30 November 2010

Mondrian for a Moment?

I can't say exactly what inspired Piet Mondrian but I'll bet it happened in the late afternoon...




29 November 2010

Kudos: Qualls

At City Council’s most recent meeting, Roxanne Qualls proposed a resolution (item # 201001612) expressing Council’s support for the 3C rail corridor and urging other officials and Governor-elect John Kasich to support it. The item was referred to the Livable Communities Committee.

The resolution states some relevant facts, such as:


...the Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati (3C) travel corridor is the most heavily traveled corridor for passenger trips between metro areas in the entire Midwest, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics;

...the federal grant will not add any annual costs to the State of Ohio’s troubled general revenue fund;

...the State of Ohio’s share of passenger rail operating costs will instead be supported by the ODOT budget, which is legally separate and financially distinct from the State of Ohio’s general revenue fund;

...the states of Illinois, New York, and possibly other states have asked the federal government for Ohio’s $400 million if Governor-elect Kasich opts out of receiving the money;



Then the resolution provides rationale for supporting the rail initiative, namely that it will (1) Create good-paying rail industry jobs; (2) Provide affordable, efficient, quality transportation; and (3) Promote economic development along the corridor.

As a supporter of infrastructural progress, I appreciate Qualls’s initiative to keep this issue alive. But this part of the resolution struck me in particular:


…the Council encourages City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County officials, the Ohio General Assembly, the Ohio Congressional delegation, and other leaders to undertake all reasonable action necessary to ensure the development… continues unabated in Ohio’s 3C corridor.”


I think this is a key step to ensuring progress on this matter. The support of other public officials will be hard to overlook, even for a stubborn ideologue like Kasich seems to be.

To really put it over the top, the support of the general public and the business community is necessary. The public already voiced its desire at the ballot box. With the backing of public officials and business leaders, it stands a good chance of moving forward. Any Governor would seriously undermine credibility by rejecting an initiative supported by local citizens, local officials and local businesses.


22 November 2010

The Whorehouse Confab

A few weeks ago I was walking back to my car in a Covington parking lot. Two guys pulled in and the passenger leaned out his window and told me they were looking to party and asked if I could direct them to a whorehouse. This struck me as totally absurd and I figured I misheard them. I asked "What?" twice more and sure enough, they wanted me to tell them where to find a whorehouse. It was 9am.

I told them I was not aware there were any known whorehouses and if there were, I unfortunately did not know where they were. I wished them luck and they resumed their quest for the Holy Tail.

After I shook off the initial absurdity of the encounter, I got a little depressed. I wonder how many other people look at me and think, "Now there's a guy who looks like he knows where to find some Northern Kentucky whores.'

21 November 2010

Silly Graffiti




16 November 2010

Angel in the Infield

09 November 2010

"Bridge Eaters"

Time-lapse video of a bridge demolition in Toronto:


Bridge Eaters from Sam Javanrouh on Vimeo.

07 November 2010

Architexture

For some reason this reminds me of Tron:




01 November 2010

Downtown Danger Report - Oct 2010

It's bad enough that Cincinnati is the most dangerous city anywhere in the world at anytime in human history. But it is especially painful to see our most precious symbol, Fountain Square, overtaken by the scourge of humanity.

The crowd that descended upon Fountain Square for Saturday's "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" viewing party was a typical representation of America's most dangerous segment: the radical moderates. Having neither the righteousness to stand with the one true Christian God nor the courage to claim 9/11 was an inside job, these "people of reason" and their sensible cotton-poly blends brought their FOUNTAIN OF HATRED to Fountain Square on Saturday.

I had hoped the local media would capture the hatred but unfortunately it was distracted by a shiny object on the riverfront.

And so it remained for me, intrepid citizen-journalist, to document the continuing dangers of downtown. And what I witnessed turned my blood cold:



As you can clearly see in the photo (taken at great personal risk), this evildoer is OPENLY DISPERSING A TOXIC CHEMICAL AGENT. I was almost hit by some of the dispersant myself.

I can only hope this photo will aid law enforcement in apprehending this dangerous criminal and also convince the public that we simply cannot have any cuts in the police budget. Cincinnati is too dangerous and we need every police officer to confront the dangers that lurk everywhere, even on Fountain Square.