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J.T. Ryder

“Of Soft And Golden Hue” – The Stoddard Avenue Pumpkin Glow

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The Stoddard Avenue Pumpkin Glow

 

“When black cats prowl and pumpkins gleam,
May luck be yours on Halloween.”

 

Judith Chaffin

Reflecting on a pumpkin patch, it reminds me of the way a community should truly be. Occupying your own mounded hill, you are nurtured from the same sustenance offered to your neighbor. When you bask in the warmth of a sunlit day, your neighbors feel the sun’s impartial rays as well. When hard times befall you, the community must endure the inclement storms. Eventually, your vines and roots tangle and twist together, becoming a communal plot of land. Could it be that a simple jack-o’-lantern could bring a community of people together as well?

Many years ago, Judy Chaffin envision ghoulishly glowing pumpkin lighting the perfect darkness of the McKinley Park located on Forest Ave. by the Dayton Art Institute. Her vision remained a wil-o’the-wisp…until she moved nearby onto Stoddard Ave.

“When I moved onto Stoddard Ave., I thought, ‘Boy, if we put some over on the hill, how neat would that look?’” Judy reminisce. “I then asked my brother and his wife if they would help me and I went out and bought thirty-six pumpkins and, back then, I thought that was huge! So, we put them over there and people stopped by and seemed to really like them and that was really nice.”

The hill behind the Greek Orthodox Church seemed perfect, providing the pumpkins with a raised dais so that the casual passersby would fall under it’s eerie orange stare while the stone edifice of the Church itself endowed the tableaux with the ideal backdrop. The idea seemed to grow all on it’s own, sending tendrils and roots through the fertile furrows of the imagination. Judy recounted how the pumpkin patch grew with each subsequent year that passed.

“Then the next year, we decided to go for a little more. We tried to increase it by twenty-five or so…we did seventy-five, then one hundred, then one hundred and twenty-five…it just kept going up and up and up.” With a wave, Judy said, “At some point, it just jumped up to three hundred, and once that number goes up, you really can’t go back down. Last year it jumped to like four hundred and this year we have like five hundred pumpkins.” We just heard that for 2015 there will be 825 pumpkins on display.

In the beginning, Judy would trek up towards Springfield each night after work to cull through a local pumpkin farm, loading up her little Honda Civic with all that it would carry. After a few years, her brother helped her by loading up his van with the orange gourd-like squash. Eventually, she was referred to another Springfield area farmer who not only negotiated a fair price for the prestigious pumpkins, but more importantly…he delivered.

Neighbors and friends have joined into the mix, offering their services from gutting and cleaning to carving, placing and lighting the finished pumpkins. It became a neighborhood affair. Now it’s even bigger, with a volunteer team working on carving, set up and feeding of volunteers.

“Well, I think that a lot of them like to bring people into the neighborhood for something positive. You know how it is. If you say, ‘Oh, I live over by the Dayton Art Institute’ people are aghast. It’s not like that. It’s a great neighborhood.” Judy opined, “I think that is why the neighbors enjoy it because we have people from all over…we have people from Sidney and Troy and other cities that come down. It’s just nice. I have friends from Cincinnati who come up to see it.”

With every manner of carving displayed, the Pumpkin Glow has definitely grown, taking in the hearts and imaginations of people from far away cities who have hear about the extraordinary exhibit by word of mouth. The sheer logistics is staggering when one realizes how few people are involved in the actual process of cleaning and carving the pumpkins.

If you’d like to help

“We’re going to try and put them up early this year at about eleven o’clock in the morning and then at about four-thirty or five o’clock, we’ll begin lighting them and they’ll stay lit well past midnight. Then they will be up Saturday night and Sunday night and then Monday, we take them off the hill.” Judy ended by alluding to one of the many factors that make this such a special occasion. “Some people want us to keep them lit until Monday. I think that two nights is enough…it’s fleeting, and that’s what makes it so special.”

Update: Ms. Judy was sick and unable to hold the pumpkin glow in 2016, then in 2017 the Grafton Hill Historic District took charge of the event that Daytonians had come to love .  Judy Chaffin, the Pumpkin Lady passed away in December of 2018, but with lots of volunteer help the Pumpkin glow continues

The Stoddard Avenue Pumpkin Glow can be seen from 6-10pm on the Monday and Tuesday prior to Halloween. It is a display that is well worth seeing, not only for it’s sheer eerie beauty, but also for the sense of community that it invokes.

“Only the knife knows what goes on in the heart of a pumpkin.”
~Simone Schwarz-Bart

…let the carnage begin!

Here is a video done in October 2011.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZrkDQKC9hg

(note – this article was originally written in October 2010 and has been updated each year)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZrkDQKC9hg

 

The Conversation Piece: A Three Piece Harmony

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“A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That’s why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.”

~Truman Capote

 Conversation Piece 03            A conversation, in these days, is truly a scarcity. Most communications are merely a regurgitation of whatever political analyst or the televisions latest talking head spewed forth that day. Other conversations are like verbal marshmallows: soft and tame so as not to offend or cross into the realm of what is thought of as politically incorrect. They are conversations of little substance and will probably cause you to have a cranial cavity sometime in the near future.

My conversation with Anthony Barwick, creator of the aptly titled The Conversation Piece, started several years ago and has, as yet, to stop. There are huge gaps between the times that we get a chance to speak with each other, but we pick up the thread as if no time had lapsed. I think it is our love of truly good dialogue and probing the mysteries revealed by the simple question, “why?” that creates this bond. Our first time meeting was for an interview. We met at a coffee and, after an hour or so of non-stop talking, we realized that we had a problem. We had accomplished nothing in the way of an interview. We found that the only way that we could keep on one train of thought was through emails because, if we were face to face, one of us would say something that would send the other off on a tangent, which would lead through a rabbit warren of thoughts and ideas.

I will give you the abridged version of what The Conversation Piece is and what it hopes to achieve. The Conversation Piece started when he began a series of public readings he had held for a manuscript he had written. The reactions of the participants led him to develop the framework for a dialogue driven meet up that would delve into all sorts of topics, from social issues, race, religion, politics…everything was fair game with one caveat: You can espouse whatever belief or opinion as long as you could defend it. That being said, the debates do not get heated or hateful. Under the careful verbal choreography of Barwick, who plays the role of referee and alternately the antagonist, the event becomes a true dialogue and not just the loud ranting of opinions and the shouting down of ideas.

The first event of Barwick’s that I had attended was held fairly early on a Saturday at a downtown eatery. Everybody was friendly and amiable in their discourse and, not only were the attendees given something to think about regarding other diverse members of the audience’s opinions and stories, the people giving opinions learned something about themselves through the sheer act of having to defend the validity of their opinions. I also hosted a chapter of The Conversation Piece during one of my Dirty Little Secret variety shows because, with the addition of alcohol and burlesque, nothing could possibly go wrong! Yet, once again, under the aegis of Barwick’s hand, no one was offended and everyone truly had a good time becoming part of the show and having their opinions heard.

The time has come again for yet another chapter in The Conversation Piece’s history: a triple threat! They are hosting not only another episode of their meeting of the minds, but they are also having a book signing by an author who was born here in Dayton. The third section to this trifecta is an after party simply titled The Beautiful People’s Party. I have been invited to the book signing and The Conversation Piece, but I fear that I will be forced to leave once the after party commences. That has yet to be seen.

TRIPLE THREAT EVENT 3 - APRIL - 2014 (NOW jpeg version)The first event will be the book signing with author Sharisse Kimbro for her recently published book Beyond The Broken. Kimbro, who was born in Dayton and now resides in Chicago, wrote the book after being inspired by Langston Hughes’ poem, A Dream Deferred. The book revolves around  five friends, following them from their graduation from Stanford and into the lives that were not what they expected. Kimbro explores some of the themes that many women encounter, such as motherhood, depression, serial singleness, suicide and betrayal, yet it is her attention to the character’s details and real world anecdotes that draws the reader in. Kimbro draws her inspiration from her own experiences as well as stories that have been told to her throughout her journeys through life.

The second stage of the evening is another chapter of The Conversation Piece. As illustrated above, this experience is a safe place for one to express their opinions, thoughts and beliefs and to have them respectfully heard by other open minded people. Directly following The Conversation Piece will be the after party featuring music by DJ Spare Change. This will give you the opportunity to mingle and meet others and possibly extend some of the conversations touched upon earlier in the evening. The evening will be held at Lily’s Bistro, which is the most casually elegant places in Dayton. They have  great mixologists (try the strawberry moonshine!) and a menu of items that are made from things that I have never heard of and most of which I cannot pronounce but everything that I have had there has been delicious.

WHEN:  Sat, April 26th – Book Signing begins at 9:00pm. The Conversation Piece begins at 9:30pm. The Beautiful People’s Party begins at 10:00pm and runs until 2:00am

WHERE: Lily’s Bistro located at 329 E. Fifth St. in the Oregon District.

PARTICULARS: Dress is to be social attire and admission is a mere $10.00

BeardCon: The Cutting Edge Of A Hairy Subject

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BeardCon Is Growing

 “He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man.”

~ William Shakespeare

 

A beard. It is an enigma that is constantly being defined and redefined. At times throughout man’s history, it was viewed as a badge of sexual virility, a symbol of wisdom and then, paradoxically, as a follicle folly ascribed to the slovenly and the shiftless. Biologically, it is described as a secondary sexual characteristic brought upon by an influx of dihydrotestosterone during puberty and is defined as a signal that a man is ready to sire offspring. It is sometimes viewed with fear and, in a wild pendulum swing of rhetorical reactions, a leisure left only to the vain fool.

Whatever one’s perception may be, there is one thing that can be said about facial hair for certain: There is no one that does not have an immediate, transcendent and wholly personal reaction to someone with a beard. Perhaps this is why, within recent years, clubs and competitions have been sprouting up here and there giving a focus and forum to those that celebrate the manliness of the beard.

Locally, that group would be The Gem City Gentlemen of the Gilded Beard, who created the upcoming follicle fest that has come to be known as BeardCon. BeardCon will take place on Saturday, October 6, 2012 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center located at400 North High St., Columbus,Ohio. The event features competitions in such diverse categories as Natural Full Beard, Styled Moustache, Fantastic Beards and even Best Costume and Best Team awards, plus seven more categories. There will be a variety of vendors aimed at those who are captivated by facial coiffing as well as discussion groups, demonstrations and the history and social significance of facial hair. This event is drawing groups from all around the country as well as a representative group from Canada and has all the earmarks of being not only fun and entertaining, but an event that stems out of a sense of community as well.

Recently, I was able to speak with several members of The Gem City Gentlemen of the Gilded Beard. Nate Stevens, Stephen Arthur Alexander Jr. and Thomas Smith are the integral persons responsible for creating BeardCon. As with the growing of facial hair, what started out as a shadow of a discussion grew in length and complexity as time wore on.

Nate Stevens

Thomas: The BeardCon is in its third iteration of our personal competition. The first one we did was in Dayton and it ended up being a bigger success than we had imagined. We repeated that in Columbus the next year at COSI (Center of Science & Industry). It’s the whole Dayton club (The Gem City Gentlemen of the Gilded Beard) that heads the statewide chapter and of the Beard-Con planning committee.

Nate: Yeah, so we have a annual competition every year and this year we decided to expand it and alter it so that BeardCon would be more of a convention rather than something like The Ohio Beard Championships, or whatever people were kind of seeing it as in the past. Like last year, we had a ton of vendors and combined with the space we had at COSI, people were saying, ‘Oh! It kind of feels like a convention!’ So, we have decided to go with that momentum and kind of embrace that this year and we will see how that goes. As far as the relationship is concerned, the core of us who started The Gem City Gentlemen of the Gilded Beard are the same people behind Beard Team Ohio and the same core people behind Beard-Con.

J.T.: How did you get all the other clubs and vendors from other states involved? Was Facebook an integral part of connecting with everybody and getting the word out to them?

Stephen: Oh yeah. I did most of that. I got a lot of the teams from around the country to come…not all of them, but a majority of them…just through Facebook. Actually, that’s all I used. I mean, Facebook is a huge part of our promotion.

Nate: The three of us all have different roles and we kind of have titles that we have dubbed ourselves with at the beginning of the club. Stephen is the Ambassador and that is his role is to constantly be extending these olive branches and making relationships with other clubs so that we are welcomed wherever we go and so people think fondly of us all around the country. I am the Speaker, so I write a lot of the stuff on our Facebook page, write press, manage our web site and stuff like that. Thomas is kind of the Doer. He makes things happen behind the scenes as far as logistics, contracts and organizing and scheduling things.

J.T.: If you all could do me a personal favor and get The Gem City Fake Mustache Society to quit, that would be great. It’s confusing to see hot women with moustaches. It really is.

Nate: (Laughing) Confuses you in your nether regions?

Thomas Smith

Thomas: Well, the women are huge part of what we do. They are probably one of the better parts of the competition, honestly. They are just so creative. I don’t think we would want to get rid of them.

Nate: The ladies of The Gem City Fake Mustache Society are members of our club as well. I wouldn’t say that we have absorbed them because they still go out and do their own thing, but we are definitely linked. Knowing their personalities, they wouldn’t take it if we just told them to stop so that we could prosper and so that you wouldn’t be sexually confused. (Laughter)

J.T.: Is there an equivalent in beardom of a ‘bad hair day’?

Thomas: Absolutely! Actually, I compete pretty frequently and I make it a point to travel to a lot of the competitions and there are just days that I cannot get my beard to do what I want it to do. That just honestly has a lot to do with climate and what you have done to your face.

Nate: Yeah! Everything from diet to humidity to sleep deprivation and all that kind of stuff can effect you in minor ways and they stack up on you.

J.T.: I can grow a beard quickly, but I can’t seem to get past that point when you want to claw your own face off because of the relentless itching. Is there a point when it gets better?

Thomas: There are stages of beard growth. It’s weird, but it’s kind of like having a child and you have to coddle it and nurture it as such. In the beginning, it is itchy and it whines a lot and you just want to tear your face apart and then you get to the point where it reaches its terrible twos and your beard makes you look like the most wretchedly disgusting hobo bastard. But then, it becomes and adolescent and you start to see some maturity in your beard and a little bit of wisdom and it starts to make its own decisions and defines its own pattern, and then when you get like a four inch beard, that’s a young man right there! That’s a hunter, a warrior…that’s a solid beard! That beard travels with you everywhere you go.

Nate: Then you have to hope that you raised it right, that it goes to college, gets a good job and that it makes you proud out there in the world! But seriously, we get that question a lot. Of course it’s going to itch for eight days and if you can’t take it, then I guess that’s your destiny. It takes a little bit of fortitude. You have to really want it.

J.T.: Do people with beards have derogatory names for those who are clean shaven?

Thomas: Baby face. It’s like, a clean shaven person is one of two things, and when you first meet them, if they are excited about the beards, then they are a prospect; they are future beardsmen. But if someone is being really rude to you, then they are a baby-faced ninny, and that’s the end of that friendship.

Nate: It’s like with anything; we don’t judge people because they don’t choose to have beards. Now, if they are an asshole, the fact that they don’t have a beard will become part of the ammunition you can use against them. Hate and love are born from who you are.

J.T.: Here’s a loaded question; Darwin and other anthropologists have equated the profusion of facial hair with virility and that the beard is indicative of the sexual prowess of the wearer. Thoughts?

Thomas: It’s challenging because, for European descendant males, it is definitely a defining attribute of manhood. You do not grow a beard until you are literally capable of sexually reproducing offspring. The two other aspects of a beard is that, as far as sexual prowess goes, when you can grow a big beard, it shows that you are mature in the aspect that you can foster a working relationship with something that takes a large amount of care and the other aspect is that you have the balls enough to grow a massive beard and no one can tear it off your face because you’re a badass. Have you ever had an instance where you can’t tell if someone really far away is a man or a woman? When a guy is coming towards you with a sizable amount of facial hair, you can tell it’s a dude from like a mile away.

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Downtown Dayton Revival Festival Band Spotlight Volume 5: The Funky Worm Returns

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The Ohio Players: The Origins Of Ohio Funk

I have a big, yet not unsurprising, admission to make. I did not purchase and take home my first Ohio Players album for the music. I did not even know who the Ohio Players were nor what the term “funk” could possibly mean. I did know, however, that the woman depicted on the album Honey was extremely hot and I was even more…er…excited to find that the interior cover was just as or even exceedingly more titillating than the front cover. Big deal! I was like thirteen and was always on the look out to fill up the account in my spank bank for future transactions! That’s not the point here. The point is that eventually I actually placed the record on the turntable and experienced the raw rhythms of funk which broadened not only my musical horizons, but also allowed me to see that not all great entertainment came from the sunny climes of the West Coast, but could be created far closer to home.

Although, to be honest, the whole album Honey was not a complete funkfest, as “Sugarfoot” Bonner’s heartfelt ballad Alone Again can attest to. This fact was overshadowed by the monster jam Love Rollercoaster, which has become the most identifiable legacy of the Ohio Players, being the most covered and sampled song from their extensive repertoire. Love Rollercoaster even became overshadowed by it’s own quirkiness, as rumors surrounded the origin of the scream heard in the first few seconds of the song. Whispers of death, murder and mayhem abounded as fans and DJs fanned the flames of intrigue. Was it a murder that occurred next door to the studio and was accidentally picked up by the sensitive mics? Was it the model who was so lusciously covered in honey, which was reportedly not honey at all, but a solution of melted plastic that horrifically burned her sensitive skin and she was murdered by a member of the band when she threatened to sue? According to James “Diamond” Williams, drummer for the Ohio Players, the truth was far more mundane than the rumors…yet the rumors served as purpose.

“There is a part in the song where there’s a breakdown. It’s guitars and it’s right before the second verse and Billy Beck does one of those inhaling-type screeches like Minnie Ripperton did to reach her high note or Mariah Carey does to go octaves above.” Williams then reveals how the rumor was born by saying, “The DJ made this crack and it swept the country. People were asking us, ‘Did you kill this chick in the studio?’ The band took a vow of silence because that makes you sell more records.”

During an interview with James “Diamond” Williams, I related my original interest in the cover art and how it introduced me to their music. He laughed, bemused, yet not at all surprised.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s what you gotta watch out for (laughs) but other than that, it’s just that we were very blessed to be able to write some music that has been able to stand the test of time and even to be around today to still play the music  and, as a matter of fact, to be quite well doing it. We wrote some music at that time…you know, everybody wants to write a White Christmas kind of song. It’s just a song that when you think about Christmas, White Christmas comes to your mind. But, to write a song called Fire was almost the same or to write a song called Love Rollercoaster.” Williams went on to explain his analogy. “When you think about a roller coaster, you immediately think of our song. If you think about fire and you think of a song that would illustrate that, you know, that visual type thing, you immediately think of our song in most cases. It’s just like, and I don’t want to be so picky, picky…there are a number of others. Like, if you think about happy times, you think of Celebration with Kool and the Gang. These are just songs that, during that period of time, you can relate to it. So, it transcends time. It transcends time. Rollercoaster transcends time; it’s not a period piece. People are still riding roller coasters. Of course they’ve changed. Sometimes now they’re on some doggone rollers or whatever, but nonetheless a roller coaster it is. And we were talking a little bit heavier than rides there, you know, so that kind of transcends things too. We’re talking love and romance and things like that.”

Even today’s youth are more familiar with the Ohio Players than they may even consciously know. Funky Worm, Fire and Love Rollercoaster are probably some of the most sampled songs in existence and the groups music is featured in everything from movie soundtracks to video games to television shows.

Love Roller Coaster and Fire, both of which have been very good songs for us. “Fire’” being used for the TV show Hell’s Kitchen with Chef Ramsey and it’s been used in various other movies and all that stuff and whatever, whatever.” Williams went on to say, “Like Rollercoaster has been covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Snoop and other people have done our songs. So we’ve been very blessed in the TV and the movie media. We’ve done quite well in our songs being placed.”

It is amazing that after all these years, the Ohio Players are still performing a rigorous touring schedule to appreciative audiences. It’s not surprising…just amazing and inspiring.

“We’ve played at the Apollo several times. We did the Jazz festival in New Orleans, you know, just different places. In Memphis we were there at the Beale Street Festival for like, I don’t know, 200,000 people. It was a ridiculous number of people out there. So, you know, we do big festival dates.” As far as playing back in their hometown, Williams said, “It pleases us that we’re able to come home now and do a venue that’s real nice. We hope to do them proud by us coming there.”

Just to rile him up a bit, I asked Williams if the crowds that they encounter on the road are still receptive and energetic when they hear the funky slap bass and rhythmic groove of the Ohio Players.

“Yeah! Are you kidding me? I mean, we play a lot of casinos and all that stuff like Foxwood and all the big casinos. Yeah, we get a great response.” Williams ended by speaking towards the genre of funk itself, saying, “You know, this music, thank God, hasn’t died and there are radio stations that are still playing seventies music and that interim of music everyday and we’re just blessed to be around to play it.”

[yframe url=’https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y47G-Wa4qfs’]

See all of our Downtown Dayton Revival Music Festival Band Spotlights

 

Downtown Dayton Revival Music Festival Band Spotlight – Volume 2: Werking Hard On The Duck Farm

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Catch The Werks At The Downtown Dayton Revival Music Festival

Music. It has always been with us. It has been our healer, our voice, our stories as well as our histories. It has been an invitation to dance, a call of the community spirit and a spark to inflame one’s temperament. The ambiguous moniker of “jam band,” while conjuring up images of searing light shows, the untroubled writhing of bodies and feverishly hypnotic rhythms held together by intensely introspective melodies, it is also a signal for a shamanistic release. In the final analysis, it is an uncompromising unity of spirit that not only surpasses, but supersedes and envelopes the music itself.

The Werks, a Dayton original if there ever was one, have found themselves in possession of the perfect potion to create the perfect storm of music, ambience and spectacle that has skyrocketed them into the pantheon of progressive musical groups. Formed in 2007 by Dave Bartoletti, Rob Chafin, Chris Houser and Chuck Love the group has run through various permutations, ending up with their current line-up of Chris Houser (guitar and vocals), Dino Dimitrouleas (bass and vocals), Norman Dimitrouleas (keyboards and vocals) and Rob Chafin (drums, vocals, samples and percussion). Through their melding of various styles of rock, funk, psychedelia, jamtronica and other musical elements, The Werks has created what they have coined “psychedelic dance rock.”

Recently, I was able to speak with  Rob Chafin, the band’s drummer, to ask him about the band’s role in the upcoming Downtown Dayton Revival Music Festival, how they have dealt with the band’s dramatic rise in popularity as well as the role the fans play in creating an exceptional show.

DMM: With the audience being just as much part of the show as the band, do you feel that it more about a communal event rather than just being about the band?

Rob: Oh, absolutely! We feel that the audience and that connection that we have between the audience and ourselves is great. We feed off the energy that they throw at us and the more people that are getting into it, the harder we play. It’s a cycle. That’s what makes the improvisation at our shows so unique every time. The crowds and the energy of the room has a lot to do with that.

DMM: Do you think that the audience being a very active member in the band keeps everyone’s egos in check?

Rob: Yes. We’re all very humble guys and we’re all really down to earth. We like to talk to everyone after the show, just to say hi and to thank everyone for supporting us.

DMM: I don’t know if you can speak for the band on this, but what would one of your ‘dream collaborations’ be for a jam session?

Rob: Ones that have already happened?

DMM: No. One that you would love to have happen. It can even be one that you know could never really happen.

Rob: Is this with living musicians today?

DMM: Yeah…well, hell…let’s throw in the dead ones too.

Rob: (Laughs) Well, that would be broadening the list quite a bit. I think I’ll stick with the live ones. I think it would be pretty cliché to say Phish. I’d really love to jam with David Grohl.

DMM: Now that was more of a personal one, right?

Rob: Yeah, definitely. Oh, it would also be great to jam with Santana.

DMM: What do you think is one of the more oddball covers that you guys have done?

Rob: The Power Ranger’s theme song.

DMM: That would be cool! I’d actually like a recording of that.

Rob: Trust me…no you don’t (laughing). We like to have fun onstage and for everyone to have a good time, so sometimes we’ll throw in something weird. We do a version of Killing In The Name by Rage Against The Machine, so that’s kind of an oddball cover for us. We’re kind of all over the place, so you never really know what to expect.

DMM: Aside from the musical aspects of the band, are there other elements that you guys want to incorporate into the live performances that you haven’t gotten to yet?

Rob: I’d like to get even crazier with the lights. That’s my goal: to get the light to where we’re even wearing LED suits. It would be fun. We feel that the visual aspect is very important to the show as well. When you go to a concert, you’re not just listening to a CD, but you’re going to see a show. Sometimes, you have to rely a lot on the showmanship and the visual aspect of the show just as much as the music, but we have been very successful because of that. There is something to be said for that, that’s for sure.

DMM: With the Downtown Dayton Revival Music Festival, are you guys going to be able to do a full set or is it going to be shortened?

Rob: Oh, it’s definitely going to be a shortened version of our usual shows. In a perfect situation, we would try and go for two or three sets, but I think that we are only going to be playing for an hour or an hour and fifteen minutes. It will be a quick little taste of what we do, as it is with any festival.

DMM: Is the band being recognized more readily outside of Dayton?

Rob: Dayton is definitely our home base, as is Columbus for me. I guess Columbus would be our biggest draw as of right now, but Dayton is where everyone else in the band is from, so there will always be strong roots in Dayton. Ohio in general is just great for us.

DMM: Now, you guys shot up in popularity incredibly quick. Are you all taking it in stride or are you still standing around trying to make heads or tails of it?

Rob: Everything in your life is relative. Every once in a while, you have to step back and take a look at the big picture. Sometimes, it’s funny. There are things that happen now that, if they had happened two or even three years ago, we would have just absolutely flipped out. Now, it’s like, ‘Oh! Cool!’ We’ve definitely been blessed with a lot of amazing opportunities and have met a ton of wonderful people who have helped us throughout the years.

After getting a “quick little taste” of The Werks at the Downtown Dayton Music Revival, make sure to catch them September 20th through the 22nd at the Werk Out Music And Art Festival being held at the Legend Valley Music Center in Thornville, Ohio. For more details about this and other upcoming acts appearing at the Downtown Dayton Revival Music Festival, go to http://www.downtownrevival.com. To learn more about the Werk Out Music And Art Festival, as well as The Werks other upcoming shows, go to http://thewerksmusic.com .

 

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wsFn4T5h-o’]

 

See all of our Downtown Dayton Revival Music Festival Band Spotlights

I Was A White Knight…Once

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The Memoir of Comedian, Nathan Timmel

 

“The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

            With a creak of the mail slot and a muffled thump on the foyer floor, comedian Nathan Timmel’s memoir, I Was A White Knight…Once, unceremoniously arrived into my life. I picked up the crinkly Fed-Ex package and opened it with a sense of mild trepidation. I gingerly opened the package and inspected not only the contents, but all the cause of these feelings of apprehension, wondering from whence they came. As I explored the possible causes of this feeling, a note fluttered out from between the pages of the book that explained it all. It simply said, “Hey J.T.: Thanks for taking the time to read this – I really hope you enjoy it!”

The trepidation, I realized, came from the nagging possibility that I wouldn’t enjoy it and that it may put me in the precarious position of hurting someone’s feelings, which is something that I try to avoid at all costs. I began to turn the pages while a section of my mind dealt with these possibilities. Imperceptibly, as the words floated by, those alarming arguments that were careening through my brain quelled as I became instantly immersed and enamored with the story of Nathan Timmel’s life. As I stood there turning the pages, I felt a sense of glaring honesty emanating from the narrative. Page seven slammed the door on any niggling  suspicions that may have remained.

Page seven was the beginning of Chapter Two, which was a mere two pages long, but held such brilliant imagery and was so incredibly well written that I not only reread it several times as I stood there, but I have revisited that chapter several times. The chapter is simply titled The Shadow That Shouldn’t Be and relates the account of Nathan attending swimming lessons inWaupaca,Wisconsinwhen he was three years old. One is left with the image of Nathan standing on the edge of the pool, his sagging, soaked swimming trunks dripping onto the rough concrete, a skinny arm outstretched, pointing at a rippling shadow at the bottom of the pool.

While most people would write about such an incident in glaring detail, wringing every conceivable emotion out of it and filling in the blanks with their own perceptions and hindsight, Nathan chose to write about it in the most honest manner: from the perspective of an overwhelmed three year old. The event is painted in that impressionistically hazy hue of all of our childhood memories that are filled with a frenzy of colorfully blurred activity and dreamlike muted sounds with a singular, sharply contrasted snapshot held in time.

The memoir takes us from Nathan’s birth and childhood during the tumultuous time period of the late sixties and early seventies up to the present. Nathan’s parents, young and college educated, married seemingly out of a sense of obligation rather than for emotional reasons. The arrival of Nathan was the inescapable bond that held the marriage together…for a while. Throughout the tales of dysfunction and the ostensible denials that, at once, held the relationship together and tore it apart at the same time, there’s one truth that comes through Nathan’s writing with glaring clarity: perception. Every single one of us, on some scale or another, had a shocking point in our lives when, in dealing and communicating with others, we found that what had been our ‘normalcy’ was, in fact, viewed as insanely dysfunctional or, at best, mildly odd. With no reference point, everything comes down to one perception from whatever point one is standing.

Throughout Nathan’s memoir, the honesty follows through. He presents things as they were, admitting to the things that he has no real clear recollection of or answer to as well as owning the consequences that his own actions have wrought. This is also not a ‘woe is me’ sob story, wherein Nathan tries to foist all of his mistakes and behavior on his upbringing, thereby absolving him of his own responsibilities. This is a glimpse into a life shaped by the experiences, surrounding and subsequent emotions (or lack thereof).

One of the things that I noticed while reading Nathan’s chronicle is that, while it is written in almost chronological order, it is interspersed with interludes that are anecdotal stories of a more recent nature, most of which pertained to his comedy tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as a story about a creepy Kathy Bate’s-esque style stalker that he had encountered. If you separate these interludes with the bulk of the memoir, they can almost be seen as being penned by a different hand. No, I am not casting any allegations of plagiarism. I am merely making an observation and one which may have more to do with me projecting my own perceptions about myself onto Nathan’s life.

When you read the interludes, they are written in a very conversational manner. They are very straightforward and contain a certain amount of humor to them. The rest of the memoir that deals with Nathan’s family, childhood experiences and his early travels from home to home, you will see a more carefully crafted account of events and emotions. It is as if there is a separation, a compartmentalization of segments of Nathan’s life; parts that have been boxed up and are carefully pulled out and examined in detail, yet from a distance. There is an accuracy in the accounts of his life that can only come from an observer and not from one who is actively in the fray. You can almost see a child, clothed in his Superman jammies or wrapped protectively in his Batman cape as chaos ensued all around him, taking it all in, unadulterated, through wide shining eyes. The impressions remain until the age when understanding comes and, at that time, the feelings and images are pored over: the child’s perceptions being viewed by the analytical mind.

Nathan Timmel’s book, I Was A White Knight…Once is a memoir that, while not filled with famous names or events, tells the simple story of growing up in the midst of social and familial dysfunction and coming out the other side. It paints a poignant vignette of an era and an epoch that, while not necessarily relatable to all of our lives, still resonates with the reader. The exemplary writing and moving mood of the narrative is compelling without being bombastic or unbelievable. It is just a story of a child becoming the man who, until recently, was unable to see the forest for the trees of his own existence.

Purchase the book in paperback or Kindle edition here.

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“You’re A Jittery Little Thing, Aren’t You?” (an interview with Carrie Fisher)

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A.)     Quote From Princess Leia In Return Of The Jedi

or

B.)     The First Thing Carrie Fisher Said To Bill Pote

 

Bill Pote, Carrie Fisher And J.T. Ryder

The oddly arranged living room held treasures and memorabilia that competed for attention so ferociously that it was difficult to focus in on one particular item. Celebrities smiled forth, frozen in frames strewn about shelves and tables. R2D2 sat on top of an old suitcase, peeking out from behind a leather couch as I walk in and a lone coffee table cascaded with various items, including cans of Coke Zero and a prescription bottle filled with M&Ms. The only thing that shattered the illusion of entering an eccentrically rich crazy cat-woman’s home was the glaring spotlights…and the 1,300 or so seats that were lurking out in the darkness. Of course, this was not someone’s home: this was the set of Carrie Fisher’s one woman show, Wishful Drinking.

Bill Pote (the über brain of Dayton Most Metro) and I were granted an audience with the princess and she did not keep her diligent followers waiting. She breezed onto the stage as naturally as most of us cross through our living room. Bill tried to ply Miss Fisher with cookies from Ghostlight Coffee & Thistle Confections, the fantasies of his youth playing through his head. Luckily, Miss Fisher was not aware that he had worn his favorite Star Wars underwear for the occasion…you know…the ones that have Yoda saying, “Size matters not. Judge me by my size, do you?”

Anyway, after Bill presented her with the cookies and a list of things to do in Dayton while she was here, we dove right into the interview rather quickly…

Bill: So, J.T. here interviewed you on the phone a couple of weeks ago…

J.T.: Yeah, you had just gotten back from overseas. You sounded sleepy.

Carrie: Yeah, I had just gotten back from Asia. It was very exciting. Which part of Asia was I getting back from?

J.T.: Japan.

Carrie: Oh, Japan!

J.T.: Coming back from the ‘celebrity lap dance,’  is, I think, the way you put it. I was talking with someone, another writer, last night about you and one of the things he brought up was something that I hadn’t noticed.  I had to go back and reread some of your fictionalized work. He was amazed with your dialogues and the natural way in which it flows. Is it so natural because it is based on real conversations?

Carrie: Well, a lot of it is, but I also think it’s a self consciousnesses, like you are sort of watching yourself or listening to yourself. I would also say that I write some of the stuff that I wish I had said or something that I didn’t say in that context and so I drag it over.

J.T.: That is probably the more fun part of writing. Well, he was just talking about the natural flow and the way that you craft your writing. Is all that natural or something that you have been honing?

Carrie: Well, I fell in love with words as a kid and I used to go through books and underline things. Really, I like wordplay more, but that’s also how I talk. I talk in wordplay. I once saw a line of mine, although I don’t know that they knew that it was mine, that said, “Start putting the ‘fun’ in ‘funeral.’” I hear words and they break down automatically.

J.T.: Right. Bill can attest to this: I don’t speak in the same way that I write. Most people who have read something I have written before meeting me don’t believe that I wrote it when they do meet me.

Carrie: Some of my writing isn’t how I talk.

J.T.: Well, with the show, the connectivity that you have with the audience is amazing. How do you get that when most of the events that you’re talking about are so disparate from most people’s experiences?

Carrie: Well, I don’t think that they are necessarily. Also, it’s not so much what your experiences are, it’s how it hits you. I mean, everyone has had, from a certain slant, a weird childhood. It may not be exactly like mine and it probably isn’t, but from a certain slant, you’re going to have funny stories.

J.T.: So it’s based off of the emotion rather than the event.

Carrie: Definitely!

J.T.: So how are you finding the Dayton audience’s responding?

Carrie: They are fantastic!

J.T.: Just as receptive?

Carrie: Beyond receptive! Last night they were talking back! A lot!

Bill: I know that we have a thing about sex and nakedness here in Dayton, Ohio…

Carrie: Apparently! That was what was hilarious about it. The questions that they asked like, “Was he naked?”, “Were you naked?” That’s where you mind goes. If you find a dead body, they’re usually not naked. (Writer’s Note: A reference to Carrie waking up next to the lifeless body of Republican Party media adviser R. Gregory Stevens who died from a OxyContin/cocaine overdose in her bed)

Bill: That’s a great way to start the show too. It kind of lets you know that…

Carrie: Yeah, “This is where we are at and it’s going to get more normal from here…but not much.”

I know this probably isn't the time nor the place, but looking at these pictures, I believe I am going bald.

J.T.: Well, Daytonians aren’t the only nudity focused people. Look at George Lucas’ No Underwear In Space Theory… (Writer’s Note: According to Lucasian Physics, one would face many different pressure changes while tooling around in space and with all the expansion and contraction of the human body under these conditions, you would be strangled by your underwear. I think that this is based upon twisted yet justified fantasies and not on any kind of scientific protocols.)

Carrie: That’s what he said. I think it just destroyed the line of that stupid white dress and then if people were aware that you were wearing a bra, they wouldn’t accept that you were Darth Vader’s daughter. No, I think not.

J.T.: True. With Shockaholic, is that kind of a stepping stone to the next memoir?

Carrie: God no! I think that I’ve said about all I can say.

J.T.: Really?

Carrie: Well, about…the stuff that I’ve written about that was the toughest is that I exposed my daughter to any kind of drug abuse and it would be something that you would figure would happen, (whispering) but I didn’t do a lot. The fact that it happened at all is probably the thing that is most shameful about my life. But most of it was already out. They (the tabloids) wrote about me being in a mental hospital, so then I’m going to write my version and I’m going to say my version. Then they (the tabloids) write stuff saying that I’ve had a facelift and that just kills me because this would be the worst facelift ever! I’ve seen online…go online and I read that I’ve had a facelift and it’s not that good and there’s like three doctors commenting how it looks pulled here and pulled there (Carrie demonstrates by tugging at her face). I’m like, no, but I’ve been thinking about having one…

J.T.: Ryder: That’s another thing about the show, since you kind of brought it up: Somehow you have managed to avoid it seeming tabloid-ish. It’s not sensationalized.

Carrie: It’s not sensational. If you were in the situation, it’s just people. I mean, they might wear more make-up or they might have gotten where they are because they have…(pause)…more well ordered features, but they are just humans. It’s not…now I’m intimidated by the ‘good looking’ people, but you shouldn’t treat ‘good looking’ like it’s an accomplishment. It’s kind of valued that high, like you did something amazing and it was just that they were born with really nice features. Those are the people inHollywoodwho…I don’t know how to talk to them and I’m not really curious about them either. ‘How did you get those eyes? Oh! Your mom had them?’ Those are the people who got where they are purely on their features.

J.T.: That is across the board. People being ‘proud’ of genetics. A lot of people equate that with celebrity…

Carrie: It would have been a bigger trick to stay out of show business than to go in. I didn’t go in. It was…I had to tiptoe out. No. I wouldn’t have picked it, because I was sort of introverted, watching all those people.

J.T.: Which is hard to believe when one sees your stage show.

Carrie: Well, now I’m older and it’s now it’s acceptance run riot. Self acceptance. I mean, you get to a certain age…

J.T.: ..and you say to yourself, ‘Ah, screw it!’

Carrie: Right! ‘What the fuck!’

Bill: So if you weren’t thrown into that at an early age…

Carrie: I might not have chosen it.

Bill: What would you be doing?

Carrie: Well, I might have been a writer because of the whole word thing. It killed me, the word thing. I would have liked to have been Beethoven….not for his whole life, but just the part where he wrote his music. I want to be someone who can hear music like theat. Where does that come from? There are those people like that that have that kind of gift, but I do have a thing with words and I am grateful that I’ve got it because it a distraction for me and I listen to people better  so it makes me enjoy reading and listening  to people’s points of view and the way people say things.

Bill: You mentioned last night (during the opening night performance) that poetry was is something that you started at an early age and it actually helped you.

Carrie: I started writing, but you wouldn’t call what I wrote ‘poetry.’ It would be more like lyrics. But, I like some of what I wrote and I remember getting into states where I would be kind of taking dictation from somewhere that had nothing to do with me, but it did have to do with my emotional state. The way that it organized itself into…it’s an intense experience, then your way of managing it is basically to photograph it verbally so that you’re not just at the effect of it then, so you’re not saying, ‘Okay, now what is this like?’ It’s finding some way to say it. Otherwise, I’m just an incredibly emotional person, which I am.

J.T.: Well, at least when you’re performing, you have the ability to emote and convey a tone or meaning more than writing.

Carrie: Well, I’ve also gotten to the point where I’m also able to receive it. You just kind of get out of the way, so it isn’t me. I’ve been given something where impressions come to me and I can say, ‘Oh, that’s what that feels like!’ If I just wait, I let this thing in me that does that anyway…I can’t ignite it, I can just get out of the way of it.

Bill: Well, that leads me to this then: after watching your show last night, which I enjoyed a lot by the way…

Carrie: Thank you.

Bill Pote And J.T. Ryder Double Teaming Carrie Fisher...Wait...That's Doesn't Sound Right....

Bill: How much…I know it’s mostly scripted, if not all scripted, so how often do you go off script?

Carrie: A lot! I open it up for questions and the because the people that you (the audience) are talking with, I’ve never met them before…

Bill: Well, not even talking about audience members, but even with bringing up stories from your life, how often do you just think of something like, ‘I haven’t even told anybody this.’

Carrie: I said something the other night and…I say things by accident and it is sort of leaving it open to mess with, so there is a lot more I could say about any of the things I talk about and sometimes I will go off into it…and it’s more fun if I do. You really have to be alert…hyper-vigilant and hyper-alert, and that’s exhausting, but it’s interesting.

J.T.: Yeah, it’s great fun when you shut off all the filters.

Carrie: Yeah! And you’re in front of a lot of people and that can be very interesting.

 

(Photographs by Blush Boudoir, then heavily edited by J.T. without permission nor any sense of artistic content.)

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Shocking Stories From Beyond The Stars With Carrie Fisher

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An Interview With Actress Carrie Fisher

Debbie Reynolds, Carrie, Todd and Eddie Fisher

(see details on our ticket give-away to Carrie Fisher’s show “Wishful Drinking” below the article)

It seems apropos that the daughter of Hollywood’s Royalty would eventually take up her predestined mantle as a Princess. Yet, for whatever charms that galaxy far, far away might hold,  Carrie Fisher’s real life is more of an epic tale than anything Lucas could ever deem to dream. From awakening to Republican Party media adviser R. Gregory Stevens’ lifeless body lying next to her (a victim of an OxyContin/cocaine overdose), to having the father of her daughter leave her for another man, Carrie Fisher’s life make the cantina scene in Star Wars look about as interesting as a seminar on new accounting techniques.

Carrie was born on October 21st, 1956 in Beverly Hills,California to America’s Sweethearts, singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds. When Carrie was only two, Eddie Fisher left the house to console Elizabeth Taylor after the death of her husband Mike Todd (who was also Eddie’s best friend and whom he named his son after) and he never came back. The next year, Carrie’s mother Debbie married shoe magnate Harry Karl, whose penchant for roaming about without pajama bottoms and an acute case of chronic flatulence added yet another odd character in Carrie’s galactic menagerie.

            Sometimes, there are those born into celebrity who, through no fault of their own, do not realize that their lives are much different than that of the average person. During a recent telephone interview, I asked Carrie when she became aware that her life was vastly unlike the lives of others and what her perception of her early years were.

“Obviously it’s nice to live comfortably and I really didn’t know that there was another way to live until I was like ten. People would say, ‘You think you’re so great because you’re Debbie Reynolds’ daughter!’ I was embarrassed of that.” Carrie paused, rolling over in bed as she had just returned from a celebrity meet and greet in Japan. She went on to say that, “I did know that other people didn’t live like this and I didn’t like it because that separated me from being like everyone and I couldn’t fit in. I wanted to fit in, and none of this stuff makes you fit in. I wanted to have the option to join up. Anything that made me different…I don’t know…I lived mostly in my head, so I don’t know that I was very aware of my surroundings. I was extremely introverted.”

At seventeen, Carrie landed a role in Shampoo with Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn. In 1973, as Carrie puts it, “George Lucas ruined my life” by casting her in the iconic role of Princess Leia Organa in his upcoming sci-fi movie, Star Wars – released in 1977. In reflecting on the deal that was made at the time, Carrie has been quoted as saying that, “We signed away our likeness, so when I look in the mirror, I have to pay George a couple of bucks.” Following Empire Strikes Back (1981) was Return of the Jedi (1983) in which Carrie once again reprised her role as Princess Leia, becoming the gold plated bikini babe – slave to and amorphous arm candy of the gelatinous villain Jabba the Hutt. It was this revealing representation that launched Carrie into the stratosphere as a sex symbol, a position that she was uncomfortable with and an image that she unwittingly didn’t realize at the time would follow her throughout her whole career.

Having been inundated and interrogated throughout the years pertaining to her experiences with George Lucas and the Star Wars empire, I wanted to only briefly touch on that topic. I asked if she felt that there was a weight from living under the legacy of such an iconic movie so early in her career, to which she replied:

“I mean, I never really wanted…I was never much of an actress. It was never really what I wanted to do. If I had wanted to be an actress, it would have been bad.”

Click On Image...It's Animated

Carrie has been oft quoted as saying she never really wanted to become a celebrity as she had seen firsthand what fame such as that had wrought. The ensuing years after Star Wars were fraught with drug addiction and psychological problems, becoming overly apparent both on and off the screen, as evidenced in her appearance on the Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978. Her erratic behavior and rampant drug use even led to her almost getting fired from the set of The Blues Brothers, where she was unable to turn in a decent performance due to her intoxication.

After entering rehab and cleaning herself up (with a few admitted slips here and there) it seemed that Carrie eventually returned to the refuge that she had found in her teenage years: writing. I asked Carrie if she found that writing became a part of her self-therapy.

“Well, I never did it for that reason, but when I was young, I guess I did.” After a slight pause, she went on to say that, “My thoughts would get all kind of crowded, so it kind of became a way of kind of organizing the crowd.”

I Always Suspected This...

I was curious as to whether Carrie felt more comfortable writing about her life veiled behind the safety net of fiction or if it was easier to just write it all down without having to think up scenarios and plots to introduce one event or another.

“Fictionalized!” Carrie said, without hesitation. “Well, it’s a different kind of writing. Your tone with first person prose is much more conversational, so it’s hard to get more descriptive. There’s a certain kind of way that I like to write that doesn’t suit itself to a first person narrative.”

Was it easier to tell the whole truth about something that happened to herself and the people involved in a situation when it was couched behind the shroud of fiction?

“I don’t know about myself, but I would never say anything that would make anyone uncomfortable that was obvious, no. I don’t want to do anything like that.” Carrie said. “I have probably made people uncomfortable with certain things, but I do my best not to do that. It’s easier in fiction because you make up stuff and you use stuff and you disguise stuff.”

While still appearing in acting roles (When Harry Met Sally, Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery, Scream 3), a large portion of her creative energy seemed to go into her writing, whether it be fictional (Postcards From The Edge, Surrender The Pink, Delusions Of Grandma), screenwriting (These Old Broads, The Young Indian Jones Chronicles) or non-fiction (Wishful Drinking, Shockaholic). In 2006, Carrie debuted her screenplay of Wishful Drinking as a one woman show, replete with videos, photos and more anecdotes that you could shake a light saber at.

In a world saturated with reality entertainment, it seems as if celebrities’ bad behavior is sometimes an intentional ploy for attention or a casting call for the next Lifetime Network show, yet in Carrie’s case this is not so. Most of her life was not lived out in front of the camera lens, like most other celebrities bent on revealing their day to day lives. When you read or watch Wishful Drinking, you are left with the impression of a woman coming to the realization of what the events in her life meant and accepting the repercussions that her decisions and actions have produced. It is also not a ‘woe is me’ pity fest, yearning for the audience’s sympathy in a desperate maneuver to gain forgiveness and acceptance. I did wonder if performing her own life out night after night desensitized and somewhat separated her from the integral epochs of her past.

“God I wish! What it does is, it makes me own it and I’m not ashamed of it. It makes you feel brave. It certainly makes you feel not ashamed and sometimes it can make you feel like, ‘Look at me motherfucker! I used to not even be able to talk about this!’” Carrie went on to define what she meant by saying, “Well, I mean, if I’ve gotten through the stuff I’ve gotten through, you can get through anything. I look for the ordinary in the extraordinary, whether it being bi-polar or a celebrity or the child of a celebrity or any of that.”

At the age of forty, Carrie had a full blown breakdown which required her to be admitted into a psychiatric hospital. Over the course of time, medications were tried and therapies instituted, but the real breakthrough came when electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was applied. In Carrie’s words, it was as if there was cement obstructing her mind and the ECT treatment seemed to break all of that away. There has been some short term memory loss, indicated by her answering machine, which asks callers to leave their name, number and how they know Carrie. She has some problems with remembering names or some events, but she highly recommends ECT, stating that it is not how it is depicted in movies like One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

“I would recommend it to other people if they were in a massive depression, but the way it’s depicted” She paused before going on, “…I saw it on a preview of that show Homeland, and it’s not like that! I mean, maybe they do it like that in some places, but from my experience, they put you out and…it’s just weird. Anyway, I would recommend it or any measure you needed to take to deal with a massive depression, but of course, I tried everything else first.”

For a taste of what it’s like living life on the edge, collecting the postcard and coming back, check out Carrie Fisher’s one woman show, Wishful Drinking. Also, read her short follow up book, Shockoholic, which details some of the funnier anecdotes from her life. AS we wrapped up our interview, I asked Carrie what I should tell Daytonians about the show and what to expect. She stated that there was a lot of audience interaction, making each show a unique experience. Carrie signed off by simply saying…

“I do involve the audience, so come and see me and tell me some stories!”

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Ticket Giveaway

We have a pair of tickets to see Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking on Tuesday April 10, courtesy of the Victoria Theatre Association!  Simply this article, On Stage Dayton and then in the comment section below, tell us your favorite Carrie Fisher role and why (make sure it posts to your FB page as well).  We will randomly draw one winner on Monday 4/9 at 3pm.  GOOD LUCK!

Fail Or Slop – The Unfortunate Fate Of The Sinclair Library

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The Unfortunate Fate Of The Sinclair Library

            Sinclair Community College, whose sprawling campus takes up much of the Western portion of Downtown Dayton, began as a two roomed bookkeeping and mechanical drawing class located at the local YMCA in 1887. Many in the region have grown up with the legacy of Sinclair Community College and are well versed in its history and influence within the area, but few are aware of the bizarre feat of engineering that had to be undertaken shortly before the original seven buildings were set to be opened to students in September of 1972.

The board of regents signed on New York architect Edward Durell Stone and the Dayton architectural firm of Sullivan, Lecklider and Jay to make reality the vision of John Vernon Wormer, the dean of Sinclair at the time. Wormer envisioned a campus that would be an oasis of education in the midst of Downtown Dayton.

Since the campus would not be facilitating dorms, the architectural group decided it would be best to eschew some of the traditional areas found on most college campuses, most notably, a quad for students to gather. Since all of the students would be living off campus and many were natives of the Miami Valley region, it was concluded that the campus would be constructed with a more utilitarian layout, concentrating more with the ease of going back and forth between classes rather than superfluous areas for the students to congregate in.

Originally, the Learning Resource Center (LRC) Library was set directly in between the other original seven buildings, connecting them all together with awning covered sidewalks, which, viewed from above, gave the library the symbolic look of holding the whole campus together with outstretched arms. That was until, through a series of miscalculations and oversights, the library would become the focus of a year long excavation and engineering feat that would not only change its location dramatically, but would also make it an invisible orphan, buried under the shadows of the rest of the college grounds.

In early 1972, the bulk  of the eight main structures were already built and were being fitted with HVAC equipment and state of the art communications and technological apparatus. Carpets were being laid, tiles set, fixtures mounted and paint applied. The library was the first structure to be fully completed, which was fitting for the building that was the to be the focal point of the campus. Through grants and donations, the library had a massive array of shelving units erected and shipments of books were arriving daily to be placed thereupon. This library, in the eyes of the regents and Dean Wormer, was to be the envy of all the colleges in the area and would become a repository of the written word far surpassing even the whole of the local county libraries collections. It was barely a month after the library was finished and stocked that a severe problem arose.

“At first, there was a portion of the Northeastern wall that showed signs of stress, cracking in portions.” said Dwayne Schnieder, superintendent of maintenance for Sinclair at the time. “You could tell something was shifting. The masonry around the window frames was pulling away towards the corners. From the inside, you could tell that the building shifted towards that corner of the building.”

Structural engineers were called in and consulted. After taking innumerable measurements and comparing them to the original blueprints, it was quickly determined that the building was sinking. Emergency meetings between the architects, county agencies, engineering consultants and the board of regents were called. The first rounds of meeting were rather heated with different groups laying blame for the structural defect on the other. The core questions, however were, ‘What caused the problem in the first place?’, ‘How bad would it get?’ and ‘What could be done to fix it?’

The answer to the first question came rather quickly and stunned everyone involved. A mathematician, Leonard Hofstadter, who was hired on to aid the structural engineering consultants, found that, after poring through all of the preliminary plans and blueprints, that no one had adjusted the soil compaction and amount and depth of the footers to compensate for the weight of the books. By Hofstadter’s calculations, he determined that, within the year, the building as a whole, would sink a full forty-three inches on the Northeastern corner of the building and thirty-eight inches on the Southwestern corner, giving the building a -7° tilt. Over a three year projection, factoring in average rainfall and such, it was established that the building would sink yet another fifty-two inches on the Northeastern side and forty-nine inches on the Southwestern side giving the building an almost 15° list. Along with this, the building would also shear laterally at least one and a half feet towards the Northeastern corner. Taking all this into account and by using algorithms to determine the load stresses of the building, it became apparent that the flooring would crack and separate, creating schisms several inches wide at some points, and that the walls and roof would suffer similar fates as well.

Jones Excavation of Indiana was tapped to head up the project, which was to turn out to be a monumental task indeed. It was agreed upon that the best, and most cost effective option, would be to excavate under the building, tamp the ground to a higher compaction rate, pour new footers and moorings and, as the final step, the building, as a whole, would be lowered into the ground onto its new foundation. Above and beyond the logistical nightmares that this project would entail, there were many municipality laws that would have to be bent or outright ignored to meet these ends.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, project manger Lisa Froprol said, “So many laws and safety regulations were flouted in order for the project to be seen to its completion. Not only was the act of excavating under the building in the manner in which it was done a hazard in of itself, everything was kept in place inside the building to give the illusion that nothing was wrong.”

After a Herculean effort, the plan was completed in late August, after a marathon construction process that defies belief. Beginning on a Saturday night, the building was lowered and moored into its newly dug vault and large concrete pavers were placed on top of the roof, with glass bricks aligned with the original skylights. Visitors gave blanks stares when they looked about and wondered aloud as to the location of the library that they clearly remembered being in the center of the complex. They were told that the library was part of an underground labyrinth of hallways and tunnels that connected the buildings together, as the blueprints had called for all along. Visitors were left scratching their heads and questioning their sanity up until the time of the school’s grand ribbon cutting ceremony, whereupon, the commotion and congratulations overshadowed any seemingly disparate recollections of the hidden library.

 

 

 

 

 

Boxing in Dayton – From Past History to Present “Knockout”

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On Saturday Night (February 25, 2012), 17 brave locals will enter the ring at historic Memorial Hall in Downtown Dayton to show the boxing skills they’ve learned over the past several weeks, months and even years of training at Drake’s Downtown Gym in the first Dayton Knockout V.I.P. Fight Night!  This highly-anticipated event is presented by AIDS Resource Center Ohio and Dayton History (in collaboration with Drake’s Downtown Gym) with proceeds benefiting these two excellent organizations.  Knockout Tickets are $15 advance/$20 door for General Admission, with limited $25 advance tickets available that include three drink tickets and admission to the Speakeasy Lounge AfterParty featuring Funky G and the Groove Machine.

Knockout V.I.P Fight Night is the first event in the Memorial Hall Theatre since Bill Cosby appeared there in 2001, and an opportunity for Daytonians to revisit the venue in which many big acts have performed over the past decades – not to mention some big boxing events in the early 1900’s.  Continue reading for an interesting look back at Dayton’s boxing legacy, and at the end of this article – a chance to win tickets for the Knockout V.I.P. Fight Night…

Dayton Is Far From Being Down For The Count


A Brief History Of Boxing In Dayton – By J.T. Ryder 

 

 Imagine yourself ascending the wide limestone steps of Memorial Hall in the early to mid 1900’s, with its godlike statuary flanking you and its French Renaissance façade looming before you. It would be easy to be timelessly transported to another era, one of arenas and sporting grounds strewn with the blood and sweat of athletic champions. Even through the thick, stone walls of the hall, you hear the pulsating roar of the crowd that has gathered here to witness yet another pugilistic match between two worthy contenders, a spectacle of violence that sways between splendor and civilized chaos.

As you enter the hall, the haziness of the cigarette and cigar smoke, coupled with the heat of the crowd, drifts through the glare of the primitive klieg lights, giving the hall a cavernous appearance, like a misty vision of Valhalla. The sounds of brutality and bloodshed echo and rebound off the shadowed walls. A sea of boaters, bowlers and fedoras move in an undulating wave as the staccato voice of the bout’s announcer breathlessly shouts out each blow in a stridently clipped voice. Spectators clench betting slips in their hands and cigars between their teeth as they bark out encouragement for their champion and profane epithets towards his challenger. Close up, the ring reveals two opponents, locked in a ballet of darting evasions and devastating blows. These two gloved gladiators are continually caught in the sharply contrasting light of the popping flashbulbs of the eager press’ phalanx Graflex, the photographer’s jockeying for a better position, chronicling the sportsmanlike spilling of blood and hoping to capture either the triumph of the reigning champ or the rise of a new title holder, imprisoning the moment in emulsion.

Gene Tunney & Jack Dempsey at Memorial Hall

There was a time when Daytonwas a Mecca for boxing. There were countless gyms focused on boxing that dotted the city. Individual boxing clubs sprouted up, creating cross town rivalries that defended their honor in the various rings and exhibitions throughout the city. The Dayton Gym Club loomed large within the local and national boxing community. In 1950, it was voted as one of the best fight clubs in the nation and was home to several of the local Golden Gloves teams. From the late 1890’s, nearly two dozen world champions fought at the gym and the World Welterweight title changed hands there when Honey Melody was knocked out in 15 rounds by Frank Mantell, November 1, 1907. Westwood Field was another location that saw it’s share of international boxing stars. On June 25th, 1917, Jack Britton lost his welterweight title to Kid Lewis and later on, in 1918, Jack Dempsey knocked out Terry Keller in five rounds at Westwood.

“Jones failed to display half the ability expected and many fans were highly disappointed with the showing of the Gorilla. The fight was really saved by the constant driving-in tactics of Williams who won seven on the twelve rounds, three being even, Gorilla taking the others.”– Wire Report from Dayton

Until the seating was elevated in the 1940’s, Memorial Hall was the premier site for the local boxing scene. On April 22nd, 1935, Joe Louis knocked out Biff Bennett during an exhibition match at Memorial Hall. During a fight with favored boxer Gorilla Jones on April 22nd, 1930 Tiger Roy Williams won in a twelve round decision at Memorial Hall. Many other boxer fought within the walls of Memorial Hall, including Manuel Castro, Jimmy Kelly, Danny Budd, Joe Glick, Mike Ballerino…the list goes on and on.

The city also spawned some national and international luminaries of the boxing world, including Joe Sekyra, the once top rated light-heavyweight and heavyweight boxer who later went on to train a Dayton Golden Gloves team. There was also the lightweight journeyman Eddie Brandt, who was also the former president of Old Time Boxers’ Club of Dayton. Sugar Costner, who was once the top ranked welterweight, beat Kid Gavilan and Ike Williams before losing to Jake LaMotta and Sugar Ray Robinson. Charles “Buddy” Knox was a heavyweight contender who also trained a Dayton Golden Gloves team. There was also world ranked featherweight Joe Marinelli who defeated two former world champs, Jimmy Perrin and Joey Archibald at Memorial Hall.

Chris Pearson

There are also some very well known boxers from the Dayton area (omitting Buster Douglas’ brief stay here in 1979 while he attended Sinclair Community College). First, there is Chris Pearson, who is actually from Trotwood, but close enough to be counted. Pearson has been labeled by many boxing aficionados as one of the best upcoming middleweight boxers and the one to watch. This south-paw has been a U.S. National Amateur Middleweight Champion gold medalist, a 2-time Silver Gloves Champ, a 4-time Jr. Golden Gloves Champ, an 8-time State Fair Champ, a Jr. Olympic Bronze Medalist, the Ringside World Champion and the National PAL Champion as well as the 2009 Police Athletic League national champion. In his short, burgeoning career, he has beaten four former Olympians (including Brazil’s Yamaguichi Florentino, a veteran of 151 fights) and Bakhyt Sarsekbayev of Kazakhstan, who was the 2008 Beijing Games welterweight gold medalist.

There is also Michael Evans, born July 22nd, 1977 and raised part of the time at his grandma’s apartment in Dayton’s Arlington Court housing project. Through a childhood altercation that led to fisticuffs, Evans got noticed and groomed by the local boxing community. He went on to become a national Police Athletic League champion, held two Junior Olympic titles, won a bronze medal at the Goodwill Games before going on to become the 2005 Golden Gloves champion. This led to him becoming a captain of the Team USA boxing squad, fighting bouts in China, Hungary, Ireland, England (including his sell out event against British Olympian Amir Khan at Liverpool’s famed Olympia ballroom), Japan, Thailand, Germany and all across America, including Madison Square Garden. Shortly before he was to lead Team USA into Russia, Evans was busted for selling crack cocaine to an undercover officer, drawing himself a four year stint at London Correctional Institute.

Next – Dayton native Ron Lyle. Continue reading…

The Power And Light Of Dow Thomas

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Dayton And The World Loses A Comedy Icon

 

Dow Thomas: Comedian & Musician 1953-2012

Sifting through scattered memories, most of which are second hand recollections that occurred before my time, I find myself overwhelmed by a life lived with a manic exuberance. I found out about comedian Dow Thomas’ passing from a friend and regular customer of Wiley’s Comedy Niteclub who called to inform me of the news. I stayed up until around 2:00am poring over the condolences that poured out from all over the country, cascading down from Dow’s Facebook page and other social media outlets. I looked through pictures that I had of Dow, read through transcripts from interviews I had done with him and reflected on conversations that we had had in the past. While many around me knew Dow longer and were closer friends than he and I were, Dow possessed the ability to make you feel that you were the only one in the room. Even during performances where there were a hundred or more people in the room, he made you feel as if you were within his inner circle, that this was an intimate gathering of friends and not just a group of people watching a performance. Even beyond his unerring talent and exuberant imagination, this was his true gift.

Born in Chillicothe and raised in the Akron/Cleveland area, Dow moved to the Dayton area in 1971 to attend Wright State as a theater major, a fitting field of study for someone who had been familiar with the stage for much of his youth. Even though Dow was not a native ofDayton, he embraced the area with the fervor that a lifelong resident should have.

“I didn’t originally come from Dayton. I just kind of adopted the city in 1971. I moved to the area to go to Wright State and I just stayed.” Dow said during one of our conversations. “I ended up living in downtown Dayton. I used to hang out at the Arcade a lot there. I’m a downtown kind of guy.”

Dow Thomas as Cléante in Molière’s Tartuffe

Dow was very active in the drama department while at Wright State, performing in several theater productions, such as Shakespear’s Romeo and Juliet and a pair of Molière’s plays; That Scoundrel Scapin and as Cléante in Tartuffe. In the latter drama, he caught the eye of a fellow student, Rob Haney, which signaled the beginning to a lifelong friendship.

As his hair grew, so did Dow’s creative yearnings. He began playing music around town, playing at venues that are but a mere memory to most Daytonians.

“I started my shows at the Upper Krust on North Main St. for ten dollars a day. I liked being up on North Main because I liked to go to shows and Gilly’s used to be up on North Main and there was also The Tropics and Suttmiller’s, which was fun for me to go see supper club type comedians like Jerry Van Dyke or Pete Barbutti and those kind of guys.”

Even though many venues and stages were opening themselves up to Dow’s music and acting, this was still not enough to contain Dow’s imaginative energies. He started sneaking his oddly skewed humor into his songs and banter with the audience.

A poster from 1972 for the Upper Krust

“I was actually doing comedy in 1972, but at that time there weren’t any comedy clubs, so I was just doing comedy along with music. I would get hired as a musician/entertainer and just add in the comedy in between songs.” Dow reflected. “I would always put on masks and stuff…I just can’t help myself from clowning around. I’d have the gig and eventually I had bands, but when I clowned around, everyone clowned around with me. What was always part of the show was me being stupid. It was what I said in between songs and me ruining songs, like singing like a dog and getting a ‘bark along’ going.”

In those days, you may have seen Dow tooling around town in his hearse, decked out like a Bohemian undertaker, black clad and sporting his ubiquitous top hat, running from gig to gig. He played with Astrid Socrates for seven years (creatively billed as Astrid & Dow) as well as drummer Doug Buchanan Tim McKenzie on lead guitar during yet another incarnation of his ingenuity. He was a featured act at The Trolley Stop, Clancy’s, the Iron Boar and Bogey’s.

Comics don’t need to spend actual time together to feel like brethren or family.  We are constantly accruing that common experience that instantly bonds us all separately and continually.  But, few of us are as pure, kind, original, and superbly funny as Uncle Dow.  I feel forever indebted to him for making it possible for me to ever start and I know that anyone who knew him feels like they, too are some of the luckiest people alive.  Uncle Dow made people laugh, but even more so he made them feel alive and always made them smile. ~Ryan Singer

“I’ll never forget the day Dow Thomas and my path crossed. I was part owner of a night club called Bogey’s onWatervliet Ave. in Dayton when Dow and Jeffro stopped in after buying guitar strings at Ace Music.” Mike Adams reminisced recently. “Things weren’t going very well at the bar and we couldn’t afford a barmaid or a cook so I was working. Dow Thomas ordered two drinks and asked for a menu and ordered a sandwich. Upon serving him he asked who owned the place and I confessed. He asked how things were going and I said not to well. He said he could tell. He asked if I had ever heard of Dow Thomas and I said yes but had never seen him and he told me I was talking to him. He offered to do a show one night a week for free as long as I didn’t interfere with him trying new material. I lost a lot of money owning that bar but memories like this makes the money seem irrelevant.”

Dow also frequently played in a bar onPatterson Road called the Iron Boar and becoming steadfast friends with the owners, Dan and Jodi Lafferty.

“We used to do a Gong Show at the Iron Boar and it was fun because we’d have some guy come up and go, ‘I’m going to do my imitation of a lobster’ and we’d go, ‘Good!’  So he’d put claws on and hop around like a freak…it was just so stupid!” Dow began chuckling to himself on the phone before going on. “I used to do a thing called Punt The Fish and I’d yell out, ‘It’s time to…’ the audience would scream, ‘Punt the Fish!’ I had this rubber fish and audience members would come up and kick this fish and we’d measure it off with toilet paper and the one who kicked it the farthest won. One night I had this woman up on stage and she kicked the fish and it went into the propeller of the ceiling fan and came back and smacked me in the face. Everybody was just laughing and I stood up and screamed, ‘Disqualified!’ It was all just so stupid, but you’ll never be able to have a moment like that ever again.”

In ’91 when I took over Jokers Comedy Café, Dow was running the open mic night.  I’d never heard of Dow and looking at this man in a black trench coat and top hat, I have to admit my first impression was not great-   he’s gonna be dark and sarcastic and egotistical, I thought.  I could not have been more wrong!  Dow loved being on stage and his joy radiated through the crowd. He would have an audience pounding their table to Power & Light, and tossing paper plates across the room as he sang Sail Cats. ~Lisa Grigsby

The comedy began usurping the music and Dan Lafferty began booking ventriloquists, jugglers and other oddball acts to fill out the shows.

“I used to have people like Jay Haverstick, who owned Jay’s Seafood, he would come and see my shows. So would Mike Peters. They would be out late at night and they would just say, ‘Hey! Let’s go and see what crazy Dow is doing!’” Dow said during another conversation. He went on, describing another huge change that was bout to occur in his life. “But there wasn’t a comedy club, so I left forL.A.I gave them (the Lafferty’s) a one year’s notice (laughing) and said, ‘In a year, I’m going toL.A.’ and that’s when we turned it into a comedy club.”

Eventually, the Lafferty’s decided to change not only the whole format of the club to comedy, but the name itself. In an unexplainable instance where someone could legitimately name a comedy club Lafferty’s, Dan decided to use his nickname instead, dubbing the newly restructured club Wiley’s.

Dow, true to his word, eventually left forLa-LaLand, seeking his fame and fortune, both of which proved to be elusive in the land of silicone and sunshine. He found that the venues that were available to him were less than conducive to his creative talents. At one point, he found himself doing sets between bouts at a boxing match and, towards his triumphant return toDayton, he was unceremoniously replaced with disco music at a Newport Beachclub. Yet the comedy scene was heating up nationally and Dow was riding the cusp of this chaotic wave. The shows were not the structured tight sets that we witness now in the clubs, but were given to more improvisational melees and surprise guests.

“There were these guys like Rich Purpura, who was a comedy/magician, and Tim Walko, a guitarist, and they were both fromChicago. We’d do a show, just packing the place, but at the end, we’d just get up there and jam and kept the show going and clown around with each other.” Dow said. “By then, we were just trying to make each other laugh, and that’s what the audience liked. It was kind of like. It was kind of like having the Rat Pack or something. It was that kind of feel, where everybody’s in the groove. Back then I could have Emo Philips come in and do twenty minutes and then I’d get a chance to go to the bathroom. Then maybe Judy Tenuta would come in and do twenty to thirty minutes and then I’d get a chance to go to the bathroom. For me, I thought it should go on all night.”

Rob Haney

Another person that benefitted from the burgeoning comedy scene was Rob Haney, a newly touring comic and future owner of Wiley’s Comedy Niteclub.

“Rob Haney came up to me one time and said, ‘Can I get up and do some time? I just got back from The Comedy Store.’ He had just done some showcasing there…which surprised me because Rob was a bouncer in a bar I used to work at.” Dow recalled that, “When I first met him, he was a doorman at a place called The Bar inWest Carrollton. It was a rough little joint that ended up being Omar’s for a while. It was an old basement bar and the family that owned it was pretty rugged. I actually had guns pulled on me in that bar. I’ve seen him mace guys and throw guys out…he’s a pretty tough guy. He had like shoulder length hair at the time and pretty well built, so it was a different Rob Haney that came up to me with short hair and asked if he could do like twenty minutes and I said, ‘Sure!’ I let him up at the Trolley Stop and I had a gig there like six nights a week…it was crazy.”

Another iconic staple of the Miami Valley that Dow had a huge role in was with his friend Dr. Creep (Barry Hobart) and Shock Theater. The inception of Shock Theater was supposed to be actually scary, as an accompaniment to the B-rated horror flicks that they screened, but the campy ineptness and irrepressible humor of Dr. Creep and the people that worked on the show quickly made the show a campy carnival for all of those late night viewers.

“I ended up getting on just about every television show in Dayton, but I got with Dr. Creep in the late seventies when it was called Saturday Night Dead because they had him on after Saturday Night Live, so it was kind of a neat spot.” Dow went on to say, “So I wrote The Ballad of Dr. Creep and went on there with my girlfriend at the time, Astrid Socrates and also with a bunch of my friends and we did skits.”

Barry Hobart (Dr. Creep) And Dow

“You know, what’s funny about that whole thing is that they became the number one, locally produced television show while I was writing for them. They would go, ‘Okay, we’re showing Dracula: Prince of Darkness’ and we made up the Bat Photo Studio and all of the prints would come out really dark, and customer’s would comment, ‘Wow! These prints are really dark!’ and I’d go, ‘Well, I am Dracula: Prints of Darkness! Sometimes I accidently cut their heads off!’ and I’d hold up a severed head. It was just stupid stuff like that.” With a tinge of regret, Dow added, “Of course, Joe Smith said, ‘No, you can’t do this and you can’t do that.’ He was an integral part of the studio there, so I got censored quite a bit and got into a little bit of trouble. I remember John Riggi and I getting yelled at because we changed the weather map one time. We got up there and started putting a bunch of tornados around Xenia…they were just little magnetized things back in those days. We were hippies in a studio that had rules.”

Dow played some forty different clubs in the MiamiValley the years that he was here and developed a huge fan base locally as well as in other cities that he performed in. In 1997, he moved to Florida with his wife Kay and they took up residence at some of the local clubs near their new home. Even after his departure, Dow was voted Dayton’s Best Comedian for two year’s running. He would still make frequent sojourns to Ohio, usually performing at Wiley’s one to two times a year, creating comedic chaos with his skewed humor and especially with his song Sailcats, in which he would cajole the audience into throwing paper plates in lieu of flattened kittens as the song implied. The staff would usually find the last paper plate stuck in the rafter shortly before Dow’s next scheduled appearance.

Dow Thomas At Dirty Little Secret Sanitarium Show

I contacted Dow in February of 2011 to ask if he would perform at my upcoming Dirty Little Secret Sanitarium show in May. He was eager to do the show because of the variety aspect of the event, but was reluctant in some ways, feeling that it would be a conflict of interests with his Wiley’s appearances. Rob Haney assured him that there would be no conflict and he agreed to do the show. That evening became an impromptu reunion of sorts in honor of Dr. Creep as not only had Dow worked closely with him, but so had some of the other performers slated for that evening. Thomas Nealeigh from FreakShow Deluxe had worked with Dr. Creep as had A. Ghastlee Ghoul. Our emcee for the evening was Dr. Creep’s protégé  Baron Von Pork Shop and some of the members of Team Void had recorded music for Shock Theater’s DVD’s. Dow had a blast at the show and had garnered yet a few more fans for his cult of comedy.

I contacted him again this past December to see if he wanted to be part of the Dirty Little Secrets Sick Of Santa Show and he readily agreed. We spent the rest of the conversation talking about old horror movies and other trivialities. On the night of the show, December 28th, 2011, his wife Kay showed up at the club saying that Dow was really sick and would be unable to perform. Seeing the look on her face and knowing Dow’s penchant for performing, I knew then that it was ore serious than she was letting on. The next evening, Dow arrived at Wiley’s to do his Thursday night set and we could all tell that something was wrong. The current owner, Rob Haney, and other staff and friends finally convinced Dow he needed to seek medical attention. He was admitted toMiamiValleyHospital and, two days later was released. He performed the New Year’s Eve show as well as the shows the following week.

His last show on January 7th, 2012 was astounding. Offstage, he seemed somewhat fragile, but as soon as he was on stage, that glimmer came into his eyes and the casual smirk shown across his face. He performed Sailcats and wheedled the audience into throwing the paper plates once again, daring any one of them to land one of them on his top hat. It was a picture perfect performance where someone actually landed a paper plate onto his top hat. The show ended with a standing ovation for our Uncle Dow, with audience members shouting out their approval and appreciation for Dow’s show.

After the show, Dow was surrounded by family and friends, well wishers and fans. It was the way of Dow: that feeling that you just needed to be near him and everything would be alright. You would be safely ensconced in his world.

Shortly after returning to Akron, Dow was hospitalized. He died January 18th, 2012. The outpouring of condolences and memories was immediate and Dow’s Facebook page became a makeshift memorial for a legion of stunned fans and friends to share their grief as well as their memories.

I think now of the boarded up Upper Crust, the warped wooden floors of the Trolley Stop, the comfortably worn carpet of the Wiley’s stage and I can hear the clank of glasses against the cascading laughter and see Dow with a mischievous gleam in his eyes as he dons a mask and unleashes a dialogue of absurdity in the voice of Lon Chaney. I can see him on stage doing what he did best: fashioning a world without limits, pushing the envelope until it bent and combining chords to nonsensical songs that bring laughter to all who are compelled to bang their glasses on the table and sing along. I see him smile down from the stage wearing a paper plate atop his felted hat, an improvised halo for our imaginative jester.

Read my previous article from 12/2010 – “Dow-Town Dayton”

There’s A Starman Waiting In The Sky

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The Resurrection of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars

In the post apocalyptic wasteland of what could be mistaken for the present, a Leper Messiah lunges into the spotlight, ready and albeit a tad too willing to save humanity with merely the sacrifice of his soul. A shock of shocking shag cut red hair defies the laws of nature as the asymmetrically dilated wonder filled eyes defies the apathetically addled masses to ignore the impending termination of humanity as a whole. Is this the act of a sacrificial lamb? The crucifixion of yet another messianic messenger’s? Or might this be a rock and roll suicide set in C major? Whatever your interpretation, it is, unarguably, the final teachings from the Gospel of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

David Bowie has always been the master chameleon, being able to sense trends and incorporate upcoming styles into whatever persona he was projecting at the time that, even those that he aggressively borrowed from felt honored by the imaginative pilfering. From the vast catalogue of Bowie’s affected personas, Ziggy Stardust stands out as one of the most completely three dimensional characters that he has created and personified that glittering epoch, with Bowie’s colorful incarnation becoming the poster child for the glam era.

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, for the uninitiated, is a concept album crafted by Bowie. The storyline, as such, is a convoluted array of perceptive sociology, religious icons wrapped snuggly in familiar parables all bound together in a roiling spiral of science fiction. The inspiration for the album/character itself is steeped in mythos, which includes such fringe personalities as The Legendary Stardust Cowboy and Vince Taylor, also known as the French Elvis who, after completely going off his nut, fired his band and went on stage draped in a sheet to inform the audience that he was the new messiah. Vince also had a penchant for carrying around maps of Europe to show anyone who stood still long enough where the UFOs would be landing. From these shards of broken soul, Ziggy was born.

Under Bowie’s skillful hands, the story emerges that the main character, Ziggy, takes on the role of a messianic messenger, filling the plundering youth with news of the world. In what turns out to be the Earth’s final five years of existence, the news happens to be quite bad but, from the whispered information that he is receiving through dreams from the black hole jumping Infinites, Ziggy is told of a savior: the Starman. The message is seized by the masses with a vigor that only the abjectly hopeless can muster. Riding on the wave of the Message, Ziggy is exulted up into new spiritual heights, but soon succumbs to his own Earlthy desires, living a reckless life that leaves him as a shell, a fractured liberator. When the Infinites arrive, they use their vessel to give themselves life, taking of their host Ziggy, until he dies a martyr’s death.

The documentary film by D.A. Pennebaker (Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars) chronicles the last concert Bowie performs as Ziggy. Filmed at the Hammersmith Odeon on July 3rd, 1973, this was Bowie’s last hurrah as he partially shelved the character of Ziggy. The impetuous for the premature retirement rested on several elements, one of which was that the character was threatening to outstrip the creator. The documentary itself dabbled very little behind the scenes, choosing instead to generate a full frontal assault of the ninety minute concert itself.

In this vein, local artist, entrepreneur and agent of rebellion Shelly “Gladgirl” Hulce became enamored with the concept, music and the film at an early age and she always kept this fantasy vision of it in the back of her mind…until now. “Back when I was a teenager, I was really into Bowie and really anything that was considered shocking. At the time, the most shocking thing was glam rock. I was raised in a very strict Baptist home. I mean to the point that we didn’t watch movies, wear pants, cut hair…” Gladgirl went on to detail some of the other elements of her upbringing before adding, “Rock and roll was just totally out of the question, so I would sneak and listen to it. I snuck a Bowie poster and hung it inside the closet where nobody could find it. We had these teen bonfires and many times I burnt the same records over and over. I would burn them at this church bonfire and then I would save up my lunch money and replace them.”

With Bowie’s body of work being arguably more theatrical than musically motivated, this mirrored some of Gladgirl’s interests within her own life.  “For me, music, theater and comedy have all been synonymous. My worlds have always collided. I did improv comedy for two years, travelling with a troupe and I’ve played with a couple of bands. I’ve never gotten into acting, but I’ve always been writing. I have written a rock opera using all music from Queen. I haven’t done anything with that because it’s very extensive and I wouldn’t even know where to start with something like that. I guess I will work my way up. Some opportunity will present itself when the timing is right and so I can put it into the back of my brain until then.” Exposure to ETC (Encore Theater Company) brought Gladgirl face to face with fringe musicals like Hedwig and the Angry Inch. This chance encounter was the starting point to push her vision into reality.

“I went to see Hedwig last April and as soon as JJ (Parkey) came out and belted that first big song and I just turned to Juliet and said. ‘That’s Bowie! That’s my Bowie!’ I really didn’t even pay attention to the rest of the show. All I kept thinking was, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God! I have to meet this guy! How do I pitch this idea? Who can I get for the band?’” Gladgirl ended the thought abashedly, “I was just terrible.”

Instead of immediately plunging into the pitch after the show ended, Gladgirl decided to show restraint only found in the best of stalker: she waited. Another opportunity presented itself a short time later.

“JJ and I were at a FilmDayton function together a few weeks later and I was like, ‘Hey! Let’s talk about David Bowie! What do you know about David Bowie and about Ziggy Stardust?’ and he was like, ‘What’s that?’” dejected but not dissuaded, Gladgirl took things into perspective. “I mean, he’s twenty-three years old at that point…he’s twenty-four now. So, after this, I’m just like, ‘Oh my gosh! Will you sit with me and watch a film and let me talk to you about an idea I have?’ and he’s like, ‘Oh, absolutely!’ We met up the next week and sat down and watched the documentary, which was the very last show that Bowie did in character as Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Well, they filmed that show on July 3rd, 1973 at the Hammersmith Odeon in London and what is so bizarre about this is that the night I had JJ up to watch the documentary was July 3rd. The opening credits came up and I was like, ‘Oh my God! That was July 3rd! It’s July 3rd!’”

Kismet and karma were not finished meddling with the vision of the production just yet…

“I was already, in the back of my mind, dreaming of doing a rock opera and thinking about who would be my dream team. There are so many good musicians in town that it’s just amazing.” The eventual line up of the band is a representation of the cream of Dayton’s music scene. “Oh, it’s stellar! I got everyone I wanted right off the bat. I went straight to the ones I wanted and I thought that I would have to work my way down, but every one of them were like, ‘Oh yeah! Definitely!”

There were even some inclusions that, on the face of it, seemed incongruous choices for a recreated glam band, such as local blues guitarist, Noah Wotherspoon.  “Yeah, he’s such a blues guy, but he really loves it all. The cool thing is that he really has a vintage red Hagstrom guitar just like Bowie played during the Ziggy era!”

Some of the musicians were more obvious choices because of their own musical leanings.  “Shrug, which is Tod Weidner’s band, were having a CD release party a few years ago at Canal Street and to surprise their fans, they came out and did the entire album The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust. It totally shocked everybody and, of course, it stuck with me. Tod, being such a great singer, pulled it off vocally as Bowie and the band did the music perfectly. So, I had that in the back of my head, but with Tod traveling and doing the Pink Floyd tribute band (Set The Controls) around the nation…”

Gladgirl trailed off, indicating the slim chances of being able to have Tod as part of the band. “To know his stamina and to know his musical genius and being able to do anything that is put in front of him, I knew that there was no way that I could do this without Tod. Absolutely no way. So I called Tod and I said, ‘Look, I’ve got this guy and I have this idea and I know your schedule is crazy…I know you’re not going to have any time to do this, but I just had to ask you, is there any way that you could squeeze this in? What’s your schedule like in the Fall? Tod said, ‘Probably around Thanksgiving or maybe a little earlier than that.’ I said, ‘What about 11/11/11?’ and he’s like, “That’s pretty sweet! I’m in!’ It was just like the stars were aligning! I had my two pillars: JJ and Tod.

The other band members are bassist Chris Corn, drummer Ian Kaplan, keyboardist Ken Hall, percussionist Erich Reith, Marie Spohn and Gladgirl herself. With the band in place, the next hurdle would be the costumes.

“JJ and I have been making the costumes for this show from scratch since July. Well, with the exception of one piece, which I hired Tracy McElfresh to make. She’s a third generation dress maker and she’s killer. I told Tracy that I was going to buy this shirt and try to make this spaceman costume but that I didn’t think it was going to work and I asked her to help. She sent me off to the fabric store with a list and I bought the stuff and brought it back to her.”Gladgirl paused, reflecting on what her event has become. “That’s what this has all turned into. It’s just a collective. This whole event has just been a huge collaboration.”

One of the most interesting aspects of this passion play is that, at a time when Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar were espousing a reconceived image of Biblical prophesies and parables, Ziggy chose instead to cloak his message in a shimmering cloud of veiled innuendos.

“It was all Biblical, but he didn’t blatantly come out and say that this had a Biblical bend to it, but there are so many comparisons that you could make. The arc of the story is the same.” Gladgirl said before launching into the parallels. “The Starman messiah with a message of the world ending in five years and then he is betrayed by one of the Spiders From Mars and he’s crucified. John the Baptist is in there and Judas, Mary Magdalene, the Holy Trinity…Bowie is the Trinity at different points throughout the album and he is the Leper Messiah…the whole bit. Bowie even went as far as to match a lot of his costumes to whatever character he was in the Trinity. When he comes out, he comes down with the message for Five Years, he is wearing an all white kimono, so it’s like this pure deity kind of thing.”

While there are many fantastic tribute bands that abound in our area, Gladgirl wants to make the distinction that this is not merely a tribute featuring the music of David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust. This is a faithful recreation of the epic show that Bowie presented at the Hammersmith Odeon on July 3rd, 1973.  “What I’m telling people is that this is not a tribute show like with people just showing up and doing Bowie’s music.” Gladgirl stated. “This is a passion play and it totally follows the whole arc that Bowie did as Ziggy. That’s why I titled this The Resurrection. I call it a ‘rock and roll rapture.’”

 

There are some added features to this show that were not in the original, such as a piece written by Gladgirl herself.  “The way that I’m presenting this to the audience is Chris Shea from Free Shakespeare will be coming out before Noah’s band and Ziggy’s set and I’ve dubbed him The News Guy because, in one of the lyrics, it talks about being ‘baptized by the News Guy’s tears.’ I’ve also written what I call The Soul Love Greeting…Soul Love being one of the songs about the Holy Spirit.” Gladgirl went on to explain that, “…this is all to lead a person to think. There’s twenty-four songs and I listed lyrics from each song and made this list for Chris Shay to present to the audience. After that, the real fun begins!”

Space Oddity: The Resurrection of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars will be held at Gilly’s (132 S. Jefferson St.) on November 11th at 9:00pm. Tickets are only $10 and presale tickets are available at Omega, Record Gallery in the Oregon District, Toxic Beauty Records in Yellow Springs and Game Swap in Woodlane Plaza in Kettering. Chad Wells of Wells & Co. Tattoo and Cricketbows will be on hand to provide Liquid Skin Display – Glam Rock Face Painting before and during the show for anyone wanting the full glam experience. Another, as yet to be announced ‘mystery guest musician’ will also be present.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxKu7ggU3HU’]

Specters Of The Past Revealed

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Paravizionz Locks Down Ohio’s “Sleepy Hollow”

The Joinery In Bellbrook

Illicit affairs, money, greed, envy…the deadliest of sins prove to be just that, extinguishing lives like a sudden gust of autumn wind douses the flickering light of a candle, creating a haunting lore that seemingly breathes with a murmuring life of its own. While every locale around the world has their own ghost stories and legends, Bellbrook, Ohio has their fair share as well, most of which reach back into the dim mists of a century gone by.

There is the story of a servant girl who involved herself with the town’s very influential Mayor and managed to get herself pregnant in the process. The Mayor refused to acknowledge her anymore and had her removed from the premises. The young lady took to a life of prostitution to get by, quickly becoming the subject of gossip and ridicule. When her baby was born, she would only take it outside with it’s face covered, as it was whispered that the child bore a striking resemblance to the father. It was thought that the young woman had fallen into a downward spiral of madness as she was often seen walking along with her baby safely bundled up from the prying eyes of the townsfolk, singing and talking to the bundle of tattered fabric that shrouded her little one. One night, the weight of her plight must have been too much to bear and she plunged herself and her baby into the cold, swirling depths of Possum Run Creek or, as it is known now, the Little Sugar Creek. A week later, her body was found by two local youths, washed up upon the creek’s bank. Her icy, lifeless arms still clasped the tattered rags that were once wrapped around her child, but the baby itself was never found. It is said that on certain nights, especially those peculiarly still nights in June when the mists rise up into the ebony darkness, you can see her glowing form stumble along the sides of the creek, a lilting singsong sigh being sung to the bundle of rags that she carries.

I grew up in Bellbrook, long before it became the lush suburb that it is today. When I lived there, it was still mostly a bucolically rural town. Carpenter Rd. still had a hair pin turn where, legend has it, that on certain nights, you could see the silhouette of a hanged man…just another person who had decided to end it all when they came to the end of their rope. Back when you would walk along Little Sugarcreek Rd., quickly succumbing to a whistling bravery as you passed Fallis Cemetery after dark. A time when, out of the corner of your eye, you would see skittering shadows and the out of tune tinkling of a piano coming from the music room of the Elementary School. You would hear whispered legends about the creaking madness held within the walls of several of the towns original homes. Stories of the strange behavior exhibited by the living as they face the heady unknown of death, like the undertaker who could not bear the loss of his wife and kept her embalmed body in the front window of his establishment for over a year before singing into the downward spiral of lunacy.

These memories came back to me in a rush as I met up with two gentlemen, Lee Allen and Davis Jones, the founder and co-founder, respectively, of ParaVizionz. ParaVizionz is a paranormal investigation and research team that has completed over 180 paranormal investigation since their inception in 2008. Lee and Jones met in early 2008 when TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) visited Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to investigate paranormal activity there for their wildly popular television show on SyFy called Ghost Hunters. Jones had managed to weasel his way into the event with little more than an ID on a lanyard and, after befriending the film crew and being allowed to jump to the front of the line, he ran into Lee, who was trying to assemble a team of local paranormal investigators. Since that time, a team of investigators, technicians and mediums have been assembled and the group has gelled into one incredibly in-tune entity who have compiled a list of completed investigations, an archive of EVPs (Electronic Voice Phenomena) and a slew of stories that would make most people cringe.

Paravizionz Investigates The Joinery

There are those that are dismissive of paranormal investigations and make light of others beliefs in otherworldly events…right up to the point when they are standing in the murmuring darkness and feel a cold finger trace the line of their spine. Jones came to believe in supernatural activities while still very young while living in Michigan. He had just moved into an old farmhouse in the woods with his sister, father and his new stepmom. It had been said that one of the previous owners had hung themselves from the apple tree outside the kitchen window, but this barely registered with the young Jones…until the noises began. Creaking footsteps and rocking chairs that were invisibly animated made he and his sister believers in very short order. Another memory he held of that time was his new stepmother’s use of a Ouija board, but he gave it little credence. It was just a Parker Brother’s game, after all.

Conversely, Lee’s induction into the world of the unknown came about through personal loss. He and his wife lost one son, Austin, in infancy and then another older child, a daughter named Caitlyn, some time later. Lee said that after these two incidents, he would hear voices in the children’s rooms and sense their presences from time to time. While I didn’t press Lee as to the association between these events and his sudden passion for the paranormal, one can infer that it would almost become a necessity for one who had suffered such a tragic loss. Even separated by a wall of sleep, a father needs to know that his children are alright and to know what kind of world that they exist in.

This past summer, ParaVizionz has been doing a series of investigations in Bellbrook, Ohio. They have investigated everything from private residences to my old Elementary School and have come away with many personal stories as well as EVPs, which they have posted on their website. Paravizionz has shared their stories online and created the Jonathan Winters Ghost Walk and Historical Tour that ran the weekend of September 30th through October 1st. All of their activities has even garnered them a proclamation from the Mayor of Bellbrook, Mary Graves. All of these goings-on will culminate with the Bellbrook On Lockdown event slated for Halloween weekend, starting at noon on Friday, October 28th and ending at 3:00pm on Sunday, October 30th.

The Bellbrook On Lockdown event will have lectures, celebrities, tours, information, vendors, activities and entertainment. The Master of Ceremonies, a Johnny Depp/Jack Sparrow look-alike, Captain “Larry” Sparrows, will kick off the festivities at noon on Friday at Sugarcreek Plaza, located at 6124 Wilmington Pike in Bellbrook. There are a ton of guest speakers, including Keith Age (a paranormal investigator who founded the Louisville Ghost Hunter’s Society and is the star of Spooked TV), Patrick Burns (star of TruTV’s Haunting Evidence), author Marley Harbuck-Gibson, international medium Robyn Marie, radio personality and comedian Scotty Rorek, paranormal mediums Deborah and Nicholas Lantz, John Brightman (founder of New England Paranormal Research), cryptozoologist Joedy Cook and paranormal filmmakers and stars of the SyFy, Chiller and Spooked TV networks, The Booth Brothers. Entertainment will come in the form of bagpiper Wulf, D.J. Tre and a special guest appearance by escape artist and magician Aron Houdini. A celebrity guided tour of all the haunted areas in Bellbrook is also on the itinerary, including the Dart Construction Building (formerly Penewit Hardware), The Shepherd House, Magee Park and others. The Joinery, which was one of the locations that Paravizionz investigated over the summer, was once a stop on the underground railroad. Their investigation revealed a slew of EVPs, which say things from a whispered voice decalring, “I’m right behind you” to the plaintive plea of a woman saying, “Hide me!”

One of the highlights of the tour has to do with one of the oldest legends of the area. Back in the 1800’s, there was an Englishman named James Buckley whose sawmill was located alongside what is now known as the Little Sugar Creek. He became very wealthy from this enterprise and, as is common as seen through the eyes of avarice, envied by many of the townspeople. One morning, his cabin was forced into and he was robbed and then brutally murdered…decapitated, in fact. His body was found, sans head, outside, covered in blood and mud, but the money…along with his head…were, by some accounts, never found. Other versions of this story state that his head was found some distance away and that the robbers never retrieved any of the money because Mr. Buckley had buried it somewhere near the creek. ParaVizionz is going to have a live, televised treasure hunt utilizing a medium to communicate with the long deceased entrepreneur to try and find the place in which the money was buried. Hopefully they find the money…and only the money. Priorities may change somewhat when a spirit is made to choose between earthly wealth and a part of themselves that was most cruelly taken from them…

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejQTCfpjhe4′]

We all have had experiences. We have all had that unexplainable feeling of being watched as the hairs on the nape of neck stand up. We have all felt the trickling fear, absolutely feeling alone in the dark tide of one of eternity’s moments. We have all seen the spectral movements of light and shadow that we are unable to explain, but which we rationalize when dawn arises. Regardless of how stalwartly pragmatic we feel that we may be and how we may deride the beliefs of those who embrace the spirit world, there are moments in our lives when our depths of spirit are overtaken by the icy isolation of a nameless dread. We have all had experiences. This is a time to share those experiences and to hear those who have had similar occurrences happen within their lives. This is a time to ask the questions that cannot be answered by religions or sciences. This is a time to reflect on what is beyond this realm.

Paravizionz Bellbrook On Lockdown runs from Friday, October 28th through Sunday, October 30th. There are various tiers of payment for admission, ranging from $30 to $150 for the VIP/Ghost Hunt pass. For more information, check out their website for the event at http://bellbrookonlockdown.webs.com/ and make sure to check out the group’s main website at http://www.paravizionz.net to watch video and hear EVPs from their past investigations.

Life Is So Strange When It’s Changin’ – A Look At Life, Liberty And Lucidity With Lynyrd Skynyd

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A Look At Life, Liberty And Lucidity With Lynyrd Skynyd

We may view our lives as a linear passage of time, as if we were tiredly gazing through a car window as the lackluster landscape as our lives flew by, a vista of relatively repetitive sameness that is only occasionally broken by the intermittent roadside sign or mildly interesting landmark or two. We make stops along the way, from mildly significant sojourns to epochal events that change the course of our lives. There are very few things that can bring back the memories from the past with any clarity. It’s like trying to remember the innocence of your first kiss and, the more desperately you try to bring it into focus, the quicker is blurs and skitters away into an aching sense of loss.

Conversely, the wafting scent of perfume, a distantly echoed giggle or the chorded melody from a long lost song can drag you backwards in time, suddenly forcing you to relive that moment. Most of our lives are lived with a barely audible soundtrack, a constant companion that etches itself within the furrows of our minds and, when a song from our past comes on the radio, we remember with utter clarity the first time we heard it, maybe coiled beneath the covers with a transistor radio drawn close to our ears allowing a world bigger than our own to enter our consciousness.

I remember the fist time I heard Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird. I was sitting on the porch of an abandoned farmhouse near my home with a Realistic AM/FM radio echoing past the nonexistent front door and inside the vacant structure. I had previously been occupied with doing a good amount of nothing and had planned on extending that agenda far into the afternoon. The sun was high and the day’s warm breeze caused the chest high (to me…I was like nine years old) bearded grass to brush against the rusted remnants of discarded washers and dryers that had been unceremoniously dumped in the overgrown driveway, resulting in a sound not unlike a brushed high hat…nature was accompanying my musical selections. Free Bird came on with no announcements or warnings: just a stark, churchlike organ slicing through the midday haze, sounding ominous and comforting all at once. The building of sporadic percussion and straying strums of the guitar ended suddenly with the moaning slide of a Coricidin cough medicine bottle along the neck of a guitar. I was hooked. I listened raptly, through the pining lyrics, past the pressure cooker build up and all the way through the violent release of triple lead guitars, all the way to the fade and into the hissing open dead air of real radio. I sat through an interminable amount of commercials, waiting for the DJ to come back on and tell me what I had just experienced. Of course he didn’t and I was left clueless until I sat in a friend’s basement and he handed over the still glossy cover of an album mysteriously titled Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd, which I still managed to mispronounce because I suck at phonetics.

Over the years, that song will come on the radio and, regardless of what I am doing, I will crank it up and listen to it until the fade out (unless some industrious DJ manages to put on the version from Skynyrd’s Innyrds, which has a more bombastic ending altogether). The keening wail of the guitars, the simplicity of the message and the organic way in which it all fits together seems to take me back to a time of innocence. Not necessarily my own, but a more overall innocence. A time before record companies created cookie cutter hit makers and allowed their artists to create. A time when AOR (Album Oriented Rock) radio stations ruled the airwaves and would allow the DJ’s and the listeners to dictate what was played, as opposed to being spoon fed the latest popular pabulum. It was a time of originality and exploration, instead of following a format or a formula to dispense with the next grandstanding standard.

I was able to talk to Rickey Medlocke (one of the original drummers for Lynyrd Skynyrd, guitarist in the current line-up as well as creator, guitarist and lead singer of yet another monster Southern rock group, Blackfoot) several times over the years, which has been both daunting and exhilarating. One of the things that I wanted to ask him was whether or not I was romanticizing the era, extrapolating my own innocence onto a whole decade or if there has been a shift within the music industry.

“You gotta realize I was there for some of the stuff because I was one of the original drummers, so I was there and saw how stuff went down, and it went down so innocently and so pure. We just wrote songs, and had a magic about ourselves.” Expounding on the music scene now, Medlocke said, “Nowadays you’d be hard-pressed even find a band that even practices their instruments on their own. I’m a guitar player and I’ve had a love affair with my instrument ever since day one, and that’s what it’s all about. I didn’t get into this business to become a rock star; it just happened because we had great music, you know what I mean?”

Running with that line of thought, Medlocke went on to say that:

“Well, you’ve gotta understand, when we decided to do what we did for a living, it was two-fold. Record companies signed bands to create two careers; the record company’s and the band’s. They signed bands to build us up, which in turn built the record company’s career.” Comparitively, Medlocke said, “Nowadays, it’s not about that anymore. First of all, you don’t have near as many record labels as you used to;  everything is Internet. People want self-satisfaction right away. I look at it like this, back when I got signed and the band was formed, we looked forward to a good record company.  Now, the only thing that you sell records for anymore is for tickets and merchandising.”

In speaking with people worldwide, it has surprised me somewhat that Lynyrd Skynyrd is regarded as the definitive American sound, along with other genres created by the surf groups and country and western. Lynyrd Skynyrd has always had a prideful side when it came to their roots and country of origin, which comes out not only in their music, but in the core beliefs. Like the lyrics in their songs, Medlocke’s views on the country he loves are very direct and to the point.

“I mean, the one thing that I do know that’s going on in this world today is everything is so polarized, you know? It’s a damn shame, you know? It seems like our country is being pulled completely apart and, for Lynyrd Skynyrd, we’ve been the American band for all these years and it’s really sad for us to see how this country is being so polarized and pulled apart. When in reality a few short years ago, you couldn’t break this country apart…I mean, it’s interesting. Now, it’s like everybody’s losing their damn balls man, and nobody wants to stand up and do anything. So, you know, that’s the whole thing about it; instead of getting stronger, instead of having some damn balls about ourselves, the country’s getting softer, being weaker.” Medlocke went on to say that, “Myself, I don’t like to use the band as a platform to talk about politics, because I think that entertainers should definitely stay the hell out of politics. You know what I mean? Because, entertainers…we got our own kind of gig and a lot ofHollywood… those people don’t know what the hell they’re talking about when they get into politics. But the point of what I’m getting at is instead of pulling this nation apart, we should be pulling it together, you know? Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent or whatever, we’ve got one of the best countries in the damn world, and guess what? It seems like the damn thing’s being ripped in two.”

Paradoxically, the image of an airplane factors into the separation of bothAmericaand Lynyrd Skynyrd: a division of time wherein there is that hardscrabble climb out of the rubble to rebuild the icon that once was. In Lynyrd Skynyrd’s case, this epochal event came in the form of a Convair 240 passenger airplane ill-fatedly nicknamed Free Bird, which plummeted out of the Mississippi skies in 1977, killing Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray. The remaining street survivors of Lynyrd Skynyrd chose to stay the course in spite of their grave losses. For a long period of time after the death of lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, a lone, empty microphone stood, speared in the spotlights as the rest of the band played an instrumental version of Free Bird. This tradition lasted until 1989 when Ronnie Van Zant’s brother, Johnny stepped in to quell a near riot almost caused by fans needing the words to be sung, for the role of a leader to be filled.  Since then, arenas have been filled, records recorded and an homage paid to the creators of the most emblematic music to be pressed into vinyl and into the public’s consciousness. At the end of each concert, Lynyrd Skynyrd plays Free Bird and the audience erupts in unity. Lighters (or cell phones) are held aloft and one wonders if it is to pay tribute to the musicians, to guide those who are lost or who we have lost, or perhaps to try and light the image of our innocence, so that we may see it in utter clarity one more time.

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX3cbFJ3lYU’]

The Church of Augiology

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Auggie Smith and the Wayward Masses

To the uninitiated, (or “non-believers” as they are commonly called by The Auggites) Auggie Smith is the founder and Grand Pubah for Life of what has come to be known as The First Church of Augiology. While not technically a religion, at least not in the fully tax exempt definition narrowly portrayed in the IRS’s Draconian codes, the movement of Augism is gaining momentum in this country, as well as other, more backwards countries who really don’t know any better. With the recent release of his new DVD and CD, Cult Following, more of the weary and downtrodden will quickly become zealous converts.

Smith was born. This we know to be true. Everything after that is rather suspect and apocryphal. Being a rather shy individual throughout his youth, Auggie attained the rank of presidency of the speech team and cleaned the bathrooms at his school, making his vows of chastity almost unavoidable.

“You can imagine how the girls just flocked to that – president of the speech team!” Auggie says in Duderonomy 4:16. “’Wow, look at that!’ All girls care about at that age is a guy who can conjugate a verb.”

He remained chaste until the age of eighteen, succumbing to the lure of the flesh and Auggie found it to be good. He began his journey into the world, preaching his message for the masses, never gaining the attention he so richly deserved. After many disheartening years, Auggie considered renouncing his calling and wandering the earth like Al Gore, broken and dispirited. As destiny would have it, he met two like minded individuals; Apostle Bob and Saint Tom. They gave Auggie the inspiration and hope to preach his sermons on their quaint morning show. Thus the cult of Auggie was born.

After years of spreading the gospel on XM and Sirius satellite radio, after performing miracles at countless comedy clubs throughout the nation by turning dollars into wine and even after he died one night on stage in Butztown, Pennsylvania, only to rise three days later in a defiled motel room, hung over, Auggie is ready to be your personal pathfinder. He has sacrificed his life to be your personal sherpa, guiding you through the pitfalls and the pain, making you forget, at least for an hour or so, that the world is a festering cesspool of rampant self-interest.

This messianic messenger of mirth is bringing his traveling revival show to a stage somewhere near you, to spread the one true gospel. What should one expect when entering Auggie’s church? The faithful will be blessed with a bellicose dose of reality, delivered in a breathless, rapid-fire rant, shining a stark light on the futile efforts of man. From the current political scene to Barbie being raw dogged by G.I. Joe as he has a ‘Nam flashback, nothing is sacred in this sanctuary. The pervasive daily fears we all surrender to will be lifted to reveal the true evildoers behind senior citizen NASCAR drivers, voracious vending machines and drunken pink bunnies.

“Really brother, wouldn’t it just be easier to stay home and not have to interact with any live people?” Aug asks. “I SAY NO! The fear ends now. The only way to win is to not be afraid, or to paraphrase a Stallone classic, ‘fear is the disease…Aug is the cure!'”

Why should you be a follower of Auggie Smith? Why should you become part of the Cult Following? Humbly witness all that Auggie has sacrificed for us: his wasted teenage years scrubbing bathroom stalls while we were partying and getting laid. His ongoing pursuit to ingest every street corner pharmaceutical product, keeping them out of our reach so that we won’t cause harm unto ourselves as well as his ever vigilante watch over all the bars and pubs across this great land of ours, safeguarding them until they are safely closed. These things he does for us…selflessly! He truly cares about our well being and tries to convey this clearly during his sermons. He forces you to see the inequities in the lives we witness as well as the ones we live. His inescapable diatribes hammer home the absurdities we all see in everyday life, yet are afraid to comment on. He speaks while we are silent. Well, to tell the truth, he speaks while we’re talking as well, but nobody’s perfect.

Just reflect for a moment on this truism that he has shared with us;

“Your bunny may be your relationship or your job, but at one time, you tried to give your bunny a bear hug and things got out of hand.”

How can one argue with this incontrovertible truth? How?

Watch the DVD. Listen to the CD. Catch him on The Bob and Tom Show, or better yet, witness the man in person when he comes to town. If you’re not completely satisfied…well, you’ll still be out the money for the DVD, CD and the tickets, but hey, doesn’t it just make you feel warm inside knowing you helped a potentially sober comedian attain a higher level of consciousness via many, many Jägerbombs?

Services for the Church of Aug will be held at Wiley’s Comedy Niteclub on Thursday August 25th at 8:00pm (for a $5 tithe), Friday August 26th at 9:00pm (with a mandatory $10 donation). Saturday August 20th brings us to the conclusion of Auggie’s missionary work here in Dayton with a full blown comedy revival, featuring the comedy sermonizing of Deacon Tom Griswold from the Church of Latter Day Bob and Toms. Services for this revival will begin at 8:00pm with a secondary service held 10:30pm for all of those incorrigible heathens. For these special Saturday Night Sermons,  a collection of $20 is required. To make reservations, call (937) 224-JOKE. For more information, go to the Wiley’s website at http://www.wileyscomedyclub.com/ or add them as a friend on Facebook at Wiley’s Comedy Niteclub.

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The Independent Shadow Cinema – Underground No More

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Zombies, Lesbian Vampires and Mexican Wrestlers..Oh My!


Having grown up nurtured by Dr. Creep on Shock Theater, fighting sleep while watching the dusk to dawn horror fests at the Captain Kidd and Belmont Drive-In Theaters and relishing the peculiarities found at the bottom of bargain bins full of obscure DVDs, I felt an immediate understanding of what he is trying to create with the Independent Shadow Cinema. Andy himself is quite an accomplished aficionado within  the world of the weird, having worked with Dr. Creep, being one of the people behind the annual Horrorama charity film festival and directing six of his own horror genre films, including The Mutilation Man, The Atrocity Circle and Black Sun.

While other people may look down their collective noses at people like us for being drawn towards entertainment that they would deem sophomorically disgusting or visual training manuals for psychopaths, we know that those kind of people are eaten first by the zombie hordes, usually in a humorous manner, thus stripping them not only of their flesh, but also their self deluded decorum.

What Andy Copp is trying to bring to the screen, as well as to the darkened streets of Dayton, is a world unseen by the masses. A world of the uncanny, the unbridled, the uninhibited. A world shown is a series of stroboscopic scenes splashed with copious amounts of arterial red. With the Independent Shadow Cinema, Andy is trying to breathe life into the self indulgently dying corpse of local cinema and allowing it, for a moment, to live within the minds of an audience hungering for visions of the weird and wonderful.

J.T.: I guess the first question would be: What was the impetus to start the Independent Shadow Cinema?
Andy: Well, the idea came out of me wanting to do the old school midnight movies that I grew up going to. The ones like Flicker Palace had years ago and Page Manor had back in my college days. There hasn’t been anything like that in a long time and back in the nineties, I worked at the Neon Movies as one of the managers back before the switchover and I brought in a lot of movies from Hong Kong and things like that and they were really successful. I realized that there was an audience for it here in town, but there was nothing catering to that right now and there hasn’t been since I had done it in the nineties. I’m also one of the guys that run Horrorama (Horrorama is a charity movie marathon that has been active since 1997) and we have a dedicated audience here in town that comes to that event every year. Since I had worked with Englewood Cinema with Horrorama, I approached Mike who runs things there and presented the idea of running underground midnight movies and he said, “Well, let’s try to do this then” and so we went ahead and launched it. So we went for it, trying to bring more interesting movies that you’re not going to see anywhere else, like the old midnight pulp movie shows, and to give the people something interesting to do on Friday nights.

J.T.: Are you targeting more of the grind house/horror show genre?
Andy: A little bit. Right now, what I’m doing is I’m bringing in a lot of the really obscure, indie/underground stuff, but the people who are interested in that type of thing are also going to be interested in the grind house/exploitation films and people who like that are going to like the stuff that we’re currently playing. The stuff that we’re playing right now is pretty obscure and relatively unknown, but definitely, that’s the crowd we’re going for.

J.T.: What do you have coming up for the next show?
Andy: On Friday, we have a movie that was made in 2000 called Meatmarket and it’s a zombie flick…actually, it’s a really wild zombie flick. It’s got everything. It’s got zombies, lesbian vampires, Mexican wrestlers and things blowing up. It’s a movie that aims to please. It was made in Canada for just under $2,000. It’s incredibly low budget, but you wouldn’t know that by watching it because the production values are really high. That’s the kind of stuff that we’ve been showing: the stuff that’s made for peanuts, but that are incredibly ambitious.

J.T.: What’s the main message that you want to get out?
Andy: That we’re here and that we’re doing something different. In Dayton, there’s always this grumbling that there’s nothing interesting going on; “Oh, Dayton doesn’t have anything cool or different!” but here we are on Friday nights with these kick ass, interesting movies that you probably haven’t heard of that are definitely satisfying. For five bucks, you can see some wicked ass movie that will leave you feeling satisfied. Also, the way I have structured it, there’s always a free movie, a second feature, and I never say what it is so it’s always going to be a surprise. So, from 11:30pm until 2:30am, you get two crazy movies for five bucks.

J.T.: Now, with most people’s experiences of midnight movies is limited to Rocky Horror Picture Show, are there people that show up with a certain amount of misconceptions?
Andy: Right! This isn’t Mystery Science Theater 3K or Rocky Horror Picture Show. I’m not inviting people to come and yell and throw things and make fun of these films…that’s not our thing. This is to come and appreciate something unusual and have a good time. I don’t want this to be Troll 2. These are genuinely interesting movies, so if people are coming to make fun of them, I’m not so interested in them being there, but if they are there to find something that they have never seen or experienced, then those are the people we are looking for. Also, with the more people that we can get to come out, the more crazier and bigger movies that we’ll be able to bring in. There’s a whole world of these types of movies that just don’t make it to Dayton. The Gateway in Columbus plays new movies like this every Saturday night. If we raised our audience numbers, we’d be able to get movies like Hobo With A Shotgun or The Troll Hunter…we just can’t afford those right now.

The next Independent Shadow Cinema event is scheduled for Friday June 17th at 11:00pm at the Englewood Cinemas, 320 West National Rd, Englewood, Ohio and will feature the zombie movie Meatmarket along with an as yet to be announced second feature.