Cincinnati

Here are some photos that I took at the opening of the Shepard Fairey Supply and Demand Exhibition at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center.  Unfortunately, no photos are allowed on the exhibit floor, but I managed to squeeze off a couple. 🙂

Waiting in line to enter the CAC.  The line was even longer when I left.

This wall of prints is stunning.  People just stare at this wall, mesmerized.

War by Numbers was one of my favorite pieces at the show.Shepard Fairey DJ’ing a set.  Must have been a little weird for Fairey because most people weren’t dancing, just standing, watching, and taking pictures.

Someone tagged a fire extinguisher in the Chipotle on Fountain Square.

Shepard Fairey’s Supply and Demand Exhibition is here in Cincinnati!  Opening Friday, February 19, 2010 and running through August 22 at the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center.  This is the third stop for this exhibition after the ICA in Boston and the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.  The opening party is tonight at 8:00 PM and features Shepard Fairey as a DJ for a set.

I’ve been a fan of Shepard Fairey ever since I saw the iconic Obama Hope image and have become quite a collector of his print works.

Some of the highlights of the exhibition will be his large murals and his fine art collages.
In addition to the ones at the CAC, there are several outdoor installations in the city.

The Hope image below is one of his fine art pieces where Shepard Fairey creates a collage and then spray paints it using stencils.  These pieces now cost thousands of dollars.  Good thing there are the screened prints that have remained affordable at $40-50 dollars a piece with print runs of around 450 pieces.  

If you’re new to Shepard Fairey, here are some essential links:

ObeyGiant.com–  Shepard Fairey’s site.  Buy his latest prints here.  But, be quick, popular images usually will sell out within minutes of their release.  Check out the print archives for all of Shepard Fairey’s works.

TheGiant.org– The forum is where I get all my Shepard Fairey news.  You have to register to see the main forums.  So many knowledgeable collectors congregate here.  TheGiant.org also has an amazing print database of all of Shepard Fairey’s works.

Expressobeans.com– Use this site to track the resale value of posters/print art.  Great place to see how much your piece is worth on the aftermarket.

Duckywaddles.com– If prints sell out at ObeyGiant.com, sometimes a few “artist proofs” are released here.  You can buy other older Obey prints here too.

OBEY: Supply & Demand – The Art of Shepard Fairey – 20th Anniversary Edition– I highly recommend this book.  It’s a beautiful coffee table book the traces the history of Shepard Fairey.  Lots of great pictures of his collages and fine art pieces. 

Pictures from Obeyclothing.com

Shepard Fairey’s in town and art is starting to pop up!  The grand opening of Shepard Fairey’s Supply and Demand Exhibition is Friday at the CAC.

Story at Cincinnati.com
More Photos:
OMGPosters.com: Shepard Fairey Hitting The Streets In Cincinnati
TheNobleVisions.com: Shepard Fairey ~ A HDR Photographic look at the four initial murals in Cincinnati
 Shepard Fairey next Arnold’s.

Cincinnati.com: Where Should Diners, Drive-ins and Dives Visit Here?
Cincinnati.com: How They Shoot “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives”

Looks like Food Network’s Diners, Drive-In’s and Dives is coming to Cincinnati in March.  Besides Terry’s Turf Club, I can’t imagine where else Guy Fieri would go?  Whenever I watch the show, I’m always wondering why we don’t have restaurants like this in Cincinnati.

The thing that I notice about the restaurants featured is a passion for their food and their ability to far exceed the expectations of their customers. 

Nothing symbolized futility more than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers “creamsicle” uniforms, but on Sunday, they won. And while winning actually kind of looked cool doing it.

From SI.com
From NYDailyNews.comMaybe with the popularity of Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow and the Pirates of the Caribbean and their new found winning ways, the Bucs should switch back to their old logo.

The Bengals are winning, but every week the Bengals seem to be 5000 seats short of a sellout.  Without a sellout, the Bengals are blacked out in the local television market.  The matchup with Baltimore is a compelling one, but the next three home games after this with bad teams- Cleveland, Detroit, and Kansas City most certainly will not sellout.

My first thought about the problem is price.  The price vs. location of the seats makes absolutely no sense to me.  Football tickets are expensive, but the differential between the worst ticket and the best ticket is only $18.  Why would someone pay $62 dollars to be in the upper reaches of the stadium when really good seats only cost $18 more. 

The remaining 5000 tickets are most likely the worst seats left in the stadium.  Why not charge half price and fill the stadium?  In a down economy, the Bengals could lure some new fans to the stadium by charging $25 or so for tickets.

If the Bengals don’t want to discount individual tickets, discount tickets drastically if they are bought for all four games.  The Bengals offer “Who Dey” packs, but instead of discounts, they offer somewhat better seat locations and a few other perks.

The Bengals are finally good, but the marketing team seems to be stuck with the old marketing playbook.  Why not try a sale to shake things up?

From USAToday.com: Halloween park display mocks deaths of Steve McNair, Sahel Kazemi

A Halloween park in Ohio revealed plans to display skeletons portraying murdered former NFL QB Steve McNair and his late mistress, Sahel Kazemi, during its upcoming season.

WLWT-TV reported that the Kings Island’s Halloween Haunt included the gruesome scene among its push to include dead celebrities for more shock value.

Park spokesman Don Helbig told the station organizers wanted to include “authenticity” in this year’s Halloween display, which also included humans hanging as slabs of meat.

I’m definitely not proud of this occurring here in Cincinnati.  This is totally classless.

UPDATE 9/24/09: Kings Island has apologized and has pulled the display
WLWT.com: Kings Island Apologizes For Celebrity Skeletons

Just picked up an Entertainment 2010 Coupon book that my orchestra, the Cincinnati Community Orchestra is selling as a fundraiser.
If you dine out at all, it’s definitely worth the cost.  Especially if you like Indian restaurants like I do.  It seems that every Indian restaurant in Cincinnati is in there- Ambar, Baba, Apna, Amol, and quite a few more more are all in there with a buy one entree, get one free.  There are other restaurants like Teller’s, Nicola’s, and Aqua that I’ll definitely use.

The book also contains coupons for fast food, dry cleaning, events, and merchandise.  I’ll be keeping a running log of the coupons that I use below.  My girlfriend and I dine out a bit anyways, so it’ll be interesting to see (at least for me) how much I use it.

If you buy the book from the link below, and use the Group ID 423630, the cost will be $20 + $5.00 shipping which is a $10 dollar discount over the normal $35.00 retail price.  Plus the Cincinnati Community Orchestra will benefit from each sale to help pay for music rentals, etc.

Purchase Entertainment Book

Entertainment Coupon 2010 Useage:
Dining
Nicola’s– $20 off an entree.  Nicola’s is pricey but very good. $20 off pretty much takes care of the tip on a dinner for two.  Yeah, Nicola’s not the best example of saving money, but since I was planning on going some time, it’s better to have a discount than not.

I’m in San Diego for the weekend and ran across the streetcar system.  Here they call it the Trolley and it’s been running since 1981.  Of course it’s 2009 for Cincinnati and we’re still fighting those who don’t understand the value of mass transportation.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.