REVIEW: Heavy Hinges’ ‘Mean Old City’
Heavy Hinges is a new-ish band featuring some faces likely familiar to dedicated local music fans. Guitarist Jeremy Singer and drummer Brian Williamson have played in numerous groups over the past two decades, while singer/guitarist Dylan Speeg and bassist Andrew Laudeman were members of long-running, super-diverse Cincinnati crew Buckra. Maya Banatwala is the relative newcomer…
I Just Can’t Get Enough
The Onion spoofs your news. Now, the folks behind the satire site (and frequent IJCGE reference A.V. Club) are spoofing most people’s actual go-to source for world happenings — BuzzFeed. ClickHole has the whole BuzzFeed game down, from its font and design to its content: Click-bait headlines? Check. Obscurely themed lists and photos? Check. Quizzes…
Literary: Jennifer Weiner
Mondo-selling author Jennifer Weiner’s just-published new novel, All Fall Down, centers its narrative on Allison Weiss, a wise-ass wife, mother and writer whose seemingly perfect life is altered by an addiction to prescription painkillers. “I wanted to tell the story, not just about a woman who’s an addict, but a woman who doesn’t feel at…
REVIEW: Lift the Medium’s ‘Mastermind’
Riff-tastic Cincinnati Hard Rock foursome Lift the Medium has only been a band for a year, but you wouldn’t know it listening to its accomplished debut full-length, Mastermind. The band celebrates the release of its rock-solid album with a show Saturday at MVP Bar & Grill in Silverton. The 9 p.m. show also features performances…
Music: Old 97’s
Rockers Old 97’s stand as one of the most vital contemporary pioneers of what came to be called Alt Country, but the group’s music has always been its own beast, with just enough twang to garner a Roots Rock or Country Rock tag but also possessing a melodic prowess so infectious that Power Pop sometimes…
Film: Found Footage Festival
The Found Footage Festival, which hosts/curators Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett say has been “unearthing VHS monstrosities since 2004,” comes to Cincinnati with a new lineup of video footage and live comedy. Prueher and Pickett have built their found-footage film empire by searching garage sales, thrift stores, warehouses and even dumpsters. Among the new clips…
Onstage: Serials!
Activity on Cincinnati stages slows down considerably during the summer, but the creative thinkers at Know Theatre plan to keep you entertained with something new and different: a summer-long series of episodic plays by local playwrights called Serials! They’ve mapped out an addictive attraction, inspired by “must-see TV” but live onstage. A half-dozen zany pilots…
Event: Summer Solstice Lavender Festival
There’s an herb that everyone has tried at least once — lavender. The Summer Solstice Lavender Festival at Peaceful Acres Lavender Farm is an opportunity to walk through fields of the lovely plant and learn about all the different ways it is used. Vendors will set up among the lavender fields with an assortment of…
Event: RoeblingFest
Once the largest suspension bridge in the world, the John A. Roebling Bridge was the first to cross the Ohio River and link Cincinnati to Covington, Ky. Built after the Civil War, it also influenced the design of New York’s Brooklyn Bridge. Celebrate the 147-year-old bridge at the 10th annual RoeblingFest. Get your history on…
Event: Paddlefest Weekend
Kick off Paddlefest 2014 — the annual outdoor festival at Coney Island to celebrate, promote and protect the beauty of the Ohio River — with the Kids Outdoor Adventure Expo on Friday, featuring hands-on naturalist activities for kids, and an Outdoor Expo on Saturday, full of exhibits, classes, fishing, paddling and hanging out. After the expo on…
White Hinterland with Fathers
The first minute of White Hinterland’s new album, Baby, features nothing but the voice of Casey Dienel. “Circle the block in my car/Gotta keep it down/The world is so full of noise/It’s easy to go unnoticed,” she sings in an assertive, slightly vulnerable and quite noticeable delivery. It’s an apt opening, as White Hinterland is…
Art: American Primitives at the Weston Art Gallery
Evolving from his experience of moving to an ostensibly idyllic retreat in the Hocking Hills, artist and sculpture professor at Ohio State University Todd Slaughter’s upcoming exhibition at the Weston Art Gallery explores themes of fear and paranoia of outsiders within the confines of rural America. Occupying both levels of the gallery, American Primitives, curated…
Comedy: Tommy Johnagin
Comedian Tommy Johnagin takes his job seriously. “I’m getting an office,” he says from his home in Los Angeles. “We had a baby and I had an office at home, but the baby evicted me. Now I have to get an office somewhere else.” The move has practical applications for Johnagin. “Some people disagree, but…
Event: Lamb Jam Cincinnati
America is the best at everything, obviously, so it’s no surprise that American lamb is the best lamb in the world. Not convinced? Let some of Cincinnati’s best chefs prove it to you. Les Chefs de Cuisine of Cincinnati (also known as the American Culinary Federation of Greater Cincinnati) is joining Findlay Market, the American…
Those Darlins with The Harlequins, The Frankl Project and Those Crosstown Rivals
It’s been an eventful and tumultuous eight years since Nikki Kvarnes, Jessi Wariner and Kelley Anderson met at the Southern Girls Rock & Roll Camp in Tennessee and channeled their mutual love of American music, both traditional and unconventional, into the acclaimed Garageabilly twangfest of Those Darlins. After christening their band, the three musicians cemented…
Ana Popovic
There has been a long history of women playing the guitar over the years, in many musical genres. In fact, WLW radio musician Helen Diller was the first person to ever play a guitar on TV when she strummed her Gibson Advanced Jumbo axe on a Philco television demonstration here in Cincy in 1939. But…
The Ghost Wolves with Leggy
Asked in a recent interview with Sound Dessert about who they’d like to tour with, The Ghost Wolves dropped this collection of luminaries: “JEFF The Brotherhood, The Kills, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Black Sabbath, Kadavar, The Black Angels, Jack White, Diarrhea Planet, Drivin’ N Cryin’ — those are some of the tops. We wish The Cramps…
Kids in the Kitchen
By now, the staggeringly high childhood obesity rates in this country should come as a surprise to no one, and neither should the health issues that go hand-in-hand with what’s become the most common chronic childhood disease, affecting more than 30 percent of children in the U.S. As a result of obesity, more and more…
La Soupe (Feature)
What food rarely takes center stage, spans nearly all cultures, is refreshing in the sweltering summer heat and warms our bones in the bitter, colder months? Why, it’s soup, my sandwich-dunking friend. And its ties to modern eateries run deep. The French word restaurer once described the healthy, restorative power of soups sold by Parisian…
Cincinnati Public Library Offers Free Children’s Lunches
The Cincinnati Public Library is partnering with Cincinnati Public Schools and Window Arts Enrichment to fill the summertime nutritional gap left when children aren't receiving reduced-cost/free lunches during the school year through programs like the National School Lunch Program by offering kids under the age of 18 free lunches all summer. In 2012, the library…
Cinema/Restaurant Combo Planned for Blue Ash
Blue Ash has approved plans to build an Envision Cinema (4780 Cornell Road) at a former Bally's Total Fitness location. It will be a restaurant/cinema hybrid featuring first-run movies as well as full food serivce. The restaurant will feature more than 350 seats in the combined dining room, bar, patio and private party room, with a…
Salazar Now Open for Lunch
Jose Salazar's eponymous New American restaurant Salazar is now open for lunch. The 45-seat brasserie will be serving lunch 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. The farm-inspired dishes range from $4-$15 and include both hot and cold choices like a cubano sandwich, a burger with aged cheddar, slow-roasted turkey breast with Swiss and green olive tapenade and…
Morning News and Stuff
It's morning. I've got news. Check it out. Barricades along McMicken Avenue in Over-the-Rhine and Fairview are working to deter prostitution, Cincinnati Police said yesterday in a presentation to City Council’s Human Services Committee. The barriers sit in three locations along the street and were put up April 30 as part of a program to…
Local Punk Outfit Sleeves Talks DIY Music Scene
It smells like drying piss and old beer on the back deck of Northside’s The Comet. The air is filled with the dull thud of a concert beating up against the walls. There are shows at The Comet every night and people piss and drink there every night, and John Hoffman and Dylan McCartney are…
Obama Signs Ban on LGBTQ Discrimination by Federal Contractors
President Barack Obama today announced plans to sign an executive order that will protect LGBTQ employees of federal contractors from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, a move that covers 20 percent of the American workforce. Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Rea Carey said the executive order will…
Blue Wisp Big Band Lives On!
Much has changed for the legendary Cincinnati live music venue the Blue Wisp Jazz Club over its 40-plus-year existence. Though it has consistently been the club for Jazz in Cincinnati over most of that period, the Blue Wisp has moved four different times over four decades. In its most recent locale at the corner of…
Morning News and Stuff
Hey all. Let’s get straight to the important stuff… Across city, a whole lot of ice cream is melting. Large swaths of the east side seem to be without power right now for an indeterminate reason. Between 10,000 and 20,000 people are without electricity. • Some of Cincinnati’s city department directors have been caught living…
Bonnaroo 2014: Jack White, Flaming Lips and More
This morning’s activities were as hectic as a hurricane as I jumped from one interview to the next in the Bonnaroo press compound. Things started off nice and easy when I rendezvoused with a friend of a friend who is Lionel Richie’s stage manager. An industry veteran of many years, Sal Marinello has worked for…
Private Lives (Review)
When Sir Noël Coward wrote his frothy comedy Private Lives in 1929, his intention was to create a show that he and Gertrude Lawrence could have a crashing good time performing. The story of a divorced couple who can’t stand each other and can’t stand to be separated is being staged by Cincinnati Shakespeare Company,…
Bonnaroo 2014: White Denim, Dr. Dog and More
The blazing two-guitar Indie Prog of White Denim’s midnight set on Bonnaroo’s That Tent stage absolutely floored Chuck and me last night. Those familiar with White Denim’s fabulous 2013 release Corsicana Lemonade might find it hard to believe that the band sounded even better on stage than on record. Drummer Joshua Block repeatedly whipped the…
Stage Door: Cincy Shakes
What with the Fringe Festival finished up last weekend, there's not so much to choose from in the world of local theater. But there is a piece of frothy entertainment at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company that is a perfect summer refreshment: It's Noel Coward's Private Lives. The show (created in 1929) is indeed a classic —…
Vintage Trouble on the Road to Bonnaroo
Seven hundred acres of Manchester farmland is transformed into Tennessee’s sixth-largest city every June when 80,000 people invade the area for the annual Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. With live music from over a hundred bands on twelve stages from noon ‘til dawn for four days, Bonnaroo presents attendees with an experience that is almost…
Enoteca Emilia to Open Adjacent Southern Restaurant
The team behind O'Bryonville's successful rustic Italian kitchen and winebar, Enoteca Emilia (2038 Madison Road), has announced they'll be opening an as-of-yet unnamed Southern restaurant in the former (and adjacent) eat well cafe/What's for Dinner? space. Restaurateur Margaret Ranalli and Enoteca's executive chef Adam Cobb plan to reimagine the classic “Southern joint." According to a…
Bonnaroo 2014: Settling in for the Long Haul
Editor’s Note: Cincinnati musician and longtime CityBeat contributor Ric Hickey and photographer Chuck Madden are once again covering the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival for us in Manchester, Tenn., this week. We’ll be posting their dispatches from the fest as they come in throughout the weekend. You can pretend you're there with them (minus the…
Johnsonville Sausage Brings Big Taste Grill KI
Johnsonville Sausage brings its Big Taste Grill to Kings Island June 16-28. The semi-truck-sized mobile grill (53,000 pounds; 65-feet long; 20-feet high) has the ability to prepare 750 brats at a time — that's 2,500 brats an hour. And all for charity. Since Johnsonville's 50th anniversary in 1995, they've been bringing the grill across the…
Enoteca Emilia to Open Southern Restaurant
The team behind O'Bryonville's successful rustic Italian kitchen and winebar, Enoteca Emilia (2038 Madison Road), has announced they'll be opening an as-of-yet unnamed Southern restaurant in the former (and adjacent) eat well cafe/What's for Dinner? space. Restaurateur Margaret Ranalli and Enoteca's executive chef Adam Cobb plan to reimagine the classic “Southern joint." According to a…
Mantra on the Hill Wine Dinner
Mt. Adams Indian restaurant Mantra on the Hill continues its monthly wine dinner series on Wednesday, June 18, with a French wine pairing. Vintner Select sommelier Jeff Hickenlooper has selected a variety of wines from France to pair with Indian dishes created by Mantra chef/owner Yajan Upadhyaya. “I am especially looking forward to this dinner…
Morning News and Stuff
Ready for your Friday the 13th morning news? Let’s do this. As we’ve reported a couple times already, Cincinnati is in a hard spot when it comes to affordable housing. So Rep. Steve Chabot, Republican representing part of the city, did the logical thing recently and tried to push through an amendment to a House…
I Just Can’t Get Enough
Orange Is the New Black is back and it’s better than I imagined. The Netflix series centered on a women’s prison premiered its second season Friday and, despite my earnest intentions to pace myself, I couldn’t help but get through 12 of the 13 episodes (Thanks a lot, autoplay). One of the striking differences this…
City Funds Non-Profit Bike Share, Battles Over Bike Paths
Before the summer is over, Cincinnatians should be able to rent a bike in OTR, Clifton or downtown and take it for a spin. But whether or not there will eventually be more bike lanes to ride in may still be up in the air. City Council on Wednesday passed legislation to help fund a…
Matters of our Art: Manifest Gallery’s Artists in Residence
There was something magnetic about Manifest Gallery when I walked into it late last Thursday afternoon. And it wasn’t the space, designed to be charming with its recently opened art shows, the echoes of my slow-moving footsteps and the lost keystrokes of someone at a nearby office desk. It was the well-curated combination of two…
Morning News and Stuff
Alright alright… here’s the deal today. City Council voted unanimously last night to fund Cincy Bike Share, which means in the next few months you should be able to get on (someone else’s) bike and ride. No word on prices for rentals just yet. Here's more on that, plus council's tiff over bike paths. Also…
How to Train Your Dragon 2
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 — The world of Vikings and dragons gets much more complicated when Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) and his winged companion Toothless unearth an ice cave with a plethora of new wild dragons and a mysterious rider named Valka (Cate Blanchett) with a secret connection to Hiccup and his…
22 Jump Street
It’s always twice as hard the second time around — I’m talking about sequels here — because you can’t just repeat the formula that worked the first time, right? Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller seem intent on tempting fate and disproving this notion with their follow-up to the deliriously funny reboot of the 1980s…
CityBeat’s Margarita Madness
CityBeat hosts its second annual Margarita Madness party, presented by Milagro tequila. The festival celebrates the unofficial cocktail of summer — the margarita — with a margarita throw-down, featuring a margarita-making competition between vendors including Bakersfield OTR, Django Western Taco, Neons and more. There were also be a “guac off” between participating restaurants. 5:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday,…
Avery Brewery Tap Takeover at the Lackman
Boulder, Colo.'s Avery Brewing takes over the taps at The Lackman at 4 p.m. Thursday, June 12. On tap will be the brewery's Avery IPA, White Rascal, Karma, The Maharaja, plus a special tapping of their 21st Anniversary, Lilikoi Kepolo and a limited amount of their sour release, Rufus Corvus, by-the-bottle. The Lackman, 1237 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine. More info here.
BJ’s Restaurants Launch Mobile App
BJ’s Restaurant (in the Tri-County Mall) has launched a mobile app allowing guests to order ahead, pay when they choose and move up in line. For a limited time, guests can even save $5 off all orders $20 or more every time they use the Dine-In Order Ahead, Take Out Order Ahead or Mobile Pay features…
ACLU Says Feds Should End Contract at Ohio Private Prison
Youngstown's Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, Ohio's only privately run prison, has had a fraught history since it was opened by Corrections Corporation of America in 1997. In its first year, the prison saw 13 stabbings, two murders and six escapes, far more than comparable prisons. Under a cloud of violence and mismanagement, the prison closed…
Petting Zoo Returns to Northside Farmers Market
The Honey Hill Petting Zoo returns to the Northside Farmers Market (Jacob Hoffner Park, 4101 Hamilton Ave., Northside.) on Wednesday, June 25. The petting zoo will be at the market from 4-6 p.m. Wednesday; the market runs 4-7 p.m. See a full list of market vendors here. Honey Hill Farm is home to more than 200 animals,…
Camp Washington Coney Eating Challenge
Fountain Square's Freaky Friday Series gets meaty during the Camp Washington Chili Coney Eating Challenge (Friday, June 13). This chili-crazy city has more chili parlors per capita and square mile than any other city in the United States, eating more than 2 million pounds of chili each year … topped with 850,000 pounds of shredded…
Newport Italianfest June 12-15
Join more than 100,000 fellow Italian food and culture enthusiasts on the Newport riverfront to celebrate (and stuff yourself with) Italian food and fun all weekend long at Italianfest. The festival features authentic Italian food from beloved local eateries including Pompilios, Bella Luna, Tony’s Italian Sausage, Roma’s and more. As you enjoy sausage, pasta and…
Jungle Jim’s International Beer Fest June 13-14
It’s not summer until there’s barbecue and binge drinking, and Jungle Jim’s is providing more than 350 different beers from more than 100 breweries — national and international — at its ninth annual International Beer Fest. If you don’t know any beers besides Nati Light, there will be experts on hand to expand your beer knowledge…
MainStrasse Village Goettafest June 13-15
If there’s anything Cincinnatians love more than enjoying their ancestors’ loving gift of breakfasty goetta goodness, it’s absolutely nothing. And now not just for breakfast, either. Sample Goetta reubens, goetta cheddar cheese, goetta chili and other variations of the pig-and-oat mixture while shopping, dancing and playing on historic MainStrasse Village’s tree-lined Sixth Street Promenade. While…
Graeter’s Official Ice Cream of W&S Open
Graeter's has been named the official ice cream of the annual Western & Southern Open (Aug. 9-17) tennis tournament — which makes sense because Cincinnatians love Greater's and the W&S Open is in Cincinnati … well, technically Mason. Cincinnatians and W&S Open out-of-towners (nearly 200,000 fans from 50 states and 30 countries) alike will enjoy the ice-cold and creamy…
Food Truckin’ for Josh Cares
Josh Cares, a local nonprofit that provides companionship and comfort to children hospitalized in critical and chronic care units at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, will host its second annual lunchtime Food Truckin’ for Josh Cares festival on Wednesday (June 18). More than 10 diverse area food trucks will be on Fountain Square — from New Orleans…
Morning News and Stuff
All right, folks. Morning news time again. The iconic Hudepohl smokestack you see from I-75 could end up in Over-the-Rhine. The city is looking at ways to save the old Hudepohl brewery, which it bought last month. The former Hudepohl headquarters, built in 1946 and used until 1985, includes four buildings on Sixth Street in…
To Do This Week
Looking for things to do this week? You're in luck: We have some ideas. This weekend is full of festivals: Newport Italianfest, MainStrasse Village's Goettafest, Jungle Jim's International Beer Fest and the Original Creative Festival. But before you chow down on some pasta from the old country or some pig-and-oats in MainStrasse, check out the Cincinnati Opera's…
Northside, New Richmond Music Fests This Weekend
The Northside Music Festival, presented by Cincinnati design/branding/promotional company We Have Become Vikings, returns this week for its seventh annual event. For the first time, the fest will extend to two days, offering free, (mostly) local music on three stages at the Northside Tavern (northside-tavern.com) Friday and Saturday nights. On Friday, the festival kicks off…
Streaming Series For Your Binge-Watch List
With Netflix’s recent premiere taking over blogs, social media and, likely, your computer or TV screen, Orange Is the New Black just might mean streaming is the new TV. And while traditional television isn’t going away any time soon, streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Instant Video have changed the game. These services can…
Demanding More of ‘Words and Pictures’
Back in the early aughts, Clive Owen starred in a series of promotional online shorts created by BMW called The Hire, where he played a mysterious driver with no name enlisted by powerful people to tackle jobs that required a certain skill set, particularly behind the wheel, that only he had. Imagine one part James…
Cincinnati vs. the World 06.11.2014
Millions of student debtors now qualify to use “Pay as You Earn” to repay their loans after President Obama signed an executive order June 9. Debtors won’t have to pay more than 10 percent of monthly incomes, and after 20 years anything left is forgiven. WORLD +1 After LumenoCity tickets sold out in 12 minutes,…
Government Must Not Define Who Is a Journalist
Developments at the U.S. Supreme Court and Colorado legislature demonstrate how government restricts our access to news. It was no surprise when the court — commonly abbreviated as SCOTUS — refused to block Obama attempts to force New York Times reporter James Risen to confirm that former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling gave him classified information.…
The Pitbull Profile
Irresponsible pitbull owners fit a profile. There is something inherently ominous, mysterious, latently vicious and even irresponsibly deadly about pitbulls and their owners that most people are either afraid of or unable to name. The very mention of the breed also brings to mind owners who are either drug dealers, meth cooks or involved in…
Legal Limit
O ne in seven Ohioans with a driver’s license has at least one — a life-long legal scar that has become the voodoo of our generation(s). According to the Ohio Department of Safety, more than 1.3 million licensed drivers in the state have at least one DUI conviction. This eye-opening number suggests far too many…
Ohio Supreme Court Orders Rape Flier Records Unsealed
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled June 5 that a Butler County judge acted improperly when he sealed records relating to a 2012 rape flier posted at Miami University. Judge Robert Lyons ordered the records sealed after a student at Miami University was charged with and pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for posting a flier listing…
Sen. Sherrod Brown Pushes Student Loan Refinancing
At a time when charges for borrowing money have hit nearly historic lows, students and those currently repaying federal student loans have been locked into older, higher rates. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown last week filed a bill looking to remedy this by allowing student loan debtors to refinance the way homeowners, businesses and local governments…
Streetcar Advocates Expand Focus to Uptown and Beyond
Believe in Cincinnati, the grassroots group that played a big role advocating for the Cincinnati streetcar during and since the infamous City Hall pause, is expanding its focus beyond Over-the-Rhine. More than 80 people showed up to a June 3 meeting in Clifton to discuss taking the streetcar beyond OTR. “We started around the streetcar,…
Delayed Developments
T here are lingering concerns about the ways programs designed to help neighborhoods will or won’t be funded under Mayor John Cranley’s first budget, which City Council passed June 4. Some say deep cuts to redevelopment programs could slow growth in the city. And there are questions about last-minute additions that throw money to certain…
Bluegrass for Babies’ Midsummer Harvest (Feature)
O n their day off, most chefs would prefer relaxing at home as opposed to slaving over a piping hot grill on a steamy summer day. But entice them with the opportunity to hang out with a group of their peers swapping “war stories,” outdoing each other with their extraordinary cooking prowess and drinking cold…
Taste of Om
Lydia Stec describes her first business, Aquarius Star, as a metaphysical retail store: “to support you on your spiritual path no matter what that path might be.” Founded in 2006 on Sycamore Street in Over-the-Rhine, Aquarius Star relocated to a larger space on Ludlow Avenue in Clifton in 2009 and added a café, Om Eco…
Thinking Small Has Big Results at Manifest
Restrictions can be a powerful impetus for creativity — parents whose bedtime rules are questioned would agree. Artists never lose their sense of questioning, but resort to fresh approaches when boundaries are imposed. And that is why an inviting river scene painted on a credit card can be seen at Manifest Gallery right now. Magnitude…
Choreographers Communicate with Human Stories
As Contemporary Dance Theater celebrates the close of its 41st anniversary season with the Area Choreographers Festival this weekend at the Aronoff, it also bids farewell to founder, artistic and executive director Jefferson James. Perhaps it’s fitting, given her long-lasting support for Cincinnati modern dance in the form of CDT — which originally included a…
Big in Japan
B y the time you read this, Patrick Cost — Direct Support Professional (DSP) for Living Arrangements for the Developmentally Disabled (LADD) — and his friend and charge, artist Mike Weber, will be in Japan. This is the first visit to the country for both, and they’ve been planning the trip for nearly two years.…
