LISTEN: Buffalo Killers’ New ‘Dig. Sow. Love. Grow.’
Cincinnati-spawned Psych/Rock/Pop trio Buffalo Killers' new album, the rockin' Dig. Sow. Love. Grow., is available at retailers (online or otherwise) today nationwide. The album — released on Alive NaturalSound Records — has already scored some great press praise. Magnet says the album "will no doubt beg the comparison to a handful of contemporary blues-rock bands…
Republicans Wrong About Obama Lawsuit
The campaign manager of Mike Wilson, the Republican candidate for state representative in Ohio’s 28th district, sent out a press release late afternoon Monday. Its headline read: “Wilson stands with military voters: Opposed Obama effort to attack military voting rights.” The accusation localized a national issue that had been driven through networks all weekend. It…
Morning News and Stuff
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced Monday that Ohio Voters First has gathered enough petitions for its redistricting amendment, and the amendment will appear on the Ohio ballot. If the amendment is approved by voters, redistricting will be taken up by an independent commission without politicians and lobbyists. If it is not successful, then…
The Black Shades
The Black Shades are the kind of high-energy band you can’t help but love. From Bowling Green, Ky., the Shades formed after member Aaron Clark and former member Michael Dean split with a band you might know called Sleeper Agent. The Black Shades have played shows all over the country with artists including fellow Bowling…
Self Diploma’s Beats Summer Music Series featuring Krewella
With the staggering amount of recent media attention devoted to Skrillex, Swedish House Mafia and others, the revitalization of the Electronic Dance scene is complete. This time around, the line between DJ and artist is fuzzier, as many of the genre’s practitioners transcend mere turntabling and sampling to become creative and unique musical entities in…
Strung Out
More than any other decade, the ’90s was an absolute goldmine for Pop Punk. On the highest tier of popularity, you had Green Day's Dookie, Blink-182's Dude Ranch and The Offspring's Smash, but dozens of Warped Tour-ready contenders swam below. Ska Punk hybrids like Goldfinger and The Suicide Machines mixed high-energy hooks with horns, Lookout!…
Walk the Moon’s ‘MTV Unplugged’ Debuts at MTV.com
As we told you last week, Cincinnati-spawned RCA Records recording artist (and Perez Hilton faves) Walk the Moon's session for the MTV series Unplugged debuted today at MTV.com (because God forbid the network find time in its schedule amongst the embarrassing stream of exploitative reality TV shows to run an actual music program). I'm fairly…
![Bill Cunningham: Where’s Our [Expletive] Photo?!?](https://i0.wp.com/www.citybeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/bill-cunningham-autographed-use-8.12-2.png?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Bill Cunningham: Where’s Our [Expletive] Photo?!?
Front page news at The Enquirer('s website): “Bill Cunningham and his TV show producers want you to like him… on Facebook." Media reporter John Kiesewetter today encouraged his readers to check out the new Facebook page of Bill Cunningham's TV show. Kiesewetter posted an awesome autographed photo that was sent to him. Here's what the…
Gruff Rhys with Boom Bip
Welsh musician Gruff Rhys’ band Super Furry Animals released its major label debut, Rings Around the World, in 2001 and the group appeared to be a successor to the throne occupied by fading superstars like Blur and Oasis. The album (following SFA’s excellent debut, Fuzzy Logic, and a trio of experimental-oriented albums put out by…
I Just Can’t Get Enough
Move over, Coco-T, I have a new idol from reality television land. Joan Koplan from AMC’s new show, Small Town Security, is a gem. The docu-series follows a family-owned private security company headed by Joan, the "Chief" and her husband, "Captain" Irwin Koplan. Joan sought super-stardom her entire life, but ended up settling as a…
Downtown Cincinnati Restaurant Week Kicks Off Today!
Think of it like an upscale food festival, just sans the central gathering hub, soggy paper plates or throngs of sweaty people: today marks the beginning of the 4th annual Downtown Cincinnati Restaurant Week. This week, 16 different restaurants across the downtown Cincinnati landscape (Over-the-Rhine is also represented) offer fixed menus for a fixed price…
Lunch with the Playhouse and Hank Today
Tickets for the forthcoming season at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park were put on sale this morning at 10 a.m. To celebrate, the Playhouse is hosting a lunchtime event on Fountain Square at noon featuring giveaways and other merriment, as well as a performance by a few excellent local musicians. Mark Utley, frontman for diverse…
Morning News and Stuff
Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction Stan Heffner announced Saturday that he will be resigning. An Inspector General report released Thursday found Heffner abused his position when he testified in front of the Ohio legislature in favor of legislation that benefited his employer. Heffner also allegedly misused state resources by using his state-issued cell phone and…
Fictional Character Endorses Josh Mandel For Senate
BREAKING NEWS EVERYBODY! The Boy Who Cried Wolf, yes, the proverbial shepherd boy from Aesop’s Fables who was so lonely that he invents a wolf attack to get the villagers’ attention, has endorsed serial liar state Treasurer Josh Mandel for U.S. Senate. According to the Ohio Democratic Party. We at CityBeat receive many news releases…
Your Weekend To Do List: 8/3-8/5
Screech is going to be at Boogie Nights. The ‘90s TV geek-turned-porn star Dustin Diamond will make an appearance at Hollywood Casino’s night club Friday. Cover is $10 cover, but admission is free if you dress like Kelly Kapowski, Lisa Turtle, Jessie Spano or any of your favorite Saved By the Bell characters. Doors open…
Review: 46 Long’s ‘Tennessee’
Eclectic acoustic Blues duo 46 Long is set to release its latest full-length, the dynamic Tennessee, tonight at downtown’s Arnold’s Bar & Grill. Showtime is 9 p.m. and the shindig is a freebie. The show will be a brand-new experience for fans of the duo. The group will be debuting a lot of new material…
Gannett Weekly Found Guilty of Defamation
A federal judge announced Wednesday that the Milford-Miami Advertiser, a Gannett-owned suburban weekly newspaper, was guilty of defaming police officer James Young. Judge Michael Barrett affirmed the jury’s award for $100,000 in damages. In an article published on May 27, 2010, the Milford-Miami Advertiser wrote that “Young had sex with a woman while on the…
For Algernon Leader Restarts Album Project
Not long after putting on a great show with her band The Seedy Seeds at the first-ever Bunbury Music Festival, the group’s Margaret Darling and friend (and equally gifted singer/songwriter) Jason Wells of Indie group for algernon were involved in a serious auto accident that has required not only some time away from music to…
Obama Ramps Up Ground Game in Cincinnati
President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign is upping its ground game in Cincinnati, opening its fourth field office in the city on Thursday evening. The new College Hill office will be the source of phone calls and canvassers to the Mount Healthy, Northside, North College Hill and College Hill neighborhoods. The Obama campaign already has field…
Watch Afghan Whigs Live at Lollapalooza Today
It's not quite the same as being there — unless you have long lines at your refrigerator, like to keep your house a balmy 105 degrees and live shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of drunk people — but watching a music festival from the comfort of your own home isn't the worst thing in the world. (You…
Stage Door: Cincy Shakes to the Rescue
Light entertainment is what most of us are looking for onstage during August, and Cincinnati Shakespeare Company has just the answer: The Hound of the Baskervilles. The amusing script takes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's class Sherlock Holmes tale and turns it into a silly romp around the moor. CSC's cast of three veteran performers —…
Morning News and Stuff
Ohio has a lot of natural gas resources accessible by fracking, but are they worth $1 trillion? Gov. John Kasich seems to think so. Unfortunately for Kasich, prominent geologists have no idea how he got that number, and one geologist estimated Kasich is off by a “couple of zeroes.” The U.S. unemployment rate rose to…
Music Tonight: It’s Commonly Jazz Tributes Coltrane
The long-running, always-solid It's Commonly Jazz music series returns to Eden Park's Seasongood Pavilion this evening. The series (now in its impressive 27th season) brings free, live Jazz music to the park every Thursday this month, with concerts running 6-8 p.m. The concerts have always been a superb mix of some great nationally-touring headliners and…
State Superintendent Abused Position
Another day, another corrupt politician. Ohio's Inspector General released a report today stating that Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction Stan Heffner was found to be in a conflict of interest when he testified to a legislative committee in favor of increased educator testing. Heffner had secured a position at Educational Testing Service (ETS) prior to…
WATCH: Walk the Moon Covers Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Cincinnati's Walk the Moon has been doing the promo rounds hardcore for a while now, performing on network TV shows like the Late Show and Late Night, and touring the planet to ever-increasing crowds. The band tweeted photos about a month ago from its sessions for an episode of MTV Unplugged, the long-running acoustic series…
Your Thursday To Do List
If the city smells especially savory, you must be catching the aroma of Cincy's unofficial favorite food as Glier’s Goettafest takes over Newport on the Levee. Tonight through Sunday, folks can grub on goetta nachos, corn dogs, reubens, sushi, chili and more (plus plenty of swine-free options). Expect festival staples like rides, games, children’s vendors,…
Free Who Dey This Weekend!
Well, it’s August and to sports fans — real sports fans — that means one thing: preseason football. The Bengals preseason training camp, for the first time ever, is being held at Paul Brown Stadium and all practices and scrimmages are free and open to the public. Capacity shouldn’t be an issue this year, unlike…
Rewind: Why Parrotheads Hate Me
A dozen years ago, I was asked to come up with something for CityBeat's annual summer preview "Hot Issue." At the time, easy-groovin' singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett was the king of Cincinnati's summer concert scene, selling out his shows in minutes and routinely winning the "Best Concert" award in CityBeat's "Best of Cincinnati" readers' poll. So…
Hop ‘Til You Drop
Today is a damn good holiday. It’s IPA Day. Or, in the world of Twitterati and Instagrammers, #IPADay. IPA Day started last year as a grassroots social media movement meant to rally beer nerds worldwide in a grand, joyful and bottle-filled celebration of a craft beer rich with history, hops and happiness. According to…
Morning News and Stuff
The audio for the 911 call Councilmember Chris Seelbach made to report being assaulted has been released to the public. During the call, Seelbach admits to drinking alcohol that night. Apparently, people are shocked that Seelbach is a human being that drinks alcohol. City Council voted yesterday to put a ballot initiative before voters that,…
Cincinnati Voters to Decide on Four-Year Terms
Cincinnati voters will decide in November whether to double the length of their council members' terms. City Council voted 6-3 on Wednesday to put the ballot initiative before voters. The measure would have all nine members run at the same time, instead of a competing ballot initiative that would have staggered their terms. “We are…
Ohio Could Profit From Same-Sex Marriage
A new study has indicated that legalizing same-sex marriage in Ohio could lead to big economic growth in the state. The study — conducted by Bill LaFayette, founder of Regionomics, LLC — found that Ohio’s gross domestic product (GDP), which measures economic worth, would go up by $100-$126 million within three years of same-sex marriage…
Cincinnatians Speak Out For Social Services Levies
A week before Hamilton County commissioners vote to approve levies to fund senior and mental health services, Cincinnatians on Wednesday again packed the Board of County Commissioners' meeting room to urge them to preserve the funding. The public hearing — the first of two scheduled for the day — saw service providers, service recipients and…
Council Approves Ban on Injection Wells
Without much fanfare but with supporters looking on in the Losantiville Room in Union Terminal, Cincinnati City Council passed an ordinance on Wednesday banning the injection of wastewater underground within city limits. “I’m proud to be on the first City Council to ban injection wells,” said Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan, who submitted the ordinance to council.…
Your Wednesday To Do List
Every first day of the month, each park in the Hamilton County Park District offers free admission (no vehicle permit needed) and special discounted activities all day. Stop by Winton Woods, Lake Isabella, Sharon Woods or any other area parks for free fishing, boat rides, wet playground access, golf discounts and more. Find more details…
Dynamic Duo Pimps ‘Tennessee’ Blues
Eclectic acoustic Blues duo 46 Long is set to release its latest full-length, the dynamic Tennessee , featuring 10 “songs of murder, sex and love,” this Friday at downtown’s Arnold’s Bar & Grill. Showtime is 9 p.m. and the shindig is a free one. Though “dynamic” and “eclectic” might not be the first words to…
Creatively Restless Natives
H istory is overflowing with pithy quotes about rules. Douglas MacArthur noted, “Rules are mostly made to be broken and are too often for the lazy to hide behind,” while Henry David Thoreau wisely stated, “Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.” But President Franklin Roosevelt may have offered the…
Morning News and Stuff
Mayor Mark Mallory and local attorney Stan Chesley announced in a press release that they will be speaking later today about the city’s pool season. The unusually hot summer has sparked some calls that the city should keep pools open for longer, and it looks like the mayor may be ready to meet demands. Mallory…
Total Recall
Len Wiseman (the force behind the Underworld franchise) probably seemed like the perfect choice for the contemporary unreality of action movies necessary to reboot Total Recall, but Paul Verhoeven’s adaptation of the Philip K. Dick short story “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” with Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime was gloriously campy fun (although…
Monsieur Lazhar
Canada’s Foreign Language Film nominee from writer-director Philippe Falardeau loosely falls in the dramedy genre because this tale about Bashir Lazhar (Mohamed Said Fellag), the Algerian immigrant who replaces a popular elementary school teacher in Montreal after her suicide, is more attuned to the quiet personal drama that beset Lazhar and his students. The politics…
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
The latest big screen episode in the continuing saga of that wimpy kid, Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) and his even wimpier friends certainly has to be the last one with this particular cast because young Gordon is starting to look a little long in the tooth. I know the kid’s only 14, but there are…
The Black Scourge, the Black Church
“My protection is this,” says the late comedian Patrice O’Neal. He makes the sign of the cross on his chest and casts his eyes heavenward. The crowd roars with laughter and applause. “Just not AIDS, God. Don’t let me get sick and die.” In the inevitable section of sex jokes every black comedian delivers, O’Neal, in…
Trapped Among Our Great Escapes
I had hope that time would allow cooler heads to prevail in the discussion of the Aurora, Colo., tragedy. By now, more than a week has passed and there has already been a court appearance for the seemingly crazed perpetrator of this heinous crime. Politicians have issued statements. Celebrities have sojourned to the city to…
Being There
On Labor Day, 1994, I got a phone call from twin brother’s friend in Seattle, Wash., where my twin, Jered, lived. This friend told me that Jered was in a Swedish Hospital in serious condition. He also told me Jered had AIDS. This was the first I’d heard about it. The next day, I was…
Worst Week Ever!: July 25-31
WEDNESDAY JULY 25 Delta Air Lines today found out that it sucks to not be good at gambling, after reporting a second-quarter loss of $168 million, or 20 cents per share. This is largely because of a $561 million hit incurred by betting the wrong way on oil prices. In the airline industry, the practice…
City Council Moves to Ban Fracking Injection Wells
Nobody stood up for fracking in a July 31 City Council committee meeting that saw dozens of people urge council to pass an ordinance banning injection wells within Cincinnati. All present members of the Strategic Growth Committee voted in favor of the proposed ordinance. It now goes before the full council. If approved, the ordinance…
Redistricting Amendment Gets 750,000 Signatures
Ohio Voters First turned in 300,000 more signatures for its redistricting amendment July 28, bringing the grand total of signatures turned in to 750,000. In a statement, the organization said the new signatures should be enough for the amendment to secure a place on the November ballot. The organization originally turned in 450,000 signatures on…
Kasich Mum on Medicaid Expansion
A new study by Harvard researchers found that a 2001 and 2002 expansion of Medicaid coverage in Arizona, New York and Maine might have saved lives. The study also concluded that the Medicaid expansion in the three states improved coverage, access to care and self-reported health. The study found that mortality rates in the three…
Liquid Courage
For the first Saturday night in a long time, I’ve broken routine. I’m not staring in a mirror, pretending like I’m the sort of girl that knows how to blend eye shadow and match her accessories. I’m not scrambling to find a clean top, my voice isn’t suffocated by a thumping live band and I’m…
What’s Next for the Charter Committee?
It’s something purely Cincinnati with a long-standing place in local political history, and many Cincinnatians aren’t even aware of it. The Charter Committee, Cincinnati’s de-facto independent third political party, is responsible for much of the way city government is structured today. The committee controlled City Council for much of the ’70s and ’80s in coalition…
Cincinnati vs. The World 08.01.12
This year’s first human case of West Nile Virus in Ohio has been found in an 85-year-old Clermont County man and arrived about a month earlier than expected, thanks to an unseasonably dry, warm summer. CINCINNATI -2 Police discovered a homeless man in San Francisco armed with enough weaponry and ammunition to carry out a…
Atkins Is Bengals’ Lesser-Known Star
If you want to buy the jersey of the Bengals’ best player, you can’t just head down to Dick’s and pick up his jersey off of a rack. At most places, including the team’s own official website, you can buy jerseys of any of the other three Pro Bowlers from last year’s team — Andy…
Art: The History of the Universe Part Two: The End
If you missed last month’s The History of the Universe Part One: In the Beginning at Museum Gallery-Gallery Museum in Brighton, take heed. The show, in which 21 area artists tackled creation myths of all stripes, was the Cincinnati upstart’s 30th consecutive exhibition. In case you forgot (and how could you?), temperatures that July afternoon…
School’s Out
T echnological advancements are intrinsically connected to the future of education. While most schools work to include technology in the classroom, many prominent figures are looking into ways to improve education systems by removing the classroom via technology. During the past year, many of these figures — people like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush —…
