Little Shop of Horrors (Review)
There’s a lot to like about Jersey Productions staging of the campy classic musical Little Shop of Horrors. The music, by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, is tuneful, the voices are good, the humor is goofy and amusing (even if you’ve seen it before) and the modest staging doesn’t get in the way. But something’s…
Events: Playboy Bunny Reunion
Many younger locals don't know that there was a Playboy Club in downtown Cincinnati from 1962 to 1983. The nightclub came equipped with iconic cotton-tailed cocktail servers and key-holding members. Why this classy establishment went under is a mystery (maybe ask Gloria Steinem). For those who'd like to relive those golden years or meet a…
Events: Super Bad Bike Show
Are you an environmentally conscious human being who thinks riding a bike to work or school makes you more of a hipster? Are you sick of your friends just laughing at you when you try convincing them that riding your mom’s old bike is cool because it’s “vintage”? If you answered yes to either of…
Get Involved: BYOProject
Attention crafters and creatives. Are you having a hard time finishing those half-started projects because you can’t stop watching True Blood or you’ve been trying to catch up on those long, slow missed-seasons of Mad Men? BYOProject is offering you a way to get off your couch and socialize in a supportive, creative environment. Bring…
Music: ed fROMOHIO
It’s been a while for most of us since we’ve heard the name ed fROMOHIO, or, as his mama calls him, Ed Crawford, and, as Punk and Indie Rock fans call him, “That dude who sang for fIREHOSE with Mike Watt.” Watt’s early band, the pioneering Jazz/Roots/Punk group Minutemen, is always included in any discussion…
AP, Daily Newspapers Trying to Make Web Freeloaders Pay
However you get your news online (video or text, YouTube, podcast, dead tree format, Daily Beast, etc.), you have an interest in moves by the Associated Press and others to prevent other online sites from using their content without paying. Fittingly, AP plans to use the technology that promotes wide freeloading to a general crackdown.…
Music: Bobby Broom
Guitarist Bobby Broom may not have the kind of high profile that some of his Jazz contemporaries enjoy but he has the kind of résumé that would make a good many of them green with envy. The New York City native studied Folk guitar at 12, but switched to Jazz lessons a year later and…
Comedy: Cowboy Bill Martin
Many comedians first take the stage to satisfy a long-burning desire to perform stand-up. Others are encouraged by friends to try an open mic night. Cowboy Bill Martin started telling jokes to save his life — literally. “I knew three guys,” he starts, “and this isn’t going to sound funny, but they all committed suicide…
Art: NUDE at Manifest Gallery
Looking for the right kind of art show to fill East Walnut Hills’ Manifest Gallery during the hot days and nights of August, chief curator Jason Franz has decided to go NUDE. This show, an addition to the planned original season of eight exhibitions, opened Friday and continues through Sept. 11. Out of 600 submissions…
Bandslam (Review)
Cincinnati gets name-checked at the beginning of Todd Graff’s new teen-musical dramedy (I’m covering all the bases with the label, but the film is more than the label implies). Will Burton (Gaelan Connell channeling the best of Shia LaBeouf) lives in not-so-quiet isolation in the ’Nati as the geeky kid even the geeky kids avoid.…
![MidPoint Music Festival Compilation [Audio]](https://i0.wp.com/www.citybeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/empty-7141.gif?fit=1%2C1&ssl=1)
MidPoint Music Festival Compilation [Audio]
Create a MySpace Music Playlist at MixPod.com
Art: Lux at Country Club
Rounding the corner towards the end of August, we’re reaching the final days of Christina Seely’s exhibition Lux at Country Club in the West End. Seely’s premise for the photographic series is simply stated in the press release: “Lux consists of photographs that document the artificial glow produced by the 43 brightest cities.” All of…
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (Review)
Producers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay deliver the goods in this flat-out raunchy comedic romp skillfully driven into the ground by Jeremy Piven (Entourage) with a stellar supporting crew (David Koechner, Ving Rhames and Kathryn Hahn, along with high-octane gas from James Brolin). Don Ready (Piven) leads a team of mercenary used car salesmen able…
Comedy: Brew Ha-Ha
The third annual Brew Ha Ha combines beer tastings with stand-up comedy to provide lots of giggles Friday and Saturday nights at Sawyer Point along Cincinnati's downtown riverfront. Three stages offer 50 comedians — including headliners Jimmie J.J. Walker (10 p.m. Friday, pictured) and Victoria Jackson (8:45 p.m. Saturday) — as well as local bands…
Ed fROMOHIO with Knife the Symphony and Ampline
It’s been a while for most of us since we’ve heard the name ed fROMOHIO or, as his mama calls him, Ed Crawford and, as Punk and Indie Rock fans call him, “That dude who sang for fIREHOSE with Mike Watt.” Watt’s early band, the pioneering Jazz/Roots/Punk group Minutemen, is always included in any discussion…
Music: Delfeayo Marsalis
If your name is Marsalis, there’s only one natural creative outlet: Jazz. Delfeayo Marsalis has established himself as a gifted musician (on just three albums with a fourth in the wings) and a visionary Jazz producer, manning the boards for his father, brothers and others (Kenny Kirkland, Harry Connick Jr. and Marcus Roberts, among them).…
Literary: Josh Katzowitz
Cincinnati is starved for a winner. The Bengals and Reds have made the playoffs a total of two times — one each — in the last 36 combined seasons. Yes, an entire generation has grown up thinking our two major professional sports franchises are hopeless bottom-feeders unable to compete due to a mix of ineptitude…
Art: Stitches in Time on the Olympic Peninsula at NKU
Stitches in Time on the Olympic Peninsula, a show of paintings made by Kevin Muente last summer in Olympic National Park with accompanying text by Robert Wallace, opens Monday at the third-floor gallery of Northern Kentucky's Fine Arts Center. It runs through Sept. 25. The show, for which the two men — both of whom…
Big Comedy Weekend on Tap
If you like to laugh, you'll be able to find lots of stand-up comedy this weekend — on a big stage, in a small club and in the great outdoors served with beer. The third annual Cincinnati Brew Ha-Ha takes over Sawyer Point Friday and Saturday, with 50 comedians on three stages and more than…
How the Rest of the World Views Us
A political firestorm has erupted about the Obama Administration’s mixed signals over the weekend on its willingness to eliminate the so-called “public option” from proposed health care reform legislation in Congress. Once some administration officials began giving indications on the Sunday political chat shows that Obama might discard his calls for a public insurance system…
Making Connections at the Gala of International Dance Stars
This past Saturday (Aug. 15) marked this year’s one-night-only installment of ballet tech cincinnati’s annual Gala of International Dance Stars at the Aronoff Center. It was a night of connections. Connections are necessary for any performance worth its salt—both with the audience and amongst the performers. But when it comes to dance, connectivity arguably becomes…
Bobby Broom
Guitarist Bobby Broom may not have the kind of high profile that some of his Jazz contemporaries enjoy but he has the kind of résumé that would make a good many of them green with envy. The New York City native studied Folk guitar at 12, but switched to Jazz lessons a year later and…
Delfeayo Marsalis with Jason Marsalis, Dan Faehnle, Jim Anderson and Jim Connerley
If your name is Marsalis, there’s only one natural creative outlet: Jazz. It almost seems that the family patriarch, pianist Ellis Marsalis Jr., was grooming a band — Branford on saxophone, Wynton on trumpet, Jason on drums and Delfeayo on trombone (poet/photographer Ellis III didn’t follow the family’s musical path). But as acclaim and attention…
Well Said, Sir Winston
Conservatives generally adore Winston Churchill, the prime minister who led Great Britain during the dark days of World War II and again for a period in the early 1950s. The bulldog-faced Tory represents most of the values conservatives hold dear, so much so that he beat Ronald Reagan for the top spot as “Man of…
Stage Door: “Little Shop” Til You Drop
Well, it's summertime and I suspect your movie-going choices run to scary popcorn flicks. One of those from long ago, Little Shop of Horrors, a schlocky sci-fi romp from 1960, was translated into a campy Broadway musical in the early 1980s. It became a surprisingly big hit, running for more than 2,200 performances — more…
Cincy Blues Fest 2009
The 2009 Cincy Blues Fest at Sawyer Point with the CD Release celebrating the 40th Anniversary Tribute of Ludlow Garage.
Don’t Hate on the Nati
As someone who was born and raised in Cincinnati, I naturally spent my whole life wanting to get the hell out of here. I hated that there was nothing to do on Friday nights except go to the movies, bake cookies or eat lettuce wraps at PF Changs. I hated the schizo weather (70 and…
Is Vick to Eagles Good For Philly?
Upon hearing that the Eagles signed Michael Vick, I thought a few different things. Then I tried to put a filter on those thoughts, since I’m a Giants fan and might just think things because I've never liked the Eagles and never will. Despite this, Donovan McNabb is one of those Derek Jeter types: a…
Politics Needs More ‘Aliveness’
Like all young suburbanite kids who possessed little to no real athletic talent didn’t feel the desire to chase a ball up and down an expanse of grass, I took martial arts. Tae kwondo to be specific.—- There I learned how to pretend to ride a horse, how to yell really loud when I threw…
Lyrical Assassins, Poletricks, Sleigh Lady
[HOT] Lyrical Assassins For anyone who has ever listened to a Hip Hop song and wondered “What the fuck does that mean?” there is now a Web site just for you. “Snacks and Shit” (snacksandshit.com, named after the Jay-Z lyric “No room service just snacks and shit”) points out some of the most ridunkulous lyrics…
Teenage Kicks
The wait began at 3 p.m. Stationed on the hood of my clunky 1990 Dodge Omni with burrito in hand and my friend Tom next to me, I spent my afternoon on May 14, 2004, burning time before the barrier blocking the entrance to Columbus’ Germain Amphitheater was removed. Weeks away from my high school…
Police Layoffs Aren’t the End of the World
Enough with the Chicken Little politics. Like many cities around the nation, Cincinnati is grappling with a budget crisis triggered by a drop in tax revenues. To avoid a $28 million deficit this year and a possible $40 million deficit in 2010, the city manager is considering laying off some municipal workers, including 138 people…
‘Time-Based Art’ Looks Great at CAC
So often has it been said that the Contemporary Arts Center needs to carefully select shows to fit its unconventional Zaha Hadid-designed space that it’s almost a mantra. As has been seen in the past, imported traveling exhibits — especially group shows relying on paintings — have a tendency to get lost amid the angles,…
Ponyo (Review)
In a feature-animation landscape increasingly dominated by young guys with computers, he’s a 68-year-old, 30-year veteran devoted to traditional hand-drawn animation. There’s a deliberate pacing to his stories that’s out of step with the manic, almost frantic approach of much computer-animated fare. His worlds are full of strange creations that are often more creepy than…
Duo Returns for Gala of International Dance Stars
Between them, they have worked with some of the most significant modern choreographers on the dance scene today and have performed in top-ranked companies. One is a former dancer with Dance Theatre of Harlem and the other grew up on a ranch two miles east of Boise, Idaho. They are Kellye A. Saunders and Matthew…
World Food Bar (Lunch Review)
After picking up some hot sandwiches at the new World Food Bar at Findlay Market (1801 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-342-1968), the only sounds emanating from our table were “mmm … mmmm” followed by: “Holy shit. Let’s go tell everyone how good this is.” It’s not surprising that the food was excellent, knowing chef/owner Joshua Campbell’s…
All That Sparkles
In the past, I have noted the unique, handmade artistic fashions of Nathan Hurst at downtown parties like the Contemporary Art Center’s Contemporary Fridays. Hurst’s first artistic fashion show, Off with Their Heads, is this Friday at CS13, a new gallery and music venue in Over-the- Rhine. It will feature a runway show winding down…
COAST, Tim Young, Dale Mallory, Job Creation
[LOSER] COAST: The Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST) usually has a sympathetic ear with The Cincinnati Enquirer’s editorial page. After all, the paper shares the group’s “less government is good” creed. Now, however, even The Enquirer is criticizing COAST’s latest ballot referendum. Although the measure is touted as a method to force…
Aug. 5-11: Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY AUG. 5 There are many things that American politicians work hard to avoid — divisive issues, unprompted interviews and admitting how much their shiny shoes cost are high among their fears. But recent health care legislation has brought yet another controversial topic to the forefront: abortion (!). The AP reported today that the current…
Western Union
Local Country/Western band Mack West celebrates the release of its self-titled debut CD this Sunday at the Northside Tavern. The show — featuring an opening set from Bill Alletzhauser of The Hiders — starts at 8 p.m. Admission is $5, or $10 if you want a CD with your cover charge. Calling Mack West a…
Looking for the Good
So far this year, I haven’t visited any of the New England states. I love it there — being around those small mountains of trees that are close to the ocean. When I’m away from New England too long, I find ways to remind myself that someday maybe I’ll get to live there. For example,…
The Time Traveler’s Wife (Review)
Will The Time Traveler’s Wife turn out to be the loveliest adaptation of a novel to get boos from diehard fans of the book? Could be. The ending, for one, is different. Not a lot different — the altered ending still makes sense emotionally — but some will scream, “Ohmygod, they ruined the book!” They…
Edit Out the Garbage
Edit Out the Garbage I was deeply disappointed and, frankly, shocked by the blatant racism displayed by Charlie Gibson in his recent Living Out Loud column “Garbage Watch” (issue of July 22). While I applaud the author for his efforts in educating your readers on the benefits of composting, I doubt whether it was necessary…
They’re on a Boat, MF!
I promised myself I wouldn’t use any pronoun followed by the phrase “on a boat” in this article, but I just did, so now we can all take a moment and repeat whatever part of that Saturday Night Live digital short we want silently to ourselves and then move on. Once we’ve addressed the elephant…
Finding a Study Diet
Gangs of students and their parents are swarming UC’s campus these days. They’re there to get oriented — figure out where to buy books, how to register, where to work out, how to scope out the frat party with the best beer. You know, college stuff. With all the “studying” in their future, they’ll also…
Mike Stern, Mindy Smith, Robert Pollard and Peter Mulvey
Vacations have a wonderful recuperative quality when they’re done right. Relax, recharge, renew. And that’s typically how we approach things during our family breaks in Michigan: sitting by the lake with a book or a magazine or music and, to paraphrase Otis Redding, watching the boats roll in. There’s an eagle’s nest across the lake,…
Making the Grade at CPS
[PHOTO GALLERY: Mary Ronan took CityBeat photographer Cameron Knight on an exclusive tour of the under-construction School for Creative and Performing Arts downtown.] Even before her first day on the job, Mary Ronan knew she would face tough scrutiny. Not from the people who hired her, although they would be watching too, but from the…
Cletus Romp (Profile)
Two guitarists in a band is fairly standard, and even two drummers has been done successfully. But two bassists? Now there’s something you don’t often see, unless you follow the exploits of Cletus Romp. “We walk over each other’s lines and I usually go up the neck,” says Tim Golliher, the Cincinnati quintet’s electric bassist…
