Advertisement

By press time, it might well be that everything there is to say about Prince had been said, and then some. Forgive me though, if I take a couple of minutes to talk about not the performer, but about his favorite instrument, a knock-off Fender Telecaster.


There is a movement on to educate the world that Prince was not just a pop star, but a great guitarist as well. Even a cursory look around the internet should convince you of the truth of this. Of the live footage out there, perhaps the most stunning is his solo on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” at the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame ceremony inducting George Harrison. Yowsa. What are these wild and strange blues, and why are they emanating from a guy who is famous for smoothly produced pop music?

Two things.

Used Kids is no longer on the OSU campus. Used Kids moving to Summit/Hudson is momentous because the record store was the last visible bastion of campus counter-culture. I feel bad for the students. Sometimes it seems like OSU doesn't like music.

 

The second was that I missed the Vic Mensa show at OSU. I saw Big Sean last year, and it was pretty amazing. He rocked with complete emcee dominance to 6,000 kids with the use of a band and deejay.

I guess it just depends where you stand.

Guy playing guitar with Kentucky Fried chicken bucket on his head, he has white makeup like a mime

Weirdo well-established solo electric guitarist Buckethead could easily run for president this year. He's got gimmicks galore--let us count the ways we saw at his recent sold-out, truly standing-room-only Woodlands show:

1) The upside down KFC 36-piece bucket atop his head. This has been one of his two standard trademarks since his coming on the scene nearly a quarter-century ago. An upside down KFC 36-piece bucket? Why, that's nearly as brilliant as your own obnoxious reality TV show which appears on your presidential candidacy resume. Buckethead wouldn't fire you, though, he'd instead ask you to pile your KFC skins farther away from him--integrity of piles, you know.

It’s been nearly two years since a mob of entitled straight white males took on the uncreative handle of “Gamergate” (Can we stop with the “gate”s already?) to harass and threaten women in gaming-related geek spaces under the guise of “ethics in journalism.” In that time they managed to bring attention to the ugliness faced by women in the game industry and games journalism and get mentioned as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, but they didn’t actually manage to stop video games from occasionally being about people other than them.
 

That’s because most big game companies have decided to stay on the side of Good. Even Intel, which slipped up by removing their ads from the Gamergate-targeted web site Gamasutra, aggressively made up for it by not only reinstating the ads but publicly supporting other targets like game critic Anita Sarkeesian and the LGBT-geared GaymerX convention.
 

We are back talking about Columbus police wearing body cameras and placing cameras on patrol cars, so we can catch the rare instance when a cop goes wrong, publicize it and get justice.

No doubt there has been wrong-doing by police elsewhere in the country and one bad cop is one too many, but ...

We need to think long and hard about the additional pressure we would put on Columbus' Finest by forcing them to record every moment on patrol. Will they be forced to stop and think about the ramifications of the camera instead of acting quickly to fight crime?

Does that have negative consequences for the public?

If we are going all in on cameras for cops, why stop there?

On May 3 citizens from across the state gathered at the Ohio Capitol to testify against HB 476, bipartisan legislation that would block state contracts for those who support Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against the state of Israel.

On Wednesday, May 3 supporters of Palestine from across the state testified before the Ohio House Government Accountability and Oversight Committee in opposition to House Bill 476, bipartisan legislation that would prohibit state agencies from contracting with a companies or individuals who are boycotting Israel or divesting from Israel.

“We are opposed to HB 476 because it violates our free speech,” said Don Bryant from the Cleveland area, one of the 14 who testified. “To outlaw BDS is to outlaw a non-violent form of resistance against the oppression of the Palestinians.”

BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) is an economic strategy for pressuring Israel to end its occupation and colonization of Arab lands in Palestine, dismantle the Gaza Wall, and recognize full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel.

People talking at a forum

On April 25, 2016 the NAACP Columbus Unit and Columbus City Schools (CCS) sponsored a Community Education Forum at The Neighborhood House, Inc.

People dressed campy singing and acting

Shadowbox Live has staged several music retrospectives that were both entertaining and enlightening. The result is that troupe patrons have a leg up anytime the conversation turns to Joe Cocker, Pink Floyd or even the Beatles.

With its current musical revue, Front Street Funk, the emphasis is more on “entertaining” than on “enlightening.” I can’t say I walked away with much new insight into the genre that gave “Papa” a “Brand New Bag.”

Then again, that could be partly my fault. Maybe I missed some of the information the show doled out between tunes because I was so busy tapping my foot, watching fellow patrons dance and, at one point, actually dancing myself.

Tofu with grilled vegetables, and macadamia nuts.

Kona Grill aims to please their customers with their agile menu adaptations to suite specific, avoidant requirements and still provide a splendidly satisfying dining experience. If you enjoy being transported to the tropics in atmosphere and flavors, Kona’s spectrum of sensory offerings is the place for you. They surpass their conventional dining service level peers by offering a clearly identified vegan and vegetarian menu for their patrons, which is (surprisingly) still an uncommon feature of most mainstream restaurants. I enjoyed an appetizer of vegan sushi and meal of specially requested grilled vegetables, with tofu and macadamia nuts.

Drawing of a woman with a bullhorn

Calling itself Columbus’ Green Renaissance Network, Saturday April 23, marked the “Earth Day BirthDay” of Columbus’ newest Low Power FM Radio station, WGRN-LP 94.1. Victoria Parks, volunteer programmer for WGRN, answered some questions for the Free Press giving us the skinny on WGRN:
FP: Where can our community tune-in to WGRN-LP and what is Low Power FM radio?

Pages

Subscribe to Freepress.org RSS