Cover Story: Some Heat but Little Fire
Director Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers The final chapter of the stories of the First Ladies of Sex came to a close this year. Saying goodbye to Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and the Sex and the City crew presents an opportunity to step away from the home entertainment system and focus on sex and the…
Political Winners and Losers in 2004
I always get sentimental when Christmas rolls around. The traditions and the end of another year inevitably conjure up mile posts throughout my life, starting with my earliest memories as a child and including every significant relationship I've ever had. One of the truths I rediscover this time each year — often expressed by people…
A Mat of My Own
D iane Utaski Notes: For the holidays, this column will include stories in their own words of how yoga has changed people's lives.) I have a room of my own right now. Circumstances at present do not lend themselves to this. I do, however, have a purple mat. Since March I've been rolling and unrolling…
RAFFIE’S CAFE
Blowing into RAFFIE'S CAFE (1210 Main St., Over-the-Rhine; 513-721-2238; 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday) from Cincinnati's first blustery winter-like day did a lot for my Monday frame of mind. The restaurant's cheerful colors and accommodating two-person staff are definite mood elevators. The small restaurant, located in the old space of Little Havana, is decorated in what…
News to Use
Greet Bush Noisily United for Peace and Justice, the folks who helped organize protests of the Republican National Convention in New York, now encourage convergence on Washington, D.C. to mark President Bush's Jan. 20 inauguration. Two groups are organizing creative, powerful protest activities: the DC Anti-War Network (www.dawndc.net) and Turn Your Back on Bush (www.turnyourbackonbush.org).…
Living Out Loud: : Shoes on the Dashboard
It was almost 6 o'clock, and Paula was still at work finishing her tasks before she could leave for the day. She was tired, and when she was finally able to log off her computer, she was grateful to grab her purse and head toward the elevators. She collected her thoughts in the lobby, hit…
A Party as Diverse as Indian Hill
U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland (D-6th District) met with a very small group of local Democratic Party loyalists Dec. 20 in the basement of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers hall. Among those who accepted invitations were Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken; former Congressional candidate Greg Harris and his former campaign manager, Greg Landsman; City Hall hopeful…
Christmas Holidays with the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati
With Christmas just a few days away, perhaps you're seeking the perfect last-minute stocking stuffer. Or perhaps you're a few days late in your CityBeat reading and the holiday is over, but you have some holiday cash or a gift certificate to spend. How about a few musical options? At the top of my list…
Hand in the Garbage Disposal?
I'm a woman in an LTR. Recently I had a discussion about anal sex with my guy. Knowing that I was a little nervous, he was GGG and let me experiment on him first. Well, it worked out great, and we both found pleasure in anal play. However, last time I was fingering him, I…
News: What the Pell?
For people of moderate income, college is about to get even harder to afford. The $388 billion omnibus bill passed by Congress in November consisted of more than 3,000 pages, encompassing budgets for everything from defense to agriculture and housing. But next spring, when many college students are trying to figure out how to pay…
Alex Lusht – Roscoe Justice Band/MindIgnition
Alex Lusht – Roscoe Justice Band/ MindIgnition · Martin Sexton — Live in the Hamptons. If you like the singer/songwriter thing, Martin is one of the best out there. His album, Black Sheep, is awesome, but his live work is truly inspiring. When live, he plays with only a drummer, but his amazing vocal range…
When Tony Met Pat
Stop by his multimedia exhibition Peeps & Bells at the Annie Bolling Gallery in Oakley, and you'll agree that Tony Luensman is making the most engaging visual art in town. The one person who still needs to be convinced — someone who's yet to see the new work — is Cincinnati Councilman Pat DeWine. A…
The Home Run — and How Steroids Affect It — Remains the Core Baseball Concern
Jerry Dowling Junior Griffey might have been one of the few people in baseball who cared to notice something wrong in 1998, when he, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa went through the All-Star break chasing baseball's most cherished record. Griffey didn't especially embrace the battle for 62 homers and fell off the pace as if…
Farewell to a Friend
Sunday at the Southgate House, friends of the late local musician Simon Kinsella will pay tribute with a concert celebrating his life and raising awareness and money for the Simon Kinsella Scholarship Fund. The 29-year-old Kinsella passed away in his sleep on Aug. 18 in San Francisco, where he was working as a journalist at…
Locals Only: : Cincinnati’s Burning
C. Spencer Yeh The experimental and electronic music scene has been bubbling below the surface here in Cincinnati for quite a while. C. Spencer Yeh, driving force behind Cincinnati Entertainment Award-winning act Burning Star Core, is eminently aware of this. During our two-hour conversation, he repeatedly mentions influence after influence, not only on a national…
Half-Off Arts Czar
Support the Arts While reading the Arts Beat column "Jim Tarbell, Half-Off Arts Czar" (issue of Dec. 15-21), I got the feeling that its gist was to point out Tarbell's failing strength as arts czar inside the greater failing strength of city council in the area of funding local arts projects. Both these points might…
News: Hospitality Is More Than a Place
David Sorcher John Conyers and his sons, John Jr. (sitting) and Alfred, are a success story. The old saying that there's no place like home for the holidays is literally true for some of the nearly 2,500 that become homeless each year in Greater Cincinnati. Instead of shopping at a mall, Karen Johnston and her…
Cover Story: How Much Jessica Simpson Is Too Much?
Darin Overholser When future generations find the 2004 time capsule, they'll undoubtedly ask: How could the American people demand so much of singer/reality TV star/cosmetics spokesperson Jessica Simpson? A huge faction of the current generation — myself included — is wondering the same thing. The blonde beauty dominated pop culture this year like few could,…
Picture the Money
Letting your meter expire: $25. Parking in a handicapped spot: $250. Watching council members debate balancing the city budget on $2 million of theoretical revenue from theoretical photo radar enforcement to be provided by a theoretical company at some point in the near future: priceless. Cincinnati City Council passed the city's 2005-06 budget 6-3 before…
Music: Feed The World More
Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler (and his stylin' tennis-pro headband) performed at the Live Aid concert — available now on DVD — 20 years ago. "It's Christmas time, there's no need to be afraid." Paul Young, virtually unknown in America, sang the first line of the charity single, "Do They Know Its Christmas?" It would be…
Cover Story: Look Away
The first question an audience member asked maverick Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson after the Toronto International Film Festival screening of his latest feature, A Hole in My Heart, was a direct challenge. "Do you respect your audiences?" the young man demanded to know. The soft-spoken Moodysson, standing alone at the front of the theater, simply…
Cover Story: The Portrait of a (Lady) Boxer
Clint Eastwood andHilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF. — Hilary Swank stops eating her shrimp pasta at the hotel café and laughs — giggles, really, with a quick "nah, ha" — at an outsider's observation about her career. She'd been explaining, in a surprisingly self-deprecating way for a young woman whose smile…
Diner: Ko-Sho, No Show
Ko-Sho Japanese Restaurant has an awareness problem. From the street, it looks unvisited, and it's hard to tell it's open, let alone that it's a restaurant. Many people I polled, including colleagues who sally forth for lunch every day downtown, either don't know about it or just don't think of it as a place to…
A Christmas Carol
Cinaninati's Drew and Sherman Fracher have been playing the Cratchits in A Christmas Carol in Lousiville. Last week I went to Actors Theatre of Louisville to see a new production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Barbara Field. "New" is a relative term, actually, since this script has been used by The Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis…
Cover Story: From China With Love
When it comes to sheer beauty, nothing compares to Zhang Ziyi's entrance in the Chinese martial arts extravaganza, House of Flying Daggers. She arrives wrapped in pink, ivory and floral print silk robes and wears a gold crown. She plays Mei, a blind bar girl in a Tang Dynasty brothel. Mei is the ultimate china…
