Shameless Self-Promotion Content: My Bands.

You might know by now that I have some other past times besides politics...okay, I have one: Music. I currently play drums in two bands based out of Dayton, Ohio. Colonial is a band I started last year with two friends but has now been reduced to a two-piece outfit. My roommate and friend Matt Ewald is responsible for the guitar playing while I take care of the drums. I'd describe our sound as a throwback to the late '90's hardcore/screamo sound. Think bands like Neil Perry, Joshua Fit For Battle, La Quiete, and Raein. Other people have described us as emo-violence.
I have also fairly recently started drumming in a power-violence/hardcore/thrash band called Damages. James does the vocals and used to play in Hex Noir (A Dayton black metal band) while still currently occaisonlly doing stuff with his pet project known as Altars (I have done some drumming for this as well). Ryan, ex-Hex Noir bassist, plays the four string for us in Damages while Justin, who was in Hex Noir for all of 30 seconds, plays guitar in Damages.
Tonight Damages will be playing a show with Punch (SF), Regrets(CHI), and Rad Company (DYT) at 214 Shroyer road in Dayton, Ohio. Pretty excited, seeing as the other bands are excellent and Damages played well at our last show. We will have our demo tapes as well as cd-r's and some badass looking t-shirts. Get down.
The last was filled with so many good shows that I was able to particpate in with both of my bands. It really reminded me how much I miss being able to play all the time. There's talk of a Damages/Black Kites mini-tour in August. This would be a phenomenal thing.

Dayton suffers another economic blow with the departure of NCR

The city of Dayton and National Cash Register have shared a unique history with one another, intertwined in communal growth and technological innovation. It was NCR, founded by John Patterson (whose name decorates many a fixture and street sign through out the city) in 1884, who spurred great economic growth around the Dayton municipality during the early part of the 20th century.

The student neighborhoods that so many University of Dayton students have come to know and revere were once the original housing provided to employees by NCR so they could live close to their jobs and maintain affordable and respectable homes. Although NCR extracted most of its' manurfacturing out of the city, it still retained corporate offices employing over 1,200 Dayton area people until now.

After rumors began circulating that NCR planned to pack it's final bags for Georgia, Ohio politician's began to scramble to prevent the exodus. Efforts made to communicate with the company were met with a wall of silence, despite Govenor Ted Strickland (D-OH) reportedly offering the company around 31 million dollars in incentives to say. There have also been allegations that Georgia may be using Federal stimulus money to purchase the building which will eventually be leased to NCR. Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown has been said to be investigating that allegation and will be exploring what legal options, if any, Ohio may have concerning it. Finally, NCR released an official statement declaring their official intentions of moving their final offices to Georgia:

“The decision to consolidate functions in Georgia and build a technology-focused corporate headquarters campus is right in line with our business strategy to drive growth, improve our innovation output, increase productivity and continually upgrade our focus on the customer,” said Bill Nuti, NCR’s chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Aparrently their business plan does not account for the 125 year old relationship between Dayton and National Cash Register. This startling economic hit comes admist continually rising rates of unemployment, especially in the Dayton area, whose unemployment numbers have reached a towering 13% compared to the national average of 9.4%.

During it's tenure with the City of Dayton, National Cash Register, brought such innovation in cash registers and related products like integrated liquid-crystal displays, bar code scanning for retail, automated tellar machines, and self-check out equipment.

When NCR checks out of Dayton for the final time, it is predicted they will take over 1,200 jobs with them, leaving this increasingly desolate city in an even weaker economic position.