Dec 13-20, 2017
The Visual Side of the Vinyl Shop: “Queen City Records” captures the essence of local indie record stores through photos and interviews
It’s Electric!
Electricity pulses through Cincinnati artist Matt Summers’ in-home studio. Shocks of color radiate from fabrics, plastics and other materials featuring symbols that appear to dance and pulsate right off their surfaces. Summers is pursuing a passion to take something not typically seen as beautiful — drawn representations of electricity — and turn them into aesthetic pieces…
Your Weekly To Do List (12/20-12/26)
WEDNESDAY 20 ART: We… by Tim McMichael is on display at Clay Street Press. See a review here. MUSIC: David Barbe David Barbe’s Indie Rock credentials are impressive — besides being the bassist in Sugar (the band Bob Mould formed after Husker Du ended), he is also a noted producer and engineer, working on projects…
Best Bites of 2017
CityBeat’s intrepid staff of underpaid but relatively well-fed dining writers spent 2017 eating, drinking and reporting back on the city’s newest restaurants, food trends and au courant culinary concoctions to either mildly entertain you or help you decide where to eat dinner. And as the end of the year approaches (hi, 2018!), we asked our…
Gary Oldman Is Triumphant as Winston Churchill
In comparison with Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, which covers much the same time frame but from a different perspective, Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour feels like a muted and quite routine effort. But it has a towering, memorable performance from Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill. Wright walks us through the massive Dunkirk evacuation during the early days…
The Supreme (Drag) Queens of Comedy
You don’t have to be a RuPaul’s Drag Race fanatic to enjoy The Trixie & Katya Show (10 p.m. Wednesdays, VICELAND), but you might become one after watching their weird, wonderful talk show fit for the social media age. Drag queens Trixie Mattel (government name: Brian Firkus) and Katya Zamolodchikova (Brian McCook) first came into…
Indie Radio Makes Waves in Northside
“Local. Indie. Weird.” It’s the self-described trifecta of independent programming on Radio Artifact, a radio station recently launched by Northside brewery and live music mecca Urban Artifact. Boasting a peculiar mix of programming and equally peculiar hosts, it’s really the only way to describe Cincinnati’s latest indie project hitting the airwaves. Urban Artifact’s live music…
Johnnytwentythree Returns with Emotional New Album
For many, the holidays are the most “joyful and triumphant” time of the year. But for others, it’s the bleakest. A 2014 survey by the National Alliance on Mental Illness found that 64 percent of those with diagnosed mental health issues feels that the holidays make them worse. So while it might at first seem…
What a Week!: Dec. 13-19
Final Year for Local Zombie Nativity All good things must come to an end, and thus 2017 will be the last year for the infamous local zombie nativity. Jasen Dixon of Sycamore Township erected his ghoulish take on the manger scene for the fourth and what he says is the final time. He debuted the…
Lawyer suing fugitive doctor, hospitals wants elected judges to hear Durrani cases
More than four years after the government accused a local doctor of defrauding Medicare by performing unnecessary spine surgeries, his former patients are still waiting for justice — and monetary redress. If and when the claims against Dr. Atiq Durrani will ever be heard remains in doubt because he fled to his native Pakistan in…
What We Mean When We Say ‘We’
Mixed media artist Tim McMichael’s exhibition We…, currently on view at Over-the-Rhine’s Clay Street Press gallery, is a meditation on the meaning of the pronoun in America today. And although the Cincinnati artist has engaged with the idea of place as a subject in the past, here he seems to apply that interest to a…
Minimum Gauge: Sealed vinyl copies of Prince’s ‘The Black Album’ discovered
HOT: A Bounty of Black Albums Last year, an extremely rare promo copy of Prince’s The Black Album — which the artist notoriously stopped from being released a week before it was supposed to come out in 1987 because he’d decided it was “evil” — sold for $15,000, a record for the Discogs database/marketplace site.…
Think Inside the Box: A look at five of the best vinyl box sets of 2017
Over the past few years, with the dominance of digital music (streaming or otherwise), record companies seem to have stepped up their box-set game, giving beefed-up collections some extra beef in the form of more expanded packaging. And though some labels, like Light in the Attic and the Numero Group, appear motivated to release such…
Cincinnati Police test-scoring errors lead to $165,000 settlement
Three Cincinnati police sergeants whose botched lieutenant exam scores gave them false hopes for promotion have settled a lawsuit for a combined $165,000. The out-of-court deal was reached last month by Cincinnati Police Department sergeants Ronald Childress, Stefanie Torlop and Cassandra Tucker, the city of Cincinnati and Ergometrics & Applied Personnel Research Inc. It calls…
The Greatest Cincinnati Movie Ever?
Cincinnati is emerging as a vital presence on the current cinematic landscape. After nearly two decades of spotty activity, the Queen City has become a significant movie production destination in recent years. There are a number of reasons for this development, the most obvious being Cincinnati’s architecture, the area’s diverse terrain and the relatively inexpensive…
Activists scramble to aid families struggling after ICE raids
Rose is a soft-spoken mother of three with a direct gaze and ready smile. The woman, whose name CityBeat has changed to protect her identity, has lived in the United States for 10 years after fleeing her native Guatemala, where harassment from gangs culminated in the brief kidnapping of her then 2-year-old son at a…
STAGE DOOR: Busy Weekend for Theatrical Productions
It’s the final weekend for several holiday productions, with the following shows closing on Sunday: Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere has been doing extremely well for Know Theatre; the hilariously interactive Evening with Groucho at the Cincinnati Playhouse’s Shelterhouse is wrapping up; and Footlighters’ staging of The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical gives its final performances…
Harker’s choice: football — or family?
In a twist on the parenting-versus-career dilemmas facing many American women, the former athletic conditioning director at Miami University claims in a lawsuit that he was forced out of his job for taking paternity leave when his wife had twins. The suit was filed in federal court in Cincinnati by Paul Harker, who was Miami’s…
Morning News: city announces plan for Western Hills Viaduct cash; local man charged with first degree murder in Charlottesville killing
Hello all. Here’s some quick news today. City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County elected officials yesterday announced the city’s plans for $33 million in local money toward an eventual replacement for the Western Hills Viaduct. Mayor John Cranley says that money will come from bonds the city issues when its debt capacity will support them,…
The National to Curate and Perform at New Cincinnati Festival
A new festival hosted by The National and called Homecoming, in association with MusicNOW is slated for Smale Riverfront Park on April 28 and 29, 2018. The popular and successful Indie Rock band (whose members hail from Cincinnati) will curate the lineup of some 20 artists who will appear on two festival stages, and will…
Morning News: Drama over Park Board chair; Cranley set to announce Western Hills Viaduct replacement funding proposal
Hello, Cincy. It’s news time again. Mayor John Cranley will mix it up in his second term, announcing yesterday before Cincinnati City Council's meeting that he’s naming Councilman Christopher Smitherman as his new vice mayor. Smitherman will be replacing Cranley’s fellow Democrat and loyal ally David Mann, who will replace Cranley ally Republican Charlie Winburn…
New Year’s Eve Listings
There are plenty of parties, concerts, dances and special dining events to end 2017 with a bang and welcome in the New Year. Here are a few (including a couple New Year's Eve Eve celebrations). New Year’s Eve Speakeasy — Party like its 1923. Dress like a flapper, don a fedora and indulge in an…
LISTEN: Cincinnati’s Audley premieres funky, soulful new single “Game Over”
After dynamic and energetic appearances in 2017 at the massive Ubahn Festival (alongside music titans like Big Sean and Steve Aoki) and the recent Cincinnati Entertainment Awards with local Rock band Sylmar, singer/songwriter Audley is gearing up for a probable bigger year in 2018. On Jan. 26, he'll release his latest solo effort PINK on…
Your Weekly To Do List (12/13-12/19)
It’s a White Christmas The Esquire and Mariemont theaters have hosted multiple sold-out, interactive screenings of White Christmas this season (the only tickets possibly left are for screenings on Saturday at Mariemont). It’s now a holiday tradition for the local indie theater chain, which encourages moviegoers to show up in Santa hats and sing along…
Morning News: Tax reform could hurt Cincinnati preservation efforts; Democrat takes Alabama Senate seat for first time in quarter century
Good morning all. A lot happened yesterday, so let’s get straight to some quick news updates. Cincinnati and Hamilton County could have much better bus service, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority said during its board meeting yesterday. But it will come at a price — and the improvements will depend on whether taxpayers are…
Here’s what riders would get with a new sales tax for Metro
The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority yesterday unveiled plans it says could dramatically improve bus service across Cincinnati and Hamilton County. But there’s a cost — and the higher the price, the better the improvement will be, SORTA says. The transit authority is poised to present county voters with a sales tax levy next year…
Net Neutrality Repeal Will Harm Consumers
If you like how your cable and satellite service works, then you’re going to love the internet after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) votes to end net neutrality protections on Dec. 14. That’s because your broadband internet service providers (ISPs) will no longer be common carriers that have to deliver all lawful content and services.…
