Local

The Columbus Music “Scene”

What is a “scene” anyway? What does it look like, sound like or even feel like? What does it mean for a city to have a “music scene?” And if you were asked, “what is Columbus's music scene like?” How would you answer that question? I remember all too well the words of a very old musician who once said to me, “you will never have a strong 'music scene' in a town that is so consumed with sports.” I believe he was right. We all know most major cities across the country have some kind of big sports team. But here in Columbus, the Buckeyes rule, sports are everything and music is just a side note or not played at all. In short, one can take it or leave it. When you think of cities where music rules, which ones come to mind? Nashville, home of country music? Chicago, home of the blues? New York City, home of the eccentric, where “under ground” is cool? L.A., home for anybody looking to be somebody and anybody could be somebody so people are nice to you because YOU could be that “somebody?” Get my drift here? Even Detroit was once known as the R&B music Mecca.

Zombie Walk

It turns out even zombies have their run-ins with the man.
 

But some local zombies are hoping to avoid any complications this Saturday when they gather for Zombie Walk Columbus 2013. The ghoulish meet up is actually a cleverly disguised canned food drive for the Mid-Ohio Food Bank.
The meeting point this year is in front of COSI, a change from years past when the beasties walked their beat in the Short North.
Zombie Walk co-chairman Joe Knapik said the move was out of necessity.
 

Zombies, vampires and rage in post-apocalyptic America

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Having taught Popular Culture for more than 20 years, one of the more frequently asked questions is: “Why are Americans obsessed with zombies, vampires and other post-apocalyptic creatures?”

While there’s no one answer, I believe the best explanation is that these evil beings are a metaphor for corporate America. Remember the words uttered in George C. Romero’s legendary Dawn of the Dead (1978): “When there’s no more room in hell, the dead shall walk the Earth.”

We live in a society that has given similar rights to “natural born citizens” and unnatural entities through so-called “corporate personhood.”

The Crest Gastropub

The night before I dined at the Crest Gastropub for the first time, I had a quick meeting with a well-known Clintonville Curmudgeon. As we sat at O’Reilly’s, I shared that I had tried to get into the Crest, but it was too crowded. “Yeah, the place is OK, but it does not deserve to bear the name of the Crest,” he replied (at least the gist, I was not taking notes), “That place is just the shell of the building, everything else is different.”

I could feel the pangs of nostalgia in his words. Unfortunately, I could not share his feelings. I never connected with the Crest in my visits there. It always seemed like a place that could be much more than it was, with little effort. I know from oral history there were many high points and a great community within those walls in the decades it was open, but I never viewed the place as an asset to the community or I place I would want to go. (Pauses….waiting for the outraged comments to come).

Pioneer Pizza Palace

Leonardo’s Pizza has a history dating back to the early 1950s. It was one of the pioneers in a new wave of food in Columbus.

Patrick and Anna Rose Orecchio started their first shop on Northwest Blvd. back in 1953 and grew a large family business with all of the kids working in front and back of the house. The empire grew to several locations by the early 1980s in various parts of town. Pizza gets in the blood and can often not be removed. This past month, Drew Orecchio (son of the founder) and his wife Laurie reopened Leonardo’s in a recently vacated Sparanos Pizza location on Hague Ave. Having read about the excitement of the grand opening in my blog comments, I had to check the place out. The spot on Hague Ave. has a lot of history as well…but that is for some other time.

Book Review of Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans And the End of Slavery By Deborah Willis and Barbara Krauthamer

Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans And the End of Slavery By Deborah Willis and Barbara Krauthamer This year is an anniversary year for a number of events significant to the struggle for racial equality in America, including the sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation. While the document technically did not free any slaves–if you are interested in that, I will see you in my class on African American History Before Emancipation, Spring semester 2014!–it has always been interpreted, especially by enslaved African Americans, as though it did. Despite President Abraham Lincoln’s assertion that the Civil War was not about slavery, the enslaved thought otherwise. From the time the first shots were fired, they assumed and acted as though the war was about their freedom. For years Deborah Willis, Professor and Chair of Photography and Imaging at the New York University, and Barbara Krauthamer, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, had been discussing what the freedom of African Americans looked like.

Funny, he doesn’t look like he’s in pain

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New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. Outer Critics Circle Award. Pulitzer Prize finalist. All this, plus a rave review in The New York Times.

Stephen Karam’s Sons of the Prophet picked up lots of praise after opening off-Broadway in 2011. In subsequent regional productions, however, its reviews have been more mixed. After seeing Evolution Theatre Company’s production last weekend, I suspect the tragi-comedy is a tricky piece that benefited from a brilliant premiere production but has been less fortunate ever since.

Here in Columbus, ETC’s production definitely leaves one wondering what all the fuss was about. Though director Mark Phillips Schwamberger elicits good performances here and there, they aren’t enough to distract viewers’ attention from the overall lack of coherence and energy.

The Fukushima Nightmare Gets Even Worse

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Just when it seemed things might be under control at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, we find they are worse than ever.

Immeasurably worse.

Massive quantities of radioactive liquids are now flowing through the shattered reactor site into the Pacific Ocean. And their make-up is far more lethal than the "mere" tritium that has dominated the headlines to date.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), the owner/operator, and one of the world's biggest and most technologically advanced electric utilities, has all but admitted it cannot control the situation. Their shoddy performance has prompted former US Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Dale Klein to charge: "You don't know what you are doing."

The Japanese government is stepping in. But there is no guarantee, or even likelihood, it will do any better.

Nightlife Music Events for the Weekend of Sept 5th.

Ace of Cups 2619 N High St, Columbus, OH 43202

(614) 262-6001

Thursday TKLS, The Girls! Paul Collins

Friday 60's Night Live!

Saturday Heatwave

Sunday Karaoke

Monday Shocked Minds

Tuesday Excess Trivia

Wednesday Jackson scott


 

A&R Music Bar 391 Neil Ave Columbus (614-461-5483)

Saturday Griffin House


 

Axis on High

Saturday Tyra Sanchez, Roxxxy Andrews, Penny


 


 

The Basement 391 Neil Ave Columbus (614) 461-5483

Thursday El Ten Eleven with Eliot Lipp

Monday Pere Ubu


 


 

Bernie's Distillery 1896 N. High St. Columbus, OH 43201

(614) 291-3448

Thursday The Danny Kabl Trio

 

Friday The Angry Samoans, Downtown Brown, Skagnetti, The Girls!

Saturday B Day party Bash

Sunday Suicide Ghouls

Monday Open Stage

Wednesday Super Bob, Blameshift

 

Coalition Announces Last Weekend for Petition Signatures

The Columbus Coalition for Responsive Government (“the Coalition”) has announced that the Hot Times in Olde Towne Festival, September 6-8, will be the last event at which signatures will be collected for the Coalition’s campaign finance reform petition.

The Coalition has been collecting petition signatures in order to enact a campaign finance reform law, saying the high cost of elections in Columbus and the 28 year practice of making council appointments, rather than holding original elections, has eliminated meaningful competition for elected offices and reduced the responsiveness of elected officials to the citizens.

Willis Brown, a member of the Committee of Petitioners that is sponsoring the ordinance says, “the voters passed a charter amendment in 1994, authorizing city council to enact a campaign finance law. Twenty years later, the city council still has not passed a meaningful finance reform law, so we as citizens have written a law and as citizens are bringing it up to Council for consideration.”

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