News: A Riotous History
Widespread outrage over law enforcement led a mob to burn the Hamilton County Courthouse in 1884. Four years after Cincinnati's establishment in 1788 came its first riot — and then, as now, the conflict was between citizens and the people charged with protecting them. Sparked by the beating of a merchant by a soldier…
Serious Happiness
Happiness. You can find it anywhere. You might find it nowhere. Men commonly believe it can be found in a woman's underwear. Women, on the other hand, seek their happiness at a deeper, more intrinsic, elemental level, unless sidetracked by an incredible storewide shoe sale. To be truly and thoroughly happy is to have a…
Robert Pollard and His Soft Rock Renegades: Choreographed Man of War
Guided by Voices frontman and songwriter Robert Pollard's latest solo album Choreographed Man of War is his best work yet. Then again, I say that about almost all of Pollard's albums after they're released. I'm one of the many entranced by and somewhat obsessed with the prolific musical output of this musical wunderkid hailing…
Gay Is OK
Fag. That's so gay. Homo. Hearing words like these quickly takes me back to my grade school and high school days, when being called "gay" or a "homo" was my worst nightmare. Now when I think about it, sometimes I imagine that my tormentors didn't see using the word "gay" or "homo" as anything different…
News: Out of This World
Will the dead rise on Jupiter? Could we stop them if we tried? Weird things are happening at major intersections in downtown Cincinnati — unnoticed by police or passers-by until it's too late. Someone is planting bizarre messages on tiles embedded in the road surface. What the tiles are made of, who is placing…
Offstage and Onstage Excitement at Cincinnati Opera
Statistics from the Cincinnati Opera's 2001 season are in, and the news is very good. A robust 4,443 subscriptions gave the company its second highest subscription rate ever, totaling 70 percent of Music Hall capacity. Approximately 30,504 people came through the doors over the Opera's 10 performances this summer. Subscriber retention continues to be favorable.…
Track Marks
I couldn't get into the Heart Mart. Well, I could. It was a process requiring a certain amount of courage. I circled the block so, if I changed my mind, I wouldn't look so obvious and so cowardly. I extinguished the music because I didn't want to get checked in; I didn't want the locals…
Cover Story: The Return of Our Heritage
Geoff Raker Richard Cartwright and Mary Meyer transport their Michaela Farm produce from Indiana to Findlay Market each week. "The modern specialist and/or industrialist in his modern house can probably have no very clear sense of where he is. … Geography is defined for him by his house, his office, his commuting route and…
Relationships
If I were a form of precipitation, I'd be snow. If I were a medical condition, I'd be dandruff. If I were a breakfast food, I'd be in a bowl with milk poured over me. Do you get what I'm saying here? I'm a flake. The dictionary describes a flake as a slang term for…
Diner: Studying the Classics
Bar food is rarely considered imaginative. Nearly every place serving pub grub has bar food must-do's on its menu: burgers and fries, a couple of iceberg lettuce-based salads and, of course, deep-fried appetizers (bonus points for a combo platter.) It's predictable stuff, and perhaps that's why it's well-loved. Sushi and tofu are OK for an…
Think of the Money: Can We Afford Intolerance?
Will gays and lesbians save Cincinnati from international embarrassment? The biggest hurdle for people who want to bring the Olympics to Cincinnati in 2012 might not be a matter of hotel capacity or transportation, but political maturity. Can the city get over its sexual hang-ups before it alienates the whole world? As Citizens to Restore…
