2010 - A Year in Uncool Blogging

Looking at this site's stats, I am frequntly wracked with anguish over the poor souls who land here looking for enlightenment & solid information they can use to better society & the planet in general. That they wind up here with nothing but psychotic ravings really saddens me.
ok, so looking over my stats I see the top search terms to land people here this year have been:

• Grace Slick
• Iggy Pop
• Sun Maid Girl
• Monica Crowley
• Janice Rule
• Captain Lust
• Danzig
• Alyce Andrece
• Brittney Skye
• Minase Yashiro

2 of these people are dead. Brittney Skye, a porn star, portrays a zombie hooker in the post where I use her image but say nothing about her, the Monica Crowley article suggests she is actually a soft core comic book character & the Sun Maid Girl isn't real. Conclusion, most people don't come here to read anything, just to gawk at celebrities, frequently porn stars.
Where did these unfortunate people come from?

• Cincinnati, Ohio
• Springfield, Ohio
• London, United Kingdom
• Batavia, Ohio
• Phoenix, Arizona
• New York, New York
• Portland, Oregon
• Chico, California
  
• San Francisco, California
• Málaga, Spain

For what I would consider a fairly Cincinnati oriented blog only 22% of hits are from Cincinnati. Virtually none of the search terms really have anything to do with Porktown other than musicians who have played here. I'm getting more hits from England than Dayton or Urbana. sheesh
My most popular pages?

• Going to White House Parties
• Gruß von Krampus
• I Like My Women Bloody
• Zombie Outbreak in Fairborn
• The Haunted World of El Superbeasto
• Blogging Isn't Cool Supports Iggy Pop
• Captin Lust
• The Sun Maid Girl Goes 3D
• Pizza Strips

Movies, celebrities, porn, junk food.
How do most people get here?
Google, Yahoo, Next Blog gets a ton of credit, the locations seem to rotate around the world. Sometimes the Next Blog hits are all in India, sometimes in Spain. Google has a strange sense of humor.
Where do people go when they leave?
The Laughing Noodle, my Cincinnati Iconography page (which hasn't generated 1 sale), Entertainment Earth, Sun Maid, a Pizza Strip company & The Springfield News Sun. While I frequently link to Cincinnati Enquirer articles, nobody seems to follow those links. Maybe referencing those guys kills my credibility. hm.....
What's it all mean? ~beats me~ Should I cater to my "audience"? There's way better sources for that material than what I offer.
Should I make more hysterical commentary & wild accusations of politicians? Should I use more cartoony images in an effort to ridicule my social opponents? Not really interested in being another COA T-USA or Cincinnati Asylum.
sigh
Guess I will just dispense more wisdom & intrigue. Thanx to the Blogging Isn't Cool staff. You guys rock!
PS - Favorite search term of the last 4 months - "sexy pictures of Leslie Ghiz".

A Good Start
Kid Monzel, the do nothing Cincinnati city councilman, has sworn in as a Hamilton county commissioner. His first act, in an effort to shrink government, balance the budget & adhere to "Tea Party Values" was to hire a full time florist to help him in his mission.
I am sure the commissioner's chambers will be lovely.
Fishwrap story here.

The Fishwrap Speaks Up
After weeks of contentious bitching from the public sector unions over the city's budget, the Enquirer, which frequently dwells in the real world, finally spoke up.

"One good measure of the extremism taking center stage in this debate was a comment by Diana Frey, president of Cincinnati Organized and Dedicated Employees (CODE), that she’d “rather be a laid-off municipal employee than a private sector worker.”
It appeared to signal that the unions would rather see hundreds of their members jobless than give any ground - or compromise, in the best American tradition - on the power they have accumulated.
And it seemed to epitomize the contempt that some in the privileged and pampered public sector feel toward those who actually make the economy run and supply the tax dollars for their ever-expanding demands."

The Cincinnati Enquirer has felt the sting of shifting technologies & lack of revenue due, in part, to the slagging global economy. They have had a part in contributing to the more than twice the normal rate of unemployment we suffer today.
If people are not working and if they, and the people who are in fear for their jobs are not buying, the government's revenue stream of income & sales taxes is going to dwindle. The municipalities of Ohio are required by state law to have balanced budgets from year to year. Unlike a private company that can take on debt to maintain operations in the red while waiting on better days, the city can not.
Why the city's labor unions cannot grasp these simple economic realities is bizarre. The FOP president was hauled out of City Council's chambers screaming and hollering by a policeman that she apparently represented. Kathy Harrell is certainly not a good spokesperson for the Cincinnati Police and her boorish behavior is not doing their reputation well in the public eye.
Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan pointed out that the only city in Ohio paying more for police than Cincinnati was Columbus and that the citizens of that community had voted to raise taxes to keep their safety personnel intact. Nothing is stopping Cincinnatians from putting a similar measure on the ballot. She also pointed out that municipalities that had laid off safety personnel had usually hired them back as economies had improved. Harrell never got to hear that part as she had been evicted from the meeting for her childish temper tantrum.

Fishwrap story here.

Is Pat Happy ?
After Haiti was hit by an earthquake about a year ago, Pat Robertson told us a "true story", that the reason for all Haiti's ills are due to a "pact with the devil" made by Haitian leaders to throw off the French yoke. In fact their bad luck started when they got enslaved in Africa & hauled off to Haiti.
Anyway, his message has gotten through & since a cholera outbreak, people have blamed the Vodun & lynched over 45 in recent weeks.
When missionary work doesn't do the job...
I doubt that Robertson wants to see people lynched (not 100%) any more than Scott Lively wanted to see a death penalty for homosexuals in Uganda.
Dumbass, insular, loud mouth Americans just don't understand that different cultures will see their message differently than their native culture will.
hm.... Maybe I oughtta block this blog from foreign countries.

Scottish Illustrator Eddie Campbell

Bacchus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Campbell#Biography

Navistar Gets More Nimble
A new contract, a new manager & a new strategy will determine the direction of Springfield's Navistar plant in 2011. They expect a 25% uptick in production & the plant will now work on a number of different truck models, requiring more diversity from the workers.
Noose Son story here.

COOKIES !

My first & quite possibly last attempt at making cookies.

Things To Come

This movie doesn't really have anything to do with Christmas other than the beginning taking place on Christmas Eve 1940. But that's good enough for me. Are there any science fiction movies about Christmas? oh, right, Santa Claus v. the Martians. that sucker is too weird even for me.
This movie, based on a story by HG Wells (who was also involved in the production), was made in England in the mid 30s while Nazi Germany was rattling chains & building a war machine. It foretells of the imminent world war but in the movie, the world gets creamed & reduced to barbarism. A new futuristic society emerges out of the middle east & 100 years later the world is.....
Well, kinda the same.
The horse drawn cars are one of my favorite parts.

Cincinnati's Mill Creek

1 quibble. I read that the Mill Creek never flooded til settlers came along & deforested the surrounding area. oh well, seems like the junk artists would want to be all over this resource.

The CPS Theme
The Knitters

We're #6!
Ohio ranks 6th in Worst States to Retire In.
Great. We don't need yer groaning, soiled ass anyway.
I gotta pee
help me
waitress
gnuuuhhhh
sound of drooling
help me
Missing in the criteria were the use of burial vaults & marksmanship. When people are near death they need to start planning for the afterlife as nosferatu & getting out of that coffin & dodging potential head shots is a prime concern. Of course burial costs weren't mentioned either.
I would think a passenger rail line from Cincinnati to Clevo would help Ohio's standing.

Is Municipal Recreation Worth It? ?
Back in the 20s the notion that unorganized recreation could circumvent juvenile delinquency was put forth & widely accepted. Cities built recreation centers & pools. The pools were happily greeted since it also gave kids a chance to cool off. The unorganized aspect forced the kids to organize among themselves. This was aimed at building a better community. The recreation facilities were not intended as luxuries but as crime deterrents.
Of course in the 20s there was no air conditioning, cars weren't ubiquitous, there was no TV, internet or game stations. Are theses resources still effective in their intended purpose?
Recreation centers also serve as community centers for neighborhood councils & organizations. These events could be held in schools or libraries, tho.
Northside, looking at a new rec center & school, urged city & school leaders to combine the 2 into one building which would have cut operational costs & met kids up with the neighborhood adults in a positive way thus building a better community. CPS, of course, wouldn't hear of it.
As the city is faced with a budget shortfall, evaluating the usefulness of our pools & recreation centers & finding efficiencies with consolidation is a necessity.
source

End of The Art Damage Lodge

2010 marks the 25th anniversary of Art Damage. Friday & Saturday night will mark their last weekend at their location in the old Jacob Hoffner Lodge at 4120 Hamilton Avenue. Their 25th anniversary gift? Leather - as in the boot.
Back in the 80s when I was working 3rd shift these guys saved my life with a show on WAIF. While the principals have changed the mission to bring strange new music o the ears of Cincinnati has not. Well, kinda.
Anyway, the current guys intend to carry on but have yet to find a new venue. This is an art institution Cincinnati should be very proud of.
The end of the lodge location will include a "garage sale" tonight starting at 9 PM & a final show Saturday night at midnight.
The scoop:
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17th
Uncle Dave Lewis
Stare Case (Nate Young and John Olson from Wolf Eyes)
Hearts of Palm
Pete Fosco/ Chris Adams/ Kevin Bruce Trio

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18th
Ryan Jewell/ Andrew Scott Young/ Ryley Walker
The Gospel of Luthor the Geek
California Girls
Thriftstore Boritorium
Solace Media Antics

$5 each night/ 9pm/ all ages

Ciry Beat article by Dave Lewis here.

Observations On the Last Budget Hearing
The last Finance Committee Budget Hearing was Thursday, 12/15/10 in Clifton. I didn't record it & I am not inclined to. Aside from the drone of rhetoric from the union guys who don't seem to understand how city finances work and are, apparently, completely unaware of the massive job losses in the private sector that has led to the current budget shortfall, there were a few highlights.
Everybody loved the most emotional, pointlessly showy speakers. Children received wild applause. Tom Luken's inane ranting & complete incompetence concerning council rules was very well received. I am fairly convinced he has been looking for a photo op of police carrying his ass out of one of these hearings McCrackin. Dan La Botz was very well received. cracked me up I imagine most of the attendees voted for him in the last election.
right.....
Gwenn Marshall got points for insulting the streetcar but applause was halting when she started calling for higher taxes. Mary Kuhl, who has been advocating for the city to embroil itself in years of legal wrangling circumventing personal property rights and tying up hundreds of thousands & probably millions of dollars in one of her pet projects, pointed out that the city should restrict itself to essential services. Justin Jeffre, (I have no idea why Qualls can't get his name right) who repeatedly cites the Charter Committee reforms of 1927 as excellence in government, condemned one of the most important parts of those reforms, the adoption of a city manager form of government. Kathy Harrell couldn't figure out how to fill out a speakers card.
A couple people cried. John Boehner, what hast thou wrought?
Melissa English and a few others commended the city for moving forward with recycling, saving the city money in landfill fees but advocated for a volume based fee system for garbage. Chris Moran & a number of other people including one fire fighter lauded the city for moving forward with the streetcar plan. They pointed out how it should improve tax revenues & compliment safety. The fire fighter labeled it's use as a political wedge issue by opponents framing it as a job killer, a red herring.
Nobody with any possible cuts had more than a couple million dollars worth of savings.
One really good question a few people brought up was: why was the firefighters contract ok'd when it obviously wasn't ok.
While the naivete of the children was ok, it didn't look that good on adults who should know better and the disingenuous hypocrisy of some others was a downright disgrace.

What Do the Police Cost ?
A couple weeks ago the Enquirer posted an article about what citizens pay for the police force. They framed it as police per citizen. One of the commenters stated that police per crime was a better comparison, so I hacked together this handy chart using City-Data & the figures the Fishwrap reported.

What	Cincinnati	Columbus	Cleveland	Dayton	Youngstown
Murders per 100,000	16.5	10.9	20.0	25.5	30.6
Raoes per 100,000	70.5	75.6	86.9	59.5	56.9
Robberies per 100,000	681.1	447.1	828.2	503.4	440.2
Assaults per 100,000	423.9	169.6	450.4	419.7	661.0
Burglaries per 100,000	1884.8	1920.4	2149.4	2120.7	2896.9
Thefts per 100,000	3751.3	3956.3	2532.6	3224.3	2423.3
City-data crime index	697.8	587.1	777.0	651.4	719.8
Residents per officer	301	402	277	394	444
Spending per resident	$308.40	$344.58	$403.36	$289.25	$251.29

As you can see, you pretty much get what you pay for. I used incidents per 100,00 & ignored the raw numbers. That would probably not sit well with the Fishwrap commenter but nothing much seems to sit well with the average colicky Fishwrap commenter.
The weirdest thing about City-Data's numbers is the very low number of assaults in Columbus. Many robberies involve assault, rape is an assault by definition, so maybe Columbus just looks at the other charge & finds a separate assault charge superfluous? Rape seems kinda high in Columbus but it is the seat of the state government, so.....
Youngstown seems to be doing things on the cheap & it doesn't look like it's paying off. Cleveland pays through the nose, however & it doesn't seem to be doing them much better.
Of the City-Data "crime index", they say higher means more crime with the U.S. average being 319.2. Ohio's large cities are averaging 686.2.
Dunno if this gives a better view of things or not.

Explorer Vampire Blood Moon
I want one. I don't need it. I don't even particularly like it. I just like the name.

NEW PRODUCTS !
Just in time for your last minute online shopping needs!
hope you like Cooper...
Show your colors & harangue your transitphobic friends & family with "Are You an Addict?" bumper stickers!

Only $4.00 !!
Folks, at a measly $4 you won't need to fix the trunk latch, just use these stickers!!
Melting acid fever been streaking through the mind lately?

Sail out into the grasshopper night & assume a righteous poison in a T-Shirt or sweatshirt with the Doktor's prime directive!
You Gotta Ride !!
Be cool - Buy My Stuff !
Seriously, the soybeans didn't do too well this year.

I Hate Christmas
The parents & grandparents are no longer with us. Of my generation only one sister bred. Her "kids" are middle aged now & neither of them have bred, so no little kids either. Without this span of generations, festivities are just a gathering of middle aged schmucks grousing about politics, jobs & TV.
The 2 sisters absolutely hate each other, the next generation is prone to shift work & working holidays, so scheduling / planning is a complete PITA.
If you give somebody a gift any other day of the year, people think you're weird but you HAVE to give gifts on Christmas & then it turns into bargaining as what Larry gave Curly is worth more than what Moe gave Larry and.....
You start looking at the gizmos in the Think Geek catalog & then you hear stories about people too poor to give gifts & the neato gag gifts start losing their luster.
And it brings out the best in all of us. Christmas music. Doesn't it seem kinda Clockwork Oranginan to force prisoners in an Arizona jail to listen to Christmas Music 12 hours a day? Of course there's radio stations that play the stuff all day, too.
Then there's the whole "reason for the season" crew boycotting business and condemning people for wishing people Happy Holidays instead of wishing them Merry Christmas or the Atheists who mock a religion in it's high holy days and the whole argument over Christmas being Pagan or Christian.



Isis and Horus
Look, I really don't care how you celebrate Christmas. You can paint yourself purple, wave a Jolly Roger & scat sing Wagner's operas in August. Knock yourself out, just keep your purple paint off of me.

Procol Harum Down Under 1970

It's All Happening on the Avenue

Northside Holiday Art Sale
Something tells me Hamilton Avenue is hopping, so hop on that 17 & get festive!
Northside Holiday Art Sale
Saturday, December 4 from 10AM to 3PM
North Presbyterian Church
4222 Hamilton AvenueOver 50 artists !
Knot Only Knitting
Saturday, Dec 4 @ 2 PM at the Cumminsville Branch Library right across the street from the Northside Holiday Art Sale.
Wrapping Paper
Down on the corner of Chase & Hamilton at Happen Inc. from 10 AM to 5 PM.
If the street life isn't for you - go plant some bushes in the woods!
Parkers Woods Spice Bush Planting
10:30 Am in Parkers Woods
Meanwhile, up the hill there's a PARADE !!
Holiday on the Hill
Saturday December 4 at 11 AM
From Larch Field to Hamilton & on to Elkton
So, here's the plan - Wear yourself out in Northside, get caffeinated at Sidewinders & run up Hamilton to College Hill. Knock yourself out there & re-caffeinate at College Hill Coffee then cartwheel back down the hill to Northside for tunes, grub & caffeine antidotes!

Razing Texas
City workers want to avoid layoffs. Their union reps don't want pay cuts & demotions.
Their solutions? Nothing worthwhile. Since the casino should increase crime, using a portion of it's proceeds for the police department would make sense but that's down the road & the city of Cincinnati needs to balance it's budget from year to year. It's not a business that can operate in the red.
Labor unions, public employees & the vocal NAACP prez have known about this budget shortfall since the last budget process.
Revenues are down due to a recession. The cost of running the city has not gone down - it's pretty static. The solution is simple. People who can afford the cash need to pay more. That's right - A TAX HIKE. Will councilmembers do it? notachance (although they could have been more austere last year & laid people off requiring fewer layoffs this year).
However the unions & organizations that tell us just how important it is to keep these public employees working could and should do it. I mean, put your money where your mouth is. The NAACP is good at, if nothing else, ballot initiatives. Upon knowing about the greater shortfall for this year's budget, they should have put together some kind of tax plan to pay for these services that we could have voted for in November. The bellyachin', theatrics & half baked solutions are just noise.

Fishwrap story here.

Bedbug Has Lost It
Ohio congressman, Dale Mallory, tends to campaign by not campaigning. He certainly doesn't debate. He knows that opening his mouth is probably just about the worst thing he could do.
Well, he's opened it & he's got a plan, nay, a vision.
A 5,000 seat boxing arena.
Where? - at the site of the Greyhound Station. What happens to the Greyhound Station? It gets moved over to the west side of downtown.
But wait! The arena will have a pizza shaped green roof! And a museum!!
This is what he's got:

A. Construction of "a state-of-the-art eco-friendly green Greyhound terminal" in Queensgate.
B. Demolition of the old Greyhound terminal on Gilbert Avenue
C. Construction of a "green" — energy efficient — 5,000-seat Buddy LaRosa Sports Arena on the Gilbert Avenue site, including rooftop gardens that recycle rainwater.

First thing to come to my mind is - Who is going to run it? There's no Bengals, Reds, Cyclones, Royals, Commandos or Silent Lambs to call it home. Why not just use the Coliseum (whatever it's called nowadays) or the Gardens & carve out a space for the museum? Since transportation patterns have already been established for the football & baseball stadiums, the coliseum makes the most sense & he does want it near the casino. Is the casino going to take sports bets like in Vegas?
Pizza shaped green roof? whatever.....
Is there a benefit to moving the bus station? Maybe if passenger rail came into Union Terminal it would establish the area as a transportation hub???
But it will be green!
Fortunately there are no more pressing matters to be dealt with.

Fishwrap article here.

Ohio v. HSUS
Round 2?
With a new governor we get a new Secretary of Agriculture, Jim Zehninger, who, by default, will be the new head of the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board. Zehringer will be the first SoA to have a full term in the newly created position.
The board was created in an effort to thwart radical animal rights groups from imposing onerous rules on farmers through ballot initiatives promoted with deceit. In the end, however, the board & Governor Strickland made a last minute "back room" deal with the group HSUS.
Zehninger says he wants to review that deal.
Zehninger, whose background is in raising poultry & fish seems to be more of the mindset that if you give these guys an inch & they'll take a mile. he sees the rules as roadblocks to new farmers. He wants to draw a line in the sand.
Kasich, who seems to shoot from the hip, says he wants to carefully review the issues & proceed with caution. Does this mean he will actually take aim?
HSUS is primarily in the organizing, PR & fund raising business. It is not affiliated with local animal welfare groups called humane societies. It's substantial war chest provides virtually no funding for animal welfare facilities (that in most cases are hurting for money). It's sole function is to promote itself & it's agenda. It would be a formidable opponent even for a Fox News announcer.
Building coalitions won't be easy either because the issue doesn't split neatly along any of the usual ideological lines. There is plenty of animosity between small "green" farmers & factory farmers. It's not a left & right thing - Rush Limbaugh is a big HSUS fan. It's more likely a city v. country thing but that's about it.
It could get interesting. It will probably get ugly.

Black Friday
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Enquirer Threatens Suit Against Endorsed Candidate
Before the last election the Enquirer condemned the campaign of a county commissioner they had endorsed. Now, after the election but before anybody has even taken office they are threatening a lawsuit against the gubernatorial candidate they endorsed.
Just what's an Enquirer endorsement really worth these days?

Gamble House Update

11/23/10 Livable Communities Committee
Not much new. Winburn seems to be thinking too much & making for a very convoluted direction. The committee will hold the measure til after a hearing on Dec 6 when Greenacres will be seeking permission for demolition. Appropriateness of eminent domain was rehashed. Nobody from Greenacres spoke. Nobody spoke in favor of Greenacres. (I had to trim the comments to fit this thing on Vimeo).
Berding brought up the issue of who possesses the property after an eminent domain takeover. This was the major issue in regards to the Norwood eminent domain case.
Quinlivan reiterated the most common sense opinion that is probably on everybody's minds (except maybe Greenacres) - that Greenacres & the Preservation Association just work it out.

PS, not in this clip but right before, a vote was made to liberalize zoning along the streetcar route in regard to minimum parking. I can only guess that Winburn (and 1 other, I couldn't tell who it was) opposed this due to his blind hatred of the streetcar project. His love of big government should certainly raise some red flags amongst local Tea Baggers.
oh, right....

HEY RANDY !
An open message with a bit of handy info for Cincinnati blogger & UrbanCincy founder, Randy Simes.
US EMERGENCY EVACUATION PLAN SOUTH KOREA
Hope ya don't need it.

How Many Cops Do We Need ?
In this article at the Fishwrap, we see that a timely call to the police & co-operation result in a swift capture of a criminal. Over & over there are crimes in Cincinnati and, even though there are dozens of people present, "nobody saw a thing". Then the police are lambasted for not solving the crimes. This shit ain't magic, folks.
With the imminent layoff of at least 144 police officers, we need to quit bitching about the ineffectiveness of a nanny state & start working with these guys. The reason crime escalates is due to people keeping silent & protecting the criminals. If the criminals are confident in their actions they will just carry on. How about some confidence for the police?

Citizens on Patrol

If You Can't Be With the One You Love...

The lying and delusional Cincinnati streetcar opponents have started yet another club. This one headed up by a trio of abrasive, belligerent loudmouths, one of whom doesn't even live in the city. The usual suspects have popped up along with failed state auditor candidate, David Pepper & Connie Pillich in tow. Pepper is no longer a Cincinnati resident, either. Tyrone Yates has yet to join in. Do they really believe Luken's demented ravings & Miller's distortions ?
What is humorous, hypocritical & just bad politics is the overlap between the streetcar opponents & Westwood special interest proponents. That Kuhl & the Windbag think the city should invest in a venture in Westwood that will have virtually no positive economic impact & will likely get hauled into court with the city losing even more money and to not invest in a downtown venture which should have an acute economic impact on the city at large is the height of arrogance / stupidity. The improvements in just the OTR area should free up emergency personnel across the city. Using eminent domain to procure the Gamble House will likely end up an expensive failure costing the city millions & still not saving the home.
Is one more of a "pet project" than the other?
Will Charlie Winburn wind up with blood on his hands if the city purchases the Gamble House?
Is it really good form to ask the residents of OTR to buy a house in Westwood while at the same time telling them their neighborhood can go to hell? How do the COA Ters feel about their new allies circumventing personal property rights through eminent domain? oh yeah, they don't care about rights - that's the Libertarians.
COA T & Republicans fighting for the unions is straight out of bizarro world. Their efforts are sure to keep costs down, tho......
I know people like to work for the government because it offers a degree of stability, the city isn't going to close down anytime soon, but the government is not immune to economic upheavals. Economists pointed out that government bodies were going to suffer as commerce dropped, unemployment rose & tax revenues fell. Conservative citizens & politicians are constantly clamoring for balanced budgets & we are legally bound to adhere to that conservative principle. Cincinnati is fortunate that, while it's operational budget is hurting, it's capital budget is not in as bad shape. Can the capital budget be used for operating costs?
Here.
Now, why is there no clamoring for the Windbag's head for offering up capital budget money for the Gamble House? Why are we not hearing about Chuck, Mary & Dusty trying to kill us all? They have all been bought and paid for by the unions? COA T's best buddies for now...
hmmmmm........
Glad the Tea Party is around to call this shit out.


more on the subject.
Fishwrap ramblings

Will Ohio Need to Vote?
When Governor Strickland (D) wanted to authorize slots at horse racing facilities, Republicans & Christians cried foul, engaged the courts & fired up ballot initiatives to block him.
Now there are rumors that Governor-elect Kasich (R) might attempt the same thing.
Of course, the Kasich camp tells us that, like every other issue in the state except passenger rail, they have no plans.
Will this plan for increasing state revenue be opposed if a good Christian Republican suggests it?

Read all about it at the Fishwrap.

A Tale of Two Cities

When you talk about The Gamble House in Los Angeles, people think of a large immaculately preserved Arts & Crafts house owned by the city of Pasadena that attracts tourists from far & wide.



In Cincinnati, you get a contentious gaggle of people fighting over what, until recently, was a slowly deteriorating but viable old Victorian house on the west side of town. What is ironic is that Cincinnati, home to Procter & Gamble (to this day, a fine corporate citizen of the city), has much closer ties to the Gamble family. They were neighbors. They were employers. James Gamble was the mayor of Westwood at one point before it was annexed by Cincinnati. I guess that's why it is more emotional around here.
So why does the current owner, The Greenacres Foundation, founded by a descendant of Jim, want to demolish it? In the 70s Gamble descendant, Louis Nippert, put the home in the hands of the Greenacres Foundation precisely in an attempt to preserve the home similarly to the way the Los Angeles Gamble home was preserved. Now, the Greencres Foundation claims they want to establish the property as a park / nature preserve and can find no possible use for the structure. They cite astronomical costs in restoring & maintaining the building. Their projected maintenance costs gave Counclimember Chris Bortz, a person well acquainted with building maintenance, reason to pause.


So, back to L.A. They also have The Los Angeles Arboretum with this cool old restored Queen Anne Cottage sitting in the middle. Like The Gamble House in Pasadena, it is a source of local pride & delights tourists from around the world.
So, if Cincinnati followed this successful example, it could have both nature & a famous old home in one package. It seems so obvious, it's killin' me. The only entity not on board, however, is the foundation that owns the property.
Up in Springfield, Ohio an old dilapidated home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, that had, for years, been treated like pooh - sliced up into low rent apartments & later abandoned - was later saved through no small amount of civic & private work. The Westcott House now has daily tours & is used for receptions & educational events. It has also given the community a renewed sense of pride.
A number of folks are struggling to save the Cincinnati Gamble House however they can. Some members of City Council have suggested procuring the property through eminent domain. I think that would be problematic. Local businesses & organizations have volunteered to donate their work to preserving the property AND facilitating the park aspect Greenacres purports to want. People are raising funds to purchase & maintain the property. Neighbors are not opposed to the park idea. So far all offers have been rejected out of hand by The Greenacres Foundation.

If you are interested in learning more or getting involved,
Save The Historic Gamble House on FaceBook
email contact
Cincinnati Preservation Association
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Victorian Antiquities & Restoration
Cincinnati City Council
The Examiner

NTSB Holds Meetings Concerning Older Drivers
The National Transportation Safety Board is holding meetings yesterday & today on the topic of "Safety, Mobility, and Aging Drivers". This is in reaction to the aging baby boomers and their real & perceived issues in mobility.
While aging drivers are perceived to be the worst menace on the road, that honor still goes to teenagers / new drivers. Accidents in older drivers gets a lot of press but is actually down. The Baby Boomers are really the first generation to grow up in a car saturated society. Many of their parents would not have experienced that til their teens / early twenties FWIW.
There's money in retirement communities & they are all over the place. Thing is, new ones are usually built on virgin land on the outskirts of towns. Other than personal automobiles & tour buses, residents are pretty much stuck on these islands. There is a benefit to these places being somewhat removed as it reigns in Alzheimer's suffering "wanderers". In Cincinnati, Twin Towers requires a person to get to a bus stop but it is on a major bus line affording mobility for quite a few of it's residents using mainstream transit.
We have all seen the short buses for seniors & the disabled. These things run at about 30-40 bucks a ride. Cincinnati has seen reductions & price hikes in these service. This is how many seniors get to see their doctors.
An ideal opportunity is beckoning for these Boomers who are in sound mind, however, with the streetcar project and the developable properties in The CBD, The Banks & Over the Rhine. The connection to Clifton & the medical resources cements it.
With the ease of access for walking challenged people & the smoother ride, the streetcar will be an ideal platform for the older passenger. Proximity to entertainment, shopping, dining & services without the need, hassle & possible problems of having a car make it an ideal combination. The population would make downtown more attractive to doctors & other health care providers as well.
Many of the older buildings will not be practical for handicap access, of course, especially from a restoration POV, but some will be.
I know a lot of people view the streetcar as an opportunity to cart around drunken transient college students, and I know old people are transient in their own way, but this would be a better community building population, bringing it's own brand of diversity, into the basin.

Watch on C-Span here.

How do I arrange getting busted by these chicks ?
Preferably something involving tackling, "resisting", handcuffs, etc.....
That guy looks to be in complete bliss.

Why All the Vacant Housing ?
Looking around at all the vacant housing in Cincinnati, you have to wonder what the owner is doing with his property that he seems ok with just letting it sit & deteriorate pulling down neighboring property values, while paying taxes, utilities, VBMLs & such.
This guy just got busted for renting out vacant houses he didn't own.
So ~ why can't the owners get their shit together & rent the damn things out?

Cincinnati Takes to the Clouds
In an effort to save money, the City of Cincinnati is looking at changing it's computer systems. They are looking at virtualization & cloud computing.
Taking this route is supposed to result in 30% - 40% savings over all. It reduces the costs of individual licenses & maintenance for every computer & consolidates server operations. Just going open source would solve the licensing but there would still be the high maintenance costs for the massive number of computers & systems involved. It also slows things down a bit for the user (the graphics guys will likely want to up their blood pressure meds).
This all seems ok but security is kind of an issue. This article at govtech outlines basic concerns & points out that when you finally get your security up to snuff, it starts eating away at your savings significantly. Also, and this is a much greater concern to me, is that the city is planning on turning over the central data storage to a private company. Two companies the city is looking at are Google & Micro$oft.
Google, Micro$oft & IBM have been working with municipalities in New York, California & Michigan (not without some hiccups). A major sticking point here is that any provider demands indemnity from the city & Ohio state law forbids that. With good reason, I think. The provider would be privy to sensitive info regarding tax, police, court & health records of citizens. Carlsbad, CA required background checks of Micro$oft employees who would be working with their systems. Everything checked out ok but in today's world a Micro$oft or Google could be taken over by a Chinese or Indian company any day. Cincinnati has been around for over 200 years & will likely be around for another 200 in one way or another. While IBM will be turning 100 next year Google's only 28 & Micro$oft is only 35. What happens if they start charging us double or a Chinese Google starts filtering information?
I think a better solution might be to consolidate systems in Columbus & have municipalities use a central statewide system. The consolidation & statewide standardization could probably find all sorts of efficiencies especially in law enforcement.

Springfield Rocks
Avalanche 1975

Let the good times roll.
This was recorded at a wretched hole called "The Sandpiper". They had chicken wire across the front of the stage area. I saw this band more often at an even more wretched hellhole called "The New Frolics" where a mass brawl would inevitably break out every night. There were no tables & chairs there, just wooden picnic tables that were a lot harder to throw or break.
Some friends of mine would organazize parties where they would rent out K of C halls or apartment complex party rooms, hire a band & serve "free" beer after charging admission. Avalanche was one of their favorite bands.
Unfortunately I don't think there are any recordings of Brontosaurus.

Rebirth or Zombie Uprising?
AKA SSDD
Listening to John Boehner sloooowwwly say nothing in his deep baritone, I kept thinking about a press conference Vic Gold made at the Cato Institute back in the summer of 2007 when he was touting his book, Invasion of the Party Snatchers. Gold, an excitable, fast talking man commented how people would comment on how he sounded "radical" - not because of what he said but the way he said it and how people like Dick Cheney & particularly Ramsey Clark, could say any outrageous thing & be taken seriously because they spoke slowly & in a deep voice like Boehner.
I looked up the broadcast on C-Span & found more of what he said pretty interesting.
It's here.
His book describes how southern Democrats or Holy Rollers, disenchanted with Johnson & Carter, gradually took over the Republican Party (think Reagan Democrats) & changed the face of what we call Conservatism for the worse. Much worse. Like a Linda Blair possession worse.
He predicted the Republicans would get creamed in 2008 and their only chance of moving forward would be to die & be reborn.
In 2008 they were looking pretty toasted. In 2010 they came back like gangbusters but was it reborn or was it something more akin to a zombie apocalypse or some kind of Frankenstein's monster brought back to life by mad Tea Party scientists?
Gold points out what the Republican Party needs to do to regain it's true old school conservative roots at about 24:30 in the video.
The party must die & be reborn:
∇ It can't carry on about groups like Planned Parenthood and obsess on the failed war on abortion rights.
∇ It must render unto Caesar & unto God but on different days of the week.
∇ It must see America as a beacon & not the policeman for the world.
∇ It must embrace fiscal conservatism & quit wild deficit spending.
∇ It must see family values as something the family, not the state defines.
∇ It must be alert to the dangers of a strong centralized government.
Well, not much change. There's lip service to the fiscal conservatism but we have heard that that refrain before. It's as recognizable as "BRAAAIINSSS".
The rest? SSDD
I suggest we all remember Sheriff McClelland's advice.
Happy Guy fawkes Day, everybody!

Election Thoughts
I think a Portman win could have been called a month or two ago. In the land of coulda woulda, I wonder how Brunner would have fared. She couldn't have run a campaign worse than Fisher.
Wonder how many votes, the Beacon's boy, LaBotz siphoned off of Fisher.
Conway's last ditch "outing" of Paul was pretty hopeless & probably killed him. Linking the guy to anti-Christian secret societies sounded kinda loopy for what sounded about as sinister as college hijinks.
Dale no show Mallory stays in office & out of jail. Maybe the Republicans could have tried?
Monzel off to the county commission to stop the streetcar.....
& retread Chabot is back in
So, to recap
Kasich, Boehner, Chabot, Mallory, Monzel, Wilson...
Dumb wins.

Faith Matters

by Subodh Gupta
nabbed from The Daily Undertaker

ok, since you NEED this because you had no idea who to vote for on your own, here's my list of recommeded candidtates for the election Tuesday. It's probably a list of people who will lose, too.
As usual, when in doubt, vote Libertarian.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
US Congress 1st District
  Steve Driehaus
US Representative 8th District
  Justin Coussoule
Governor
  Ted Strickland
State Representative 32nd District
  Eric Nebergall
State Representatice 28th District
  Connie Pillich
State Representativ 31st Distric
  Denise Driehaus
Hamilton County Commissioner
  Jim Tarbell
Hamilton County Auditor
  Dusty Rhodes

I would like to thank Dale Mallory for not making this a straight Democratic ticket. That would have been a first.

Creepy Crap for a Halloween Weekend

Not only will you have a chance to shamble your zombie stuff at the Cincinnati Zombie Walk downtown tonight with an after party at the Mockbee, you can also pedal your zombie stuff in a Zombie Ride from Wesleyan Cemetery to Newport 10/29/10.
The Cincinnati Shakespeare Company will be staging Dracula Friday & Saturday at 7:30 & Sunday at 2.
This is the stage version John Carradine made famous.
Haunted Queen City walking tours Friaay & Saturday starting every hour from 7:30 - 9:30
Rally for Sanity Midwest Adjunct will be on Fountain Square from noon to 3PM
State of the Matter will continue in Northside from noon to 3 on Saturday.
The Enemy Within: Terror in America 1776 to Today all weekend & beyond at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center 11 - 5

Lying By Omission
Tea Partiers support smaller government, lower taxes & a strong military with a strong foreign presence.
Ron Paul, in his bid for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2008 had a fund raiser on he anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, 12/16/07. (link). Many consider this to be the beginning of the Tea Party Movement.
By August of '08, however, the Tea Party of Sarah Palin & Glenn Beck was not exactly what Ron Paul had in mind. (link).
Does smaller government sound good? sure Lower taxes? great
But how?
The Tea Party claims it has no social agendas to pursue.
So what do they want to cut in spending to reduce taxes? Not the military.
So, let's look at what holds the Tea Party, whose candidates are "you", together. By examining this, we can get an idea of what their policies will be in shrinking the government.
About 11% of the population identifies itself with the Tea Party. This is a bit smaller than the Black or Latino population.
It's predominantly white - in line with the US population.
A little over half make $50k or more per year - about the average but well above the American median income.
Members are 48% Republican, 28% Republican leaning & about 8% Democratic - nationwide it's more along the lines of 30% Republican & 35% Democrat.
It's membership is 81% Christian - about in line with the nation.
The majority, 57%, consider themselves "Christian Conservatives", about twice as much as the average American at 22%.
They are 85% opposed to gay marriage, about twice the national average.
They are 65% anti-choice opposed to 45% nationwide.
They are more than twice as likely than the national average (25% / 11%) to think the government favors black people over white.
Looking at these samnesses & differences from mainstream society where can we expect to see government shrinking?
It is likely they will find some shrinkage in reducing services they see as benefitting black people.
They will likely work to create a tax structure more attractive to their financial base like regressive sales taxes over income taxes.
Actually, it is likely Tea Partiers will want to expand government to pursue it's religious agendas forcing churches to not marry gays & forcing doctors to not perform abortions & forcing young girls to be disabled or die from bearing the unwanted children conceived by brutal incestuous rape. Dunno if they will shrink funding for dealing with the orphans or disabled mothers.
I fear they, like organizations like HSUS will be wolves in sheep's clothing. Their insistence that they are average Joes when in reality, like animal rights advocates, they are a minority. The fact Rush Limbaugh plays prominently in both groups is disconcerting.
They claim to be angry with Washington & the status quo but support several candidates who do indeed represent the status quo but are staunch supporters of the religionist agenda that permeates the Tea Party.
Their not being up front about this is essentially, lying by omission.
The Tea Party appears to be nothing more than another rebranding of the old Moral Majority & Silent Majority of the past - groups touted as a majority but never more than a very vocal minority emboldened with a strong & potentially dangerous streak of zealotry.

source
source
source
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Jim Tarbell's Ad

Jim Tarbell has been walking a pretty lackluster campaign. Tarbell is pretty impressive when he gets fired up, but his normal demeanor doesn't do him much good as he is generally a kind of slow moving, slow talking guy who will think things through before talking. That is - he doesn't shoot from the hip with half baked ideas - an attribute the local paper likes about his opponent. Well, sure, it makes more news. I am sure the tabloids were crushed when Michael Dukakis didn't get elected president so we could watch his wife self destruct in the check out lanes at the grocery but is that how we should choose our representatives?
Tarbell has a nickname of Mr Cincinnati. great How's that play in the various townships? This ad would have been greatly improved with pictures in the background showing various highlights of the county. On his FaceBook page he has some really bad cell phone shots of a few places around the county that are about unrecognizable. Most people want vibrant color pictures. People depict their opponents in monochrome /flat color in their attack ads for Pete's sake. The recording is weak, the lighting is uninspired & the camera angle could be better. He sounds like he is talking to a camera.
I guess we might as well start getting used to GOP tool, Kid Monzel...

Enquirer Skewers Candidate They Endorse
The Enquirer's AdWatch pretty much dismantles Chris Monzel's aattack ad on Jim Tarbell in the Hamilton County Commissioner race.
But still they endorse him?
With endorsements like these, how much should we value their other endorsements?

Is Chris Monzel a Good Representative ?
ex-Cincinnati Councilman David Crowley (D) introduced an "Environmental Justice" legislation that was narrowly passed with Monzel, a Spring Grove Village resident, in opposition. Councliman Berding (I) has introduced an effort to repeal the legislation & Monzel is in support.
FWIW, I think it is bad legislation & should be repealed.
On 10/26, in the City Council Quality of Life Committee, the president of the Spring Grove Village Community Council spoke out in opposition to the legislation's repeal citing how the neighborhood's environmental quality has suffered significantly in ways that the legislation was intended to prevent in the future.
Is this how Monzel would represent his community in the future?
Or will the "Son of the Suburbs" be leaving town shortly after he becomes a Hamilton County Commissioner?
I think it's safe to say Cincinnati will not be represented well with Monzel as a commisioner.

OK, aside from telling the Black Panther dude that the US has always been a "land of the free", what, exactly, is gained by having a guy swear an oath on a book he doesn't believe?
I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth & nothing but the truth, so help me, Flying Spaghetti Monster.

The Zombie Side of Sears

Accessorize like the living
Tone while you lumber
Brain stains be gone
Sears dicked me on a washing machine / dryer deal about 19 years ago so I refuse to do business with 'em but their Halloween Zombie promotion is pretty good.
Complete with videos, a zombie gift guide & an undead Twitter feed. The zombie treadmill is probably my fave.

Does COA T Support Tax Dollars for Parochial Schools ?
Why does COA T want you to not vote for Denise Driehaus? On 10/22 the COA T blog gives us this:

"Denise Driehaus voted not once but 3 times FOR $60 MILLION in cuts to state funding for Catholic Schools"

Does COA T arrogantly believe that the Protestant Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans of Ohio should pay for their elite Catholic Schools when they don't even want to pay for their own kid's tuitions? Given the financial woes of the state, is this what we should be spending money on? Seems like they should admire her courage & fiscal conservatism. But, no - she's a Democrat & COA T is just a mouthpiece for the Republican party & apparently, the Roman Catholic church.
Remember this on November 5.
And there's more!
In the same article they admit to siding with the ACLU, the right to lie in political speech & big, intrusive government that tells women what they can & cannot do with their own bodies (AKA slavery).
If anybody ever tells you COA T is libertarian, rest assured, they are not.

Halloween Sex Toys ?

The Succu-Dry - Sex-In-A-Can!
While the Blogging Isn't Cool staff ~cough cough~ is somewhat acquainted with sex in THE can, this sex in a can is something new. The new SuccuDry is, well,,,,,
weird
Maybe we can get the manufacturer to send a case of the things & we can evaluate it's merits.
hmmmm

More Crap To Do in Spooky Northside
Land Between the Cemeteries
The Ghosts of Northside Tour
Sunday, October 24 at noon.
Visit the final resting places of some famous Northsiders, including the fantastic monument of Jacob Hoffner, Johann Caspar Bruckmann and others with tour guide Dianne Brake, Spring Grove Docent. Meet at 11:45 at the parking lot by the Spring Grove Offices
$2 admission for adults, free for children under 13.
The walking tour is about one hour and encounters some hilly terrain.
*****************************
State of the Matter
October 23 - 30 in Family Friendly Northside
Glass Blowing in Hoffner Park noon to 4 on the 23rd
Flame Working at Prairie Galleris 2 to 4 on the 23rd & 24th
*****************************
Halloween Pumpkin Party & Bake Sale @ Happen Inc. 10A to 5P
*****************************
Harvest Festival Community Potluck @ MoBo / Village Green 5 to 7 on the 24th

Don't Vote ?

A Republican Latino organization in Nevada, Latinos for Reform, produced an ad urging Latinos to simply not vote because Democrats didn't pass an immigration reform bill in the last 2 years.
Be careful what you wish for...
The network, Univision, refused to air the ad. Instant gratification & shameless partisanship aside, is not voting a good solution?
If you simply don't vote, the politicians write you off. If you make a protest vote for the "other" corporate party, like a Borg drone, you get absorbed into their "continuum". A protest vote or an earnest vote for a 3rd party won't matter much today but the more of these votes registered, the more attention the corpo-parties will take. They have already gone to great lengths to restrict ballot access & debate eligibility in an effort to silence dissent.
You have to vote to make any difference. I am not sure what happens if a ballot is entered empty but that might be an option, too. In the last presidential election I voted for a lot of stuff but I left the presidential options blank. Did anybody notice? beats me
Thing is, if you are not counted, you don't count.
Here's an English version of the ad FWIW.

Attack of the Vegan Zombies

Living in a neighborhood of neo-hippie vegans that's sandwiched between two good sized cemeteries, I have often wondered how these people would fare in the inevitable Zombie Uprising. I thought Attack of the Vegan Zombies might explore such a situation.
It did not.
It would have better been titled something like The Wrath of Dionysus or something. It is much more about sorcery than traditional Zombism.
It is a decent effort brought in for about $35k by Richmond, VA independent film maker Jim Townsend.
The plot embraces tried & true elements like horny young people, people holed up in a house, disagreements about how to deal with matters & so on. The adult acting is ok, the kids, well...
The sorceress mother is actually pretty good.
The plot involves a spell to improve the harvest at a vineyard that goes awry & the vines take over with a hankering for people who become "Zombies". Actually they become more like maenads, the worshippers of Dionysus, Greek god of the vine. The female lead, played aptly by Christine Egan, is even named Dionne. hint hint
Of course the guys gotta get Zombified /maenaded, too, so...
All in all, a fun movie. While Zombieish, it also has a strong supernatural thing going on, too, that is not normally seen in Zombie films.

Looks like COA T got caught sitting on their hands. The result? Sue for taxpayer dollars. COA T regularly can't win in the normal electoral process so it needs to go for lawsuits & misrepresenting ballot issues all done while taking advantage of the local Republican press.
Hughes High School students were bused on school time in non-school (church) buses to the HamCo BOE to vote early. At the BOE they were presented with Democrat sample ballots by an independent person. Apparently COA T wasn't aware of this operation & weren't able to pass out their own literature, so a desperate Tom Brinkman (R), who knows he has little chance in his campaign against Dusty Rhodes, has had COA T's lawyers sue CPS.
Free money, free publicity, hell, even I hate CPS, so it gets people all worked up.
If the school had requested sample ballots to show the kids in the school, I don't know how that would go. Political nuts would probably swarm out of the woodwork like the religious nuts do over sex & religious education.
I am assuming the woman who handed out the sample ballots just happened to know about the event because she is ex-CPS & probably has casual associations with current CPS folks.
Frankly, the non-school buses concern me a little more than anything else in this story.
I do not think COA T is trying to suppress the vote as Mr Griffin suggests. In that event, they would be having the ballots destroyed while crying voter fraud.
I think a better lesson for the kids might have been to simply have them collect sample ballots & their "I Voted" stickers to prove they voted on election day.
Voting on election day brings citizens & neighbors together & helps build community. If there is a plot, I would say it's by the people who promote absentee voting in an effort to keep people isolated & unaware of differing points of view. Or that COA T & the Cinti NAACP have a mutual agenda of destroying public schools so they can better control the brainwashing of society. But that's just my paranoid rambling.

Fishwrap (R) story here.

I'm not terribly impressed with Ayn Rand. I find her to be a pretty simplistic reactionary. The people who worship her seem to be pretty fucked up & as miserable as the characters in her books. In this segment she speaks to some kind of Goldwaterian issues that tend to fly in the face of some of her modern neocon adherents.

The Missiles of October

All day long I was thinking there was something significant about this date.
duh
This is the anniversary of the day in 1962 a U.S. photo reconnaissance plane spotted missile bases under construction in Cuba. That is, the beginning of the "Cuban Missile Crisis".
It was probably one of the hottest battles of the "Cold War".
Read the Wiki article here.

Raising Taxes
Gannett published an article that made it into the Fishwrap's print edition but was relegated to a USA Today page (as opposed to the online NKY Enquirer pages) about the political campaigning regarding Stickland's raising (or not) of taxes.
In the article it states

"as a difficult budget negotiation raged, Strickland's preferred alternatives dried up"

Stickland's alternative was, of course, allowing slot machines at race tracks. This plan was blocked by a number of church groups including the Ohio Council of Churches and the United Methodist Anti-Gambling Task Force and a group led by COA T co-founder & CCV ally Tom Brinkman called Let Ohio Vote.
Let Ohio Vote, heavily funded by a Virginia organization, New Models, collected signatures for a ballot referendum on the issue & then handily withdrew the ballot.
The head honcho for New Models was a Republican who also worked for Sarah Palin. Brinkman served as a state representative as a Republican.
The governor, unable to patch a deficit hole with slot machine revenue postponed a planned tax cut. Rev John Edgar of the United Methodist Anti-Gambling Task Force said this or even a tax hike would be preferable to slots.
So is the Democrat governor to blame for a tax hike or, more to the point, not giving us a tax cut? Or is it result of a small group of politically savvy Republican theocrat obstructionists?

101010

Spring grove Cemetery is hosting another annual Cruise In with cars dating back to before those ancient days of 1985.
There will be grub, a guided "Cemetery Cruise" at 6 PM, mini tram tours and a vintage hearse exhibit.
Sadly, Kim Falcon is not scheduled to attend.
Be there or be square.

Captain Lust


popular sea chanty
PTL for the intertubes.
Back before VCRs & DVDs & such, porn was a little more professional. There were actually "stars", stories, direction, production values (ok, all borderline) and they were distributed through the theater circuit in the traditional way. Captain Lust was one of those movies. Produced in 1977 it told the tale of two rival pirate crews, one a crew of nasty men commanded by the evil Captain Lust (and the evil Cuntessa) & another, a crew of pirate women (with hearts of gold) led by some handsome captain dude, in a race to find a hidden treasure. Captain Lust has an advantage, however, in that he actually has a treasure map. The map is tattooed onto the penis of an idiot monk, Brother John and to read it he must be erect. To facilitate this they kidnap a nun and.....
The movie has it all. action, drama, passion, romance, & saucy pirate songs!
My friends & I decided to go out to the New Moon Drive In (now a mustard distribution facility) to see the movie. We had had a keg party the night before & had not finished the keg (yeah, we were slackers), so we loaded it into a van, packed up some lawn chairs & went to the drive in.
We hoisted brews, sang along with the choruses & laughed at the close ups of genitalia on the 60 x 30 foot screen.
It was a memorable evening. Good friends, stale beer, overbuttered, oversalted popcorn, pirate songs & smut. What could be better?
Anyway, the industry didn't think much of archiving their work so when video tape & later DVDs came along Captain Lust seemed to be lost.
One notable actress from the movie, Sharon Mitchell, said many fans recalled the movie fondly for years. She ended her career in porn after being viciously raped. She went on to get a PHD in sexuality & started up the AIM Healthcare Foundation that helps performers in the porn industry deal with physical & mental health issues.
Anyway, in searching for this movie I did find a picture of a DVD cover but it was on a Russian website. Getting adult movies shipped to Cincinnati can be dicey, anyway. Finally, I found it on a torrent site & I am downloading as I type. At 1.2 KB/s (more like a trickle), I should have it sometime in mid October.
YAY!
Anybody up for a pre-Halloween screening?
In my basement.
With the windows blacked out?

Northside House Tour

Sunday, October 3 marks the 20th anniversary Northside House Tour. XIII in fact. yeah, don't try to do the math....
This year's tour is less focussed on restoration & more on renovation. 12 buildings in all, the tour includes a store that had to be completely gutted to create a single family home and a church that once hosted a wedding on motorcycles and now houses an IT firm.
Most of the homes on the tour were remodeled by the owners, some pro, some not. One house was remodeled by CNCURC who has refurbished a few houses in Northside as well as built a couple LEED certified homes on a previously troublesome corner.
The tour runs from the east side of the neighborhood to the west & there are free vans to negotiate some of the longer walks between buildings. The route is about 2.4 miles & there are a lot of steps. There are also a lot of great views.
Tickets can be purchased at the door at The McKie Recreation Center, 1655 Chase Avenue on the third for $18 or today for $15 at:
Shake It Records
Taykor Jameson Hair Salon
North Side Bank & Trust
Building Value
and online here
Happen Inc., a family art organization, will be open & will be distributing wind chimes made by the kids to the first 50 - 75 people. CAIN & The Family Enrichment Center will also be open.
St Bonifave church is on the tour (after 1PM) and will be hosting an organ recital at 4PM.
As usual, there's plenty of good eats in Northside with brunches at Melt, Take the Cake, Honey, Ko Sho, The Comet, and Sidewinder Coffee & Teas. Later, The Comet & Mayday will be open with their regular menus & the Comet Bluegrass All Stars will be playing at The Comet around 8.

I Got a CGI On You

The Daily Mail tells us that Jessica Alba does not really appear naked in the new smash hit movie, causing race riots across the land, Machete. She is rally wearing utrou & it has been magically removed with CGI for the movie. Ms Alba claims she is too shy & proper to appear naked in a move. But she does appear naked, so.....
In my experience, however, it is a lot easier to robe a person than to disrobe a person, so I'm actually wondering if she was, in fact, filmed naked & the supposedly pre post production shots are actually post production shots released to save face.
Not that she needs to. Alba isn't the greatest actress in the world but she doesn't have to parade around naked to put on a good show. Just give her a gun & she's good to go.

South Fountain Porch Festival

The third annual South Fountain Porch Festival is Saturday from 9AM - 2PM on S Fountain Ave. between Clark & Liberty in scenic Springfield, OH.

Noose Son story here.
More on the area here.

Popular Art ?
Cincinnati City Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan has proposed dedicating 1% of casino revenues to public sculpture that will be chosen by unofficial votes by the citizenry. Unofficial, like via computers - so it might not even be votes by US citizenry. Estimated annual revenues from the casino, which is not slated to open til 2012, is expected to be $20M. Councilman Bortz has his eyes on 50% or more of the money but that's another story.
Cincinnati, outside it's cemeteries, has a serious lack of sculpture. My objections to Ms Quinlivan's plan is twofold. While I have no objection to the government spending on artistic / creative enhancements to the infrastructure type stuff government is supposed to be involved in, I am leery of it just buying art for art's sake. Further, the popular voting seems really dubious, look at what the popular vote gives us in the commercial world. Desperate Housewives, Vampire Diaries, Dancing With the Stars, Resident Evil, Wall Street 2, Trey Songz, Katy Perry.....
I would suggest the money be matched with private money to get the most bang for the buck & let the individual, business or organization pick & create the sculpture with the stipulation that the city retains rights to it.
Monarchy is key to good art. It certainly doesn't come from the boardroom or fickle popularity contests.

Buy a Vote ?
So far candidates in Ohio have spent $25,000,000 in this campaign season. Of Ohio's approximately 9 million possible voters, less that 8 million are registered to vote. Estimates for this fall's election are for 30% of registered voters to actually vote. This is working out to about $11/vote (so far).
Since the votes are going to be split about in half, this means 10% of the population will decide who gets elected -or- to be a little more cynical, only 10% of the population will actually be represented.

Demolition Imminent

Demolition plans are in place for Springfield's Veteran's Memorial Hall. The National Trail Parks and Recreation District expects to be building a $5.5 million ice skating rink in early 2011. Plans for reusing the facade are not as clear as they were some months ago. It's disassembly is expected to take 1 month.
Meanwhile ex-tenants, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, will be kicking off a new season Saturday featuring the works of Wagner, Schumann, and Tchaikovsky.

Memorial Hall Then & Now Slideshow here

Noose Son story here.

Why Was There No Security ?
A stripper was sent out to provide entertainment in a private residence at 4:40 AM on August 7. Why did they not send along a bodyguard? I don't know how common a practice that is but it seems like common sense. Taking your clothes off in a stranger's home does place a person in a degree of vulnerability. At least someone should have gone along to assess the situation.
She claims the customer was acting inappropriately & she left his home while he pursued her. In the confusion, she struck & inadvertently pinned the guy under her car. When she realized what had happened she called the police.
What are the chances of this spinning so tragically out of control if the stripper had just been accompanied by a security guy? Clubs that employ strippers usually employ a fairly aggressive security force. Not knowing what shift the customer worked, I would assume him to be fairly intoxicated by 4:40 AM. Bad behavior could almost be expected.
Not employing security in such a venture just seems like a bad business practice.

Fishwrap story here.

Yunguns Skip Cable
I found this story saying 30% of young netflix subscribers are skipping cable interesting as I have opted to use Blockbuster & Time Warner's Lifeline. While the rock bottom Lifeline package has no "elite" stations I can watch all the programming at my own pace on DVDs from the video store. True Blood, Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy, The United States of Tara...
I kinda need cable for CitiCable, but that's about it.
The article points out the young people are active with other stuff and as such less likely to have an interest or even the economy to have cable. I barely watched TV in my 20s but then watching a movie back then meant going to a theater.
heck, I remember when MTV was kinda cool.

Move over John Legend another Frogtowner is singin'...

Tea Party Endorsements Gone Wild.

After a guy with tea bag endorsements gets busted for pedophilia their latest darling is outed on "dabbling" in witchcraft / satanism. I didn't remember this episode but I remember seeing the airhead on the old Politically Incorrect show. I doubt she knows what she is talking about regarding witchcraft & was probably just trying to get some kind of spiritual "cred". But, at least she doesn't lie!
I don't like Maher's later work but the old Politically Incorrect shows from the Comedy Central days were pretty good. People appearing on the show seemed to think they were on local access cable or something. A lot of feet in mouths.
LOL- Maher talking about bad hair....

ONE NIGHT IN NORTHSIDE

A Northside Skatepark Fundraiser
Saturday September 18th, 2010, 7 -10 pm in Hoffner Park with 3 amazing bands!

• The Lions Rampant
• The Frankl Project
• The Messengers

There will be a silent auction, Local Artist designed skateboard decks, Skateboard demos
For info call 523-305-2988 or email ellauciello.

Should I embrace the TEA bag crowd? Their ambiguous desire for smaller, limited, less intrusive government does appeal to me.

I would like the government not tell me I can't smoke marijuana.
I would like the government not tell women they can't have abortions.
I would like the government to not tell my church they can't marry who they want.
I would like the government to refrain from buying, installing or maintaining religious artwork.
I would like to see foreign military bases in Japan, Cuba, England & Germany be closed.
I would like to see the interstates funded solely with user fees.
I would like to see the government refrain from stopping adult entertainment in areas zoned for business / entertainment.
I would like to see the government not tell me what I can read.
I would like the federal government to stay out of education.
I would like to see funding for military bands eliminated.
Is this on the right track?