April 15 Is Coming … Start Planning Now!
Your friendly Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has a suggestion: Do some prep now to save a headache later. In a press release, the IRS offered some helpful hints that will make it easier to do just that.—- “1. Gather Your Records “With the current tax year winding down, taxpayers should begin to gather and organize…
Rest In Peace, Dennis Yost
Dennis Yost, the lead singer for the group Classic IV (known best for its indelible hit “Spooky”), passed away in Hamilton early Sunday morning. Though not a Cincinnati native, he had lived here for several years and was embraced by the local music community. —- Prior to a planned Classics IV 40th anniversary tour in…
Onstage: Striking 12
So it’s the holiday season and you’re overworked and dateless. Does this sound like your life? If so, you might want to check out New Stage Collective’s holiday show — about a guy who’s overworked and dateless, on New Year’s Eve, no less. Striking 12 is actually a cleverly modernized retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s…
Art: Critic As Practitioner by Mark Sterner at Sitwell’s
You might think theater critics are just people with bad dispositions who dream up nasty things to say about actors trying their level best to entertain people. But you’d be wrong. Many critics are big fans who love theater — some of them even have legitimate artistic skills and contribute to the world of performance.…
Onstage: Cincinnati Pops
You know what are cool? Robots. You know what is even cooler? Robots that play music. No, not Britney Spears — real circuits-and-wires robots playing musical instruments. So when I received the press-release about the Cincinnati Pops’ holiday program featuring a trumpet-playing robot, I celebrated by doing my famous robot dance (I got pops, yo)…
Music: Matisyahu
Matisyahu, the 29-year old Hassidic jew MC is an artist that thrives on innovation. He sprang into American consciousness in 2004 with his debut album Shake off the Dust… Arise, an intriguing blend of spirituality and raw power. His Torah-inspired lyrics have mainstreamed Reggae, while giving audiences exposure to the dynamism of the Jewish faith.…
Milk – Photos and Audio Interviews
Click below to listen to interviews with other actors from the film %u205E
Music: Ra Ra Riot
The great clichéd conceit, advanced by the fiction of Spinal Tap, is that drummers are inconsequential and as interchangeable as automobile parts. Ra Ra Riot stands in stark contrast to that assertion, living proof that nothing could be further from the truth. John Ryan Pike, the band’s original drummer, was also their lyricist, frequent musical…
Art: Afterlifestyle at the Art Academy
Ralph Lauren, along with every WASP-engendered, suburban-circumscribed good-taste notion of the good life gets it in the eye in Carlton Scott Sturgill’s finely crafted and very funny show, Afterlifestyle, at the Art Academy of Cincinnati's Pearlman Gallery. The Ralph Lauren lifestyle, so commercially viable, seems to Sturgill akin to a quiet death by boredom. Sturgill’s…
Onstage: The Women
Manhattan women of wealth but no particular purpose: Stephen Sondheim called them “the ladies who lunch” and saluted their hardihood as “dinosaurs surviving the crunch.” Actress/author/ambassador Clare Boothe Luce called them simply The Women and said she wrote her acid-tongued 1936 comedy to get the scabrous bunch of them out of her mind. When the…
Art: Brush, Clay, Wood at the Taft Museum of Art
Ed and Nancy Rosenthal haven’t technically opened their home to the public, but the exhibition, Brush, Clay, Wood, on view at downtown’s Taft Museum of Art allows us a peek into their life just the same. The exhibition documents an art collection that began in 1980 with a 3-foot-tall Chinese vase. From there, the Rosenthals…
Music: The Faint
With synthesizers, guitars and drums substituting for holy books and dystopian scripture, the electronic prophecies of The Faint forewarn of a time when hyper-realistic technology will have consumed human society. While technophobia might be a cliché concept at this point, this five-piece turns charged dance riffs into machine-like rhythms evoking 21st century nightmares, delivering their…
Music: Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s
Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s must be so relieved to finally have a president in office who can pronounce their name. But there are other things the band has to be thankful for. Hailing from Indianapolis, the So and So’s are making their way into the hearts of unsuspecting fans. Though their name…
Holiday: Holiday Skies Laser Show
Imagine if Santa were a child of the ’70s. He’d be clad in white bell-bottoms, rock long locks and shout, “Have a groovy Christmas!” Well, laser light shows have brought the ’70s and Christmas together under the night sky at Drake Planetarium. If you’re in the mood for a more traditional show, “Holiday Skies” brings…
Onstage: Twelfth Night
Of all Shakespeare’s comedies, Twelfth Night seems especially transportable to later time periods. Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s holiday season production travels to the Jazz Age, the decade of the 1920s, using period costumes, lots of popular music and cultural references to add texture to an amusing story of mistaken identities, cross-gender confusion and uproarious mischief-making. From…
Holiday: Mt. Adams Reindog Parade
Most holidays, including those of the winter variety, require dogs to dress up in costumes because it’s cute and funny to see dogs in clothes. My roommate’s girlfriend bought my dogs antlers that light up and I get all warm and fuzzy inside when I see them on their furry little heads. My one dog…
Events: Made in Cincinnati
The University of Cincinnati’s DAAP is a breeding ground for excellent design and the school’s fashion design track is no exception to that rule. The Fashion Design Student Association (FDSA) has been accepting work from fashion students all quarter in order to hold the Made In Cincinnati showcase at Suki (3456 Michigan Ave., Hyde Park).…
Art: Andrew Au: the binarians at Clay Street Press
Andrew Au is a fellow of infinite jest who takes infinite pains to commit his jests to paper. His show, the binarians, at Clay Street Press through Jan. 17, takes on a controversy that has been in local news as recently as last week when the Cincinnati Zoo, a scientific institution, caught heat for a…
Art: Everage King at Parkside Cafe
Stop by Parkside Café in Walnut Hills between 5 and 8 p.m. today for the opening of an exhibition of Everage King’s small but choice paintings. They portray places you might know: The familiar Northside corner “Chase and Hamilton,” a front porch in “Withrow Vista,” “Mt. Auburn Hillside” among them. King, whose day job is…
Music: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Grace Potter and her band of gypsies, the Nocturnals, channel the ’70s like they have a psychic on retainer. And yet, they’re not slavish retro revivalists with no sense of identity to accompany their sonic inspiration. The Nocturnals’ first two self-released albums hinted at their direction, but last year’s This is Somewhere (on Hollywood, who…
Comedy: Roy Wood Jr.
As a stand-up comic still moving up in the ranks, Roy Wood Jr. travels a lot. Traveling has actually provided Wood with a lot of new material. “I was on a flight from Houston to Tampa and they took my Skittles,” he says. “They took my fruit-flavored candy and dude told me ‘It might be…
Dance, MF 12/6/08: December to Dismember
It was hot. It was sweaty (really, really sweaty). It was dance-y. If you didn't go, you were probably the only person who wasn't there because that bar was packed from the front door all the way to the back. I guess nothing makes people want to get drunk and warm like a quarter of…
In the (Twitching) Eye of the Beholder
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and therefore most art is also a matter of personal taste. But this guy … this guy is taking it to a whole new level. —- Recently featured in the New Art blog, Daito Manabe is a spectacular system designer/programmer/composer/artist out of Tokyo. In his latest piece,…
Overcoming Obstacles
As I’ve written about on here and Twittered about more than a few times, I’ve been through some serious health issues over the last month and a half. It’s actually been a long string of semi-related things – ear infection, sinus infection, TMJ, a very strong allergic reaction to Bactrim, a virus that threw a…
It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Drama (Review)
Stepping inside the Monmouth Theatre in Newport for Falcon Theatre’s production of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Drama feels like a step back in time. The company has transformed the intimate performance space into the Falcon Broadcasting Company, a replica of a 1940s radio broadcasting studio. The effect is fun and nostalgic. It’s…
A Christmas Carol (Review)
Critic's Pick Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol in 1843, and onstage versions of it are today a holiday staple at theaters across the English-speaking world, cash cows that sustain operating budgets for the theater season. Dickens’ tale resonates not simply because Scrooge’s conversion has become a familiar holiday story. It’s also because Dickens wrote…
Shut-Your-Eyes Music:Jeremy Enigk in Cleveland
Thursday night, I ventured to Cleveland’s Beachland Ballroom and Tavern to check out Jeremy Enigk’s show. Famous for his work with Sunny Day Real Estate and The Fire Theft, recording through Seattle’s Sub Pop Records, Enigk has embarked on a solo tour, promoting World Waits, and a new album, OK Bear, coming out this February.…
P&G Wants to Cut the Cheese (Legally Speaking)
Procter & Gamble is continuing its legal struggle with Kraft. What, you may ask, is vexing them? In August of last year, P&G brought a case against Kraft, not for being the cheesiest but for selling coffee in plastic containers. That's right, 15 months in court over the materials used in packaging. —-P&G starting selling…
UC Beats Hawaii, Gets Orange Bowl Bid
The UC Bearcats came from behind in the fourth quarter to beat Hawaii 29-24 and finish off an amazing 11-2 regular season. Receiver Mardy Gilyard, who graces the cover of this week's CityBeat, caught the winning touchdown pass. UC will confirm its BCS bowl game — likely the Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech — this…
Mercantile Library Announces 2009 Season
The Mercantile Library announced its 2009 lineup of guest speakers today. It’s an impressive list. —- British writer A.S. Byatt, who won the Booker Prize in 1990 for her novel Possession, is the featured speaker at 22nd annual Niehoff Lecture — a ritzy, black-tie affair replete with high-priced dinner in the Netherland Plaza’s famed Hall…
Customers Revolt Against Banking Fees
This week’s issue of CityBeat features an article about a lawsuit that a disgruntled customer filed against Fifth Third Bank about how the institution processes debit card transactions.—- Dennis Charlton was angered when Fifth Third re-sequenced his debit card transactions made over a weekend last April so that, instead of having a single overdraft that…
Santaland Diaries (Review)
’Tis the season, and those jolly holiday elves at New Edgecliff Theatre (NET) have arranged for us to revisit Mrs. Jocelyn Dunbar of haute suburbia. She comes complete with a $1.98 blonde wig and a razor tongue, telling her merry tales of an overachieving older son, an underachieving younger son, a flame-tattooed, drug-devoted daughter, a…
Alice in Wonderland (Review)
Critic's Pick The performance seemed to begin slowly, but like the amiable Rabbit (Michael G. Bath), I might have been in the wrong time zone. The production of Alice in Wonderland soon found its energy source, sending the performance spinning like a top, never to wind down again. Alice is Lewis Carroll’s beloved whimsical tour…
The Detroit Cobras
The Detroit Cobras at the Gypsy Hut 12/4/08 Photos by me and Scott Beseler
Stage Door: Ho, Ho, Ho!
It's the first week of December and Cincinnati theaters are awash with tinsel, good cheer and holiday shows. Regardless of the kind of theater you like, there's something for you. —- Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati has launched the third generation of its musical retelling of Alice in Wonderland, and the Playhouse's A Christmas Carol brings…
Cheat or Treat?: The Pitch Correction Explosion
This morning I was in the car listening to the radio, growing restless with NPR’s downer economic news. I decided to check in on the Pop music world and surfed between a couple of Top 40 stations. I stopped on “Love Lockdown,” the new single from Kanye West. It’s a pretty interesting and unique track,…
Scripps Dumps Another One
E.W. Scripps announced Thursday that they have put The Rocky Mountain News up for sale. According to their web site, The Rocky is Colorado's oldest newspaper, approaching its 150th anniversary. Scripps has projected a $15 million loss for the paper this year. If a buyer doesn't come forward in the next four to six weeks,…
Card Action
A former Guantanamo Bay detainee, Sami al Hajj, was held by the U.S. government without charge for over six years. During that time he received letters from people all over the world. According to the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center (IJPC) he shared his thoughts on the importance of these missives from ordinary people. "I…
Onstage: A Christmas Carol
This is the 18th year for the Cincinnati Playhouse’s excellent adaptation of A Christmas Carol, featuring Bruce Cromer. He’s been in the show since 1997, playing Bob Cratchitt for eight years; he’s now in his fourth season as Scrooge. A very physical actor, Cromer is funny and touching. The Playhouse employs lots of local actors,…
Shopping Mania
Shop-til-you-drop is the new mantra for a lot of people, but buyer beware! “Ken Grossman, crime prevention specialist with the Xavier University Police Department, has created a list of holiday safety tips as a means of reminding and helping members of the community remain safe during the holidays,” says a press release from Xavier. •…
BBC: Antioxidants Won’t Slow Aging
Researchers from University College London say that there's no clear link between antioxidants and slowing the aging process and that the 50-year-old theory that aging is a result of cell damage caused by free radicals is wrong. From the BBC:Dr Gems said: "The fact is that we don't understand much about the fundamental mechanisms of…
Learn How to Make a Drink
Bartender: Taryn Bar: Fries Cafe (3247 Jefferson Ave., Clifton, 513-281-9002). I think this place is really comfortable but it generally smells like barf even though no one is barfing. Here's our review from the Swizzle Guide: There's almost something inherently wholesome about your neighborhood dive, and Fries is no exception other than it seems to embrace…
Spirit of Indie Cinema
The 2009 Independent Spirit Awards were unveiled yesterday. And while the Academy Awards' more adventurous little brother has been leaning toward higher-profile specialty films in recent years (like Juno and Little Miss Sunshine), the ’09 batch hearkens back to the awards’ early days when ultra-low-budget indies ruled the scene. —- Three of the five Best…
Updating the Media Bloodbath
Here's a little more on the layoffs being announced today at The Cincinnati Enquirer.—- First, an anonymous poster on the Gannett Blog listed the following positions as being eliminated in the latest round: Copy desk chief, business editor, lead graphic designer, a photo desk coordinator, a community news editor, the video trainer, a copy editor,…
Recurring Theme: Suckiness
Last week Bengals owner Mike Brown sat down for a rare interview, obliging Enquirer reporter Mark Curnutte with a few short answers to some very basic questions: Why do the Bengals suck all the time? Where do you go from here? Do you want to try another new coach and see if that works? —-…
Bloodletting at The Enquirer
As expected, the ax fell quickly at The Cincinnati Enquirer this week as its parent company demands mass layoffs before year’s end.—- Multiple sources at Cincinnati’s only daily newspaper say about a half-dozen people were informed Tuesday morning that they had been selected for the layoffs and were told to leave. Later in the day,…
Supplemental Ornament (Review)
Critic's Pick Althea Murphy-Price is fascinated by the everyday fashion show of our lives, where we all walk around projecting and revealing information about ourselves through the hairstyles we sport, what we wear and all the superficial details that make up our self-images. In her new exhibition, Supplemental Ornament, at the Weston Art Gallery in…
Flow (Review)
The latest James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, is a pretty glum affair — Daniel Craig’s Bond is more sociopathic than stylish and the relentless action is more ugly than exciting. But there is one strangely interesting element. The story centers on an evil international agency trying to privatize and control the water supply in…
Hyde Park Tavern (Review)
Critic's Pick While Hyde Park Tavern underwent new ownership last year and has a new fall menu with several wonderful gourmet options — including a great wine list — it’s still very much a pub. There are the loud TVs, the loud talkers and the visceral, sports-inspired moans and groans that always make me feel…
The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band With The Tillers
If there’s any truth in the old adage that “the family that plays together stays together,” the Peytons of Indiana will be tight until the next ice age. The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band coalesced a mere three years ago, but in that time the Country/Blues trio — Reverend Peyton on guitar, his wife Breezy…
Order 66 (Profile)
I guess you could say it’s a form of Molecular Gastronomy (the study of physical and chemical processes in cooking), but not really. It sounds interesting enough as it stands. I couldn’t find a better word or phrase to convey what I was witnessing. My search, aided by Al Gore’s trusty inter-web, lasted about two…
Cocked and Loaded
If you were trying to determine the age demographic of Shiny Toy Guns, you’d have a very difficult time. Though they’ve landed several songs on Billboard’s Modern Rock chart, they have a legion of young fans. Very young fans. “I probably took 20 pictures from people under the age of 12 last night,” says the…
A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant (Review)
It’s the time of year when theater companies present shows that veer from their routine fare in hopes of selling lots of tickets to fund subsequent productions more aligned with their mission. So perhaps I should be charitable in this season of good feelings when a group like Know Theatre presents A Very Merry Unauthorized…
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (Magnolia)
Hunter S. Thompson’s life was made for the movies. The hellion youth turned hellion writer practiced an immersive form of journalism, dubbed Gonzo, that plunged him into American powder-kegs from the Hell’s Angels violent ranks and the 1968 Democratic Convention melee to the 1972 Democratic presidential campaign and a frenetic personal run for sheriff of…
Studio One Anthology (Koch)
The Golden Age of network television occurred early in its existence, the 1950s, when executives still believed it had a mission to elevate as well as entertain and the creatives believed they could produce anything, not just endless variations on lowest-common-denominator formulas. They could even do live drama as well as the theatre could, they…
Practice Makes Perfect
In December 2004, Virginia-based artist Duane Keiser began making one small painting a day, posting them on his blog and selling them at very affordable prices. Over the past four years, Keiser’s A Painting a Day blog (www.duanekeiser.blogspot.com) received a flurry of national media attention and ultimately launched a full-fledged art movement that includes worthy…
Diverse Holiday Options
This week’s Dish offers a multitude of ways to party this season — some green, some decadent — from EarthSave’s holiday dinner to uber-indulgent parties catered by Daveed’s. If you like to mix your holiday mingling with social consciousness, start with EarthSave, which will host its holiday potluck dinner Dec. 14 at Clifton United Methodist…
Mudvayne with 10 Years and Snot
You have to admire the bravura of a band that names itself after a crustacean’s poop chute. Mudvayne has experimented with various Metal concepts since its 1996 inception in Peoria, Ill., beginning as a Rap Metal outfit before switching to a more traditional Metal direction for the 1998 debut demo, Kill, I Oughtta. The quartet’s…
Obama Should Revive Federal Writers Project
In recent months, the government has pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to help out banks, investment houses, insurance companies and others ensnared by the mortgage-crisis-induced financial meltdown. Auto companies might be next. Meanwhile, President-elect Barack Obama, after winning a convincing victory, is poised to become an FDR-like president in January, with a new New…
Priceless (First Look)
Audrey Tautou’s exotic visage is enough to melt the most discerning of men, let alone the haplessly smitten Frenchmen that populate Pierre Salvador’s Priceless, a frothy update of Breakfast at Tiffany’s set amid lush, upscale hotels in the south of France. Tautou is Irene, a ruthless, cold-hearted gold digger who sees men as little more…
Arms Wide Open
The five members of Arms Exploding are serious about making music, and it shows. The sounds emanating from Ruminari, the band’s debut album for the local Phratry label, are intense and harrowing, a melodic Post Punk/Prog cacophony of double clutch drumming, heart attack bass, delicately thrashing guitars and unhinged vocals. And their songs are inspired…
Overboard on Overdrafts?
Borrowing a line from the old movie Network, Dennis Charlton was mad as hell and he wasn’t going to take it anymore. Instead of opening up a window and yelling, though, Charlton is taking one of Greater Cincinnati’s largest corporations to court in a legal showdown that potentially could affect thousands of local banking customers.…
Cross Promotions, Cross Purposes
Returning to work on a Monday morning after a long holiday weekend means one thing: hundreds of new e-mails in my Inbox. Coming back from Thanksgiving I had the usual assortment of press releases, spam and unsolicited guest editorials, along with some actually useful correspondence. I also had more than a dozen e-mails with “Cincinnati…
I’m Not a Loser
Would a loser have awaken at 9 a.m. on a Saturday and started drinking Sparks energy beer, eating bagels and watching college football pregame shows? Would a loser have walked across the UC campus before noon drinking beer out of a to-go coffee cup on his way to watch the Big East champions finish off…
Changing Grandma
Changing Grandma Hey, I read Larry Gross’ amusing “Lunch With Andrea” Living Out Loud column (issue of Nov. 26) and could not help but wonder: Was he really having lunch with my grandmother? She couldn’t bring herself to vote for Barack Obama and, like Gross’ friend, holds on to the belief that Republicans are looking…
Too Much Fun
A few days ago, I went to a birthday party for my great niece. She was turning 1. She’s the younger daughter of my 26-year-old nephew, Ricky. I call him my first born. My sister gave birth to him when I was just 5, so my whole life I’ve been an aunt. It’s always been…
Another Seven Days of Gay Penguins and Dead Deers
WEDNESDAY NOV. 26With a serious budget deficit looming and the option of taking away a 1996 tax credit from homeowners to reduce layoffs, Hamilton County Commissioners today said, “Um, no, we better not do that.” The Enquirer reported that the commissioners voted unanimously to continue giving back the credit, which grants 30 percent of the…
An Old Comrade’s Perspective
Flip through cable TV networks like the History Channel or Biography on any given weekend and there’s a good chance you’ll come across a documentary about the end of the Cold War and the Soviet Union’s collapse, arguably the defining moment of the 20th Century. Most of them follow a now familiar track: Praise for…
To Serve and to Protect
In social psychology there’s something known as the “bystander effect.” It’s a phenomenon, particularly acute in the United States thanks to our overly litigious society, that prevents help from getting to those in emergency situations because witnesses assume someone else will seek help or it’s already been summoned. To counter it, as I was trained…
Christmas at the Clubs
• It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas … at least if you’re looking at the upcoming club events happening over the next few weeks. This Sunday at the Blue Wisp Jazz Club you can get in the holiday mood by checking out Pat Kelly and his PyschoAcoustic Orchestra. The unique, eclectic “big band”…
Sweet Taste of Success
Nobody has ever accused the University of Cincinnati of overemphasizing football — probably not even in 1885, when UC became the fifth American university to start a football team. For more than 120 years, locals wondered why the university should even bother with it. The university obliged, so much as it could, by barely bothering…
Nutcrackering Scrooge
The Nutcracker, A Christmas Carol, model trains, zoo lights, skating on Fountain Square – do you ever wonder if Cincinnati is capable of creativity around the holidays? Beyond the Ensemble Theater of Cincinnati – an institution that actually takes some risks – the others stick with the same old script with the only news being…
