MVV Air Force Museum After Dark Steampunk

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Good morning. This is Miami ValleyView, a public affairs program brought to
you by iHeartMedia. Dayton I'm yourhost, Dave Alexander, and joining me
this morning is Kelly Long. Sheis the manager of Events for the Air
Force Museum Foundation. And Kelly,good to see you again. Good to
see you again, Davia. It'sreally cool when you come in because that

(00:20):
means there's something cool happening at theAir Force Museum. That's right. The
foundation is doing cool stuff. Yeahyeah, So tell us a little bit
again, so people who miss didn'tget your last interview, tell us about
what the foundation does for the AirForce musim. So, the foundation raises
money to provide the services that themuseum needs. So that can be anything

(00:41):
from education programs, that can bethe care of the artifacts and I mean
those giant, amazing planes. Italso is the restoration of those planes.
And yeah, oh yeah, wehave about one hundred years of restoration work
to do right now. Wow,great stuff coming uh and basic you know,

(01:03):
just basic support of the museum andits needs. Yeah yeah, well
that's amazing you have that much.I didn't realize that the Air Force Museum
also helped to restore these old aircraftprogram aircraft, yeah, with the Air
Force or with other things, andit can come down to the collections department
has things like jackets and personal itemsfrom the airmen that served or in some

(01:26):
cases from World War Two, frombefore the Air Force was created. Yeah,
so pretty amazing. Actually that isthat's really cool. So give us
an example of because I mean it'sit's it doesn't cost a thing to get
in the Air Force music not tocome in as a guest on regular business
hours nine to five. So yeah, it is part of our national museum

(01:52):
system. You could just come in, right. But and you guys basically
help run the joint. You arethat arm Yeah, so we like to
say that, well, I liketo say that it's a duplex. We
live in the same house, butwe we do different things by different services.
Yeah, and so without you guys, let's I mean, the foundation

(02:13):
is the foundation. You are helpingthis. All of you who have been
to the Air Force Museum. Youknow how cool it is, you know
how big it is, you knowhow many airplanes are there and other things,
and it's the foundation that helps keepthat running. And you guys do
so many events, Yes, throughoutthe course of the year and one of
the coolest ones we had in thelast time is this after Dark series.

(02:34):
Yes, so let's talk about whatthis after Dark series is. We'll get
into what's happening here in just alittle bit because that's coming up. What
a couple of weeks November eighteen,that's the next one. So what is
whose brain child was the after Darkseries? So actually it came from the
Collections Roberta and Collections has been tryingto get this program started, and you
know, the events team at thefoundation started in January of twenty twenty oh

(03:00):
then there was a hiatus, yes, a slight one, a slight hiatus,
so we I was brought in tohelp facilitate as COVID was clearing out.
I was brought in to help facilitatewith these evening fundraisers and evening events.
So after Dark comes becomes this thingwhere we are trying to get people

(03:22):
in the community that live here uhto come and see the museum as a
viable source of entertainment. So that'swhat after Dark is. It is a
twenty one and up date night freefriends. It is twenty one up,
so please bring your ID, butwe have the option of you get to
come and do activities that aren't normallyoffered during the day, and so that's

(03:46):
part of the cool part about it. So we have specific themes, so
we pick specific activities to go withdesign. I mean, just the idea
of I'm sure if people are likemyself, you know that go into these
museums and take a tour, gothrough the Air Force Museum during the day,
go through any and you'd be like, I wonder what this place is

(04:06):
like at night, you know,but you know, to get the chance
to come in and you know,bring your significant other or bring a group
of you, uh and come tothe Air Force Museum after hours and experience
what's there to offer is is reallycool. There's a bar, there are

(04:28):
multiple bars. It is a cashbar. But the thing about it is
what I remember one person saying,is I get to walk around with a
drink and I get to look atmy favorite planes without kids. And you
know, it really became a bigdeal, like we can we can get
into the open aircraft because there aren'tkids. Yeah, I mean, and

(04:50):
I think that's important. I thinkyou know nothing about you know, kids.
I brought my kids to the AirForce Museum several times, and they
enjoyed it every time we went,you know. But if they get tired,
they get tired, you know,and they can get cranky if they're
hungry or whatever they're running or thistime. Everywhere you get to do it
right. You get to do itat your pace, absolutely, and it's

(05:12):
and you can do with the drinkin and you can do it with a
drink in your hand. You justcan't take the drinks on the open aircraft
for any of the open sure plans, we gost that, but but it
is it's designed to invite people whonormally wouldn't think of coming right. So
you know, in the community,we're used to it. I mean,
I don't know if you're from thearea, but I grew up here and
often we would come when family wasin from out of town. Well,

(05:34):
we want you to come more oftenthan that. And there's new stuff all
the time. So folks from aspecific age, we're trying to really hit
that twenty one to about forty five. Everybody's welcome, but we really want
to introduce the young people to ouramazing stories. Yeah, and I'll tell

(05:54):
you what. I'll give you anexample. My nephew is a. He
is. He goes pretty University.He is a rocket scientist. Excellent,
he is. He interns with NASA. And I told him, he's like,
dude, you got to you gottafind your way over to the to
the Air Force Museum. He's like, what do you mean. So he
came over the summer and he wentto the I mean, he needed all

(06:15):
kinds of date and stuff. Wentto the Air Force Museum and this had
a blast. Him and three ofhis friends from from Purdue came in to
see it. I mean they're twentyfour years old coming to check it all
out. And he was so impressed, and I think, you know,
he's fallen in love with the AirForce Museum. So hopefully comes back.
Absolutely, And that's the point.Come in the evening, come and see
what it is, and then comeback. My step son came for Wars

(06:36):
in February. He had lived herehis whole life. He had never been
oh, and I was like,well, what do you think. I
had no idea, And that's whatwe're looking for. Sure those folks,
ye come on in, have agreat time, yeh. But come back
because it's four hangars, yeah,and it's big, and it's gonna.
It's there's a lot of information totake in. Yeah, and so that's

(06:59):
what I think is really cool aboutthese after dark series that you have going
on. I mean, it's it'sa reason to go back, especially because
this is I mean, these areso much fun. It's it's it's it's
focused on a certain theme, likewhat are some what are the how many?
Which number is this? By theway, this is number five.
This is five of this year.We started in November of last year's November,
so in the year. Yeah,we're okay, we're hitting So what

(07:21):
do I know? You had aspy theme, spies and superheroes. Well,
what were the other ones? Spaceand spirits? Okay, swing the
Night Away, which was a swingdance and was very popular and we're going
to do it again February tenth,twenty four right on. And then this
one. Okay, and this oneis steampunk sore all right, So let's

(07:41):
talk about steampunk before people are likesteampunk? What is steampunk? Right?
Right? So what I love aboutsteampunk is steampunk is welcoming and it's and
it's for everyone. Yeah, andthat's one of the things that people,
I think struggle with it. Yeah, because they want to define something that
is undefinable. Sure, steampunk isretro futurism. You want to think Victorian

(08:03):
science fiction, Jules Vern steam enginesmixed with the Old West, but in
a modern setting. So you're takingand you nailed that. Thank you very
things like if I had to justdescribe steampunk, I'm like, you just
nailed it, well done, thankyou. Yeah. Yeah, so it

(08:24):
But that's the thing like and youAnd there was a person at coworker and
she goes, I don't know whatto wear. If it was like,
well, what you're wearing right nowyou can actually wear just to throw a
brooch on your jacket, maybe puton a bolo tie. If you have
a bowler hat or a hat youwear it a church or anything. Sure

(08:45):
you can put that on. Throwon some goggles. Steampunk. That's it.
Yeah, Yeah, that's it.The collections from the museum is bringing
out a lot of things that aren'tnormally on displays. Are like goggles and
gloves. There's a sex tint fromthe nineteen twenty four World flight. Uh,
and it's it's incredible, and it'sall these gadgets and gizmos, and

(09:09):
any person that likes to build modelsand machinery. Sure, this is your
jam. This is cool. Sothis is so you get what's a ticket
cost? Ticket is forty dollars.Forty dollars that gets you there or dervs
there are okays cash bar and they'vegot a super lineup and so what's what

(09:31):
times you start? Starts at six, but you can comment five thirty and
come in and it goes from sixto ten. Six to ten. Yeah,
okay, So give us an ideawhat the lineup is for the So
when you get there, you're gonnawe're gonna sequester you till the thing opens
at six pm. Okay, butthat's the thing. You want to get
there early because it's six thirty.Woodland Cemetery is going to offer class on

(09:52):
uh few on headstone symbolisms. Sowhen you go in through the cemetery and
you see all the different things carvedinto the headstones, Byron is going to
be there to tell you what theymean. Yeah, that's gonna be early.
That's at six thirty. We havetwo rounds of trivia so you can
compete for prizes. Is it steampunktrivia, It's we're working on it.

(10:13):
I think one of the categories isgoing to be like inventions from Dayton,
because Dayton is the city of inventors, right. We also have right State
universities bringing their collections out and it'sgonna I think they're bringing some stuff from
the World's Affair, from different World'sfairs. We have Hobart's is coming down

(10:33):
with a virtual reality welding experience andit's gonna be a large screen. You
put on the hood and the glovesand your friends can watch. You can
watch you weld. How interesting isthat? Yeah, it's so, it's
so amazing. We have an oldtime game parlor, so if you like
to play checkers and chess. Butwe also were going to have Backcammon.

(10:56):
Isn't amazing, It's an amazing game. Nobody he knows about it. Yeah.
Ah, So there's gonna be that, and there's gonna be music playing
in the background. We got anaircraft. So the aircraft, oh my
gosh, the aircraft this time isso neat. So the K two,
which is a helicopter plane, huhyou can get your photo with yet closer

(11:18):
to it. The NB two isalso going to be open. So the
NB two is a large bomber aworld War One era bomber, and it
is a giant aircraft and you canlook in it and get your photo with
it. But my favorite, ofcourse is the P fifty one Mustang Superstar
of World War Two. And partof the reason we do these is because
one highlight the stories of these differenteras. But also if you look at

(11:41):
that P fifty one, she isa fine machine. She's the Rivets,
the Chrown. Oh man, she'ssparkling. But it is a fine looking
machine. So that's all there.That is all there, all right.
So it's the after Dark series,it's the Steampunk Soiree. It's coming up
November eighteenth. November eighteenth, sofive point thirty six o'clocks when it starts,

(12:03):
goes until ten cash bar. Ticketsare forty dollars. Forty dollars and
where do I get them? Soyou can go on af museum dot com
slash events to purchase your tickets.Okay, that's simple enough, it's simple
enough. And every ticket is adonation towards the foundation's mission of helping preserve
the Air Force Museum. Yeah.Yeah, we need to raise money somehow,

(12:24):
and this is a really cool wayto do it. What about volunteers.
You need any volunteers for the eveningor how do people volunteer? The
museum provides us volunteers. So that'sthe cool part about it is when you
go in and you're looking at youropen aircraft or you're just walking around,
Yeah, there's going to be aguy who's trained in everything woman. Yeah,
and they're going to be able totell you all the details. In
some cases they were they flew asimilar aircraft. Really, so a lot

(12:48):
of them are pilots and veterans.Seriously, this sounds like so much fun.
It's amazing. All right. Soit's November eighteenth, six until ten
pm. Air Force Museum after aryou get to go there after dark,
Yes, steampunk soiree. All thedetails are online once again, af museum

(13:09):
dot com, slash events. Kelly, thanks for coming in this morning.
I appreciate it.