Minimum Gauge: If you’re rich, buy the sole “World’s Most Expensivest Ugly Christmas Sweater” from 2 Chainz
HOT: Sweater Business Just like Wu-Tang Clan, rapper 2 Chainz has made a rare, one-of-a-kind item that will cost whoever wants it major cash. Unlike Wu-Tang, it’s not an album of never-released material, and it isn’t being sold to the highest bidder — 2 Chainz’s offer would be better for you if you’re looking for…
Enquirer’s Latest Act of Outsourcing? Sports Coverage
For the past two college basketball seasons, The Cincinnati Enquirer has quietly pulled back on coverage of two major sports beats — University of Cincinnati and Xavier men’s basketball — by paying freelancers in other cities rather than sending beat reporters to cover certain games in person. Skipping these games is a relatively new phenomenon…
Superior fundraising might have clinched county elections for Democrats
Democrats raised more money than Republicans in five of the seven most important non-judicial elections in Hamilton County in 2016, perhaps the deciding factor in taking four of those offices last month. The race that attracted the most money was that between Democrat Denise Driehaus and Republican Dennis Deters for one of two contested seats…
Morning News: OTR projects score big on historic tax credits; more local families homeless; Ohio looks at big tax cuts for energy industry
Good morning all. Here’s some news stuff today. Six projects involving historic buildings in Greater Cincinnati will get Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credits, officials with the Ohio Development Services Agency announced yesterday. Five of those projects are in the Over-the-Rhine and Pendleton area. Those include Model Group’s Market Square III project, which will create retail…
Noon News: DuBose bodycam footage delay justified, court says; more housing comes to OTR; Kasich signs bill blocking city wage hikes
Good morning all. I’m back today after an extended vacation that included a lot of road tripping to various places with great food and art and drinking establishments. Picture No Reservations, only it was entirely in America, it won’t be on TV, I didn’t get paid to do it and I’m not anywhere in the…
Your Weekend To Do List (Dec. 16-18)
FRIDAY 16 MUSIC: DRU HILL The past isn’t any easier to predict than the future, but it’s safe to say Dru Hill might have been one of music’s biggest groups if fate had been slightly more favorable. Their 1996 eponymous debut album and 1998’s Enter the Dru collectively sold over three million copies, and the…
Stage Door: Last-Minute Holiday Theater
If all your Christmas shopping is finished and the gifts are wrapped, perhaps you’re seeking some onstage entertainment for this weekend before Santa shows up. Your choices are pretty much “of the season,” and that’s not a bad thing. In fact, most of the shows on Cincinnati stages this month are worth seeing — even…
What a Week! Dec. 7-13
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 07 Rolling Stone ranked the top 100 Instagram accounts, listing off the pages of celebrities, artists and others worth a follow. Social media kween Kim Kardashian nabbed the top spot, followed by National Geographic. And nestled between Rihanna and Beyoncé in fourth place is the official Transportation Security Administration account, @TSA. The page —…
White-on-White Silence
There aren’t many laughable takeaways following Decision 2016, even as it draws on with new revelations about Russian influence, CIA and FBI subplots and a very Trump-esque victory tour making the rounds. Still, after intense reflection, I have concluded that one hilarious subplot from this post-election purgatory is the persisting white disbelief in the electorate’s…
‘Real World’ and the rise of reality TV
In 1992, American television audiences were first introduced to the concept of MTV’s Real World: seven strangers living in a house together and having their lives recorded so we could find out what happens when people stop being polite and start being real. Whew! Twenty-four years and 32 seasons later, the latest installment of the groundbreaking…
‘Jackie’ screenwriter humanizes an icon
In Jackie, screenwriter Noah Oppenheim, working with Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín, dares to document one of the signature moments in the 20th century — the seven days following the Nov. 22, 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. But how do we — more to the point, how can we — truly “see” an iconic figure like…
Take your pick of holiday theater
At this time of year, I’m frequently asked for holiday show recommendations. I see most everything, so it’s a logical question. But after 30 years of covering Cincinnati-area theater, I’ve seen many holiday shows over and over, so I might be a tad jaded. But I do have opinions to offer. The most obvious choice…
Paranoia runs deep at Weston Gallery
The two exhibits now at the Weston Art Gallery mine feelings of mistrust as the world turns more chaotic every day. The logic of marketing suggests we should feel more connected than ever because of social media, mass-produced home décor and similar-looking malls and subdivisions. Yet we’re strangers in a familiar land — and some…
Rediscovering a Cincinnati-born gallerist
Art history, a field always open to changes in emphasis and inclusion, lately has begun to pay increased attention to the role of gallerists — commercial dealers — in shaping the cultural impact of Contemporary art. You saw one local example with Cincinnati Art Museum’s recently concluded Not in New York: Carl Solway and Cincinnati exhibit,…
‘CityBeat’ writer makes amends for never having seen ‘A Christmas Carol’
I am here to tell you that it is possible to live in Cincinnati for 30-plus years and never once see Playhouse in the Park’s production of A Christmas Carol. There was certainly no malice behind my missing this time-honored classic. A Christmas Carol is one of those stories I felt as though I had experienced every December whether…
I’m Just a Girl, Standing in Front of a Waffle…
Commonwealth Bistro is one of the newest urban eateries to join MainStrasse’s restaurant row, and it’s bringing some serious heat. The location is killer, the aesthetic is gorgeous, the atmosphere is excellent and the menu, whether for dinner or brunch, is tantalizing. While it only recently opened, I’m here to tell you (and everyone I…
Sound Advice: Tiny Moving Parts (Dec. 14)
It’s hard to find a review of Minnesota trio Tiny Moving Part’s music that doesn’t mention two genres — the earnest and passionate Punk offshoot “Emo” and the circuitous and progressive Indie Rock subgenre “Math Rock,” a style that (along with Post Rock) became popular with bored Indie music nerds in the ’90s in much…
Sound Advice: Dru Hill (Dec. 16)
The past isn’t any easier to predict than the future, but it’s safe to say Dru Hill might have been one of music’s biggest groups if fate had been slightly more favorable. Their 1996 eponymous debut album and 1998’s Enter the Dru collectively sold over three million copies, and the group churned out seven Top 40…
Sound Advice: The Weepies (Dec. 16)
Music not only has the power to change lives; it can create them as well. A decade and a half ago, Deb Talan and Steve Tannen, two singer/songwriters in the Cambridge, Mass. scene, became enamored of one another’s work. When they finally met, they immediately began writing together and joined forces in an Indie Folk…
Pluto Revolts’ ‘Tidal Wave’ Rolls In
This weekend, Cincinnati’s Pluto Revolts celebrates the recent release of its four-song EP, Tidal Wave. The Alt/Rock/Electronic/Pop foursome’s release show is Saturday at Madison Live (734 Madison Ave., Covington, Ky., madisontheateronline.com). Cincy bands The Civics and Infinity Spree open the all-ages show at 8 p.m. Tickets are $8 in advance (through cincyticket.com) or $10 at the door. The price…
A rose by any other name is still the recently rebranded together PANGEA
Pangea, from the Greek meaning “all earth,” is the name ascribed to the single supercontinent that existed 300 million years ago, before the planet’s tectonic plates shifted new continents into today’s recognizable land masses. Given its root definition, it’s also a popular designation for anyone wanting to pin a whole-world theme on a venture or…
Fighting climate change in the time of Trump
If President-elect Donald Trump actually believes all the warnings he issued during the election about the threats of immigration, he should be talking about ways to slow global warming as well. Rising sea level, caused by the melting of the Antarctic and Greenland ice caps, will probably displace tens of millions of people in the…
Ethics police seem in no hurry to investigate Sycamore Twp. officials for possible self-dealing with festival beer concession
Acts of misconduct by elected officials can be shocking and disappointing when charges are filed and violators are trotted out in public. But how are citizens supposed to react when allegations are seemingly swept under the rug by the people investigating them? Consider an episode that came to light in Sycamore Township in the spring…
