This I wonder…

I’m setting a precedent right now. I’m never going to ever be posting on here during the weekends unless its really important. But, I’m not one to leave you high, dry and unentertained. In honor of the American Screenwriter’s Association now calling Cincinnati home, I now present today’s topic:

Check it out! That 1993 rollerblading movie shot in Cincinnati is totally on youtube! Yessssss…

Awesome! At the 3:54 mark they take a sharp turn at an awesome intersection near my house. At that corner there’s totally a mini-mart called “The Body Snatcher.” What a terrifying name for the place where you buy sodas. Messed up. To be honest though, the geography on this race is the tiniest bit shaky. There is not a linear progression from start to finish. They just picked a bunch of places and edit them together. For shame director-of-Airborne, for shame. If only you wouldn’t have lied in your movie Cincinnati could have still been the rollerblading Mecca of the world. So many tourism dollars lost. The downtown portion starts at at about 6:30 or so, making the fact that the street near my house is around two-and-a-half minutes earlier in the clip.

By the way, the score is amazing. You’ve seriously never heard so may orchestra stabs and guitar waaaaaaaaaails.

You can go back and watch it all from the start if you do a little bit of work. You’ll get the totally rad street hokey match downtown and Shane McDermott totally shredding in Krohn conservatory on a date. Oh, and I’m sorry, where did this halfpipe go?

Oh shit those stairs at the end of the clip are right around the corner from me.

Dude, “Airborne” is awesome.

Doing my part!

Full disclosure, I live with the guy.

Look, it’s Soft City Lights! Kevin makes videos for the world with a nice Cincinnati focus. We all love our city, you should too. (I know all this stuff looks better on vimeo, but wordpress is being a jerk about that.)

There’s plenty more videos where that came from, and more in the foreseeable future if Mr. Bayer ever gets around to editing them. Busy, I know.

Welcome to the neighborhood Mr. Kevin Bayer!

Oh, and he and some of my cohorts made this for 48 hr. film festival. It’s a lesbian western and features the music of locals Turnbull AC’s, Billy Catfish (plus his acting talents) and Moon High:

Now it’s been blogged about twice!!! I took part in Pizza Infinity’s production for the same deal. It’s not online yet, but as soon as it is you’ll be seeing it.

AAAAAAAAAAAH,

John

Dude…whoa…Wanted

So, after much deliberating last night, I sucked it up and ventured over to the Levee’s AMC for the midnight showing of “Wanted.” This is the short review: YEAH!!! Now lets dig in for something a little longer, perhaps a little more in-depth. For as silly a movie as it is, a film-goer can still glean a little something by breaking through the violent, glossy hard shell that this movie is surrounded by. This, of course, is thanks to the source material, the (dare-I-say) more violent and all around meaner comic book of the same name by Mark Millar and J.G. Jone. The film could easily be written off as violence porn, adolescent wish-fulfillment or middle-class angst (all of which the film is) but if you want a little more out of it, it’s there for you.

About that…

This morning my friend asked that I clarify the title of this whole thing. Personally, I thought it was pretty self-explanatory, but in order to keep doing this I need to continually find things to write about. You win universe!!

People have complemented my choice of title. In the spirit of full disclosure though, I must admit that it is not my combination of words. It originated as the title of the final chapter of the book to the left, Tom Hodgkinson’s opus “How to be Free” (or “The Freedom Manifesto” here in the states). “Stop Working, Start Living” serves to make the point that our society has slid down one of those “slippery slopes” people are always talking about. Once the puritanical mindset became the norm, especially here in the America, fun and revelry became a commodity, a thing we’re allowed to buy once we’ve finished working all those hours. The world wasn’t always like this, there was a time when we all worked only as much as necessary, making enough money to keep the wolves at bay. Let’s take a little looksie at Mr. Hodgkinson’s ideas and why he earned the title of this blog.

Upcoming events…that involve me!

Hey, Kendall and I are DJ’ing on July 4th. Come to it. We’re totally going to be fun. I wonder if I’ll be allowed to set fireworks off in the C&D. Be a proper American! Come drink with your money and dance for free!

The first monthly music round up…

There are two things I know, and that you should know too. The first is that I love music, the second is that I have no desire to write exclusively about music. This does not mean that I won’t occasionally talk about it though. Don’t like it? Deal, jerk. Not everything’s gonna be new, not everything will be old. So just sit back, listen and consider. I promise it won’t be too painful.

It’s not a mystery to most people I know that I mostly stick to electronic music. Within that I tend to lean more towards the dance oriented end of things. It’s not that I dislike slow things particularly, it’s just that most of the time fast things with a beat fit with my mental state. If a song doesn’t totally glue itself into my skull after a couple listens, I’ll pretty much give up on it. You won’t generally see me at noise shows. Nothing against those cats, I just could give a damn. So let’s move and shake, shall we?

Oh yeah, and just in case (thought this seems highly unlikely), if anyone playing this music has an issue with me putting this stuff up here, just be nice and ask. I’ll take it down.

First up is a song by Panico from their 2005 album “Subliminal Kill.” It’s called “Transpira-Lo” and it’s in Spanish. Grooves abound.

This next one is a song called “Remember Love” by Noze. I know absolutely nothing about these guys except that the piano line and chorus of this song was wedged in the front of my brain for days.

I had a hard time picking one song off of Copy’s “Hair Guitar.” I chose “Zipper Problems” for its name and because its sounds like Dr. Dre producing music on a GAMEBOY.

Man, I’ve had this Shinichi Osawa record on my computer for ages, I’ve barely ever listened to it. This song, “Star Guitar,” came on during an otherwise uneventful iPod shuffle. I totally lost my shit for its 6 minute length.

About a year ago, this guy on a message board I go to started posting albums off of the Active Suspension label. I downloaded a lot of it, but Hypo’s “Karaoke A Capella” was the true standout. This track is off of Hypo’s collaboration with lady-type EDH. It’s called “Naughty Place.” Its weird and catchy as hell. More people need to pay attention to Hypo.

This last one is a totally amazing song. French synth disco. How amazingly dissinterested does that singer sound?!?! It’s awesome! I present Thirteen at Midnight’s “Other Passengers.”

Love,

John

Ghost Castle

I’ve pretty much been at a loss of ideas for what to do with this space. I got it about a week ago and have had little to no clue as to what to write about. It’s either due to a lack of ideas or an abundance. I want to have a focus but have an incredibly hard time focusing. So I’m just going to jump in on this.

Though my current life is based in Cincinnati, I lived my first 18 years in the DC metropolitan area. As a child I was always fascinated by the one specific cluster of buildings located at the very edge of Silver Spring, MD. The National Park Seminary was always seen by my child-eyes as a magically dilapidated place. It looked like something out of some creepy fantasy movie. Originally a old-timey resort (think “The Road to Wellville”) it went through many changes including a ritzy all-girls school and rehabilitation center for soldiers wounded in WW2. By the time I was born though it was in its umpteenth year of disrepair. Ivy and other assorted plants had assumed control of the buildings and it was more of an animal sanctuary than a place for people. Despite its government protection, it was left alone, subject to Mother Nature. In recent years its been rehabbed as condos. Thankfully, as far as I know, they’ve retained many of the original structures. Unfotunately they’ve also littered the compound with new houses which kinda ruins the “what did I just stumble on” magic of the place. In the end, I’m happy someone has taken over the property, it was and is an incredible place. The building that surround the main structure are all modeled after international styles. There is the dutch windmill building, the chinese pagoda and the greek ampitheater. If I still lived in DC, I’d be fighting tooth and nail to get into one of these units. My 120 year old house here suits me just fine though. Below are some pictures of the Seminary. First is a small cluster of images from its heydey and then some polaroids I took when I visited the place during the early stages of its rebuilding.

Old-timey!

And now, a few years ago:

I’ve got a few more pictures here and there are bunch of the old-timey photos as well as more detailed “disrepair” photos at the Seminary’s site. As a bonus treat, here’s Dead Meadow’s video for “At Her Open Door” which was filmed on the grounds. Foooooooooog Machines!

So that’s the first entry. It was kind of meant just to get me started. This could create a theme or, most likely, won’t at all. Don’t be surprised if the next one is entirely off this “old buildings” topic. Focusing is hard.

Love,

John