Small Talk: Letters and Chatter About Columbus Monthly

Untuck Milan

To the editor,

The Culinary Vegetable Institute is an Ohio treasure, and I am so happy to see it included in the most recent issue of Columbus Monthly magazine as a food destination ("Bon Appetit and Bon Voyage," August 2014). The owner was a pioneer in the resurgence of quality vegetables for restaurants all over Ohio and in the popularity of farm to table dining.

Lovely article with one exception: As someone who hails from Milan, Ohio, I cringed at the description of my beloved hometown as "tucked away on the far west side of Cleveland." Milan is about 60 miles from Cleveland and a delightful, historic village in its own right! If you have not visited, please do and enjoy all that north-central Ohio has to offer.

Kathy Kelly

Powell

Festival Fallout

We published our story about Fashion Meets Music Festival ("New Kids on the Block," August 2014) just as the festival's organizers were being put under an intense spotlight for their controversial decision to book R. Kelly as a headliner. Columbus bands Damn the Witch Siren and Saintseneca, whose national star is rising, pulled out of the festival. So did WCBE 90.5 FM. A group of bands organized a protest festival called Femme Fest that will program against FMMF. And then FMMF pulled the plug on Kelly. The festival was the subject of stories in USA Today, Rolling Stone, The Huffington Post and national public radio show "Sound Opinions."

Reader Ryan Getz said this about our story on ColumbusMonthly.com: "This is probably the most fair article I've seen on the subject so far. There seems to be a lot of people making assumptions about the organizers, and this article actually gives us a personal look for once. I know at least the people that I've met that are involved are passionate about the arts and have the best of intentions." Reader Cary Whitt disagreed: "I'm not sure 'fair' is the word I'd use. Less critical, maybe, but there are hardly any quotes or voices from those bringing up critical points (not just R. Kelly). All I see are what PR people with the fest and that 'ever defensive' Brett Adams have to say about things." Festival organizers tweeted this message when we published the story online: "We're not corporate robots, we're the new kids on the block. Read about it via @ColumbusMonthly."