Free Press Free Film Night - Tuesday, January 27 at 7:30pm

MEAT THE TRUTH: The massive impact of livestock farming on climate change"

Sponsored by the Drexel East, Central Ohio Greeen Education Fund and the Columbus International Film & Video Festival
Drexel East Theater, 2254 E. Main St., Bexley

For more info:
253-2571

Monkeys Retreat -- Opening and Performance

Gallery Hop 2/7/09

Monkeys Retreat, 1202 N. High St. (294-9511), will celebrate the addition of Starfish Earth, the original clothing line of local artist and musician Michelle Ishida Lucey with an opening party from 7-10 pm for the February 7th Gallery Hop. Her son's group Crabfeather Quartet will provide live jazz for your shopping enjoyment. Crabfeather Quartet features Wes Perry on sax, Cole Ishida-Plavcan on bass, Hayden Huffman on drums and Eddie Loomis on guitar. The boys all attend Olentangy High School and are members of the Columbus Youth Jazz Programs. Check them out live on the web at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfo6AoKf9js or http://www.myspace.com/crabfeatherquartet

Larry Hamill exhibits art and flies in helicopters

Larry Hamill sent us these awesome pics he took of a new MedFlight yesterday. Bet you froze your rear end, Larry. -charlie


Hi,
Enclosed are some shots I took yesterday of MedFlight's new EC-135 on a test flight. The temps were in single digits and it was a bit chilly in the chase chopper. It was much colder when I was standing in the blast of prop wash. Cheers, Larry





Larry Hamill's current exhibit: New Images, is on display through February 28, at Marcia Evans Gallery, 8 East Lincoln, Columbus, OH, in the Short North.

Larry was photographed at the opening reception, where he was showing new work including Photilations and collages on canvas with various varnishes applied to surface. (see example)
For more info, check out his website.

Read Ragazine C C Expand your Universe!

Ragazine C C, published by Mike Foldes, is a website dedicated to promoting and encouraging activity and communications by artists and art lovers. (A lot like Innerartbits)

Before moving to upstate NY, Mike was a resident of Columbus where he created Ragazine, the magazine, in the early 70s. Some will remember him as an editor, publisher and graphic artist. Many Columbus artists ( as well as others) were contributors to the magazine, and today continue to feed art and articles to the website. They include Larry Hammil, D.R. Goff, Mark Berger and Valery Brown. These same individuals have also appeared in many previous issues of innerart and continue to do so.

So, you see, Ragazine and Innerart have a lot in common! Please check out Ragazine and subscribe.

Thanks, charlie

Ragazine C C

Columbus Free Press Events

On Sunday, JANUARY 25 @ 7PM, come hear our friend
Dave Lippman Singer - Satirist - Social Justice Advocate
and George Shrub the world's only singing CIA agent
Free Press office – 1021 East Broad Street
Donation requested $5-$10

AND DON'T FORGET:
Free Press Free Film Night - Tuesday, January 27 at 7:30pm
"MEAT THE TRUTH: The massive impact of livestock farming on climate change"
Sponsored by the Drexel East, Central Ohio Greeen Education Fund and the Columbus International Film & Video Festival

For more info:
253-2571
truth@freepress.org

Franklin Park Conservatory in lights by Mark Berger

Columbus photographer Mark Berger took these beautiful images of Franklin Park conservatory in it's lit up splendor. Mark is a regular contributor to innerart. -charlie






Dietrich Neumann, professor of history of art and architecture at Brown University, gave a lecture at Franklin Park in October 2008, where he explored the history of architectural illumination since the introduction of electric light as a "new building material". His lecture showed both historic and contemporary examples and discussed the interesting theoretical debates that accompanied this development. His lecture began with Victorian glass houses, and concluded with Franklin Park Conservatory’s installation of James Turrell’s “Light Raiment” in the John F. Wolfe Palm House.

I spoke with James Turrell on the evening of the opening of this wonderful Light show of the John F. Wolf Palm House, Mr Turrell thought this light display would be even more beautiful if it were photographed in the middles of winter with snow on the ground. This past Thursday it was a -7° outside and I had the opportunity to photograph outside at Franklin Park of the Palm House and thought you might like seeing some of these images. The colors are in the order that they appear in the show.
Mark

10 Sugestions to Obama from Harvey Wasserman

Harvey Wasserman is an environmental activist, political activist, author, contributor to the Columbus Free Press, History instructor at Columbus State University, and many more things, including a good friend I've known since high school. His latest book Solartopia, is available at his website www.solartopia.org and lots of other venues. -charlie


A Ten-Point Solartopian Starter Agenda for the Age of Obama by Harvey Wasserman
Amidst the ecstasy of the Obama Inauguration, there lurks great danger. Merely with his swearing in, our nation has broken an epic racial barrier. We are losing our worst president and getting one who was actually elected.

But the promise of change is not change itself. Inaugurating a brilliant young leader who speaks in complete sentences can only be good. But it is a fatal delusion to think this means we have gotten where we need to go.

Here are ten early tangibles that will be accomplished ONLY if we push:

1) Revise the Corporation: Corporations have hijacked the electoral process, the legal system, the 14th Amendment, the environment. They have human rights but no human responsibilities. They must be re-chartered and made to serve the public, rather than the other way around.

2) Restore the Bill of Rights: The first ten amendments to the US Constitution comprise a great guide for guaranteeing our basic human rights and liberties. The Constitutional lawyer entering the White House understands the issues; he need to be pushed to make sure these rights are enforced, including equal justice for racial/ethnic minorities and women, and reproductive freedom.

3) US out of Iraq and Afghanistan: These wars must end. The healing---moral, spiritual, economic, and in terms of violence---can only begin when the US leaves these useless battlefields and dismantles its global network of intrusive bases.

4) Slash Military Spending: We cannot continue to spend untold billions on detrimental weaponry. A 75% cut would be a good start; 95% would be a reasonable ultimate target.

5) Rid the World of Nuclear Weapons: Atomic bombs are instruments of mass suicide and of no tangible use. Even their production and maintenance is unsustainable.

6) TOTAL conversion to renewables and efficiency: We have the technology to run this Earth COMPLETELY on Solartopian green energy, with no fossil/nuclear fuels whatsoever. This means restoration of mass transit, and NO public funding, from taxpayers or ratepayers, for new atomic reactors or coal burners.

7) End Hemp/Marijuana Prohibition: This ancient plant holds the key to bio-fuels, as well as to sustainable paper production and much more, and must be restored to full production. And prohibition of a medicinal substance used by tens of millions of citizens makes for a police state. Pot must be legal; control of other substances must shift to treatment. The prison-industrial complex is as unsustainable as is the military.

8) National Health Care: Appropriate prevention and treatment is a basic human right. We must find the way to provide it.

9) Universal Hand-Counted Paper Ballots: Electronic voting machines are the nukes of the electoral process. Universal automatic registration, handcounted paper ballots (on recycled hemp paper) and workable campaign finance regulations are essential to the future of democracy.

10) Universal Free Education: In an information age, education through a college degree is essential to a sustainable society. Our public schools from K to the BA must be funded on a level now wasted on the military.

There is of course much more. But the greatness of this moment will be measured in history only by the extent to which we actually win on tangible issues.

This brief wish list should get us going. Send us more! But above all: remember that even with Barack Obama in the White House (and George Bush OUT of it) none of them will come without our hard---hopefully joyful---work.

Harvey Wasserman's HISTORY OF THE U.S., and SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH, are at www.solartopia.org, where your suggestions are welcome.

Poetry Forum Now at Rumba Café

Please forward this message far and wide

POETRY FORUM TO RE-OPEN

AT NEW HOME AT THE RUMBA CAFE

The Poetry Forum will resume its Monday night reading series January 26 at a new location, The Rumba Café, 2507 Summit Street, Columbus (just south of Hudson Street), with featured poet Kip Knott, who was scheduled to open our winter season January 5.

Our well-known poetry event lost its 25-year home when campus watering hole Larry’s closed its doors abruptly December 27.

The Rumba Café has become a popular spot for music in the north University area over the past 2 years, and we’re grateful that its management has been gracious enough to offer us the early Monday evening slot (before the acoustic singer-songwriters show up for 10 p.m. gigs, which may provide a nice cap to an evening of poetry).

Thanks to all of you for your support over the years, your words of support when all of us lost a community institution at Woodruff & High, your suggestions for optional venues, and –we hope—your continued presence to maintain the vitality of an open poetry community. We all look forward to seeing you on January 26 and in the ensuing weeks. Keep checking Poetry Calendar Columbus at www.puddinghouse.com for updated schedules for The Poetry Forum and other central Ohio poetry events.

Steve Abbott

Connie Everett

Rose M. Smith

Obama's marijuana prohibition acid test

Obama's marijuana prohibition acid test
by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman
January 14, 2009

The parallels between the 1933 coming of Franklin Roosevelt and the upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama must include the issue of Prohibition: alcohol in 1933, and marijuana today. As FDR did back then, Obama must now help end an utterly failed, socially destructive, reactionary crusade.

Marijuana prohibition is a core cause of many of the nation's economic problems. It now costs the U.S. tens of billions per year to track, arrest, try, defend and imprison marijuana consumers who pose little, if any, harm to society. The social toll soars even higher when we account for social violence, lost work, ruined careers and damaged families. In 2007, 775,137 people were arrested in the U.S. for mere possession of this ancient crop, according to the FBI’s uniform crime report.

Like the Prohibition on alcohol that plagued the nation from 1920 to 1933, marijuana prohibition (which essentially began in 1937) feeds organized crime and a socially useless prison-industrial complex that includes judges, lawyers, police, guards, prison contractors, and more.

A dozen states have now passed public referenda confirming medical uses for marijuana based on voluminous research dating back 5,000 years. Confirmed medicinal uses for marijuana include treatment for glaucoma, hypertension, arthritis, pain relief, nausea relief, reducing muscle spasticity from spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis, and diminishing tremors in multiple sclerosis patients. Medical reports also prove smoked marijuana provides relief from migraine headaches, depression, seizures, and insomnia, according to NORML. In recent years its use has become critical to thousands of cancer and AIDS sufferers who need to it to maintain their appetite while undergoing chemotherapy.

The U.S. ban on marijuana extends to include hemp, one of the most widely used agricultural products in human history. Unlike many other industrial crops, hemp is powerful and prolific in a natural state, requiring no pesticides, herbicides, extraordinary fertilizing or inappropriate irrigation. Its core products include paper, cloth, sails, rope, cosmetics, fuel, supplements and food. Its seeds are a potentially significant source of bio-diesel fuel, and its leaves and stems an obvious choice for cellulosic ethanol, both critically important for a conversion to a Solartopian renewable energy supply.

Hemp was grown in large quantities by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and many more of the nation's founders, most of whom would likely be dumbfounded to hear it is illegal (based on entries in Washington's agricultural diaries, referring to the separation of male and female plants, it's likely he and his cohorts also raised an earlier form of "medicinal" marijuana).

Hemp growing was mandatory in some circumstances in early America, and again during World War II, when virtually the entire state of Kansas was planted in it. The current ban on industrial hemp costs the U.S. billiions of dollars in lost production and revenue from a plant that can produce superior paper, clothing, fuel and other critical materials at a fraction the financial cost and environmental damage imposed by less worthy sources.

On January 16, 1919, fundamentalist crusaders help pass the 18th Amendment, making the sale of alcohol illegal. The ensuing Prohibition was by all accounts a ludicrous failure epitomized by gang violence and lethal "amateur" product that added to the death toll. Its only real winner was organized crime and the prison-industrial complex.

In 1933, FDR helped pass the 21st Amendment repealing Prohibition, which ended a costly era of gratuitous social repression and gave the American economy---and psyche---a tangible boost.

Marijuana prohibition was escalated with Richard Nixon's 1970 declaration of the War on Drugs. There was a brief reprieve when Steve Ford, the son of President Gerald Ford appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone barefoot and claiming that the best place to smoke pot was in the White House. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter’s last year in office, 338,664 were arrested for marijuana possession.

Ronald Reagan renewed the War on Drugs and declared his “Zero Tolerance” policy, despite his daughter Patti Davis’ claim the Gipper smoked weed with a major donor. Following Reagan, President George Herbert Walker Bush recorded a low of 260,390 marijuana possession arrests, but the numbers climbed again under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, both of whom are reported to have smoked it themselves (though Clinton claims not to have inhaled).

On a percentage basis, at least as many American high school students smoke pot than students in Holland, where it is legal. In the midst of the drug war, U.S. students report virtually unlimited access to a wide range of allegedly controlled substances, including pot. Because so many Americans use it, and it is so readily available, the war on marijuana can only be seen as a virtually universal assault on the basic liberties of our citizenry.

In a 2005 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services survey, more than 97 million Americans admitted to having tried marijuana at least once. President-elect Obama makes it clear in his book Dreams From My Father that he has smoked---and inhaled---marijuana (he is also apparently addicted to a far more dangerous drug, tobacco). His administration should tax marijuana rather than trying to repress it. Like alcohol and tobacco, a minimum age for legal access should be set at 21.

As a whole, the violent, repressive War on Drugs has been forty years of legal, cultural and economic catastrophe. Like FDR, Obama must end our modern-day Prohibition, and with it the health-killing crusade against this ancient, powerful medicinal herb.

--
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman have co-authored four books on election protection, available at http://freepress.org, along with Bob's FITRAKIS FILES. Harvey's SOLARTOPIA! is at http://harveywasserman.com. This article was first published by http://freepress.org.
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Poetry Forum Looking for a home after Legendary "Larry's" Closes

Steve Abbott with The Poetry Forum of Columbus, sent this urgent note today. I am also sad about "Larry's" final closing. More than a campus bar, Larry's was an important, iconic site, part of my background, especially during its heyday during the tumultuous late 60s and early 70s. As he explains below, this sudden closing has caused the Forum to lose it's home of the past 25 years. Got any suggestions or ideas where the forurm can hold public readings? Let us know! - charlie

Friends,

The abrupt closing of Larry’s Bar on December 27, without the courtesy of notice to The Poetry Forum despite over 700 readings over 25 years, has forced us to cancel the series of readings scheduled to begin January 5 as we seek a new location. We have several possibilities that we’re looking into, and some may require shifting to another area of the city and/or to a coffeehouse rather than a bar. So it goes. The line turns.

We hope to have a new home and a revised schedule within 3 weeks. I’ll let you know what’s going on, and please forward this or pass word of our hiatus to friends, acquaintances and other possibly interested parties. (There’s a related story in today’s/Saturday’s/January 3 Columbus Dispatch.)

All of us at The Poetry Forum thank you for your past support and wish you the best for the new year.

Steve