Review: Balboa’s
J.D. Cutter Balboa's staff prepares its precious Philly-bred steak I've never been to Philadelphia. Does that have anything to do with my lack of enthusiasm for Philly cheesesteaks? Possibly, but that's never stopped me from worshipping the 1983 Philadelphia 76ers. Of course, my ill-informed aversion is no reason to ignore the East Coast delicacy'sā¦
News: Wild Pigs and Homeless Kids
Jon Hughes/photopresse.com Mark Kroner uses the successes he had as head of Lighthouse Youth Services' Independent Living Program to teach other agencies how to help teens become adults. Abandoned horses, wild pigs, the collapse of Bear Stearns and a married woman moving back in with Mom and Dad don't seem like they'd have anythingā¦
Parsing the meaning of ‘off the record’
To her credit, Harvard professor and Pulitzer-winning author Samantha Power doesn't deny calling Hillary Clinton a "monster" during an interview with journalist Gerri Peev from The Scotsman. Unlike lesser beings, Power didn't take the traditional Beltway Escape Route and apologize for upsetting people. Instead, she apologized for what she said and resigned as an unpaidā¦
Onstage: Review: A Sleeping Country
Sandy Underwood Julia (Dana Slamp, right) hopes that Isabella (Kate Levy) can help her understand why she can't sleep in "A Sleeping Country." How often have you gone to the theater and dozed off when the lights go down? That's not an affliction you're likely to suffer if you go to see A Sleeping Countryā¦
Sound Advice: : The Weakerthans, Robin Trower
Brooks Reynolds The Weakerthans The Weakerthans with AA Bondy and Christine Fellows Friday
One for All, All for One
Simon Leis makes sense of it all. Throughout the 413 square miles of Hamilton County there are 49 separate political jurisdictions. Nearly all have their own fire, public works and parks departments, and quite a few have their own police forces instead of using Hamilton County Sheriff's Department patrols. What if all of theseā¦
Cut Her Off
When I see hopeless drunks incapable of controlling their behavior or helping themselves, I've been known to step in and lend a helping hand. Guess it's my nature. The last time it happened, I wrote a column about it called "The Thunder Rolls" (issue of Aug. 8, 2007). It was about a young girl drunkā¦
Film: Angel of Authenticity
Chris Reardon/Crossroads Films Michael Angarano (left) and Olivia Thirlby star as burgeoning lovers in David Gordon Green's Snow Angels. David Gordon Green's acclaimed but little-seen films are rife with authentic characters and real emotions. His debut, George Washington (2000), employed a cast of non-actors to tell the simple, loosely structured story of young folkā¦
Best Week of the Year
This is always one of my favorite weeks of the year. Our Best of Cincinnati issue is published, followed the next Monday by Opening Day, and Spring finally feels like it's arrived. It's been a long, cold, lonely winter around these parts. When Daylight Saving Time popped up a while back, it seemed like Springā¦
Vanilla Bright Like Eminem (Review)
Michael Faber is new to me but he's not a new writer: He's written four novels, and Vanilla Bright Like Eminem is his second collection of short stories. If this book is a reflection on his earlier work, then I have some catching up to do. Faber knows how to tell strange, original tales, allā¦
Don’t Call Xavier a Cinderella in the Sweet 16
Jerry Dowling The men's basketball team at Xavier University made previous Sweet 16 appearances in 1990 and 2004 with fine teams that overachieved. As such, they were uninvited guests, crashers at the Sweet 16 party, pretenders and imposters, wannabes and interlopers. The Musketeers played way ahead of seeds and expectations to reach this pointā¦
Remembering Maggie Wenstrup
CAC This untitled piece was part of Margaret Wenstrup's Graphic Content rotation at the CAC. Margaret "Maggie" Wenstrup passed away on March 3 at age 77. Since then, Cincinnati artists, curators, gallerists and friends have been honoring her life in art. Fortunately, even people who did not know her personally — myself included —ā¦
The next Duvenek and Dine, Krohn’s 75th birthday, Canstruction, A Thousand and One Nights and much more
Krohn Conservatory Krohn Conservatory WEDNESDAY 3/26 ART: PHYLLIS WESTON-ANNIE BOLLING GALLERY "Who will be the next Duveneck or Dine?" asks the current exhibition at the Phyllis Weston-Annie Bolling Gallery. As the title invokes the success of two of Cincinnati's great yet stylistically disparate artists, the exhibition card answers this question with a vote ofā¦
A Good Woman (Review)
Ever wonder "How could that have happened?" when evening news has a story of some terrible event carried out by an ordinary person, somebody who could live down the street from you, a perfectly nice person never given to mayhem? Cincinnati writer Dorothy Weil tells us how things like that can happen in her newā¦
Dance: Home Is Where the Heart Is
Graham Lienhart Exhale Dance Tribe's Andrew Hubbard The times they are a-changin' " sings Bob Dylan on Missy Zimmer's voicemail greeting. Times are changing for Zimmer and her husband Andrew Hubbard's dual endeavors: the contemporary jazz-based Exhale Dance Tribe and their progressive dance school, Planet Dance. The school has recently moved into a newā¦
Music: An Honest Man and His Band
Four Paws Media XIU XIU When I was 12, my brother informed me that the mark of a really great musician was whether or not he or she could fly. He wasn't kidding. This revelation came in 1994 after Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" video, directed by Mark Romanek, hit MTV. When NIN frontman Trentā¦
Cover Story: Best of Cincinnati 2008
Best Of Cincinnati 2008 They say that all politics are local. Some say the the only food worth consuming is local. I say the Best of Cincinnati is the best guide you'll find to local life and activities. Each week CityBeat focuses attention on local issues, people, events and organizations, so it's no surpriseā¦
News: What Jail Is Like
Joe Lamb Hamilton County Commissioners Pat DeWine (left) and Todd Portune debated last fall about Issue 27, the jail tax referendum that failed. Overcrowding remains in the county jails, according to a new report. An updated report by criminal justice experts about who's held behind bars on a typical day in Hamilton County hasā¦
Locals Only: : Dallas Moore
Dallas Moore Dallas Moore Dallas Moore is no newcomer to the area music scene. He's released three studio albums, a live CD and a concert DVD over the past decade and won more than a dozen awards both locally (CEAs and CAMMYs) and nationally (the Southern Music Hall of Fame's Horizon Award). And yetā¦
Diner: Mystical Alchemy
Woodrow J. Hinton When I was a kid, there was often a gallon jug of Gallo's Hearty Burgundy on the floor beside my father's chair at dinnertime. Like many wine drinkers of a certain age, that was my introduction to wine as an integral part of every meal. It taught me that the two areā¦
Give Voters a Chance
Joe Lamb Jason Riveiro runs for state office as an independent. Chris Dole and Jason Riveiro are stuck playing the waiting game for now. For people who don't follow local politics closely, Dole and Riveiro are grassroots candidates who are bucking the political machinery and backroom deal-making of the Hamilton County Democratic and Republicanā¦
Music: Flipping Scripts
Graham Lienhart Local mixmaster John Doe/1200 Hobos brings artistry and musicality back to the mixtape format. John Doe/1200 Hobos doesn't claim to be an aficionado. Knowing music just comes with his territory. "Like most Hip Hop DJs, I am pretty much a nerd," he says. "I'll admit it. But others won't." In any case,ā¦
Art: Love Is a Risky Business
Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra Acclaimed tenor Mark T. Panuccio plays a doomed lover in Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra's Dido and Aeneas. Two acclaimed performers of contemporary music return to Cincinnati to make the case for a baroque opera more than 300 years old. Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, directed by Mischa Santora, combines forces with the Vocal Artsā¦
Drinking Water: Garbage In, Garbage Out
Local residents served by the Greater Cincinnati Water Works (GCWW) can drink water without worry, despite reports of trace amounts of drugs found in Ohio River water. The problem, however, is more complex than that and is both national and global. The solution has more to do with changing the way drugs are disposed ofā¦
Cintas Committed to Safety, Honesty
Kevin Osborne's article "More Hazard Warnings" (issue of March 12) disregards the decades of commitment and effort that Cintas has invested in the well-being of our 34,000 "employee partners." Every one of our partners plays a vital role in our success, and there is nothing more important than their safety and well-being. It's a commitmentā¦
Another seven days of racism in Lakota, nudity in Canton and parties in Indiana
Future of truckin'? WEDNESDAY MARCH 19 Republican lawmakers on Tuesday said "Hell naw" to Gov. Ted Strickland's notion that Keno machines are a good way to offset state budget deficits. According to the AP, Strickland says the bingo-like game could add about $73 million to the education department to keep many schools from cuttingā¦
