Dec 20-27, 2017
Draft Queens: A local female fantasy football league banishes NFL players accused of violence against women
The Year in Local Recordings
Telehope – Chasing Dreams Cincinnati AltPop five-piece Telehope’s debut, Chasing Dreams, crisply shows off the quintet’s clean, earnest Pop spin, which is largely driven by elegant piano and emotive (if sometimes syrupy) melodies and vocals. Highlights include the broad and ambient Pop of “Insomnia” and the instantly memorable hit-in-waiting, “Joy,” which is like one giant…
Best in Shows for 2017
As the Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations roll in, it’s clear there was no shortage of great TV in 2017. Here are some of my best shows for the year. Big Little Lies – Of course a David E. Kelley drama based on a bestselling novel and starring Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon was…
My Cinematic Mixtape: Best Films of 2017
As a critic closing in on my second decade in the game, film forms the soundtrack and the visual framework for my life. I perceive the world in snippets and samples of the moving narratives of filmmakers, and part of living critical means being able to remix the impossibly human reflections, Altman-like fragments of dialogue…
Morning News: man experiencing homelessness freezes to death downtown; library won’t sell downtown building, will seek new levy
Good morning all. I hope you’re having a good holiday season and got tons of rad gifts and awesome food if that’s your thing. I’m catching up from being off last week, so let’s run through some noteworthy recent news. Cincinnati Parks Board Chairwoman Dianne Rosenberg filed a lawsuit in Hamliton County Court of Common…
Fresh Starts and Great Stories: 2017 Theater
This was a big year for theater locally, what with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s new Otto M. Budig Theater coming to life in September and Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati reopening after some major renovation and expansion in October. While quite distinct, both venues — just two blocks apart — are beautiful and well suited to the essence…
Renovated Halls Proved Successful in 2017
Architectural renovation played a major role in determining my top 2017 Classical music events. Renovated spaces showed off their new acoustic chops with resounding success, rendering great performances even more memorable. The year also marked the emergence of exciting Classical groups bringing to town new and rarely heard works often performed by supremely gifted young…
The Best Visual Art of 2017
In looking at the most successful art exhibits/events of 2017, the natural place to start is BLINK, the four-day festival that was held downtown and in Over-the-Rhine during October. As someone noted on social media, this new event — featuring projection-mapping displays as well as murals and interactive and stationary art exhibits — managed to…
Morgan James Finds a Song’s Soul
For the lion's share of her career to date, vocalist Morgan James has been known as a skilled and nuanced interpreter of other people's material. She has applied her smoky, soulful and supple voice and her inherent ability to inhabit a song to the work of Nina Simone, the Beatles, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Prince…
What a Year!: 2017
Men Are the Worst… Some might say men had the worst year ever in 2017, and they fucking deserved it! Movie mogul and noted massage forcer Harvey Weinstein was exposed for his rampant sexual harassment and assaults in what was apparently a gross open secret in Hollywood. (Between Weinstein and the late-summer hurricane, the name…
2017 News Year in Review
If 2016 was a mind-melting year on the national political scene, 2017 has been the year it all got weird and crazy locally. Here are some of the highlights of a very eventful 365 days in the world of Greater Cincinnati politics and social issues. 2017 Local Election — Meet the New Bosses, (Mostly) the…
Hamilton County magistrate fired for “inappropriate” contact with woman in court case
A Hamilton County Domestic Relations Court magistrate for 14 years was terminated Thursday following an investigation of his having an "inappropriate relationship" with a woman who had a domestic violence complaint pending in the court. Magistrate J. Stuart Newberry was fired after the investigation by the office of county Prosecutor Joe Deters. Newberry had been…
Stage Door: Poke Some Fun at Christmas with Cincy Shakes
If you’ve finished your Christmas shopping and have all the gifts wrapped, there are several theater options available this weekend. First and foremost is Cincinnati Shakespeare’s 12th annual presentation of Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some) that opened last evening and will be presented through Dec. 31. It’s 90 minutes of satiric holiday…
Football or Family Man?
Man, can I see the eyes rolling in the Miami RedHawks football office. A coach asking for paternity leave? For more than two weeks? And now there’s a lawsuit? It’s true, as recently reported by CityBeat’s James McNair, and I find it terribly intriguing, given my experience around football coaching staffs. Not only can I…
Draft Queens
Evangeline Bauerle is by all accounts a benevolent ruler. The two-time defending champion of She FF, a local all-female fantasy football league, refuses to subject her vanquished foes to demeaning tasks or punishments, like the winners of many fantasy sports leagues do. Instead, during a recent chat with league mate Hannah Purnell, Bauerle even let…
