By Billy Cunningham. The great American workings glorious appen in the tri State. A little bit frosty, a little bit cold. I think winter is coming slowly, but nonetheless get ready for that and so much more. And of course once again the Bengals play Sunday against the Brown He's like two and eight the last ten games. Not too good.
But we'll see what happens this Sunday actually starts about nine am with pregame shows, etc. But Jonan, you and I now is the great Brendan Call cu Ll Brendan Call, who was the chief of staff, the Haldeman and the Erlickman, friend David Axelrod to Charlie Lucan for so many years. Now he's with the Chamber the last ten or fifteen years. And first of all, Brendan Call, do you miss the good old days with you and Lucan controlled things with then on grip or are you're happy to be in
your plushy job? Which would you prefer.
I've got a great job. I get to work with my good friends at City Hall, and Charlie is still a very good friend, and we remnants about the good old days A lot.
In other words, you don't answer the question the question, which is good, but nonetheless, if you thought about a bloodless coup. Segment suggested yesterday that you and Charlie get a tank, maybe from Butler County, and take over eight to one Plump Street. This or a chance we're getting ready for.
We're getting ready for Blink right now, which is I think what we're going to talk about. And I got a golf cart. Do you think I could? Do you think I could take over a city hall with a golf cart? Or do you think I need to be more heavily armed?
More heavily armed? I talked to side leasey still as the Navy and the Air Force ready to go, but we got major problems. We'll leave that off to the side. Blink, as I understand it, correctly helped me. Melissa Powers may weigh in and open up the jail cells. Charmaine McGuffey will be there making sure everyone is tied to the wall, beaten to death if they don't go with you where you want to go. But we have nothing but issues at eight to one Plump Street. I like the good old days.
Street. I got to give him great credit because we're working really closely with the city right now to reduce blank blank, which is an absolutely spectacular event for this community and the city. My good friend Mayor Puir Ball, the city manager Surel Long have done an unbelievable job supporting this both financially and with the great police and fire departments of the City of Cincinnati. This event, there's nothing like this in the country, and people are coming
from all over the world to see this event. And it is really great that Cincinnati and Newport and Covington have this free public art event that inspires people and brings them downtown phenomenal.
Well, I think it's great. I don't understand it. I was there one time. I saw these projections of light on the sides of buildings and like mainly women walking around taking photographs going ooh and ah. My good friend Sean Donovan has a flower pod out in front of his brickstone and they're on court straight, but he puts flowers in there and women stand next to it with pictures taken. I don't understand it, but I don't. I don't understand a lot of things. As I understand.
If you go to hang out with me, I'll drive you around it's going to be awesome. Here's what you guys. You have an unbelievable listening audience, and I bet a lot of them are going to be down here for Blink and I want to tell them three things that I think they should absolutely see. Do you want me to do that?
Let me write that time? I got one? What's number one? Write this time?
Number one? Do not miss music Hall. Many people remember Luminosity from ten years ago. We are going to relte music Hall for the first time since Luminosity. Four different artists who are local with sound. It's going to be absolutely magic. You can't It's a can't miss part of Blink.
Number one is music number number two. What's number two?
Yep, number two. I'm going to give you four. I lied. Number two is at the corner of sixth and Walnut. There is an awesome mural of Neil Armstrong, perhaps but one of the greatest Americans. No clue, I agree.
And five hundred years from now, forget about the Taps, forget about Pete Rose, forget about Joe Burrow. The only name known from the century will be Neil Armstrong. That's the only name known.
In Neil Armstrong's mural on the back of the fifth third building. Another general sponsor. We're going to light the Neil Armstrong mural. It includes sound that has him talking to you know, mission control, talking to Richard Nixon. It gives me goosebumps every time I see it. It's going to not it's gonna not your socks.
Off number one music call number number two, sixth and Walnut, Neil Armstrong number.
Three, yep, number three. I think kids and families are going to absolutely love the Newport on the Levee mural.
Uh.
It features dinosaurs and animals. My good friends, it's the Cincinni Museum Center helping us produce it. It's it's total magic. If you've got kids and your coming down, check out the Newport area. The ovation development Newport on the Levee is where that mural is, and it's really phenomenal.
Got that down. I watched number four, the four Bag of four Bager go.
Up to Finley Market area at sixteen six Race Street. Now it's a little further up, but it's in the heart of over the Rhine. There is a mural, a brand new mural. Part of the cool thing about Blink is that we fifteen new murals from all over the world. Artists come here to paint on walls. We now have one of the largest collections of public art murals in the world. Two artists from the Netherlands I met yesterday painted an image of a payphone on this building. It
is huge. It looks like it's coming out of the building and it will. It's it's so cool. It's just so cool, and you'll be up in your friendly market and there's a lot to do up there.
So you're saying a picture of a payphone.
I can't describe it to you, Bill, but it is it's it is a okay, the entire side of a building, and it's magic. It's so cool.
I could tell my grandkids about that and they would say, Poppy, what is that?
I know, but that's why I think. That's why. I think that's why people are gonna love seeing it. It's it's gonna be great down here, you know. I would tell people all four nights, you come back multiple times, make sure you see Newport and Covington. That great partners that meet nky you know, helps this happen. Thank you police and fire officials who are down here making sure everyth's safe because it's you know, it's one of the best weekends to be downtown or in Newport and Covington.
You know, I encourage people to try and ride a bus down here because you know, parking, you got to park and everything. But it's we've got it all worked out. So if you go to our website at blink Cincinnati dot com, all the informations there.
Let's deal with facts. I don't want to deal with hyperbole and depictions of payphones. I understand that two million people are going to come, which is if you take the Taste and october Fest together, they're half a blink. Is that true?
Yeah, you know, it's really difficult to do crowd estimates, so we work with police and fire about this, and we know we count people, you know, if they're here multiple nights. But we we have an enormous crowd. It is, you know, in the past, definitely more than a million people. We will release official estimates after the event, but I think what's most important is just the economic impact from it.
I was talking to a friend of mine who owns The Pony, which is a bar up on Main Street, Great Wings, Great Beast Sandwich, and he said, this is like the best weekend for them. They just they love it. And that's true for the guy to own not I mean this is this is a small business boost in the arms. So if you're down here, you're running a restaurant or bar or an art gallery, this is this is the hottest weekend. Your hotels are full. I saw one hotel had a room. It was probably the last
room left. It was fifteen hundred dollars a night, which is bonkers but awesome. And you know that's great. That's awesome for the economy in the city.
No question. So at It starts tomorrow, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I think Sunday too. It'sday night to Sunday night.
Just ro tip. Sunday Sunday is a great night to come because you're going to be My pro tip for your listening on it, Sunday is a really great night to be down here.
All right now, As far as admission, Tony Bender's cheap. He's from Boone County. It's kind of a rural kind of a guy's got chickens, rose, carrots and peas. He's a farmer. Why should someone from the hinterland, from the outreaches of Boone County or Butler County or Wilmington come to Blink.
Well, people are coming from all over the world. I think the guy the family who's in Butler County who will make a trip downtown is gonna if they haven't been in a while, they'll rediscover how fortunate we are to have this urban core with so much to do, so many great restaurants, buildings that are you know, architecturally beautiful. I mean, this is a great city. We are very lucky to live in Cincinnati, Ohio. Not every downtown urban core across the country has fared as well as Cincinnati has.
We have, you know, thousands of people living down here in apartments. There's four apartments within a block of where I'm sitting right now that are turning into residences. It's the greatest collection of art and culture probably in the Midwest. Uh, You've got stadiums down here, so people come down here for that, but to be able to walk around and be Fountain Square and you can ride the street car
for free all weekend and see much of Blink. We're so lucky to live in a place where whether you live in Butler County or Boone County at night to come down here and experience this economy in our city. This is this is great, it's great for for us.
Why doesn't it exist somewhere else? Because I watched this interview on Channel nineties too, this couple from the Netherlands who come here. I'm thinking, what are you? What are you kidding me?
Yeah?
So I'm thinking, why can you explain? I don't get blank. I walked around a couple of years ago, looked at some holographic images on old buildings, and women are taking picture. Who look at that? Look at that? Hey, look at that? And I'm thinking. I kept saying, where in the hell's blank? Where's blank? And blank is everywhere? What the hell is blank? I mean, what are you talking about?
Blank? You want me to get super You don't make it super corny with you, Like there's a spirit of blink too. So you know people are down here, You're standing with your friends and neighbors. I don't tell people, you know, Billy, I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, moved here in nineteen ninety five, and you you got to come down to Fountain Square when the Reds won the World Series. Who's a great, great moment in Cincinnati history. There have been other moments with our sports teams. Going
to the Super Bowl was really awesome. But there's a whole generation of people who are going to remember coming downtown and being a part of blank and seeing the art and seeing the buildings. That will be a lifelong memory for them. Standing with their friends and neighbors. The guy from Boone County is going to stand next to the person from Butler County, and next to them will be somebody who lives in over the Rhine, and they will feel this great spirit that we have of living
in Cincinnati, and it's a pretty special thing. And you know, these people come in from all over public art murals. To me, that is as high form of an art as somebody who paints on a piece of canvas. And you could sit in your studio and paint a piece of canvas and sell art for you know, twenty five thousand dollars to some collector, or you could paint the same quality art on the side of the building and over the Rhine and we all get to see it
for the next one hundred years. That's pretty lucky that we get to have essentially a city that is an art gallery.
I said the other day that we're blessed to have the town we live in compared to other towns our size. But I said three c DC, the Reds, the Bengals, FC, Proctor and god fitth Third Bank, that Joseph Automotive Group, Western and Southern, John Barrett, the tennis tournament. We got a little bit of a hockey going on, U C Xavier NKU. You could take fifteen miles from downtown Cincinnati and there's not a town anywhere in the country that does the kinds of things Cincinnati does well. And one
of them was Blink, which I don't understand. We also have music Hall with all the dancing and the orchestration and the symphony and the ballet and all that kind of crap, none of which I like it all. But nonetheless, a lot of people aren't like me. You know what I'm saying, Brandon, People of differentations, you know what I'm saying. Many people think I'm not normal, Brandon, call are you normal?
You know, I think that's a debatable question. I would probably say there people like you who say I'm not normal, not normal. But that's the best part about this city is that you know you might be the biggest Bengals fan. And maybe art doesn't mean anything to you, but I promise you if you walk around downtown, walk around, you're gonna see something that catches your eye. And it's funny thing. By the way, for a person who doesn't care about the Bengals. No, they get swept up in the Super
Bowl spirit. And we're you know, you're right built Cincinnati, Ohio. There's no other city that I can think of who can put it all together like we can.
I lived in Toledo a long time in law school and practice law there with Schnorf, Snorff and Schnorf, and I watched the death of Toledo. It's really not come back except for Ohio state and state government. Columbus doesn't even exist. Dayton's got problems. And comparing us to Indianapolis or Milwaukee or Kansas City, I'd live here in a heartbeat because of large numbers of individuals that make this
city work. I take it the Barrett and fit Third Bank and take three C D C unbelievable stuff being done that doesn't happen anywhere else. Once again, what's the website? People can go there look at blink maybe down looking a stare at a wall somewhere on a holograph. I don't know. You can go from Newport to Covington to Findlay Market. It's probably two or three miles walk. You can't take it all in one night. What is the website?
Tony Founder wants to know he wants to bring the kids, the chickens, he wants to bring the farm animals and marching around. What is the website?
Blink Cincinnati dot com. All of the information you need is there, follow on social too. I hope to see all of you down there this weekend.
And should new council members be picked upon qualifications or purely upon race? What do you say?
You know, Bill, I've been I've been reading about this. I want to say, I know I wanted that wish wish. Evan Nolan quite a lot of luck. I've gotten the chance to work with him when he was at the city and good man. He's a good city man, cares a lot about the neighbor of Oakley, which is where he and his family live. And like all of the nine folks down there, I think you know, go ahead. There are things that you could talk about no I
talk about on your program like you do. But that group comes together to support the big things that matter, whether it's three CDC, the convention Center, Blink, housing in our community. And so I'm focused on, you know, working positively with the folks who are down there.
You're staying out of politics until you seize power once again. It'll be Axelrod and Obama is going to be calling Lucan at some point ruling for a thousand years.
Golf cart the golf cart brigade.
We have an M fifty on top, just letting it rip, all right once again, Brendan Call, thanks for coming on. You're the head of the chamber. You're in charge of all things happening, including the taste in Octoberfest and Blinking so much more and get my best to all the folks at Blink.
Well, thanks so much for having me on.
God bless Blink. Let's continue and Brendan Call, thank you very much. You can't talk about politics. I often do and I will. A person should be judged by the not the color of their skin, but the content of their character. And someone out to tell Joe Mallory at the NAACP that's the way it ought to be. You can't be a civil rights group concerned about racism when
you practice it yourself. Let's continue with more Bill cunning and the Grant Americans speaking truth to power on news radio seven hundred WLW