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Spring Fever

On Sunday, March 9th, it's Spring Forward for daylight savings, time to move our clocks forward one hour (2am becomes 3am). Spring begins officially with the Vernal Equinox on March 20th at 12:57PM Eastern Time. Spring Fever isn't a myth or a disease, it encompasses psychological and physiological changes. Our bodies respond to the change in seasons and availability of sunlight. Our circadian rhythms are directly affected by bright light, especially in women. Internal timekeeping runs faster in some women, thus making them more affected by available sunlight. The rapid changes in the amount of sunlight from Vernal Equinox to the Summer Solstice, creates Spring Fever in most of us. Many of us experiencing winter blues (especially with this harsh one) are just itching for it to be over. We want sunshine, longer days, warmth, and to get out of the house more often for longer periods of time. We get so excited from seeing grass, buds on plants and trees. Experiencing bare flesh again is also quite titillating. This excitement creates a release of endorphins.

Trail Life: America's New Hitler Youth?

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."

 -- Sinclair Lewis

 Dissatisfied with the Boy Scouts of America's new policy permitting openly gay boy scouts, a new Christian alternative, called Trail Life, emerged in 2013 and began a public relations blitzkrieg this past week. The group, which already has more than 100 chartered troops, has materials and rules but no uniforms as of yet. The press offensive played up the group's values and growth and garnered write-ups in the San Jose Mercury News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and MSNBC, among others. The mainstream press was happy to print photos of young “trailblazers” giving what appears to be a Nazi-style salute without criticism, but did not seem eager to research the background of the group's leaders and their connections.

FBI Report targets anti-fracking activists as terrorists for non-violent protests, movie attendance

The FBI may have you on a terrorist list. Have you been to see “Gasland” or attended a zoning meeting on fracking? The Columbus Free Press obtained a July 23, 2013 FBI's Philadelphia Joint Terrorism Task Force report on “Environmental Extremists.” The FBI and the Pennsylvania State Patrol coauthored the report that lumps virtually all activists engaged in protests against fracking for natural gas together as potential violent terrorists. The report includes photos of protests and protestors in Ohio along with photos of low grade black powder pipe bombs found unarmed and undetonated near natural gas drilling operations in rural Pennsylvania. Madeline ffitch, of Millfield, Ohio, was arrested for blockading an entrance way to a fracking wastewater injection well site on June 26, 2012. She was arrested while locked to two 50-gallon cement filled drums, effectively shutting down the well site.

Pair of worthy Oscar nominees finally reach Columbus

We’ve had months to see most of the Academy Award nominees, but a couple of stragglers are arriving in town just under the wire.

 Last week, the Palestinian film Omar began telling its nail-biting tale at the Gateway Film Center. If you have hope that Israel and the Palestinians will eventually work out their differences, this may not be the flick for you. Writer-director Hany Abu-Assad (Paradise Now) has crafted a thriller that is as short on optimism as it is long on intrigue.

 It’s the tense story of a West Bank baker whose life becomes a risky chess match after he’s implicated in the murder of an Israeli soldier. Actor Adam Bakri, leading the uniformly strong cast, succeeds in making us care about the baker even if we disagree with some of his actions. As a near-masterpiece by a rising star of international cinema, Omar is a must-see for serious film buffs.

 The Wind Rises, which opens Friday at the Drexel Theatre, is also a must-see, but for the opposite reason: It’s billed as the final full-length work by Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki.

The hills are alive with the sound of (recorded) music

As you may have heard, Shadowbox Live canceled its production of Into the Woods last week after only one performance.

The problem: The licensing agency learned the troupe had cut music from the show without prior permission. Shadowbox was given the option of restoring the missing music, but it decided the resulting show would have been too long for its purposes. So, bye-bye, Cinderella, Jack, Little Red Riding Hood and all the other familiar characters who were Sondheimized for the offbeat fairy tale.

Are restrictive licensing agreements a bad thing? The theater community could get into a heated debate on that question. On the one hand, they curtail artists’ freedom; on the other, they protect the integrity of the original work. In this case, the licensing dispute closed a show that not only cut music but reimagined many of the characters and plot elements. It clearly was not what creators Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine had in mind.

Socially Just Dining: Amul India

Amul India definitely has the exotic tandoori spices they claim and really know how to use them. I have been extremely squeamish of certain families of squash my entire life (which can be an interesting challenge to negotiate when adding that limiting factor of deciding to take a stand that violence towards sentient individuals is not “food” in American culture, where most people have never heard the word “ahimsa,” which is the Jain concept that is at the heart of vegan ethics). I just don’t like the general texture or taste of: eggplant, zucchini or yellow squash typically served American style. I’ve found that the Indian, Ethiopian and Mediterranean cultures have mastered these squash preparations, transforming them so dramatically that I now embrace (what I had long detested) with anticipation and mouthwatering delight. Whatever preparations Amul India does to the Bhartha (eggplant) is downright amazing! Instant savory vegan crack! My server was happy to verify and ensure there were no animal products (ghee/clarified butter, cream) added to any of the food pictured below Aloo Choley (chick peas and potatoes) or Aloo Gobi (potatoes and cauliflower).

Bob Bites Back

Convicted felon Tom Noe, former Lucas County (Toledo) Republican Party chairman, stole $13.7 million in the so-called “Coingate” scandal during the Voinovich and Taft administrations. Major daily newspapers in Ohio such as the Toledo Blade and the Columbus Dispatch are finally getting around to pondering: Why has there been no investigation and final report from the Ohio Inspector General’s office on this important scandal? A Blade editorial asks the key question: “What is the state trying to cover up?” Let us explain it to them. Why there’s no report on the Coingate scandal is because it intersects with money –laundering into a presidential campaign and Voinovich’s ties to organized crime. Tom Noe was northwest Ohio's “Mr. Republican” and a close Bush/Rove crony. He served two years for illegal money laundering into the 2004 Bush/Cheney campaign. He is now serving an 18-year term in state prison for stealing from the state’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC). As owner of Vintage Coins and Cards in Maumee, Ohio, Noe raised more than $100,000 to become a Bush Pioneer/Ranger. But Noe was more than a mere fundraiser.

Town Hall a Hit … almost Literally

It is said that politics is a full contact sport and that Ohio is a battleground state. With Ohio politicians seemingly incapable of legitimizing medicinal cannabis while their power to do so is being usurped by “we the people,” it seems logical that this topic would ignite a heated debate. Such was the case at the ABC 6 Town Hall Meeting on Medicinal Marijuana held at the Columbus Museum of Art in the evening of Wednesday, February 19th. Perverbial fists and fingers flew.

Sparring partners included those representing the prohibitionist status quo who sat on the left side of a long table – Dr. Steve Matson, President of the Ohio Society of Addiction Medicine, and Marcie Seidel, the Executive Director of the Drug Free Action Alliance. And on right side, the voices for reason and reform belonged to Michael Revercomb, Vice President of Ohio NORML and John Pardee, President of the Ohio Rights Group. The ORG sponsors the Ohio Cannabis Rights Amendment, one subject of the debate.

The Navy Knew Fukushima Contaminated the USS Ronald Reagan

A stunning new report indicates the US Navy knew that sailors from the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan took major radiation hits from the Fukushima atomic power plant after its meltdowns and explosions nearly three years ago. The revelations cast new light on the $1 billion lawsuit filed by the sailors against Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco). Many of the sailors are already suffering devastating health impacts, but are being stonewalled by Tepco and the Navy. The Reagan had joined several other US ships in Operation Tomadachi (“friendship”) to aid victims of the March 11, 2011 quake and tsunami. Photographic evidence and first-person testimony confirms that on 3/12/11 the ship was within two miles of Fukushima Dai’ichi as the reactors there began to melt and explode. In the midst of a snow storm, deck hands were enveloped in a warm cloud that came with a metallic taste. The Reagan’s 5500-member crew was told over the ship’s intercom to avoid drinking or bathing in desalinized water drawn from a radioactive sea.

Their “blackface” acting mark in Black History

When I started to pay attention to the movies on the black and white television in our family room, I loved to watch the “silly” negro actors who occasionally showed up in the old black and white movies from the 1930s and 40s. At the time, as a young child, I liked them just as much as the “silly” white actors in the movies. The only difference that I saw in the acting of the comedians was that most of them were white, with the exception of the few black actors.

It wasn’t until I was older and my father began to teach me my Black and Cherokee history on his family side and my mother taught me my Black and “possibly” white history on her side that I realized that the negro actors that I had been watching, and laughing at, when I was a youth were wearing “blackface.”

That’s right! The black people who already had “brown skin” were forced to wear “blackface” in order to get a “part” in a movie or in the theatre. Let’s look at a few of the Black actors who had to play the “role” to get a part in the 1930s and 40s:

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