downtownsnob

Pie Day set to bring Columbus together

I posted about the Pie Day Movement and Project M on Indie Columbus last night.

A few more interesting details this morning:

Check out this Good Magazine article about some to the history of Project M and the big social innovations born there.

And, here are a few photos from the new Pie Lab in Greensboro:

 

Anyone want to post an easy pie recipe? (Is there such a thing?)

Where should they live in Columbus?

I was walking to Barcelona to meet a friend for a cocktail on Sunday when I heard a car slowing behind me. Nice couple, late 20s, kid in the back seat. Their windows were rolled down and the daddy/driver was leaning toward me ready to ask a question.

I almost started giving directions to Schmidts before their wheels even stopped rolling (since THAT is the usual question), but this was something a little stickier:

Where should we live in Columbus?

Ok, here's the situation:

• Husband is college bound (deciding between Columbus and Ann Arbor)
• They have a young child (you'll have to forgive me for not noting the gender or age - this is still ME, remember?)
• They want to be near to campus and feel safe
• And, they have an urban/neighborhoody ethic

Off the cuff, I recommended Short North and its surrounding neighbors or Grandview. But, I also gave them my number to follow up. So, what do you think, Columbus? What's the ideal neighborhood for this growing, brainy family?

Available Light's Dirty Math: Back tonight!

Last Friday, ten of my delightful friends and I packed into the third (and fifth) rows of Riffe's Studio 2 to see Available Light's newest production: Dirty Math.

Frist let me say: it was nothing short of awesome.* In the big holy wow meaning of the word (not in the banana clips, jelly bracelets or pegged jeans way).

If you've never seen an Available Light show or think local theater isn't for you, I've got to say: this is the time to try it. Dirty Math is like the love child of Jon Stewart, Ira Glass and Jim Gaffigan.** It's at once laugh-out-loud funny and totally thoughtful. It's a better story slam than This American Life or The Moth ever pulled off. It's sidewalk chalk and Keynes. Rap and rhetoric. Frivolity and fear. It's the single most memorable thing you'll see this year.

What can I tell you about the story - it's a race through time that looks at how greed and gluttony shape our economies. The peaks and crashes that are always predictible and always a suprise.

Three of the Midwest's very best actors own the stage. With little propping and brilliant delivery, they take us through time (an emerging specialty of Available Light) in a way that's at once self-aware and entirely imaginative.

If you've been reading a David Sedaris tome and found yourself laughing out loud in a coffee shop or if you've read America and found yourself both giggling and thinking deeply >> well, you know the experience.

This is a play that can't be missed.

And, the best part: It's entirely homegrown. Written, produced, acted in Columbus.

Congratulations to Matt, Acacia, Ian, Jordan, Brandt, Emily, Artie, etc., etc. I'm going back tonight - can't wait to see it all again.

(*My one quibble: The derisive comment about SUV drivers (of which I am technically one >> I like to think of it as a mini SUV ... although, it's likely does not fit that description) being uncivic-minded, aka shitty to the environment. I think that's an over simplified view. Living a mile from work / play and driving an SUV seems like it nets out better than living 45 miles from work / play and driving a Prius. Just saying - our impact on the world is complex.)

(*We can't ever tell Artistic Director Matt Slaybaugh I said that. He'd likely be appalled - but, seriously, it's true)

Last chance for comfort food

There's definitely a chill in the Columbus air this morning. Gone are the strappy sandals and bare arms of the weekend. Gone, too, are the thoughts of dieting for bikini season (which, really, we are blessed not to have in the Midwest anyway). Time to relish in the last of winter with a little lunch-hour comfort food.

Three best tomato soups in Columbus:

Fancy Pants: Lindeys tomato bisque. This basily bisque is lightly spiced, full of big tomato flavor and served with what is brilliantly referred to as toasted brioche and cheddar cheese >> really, it's a mini grilled cheese.

Indulgent: Brown Bag's tomato basil. This creamy soup is full of big chunks of roasted tomato and tastes entirely homemade. Sure, it's choked with enough calories to make your skinny jeans snug, but it's so worth it.

Old School: Surly Girl's grilled cheese and tomato soup combo is a trip down memory lane. Even the brown bubbly bowls scream the Brady Bunch is coming on in 10 minutes. It's enough to make you want to dunk.

Hustler home lives on

Maybe I watched The People v. Larry Flynt too long ago ("If the First Amendment will protect a scumbag like me, it will protect all of you.") Or maybe I'm just  not up on my pornographer trivia. But, somehow I did not realize that the Hustler enterprise had once fled Cincy for the much-less-strict confines of Columbus.

But history lives to tale the tell, my friends. Larry's downtown offices remain, largely unchanged since the heady days of the 70s. The digital problem solvers at Shift Global once toured the space when they were looking for new digs and sent along these appropriately-grainy pics.

At first, it looks pretty normal, right? I mean a little more faux brick and smoked glass than one might prefer. And, the wood in on the walls rather than the floor, but still, it doesn't scream cocaine-has-been-snorted-off-every-surface-in-here.

But, then, there's this gem of a lobby:

Tell me you don't want to work there!

Last I heard, the space is still available. Shift has much classier digs in the Merchant Exchange building. Leaving this little peice of history to live on, undisturbed, in the heart of downtown.

German Village's couples and dogs resurface

Another curious winter is passing. A chilly time when German Village appears to be peopled with ... well, people. One by one - seemingly capable of moving about on their own - they spend the winter months jogging, carrying recycled shopping bags, darting from shop to shop - a chunk of cheese or a fresh-baked bread in hand.

Leaving many to question: What happened to the canines that we thought ran this place?

And, what the heck happened to all the couples who romance the heck out of it?

Well, alas, spring is upon us. Today was a balmy 60-degrees and crowded. Schiller Park was overrun with couples so optimistic - with their brunch-filled bellies and cupcake-stocked bags - that they actually sat on the grass! (The toilet of at least half of GV's population).

And the dogs! Back from wherever they are sent in the winter. Giant poodles leaping into the air. Weimaraners galloping to and fro. Mutts careening toward deflated tennis balls.

It's downtown as it was meant to be. Pasty Midwesterners emerging from the dark winter. Heck, it's nearly time for sandals, shorts and sweaters.  Who could deny us this glorious day?

Spring: Save the dates

With the warm weather comes very busy calendars. Make sure to mark off these can't-miss events on your calendar:

CCAD Spring art sale.
April 18
Loann Crane Center for Design

First choice ($50): 9 – 10:30 a.m.
General Admission ($5): 10:30 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Wonderful work, unfair prices. Happily, though, the unfair is in our favor this time.

The event features blown glass, ceramics, paintings, handmade paper, drawings, apparel, photography, sculptures, prints and jewelry. More than 125 students and alumni bring original work to this one-day sale. Cash, checks and credit/debit cards are accepted. Admission is charged at the door. Parking is free.

North Market's Apron Gala
May 16
7-10PM
59 Spruce Street

Prices not posted yet, but usually: $75 (worth every penny); $65 for registered Friends of the North Market

This is the single best fundraiser of the entire year. Everyone dresses in cocktail attire, draped with creative aprons. And, the vendors of North Market serve a three-course meal. A third of the eateries open on each hour - offering a heavenly array of treats. And included wine and beer flow freely the entire evening.

It is truly a can't miss. The chocolate-dipped strawberries alone.

Oh, yeah, there's a bunch of other stuff, too - like a silent auction with original art and private chefs. But, whatever, it's THE FOOD.

Link

Comfest
June 26, 27, 28
Pretty much noon - midnight
Goodale Park

Not to put too fine a point on it: But, Comfest is why I live in Columbus. A three-day music and art and community festival that's a groundswell of good times.

You can lay around in the grass all day and just enjoy the weather and the music or pack in at night for Columbus at its most drunk and most social.

Link

Downtown trivia: Plan B for the ballpark

Like me, you're probably watching the fabulous new Huntington Park coming to life in the Arena District. No question, it looks great. There's a lot of energy and excitement around it.

I should say: Now that the decision is made and the ground is broken (heck, not just broken, but blooming), my issues over gentrification have been left far behind. I can't wait for opening day. Heck, I might even buy season tickets.

I digress.

Did you know: The other finalist location for the ballpark was the site of the new Franklin County courthouse - right on High Street. What a different downtown that would have been - seamlessly connecting the struggling Brewery District back to the growing Short North. Embracing work and play in one place - instead of sectioning off all entertainment into pre-defined dist

Alas, just more armored buses for the south end of town.

Snow Day!

Downtown is closed.

Wait a minute. Downtown is never closed.

Despite 7" of white fluffy mess (with a good 1" of slippery ice in the center), downtowners are still out and about. Refusing to be pent up in their tiny houses (and refusing to dig out their completely buried cars), they're on foot, on sled, and on stoop assessing the situation.

Five most common downtown responses to a blizzard:

1. Walk to the grocery. Even if you don't need anything, it can't hurt to lay in an extra bottle of wine and maybe some stinky cheese. Plus, you look smashing in that scarf and you need to get some feedback on the new boots.


2. See how far you can walk a small dog before it disappears in the snow. Hey, we walk their fancy pants in the city parks all summer - we get to make fun of them being chin-deep in snow at least once a winter. It's a fair trade.


3. Smoke on the stoop. What better venue to chat up neighbors about the massive inconvenience this beautifully misspent day will create for us all. (And, figure out what walking-distance bars might be open later ... say, 6sih)


4. Make excuses not to shovel. It will melt. No one else shovels. There's ice under there. 


5. Go sledding in Schiller Park. Sure, it's a baby hill. And, all you have is a snowboard. But what better way to get a runny nose and feel like you earned a little full-calorie cocoa.

Downtown crowd braves the snow for Ailey II

I'm just back from the Capital Theater where Ailey II brought their touring troupe of modern dancers to hundreds of Alvin Ailey devotees more than willing to brave the snarled, snowy traffic and genuinely dreadful Riffe Center parking for a night of ... well, simply inspiring, sometimes gravity-defying, dance.

Due to an injury, the program changed just before the show - swapping out new work for favorite classics. To the delight of the crowd. The final piece was Relevations. Perhaps the troupe's best known work, rife with spiritual urgency and exaltation. It received a standing (mittened) ovation.

The middle work was Cry. A 16-minute interlude centered on a flowing white dress wrapped around an intense, muscled illusion of a dancer. The music was classic Ailey - an ardent composition by Alice Coltrane and others.

The first piece was more current. A spirited, stylish celebration; with memories of the church; delivered with the rough movements that leap ballet to deliver "modern" at it most playful.

All and all, an unforgettable night.