Music in the Round benefit for Transit Arts

Tickets are going fast for Music in the Round, a special concert presented by Capitol Square Rotary to support the FREE youth arts programs of TRANSIT ARTS.

To purchase tickets and/or if you are unable to view the invitation below please visit this link: www.musicintheround.com.

If you can't attend the event but would like to support TRANSIT ARTS you can make a donation at this link: TRANSIT ARTS Click and Pledge

City Rec centers closing creates demand for volunteers at Central Community House

Olde Towne Neighbors:

In response to closing city recreation centers and rising needs in our communities, Central Community House is pleased to announce that it will EXPAND its programming to Saturdays, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. beginning March 7. We CANNOT do this without volunteers to tutor, run programs, create fun activities and supplement staff in a variety of ways.

Can you play chess, run a cornhole tournament, teach basic computer skills (Word, email, etc.), set up a parent support coffee hour, play board games or tutor in elementary school subjects? Can you come on a Saturday for a couple hours, once a month or so? If so we need YOU!

We will have a volunteer orientation and Saturdays planning session this Saturday, Feb. 21 at 1:00 p.m. here at Central Community House, 1150 E. Main St. 43205. Please RSVP to Pam Argus (pargus@cchouse.org) or Liz Hughes-Weaver (lhweaver@cchouse.org) or call 614-252-3157 to sign up. (Please sign up ASAP so we know how many to expect!!).

Sorry for the late notice, but if you cannot attend the orientation but are still interested, please contact Pam Argus directly and she’ll get you on your way to volunteering at Central. Thank you!

Liz Hughes-Weaver

Development Director

Central Community House

614-545-2708

Raconteur Theatre Company presents premiere of Isaac, I Am

Stephen Woosley, Lorelei Moore, and Derek McGrath. Photo by Sam Blythe.
Raconteur Theatre Company is pleased to invite you to the regional
premier of Isaac, I Am by Mary Steelsmith.

We spend a lot of our time in cyber space but how do we know what is
"real" and what is "safe?" How do we learn to trust anyone? Isaac, I
Am (winner of the 2006 Helford Prize) explores these timely questions
as Angela (Lorelei Moore) "meets" Ben (Derek McGrath), a funny guy
who's single and Isaac (Stephen Woosley), a grieving father.

Don't wait till you arrive – buy your tickets online now for $12! (or
$8 for students & seniors) http://raconteurtheatre.com/tickets.html

For directions to MadLab's theatre:
http://raconteurtheatre.com/directions.html

Want to know more about the show? Check out our website!
http://raconteurtheatre.com/

Design Staff
Director: Mary Aileen St. Cyr
Scenic Design: Michael S. Brewer
Lighting Design: Andy Batt
Sound Design: Andrew Hartley
Costume Design: Jill C. Hartley
Stage Management: Patricia T. Jones

Cast
Angela: Lorelei Moore
Ben: Derek McGrath
Isaac: Stephen Woosley
Josh: Zachary Elgin Lape
Katie: Sela Williams
Ensemble: Bryanne E. Bornstein, Angela Cutrell, Suzanne Laird, Caliph
Scott, Ric Shoemaker, Anna Wang

Dates
8 PM Thursday, 2/26
8 PM Friday, 2/27
8 PM Saturday, 2/28
2 PM Sunday, 3/1

8 PM Thursday, 3/5 ***TALKBACK with playwright Mary Steelsmith
immediately following the performance
8 PM Friday, 3/6
8 PM Saturday, 3/7
2 PM Sunday, 3/8

8 PM Thursday, 3/12
8 PM Friday, 3/13
8 PM Saturday, 3/14

Photos by Sam Blythe

Was George Washington a gay pot smoker?

In this age of economic stress, is it time to re-evaluate the devastatingly expensive, unrealistic and unrealizable, unfair, infantile and totally failed War on Drugs? Harvey Wasserman poses a few provocative and timely questions in this article which he writes for the Colmbus Free Press. _charlie

Harvey Wasserman

Did George Washington raise hemp? Did he smoke it? Was he gay?

The easy answers are definitely, probably, and maybe.

The questions arise with pre-publication of the shocking satire PASSIONS OF THE PATRIOTS by “Thomas Paine,” which opens with Le General in the hemp-filled embrace of his beloved Marquis de Lafayette.

As Washington’s February 22 birthday approaches, his personal habits say much about today’s America.

Like virtually every Revolutionary farmer, the Father of Our Country grew prodigious quantities of hemp. It was (is) a profitable cash crop, easy to grow, with scant demands for cultivation, watering or fertilizing. As a hardy perennial, it needs no year-after-year replanting, nor pesticides or herbicides.

Early American farmers used cannabis for cloth, rope, sails, paper and much more. At various times its cultivation has been mandatory. Kansas was virtually carpeted with it during World War Two. In today’s conversion to a Solartopian economy, the cellulose of its stems and leaves, and the oil from its seeds, could be essential for green ethanol and bio-diesel fuels.

Washington and his fellow planter/presidents Tom Jefferson and James Madison would be astonished to hear that hemp is illegal. These early chief executives would certainly have told President Obama that a re-legalized cannabis crop would mean billions of dollars in desperately needed farm revenue throughout the United States.

As for smoking, I know of no significant communication among the Founders extolling their “great weed.”

But in one of his meticulous agricultural journals, dated 1765, Washington regrets being late to separate his male hemp plants from his females. For a master farmer like George, there would be little reason to do this except to make the females ripe for smoking.

The medicinal uses of cannabis were known to the ancient Chinese. Thousands of years later, it’s inconceivable American growers would not indulge in its recreational powers.

As for Washington’s sexual preferences, his marriage to Martha was sometimes suspect. Historians joke that he did not marry her for her money, but rather for her stocks, bonds, land and slaves. In a letter to a friend, he complained that there was “not much fire between the sheets.”

Ben Franklin, the ultimate liberal, loved so many women he joked that the great miracle in his life was that he contracted no related diseases. Tom Jefferson impregnated his slave mistress Sally Hemings as many as seven times. From Andrew Jackson to Bill Clinton, American presidents have been infamous for their sexual dalliances.

George Washington did not lack for female companionship. But his deepest affections may have been for his fellow warriors. His beloved brothers in arms included Lafayette and Alexander Hamilton. Both were married with children, but both excited his strongest comradely devotion.

That the general had no biological children of his own may have been due to a fever early in his life that could have rendered him sterile.

Or maybe not. It’s hard to imagine a gay George Washington in the 1790s. But in the 1990s, things might have been different.

The modern anti-choice assault, including California’s Proposition 8, flies in the face of all Washington and the Founders dreamed of for this nation.

Today’s Puritannical “sunshine patriots” seem hell-bent on running our personal lives. But America has NEVER been about that.

Let them contemplate an image of our first president, fresh from the battlefields and the hemp fields, desperate to marry his fellow winter soldier.

--
Harvey Wasserman’s HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES is at www.harveywasserman.com, as is PASSIONS OF THE PATRIOTS by “Thomas Paine”. This article was originally published by http://freepress.org.

David Krohn performs The Storyteller

Moments in a lifetime told through words, movement and music
Piano accompaniment by Leslie Kleen

Columbus Dance Theatre
February 1, 5, 6, 7, 8

592 E. Main St., Clumbus, OH 43215
ph: 614 849 0227

I first met David in the early 70s when he was a c0-founder of The Mime Troupe. He is a dedicated artist whose instrument is his body and mind. His performance is stretched to the extreme, physically and emotionally, as he takes great bodily risks while baring his most intimate feelings and thoughts. Support GOOD local arts and my good friend David. Go see this performance. _charlie

A $50 Billion Nuke Power Bomb is Dropping Toward Obama’s Stimulus Package

By Harvey Wasserman


The desperate, dangerous nuclear power industry has dropped a $50 billion stealth bomb meant to irradiate the Obama Stimulus Package.

It comes in the form of a mega-loan guarantee package that would build new reactors Wall Street wouldn’t finance even when it had cash. It will take a healthy dose of citizen action to stop it, so start calling your Senators now.

The vaguely worded bailout-in-advance provision was snuck through the Senate Appropriations Committee in the deep night of January 27. It would provide $50 billion in loan guarantees for “eligible technologies” that would technically include renewable sources and electric transmission. But the handout is clearly directed at nukes and “clean coal.”

The Stimulus Package is explicitly meant to create jobs within the next two years. But according to sources at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, no new reactors could be licensed for construction within that time. Nor could any new coal plants. And thus the funds in this rider are to "remain available until committed." That means their "stimulus" might not go into effect for many years.

But the nuclear industry does have the ability to spend large sums of money on “site preparation” and other busy work prior to being licensed. Though the guarantees could technically be used for truly green sources such as wind and solar, the provision’s backers, including Senators Robert Bennett (R-UT) and Thomas Carper (D-DE), have made it clear that this money is meant to go for new reactor construction.

In late 2007, nuclear power's Congressional Godfather, then-Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), stuck a similar $50 billion loan guarantee package into that year’s energy bill. A grassroots uprising, joined by virtually all national environmental organizations, helped defeat the package. Among other things, the fight inspired a music video from Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Keb Mo and Ben Harper (www.nukefree.org).

In late 2008 the industry came back again with a blank check package that went down in flames along with the stock market.

Still unable to get private financing, the industry is back yet again. In the interim, the projected cost of building new reactors has soared to more than $10 billion each, and continues to climb steadily. Many of the previous generation of reactors came in hugely over budget. According to the Nuclear Information & Resource Service, one DOE study places the overall average overruns at 207%. But reactor projects such as Seabrook, in New Hampshire, New York's Shoreham, Pennsylvania's Beaver Valley, California's Diablo Canyon, and many others, far exceeded that.

The Congressional Budget Office now predicts that half the nuclear utilities using such a loan program will go into default. Some $18.5 billion in loan guarantees has already been approved, apparently for such use. But its legality is being hotly disputed, and the money has not been distributed by the Department of Energy.

Washington insiders believe this latest attempt at a pre-arranged bailout has again come from Domenici, who has stayed in Washington to lobby for his radioactive benefactors after apparently retiring from the Senate in January.

This guarantee package was not part of the Stimulus Package that passed the House. Its secretive, late night inclusion on the Senate side is reminiscent of how former Vice President Dick Cheney did business for the fossil/nuclear corporations that funded much of the Bush Administration. The reappearance of this kind of back door dealing has not been well received, especially in the House.

Numerous national groups, including the Nuclear Information & Resource Service (www.nirs.org) are providing sign-ins for sending e-mails to the Senate. They also urge that you call your Senator at 202-224-3121.

Time is fast slipping by for the nuke power industry. As the popularity of renewables and efficiency escalates, the most obvious source of new jobs and prosperity has become truly green technologies. Atomic power has long since been priced out of the market. Only massive federal and ratepayer subsidies could bring it back, to the direct detriment of the revolution in renewables.

Defeating this latest money grab will help drive another nail in the coffin of the 20th century’s most expensive failed technology. It is an essential step toward a truly green-powered future.

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