Cover Story: Boom Town
slim Jim Puvee Ed Stern opened an "alteractive" Cincinnati Playhouse satellite space in Over-the-Rhine, spurring huge interest there. What a year in the arts! It started with more funding from the city of Cincinnati, various Tristate counties, the state of Ohio and the commonwealth of Kentucky. And, of course, the National Endowment for theā¦
Living Out Loud: : Thank you, Miss Jake
When I hear people say that Cincinnati is a friendly town, I usually roll my eyes and say, "Yeah, right." I don't think people are friendly here at all. Most people I come in contact with seem uptight. Most won't make eye contact when you pass them on the sidewalk. Most generally don't trust orā¦
Cover Story: Mayors for a Day
Jimbo Cubcubbatu On the J-O-B spreading the good word about Cincinnati In what's being called one of the savviest political comebacks in recent memory, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory successfully revived his administration this year after a moribund first six months in office using an odd tactic — leaving the city in the hands ofā¦
Bus System Doesn’t Merit Fare Increase
Recent comments from the Southwestern Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) vice chairman are self-serving, disengenuous and say nothing (Letters, "I Remain Committed," issue of Dec. 13). Metro is one of the worst public transportaion systems I have experienced in the world. Routes, stops and scheduling are irrational. Buses are generally early or late, depending onā¦
Music: Bruising My Religion
Dan Wadleigh Mixing humor, political commentary and sharp storytelling skills, Todd Snider's The Devil You Know is being hailed as one of the best albums of 2006. You would think in the 21st century's new dawn of epic political blunders, reckless incompetence and manipulative disregard for truth, courtesy of our beloved Administration, that protestā¦
Kennedy Heighta Arts Center
Enjoy the Arts/START Gallery The anonymously rendered "Anywhere" is part of The Voice Project at Enjoy the Arts Gallery. Burn off some of those holiday calories by making a visit to some area galleries that you might have missed recently. First stop is the KENNEDY HEIGHTS ARTS CENTER (6546 Montgomery Road) for the Holidayā¦
Diner: The Large and Small of It
Matt Borgerding Roula David and Michael Spaulding owners of Vinyl It's that time of year again — time to look back upon our successes and vices, make resolutions and clean slates. Empty out those file cabinets and use your last flexible healthcare dollars. Buy your sixth gym membership and promise once again to beā¦
Mission Impossible: The Complete First TV Season (Paramount)
Mission Impossible: The Complete First TV Season 1966, Not Rate By Steve Rosen Now here's something worth getting excited about — a Mission: Impossible DVD that's not one of the soulless Tom Cruise movies but rather the entire 28-episode first season of the classy, stylish and enormously appealing TV series on which those moviesā¦
Cover Story: Tasty Treats
J.D. Cutter The Great Ice Cream Truck Race of 2006 Who says you can't always get what you want? Well, Mick Jagger for one, but that's beside the point. This year we certainly did get everything we wished for in Cincinnati dining. One of the most exciting changes came with the facelift of Fountainā¦
Cover Story: A Year to Dismember
J.D. Cutter JANUARY The Bengals beat the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl (pity about Matt Hasselbeck's leg), but the big news for the game was, again, the halftime show. MTV still wasn't allowed to produce the show after the Janet Jackson debacle, so sister station VH1 was brought in and the "mature" musicā¦
Cover Story: An Arc for the Ages
Jim Fugett Cincinnati's hometown film hero (front) hobnobs with the stars. There isn't a single Oscar prognosticator who could have foretold the arrival of this year's surprise event, because it was an occurrence unlike anything the business had seen before. We've had directors deliver double threats during a particular year (Francis Ford Coppola withā¦
News: Artists in the Neighborhood
Joe Lamb The Clifton Cultural Arts Center (CCAC) will have programming for children, adults and even passing pedestrians, according to Cindy Herrick, president of the CCAC board. When a school tax levy is on the ballot, supporters talk about how schools are important for the entire community, not just kids and their parents. Inā¦
Film: The Rest of the Story
Recent big-screen release Babel has spawned a complementary book. Vertigo Comics, a division of DC and home of Superman and Batman, arranged to produce the graphic novelization of Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain, a difficult project, especially for a studio backing an independent director working on only his third feature. The production was officially shutā¦
Cover Story: D.I.Y. Locals Only
"Our sound is kind of _______(1)________ and very _______(2)_________," says ____(3)________ Smith, lead singer for The _______(4)________. "It's different from anything you'll hear in Cincinnati right now because we incorporate _______(5)_______ in addition to your normal guitars/drums/bass configuration." We're drinking _______(6)________ at _______(7)_______, a newly opened local music venue in the building that usedā¦
Locals Only: : Suffocation Nation
Suffocate Faster Suffocate Faster frontman Chris Alsip (aka Chris Awesome) knows all too well the pitfalls of genre classification. Although the Cincinnati quartet considers their sound to be their unique take on Straight Edge Hardcore, shaped by a foundational love of bands like Earth Crisis and Minor Threat, they've been lumped in with anyā¦
The World Will Come Clean
Jake's Final Notes: For my last Songitorial of 2006, I decided to end with a dream. I knew that I wanted the first half of the song to chronicle some of the horrors of this year, while I wanted the second half to embrace an optimism and hope for the year to come. I allowedā¦
Cover Story: Over the Top
Jimbo Cubcubbatu People rushed to climb the Purple People Bridge in 2006. As usual, Peter Bronson of The Cincinnati Enquirer said it best. "In the end," he wrote, "it wasn't liberal social engineering and root-cause breast-beating that saved Cincinnati. It was that much maligned can-do spirit of American ingenuity." It was Ellen van derā¦
News: Building Bridges
Graham Lienhart Chip Harrod is executive director of Bridges for a Just Community, successor organization to the National Conference for Community and Justice. It's only been a month, but the numbers of affiliated organizations is growing, the public is warming to the old group's new name and Robert "Chip" Harrod musters the excitement ofā¦
Onstage: Been There, Done That
Paul Kolnik Chita Rivera: A Dancer's Life re-creates iconic scenes from the dancer's legendary career, including the "Dance at the Gym" from West Side Story. It's really too bad that dance legend Chita Rivera's new show is launching its national tour here in Cincinnati during the holiday season, although I suspect the producers soughtā¦
Pearlene, Mean, Rocking Machine
Local crew Pearlene's amazing new album, For Western Violence and Brief Sensuality, gets the local CD release party treatment Saturday at the Northside Tavern. For the free show, the band will be joined by Foxfire, which is singers Beth Harris (also of The Hiders) and Kristen Kreft (Dorsey Blues Band), who also sang back-up forā¦
News to Use
March to Stop the War The Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center (IJPC) has chartered a bus for people who want to join the Jan. 27 peace march in Washington, D.C. Organized by United for Peace and Justice, the march aims to deliver a resounding message to the new Congress: No half-measures that will only prolongā¦
New Year’s Me
Over the course of my adult life, I've made countless New Year's resolutions. Regrettably, few have stuck. This I attribute to a lack of specificity and, as a result, a surplus of wiggle room. For instance, one year I resolved to quit smoking only to decide, over my first cigarette of Jan. 2, that Iā¦
Cover Story: Absolutely Yeah Yeah Yeah
New releases have slowed down now that the holidays are upon us, but a couple of "special edition" re-releases have me tickling Santa's tummy under the mistletoe and licking egg nog off the ol' yule log in anticipation. Fans of Emo popsters Fall Out Boy have something new to write about in their diariesā¦
Cover Story: Cops Fund Drug Rehab
Doug MacDonald Yes, in Greater Cincinnati, 2006 truly was … the Best Year Ever! As she promised earlier this year, Police Chief Rachel Thornton returned 5 percent of the Cincinnati Police Department (CPD) operating budget. The funds already have been committed to social service programs that have been proven to reduce crime — includingā¦
Cover Story: Happy Just to Be Nominated
Jim Fugett The Oscars are a double-edged sword for film buffs. The Academy Awards ceremony itself is a glorious spectacle, a train wreck of self-importance and artifice, the ultimate guilty pleasure. It's also a joke when it comes to true cinematic credibility. More interested in feeding the Hollywood machine than in honoring those trulyā¦
Cover Story: A Golden Buzz
No One Victoria Morgan (top) joins her retro Cincinnati Ballet cast for The Buzz. The holidays are often associated with depression, but whatever was ailing audiences likely was cured upon seeing Cincinnati Ballet's sold-out, three-day performance extravaganza Dec. 8-10 at U.S. Bank Arena — and I'm not talking about The Nutcracker. Following in theā¦
Events: New Year’s Eve in Greater Cincinnati
New West Records Delbert McClinton Bar/Restaurant Packages Tap your toes and raise your glass with Jake Speed and the Freddies at ARNOLD'S BAR AND GRILL, which offers a crawfish/shrimp buffet, music, party favors, sandwich buffet at midnight and champagne toast. Seating will be limited to 80 people. 8 p.m. Dec. 31. $40. 210 E.ā¦
Looking Ahead to Baseball 2007, the Cubs Are Poised to Be Big Winners
Jerry Dowling The Reds have come a long way in less than a year, all the way up to average for a big league ball club, though still running their sixth straight losing season because they just weren't tight enough to win those three or four that might have made them a little moreā¦
Brighter Dayz (The Finale)
C. Matthew Hamby I look into my daughter's eyes and realize that I'm a learn through her … If I'm a do it, I gotta change the world through her. — Common (Sense) At some point in the not-too-distant future, my daughter (now 6 years old) might stumble upon a stack of old, dustyā¦
Cover Story: We Are the Champions
When it comes to the Cincinnati sports scene in 2006, Charles Dickens got it half right. It was just the best of times. Leading the charge was, of course, this city's first love: baseball. The hometown Reds, the oldest franchise in the league, grabbed the hearts and hopes of so many local sports fansā¦
Troublemaker’s Journal
What would the great religions have us do? What would the abolitionists have done? What would the best traditions of the labor movement suggest? How would a humanitarian of any sort react? There can be only one answer: defend the illegal immigrants. I don't usually use the word. In the immigrant rights movement, we sayā¦
007 NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY
MGM New Bond Daniel Craig suggests you attend Know Theatre's 007 New Year's Eve Party Want to celebrate New Year's Eve in an unusual location and support one of Cincinnati's more innovative theaters at the same time? You're invited to be "shaken, not stirred" at the 007 NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTY at Know Theatreā¦
