Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Columbus, Bill McKibben, and Divestment


Well, we made it to Columbus and back in one piece. It was a short trip but then again we are far from rich so short trips are what we do best.


We decided to stay the night as it is about a 2 and a half hour drive one-way. Hotels are expensive and we are on a pretty tight budget. After a bit of searching we used the name your price on priceline.com and got a 20th story room for about $75. As luck would have it, the hotel allowed pets. It is good to take the whole family when you go somewhere and it is good for the dog to be with us instead of with my mother where she isn’t as happy.

Room with a view



On the way in we stopped at the local Half Price Books (three actually). Being an avid book lover and a voracious reader Half Price Books has always been a double whammy for me. I get used items at a great price and when I move on I can sell my books so someone else can enjoy them. Every store has a different inventory. As a company they also do a lot of recycling and they plant trees every year on earth day.


So many things I want that I can't afford


The hotel was right in the middle of downtown, which is always cool to stay in when you are in a new city. We dropped the dog off in the room so she could sleep and we started to walk. Every time we go into any new city the first thing we do is walk around and look at all the local shops. The exercise is good but I love throwing myself into a new environment.

We walked through The Short North. The Short North is a neighborhood that is known for its artwork. There are a few cool shops and lots of greener (greener than where we are from) things for sale.


we don't have so many of these where I'm from














It was freezing but walking faster helped us warm up some. We found a place that sold our favorite vice, sushi. After the meal we walked back to the theatre and started to wait.

An hour and a half before the Show

An hour before the show

Waterless urinals!!!



Walking in we noticed a few things:

1.     This place was nice
2.     There was already a ton of people here.
3.     They served booze.
4.      
There was a banner to sign up for the fight against the Keystone XL pipeline. A few things were for sale including this cool shirt modeled by the boss:







After buying a few shirts we had a bit of a shock when we heard it would be starting about 40 minutes late! On further inspection we found this little sign:



I couldn’t believe it…he flew!

We had to sit around for a bit. It wasn’t really that bad though. It is never that bad to be surrounded by likeminded people, people who want the same thing as you even if they are using different means to get there.

The doors opened up and we rushed up to the front. After a few minutes of letting people filter in the musical guests The Apes hit the stage. The Apes are a guitarless band that features an electric violin instead. The Apes wowed us with four beautiful and unique instrumental pieces.



The main event started with a few of 350.org’s organizers talking before Mr. McKibben came out. there was a little difficulty hearing him over the crunch of granola but with this crowd what can you expect. He gave a rousing speech and plenty to think about. The main thrust of the speech was divestment. 350.org has been getting colleges and churches to divest all of their money away from fossil fuels the same way the divestment movement helped change the apartheid in South Africa in the early 1990s. Overall a great show and if they are coming by you and tickets are still available you should grab some.





For more information on how you can help divest click here.

The next day we checked out a few more things and then headed home. A short vacation but a really cool one. 

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