Buying chocolate, flowers, or those little message heart candies are fine if there's no time to plan ahead for Valentine's Day, but consider some other options. If you use your senses to lead the way, you might come up with some interesting ways to celebrate love. Or a deep like. Or an "I kind of like you." Here are some starting places:
Sense of smell- With Ohio's botanical gardens' conservatories creating a haven against the freshly arrived winter's chill, head to one of them. Breathe in the fragrances of the jungles, orchid gardens and mountainous regions of the world. So, what if you can't go to a tropical island with your honey this year? At Krohn Conservatory, Franklin Park Conservatory, and Cleveland Botanical Garden you can pretend.
If eating is a way to your loved one's heart, head to a cooking school where you can spend time together--plus taste your efforts. Dorothy Lane Market Cooking School in Dayton has wonderful options. Many restaurants, like Handkes in Columbus also have classes. Here is a Shaw Guides website with links to several of them.
For the soothing sense of touch, get a couple's massage. The Marengo Institute, a mind body spa that originated in California but now has Cleveland and Columbus locations, has a Couples Delight Package.
Another option for the sense of sight is an art museum. Here is the botanical garden and art museums page of Ohio Travelers.com to find one you may not have thought of before.
When my friend Charlene Fix, poet and author of Flowering Bruno, a book I have blogged about in the past, told me about a certain poet in her writing group, my interest was piqued. Jacquelin Smith communicates with animals. She's been doing it for years.
The communication is not the Dr. Doolittle variety, but a matter of honing into the things animals tell her through telepathy. Jacquelin's had tremendous success and gets referrals from people who also are tuned into animals. She has helped people locate missing animals, for example, and has helped people figure out what's up with the animals they live with. Often, it's not the animal at fault but the people. Some animal types and people types are not the best fit. A person who loves sitting on the couch doesn't need to a dog who needs a good run for exercise. A good deal of Jacquelin's work involves helping people deal with deciding when to put an animal to sleep and the feelings of grief this brings up.
For those interested in being more in tune with animals, Jacquelin's book, Animal Communication: Our Sacred Connection is part how-to and part anecdotal. Those who want to figure out just what's up with the dog who won't stop chewing, or the cat who won't use a liter box, or the household animals that just won't get along with each other, can contact Jacquelin for help. Besides information about work, her book and her workshops, Jacquelin's website has testimonials from people, some who I have talked with myself.
Bono, lead singer for U2 and advocate for improved conditions in the underdeveloped parts of the world, especially Africa, has partnered with students at Miami of Ohio to market African-made cotton t-shirts.
Students in Miami's Center for Social Entrepreneurship buy the edun Live brand T's for about $4 per, screen print messages and art on them, and sell them to other campus and off-campus groups for around $10. Among the messages they've come up with so far is "I know who made my shirt: do you?" Proceeds for the shirts will be used to further the Center's mission by bringing in speakers and perhaps sending students to Africa.
edun Live hopes to expand the program to many other campuses. Bono started the company in order to provide jobs and trade to developing countries, promoting the idea of 'trade, not aid'.
I have found no explanation why the company name spelled backwards is 'Evil nude'.
When you see Fountain Square, in Cincinnati, you'd never guess it was once the site of a market for butchers. It was, though. That was before 1871. In that year, Henry Probasco was looking for a way to present the city with a memorial to his brother-in-law, Tyler Davidson. His solution was Fountain Square.
Probasco wasn't the sort of person who just pays the bills. He actively participated in selecting William Tinsley to design the square. He even traveled to the Royal Bavarian Foundry, in Munich, to commission the square's centerpiece, a massive bronze fountain. At the foundry he met Ferdinand von Miller and August von Kreling. The pair had collaborated on a design for a fountain called "The Genius of Water". The work was to be forty-three feet tall. The base would have reliefs of the many uses for water, surmounted by allegorical figures. The whole thing was to be topped with a nine-foot tall figure of a woman, the genius of water, with water pouring from her outstretched hands. We're talking nineteenth-century public sculpture at it's most characteristic. Probasco loved it, but he had a condition. Remember, he was a hands-on sort of patron of the arts. He insisted on the addition of figures of animals, one on each side, to be used as drinking fountains. The artists, lacking another client, acquiesced.
That's how Cincinnati lost it's butchers' market and gained one of its favorite landmarks, the Tyler Davidson Fountain. Since then, it's been moved around a bit and the square completely redesigned a couple times, but forty-three feet of bronze and granite exuberance remain as a memorial to Tyler Davidson and a symbol of Cincinnati.
Paul Laurence Dunbar, born to ex-slaves in 1872 in Dayton, Ohio was a contemporary of Orville Wright and a prolific poet who was the first African American poet to reach national recognition. Here is a wonderful video essay of Dunbar's poem, "The Old Apple Tree." The narrator has a lovely deep voice and takes the view on a walk through the woods and countryside while reciting the poem. This is an edited video--the kind you want to share with people.
My friend, Ann has mentioned to me several times, "Let's go to a karaoke bar," and then talks about the fun we had several years ago when we did hit one. My husband belted out a fine rendition of "Danny Boy" that night. Me? I'm partial to "Proud Mary." I seem to manage to stay on tune with that song, sort of. Once, years ago, my husband pretended it was my birthday and got the people in the karaoke bar that we happened upon, to sing to me. My birthday was months away. I gamely smiled while I watched the ball bounce across the words.
Now, my friend is in a real band, Magic City. I wonder if one day someone will be singing one of her band's songs? If this happens, I wonder what the background video scenes will be? Will there be some obscure unrelated scenes like people rolling around in ocean waves?
I do hope Ann's not too busy with her band that she doesn't have time to karaoke anymore. I found a couple bars that look promising. Jilly's Saloon in Reynoldsburg, for example, has a secret song contest and Largest Little Bar In T has over 20,000 song options. I wonder if it has "Proud Mary?" If so, I'm there.
To find a karaoke bar near you, Ohiokaraoke.com has an extensive listing. Click on the map of Ohio where you live for names, addresses and details. For a clever look at karaoke bars and the people who go there, check out the documentary Karaoke Dreams by Robert Davidian. A fun clip is on You Tube.
830 sites on our planet are listed as World Heritage Sites by the U.N.'s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Ohio Historical Society believes at least two Ohio sites, the Serpent Mound and various Hopewell structures including mounds near Chillicothe, belong on that list. To that end, they have petitioned for their inclusion.
And why not? Both are remarkable examples of pre-European earthworks. The Serpent Mound is the most famous effigy mound in North America, and the Hopewell mounds are preserved in the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. Also included in the Hopewell petition is Ft. Ancient and the Newark earthworks.
If the Hopewell petition goes through, it may include the first golf course named as a World Heritage site. The Octagon Earthworks in Newark are incorporated into the links of the Moundbuilders Country Club.
These sites would join such noteworthy treasures as the Great Barrier Reef, the Imperial Palace in Beijing, the Galapagos Islands, Thebes, Chartres Cathedral, Vatican City, and the Statue of Liberty. Sites on the list enjoy the protection of an international treaty, the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, too. Among those we haven't gotten to yet are Sammy Kaye, Dean Martin, Ted Lewis, The McGuire Sisters, the Mills Brothers, The O'Jays, Screamin' Jay Hawkins...
A few years back I saw Robert Dafford painting the Portsmouth Floodwall Murals when he was almost done. I was astounded. First, I wondered what it would be like to see that long expanse of cement and know that I was responsible for putting something worthwhile there. If he ever had the jitters, his work doesn't show it. Each section is spectacular--dazzling even. A must see.
Now, I know there are other murals in Ohio, but if you only can see one, and I don't care if you live in Toledo, head to Portsmouth. This is a chance to brush up on Ohio history besides. Start on the east end and head west to go in chronological order of the history of the area from the time of the Mound Builders to one of the last panels that pays tribute to Portsmouth's motorcycle heritage. Ohio's first motorcycle club was founded here.
Portsmouth's history also includes Branch Rickey (credited to integrating baseball for signing up Jackie Robinson), Roy Rogers and the founding of Methodism. The details are all there-including a treacherous looking scene of a great flood that happened several years back.
Here is some insider information that you would miss unless some told you it was there. Dafford's wife and kids are in the mural, and so is Dafford. His wife and kids, if I remember correctly, are in the panel of a modern day scene called "The Gateway." I think it's his wife who is holding the bicycle and looking out from the mural. If you look, either in the pair of sunglasses, or the motorcycle hub in the motorcycle panel, you'll see the reflection of a man. That's Dafford; at least I think that's where he is. If you go to Portsmouth, you can get someone to give you a tour of the floodwall. Keep an eye out for the cat that's painted on a corner edge. You'd swear it's 3-D and real, but it's flat.
In case you're not going to make it to Portsmouth any time soon, here's a link to a You Tube tour of the floodwall by Cheryl Shuman, the Portsmouth native who has made it big in Hollywood as "the Optometrist to the Stars." She's been capturing the essence of Portsmouth and her relationship to it in videos. There are a couple of seconds of her getting to the murals, but once she's there her commentaries are interesting and the tour feels intimate.
Here is also a link to an article that was submitted to the Library of Congress by Governor Ted Strickland back when he was Representative of the 6th District.
Another in our series on Ohio bands. The Michael Stanley Band was a Cleveland band popular in the 1980's. It was founded by Michael Stanley Gee from Rocky River. Here's a clip of them playing one of their hits, Heartland, in 1981.
I really liked this statue that is just sitting in a random garden in the Gordon Square Cultural Arts District, in the Detroit Shoreway area. I have got to tell you, I have no idea who made it, or what it's of, but I was on my way to Gypsy Beans & Baking (because I go there. A lot), and I saw and thought it was fabulous!
While most people who head somewhere on Ohio's highways rush by the clusters of reed-like trees that dot the landscape, Rick Pratt is on the lookout for them. His livelihood depends on them. The patches look a bit like mushroom clouds in the distance. Once you know what you're looking for, you too, can know a willow patch when you see one.
Rick follows the growth of about 50 patches, mostly in the northern part of the state, to keep track of which ones have grown to what sizes. Larger ones get used for table legs. Thin ones may be made into picture frames or bent into baskets.
Along with his wife, Denise, Rick has been at this for years. While he does a lot of the grunt work, which means heading out at the crack of dawn on some days (like at 4:30ish, I know because I dragged myself out of bed for a ride-along)--and he makes most of the furniture and the accessories that are snapped up at high-end craft fairs across the United States, Denise is the main designer.
Their offerings through their company, "Around the Bend, " in Wooster, are quality fare that range from the classic to the contemporary. You can even have them make you a one-of-a-kind design. Some folks have ordered custom made corner cabinets and headboards, for example. Check out the Around the Bend website where you can see a sample of what they sell and order on-line.
Here is a link to an article about Rick and Denise that I wrote for Ohio Magazine.
Oscar season is here and I have a job to do. Last year I was one of the winners of the Columbus Dispatch's Columbus Academy of Motion Pictures Pickers (CAMPP) contest. As a winner, I promised to see all the movies nominated in the major categories. Some movies I rented; some I saw for a bargain, and the rest I saw at a matinee price. I just received an email to see if I am interested in being part of CAMPP this year. You bet! I am lining up my strategy to figure out where to see the movies I haven't seen yet in time for my deadline.
Considering one reason I was picked for this contest is that I'm a movie fiend, if it's one thing I know , it's Columbus's theaters. Here are my favorites, but not necessarily in this order. Depending on my mood, depends on where I'll head.
Studio 35 Cinema and Draft House. I recently saw "The Queen" and "The Departed" here. Great movie going because you can order beer, wine and stellar pizza from Clintonville Pizza next door. I also like this place because it's a local business and it has a certain personality that can't possibly be matched by a commercial venture.
Carriage Place Movies 12 and also, The Screens at the Continent. – What can I say? They're cheap and the quality is not any less because they are movies for a bargain. The last movie I saw at The Continent was "Flushed Away" (not an award nominee). The last movie at Carriage Place was "Pirates of the Caribbean- Dead Man's Chest."
The Drexel Grandview or Drexel East. Who cares? The movies at either are usually high caliber and interesting. The last movie at the Drexel East? "The Oh in Ohio." In Bexley? I can't remember.
The Arena Grande- A winner for its easy to get to location, great seats, easy and cheap parking and the fact it helps pull folks downtown. There is a sense of importance about the place. Last year I went to the Academy Awards night here. The Academy Awards are broadcast live on a big screen, plus there's food, raffles and a contest to see who names the most winners. Proceeds go to charity.
With so many great movies out there to see, don't stay home. Head to a silver screen. If you go to a Drexel Theatres Group theater, pick up a free Movie Lovers Pass to earn points for free goods.
Among the silos of cornbelt area south of Grand Lake St. Marys in west central Ohio rises a 5-story-high octagonal dome with gold ball and cross that gives witness to the religious fervor that burned in the breasts of the farmers as they toiled.
St. Charles Seminary was built as a seminary for priests of The Society of the Precious Blood, who also started the nearby Maria Stein Center for the nuns of the order.
The many stunning churches in this area were built by the German settlers who brought their Catholicism with them as they settled Mercer County in the 1830's. Once they settled in Mercer County, they began to long for religious guidance and education from the mother church.
By divine coincidence, Father Brunner, of the Society of the Precious Blood in Italy, was eager to leave the bosom of the church and strike out in missionary work. When the request of the settlers reached his ears, he was on his way.
The Society of the Precious Blood was a new organization at that time, founded in 1815 around the principal of charity, and for the purpose of devotion to the precious blood of Christ. Mercer County was the perfect soil for it to take root in and grow. And grow it did, at one time housing six convents, two seminaries, and many churches.
This magnificent structure was originally built in in 1878 on the site of the former Wattles Manual Labor School for Negro Boys. The name Carthagena is in fact from Carthage, in Africa.
Until it ceased being a seminary in 1969, this complex provided a place for priests, brothers and students to study, removed from the life around them. They sustained themselves by practicing carpentry, butchering, and farming. It is now a home for retired priests.
Make sure, should you visit, to view the chapel inside (through the front door and straight back). Ask first, however, at the office inside the front door to the left. It has a stunning mosaic behind the alter. If no service is taking place, take the time to approach it closely and enjoy the workmanship.
This is astonishingly good timing! I was already excited to find out that one of my favorite authors, Chris Moore, was born in Toledo, and I spent a long time trying to figure out how to talk about him, but he hadn't released a book recently. (Not only was he born in Toledo, but he grew up in Mansfield, and went to OSU!) And then I was at Costco (I can't help it, I love Costco), and I saw Chris Moore's brand new book, You Suck: A Love Story. And I said to myself, "Yes! Finally! I can talk about him!"
I have actually met Chris Moore, and he is a hilarious individual. When he came out with Fluke around two years ago, I worked at his reading, and he actually took a picture of my ankle (which was in a big ugly brace, for various reasons). He was so funny, and so sarcastic, and he had a lot of great things to say about being an author. Namely, he talked about how he went about writing a book, which was to think of a profession that he'd really like to have, and then he researched it until he learned enough about it to think of something that would make it weird.
Buying chocolate, flowers, or those little message heart candies are fine if there's no time to plan ahead for Valentine's Day, but consider some other options. If you use your senses to lead the way, you might come up with some interesting ways to celebrate love. Or a deep like. Or an "I kind of like you." Here are some starting places:
When my friend Charlene Fix, poet and author of Flowering Bruno, a book I have 
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Bono
though. That was before 1871. In that year, Henry Probasco was looking for a way to present the city with a memorial to his brother-in-law, Tyler Davidson. His solution was Fountain Square. 
My friend, Ann has mentioned to me several times, "Let's go to a karaoke bar," and then talks about the fun we had several years ago when we did hit one. My husband belted out a fine rendition of "Danny Boy" that night. Me? I'm partial to "Proud Mary." I seem to manage to stay on tune with that song, sort of. Once, years ago, my husband pretended it was my birthday and got the people in the karaoke bar that we happened upon, to sing to me. My birthday was months away. I gamely smiled while I watched the ball bounce across the words. .jpg)
830 sites on our planet are listed as 
I thought this would be a good time to recap all the Ohio bands we've posted clips for over the last six months, in case you missed any.
A few years back I saw Robert Dafford painting the 
While most people who head somewhere on Ohio's highways rush by the clusters of reed-like trees that dot the landscape, Rick Pratt is on the lookout for them. His livelihood depends on them. The patches look a bit like mushroom clouds in the distance. Once you know what you're looking for, you too, can know a willow patch when you see one.
Oscar season is here and I have a job to do. Last year I was one of the winners of the Columbus Dispatch's Columbus Academy of Motion Pictures Pickers (CAMPP) contest. As a winner, I promised to see all the movies nominated in the major categories. Some movies I rented; some I saw for a bargain, and the rest I saw at a matinee price. I just received an email to see if I am interested in being part of CAMPP this year. You bet! I am lining up my strategy to figure out where to see the movies I haven't seen yet in time for my deadline. 
Among the silos of cornbelt area south of Grand Lake St. Marys in west central Ohio rises a 5-story-high octagonal dome with gold ball and cross that gives witness to the religious fervor that burned in the breasts of the farmers as they toiled. 
This is astonishingly good timing! I was already excited to find out that one of my favorite authors, 
