Sunday Ride Photos

There are no shortage of cool bike rides around Cincinnati. Sunday morning I decided to ride up to Spring Grove Cemetery and do some exploring. It's an incredible place if you haven't been, and if you're a cyclist its nice quiet place to cruise, train, whatever.

Poke Journal! Please submit!

I've been meaning to write about my new project all month! We keep busy over here. :)

Besides exploring the wonders of Cincinnati, another huge passion of mine is art (and specifically poetry, my major in college). I'm now trying to see if I can bridge these two passions with a handmade, Cincinnati-based literary journal called Poke.

All the details for Poke are on the journal's Facebook page, but the gist is this: to take part, all an artist has to do is hand-make 10 copies of his/her work.

That's it!

There will only be 10 copies of any issue. Proceeds from sales of the journal will go toward a local cause or institution, determined by the community.

But I really really need your help, because without submissions this project tanks. MiCA 12/v has been an incredible partner in this project, so I'd love to create a fantastic inaugural issue to make OTR proud!

Submissions for this issue are due at Final Friday, and you do not have to live anywhere near OTR/Cincinnati to submit (though you do have to get down to MiCA to drop them off). See alllll the glorious deets here: http://www.facebook.com/PokeJournal?sk=info

Please let me know if you have questions, and spread the word! That first deadline is comin' up fast!  :D

Rivertown Brewery Tour

Thanks to Yelp, we had a chance to tour a local brewery, Rivertown (in Lockland). Here are a handful of my iPhone shots from that morning (in our excitement, we left the real camera in the car!):

The tour was so much fun. We were able to see just about every step of the brewing process, because there was a local group of homebrewers mixing a batch that day and so the brewery was hoppin'. (Hoppin'? Beer pun?) We smelled different types of hops, tasted various grains, sampled ales (if you're into that kind of thing), and even visited the bottling machine (just one! for their entire distribution!!).

A great learning experience and a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon-- thanks Alex, Yelp and Rivertown!

Rivertown Brewery: http://www.rivertownbrewery.com/

Cirque du Soleil: Behind the Scenes at Ovo!

Cirque has had a rough visit in Cincinnati, with the rain closing them down for the past week-- they've had to reschedule 15 shows and clean up quite a mess over at Coney Island. The're pushing through, though and last night they were back on stage!

While we were lucky enough to be invited to the dress rehearsal for Ovo back in April, we were also invited for a behind-the-scenes tour, which we took yesterday before their big return.

Here's the link to Dan's full Flickr set of our incredible tour.

Our contact at Cirque talked us through so many aspects of the show for over half an hour... from what the performers eat to where they lodge to how they practice to how Cirque finds their talent. We were able to tour the makeup and dressing room, the practice mats, the stage and more. We learned that some of the Cirque performers are ex-Olympians, that each costume is cleaned in Cirque's own washing machine every night, and that there are teachers that travel with the cast to teach Quebecois curriculum to Cirque cast and family members. We saw cast members warming up, rehearsing, putting on makeup and playing chess on an iPad. How... freaking... amazing.

(We want to give an absolutely huge thank you to Darcy at Vehr Communications, and Marie-Claude at Cirque! This was the chance of a lifetime for us!)

Cirque's Ovo website: http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/ovo/tickets/cincinnati.aspx