June 17, 1997. Polaris Amphitheater. Ozzfest. Some 18,000 fans taking in a gazillion bands on two stages. Columbus Dispatch Music Critic, Bill Eichenberger has assigned me, apprentice concert reporter, to cover the metal scrubs on…
Becoming Unbalanced
Company seeks to create new opportunities in the Columbus theater scene Seriously, when was the last time drinking a lot of wine gave you a really good idea? An idea that might even change your…
Skin Deep
Introducing a local festival for artists as colorful and diverse as their work It’s an unapologetic celebration of people of color making art. Poetry, music, or film—if it exists, there’s a brown person that can…
Liner Notes: Caleb Shomo
Beartooth is not yet a household name, but scan the pages of Alternative Press or the aisles of Hot Topic and they certainly appear to be a band on the precipice of something big within…
Stage Right
Conservative Theater in Columbus sets the stage for debate Remember when theater legend David Mamet “came out” in 2008? Not as gay, but as conservative. Well, in a theatrical universe largely populated by the left—where…
Building Blocks
Introducing a few of the fresh faces in downtown’s newest collaborative arts space Sherleelah Jones sherleelahjones.com Sherleelah, a digital designer and illustrator, is the new kid on the block in terms of the collective that…
Block Party
Inside the city’s latest arts-based co-lab Everyone knows “a guy.” Someone who is well connected, makes things happen, and can get you set up with anything you may need. For the Columbus arts community, Adam…
Image Issue: Gail Shamon
Age: 21 Hometown: Hong Kong Education: Mostly self-taught; studio practice learned at CCAD Years shooting: 7.5 Inspiration: The individual whose work inspired me so much to start shooting beauty, was (and still is) Jenn Collins…
Image Issue: Hana Mendel
Age: 20 Hometown: New Orleans Education: Third Year Photo, Columbus College of Art & Design Years shooting: 3 Inspiration: I love studying subcultures and their eventual effect on the majority. John Lennon took his experiences…
Image Issue: Tom Hoying
Mantra: “If you spend too much time behind a computer, it seems like the whole world has been photographed. But once you step outside, the world starts opening up in all its weird and varied…
Image Issue: Annie Noelker
Age: 21 Hometown: Carbondale, Colorado Education: Third Year Photo, CCAD Years shooting: 6 Inspiration: My family and my childhood, as well as Colorado. And Frank Ocean. I first started shooting with an iPhone freshman year…
Image Issue: Chip Willis
Mantra: “You wanna shoot?” First camera: Canon T50, Canon AE-1 Current favorite: Fuji X100S@chipwillis Nevermind that he was a crew chief in the U.S. Army, zipping around in old Huey helicopters back in the ’80s—the…
Image Issue: Christopher Toothman
Mantra: “f/8 and be there.” – Weegee First camera: My dad’s Minolta SR-T 101 35mm Last camera: Canon 5D Mark III Christopher Toothman first felt the allure of photography—that “click” that could make moments of…
Image Issue: James Drakeford
Photo mantra: “Can’t teach vision.” First camera: Canon Powershot Last camera: Sony a99 What some photographers may see as a way to pay the bills, James Drakeford sees as a field of limitless possibility. Not…
Image Issue: Paul Woo
Mantra: “Never put the camera down, or you might miss the moments.” First camera: Canon Rebel XTi (with Kit Lens) Last camera: Canon 5D mark IV + Canon 35mm 1.4 II A phone can take beautiful photos,…
Image Issue: Brad Heaton
Brad Heaton was never allowed to go to large concerts as a kid. Which is pretty hilarious considering he’s had the best seat in the house for roughly 130 in the past year. While he…
Art Without Borders
Wildflowers color the hilltop meadows… open air art These words—emblazoned on a goliath stone resting alongside a zigzagging woodland trail—reverberate through the trees as they are read aloud. The Japanese translation of the haiku, along with the…
A Better Shot
Just south of downtown, through an unassuming gated entrance and up a curious staircase, time stops. The address, 199 S High St., serves as a nexus of past, present, and future. Having been used for…
Avant-Anna
Amongst a psychedelically patterned backdrop enter five dancing fembots. Their faces are brushed white with dense makeup, contrasting fervently with bright red lipstick, cobalt eyeshadow, and fluorescent, multicolored wigs. Four of them move and sway…
Image Issue: Javi Gutierrez
Javi Gutierrez used to think of photography as a hobby. Now, after his day job brought him to Columbus, his passion has become his profession. His wandering eye has led to a variety of exotic…
Making a Name for Herself
The odds of grabbing the interest of a major publishing house as a first-time writer—armed with even the most riveting manuscript—are akin to the odds of a blind mule successfully landing a passenger jet on…
The Big Short
Comedy knows no limits—and neither does Patton Oswalt. His work is honest, and with honesty comes indecency and, in Oswalt’s case, vicious self-deprecation. “My circle of friends has always been funnier than me,” Oswalt jeered…
I Believe I Can Fly
When you’re asked, ‘If you could have any sort of superhuman power, what would it be?’ Mine was always flying,” said Carly Wheaton. “Probably because it’s not possible. You see birds do it. You see…
Dreams of the Big Screen
Meshach Malley adjusted the knot of his friend’s tie as the rest of the group inspected each other for oversights in their outfits. No detail was too small for his personal attention. Their parents huddled…
The Bands Come Around
Six years ago, a hundred and a few folks packed their bundled bodies into The Shrunken Head on West Fifth Avenue and pressed their ears to the speakers. They were there for the simplest and…
Word Play
Nancy Kangas is one of those Columbus creatives that has been in my peripheral vision since, well, forever. Somewhere in my house—I am not a hoarder because books don’t count—I have a copy of this…
Newer Grow Up
Hanging off an entry wall in the Gateway Film Center is a colossal wooden sandworm—a zebra striped serpent with dull red eyes and conical teeth, hosting a smaller, fiercer snakehead inside of its mouth. Beside…
Dancing With Dickens
Ilove happy endings,” says Eric Johnston, my jovial guide to a new retelling of the tale of Ebeneezer Scrooge. I mean, it’s no spoiler alert that Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, in any variation, lands…
The New (Para) Normal
Lori Gum sure knows how to put the perfect pitch on a project. After a massively successful Kickstarter campaign, she and her cohorts now have a pile of cash ($35K-plus!) to produce a web docuseries,…
UnCovered: Wall of Sound
Part of the fun at (614) Magazine is getting to extend our art department out into the vast creative community of Columbus. This month, we got to double-down the “maker” theme of our cover story,…
Requiem to Restoration
When an aging theater closes the curtains and locks its doors, it normally stays that way. That was nearly true of Drexel Theatre after more than 70 years of mainstream movies and obscure independent films….
Within Range
When Peggy Kriha Dye seized the opportunity to reshape Columbus’s premier opera company as its Artistic Director, she not only brought a new artistic vision to the stage, but also sought to change its aging…
Boyz II (Angsty) Men
Calling all of you who occasionally dust off your CDs and your pipes to Dashboard Confessional. Those who crank up the Brand New in the car, even if you’re simultaneously rolling up your window. The ones…
Natural Sway: Pure Energy
There is nothing particularly metaphysical or even quasi-spiritual about the songs of Ryan Eilbeck. Unless of course you consider the morning ritual of Oolong tea with honey a life-changing moment, in which case the casual…
Ebb and Flow
A couple weeks ago, we played a thank you reception for The Big Table. A man approached us afterwards and said he saw us perform six years ago. He said that he was in a…
Rising Like the Phoenix
Moxy Martinez doesn’t give two shits about the norm. She’s anti-box—actually anti-anti—a breath of fresh air when you need a thoughtful perspective, and the anger you need when you feel like everything’s hopeless. She’s also…
Decadence by Design
You are what you wear… If the theme of this year’s HighBall Halloween (10.21-10.22) applies to the annual Costume Couture contest, then we’re about have plenty of interesting detail revealed about this year’s contestants. If…
Culture Chameleon
There are thousands of people who would love to see Captain America in a crop-top. That’s what Christian Cimoroni found out when the CCAD alumnus and t-shirt designer started focusing his illustrations on skewing the…
Midwest Monster Mecca
As I take a seat in a sleek leather office chair in front of the desk of Bo Bruns, founder of Unit 70 Studios—one of the largest exporters of horror props and animatronics in the…
Haunt Around the Clock
I’m a drag convert—an out-of-the-closet believer and lover of everything drag. In fact, for the last three years I’ve gone to Nina West’s Heels of Horror at Axis. Why? Because it is quite possibly the…