Galactic
Galactic Like emerging local group Ray's Music Exchange, the six member, New Orleans-based band Galactic serve their fluid jams up with a hefty dose of jazzy chops, appealing equally (at least theoretically) to twirling hippies and jazzbos alike. The band's latest disc, Late For The Future (Capricorn), shows the band at their best, a…
Blacks Like Y’all
White people take everything. You call it corn; we call it appropriation. Let's start with the hair. Zach DeLaRocha, lead singer of Rage Against the Machine and that yahoo from Counting Crows come to mind. And, no, Bo Derek did not invent nor did she do anything to heighten the beauty of cornrows or braids.…
Music: Class in Session
Sometimes it's what you don't know that informs what you do know and where you'll take that knowledge. Take Jazz vocalist Rene Marie. Some might call her self-taught. But just listen to the way she bends, shades and manipulates such standards (and quasi-standards) as "Tennessee Waltz," "Four Women," "God Bless the Child" and "Motherless Child"…
Cover Story: Smash It Up!
Matt Borgerding Collision at the Butler County Demolition Derby Grab your overalls, urbanites. The Hamilton County Fair is on this weekend in Carthage. And for many of us city slickers, the fair presents a chance to get a taste of country life just by driving a few miles north of downtown Cincinnati. And what…
News: Eye-Opening Competition
Lauren Paris After receiving post-operative instructions and having his eyes checked one final time, Paul Groer goes under the laser. It's 9:13 a.m. A doctor and two assistants hover over Groer, whose eyelids are held back to keep him from blinking. A thin cloth covers his face, except for his left eye, which has…
Cover Story: Fair Play At the Grandstand
7 p.m. Thursday: Demolition Derby Wahoooo! It's hell-on-muddy wheels as local drivers compete for trophies and cash prizes in two ferocious heats. (See story.) 7 p.m. Friday: Figure 8 Race, Compact Rollover and Mini Car Demolition Derby Just like in the demolition derby, the Figure 8 Race drivers will be out to bust up the…
News: Local Eye Surgeons
The following is a sample of Tristate doctors and clinics offering laser eye surgery: · Dr. David Schneider, Midwest Eye Center, 119 W. Kemper Road. Schneider has performed more than 10,000 Lasik operations and charges $1,795 for one eye or $2,995 for both, including one follow up procedure. · Dr. Vince Marino, LCA Vision, 7840…
Brian Mehring
Brian c. Mehring Since graduating from UC's CCM in 1996, BRIAN MEHRING's life has been a blur of activity. Before becoming the resident scenic and lighting designer and scenic painter at the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati (ETC), he worked in New York, Atlanta and Naples, Fla. Recently, he got married, began his third year…
Diner: Friendly Tavern
There are some places I just don't want to tell others about. Sometimes there are places that I (rather selfishly) hope become only moderately successful after opening so they can retain their friendly, glad-to-see-you demeanor. Some places — like Covington's Margo & Jimmy's Restaurant & Tavern — I would like to keep just for myself.…
Law & Disorder
Leave it to the Cincinnati Police Division to take a small problem and turn it into a big one. Their handling of the Coors Light Jazz Festival/Ujima Cinci-Bration this past weekend is yet another example of the force's constitutional incapacity for civilian relations or interaction. You'd think after so many years of this event, the…
Time for Some Summer Outrage
Back from vacation. Finished the backyard remodeling project. Got the paper's redesign fine-tuned and launched. Cleaned off my desk. Time to clear out the cobwebs and get refocused. Let's start with a laundry list of Cincinnati's summer lowlights… · One stadium down (almost), one to go. There's a little more than two weeks left until…
Too Hot to Think
Each year, as the mercury spikes and America heads to the beach, something happens. Our collective zest for substantive, intellectual fiction and non-fiction temporarily subsides. We shelve our Ulysses. Set aside Gravity's Rainbow. Take a respite from The Republic. And until the heat subsides, we belly up to the Sundae Bar of publishing and gorge…
Playing the Stadium Cost Overrun Game
Bob Drake, the Democratic candidate for Hamilton County treasurer, has a game for you. Drake and his campaign advisor, Fred Anderson, created "Stadium Fiasco," a simple computer game centered on the approximate $50 million in cost overruns at Paul Brown Stadium. The game, which can be downloaded from Drake's web site (www.BobDrake.org), is a simple…
A Sign of the Times
I have a confession to make. I wasn't outraged when the Supreme Court handed down its 5-4 ruling last month in favor of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) policy excluding openly gay people from its membership. I was grateful that the bigoted, anti-gay organization had finally backed itself into a corner like a struggling…
Cover Story: Ohio: Birthplace of Demolition Derby
Rebecca Lomax To hell with aviation. North Carolina can have it. It's time to celebrate Ohio's demolition derby heritage. Although the origins of the sport are hazy, according to the National Demolition Derby Association's Web site (www.ndda.org), the birth of demolition derby quite possibly took place in a busy intersection in an unnamed Ohio…
