Local
I recently stopped by a smoke shop on North High Street to visit a friend. From floor to ceiling, colorful glass pipes – small and large – graced expansive shelves. Several cost more than $1,000. Accessories aimed at every taste aligned well-lit display cases. It was a smorgasbord of everything weed, except for, well, the cannabis. I felt as though I had time traveled and arrived in the future. It wasn’t that long ago (2003) that Tommy Chong spent nine months in prison for selling this kind of glassware. My, how things have changed.
From this perspective, I look back on 2016: how far things have come. Will this contentious year mark the plant’s coming of age or when pendulum of progress swung back the other way?
While celebs and a clutch of great musicians croaked by the dressing room full, did anyone notice the Rolling Stones had a banner year?
Yes, I am writing about the Stones--again.
Because they matter. Perhaps more than ever. More on that at the end, luv.
Early in 2016 they conquered South America with a 10-show tour that included figuratively climbing over the diplomatic and ideological walls and playing a free show inside a communist dictatorship--Cuba. No ordinary gig by any act's standards, hundreds of thousands of Cubans showed up after months of behind-the-scenes finagling (underwritten by a Latino billionaire) complicated by the timing of Obama's surprise overture and visits by both the president and the Pope.
Besides the DVD, Havana Moon, of the concert, there is a fantastic must-see documentary of the rest of the Stones South American tour and hombre, it I think think it is the best Stones movie yet.
Hidden Figures tells a fact-based story so fascinating that you wonder why it hasn’t been told until now. Of course, if it had been, they would have had to change the title.
“Hidden Figures” refers to complex mathematical equations that had to be solved before the U.S. could send men into space in the early 1960s. But it also refers to the people who helped to solve those equations.
Specifically, it refers to a group of black women who—because of their race and gender—labored under trying conditions. Directed and co-written by Theodore Melfi (St. Vincent) and based on a book by Margot Lee Shetterly, the film focuses on three of these women who worked as human “computers” at NASA’s Virginia headquarters in the midst of America’s frantic “space race” with the Soviet Union.
Jill Stein’s multi-state presidential recount was unprecedented. The idea originated from a group of computer scientists represented by attorney John Bonifaz, who after analyzing the U.S. computerized voting system found it to be vulnerable to hacking and manipulation. Social scientists and statisticians deemed some of the 2016 election results to be improbable. Election integrity volunteers and attorneys stepped up to help sort it out.
Jill Stein, Green Party presidential candidate, agreed to ask for recounts in three states: Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The donation page went online the afternoon before Thanksgiving. The recount was quickly financed in a few weeks by 150,000 small donors at the grassroots level across the political spectrum.
But if you were watching Fox News or reading Facebook during the recount you would think Stein, with a suspicious and nefarious agenda, was at best working undercover for the Clinton campaign or at worst, involved in a political payola campaign scam to enrich herself.
Now that the National Entertainer-In-Chief election is over, what to do?
Here's what not to do: Overanalyze.
Donald Trump won in the Electoral College. How did he do it and still lose the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly three million votes? If only 80,000 votes were changed in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Blah, blah, blah.
The simple explanation is that America is tired of the Clintons, and Hillary was not an inspirational figure. Late-deciding voters did not want to face four years of boring television and social media from the White House, so folks shifted over to TV celebrity Trump because they were choosing a National Entertainer-In-Chief, not a Commander-In-Chief.
Boredom is the mortal enemy of many of our fellow citizens, not Putin. In fact, a lot of people find Vladimir a charismatic figure like Trump.
In a another case of over studying, Washington Post and New York Times columnists recently have praised Sen. Rob Portman for a magnificent campaign. What a political genius that Portman, they wrote, citing all sorts of reasons for his rout of Ted Strickland.
For the past six months, I have had the pleasure and displeasure of working at The Neighborhood House (NHI). The pleasure has been in working at a settlement house that was established in 1902 to serve the homeless, jobless, hungry, adults, children, pregnant mothers, families and people of all races who need community services to become and remain self-sufficient. The pleasure was in providing hope and encouragement as well as resources to meet the settlement goals in Franklin County.
The displeasure was in watching the NHI become extinct as programs were cut and ended at a pace that showed no compassion for the people that it served or the employees that worked at the NHI, some for several years.
Let’s start with the first deception which clearly rests with the NHI Board Members. Now I’m going to assume that the NHI board has a job description in place, which is a standard practice with non-profit organizations. However, if it does have a job description, then the question that arises is: what are they doing or what have they done to “save” the NHI from failing after 114 years of service.
Run The Jewels (El-P and Killer Mike) just sold-out the Express Live 3 weeks before the Hip Hop duo’s January 16th show in our fair city.
Run the Jewels are resonating because the music is futuristic and they speak their minds. El-P and Killer Mike were in Ferguson the night of the Michael Brown verdict. They campaigned for Bernie Sanders.
So their latest album, RTJ3 is hitting an important stride at the beginning of 2017.
RTJ3 opens up with “Down” where Killer Mike states, “One time for the Freedom of Speech/ Two Times for the right to hold heat.” There is a refrain that says, “I could’ve died y’all.” Then El-P arrives demanding attention with bold statements, as one “who dodged his own lobotomy.”
Obviously there are multiple factors that lead to a musical act connecting with how a mass of people feel.
Free Press Heroes: Local activists at Standing Rock
The Free Press recognizes the Central Ohioans who stood in solidarity with Native Americans and others protesting the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock in 2016: Heidi Detty, Bob Studzinski, Bruce Kiracofe, Michael Ulrey, Elizabeth Castro, Michael Vinson and Rudy Gerdeman, who was hit by water cannons and tear gas. These brave water protectors are appreciated by Tunkashila. The Free Press is proud to support these local activists who put their bodies on the line against those who poison water in the name of profit. Mitakuye oyasin.
Free Press Salutes: Jill Stein