Onstage: Contemporary Carol
Degracias Lerma The Exhale Dance Tribe adds another dimension to Christmas Yet to Come. Glib conservative Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Peter Bronson recently dismissed Know Theatre's production of Christmas Yet to Come without even seeing it. In my book, that's enough to inspire me to go, but he really missed the point. "If taxpayers were…
Pigeons of Shit Metal
HOT Feud of the Week Long before he became a total laughingstock, Axl Rose once got into a public tiff with Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, allegedly telling the Nirvana singer to "shut his bitch up" and offering to fight him at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. Cobain and his band played the class…
Film: Making a List
Warner Bros. Entertainment Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Eyes Wide Shut. Every few years, late in December, I like to revisit my favorite holiday film. It's a bona fide black-and-white classic about a despondent character who attempts suicide on Christmas Eve only to find out life really is worth living. But it's not…
Isis — In The Absence of Truth (Ipecac)
Isis — In The Absence of Truth No one in attendance at the wedding of Art Rock and Heavy Metal can be faulted for shuffling their feet and staring nervously at the ground when proceedings arrived at the part about "Speak now or forever hold your peace." A predictably contentious marriage with mixed results,…
Newspapers Moving Beyond the Page
Gannett has told The Cincinnati Enquirer and the rest of its 90-plus dailies to recreate themselves for the world of Web sites, video, bloggers, Podcasts and technology not yet invented. The morning paper's distinctive thud won't vanish immediately. Instead, Gannett "papers" will become 24/7 "information centers" that constantly deliver news in a "platform agnostic" approach…
UC’s New Football Coach Looks Like Another Short-Timer
Jerry Dowling Not very long ago, the University of Cincinnati fired a coach who took his program to heights it hadn't reached in decades. The coach gave UC many years of dedicated service, set attendance records and helped increase the athletic department's profile to the extent that it could seriously pursue membership in the…
News: Park Won’t Take Houses
Graham Lienhart Dawn Fosnaugh, who helped alert neighbors about a proposal for Burnet Woods, walks with her son Brandon and their dog, Daisy. The proposal to redevelop Bishop Street is now moot. Whatever improvements come to Burnet Woods, they won't involve the use of eminent domain to displace any neighbors, according to people involved…
News to Use
Democrats Recruiting Neighborhood Contacts The Hamilton County Democratic Party is looking for volunteers to serve as precinct executives, who are members of the party's Central Committee and liaisons to their respective neighborhoods. To apply, call Chandra Yungbluth at 513-421-0495 or visit Hamiltoncountydems.org. The Mayor Will See You Now Mayor's Night In is a program that…
Learning Life Lessons from Bedbugs
I went to Alabama for Thanksgiving again this year, as I usually do, and I was amazed to find roses still blooming in my sister's garden and autumn leaves still clinging to the trees in her back yard. It was 70 degrees every day I was there, an unheard of blessing even in the South.…
Onstage: In Good Company
Paul Kolnik The cast of Company deliver one of several stirring numbers in the Broadway debut of Stephen Sondhiem's musical. NEW YORK CITY — Based on the buzz on Manhattan's 47th Street on Nov. 29, Cincinnatians should have no doubt that something created on a stage locally can wow audiences in the theater capital of…
Well Done, Betty
Regarding the letter published in the Nov. 29 issue from Betty Shaffer ("Bleeding Hearts Are Worthless"), she's off to a good start already with that title. In her letter she lets us know that she works in a Main Street store downtown and that she finds herself in contact often with people who don't fit…
Upcoming Concert Reviews of Army OF Anyone, Shapes And Sizes and More…
Force Field PR Shapes and Sizes Army of Anyone with The Strongest Proof Wednesday · Bogart's The supergroup handle gets thrown around a little too liberally these days, enough that we should consider retiring the term. But if there were a dispensation to the supergroup law (hey, laws were made to be bent ……
Diner: Universal Truth
Samarkand Cafe Go: 8697 Fields Ertel Road, Symmes Township Call: 513-489-9333 Hours: 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 10am-10 p.m. Sunday Prices: Very reasonable Payment: MasterCard and Visa Red Meat Alternatives: Lots of salads, vegetarian ravioli and a fried carp entrée. Accessibility: Fully accessible Grade: A The best thing about restaurants like the Samarkand Cafe, a modest…
Company
Paul Kolnik (L-R) Elizabeth Stanley, Kelly Jeanne Grant, Angel Desai and Ra'l Esparza in Company on Broadway. If you're wondering how much the Cincinnati Playhouse's production of COMPANY changed between Eden Park and the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway, I'll tell you it's not a lot. The New York production had to change somewhat…
The Green Pajamas — The Night Races Into Anna (Hidden Agenda)
The Green Pajamas — The Night Races Into Anna File the Green Pajamas under "the best band you've never heard." The Seattle collective, led by Pop mastermind Jeff Kelly, routinely releases jaw-dropping albums that melt in the ear like a lysergic caramel from the Sgt. Pepper chocolate sampler. Kelly's brand of psychedelic Folk/Pop is…
Locals Only: : Debunking The Myths
The Myths The Myths In semi-olden times, not far, far away, in the land of Bethel, three musical sons were born to town. The first guitarist, Bill Bundy, rocked out of the womb wearing an Electric Six T-shirt, playing a cobalt guitar. Teenage Bundy's instrument spit fire, creating hooks. Down the road, there were…
Art: Control Freak
Before the video came the performance: On Nov. 15, Robert Derr arrived from Columbus, roped off a section of Fountain Square and walked around in a mirrored suit and cameras. He followed the directions of “viewers” who were at the performance or elsewhere, who called Derr’s cell phone and told him what to do, where…
Music: Steady As They Go
230 Publicity The Hold Steady singer Craig Finn (center, with beer) says the band's new Boys and Girls in America is more complex than their previous albums. The Hold Steady is constantly moving. It's what they do. They can't help it. Rising out of the ashes of cultish Minneapolis band Lifter Puller, the Brooklyn-based…
Wellness Directory: Road to Wellness
Physicians are only as helpful as the tools they wield. And in an attempt to limit the severity and cumulative impact a pathogen has upon us, modern medicine uses the strategy of vaccines. Vaccination shots are heralded as the answer to combat just about everything from the flu to cancer. Some drug companies are even…
Film: Behind the Bling
Warner Bros. Entertainment Leonardo DiCaprio (left) and Djimon Hounsou star in Ed Zwick's action drama Blood Diamond. Director Ed Zwick likes to make big-budget, A-list-star action dramas that also have what he calls "meat on the bone" — they're about something timely and/or politically important. Glory concerned black soldiers in the Civil War, Courage…
Web Onstage: Holiday Send-Up
CityBeat Archive Justin McCombs, Miranda McGee and Sara Clark in Every Christmas Story Ever Told, a riff on Rudolph. Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (CSC) is offering an amusing send-up of holiday shows, Every Christmas Story Ever Told, on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings through Dec. 19. If you've laughed yourself silly watching any of the scripts…
Living Out Loud: : Tommy James
(Excerpt from Larry Gross' work-in-progress The Hurricane Café: a Novel) My name is Tommy James. I know it's a strange name but it's what I'm stuck with. My last name can be my first; my first can be my last. The same holds true for my twin brother, Johnny James — or James Johnny, as…
Web Onstage: A New View
Artist Michael Scott thinks Henry Farny was one fine painter but suggests in the subtext to his own exuberant narrative works in Michael Scott: Farny Fables, now at the Taft Museum, that the European-born, Cincinnati-based artist could have better spent his talents on larger issues. You have very little time to check this out as…
Music: The Groove Merchant
Forget Britney. Eminem, move over. And 98u, please … there's a new generation of musicians hitting the streets and you'll never guess what they're playing — Jazz. Not the soulless synthetic stuff that scrapes your ears while you're on hold. Not the clean, smooth, over-processed blue notes that decorate elevator rides. We're talking standards —…
Film: Local Goods
Bob Elkins is one of several local actors in The Greater Good, director Mike Bizzarri's low-budget mob drama. A group of organized crime bosses gather in an empty office building in Morristown, N.J., to hear the pitch: Help execute a terrorist attack in the center of Manhattan and walk away with enough money to buy…
The Beatles — Love (Apple/Capitol)
The Beatles — Love The legacy of The Beatles has been as carefully guarded as any musical entity in the history of music. Sample the Fab Four's discography at your own peril — you'll have a cease-and-desist order in your mailbox faster than you can say "The Grey Album." The Beatles corporation should be…
News: SORTA Troubling
Doug Trapp At a 2002 rally, Stephan Louis (at podium) was joined by other foes of light rail in Hamilton County. Stephan Louis was quickly reappointed last month to the board overseeing the Metro bus system, just before computer messages were made public that indicate he might have a hidden agenda on transportation issues.…
Cover Story: Designs on Art
Geoff Raker Cincinnati By Design: Charley Harper and other graphic designers are celebrated in a new CAC exhibition. The timing couldn't be better. The Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) opens an exhibition Friday that is determined to bring some oomph — and some people — back to the adrift arts hub. Graphic Content: Contemporary and…
Setbacks for Government Killing Operations
Ruairi Rhodes Tom Mooney Guards working for the state of Ohio didn't poison Jerome Henderson of Cincinnati this week. The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a stay of the execution, which had been scheduled Dec. 5 in the state prison in Lucasville. In 1985 Henderson received a death sentence for the murder…
Santa Will Make It All Right
Jake's Notes: As Christmastime approached, I started thinking about all of the odd yuletide traditions, like elves. Which Gospel are they from? Surely, elves preceded Santa; so, I threw myself into the pre-St. Nickian world of the elf to try to understand what life would've been like for them before they were forged into Santa…
Season’s Eating
At my last Christmas dinner, my family brought to me: three diabetics, two lactose-intolerants and one chicken allergy. My sleep-deprived parents and cranked-up siblings used to stand in the hallway in the wee hours of Christmas morning adjusting robes and taking turns peeing. No one was allowed into the magical living room until everyone was…
Beau Gets ‘Unbalanced’
The Beau Alquizola Band celebrates its debut release, Unbalanced, Saturday at downtown's Poison Room. Joining the group for the release show are Wojo, The Newbees and Ryan Adcock. Alquizola moved to Cincinnati in the early '00s from Florida and quickly ingratiated himself into the local music scene, collaborating with numerous fellow artists. His newfound friends…
Schools Need Sporting Chance
The public debate over the correct future size of the Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) district wrapped up recently, and as usual it included little actual public debate. School board members voted Nov. 27 to accept the plan they told Superintendent Rosa Blackwell to write. As a result, the rebuilding plan CPS sold to Cincinnati voters…
