09_03_2005_-_blindmechanic_jump

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH |
Arts | SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2005
MECHANIC
XXX FROM PAGE F1 XXX
“POWERFUL AND TIMELY.”
A.O. Scott, THE NEW YORK TIMES
ERIC ALBRECHT | DISPATCH PHOTOS
Ed Marko repairs a vehicle outside Community Car Care.
Marko retrieves a tool left on
top of a bucket.
Liston, who drives Marko to
work from his home in Bexley, is
the only employee.
Rosemary Valentine, a Nissan
owner, is among the 100 or so
regular customers.
“Ed is honest,’’ said Valentine,
a client for 12 years. “I live way
up in north Clintonville, but I
always come here.’’
On the front of the building,
Virginia creeper overwhelms the
shop’s sign — white and tenniscourt green.
Inside, the shop presents a
study in organized chaos.
A few Beetles, a Porsche, a
BMW, a Karmann Ghia and the
guts of countless other
machines line a path that Marko
walks every day.
A rusted exhaust fan from a
restaurant — 4 by 4 feet — rests
in the middle of the main work
space.
Though unsure why it sits
there, Marko knows how to
avoid it.
The tools of the mechanic’s
GRIZZLY MAN
R
MOVIES 16
“
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MOVIES 16 - GAHANNA STAR CINEMA
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-J.P. Sarni, SIRIUS RADIO
EVERY SECRET TAKES
ON A LIFE OF ITS OWN
WEST OF FASHION PLACE
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WEST OF FASHION PLACE
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®
A Film By Academy Award Nominee Lasse Hallström
Richard Corliss,
HOLLYWOOD STUDIO 8
5996 WESTERVILLE RD.
175 W. NATIONWIDE BLVD. WESTERVILLE, OH
614-901-FILM
614-470-9900
6530 TUSSING RD.
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I-270 & US-23
614-841-1600
MORSE @ HAMILTON
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A SPELLBINDING WONDER.”
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“
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WRITTEN
BY
SOUNDTRACK
AVAILABLE ON
STEVE FABER & BOB FISHER DIRECTEDBY DAVID DOBKIN
ALAN LADD,JR. KELLIANN LADD LESLIE HOLLERAN WRITTENBYMARK SPRAGG & VIRGINIA KORUS SPRAGG DIRECTEDBYLASSE HALLSTRÖM
Written By Mark Spragg & Virginia Korus Spragg Directed By Lasse Hallström
SOUNDTRACK AVAILABLE ON
NOW PLAYING
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PICKERINGTON 16
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POLARIS STADIUM 18
I-270 & US-23
614-841-1600
GEORGESVILLE RD. AT I-270
1-800-FANDANGO #288
6530 TUSSING RD.
614-864-7469
WEST OF FASHION PLACE
614-781-8228
Check theatre
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for showtimes.
www.weddingcrashersmovie.com
ARTWORK ©2005 MIRAMAX FILM CORP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
SPECIAL SNEAK PREVIEW TONIGHT AND TOMORROW
Jason Lynch,
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7:30PM
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Moviefone.com
E 090505 A30701-1
2254 EAST MAIN ST.
614-231-9512
EXHILARATING!
Hooker-style, one-chord progression blues on songs such
as Death Bell Blues and Shake
’Em on Down received critical
acclaim.
He released more than a
dozen albums and toured
worldwide, although he performed less after heart surgery
in 1999. His last record was
2004’s A Bothered Mind.
Burnside was born in the
Mississippi Delta town of
Harmontown on Nov. 23, 1926.
He spent most of his life in the
north Mississippi hills working
as a sharecropper and fisherman.
In the 1940s, he moved to
Chicago where he was taught
to play guitar by Mississippi
Fred McDowell and later met
Muddy Waters. But Burnside
left the city after his father and
two of his brothers were killed
there.
When Burnside moved back
to Mississippi, he shot a man
who he said was trying to run
him out of his home. He was
convicted and served six
months in jail before a
plantation foreman got him
out to work the cotton
harvest.
Burnside is survived by
his wife, Alice Mae; 12 children; and numerous grandchildren.
SPECIAL SNEAK PREVIEW TONIGHT AND TOMORROW
AMC
DUBLIN VILLAGE 18
MORSE @ HAMILTON
GAHANNA
614-471-7321
DREXEL
THEATRE
CELEBRATE THE HOLIDAY
WEEKEND WITH THE GIFT OF
– THE SEASON’S
SMARTEST COMEDY!
R.L. Burnside — one of the
last great Mississippi bluesmen, whose raw country blues
was discovered late in his life
— has died.
He was 78.
Burnside
died Thursday morning
at St. Francis
Hospital in
Memphis,
Tenn. His
health had
been declinR.L. Burnside
ing for some
time, said
Matthew Johnson, owner of
Burnside’s record label, Fat
Possum.
A sharecropper early in life,
Burnside didn’t record until his
40s and didn’t become a
professional musician until
1991, when he was signed by
Fat Possum. Popular with
younger acts such as the
Beastie Boys and Jon Spencer
Blues Explosion, Burnside
remained, as Johnson once
said, “incorruptible because he
just doesn’t care.’’
After the 1992 live album
Bad Luck City, Fat Possum released Too Bad Jim in 1994.
Burnside’s raw, John Lee
PETER ABRAMS ROBERT L.LEVY ANDREW PANAY STORYBYBRENT GOLDBERG & DAVID T.WAGNER & NICK CANNON
SCREENPLAY
DIRECTED
BY DAVID T.WAGNER &. BRENT GOLDBERG
BY MARCOS SIEGA
BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY
WWW.BEAUTIFULCOUNTRYMOVIE.COM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
AnUnfinishedLifethemovie.com
THE
NOW
PLAYING!
By Jake Coyle
PRODUCED
BY
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614-841-1600
SAT-SUN:
12:45, 3:00, 5:15,
7:30, 9:45PM
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614/231-9512
Mississippi bluesman
hit stage late in life
“
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LENNOX 24
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DREXEL THEATRE
R.L. BURNSIDE | 1926-2005
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A WERNER HERZOG FILM
A COMEDY ABOUT
UPHOLDING THE LAW
AND DISTURBING
THE PEACE.
NOW
PLAYING
“two
thumbs
way up.”
MOVIES 16
FROM VIETNAM TO NEW YORK CITY TO THE TEXAS
PLAINS, A SON JOURNEYS TO FIND HIS FATHER.
trade are here and everywhere:
in a cabinet; in — or on — 5gallon buckets; in the trunks of
Beetles; under an ’80s Audi; on
the minivan seat that doubles as
office furniture.
“Where is that 10-millimeter
wrench?’’ Marko asks aloud to
himself. “I think it’s over here in
this bucket.’’
Sure enough, it is — along
with screwdrivers, a ball-peen
hammer, terry-cloth rags and
nuts, bolts and hose clamps.
In his office, Marko sits at an
industrial desk blanketed with
fuses, envelopes, work orders,
invoice slips and parts catalogs
as well as cans of Liquid Wrench
and a generic fiber supplement.
An inch of coffee a week old
or more remains in a greasestained coffeepot.
“We’re just into fixing cars the
right way,’’ Liston says. “We’re
not much for the corporate biz.’’
Penny the cat, butterscotch
with faint gray-black stripes,
cleans herself atop the clutter
while Marko calls friends and
customers, parts stores and
junkyards.
Most numbers he retrieves
from the Rolodex in his brain.
Others he asks someone to recite from business cards or
handwritten lists haphazardly
taped to the walls.
He patiently explains to a customer on the phone how to unlock a Cabriolet trunk without a
key.
All the while, Penny perfects
her coat. She skips her feet and
the tip of her tail — both permanently stained by auto-shop
grime.
E 090405 A32274-1
my leg,’’ said Brad Liston, who
does bodywork for the shop. “I
thought, ‘How could a blind
man work on engines?’
“But then he’d always outdiagnost me on anything we
looked at. He still does most
times.’’
Bill Caldwell, who used to tow
cars for Marko, marvels at his
ability with cars.
“I’ve seen him take the bones
out of them and put them back
many times,’’ the North Side
resident said. “Many people
don’t believe me when I tell
them he’s blind.’’
The work seems more natural
than remarkable to Marko, 71.
Born with infantile glaucoma,
the second youngest of eight
children gradually developed
serious problems with his
vision.
He lived on the family dairy
farm, north of Wooster, as a
youngster, performing “just the
standard maintenance stuff’’ on
augers, tractors and combines.
“I didn’t really think about it,
and no one really pushed me
any one way. I just followed my
brothers around and did the
work they did.’’
He attended school in
Wooster until his parents —
immigrants from central Europe
— sent him to the state School
for the Blind in Columbus.
By his first year at Bowling
Green State University, he’d lost
all sight.
“Until I was 17, 18, I had real
good, useful vision — 20/200
vision,’’ he said. “But glaucoma
catches up with you. Some doctors said it could either way.’’
His experience around other
blind people, he said, helped
him.
“During the time I was losing
my sight, I thought I was still
seeing things. But really I was
using my hearing and touch.’’
He earned a liberal-arts
degree from Bowling Green in
1957, graduating on a Thursday
and reporting to his new job the
next Monday.
“I got this counseling job with
the state Welfare Department,’’
he said. “I had no idea what I
was doing. But I ended up helping people — all handicapped
people — find jobs throughout
southern and southeastern
Ohio.’’
Away from work, he built “kit
cars’’ with Volkswagen parts.
By the late ’70s, suffering from
“social-work burnout,’’ he
retired from the state job.
He gravitated to auto mechanics in 1979, teaming first
with Mike George and Bill Chittenden at Community Volkswagen, near Neil Avenue west of
the old Ohio Penitentiary.
“We called it the ‘prison
garage,’ ’’ Marko said.
Four years later, he joined
Chittenden in opening another
shop, Community Car Care, at
Nelson Road and E. 5th Avenue.
“He’s one of a kind, obviously,’’ said Chittenden, living in
southwestern Missouri. “I was
surprised when Ed would drop
something like a nut or bolt and
I couldn’t find it and he always
could.
“And I was totally blown away
that someone who couldn’t see
could reach in between a running engine with confidence.’’
In the late ’80s, when Chittenden left Columbus, Marko
relocated the shop to Bryden
Road and Holtzman Avenue.
“Penny leaves paw prints on
cars,’’ Dransfield says. “Ed
leaves handprints.’’
He met Marko 11 years ago,
when Dransfield, then a student
at the Columbus College of Art
& Design, was planning a road
trip to California.
A friend had sent him to
Marko for advice about his
“crappy Beetle.’’
When he returned from the
West Coast in the fall of 1994,
Dransfield became an apprentice — and, later, a part-time
employee — to Marko.
The artist and carpenter was
one of two dozen or more students who spent time turning
wrenches in the shop — a number that doesn’t count the
stream that DeVry University
used to supply.
“The main thing with Ed is he
can explain things so well,’’
Dransfield says. “I think it’s because at one point he could see
some.’’
A life without sight, Marko
says, simply forced him to rely
on his hands.
“Even mechanics who can
see, they wouldn’t really be
mechanics if they couldn’t feel
something and know what it is.
A lot of the time you’re turning a
bolt you can’t see. Most of this is
50, 70 percent touch recognition.’’
He talks about how he manages without sight while trying
to remove a starter from under a
jacked-up Audi.
“Now there are some things I
can’t do, period,’’ he continues.
“I can’t screw in a screw on the
long end of a screwdriver.
“If there’s a little, tiny hole,
OK, I can’t reach my hands up
in it and see where I need to
be.’’
At his age, Marko says, he
stays as busy as he wants to be
— working on “four or five
pieces’’ a week.
And he can’t imagine giving
up the place.
“I should be retired down
south there in the hills, counting
the deer and loafing around,’’ he
says. “But I’m not too good at
that.’’
abeck@dispatch.com
E 090405 A30704-1
F4 ∑
Homebuilding
www.brothersgrimmmovie.com
ARTWORK ©2005 MIRAMAX FILM CORP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
NOW PLAYING!
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DUBLIN VILLAGE 18
SAWMILL AND I-270
614-429-4262
AMC
EASTON 30
HOLLYWOOD STUDIO 8
I-270 & US-23
614-841-1600
5996 WESTERVILLE RD.
275 EASTON TOWN CTR. WESTERVILLE, OH
614-901-FILM
614-429-4262
MARQUEE CINEMAS
CONSUMER SQ. 14
AMC
LENNOX 24
6530 TUSSING RD.
614-864-7469
777 KINNEAR RD.
614-429-4262
DREXEL THEATRES
ARENA GRAND
MARCUS THEATRES
PICKERINGTON 16
MOVIES 12
MARCUS THEATRES
CROSSWOODS
HWY. 256 & HWY. 204
614-759-6500
I-270 AT UPPER
ARLINGTON EXIT
614-777-1010
MOVIES 16
MOVIES 10
MORSE @ HAMILTON
GAHANNA
614-471-7321
WEST POINT PLAZA
614-529-8547
“A COOL, SLICK, ACTIONPACKED ADVENTURE!”
175 W. NATIONWIDE BLVD.
614-470-9900
REGAL CINEMAS
GEORGESVILLE SQ. 16
SCOTT MANTZ,
ACCESS HOLLYWOOD
GEORGESVILLE RD. AT I-270
1-800-FANDANGO #288
RAVE MOTION PICTURES
POLARIS STADIUM 18
WEST OF FASHION PLACE
614-781-8228
THE CONSPIRACY IS GLOBAL IN THE
BEST REVIEWED THRILLER OF THE YEAR
PETER TRAVERS
A SIZZLING THRILLER
THAT ENDS SUMMER
ON A HIGH NOTE!
“
”
NOW PLAYING
KAREN DURBIN
SPECIAL ENGAGEMENTS NO PASSES OR DISCOUNT COUPONS ACCEPTED
ELECTRIFYING
ENTERTAINMENT!”
“
Marcus Theatres CROSSWOODS AMC EASTON TOWNCENTER 30 AMC LENNOX TOWN CTR 24
777 Kinnear Rd
275 Easton Town Ctr
I-270 & US23 DIGITAL
614/429-4AMC
614/429-4AMC
614/436-9818
RICHARD CORLISS
EXHILARATING!”
“
CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES OR CALL FOR SOUND INFORMATION AND SHOWTIMES
TWO BIG
THUMBS UP.
“
One of the smartest,
funniest and most touching
movies of the summer.”
“TWO THUMBS WAY UP.”
–Richard Roeper
– EBERT & ROEPER
E 090505 A32281-1
ARTWORK: ©2005 FOCUS FEATURES LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
NOW PLAYING
Drexel Theatres
GRANDVIEW
1247 Grandview Ave 614/486-6114
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CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORY OR CALL FOR SOUND INFORMATION AND SHOWTIMES
AMC
EASTON 30
RAVE MOTION PICTURES MARCUS THEATRES
POLARIS STADIUM 18 CROSSWOODS
WEST OF FASHION PLACE
614-781-8228
SAWMILL AND I-270
614-429-4262
777 KINNEAR RD.
614-429-4262
275 EASTON TOWN CTR.
614-429-4262
MOVIES 16
MOVIES 12
MORSE @ HAMILTON
GAHANNA
614-471-7321
I-270 AT UPPER
ARLINGTON EXIT
614-777-1010
HOLLYWOOD STUDIO 8 REGAL CINEMAS
MARQUEE CINEMAS
5996 WESTERVILLE RD.
GEORGESVILLE SQ. 16 CONSUMER SQ. 14
WESTERVILLE, OH
614-901-FILM
DREXEL THEATRES
MARCUS THEATRES MOVIES 10
PICKERINGTON 16 WEST POINT PLAZA ARENA GRAND
HWY. 256 & HWY. 204
614-759-6500
614-529-8547
175 W. NATIONWIDE BLVD.
614-470-9900
I-270 & US-23
614-841-1600
GEORGESVILLE RD. AT I-270 6530 TUSSING RD.
1-800-FANDANGO #288
614-864-7469
SPECIAL ENGAGEMENTS NO PASSES
OR DISCOUNT COUPONS ACCEPTED
CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES OR CALL
FOR SOUND INFORMATION AND SHOWTIMES
09/03
Regal Cinemas
GEORGESVILLE SQ 16
1800 Georgesville Sq Dr
800/FANDANGO #288
AMC
LENNOX TOWN CTR 24
777 Kinnear Rd
614/429-4AMC
Cinemark
MOVIES 16 - GAHANNA
Morse & Hamilton Rd
614/471-7321
Marcus Theatres
PICKERINGTON 16 Hwy 256
& Hwy 204 614/759-6500
E 090505 A32279-1
© 2005 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
AMC
AMC
DUBLIN VILLAGE 18 LENNOX 24
Drexel Theatres
ARENA GRAND THEATRE
175 W Nationwide Blvd
614/470-9900
Marquee Cinemas
CONSUMER SQUARE 14
6530 Tussing Rd
614/864-7469
Marcus Theatres
CROSSWOODS
I-270 & US23
614/436-9818
AMC
DUBLIN VILLAGE 18
6700 Village Pkwy
614/429-4AMC
AMC
EASTON TOWNCENTER 30
275 Easton Town Ctr
614/429-4AMC
SPECIAL ENGAGEMENTS
NO PASSES OR DISCOUNT
COUPONS ACCEPTED
CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES OR
CALL FOR SOUND INFORMATION
AND SHOWTIMES
SEE IT ON THE
BIG SCREEN TODAY
LIFE, PAGE F4
E 090405 A30706 -1
ARTWORK: ©2005 FOCUS FEATURES LLC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
NOW PLAYING
AT THESE SELECT THEATRES
MOVIES 16
MOVIES 10
MORSE @ HAMILTON
GAHANNA
614-471-7321
WEST POINT PLAZA I-270 AT UPPER
614-529-8547
ARLINGTON EXIT
614-777-1010
MOVIES 12
AMC
DUBLIN VILLAGE 18
∞ AMC
SAWMILL AND I-270
614-429-4262
DREXEL THEATRES
ARENA GRAND
175 W. NATIONWIDE BLVD.
614-470-9900
EASTON 30
◆ MARCUS THEATRES
CROSSWOODS
MARQUEE CINEMAS ◆HOLLYWOOD STUDIO 8 RAVE MOTION PICTURES
POLARIS STADIUM 18
CONSUMER SQ. 14 5996 WESTERVILLE RD.
GEORGESVILLE RD. AT I-270 HIGH STREET
614-491-6771
1-800-FANDANGO #288
6530 TUSSING RD.
614-864-7469
WESTERVILLE, OH
614-901-FILM
LENNOX 24
777 KINNEAR RD.
614-429-4262
◆ MARCUS THEATRES
I-270 & US-23
614-841-1600
SOUTH D.I.
GEORGESVILLE SQ. 16 3050 SOUTH
◆ REGAL CINEMAS
∞ AMC
275 EASTON TOWN CTR.
614-429-4262
WEST OF FASHION PLACE
614-781-8228
CALL THEATRE OR CHECK DIRECTORY FOR SHOWTIMES NO PASSES
PICKERINGTON 16
HWY. 256 & HWY. 204
614-759-6500
∞
∞
◆