Ohio Supreme Court: No Local Power to Block Fracking
The Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday struck a hard blow against local municipalities’ abilities to control fracking, handing down a 4-3 ruling stating that local zoning and land-use ordnances cannot be used to prohibit the controversial drilling technique if state law allows it. The decision comes in response to a lawsuit by the city of…
Leftovers: What We Ate This Weekend
Each week CityBeat staffers and dining writers tell you what they ate this weekend. We're not always proud — or trendy — but we definitely spend at least some money on food. Ilene Ross: I ate out quite a bit this weekend due to the fact that my newly engaged daughter was in town for some wedding…
Morning News and Stuff
Hey all. I made the treacherous arctic trek into the CityBeat office this morning just to bring you the morning news. It’s a bit of a slow day, probably because all the newsmakers and shakers in the world are hunkered down doing whatever it is powerful people do on their snow days. I picture them…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning Cincy. Remember last weekend when the high was 59 degrees? No, no, I don’t either. Let’s just not talk about the fact that winter is apparently going to last forever and get on with the news, shall we? A major Cincinnati fundraiser for the Democratic Party has put his backing behind current City…
Newsroom Enthusiasm and Harper Lee’s Long-Lost Manuscript
Remember “Hitler’s Diaries"? Thirty-two years ago, the popular and respected German magazine Stern announced its star reporter had found Hitler’s diaries. The diaries had been missing since 1945. It was a sensation. News media rushed to get a piece of the action. Syndication deals soared. As The New York Times reported, “Well-respected historians, including [Britain’s]…
Lamb Watch 2015
Part two of Hollywood Week aired Wednesday and Thursday, picking up right where we left off — with group performances, specifically Alexis D. and her case of the vapors. She got her shit together enough to perform with her group and ended up advancing with Jax. The others, including Sal, were sent home. I guess…
Cincinnati Filmmaking and Dance Collide in ‘Ctrl+Alt+Dance’
Move over, movie theater chains. While several films open in theaters this weekend, there’s one you won’t find at AMC or other traditional movie joints. Reaching a following across the globe, the locally made independent feature film Ctrl+Alt+Dance will have its world premiere this weekend at Memorial Hall. When an unemployed security software specialist takes…
From the Copy Desk
Good morning readers! I'm a day late, but let's review the Words Nobody Uses or Knows in this week's issue — which, by the way, has to be one of my favorites to date. It's The Beer Issue, if you haven't already noticed, and we did so much reporting on local beer and Beer Week…
Morning News and Stuff
Hey Cincy! It’s Friday, and Valentine's Eve, so I’ll be brief so we can all get to our weekends quickly. The former School for Creative and Performing Arts on Sycamore Street in Pendleton is one step closer to becoming a 148-unit luxury apartment building. The Pendleton Community Council has approved a parking plan that will…
The Beer Issue
This year’s Cincinnati Beer Week takes over Tristate bars, restaurants, breweries and grocery stores for beer dinners, meet the brewer events, keg tappings and more. “Expect a week of really great, well-crafted beer-focused events,” says Lindsey Roeper, president of Cincinnati Beer Week. “We like to encourage participating venues to create events that are educational, impactful…
Your Weekend To Do List (2/13-2/15)
Calling all lovers: There's plenty to do this weekend to celebrate Valentine's Day, whether you've made reservations or not. Calling all singles: There's plenty to do this weekend regardless of whether or not you have a date. And calling all people who are looking to adopt a dog or cat this weekend in order to…
Stage Door: One Weekend Run for Heidi Chronicles at CCM
I hope my Curtain Call column (found here) in a recent issue moves you to head to UC's College Conservatory of Music for Richard Hess's staging of Wendy Wasserstein's Pulitzer Prize winner, The Heidi Chronicles, onstage through Sunday. If you remember the 1970s and ’80s, this production will transport you back in time as you watch young feminist Heidi…
Chapatti (Review)
Critic's Pick Dog people and cat people might be likened to oil and water. They typically don’t understand one another, and in fact they are often dismiss people from the other side of the aisle as well as the objects of their affection. Pets can fill our lives in important ways, but Christian O’Reilly’s play,…
I Just Can’t Get Enough
Comedy Central’s nightly “news” lineup is amidst a total overhaul with the recent end of The Colbert Report and the addition of The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore. Stephen Colbert stepped down in December, and now The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart is following suit. The comedian shocked audiences at a Daily Show taping this week…
MusicNOW Compilation Set for March Release
MusicNOW, the popular new music festival founded by Cincinnatian Bryce Dessner of internationally acclaimed Indie Rock band The National, will celebrate its 10th anniversary this year when the fest returns March 11-15 at Music Hall, Memorial Hall and first-time venue Woodward Theatre. On March 10, the Over-the-Rhine fest will be celebrated with the digital release…
Valentine’s Day: Things to Do for Love
Whether you’re a full-blown romance-seeker or single and proud of it, here's a list of Valentine’s Day tastings, dinner deals and events that will have you embracing the holiday no matter who you’re bringing. From soothing dinners to musicals to wild celebrations, take your pick from a range of fun atmospheres each wrapped up in…
Morning News and Stuff
Hey all, let’s do a quick news update today. Normally, I like to lead with local stuff first, but the big news today is that the 2016 Democratic National Convention will not take place in Columbus, it seems. The city was one of three finalists for the event, at which Democrats will formally nominate their…
Timbuktu
Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, Timbuktu, from co-writer (along with Kessen Tall) and director Abderrahmane Sissako (Bamako), explores the personal dynamic of an international issue — the plight of Kidane (Ibrahim Ahmed dit Pino), a cattle herder quietly residing in Timbuktu with his family, whose life is dramatically altered due to the…
Kingsman: The Secret Service
The Kingsmen, another top secret spy organization in Britain (more so than even MI6), aligns itself with the ideals of King Arthur’s Round Table to such an extent members take on the names of the knights of the realm. In the modern world, these knights soldier on in suits with all sorts of special gadgetry,…
Fifty Shades of Grey
E.L. James, the novelist behind the Fifty Shades of Grey fan fiction trilogy (which was inspired by the Twilight series), created a sensation with the story of a student named Anastasia (Dakota Johnson) who has a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan), a handsome young billionaire with a tortured past and a penthouse full…
‘Serial’ Fans: Take Note of ‘The Jinx’
For fans of the This American Life spin-off podcast Serial, now is the waiting period. The popular podcast, which examined the 1999 murder of 18-year-old Hae Min Lee and her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed’s conviction, concluded last December, and host Sarah Koenig is at work finding an equally captivating story to cover for Season Two. Meanwhile,…
‘Still Alice’ Captures the Fading of a Significant Light
A new study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, as reported in Variety (Feb. 9), highlights the disparity between perception and reality in respect to women’s onscreen roles in Hollywood. Box office juggernauts like The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, Gone Girl and…
Cincinnati Ballet’s ‘Alice’ Brings Spectacle to Stage
Cincinnati Ballet’s extravagant production of Washington Ballet Artistic Director Septime Webre’s Alice (in Wonderland) hits the Aronoff stage again this weekend, two years after the Cincinnati premiere, with live music from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Cincinnati Ballet Music Director Carmon DeLeone. Artistic Associate Johanna Bernstein Wilt and dancers Janessa Touchet and Cervilio Miguel…
Performance Art Comes to a Cincinnati Grocery
Heine Avdal is making a short trip from Belgium to Cincinnati on Feb. 21 and 22 just to visit the Whole Foods Market in Rookwood Commons. It’s sandwiched between theatrical performances that he and his artistic organization fieldworks will be doing in Budapest and Oslo. So why exactly is he coming here to go to…
Buried Treasure
W hen an art museum has a collection of more than 65,000 objects, it isn’t surprising that many of them wind up hidden in storage. Sometimes complete collections are stowed there, rarely if ever seen or studied. That was the case with Cincinnati Art Museum’s Japanese art when Asian Art Curator Hou-mei Sung arrived in…
The Fall Guy
Robyn Hitchcock, the British singer/songwriter whose intimately resonant, raspy voice and mysteriously peculiar worldview were shaped by such skewed troubadours of his youth as Nick Drake, Syd Barrett and the Incredible String Band, has long been said to make “autumnal” records. As in, “songs or singing that reflect on life with a bittersweet, melancholy wisdom…
Valentine’s Day: Baller or Bust
You, yes you, the one with the sad-sack look on your face lurking in the cheap and cheesy Valentine’s Day aisle at the grocery store. We see you, and we know exactly what happened. You’re a busy person and you’ve waited until the last minute to purchase a gift that is meant to convey all…
Foods to Get You in the Mood
In almost every culture, food and its erotic qualities are woven into history, mythology and superstition. We believe that chillies can spice up our sex lives just as easily as we believe bananas and their phallic resemblance can turn us on. Arguably a big plate of chocolate brownies fresh out the oven is enough to…
Pontiac Bourbon & BBQ (Review)
T here once was a time in Cincinnati’s storied barbecue history when Montgomery Inn was regarded as the pinnacle of divine meatiness, or so our generation is told repeatedly by our grandparents. But we know it’s the crafty pop-up dives armed with well-seasoned smokers that now get all the deserved attention. Eli’s BBQ, listed this…
To Repel Ghosts
There is this joke among black people — remember first that humor about cultural diminishment ain’t funny and not all blacks know one another — that says Black History Month is in February because it’s the shortest month of the year. My deep disdain for Black History Month started early, like right-out-of kindergarten-early, in the…
Cincinnati vs. The World 2.11.15
An architecture and planning group in London has plans to transform stretches of the city’s abandoned tube tunnels into bike paths. The project, dubbed The London Underline, is focused on two unused tunnels that run beneath London’s prime real estate. Plans are to outfit the tunnels for pedestrians, cyclists, buskers and even click-and-collect retail. World…
Event: Linger Flowers/Cheapside Cafe Valentine’s Flower Pop-Up
Your significant other will probably hate everything about the Linger Flowers/Cheapside Café Valentine’s Day floral fête. If you want to be a really nice girlfriend, take one of your BFFs, instead. Enjoy gorgeous, loose floral arrangements from Linger in hand-tied bouquets or handmade pottery by local pottery artist cgceramics, handmade cards from Rock Paper Scissors and learn…
Event: Off-Line Dating Game
By now you’ve probably heard a million success stories from couples who met online. Internet dating is rough, though. (And a little scary.) If the swiping and questionnaires aren’t your style, you’re in luck. The Contemporary Arts Center is going back in time and promoting actual physical connections with the Off-Line Dating Game. Ticket includes…
Event: Art on Vine
Organized by James Jenkins, owner of Photography for the People, this monthly local boutique art fair showcases fine arts, handmade goods and photography from more than 30 Tristate artists. A portion of artist entry fees will be donated back to a local nonprofit. Guests can also enjoy food from vendors Holtman’s Donuts, A Tavola and…
Event: Fight for Air Climb
Carew Tower is the second tallest building in Cincinnati, towering over the city at an impressive 574 feet and a strenuous 45-story climb. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of Ohio’s American Lung Association’s Fight For Air Climb, where Cincinnati climbers both novice and expert tackle the 45 stories to reach the top in order…
Music: Lydia Loveless
Not that long ago it wasn’t uncommon to see Columbus, Ohio, singer/songwriter Lydia Loveless performing a low-key set in one of Greater Cincinnati’s various clubs. But since her debut release for esteemed independent label Bloodshot Records, 2011’s Indestructible Machine, Loveless has become a critical darling who spends a lot of time on the road building…
Event: Appalachian Culture Fest
Secluded in a mountainous geographical region, this culture has encompassed a rural approach to life through practices of self-sufficiency, modesty and faith. Dig deeper into the mountain culture of the Appalachians during the Cincinnati Museum Center’s Appalachian Culture Fest. Co-sponsored by the Appalachian Community Development Association, the event seeks to reveal its unique traditions through…
Event: World Sound Healing Day
This Valentine’s Day marks the 13th annual World Sound Healing Day. Cincinnati joins the wave of many groups around the world to give a sonic valentine to the Earth, combining sound and intention as a catalyst for peace, harmony and global and personal transformation. The concert features toning, percussion, instruments and chanting from musicians like…
Film: In the Mood for Love
A film called “brilliant” by the late Roger Ebert, Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love is a tale of love, longing, loneliness and relationship struggles. Set in 1960s Hong Kong, the film follows journalist Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung) and shipping company secretary Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung), who suspect wrongdoings from their respective spouses and…
Worst Week Ever!: Feb. 4-10
Cincinnati Has Something to Do with a Book You’ve Probably Never Read Ahh, The Great Gatsby. You are either so dumb that you only saw the movie or were dumb enough to read it even though it made little sense because it’s from the black and white era. Anyway, it turns out the book’s subject…
Event: My Furry Valentine
There is nothing cuter than a puppy following you around everywhere you go. (When your date does it … it’s not so cute.) This is just one of the many, many reasons why pets make the best valentines. My Furry Valentine is the region’s largest annual animal adoption event, bringing together hundreds of adorable pets and…
Art: Chiaroscuro at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center
Multidisciplinary Cincinnati-based fine artists Sean Mullaney and Justin West collaborated on creating a sensory environment in one space at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center for the exhibit Chiaroscuro. The room-sized canvas onto which they refract light by changing the vibrations in sheets of moving Mylar allows the artists to explore the themes of light and…
Event: MainStrasse Village Mardi Gras
“Mardi Gras,” French for “Fat Tuesday,” refers to the debaucherous and indulgent celebration that precedes the ritual fasting of Lent (which begins on Ash Wednesday). Traditionally New Orleans is the party capital of Mardi Gras, but New Orleans better keep an eye out because the 19th annual MainStrasse Village Mardi Gras has all the beads,…
Event: Love, Vodka, Death
What do you get when you cross the name of a czarist Russian Woody Allen/Diane Keaton comedy — Love and Death — with vodka? “Love, Vodka, Death,” CityBeat’s la petite mort Friday the 13th Valentine’s bash. Whether you feel like getting drunk because you’re alone or using booze as an aphrodisiac, the event features more than…
Proposal Would Put Three Marijuana Farms in Greater Cincinnati
If an effort by a pro-marijuana group is successful, three of 10 proposed indoor marijuana farms would end up in Greater Cincinnati. ResponsibleOhio, a group led by former Ohio casino advocate Ian James, is currently collecting signatures for a ballot initiative that seeks an amendment to the Ohio constitution to legalize the growth, sale and…
Comedy: Stewart Huff
Comedian Stewart Huff started off wanting to be a writer of short stories. He wrote in secret, but after doing an open mic he became intrigued by what that art form had to offer. “I was obsessed with the idea of telling a story on stage and getting immediate feedback,” he says. After a time,…
Dem Chair Slams Hartmann’s “Luxury” Crime Lab Comment
Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann ruffled feathers Feb. 5 when he called Hamilton County’s crime lab “a luxury item.” Now Democrats are firing back at the assertion. On Feb. 10, Hamilton County Democrat Chairman Tim Burke sent a strongly worded letter to Hartmann suggesting the commissioner is playing politics with the crime lab and morgue,…
Art: Color Color at the Cincinnati Art Museum
Julian Stanczak, a former Art Academy of Cincinnati instructor whose precisely geometric and brilliantly colorful abstract work has been hailed as the ideal for Op Art, will show a portfolio of color inkjet prints from 1993 at the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Gallery 212. Called color color, it is small in scale but enormous in pleasure…
Faulty Math?
O ne of the state’s wealthiest school districts is among those on the list to receive an increase in state aid under a new plan submitted by Gov. John Kasich. The education funding change-up, which was delivered in Kasich’s two-year budget proposal last week, has met criticism from multiple sides. Educators question the plan’s math…
Onstage: Chapatti
Pets can be great companions. But as Dan, grieving the loss of a longtime lover, and Betty, a solitary divorcée, discover in Christian O’Reilly’s humorous tale of a pair of lonely hearts in an Irish town, human contact is essential and sometimes unexpected. The play’s title, “chapatti,” a kind of flatbread from India, is the…
O.T. Genasis
Remember last week when I asked Facebook why O.T. Genasis was so stoked about having baking soda? No? OK. Awesome. Maybe it’s that mix of Belizean heritage and Long Beach upbringing, but nothing is more clear about Genasis’ mindset than that he clearly doesn’t give a fuck about anything going on around him. In a…
Queen City’s New Brews
In the fall of 2014, Ohio hit the milestone of having more than 100 active breweries, according to craft beer trade group Brewers Association, with more than 30 currently in the planning stages. Craft beer today takes up 14 percent of the beer market, and its rapid growth has taken a bite out of national…
Black Magic
"An amalgamation of breweries. A dichotomous combination of flavors. Tart and refreshing yet full bodied and malty. It’s not black magic, it’s BlackTart.” Those four sentences culminated months of planning and hard work that resulted in the 2015 Cincinnati Beer Week collaboration beer BlackTart. An effort from 15 local breweries — Bad Tom Smith, Blank…
Cincinnati Style
When Colorado-based brewery Oskar Blues asked around for a Cincinnati brewer to collaborate on a special brew, one name continued to surface: Scott LaFollette of Blank Slate Brewing Company. So Ohio native Jason Buehler, a brewer with Oskar Blues, asked LaFollette to head to Colorado to craft the soon-to-be-released Cincy 3-Way Porter with him. “I…
The Art of the Can
Local artist and illustrator Tom Post has often looked to nature for inspiration. So when MadTree Brewing asked him to design the can illustration for a beer called Lift, he turned again to his favorite muse. “About a month before they asked me, the birds were migrating,” Post says. “I would watch them all the…
Getting ShipRocked
You know you are not in Kansas anymore when you hear a voice on the load speaker of the cruise ship that says, “This is Fred MotherF*ucking Durst, your captain speaking.” Fred claimed to be driving the boat and getting a blow job at the same time. And so it began, the vacation of a…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning! This week is going crazy slow but it’s half over now, so that’s awesome. But the news isn’t going slow, and it’s never half-over. It’s always hurtling forward. Always changing. Growing. Watching. Ok. Maybe not watching. But those other things. Sorry. I didn’t get much sleep last night. Let’s get to it. Gov.…
Tour de Taprooms
Cincinnati’s craft breweries are more than just producers of distinctive, small-run beers; they also offer a particular brand of alcohol tourism — paired dinners, rare tastings and other unique experiences inside their own taprooms. The following collection offers myriad options for stopping in to fill a growler or to sit down to dinner or drinks…
Playing Favorites
Historians say Cincinnati has been home to at least 250 breweries since Englishman Davis Embree opened the first commercial brewery in the Queen City in 1812. Today there are more than a dozen local breweries, with a handful of new ones set to open in 2015 (see page 35 for more on those). The rapid…
Local Musicians Unite for Paralyzed Friend
In February of last year, Brett Walls, a fixture in the Cincinnati underground music scene in the late ’80s/early ’90s as a member of Devil Nut Mother Hole and other projects, suffered three strokes and two aneurisms. Walls has since been in a paralyzed state caused by the rare Locked-In Syndrome, which leaves victims conscious,…
History, Hops and Hope
For years, the potential of some of Cincinnati’s most historic neighborhoods and urban locales sat unrealized. The past decade has seen enormous change, however, as re-urbanization efforts heavily target the architecture and spirit of neighborhoods like Over-the-Rhine and Walnut Hills. As crime declined in these areas, developers and neighborhood organizations began reinvestigating the gems hidden…
Wiki War
HOT: Wiki War The big post-Grammys story this year was Kanye West disrespecting the artists in the Album of the Year category (including the winner, Beck) by ranting about how the Grammys disrespect artists. Fans of the artist Kanye thought should have won — Beyoncé — used Beck’s Wikipedia page as a battleground. Among the…
Datsik with Kennedy Jones, Trolley Snatcha and Barely Alive
With a birth name like Troy Beetles, a career in music would seem to be a given. But the Canadian artist/producer/label honcho has no interest in letting it be or going on a magical mystery tour with Sgt. Pepper down Abbey Road. Under the name Datsik, the Los Angeles-based DJ prefers to assemble avantist Dubstep…
Jeff Austin with Pert Near Sandstone
Some musicians simply exhibit (and thereby inspire) total madness through their music, creating an unspoken dialogue in the gray area between audience and performer. For anyone who was lucky enough to see the barn-burning Bluegrass powerhouse Yonder Mountain String Band in its first 15 years, the manic-eyed mandolin maniac Jeff Austin held an obvious place…
Jukebox the Ghost with Little Daylight
If you trim a two-year evolutionary period from its timeline, 2015 represents Jukebox the Ghost’s 10th year of operation, and such milestones are always prime opportunities for reflection. Even a cursory spin of the D.C. trio’s eponymous fourth album will lead to the inevitable conclusion that keyboardist/vocalist Ben Thornewill, guitarist/vocalist Tommy Siegel and drummer Jesse…
