Killing the Old Self, Birthing a New One
I often tell people not to ask me for statistics, because in the work I do all the statistics are bad. Ask me for stories instead, I say, because even in the worst of times I always have a good story. Whether it is one of my own or comes from someone else doesn’t really…
Music: Jenny Scheinman with The Flatlanders
Jenny Scheinman has an unusual background to be opening Tuesday at the Southgate House for The Flatlanders, the trio of veteran Texas singer-songwriters (Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock) who invented the Alternative Country/Americana genre back in the 1970s. Yes, she does have her own Americana-influenced singer/songwriter album, the eponymous Jenny Scheinman, produced…
Music: Ray LaMontagne
Ray LaMontagne’s soulful spin on Folk/Pop has made him something of a sensation here and around the world, reaching the upper reaches of the album and singles charts with all three of his albums — 2004’s Trouble, 2006’s Till the Sun Turns Black and last year’s Gossip in the Grain. LaMontagne’s songs have been atmospheric…
Music: Wiley and the Checkmates
“Soul Music will never die,” proclaims Herbert Wiley, a veteran of a 1960s-era Southern Soul band now staging an improbable comeback. And indeed, he makes a very good point. Originated by black singers who brought the fervor, spirit and “testifyin’” of Gospel to secular concerns, it was as much a part of the soundtrack of…
Events: Earth Day
A host of big-name sponsors running the gamut from the EPA and the Greater Cincinnati Earth Coalition to Duke Energy and even Wal-Mart (and plenty more) have pooled their resources to bring Cincinnati yet another all-day environmental extravaganza for ’09. Sawyer Point is again party central for this year’s Earth Day celebration. Those seeking family-friendly…
Events: International Butterfly Show
Forget Cincinnati’s German heritage — this spring is all about Indian culture as Cincinnati Parks’ Krohn Conservatory features their 2009 butterfly show, Butterflies of India: Flowers with Wings. The conservatory will boast exotic art, music and brilliant colors to set the scene for guests as they tour the exhibit. Local Indian art collectors are loaning…
Classes: Drawing into Abstraction
This weekend, the Cincinnati Art Museum is offering a two-day workshop entitled “Drawing into Abstraction.” Local artist Debbie Brod will introduce adult participants to approaches to Realism and Abstraction. Brod has had more than a decade of experience teaching in area colleges and universities, regularly contributing classes to the Art Academy of Cincinnati’s community education…
Music: Umphrey’s McGee
Umphrey’s McGee has developed into one of the heavyweights of the neo-Jam-band scene. They were formed in the late ’90s at the University of Notre Dame, quickly moved to their new home base of Chicago and exploded onto the scene in the early ’00s with their improvisational wonder workings. Read our full feature on the…
Events: Wildflower Hike
The Western Wildlife Corridor organization is offering a special hike for CityBeat readers to check out the fields of Virginia Bluebells in Delshire Nature Preserve, which has been temporarily closed due to a slide; it’s a “guided trail” only until the hillside reconstruction is finished. (The wildflowers were featured in CityBeat’s recent Best of Cincinnati…
Lit: Denis Johnson
Denis Johnson seems like a really intense guy. His novels — from Angels (1983) to Tree of Smoke (2007) — center on lives ravaged by desolation, sadness, madness and more; restless lives that inhabit such places as run-down houses, bus stops, jail cells and mental institutions. My personal favorite, Jesus’ Son (1992), drew heavily from…
Music: Great Lake Swimmers
When Tony Dekker debuted Great Lake Swimmers six years ago, comparisons to the exquisite chamber Folk of Nick Drake, Elliott Smith and Neil Young seemed inevitable. Dekkar channeled the expansive desolation of his soul into his eponymous GLS album by way of his whispery vocals, sparse accompaniment and unique studio environment (an abandoned and cavernous…
Events: Victory of Light Expo
Is there something about your future that you need to know now? Do you feel like your everyday life might be affected by the remnants of a past life? Are you haunted by some spirit that lingers in your home, or are you just searching for a way to holistically cleanse your mind, body and…
Onstage: tick, tick…BOOM!
Jonathan Larson might be considered sort of a one-hit wonder in the world of musical theater. The composer/lyricist who created Rent died at the age of 35, just days before his mega-hit show opened in 1996. But it was not, in fact, the only thing he created. A much more personal piece predated it by…
Comedy: Greg Warren
St. Louis native Greg Warren is sort of a Cincinnati homeboy. “I started doing stand-up in Houston while I was working for P&G,” he says. “Then I got transferred to Cincinnati.” The Queen City is where he took the plunge and started doing comedy full time. “I started working in clubs in Dayton, Cincinnati and…
Events: Record Store Day
Record stores in general have had it tough over the past few years, thanks largely to the rise of downloaded music (legal and otherwise). But while big retailers like Virgin and Tower have been destroyed and places like Wal-Mart have slimmed their music sections down considerably, independent record stores haven’t been hit as hard thanks…
Art: Metamorphosis at the PAC Gallery
The brand new PAC Gallery is the newest venture of Phyllis Weston and Annie Bolling Rangeley, of Weston-Bolling Gallery in O’Bryonville, and third partner Cate Yellig, a recent MFA graduate in Art History from the University of Cincinnati. PAC stands for Phyllis, Annie and Cate. PAC is comprised of two rooms with large banks of…
Ex-Greenhorne/Soledad Brother Goes Solo
Brian Olive, a founding member of The Greenhornes and later a member of the Soledad Brothers (under the stage-name Oliver Henry), is releasing a self-titled solo album on June 23. The CD will be put out by Alive Records, also home to Cincy's Buffalo Killers. —- The CD was recorded in Cincinnati and features a…
On the Road with Banderas: Part Two
(Editor's note: Cincinnati rockers Banderas recently kicked off an extensive tour with local Rockabilly/Psychobilly band Rumble Club. We've asked them to keep notes and they have obliged with some excellent, entertaining journaling. The "West Bound and Down" tour has hit as far west Anaheim and includes stops in Arizona, Texas and Tennessee. Part Two of…
Random Ramblings
Not a lot of time, and nothing much to say. Sometimes, that's just how it goes. Perhaps I'm too pissed at Chien Ming Wang. I don't know if my fantasy league is punishing pitchers too much or if Mr. Wang has truly been that bad (I suspect he has), but to get -20 points or…
Exclusive, Part II: Post-SXSW Interview With Bad Veins
Sebastien arrives as I relay to Ben a story I told Seb in the aforementioned deleted portion of the interview: how, a few Christmases back, my grandma had discovered some old reel tapes of her husband playing violin. My grandfather had played in several city orchestras across the country and died when my mother was…
Exclusive, Part I: Post-SXSW Interview With Bad Veins
It’s Monday afternoon. The PROJECTMILL has only been back in Cincinnati for 24 hours, and I have just more or less completed my first draft of the Gorilla vs. Booze write-up when Bad Veins’ “Falling Tide” growls from my tinny phone speaker. It's Sebastien Schultz calling. I hesitate for a moment, the imagined SXSW brush-off…
On the Road With Banderas: Part One
(Editor's note: Cincinnati rockers Banderas recently kicked off an extensive tour with local Rockabilly/Psychobilly band Rumble Club. We've asked them to keep notes and they have obliged with some excellent, entertaining journaling. The "West Bound and Down" tour has hit as far west Anaheim and includes stops in Arizona, Texas and Tennessee.) —- Day 1:…
Dumb Things to Do With Leftover Peeps
The video speaks for itself.
Iris BookCafe Fills That Old, Aching Void
It's the void that was left when the Movies Repertory closed. That was our local art house cinema once upon a time, in case you can't recall. Iris BookCafe has video rentals at $1.50 a night beginning this week. The titles look to be mostly art films, foreign cinema and obscure cult classics. Think Ingmar…
Know’s 2009-10 Season Features ‘Angels in America’
Know Theatre of Cincinnati announced its 2009-10 season at tonight’s opening performance of Noah Haidle’s Vigils, the final show of the current season. Know undertook an ambitious six-show season for 2008-09, attempting to present several productions in rotating repertory. But the economy took its toll, even with significantly lowered ticket prices thanks to a generous…
Blowing Up Coal Plants
Ingenuity, creativity, the determination to succeed – this is the stuff of innovation that people brag about when advances in technology or positive change are highlighted. Finding a solution for an impossible situation ups the value of these bragging rights, but what drives it all is the unshakable motivation to get to a new solution.—-…
Organic corn gluten
Rain barrel Bird house Rain garden kit Organic corn gluten—- That last one is an all-natural, pre-emergent weed control and fertilizer, but all of these things are available for sale at the Mill Creek Restoration Project warehouse sale on Saturday (April 11). All proceeds from the sale help the efforts of the non-profit “to serve…
Rock Face = Sex Face
So…I’ve had a long standing theory for many years now that rock face = sex face. ‘Tis 89.7361 percent accurate by my scientific findings. OK, maybe not uber scientific, but I find it to be highly unerring all the same. So do most o’ my girlfriends, upon having the fact pointed out to ‘em.—- CincyPunk…
Friday Movie Roundup: Seth Rogen Strikes Again
Seth Rogen’s rapid rise atop the comedic heap has been a welcome reprieve from the well-scrubbed, chiseled faces that dominate Hollywood’s leading-man landscape. But how will Rogen handle success? Can he keep from going down the road of the similarly unconventional, increasingly one-note Jack Black? —- Rogen’s first big role since his breakout triple-header of…
Onstage: Last Train to Nibroc
While Arlene Hutton’s play, Last Train to Nibroc, is new to Cincinnati, it’s been around for almost a decade. The two-actor, 90-minute script charmed audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and its simplicity appeals to theaters today because it’s inexpensive to produce, requiring minimal scenery. But it’s rich in the emotion and storytelling that audiences…
The World We Live In
Money worries have many people focusing on their checkbooks and losing sight of the world around them. Taking care of “my own” comes before everything else is why people aren’t aware of what’s happening in Cincinnati as a result of the economic downturn, according to Tracy Cook, executive director of ProKids.—- “Part of that mentality,…
![NAACP Speaks/Sings To City Council [Photos]](https://i0.wp.com/www.citybeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/empty-8243.gif?fit=1%2C1&ssl=1)
NAACP Speaks/Sings To City Council [Photos]
The NAACP turned out to the City Council meeting Wednesday to start the conversation about a disproportionate amount of city contracts awarded to non-minority contractors. Many of the speakers said that of the $1 billion worth of contracts awarded by the city, less than 1 percent were given to minorities.—- Here are photos from the…
Cincinnati’s Face to the World
CityBeat and a couple of local blogs weren’t the only media outlets to notice the hostile and dangerous atmosphere swirling around the Cincinnati Tea Party event last month.—- The rally garnered national attention on the popular Daily Kos Web site, one of the premiere Internet outlets for the progressive, “netroots” movement. Founded by Markos Moulitsas,…
Local Distillery Gets Int’l Rave Review
Some of you might recall that CityBeat’s 2007 vodka tasting panel named an unlikely local product, Cincinnati’s Woodstone Creek Vodka, our “best of show.” Well, lest anyone think that master distiller and super-taster Don Outterson is a one-trick pony, world-renowned whisky expert, writer and critic Jim Murray, in his recently released 2009 Whisky Bible, includes…
Last Train to Nibroc (Review)
Critic's Pick While Arlene Hutton’s play, Last Train to Nibroc, is new to Cincinnati, it’s been around for almost a decade. (It’s had more than 50 regional productions since 2000.) The two-actor, 90-minute script charmed audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and its simplicity appeals to theaters today because it’s inexpensive to produce, requiring minimal…
Dems Recommend Council Slate
They're just one step away from a full endorsement. The endorsement group of the Cincinnati Democratic Committee (CDC) recommended a full slate of candidates – featuring four incumbents and five challengers – tonight that included some surprises. Among the non-incumbents recommended for endorsement is a former investigative reporter for WCPO-TV (Channel 9) and an Avondale…
Libertarians Like Protests, Too
With one week left until the next “Tea Party” event, more organizations are jumping on the protest bandwagon.—- The national Libertarian Party is urging its members to join in the rallies planned nationwide on Tax Day, April 15. Locally, a protest rally will be held at Fountain Square beginning at 11:30 a.m., followed by a…
Uh, How’s That Again?
Rich Boehne must be a glutton for punishment. A former reporter at The Cincinnati Post and The Cincinnati Enquirer, Boehne rose through the ranks at The E.W. Scripps Co., The Post’s parent firm and joined its corporate staff in 1988 as the first investor relations manager. Since then, he’s held a number of positions in…
Another Seven Days of Good Neighbors and Bad Hippies
WEDNESDAY APRIL 1Cincinnati´s local media got quite a treat today from angry Westside residents, who boarded up a Westwood house even though the city had already padlocked the doors. All the major TV news networks (plus The Enquirer, which let two of its reporters take breaks from tweeting to work on the story) accepted an…
Art: Fountain Square Floral Carpet
Outdoor flower displays signify the return of spring, but this year the P&G Flower Carpet on Fountain Square celebrates all four seasons. Cincinnati-based graphic designer Joel Knueven envisioned 24,000 pansies assembled in spherical patterns, radiating out over 7,000 square feet. Walk close-up to appreciate the carpet’s beauty, then the Carew Tower observation deck provides the…
Living, Breathable Art Downtown
It isn’t yet as big as Opening Day, but the Fountain Square Floral Carpet is becoming a local Rite of Spring. The carpet — consisting of some 24,000 potted pansies, with lettuce plants providing verdancy — was installed April 7. But that doesn’t mean it won’t change over the course of the next several weeks.…
Todd Rundgren with George Hertzel
Todd Rundgren. Just seeing the name stirs the ganglia of any self-respecting music fan, and for good reason. His accomplishments over the past 40-plus years are almost beyond comprehension: Hits the charts with The Nazz in 1966; becomes a Pop sensation with his solo work in 1971; crafts his largely one-man masterwork Something/Anything in 1972;…
Rumors, Lies and General Misunderstandings
• Friday night starting at 8 p.m., Molly Malone’s in Covington presents a benefit show for local Irish Folk/Rock performer Roger Drawdy and his family. A month ago, Drawdy’s home burned down and the family lost everything but the clothes on their backs, a couple of guitars and a child’s car seat. Friday’s benefit will…
The Places Where People Aren’t
Michael Wilson and his black lab, Lulu, welcome me as I arrive at their house in Price Hill. The photographer with a considerable career opens a solo exhibition, The Day of Small Things, Friday at the Weston Art Gallery. Wilson leads me into the kitchen to talk about it, and we sit at a wellworn…
Benjy Ferree: Come Back to the Five and Dime Bobby Dee Bobby Dee
First off, dude sounds like the long-lost lovechild of Queen’s Freddie Mercury and T. Rex frontman Marc Bolan, a pair who in a perfect world would have made a great Rock & Roll gay couple, no doubt. In any case, a successful fusion of the Mercury-Bolan big-ego DNA could only have created a mutant MercuRex…
Skins: Volume 2 (BBC Warner)
This show was getting some notice even before one of its actors (Dev Patel) turned up as the star of Slumdog Millionaire. It’s a shame British shows aren’t more widely embraced by U.S. audiences unless they are Americanized, and sometimes even that doesn’t work. While Greg Daniels and crew did a great job with The…
Cutting the Safety Net
I’ve never completely understood why some people think that spending on social programs is “wasting money.” Every detractor is armed and ready with some special story about how the system utterly and completely failed, taking their hard-earned tax money and giving it away to selfish, undeserving people who will never change their bad habits and,…
Observe and Report (Review)
Writer/director Jody Hill makes a quantum leap from his low-budget 2006 debut The Foot Fist Way with a hilarious, subversive black comedy about America’s post-911 culture of authority-abusing misfits, commonly referred to as security guards. Seth Rogen plays Ronnie Barnhardt, a racist, sociopathic security guard who is far more Travis Bickle than Paul Blart. Ronnie…
Walk for Clean Energy April 20
Walk for Clean Energy April 20 It was great to see the CityBeat article “Leveling Appalachia” on mountaintop removal (issue of March 3). This is an issue that has enormous ramifi cations for all in our country, particularly those in this region who depend on water from Appalachian mountain streams and whose energy is obtained…
Santana Likes Weed, Dissing The Slants and Toby Keith Gets Mad (Again!)
[HOT] Weed Whacko We’re all for marijuana legalization, even though our fanatical liberal/socialist president has already made it clear he won’t consider it. (This, of course, led to the sudden blaring of Bob Marley from Republican Senate offices and a motion by John Boehner to “totally make each state have to pick, like, a different…
Pop Quiz for Angry Conservatives
When I began writing this weekly column more than a year ago, I pledged to myself I’d never write about the same topic two weeks in a row. Unless the apocalypse is nigh, there’s really nothing so important that it can’t wait a while for the sake of variety. The pledge has been kept, but…
Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head with The Seedy Seeds
One of the most common difficulties that a band encounters is coming up with a name that somehow conveys their sound and, perhaps more importantly, their attitude. In fact, it’s a safe bet that crafting the sound is probably easier than christening the band. So how does Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head fit the model? First…
Music: Roger Drawdy Benefit
Friday night starting at 8 p.m., Molly Malone’s in Covington presents a benefit show for local Irish Folk/Rock performer Roger Drawdy and his family. A month ago, Drawdy’s home burned down and the family lost everything but the clothes on their backs, a couple of guitars and a child’s car seat. Friday’s benefit will feature…
The Newport Syndicate (Review)
After watching all eight seasons of the Sopranos and Godfather I, II and III, I know a little bit about syndicates. They who help you out in a jam and then expect to be repaid. The first few times they send an enforcer, they aren’t there to kill you — they’re there to warn you.…
Tea N’ Bowl (Lunch Review)
Though I’ve been happy to see a few small ethnic restaurants pop up along McMillan Avenue in Clifton Heights during the past few years, I’ve found it hard to stray from my old favorites like Thai Express and Red Pepper. So I was happy to be assigned to review the quaint and colorful Tea N’…
Built on Pitching, This Reds Team Has the Ability to Contend
The baseball season began April 6 to a less acidic chorus than the Reds usually deserve. Unlike the last several years, we don’t know what to expect, so we really can’t complain. That’s good news. Now and then this spring, the Reds have been listed among “sleeper” teams that could jump up from the pack…
The Decemberists: Hazards of Love
A good many of the early British Prog and Rock bands of the late ’60s and early ’70s were as enamored with the gentle sounds of their native Folk translators as with the idea of electrifying that sound through guitars, a church organ and a wall of Marshalls. The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy may understand that…
The Boy In The Striped Pajamas (Miramax)
Another holocaust film? Hollywood has riddled us with dozens of these movies since the release of Schindler’s List back in 1993. Mark Herman’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is set apart due to the perspective in which we are placed throughout the film. We follow Bruno, an 8- year-old German boy whose father just…
Timecrimes (Magnolia)
I wish that I didn’t have to review Timecrimes. Not that I didn’t like it — quite the opposite. This Spanish sci-fi thriller is one of the most original films released in years. Why the hesitation? Simple. In order to experience this intense mind-fuck puzzle to its fullest, confronting it blank is essential. Knowing too…
Napalm Death with Kataklysm
“It’s not for everyone,” says Mark “Barney” Greenway about the music made by Napalm Death, the stalwart English quartet that he’s been fronting since 1990. Greenway’s refreshing flatness is absolutely on target: Napalm Death’s brand of Extreme Metal is morbid, disobedient and unrelentingly abrasive — exactly the kind of material for which “Parental Advisory” stickers…
Hope Springs Eternal on Opening Day
Frank Robinson appeared out of the mist on Race Street, sitting up on top of the back seat of a convertible. He might as well have walked out of the cornfield in Field of Dreams. The Hall of Famer, one of the greatest players in baseball history, smiled and waved to the sparse crowd on…
Sacrificing Children
When no one else will take care of a child or the people who are supposed to protect her are abusing her, the state steps in. Children’s Services was designed to be a temporary emergency solution for getting children out of dangerous situations, not to serve as a substitute parent. Hamilton County has taken this…
Time to Kill
Once identified as the feral pioneers of the burgeoning genre called Horror Punk, The Misfits have become a self-parody of their best days (last seen in 1983) and primarily subsist to sell merchandise with their logo pasted on it. East Bay firebrands AFI used to shape their hair into devilocks and spit fast tirades about…
Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People (Review)
Appalachia is a mystery in the heart of America. It’s surrounded by of some of the richest land and people in the world, the East, Gulf and Great Lakes coasts and the fertile Midwest, yet it’s chronically poor. It’s right next to us, but it seems remote — Appalachia includes much of eastern Kentucky and…
CincyPunk Fest VIII (Preview)
CincyPunk Fest organizer Adam Rosing has a number of reasons for booking what has become one of the area’s most anticipated Punk-and-whatever events. “I do it every year because it’s a great time and it’s a chance to get everyone together,” Rosing says. “I try to go to shows, but sometimes you get stuck in…
The Bird And The Bee: Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future
Boy, is this CD one boring, personality-devoid piece of merchandise. L.A. pair The Bird and The Bee loves to use that bad synthesized harpsichord sound that Stereolab somehow made kosher. They also add hackneyed Tropicalia and “Jazz” flourishes, and it’s all set down on top of mindless, pre-programmed beats, surrounded by layers of more clichéd,…
John Scofield: Piety Street
John Scofield has applied his innovative Jazz guitar methodology to every conceivable subset of the genre — Funk, Blues, Bebop, Chamber Jazz, Electronica and many others — over his storied career as a Jazz sessioner and solo artist. For his astonishing 36th album under his own name, Piety Street, Scofield has assembled a crack band…
Music: Roundhead
As a part of several in-store performances leading up to Shake It Records’ 10th anniversary, the Northside record shop will host a set from longtime local faves Roundhead Saturday at 8 p.m. The band has been recording lately – its first new music in several years — and is streaming new music via its Web…
Music: Giant Wow
Following a hiatus and lineup shift, Indie Pop/Rock group Giant Wow returns to the local scene Thursday with a show at the Southgate House Parlour with Buckra and Indy’s Stereo Deluxe. Keith Adams has moved from drums to guitar, with newcomer Kevin Sturgill taking over skins and Jesse Gilsinger (singer/guitarist) and Robert Moore (bass) staying…
Listening to the Birds Sing
Spring is here, and I’m enjoying it. On most mornings, I’m about my business even before the sun comes up. My spring ritual is to go outside with my cup of coffee when the sun is rising. In the silent morning, I stand on my porch, sip my coffee and often close my eyes, listening…
Launching Green
Earth Day is coming – April 22 – and the new Metro hybrid bus will bring models to the Earth Day “Eco Go-Go Fashion Show” on Fountain Square. At 12 p.m. “environmentally-conscious and bike-beautiful fashions” will demonstrate a new “green” style.—- A floral carpet designed by Cincinnati graphic designer Joel Knueven will serve as runway…
Death: Cincinnati Writer Whitney Holwadel Smith
Cincinnati native Whitney Holwadel Smith, born April 10, 1984, died April 4, 2009, of suicide at the United States Penitentiary (USP) in Terre Haute. Smith had reportedly been depressed and emotionally broken after being forced to spend more than a year in the Segregated Housing Unit (The Hole). Smith grew up in Mount Lookout and…
