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Vanguard Concert Series

Jane’s Best Bets (5/4 – 5/8)

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Photo Credit: Alli Shillito

Since it is May, you may be asking the question, “Is there anything fun going on this week in Dayton?”  The answer of course is an enormous “YES!”  This week, there are so many things from which to choose that you may have some very difficult decisions ahead of you!

On Wednesday, join Dayton Creative Syndicate as they welcome Guest Speaker, Jack Supple at Brixx Ice Company.  Taste some wine as part of the Weekly Wine Tasting at The Wine Gallery.  Not yet prepared to make your bets for the Kentucky Derby?  Be sure to attend the Derby Preview Party at Color of Energy Gallery where John Engelhardt from River Downs and other horse racing experts will give you some great tips…and don’t forget to have a mint julep!  Plus, there will be a live horse outside the art gallery AND live music!  Afterwards, please carefully walk to Fifth Third Field to watch the Dragons as they play the South Bend Silver Hawks.  And finally, give those vocal folds a workout by heading to Blind Bob’s for Karaoke.

On jueves (Thursday), start the day at the Presidential Banquet Center for the 2nd Annual Voices for Kids Benefit, which helps CHOICES, an organization that provides a support system for youth, their families, and foster parents.  Over at Sinclair, attend the 2011 Go Red For Women Luncheon.  Celebrate Cinco de Mayo in style at one of these great restaurants:  (1) The Caroline, which offers some great Cinco de Mayo specials; (2) El Meson – starting at 3PM, they will have $1 Tequila shots and free tapas until 5:30PM…plus amazing food, music, and dancing; or (3) El Rancho Grande (or the “E.R.” as my friend Lynne calls it) for 1/2 Price Ladies Night.  Or Join the Dayton Ballet Barre for their 1st Annual Cinco de Mayo ‘Barre’ Crawl which will take place at a variety of bars in the Oregon District.  If Mexican food does not appeal to your taste buds, no problem.  You can attend the Beer & Burger Tasting at A Taste of Wine in downtown Miamisburg.  Some other possibilities for Thursday evening include listening to the Hal Melia Quartet as part of the Vectren Just Jazz Series at the Dayton Art Institute, Space Night at the Air Force Museum, Dayton Theology on Tap at Oregon Express, or watching the Dragons as they play the South Bend Silver Hawks.

On Friday, ALL young professionals should without a doubt participate in Generation Dayton’s Get Out, & Give Back Dayton! The day will consist of a lunch, followed by a variety of service projects at area non-profits, and finally a wonderful after-party at Oregon Express!  Get registered today and bring a friend!  Afterwards, attend the First Friday art hop downtown.  Also downtown, you can participate in the Courteous Mass Ride, watch the Dragons play the South Bend Silver Hawks, listen to the Paul McKenna Band at the Dayton Art Institute, or attend ‘Byron Stripling: Satchmo, Fats & The Duke’ (Dayton Philharmonic) at the Schuster Center (click here to find out how you can get discounted tickets, courtesy of jumpstART!).  And if you’re brave enough to venture outside of downtown, head to the Dayton Mall Chick-fil-A for a Free Chick-fil-A Sandwich from 4-7PM, the Baum Opera House for The Wizard of Oz, or the Centerville Performing Arts Center for Hello, Dolly!

Hopefully you spent your Friday night downtown so you can wake up and gallop your way to the Derby Day Dash 5K and Kids Fun Run at RiverScape.  Then head to PNC 2nd Street Market to Make Your Own Crepe.  Over at Garden Station Community Garden/Art Park, share your food, art, music, or whatever else you want as part of the Really Really Free Market.  Wear your favorite hat (the bigger, the better!) and support women’s wellness by attending the 2nd Annual Crown Jewels Derby Day Brunch at Brio.  I hope to see you there!  Keep that hat on so that you will be able to attend the Junior League of Dayton Derby Party at The Wine Loft.  In order to support a couple other great causes, attend the House of Bread Silent Auction at the Dayton Mall Holiday Inn or the American Red Cross’s Putting on the Glitz event at the Hope Hotel and Conference Center.  If your doctor wrote you a prescription for laughter, be sure to get your tickets to Cocktails with Larry Miller at Victoria Theatre.  Although I’m not an accountant, I don’t think this would qualify as a medical expense under your H.S.A.  Listen to the Dayton Philharmonic’s performance – ‘Byron Stripling: Satchmo, Fats & The Duke’, which takes place at the Schuster Center.  Other musical options include listening to the Miami Valley Symphony Orchestra’s Spring Concert at Shiloh Church or the The Primo Trio at the Dayton Art Institute as part of the Vanguard Concert Series.  Catch “Saturday Night Football” at Hara Arena as the Dayton Silverbacks play the Indianapolis Enforcers.  And finally, if you feel like catching a show, both The Wizard of Oz (Baum Opera House) and Hello, Dolly (Centerville Performing Arts Center) will still be running strong!

On Sunday, if you do nothing else, be sure to honor your mother!  If you don’t mind (and if you do mind, sorry, I just don’t care), I’d like to give a quick shout out to mine – Thank you mom for being the best mom ever…and thank you for not just putting up with my dumb jokes, but actually laughing at them!  I love you bunches and bunches! Thanks for letting me do that, although you really had no choice.  Anyways, whatever you’re doing, I hope you will be able to have the opportunity to spend Sunday with your mother.  And don’t worry because you won’t have to cook breakfast or lunch, as many restaurants are offering Mother’s Day Specials!  Some places that are offering brunch include The Barnsider, Hilton Garden Inn, Carvers, Blind Bob’s, Boulevard Haus, Dublin Pub, and Fleming’s.  Don’t forget to take your wallet…it would be bad news if your mom had to pay!  And if your mom likes music, take her to Kettering Fairmont High School for the Miami Valley Symphony Orchestra Spring Concert.  Or take her to see Honk! Jr. at Town Hall Theatre.

And now it’s time for the Dumb Joke of the Week. Drum roll please…

Why was the racehorse named Bad News?  Because Bad News travels fast.

These are just a few best bets from the DMM Calendar.  There are plenty more events listed there, so if you haven’t, I encourage you to check it out today!  Also, if you have an event to share or promote, please submit it– it’s great marketing and better yet, it’s FREE!  And finally, if you have a dumb joke to share, I’m all ears!

Have a great week Dayton!

Jane’s Best Bets (10/20 – 10/24)

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Photo Credit: Alli Shillito

If you haven’t yet, it’s time to begin celebrating Halloween…or at least time to begin thinking about your costume!  I had my first Halloween party this past weekend, and although I don’t like to brag, I was definitely someone you could count on (my mom, not so much, as evidenced by the picture below).  So hopefully you were counting on me and not my mom to give you an update as to what is going on in Dayton this week!  And for the record, in real life, my mom is someone you can totally count on!

On Wednesday, find out the Keys to Character at the Dayton Metro Library’s Main Branch as part of their fall writing series.  If you are worried about your health (or someone else’s), get a fitness assessment/consultation as part of Holten Wellness Center’s promotion in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as it is estimated that many cancer cases are linked to things like poor diet and physical inactivity.  (If you don’t like going to the doctor, just reward yourself afterwards with one of their wonderful massages!)  In the evening, be sure to use your La Comedia discount in your Entertainment book before it expires at the end of this month and see Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.  And if you have cold feet, you’ll be in like company at Oregon Express, as the band Frozen Feet will be playing.  While there, be sure to experience some of their amazing pizza!

On Thursday, get in the spirit of Halloween by creating a Pumpkin Flower Arrangement at the PNC 2nd Street Market.  If fashion is your thing, consider supporting Clothes That Work by attending their 10th Annual Fashioning Futures Luncheon at Sinclair’s Ponitz Center.  Are you looking for something fun and educational for your kids to do?  If so, consider taking them to the 9th Annual Mad Scientists’ Lab @ Wright Library, where they will be able to see some wacky science experiments demonstrated by Oakwood High School Students.  In the evening, all young professionals in Miami County will want to join HYPE (Helping Young Professionals Emerge) for their Third Thursday at The Caroline.  And finally, be sure to head to downtown Miamisburg, costume in tow, for Boo in the Burg!, a super fun, great people watching, adult pub crawl.  Just to warn you, there might not be “two” many people you can count on there.

On Friday, come out to Generation Dayton’s ‘4th Friday Lunch’ at Amber Rose.  In the evening, take the kids and head to Hallow’s Eve at Patterson Homestead.  If you would love to see an outstanding musical performance, experience the sounds of Guitarist Robert Belinic when he performs at the Dayton Art Institute as part of the Vanguard Concert Series. If theater is your thing, you have several options, including The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs at Town Hall Theatre, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at La Comedia, Moon Over Buffalo at Playhouse South, Once On This Island at Sinclair’s Blair Hall Theater, The 39 Steps at the Loft Theatre, and The Sugar Witch at the Dayton Theatre Guild.  Couldn’t they have all agreed to spell “theater” the same way?!?!  I’m just sayin’.

My Mom (someone you "can't count on") and I

On Saturday, start your day off right with Centerville Rotary Pancake Day at the Hithergreen Center.  Afterwards, all you shoppers will want to go to the ATM so you will be able to “check out” at the Shop ’til You Drop event at Hara Arena.  If you’re interested in doing some Halloween-esque activities with the kiddos, depending on their ages, there are many events from which to choose.  Cowvin’s Corny Maze, Pick Your Own Pumpkins, and Haunted Wagon Rides are all things you will be able to do at Young’s Jersey Dairy.  Also happening on Saturday are Hallow’s Eve at the Historic Patterson Homestead, Howl-O-Ween at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, the Windmill Farms Fall Festival at Windmill Farms, and Salem’s Lot Haunted Carnival at the Old Salem Mall.  In the evening, drive your Porsche on over to the Taj Ma Garaj for opening night of Miracles & Magic 2010, a premiere variety show, where all proceeds will benefit A Kid Again, an area non-profit whose mission is to enrich the lives of children with life-threatening illnesses and their families.  And finally on Saturday, if you’re like me and love to laugh, you’ll definitely want to see Second City’s performance Fair & Unbalanced at the Victoria Theatre.  Any extra tickets can be sent my way!

Now to Sunday…in the morning/afternoon, enjoy a delicious Sunday Brunch at Yankee Trace Golf Club.  If you are fascinated by all the gorgeous older homes in Oakwood, head to the Wright Memorial Public Library for a talk entitled, The Classic Architecture of Oakwood Homes.  If you enjoy classical music, you’ll want see the Miami Valley Symphony Orchestra Fall Concert at Kettering Fairmont High School’s Auditorium.  At Fairmont’s rival, Centerville High School, you will be able to have another opportunity to see A Kid Again’s Miracles & Magic 2010.  And to end the weekend on a really sweet note, there is no other place to be except for the Bellbrook Chocolate Shoppe for their All You Can Eat Chocolate Party!  Plus, the money raised will help fund mammograms for those in need through the Kettering Health Network Foundation’s Women’s Wellness Program!

And now it’s time for the Dumb Joke of the Week. Drum roll please…

Why did the ghost go into the bar?

For the booze.

These are just a few best bets from the DMM Calendar.  There are plenty more events listed there, so if you haven’t, I encourage you to check it out today!  Also, if you have an event to share or promote, please submit it– it’s great marketing and better yet, it’s FREE!   And finally, if you have a dumb joke to share, I’m all ears!

Have a great week Dayton!