Local
In late November, Ohio marijuana aficionados waited with excitement to see which 12 companies would receive a coveted Level 1 mega-grow cultivation license. To everyone’s surprise, of the 109 applicants, 73 were “disqualified.” Other irregularities in the selection process began to appear.
Another surprise came on December 11 when Jimmy Gould of ResponsibleOhio fame, whose company CannaAscend was “disqualified,” announced at a Cincinnati press conference that he and fellow RO founder Ian James were preparing a “Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Amendment” for the fall 2018 ballot.
I caught up with Ian, a long-time colleague, to learn more:
MJB: How does it feel to be back?
IJ: I love this stuff.
MJB: Is Ohio ready for adult use marijuana?
IJ: I trust the voters before the bureaucrats. Our research shows that 6 in 10 Ohio voters support legalizing marijuana for adult use. And the numbers keep growing. A Pew (Research Center) poll from 1998 had 81 percent opposed. Both Pew and Gallup now find 64 percent/34 percent in favor nationwide showing that marijuana has strong unflappable majority support.
Like the title character Jessica Chastain portrayed in last year’s Miss Sloane, the woman she plays in Molly’s Game is driven by fierce ambition and copious amounts of pharmaceuticals. Though the current film is a typically literate effort written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, I can’t help preferring its trashy predecessor.
The main problem: Despite the new flick’s snappy dialogue and intriguing story, it’s hard to care about Molly Bloom. Based on an actual woman who made a fortune organizing high-stakes poker games, Chastain’s Bloom comes across as someone who cares only about success.
To be sure, there’s something admirable about Bloom’s ability to carve a place for herself in a secretive world dominated by men. There’s something even more admirable about her determination to forge her own path after some of those men—especially a poker entrepreneur named Dean (Jeremy Strong) and a movie star known only as Player X (Michael Cera)—attempt to control her.
Can a record collection have a soul and does it reveal the man who owned it?
In my time on earth as a music dealer, I've bought a number of record collections from those who’ve passed and whom I’ve know sometimes quite well.
Which isn't to say you've got to die for me to buy your records. I buy shamelessly from the living and the dead – a real bone collector like the medieval days. Remember that scene in Monty Python's “Life of Brian” where there was a not-quite-un-living person in the hereafter cart? But we're talking records here, not cadavers.
On a number of occasions in my decades buying and selling on High Street a particularly fine collection would come in--vinyl, compact disc, cassettes even – after I purchased I’d lament what a shame it was going to be to bust up such a sweetly assembled, beautifully woven, tasteful palette of music. Years if not decades in the purchasing and appreciating and absorption went into it. The man (I'm assuming) went for depth in sidemen like I have never seen: Art Tatum, whom I’ve never liked, showed up in at least a dozen titles.
We’ve heard this story too many times before, but it’s worth repeating in Columbus because the local version of this reality is so surreal and wrong it’s almost as if this community has refused to process it.
The West Side’s golden age was replaced with a casino that hasn’t revitalized the West Side as hoped, and is essentially sucking money out of Central Ohio at an increasing rate.
A few miles past the Hilltop in the years following WWII, two huge manufacturing plants emerged. General Motors built an auto-parts plant at the corner of West Broad and Georgesville, and in walking distance from this plant, White Westinghouse built a plant manufacturing dishwashers.
“The West Side was hopping,” says lifelong Hilltop resident Jim Ogden. “Both those plants were running three shifts a day.”
Twenty years ago, the Columbus Free Press came back into print backed by donations from the pro-hemp/medical marijuana movement. Our underground anti-war publication originated on the Ohio State University campus as an as a reaction to the Kent State killings in October 1970, and after 25 years we went strictly online. Through donations from hemp festivals at Rainbow Farm, arranged by legendary local activist Cannabis Kenny Schweickart, the Free Press was resurrected in 1998.
Wednesday, January 3, 7-8:30pm, Columbus Metropolitan Library [Rm. 1-A], 96 S. Grant Ave.
Jewish Voice for Peace members are inspired by Jewish tradition to work together for peace, social justice, equality, human rights, respect for international law, and a U.S. foreign policy based on these ideals. Contact: centralohio@jvp.org. facebook.com/JVPCentralOhio
Thank Mother Earth 2017 is finally over. It was a year that chewed me up, crapped me out, made sweet love to me, punched me in the gut, stole my lunch money, made me laugh, pantsed me, and gave me hope. And I’m only talking about American politics.
It all began with saying goodbye to Barack Obama, the biggest disappointment since losing your virginity. His departure was going to be the end of congressional gridlock and political baby steps. Special interests, criminals, and Valerie Jarrett would no longer decide the nation’s fate while the president negotiated speaking fees with Cantor Fitzgerald. The people would take back their government, they would take back their lives. Yet, as we know all too painfully, the euphoria was immediately extinguished when Hurricane Donald made landfall.
Sunday, December 31, 2017, 3:00 PM – 12:30 AM
St. John’s Church, 59 E. Main St., Columbus 43215
Come ring in the New Year old skool style and help support those opposing the Keystone XL Pipeline!! The proceeds from the 1st Annual Sobriety Powwow Hosted by Five Rivers Chatauqua partnered with Sierra Club Central Ohio will be going to Wakpa Was'te Camp located on Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in Eagle Butte South Dakota. Grand Entry at 3:00 p.m. Intermission at 6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Grand Entry at 8:00 p.m.
Enough is enough. Especially when it comes to a name.
Many of you have undoubtedly faced a crisis or two about your own. It can come from anywhere, like changing (or NOT) your family name when getting married. Or dumping the curse of one you never liked.
Famous examples abound. The great Texas-born classical pianist Van Cliburn was in fact Harvey Lavan Cliburn. Lady Gaga is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. Kirk Douglas was Issur Danielovitch. Marilyn Monroe came from Norma Jean Mortenson. Tony Curtis had been Bernard Schwartz. John Wayne was Marion Mitchell Morrison.
You get the picture.
When I was born in Boston 72 years ago this New Year’s Eve, my mom made my father promise not to name me “Harvey.” Dad’s father, who’d just passed away, was Herschel. So the “H” was unavoidable. But there were certainly better choices. She never forgave him. Me either.
My middle name is Franklin, as my parents were big FDR fans. As an historian, I like it for Ben.
Wasserman means “Aquarius” or Water Man in German. I’m good with that.
But “Harvey”?
The rabbit in the Jimmy Stewart movie was in fact a real-life “Pooka”, a Celtic spirit.
Dec 30, 2017 at 7 PM to Jan 12, 2018 at 10 PM
On your phone or computer
THIS IN AN ONGOING EVENT! In honor of Dr. Alice Paul, ERA Action has launched "RISE UP! SHOULDER-TO-SHOULDER FOR THE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT". This virtual Social Media event will be an ***ONGOING EVENT UNTIL WOMEN HAVE ACHIEVED CONSTITUTIONAL EQUALITY***. On July 21, 1923, Dr. Paul unveiled the amendment at the 75th Anniversary of the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York.
It was quite fitting that Alice chose this day to introduce her amendment as she realized the event was not only a day to celebrate the victory of the long, hard fought battle to gain the vote for women, but the beginning of the next phase for the movement - to obtain full Constitutional equality.
As Alice famously said: "We shall not be safe until the principle of equal rights is written into the framework of our government.”