Dr. Tom, the scientologist

I was going to rant about Dr. Tom and his views on psychiatry but if you go to the new and improved and very cool Technorati.com and type in Tom Cruise is an asshole, you'll find more than 600 people beat me to it. I think I'll skip it. Tom's had a tough week.

Some fun reading from that link if you get a chance. Shrinkette's take is probably the funniest.

tom cruise scientology moron technorati psychiatry

See that rain?

Gonna make these babies explode!

tomatoes weather columbus

Technorati better than ever

A friend was asking about blogs capturing this years Comfest. Well, Technorati's been redone and it's awesome. You can type in simply "Columbus" and get a host of Columbus blogger entries (albeit mostly LiveJournal) to the festival and parade in addition to a host of search results from Flickr, a very-cool community photo sharing site. Thanks for the prompt E.

technorati comfest columbus

Why I love homeownership

Not an undiscovered marsupial but a clog. He was stopping up our drain. After raising a toddler, I can, without hesitation, immerse my fingers in anything.

Last until August 4th

Last night's open mic was standing room only and action packed.

Ishmael accompanied by guitarist, Tone, started the evening with at least 9 selections from Haiti, The Passion, Search for the Truth, Love and everything in between. Rick played some musical selections including one from Curtis Mayfield. Chris read Pleasure Place and broke into impressions; erratic, yet entertaining. Tone then did some freestyle initiated by audience input. A crowd pleaser no doubt. The next two pieces were just beautiful and I didn't get his name; he runs a writing workshop at KK on Tuesdays. The last I saw was a performance piece by Olcar and crew. That was the one that got in my head and made it hard to sleep.

Had to leave after that - school night. Nice job everyone. See you in August (music on Thursdays at Kafe Kerouac in the meantime).

open mic poetry columbus kafe kerouac spoken word

Open Mic Thursday

LIFE LOVE AND LIBERTY Featuring Spoken Word Artist ISHMAEL Thursday June 23rd, 9 pm @ KAFE KEROUAC 2250 N. HIGH ST. no charge (...don't worry, I won't be reading)

Some definitions might help if you're not into this stuff on a regular basis. These open mics are a lot like short theater productions. Sometimes good, sometimes less good - all entertaining. If Frankie goes to sleep uneventfully, I'll be escaping for an hour to catch it. Hope to see you there.

open mic poetry columbus kafe kerouac spoken word

Blackwell

The "Blackwell", a posh hotel on OSU's campus, according to the Dispatch (paid content), is reporting it's considering changing its name. Blackwell was a marketing professor who was convicted of insider trading and contributed $7.2 MILLION toward to the construction of the hotel. Turns out, some of that cash may have been obtained by illegal means.

Maybe they should just attach a little addition to the bottom of the entranceway sign that says "no tipping".

Viewer Mail

A while back I wrote something about the local media coverage of the death of Dimebag Darrell. I just got this feedback:

Hello Dave,

Today I was wondering what happened to the person who killed heavy metal guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott and three others last December in Columbus. I didn't know if they caught him, but it turns out that police shot and killed him moments after the killings started. One of the sites in the search was yours. You made the comment that Abbott was probably one of those people who is often "at the wrong place at the wrong time".

First of all, the shooting was the fault of the shooter (and probably security for not doing a weapons check of fans before the show). It wasn't Dimebag's fault. Also, Dimebag was there because (read carefully) HE WAS PLAYING A CONCERT! He was doing his job. I hope you never teach your daughter any of your logic, or she will be laughed at like I'm sure you often are.

It's bad enough that lame music stars like Brittany Spears and Justin Timberlake get all the attention, but then people like you have to disrespect real musicians like Dimebag Darrell (even when they meet with tragedy). How about thinking a little next time?

By the way, Columbus is a good-sized city but the rest of the country doesn't hear much about it. My uncle Rev. David White lives there, and he said the expressways are set up badly and makes traffic worse than it should be. Do you agree?

Jim

Well Jim, the laughter about me has quieted down and if you read the post it was a complaint that the local media blew it. They could've used the tragedy to highlight mental health issues (insurance parity, etc.), gun control, etc. Instead, they turned it into a print version of CSI. Totally useless.

And Jim, the expressways here are set up badly. Please don't visit.

Finally, your heartthrob's name is spelled Britney not Brittany.

Wexner Films

Several years ago the Wexner Center on OSU's north end of campus showed a series of films every summer called "B movie a Go-Go". These were fun films only John Waters could truly love, they were so bad. We went religiously to the entire series. Kitten with a Whip, my favorite.

This Summer, they've outdone themselves and are having an indy film series that looks outstanding. Even better than B movies, these are independent films from around the world. You can view by show times or category. These films look special; not some garbage you'd see at Lennox.

Anyone want to volunteer to babysit?

White Stripes

I have no allegiance to any single genre of music. I like anything from Wu Tang to Comedian Harmonists and most stuff in between. I hear something and I hunt it down on Limewire or Amazon (yes, and actually pay for it).

Lately, I've been hearing this duo all over the place and never had enough room on my hand to write down the band's name (my hand's been filled with notes like "buy diapers", etc.). Apparently, I waited so long, they turned pop and ended up on NPR. I don't mind liking music that's categorized as popular; I like what I like - and White Stripes are good. There's 3 full songs to listen to on the NPR site. It's their fifth recording and I'm looking forward to checking into their first four. The fifth though: A great recording for - say - Father's Day?

Painful numbers

The caloric cost of walking, about 5 (k)cal/min; walking upstairs, 9 cal/min; walking downstairs, 7 cal/min, or, the average of climbing and descending stairs, 8 cal/min.

So, I naively go to McD's for lunch and get a doublecheesburger and small fry. Cha-ching, 690 frigging calories or about 86 minutes on stairs. Ouch. Remind me not to flip that menu again.

The Arts Festival

Well, last night, Trish put Frankie's diaper on apparently afraid I'd give her a penny to play with again and all was uneventful. Still no sign of the penny but we haven't stopped looking.

Meanwhile, the girls and I will be attending the Columbus Arts Festival tonight and feasting on City Barbecue for dinner. Hope to see you there.

Update
Peter took some photos of the girls. Here's one of Frankie and her buddy Ailsa from the festival