Quick. You still have time to get a ticket to the last show of the 2010-11 Broadway Across America season. Frankie Vallie and his boys are waiting just for you.
Some may view Cbus as a Cow-town, but you might ruminate your cud just a little longer when you think about the cool shows that come our way.
Jersey Boys opens at the historic Ohio Theatre tomorrow night and these blue-collar kids promise to knock your socks off through September 4. Best yet, tickets prices begin at just 25 bucks.
Grab your Junior Mints and discover the secret of a 40-year friendship of four kids working their way from the streets of Newark to the big-city lights of stardom. Let your toes start tappin’ when you hear the guys belt out songs like “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” and more.
When Jersey Boys wraps up in three weeks, Broadway Across America will pause to wrap up the season, but Mama Mia, you will be surprised for what they have lined up in December.
Tickets can be purchased at the Ohio Theatre Ticket Office (39 E. State St.), all Ticketmaster outlets, and www.ticketmaster.com. To purchase by phone, please call (614) 469-0939 or (800) 745-3000. For more information, visit www.capa.com.
Of course the new Cup O’ Joe/MoJoe Lounge at the corner of Town and High Street has great coffee – the perfect jolt to get you through the longest of meetings or a pick-me-up before you put on your dancin’ shoes.
Not only do they serve up a tasty Cup O’ Joe, they dish up everything from rockin’ food to frou-frou cocktails. How about meeting up after work for Happy Hour, Tuesday through Friday, 4-8 p.m.? This Thursday may be the perfect time since the Reaganomics will be jammin’ in the Commons across the street during Downtown Live.
Make it a date and check out this video of how Cup O’ Joe/MoJoe Lounge transformed the corner of the old Lazarus building. You won’t believe your eyes.
Is it a frosty beverage or an exotic kitchen appliance? You couldn’t be further from the truth, but it might just be a little bit like speed dating for the networking-challenged. Did we pique your interest?
Wunderblender is an innovative networking opportunity set in motion by Wonderland, bringing together different groups of people to encourage creative collaboration. For the inaugural event, artists and techies will congregate at The Jury Room on August 2. Participants will move around the room in four-minute intervals talking to other peeps while adding tons of new names to their contact lists. The pace will then slow for some mingle time over another cocktail or two.
“We see a lot of great creative groups in Columbus that don’t always get the opportunity to talk about what they are doing with other groups,” said Josh Quinn, co-founder of Wonderland. “Hopefully this will spawn several new ideas that wouldn’t have happened without the cross pollination of an event like this.”
Wonderland is all about building and nurturing the creative community while providing the public with opportunities to really get involved with arts and culture in Columbus. The Wunderblender fits perfectly in this mission and might just fill your address book with all kinds of new friends, so how about joining the conversation? Click here to get the scoop.
This week’s vendor spotlight shines on Veggielicious, a vegetarian food cart in Columbus, Ohio. They offer wraps, quesadillas and bowls filled with awesome ingredients, prepared with lots of fresh vegetables, eggs, cheese, black beans and vegetarian sausage. Entrepreneur Becky Karppala wanted to find a way to sell vegetarian-friendly meals that non-vegetarians would also enjoy. She came up with the idea for her Veggielicious food cart business, and Pearl Market offerd a perfect location to test the downtown market.
To learn more, check out our vendor spotlight video.
Finally, we traded in winter boots and mittens for sandals and t-shirts, but now what are you going to do for the rest of the summer? You might plan to take in the festivities of Red, White and Boom coming up this week, but what’s up after the last of the fireworks sputter?
Mark your calendars now for Picnic with the Pots at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center on Saturday, July 9 from 6-9:30 p.m. The list of fun stuff to do downtown is growing, and this one costs you nothing. There’s even free parking around the corner.
The event promises a sensation extravaganza – watch artists at work, take tours of the cool digs, browse the gift shop, join in an old-fashioned cake walk (mmmm…cake) and listen to great tunes by The Juggernauts.
So, forget about digging your feet into the sand to find summer fun. At Picnic with the Pots you can scoop up a mound of clay with professional artisans to make your very own pot. You might have so much fun you will find yourself signing up for one of CAC’s fine art studio classes, which are a fantastic bargain, by the way.
So, just where is this artistic Mecca? The Cultural Arts Center is downtown across the street from Bicentennial Park, which is part of the new Scioto Mile (set to open on July 7). For more information or to RSVP for Picnic with the Pots click here. While there, click on their Facebook page and “like” them to be entered in a drawing for a certificate worth 50 bucks to use in the gift shop.
This week’s vendor spotlight shines on CaffeineDaddy.com!
CaffeineDaddy.com is new to Pearl Market this season. Entrepreneur Jeffrey Foulke created CaffeineDaddy.com and sells all kinds of caffeinated products. Whether you’re looking for caffeinated soap, toothpicks, lollipops, beef jerky, or more; if you can name it, CaffeineDaddy has it. Want something to slow you down? CaffeineDaddy has that too. To learn more about CaffeineDaddy.com visit their website and check out our weekly vendor spotlight video.
McCormick Family Concessions, run by Heather and Sean McCormick, is a new vendor to Pearl Market this season. They sell homemade lemonade and locally grown, organic kettle corn popcorn at Pearl Market and other fairs, festivals and shows.
To learn more about McCormick Family Concessions and to see some of their products, check out the video below.
Lots of us support the buy local movement, but how about showin’ some love to the Cbus music scene?
This summer you can kick off the weekend early right after work on Thursday nights and check out some of hottest local acts at Downtown Live at Columbus Commons. Click here to check out the line-up and make plans for hot tunes and cold drinks all summer long.
Local bands jam beginning at 5:30 p.m. every Thursday, June 2 – August 25. You might even want to toss an extra t-shirt and pair of shorts in your brief case before you head out the door in the morning, so you don’t waste a minute at the end of the day – the frosty beverages and friends will be waiting and ready. G Finesse & the NS and Fabulous Johnson Brothers open the concert series this Thursday.
If a little more activity is what you crave, the cool kids at Wonderland will turn it up a notch alongside the concerts with Trophy Thursdays – a grown-up version of recess. And you can kick it up from there with Downtown Kickball; register now for the second session of the kickball league.
Or, just hang out with friends on the patio, order another cold one, a burger and fries and soak up the summer fun in the heart of downtown.
You pull into the great parking space you found outside your favorite downtown eatery. But before you can feed your belly, you have to feed the meter. Commence with the digging for change! By the time you’ve dug through your change tray, pockets, wallet and car seat cushions, you just might have enough time on the meter to enjoy a cocktail AND dinner.
Luckily, the City of Columbus is trying to simplify things with some new meters that accept – wonder of wonders – credit cards! You may want to keep a few extra quarters lodged between the bucket seats of your convertible for a bit longer in case you run into a meter accepting only cash, but the rollout is well underway. The new meters are a breeze to use.
Don’t believe us? Check out this video that gives you the low down on the new way to feed the meter.
We’ve watched the oversized Tonka trucks and bulldozers and sod layers transform the site where the City Center Mall once stood, but the carousel horses can be contained no longer. The fun races ahead Thursday, May 26 during the grand opening of Columbus Commons, the gorgeous nine-acre park in the heart of downtown.
Thursday is just the beginning – an entire weekend of cool stuff awaits starting with live local music. Make plans now for family fun, Backyard Blues and Brews, live theatre, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Lounge on the Lawn… Heck, you might even hear a spontaneous outburst of Hang on Sloopy when the Ohio State Pep Band makes an appearance.
So, what’s all this entertainment going to set you back, you ask? Nada, nothing, not one red cent. Capitol South presents the entire weekend of festivities, open for all at no cost. At that price, you might even want to spring for Grandma.
Before you slide into your sneakers or sandals, get your smart phones out and add Columbus Commons to your list of faves because the fun won’t end any time soon.
For a complete list of what’s headed your way at Columbus Commons, click here. Oh, and if you need to kick it up a notch, hurry and sign up for downtown kickball league on Thursday nights at the Commons. The deadline is May 26, but there are just a few spots left.
THE BOYS ARE CALLING
WHAT’S A WUNDERBLENDER?
FEED THE CULTURE
ROCKIN’ WITH LOCALS
LET THE FUN BEGIN!