Jackie Brookner, a New York-based artist who creates “biospheres” by using storm runoff and other polluted waters as part of her outdoor, environmental earthworks, spoke at Xavier University this month about the ethical and spiritual dimensions to her work. One of her pieces, “Laughing Brook,” is in Cincinnati, along the struggling Mill Creek.  

It’s tempting to call Rubber an intimate glimpse into the tire condition. But that might seem excessively flippant. True, it’s hard not to describe this new independent film about a killer tire, which can be seen first-run on Time Warner Cable’s video-on-demand platform, without allowing for some humor.  

Boxing is a brutal sport, one that all too often leads to injury, but it is also among the most heavily romanticized by writers like A.J. Leibling, artists like George Bellows, and films from 'Body and Soul' to 'The Fighter.' Chris Bucher's photography series Little Kings at Prairie Gallery continues that tradition. He tracks via large-scale photographs the progress of inner-city kids in Indianapolis as they prepare for the 2008 Ringside World Championships.  

University of Cincinnati owns an important video sculpture by the man who basically created multimedia art, Nam June Paik. But don’t expect to see Cinci-Mix, which was commissioned in 1996 for an interior wall in then-new Aronoff Center for Design and Art. Because the old-school components — 18 stacked rear-projection monitors playing laser-discs — started breaking down, the College of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning (DAAP) had to put the piece in storage in 2007.  

To heighten awareness of environmentalism as Earth Day approaches on April 22, the popular EcoSculpt event has returned to Fountain Square, sponsored by Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance and Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation. A three-week installation of colorful, lively sculptures made of recycled and/or recyclable materials, it is on display now through April 28.  

University of Cincinnati owns an important video sculpture by the man who basically created multimedia art, Nam June Paik. But don’t expect to see Cinci-Mix, which was commissioned in 1996 fo  

While I’ve waxed positively about Cincinnati Art Museum’s recent exhibitions and programming, I’d be guilty of hometown parochialism if I failed to mention activities at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. It seems on a fast track, under director Maxwell Anderson, to becoming a museum of consistent national significance.  

Young and smartly romantic Australian musician Darren Hanlon will be accompanied at his latest stop at the Southgate House by Shelley Short (who provides harmonies and sings duets with him on I Will Love You At All) and Australian drummer Stephanie Hughes. Short, from Portland, will open the show and sing from her own recordings, with Hanlon and Hughes accompanying her.  

Darren Hanlon, the young and smartly romantic Australian musician who's touring in support of his first American album, 'I Will Love You At All', is talking to me from a tour stop. His conversation is peppered with references to friends and favorite influences — Stephin Merritt's quirkily, jauntily literate American band Magnetic Fields, the gifted confessional Swedish singer/songwriter Jens Lekman, fiery and soul-bearing British troubadour Billy Bragg.  

Chrome, the explosively thrashing guitarist/songwriter with the key American Punk band the Dead Boys, will be at the Comet in Northside at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday as part of the unusual, trend-setting Cleveland Confidential Authors Tour. All three of the authors who will be reading from/signing their books at the free event — Chrome, Mike Hudson and Bob Pfeifer — have their roots in Cleveland Punk bands.