Tasteless Marketing and Other Holiday Bargains
Sean Hughes/photopresse.com If you think shopping is torture, at least no one rips off your skin to make a pretty coat. The marketing pitch for a new consumer service at Kroger stores is so crass and offensive that, at first glance, it seems it must be a gag. "The Wine Guide," an Epson computer program…
Diner: All-You-Can-Meat
Dinner at Chung Kiwha will stick with you long after you've left. Step into the dining room and the smell of meat cooking will become one with your clothes. Chung Kiwha, open since 1998 in Florence, serves traditional Korean barbecue. This involves cooking over small grills in tables fueled with wood charcoal, giving food a…
Cover Story: The Visitors
The Big Chill Dr. Mohammed Shamma is considered a patriarch within Greater Cincinnati's Muslim and Middle Eastern community. When he hears that the FBI and even the CIA have been making surprise visits in the area, he always tells fellow Muslims, "We have nothing to hide." Like many other Ohio Muslims, Middle Easterners and Christian…
Giving Aid and Comfort to the Facts
Kudos to WLWT (Channel 5) and NBC for broadcasting Kevin Sites' videotape of a U.S. marine killing a wounded man identified as an Iraqi terrorist. We did not see the Iraqi's shuddering body as point-blank rounds hit, or blood spurting. NBC blacked it out. Good news judgment. This isn't a video game for children. Instead,…
What Can Brown Do for You?
These aren't your vice mayor's black firefighters. They're not the lifesavers, unbeknownst to them, vengefully co-opted and "dispatched" in a threat leveled by Alicia Reece to settle and salve her wounds after I wrote "Get Back" (issue of April 18-24, 2002). Reece said she knew some black firefighters who'd kick my ass. I've yet to…
Numerology
Numerology is an ancient spiritual science organized by Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher and mathematician. The fundamental premise is that the universe is an orderly system, and numbers reflect that orderliness. Numerology relates numbers to various characteristics and a practical method of revealing your deeper nature including your strengths, weaknesses, tendencies, talents and general life circumstances.…
Betsy Chasse is a What tHe #$*! (Bleep) director and a believer
Betsy Chasse Director Betsy Chasse understands the phenomenon over her quantum-physics-meets-new-age-spirituality documentary What tHe #$*! (Bleep) Do wE (k)now!? from both sides. As Bleep's co-director and co-writer, Chasse says she convinced co-directors Mark Vicente and William Arntz to mix its straightforward interviews of scientists and mystics with funny animation and clever special effects. Chasse also…
News: A Forest Saved
Tim Simmons Elsie Beekley signs an easement preserving an old-growth forest overlooking the Ohio River. One more hilltop along the Ohio River will remain pristine, thanks to the foresight of a vigorous octogenarian. Elsie Beekley recently executed a conservation easement with the Western Wildlife Corridor to preserve what she calls her "little bit of heaven"…
MAC’s Reaction
Dear Readers: A few weeks back I printed a letter from Mutilated and Comeless (MAC), a 24-year-old who lost the head of his penis (the glans) in a botched circumcision as an infant. MAC hasn't had an orgasm since he was 16 years old, and the few women he's slept with as an adult either…
More Concerts and Shows Of Note
Peter Rowan & Tony Rice Peter Rowan & Tony Rice with Slaid Cleaves Friday · Southgate House The individual Bluegrass credentials of Peter Rowan and Tony Rice are formidable, impressive and voluminous. Rowan launched his musical career in the '60s as an integral part of Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys, which he departed to form Earth…
Wrong Kind of Parity in the NFL This Year
Jerry Dowling The league that invented parity and developed the means to achieve it has given us one of its most lopsided seasons in memory. Now and then, it's not a bad change of pace. But this isn't one of those times. Some in past years have critiqued the NFL for its balance, decrying a…
Red State Blues
Stop Elitism Regarding the post-election editorial "Red State Blues" (issue of Nov. 10-16), be thankful — you could live in the Ukraine and have participated in its recent election. Many of the post-election pundits reflect a view today that's all too prevalent: the absence of moderation. Moderate leaders are leaving office, term limits are pushing…
Cincinnati Entertainment Awards
Sean Hughes/photopresse.com Former CSF regular Marni Penning accepts her CEA for a performance by a visiting actor. At the 2004 CINCINNATI ENTERTAINMENT AWARDS on Nov. 22, CityBeat announced that the next CEAs in 2005 will divide the recognition program into two events, with theater awards for 2004-2005 presented in August, just before the beginning of…
Locals Only: : Experience Required
Dale M. Johnson Marvin and The Experience "What's the name of these guys?" a man asks me, nodding toward the band setting up on stage. I tell him it's Marvin and The Experience. "Are they any good?" asks the man, who looks to be in his mid-to-late forties. "Yeah, they are. They're kind of 'new…
Tale of the Taser
Assaults on officers, injuries to prisoners and use of chemical irritant have plummeted since the Cincinnati Police Department issued Tasers to its entire force, police told city council's Law and Public Safety Committee Nov. 23. City council voted in January to spend about $1 million on the stun guns. The purchase followed the death of…
Red Carpet Burn
The eighth annual Cincinnati Entertainment Awards doled out statuettes to some of the best in the local music (and theater) community during a ceremony at Old St. George on Nov. 22. The event was once again a great, eccentric party, highlighted by solid performances from several nominees. Heartless Bastards opened the night with their brand…
Living Out Loud: : Columbus Love Tap
I drove the gray Toyota to Columbus at high speeds, revving the engine, etc. It was a summer day, planned to see Columbus for the first time in years. I saw all the development on High Street near where I had lived (Goodale Park, Victorian Village), now an upscale bar and gallery area called Short…
Music: ‘Grass Kickers
Unlike most "Bluegrass" bands, all Split Lip Rayfield wants for Christmas is a gig with Slayer! If anyone is looking for the perfect Christmas present for Split Lip Rayfield frontman Kirk Rundstrom, one thing would make him happy above all others. "I really want to go on tour with Slayer," says Rundstrom from his Kansas…
Chris Walker -The Walker Project and much more.
Chris Walker -The Walker Project and much more. Soulive — Turn It Out These are the baddest cats around right now. One of the only bands I would cancel a gig to go see. Soulive's first full-length studio album is so funky that I dance when I'm driving. · Me'shell N'Degeocello — Peace Beyond Passion…
Desperately Seeking…
Cincinnati liberals still stinging from Sen. John Kerry's Nov. 2 defeat have a new reason to be blue. City of Cincinnati leaders are projecting a $10 million to $12 million budget shortfall for 2005, and city council's recommended biennial budget includes a 50 percent reduction in arts funding. The $432,170 in grant money awarded last…
News to Use
Influence City Spending With major cuts proposed for social services, Cincinnati City Councilman David Crowley is asking for public input on the city's 2005-06 budget. The city administration has proposed $11.5 million in spending cuts, including eliminating the entire human services budget, while hiring additional police officers. Crowley is asking residents to tell him what…
