Diverse. Eclectic. Artsy. Green. Activist. Locally-owned businesses. Food. Music venues. Farmers Market. Organic. Fun. Community.

All good words to describe Northside. The Cincinnati neighborhood’s undergone several near-renaissances over the years, but one eyesore remained, the American Can Factory, right in the center of the business district and across the street from Hoffner Park, Northside’s town square. The building is a hulk of an industrial space, built in 1920, empty since 1973, and, as the tallest building in the neighborhood, it’s visible from many angles throughout the area.

The old Can Factory needed someone to show it some love. It took several years, but Bloomfield/Schon + Partners have managed to create an outstanding example of good design using sustainable building practices and community engagement. These are all things we like in Northside. The American Can Lofts‘ 110 apartments range in size from a studio to a big 3BR, beautifully finished. Tenants have been moving in since September, with more moving in each month. The building is about 80% leased. There’s life where there was no life before.

Life needs art. That’s where ParProjects comes in. The American Can Factory sits on several acres in Northside, and the parcel in front on the Hamilton Avenue side of it is owned by the city. So ParProjects proposed an art center for that front parcel. An art center made from shipping containers. Again, the words “good design using sustainable building practices and community engagement” immediately spring to mind. ParProjects’ immediate goal is to build a community-centered art center, made from shipping containers all stacked and arranged as one. These are good goals in Northside.

Life needs parties. So, this weekend, there’s going to be a party in Northside. The Factory Square Fine Arts Festival happens Saturday, October 22nd from noon until midnight, & Sunday, October 23rd, from noon until 8pm. There will be shipping containers with art installations, and most amazing sculpture garden pieces installed in the lot. There will be art installations inside of the American Can Factory factory bays. There will be a Prairie Gallery installation in the American Can Factory Lofts’ lobby.  There will be music. There will be beer.

And there will be City Flea! The Flea is holding a one-time satellite market at the American Can Lofts in the big high bay, on Saturday, as part of the Factory Square Fine Arts Festival. This is one of the most fun flea markets ever. And did I mention there’s beer?

Would you like to help? Volunteers are truly needed, can you help? As much or as little time you can give is appreciated. Click here to volunteer, or contact the volunteer coordinator Jeni Jenkins at 513-885-0504. Or just show up and you’ll be put you to work. The Festival can use volunteers at any time, but they especially need volunteers for the start up or knockdown periods of the day.

That’s what we do in Northside. 

Having just returned from GenCon you would think I’ve had my fill of gaming, but the tabletop beckons nonetheless. Here are the details of Tuesday’s events, shamelessly cribbed from the Yellow Menace Gamecast (check ‘em out, a local gamer’s podcast from right here in the Queen City):

Ed Healy (Atomic Array, Iron GM) will be in Cincinnati on Tuesday, August 9th to kick off the Gamerati Tour 2011! This is a one-day event to raise awareness about and celebrate gaming; Ed will be hitting two local game stores – Yotta Quest in Mt. Healthy and Gateway Games and More in Eastgate. If you live near Cincy, come on out and help us make this thing a big success…we’re hoping to bring in as many gamers, gamer media personalities, and game professionals as we can.

Better yet, do what you can to spread the word – Ed’s launched a new site athttp://tour.gamerati.com to help promote the tour. Share the link and help us kick this sucker off! The fun starts at 10am at Yotta Quest, with the second event kicking off at Gateway Games at 5pm. Hope to see you all there!

I will be at the YottaQuest event and have a 70/30 shot at being at the Gateway Games event. Hope to see you there. [Transparency: Both Alex at Yellow Menace and Todd who owns Gateway Games are friends. I also assist Todd with the Southwest Ohio Gathering of Gamers.]

-Loki

A lively and interesting young man, he was studying at DAAP and playing around with robots that make things. He had one built at the KOI Pound Artspace and was refining his designs. The technical term for his gadget is a “CNC machine.” Here, let me allow him to explain in his own words as posted recently on Sindrian Arts:

Put simply, CNC machines are one of the quickest ways to turn your ideas into physical objects.

When I was little I told anyone who asked that I wanted to be an inventor when I grew up.  I would spend hours every day just staring off into space dreaming up everything from pedal-powered airplanes to Nerf-based siege weapons.  I got into 3D computer modeling when I was around ten or so, and was amazed by how quickly I could take the images in my head and turn them into 3D objects on my screen.  Years later when I entered design school and I was introduced to the school’s CNC machines, I realized that these tools could take the 3D objects on my screen and actually make them real.

I was in love.

The fantastic thing is that he is making this a reality. He has developed two different designs for CNC machines that an individual or small business could afford and is funding things through Kickstarter. Here is his video showing the machine in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyHrN3flsRw

Even better he has someone who is backing all contributions on a dollar for dollar basis so if you throw a single at the project it becomes $2. [The minimum donation to support his project is a $1.]

Please, go check out his Kickstarter page and watch the video of the device in action. If you have any friends that are into open source, open hardware, or just plain making things pass it on to them. Having just relocated to Boston I’m sure Judah would appreciate some home town support from the Queen City.

There are only 11 days left and need to raise about 8K (as of my writing this post), let’s help get the Kikori out there!

Disclosure: I am also assisting Judah in a professional capacity on this project, but I would have posted it even if I were not because it has a Cincy angle and I dig open source stuff.

I had the good fortune to get a few moments with Franck Goddio, the underwater archaeologist who founded the Institut Européen d’Archéologie Sous Marine (IEASM) in Paris. It is his aquatic efforts that are primarily responsible for bringing us this fantastic array of artifacts. I’ve set the interview to a slide-show of photos from the exhibit that were shot for CincyVoices by local designer / photographer Mickey De Silva. (Thanks Mickey!)

Once the credits at the beginning roll the slide-show begins. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0p4WYLbF_c

Part one of this series includes Goddio’s opening statements as well as those of several other notables. You can find it here.

-Loki Founder and Curator

Media access provided by the Cincinnati Museum Center, or as I like to call it- The Hall of Justice!
Content of this post is copyright 2011 SocialGumbo, LLC. This supercedes the blanket creative commons license.

Two thousand years after her death Cleopatra is the subject of an amazing exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center. Recent finds, mostly underwater excavations, are  finally yeilding tangible evidence of Egypt’s most famous queen. (The Romans tried to obliterate all mention and images of her.)

I had the pleasure of attending the media preview of the exhibit and I must say it is impressive. Let’s set the tone with a slide show of some of whats in store when you go. (More after the slide show)

The presentation of this show is simply stunning. The designer went all out in exploiting the underwater archaeology motif to great effect. Rippling blue lights gave the interior the feel of being beneath the waves while artifacts unseen for thousands of years loom above and around you. It’s guaranteed to have appeal to both the Tomb Raider generation and their seniors.

As to the contents of the exhibit itself I’ll allow those more deeply steeped in the project to explain in their own words. Let’s start with John Norman (a Cleveland native) the president of Arts and Exhibits International.

Next let’s hear from Kathryn Keane, director of traveling exhibitions development for The National Geographic Society as she tells us more about this titanic effort:

And to round out the video offerings here is the one I shot of Franck Goddio’s opening remarks. I must admit he is the one I was excited about seeing. Goddio is the director of the European Institute of Underwater Archaeology, he is the man who discovered the submerged Royal Quarters of Alexandria, the lost city of Heracleion, and the suburb of Canopus.

So thats round one. I’ll be returning soon with part two which will include more pics from Mickey DeSilva and audio interviews that I did with both Goddio himself and Mark Lach, creative director and senior VP  of Arts and Exhibitions International.

Cleopatra opens Friday and will consist of a wide variety of lectures, a book club, and many more ways in which to immerse yourself in the land of the pharaohs beyond the exhibition itself. Details on the Cincinnati Museum Center’s page for the show- Cleopatra: The Search for The Last Queen of Egypt.

See you soon with part two!

-Loki, Founder and Curator
Media access provided by the Cincinnati Museum Center, or as I like to call it- The Hall of Justice!
Content of this post is copyright 2011 SocialGumbo, LLC. This supercedes the blanket creative commons license.

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A good map makes it easy to see what’s important. Highways don’t look the same as local roads on a good street map and major transit lines shouldn’t look the same on a map as a bus that runs twice a day. A good transit map not only needs to show where transit exists, but just as importantly when transit exists. I have spent the last several months making a map that highlights the most valuable and convenient transit corridors-the transit equivalent of major arterial streets-and distinguishes them from inconvenient and specialised routes. These frequent routes are the backbone of Cincinnati’s transit infrastructure, and understanding them is vital to getting around on the bus.

One of the biggest challenges of using transit in Cincinnati is understanding it. The new rider is presented with a complicated fare structure, and a mess of schedules and maps so overwhelming and disjointed that most people just give up. This map reduces that seemingly arbitrary complication to a legible system that is complex but interconnected, with an easily visible structure of primary, secondary, and tertiary routes located clearly in space and time. The map is laid out so that people who are new to riding the bus can quickly and easily see which route they need to take, and how to do it.

My goal is to have the map printed, distributed, and available to people who need it. Imagine a clear transit map being included in the welcome binder presented to incoming freshmen, or handed to new P&G employees who are looking for a house. Or even better, imagine a clear transit map at every major bus stop telling people where they could easily go if they wanted. The map will fold into about a 3″x3″ square with downtown routing information and some other important specifics on the back side. I am still looking to raise funds for the printing, and for official acknowledgement from SORTA and TANK.

Nathan Wessel – I moved to Cincinnati in 2007 from Massillon, OH to begin my undergrad in urban planning. Since then, I have been very active in the LGBT community, among other things helping to organize the 2009 Pride parade and festival, leading the UC Alliance for a year, and most recently as a board member of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network(GLSEN) of Greater Cincinnati. I am passionate about cities, and have been looking for an outlet for that energy-DAAP’s just not cutting it. I am leading an initiative in my neighborhood to improve parking for residents, and am advocating for more sensible transportation options to the best of my ability. I’ve been an enthusiastic cyclist for almost a decade and an aggressive pedestrian since I could walk.

Her passion moved me.

As I crossed Hamilton Avenue at the pedestrian crosswalk in front of Northside Tavern, a truck sped up when he saw I would do the unthinkable and actually use that pedestrian crosswalk with traffic speeding past. He opened his window, shouting meaningless obscenities.

I’m a bit of a militant pedestrian, I know that I do in fact have the right-of-way, so I kept walking. He stopped, though in reality he would have had to have stopped in another fifteen feet regardless, there was another car ahead. I smiled at him, somehow drawing power from Aung San Suu Kyi. I felt her passion.

Onward towards Take the Cake for lunch. As I crossed Blue Rock Ave, I looked up and realized Northside is blessed with two Shepard Fairey murals, and one features Aung San Suu Kyi, and that Aung San Suu Kyi mural was right in front of me. This made me smile.

I took a picture. It made me smile.

Shepard Fairey mural, Northside, Cincinnati, OH featuring Aung San Suu Kyi

After a Take the Cake lunch, I walked back past the mural, turned around and looked again, and thought about how Aung San Suu Kyi, even after fifteen years of political detention under an oppressive regime, had such positive passion about her life and those all around her. She saw change as inevitable and still possible and still happening despite the negative political forces still all around her. I smiled again.

Again crossing Blue Rock, I noticed some Northsiders playing in the snow. With tools. They’d tapped into their passion. They’d built a fantastic snow unicorn at the edge of Hoffner Park along Hamilton. I took a picture. And it made me smile.

Snow Unicorn, Hoffner Park, Northside, Cincinnati, OH

The snow builders then eagerly showed me their other creation, a snowman, a snowman who had been taken down by snow sharks. I took a picture.

The snowman that had been consumed by the snow sharks: (look closely)

Passion. This made me smile.

GeekJames

“Ohio, Where Dreams Go To Die,” read the graffiti at DAAP when my wife arrived for her first day of grad school. It was an attitude I’ve seen echoed many times since. It’s almost like there is an inferiority complex about the city amongst segments of its population.

It’s pretty much bullshit too. No, Cincy is not as vibrant and lively as my old home, New Orleans, was. It’s no NYC or San Francisco either. But why would you want to be just like someplace else anyway?

The Queen City has a lot going for it – history, a hammerlock on consumer marketing, magnificent art deco architecture, and a revitalizing OTR that becomes more of an asset every day. If Cincy were total crap I would not have moved my family and my business here.

Of course like everyplace it also has its downsides. News outlets that are politically polarized to the point of near uselessness is a big one. The apathy that I frequently encounter is another. All that means is that we, collectively, have to get off our asses and make it better. Participation is required if we are to take pride in our community.

Earlier today I stumbled across a video of my friend Kevin Dugan speaking at Ignite Cincy. It addresses another aspect of this topic and is well worth your time.  Afterwards let us know your thoughts in the comments, I’d really ike to get a discussion about this going.

One last thing. One or two people seem to have a problem with the fact that New Orleans is my main point of reference. Tough.

You would, I hope, encourage Queen City natives who move away to show pride in Cincy while in their new state. Well, after 17 generations of family there NOLA is my home no matter where I live.That’s not even touching on events of he past five years down there.

I think the fact that I own a home here, own a business here, and write this blog should show that I consider Cincinnati my home as well. Unlike the other voices presented here I am a relative newcomer. The NOLA references also help me make sure I represent myself honestly. Comprendez vous?

-Loki, Founder and Curator

Click to see full sized poster

New Year’s Eve I almost did not go out at all. I had woken up feeling poorly, my sinuses felt like they were reverting to swampland. Still, thanks to poking and prodding from friends I decided to hit Mayday to ring in the new year.

Now if you haven’t been to Mayday it is a terrific little hole in the wall hidden away on Spring Grove Ave in Northside (4227 to be exact) . It seems small at first but as you venture deeper you keep finding more. Dark and winding it will suddenly open out into dance floor or a large, two level open air patio. As a result it has one of my favorite traits in a club- a variety of spaces and atmospheres.

Being a sucker for fire performances and costume events I was looking forward to the performances, and happy to see that the cover was going to help fund West End art space The KOIpound (2008 Freeman Ave).

I grabbed Grim, one of the KOIPound people organizing the shindig and got him to answer a few questions about the performers and about their art space. Be advised, I was several cocktails into the evening at this point.

Here is one of my favorite performances of the night. Watch this guy closely, he is barely using his hands. I’ve never seen someone contact juggle a spear before, much less one with multiple flaming heads.

All in all a great way to ring in the new year- belly dancers, fire performers, a costumed crowd, and all in what is rapidly becoming one of my favorite bars in the city. Bonus points for benefiting a local arts organization as well!

Here is hoping that 2011 will bring improvements for everyone, and for our lovely Queen City as well. Happy New Year!

-Loki, Founder and Curator

Lets start with The Go Gos, not THOSE Go Gos but the original ones from the 1960s.

Then we have the current cast of the show regaling us with a christmas carol (I suspect a bit of eggnog was involved with this one):

As things get uglier how could we possibly skip the Dalek Christmas Album:

Lastly here is the trailer for this year’s Dr. Who Christmas Special, which will be simulcast in the US for the first time ever on BBC America at 9pm Xmas night. Looks like Stephen Moffat is getting old school for this one.

So there you go. From all of us on the CincyVoices team to all of you I’d like to extend our best holiday wishes! No matter which mid-winter celebration you embrace we wish you the best one possible!

Happy Chauna-Rama-Kwanza-Solsti-Mas!

-Loki, Founder, Curator, and Major Geek