The world premiere of Tim Alderson’s Salvage is a little gem. Musicals are often faced with the creative conundrum of how and why the characters move from talking to singing, but Salvage solves this naturally because it is largely a story about singer-songwriters who strum their own guitars. Preacher (the smoldering David Atkinson, a Georgian who, at certain angles, resembles Kris Kristofferson) is boozing it up, in between crooning CW tunes at a nearly empty hole-in-the-wall bar in god-knows-where-ville. When in walks the much younger Harley (Christopher Fordinal), another Country Western wannabe superstar, who is passing by when he’s lured into the watering hole he has recognized as a musical shrine.

It was a night of comradery and celebration at Ace of Cups on November 4 when the Free Press held our 2019 annual awards ceremony. DJ laChewla started the evening off with a variety of music genres and a little rock-n-roll as people gathered and waited for the Yellow Brick pizzas to arrive for dinner. Former award winners, other Free Press friends, writers, and readers socialized and enjoyed the food, drink and music. Brian Clash, a former Free Press award winner, played a set including his inspirational protest songs.

Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, we now enter the finish line with the month of December. In the month of December, you see it all. Deck The Halls With Boughs of Holly. Jingle Bells. The barrage of Christmas-themed ads on television. The shopping malls stock full of customers shopping for loved ones, friends, and themselves.

However, not everyone is in the Christmas spirit. Not necessarily because they are the offspring of Ebenezer Scrooge. Perhaps the reason is because there are people out there do not celebrate Christmas, but another alternative holiday.

There are plenty of alternative holidays around, for those who aren’t into sneaking a kiss with their lover under the mistletoe, or the annual television airings of It’s A Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story.

There are a few alternative holiday celebrations in the Columbus area for those that celebrate Chanukah or Kwanzaa, which are the two biggest alternative holidays during the holiday season.

Bigotry, Civil Liberties, Counter-Recruitment, Culture of Peace, Demilitarization, Economic Cost, Endangerment, Environment, North America

Writer/director Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire epitomizes the type of specialty cinema that makes a cineaste’s heart go pitter patter when it plays at a favorite art house. On the other hand, popcorn munchers at the local multiplex used to superheroes, explosions and car chases would likely find this 2-hour foreign film subtitled in English to be excruciatingly slow - only “redeemed” by its hot lesbian sex scenes.

This French feminist film - which won the Cannes Film Festival’s Best Screenplay and Queer Palme awards, and was nominated for Cannes’ grand prize, the Palme d’Or - is set in Brittany in 1760. Portrait ponders: How enlightened was the Enlightenment when it came to women and their rights? In particular, how reasonable was the Age of Reason when it came to the love that dared not speak its name - especially when it involved the female of the species.