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NFL Kickoff concert
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2008 Venice Film Festival
2008 VMA nominations
Brit’s back on MTV!
Hard to think it was barely a year ago that we had all that excitement…
Sigh…
Anybody taking any bets on how this is gonna turn out?
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Have you ever seen a bullfight?
What do you think?
I haven’t, though I confess that I have always wanted to see one. Just once, at least, to see what it’s like.
This long and excellent piece in the UK’s Prospect magazine describes one in Seville in chilling detail and asks all the right moral, ethical and aesthetic questions about bullfights, which the writer notes are among the most contentious, disagreed-upon events in western culture.
We were traveling with friends last year in Seville and our hotel was across the street from the bullring in this essay; I tried like hell to get my companions to go to the Sunday afternoon fight. No takers. Alas.
Or, maybe not.
What do you think?
What a perfect weekend!
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Labor Day Weekend’s always fun in these parts…
— Alter Fest is the main noisy shebang in our neighborhood; we live nearby and never fail to walk through the cul-de-sac fence to grab one of the chicken dinners, always a treat. This year my son took home a good share of poker winnings, and we enjoyed hanging out with friends and watching the people stroll by. The main things you can hear from our house all weekend: The bands (good grief, I heard about four versions of “Horse With No Name”; the guy up in the booth making announcements all weekend; and teenage girls on the tilt-a-whirl screaming their heads off.
— The Reggae Festival downtown is always a blast. This year Jah Root from Springfield, Missouri, stole the part of the show that I was able to get to… Great band, extremely tight, and as Rev. Cool put it, if you squinted you might mistake them for real Jamaicans. The Rev. was emceeing his first Reggae Festival, kinda a surprise that they haven’t asked him to do it before… could anybody be more natural for the gig? Good music, great setting in the lovely Dave Hall Plaza, and you can’t beat $3 beers. I picked up a few of the free books (yay!) and enjoyed camping out for a few hours, making new friends. Some of the best people-watching in town, too.
— Ohio Players at the Fraze! Rain! Sound problems! Great show anyway!!! See previous post.
— What a great Holiday at Home Parade this year! It was pretty tight and a bit shorter, minus Beavercreek High’s band and a couple of floats, but otherwise it was just perfect. Loved the Budweiser Clydesdales! And an actual Olympian medalist! Lots to see, people to greet, and a wonderful time on a perfect late-summer morning. It was the 50th anniversary of the parade, and the folks who run it did their usual great job.
— We helped set up and break down tents and tables for the festival on Lincoln Park, which was a good workout and a useful peek behind the scenes for how that whole thing comes together. The answer, as with most things: A few committed, hard-working volunteers who pitch in while the rest of us are doing other stuff. Here’s to all the volunteers who put on all the events around the Dayton area that make it a fun and festive place to live. Thanks!
Best part of this weekend, and the part I like best: It means my favorite season, fall, is just around the corner. Excellent.
Ah, Emily…
Cool new book out on one of our favorites, Emily Dickinson…
Getting wet with the Ohio Players
What do you think?
A big, big pat on the back for everybody who was at the Fraze Friday night:
The fans who stuck it out during an hour of steady downpour before the Ohio Players took the stage, ducking for cover and stay as dry as possible;
The same fans who happily, calmly sat in their seats while the Fraze underwent post-shower moisture problems with the sound system for about another hour;
The engineers who worked hard to fix said problems;
The Fraze staff who helped keep thing upbeat and orderly;
The guy down in the middle seats someplace who kept leading that “Fiiiiiiiire!” chant from time to time;
And the Ohio Players themselves, who finally, about 10:20 PM, took the Fraze stage for the first time in their long careers and turned in a brisk, lively, heartfelt house-party of a performance for the hometown crowd that kept funking along till nearly midnight and sent everybody home damp and happy.
I had never seen the Players live, and had always wanted to…. Heck, I remember hearing “Funky Worm” when I was a high school freshman, thinking that I had NEVER ruite heard anything like it before….
And “Fire”? One of the greatest pop songs of all time, period. Written right here in Dayton, Ohio, folks.
Four original members kept the show going with well-chosen newer members who fit right in and made the sound feel right. They still have plenty of funk, spunk and soul, and know how to rock out (horns included) at just the right time. Hoo-ah! A good show, all in all, even though the lateness and circumstances forced the band to race through some of their stuff. Not a prob.
Glad we stuck around…
Off to NeverNeverLand!
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Well, I finally made it to Disney World.
I had put it off. Avoided the place, for the most part. The last time I was there was the week Nixon resigned, when I was 14, and for years I’d had more distinct memories of our family racing back to the hotel at night to watch Walter Cronkite narrating the unfolding national drama than I did of Cinderella’s castle. Geeky, sure, but I was already a news junkie.
Later in life, Disney World just never emerged high on the list of places my wife and I had on the top-of-mind vacation list. When my parents offered to take our kids when they were little, that was cool with us; we stayed home and enjoyed the quiet, pretty sure we weren’t missing much.
If it sounds as though I’m carrying some Disney grudge, that’s not the case. I’m a big fan of the classic cartoons and have seen them all lots of times. Pixar? Geniuses. “Wonderful World of Color”? Grew up on it. Generally speaking, I like most of the entertainment product that carries the Disney brand.
It’s just that the theme park, and the whole idea of it, just didn’t interest me. Why go see a fake German biergarten, I figured, when there’s a whole country full of the real thing that’s a lot more interesting? And not that much more expensive to enjoy? Of course, this couldn’t last. When my folks announced they were gathering the whole family together for their 50th anniversary and that Disney World was the place, I knew my snobbish disdain of “It’s a Small, Small World” would have to come to an end. And after four very fun days, Mousketeers, I’m happy to admit it: I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Within a few hours of strolling Epcot and the Magic Kingdom, I was lulled by it all. I was hooked. It’s a great place and a fun vacation — which I know many of you already know, from the weird looks I got from friends when they heard I hadn’t ever taken my own kids there. Bad dad me.
I offer, then, a few stray thoughts and observations, fresh from the Disney front, for anybody who’s been:
— It’s a family place, but I don’t think most very young children can really enjoy it; the park is a pure sensory overload, even for an adult. For a 3-year-old, it’s probably like a jolt of LSD. Most of the little kids we saw were crying. Perfect age would be 10, I’d think.
— Reminder: Florida in August is hot.
— They took out the E-ticket attraction I remember best: The submarine ride! Guess there’s not much call these days for “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” Oh, well.
— As a manager, I found myself musing about how well-run the place is. How do they keep every lightbulb lit? How do they keep it so impeccably clean? How do they staff the Moroccan restaurant with real Moroccans? How do they keep security so invisible?
— The one glitch: Restaurant billing via those credit-card “keys” you buy. It was screwed up for our entire group. Oh, well.
— I most enjoyed the Animal Kingdom. It felt less fakey than the rest of the park, and best achieved the illusion of reality. Of course, the animals could have been animatronic … I guess …
— Bush sounded better in the Hall of Presidents than he does in real life.
— Major nit: This isn’t the park’s fault, but we were amazed by the number of nonwalkers on scooters. They gum up the traffic flow and slow down the bus system. Sorry, save your angry e-mail on this one; legitimate disabilities are one thing, but morbid overeating that puts you in a vehicle that runs over my foot does not count. America: Walk more!
Finally, even though I liked Disney World quite a lot, I left the park feeling a little sad for Mickey Mouse. He’s all over, from signs to coffee mugs, and he’s one of the most recognizable icons in the world. But have you seen him on the big or small screen lately? Oddly, Disney has gradually de-emphasized Mickey’s place in its entertainment offerings, with only a smattering of mostly insignificant appearances for the little guy since the 1970s. It’s a shame, but from a pure marketing standpoint, I wonder why Disney wouldn’t want to keep refreshing its biggest character for new generations to learn and respond to.
And don’t get me started on Donald …
Trans-Siberian Orchestra: Can they be stopped???
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This just in from the folks at the Nutter Center… CAN ANYONE PREVENT THIS???
Winter’s Hottest Annual Arena Rock Attraction to Visit Dayton on Sunday, Jan. 4
One of the biggest arena attractions in rock music, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO), will once again take to the road this holiday season for what will be another monumental tour, more than 90 cities coast-to-coast in a nine-week period. Locally, 104.7 WTUE, Mix 107.7 and Lite 99.9 present Trans-Siberian Orchestra at E.J. Nutter Center on Sunday, Jan. 4 at 3 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.
Tickets ($58.50, $48.50, $38.50) for the show go on-sale Monday, Sept. 8 at 10 a.m. via Livenation.com, E.J. Nutter Center ticket office, Ticketmaster or charge-by-phone at (937) 228-2323.
I’m just askin’.
Writer and editor 
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Hate to say this to you Ron. I know you’re supposed to be reporting on things like this.. But…..