Woot!  The Columbus  Museum of Art is offering FREE ADMISSION to all exhibits on Friday night from 7pm-midnight for all OSU affiliated patrons. 

Found Footage Festival makes a stop at the Drexel in Bexley Friday night with 2 showings at 7:30pm and 9:30pm.  According to the official website the video collection of garage sale and thrift store finds was begun by the finding of a gem entitled Inside and Outside Custodial Duties in a McDonald’s breakroom.

Don’t bother eating breakfast on Saturday because at 1:30pm a taco extravaganza shall begin!  Four West Side taquerias will be participating in a kind of road-rally for the belly as visitors are invited to patronize all tasty venues in 1 afternoon.  http://www.tacotruckscolumbus.com

Get ready to be offended!  The morally-questionable yet hilariously-clever 1980′s  punk band The Meatmen play at Bernie’s Saturday night at 9pm.  Hopefully you won’t end up with the song Crippled Children Suck in your head for the next week.

Have a good one!  Gretchen

The Columbus Clippers season opener is finally here!  4:05 Saturday.  If you haven’t seen the stadium, go on and drive by on Neil Ave. at Nationwide Arena.  You can see inside from the street, no visual blockages. 

Can Columbus become the new, or at least the second, Hockeytown?  I guess we’ll find out as the Columbus Blue Jackets kick off the playoffs against the Detroit Red Wings.  Saturday is game 2 in Detroit.  Let’s go Jackets, CARRY THE FLAG!

Safety Is of the Lord: Jim Zellinger and Michelle Maguire is the current exhibt up at the Chop Chop Gallery.  Michelle is one of our homeslices who works over at the Visual Resources Library at Hayes Hall when she’s not being artiste extraordinaire.  Check out her awesome demolition derby photos!  Opening reception Friday 7-11pm. 

Small Press and Alternative Comic Expo, or S.P.A.C.E. takes place again this year at the Alladin Shrine Center.  10-6 Saturday, 10-5 Sunday.  $5 for one day, $8 for both.

Last but not least, our buddies at the Cartoon Library and Museum are having an open house Friday from 3-5pm.  See the new Light: A Forgotten 19th Century Humor Mangazine exhibit and get a ‘behind the scenes’ tour.

Have a good one!  Gretchen

Wooo!  It’s finally not only spring on the calendar, but also in weather-terms…the sun is shining and I’ve thrown my winter coat in the laundry.  So what to do this weekend since I don’t have a parka draggin’ me down?

I know I blog this in every year, but it’s cool.  The Whetstone Daffodil Garden, just to the north of the entrance the the Rose Gardens, is in full-bloom this week.  They aren’t out for long so get ‘em while they’re yellow!

Let’s go, Jackets!   (clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)  The Blue Jackets continue their best season so-far Saturday night in Tennessee against the Nashville Predators.  Seriously, the PREDATORS?  Sounds like a Law&Order: SVU episode in the making!  And Sunday they are back home against the Chicago Blackhawks.  You might want to start your day by stopping by Tim Hortons to pick up their new limited-time-only Stinger donut. 

Well, if you feel like a road trip, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland is free on Saturday in honor of the 2009 class of new inductees.  Unbelievably, it’s $22 for non-Cleveland-resident adults to get in now, so if you can get in for free it might be worth fighting a crowd.  I myself am a huge fan of the B-52′s/Duran Duran wall of memorabilia!  They also have some rockin’ frocks worn by a Mr. Jimmy Hendrix back in the day, donated by his late father.   However, the star of the show this month is a new 2-floor temporary exhibit, From Asbury Park to the Promised Land: The Life and Music of Bruce Springsteen.

Prepare for Easter by meeting it’s king.  The Easter Bunny will be at Easton for pictures Monday-Saturday 10am-8pm and Sunday Noon-6pm.  5×7 photos are $5 each, other packages are available, or you can just use your own camera.

Tuesday, April 7, there will be a lecture in Mershon Auditorium by production designer Alex McDowell.  Mr. McDowell has done the production design for more than a dozen major motion pictures including The Watchmen, The Corpse Bride, and Fight Club.  Free, 7pm.

Oh, and you all missed it (at least I didn’t see you there!), but Morrissey rocked the Palace Theater last night!  Prepare in case it rains all weekend by running out now and getting his new album Years Of Refusal to keep you company.

Have a good one!  Gretchen

Back in action after a set of nasty head-cold infections!  (Thank you Z-Pac!)

This is Friday, so drop what you’re doing and get over to COSI with your $15 entry fee so you can enter the Guitar Hero World Tour Tournament.  My Guitar Hero song is Possum Kingdom by the Toadies.

Also on short notice, former FIN student employee Andrew Graham’s band RTFO Bandwagon has a slammin’ new album out (above) and celebrates its release Friday night at Skylab starting at 9pm. 

.Khaaaaaan!

The Drexel is having their 26th Annual 24-Hour Science Fiction Marathon from Saturday at noon until Sunday at noon.  $36  You also have a less-expensive option of attending the 1/2 Marathon beginning at midnight Saturday. http://www.scifimarathon.com

Denison University is rockin’ the lecture circuit next week!  Esquire editor A.J. Jacobs (author of one of my favorite books, The Year of Living Biblically) will speak March 31 at 7:30pm and on April 1 at 7:30pm Denison hosts Hip-Hop in the New Millenium with Public Enemy founder Chuck D and his wife, Professor Gaye Theresa Johnson. 

Everybody always says to me, “You’re shopping for Christmas already??!!!”  But then when it comes around Thanksgiving and the week after and people are starting to freak out, they finally understand the method to my madness.  Don’t go crazy, go to the Short North Warehouse Sale Saturday and Sunday from 12-6 at 1201 N. High St.  There will be stuff there from tons of Short North stores up to 90% off. 

Have a good one!  Gretchen

Well, spring is on the horizon which means there’s finally starting to be stuff to do on the weekends.

The Columbus Home and Garden Show this year features 14 movie-themed gardens, including a Terminator display entitled Hosta, La Vista and a Ratatouille garden that requires you to pass through a giant sewer pipe before encountering the restaurant facade and the Eiffel Tower.   At the fairgrounds all weekend.  http://www.dispatchevents.com/home_garden.php

Speaking of The Terminator, Ah-nald is back in town for the Arnold Sports Festival this weekend.  Literally an international event, the top competitors in body building, weightlifting, arm wrestling, strongman competition, and many other events fly in from all over the world to compete.  Look for Maria Shriver if you’re out at Easton – in other years she’s been spotted at shopping outlets around town during the event.   The festival is held at the Convention Center and 3 other venues all weekend with event, day or all-access passes for sale.   http://arnoldsportsfestival.com/

Woot! Woot!  Cheryl & Co. may have been bought out a few years ago, but the catalog distribution center is still in Westerville which means it’s time for their annual  Cheryl & Co. Warehouse Sale.  When Cheryl still owned things I went to the sale and it was AWESOME – I got a $75 box of individually wrapped assorted cookies for $5 and a $22 pineapple upside down cake for $1.  Then a couple years later they held it at the fairgrounds and things were hardly marked down at all and I didn’t buy anything.  This year, the flyer promises 50-75% off, and I suspect that the prices will drop as the day goes on.   Saturday March 7, 7am-7pm at the Windsor Bay Shopping Center, 1220 County Line Rd., Westerville.

Tom Wilson II, son of Ziggy creator Tom Wilson, will be signing his new autobiography Zig-zagging: Loving Madly, Losing Badly, How Ziggy Saved My Life at the Lennox Barnes & Noble on Olentangy River Rd. Friday night at 7pm.  Tom-the-Second took over the comic from his father in 1987.

Yay!  Former UND Library (yes, there used to be an Undergraduate Library) student employee Kerri Marcinko comes back to perform in recital at Weigel Hall Friday night with fellow OSU alum Margaret Mack.  Kerri has performed with opera companies around the world including major roles with the New York City Opera.  8pm, $12, $6 for students.

 Have a good one!  Gretchen

Just when you think spring is about to begin Old Man Winter blows back into town to remind you it’s still February.  But we aren’t going to let him get us down! 

The Andy Warhol exhibit is over, but believe it or not, there are still other exhibits going on around the world.  And it’s a good weekend to take a road trip.  Don’t worry, you’ll be back in time for the Oscars Sunday night….

  This impressive gown was worn by Swoozie Kurtz in Dangerous Liasions.

The Taft Museum in Cincinnati is featuring the exhibit Fashion in Film.  They promise an outfit from one of my favorite movies, Evita, so I’m psyched!  The best part?  They are waiving the $12 admission free this weekend for Cincinnati’s annual Art Sampler weekend, which offers free admission to many of the city’s cultural attractions.

Admission is always free to the amazing Toledo Museum of Art which is featuring a new exhibit in their Glass Pavillion, Radiant Ensemble:  Jewelry from the Nancy and Gilbert Levine Collection.  Running through March 1, the exhibit features European jewelry created between 1785 and 1885.  The museum recently expanded their weekend hours to 10am-6pm on Saturdays and Noon-6pm on Sundays.  Between the cloister with lighting to simulate times of day and the mummy with canopic jars, the museum’s permanent collection makes for a very entertaining way to spend a weekend afternoon.

$10 ($8 for students with ID) will get you into the new glass exhibit at the Dayton Art Museum, William Morris:  Myth, Object and the Animal.  It’s not the old-time English William Morris that hung out with the Pre-Raphaelites, but the 51-year-old American glass artist who for a time served as Dale Chihuly’s chief glass-blower before branching out on his own.  Saturday and Sunday 10am-4pm.

The Akron Art Musem (small, but mighty!) is currently hosting an exhibit of photographs, Edward Weston:  Life Work.  This show is accompanied by a 30-minute video presentation.  Open 11am-5pm, admission is $7 ($5 for students)and parking in the garage is free on the weekends.

Last but definitely not least – if you’re trying to save on gas money – The Columbus Museum of Art is featuring To Live Forever:  Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum.  $10 ($8 for students) will get you up close to some of the most amazing Egyptian objects owned by an American museum.    Imagine the mummy in this exhibit battling it out with the one from Toledo!  Mummy smack-down!  And good news – parking at the CMA is now free.

Have a good one!  Gretchen

Today’s hidden animal is featured in the 61st dance of Ely Kim’s video project Boombox: 100 Days 100 Songs 100 Locations 100 Dances.  Mr Kim’s inspirations include, “clouds, mangoes, smiling, and puppies.”  Trust me when I say that it is worth watching until at least #61.  In the meantime, here’s a good Yoshitomo Nara dog drawing, inspired by the crazy dancing.

.

Yoshitomo Nara. Dog with Japanese writing. 1992-2000. Pen and ink and crayon on graph paper, 8 1/4 x 5 3/4″ (21 x 14.6 cm). Fractional and promised gift of David Teiger in honor of Agnes Gund. © 2009 Yoshitomo Nara.  Image courtesy moma.org.

 Valentine’s Day! 

The Shangri-Las

Saturday Ohio Theatre is hosting a Valentine’s Rock and Roll Spectaular – it’s like watching a PBS special LIVE!  The Miracles, Danny and the Juniors, The Diamonds, The Shangri-Las, Little Peggy March and Jack Scott.  NOTE:  The Miracles used to feature Claudette Robinson (Smokey’s wife at the time) but I don’t see that she’s going to be there – so everybody bring your WHERE’S CLAUDETTE? signs. 

Thank you Landmark Theatres!  Landmark at the Gateway will be showing Pee-wee’s Big Adventure on the big screen noon and midnight from Friday night until Sunday afternoon.  Many things made this great – the first feature directed by Tim Burton, the first film score by Danny Elfman, co-written by Phil Hartman, contains many awesome celebrity cameos (including Twisted Sister!)…on and on.  Awesome all-around.

Have you seen the Warhol exhibit yet?  Seriously, people, you need to get on it!  Friday and Saturday Andy Warhol:  Other Voices, Other Rooms is open until 10pm.  Saturday there’s a free reception open to the public with snacks and a cash bar from 5-7pm.

 My favorite bird, the Tufted Titmouse.  (Nice hair-do!)

It’s time again for the Great Backyard Bird Count!  Spend 15 minutes a day Friday-Monday counting birds in your own back yard and submit your findings at birdcount.org.  They even have an online bird guide in case you see an unfamiliar specimen.  The nice thing about a winter bird count is that it’s pretty easy – all of the unusual birds are still down south – so it’s a great time to get kids (or adult beginners)  involved in bird-watching.

 Happy Valentine’s Day!  Have a good one!  Gretchen

Last week’s HAiA may have been just a little too hidden, but I swear that there’s a hippo in that water for real.  If only Giorgione had included this South African hippo-crossing sign somewhere in his landscape!

Danger: Hippo Crossing.  Photograph by Marguerite Duponchel.  Image courtesy news.bbc.co.uk.

Not much going on this weekend, so once again I present my 10 Best and Worst movies of the previous year list.  The Oscars will be February 22, so you have until then to see how wrong they were in their selections! 

10 BEST MOVIES OF 2008 ACCORDING TO ME 

10.  X-Files 2:  I Want to Believe.  The only thing that disappointed me about this is that it got bad reviews and nobody went to see it.  Billy Connolly should have gotten an Oscar nomination – he was THAT GOOD.

9.  Kung Fu Panda/Horton Hears a Who (TIE).  I couldn’t decide one over the other since they were both great on the same points. 

8.  Igor.  It’s a bummer that more people didn’t see this movie.  It was awesome!  WAY better than Oscar-nominated Bolt.

7.  Run Fat Boy Run.  This was a very funny romantic comedy about an out-of-shape (however, not fat at all) British guy who decides to run a marathon to impress the mother of his child and show-up her new American fiancé played by Hank Azaria.    I usually hate romantic comedies.

6.  Son of Rambow.  A very clever story about 2 little boys in the early 80’s who start making their own Rambo film.  One belongs to a religious sect that bans him from tv, music and movies and the other is the class bully.  Stealing all his scenes – French child star Jules Sitruk playing a very suave French exchange student who’s too cool for school.

5.  Gran Torino.  The first “serious drama” I’ve liked in a long time.  I would say that even if my high school psychology teacher Mr. Johns didn’t have the first line of the movie!

4.  Role Models.  I expect this to be another batch of offensive drivel along the lines of Seth Rogan movies and the like, but was happy to discover this was actually very clever and hilarious. 

3.  Happy Go Lucky.  When this began I wasn’t sure I was going to like it but after about 15 minutes I really got into it.  It includes another couple of Oscar-worthy performances – all for naught! (Curse you, Oscar voters!)  A young woman takes driving lessons after her bike is stolen.  She has a VERY positive attitude.  Her driving instructor – not so much.

2.  Young@Heart.  Oh man, I want to start a group like this!  I have no idea how to be a choir director but I think I could find some pretty awesome songs for senior citizens to sing.  This documentary follows one such choir through a concert season filled with loss. 

1.  Man on Wire.  Inspirational!  Lots of good quotes and moving recollections by Philippe Petit and his partners-in-crime as they plot to string a high wire between the roofs of the

World
Trade
Center.  I was scared for him the whole time even though everyone knows how it turned out. 

Barely missed making the good list:  Baby Mama, Religulous, Mummy 3, Semi-Pro, Tale of Despereaux, The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, Ghost Town, Step Brothers, Sex and the City 

10 WORST MOVIES OF 2008 ACCORDING TO ME 

10.  The Dark Knight.  Too dark to be enjoyable.  I can’t cheer for any guy into wire-tapping, whether he be real or fictional. 

9.  Hamlet 2.  I wanted this SO BADLY to be good, but it wasn’t.  Not one laugh in the whole 92 minutes.

8.  Hulk.   He’s so destructive and unsympathetic!  He causes more damage than he helps out!  What’s with Superheroes suddenly being so woefully flawed?   

7.  The Strangers.  It was scary, but the end was very disappointing.

6.  The Bank Job.  Supposedly based on the true story, everything about it was boring.

5.  Stop Loss.  This should have been great, but this was another one that lets you down at the end.  Unfortunately, the bad ending was based in reality.

4.  Burn After
Reading.  I don’t like the Cohen brothers or Frances McDormand.  I knew I wouldn’t like it going in, but I didn’t realize how much.

3.  Hancock.  What the heck?!!!  The story made no sense AT ALL.

2.  Strange Wilderness.  Left me feeling absolutely nothing.  I barely even remember it.  I went to see it in that late- winter lull between seeing the Oscar movies and the spring movies coming out.  I wanted to go to a movie and this was the only thing on.  Bad choice.

1.  Harold and Kumar Escape from

Guantanamo
Bay.  Strange Wilderness was probably a worse production but it wasn’t nearly as offensive as this.  Usually I’m just disappointed in bad movies – but this one I actually felt hatred for. 

Barely missed making the bad list:  Tropic Thunder, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Wall-e, Don’t Mess with the Zohan, 88 Minutes. 

I can’t wait until after work today!  Coraline is going to be AWESOME!!!  I already know from the trailer it’s going to be on the best 10 list next year. 

Have a good one!  Gretchen