Several weeks ago, a dog named Camo, became an internet sensation. He was tethered by a heavy chain that was wrapped around his neck multiple times. The chain was tangled making it significantly shorter and heavier. When help arrived he nearly hung himself when he jumped off a car in his enclosure. Sadly, death by hanging is an all too common occurrence for tethered dogs. In other cases, a rope or chain becomes wrapped around…
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Like most Georgia-grown musical geniuses, Lloyd Buchanan’s roots run deep in the church. Raised in a house where secular music was forbidden by strict motherly decree, his first exposure came from watching his grandfather, Ernest Childs, Sr., wow crowds as part of gospel vocal quartets. “I grew up with a bunch of guys in a gospel quartet that was a younger version of what my grandad was doing,” Buchanan explains over coffee. “We would spend…
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Uptown Columbus in the early 1980s was, in many ways, not an attractive neighborhood. Blighted, dilapidated and almost hopeless, it is easy, 30 years later, to take for granted the area’s transformation into a show-piece historic district full of colorful homes and businesses. But real people, guided by their individual visions and willingness to collaborate, made the remarkable transformation possible. One of those people is Sia Etemadi. After two years at Columbus College, Etemadi moved…
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Begun in 2012, Artbeat brings together artists and art organizations from all over the community for three weeks of events designed to “engage, energize, educate and evoke reaction.” Now in its seventh year, Artbeat is bigger than ever, with more than 50 affiliated events, which highlight the best Columbus has to offer in art, music, theatre and fun. Three weeks of events also make a significant economic impact. Peter Bowden, CEO of VisitColumbus, estimates roughly…
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Sometimes a name says it all. Simple yet profound, Trees Columbus’s mission is to “plant, preserve and protect” the city’s urban tree canopy. Since forming in 2000—in response to city plans to remove 150 trees from Lakebottom Park—the environmental advocacy and awareness organization has planted nearly 15,000 trees and helped enact local legislation critical to making Columbus a sustainable, beautiful community. “There are obvious reasons why it’s important to have an urban tree canopy,” explains…
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It was the first truly fine day of the year, an unusually warm 77 degrees on a bright February day, when Tyson Anthony, a representative for Omaha Brewing Company, invited us down for a tour of the brewery. After our tour, we sat at a table in the tap room, a spacious retreat whose garage-style doors were open to the patio, admitting a cooling breeze and the several dogs hanging out with us that day….
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The most important thing you need to know about any nonprofit organization is its mission and vision. At PAWS Humane we printed our mission and vision statements on a big sheet of paper. We all signed it and placed it in our lobby for everyone to see. This is what guides everything we do. The mission is what a nonprofit does on a day-to-day basis. The vision is what we hope to achieve. At PAWS…
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by Joe Miller What a difference a year makes. Last year, the nominations for the Academy Awards prompted the hashtag #OscarsSoMale. This year, there are more women nominated in more categories than ever before, and more films about female characters are up for best picture. But the biggest breakthrough came with Rachel Morrison’s nomination for best cinematography, for Dee Rees’s Mudbound (NF). Morrison (who’s also cinematographer on Black Panther) cast this great American epic of…
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by Frank Etheridge Four men wait in the dark of a January night outside the locked back door of iHeartMedia’s offices on 13th Avenue. Smoking and standing next to the towering metal-frame broadcast antennas—their radio reach maximized from this placement atop the western edge of a hilltop neighborhood once called Boogerville—they’re from Atlanta and here to see DJ Cashflow. About 45 minutes before the start of his “Cashflow Radio” program on Beat 98.3FM—on the air…
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In a way, Ralph Frank, Jr. was born to do it. Featured image courtesy of Garry Pound by Frank Etheridge “I grew up on the south side,” the Columbus native recalls, pointing out that he was born in 1951 at what’s called “the old hospital” that predated Martin Army Hospital, where his two younger siblings where born. “My dad stuck a lettering brush in my hand more than a few times, but I wanted…
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