Grass
Grass is officially the greatest idea ever. It's a "crafty carnival circus party" where you can see how talented and creative your friends are. Be proud of them and of Cincinnati. Buy things. Drink beer. Eat pizza. Watch some flicks. And dance to the Lions Rampant and DJ INDIANgiver. —-
Sports: Opening Day Festivities
Professional baseball’s oldest franchise opens its 127th season on Monday with barrage of festivities. Led by Grand Marshall/former Reds great Frank Robinson, the 90th Findlay Market Parade kicks off at 10:30 a.m. and again features CityBeat’s “float,” a flatbed truck with a choice local band playing live and (probably) loud. The parade proceeds down Race…
Music: Spindrift
Mixing the dusty, cinematic soundscapes of old spaghetti-western films with the mind-expanding Psych Rock of modern practitioners like The Dandy Warhols and Brian Jonestown Massacre (not to mention drone forefathers The Velvet Underground), L.A.’s Spindrift makes music that sounds like what one would hear while tripping in the desert on a vision quest. Originally formed…
Art: Everyday at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center
Some artists make work every single day, a ritualistic endeavor with cumulative results that often document the passage of time and the daily life of the artist. Everyday, an exhibition of art that centers in this kind of daily practice, is on view at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center. From photographs by Liz Kauffman that…
Music: Cute Is What We Aim For with Meg & Dia
The story of how Meg and Dia Frampton (pictured) became Pop/Punk crunchmeisters has more twists and turns than an upside down roller coaster. The first irony was, as kids, guitarist Meg got a karaoke machine for Christmas, and vocalist Dia got a guitar. After sorting things out, the Korean-American sisters started their first band in…
12 Rounds (Review)
WWE wrestler John Cena plays Danny Fisher, a New Orleans detective tormented by a devious international criminal mastermind Miles Jackson (Aiden Gillen) in what feels like a replay of an old Denzel Washington vehicle from the days before Denzel became the king of the Oscar ring (think Ricochet and Virtuosity). That could be due to…
Dance: Black Box
Choreographer, designer and photographer Jeanne S. Mam-Luft wears a lot of hats and has a lot of history. Born in a refugee camp and raised as an immigrant, she says, “I grew up questioning class, race, normalcy and cultural customs.” Yet in BLACK BOX, her newest performance work for MamLuft&Co.Dance this weekend, she confronts these…
Events: Grass Market
Thanks to DAAP and CCM, Cincinnati has a young, thriving arts community, but the city’s artistic endeavors are not just limited to the university. On Saturday, Grass, a “cross-genre community collective event,” is taking over the Niehoff Urban Studio as a DIY attempt to show and sell the goods of some of Cincinnati’s most creative…
Art: Different Directions at The Carnegie
“It’s a paradox — the beauty is so tragic,” Anna VanMatre says of the theme behind her latest series of graphite paintings, DeNatural Disaster. Her work is part of a group exhibition, Different Directions, at the Carnegie in Covington. Originally from Poland, VanMatre moved to Cincinnati in 1997 and has exhibited throughout Europe, Israel, Africa…
Comedy: The Cody Rivers Show
You can expect sketch comedy to be a little weird. When sketch comedians wear wrestling singlets and baseball stirrup socks, you can assume they’re taking it to the next level. The Cody Rivers Show, a two-man comedy group, will visit the Monmouth Theatre Friday to demonstrate just how absurd and clever sketch comedy can be.…
Art: 44 at the Contemporary Arts Center
Downtown's Contemporary Arts Center’s 44 series is taking on new, complex energy under the supervision of Isaac Hand and Kenneth Wright. Hand brings along his contacts with the musicians and artisans he knew while running the alternative venue Murmur in South Fairmount. Saturday, music and dance will swell beneath Tara Donovan’s lobby installation from 4-6…
Comedy: Aries Spears
When asked about his favorite things to talk about on stage, Aries Spears says, “Anything to do with midgets or Barack Obama.” The election of President Obama hasn’t made Spears any more political, but it has influenced his act. “For me as a comedian, and a black man, to not have any material based on…
Onstage: Musical Theater Showcase
The 2009 graduating class of musical theater majors from UC’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) is preparing to head to New York City to present a showcase to agents, producers (including Kevin McCollum, the man behind Rent, Avenue Q, In the Heights and the current revival of West Side Story, who happens to be a 1984…
Music: Paul Thorn Band
If anyone ever makes a movie of Paul Thorn’s life, they may have to leave out some of the details just to make it believable. Just after Thorn’s birth in Wisconsin, his Pentecostal preacher father moved the family to Tupelo, Miss., famed birthplace of Elvis Presley. Thorn learned guitar at 12, but before he could…
On the Road with The Seedy Seeds: Part One
[Editor’s Note: Cincy’s fantastic Indie/Pop/Americana/Electro band The Seedy Seeds recently ventured to Austin, Tex., for their first performances at the big annual South By Southwest music festival/conference. We asked them to keep a journal of their adventures for us, and they graciously obliged. We’ll be rolling the journal entries out in slices over the next…
New Star Trek Trailer
Is anyone else as jazzed as I am about the new Star Trek film? It looks like a thrilling ride. It's due in theaters May 8, and there's already a sequel planned. Live long and prosper
Book Review: Detox Your Desk
My desk is a mess. It’s not so much a factor of having too much stuff – virtually everything on it has a purpose. The problem is that I collect too many little pieces of paper and various other items and I tend to not spend enough time organizing them and dealing with them in…
Smitherman Warns Gay Community
Facing national criticism about his decision to appoint an anti-gay rights activist as a legal adviser, the president of the NAACP’s Cincinnati chapter issued a warning on his radio show this weekend. Christopher Smitherman, the local NAACP president, talked about unspecified consequences if the gay and lesbian community continues pushing for the ouster of Chris…
Can’t Afford a Kid? Well, Do We Have a Deal for You!
Now that you’re getting older and have given up on your own life goals, it is time to produce an offspring to live vicariously through. Teach them all the things you wanted to learn when you were a child that your parents never taught you. Instill values in them so when they do grow up…
Paperless Junk
Going paperless – using e-mail, reading documents on line and other such electronic alternatives – is supposed to help save trees and reduce garbage going to landfills. But what happens when the computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse, modem and all of the other electronic stuff becomes obsolete? To keep that stuff out of your local landfill,…
U.S. Needs Major Healthcare Reform, Not Band-Aid
In their typically overheated and sensationalistic manner, some conservatives are actually blaming “socialism” and our northern neighbor for the recent death of actress Natasha Richardson.—- Several conservative pundits are pontificating about Richardson’s skiing accident in Canada and using factually inaccurate information to bolster their case that deficiencies in Canada’s government-run healthcare system might have contributed…
A Plea For Alternative Forms of Transportation
I’m going on an almost three-year hiatus from having a car. This has put me in more cabs in the last couple o’ years than I’d ever been in prior. There are a lot o’ weird-ass fucking cab drivers out there! I could tell a multitude of stories, but it wasn’t until this past Wednesday…
Heartless Bastards at the Madison Theater Pics
Cincy/Austin faves The Heartless Bastards played a homecoming "CD release show" at Covington's Madison Theater on Wednesday. Any reports from the front lines? We've heard they had a solid turnout and openers Soul revivers Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears were amazing. Check out some of Keith Klenowksi's great pics from the show (featuring both…
Friday Movie Roundup: The Incredibly Shrinking Movie Industry
Is it just me or are there far fewer movies being released this year? It’s not just me. A quick look back reveals that 24 different films appeared in at least one local movie house in March 2008. By contrast, 14 films will have been released over the same period in 2009. —- Worse (and…
Events: CityBeat’s Best of Cincinnati Celebration
Join the best crowd in town Wednesday night at Longworth's as CityBeat celebrates the 13th annual Best of Cincinnati issue, which hits the streets today. Festivities ramp up at 7 p.m. with a live performance by CEA nominees Daughters and Sons, and drink specials will be offered by event sponsors Heineken and Vitamin Water. Lloyd…
Emotional, Fast, Fun
Cincinnatians Jason Cornell and Jeff Huisman have returned from the 2009 World Air Hockey Championships in Las Vegas, presided over by United States Air Hockey Association President Michael Rosen. Cornell recaps the duo's experiences here. I spoke with Rosen after the championships concluded March 15. CityBeat: How did you get into competitive air hockey, and…
Enky Turns to Bloggers, Facebook for Help
Conceding that layoffs have created gaps in its coverage and that younger people don’t necessarily like getting information from newspapers, The Cincinnati Enquirer is turning to local bloggers and various social networking sites on the Internet for help.—- Top managers at The Enquirer recently approved a new “social media strategy” for the paper that involves…
More on the Finney Connection
This week’s issue of CityBeat, which hits the streets today, features an article about the selection of arch-conservative activist Chris Finney to serve as a legal adviser to the NAACP’s Cincinnati chapter. The article details how Finney’s past work on anti-gay rights causes might be at odds with the national NAACP’s stance on repealing Proposition…
Music: Fareed Haque and Flat Earth Ensemble
If Fareed Haque isn’t the most creative and talented Jazz guitarist playing today, he’s certainly one of the best to combine elements from a broad range of genres. Besides jaw-dropping chops, Haque’s strong suit is his unbounded approach to music, which has blended Classical music, Free Jazz, Fusion, Funk, World Music and any number other…
Mocking Monikers
Keeping up with today’s popular music performers is like walking past a funhouse mirror. For every favorite culture or literary hero you or anyone else is liable to have had, real or fictional, there’s probably a contemporary Rock act appropriating the name. Sometimes it’s done as a straight-up tribute; sometimes it’s presented in a humorous…
Events: Know Theatre Fundraising Party
A fundraising party to benefit the Know Theatre takes place Friday in one of the new Trideca Lofts located at 13th and Vine streets. Sandy Eichert, the resplendent local arts socialite, is functioning as host for the evening. Suggested donation is $10, but all are encouraged to show support and solidarity in attendance. The night…
Events/Art: Conversations About Iraq
British artist Jeremy Deller recently completed the first leg of his project “It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq” at the New Museum in New York. In it, he invited a multiplicity of perspectives to engage in conversation about the last decade’s activities in the Middle East. Now he, along with Sergeant Jonathan Harvey,…
Music: The Queers
Already formed and broken up once by 1982, The Queers began to grab headlines with the reemergence of perennial frontman Joe Queer in 1990. Queer would be the consistent nucleus of a band whose roster was a haphazard game of musical chairs; roughly 30 members since 1982 have been a Queer. Twenty-five years later, The…
Crossing Over (Review)
Max Brogan (Harrison Ford) leads immigration agents into routine busts in Southern California to collect illegal aliens working in factories. He, along with his partner Hamid Baraheri (Cliff Curtis) and a host of coordinated local, state and federal units, sweep in, corral workers and start the process of deportation with brutal bureaucratic determination. Notice I…
Events: Spin at the CAC
The Contemporary Arts Center reclaims its spot on the Final Friday gallery stroll with Spin, a monthly event with DJs, drinks and dancing. This month join Cincinnati creative collective PROJECTMILL. They take over Kaplan Hall from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. with their ubiquitous video projections and interactive media, along with food from various downtown…
Sustain Yourself With or Without an Organic White House Garden
Before Barack Obama was elected, sustainable food advocates across the country were pushing for an organic White House garden, which seemed to some like a Marie Antoinette moment. A “let them eat organic” in the middle of a flailing economy when people were losing their jobs and couldn’t put food on their tables. But the…
Let Purity Ring
“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” That’s the question Johnny Rotten, the lead singer of legendary Punk progenitors Sex Pistols posed to a crowd of punksters at a concert in January 1978. Undoubtedly, Rotten meant his question to be wry and rhetorical, not a cryptic foreshadow of the band’s monumental breakup. Crashing with a…
Music: Tim Barry
Imagine you’re the lead vocalist/guitarist of a band that plays Punk Rock, a commercially unrewarding genre. Your group forms in 1987, and after a decade of vigorously plying your sound in dives across the country, things really pick up. You gradually find yourself at an apex of underground popularity, reaching a point where your audiences…
When Justice Fails
Life isn’t fair. That’s one of the reasons humanity, in all of its cultures and variations, has always created a system of justice — to help even the scales and encourage certain behaviors while discouraging others. Sometimes, though, the system is so skewed and distorted by special interests and power that it just doesn’t function…
Glenn Tilbrook and the Fluffers
If Glenn Tilbrook had never done another thing in his career outside of his work with Squeeze, his place in music history would be secure. For more than two decades, Tilbrook and songwriting partner Chris Difford charted a course that included angular Punk, jangly New Wave, blueeyed Soul and sparkling Indie Pop, all of it…
Onstage: Charlotte’s Web
If the names Wilbur, Charlotte and Fern conjure up pleasant childhood memories of an innocent pig, a literate spider and a kindhearted little girl, then you no doubt spent some time reading E. B. White’s 1952 classic Charlotte’s Web, a story of a cross-species collaboration that celebrates loyalty and friendship. (My own favorite character was…
Music: Glenn Tilbrook and the Fluffers
If Glenn Tilbrook had never done another thing in his career outside of his work with Squeeze, his place in music history would be secure. For more than two decades, Tilbrook and songwriting partner Chris Difford charted a course that included angular Punk, jangly New Wave, blue-eyed Soul and sparkling Indie Pop, all of it…
Dusmesh (Review)
I’ve long felt that the one thing missing from Northside’s eclectic restaurant scene is a good Indian restaurant. Meanwhile, a number of Indian restaurants of varying quality thrive just up the hill in Clifton. Settled right between these two neighborhoods at 944 Ludlow Ave., across from Cincinnati State, Dusmesh fills the void (the one between…
What Is Art?
As the Cincinnati Art Museum enters the last month of Isn’t It Great to Be an Artist?, the debut exhibit of its bold new Robert A. Lewis Collection of (mostly) folk and outsider art, the show has sparked much discussion about the perennial question of “What is art?” As Julie Aronson, curator of American painting…
Take Your Kid to Work Day, MTV Still Not Playing Music and U2 Is on Edge
[HOT] Take Your Kid To Work Day … to the Max! Sure, they have the genetics and, more often than not, the chops. But the nepotism going on in the Rock world these days has to have aspiring and veteran musicians everywhere saying, “Brother, can you spare a gig?” Jason Bonham has a no-bid contract…
Hearts of Palm (Profile)
The hallway into Hearts of Palm’s rehearsal space/studio has the sparse look of a contemporary art gallery: white walls, soft lighting, intriguing paintings at optimal intervals. Upon entering the Electronic/Noise band’s creative lair, the atmosphere shifts to a chaotic combination of frat house rec room and property closet for an avant-garde community theater. A wig…
Another Seven Days of Cigarette Taxes and Bathroom Breaks
WEDNESDAY MARCH 18For those of us who still think President Obama is just a smooth-talking socialist spreading our money around the bailouts, it was a relief today to see him filling out an NCAA Tournament bracket on ESPN. The president, known for playing sports and offering insightful commentary when he’s not offending disabled people, showed…
Art: Mythography at Manifest Gallery
Manifest Gallery delights in throwing out an idea and seeing what it might reel in. The current show, Mythography, explores a concept that’s as old as art but has been unfashionable in recent years: storytelling. What would happen, wondered Manifest’s Assistant Director Tim Parsley, if the gallery called for entries to a show based on…
Art: Taft Museum Art in the Afternoon Sign Ups
Sign up now if you want a place in the Taft Museum’s Art in the Afternoon program of springtime visits with artists, which begins April 5 at the museum with artist Tom Towhey talking about painting, sculpting and making ceramics. On April 26 painter Eric Franke will welcome visitors to his Colerain Township studio; Celene…
Dance: Sinatra Suite
Martha Graham once said, “Movement never lies.” Plenty of truth is needed to pull off dancing to the crooning of Ol’ Blue Eyes, and Cincinnati Ballet tackles this challenge along with Twyla Tharp’s intricate, nuanced choreography in Sinatra Suite & More. If Tharp’s name doesn’t ring a bell, she’s a living American choreographic legend and…
Music: Heartless Bastards
Heartless Bastards make their official tour stop in the area tonight at the Madison Theater promoting their latest album, The Mountain. The band played a couple of holiday shows at Northside Tavern just before releasing the CD, but tonight should be a real old-fashioned concert. Things obviously are going well for the Bastards, capped off…
Tim Barry with Austin Lucas
Imagine you’re the lead vocalist/guitarist of a band that plays Punk Rock, a commercially unrewarding genre. Your group forms in 1987, and after a decade of vigorously plying your sound in dives across the country, things really pick up. You gradually find yourself at an apex of underground popularity, reaching a point where your audiences…
Mythography (Review)
Critic's Pick Manifest Gallery delights in throwing out an idea and seeing what it might reel in. The current show, Mythography, explores a concept that’s as old as art but has been unfashionable in recent years: storytelling. What would happen, wondered Manifest Assistant Director Tim Parsley, if the gallery called for entries to a show…
Time to Try ‘Smart on Crime’
“Three strikes and your out," life sentences with parole and other "tough on crime” policies have led to the United States having the largest prison population in the world. More than one of every 100 American adults was in prison at the start of 2008, according to the World Prison Brief published by Kings College…
Smitherman and Finney in Bed
In a move that’s raised eyebrows across the political spectrum, the president of the NAACP’s Cincinnati chapter has given a board appointment to an arch-conservative legal activist who has a history of working on anti-gay rights causes. The appointment involves Hyde Park attorney Chris Finney, perhaps best known as the person who wrote Article 12,…
TV Personality for the New Millennium
There isn’t much to watch on local TV anymore. It’s a sad notion considering that most of us are in the Cincinnati television market, which once was a national leader in local programming. It would be a little hypocritical of me to blame the Internet, though Al Gore does have some explaining to do. How…
Luka Bloom, Cursive, Oh No Not Stereo and Chris Cornell
The march through March continues. As I suspected might eventually happen, this week was so rife with new releases I was forced to push a couple titles to next week to avoid being slammed this week. All things considered, not a bad problem to have. Without any further ado, then … If you’ve been listening…
Truth and Legends
Martha Graham once said, “Movement never lies.” Plenty of truth is needed to pull off dancing to the crooning of Ol’ Blue Eyes, and Cincinnati Ballet tackles this challenge along with Twyla Tharp’s intricate, nuanced choreography in Sinatra Suite & More. If Tharp’s name doesn’t ring a bell, she’s a living American choreographic legend and…
Fighting for Scraps
Outraged at the continuing financial meltdown and flailing government fixes, the American public has once again formed a circular firing squad and started shooting. We can’t help ourselves. In our heavily partisan political climate, we’re conditioned to fight our neighbors, whom we refer to as “rivals” and “enemies.” When the going gets tough, you can…
Handsome Furs and The Cinnamon Band
Handsome Furs is that whole mystery/riddle/enigma thing wrapped in a musical quesadilla, a concept “band” without a concept. The Furs serve as a break for Montreal-based guitarist Dan Boeckner during his days away from Wolf Parade and Atlas Strategic. It also affords him a little quality creative time with his wife, keyboardist and short story…
Art: Framed Freaks at NVision
C. Matthew Hamby’s unabashedly lurid cartoons and illustrations have graced many local publications, including CityBeat. His followers now have a chance at a more intimate, engaging experience of his work in the exhibition Framed Freaks at Nvision in Northside. The characters displayed here are overstated and charged, suggesting that, along with his stated influences such…
Comedy: Mark Eddie
Steubenville, Ohio, native Mark Eddie started his stand-up career in Pittsburgh. He performed serious songs in coffeehouses on college campuses before parlaying his storytelling talent and musical ability into a comedy act. Today, guitar in hand, he entertains audiences with original and parody songs. “Kind of a mixture of everything,” he says by phone from…
Music: Handsome Furs
Handsome Furs is that whole mystery/riddle/enigma thing wrapped in a musical quesadilla, a concept “band” without a concept. The Furs serve as a break for Montreal-based guitarist Dan Boeckner during his days away from Wolf Parade and Atlas Strategic. It also affords him a little quality creative time with his wife, keyboardist and shortstory writer…
Onstage: Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy
Don’t be fooled: This fantasy is more Sgt. Pepper than Tarzan. The famed Cirque Productions brings another of its European-style circus shows to town for an almost two-week run at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. This one has a cast of 25 acrobats, contortionists, jugglers and others outfitted as various brightly colored animals, flowers…
Monster Vs. Aliens (Review)
Creature features, alien invasions, 3-D gimmickry — from start to finish, Monsters Vs. Aliens celebrates some of the staples of the 1950s B movie. And in a way that’s perfectly fitting, because maybe it’s time to start giving the unapologetic genre picture some credit again. It’s true that Monsters Vs. Aliens couldn’t be considered a…
Bear Reawakening
Wake the Bear — a.k.a. one-man-band Scott Cunningham — celebrates the release of his third album, Player Piano, this Saturday at the Northside Tavern. Dan Mecher of Turnbull ACs opens the free show, Cunningham plays in the middle (with his unique loop-and-sample-centric set-up) and new pop rockers The Mighty close the night. With each successive…
Hump Day
It’s late afternoon on a Wednesday, hump day for me. I’m walking up Werk Road to get to Queen City Avenue to catch a No. 33 bus to take me downtown. Wednesdays are just about the only day I take off. I’m lucky that I don’t have a regular office to go to, but that…
Selling Air
LAS VEGAS — As we walked in to the Convention Center at the Riviera, the stale casino smell that permeates Las Vegas reeked of a place 20 years overdue for a makeover. Ironic, in a sense, but almost a fitting setting for the championship of a sport that’s been around for several decades but hasn’t…
Events: Everything Pets Expo
The Everything Pets Expo comes to the Duke Energy Center this weekend with demonstrations, entertainment, education, adoptions and all the furry little fun you can handle. Well, furry and feathered. Like it claims in the name, the expo literally has everything. There will be retailers, groomers, veterinarians, rescue groups, boutiques, trainers, information about food, boarding,…
Music: Gringo Star
Nicholas Firgiuele of Gringo Star explains that it was never the band’s intention to name-check The Beatles' drummer. The “Gringo” reference was a nod to their outsiderish love of Mexican culture — the cuisine as well as the mariachi music — and the “Star” just sounded good. The real Ringo, who was born Richard Starkey,…
Events: Oscar Shorts 2009
Cincinnati World Cinema (CWC) continues its nurturing of the short film format with its eighth annual screening of Academy Award nominated live-action and animated short films. Contrary to the often bloated and formulaic long-form product being churned out by studios right now, this collection of shorts offers unique, consistently compelling work via a variety of…
Streetcar Rally Tonight
Cincinnatians for Progress is hosting a fund-raiser and rally tonight for the planned Cincinnati streetcar system from 5:30 to 7:30 at Grammer's, 1140 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine. The event kicks off what the group calls "our campaign in support of economic development, preserving transportation choices, good governance and progress in Cincinnati." Suggested donation is $35, and…
And Toto, Too?
A few rainy days hardly constitute “severe weather,” but this is Ohio’s Severe Weather Awareness Week (March 22-28) ala Governor Ted Strickland. The Ohio Committee for Severe Weather Awareness (yes, we have one of those) does have some practical and helpful information to offer on how to deal with tornadoes that can be part of…
