Sound Advice: Cowboy Mouth and Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
Cowboy Mouth Thursday • Madison Theater It's been another eventful year for New Orleans Rock/Roots band Cowboy Mouth and their revolving door lineup. The quartet's founding members — frontman/drummer Fred LeBlanc and guitarist/vocalist John Thomas Griffith (formerly of the Red Rockers … ye gads, remember them?) — confronted another round of vacancies with the departures…
CityBeat Recommends
THURSDAY 8/28 ART: CLIFTON CULTURAL ARTS CENTER Thursday marks the opening of the Clifton Cultural Arts Center's first exhibition, the immense project entitled Floodwall by artist Jana Napoli. This, the installation's Midwest debut, marks the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the source and cause of the artwork. Napoli has collected hundreds of empty drawers that…
Sorrento’s Pizza (Review)
Critic's Pick The only thing thicker than blood is pizza sauce. Combine the two, and you have a recipe for Sorrento's Pizzeria. Pizza has often been synonymous with one family in our city, the LaRosas, but the De Luca family has been spinning the dough at Sorrento's just about as long. Just two years after…
Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY AUG. 20 With gay marriage now legalized in certain liberal, left-wing, radical, God-hating states in America, many companies are taking advantage of the expensive formality that is an American wedding. The Kansas City Star reported today that Hallmark is the latest company to market to the gay wedding industry, introducing four gay congratulation cards…
Fall Arts Preview: Theater
Many theaters presume a strong season must begin with a bang — or at least with music. So you'll find musical theater productions on four of Cincinnati's most visible stages in the near future. The Cincinnati Playhouse gets things rolling with Emma (Sept. 2-Oct. 3), a musicalized version of Jane Austen's best-seller from 1817. It's…
Living Out Loud
Ooh ooh, love hurts. This relationship I'm having with a woman I love isn't working out. It's basically over. The reality is it's been over for months, but we kept trying — or maybe I should say I kept trying — to make it work. I finally realized in my head just recently it simply…
Grace, Slick
There are moments in a musician's life when reality becomes so unreal that they know they've finally made it. One might think trading solos with Prince during a late-night jam session at the legendary hitmaker's home might be one of these moments, but for Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine and guitarist James Valentine, it's actually…
Fall Arts Preview: Classical Music
The days are hot and muggy, the Reds are in last place, the Bengals are limping into their regular schedule with a hopeful eye on a .500 year and our lawns are hay fields from the lack of rain. What is there to anticipate in this season of wither? The fall Classical programs, naturally, where…
State of the Art (House)
Film is the toughest of all art forms. The amount of money and people necessary to create a feature-length movie inevitably leads to compromise, often at the expense of a filmmaker's original vision. And that's if an idea even gets off the ground. Anyone who's been to film school knows the mantra: "The odds that…
Fall Arts Preview: Visual Arts
As the fall visual arts season starts in earnest, all eyes will be on downtown's Contemporary Arts Center, where Director/Chief Curator Raphaela Platow's plan to move the museum away from problematic group shows to single-artist exhibitions gets its first test. On Sept. 27, two shows open simultaneously — the first U.S. solo exhibition of work…
Sports
If we didn't learn anything about China from the just-finished Olympic Games, it's because the games confirmed our pre-existing suspicions. China spared no expense or oppression to put on a dazzling show. We're supposed to be impressed, but we're more like irritated and bemused. We were supposed to see the craft of a mighty nation,…
Spill It
This weekend offers a great chance to get out and catch some local original bands via three music fests spotlighting various genres prominent in Greater Cincinnati.
Life and Death Election
Thanks for Tom Hayden's "Dreams of Obama" essay (issue of Aug. 20). I'd like to add something for people who either don't intend to vote or are thinking of voting for John McCain. The Bush administration, with its military aggressions and torture, has taken this country to the "dark side." McCain, from all indications, would…
Can We Just Eat?
Earlier this summer I had the opportunity to go on a rather grueling spiritual retreat at Hope Springs Institute, 130 acres of pristine country in the foothills of Appalachia. From the brochure, the retreat sounded romantic. It spoke of returning to the heart and of pleasant activities like yoga, sacred space and walking meditation. Mmm,…
Howard Brothers Band (Profile)
Hanging with the Howard Brothers Band is like time tripping through calendars past. To drive home the point, guitarist/vocalist Steve Howard, his bassist brother Aaron and their uncle, drummer Tim Blankenship, draw me into a foosball game in the basement of Mason's Brazenhead Cafe at the start of our interview. I haven't touched a foosball…
The Road to Wellness
Discuss health care reform with Cincinnati area legislators and candidates. Food, music and activities for kids provided. Theo Barnes, Louis Blessing Jr., Denise Driehaus, Adam Noe and Jeff Sinnard are slated to attend. Free. 1:30-3:30 p.m. Sept. 6. Bush Recreation Center, 2640 Kemper Lane, Walnut Hills. 513-321-2518. Send your mind, body and spirit events to…
Big Chick Pimpin’
Although a couple of spins through Bofa Deez, the debut CD from Chick Pimp, Coke Dealer at a Bar, will inspire a good many questions, one look at the cover generates the logical first one: What the hell is up with the name? "We started jamming as a three piece improv, and people were like,…
Election and The Arts
Election season and arts seasons kick off just after Labor Day, so I love this time of year. Voting and enjoying the arts are two of my absolute favorite things in life. It's no coincidence that politics and the arts are two key areas of coverage in CityBeat. Maybe I modeled the paper after my…
Wessels
I was in a car accident again. I'm like a magnet for bad drivers. I've never specifically caused an accident in my life, but I have managed to be in four minor ones (that I can recall) since I got my driver's license about 17 years ago. The latest came on Aug. 19 with my…
Fall Arts Preview: Dance
Any somberness I feel about summer coming to a close is alleviated by the onset of the fall dance season. From contemporary to ballet and their hybrids, there's much to look forward to. Contemporary Dance Theater, the area's go-to organization for quality modern dance offerings, kicks off its Guest Artist Series with the esteemed Lar…
A Campy Camp Washington for the 21st Century
Outdoor murals have become an excellent artistic way for cities, especially those with older neighborhoods, to fight the urban blight and aesthetic depression that comes from vacant buildings, ugly commercial billboards, industrial abandonment and just plain aging. They are, when done right, an inspirational gift of beauty and brightness. But they can also fall prey…
State of the Arts: Reaching Out
What's happening to the arts audience in Cincinnati? Is it the same group of stalwarts — loyal and interested but inevitably growing older — or is there an infusion of new people with new expectations? CityBeat invited a group of arts professionals to a roundtable discussion on outreach, education and where the next generation of…
Porkopolis
Most Americans won't admit it, but the United States could learn a thing or two about democracy and holding better elections from other nations. As Democrats met this week in Denver to formally nominate Barack Obama as their presidential candidate, one of the other people grabbing headlines in the Mile High City was Ohio Secretary…
State of the Arts: Talking the Talk
Margy Waller wants to have a conversation with you about the kind of community you live in and want to build. About how you want your children to grow up. About how the region's arts and culture resources help you accomplish those goals. As the daughter of two Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra musicians, Waller grew up…
Cover Story: Fall Arts Calendar
Art Galleries & Exhibits AISLE GALLERY 424 Findlay St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-241-3404 TBA (Check weekly CityBeat listings for exhibits) AQUARIUS STAR 1218 Sycamore St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-381-3436 Sand Mandala for Peace creatd by Tibetan Monks (Sept. 2-7) ART BEYOND BOUNDARIES 1410 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-421-8726 Houdini's Box: The Magic of Photography (Sept. 26-Nov. 14) Changing Perceptions: Two…
Unpleasant Dispute
Another proposal was recently submitted in a 22-year-old legal battle over how to clean up a toxic chemical dumping site in Pleasant Ridge, but community leaders say it still isn't sufficient. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) met Aug. 14 with both sides in the dispute over the Emerald Hilton Davis industrial site. The agency…
‘A Perfect Fit’
From two buildings to one, from two bathrooms in the basement to multiple "water closets" on every floor, from lab tables to a lab with all the latest gadgets, the teachers and students at Fairview-Clifton German Language School are getting to know the differences a new building can make. The new Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS)…
