The holiday season of 2010 has taken shop local to a new level for Cincinnati. There have been numerous event throughout downtown, OTR and the surrounding community nearly ever weekend since Thanksgiving. These events in OTR as well as Clifton hosting Crafty Supermarket all help embrace the shop local spirit and Saturday saw Yelp's Totally Bazaar event take over of the American Sign Museum to bring even more people out to meet all our favorite local shops and businesses.
The man behind all this was OTR's very own
Alex Shebar, and he did a killer job of pulling this all together. There was a huge turn out and it was a lot of fun for everyone there, and hopefully beneficial for everyone involved.
The biggest exposure of the night was for the
American Sign Museum, which was kind enough to host the event. They have a beautiful and extensive collection of American signs, sign making equipment, and just about everything else you could imagine that relates to signs and their impact on American culture.
The museum opened in the spring of 2005 and their collection of 3,800 cataloged objects quickly outgrew the current location in Walnut Hills. They are in the process of funding a move to a new building they have purchased in Camp Washington, which will eventually provide them with a total of 42,000 sq. ft. of floorspace to permanently house their collection. They own about half the space already and are in the process of funding the final phases of the build-out and relocation.
Something that struck me about the museum is that it's a bit off the beaten path. It seems unlikely you'd find it unless you're specifically looking for it. Their new location is very much the same in terms of location. Perhaps a nicer spot, more space, but it's still in a rather low visibility location.
Something Erica and I felt, and also something that I discussed with
5chw4r7z, is that this place would really thrive if it were located downtown, specifically in Over-The-Rhine. It's an incredible space, both due to the collection of interesting objects, but also because of the atmosphere all these signs create. Imagine a space like this being in OTR and being part of Final Friday or Second Sunday. I also think the museum would get a lot more exposure if it were in a higher traffic area. The OTR tours draw hundreds of people every weekend and a museum such as the American Sign Museum would benefit greatly from that, especially since the tour guys are so great a plugging all the merchants, restaurants and happenings OTR has to offer. There are tons of open spots in OTR, of varying size, and I'd think 3CDC would jump at the chance to bring such an attraction into our growing neighborhood.
I realize this may not ever happen, since the museum is already vested in their new location, but it's an idea I had to put out there.
If you've not checked out the museum it's definitely worth a trip. Visit their site for details and hours.
American Sign Museum Website:
http://www.signmuseum.net/
the Yelp Totally Bazaar event page:
http://www.yelp.com/events/cincinnati-yelps-totally-bazaar
This train departs from Oakley (near Madison Bowl) and ends up near Sawyer Point with a nice view of the river. The entire ride takes 3 hours, at the end of which I could tell many of us wished there was a bit more time. (Always leave them wanting more.)
They don't prepare the food on the train, so you make your choices when you reserve your place on the train. We rented out a private dining car, but individuals are able to dine on the train as well. 
The train was decked out for Christmas-- some of the decoration our agency took care of, but much was done by the Dinner Train. The place looked fantastic-- not overdone in a cheesy way, but understated and vintage. 
I originally saved the link for the Cincinnati Dinner Train because I thought it might be a nice Christmas gift for Dan's parents. (Individual tickets are around $70 each, so it's a bit out of my budget for anything but a special occasion.) After riding the train I still think this would be a fantastic gift for anyone who'd enjoy a leisurely dinner in a beautiful train. 
The biggest exposure of the night was for the American Sign Museum, which was kind enough to host the event. They have a beautiful and extensive collection of American signs, sign making equipment, and just about everything else you could imagine that relates to signs and their impact on American culture.
What a fantastic store! Suders is packed wall-to-wall with a rich variety of art supplies. Dan, as a student of Miami U's art program, has seen the inside of plenty of art stores in his career, and he seemed truly impressed by the little shop.
I say "little" but this shop is actually quite expansive. The main supply room seems small because it's so full of materials, but there is another room full of easels and the like, as well as a massive back room with work space.
The only problem we had came down to using one of the Gateway Quarter gift cards. These things have been a pain in my arse, if I do say so myself. The problem lies in how infrequently people use them-- ours was the first card that Suders had seen in nine months, so they had trouble activating it. This is not the first time we've run into this inconvenience: Senate does not take them "yet," and Little Mahatma doesn't accept them at all. 
We've been to all three Crafty Supermarkets so far, and I have to say: this winter's was far and away the best. I was amazed at how much this event has grown even since last time!
Dojo Gelato was in attendance, as were representatives from Picnic & Pantry, selling stew and other awesome lunch options. This is itself makes the event so much more accessible and compelling.
I've felt in the past that it was very hard to walk in and buy something-- the gifts were too esoteric (and often too expensive) to walk out with an armload.
We were there around 3pm, and the place was packed wall to wall. Ben Davis was laying down the music and every vendor seemed to be doing brisk business. This is a fantastic event, and a great partner for Cincinnati Unchained!
I've been aching to visit the Plum Street Temple ever since Dan and I visited City Hall. Unfortunately, the temple only gives tours on Thursday mornings, when your typical nine-to-fivers are already at work. So! Dan and I took a vacation day to visit the Moorish-Byzantine style temple-- absolutely worth the trip.
We're a big fan of the recent improvements in the City of Cincinnati's recycling program. Not only did we get bigger and better recycling facilities, the city is also teaming up with RecycleBank which helps motivate and reward people for recycling.
It's a free museum with a fantastic private collection, which was on display when I recently visited.
Charley Harper!
When I visited, it was to see my incredible friend Dave. He spent a handful of months in Berlin with an art residency and was describing his stay for the museum patrons. If you stop in, say hi to Dave-- he'll be around for a few more months, until he scuttles off to Germany again.
To be honest, the tour guide was spoke at a fairly technical level, so I didn't always understand the nuance of the machines. The museum typically caters to people in the business, when they have trade shows and the like. The fact that there were outsiders there at all seemed to really surprise them-- they asked me a handful of times how I'd discovered the museum at all.
Since I can't tell you much about the machines, check out these awesome old brand typefaces. These alone were worth the trip (and the $5 admission).
16623 Liberty Hi Road
I can imagine spending every Sunday morning in a gorgeous church like this one. You could spend a lifetime where without taking in all the detail in this enormous cathedral.
