Three horns blown

Originally uploaded by hjoew

Firefighters inside. Evacuate immediately. Grammers on fire.

Washington Park wind damage

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HAPPENING NOW: Beechmont Ave. closed near Beacon

Originally uploaded by hjoew

Tree on car. Driver escapes unharmed.

Another one bites the dust. “Chef,” voiced by Isaac Hayes through 2006 on TV’s South Park, was found dead Sunday. All these people dying, getting in car accidents… What happened to immortality?

Isaac Hayes — a legendary soul singer, songwriter, musician and producer whose career spanned four decades and who achieved unexpected fame later in life as the voice of “South Park” character Chef — died Sunday afternoon (August 10), a spokesperson for the Shelby County, Tennesee, sheriff’s department told WMC-TV in Memphis.

Isaac Hayes Dead At 65 - News Story | Music, Celebrity, Artist News | MTV News

New city solicitor, John Curp

That “guy to defend itself” is typically referred to as the city solicitor, a citified version of a county prosecutor. And just moments ago, City Manager Milton Dohoney announced who the guy is… so, without further adieu…drum roll… a portion of a press release from Meg Olberding, city spokeswoman:

“John P. Curp, Esq. as the new City Solicitor, the highest ranking lawyer for the City of Cincinnati. Curp currently is a partner with the law firm Taft, Stettinius & Hollister LLP in Columbus in the Business and Finance Department. His practice areas have provided him with experience including business incentives, land use, property tax issues, construction and public works projects, and employment law. Curp will begin working for the city on September 2.

“John’s extensive business and financing background will be a great boon to our efforts to attract and retain companies and jobs in the city,” said Dohoney. “He is well versed in public law and his integrity and leadership will serve the city organization and the people of Cincinnati well.”

This is the guy you want to talk to next time you want to sue the city of Cincinnati, or if you, say, get sued by the city of Cincinnati. Or get a traffic ticket from a city cop or get arrested in the city. He can throw the book at you. Or, say, you’re a City Council member and want to know, say, if it’s OK legally to build a fence around Over-the-Rhine. He will tell the city’s elected and non-elected employees what they can get away with legally - and hopefully not get sued. It’s nothing personal. Just his job.

This week’s CityBeat column tackles an old, but still somewhat existent (though I’m just so tired from all the corruption), concern of mine, WAIF-FM.

I quite literally fell in love with the place in 2005, when a friend asked me if I wanted to apply for a summer program. The Brian and Joe Radio Show, full of local talk and news, aired for 10 glorious weeks. It won an award for best summer show and confirmed a dream I’d had since childhood to host my own radio show. It was a blast.

City Beat: Wessels: Keeping the Dream Burning: Wessels: Columns.

I tried my darndest with the place, but got nowhere fast.

In this week’s CityBeat column, I break news about Over-the-Rhine’s Kaldi’s Coffeehouse being asked to vacate the premises for six weeks so an elevator can be installed through their kitchen.

When finished, it would make preparing food in the tiny kitchen a real challenge, but a nice addition for delivering large quanities of food quickly and efficiently to the building’s upper floors. Some chefs dream of a dumbwaiter like this, I’m told. They just want it when and where they want it, if you catch my drift. In the meantime, owner Jeremy Thompson wants to know where all the groovies are going to get their drink on.

Read it about it here.

(Photo from October 6, 2007, Feeding Washington Park)

God bless them. Really. They mean well, but after this blog post and my first column in CityBeat, I still believe we are not seeing eye-to-eye on the cause and effect of giving away food in Over-the-Rhine’s Washington Park (and I would add to that: having a “church” service with loudspeakers so loud that windows shake in the building I live in across from the park). So, the good folks at Vineyard Community Church in Springdale (who give away food on Saturday mornings, provide some clothing and other assistance, plus send a van to pick up folks in OTR to attend Saturday evening church services) invited me to come along on a Saturday morning food run and witness first-hand (in this case, across the street from my house where I had been watching them before) the good they were doing. They believed I really didn’t understand. And they were wrong.

This week’s CityBeat column, this blog post, the past writings put me in the awkward position of being at odds with people who are truly, not only trying to do something good, on many levels they are. So, the question then becomes is just “doing good” enough? Or does the good you’re are aiming for actually have to have positive long-term consequences for those you are helping? And does the residual and indirect effects of your well-intentioned actions matter?

I’d say yes, but I think my pleas for understanding may be directed at minds that have already been made up or refuse to hear what I - and others - are saying.

In my column in this week’s CityBeat, I comment on an issue that has been buggin’ the heck out of me (and quite a few others) for some time. That’s the lack of alternate transportation options - bike, scooter or just ease of walking (especially when you live in the urban center) - available to folks living in this region.

To learn more, check out the column.

I had a big week a few weeks ago. Not only did I sell out the art show, but I found out that I was CityBeat’s Best of Cincinnati 2008 pick for journalist of the year.

I’m quite honored by the distinction - even thought I did not know the category for best journalist existed - and especially because anonymous readers voted for me.

To those who took the time to fill out the survey and chose me, first off, thank you. I really am flattered.

I was so surprised, in fact, that when I attended CityBeat’s “Best of” party that I made a beeline for Editor John Fox. Even though he and I had spoken a few times that week about the column I write for the publication, he had never mentioned it to me.

Turns out he wanted it to be a surprise and that the contest wasn’t fixed. I actually got the most votes of any journalist in the poll. So, thanks again. You made my month! (Sorry I didn’t get this posted sooner. Had my blog not been on the blink I would have written about it when it happened.)