Twenty or so years at the Community Festival*

Words Community Festival and Local Action Global Impact in circles around a world and some trees

My earliest memory of Comfest was probably the Summer of 2000. I was in the process of wrapping up a degree at Ohio State and living at a place on Tompkins Street. I was sort of dragooned into going by the guys who lived next door, who were more in tune with things. At that point I was unaware that Comfest – or Goodale Park for that matter – even existed.

I remember that we parked illegally in the Big Bear parking lot on Neil Avenue, which made me nervous. I think that it was either dark or getting dark when we arrived, and that I was pretty disoriented. The food stalls on Goodale Street seemed to come out of nowhere. I was fairly quickly pulled over to the main stage to see a band called the Jive Turkeys who were closing out the festival. Despite my bewildered state, the band blew me away. They were truly incredible, ending their set with Sly Stone’s “Hot Fun in the Summertime.”

Pride means more than marching in a parade once a year

Green, blue, yellow red and purple hands reaching up

There are ways for straight and cis people to be supportive to the LGBTQ+ community that are more impactful than attending a Pride parade as an onlooker or marcher:

1. Volunteer with organizations that are putting on Pride events doing the work that is least fun – do trash pick up, help out in the parking lots, do clean up after the event. These roles are often filled by LGBTQ+ people who are missing out on the fun while allies are enjoying the festivities.

2. Offer to watch the children of LGBTQ+ people so they can attend parades and other events without children, if they want a kid-free day. Also, offer to do this for the evening events.

3. Give money to LGBTQ+ organizations, especially those that center trans folks and people of color.

4. Spend your money at LGBTQ+ owned businesses on days Pride isn’t happening.

5. Buy tickets to Pride events and offer them up to LGBTQ+ people. Some events are pricey and not all LGBTQ+ people can afford to go.

6. Drop LGBTQ+ people off and/or pick them up from the Parade. The traffic is wild and rides would be appreciated.

THE HITCH-HIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY Theater Review

The Wallis Studio Ensemble’s The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a stage renditiion of Douglas Adams’ sci fi send-up that has been adapted for radio, books, television and the movies. This fast-moving 90 minute version minus intermission is performed by around 10 youthful, colorfully costumed cast members. While today’s auds are used to state of the art CGI, Galaxy deploys low tech special effects on the mostly bare boards of the Lovelace Studio Theater. The FX include puppetry and masks by Alex Sheldon and Bosco Flanagan’s lighting design, which would have warmed the cockles of Bill Graham’s heart at Fillmore West rock concerts. Speaking of music, there is a little bit of live accordion and piano playing by Sheldon during the show, as well as recordings of songs such as Disco Inferno.

 

Community Cookout Sponsored by Central Ohio Workers Center

Drawing of a fist and words Central Ohio Worker Center

Sunday, June 9, 2019, 2:00 – 4:00 PM
Please just us for a summer celebration! Enjoy food, drink, conversation, and music. See COWC’s new office and participate in the cornhole tournament! Bring the whole family, we will have kids’ activities. $20 suggested donation per person to enter the cornhole tournament. Great prize package for the winner!  Location:  Central Ohio Worker Center Office, Seafarer’s Union Hall, 2800 S. High St., Columbus 43207. Facebook.  

Ohio's Atomic Socialism

Big fat nuclear plant smokestack with white smoke billowing out against a blue sky

Testimony before the Ohio legislature on House Bill 6, Ohio’s nuclear and coal plant bailout bill which ironically also cuts off funds for renewable energies.

Is Ohio's legislature declaring a state of atomic socialism?

It seems poised for a Soviet gouging of some $3 billion over the next ten years to bail out two dirty, dangerous, decayed Chernobyl-ready atomic reactors that are falling apart. Neither can compete in the free markets so many Buckeyes profess to love.

The legislature proposes this $3 billion bailout while trashing some $4 billion in private capital. That money wants to build thousands of wind turbines and create tens of thousands of jobs, generating safe clean energy far cheaper than those radioactive "mistakes by the lake." The fast-rising turbines would lower electric rates and bring in private development capital, not drain it out of the public pocket.  

The astonishing turn to Soviet nuclear economics comes as FirstEnergy's top executives pocket some $25 million in annual "salaries" while they spent $3 million to "lobby" the Legislature.

Free Press Second Saturday Salon

Oval with words Blue Rock Station

Sat, June 8, 6:30-11pm
1021 E. Broad St. in the backyard, weather permitting, free, no RSVP required. colsfreepress@gmail.com or 614-253-2571.

Join progressive friends for food, drink, and great music. A presentation by Annie and Jay Warmke, owners of Blue Rock Station on “Living Sustainably in a World that’s Running out of Everything” including how they have managed to make a living by focusing on sustainable practices while living in an Earthship, a comfortable home made of clean trash, designed by architect Michael Reynolds of Taos, NM. Annie and Jay Warmke, owners of Blue Rock Station will speak at the Second Saturday Salon on Living Sustainably in a World that’s Running out of Everything”.  The talk will include how they have managed to make a living by focusing on sustainable practices while living in an Earthship, a comfortable home made of clean trash, designed by architect Michael Reynolds of Taos, NM.  Annie and Jay started Blue Rock Station after living in Europe and leaving behind their careers in the corporate world. 

Tulsi Gabbard Pushes No War Agenda – and the Media Is out to Kill Her Chances

Voters looking ahead to 2020 are being bombarded with soundbites from the twenty plus Democratic would-be candidates. That Joe Biden is apparently leading the pack according to opinion polls should come as no surprise as he stands for nothing apart from being the Establishment favorite who will tirelessly work to support the status quo.

The most interesting candidate is undoubtedly Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who is a fourth term Congresswoman from Hawaii, where she was born and raised. She is also the real deal on national security, having been-there and done-it through service as an officer with the Hawaiian National Guard on a combat deployment in Iraq. Though in Congress full time, she still performs her Guard duty.

READY STEADY YETI GO Theatre Review

Rogue Machine Theatre, which won 2018’s Best Season Ovation Award, is known for pushing the envelope with plays that challenge conventions. A number of the edgy theatre company’s productions deal with the thorny theme of racism, including the stellar One Night in Miami, a rare revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s Les Blancs, American Saga: Gunshot Medley - Part I (on July 6 Rogue Machine is remounting Dionna Michelle Daniel’s searing drama) and Dutch Masters.

 

The latter was directed by Ovation Award winner Guillermo Cienfuegos, who also helms Rogue Machine’s curtain lifter of its new season at Venice’s Electric Lodge, David Jacobi’s Ready, Steady, Yeti, Go, as part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. Like the above mentioned dramas, Yeti also deals with the subject of bigotry - but with a big difference.

 

Mutant Town

The Quiet Killer at the Core of Patriotism

What? Another mass murder?

Almost missed this one: Virginia Beach. Twelve killed on May 31, plus the killer himself, who was a city employee — an engineer. He had legitimate access to the building where he shot people on three floors. His guns were legally purchased. Nothing about him, prior to the tragedy, indicated he was unhinged.

Except, well. an anonymous source told the New York Times “the suspect had no history of behavioral problems until recently, when he had begun acting strangely and getting into physical ‘scuffles’ with other city workers.”

So something had come loose — and the passing news coverage lurches into Lonerville. Another lost, isolated loser with a bunch of guns takes out his perceived enemies. We mourn, we shake our heads . . .

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