http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/ Hopefully this isn't goodbye. But with the way things are in this economy and in this world today, I'm being forced to take a break from this column. We hope it can come back in the fall. Meanwhile, I'll be putting my reporter’s hat back on and writing in the news section.]]> Though I’ve technically never been homeless, I realize that like so many people I’m really just a paycheck or two or a major illness or some unforeseen catastrophe from being in some serious financial ut-oh. Giving up sometimes seems like a great idea. Or getting a simpler job.]]> I’m Joe Wessels, HSD. Yeah, that’s right, I have a high school diploma. I earned it in 1992 from Colerain High School. After graduation, I spent a fall cutting grass and shoveling frozen dirt from one pile to another at Maketewah Country Club.]]> The experiment is over. I’m not a suburban guy. It doesn’t totally surprise me. I grew up in the suburbs, but my heart is in the concrete and noise and combustible nature of an inner city — namely Cincinnati. ]]> Let’s stop being a town of shoulda, woulda, coulda. With Cincinnati City Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz’s announcement May 19 that she no longer supports the city’s streetcar initiative, she joins Republican colleague Chris Monzel, who never liked the idea from the beginning. And that stinks. ]]> I had an outside chance of wandering into a two-headed deer-cow hybrid that could fly. But I ventured onto the Fernald Preserve anyway. When I was growing up out in northwest Hamilton County, Fernald was like our own private Area 51 far away from Roswell, N.M. Now the former Fernald Uranium Processing Plant has gone from Super Fund cleanup site to a nature preserve complete with a refreshingly balanced and frank museum inside a $3 million visitors center. ]]> Hopefully this isn't goodbye. But with the way things are in this economy and in this world today, I'm being forced to take a break from this column. We hope it can come back in the fall. Meanwhile, I'll be putting my reporter’s hat back on and writing in the news section.]]> Supporting local independent businesses is 'who we are' CityBeat readers are being urged to “shop local” this holiday season and support Greater Cincinnati’s economy by supporting locally owned independent businesses. Everyone who pledges to spend at least $100 of their holiday gift purchases to “shop local” will be entered into a drawing for a prize package from participating businesses.]]> Supporting local independent businesses is 'who we are' CityBeat readers are being urged to “shop local” this holiday season and support Greater Cincinnati’s economy by supporting locally owned independent businesses. Everyone who pledges to spend at least $100 of their holiday gift purchases to “shop local” will be entered into a drawing for a prize package from participating businesses.]]> Endorsements for local elections and ballot issues Scaring voters shitless is a classic political tradition. Whether it's convincing us to fear crime, poor people, public transportation, African Americans, foreigners, gays, nuclear power or the flu, politicians often win elections by playing to the darkest human instincts. "Vote for me or die" is the underlying message of these sorts of campaigns. Instead, if you value hope over fear and progress over the status quo, you'll join us in rejecting political candidates and organizations that prey on our fears. Plan to vote the CityBeat ticket.]]> Patty Griffin's voice lies somewhere between Emmylou Harris's crystalline Country beauty and Bonnie Raitt's Blues-fried rasp, giving her a perfect instrument to interpret the largely Black and Southern Gospel tracks on her new album, 'Downtown Church.' It was recorded in a Presbyterian church in Nashville that once claimed Andrew Jackson as a congregate, and Griffin sang the songs from the church's pulpit.]]> Mark Oliver Everett doesn't feel the slightest hesitation about baring his soul, whether in his old persona of A Man Called E or in his better-known sonic disguise as Eels. And Everett's particular genius is in the casually devastating manner that he attaches his well-worn heart to his plainly visible sleeve, making it painfully and beautifully universal.]]> There are few singer/songwriters who can make melancholy and alienation as gorgeous and powerful and appealing as Freedy Johnston. His gifts were readily apparent on his 1990 debut, 'The Trouble Tree,' and were almost impossibly strengthened on his 1992 sophomore album, the indescribably wonderful 'Can You Fly.' After nine long years, Johnston has finally returned to the studio with brand new songs.]]> In some circumstances, a solo project from a hot band's lead vocalist might signal a little trouble in paradise, but Clap Your Hands Say Yeah frontman Alec Ounsworth merely seems like a restless creative spirit that can't be contained by a single outlet. 'Mo Beauty' was recorded with producer Steve Berlin in New Orleans, and while the bulk of the material was already written, the album bears the unmistakable mark of The Big Easy, from the loping syncopation to the second line backbeat to the general booze-in-church atmosphere.]]> Richard Lloyd's story on its own is pretty compelling — his membership as guitarist in Rocket from the Tombs and Television, his solo career, his session work with Matthew Sweet — but the tale Lloyd spins on his latest solo album, 'The Jamie Neverts Story,' is worthy of a movie script. In a nutshell, the teenaged Lloyd met a young man named Velvert Turner who had started an unlikely friendship with Jimi Hendrix around the time that Hendrix moved to New York. Turner and Lloyd became best friends, Hendrix began giving guitar lessons to Turner and Turner imparted his newfound knowledge to Lloyd.]]> Snoop Dogg has made his rep in Hip Hop by delivering his gangsta hype in an almost offhand way, perhaps a natural by-product of his blunt intake. He seems equally at ease turning out deep Dub atmospherics and textures, hardcore Hip Hop beats or smooth R&B grooves. Snoop's 10th album, 'Malice N Wonderland,' finds him doing what he's always done best: rounding up a talented slate of producers and performers and putting together a conceptual extravaganza.]]> Although Drivin' N Cryin' never officially went away, its work over the past decade has definitely taken a back seat to Kevin Kinney's solo career, which has yielded four discs since the band's last full album of new material in 1997. 2003's 'Detroit Rock City' EP signaled renewed activity, but only now are DNC unleashing their first full album in a dozen years, 'Whatever Happened to the Great American Bubble Factory?'.]]> Even a cursory glance at Tom Waits' musical arc over the years (from sensitive Folk/Pop singer-songwriter to jazzy boho troubadour to arthouse Blues experimentalist) will give an accurate reading of his overwhelming creative restlessness. So leave it to Waits to find a new format with which to present his double live document of last year's acclaimed and patently brilliant "Glitter and Doom" tour.]]> Them Crooked Vultures aims to restore the luster to the supergroup in the new millennium. Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal) and Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) are pretty potent new generation ringers on guitar and drums, but installing Led Zeppelin's iconic John Paul Jones in TCV’s bass-and-everything-else slot is audacious brilliance, resulting in a trio that effectively crosses Rock's modernity with its classicism. ]]> Patty Griffin's voice lies somewhere between Emmylou Harris's crystalline Country beauty and Bonnie Raitt's Blues-fried rasp, giving her a perfect instrument to interpret the largely Black and Southern Gospel tracks on her new album, 'Downtown Church.' It was recorded in a Presbyterian church in Nashville that once claimed Andrew Jackson as a congregate, and Griffin sang the songs from the church's pulpit.]]> If you've ever seen Jean Schmidt in person, you know that she looks just like she does in pictures and on TV (kind of mean). The Enquirer reported today that after President Obama's state of the union address Schmidt looked like herself but was acting like somebody who actually respected the president.]]> It's bad enough to get a text message from your girlfriend when you know she's driving a car, but when your dad hits you with an ROFL while he's on the road driving a big rig, you know several things are wrong (ROFL). That's why the U.S. government today formally banned truckers and bus drivers from texting while behind the wheel.]]> The Cincinnati Enquirer isn't like other news sites that lately have focused a lot of coverage on the terrible, unimaginable suffering the residents of Haiti are trying to survive. Instead, a big picture of a piece of pizza greeted its Web site visitors Jan. 19. Mmmmm! Leave it to the liberals in L.A., Miami and New York to harass readers with pictures of dead bodies, crying babies and utter devastation. Here in Cincinnati we've got bigger fish to fry (and pizza to eat).]]> We at WWE! realize that in 17 years things will be a lot different — technology will be increasingly difficult to use and people who are 10 right now will be able to kick our asses. Another thing that’s going to suck is that the $1.9 billion Cincinnati Retirement System is going to be broke unless fundamental changes are made soon.]]> We, as humans, don’t have to worry about any other species invading us because our consciousness and free will allow us to make awesome weapons to defend ourselves from even the scariest creatures on Earth. But that doesn’t mean some of the not so scary ones can’t mess up our habitats, which is potentially worse than whatever happens when a hippopotamus gets mad at you.]]> If there are two things you don’t need, and one of them costs more but is taxed less, which one seems more appealing? Not enough information? Let’s say one makes your skin look like you just got back from vacation and the other makes your face look like you’re 15 years younger and surprised.]]> There are a lot of bad choices one can make during his lifetime: driving drunk, having unsafe sex and giving a real e-mail address to the cashier at Best Buy are all pretty dumb. Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune today said his recent decision to raise the county cigarette tax was a similarly bad choice.]]> It's bad enough to get a text message from your girlfriend when you know she's driving a car, but when your dad hits you with an ROFL while he's on the road driving a big rig, you know several things are wrong (ROFL). That's why the U.S. government today formally banned truckers and bus drivers from texting while behind the wheel.]]> Some local Democrats are upset with Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher over his demands for attending an upcoming political event in Oakley and believe he's disrespected Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. They're squaring off in the May 4 Democratic primary to get the party's U.S. Senate nomination, and the Hamilton County Democratic Women's Caucus invited them to participate in a debate here Jan. 20. Brunner accepted almost immediately, caucus members say, but their experience with Fisher was far different.]]> It's only the first week in January, but already political campaigns are gearing up for what likely will be the most high-profile local race this year. Cincinnati City Council colleagues Leslie Ghiz and Chris Monzel are running in the GOP primary for the Hamilton County commission, setting up a fight for the local Republican Party's soul between moderates and hardcore conservatives. ]]> Some people think The Banks, a sprawling $800 million residential and shopping district being built along the Ohio River, is Cincinnati’s best hope for increasing tourism and luring more people to live downtown; others call it a waste of money and an unnecessary gamble during tough economic times.]]> If you've ever seen Jean Schmidt in person, you know that she looks just like she does in pictures and on TV (kind of mean). The Enquirer reported today that after President Obama's state of the union address Schmidt looked like herself but was acting like somebody who actually respected the president.]]> Mark Oliver Everett doesn't feel the slightest hesitation about baring his soul, whether in his old persona of A Man Called E or in his better-known sonic disguise as Eels. And Everett's particular genius is in the casually devastating manner that he attaches his well-worn heart to his plainly visible sleeve, making it painfully and beautifully universal.]]> Mark Oliver Everett doesn't feel the slightest hesitation about baring his soul, whether in his old persona of A Man Called E or in his better-known sonic disguise as Eels. And Everett's particular genius is in the casually devastating manner that he attaches his well-worn heart to his plainly visible sleeve, making it painfully and beautifully universal.]]>