Premier Of "25 Hill" Lifts Hopes For Akron's Soap Box Derby

The movie, largely shot in the Akron area about The Soap Box Derby is finally out, opening to a big crowd.

OK, I am gonna have to say it looks like they laid it on thick. Kid, who's dad was killed in Afghanistan hooks up with bitter old man who's son died in the World Trade Center--and after a long.....barf. I guess, I just can't quite buy that this is a great movie.

Still, I can't help feeling that The Derby itself, is a great event which taps into a very deep American love of fun, invention and can do spirit. The film is also the product of lots of local North East Ohio backers who believed in the project and it's potential to draw more support and attention to a struggling Akron tradition.

IMHO, this is still a greatly under leveraged brand which fits so closely with the recent revival of Do It Yourself culture.

Leveraging Akron's Soap Box Derby: The Akron DYI Festival

Trailer for the Film 25 Hill
The above trailer is really pretty over the top (I guess I'm old) and hard to get through, still it's about something that's I think somehow valuable and worth saving.

I guess everyone has their own opinion of brands that are over or undervalued. To lots of folks, the name Soap Box Derby is forgotten, even though for several generations it represented almost everything we like to think of as American.

Exploration, perhaps, teamwork, tinkering and innovation--culminating in a race. Of course even racing cars without engines is linked with 1950's and 60's car culture.

In the mind it gets back to the primordial garage, where we know so much of our innovative economy was always born and reborn.

The Derby has fallen on hard times and a film is being made partly in hopes of spurring more support.

The Derby has lost key sponsors, including Chevrolet and Levi Strauss Co. over the years and in 2009, FirstMerit Bank demanded payment on more than $600,000 in loans.

But a new board is making some tough financial decisions to keep the Derby alive -- and in Akron.

''We are committed to making sure that the Derby survives,'' Bill Evans, the board president, told the Akron Beacon Journal. "The Derby is so inexorably linked with Akron's brand.''

Ironically all of this is happening at the very moment so many people are returning to DYI everything.

I'll take a slim shot and throw out the idea of building the derby into a longer Festival of Do It Yourself Culture. Something for all ages. Imagine for example demonstrations of new power ideas or solar car races. Perhaps it could actually have events spread from Akron to Youngstown or even further--but invite projects from around the country.

Sort of Burning Man for the common man. Science meets art meets fun on very practical level.

The question then comes up. Well, don't both Pittsburgh with it's Art's Festival and Cleveland's Ingenuity Festival attempt to do that? Yes, and really no. Both seem very focused as demonstrations of very local and hyper local creativity. The door is still very much open to anyone who wants to transend that and tap into a very deep powerful international trend.

Yinz Cleveburgh and Random Art Links: April 4--15

Ooops, there's a lot more stuff I coulda/shoulda put on here. I'm way behind on this. Anyway, a few news items and stories from the Cleveburgh region.

Cleveland

The tenth, Cinema Wasteland Movie and Memorabilia Expo.



Music Draft Lottery. A great idea, that would be hard to make up.

"The 2008 Lottery League was a surprising success. It yielded 33 bands that convened to play 10-minute sets at a blowout show at the Beachland. Last year, several of the acts contributed to a compilation CD, and some bands kept going after the "Big Show," earning their way into the Lottery League's "Hall of Fame." Because of the amount of work involved in coordinating the project, council members decided to wait until this year to launch a sequel."

Cleveburgh

New Northeast Ohio economic development website, Theplus.US up.

Kent

The Youngstown Vindicator is seeking images, memories and stories of Kent State, May 4th 1970.


Akron

25 Hill, a new movie about The Soap Box Derby, is a labor of love for people in Akron.

Pittsburgh

Null Space gives a rundown of the many contradictory Marcellus Shale and other energy stories. In the near term, Natural Gas prices are near record lows and far away from levels that would make recent projects pay off.

Barge Traffic reached 15 year lows in 2009 partly reflecting lower regional power demand for coal. Coal, in case you don't know it is the primary fuel for American power plants. Your green Electric Car--is fueled by coal, dude!

The Pirate's milk the baseball revenue sharing welfare system for all they can.

Keystone Commons Industrial Park, on the old Westinghouse site expannds amid a surge in occupancy. Pipe needed for Marcellus Shale projects may be a big factor.

What's so interesting here is how close the current use of the site fits with it's original purpose as a place for hard core "tinkering", metal working and industrial R&D. Westinghouse Air Brake, now known as WABTEC still has it's headquaurters here.

If you have thoughts or insight you want to share about art, music,film, urban design, architecture, transit or history in the Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Youngstown, Erie, Morgantown, Akron, Canton region--Cleveburgh, email me diggingpitt@gmail.com

This is not Hyper Local media, but regional media seeking local viewpoints.