelter, clothes and other necessities. Even more importantly, they made the waylaid passengers feel safe and welcome in a world that suddenly seemed more dangerous than ever.

2021 began with Trump attacking the Capitol to stop the election verification. Or in the least showing he could get away with murdering police, and physically intimidating Congresspeople.

2021 finished with Covid resurgence and Build Back Better in peril.

The fact that I can figure out easily what is being expressed with “Let’s Go Brandon” but could not really tell you wtf Build Back Better is or if it cares about my existence, I finished with a conclusion:

Someone spent 2021 ruining communication.

I feel like Biden/Harris are like well-intentioned parents whose kids experienced trauma.

In 2020, they watched their kids watch George Floyd murdered broadcasting everywhere. People’s grandparents died from Covid.  Another group of kids decided to riot January 6th.

Someone spent 2021 confusing everything.

Biden/Harris needs break everything down to the simplest:

Showering regularly, wearing a mask prevents Covid, the Flu, strep throat, and Cooties.

It’s winter so Covid cases are going to increase because people are indoors and can spread germs.