peter pan and dayton, ohio

there's no connection between the two (other than being together in my very own head) that I know of. unless you're willing to play one of those kindergarten-era "how are these things alike?" games.

because Peter Pan, obviously, stands out because of his ability to fly (sure, there's all the "never grow up" stuff, but the ability to fly is like a superhero power - very rare - while I know plenty of folk who refuse to grow up) and Dayton has labelled itself "The Birthplace of Aviation" given that Orville and Wilbur Redenbacher (just kidding) entered the world somewhere inside the city limits of, or somewhere near, Dayton (even though their best-known accomplishment took place in The Tar Heel State).

Dayton, or somewhere near, is also the birthplace of Lou Barlow of Dinosaur Jr, The Breeders, The Ohio Players, Guided by Voices, Tommy James & The Shondells, jazz genius Billy Strayhorn, comedy genius Jonathan Winters, the Heartless Bastards, Kim Richey and Hawthorne Heights.

(I must admit that even though I know Kim, and know that she's from Ohio, I don't believe I would've guessed Dayton as her place of birth)

we learned just last Sunday that Hawthorne Heights was from Dayton. the band had the third of five slots on the Fall Out Boy tour stop at Hara Arena (see photo above) and much was made backstage about their return home.
for the Fall Out Boy set I positioned myself in the VIP section behind the main soundboard and so was nearby a rather drunk boy wearing a Hawthorne Heights pass who insisted on taking the chair of one of FOB's soundguys. following the show the same guy could be seen skulking out of the HH dressing room, ostensibly hiding leftover sodas and beers under his shirt.
but he wasn't exactly inconspicuous (like Tom Hulce's grocery store run in Animal House) and post-show no one gave a rat's ass anyway.

more opinions about Dayton: it is definitively divided into north and south and the south is the nicer area of town (where Books & Co. is located). Hara Arena is on the north side. as is the airport (which is carpeted with a biplane motif). and while there is an airport hotel, you'd have to be there to know it (no Internet info that I found) so we stayed at the clean and relatively affordable Hampton Inn in Huber Heights (the ice machine on our floor was non-functional, but that's about the worst thing I can say about the stop). and the TSA staff at the Dayton Airport were very likely the most conscientious and convivial that I've run across in my travels (a rare and appreciated thing).

so what the hell does this have to do with Peter Pan?
not much.
but a couple days after our return from the midwest (Ohio's the midwest, right?) I ventured to New York Public Library to return books and CDs and happened across the relatively new Guided by Voices bio by James Greer which I'm now reading.
I also stumbled across a DVD copy of Finding Neverland which I'd never seen so I brought that home as well.
we watched FN on Thursday night (very touching) and then last night noticed that a cable channel well up the dial was showing Peter Pan (the '03 version) which neither my spouse nor I had seen (hell, neither of us had ever seen any kind of production of Peter Pan). and it seemed a little like kismet so we watched (at least I did - she fell asleep).
much harder to recommend. Peter was too damn cute to be likeable and to be honest I had no idea that there was supposedly to be a coming-of-age, puppy love thing betw him and Wendy. and that was a little disconcerting.
guess I should study up on my "classics."

last book read: Cari Lynn's Leg the Spread(okay)
book before that: How Israel Lost: The Four Questions by Richard Ben Cramer (highly recommended)
book before that: Mike Schmidt's Clearing the Bases (not so much)