All Loose and Squirrelly

HUGE BLIZZARD!!!

nobody@vox.com(Scott) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:47:13 -0500

Here is the shocking aftermath of the HUGE BLIZZARD that blanketed Cincinnati over the last 24 hours, nearly killing EVERYONE!!!

Huge Blizzard 1

Okay, to be fair, the property managers there did a nice job of cleaning up. But still, we weren't exactly inundated. Scenes like this were more representative:

Huge Blizzard 2

Yep. That's what schools and businesses all around the Tri-State shut down for.

I thought Cincinnatians had a growing self-awareness of local snow hysteria. Perhaps not.

Maybe we're that way because our snowfalls are so rarely dramatic, we root for each pending storm, hoping it will be A Big One. But it almost never is.

Hmm. Isn't that like being a diehard Cincinnati sports fan?

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Door Handles Tuesday (12-29-2009)

nobody@vox.com(Scott) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:53:56 -0500

Door Handles Tuesday (12-29-2009)

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Peter Bowes

nobody@vox.com(Scott) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:09:00 -0500

The morning of December 4, 1979 was cold in Cincinnati. My dad had the thermostat rigged to lower the temperature at night to save energy. Some mornings I would sit over by the register to enjoy the blast of heat as the furnace brought the temperature back to normal. That was one of those mornings. I was in the sixth grade.

The night before, the local news had broken in with an announcement that some people had been killed at a Who concert downtown at Riverfront Coliseum. The news seemed bad to me, but I think I believed it wasn't that unusual. I had an image in my mind of rock concerts as abjectly chaotic events where all kinds of horrible violent things happened on a regular basis.

For some reason my mother was concerned about a young man from our school named Peter Bowes. She just thought it seemed like the kind of thing he might attend.

I remember seeing Peter Bowes exactly once, when he went with us on a trip to Cowan Lake. He was a few years older than my older brother. His father was one of my dad's work colleagues and part of my dad's daily ride pool.

So, that following morning, while I warmed up by the heat register, my mom came into my room. She was crying. She said Peter Bowes had been killed at the concert.

I don't think I knew what to say. "Oh, really?" were the words that came out--not in an apathetic sense, but in a "Holy shit" sense.

In all, eleven people had been killed, crushed as the crowd pushed toward the doors trying to get the best seats.

I remember when my mom went to visit the family. I think she brought some food.

"Festival seating" was justifiably excoriated in Cincinnati after that, and probably in much of the event business. Cincinnati banned it.

A few years later when The Who became a favorite of mine and my brother's, there was a tension in that enjoyment, a somber undertone of what had happened when a crowd of people were too eager to hear it.

A few years later I attended my first rock show: we saw Yes at that same venue. It bore little resemblance to the mob scene I half-expected--in part because my impression was so distorted, in part because the band was rather less testosterone-fueled, and in part, probably, because the memory of what had happened at that place was relatively fresh.

More time has passed than I like to acknowledge. I'm older than the guys in The Who were then. Ned Criddle, one of the older kids who accompanied us to see Yes, has since passed away, and so has my brother (neither loss having anything to do with any concert). Riverfront Coliseum is now the U.S. Bank Arena.

I've never forgotten the date.

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Mary Kay Bergman (1961-1999)

nobody@vox.com(Scott) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:06:28 -0500

Remembering Mary Kay Bergman, one of South Park's premier vocal talents, who died ten years ago today.

R.I.P. Mary Kay Bergman

South Park Songs - Blame Canada

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Veterans' Day

nobody@vox.com(Scott) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:47:27 -0500

Firstly, if you are a vet, thank you. Secondly, here are a couple of related efforts that caught my eye today. Thirdly, sympathies to everyone affected by what happened at Fort Hood. Jesus.

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We Will Remember Them

nobody@vox.com(Scott) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:26:40 -0500

Thanks to Cams for posting this outstanding Roy Harper track about the Berlin Wall. It's roughly recorded, but Roy kept it when subsequent recordings didn't have the same feeling.

The growling electric guitars are by David Gilmour.

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NOOOO!!!

nobody@vox.com(Scott) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:33:32 -0500

A little tweetie bird has informed me that Vincent D'Onofrio is being booted from Criminal Intent, and that a main character (not him) is about to get murdered.

Worse, we won't learn the details until March.

The agony!!!

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Sweetgum Riot

nobody@vox.com(Scott) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:31:56 -0400

Sweetgum Riot

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How Puerile Are You?

nobody@vox.com(Scott) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:42:48 -0400

Take this simple test. What letter goes in the blank?

Fill in the Blank

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Voxiversary the Second

nobody@vox.com(Scott) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:46:03 -0400

Holy crap! I missed my second Voxiversary!

By almost three months!

This can only mean I have been distracted because (choose one):

my life has become a living hell the likes of which no one should have to suffer.
my life has become a living hell the likes of which everyone should have to suffer!
my life has become a living purgatory which a few people might have to suffer under certain circumstances.
the earth stopped turning.
the earth was turning with a hestitant grinding motion, which proved to be worn bearings.
Vincent D'Onofrio showed up demanding money, or at least some coupons.
I was buried under an avalanche of doorknobs.
the Spanish fly didn't work.
I realized after years of denial that Pikachu does not have Focus Fist.
no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't fit the bottle inside the toy ship.
Tyra Banks is even higher maintenance than you might think.
I learned the Pope is not only Jewish, but shows up at Rotary meetings wearing gigantic lapels and a cravat.
the double pneumonia I contracted after being caught in the rain at that Reds game took months to clear up.
Buddy Guy keeps calling me asking where he can get one of those cool Tripwire "got integrity?" T-shirts.
I only went to Washington, D.C. to visit, but I ended up ensnared in partisan politics, bureaucratic stonewalling, and unrelenting harrassment from the shoe-leather lobby.
using Twitter to post every aspect of my personal grooming requires a serious time commitment.
buying a product called "Rolex Viagra Stocks Cialis Luxury" can be a very, very costly mistake.

So, thanks for your patience and understanding. To get things under control, I will probably need a flashlight, an analog wristwatch, an assortment of small loudspeakers, and a street map of Decatur (Illinois or Georgia, it doesn't really matter). I'll let you know.

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