This past weekend, my friend Jay opened up Jukebox, a “beverage studio.”
Jukebox is America’s first custom sparkling beverage studio, where creativity meets refreshment. We mix premium ingredients, fresh flavors, and endless customization options to craft beverages that are as unique as you.
Jay and I worked together for many years. He left his VP gig in corporate America to start this business. He calls it a “quirky cocktail bar without the cocktails.” Think “dirty sodas” and flavored seltzers and slushies. (You can read more about Jukebox in Cincinnati Magazine and and CityBeat.)
I stick to water (“nature’s champagne”) for my beverage intake. (OK, sometimes it’s water with malted barley, hops, and yeast.) So I don’t fit the target customer profile. But Jay did the research on where to open his store. He also spent countless hours sourcing ingredients, testing flavor combinations, doing consumer research, refining the concept, the marketing plan, the social media strategy… all the million things that go into starting a business.
The odds are stacked against him, and against any small business. “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t always work outside of the movies. But I know Jay’s smarts, enthusiasm, and passion for getting it right will serve him — and his customers — well.
I also know he’s happier being his own boss. The safe route would’ve been to remain a cog in the corporate machine. But that’s not the route that brings him true happiness. And I’m happy that he’s able to pursue his dream, and add more flavor to his life. And yours!
If you live in the ‘nati, check out Jukebox. It’s at 5859 Deerfield Blvd in Mason, in the Deerfield Towne Center. (You may hear a familiar voice doing some promo breaks between songs on the in-house sound system… Morgan Freeman, watch your back!)
I’ve been known to enjoy a beer or two from time to time.
Back in my college days, I was known to enjoy a beer or two… or six… or seven…
It was stupid. I’m gonna blame my lack of maturity, lack of self-control, and not-yet-fully-developed brain. But after college, I learned about the miracle of moderation. I even went alcohol-free for seven years, mainly to prove to myself that I could walk away from it.
One of my college pals, Tim, wound up at the other end of the spectrum. Alcohol took control.
Hi, I’m Tim. I have seen the destruction and pain alcohol can cause. My addiction destroyed my family, the most loved and treasured people to me on this earth. All were innocent victims, especially my children, who were trying to grow up and find their way in life. I could see this happening, and no matter how hard or what I tried (I tried every option in traditional recovery), I could not stop drinking. My family and friends were there for me, but the only options they and I knew were traditional recovery methods. I was miserable and hopeless.
Tim tried the 12 steps. It didn’t work for him. But he found a path that did. And now he’s helping others along their journey.
Tim and I talked about his business (more of a mission, really) quite a bit at the last monthly “hoppy hour” that we typically attend with a group of our college buddies. (More on that in this post from three years ago.)
Yes, Tim still goes to bars. Here’s his FB post about our recent gathering:
What Homer Simpson said about booze is funny.
But we all know someone who has struggled — or is struggling — with alcohol issues. That’s no fun at all. Please pass along Tim’s info: https://onwardafcoaching.com/.
It can’t hurt… and it could save a life.
I’m hosting this month’s “hoppy hour” with the old college crew (accent on the “old”). I’m also going alcohol-free the entire month of June. Because Tim has shown me that I won’t be missing out on anything.
Last Saturday, I saw my friends Cereal Killers play a gig at the brewery down the hill from our house.
Tons of our friends were in the audience for that one.
On Memorial Day, I met up with my friend Ken at another brewery (if you’re sensing a pattern, you may be correct) for the countdown of the Inhailer Radio “Indie 500.” My friends Amy and David were there too. (David works at the same company where my son Peter works!)
Ken has a show on Inhailer, and several of their on-air folks were there.
(Ken does a great “sorority squat”…) They let me sneak into the photo because my friend Dave and I did some of the breaks during the countdown.
Dave and I both worked at 97X back in the day, and we met up with some other 97X alums at… yes, a brewery (the same one as Monday, in fact) on Thursday.
If you’re sensing a pattern, you may be correct.
Sandwiched in between those two outings, my friend Tom (a.k.a. “Freaky Tiki”) and I had dinner with our friend Felicity on Tuesday. Yes, it was at a brewery.
If you’re sensing a pattern, you may be correct.
Oh, and somehow I managed to squeeze in a quick road trip to Cleveland for a concert on Wednesday.
AC/DC was playing the stadium, but if you know me, you know I’m much more of a “bands at a small club” type of guy. Which is why I was at the Grog Shop to see The Tubs (my new obsession) open up for The Wedding Present.
Before the show, I met up with a bunch of college friends. At a bar.
If you’re sensing a pattern, you may be correct.
Last night I met my brother at Ramundo’s Pizzeria (where two of my sons were working) to watch Creighton (his alma mater) in NCAA baseball tournament.
If you’re sensing a pattern, you may be correct. If you’re thinking that the pattern is bars and breweries, you’re incorrect.
Those places are merely the setting.
The pattern is friendship. Band friends. Neighbor friends. Radio friends. College friends. Folks I’ve known for 40+ years, and people I’ve met in the last year or so. I feel blessed to know them, and lucky to call them friends.
I’m an old man who has no business going out nearly every night, much less driving back and forth to Cleveland in the middle of the week, but I draw energy from the connections.
And the Tuesday dinner was a sobering reminder of how fragile life can be. Felicity is the widow of my dear friend Ned. We lost him nearly two years ago. (I’ve posted about that here.)
It’s easy to stay glued to the couch and say “next time.” But there may not be one.
The older I get, the harder it is to get out to meet up with friends. Yet the older I get, the more I cherish the opportunities.
My friends are here, there, and everywhere. And that’s why I’ll be there too!
There’s an old adage “never let the facts get in the way of a good story.”
In the case of our current president, it’s more like “never let the facts get in the way of stirring up your base with some good old racism.”
T-rump met with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office last week, and proceeded to ambush (a.k.a. “Zelenskyy”) him. It’s sad when the leaders of other countries — our allies no less — are used as props to push false narratives, fodder for the crazy cannon that is Trump’s lips.
Trump rolled out a TV screen and dimmed the lights like it was a junior high health class, and proceeded to show a highly edited video.
Pointing to footage of a long line of crosses on both sides of a country road packed with cars, Trump said, “These are burial sites right here. Burial sites. Over a thousand of white farmers. And those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning. Each one of those white things you see is a cross. And there’s approximately a thousand of them. They’re all white farmers.”
However, the crosses do not mark graves. The video is from a protest against the murder of white farming couple Glen and Vida Rafferty, who were ambushed and shot dead on their premises in 2020. The clip was shared on YouTube on 6 September, the day after the protests.
“They are not graves. They don’t represent graves,” Mchunu said regarding the video that has become prominent on social media since it was shown in the White House. “And it was unfortunate that those facts got twisted to fit a false narrative about crime in South Africa.”
Per a report from the Institute of Race Relations, an anti-apartheid think tank in South Africa, the protest saw both Black and white participants mourning the deaths. One protester told the IRR: “We are supporting each other. There should be no killing anymore. White or black, we are all one.”
Trump also showed “news” clipping printouts that promoted his claims of a white genocide.
During the press conference, Trump held a stack of printed news articles that he said showed “death of people. Death, death, death, horrible death, death.”
“Pick any one of them,” Trump said. “White South Africans are fleeing because of the violence and racist laws. And this is all, I mean, I’ll give these to you.”
“A lot of people are very concerned with regard to South Africa… we have many people that feel they’re being persecuted, and they are coming to the US, so we take from many locations if we feel there’s persecution or genocide going on.”
That image Trump is holding up in the photo above? It isn’t from South Africa.
From the BBC:
But the image isn’t from South Africa – it’s actually from a report about women being killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
From the AP:
There were 12 murders on farms last year, The Associated Press reported, citing police statistics. One of the victims was a farmer, and the rest were farmworkers, none of whom were identified by race, according to the AP. White farmers own roughly three-quarters of South Africa’s privately owned land, according to government data.
Trump’s claims are demonstrably false. In other words, they’re lies. From the president of our country.
We can do all the fact-checking in the world. But the videotape makes the rounds on social media, and the base gets stirred up even more, taking the bait, hook, line, and sinker.
“Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.”
“Chad” is the nickname bestowed upon our 2008 Honda CRV by our son Peter when he was in high school. We bought ol’ Chad in 2018, when it already had 181,000 miles under its (timing) belt. Peter needed a “daily driver” for school. Chad got passed down from Peter to Andrew, our youngest (Leah didn’t get her license until later), who also used it for high school. Rolling on, day after day, year after year.
And now, somehow, Chad has been passed UP to me. I have no idea how it happened. I guess “Daddy dibs” isn’t a thing in our house. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. I can throw my bike in the back, or put my kayak on the roof rack… or both! It’s a beater, but it’s my beater.
We’ve pumped some cash into Chad over the past seven years. It averages out to about two car payments a year. Math isn’t my strong suit, but I’m pretty sure two car payments is cheaper than 12. And roughly $10K over seven years is a lot cheaper than a new car.
As chronicled in a December post, we barely got 110,000 miles out of our 2014 Passat. So we’re playing with house money.
Chad isn’t the smoothest ride, or the fastest, or the sexiest. But I’ll take dependable any day of the week. In fact, I DO take that every day of the week.
I’m not sure how much longer Chad will be with us. At some point, there’s bound to be a major issue that would cost more than Chad is worth. But until then, we’ll keep on rolling. And keep on saving.
0 responses to “CRV = Continuously Rolling Vehicle”
I sincerely think that humor will help save humanity from the swamp into which it is sinking. Today we can’t afford to be pessimistic, so let’s try to keep a sense of humor bolted on to our hearts, soul, and spirit!
Jean-Jacques Perrey (1929-2016)
I’m here for it, Jean-Jacques!
It’s super-easy to be pessimistic these days. But don’t let the swamp thing get you!
Fight back, with a smile or a joke. Even a lame Dad Joke will suffice.
Monday isn’t usually a fun day. Back to the daily grind. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
I can’t tell you how many mindless meetings I’ve endured in my work life. I can tell you that in most of them, I’ve tried to add a bit of levity to the mix. Because life’s too short. And it’s a bit wacky too, when you stop and think about it.
And the best thing you’ve ever done for me
Is to help me take my life less seriously
Its only life after all
“Closer to Fine” by the Indigo Girls
Here’s your humor helper for today. Guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. Then it’s up to you to share that smile.
A week and a day ago, I went up to Columbus to see Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds in concert at the Palace Theater. Nick’s always been on my bucket list for artists to see, but originally the math of (ticket price + 100 miles away) didn’t work for me. However, my friend Ken’s friend Suzanne wound up with a couple of extra seats two days before the concert, and was willing to part with them at a discounted price… AND she’d drive us to Columbus and back too. Sold!
In hindsight, I should’ve been willing to pay full freight. The concert was one of the best I’ve ever seen!
Our seats were on the main floor but pretty far back. However, Ken knew that Nick invites the audience to get closer. Sure enough, after the first song, he said “You feel so far away” and that was our cue to race down to form our own “standing room” in the aisles right by the stage. When Nick came stage left, he was about eight feet away from me.
Here’s the one and only photo I took of Nick, who looks like a cross between Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Munster:
I didn’t take any more shots because I wanted to be fully present for the show, and luxuriate in it.
His voice is ominous. His songs are dark and brooding. The lyrics can be a downer. But the concert felt like going to church. The dude is 67 and runs around the stage like a manic faith healer… which is kinda what he is.
HIs band is fantastic (the bass player Colin Greenwood also plays in a band called Radiohead… perhaps you’ve heard of them?). He has four backing vocalists straight out of a gospel church choir. And they ripped it up for 22 amazing songs.
Nick Cave isn’t just a fantastic performer, though. He’s also a philosopher of sorts, and deeply spiritual. He has a blog called The Red Hand Files. (Side note: if you’ve watched the show “Peaky Blinders” they used Nick’s song “Red Right Hand” for the opening titles.) In the blog, he answers questions from fans. Check out this excerpt from five years ago, when he responded to a question “A Prayer to who?”
A prayer provides us with a moment in time where we can contemplate the things that are important to us, and this watchful application of our attention can manifest these essential needs. The act of prayer asks of us something and by doing so delivers much in return — it asks us to present ourselves to the unknown as we are, devoid of pretence and affectation, and to contemplate exactly what it is we love or cherish. Through this conversation with our inner self we confront the nature of our own existence.
And here’s an excerpt from a very recent post. The question was:
When you say, “I love you, too,” back to fans at concerts, what do you mean by that? How can you love a total stranger?
LEAH, YPSILANTI, MICHIGAN, USA
His response is beautiful… and helps me wrap my head around why I love live music so much:
Leah, when I tell the audience that I love them, the sentiment is entirely true. I feel an emotional transaction with the crowd that is powerful and profoundly intimate. I stand before you all – strangers – witnessing you both individually and collectively, and sense an unbounded love. This love is true. It is not symbolic, metaphorical, or platitudinous. I see before me a group of human beings, precarious and vulnerable, granted a brief time on this earth, each filled with a shocking potential for beauty and terror, good and evil, and with the extraordinary capacity to give and receive love. At that moment, love is the appropriate response.
Amen, Brother Nick! Love you too!
My friend Ken took some photos and shot some video at the show… this brief clip of “Jubilee Street” gives you a bit more of the feel for how intense Nick can be.
And here’s some crowd-shot footage of “Conversion” on the current tour… “You’re beautiful!”
And some professional footage of “Jubilee Street” from a few years back.
Apologies in advance for the gushing, but I’m super-excited for my super-talented first cousin once removed! (Talent skips a generation…)
Her name is Erika Henningsen. Perhaps you’ve heard of her? She’s in the cast of The Four Seasons on Netflix with some unknowns named Steve Carrell, Tina Fey, Will Forte, Colman Domingo, Kerri Kenney, Marco Calvani…
She plays “Ginny,” the much-younger new girlfriend of Steve Carrell. NBD.
BTW, “Ginny” was the nickname of Erika’s grandmother, my dad’s sister Virginia, one of the sweetest people you could ever hope to meet. My siblings and I spent several summers with Aunt Virginia and Uncle Don and their kids (including Erika’s mom Marybeth) in Houston, Texas. The character’s name was Ginny in the original 1981 movie from which the Netflix series is adapted, but I’d never seen that flick. As soon as I heard the name on The Four Seasons, I was grinning from ear-to-ear at the beautiful symmetry of Erika’s character’s name paying tribute to her beloved “Gammy” (who gave her the acting bug).
Unsurprisingly to anyone familiar with Henningsen before this, she delivers this performance with such grace that it makes for a character I would want to be friends with. Heck, maybe even go on vacays with.
The Four Seasons is #1 globally on Netflix. NBD.
And while that series is dominating the airwaves (are they still called “airwaves”? Is it “streamwaves” now?), Erika is starring on Broadway in the jukebox musical Just in Time, playing Sandra Dee opposite Jonathan Groff’s Bobby Darin. NBD.
She’s “having a moment” for sure.
Oh, and later this month she’s going to dash right from taking a bow on Broadway to a nearby club for a cabaret show. NBD.
As my late night talk show idol David Letterman used to say, “as if that weren’t enough… and by gosh, don’t you think it ought to be?!” Erika also launched a Substack a few months back, called Millennial Bohemia. As a fellow WordNerd, I’m being as objective as a super-proud first cousin once removed can be when I say the writing is superb!
I remember when my wife and I visited Marybeth and Phil in California when their youngest daughter Erika was just a wee tyke. Even back then, she had the bug… she put on an impromptu performance in the backyard. It fills my heart with joy to see her still doing what she loves best, and excelling at it.
Our second oldest kid turned 24 on Derby Day. The next day he ran the Cincinnati Flying Pig half-marathon.
I went to three different spots along the route to cheer him on.
At Mile 3, when the runners come back into Ohio from Kentucky… didn’t see him.
At Mile 4, when the route takes them back into downtown… couldn’t spot him there either.
Finally, at Mile 8, I caught sight of him as he was rounding a turn past Eden Park. A quick shout-out from me, a brief smile and nod of acknowledgement from him, and then, in the blink of an eye, he was gone.
He’s 24. He’s off and running. All of our kids are. Our oldest will be moving out soon. Our daughter is renting an apartment in Clifton, near school, while she takes summer classes. Our youngest will be home from Indiana U. soon, but he’ll be off with his friends most of the summer.
Our son’s pace quickened in the second half of the race.
I know the feeling. Ferris Bueller taught me well.
It’s their race now. I’m just a spectator. Hoping to catch an occasional glimpse, a brief smile, a nod of acknowledgement.
Before they’re gone. Before I’m gone.
Seems like I was just a kid not so long ago
There were so many arrivals, so many hellos
Now my time behind is greater than my time ahead
Save up the minutes like flowers before all they’re dead and gone…
Last year Ted published a homemade graphic in his 2024 “State of the Culture” article and it really resonated.
Spoiler alert: it’s not getting any better in 2025.
Our new lives will be as shallow and predictable as the spinning wheels on a slot machine. And that’s by design—the web platforms study what happens in casinos and incorporate what they’ve learned in their apps.
Ted Gioia
The term “world wide web” seems almost quaint now, even though the “www” still remains. Many years ago, the “web” was about connection:
Not long ago, the Internet was loose and relaxed. It was free and easy. It was fun. There wasn’t even an app store.
We made our own rules.
The web had removed all obstacles and boundaries. I could reach out to people all over the world.
The Internet, in those primitive days, put me back in touch with classmates from my youth. It reconnected me with friends I’d made during my many trips overseas. It strengthened my ties with relatives near and far. I even made new friends online.
It felt liberating. It felt empowering…. I made new connections. I opened new doors.
Now, “web” is about control. We’re being flattened under the thumbs of a mere handful of people who control the mediums and the messaging.
But the standardization and bunkerization of web platforms has put power in the hands of the digital overseers. We are now caught in their web—and they are the spiders.
Give Ted’s great article a read. Give it some thought. And perhaps reconsider how you are spending your time. Because your mind is getting swiped…
When you watch this happen, don’t you crave a return of indie culture? Don’t you hope for a resistance movement? Don’t you want to see a backlash to uniformity and standardization? Of course you do. And you’re not alone.
Po on Here, There, and Everywhere: “I’m with you on all of that Damian. I’m exceedingly happy when I’m actually – with YOU – at such…” May 31, 13:52
blueandgolddreamer on Monday Fun-day: “I was just thinking about this song today. Every day I get closer to fine even if the journey is…” May 20, 03:30
Damian on Lost in a Cave: “Spend some time with his answers to fans’ questions on his Red Hand Files. You’ll enjoy it.” May 10, 19:25
impossibly4332b32374 on Lost in a Cave: “BTW, this is Chuck Wiggins…I guess I’m now known as impossibly4332b32374. That moniker has gone with me to a few…” May 10, 15:19
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