The highly anticipated World Choir Games are just over a month away, and the city is celebrating tonight with the premiere of “Cincinnati Singing,” a star-studded, Cincy-centric music video. Nick Lachey, Jerry Springer, Bootsy Collins and others are featured in the video with iconic shots of the city. Check out the video on Fountain Square tonight at 5 p.m. with Mayor Mark Mallory, councilmembers, Cincinnati Pops Director John Morris Russell and more, and take a peek below.. The free event will also feature performances by American Idol's Eben Franckewitz and several area choirs.

The Fringe Festival keeps on cranking out the fun and freaky performances tonight. Find the entire festival lineup here.

In celebration of City Council’s repeal of the breed-specific language in Cincinnati’s vicious dog ordinance, Cincinnati Pit Crew invites pups of all sorts to strut the streets tonight. Pitties on Parade is a chance for pit bulls and other breeds to show off their sweet side and display why the May 16 repeal was a good decision. The group walk begins on the West Grove of Fountain Square (pets are not allowed on the actual square) at 5:30 p.m. and will continue on various routes, where participants will break into groups to saunter across the city. Everyone will re-group at Smale Riverfront Park at 7 p.m. Make sure your dog is healthy, at least 6 months old, up-to-date on vaccinations and good-natured (the same should probably go for owners). Meet up at Neon’s Unplugged, the pooch-friendly bar in OTR, for an after-party 'til 9 p.m.

Cincinnati E.A.T.S. (Epicureans About Town Society) hosts a Subterranean Picnic Party at Jimmy G’s tonight. Cincinnati E.A.T.S. aims to bring locals to the best independent area restaurants by presenting themed evenings of fixed-price meals. Tonight, Chef Jimmy Gibson has created a three-course menu with shareable sides. Pre-dinner drinks and wine pairings will be available (not included in $44.50 ticket price). There is also a benefit aspect to each event — tonight guests are encouraged to bring several non-perishable food items to be donated to the Freestore Foodbank. Cocktail hour begins at 7 p.m. and dinner will be served at 8 p.m. Grab a last-minute ticket here.

Tonight is the first official evening of Fringe Festival performances. Offerings include Breaking Rank, The Sweet, Burning Yonder, METHTACULAR!, Grim and Fischer, Rodney Rumple’s Random Realty, Blown Up, You Will Have 25 Minutes to Complete This Essay, Female Desires and Quake: A Closet Love Story. Whew! Check out the official Fringe guide, with performance descriptions, ticket information and full schedule here.

Party in the Park continues tonight at Yeatman’s Cove with Stays in Vegas. Happy hour runs 5-6:30 p.m., offering $2 off beer, wine and cocktails. The free concert runs until 10 p.m.

Did you know today is Water a Flower Day? Make sure you're watering your thirsty plants during what's looking like a very hot summer!

Brazee Street Studios is home to more than 25 artist studios, a school of glass and an art gallery, and the Oakley organization also offers tons of art classes for newbies and pros alike. Tonight from 5-7 p.m., budding artists will make fused glass channel plates in an introductory class. Put a little creative juice in your Tuesday. Admission is $65. If you haven't already registered, go here to check out more upcoming art classes.

Check out our To Do page for more happenings and follow our music blog for daily concert info.

It’s tradition to fire up the grill and open pools at the start of summer, but the biggest local ritual this time of year is the Taste of Cincinnati, taking over downtown Saturday-Monday. Fifth Street will fill with local food vendors, plenty of booze stations, carnival rides, four performance stages and more. This year is the debut of food trucks at the Taste — be sure to stop by Café de Wheels, Pizza Bomba, Taco Azul and Queen City Cookies’ mobile eateries in addition to the traditional Taste staples. Pick up an issue of this week’s CityBeat for a guide to the Taste with a map and full menu or click here for a digital copy.

Tonight OTR’s green general store Park + Vine celebrates its fifth anniversary. P+V is a hub for local goods, vegan food, eco-cooking/gardening/living classes and much more. Danny Korman and the rest of the P+V crew have introduced Cincinnatians to kombucha keg parties, bike-friendly culture and even tasty vegan cheese (seriously, it exists). Stop by the shop from 6-11 p.m. tonight and enjoy a street market with local environmental organizations, food and produce vendors. Inside, there will be music, a Flashbox photo booth, beverages and the usual great shopping. Across the street, Northside vintage outfitters Chicken Lays An Egg present a fashion show at the park adjacent to Old St. Mary’s Church.

As bike month comes to a close, celebrate the way countless teens end their high school careers — with a prom! Saturday the City of Cincinnati Bike Program hosts a Bike Prom ride from Northside’s Hoffner Park to Fountain Square (and back), kicking off at 4:30 p.m. Dress in your snazziest bike-friendly formal wear, get your photo taken prom-style under a balloon arch and even vote for a king and queen. After the ride, head to Mayday in Northside for after-prom: Mobo Bicycle Cooperative’s annual fundraiser. Dance to classic prom tunes, participate in a busted bike build-off, sign up for a silent auction and enjoy delicious Mayday drinks-n-'dogs all night long. The ride is free, after-prom admission is $10.

Exhale Dance Tribe presents its season closer Saturday with Imprint. The contemporary Jazz show features original choreography by Exhale founders Missy Lay Zimmer and Andrew Hubbard. Dancing With the Stars champ and 98 Degrees alum Drew Lachey hosts the evening. Check out Lea Lachey, Sherene Schostak and Traci Swain, a father-son live art performance, solo by Andrew Hubbard and much more. The show begins at 8 p.m. Saturday; purchase tickets here.

There's even more going down this weekend: Read Rick Pender's Stage Door for theater shows, follow our music blog for nightly concerts (and plenty of music festivals this weekend), and check out the To Do page for more.

The Mercantile Library welcomes author and garden designer Jon Carloftis to speak as part of its Hearth & Home Lecture series. Carloftis, a Kentucky native, has been featured in magazines and television and has won awards for his landscaping, gardening and writing. He’s a driving force behind the now-popular trend of small space/rooftop gardening. Lit lovers and gardeners alike will enjoy hearing him reflect on his work. The lecture begins at 7 p.m. tonight; admission is $15, $10 for members.

Comedian Shane Mauss kicks off his weekend at Go Bananas tonight. Mauss has appeared on Conan O’Brien (both shows) four times, is a regular on The Bob and Tom Show, has been featured on Comedy Central and travels across the globe performing at international comedy festivals. Tonight’s show features opener Michael Palascak and MC Kelly Collette. Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are $8, $4 with college or military ID.

Winedog Wine Shoppe and Art Gallery hosts a Last Blast of Spring tonight from 6-9 p.m. Enjoy shop wines from Ralph Taylor, Spanish wines from Edgar Saborit of Cat Wines USA and Babee Bites Catering hors d’oeuvres by Debbie Hook. The shop’s attached gallery, Souleiado will feature artwork by Donna Schwarz and live music from Cheryl Renee. Guests should have already reserved their spots; find out more about Winedog here.

SmartTalk ConnectedConversations closes its speaker series tonight with Andie MacDowell — Acting As A Way Of Life. MacDowell has acted in Groundhog Day, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sex, Lies and Videotape and many other films and television programs. She also works to raise awareness for heart health. And she has amazing hair. Check her out tonight for a lecture and Q&A session at 7:30 p.m. at the Aronoff Center. Tickets are $25-$85; find them here.

Check out more events, art exhibits and theater shows on our To Do page and follow our music blog for nightly shows.

Scared yet? Don't be. It just takes some practice. Bike polo is one of the world's up-and-coming sports, already highly popular in India and across Europe. According to the League of Bike Polo, U.S. bike polo was born in Seattle in the '90s, when a group of bike messengers were playing with a ball and some homemade mallets.

“This bike polo court is one the few official bike polo courts in the country,” says Steve Pacella, Cincinnati Recreation Commission superintendent, according to a press release. Several other cities across the U.S., including San Francisco, are scheduled to open official bike polo courts later this year.

Aside from the rise in U.S. cycling culture, its popularity is attributed, in part, to its flexibility — courts can be parking lots, roofs or grassy areas, meaning it's easy for urban-dwellers to find spots to pay.

The new bike polo court is located at the end of Joselin Avenue off Clifton Avenue, near the University of Cincinnati, and will be opened and dedicated today at 3 p.m. Councilman Chris Seelbach will be present to celebrate the court's opening, and the ceremony will also feature a bike polo demonstration for those unfamiliar with the game.

The opening of the bike court comes during Bike Month, a country-wide celebration of all things bike. Click here for a comprehensive list of Cincinnati bike happenings.

May 23 is National Lucky Penny Day, so keep an eye out for face-up coins today.

Author Emily St. John Mandel makes a stop at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Rookwood Pavilion tonight at 7 p.m. She will discuss and sign her latest novel, The Lola Quartet. In what is being touted as her most ambitious work, Mandel “combines her most fully realized characters with perhaps her most fully developed story that examines the difficulty of being the person you'd like to be, loss, the way a small and innocent action can have disastrous consequences.”

Check out our To Do page for more art exhibits, theater shows and other events happening tonight and follow our music blog for a daily live show lineup.

Looking Ahead

Cincinnati Parks Foundation’s Women’s Committee presents its annual benefit, the Hats Off Luncheon, Thursday. Don your best hat and gather at the newly opened John G. and Phyllis W. Smale Riverfront Park on the Jacob G. Schmidlapp Stage and Event Lawn at 11 a.m. for a champagne reception followed by lunch at 12:15 p.m. Support the organization that works to endow, maintain and preserve Cincinnati greenspace and help kick off a fundraiser for a carousel at Smale Riverfront Park.

Denise Driehaus and the Southwest Ohio No Frack Forum host a free screening of Gasland tomorrow, presented by the Sierra Club and Food & Water Watch. The documentary exposes the negative side effects of the controversial Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing, known as fracking. Some call the recent Ohio fracking boom a “gold rush,”  but filmmaker Josh Fox points out the environmental and public health consequences that may result from the drilling. The screening begins at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, followed by a discussion.

Over-the-Rhine vocal ensemble Young Professionals’ Choral Collective (YPCC) presents an evening of music and wine tonight with In Vino Veritas (translation: “in wine, there is truth”). Travel across the globe with Italian and South African choral music and wines selected by 1215 Wine Bar and Coffee Lab’s sommelier. You’ll get a taste of various regions, without leaving the city. Memorial Hall hosts the event, kicking off at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 (should have been ordered in advance) and include three glasses of wine. YPCC features more than 100 local singers in their 20s and 30s and is a product of the May Festival. If you didn’t get tickets, meet up with the crew at Below Zero Lounge for an after-party at 8:30 p.m.

Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative continues its New Voices season of staged readings of plays tonight with The Fool. The play, written by Fred Rothzeid and directed by Charlie Goetz, gives a modern twist to the role of the classic court jester. Also known as the “King’s Fool,” these jokesters used to mock the absurdity and corruption of those in power. Today, since much of the power lies in the hands of CEOs, could a “Corporate Fool” save the world’s leaders from their own destruction? Noting how congress’ rules and regulations do little to curb corporate greed, Rothzeid suggests taking a page from the past in The Fool. The staged reading begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Aronoff Center’s Jarson-Kaplan Theater. Tickets are $8.

Looking Ahead

Emily St. John Mandel discusses and signs her ambitious new novel, The Lola Quartet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Joseph-Beth in Rookwood Pavilion. The book "pays homage to literary noir and is concerned with jazz, Django Reinhardt, economic collapse, love, Florida's exotic wildlife problem, crushing tropical heat, the leavening of the contemporary world, compulsive gambling, and the unreliability of memory."

Anderson wine shop and art gallery Winedog presents its Last Blast of Spring Thursday, with wine tastings (including some Spanish varieties), hors d’oeuvres, live music and more. After you find your new favorite wine, peruse the shop’s offerings and bring a bottle home! Make reservations for the event, which runs 6-9 p.m., by calling 888-288-0668 or sign up online before Wednesday.

So, I know you probably read CityBeat exclusively and religiously, but it is kind of cool when Cincinnati pops up in national news for fun reasons. Lately, our grub and attractions have been name-dropped by some major outlets. Food and Wine mentioned Eli's BBQ as one of their "Best BBQ Pit Masters and Grill Geniuses." Yahoo dubbed Tom + Chee's tasty concoctions one of America's most outrageous grilled cheese sandwiches. USA Today listed 10 reasons to visit Cincinnati, featuring Jungle Jim's, the Run Like Hell Halloween race, Opening Day and more. Sure, we already knew about these great aspects of our city, but it's about time everyone else did, too.

In case anyone was unaware, I really like This American Life. The true storytelling radio show presented a live theater event broadcast in cinemas across the U.S. and Australia May 10 (with an additional screening May 15) that anyone with a soul who loves the show would truly enjoy. Because the format shifted from radio to theater, fans got to enjoy visual elements like dance performances, illustrations and a short film by Mike Birbiglia. Peep the NPR-inspired hilarity below.

Check out the radio debut of the episode on public radio this upcoming week.

The Internet bombards us with exaggerated tales of people who have transformed from cheeseburger-gobbling slobs to marathon-winners every day, so I've become suspicious of any before-and-after health stories. That said, when I saw this video on Facebook about a disabled veteran who can now walk because of yoga, I was pretty amazed. Arthur Boorman was told by doctors that he'd never be able to walk unassisted, but he took up yoga, dropped 140 pounds and, well, check out the end result.

Meet Gayle Waters-Waters, a Kashi-snorting, Whole Foods-shopping, book clubbing suburban warrior princess:

Have you ever been hard at work, in the zone, on a roll when somebody stops by or calls to ask a completely random question — one no human would know off the top of their head but that anyone could easily look up since it's the year 20-GD-12 and the Internet exists? Enter Let Me Google That For You. Just type in a question, get a URL, make it tiny and send that to your troll. It'll take them to a page that looks just like Google, manually fills out said question, and brings them to a page of results (so you're not being a total dick). LMGTFY: Because my brain is not a search engine.

Finally, check out Awesome People Hanging Out Together. Hey, it's Elvis and Muhammad Ali!