The Metrics of '11

Looking over the blog stats…..
Repeat visitors (masochists) are up 60% from 10, 300% since 09.
Total visitors (bored office workers & students) are up 23% from 10 & 320% from 09.
In a blog primarily about Cincinnati & SW Ohio, the main cities to hit here are:

• Cincinnati
• Richmond
• Houston
• Mumbai
• São Paulo
• Jakarta

Dayton comes in at #40 behind Waipahu & right ahead of Wroclaw.
Top search terms:

• Krampus
• Grace Slick
• 7 of 9
• bridge design
• Ashley Bulgari

Most of the hits from the middle east are looking for porn.
An image search for "women castrating" somehow leads to a post about a mannequin named Barbe Que that stands in front of a barbecue joint. freaks….
Still one of the top pages: Top 10 Robo-Cyborg Chicks. Guess I should do more lists. I could be the next Forbes!
The vast majority of people get here by clicking "next blog".
IOS, at 0.8%, is right behind Linux, at 1% of hits.
Top browser is now Chrome, followed by Firefox, IE then Safari. Opera coming in with 1.6%.
Didn't sell any Ault Park crap although my Cincinnati Iconography page is the top exit link from here.
Basically, the more crap you throw, the more crap sticks. Still, I think I'll raise advertising rates. Nobody should mind.

Keeping Up With the Quimbys

Guitar by Howard Roberts
Shirley Quimby was a model featured in (poorly printed) men's magazines and the occasional album cover in the late 50s & early 60s - the pre-Twiggy days.

The Auburnaires - 12/30 MOTR

Iconic Cincinnati band, the Auburnaires will reassemble Friday, Dec. 30 at MOTR, 1345 Main St in triangular OTR with Los Honchos.

In Heaven, Underground

I really want to see this movie. I really want to visit this cemetery. Weißensee Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery, was established in Berlin in 1880. After the Nazi pogrom of Jews came the commie occupation of Berlin. While interments continued the Jewish population dwindled & the commies did not care for the place. After 1990 efforts were made to clean the place up. After 50-60 years of neglect it had become a veritable forest.

Weißensee Cemetery

Save the Chapel

Looking for a charity to unload some filthy lucre onto before year's end? Look no further, the mother of all causes is soliciting donations now.
Save the Evans City, PA Chapel is the work of Night of the Living Dead fans & production staff member Gary R. Streiner to save the little chapel you can see in the opening segment of the seminal zombie epic.
Wouldn't this be a cool place to get married or hold a Brit milah?

Post Gazette story here

Evans City

Images of the cemetery then & now

Rating Cincinnati
Lonely Planet ranked Cincinnati #3 in their Top 10 Amerucan Vacation Destinations.
Mercer recently ranked Baghdad 221 out of 221 in their Quality of Living Report, safety being a huge factor. Recently a string of bombings in schools & shopping areas in Baghdad killed about 75 people & injured over 100.
Which reminds me of failed mayoral candidate Brad Wenstrup, who was actually stationed in Iraq, saying that he felt safer in Iraq than in Cincinnati.
Are people simply interested in visiting Cincinnati for the challenge?

Hell Town
Local noose media guys screwing up Cincinnati neighborhoods is pretty common, so I wasn't too surprised when an article about renovated homes titled From Helltown to City Home wasn't about Hell Town at all but Over the Rhine.
Granted, they are doing some nice stuff in OTR, but as we all know, Hell Town aka Ludlow Station aka Cumminsville is Northside. Read the history here if you don't believe me.
Of course there's some nice stuff going on in Northside homes, too, which is why they have a tour of homes every other year with the next one scheduled for October 2012. Maybe the Fishwrap can run the article they shelved in 2010 (not that the author works there anymore).

Adding to the Community Conversation
From the Cincinnati Enquirer's Letters to the Editor preface:

The Enquirer receives dozens of letters to the editor each week and because of space limitations, only a fraction of them can appear in print. Here online, we are able to post all of the letters we receive that add to the community conversation.

I sent a letter in online to counter a fairly paranoid letter from a guy out in exotic Butler County concerning government corruption and the Cincinnati Streetcar.
Ed claimed a Federal grant from a government with no money should send up some red flags & that investigative media types should be looking into just who owns the properties along the streetcar route. He asks:

"Could there be holding companies that have purchased a lot of property, who are the owners of the holding companies and just by chance what political groups received election funds along the way?

Not sure how paranoid conspiracy mongering "adds to the community conversation" but my answer apparently didn't. Since Zuckerberg doesn't think I'm a human being, I could not reply directly.
Anyway, you, dear intrepid reader, must remember my post from awhile ago discussing ownership along the route.

Directly on the route there are about 500 properties owned by about 400 entities. Expanding out a block and adding cross streets you can probably add close to 1,000 more properties. Expand further & get even more.

This was the point I made in my letter and added that rehabbing these properties would mean jobs for the lagging housing industry. But, apparently my letter did not "adds to the community conversation".
Vaguely interestingly, a week later the Enquiring folks run an article on The Streetcar's Number 1 Supporter, John Schneider - who owns property along the route. Are they trying to fan the flames of conspiracy & self serving greed?
heaven forbid.

A Christmas Story

Illustrators. They're everywhere. You can't throw a stick without hitting one. It's like a zombie invasion.
The Springfield Center for the Arts at Wittenberg University (SCFTAAWU) is showcasing works of Vernon Grant who, besides inventing the snap, crackle, pop guys, did 26 Collier's covers.
Meanwhile, The Dayton Art Institute is showing works of Norm Rockwell who did a gazillion covers for Saturday Evening Post.

More from the Noose Son here.

Deep Yule Toughts

People have celebrated the winter solstice with fire & light for thousands of years. Over that time, light, other than daylight has been at or below eye level and has been a warm yellowy orange. In less than the past 100 years, however, light has shifted to the ceiling & taken on a cold, yellowy blue/green hue. Has this change in direction, intensity & temperature changed our perception of one another? Has it changed our overall moods?

Pupi Campo
Pupi Campo of Cuba, died in Las Vegas last week. He was a bandleader who appeared on TV & in films and performed in Vegas for years. He is credited with being one of the first Latinos to appear on U.S. TV.
So what's this got to do with SW Ohio?
Campo had been married to Betty Clooney, sister of Rosemary Clooney with whom she started her singing career & subsequently the aunt of George Clooney who you may remember from the Rosanne show.

Disappearing Food

Nothing calamitous, just annoying to depressing. One of my Christmastime indulgnces is Nabisco Whatsworth crackers & a tube (midget longhorn ?) of Colby cheese. It's been getting harder to find the crackers & this year… well, it ain't gonna happen. WalMart can't locate them within 100 miles. Amazon has me on a alert list. Kroger, Meijer, Remke - no go.
I recently had to resort to Amazon for Knorr/Lipton instant Red Beans & Rice. hey, I'm a single guy…..
Campbell's soups has discontinued chili beef, pepper pot & now it looks like bean with bacon is on the way out. I read somewhere Campbell's was focussing on novelty kids' soups & discontinuing the soups with "high end ingredients". Tripe & beans?
Hellshire Farms has a hot smoked sausage that goes great in Cajun type dishes. The 4th of July is Jambalaya Day in Quimbob house. Problem is, almost nobody carries that variety of Hillshire's line. I have to go across town, stock up & freeze the stuff so I can have it for summer. Years ago, you could buy the crap all over town.
Then there's the disappearance of canned corned beef.
Don't even get me started on Arriba salsa & Stouffer's Welsh rarebit....
sigh, I fear Porkopolis is becoming a convenience food desert.

FWIW, you can buy Pepper Pot t-shirts on ebay.

Cincinnati Park Board Goes Insane

not in Cincinnati...
It is now illegal to sunbathe in Cincinnati parks.
You can't make this stuff up.

Fishwrap story here

UPDATE:The park has explained to Fishwrap editors that the latest rule only applies to lying on benches as such action hogs the whole bench. Will sitting in the middle of a bench and sprawling across it be a violation? Will fat people be required to sit at one end and only have 1 butt cheek on the bench?
The park bored ensures us this rule, made in friggin' December, has nothing to do with the Occupiers.

We Make Movies So We Are Better

Captain America
Hollywood knows better than those douche bag comic book geeks. Heck, just look at how they dress & the cars they drive. Compare Cannes to ComiCon. Where would you rather be seen?
Captain America is just another crappy movie purloining the name & look of a tried and true but not good enough for Hollywood comic book. Of course there was plenty of room for endless Hollywood cliches…..
Tony Stark's dad was an ok addition, but after that - phooey.

Whoever said Northside aka, "Land Between the Cemeteries", wasn't creepy?

Support Your Local Animal Welfare Organization

The HSUS has NO affiliation with your local humane society. To support local, donate local. In Cincinnati, see the SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) but don't get it confused with the SCPA (School for Creative and Performing Arts).
ugh, it's so complicated…..

A Study in Contrasts

The West Chester Police Department is continuing to investigate the punk rock concert that resulted in a brawl at a local dance studio Dec. 1.
Police anticipate charges being filed from the fight that resulted in several minor injuries.

story

No charges in Crosstown Shootout brawl
Deters says teams will deal with situation better than criminal justice system.

story
gotta love it

Springfield Arcade History

Springfield Arcade Hotel Lobby
UrbanUp, a sister site to Abandoned, offers up a history of the Springfield Arcade complete with a bunch of shots of the hotel interior from, I am guessing, about the time the place was demolished in 1988. The article mainly focusses on it's last decade as various attempts were made to both rescue it & destroy it and the egos & visions of various powers came into play. Ultimately, like much of Springfield's downtown before it, it fell to the wrecking ball.
Read the article here
More pictures can be found at the Springfield History site