Real Photos from the Streets of Dayton, Ohio July 27th, 2007

Welcome to Summertime in Dayton. Let's look around.

click on any photo for a larger view.

A little kid bikes up Volkenand Street in Walnut
Hills past an old Samsonite suitcase.

On Gunkel Street in Walnut Hills, most of the
homes are kept up proudly by their owners.

In Dayton, when renters or owners leave, they
like to leave every single possession it seems. Maybe
they're desperately trying to forget the whole memory of
the Gem City.

Although in fairness, it appears that these people
at least attempted to escape Dayton by boat.

There is no more S&M in Schlitenz and Moore

Funeral home on Wayne Ave. How sad. I had visions of zombies
spanking each other, whispering into each other's ears
about how they will respect their limits, although that
doesn't stop their craving for...BRAINS!

The view from the sidewalk of Schlientz and Moore.

These crazy asses keep adding, and adding
to the museum of boarding house hobos on
the corner of Wayne and Wyoming, where
cold Milwakee's Best and horseshoes are a
nightly staple of the home's residents.

Birds Eye view of the sidewalk on Wayne Ave. heading
North towards the Oregon District.

Ahh. Nothing like inspiration for a Bukowski novel.

This house on Wayne could fetch a million

dollars if it was painted orange with yellow and purple
trim, and trucked to Key West.

A very skinny lady waits to cross Wayne at Keowee.

When you ride your bike on the sidewalks of Dayton,
you are bound to share the road with some wheelchairs.
In the distance you can see a man in his wheelchair coming
underneath the Route 35 overpass.

Eastway on Wayne Avenue provides social services
for the indigent, mentally ill and just plain troubled.

While a couple of blocks away, the overtly healthy
climb walls in an old church building in the Oregon
District at Urban Krag indoor climbing center.

An Oregon District home stands still admidst
the beauty of a quiet July afternoon in Dayton, Ohio 2007.

My Grandfather's Bed and Breakfast in
the Oregon located at 251 Green Street.

This park in the back of the Oregon District is a favorite
of lovers and late night pot smokers seeking a refuge
from the barrage of alcohol-induced obnoxiousness of 5th Street.

A block down the street from My Grandfather's Bed
and Breakfast stands the Trolley Stop, one of Dayton's
most beloved watering holes. Here, Daytonians take a few
hours to enjoy live music and cheap beer on a Thursday
night recently.

Table of Trolley Stop patrons enjoys just sitting down,
socializing, drinking beer and listening to
live music, not necessarily in that order.

This guy did an acoustic version of Snoop Dogg's
"Ain't Nothin' but a G-Thang" that brought the
house down with laughter and applause.

Another in a long line of beautiful women in Dayton.

Essential musician stage supplies:
Two beers and two shots of whiskey.

The patron saint of the Trolley Stop.

Drunk and drunker on the patio at the Trolley.
These two fellows were hilarious, and treated me to a
choice story about their simultaneous incarceration at
the Greene County Jail a few years back.

S&V Office Furniture and Supplies still going
strong on Main and Patterson.

Dayton Fire Department Station Four at Main and Monument.

Old man enjoys the solace of a quiet afternoon
in Downtown Dayton, Ohio USA.

Back end of the Dayton Pizza Factory's flaccid
attempt at establishing a restaurant in the South Park District.

Heading south on Wayne Avenue.

The homes are magical on Wayne Ave. It's also rumored that the
street is haunted from the ghosts that died atop the hill, an old insane
asylum that is now an old folks home.

If you'll look real close on this guy's T-shirt, it says "Proud to Serve."
For some little reason that probably has to do with gut feelings based
upon my personal experience with the disheveled among us, I doubt he did.

Somebody is down on the cost of house numbers.

The Dublin Pub. Where loud people go to realize the
Irish dream of Guinness and a belly full of potatoes.

Halal International Grocery Store is now on

Theobald Street, right behind the Used Car lot at
the corner of Wayne and Keowee. You can get
big healthy blocks of Feta Cheese here for healthy prices.
Also, they sell lots of bulk stuff like beans, lentils, &
coos-coos to keep your grocery bill minimal.

Imagine if our graffiti artists in Dayton were
inventive and creative, as opposed to banal,
ignorant and destructive for destruction's sake.

The bridge heading into the Oregon District on Fifth Street could
use some touching up with the old paintbrush.

Across the Street from the Oregon Express.

Cafe Boulevard makes a decent living off of people
willing to pay $7 a shot for a good martini. That is why
I taught myself the art of martinis!

The side of the Nite Owl, the destination for
the loud, strange and orgasmically fantastical
in an alcoholic consumption kinda' way.

Dave Hall Plaza, where great music festivals happen
about five times every year. Make sure to check back
here for photos from the fun there.

The Greyhound Station looms large in Dayton.

Hauer music is the place to be for high
school bands and anyone seeking musical
equipment, repair, or you name it under the
musical sun.

The RTA sure does have pretty bus stops in downtown Dayton.

Channel 16 Public Television Station.

The Kuhn's Building has been renovated, but
it does look kindof a suburban/masculine/fakey
feel with the overdone wood and pine trees.

The United States Marine Corps recruiting
Station on Second Street in downtown Dayton.

Me.

The Old Montgomery County Courthouse
stands strong despite the fact that our new
courthouse is in a building that very much
resembles a prison, not a structure that belies
institutional greatness. Architecture tells so much
about our times. Unfortunately today, most of it
being built tells us we are a substandard culture.

Folks chilling out in front of the County building on
Main Street in Dayton.

The outside of the old McCrory's store on Main Street downtown.

The Victoria Theater on a beautiful summer day.

True story. I'm taking a nap about five years ago,
and my girlfriend wakes me up and tells me Rudy Ray
Moore is on the phone. I pick up the phone, ask who it is, and hang up,
thinking it's some joker. Well, long story short, it really was
the real life Dolemite himself, Rudy Ray Moore,
responding to an e-mail I sent his web site. We talked for
about 15 minutes, and the one thing he definately remembered
about Dayton was staying in the Biltmore Hotel in 1963.

He was a really nice fellow. He is getting long in age, but
I'll be able to take to the grave the fact that I actually
spoke with the one and only revolutionary - Rudy Ray Moore.

I used to have fairly ambivalent feelings about the
Schuster Center, until I found out that Mr. Schuster
made a deal with the county to prevent any kind of
competing venue in Dayton, thus erasing any kind of
possibility that Mick Montgomery of Canal Street Tavern
might start booking the kinds of acts that play the Taft
Theatre in Cincinnati, such as John Prine. Nope, the Dayton
Cultural Anglo-European Preservation Society makes sure
that progress is merely an illusion in the arts around here.

Looking up at the Winter's Towner in Downtown.

The Marilyn Monroe statue downtown would
be a lot cooler if it were like Red Allen,
Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner, or even Ed Pittman.