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Columbus Alive
Columbus Alive , the weekly newspaper for "homegrown news, music and arts every Wednesday," has
begun publishing an on-line edition on the World Wide Web.
The on-line edition of Columbus Alive will include most of the paper's regular features, though initially without advertising. Columbus Alive editors say they plan to add more exciting interactive features in the coming weeks as the paper establishes new ways for Columbus Alive is http://www.Columbus.Net/alive. - The Stelling Group/Columbus.Net
Columbus Alive
The http://www.Columbus.Net/alive site features mainly CA 's stories. If you're looking for the calendars, you'll have to switch over to another site: http://www.columbuspages.com/Alive/vibes.html lists the clubs and bars shows;
http://www.columbuspages.com/Alive/index.html lists the bigger concerts and events. Warning, their Bars & Clubs calendar still seems to have a lot of inaccuracies - printed or webbed. - Joel
The Columbus Dispatch
http://www.cd.columbus.oh.us/
I haven't looked at this site for awhile, but you should
at least find some music reviews. - Joel
Gaga @ Mekka (SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21)
I don't normally like to review my own show for people,
but this time it was too good a tale to pass up.
The scene is Mekka, Columbus' newest and biggest techno-oriented, "NY style" dance club. Thanks to a good showing a few weeks before at the local gallery hop we managed to swing a gig at Mekka. For those unknowing, Gaga is a band I'm in with three (going on four) other people:Gary, Karen, Ed, and in the last couple shows, Elliot. We've been around for years doing electronic improvisation, usually on the ambient side, but getting more interested in drumming and also using more props, found junk (to be destroyed, played, or both) and other home-made instruments and tricks. To that end, our successful gallery hop show featured fires set and sparks a-flyin' from grinding steel. We decided that the Mekka show would be a rare opportunity and we should pull out all stops for this one.
The show was one weekend before Halloween, although Mekka was having some Halloween party already for whatever reason. Our show was to be just before midnight, giving us a prime audience. Although there were last minute misunderstandings about timing, we managed to get things figured out and carted in load after load of equipment:keyboards, electronic stuff, but also a computer to be destroyed, a large oil drum, Gary's newly-developed flamethrower, the vacuum cleaner converted into a toilet paper gun, and so on.
We got set up and started somewhere around 11:30 or
so. The room we were in was somewhat off to the side
and you couldn't fit a lot of people in, but we built
up a minor audience. The music was good - I pulled
off some nicely melodic stuff, Ed's drumming was pretty
good, Gary was doing various things. I had given Elliot
a full copy of the Unabomber's manifesto for her to
read, and she read it and also did a few improvised
vocal bits as well. Things were going pretty well.
(Until...)
About 30 minutes into the show Gary decided it was about time to pull out the flamethrower. He'd very cleverly devised this poor-man's device using a can of butane with a tube, and one of those self-defense shockers to ignite it. Better yet, he'd also added a fire extinguisher to it so if anything went wrong, he could immediately extinguish it. Good move, as it turned out.
We'd poured a little alcohol on the oil drum and once Gary shot a few blasts from the flamethrower for effect, he went over and ignited the alcohol. It burned nicely but a little too quickly, and Ed started to put some more alcohol on it. We're not really sure if it just squirted badly or Ed panicked slightly when it flamed up, but whatever the case, some alcohol went amiss - igniting Karen's keyboard and Elliot too!
Gary immediately grabbed Elliot and basically hugged her, smothering the meager flame that was riding up her cloak and hair. It was out almost immediately. I tried to put out Karen's keyboard but only had my hands to do it; I got some out but yelled to Gary for the fire extinguisher. He pulled the pin and was going to give a short blast to put it out, but the thing wouldn't stop! It kept belching out this awful dust, and once Gary realized what was going on he ran out the door behind our stage area and down the hall to the front door of the club, spewing dust all the way.
The crowd scatted once the fire was out and the room was full of dust. If the fire extinguisher had worked properly we probably could've gone on, but there was no continuing as it was. We collected our wits, made sure everyone was alright. Just about then the club's owner came running in with the predictable reaction:"You crazy motherfuckers! Come in and burn my place down! You ain't gettin' paid a PENNY!" to which Gary said that was fine. It's not like we usually get paid anyway, so the idea of getting paid for the night was simply a nice idea.
We started putting the equipment together about as quickly as we could. It was only a few minutes later that the owner came back in with an apology:"Look Mark, I'm sorry I went off on you guys like that. I was just talking with the crowd and they LOVED your show. Here's your money ($20 bill, $20 bill, $20 bill, $20 bill, $20 bill) and here, have an extra 20 ($20 bill). You guys get yourselves some drinks and have a good time!"
We were dumbfounded. Here we nearly burned this guy's place down and he's paying us... EXTRA!
We continued packing (and cleaning) with renewed spirit. Sure, the place stank of this foul dust, which we had all over our equipment and everything. But this was just too good. We couldn't have ASKED for better. Elliot got the best souvenir:a post-it from one of Karen's disks, half-charred.
The toilet-paper gun came in handy, since it was a Shop-Vac and did a good job getting up a fair amount of the dust. Mekka brought in some enormous ventilation fans to get the place aired out. We carted our stuff to our vehicles and stayed for a few hours, enjoying the evening. Gary and I had a great time waltzing around the club in our black dusty jumpsuits, looking like we'd just finished a day of manual labour. All of us were in great spirits, if a little shaken.
Don't know if we'll get asked back, though. - Mark G., O.P. [Original Prankster]
Lower Records
/ 154 Charleston Ave. / Col. OH 43214 / (614) 292-1077
Welcome to the Lower E-mail catalog. In case you're
unfamiliar with Lower, it's a cassette-mostly label
that's worked with other labels (Anyway, Picture Book,
and Theme Park so far) that put out vinyl and CDs as
well.
Some of this stuff is available through such venerable indie-rock institutions as Ajax, Parasol, Pop Narcotic, Walt, Brinkman, etc., but you can get it all right here, and at good prices too.
Slogan (swank, eh?):Lower -- Now more than ever!
Questions? Feel free to e-mail me at: [email protected].
Lower Records Catalog January 1996 Edition ('96/'97):
Music Exchange of Ohio
http://www.scsn.net/~musex/exchange/states/Ohio/columbus.html
This is an outlet for musicians looking to trade and
sell equipment mainly. I saw a band offer itself up
for gigs here too. - Joel
Twangin'
http://www.tpoint.net/~wallen/country/twangin1.txt
I discovered this by accident. It's a country/western/roots/folk
online zine. It ain't really local, but I did stumble
across Hank McCoy (he is/was local) interviewin' ...
darn, forgot who it was now ... Anyway, it looked to
have some perty cool record reviews and such. - Joel
Wiglet #9
Joel's comment: I found this old zine review from Factsheet
Five online and thought it would worth including.
Regardless of any praise I gave any other zine here, Wiglet #9 was definitely the best thing I read this issue, filled with all sorts of achingly personal stuff you might not even tell your best friend. From front to back, Ms. Gilmore Tamny gives us the "Travel Section," on a trip to Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati to see the gypsy graves; "One Girl's Story," the tale of a very private sort of operation and the scary thoughts that surrounded it; "The p-p-p-p-Poetry p-p-p-p-Page," with some rather funny non-rhyming verse; "The Incredible Journey," a comic about setting out to run some errands, getting too paranoid to get out of the car, and turning around and driving home again; "Poodleroni," a strange and touching piece of fiction about a couple who adopt an old circus poodle; and "The Secret Lair of Rick Springfield's Brain," a probing look at an aging teen idol and the audience who goes to see him perform. Interesting drawings, doodles, and real-life tidbits are wedged anyplace there's room. Everything is great, and so true to life you feel as if you're right there inside her head. Recommended reading for anyone who's ever felt awkward, scared, or overly analytical at some point in their lives. ($2 plus 2 29" stamps, Gilmore Tamny, P.O. Box 8072, Columbus, OH 43201) - Mark Lo (gopher://gopher.etext.org/00/Factsheet.Five/You_Could_Do_Worse)