Featured in CLOG Issue 18: “FEEDS”
“Some 1200 followers and 1500 or so posts later, I had found the content I was being fed as repetitive, boring, and infuriating as any other platform.”
A Mansard Roof McDonald’s
There was a time when I truly loved McDonald’s. When I craved it with every fiber of my childhood being. Maybe as an adult I’m only looking back through ketchup-colored glasses, but McDonald’s was different once. After a conversation with someone of a similar mind, I once again set out in search of fast food nostalgia.
A Food Tour of Cincinnati’s Northern Suburbs
In an area as innocuous as almost any other in Midwestern suburbia—there’s a great collection of local and unique restaurants.
If you know where to look.
Two Malls and The U̶n̶s̶o̶l̶v̶e̶d̶ SOLVED “Ball Sculpture” Mystery
As I finished a piece for a magazine about two “dead malls” that I’d previously covered in years prior, news broke about both locations. Also: trying to track down a piece of nostalgic art.
The Rejuvenating Representation of Root Beer Stands
Statistically speaking, I’m 288 minutes closer to death for having authored this story.
Pizza Hut Classic: “Wholesome” Nostalgia vs. “Newstalgia”
Can a corporate restaurant chain harness authentic nostalgia while simultaneously preying on our love for the past? The answer can be found within a “Pizza Hut Classic,” but the real question to ask: is such a place truly “wholesome?”
The Garden of Hope
If the second coming of Christ occurred today in the greater-Cincinnati area, what’s the first thing people would even say to Jesus Christ?
“Have you tried the chili?”
Scaffolding
“Many times people worry about things that can kill them at eye level, but you're probably more likely to be destroyed by something above you. This is why the city has installed a sprawling network of temporary sidewalk shelters to protect pedestrians from falling objects. This is called scaffolding.”
- John Wilson
Random Photographs of 2021
Photographs made in 2021 that didn't necessarily have a place in a larger post or story. Images made with a digital SLR, iPhone, and various 35mm cameras.
Six Gun City
You have to know where to look in the Kentucky woods, but it’s up there in the hills—an abandoned town looking like the set of a John Wayne film. Was the place the forgotten theme park that the internet had touted it to be, though?
Flight and Former Front Yards
As Delta Airlines established a full-fledged hub at Cincinnati’s CVG airport, the facility eyed a runway extension. Ethan’s Glen wasn’t physically in the way, but life for residents was about to get even louder.
The Mantra of The Chong
An eclectic store that threatened to close for years… finally did. The camera I bought there broke, but it was the words of a friend that stuck with me.
20 Years Since Nitro: A Saturday Night at Swine City
My relationship with pro wrestling is complicated…I’m still very much a person trying to figure out what worlds I exist in—caught between the kinds of spaces where one feels they truly belong and where they don’t.
Dayton, Ohio’s Downtown Heliport (and Former Music Venue)
A unique piece of history and a relic of “urban renewal” in the heart of the Gem City.
LEGO: Kings Waffle
I don’t like Waffle House, I like a specific Waffle House. And I recreated it with LEGO.
Coming to Grips in a Ghost Town
There comes a point when your past begins to be seen solely as experience. The emotional weight isn’t entirely gone, but the punch it packs becomes weaker—the memories starting to carry new significance whether they were painful or proud.
Middletown, Ohio’s Towne Mall
I’ve written about several “dead malls” before, but I didn’t personally know Middletown’s.
Tyler and Jordan did, though.