CBF Morning Run: A hippie takeover at Mershon Auditorium … – The Business Journals

Happy Thursday morning, Columbus.
I’m on the road today, heading to Wisconsin to visit my brother Steve, nibble some cheese curds and sip some fine local beer.
Oh, but don’t fret. You are in good hands – Doug Buchanan’s at the helm of the good ship Morning Run while I’m gone.
But before I hand the wheel to Doug, let’s dive into today’s business.
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Here’s what you need to know:
The Dublin-based logistics company signed a lease for a 308,000-square-foot building that will go up on 25 acres in Marysville’s Beta District. Here’s what’s fueling the company’s expansion.
The brewery will open Oct. 6 in the space that for the previous decade was home to Sideswipe Brewing. Jason Wing acquired the brewery over the summer. Sideswipe closed in July.
The local favorite is prepping its fourth shop with plans to open on Grandview Avenue in early 2024. Here’s the scoop. (Forgive me…)
The statehouse reporter for the USA Today Network’s Ohio bureau is the new host and executive producer of All Sides. She replaces Ann Fisher, who retired in May after 14 years with the show.
This Day in History
1701, a big day in splitting up. On this day, divorce was legalized in Maryland. (The Massachusetts Bay Colony was the first to do so in 1629.)
1920, a dark day in baseball. On this day, eight members of the Chicago White Sox were indicted by a grand jury, charged with fixing 1919 World Series.
1963, a big day in Saturday morning cartoons. On this day, Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales debuted on CBS. Who was the penguin’s best friend? A walrus named Chumley.
Let There Be Songs To Fill The Air
Let’s commemorate Maryland’s acceptance of divorce with a song by Joy Division that certainly fits the bill.
The song is called Love Will Tear Us Apart and is on the 1980 Closer album.
“When routine bites hard and ambitions are low,
“And resentment rides high, but emotions won’t grow.
“And we’re changing our ways, taking different roads.
“Then love, love will tear us apart again. Love, love will tear us apart again.”
And Now For The Weather …
Look for a high of 70 degrees today, cloudy skies and a 70% chance of rain.
For more on your daily and weekend forecast, check out NBC4, where the weather experts know that Tennessee Tuxedo lived in the Megapolis Zoo.
The Last word
If you were driving through the OSU campus area Tuesday night, you might have wondered whether you had entered a time portal.
Up and down High Street, from north to south, the sidewalks were filled with hippies.
Young hippies. Old hippies. Tie-dye shirts, sandals, long hair, beards. The whole nine yards.
Oh, and lot of smiles.
We were all headed to Mershon Auditorium to see Bob Weir and the Wolf Bros., a band the Grateful Dead guitarist formed a few years ago to play cosmic cowboy music and assorted psychedelic ditties.
To be honest, it’s quite wonderful to see that both Mershon and Weir are still standing.
A few years back, Ohio State trustees considered tearing down the building that went up around 15th Avenue and High Street in 1957. Instead, the school found it was most cost effective to rehab the building.
As for Bob, many wondered what would happen after Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995, but he’s still touring up a storm at the age of 75.
Now, after seeing Bob play inside Mershon, I can tell you that both look and sound great.
The Grateful Dead last played the old auditorium in 1976, a memory Weir brought up at the Tuesday night show, remembering the band didn’t sell that many tickets in Columbus for that show.
That wasn’t a problem this week. The place was packed, the acoustics were great and the atmosphere downright giddy. (It didn’t hurt that there were billowing clouds of cannabis floating through the auditorium.)
And the setlist was interesting.
Bob and his band kicked off the show with a song called Viola Lee Blues, an old standard that the Dead covered on their first album in 1967.
There were a number of original Dead songs, a few from Bob’s former side project RatDog and some interesting covers, including Come Together by The Beatles and What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye.
His band, which started out as a trio a few years back, is now quite large. There are keyboards, a pedal steel guitar, a cello, violin, trombone, saxophone and a flute. (By the way, the flute was magnificent addition to the Dead’s Bird Song.)
All in all, it was a fine night for music, dancing and hippies in Columbus.
Have a terrific Thursday.
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