Remembering Those Who Died Homeless
Today is the winter solstice, the day of the year with the longest amount of darkness. That means it's also Homeless Memorial Day. Since 1990, the National Coalition for the Homeless has held memorial services for individuals who have died from causes related to their lack of housing on this day.—- The Greater Cincinnati Coalition…
Hooray! Gifts From Local Musicians to You
Last year, local Indie Rock band The Western curated a tasty holiday EP for local music fans dubbed Yay! Presents!, featuring Christmas song contributions from Pete Dressman (who’s playing Jefferson Hall Christmas night), Frontier Folk Nebraska, The Turkeys, members of Alone at 3 a.m. and Rob Barnes, formerly of Junior Revolution and currently of now-Nashville-based…
Attractions: Holiday Lights on the Hill
Hundreds of strands of lights have been pulled from storage and untangled to create the Christmas classic Holiday Lights on the Hill. The event is running nightly at Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park in Hamilton. More than 2 million lights will create the spectacular display that runs through the park. You won’t have to leave the…
Events: Latkapalooza
Want to have some Christmas night fun without the Christ part? Want to have a drink Christmas night without having to worry about your little cousins taking your wine glass and “feeding” the tree? Then perhaps a little change is in order, something along the lines of Access and The Jewish Federation’s Young Adult Division’s…
Music: Hank Williams Hankerin’ at Herzog
Start the holiday weekend early Wednesday at 811 Race St. downtown, the one-time home of the Herzog recording studio, where Hank Williams' legend was made. The Cincinnati USA Music Heritage Foundation is presenting the "Hank Williams Holiday Hankerin' at Herzog" party to celebrate the Dec. 22, 1948, recording session that birthed the American music classic…
The Promise of Music Box Sets
This wasn’t a plentiful year for CD and DVD box sets, the kind of releases that make special holiday gifts for music fans. But there weren’t many misses in this year’s crop of releases, either. Here are the best of the bunch to my ears and eyes. Bruce Springsteen: The Promise: The Darkness on the…
The Lions Rampant and Leopard Messiah
Everyone has their limits, so if on Christmas night by around 9 p.m. you’re feeling like a stiff drink (or seven) and some quality original Rock & Roll to shake away those annoying ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, head downtown to Mainstay Rock Bar and catch two of Cincinnati’s best Rock crews, both…
Art: The Chocolate Connection: Hans Sloane & Jamaica at Lloyd Library and Museum
Downtown’s Lloyd Library & Museum, a fascinating private nonprofit institution that collects books, journals and archival material related to natural history, botany, pharmacy, medicine and scientific history, recently faced a dilemma. How should it recognize the 350th anniversary of the birth of Hans Sloane, a pioneering scientist and physician whose name is not really on…
Onstage: Royal National Theatre’s Hamlet at The Carnegie
There’s no way around it. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a big play. It is, in fact, the longest of Shakespeare’s 38 works and arguably his most influential, using the simple measure of how often lines from it are quoted in everyday speech. The title role is without question the biggest of…
Attractions: Hubble at The OMNIMAX
It might be a few decades before Travelocity offers round trip tickets to the heart of the Orion Nebula, but that doesn’t mean we can’t catch a vivid glimpse of the ethereal realms outside Earth’s stratosphere until a market is cornered for space tourism. The OMNIMAX Theater at the Cincinnati Museum Center currently features Hubble,…
Brij Mohan (Review)
Critic's Pick I have a confession to make: I'm a reformed picky eater. My mother tells tales of battles of wills, plain hamburgers (with catsup only) and nightly tears when it came to finishing my vegetables. When I went away to college, I opened not only my mind but also my palate and started trying…
Art: Yoga with the Masters
Offering a clever play of words in addition to some nice stress-reducing exercise, Cincinnati Art Museum (953 Eden Park Drive) is offering 2010's last session of its popular Yoga with the Masters classes on Tuesday from 6-7:15 p.m. The Masters, in this case, are the Old Masters whose paintings will surround you while assuming the right position in one of…
Events: Christmas, Cincinnati Style
Watch as your cabin fever rapidly reduces to post-Christmas cheer when you throw on your fanciest pair of snowshoes and head to the finest festivities that downtown Cincinnati has to offer. Begin the healing process by stretching your legs a bit and dancing your way to the Aronoff Center (650 Walnut St.) for a whimsical…
Hank Williams Holiday Hankerin’ at Herzog
Start the holiday weekend on Wednesday at 811 Race St. downtown, the one-time home of the Herzog recording studio where Hank Williams' legend was made. The Cincinnati USA Music Heritage Foundation is presenting the "Hank Williams Holiday Hankerin' at Herzog" party to celebrate the Dec. 22, 1948, recording session that birthed the American music classic…
The Gift of Theater
With just a few days left for Christmas shopping, I’m making a few theater-related suggestions. I have a Broadway snowglobe that I get out annually, and I love it. It’s kind of dated, but I’ve learned recently that Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS offers a new one every year. The 2010 globe was designed by Tony…
Music: The Lions Rampant and Leopard Messiah
Despite some personnel shifts, The Lions Rampant were undeniable in 2010, on a steady rise since jolting the local club scene just a few short years ago. The band’s debut full-length, It’s Fun to Do Bad Things (the title is a quote from an unusually young “hoodrat”-turned-viral-video-superstar who was asked by a local TV crew…
‘The Social Network’ Tops IndieWIRE poll
While we here at CityBeat World Headquarters are putting the final touches on our annual Year in Film in Music issue, I thought I’d check in to let you know that IndieWIRE’s annual Critic’s Poll has now been posted to the interwebs. No surprise here: David Fincher’s The Social Network was the dominating winner, adding…
Note to City Council: Just Say No
Two far-reaching ideas by Cincinnati's fly-by-the-seats-of-their-pants City Council is being sharply criticized by people with extensive experience in policing issues. As City Council acts surprised about a $58 million deficit that's loomed on the horizon for months, an amount that's only fluctuated slightly due to changing revenues, members last week proposed abolishing the Cincinnati Police…
Comedy: Dave Waite, Mark Chalifoux and Friends
It’s a homecoming of sorts for one comic, and a decided farewell for another. Cincinnati native Dave Waite moved to New York back in September to further pursue his comedy career. He returns this week to headline two shows at Go Bananas. Meanwhile the man who will feature for him, Mark Chalifoux, will finish packing…
To See or Not to See
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a big play. It is, in fact, the longest of Shakespeare’s 38 works and arguably his most influential, using the simple measure of how often lines from it are quoted in everyday speech. The title role is without question the biggest of any in Shakespeare’s canon, and…
Art: Billy Renkl
Manifest Gallery currently has three individual shows in its
The Chocolate Connection: Hans Sloane & Jamaica (Review)
Critic's Pick Downtown’s Lloyd Library & Museum, a fascinating private nonprofit institution that collects books, journals and archival material related to natural history, botany, pharmacy, medicine and scientific history, recently faced a dilemma. How should it recognize the 350th anniversary of the birth of Hans Sloane, a pioneering scientist and physician whose name is not…
Changes at Streetvibes to ‘Broaden the Reach of the Paper’
Streetvibes Editor Greg Flannery left over what I will call irreconcilable differences with Josh Spring, executive director of the sponsoring Greater Cincinnati Coalition of the Homeless. Jennifer Martin is the new editor of the every-other-week publication; she started on Friday and will have a hand in the Jan. 1 issue. The mid-January issue will be…
Robin Trower: The Playful Heart
Over the course of his four-decade career, Robin Trower has often found himself on the outs with critics. Trower was virtually invisible during his tenure with the keyboard-heavy Procol Harum (at least until his breakout role on his last album with the band, 1972’s aptly titled Broken Barricades) and he was typically dismissed as a…
Tom Caufield: More Fire for the Firedome
If the name Tom Caufield is familiar, you might know him from his recent releases or you might be among the lucky few to be aware of his brilliant 1987 Pop treatise, Long Distance Calling, a near perfect hybrid of Eric Carmen’s Pop romanticism and Bruce Springsteen’s heartland Rock populism. But it’s a safe bet…
Friday Movie Roundup: David Thomson Edition
A fine last-minute option for the movie buff on your Christmas list, the fifth edition of David Thomson’s The New Biographical Dictionary of Film was published in late October. I finally got around to cracking it open this week … and I’ve yet to close it. Thomson’s 1,076-page tome is as addictive as ever, bound…
Deck the Clubs with Local Music
In this week’s Spill It column in CityBeat, we did a roundup of a few holiday-oriented shows by local musicians coming up this weekend, but it only scratched the surface. With clubs being faced with Christmas Eve and Day falling on what are normally two of the bigger bar nights of the year (the weekend…
Tron: Legacy (Review)
The Disney brain-trust realized, after 28 years, that technology had finally caught up with the “visionary” notion of hacking humans into computer mainframes. The original Tron, starring Jeff Bridges as uber-computer guru Kevin Flynn and his virtual right-hand clone Clu, “shocked” audiences with the idea of an alternative reality based on a video game, but…
Robin Trower, Prefab Sprout, Frank Zappa, Duffy, Hinder and Tom Caufield
Ho ho motherhumping ho. How did we get to December? And Christmas? And 2011? Holy crap on a communion cracker, are the years shrinking along with the economy? That felt like 10 months to me, tops. Maybe less. C’est la vie. It’s time to cruise on into the new year with some sense of style…
Stage Door: Local Theater Holiday Madness
If you're still working on your checklist of holiday shows, there have been several added performances for shows at Know Theatre, Ensemble Theatre and other venues you should keep in mind.—- Know Theatre's production of A Wrinkle in Time (review here) has plugged in two more performances to its originally announced schedule. The first is…
Si Leis and ‘Satanic Pestilence’
The man that some City Council members want to put in control of policing in Cincinnati once blamed liberal judges, feminists, atheists, civil libertarians, and gays and lesbians as responsible for crime in U.S. society. Cincinnati officials spent five years and millions of dollars trying to improve police-community relations in the wake of the 2001…
The Fighter (Review)
As a story about a scrappy, working-class nobody who gets an unexpected shot at the title, David O. Russell’s The Fighter was bound to earn comparisons to Rocky. And the comparisons are justified — not just because of its plot but also because of its concern for quirky characters and a sense of place. Over…
Help Feed Kids through Public Radio
With the unemployment rate at near-record highs, about 70 percent of Cincinnati Public School students either receive free or reduced-cost lunches, indicating the dire need of local families. To help ensure as many children as possible have enough food to eat when not at school, Cincinnati Public Radio has partnered with two organizations to make donations…
Someone at City Hall Can’t Read
It's the 1980s and '90s all over again in Cincinnati. In a blatant attempt to do an end-run around the mayor, four members of Cincinnati City Council met with The Enquirer's editorial board today to unveil a budget-cutting plan that includes merging the city's Police Department with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office. The council faction…
Miranda July’s ‘Future’
Miranda July's refreshingly slanted worldview is finally back on display via The Future, which will get its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The long-awaited follow-up to her 2005 feature-length debut, Me and You and Everyone We Know, tells the story of a thirtysomething couple who adopt a terminally ill cat, a…
Randy Rouser and Christian Kane
Randy Houser has been a whirlwind in the country music industry since debuting on the mainstream scene in 2008 with his album, Anything Goes. That album featured two top 20 hits on the country charts, the title track, Anything GoesBoots On. This early success got the Lake, Mississippi native nominated at the CMA’s, ACM’s, and…
Taqueria Yolandita (Review)
I am about to reveal my secret favorite Mexican eatery. If you think you can guess it, you can’t. You’ve probably never heard of it. You might have driven past it and never noticed that it’s there. But, believe me, it’s worth a stop. Taqueria Yolandita (2157 Queen City Ave., Fairmount, 513-551-0828) can’t really be…
Who Is Harry Nilsson? (Review)
Harry Nilsson was a late-1960s/early-1970s Los Angeles-based songwriter’s songwriter — The Beatles adored him and Three Dog Night recorded his “One” — who also had such a fluidly expressive vocal range that he briefly became a best-selling recording artist with both hits that he wrote (“Me and My Arrow,” “Jump Into the Fire”) and ones…
Black Swan (Review)
Natalie Portman is all grown up, and the proof is in her searing portrayal of the innocent perfectionist Nina in Darren Aronofsky’s intense exploration into the dark heart of a rising ballerina. As Nina, Portman fully embraces the girlishness and wide-eyed striving of an artist who has been little more than an instrument to be…
Dec. 8-14: Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY DEC. 8 There are several reasons why people outside the Midwest choose not to move to places like Ohio and Wisconsin (there's actually a handful of reasonable arguments for trying to live alone in the wilderness over these two places). One such reason was on display today when sources reported that the Obama administration…
Meet the New Goya, Same As the Old Goya
One of the prize paintings in the Taft Museum of Art’s permanent collection is Francisco Goya’s oil “Portrait of Queen Maria Luisa of Spain,” circa 1800. It’s the only painting by the Spanish master — one of art’s greatest innovators — in Cincinnati. The face with its powerful gaze, the dark hair holding glittering jewelry…
Homegrown for the Holidays
• Holiday performance traditions like A Christmas Carol and The Nutcracker are wonderful and all, but for rock and rollers it’s hard to beat the groovy, Rockabilly-themed Greasemas events presented annually by local crew Rumble Club. The sixth annual Greasemas concert Saturday at the Southgate House features the ’billy splendor of Rumble Club, Minneapolis’ Reckless…
Sherrod Brown and John Kasich
[WINNER] SHERROD BROWN: Let's hear it for the U.S. senator from the great state of Ohio. There's a lot of reasons to like Brown, such as the recent video he made as part of the “It Gets Better” project, where he offered encouraging words to gay teenagers who are bullied and harassed. But what really…
A Gentle Giant
Mom called to tell me Uncle Roger had died. When someone says a person’s death is a blessing, they had people like my Uncle Roger in mind. He was diagnosed with Huntington’s chorea shortly after his retirement. It is a slowly progressive genetic disorder that affects coordination and leads to mental decline and dementia. Over…
Bill Rose [Bartender, Lavomatic]
Many times, the sign of a restaurant’s success can be found at the bar. You can find libations anywhere, but a great bartender can make you cancel your table reservation. Bill Rose is one bartender you will choose to share your dining experience with, and he has been sharing his expertise with the city for…
Groups Target Berding As He Tries to Dump Clinics
Anyone familiar with the political career of Cincinnati City Councilman Jeff Berding probably isn't too surprised that some local groups are accusing him of being “two-faced” and reneging on a promise he allegedly made behind closed doors. The groups say Berding told Cincinnati's police union that he would only support the city's proposed streetcar system…
New Year’s Eve Fun
Bar Events Arnie’s on the Levee presents “The Ultimate New Year’s Eve” with music by DJ Jake the Ripper. VIP admission includes an open vodka bar, party favors and a buffet. Buffet dinner and champagne toast included. $10 in advance, $15 at the door. VIP seating is $75. 8 p.m. 120 E. Third St., Newport,…
Brunner Proud of Elections Reforms
The first woman ever elected as Ohio secretary of state says she has no plans to seek another elected position when her term ends in January. When Jennifer Brunner won the office in 2006, she ended more than 15 years of Republican dominance in that position and replaced Ken Blackwell, the Cincinnati native who made…
Beastie Boys, Clapton and Keith Richards
[HOT] Boys Will Still Be Boys Even though it’s generally regarded as revolutionary, The Beastie Boys have denounced a lot of their early work. Maturity and a social conscious apparently do not allow for songs about Wiffle Ball-bat rape and giant penis stage props. So it was a bit of a shock when it was…
Art Damage Going Dark
In April of 1985, I got a phone call from Dan Williams, my collaborator in the group 11,000 Switches. He said, “Man, turn the radio to WAIF, I’m doing a show.” I found my radio speaking with a new voice. At its most challenging, it had previously palpitated with the soothing strains of O.T., WGUC’s…
Holiday Music Releases to Help Needy Kids
Please excuse my poorly-timed foul language but — holy shit, there are a lot of local musicians getting into the holiday spirit this year! My anxiety level is already pretty high thanks to looming holiday/familial/shopping responsibilities and impending deadlines for our annual “Year in Local Recordings” roundup (2010 has seen an unprecedented amount of high-quality…
