I’d always scoffed at the notion of a “happy hour” at a bar. Then I got a big-girl job, working 9 to 5. love my job, but sometimes it is stressful and hard and I just want to sit in a neighborhood bar with my good friend Jack Daniel’s. And so I became initiated into the “happy hour” society.   

Cincinnati's annual celebration of the two-wheeled lifestyle returns in May. We've got the official Bike Month calendar, provided by Queen City Bike and the Cincinnati Department of Transportation. Events run all month long, and "Bike to Work Week," May 14-18, will offer free coffee and treats for those who want to try cycling to or from work for the first time.   

Cincinnatians just love to joke about that old, clichéd quip often attributed to Mark Twain: “When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it’s always 20 years behind the times.” The colloquialism is used to exemplify anything considered remotely backward, from legislation to fashion to potholes. Signs of life, though, are sprouting up around the city like a canary dandelion through a crack in the cement.  

The NCAA Tournament comes around every year, which is great for those of us who believe it to be the greatest postseason event in sports — the first two days of which are particularly dramatic and exciting.  

I’m Lucy Plum’s boyfriend. Some weeks ago, you got to read her story in this space about being unemployed. It’s a difficult, if not devastating, situation to be in. I was there for almost two years, and she put up with me, and I’ve been trying my best to put up with her. Neither side is a bed of roses. Sometimes it’s a bunch of thorns.  

A recent trip to Wisconsin reaffirmed for me the exciting correctness of the Cincinnati Art Museum’s efforts to build collections in Folk/Outsider Art and Contemporary Crafts. This year, the museum has displayed work from two new collections — Chicago collector Robert Lewis’ Outsider Art and Cincinnati collectors of Contemporary Craft Nancy and David Wolf.  

When I visited Country Club in the West End last week, it was bustling even though no other visitors were in the art gallery. Christian Strike, its owner, was too busy at his computer to talk. His Iconoclast Editions, an ancillary company headquartered in the West End gallery, had just that day issued a new, limited-run print by Shepard Fairey, the New York-based graphic artist who shot to fame with last year’s “Obama Hope” poster.  

Usually when September rolls around, I spend my time prepping an opening at Carl Solway Gallery and anticipating all the new fall exhibitions in town. This year, I’m also preparing for my move back to Brooklyn. While everyone knows New York is a cool town full of art, I’m not ready to admit that it’s any cooler than my Cincinnati.  

There are many things that American politicians work hard to avoid — divisive issues, unprompted interviews and admitting how much their shiny shoes cost are high among their fears. But recent health care legislation has brought yet another controversial topic to the forefront: abortion (!).  

Over the July 4 weekend, I visited the Midwest’s hottest visual-arts destination this summer — the Art Institute of Chicago’s new Renzo Piano-designed Modern Wing, which opened in May. In Chicago, a town that takes architecture very seriously, the building is being hailed as a masterpiece. Although it’s three stories high, it feels light, intimate and low to the ground, the result of using lots of glass, accented by steel mullion strips, to give the limestone-cladded facade an open and inviting spirit.