Dayton937

Things to do in Dayton | Restaurants, Theatre, Music and More

Archives for May 2010

Calzones, Community & Culture Works: Help Milano’s support local arts in Dayton

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On select days in May, Milano’s Atlantic City Submarines will be doing their part to help support Dayton’s rich and vibrant arts community.

Every Wednesday in May, Milano’s will donate 20% of each sale to Culture Works, the united arts fund and service agency that provides funds and services for many non-profit art agencies in the Greater Dayton area.

All three restaurant locations are participating in the promotion.

Present this flyer to a staff member at Milano’s on the designated days to donate a portion of your sale to Culture Works.

9572 Springboro Pike, Miamisburg

2260 N. Fairfield Road, Beavercreek

1834 Brown Street, Dayton

May 5, 12, 19 and 26.

Mountain Screamer begins May Residency

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As a new month begins, it’s time for The Buddha Den to present a new artist in residence for its NTRO/XPO showcase at South Park Tavern.  This FREE weekly event is a great way to get to know some of the of the area’s new and established bands.  Hot off the release of their self-titled debut album, Mountain Screamer will be rocking every Tuesday in May with a host of special guests:

5/4  Army of Infants
5/11  Outright Liar
5/18  Charge Scenic
5/25  Too Buku

Mountain Screamer recently did a set live on WYSO’s Kaleidoscope.  Click here for a stream of that performance.

Family (Farm) Planning

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Hello, I’m Holly Michael –  farm wife, mother, blogger , DMM crazy headline writer and communications professional who has worked at some of Dayton’s largest companies. I straddle the sometimes equally stinky worlds of agriculture and corporate life, so you don’t have to

Our young but enthusiastic barn crew

Our young but enthusiastic barn crew

It’s absolutely incredible but the farmer I married, a man who can visit the entire grocery and emerge only with the food he needs for the next 20 minutes of his life, chose gilts in August to breed in September to birth in February to sell in April–all so they can be shown at the county fair again in September. Whew.

The output of all that planning ahead culminated in our annual spring pig sale (auction) last weekend. We sell young pigs (about 30-80 pounds) to 4-H members and their parents from across the country. After they leave our sale, the pigs are raised all summer by 4-H kids and then shown at county or state fairs.

As I mentioned above, ensuring you have the right pigs on hand for the sale  involves months of pre-planning. In the weeks leading up to the auction, we also had a lot of work to do. And when I say “we,” I really mean my husband and his helpers.

Each pig selected for the sale was groomed beforehand. My husband and his pig clipping guru, Claude’, gave each pig a haircut. Yes, pigs have coarse hair that is clipped short to make them look more appealing to pig buyers.

My husband and Claude’ spent the week leading up to the sale giving 125 pig haircuts. The morning of the auction, a crew of farmers came over to load five trailers full of pigs to head to the Preble County Fairgrounds. Once they arrived, my husband, kids, nephews and other 4-H members washed all 125 pigs.

Washing a pig is kind of like washing a car–if the car was running in circles and pooping on your boots.

Spring Spectacular Club Pig Sale

Spring Spectacular Club Pig Sale

By afternoon, customers started arriving to check out the pigs and make notes on which ones they want to bid on. I arrived about two hours before the sale to set up my 20 year-old laptop and dot matrix printer that I use, along with a great team of family and friends, to clerk the sale. We give out buyers numbers and take the money as people cash out.

We hire an auctioneer, although, my son is getting pretty good at selling pigs to his brother in the play room.

The sale was a huge success. We sold pigs for $100 to $1,000 each.

Unbelievably, selling 125 pigs didn’t really make a dent in the number of pigs we have here on the farm. My husband still has all the sows (mothers) that had these little pigs. Once we see how they did at the pig shows this summer and fall, it will be time to start this process over again and the man who starts his Christmas shopping on December 21 will plan ahead for yet another spring sale.

Wright State & Downtown Dayton

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Ohio State, University of Kentucky, and even University of Dayton are all located in the middle of a city. Clubs, restaurants, and bars are all in walking distance from the campus and students are offered much to do close by. Having a large number of non-traditional students, Wright State students seek different forms of entertainment. Being located in a suburb rather than downtown of a city, WSU students turn to downtown Dayton as an option to go out. I personally have been downtown numerous times to go out. I feel fairly safe with a group of friends and have a lot of fun at the local dance clubs. But, I wanted to see what other WSU students thought of downtown. So I turned asked some questions regarding downtown and got some answers. I thought that many people would not like downtown, but I was surprised by students actually going downtown.

Junior Caitlin Buenning, enjoys going down for the theater productions. “I generally like Downtown–I think it’s come a long way. The Schuster Center and Victoria Theater bring in a lot of business and really bring a rich variety of arts to Dayton.”  Along with theater productions the festivals and shows bring her downtown. “I’m pretty familiar with Downtown. I love Riverscape in the summers, and I really love going to the Schuster Center. There are some good places to eat, too.” Buenning doesn’t worry too much about the crime, she says that “there is some crime in some of the parts of the city, but mostly just in neighborhoods.”

Sophomore China Taylor has some thoughts regarding the crime downtown. “I really think that people should visit Downtown more. The crime rates scare people away, but in all honesty crime happens any where. Downtown is a fun place to hang out even as college students and I really think people and students should take advantage of all the events Downtown, Dayton.”  Just as Buenning, Taylor enjoys the festivals and shows downtown has to offer.

A fairly positive response to downtown if I do say so myself. From Dragons games to clubbing and theater performances to fireworks shows, Dayton really does have a lot to offer for college students to do. We just have to get up and go rather than expecting the entertainment to come to us. Some WSU students commute up for 45 minutes to come to class, we are all different students. The “traditional” student isn’t necessarily “traditional” for Wright State.  Downtown offers much variety for us when we need to close the books and have some fun.

Grab a glass, a degree and skip town

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Remember freshman year: running through the dorms, partying in the student neighborhood and a little bit of school work thrown in. Now it’s senior year. The hangover has subsided, school is ending and you need a job. Stay in Dayton? This is not the first choice among many University of Dayton students.

Many UD students are forgoing any opportunities to work in Dayton after graduating and prefer to move back home or to a more scenic location. Bigger cities like Chicago, New York and Cleveland continue to draw students away every year.

Even though the university attempts to get its students to stay in Dayton, some of them just don’t like the appeal of the city and how hard it is getting hit by the recession.

Former NCR Corp. office in Dayton, Ohio, in 2009 AP Photo/Dayton Daily News, Ron Alvey

“The city of Dayton doesn’t have a strong job market,” said UD alumni Anthony Fantone. “There are few things that the city could do outside of warming up the economic environment to encourage business back to the greater Dayton area.” With NCR Corporation leaving Dayton last summer, the biggest opportunity for graduating seniors seems to be Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and even that has few openings to students other than ones involved in engineering.

While UD has done more over the past few years to help out its students with various job fairs and internship openings for companies in the Dayton area, a more intensive effort needs to be made. Professors make internships known by mass e-mails and in-office flyers, but many students find it hard to secure themselves an internship close by. “I’ve seen a lot of internship opportunities for the entire semester, but not many really for the summer, which I think would be more logical for UD students,” said UD finance major Matthew Cuculic.

UD created a site called the Hire a Flyer Network that allows students to search for jobs and internships in their specific field. The site was developed to help students find work, but many job postings are for out of state or out of the area work.

The Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center in downtown Dayton where various shows and concerts are performed

The city of Dayton could also do its part to keep students from leaving. “They should highlight some of the gems of the city of Dayton, and try and get people more involved in the community,” said graduating senior Lauren Kort. Some organizations like the Downtown Dayton Partnership try and get students involved in activities other than those found on campus, and make a conscious effort to get them to stay. UD students rarely venture beyond Miami Valley Hospital when it comes to downtown Dayton, so a little push needs to be made to get them involved in the surrounding community.

The university should make it a requirement for each student to apply for an internship, or at least discuss after school plans with their academic advisor. If the university and the city of Dayton do not make some kind of increased effort over the next few years, they will see a further decline in students interested in staying in The Gem City.