An Interview with Athens’ only Brewmaster Brad Clark

By Charlotte O’Malley

There are 22 bars in the uptown area of Athens, but Jackie O’s is the only brewery pub, and Brad Clark the only Brewmaster.

At 27 years old, Ohio University alumnus Brad Clark has an atypical job compared to his fellow graduates, and he spends the majority of his time in a bar as opposed to an office.

When Clark graduated from Ohio University, he studied creative writing and earned a degree, but instead of making his way out into the job market, he opted to stay in Athens after graduation and become Jackie O’s standing Brewmaster.

Ironically, Clark is still actively attending classes, while other young professionals who entered the more formal work force are still settling in their jobs. His craft requires for him to constantly be learning new things about the brewing process, and he values his further education.

The struggling economy lends way to worries about long-term job stability and benefits, but this does not faze Clark. His choice of occupation seems risky, especially due to the fact he has no health care, but his love for his hobby and job masks any concern the state of the economy could bring him.

Below you can watch an interview with Clark in which he details how he came to be the Brewmaster, the advantages of his job, and the passion with which he brews beer.

"Why everyone loves Tumblr"

When you reach the homepage of www.tumblr.com, visitors who have not yet signed up are greeted with a big box waiting for their email/password information and a custom url for their new blog. Above the box is a link that says "see 30 reasons why you'll love Tumblr". This bandwagon "everybody's doing it" technique for getting more members on websites is something that bothers me immensely, but there is something to be said about making a good point.

As a freshman, I was advised to start a blog here on blogger. While I enjoyed doing this, i did not find myself able to keep up with it. There was an obligation I felt to posting that took away from the enjoyment and purpose of the entire blog. This said, the blog died. Late last year, I signed up for an account with Tumblr, began posting photos and re-blogging post from other people's Tumblrs. It was easy, aesthetically chic, and I wanted to keep coming back. But what made Tumblr a different experience from Blogger?

My conclusion is that Tumblr is the Twitter of blogging sites. It's fast, easy, and mobile-friendly. Yet the upside of the ease of posting is that the site still looks chic and has the option of using features that can heavily customize a user's account. It is compatible with Google Analytics so users can track the number of hits their page receives, users can create their own layout themes. post sets of photos and make slideshows directly on the site, versus having to use an outside server like Picasa when blogging on Blogger.

Books aren't only for reading

"Sweet Station" is my favorite blog, which features experts, artists and topics in the areas of paintings, illustrating, advertising, photography, product design, architecture, installation design and the graphic arts.

Today while browsing, I saw a post about Jacqueline Lee Rush, an artist and book sculptor, who creates her own interesting type of narrative out of old novels and reference books.

"For almost a decade I have found myself drawn to the intimate, tactile, and symbolic qualities of used books. I am interested in how these recycled books come with their own histories of use and meaning and how they serve as potent vehicles of expression. With the idea of working with them as my canvas or building block, I transform the books into sculptures that explore and redefine the book as familiar object, medium, and archetypal form. By scrambling the formal arrangement of the book and transposing its material and conceptual qualities, I aim to create evocative art forms that suggest an alternative narrative. ” - Jacqueline Lee Rush

Slideshow: How to use a Hookah

Smoking a Hookah, a water pipe used to smoke flavored tobacco, has become a popular social activity on Ohio University’s campus, and many students have begun investing in their own.

While The Athens Pyramids is the only Hookah bar in Athens that’s venue features belly dancers, live music, and a relaxed social scene, many students have invested in their own hookahs as a way to unwind and relax in their homes among friends.
OU Junior Ross Brinkerhoff has had his Petra-brand hookah for two years and uses it regularly.

“I find myself putting the Hookah together multiple times during the week when my friends come by,” Brinkerhoff said. “It doesn’t take much time to put together this kind of smoking device, but a lot of people are intimidated and don’t want to buy their own.”
Originating from India, a Hookah can have single or multi-stemmed pipes allowing for multiple people to be able to smoke at once.

“Mine is small and single stemmed which makes it pretty convenient to put together in a short amount of time,” Brinkerhoff said. “All I really have to do is put the bowl, hose, plate and water chamber together, then pack tobacco in the bowl, cover it with foil and allow my friends to enjoy.”

Following the link below, you can see the process of putting together a hookah step-by-step.

City makes changes to avoid Halloween mischief

Last Halloween, the Athens Police Department reported 75 arrests and was tasked with maintaining crowd control without riot gear when a fight involving 11 people broke out in a rowdy crowd on Court Street.

In addition to regularly implemented policies in preparation for the Halloween block party, the Athens Police Department and Athens Service Safety Director have both devised new ways to ensure that safety and order can be maintained in the midst of large crowds.

“Last year we didn’t have any place to store our riot gear that was convenient to Court Street," APD Lt. Ralph Harvey said. “Being stored at the station is not ideal in the event of an outbreak of crowd violence.”

This year, the riot gear will be stored in a mobile van that will travel up and down court street to one of four designated “rally points” in case of an emergency so that officers can quickly have access to riot gear.

There are 40 bags filled with riot gear that include chest and leg padding, a baton, shield mask, gas mask, and tear gas. These are available for the 27 APD officers on foot and 4 mounted on horses, with overflow for some of the officers coming in from other towns.

30 footed and 30 mounted officers are paid $150 to help aid the APD and Ohio University police throughout the night, but they do not necessarily have riot gear.

“We are able to handle riot situations through our own training, so it’s not necessary for outside city officers to be equipped with riot gear and trained in riot behavior,” Harvey said. “In the event of a riot, we will put our own officers in the riot lane and have out of town officers follow up behind to make arrests.”

The city has also decided to make changes to their regular street pattern this Halloween, making Mill Street one-way eastbound towards Elliot Street starting Friday at 3 p.m. and ending Sunday morning.

“Mill is becoming more of a party area each Halloween, creating a lot of pedestrian traffic,” Assistant Service Safety Director Rob Lucas said. “Making the road one-way in the direction away from Court Street will lower the amount of people in the area as well as lowering the chance of people getting hit by car traffic."

This setup will also allow for the flow of traffic to be away from Court Street, which the city hopes will aid in crowd dispersion.

“We’ve set up bandstands at the North and South ends of Court Street the past few years and placed dumpsters and portable toilets intermittently, all in mind of crowd compaction,” Lucas said. “When crowds stop moving, that’s when trouble arises.”

Despite mass preparation for a worst-case scenario crowd uprising, the most common charges on Halloween according to APD are for public urination or carrying an open container.

“The most important thing to us is that safety and the law are maintained,” Harvey said.

Alongside help from outside officers and OUPD, OU will also help the APD maintain order with their standard 100 “Green Jacket Volunteers” strolling campus property with walkie-talkies to police from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.

“The student fests the past two years especially demonstrate the potential for disaster when crowds congregate, and any time you take a community this size and have a huge influx of people flock to it, you must plan,” Associate Director for Residential Education Judy Piercy said. “Halloween in Athens is a huge event, and it’s just about negating the risks of crowd behavior.”

Slideshows in media outlets

In the "ONLINE ONLY" section of The New Yorker magazine today, I saw this slideshow that made me think of my looming slideshow project due for this class. Granted, this slideshow is a review of an art exhibit of the Guggenheim and not photographs, but the concept of using a slideshow with featured paintings in the exhibit then an experienced curator making his own commentary is an interesting one. Slideshows with pictures never used to be common in magazine media, and The New Yorker goes one step further by making the piece a feature on a concentrated topic of art. I definitely feel as if I am seeing more slideshows across the board from news/magazine sources online.

Click the link for the slideshow below:

AUDIO SLIDE SHOW

Monsters and Shy Beauties

OCTOBER 25, 2010

This week in the magazine, Peter Schjeldahl reviews “Chaos and Classicism,” at the Guggenheim. Schjeldahl takes a close look at reactions to war and dictatorships in European art from 1918 to 1936, including Otto Dix’s gruesome sketches, Pablo Picasso’s neoclassical detour from surrealism, and Mario Sironi’s use of classical statuary.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/multimedia/2010/10/25/101025_audioslideshow_classicism#ixzz12pluOv4n

Proposed ordinance could save Athens $400,000

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An ordinance introduced at last night’s City Council meeting could save the city an estimated $400,000 over 15 years in energy costs if passed on Nov. 1.

Environmental Chairman Elahu Gosney proposed the plan to enter a contract with Perfection Group, Inc., a business based in Cincinatti, Ohio that helps cities, counties and corporations find financially feasible options for reducing energy costs.

Perfection Group, Inc.’s plan would cost the city $417,000 to outfit four city buildings with more energy efficient heating/cooling systems or new windows and light fixtures.

“We’ll be borrowing about $300,000 from a local bank in terms of a short term loan,” Gosney said. “The remaining $117,000 will come from city funds designated for this type of infrastructure.”

The Athens Community Center located on East State Street, the City Code building located on Curran Drive and the City Hall building and public parking garage on Washington Street are the four buildings designated for updating.

The Athens Community Center will have new heating/cooling system controls installed, as well as improved water pumps, high-efficiency double pane windows and upgraded exterior lighting, costing $358, 780 of the allocated cost of the energy saving project in the ordinance.

“The recreation center will have the most work done because it costs the city the most money and is very large,” Council member Jim Sands said. “With just changing lighting in and outside of the community center, the electric bill for the building will go from about $100,000 a year to about $60,000.”

It will take an estimated eight years to see the savings equal the project’s $417,000 bill.

“It will take time, but it isn’t bad when you consider we will be seeing changes in bills for all four buildings as soon as everything is installed,” Gosney said. “These are only small projects on the scale of what our city could be doing to save energy costs.”

The project included in the ordinance is only one of many presented to the city in Perfection Group, Inc.’s evaluation package.

“The Fire Department’s station and Athens Police Department building were also presented to have energy savings possible,” Athens Mayor Paul Wiehle said. “We just need to handle one ordinance and project at a time for now, budget-wise.”

The ordinance will be read again twice at City Council and then voted on Nov. 1, but there is little doubt that it won’t be passed.

“I have no concerns it won’t pass,” Wiehle said. “ It’s impossible for the city to not save money here, which is extremely important considering our need to cut the budget.”