Oxford Film Festival

I was very pleased when I heard about that the Oxford Film Festival was moving the core of the event to Cincinnati, but doing that at the last minute appears to have contributed to poor attendance as seen through the eyes of CityBeat's Steve Rosen. I hope this doesn't dampen efforts to keep the festival in Cincinnati. Many have long tried to stage film festivals in Cincinnati with limited success. What might help is one of two things: partner with another festival (say Midpoint or CincyFringe) or find a way to bring together the often splintered Cincinnati film community. You need a team to run any festival and need to divide up responsibility. One important task is marketing and outside of CityBeat, I've not heard much about this festival, with no sightings on the core social networking websites.

There is still time to hit some screenings which are running through Thursday at the Esquire. For all of the rest of festival information, check out their website: www.oxfordfilms.com.

You Could Have Told Us Beforehand....

In downtown Cincinnati, we rarely have power outages, as the lines are buried. In the aftermath of last year's windstorm, we were one of the few Cincinnati neighborhoods were power continued uninterrupted. So I shouldn't complain about a one-minute power outage.

I'm going to complain anyhow, though. It turns out the battery back-up in my alarm clock is dead. And having the power outage occur at 1:00 am was somewhat disconcerting. I woke up without the alarm clock at about 6:30 (though the alarm clock said 5:30). I thought there was way too much light for 5:30 in the morning, so got up and checked the time on my watch. Whoops. Running late.

Not a good way to start your morning.

CAAST Out The Demons

In a new blog CAAST which stands for "Citizens Against Antiquated, Stupid Thinking," we get a little dose of sense to counter the reactionary Neo-Feudalism being preached by the COASTers.

Election Year Stunts

Normally this type of stunt is carried out by a candidate during the election year. In this instance we have a few activists, a term I use loosely here, trying to gain attention. What I find sad about their micro-jingoistic plan is that it will do nothing but hurt their neighborhood. If I am the Mayor, I slam these guys down hard. Show them who is in-charge and don't let them forget it. They are not going to vote for him anyway, so no need to use kid gloves. I would seek out some sane people in that neighborhood and snub every person who votes yes on this crazy notion.

The unfortunate and real fallout from this foolish notion will be some residents increasing their hate for minorities and the poor, and they will continue to alienate themselves from the rest of the city. When you let the fringe view points, and in this case they are based on racism and/or classism, you are going to rightfully get blowback. These 'activists' need to learn they live in Cincinnati, not Mayberry. If they want to live in a little rural town where everyone looks the same and nothing ever happens, they can move there. Happily, that place is a myth.

Provost Schools Dean

In one of the more affective uses of disdain, The Provost of The Phony Coney Blog gets all Catholic-School-Nunish on Jason Haap, with a ruler to the knuckles and more.

UPDATE: It appears this post was taken down, so the link above doesn't work. Here is the Cache version. Would the party's involved care to comment?

In Memoriam: Les Lye

No discernible Cincinnati connection here; just felt like posting.

If you're around my age, chances are you grew up watching You Can't Do That On Television. Today comes news that one of that series' few adult actors, Les Lye, has passed away at the age of 84. Lye played, among others, Barth of Barth's Burgery and the general who was always about to execute someone by firing squad (and usually ended up getting shot himself). Lye was the only actor to appear in every episode of YCDTOT.

Reading the obituary made me remember how many hours I must have spent (alright, wasted) laughing at that show, which was really built around only a few jokes and sketches. Remember how the actors were doused with water if they said "water"? Or with green slime for saying "I don't know"? I sometimes wonder how many of today's young Nickelodeon viewers realize that the network's trademark green slime had its genesis on a show in the 80's. Or that Alanis Morissette was briefly on the show (before she was a giant music star)?

We now return you to your regular Cincinnati blogging.

Hofbrauhaus Happy Hour

Many thanks to Liz and the gang at Cincinnati Imports for putting together another great event. Last night featured a gathering at Hofbrauhaus over in Newport.

The paparazzi were present, so you can see who was there. (See pictures 14 and 19 for shots of the two dorkiest drunkest studliest bloggers in attendance.)