Today In History: Musicals
Joe Stollenwerk Music man: Joe Stollenwerk's new book looks at the history of musicals. Here's a factoid for April 19, 2001: "After decades of fans wondering if Broadway musicals were dead … The Producers arrived on Broadway and proved that musical comedy can still (a) be a huge hit and (b) achieve artistic and…
Some Are Pressured, Some Volunteer
Graham Lienhart The protest worked. After hearing concerns from the Coalition for the Homeless, the Red Cross changed plans for a group of fire victims. Sometimes a small picket line can nudge a large institution to do the right thing. The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless called an impromptu protest April 6 at…
Film: Water-Logged
Shoreline Entertainment Robert Carlyle and Marisa Tomei star in director Randall Miller's long-named ode to ballroom dancing. Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School opens with that ukelele version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" that's been making the rounds of allergy commercials lately. From that moment on, you know you're in for a quirky…
News to Use
Defend Reproductive Freedom Freedom of Choice Ohio, NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio and Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio are looking for help in lobbying state legislators. The groups want lawmakers to know that real sex education saves lives and that decisions about preventing or continuing a pregnancy should be a private, family matter. Choice: Putting Prevention First…
Integrative Solutions
The use of complementary medicine has dramatically increased in the U.S. In one survey it was found that the use of high-dose vitamins and herbal products grew 130 percent and 380 percent, respectively, in the period 1990-1997. The majority of people didn't tell their doctors about this use. According to this survey, almost one in…
Everyone Wins With UC Change
Bill Peterson's recent column on UC basketball ("Huggins, UC the Winner's in Coaching Carousel," issue of March 29-April 4) finally presents a rational, intelligent and somewhat complete picture of the Bearcats' coaching change situation. I had problems with too many of Bob Huggins' recruits starting from Dontonio Wingfield on. Peterson aptly describes that all programs…
NBA, NHL Playoffs Test Cinderella Trend
Jerry Dowling The sporting world's infatuation with wacky playoffs demands new criteria for an "upset." Cinderella has been getting so much action lately that they should change her name to Madonna. The big league baseball playoffs have advanced five wild card clubs to the World Series in the past four years, with three of…
Home, But Not Alone
Local Emo rockers Close to Home are a band on the verge. In just three years, the group has already racked up more accomplishments than many bands do in a lifetime. They were chosen for a WEBN/Budweiser local band CD compilation to kickstart their career, then they got invited to play dates on the Vans…
Locals Only: : Livin’ On The Air
The Red Giants The Red Giants Jermaine Foster's alter ego, Jermiside Scarwell, has an undying love-jones for Cincinnati. He reps for her on CD. She doesn't know. He moves away. She doesn't know. After contending in Top Cat's Wednesday night MC battles, releasing the slept-on CD, Biology of Kingship, in 2003 and relocating from…
Music: During Wartime
Michael Williams Idaho native son Josh Ritter says he sees himself more as a documentarian than an editorialist, writing observational songs without judgment. Though the year is still young, Josh Ritter's new release, The Animal Years, is a clear contender for one of the best Americana records of 2006. With this record, Ritter stretches…
Killing Kabaka Oba
Kabaka Oba's death, like much of his public life, contained a major element of absurdity. Gunned down in front of City Hall after his weekly diatribe against racism on the police force, it's hard to frame the killing as anything other than an assassination. But he was the leader of a movement virtually without followers,…
News: Quilting a Community
Matt Borgerding Liz Bowater of The Imago Earth Center talks to members of the Girls Club at the Women's Connection about a summer day camp. Women working together to make a quilt results in more than a beautiful textile creation. While they sew, women share stories, commiserate over hardships and discuss how to handle…
Answer the Question of U
Long before leading the Revolution, briefly giving up his slave name, using his facial hair to brand himself a corporate slave and slipping into the dawn's early invisibility after playing music's version of George Orwell with the passing of 1999, Prince was defiantly unapologetic, fearless and naked in his attempts to ignite a Punk-Funk identity…
Mel Almada’s Leap
NOTES: Mel Almada made the majors in 1933 as a Boston Red Sox outfielder. He was the first Mexican national to find a professional place in America's national pastime. Mexicano Mel's famous leap atop Fenway Park's Green Monster wall to rob Babe Ruth of a game-winning homerun (and the Yankees of the pennant) is as…
Diner: Chop, Chop!
Like Sinatra during JFK's 1960 presidential campaign, I had high hopes when I visited Porkopolis Tavern and Grill in Mount Adams. The Grill — the site of the original Rookwood Pottery building and The Rookwood Pottery Restaurant — was purchased by Nick Longo of Nick's Chops and Chasers last fall. I've always felt that this…
Cover Story: When Silence Becomes Singing
When silence becomes singing. Deion is outside on the first authentic day of spring. Over-the-Rhine is on fire: a tangle of cars — dubs spinnin', systems bangin' and black girls starin' — clog every major ghetto artery the day before Good Friday. "You here to see my mamma?" Deion asks, his right foot dangling…
Film: L.A. Women
Mark Lipson Jennifer Aniston is a pot-smoking maid in Friends with Money With Walking and Talking, Lovely and Amazing and now Friends With Money, writer/director Nicole Holofcener has emerged as a sharp-witted observer of the lives of dissatisfied American women. Working on the indie scene rather than Hollywood, she's been able to turn out…
Equal Rights and Pot
It will come as no surprise that the religious right is more effectively organized than potheads. Two efforts are underway to put referendums on the ballot to change laws recently passed by Cincinnati City Council, but only one has a real chance of going before voters Nov. 7. Voters might have thought they'd settled the…
News: Crossroads Does Africa
Matt Borgerding Crossroads Community Church sent 300 volunteers April 13 to work for a week in a poverty-stricken area of South Africa. Many cringe when they hear statistics from communities in South Africa, places where more than 60 percent live in poverty and nearly 30 percent are infected with HIV. Others decide to help.…
History of Disabilities Shows Social Progress
My Uncle Bob died nearly a decade ago due to complications of Alzheimer's disease. He is preserved in memory in a black-and-white photo in my upstairs hall, a jovial young man helping 4-year-old me with my Christmas doll. Bits and pieces of his life are preserved temporarily in my own memory as half of the…
Events: The Marshals’ Plan
Matt Borgerding A team effort: The Cincinnati Marshals It's a warm March evening as the players and coaches of the Cincinnati Marshals indoor football team make their way into U.S. Bank Arena for practice. They're preparing for a contest against the Dayton Bulldogs, their division rivals in the National Indoor Football League (NIFL). It's…
Upcoming Concert Reviews of Mustard Plug, Kiss Me Deadly and More…
Mustard Plug Mustard Plug Mustard Plug with Forest Fire, Hazle Weatherfield and The Frankl Project Thursday · Top Cat's It's been nearly 15 years since Colin Clive and Dave Kirchgessner met at a 1991 show by Special Beat (a reworked version of second-wave Ska greats, The English Beat) in Ann Arbor, Mich., and came…
Living Out Loud: : Where Our Heart Is
The courthouse in downtown Cincinnati is a beautiful building with large, impressive golden doors and marble floors. There's a mix of old wood doors and mail chutes, with new glass windows and computers. Employees, lawyers and clerks smile at you as you sit in the hall waiting for the next phase of your life to…
