A Midsummer Night's Dream - 1 Aug @ 19:20

Aug. 1 • A Midsummer Night's Dream
Garden Station, 4th & Wayne;
7:20-10 p.m.

The Zoot Theatre Company will be performing a 90 minute version of this classic Shakespeare comedy to help kick start their 2009-2010 season! For only $10 get your butt off the couch and come see a great comedy outside and "in the round" at the beautiful garden station downtown. $10.

A Midsummer Night's Dream - 1 Aug @ 19:20

CultureWorks Rally For the Arts 5 August @ Noon

Cultureworks Rally For the Arts

CultureWorks Rally For the Arts 5 August @ Noon

Miami Valley Cycling Summit - 14 August

As you may know the bike friendly movement in the Miami Valley is gaining momentum. We see the evidence on our streets and in the emerging efforts of local and regional government. For our region there has never been a more important time than now to focus on creating vibrancy and quality of life.

This year we hope to ignite this movement by providing the motivation and tools needed for local communities to become more bike and pedestrian friendly by holding the Miami Valley Cycling Summit on August 14, 2009.

Read more and get involved at the Miami Valley Cycling Summit website.

Miami Valley Cycling Summit - 14 August

Family Day - First Military Airplane 1 Aug FREE

Family Day - First Military Airplane

Commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first military airplane with special activities, including building your own edible flyer. Also enjoy storytime and hands-on demonstration stations.

National Museum of the United States Air Force
1100 Spaatz St.
Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433

Local Number: (937) 255-3286

General Information:
nationalmuseum.usaf@wpafb.af.mil

Hours
Saturday: 10:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Family Day - First Military Airplane 1 Aug FREE

Vegan Dinner at the Library - 28 July @ 6:30pm

July 28 • Vegan Dinner at the Library
Mercy for Animals;
Dayton Metro Library,
215 E. Third St.; 6:30-8:30 p.m.

JC Corcoran, a retired fire captain and paramedic who has lead programs on nutrition for many years, will offer tips on choosing healthy, organic, life-supporting foods. Free. 463-2665.

My only hesitation in posting this is that I'm not familiar with Mercy For Animals - the group that's sponsoring it. Not all animal-rights groups are made equal, and some have more than their share of the crazy. For example, while I'm no fan of factory farm conditions, that's not the same thing as saying "remove all egg and dairy products". Conflating the two seems, in my opinion, to be unwise at best.

Regardless, if you're interested in creating vegan or vegetarian meals, animal rights groups tend to have huge resources so you're not just eating the same old thing every night. Even their blog points out a couple of basic "eating vegan on a budget" tips. And the price is free, so it's worth checking out.

Vegan Dinner at the Library - 28 July @ 6:30pm

Cool Soups for A Hot Cause - 31 July (Friday, Fundraiser)

COOL SOUPS FOR A HOT CAUSE

SAVE THE DATE—FRIDAY, JULY 31ST!

The Cool Soups Luncheon is one of the Peace Museum’s most delicious annual fundraisers. Refreshing summer soups like Gazpacho, Vichyssoise and Ginger Carrot Bisque are donated by a local gourmet cafe and museum volunteers, along with fresh bakery bread from Ashley’s in Oakwood.

Come and enjoy a great lunch and uplifting fellowship in the most Peaceful spot in town! Your donation of $15 will support the important programming the Museum is doing to help make Dayton a City of Peace.

This year’s Cool Soups will take place on Friday, July 31st between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. in the Peace Hall (Annex) behind the main Peace Museum building. Parking is free—enter our parking lot from Wilkinson Street.

Tickets are $15. Please RSVP to the Peace Museum, 937-227-3223, no later than Wednesday, July 29

Cool Soups for A Hot Cause - 31 July (Friday, Fundraiser)

Using YouTube to fight for clean neighborhoods

Dayton residents are using YouTube to help with a huge environmental problem at a Superfund site in their neighborhood. A group called BVOCAL has made a short video - "This is our Neighborhood!" - to tell their story worldwide and to encourage stronger action from the EPA.



Three years ago, people who live in the McCook Field neighborhood of Dayton Ohio learned that the former Chrysler Airtemp plant at Leo and Webster Streets, now owned by Behr, had leaked trichloroethylene (TCE), into the ground and that toxic vapor from the chemical was coming up into their houses at unsafe levels. Over 400 homes have been tested for vapors and elevated TCE levels were found in more than half. Contamination levels as much as 650 times the official “action level” have been found. One school has been closed due to contamination. The USEPA says this is one of the worst contamination sites in the country and has made it a Superfund site.

Mitigation systems, which are a patch but not a fix for the problem, have been installed in many homes but the TCE plume continues to move through the groundwater causing levels under the homes to constantly change. For that reason, all of the homes need to be periodically retested in order to insure that they are safe, something the USEPA has not yet agreed to do.

BVOCAL spokesperson Jerry Bowling says, "We want to tell our story and to encourage the USEPA to retest all of our homes on an ongoing basis until the problem is resolved."

The Ohio Department of Health has found that TCE exposure is linked to kidney cancer, liver cancer, non Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and several other types of cancer including Hodgkin’s lymphoma and cervical cancer. A cancer incidence study of the McCook Field area completed by the Ohio Department of Health in August 2008 found that for all cancer types, the neighborhood had a significantly higher than expected number of cancer cases and that for 4 types of cancer associated with TCE exposure; liver, non Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and cervical cancer, there were more observed cases in the area than would have been expected.

TCE exposure can also cause other health effects such as headaches, lung irritation, dizziness, coordination and concentration difficulties, skin rashes, nerve and immune system damage and damage to fetal development. Many of these problems have been reported by residents of the neighborhood.

Chrysler discovered the TCE contamination on its property in 1989 or 1990. Almost 20 years later, the site is still not being cleaned up despite the severity of the contamination and the number of people affected.

Now that Chrysler has filed bankruptcy, it appears that it may try to completely walk away from its responsibilities to this neighborhood. The BVOCAL group is working to make sure that doesn’t happen and that the USEPA does everything it can to protect this community.

The Dayton Daily News recently wrote an editorial strongly supporting this neighborhood and urging the USEPA to do more.

BVOCAL can be reached at href="mailto:bo68chev@att.net">bo68chev@att.net
937-224-5058, 522 Herbert St., Dayton, OH 45404.

Using YouTube to fight for clean neighborhoods

Vigil for Justice - Mt Vernon OH, 24 July @ Noon

VIGIL FOR JUSTICE
A purposeful or watchful staying awake. The act of observing.

FRIDAY, July 24, 2009 at 12:00 noon
Public Square
Downtown - Mt. Vernon, Ohio

A Latino student and two African-American students were stopped by five bigoted youths who were shouting racial slurs at the three students. Two ran and one froze in place. The Latino boy, Robero Cantu was grabbed, a noose put around his neck, and was dragged by a truck around the parking lot. He lived. One year later the verdict came down; no hate crime - only one of the youths received a sentence of just 10 days in jail.

Stand up for equal justice. Join the vigil. We will car pool from Cleveland area this Friday, July 24 for the noon vigil in Mt. Vernon, Ohio.

There will be a lunch gathering after the vigil at a nearby location

Organized by
League of Latin American Citizens of Ohio (LULAC)

Supported by
American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio – (ACLU)
American Friend Service Committee
Buckeye Regional Anti-Violence Organization (BRAVO)
Cincinnati Interfaith Workers Center
Columbus Board of Rabbis
Council on American-Islamic Relations - Ohio – (CAIR)
Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network
Human Rights Campaign - Columbus (HRC) -
Interfaith Association of Central Ohio
Jewish Federation of Columbus
Knox Action Project
Knox County Gay-Straight Alliance
Latin@ LeaderSHIFT Initiative
League of United Latin American Citizens – Ohio (LULAC)
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People - Ohio Conference (NAACP)
Ohio Hispanic Coalition
Stonewall Columbus
Voto Latino
Working Families Win

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Ruben Castilla Herrera – 614-571-1750 – Columbus, Ohio
Tamara Parson - 740-398-9596 – Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Jason Riveiro - 513-482-1814 - Cincinnati, Ohio
Esteban Ortiz - 614-620-0698 - Dayton, Ohio

FOR FREE TRANSPORTATION FROM COLUMBUS call
Esteban Ortiz 614-620-0698 - ortizesteban99@gmail.com

WEAR BLUE!

Vigil for Justice - Mt Vernon OH, 24 July @ Noon

Ten Living Cities Symposium - 7-8 August, Dayton OH

Ten Living Cities

There's a one-page flyer available here (PDF), and an editorial by the organizers is here.

Objective: Bring together a contingent of public sector figures, community activists, artists and concerned citizens from all ten of the American cities dubbed as the “Fastest Dying” by Forbes in August 2008.

Why?: To demonstrate that our people and our citizens are very much alive, by presenting the most innovative efforts underway to return our communities to vibrancy. By sharing ideas and inspiration, we can learn from each other, form new relationships and create a host of possibilities for civic enhancement.

Where & When: August 7 -9, 2009
August 7 - Hotel Check-in and First Friday featuring Art & Music from Dayton and selected Ten Living Cities
August 8 - Symposium, 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM at the Dayton Convention Center
August 9 - Continental Breakfast at Riverscape Metropark

Ten Living Cities Symposium - 7-8 August, Dayton OH

Tuesday Tales: It's Wild Out There! 21 July @ 1000 FREE

Tuesday Tales: It's Wild Out There!
RiverScape MetroPark, 111 E. Monument Ave.; 21 July @ 10-11 a.m.

Come join nationally recognized performer, Chris Rowlands, on a wacky adventure into the woods! "It's Wild Out There" features Rowlands' imaginative blend of music, art, comedy and education. You and your child will be inspired as you learn more about the environment during this high-energy, fast-paced show. Bring a towel or blanket for seating. Weather permitting. Free. 274-0126.

Tuesday Tales: It's Wild Out There! 21 July @ 1000 FREE

Michelob Dayton Blues Festival Free & TODAY!

City of Dayton Parks and Recreation; Dave Hall Plaza,
Fourth & Jefferson Sts.; 1-9 p.m.

The 24th annual Michelob Dayton Blues Festival will bring some of the region’s best blues artists for a day of live performances to the heart of downtown Dayton. There's a full line up of bands -- Slowhand (Dayton), Ed Tyson Band (Dayton), Inner City Blues Band (Columbus, OH), Sonny Moorman Group (Cincinnati, OH), and the Jimi Vincent Band (Mansfield, OH). Miami, Florida's Albert Castiglia headlines the show. Local food and beverage vendors will be on site. Admission is free and open to the public, so bring your lawn chairs and your friends out to Dave Hall Plaza and enjoy the music! Free. 333-8400.

Michelob Dayton Blues Festival Free & TODAY!

Treasure: a Community Garage Sale 18-19 July FREE

This is an awesome idea. I love flea markets and the like, but driving to and fro between garage sales (especially when so many of them are just baby stuff around my house) can be frustrating. To get in the spirit, I recommend reading Cory Doctorow's short story Craphound (free to read online, and to listen to from Escape Pod)

July 18-19 • Treasure: a Community Garage Sale
c{space, 20 N. Jefferson St.; 12-5 p.m.

This community garage sale is a great way for vendors to make some extra money, sell merchandise, and destash some stuff. There will also be some great shopping for customers! $5 to vend; free to shop.

Treasure: a Community Garage Sale 18-19 July FREE

(Discounted) Sinclair Theater Season Tickets on Sale!

I really enjoyed the shows I saw last year at Sinclair - and they were rather inexpensive as well. This year's season... well, it looks freaking awesome. Little Shop of Horrors, Antigone, and then Dog Sees God... it looks great. Order season tickets now, and get a 15% discount as well.

(Discounted) Sinclair Theater Season Tickets on Sale!

Mystery of Two - TONIGHT 9pm at South Park Tavern

If you're into local music, you should really have The Buddha Den in your blogroll/reader/whatever. They posted today that the Cleveland band Mystery of Two will be playing at the South Park Tavern with local band Mountain Screamer- go head over there and read the interview and listen to the two free tracks. If you like it (which I did), stop by there tonight (which I hope to)!

Mystery of Two - TONIGHT 9pm at South Park Tavern

An Open Letter to WXEG

[And yes, I'm mailing a hardcopy to them as well. It's simply not cute anymore.]

Okay, look. I understand that you've got to keep that "edgy" feel. And that as a format, you have little interest in being politically correct.

But damn, do you have to to be misogynist asshats like the wifebeater-wearing trailer park trash you see on COPS?

I'm not talking about the ads for strip clubs. It's a tough economic world out there, and while it means I can't listen to your station when my kid's in the car anymore - yeah, your listeners have kids now - those are marginally passable.

It's the station IDs, man. It's the constant objectification of women as nothing but strippers and whores. When your station ID spot has a mention of a "two-bit whore on double coupon day", that's not edgy. That's being a poser.

Yeah, being a poser. Because it's hard to be edgy, isn't it? But it's sure easy to treat women like nothing more than sex objects, throw in a couple of references to strippers and whores to shock grandma.

But let me tell you something - that doesn't make you look edgy, or cool. It makes you look like a giant corporation that's spouting crap all over the place, and hoping nobody realizes that your days of being cool are long past.

I called into the morning show not long ago, and thanked them for actually playing music during the mornings, unlike the other rock stations I can get in town.

"Hey, it's all about the music," the DJ replied.

He was right. Now if only the rest of the station could remember that, we'd be in business.

An Open Letter to WXEG

FutureFest - 24-26 July

FutureFest Returns to the Dayton Playhouse July 24-26

Dayton Playhouse’s FutureFest returns for its 18th year July 24 – 26. FutureFest provides up-and-coming playwrights the opportunity to have their work produced and professionally adjudicated during the three-day festival.
The spirit of the nationally renowned festival is to provide playwrights an opportunity to see their works produced in the early stages of writing. Feedback is provided by five nationally-recognized professionals after each production by professional theatre adjudicators, along with comments from the audience. For the serious theatre lover, the weekend is a complete package of great and never-before-seen theatre.
This year’s lineup includes: A Snake That Eats Itself by Chad Baker, Carve by Molly Smith Metzler, Darkroom by Devon Boan, G-Man by Rosemary Frisino Toohey, Night and Fog by M. J. Feely, and Quietus by Richard Manley.
Get your weekend pass for just $85 through the Dayton Playhouse. Call (937) 424-8477 or go online to www.daytonplayhouse.org for more information.

FutureFest - 24-26 July

Dr. Creep Benefit - 18 July 2009

I'm a transplant to the Dayton area, so I've only heard about Dr. Creep from other people's fond recollections. It turns out that Dr. Creep's health isn't doing that well, and expenses have been mounting. So this year, there's a benefit concert/event/zany thing out in Springfield to help!

Check out the details at http://www.myspace.com/drcreepbenefit, and pass the word to others who remember this Dayton legend.

Dr. Creep Benefit - 18 July 2009

Second Saturdays Stargazing - 9PM 11 July 2009, FREE

The Wright State University Astronomy Club will be having our second "Second Saturdays" stargaze event at Walton Park in Spring Valley on the 11th, assuming clear skies. Directions: (gmap) (png) The event is totally free and will begin about a half hour after sunset, which occurs around 9pm.

Second Saturdays Stargazing - 9PM 11 July 2009, FREE

Saving the (Shrinking) Festivals

I attended Cityfolk this past weekend. We saw the quilts, heard some music, ate some food, and finally managed to get over to Deeds Park, which is quite lovely. It was a good time for several hours, quite a few cool crafts (pictured, and I really lusted after the gears pictured below), and had we been more interested in the bands playing Sunday (no fault of theirs), it would have been fun for a longer period of time.

But it's not like it used to be.

I've noticed the same thing happening to the Celtic Festival - the other downtown festival I've caught several years in a row. They're still fun, and I'm still planning on heading down to it the last weekend of July, but... well, they've all changed.

They've gotten smaller.

Noticeably so - the first year I was at Cityfolk (2002), I remember it being about twice the size of this year's festival. There were fewer vendors and exhibits - and as I mentioned above, it's not just Cityfolk.

This has the potential to Be A Bad Thing.

If one is expecting a spectacle, then damn it, it needs to be a spectacle. And after a certain point, a downsized spectacle isn't a spectacle anymore - it's just lame.

None of the downtown festivals are quite there yet, but they're getting close. I'm sure there are plenty of reasons - many economic - for this. Regardless, there are three basic paths these festivals may take:

1. Stay the course. Everything stays the same, just smaller. As mentioned, this becomes lame, which then causes things to shrink further and leaves it in a death spiral.


2. Throw money at it. As a neo-Keynesian, I think this is actually a good idea. These festivals produce a lot of positive externalities (side benefits) and money spent at them tends to have a much higher local multiplier (money spent there stays in the community longer rather than going to a certain retail chain's headquarters in Little Rock).


3. Focus, diversify, and multiply. Rather than concentrating on overwhelming spectacle, what if there were more, smaller, and diverse events? Especially when the Riverscape construction is complete, it would be awesome to have a different focused festival there each weekend (or even one day each weekend!) throughout the summer.

I'm sure there are other possibilities that could make these festivals really pop without relying on overwhelming spectacle. As with so many other things in Dayton, there is only one option that is sure to fail - keep doing the same damn thing and pretending nothing's changed.

And as far as I can tell, that's the option that city leaders have chosen.

Saving the (Shrinking) Festivals

Tour and Tea the DAI - 15 July

July 15 • Tour and Tea
Dayton Art Institute,
456 Belmonte Park N.
Tour at 1 p.m., tea at 2 p.m.

In celebration of its 90th anniversary, the Dayton Art Institute is highlighting its own permanent collection, with the exhibition 90 Treasures: From the Collection of the Dayton Art Institute. 90 Treasures is the first exhibition organized by Will South, The Dayton Art Institute’s new chief curator. Participate in a docent-led tour of the exhibition, and then enjoy a traditional tea with a tea sandwich medley, miniature scones with preserves and assorted teas. $15.
223-5277.

Tour and Tea the DAI - 15 July

First Friday - TONIGHT

July 3 • First Friday
Throughout downtown and the Oregon Arts District; 5-10 p.m.

The beginning of every month starts with a bang in downtown Dayton. First Friday is a free art hop that features a variety of entertainment options in the Oregon Arts District, the Dayton Visual Arts Center, the Cannery, the St. Clair Lofts shops, the Dayton Convention Center Mezzanine Gallery, and more. Brochures with detailed information about everything going on that night are available at participating venues. Download a discount coupon at www.codecu.org that makes it even less expensive to enjoy many of downtown's restaurants & taverns. Sponsored by WHIO Channel 7, CODE Credit Union, Greater Dayton RTA and the Downtown Dayton Partnership. Visit downtowndayton.org for more information. Free. 224-1518.

First Friday - TONIGHT

Back for another round of stupid.

In case you missed it on my other blog, I think the whole "Tea Party" thing is not only stupid and deserving of being pointed and laughed at, but it's also selfish and shortsighted. So you can imagine my... well, joy isn't the right word... when I saw that they're trying it again this holiday weekend.

But at least they've given us yet another reason to laugh at them.

“This is not a Democratic or Republican event,” Brookville Mayor Dave Seagraves said at a council meeting in June after citizens raised some concerns about the political views of the organizers.

So a city employee is explaining and justifying a group that wants smaller government... while still being a part of that large government. That's bad enough, but look again at what he said. It's non-partisan, huh? What's that guest list like again?

Speakers include state Rep. Jarrod Martin, R-Beavercreek, and Larry Schweikart, a University of Dayton history professor who has written several books including “A Patriot’s History of the United States” and “48 Liberal Lies About American History.”

Yeah. That's what I thought. That's like me inviting the Southern Baptist Convention to a Danzig concert. Sure, they're invited, and could even be welcomed... But that would be a sham and we all know it.

Can we just laugh at these morons now?

Back for another round of stupid.