Elf Anxiety - by Andra Gillum

Elf Anxiety by Andra Gillum.

Every year just after Thanksgiving, I look forward to unpacking all our Christmas decorations.  I pull out the boxes, and the kids and I put everything in its proper place.  I must admit, however that there is one holiday decoration I wish I could leave in the bottom of the box.

The Elf on the Shelf triggers my anxiety.  I hate to admit it, but this little guy really knows how to push my buttons.

As I said, I love almost everything about Christmas.  From the decorations to the lights to the music and traditions, I l really do love it all.   It’s just that darned Elf!

It’s not that I dislike elves in general.  The movie Elf is a classic.  I love that Buddy the Elf and his Pop-tart pasta with syrup.  And how could you not root for the little misfits: Herbie the dentist and his friend Rudolph?

It’s just the Elf on the Shelf who makes me twitchy.  The holiday season is busy enough, and the stress he adds just pushes me over the top.

Every night, I’m expected to come up with some clever thing to do with the Elf, or some funny place to put him.  There are photos and ideas all over the web about it.

Somehow, I’ve gotten on an email list that sends me ideas an inspiration for my elf.  When they suggested that I soak the elf’s feet in a bath of marshmallows and call it a spa day, I decided that I’d rather leave the elf on his shelf and have my own spa day.

My kids show me You Tube videos of all the clever things that other elves do.  Someone’s naughty elf actually wrapped their entire Christmas tree in holiday paper.  I’m lucky to get all the gifts wrapped.  Never mind ribbons and bows.

Then there’s the Elf Shaming.  My daughter comes home from school with stories of all the silly and clever things that her friends’ elves did.  She tells me how bad she feels that she has nothing to share. Mom guilt.

Plus, the pressure goes on all month long!  That means 24 nights of anxiety.  24 days of trying to think of something new and different.  

There have been nights when I have finally climbed into my warm bed after an evening of wrapping gifts.  I’m half asleep when I am jolted awake by the realizations that I have forgotten to do anything with the elf.

I’m certain that I am not the only one with elf-anxiety.  A friend posted a funny picture on You Tube of an elf wearing a full leg cast.  He left a note for the children saying that he wouldn’t be able to move from the shelf for 2-3 weeks.  That’s one smart mom.  

I hate to come across as a Grinch because I really do love Christmas, and all the fun traditions for our kids.  Maybe we can just shorten the elf’s visit from the North Pole?  How about a nice, 3-day weekend?  Who’s with me?

I mean no offense to any Elf lovers out there.  I applaud your enthusiasm and perseverance.  We’ll just have to agree to disagree.

So, whether you love the Elf…or count down the days to his departure, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  

Andra Gillum is a Pencil Storm contributor and the author of the children’s books “Doggy Drama” and “Puppy Drama” and “Old Doggy Drama”.  Learn more or order online at www.doggydrama.com.  Like us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/doggydrama.   

If you work for a school, or know of one who would be interested in an author visit, please contact Andra at andrag@wowway.com.  Follow Andra on Twitter @GillumAndra

Holiday Edition of Some Things to See: in Columbus and Streaming Online - by Anne Marie

In early November, some friends and I had plans to have lunch at Heirloom Cafe and see the Cindy Sherman: Imitation of Life exhibition at the Wexner Center.  But there was a hitch.  Veterans Day was celebrated that Friday and OSU, including the Wex, was closed.  Bummer.  We were physically hungry and art-starved and so we headed instead to the Columbus Museum of Art where we enjoyed lunch at the Cameron Mitchell-catered Schokko Art Cafe overlooking the new sculpture garden and then toured the current CMA special exhibition, Beyond Impressionism – Paris, Fin de Siècle: Signac, Redon, Toulouse-Lautrec and Their Contemporaries.

The CMA is the only U.S. stop for this exhibit of more than 100 paintings, prints, drawings and other works. If you are still reading this, you may just be enough into art to know that Columbus is also the only traveling location for the Cindy Sherman exhibit as well. You may be asking yourself just how is humble li'l old Columbus shaking off its Cowtown reputation and pulling off these art coups?  I'm not sure, but however it’s happening it’s all the more reason to go see some art.  

Presented in partnership with the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, the Beyond Impressionism exhibition explores the Parisian art scene, focusing on the most important French avant-garde artists of the late 19th century, including Paul Signac, Maximilien Luce, Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard, Félix Vallotton, Odilon Redon, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.  This exhibit has something for everyone.  Impressionism, Symbolism, Pointillism, the Nabis, and Art Nouveau. My favorite find was Redon, whose displayed works ranged from hybrids of humans and inanimate objects like The Egg to images of fantastic creatures like Pegasus to delicate but vibrant flowers or an imaginary vision of a beautiful boat.

The Egg (1885)

The Wing (1893)

Pegasus (1895-1900)

If you are like we were the day of our visit, and are overly chatty and many of the pieces lead you to reminiscence about past trips or art history classes taken back in the day when you were in college, you will definitely have a hard time seeing this is one viewing.  By the end, we could only briefly walk through the prints by the Nabis, the best known of which are the colorful Moulin Rouge posters of Toulouse-Lautrec.

Good thing the exhibit is on view through January 21, 2018 since I need to go back.  Museum admission is free on Sundays and the exhibit is only $6 and free to members.    

I got the stomach flu the weekend after Thanksgiving. Luckily, it really was a stomach bug and not anything related to the turkey day meal itself since no one else was taken out by it. With Caitlin in Pittsburgh for a weekend of hockey and the guys off busy with Blue Jackets hockey and Buckeye football, I was left on the couch recovering - and in charge of the remote control.

I’d had the Glen Campbell documentary, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, on my “to watch” radar for years and with Campbell's August passing, Scott Carr’s mention of the film again in his in memoriam piece,  and an encore presentation of a story about the making of the documentary that aired on All Things Considered, I felt it was overdue for viewing. If you haven’t heard about this one, it follows Campbell and his wife Kim as they receive his Alzheimer's diagnosis and then embark with a small extended family on what began as a 5-week farewell tour that eventually expanded into over 150 shows across the country over 15 months.  While I’m not a huge country music fan, I grew up in the pre-Sony Walkman days of AM/FM radio where the whole country seemed to know the same songs and watch the same few tv channels so I know a few of his solo hits. But before fame struck, Campbell was a studio musician with The Wrecking Crew and he has immense musical talent that transcends genres. At first I enjoyed the film and watching Campbell soaking up the applause from his faithful fans. He was still able to play the music even as lyrics completely evaded him without the teleprompter. But, I couldn’t quite finish it. It was just too painful to watch this man who was the epitome of the alpha male (four times married, the embodiment of the Rhinestone Cowboy and the Wichita Lineman) as his kids kept teasing him forgetting to stay on his mark on the stage or as he had to pee in wastebaskets because he couldn’t remember the way to the bathroom.

Next up was The Winding Stream, another 2014 documentary, about the Virginia folk band the Carter Family. This quirky little film tells the story using interviews and goofy, but kinda charming, animated still photos intermixed with musical footage. I wasn’t at all familiar with the early story of the start of the Original Carter Family and enjoyed having living relatives tell the tale of how A.P., Sara and Maybelle Carter left the family farm in 1927 to travel to Bristol, Virginia to make recordings in an old hat factory. But what was most fascinating about the early period was the story of A.P. collecting music from all over the country and turning it into songs. On the one hand, old family music that wasn’t recorded anywhere else and may have been lost was preserved but, on the other, no compensation was paid.  The film moves through the start of Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters, the end of Sara and A.P.’s marriage and her self-imposed exile to marry and live with his cousin Coy in California, June Carter’s marriage to Johnny Cash, and up to the creation of the Carter Family Fold, where you can still go hear their music today in Virginia.

Last, but not least, I watched Gimme Danger, Jim Jarmusch’s film making the case that the Stooges were one of the most under-appreciated, greatest rock-n-roll bands of all time. I have to say I expected more scenes of wild mayhem in this movie, but I was good with what I got instead.  Iggy Pop, at age 69, looking intensely at the camera and telling the story as clearly he wants it told. And I respect that. I recently heard that reporters are pissed that Robert Plant, out to support his latest solo album, essentially tells them to go get a life when they keep asking him if he plans to write a book.  He tells them it’s all between his ears and that’s enough.  I get the sense that for Iggy that’s not quite enough but he wants to tell the story his way.  What’s there is good stuff (you just wish there was more). Childhood stories, opening for the MC5, working with Bowie, almost making it to stardom but needing to return home broke to his parents’ trailer, and performance footage. One of my favorite moments is when Jarmusch captures the reaction of the Asheton brothers’ mother, as related by their little sister, of when Iggy called to put the band back together 35 years later. “Iggy called! Iggy called and he wants to get the band back together!” says the excited 70-something year old about her 50-something year old sons getting to play with the Stooges again.  I love that power of rock and roll.

Happy viewing! - Anne Marie

Pencilstorm Post UA Election Interview: Next Steps For Rebuilding The Schools

Now that Upper Arlington's School Levy (Issue 43) passed with 54% of the votes, Pencilstorm reached out to Upper Arlington Superintendent Paul Imhoff  and Treasurer/Chief Finance Officer Andy Geistfeld with five questions about what will happen next. Their unedited answers are posted below.  

Paul Imhoff, Superintendent

Now that the levy has passed, what are the next steps?
It’s important to remember that none of the projects has been designed yet.  The next step is launching a community-based design phase for the six schools that are to be renovated or rebuilt.
 
Community involvement was the key to the success of our master planning process, and we believe that will be true with the design phase, too.  We’re sticking with the theme “your voice matters,” and we’ll be holding community meetings and asking for volunteers to be on building design teams and a district-wide green team.
 
The design phase will last about 12 to 15 months, and only then, once we have community-developed design plans for each of the six buildings, will we break ground — tentatively in early 2019.
 
In terms of timeline, which buildings will be worked on first? Do you have an estimate on when each will be finished? In addition, when will all day kindergarten start?
Tentatively, in early 2019, we’ll break ground first on a renovated Barrington and Tremont elementary school; a new Greensview and Wickliffe Progressive elementary school; and a new high school. The exception there is Windermere. We won’t be able to break ground on Windermere until the fall of 2020. And that’s because we’ll build a new Windermere on the footprint of the old building.
 
A renovated Barrington and Tremont and a new Greensview and Wickliffe will open to students tentatively in the fall of 2020. While the new Windermere is being built, students from that school will be educated in the old Wickliffe building. Then, a new Windermere and high school will tentatively open the next fall, in 2021. All construction on the high school site will be finished by the fall of 2022, with the athletic fields and support spaces completed and the old building demolished.
 
The plan is to add enough space at the elementary schools through these projects to accommodate both our enrollment growth and a future all-day kindergarten program.
 
How can the community get involved in the next stages of planning?
We’ll be having community-wide meetings to launch the design phase in December, and we’ll be setting the date for that in the coming days. We’ll offer both a morning and an evening option as we did during the master planning process. Community members can watch their mailboxes and our website, www.uaschools.org/facilities, for more information.
 
We will also be reaching out to community members about more opportunities to get involved, including building design teams and a “green team” that will explore environmental best practices for the new or renovated buildings. Neighbors living in close proximity to the buildings can also join a neighbor committee to share feedback and offer guidance throughout the design phase and construction process.
 
Which high school sports will be impacted by the construction and at what point will they need to be moved to a temporary facility?
Our goal is to minimize the impact the construction will have on our extracurricular activities.  The new turf field, baseball field and softball field to be built on the land behind Tremont Elementary School will definitely help with that.  However, we do anticipate that baseball, softball, tennis, and track and field will have to be temporarily relocated during construction.

Andrew Geisfeld, Treasurer/Chief Financial Officer

Let’s talk money. How will you look for savings and if there’s any extra money, what will you do with it? (Answer from Andy and Paul)
We will look for savings during each step of the community design process.

If funds remain after the projects are completed, those funds would be used to reduce the amount collected from residents to pay annual debt amount.

Pencilstorm would like to thank Paul and Andy for taking the time to answer our questions. For more information about the construction visit: www.uaschools.org/facilities.

Local UA Politics coverage provided by Wal Ozello. You can email him at Pencilstormstory@gmail.com or try to catch him at Colin's Coffee.

JD McPherson @ Skully's, Boss on Broadway and Random Stuff - Colin G.

Hey all. This is really more of a glorified Facebook post in between customers at the coffee shop but I wanted to touch base on a number of subjects to clear out my brain. Here goes.

- If you don't want to read any further I am still playing Four String Taproom in Grandview EVERY Thursday so we can chat over some Four String Brew. One set. 9pm. No Cover. 

-CD1025 has started streaming online. If you want to give it a test spin, I'll be on air with Brian Phillips Wednesday November 24th 8-10am. www.cd1025.com has the goods. 

- I recently returned from seeing Springsteen on Broadway and hope to have a review of sorts posted soon. I need some serious Ricki C. editing help on this project. 

- The League Bowlers record "Some Balls Deluxe" is being mastered and should be shipped off for production soon. I'm really excited for everybody to hear it and dig the groovy artwork. As soon as I know when it's arriving we are going to try and schedule some sort of release party ASAP. Mike Parks is giving cancer a helluva fight but time is still limited. 

- Tonight, Wednesday November 15th, I'm going to see JD McPherson at Skully's. I fell in love with his last record Let the Good Times Roll and his latest, Undivided Heart and Soul is in heavy rotation at Colin's Coffee. If you can't make the show give these records a listen. Good Stuff. 

Thanks to Wal Ozello for spearheading the Upper Arlington City Council interviews. That was some wild ride. 

Note to self: future story ideas-

CD1025 is Streaming Again and Has a New Program Director

Did Ray Davies Win the British Invasion with Americana?

Bon Jovi is the Steroid Kings of Hair Metal

My Nominations for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

Uh-oh. Customer. Got to run. Not a story idea, but for real. Thanks for visiting Pencilstorm! - Colin Gawel. 

PS - You can contribute too! Send us an idea at pencilstormstory@gmail.com

How I am Voting on the UA School Levy (Issue 43) and Why - by Colin Gawel

Editor's note: To those of you new to Pencilstorm, we mostly shy away from political commentary as the world already has too much of it and takes precious time away from our debate about who belongs in the rock n roll hall of fame. However, as a citizen with a family and small business in Upper Arlington, I do go on the record before every election day. You can agree or disagree or whatever, but this is where I stand. - Colin Gawel

I'm not going to get into numbers. To me, that is irrelevant. I've read all the stuff and yes, building and fixing the Upper Arlington Schools is going to cost money. A lot of money. It's going to cost you and it's going to cost me. There is no way around that fact because accomplishing great things takes sacrifice. Nothing worth doing comes easy. 

Sacrifice is the key word. Somebody built the original schools before us. And the roads. And the sewage and the power grid. And the parks, pools, tennis courts, and the libraries. And half the sidewalks. That took sacrifice. 

Recently, I was up late and caught the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan on some random channel. Charging out of the boats into machine gun fire on D-Day was sacrifice. First responders charging up into the World Trade centers on 9/11 was sacrifice. We are quick to praise Americans who sacrifice for the greater good but when the time comes for us to do our part do we answer the call? Or do we just sing the National Anthem and wave mini flags at the 4th of July Parade?  

Or more specifically, do I answer the call? 

Yes, the extra money is a bite. But I welcome and accept the opportunity to give something back to a community that has been so good to me and my family. I am ready to roll up my sleeves and chip in a little extra for a project that would benefit the kids of Upper Arlington for the rest of my lifetime. I've never been asked to storm a beach or charge into a burning building so this is my chance to stretch out of my comfort zone and contribute to a greater good. 

Imagine one day standing in front of that glorious, new Upper Arlington High School and looking around at your neighbors and saying "It was hard, but we did this together." Seriously, imagine how amazing that would be. The legacy that would live in the community. 

We have a chance to make history on November 7th. Real history with real buildings and real kids. I say we take it. It's a little scary no doubt, but I'll help you if you help me. We can do this together. It just takes a little mental toughness. A little grit. A little teamwork.  It takes sacrifice. Please join me in voting "yes" on Issue 43 and I'll see you standing in front of that new high school one day. - Colin G. 

Colin Gawel plays in the band Watershed and is the owner of Colin's Coffee. He is the founder of Pencilstorm and his favorite two records are Dream Police and Darkness on the Edge of Town. You can read about his life in the book Hitless Wonder. 

Pencilstorm U.A. Council Summary: All The Interviews and Question Rationale

As promised, here is a compilation of all the Pencilstorm interviews with Upper Arlington City Council candidates, as well as an interview with Superintendent Paul Imhoff about Issue 43. As a reminder, we published responses unedited.

In addition, it's come to our attention that Pencilstorm was recently quoted in attack ads circulating in Upper Arlington. Pencilstorm had no involvement with these ads, nor were we aware of them before distribution.  We disapprove of these negative attack ads.

Pencilstorm is an independent new source. We do not endorse any individual city council candidate and we wish all of them good luck on November 7.

ISSUE 43
Interview with Superintendent Paul Imhoff about Issue 43.

UA CITY COUNCIL INTERVIEWS - WHY PENCILSTORM ASKED THESE QUESTIONS

Our intent was to ask questions more specific to Upper Arlington. We had some discussions with other voters and reviewed various posts on Facebook.  We also wanted to keep it short and simple.  Here’s why we settled on the questions we did.

If the election were today, would you vote for or against the school levy and why?
While the city council has no jurisdiction over the schools or school board, this levy could have an impact on city finances.  If the levy doesn’t pass and the school system makes job cuts, this will mean less income tax collected by the city since the Schools are the number one employer in Upper Arlington.  If the levy does pass, residents will incur a large tax increase which may impact the Council’s ability to generate new taxes in the future, not to mention the infrastructure, traffic and construction that the city will need to deal with. Both the Schools and City pull from the same tax base.  In the 2017 Community Survey conducted by the city, 21% of the respondents cited “School Infrastructure and Facilities are Aging” as the most important problem facing Upper Arlington and 14% responded with “High Taxes.”  This question was asked to see how the candidate view the importance of the school system to the City of Upper Arlington both fiscally and as an attractor to new citizens.

What qualifies you to be on Upper Arlington City Council?
Just like a job interview, we wanted to know what life and professional experiences the candidate has so they can make the tough decisions they’ll face in the upcoming years.

If you had a magic wand and an unlimited budget, what infrastructure project you would implement?
There’s a finite city budget and we can’t pay for everything everyone wants. We can have endless debate about what’s the best way to spend our money. Instead, this question was intended to understand what infrastructure project the candidate is most passionate about. 

Looking around Central Ohio, give an example of a community you think is doing it right and one that’s doing it wrong. What could Upper Arlington could learn from both?
You grow and improve by learning from others.  This question was designed to see if the candidate was looking at other communities in Central Ohio to understand if there were things we could implement here or pitfalls to avoid.

At Pencilstorm, we all have a love of music. In that vein, what's your favorite album and why?
Music is a great way to make an emotional and human connection.  This question was designed to get to know the candidate beyond the issues and if any of them had a passion for a particular album, artist, genre of music, etc. 

Below are links of each of the Upper Arlington City Council Candidates to their individual blog:

Michaela Burriss

Brian Close

Bob Foulk

Omar Ganoom

Francis “Kip” Greenhill

Michele Hoyle

Jim Lynch

Lowell Toms

Pencilstorm also encourages you to watch the Livestream of Leadership UA's October 19 event with all eight city council candidates and school board candidates, as well as Google the candidate names and visit their websites.

Thanks to the community for their interest in our blog.  Local UA Politics coverage provided by Wal Ozello. You can email him at Pencilstormstory@gmail.com or try to catch him at Colin's Coffee.