There Has to Be Something Better Than Buffalo Sauce Flavored Sunflower Seeds
It was a Monday night, exactly one week ago. I was sitting at my desk, just like I am now. I'm not hungry, but I keep dipping my hand into a bag of sunflower seeds I pulled out of the pantry. They're flavored with "Frank's Red Hot" sauce. They're not bad, they're not good. I don't eat sunflower seeds, but I've watched enough episodes of the X-Files to know how Fox Mulder cracks them open and drops the shells all over his wooden floors while he's thinking.
But I don't have wooden floors, I have carpet.
The Wasson Way
If you drive into Cincinnati from the west side and look out over the sprawling network of railroad tracks, industrial cargo and airport-like control tower that watches over the massive rail yard, it's hard to imagine that any railroad in the city would go unused.
"Echoes of Ourselves:" An Abandoned Hillside Home
Its been nearly four years since I last looked at these photographs, having made them in 2009 and forgotten about them until this morning. On the hillside of Mt. Auburn, amongst the streets of homes and their impressive cityscape vistas, lies a hollowed out and windowless structure. Constructed 134 years before I even stepped foot in the building, it's incredible to think about the lives and people who passed through here in nearly one and half centuries.
Milacron Ruins
Some not so good photos and a not too interesting story that came from the exploration of an abandoned, half demolished factory.
The Beach Waterpark: All Dried Up?
The "stone" depiction of a fanged beast would seem to be the remnants of a forgotten civilization, but protruding through the "ancient" statue is a different kind of ruin: one of modern society.
The Blue Ash Airport
When it comes to abandoned suburbia, one might think about closed fast food joints, shuttered gas stations or foreclosed homes. In Blue Ash though, there stands a small, closed airport. A piece of aviation history is set to be demolished for a new community park in a growing suburb amidst a political controversy that raises questions about the modern day pursuit of truth.
Kinzie Street Railroad Bridge - Chicago
This abandoned Chicago landmark carried trains from 1908 until it was abandoned permanently in the raised position above the Chicago River.
The Downsizing and Dying of CVG.
Even late at night, an airport can still be a center of human activity, but imagine being in an abandoned one completely devoid of life - no aircraft, no passengers and no luggage.
The Ohio State Reformatory
"Andy came to Shawshank Prison in early 1947 for murdering his wife and the fella she was banging’.”
Camp Ross Trails
It would seem like the perfect stand in for "Camp Crystal Lake" in a Friday the 13th sequel, and the Cold War nuclear scares that shut it down could make for the plot of a horror movie, but this abandoned Girl Scout camp is no more.
Suburban Stonehenge
Beyond the manicured lawns and the sounds of lawn mowers and birds chirping, is Blue Ash's Sharonville's suburban stone henge. It's a concrete canvas for those who wish to paint swastikas, penises, ying-yangs and their names even over the works of the few who actually knew how to wield a spray can.
A Secret Passageway in Mt. Adams
I'm sure I'm not the only one who looked for secret passages in their house as a kid, only to be disappointed that such things didn't exist (at least in the suburban homes that six year old me wandered). While what I stumbled upon isn't really the kind of "secret passage" you'd find when pulling the right book off the shelf, it does provide a relatively unknown route up the ritzy neighborhood hillside of Mt. Adams.
The Dayton Executive Hotel
I don't know if you could call these lobby stairs grand, but just like the "Grand Staircase" on Titanic, this one is also covered in water. It's hardly a welcoming site for guests at the lobby check-in, but any guests the Dayton Executive Hotel sees these days aren't of the "normal" variety.
Who Was That Masked Man Anyways?
Any good story has a good beginning, an intro that hooks the reader. As I write this on the border of 3 A.M, I don't really have a "hook." I don't really have an angle. When I looked through the batch of photos I was about to post here, I realized that they made no cohesive sense.
How an Abandoned Zoo Made it to the Silver Screen
On October 7, "Real Steel" will hit theaters. Set in the "near future," the film stars that guy who played "Wolverine" in X-Men as a former boxer who now plays major league Rock'em Sock'em Robots in Detroit. That's what I gathered from the trailer and Wikipedia anyways.
When Crosley was King
Before Crosley was the name of a stadium, Powell Crosley Jr.'s empire gave birth to the first commercially affordable radio, the "Nation's Station" 700 WLW, the first car radio and "soap operas.”
Construction on Cincinnati's Subway to Resume, First Train Delivered!
It's been 84 years since construction of the Cincinnati Subway halted. Nearly two miles of unused tunnels have been sitting silently beneath the city streets since 1927. Despite efforts to try and revive the project - political corruption, economic climate, changing population trends and even war were one of the many historical circumstances that prevented the subway from ever seeing a train or rider. That is, until today.
It's So Cold in the D.
As I was driving on 75 North with Gozer, we joked about the homemade hip hop song and music video that became an internet sensation (and that this post is named after). One would hardly think that the monotone singing and offbeat lyrics are actually for a serious song about "T Baby's" deceased brother and infant son, hence why the "D (Detroit)" is "So Cold." Ironically for us though, the D would in fact be cold although in terms of temperature, not personal tragedy.
Fortune Cookie Prophecy Part 2: The Surf Cincinnati Abandoned Miniature Golf Classic
The prophecy of a "delightful journey" laid out by the fortune cookie in Part 1 had so far come true when Gozer and I explored the remains of forgotten Lancaster Street earlier in the day.
Fortune Cookie Prophecy Part 1: Lancaster St.
I didn't have much around my apartment for breakfast. Some Grippo's BBQ chips, frozen corn dogs, lemonade and two fortune cookies was about all there was. A small cookie made of flour, sugar, vanilla and oil with a message inside it seemed like a good thing to eat. I don't usually put any faith in the "fortunes" found within these takeout accompanying deserts, but since Gozer and I were about to go exploring, this one seemed like a good sign.