Like Gloria Swanson at the end of 1950’s Sunset Blvd., the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is finally ready for its close up. Years in the making, the Academy Museum’s world premiere is Sept. 30. According to Bill Kramer, President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – you know, those fine folks who give the annual Academy Awards – this cinematic sanctuary “is a new home for the art of film in Los Angeles, the world capital of moviemaking.”

At the same Sept. 21 press event Kramer addressed, architect Renzo Piano whimsically likened the edifice’s futuristic spheric design to “a soap bubble. Don’t call it the ‘Death Star.’ Call it a zeppelin or a spaceship.” This 250,000-plus square foot repository of cinema is adjacent to what had been the May Company (now the Saban) Building, famed for its gold-tiled cylindrical section that resembled a lipstick tube, located at the “Miracle Mile” in Mid-City L.A. Inside visitors can experience movie magic and see some of the screen’s most iconic artifacts.

Sunday evening workers and supporters of workers at Worthington’s three library branches gathered on Worthington’s Village Green to rally support for voting yes to unionize. The year-long effort to unionize the workers at Worthington Public Libraries has come down to a vote, which employees and the community are optimistic will result in the recognition of the union.

If workers at Worthington Public Libraries succeed in forming a union, it would be the first library to be unionized in Franklin County. Libraries in Franklin County are fragmented among individual towns and cities, which is why the City of Worthington has three branches under Worthington Public Libraries. Columbus has its own library system, Columbus Metropolitan Libraries, and cities like Bexley, Upper Arlington, and others each have their own independent libraries, but all share resources with each other.

This is the world premiere of Our Man in Santiago – well, almost. According to director Charlie Mount, there were actually two performances of Santiago in March 2020, when the you-know-what shut Theatre West (along with just about everything else) down. Playwright Mark Wilding’s wild take on the 1973 coup in Chile finally debuted Sept. 24 and this critic is delighted to say that Wilding’s satire about the downfall of socialist President Salvador Allende is even timelier now than it would have been about 18 months.

This is because the recent resounding total defeat and humiliation of Washington in Afghanistan is shining a light on the sheer, utter imbecility of US imperialism and lunacy of its foreign policy. The CIA played a devastating covert role in Afghanistan starting in 1979 – only six years after the Agency helped topple Chile’s democratically elected government, as Wilding cleverly exposes (see: American Amnesia: USA’s Afghan Original Sin Began 1979 – Not 9/11 - LA Progressive).

Tuesday, September 28, 12:30pm, Ohio Statehouse

This event is in conjunction with an “international solidarity protest” “from Ohio, to Texas, to Mexico.”

Hosted by NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, Ohio Women’s Alliance Action Fund, Ohio Women’s Alliance, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio, Women Have Options Ohio, and Feminist Flag Corps.

Sunday, September 26, 2021, 5:30 PM
Stand with Worthington Libraries workers as they prepare to for their Union vote. 
Location:  Village Green Park (NE corner of N. High St and Dublin-Granville Road), Worthington.