Maya at the Cincinnati Museum Center

Posted on July 12, 2020 by Denny

March 14 was to be opening day for a huge exhibit of Maya artifacts at the Cincinnati Museum Center. March 9 was the day a state of emergency triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in Ohio. The opening did not happen. On Friday, nearly four months later than planned, I was among the first group of visitors to step into the exhibit. We all wore face masks and all staff members wore face masks in addition to clear plastic shields. We were all museum members as only members are allowed in for the first week. Our entry time was preselected which is pretty normal with major exhibits at the museum but the number allowed for each interval was considerably less than what it would have been in March. There were floor markings to encourage six feet of separation and a few interactive “experiences” were removed to eliminate contact. Touching the artifacts would be forbidden in any case and I don’t believe any were removed. All 300+ seemed to be right where they had been waiting for four months.

The Children’s Museum and the cave portion of the Natural History Museum are closed but most of the center is open. Entry, however, is now time-based and I had reserved a slot for checking other things out after the Maya exhibit. That was not to be as I immediately headed home. Missing an appointment with an AC service guy in July is not wise.

That scheduled service call did not actually make me rush through the exhibit but it did cause some shortcuts. As I entered, I learned that an audio tour was available through my phone, but in the probably mistaken belief that it might slow me down, I ignored it. No doubt that’s one reason I have so little information to share on specific items. I read every description but took no notes, not even with my camera, and my memory did not retain details very long.

I did not photograph many of the numerous small pieces in the exhibit and didn’t even do a particularly good job with the larger ones. The three items displayed here against the lighted and decorated pyramids can reasonably be called mid-sized. The picture at the beginning of this article is of the one at the front right of the wider view.

This stela is one of the largest items in the exhibit. It can be seen beyond the pyramids in the previous pictures. Created in 800 CE near the peak of Maya civilization, it documents some of the accomplishments of a Maya king. That’s something I happen to know because of some only slightly blurry photo notes.

Only four Maya codices, all written after the civilization’s peak, are known to exist. The Cincinnati exhibit includes this partial reproduction. It and the two stone carvings are among the items I wish I’d picked up more details on, and it’s likely they will become justifications for a return.

I have no details to share about the stone mask but I do have this for the jaguar man. The exhibit was originally scheduled to close on September 7 but the delayed opening has moved that to January 3, 2021. I hope to return and be better prepared with more time when I do.

As for the rest of the museum, I will definitely be returning, possibly as soon as this coming week, to see that. I sort of want to see what changes COVID-19 has triggered and I most definitely want to check out a special exhibit on women and the vote that is open through September 27. As everyone should know, this is the centennial of the first national election in which women were permitted to vote.

Return of the Signs

Posted on July 5, 2020 by Denny

Concerts, museums, festivals, and parades have all made frequent appearances in this blog but not lately. They have all been impacted by the COVID-19 shutdown. I”ve tried to keep my concert cravings in check by watching online live streams and even did a post about it back in the early days of the quasi-quarantine. The closest a museum has come to being the subject of a post in the last several months is when I covered the new stairs at the closed Cincinnati Art Museum. Until today.

The Cincinnati Art Museum opened to members on June 18th and to the public two days later. Parts of the Cincinnati Museum Center will be open to members on July 10 and to the public on the 17th. The American Sign Museum allowed members in on July 1 and will open to the public on Wednesday, July 8. Preceding a general opening with a members-only “soft opening” isn’t the only thing these three have in common. All will operate at reduced capacity enforced by advance reservations. Employees and visitors will be screened for high temperatures. All employees will wear masks and masks will be required for all visitors to the Sign Museum. The other two stress the wisdom of wearing masks and ask that visitors comply but apparently won’t actually require it. Hopefully, anyone not wearing a mask will be glared at intensely until they at least start smoldering.

Almost as soon as I heard of the Sign Museum’s opening, I went online to make my reservation. I had expected to be asked to pick a day and time but was simply assigned the first slot on the first day. That was just fine with me but I’m guessing a phone call is required if a specific time and date is needed. Before entering, I stepped out front to get a look at the recently added Burma-Shave style signs. Here is the font-appropriate finale. The big letters atop the building were rescued from Cincinnati Gardens just ahead of its 2018 demolition. The ‘S’ was moved and three lower case letters added to make the perfect sign museum topper.

Once inside, it was scan, scan, scan. My temperature was checked with a forehead scan, my ticket was scanned on my phone, and I scanned a QR code for the self-guided tour. The free live tours have been temporarily halted to help maintain social distancing. I’d never tried the audio tour and figured I should since the live tour I always recommend won’t be available for a while. The audio tour is accessed through a smartphone by scanning the QR code or entering the URL. It then plays through the phone (earphones recommended) and is controlled (start, stop, etc.) through it. I was quite impressed and will have no qualms about recommending it in lieu of a live expert. With or without a guide, I almost always find something new when I visit although sometimes it’s something that’s been there since day one and I’d just not noticed. These signs on the floor were definitely new. They are placed throughout the museum as reminders about social distancing and to provide visual hints as to just how far six feet is.

Of course, all the old favorites are still there. The audio tour talks about the history of signs just like a live guide would and describes many of the more interesting signs on display. It doesn’t cover every detail of every sign and that’s just like a live guide, too. Exploring and reading on your own is part of the fun. The audio tour does come up short when it comes to answering questions but the folks at the front desk and roaming staff members are happy to do that.

A favorite spot of mine is this workshop area which is usually open with contents constantly changing. Some signs leave here to return to their proper homes in the wild while others are on their way to be displayed in the museum. The big camera, a highlight of my day, is one of the latter. A lot of space remains unfilled in the building housing the museum and a major expansion is in the works. As told here, the neon trimmed Pentax, complete with working flash, will be part of that expansion.

As I mentioned, I sometimes think something is new when it isn’t but I’m pretty confident that both of these items are recent additions. The “color chart” was once used by Cincinnati’s Holthaus-Lackner Signs who donated it. I’m absolutely certain that the neon sculpture is new because I watched the comment card being taped to the window as I approached. For any who miss the Dan Aykroyd connection, there’s this. The Neonworks sign shop can be glimpsed in the background of both of these photos. Guided weekday tours usually included a visit inside the shop. Those visits are on hold along with the tours but you can still watch through the windows.

Before leaving, I made a pass through the gift shop where I spotted this book by a couple of friends in Oklahoma. I then posted a picture similar to this one to a Route 66 Facebook group. It has received about fifty reactions (including from one of the authors) but no comments. I really expected someone to jump all over the Kentucky tagged items on the left and those on the right tagged Ohio. Route 66 ran through eight states that are listed on an out of frame sign, and neither Kentucky nor Ohio is among them. Those two states do, however, supply the majority of museum visitors and gift shop customers. There is a Stanley Marsh 3 (the Cadillac Ranch guy) sign on the cover of the book that reads “ART IS WHAT YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH”. Clearly, those candles are art.

Cincinnati Art Climb

Posted on June 7, 2020 by Denny

It probably would have been a low-key opening in any case, but in the middle of a pandemic driven shut-down the opening of the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Art Climb seemed extra muted. Even so, I was aware of the May 7th opening of the first phase and wanted to check it out. Then, just about the time that enough restrictions had been lifted to make me start thinking seriously about a visit, nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police caused me to back off. I finally made it on Wednesday. Broad steps now connect the museum at the edge of Mount Adams with Gilbert Avenue. For road fan readers, Gilbert carries US-22 and OH-3. The steps end at the museum’s parking lot about 450 feet away. There are 166 of them covering roughly 100 feet of elevation change.

The project isn’t 100% complete. There are empty niches where works of art will someday be displayed and additional tables, benches, and landscaping might appear as time goes on. Dave Linnenman, the museum’s Chief Administrative Officer, notes that “It will be a thing to enjoy, not just a way to get up and down.” Right now it is fully functional as a way to get up and down and even as a thing to enjoy for many. Plentiful lighting and numerous security cameras are there to make it safe. The lighting will be certainly be appreciated when the popular Art After Dark events resume.

People simply enjoying the steps on Wednesday included parents with young children and some athletic types going up and down multiple times for exercise. A few were even running up some empty sections. What might at first might look like someone celebrating making it to the top is actually one of the people making multiple climbs. The young woman had passed me on her way down and again on the way up and was just stretching a bit before starting back down.

The closest thing to sculpture currently on the steps is this tri-level not-yet-operational water fountain. I’m sure that a cool drink of water would be a great reward for the climb especially if the temperature was a bit higher. Today, looking back over where I’d been was reward enough.

The museum was closed, of course, but I walked across the nearly empty parking lot anyway. As usual, Jim Dine’s Pinocchio (Emotional) lets us know how happy he is to be alive and he always makes me feel that way, too. Banners at the museum’s entrance let us know some of the things we’ve been missing during the shut-down. On the day after I took these pictures, it was announced that museums were among facilities allowed to open next week. The day after that, the Cincinnati Art Museum announced plans to reopen on June 20 with reduced capacity and some other restrictions. That announcement is here.

This “steps” sign has nothing to do with the new Art Climb. It has been at the east edge of the parking lot for years and I’ve walked past it many times. I was vaguely aware of where the other end of the steps it refers to was located, but I’d never had any reason or desire to travel them. When I first thought of taking in the new stairs, I figured I would park at the museum and go down them then return. However, when I saw I could park near their lower end, I decided it made more sense to do it the other way around. Not only would going up use the steps as intended for museum visitors, it would have me headed downhill when I was likely to need it more.

I know that all downhill paths are not equal but decided that today was probably my best opportunity for checking out the old steps. The route does have steps on both ends and there are some in the middle, but they are nowhere near as wide or as even as the new ones. In between is a sometimes paved and sometimes not path that is always narrow. There are no lights on any of this. The lower end of the Art Climb is at the intersection of Gilbert Avenue and Eden Park Drive. The old steps emerge on Eden Park maybe 500 feet away. I’d parked on Eden Park Drive about midway between the two sets of steps so using the older ones for my return was somewhat sensible. I suppose I might come down them again sometime but I’m rather certain that I’ll never go up them.

Signs of Summer (Past)

Posted on May 17, 2020 by Denny

This article first appeared on May 20, 2012. Recent memories and shared pictures reminded me of the places it features so I decided to repost it as close to its anniversary as possible. With concerts, museums, travel, and other story-generating activities currently non-existent, there will likely be more of this sort of reuse before the current summer slips into the past.

The fountain in front of Union Terminal, a.k.a., Cincinnati Museum Center, runs all summer and is turned off all winter. Therefore, one sure sign of summer in Cincinnati is the turning on of the fountain. That happened Friday at 10:30 AM. I had kind of hoped to see the stepped pools below the fountain go from bare concrete to a series of waterfalls right before our eyes but it wasn’t quite that dramatic. Whether the pools were primed in the interest of time or whether the standing water was simply left over from some secret testing I cannot say, but they started the day ready to overflow at the slightest provocation.

I still think bare concrete morphing to cascading waterfalls would have been cooler but watching the fountain go from zilch to a spurt to a full spray wasn’t bad.

All the kids, and there were plenty, were properly wowed and they also enjoyed the characters on hand to promote the ongoing A Day in Pompeii exhibit. I’ve seen the exhibit and it’s a duesy. University of Cincinnati Professor Steven Ellis, along with several UC students, has been instrumental in the current excavations in Pompeii and that was instrumental in making Cincinnati one of only four US cities hosting the exhibit. As you can see, security was tight.

The weather was obviously quite nice for the events at the fountain but Friday was just one of several consecutive near-perfect days. Perfect not only for fountains of water but for fountains — or taps — of root beer. I made it to three different root beer stands on three of those near-perfect days.

On Thursday it was the Jolly’s on the west side of Hamilton, Ohio. Back in 1938, Vinny Jolivette opened an A&W Root Beer franchise in Hamilton. He built this place in 1967 and, casting off the A&W identity, used the family name to inspire a new one for the restaurant. It’s west of the Great Miami River on Brookwood. Somewhere along the line, they added another on the east side of town on Erie. That one has a cooler sign but this one still makes its own root beer and that trumps the sign. The two remain officially connected (The car side signs carry both telephone numbers.) but are managed somewhat separately by two brothers. There is a third Jolly’s in Tiffin, Ohio, that was started, also as an A&W, in 1947 by Vinny’s brother, Roy, and it seems there was a fourth somewhere in Indiana (possibly Bloomington) but I know very little about it.

I stopped by The Root Beer Stand in Sharonville, Ohio, on Friday afternoon. It started life in 1957 as an A&W then went independent in 1982. It stopped using carhops in 1972. Originally built and operated by the Rideour family, it moved on to its second and current owners, Scott & Jackie Donley, in 1990. The Donleys have kept everything pretty much the same and that definitely includes making the root beer using water from their 280 foot well. Claims that “it’s something in the water” may very well be true here.

I got my Saturday root beer fix at the A&W in Union City, Ohio. Despite this being a place I frequented as a teenager, I know few details of its history. I do recall that is was owned by a fellow named Smith in the 1960s and that he operated a used car lot right next door. I have vivid memories of sipping root beer and drooling over a black 1956 Thunderbird that sat in that lot when I was about seventeen. At some point, it became Neil’s A&W Drive In and so it remains today. Curiously, this place doesn’t show up on the official A&W website nor does it have its own site but it does have a FaceBook page.

All three of these places make their own root beer using at least some of the original A&W equipment. Guess that stuff was made to last. All of them taste great and I’m guessing that the recipes are all the same or similar. The Root Beer Stand has its special water and both it and Jolly’s serve their brew in chilled glass mugs. I love ’em both and I do tend to dislike chains but “real” A&Ws (Not stuffed-into-a-corner-of-a-gas-station A&Ws.) are pretty cool and it’s hard to beat an ice-covered mug.

I’m guessing that some noticed the slightly red convertible in the center of the Root Beer Stand photo. That’s my 1963 Valiant and plans to drive it to Darke County and the A&W at the border led to the warm-up visits to Hamilton and Sharonville. The 200-mile round trip was the car’s longest outing since the cold drive home from Cambridge in early 2011. She done good. These pictures show her at Jolly’s and Neil’s.

I recently learned that the neighborhood Flipdaddy’s does brunch on Sundays so I walked over this morning to check it out. It was quite good. I’m always dismayed but rarely surprised to find myself alone on a restaurant’s patio. But, with the thermometer at 74 degrees, I was a little bit surprised today. Lots of people just don’t like any temperature I guess. To be fair, one couple and their home from college daughter did venture outside to eat. That was it. The restaurant was fairly busy inside but just one other outside table was ever used all the while I leisurely worked through my bacon & eggs and slowly sipped my Magic Hat dessert.

Pyramid Hill Holiday Lights

Posted on December 15, 2019 by Denny

At least twice in the last few weeks, I’ve mentioned Holiday Lights on the Hill when the subject of light displays came up. As I talked up the annual event at the sculpture park near Hamilton, Ohio, I silently recognized that I really didn’t know what I was talking about. I’ve visited the park in the daytime and I’ve seen pictures of the holiday lights, but I’d never personally taken in the big show. I resolved to correct that, and Wednesday night I did.

The opening photo is of a swan made of lights on a small pond. I had seen the swan in promotional material for the event. The entrance to the park and a view of the beginning of the drive into the park are pictured at left. Admission is charged per car and paid at a window in the small building at the center of the first photo.

The round trip drive through the lights is described as 2.5 miles long through more than 100,000 lights. This year, all of those lights are LEDs.

This year, the light display operates from November 22 through January 5 but the park is open year-round. There is a museum of ancient sculpture and the 300-acre site is filled with both permanent and temporary works of art. Some of the pieces are visible among the colored lights.

I think one reason the light show at Pyramid Hill was on my mind this year was that I’d heard Brave Berlin was once again involved. The folks at Brave Berlin are the minds behind BLINK (which I saw a little of in both 2019 and 2017) and Luminocity (which I’ve not seen at all). They had something at last year’s Pyramid Hill show and the word was out that there would be something bigger this year. That something was a mapped projection at the park’s pavilion. A winter scene and the words “Greetings from the North Pole” covered the entire building. It’s impressive but impossible to fit into a photograph from the road with my gear. The field of blue, where figures flicker in and out, is directly across the road from the pavilion.

Holiday Lights on the Hill differs from other light displays in my experience in that the vast majority of its lights are arranged in geometric or simply random patterns. “Scenes”, like this carriage, make up the bulk of other holiday light shows, but there are only a few here. The setting is unique and glimpses of sculptures that are not technically part of the holiday exhibit somewhat play the role that sightings of elf and reindeer shaped structures play in other light displays.

Cambridge Spirit(s)

Posted on November 24, 2019 by Denny

Like the one a fortnight earlier, last Sunday was preceded by a very blog-worthy Saturday that just had to wait because the weekly blog slot was already filled. Again, I’m calling that good since it gave me all week to produce this post rather than trying to put it together overnight. If I had, it’s certain that it would contain fewer pictures and more mistakes. The actual target of my trip was Zanesville, Ohio, but that’s close enough to Cambridge that I drove over to visit the annual Dickens Victorian Village. As things turned out, Cambridge and the figures that line its streets during the holidays get almost the entire post.

There are nearly 200 of the life-sized figures. Each is unique and dressed in Victorian-era clothing. They are grouped into 90-some scenes. Some come directly from a Charles Dickens story while others represent sights the author might have encountered walking around nineteenth-century England.

This is the village’s fourteenth year, and I believe this is at least the fourth time I’ve visited. The bulk of the figures are placed along Wheeling Avenue which once carried the National Road. The road and a bridge pictured on that panel will be mentioned again before this article ends.

The Guernsey County Historical Society offered two “living” tours of Cambridge’s Old City Cemetery and I made it to the second one. The first resident we met was Sophia Gibout, Sophia was a washerwoman who died in 1865 after living in Cambridge for many years. Being familiar with other residents — both before and after their move to the cemetery — she accompanied us as a guide. The lady with the white muff is Elizabeth Taylor, wife of Joseph Taylor. The Taylors figured prominently in Cambridge’s early history. A newspaper and hotel were among their contributions and Joseph served in the U.S. House of Representatives. Isaac Oldham, the fellow in the third photo, settled in the area before Cambridge was established.

The American Civil War was naturally a major chapter in the history of Cambridge and these three figures have some interesting personal connections to it. Before serving in the war, James Adair walked to California to join the gold rush of 1849, made his fortune in the goldfields, then returned to Ohio by taking a ship south to the isthmus of Panama, traveling across it, and heading north on another ship. Captain Adair was killed in Virginia in 1962 and his body returned to Cambridge for burial. John Cook was killed by an unknown assailant in March of 1865. The murderer and an accomplice were eventually tracked down and a major trial, which overlapped that of Lincoln’s assassins, resulted in both being hanged. The gentleman in the tophat is C.P.B. Sarchet. He survived the war after reaching the rank of colonel then developed a reputation as a great historian. He was born in 1828 which he proudly pointed out was the same year that the National Road came through and that double covered bridge on the panel downtown was built. The bridge stood until washed away by the flood of 1913. Colonel Sarchet died a few weeks later.

We walked back to where we had first met Sophia and where Elizabeth was waiting. Like Paul Harvey, Elizabeth wanted to make sure we knew the rest of Sophia’s story. She was well-liked in the town and at her death friends arranged for a proper burial. It was then that the undertaker discovered that the washerwoman was physically a man. That simple revelation ended the “living” tour and started some personal brain activity. I’ve read of nineteenth-century women disguising themselves as men in order to join the military, drive a stagecoach, or participate in some other activity otherwise denied them. This was something different. There are essentially no reasons that would justify choosing to live as a lower-class female in the early 1800s. Sophia Gibout’s story should make anyone who believes that questions of gender identity are a 21st-century phenomenon think just a little deeper.

Following the “living” tour, a presentation on tombstone symbols was provided by Randy Neff of the Guernsey County Genealogical Society. In the photo, Randy is standing beside a tombstone showing a pair of hands. The hand on the viewer’s left represents the deceased. It is always stiff and lifeless and is gripped by the other hand which may represent an already deceased spouse or other relative. A hand coming from a cloud represents the hand of God himself pulling the newly deceased into Heaven.

It was now that l realized my great blunder. I had driven to the area for the purpose of attending a gathering of the Ohio National Road Association. It was on my phone calendar for 7:00 PM. As I left the cemetery, I considered driving the short distance east to Wheeling, West Virginia, where one of my favorite bridges had recently been closed. I can’t explain why I only now double-checked the phone calendar with the original ONRA mailing, but that’s what I did. My intent was to determine with certainty whether or not if I had time to drive to Wheeling and back to Zanesville. What I discovered was that the information on my phone was terribly wrong. The gathering was a 12:00 lunch, not a 7:00 dinner. I had plenty of time to drive to Wheeling because I had already completely missed the event.

The 1849 Wheeling suspension bridge was closed in late September due to continuing violations of weight limits. I didn’t expect to discover anything new but my basic curiosity prompted me to take a look since I was fairly close. The result is a picture of a bridge closed sign.

Anticipating an evening spent with National Road fans near Zanesville, I had a motel reserved nearby. The sun set while I was in Wheeling which gave me an opportunity to stop in Cambridge for a look at the wonderful light show at the Guernsey county courthouse.

Destination Moon (in Cincinnati)

Posted on October 6, 2019 by Denny

The vehicle that Michael Collins flew in circles waiting for his buddies to return is currently parked in the Cincinnati Museum Center. Apollo 11’s Command Module Columbia is on tour and doing a little overtime. The traveling exhibit, Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission, was originally scheduled to appear in just four cities but the tour has been extended to include Cincinnati as a fifth and final stop. When the showing closes here in February, everything returns to a revamped home at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC.

The exhibit reminds visitors of mankind’s long-time dreams of reaching the moon and of the specific events that led to the first manned landing. The space race started to get serious — and scary — with the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of Sputnik 1. Their hitting the moon less than two years later really underscored our second-place position. On May 25, 1961, after considerable discussion, President Kennedy announced plans to leap ahead of the Soviets by putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

The exhibit contains several artifacts from the mission but the star is the Command Module Columbia. Its hatch door is displayed separately which permits both sides to be studied.

Columbia is, of course, the largest item in the exhibit. Surrounded by flat information panels and much smaller items, it automatically draws interest and initially looks rather big. It shrinks considerably, however, when viewed as a home for three men for eight days. It’s not quite 13 feet in diameter and the 218 cubic feet of space in the cabin isn’t much more than that of a typical minivan.

I had difficulty photographing most of the smaller mission artifacts in the exhibit such as the medical and survival kits, but Buzz Aldrin’s helmet and gloves were the things I was most interested in and a little extra effort produced a satisfactory picture.

Seeming to fill just about as much space as the physical artifacts, is a display of photographs taken in the decades since humans last visited the moon in person. For those having and seeking knowledge of the moon’s surface, these large images are possibly even more interesting than the fifty-year-old hardware.

Whiteboards in the hallway leading in and out of the exhibit invite comments on some moon related questions such as “Should we return?” and “What would you take if you went?” A couple of people said they’d take Skyline Chili. Others planned on taking a Mars Bar or green M & Ms. Those are all good ideas but maybe not quite as practical as taking extra underwear. As for how the moon should be used, one person thought it would be a good place to explode stuff and another saw it as a good location for a Disneyland. I was encouraged by multiple “stepping stone to Mars” ideas and discouraged by at least two “leave it alone” suggestions.

I attended Destination Moon as part of a Friday evening members-only event. Other portions of the museum center open for the evening included the Neil Armstrong Space Exploration Gallery where a movie about the famous Ohioan is shown and several artifacts are on display. The gallery opened as part of the Apollo 11 fiftieth anniversary celebration. Future additions are planned. The suit in the picture is an accurate replica. The suit Armstrong wore on the moon is in the Smithsonian. Its backup and the suit he wore on Gemini 8 are at the Armstrong Air & Space Museum which I visited on the anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch. That blog entry is here.

The Museum Center’s OMNIMAX theater was also open Friday evening so I watched Apollo 11: First Steps Edition for the second time. The first time was on the anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing which was also part of the blog entry previously mentioned. When I finally stepped outside the museum, I was surprised to see several large telescopes set up in front of the building. I was aware of an Observe the Moon Night scheduled for Saturday but not this. I guess they decided to do an extra night in conjunction with the members-only Destination Moon event. I stood in line for a bit and was treated to an incredible view of the moon’s surface. At my car, I put on a long lens, steadied the camera against the roof, and got an OK picture but nothing remotely like what I had just seen inside the museum or through the telescope.

Kentucky Giants

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Denny

Just like the subject of last week’s post, I’ve been aware of the subject of this week’s post, since it — or they — first appeared in early spring. And, just like last week’s walk, a visit to Bernheim Forest and Thomas Dambo’s giants has been waiting for good weather and available time. However, it took more than clear sky and schedule for me to actually make it. It took two tries.

The first try was on Monday. Bernheim Forest lies just twenty-some miles south of Louisville, KY, and I planned to drive most of the way on US-42. I used I-71 to get through Cincinnati then left it for US-42 — and the Dixie Highway. This gave me a chance to stop by a restaurant that has been on my to-eat list for quite some time. Colonial Cottage has been serving Dixie Highway travelers since 1933 while establishing itself as the “Kentucky’s # 1 Goetta Restaurant“. They are also known for their omelets so my first meal there was naturally a goetta & mushroom omelet. I returned to US-42 but the trip was cut short by a flat tire. A broken wheel key/spline meant the car had to be towed to get the wheel off. I’ll make the story as short as that Monday trip by saying that I did eventually get home and the tire did get replaced.

Friday began as an exact repeat. I-71 through the city, exit on the Dixie, and stop at Colonial Cottage. There things started to change. Monday’s omelet had been absolutely wonderful and today’s breakfast was too but today I had no goetta. Then no flat tire. Then I made it all the way to the forest with no problems. It isn’t possible to reach the giants without some walking although there are parking spots, marked by big wooden feet, that can be used to lessen it. Maps are available at the Visitor Center where a trail leading to all the giants begins. The lady handing out maps provided a very good overview and told me the trail was approximately one mile each way.

From the trail, the first giant sighting is across the Olmsted Ponds not far from the Visitor Center. This is Little Nis. The road in the second picture leads to the Visitor Center and a glimpse of Little Nis can be had from it on the way in. I believe this is the only one of the three giants visible from a drivable road.

This is Mama Loumari, mother of Little Nis and the yet to be seen Little Elina. It’s rather obvious that a third little giant is on the way. Nis didn’t seem to have much of an expression at all and I thought that same about Elina. When viewed straight on, Loumari looks sad or maybe just tired. However, in the second picture, taken from her right side, there’s the hint of a smile on her lips. Maybe she’s thinking about the coming birth or maybe it’s because she knows, as Warren Zevon would say, her hair is perfect.

The path between Loumari and Elina leads right behind Sunset Amphitheater at the south end of Lake Nevin. This 25-acre lake appears to be the largest body of water in Bernheim Forest. Fishing from the bank is permitted but I don’t know the details.

Having detected the beginnings of a smile on Mama Loumari’s face, I’m really starting to doubt my belief that both of her children lack any sort of facial expression. Maybe I just didn’t look hard enough or from enough angles. You know? I believe I can actually see Little Elina at least thinking about smiling if I look hard enough.

The lady at the Visitor Center had marked this installation just beyond Elina and I think she even told me who the artist was. You can probably guess just how long I remembered that. It reminds me of other pieces I’ve seen built of twigs including a large maze-like structure in front of the Taft Museum in Cincinnati.

An imprecise visual study of the map indicated that there wasn’t a great deal of difference in length between retracing my steps and continuing on around Lake Nevin. I opted for the new-to-me path and almost immediately encountered this solitary duck. A peaceful spot at the lake’s northern end offered a view back towards Sunset Amphitheater. I first encountered the sea-serpent head-on and had no idea what it was. The side view (and the sign;-) cleared things up.

Back at the Visitor Center, I rested a bit then headed off to another spot marked on my map. I drove a couple of miles then parked near a 75-feet high platform overlooking the forest. This is Canopy Tree Walk. On the way back, I checked out the trees directly below the walkway.

The area around Canopy Tree Walk was to close at 6:00. When I passed back through the gate about 5:30 a ranger was in place waiting to lock it. No one was being rushed but I’m guessing he wasn’t letting any more cars in. I got to see a little more of the forest as I worked my way back to the main exit. I didn’t see it all, of course. This isn’t the sort of place that can be seen in a single afternoon. I came only to see the giants and I saw much more including this tree with prosthetic limbs. Really wasn’t expecting that.

Brewing Heritage Trail

Posted on September 15, 2019 by Denny

I wasn’t around when the first phase of Cincinnati’s Brewing Heritage Trail opened in April and checking it out has been on my to-do list ever since. Some nice weather finally lined up with some idle time this week, so off I went. There really isn’t an official beginning or end and the designated Hop On points are essentially just suggestions. Even so, I wasn’t feeling particularly rebellious and following the suggestion seemed easier than not so I did. This is the Hop On point at Findlay Market.

My first stop was physically on the trail but not part of it. I had thought of grabbing something to eat at the market but decided to skip ahead on the trail just a bit and have breakfast at Tucker’s, a Cincinnati institution since 1946. I’ve eaten here in the past but not since a 2015 fire that threatened to permanently close the place. And I’d never met Joe Tucker. Today I sat at the counter while Joe worked the grill and chatted easily with me and everyone else who walked in the door. A great way to start the day.

From Tucker’s, I backtracked just a little to begin following the trail in earnest at Vine and Elder. The current trail is a loop plus the beginnings of an extension on McMicken Avenue and the Elder Street connection to Findlay Market. Signs like this one identify segments of the trail as well as the turns. A map is part of the signage at the Hop On points. It is also available online and I referenced it a couple of times from my phone. Apparently an actual smartphone app was available at one time but it has been withdrawn while “we tweak a few items”.

The former Hudepohl Bottling Plant sits on McMicken at the end of Elder Street. Opposite the building is a display featuring a smiling Louis Hudepohl and lots of information about the company. Hudepohl was one of the few Cincinnati breweries to survive prohibition and was once one of the largest in the state. The main Hudepohl brewery was abandoned in the late 1980s but its 170-foot smokestack bearing the company name remained a Cincinnati landmark until its demolition in June of this year.

Just yards beyond the Hudepohl kiosk, I found something unrelated to the trail but too cool to ignore. It was the mural that first caught my eye but I soon realized that I was standing by a large — and slightly out of place — garden. When a voice invited me in, I stepped through the gate to meet Christina, the Flower Lady of OTR and a volunteer gardener. Started in 1980, the Over the Rhine People’s Garden was the first community garden in Cincinnati. It is filled with flowers, vegetables, and fruit and there there is a weekly free distribution. Food not taken is donated to a local food bank. I even found a small connection to the trail I was following. At least one volunteer does some home brewing and is growing hops for that purpose.

The trail is also marked with medallions pressed into the sidewalks. I’m sure I walked right past some of the smaller ones where they appear all by themselves without even noticing. Just past the green space and playground of Grant Park, this cluster at the corner of McMicken and Moore is pretty hard to miss.

The second Hop On point is just around the corner on Moore Street. It is next to one of the largest murals on the trail and includes multiple information displays. Among the many pieces of information presented is one regarding local per capita beer consumption. That statistic has been cited as one of the reasons that Cincinnati, despite having around forty breweries, was not known as a national distributor. There just wasn’t much left to distribute.

I slipped down the unfinished McMicken Street segment and even backtracked a bit to capture some of the numerous murals along the trail. The Crown Brewery is just one of several buildings in the Brewery District being spruced up to reflect their former lives.

This was once home to Kaufmann Brewery and is now home to Christian Moerlein. In between, it was the Husman Potato Chip factory. Besides containing a brewery and taproom, the building houses the Brewing Heritage Trail Tour Center. A wide variety of tours — both above and below ground — is available. Check them out here. I’d kind of been thinking about a cold brew in the taproom but hadn’t really considered the time. “It’s not yet noon and the taproom is hours away from opening,” I observed to myself dryly.

There were plenty more informative things to read and decorative things to admire. I even have evidence that I didn’t miss ALL of the solo medallions. Reading about history while standing where it actually occurred is always cool.

I finished the loop then the short extension back to the Hop On point at Findlay Market. I’m impressed. An incredible amount of Cincinnati’s brewing history can be learned in an hour’s time walking the trail. As much as I enjoyed the walking and reading, I must admit that two of the day’s highlights were not listed trail features. I really enjoyed talking with Joe and Christina. Both were familiar with and supportive of the trail even without an official connection. I also enjoyed speaking with John Donaldson who owns buildings near the Moore Street Hop On point and who paused to chat as I looked over the nearby signs. If only I could have chatted with a bartender over a cool pint inside the Moerlein taproom.

More Man at CAM

Posted on July 14, 2019 by Denny

I visited Phase 1 of the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Burning Man exhibit about two weeks after it opened (Burning Man at CAM). It took me more than a month, however, to take in Phase 2. Phase 2 adds three galleries to “No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man” while leaving everything that was part of the first phase in place. The pictured quote — and line — went unnoticed on that earlier visit although they were certainly there. I was probably looking only at the structure that stands above the line. It represents the Burning Man Temple which, like the man itself, is turned to ashes before the festival ends. It’s a fraction of the size of the real temple but is still much too large to fit into my lens inside the museum. Here are shots of the top half, of one of the panels, and through one of the peepholes.

Christopher Schardt’s Nova was actually part of Phase 1 but, like the line at the entrance, I somehow missed it on my visit in May. Images in the ceiling-mounted LED panel are coordinated with classical music. The last photo was taken while I lay on the floor. I kind of wish I had waited for the skull to come around again.

One of the galleries added for Phase 2 is filled with three polyhedral sculptures from Yelena Filipchik and Serge Beaulieu. There’s a direct view of the suspended polyhedron here. One of the sculptures, with yet another polyhedron inside, can be entered.

This is a part of Phase 1 that I definitely did not miss. In fact, I ended that first post with a promise “to listen to those gongs some more.” I very much kept my promise and am now pretty much convinced that living inside Gamelatron Bidadari would make me a nicer person.

This is the largest of the Phase 2 additions. It consists mostly of two-dimensional art including photographs. I took the picture of the bicycle seat primarily to show the tag but I didn’t do a very good job. It is slightly more readable here.

The third Phase 2 gallery is the balcony above the temple replica and the museum’s main entrance. The central space is filled with clothing created for and worn at Burning Man. Photographs showing the many aspects of Burning Man fill most of the wall space but some of that space holds Candy Chang “Before I die…” chalkboards. Apparently, more than 4000 of these have been erected around the world giving people an opportunity to “pick up a piece of chalk, reflect on death and life, and share their personal aspirations in public.” Some truly deep and personal thoughts have appeared on the walls and the Cincinnati board contains some noble sentiments such as “Help others” and some fairly modest goals like “Go whale watching”, but “Travel” is a very common theme. Pay attention, people.

My post on Phase 1 opened with a photo of the smallish Truth is Beauty standing above the museum’s Great Hall. This one is closing with a photo of it taken from the balcony across the way. There are pictures on display that show the original 55-foot sculpture at Burning Man with no roofs or walls penning it in. It’s obvious that seeing this one third scale copy in climate-controlled comfort is a very poor substitute. I’m guessing that seeing reproductions of or even some of the actual pieces that were once part of Burning Man is just about as much like the experience of being there as my tapping on the steering wheel is like manning the riser behind Mick and Keith at Wembley Stadium. But it’s as close as I’m likely to get. I’ll take it.

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