Minimum Gauge: With new program, the more money Taylor Swift fans spend, the better chance they’ll have for tour tickets
HOT: Swift Tix Scam The machine behind Taylor Swift’s forthcoming album, Reputation, officially revved up with the release of a new single, and it appears that machine is set to “maximum monetary exploitation” and aimed directly at her fans. Swift’s partnership with Ticketmaster is raising eyebrows. Sold as a part of the ticket seller’s fight…
Morning News: Charlottesville beating suspect won’t be sent back to Virginia just yet; Westboro Baptist to make Cincy visit; city manager issues Dennison update
Hello all. Here are some quick news items this morning. A former Mason resident who is a suspect in a severe beating of a black man during a white supremacist rally Aug. 12 in Charlottesville, Va. is fighting extradition back to the state. Daniel Borden had a hearing today in Hamilton County Courts on his…
Chabot now a stay-at-home kind of guy
Following five years of trekking to 46 different countries at taxpayer expense, Cincinnati Congressman Steve Chabot has quietly reined in his urge for travel. CityBeat documented Chabot’s globe-hopping ways last October. From the time he returned to office in 2011 after a two-year hiatus, Chabot went on a 16-trip travel spree that cost the government…
Sound Advice: Electric Guest with Nine Pound Shadow (Sept. 5)
As those crafty wise guys say, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Those same sages will tell you that timing is everything. Both pearls of wisdom are represented in the timeline of Los Angeles Soul/Electro/Indie/Pop band Electric Guest. The “who” part of the equation came into play when vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Asa Taccone began…
Sound Advice: Serengeti (Sept. 3)
There are certain artists whose creativity operates faster than the speed of the music industry. Eccentric Hip Hop artist Serengeti is a solid example — since Dirty Flamingo, his first release in 2003, the inventive MC has issued dozens of projects for several different labels, including plenty of collaborative work and side projects, and almost…
Sound Advice: Geographer with Betty Who (Aug. 30)
Geographer is the Elecronic AltPop brainchild of singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Mike Deni, who grew up in New Jersey as a shy kid, channeling his emotions and introverted ways into writing and music. It has served him well. Though he became a solid saxophone player (starting at age 9) and messed around with guitar and other instruments, when…
Morning News: Charlottesville beating suspect detained in Hamilton County; Clifton Market board wrestles with shortfall; funding plan materializes for Western Hills Viaduct
Hello all. Hope your weekend was grand and you got to enjoy the incredibly not-that-unbearable-for-August weather. Let’s get some news going. Last week, we shared a story about a Northern Kentucky woman who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials despite having legal status under the Obama-era Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals act. ICE…
Stage Door: Shakespeare’s first publication and some repackaged Serials at Know
Most Cincinnati stages are dark this weekend as local companies prepare for their opening productions in early September. But local theater fans can take in a varied set of events if it's theatrical entertainment they’re seeking. Let’s start with the Cincinnati Museum Center. What’s that, you might be saying? Is there theater there? Well, kind…
Your Weekend To Do List (Aug. 25-27)
FRIDAY 25 COMEDY: CINCY BREW HA-HA Cincy Brew Ha-Ha, as the name suggests, has perfected the art of mixing comedy and alcohol (the more you drink, the funnier people get!). More than 80 comedians, including headliners Kevin Heffernan and Steve Lemme (Super Troopers, Beerfest), Bryan Callen (The Hangover, The Goldbergs) and Brooks Wheelan (SNL), will take over…
FOP announces City Council, municipal court endorsements
The union representing Cincinnati’s 1,100 police officers today announced its endorsements for Cincinnati City Council and Hamilton County Municipal Court judgeships. Fraternal Order of Police Queen City Lodge Number 69 tapped nine Council candidates and seven judge candidates. Incumbent Democrats Vice Mayor David Mann and Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld, as well as Republican incumbent Amy Murray…
Bruce Campbell Keeps His Chin Up
Bruce Campbell has been a cult actor for more than 30 years. He has been riding a career wave that has encompassed everything from B-movie-actor extraordinaire to author of 2002’s surprise bestseller If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor to, most recently, semi-mainstream TV success. Campbell, who appears Friday at Joseph-Beth Booksellers at Rookwood Pavilion…
Startup newspaper ‘RISE’ offers resources and connection to local inmates
There’s already a sort of community inside the Hamilton County Justice Center, but it sure doesn’t feel like that to most of its 1,500 or so inmates. “Jail’s the worst time you’ll ever do,” former inmate Tracy Brumfield says. “It’s the hardest time you’ll ever do. County jail, everything is loud because everything’s cement. Every…
Morning News: FOP to announce endorsements; ICE detains NKY immigrant with legal status; Franklin Township to meet tonight on Confederate monument
Hello Cincy! Let’s talk news real quick, shall we? The Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police will announce its endorsements for Cincinnati City Council today at 11 a.m. The FOP, which represents the Cincinnati Police Department’s 1,000-plus officers, is an influential union whose endorsement is often coveted by candidates. The announcement comes after the FOP has…
Worst Week Ever! Aug. 16-22
Removal of Confederate Plaque Angers Anonymous Individuals It’s not often that Cincinnati media has a hard time localizing the nation’s latest bout with racial tension, but this week in response to the tragedy in Charlottesville, Va. — and Trump offending every normal person in the country with his response to neo-Nazis starting shit — local…
Trying Times for Reds, Bengals
This week, a bit of Bengals and a bit of Reds: Let’s start with the Bengals, the Strangest Team in Sports. You don’t know whether to love ’em or just wish they’d go away and stop torturing you. OK, the former sentiment still prevails — they’re our NFL team, after all — but the road…
Lineup changes lead to opportunity as Cincinnati’s Vacation develops a more multidimensional sound
Vacation might be the most inappropriately named band in the Cincinnati music scene. Three years after the formation of one of the city’s most vibrant Punk/Pop outfits, the band’s Jerri Queen (drums) and Peyton Copes (bass) joined guitarist/vocalist Bridget Battle as Tweens, juggling both bands’ gigs thereafter. That pathological desire to make music remains strong…
In Praise of Whispering Beard: Folk Fest Turns 10
Running Thursday through Sunday, Whispering Beard Folk Festival is entering its 10th year, an impressive milestone for an event that started as a friendly get-together with a few Cincinnati Folk bands playing. Now held in the small town of Friendship, Ind., about 50 miles west of Cincinnati, the fest was founded by some passionate music fans and…
A Lesson for Urban Cultural Centers
Cincinnati’s method toward creating state-of-the-art homes for its arts and cultural institutions has been to use historic preservation — restoring and modernizing its landmark buildings like the 19th- century Music Hall and the Art Deco Union Terminal. We’ll begin seeing the results of that soon; Music Hall reopens Oct. 6-7. But not all cities have…
Former Clydesdale farm hosts vintage market
Nearly two decades ago, the 56-acre farm that Amy Doyle calls home with her husband and three young children was used to raise champion Budweiser Clydesdales, whose names are still emblazoned on the stalls inside their barn. But today, a different vision — Doyle’s — is manifested on the Lebanon, Ohio farm: a seasonal vintage…
A ‘Good Time’ for Robert Pattinson’s Reinvention
All that glitters… well, forget that old saying, because in Good Time, from the brothers Safdie (Josh and Benny), there isn’t a single frame of glitz or glam, which says quite a bit considering that Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson takes center stage for a significant amount of the film’s running time. Pattinson plays Connie, the older brother of…
Fall Arts Preview
Fall is such a big season for the arts in Cincinnati that those planning the shows, concerts, film festivals, stage performances, art exhibits and other events have been preparing all year long. In many cases, such as the pending reopening of Music Hall and the opening of Cincinnati Shakespeare Company's new home, they've been planning their Fall…
Music Hall Redux
The Classical music season promises to be exciting and innovative, and not only because Music Hall reopens Oct. 6. There is much else. But there’s no question that the grand reopening is the centerpiece, with programming that gives the resident ensembles plenty of opportunities to show off the building’s upgrades. (Look for a detailed report on…
25 More Fall Arts Picks
VISUAL ART: JACK ARTHUR WOOD JR. The Camp Washington gallery Hudson Jones has reopened for the 2017-18 season with a show, Meet Me at the Horizon, of 125 vivid, screenprint-inspired paintings on panel by Cincinnati artist Jack Arthur Wood Jr. In these relatively small pieces, Wood creates images rooted in landscape with little regard for traditional figuration. He…
Fight continues over Franklin’s removed Robert E. Lee monument
Somewhere in Warren County, Robert E. Lee is hiding out, waiting for controversy to die down after absconding in the night. Not the real Lee, of course — he’s been quite dead since 1870. But in the early morning hours of Aug. 16, crews working for the city of Franklin removed a plaque with his…
Well-Seasoned Comedy
In one sense, the past eight months of having Donald Trump as our president have been an endless source of comedic entertainment, and yet in another we’ve somehow been transformed into lemmings, laughing all the way to the precipice. We need a more satisfying brand of comedy, something that makes us laugh and think without the…
The Play’s the Thing
We go to the theater to meet interesting people. Not those friends we run into in the lobby — I’m referring to the characters on the stage. This fall, Cincinnati theaters will conjure up a multitude of fascinating characters ready to make your acquaintance. As the theater season opens, the big name is Shakespeare. Cincinnati Shakespeare…
Take Time to ‘BLINK’
There are two especially noteworthy and eagerly awaited museum exhibits on tap for Cincinnati this fall — retrospectives of work by the avant-garde Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen at the Cincinnati Art Museum and the idealistic, community-minded street artist Swoon at the Contemporary Arts Center. But the single biggest and most ambitious visual art event…
Late Night Pizza Party
The Chameleon is a Northside bar where folks go to get their drink and dance on, play pool and enjoy some fresh air on the patio. But recently the nightlife hot spot introduced a new food menu. It consists mainly of pizza and wings, which sounds just about right for a bar, but the comparison…
Let’s Go Glamping
We may never know if it was the day Cady Heron of Mean Girls finally talked to Aaron Samuels in calculus class (she says “grool,” unable to decipher great and cool) or if it was Brangelina (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) who popularized the portmanteau — a term for two words united as one. But we do…
Shocking Revelations in ‘Game of Thrones’
Game of Thrones (Season Finale, 9 p.m. Sunday, HBO) is such a quintessentially fan-centric show. Few other series incite such a rabid following. The ultimate fans can dive into the books and the show, delving into the etymology in agonizing detail and comparing clever observations and wild assumptions after each episode airs (or, in this season’s…
