Im not sure where to post this, but it is maybe more a city discussion than anything....

 

I'm not sure if anyone here is familiar with or heard of a local Dayton "character" David Sparks.  He was sort of an internet presence for a few years, on the old Active Dayton forums, and having his own website "Fat City News"

 

Then he resurfaced as "Drexel Dave", frontman for a  band, "Drexel" (after the infamous suburban redneck slum out West Third Street)..not sure what happened to Drexel, but it looks like they might have an album out (or is it just a prank...I think Drexel actually did do gigs)

 

Now I came across a photoblog site from Drexel Dave

 

Photos from the Streets of Dayton

 

....which is interesting as he is taking pix of a lot of the same areas I'm taking pix of, except he does more people, more true "street photography', whith black humor captions, while I do buildings (with pedantic historical captions)...but he does buildings too.

 

His opening statement:

 

Probably like many people in many areas of the USA, I get sick and tired of being sick and tired about the Disney-esque way that my local world is presented by our local corporate media wizards, or the hordes of bad PR agents working to sell the fantasy viewpoint that EVERYTHING IS JUST FINE AND DANDY in our Grand City of Dayton, Ohio.

 

The pictures tell another story. Here they are. Some of them are disturbing, while others are just ordinary depiction of life on the streets - our true surroundings. All of them were shot with a digital camera while driving through various neighborhoods and sections of this midwestern city where airplanes and funk music were invented.

 

22 pages of pix of Dayton, and one page of Cincinnati.

 

...and he does mean disturbing, as there is one weegee-esque one of a guy who committed suicide by hanging himself from an upper floor window.  Generally they are not too creepy, if you are used to Dayton.

 

Sparks seems to have moved on from street photography, though, into a form of folk art of his own invention...

 

The wild and unique bedpan art of Drexel Dave Sparks

 

 

 

 

@@@@@@

 

Unlike me this guy actually does live in Dayton.  His neighbors are restoring a rather signifigant historic house, and have their own blog/website..

 

Worth checkiing out....

 

This Old Crack House

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Old Crack House.

 

Classic.

The Sparks guy comes off as an asshole who is not very empathetic towards the plight of the people in his photos. I laughed at a few of his lines though:

There is no building that cannot be made into a ghetto church in Dayton.

I thought that was decent.

 

It is sort of hard to be emphatic with some, but then poor people have to live somewhere...and the somewhere around here is the City of Dayton, Drexel, and parts of Riverside, Fairborn, and Harrison Twp.

 

I guess what I like about him is that he sort of sees the city the same way I do.  You'll note I nearly never post pix of gentrification or redevelopement, as that is not really representative of what is going on here. ..I look more at the old factory districts and old neighborhoods, and the suburbs.  And at the impact of urban renewal in emascualting the city.

 

As for his comments I see them more as sardonic and gallows humor.  Not sure how much an asshole he is...never met him.  He and his SO make an appearance in the This Old Crack House blog as the whacky neighbors

 

 

 

As for the hanging man, I think I recently took a pix of that house...that is just down the street from where Sparks lives. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great website! I long for websites that show urban life.

Wow, that entire set of blogs/pics was amazing, I just finished going thru the whole site as well and really enjoyed that photographer's work. Some of those pics made my eyeballs jump. Anyways, does anybody know of any other photoblogs out there, featuring any other Ohio cities?? If not, I might follow in the footsteps with one for Cleveland or Akron. I love the idea of daily or weekly photo blogs of life in the city.