The day before it was cold, but beautiful. I got let out of class early, the sun was shining and the river was near flood stage so I grabbed the camera and went down to sawyer point to snap some photos and go for a jog.
The next morning I woke up at 7 A.M., fell back asleep and woke up to my emergency back up alarm clock blaring DMX from my iPod. If it wasn't for the heartfelt lyrics of DMX's "Party Up (Up in Here)," I might not have waken up in time to get down to the Fox 19 Broadcast Plaza. Unlike the day before, the sun was gone and the temperature had dropped dramatically when I met up with
Venkman.
We walked up to the door marked "morning show guests," rang the doorbell and waited.
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| - Random Fact: This is the old school Fox 19 logo that was used from 1996 - 2001. |
They answered the door and lead us into the WXIX studios.
"You guys can stand here, you're on next." She said.
It was kind of overwhelming. We weren't sure exactly what to do and everything behind the scenes seemed fast paced. What were we gonna talk about, who was gonna talk first, what should we do if they ask us about trespassing (not that we trespass, trespassing is a serious moral crime that tears at the ethical fabric of our society)?
"You nervous?" I asked Venkman.
"A little." he said.
"Me too." I replied as we peered into the studio during their traffic report. Climbing into decaying, half demolished and condemned buildings to take photos is one thing, being on television is another.
Rob Williams walked by quickly, rushing onto the set for his next guest. The coordination these guys have at this tv station and the quickness from which they switch from one thing to another is absolutely crazy.
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| - Venkman admiring Rob Williams as he rushes onto the set. |
We watched from the side as they cooked and talked about some soup competition.
As soon as that was done they brought out some chairs and said
"ok, you guys over here. You! Sit here. You, sit there." We sat down, they strapped microphones to us and
Rob Williams introduced himself while reading over some notes about us.
"30 seconds." someone yelled.
"Ok, you guys ready?" I don't think we even replied, the interview just started and apparently we were on tv a few seconds later.
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| - Rob Williams interviewing us. Check out the full video here. |
"...how did this happen for you?" Neither Venkman and I were sure who should answer first as we looked at each other and before we could decide Rob pressed the question again:
"How did this start?" After that there was no more delaying of answers, it was apparent they were on a tight schedule and Rob kept the interview moving along before plugging the gallery opening for that night. Before we knew it, it was over. Rob stood up, shook our hands and thanked us for coming on. We had gone in, done an interview on live television and were already back outside in less than 20 minutes. It was a really awesome experience and I'm thankful that the folks at Fox19 invited us on, but it all happened so quickly that it was kind of surreal.
Later that night as part of Final Friday, our second
Forgotten Cincinnati exhibit opened up, spread out between three different shops in the Over-The-Rhine Gateway Quarter. We started the night at
Park+Vine and then hopped around from there meeting lots of cool people who braved the 12 degree weather to come and check out the showing.
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| - A crowd and some abandoned building photos on display at the always awesome Park+Vine. |
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| - Work on display at Atomic #10 |
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| - Atomic #10. |
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| - More photos on display at the Joseph William Home. |
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| - Joseph William Home. |
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| - These were either some really lifelike mannequins or some folks dancing in the windows of Atomic #10. |
Thanks to everyone who came out to see the show and support these local businesses as well as Final Friday. Met so many nice, interesting and cool people and got to hang out with some great friends. You guys are all great and the support is greatly appreciated. Special thanks to Park+Vine, Atomic #10 and Joesph William Home for hosting our work as well as Helen Barnes and Rob Williams at Fox19 for having us on the morning news. Forgotten Cincinnati is on display until February 21st. For details and directions, click
here.
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| - What? |
Update | Oct. 16, 2017:
- Sadly, all three of the businesses that featured our work are now closed and replaced with other stores.
