August 5, 2010

What's Up This Weekend?

I went to The Ohio State Fair yesterday. As a life-long resident of Columbus, I've been to the Fair many times over the past half-century. The oldest memories I have center around musical experiences. Back in the 60's, my rock and roll band, The Side Effect, played on the grassy island where the giant red cardinal sculpture used to perch. I also remember seeing James Brown and Sly & the Family Stone in the outdoor arena. I used to take my son, Ruyd, there who always forced me to ride the rides like The Zipper even though I inevitably got sick and we always tried to catch the the explosively-loud tractor-pulls. After those days of taking the kid there, I rarely went back because...well, let's face it, the Fair is kind of tacky. But that ignores all the things I do enjoy at the Fair. The art show at the Janis building is always good. One of my favorite things to see is the baked goods competition at the Arts & Crafts building. I just love looking at all those cookies, pies brownies and cakes. I enjoy visiting all the farm animals which are just as exotic as any at the zoo to a city kid like me. Of course, the people watching is always amusing. The one thing that drives me crazy every time is figuring out what to eat. I have to walk up and down the fairway and look at everything and then I still can't decide. One of these days I'm going to learn not to get the french fries. They are good on the top but when you get closer to the middle they are a disgusting greasy mess. Corn dogs, roasted ears of corn and funnel cakes are usually safe bets. The chocolate covered wedge of cheesecake on a stick was geometrically tempting. DEVO was the reason that I and a lot of people I knew showed up there last night. It was reassuring to see these plump old guys pumping out that classic music like a well-oiled rock and roll machine. In between sets, they showed a spacey video that talked about how earth was a hundred trillionth of a grain of sand in the Milky Way and our life here is just an immeasurable fraction of time on our speck of the universe. The long voyage through space ended with them thanking us for spending a brief moment of that time with DEVO. I felt it was a good use my precious wisp of time and space in the vastness of the Universe to be enjoying something as absurd as DEVO at the Ohio State Fair.

Thursday, tonight, Flugge, DiCenzo & Castoe are at Dick's, my favorite gypsy punks, Gogol Bordello, are at The LC. Spikedrivers do the happy hour at Rumba and Cowboy Hillbilly Hippie Folk do the happy hour at Woodland's followed by Pleased to Meet You, Funky Roots and New Water Moonshine.

Friday, The Dublin Irish Festival begins. I should go there some year. Carabar celebrates its 5th anniversary with This Moment In Black History, Blueprint and Shin Tower Music, Circus has Two Cow Garage and The Lost Revival, Kobo has Old Worlds and Jon Burgess, Superdesserts do the happy hour at Rumba followed by Ghost Shirt and Trains Across the Sea, Miller Kelton and Billy Zenn do the happy hour at The Shrunken Head. Skully's Treehouse and The Summit are all doing Andyman benefits with tons of great music.

Saturday, Carabar has The Kyle Sowashes, Your So Bossy and The Compressions, Dick's has Derek DiCenzo, Ruby's has Matt Monta & the Hot Coal Band, Candye Kayne and The Mendelsonics are at Rumba, Soul Satyr is at Woodland's. Kobo and Treehouse have more Andyman benefits with similarly stellar line ups.

Sunday, The Spikedrivers do the Goodale Park Music Series at noon.

Use your Freedom of Choice. mark

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