Ohio House Bill Would Ban Comprehensive Sex Education
With Republican support and Democratic opposition, the Ohio House Finance Committee approved a budget bill today that would ban comprehensive sex education, defund Planned Parenthood and fund crisis pregnancy centers that pro-choice groups call “anti-choice.” Citing the possibility of “gateway sexual activity,” the bill would make it so teachers can be fined up to $5,000…
Councilman to Resign, Wife to Take Seat
Democratic Councilman Cecil Thomas’ last City Council meeting will be Wednesday, after which he will be replaced by his wife of 32 years, Pam Thomas. “Her qualifications are impeccable,” Thomas told reporters Tuesday. “She will give this city a good representation.” Thomas’ wife ran for Hamilton County clerk of courts last year, ultimately losing to…
Morning News and Stuff
Two explosions at the Boston Marathon yesterday led to the deaths of at least three and injured at least 140 others , with the deaths including an 8-year-old boy. So far, it is unclear who carried out the bombings. Police said the two bombs were set in trash cans, less than 100 yards apart, near…
Music Tonight: Bernie Worrell and Cancer Family Care Benefit
• Gifted young violinist/vocalist Rosie Carson and her father, former Customs bassist and longtime show promoter Steve Carson, are presenting a benefit concert tonight at the Molly Malone's in Covington for Cancer Family Care of Cincinnati (cancerfamilycare.org), which assists family members dealing with the cancer diagnoses of loved ones. The event is being held in…
Federal Sequestration Cuts Hurt Ohio
Policy Matters Ohio released a report Monday that gives a hint of how federal sequestration, a series of across-the-board federal budget cuts that kicked in March 1, will affect Ohio. The impact of sequestration is already being felt in various areas, including education, housing and the environment. In Cincinnati, the Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency…
Legally Blonde (Review)
Critic's Pick Ohmigod, you guys: The Covedale Center’s production of Legally Blonde is like, totally fabulous. A bubbly, warm, laugh-out-loud evening of theater at its cutest, Blonde is well produced and wonderfully entertaining. Elle Woods has it made — she’s president of Delta Nu sorority at UCLA, has a 4.0 in fashion merchandising, and she’s…
Watch: The National Tour Doc Trailer
The road documentary about successful Indie Rock band The National (Cincy-bred, Brooklyn-based) is premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday, where the band will also perform. The film, Mistaken For Strangers, was made by Cincinnatian Tom Berninger (younger brother of National singer Matt). From looks of the just-released trailer for the movie, it appears…
Morning News and Stuff
Today is Tax Day, which means income tax returns have to be filed by midnight. If you’re in a rush, there are a variety of online tax filing services out there, particularly for state and federal taxes. Cincinnati’s e-filing service can be found here . Cincinnati is outlining the time frame for police, firefighter and…
Jon Dee Graham
The story of Alejandro Escovedo’s rise from years of toiling in an Austin, Texas, Punk-tinged Roots Rock band, True Believers, to become (at age 62) one of Americana’s most recognized and exciting musicians is as inspiring as it now is familiar. But there’s another still-developing success story to come out of the great True Believers…
Victor Wooten
A man’s man. Or a woman’s woman. (Put down the gaydar gun, that’s not what we’re talking about.) Those phrases describe a person who is the epitome of personhood, someone who all the other someones aspire to be. In musical terms, it’s a player who embodies the essence of his or her craft and sets…
Chuck Mead and the Grassy Knoll Boys
Chuck Mead had a hell of a run with the band BR549 in the 1990s. The AltCountry outfit, named after the phone number Junior Samples would give out as part of a regular skit on that great American TV show Hee Haw, was one of the premier Rockabilly-band-with-a-Punk-edge groups of the day. They were kind…
Parade (Review)
Critic's Pick The powerful true story of a terrible miscarriage of justice in 1913 Atlanta is the subject of the musical Parade. Confederate Memorial Day parades frame the show and also represent the lockstep of hatred and anti-Semitism that caused an innocent man, Leo Frank, a Jew from Brooklyn, to be railroaded to a guilty…
Akron/Family
Everything Akron/Family does is patently fascinating, wildly evocative and compellingly mysterious. The Brooklyn, N.Y., collective — with no connection to the northern Ohio city or each other as indicated by their name — assembled more than a decade ago and quickly became a central element of the Williamsburg scene. In 2004, the band was signed…
Ohio House Republicans to Defund Planned Parenthood
Pro-choice groups are criticizing Ohio House Republicans’ budget plan for pulling money from Planned Parenthood and shifting federal dollars to “anti-choice” crisis pregnancy centers. The Ohio House Republicans’ budget plan would redirect federal funding for family planning services in a way that would strip funding for Planned Parenthood and family planning providers. During hearings at…
Your Weekend To Do List: 4/12-4/14
It’s no secret that Northside is the city’s premiere taco destination. The neighborhood welcomes its third taco joint Friday with the grand opening of Barrio Tequileria. This latest addition comes from the folks behind popular food truck Taco Azul and will specialize in authentic Mexican/L.A.-style street food, tequila and mezcal. Doors open Friday at 5…
Medicaid Expansion Unites Common Enemies
Ohio House Republicans are poised to reject the Medicaid expansion and the $500 million per year in federal funding that would come with it for the next two years — a move that has united Republican Gov. John Kasich, Ohio Democrats, mental health advocates and other health groups in opposition. The Medicaid expansion is part…
MusicNOW 2013: A Primer
Tonight marks the kick-off of MusicNOW, an adventurous weekend of music that was started in 2006 by Cincinnati native and guitarist for successful Indie Rock band The National, Bryce Dessner. The festival's mission is "to present the best in contemporary music; to offer artists' an opportunity to take risks; to commission new work." That's a…
Stage Door: Controversy, Conversation and Comedy
Tonight (Friday) Know Theatre opens a new production of a work that's bound to launch a lot of conversations. And let's not beat around the bush: The real title of Mike Bartlett's play is Cock (The Cockfight Play is the substitute title for media that are afraid to offend). It's a tense comedy about sexual…
Tom and Chee to Appear on ‘Shark Tank’
Trew Quackenbush and Corey Ward of gourmet grilled cheesery Tom + Chee announced Friday that they will be featured on ABC's Shark Tank in an episode airing at 9 p.m. May 17. T + C is no stranger to TV – the grilled cheese mecca has already been featured on The Today Show, Amazing Eats…
LISTEN: The National’s First Two New Album Tracks (UPDATED)
The Cincinnati-born, Brooklyn-based members of Indie Rock sensations The National recently announced details about their first new album since 2010's High Violet, Trouble WIll Find Me. The album is due in the U.S. on May 21 on the 4AD label. (Click here for the album cover, track listing and more National news.) Today, The National…
Morning News and Stuff
In Cincinnati, an ankle MRI can range in price from $367.46 to $2,865.42, but weak transparency laws make it difficult for consumers to compare prices . But to make up for the lack of transparency, some companies are providing compiled price and quality data to paying employers. A previous report from Catalyst for Payment Reform…
In Case You Missed It
Mayor Mallory and JT, just hanging at the White House. NBD. Timberlake was at the White House this week (performing last night, April 9) to celebrate Memphis Soul music as part of the upcoming PBS In Performance at the White House series, airing 8 p.m. April 16. Watch Timberlake perform some classic Otis Redding, along…
Interactive Map: State Earned Income Tax Credit
As part of an effort supporting a state earned income tax credit (EITC), Policy Matters Ohio unveiled an interactive map today that shows the potential benefits to taxpayers in different counties. For Hamilton County, about 19 percent of tax-filing households would qualify for the program. A 10-percent EITC would return about $15.6 million to households…
Cincy’s Mixtapes Debut New Song on The A.V. Club
Local Pop Rock crew Mixtapes' first track from their forthcoming full-length Ordinary Silence premiered today on The A.V. Club, The Onion's non-parody (yet still often funny) arts and entertainment website. The little hyper-catchy slice of melodic heaven "Elevator Days" will be featured on Mixtapes new album, Ordinary Silence, which is scheduled for release on June…
Scary Movie 5
Once again, audiences find themselves face-to-face with the banality of modern parody, in the form of yet another take on paranormal evil. The Scary Movie franchise, based initially on characters created by Marlon Wayans (who has since moved on to Haunted House and an anticipated sequel) and his kin, is now in the hands of…
The Sapphires
The premise of Australian director Wayne Blair’s period musical drama, The Sapphires, reads like a Down Under version of Dreamgirls but with a healthy dose of humor to appease the mainstreamers out there who need something familiar and feel-goody to get them through the rough historic bits. Four talented aboriginal girls (Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy,…
The Place Beyond The Pines
Critical analysis involves cutting through the clutter and noise, which can sometimes be quite difficult. For example, I caught The Place Beyond the Pines at the Toronto International Film Festival last September and found myself at odds with the critical hosannas that poured forth. I happily fought against the charms of the film, from Blue…
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga
So often, documentaries about people and communities that live outside the modern social framework present these factions as curiosities, maintaining a knowing distance tinged with judgment. With Happy People, co-directors Dmitry Vasyukov and Werner Herzog travel into the Taiga, a remote region of Siberia (already an isolated place), and settle in with a handful of…
From Up On Poppy Hill
Japanese animator Goro Miyazaki (Tales from Earthsea), likely unknown to audiences here in the States, gets a push for From Up On Poppy Hill (thanks to executive producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall who signed on to shepherd the English language release), which focuses on a group of teens in Yokohama attempting to save their…
42
Historic sports-based biopics always run the risk of sentimentality, especially with a figure like Jackie Robinson. Too often the desire is to show the courage of the subject in the face of hatred and discrimination, while also acknowledging that society has changed (due to the fear of alienating segments of the ticket-buying public), which means…
Danny Boyle Puts Us in a Nolan-esque ‘Trance’
The setup for Trance, the new release from Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) is tantalizingly delicious. High-end art auctioneer Simon (James McAvoy) cues us in to the ins and outs of the security necessary to protect near-priceless works of art from the would-be thugs out there with enough “muscle and nerve” to dare to…
Morning News and Stuff
Ohio House Republicans released their own budget proposal yesterday that does away with many of Gov. John Kasich’s proposed policies . The budget gets rid of the Medicaid expansion, the oil and gas severance tax and the sales tax expansion. It also reduces the state income tax cut to 7 percent, down from 20 percent…
Logo Highlights What’s New, Now, Next
Did you think awards season was over? Sure, we may have several months to go until the next Emmys, Golden Globes and Academy Awards, but those events can be a little stodgy. If you like your awards shows with little more camp, tune in to the over-the-top tribute to the year in pop culture, the…
Event: FORTY40 Gala
When someone falls in love with dance, it’s often a lifetime experience. It’s been that way for Jefferson James, founder, artistic director and CEO of Contemporary Dance Theater (CDT), today Cincinnati’s premiere presenter of a diversity of contemporary dance regularly appearing at downtown’s Aronoff Center. Over the years, thanks to James, CDT has evolved from…
Music: Susan Werner
National Public Radio christened Susan Werner with the revered title of “Empress of the Unpredictable,” and the Iowa native/Chicago resident has clearly earned the complimentary sobriquet. Werner transformed her youthful interest in music into degrees in voice from the University of Iowa and Temple University with an ear toward an operatic career, but she was…
Music: Green JellĂż
In 1981, 17-year-old Bill Manspeaker and three friends formed the novelty Punk band Green Jellö with the express intent of being the world’s worst band; their name reflected the notion that lime Jell-O was terrible. The friends quickly gained notoriety for their passionate musical incompetence and interactively destructive stage shows, as the band’s food throwing…
Cincinnati vs. The World 04.10.2013
A New York man afflicted with a severe frog phobia since childhood won a $1.6 million lawsuit he filed against his hometown and a property developer for draining water onto his property, creating a wetland and prime breeding ground for hoards of bloodthirsty frogs. WORLD +1 Cincinnati Republican Bill Seitz in an interview with The…
Music: Richard Thompson Electric Trio
If there is a buzz on the concert circuit this spring, part of it centers on the shows currently being performed by Richard Thompson. The London, U.K.-born musician is a legend in many eyes, with Rolling Stone magazine listing Thompson as one of the “Top 20 Guitarists of All Time,” and the BBC giving him…
City Moves to Hire New Streetcar Project Manager
City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee on April 8 moved forward with two controversial measures that will create an executive project director position for the streetcar project while allowing the city to rehire retirees while still paying their pensions. The first of the two 5-4 votes repeals the city’s ban on “double dipping,” which means…
Religious Birth Control Exemptions Are a Double Standard
In a letter sent on March 30, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and 12 other Republican attorney generals asked the White House to exempt private employers who object on religious grounds from an Obamacare rule that mandates free contraceptive coverage in all health plans. But providing a regulatory exemption on religious grounds wouldn’t just weaken…
Healthy Discussion
I n Cincinnati, an ankle MRI can range in price from $367.46 to $2,865.42 — a variation that is leading some companies to specialize in bringing transparency to the health care market. By one study’s measurements, better price transparency and tools to compare costs between different doctors, clinics and hospitals are sorely needed. In their…
See with Your Eyes, Not with Your iPhone
HOT See with Your Eyes, Not with Your iPhone For most of us annoyed by you having your stupid smartphone out for an entire concert —filming, photographing, texting and tweeting like you're at home on the toilet or having an especially aesthetically pleasing lunch — we usually choose to merely ridicule from the sidelines. But…
Music: My Gold Mask
It comes as no surprise to learn that My Gold Mask’s Gretta Rochelle and Jack Armondo are fans of giallo, a genre of Italian cinema saturated by garish colors and melodrama galore that was at its creative apex in the 1960s and ’70s. The Chicago-based trio (drummer James Andrew recently joined the founding duo) has…
The Linguistics of Legislation
In February, Mississippi (finally) officially ratified the 13th Amendment, recognizing the abolition of slavery about a century and a half later than the rest of the union. Passed by the Senate in 1864 and the House of Representatives in 1865, Mississippi tried to ratify the 13th Amendment in 1995 (only 130 years late back then),…
500 Miles to Memphis Turns 10
If you form a band and last three years, you’re doing OK. Make it to five and you’re in more rarified air. But if you can keep a band together — and thriving — for an entire decade … well, you just might be on to something. That’s the milestone facing Ryan Malott, the founder…
Hot To Mali
The backstory of Tinariwen founder Ibrahim Ag Alhabib is so cinematic in scope that it should be the basis for an epic independent film. The Mali native was only 4 when he watched as soldiers executed his father, a Tuareg rebel, during an uprising in the early ’60s. Later in childhood, Ag Alhabib saw a…
Worst Week Ever!: April 3-9
WEDNESDAY APRIL 3 Weed, gay marriage, what’s next? Apparently, the next liberal trend to sweep the nation will be bringing your pet along to work with you so you can both be miserable and underpaid together. The American Pet Products Association estimates that 17 percent of U.S. companies allow employees to bring their pets to…
The Accidental Framing of the Indie Cleveland Experience
I’ve never been one for guided tours. Most of my adult traveling experiences are rooted in my single years, when I went off alone or with friends, sometimes girlfriends. Mainly, I set off with no plans, no guidebook. I wandered, and if I got lost I fumbled through it on my own. The world, to…
Contemporary Dance Theater Turns 40
When someone falls in love with dance, it’s often a lifetime experience. It’s been that way for Jefferson James, founder, artistic director and CEO of Contemporary Dance Theater (CDT), today Cincinnati’s premiere presenter of a diversity of contemporary dance regularly appearing at downtown’s Aronoff Center. Over the years, thanks to James, CDT has evolved from…
Hidden Gems
Uncle Mo’s (203 E. Seventh St., Downtown, 513- 721-8111) is one of my new favorite downtown lunch spots. I have to walk about eight blocks to get there, but even in the cold, it’s been worth it. Now, with the nice weather — go! Uncle Mo and his wife (we’ll call her Aunt Mo, yes?)…
At the Movies
We were lucky. There were two movie theaters in small-town Hamilton, Ohio: the Court Theater smack dab in downtown, cattycorner from the Butler County Courthouse and half a block from Elder-Beerman; then there was the tinier and presumably white theater on the West Side, just across the bridge crossing the Great Miami River. My older…
The Humana Festival Formula
Last weekend I traveled to Louisville, Ky., for the 37th annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre. I’ve attended regularly since 1998 and thoroughly enjoyed these doses of new, ambitiously conceived and professionally presented works. I was especially intrigued to see the impact of Actors’ new artistic director Les Waters. He arrived…
Avoiding the “Shake” Like the Plague
If you follow pop culture with any consistency — like those of us in the media who use that as an excuse to read an endless stream of news and social media feeds instead of actually working (it’s research and promotion!) — there are certain things you are going to know about whether you want…
A Room With A View
C incinnatians love dining with a view, whether it’s over our majestic river or from atop Mount Adams. Price Hill’s noted Italian restaurant Primavista offers diners a spectacular view of the city below but without any sort of al fresco experience — that was rectified in February when adjacent gastropub Incline Public House (no affiliation…
When Opportunity Knocks
M att Distel, an almost constant presence in the Cincinnati art scene for the last couple of decades, suddenly seems to be everywhere at once. But no, he’ll not be working three jobs. He’ll combine his part-time appointment as adjunct curator of contemporary art at the Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM) with the ostensibly full-time position…
