Bengals’ Top Draft Picks Position Them for Wins in the Fall
Jerry Dowling In every major league town reside a fair number of professionals in other fields who are weekend warriors in the sports journalism trade. Generally, they're credentialed through small radio stations for whom they probably sell ads during the day. As these fellows don't earn their real keep by learning the inner workings of…
Searching for Ra
"Doc (Dre) wanted me to bring the guns back out … but I don't think the world wanted that from Ra …" — Rakim Allah, January 2004 A wise and intelligent MC once told me that Hip Hop was 5 percent music and 95 percent business. So it should come as no surprise that Rakim…
I’m a Papal Person
April 15, 2005 Dear Conclave of Cardinals, I hope this letter, and the enclosed résumé, does not arrive too late for me to be considered for the position of Pope. It has long been a goal of mine to assume a leadership role within a Big Three sacred organization and, in spite of some softness…
News: Sparing Auschwitz
Matt Borgerding Discussing the Allies' failure to bomb Auschwitz are (L-R) Werner Coppel, former U.S. Sen. George McGovern and Dr. Anna Ornstein. About 500 people crowded into the Temple at Adath Israel Congregation to hear former U.S. Sen. George McGovern and two Holocaust survivors discuss how Americans could have stopped the killing of Jews during…
WVXU Supporters Mostly Hold Fast
Braced for listener hostility to news of WVXU's impending sale, officials at Xavier University were relieved by the paucity of canceled donations. The tightly held secret was unveiled to employees and members shortly after the station's semiannual fund drive, in which listeners were urged to dig deeply to retain their favorite programs. Then everyone learned…
Music: Why Ask Why?
Ever-evoling: No longer just a man, Why? is now a band Jonathan Wolf didn't have a typical Cincinnati childhood. Wolf, known to fans of renowned Hip Hop collective Anticon as Why?, came to popular music at a late age. "I listened to (Classic Rock radio station) The Fox, man — 94.9 and 92.5 after that,"…
Savage Answers
Dear readers, I'm proud to finally present my long-delayed column devoted to advice for 15-year-old girls. What do the women who read Savage Love know now that they wish they'd known when they were 15? You can read all about it below. But before I open the girl-power spigot, I wanna get two things off…
Locals Only: : Inter-Stella Overdrive
Dale M. Johnson 3-LEGGED STELLA performs in the Southgate House (Parlour) on Saturday with Chicago's Tim Daisy Festival Quartet. All the members of 3-Legged Stella agree that forging a unique sound isn't easy in theory or in practice. But the instrumental trio wouldn't have it any other way. The realization came early for Lou Larson.…
Upcoming Concert Reviews of Melt Banana, Flyaway Minion and More…
Melt-Banana Melt-Banana with Hot Cross and Breather Resist Friday · Southgate House Sirens. Staccato shots. Fast driving. Shrieks. It could be a particularly good action movie or a particularly bad day in the neighborhood. But it's neither. It's Melt-Banana, the Japanese Punk/New Wave/Noise band. Brace yourself. Melt-Banana was formed in 1991 (as MIZU) and released…
Surrendering Into Trust
There might be nothing healthier than doing the work you were meant to do. This has little to do with career or pay but can have everything to do with a spiritual awakening. A providential path, however, might not come along easy. Finding and engaging it might even be one of the most painful processes…
Cover Story: Where the Chefs Eat
Matt Borgerding Audrey Cobb, now with Arnold's, prefers restaurants that focus on food rather than atmosphere. We all have our favorites when we dine out. Sometimes it's about a celebratory splurge or culinary adventure. Then there are the comfortable places where we feel at home, where they serve the familiar dishes we deeply connect to.…
Living Out Loud: : Lip Service
She had 17 letters and a hyphen in her last name and apparently no hands with which to pick up the phone. Not once did the caseworker assigned to my case at the Hamilton County Department of Jobs and Family Services (JFS) return my calls in the year that I was her client, so I…
Music News, Tid-Bits and Other Morsels
HOT Bush: Evil Doer? The recent report about what songs are on President Bush's iPod drew a lot of press attention, as well as general ridicule for the inclusion of The Knack's "My Sharona," a rather dirty ditty about an older guy lusting after an underage gal. But is there a bigger story within Bush's…
Diner: Foraging for Food Finds
Matt Borgerding Chowheads can breathe a sigh of contentment now that Trader Joe's has opened a Cincinnati location in Kenwood on Montgomery Road. What defines us as food writers is that we write about food because we have a love affair with food. We chase our passion beyond the restaurant realm of luxury dining or…
Title X, Take II
Three days after Earth Day and nearly a year after Cincinnati City Council voted to restore some teeth to the city's air quality laws, those working to reinstate Title X of the municipal code say a new system of investigating and enforcing air quality violations is working pretty well. After the city's Office of Environmental…
A Fond Farewell to Kaldi’s
I'm no longer living in Cincinnati, but I just found out that Kaldi's Coffeehouse has closed and felt a need to write what seems like a letter of condolence. I lived in Over-the-Rhine after moving from Washington, D.C., in 1991. I found a second home of sorts at Kaldi's when it first opened and spent…
Elizabeth I.
Mark Lyons CCM's innovative production of Elizabeth I — featuring Ryann Turner as the Elizabeth and Blake Kubena as Sir Francis Drake — stirred up some audience members. I love it when theater evokes a visceral reaction: On April 21, I was in the lobby of Patricia Corbett Theater at UC's College-Conservatory of Music talking…
Cover Story: Where to Eat 2005
You asked, we know: No doubt about it, I have a great job. For the past five years as a food writer and dining editor for CityBeat, I — along with our hungry team of chowheads — am paid to navigate the Greater Cincinnati area sampling the city's best (and on occasion not so great)…
Reinventing the Plunder
Neo-Folk/Pop duo Dividing the Plunder enters a new era on Friday as they debut their new EP and new name — Ellery. The husband/wife team of Tasha and Justin Golden recorded their new six-song release, Make Your Troubles Mine, with ace local producer (and Monk mainman) Ric Hordinski. For the release show Friday at the…
Political Art for the Converted
Democracy for artist and programmer Saad Ghosn means turning away no artists from exhibiting work in SOS Art 2005, his third show of sociopolitical art advocating peace and justice throughout the world. (The exhibit continues at The Mockbee through May 8; go to www.themockbee.org for hours.) The collected artwork fills all three floors of the…
Tom Willis – Paperback – The Record That Changed My Life
Dale M. Johnson Tom Willis – Paperback Dead Kennedys — Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables The album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables by the Dead Kennedys was introduced to me in fourth grade. It was one side of an Elvis Costello tape that my friend stole from his mom to record his step-dad's "crazy music."…
Making Bigots Unwelcome
slim Jim Puvee The Great Satan, Karl Rove, is heading this way. Who will show up to greet him? Military recruiters would be banned from Walnut Hills High School if a student initiative wins approval from adults in charge of the school. The Walnut Hills High School Student Congress voted April 14 for a resolution…
News to Use
Neighborhoods, Unite! Neighborhoods United, a new local collective that seeks to bring neighborhoods together to support and advocate for each other and to help shape the city's public policy, meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Old St. George Church in Clifton. For more information, call Brian Garry at 513-236-4180. Take Back the Night The 16th…
News: Wary About CiTiRAMA
Matt Borgerding Neighbors (L-R) Jeffery Leptek-Moreau, Della Caldwell and Matt Appenzeller enjoy their "greenspace." When CiTiRAMA 2005 opens May 14, visitors might not give a second thought to Rockford Woods, the 2001 CiTiRAMA neighborhood. But if they're considering buying a house in the new one, they might want to first look at the previous one.…
