Watch this video. Seriously. If there is any indication that there are wonderful, interesting and creative people out there, this is it. Sean Gowdy (film guy and editor) and Sean Chase (main singer and performer) of Portsmouth, OH made this video parody of Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back." Their version is "Portsmouth Back." This is slick and includes a huge cast of characters including students and teacher's at Portsmouth's high school. It's currently in VH 1's "Show us Your Junk" contest. This video is in the Top 3. I don't know if the contest is over yet, but if any video beats out this one, I'd be surprised. This is a gem.

Listen, I know you're not going to be doing anything on Thursday January 11 in downtown Cleveland. Come on! You know that you have a free evening, and I think you should come spend it with me, and with the Rockstar comics. This is late notice, I know, but I'd like to pretend I have the power of the Internet enough that when I point out an entertaining, fairly cheap evening of comedy that you might like to come to it!

Plus, there will be some dynamite entertainment! Carrie Callahan will be hosting the evening (she'll do a little bit at the beginning and then introduce comics in their turns). A variety of local funny people will be there, including Jim Tews, Joe Howard and Bill Squire. Headlining (we think) the event will be young Erik Myers, who was at the Cleveland Improv only yesterday! He apparently gave a hilarious performance, although doing a quick search for him on the Internet gave me nada. So come on!

One of my cousins made a horror film with a friend years ago that actually sold for a tidy sum. It was called Hallowedween or some such thing. When I came across video clips of the horror film Close Encounters of the 4th Kind, Infesation from Mars filmed in Sandusky, Ohio I was hooked. This clip is under the heading "Martian Causes Stampede in Sandusky, OH."

After discovering the movie clips from the film, Close Encounters of the 4th Kind: Infestation from Mars, I became curious about it, particularly since the person who posted it on YouTube mentioned that it is an award winner. Yes, that is true. The film won the Feature Award for the Best of Festival category at the Berkley Video and Film Festival Awards in 2005.

Besides the clip I posted, you can find others. One of them I started to post, but changed my mind since the actors said words that might not be appropriate for a more family friendly website. Not hard core type words -- more like stuff middle-schoolers who are not yet jaded might say. Here's the title of the video clip if you want to find it on YouTube yourself. "Sandusky Ohio SWAT Guys Talking Trash." There is also a video of poor SWAT guys getting attacked by Martians at Cedar Point. It's dark, but it is obviously Cedar Point because of the roller coaster.

This movie kind of reminds me of The Blob, that Steve McQueen cult classic. If you're interested in finding out more about it, here's a Toledo Blade article about the filming of the movie, an overview of the film from a body-building website and a movie data base that lists the stars and director.

I am always so behind the times - although that's not really kind to myself! Isn't it more along the lines that I was just not away, and now I know more about more cool things to do in Northeast Ohio? Yeah, let's look at it in that light. It makes me seem more on top of things and less clueless.

The Parma Theater (located on Ridge Road in Parma, Ohio, of course) has been showing Bollywood hit movies fairly regularly, as has the Solon Cinemas (Solon, Ohio). Bollywood, for those of you even more out of touch with what's hip and worldly than myself, is the cinematic glory of Mumbai (what used to Bombay), India. Bollywood films find huge audiences anywhere that there are Indian immigrants, who enjoy the glamorous colorful picture of life in the extremely lovely subcontinent of India. The films are also quite popular with non-immigrants - I myself am a big fan! I just recently re-watched Bride and Prejudice again, a Bollywood interpretation of the British Pride and Prejudice, and it's so much fun. I love it!

This weekend, the Parma Theater and Solon Cinema will be screening Guru, which stars Aishwarya Rai. Rai has been described as the most beautiful women in India, and frankly, I think she could be the most beautiful woman in the world. She is incredibly glamourous, and a stunning actress.Check out the showtimes here - and don't worry, there will be English subtitles.

Every once in awhile an email ends up in my junk mail that looks interesting. Today there was one from Americantowns.com announcing that Columbus is part of this on-line venture designed to let folks know what is happening in the cities and towns where they live. My email was about Columbus specifically. When I went to the website Columbus is the city that appeared but that must be because somehow this site knows this is where I live. If you go to the part that lets you switch to other towns, you can pull up various towns and cities around Ohio. I went to Willoughby to see if the linked worked and Willoughby happenings showed up.

But, about Columbus. Mainly there is a list of activities happening at the Wexner Center for the Arts, the Columbus Public Library, the Columbus Symphony and the Columbus Museum of Art. I imagine the list will get bigger as time goes on and organizations know that this venue for getting the word out is available. One useful piece of information I also saw was the reminder that Columbus Public Schools is closed on the Martin Luther King Jr birthday holiday.

When I browsed down the list I saw a few things I knew were happening before but forgot ,and some things I didn't know. There's a Family Fun Day at the Columbus Museum of Art, for example, this Saturday. It's part of the gubernatorial festivities. When you see an activity listed, you can click on it for more information. Along the left side of the page there's a textbox style column with specific highlights.

Americantowns.com is also a place where you can find out realtor information, movie times and get maps to find out how to get to all the neat places there are to go. Personally, I liked that I could scroll down the list to see what was happening in the order that it's happening, then click on links to the sponsoring organization to find out more. It seems like this will be a good place to go to not loose track of the neat things there are to do in Columbus and the best way to schedule them in. It's a website where you could do some serious browsing.

I'm a little behind on this assignment. I blame my terrible cold and the fact that I may have broken a bone in my foot - more on that exciting news tomorrow! But since the end of the year has come and gone, I want to join the ranks of my fellow bloggers and talk about what I think were some of my better posts from 2006.

Most recently, my review of the Bazaar Bizarre craft fair. Start saving up for the December 2007 version! In October, I talked about two things that I thought were pretty interesting, and completely unrelated: Toni Morrison and her anniversary of getting the Novel Prize, and being filmed in November on Election Day. I really like to review restaurants, local fairs of any kind and books. So, in a quick sampling, my review of Sullivan's restaurant in Lakewood, Ohio; a review of my annual pilgrimage to the St. Rocco's Festival; and a review of Cleveland native Les Roberts' memoir, We'll Always Have Cleveland! Obviously, I love Ohio - you may have gathered that piece of information from my working for a website wholly devoted to Ohio! But I like when our great Buckeye state makes it into the news in weird ways: like when I found an mention of our major cities in Forbes' discussion of best cities for singles. I really have become involved in the wholly stand-up comic scene here in Cleveland, for which you may totally blame my dear good friend, Sidekick Girl! But I like helping her and her fellow comics out with a little bit of free publicity, like when I reviewed the first Rockstar Comedy event.

I also love getting to take pictures for you, Blogging Ohio! Enjoy an old Ohiopic of the Day! Let's go to '07!

As a person whose is not the most savvy when it comes to Reality TV, (I have never watched Survivor, although I did get hooked on the first Average Joe) I originally wrote this post thinking that Jerry Springer is still in Dancing with the Stars. I've learned that's sort of true and not true. The Dancing with the Stars season Springer was on is over. But, he is touring with the Dancing with the Stars national touring company which is on a 38-city sweep across the U.S. Here's a Columbus Dispatch article about that.

This past weekend Columbus was one of the tour stops. I sure was looking forward to watching Jerry on Dancing with the Stars. I wonder if there will be reruns? I guess that's like watching reruns of a football game.

In the midst of football Buckeye fever, it's neat that another Ohioan is gaining notoriety for his fancy footwork. I'm glad Jerry Springer can dance. The season of Dancing with the Stars on Tuesdays on ABC showed off Springer's smooth moves. It seems like he wasn't half bad. Not that I'm a Jerry Springer fan, but I'm not a not fan either. I'm always curious to see how people do when they cross out of their comfort zone to learn new things.

I have to think one must be a fairly good sport without a big ego to be able to have yourself shown on national television and in a tour doing something that is not your usual thing. Being that he is an Ohioan and the former mayor of Cincinnati, its good that he's doing us proud in a different capacity. Despite the low-brow version of society he shows during the week, he's showing he can do high-brow with a sense of flair.

Here is an article a Jerry Springer a former sceptic wrote about him in BlogCritics Magazine. Basically, there's something about Jerry you have to like.

Here's a fun little movie clip from the movie Remember the Titans, and I've seen this movie twice, but not the version that was aired on TV. This clip is supposedly from the TV version. I don't remember seeing this scene in the theater. The movie is the one starring Denzel Washington where he was the football coach in charge of integrating the high school team, the Titans during the time of racial segregation. Two of the central storyline characters, high school football champions, discuss where they will go to college. Guess which school wins and which was the alternative?

Tonight you'll all probably be locked into the OSU-Florida game to decide the national championship. If the Buckeyes should win (and we sure hope they do), they will have taken the title for the 8th time.

Big deal.

With their recent 35-16 whipping of Wisconsin-Whitewater in the 34th Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, the Mt. Union Purple Raiders of Alliance won their ninth NCAA Division Three national championship, and their second in two years. The nine wins are the most at any level in the history of college football.

Perhaps a greater achievement is their 55-game winning streak from 2000-03. Which started after a loss to Rowan in overtime, on December 11, 1999, ending a 54-game winning streak. For the statistically challenged, their record during this stretch was 109-1.

Match that, Buckeyes!

This video does a nice job of recapping the glory of their 2006 championship. Congratulations to the Purple!

At the time rapper and Columbus native Bow Wow made this appearance in 1993 on the Arsenio Hall show, he was still known as Lil' Bow Wow, a name bestowed on him by Snoop Dogg. Little no more, he recently sold out the house in a hometown appearance.
BW is also an actor, and has appeared in several recent movies and commercials. Check out his composure as a six-year-old performer in this clip.

Do you love to dance? Are you looking for a challenge? Are you able to fall down without fracturing something?

Then the HighJinks Dance Company is for you. The Columbus company teaches students the fine art of dancing on stilts.

Kristina Isabelle brought her training in dance from Julliard and OSU to a form of dance she first discovered in (surprise!) San Francisco, where she worked with Earth Circus. However, only men were permitted to stilt there.

Once in Columbus, she joined local circus veteran Eoin O'Brien's Grimaldi Circus. The circus features them dancing, stilting, juggling, wire walking and fire-eating.

HighJinks is an outgrowth of Isabelle's interest in stilt dancing. In addition to
performing as troupe, she and Eoin hold public classes for novices on the dance floor of Little Brother's night club. Dancers are duct-taped to their 2-foot long stilts, paired up with a spotter who will help keep them upright, and taught the basics.

And no, I won't be filing a personal experience piece. I have no trouble falling off of my shoes, much less stilts.

The more I write the more connections I find. Here is the latest. It started with my Marysville blog. Stay with me.

Understand that my Marysville trip was mostly a quick drive through town approach and not meant to be much more than a look-see. I had gone to Marysville this particular time on New Year's Day with my son to visit friends who were staying at the Hampton Inn for New Year's Eve, something we've done with them for the past three years. This year was a bit hectic, so we opted out from the sleepover, but since they are dear friends who've moved from Columbus, plus their son is one of my son's best friends, we made the trip for a morning get together. (I recommend the Hampton Inn by the way. I LOVE the bedding and it's reasonably priced, the pool is great for kids, and the continental breakfast is more than just the standard cold cereal, sugary donuts and okay coffee.)

Point number 1. I wrote my blog after my quick trip through town. Someone read it and commented about Mrs. Renison's Donuts being off the mark which sent me on a Mrs. Renison's hunt.

Point number 2. I was browsing through You Tube videos when Cheryl Shuman's videos on Portsmouth caught my attention. I watched a few to see which I might post as an Ohiovid, then got a clue that she is an Ohio native daughter who has made a splash in Hollywood as a person who provides eye wear celebrities love. She's been dubbed "Optician to the Stars" and has been on the Today Show--among others. In my fantasy land I end up on the Today Show.

Connecting Point 1 with 2. Shuman, who now lives in Beverly Hills, CA but grew up in Portsmouth and frequents there often (she's there now), and knows about Mrs. Renison's Donuts. I contacted her initially to find out about her videos and gave her the Blogging Ohio link. I did not tell her to look at the Mrs. Renison's blog, she just happened on it.

Connecting Point 3. If you look at my Ohiovid posting of the Bob Braun Show, you'll see Shuman as a teenager when she was famous for being a coupon queen. I posted the video of Bob Braun for the White Cloud commercial. I had no idea who Shuman was until two days ago, and have enjoyed the connection. Is all this coincidence or fate? You decide. Because Shuman's story is fascinating (there's more than I mentioned) and she still has strong Portsmouth connections I'll write a blog just about her.

Our sister blog tvsquad.com is reporting that the Lifetime network has given the green light to production of a pilot for a new drama show, The Virgin of Akron, OH. I hope that, before it airs, they change the name to One of the Virgins of Akron, OH, just so viewers don't get the idea there is only one.

The show is a project of Angels in America producer Cary Brokaw and Jordan Budde of Beverly Hills 90210. The premise is that a young Ohio woman living in Manhattan, after going through rehab, is assigned community service back in her home town of Akron. She moves back in with her dysfunctional family. The plot hits the fan when, after a car accident, she experiences the Virgin Mary descending from Heaven to bless her. The press picks up the story and her notoriety becomes an additional burden driving the drama.

Many pilots are made, few go into production, so who knows if we'll ever see this show. If we do, though, I'm not sure what it will do for the young women of Akron. It might just scare off a few suitors who don't want to risk crossing Mother Mary.