The huge stone quarries that hide in the landscapes of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky are strange things, monsters of ruggedly carved-out negative space that — when abandoned and filled with water — a  

From now on, when anyone mentions “Octoberfest” in Cincinnati, I’m going to think first of FotoFocus. This year, its first, it has clearly established itself as an artistically meaningful and rewarding addition to Cincinnati’s cultural calendar. The next is planned for 2014. It is also, like that other Oktoberfest (which actually occurs in Septemb...  

Having wrapped up a very busy first (extended) weekend of FotoFocus activities, I’m humbled by the fact that I only got to a portion of the exhibits and events occurring under the month-long, regional photography festival’s umbrella. Before it’s over, more than 70 shows and related special events — like this Wednesday’s concert at the Emery Theatre by Bill Frisell/858 Quarter, featur...  

The Lightborne lecture at Cincinnati Art Museum, featuring internationally recognized photographers, has been renamed the FotoFocus lecture this year in recognition of the upcoming citywide photo e  

The Cincinnati Art Museum is screening the meditative new documentary Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow, about German painter Anselm Kiefer's years of transforming an old French silk  

Since the Main Library last May restored and put on display its famous 1848 daguerreotype Panorama of the Cincinnati riverfront, some 2,000 people have come downtown to see it and to use the two accompanying interactive touch-screen displays that allow visitors to zoom in on magnified, digitized images from the original photograph. Now the library has created a website, accessible from any computer, with many of the same features.  

Yes, the appearance of the Monkees — Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Peter Tork — at Aronoff Center for the Arts on Saturday night could be considered merely an oldies/nostalgia show. But it is much more. The group, augmented by a veritable orchestra of musicians, will play the hit songs first recorded when their stylish, Beatles-influenced 1966-1968 television show was the rage — "I'm a Believer," "Last Trains to Clarksville," "Daydream Believer," "Words" and more were smashes.  

Perhaps Cincinnati's best and most ambitious alternative art space — U-turn in the Brighton District — is ending its impressive run with a closing party starting at 7 p.m. Saturday, and all are invited. There will be refreshments and music. Over the course of its two years, U-turn's five curators/operators have found artists from here and afar to present arresting, beautiful and serious work. So come say goodbye.  

One of the things that made the Cincinnati Post so good — and made it so important to the city — was its background as a blue-collar, afternoon newspaper. For better and worse, as the fortunes of the working-class declined in post-industrial Cincinnati, the Post could capture some heart-wrenching portraits of people on the fringes. Melvin Grier, a photojournalist for the late, lamented Post for some 30 years, was responsible for quite a few of those portraits.  

On a recent Saturday night, three galleries along Central and Harrison avenues were open — Synthetica-m and the collectively run U-turn Art Space and Semantics. The exhibits at U-turn and Semantics were amazingly good. Their shows are still up through May 28. And yet word comes U-turn will be closing after one more show. So yet another Cincinnati alternative space that has made a mark will be gone before it can really galvanize growth in the larger arts community.