Look Back in Time with WhatWasThere.com

Sep 29, 2011 by Bryan

Here’s a really interesting site: WhatWasThere.com. This site leverages Google Maps and crowd-sourcing to provide a great interface to share and browse pictures from our past. I love finding pictures from Cincinnati’s past. There are not many there yet, but they do have a nice old picture of the Tyler-Davidson fountain, and some other early architecture.

From their site:

The premise is simple: provide a platform where anyone can easily upload a photograph with two straightforward tags to provide context: Location and Year. If enough people upload enough photographs in enough places, together we will weave together a photographic history of the world (or at least any place covered by Google Maps). So wherever you are in the world, take a moment to upload a photograph and contribute to history!

So go take a look. If you have some good pictures to add, do that as well.

Source: The-Gadgeteer.com

read more

GeekBeat: Cincinnati Comic Expo Part 1

Sep 27, 2011 by Loki

I must say, for an event that is only in it’s second year Cincinnati’s Comic Expo was quite impressive. Not only did everything seem to run very smoothly, but the array of talent presented was top notch. You can sum a lot of it up in two words: Jim Steranko.

You would not guess from his small frame that this is one of the living legends of the graphic medium. While his hair has gone almost white, it only takes a moment for you to notice the twinkle in his eye. Best of all he was really engaging and honestly interested in the works of other artists trying to get a start.

It was close to five when I approached his table, and they were obviously packing up to leave. One of the guys with him told me they were done for the day, but another one must have seen my disappointment.

“Hey Jim, do you mind dong one more?” I heard him ask. Mr. Steranko looked over and said okay. Then I stood there for fifteen minutes seeing something wonderful. The man who introduced pop art and op art into comics was talking to a pair of budding artists. Not feigned, obligated and stiff but rather really offering comment on just what he like about each piece. Mentoring.

This is a role model for all creators out there, no matter their medium of choice. An open hand extended to the next generation to give them a hand up on their dreams. I must confess it made my afternoon.

I spent a sizable part of the day connecting with some of the amazing talent that was there from the local area and have an extensive array of profiles and interviews set up for future posts. Additionally I’ll be interviewing Andrew Satterfield and Matt Bredestege, the super heroes behind the Expo once they’ve had a chance to recover.

In the meantime here is a slideshow of pics I shot while I was there. The kid in the Nightcrawler costume is my favorite, what’s yours?

read more

Meet Elbridge Gerry(mandering)

Sep 22, 2011 by Ben Sherman

If you’re not familiar with the term gerrymandering, Mirriam-Webster provides a succinct definition: “to divide (a territorial unit) into election districts to give one political party an electoral majority in a large number of districts while concentrating the voting strength of the opposition in as few districts as possible”. The term is named for one Elbridge Gerry, who became infamous for redrawing the districts of Boston to eliminate the voting power of his opposition in 1812. He’s long since dead, of course, but I wouldn’t be surprised if his ghost was dancing for joy somewhere along the new borders of the OH-1 and OH-2 congressional districts. They aren’t technically official yet, but they’ve already passed the Ohio house, and are not expected to face significant opposition in the Senate.
Old districts are on the left, and new districts are on the right. What’s most striking to me about the entire map (and maybe I’m a little biased) is the blatantly obvious twist that runs through our very own tri-state area. Granted, congressional districts always look a little funny, and some of that is by necessity. They all need to carry roughly the same number of people in them, and it’s not always possible to do that by drawing straight lines and sticking close to county borders. In this case, though, the intent is clearly to dilute the (traditionally) urban democratic vote through the addition of highly-Republican Warren County to the western 2/3 of the city. (It’s worth noting that, although the Ohio GOP was responsible for the travesty pictured above, I certainly don’t mean to imply that gerrymandering is an activity performed exclusively by conservatives. CA-38 in 2004 is excellent evidence for that.)

According to Pat Clifford of the Enquirer, the new district map (known technically as HB 319), makes 14 of our 16 districts “generally uncompetitive” or “highly uncompetitive”; that is to say, outcomes are projected to differ by at least 10-15 percentage points, which is an absolute landslide by most metrics. As Mr. Clifford astutely points out, this also has the effect of marginalizing both independent voters and moderates (that is, people with a weaker party identification than most) all across the state. There’s no longer any need to cater to them if your reelection is all but assured by the number of people who vote for a particular party every time they come out.

That is a serious problem. History is full of examples of the bad things that happen when moderates lose their voice in government, and I think it would be hard to argue that our current House reps have acted with moderates in mind even under the current districts. If you share the sentiment that Congress has gone careening off of the rails in the last couple of years (and as of August, many people did), my guess is that the trend only gets worse among reps from Ohio once these districts take effect. Honestly, even if I was represented by a someone who shared my personal political beliefs today, I’d still be concerned by the lack of counterbalance.

The bottom line is  that most of us believe in (and believe that we’re participating in) a system where the voters choose the candidate, but if this map is any indication of how said system operates, it would appear that the tables have been turned, at least to a point. I’m not saying that world will end because of this, but by the same token, I think that if you consider yourself a concerned voter of any stripe, it’s an issue that you ought to watch very carefully. I sincerely hope that I’m just being a little paranoid, but again, if history has taught us anything, it’s that politicians are far more likely to be co-opted by special interests if they feel comfortable that they can win re-election regardless of how detrimental their actions are to their constituents.

read more

CSO’s Opening Concert—for the Plebians

Sep 12, 2011 by jennjolley

I heard Itzhak Perlman was in town with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra a few weeks back—he hasn’t visited Cincinnati since 1995. No kidding. When I heard of this, I wanted to go, but I didn’t think I’d be able to snag tickets to this fancy event. So I planned on not going.

However, the day before the concert, I found out via Facebook that the CSO was issuing student tickets—for $25 each, two per student ID—between 6–8 p.m. the day of the concert.

What?! This could work; I could make this. Yes, I would have to stand outside the box office and wait two to three hours prior to obtain my tickets, but I would do this for Mr. Perlman.

But it turns out I had to wait for an incoming CCM student coming in from Azerbaijan that evening (yes, really), so I went to the Newport on the Levee Live Screening instead.

At first I wasn’t exactly sure where this venue was located: I knew the live simulcast was probably somewhere in the mall area, but I wasn’t sure where exactly it would be. I assumed the opening concert would be screened in one of the AMC theaters, but this wasn’t the case—it was in the main lobby.

read more

COASTing Over The Line

Sep 11, 2011 by Ben Sherman

(note: since the time that I originally assembled this post, COAST has apparently apologized for their “stupid” and “insensitive” tweet, but have stuck to their guns on their lies regarding the funding, without citing evidence, of course. Vice Mayor Qualls reiterates (again) that the money has all come out of the Capital Improvements budget. Frankly, the apology doesn’t really change my take on things)

Update 14 Sept: Mark Miller has essentially admitted that his tweets were misleading in an interview with Channel 12. “Yea, they can’t take fire department salaries and go out and buy rails with it. I admit that. That’s exactly right, but that’s not what they’re doing. They’re taking money that should be spent on salaries and buying a study.” That’s not what you’ve been saying though, Mark. Hat tip to 5chw4r7z for pointing this out.

 

I’ve seen my share of offensive things on Twitter. It’s likely that I’ve posted a few things myself that people found distasteful. That being said, yesterday I saw something that seriously boiled my blood. Honestly, I waffled on writing about it at all. I’d hate to contribute to getting them any publicity, but I think it’s important for everyone to see exactly what lengths COAST will go to in their attempt to win fraudulently sway hearts and minds to their side.

I understand that the streetcar is a contentious issue. I happen to support it, but I’ll also be the first to admit that it’s possible for a rational person to oppose the idea, and that’s fine. That’s what debates and public forums are for. However, COAST has dedicated itself to flat-out spreading lies regarding how the project has been funded up to this point. Funds for construction come of out of a fund that cannot legally be used to to fund firefighting (or police, etc and so on). Fire companies are not being browned-out to support streetcar construction. It’s simply not true. This is, quite simply, a step too far in the debate (if it even continues to be a “debate” once you’ve lied as much as these guys have). Having an opinion and spreading lies about it is one thing. Co-opting a national tragedy and diminishing it by dishonoring it’s memory through associating your lies with it is quite another.

It’ll be interesting to see if there’s any fallout for them from this, particularly among the politicians they endorse. I suppose it all depends on whether or not the media picks up on it, and I doubt that a lone Twitter shenanigan, no matter how vile, will hit the radar. If it does though, I wonder if the council-people they back will start jumping ship, or at the very least ask them to keep their endorsement to themselves. Personally, I’d have a pretty tough time voting for anyone who knowingly associated themselves with this garbage, but maybe that’s just me. I hope that it isn’t.

read more

The Siege of Cincinnati

Sep 8, 2011 by Ben Sherman

I often think of myself as something of a Civil War history buff, and having lived here all my life, at least somewhat knowledgeable about the Cincinnati area. When I stumbled across this article from the Enquirer, I was actually kind of embarrassed at my complete lack of familiarity with the subject matter. I was aware that there had been gun emplacements built in Mt. Adams and Devou Park, but I hadn’t realized they’d come so close to being used.

We’re coming up on the anniversary (September 10th) of what historians refer to as the “Siege of Cincinnati”. Cincinnati was a vital river port for the union, and as such, was a fairly juicy military target. There were some very basic defenses built from the beginning of the war, but construction moved slowly. After the Confederacy invaded Kentucky in 1862, and the threat of an attack on Cincinnati became more realistic, construction was accelerated. Many trenches and gun batteries were completed in a matter of days outside of Covington and Newport, and likely just in time. In September of 1862, 6,000 confederate troops marched north from Lexington and made camp near what is today the intersection of  Turkeyfoot Road and Dixie Highway.

The “siege” didn’t really wind up being much of a siege at all. Confederate troops only stayed long enough to realize that they were up against roughly 72,000 (very recently arrived) defenders and 15 guns dug into the hastily built batteries. There was a minor conflict between Confederate scouts and the Union pickets at Ft. Mitchel, but after that, the Confederates quickly withdrew back to Lexington. If you’re interested in the finer details of the history and the defenses, there’s a great article on them on “Our History”, a blog on Cincinnati.com. I’ve attached a Google Map with pins in the (very) rough locations of the batteries and fortifications (and a giant hat tip to Geoffrey Walden, who put this tour together. The map would not have been possible without it).

There were a couple of other things that struck me upon reading about this. The first is that the subject of the original article, William Hooper (a very well-to-do private citizen), paid quite a bit for both the construction of the aforementioned fortifications and for the conversion of civilian steamboats to military use (armor, guns etc.). In the realm of things about this story that would be completely unthinkable by modern standards, that is pretty much #1. The second is that, at least according to this essay, (posted on Cincinnati Civil War Roundtable’s site), if the Confederates had arrived but four days earlier than they did, they would have found only a few hundred militia manning a number of unfinished fortifications instead of being outnumbered 10:1-ish. That could have changed the face of the war, at least for a little while. To paraphrase the same essay, it’s all academic now, but it is an interesting “what-if” none the less.

In one final note, when doing some of the digging for this post, I discovered that there’s actually a Civil War museum in Ft. Wright. The address and directions are available behind the link if you were as clueless about it as I was and have any interest in checking it out.

Image Credit:  Some rights reserved by David Paul Ohmer Thanks!

read more

Arnold’s Ziffel by Listermann

Sep 2, 2011 by JoshOsbo

Yesterday evening I was lucky enough (thanks to 5chw4r7z) to attend a very special beer tasting. To celebrate the premiere of Harry’s Law, a show featuring Cincinnati and, in particular, Arnold’s, Dan Listermann and Co. are brewing a smoked altbier named Arnolds Ziffel. Listermann, in addition to owning a great homebrew supply shop, bottles and sells some limited beers that they themselves brew and bottle. Folks were invited to come and try four different variations of Arnolds Ziffel to help Dan determine which was going to be the final product.

This smoked altbier was chosen to celebrate traditional brewing methods. The four variations broke down as follows: 1) two variations with 50% smoked malts / 50% unsmoked malts, each using a different yeast strain and; 2)two variations with 100% smoked malts, each using a difference yeast strain. While there aren’t a ton of variables to take into account, the difference between the four variations in terms of color, smell, and taste was huge.

Though it’s difficult to tell from the picture, the front two are the 50/50 malt blends and the back two are the variations utilizing 100% smoked malts. The 50/50 beers are paler and have a higher clarity, while having a fruitier, sweeter smell and taste. The 100% smoked malt beers are much darker and cloudier, with a stronger smoke smell and a robustness that isn’t found in the other two.

In my opinion, these two were clearly superior not only in taste and smell (though they weren’t as pretty), but they hit the mark with what Dan was trying to do in putting them together. I probably should have prefaced all of this by noting that I’m not a big drinker of alts (let alone smoked alts), but having him explain to us what he was aiming for in brewing this helped making judging this much easier. Almost all of us agreed on which was the most appropriate variation to move forward with, so I’m sure that made Dan’s life easier. I’m not going to tell you which one it was; you’ll just have to get over there on September 21 and try it for yourself.

By all means, don’t wait until the 21st to get over there and have a drink, though. Arnold’s is busy slinging delicious drinks and grub every day of the week except Sunday. While you’re at it, give Listermann some business too. Whether you just want to pick up a few of their beers, replenish your depleted homebrew supplies, or start new altogether, they can help you out. Both of these businesses care about beer and about Cincinnati. That’s as good a reason I’ve heard to support a business.

Prost!

read more