LA Phil and its Music & Art Director, Gustavo Dudamel, are taking Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold out of the opera house and into the concert hall to present Das Rheingold, the first of the ambitious librettist/composer’s mammoth, marathon 17-hour, musical/ theatrical, four-opera extravaganza known as The Ring Cycle or Der Ring des Nibelungen. Das Rheingold – which refers to the gold of the Rhine River, not to the official beer of the N.Y. Mets – is set in primeval Germany, its characters and story  derived from Northern European mythology.

Wagner’s magisterial, majestic, moody music is perfect for evoking these mythic gods, giants, dwarves, trolls, nymphs, Valkyries and other figures, plus tales, from lore that existed centuries before Christianity spread to Europe and Wagner wrought his “Bühnenfestspiel” (stage festival play) about the epic quest and struggle for a magical golden ring that endows its bearer with omnipotent powers.  

The Columbus Blues Alliance was recently awarded the prestigious “Keeping the Blues Alive” award by the Blues Foundation.

The Blues Foundation is the international organizing body of blues music worldwide and presents the Keeping the Blues Alive (KBA) Awards to individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to the Blues world.

The KBAs are awarded to non-performers based on merit by a select panel of Blues professionals who recognize individuals and organizations that have made a significant contribution to Blues music.

The Columbus Blues Alliance was selected due to its longstanding and tireless efforts to infuse Columbus, OH with blues music, performances and culture.

On Tuesday night, a Free Press reporter was driving on 71 South and began descending the Greenlawn Avenue exit where the now shuttered Thurns’ butcher shop is directly to the right. As some know and often see, on the left side of the exit in a narrow area of gravel is a male houseless person and his dog. For several years now they have set up a make-shift artist camp here.

His paintings and sketches ask for kindness and a handout in a quirky loving way. As one recent sign stated, “Needing a Space Ship to leave Earth.”

The Free Press reporter rolled down his window and asked: “We’re you not able to get a bed tonight at a shelter?”

The artist quickly replies: “No! They don’t take pets.”

His plight in bone-chilling temperatures is just one of several stories to emerge this week showing how chaotic and challenging it is to protect the community’s houseless from severe cold. Some houseless refuse to leave their tent at night fearing their belongings will be taken. Houseless couples refuse to be separated, as warranted by some shelters. And there is one warming center which does allows pets, it is on the Eastside.