Artbeat: collaboration is the key to lifting up art in the community

Artbeat: collaboration is the key to lifting up art in the community

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…

Read More

Going Green: Trees Columbus preserves and grows our urban canopy

Going Green: Trees Columbus preserves and grows our urban canopy

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…

Read More

A Day at Omaha Brewing Co.: Columbus’s craft beer brewery in Omaha, Ga.

A Day at Omaha Brewing Co.: Columbus’s craft beer brewery in Omaha, Ga.

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….

Read More

PAWS Humane: Our mission and vision

PAWS Humane: Our mission and vision

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…

Read More

Upstream Online Film Festival: Certain Women

Upstream Online Film Festival: Certain Women

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…

Read More

Strong Signal: Creating a Columbus music scene with DJ Cashflow

Strong Signal: Creating a Columbus music scene with DJ Cashflow

 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…

Read More

Ralph Frank’s life, liberty and pursuit of happiness

Ralph Frank’s life, liberty and pursuit of happiness

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…

Read More

A Mom on a Mission: Gus’s Drive-In & Restaurant

A Mom on a Mission: Gus’s Drive-In & Restaurant

by Chantel Baul More than fifty years ago, a mother in Florida received an opportunity to own and operate an out-of-town restaurant. Ambitious as she was, she packed up her three children and moved them to Columbus where she opened Gus’s Drive-In & Restaurant on Victory Drive. That woman was Mama Gus, the hardworking, compassionate and dedicated restauranteur who patrons have known and loved for decades. Throughout the late sixties and seventies, Mama Gus’s drive-in…

Read More

Do I have a dog for you!

Do I have a dog for you!

His name is Sampson.  He is black and tan.  If I were going to guess I’d say he could be part German shepherd or blue heeler or Aussie.  Only God really knows.  Whatever he is, he is a devilishly handsome chap with a charming and playful personality.  That is, once you get on the right side of him.  He has been my office foster for at least 6 weeks now and it is an honor…

Read More

Can You Escape?

Can You Escape?

It was a cold, overcast day recently, when a group of first-timers arrived at Escape This Live, at 1036 1st Avenue, in the heart of Uptown Columbus. They were not entirely certain what was in store for them as they climbed the stairs to the second floor of the building; but as they mounted the stairs, their excitement mounted, too. On the recommendation of a friend, who had fallen in love with escape room games…

Read More
1 21 22 23 24 25 34