In this episode, host Rodney Veal talks to Ron Rollins, an abstract artists and retired editor/writer for Dayton Daily News, about his background in the world of journalism and how a chance happening brought him and his wife to Dayton.
In this episode, host Rodney Veal talks to Ron Rollins, an abstract artists and retired editor/writer for Dayton Daily News, about his background in the world of journalism and how a chance happening brought him and his wife to Dayton.
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[00:00:30] Rodney Veal: Hey Ron, we are on the podcast with you today, Ron Rawlins, for folks who don’t know is the true man about Town. Oh, right. That’s my title for you. Ah in every way, shape and form. I mean, Ron, Ron in, in your work as an editor with the Dayton Daily News, but also as an artist in your own right.
[00:00:50] So I want the world to get to know you a little bit better. We’re gonna have that kind of a conversation. How about it?
[00:00:55] Ron Rollins: Well, thank you. I’m, I’m pleased and honored to be here. I haven’t been on a podcast in a while. And I [00:01:00] think the last one was, was on Libby Balley’s late Lamented Gem City podcast a couple years ago after I retired.
[00:01:06] And it has been a while.
[00:01:08] Rodney Veal: It’s been a minute. It’s been a minute, but it has, that’s why I think that’s the reason why we wanted to talk to you today. So, absolutely. Hey, come on. We gotta hear Ron’s voice. And so Ron, for those who don’t know, you kinda encapsulate your early life because you’re an interesting person in the sense of having his really full, robust career and newspaper, newspaper world and then becoming an artist.
[00:01:30] I mean, so we’re gonna talk about both of those, but let’s start with newspapers and editing and how you got into that.
[00:01:37] Ron Rollins: Well, sure. I was the major part of my career was with Cox and the, the Dayton Daily News here in town. Got here in 1986. I was on the on the Metro desk. Basically doing nightside editing of oh gosh, police stories and, you know, weather stories and crime and courts and general features.
[00:01:56] I was a pretty quick rewrite kid and I was a kid back [00:02:00] then. Ended up becoming. I ended up deciding that my wife and I got here thinking that Dayton would be kind of a layover town before we would go to a bigger paper. It was the third paper I’d worked at since college, and we ended up just kind of falling in love with Dayton, falling in love with the Dayton Daily News and the, all the, the, the quirky characters there and making good friends here in town.
[00:02:19] Eventually my wife got a job at the paper as. As the real estate editor, the automotive editor, and then later on as a reporter at the skywriter out at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, which the Daily News published on a contract for a long time. And we started having kids and just realized that Dayton’s a great place to, that they’ll cliche great place to raise a family.
[00:02:38] Cause it is we live in Kettering and, and like the schools there for our kids. Had a, had a really fun run at the Daily News. Ended up staying there instead of going to the bigger paper. I interviewed at a couple of those when I was in my early thirties and decided like what they got here isn’t better than what I got in Dayton.
[00:02:55] Ended up having a pretty fun run. I ended up becoming one of the [00:03:00] specialty editors like covering arts and enter. It was the features editor. Had a long running column in the Sunday entertainment section back in the late nineties, early two thousands.
[00:03:08] That was a lot of fun where I pretty much got to write about anything I wanted in the realm of arts, entertainment, whether it was local or national. Did a lot of, back in those days, we had a pretty big arts coverage staff that did a lot of reviewing of local concerts. I think that’s probably when I met.
[00:03:23] Yeah, I think, yeah,
[00:03:24] Rodney Veal: that’s the time.
[00:03:25] Ron Rollins: Back in that time did a lot of reviewing of music and stuff like that, which was something that I was, was new to me, but I had a lot of help from my staff teaching me how to do it. Ended up covering the Dayton Art Institute for a while as an, as the editor because as the entertainment editor, because nobody on my staff felt like they wanted to cover.
[00:03:43] the museum, they were off covering different stuff like dance, theater, you know, music and stuff. And so I was like, well, I’ll cover the Dayton Art Institute. And I got to know that institution really well. I covered it back when Alex Nargis was the director years ago when they were doing those big shows from China and Egypt and stuff.
[00:03:59] That was a lot of [00:04:00] fun. Mm-hmm. Ended up moving up in the management ranks and we spent a couple years as one of the managing editors running the larger newsroom, operation. And ended up becoming the editor or the editor of our papers down in Butler and Warren County. It’s down in Hamilton, Middletown, and a bunch of weeklies down there.
[00:04:16] And for a couple years then ended up back in Dayton for the last part of my career as the opinion page editor the Ideas and Voices section. So, I mean, I’ve always, I’ve always kind of been a community guy. I think, I guess my reputation of the paper was. One of, you know, kind of deep community involvement in addition to the journalism because I was actually fortunate to end up at a paper where it was encouraged for executive level editors to participate in the community.
[00:04:48] For example, in non-profit boards and stuff. As long as you properly recused yourself, if one of them ended up being involved in some sort of news coverage, which I. I was on the board of Dayton History in the [00:05:00] Montgomery County Historical Society in Caroline Park for many years. Helped found film Dayton.
[00:05:05] I was on the board at the Antioch Writer’s Workshop for a long time. Gosh, I was one of the Dayton creatives in that initiative back in the early two thousands. On the, board of House of Bread for a long time still am was chair of that board. And, and, and then just when your pic, when your picture runs in the paper, A lot in a town getting size.
[00:05:24] People think you’re a celebrity of some sort because it’s a small, small enough town that there aren’t a lot of actual celebrities. . So
[00:05:31] Rodney Veal: and I know nothing about that at
[00:05:33] Ron Rollins: all. I was gonna say, so Rodney, pe Rodney, people like you and me, no. Right. People like you and me, who in a town. So the size of of Chicago or Cleveland would not be celebrities are in Dayton,
[00:05:45] And so you end up, you ended becoming invited to like, you know, mc, fundraising galas and, and, and do a lot of public speaking and stuff, so, right. You know, the fun part about having that sort of community role [00:06:00] in addition to being a journalist meant. I, I heard a lot of, I, I, I was, I heard a lot of stuff, you know, I mean, I, I, I heard a lot of stuff out in the community that made good stories and made good journalism and I was able to, you know, I was able to sort of, I think, Here, here thing here.
[00:06:20] Things that we might not have heard and passed them along to the right editor and reporter for a long time. And also too, you know, had ended up becoming enmeshed in enough. Especially in the nonprofit arts world, enough, in enough parts of the community where you know, I, if, if, if, if some young reporter needed somebody’s phone number, I always had it Right.
[00:06:38] You know, I mean, right, right. Okay. I became a very good walking Rolodex for the newsroom. The last part of my career, the Daily News was deeply embedded with W H I O Radio and tv, which were also owned by Cox Enterprises, our parent company. For the last 12 years of my career, people may remember that [00:07:00] W H I o Radio TV and the Daily News and dayton.com, were all together in one giant newsroom.
[00:07:05] Right. With a very big media footprint. And so the, the fun part of that for me was getting to, for a lot of us was getting to learn how radio and TV worked. Instead of watching it from afar and from a newspaper perspective, we were able to, we worked together on a lot of stuff. So for the last 10 years of, of.
[00:07:23] Of my career. I was also had a radio show on W H I O A M F M that aired on Sunday morning. It’s called Miami Valley Voices, which was a half hour radio show that was pretty much just about whatever I wanted it to be. It was a lot of arts arts creators leaders of local nonprofits.
[00:07:40] And it was just a half hour chat like. You know, with very light editing about stuff going on in the community that sort of ended up being kind of like a whole extra aspect to the tail end of my time at the Daily News. That was a lot of fun, and I would run into people who would recog, like at the grocery store or [00:08:00] something, or to party who would recognize my voice.
[00:08:03] and like, are you that guy on W Y O? I’m like, no, I’m a W H I O. Oh, okay. And they, and they didn’t really know me from the newspaper. They knew me from the radio. Right. Which was kind of interesting. And, and also too, the people that I met and talked to were just endlessly fun and fascinating. So that was kind of, that’s kind of the career in a nutshell.
[00:08:21] Before we lived in Dayton my wife and I met at Miami of Ohio. I’m from Oberlin. She’s from Newark or NERC as they pronounce it. Nurk. Oh, okay. Nerk. Nerk. Kaha as they pronounce it. Nurk. . What’s one word? There’s t-shirts there that say n the E R K H A I A. Neha. And we met at Miami at the student newspaper there.
[00:08:40] And then we worked in Lorraine, which was my hometown paper, the Lorraine Journal for a couple years, then went down to I was a government. and then we went down, had an opportunity to go for me to get into editing and management at a, a paper about the same size as the journal down in Wichita Falls, Texas.
[00:08:56] And so we had fun in Texas, but it ended up coming back here [00:09:00] when we realized we were gonna have a family. And all of our parents and relatives were still back in Ohio, so we came home. And so that’s the crew in a nutshell. The, the, the job in Texas was a lot of fun because it was night time work, three to midnight, pretty much in charge of the whole paper.
[00:09:16] Yeah, I worked nights for probably about 10 years, I think between there and particular news. Yeah. Working nights is a different perspective on the world. You know, you’re, you’re doing stuff during the day, like taking your kids to school, running errands, sleeping in a little bit late, you know, maybe, or sleeping when you can.
[00:09:34] I worked one to 10 in Dayton for many years and sometimes three in midnight. We worked three in midnight for two and a half years in Texas. And you know, I mean, if. Back in those days, you know, pre-internet pre, pre-digital newsletter you know, the paper was the thing and anything happened before midnight.
[00:09:51] It got into the paper, you know? City council meetings shootings tornadoes, I mean, bad weather. I mean, you, you actual events. Yeah. What happened [00:10:00] late, late, right. Late sports, you know, I mean, you were getting it into the. Right up until midnight. It was a, it was an exciting time and a fun, fun job and fun jobs.
[00:10:10] I’ve always enjoyed. I was always enjoyed my jobs. And and newspaper people are just kind of weirdos anyway, and they’re fun to be around. I mean, , they’re don’t think you’re weirdo. I mean, I think you’re just, well inform, let’s just put Well, you’re not aware. The fun, the fun, the weird thing about journalism is that you’re well-informed and you’re not well-informed.
[00:10:29] And the sooner you realize that, the better. Off you are. And by that I mean you’re well informed in the sense that, you know, you know how things work at a certain level and you do hear things before the public in a lot of ways. But also too, nobody wants you around, right? I mean, if you’re, if you’re walking through City Hall as a government, They really don’t want you there unless they are having a press conference where they want you there.
[00:10:58] Right, right. I mean, they don’t, [00:11:00] nobody is overjoyed to see you walk into some city commissioner’s office and start asking questions. You know, the, the cops, cops don’t want you around at a crime scene, you know, I mean, you’re there anyway, but they’re not happy about it, you know? And so you’re kind of, you’re kind of in, but you’re kind of out too.
[00:11:18] It’s like you spend a lot of time looking through a keyhole and somebody’s putting their hand over it, and you’re like, I know there’s something going on in there. What is that? And it’s like, nothing, nothing here. Nothing for you to see. And then you have to kind of write a story about what you, what do you think is going on, on the other side of the keyhole on deadline, right.
[00:11:32] So it’s, you know, things but you don’t, and you’re always trying to find out more. That’s part of the magic. Being a reporter and being a journalist is, yeah, you, you’re in the, you’re in the know, but people don’t want you to know things too . Right. But which is depending on the kinda coverage you’re doing.
[00:11:49] Right.
[00:11:49] Rodney Veal: And which, which is really interesting from this perspective because you covered art and culture so much and that’s why I called you the man about town. Yeah. It’s the fact that, you know, You kind of people told you [00:12:00] things. I think the arts are much more about like, let me tell you about myself versus that.
[00:12:04] And so, I mean, I, I’m really curious about like, because you have seen the, the Dayton art scene and the cultural scene for so long, how has that changed? I mean, because you, you have that reporter’s sense of seeing, like you said, you’re seeing through the eyes looking in, there’s something going on.
[00:12:21] How’s it, what’s your take on how the art and cultural scene has changed since you started peaking in, so to speak?
[00:12:29] Ron Rollins: Right. A lot of things have changed. I, I’m gonna say mostly for the better, but they also have, there’s, there’s been a steadiness that I think is interesting. I would say, for example, you know, when I got here you still had Jill’s jazz club, Jerry ge Lotti bringing in top jazz and blues and some, some rock stuff.
[00:12:49] Mostly jazz and blues and and that’s gone. and you had Canal Street Tavern, MC Montgomery, bringing in cool small indie rock stuff. [00:13:00] Well, and they’re, and they’re gone. Those guys have, have, have passed on and the clubs have closed. And that’s very sad. And I spent many hours in those places and I learned a lot.
[00:13:10] However, now you have a new generation of young people. I mentioned Libby Boje at the beginning of the, of the show, you know, The people may know her as kind of like this local music promoter with Venus Child Productions, and she’s working at the Bright Side, Carly Dixon, right over you know downtown and, and they’re turning the bright side kind of into a new larger combo type venue that sort of combines the best parts.
[00:13:39] Canal Street and, and Jill’s, it’s a bigger room, you know? Yeah. Much bigger room. N nobody ever had a, nobody ever, nobody ever had a wedding at Canal Street Tavern. Right. You know, you cans. Right. It’s a, it’s a, it’s a successful event space where you could do something big like a burlesque show or, or, or a, or a, a hip hop show that’s gonna be [00:14:00] larger, but you can also scale it down and do something small and.
[00:14:02] And, and the, the, and Libby I mentioned as a, just one of several smart music promoters in town. Yellow Cab is another one, you know, yellow Cab, Brian Johnson and those guys are, are bringing in interesting local and national acts. S selling out, you know, o oftentimes. So you have this new generation that has, after a couple of years of maybe a fallow period, I would say, after canal Street and, and Jill’s went.
[00:14:28] Which they were going to do eventually anyway. Right.
[00:14:31] Rodney Veal: Right. The evolution of space and place of people getting older and
[00:14:34] Ron Rollins: Sure. People get old, they retire, they close down. Right. You know, eventually then you had you have this new generation of people in their, you know, thirties and forties who are, are, have picked up the ball and run with it, putting their own flavor and spin on it and, and I think providing some real satisfying musical experiences for people.
[00:14:52] I would say the. , you know, when I got here the Oregon district was not anywhere close to the vibrant place that it is [00:15:00] now. In 19, you know, 86, I’d say I would take the Oregon District of today over the Oregon district of the late eighties in terms of a place to go and, and see, see music and have, have a good time and, and, and be and feel like you’re in a much, a much larger town than Dayton.
[00:15:15] I would say. You know, the, the, a lot of, you know things come and go. You know, when I was here city Folk was here, right? City Folk was, city Folk was in its heyday, in its prime in the late eighties, early nineties. They brought the National Folk Festival in the, in the, in the, in the mid nineties.
[00:15:35] But you know, I mean, I think other, other things have sort of taken, its, its its place. You have the Levitt Pavilion now, right? Which is bringing, basically, Throughout the entire warm weather season, the, the kinds of, of world music, folk music, Americana, hip hop, you know, Cajun blues, whatever the heck you want for free.
[00:15:58] You know, [00:16:00] 90, 90 evenings a year or however long they’re ridiculously long season is. I’m on the board. You’re on the board. I know, right? And, and they’re doing everything to people. Right. And they’re doing, they’re doing basically a, a, a new cool outdoor free version of what city folk did in chunks, you know, where they would have like a four show jazz season and a four show world music season and a four show Americana news season, you know, and they would spread it out through the.
[00:16:25] You know, I mean so, so there’s, when I said there’s been continuity, there’s been like a torch passing. I think that has happened over in my time in the last 35 years or so years here. That has been really interesting to see happened because it feels organic to me and it feels like. It didn’t happen because outside forces came in and made it happen.
[00:16:48] It was Right, right. Dayton is this vibrant, cool small town that has a lot of really cool shit that happens here. That is all its own, you know, and it, and we haven’t even really talked [00:17:00] about, you know, fine arts or the visual arts. I mean, that’s, that’s another, that’s another really interesting thing.
[00:17:05] I mean, you know, the golly. We’ve got Neil Gillman, right. . You know what I mean? Right. Neil’s announced. Neil’s announced he’s gonna retire in a couple years, which is right. Cause he is about the right age for that. And I’m sure he is a little tired. But you know, we’ve had, we’ve had, we, we have this spectacular orchestra.
[00:17:22] You know, and we that has the Dayton film Harmonic is, is, is, is their, they’re just their first rate. I mean, they’re, they’re a great, they’re a great ensemble. They, they produce interesting and exciting programming I’ve attended for years. One of the best parts of being the arts and entertainment editor in charge of arts coverage and Dayton was getting to know and fall in love with and really learn classical music.
[00:17:48] At at, you know, well, I was gonna say Memorial Hall first, cuz that’s where they were playing when I, that’s where they were playing started. Yeah. Right. So you’re And then Chuchu folks.
[00:17:57] Rodney Veal: Yeah. So people don’t know the Shuer [00:18:00] is only 20. That’s
[00:18:02] Ron Rollins: 20 years old. Yeah, 20 years old. So,
[00:18:04] Rodney Veal: yeah. So there, so this notion at like Memorial Hall, as, as you know, those Right.
[00:18:09] Those in the, who are listening to the podcast, Dayton Ohio’s is interesting. The sixth largest city in Ohio. Right. I think that’s our stat. I, if I remember correctly,
[00:18:18] Ron Rollins: yeah.
[00:18:21] Rodney Veal: City, but yet we possess all of these, this con as you said, this continuity of arts and cultural right connection, which is just our through line in our dna.
[00:18:30] Ron Rollins: Oh, sure. And you know, and like I said, I mean, I’m, I, I’ll just toss out, you know, the, the ballet is good. The Dayton DC DC Dayton Contemporary dance company is beyond a blessing. I mean, it is. If you, if you, if you have any kind of, of, of, of itch or Jones for mo, modern ballet, contemporary dance music or dance performance and, and DC DC does not scratch that itch.
[00:18:59] You’re [00:19:00] looking for something that isn’t there, that doesn’t exist. Doesn’t sense? I love that. That’s so true. They’re so good. They’re so good and they’re so consistent. Through several generations of leadership since I’ve been here with a new one on the way cuz Ronita Halland has retired and you know, so there’ll be new leadership there soon.
[00:19:19] I’m just really eager to see where they go next because I do my best never to miss a DC DC show. Which I encourage everyone to see if they wanna go on tour, go see ’em. Oh yeah. They’re, they’re incredible. I got my ticket for the February show already, you know? And Dayton is, like I said, Dayton, Dayton is a small enough town that it almost, you would think, doesn’t even deserve something like dc DC you know, it’s like you, it, you, you should, when you’re, when you’re at a dc, DC performance, it’s almost.
[00:19:48] you wanna pinch yourself and go like, is this, is this Houston? Is this Chicago? Is this a much, I mean, what are these guys doing here? You know? Right. They’ve been here and they’ve been here for decades. And [00:20:00] so, you know, I mean, I, in terms of, you know, needing, needing things to do whether it’s, you know, pop culture or, or, or if you will, you know, higher culture.
[00:20:12] It. I’m never at a loss in Dayton. I, I, I will say that as the I’ve started going to Cincinnati more for stuff for, for opera, for example and the, the, the Cincinnati Shakespeare company. Because I mean, there’s, you know, Cincinnati is right there if I want like a big, giant arena. I, I will go to Columbus.
[00:20:31] I mean, there, there are things that Dayton does lack simply because of size and scale. But that’s not our fault. And I think the ways that we make up for it with a venue like the Rose for example, you know, that that is, is, is getting a lot of stuff that, well, since we’re talking about big. There was, there was no venue like the Rose, you know, when I moved to town the Nutter Center would occasionally do big arena shows.
[00:20:57] Shows. And I saw, but Nuts. I saw, yeah, I saw [00:21:00] Prince there, I saw the Cure there. I saw Red Hot Chili peppers there. I saw, saw all kinds of really cool shows at the Nutter Center. Once Wright States sort of started to get into their. Well publicized financial difficulties. They kind of scaled off on that stuff.
[00:21:13] And now we have the Rose Center in Huber Heights, which is bring in the kinds of shows for an entire summer season that you used to occasionally get at the Nutter Center. Oh, and by the way, it’s a lot easier to get in and out of the parking lot at the Rose Center too than there never was at the not
[00:21:32] And you know, I mean there’s, that, that is true, that that’s another case of a torch being passed. You know, one venue sort of was doing cool stuff for a number of years and sort of trailed off and another venue opens up and, and, and does it in a, in a, in a. Just as interesting, just as, you could argue, even more vibrant way than the old one.
[00:21:54] And I think there’s, there’s, there’s cases, there’s, there’s, there’s that kind of thing all through the community. So does that answer your question? I mean, [00:22:00] kinda rambling here. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:22:01] Rodney Veal: Oh no, but that’s, and that’s why I knew, like, and just having this, bringing you on and have a conversation would be great.
[00:22:07] So we’re gonna take a little bit of a break, folks.
[00:22:10] Ron Rollins: Okay.
[00:22:11] Rodney Veal: But when we come back, we’re gonna dive into, cuz he talked about the first half of his life. And, and, and his thoughts. Well, now we’re gonna talk about the second half because you are a really accomplished artist as well, so you too. Stay tuned. Stay too kind.
[00:22:24] Stay tuned, folks.
[00:22:25] [00:23:00]
[00:23:08] Rodney Veal: Okay, so now we’re back. And, and, and Ron, I wanna talk about you, you really, really painted this vivid portrait of the cultural landscape and arts landscape and your role in it.
[00:23:17] Ron Rollins: As I left a, I left a lot out too, by the way.
[00:23:19] Rodney Veal: Oh, I know. Which, there’s a lot more than there’s tons of stuff, folks. Yeah. I’m just letting you know. But I, but what’s really fascinating, you’ve, you’ve, you’ve loved, you’ve retired from the newspaper business.
[00:23:30] Ron Rollins: I did. That’s You did Indeed. My wife retired. My wife retired now too.
[00:23:35] And, and actually you have to be careful around people who haven’t retired. They’re like, I’s retirement, you’ll go, oh, every day is Saturday. And they’ll be like, oh, just rub it in. And I’m like, well, no. Wait a minute. You asked. You asked,
[00:23:46] Rodney Veal: you asked. I was like, what? Every day is Saturday.
[00:23:48] Ron Rollins: I love Saturday.
[00:23:50] Rodney Veal: Well, so congratulations to you and your wi your wife.
[00:23:52] Ron Rollins: Thank you very much as well.
[00:23:53] Rodney Veal: So, and I know you guys, you guys are traveling and stuff, but you’re, now you’re, I, I consider you’re an [00:24:00] accomplished artist and I think, oh, thank you. The fact, so. How did, was that always a, an idea or thought or did it just kind of strengthen ? How did you dive into being an art maker?
[00:24:11] Ron Rollins: You’re very kind and became a thing. No, seriously. No. Well, I should explain a little bit about what I do first, I guess.
[00:24:16] Rodney Veal: Yeah, explain your work. Yeah. I told you is your life.
[00:24:20] Ron Rollins: I do. People can go to rowlands art.org org if they wanna see me. I do show stuff around town. From time to time I do what I would consider highly, highly gestural, colorful, abstract, very splashy, abstract paintings.
[00:24:35] If you want to think I, I am openly not at all secretively inspired by and, and studied the those great abstract expressionists in American painting back in. Mid forties, like post-war forties, 50, post-war forties, fifties, sixties, and we’re talking. Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Pollock de William de Koenig, kig Lee Krasner, who was married to Jackson Pollock.
[00:24:59] Helen [00:25:00] Frankenthaler. Joan Mitchell, who’s my favorite. Ah, yes. Kind of considered a second generation abstract expressionist. But I traveled to Baltimore this summer to see a huge show of hers. And and I honestly, I think one of her very best paintings lives at the Dayton Art Institute anyway.
[00:25:16] Right. So you could actually go see this work, go see it, that’s the other thing. Go see the work, people go see the work. You asked how I got there. I should say I have a studio in Kettering space that I rent with a friend Terry Walker, who is also retired. Now. He’s the sculptor who does these big calder reque kind of mobiles that if you wanna see his work, go to the main branch of the public library downtown and downtown on need to see created the gigantic.
[00:25:43] Acrylic and metal, sculptural fractal rain that’s hanging in the atrium lobby of the main library over the staircase there. And Terry is anybody epic who build it’s epic. And everybody, anybody in town who builds a a tall ceiling atrium or lobby wants to buy a [00:26:00] sculpture from Terry. Which is cool cuz they’re, he fills them beautifully and he’s a great friend.
[00:26:04] He’s a great friend and, and we’ve had a studio space together just to share costs and ideas and inspiration and. For the last 10 years, I guess, in Kettering. So how’d I get into this? My mom was a water card painter. She was a oh, member of the Ohio Watercolor Society. She painted a little bit abstract, but more realistic.
[00:26:23] So I was fortunate to always be around a parent who was. Creative and encouraged creativity in us, in our my, my brother my sisters really aren’t into art making, but my brother was a fine arts major at Ohio Wesleyan and, and so he, he does a lot of design and creative creative work as well.
[00:26:42] And photography. He’s a very fine photographer. So I mean, I was in a family that encouraged it and I’ve always had a bent toward museum. Painting and art history. I mean, growing up in Oberlin as I did, Oberlin has a, it’s a very e small [00:27:00] town with Oberlin colleges there, and Oberlin College has the Allen Art Museum, which is this probably the best, certainly one of the best small.
[00:27:08] College art museums in, in the country and it, right, right. It has an encyclopedic collection in a beautiful Italian renaissance style building and they bring in a lot of contemporary stuff and Oberlin’s a very artsy school anyway. And we moved there when I was in fifth grade in 1970, and I could just get on my bike and ride to this place and it was free, right?
[00:27:30] I mean, I could walk in there. and I could sit and I could look at the Giacometti, you know, and I could, I could look at the Modigliani and I could study the Monet, you know, and actually they don’t have a Giacometti. I should have left him out and , wish they did. That’s ok. I wish, I wish they wish, you know, I wish they did.
[00:27:44] Yeah. Every museum should have. I like Giacometti. I don’t know why he came to mind, but they do have a gli. That’s one of the best I’ve seen. And so I’ve always, I’ve always had access to, I. Yeah. To, to that kind of, [00:28:00] to to, to art that I could go and really on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon as a kind of a bookish kid that was not into sports, you know, I could, I could spend time in an art museum that, and just learn from it and absorb it and soak it in.
[00:28:14] So I’ve always had that interest and to this day, an art museum is still. Most happy place. And and then, so like I said, with my mom’s influence, I guess I, I probably, I, I drew a lot as a kid. I don’t, I really didn’t start painting until I’m gonna say about 20, 25 years ago actually, I inherited my brother’s old paints and supplies from college.
[00:28:38] He wasn’t using them. And he said, do you want these oils and acrylics? And I was like, yeah, sure. I. Play around with them. And my mom encouraged me as well, cuz she was, she was watercoloring then once she was an empty nester. And so I was just, I would, in my garage, I would just, I would just play around. I, I taught my, I reminded myself how to draw.
[00:28:58] I reminded myself, you [00:29:00] know, how to do different kinds of things and, and had a lot of fun. But I also kept it kind of to myself because at the time, you gotta remember I was in the midst of, being the arts and entertainment editor in Dayton. Right. Which is, and I was kind of help, I was kind of had a hand in deciding who got written about and who got covered and which, which local artists often I would write about, you know?
[00:29:24] And I made a very conscious decision coupled with a little bit of embarrassment that I didn’t really want to be, I didn’t think I was as good as anybody I was writing about. Right. I, I wasn’t gonna be part of the scene that I was covering in essence. Right.
[00:29:37] Rodney Veal: So you don’t wanna become the news, which is I hear that a lot with you don’t wanna be the story.
[00:29:43] Ron Rollins: Right. And, and honestly, you know, we did have the funny thing and looking, when I look back on it we did have a couple of people on staff who really. Participate in stuff. We had a couple staff members who were in local bands fairly prominently. They weren’t part of the arts [00:30:00] team. Right. But we wrote about them.
[00:30:01] Right. Colleague, colleague Moss who died last year, but fabulous, fabulous jazz. Fabulous. Nationally known g Jazz pianist. Yes. You know, was, was a part-time music writer on my staff for a long time while he. Playing at Jill’s, right? I mean, and, and, and Steve Sylo, our managing editor, my boss, you know, had this edict that was very fair and even handed in.
[00:30:26] He’s. He said like, Cali is the best guy in town to write about what you need him to write about. If he’s willing to do it for what we’ll pay him. That’s great. We want him, number one. Number two, his art should not suffer because he we’re paying him to write about music and jazz. So he, we should have an environment in our newsroom and in our company in which he can do both.
[00:30:50] He can make art and he can write about music at the same time. So looking back on it, I’m like, I probably could. Been a little bit around, but at the time, [00:31:00] but I, I wasn’t ready yet, so I’m gonna say, I know I’m gonna blame Terry Wilker, my dear friend, , you know, I mean, he, he was, we all blame Terry. Yeah, we do.
[00:31:08] He, Terry’s a great guy. He was out. He, he and his wife Sandy were over for dinner one night and we were out grilling and he had to walk through the garage to get to Mike Gorilla in the deck. And he was so, he’s passing my paintings, which are sitting, you know, and he is like, what the hell are these? I’m like, ah, I.
[00:31:23] Thinking around with some paints and stuff. He’s like, geez, Ron, these are pretty good. I mean, you, how long have you been doing this? I’m like a couple years. He’s like, so next thing I know, we’re like putting a tarp down on the garage floor and we’re spreading these things out. And he’s like, man, why aren’t you showing this stuff?
[00:31:40] This is not bad. And I’m like, well, you know, and he’s like, You can’t use the excuse anymore of being the arts editor, cuz that’s not your job anymore. You’ve moved on in your career. You’re right. Right. I’m sorry. You don’t have that excuse to hide behind anymore. And I’m like, oh, okay. So I started showing it around town.
[00:31:58] The first place I showed was at the the [00:32:00] sideshow at Yellow Cab years ago. And the, the, if you don’t know the sideshow, they just brought it back this year after Covid. It’s a really. Kind of outsider art, community music, art festival, y’all. I do, yeah, I do remember it. Yeah. And it’s it, it’s gotten, I’ve kind of aged out of it.
[00:32:18] I think it was, it was it, it, it’s a younger it’s a much younger crowd of contributors to it now than I think, than it was when I was there, which is cool because, you know, I’ve, I’ve, they’re still encourag. People like where I was back then, you know, to do that something for the first time and get that kinda feedback from an audience that’s looking at your stuff and asking questions about it, possibly buying it.
[00:32:43] And then so from there I just kind of like started to share. So, I mean, I’m pretty, I’m pretty out there now. I mean, once I came out of the closet, I was pretty much, you know, pretty, pretty, you’re an artist into the community. Yeah. And, and you’re, the cool thing about Dayton is. Well, there’s many cool things [00:33:00] about Dayton that we’ve already talked about.
[00:33:01] Sure, yeah. What I found, what I found, I was a little nervous about it. What I found about Dayton’s arts community was I was worried that there would be this kind of like you’re not a painter, you’re a journalist. We, you know, it’s sort of like people get into this thing where it’s like, , they know you as one thing and they can’t imagine your, you as something else.
[00:33:21] You might have that you might have interests in other areas. Right. But it’s sort of like what Johnny Depp plays guitar. That’s, that’s not right. He’s an actor. You know? It’s like okay, I, but there’s, you know, people do have multiple interests and, and I, and, and I, what I found is the, the, the visual arts community in town was extremely open and welcom.
[00:33:40] and sort of pleased to have me be a, a small part of it. And, and that was a lot of fun. You know, I, I was, I was being embraced by people that you really admire and whose work you really love for your own work is is wonderful. And, and, and maybe it would’ve happened that way in another town, [00:34:00] but I, I ascribe it as a Dayton like quality where it’s like in Dayton, Ohio, man, if you, if.
[00:34:05] If you wanna go out and plant your flag and do something, people will let you do it. They’ll encourage you to do it. They’ll invite you in, they’ll give you good feedback. They won’t make you feel silly. And and, and I love that about the community, and that’s how I felt. So now I’m out there. I, I like to paint.
[00:34:21] I don’t do it as much as I should or would like to. And I’m pretty. I don’t wanna say casual about it. When my style is such that I work very fast, I end up thinking about a piece a lot longer than I spend making it. And if you see a peace of mind, you’ll understand what I mean when you see it. I, it’s because it’s very gestural.
[00:34:41] I work very quickly and you can see where my hand has been, but there’s,
[00:34:47] Rodney Veal: there’s an intentionality by the hand. There’s no, there is. Yeah. Yeah. With this and sometimes with, there’s a tendency to see abstraction. That looks like it’s an abstraction because there was no thought, but yours is thought. [00:35:00] I can see the gestural and I, I can speak to that.
[00:35:02] I think I speak from the gestural standpoint just cause I’m a dancer. I see things and so I think that’s what’s what’s really cool about your work. And, but you talk, but you talk about something like that’s really, you hit upon something with, with Dayton, Ohio. It is the mo It is truly one of the most unusual places in sense of, yeah, you can do.
[00:35:19] Just about anything and no one will say, I don’t, I’m not sure about you, or I’m not sure about that thing, so. Right. Well
[00:35:26] Ron Rollins: there’s a lot of cross pollination too, and I think you and I are both kind of in that similar boat where, you know, I mean, I think You know, the, the stuff that you get asked to do because you’re already known for doing something else.
[00:35:40] I mean, yeah, Rodney’s a dancer, but you’re also on a lot of boards. You teach. Yes. You know, I mean, you do all these, you do, you wear many, many, many. You do the art show, you do this kind of stuff, you know, I mean, you wear many, many, many hats. And I think Dayton is a cool place because it acknowledged it, it.
[00:35:58] It does, it does. [00:36:00] Welcome and encourage that. Like, like, like it’s, well you, you wear that hat well, so you probably might wear this hat well too. Would you also.
[00:36:08] Try this so you a stack of hats like me. So it’s
[00:36:12] like, what’s that? There’s that little, there’s that kids that kids book Hats for sale. You know where Hat for sale?
[00:36:18] They had a of 40
[00:36:23] about the town’s one I like about the size of it and the scale of it and the people who live here. And it’s not a scary place, you know? And, and that’s, and that’s, that’s in. , putting yourself out there and being creative, and that’s really cool. I, I you know, like I, I said, I, I, I, I study, I’ve studied the, you know, abstract expressions.
[00:36:43] I haven’t done that in any formal way. It’s just when I find myself in a museum it’s the stuff that I end up looking at the most and being most captivated by. I, I, I don’t walk up to a. A Winslow Homer or a Thomas Akins painting, even though I like those [00:37:00] guys and go, well, how did he do that? Because I know how he did it.
[00:37:03] You know? Yeah. I, I, I, I know how that got made. I will walk up to a friend’s Klein, or a Robert Motherwell, or a Hans Hoffman or you know, a Joan Mitchell painting, and I’ll be like, how did they do that? Like, how did. Spatter of color and that layering of paint, paint and that ence action, how did that happen?
[00:37:29] I wanna do that and I wanna make that and, and that’s, so I’ve, when I said I’ve studied it, that’s what I mean. I mean, I’m at the museum leaning in, looking into that kind of work, wondering how that gets made. What I’ll do is when I look at a Joan Mitchell painting, I’ll try and figure out, and they’re. Big paintings, right?
[00:37:48] I mean, she, those are massive. She did massive skill, massive abstractions. I will play a little game parlor game with, with, with myself, where I’ll try and find the last piece of paint that she put down on the [00:38:00] canvas and, and I’ll, and, and by doing that, I’m making myself look into and underneath her layers and, and I try and find what is, what do I think is the last piece of paint that actually.
[00:38:17] Was placed on this canvas, where is it? And I think sometimes I get pretty close and oh wow. I get, and I’m looking, I’m looking for something that doesn’t have another color laid over it or spattered on it. And I’m, and it’s almost always in the middle with her. I think she works, I think she worked from the edges into the center and fascinating, fascinating.
[00:38:38] I think. And, and I don’t do that. I mean, I’m usually an in the middle of the canvas kind of guy. I use, I use white space a. You mentioned dance. I, I, I, I, I, I get, I get asked questions of like, did you ever study dance Ron? And I’m like, cuz your paintings have this kind of, you know, fluid motion. I’m like, Nope.
[00:38:55] Never have. I, like, I like dance. We’ve talked about DC DC a minute ago. enjoy watching you [00:39:00] move. You know, it’s like, I mean, I feel like I learned something from watching people like you do what you do. Well, thank you. Thanks. If that translates, if that translates into, My painting. That’s great. I get asked a lot, did I ever study Chinese orian calligraphy?
[00:39:12] And I’m like, no, I like it. It’s beautiful. And when I’m near it, I, I’m, I’m drawn into it, but I can’t claim that it’s more than a, a, a, a one of many influences on the way my hand move. Right, right. Inwards. Right. But I’ve never studied it. Right. Right, right. So, you know, it’s like there’s a lot of, I also don’t name my pa I don’t title paintings because what I’ve found is that when somebody looks at one of my pieces, it’s kinda like looking at clouds, you know?
[00:39:41] It’s like, oh, I see a duck. Oh, I see a horsey. Oh, I see GR Cleveland. It’s like, well, okay, if you, if you see, that’s where it’s in there, and I want you to enjoy it on your own level of being in it, what you see. And if I name the painting, Storm Cloud [00:40:00] four, you know, you’re gonna be like, well, it doesn’t look like a storm cloud to me, and I don’t wanna ruin it for people.
[00:40:04] So I, I want you to find whatever you like in there and, and when people, it’s fun to watch people looking at the work because they’ll. They’ll, they’ll, they’ll be in, you know, and in the, and if they’re in the studio, I’ll let ’em touch it too. It’s like, you know, it’s like, right.
[00:40:18] Rodney Veal: Which is, and you know, that’s a cardinal set of art I was told.
[00:40:21] Oh, sure. Right. Yeah. You’re not, and I, and I let, I let
[00:40:24] people just my work all the time, like, run your hands across the weavings. This is woven paper. It’s fun.
[00:40:28] Ron Rollins: Yeah. If you’re, if you’re in my studio and you’re here drinking bourbon with me, you can touch it. Sure. I mean I don’t want you to poke a hole in it, but I , but if you wanna touch the, I mean, cuz I know that you don’t get to do that at the museum, even though you might want to.
[00:40:41] Right. So you can do it at my studio if you wanna, if you wanna feel how that paint feels on the canvas and push it a little bit. I mean, that’s, that’s an experience I want you to have. And I’m, and I’m glad for you to have it here. The other thing is like selling. As, you know, selling stuff is cool. You know, I don’t, I don’t sell, I, I sell basically enough [00:41:00] every year to cover my studio rent.
[00:41:01] So, in other words, this is a glorified hobby for me. So it’s not, it’s not a, it’s not an occupation or anything like that, but and I could not make a living doing it and I wouldn’t try Because the words starving artists are usually true.
[00:41:13] Rodney Veal: Based on your experience and you’ve seen it. That’s what that’s the thing.
[00:41:16] Ron Rollins: I’ve seen it. And you’ve seen it. Yes. It’s a very real statement, unfortunately. And I, but here’s the other thing too, though. You know, back to Dayton, being Dayton, there are a number of people in Dayton who are making a living as visual or performing artists or dancer. Or photographers or novelists, who I totally agree.
[00:41:38] They can teach on the side if they want to, and they can have day jobs if they feel like it. But there are a number of people you walk through front Street. Oh, speaking of speaking of something that was not here in 1986 in the way it is currently. Front Street. The Front Street Art Studios? Yes. Yes. The Front Street Art Studio is pretty much in Dayton.
[00:41:59] If there’s anything else [00:42:00] like that in Ohio, I’m not familiar with it, where it’s that concentration of galleries and, and artists studios and stuff. You know, I mean, you walk through that place on a first Friday and it’s like the, the, the creativity is like, it’s like a, it’s like a haze that, you know, you just kind of covers you, you know.
[00:42:18] Sometimes it’s a literal haze. But anyway, the, the , well, no, but uh,
[00:42:22] Rodney Veal: depending upon the crowd you’re hanging with at, at Front Street, I get well,
[00:42:26] Ron Rollins: but you know what I mean, if you, there’s, there was nothing Front Street. The buildings obviously existed in the late eighties, early nineties, but they weren’t like they are today.
[00:42:35] Where it was this, this developed, cleaned up, concentrated home for a hundred artists. Who are many of, are there ma practicing their craft and there and several of whom are over there making a living? Doing living, living? Yeah, very much. Very much. And I, I think Dayton be by being an affordable place to live and being a place that, that does, I mean, you can’t [00:43:00] sell a painting for as much in Dayton as you would sell it in.
[00:43:03] Even Columbus or Cincinnati, cuz of the size and scale of the market. But, but you can make a living here because you can afford to live here on whatever you sell. And I, I don’t think there’s a lot of people that would fall into this category that I’m describing. There’s a few, there’s a few,
[00:43:17] Rodney Veal: there’s more than a few considering for city of our City, for city our size, actually.
[00:43:24] Which goes to that old point of like the fact that we have a philharmonic and opera, right? A ballet company, a modern dance company, a contemporary art space, arts artist, studios, a museum, right? And the list goes on and on and on of, of a major colleges and universities that devote themselves to art making, right?
[00:43:41] With programs, it’s kind of like for a si a city of our size, scale, size, scale. It’s, and there’s unusual.
[00:43:49] Ron Rollins: It is unusual. And, and, and there are things that I wish we had Okay. That we don’t have.
[00:43:54] Rodney Veal: Oh. Name names of things that you wish we would have that we don’t have. I’m kinda curious from your [00:44:00] perspective, wish.
[00:44:01] Ron Rollins: I, I do wish I didn’t have to drive to Cincinnati or Columbus to see an arena show on the scale of. Bruce Springsteen. Right. You know what I mean? On the other. And I mean that would be great. I mean, I mean there it’s only an hour away and I get that. And I also know too, that I lived in, if I lived in Chicago or Atlanta, I would be driving just as far in, just as long to get to to.
[00:44:22] So I get that. But it would kind of be nice though, to have. A venue of that size and scale that was bigger than the rose that really did bring that level of, of, of tour to town, that’d be nice. That’s kind of a pipe dream though. What do I wish? Well, rather than what I wish, I can think of some things that I think that if the day, if Dayton had them, they would be market improve.
[00:44:49] to what’s already here. That would raise a lot of games. For example quoting Eva Butta Oli at the contemporary on this she’s always felt that the one thing that Dayton doesn’t have on the con [00:45:00] on the, in the, in the visual arts scene that would raise it to a higher level would be an an MFA program either at Wright State or ud.
[00:45:07] And if you think about something like that, that makes a lot of sense because. Her point has always been, those are great schools and they have good art departments. Especially Right. States visual arts department is excellent, right? However, mm-hmm. and having an MFA program in your town brings a level of, of, of, of te teaching, thinking exposure right.
[00:45:31] It raises the bar in your visual arts community just that much more. and, and, and, and brings that much more oomph to what’s already happening. And so I’m like, oh, that’s a pretty good observation. You know, I mean, you could, you, if you had somebody that I’m not going to, you know, I don’t know if that’s ever gonna happen, but I know what she means when she says that that right.
[00:45:56] The arts community is at a level of like one or two [00:46:00] things. Can really be game changers. I would say the Levit, you know was a game, an obvious game changer, you know, in terms of, of downtown vibrancy, downtown life, downtown livability all of us having an opportunity to do cool free stuff. You know, on a moment’s notice, you know?
[00:46:18] Exactly.
[00:46:19] Rodney Veal: Yeah, and, and it’s, and make it inaccessible to everyone, which was that, right. It was those combination of those two pieces. And I think a lot of people don’t know that about Levit, is that we went in with that intentionality based upon the National Levit model and mission. Right. And see what we, and, and it’s proof that if you do it, it is like, almost like the, the edic build it and they will come.
[00:46:40] Right. We built it and they came and
[00:46:42] Ron Rollins: so they came and they came coming and so I. Right.
[00:46:45] Rodney Veal: So which to your point about Eva’s point about the MFA programs of visual art, you build one,
[00:46:50] Ron Rollins: they’ll come. Right, right.
[00:46:53] Rodney Veal: It’s just think having a vision for it.
[00:46:54] Ron Rollins: Yeah, I think, I think something else that would be, I mean, I think larger [00:47:00] cities have more than one art museum, you know, I mean, now this is kind of addressed a little bit by what the contemporary is doing with the Dayton Visual Arts Center.
[00:47:10] Evolving into contemporary, I think, you know, if you go to visit Chicago or Cleveland or Columbus, you know, there’s actually, Columbus isn’t in this boat, but I mean, there’s, there’s, if you go to Cleveland or or Cincinnati, go Cincinnati, okay, there’s Cincinnati as a city that is considerably larger than us, but it’s not.
[00:47:32] Dallas larger than us. Right. So, right. No, it’s not that. So Cincinnati is still, but to some people, a smaller city. Well, it has the Cincinnati Museum of Art. It has the Taft, yes. Around the corner. It has the contemporary art center. It has, right. It has it. So it has there’s, it has a big three, if you will, that it’s a big three.
[00:47:55] Rodney Veal: I mean, even the Cincinnati. Yeah. The college, the uni, the [00:48:00] university has a museum. I mean, it has its own arts space.
[00:48:02] Ron Rollins: So, and there, and there’s an arts component to the, to the the, the union center arts comp complex or, or museum complex. So it’s like, okay, just in that next size up level of city, you have this museum community where it’s not just the Dayton Art Institute all by.
[00:48:21] And then the contemporary, which is cool, but kind of new at what it’s doing in that space. You know? It’s like, it, it would be, it, it, it would be really cool if Dayton was just a little more, like, there was one more thing like that. One more thing. I dunno if that, yeah. And I don’t know if that’s gonna happen or not, you know?
[00:48:39] And I’m not, I’m also not complaining. I’m just saying if, like, if, like, I
[00:48:43] Rodney Veal: just, I totally posed it as a what? Right. Your wishlist. So, yeah. It’s a wish list.
[00:48:47] Ron Rollins: Yeah. If you, if you were gonna come up with a wishlist, you know, I it’d be cool if, it’d be cool if DC DC wasn’t all by itself, you know? Yeah, yeah.
[00:48:57] There are, there are some. There are, I would say Wright [00:49:00] State has presents some excellent contemporary dance and some of the university communities do. But if DC DC you know, Dayton Ballet is more of a tradit. You know, classical, I mean, classical, classical, classical you know, point to Val, point, point, Val, point, you know com companies that if, if DC DC had another company like it to feed off of, And it, and there are some smaller, there are some smaller groups.
[00:49:25] There’s the Dayton Dance Collaborative. There are some smaller groups that have, are kind of mo moving that in that space. Yeah. But also too, they’re, they’re, they’re very small and they’re very independent and they’re not at the level of accomplishment or funding or presentation or reputation as DC DC If, I think dc DC would have fun if they had a, another company kind of working in their space that they could feed off of.
[00:49:50] And learn from. And also too, if they could friendly competition, you know, you know, friendly competition. Yeah. It’s,
[00:49:58] Rodney Veal: it’s a nice, it’s, it’s a good riff and [00:50:00] like, and the, and jazz bands. You, you want, you want the best players in the band to riff of each other. Right. To make the best sound Exactly. And have the best experience.
[00:50:08] Ron Rollins: That’s a partial wish wish list. I’m, I’m, I’m, end of the day, I’m happy We stayed here. We had a. I interviewed at The Plain Dealer a couple times back in the early nineties when I was in my, you know, early thirties thinking that we would maybe move closer to Oberlin where my parents lived.
[00:50:25] You know? I we’re glad we stayed here, you know? Right. I mean, I was at, at the Dayton De News, I got to edit four books, you know, three books of history, you know. I get to have a radio show. I got to, I got. Do all this cool stuff. My wife got to work at the same paper. That would’ve been hard to do, you know, someplace else, you know, or Right, right.
[00:50:46] I mean, where we were both at the same company in the same newsroom. I mean we had so many, this turned out to be such a great place to stay and we’ve never had a regret. And so, you know, I mean that’s, maybe that’s a good way to wrap up. I dunno. That [00:51:00] just, it’s never, it’s never, it’s never. Amy and I have never sat around and gone like, well, gosh, I, I really wish we’d moved to Kansas City or So I, that’s never happened.
[00:51:10] you know, never happened. We was never familiar really. We just, we’ve been very grateful to have landed here. And we did land here kind of by accident, you know, I mean, we didn’t have, we had some some family here, but on Amy’s side, but not really, but not really a true neither Dayton. Right? Neither sets of parents were here.
[00:51:28] You know, we didn’t know anybody here before we moved to. . The Daily News was a, a really good paper, but one of, any number of ones that I was applying to at the time, at that time in my career, I almost got a job in Jacksonville. I almost got a job in, in in, in, in Jackson, Mississippi. I almost got a job in you know, in all kind.
[00:51:47] I mean, I almost, we almost didn’t make it here and I’m really glad we did because it’s just been, it’s just been a good. Plus I met you, Rodney,
[00:51:55] Rodney Veal: which is, I Well, I thank you and I’ve met you. I mean, we’ve [00:52:00] both, we’ve both been on this kind of twin journey of like,
[00:52:02] Ron Rollins: I think so, yeah.
[00:52:03] Rodney Veal: Of, of, of, of seeing and observing Dayton.
[00:52:05] And I’ve always enjoy talking with you, talking to you, talking about all these big subjects about art and culture in our community. And I just said, I said that’s what made you the perfect guest for this show, so Well, thanks. Yeah. Well, thank you Ron.
[00:52:20] Ron Rollins: I appreciate it. I betcha. All right. Not a problem. Happy to do it.
[00:52:23] And if you ever want me to come back, just let me know. I’m sure. Totally. We can talk, we can talk about boxing, which I did for a while. Boxing. Did you? Oh my God.
[00:52:31] Rodney Veal: Okay. We gotta talk about boxing and film.
[00:52:33] Ron Rollins: That’s our next two big, we can talk about boxing and film. I was not good at boxing. I, I briefly. I spent about 10 years doing the Mitz workout at Drake’s Gym downtown.
[00:52:43] John Drake is a great guy and he signed me and a couple of other us of us up for a kind of a white collar boxing match at Memorial Hall where I had my rib broken. I remember where I had my rib broken for me in front of 1200 of my new best friends. Yeah, .
[00:52:57] Rodney Veal: I remember that. I remember that. I do. [00:53:00] Yeah, I do too.
[00:53:01] Well, yeah. You, you had a lasting, lasting memory.
[00:53:06] Ron Rollins: My perspective on it was much different from yours. Rodney , very much.
[00:53:10] Rodney Veal: I would not wanna break a rib. I would be like the worst patient ever. And I’d think, yeah, I wasn’t fun. I’d be like, ah. I’ll be like, I couldn’t handle it. Knock me out. Put me in a coma until,
[00:53:20] Ron Rollins: we’ll talk about that next time.