FP: Just for our readers who don't know: What is Ekoostik Hookah?

     Um, it's a band that's been around for about twelve years now.  We started in Columbus at the South Heidelberg every Wednesday and then, um,  we played all around.

FP: Do you guys own this land? (Frontier Ranch)

     We're leasing it right now.  It's a five year lease, with the option to buy it at the end.

FP: Why did you guys decide to do that?

      Well it was either that or it was going to become a housing development.  The people that own it like the way we run the shows here and they were pushing to keep it a music venue.  I think the neighbors around here also didn't want it to turn into a real dense housing development, so they went to city hall meetings and made sure it wouldn't be sold to the developers.  The guys that run it just wanted to retire and they couldn't really keep up with it.  So they kind of wanted us to do it.  It's also nice to have a permanent place so we can start putting up permanent fencing instead of every time we do Hookahville, putting up temporary fencing.

The Green Party is looking for progressives to run for elected office.

Across the US a 177 Green office holders in 24 states are hard at work. They are creating public policy on important issues including civil rights, a living wage, affordable housing, alternative voting systems, and peace. They are advocating for peace and opposing urban sprawl and expansion of corporate power. Green office holders ran to make an immediate impact on their communities as town council members, county commissioners, school board members etc. These Greens reached out to voters of diverse backgrounds, brought together coalitions of community organizations and individuals to begin to reclaim their local governments.

The growth and movement of the Green Party continues in 2003 and toward 2004. All across the country hundreds of Green Party candidates will be challenging the two establishment parties. Here in Ohio this year all kinds of local offices are up for election, from city councils to school boards to township trustees. * In 2004 one of our US Senate seats, seats in the US Congress, the Ohio State Senate and House of Representatives

Here we go again. While postwar Iraq continues to crumble, the Bush administration is now setting its sights on a new target—Iran—in its so-called effort to reshape most of the Middle East and bring democracy to countries ruled by vicious dictators. But the Bush administration is again relying on flimsy evidence and thin intelligence information in claiming that the Iran poses an immediate threat to the United States.

The U.S. still hasn’t uncovered any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, which was the prime reason for launching an attack against the country. Rumsfeld said in an interview reported by CNN Tuesday that it’s possible the WMD in Iraq may have been destroyed prior to the war. So right now, the Bush administration doesn’t have much credibility here or with countries that rightfully opposed the war in Iraq.

Ari Fleischer, Bush’s press secretary, said during his daily press briefing Tuesday that Iran hasn’t taken the appropriate steps to round up al Qaeda terrorists allegedly hiding out within its borders. Moreover, Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons puts the U.S. in grave danger. Therefore, regime change is in order.

STOMP is a hell of a kick.  It's the Oltatunji of the Ashcans.  The Kodo Drumming of the Alleyways.  It is offbeat, imaginative, relentlessly unique in its working-class creativity, and, at its best, downright inspirational.

Gotta admit---it starts slow.  You have to adjust to a set cobbled together from trashcans and hubcaps, discard signs and scrap metal.  There's no orchestra and no lyrics.  Marcel Marceau would get mugged in this neighborhood.

Festivities open with a guy pushing a broom.  Soon there's a chorus line of broomsters, somehow making it all musical.  And from there it goes...

Other "instruments" range from paperbags and daily newspapers to bottleopeners and kitchen utensils, from actual basketballs to apparently random trash.

Slowly, the cast establishes their characters.  The sad sack.  The macho muscle man.  The Earth Mother.  The firefly.

They're all young and profoundly athletic.  They play a very good game of fast-break  run-and-shoot.  Not much defense.  The pace quickens.  The stunts grow more demanding.  The music gets better.  The jumps and turns get more impressive.