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Writer and editor Home > Blogs > Brain Droppings > Archives > 2009 > February
February 2009
Do you love Lincoln?
This writer and artist certainly does… And how.
I started off not liking this piece from the Times, but ended up finding it rather charming and sweet.
I’ve had the French toast at the Lincoln Diner in Gettysburg, by the way… It was good.
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Living the Facebook life
Ron is thinking about Facebook.
Ron is realizing just about everybody else is, too.
Ron is reconnecting with old friends he hasn’t seen in years.
Ron is staying easily in touch with co-workers, friends and other people he knows, but doesn’t see as often as he’d like.
Ron is making new acquaintances.
Ron is aware that Facebook is no substitute for actual human contact.
Ron is liking it anyway.
Ron is wondering what he’s going to do this weekend.
Ron is amused by “experts” who say the interconnectivity afforded by Facebook may shorten our attention spans and make us dumber.
Ron is happy Facebook has helped him spend less time with TV, which unquestionably makes you dumber.
Ron is also happy that he has gotten over the initial crack-book phase of Facebook use.
Ron is pleased it only took about five months.
Ron is astonished that more than 150 million people are on Facebook with him.
Ron is pretty sure that’s about twice the population of France.
Ron is thinking that Facebook may be the greatest invention for communication since the telephone.
Ron is sure he read that “experts” thought the telephone was a bad idea, too.
Ron is typing.
Ron is curious about the way Facebook has subtly altered the notion of who is, or is not, one’s “friend.”
Ron is curious about how much people are willing to share about their personal lives with people they might not know very well.
Ron is curious about how Facebook draws out feelings and sentiments people might not otherwise reveal or share.
Ron is curious about how Facebook might further alter the way people interact.
Ron is imagining that Facebook will transform our notions of privacy and its limits.
Ron is wondering whether Facebook will soon change the very nature of what we currently think of as a “community.”
Ron is watching an old movie.
Ron is trying to figure out how Facebook will change the news business.
Ron is trying to figure out how Facebook will change lots of other businesses that haven’t even occurred to him yet.
Ron is interested in the idea that middle-aged people who now flock to Facebook have co-opted a technological tool that was developed for teens and twentysomethings.
Ron is thinking that usually, it’s the other way around.
Ron is cheered that about 10 to 15 percent of his Facebook friends are over 60.
Ron is looking out the window.
Ron is wondering what will emerge to replace Facebook.
Ron is thinking it won’t be Twitter, despite early indications.
Ron is wondering how Facebook continue to evolve, and how large it will grow.
Ron is thinking he can’t wait to find out.
Ron is enjoying the amazing, dreamlike quality of being able to connect and share — even if only so far — in the lives, activities, thoughts, pastimes, frustrations, heartbreaks, plans and hopes of hundreds of fascinating people from all walks of life. Ron is thinking we live in amazing times.
Ron is glad.
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ArtTalk!
This just in from the talented Tiffany Shaw-Diaz, the local artist and journalist who hosts the interesting “ArtTalk” show on local community access TV. Follow the link and learn more… her program is a nice way to keep up with what’s going on the in the local fine-arts community.
Here’s her note:
Dear ArtTalk Friends, The entire season 1 of ArtTalk is now available for on-demand viewing at www.viddler.com/explore/ArtTalk. There are nine episodes in season 1.
Artists are: photographer Kidtee Hello, sculptor Shon Walters, performance/installation artist Susan Byrnes, performance/graphic artist Leigh Waltz, painter Amy Kollar Anderson, painter MB Hopkins, mixed-media artist Derrick Davis, kinetic sculptor Terry Welker, and computer artist Scarlet Trust. Thanks to Mike Cornett at Visual Media Concepts for his instrumental help in getting ArtTalk online!!! Season 2 of ArtTalk will premiere Tuesday, March 10th at 10p.m. on CATV23 with photographer Benjamin Montague.
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Dream a little dream…
Over the last few days, I realize that I’ve overheard conversations several times in which co-workers or friends are discussing their dreams. They’ve seemed eager to share their dreams, and to discuss how often they have them.
Purely anecdotally, of course, this seems more often than I usually overhear such talk. It occurred to me, too, that I seem to have a much greater awareness of my own dreams these days.
Is it some sort of sign of the stressful economic times in which we’re living? When we’re more anxious during the day, does our dream world become more lively and active at night?
If, as I’ve read, the point of dreams is to help us resort, reboot and properly file away the memories and activities of our day, then wouldn’t our dreams be more vivid and important in times like these?
What about you? Do you find that you are remembering your dreams more? Have you wanted to discuss and share them?
I have had several friends over the years who have kept dream journals, which they say are very helpful in capturing their dreams and the messages therein. Do you keep one?
What’s in it?
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The Da Vinci code…
Just put it off till tomorrow!!!
Hey, worked for him.
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The latest on the Dayton Peace Accords
This update on the state of things in the Balkans from the New York Times… I still like the sound, even after all these years, of “Dayton” used in this context…
Hope that context remains in place, and in play.
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A great-sounding gallery show
This just came in from the Link Gallery in the Oregon Arts District. I’ve been following Glen Cebulash’s work for some time and bought a piece of his last year for the living room. I’m less familiar with his wife’s work, but look forward to seeing them together.
Here’s the news release:
Glen Cebulash and Rachel Stanzione
Link Gallery, located in The Oregon Arts District, presents the work of Glen Cebulash and Rachel Stanzione.
Glen Cebulash and Rachel Stanzione are placing their work together in this husband-and-wife exhibit for the first time. Their work address the human form in a variety of mediums, including painting, sculpture and collage. The exhibit will run through the month of March and will be part of the First Friday Event, March 6th 5-10pm.
Gallery Go-ers can board the Wright Flyer Trolley for free rides along Fifth Street, taking participants to all of the OAD galleries and to other art venues in downtown Dayton.
Dates: March 6 - 28
Artist Talk-Wine Reception: Saturday March 21, 6:30, talk begins at 7:00
Link Gallery Hours:
Wed: 5-7pm, Thurs and Fri: 2-4pm and 5 -7pm, Sat: 3 -7pm
By appointment: Kaye Carlile - (937) 224-7707 (appointment line) (937) 222-7211 (gallery line)
519 East Fifth Street Dayton, OH 45402
In The Historic Oregon Arts District
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The very lovely ‘Elixir’
Before we headed to the Oscar Party, the wife and I caught the Sunday matinee of the Dayton Opera’s production of “The Elixir of Love,” and had a blast.
It’s a fun, lively comedy by Gaetano Donizetti that was handled wonderfully by the Dayton Opera crew. It’s all about star-crossed lovers who just don’t have the words or gumption to tell each other how they really feel about each other … mayhem of the amusing sort ensues, of course, and in the end they get together and sing their hearts out.
Scott Piper and Rachel Watkins as the struggling young couple headed a top-flight cast. Great music and a lot of fun.
Opera lovers (and I know you’re out there) … did you see it?
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They ruined my favorite book!
How often have you said that about a movie?
This piece from Slate kicks around and why it happens, time and time again… Have a look.
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What are you doing for Oscar Night?
It’s a glittery evening of stars!
We’ve got some co-worker friends who live downtown and put on an Oscar Party that is quite the thing… they get folks to put on skits from their favorite movies of the year — some impromtu, some not — and give fake Oscars made of Ken dolls glued to tuna cans. It’s a hoot.
Heading down to the Neon for its annual shindig? Got a party of your own planned? Staying in and snuggling on the couch by the fire?
What are your plans?
And who’s your nod for Best Picture?
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Too bad about the ‘Weed…
It wasn’t my favorite joint, necessarily, but I’m still sad to read the head about the big fire at the Tumbleweed Connection. Any blow to the Oregon District is a sorry thing for the whole area.
Condolences to the owners, staff and patrons…
Oh, yeah. And all the bikers. Vroom.
Got any memories of or thoughts about the place you want to share?
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Slumdog, glass-blowing and WYSO
A bit of this, a bit of that on a chilly winter’s day:
@ Were you also amused by the week’s Facebook mini-scandal, in which the site announced it plans to keep all your stuff forever, whether you remain a user or not? They seem to be reconsidering after the outcry, but still. I’m no copyright lawyer, but doesn’t any media site always get to keep using the content on its servers, whether it says so or not? Just asking. Remember this handy tip, kids: Bongs and cameras don’t mix!
@ Here’s another tip: Run, don’t walk, to see the new special exhibition at the Dayton Art Institute, a stunning glass show by sculptor William Morris. You’ve never seen anything like the way he blends the art of native cultures from across the globe, and the magical properties he draws from glass. It opens this weekend. Go.
@ While you’re there, pause with the perfectly rendered landscapes of Robert Whitmore, a Dayton artist who worked in the 1920s and painted scenes around Yellow Springs. His lovely, rarely seen work is on temporary exhibition.
@ Speaking of learning something new, I recently started tuning into the eclectic program “Kaleidoscope” on WYSO-FM, hosted by Juliet Fromholt. She plays just about anything, from Goldfrapp to Tom Waits — a cool modern playlist with local bands and key altrockish oldies tossed in. It’s on 91.3 Wednesdays from 8-11 p.m.; I make it a point to listen every week.
@ Speaking of music, I’m still trying to figure out what I think of the new Bruce Springsteen album, “Working on a Dream”; people keep asking me, and I keep being evasive. I know I don’t dislike it, though I do hate the first song. I also know I am not likely to end up liking it nearly as much as I love “Magic,” his last album. I think angry, desolate Bruce is always more interesting than happy, upbeat Bruce — true of most art and artists, I guess.
@It isn’t quite time for the Wright State Arts Gala, so it must not be spring yet.
@ Speaking of WSU, I attended “Doc Night” a few weeks ago, where the documentaries made by film-program juniors are shown. It was smart, engaging, thought-provoking work with a fine finish. Talented artists, all.
@ Speaking of good films, I say let’s just go ahead and give the Best Picture Oscar to “Slumdog Millionaire” by default. I know “The Reader” is well-acted, but we’ve done Nazi war crimes before, thank you. The whole premise of “Benjamin Button” irritates me. “Milk”? OK, but biopics win easily, all the time. “Frost/Nixon” unites two obnoxious narcissists so they can be narciscistically obnoxious together. But “Slumdog”? Hey, it’s about time America really meets India, don’t you think?
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Wise words from Bing Davis
Dayton’s favorite artist — seems safe to call him that, anyway — Willis “Bing” Davis, added another nice award to his brimming trophy case Wednesday night when the Dayton Art Institute presented him with the Pamela Houk Award for excellence in art education.
Houk was the founder of the DAI’s award-winning Experiencenter for young people, a neat place on the ground floor where students can get a fresh perspective on art, art-making and art history. If you haven’t taken your kid there, you should. Besides, it’s free!
Davis and Houk go way back as friends to the days when Bing taught at the old Living Arts Center, the eclectic interdisciplinary arts program run by the Dayton City Schools in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He brought her on to run the art gallery at the Center, which showcased student art produced there.
From that experience, when the LAC shut down, she created the Experiencenter at the DAI.
Davis, of course, has been teaching young people ever since — in local elementary schools, at Miami, at UD, at Central State and in workshops at his wonderful EbonNia Gallery compex on West Third Street in Dayton’s Wright-Dunbar District. If you haven’t been there, you should visit. It’s free!
When he accepted the award, Davis had a few words of wisdom he shared with the audience at the NCR Renaissance Auditorium. He said that all his life, he had tried to live the words passed along by his mother, who is now 101 and raised six children.
“She told us two things: First, to reach high, and reach back. Always reach high, and reach back.
“And she also taught us that wherever we went, we should walk with dust on our shoes.” By that, he said, she meant that they should always carry with them the legacy and memory of the past and the people who have made them and gotten them where they are.
Neat words, well said. And of course, no surprise from Bing. Knowing that every time we talk, I’ll learn something new is one of the reasons I’m always happy to see him again.
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As good a radio show as you’ll hear anywhere
Check out the new eclectic program “Kaleidoscope” on WYSO, hosted by Juliet Fromholt. She plays just about anything, and has amazingly good taste. Either it’s a fairly new show or I just stumbled onto it recently; either way, I make it a point to tune in every week.
Here’s tonite’s playlist… She’s on Wednesday nites starting at 8 and running till 11, at 91.3 FM. If you like your music different, give a listen.
Tell me what you think.
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Still time to enter our writing contest!
Hey, if you write short stories or poems, you still have time to enter our 13th annual DDN Short Story and Poetry Contest.
Follow these rules, and good luck!!!
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Facebook backs off … for now, anyway
Facebook is rethinking things…
You probably saw or heard about the mini-tempest stirred up when Facebook tried to make it official policy that it owns all content on its site even after users cancel their accounts, an apparent reversal of previous policy. The story hit the wires and airwaves yesterday, as Facebook users gradually started reading the fine print in the use agreement most folks just click through on their way to posting their first profile pic…
Anyway, now they say they’re backing off and giving it more thought after a bunch of insta-protests from users popped up.
So, what do you think of all this? With more than 150 million users — twice the population of France, btw — FB is getting bigger and bigger in many lives, and is having more impact on the way people relate socially than any tool since the telephone was invented…
Ron is thinking we haven’t seen the last of all this.
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Heard the new Springsteen yet?
I just got “Working on a Dream” last weekend, and it’s still sinking in… So far, I’m of slightly mixed mind on it, so I’m taking opinions…
What do you think of the disc?
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Kids’ movies at the Little Art
Nifty idea, just in from the fine folks at the Little Art Theatre in Yellow Springs. Here’s the news release:
Little Art Theatre to Present Children’s Film Series
“Saturday’s Picture Show,” a new twice-monthly films series especially for kids, ages 3-12, kicks off at the Little Art Theatre, on Saturday, February 28, with a Red Carpet opening at 1 pm. Young filmgoers can put on their movie star finery and walk down a real red carpet, complete with paparazzi.
The first show opens with a short film titled, “March On!” which honors the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The feature film is an animated movie from the Jim Henson Company, “Unstable Fables: Goldilocks & 3 Bears Show.” On March 14, the double-bill features a short animated music video, “Billy the Squid,” and a live-action feature film, “Beethoven’s Big Break.”
Future dates are March 28 and April 11, and show time is 1:30 p.m. There’s no admission charge for the series, however, a recommended donation of $4 will help the Little Art to continue to offer a wide selection of quality film programming for the entire community. The Little Art Theatre is located at 247 Xenia Avenue in Yellow Springs; directions and more information are available at www.littleart.com.
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More lively video game debate
Devoted, if slightly bleary-eyed, reader Mick D was up late last night prowling back through the archives and stumbled across an entry I posted last June about an article arguing video games may make you smarter — rather than dumber, as I’ve always suggested.
Here’s what he wrote, which is now attached to the original as well. He makes some very good and thoughtful points, so I thought I’d highlight them this morning. Thanks, Mick.
What were you doing up that late, if you weren’t playing?
I felt the same way as you for a very long time until a close friend organized the PS3 launch party in LA and told me that video games “make more money than your business” (motion pictures). I was curious so I began looking into them from an investing standpoint (Nintendo is an amazing comeback story). Naturally I wondered what the fascination was so I “invested” in “last gen” consoles and did some research in the “best” or “most unique” games of the last generation in addition to a few that received less than steller reviews and comments for the sake of comparison. In other words, I played a few video games. On top of that I got a gig working on one for Sony so that I could get a more in depth understanding of the process and the people involved. Video games have now become a part of my “entertainment portfolio”. Like literature or cinema, if I am not engaged within a reasonable amount of time I cut my losses. Like in literature and cinema there is art and trash. Video games have merit. They are not passive and, at their best, they do make you think. Puzzle solving alone can be worth the mental investment. Give them a shot. You can pick up a 30 day warranted last-gen console and a few quality games for less than 50 bucks. If nothing else you can back up your opinion with personal, up to date, experience. You may even find one that you like. There may even be one that could be a good influence on kids; “Animal Crossing” comes to mind. Sometimes, kids just having fun has its merits, especially on a rainy or snowy day and something wacky like “Super Monkey Ball” can fill you living room with laughter. Multiplayer games can be an opportunity for the family to spend time together much like board games. Seriously, relax, have some fun.
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Wow! Singing Valentines!
OK, here’s something you want to do next year for somebody special…
The wife and I had a dinner party for some friends on Saturday night (fondue! very retro and festive), and about an hour into the festivities, a knock came a rappin’ at the front door.
In come four lovely ladies in black slacks and sparkly red sweaters, and they had a song in their hearts and entertainment on their minds. Turns out one of the friends we had over for dinner had secretly arranged a singing valentine for the party!
They were a quartet called Wild Blue Yonder, so named because they all have some sort of Air Force connection. They know each other as members of the Gem City Chorus, the great local female barbershop singing collaborative.
And they were fabulous! They stood in the living room as the group of us sat and were wonderfully entertained by their delicious, swoony four-part harmony and exuberant showmanship. Even our normally barky dogs were transfixed.
Three romantic, sweet songs later, a nice evening was even nicer. Info on hiring the group is available at the website… think about it next year! You won’t be sorry.
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The Slumdog fan club…
I think I need a T-shirt that says, “I haven’t seen ‘Slumdog’ yet, but want to.”
I’d probably be the only person in the country who could wear it, tho…
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Lincoln and Darwin: Two very modern men
Happy birthday week to these big fellows. Consider the following quote and then read the piece.
From Adam Gopnik, usually of the New Yorker: “Darwin and Lincoln did not make the modern world. But they helped make our moral modernity,” he writes. “For more than a century they’ve been part of the climate of modern life, systems in the weather of the modern world.”
Onward!
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New ideas for fixing downtown
A sportsplex?
Bright colors? Strings of lights?
Cheaper housing, indoor parking and attractive new walkways?
Ideas, ideas, ideas.
They were flowing on Thursday, Feb. 12, when about 75 people gathered in the new downtown artists’ meeting room known as c{space to talk about how to fix Dayton’s city center. The meeting was one of several organized by the Downtown Dayton Partnership and other civic leaders to get a regional conversation started about downtown’s future (the next one is Tuesday, Feb. 17, at Sinclair’s Ponitz Center, 7 p.m.; visit www.downtowndayton.org for more).
While the room was filled with familiar faces — longtime downtown supporters who’ve seen lots of proposals come and go — people seem to have the sense that this time, there’s really something brewing that might stick. Here’s hoping. Meanwhile, here were some of the suggestions:
@ A dog park.
@ More green space and trees.
@A recreational sportsplex north of downtown, perhaps in the Island Park area, that could attract people from the whole metro area.
@ Figure out where downtown’s “gateway” should be, and make it look inviting.
@ Add lights and bright colors downtown, from the towers to the streetscape. Lots of people commented — correctly, I think — that Dayton’s drab downtown could use some prettying up. One man mentioned that the festive paintjob on the Fifth Street Oregon railroad overpass would look great elsewhere. Hear, hear.
@ Before adding more public art, take care of what we’ve got — such as fixing the deteriorating “Flyover” on Main Street. Hear, hear; I’m surprised the city lets it look the way it does.
@ Clean up the grafitti.
@ Invest in housing that isn’t all expensive loft condos; several people said they’d like to move downtown but can’t afford it, or don’t want a historic fixer-upper. What else? Small fountains. A family center with daycare. Trolleys. Community gardens. Murals. Bike lockers. New bike trails. A woman reminded the nearly all-white group that all parts of the city must be involved and heard from. Others praised the idea floated last week for a hockey arena at Fourth and Main on Dave Hall Plaza.
Several people talked about the center city’s image, and how the media contributes to it, for good or ill. “We need a cultural-change campaign,” one man said, “and that involves more than the media.”
“We need to find our niche,” a young woman concluded. “The thing we want to be known for, and become that.”
What I think I see Dayton becoming known for in the short term is not giving up on itself — for looking hard at things and deciding what has to be done, hard times or not, to become a better, more liveable place. What it becomes known for after that is in our hands, and remains to be seen.
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Interesting program next week on WDPR
This just in from WDPR-FM’s newsletter “Keynotes.” Larry Kensington’s “Arts Focus” program runs several times during the mornings on the classical station at 88.1. This sounds like an interesting session. Tune in!
“I think next week’s 2-part Arts Focus (Feb. 17 and 19) will be pretty cool. There are two UD professors, Joe Castellano, who teaches accounting, and Roger Crum, who teaches art history, who are now collaborating on a course called “The Art of Business and the Business of Art.” Among the things the students taking the course are doing is developing a marketing plan for the Oregon Arts District. They’ve also done some teleconferencing with people from Christie’s art auction house and an animator who works for Disney. Makes me wish I were taking the class.” ~Larry Kensington
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Happy other people’s birthday!
Well, sure it’s the 200th birthday today of good old Abraham Lincoln, one of my favorite people … believe it or not, I even have a bust of him on my desk at work. When I feel the need for inspiration or wisdom, I rub his nose. Works every time.
But, did you know that Feb. 12 is also the birthday of lots of other famous folks? Among them:
Charles Darwin
Gen. Omar Bradley
Ray Manzarek, of the Doors.
Author Judy Blume
Josh Brolin, the actor
Michael McDonald, from the Doobie Brothers
Darren Aronofsky, director of “The Wrestler”
Comedian Arsenio Hall
and … drum roll … sportscaster Joe Garagiola. That’s one I knew, because I had a friend in high school also born on this date, and he’d always wish people a “Happy Joe Garagiola’s birthday.”
Happy Joe Garagiola’s birthday to you!
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still spending money on art…
interesting piece… seems the recession isn’t hitting everywhere, yet… big art still sells…
have a look…
remember, back in 1995 or so, when one of these Degas dancers came to the DAI?
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Movies and comics… spare us, please.
I admit it: I’m tired, tired, tired of movies based on comic books … which seems to be nearly every movie made anymore…
But this is, I admit, a fairly intriguing (if slightly overwrought) defense/explanation/dissection of Hollywood’s love affair with superheroes and their ilk…
Have a look.
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The coolest thing you’ll see today
What’s the absolutely coolest thing you’ll see all day, if you live in the Dayton area?
Simple: These stunning photos from DDN Staff Photographer Ron Alvey of two pairs of bald eagles nesting, flying and hunting at Eastwood MetroPark.
Yes, that’s right… Four bald eagles have taken roost right here in our fair city. After decades of DDT-induced decline, bald eagles have gradually been making a comeback in Ohio. They started nesting near Lake Erie a few years ago and have been making their way south — and finally, some are living here amongst us.
Aren’t they magnificent?
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The line of the nite!
From David Letterman:
“It was warm and cloudy in New York today … kinda like a sample of Alex Rodriguez’s urine…”
and…
“I completely sympathize with A-Rod… I once did a show using performance-enhancing vodka…”
badum-bum-bump! crash.
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Writers! Poets! Enter our contest
Hey, if you like to write short stories or poetry, it’s time to think about entering the latest Dayton Daily News Short Story and Poetry Contest.
We’ve done this now for 13 years, and it works like this: You write the story and the poem, or you reach into your files for some writing you’ve already done that you just can’t wait to submit and share. Then you read the rules here and find out where and how to send in your stuff.
Then, later this spring, our panel of staff and community judges gets to work plowing through the entries — we usually get about 500-800 of them — and come up with the best.
The winning stories and poems are published in the DDN this summer, and are also posted on daytondailynews.com.
This year, as last, the writer judged to be “Best of Show” will be awarded a full scholarship to this summer’s Antioch Writer’s Workshop.
Enter and enjoy… and good luck! Folks can’t wait to read your stuff.
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the “dog bounce”
the announcers at the westminster dog show just talked for a bit about the “bounce” that breeds get when they win in the show, or when they show up prominently in a TV show, book or movie….
i say: ridiculous. why would you jump up and buy a certain kind of dog just because you saw it on a tv show? you know, i assume, that that dog will be at your house for the next 12 to 15 years, right?
soooooooooo, why not ignore the “bounce” and just go down to the humane society, or SICSA, and adopt a dog that is just as wonderful and really, really needs a home?
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The most over-rated musician today
I’ve thought it before, and I thought it again last nite during the Grammys: The most over-rated pop musician in the world at the moment HAS to be Lil Wayne.
Obviously, he’s fairly blinded by his own brilliance, and he seems to have convinced plenty of critics, fans and CD buyers of it, too.
But I’m not gettin’ it. I like rap just fine, but I’m mystified how Wayne has risen to the top of the genre, and even come close to crossing over. When I hear him, I think the guy’s merely average… His raps seem to be always wandering off some place instead of the beat. He seems to have one speed: slowish. He sounds tongue-tied lots of the time. Most of his songs are pretty sluggish. And it’s not like his writing is so gosh-darn clever that it makes up for all the rest of this…
With so many other talented guys out there with a mike, how’d he claw his way to the top?
Maybe I’m wrong… Somebody illuminate me, please…
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Why can’t we hear the Grammys?
Good lordamighty, who’s in charge of the sound broadcast at the Grammy awards? It sounds like they’re singing in a bathtub, or a hangar.
The instruments seem to be running through the board, but the mikes aren’t turned on, and it sounds like we’re hearing the singers from the ambient noise of the amphitheater.
It’s an utter production disaster… Really, for a show of this level I’ve never seen anything like this… Somebody will be fired by tomorrow. Or forced to listen to Neil Diamond again…
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A fine local troubador
Shout out to Nick Mitchell!
This fine local singer and guitarist seems to have become one of the top go-to guys in town when an event organizer needs somebody to provide a high-quality, laid-back curtain of music behind a crowded event. He was at Saturday’s Winter Alefest and did a fine job providing the music as about 600 folks wandered the hall sipping craft beers and munching on fine food.
Mitchell’s music was always quietly in the background — never overly showy, but always appropriate and good to hear. The leader of the local rock band Skeptical Cats does a mixture of Beatles, Who and other classic rock, rearranged for single guitar and his own easy baritone; the song that made me stop, step away from the crowd and pay close attention was a knowing version of “Behind Blue Eyes” — not an easy song to translate into this sort of venue and event, but which Mitchell made work.
Anyway, you can catch him around town in lots of places. He’s at the Dublin Pub, Harrigan’s and Cadillac Jack’s a lot, and his schedule is at www.skepticalcats.com. Catch him if you can. He puts on a good show every time.
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HBO plans Dayton premiere of Sister Dorothy film
HBO is working with several local organizations to put on a Dayton premiere of its new documentary about the slaying of Sister Dorothy Stang in the Brazilian rain forests — a politically charged, emotional case that has captivated people in the Miami Valley who know the Dayton native and followed her work in South America.
Director Daniel Junge wanted his film, “They Killed Sister Dorothy,” to play in Dayton before it broadcasts on HBO in late March. It’s narrated by Martin Sheen.
HBO is working with FilmDayton, a new organization promoting film culture and economic development, to present a premiere screening of the film at the Dayton Art Institute on March 19. HBO sent a three-person scouting team to Dayton Friday to take an advance look at venues and meet with FilmDayton representatives to work out plans.
The screening will be free, but you’ll have to RSVP in advance by calling a special number at HBO in New York. Stay tuned on details about where to call to do that.
The DAI auditorium holds 500, and expect a sellout crowd. A private VIP reception will be held before the evening screening, and a Q&A with director Junge and other members of the filmmaking team will occur right after.
It should be a special night for the many people in Dayton who admired Sister Dorothy, and who have followed the harrowing twists and turns of her case as it’s gone through the Brazilian courts. Junge’s film has won a basketful of awards already, and is all by accounts a remarkable picture.
We can’t wait to see it here.
For details as they happen, come back this site, or visit the filmdayton.ning.com or daytoncreate.org and go to the FilmDayton page.
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Famed filmmaker comes to town
This just in. Sounds like a pretty cool event! Press release from Wright State:
From Reels to Stills Groundbreaking filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles takes the stage at Wright State University
“From Reels to Stills,” the fifth annual Kuumba Black Arts Festival at Wright State University, features pioneering filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles in a free, public presentation on Tuesday, Feb. 10, in the university’s Student Union.
The word “Kuumba,” Swahili for “creativity,” defines the innovative work of Van Peebles, who for the last 40 years has offered fresh, and sometimes controversial, images of African Americans.
The public can attend an Actor’s Studio Segment with Van Peebles from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Endeavor Room, room 156, Student Union. The Actor’s Studio, an open dialogue with Van Peebles featuring clips from his life’s work, will be led by Stuart McDowell, Ph.D., chair of Wright State’s Department of Theatre, Dance and Motion Pictures. The public is also invited to a free buffet dinner beginning at 4:45 p.m., followed by Van Peebles’ lecture from 6:15 to 7:15 p.m., in the Apollo Room in the Student Union.
Last year, Van Peebles was honored at the Gotham Independent Film Awards in New York City. “Melvin was independent before there even was such a thing as independent film,” said the tribute given Van Peebles at the 30th anniversary of the Independent Film Project.
Perhaps the best known of Van Peebles’ work is his groundbreaking 1971 independent film, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Crude and offensive by “establishment” standards, this tale of a black fugitive’s one-man vendetta against the white establishment proved to be an enormous hit with African American audiences. It also proved Van Peebles, who not only produced, directed, wrote and starred in Sweet Sweetback, but also edited and scored the film, was a genuine “Renaissance man.”
Van Peebles also worked on Broadway, writing and scoring the 1971 musical Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death. In 1972, his theatrical project Don’t Play Us Cheap won first prize at the Belgian Film Festival when a hastily produced movie version was offered in competition.
Since then, Van Peebles developed a TV-movie pilot, Just an Old Sweet Song, and wrote and acted in a number of movie and TV projects, frequently in collaboration with his actor/director son, Mario Van Peebles. Last year he completed the film Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha. [CQ]
The subject of a 2005 documentary entitled How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It), Van Peebles has been called the first black director of the modern age, and the “Godfather of independent cinema.” Van Peebles started his career with 11-minute short films in the late 1950s, then moved to France before breaking out in Hollywood in 1970. While in France, he was often mistaken for a French auteur and produced French plays. He speaks English, French and Dutch.
The Kuumba Festival: “From Reels to Stills” is sponsored by the Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center as part of the university’s celebration of Black History Month. For more information, please contact the Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center at (937) 775-5645.
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A little too familiar with the president…
Yow. Interesting essay from the Times about folks having weird Obama fantasies…
Anybody out there want to confess to any of this, as well? Me, I just like the guy.
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Money movies
Hmmm… listening to the news this morning, I think I need to stick “Wall Street” into my Netflix queue… haven’t seen it in a while, and it feels like a good time for it.
How would Gordon Gekko have liked just making half a million bucks, I wonder?
Any other good money movies come to mind? “It’s a Wonderful Life,” a bit out of season, perhaps? It’s mostly about a bank run, after all.
“Bonnie and Clyde”? Key line: “We rob banks.” Uh-huh. So do some bankers, apparently…
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‘The Wrestler’ … bloody good
Well, most of what you’ve heard and read about the “The Wrestler” is true: It’s a terrific gut-whallop of a fine film, and quite something to see.
Caught it last nite at the Neon (great place for a show, as always) and want to see it again. Mickey Rourke is great, and puts out one of the most truly amazing physical performances I’ve seen from an actor of his standing. It’ll remind you of DeNiro’s “Raging Bull” turn, which is in fact the point.
Except that I liked “The Wrestler” more than that movie, and more than most of the other washed-up-fighter-making-a-comeback flicks that have formed their own mini-genre over the years. From “Raging Bull” to “True Grit,” you’ve seen this kind of old rooster movie a million times.
“The Wrestler” felt different to me, for lots of reasons. One is the matter-of-fact, nonjudgemental acceptance of the bizarro subculture of pro wrestling, which is as much a character in the film as any of the players.
Another was the perfect female foil of the also-terrific Marisa Tomei, who as an aging stripper isn’t just watching Rourke’s character from an admiring afar, but is right there with him, having the fears and concerns about her future, and whether her body — like his, the tool of her trade — will continue to work for her as she needs it to.
There’s also the washed-out, quick-paced, camera-over-the shoulder direction by Darren Aronofsky, whose work I often like but who can be too showy for his own good sometimes.
Not here. He works the simple story in a perfect, simple way and gets the best from it. No frills, no fuss — in and out, get it done and leave the viewer thinking, thinking, thinking at the end.
Which is tougher than it looks.
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They’re making lots of movies in Michigan
The other day, I wrote about the recent suggestion by Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland that he thinks it’s time for our state to create a tax incentive program to lure film-making business here from out of state, as a way to boost the economy and create jobs.
I’d mentioned that Michigan is one of the many states that is making such an idea work, and this story in the Wall Street Journal updates how our neighbor/rival to the north has figured out how to do something that Ohio’s state government has been slow and non-responsive on — to our detriment, I think.
Have a look and see what you think.
If Michigan can do this, why can’t we?
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Oooh, scary: A DPO show you’ll want to hear
this just in from the ever-inventive folks at the Dayton Philharmonic… the best chance you’ll likely have this week to get your Hitch fix:
Master of Mayhem ~ Movies and Music of Alfred Hitchcock National City SuperPops Series Friday Feb 6 & Saturday Feb 7 at 8pm Neal Gittleman, conductor Music Director Neal Gittleman and the DPO present an evening of music from Hitchcock’s greatest film hits cued to actual footage on a giant screen overhead. COME EARLY at 7:00. Neal and producer John Goberman will give a talk in the Mead Theatre!
for more info, head over to daytonphilharmonic.com
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RIP: Buddy Holly died 50 years ago today.
I’ve always thought it was a bit of a stretch, even in terms of artistic license, to say that that “the music died” when Buddy Holly’s plane went down on the night of Feb. 3, 1959… But overstatement taken into account, it was truly a sad, sad day.
I caught up with Holly’s stuff in college, many years after his passing, when his popularity was renewed in the last 1970s via the Gary Busey biopic. I ended up getting a deal on a five-LP set of his collected works and plowed through it, really soaking up Holly’s twangy, rollicking blend of rock, pop, country and swing — a sound that, which much imitated and quite influential, has never really been precisely recaptured, I don’t think.
Which is to the guy’s credit. He really does fall into that category of artists about whom the great “what-if” has a lot of resonance — moreso than with lots of other similar rock tragedies. I liked Jim Croce and Lynyrd Skynyrd — hell, I loved Lynyrd Skynyrd — but I don’t think they would’ve ended up doing much different stuff than they’d done before they crashed. Not to take away from the tragedy, but artistically, they were set, and we know how they would’ve gone.
Holly’s in the same file with Hendrix, Hank Williams, John Lennon, Cobain and others (It’s Felix Mendellsohn’s birthday, today, too — his 200th — and he barely made it to 30, alas) about whom we can legitimately wonder: What else would they have done? How would they have evolved? How would the new directions they took have influenced and changed those around them? What future impact might they have had? How would the world have been different if they’d lasted?
Oh, well. Anyway.
RIP, Buddy, and the friends who went with you that cold, snowy, ugly night — Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. We know, even all these years later, that we miss you.
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Lincoln the loser?
Ohhhhhhh, say it wouldn’t ever have been so…
But yes indeedy, it might have been the case. Here’s a good review that reminds us how the view of great men and women can change over time, depending on how things turn out.
Remember, too, that this is the 200th anniversary of Abe’s birth… Expect to hear lots more on him this year, not least in this space…
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Rock ‘n’ roll: Heartless Bastards hit the Times
This is cool: SW Ohio’s Heartless Bastards just got a big write-up today in Sunday NY Times. They’re a great, grungy blue-rock band, if you don’t know them, and have performed in these parts for some time.
Best thing about the group is the primal-yowl, hard-hitting growl of singer Erika Wennerstrom, a Dayton native who has pretty much picked up the mantle of our town’s top indie-rocker of the moment…
Check the story to see what she and her bandmates are up to now (Austin has become home base, a story that’s been repeated before for other Dayton-Cincy bands; sigh) and listen to some clips.
