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Tony Miller on the patio of Woodlands Tavern.
Jeffry Konczal
It’s a frigid night in early January on the patio at Woodlands Tavern. A gas fire pit breathes out a heavy glow, neon beer signs hang from the bar’s windows, street lamps emit an unpleasant yellowish incandescence and even the downtown city lights mute out much of the visibility this cloudless night might have offered elsewhere.
Nevertheless, Tony Miller adjusts his Indiana Jones-style fedora and carefully aims his 8-inch-wide Newtonian reflecting telescope into the south sky, directly through a row of overhead power lines. He spots a large, luminescent planet. It’s Jupiter, he tells the half dozen or so curious onlookers—with their beers and cigarettes in hand.
Miller, or as he’s known on Facebook, “Duke Skygawker,” has channeled his love of stargazing and live music into a win-win venture: Barstronomy allows him to enjoy both at the Grandview-area pub at 1200 W. Third Ave. While he’s not making much money (he accepts donations), he says it’s about sharing his love of the cosmos. “If you don’t enjoy doing something unless you’re getting paid a lot, why would you do it?” says Miller, whose black T-shirt under his coat reads, “Drinking or not, your world is still spinning.”
He’s created a website, barstronomy.com, where folks can get weather updates and sneak previews of what heavenly bodies they can expect to see on a given night. And Miller welcomes enthusiasts—and amateurs—to bring their own telescopes to the gazing events, which he coordinates on his Facebook page.
On this January night, Miller stays until the patio closes, at 2 am. And, if the weather holds, he’ll be back the next night as well. One almost gets the sense he’s searching, or perhaps waiting, for something. Asked if he believes in alien life, he responds, “If we’re it, that’s an awful waste of space.”
New brew
It’s safe to say the craft brewing industry is taking off in the capital city. Newest on the constantly expanding roster of independents is Four String Brewery, which comes courtesy of musician Dan Cochran. The microbrewery, 985 W. Sixth Ave. in the Grandview area, opened in January with two beers. The Backstage Blonde ale is a Belgian with a hint of banana and spice, Cochran says, while the Brass Knuckle American pale ale is “similar in bitterness and aroma to an IPA.”
They’re available at Woodlands Tavern, Brazenhead, Bodega and the Buffalo Wild Wings on West Fifth Avenue. Growler night, each Tuesday and Thursday from 5 to 7 pm, allows drinkers to stop by the brewery and fill their half-gallon jugs (they’re available for purchase as well). “We are gonna do tours,” Cochran says. “And yes, we plan on having a tasting room.” For more information, visit fourstringbrewing.com or facebook.com/fourstringbrewing.
News
Shadowbox Live’s Backstage Bistro will host bimonthly stand-up comedy shows, the cabaret troupe announced in early January. The events will take place the first and third Tuesday of every month and feature local comics such as Justin Gorlak, Travis Hoewischer, Sumukh Torgalkar, Mark Lucas and Michael Meyers. Tickets are $5.
A new Ohio law signed by Gov. John Kasich in late December should greatly benefit crafters hoping to better market their beers. For brewers to operate tasting rooms and sell beers by the glass to consumers, they’ve been required to pay for a permit (in addition to their primary manufacturing license) that costs nearly $4,000 per year. This law, which goes into effect in late March, allows Ohio brewers to open their businesses to the public without having to pay for that costly permit.
Goofball music
Many drink to forget. When Jon White performs, however, it’s all about remembering. Song lyrics that were memorized long ago and thought forgotten suddenly come rushing back as White gives them a tongue-in-cheek adaptation with his acoustic guitar (from Elvis and the Temptations to ‘N Sync and Celine Dion). For White, a musical comedian, that’s precisely what he’s going for. “I’m trying to parlay interaction, comedy and nostalgia,” he says. It’s about taking people “back to their childhood.”
White’s style is fueled almost entirely by crowd interaction, which gives him an approachable feel. “I try to create a vibe of a bunch of friends sitting in a living room,” says the New York native and former strip club deejay. “If I’m not the most energetic person in the room, then I’m not doing my job.”
He is fond of mashing tunes together, such as the theme song from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” and “Jump Around” by House of Pain. “If I get to the end of a show and I have about 10 minutes left and I have about 30 requests that I didn’t get to, I will fit all of those requests into those last 10 minutes,” he says.
White’s stage presence and penchant for comedy might be traced to his academic years. The captain of his high school football team, he made the transition into theater, landing the lead role of Danny Zuko in Grease (a feat he accomplished again his first year at SUNY Cortland). “That taught me that maybe it was somewhat my calling,” he says. “And that’s when I jumped into the deejay world, where I learned about what people respond to, at least audibly.”
When he’s not performing solo, White gigs with pianist Nate Efinger in a duo called, appropriately enough, Whitefinger. “It’s goofball music,” White says. “We just try to take every single request that anyone can think of and we guarantee we can play at least 10 seconds of it—even if we don’t know any of the words.”
Whitefinger performs every Tuesday night at Bar Louie in the Arena District, while White plays regularly at World of Beer in the Brewery District, Too’s in the campus area and Halftime Tavern on the north side.
