Buddy Guy - First Time I Met The Blues

I was thinking as I watched this video how the things in this video were once common in Cincinnati too (blues music, and the general scene).

A friend of mine sent me this video because of the 1970's shots of Chicago's South Side, especially the "Wall of Respect" which was a public art project that people he knows contributed too. Plus the music rocks:

Low Profile Gangster

 

Why Did they Add Cameras to Cell Phones

So I could post random stuff that we happened upon yesterday?

Pants and ID left on park bench: 

"Another Truckload" 

Used Car Superstar and Aaron Pryor Jr

Cards found on our car or on the sidewalk over the past two months:

Crappy Pics While Walking

Look down and you may see this.

Bottle and bird footprints:

 

..and look up and see ugly icicles!

 

or straight ahead, a weed tree.

 

LickaSto

Sometimes I need a newspaper article to explain what is going on around me:

There have been countless times when the corner (liquor) store has come to the rescue, like recently, when I got a call from a gorgeous girl I had been trying to kick it with. "Let's go to the movies," she said. As I was about to walk out the door, I glanced in the mirror. I had been wearing that same black hoodie, flipped back beanie, and old white T for way too long. I needed to step it up, and fast.

A quick walk around the corner elevated my clothing game to a new peak, with enough time to pick up my beautiful date, get my popcorn, and find a seat all the way in the back of the pitch-black theater.

End of the Day

Kids asleep, dishes cleaned, laundry folded. Wife is working the night shift. I fix a drink and sit in the window and look at the street. A few people sit on the wall by the sidewalk murmuring around the division of whatever drug they do these days. Not quite raining, it is misting, and the dark shapes of the northern hills are scattered with dozens of house lights. Two decrepit church towers are darker shadows breaking the view of the hills. It is a beautiful sad night to reflect on the day. The radio tower rises into the mist. To the south, the clouds glow by the light of downtown towers. Wet car tires pass every minute or so.

Now the group down below has broken up. Only a mumbling man and loud woman remain. Woman says "...nahh..you suck my pu.. first man, you want me to suck you di... mouthfull of .... you a goddamn liar...mother f.. " After a few minutes of back and forth they make amends and stroll down the street together.

Highway white noise and the squeal of the train switch yard in the distance. More mist, almost rain now. A voice calls down the last bus. "hey hey"

Next comes a white guy with a gravelly voice and a big pack on his back. He is with a younger woman in a studded leather jacket, shaved head and they argue about going to the Drop or getting a drink. She's walking backwards in front of him waiving her arms, leading him south.. instead of east. He's ready to call it a night. "..heavy pack, man".

Rain stops. Just a thick fog now, but still the sound of water everywhere, dripping off leaves, down gutters, under footsteps.

Andre the Giant

 

Taken while he gave my horoscope.

A Trip to OTR Kroger

 

We try to buy locally, and by local, I mean within a few blocks if possible. As a result I do shop at the Kroger store at 1414 Vine Street approximately monthly. Tuesday I went there. It was an ejoyable walk with great weather and meeting a few people along the way.

 

[where:1414 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]
I like the small Kroger store. I may be in a minority here, but it is a decent place. Their produce selection is minimal, but I don't go there for that.

 

During this visit to the store, a woman behind me got upset because a man cut in front of her while she left her cart in line and went to get another item. The man who cut in front had one single item, and no other lines were open. The woman started yelling and cussing, like the crybaby she was. I told her to watch her mouth as small children were present. The security guard also had to tell her to settle down. That was minor, and somewhat entertaining, so I didn't mind that. However getting in and out of the store is getting more and more difficult because of problems at the neighboring building:

 

This building has been a problem building for as long as I can remember. Through most of the 1990's there was the greasiest of greasy spoon diners here, "Meet and Eat". It was extremly unclean and rundown. It gives me shivers thinking about it.

Currently it has one of those ghetto beeper stores that has no room for customers. When you enter the store, you are surrounded on 3 sides by plexiglass with displays of junky merchandise. There is only enough room in the store for a few customers (if they stand close together). There is a cut-out in the plexiglass for the cashier and their is a steel pass thu door on the front so you can buy stuff late at night when the owners are afraid to open the regular door. Besides beepers, cell phones and minute cards, they also sell blunts and tasty puffs, hot cheetos and other healthy snacks.

The sidewalk in front of this store is the current hang-out for creeps who want to act tough, smoke dope in public and block the sidewalk. They make trying to get to Kroger's like an obstacle course. They like to keep their cigarettes hanging so you bump into them and they act like they don't see that people are trying to pass through. I have not been hassled but it does feel a bit like a gauntlet. Not sure what the solution is, but I feel the owner of the property needs to take some responsibility for his customers and the type of business he runs.

According to the auditor, the owner is: Negest Mekonnen, 44 Woodstock Drive, Fairfield, OH 45014. He bought the building in 1999 for $23,000. There is a 30 year TIF abatement starting 2003 (for what improvements?).
[where: 1412 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202]

Uncivil behavior

Last night, I unfortunately witnessed a young punk with a temper hit his girlfriend. The woman had a two or three year old with her (probaly his child), and when the police arrived, she just walked away, and when pressed, said there was not problem. He was let go.

Almost as bad as the physical violence, was the verbal abuse slung at each other. While his punk friends stood around, this idiot fake-punched her several times, and called her all kinds of names, most which I can't understand.

Although I have lived surrounded by this culture for many years, I will never completly understand what is going on. I have heard that in 1965, Daniel Patrick Moynihan authored a report that said a crisis was brewing because of the breakdown of the black family in the late 50's and early 60's. Unfortunately things got much worse over the next decades. Seems like there has been some improvement from the 80's, but those left here in the bottom, wouldn't know it.