Doesn't That Stink
WCPO's John Matarese exposes big music industry practices that deny fans good seats.
Back in the general admission (festival seating) days, fans would camp out at the concert site to get a front row seat. Of course they were all taken already by folks who got tickets from friends of the bands, promoters, radio stations & contest winners & such. Nothing new there. The later release of good tickets that Matarese mentions is pretty weird, tho.
Back in the 70s, big music industry practices that treated the fn like poo led to a surly backlash called punk, a raucus grassroots uprising that hit the big music industry like a jail on wheels. It was hard back then because there were few venues for local bands to play. The legacy of the original punk scene, of course, is a lot of venues for local music.
I can only really address rock music but Cincinnati is blessed with a decent local rock scene in both musicians & venues. Would you rather sit in a damp field out in the middle of nowhere on a hot muggy night listening to a band playing oldies (that you would prefer to hear on records) policed by capricious goons and infested by mosquitoes or go to a lively neighborhood with numerous activities & hear a guy play theremin or hear a jazz band at a club where the bandleader's wife is cooking dinner?
To hell with corporate music and it's goofy practices. I'm sorry the jonas Brothers had to cancel but if you want to hear somebody play an SG, go see Wussy.

What the Hell Happened to WCPO.com ?
Or to be more specific, what the hell happened to their online weather forecasting? To be, like, laser specific, what happened to their hour by hour forecast?
If you don't have a rolling steel and glass raincoat, knowing the weather on an hour by hour or, at least, an every 2 - 4 hour forecast is important when planning when & how to go traveling. Weather.com has comprehensive forecasting. Their hour by hour forecast leans heavily towards rain & snow. It stops hour by hour predictions about 16 hours out. WCPO used to go off into infinity but now only goes out 12 hours. WCPO's hourly forecast used to be amazingly accurate. I would use weather.com for a general view & then use WCPO to pinpoint potential rain. Now it's not even the opposite as WCPO's hour by hour forecast is so horribly inaccurate, it's rendered useless.
Doppler Schizophrenia.
Yesterday, by WCPO's hour by hour, it was raining all afternoon & evening. Of course their up to the minute, stick-your-head-out-the -window section was right. So you had a sunny picture sitting next to a cloudy picture with a lightning bolt sitting there next to each other. It did not rain the entire time. It wasn't even cloudy most of the time.
How in the hell does a new layout destroy the quality of reporting? Why have we not heard reports of Larry Handley beating the crap out of some programmer in the WCPO parking lot? It's the reputation of the meteorologists that suffers here. And the peace of mind of people who now must assume they need a raincoat & umbrella 24/7....

WHA ??
People lying around on the grass in a park in the middle of the summer?
AMAZING !!
I remember, a long time ago in a park far far away, a cop driving across freshly seeded grass to tell me & my mates we were too close to the freshly seeded grass & to move our asses on. We stood there on the old grass looking at this guy with his 2 tons of steel parked on the new grass & said, "ummm, ok ossifer...".
He only slipped a little as he pulled away.
dumbass

Got a Dumb Rail Plan ?

Send it to Cincinnati.com's Opinionati.
So far they have re-suggested for about the millionth time running temporary buses to see how much permanent development it spurs and a new route that truly is a train to nowhere as it ignores the northern end of the basin & the Uptown area altogether.
My idea? Locomotives to the stars, maaaannnnnnn.....
You'll find me in the dining car to Saturn, dude. For about the next 1,500 years I might add.
Granted, landing might be a bit tricky but in 1,500 years we should have it figured out.

2009 Queen Katie Stevens crowns Amanda Haddix for 2010
Amanda Haddix crowned Clark County Fair Queen 2010. The Ohio State student's background includes FFA, Teen Leadership Council, Junior Fair Board, Girl Scouts and 4-H.



The Competition

Noose Son story here

Lois Smith

I have not read the True Blood books by Charlaine Harris but I have been watching the TV series on DVD. I alternate between Route 66, True Blood & dumb action horror movies.
While it's clear Sookie Stackhouse has inherited her telepathic powers it is not clear what is going on with her ancestry. Imagine my surprise when I spotted granma Adele in a 1962 Route 66 episode, "Only by Cunning Glimpses", as a second generation psychic named Brycie.
All is clear now.
Congratulations to Lois Smith on a 5 decade acting career. Hope there's more to come & given the nature of True Blood, she might even show up there again. Who knows?
yeah, the people who have read the books.....

Only by Cunning Glimpses is on Route 66 Season 3 Disk 3
and it's in CLEVELAND !

The Motor City is Burning

43 years ago Detroit broke out in riots. Flaring up July 23, it boiled over on the 24th & gradually flamed out over the next couple days. It brought out not only the Detroit Police but the Michigan State Troopers, Michigan National Guard and the U.S. Army as well.
This video, set to the tune of The MC5's cover of John Lee Hooker's "The Motor City's Burning" incorporates news footage & footage from some low budget / made for TV / black exploitation movie to great dramatic effect. It would have been better without the dramatization....
Even without the riots Detroit would have eventually lost it's manufacturing base but the riots spurred massive "white flight" as the notion of emotional, violent negroes was reinforced in their minds. In the end of the vid there is a quote from Mao on revolution. A riot, of course, is not a revolution, it is an unorganized outburst.
As Jello Biafra pegged it, "RIOT - The Unbeatable High".
This video, made by "Dukowski" is on YouTube here but it's all distorted. I have tried to rectify that.

Interested in Showing at the Hamilton County Fair ?
Most entries need to be in by August 7 - 9.
Categories include:

• Antiques
• Art & Photography
• Beef Cattle
• Dairy Cattle
• Food Exhibits
• Fruits, Berries, Nuts
• Garden Competition
• Go Green
• Goats
• Grain
• Hobbies and Crafts
• Horticultural (Artistic Arrangements)
• Horticultural (Flowers)
• Needleworkv
• Pie Contests
• Pigeons
• Poultry
• Rabbits
• Sheep
• Vegetables
• Waterfowl
• Wine

As usual, there are sub-categories based on age & such.
The Fair is 8/10-14/2010.
Get your info here.

Dealing With the Devil

Will Ohio's recent deal with animal rights activists give Ohio peace?
Not likely.
Look at California again & we see
the Governor has signed a new bill holding out-of-state producers to the same standards California producers are held to under the misrepresented Proposition 2. Will this be the next deal Strickland makes with the animal rights extremists? Will Ohio's Faustian Bargains affect Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan, too?
HSUS is not an animal welfare organization. They are not concerned with the well being of animals & they object to pet ownership as well. For these extremists a dog kennel = a puppy mill.
While Strickland's Neville Chamberlain style strategy of appeasement is ill advised, he still stands head & shoulders over Republican Schwarzenegger morally.
Be sure to see The Expendables!
Anybody remember this promise? I guess everything is ok now that the chickens are happy.

Northside Tells the West End How It's Done

Need Work? - Open a Body Shop
In a country with about 10% unemployment & cities & states trying desperately to make do with aging infrastructures, people are wondering where the money is. The Federal Government is racking up record deficits for years and we know about the bailouts for the wealthy. We know about our military bases around the world that could probably be eliminated in a day's worth of nuclear strikes. But waht about our shadow war?
The Washington Post follows the money.
Surprise. Since 9/12/01 gushers of money have been flowing into the intelligence arm of the "military - industrial complex". Only, more and more, our military is relying on outside services. That is, the people dedicating their lives to serving their country for a pittance are being backed up more and more by folks who are just trying to make as much money as possible as quickly as possible.
It's not pretty and the prospect of these businesses, that are increasingly following us domestically, selling themselves to foreign nationals is downright scary.

What's a House ?
About a hundred years ago an automobile manufacturer name of Burton Westcott commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build him a house on Springfield, Ohio's prominent High Street. Subsequent owners let the building fall apart & it became a bit of an "ruin". It was rescued & restored by the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy and The Westcott House Foundation but nobody lives there. They have meetings and receptions there & that pays the bills, but....
Wright designed homes for families. He wanted the house to positively effect the adults and the children who lived there.
For the second summer The Westcott Foundation hosts Design Studio with The Now Device to give kids the opportunity to learn audio / video & graphic design stuff.
If Burt were around today, well he wouldn't be making cars, but his kids would probably have all the audio / video gizmos money could buy today. Great to see the place used as more of a home than a hall.

The Westcott House

Noose Son story here.

Clang, Clang, Clang Goes The Trolley !
Fishwrap editors, channeling Charlie Winburn, have asked, should we try a temporary route with cute buses to see how many people invest in real estate along the route? Should we see how many people commit to a route the city is up front not committing to?
Have the Fishwrap staff painted racing stripes on their cars to make them go faster? Howabout playing cards affixed to their bike frames with clothespins?
Reminds me of an old joke.
There were two inmates in a lunatic asylum and one night they decided they're going to escape. So they get up on to the roof, and there, just across the gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in moon light, stretching away to freedom.
Unfortunately it was too far to jump from the asylum rooftop to the next. The one guy says "Hey! I have my flash light with me. I will shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk across the beam". But the other guy just shakes his head. He says "What, you think I'm crazy? How do I know you won't turn it off when I am only half way across!"

Sliding Noodles ?
White Castle has registered the name "Laughing Noodle" & has closed & commenced to remodeling their Springfield, OH store.
thelaughingnoodle.com/ is chock full of info.
hmmmm
Noose Son story here.

Top 10 Robo-Cyborg-Android Chicks

Because chicks that whir, click, buzz, beep & clank are just HOT!
If I really thought about it I would probably re-order these listings. If I was a Forbes editor I would throw darts in the dark.
#10

Tekla
Tekla from the Mainframe animated series Shadow Raiders Played a main role in the first episode & spent most of the rest of the series lying around circling the drain.



#9

Jocasta
Jocasta was created by Ultron who was created by Hank Pym (Goliath / Ant Man) using Janet van Dyne's (The Wasp & Hank Pym's wife) brain waves to be used to attack Pym. Pym re-programmed her & brought her back to life & she joined The Avengers only to turn on them when Ultron triggered her old programming with a remote control and and and
She was a Marvel character, what can I say?
I love the riveted garter!



#8

The Bionic Woman
The original - Lindsay Wagner. With her bionic legs & arm she could easily lift a small car. So why didn't her non bionic spine snap like a twig? Praise Wolverton.



#7

Motoko Kusanagi
From Ghost in the Shell 1 & 2, Motoko has to wrestle with her mechanical & personal sides while running around shooting bad guys and jumping off skyscrapers in teeming Japanese metropolises. YAY!



#6

The Mudd Twins
Harcourt Fenton Mudd lands on a planet full of androids & creates Alices 1-250 & 250 - 500 played by twins Alyce anh Rhae Andrece.



#5

Aphrodite IX
Aphrodite IX is an android hit woman who isn't too keen on her job & wrestles with her mechanical & personal sides while running around killing people & jumping through windows & such.



#4

7 of 9
The Borg chick who gets adopted by The Voyager crew & gradually becomes a regular Jane. While the Borg mantra was, "Resistance is futile", 7's was "I will not comply".



#3

The Machine Girl
The Machine Girl gets beaten and mutilated after her brother is killed by a gang & garage mechanics fit her up with a prosthetic gatling gun for her amputated forearm. Talk about lemonade outta lemons.



#2

Parody
The mother of all hot robot chicks, Rotwang globbed the features of Maria on her & messed her all up. Trivia tid - the actress who played Maria also played the robot.



#1

The Borg Queen
OK, I'll admit it, the whole cyborg / zombie thing just really works for me. Add in the interchangeable parts & it's like George Romero meets Eli Whitney.
And of course I have to tip my hat to all of H.R. Giger's crazy ass alien zombie robo mamas and Sorayama's scrawny chrome gynoids, too.

Gimme a Drive In & a Big Bucket of Popcorn !

and a corn dog or two...
It would sure be nice to see Eliza Dushku start getting some of these Jessica Alba type roles.

Changing Plans for America's Cemeteries

For years, probably over a century, Crawford Avenue has been separated from Spring Grove Cemetery by a stately brick wall. Over the years, due in part to water runoff & ponding, the wall has become less & less stable. Portions have been torn down & been replaced with beautiful black cyclone fence.



This guy has been sitting dormant for awhile. It's Cincinnati - people leave stuff.....



Anyway, last night I spotted this & put 2+2 together.



This morning. At this time I don't know if they are planning on just finishing the rest off or not.
In the fall you could hear the residents sitting on the wall chatting & joking. Dunno if the fence will be as conducive to conversation.

UPDATE

After an extensive interview with one of the dmolition specialists, I have found that the entire north end of the wall extending from about Bercliff up to the gate will be demolished. I am guessing the southern section near the Sam Hannaford designed garage is ok. Should I be a complete geek & get one of the bricks?

Unedited Animal Rights Propoganda Fails to Indict
Animal Rights group, Mercy for Animals' shock ad showing worst case animal care activities tugged at our heart strings & was probably a key element in the state caving to animal rights groups on livestock care legislation. However the unedited version led a grand jury to not indict the farm owner.
Kinda sound like the O'Keefe Acorn video scam?
Through clever editing the guy made an incriminating video that played a part in Acorn losing it's federal funding. In the unedited tapes, however, it was made clear that the final cut was misleading.
The fired farm worker in the MFA ad is yet to see a grand jury.
The Animal rights folks have taken their ballot measure off the table but they are still collecting signatures like it is. Seems illegal to me, at least unethical & deceitful. Kinda like giving your rights organization a name that sounds like it is affiliated with local welfare organizations.

Fishwrap story here.

Brawndo - The Thirst Mutilator

Soda from movies...
Now I need some True Blood.