Morning News: CPS to evict CCAC from Clifton School; 3-foot clearance law for cyclists starts today; how corporate tax cuts could hurt affordable housing
Ok. News time. It’s official: Yesterday, Cincinnati Public Schools decided it will evict the Clifton Cultural Arts Center from its home at the old Clifton School to establish a new neighborhood school there. The decision puts an end to a year-plus-long fight between the two over the building, which the CCAC has put millions into…
Morning News: Park Board drama continues; Children’s Hospital expansion will cost $650 million; Rep. Massie: Trump ‘absolutely’ could have been wiretapped
Happy spring, Cincy! This year, “spring” apparently means “hail pelting you and freezing rain soaking through your clothes as you wait for the bus while lightning flashes over your head.” So, yeah, enjoy that. Anyway, news time. Things got real on the Cincinnati Board of Park Commissioners last week as two recently appointed board members…
Kentucky appellate court to Chesley: You owe $42 million
The Kentucky Court of Appeals has unanimously upheld a $42 million civil judgment against disbarred lawyer Stan Chesley of Indian Hill, the latest turn of affairs in a slow-moving legal battle that dates back to the early 2000s. The 36-page opinion was handed down March 10 and ratified a summary judgment issued by Boone County…
Morning News: Departments brainstorm budget cuts as shortfall looms; NKY prosecutor, lead detective in murder case had affair; Trump budget would hit Ohio hard
Good morning all. I hope you’re enjoying this wonderful weather. Who doesn’t love some nice freezing rain as they trudge to the last day of work before the weekend? Anyway, news time is here. Let’s get fiscal and talk about budgets for a minute. The city of Cincinnati is facing a big $25 million shortfall…
A Humanist Photographer Finds Reason for Hope
Larry Fink, the longtime photographer who will deliver a FotoFocus Lecture at the Cincinnati Art Museum on Wednesday, was working at the big anti-Vietnam War and anti-Nixon protest marches and gatherings of the 1960s. And on Jan. 21 of this year, he photographed for Vanity Fair the massive Women’s March on Washington, a startlingly large show…
Stage Door: Reboot your familiarity with Jane Eyre, then head to the Playhouse
If you’re a Jane Eyre aficionado, you need to see the theatrical staging of Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel that opened last evening at the Cincinnati Playhouse. Under the firm directorial hand of KJ Sanchez (read my Curtain Call column about her in this week’s CityBeat), Polly Teale’s unusual 1998 adaptation is a fascinating performance. I…
‘Iron Fist’ Lacks Punch
Films based on Marvel Comics rule the box office — just look at the current Logan. Iron Fist is an ambitious attempt to have the same impact on television — the live-action 13-episode series is available Friday on Netflix. Does it succeed? Based on a viewing of early episodes, not so much. Iron Fist is…
Your Lucky Weekend To Do List (March 17-19)
FRIDAY 17 ONSTAGE: LEADING LADIES Ken Ludwig writes some of today’s funniest plays. Lend Me a Tenor is a classic, and the Cincinnati Playhouse will soon stage his amusing Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery. But currently the Covedale Center is presenting a Ludwig laugh fest about a pair of British Shakespearean actors barely getting by…
Controversy over Health Gap investigation hits City Council
About 150 activists, volunteers, employees and supporters of the Center for Closing the Health Gap rallied at City Hall yesterday during City Council’s regular meeting to protest what they say is unfair treatment of the nonprofit by the media and Mayor John Cranley. The protesters, organized by Cincinnati’s chapter of the National Action Network President…
What a Week! March 8-14
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 08 International Women’s Day landed on Wednesday, observed across the country and world for more than 100 years. Organizers behind the Women’s March on Washington encouraged ladies to participate in A Day Without Women by striking from paid and unpaid work, wearing red in solidarity, staying off social media and only spending money…
Trouble Brewing for the EPA
Gorsuch. Gorsuch? Why did I know that name? I’d never heard of Neil Gorsuch, a respected federal appellate judge until Donald Trump nominated him to the U.S. Supreme Court. Had to be someone else. That happens to a lot of reporters and editors. Stuff cluttering our brains resembles a pointillist painting; myriad colorful dots waiting…
Spring TV Preview: ‘Twin Peaks’ and More
Better Call Saul (Season Premiere, 10 p.m. April 10, AMC) – This Breaking Bad prequel continues to shine in its own right, revealing the backstory of lawyer Jimmy McGill, aka Saul Goodman (played by Bob Odenkirk), years before he ever meets Walter White. Season 3 promises the introduction of fan-favorite Breaking Bad villain Gus Fring.…
Constella Music Festival Seeks Eclecticism
For the Constella Festival’s sixth installment, which formally begins Saturday and continues through March 25, there will be just five ticketed events for adults. That may sound modest for an eight-day festival, but the programming aims to cover a full spectrum of the arts. “Popular events like dance performances are back,” says Tatiana Berman, Constella’s…
Critic’s Pick: ‘Heavier Than…’ at Know Theatre
It has been a fantasy-filled year for Know Theatre of Cincinnati, a season the organization has themed “Once Upon a Time.” Recent productions have featured dragons, fairies and monsters of the occult. Know now has opened Heavier Than…, written by Steve Yockey (Pluto, The Fisherman’s Wife), which folds Greek mythology into the season’s mix of…
Jane Eyre and KJ Sanchez: Powerful Women
In 2013, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park’s artistic director, Blake Robison, appointed several theater professionals to a new role: Associate Artist. They serve as guest directors with multi-year commitments to Cincinnati’s award-winning regional theater. Across four seasons, playwright and director KJ Sanchez has been especially prolific. Since 2013, she has staged memorable and varied productions…
Getting Bold with Dance Moves
To say that this weekend’s Cincinnati Ballet presentation is bold would be redundant. The program is called Bold Moves, after all — it features a demanding performance of the very physical “Minus 16” by Ohad Naharin, the artistic director of Tel Aviv’s Batsheva Dance Company. Naharin’s so-called Gaga style of dance, which encourages free movement…
Food, Friendship and Craft Cocktails
Longfellow Cincinnati's exterior is as cryptic as its online presence. The European café meets cocktail bar, located at 1233 Clay St. in Over-the-Rhine, is marked almost exclusively by a small, neon “Longfellow” sign illuminating the corner of one window. It mirrors the bar’s lack of a website and almost bare Facebook page. When Longfellow opened…
Shared Plates and Modern Pours at The Hamilton
In just a few years, entrepreneur Suzanne McGarry has made a strong, positive difference along a short stretch of Hamilton Avenue in Northside. In late 2013, she opened Bistro Grace near the corner of Hamilton and Blue Rock, sinking major bucks into renovating and upgrading the former location of Honey (and the original Boca before…
NCAA Tournament Preview
UC's 29 wins slighted by committee; team travels to California as No. 6 seed BY COURTNEY RATKOWIAK Sitting in Hartford, Conn., less than an hour removed from a 15-point loss to SMU in the AAC Tournament championship game, Cincinnati found out it would have to travel to the opposite side of the country for its…
Sound Advice: Phantogram with The Veldt (March 16)
It’s been nearly a decade since budding visual artist Sarah Barthel became disenchanted with her schooling and returned to her home in Greenwich, N.Y. She quickly reconnected with junior high friend Josh Carter — also recently returned from New York City where he had formed Grand Habit, an experimental Art Pop band with his brother…
Sound Advice: Norah Jones with Aloysius 3 (March 16)
If she had chosen to exploit her lineage, Norah Jones could easily have used the fact that she was Ravi Shankar’s daughter as an all-access passkey to shortcut her way into the music business. Instead, she worked hard to prove her estimable talents, first in high school (she twice won DownBeat’s Student Music Award for…
Sound Advice: The Dollyrots with The Two Tens and JetLab (March 21)
Singer/bassist Kelly Ogden and guitarist Luis Cabezas first met as kids in Land O’ Lakes, Fla., near Tampa. Their friendship blossomed into both a romance and a musical relationship. The couple was attending college in Sarasota in 2000, playing in a band with some other friends, when George W. Bush won his first presidential election.…
Lung drops debut LP and hits the road again
Unique and impressive (and uniquely impressive… and impressively unique) Indie Rock duo Lung is releasing its first full-length album in conjunction with a free show Saturday at Northside Tavern (4163 Hamilton Ave., Northside, northsidetav.com). Cincinnati’s Pop Empire and Louisville, Ky.’s Pleasure Boys are also on the 10 p.m. bill. Fueled by the dynamic vocals and…
Acclaimed Cincinnati Indie band WHY? returned to home-recording for its new ‘Moh Lhean’ album
Moh Lhean, WHY?’s first album in five years, is as textured and sonically diverse as anything in the Cincinnati-based band’s 12-year run, which is saying something. WHY? has carved its own unique space on the musical landscape by combining frontman Yoni Wolf’s Hip Hop roots — he was a key member of wonderfully slanted Bay…
Turbulence between John Cranley and a former ally could complicate the mayor’s re-election pitch to black voters
Mayor John Cranley and former mayor Dwight Tillery, both Democrats, used to be close. Not anymore. The fracture in their once-cozy relationship has grown steadily and could have implications for Cranley’s re-election bid. The tension was on full display at a March 9 meeting by black organizers ostensibly about disparities in city code violations. At that…
John Waters Is a Horror Filmmaker
How do you start off a conversation with the iconic filmmaker John Waters? The Baltimore native, who began shooting silent 8 mm and 16 mm films in the mid-1960s, gleefully embracing and fetishizing gore and violence, earned the monikers “The Pope of Trash” and “The Prince of Puke” for Multiple Maniacs, Pink Flamingos and Female…
