June 23, 2009 Indianapolis, IN; Cincinnati, OH

Breakfast at Sunrise Cafe on East 86th in the Castleton neighborhood. Another extremely hot day, mostly spent going around to record stores with posters and promos, listening to my Naptown Soul compilations. I was saddened to see that Joe Lee Records on Clifton Street was gone. Record stores close all the time nowdays, but Joe Lee was an old institution in Indianapolis. Including the mall FYE stores, working Indianapolis took all day, so it was around 6 PM by the time I got to Greenfield. I stopped at a Culver's there to get a chocolate-peanut butter concrete, and after dropping off posters at the local Karma Records, I drove the state highway south to Shelbyville, where there was another Karma location. I just barely made it to the Greensburg Karma store before they closed for the evening, and then, with the sun still bright, I headed on I-74 toward Cincinnati. I headed straight for Mount Adams, my favorite part of town, where I had read about a place called the City View Tavern, that was said to have the best hamburger in town. I found it with some difficulty, and discovered that it was a typical dive bar with a couple of differences. One, it had an outdoor deck, and two, it had one of the best views of downtown Cincinnati. Being what it was, however, the place had no frills-no bacon, no french fries, but I will say that the burger was big, good and juicy, and, of course the Cincinnati Reds game was on the TV screen. I watched the sun go down over the city skyline, and then later, I called my friend Abdullah from the Elementz Hip-Hop Youth Center, and he told me that the young people would be doing a showcase Thursday night, so I made plans to be there. Still hungry, I drove out Montgomery Road to a Fatburger location, which was still open, and ordered a burger and fries. The food was good, but the air conditioner had broken down, and it was unbearably hot. After that, with little to do, I drove to my hotel the Marriott Kingsgate Conference Center, which turned out to be on the campus of the University of Cincinnati, and checked into my room.