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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.
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.
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
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
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.organd 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.
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.
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. =
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.
for the past few months, steve ben isreal has been sending me a few gems from his vast collection of monologs and poems . There seems to be no pattern there, but every few weeks or months, I receive an email with one or two and little or no other comment. They, of course, speak for themselves.
This last one dates from 1978. Decades ago but it seems like yesterday.
what is common to us all a case of the jones of keeping up with joneses cult is the tip of the culture
ah this collective guilt of knowing what is being done to us by us
where was their individuality asked all the waving flags
and our grandfathers who said, if not me maybe my son grandsons still waiting hiding of clock cloak of worker dreaming that their 10,000 year old class will be abolished
slow death mass suicide mass for those who couldn't keep track of themselves without their main man in the midst of a subverted subverted future which clouds our love
yes there is a crack in the reality going to war suicide going to chemical plant suicide going to revolutionary suicide going to build nuke plant suicide not making a new world suicide not demystifying suicide
audy murphy, remember him uncle sam's no.1 son congressional medal of honor winner who died alone because he couldn't find community
sgt york alvin york who gary cooper made us love gun and sgt york dying of cancer
the same year the new anti war movement shook d.c. the i.r.s. danced around alvin's bed chanting you owe us taxes from the movie of your life humphrey bogart would say "taxes is a protection racket"
dylan don't follow leaders echoes earlier hip chants of how in the original moment the people copped for the king instead of themselves, the self suicide the denial of the self succumbing to the man's plan and believing it to death watch out for disciples baby
the guns creep in the guns creep out shouts the explorer to the new world still how heavy to fall in the new world yes dreams have cracks in the rainbow on the way to becoming human only forward never dies
hey wait nine months next time baby it took 10,000 years to make you baby
from the bottom tip of argentina chile death locks to the top of guyana not so strange deaths some will say it was the howls and screams from nicaraguan argentinean guatemalan chilean and brazilian torture dungeons that made them nuts conspiracy fact can wisdom come from death jones jim something alive must life demands it
This Thursday Raconteur Theatre Company opens Mom and Pop by Jill's fellow teacher at Olentangy High School, Sarah Tobin. Jill directed this piece and we would love to have you all come out to see our hard work come together-- we built a hardware store in the theatre for this one! We still have green in our finger nails from sponge painting. It's at Columbus Dance Theatre, right at the edge of Olde Towne East, so come support an OTE business (Raconteur Theatre) at a Main Street venue!
Hope to see you all soon! Andrew & Jill 410 S. Ohio Ave.
Play Synopsis In 1958, Ed (Sam Blythe) accepted the responsibility of taking over the family hardware store despite his dreams, which would have otherwise lead him to Memphis. Now he has passed the burden of choice to his children—should the three take over the stores or sell them? Gail (Danielle Filas) is determined to sell them, but Luke (JT Walker) is aggressively advocating that the stores stay in the family. This leaves Eda (Molly St. Cyr-Reid) stuck in the middle. Meanwhile, Ed is nowhere to be found to help guide them in their choice. Despite their decision, they are all forced to face one fact: mom and pop stores are a dying breed, and they even find themselves choosing big business over the little guy for convenience.
Mom and Pop runs December 4-20 at Columbus Dance Theatre (592 E. Main St.). Shows are Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm and on Sundays at 2pm. Tickets are $10-15 at the door or can be purchased for $12 online at http://raconteurtheatre.com/tickets.html -- Keep up with Raconteur Theatre Company at www.raconteurtheatre.com!
“SUPERSTAR” is an exhibition celebrating key figures of the Andy Warhol Factory from the 1960's and early 1970's. With great excitement we bring these artists to Columbus to share their experiences and hear their stories. The “SUPERSTAR” evening will consist of a multimedia exhibition of past and current work, performances, and a sure-to-be lively panel discussion. Please join us to view the work of these Warhol collaborators and celebrate their visit to Columbus.
Holly Woodlawn is a transsexual actor and was a key figure in Warhol's Factory during the early 1970's. Born in Puerto Rico, Woodlawn arrived on the NYC scene and was immortalized in Lou Reed's song Walk On The Wild Side. She starred in Warhol's Women In Revolt and Trash. John Giorno is an actor and poet and the lead in the Warhol film Sleep. Giorno is currently a spoken word poet and AIDS activist in New York City.
Penny Arcade starred in Women In Revolt. She is an avant-garde performance artist, actress and playwright residing in New York City.
Taylor Mead is an actor, painter and poet, an East Village icon as well as long standing Warhol Superstar. Mead participated in Warhol films Taylor Meads Ass, Lonesome Cowboys, Imitation Of Christ, Tarzan And Jane Revisited, Nude Restaurant and Couch. Taylor still acts and performs his poetry, which he will share with us this evening. His most recent theatrical role was in the last scene of the Jim Jarmusch film Coffee And Cigarettes.
I am rerunning this previous item to include "non violent executions" , a new piece sent here just this past week. Steve was an original member of the legendary, seminal Living Theatre. Please search my blog for previous articles about Steve Ben Isreal. -charlie
Award winning actor, performer, social commentator, poet, raconteur, and all-around good guy Steve Ben Israel sent three vignettes below. Steve is often heard delivering wry, relevant commentary on NPR. In this photo, (taken by Fernando Leon) he accepted an Obie award.
I met Steve at an all-night diner in the lower east side of NY city, several years ago, introduced by my long-time friend Stan. We talked, dank coffee, schmoozed, listened to his fabulous tales and enjoyed it enough to consider the evning memorable.
non-violent executions
in the revolution we will execute only the system with a new way of being alive
it won't be necessary to kill people anymore even the torturers the ones who did the dirty work of chasing angels will be allowed to live and build
for they are the dead to be raised and they the dead raised will be profoundest homage to those they have harmed
we will walk naked in the world as the sun gently touches our cocks and cunts humming a tune so beautiful that the dead poets will come in their graves and forever be at peace
steve ben israel
brooklyn
flunked out of high school went back in the summer and passed all 3 subjects amazing, teachers must be nicer in july and august what now,18 years old now what some friends out in k.u. in kansas write me and say come out here and I write them back are you kidding with my grades" they say write them anyhow and I do and they write me back and say are you kidding with your grades but they give me a three month trial period of three credits in english
so I make my way to the land of thank you and come back and there in english I am asked to write a paper on henry david thoreau's walden pond now reading and writing it down was always tough for me and still is, but I do it and hand it in a week later the papers are marked and ready the teacher is holding up two papers in front of the class he says this first paper shows remarkable insight in to walden pond but I am not quite sure what language he wrote it in this other students paper is grammatically perfect but I don¹t know what he read,now the first paper was mine a lot of red on yellow legal and he hands it to me in front of the entire class and I take the heat hoping that the bell is going to ring so I can go out and talk to a tree who I know will tell me I am really ok the bell rings so I make my way to the door and the teacher says steven can I see you for a momment sure and I make my way to the front of the class and the teacher says steven ah are you a foreign student and I say no I am from brooklyn
steve ben israel
not my real uncle
she invited me over to dinner for lisa bauer at her uncles house in west berlin she said he wasn't her real uncle he a berlin police captain hid seven jews in seven different houses along with her mother and brother for four years he provided food medicine and security they were hiding they were hidden they were hidden they were hiding the last day of the war she emerged to the sunlight and then raped by a drunken russian liberator in the midst of her joy and then stabbed in her breast later she became a pianist and teacher and was a bright light in a city with a wall around it I went to her uncles house for dinner along with the others who called him uncle every month he cooked dinner when I met him he said" just call me uncle" now that's an uncle
steve ben israel
star wars 1999
I won't be waiting on line and I don't need any tickets because star wars is playing everywhere, especially on CNN the military home shopping channel and every half hour, James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader, says,"this is CNN" and I won't be picking up any action figures to this" new phanto menace"
because I remember April 29,1975 our sons first birthday, and he's asleep and he doesn't know it when suddenly he's awakened by another baby crying 6,000 miles away coming out of the tv because I'm watching the NBC special "the evacuation of Saigon
the next picture was of the parents of the last American soldier to die in that Vietnam war and they were both holding back their tears as the father say's,"my son gave his life for his country" I held our son even closer and realized how precious that moment was
a few years later a friend of mine says,"have you seen the new star wars movie yet?" and I said "not me, pops, the last thing I want to do is see a movie with the word war in it'
but that changed very quickly, when all of a sudden our son said 'daddy, daddy, we have to go see star wars, everybody I know has seen star wars, we have to see star wars" so we went to see star wars. and I actually saw all three of those modern day swashbuckling intergalactic sagas of good guys verses bad guys and, actually the movies played for years on our son's floor I was always avoiding stepping on luke Skywalker, princes laya, Darth Vader,Han solo, Jaba the hut, chubacka the wookie,Yoda r2d2 and cp30. I once spent an hour and a half on my knees trying to find Yoda's cane and screamed out,"I found it, I found it, I found Yoda's cane"
but know our son is twenty five and I think this time, together we are going to skip this phantom menace and go to the peace vigil out the 42nd street library hoping that we are going to be joined by the liberals and the conservatives the democrats and republicans the left and the right because too many parents have cried in this century for the children they have lost
The sad notice below came to me from Harry Farkas.
Sue Urbas was a family friend, a community activist, an idealist, provocative, actively anti-war during the Vietnam era, early Free Press contributor, founding member of the community festival now known as Comfest, and many other things too numerous to mention here. Sue also had one of the friendliest smiles as seen in this photograph I took of her at Comfest 04. We will miss her -charlie
As most of you know our dear friend and sister Sue Urbas passed away last Saturday. I have been contacted by John Urbas and want to pass along the following:
A Memorial Gathering for Sue will be held at the Goodale Park Shelter House on Sunday, November 23, from 5 to 7 PM. Candy Watkins is assisting in organizing the memorial and can be contacted atAfoot765@cs.com.
Still tentative, but likely is a gathering later that evening at Dick's Den. Sue's earthly remains are in the process of cremation, though her spirit soars. An obituary will be published in the newspaper prior to the memorial.
Jodi Kushins has indicated a willingness to record stories about Sue either at this gathering or otherwise. She has also volunteered to assist with Sue's memorabilia. There is also a discussion on the Comfest Organizers Yahoo group regarding a permanent memorial to Sue, possibly at 16th and Waldeck. [Some of this duplicates info already on the Comfest Organizers Yahoo group.]
I am available if anyone requires additional information. I can be contacted athfarkas@wowway.com
Our loss is great, but together we will remember Sue. Please pass this information along to anyone who might not have received it, especially those without email.
Last month I was visiting my friends Alan Fliegel and Studio Stu in Kingston, New York. They introduced me to their friend, Yvonne, a photographer who is currently exhibiting black and white portraits at the 2/20 Gallery, in New York City.
Alan and his wife Lynn, own and run Babytoes, a business of handmade and hand painted kids and adults garments, in Phoenicia, NY. They also are co-owners of The Arts Upstairs, a gallery featuring many NY artists in their monthly, rotating exhibitions. We have featured Babytoes and the Arts Upstairs in this blog previously.
Studio Stu is a jazz virtuoso on the wash-tub bass, who performs regularly in that area of New York state. Friends of this blog have also read about him before.
If you happen to be in New York City anytime this November, check out Yvonne's Gallery show. Learn more about all three of my wonderful creative friends by visiting their websites:
Iv'e been an arts guy for a long time. This blog reflects my interests in that as well as in my community and the world. Hope you enjoy it. Feel free to comment and/or follow.
Larry Hamill sent us these awesome pics he took of a new MedFlight yesterday. Bet you froze your rear end, Larry. -charlie
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