Friday, July 31, 2009


Clark County Fair Winners

Today is the last day of the 2009 Clark County Fair. The local Springfield News-Sun has run multiple articles about the annual event every day of the fair and a few leading up to the fair. They have a special section on their website that has links to all the articles and photo galleries. They have posted the winners of the various competitions from growing squash to raising pigs, baking cookies, arts and crafts, racing, tractor competitions, demolition derbies.....
They have interviewed the people who have won prizes, people involved with putting on the fair and just people attending the fair.
They ran this story about elderly people celebrating their long lived marriages.
Will we see any kind of reporting of the Hamilton County Fair from the Enquirer or any of the other media outlets that approaches this level of coverage ? I understand the material constraints of the print world and the time constraints of the broadcast world, but their online editions could handle such coverage easily. The News Sun promotes the accomplishments of these average folks and especially the kids at the fair. The paper introduces them to the greater community. Seems like every time the local Cincinnati media introduces a teenager to the community, the kid has shot somebody or fractured their skull with a rock or baseball bat. The most coverage of the HamCo Fair I ever saw was when some dumbass started firing a gun near the entrance of the fairgrounds.
the Hamilton County Fair is 8/11-15. Will Cincinnati's award winning media rise to the occasion of reporting and promoting it's community as well as the Springfield News-Sun ? Or will we need some blood ?
Congratulations to all the Clark County Fair winners and to everybody who participated. Glad I could know about you.

Noose Son story here

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Springfield's Historic Design Guidelines to get Update

The Springfield Historic Landmarks Commission is going to re-evaluate and update their guidelines for historic design issues for the first time in 24 years.
This is being done due to the historic and environmental review prompted by the hospital project (the one that eliminated an entire neighborhood and part of another).
A meeting will be held to get input from the public 7/30.

Noose Son story here

Few years ago (Pete Delkus was the announcer), WCPO did one of those online/phone polls, nothing really scientific, they asked if people would be interested in living in the downtown area. The result was something like 5%. Above is a map that guestimates the WCPO viewing area. With cable it is probably larger but less tidy. The blue dot represents 5% of that area. The red dot represents about how big the downtown area is. I realize resident aren't laid out in an orderly grid but, hopefully, you get the idea.
People have argued that repopulating OTR and populating The Banks will be impossible because there are not enough people in the region to support the area. My bistro graphics prove that wrong. Toss in new residents (people are leaving Piqua and Springfield all the time) and filling the area up should be easy.
People argue that a car free lifestyle is impossible. Cincy Streetcar recently pointed out that almost half the residents currently along the route live car free. In the >3 mile long, 2 block wide path the streetcar will traverse, there is room for every type of service and shop a resident could need and with those businesses come jobs and oppourtunity for entrepreneurship. With a simple, convenient and efficient way to get around, the area would be very desirable.
Repopulating and revitalizing the city's basin is doable and necessary. The current blight in OTR damages the entire region. The empty streets make it a haven for vice crime. A streetcar is a vital factor in repopulating and revitalizing the area and changing from a drain on city resources to a contributing area of the city.

Monday, July 27, 2009


Summer Jam featuring The Allman Brothers Band, The Band & The Grateful Dead, Watkins Glen Speedway 1973

In the early 70s hitchhiking was a fairly normal thing. people didn't think too much about taking or giving rides to strangers. It was not at all like the culture of fear we live in nowadays. My pal & I planned to hitch up to this concert in the beautiful Finger Lake region of New York. My dad put the kibosh on that, tho, & bought me a bus ticket. My pal hitched. We made plans to meet at the Watkins Glen bus station. ~right~ The Watkins Glen bus station was a bench in a pretty little mountain town about 4 blocks long.
I shouldn't complain. My bus ride afforded me the chance to visit the Cleveland Bus Terminal for, like 6 hours overnight ! My dad's plan of keeping me safe was kinda tossed out the window when my keen teenage sense of self preservation kicked in and I took any pill any hippie boarding the bus gave me saying, "Hey man, you going to the concert ? Here try one of these !" My lunch in Buffalo is best not recounted.....
Amazingly, my friend popped out of a car within minutes of my arrival in Watkins Glen. We bought a 12 pack of Gennesee beer from a cop, hopped on a pick up truck full of hippies and went up to the race track.
There were about 150,000 tickets sold and it looked like everybody had made it.

We had an old canvas pup tent with no floor or screens. The posts were made out of wood. Since I was taking the bus I got the honors for transporting the heavy ass thing. Anyway, it was easy setting up, lotsa nice park like settings to choose from. We commenced to walking around and checking out the scene.
photo by Grant Gouldon
Lotta Freaks
photo by Grant Gouldon

We found a group of guys in a van who were selling pot out of trash bags. We looked at them and turned and looked at the troopers standing about 15 feet away, bought a bag of "medium grade" and went back to the tent to commence smoking it.
The next day we walked up to the concert site even though the concert wasn't til noon the next day. We were nerds. We liked looking at amps and PAs & junk. Anyway, as the story goes, Robbie Robertson asked to do a sound check. Sometime in the afternoon The Band did a soundcheck - it turned into a mini concert. The Allman Brothers Band followed with their soundcheck that was a bit longer with lots of extended jamming. Later, The Grateful Dead did a "soundcheck". Their soundcheck actually had an intermission. That soundcheck can be found here and a few other places.
The next day we got to the concert site in the late morning. Hot - no shade. Guy next to me took off his clothes and passed out. He was a pasty shade of white at the time. That didn't last. The Grateful Dead started out the show and played most of the afternoon. The Band took the stage next. Probably around 6 it clouded up which was nice, but then the clouds let loose and it rained like hell.
photo by Grant Gouldon
Wet Hippies

Organist Garth Hudson was the only holdout while the rest of the band made for cover. This is captured on the track, Too Wet to Work on the Band's Live at Watkins Glen album. When The Band resumed it was with a long organ intro to Chest Fever. The Allman Brothers took the stage later. They were promoting their first album since the death of guitarist Duane Allman, Brothers and Sisters, which was released, apparently, shortly after the concert. I swear I knew, at least, Ramblin' Man before I went up, tho. They delivered a solid show, their biggest since Duane's death and they came through in flying colors. After The Allman Brothers, various members of the bands came out on stage and jammed, switched off with others and jammed some more. We fell asleep that night to the sound of members of all the bands jamming. The last thing I heard was "The Mountain Jam" as I drifted off into slumberland.
The next day we dropped some windowpane we had brought with us. We walked up to the stage where we saw naked hippies sitting in the mud frantically drumming on plastic milk crates. I could have lived without that. Garbage everywhere. We found a broken jar of peanut butter (peanut butter jars used to be made out of glass). We did not eat any because we didn't know if there might be glass shards in it. We spotted some playing cards and started picking them up. We figured we could play cards later in the day if we could scrounge a whole deck. We wound up with about 250 cards but not a whole deck. We found a bank of temporary phones. My friend called his girlfriend. That's when we found out there were a few more than the expected 150,000 people at the concert.

About that time, a truckload of hippies drove by tossing out boxes of Little Debbie cakes. We could move pretty fast back then & grabbed a couple each. We attacked them mercilessly. Remember the aforementioned lunch in Buffalo ? This was the first I had eaten since then.
We decided to walk around the race track. It was a beautiful day. The sky was clearing from the rain the night before. Big beautiful puffy and hallucinatory clouds everywhere. Yet another truckload of hippies came careening up the track and stopped to offer us a ride. ok. As we flew along the race track we swerved a few times to dodge other hippies doing the same thing in the opposite direction. We got off the truck at the next stop. Apparently there were some collisions.
That night, after playing crazy eights with our 250 card not-a-deck, we went over to talk to some of our neighbors. We met these city boys from somewhere in New York. They were trying to build a fire. They would light some dried brush and as it flared up, they would drop this big ass log they found onto it and -surprise - it never lit. We built them a fire. They thought we were some kind of Ohio mountain men. We gave them the last of our 12 pack.
The next day we went back to the town in, yep, a truck full of hippies. My friend and I went our separate ways to the same place. This time he beat me by about 8 hours. I remember sitting at the back of the greyhound bus when an attractive well dressed young Canadian woman sat down next to me. I had not bathed or eaten real food in days. I had been living outside in the rain and the sun and the mud and the woods. She took it in stride. She knew where I had been. I was still embarrassed.
When I got home I don't know what I did first second or third but showering, eating and sleeping in clean sheets were all I cared about and I know I did all 3.

None of the images in this post are mine. Hell, I had no money for a camera back then, besides, I figured this was life forever at the time....
:-)
A great gallery by Grant Gouldon is here.

The soundcheck recording of the Grateful Dead can be found here.

More links:
Summer Jam 1973
Mitchell & Bonnie A pair of teens who disappeared somewhere along the line.
Hunter-Gatherer A view of the aftermath from the back seat of a station wagon with the fam.
Shakedown Stream
We Got a Queen !

Kati Stevens declared 2009 Clark County Fair Queen !

Noose Son story here/

Sunday, July 26, 2009

The Influence of Anger

Reading the hate filled and angry bile in the Enquirer's comments sections has really baffled me. I watched Moyers Journal the other night and all was made clear. I don't listen to talk radio. Can't stand it. Air America was horrible. The local college show, Explore Cincinnati is ok - at least they don't yell and harrangue. I am too cheap to pay for Fox News and CNN on cable (I get "Lifeline" service from Time Warner) so I was unaware of what people like Glenn Beck, Mike Savage, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Oreilly and that ilk were up to. It appears people are just picking up on these goons and aping their style of talking. It's kinda like teenage "wiggers" emulating the speech of popular rappers. Childish, to be sure, but when you look at the antics of the local right wingers on the COA T & HamCoGOP blogs, the old Whistleblower and the quotes from Tea Baggers, you can see you are not dealing with a very mature lot. When you see these people gaining political clout it can make you feel like you are living in a Lord of the Flies sorta world.
What Moyers points out is that people are acting on what the announcers defend as "entertainment". This is like my reader actually building a zombie shelter. I can't imagine that happening but hopefully, if he does, it will prove useful for him when his mother in law comes to stay.

PBS Moyers story, "Rage on the Airwaves", here

Saturday, July 25, 2009

The Clark County Fair is Now Open

Springfield Noose Son Pic

The Clark County Fair is running through July 31 on South Charleston Pike just off I-70 in sunny Springfield, Ohio.
Goats, cows, pigs, horsies, tractors, queens, demolition derbies, cotton candy, waffles, ice cream, foot long hot dogs, rides, music - mmmmm.....

Friday, July 24, 2009

Browsers Are Free

Micro$oft has paid $2,390,000,000.00 in fines to European Union antitrust regulators so they could bundle their Windows-only Internet Exploder browser with their OS and not have any other browsers loaded on the computer. Browsers are free. You can load a million of 'em. You set one as a default & go. There are different add ons and plug ins for the various browsers - the browser that works best for you and has the features you need and renders pages to the best of your liking is the one you should use.
Fact is - they all render about the same except for Internet Exploder. Firefox has some great plug ins. It renders quickly and accurately but it is slow as hell to launch. Safari launches quickly, renders quickly and accurately but is lacking in quality add ons. Opera is a solid, quick browser and Chrome seems ok, although the interface of Chrome is bit radical. Would M$ spend >2B so people don't see what a piece of shit one of their software products is even though anyone with a third of a brain could already load another browser & test it for himself and see ?
IE defaults to the Bing search engine which gets M$ some ad revenue. $2B worth ? I am assuming IE lets you pick a default search engine other than Bing.
How much are Apple, Google, Mozilla & Opera going to charge M$ to distribute their browsers ? $2B ?
How much money is behind a bit of free software ?
To me, it's just a matter of A. displaying pages properly and then B. rendering quickly. The Web Standards Project has created the Acid Tests that see how well browsers handles html, css, javascript, SVG and other standard web junk. IE generally comes in last and Apple's Safari beta kinda thing browser, Webkit, tends to rate highest. What do people use ? They ain't using Safari.
What I'm seeing on this dumbass site -
Browsers:
  • Chrome 3.2%
  • IE 38.2%
  • Mozilla/Firefox 39%
  • Safari 13.2%

Operating Systems:
  • Linux 2%
  • MacOSX 21.2%
  • WinVista 10.8%
  • WinXP 55%

Worldwide, IE commands closer to 60% of the market share. Except - it's free. So is it really a market share ? I guess it is since M$ is fighting so hard to keep out competition (which, of course, stifles innovation).
Most people are lazy and just use what's on the computer when they buy it. I use Macs but the first version of Safari was crap so it took a few revisions before I started using it full time. It doesn't work well on some sites. Angie's List log in form won't work with Safari and the HamCo Auditor's site crashes it. Because of IEs broad use, web developers have to write pages wrong just so they work with IE. The average shmoe doesn't understand this and just assumes the page is wrong if it doesn't work with the browser he is using. Frankly, I would love to know how to make a form not work with particular browsers. Seems like the useless kind of knowledge I crave.
In the end, I don't understand either the EU or Micro$oft on this and I cannot believe the amount of money M$ is paying to promote the least competitive product in it's field. How about M$ dumping IE and just distribute Firefox with a search that defaults to Bing and give the U.S. gummint $2B to fix some bridges and sewers ? Everybody is better served, people get a better browser, M$ doesn't have to pour more money into that black hole of software development, IE, American money stays in America.....
I don't get it.

Yahoo/Reuters story here

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Ohio HB 252 Requires Father's Consent for Abortion

Ohio Congressman John Adams has drafted legislation that would require a woman to get the permission of the man who impregnated her to abort the pregnancy. The bill is co-sponsored by 15 other men including the usual cadre of SW Ohio Republican idiots. While it gives the potential father veto rights, it does not impose any responsibility on these "men". I guess "conservatives" don't feel that rights carry responsibilities.
I have long thought the father should have such a right, but never without demanding that he pay the bills, provide health care, mental and physical, during and after the pregnancy, require he take the child after birth unconditionally and demand he pay for any lost wages the woman might incur. Since the paternity will have to be determined before the abortion can be done, demanding the father pay his share of that would be appropriate, too. Because it would be a state mandate, the government should provide the funds for paternity testing including tracking down recalcitrant fathers.
Pregnancy is a time sensitive issue and there seems to be no provision for a guy who does the impregnating to assume any responsibility if his mischievousness or procrastination in giving permission leads to the woman ultimately giving birth.
Not demanding any responsibility reflects poorly on the men promoting this legislation.
Without all these provisions it's just a bunch of guys saying, bitch, your cunt is mine - make me some babies.
COA T co-founder Tom Brinkman - Ohio's Answer to Harold Hill ?

Brinkman and a couple of his political fringe cohorts have banded together to make the political/legal case against gambling in Ohio in a move parallel with the Talibanish Ohio Roundtable group. One of his pals did work for the failed gubernatorial campaign of (sonofabitch) Ken Blackwell. Another is, theoretically, a member (president ?) of the right wing Buckeye Institute, an organization known for screwing up numbers and statistics as badly as COA T.
Brinkman has been trying to change state law so he can lobby for COA T (maybe shoulda thought about that while still in office instead of procuring grills for Alms Park). When he was in office, he wasted state money on admittedly pointless legislation that would have have forced young women to bear the fruit of incestuous rape. He has failed repeatedly to get the support of constituents in his congressional district who would rather have daggone Jean Schmidt. He was involved in overturning Cincinnati's gay rights protections which involved working with the Talibanish CCV and the illegal collection of ballot signatures.
While maybe not working directly with the religious extremists, we can easily surmise he is in league with them on this issue, too.
COA T's campaigning trademark is hysterical fear mongering laced with paronomasia & outright lies - similar to what we see Robert Preston doing in this scene from the cinematic version of the Music Man. What snake oil can we expect from their co-founder on the gambling issue ? Or will he and his "communications experts" just funnel that to the Ohio Roundtable group ?
-sigh-
Harold Hill was, in the end, redeemed. His heart having found true love with the local librarian and satisfying the citizens of the River City by actually conducting the promised youth band. Unfortunately, I doubt we can expect any turnaround from this particular rogue.

Cowtown Politics article here.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Where Are All the Queens ?

ok - Where are all the Hamilton County Fair Queen contestants ? For that matter, where's last year's winner ? They have the prize cabbages & potatoes.....
They have a new company providing rides.
But I want weepy teenage girls in gaudy poofy gowns, dammit !
learn, well, not a whole lot more here.
The HamCoAgSoc forum appears to be down. Considering all the negativity from the admins, I am not surprised.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Race Baiting Liberals Can't Handle the Truth

Maddow can't answer any of Buchanan's questions but argues in circles trying to bait Buchanan. His comments about the U.S. Military are off base as the military was segregated at the time of those battles and the soldiers, to this day, don't get to pick their battles. But, Maddow ignores history and seems to want the Supreme Court to be populated by lottery. Why she doesn't argue on gender or religious lines and solely on racial lines is mystifying, but, whatever.....
What's amazing is that the Buchanan haters have no problem with Sotomayor's racist and sexist comments about the superiority of Latin women over European American males.
Buchanan frequently has opinions on political strategies and frequently lauds the strategies of people he disagrees with. When he suggests the people opposed to Sotomayor bring up the affirmative action issue - he is discussing political strategy - PERIOD.
Affirmative action is in place to give people a good start. It is not to be used in the Supreme Court. We should not have quotas in that high office. Affirmative action DOES screw white males and gives us subpar results frequently. Buchanan is right on this.
As to Maddow's harping on the 108 out of 110 - you have to eliminate about half of those that came before the 20th century. She is playing with numbers and rhetoric and makes no valid point. Her refusal to answer Buchanan is feeble an intellectually dishonest. It's amazing that honest straightforward answers like Buchanan's are reviled while the backpedalling and squirming reasoning of these liberals is somehow acceptable.
Sotomayor backpedals (in circles).

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Ohio Rocker Dies

Crain at the Apollo

Shig a Shag

A retired Springfield police officer, Jimmy Crain was recently laid to rest. He started his professional career as a musician, however, hopping onto the Rock-nRoll bandwagon in the late 50s. He recorded for Springfield's Spangle Records.
Later he became a Springfield police officer, raised a family & participated in church, community and Masonry.
Cops and musicians actually have a lot in common (HAHA) in that they are both committed to making the public happy and their communities a better place to live. Hats off to Mr Crain for being a committed man (even if he did become a cop on a bet).

Noose Son story here
Will We Demand a Vote ?

The Cincinnati museum Center wants about $7 million/year for the next 5 years to do some repairs. They want to put it on the ballot this November but the Hamilton County subcommittee for the Tax Levy Review Committee said "no" and recommended a levy for half that amount.
I imagine the We Demand a Vote Crüe will be out collecting signatures to get this on the ballot any day now. The fact that the Tax Review Committee has unelected members on board should surely raise the eyebrows of the local NAACP & the Libertarian contingent of COA T and the ability to merely vote on the issue should get the über-democratic Green contingent fired up, too.
yeah, that'll happen.
I have no problem with the Museum Center, but they need to market themselves better and try to raise funds on their own first, before going to the taxpayers. They have a Donations page but it doesn't promote their sponsors too well & it doesn't say anything about needing cash for building repairs & improvements. There is no hype at all. I have no idea what their private solicitations for funds has produced.
You can rent the joint for private stuff. I attended a wedding there that was pretty cool. The guests had free rein of the local museum area. If you want to support the Museum Center, renting their facilities might be a good start. heck W sold a war there.....
It also seems kinda weird to tax Hamilton County property owners for what is, essentially a regional institution. Fund raisers and soliciting sponsors seems like the better approach to me.
But, hey, We Demand a Vote will probably be backing this all the way, so I am sure we will get a vote on this, anyway.
PTTP

NKY.com (?) article here.
Folks in Campbell County (that's in Kentucky) are having a farm tour Saturday, July 18 from 9A to 5P. This is a chance for all the city slickers to get out there and see where their food comes from. You will probably never eat again. That's cool, you can always go zombie & commence to eating people's brains & guts. There will be 16 farms participating and you MUST go to every single one !
Learn more at the Campbell Co Conservation District website.
home.fuse.net/campbellcd/farmtour.html which is done in frames, so if you need to see anything else on the site use this link
The brochure is here (PDF).

Friday, July 17, 2009


The Beat Farmers 1986

A friend of mine in San Diego alerted me to this band. They were big on the bar scene out there. They were, in fact, a perfect bar band. Unfortunately, they only got any national acclaim for a couple novelty songs sung by, as most novelty songs are, the drummer.
I was working third shift, so I was on best, -er- better behaviour that night which was hard because, as a bar band, they inspired massive drinking. I had to leave before they were through and one of the last songs I saw was one of their hits, "Happy Boy" where the drummer/singer came out from behind his kit and laid down on his back, hoisted a beer up with his feet and poured it onto his face (and a good part of the rest of his body) and sang the gargling part of the song.
With that, I dutifully headed off to work.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009


Enter, Cheese

Young's Jersey Dairy on route 68 just north of Yellow Springs has finally added cheese to the mix. Long known for their milk and ice cream, I am kinda puzzled why they weren't making cheese already. They don't seem interested in any crazy designer cheeses, opting, instead, for Cheddar, Jack & Colby. They have also set up a Twitter account so, I guess, we can expect hourly Twitter updates on the aging of the cheeses.

Noose Son story here.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Happy Bastille Day Everybody !

We want the rights and we don't care how

I am currently slogging through Juliette by the Marquis De Sade. I don't think I am gonna make it. Anyway, he was locked up in the Bastille prior to it's downfall and actually helped to incite some of the rioting that resulted in said downfall. He was transferred to an asylum shortly before the 14th. Thing is, he might have actually been highly respected if he had still been in the Bastille at the time. After Robspierre (sp? - Is that like a French version of PierreBob ?) was ousted, De Sade was freed and actually elected to office. Napoleon put the kibosh on that & De Sade spent the rest of his life in prison and asylums where he wrote plays that were performed by the inmates.
De Sade's writings, well, at least this'n are long and boring and the philosophy stuff is pretty much the kind of thing that high school and college kids debate today. Back in the late 1700s, tho, while he was pretty radical - he had a lot in common with what we were doing in the U.S. As an elected official who was a hard core sexual deviant, he had a lot in common with modern American politics, too. What's a revolution without general copulation, tho - yanno ?

Monday, July 13, 2009

Referendumania

In the last couple years we have had a spate of ballot initiatives, all modifying the city charter, that have come from 2 local organizations, COA T & the local chapter of the NAACP. When people complain about the deluge of ballot initiatives, the promoters claim the voters should have the right to decide these issues. Then, of course, they go about a campaign of misinformation & obsfucation to get the vote they want. This is obviously one of the things the opponents dislike. The fact that it's the same people, time after time, however has to lead one to wonder what their objective is. One must ask, "What's next ?".
While COA T claims to be a watchdog on taxation and government spending, most of the initiatives they have supported would result in greater spending. The Environmental Justice legislation the city council just enacted, that will result in greater city spending, cost local businesses more and generally heap more red tape into the mix with no real benefit to the community seems to have slipped right under their noses. And yet, they were opposed to using electronic traffic monitoring devices that would cut the cost of law enforcement.
The president of the local NAACP repeatedly cries that he is preventing the impending genocide of local African Americans. He is, from the looks of things, doing a good job. I certainly haven't noticed any mass graves of late.
It would appear that the major goal of these people is to be obstructionist. Their tactics are not much different than the revolutionary who maintains a steady stream of mischief & vandalism that occupies the local constabulary while the rebel forces gather just outside the town. A 5th column, if you will.
Where the obstructionism really shows up is in the effort to prevent the city from spinning off it's water works and forming a water district. The issue here is that the water works has more capacity than customers. Generally, COA T would refer to such a situation as a boondoggle and a case of government overspending. Again, they are inconsistent in their public reasoning. The state prevents the city from expanding it's service, but a separate water district could serve a greater customer base and expand the revenue stream of the city.
So, why not a state ballot initiative to lift the state's restrictions on the city ? Why the focus on obstructing the city ? COA T does consistently try to thwart the city from generating revenue. Why ?
The local NAACP president urged the city to break up contracts for city projects so smaller, African American owned contractors could bid on the jobs. The proposed street car plan would likely be one big project, but the chances for smaller businesses to refurbish and develop vacant properties along the route would be exactly the type of opportunity Mr Smitherman is asking for.
Cincinnati's African Americans tend to have lower than average incomes. They are more likely to walk or use mass transit. Having kids is expensive and seeing young African American mothers struggle with baby carriages on sidewalks and buses is a fairly common sight in Cincinnati. Why did the local NAACP oppose electronic traffic monitoring devices that would aid in the safety of these young women and their children trying to cross intersections ? Why do they oppose a mode of transportation that would improve these young mothers mobility ?
Over and over these groups are not acting consistently, logically nor in their publicly known constituents best interest.
Looking at the more public members of these organizations one could easily conclude that these people are merely unelectable, bitter and disgruntled wannabes. They seem to have an attitude similar to the street gangs that would prefer to keep their neighborhood in a state of squalor rather than let it be improved by someone who might diminish their authority. Is their goal to turn Cincinnati into a Port-au-Prince ? A Mogadishu ? Is their goal to destabilise the city so they can somehow take over ? Wasn't this Charles Manson's plan ?
While Smitherman's rants and COA T's garbled numbers can be comical, David Koresh or Jim Jones could have easily been laughed at one point in time, too.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Motorists Drive Around Dying Man

the Fishwrap reports that a guy was shot several times on the sidewalk along Reading Road in Avondale at rush hour. He fell into the street and the motorists just drove around him. That is, people didn't stop and try to protect him or help him. Presumably somebody called the police. They probably had to put their current conversation on hold to do so.
This is pretty much what we can expect in our car-centric society. Everybody just kinda glides along in their steel and glass bubbles, their controlled environments complete with 100 watt, 14 speaker stereo system and heated leather seats. Toss in a heaping helping of telephones, internet, streaming video, talk radio.....
The stuff going on outside just starts looking like a game projected onto the windshield of the car.
Over time, driving really starts to insulate you from the communities you live and work in. A lot of people on Reading at rush hour are probably just passing through anyway and don't care about the people living and dying there. They just drive by. Did they pause to at least Twitter, "HAH ! Dead as punk out in the street on Reading !".
I seriously wonder if the crime was reported to the police or if people just reported an obstruction in their commute.
Commenters on the Fishwrap website applaud the death as the guy had a police record. But how would they know he had a record if they were just driving by hoping to not get any blood on their car ? Did they take off their tin foil hats for a moment to listen to the voices ?
Dumbasses shoot each other over trivial BS all the time. This isn't really about them. this is an indictment of "the good people". You know, the ones with jobs, the ones who pay taxes, the ones who don't walk.

Fishwrap story here.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Layoffs at WCPO

The Fishwrap reports that local TV station WCPO is eliminating 5 jobs in a corporate consolidation effort. The jobs are in sales and graphics.
Perusing the illuminating Fishwrap comments it seems nobody can read as they all carry on about the talking heads that should be retained or canned. Never mind that those are not the jobs being cut....
Apparently the notion that the consolidation maybe could have been made in Cincinnati is completely lost on these nattering nabobs of negativity. Certainly, the fact that Cincinnati was NOT chosen to be the graphics hub should fill their black hearts with glee and fire up their contention that Cincinnati is Hell on Earth. Speaking of which, there's only 3 days left to pick the post apocalyptic movie that best represents Cincinnati.
Cincinnati has a very strong graphics / creative community and, if we were even in consideration for this consolidation, this might have been a coup for the town.

Fishwrap story (and crazy angry comments) here.

The Who 1980

I drove to this show in Lexington with Tom, Mark, Dan & Lynn. Mark and I rode bicycles back along Route 68. Tom drove my car back & dealt quite admirably with my muffler falling off.
We spent the night with one of Mark & Lynn's old neighbors and her husband who was working on his degree in geology. He was a rather serious young man but the night of the show he got a ticket and cut loose. Really loose. Like bachelor party loose. Before Mark & I left, he gave us a rundown on what we would be riding over - a crash course on the geology of the NKY & SWO Ohio River Valley. It was pretty fascinating. We promptly rode 100 miles in 100° heat smack dab into the middle of a dry county. Things improved when we got into Ohio. ah, breakfast beers in Xenia listening to King of the Road in some crappy little bar on the south end....
The concert was good. Kenny Jones was a good fit & I thought a lot more into doing his own thing at that point. I guess Daltrey disagreed. I had seen the Who several times and I really didn't care to see them - I liked their music & their jamming - I wanted to hear them. Everyone on the floor was standing on their seats staring at the band like zombies. I had gotten into the "punk way" and chose to dance like a madman. Didn't work standing on a folding chair. So I dismounted the chair and stood on the relatively empty floor. Now, for years security got unhinged with people standing on their chairs but they had fairly given up trying to stop people. What was weird at this show was the security guy who came up to me and grabbed me by my shoulders and shouted, "What's wrong with you ? Stand still on your chair like everybody else !".
Kentucky.....

The Rolling Stones 1972

This was the only outdoor Rolling Stones concert I went to where it didn't rain. They were touring Exile on Main Street. The Stones played Akron one day and Indianapolis the next. My friend's dad had business in Cleveland so he was able to give us a ride up the day before the Akron show and bring us back the day after. We planned on camping at the Mogadore reservoir. Problem was I had summer school & couldn't go up the day before. I finally found some guys who were going & I made plans to go with them and meet the other guys there.
haha
Imagine my surprise when I found the other guys were going to the Indy show. My parents were the greatest parents in the world that day. They dropped their plans of sitting around reading magazines, watching TV & drinking Martinis & drove my scrawny butt up to Akron.
My friends & I had made plans to meet at the edge of the stage after the show. We met up ok. They had been standing in the middle of the Akron Rubber Bowl all day with neither water nor shade & were semi incoherent. Whenever we got together incoherency was pretty much normal so I didn't think anything of it til I watched one of my buds drink about half of Lake Erie from a water faucet.
Then we had to get to a state park around midnight with no car. It took about 3 rides hitch hiking and one left us out in the middle of nowhere for about an hour. yay. We finally got to the campsite & attacked the poundcake Mrs Hall had made for us.
That was a really kick ass tour for the Stones. It is documented on numerous bootlegs & the movie, Cocksucker Blues. Mick Taylor was playing lead back then, Nicky Hopkins on piano.....
The band finished up with Jumpin' Jack Flash & Street Fighting Man. The entire field of fans went nuts. There was really nothing else they could do.

Thursday, July 09, 2009


The Who 1982 in Louisville

I hadn't been in Cincinnati a year yet when this show happened. It was one of the first times I realized how weird the locals are. They all had this attitude of, "I will see the band if they come here to play. If they won't play here, fuck 'em". Coming from a smaller town that nobody came to, it was a pretty weird attitude to me.
Anyway, I got my girlfriend to borrow her dad's car. The janitor at her church had never been to a "rock show", so the 3 of us piled into the big brown LTD station wagon & headed south to Louisville.
The Who rocked - good show as usual.
Girlfriend drove back & I crashed in the back as I had been up since about 5 AM. They woke me up to change tires when she had a blowout. I changed it in a dreamlike trance - very strange.

Todd Rundgren & Utopia 1976

I vaguely remember this show. Or have just seen Rundgren so many times it all runs together.
Pop songs, synthesizers, screaming guitars. check.

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

United Breaks Guitars

I guess there's a story here. Of course if Mr Carroll played an SG, I am sure the baggage handlers would have been downright reverential.
Or maybe not...

Pizza Strips

Pizza is good. generally speaking.....
These things are, apparently a Rhode Island exclusive, kinda like Cincinnati chili & Goetta around here. The glaring difference is that Goetta & 5-ways are edible. OK, not everybody agrees on that. The picture above looks reasonable enough. Lemme tell ya, looks can be deceiving.
First of all, you buy these things at gas stations. They are not in the cooler waiting to be microwaved. they are up at the cashier station in cellophane wrappers in canisters next to the Slim Jims and fobs & stuff. You don't cook 'em, you just open up the wrapper & chow down. There is no cheese on these things, no discernible spices. In fact the red stuff on top that looks (from a distance) like tomato sauce might very well be paint. Think 5 year old latex house paint.
I love bread, but no saving graces there. It is thick, tough tasteless cardboard substitute.
Now I like some nasty shit. Those pink snowball (?) Hostess things, LaChoy Chow Mein, Jeno's pizza rolls.....
I have no idea how a taste for Pizza Strips are even acquired. It is the worst regional comfort food I have ever found in the U.S. They are so bad, Family Guy doesn't even make fun of 'em. Or maybe that's what the writers snack on, who knows ?
If you have the taste & the craving, or if you just want to ruin somebody's party (these things are, apparently, a party staple in R.I.) you can buy 'em online, just click on the image above.
Are You an Addict ?

Is addictive behavior affecting your lifestyle ?
Do you avoid going places because you cannot smoke there ?
Do you avoid going places because you cannot drink there ?
Do you avoid going places because you cannot park a car there ?

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Which Hell On Earth is Cincinnati ?

While perusing the comments on the Cincinnati Enquirer's comments section, I was surprised to find that the town is some kind of Hell on Earth. Apparently, I was unaware because I am a dumbass liberal with blinders on. So I was wondering. Which post apocalyptic movie captures the terror & horror of this abominable hell hole.
A Boy and His Dog springs to mind primarily because Newport on the Levee reminds me of the weird underground town where Jason Robards lives while the desperate surface world represents Cincinnati to a T.
Mad Max, Beyond Thunderdome kinda gets the desperate psychotic nature of the town.
Army of Darkness might work, but then AoD is always appropriate.
When talking about Over the Rhine, Escape From New York seems to come up a lot.
People keep saying the city is dead, so maybe Day of the Dead ?
Resident Evil seems to capture the essence of a hellish environment created by liberal intellectuals that needs to be solved by militant neocons.....
I can't decide, so you get to. Take the poll in the top right and choose The Hell on Earth That is Cincinnati.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Maybe She Should Wear a Burkha

BarBe Q at KT's Barbecue

Maybe what the residents of Reading really want BarBe Q to wear is a burkha. The American Taliban strikes again. This stinks of CCV loonies to me.
Folks, IT'S NOT REAL !!.
I imagine these folks would go around castrating statues if they had the chance. Do they freak out when walking through a department store and see people dressing naked mannequins ?
criminyy, it's not a sex doll like in Lars & the Real Girl. Maybe if BarBe was a missionary.......

Fishwrap Story here.

Ventura !

Saturday, July 04, 2009


Eric Clapton 1974

Ticket says 3 PM but there were 2 shows at Ohio State's St John's Arena that day. We got tickets to the late show & went early to stand around the doors and listen to the early show. That worked ok for short periods of time but eventually some dumbass would come up and try rushing or even forcing his way in and the guys working the doors would wind up closing the doors which was really nothing they wanted to do since it was the 4th of July in Ohio and that meant it was hotternhell & muggy as all get out.
I don't remember a lot about the show. It was a long hot day. I bought a Eric Clapton t-shirt that had Clapton's head & Robin Trower's hands & Strat on it. whatever

Friday, July 03, 2009


The Bears 1987

The Bears were a local band made up of The Raisins & Adrian Belew, who, I guess, was from the NKY area. He had a name with the art rock snobs from playing with the likes of King Crimson & Laurie Anderson. The Raisins were basically a kinda crazy pop band with a lead guitarist, Rob Fetters, whose lead was hardly pop. It was bound to be an interesting show. It was actually really good. I believe it was their debut show. There was a lot of excitement and energy. The two guitarists were going at it and it was really quite dynamic.
Well, I'm weird, I guess. A lot of the Raisin fans hated it because it wasn't the Raisins. The Belew fans about died. They were walking out because it was POP music. Belew had sold out. Piss on 'em. Belew had said in interviews this wasn't the last thing he was ever going to do.
I liked it.

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Northside Independence Day -er- Weekend Festivities

ok, here's the line up:
    Friday
Katie Laur 6PM
The Turkeys 7PM
The Seedy Seeds 8PM
Aerial Arts Performance 8:40PM
The Chauncers 8:55PM
Pickled Brothers Sideshow 9:50PM
Incendium Arts Fire Troupe 10:20PM
Culture Queer 10:40PM
Wussy 11:35PM
Man Halen 12:30AM
PLUS
Fire Arts by Incendium
Aerial Dance Performance
MC Brian Dilsizian
    Saturday
THE PARADE 12PM
Dance With Me, LLC 3PM
Greg Morris Group 4:20PM
Aerial Arts Performance 5:20
MIll Poetic 5:40PM
Josh Dorsey Blues Revival 7PM
Seedy Seeds 8:10PM
Vaudeville 8:50PM
Happy Chichester 9:10PM
Dragshow by The 3 Illusionists 10PM
Lab Partners 10:45PM
Dantes Gypsy Circus 11:10PM
Lions Rampant 11:30PM
Fists Of Love 12:30PM
PLUS

Educational art activities for kids hosted by HAPPEN INC.

"Taste of Northside" featuring Northside restaurants

Local Artists

More info here.
Northside Holiday Events by Metro

If you are planning on attending the Northside 3rd & 4th of July festivities via bus, you are in luck. The 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 27, 39 routes all service the neighborhood. The bad news is, you're not gonna be able to close the place down & Saturday's Holiday service will be limited to just the 17, 18, 19, 27 & most of those routes shut down really early.
UPDATE: Metro, in their weirdness will run a holiday schedule on Friday and, on the holiday, run regular Saturday schedules. Check the actual schedules to see what's going on Saturday & what I listed for Saturday is what to expect on Friday.
Sorry for any inconvenience


Schedules are in PDF format:
16 last bus Friday around 10:30, no holiday service Saturday
17 last bus Friday around midnite, around midnite on Saturday
18 last bus Friday around 9, around 7 on Saturday
19 last bus Friday around 10, around 6 on Saturday
20 last bus Friday around 10, no holiday service Saturday
27 last bus Friday around midnite, around 11 on Saturday
39 last bus Friday around 9, no holiday service Saturday

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Looking for Some Fireworks ?

zzzzzzzzzz.......

Incendium Arts will be providing the fireworks again this year at the Northside Rock and Roll Carnival on Friday, July 3rd.
Carnival starts at 6 PM, IA starts at 10:20, the madness resumes on Saturday at noon.

The Rolling Stones Clevo Muni Stadium 1978

As usual, it rained. Dunno how many times I stood in the rain watching this band. Kansas (ack !) and Peter Tosh (yay !) opened. A motorcyclist rode around on a cable.
We piled a bunch of people into Phil's van & drove up to his grandfather's house in a neighborhood that had been extremely Polish in years past. The idea was to have granpa drive us to the stadium so we would not have to fool with parking & traffic. yeah, we'll dump that on the old guy. I had met him before & he was pretty cool. He was a WWI vet and a retired pharmacist. When we walked into his house he screamed at us in German & English & I must have understood him or my survivor instincts kicked in 'cause I closed the door the last guy in had not closed and apologized. One of the other guys commented, "The old guy went crazy and started yelling at us in tongues & shit & Quim started leaping into action. I didn't know what was going to happen !"
The party outside the stadium prior to the doors opening was pretty cool. Dunno if it was a Cleveland thing. Kinda like in 30 Rock where everyone in Cleveland is just super nice, I dunno.
My patch of friends was, of course, cheering & dancing to Peter Tosh and sitting around getting stoned while Kansas played which seemed to be the opposite of how 90% of the rest of the crowd handled the day.
The Stones were touring the album, Some Girls. The title track of that album earned some controversy. It was a parody of a macho guy rambling on about stereotypes of women based on ethnicity. Jesse Jackson was appalled at the description of black girls but seemed to have no problem with the other dozen or so stereotypes. hm