Oct 25 – Nov 1, 2017
Project Censored: Top 10 stories overlooked by the mainstream media in 2017
Mapping the Early Days of Criminal Psychology
The idea of exploring the mind of a killer is nothing new in TV or film. And in many ways, Mindhunter (now on Netflix) does employ familiar tropes found in detective dramas as it follows two FBI agents working to understand what makes psychosexual murderers tick. But what sets the series apart — aside from…
Hamilton County Commissioners appoint new library board member
Hamilton County Commissioners on Nov. 1 voted to appoint Karen Clemons to the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County’s Board of Trustees. Clemons replaces trustee Allen Zaring, whose term expired in September. The appointment comes as the library’s governing body mulls a controversial plan to decommission the north building of the library’s downtown campus…
Morning News: minority-contracting numbers still missing, commissioners set to vote on library trustee, construction starts on Wasson Way
Good morning all. I missed yesterday’s morning news update so I didn’t get a chance to share that CityBeat’s esteemed editorial board released its endorsements for mayor, Cincinnati City Council and state and local ballot issues. I don’t agree with every pick — you probably won’t either — but I think the reasoning behind each…
Your Weekly To Do List (Nov. 1-7)
Cyclones Primo Promo Nights The Cincinnati Cyclones are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their first Kelly Cup Championship on Saturday, welcoming back select players and giving the first 3,000 fans a commemorative poster. While this is exciting for both fans and players alike, there are several other possibly more exciting promotions happening this Cyclones season,…
Thank You for Your Acting, Miles Teller
Miles Teller, star of Thank You For Your Service, the new film directed by American Sniper screenwriter Jason Hall, finds himself in the midst of an inspired moment. He’s co-starring in a pair of real-life narratives about ordinary men in extraordinary situations, harsh and potentially deadly environments where they have everything to lose. As a…
Animated Film Stars Vincent van Gogh
There’s actually a very practical reason why the first feature to be animated from hand-produced oil paintings is titled Loving Vincent. Opening Friday at the Esquire Theatre, it’s about Vincent van Gogh and is told mostly by using painted recreations of his Post-Impressionist masterpieces. As the film’s narrative points out, he closed a letter to…
Ferrari Brothers’ Coffee and Cuts
For more than 50 years, Fausto and Emilio Ferrari left their mark on Cincinnati one haircut at a time. The Italian-born immigrants operated a three-chair barbershop on Garfield Place downtown where Queen City natives flocked to receive the Ferrari treatment. Fausto retired shortly before Emilio died in 2015, leaving the future of the shop up…
Cincinnati-filmed “Killing of a Sacred Deer” skewers an American family and all it holds dear
Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) has the perfect life. He’s a successful heart surgeon married to the beautifully icy Anna (Nicole Kidman). They have two children — daughter Kim (Raffey Cassidy), an emerging teenager, and the younger Bob (Sunny Suljic) — who are the new molds of their parents, just waiting to be broken. The Murphys,…
The Election Issue
Last year, during the several days it took to accept that America had elected a disgusting real estate tycoon turned reality TV star to the nation’s highest office, we at CityBeat did our best to summon a positive outlook. Perhaps Donald Trump would get caught up in something as trivial as aggrandizing his inauguration crowd…
CityBeat Endorses: Yvette Simpson for Mayor
In the aftermath of a second Ray Tensing mistrial this summer, Mayor John Cranley sat behind his desk at City Hall, telling reporters he was heading to Over-the-Rhine for dinner with his wife and that the city would remain open for business. His opponent, Yvette Simpson, was out in a rainstorm, talking to Cincinnatians who…
CityBeat Endorses: Cincinnati City Council
Cincinnati’s city council race has a big crowd of contenders, including a number of promising new faces. This year, we’re endorsing a lively mix of incumbents and newcomers. They won’t all agree on everything — which is how it should be — but we think they represent perspectives that can move the city forward. We…
CityBeat Endorses: NO on Issue 1
Vote NO on Issue 1 At first glance, a “victims’ bill of rights” looks like a no-brainer: Who doesn’t support the rights of victims of crime? But a closer look at so-called Marsy’s Law reveals that the proposed constitutional amendment is mostly duplicative of already-existing protections in Ohio. What’s worse, legal professionals say it could…
The Election Issue: CPS Board
It is a pivotal election for the board that appoints Cincinnati Public Schools’ superintendent and treasurer and serves as the public face for the district. There are four open positions on the seven-member board. Among the 13 candidates, there’s a wealth of experience in education as well as enough thoughtfulness and varying perspectives to tackle…
CityBeat Endorses: YES on Issues 3, 4, 5 and 24
Vote YES on Issues 3, 4, 5 and 24 These issues are all slam-dunks. Issue 3 renews the Hamilton County levy that funds addiction services and mental health facilities. Issue 4 renews a county levy that funds health services through facilities like University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Issue 24 renews a district levy that funds…
CityBeat Endorses: YES on Issue 2
First off, let’s get this out of the way: It’s hard to tell what Issue 2, which seeks to net state medical programs the same deals the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs gets on prescription drugs, will do to that end. But we’ve seen the tens of millions of dollars in ads against Issue 2…
What a Week!: Oct. 25-31
Everybody Scream Now In the most egregious recent case of “haters gon’ hate,” it was reported this week that Canadian police fined a man for singing too loudly in his car last month. Taoufik Moalla was driving around Montreal, jamming to his tune of choice — C+C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance…
Maurice Mattei returns with ‘Jealous Wreck’
Veteran Cincinnati singer/songwriter Maurice Mattei has covered a lot of lyrical ground in his career, using a variety of literary and thematic devices throughout his impressive and bountiful discography, which kicked off in earnest with his 1995 debut album, Grandview (read Brian Baker's 2014 profile of Mattei for CityBeat here). Though a few of his…
Minimum Gauge: Death From Above bassist clarifies connection to white-nationalist group
HOT: Bassist Says He’s Not a Nazi Amid a flurry of defensive statements from musicians in response to public accusations of sexual harassment and assault, Jesse F. Keeler of Death From Above recently responded to allegations of a different (though also sadly timely) sort. After a post on Medium pointed out that Keeler appeared to…
The sound of Beach Slang’s latest is dimmed, but still burns brightly
It has been an interesting year in the life of Beach Slang. The Philadelphia-based quartet was riding high on the back of a pair of turbo-charged Rock & Roll records (2015’s The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Us and 2016’s A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings) when things imploded onstage during…
A Triumphant Return for Todd Almond
Todd Almond has a history with Cincinnati. The current chapter culminates this weekend with a production of The Earth Is Flat, a play he wrote with acting students at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music in mind. Almond is a 1999 CCM grad. After graduating, he had memorable engagements playing the title role in Hedwig and the…
A Scary Experience at Know Theatre
If you like to be spooked, Know Theatre is ready to serve up several servings of extended Halloween-season creepiness, courtesy of veteran Fringe Festival performers.13 Dead Dreams of “Eugene” was created and is performed by Paul Strickland and Erika Kate MacDonald, a pair of popular Cincy Fringe and Know regulars. Ricky Coates was part of…
Morning News: Top former Trump campaign officials indicted; UC releases video in response to Spencer
Hello all. Here’s some quick news you should know today. Area law enforcement agencies sometimes offer light or no discipline for officers caught using inappropriate force, drunk driving or using state databases to stalk people, this WCPO investigation reveals. Officers from Middletown and Colerain Township and sheriff’s deputies in Hamilton County and other departments have…
A Bill in Sheep’s Clothing
— “Too many of these companies pick the last dollar out of consumers’ pockets — and far from leaving them better off, push them deeper into debt, even bankruptcy.” — former Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz, July 29, 2010. — “With the average American carrying thousands of dollars in credit card debt, debt settlement…
The Joy of the Game
This really happened: An important pro football game drew 65,000 fans — and nobody arranged for the metal detectors! And the cops with wands didn’t show, nor the people to enforce the “clear bag” policy. Nor the bomb dogs, nor about 95 percent of those many hundreds of same-shirted daily security employees. They just put…
Sound Advice: Milk Carton Kids (Nov. 7)
Over the past six years, Milk Carton Kids has become one of the primary standard bearers for the new millennium perspective on traditional Folk, earning them glowing comparisons to fellow duos like Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Everly Brothers and Simon and Garfunkel. Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan began their journey in Eagle Rock, Calif.,…
Sound Advice: Shilpa Ray (Nov. 7)
A New Jersey native, Shilpa Ray has lived in New York City for 17 years, scraping by as a visceral Rock & Roll performer with a small but passionate fan base. Her latest album, Door Girl, centers on her experiences as, yes, a door girl at Pianos, the noted Indie Rock club on the Lower…
Sound Advice: Regina Spektor (Nov. 5)
Somewhere between Tori Amos' conversion of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" into a piano Pop torch song and the rise of keyboard balladeers like Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson, Russian émigré Regina Spektor created a hybrid of traditional, Classical and contemporary music and turned the Pop scene on its proverbial ear. Spektor (whose current tour…
Northside Is Getting an Applebee’s for the Weekend
A two-year joke in Northside will become a reality today when Applebee’s Bar & Grill finally opens on Spring Grove Avenue, just in time for Halloween weekend. Before Northsiders unleash their pitchforks on a corporate entity moving into a fiercely local neighborhood (save for the lone KFC/Taco Bell), know it’s the brainchild of Jon Weiner…
STAGE DOOR: Rush to See CCM’s ‘Seussical the Musical”
Fans of musicals, as well as thoughtful adults who want to show kids the magic of theater, should rush to UC’s College-Conservatory of Music this weekend for the final performances of Seussical the Musical. It’s a joyous celebration of the witty and clever rhyming children’s stories crafted by Dr. Seuss. The big cast brings to…
Visual Art Recommendation: “Unfunction” at Weston Gallery
This lively and thoughtful group exhibition at the Weston Art Gallery, curated by CityBeat contributor Maria Seda-Reeder, invites artists to playfully undermine the initial, functional meaning we might associate with or see in an object. And such participants as Dan Devening, Terence Hammonds and Emily Hanako Momohara do that splendidly. In particular, Chris Vorhees’ “Box Fan” is a…
Deadline approaching for 2017 CEA voting
If you haven’t voted for your favorite Cincinnati-area musicians nominated for the 2017 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards, time is running out. The deadline for votes is this Monday, Oct. 30. Click here to place your votes now (and here for the nominee announcement). The awards show/local music celebration returns for its 20th-anniversary event Nov. 19 at…
Communication Frustrations
A hotly contested race for spots on Cincinnati Public School Board has put the district’s public engagement controversies front and center again, with some candidates highlighting the issue as election day approaches. It’s been an intense couple of years for the district. There was the 2016 fight over the Clifton Cultural Arts Center, during which…
Morning News: Opening day parade won’t take place on opening day; Ohio spends same amount on opiate crisis as on public education
Good morning all. Let’s get right to some news. This first bit of news was confusing and upsetting to me at first but I’m just going to give it to you straight without editorializing. Cincinnati’s venerable tradition, the opening day parade… won’t be on opening day next year. The Reds play their first game March…
