Film: The High Art of Adaptations
Miramax Casey Affleck (left) and Michelle Monaghan star in writer/director Ben Affleck's adaptation of Dennis Lehane's crime novel. The Hollywood dream factory shifts into a slightly different gear this holiday season, as it becomes a subsidiary of the publishing houses. Apparently there is box-office gold to be mined along the aisles of our chain…
Locals Only: : The Way Downs
Tmphotography.com The Way Downs "The writing seems effortless … it's more just riffs and rockin'," singer Lee Gallagher says. "I love Soul singers. It seems different than a lot of stuff that's going on. I play harmonica through an amp from the '40s." Guitarist Phil Day says, "It's Hard Rock heavily informed by the…
Country Club plays with the big boys in Miami
Joe Lamb Country Club's Matt Distel (left) and Christian Strike are heading south this week. COUNTRY CLUB, the new gallery in the West End with the capricious name, the tongue-in-cheek logo and two directors — doppelgangers, ostensibly — who come across as antitheses of urbane contemporary art dealers, is already taking a trip out…
News: Shelter: Not for Wimps
Natalie Hager Theresa Singleton, director of protection from abuse services at the YWCA, started as a shelter volunteer. Shelter is what the word implies: protection. In the case of anyone fleeing intimate partner violence, it's hardly a vacation or an avoidance of responsibility. The thing an emergency shelter does is literally save lives. "The…
Sound Advice: : Loudon Wainwright III and Radio Moscow
Michael WIlson Loudon Wainwright III LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III Friday
Main Event: ‘A Christmas Carol’ leads parade of holiday productions
'Tis the Season Holiday shows are the bread and butter of most theater companies — put on something good and it will support a lot of other kinds of work throughout the year. There are some excellent choices this year, ranging from traditional to edgy. The nice thing about A CHRISTMAS CAROL (Thursday-Dec. 30)…
Time to Step It Up
Ten years ago this week United Nations delegates from the world's developed countries came together in Kyoto, Japan, to negotiate the Kyoto Accord. It's a bittersweet anniversary because it marks the first time world leaders decided joint action was needed to curtail global warming, but it also stands as a reminder today of how little…
Cover Story: Bob Loves You
Bob Ridge wants to talk. In fact, the VP of health, safety and environment at ConocoPhillips says it's been too long. You know, we should have sat down sooner — like before the American public began ranking his industry beneath tobacco peddlers. Bob says that's why his company is reaching out to "thought leaders and…
Film: Review: Darfur Now
Warner Independent Darfur Now urges viewers to help those in peril in Sudan. The crisis in the parched, drought-prone Darfur region of Sudan — where Arab militias known as Janjaweed ("devils on horseback") have been massacring and displacing African civilians in order to put down a rebellion — has taxed world leaders trying to…
Onstage: Review: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Distinguished Shakespearean scholar Harold Bloom calls A Midsummer Night's Dream "a wise and humane drama." Exactly. In the hands of 20 loons and lovely lunatics on stage at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, Will's sweet wisdom and leavening humanity are emphatically on view. But wait! There's more. Without losing track of the play's poetry or its quicksilver…
Hormone Spurt
(Re: "FOP Campaign Focuses on Sheriff's Patrols" post on CityBeat's Porkopolis blog.) Officer Don Meece's email reads like it was written by a 12-year-old boy having a spurt of hormones. In a real city, elected leaders would have proper oversight of the police department. Too bad Greg Harris wasn't elected (to Cincinnati City Council). Now…
My first Time
Punk rockers old and new can get their literary fix in some terrific new books that revel in the spirit, the lifestyle and the humor of banging the drum their own way. … No, it's not a sex confessional, but the spurts and snorts of My First Time are just as charged with sweaty adolescent…
Onstage: Review: The Rimers of Eldritch
Lanford Wilson's The Rimers of Eldritch, a 1966 work by the respected playwright about murder and small-town small-mindedness, is one tough axe to sharpen. The storytelling is fragmented, fugue-like, time-scattered and repetitive. The attitude is bleak, accusatory and autumnal. Neither Northern Kentucky University's cast of 17 nor director Mary Jo Beresford have marshaled dramatic forces…
Don’t Expect College Football ‘Parity’ to Last
Jerry Dowling Four years ago, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) computers offended college football's glamour pimps by leaving Southern California out of the national championship game. The BCS responded disastrously. Because USC fell short in 2003 due to its relatively weak schedule, the BCS took its usual blunt instrument approach and just stripped the…
Diner: Review: Sung Korean Bistro
Joe Lamb Sung Korean Bistro An out-of-town foodie friend asked me to recommend some downtown ethnic dining choices that wouldn't break the bank. As I thumbed through the files in my head, I realized there really weren't too many options. One of the few that did come to mind was Sung Korean Bistro. Owner…
Various Artists: I’m Not There Soundtrack
The soundtrack to Todd Haynes' new movie about Bob Dylan is, in many ways, as inspired and daring — and successful — as the film. The 34 songs on two discs include only one actual Dylan recording, the previously unavailable Basement Tape outtake "I'm Not There," a hauntingly raw mid-tempo ballad that's simultaneously confessional and…
Cover Story: You’re Getting Warmer
Kyoto 10 Years Later The Kyoto Accord began the race to halt global warming. On its 10th anniversary, why are we barely past the starting gate? I remember so well the final morning hours of the Kyoto conference. The negotiations had gone on long past their scheduled evening close, and the convention center management…
Copping an attitude about OTR, Playhouse looks Downtown again
Cincinnati Playhouse Playhouse in the Park now has a second alternative location under consideration. A turf war between Cincinnati Police and the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office could help decide who leads the city's police union next year. In an effort to make it a major issue in the campaign, Police Officer Don Meece, who…
Liz Holt
Know Theatre Tribe Adam Fried (left) and Derek Snow star in Know Theatre's Christmas.to.Come. A year ago KNOW THEATRE OF CINCINNATI presented its own contemporary retelling of Ebenezer Scrooge's night of ghostly visitations, Christmas Yet To Come. The sold-out hit had a lot of dancing (by Exhale Dance Company) and a few unusual updates…
Cover Story: Ask the Environmentalist
Ross Gelbspan, author of The Heat Is On and Boiling Point, www.heatisonline.org What is needed is a new Kyoto Accord that reflects the urgency and magnitude of the challenge: a rapid global transition to non-carbon energy sources in the next 30 years. One approach might involve three elements: In industrial countries, withdraw the roughly $250…
Living Out Loud: : O Natalee, Where Art Thou?
O Natalee, where art thou? Whatever. Two and a half years ago I cared a lot. Now, while I hope she's at peace and in a better place, I'm tired of the whole damn mess. When Natalee Holloway went missing in Aruba on May 30, 2005, I have to admit I was fascinated by the…
Led Zep
HOT Zeppelin Flying More Than Once? The prospect of a full-fledged Led Zeppelin tour has been the hot music-world rumor for the past few months. Well, it'll never be a "full-fledged" reunion unless a key component — drummer John Bonham — is resurrected, Frankenstein-style. But the not-dead members of the legendary band are to appear…
News to Use
The Great Turning As we shift from an industrial-growth society to a "life-sustaining civilization," we're facing serious and confounding social and ecological questions. Will economics, a self-destructive political system and the lust for profit make it impossible to be compassionate and find equitable answers? Eco-philosopher Joanna Macy will address these issues at a lecture hosted…
Farewell, Uncle Russell
Bass player Russell Givens, affectionately called "Uncle Russell," born, Oct. 17, 1937, passed away Nov. 9. His music and life will never be forgotten. He was called "the best bass player I ever heard" by the great B.B. King, who had Russell in his band. Givens played with a number of Jazz and Blues greats…
Your Defining Moment
How do you define yourself? When you think about you, is there a label attached: smart, stupid, athletic, a klutz, artistic, a failure? I've noticed that many people, usually at a young and impressionable age, have had at least one experience — a defining moment — that imprints an enduring self-image in their mind. The…
Cover Story: Activism, Environment, Politics
Ed Smeloff The 1997 Kyoto conference was indeed festive. In geological time, 10 years is hardly noticed. A speck of dust. But for sentient beings, much happens in 10 years. Children grow up, parents and friends pass away, wars start and end, presidents are elected and disgraced, political parties rise and fall. In the…
News: First Cut Is the Deepest
Graham Lienhart Cincinnati City Council members Leslie Ghiz and John Cranley discuss proposed changes to the city'sbiennial budget during a Finance Committee meeting. They want to be on their best behavior. Honest. Various factions on Cincinnati City Council were hoping later this month to avoid the rancorous political battles and heated rhetoric that marked…
The Little Shop on the Corner
Piatt Park downtown is lit up for Christmas. Its graceful wintery arches are hung with garlands of swag, and the twinkling night lights make it look like a snow globe someone shook up and left to settle. William Henry Harrison majestically astride his horse on the west end of the park faces a bronze statue…
The Spiral of Consciousness
In 1996, Don Beck's and Christopher Cowan's Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change put forth an incisive and far-reaching theory of human development that's a breakthrough in mapping consciousness. The book gives insight into the spectrum of human psychologies, beliefs and values that are guiding our choices and shaping our identities. The authors state…
Charlie Louvin: Live at Shake It Records
Country icon Charlie Louvin's in-store performance at Cincinnati's Shake It Records back in May wasn't tied to a show later that night in the area. It was merely just a guerilla stop to promote his new eponymous album. Louvin was on his way to Nashville for an appearance at the Grand Ole Opry when he…
Nada’s
Nada's grand opening was this past Saturday. David Falk's new downtown restaurant offers contemporary Mexican food. … The Reserve Restaurant & Piano Lounge opened at Newport on the Levee on Nov. 26 and features a full menu and live entertainment seven nights a week. Specialty menu items include an Eggplant Stack appetizer and Steak Caesar.…
Rob Jungklas: Gully
Twenty years ago, Memphis-based singer/songwriter Rob Jungklas had a breakout hit in Greater Cincinnati when WEBN-FM picked up a track from his debut EMI album Closer to the Flame, the joyously propulsive "Memphis Thing." Basically a blend of roots Pop/Rock and Stax-styled R&B, Closer to the Flame found an audience in regional markets around the…
News: Neighbors Continue Plea for Pool
Graham Lienhart A group of Over-the-Rhine residents were disappointed but not surprised to see a basketball court and deep-water swimming pool excluded from plans for the renovation of Washington Park, unveiled at a public hearing last week. Some neighbors said that despite apparently differing agendas between themselves and planners, they left the meeting with…
Music: Straying from the Scene
Big Hassle Straylight Run In a sense, Straylight Run has spent its brief four-year career trying to escape its past. The group was started by guitarist/ singer John Nolan and bassist Shaun Cooper shortly after they left the hard-rocking Emo band Taking Back Sunday. From the start it's been clear that they had far…
