Sid Saturday

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bikes are our paint brush and the streets our canvas

Every week the Urban Basin Bicycle Club has a different theme for its bike ride. Not that anyone has to do anything special, the theme just informs the route.
This week the Pride Ride celebrated pride Week in Cincinnati, another big group of riders came out to enjoy the city streets , history and architecture.

Cincinnati Councilperson Chris Seelbach lead the ride on the first bike share bike in Cincinnati.
Cynthia Rose Kindly handed out Kind bars to participants, the new Cashew & Ginger Spice was good! I see they have Roasted Jalapeno now too, I'd like to try that one.




When the sandwich board is on the sidewalk it means Yum Yum is open! Eat as if you were in China.



Afterwards we were treated to a cookout at On Broadway.

[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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Cincinnati Observatory

The Cincinnati Observatory houses the largest and oldest telescope still in use, an 11" refractor made in Bavaria in 1843. Do you watch Cosmos? An episode or so ago Neil deGrasse Tyson talked about the Bavarians making the best glass in the world and closely guarding their secrets.
The observatory also houses a 16" refractor made in 1904. There is a lot of history here and like every other signification building in Cincinnati it was designed by Samuel Hannaford.




[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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OTR. this Friday with even more cowbell

People ask why I never give them a heads up about upcoming events. And follow that up with asking how I always know what's going on. There is no easy answer for that. As for sharing info on what's happening, have you ever thought about what that entails? Its an all consuming job, a swallower of worlds. And I don't have the time or the passion to pull it off.
But every once in awhile something important comes along and I have to throw a bone out.
An art show. An art show that is kind of two shows and more really. For whether you pay attention or not you've seen Yeti-Auge's graffiti all over OTR, downtown and other places. Graffiti, not to be confused with tagging is the twitter of art. Graffiti is what is happening right now, not five, ten or a hundred years ago.
So, this Friday May 30th at the Frameshop you see "Real Men Spit", featuring local street-artist Elliott Danger James and his alter-ego "Yeti-Auge" James says they'll have plenty of live jams, 100% Crispy artwork, and free stuff. He'll be releasing the first line of Yeti-Auge apparel.
And if that wasn't enough James recently has had his street-art featured along the Flying Pig Marathon route.
Not bad for a misunderstood and maligned kid living in OTR.
If you don't go to this show to check out Elliott's artwork while its still affordable to regular people, don't blame me.

This Friday is also Final Friday, there will be so much amazing going on in OTR people's head may spontaneously combust. Nightshade Ink is having an art show at Rock Paper Scissors. Park+Vine is having their 7th anniversary party just across the street. And back at 12th & Vine Article's Motorcycle helmet art show is going on. At Findlay Market The Red Door Project is going on at the Crown Building. Findlay Market along with the Red Door Project is hosting its own mini Final Friday with the OTR biergarten, Eli's BBQ, Market Wines, Dojo Gelato and Pho Lang Thang and an after party at Rhinegeist. I know there are a thousand other events happening in the city, things like the awesome Walk on Woodburn in Walnut Hills. The events I highlighted were ones I want to and have a good chance of attending.
[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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Fuel Coffee

On your way into the office you already stop at Fuel Coffee during the week. But on Saturday mornings the pace slows down and its a giant car show. Guaranteed you'll see something amazing every week. It probably depends on the crowd but it was interesting to see more people around the older sports cars than the newest super cars.









That is some serious airflow management going on there. And Low Tus? cute


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Sid Saturday

[where: 45202] best place to learn how to live downtown cincinnati ohio the ethos of Cincinnati
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The Globe Building at Findlay Market

365Cncinnati hosted a photowalk at Findlay, its getting challenging for me to take pictures there. I feel like I've taken 100 pictures of anything worth photographing. But the main reason I went was to look inside the old Globe building which is at the beginning of a rehab. The Haile Foundation will occupy the 2nd and 3rd floors for their new project to promote OTR north of Liberty St.
Karen Kahle, Findlay Markets Resource Development Director told me it will be called People's Liberty - a riff on the bank that Ralph Haile started in Northern Kentucky. It's intended to be like a Place Matters (which is LISC/United Way initiative in Avondale, Price Hill, Covington, Walnut Hills) program for the Northern Liberties.
The first floor will most likely be retail and no one has claimed the 4th floor yet.

dunnhumby construction cranes in the distance
Andre has been a Findlay Market fixture for as long as I can remember, slide him a dollar people, he's singing his heart out for you every damn day
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The Square People

The Square People as defined by Thomas Friedman are "all those newly connected and aspiring middle classes".
Friedman says that leaders are finding that Square People are "a spontaneous third party that has emerged between themselves and their tame traditional opposition and, as a result, their politics is getting a bit crowded — and a lot more interesting."
He is talking about people in the middle east but I couldn't help but draw some parralells to what has happened in Cincinnati.
Friedman goes on to say that before the Internet a protest required the tedious work of organizing and this helped build infrastructure for decision making and strategies for sustaining momentum.

With social media we completely skipped that step, it makes for rapid response. Remember the frustration the mayor and some on council expressed when their supporters were outnumbered by 100 to 1 in council meetings for the streetcar and Central Ave bike lane?
This is The Square People's greatest strength.
But also their greatest weakness because at the end of the day nothing has fundamentally changed at 801 Plum St.
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Five Points Biergarten

The first Biergarten of the season after a winter of brainstorming paid off in tiny details that made some huge differences. To the casual observer they were probably insignificant but I think they had big implications. The fence that used to surround the lot was gone. Not only did it make the space feel more free, I think it took down a barrier to the neighborhood.
Like Walnut Hills is ok, AS LONG AS YOU'RE INSIDE THIS FENCE!
Maybe I'm reading too much into that little change. Maybe not.
The other subtle change, spreading the pile of architectural stone around the lot for seating. People were seated all over in informal groups. Also the awnings from what will soon be Angst Coffee into the alley space connecting them together. All together positive changes for Five Points Alley, and Walnut Hills.

Angst isn't open yet, but Five Points will be "even more"* awesome when it is.




Tom and his super cool Minolta analog camera

*one or two words make a big difference, thanks Walnut Hills for pointing that out. This of course was the spirit in which I wrote that sentence.
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