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Cincinnati, Ohio
Yeah baby we were savage, we existed to kill, our history is damaged- at least it was a thrill
Not all that far from Cincinnati is one of the most unique and troubling tourist attraction in the country if not the world. The Creation Museum is a real full fledged tourist attraction that promotes a "young earth theory" and needs to be seen to be believed, which of course is the reason I knew I just had to go and see it for myself. Young earth theory says that creationism in the bible is historically and literally accurate word for word and that the earth is only 6,000 years old and not the slightly older 4,600,000,000 years that all those heathen scientists keep saying it is. According to the well designed exhibits, it is science that is ignorant of the facts and not the young earth creationists- a point of view which is hard to accept and one that is more troubling as you see the crowds and crowds of people in the museum who seem to hang on every word.
One of the more controversial/interesting/insane aspects (if you don't count everything else) is their explanation of dinosaurs. Of course dinosaurs existed, and since they did they must have been created by god and were present in the Garden of Eden 6,000 years ago (at least according to the audio animatronic display). And since Noah had two of every animal on board the ark there must have been dinosaurs there with all the sheep, penguins and bunnies as well. The dinosaurs (and apparently only the dinosaurs) that didn't survive became fossils stuck in the mud of the great flood, the same event responsible for just about everything including the carving of the Grand Canyon. And for extra proof the museum specifically cited examples of legends that mention dragons, specifically saying that surviving dinosaurs who descended from the ark refugees would have easily been mistaken for dragons way back when. Maybe it's just me, but citing imaginary dragon stories to prove that there were dinosaurs aboard Noah's Ark since there were dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden 6,000 years ago starts to feel like a real stretch.
So while I do my best to respect other people's religious beliefs (who am I to say or judge when it comes right down to it), I will say that it's really, really hard to walk through that place without thinking that everyone else in the building reading and believing all this crap is just plain old cuckoo crazy. I could go on and on about the exhibits and what they say and how they contradict all logic but will just hold myself back at this point, probably because it just got to be kind of sad after a while. I went in thinking that it would somehow be a fun diversion to visit that crazy creation museum but ended up leaving a bit upset wondering how anyone could think that the only way to have faith is to totally dismiss decades and centuries of scientific discoveries, that the only way to believe is to purposely dismiss all that thought and evidence and logic.
British/Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid's small but powerful Contemporary Art Center is still the best building (by far) in Cincinnati. My second visit to the museum found the building still in great shape but the collection decidedly mixed. Half of the building was closed for a new installation and (almost) another half of the building was closed for an impending gala benefit. So despite the low admission price (it was just about free) all there was to see was a floor and a half and the entry stair. Luckily for all that entry stair still kicks ass (see second slide), even when littered by scissor lifts and stray audio speakers and lights being setup all around it.
While Zaha Hadid's museum may be the best building (by far) in Cincinnati, she has real competition if you broadened the category to include Cincinnati's best structure. John Roebling's beautiful and iconic suspension bridge connects cosmopolitan downtown Cincinnati with slightly less cosmopolitan downtown Covington, Kentucky. Opened way, way back in 1866 (decades before Roebling's Brooklyn Bridge and well before horseless carriages), the bridge has real soul, or at least as much soul as a stone and steel structure can ever really have.
The third Daniel Libeskind building in this unending (or finally now almost ending) slideshow is The Ascent at Roebling's Bridge, a residential building that made a cameo in the last pictures and has the added benefit of looking like a totally different structure from most every angle. It's blue glass and white panel exterior relates surprisingly well to the Roebling Bridge and unsurprisingly not well at all to anything (anything) else in Covington. Or Cincinnati for that matter. Still, at every opportunity where you get to glimpse it you are still drawn to its new angle, its almost new shape on the skyline, always thinking first "what the hell is that" before realizing that it's nothing more than just another residential building, although at least an interesting one.
On the Ohio River waterfront in Cincinnati, right next to the Roebling Bridge and between the new football and baseball stadiums is the National Underground Railroad Museum, a fascinating history lesson that is as uplifting as a museum all about the horrors of slavery can ever really be. Peppered with artifacts (including an incredibly evocative cabin that used to house slaves headed to market), the museum has a great sad song of a story to tell and is sadly far, far less popular than that crazy Creation Museum only a few miles away.
Nearby (or at least nearby-ish) Cincinnati is Lexington, Kentucky, a gracious town (can't really say city) if there ever was one. And while work took me to Lexington my schedule didn't really allow as much time there as I expected. Still between my tough schedule and all those spotty severe spring thunderstorms there was still at least a chance to drive by some of the magic, camera in hand, past all of the white fences, stately barns and (of course) bluegrass that you could ever hope to see.
