Apr 6-13, 2016
Unrest in OTR: 15 Years Later // What’s Changed and What Hasn’t
Council Passes North Carolina, Mississippi City Travel Ban
Cincinnati City Council today passed a ban on non-essential city-funded travel to North Carolina and Mississippi today in response to harsh laws passed in those states allowing businesses to discriminate against LGBT individuals and prohibiting transgender individuals from using restrooms that match the gender they identify with. The motion, presented by Councilman Chris Seelbach and…
No Streetcar Budget Just Yet
After years of wrangling, fretting and plenty of political tug-of-wars, and just six months before the streetcar is scheduled to start gliding passengers around downtown and Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati City Council almost passed the transit project's first-year operating budget today. Almost. Council passed the budget out of the transportation committee earlier this week with a veto-proof…
The Jungle Book
Disney should celebrate the day they first teamed up with Jon Favreau as a national holiday. His modern rendering of the classic tale The Jungle Book will make audiences believe that this very real Mowgli (Nell Sethi), the man-cub abandoned in the jungle and raised by Akela (Giancarlo Esposito) and Raksha (Lupita Nyong’o), with assistance…
Criminal
It would be too easy to roll your eyes at the trailer for Ariel Vromen’s Criminal and assume it’s just another in a long line of body-switching knockoffs, or worse still, peg it as Kevin Costner’s latest stab at a Liam Neeson reinvention as an aging action hero (reminiscent of 3 Days to Kill). But…
The Adderall Diaries
Stephen Elliott (James Franco) enjoys the typical successes of a big-city writer hovering on the margins of true fame. He gets to pen the stories he wants — his memoir allows him to edit and shape the truth of his life to meet his needs — and he has access to ideas and people to…
Music: Lupe Fiasco
Lupe Fiasco hails from the creative Chicago Hip Hop scene and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with that city’s modern greats like Kanye West and Common. While he eschews the misogyny, materialism and predictability that a lot of top-selling rappers lean on, Lupe’s imaginative approach and wide range of reference points (he’s likely the only rapper in history…
Eats: Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week
Be a culinary tourist in your own city with CityBeat’s inaugural Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week. Do you like eating? Do you want to try some multi-course meals for cheap? Restaurants throughout the Tristate will be offering $35 three-course meals to delight the palate and impress your date. Participating eateries include Harvest Bistro & Wine Bar,…
Event: Burlington Antique Show
Forget spring cleaning: Ditch the dust at home and head to the first Burlington Antique Show of the season to buy some new old stuff instead. Midwest’s premier antique market is celebrating 35 years of bringing the best antiques and vintage collectibles to the Boone County Fairgrounds. More than 200 dealers converge the third Sunday…
Event: Cincinnati Cat Club Show
The cat’s out of the bag: The 64th Cat Fanciers’ Association Championship show is coming to town, and guests should expect to meet some pretty fancy felines. Hosted by the Cincinnati Cat Club, the show features pedigreed cats on exhibition over a two-day period, with kitties competing to come out on top in 10 separate…
Event: Queen City Comicon
Dust off your cape, sheath your weapon of choice and follow the Bat-Signal to the convention center this weekend. This super-sized hub of all-things comics features writers and artists, workshops and panels, a costume contest and more than 40 vendors, who will offer a wide selection of comic books, cosplay jewelry, toys and steampunk gear.…
Event: Pushed Out! Screening and Discussion
Despite the determination of national media to proffer Cincinnati as an example of a city that has rectified all of its problems related to issues of race, the experience of those affected by our city’s efforts to “revitalize” ground zero neighborhoods like Over-the-Rhine tell a much different story. In an effort to balance that narrative,…
Event: Earth Day at Sawyer Point
Drum Circles, live music, recycling games, costume contests, furry and scaly critters, parades with Earth-friendly mascots and lectures — there are countless ways to celebrate our planet on Saturday at Sawyer Point’s Earth Day celebration. Learn about the declining bee population from the Civic Garden Center, find out more about the Cincinnati Streetcar from Metro’s…
Event: Starkbier Fest
Listermann Brewing Company celebrates strong beer at its annual Starkbier Fest. The idea goes back to the 18th century, when German monks believed the nutritional value of strong beer helped them through their Lenten fast. In continuation of this tradition, Listermann’s fest features a slew of local craft beers with an ABV of 7.5 percent…
Onstage: The Last Five Years
It’s not unusual for a movie, play or musical to follow the arc of a relationship. But Jason Robert Brown’s musical exploration of Jamie’s and Cathy’s coming together and breaking up charts a pair of parallel but opposite paths. We follow Jamie’s story from the beginning of their romance to the end, while Cathy starts…
Comedy: Cy Amundson
“Sorry about my ring-back tone,” says comedian Cy Amundson in reference to the Country music that callers hear before his cellphone connects. “It’s on there strictly to upset certain comedian friends of mine who are music snobs.” Indeed, if it hadn’t been for the fact that he can’t sing, like his more musically talented brothers,…
Event: From Fear to Freedom: Confronting Islamophobia
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center hosts a free community conversation revolving around Islamophobia, which the center defines as “an exaggerated fear, hatred and hostility toward Islam and Muslims perpetuated by negative stereotypes.” This, the center says, results in the discrimination, bias, marginalization and exclusion of Muslims from civic, political and social life. The goal…
Event: Cincinnati Flower Show
The five-day Cincinnati Flower Show features the theme “An International Adventure,” which will manifest through a variety of fine foods and creative floral displays. Along with both amateur and professionally designed exhibits featuring rare and lovely plants and flowers in tablescapes, creative container gardens, window boxes and landscapes, the show will also feature local and…
Mole Woman No More
Four young women are kidnapped by a reverend and brainwashed into believing they’ve survived the apocalypse. Forced to live in an underground bunker and follow his cultish religious beliefs for 15 years, the women are finally freed after a very public rescue. The survivors become a media sensation — “the Indiana mole women” — but…
‘Miles Ahead’ of Traditional Biopic Conventions
During the last year of Miles Davis’ life, I passed up an opportunity to see him perform live. He was scheduled to play the Philadelphia Jazz Festival, and reviews of recent appearances reported that due to his failing health, his chops were diminished and he was largely playing with his back to the audience, with…
Oratorio Reveals ‘State’ Secrets
Spanning one and a half miles of drab industrial facades that morph into houses and multi-family dwellings, State Avenue doesn’t come across as inspirational. But it’s the defining border of Lower Price Hill, home to a large Appalachian community. Last year, Nate May, a graduate student in composition at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of…
The Perils of New Edgecliff Theatre
Once upon a time, popular theater was the realm of melodramas with dastardly villains, heroic champions and damsels in distress. New Edgecliff Theatre has experienced its own run of “perils” that seem to be the modern-day equivalent of the challenges faced in those long-ago productions. It’s not an exact correspondence, but in the process of…
Unique Spring Produce
R amps and fiddleheads and morels! Spring has sprung, and its warmer days and cooler nights mean that there’s a very small window of time for our local chefs to get their hands on some really unique produce. What are these elusive, delicious and — in the case of hand-foraged fungi — ridiculously expensive ingredients,…
Vinyl Revival
Vinyl records, once thought near extinction, haven’t just had a comeback in recent years — they now rule the music industry.Perhaps the most astounding statistic was one discovered last December by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism: “Vinyl record sales brought in $221.8 million in revenue between January and June 2015, a 52 percent year-over-year…
Morning News and Stuff
Preservationists are pushing back against a plan to demolish the historic Dennison Hotel building on Main Street. The Joseph family, of Joseph Automotive Group wealth, has released renderings of a potential Fortune 500 company's headquarters it could potentially develop, should the Historic Conservation Board OK the building's demolition. Opponents of demolition have been circulating copies…
Protection Plan
O hio Rep. Janine Boyd says the danger of guns in a domestic violence situation has touched her personally. “Domestic violence is a part of so many lives. I know a few friends personally who survived relationships that were violent,” says Boyd, a Democrat from Cleveland Heights. “And I have a very close friend, a…
Worst Week Ever! April 6-12
Dayton Becomes First Ohio City to Take Stance Against Other States that are Dumb Way to go, Dayton. This week, our friends who live past IKEA and to the north became the first city in Ohio to formally take a stance against the “It’s OK to Discriminate Against LGBTQ Folks Cuz the Constitution Sez We…
Obama and Megyn Kelly: Media Critics
President Obama and Fox’s Megyn Kelly could be a Saturday Night Live duo, satirizing Obama and Kelly. Their latest schtick is to blame the news media for the rise of Donald Trump. Seriously? Maybe their wrong-headedness arises from being lame ducks: Obama leaves office in January; Kelly isn’t sure she’ll stay with Fox News. Speaking…
Music: Tommy Castro & The Painkillers
Any discussion of the world’s best guitarists would include legends that Tommy Castro lists among his influences — Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Mike Bloomfield. But the fact is, Castro himself should be a part of that conversation. With a commanding vocal style that leans toward Delbert McClinton’s gravel-and-soul approach and a furious guitar…
Sound Advice: Tommy Castro & The Painkillers
Any discussion of the world’s best guitarists would include legends that Tommy Castro lists among his influences — Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Mike Bloomfield. But the fact is, Castro himself should be a part of that conversation. With a commanding vocal style that leans toward Delbert McClinton’s gravel-and-soul approach and a furious guitar…
Music: Inter Arma
Nuance isn’t a commodity that carries much value in Metal, but Inter Arma wields subtlety with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel rather than the body-count arc of a broadsword. The Richmond quintet is a perfect storm of Doom, Stoner, Sludge, Grindcore and Black Metal, with mercurial flashes of Punk, Psychedelia, Southern Hard Rock and…
Sound Advice: Inter Arma with Grey Host
It doesn’t seem all that long ago that being a Metal fan was a fairly simple proposition. Loud, thrashy guitars, stratospherically shrieked vocals, drums that sound like they’re being played by a mutant hybrid of a blacksmith and an octopus — these were the consistent hallmarks of Metal. And while most Metal still proudly offers…
Music: George Winston
Consistent success and longevity are both rarities in the music industry, but the almost unhittable trifecta would be adding “genre architect” to that already improbable set of career accomplishments. Pianist George Winston has notches for that very trio on his Steinway. Winston developed an interest in instrumental music as a child, without regard for genre.…
Sound Advice: George Winston
Consistent success and longevity are both rarities in the music industry, but the almost unhittable trifecta would be adding “genre architect” to that already improbable set of career accomplishments. Pianist George Winston has notches for that very trio on his Steinway. Winston developed an interest in instrumental music as a child, without regard for genre.…
Music: DTCV
Singer/bassist Guylaine Vivarat’s sings in her native French throughout DTCV’s latest full-length album, Confusion Moderne, a decision that lends an extra layer of mystery to a band whose origins and rapid evolution have already been sources of curiosity. The chiming guitars and shifting tempos of the album’s 10 songs channel any number of ’80s Post…
Sound Advice: DTCV with Coconut Milk
Singer/bassist Guylaine Vivarat (aka Lola G.) sings in her native French throughout DTCV’s latest full-length album, Confusion Moderne, a decision that lends an extra layer of mystery to a band whose origins and rapid evolution have already been sources of curiosity. The chiming guitars and shifting tempos of the album’s 10 songs channel any number…
Cincinnati Record Store Day Happenings
The annual, worldwide Record Store Day returns Saturday (see this week’s Cover Story for some local vinyl collectors especially excited about this). The celebration of independent record sellers means innumerable limited-edition releases will be made available from music manufacturers big and small, and several shops in Greater Cincinnati will once again be hosting special events…
Rabbit, Redux
W hen Terrie Markesbery heard the siren approaching her Rabbit Hash, Ky., home on the evening of Feb. 13, she had a somewhat disquieting notion. “I thought, ‘Oh gosh, let that be an ambulance,’ ” the Rabbit Hash General Store’s proprietor recalls. “Isn’t that weird? It’s a morbid thing to think, but when I saw…
Bigots Begat Boycotts
HOT: Bigots Begat Boycotts Officials who recently passed anti-LGBTQ bills are harming the states they’ve been elected to represent. Some companies are pulling back plans to do business in Mississippi (where it’s now legal for businesses to discriminate if God says it’s cool) and North Carolina (where transgender people must use the public bathrooms that…
Dance and Music Together at the Constella Festival
This year marks the fifth season for the Constella Festival, the kaleidoscopic music and arts festival founded by renowned violinist Tatiana Berman. Known as an enthusiastic arts advocate, Berman aims to present performances in fresh ways, working especially to partner with other arts organizations in order to connect with audiences who might otherwise stay away.…
Spring Greening
A s freshly poured concrete floors glisten in a new home in Mount Adams, a local startup is hard at work bringing one of the house’s two-story walls to life. Different sizes of precisely framed boxes stretch from the first to the second floor in the open-air home, soon to contain a variety of plant…
Rooted Juicery + Kitchen Expands
Rooted Juicery + Kitchen opened the doors to its Oakley Square café just nine months ago. Since then, it has experienced an overwhelming amount of success, which has led to the quick opening of a second location, this one in Mariemont, says owner and chef Megan Tysoe. “Our goal is to offer healthy, plant-based food…
Library Employee Might File Federal Suit Over Trans Benefits
A potential lawsuit against the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County over the library’s lack of benefits for trans individuals could be the first of its kind in the country, putting Cincinnati on the map again for LGBT issues. Library employee Rachel Dovel has been transitioning from male to female over the past two…
Morning News and Stuff
Music Hall has gotten one big step closer to its $135 million facelift. The city's Historical Preservation Board voted unanimously on Monday to approve developer Music Hall Revitalization Co.'s plans. The 140-year-old landmark structure is set to close in June for a year to undergo major remodeling, and the board's decision means the developer can…
Documents: Dennison Owners Bought Building to Block Supportive Housing
The owners of downtown’s Dennison building bought it in 2013 at least in part because of concerns about a proposed plan to turn it into affordable housing, documents filed with Cincinnati’s Historic Conservation Board reveal. The revelation comes as Columbia REI, LLC, the owners of the Dennison, look to move forward with controversial plans to…
What’s UC doing to reform its police department?
The University of Cincinnati is working on big changes to its police department but still has work ahead of it, a UCPD official said at a conference on police reform yesterday. University of Cincinnati Police Department Director of Community Relations S. Gregory Baker called the July 19 UCPD shooting of unarmed black motorist Samuel DuBose…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning all. It snowed this weekend. It’s nasty out right now. Insert T.S. Eliot “Wasteland” reference. Let’s not talk about it and just go straight to non-weather related news, shall we? Cincinnati could get a unified effort to expand preschool offerings to more needy kids. At least, that possibility seems more likely after a…
Rumble for Democratic Nomination (Mostly) a Clean Fight
Until recently, the most heated the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination got consisted of disagreements with campaign finance and fighting over the word “progressive.” For the past year, Democrats have prided themselves with debating issues and not mangling each other like the Republicans. However, the battle over the April 19 New York primaries have…
Slice of Cincinnati
With both the Contemporary Arts Center and the Cincinnati Art Museum now offering free admission, and more galleries popping up in Over-the-Rhine and Camp Washington, there’s never been more opportunities to see fine art (for free) in Cincinnati. However, the best-kept secret of Cincinnati art lies in the Art Academy of Cincinnati. That’s right —…
Stage Door
I’m heading to Louisville this weekend for the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre. (You’ll find a report online and in CityBeat later this month.) For those of you staying in town, there are several interesting shows to catch locally. If you’ve been a Fringe Festival regular for the past three years,…
Morning News and Stuff
Yesterday we told you about a Cincinnati City Council move to ban non-essential city-funded travel to North Carolina in the aftermath of legislation there legalizing certain discrimination against members of the LGBT community. Council also wants to go further than that by turning their opposition into opportunity. The motion authored by Councilman Chris Seelbach and…
UC Students’ CityBeat Story Wins National Investigative Reporting Award
One of the nation’s premier journalism organizations today awarded 12 University of Cincinnati students its top prize for student investigative reporting among large universities. Investigative Reporters and Editors, a 41-year-old nonprofit, chose “Robin Hood in Reverse” as the best piece of student investigative journalism among major universities in 2015. The finalists included a 27-person team…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning all. Here’s your news today. It was an eventful day yesterday at Cincinnati City Council. First up, Council weighed in on an ongoing controversy brewing in Clifton and unanimously passed a resolution telling Cincinnati Public Schools not to take back the building housing the Clifton Cultural Arts Center. CCAC occupies a historic former…
Sound Advice: First Jason
I’ve got some surprising news for you: Jason Voorhees is real. Luckily those of us who prefer to have our heads attached to our necks, he’s more interested in keytars and Rock n’ Roll nowadays than he is about machetes. On Friday, the band First Jason will be gracing the stage of Covington’s Backstage Café.…
Onstage: Welcome to Night Vale
L ong before Serial brought podcasting to the mainstream, there were several very popular programs being downloaded on phones, MP3 players and computers. Shows like Marc Maron’s WTF, Jimmy Pardo’s Never Not Funny and The Adam Carolla Show all gained sizeable followings. One show topping the podcast charts was different, however, and that was a…
Midnight Special
Scale matters. Writer-director Jeff Nichols has kept close and tight reins on an outsized vision in his previous films. His breakout second feature, Take Shelter, starred Michael Shannon as a regular family man plagued by dreams of an approaching apocalypse that slow-builds into a taut thriller without engulfing the world in CGI flames. Five years…
Hardcore Henry
Picking up, in theory, where the 2009 sci-fi action-thriller Gamer (starring Gerard Butler) left off, screenwriter-director Ilya Naishuller (helmer of the video short Biting Elbows: Bad Motherfucker) drops viewers into the first-person perspective of Henry, a recently resurrected man with no memory of his previous life whose wife (Haley Bennett) brought him back from the…
City of Gold
Rare indeed that a feature documentary takes as its focus the life, times and experiences of a critical force, especially within the restaurant world, but Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold does not limit himself to mere discussions about food, so why should a film about him do so? Documentarian Laura Gabbert (the curiously engaging…
The Boss
Melissa McCarthy slips into Martha Stewart mode in The Boss, co-written and directed by her husband Ben Falcone (Tammy). Michelle Darnell (McCarthy) might be a captain of industry, but she’s also crass and completely opportunistic, which leads to getting caught up in an insider trading deal gone wrong. Forced to endure a brief “country club”…
Music: Thao & the Get Down Stay Down
I t’s clear from the opening moments of “Astonished Man,” the first song on Thao & the Get Down Stay Down’s excellent new album A Man Alive, that something has changed. We first hear frontperson and main songwriter Thao Nguyen’s modest but expressive voice before it’s engulfed by a funky drumbeat, jagged guitar lines and…
Classical Music: The Cunning Little Vixen
Czech composer Leoš Janá č ek predated Hollywood by several decades when he composed an opera in 1921 based on a serialized novella that appeared as a daily comic strip in a local newspaper. The Adventures of the Vixen Sharp-Ears by Rudolf T ě snohlídek and Stanislav Lolek follows the story of a female fox…
Art: Price Hill Alfombras
This Saturday, Price Hill Will, with the assistance of local Guatemalan artist Hugo Stuardo Ramirez Carrasco and Price Hill artist Lizzy DuQuette, will lead the community in the Latin American tradition of making colorful sawdust carpets called “alfombras.” Traditionally, alfombra-making begins on the last Sunday before Easter and, much like the sandpainting practiced by Southwestern Native Americans or Buddhist…
Event: Tartan Day Ceilidh 2016
Tartan Day, a national celebration of Scottish heritage, might take place on Wednesday, but the Cincinnati Caledonian Pipes & Drums Band is bringing the party home this weekend. One of the oldest pipe bands in the country, CCP&D was established in 1912 with the mission of preserving Scottish culture and heritage with music and public…
Attraction: Seahorses: Unbridled Fun
Get up close and personal with 10 species of seahorses, sea dragons, pipefish, shrimpfish and trumpetfish at the Newport Aquarium’s newest permanent exhibit, Seahorses: Unbridled Fun. The show is being touted as the most interactive seahorse exhibit in the United States, and for good reason. A large video screen magnifies the fish as they swim…
Onstage: Latin Passion
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra hosts special guest Juanjo Mena, who will conduct Manuel de Falla’s romantic opera La vida breve (The Brief Life), full of Flamenco dancers, colorful vocal textures and a lush orchestral score, for this weekend’s Latin Passion program. Before the opera, the evening begins with a performance of the lighthearted Fantasía para…
Event: Revel & Moonlight
The Cincinnati Shakespeare Company hosts a pre-party and kick-off event for its 2016 PROJECT38 Festival, the CSC’s education initiative where actors from the resident ensemble work with students at local schools over a nine-month period to co-create one of Shakespeare’s 38 works. Revel & Moonlight acts as both a fundraiser for the program and an…
Sports: FC Cincinnati
Cincinnati’s latest foray into the world of professional soccer, FC Cincinnati, hosts its home opener this weekend against Charlotte Independence. Backed by the deep pockets of owner and CEO Carl Lindner III, the organization has been upfront about its intention to eventually earn a spot in soccer’s top league in America, Major League Soccer. But…
Your Weekend To Do List
CLASSICAL MUSIC: THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN Czech composer Leoš Janáček anticipated Hollywood by several decades when he composed an opera in 1921 based on a serialized novella that appeared as a daily comic strip in a local newspaper. The Adventures of the Vixen Sharp-Ears by Rudolf Těsnohlídek and Stanislav Lolek follows the story of a…
Event: Monster Jam
What do Grave Digger, Max D, Scooby Doo, El Toro Loco, Monster Mutt Dalmatian and Zombie have in common? They’re all world-famous, 1,500-horsepower trucks you can see at Monster Jam, which comes to Cincinnati on Friday. Monster Jam combines racing, freestyle competition and fan connections for a night of supersized and souped-up entertainment. Those who…
Music: Twin Limb
Dreamy, gauzy Indie Pop outfit Twin Limb initially began with Lacey Guthrie (vocals, accordion, keys) and Maryliz Bender (drums, guitar, vocals), who entered the studio with producer Kevin Ratterman to record an album. But the atmospheric wonder that Ratterman gave Twin Limb’s sound changed the group so fundamentally that he became a full-fledged member of…
Event: Workout on the Green
Washington Park’s free weekday workout series Workout On the Green returns with the warmer weather. Every Tuesday and Wednesday evening, the park lawn turns into a giant gym with guided classes — no contracts, no excuses, just fitness. Tuesday workouts kick off at 6 p.m. with Pilates led by CORE, followed by a total body…
Onstage: Glengarry Glen Ross
A-B-C: “Always Be Closing.” That’s the mantra of four desperate Chicago real estate agents, locked in close to mortal combat to become top dog. In David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize winner from 1984, these guys are selling worthless real estate to unwitting buyers and will stop at nothing — lies, bribery, betrayal, flattery, even intimidation and…
LISTEN: Ill Poetic’s “It’s All Around”
Now residing in San Diego, Calif. (where he co-runs the Beat Box Records shop with another Ohio transplant, DJ Inform), former Cincinnati Hip Hop MC/producer Ill Poetic is readying his first new release since 2012’s The Synesthesia Yellow EP. The Silhouette Project is a five-song EP (with an accompanying short film) that is set for…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning all. Hope your Wednesday is going well. Let's talk news. Tomorrow is the 15th anniversary of a tragic, but defining, moment in Cincinnati history — the police shooting of unarmed black 19-year-old Timothy Thomas in Over-the-Rhine and the subsequent unrest in that neighborhood and others. Today, we published a cover story taking stock…
‘Togetherness’ Captured the Gritty Truth of Adulting
HBO recently announced that it had canceled the Duplass Brothers comedy Togetherness (Series Finale, 10:30 p.m., HBO), currently in its second season. Certainly one of the network’s less flashy shows, Togetherness simply explores everyday relationships and the ups and downs of family, careers, marriage, parenthood and general grownup experiences. But through the lens of Jay…
‘Demolition’ Man
Davis looks like a master of the universe with every single piece of the American Dream bought and paid for thanks to the exploitation of generations before him. Life — his life — is perfect, because he gets to believe the illusion that his hard work has made it all possible. But what does he…
Foxy Lady
Czech composer Leoš Janá č ek predated Hollywood by several decades when he composed an opera in 1921 based on a serialized novella that appeared as a daily comic strip in a local newspaper. The Adventures of the Vixen Sharp-Ears by Rudolf T ě snohlídek and Stanislav Lolek follows the story of a female fox…
Unexpected Visits and Confrontations
Husbands, wives and children are key elements in two provocative productions currently on Cincinnati stages, as are unexpected visits and the resulting confrontations. Sharr White’s Annapurna, at Ensemble Theatre, employs a mysterious title: Annapurna is the Hindu goddess of nourishment. It’s also the name of one of the most dangerous peaks in the Himalayas. And…
Japanese Artist Explores the Mockbee’s Mysteries
In a story about Tetsuya Umeda — the Japanese artist whose installations involve sound, visuals and performance — Blouin Artinfo mentioned that he has a “penchant for ‘performing’ at venues with a slightly derelict atmosphere, such as old warehouses, abandoned schools or disused road tunnels…” So when Drew Klein, performance curator at the Contemporary Arts…
Bring on the Night
L ong before Serial brought podcasting to the mainstream, there were several very popular programs being downloaded on phones, MP3 players and computers. Shows like Marc Maron’s WTF, Jimmy Pardo’s Never Not Funny and The Adam Carolla Show all gained sizeable followings. One show topping the podcast charts was different, however, and that was a…
Hot Gets Hotter
We’re on the cusp of a trend. And according to Zagat and Food Republic, it’s the “hottest” food trend of 2016 — Nashville-style hot chicken. This devilish dish swept Nashville in 2007, when the first Hot Chicken Festival was held to celebrate the city’s “indigenous food,” but history and legend say that hot chicken actually…
Worst Week Ever! March 30-April 5
State Department Advises Ugly Americans to Stay Home and Watch TV on Spring Break Keeping people safe is likely a rewarding line of work to be in. You get to warn people about things and then blame them if something goes profoundly wrong for those who failed to heed your knowledgeable and well-reasoned decrees. Being…
History in Progress
I t’s no secret: Cincinnati’s core neighborhoods are seeing a development boom. But as interest in development of new condos, apartments and retail space in the city’s central business district and neighboring areas heats up, conflicts have emerged over historic architecture long seen as one of the Queen City’s most defining attributes. The fight can…
Music: Jethro Tull — Written and Performed by Ian Anderson
Ian Anderson, the craggy-voiced singer and virtuosic flutist who led Jethro Tull, has come up with a new, potentially clever way to showcase his old material. The show is called Jethro Tull and it celebrates the old band’s namesake — an 18th-century English agriculturalist who invented the horse-drawn seed drill. Quasi-operatic in structure, with a…
Sound Advice: Jethro Tull – Written and Performed by Ian Anderson
Advocates of Rockabilly, Motown or Punk may disagree, but Rock’s golden era may well be that period in the late 1960s and early 1970s when artsy, conceptual (and often British) bands influenced by the wondrous, anything-goes experimentalism of The Beatles and the debut of hip FM radio stations set out to make album-long statements filled…
Music: The Roomsounds
The past five years have been fairly auspicious for The Roomsounds. The Connecticut quartet began its musical life as a full-bore Punk band under a different name, which earned the group a slot on the Warped Tour and scored it a Warner Bros. contract. But eventual legal hassles with the label and a gnawing dissatisfaction…
Sound Advice: The Roomsounds
The past five years have been fairly auspicious for The Roomsounds. The Connecticut quartet began its musical life as a full-bore Punk band under a different name, which earned the group a slot on the Warped Tour and scored it a Warner Bros. contract. But eventual legal hassles with the label and a gnawing dissatisfaction…
Music: Bobaflex
There are certain immutable laws in the world — the seasons will change, the sun will rise and set and Bobaflex will rock your ass clean off. The West Virginia quintet with a name that sounds like a Star Wars bounty hunter’s home gym is just a couple of years away from its 20th anniversary…
Sound Advice: Bobaflex
There are certain immutable laws in the world — the seasons will change, the sun will rise and set and Bobaflex will rock your ass clean off. The West Virginia quintet with a name that sounds like a Star Wars bounty hunter’s home gym is just a couple of years away from its 20th anniversary…
Leggy in the UK
Independent British record label Damnably has teamed up with another Cincinnati Rock band. The imprint, also the overseas label for acclaimed Cincy group Wussy, is issuing the first full-length release by Cincinnati “Lush Punk” trio Leggy later this month. When Damnably hooked up with Wussy in 2013, the label released Strawberry, a compilation of material…
Rules of will.i.am Engagement
HOT: Rules of will.i.am Engagement? People who still want to interview Black Eyed Peas rapper — sorry, “Hip Hop artist” (as he demands to be called) — will.i.am have to follow some very specific rules. A British journalist who was up to the task tweeted some of the alleged four pages of demands he was…
Guts and Glory
I t’s clear from the opening moments of “Astonished Man,” the first song on Thao & the Get Down Stay Down’s excellent new album A Man Alive, that something has changed. We first hear frontperson and main songwriter Thao Nguyen’s modest but expressive voice before it’s engulfed by a funky drumbeat, jagged guitar lines and…
Art: Sidereal Silence at the Weston Art Gallery
Shinji Turner-Yamamoto, the Japanese-born, U.S.-based artist living in Cincinnati since 2008, has received international attention for work exploring nature in new ways and in unexpected spaces. His latest show — Sidereal Silence — debuts at downtown’s Weston Art Gallery on Friday. Occupying the entire gallery, the exhibition includes a surround sound installation of waterfalls, a…
Comedy: Laugh Til It Helps Benefit Show
“I really just wanted to try and do something nice for a good cause,” says comedian Tabari McCoy, who organized Wednesday’s Laugh Til It Helps benefit show at Go Bananas; funds raised will benefit The Cure Starts Now, in honor of the memory of Lauren Hill. “In selecting a charity, I remembered interviewing a player…
