Major League Soccer in Cincinnati?

- The cheering section at an MLS Columbus Crew game. Photo c/o The Columbus Crew.

"We love ya, we love ya, we love ya!
And where you go we'll follow, we'll follow, we'll follow!
Cause we support Columbus, Columbus, Columbus!
And that's the way we like it, we like it, we like it!"

[Views of Cincinnati] Grit-cinati

View of the Great American, URS and Kroger buildings with a small sliver of the Chemed Center from the gritty underbelly of the city. An overcast sky turns to a pale shade of blue as the sun goes down a cold April day.

Getting back to the QC/D roots of urban exploration and going where most others won't.

Business casual or not.

[Views of Cincinnati] The Fleet of Covington

I got in the car and drove down the parkway as the sun was setting. Adjacent to my apartment there was a nice skyline shot, but I decided to keep going. I never take the direct route to Covington. I always cross the Big Mac and get off in Cincinnati on 3rd. St. Then I cut over to the Roebling and back across the river. I drove down to the Covington riverfront. I decided to drive down by the shuttered Mike Fink's, a docked riverboat turned restaurant that is indefinitely closed. Docked on its pier is the Covington Fire Department's boat. They're the two of three boats docked on Covington's shore - the "fleet" if you will. The third boat is another closed floating restaurant down river. The only active boat in the armada is the fire boat.

[Views of Cincinnati] #21 - 25

Cincinnati on a sunny, Spring evening with harsh blue skies that were reminiscent of a winter we never had. Closed bridges, country music, fences, bigger cities and Brutalist reflections.

"#21 - End of the Line."

The sun setting on the Skyline as seen from behind the fence, near the edge of an old bridge ramp. When the "Purple People Bridge" closed to automobile traffic, this concrete patio was left behind. In the map below you can see the other abandoned remains of the ramp, the whole thing is a parking lot now.

[Views of Cincinnati] #19 & #20

#19 - Framed by a Pennsylvania Petit

A "Pennsylvania Petit" style truss on the Newport-Southbank Bridge silhouetted along with the Skyline in the distance.

#20 - Bird on a Wire

A bird relaxing on a support for power lines at the Purple People Bridge that frames the highest point of Cincinnati's skyline. NOT a promotional poster for that shitty Mel Gibson action movie.

Gun Barrel [Photo]Graphs

I bought a fisheye lens adapter. It reminds me of the James Bond intro.

[Views of Cincinnati] #18 - Barrier 2

I pulled out of the parking garage at work. It had been raining all day. I had the song "Who Can it Be Now" by "Men at Work" stuck in my head. I pulled into a gas station and got out of the car to fill it up. That same song is playing on the Shell station radio. I then went out and shot some photos.

[Views of Cincinnati] #17 - Barrier 1

I stood on Columbia Parkway for over an hour trying to line up a shot. I envisioned a view of the fence, road and stone pillars leading the eyes of the viewer down into a shot of the skyline just as the road carries people into the city. An hour of toying with the composition and it didn't really work out. I was frustrated, tired and had burned through what cigarettes I had left. I packed everything up and began walking away when I looked up at the Great American Tower and the barrier that was partially obscuring my view of it. I had been focusing on this wide view and at the last second noticed the features and details of the fence I had been standing right by the whole time. I backed up, focused on the fence and made an abstracted view of the skyline behind it.

[Views of Cincinnati] #16 - Tonight, Tonight

I was listening to the Smashing Pumpkins song of the same name when I sat down to write the words to accompany this photograph. I'm at a loss for words tonight, so some Smashing Pumpkin lyrics will have to do - they're pretty indicative though.

"The more you change, the less you feel."

[Views of Cincinnati] The Road

"The Road" looks more like some post apocalyptic scene after the dust has settled and the world has gone quiet. The faded yellow lines, rusted railings and slowly tilting light poles frame a view of the Skyline from the West. While this particular ramp hasn't been used in decades, the viaduct itself is still very active. It opened in 1940 at a time when traffic speeds were slower, cars were smaller and there was less of both on "The Road."

[Views of Cincinnati] Basic Training

There was a swarm of photographers at Devou Park that night. Many of them were all gathered around one guy with their cameras in hand, he seemed to be giving them a lesson. Some kind of "basic training" if you will. I'm not knocking it, he brought them to the perfect place. Devou Park has one of the best views of the city and one of the easiest ones to photograph. It's spring, the light is nice and the view is beautiful. You have the two towers on the ends, the clusters of smaller skyscrapers between them and the rust and grit of the bridge in the foreground. Any poor bastard who got conned into buying a Sony Alpha* at a big box electronics store can point his camera and press the button while coming away with a nice shot. The view appears on postcards, advertisements and even television. In a body of work like this though, you sometimes have to go back to the basics.

Shameless Plug for My Radio Show

Tonight from 10:00 P.M. - 12:00 A.M. - Listen live at CinCityRocks.com

I have this friend, his name is Ryan. I usually refer to him on here as "Ryan Texas Ranger." He's come along on some adventures for this website before, but his best known trait is what he calls "making cool shit happen." It's true, I've known the guy for nearly eight years now and he's gotten us into some pretty cool things. He's always got some kind of connection or some crazy plan concocted and it usually pans out to be something awesome (he can also be an asshole and bring sardines into your apartment and stink the place up just to get some laughs).

So one day I'm sitting at work and get this text message from him: "You wanna get our own internet radio show?" I was busy, but knew not to doubt him and that this was probably going to happen and just said "yes." I forgot about it all until that weekend when we had some beers with the folks from CinCityRocks.com. Ryan pitched a show to them, I drank beer and nodded my head - a few weeks later and voila we now have an internet radio show called...