Arts & Culture

It wasn't supposed to be this way, it really wasn't. You've GOT to believe me, I beg you. But what you're about to read is the first negative review of a Christmas benefit in the history of this fascist construct of white male supremacy called The United States of America. Like I said, though: it wasn't supposed to be this way. "Not So Silent Night" at the Lincoln Theater last Saturday night, I thought, was going to be a program of Christmas music by locals. Fair enough. I was so in the mood that even several days prior I thought without reservation, hey, I don't care who they are or how much they mangle Rudolph The Red -Nosed Oppressed Reindeer, EVERYBODY gets a good review. Everybody. Sort of my personal 'give-back' to the community I abuse the other 50 weeks of the year. Hey, you didn't build that amplifier! I even found one of my Santa hats to wear. I even stuffed my pocket full of candy canes.

People have a hard time believing Christian Holstein has a mild case of a fear of heights. After all, the Ohio State senior spends part of the day jumping off a platform that is three stories above a swimming pool. “I’m scared of heights but the exhilaration of platform diving is amazing,” Holstein says. “I’ve done a lot of things in my life but you can never match that feeling. Once you do it, you’ll want to do it again. It’s a rush.” The Upper Arlington High School graduate is returning to platform diving after spending most of his career with the Buckeyes focusing on 1-meter and 3-meter dives. In his first collegiate-level platform diving competition, Holstein placed eighth with 285.15 points at the five-team Ohio State Invitational on Nov. 22-24. Holstein has continued to earn high marks on the 1-meter and 3-meter boards, earning Big Ten Diver of the Week honors on Nov. 5 and Nov. 26. Holstein was first in the 3-meter (403.6) and second in the 1-meter (371.15) as the 10th ranked Buckeyes won the Ohio State Invitational. He placed first in a 3-meter (382.20) in a Nov.

 At a pivotal point in Saving Mr. Banks, Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) explains that the purpose of storytelling is to supply the happy endings that real life often denies us. Of course, you can’t say that about all storytelling. The Coen brothers, for instance, revel in stories in which happiness is a rare commodity. Inside Llewyn Davis is but the latest example. Other filmmakers may leave their characters happy, but they don’t necessarily leave their viewers happy. In American Hustle, director David O. Russell supplies a denouement that can be celebrated only if you share his peculiar conception of right and wrong. But the average Disney film leaves everyone happy. Saving Mr. Banks—a Disney film about the making of another Disney film, 1964’s classic Mary Poppins—stays true to form. That helps to explain why, while it may not be the best film opening this pre-holiday weekend, it may well leave the most people the most satisfied. To find out whether you’re “most people,” read on: Inside Llewyn Davis When we first meet folk singer Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac), he’s holding forth in a Greenwich Village club in 1961.

R. Stevie Moore transformed Double Happiness into a grandpa’s living room Friday. Before settling into a mixture of warm but warped melodies and stream of consciousness poetry the revered, and influential outsider musician walked around the stage, peered out the window into Front Street and waved at whomever was outside the window in the Brewery District. After a surveying and claiming of his surroundings, R. Stevie Moore took out a phone and called who he claimed were the Columbus Police, and had a brief discussion about the fact he was going to perform. If you aren’t familiar with R. Stevie Moore; he is a 61 year-old man from Nashville, Tennessee whose output of 400 plus home recordings places him as a godfather of “lo-fi” music. He is Ariel Pink Haunted Graffiti’s dad for sure. From the stage at Double Happiness he busted out random mutterings that sometimes mixed hip hop referencing like “word is bond” with vague but succinct statements of fears and resonating aspects of the human condition mixed with almost commercial phrasings. Next, R.

This event was created to call attention to hate crimes committed against sex workers all over the globe. Dr. Annie Sprinkle and the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA began this event 10 years ago as a memorial and vigil for the victims of the Green River Killer in Seattle Washington. It is now an internationally recognized event to raise awareness towards hate crimes committed against sex workers. It also works to remove stigma, discrimination and to reform laws against sex work, in the hopes of diminishing violence towards sex workers. A red umbrella is the symbol for the event. After using it for an anti-violence march in 2002, the red umbrella now symbolizes resistance against discrimination of sex workers around the world. The Sex Worker Outreach Project (www.swopusa.org) compiles a list every year of sex workers who have lost their lives. These names are then read and recognized at vigils and altars created around the world.

Greetings from Liz Lessner President Obama (brilliantly) assembled a Business Council back in 2010 that engages the small business community nationwide. We were invited to a day long briefing by senior advisers and staffers as well as given the opportunity to voice our small biz concerns to White House staff. Hopefully, Mayor Coleman will one day assemble a Citywide version of this council, as small business concerns are often overlooked in Columbus. The Truman Bowling Alley was not included in this meeting but I was able to sneak in there for a quick peek. Harold and I had our rehearsal dinner in the bowling alley in the basement of Columbus Athletic Club, I got a thing for old timey basement bowling alleys. Thanks! Liz

The Columbus Metropolitan Library is, for the fifth straight year, displaying the Huntington Holiday Train in the Main Library atrium. The Huntington Holiday Train is on display through Friday, Jan. 3, 2014. The impressive display spans 600 square feet and includes four trains running on more than 280 feet of track surrounded by more than 50 pounds of snowflakes. The miniature buildings – which are all made from leaves, bark, seeds, pine cones, fungus and moss – are modeled off of actual structures in Germany. This marks the 22nd year of the holiday attraction, which was built in 1992 by Applied Imagination founder Paul Busse. The train was originally displayed in the lobby of the historic Huntington bank building at Broad and High streets; however in 2009 Huntington graciously loaned the train to CML. Highlights of the train display include a 6-foot tall cathedral, an 8-foot tall castle and a waterfall that pumps 600 gallons an hour. Each building in the display took between one and three weeks to create.

Happy Chichester’s musical interest began with drumming, which took over around age seven when a friend of a friend sat down at his dad’s kit and played Batman. He claims drums and drumming are a lifelong obsession. From Batman, to Mad magazine, to Kurt Vonnegut books and the Kinks, Happy has “always appreciated stuff that could humorously satirize culture, though it seems to be getting harder to do.” Happy was part of the infamous local band Ray Fuller and the Bluesrockers and was bassist for one of the most successful bands to come out of Columbus in the ‘80s, the Royal Crescent Mob, which signed with Warner Bros. subsidiary Sire Records in ‘89. When the Mob broke up, Happy joined Howlin’ Maggie, which signed with Columbia Records. Happy is currently a solo artist and runs his own record label, Pop Fly, with his wife Laura. He is now a songwriter, arranger, keyboard and guitar player in addition to bass and drums.

Don't ask me why or even why now but allow me to say I feel like I'm obeying some unseen giant cosmic force that is haunting me with the following command: "Bring Bunny Wailer's two albums, 1977's magnificent "Protest" and the nearly equal "Blackheart Man" from 1976, to light for they have been too long ignored by the Marley-gorging reggae-loving public. Do it now, do it this week and don't blow your deadline, dummy." Not exactly 'God said to Abraham, kill me a son,' I know. But I also don't know why I have been returning to these two fine albums so much lately. I mean, I wouldn't be caught dead listening to Bob Marley because he was a peace-mongering pothead who eventually blew his mind out in a car-sized bong, partying til his brain turned to cancerous mush. Sad, really. Seriously, I haven't listened to a Bob album in years other than a deluxe copy of Exodus half-a-decade ago. I ponder. I know. I listen to Neville O'Riley Livingston, original member of the Wailers along with Peter Tosh and Marley, because these two albums are distinctly soul-reggae.

DJ Rich NYCe, used two recent Hip Hop events, Elevator Music’s (614) Summer Jam and the Second Annual Polar Showcase as the framework to make a documentary about a couple of our city's Hip Hop scenes. “There are 11 stories of various lengths. I fused some live performance footage and a couple videos to make one major project.” DJ Rich NYCe is a Columbus Hip Hop veteran, so he has a vantage point. NYCe was born in Guyana and grew up in New York but he has lived in Columbus since the 90s. He is a founding member of Usual Suspects DJ Crew whose membership boasts DJ O-Sharp, J-Rawls, Krate Digga, King Sev and Brooklyn Butcher. Rich currently deejays at Republic on Fridays. You don’t have to be an OG DJ to be familiar with some of the film’s main subjects: King Vada, J. Rawls, Rashad and the 3rd, P. Blackk, Exec Gang, Cocky Club, Luxury League and Fabrashay A. But Rich also wants to introduce you to a few new faces such as Ceezer, Ella Star and Armond Wake Up. The project developed from the documentation that Rich’s online radio station, Pulse Radio, was doing as a media co-sponsor for both events. Rich is the station manager of Pulse Radio.