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Wednesday set off a pretty vibrant week in Columbus. I started off my evening catching the tale end of the Acid Reign Screening presentation of films for the aforementioned NYC Public Access program at downtown art space Skylab. The presentation supplemented itself with Columbus made videos. Two of the films were a flip on normal advertising methods. One shot workers at womyn-run Alternative Auto Care fixing a car presented with an arty realism. The other was almost an adbuster style anti-commercial for a cruise line that had dialog about the survival-of-the-fittest indifference of the ocean to the living beings in it. This could either be read for a parable about capitalism with the idea of someone wealthy taking a luxurious cruise while others suffer or it could be a parody of a dark humored overly serious indie film.
After watching Acid Reign, I headed over to see Har Mar Superstar at Double Happiness. Har Mar Superstar is a left-field R & B singer from New York via Minnesota that looks like The Critic’s Jon Lovitz portraying porn-star Ron Jeremy. Har Mar first came out on indie imprint Kill Rock Stars in 2000 and recently dropped an album “Bye Bye 17” on Julian Casablancas's Cult Records, so he is a constant in underground music.
Har Mar was backed by a full-band and he immediately put the Hump-Day crowd in a party frenzy that felt like a wedding reception scene in a Will Farrell movie. Pretty impressive given’ that Har Mar’s peers as comedic relief during the onset of his career (during the “the” band era led by the Stokes) would be the Awesome Cool Dudes and Kennedy.
Do you remember either of those groups?
Har Mar’s schtick never gets old. He bounced between earlier R. Kelly-sounding material of newer stuff that sounds more like Al Green than the King of R&B. People enjoyed songs such as “D.U.I” and “Prisoner”.
As the show progressed, and Har Mar shed his clothes, woman of various ages and cultural backgrounds headed to the front for a chance to make out with this small, pudgy, white, balding man. Har Mar climaxed the show by standing on his head, with his elbow as leverage for an extended period of time. He was basically doing a BBOY freeze that he probably picked up break dancing as a kid (and impressed many) during the time the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal band was the zeitgeist during the early 90’s. Har Mar ended the show by belting out an A-capella version of Boys 2 Men’s “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” like the Alpha Male of Karaoke.
Dude has a tremendous voice.
Call it blasphemy but Har Mar Superstar will have Blowfly’s job when Clarence Reid dies.
Friday, I caught the Assfixation Dance Party at the Summit which had George Brazil and Juuso Tervo spinning tasteful disco and pop music. The place wasn’t dumb packed but the music was good, and the people who did attend were quality. I must mention the Summit’s next store neighbor, Bourbon Street, and their vegan pierogies.
I also headed over to Get Right on Long Street Friday. It was the first time I'd been to the club rap night since long-time deejays of seven years DJ Detox, and Johnny Cashola moved to San Diego and NYC respectively. Power 107.5’s DJ Giovanny holds it down now, and people in Columbus still like to dance to Gucci Mane.
Sunday, I ventured over to Little Rock Bar to look at Food TV’s Eat Street crew film a segment on the Paddy Wagon Food Truck. Eat Street’s Producers picked out various people of different diets and had them explain why they enjoyed the cop-themed food-truck’s sandwiches and tacos.
After that I walked down the street past the St James Tavern to peruse Fall Flea’s vintage clothing dealers, book sellers and T-Shirt Makers at 7th Son Brewing. I thought about how Little Rock Bar’s Cowboy rock roots and 7th Son’s BLD DIY Noise origins and thought it was interesting to see Columbus subcultures live on in different ways.