Wow, free sushi! At a downtown magazine box, no less!
What will they think of next? A pizza ATM? Whoops, that already exists (at my alma mater, no less).
Visitors stand beside a Pizza ATM machine at Xavier University, Friday, Sept. 9, 2016, in Cincinnati. The university partnered with French company Paline to install the first Pizza ATM in North America. The machine holds 70 pizzas at once as customers will be able to use a touch screen to pick one of the $10 pizzas, which will be heated for several minutes, placed in a cardboard box and ejected through a slot. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
How about a vending machine that dispenses fishing bait? Wait, that exists too.
Guess the only thing left to invent is a soft-serve machine that dispenses Cheez-Whiz instead of ice cream.
A few concert-going odds and ends from the past couple of weeks:
I saw Joan Shelley open up for Richard Thompson two Fridays ago.
Hearing her voice in that setting, it’s easy to make comparisons to the late great Sandy Denny, with whom Richard played eons ago in Fairport Convention.
I know that’s high praise for folkies, but Joan deserves it. NPR is streaming her new album (produced by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco) – spend some time with it.
This past Saturday I saw Cincinnati’s own Wussy at the Woodward Theater. They were a bit rusty (they’re taking a break from touring to record), but amazing as always. The sandpaper & silk combination of Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker on vocals is, in a word, beautiful.
Wussy had two local bands opening up. Note to all local bands: if you’d like to attract more fans, maybe try a volume other than “eardrum-piercing.” Seriously, my friend Dave and I could only last 30 seconds with the first band before we retreated outside. You win the volume contest, local band… but ironically you lose a chance to be heard by more people. Wouldn’t you rather have folks up by the stage rather than rushing for the exits or cowering in a corner? TURN IT DOWN! WAY DOWN! (See, you don’t like it when I turn up the volume either, do you? Now you know how the audience feels.)
Thank goodness I had my Earpeace earplugs. If you go to concerts, do your ears a favor and get a pair. A mere $20 will get you the HD version, and they come with their own handy carrying case.
I spent years using those disposable foam factory/construction site earplugs, which muffle all sounds. Earpeace plugs actually filter the sound, so you can enjoy the bands without killing your hearing.
On Monday I saw a great double bill, again at the Woodward. Ron Gallo opened up for Hurray for the Riff Raff. Both were fantastic. Ron’s songwriting and guitar skills are as impressive as his hairdo, and that’s saying something:
Hurray for the Riff Raff is fronted by Alynda Lee Segarra, a self-proclaimed “New Yorican” (i.e. New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent) and pint-sized dynamo. Her new album is The Navigator, and it’s great. The band sounds fantastic in concert too, and Alynda isn’t afraid to speak her mind about all sorts of socio-political topics. She introduce a couple of tunes by saying “this is an immigrant song.” Here’s their performance at SXSW last month.
Ron Gallo and his two other band members even joined Hurray for the Riff Raff on stage for a couple of songs, Hurray for the Riff Raff’s “Living in the City” (here’s a brief clip)…
…and a raucous encore version of a John Lennon tune, “Bring on the Lucie (Freeda People)” (another snippet):
The musicians on Cover Stories joined the project, in part, because they believe in the cause Cover Stories benefits – all proceeds go to War Child UK, a non-governmental organization supporting children affected by conflict
Hey, it’s Earth Day, the one day out of 365 (or 366) that we actually give a damn about the planet we all share. Each year is the hottest on record. Smog is getting smoggier. Rains are turning to floods. Earthquakes are a fracking nightmare. A 94-year-old engineer may be our last hope.
OK, maybe I’m being overly dramatic. But I’m also being overly Dramarama…
If every time you see a German Shepherd dog, you think of Run, Joe, Run.
RJR (as we true fans call it), was a live-action Saturday morning show that ran from ’74 until ’76. The premise was… interesting…
[opening narration] WANTED: Male German Shepherd, Black And Tan. Answers to the name of Joe. Accused of attacking his trainer, Sgt. Will Corey. A crime he did not commit. Only Corey can prove him innocent, but he must find Joe before his pursuers track him down.
So basically the show was The Fugitive as played by a dog. (Fun fact: the narrator was Paul Frees, a voice actor who also played Boris Badenov, Burgermeister Meisterburger and The Pillsbury Doughboy.)
Thank goodness the description told us the German Shepherd’s colors, “black and tan” or else we would’ve wasted a lot of time tracking down all those purple German Shepherds.
Poor Joe was misunderstood, and always got in trouble when he was just trying to help. Like in this episode with Kristy McNichol. He gives a toddler her milk bottle and chases a fox out of the chicken cage, and gets nothing but grief for it. (Also worth noting that Sgt. Will Corey had a car phone waaay before anyone else did.)
You’d think a single dog was OJ Simpson in a White Bronco the way he was chased by so many authorities. Guess that $200 bounty went a lot further in the 70s.
I recently watched the new Amy Schumer stand-up comedy special on Netflix.
I was completely underwhelmed. A lot of empty calories, and very few laughs, or even giggles or smiles. Netflix really should change the summary to “Amy Schumer riffs on sex and bodily functions” because that was 99% of her routine. I’m sure some folks will find that amusing, but it certainly isn’t very creative.
I loved Richard Pryor, and he could be filthy, but a lot of his bits were both profane AND profound. Listen to this less-than-two-minute clip of Pryor’s bit on black males and cops… it’s from 1974 but it could have been written yesterday (sadly). There are more laughs in that bit than in the entire hour-long Schumer special.
My oldest child got his ACT score this past weekend.
I’m thrilled for him… and happy for my wallet too. Life is not a standardized test, but fairly or unfairly, how well you do on a standardized test strongly influences scholarship offers.
He’s certainly thought that he’s smarter than his old man for many years now, but this makes it official.
Although I told him that I took the test way back in the 80s, before they dumbed it down.
Cameo nightclub. My kids used to play soccer games in the fields next to it.
The typical NRA response to a mass shooting is “make sure more people have guns.” Shootings in a movie theater (see: Aurora, CO)? Arm the movie-goers. Shootings in a community center (see: San Bernadino)? Arm the workers. Shootings in a school (see: a school in almost every state in the country)? Arm the teachers.
Map of school shootings since 2013. Source: https://everytownresearch.org/school-shootings/
But isn’t the Cameo nightclub a prime example of what happens when more folks have guns? Here are a couple of quotes worth pondering, from Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac and Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley:
That’s the challenge, isn’t it? If you have a dispute, and you have guns, you might wind up with a Wild West gun battle inside a crowded nightclub that leaves 2 dead and 15 wounded. And these sort of shots-fired altercations are much more prevalent than terrorist attacks. Just ask Chicago. Or look at this tracker of the last 72 hours.
I grew up in rural Arkansas with friends who went deer hunting, duck hunting, rabbit hunting, squirrel hunting, and gun racks were pretty much standard equipment on pickup trucks. I’m not a “take all the guns away” person. But I also feel very strongly that it should not be easier for someone to get a gun than it is for them to vote, or drive a car… or even buy Sudafed.
If you are a responsible gun owner, this nightclub incident (and all the other ones like it) should sicken you. You should want to work to prevent atrocities like this in the future. There has to be some rational middle ground between “all sorts of guns for any sort of person” and “no guns for anyone.” Between “no regulations” and “outright ban.” Can we have a respectful, responsible adult discussion, please? Lives are at stake.
My musical tastes veer away from the mainstream, to singer-songwriters and indie rockers and “legacy” artists who still push the boundaries. I could always count on World Cafe for two hours of music that was right in my wheelhouse – check out David Dye’s list of 25 albums from the 25 years he hosted the show for a taste. Better still, the show also featured interviews and live performances from the artists. It was appointment listening for many years for me, on the local affiliate WNKU-FM. Now David is gone, and WNKU is soon to follow.
But when one door closes, another opens. My wife got me an Amazon Echo Dot for Christmas, and all I have to do is say “Alexa, play radio station KEXP-Seattle” and I’m immediately tuned in to what is, in my humble opinion, the best station going.
It’s not the same as having a local connection, but I’ll take what I can get. Gotta keep rockin’.
The coal museum’s electric bill typically costs about $2,100 per month, but this initiative is expected to save between $8,000 and $10,000 a year.
Trump can talk all he wants about a “war on coal” and “job-killing regulations” but really it’s a war of attrition. Coal’s contribution to climate change (it’s real) and environmental and health issues, along with increasing competition from both natural gas and renewable energy sources, are digging coal’s grave.
If DT really wants to create more jobs (with less pollution, btw), he should consider the following facty-facts (not alternative facts) from this article:
In 2016 alone, the US solar industry created more new jobs (51,000) than there are coal miners still working in the US (50,200). There are now 260,000 solar workers in the US — five times the number of coal miners.
I’ve seen him a dozen or more times over the past quarter of a century. I originally opted to skip this show, mainly because:
I had seen him so many times prior to this show.
Tickets weren’t cheap and I’m trying to save cash.
As a suburban 52-year-old with a job, a wife and 4 kids (two of whom I have to wake up at 6 a.m. every weekday) I can’t make as many shows as I’d like to.
But last week some friends of mine were talking about going, and I got the fever. One catch: the show was sold out. I checked StubHub and SeatGeek to no avail. On a last-second “what the heck” whim, I checked Craigslist, and lo and behold, another suburban dad had a pair of tickets that he had to unload because the concert conflicted with a Daddy-Daughter dance. Which is how I wound up at a Kroger parking lot on a Wednesday night, meeting a stranger for a ticket purchase.
The show was a typical RT show… which is to say, amazing. I don’t think you’ll find his rare combination of talents in too many folks:
virtuoso guitarist – I’d put him up against any teenage phenom. Even solo and acoustic, like last night, the dude can shred
phenomenal voice – so strong, even at age 68. And the acoustics in Memorial Hall did it justice.
fantastic songwriter – great, sometimes twisted lyrics and wonderful melodies. It’s no wonder his tunes have been covered by the likes of R.E.M., Elvis Costello, Bob Mould, Bonnie Raitt, Reckless Kelly, The Neville Brothers, Marshall Crenshaw and Dinosaur Jr. (that’s a festival lineup I’d like to see).
entertaining stage presence – that dry British wit is always in evidence. Last night after absolutely tearing up the solo on “Valerie” and getting much-deserved applause from the audience, he shrugged his shoulders and said “it’s easy.” He also referred to himself as a “folk rock dinosaur.”
I went with my neighbor/friend Mark, a true music fanatic (he’s been to hundreds of shows over the last 40 years, still plays in a local band, went to Cleveland a few weeks ago to see Patti Smith… you get the picture). Mark’s a longtime Richard Thompson fan, and saw him in 1986 in the same venue as last night’s show. The vast majority of folks in the audience were in the same age bracket as Mark and I are. (The show should be sponsored by a doctor who specializes in knee and hip replacements – he’d make a killing.) That’s a shame. Richard’s always been a niche artist, an acquired taste, a critic’s darling almost completely ignored by the mainstream. But he puts on a fantastic show everydamntime. You whippersnappers should go see him – now get off my lawn!
Next time I have a chance to see such an amazing artist in a gorgeous venue, I won’t trust my fate to Daddy-Daughter dances.
