Better Get to Pigall's

Readers of the Cincinnati Enquirer probably read this story that reports Pigall's is closing at the end of February. I was surprised to read that story given that the restaurant just received a 4-star rating in the Mobil travel guide.

Hopefully Jean-Robert will open another spot that will be top notch.

In the process of looking around for that news, I discovered the wine me, dine me blog. It's obviously a blog about places to eat -- but it covers the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area. It is always good to get an opinion about a restaurant. Stop over there to browse the reviews before heading out to eat.

Windstorm in Cincinnati

Things have been crazy in the Cincinnati area since last Sunday. On Sunday afternoon the remains of hurricane Ike passed through the area. We didn't get any rain, but the wind was some of the worst I've ever seen. The paper reported consistent gusts in the upper 50 mph range with peak gusts in the upper 70 mph range. Trees were down all around the area and lots of shingles were blown off buildings. Over 600,000 customers were without power. Gas stations couldn't pump gas, traffic lights weren't operating (and people apparently don't know the intersection becomes a 4 way stop) -- it was nuts.

We were pretty fortunate. We only lost our power for about 18 hours. Several of my friends at work still don't have power today. We just got our cable TV and Internet access back today, so this is the first chance I've had to post some photos of the damage in our neighborhood.

After the storm passed we went for a quick walk around the neighborhood. Just a few buildings away a tree fell and damaged a second story deck and broke the glass on a sliding glass door. One of our neighbors got out his chainsaw and started the cleanup. Click here to see a larger version.



A couple blocks away a large tree fell across the road and took out a lot of electric and telephone wires in the process. Click here to see a larger version.



Finally, this tree trunk snapped at the base and when the tree fell it just missed the corner of a house by about 6 feet. It took out quite a few wires too. Dianne is there for scale. Click here to see a larger version.



Hopefully crews will get power restored to the rest of the customers within the next couple days.

Photos From Eden Park

A couple weeks ago while Dianne was at a Sunday morning practice, I went down to Eden Park in Cincinnati (technically Mount Adams, I think) to look around. It was hot and humid that morning, but there wasn't too much wind so I was hoping to get some nice macro photos.

The park is where the Krohn Conservatory is located. Although it was very dry here in August I was hoping there would be something in bloom. There was a nice large plant (a Standard Lantana) loaded with yellow flowers just outside the entrance to the conservatory. Click here to see a larger version on black. I love the fisheye lens!

Rather than go inside the conservatory, I decided to try and take some photos of the water tower in Eden park. It is a 174 feet tall brick structure that was completed in 1894. The challenge I came up with was to get some photos of the tower that excluded other towers or buildings from the background. I was limited in angles that were well lit because of the relatively low angle of the sun.

The first photo I took was from a bit of a distance as I hiked up the hill. I adjusted the exposure to lighten the shadow under the tree in the foreground. Unfortunately, that also washed out the color of the bricks (compare it to the other photos below). I used the trees to both frame the tower and mask a building on the right side. You can see how brown the grass is from our lack of rain. Click here to see a larger version on black.

The second shot is taken a little closer to the tower. By moving up the hill and closer, I got the interfering building out of the frame. I also didn't worry about the detail in the dark shadow at the bottom of the photo, and this helps give a richer look to the colors.

To avoid getting some type of transmitting tower in the photo at the left side, I cropped the image so the tower is off center in the frame. In the original photo, the tower is centered in the frame so the vertical lines on the tower are straight when using the fisheye lens. However, this off center crop gives an uneven distortion to the trees on the left and right sides of the frame. This isn't too evident with trees, but still this isn't my favorite photo. Click here to see a larger version on black.

The last water tower photo is my favorite. This is taken near the base, just across the road that circles the base of the tower. Compared to the other photos above, this view is looking more at the left side of the water tower. Instead of having the sun at my back as in the photos above, the sun is now at the right rear, so you can start to see some shadows on the left side of small cylinder and on the bricks.

I like the depth that the shadows create. I also like the framing from the trees. Like the two photos above, I centered the tower in the lens to minimize distortion of the vertical lines on the tower. But with this photo I cropped it evenly left to right. I think having the distortion balanced results in a better effect. Quite an impressive structure. Here is a larger version on black.

After getting my fill of water tower photos, I walked across the bridge that starts near the base of the tower and goes over the top of Eden Park Drive toward the Ohio river. I had never been on that road before. It takes you to a wonderful overlook of the Ohio river, just upstream from Cincinnati. There were just a couple people there enjoying the view of the Sunday morning boaters on the river. All in all a nice visit to Eden Park.

Crosstown Knockout

I’m not a basketball fan. In all our years in Cincinnati, we’ve never been to a Crosstown Shootout event where the local basketball teams from Xavier and the University of Cincinnati compete. On the other hand, a Crosstown Knockout can’t be missed. Dianne and I went to the Black-n-Bluegrass Rollergirls’ Crosstown Knockout bout where they hosted the Silent Lambs team of the Cincinnati Rollergirls. The event was held at Sportsville in Florence.

The BBRG team, the Moonshiners, came out strong and controlled the first few jams to hold the Silent Lambs scoreless and jump out to an early lead. It was pretty obvious from those early jams that the BBRG jammers Morgue Ann le Slayer and Petal to The Metal (in photo at right) were speedy skaters with good ability to find holes, slip through the pack, and get lead jammer status. They made the Lambs’ blockers work especially hard all evening – both when jamming and blocking. Perhaps it was early bout jitters or maybe it was getting used to the basketball court surface, but the Silent Lambs settled in after those first few jams, chipped away at the early Moonshiner lead, and ended up +18 by the end of the first period. Early on the usual Lamb jammers Dr. McDerby, Miss Print, and Cherry Choke were scoring, but several skaters including Maim E. Van Gore’n, Shirley Temptya, and Bex Pistol wore the jammer star during the match.

As Miss Print discussed in her pre-bout post, there are several former CRG skaters now with the BBRG. Undoubtedly that added a little tension to the match, but in general it seemed everyone skated with good faith intentions for fair blocks. Nevertheless, there were some friendly jabs being tossed about that added to the crosstown rivalry. The Moonshiners had a poster above their bench that said “Sheep – it’s what’s for dinner.” Pretty funny. Quite a few of the CRG’s Black Sheep were sitting in the suicide seats, cheering on their CRG teammates with specially made posters. The photo at the right shows CandyKICKass holding a couple of them during a break.

In the second period, the scoring was fairly even and at the end of the period the Silent Lambs were ahead by approximately the same margin as at the end of the first period. I’ll guess that the relatively slick surface and some fearless blocking both contributed to a lot of falls during the bout. The photo at the right shows Miss Print falling on her knees after a block. BBRG blocker Buckhead Betty was tough and gave some hard blocks, although she did receive her fair share of penalties associated with that effort.

In the third period, the Silent Lambs once again picked up the scoring pace to widen their lead. I wasn’t tracking penalties, but it seemed like the BBRG team had a few more and a couple that involved their jammer and that hurt them. The whole Lamb team was contributing to blocking and seemed especially focused on controlling the inside line at the front of the pack. The Silent Lambs ended up winning the bout by a score of 92 to 66. Congratulations to all the Silent Lambs.

After the bout I had a chance to meet Geez Louise, who made several hard hits during the match to open up holes and slow the BBRG jammers. Dianne got this photo of me with Geez Louise. You can see all my photos from the event in this Flickr set. Below you'll see one of the better photos I got when Miss Print fell on her knees after taking a hit.

This was the first time for us at a BBRG event. We enjoyed the air conditioned Sportsville arena and the lighting was fantastic for a derby event! I can’t wait to see Jason and Jeff’s photos from the bout. With all those extra photons to work with, I’m sure they’ll have some especially interesting photos. As BBRG grows their league, I’m sure they’ll start drawing larger crowds and will refine their logistics to put on better and better events. They have some talented skaters and a lot of potential that will lead to some interesting Crosstown Knockouts in the future. They have one more home event on September 20th, so check them out.

I believe this was the last of the regular season bouts for the CRG teams. However, they do have some tournament battles coming up. Good luck to the Black Sheep in that effort. Check their site, Miss Print’s blog, and the Flock message board for more info on the post-season and off-season activities.

Hell on Wheels and CRG's Southern Discomfort

It was a roller derby weekend for us. On Friday night Dianne and I went to see the documentary “Hell on Wheels” at the Know Theatre in Cincinnati. The film chronicles the revival of roller derby in Texas at the start of the century. There was some footage of derby bouts, but most of the film was spent following the skaters and covering the league politics that happened behind the scenes. It was interesting how the model of skater owned leagues evolved from the initial model where a few people tried to control decisions. Since the teams use a pay-to-play approach, control of a league by a small group reminded me of the taxation without representation issue. And yes, there was a revolution that led to skater owned leagues emerging all over the country and world today. If you’re interested in roller derby, you’ll enjoy the film.

Saturday night Dianne and I went to the Cincinnati Rollergirls’ “Southern Discomfort” event at the Cincinnati Gardens. It was a steamy night in the Gardens that was made even hotter by a nail biting bout between the Black Sheep and the Carolina Rollergirls (who were ranked #3) that Cincinnati won with a score of 74 to 69! Congratulations to the Black Sheep for the big win!

Before the skating started, several people including CRG skaters Panterrorize and The Librarian got their hair cut for a hair donation to Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths program. The hair donations are used to make wigs for women who have lost their hair due to cancer treatments. The first picture on the right shows Panterrorize with her girls who were getting their hair measured and tied up to the proper length for the donation. The next photo shows The Librarian holding her freshly cut hair. It was nice so many folks made the donations.

The CRG Silent Lambs apparently couldn’t find another team that was willing or available to skate against them, so they split into two small squads (the Demon Barbers and the Beauty School Dropouts) that played off the hair donation theme. It was a short scrimmage, but it looked like some of the skaters were making good use of the opportunity to get out some aggression and make some hits on their teammates. The photo at right shows Skates With Fists ahead of Maim E. Van Gore’n (was she visiting or has she transferred?) during a jam. The photo below shows Bex Pistol giving a block to Skates With Fists. Don't you love the bloody barber aprons on Skates and Miss Print?



The main event of the evening was the bout between the CRG Black Sheep and the highly ranked Carolina Rollergirls. I have to say going in I thought this was going to be another interesting, but painful bout to watch since Carolina was ranked #3 – similar to the match between Cincinnati and Philly earlier this year. But after the first few jams, Cincinnati held the lead and looked very strong. They were shutting down the Carolina jammers in the early jams. Even when Carolina started to score, Cincinnati’s speedy skating, coordinated blocking, and strategic stopping of jams gave them a few point advantage on each jam. At the half, Cincinnati was ahead with a score of 47 to 24! In my post from the Philly bout, I mentioned the contrast between the CRG blockers that seemed to focus on defense and the Philly blockers that had the ability to shift from defensive blocking to helping their jammer. Cincinnati must have learned and practiced that blocking coordination because they were using that tactic effectively to keep ahead of Carolina. Special kudos to tail blockers Panterrorize (more aerodynamic after her hair cut) and Ruff’n the Passer who were shifting from defense to escort duty to aid their jammers through the pack. The photo at right illustrates that effort as Panterrorize pushes CandyKICKass to give her a boost of speed to get through the Carolina blockers. When the tail blockers moved up that must have been a clue to the other blockers to help the jammer if not tied up with holding back the Carolina jammer. The coordination was really fun to watch. Combine that with some tough CRG pivots in front and Carolina had their work cut out for them. The tough blocking went both ways though and everyone in the pack got a workout in that heat.

After a male flat track derby demo at the half, Cincinnati got off to a rough start in the second half. There were a string of penalties, including some track cuts by the jammers, that really slowed Cincinnati down. It’s hard to shift blocking from offense to defense when you’re not at full strength. Jammers in the box obviously slow you down and as a result it was anyone’s game with about 8 minutes to go. Sadie got a major penalty for back blocking or hands/forearms in the third to last jam that sent her to the box. It was across the track from me, but it appeared she was pushed into hitting someone from behind. In any case, that gave Carolina the chance to get within a couple points. However, Sadie came out of the box and in the next to last jam got lead jammer status, scored some points to seal the victory, and called off the jam before Carolina could score. The entire crowd was standing and cheering during that jam. The last jam was academic just to run out the clock. Congratulations to the CRG Black Sheep on the big win!



What an amazing finish to the last home bout of the season! After the match I had the chance to meet blocker Mae C. Stars and Dianne took a photo of us. I didn’t take too many photos because I was caught up in the excitement of the match. You can see some other photos in my Flickr pool here. Although their home events are done, there is another CRG match locally when they take on the Black-n-Bluegrass Rollergirls at Sportsville in Florence, Kentucky. It may be interesting to see CRG skaters take on some of their former teammates that are very familiar with their style. Stay tuned to Miss Print’s blog and the CRG Flock page for additional events. Thanks to the CRG group for another exciting year in the Gardens and congratulations on the Carolina victory!

Capture Cincinnati Photo Contest

I'm not too proud to beg.

CiN Weekly is once again running the Capture Cincinnati photo contest. Just like last year's contest, the end product of the contest is a book that will include a DVD with it. The book will have the top photos from each chapter/topic (people, nature, everyday life, sports, etc.) based on votes, comments, and hearts that indicate people who "loved" your photo. You're guaranteed at least one photo on the DVD (last year I had several), but not necessarily something in the book.

That's where you come in. I have entered many of the photos you've seen here on my blog in the contest and I'd appreciate your votes, comments, and hearts to move some photos up the ranking. You must register on the site to vote, but it doesn't take long. Then click through to my photos and vote for any that catch your eye.

Right now my top vote getter is the Chilo globe shaped panorama I described here. It's a nice, unique photo but I'm a bit surprised that's my top photo so far without any promotion. The next in line is the night photo taken after our blizzard earlier this year.

You can click on either of the photos below to take you to the voting or click on any photo in the sidebar to the right. Thanks for any votes and comments! If you have photos taken around the greater Cincinnati area, upload your own photos and leave a comment to let me know what your name is.

Visit to Findlay

I have a backlog of items to blog about. A few weeks ago on Father's Day, Dianne and I visited Findlay Market near downtown Cincinnati. It was almost a year to the day that we had last been there.

We had some delicious panini sandwiches for lunch at Angelina Fine Italian Food and then walked around to check out the vendors. We bought some Swedish and some hot Italian sausages from Kroeger & Sons Meats (they have a huge selection of great sausages) and some produce from the outdoor vendors. There weren't a lot of people there, so it was easy to get around. The guitar player at the right was singing a blues tune about fathers. The shot below is the restored store fronts bordering the Market House. The window boxes are very pretty.

A Double Win for the Cincinnati Rollergirls!

On Saturday night we went to the Cincinnati Rollergirls’ Summer of Shove event at the Cincinnati Gardens. The event was a double header with CRG hosting teams from the Harrisburg Area Roller Derby group. CRG’s Silent Lambs took on the H.A.R.D. Fallout Femmes and CRG’s Black Sheep battled the H.A.R.D. Nuclear Knockouts. Both of the CRG teams won their bouts – the first time that happened at home this year. Congratulations to all the Cincinnati Rollergirls!

It was an extra special night as we had a large group friends from work and their families who joined us for the match. Stephanie labeled the group the Bleating Beau Beeps and made shirts for many of the folks in the group. The photo above shows her with family in the suicide seats. It seemed everyone had a great time thanks to all the friendly volunteers, staff, and skaters. Our folks in the suicide seats were cheering hard for all the Sheep and Lambs and just a couple seats down, Sadistic Sadie had some added cheers (see the photo).

In the first bout between the Silent Lambs and the Fallout Femmes, Cincinnati controlled the match from the start. As in past bouts, Dr. McDerby did an excellent job as a jammer. I wasn’t keeping any stats, but I’d guess she led scoring for the Lambs. The photo at the right shows her sprinting to catch up and pass the pack again.

Miss Print also had a great night scoring and I think had a couple grand slams. She kept up her momentum in the pack and had some good help from the CRG blockers to open up some holes. I really like the photo below that shows Miss Print passing the pack. Other jammers included Cherry Choke, Shirley Temptya, and Rocky Balrolla. All the CRG blockers were doing well at coordinating their efforts to stop the Femmes and aid the CRG jammers. All the Lambs have to be excited about their win! The Lambs won handily with a score of 143 to 56.



In the second bout between the Black Sheep and the Nuclear Knockouts, the pack was skating fairly fast and both teams were pretty physical. The blockers were really working hard on both teams. There were quite a few skaters that took some hard falls and I’m sure there are a lot of sore shoulders today. All the blockers and pivots were contributing to stopping the Knockout jammers – and were pretty effective at doing that. The Knockouts were no pushovers though and they hung in there until the end. I thought one of the best Knockout skaters was Rainbow’s Revenge – both on offense and defense. She didn’t back down from anyone.

Cincinnati held the lead the entire match. Sadistic Sadie was on fire as usual and probably led the scoring. The photo at right shows her keeping an eye on Knockout skater Mother Trucker (I think) while Polisa watches. CandyKICKass also had a good evening with her speed being a lot for the Knockouts to handle. One of my favorite photos of the night is the one below showing Sk8r Kinney giving a hard block so candyKICKass can get around the outside of the pack to score while Fireman Bill keeps a watch on the pack. Hannah Barbaric, Ruff’n the Passer, and Jungle Lacy also jammed for CRG. The Black Sheep won the match with a score of 115 to 69. There was a bench clearing brawl near the end of the match – a surprise and something we haven’t seen for quite a while. One of the Knockouts ended up being ejected from the match.



After the match Dianne got a photo of me with Shirley Temptya, one of the Silent Lamb skaters. Earlier in the evening I got to meet her parents and in-laws that were there to cheer her on. We also talked briefly with Miss Print and her parents, who were visiting from out of town. They picked a great night to see their daughter in action. Jeff Sevier, one of the photographers, came up and introduced himself. Jeff took a nice shot of Dianne and me talking with Morgan Donor after the last home bout. He and Jason take some great derby photos that they post in their Flickr photo streams. Finally, although I have a funny look on my face, Dianne got a photo of me with June with a Cleaver (center) and Killian Destroy (right) who are two of the blockers on the Black Sheep team. Thanks to all the skaters for taking time to chat.

I have a few more photos in my photo pool in Flickr. There is one more scheduled home bout on Saturday, July 19th when the CRG Black Sheep take on one of the top ranked teams in the country, the Carolina All-Stars (now ranked #5 on Flat Track Stats). It’ll be an exciting match and a tough bout for the Black Sheep. Be there to cheer them on at the Gardens. The night before the bout, at the Know Theatre, I just read there will be a showing of “Hell on Wheels,” a roller derby documentary. I'm sure there will be lots of CRG skaters there for the film even though they live the experience.

More Cicadas

I posted about seeing cicadas around here a couple weeks ago when walking to our local Memorial Day parade. This past weekend they have come out in full force near our house and the noise is deafening during the day! When Dianne came in the house a couple days ago, she said she couldn't hear the beep sound signaling the locking of her car doors.

The cicadas are covering the trees and flying around all over the place looking for a partner and laying eggs. The photo to the right shows them in the shade of a tree outside our place. Here is another shot near our neighbor's door.

If you don't have cicadas in your area and you're not familiar with them, you can read more about cicadas here. I found this page with some recordings of cicada sounds. It's hard to appreciate what a chorus of hundreds of them sound like. I think Dianne pegged it when she said it sounds like the Martian noise in the original War of The Worlds film. I found this segment from the film on YouTube. Listen to the sound about 2:30 in to the clip. I'm sure that was their inspiration.

I tried taking some macros of the critters. They are about an inch long, so it's hard to get all of them in focus in an interesting way. The shot below was the best of my close-ups. This one was taking a break from climbing up the tree trunk and just hanging out in the sun.

CRG's Welcome To Our Jungle

On Saturday night, Dianne and I were joined by Carla, Bob, Sue, and Stephanie at the Cincinnati Rollergirls’ event called Welcome To Our Jungle. The doubleheader event pitted the CRG Silent Lambs against the North Star Rollergirls from Minneapolis and the CRG Black Sheep against the Steel City Derby Demons from Pittsburgh. It’ll make Brenda’s day to hear the North Star team beat the Silent Lambs with a score of 109 to 31 (the Minnesota gals must have heard you cheering). In the WFTDA rating bout, the Black Sheep beat Steel City with a score of 130 to 98.

The North Star Rollergirls have a solid team all around. Their blocking was fairly well organized and very tough. The North Stars also had some good jammers. The toughness of the North Stars looked like it made skating in the pack a lot of work! But the Lambs weren’t shy and I thought all the blockers were working hard the entire match. There were a lot of folks trying their hand at jamming. It seemed like the Lambs were swapping folks to find a magic set to get some big points. Dr. McDerby, Miss Print, Jewel B. Hurt, Cherry Choke, Shirley Temptya, and Rocky Balrolla all wore the star at least once. It’s good experience, but I can’t help but think that made it hard for blockers to coordinate and anticipate how to help a particular jammer. I would guess having a couple folks absent (like Jungle Lacy and The Librarian) and a couple moved to the Black Sheep (like Sk8 Crime and candyKICKass) must have affected the team dynamic too. Nevertheless, the whole team worked their tails off until the end. Although it was a tough loss, they all should be proud of their effort. The photo below shows Dr. McDerby and Rocky Balrolla (right in black) look to stop the North Star jammer (in green with star) while just behind her a North Star blocker puts a hit on CRG jammer Cherry Choke.



In the other match, the CRG Black Sheep had a bit of a rocky start against the Derby Demons. I expected the Black Sheep to take an early lead and never look back. It was close for a while, but CRG did finally pull away – especially in the second half. Early on it seemed there were quite a few CRG folks in the penalty box which seemed to hurt some. As usual, the CRG blockers were tough and they seemed better coordinated last night. Most all of the usual suspects were giving some hard hits (I was surprised not to see pivot Kinney) to keep Steel City bottled up. That was a tough job against Steel City jammers like ‘snot Rocket Science (in the photo at right about to be hit by Panterrorize) who is a solid, determined skater! The usual CRG jammers Sadistic Sadie, Roseanne Scarr, and Hannah Barbaric were joined by candyKICKass. It seemed like an additional jammer in the rotation let them get enough rest and still rotate in the pack regularly to help with blocking. Sadie was giving some hard hits like the Bekkie sandwich she made with Mae C. Stars on the inside (see the photo below). The Steel City team had some good blockers too which required CRG teamwork to make holes for the jammers. I thought Steel City’s lead blocker was Athena. She was dishing out some hard hits and just slowing down the CRG jammers in general. Congrats to the Black Sheep on a solid win.



There was a pause in the Black Sheep / Derby demon bout when June with a Cleaver took a hard fall and did a face plant on the concrete. It looked like she split open her chin. She did skate one jam after that with a bandaged chin, but she was bleeding. I certainly hope she feels better soon.

Aside from being kinda hot in the Gardens, I thought it was a good event as usual. I didn’t hear a crowd count, but it didn’t seem like there were as many as the first home bout. What’s up with that? There was a lot to cheer about and the place came alive several times. At half time the Cincinnati Zoo brought out an eagle and some zoo characters for the kids and it was nice to hear some live music at the event.

We had the chance to meet and chat with several of the CRG folks for the first time. First, thanks to Cam for the hospitality and taking time to say hi in between running around for his event duties. It was nice to meet and say hi to Pale Rider before the bout. I hate to disturb him while he's preparing for a match so it was nice of him to stop and say hello. After the matches, Dianne got a photo of me with Silent Lamb skaters Trauma Tease (at left) and Skates with Fists (at right). It was my first time meeting both of them. They were both blocking hard in the Lamb’s bout. I also met Fists’ husband, Brian – always good to meet a fellow derby blogger. Finally, Dianne got a photo of me when we met Morgon Donor (below).

You can see more photos with captions from the event in my Flickr sets for the Silent Lamb match and the Black Sheep match. I decided to kick up the film speed and go flashless, so there is a little grain. A different look, but nice.

The next home bout is on June 28th when the Cincinnati Rollergirls have another doubleheader with two teams from Harrisburg, PA at the Gardens. Be there to cheer on both CRG teams!

It's a Roller Derby Weekend+

This Saturday night the Cincinnati Rollergirls have another double header scheduled at the Cincinnati Gardens. The CRG Silent Lambs will battle the North Star Rollergirls from Minneapolis. You can see the North Star travel team here. I know all you Minnesota readers will be pulling for the North Star team, but we'll see if they are in one piece after challenging the Lambs. In the other WFTDA bout, the CRG Black Sheep will take on the Steel City Derby Demons from Pittsburgh. You can see the Pittsburgh travel team here. According to the rankings on Flat Track Stats, the Black Sheep should have a good night. Be there to cheer all the CRG folks on.

On Thursday evening, the Cincinnati Rollergirls will be in the Milford Frontier Days Parade. This is also their pep rally for the bout on Saturday. For more info on the parade route, check out the Frontier Days site here.

Also, on Friday evening, the Rollergirls will be at the C&D Cafe in Northside from 7-9:30. That was posted on the CRG Flock message board. I'm sure you're all registered there and visit regularly, so this is probably old news.

Out and About on Sunday

Yesterday Dianne and I went to Lunken airport to see the Liberty Belle, a B-17 Flying Fortress. You can read the specifics about the plane here. It's always a thrill to see a beautifully restored warbird in use. I saw it fly over our place on Saturday. I heard it coming -- a very unusual engine sound. I knew the plane was in town this weekend so I popped my head out the window and saw it flying back down to Lunken.

I didn't take a ride. The $430 price for a 20-30 minute ride was too steep for me. It was just great to watch it in action. There was quite a crowd as you see in the photo to the right showing the Belle taxiing for takeoff. The photo below shows the Belle on the ramp near the old terminal, exchanging passengers for the next flight. If you look closely, you'll see the left two props spinning as they wait to load.



After visiting Lunken, we drove to Devou park in Covington, Kentucky. The park is just across the Ohio river from Cincinnati and there is a pavilion at the top with an overlook that gives a wonderful view of the Ohio river and downtown Cincinnati. The photo below shows us at the overlook with downtown Cincinnati to the left. A nice park to catch the view.

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend was pretty quiet for us. We stayed close to home.

Saturday was a beautiful day here. We ran a couple errands and made a visit to the lake part of the Sharon Woods park in the greater Cincinnati area. I wanted to get out and do a little walking. We didn't walk around the whole lake, but my leg is feeling much better and I'm better able to keep pace with Dianne -- compared to my shuffling of last week. This photo, from the top of the boat rental building, shows some people renting paddle boats. The place was packed and there were quite a few boats coming and going. Several folks were fishing and we saw a few catch some sunfish. The water seemed a bit muddy from the rain we had.

Today we went to downtown Blue Ash to watch the Memorial Day parade. It's kind of sad we've been here well over a decade and this is the first time we went to the parade. There were the typical (for me) color guards, bands, National Guard vehicles, etc. A couple F-16s flew over (the speaker for the service at the veteran's memorial was from Wright Patterson AFB) and three of the Cincinnati Warbirds did a fly-by as well. Being an election year, there were LOTS of political candidate groups in the parade. All of them were tossing out candy for attention and the little kids were like vacuum cleaners sucking up the morsels. I don't remember the candy thing going on in Memorial Day parades when I was growing up.

The photo at the right shows the American Legion color guard that led the parade. The first shot below are members of the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office Pipe & Drum corps. The second shot is a Shriner clown car. The car was carefully balanced over the rear axle. It could drive down the street normally, but a slight shift in weight would make the front wheels come up. The car could spin around on the back wheels and the casters below the rumble seat. This is when they were spinning around and waving to the crowd. One of the clowns was riding a bike where the hubs of the wheels were off center. He was bobbing and rocking as he was riding along. That brought back memories of a similar bike my dad made. Too funny.

Cincinnati Rollergirls -- In The Garden of Beatin'

On Saturday evening, Dianne and I went to the Cincinnati Rollergirls’ event called "In The Garden of Beatin’" at the Cincinnati Gardens. It was a double header event with the CRG team Silent Lambs taking on the Moonshiner team of the Black-n-Bluegrass Rollergirls and the CRG team Black Sheep taking on the Liberty Belles of the Philly Rollergirls. The Silent Lambs won by a score of 77 to 36 and in the WFTDA event the Black Sheep lost to the highly ranked Liberty Belles with a score of 35 to 102.

In the Lamb & Moonshiner bout, I thought the CRG team showed a lot of improvement compared to their first match about a month ago. They seemed to be working together a lot more. Once again, candyKICKass (at right) was zipping around and doing a lot of scoring. Jammers Dr. McDerby and Jungle Lacy did a lot of work and Skates with Fists got to jam as well. The pack was doing a good job too. I have to say I miss seeing Sk8 Crime wearing the jammer star, but she’s becoming quite the pivot! I think GeezLouise won the hardest hit award when she gave a solid shoulder block to a Moonshiner and sent her into the suicide seats. Apparently Louise has been to the Juwana Hurt school of blocking. My favorite photo of the night is the shot below showing Ima Payne pulling Dr. McDerby with a great whip (thanks for doing that right in front of us). You can clearly see her braced and pulling through her shoulder.



The other bout between the Black Sheep and the Liberty Belles was both hard to watch and amazing to see. The Belles had control from the start and it was tough to watch the Belle jammers getting through the pack and scoring while the CRG jammers were getting tied up. I wasn’t keeping notes, but there were at least of few of the early jams where the Black Sheep were scoreless. It took me a while to appreciate what the Liberty Belles were doing to hold the Black Sheep. I thought the Belles’ main strengths were coordination and teamwork in the pack. If their jammer was being held up, a couple skaters shifted position (sped up or slowed down) to throw some blocks, make a hole, and help them get the jammer through. The amazing thing was not all the Belle pack shifted, so there were still blockers to hold back CRG’s jammer. I couldn’t tell how they were communicating and maybe there wasn’t much – just the experience coming through. That ability to dynamically and quickly assess the situation, shift position, and work together was amazing and really fun to watch. The photo below illustrates the Liberty Belles positioned and looking to slow CRG jammer Hannah Barbaric (in black with the jammer star) while one blocker is available to help their jammer around the wall of pivot Sk8r-Kinney (at the right).



The Liberty Belle skaters were all solid and good at blocking, but I was particularly impressed with Nina Knockout and the smaller skater Annie Christ. Technique can prevail over size as many small skaters show. Cincinnati did adjust during the break and came out in the second half looking much stronger. They had some good jams in the second half that excited the crowd. There were a couple times when the pack consciously slowed to create a 20 foot gap between them and a couple blockers holding back the CRG jammer. That forced the Belles to let them by. That sort of adjustment and smart skating just wasn’t consistent enough to bring them back into the match. While it’s sad to see Cincinnati go down, I know they’ll use this experience to improve themselves in future bouts. They have talent and just need to develop that extra telepathic communication to adjust like the Belles.

The halftime entertainment was a group from the Powel Crosley YMCA doing a Double Dutch jump rope demo. They were really good! That was a great choice for entertainment. In the shot below, one girl helped the other flip inside the ropes.



There were a couple noticeable changes in the event logistics that I really liked. First, I noticed they centered the track underneath the overhead scoreboard. I think that helped a bit with the light and also opened up a lot more seats to even views of the track. I know that was at the price of the large warm-up area, but I liked it. Also we all heard Professor Murder explain some of the calls via a wireless microphone. Of course I’m biased, but I loved it. There were a couple times where he explained what was going on – once was explaining there is a limit of two skaters in the penalty box, but the refs will send a third skater there when a penalty is within 10 seconds of finishing. Good job Professor!

After the match I was able to meet Silent Lamb skater Dr. McDerby (above) and Black Sheep skater Sista Sacrelicious (at right). Dianne very kindly took photos of me with each of them. I have quite a few additional photos in my Flickr set that you can see here. Of course they don't compare to Jason's shots that I'm sure you'll find here shortly and Jeff's photos.

The next CRG home event is on June 7th when the Silent Lambs take on the North Star Roller Girls from Minneapolis and the Black Sheep take on the lower ranked Derby Demons of the Steel City Rollergirls in Pittsburgh. Be there to cheer on all the CRG skaters!