Review: Paper Chasers
One of my favorite aspects of Elaine Lynch's worldview is a graceful tempering of plunging conceptual terrain with a focus on the direct handiwork of the artist. This has been true of her own artwork for as long as I've known her, and within Paper Chasers, her latest curatorial endeavor as gallery coordinator at ArtWorks…
Talking ‘Bout Regeneration
You knew it would come to this one day. Back in the '80s we were rocking out to ABC, The Human League, A Flock of Seagulls and Naked Eyes, to name but a few. Acts from the '60s, much as we liked them, were mostly nostalgia acts. It's the destiny of many artists, from every…
Playful Gig
Nobody has ever accused Anna Faris of being the "hot chick" onscreen, but that's been her own choice. While Faris' spacey roles — from her career-making turn as Cindy Campbell in the Scary Movie franchise to parts in Just Friends and Waiting — have made her the butt of jokes, she is a comedienne first…
Hand in Hand
Click Here for the CEA Theater Nominee List Bill Hartnett likes to tell stories. Ellie Shepherd, his partner — in life and frequently onstage — listens to him patiently. Sometimes she prompts him or fills in a detail. They almost always end up in hearty laughter. They've had a lot of time to figure each…
Don’t Want to Die Before I Get Old
The very knowledgeable Evelyn Ignatow, certified sommelier and owner of Hyde Park Gourmet (2707 Erie Ave., 513-533-4329), recently invited me along as she assessed the value of an estate wine collection. With the executor, we went down into a musty cellar, bending to avoid old door jams. Behind some creaky doors, we finally located an…
From Goose Bumps to Deliverables
How are you feeling about Barack Obama these days? Are you ready to get revved back up? The Democratic National Convention begins Monday in Denver, and Obama is scheduled to accept the official party nomination for president in front of 75,000 people at the city's football stadium. The event sounds so over-the-top I'm not sure…
The Mousetrap (Review)
Nobody connected with the Carnegie Arts Center/New Edgecliff Theater co-production of the Agatha Christie thriller The Mousetrap seems to realize that the real play resides in a tidal wash of simmering, threatening subtext under the polite, placid, even boring dialogue. It's subtext that makes this the theater's most successful thriller ever. The original production opened…
The Koala Fires (Profile)
What's the first thing you do when you've thought up a clever band name? Google it, of course. When Koala Fires singer/guitarist Matt Mooney did this, he was pleasantly surprised that he didn't find any other bands that had claimed the moniker. What he did find, however, was pretty depressing. "There were all of these…
Hackensaw Boys and Mindy Smith
Hackensaw Boys Thursday
Breaking the Silence
The new Ben Stiller movie Tropic Thunder arrived with advance buzz about the potentially off-putting use of blackface by Robert Downey Jr. as a highly decorated method actor who undergoes experimental surgery so that he can play an African-American soldier in a Vietnam War epic. The historic legacy of minstrel shows and the use of…
Terry’s Turf Club (Review)
Critic's Pick Get with this, OK? Burger joint. Black-and-white linoleum tiles on the floor, more neon hanging around than you'll see at the county fair. Bowls of peanuts, shells on the floor, jukebox on the wall. And wafting from the kitchen? The aroma of grilled lobster tail with blackberry ginger sauce on a buttered brioche.…
‘It Happens in Cincinnati’
Cincinnati used to be a stop on the Underground Railroad, a gateway to freedom in the North for slaves escaping servitude in the South. Now the Queen City is a stop along an invisible human trafficking highway and home to contemporary slaves. Ask anyone here about modern day slavery, and they're likely to make a…
Award-Winning CEA History
The recipients of the 2008 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards will be announced on Sunday evening. A record number of votes were cast this year, with close to 3,000 people indicating their preferences in 12 publicly voted categories. CityBeat has sponsored this annual recognition of theatrical performances and productions for 12 years. (See the 2008 nominees here.)…
The Road to Wellness
If I ever have a fire, I won't worry about my physical possessions. The family recordings, photos and writings are all I care about — they're tangible memories and treasures that never tarnish. I started assembling a computer library of family recordings, photos and writing a couple of years ago. I've observed that, while most…
Living Out Loud
Excerpt from my memoir: When I was small, Mom rarely sat down. Ironing, cooking, cleaning, fixing her hair and makeup, she was always fiddling with something, never taking a break. So one afternoon, when she began resting on the white couch for days, my brother Matt and I tiptoed around her as if she had…
Wessels
Northwestern Hamilton County isn't necessarily known for its fine eating establishments. The exception has to be Les Flick's Homelike Inn. Having had the pleasure of growing up in that part of Greater Cincinnati, I was introduced early to Flick's Inn, a delightful eating establish in the hamlet known as New Baltimore on the banks of…
Jeffrey Cortland Jones
Jeffrey Cortland Jones revels in the physical activity of creating a painting and in the endless design possibilities of the grid. He builds his work in layers — some pristine and some scraped, burned or otherwise damaged — completed by a polished surface that offers glimpses of the structure beneath. See his recent work at…
Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY AUG. 13 Bad news for white people: A new study by the government says that whites will no longer make up a majority of Americans by 2042. And by 2050 the whites will be down to 46 percent, with Hispanics increasing from 15 to 30 percent and African Americans staying about the same during…
Dreams of Obama
Barack Obama, it is true, is a transformational leader. But he needs a transformational movement to become a transformational president. My wife and I have an adopted 8-year-old "biracial" boy whose roots are African American. My adult son is married to an African-American woman with roots in Jamaica and Costa Rica. Our family is part…
Sports
Somewhere, wafting through the Cincinnati airwaves and above Great American Ball Park, the ghost of Pete Rose hovers like a rain cloud. No matter how thoroughly Rose is discredited on other grounds, his image as a baseball player continues to define the ideal for Reds fans, which means Reds fans will never be happy with…
The Endorser
The presidential campaign shifts into super-high gear Monday, when the Democratic National Convention begins in Denver. And if presumptive nominee Barack Obama emerges from Denver as the party's standard-bearer, he will be able to count on active support from many Rock and Pop stars. Already, according to Wikipedia, such names as 50 Cent, Arcade Fire,…
COAST’s Shifting Line on Jail ‘Crisis’
In one of life's little ironies, an anti-tax group that prides itself on trying to save taxpayer money and stop government waste actually helped set the stage for squandering millions of dollars in taxpayer money on an unneeded expense. When the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST) was trying to reelect its loyal…
CityBeat Recommends
WEDNESDAY 8/20 ART: MELT The panini-style, vegan-friendly sandwich nook in Northside is dependable for offering sharp, surprising menu items as well as rewarding, low-profile exhibitions that expound on the mood of the eatery. Jason Snell's new work is collectively titled Cupcakes and Monsters and is just as it describes itself: small, graphic paintings of cupcakes…
The State of Daily Newspapers
First, some facts. Advertising supports most newspapers. Advertising in daily papers is slipping dangerously. Advertising on newspaper Web sites is growing but nowhere near fast enough to compensate for the loss of print ads. Papers are physically smaller now — smaller dimensions and fewer pages — and dailies of every size and reputation are laying…
Still Alive (Review)
Herbert Gold is a Buckeye, born and raised in the Cleveland area, but he's lived in California for many years and is one of the last of the San Francisco beatniks. Having written 20 novels and numerous short shorts and essays, Gold is a man who now finds himself in his eighties, but that doesn't…
Spill It
On Friday at Corryville's Mad Frog, The Upset Victory celebrates the release of its new EP, Between the Walls and the Worlds That Sleep, which is being released nationally by Takeover Records/Takeover Digital. Takeover is the artist-friendly imprint initially started as a means for the multi-platinum Pop Rock band Yellowcard to release records (before they…
Roses and Onions
Roses to Margo Pierce and Natalie Hager for the photo essay on the YWCA battered women's shelter ("Shelter Is Protection," issue of Aug 13). Though the effort to protect endangered women's lives is more than three decades old, it is always important to remind the public that these houses are available and, sadly, that they're…
Mine All Mine (Review)
True to style, Adam Davies (author of The Frog Prince and Goodbye Lemon) has penned another masterfully precise depiction of the guy who can't win for losing. This time it's poor Otto Starks, whose life these days sadly resembles a Choose Your Own Adventure book gone dreadfully wrong. His career as a "pulse" — security…
