Let me introduce you to… White Rock

There was a time when the Olympics didn’t take over your television sets for a full two week block. Before the advent of same-day satellite footage, a team of filmmakers would throw together Olympic highlights into a newsreel type of documentary so people could, if just for a couple of hours, participate in the current happenings overseas. By 1976 though, the ability to broadcast from overseas left these films behind as an obsolete entity. That being said, “White Rock,” a film documenting the 1976 Innsbruck Winter Games, stands as both the final Olympic film of this nature and perhaps one of the greatest. 

Oh neat! The proposed CAM expansion….

I found this over at Visualingual today, and I have to say I’m rather excited about this proposed new structure. While Visualingual and their commenters make some valid points, I’d thought I’d put my two cents in. The expansion is designed by Neutlings Riedijk Architects, a Dutch firm. I’m kind of a sucker for Dutch design. The Seattle Central Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas, was easily one of the highlights of my time spent there. Every time a visitor came to town we would take people there and it really never got boring. If you ever have a chance to go there and check it out, it’s totally worth it. I mean they have and entirely red floor! Look after the jump…

AWESOME! AWESOME! AWESOME!

Tomorrow is a big day for scary awesome super science!!! As an avid science fiction reader I am always on the look-out for things that will make all my awesome nerd dreams come true. Pictured above is Large Hadrom Collider, or at least part of it. Frankly, when it comes to the science part of it, I have no idea exactly what this thing does but I will try to give you the gist of things. The LHC is the world’s largest particle accelerator and will allow scientists to study when and how some sort of particles break down blah blah blah blah. Why is this scary awesome super science, you may ask? Well, apparently when particles break down in this sort of setting it will be producing tiny black holes. That’s right black holes….on Earth…where we live…where we keep all of our stuff. Some people are worried that some of these black holes will maybe stick around longer than the nanosecond the scientists are saying they will last. I, for one, am totally excited to see if this thing swallows all of Switzerland and, in turns, ushers in the Apocalypse. More cool crazy science and pictures after the jump…

Midpoint Hubbub: I’m gonna start making it…

One of the staples of early fall in Cincinnati is the Midpoint Music Festival. It’s no question that it is always a nice time and a really great way to see a lot of relatively unknown acts from around the country and, often times, the world. Right now, thanks to SXSW, many cities are trying to put these types of city-wide festivals together with varying results. In that light Midpoint is a welcome change. Not concerned with trying to pull as many big name acts as they can, the festival allows a huge amount of bands from all walks of genres to strut their stuff for the weekend. But c’mon, let’s face it, it would be pretty nice to have at least a couple big name headliners! Enter new management! Though who is coming is still leaking out, I thought I’d direct you over to their website to begin wading through the list of who will be preforming. You’ll notice that Robert Pollard’s new band Boston Spaceships is playing, as well as locals Pomegranates, Minnesotan group Mystery Palace and (not yet officially announced) San Francisco-via-Cincinnati act WHY?. It’s already shaping up to be a great festival and will surely jive well with downtown’s new spirit.

My bad, Journal of Popular Noise!

You deserve your own post too. Yesterday I posted a bit about Truckasauras and linked them primarily to Fourthcity. This is not a false connection, it’s very true in fact. My oversight lies in the fact that I talked a lot about the totally wonderful packaging that came in my giant manila envelope but did not once mention The Journal of Popular Noise. Kind of a dick move considering I paraphrased the guy’s really nice essay in it and have been pouring over its glossy pages for a couple days now.

Now, when it comes to music, I’m very much a packaging and design guy. A record is all by itself a step-up in the packaging game from a CD of the very same material. If the record, be it 7, 10, or 12 inches, can then do something interesting with the packaging my enjoyment increases ten-fold. I could go on and on and on about my favorite record packaging, but that’s not really what I’m here to talk about. Suffice it to say, I love music, I love design and yes, I am a person who will put on a record and then sit in my rocking chair fondling the package it was presented to me in.

The Second Monthly Music Round-up

Happy July! I took a long weekend from posting, but I’m back. Promise. Hope all you red-blooded Americans had a very good fourth of July. Thanks to everyone who came out to the inaugural Party Garbage night. Kendall and I were very happy to see everyone. Sorry if the fog got a little excessive, I forgot to turn the machine off occasionally. You know it made things totally awesome, though. Hope to see everyone the next time we do it. Haven’t got a date on that yet, but you’ll be the first to know when we do.

Seeing as its the beginning of the month, what better time to have our second music round-up? This month we have a collection of more fun. Hopefully there will be a few things you’ll enjoy, a few things that will validate your tastes, and all things that will make you feel a little funky in your working environment. Let’s get it started, shall we? Boogie bumpin’ after the jump!

Oh hell! Almost forgot…

I just realized that this is the one week anniversary of the blog! This thing is already more of a success than I thought. While my number’s aren’t massive, it’s totally more than zero readers. To be honest I was sorta expecting maybe 10 readers but I’m way out of the ballpark on that one. AWESOME! Enjoy that picture of a Max Rebo cake! You deserved it.

So, I know that there are more than the people who have commented reading this thing, unless they just visit the page a TON during the day. What does anyone want me to talk about? Seriously give me a topic. I’ll take submissions, I’ve got a million opinions. Help me, help you. I don’t know how much longer I can keep up this pace of writing without your help. Actually, I probably could, but crowd participation is fun.

P.S. I forgot to include one awesome thing about the city in the last post. Does your city house the “Super-Friends?”

Cincinnati…Really?

I’ve recently returned to Cincinnati after a lovely year-long sabbatical in Seattle. Besides a closer relationship with my brother and his lovely soon-to-be wife (hey guys!) there was another unforeseen result of moving there: I kinda missed Cincinnati a lot. Now, I never disliked the city. I had my complaints here and there, but you’ll have that anywhere you live. In the end I missed and loved the city too much to stay away. There was something in its spirit, history and people that I couldn’t quite shake. The title of this post comes from the general reaction of Seattleites to my telling them where I was moving. I’m now here to make the case for Cincinnati.

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.

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