Thursday, September 29, 2011

Northside Porch Tour

WLWT at the 2009 tour
and then a bunch of other junk

Saturday, October 1 from 6-9PM, experience the biennial Northside Porch Tour.
Over one-hundred porches will be featured in this tour showcasing one of the most unique architectural elements of the Northside Community. Traveling along the route, you will receive a visual and narrative historical perspective of the overall streetscape featuring houses with period porches built circa 1890 thru 1940. Ride on a 20-person horse drawn carriage along the route elegantly lit by 1,000's of luminaries for a measly $3.
Tours start at the Security Fence Co. @ 4260 Dane Avenue where there will be grub & jams.
Meanwhile, Over the Avenue at the C&D @ 1714 Hanfield Ave, The Cincinnati Rollrgirls will be hosting a Steak Out steak dinner fundraiser beginning at 6PM.
ALSO

From 10A to 4P, 1650 Glen Parker will be open as part of the Green Energy Ohio Tour. It is a solar powered LEED certified home.
As usual, Northside is the place to be.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Barbe Cue for Mayor !

BarBe Cue, spokesmannequin for KT's Barbecue & Deli in picturesque Reading, OH, has thrown her hat into the ring to be mayor of the city. Or somebody has, dunno if she can really throw anything.
Given the calibre of politicians the Democrats & Republicans have been giving us of late, throwing some votes to a mannequin might wake up these clowns. Doubt it. But what the heck, Blogging Isn't Cool (tho not a Readingite) supports Ms Cue in her bid against "Bo"…..

Porktown Fishwrap story here.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

The ApocalypseEV-1

You know the drill. You're pumping gas, on the run, keeping an eye out for zombie gas station attendants, you think you got it under contral when -BAM- some fuckin' zombie sneaks up behind you & is trying to gnaw on your spleen & you have to resort to hand to hand combat with some damn stinking rotting reanimated motherfucker.
Of course that's only a short term problem since, after the zombie apocalypse, gas production is slowly going to go down the drain & then it's bicycle time.
Or is it ?

Enter Mike & Kenny with the Apocalypse EV1 - an electric car with solar panels to charge the long lasting battery. This bad boy has it all. With a 2WD model clocking in at 20HP and a 4WD packing 40HP, this is the silent running all terrain getaway for you.
This sucker is packing:
  • 2wd / 20hp
  • Wheel Mounted Motors
  • 40 W Solar charging
  • Built in Wall Charger
  • Deep Cycle Batteries
  • 5 Point Safety Harnesses
  • Roll Cage
  • $5-8k Price Point
  • Options:
  • 4wd / 40 hp
  • EMP Hardened Electronics
  • High Grade Solar Cells
  • Extended Range Batteries
  • Locking Trunk

These guys also market an electric chainsaw with solar chargers. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an option to mount the thing onto the front or sides of the vehicle. An optional HMGT mount on the roof would be pretty sweet, too.

Popular Mechanics article here.
WYSO to Boost Power

WYSO, 91.3, Antioch College's radio station since 1958, will be boosting their power from 37,000 watts to 50,000 giving Cincinnatians a better chance of hearing their volunteer programming.
Porktowners are well acquainted with the volunteer community radio concept nowadays due to WAIF, started decades ago by WYSO veterans.

Frogtown Noose Son story here.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Taxation Without Representation

Residents in the communities surrounding Cincinnati who derive their income from jobs in Cincinnati complain that they have no say in Cincinnati politics even though they pay income taxes for their Cincinnati derived income. Many, if not all Ohio cities tax this way. Most foreign countries do as well. Locally, many of these outlying non-resident workers are Cincinnati expatriates.
They complain bitterly that, like the colonial patriots who fomented a war for independence from England cited taxation without representation as a major cause for their displeasure, are asking for nothing more or less.
Let's take a closer look.
The American colonies were originally chartered to people and groups by the king. That is, they were essentially businesses / corporations that would receive some nominal political and military support from the crown. England knew that expanding their empire by strictly militaristic means would bankrupt the kingdom and they saw this as a more economical way of expanding the empire. The colonists saw themselves as patriotic Britons engaged in in patriotic endeavors. They saw themselves increasing the wealth & power of England and spreading the philosophies & culture of their great country. These companies were in America, Jamaica & India, the most notorious being the East India Company.
The taxation without representation thing arose from onerous restrictions and taxes put exclusively on the American colonies. The restrictions and taxes were levied by Parliament although Parliament had not been involved in their charters in the first place. The colonists saw their societies as under the crown but not really under Parliament - maybe parallel? Scotland, Ireland & Wales had all been granted seats in Parliament since American colonization had started but the proximities of those lands made participation in the body much more practical than far off lands like the Americas & India.
The people who lived and worked in Cincinnati & opted to move their residences out of town in the second half of the 20th century were not seeking to expand the borders of Cincinnati. They were not inclined to expand the wealth or spread the philosophies of Cincinnati. Many actually cite a preference to live outside of the city and abandon that society. In the pre 20th century model of American cities, this move away from the city center by the wealthy was expected and the cities just grew by annexing the newly developed areas. This was expected and the wealthy residents fairly knew it was coming and appreciated the services they gained by being part of the city. Granted, this wasn't 100%.
These people moving away did so on their own. They had no compact with the mayor or whomever.
Actually, for a historical context, these people who derive their wealth from one community, manipulate it's politics, and hurry away with the wealth as soon as possible, probably have less in common with pre-Revolutionary War patriots and much more in common with post-Civil War carpetbaggers. Doubtless, many of these people are probably Republicans, too.
Should they have a say in Cincinnati politics?
Again, the problem is to figure out how. As long as they express allegiance to their townships, villages & cities of residence, I don't see how, other than bankrolling moles in the city.
They really need a new argument, tho.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Anybody But Chabot

Edmund Burke, father of conservatism, stated in Reflections on the Revolution in France, regarding the assembly of representatives in the new government,
"Judge, Sir, of my surprise when I found that a very great proportion of the assembly (a majority, I believe, of the members who attended) was composed of practitioners in the law. It was composed, not of distinguished magistrates, who had given pledges to their country of their science, prudence, and integrity; not of leading advocates, the glory of the bar; not of renowned professors in universities; — but for the far greater part, as it must in such a number, of the inferior, unlearned, mechanical, merely instrumental members of the profession. There were distinguished exceptions, but the general composition was of obscure provincial advocates, of stewards of petty local jurisdictions, country attornies, notaries, and the whole train of the ministers of municipal litigation, the fomenters and conductors of the petty war of village vexation."
Sound like anybody?
How about Steve Chabot? yup. Fits the dude to a T.
That people think this guy is some kinda good conservative representative is mind blowing (if you don't take into account the subjugation of the Republican party by poorly read, simple southern Democrat types seduced by Ronald Reagan's Hitleresque advances, exalting their ignorance while condemning intellectuals, experts & the worldly).
To this end I have moved a page from the hated FaceBook to Blogger, Anybody But Chabot, an aggregate kinda page for documenting all the dumb shit the asshole does and to promote any candidate who challenges him, be they Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Green, Independent, Tory, Whig, Know Nothing. Islamic Brotherhood, I don't care. I'll support a SHERO candidate over this career politician.
COA$$$T

COA T, in their support of police & fire unions as well as big pharma & prosthetic manufacturers continues it's campaign of fear mongering and lies to prevent the use of red light cameras. Instilling the fear that such devices house Stalin channeling homuncululi, they also provide a cartoon that misrepresents the purpose of the yellow light and typically, for these guys, tosses in a good bit of violence to boot.
As with most of COA T's irresponsible proposals, costs to governments would go up and costs to citizens would go up in both cash & life.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Can Zombies Dance ?

Can zombies sing? With Shaadi of the Dead, Bollywood enters the zombie movie milieu. Bollywood movies are frequently peppered with lavish dance scenes and poorly lip-synced singing. How the zombie wedding crashers will pull this off will be interesting but probably entertaining.

Genelia D'Souza


MensXP story here.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Wormfood

While Ohio refuses to allow open air cremation & water cremation, a new body disposal system has been created by Swedish entrepreneur Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak. She touts it as eco-friendly as her freeze drying process turns the body into fertilizer.
"This ecological alternative to cremation or conventional burial involves freezing the body to minus 18 degrees before being submerged in liquid nitrogen. The then very brittle corpse is turned into a fine powder by a short vibration of specific amplitude, removing the 70 per cent water component from the remains by so-called freeze drying followed by burial in a biodegradable box made from corn starch in a shallow grave."
How long will Ohio drag it's heels on this one? Another chance to reduce government intrusion in our lives & offer Ohioans more choice & allow more products for the funeral industry likely to go unheeded.

Irish Times story here.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Apocalyptic Cult? Lunatic Fringe?

Is the GOP/Tea Party an apocalyptic cult of lunatics?
A veteran Capitol hill staffer, Mike Lofgren suggests it.
Matt Taibbi, over at Rolling Stone, Seems to think so.
But that's just opinion. What I found interesting was a recent report from the Brookings Institute showing centrists slightly more aligned with the Left and Democrats than the mainstream Republican party and a total disconnect from the majority of Americans by Fox News watchers & Tea Baggers. Their report focuses on social perceptions & fairly ignores economic issues but over and over the far right is completely out of whack with centrists, Independents and frequently pretty divorced from mainstream Republicans. For all their bluster about the "Far Left", that category is the absolute smallest of any category in the bunch. That is, the vast left wing conspiracy just ain't there.
Of course, the fanatical nationalist, religionist Tease will likely just say the study proves the conspiracy does exist, tho. It's part of the territory.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Jim Steranko

Cincinnati doesn't get many luminaries these days. Sure Charlaine Harris, Jimmy Buffet, some worn out heavy metal bands - but no Cormac McCarthyies, no Wozniacs, no Doc Horrors….
The Cincinnati Comic Expo will be in town this weekend, and although their big guest of honor isn't a comic guy at all but a film producer, Michael E. Uslan, they are also bringing in Jim Steranko. Maybe that should be Jim fucking Steranko
This dude fairly revolutionized comics around 1970. He's not a genius or anything, he's probably more akin to a god.
This is what comics looked like before Steranko (BS)

This is what they looked like after Steranko (AS)

Steranko brought a cinematic quality to comics which kinda makes sense since comic books are essentially storyboards. That is, all movies are made from comic books. He introduced graphic elements to a graphic medium that previously ignored it's graphicness and surrealism to a medium that's pretty surreal to begin with. He introduced multimedia collage psychedelics & got creative with moiré patterns with Zip-a-Tone screens.He also brought a mature noireness. The mature part certainly got him in trouble a couple times.
This page was controversial. Not only were there no word balloons or bam pow sound effects, it was too racy

Check out the last and next to last panel. They had to be changed to meet the Comics Code.
Original

Published

Steranko's time in comic book production didn't last long, he's done a lot of covers over the years and been involved with other areas of the comic book industry as well as film and animation work.


More on Steranko here at The Drawing of Jim Steranko, including "wallpaper".

Steranko's website which appears to just be a placeholder.

Fishwrap story about the convention.
Cincinnati - Not a Boxing Town ?

While various people about town promote the merits of boxing, it appears Cincinnatians aren't too interestd in pro boxing. A recent event, Strikeforce World Grand Prix: Barnett vs. Kharitonov, only drew about 2,000 fans. The guy running Club Ritz, a boxing supporter, draws that many people to his parking lot after hours on weekends.
I heard nothing of this event but I tend to ignore sports. The Fishwrap had a couple articles about it and about a half dozen blog posts. The promoter claims to have saturated the media. I saw nothing on TV.
The promoter has no plans to return to the Queen City.
The poor showing makes me wonder how Dale Mallory's proposed green pizza boxing arena would have fared.

Noose Son story here.

Thursday, September 08, 2011

9 10 11

Photo via Masque Hysteria

What to do on this numerically unique day (in the U.S.A.) ?
duh…..
Get yer arse to Northside!
EXCITING SHIT ALL DAY LONG !!!

Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off
9:00 Am - 1:00 PM
4600 Spring Grove Avenue
For information 513- 946-7700

Mill Creek Clean Up
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Salway Park Parking Lot
Spring Grove Avenue @ Crawford
For information and registration 513-708-2249
or info@millcreekrestoration.org

Heal Your Legacy, Free Your Children: a Workshop for Individuals Born into Families!
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
The Dharma Center
15 Moline Street
For information 513-591-2942
or annebbecker@gmail.com

Wesleyan Cemetery Tour
1:00 PM
Wesleyan Cemetery
4003 Colerain Avenue
For information & reservations (required) 513-542-2909

Cincinnati Folk Dancers
2:00 PM
Cumminsville branch of the Cincinnati Public Library
For information 513-369-4449
or Sarah.Schellenger@cincinnatilibrary.org

7th Annual Lantern Lighting Event
5:00 - 8:00 PM
Spring Grove Cemetery
Spring Grove Avenue

Northside Second Saturday
6:00 - 10:00 PM
Hamilton & Spring Grove Avenues
For information info@fabnorthside.com

Bluebelles: Lifetime Portraits from the Mid 20th Century
6:00 PM
Fabricate
4037 Hamilton Avenue
For information 513-407-6057
or chris@fabnorthside.com

Maurice Mattei and Claire Timmerman
10:00 PM
The Comet
4579 Hamilton Avenue
513-541-8900

Tonefarmer and Goose
10:00 PM
Northside Tavern
4163 Hamilton Avenue
For information 513-542-3603
or northsidetavern@gmail.com

Queen City Cookies Art Camp
sometime
Fergus Park
For information 513-335-1067

Boozing My Religion
sometime
Mayday
4227 Spring Grove Avenue
For information 513-541-0999

Second Saturday will have a number of businesses staying open late including:
Take the Cake which will be serving dinner.
And then there's these guys
Fabricate
Prairie
Thunder-Sky, Inc.
NVISION
Chicken Lays an Egg
Sidewinder
Cryptogram Ink
American Can (soon!)
Northside Surplus
Sweet Peace Bakery
Melt
Picnic and Pantry
Northslice
Happen Inc.
Chameleon
Ko-Sho Japanese Restaurant
3 Legged Dog Yoga Collective
The Painted Fish
Skincraft
Taylor Jameson Hair Design
Shake It Records
Ruttle & Neltner Florist
Shop Therapy
ALSO
While not on the "official" list of participants, these guys will be hawking' their stuff into the evening, too.
NYPD

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Car Culture

What happens when you have a car adducted centric culture? You go crazy. You think you have to drive. And many people let their dependence on cars paint them into a corner, making them truly dependent.
The Dayton Daily News reports that 20% of fatal car crashes involve people driving with suspended drivers licenses.
Nearly 1 million Ohio residents have a suspended license; many having multiple suspensions at a time — the average is 2.8 per driver, according to Lindsey Bohrer, public information officer for the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
People just gotta drive. It seems necessary to live. It seems to be a right.
But,
Lt. Anne Ralston, public affairs commander for Ohio Highway Patrol said, "Driving is a privilege and licensed drivers are required to go through testing, a renewal process, and have insurance."
How do people get their licenses suspended? It's not just bad driving. In fact, there are 46 ways you can get a suspension - not all of them involve driving. One really dumb way is to not pay child support. Dunno how that helps matters. 116,000 suspensions in Ohio come from drug possession with or without car in the picture.
The federal government requires states to suspend your license if you’re convicted of a drug offense, but a state’s governor and legislature can opt out by certifying that they oppose such a law, something Ohio leaders have not done.
Hard to believe our current legislature & administration wouldn't opt out of this - they are so eager to sever ties with D.C. & give us smaller less intrusive government & all.
It just shows how much of an addiction it is. Like a dope dealer teasing an addict by withholding his fix, the government teases people by withholding their driving privileges.
Are you an addict?
Do you avoid going places where you cannot smoke?
Do you avoid going places where you cannot drink?
Do you avoid going places where you cannot park your car?

Sunday, September 04, 2011

The Third Dimension

Back in 1972, Ed Catmull was at the University of Utah with other notable slackers, Fred Parke, James H. Clark, John Warnock and Alan Kay, when he cooked up this. I think I am going to draw polygons all over myself this Halloween. Anyway, these nerds seem to have done OK.
For more on the history of this clip NerdPlusArt.

Saturday, September 03, 2011

One More Thing About Chabot & Cameras…

Not to flog a dead horse, but it's kinda interesting that Steve Chabot is so concerned about preserving people's privacy when he supported renewing the fairly unconstitutional surveillance initiatives in the Patriot Act.
Or should I say the "Small Business Additional Temporary Extension Act"?

Story here.
Mumbo Jumbo Rhubarb Rhubarb

The Oppourtunist Candidate

Friday, September 02, 2011

The Model Police Force
As the specter of diminishing revenue spreads it's shadow over Cincinnati's safety departments we need to look at matters objectively and see how we got here in the first place.

In this chart you can see how police staffing has changed over the years in comparison to the city's population (measured in hundreds). While the population crested around 1950, the police force has only continued to grow with a few hiccups along the way. (Officers were laid off in 1977 due to a tax levy failure only to be hired back in 1979.) Through most of the city's history police levels were around 1 per 600 residents. That trend changed about the time the population began to decline giving us a ratio of more than 1 officer per 300 residents. Many people want even more police (but haven't proposed new taxes to pay for them).
So what's happened since the middle of the 20th century?

Actual calls for service have actually been in decline.
One change has been the rise of the automobile. Around 1940-50, car ownership per household moved over the 50% mark. Besides creating a whole new class of criminal, the auto has created a whole new set of safety issues previously unknown to man. The modern automobile with it's luxurious confines also puts passengers in a steel and glass bubble that isolates them from the communities they are in (when they are not on isolated special roadways). Add to that, the sensationalistic, distorted, fear mongering pumped through car radios to their isolated audiences and you can see some serious attitudinal adjusting.

Television came onto the scene around that time, too. People could get entertainment at home that they had previously had to go to public places to enjoy. Couple this new bit of isolation with TV news that has increasingly been geared towards entertainment & sensationalism and perception of reality just gets more distorted and fantastic.
Then, of course, there's the decline in population itself. One looks around and doesn't see the familiar faces. The familiar businesses close down. Landmarks are demolished. Cincinnati has also seen it's neighborhoods split and blighted by highways further alienating remaining residents from their environment.
There's also the "bulge" of baby boomers who re aging & dying. Where once a powerful bloc in society, their influence is beginning to wane. An aging white population is slowly being replaced with a younger black population exacerbating the "generation gap" with a "culture gap" as well.
Could it be that the "need" for so many police is really just a reaction to fear borne of isolation, insecurity, alienation and a world view distorted by a sensationalistic fear mongering media?

A lot of the info here was found at The Greater Cincinnati Police Historical Society Museum site.