Event: 4th Sunday Mainstrasse Antiques, Etc.
A picturesque fall day: strolling through a promenade in Covington’s elegant, historic Mainstrasse Village amongst a bevy of antique and vintage wares for sale from a collection of more than 30 dealers peddling heirloom glassware, jewelry, furniture and trinkets from bygone eras. Pick what tickles your nostalgic fancy the most. Sixth Street. Mainstrasse Village, Covington.…
Music: Lucero and The Heavy
When I was a kid, to get The Police to bring its Synchronicity tour to Cincy, WEBN bought all of the tickets to ensure a sell-out, then sold them back to fans. Similarly, tickets to this Saturday’s strange but cool double-bill featuring popular Tennessee Country/Punk/Rock group Lucero and British Indie/Neo Soul/Funk troupe The Heavy are…
Art: Frame Sale
Framed! In a good way, of course. Cincinnati Art Museum’s annual frame sale gives the public a chance to buy, at bargain rates, picture frames the museum can’t use. All sizes and shapes, in metal, in wood, decoratively molded — they are ready to show off whatever you’d like to put on your own walls.…
Music: Mosteller
Fans of Christian Rock will be heading to southern Indiana this weekend for the Rock the World Christian Music Fest at the Holiday World theme park in the town of Santa Claus. Cincinnati’s own Mosteller will be on the bill, along with several other bands from the region. Those acts will play during the day,…
Event: Price Hill Cultural Heritage Fest
Price Hill is a community through and through, and it’s proud to be where and what it is. A self-proclaimed (and rightfully so) “global village,” Price Hill is something of a culture haven. To showcase all of its diversity in one go, the little town is putting on its annual Cultural Heritage Fest this Saturday,…
Event: Germania Society 42nd Annual Oktoberfest
Kick off Oktoberfest season Friday with Cincinnati’s oldest celebration of German culture, heritage and, of course, beer. With more than 40 years to perfect the art of sauerkraut and schnitzel, the Germania Society’s Oktoberfest is one of the most authentic in the city. Come hungry and wear a belt with a few extra notches, because…
Onstage: The Tempest
Storms are brewing all over Cincinnati this weekend. No, this isn’t a weather report. It’s a heads-up that one Cincinnati Shakespeare Company will be staging The Tempest in parks in Ohio and Kentucky. The tale of a storm-tossed crew of malefactors, washed up on a desert island inhabited by an exiled sorcerer, his lovely daughter…
Comedy: Alonzo Bodden
Alonzo Bodden is perhaps best known as the winner of the third season of Last Comic Standing a few years back. The former airline mechanic charmed audiences with his easygoing observational comedy and sometimes bewildered look at life. Lately, though, he’s been finding humor in the political process. His work on the popular NPR quiz…
Event: Swizzle Happy Hour
Is work a pain in the butt? Are you in desperate need of some fun, but don’t have enough money to hit the club scene? Then head to Swizzle Happy Hour at Newport on the Levee’s Star Lanes this Thursday. You and your friends can guzzle down $1 well drinks and $2 beers, eat delicious…
Film: Linotype: The Film
Once upon a time (before the Internet) the process of mechanizing setting type for newspapers and books revolutionized printing production. Named for casting an entire “line o’ type” at once, the hulking beast of a machine that did this was the Linotype and was once called the “Eighth Wonder of the World” by Thomas Edison.…
New Master Plan Touts Urban Living
The City of Cincinnati today released the final draft for its plan to “re-establish (Cincinnati) as a model of a thriving urban city.” Plan Cincinnati, which will be taken up in a public hearing on Aug. 30 at 6 p.m., is the first master plan for Cincinnati since 1980. The primary goal behind the plan…
Too Sexy for U.S. Congress
U.S. Congressman from Illinois Aaron Schock has shredded abs that he shows off on the cover of men’s magazines; Google was inundated with queries for shirtless pictures of fitness fanatic and presumed Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan after the announcement of his joining the Romney ticket; President Barack Obama is known to frequently hit…
Q&A with Linkin Park and Incubus
Linkin Park and Incubus have hit the road together this summer on the Honda Civic Tour, a four-week, 18-city tour of North America. The tour comes to Cincinnati tomorrow (Wednesday) for a stop at Riverbend Music Center. Linkin Park's fifth studio album, Living Things, debuted at No. 1, giving them more No. 1 albums on…
Morning News and Stuff
In-person early voting in Hamilton County has a minimum cost estimate: $18,676. The number represents about 0.009 percent of the county’s 2012 budget. Unfortunately, The Cincinnati Enquirer never bothered putting the number in any context, so its story read like the $18,676, or $406 an hour, will be a big expense for Hamilton County. Ohio…
Bob Dylan
A legend is coming to Cincinnati. Will you be there? Bob Dylan, who turned 71 earlier this year, has been selling records and playing gigs since before the vast majority of CityBeat’s demographic was even born. Most of us weren’t even around to experience his big controversy in 1965, when Dylan “went electric” on his…
Purity Ring
In Christian circles, a purity ring is the physical manifestation of a pledge to remain abstinent until after marriage. Megan James and Corin Roddick may have decided to adopt that name for their Electronic duo as an ironic statement, or maybe they just wanted to draw Google hits from unsuspecting Jonas Brothers fans. In any…
MidPoint Indie Summer Series featuring School of Seven Bells
The very niftiest things about School of Seven Bells have nothing to do with its music and everything to do with its name. The Brooklyn outfit got its moniker from the final exam of a South American pickpocket academy rumored to exist in the ’80s, and when they’re in the mood to abbreviate, they go…
John Hiatt and Steve Earle
There isn't a huge stylistic gap between Steve Earle and John Hiatt, so it makes sense that they would make a good tour package. They're both moderately successful Americana artists with slavishly loyal fan bases and solid bodies of work over long careers (Hiatt having the earlier ’70s start). To the curious mind, the billing…
Mary Chapin Carpenter
I can’t remember the first time I heard a Mary Chapin Carpenter song. I’ve been singing “Down at the Twist and Shout” since before I knew what most of the words meant. Like all lasting musicians, through the years Carpenter grew and changed and her music has consistently evolved. Carpenter has long been a respected…
I Just Can’t Get Enough
I’ve accepted the fact that people are going to associate me with 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon. The fact that I write stuff, enjoy snacks and have an unhealthy knowledge of reality television has long provoked friends to convince me, “You’re just like Liz Lemon.” (“But I have a boyfriend!” I yell, as everyone walks away…
Jack White’s Rolling Record Store Coming to MidPoint
One of the more popular features at this year's MidPoint Music Festival isn't a band or singer/songwriter — it's a truck. The "Rolling Record Store" used by (and stocked with releases from) Jack White's Third Man Records will be at MPMF Sept. 28 and 29, between visits to the Muddy Roots Festival and New York…
Early Voting Cost Gets Limited Context from ‘Enquirer’
In-person early voting in Hamilton County has been given a minimum price tag: $18,676. That’s how much The Cincinnati Enquirer says it will cost to staff polling booths in downtown Cincinnati during the early voting hours directed by Secretary of State Jon Husted. Unfortunately, in an effort to appear as if the early voting issue…
Music Tonight: Shonen Knife
Irony is not a concept usually shared by international cultures. Case in point: cats. The Western (internet) world shows its adoration for felines by churning out pointless LOLcat YouTube video after LOLcat YouTube video, gilding this love with a patina of wink-wink jokeyness, as if to say, "Sure, we obsess over and anthropomorphize these cute…
W&S Flyby: ‘Stop Bullying Anna Louise Inn’
Spectators at the Western & Southern Open’s finals on Sunday also saw a plane flying overhead pulling a banner protesting the tournament’s corporate sponsor. The banner read: “W&S Stop Bullying Anna Lou Inn STPWS.COM.” Activists continue to protest Western & Southern’s treatment of the Anna Louise Inn, which has been helping women in the Lytle…
W&S Open: Championship Weekend
Saturday semifinals and on the men’s side, the only real intrigue comes from looking ahead to the finals, although any player will tell you that they can never overlook the opponent immediately across the net. Novak Djokovic, the number two seed, goes toe-to-toe with the sixth seed from Argentina Juan Martin Del Potro, the first…
Morning News and Stuff
Update: This blog incorrectly said Doug Preisse is the chairman of the Montgomery County Republican Party. He is the chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party. “I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine,” Doug Preisse, chairman of the Franklin County…
W&S Open: Day 5
As the tournament progresses, it challenges us to keep up with the evolving storylines — the sudden defeat of major players and the quiet emergence of those who have escaped notice, the silent assassins. My day started on Court 3, a make-up match between the ninth seed Na LI (CHN), the first Grand Slam winner…
W&S Open: Day 4
Monday was a bit of a wash, and yes, I mean that literally. Unable to journey out during the daytime session, I braved rush hour traffic in order to catch the evening match-ups. News trickled in from loyal colleagues as the afternoon progressed. Andy Murray felled by lucky loser, the Frenchman Jeremy Chardy who had…
Your Weekend To Do List: 8/17-8/19
A downtown nightclub might not be the most likely spot to find a pop-up gallery, local visual artists, independent filmmakers and other creatives, but that’s exactly what’s happening Friday at Luxe. RAWartists Cincinnati is a local chapter of RAW:natural born artists which describes itself as an “international independent arts organization that hand-selects and spotlights independent…
Stage Door: ‘Xanadu’ and You
If it weren't for the Carnegie's production of Xanadu, there wouldn't much to point you for theater choices in mid-August. I'm happy to report that the judges from the League of Cincinnati Theatres and I are in agreement that this frothy piece of roller-disco and Greek mythology is a great piece of silly entertainment. (Review…
Morning News and Stuff
Carbon dioxide emissions fell to a 20-year low this year, largely thanks to natural gas that was made cheaper and more plentiful due to the fracking boom in Ohio and other states. The news is a surprising turnaround for climate change activists, but critics worry that methane — a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon…
Ohmestead Teams with Wham Bam Thank You Jam
Cincinnati crew The Ohms have built an impressive career over the past decade-plus, starting out in the ’00s as a popular draw on the “Jam band” circuit as Four Ohms, before shifting gears and developing a surprisingly unique twist on the Rock-meets-Reggae hybridization, a pairing that everyone from Eric Clapton, The Clash and The Police…
W&S Open: Day 3
Cincinnati heats up, but it does little to slow down the fans eager to follow their favorites all over the grounds of the Open. Another day of racing between matches to catch the highlights as a scattered flurry of notable pairings dot the landscape. Jumping right in, I head over to Court 9 for a…
Environmental Groups Ask for More Fracking Rules
The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and 10 other individuals and organizations filed a letter today asking the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) to strengthen its rules for wastewater injection wells, which are used to dispose of wastewater produced during fracking. NRDC says the tougher regulations could prevent more incidents like the earthquakes experienced…
Q&A with Il Volo
Il Volo — the popular Italian Opera trio from Sicily — features three teens with tenor voices so strong, they got America’s attention after one of the best guest performances in the history of American Idol, singing "O Sole Mio" last year. They formed in 2009 and were received very well in their native country,…
It’s Josh Mandel Y’all!
I, for one, was comforted to hear the warm Southern drawl put on by Ohio treasurer and senatorial candidate Josh Mandel while he campaigned for Mitt Romney before Beallsville coal miners on Wednesday. As someone who recently spent six months living and working in Montgomery, Ala., it brought me back to simpler times when summer…
Review: Band of Horses and My Morning Jacket in Columbus
Church ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings — or, in this case, until My Morning Jacket are good and ready. The Louisville natives are known to play a lengthy set, which appeals to most people so long as you’re either a baby boomer or on some sort of mind-altering substance. On Sunday night in…
Morning News and Stuff
New details regarding the Blue Ash Airport deal have found that Blue Ash will gain $2.25 million from the deal. The new details means both Blue Ash and Cincinnati benefit from the deal by having extra funds, potentially benefiting budgets without having to make cuts or running to taxpayers for more money. The number also…
Secretary of State Moves to Standardize Early Voting Hours
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced today he will direct Ohio’s county boards of election to adopt standardized early voting hours. In-person early voting begins on Oct. 2. In a directive, Husted said he wants the first three weeks to be kept to standard voting hours, or 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.…
Your Wednesday To Do List
Gerald Norman Springer is a man of many titles. He is the former mayor of Cincinnati, that dummy who bounced a personal check at a "massage parlor" and a pioneer of trashy television gold. Tonight, Jerry Springer is the special guest at the Ohio Democratic Party's LGBT/Young Professionals reception, hosted by City Council's Chris Seelbach.…
ICP Fights FBI, NBC Drops Ball and Amy Winehouse: Beer Spokesperson?
HOT: ICP vs. FBI In one of those “I don’t like what you do, but I’ll fight to the death for your right to do it” moments, many Juggalo-haters had at least a slight change of heart when it was announced that Insane Clown Posse is considering suing the FBI. The real FBI. The clown-makeup-wearing…
W&S Open: Day Two
After the more leisurely pace of the first day, which afforded me the opportunity to settle in for whole matches at a time, the second-day schedule presented quite a change right off the bat. As always, I find myself drawn to a few select players, in the early rounds, who don’t get the same level…
Sparkle
American Idol winner Jordin Sparks toplines this remake about three sisters who form a girl group back in the 1960s that sets them on the road to fame and fortune, but threatens to tear them apart. Think Dreamgirls without the specificity of real life inspiration. Unfortunately, the film has the pall of the tragic death…
Expanding the Ohmstead
Cincinnati crew The Ohms have built an impressive career over the past decade-plus, starting out in the ’00s as a popular draw on the “Jam band” circuit as Four Ohms, before shifting gears and developing a surprisingly unique twist on the Rock-meets-Reggae hybridization, a pairing that everyone from Eric Clapton, The Clash and The Police…
The Queen of Versailles
Lauren Greenfield’s documentary tracks the construction of the biggest private residence in America, billionaire David Siegel’s 90,000-square-foot behemoth inspired by the Palace of Versailles. But there was one big curve ball as the home was half completed: the 2008 recession hit Siegel’s time-share business hard, turning Greenfield’s movie into a timely cautionary tale about our…
ParaNorman
Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee) really sees dead people and they happen to be his only friends in the world. The pre-teen years sure can be a real drag, but when a witch’s curse leads to a return of the living dead that threatens to take over an entire community, it’s up to Norman and…
A Class of Her Own
B efore Elizabeth Harper fronted Class Actress, she was a class actress. She had majored in drama in college and moved to Los Angeles to follow her acting dream, but found herself disillusioned by the realities of making it work. “I just found it to be detrimental, auditioning and the constant rejection,” Harper says from…
The Expendables 2
Round two of the 1980s action hero retirement road show features full-on supporting roles for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis, but Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham are still the least expendable players in the game. Simon West takes over directing duties from co-screenwriter Stallone and gets the added benefit of what could be a fun…
Bullet in the Farce
Over-the-top violence, gore and action — some of the most prominent aspects of popular movies and TV shows — can often make a mediocre storyline unintentionally hilarious. When IFC took on Bullet in the Face (10 p.m. Thursday and Friday), the network embraced the campy side of action favorites to present an explosive, comedic television…
Believe in the Oddity of this Wonderful Life
Film is all about making us believe in the magic, the fantasies we have to leave behind once we come of age and settle into adulthood. To step in a darkened theater, though, if only for a couple of hours at a time, we have the chance to resurrect our faith in things we know…
Drink ’Til You Don’t Drop
I just returned from my third annual visit to Tales of the Cocktail, an almost week-long event that, for mixologists and the media who cover them, is what the Cannes International Film Festival is to movie critics: a little bit glamorous, a lot of information to drink in and a lot of fun. Tales takes…
Silver Ladle (Review)
A young Tim Lambrinides, great-grandson of Skyline Chili founder Nicholas Lambrinides, mentally prepares himself for his familial rite of passage. Fidgeting nervously in his chair, he watches his grandfather teetering on a stepladder, retrieving the coveted article from its display case. Climbing down from his perch, Grandpa Lambrinides carefully cradles the shiny object in his…
Searching for the ‘Now Factor’ at a Color Show
Amid busy, vibrant abstract canvases and panels, the stark simplicity of a paperboard sculpture captures extra attention at Phyllis Weston Gallery’s Color NOW! The positive response to Jennifer Wenker’s “Not Enough Greens” is a reaction to not just bright color but also a bright idea. The O’Bryonville show celebrates the use of color by Cincinnatians…
Star Gazing
If you spent some of last spring watching the TV series Smash, you learned that Broadway producers look for talent whose names attract audiences. The series (set to return mid-season on NBC) is about the production of a musical about one of the most bankable of all stars, Marilyn Monroe. The drama of Smash focused…
Pedaling For A Cause
There are many two-wheeled fundraisers and, in that sense, the Episcopal Community Services Foundation’s (ECSF) BikeFest is nothing new. But BikeFest is more than a charity ride; it offers riders from a variety of athletic backgrounds — both serious and occasional riders — the opportunity to learn about and engage with the local charities they’re…
Morning News and Stuff
Former Ohio Superintendent of Public Instruction Stan Heffner, who was forced to resign amid controversy, has cashed out with $160,428.17. The money comes from saved-up vacation time, sick days and personal time. Heffner will get all this money, even though he had to resign in shame after an investigation from the Ohio inspector general found…
W&S Open is (Almost) as Big as Tennis Gets
MASON — As he sat at a podium in Mason, Andy Murray wasn’t quite sure where his gold medal was. Murray, a week removed from winning the Olympic gold medal for singles in men’s tennis, was in Cincinnati while his prize was far away. “The medal’s there on top of the cabinet, and I spoke…
Health Care and Computers Will Top Cincinnati’s 2020 Job Market
Some of the best jobs in Cincinnati in 2020 will not require college degrees, according to a new report. Agenda 360, Partners for a Competitive Workforce, the Strive Partnership and Vision 2015 collaborated on the report, which used U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and found that 46 percent of jobs in 2020 paying the…
Online Address Change Approved for Ohio Voters
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced Aug. 9 that there is a new way for registered voters to change their voting address: the Internet. If the state had done this in 2008, about 130,000 provisional ballots could have been cast as regular ballots, according to Husted. Provisional ballots are ballots used to record a…
Senior, Mental Health Services to Receive Less Funding
Faced with the choice of raising property taxes or funding senior and mental health services at their current levels, the Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners voted on Aug. 8 to approve a ballot measure that would effectively cut tens of millions of dollars from those services if passed by voters. “It seems wrongheaded for…
Cincinnati vs. The World 08.15.2012
Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary’s 2012 updates included crowning “F-bomb,” “sexting” and “man cave” official words. ’Murica! WORLD +1 Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter announced that he’ll deal with the costs his company will incur from Obama’s health care reform by bumping up pizza prices at chains nationwide. WORLD -1 Ohio ranks second in toxic air pollution…
Ready for the World?
For the last few months now, my oldest daughter has been debating current events with her best friend. My wife and I have been not-so-silent witnesses to her burgeoning political and cultural awareness, and I have to admit that it has taken me back to my own awakening. Back in the day, before the advent…
COAST’s Latest Anti-Streetcar Rant is Flimsier than Normal
The Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST) has long been known locally for its unwavering opposition to the streetcar project, but the organization crossed the line into dishonesty on Aug. 6 with its calls to action about the sale of the Blue Ash Airport. In short, a statement released by COAST claimed that…
Road to Recovery?
S ince 2010, Ohio has woken up to the realities of its human trafficking problem. Back then, the state was considered to be among “the worst states” — or tier 4 — by the Polaris Project, an organization focused on the nationwide issue of human trafficking. To make it worse, most of Ohio’s neighbors fared…
Douchebaggery Springs Eternal: How Rudeness Defines You
Recently, while reminiscing about a T-shirt store in my old neighborhood in the socialmediasphere (shit gets wild out there on my Facebook page sometimes) and chatting with my old pal, local musician and artist Brian Cammerer (I saw and played many shows with his great band Higbee), I remembered we grew up on the same…
Worst Week Ever!: Aug. 8-13
WEDNESDAY AUG. 8 For the second time in a year, Country singer Randy Travis was arrested for getting too wasted. When you do something more than once, there is pressure to make more of a splash each time. Travis certainly accomplished that goal, according to the Texas Highway Patrol, which found him completely naked and…
Runnin’
It’s an oversimplification, but I do not like Willard Mitt Romney and my dislike plays “Tag! You’re it!” with the smallest annoyances. I do not like his over-gelled hair or the precision with which his stylist has left just the right amount of grey in his sideburns to fool us into thinking he is distinguished.…
Surrounded by Skyscrapers
Eighty-one-year-old Mary Catherine Scheele doesn’t have much money. She’s lived at the Anna Louise Inn since 1977, surviving these days on a modest retirement account and Social Security. She pays rent to live in the Inn’s dormitory-style apartments and says living there is nice because of the nearby park, convenient bus access and the safety…
