Local

Last week I saw a little African-American girl who looked to be about five years old walking with, I assume her mother. I then saw other young African-American girls entering an elementary school. They appeared to be between five and eight years old.

They were normal little girls. Running, laughing and looking happy to be going to school. They were of different hues of color, some short and some tall for their ages. They wore normal clothing for children their age. Most of them had something else in common. They were wearing fake hair. Hair that was long and almost for some, touching their backside. Hair that they had to brush out of their eyes as they ran to enter the school doors. Hair in styles that made them look like little women. Hair that clearly wasn’t their own.

Do you want to watch a rap documentary where you honestly say to yourself:  “I really like this guy?” If so I recommend, The World Has No Eyedea, a film about Michael “Eyedea” Larson, a Minneapolis rap icon who was widely known for his work with Rhymesayers Entertainment from 1999-2010. The World Has No Eyedea with be shown at the Gateway Film Center April 8th, at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $10.50

“Eyedea” Larsen passed away October 16, 2010 after not surviving an accidental overdose in Minnesota. Eyedea’s death left a void in the hearts of his friends and fans.

I spoke to “The World Has No Eyedea” documentarian Brandon Crowson on the phone in anticipation of the film’s screening at the Gateway Film Center, April 8th. The movie shows Mikey’s development from a b-boying, working class Minnesota kid, to a world renown battle rapper, who eventually became compelled to champion individuality, soul-searching and experimentation.

So what is the world missing from Eyedea’s passing?

Ohio’s environment and the planet would be more peaceful and green if Dennis Kucinich was in charge. That was his message when the former Cleveland mayor, former U.S. Congressperson and former presidential candidate spoke Saturday, April 1 at Columbus’ 5th Annual Move to Amend statewide conference. Kucinich’s keynote was entitled “Ending Corporate Personhood and Money as Speech.” He touched on several environmental and social justice issues that could be changed if the Move to Amend movement was successful in passing a Constitutional amendment to reverse several U.S. Supreme Court decisions during the past century and thereby firmly establish that corporations are not people and that money is not free speech.

Kucinich held up the March issue of the Columbus Free Press as he referred to Harvey Wasserman’s article “Ohio’s Crumbling Nukes Face Judgment Day” about the attempt to have taxpayers bail out Ohio’s nuclear power plants. He described Free Press Senior Editor Wasserman as “one of the foremost citizen activists anywhere on nuclear issues.”

Anti Gorsuch Counter Rally
Thursday, April 6, 1-2pm
Ohio Statehouse
Trump administration is calling for a pro Gorsuch rally at the Columbus state house tomorrow at noon. That means he is worried about the confirmation and our strong counter-rally will send Portman a strong message!

Micro-plastics, the EPA, Fracking: You Choose! with Dr. Lanno
Thursday, April 6, 7:30-8:30pm
Backstage Bistro, 503 S Front St, Columbus, Ohio 43215

In a world rife with 24/7 breaking news alerts, chaos in politics and fearful citizens, a tonic can be the healthy foods coming from our community gardens in Columbus.

Kossuth Street Garden has been operational since 2007, bringing social justice in the form of fresh fruits and vegetables and community involvement to a food desert on the near south side of Columbus. This is an area just south of Nationwide Children's Hospital that is third in the nation in black infant mortality rates and is in transition from blight to hope.

The site has a rich history. At one point it was the site of a slaughterhouse in this former predominantly Jewish neighborhood. Men and women liberated from Nazi concentration camps walked to work into the kosher sections of the slaughterhouse. It then became a produce warehouse and which was torn down in 1996.

The Guild House, located in the Short North is certainly THE most vegan friendly of Cameron Mitchell’s variety of fine dining restaurants in Columbus, just let the team know you are vegan. The Guild House gets veganizing their tantalizing artisan culinary American cuisine right.

You will be delighted as Carlo, a dining room manager, JP, their executive chef and severs such as Alexa, effectively embody their objectives of genuine hospitality, and ensuring their culinary guild delivers “a lot love in every plate.”

Donald Trump should love hemp. That’s right, you know, hemp is terrific. Just terrific. It’s going to make a tremendous amount of money for people in this great country. Win big. Really big.

… or at least that’s what we’d like to hear him say.

Trying to find the new administration’s position on hemp and hemp alone is like parsing hemp stacks for chemical pesticides and herbicides. Non-existent.

But Donald Trump should love hemp anyway and here’s why.

First the necessary primer. Hemp and its more popular cousin marijuana are related, but still quite different. Both emanate from the cannabis plant, but like, say, the familiar family dog, they are distinct. Canines can be bred to be giant Great Danes or tiny Chihuahuas, gentle and kind Labrador Retrievers or strong and aggressive Pit Bulls. By analogy, the hemp plant can be grown to be strong and fibrous for cordage that sails ships, or molecularly balanced for the oils that treat seizures in small children. Believe me, this plant is incredible.

As a journalist, you can often find out more from looking into someone’s eyes than listening to the words out of their mouths.

It might sound corny, but on Tuesday night in Flint, Michigan, where I hosted a town hall discussion for The Young Turks, I learned of the utter disaster that never stopped being a disaster by simply looking into the eyes of fallen Americans.

These were citizens injured on the battlefields of war—only they never signed up for the army or traveled abroad. Instead, they were mere victims of the ongoing war on the poor, waged by a corrupt government innately more interested in making money and staying in power than making the right decisions for its citizens.

“These $20 filters don’t work,” Flint resident, Adam Murphy, said. Murphy, a 37-year-old father of five, has been poisoned to the point of having severe neurological problems that cause him seizures. His child was also born with high lead levels.

“I have to get on some expensive medications that Medicaid doesn’t cover,” he said, adding that the government is lying to citizens in telling them it’s safe to drink the Flint water with a filter.

It is almost impossible to find a picture of Chuck Berry where he isn’t holding a guitar, typically a Gibson ES-350T or ES-335. Although the 335 is probably more common in the photo vaults, most of records that Berry made during his heyday in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s – “Maybelline,” “Johnny B. Goode,” “Roll Over Beethoven” etc. – were cut with the 350T.

The 350T is a semi-acoustic archtop, something of a cross between an amplified acoustic guitar such as the ES-150 and full solid bodies such as the Les Paul. A solid center block permitted electric amplification without too much feedback, while the hollow pockets on both sides of the guitar featured f-shaped sound holes which permitted the instrument to be played acoustically. Like most of the guitars of its era, it was intended for guitarists playing in the jazz orchestras popular at the time. Its arched body is a piece of craftsmanship, the work of a master luthier. They cost shit-tons of money.

Wednesday, April 5, 9am-3pm
Trinity Church, 125 E. Broad and Ohio Statehouse
Want to learn how laws get made at the Statehouse, and how you can have more influence on the process? 

Innovation Ohio, Progress Ohio and For Ohio's Future are hosting a statewide Citizen Lobby Day on April 5 to demystify the process and arm advocates and activists with tools and training to be more effective citiizen activists.

Plan to come for part or all of the day. There will be opportunities to:
- get trained on how to get results at the Statehouse
- testify in committee
- meet with state legislators and staff
- attend a hearing and legislative session.

Sign up to participate at http://act.progressohio.org/signup/citizens-lobby-day/