Dumbing Down the Democrats
Matt Borgerding U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland (left) accepts Mayor Mark Mallory's endorsement. So far Mallory's office hasn't issued a correction. Friggin' Democrats. They managed to chase Paul Hackett out of politics this week. Maybe U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-Lorain) will now win the race to unseat U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine. Maybe not. But by…
Too Hard on Pornography, Prostitution
"Disappointed" would be the word I'd use to describe my reaction to Margo Pierce's article "When Lust Takes Over" (issue of Feb. 8-14). I could only groan as I saw the cover image, and everything inside confirmed my suspicions — another story about sexual addiction and how persons who use pornography or frequently change sex…
Cover Story: A City That Works
Sean Hughes People, Not Cars Take a walk down Cincinnati's Fifth Street one of these days, and you're bound to be amazed. With the skywalks dropped and the clutter scraped away, Fountain Square already looks more inviting and more — dare I even suggest it? — European. After 40 years, our city's heart finally…
Upcoming Concert Reviews of Matt Pond PA and More…
Matt Pond PA Matt Pond PA with dios (malos) Thursday · 20th Century Theatre "It sucks, but it's not the worst thing that could happen," says Matt Pond, founder and frontman of his succinctly monikered band, Matt Pond PA. Speaking by cell phone from a tour stop in Boston, Pond's opening words refer to…
Jailing the Poor
Stacking the deck against the underprivileged isn't something any public official admits, but that's what happens in Hamilton County when a poor person winds up in the criminal justice system. It's unconstitutional to be jailed for an inability to pay fines and/or court fees. But it routinely happens in Hamilton County because public defenders don't…
Progressive Mental Alignment
Progressive Mental Alignment (PMA) is a mental training program that removes hidden inhibiting factors in the subconscious that stop you from reaching your goals. Developed by Jacob Korthuis, PMA targets "bad clusters," which are a previously unknown type of subconscious material. According to Korthuis, the human brain can operate in the normal mode of perception…
Music: Coming Up Ros
Helen Woods Say "cheese!" The notoriously camera-shy boys of Sigur Ros give it their best shot. It's the end of a long day as I flip on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The host is talking to some self-consciously disheveled dude from Lost about skinny-dipping in Hawaii. As their conversation turns surreal — Conan…
News: Educando a Nuestros Niños
Graham Lienhart Sonia Sanchez and Sherwin Ealy work with students learning to speak English. The number of students in the Cincinnati Public Schools who primarily speak languages other than English has grown by more than 500 percent in the past five years. While most of the students for whom English is a second language…
Locals Only: : Cellar Dwellers
James McKenna Lost Hands Found Fingers "I don't want to entertain people while they drink, I want them to come see us play," says Lost Hands Found Fingers bassist Danny Graham. It's one on a long list of reasons LHFF has for preferring house shows to bar gigs. They were birthed on damp concrete…
Inside Story at the CAC
An orange-tinged snow moon hangs wide over Cincinnati and illuminates the night, one cold and windy enough to be February-worthy. Shelter from the cold is necessary, and a Monday evening option is free admission to downtown's Contemporary Arts Center (CAC). One natural response after entering the glass-and-concrete lobby is to sit down on one of…
“Metropolis” Now
Indie/Rock/Jazz quartet New Machines, who split members between Toledo and Cincinnati, play the Southgate House in Newport on Saturday. The show is the band's first Greater Cincinnati gig since the release of their third album, Welcome to Metropolis. Wussy, The Lab Monkeys and The Villains are also on the bill. Saxophone use in contemporary Rock…
New Reds GM Expected to Make a Pitch for Pitching
Jerry Dowling Ignore this, if you'd like. Spring training begins this week, and you know it's hard to be crabby about the Reds at the beginning of spring training, even when one's best judgment is crabby about the Reds. So if the following is optimistic, a guilty plea for being ridiculous will be respectfully…
Nothing New: A Love Story
I crashed the online dating scene. No, I wasn't trying some player's end-around like Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in Wedding Crashers. Nor was I looking for a fast time or some Neo-fied version of The One. I was more of a spy on a highly improbable mission in the virtual house of love connections.…
Film: Women on the Verge
Fox Searchlight Til death do us part? Maybe not. Matthew Goode and Piper Perabo star as a newlywed couple in Imagine Me & You. Imagine Me & You is the kind of film you like at first sight simply for its patchwork of familiar, favorite pieces. Its London backdrop of Primrose Hill is a…
Julius Caesar
Dan Davidson Ryann Turner as Isabella and Blake Kubena as Angelo in Measure for Measure at UC's College-Conservatory of Music If Shakespeare is your guy, you have a good week in store. Let's start with the CINCINNATI SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL, which is offering one of the best known plays by the Elizabethan writer, JULIUS CAESAR.…
Discriminated Against, Like Me
We said goodbye to the first lady of civil rights this week and, whatever your politics, it probably sparked some reflection. For me, as I listened to the eulogies — some so breathtakingly lovely, some so gratingly superficial — I wondered (to lift from Martin Luther King Jr. himself): Where do we go from here?…
Living Out Loud: : Dear Paris Hilton
Dear Paris Hilton, How it's going? You know, I'm not much for celebrity news; but when it's thrown in my face on a constant basis, I guess I need to pay a little attention to it — and you've been in my face a lot lately. Last week I finally took some time to try…
News to Use
Gunsmoke in the 21st Century The Gunsmoke Initiative, a youth-targeted real-like wake-up about the impact and after-effects of gun violence, is looking for additional cast members to support upcoming program expansion in the Cincinnati area. The heart of the initiative is a 30-minute "drama-vention" skit that chronicles a real-life story of gun violence, taken directly…
Film: Behind Closed Doors
Sony Pictures Classics Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche star as a Parisian couple who are being watched — and eventually much more — in Cache Like all challenging films, Caché (Hidden) divides audiences. But you'll never forget the experience of watching it, especially its final, shocking sequence. Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke tells the taut,…
News: Courting a New Start
Graham Lienhart Jail would have been quicker, but Rachel Danaher is glad she went through drug court. On July 20, 2005, Rachel Danaher walked across the stage at the commencement ceremony for the 27th Alcohol and Drug Addiction Partnership Treatment program. She claimed her acrylic star after four years in the Hamilton County Drug…
Love is the Screw
I knew I wanted to write a love song this week (on account of the commercially inflated "holiday"), but I had trouble sticking with one angle. First, I wanted to write a song called the Talkin' Valentine's Day Massacre about a guy who gets mauled for buying the wrong colored roses or the incorrectly cream-filled…
Diner: The Train Stops Here
American palates, which tend to favor sweetness and saltiness as the supreme virtues of the flavor spectrum tend to look askance at bitter flavors. It's not only because bitterness is the underdog that I hold something English dictionaries invariably define as "unpleasant" in such high regard: A touch of bitterness can bring out new flavor…
