Mar 22-29, 2017
Faith Restored: How the Rabbit Hash community rallied to rebuild its general store
Morning News: Cameo Nightclub will close permanently; State Rep. back at work after weapons, OVI charges; Sessions threatens to pull fed grants for sanctuary cities
Good morning all. Let’s dive straight into some news today. Cameo Nightclub will close permanently Friday after it was the scene of America’s biggest mass shooting so far this year, owners announced yesterday. One person died and 16 were injured after gunmen opened fired inside the building early Sunday morning. Witnesses say a fight broke…
Hamilton County gaining population after decades of flight
For the first time since 1970, Hamilton County is headed toward finishing a decade with an increase in population. That was the word last week from the U.S. Census Bureau. Its latest annual estimate put 809,099 people in Hamilton County in 2016. That's only a 0.8 percent increase since 2010, but considering that Cincinnati's home…
Morning News: Cameo shooting updates; lawsuit over Anna Louise Inn petition to get new hearing; Cuyahoga County no longer Ohio’s most populous
Good morning all. Here’s today’s news for you. Cincinnati was the scene of the nation’s largest mass shooting yet in 2017 early Sunday morning. One person was killed and 16 wounded after gunfire erupted at Cameo nightclub in the city’s East End. Law enforcement officials say the attack isn’t terror-related and that an argument sparked…
Critic’s Pick: ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ at Cincy Shakes
Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, which debuted on Broadway in 1959, has become a staple of American drama ever since it received four Tony nominations that year. The play addresses such substantial topics as poverty, family, racism and abortion — themes made digestible through a script that is genuine and very funny. Raisin, a…
Morning News: Cranley runs first TV ad; $17 million coming for area affordable housing; AHCA faces hurdles
Hello all. Here’s some news on this beautiful Friday. Do yourself a favor, if you can, and read this while you’re strolling about in the sunshine or sitting on a park bench. Mayor John Cranley is dropping his first TV ad in his bid for re-election at 11 a.m. today. Cranley will debut the ad,…
Stage Door: More theater than time to take it all in this weekend!
There are at least nine opportunities for theater on local stages this weekend. If you’re looking to make some choices, let me sketch out several that are just opening or only available for a few days. Want an American classic? Look no farther than Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, offering Lorraine Hansberry’s great 1959 award-winning play, A…
The Robots We Need
“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” — Albert Einstein Robots are humans’ attempt to create an extension of ourselves through technology. But artists and movie-makers have promised a lot of robot stuff that, frankly, most people are not seeing improve their lives. Robocops were supposed to capture sadistic murderers,…
Your Weekend To Do List (March 24-26)
FRIDAY 24 COMEDY: KATHY GRIFFIN “I love TV, I love that I have won Emmy awards, I love that I have a Grammy for best comedy album,” says comedian/actress/author Kathy Griffin, who appears at the Taft Theatre on Friday. “I’m a feminist. I feel like I have to list out my achievements every five minutes.”…
What a Week! March 15-21
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15 ICYMI: All the celebrities got secret-married! Several famous couples recently tied the knot on the down-low and this week they all decided to announce it. RuPaul ru-vealed on Hollywood Today Live that he and his longtime boyfriend, an Australian rancher (get it!), got hitched in January, “really for tax breaks,” he said on…
Reporters Can’t Be Auditors
Skilled, full-time city hall reporters can’t keep up with lifers responsible for monitoring Cincinnati’s grants to do-gooder programs. It’s our local version of Too Big To Fail or Friend of Charlie, Friend of John. Or former friend. Mahogany’s? Kiddie contract at MSD? Park Board/Foundation? Center for Closing the Health Gap? The more reporters tell us,…
Clean Comedy in ‘Crashing’
Tune into an HBO comedy and odds are you’re in for some F-bombs, occasional drug use and a hilariously awkward sex scene or two. The network’s newest comedy, Crashing (10:30 p.m. Sundays), has all of that, too. But there’s a difference — it’s through the perspective of Pete (creator/star Pete Holmes), a novice clean comic and…
‘Wilson’ offers up a perfect antihero
When we think of comic book adaptations, the superheroes of franchise behemoths tend to come to mind first and foremost, replete with padded muscle suits, loads of computer-generated mayhem and obviously ironic quips signaling alleged hip wit. In addition, there are seemingly never enough stories supposedly about “men” and “women” identified as such by their…
Gallery 708’s Future in the New Downtown
The tagline for Gallery 708 is “fine art, fine craft,” a signal that it embraces what’s hip while maintaining old-school quality. Open since November at 708 Walnut St., it’s a bright, new artist-run gallery that reflects a bright, new Cincinnati — especially downtown’s core. In addition to showcasing oil still lifes, prints of Cincinnati landmarks,…
Nathan Hill’s ‘The Nix’ Is a Tale of Two Lives
On Thursday evening, The Nix author Nathan Hill will present the Mercantile Library’s Modern Novel Lecture. Since it was published last August, his debut novel has won much praise. The New York Times named it a notable book of 2016. John Irving compared The Nix to works by Charles Dickens. Like Dickens, Hill has created an engaging tale of modern…
Morning News: Metro could cut routes; Cincy could get Trump Hotel; State Rep. Retherford in court
Good morning all. Here’s some news today. Some Metro routes could get the axe if the city doesn’t tap into reserve funds to close a coming budget gap for the bus service. Yesterday, we mentioned that the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority is asking the city to tap into some transit reserve funds to close…
Kathy Griffin brings stories of celebrity run-ins — including with ‘buffoon’ Trump — to the Taft
“I love TV, I love that I have won Emmy awards, I love that I have a Grammy for best comedy album,” says comedian/actress/author Kathy Griffin, who appears at the Taft Theatre on Friday. “I’m a feminist. I feel like I have to list out my achievements every five minutes.” Those accomplishments aside, Griffin is currently…
Bridges transitions from a Findlay Market food stand to a brick-and-mortar restaurant
The streets of Northside remind Nepal native Ashak Chipalu of home. When he looks out the front window of his new restaurant, Bridges — situated in the space that once held neighborhood mainstay Melt Eclectic Café — he sees similarly diverse inhabitants, tightly packed buildings and free space used to its maximum. And now, thanks…
How the Rabbit Hash community rallied to rebuild its general store
Let’s go back to November 2016: a turbulent time for millions of Americans, who fiercely stormed the frontlines of Twitter and Facebook to flex their free-speech muscles, argue politics with estranged relatives and wage hyperlink warfare against their ideological opposition. This was a time we all, perhaps regrettably, remember. But amid the blitzkrieg of alternative…
LISTEN: ‘Warpig’ finds Frontier Folk Nebraska in top form
Covington’s Frontier Folk Nebraska has been around for 10 years (which the members celebrated last year with a career-spanning live album), and most of those years the group has been one of the best original Rock bands in Greater Cincinnati. And, as the band’s latest EP, Warpig, puts on glorious display, they are only getting better…
Acclaimed singer/songwriter Chuck Prophet still believes in Rock & Roll
One upshot of Boomers sticking with Rock & Roll and R&B as they get older is that it has allowed some artists to slowly develop a fan following long past an age where, at one time, they would have had to give up music to find a “real job.” Such performers as Alejandro Escovedo (66),…
Sound Advice: Waxahatchee with Kevin Morby and Mary Lattimore (March 22)
Katie Crutchfield grew up in the DIY scene of her native Birmingham, Ala., a singular breeding ground she carries with her today as a restless writer of starkly personal songs. Her 2012 debut, American Weekend, under the moniker Waxahatchee, is spare and intimate, the lo-fi sound of a Punk poetess emerging from a difficult breakup.…
Sound Advice: Cold War Kids with Middle Kids (March 24)
The first seven years of Cold War Kids’ tenure found the prolific Southern California Indie Rock/Blues/Soul outfit dropping a trio of full lengths, including their acclaimed/chastised debut, 2004’s Robbers & Cowards, and close to 20 additional EP and single releases, while deflecting reviews that cited Cold War Kids as a Christian band. The next six…
Sound Advice: Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness with Atlas Genius and Night Riots (March 28)
Most musicians are lucky to have one shot at widespread fame and a certain measure of professional success. Andrew McMahon has grabbed a couple of brass hula-hoops on the band carousel and he’s looking to snag another with his recently established solo career under the weighty moniker of Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness. Massachusetts-born and…
Minimum Gauge: Broadway star’s relative Twitter-punches white nationalist
HOT: He Did “Nazi” That Coming Punchable white supremacist Richard Spencer apparently loves music, but recent Twitter exchanges suggest the music world doesn’t love him back. After jokingly claiming one of his favorites, Depeche Mode, was the “official band of the alt-right,” the group immediately released a statement denouncing Spencer, with singer Dave Gahan recently…
An innovative effort looks to empower Cincinnati refugees and boost Camp Washington
Once a week, Krishna Ghimire goes to a gallery in a converted Camp Washington firehouse to make art with other women from around the world. Ghimire came here eight years ago from refugee camps in Nepal. Other women in the group came from countries like Mexico, Guatemala, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Congo as refugees or…
