Ohio legislature’s lame-duck actions favor low worker pay, fewer abortions
In the Ohio General Assembly’s final session before adjourning for the holidays, the Republican majority in both chambers gave conservative constituents ample reason to be merry. One was a business-friendly measure that would preclude Ohio localities from raising their minimum wages. It was inserted into a Senate bill aimed at stripping cities of another matter…
Journalism must take Trump seriously and literally
Not that long ago, newspapers were the authoritative local media voices in our communities. Local dailies spoke to readers and opinion leaders, whether in the kitchen, schools, the barbershop, industry, business, finance or politics. Anyone who wanted to influence public opinion courted local reporters, editors and publishers. Except for an interlude at an international news…
Your Weekend To Do List (Dec. 9-11)
FRIDAY 09 ART: E IS FOR EDIE: AN EDITH MCKEE HARPER RETROSPECTIVE AT THE CARNEGIE Edith McKee Harper, better known as Edie Harper, is perhaps not as well known as her husband — wildlife Modernist artist Charley Harper — but was a multifaceted and supremely talented artist in her own right. A graduate of the…
Stage Door: Laughing through a Holiday Weekend
On the Playhouse’s Shelterhouse stage is The Second City’s Holidazed & Confused Revue, an evening of blackout skits rooted in improv (a few scenes actually rely on audience suggestions or interaction). The talent from the Chicago troupe is first-rate, and the buzz is clearly on in terms of people enjoying the show: It’s been extended…
What a Week! Nov. 30-Dec. 6
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 30 Fish had a tough week. More than 10,000 animals in Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies were left behind when the attraction became surrounded by flames after wildfire tore through Gatlinburg and other areas in Sevier County, Tenn. earlier this week. Thankfully, the building remained intact and all of the animals were safe.…
Give Yourself This Season
During the holidays, collection drives are as much a part of our respective traditions as is a tree or menorah. This time of year, in addition to being filled with all sorts of deals and advertisements, you’ll see groups soliciting efforts for food drives, coat drives, toy drives and other efforts to help those in…
‘Nocturnal Animals’ opens at Esquire Theatre
Back in the halcyon days of the Toronto International Film Festival, I enjoyed a stylistically captivating double feature (Nocturnal Animals and Arrival) fueled by a pair of nuanced performances from Amy Adams. In a blog entry, I noted that it took her “stereotype-busting turn in The Fighter” to shock me into recognizing that she was more than…
Winter TV Preview
The Man in the High Castle (Season Premiere, Dec. 16, Amazon Prime) — Season 2 of this dramatic reimagining of 1960s America if the Axis powers had won World War II has cast its titular character, propaganda filmmaker Hawthorne Abendsen: Stephen Root (Office Space, True Blood, Boardwalk Empire, Justified). The Bachelor (Season Premiere, 8 p.m. Jan. 2, ABC) — Twice…
Great acting and writing lift ‘Manchester’
Early on in writer-director Kenneth Lonergan’s superb Manchester By the Sea, there’s a flashback to a moment of pure innocence and fun — to better days — for the film’s two main characters. During a carefree fishing expedition, Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) asks his young nephew Patrick (played at this point by Ben O’Brien) one…
Michael Chabon’s latest is a quasi-memoir
Moonglow, the latest book by Michael Chabon, is a quasi-memoir. Chabon, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who will be discussing and signing his latest effort at Joseph-Beth Booksellers on Saturday, calls it “a speculative portrait.” It features a narrator that seems to be Chabon himself, as he listens to his grandfather, ill and hazy from drugs…
Critic’s Pick: ‘Cinderella: After Ever After’ at Ensemble
While I look forward to the holidays as much as anyone, it’s not the most stimulating time of year to be a theater critic. Many local theaters revive shows with profound appeal. They can sell lots of tickets that generate revenue for the rest of their seasons. But I’ve run out of ways to offer…
Dane Terry combines piano tunes with surreal stories of an Ohio childhood
Neither Dane Terry nor Bird in the House, the coming-of-age piece he’s performing solo Thursday at the Contemporary Arts Center, can be pigeonholed. Terry is a New York-based pianist who sings and writes songs, but he recoils from the singer-songwriter tag. The Ohio native has been compared to musicians from a range of genres —…
Made in Cincinnati
CityBeat staffers don’t typically write about ourselves because there are plenty of cool, local happenings to discuss and no one really cares about our fantasy football teams that didn’t make the playoffs. But somehow, amid overseeing our special issues, dining and events sections, interns, etc., our humble managing editor Maija Zummo for the past year…
The Holiday Issue
Baby, it’s cold outside. Which is either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how much you revel in winter weather and seasonal celebrations. Luckily, Cincinnati has a plethora of both indoor and outdoor activities to keep you busy over the holidays — from drive-thru light shows and toy train displays to snow…
Shit To Do in the Snow
*Please note that this is not a comprehensive list and there are in fact even more things to do in the snow than those we suggest here. Art Antique Christmas at the Taft Museum of Art The Taft’s annual display of antique ornaments, decorations and toys preserves the holiday season in time. This year, the exhibit…
Last-Minute Gift Guide
1. Vintage bird glasses, $22, Lentz and Company, 339 Ludlow Ave., Clifton, lentzandcompany.com. 2. Made in Cincinnati x Phil Valois pin, $5, shopmadeincincinnati.com. 3. Hand-tied bouquet, $35, Gia and the Blooms, 114 E. 13th St., Over-the-Rhine, giablooms.com. 4. Second Sight Spirits rum, $48, Hotel Covington, 638 Madison Ave., Covington, hotelcovington.com. 5. Sage bundle, $20, Swoon OTR, 1421 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, facebook.com/swoon.otr. 6. Bear balaclava, $44, The Spotted Goose, 3048 Madison…
Merry and Bright
Immersed in December’s cloak and crouched under winter’s encroaching gloam, we find the coziest comfort and shelter from long wintry nights through communion with friends, family and loved ones, at office holiday parties or in the festively festooned dining halls of close relations. But in this beleaguered and remarkably surreal cultural and political landscape, holiday…
Hot Drinks for Cold Nights
In the era before water came from a tap in the kitchen and was relatively safe to drink, humans imbibed various fermented and alcoholic libations to avoid unpleasant gastrointestinal infections (like cholera) and treat other diseases; for instance, drinking a hot toddy as a remedy for the common cold. Alcoholic beverages were both medicinal and…
Sounds of the Season
Country music fans must have been good this year because 2016 is rife with holiday albums from that genre. Several big-name Country artists headline a selection of holiday releases with plenty of star power, including Rascal Flatts and Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. But if you’re looking for mainstream seasonal fare outside that genre, fear…
A Holiday Theater Primer
Amahl and the Night Visitors Suitable For: All audiences Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and Madcap Puppets are reprising their popular Amahl and the Night Visitors for its fifth year, with a more interactive staging to bring Madcap’s awe-inspiring 10-foot puppets closer to the audience. The Amahl chamber opera — Gian Carlo Menotti’s 1951 opera was the first written for television…
Jazz trio The Bad Plus returns to deconstructing Rock and Pop songs on latest album
The Bad Plus is a perfect Jazz trio for the 21st century. The members honor the best of musical tradition, while also embracing the spirit of progressive, changing times. Drummer David King, bassist Reid Anderson and pianist Ethan Iverson are traditional in that they play acoustic rather than amplified instruments. They are also idealistically democratic…
A Tarantino-themed speakeasy brings clever drinks, VHS tapes and $5 milkshakes to Walnut Hills
Gilmore Girls has brought us hundreds of classic TV scenes: moms exclaiming “Oy, with the poodles already,” twentysomething Ivy League rich kids jumping off buildings in ugly steampunk attire for a secret society, the shoplifting of corn starch. But one of the best scenes in the show is when Rory attends a Quentin Tarantino-themed party…
Sound Advice: Eric Sommer (Dec. 8)
Singer/songwriter Eric Sommer is an unbelievable intersection of improbable influences and experiences channeled into an amazingly diverse catalog and a résumé that reads more like a musical adventure novel than a series of career bullet points. Sommer emerged from the Boston music scene in the ’80s with a vengeance, a Folk guitarist with a percussive,…
Sound Advice: Exit Verse (Dec. 11)
To the casual Indie Rock listener, the name Exit Verse may not spark much recognition, but the obsessive devotee knows the Chicago trio by virtue of its iconic frontman Geoff Farina, best known for his stint with the renowned Indie/Prog/Jazz outfit Karate. Farina has earned a well-deserved reputation as a musical provocateur who prefers to…
Locals on the National Stage
Cincinnati native and globally acclaimed Jazz pianist/composer Fred Hersch has earned another pair of Grammy nominations. At the 59th-annual Grammy Awards, Hersch — whose Grammy nomination total now stands at 10 (he’s yet to win one) — will be up against John Scofield (who’s nominated for his work on a version of Hank Williams’ “I’m…
Recent tragedy underscores the importance of traffic-calming measures in Cincinnati neighborhoods
Hamilton Avenue in Northside has become a safer place for pedestrians since a Sept. 8 traffic death demonstrated the seriousness of widespread concerns about pedestrian safety in the neighborhood’s bustling business district. Sarah Cole, owner of Tickle Pickle restaurant, was struck and killed that day during rush hour, when the quaint strip is known to…
