http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/ Anna VanMatre exhibits her latest series of graphite paintings in DeNatural Disaster. Her work is part of a group exhibition, Different Directions, at the Carnegie in Covington. Also view Alton Falcone's salvaged wood art and Mike Calway-Fagen's quirky installations. Different Directions is on view through June 26.]]> The first annual OTR/ Gateway Summer Celebration is going to be just as eclectic and edgy as OTR is today. There will be live tunes from local bands like The Sundresses, One Horse and Wonky Tonk, not to mention a slew of talented area artists, including The Lovely Teaspoon, Ovenfried Beads, Visualingual, Supine Feline and more. Combine that with cuisine from local faves like the Coffee Emporium, Enzo's, Lavomatic, Venice on Vine Pizza, Grammer's and copious amounts of Christian Moerlein beer, and you've got the most swingin’ block party ever. 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday.]]> Starting on Friday, the Newport Motorcycle Rally will take over the Newport Kentucky Festival Park with a performance by the Natalie Wells Band followed by a great fireworks show. Then on Saturday, the annual charity ride to benefit the family of Charles Barrett starts at 1 p.m. Registration begins at 10 a.m. and will run until 12:45 p.m. The ride is a Poker Run and has a total of four stops. Prizes will be given away and the entry fee is $20 per bike (includes any rider). Then, after the ride, Taylor Farley, G Miles and the Hitmen and the Natalie Wells Band perform. On Sunday, look for live music by Poker Face. And everyday this weekend, enjoy great music, food and, of course, motorcycles.]]> The LaRosa’s Balloon Glow, now in its 10th year, features as many as 20 glowing hot air balloons in every color tethered to the Moonlite Mall at Coney Island. They’ll be there, all lit up, from 8-10 p.m. for your viewing pleasure. And along with glowing balloons, there will also be live music from the Anderson Township Symphony Orchestra and the Bearcat Jazz Ensemble; entertainment from the guys who turn balloons into different animals and hats, stiltwalkers, jugglers and wake boarders; not to mention Coney’s classic rides. And, of course, at 10 p.m. there will be a gigantic fireworks display provided by Rozzi’s Famous Fireworks.]]> On their latest traveling tent revival, the Shack*Shakers will likely be singing from the upcoming chapter in their snake-handling hymnal, the fall-scheduled 'AgriDustrial.' Get on your go-to-meetin' duds and find out why News of the World called Th' Legendary Shack*Shakers the Rockabilly Sex Pistols. They play the Southgate House's Independence Day Throwdown #1 with The Tillers, Joshua Black Wilkins, Hillbilly Casino, The LadyBirds and more.]]> Northside's Prairie Gallery tries to continue the camera's relevance for contemporary artists. The gallery has a shed-like camera obscura but, according to the exhibition statement, only two artists used it. The show is informed by presence and history, but the artists primarily responded to broad notions about technology’s usefulness and interference in artful expression. Tuesday-Saturday through Aug. 8.]]> The Betts House offers A Glimpse from the Past, underlining the constancy of change. Chris Smith, Cincinnati Public Library history reference librarian, teamed with photographer Alex Bell to find exact vantage points in historic photos of Cincinnati locations and take modern day photos to record how those same scenes look today. The show runs 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday through March 31, with the monthly open weekend coming up 12:30-5 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday. $2.]]> It’s awesome. There’s all kinds of real-looking dinosaurs, from a humongous T-Rex to a little baby Triceratops, and they all moved and roared and stuff. You could even press buttons and make their arms go up and down. The movie was cool but a little scary. My favorite part was when the meat-eater chased the long-necks. The movie was loud. I liked it. (As described by a 4-year-old to his father.) The Dinosaurs Uneathed exhibition and Dinosaurs Alive OMNIMAX film are open daily through Sept. 7 at the Cincinnati Museum Center.]]> This year the MidPoint Music Festival's Indie Summer Series is on Fridays from 7-10 p.m. Three great bands will be featured every week, offering a real sampler of local talent. If you're still hungry for more music, the show continues with a Singer/Songwriter Open Mic from 10 p.m.-midnight every Friday. June 26 lineup: The Sleeping Sea (7:00), The Damn Thing (8:00), Culture Queer (9:00) and a special appearance by Philadelphia's Enon at 10:00.]]> Paper Mountain is a wall installation made entirely in paper by Christian Schmit, a Cincinnati artist. Like a bulletin-board display that discloses complex, open-ended narratives in the spirit of artists like Henry Darger or Marcel Dzama, Schmit’s sequence of scenes where grouchy birds cavort and winged insects guard underground jewel-caves meanders across one wall into a corner. At the CAC UnMuseum until Aug. 24.]]> Anna VanMatre exhibits her latest series of graphite paintings in DeNatural Disaster. Her work is part of a group exhibition, Different Directions, at the Carnegie in Covington. Also view Alton Falcone's salvaged wood art and Mike Calway-Fagen's quirky installations. Different Directions is on view through June 26.]]> This photographer with a considerable career has his solo exhibition 'The Day of Small Things' opening at the Weston Art Gallery Friday night. He's exhibiting his photographs of major musicians like Over the Rhine, Lyle Lovett, Phillip Glass and B.B. King, but that won't be the main thrust of the exhibit. Also on view are 'House Divided,' a monumental environmental installation by Thomas Macaulay, and ,Transitions: The Dresden Project,, a photographic series exploring abandoned dwellings and industrial sites in Dresden, Germany by Guggenheim fellowship recipient Fredrink Marsh.]]> ArtWorks, the region's masters of public art, employed 12 high school and college students (called "apprentices" because they're paid) to work with local design and advertising firms to create 30 large pieces of art around the theme of "Green." The artwork has been transferred to canvas and is being displayed at Theodore M. Berry Friendship Park as The Outdoor Museum. 6 a.m.-10 p.m. daily.]]> There’s much to say about legendary modern dancer/choreographer Merce Cunningham, but above all, he’s a well-rounded, thoroughly modern guy. The Carl Solway Gallery is hosting A Tribute to Merce Cunningham in His 90th Year, a smallish but worthy assembly of Cunningham’s drawings, photos of the artist and in-depth documentaries shown on flat screens. The exhibit is on view through Aug. 15.]]> Summer is approaching fast and is sure to bring the heat. What better way to escape the sun and humidity than at The Beach Waterpark? Beat the crowd by helping The Beach kick off its 25th anniversary season, starting this weekend. Enjoy special admission discounts this weekend only. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. May 16-17.]]> In a very neat segue, it’s possible right now to see two exhibitions of Cincinnati photographer Michael Wilson’s work, reflecting different areas of interest, almost within walking distance of each other. Iris BookCafe is showing prints of photographs from Wilson’s 1984 book Heads Bowed Eyes Closed, No One Looking Around through Aug. 7, overlapping until June 7 with the Wilson’s Weston Art Gallery exhibition, The Day of Small Things, a mid-career retrospective. Iris Bookcafe is open daily and the Weston is open Tuesday-Sunday.]]> Anyone who complains live music is dead in Cincinnati hasn’t been to Fountain Square in the summer. A diverse and exciting musical menu is presented just about every day of the week. This year, Fountain Square is adding international music to the mix. They will be featuring outstanding and often undiscovered local groups performing music and dance from around the globe as part of their World Wide Wednesday series. The season continues through Sept. 9]]> The Northside Fourth of July Festival starts at Hoffner Park at 6 p.m. on Friday when the Rock ‘N’ Roll Carnival comes to town and transforms the Park into a giant beer garden. There, you’ll get an eyeful of deliciously deviant and exotic delights such as fire breathers, aerial dancers, sword swallowers and drag queens. Man Halen, Wussy, Culture Queer and more bands provide the soundtrack until 1 a.m. Then, on the 4th, drag yourself out of whatever gutter you slept in and stumble into the parade along Hamilton Ave. at 11 a.m. It ends at Hoffner Park, where the carnival becomes a festival featuring Vaudeville shows, a gypsy circus, food and artist booths and more live music by The Lions Rampant, Fists of Love and seven more bands until 1 a.m.]]> “Think small” is the mantra at Manifest Gallery for its annual Magnitude Seven show, tucked tidily into the little gallery. No work exceeds 7 inches in any direction, but there’s no limit on skill or inspiration. This year’s call for entries brought responses from all over the world; 27 artists from 14 states and three different countries, including Croatia, made the cut. 2-7 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and noon-5 p.m. Saturday through June 26.]]> Photographer Garry Winogrand's 'Women Are Beautiful' appeared as a book in 1975, and in 1981 Winogrand produced a portfolio of 85 prints selected from those works. Eighty of the portfolio prints are being shown at CAM in a crowded display in the Vince Waddell gallery to reveal the voyeuristic nature of his work. Through Aug. 23.]]> Anri Sala's solo exhibition, 'Purchase Not by Moonlight,' fills two floors of the Contemporary Arts Center with sound, light and tactile objects. The echo in Sala's work not only serves to disrupt human engagement but also to add a sense of placement to the viewer. On display through August.]]> O'Death's rugged stomp grafts the power of Punk and Metal onto the faculties of Jazz, Bluegrass and Folk and spits the combination out with the unencumbered spirit of pre-WWII music. See them at the Southgate House's Independence Day Throwdown #2 with Unknown Hinson, Three Blue Teardrops, The Defibulators, Hells Fire Sinners, The Tillers and 500 Miles to Memphis.]]> ArtWorks' annual Secrets fund-raiser is a favorite in the city. Every year, artists contribute more than 1,000 small postcard-sized artworks for sale to benefit the arts organization. At the time of the fund-raiser, there are no names or labels posted, letting buyers guess at whose work they are drawn to. One of the ways that ArtWorks thanks and highlights those who participate is through a jury process that results in the exhibition EXPOSED. Artists who made the top 100 postcard artworks from Secrets are invited to exhibit new work in the ArtWorks Gallery.]]> Classical music isn’t something you’d probably normally associate with the Fourth of July, a holiday often defined by drunken games of cornhole, copious meat consumption and booming fireworks. Class your celebration up a bit this year with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra’s Red, White & Boom. Enjoy a family-friendly evening with patriotic musical selections from Tony-nominated performers and a full orchestra. Not to mention fireworks. 8 p.m. at Riverbend.]]> POSTPONED DUE TO ARTIST INJURY ]]> Columbus photographer Ardine Nelson became fascinated by the history of the private community gardens of Dresden, Germany, and set off to visit and document them and their owners — not just working-class folks who need a bit of land to grow their food and flowers, but also a wide variety of professionals who find it important to stay connected to the land. The results of her work — brilliantly colorful, large-formatted photographs — are on display through Aug. 30 in Green Spaces at downtown's Weston Art Gallery.]]> The boys in Flight Station blend hard-hitting, riffy verses with soaring, harmonized choruses, and then they add some synths and a layer of post-production sheen, package the thing, call it a Pop song and sell it. They have lofty major-label-fame-and-fortune-goals. Head to the Madison Theater Thursday to celebrate their new music video with Windsor Drive, Rosemary Device, Walk the Moon and Watson Park.]]> For the summer, the Shadowbox is offering a greatest-hits revue of material that has entertained audiences at the "sketch comedy and Rock & Roll Club" venue on the upper level of the Levee. Comedy skits and music have been retooled with new ensemble members and fresh casting, so even if you've seen some of this material before, it will have some new twists and turns. Their special Red, White and Box event starts at 7:30 p.m. with a bistro-style menu and cash bar.]]> Al Jackson has been doing stand-up comedy for about six years, and he’s played some tough rooms. None were tougher than the classroom where he taught seventh graders in Miami. “You think you’re the funny teacher,” he says, “but when you’re 26 and they are 12-year-olds, they think you’re old and washed up. They don’t think you’re funny at all and they do a lot to undermine your confidence. They’re like, ‘Whatever old man!’” Despite the response from his students, Jackson started looking into open mics. He performs at the Funny Bone Thursday-Sunday.]]> At the turn of the 20th Century, when a woman's most acceptable occupation was motherhood, Bessie Potter Vonnoh succeeded professionally as a sculptor, flouting convention by focusing on a career instead of raising children. Her success as an independent, working artist rested on subject matter that supported traditional notions of women. This irony makes the Cincinnati Art Museum's current Vonnoh exhibition all the more fascinating. On view through Sept. 6.]]>