What's Up This Weekend?

I was faced with quite a dilemma last night. Obama rescheduled his State of the Union so one would miss the final episode of "Lost". Instead, it was scheduled against something I wanted to watch; the OSU-Iowa basketball game. I'm an alumnus and a hardcore Buckeye fan. On the other hand, I watch every Obama speech because he is the Master of Oratory and, hopefully, he is going to lead my country out of the wilderness. Both have the thrill factor of being live, history-in-the-making events. The Bucks make me scream and yell and frighten the cats. Obama chokes me up and gives me the chills. Both had recently disappointed me though. The Bucks dropped a big one to West Virginia and Obama seemed to be pandering to the Independents with the spending freeze. Who to watch? The game started at 8:30 and by the time the Prez was getting ready to actually speak after all the pomp and circumstance and applause it was near halftime and the Bucks were down by 5 so I went with the speech. It was great stuff as usual. His style is so comfortable and down-to-earth. He can be funny and he can be brutally honest. He absolutely nailed both Democrats and Republicans but when he went after the 9 Supreme Court Justices seated right in front of him, it was a public crucifixion. When he scolded them about their recent corporate free speech decision, I yelled out, "No he did-un't!" They looked so old and pathetic as they were forced to listen to the beatdown. I was lovin' it. Now, occasionally he would start getting into the classic rhetorical real-life examples and I would flip over to the game. I discovered the Bucks were making a dramatic comeback back so I started flipping back and forth during time outs. I did see Obama make some truly inspiring pleas to the congress and senate to get over the political bullshit and start doing something for the country but I missed his promise to finally get rid of Don't Ask Don't Tell. Instead, I was able to watch the Bucks pull out an all-important road win. It was a challenging evening for me on the remote but I came away a happy Buckeye and a proud American.

Thursday, tonight, at Skullys, Love Culture and Atoms Inception are recommended to me by a friend and Alert New London is one I can vouch for. I will definitely be trying to catch new local band Adult Fiction at Rumba because it includes Chris Burney (The Sun) and Andrew Graham (RTFO Bandwagon) among other veterans of the scene. They share the stage with two other great local bands, You're So Bossy and Bookmobile. Za Unitt is at Treehouse and Grassahol and Miller Kelton are at Victorian's.

Friday, Carabar has Audion, Go Evol Shiki and Mortimu. Circus has Burglar and Mount Carmel. Ghost Shirt is at Hal and Al's and Brasileira is at Dicks. The Alive says Ghost Shirt will also be at the Treehouse with The Receiver, The Whiles and Wing & Tusk. I will be doing the happy hour at Rumba with my beloved Randys who are followed that evening by The Floorwalkers. Skully's features Jared Mahone, The Andy Shaw Band and Wet Darlings. My mandolin-playing buddy, Lee, will be at Vic's with Grassinine.

Saturday, Blueprint and Illogic are at Carabar, Two Cow Garage and Stucco Jones are at Rumba and No. 1 Cat featuring Nikki Wonder is at Skully's with Wolfgang Parker. I'm a big No. 1 Cat fan.

Sunday, there is a tribute/benefit for Willie Pooch at Roadhouse 66, 480 E. Wilson Bridge Road featuring Willie Pooch and the Upsetters, Ray Fuller and the Bluesrockers and many more special guests. Obviously, the news of Willie's death was greatly exaggerated. He did lose a leg but Columbus' finest blues singer still has a strong voice.

Did you ever have to make up your mind? mark