This year marks the second anniversary of Cincinnati’s Crafty Supermarket Holiday Show,
a gathering of more than 50 local crafters, artists and designers
making it easy to find those special gifts for all your holiday
shopping.
As a devotee of the kind of enigmatically mysterious,
ambitious conceptual art installations — sometimes minimalist, sometimes
abstracted or color-field — that can be called “spiritual,” I’ve made
pilgrimages to some pretty unusual places. The rationale behind such art
often is that remoteness adds to the intensity of the experience.
For many Cincinnati area audiences, dance means classical ballet — annual Nutcracker performances or perhaps Swan Lake. But Mario de la Nuez and Meridith Benson, co-artistic
directors of de la Dance Company, are trying to change all that with
performance evenings like DanceCincinnati2011.
It’s hard to imagine a more fantastical introduction to
the world of music than Memphis teenager Booker T. Jones experienced in
the early 1960s. Jones — a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member as well as
recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Grammy — is one of the headliners
for this year’s MidPoint Music Festival. He and his touring band will be
doing swingin’ ’60s Booker T. & the MG’s classics as well as
selections from Jones’ new album, The Road From Memphis.
Now in its 10th year, the MidPoint Music
Festival has grown from an annual outlet for local musicians to one of
the best and brightest fests in the region, this year offering
nationally and globally renowned acts such as Cut Copy, Mates of State
and The Album Leaf. This year will also see the inclusion of
Cincinnati’s visual arts talent, as ArtWorks and MPMF bring the foreign
concept of the Box Truck Carnival to town.
We don’t need to spend a lot of time explaining to you, dear CityBeat
reader, that John Kasich is not cool. You’re obviously a smart, cool
and very attractive person if you’re reading our Cool Issue fall
preview, while Kasich is a stuffy Republican who thinks it’s cool to
sell bridges to private companies. “Look everybody! A toll booth! Cool!”
In 1999, a young Ohio State alum named
John Kasich was featured in a newspaper article about his potential run
for President of the United States. Nothing out of the ordinary there.
But what was a bit strange, in hindsight, was the way the paper (the San Francisco Chronicle, no less) described this young buck looking to become the most powerful man on the planet.
I’m pretty sure that Gov. John Kasich has
more important things to think about than his favorite restaurant. But
it is clear that Kasich thinks that Bob Evans is pretty damned cool.
During his campaign last year, it was reported that Kasich staffers had
to set all Bob Evans locations into the GPS devices in campaign cars,
although one staffer noted that it really wasn’t necessary since Kasich
knew where they all were located anyway.
College football season is already upon
us, but what many sports fans often fail to realize is that college
basketball is just around the corner. With 10 more weeks of University
of Cincinnati football scheduled to overlap the school’s November
basketball exhibition games, it’s safe to say that this fall is going to
involve watching many, many athletic competitions.
Smarmy, round-shouldered and sporting a
haircut that makes his head look just a little asymmetrical, Ohio Gov.
John Kasich cuts a striking pose in his weekly video addresses. Checking these out
gets you close to the Governor’s mansion in that way that Facebook gets
you close to your friends — that is to say, very and not at all.