How Are You Doing? Natalie’s Coal-Fired Pizza

The incredible impact of COVID-19 has been felt by everyone but few have been hit as hard as restaurants, live performance venues, and other public gathering place. In a series I’m calling “How Are You Doing?,” I’ll be talking with central Ohio businesses to find out how they’re weathering the storm.

My first guest is Charlie Jackson, part owner of Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza in Worthington and Grandview. We discuss the impact of the shutdown and the innovations this local business has put in place. Listen in to hear a success story that’s music to our ears.

Charlie Jackson with Natalie’s Coal-Fired Pizza

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Carrie Newcomer: “It’s about how we process”

Carrie Newcomer has been touring and writing albums throughout her long career. But, like it did for all of us, COVID-19 disrupted her life completely: “I’ve toured a lot over the last years, and within a month and a half, I’d been home longer in a stretch than I had been in 30 years,” Newcomer says.

But that didn’t stop her from taking a journey, this time into the complexities of livestreamed performances. “I just started learning, and started learning about video production … how to do live production.”

Her learning will be put to great use on January 30 when she will livestream with Columbus’ Six String Concerts. As she explained, the move to livestreaming came from her sense of wanting to connect with her listeners:

How do I continue to put this music into the world, give the spirit that I most want to give in the world? [I knew] that it would be different: online performance is another animal. And I think sometimes people will just put up a camera, and it's like the same, but it's really not. I've done performances of my songs and created concerts and community events for years, and I would say recording, like recording albums, that's an animal. That's like apples. Live performance in person, that would be oranges: apples and oranges. But there's things that translate across, right, but they are different animals. And online performance is yet another animal, and it shares certain kinds of skills and abilities and, you know, spirit. But it's a different animal.

Check her different animal out on January 30 and report back with your comments on her performance. It’s sure to be well worth your time.

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It’s cold outside but Bruce Campbell & the Evil Dead will keep you warm

If you’ve watched Bruce Campbell in movies like the Evil Dead series or Bubba Ho-Tep or TV shows like The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.; Jack of All Trades; Hercules: The Legendary Journeys; Xena: Warrior Princess; Burn Notice; or Ash vs. Evil Dead (whew!), then you know fun. He’s bringing his trademark charisma and humor to Columbus (sort of) with a worldwide watch party of the Evil Dead on January 23. Groovy! Listen in for more about his career and what you’ll hear at the watch party.

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Dog gone tired of bad behavior? Joel Silverman has some suggestions

Image of dog

Joel Silverman, celebrity animal trainer and host of Animal Planet’s “Good Dog U,” joins Craft to describe some of the best training techniques that you may want to use on that new puppy you got over the holidays or during the COVID-19 shutdown. Grab some treats and find out who’s a good dog? Who is? Yes, you are!

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Craft Halloween 2020

What could be scarier than 2020? This was the problem that faced the crack writing and performing troupe here at the Craft Media Tower and Deli. We got straight to work to solve it and came up with the audio stories on this podcast. It’s guaranteed to drag you screaming into an abyss of terror and madness that wraps tighter around you with each second, crushing out your life force and any hope of salvation.

Oh, sorry. That last sentence was meant for an essay about this year’s politics.

Credits:

Desert Bloom was written by Brendan McIntyre, Doug Dangler and Cody McNulty
Voice actors in order of appearance:

  • Brendan McIntyre as The Old Man
  • Ethan Dale as The COVID kid
  • Lincoln Dangler as Dog #1

The Chamber was written by Doug Dangler, with input from Brendan McIntyre and Cody McNulty
Voice actors in order of appearance

  • Jason Dale as Jeremy
  • Eva Dale as Dr. Baxter
  • Elizabeth Falter as Female Guest
  • Elizabeth Falter as Ghost Chorus
  • Terry Bradley as Mother
  • Elizabeth Falter as Amy Stelling*

Four Horsemen was written by Doug Dangler, Brendan McIntyre and Cody McNulty
Voice actors in order of appearance:

  • Brendan McIntyre as COVID
  • Cody McNulty (as always) as Pestilence

A PERSONAL NOTE: A big shout out to my therapist, Dr Jorton Smithee, for assuring me that horror fiction author is NOT an entry in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Also, good luck on your stay at the Palmetto Springs Sanitarium, Doc. Thanks for saying that it was unrelated to our sessions.

*That’s RANGE, people!

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Public School Teaching: Glamorous or Does It Suck?

Nadya Mason

My father was a school administrator for many years and I heard his enthusiasm for schools throughout my childhood. So I was intrigued by the title of Doris Caceres-Schumick’s book Public School Teaching Sucks, Period.: A Memoir of a Special Education/ESL Teacher . She’ll be an author with the virtual 2020 Ohioana Book Festival on August 28-30, but you can hear about what makes public school teaching suck on this broadcast.

Enjoy

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Bobby Thompson: The story that the US government doesn’t want you to know

Ohioana 2020 author Jodi Andes has worked at the Columbus Dispatch and was a senior investigator at The Ohio Attorney General’s office, where she conducted an inquiry into the con artist Bobby Thompson, the subject of her book, Master of Deceit. Listen in to hear why this conman was able to get access to the top American politicians of the time, like George W. Bush, Rudy Giuliani, Karl Rove, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, while defrauding American veterans of $100 million.

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2020 Ohioana Book Festival Author Kiya Renae

Kiya Renea

Currently a doctoral candidate at Xavier University, 2020 Ohioana Book Festival author Kiya Renae has written three books: Through Her Own Eyes: This is Only the Beginning; It’s Ok to Be Broken: Highs, Lows, and Happy Mediums; and an as-yet untitled third book. Listen in to hear Ms. Renea share some of her writing and her story ahead of her participation in the virtual Ohioana Book Festival on August 28-30.

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This old guy talks to the creators of another Old Guy: Gabrielle C. Burton and Peri Gilpin

Along with her four sisters, Columbus, Ohio, resident Gabrielle C. Burton make up Five Sisters productions. Their recent YouTube release Old Guy features their late father Roger Burton as a man re-entering the acting field after having been away from it since the 1950s. His agent is played by Fraiser’s Peri Gilpin. Listen in to find out about The List that actors agree to with their agent.

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Connie Schultz’s move from reporting to fiction

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Connie Schultz published her first book Life Happens: And Other Unavoidable Truths, a collection of her columns for The Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper in 2006. She followed this in 2007 with a book about accompanying her husband Sherrod Brown on his senate campaign, … and His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman Beside the Man. Now, she’s released her first book of fiction, The Daughters of Erietown, which Kirkus Reviews termed “A masterful debut novel.”

Connie Schultz

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