Betsy Snow White Bibliophile

Category: 614 Pride

  • 22 Days of Blogging

    22 Days of Blogging

    So, this is a little late. I had a big paper due this weekend, so I spent all day yesterday working on and refining that. Priorities, lol.

    I am super excited because the other day I received a package in the mail and no it wasn’t more stuff I bought online. Well…it kinda was, but not in the way my last post was talking about. I got my membership package for the Ohio History Connection in the mail. Ohio History Connection is housed in Columbus as the Ohio Historical Center building which houses various museum style exhibits, the Ohio Archives and Library, and The Ohio Village which is a recreated 19th century community where they hold events.

    With my membership I can go to the Ohio History Center for free once it is open to the public. I get reciprocal admissions from over 250 museums nationwide and reciprocal benefits at over 800. Free tickets to Ohio History Center/Ohio Village Events like Night at the Museum, All Hallows’ Eve and Dickens of a Christmas (I have attended the Dickens event and it is really fun). Plus many other amazing benefits.

    More than that, though, I know that I am supporting the preservation of Ohio history during a time when they could use that support more than ever. I am also considering buying a membership to the Columbus Museum of Art for a similar reason. We already purchased a COSI membership for the inlaws and the niblings (I found out this is the non-binary term for nieces and nephews and I love it.) We also still have our zoo memberships which Seth’s parents purchase us for Christmas every year. While we may not get much use out of these this year, we are supporting important pieces of our community.

  • Magic Crabs and Girls, Ghosts, Ghouls

    Magic Crabs and Girls, Ghosts, Ghouls

    My friend, Jenny, has a podcast with her friend Jean-Paul called WTF Did I Just Watch on Zombie Take Over T.V. A couple of weeks ago she sent me a message asking if I would be interested in doing a guest spot on the podcast to talk about the 1999 Rom-Com Simply Irresistible starring Sarah Michelle Gellar (Yeah, Buffy!!) and Sean Patrick Flanery (Boondock Saints and Powder…hmm…). I, of course, said yes and we began to make plans to record a podcast talking about this truly bizarre movie. We will be recording February 12 and it should be a fun conversation if you are interested.

    A couple of days after this I got another message from Jenny sent to myself and a couple other women asking if we would be interested in co-hosting a new podcast where we would talk about classic horror movies from the silent age through the 70s. Myself and Rebecca immediately said we would so we began to plot and plan. The result is Girls, Ghosts, Ghouls found for subscription here. We will be talking all things classical spooky like Vincent Price, Universal Horror, Silent Horror, modern remakes, and so much more. We are planning to record monthly and our first episode will be recorded in mid-March. We will also be holding a getting to know you Q&A February 13th on Facebook Live.

    I am very excited about this and what else might be coming in the next several months. If any of this sounds interesting to you please check us out.

  • Witch Walk 2020

    Witch Walk 2020

    On Halloween around the stroke of Noon, witches descended upon Goodale Park in Columbus Ohio in order to make merry and celebrate the Day. After grabbing a group picture we began walking down High Street in the Short North wishing a Happy Halloween to all we encountered. We stopped at Prologue Bookstore for some of our witchy companions to purchase tomes, and then at Roaming Goat Coffee to get a Mocha Latte for myself. We continued across the street to Rocket Fizz for old fashioned candy and novelties (I bought a racing possum!). We passed a salon where we waved to a fellow witch who was giving a blow out to a client.

    We stopped to grab a bite at The Eagle where I ordered a Grilled Cheese that features three kinds of cheese and apples, yum! It came out in the shape of a heart. Aww! Next a trip to Torso where I purchased a mask that says “Witch Please”, a gorgeous rhinestone mask and a bracelet that matched my witchy garb. A quick run back to prologue and then we made a stop at Bakersfield for a Margarita and a $3 shot of Hornitos.

    We witches can make a day of it!! Happy Haunting my friends until next year!

  • Hallowest 1: District Of Darkness

    Hallowest 1: District Of Darkness

    On Friday Night, we ventured down once more to District West where we passed through the cobwebs and curtain festooned hallways to enter into the haunted world of Hallowest 1: District of Darkness. This show was a coproduction of Virginia West and Krystal Something Something, and as always it did not disappoint. It was 2+ hours of non stop entertainment that ranged from campy to scary to just straight up hysterical.

    The opening number featured Virginia, Krystal, and the full cast as Zombies. Riley Poppyseed gave us a magical striptease as a conjure man. Selena T West as the scariest of all horrors, a Karen. Then after being served a PSL by an unsuspecting Barista she evolved into Mega-Karen, complete with onscreen level up graphics. Robyn Daculture was a masked demonic prom queen. Virginia gave us the Kiss of the Spiderwoman. Krystal and Cast were Zombie Strippers to Living Dead Girl.

    Bootsy Lefaris, a former protegee of Virginia who was in town to preform in The Sanderson Sister’s: Witch Perfect the following night, sang Sweet Transvestite from Rocky Horror in a guest spot. The absolutely beautiful Bianca Debonair paid tribute to The Bride of Chucky. Amanda Sue Punchfuck (one of my favorite drag names) was the fly on the VPs head. Virginia West as Nurse Ratched with her cast of nurses and doctors danced through “Blood in the Cut” by k.flay. Followed by Brent Fabian belting out Metallica as Pinhead from Hellraiser.

    V. Master Chad rocked their Trick R Treat themed segment. Followed by Terrence Brown as the (Sweet Sugar) Candyman. Krystal Something Something was a murderous teen in a Sleepaway Camp parody. The amazing, but super active so it was hard to get pictures Boyonce led a Sabrina the Teenage Witch piece. Then the W Girls danced their way through Wonderland, but were also difficult to photograph. I did catch a shot of the amazing Maria Hypes as the Red Queen showing off her flexibility. Sexy werewolf Alexander Chang-Reavis rocked out with his pack.

    The Bride Virginia and Brent’s Frankenstein Went through some of Streisand’s greatest hits. Brent’s facial expressions were killing me. Krystal got exorcised, and Eris Grey channeled Kathy Bates for an Annie Wilkes piece. The final two Sanderson Sisters closed the show with Tammy Spanx singing “Creep” by Radiohead and Tina Burner, complete with Rhinestone pea soup vomit, preformed an Exorcist based piece.

    The quality of the shows by the West Family never ceases to astound and amaze. I cannot wait for the next one!

  • Medieval Monster Mash at the Forge

    Medieval Monster Mash at the Forge

    Saturday night I went with my Sister, Traci, and our friends Susan and Liz to The Forge Tavern for their Medieval Monster Mash starring Jameson’s Folly and special guests Fiendish. The Forge had a wonderful set up that allowed for safe play in times of Covid. Out table’s theme was witches, so we decided to dress as the witches of American Horror Story: Coven. I was Fiona Goode, Traci was Zoe Benson, Susan was Nan and Liz was Misty Day. Liz was in the running for Best Costume, but got an honorable mention instead. Our table got an award for having a great theme. Which was awesome, but wasn’t why we were there.

    Jameson’s Folly was on fire, and they were dressed as Joe Exotic (Chance), That Bitch Carole Baskin (Jennifer) and a Tiger (Johnna). Chance even managed an Irish step dance in cowboy boots. Then Fiendish took to the stage which was made up of our favorite three whiskey witches from the Renaissance Festival. They were also amazing and I am excited to hear more from them in the future.

    My sister and I shared a Rum flight, which lead to us finding one we are absolutely going to have to purchase, the waitress also said there is a Mermaid on the bottle which makes it even better.

  • Things To Do: October Edition

    Things To Do: October Edition

    I have done these lists in the past and they are fun, and I like to see what I have to look forward to the rest of the month.

    • Magical Days, Madrigal Nights – Final Weekend: Wearing my new witch hat and having a blast with my friends.
    • Spooky Basket Exchange #1 – finish up and mail out: I need to finish a craft, box everything up and mail out.
    • Medieval Monster Mash at The Forge: Social distanced and monster themed. Our table is Witch themed. And Jameson’s Folly will be performing.
    • Spooky Basket Exchange – Duchess Edition: The ladies of the Duchess Squad will be exchanging baskets. Mine is purchased but needs assembled.
    • Give out candy for Beggar’s Night – Safely. I will figure it out.
    • Hallowest 1: Virginia West and Krystal Something Something co-writing and starring in the first Halloween performance at District West.
    • 2020 Witch Walk : My friend’s Kristan and Susan created this event a couple of years ago. We meet up at Goodale Park and then walk through the Short North dressed as witches.
    • Lady Gang Halloween at Carol’s: It’s Halloween and the Full Moon. We can’t let this go past without celebration.
  • Weekends are Skaterdays

    Weekends are Skaterdays

    I am still madly in love with roller skating, which is not altogether shocking since I have loved it since I was a child. I skated both days this weekend and enjoyed every moment of it.

    Yesterday I met my friends Amy and Christina at The Warehouse, which is a parking garage set up for skateboarding and roller skaters by a church. The floor is so ridiculously smooth and it was easy to skate on and to practice tricks and such. I met several more amazing skaters: Sparky, Alex and Faego.

    Amazing sign on the wall at The Warehouse

    Today I met Amy, Hannah and Jake at Como Elementary for a morning skate. Como has incredibly smooth asphalt as well, and I made a short video of me skating a circle in the court.

    I have a color scheme.

    I recently put in an order for a new pair of skates, because mine are well over 16 years old. Skates are hard to come by right now, and mine are probably not going to be ready until early next year. I am excited for them though. I ordered Moxi Panthers, and they are a leopard print dream!

    Ack! So cute!

    I am having so much fun falling back in love with skates and skating. I am going to work on rehabbing my vintage skate case over the winter and get it ready to house my new skates.

  • Made Me Do A Double Take

    Made Me Do A Double Take

    Last night my mom, my sister Traci, and I headed down to District West to see the first mainstage show by the amazing Krystal Something Something, one of my favorite drag queens in Columbus, Double Take.

    First, the venue, which was recently opened by the amazing Virginia West and partners, is absolutely gorgeous. The colors are grays and blacks with mirrors and crystal light fixtures. They had beautiful succulents on each table with photo holder stakes in them holding the information for the performers for virtual tipping. The drinks were delicious, especially their mule mad with raspberry vodka.

    The show was amazing! High production value, great music, and a lot of laughs. The show was divided into halves, based on the two main characters Krystal Something Something and Tabatha from Dance. The Krystal half was slicker, and a little more rock. The Tabatha half was more comedic and involved an amazing early 90s Prom scene. No Spoilers, but if you are looking to watch a truly entertaining show you can even watch online Here. Enjoy some stills and support your local drag performers.

  • Skate Party!!

    Skate Party!!

    One of the members of my newly created skate group Skate Expectations (Jake) held a public skate party on Saturday in Grandview. My little sister, Traci, came to pick me up and we headed over to skate. We kind of inadvertently matched a little which was funny. Lots of pinks, purples and turquoise for us!

    Traci and I in our skate finery at the party Saturday night.

    We got to meet members of The Crunch Ramp Supremes who are absolutely bad ass skaters from the area. I am in absolute awe of them, and I am going to be working harder at learning tricks and feeling stronger on my wheels. I joined their group on Meet Up, so I am hoping I can join them occasionally when they go out to skate.

    Members of the Crunch Ramps and the DJ Set up.

    It was Traci’s first time out on her new skates and she took off like she had been skating forever. She fell once, and unfortunately it was on camera, but…still overall a great time.

    Traci skating, random skaters

    We skated on and off for about 2 hours before we decided we should call it a night. Jake says he is definitely going to do it again and he asked if I would help with planning which of course I agreed to do. I am super excited to be involved and for the outlet to skate. I had forgotten/ written off how much I love to skate, but getting back out there it is all coming back.

  • I am Starting a Roller Skating Club

    I believe I have spoken on the blog before about my love of Roller Skating. I have been roller skating since I was probably 5, but possibly even younger than that. I grew up having old skates that my cousins and I could hold skate parties with in my grandparents garage and driveway. I was also a frequent attendee of our local skating rink in Newark, Roll-a-Way spending hours there on my quad skates happy as a clam.

    I bought a new pair of quad skates in 2004 or so when I learned about Ohio Roller Derby, then the Ohio Roller Girls, and I wanted to do derby so badly. I bought my skates and I began going out to try to get my skate skills back. I would train with them several times in anticipation of trying out, but it never worked out that I could play. And after a fall, not skating related just klutzy, I tore my ACL and because of the nature of derby I knew that continuing to train would eventually lead to surgery, so I stopped training and became an athletic supporter instead (See Eight Wheels of Badass Joy, Talk Derby to Me: First Bout of 2019, and Skatemare Before Christmas)

    Then in 2020 the pandemic happened and I started to see people buying skates and skating on Instagram (Nicole Byer being a huge Inspiration as was Rolla Skate Club). I decide I would like to get back on skates, so I go to the internet. I already have skates, a couple of pairs in fact, but I needed new pads (knee, elbow and wrist), a new helmet, a skate strap and I decided I wanted a pair of toe covers since mine were pretty scuffed.

    I found my pads as a set on Moxi. They were roughly $75 for the full set of Knee, Elbow and Wrist pads. And on the same site I found a turquoise and pink leopard print helmet and I just had to have it, so I put in an order. I got a skate strap from PeaceGrenade on Etsy in Magenta Glitter. I got an amazing sticker that says Skate Witch from Simply Savage Design which lives on my helmet and I just ordered another couple to add to new things. I bought my toe caps from Rollerstuff they are super shiny leather and I LOVE them. All together the whole set looks like this:

    So…now I had skates, and gear, and no one to skate with. I had a thought and then I went to social media and I said:

    So…I added this on Instagram and Facebook just to see if anyone would respond or be interested, and the answer was a resounding yes. I had many friends respond that they were in, that they were looking for a reason to buy skates, and so on. I created a Facebook Group called Skate Expectations and we have our first meet up this Friday after work. I am so excited that this is becoming a thing, and also I am somewhat surprised, but so excited. I am hoping that I can branch this out into more interesting things. I have ideas!!

    More to come! Happy Skating Ya’ll!!