News: Traveling Mercies
Jymi Bolden When traveling overseas for vacation or business, airline passengers can help orphanages and other charities by carrying a suitcase, according to Jim Berns. How much does a good deed weigh? Up to 70 pounds, according to Jim Berns, founder of Travel Donations, a charity that uses airline regulations and travelers' goodwill to…
Good Reads
Almost No Memory by Lydia Davis His and hers. Unlike cocktail dresses and athletic supporters, most books defy obvious gender bias. Similarly, girls don't write always for girls, nor guys for guys. In my conversations with authors, many don't have one half of the population or the other in mind when writing. Some even…
Film: Shaken, Stirred, Stuffed
Woodrow J. Hinton Every past James Bond, Sean Connery, Roger Moore and George Lazenby, has their day at the epic Bond. James Bond exhibition currently at Detroit's Henry Ford Museum. It only takes three words for this museum exhibit to conjure up a whole world: "Bond. James Bond." Few artists have this kind of…
Diner: Reconnecting
I'm squeezing into a long table with people of every age and nationality. We share little in common besides the place and time, the healthy glow on our faces and the heaping plates of food before us. Beautiful tuna nori rolls, curries of shark and coconut and pineapple, red cabbage and carrot salad, spicy Thai…
89: Out on the Town Organic fun, the Blues Festival and an unfocused night out
Saturday afternoon I found myself in the position to dive into a grocery store for a quickie appetizer to take to my friends' place, as there was neither time nor energy to go home and make it from scratch. I had just finished a late lunch at Trio's in Kenwood but figured the best bet…
No Convergence
Two weeks ago I stood on the stage at Fountain Square looking out at 100 or more of the city's young professionals. They were manning tables at the Chamber of Commerce's YP Cincy event and pitching the lunchtime crowd on their various business, social and arts orgainzations. The diversity and enthusiasm were amazing — young…
Music: Spray, Scratch, Spit, Spin
It's all about heart and unity: The ever-growing Scribble Jam offers black and white boys and girls a sampling of the "elements of Hip Hop." Anyone who's into Hip Hop and its surrounding culture is no doubt already well aware that Aug. 7-10 marks the return of the annual Scribble Jam festival to Cincinnati.…
Writer’s Block
For JACK KERLEY, it's a numbers game. The Northern Kentucky writer had to get to THE HUNDREDTH MAN before sealing a $500,000 book contract with Dutton, a national publishing house. After seven years toiling away at his fiction writing, Kerley went from agent to sale in 10 days. "I think it is the writer's dream…
Big Black, Not the Band
I'm a 19-year-old girl dating a 21-year-old guy. We've been dating for a year and a half, love each other dearly, have a great time together. In bed the other night, my sweet boyfriend let me put a vibrator in his ass. He wanted to do it to me, so I told him (invoking some…
News: Ingathering of the Activists
Jymi Bolden Planning an anti-globalization conference are (L-R) Alanna Douherty, Eira Tansey, Zach Fisher, Mike Weigand and Ya-sin Southall. The resistance community in Cincinnati can be described with one word, according to Ya-sin Southall, Michael Weigand and Ryan Donohue: "scattered." The trio has decided to do something about it. During three days in October…
Locals Only: : Moot
Moot In any city's music scene, there's usually an overabundance of angst-driven Hard Rock acts with obnoxiously distorted guitars, simple root-note bass lines, the typical drumbeats for banging your head and screaming vocalists with little or nothing of any intellect to say. Occasionally you might find an act within this cornucopia that exceeds these…
