‘Capturing the Essence’ Exhibits Gordon Baer’s Rare Prints
Handsomely composed, deeply moving, timeless or inextricably of their time and place; Gordon Baer’s photographs, now on view at the Kennedy Heights Arts Center in a career-spanning exhibition, are all of the above. Capturing the Essence: The Work of Gordon Baer purports to feature “rare photographs never shown before,” which turns out to mean never…
Local Symbiosis: MadTree Brewing and Napoleon Ridge Farm
Add this to your list of local beers: MadTree. They’ve been up and running since the end of January, filling kegs and growlers, and are about to start canning for broader distribution. We tasted their PsycHOPathy, one of the rotating taps at Eastgate Jungle Jim’s, and my beer guy friends were impressed. “Look at the…
Seasons Greetings
Here are the ingredients: a couple of Broadway and off-Broadway hits, three world premieres, a lavish Jane Austen show, a classic musical by Kander and Ebb, an innovative drama with tap dancing and video, plus holiday festivities including A Christmas Carol (of course) and the complete history of comedy — abridged. Put all this together…
Tapas Time
T he latest addition to the growing Over-the-Rhine dining landscape has been touted as a mix of wine bar and Mediterranean tapas restaurant. Chef Tsvika Silberberg recently opened Zula at 14th and Race streets, bringing an assortment of dishes inspired from his hometown in Israel and other places around the sea such as Italy, Spain…
Live and Unvarnished
A sk a non-Cincinnati native of a certain age what they know of the Queen City, and inevitably Pete Rose and the Big Red Machine will come up. Hey, probably better that than the Mapplethorpe controversy, WKRP in Cincinnati or Jerry Springer’s various post-mayoral hijinks. Cincinnati is a baseball town — a fact never more evident…
Local Unemployment Rate Plummets
Cincinnati, Hamilton County and Greater Cincinnati experienced dramatic drops in the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate between January and February, according to new data released by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS). In Cincinnati, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate dropped to 7.5 percent in February, down from 8.6 percent in January. The civilian…
Event: Zoo Blooms
The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s is one of only two accredited botanical gardens in Ohio, and their Zoo Blooms offers one of the largest flower displays in the Midwest. (The Zoo’s website warns that the tulips will be blooming late due to the weather, sometime further into April.) Focused on tulips — there are more than 100,000…
Class: The Bird & The Beer
Come celebrate the creative communities of Cincinnati and learn about our burgeoning (or re-emerging?) beer culture with Bryant Goulding, co-founder of the future Rhinegeist Brewery, and the people over at The Bird Haus, a local outside-the-box educational initiative. Goulding has turned his passion for beer into a bona fide career, selling the fizzy beverage for…
Music: Happy Chichester
Columbus, Ohio, music veteran Happy Chichester is no stranger to Cincinnati audiences, from his early years as bassist for Royal Crescent Mob (which regularly packed large venues like Bogart’s in the late ’80s/early ’90s) to his work with The Afghan Whigs and Greg Dulli’s Twilight Singers to his kick-ass Pop/Rock band Howlin’ Maggie’s many gigs…
Event: Easter Egg Hunt in Washington Park
While Easter is primarily a religious holiday predicated on the resurrection of Christ, we like to celebrate it by decorating and hiding eggs — some hard-boiled, some filled with candy — regardless of the fact that if Jesus did emerge from anywhere it was probably a tomb, not a decorated egg. Also, if there is…
Morning News and Stuff
Even as it faces budget cuts, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s office says it wants more staff to keep up with higher jail populations — especially in light of a new measure that will keep more people detained until they appear in court. The measure is in response to some people never showing up to court…
Event: Free Kids’ Portraits at Krohn Conservatory
On Saturday, March 30, and Sunday, March 31, photographers Nicholas Viltrakis and Megan Koabel of Robots and Rainbows Children’s Photography will be at the Krohn Conservatory snapping free portraits of your little ones — a great chance to experience this iconic Cincinnati landmark and get a picture of your child. Built in 1933 at the…
Art: Get Up: An Urban Ballyhoo of Artistic Expression
Cincinnati has a history with graffiti. Being the birthplace of ScribbleJam, “America’s Largest Hip Hop Festival” (which included a graffiti competition during the 13 years the festival ran); the eponymous Scribble Magazine; and the Beautiful Losers street art exhibition at the CAC helped create that reputation — but all had their roots in the flourishing…
Comedy: Tyrone Hawkins
"I’m a comedian, so I’m never anywhere permanently," Tyrone Hawkins says, chatting on the phone from Seattle. He has spent the past few weeks there visiting family and friends and performing at some of the area clubs. A 1989 graduate of the School for Creative and Performing Arts here in Cincinnati, Hawkins began his comedy career…
Art: Alexi Natchev: Hand-Colored Block Prints from The Elijah Door
The Elijah Door, a book by award-winning Cincinnati children’s author Linda Leopold Strauss, tells the tale of feuding next-door neighbors in an Eastern European village and the success their children have in bringing them together. To illustrate the story, artist Alexi Natchev created linoleum and woodblock prints and hand-colored them with watercolors. The illustrated prints…
Onstage: War Horse
In 2007, a friend from London told me about the “most amazing show ever” at the National Theatre of Great Britain. The show was War Horse, the story of a horse named Joey, the boy who raised him and the bond they form that transcends the horrendous combat of World War I. It’s hard to…
Playhouse Announces 2013-14 Season
“People look to the Cincinnati Playhouse for classic entertainment and the best contemporary theatre,” says Blake Robison, producing artistic director, as he announces his second season, coming in September. For 2013-2014 he’s assembled an array of big titles — including the classic Kander and Ebb musical Cabaret and a stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride…
LISTEN: New Single from The Cliftones Debuts
Eclectic Cincinnati Reggae crew The Cliftones — one of the best Reggae outfits in the region — will be celebrating the release of their latest single, "Hold Steady," this Saturday with a show at Northside club Mayday. DJ Mowgli will also perform. Advanced tickets are available now for $7 here. The first 100 people through…
Divine Fits
Divine Fits sounds pretty much as you’d expect of a band that features Spoon’s Britt Daniel and the Handsome Furs’ Dan Boeckner. The band’s debut, the aptly titled A Thing Called Divine Fits, finds the quartet — which also features drummer Sam Brown and keyboardist Alex Fischel — employing its lead duo’s addictive stock in…
Lee Fields & The Expressions
In this age of disposable music and equally ephemeral careers, longevity of any kind should be celebrated. And Lee Fields should be the grand marshal of that parade. A Soul shouter with the passion and intensity of James Brown, Fields made his debut in 1969, served as a utility Kool & the Gang member in…
Lil Ed and the Blues Imperials
When Ed Williams and his half-brother James “Pookie” Young started the Blues Imperials in 1975, they were considered young Blues turks. Mentored by their uncle, Blues legend J.B. Hutto, who took his underage nephews on tour with him, the pair would sport fake moustaches to get into bars where they played. Guitarist/vocalist Williams and bassist…
Ryan Bingham
As the old adage says, “preparation meets opportunity” is often the path to success in the music world. However, a little luck doesn’t hurt, either. When you talk about the career of Ryan Bingham, all of the above is true. Bingham grew up in West Texas, spending a few years on the professional rodeo circuit…
Morning News and Stuff
A new Saperstein Poll suggests Ohioans have dramatically shifted on same-sex marriage , with 54 percent now supporting a new amendment to legalize gay marriage and only 40 percent against it. FreedomOhio’s amendment would repeal Ohio’s 2004 same-sex marriage ban and instead grant marriage rights to the state’s many LGBT individuals. CityBeat covered the same-sex…
A Midsummer’s Night Dream (Review)
Critic's Pick Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a hilarious frolic through one of Shakespeare’s most beloved creations. A quirky, energetic reimagining, this production features all the familiar faces: a gaggle of mischievous fairies, a band of goodhearted craftsmen turned hopeless actors, and four misguided young lovers. Oh, and a guy…
W&S Accuses City Officials of Lying, Discrimination
Financial giant and Lytle Park bully Western & Southern has accused city officials and other Anna Louise Inn advocates of repeatedly deceiving the Department of Housing and Urban Development in order to obtain federal funds for the long-awaited, $13 million renovations to the Inn. Those renovations are the same ones that have been blocked over and…
Morning News and Stuff
Ohio’s unemployment rate remained at 7 percent in February , unchanged from January but down from 7.5 percent in February 2012. The stagnant rate comes despite a generally positive national unemployment report in February — a sign that Ohio may be falling behind national growth rates. Both the amount of employed and unemployed grew, but…
Stage Door: Comedy, Conflict and Classics
My schedule hasn't afforded me the time to see the production of Don't Cross the Streams: The Cease and Desist Musical, a show that began its life in the Cincinnati Fringe Festival back in June. (It also was a festival highlight at the IndyFringe in Indianapolis in August.) But the very tongue-in-cheek piece inspired by…
Governor Opposes Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions
Earlier today, Gov. John Kasich seemed to come out in support of same-sex civil unions, but Kasich’s spokesperson says the governor was using the term “civil union” loosely and the governor is still against changing the Ohio Constitution to legalize same-sex civil unions and gay marriage. “The governor’s position is unchanged,” wrote Rob Nichols, Kasich’s…
Beardwatch 2013
Watch this week’s episode of Survivor: Caramoan – Fans vs. Favorites, "Operation Thunder Dome" here. It’s been two weeks since the survivors first stepped foot on the island, and after the elimination of a couple wildcards, both teams finally feel something of a sense of unity. Perfect time for a tribe swap! At what the…
The National Announce New Album Details
Cincinnati-bred, Brooklyn-based Indie Rock group The National has revealed the tracklisting and album cover for its forthcoming Trouble Will Find Me, due out on the 4AD label May 21. The album — The National's sixth — is just a part of a slew of activity on the horizon for the band. A few weeks ago…
Morning News and Stuff
During Gov. John Kasich’s term as governor, local government funding has fallen by nearly half — from nearly $3 billion to about $1.6 billion — and Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld is leading an effort to get that funding back . With the support of Democratic officials from around the state, Sittenfeld is launching a website called…
Onstage: Black Pearl Sings!
In a broiling Texas summertime smack in the middle of the Great Depression, Susannah Mullally, a song collector from the Library of Congress, is just about to give up her day’s search when she hears a rich, expressive voice coming from somewhere down a prison hallway. She has been patient, meticulously combing state institutions like…
Judge Extends Parking Plan Restraining Order
Hamilton County Judge Robert Winkler announced today that he will be extending the restraining order on the city's parking plan until April 3, potentially delaying any ruling on the city's plan to lease its parking assets to the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority for another two weeks. Winkler's office told CityBeat that the judge…
Chocolate Bunnies Get a Colorful Makeover
Local pastry chef/chocolatier/confectioner Shalini Latour of Chocolats Latour has seriously taken chocolate bunnies to the next level of cute by Willy Wonka-ing them into a rainbow assortment of colors. Chocolate naturally comes in brown (boring), dark brown (more boring) and white (really boring), so Latour applied some cocoa butter colors and turned her little Easter…
I Just Can’t Get Enough
The remaking and re-imagining of classic films and TV shows is often met with high expectations and harsh reviews. Despite this, I was really looking forward to A&E’s new horror-drama, Bates Motel. Something of a warped prequel to Psycho, the thriller places a young Norman Bates and his mother Norma in charge of a previously…
Elementz Celebrates Eighth Birthday with Open House
Elementz, which uses the Hip Hop arts to engage local inner-city youth, is celebrating its eighth anniversary this Thursday with a special “open house” reception at the organization’s headquarters (1100 Race St., Over-the-Rhine) beginning at 5:30 p.m. The event will feature numerous performances by artists who have been involved with and benefited from the Elementz…
Art: William McGee: Works 1954-1977
William McGee: Works 1954-1977 is a painting/collage show that brings our attention to a talented American Abstract-Expressionist, William McGee, who seems to have been undeservedly overlooked by history. A modest show in size, it’s been very thoughtfully put together to provide an introductory overview. The paintings look especially good here. McGee at first favored darker…
Art: Rise and Fall: Monumental Duct Tape Drawings
The School of Art at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning doesn’t yet offer a specific MFA degree in duct tape, but you have to wonder how soon before they do after seeing a current DAAP exhibition, Rise and Fall: Monumental Duct Tape Drawings by Joe Girandola. He is the…
Music: Local Natives
A truly great band press photo — an image that, ideally, simultaneously depicts the key subject, creates a compelling and memorable visual and is suitable for mass distribution — is strangely a rare find. But in a picture tethered to the January release of Local Natives’ Hummingbird, the Los Angeles four-piece and photographer Bryan Sheffield have…
Music: Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts
Scott Weiland, former frontman for Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, has fired himself from his solo career. Although no official confirmation has come from Weiland’s camp, it’s been widely reported that the volatile vocalist has long been disenchanted with his own disruptive behavior and finally sat down with himself for a heart-to-adjacent-organ talk which…
Music: Frightened Rabbit
Urgent and bracing, sullen and surrendering … the music of Frightened Rabbit often seems a mess of emotions tied up in a twitching, fragile guise of genius. Like a thin, bruised girl with a Kurt Cobain kind of problem, Frightened Rabbit would fall apart if you took any one thing (music, lyrics or sentiment) away…
Music: Frank Bang & The Secret Stash
For Chicagoan Frank Blinkal, a day-and-night club job at Buddy Guy’s Legends gave him a front row seat and unprecedented access to some of the greatest names in Blues — Otis Rush, Lonnie Brooks and Junior Wells, not to mention Legends’ illustrious owner. When Guy gave Blinkal and his band a regular slot on the…
Music: Jeremiah and the Red Eyes
Need some Christmas woe in your springtime? If so, catch up with Home, the third (as far as we can tell) record by the Los Angeles-based Jeremiah Sammartano and his Delta Blues/Folk/Alt-Country outfit The Red Eyes. On that 2012 full-length, you can experience not one but two odes to winter misery with “Xmas Morn” and…
Event: HorrorHound Weekend
Once a year Cincinnati likes to let the freaks out — but we’re not talking about Halloween. After a 16-month absence, HorrorHound Weekend descends onto Sharonville promising vis-à-vis celebrity encounters, film screenings, burlesque performances and horror author signings. Special guests include cast members from The Walking Dead — Norman Reedus, Sarah Wayne Callies, Chandler Riggs,…
Scouts’ Dishonor, Gyration Irritation & TMZ’s Wayning Cred
HOT Scouts’ Dishonor While the Boy Scouts of America is taking its time deciding whether to join modern society and accept gay members, a few music stars immediately decided not to participate in the organization’s National Scout Jamboree this summer when made aware of the exclusionary practices (which have been in place for more than…
Cranley: Redirect Funding from Streetcar to Interchange
The MLK/I-71 Interchange project is supposed to be funded through the city’s parking plan, but mayoral candidate John Cranley, who opposes the parking plan and streetcar, says the city should instead use federal funding that was originally intended for the streetcar. The federal funding is specifically allocated for transit, not highway, projects, but Cranley says…
Ruling to Determine Parking Plan’s Future
The city of Cincinnati and opponents of the parking plan met in court March 15 to debate whether laws passed with emergency clauses are subject to referendum — a crucial legal issue as the city attempts to speed ahead with plans to lease its parking assets to the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority to…
Cincinnati vs. The World 03.20.2013
The newest haute Hollywood beauty trend is a procedure called a “vampire facial,” which involves injecting your own blood — drawn from your arm — back into your face, to stimulate collagen production. WORLD -2 A Dayton police officer coined a term never before seen in a police report (or anywhere else) — “anal cleavage”…
Morning News and Stuff
The city’s Youth Job Fair needs more employers to reach the city’s goal of 100, says Mayor Mark Mallory. The fair offers young people a chance to seek out jobs. Employers can sign up for the free booths at www.mayormallory.com . The petition to stop the parking plan is at 4,000 signatures — nearly half…
The Inevitable Progress of Gay Rights
LGBT-supporting Cincinnatians had a bipolar March 15, with Sen. Rob Portman coming out in support of same-sex marriage and the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) being publicly barred from the St. Patrick’s Day Parade on the same day. The conflicting news stories served as an important reminder for LGBT advocates: Even as the gay…
Enemy of the State
W ith the support of Democratic officials from around the state, Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld is launching a website called ProtectMyOhio.com to organize efforts to restore local government funding cut during Republican Gov. John Kasich’s time in office. During a phone conference March 14, Sittenfeld described how state funding cuts have forced cities and counties…
Stoker
In a dreamy bit of voiceover narration at the start, India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) tells us, “We are not responsible for what we have come to be.” Director Chan-wook Park rewinds things back to the morning of India’s 18th birthday, not quite the beginning we might have anticipated, but we soon come to realize it…
Olympus Has Fallen
First, there was the superhero craze, then the fixation on undead creatures (especially those caught up in teenage angst) and now it seems that the latest Hollywood trend is on White House attacks. Olympus Has Fallen is the first one out of the gate and, thanks to a bevy of heavy-hitters, it appears ready to…
The Croods
The world is a-changing and, like the times, it can get a little testy and tempestuous, so it’s time for the cave dwellers to adapt or die off. The Croods follows the misadventures of one such family — it’s hard to tell if they are the first prehistoric family or the last hope — with…
Any Day Now
What happens when a sassy drag queen (Alan Cumming) and a buttoned up lawyer (Garret Dillahunt) seek to gain custody of a young man (Isaac Leyva) with Down syndrome who has been abandoned by his drug-addicted mother? Director Travis Fine, who co-penned the script with George Arthur Bloom, surely assumed Any Day Now was simply…
Admission
Paul Weitz sure has an interestingly off-kilter approach to material. Having kicked his directing career off with outrageous teen comedy (American Pie), he’s bounced around from more adult fare (About a Boy) to the lightly freakish misfire of Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, but through it all, there’s always a sense of Weitz as…
Vaughn and Co. ‘Play It Again’ on New LP
This Saturday at Oakley’s 20th Century Theater, Cincinnati rockers Vaughn and Company celebrate the release of their fourth album, Play It Again . Veteran local singer/songwriter Kevin Fox and his band (also celebrating a new release) and Fathead Davis also perform. Showtime is 7 p.m. and admission is just $5. Mark Twain purportedly came up…
‘Bates Motel’: Check in with Caution
When A&E first announced its newest scripted drama, a Psycho prequel set in modern day (Bates Motel, 10 p.m. Mondays), I was intrigued. The boyish Freddie Highmore (the Charlie to Tim Burton’s Chocolate Factory) seemed like an interesting pick for the odd, young Norman Bates, and if Vera Farmiga could charm the pants off/break the…
Curmudgeon Notes 3.20.2013
Amanda VanBenschoten’s reporting on both sides of the river has won her the new position of Northern Kentucky news columnist at the Enquirer. We’ve been friends since she was an undergrad in my ethics class. I had the pleasure of holding up a copy of the NKU’s paper, The Northerner, and showing our class her…
Harmony Korine Capures the Seedy Heat of Spring Break
I’m willing to forgive you if, when you hear the title Spring Breakers, you just assume it’s the latest all-American Hangover-inspired teen sex and drugs party orgy with schlumby male leads eager to make a name for themselves as Risky Business types. If you’re looking for a slice of that pie, you’re in the wrong…
Swimming in the Deep End
A truly great band press photo — an image that, ideally, simultaneously depicts the key subject, creates a compelling and memorable visual and is suitable for mass distribution — is strangely a rare find. But in a picture tethered to the January release of Local Natives’ Hummingbird, the Los Angeles four-piece and photographer Bryan Sheffield…
Gone but Not Forgotten
It was late on Sunday night, and Xavier’s men’s basketball team was practicing. This wasn’t one of Chris Mack’s normal practices, which he runs with the discipline and intensity of a General Patton. (The players get treated like Germans or Americans, depending on their defensive rotations.) Instead, this one took place in the Cintas Center’s…
The Unholy Revolution
Kelsey Kalnow started as a collector, grabbing up unique vintage items, stocking her closet and selling what she didn’t want. Today, she’s an entrepreneur; the creative and driving force behind global plus-size clothing line Unholy Hips (UNHH) — and it’s about so much more than just looking cute. “We try to think of it as…
Top 10 Bearcats Hoops Happenings of the Season
This University of Cincinnati basketball season began with more hype than any in Mick Cronin’s seven years running the program. Coming off a Sweet 16 appearance and returning three talented, experienced guards helped the ’Cats start the season ranked in the Top 25. Then the Bearcats went out to Las Vegas and beat a couple…
Worst Week Ever!: March 13-18
WEDNESDAY MARCH 13 WWE! readers might be surprised to learn that those of us whose jobs necessitate following real news are, in general, quite terrified of the future. For every pop culture or sports story we actually care about, there are dozens of stories about things like nuclear weapons, environmental catastrophes and murderers who act…
I Never Learned How to Make Friends
People say the three most stressful life events are death, divorce and moving. So, although our apartment lease isn’t up for another several months, my boyfriend and I recently discussed our future living situation. We currently reside on a wonderful little street in Mount Auburn (Prospect Hill if you’re fancy), but we’re considering trying out…
Black Pearl Sings! (Review)
Critic's Pick In a broiling Texas summertime smack in the middle of the Great Depression, Susannah Mullally, a song collector from the Library of Congress, is just about to give up her day’s search when she hears a rich, expressive voice coming from somewhere down a prison hallway. She has been patient, meticulously combing state…
