audendi

My friend Chris Brown and I made a video to the song “Mush Room” done by my friends in Grizzzzy Bear (myspace profile, artist page), a local Dayton band on the Squid’s Eye Record Label. The song is released on their self titled album. Check it out!

My congressional district, the Ohio 3rd district, is currently occupied by Republican Mike Turner. Mr. Turner is a bandwagon politician. He does nothing notable but bring pork to Dayton. That’s not useful. He supported the war on Iraq, he has supported every Bush policy that I can think of, and it is time for him to retire and move back to Dayton where he has to live like the rest of us. That said, I am endorsing David Esrati for Congress in the Ohio 3rd District. Now, you might be asking yourself why would a Ron Paul supporter and a former Republican ever endorse a Democrat of all things? Well it’s simple. Mr. Esrati is local, he’s real, and he’s honest. He cares about this community in Dayton and isn’t in it just to make money or get famous, he wants to make Dayton a better place to live and work. Let’s face it, Dayton is in trouble, and we need help. If the City of Dayton, and the Dayton Daily News, and the University of Dayton and the State of Ohio will sit idly by as this city crumbles (while lining their own pockets), then change must come from the Federal level somehow. All politics is local, but sometimes it requires a national solution and Mr. Esrati is offering that. I do not agree with him on all of his positions, but then I don’t agree with anyone on much when it comes to politics! What is important to remember is that when you vote, you are voting for a person, someone who is going to Washington, D.C. to represent your interests. Mr. Esrati served his country honorably as a veteran and owns and operates a small business in Dayton, Ohio. His credentials speak for themselves, and I like his blog based campaign style. It is the future of politics in this country, and it’s about time. My generation (18-30 yr olds) needs a voice in this country and David Esrati is the most likely candidate of all available at the moment to actually sit down and listen. Remember to vote for him in the primary March 4th, he needs your help. You can learn more about him and his positions, or donate, at his website, esrati.com. David Esrati represents change, and if anything, Dayton could use some.

Blessings,

Daniel J. Greene

There, I said it. Straussians, especially like the people at the Claremont Institute and Hillsdale College, and the Department of Defense and the White House, have all but ruined our country. I think Leo Strauss himself was much misunderstood, in fact, and the people harming America by dragging us into war, after war, after war, are the people that we must hold to account every year by going out and voting, and more importantly, by taking action. The loss of liberty in this country has gone on too long. We must make our stand, every day, and say, “Across this line you shall not pass.”

This is of course a somewhat dramatic way to make the statement in defense of freedom in the truest, best sense of the word. But I feel that in these times it is necessary to ring the bell, sound the alarm, and wake people up. It’s not too late, but we are running out of time. The fact is enemies of freedom and liberty surround us on all sides, regardless of what party badge they wear, be it Republican or Democratic.

The time to act is coming in Ohio. Vote against the war, and vote with your brain, not just your heart. Be smart about it, Ohio will be an incredibly important state the rest of this primary election season. I am calling all of you readers (as few you may be) out. The time to do the hard work to win this country back is now.

From Daytonology:

Since military aerospace R&D is the bright spot in the regional economy perhaps it would be interesting to see how that came about.

Aviation in Dayton starts, of course, with the Wright Brothers. After Kittyhawk the Wrights returned to Dayton and perfected basic flying control at Huffman Prairie, which was later the site of their flying school. The Wrights also made improvements to their flyer, and in 1910 started to build planes.

read more…

Don’t ever forget that Dayton, Ohio is the birthplace of aviation, or flight as you laypeople probably refer to it. Those of us from Dayton understand what it’s about: discovery, invention, entrepreneurship, and most important of all, dreams.

Have you ever heard of the phrase “Ballots not Bullets” - a phrase used in the 19th century? If not, it was the idea that paper ballots, not use of violent arms, was the appropriate way to settle political disputes large and small. If you look at the evolution of the political process in America, you see the overriding importance of the use of the ballot box. Concomitant with this is the importance of free access to the ballot box, the right to free association, the right to a free news media, the right to life, and so on. It seems that anymore these days, our public officials abuse their positions of power without but a peep from the people. It seems that things are falling apart and that the operators of our public institutions are asleep at the switch. Some people feel that this process is inevitable, the sign of some sort of end times, some apocalypse that will, nay must, befall our dear republic. Well, to hell with that notion. There is hope. There is a way out. But the answer must come from within ourselves. We have to lay aside our apathy, our avarice, our sheer laziness and greed. We must come together and defend this country not with violent revolution but with loving, peaceful persuasion, hard work, and consistent voting. But what does this have to do with Dr. Ron Paul, Texas Congressman running for the Republican nomination, and for President of These United States?

Well, I’m just some guy you probably have never met from Dayton, Ohio. I wasn’t born here, but I was raised here, and I love where I’m from - ok, technically I live in Beavercreek but I went to school in Downtown Dayton, so there. I don’t have a college degree, yet, but I know enough to tell you that the vast majority of the people running for president in both parties have a lot of trouble saying what they mean, and even worse, meaning what they say. You know this to be true, just watch the television for five minutes, look at their faces, watch their expressions. Most of them don’t mean a word of it, and you know it.

Ron Paul is different. Now, I don’t agree with him on everything, but he is clearly a hardworking, honest man. He has put his time in serving this country, and now that he feels the time is right, he has decided to run for President. Almost eleven months ago he announced, and people everywhere didn’t even hear about him, because he was not taken seriously by the ‘mainstream’ media. Well, that doesn’t matter as much anymore, because the media is being democratized before our very eyes, the power of information is being handed down to the regular people. People like you and me.

I am a registered independent and I really want someone that I can support in the March 4 primaries here in Ohio. Ron Paul doesn’t just stand for a lot of the things I stand for, he stands for them with great courage and conviction. He is the only candidate this election cycle that should, no, that deserves, to be Chief Executive of the United States of America.

- D. Greene
Friday, December 14, 2007

The sun will come out soon, the Dayton Gloom is only temporary, after all. Chin up folks!

Beyond my problems with their content and editorial practices, my problem with the Dayton Daily News and Dayton City Paper is that their websites are difficult to use and in general, not very good at all. For a paper with a huge budget, DDN’s website is a disgrace. For DCP, their website is understandably bad as they have a comparatively meager budget. But still, it could be a whole lot better without increasing their costs too much.

To sum up, they don’t care enough about their work to present it well on the web.

Which says a lot about how they report the news. I get the impression that the Dayton Daily News’ ownership does not give a rip about our community. Which is really too bad, because their print edition is very nice. The web edition just needs a lot of help.

I saw this a few weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised by it. Even though I find Dane Cook very often annoying, he was used only in small doses in this film, and was not the focus of the movie at all.

Steve Carrell once again demonstrates that he can act, and Juliette Binoche is as lovely as ever. This film is a sleeper hit. If you’re spending Thanksgiving here in Dayton, Ohio, and want to see a good movie idea, hunt down Dan In Real Life. It is still playing at Cinema De Lux 14 at the Greene, Regal Hollywood 20 at the Fairfield Mall, and Showcase Cinemas Dayton South (Dayton Mall at routes 741/725). It’s not in the cheap seats yet, but at least people won’t be shoving into you just to get a good seat.

In any case, ‘Dan In Real Life’ is a small, smartly written romantic comedy with a talented, well used ensemble cast. It snuck up on me, and it could do the same for you. I quite enjoyed it.

Have a great holiday everyone.

The weather is dreary, pensive, almost waiting. Doing nothing, except blotting out the sun and making the climate boring as hell, save for the occasional gust. It has been colloquially referred to as the ‘Dayton Gloom‘, although that is just a taste - most of the descriptions contain some hilarious use of profanity. It is the worst weather of the year in one way, save for a few runs in late January, all of February (honestly, fuck February, no wonder they put Valentine’s day in the middle of the worst month of the Western Calendar.

On the other hand, with weather like this, you know that things can only get better.

Without a doubt, the best Dayton blog is run by Jeffrey over at Daytonology (http://daytonology.blogspot.com/).

His blog is accessible, stylish and cogent - along with coverage of the local cultural scene, he provides easy to understand analysis of political, economic, and social issues that affect Dayton, using statistical trends and data relevant to Dayton’s various contemporary issues. He manages to do it in a visually appealing and readable way - you can scan an article in 30 seconds and get a good impression of what he is getting at, or you can spend 10 minutes reading a single entry if you want to get that deep. Plus, his politics aren’t bad either.

His article, Considering the Core Creative Class in Dayton, best sums up what I’m talking about.

In my opinion, in almost eight years of blogging, Jeffrey’s Daytonology is the best overall blog in Dayton today, without question. Most importantly, I have fun reading it.

What do you think is the best overall blog in Dayton? How about the best Dayton music blog? (I pick Buddha Den!)

Captain of Industry at The Canal Street Tavern

Captain of Industry opened in support of Southeast Engine’s first tour now that they are signed on a national label. Some photos of a few of Dayton’s finest rockers. Photos taken Friday, November 2, 2007. View the entire photo set on my Flickr account. I shot a bit of video on my camera, and if it looks good I’ll put it on YouTube.

Original frame of the Wright Flyer

At some point in its museum life, this version of the Wright Flyer was directly under a water leak which destroyed the canvas spread across the wooden frame. Of course, the originals should be in Dayton, Ohio, even though most people don’t really understand we are first in flight, not North Carolina. Come on, North Carolina is a bunch of opportunists. All they had was sand, wind, and yokels. We had the technology, the will, and the ingenuity.

Here are all my photos from my Washington D.C. trip last weekend.

As I traveled home early this morning on I-70 westbound, a low three quarter moon seemed to hang just above the road. I crested the last hill before I-675 comes into view and saw a wall of emergency lights flashing in the distance. I assumed it was some standard car wreck but I was concerned by the quantity of lights, and was of course selfishly worried that I would be unable to get onto 675. To compound things, I was passing a semi who had blown a tire and was driving on, sparks flying from an exposed rim. I no longer wonder why such frequent road maintenance is required.

What came next shocked me.

As we approached the lights, I counted two firetrucks, a large ambulance and several cruisers. Then I saw the bus. The bus was on I-70 eastbound, just after the I-675 overpass (as it terminates into Medway, Ohio). Sitting there, the side of the bus we saw was totally black and charred, windows utterly gone, the thing reduced to its metal frame. It looked like a bomb had gone off. Please understand that after 7.5 hours on the road, it all had a sort of sense of unreality. Still trying to gather myself, I merged onto I-675, pulled off, flipped my hazard lights and ended up with this low quality photo:

(click here for a bigger version)

I could only imagine that such a savage fire could have seriously hurt or possibly killed someone, so I was relieved when I came home and found out that everyone made it out ok. Dayton Daily News obtained video of the scene and already have it online. I imagine they obtained it from one of the stunned passengers. Their copy so far reads:

A bus carrying 55 people caught fire on Interstate 70 near I-675. All the passengers got off the bus safely but the bus was totally destroyed. Three area fire departments responded to the blaze.

Update: DDN has the full story online now:

Continued »

I shot this September 7, 2007 at the Night Owl on a Canon GL-1. This one is raw and unedited, but the sound was better, so here you go. From the same show the Grizzzzy Bear video came from:

UPDATE: A review of the show has been posted at the buddha den.

Grizzzzy Bear, of Dayton, Ohio is going to rock out next Friday in celebration of his self-titled freshman LP on Squid’s Eye Records. The show goes down October 19 and starts at 9 pm. It’s going to be at the Pearl, a cozy venue that looks like a chromed out diner. With The Gluons, Romance of Young Tigers, and The Sailing playing in support, it promises to be a fun time.

You can thank Squids Eye Records for putting this all together. I have been very impressed with their previous releases - Yakuza Heart Attack’s album and the Dayton, OH Vol. 1 Compilation - the mastering is generally good, the cover art is pretty cool, and so far the music itself has been great. I expect that this release will not disappoint. You can pre-order Grizzzzy Bear’s album or purchase any of Squids Eye Records’ other stuff through their website or their MySpace page. Don’t be a stranger to the Dayton music scene!