What's on the box?

Ah television. As essential as toilet paper right? So, just like we did not have DSTV back in SA (we got out fix on weekends at the parents), we don't have Cable here. So it was inevitable that the free channels weren't going to be top notch. But jeepers! Programming here is even crazier than watching anything on SABC1 without subtitles.


News
TV news in Dayton is like watching the Centurion Rekord being reported by people who was fooled into thinking they are on CNN. Reporters in bright two piece suits report on anything from heavy snow that could cause funeral parlors to close, to stories like these gems:

1. U R Busted.Yes, that was the actual headline for this shocking report. The first arrest has been made in Cincinnati for texting and driving. The law was passed a while ago, but this only the first person to appear in court for this crime. JHB metro police must be so jealous right now.

2. A pizza delivery boy saved a woman's life. Apparently she has ordered a pizza everyday for the last 3 years. When he had no deliveries for her house for 3 straight days he went to check on her. Desperate (for his tip of course) he called 911 and the saved her etc etc.
 
Fun times with WLWT, WTTW, WTF.

Radio
I just have to mention radio too. Guess what, we have all the same stations as good old Gauteng. Yup, we have Jacaranda 94.2, but here it is 92.9 and they play "everything". We have Highveld 94.7, only 94.5fm. It is so close, it even has Ryan Seacrest in the afternoon. Oh wait, it is the exact show that Highveld steams in the evenings.

Our only glimmer of hope was 104.5, the Rock station. Here the DJs use rude words like "crap". The play some good stuff. But mostly the same three Linkin Park, Korn and Skillet songs. I guess it is better than no Rock Station. Come one Joburg, you can do it. Please.

Ads
Oh my word. I am so glad I did not leave my Joburg Advertising Career to come work in a local Dayton agency. I could have been making ads for Hidy Ford, Hidy Honda, Hidy Hyundai, Hidy Toyota and many more. Yes dear friends in advertising. Here every crazy, screaming, middle-aged car salesman can have a television ad. And mostly it is to advertise car dealerships. Badly. The only other ads are for food products, I use the term food very loosely, and pharmaceuticals. Ads entice you to get in your big car, stuff your face with grease, and then take drugs when you feel depressed about your life. But wait, there is more. All ads for meds come with the full warning and side effects. So remember, Wellbutrin will make you feel great, but it might cause feelings of suicide and cause death in older patients and teenagers.

I have seen at least two good (national) ads though, which I will share, just to make sure we don't all get the need to take Wellbutin, or Feelbetteraid or something:

Personally I prefer the 30" cut of this Crystler ad. I feel it is more powerful, but anyway. Nike always has a good ad out somewhere, so this one is no surprise. At least it is entertaining to watch.

Lastly, I have recently noticed how often Ohio gets featured in TV sitcoms, either as location or as a joke, or both. For example, the residents of Greek, Glee, 3d Rock from the Sun and The Drew Carry Show all call Ohio their home. Even Saturday Night Live added their 10c worth. Just stick a guy in a Ohio State sweater in a skit and you've got trouble. It really does seem that Ohio is the armpit of America.

More on this in the months to come. We will reflect on this in the end. Who knows what is still to be found in Ohio State.

Hippie town

Time for a weekend adventure again. This time we were off to Yellow Springs, a quaint, quiet place where it is said you can "find yourself", about a 40 minute drive from our home. Yellow Springs is a small village with about 3800 residents that was created back in 1825 as a sort of utopia, promoting racial diversity and tolerance. Local Daytonians recommended it to us and described it as an "artists community" that was rather "alternative". It reminded us of Clarens in the Freestate, or even a bit of Knysna. A really interesting and pleasant place, perfect for raising organic kids and fat cats (not referring to evil businessmen).

Driving through the main shopping district (2 streets) we were greeted by brightly coloured shops selling everything from hand made glass, juice, herbs and books to tarot readings and tie-die gifts. We even passed a peace demonstration lead by 5 senior citizens with flags and a man beating an African drum. It was lovely to spend a day away from the cookie cutter malls, take away joints and people. Here the only franchise to be seen was a Subway, and I guess the rest of the joints were all natural *wink wink*.

So walk with us as we visit Dark Star Books, Underdog coffee and wine merchant and a great place that sells all hand made goods by local artists:

Arty Yellow Springs sign. Better than the Welcome in Welkom sign.

This bench was all about dialogue and diversity and mosaic.

Jaco's happy place. And the super fat bookshop cat. You can buy a postcard of him for 50c.

Underdog local. He had an awesome beard. There was also a kid who ran around talking to everyone.

Jaco enjoying the Organic Colombian cuppa

Awesome! Keep your kids in a plastic covered trailer.

Catzilla, he took over the town.

Urban Hand Made and some hand made owls

Super cute felt barrettes

Button rings. I love buttons.

Oh, and then we discovered these awesome creations around town: it is called Urban Knitting, the world's most inoffensive graffiti.
 




Last stop was Young Jersey Dairy. They have cool cows that make yummy cheese and ice cream. The use to sell raw milk, like Irene Dairy in Centurion, but due to legal reasons and the general public's aversion to natural products, no more milk. But the cheese is really good. We bought the Toreador’s Aged Cheddar and Uncle Jack’s Jersey Jack (4 spoons out of 5).

The sound of snow

When you wake up in the morning with what sounds like a strange creature scratching at the walls, you know it has been snowing. Yes, apart from the strange silence snow brings, it also brings the sound of snow being scraped off cars.

It started snowing this morning. Only the second time since I have been here. It is magical! I know many other people will dispute this, but to me it is still fascinating. Fluffy white flakes covering everything, making it look so soft and clean (unlike dandruff, which is fluffy and white but not clean).

The other thing with this snow business is that it feels a good deal less cold at -2 ºC and snowing than when it is raining and 2 ºC. Yes, raining in the winter sucks.

So here are some fresh pics of this morning's fresh snow, taken from our balcony. I'll go out later and take some more:

An American in Jozi

Today I was leering at the wonderfulness of the Market on Main via Facebook, when I stumbled apon this blog: 2summers. The writer is a young married lady from Washington who recently moved to Joburg, South Africa, and is documenting all the weird and wonderful things she is experiencing in Melville and the rest of South Africa.

It was completely refreshing and homesickness inducing to read about our beloved city through the eyes of an American girl, while we are sitting here in America. Almost like we are living parallel lives.

Oh, and it is hilarious too. Go read about her encounters with litchis, baked beans, Zoo lake and blesbokke.  And her favorite foods so far (image from her blog). I could do with all of them right now:

Haloumi, biltong, Grapetiser, fruit chutney chips

Is this art, daddy?

Just yesterday I shared the quiet boredom of Dayton with you. My woorde was skaars koud. It was time for an adventure. Off to Cincinnati we went in search of some arts and culture. 

First stop was the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal which we found by accident because Jaco is not big on maps. This building is a beautiful 1930's Art Deco building use to be the Cincinnati Union Terminal but no-one really takes the train anymore, so many of the rooms were converted to Museums and shops. We just looked around, the Museum was too pricey, and in anycase, our main goal for the day was the Art Museum.

The curvy roof of the Union Terminal

Wow, was this Art Museum difficult to find, even with our newly bought map of Ohio. We could see it on the map but kept ending up in Kentucky. Yes, Cincinnati is just across the river from the State of Kentucky. Yeehaa. Eventually, after going up and down and around this really nice neighbourhood on a hill called Eden Park, we stopped to ask directions from a nice couple, who looked like they just came back from church. I mean, we saw the sign, but just kept missing the museum.

Jaco getting directions. And a cool tower house.

Wall climbers

Modern homes. I want.

The Cincinnati Art Museum is great and houses over 60,000 works from the a Ancient Egyptians to our very own Pieter Hugo's photographs of the Nigerian hyena handlers. So cool! My favorite part was a temporary exhibition called Going Dutch which featured many design works by the contemporary Dutch design collective Droog (http://www.droog.com/). I was not allowed to take pictures of this particular exhibit, but I was sneaky sneaky. So incredibly cool. I have always loved the Chest of drawers by Tejo Remy and now I got to see it in real life, not just the interweb.

We also saw some great masterpieces by Warhol, Picasso, Monet, Renoir, Rothko and more. All in all a very condensed but comprehensive art experience. Oh, I almost forgot, this piece was also great, it is called Fat Bat (hee hee):

Our visit was finally concluded by the very wise words of a 7 year old boy: "Is this art, daddy?"

Time for lunch. We packed a bag full of ziplock bags containing home made veg and cheese wraps, apples, oatmeal cookies and water and sat watching the Ohio river go by.

Romulus, Remus and Jaco ?

We were just about to get back onto the Interstate to go home to Dayton, when disaster/excitement struck. A man who must have just stepped off the set of Dallas skipped a red traffic light and ploughed into our little rental car. Crash boom bang. No one was hurt, accept the two cars. Thank goodness for the innocent bystander who saw the whole thing and phoned the police before we could even say mother hucker. Officer Todd and his sidekick was very kind and helpful, and so was Chris, the tow truck driver who was there before the police - yes, even in America. While the 20 year old girl officer was trying to keep her cap on her head and take statements, big and friendly officer Todd asked if we were injured and chatted to us about Romania, South Africa and how to get cheap theater tickets in Cincinnati. I almost asked him if he likes doughnuts.

So let that be a lesson to y'all, don't complain about your boring life, karma will get you.

Thanks Cincinnati, we will be back.

Wiki wiki Dayton

Writing this blog has me walking a fine line between convincing Americans that we enjoy it here, and convincing South Africans that we miss home and are definitely coming back. So I thought it is about time I give you an overview of Dayton, Ohio, just so you know exactly what kind of a place this is:

We live in the city of Centerville, which is part of Montgomery County, which is one of four Counties in the Dayton Metropolitan Area. Montgomery County contains cities such as Centerville, Kettering, Dayton and Oakwood - these are where we spend most of our time.

Montgomery County stats

Population: 559,062 (as per 2000 census)

Population Density: 468/km² (1,211/sq mi)

Area: 1,203 km² (464 sq mi )

Centerville stats

Population: 22,821

Area: 10,8 sq. mi. 

The median age for residents in Centerville, OH is 44.8 (this is older than average age in the U.S.) 

To put that into perspective, let us compare this with the Tshwane and Joburg Metros, in Gauteng, South Africa:

Tshwane Metro stats

Population:  2,345,908 (as per 2009 census) 

Population Density:  856/km² (2,217/sq mi)

Area: 1,644 km² (634.8 sq mi) 

Johannesburg Metropolitan Area (incl. Ekurhuleni, Soweto and the West Rand)

Population: 10,267,700   

Johannesburg city

Population:  3,888,180 

Area: 1,644.94 km² (635.1 sq mi)

Joburg and Tshwane is growing like wheatgrass in a health shop. Dayton is not, it is shrinking.

In other words, we don't live in a bustling, crazy city like New York or Jozi. This place is quiet. There is no traffic on a friday afternoon that causes you to only get home after 2.5 hours. You say bliss, I say a bit boring.

So bare with me as we explore Dayton and surrounds and find interesting/funny/freaky things to share. Quiet, pleasant, peaceful Dayton, where squirrels run free and graveyards have no fences. That is the point of this blog after all.

A street near our home

Downtown Dayton

Near Downtown Dayton

Oakwood, a Desperate Housewives type of neighbourhood

 Please note all statistics listed are as per Wikipedia, so they are probably wrong, but it gives you the idea.