The Weird and the Wonderful at New York City Museums
On my trip last week to New York City, I bypassed the blockbuster shows at the major art museums in favor of secondary shows and institutions. Secondary in visibility, maybe, in America’s busiest arts city, but not in quality. In fact, every institution — in different ways — was pushing its own envelope in order…
Gala Gallantry
Galas mean celebrations, and this year’s ninth annual Gala of International Dance Stars brings not only a thrilling evening of dance for the audience but also excitement for the classically trained professional performers. Presented by ballet tech cincinnati at the Aronoff Center, the Gala offers a powerhouse pack of extraordinary dancers hand-picked from top companies…
Music: Tegan and Sara
Most bands aspire to a large fan base that will eventually turn out in headliner-defining numbers, making its opening slot status a relic of leaner, hungrier times. The Canadian Indie/Folk/Pop twins of Tegan and Sara are certainly eager to attract more fans but they have absolutely no interest in abandoning their role as an opening…
Fuel for Thought
Ollie Kroner’s car doesn’t look all that different. True, a mid-1980s Mercedes sedan in decent shape will turn a few heads but it’s not the kind of vehicle meant to draw attention. There is the emblem, though: a few letters added as a prefix to the engine designation on the trunk, turning “turbodiesel” into “bioturbodiesel.”…
Paula Kirk [Paula’s Café]
Paula Kirk, owner of Downtown’s Paula’s Cafe since 1989, is loyal to her fellow chefs. When I tell her that Jean Robert de Cavel honked angrily at me for jaywalking at lunchtime, she rushes to defend him and eventually makes me feel grateful that he taught me a lesson in good citizenship. Hey, wait a…
Sultan’s Mediterranean (Review)
Critic's Pick We often lament that Cincinnati restaurants featuring very ethnic (or creative) menus seem to have difficulty gaining traction and a consistent audience. Fortunately, it looks like Sultan’s Mediterranean Cuisine might prove an exception to this regrettable rule. Ethnic cuisine is its bread and butter, or “pita and olive oil,” if you will. The…
Happy to Be Here
Exiled from Main Street XXXI: For Maximilian Thomas Winterhalter There’s an ambulance with active siren ramming into the sides of my skull while a sunburnt diver stands ready but unable to leap from the sand trap that is my tongue. We know each other all too well. I flop out of bed while groaning. Walk to…
Sheryl Crow: 100 Miles from Memphis
Each new triumph that Sheryl Crow has notched in her career has been slightly more unlikely than the last. Not many elementary school music teachers have lucrative jingle singing gigs, and even fewer parlay that success into a back-up vocalist slot with Michael Jackson. Crow’s official 1993 debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club, barely made…
Big Head Todd & the Monsters: Rocksteady
Big Head Todd & the Monsters roared into the public consciousness with their third album, 1993’s Sister Sweetly, a ferocious Blues/Classic Rock masterstroke and an album that the Denver trio has been trying to live up to for the past 17 years. They might have come as close as they ever have on 2007’s All…
20 Years/20 Artists (Review)
The Art Academy of Cincinnati celebrates the first and hopefully not the last 20 years of a program that is one of a kind in the Tristate. 20 Years/20 Artists showcases the work of artists who have received a city of Cincinnati Individual Artist Grant. With the city trimming its budget, the grant program met…
Tegan and Sara with Paramore
Most bands aspire to a large fan base that will eventually turn out in headliner-defining numbers, making its opening slot status a relic of leaner, hungrier times. The Canadian Indie/Folk/Pop twins of Tegan and Sara are certainly eager to attract more fans but they have absolutely no interest in abandoning their role as an opening…
Solar Compactors and GOP Ethics
WINNERS AND LOSERS [WINNER] SOLAR COMPACTORS: The city of Cincinnati recently used $88,000 in grant money to buy 20 solar-powered trash compactors that have been placed in locations around town. (We saw a few in downtown's Piatt Park.) Although critics allege the $4,400 per compactor cost is high, we agree with supporters who noted that…
Art: 20 Years/20 Artists at the Art Academy
The Art Academy of Cincinnati celebrates the first and hopefully not the last 20 years of a program that is one of a kind in the Tristate. 20 Years/20 Artists showcases the work of artists who have received a city of Cincinnati Individual Artist Grant. With the city trimming its budget, the grant program met…
Tegan and Sara Open Up
Most bands aspire to a large fan base that will eventually turn out in headliner-defining numbers, making its opening slot status a relic of leaner, hungrier times. The Canadian Indie/Folk/Pop twins of Tegan and Sara are certainly eager to attract more fans but they have absolutely no interest in abandoning their role as an opening…
The Spanish Reps
At Vanguard Distributing’s recent wine trade show, I got to meet Jose Pastor, the 29-year-old face of his family’s Spanish wine import business. With his tinted rectangular glasses and baseball cap hiding what appears to be a thick head of unruly black hair, he could easily pass for the Food Channel’s newest hipster celebrity chef.…
Music: Flesh Vehicle
If singer/songwriter/guitarist John Davis is the face and voice of Knoxville’s criminally underrated Pop Rock heroes Superdrag, then Tom Pappas is the pulsing vein, the bouncing stage presence and, most definitely, the unruly hair of the band (Pappas is kinda Bootsy to John’s George Clinton). Pappas was Superdrag’s original bassist, but left the band in…
Onstage: Garrison Keillor’s ‘A Prairie Home Companion’ Summer Love Tour
Radio star Garrison Keillor presents his brand of offbeat, Midwestern weirdness with a twist of romance in this critically acclaimed performance of his public radio show A Prairie Home Companion. Expect classic croons as well as new installments of Guy Noir, Dusty & Lefty and News from Lake Wobegon, where “all the women are strong,…
Comedy: Jimmy Pardo
While you can make a good living doing stand-up, it’s not always rock steady work; just ask Jimmy Pardo. While he’s never had trouble filling clubs across America, it was that very success that helped get him a permanent gig warming up the crowd for Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show. The fact that he hosts a…
Boris with Russian Circles
Make a car and the Japanese will find a way to improve it. Build an electronic device and the Japanese will find a way to make it smaller and more efficient. Make a loud and dirty Rock noise and the Japanese will find a way to make it louder and dirtier and potentially lethal within…
Sheryl Crow, Francis and the Lights, Jimmy Gnecco, Big Head Todd & the Monsters, Ruth Gerson and Frazey Ford
To quote the effervescent Dame Edna, "Good night, possums!" I’m heading up to Michigan for two glorious weeks of R&R, although I will be taking a handful of CDs up to review while I’m vacationing, and those will be the reviews you’ll read when I’m back in the saddle later this month. The difference, of…
Events: Great Inland Seafood Festival
I like seafood. Do you like seafood? Obviously someone does since the Great Inland Seafood Festival is taking place for the 24th year on Riverboat Row in Newport Kentucky. There will be over 15 local restaurants selling their best and freshest shrimp, crawfish, crab legs, oysters… really the list goes on and on but we…
Events: Hamilton County Fair
Nothing says summer more than a county fair, and the Hamilton County Fair is ready to start up for the 155th time. Last years attendance was up 56 percent from 2008, and they look forward to an even bigger turnout. There will be plenty of rides, contests, live entertainment and fair food classics like funnel…
Events: Get Down
Friday nights only come around once a week, so selecting the best parties to attend can be a tough decision. Not this week. Presented by PROJECTMILL (the creative minds that spawned Dance_MF at Northside Tavern), Get Down is a curious dance party held in the undergrounds of FB’s downtown. The basement of this Alice in…
Music: Boris with Russian Circles
Make a car and the Japanese will find a way to improve it. Build an electronic device and the Japanese will find a way to make it smaller and more efficient. Make a loud and dirty Rock noise and the Japanese will find a way to make it louder and dirtier and potentially lethal within…
Art: Mark Patsfall at Weston Gallery
Mark Patsfall, director of Clay Street Press and one of Cincinnati's most imaginative and accomplished artists in his own right, gets a chance to display just how intriguing his work can be with his contributions to The House in My Head, the multi-artist exhibition at downtown's Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts at 650 Walnut St. While he contributes three arresting graphic works, including a remarkably witty vision of modernist architecture merged with Jackson Pollock-style painting, his two larger,…
Art: Morning Star at Country Club
Mark Harris has returned to painting for his new exhibition Morning Star at Country Club gallery, opening this Friday with a reception from 7-9 pm. Harris has invented a sidelong relationship to these paintings (and a series of accompanying drawings) that are more conceptual project than romantic studio practice. Using Dick Fairfield’s 1970 book Modern…
Sports: ATP Tennis Tournament
The world’s top tennis players take the first serve at this year’s Western & Southern Financial Group Masters at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason. This tournament is among the top 10 tennis tournaments in the world with prize pursed to match. With the exception of the Williams sisters, who are both out due…
Music: Eastern Blok
Take a look at the list of influences that Serbian guitar master Goran Ivanovic claims on the MySpace page of his great gypsy Jazz/World group, Eastern Blok, and you can form an interesting opinion based on that information. First, a good many of his countrymen show up on the list, so if you guessed that…
2010 MPMF Schedule Released
The names of many of the performers for this year’s MidPoint Music Festival (coming up Sept. 23-25) have been leaking out gradually over the past few months, but the first official schedule is now available at mpmf.com. The interactive grid allows you to choose Thursday, Friday or Saturday's lineups and scroll across the 26 venues,…
Eastern Blok
Take a look at the list of influences that Serbian guitar master Goran Ivanovic claims on the MySpace page of his great gypsy Jazz/World group, Eastern Blok, and you can form an interesting opinion based on that information. First, a good many of his countrymen show up on the list, so if you guessed that…
Music: MidPoint Indie Summer Featuring Buffalo Killers
Well, well, well…what do this weekend? Maybe some summer cleaning? I’ve been putting that off successfully for about two months now. Go to the pool? It is going to be 90 degrees outside but I’m not gonna shell out eight bucks to wade in urine while a bunch of tots scream their heads off. I…
Onstage: Songs For a New World
We haven’t heard much this year from Jersey Productions, a company that has offered summertime musicals for four seasons to entertain local audiences, first at the Carnegie in Covington and more recently at the Aronoff Center’s Jarson-Kaplan Theater. Truth to tell, the small company has been working hard to raise funds to keep things going,…
R.I.P. Michele “II Juicy” Feaster
Cincinnati lost another excellent musician and performer over the weekend. Michele Feaster, singer for the Blues/R&B band II Juicy (which took its moniker from Michele's nickname) passed away on Aug. 7 after battling cancer for the past four months. —- It's been a very sad summer in terms of losing some of our finest musicians…
CEA Theater Voting Ends Today
Public voting for the 2010 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards for Theater ends at midnight tonight. The public determines winners in 18 categories, while a panel of local theater critics chooses recipients in eight addition "Critical Achievement" categories. See Rick Pender's Curtain Call column from last week for an overview of the nominated shows and theater companies, including…
Broadway Bloggin’: Day 4
Kind of a lazy Saturday. The hustle and bustle around Manhattan’s theater district subsides somewhat on the weekends, at least on Saturday morning before the tourists wake up. Wandered down to 40th Street to browse in the Drama Book Shop, an historic hangout for actors and writers, but a wonderful store for anyone who loves…
Broadway Bloggin’: Day 3
Before heading to South Pacific, I took a Friday morning excursion to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (better known today as BAM) and toured some of their historic facilities, including an old theater repurposed by dividing it into four small cinema spaces and a nearby building, dubbed The Harvey (for administrator Harvey Lichtenstein, who ran…
Broadway Bloggin’: Day 2
It’s hot and humid in New York City. Even a walk through Central Park didn’t offer much respite. I found a few stores and public spaces I could duck into to cool off and I met a friend who writes for the TheaterMania Web site at a Starbucks, so I had a few escapes. Early…
Legal Aid Offers Free Clinics
People who want to apply for the state of Ohio's new high-risk medical insurance pool can get free help at two upcoming events. As part of recent health-care reforms, the state launched the high-risk insurance pool Aug. 1. The program is designed to offer affordable coverage to individuals who have been denied coverage in the…
Catfish Collins 1944-2010
We received word this afternoon that legendary Funk guitarist and Cincinnati native Phelps “Catfish” Collins succumbed to cancer today at the age of 66. Collins (along his younger brother Bootsy) was an architect of Funk as a member of James Brown’s JB’s, Parliament/Funkadelic (fellow P-Funk guitarist Gary Shider passed away just a couple of months…
Friday Movie Roundup: Death of the Video Store
With the rise of Netflix, Redbox and ever-expanding streaming-video options, old-school brick-and-mortar video stores are likely to be extinct by the end of next year. Say what you will about the evils of a behemoth like Blockbuster, but this can't be a positive development. And I don't say that from a purely nostalgic point of…
State Song Releases Stunning New Album
I keep waiting to receive a new release from the locally-based label Phratry Records that is subpar. The label — specializing in Indie/Post Punk/Punk-flavored sounds — is celebrating its sixth anniversary this month and its next release is its 22nd so far. The law of averages would suggest that, especially given the imprint’s increased output…
Cincy Blues Fest Night 1
The Cincy Blues Fest returns to Sawyer Point Friday and Saturday. Along with some quality headliners — Joe Louis Walker, Alexis P. Suter Band, Rick Estrin & the Nightcats, David Maxwell Maximum Blues Band, The Insomniacs, Candye Kane (read Brian Baker's interview with her here) and Shane Dwight — organizers from the Cincy Blues Society…
Events: Northside Pride Fest
This year's Cincinnati Pride Week was surrounded by some controversy as it coincided with Fourth of July and many of the festivities moved Downtown. This Saturday Northside reclaims Pride Fest with tons of live music, drag shows, comedy and partying. The celegaytion starts at noon in Hoffner Park. While most Northside businesses will be celebrating…
Cincy Blues Fest Night 2
The Cincy Blues Fest returns to Sawyer Point Friday and Saturday. Along with quality headliners (Joe Louis Walker, Alexis P. Suter Band, Rick Estrin & the Nightcats, David Maxwell Maximum Blues Band, The Insomniacs, Candye Kane and Shane Dwight), organizers from the Cincy Blues Society will once again present some cool side-stage offerings and loads…
Stage Door: Reunions and a Nerd
If I were in Cincinnati this weekend (I'm in New York catching up on a few Broadway shows), I'd probably make two stops at local theaters.—- There's an independent production of a new script, Riding Shotgun, at Northern Kentucky University. It's a kind of buddy story, about four guys 30 years after high school graduation…
Free Trees to Good Homes
If your yard could use a little more greenery or you're interested in helping people in the urban core breath a little easier, the Cincinnati Park Board has a deal for you.—- As part of the Park Board's “Fall ReLeaf” urban forestry program, applications are being accepted from property owners who would like to get…
Mid-August Lunch (Review)
Watching this lauded but fatally slight comedy of manners about a middle-aged Italian who finds himself caring for four spunky old dames, it's hard to believe writer, director and star Gianni Di Gregorio also co-wrote the bloody mafia hit Gomorrah. Amiably self-deprecating to a fault, the semi-autobiographical Mid-August Lunch features Di Gregorio as Gianni, an…
Ajami (Review)
The writing/directing duo of Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti take on a hornet's nest of divergent cultural issues and social problems in Jaffa's Ajami neighborhood. The ancient city of Jaffa is a famous melting pot. Jews, Muslims and Christians coexist and collide amid an atmosphere of drugs, violence and religious discipline. Over the course of…
Music: Spoon
Spoon is the Pete Rose of Indie Rock: consistently strong performers year after year, album after album, show after show. The Austin-based quartet founded by singer/guitarist Britt Daniel has been forcing its will on discerning listeners for more than 15 years now, a slow build that culminated in its last two albums — 2007's Ga…
Full MidPoint Schedule Released Friday
If you’ve been following the MidPoint Music Festival’s Twitter feed and Facebook page and keeping an eye on the official Web site (mpmf.com), you’ve been privy to a gradual stream of information about the artists performing at this year’s fest, coming up Sept. 23-25 in venues around Downtown and Over-the-Rhine, as well as the Southgate…
Broadway Bloggin’: Day 1
(CityBeat contributing editor/theater critic Rick Pender is in New York City for a few days, checking out the latest Broadway has to offer. Below is his first report from the frontlines of the Great White Way.)—- Travel: Boy, is Cincinnati’s airport a ghost town these days. My flight on Wednesday morning had me wandering through…
Greens Want to Join Debate
If they're good enough to qualify as a minor political party in Ohio, then they're good enough to be included in the gubernatorial debate. That's the philosophy of Ohio Green Party leaders and the decision to exclude its gubernatorial candidate, Dennis Spisak, from a debate between Democratic incumbent Ted Strickland and Republican challenger John Kasich.—-…
Northside Reclaims Pride Fest
This year's Cincinnati Pride Week was surrounded by some controversy as it coincided with Fourth of July and many of the festivities moved Downtown. This Saturday, Aug. 7, Northside reclaims Pride Fest with tons of live music, drag shows, comedy and partying. The celegaytion starts at noon in Hoffner Park.—- While most Northside businesses will…
Ozz/Wedding Fest, Beat Down and Iranian Music
[HOT] Bat Head Hors D'oeuvres Cost Extra Ozzy Osbourne’s handlers win the prize for best moneymaking gimmick this underperforming summer concert season, offering “Unholy Matrimony” wedding packages at the six U.S. Ozzfest tour stops (three have already sold out). For the ungodly amount of $2,666, the bride and groom get 10 “pit” tickets, a backstage…
July 28-August 3: Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY JULY 28 Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis today added “published writer” to his list of accomplishes in life %u2015 right between convicter of Jerry Springer and temporary convicter of Larry Flynt %u2015 when he described in an Enquirer editorial how a recent visit to Portland, Ore., made him change his mind about the proposed Cincinnati streetcar.…
MPMF 2010 Schedule Coming Soon
The names of many of the performers for this year’s MidPoint Music Festival (coming up Sept. 23-25) have been leaking out gradually over the past few months. But this Friday, mpmf.com will unveil a new interactive schedule with all of the artists scheduled to play the event. If you haven’t been privy to the acts…
Conservative Icons Bash Tax Cut Plan
Y ou know when the two men many conservatives have most admired on economic issues during the past 30 years say extending the Bush tax cuts would be harmful, it truly must be a dreadful idea. But that’s exactly what Alan Greenspan and David Stockman believe. Greenspan is the former chairman of the Federal Reserve…
Brother, Can You Spare Some Ideas?
Hamilton County officials are asking residents for help in determining what course of action to take to solve some of the most severe budget issues the county has ever faced. Ideas about what residents expect from county government and how they would solve funding dilemmas are being solicited through the 2011 Hamilton County Citizens Survey.…
The Bus Ride from Hell
Standing at the bus stop at Dixie Highway and Commonwealth in Erlanger to get back to Cincinnati was becoming torturous. It was mid-afternoon, hot as hell and the bus was late. When it finally arrived, it was crowded. In fact, standing room only. When I put my change in the slot, the bus driver noticed…
The Other Guys (Review)
Desk jockey detectives Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) stumble onto the heroic forefront in Adam McKay’s latest laughfest collaboration (Anchorman, Step Brothers) with Ferrell. [Read tt stern-enzi's feature story on Will Ferrell's recent path to The Other Guys here.] With the brash bad boys of crime fighting, Detectives Danson (Dwayne Johnson)…
On the House
From the exterior, Northside House — the new gallery that just opened on Colerain Avenue — looks exactly the way its name sounds: a nondescript red-brick house on a residential street. I accidentally drove past it. Within the weathered walls of this 1880 shotgun-style house, however, awaits an unusual experience for those adventurous enough to…
Chilo Lock 34 Park Hike
Key At-A-Glance Information Length: 1 milesConfiguration: LoopDifficulty: EasyScenery: Crooked Run embayment, Ohio Rive, woods and wetlandsExposure: Mostly shaded except for meadow areaTraffic: Moderate-heavyTrail Surface: Gravel and dirtHiking Time: 1 hourDriving Distance: Less than 1 mile east of Chilo on US 52Access: Dawn-duskMaps: USGS MoscowWheelchair Accessible: NoFacilities: Restrooms and water in Chilo Lock 34 Visitor Center…
Dan Listermann [Listermann Manufacturing Co.]
Dan Listermann’s supply shop near Xavier University has been a mecca for beer and wine “do-it-yourselfers” since 1995. In fact, he’s like a pied piper of home brewing and many of his customers are in the vanguard of Cincinnati’s craft brew renaissance, including Mt. Carmel and Rivertown. Dan got his own commercial brewing license in…
Engulfed
Editor's Note: In July, local photographer Cathryn Lovely and writer Judy George traveled to Hopedale and Grand Isle, La. What they found were two towns coming to terms with the idea that their waterways, their fish, their birds, their privacy, their sense of community — essentially, their ways of life — would be swallowed up…
Spoon Charts Its Own Course
Spoon is the Pete Rose of Indie Rock: consistently strong performers year after year, album after album, show after show. The Austin-based quartet founded by singer/guitarist Britt Daniel has been forcing its will on discerning listeners for more than 15 years now, a slow build that culminated in its last two albums — 2007's Ga…
The Cab at the Warped Tour
The Cab is an American rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada , signed to Decaydance Records . Their first album, Whisper War , was released on April 29, 2008. We caught up with guitarist and piano player Alex Marshall before Warped Tour to discuss their tour experiences and what is next on the horizon with their…
Kim Taylor Returns Home Friday
We caught up with local singer/songwriter Kim Taylor after her show at HullabaLOU Music Festival at Churchill Downs in Lousiville a few weeks ago. We wanted to get the scoop on her new album, Little Miracle. Kim has been working on new music and will release her latest recording Friday night at Northside Tavern Her…
Legendary Herzog Studio Space Comes Alive
The downtown space that once housed Herzog Studios — the facilities used to record legendary songs by the likes of Flatt and Scruggs, The Delmore Brothers and, most famously, Hank Williams (along with many others) — is going into flashback mode at the end of this month, when, for the first time in many decades,…
