Democrats to Judge: Defer Hunter’s Sentence
The court case is over, but issues of race and politics that made it so contentious continue swirling. Hamilton County Judge Norbert Nadel sentenced former Juvenile Court Judge Tracie Hunter to six months in jail and a year of probation Dec. 5 after she was convicted on one of nine felony counts last month. Hunter…
Music: Badboxes
Badboxes frontman Harrison Wargo has dubbed the sound of his Electronic trio “Northern Pop,” and that’s a fairly descriptive tag. The band’s debut EP JSMN (expanded to 14 tracks on a deluxe edition released early this year) and their recently released full length Violet (available as a free download through Bandcamp) exhibit a chilly Synth…
Music: Exit Verse
Early last year, former Karate vocalist/guitarist Geoff Farina joined forces with Brokeback/Tight Phantomz bassist Pete Croke and ex-Chisel drummer John Dugan to create Exit Verse, a power trio for the 21st century. The band’s recently released self-titled debut is potent proof of the wisdom of pairing Farina’s driving guitar with a rhythm section that can…
Music: PHOX
In a world filled with so much “Nope,” Baraboo, Wis., brought us the “Fuck yes” that is PHOX. Equal parts fun and fierce, the Indie Pop sextet delivers the exact sound required for properly shaking off the way-too-early cold weather we’ve been experiencing. PHOX singer Monica Martin’s voice perfectly grounds the airy and whimsical noise…
Music: The Head and the Heart
Spirited Indie Folk aggregation The Head and the Heart began five years ago when Southern California native Josiah Johnson relocated to Seattle for graduate school and met fellow transplant Jonathan Russell through Seattle’s open mic community. The pair began singing and writing together, and quickly brought in keyboardist Kenny Hensley, who moved to Seattle to study score…
Onstage: Forever Plaid: Plaid Tidings
For laughs and holiday cheer, I recommend the Covedale Center on Cincinnati’s West Side for Forever Plaid: Plaid Tidings. Staged at the Cincinnati Playhouse 10 years ago, this amusing tale of four guys doing Doo-Wop holiday tunes hasn’t been produced locally since then, as far as I know. In their backstory, the late-’50s singing group…
Onstage: Sleeping Beauty
While most local theaters have swept away the artificial snow and stashed the Christmas decorations, Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati continues to present its family-friendly holiday musical. It’s an amusing “fractured fairy tale,” but there’s a lot more than that. Using romance, comedy, action, Rock & Roll and opera, Sleeping Beauty is an entertaining take on the…
Onstage: A Christmas Carol
“Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.” With those words Charles Dickens began A Christmas Carol, his legendary ghost story about the conversion of Ebenezer Scrooge from miser to philanthropist. The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park presents A Christmas Carol for the 24th consecutive year. Howard Dallin’s excellent adaptation has…
Call Board: Theater News
Actors Sought. Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati hosts its third annual Meals for Monologues on Monday and Tuesday between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. at 1127 Vine St. in Over-the-Rhine. It's an open casting call to Equity and non-union actors for theater, film, TV and/or commercial projects cast by the theater's artistic director D. Lynn Meyers. Interested…
Music Tonight: Yelawolf and The Lone Bellow
Alabama-born Hip Hop artist Yelawolf plays Newport’s Thompson House tonight at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25. Yelawolf began making waves in 2005 after self-releasing his debut album, Creek Water. The gifted MC landed a major-label deal with Columbia within two years, but the deal fizzled out and Yelawolf returned to working the underground. By the…
Morning News and Stuff
All right y’all. After a brief delay while I listened to a presentation about health insurance (as captivating as it sounds) I’m here with the news this morning. Cincinnati’s 600-strong uniformed police force will eventually be equipped with body cameras after a seven-month pilot program involving West Side officers wrapped up this week. The move…
Holiday: Mount Lookout Festival of Lights
For the 39th year, luminaria take over Mount Lookout Square while stars illuminate the night sky. During this festival of lights, the Cincinnati Observatory will be open to the public for a viewing of Mars. Shuttles will take carolers and stargazers alike from the square to the Observatory, where there will be warm drinks and…
Holiday: Light Up Fountain Square
Light up the holiday season with a public unity menorah lighting. This 39-year-old Cincinnati tradition features tasty Hanukkah food and ice-skating, all coordinated to classic Hanukkah tunes. 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Free; $4 skate admission. Fountain Square, Fifth and Vine streets, Downtown, myfountainsquare.com.
Holiday: Art on Vine Holiday Sale
Art on Vine is a holiday market and art fair featuring 30 artists and their works, available for purchase. There will also be Holtman’s Donuts, music by DJ Pillo and local food trucks. Noon-7 p.m. Sunday. Free. Rhinegeist, 1910 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, rhinegeist.com.
Holiday: 12 Pubs of Christmas
The 12 Pubs of Christmas is a progressive holiday pubcrawl in Newport to benefit Toys for Tots. Everyone is asked to bring a new unwrapped toy to donate before they begin their evening of binge drinking from FlashBack’s Dance Club at Newport on the Levee to JerZees Pub & Grub. Other participating bars include Axis…
Onstage: Straight No Chaser
If you like your music without instruments, you’re going to love 10-person a cappella group Straight No Chaser. The YouTube sensation has developed into a full-fledged band with their fourth Atlantic Records release, Under the Influence, featuring contributions from the likes of Jason Mraz, Phil Collins and Dolly Parton. Their blend of humor, kitsch and…
Holiday: City Flea Holiday Market
City Flea closes out the year with its holiday market. Enjoy shopping in the crisp winter air at Washington Park, with Christmas lights overhead and warm drinks — hot cocoa and mulled wine — plus funky holiday music. 5-10 p.m. Saturday. Free. 1230 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, thecityflea.com.
Music: Spirit Animal and Pluto Revolts
With guitars that shift between big Rock riffage and a Funk shuffle, a dance-floor-ready groove and dashes of party-starting EDM, it’s no surprise that New York City’s Spirit Animal has become renowned for its energetic and wildly entertaining live shows. With the tight crunch of Blood Sugar Sex Magik-era Red Hot Chili Peppers, the manic…
Holiday: Light Up OTR
Celebrate the holidays at the fifth annual Light Up OTR, a neighborhood display of luminaries from Elm to Main streets, with candles representing safety and unity for the coming season. Families can create their own ornaments and decorations for the ceremonial Christmas tree lighting in Washington Park at 9 p.m. The festivities end with an…
Holiday: Santacon
Celebrate the holidays and help spread good cheer by dressing and drinking as the cheeriest elf with a beard — Santa. Grab your favorite Santa, Mrs. Santa, reindeer or elf costume and head to Fountain Square at noon on Saturday to begin what is essentially a Christmas-themed pubcrawl. All day and night, registered participants will…
Holiday: Trans-Siberian Orchestra
The Trans-Siberian Orchestra performs their Rock Opera, The Christmas Attic, at U.S. Bank Arena. On Christmas Eve, a young girl sneaks up to the attic, uncovering a magical doorway to the past in the form of ornaments, toys, old records and handwritten letters, which all lead to an unlikely adventure — and presumably a lot…
Holiday: Let It Snow Laser Light Show
Ever stared dreamily into the effervescent world of a snow globe and wondered what it would be like to be inside? Drake Planetarium offers the closest thing to it with its holiday laser show, “Let It Snow.” Set to warm holiday classics by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Chuck Berry, with an explosive finale…
Holiday: Unsilent Night
For the third year, Contemporary Arts Center is sponsoring Cincinnati’s participation in Unsilent Night, the Christmas-tradition-meets-performance-art creation of Ohio-born New York-based artist Phil Kline. Each participant gets one of four tracks of music created by Kline — either in cassette, CD or MP3 form — to play while parading through city streets as a group.…
Onstage: A Soldier’s Christmas
Last summer Cincinnati Opera presented Silent Night, a retelling of the 1914 “Christmas Truce,” when World War I forces set aside their battles and marked the holiday. Local playwright Phil Paradis has rendered this story into a play that is being presented for the holidays. Two soldiers — one British, the other German — meet…
Holiday: Bombs Away! Santa Claus Conquers the Martians Live Riff
Bombs Away!, the delightful Cincinnati comedy troupe that does live riffing — aka humorous commentary in the vein of Mystery Science Theater — to movies that deserve such treatment, is at it again for the Christmas season. Friday at the Esquire, they’ll riff on 1968’s Santa Conquers the Martians, which regularly appears on “worst films…
Comedy: Mike Lukas and Sam Evans
It’s a homecoming of sorts for two Cincinnati transplants this week at Go Bananas. Mike Lukas, the headliner, hails from Cleveland and came to southwest Ohio for college. He stayed after graduating, working for AT&T. He now lives back in Cleveland with his wife and daughter and talks a lot about relationships on stage. “Women…
Holiday: Holiday in Lights
There is no need to leave the comfort of your car to witness Holiday in Lights, a festive colored-light show adorning more than a mile of wooded roadway in Sharon Woods. The lights portray favorite holiday characters, from Santa Claus and his elves to every animal on the ark, set to music from radio station…
Art: Bill Daniel Pop-Up Show at Wave Pool GAllery
Wave Pool, a new Camp Washington gallery/artist studio/residency program, hosts experimental filmmaker, documentary photographer and installation artist Bill Daniel. Daniel will exhibit a one-night-only pop-up show comprised of 30 years of 35 mm photographs he took using the same camera set-up, flash and Kodak Tri-X film. The photos feature everything from ’80s Texas Punk bands…
Morning News and Stuff
Hey hey! It’s Monday. Stuff has been happening. Let’s get our news on. The idea of law enforcement piloting tiny unmanned craft with cameras is pretty unnerving to some folks, which is understandable. No one wants a little flying robocop filming you through your window as you eat Doritos and watch your seventh episode of…
A Lesson on Journalism Ethics
In today’s heated news cycle, even facially flawed assertions become facts through repetition. Vilification and political correctness can muzzle doubters. As a result, that failure of candid, open debate can lead to flawed public policy, rarely more so than today’s fevered coverage of campus rape. Take, for instance, the University of Virginia’s response to Sabrina…
Sleeping Beauty (Review)
I love that artistic director Lynn Meyers calls Ensemble Theatre’s holiday shows “nondenominational, multigenerational.” It means a lot that her intention with these revised fairytales is to offer a subtle message that kids will absorb and adults can appreciate, even as they’re all being entertained by David Kisor’s music and Joe McDonough’s lyrics and script.…
Stage Door: A Ho-Ho-Whole Lotta Holiday Shows
If you want to go to the theater this weekend, you have plenty of choices, so long as you have the spirit of the season. Let's start with the familiar: Cincinnati Playhouse launched its 24th year of A Christmas Carol last week, and it's always a pleasure to see, featuring Bruce Cromer as Scrooge. But…
Hopnosis 7 Craft Beer Festival at Comet
If you're a fan of craft beer, you might want to set up camp outside the Comet in Northside this weekend. The bar is hosting its seventh annual Hopnosis beer event, featuring 30 kegs of small batch beer, tapped hourly over Friday and Saturday. The bar, which is already known for its wide beer selection, will…
Your Weekend To Do List (12/5-12/7)
Things that are true: Getting dressed for a night out when it's cold is hard because it's unacceptable to wear down comforters as ponchos. Other things that are true: It's unacceptable to stay in for an entire weekend to watch holiday-themed movies on Lifetime (because Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever was truly not a very good film). …
The Comet to Host Hopnosis 7 Craft Beer Festival this Weekend
If you're a fan of craft beer, you might want to set up camp outside the Comet in Northside this weekend. The bar is hosting its seventh annual Hopnosis beer event, featuring 30 kegs of small batch beer, tapped hourly over Friday and Saturday. The bar, which is already known for its wide beer selection, will…
Morning News and Stuff
Morning y’all. Rather than brave the gross, cold weather, I’m working from home in the tiny circular turret next to my bedroom with a space heater blasting. One of the things I love about Cincinnati is not only that weird old houses like the one I live in still exist, but that I can afford…
DOJ Hammers Cleveland Police Department on Use of Force
The Department of Justice yesterday released a report detailing its year-and-a-half-long investigation of the Cleveland Police Department’s use of force. Its findings, and its timing, are devastating, detailing incidents where unarmed civilians were shot 20 times during a car chase, a unarmed man kicked in the head by officers while in handcuffs and many other…
Local Rally Held for Man Killed by NYC Police Officer
A group of more than 100 staged a peaceful rally in downtown Cincinnati on Thursday evening remembering Eric Garner, the 42-year-old man who died after New York City Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo administered a choke hold on him last July. A New York grand jury announced yesterday it would not hand down an indictment for…
From the Copy Desk
Afternoon readers! Now that Thanksgiving is over, it's back to the normal grind, at least until Christmas. I hope everyone was able to stuff themselves with turkey and spend time with loved ones. Let's get to Words Nobody Uses or Knows in this week's issue, which, by the way, includes a lovely piece on Ohio's…
Important New Art Film Coming to Cincinnati Art Museum
National Gallery, the latest film by the great American documentarian Frederick Wiseman, will get a free screening at Cincinnati Art Museum at 1 p.m. on Jan. 25, 2015. No tickets or advance reservations are required. Typical of Wiseman’s inquisitively reportorial and humanistic work, this carefully and thoughtfully takes viewers inside the world of London’s National…
Morning News and Stuff
Hello all, hope you’re doing well this morning. I’m having a bit of trouble getting started today, maybe due to CityBeat’s Bourbon and Bacon event last night. The party at Newport’s New Riff Distillery (which is amazing, by the way) featured nearly unlimited amounts of bacon-infused items. Bacon is one of my favorite things. I’m…
Carabello Coffee Launches Kickstarter
Carabello Coffee in Newport, Ky., is a philanthropic coffee shop and roastery owned by husband and wife Emily and Justin Carabello. As a craft coffee bar, they have all the latte art and pour-overs you'd expect, but they also do something unexpected — the business gives back by turning over a portion of their profits to third…
Music Tonight: The Pass, Nora Jane Struthers and More
Louisville Electro Pop artists The Pass, who’ve become popular with local audiences thanks to repeated visits to the Cincinnati area (providing highlight sets for more than a couple MidPoint Music Festivals), performs a free show tonight at Over-the-Rhine’s MOTR Pub. Local trio JetLab (which just released its self-titled debut last week) opens things up around 10…
Princess and Christmas in 1969
I think about this a lot around this time of year—Princess and Christmas in 1969. My twin brother and my younger brother and I grew up on a small farm outside of East Enterprise, Indiana. Back in 1969, it was a town that had two grocery stores, a bank, a barber shop and a gas…
The Discovery Channel Gets Weird
Paul Rosolie is a wildlife filmmaker, author and naturalist with a focus on the western Amazon. He’s worked on tropical conservation projects, won a short film contest hosted by the United Nations and — as viewers will see Sunday — been eaten alive by an anaconda. Eaten Alive (9 p.m. Sunday, Discovery) follows Rosolie in…
With MUBI, the Film Revolution Streams at Home
Netflix and Hulu stack filmed content in virtual space and leave us largely to fend for ourselves. Coded reading of keystrokes and previous selections teases us with the idea that these services “grow to know” what our preferences are and can alert us to new releases in our proverbial wheelhouses. But sometimes what we, as…
Cincinnati Camerata Devotes Annual Concert to the Virgin Mary
This time of year there’s an endless menu of Christmas music, from carols to oratorios to pageants, centuries old and newly composed. But Mary, an important character in the Christmas story, often doesn’t get more than one or two lines in any given song. For the past 15 years, on the first Sunday of Advent,…
Do We Need a Museum of Art Museum History?
There are art museums and there are history museums. But maybe there should be a new kind of museum — a Museum of Art Museum History. The idea struck me while touring the Contemporary Arts Center’s current Memory Palace exhibition (it’s up through Feb. 22, 2015), which celebrates the institution’s 75th anniversary by using the…
Novel Ideas
“S omeone used to show up with a typewriter,” says Diana McDonough, one of 15 people gathered around a table at Price Hill’s BLOC Coffee Company on Nov. 1 to kick off National Novel Writing Month (known as NaNoWriMo by its participants). Members of the group were from as far away as Oxford, Ohio, and…
‘Findlay Market Cookbook’ Cooking Class
Join the Midwest Culinary Institute as they celebrate Findlay Market with a very special Creations Cooking Class in their state-of-the-art culinary theatre 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 11. Bryn Mooth, editor of Edible Ohio Valley magazine and author of the just-published Findlay Market Cookbook, will be demonstrating recipes from the new book and sharing stories of…
Top Cincinnati Hot Chocolate Hotspots
In many cities across the U.S. (and just about everywhere in Europe), the idea of melting a chocolate bar into water or milk to create a drinkable delight is hardly new. The original Mayan version of hot chocolate, which was actually served cold, featured ground cocoa, water and additions like chili pepper. In Cincinnati, however,…
What’s Up, Rocka?
F ew artists understand the changing face of Hip Hop as well as Buggs Tha Rocka. Buggs is no mere street spitter, banking cred on marginal talent and inflated bravado. He’s a knowledgeable Hip Hop student, canny entrepreneur, gifted and erudite composer and savvy technology/social media guru, creating a buzz around his releases and then…
The Lone Bellow with Robert Ellis
Music often rivals politics in the bizarre art of making strange bedfellows and displaying stranger-than-fiction truths. The Lone Bellow is a fascinating case in point. Nearly 10 years ago, Georgia native Zach Williams began keeping a journal to balance his emotional state when his wife Stacy was temporarily paralyzed after a fall from a horse.…
Johnny Campbell & The Bluegrass Drifters with The Goodle Boys and Mamadrones
Johnny Campbell was born into a family of fiddlers. So naturally, he started his music career as a … rhythm guitarist? Johnny’s older brother, Jimmy, was starting a band and had plans for the new kid in the family. “He was already playing the fiddle so he kind of made me play guitar,” Johnny says.…
Maddie & Tae with Easton Corbin and RaeLynn
If you’re anything like the rest of Country music-listening America and have fallen head-over-heels for those “Girl in a Country Song” girls, Maddie & Tae, you should head to Toby Keith’s this week when the duo performs as part of B-105 FM’s Toys for Tots benefit concert. From there, it’s quite literally straight on to…
Every Time I Die with The Ghost Inside, Architects, Hundredth and Backtrack
Over the past 16 years, Every Time I Die has had more bassists (eight) than albums (seven). What does this indicate about the Buffalo, N.Y., Metalcore/Hardcore quintet? Maybe it’s that the band’s founding members — vocalist Keith Buckley, guitarist Jordan Buckley and guitarist Andy Williams — burn through four stringers the way Chevy Cobalts chew…
On Being White
“I would love to just interview white cops. The question isn’t why they shoot so many black kids, which is horrible. The real question is, like, “How come you never shoot white kids?’ That’s the real question.” — Chris Rock, CBS Sunday Morning The resignation of Officer Darren Wilson is not noble or brave or…
Morning News and Stuff
Hey all. Here’s the news this morning. Former Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Tracie Hunter won’t get a new trial, a judge has ruled. Hamilton County Judge Norbert Nadel has denied all three of Hunter’s motions for retrial after she was convicted last month of one of eight felony counts in relation to her time…
Cincinnati vs. The World 12.03.14
City Manager Harry Black on Dec. 1 issued new rules for city street closures due to construction projects. The rules intend to put an end to downtown construction delays during rush hours by prohibiting construction equipment on the street during non-working hours and limiting work zone areas. Cincinnati +1 Nationwide efforts to make hospital care…
Music Tonight: Every Time I Die, Lera Lynn and More
Veteran metallers Every Time I Die play Bogart's in Corryville tonight. The Ghost Inside, Hundredth, Architects and Backtrack are also on the bill. Doors open at 6 p.m. and tickets are $26.27. ETID's creative approach has earned them fans outside of just the Metal world (though they don't seem to have suffered the wrath of…
Worst Week Ever!: Nov. 26-Dec. 2
Ohio Deer Tests Positive for Rare Disease; You Might Too! Whether the Ebola scare was a real thing or something pushed super hard by the media in order to distract the masses from lots of other shady stuff that’s going on in America and the world abroad, one thing it did teach us is that…
Russia: Now Scared of Gay People AND Death Metal
HOT: Russia: Scared of Death Metal Last year, Vladimir Putin approved a new law that banned “gay propaganda” in an effort to “protect children.” More recently, a district court in Russia has expanded its mission to protect lil’ Russians by banning the lyrics and artwork of Death Metal band (and common conservative crusader target) Cannibal…
Signs of Distrust
A s lew of recent police shootings involving white officers and unarmed blacks has led to renewed scrutiny on racial bias in law enforcement and how officers are held accountable when something suspect happens. The issue hits close to home in Cincinnati. Two high-profile cases involving police shootings of unarmed black men have made headlines…
Cincinnati Dancing Pigs Celebrate New Release, Hall of Fame Induction
This Saturday, the Queen City’s premier (only?) jug band, The Cincinnati Dancing Pigs, celebrate the release of their new album, Goin’ to Cincinnati, at Arnold’s Bar and Grill (210 E. Eighth St., Downtown, arnoldsbarandgrill.com). Showtime is 9 p.m. and there is no cover charge. The Pigs will also be celebrating an impressive recent accolade. In…
Leaving Our Mark
E very city has a story to tell. Ours, which first began as three small and desolate settlements on the banks of the Ohio River, is no exception. From the first professional baseball team (the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869) to the first glass door oven (Camp Washington, 1909), Cincinnati has and continues to leave…
Rumor Has It
I f you ask the average Cincinnatian where to find the best [insert cuisine here], he or she is going to have an opinion. Best chili? You’ll find die-hard fans willing to go head to head for every mom-and-pop parlor from Camp Washington to Price Hill. Late-night diners? Depends on whether you like the Pepper…
