http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/ The ice rink on Fountain Square is open again, and at nearly 7,000 square feet in size it's comparable to the one in New York's Rockefeller Center. On-site amenities include skate rental, lockers, benches and a heated tent. Admission and skate rental are $2.50 each. Daily through Feb. 21, with extended hours on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.]]> In a recent essay in Newsweek, Walter Mosley stated, “Everybody is guilty of something.” That truism is apparent in The Fall of Heaven, the first play by the well-known crime and mystery novelist in its world premiere at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Through Feb. 20.]]> The National Underground Railway Freedom Center’s Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America opened last week and is up through May 31. Convinced that no good can come of ignoring or forgetting this shameful aspect of American history — some 5,000 murderous, illegal lynchings, mostly of African-American males, from 1882 to 1968 — the Center has taken a traveling show that sometimes elicited anger in earlier venues and hopes to make it a means of furthering understanding rather than undermining it.]]> Jay Bolotin is one of Cincinnati's most important and intriguing artists. He's busy at work on the second part of his trilogy The Jackleg Testament. Leaves From a Cast Paper Novel at the Carl Solway Gallery consists of the initial source imagery for part two — 33 drawings from an illustrated manuscript, the manuscript itself and an edition of cast-paper pieces. Through April 10.]]> My Name Is Asher Lev is about a young man pulled between a secular life as a visual artist and a religious existence within the Hassidic community. Based on Chaim Potok's much-praised novel, this poignant look at the cost of individuality became a play last year. Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati is presenting one of just two productions this season. Through Feb. 14.]]> For the new year’s first opening show at Clay Street Press, Mark Patsfall is joined in a three-person exhibition entitled A Seductive Journey by Mark Dejong and Steve Pastz. The three traveled to Cambodia and Vietnam together in the spring of last year and have all made artistic responses to their shared journey. Through March 13.]]> Cincinnati World Cinema is back with LunaFest, a collection of 10 short films “by women filmmakers, for women and the men who care about them.” The fest presents multi-genre offerings from across the globe in styles and subject matter that range from amusing to affecting. LunaFest’s two screenings — 7:30 p.m. Feb. 9 and 10 at the Carnegie in Covington — will also include post-screening discussions.]]> A stroll through the Krohn Conservatory’s steamy indoor rainforest (aka the Palm House) or the arid Desert House is an exhilarating escape from the icy grip of winter. The Tropical House is also therapeutic. Free iPod tours are available anytime and you can hire a tour guide for 1-20 people anytime.]]> University of Cincinnati's Reed Gallery begins this year with a show, Urban Interventions, curated by three of DAAP’s faculty. The collected artists find inventive ways to insert art-making into life outside typical gallery presentations; they frequently make use of limited resources, a relevant model for artists trying to survive in a rattled economy. Monday-Friday through Feb. 19.]]> The Cincy Shakespeare Company is performing two programs featuring three memorable scripts being produced in repertory: One evening it's Samuel Beckett's 'Krapp's Last Tape' (from 1958) and Eugene O'Neill's 'Hughie' (written in 1941 but not performed until 1959). The one-act pieces alternate with a new translation of August Strindberg's 'Miss Julie,' a drama from 1888. Through Feb. 14.]]> Starting Tuesday, and continuing for four Tuesdays thereafter, Cincinnati Art Museum will hold “Yoga With the Masters” classes from 6-7:15 p.m. in its Modernist galleries, allowing practitioners to stretch and meditate in the after-hours presence of art's 20th Century Modernist greats, who themselves knew a thing or two about how to inventively stretch bodies and change perceptions.]]> Ryan Snow’s six new minimalist paintings at the Frank Duveneck Arts & Cultural Center reward close looking by patient viewers. Snow holds a B.F.A. in painting and works as a designer, so it’s not a surprise that his subtle paintings incorporate the element of graphic design. Typography bleeds through here and there, the result of paint layered on top of collaged newspaper. Through Jan. 30.]]> Opening this Friday at the Weston Gallery in downtown’s Aronoff Center for the Arts are three solo projects: Alice Pixley Young’s Nightfall, Steve Zieverink’s Live Station, and paintings and wall drawings by Rick Mallette. While Young’s installations deal with nostalgia and memory, Zieverink’s creative process takes into account our ever-progressing technologies and how these new frontiers affect not just aesthetics but biology, personal identity and other basic building blocks of the human experience. Through Feb. 28.]]> Chewing Color, the new exhibition of the subversive, questioning, unnervingly intimate and maddeningly beautiful fashion photography of Marilyn Minter, is now on display at the Contemporary Arts Center. Through May 2 at the CAC.]]> An enormous crowd of artists has been gathered to think about the semiotics of masculinity, to discern the striations of meaning in the term and to assess what masculinity does or doesn’t have to do with gender or social programming. Among the other insightful offerings are Matthew Dayler’s “Untitled Trophy 1 and 2,” a pair of photographs showing clippings of beard hair. Through Feb. 19.]]> The Ohms’ self-titled debut bristles with local energy but shines with major label luster. From the mellow groove of “Everything” and the rock steady toast of “Here I Come” to the Spin Doctors island thunder of “Rosemary Tea” and the infectious Dancehall snap of the album’s first single, “Pipe Down,” The Ohms boast a sonic verve and musical command to rival 311 or Pepper. They host a CD release party at Play by Play Cafe.]]> The second edition of the Flick My Clip Film Festival at Go Bananas — organized by Cincinnati/Dayton-area comics Ryan Singer, Alex Stone and Mike Cody — features short films made by not only area comics, but ones from around the country. The Flick My Clip Film Festival takes place at Go Bananas in Montgomery Tuesday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5.]]> One of the last artists to benefit from Cincinnati's artist grants program is Kim Flora. In 2008, she was awarded $6,000 to support the creation of the large-scale encaustic paintings that grace her exhibition Personal Vistas, opening this Friday at PAC Gallery in East Walnut Hills. (It is up through Feb. 27.) Encaustic (paintings in melted wax) is an expensive, involved medium to work in.]]> Got someone you want to impress? Take your 3-Way to the next level when you visit “La Skyline Chili,” Skyline’s Blue Ash location (5005 Cornell Road), for a romantic dinner from 4-8 p.m. on Sunday. For the eighth year, this location and maitre d’chili/manager Scott Callaway will set the mood with candlelight, a violinist and roses for the ladies.]]> Celebrate the third annual Cincy Winter Beerfest by sampling over 125 unique, cold craft beers inside the warm, toasty walls of the Hyatt Regency Saturday evening. That's over 15,000 square feet of beer! Tickets are going fast! VIP is sold out unless you have a Best of Cincinnati dining card.]]> The friendly folks over at PROJECTMILL are giving everyone a chance to feel good about themselves after a long night of sweaty, noisy fun. For just $1 (that’s less than 4 cents a day if you spread it out over the whole month) you can send a carnation to your relationship partner as part of the group’s United Carnations initiative, and the proceeds will be donated to the rehabilitation efforts in Haiti.]]> Over the years you may have seen Cash Levy on any number of TV talk shows. Perhaps you caught him on Comedy Central. However, those controlled doses don’t really capture the comedic sensibilities of his club set. While he has plenty of good jokes, his real love is just interacting with the crowd and improvising. Thursday-Sunday at Go Bananas.]]> 'Falsettos' paints a very human story about protagonist Marvin coming out of the closet, Marvin's ex-wife Trina, his son Jason and his new partner Whizzer, characters you come to know, laugh with and love. You can see a production of 'Falsettos' for free Thursday-Saturday at UC's College-Conservatory of Music in the Cohen Family Studio Theater.]]> Thursday home games at U.S. Bank Arena are known as "Thirsty Thursdays" and offer $1 PBRs and Miller High Lifes. The Cyclones are in first place and this week will host the South Carolina Stingrays in a contest that will provide plenty of entertainment between bites and drinks.]]> Whether he knows his '80s Synth Pop or not, Owl City has struck a chord with everyone from Gen Xers to the tween set. Though Owl City is compared to contemporary groups like The Postal Service, echoes of Kraftwerk, New Order and OMD are evident, even if Young doesn’t know who the forefathers of Techno Pop are exactly. He plays a sold out show with Lights at the Madison Theater.]]> Every Saturday through Feb. 6, Hamilton County Parks offers up a 4 to 5.5-mile hike along some of the city’s best trails. Fight cabin fever by finding some friends, bundling up and getting your ass out of bed before 10 a.m., which is when the hikes start. As an added bonus and warm reward, a bowl of soup will be served to each hiker at the end of the hike. This Saturday, the hike takes place at Winton Woods and the soup of the day is bean soup with cornbread.]]> If you’ve been feeling like a big zero lately, you probably need to put Know Theatre’s upcoming production on your calendar. Not that you want to follow the example of Mr. Zero, who is replaced by an adding machine after years of loyal service, leading him to go ballistic. The opening night party starts at 7 p.m. with food by Mixx Ultra Lounge, gelato by Madisono’s and beer by Christian Moerlein.]]> This Saturday night, CS13 hosts "Love Is A Drag," which will include a variety of drag performances that reinterpret the music (and gender image) of contemporary Pop icons like Pink and Beyoncé, as well as older ones like Billie Holliday. 8 p.m.]]> MainStrasse is hosting its 14th annual Mardi Gras event 8 p.m.-1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. There will be a giant entertainment tent full of live music from the likes of Robin Lacy & DeZydeco and 4th Day Echo, lots of Cajun food booths and a Dunk-a-Cop booth to raise money for the Police Unity Tour. Friday night there’s a Big Head Parade and Saturday there’s a Grande Parade.]]> More than just a classic fairy tale about dreams coming true, Cinderella also makes for a delightful time at the ballet: plenty of pantomime, ugly stepsisters (roles traditionally danced by men in drag) and fun fantasies abound, not to mention a race against the clock! The Cincinnati Ballet's bubbly production promises to sweep you off your feet Friday-Sunday at the Aronoff.]]> A lot of Punk bands’ political activism extends as far as sporting a stylishly ripped Che Guevera T-shirt, but Strike Anywhere isn't a band that wears its politics on (or as) its sleeves. You'd be hard pressed to find a more informed and literate group of guys playing political, social and cultural manifestos at skin-blistering volume with a melodic punch for fans that they hope to educate every bit as much as entertain. They play The Mad Hatter.]]> Eight years after leaving P&G to pursue stand-up fulltime, Sneed is amazed at how much he has accomplished — a Comedy Central Presents episode, two CDs, the chance to regularly perform in front of 10,000 people, a successful T-shirt business, a popular podcast (“Detention”) and headlining some of the top comedy clubs in America. He performs Thursday-Sunday at Go Bananas.]]> The ex-Ohioan (he’s now based in Philly) Indie Hip Hop producer RJD2 's latest album is The Colossus, which contrasts his last polarizing project by adding vocalists like Kenna and Illogic. The Colossus is a canvas of collages with soulful thump, Funk and vibrant, good Pop. He plays the Southgate House.]]> The music emanating from Nick Oliveri’s latest album, Death Acoustic, represents some of the most brutal sounds the journeyman Punk bassist has ever recorded. For his accompanying solo acoustic tour, Oliveri should have a Woody Guthrie sticker affixed to his instrument, amended to read, “This Machine Kills Fascists … and Anything Else Within a 300-Yard Radius.”]]> Dutch Utopia: American Artists in Holland, 1880–1914, organized by Savannah’s Telfair Museum from private collections in the U.S. and Europe, brings together “the tulips, windmills, peasant costumes and canals so characteristic of Holland were powerfully captured by a group of American artists who frequented or settled in the Netherlands in the decades around 1900.” Through May 2.]]> A little Country, a little Pop and a lot of Texas-spun, story-laced Americana, singer/songwriter Robert Earl Keen’s latest release, The Rose Hotel, has been hailed as one of the best of his storied career. Keen’s show Saturday at the Madison Theater features support from Bobby Bare Jr.]]> If you were asked which “lady or gentleman of the canyon” — the iconic 1970s-era singer-songwriters of Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon — had recently delivered a late-middle-age masterpiece, you’d probably guess Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Carole King, Don Henley, CS&N … basically anyone but JD Souther. He performs at the Fairfield Community Arts Center as part of the Sojourner Concert Series.]]> MoBo Bicycle Co-op doesn’t want to you to forget about your two-wheeled ride while you’re huddled inside. This winter they’re holding a Winter Workshop Series at their headquarters in Northside talking about everything from bicycle fit to bottom brackets to brakes. This week’s topic is “Wheel Building.”]]> Accomplished local Americana duo Wild Carrot (Pamela Temple and Spencer Funk, pictured) and their accompanying Roots Band (Brenda Wolfersberger and Brandt Smith) present a special family-friendly concert Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. at St. John’s Unitarian Universalist Church in Clifton. The “Our Roots are Showing” event is an interactive “edutainment” concert, which the musicians have performed at elementary schools around the region.]]> Relative newcomers The Brothers and The Sisters launch their debut album (a self-titled affair) this Saturday with a free show at Northside’s Mayday. The Guitars (who share drummer Matt Ayers with the headliners), 20th Century Tokyo Princess and Frontier Folk Nebraska also perform. Haunting and haunted, The Brothers and The Sisters’ debut is darkly stirring and, musically, the band creates a fitting backdrop, replicating the vocalized anguish with slow, sorrowful sonics and pacing.]]> If you're a frequent attendee of local music shows, you’ve no doubt seen Pat Rice, the 65-year-old “superfan” who probably attends more music events than just about anyone and is beloved by the bands she consistently checks out. Rice recently lost her residence of the past few years and is without the money for a deposit on a new place to stay, so Duppy a' Jamba, The Frankl Project, Loudmouth, Rosemary Device and Hazle Weatherfield are performing a 7:30 p.m. show to lend a hand. $5.]]> A lot of Punk bands’ political activism extends as far as sporting a stylishly ripped Che Guevera T-shirt, but Strike Anywhere isn't a band that wears its politics on (or as) its sleeves. You'd be hard pressed to find a more informed and literate group of guys playing political, social and cultural manifestos at skin-blistering volume with a melodic punch for fans that they hope to educate every bit as much as entertain. They play The Mad Hatter.]]>