Thanks to Ken Burns' recent Jazz series on PBS, the Blue Wisp is once again a very hot ticket. When I was there recently to hear Cal Collins with the Phil DeGreg Trio, the place was packed with an e  

Last Monday night, the police rang my doorbell because an African-American man had complained about Sister jumping on his leg. Sister and I had been walking up the alley between Kaldi's and Divas o  

You never miss your water till your well runs dry, and now that Kaldi's is open again, after the recent racial violence in Over-the-Rhine, the old regulars are clinging to their bar stools like they  

"They're serious this time," a young black man said to me while we were standing under the canopy at Jordan's Market, trying to stay out of the rain. We had just watched a gang of kids in th  

Betsy Reeves, Kate Schmidt and I got together over the holidays and went, where else, shopping. Betsy, a willowy Scandinavian-looking blonde with enormous blue eyes, is 30, the same age as Kate, who  

I rode over to Indiana a few weeks ago to play for an outside wedding reception in Aurora, Ind. Elaine Crow, known also as "Ma," was doing the gig with me, and she drove up a steep hill to get to th  

Something went terribly wrong at Chris Carmichael's backyard bonfire on the final Friday of September. After painter Jennifer Meredith's art opening at the Modern Design Gallery on Main Street and d  

It was an early spring morning on Main Street, and a misty rain was falling. The homeless people huddled across the street from my apartment were waiting for the Franciscan shelter to open. It was a  

My dog Sister and I marched straight up Sycamore Hill the other day and didn't break a sweat 'til after Milton Street. I was feeling pretty proud of myself, and I thought wouldn't it be nice if Laur  

Jeff Roberts, or "Old Blue Eyes," as some of us call him, is still the best five-string banjo player in town. Jazz pianist Steve Schmidt drops by Roberts' regular Kaldi's gig occasionally on Tuesday