Lions, Tigers and Bulbs
CityBeat Archive Cincinnati Zoo Executive Director Thane Maynard wants to move all parking off-site in order to increase animal exhibition space. Replacing parking lots with flowers, trees and animals isn't a hard sell, and at $9.44 a year for a $100,000 house it's what most voters would call a no-brainer. That's what the Cincinnati…
Music: Horror Story
Octavio Arazala HorrorPops The new HorrorPops album, Kiss Kiss Kill Kill, finds the Danish group going Hollywood by using some colorful and creative artwork for the CD packaging that finds the band members depicted as stars of bigger-than-life movies. The theme seemingly extends to several songs given titles like "Thelma & Louise," "Hitchcock Starlet,"…
Music: Just Can’t Stop It
Mike Breen The English Beat The first time I met Dave Wakeling was more than 20 years ago. I was about 15. I wasn't old enough to get into clubs to see concerts, but my middle school was up the street from the big Rock club in town, Bogart's, and I always knew who…
Onstage: Review: Sweeney Todd
David Allen Studio Judy Kaye and David Hess in Sweeney Todd Cincinnatians might be better prepared for the current touring production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, presently onstage at the Aronoff Center. This is the production that introduced director John Doyle to American theatergoers; just a few months after it opened on Broadway in…
Film: Review: Vantage Point
(L-R) Matthew Fox, William Hurt, Dennis Quaid and Richard T. Jones star in Vantage Point. Director Pete Travis has turned debut screenwriter Barry Levy's Rashomon-inspired script about an assassination attempt against a U.S. president on a visit to Salamanca, Spain, into a dizzyingly complex puzzle that sits comfortably next to such great political thrillers…
Sound Advice: : Jason Ricci, Smoke or Fire and Po’ Girl
Delta Groove Productions Jason Ricci Jason Ricci and New Blood with 46 Long Thursday
Bear
When I walk into Madonna's on a Thursday afternoon, I can tell the mood is serious. I don't pay much attention. I'm on my cell phone talking over a story idea with a friend. Bartender Laura quickly brings me over my usual drink. After I get off the phone and settle into my first vodka…
Film: Black Film from a Black Perspective
Andy Houston Local filmmaker Pamela Thomas screens and discusses her film Midnight Ramble at the The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center on Thursday. Due in part to our complicated racial history in the United States, the African-American experience comes filtered through its engagement with mainstream culture and the greater society. What we, both African…
Democratic Votes Matter on March 4
Jon Hughes/photopresse.com Michelle Obama spoke at Music Hall Feb. 15, as the presidential campaigns have come to Ohio. Everyone likes to feel important. Between now and March 4, Ohio voters are going to feel very special indeed as they move front and center in the spotlights of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. With…
Locals Only: : Clause 83
Shawn Abnoxious Clause 83 Clause 83 will self-admittedly say that not all their songs are political but mostly about trying to just live life. In a modern society that's based on lies, psychosis and xenophobia, this would mean that there is a bunch to go through. So the lines might be blurred a bit.…
Turning It All Off
Our lives are inundated by noise, some of it auditory, some visual, some both. It's hard to realize how unquiet our lives are until we temporarily step outside the familiar regimen of constant input. Doing so can be disturbing — and rewarding. Much of what defines our normal daily mindset isn´t even tied to direct…
Film: Review: Be Kind Rewind
New Line Cinema Brothers in whimsy: Mos Def and Jack Black do their thing in Be Kind Rewind. If you're reading this paper, you probably feel a fundamental sympathy for the idea that "local and independent" means something in an era of corporate homogeneity. You might be sitting in your favorite non-Starbucks coffee joint…
Last Supper
We play a game at home: What would you eat on your death bed? OK, if you know us, you know there's a bit of a morbid streak in the household ¸ but in a household with culinary limits from food allergies and diabetes, the topic is sure to come up. It got me wondering:…
Taming of the Shrew, Larry The Cable Guy, 5 Browns, Oneness and much more
Mikki Schaffner Hannah Dowdy and Brad Frost in The Taming of the Shrew THURSDAY 2/21 ONSTAGE: THE GOOD PERSON OF SETZUAN and THE TAMING OF THE SHREW It's not hard to find good theater around Cincinnati these days, but don't overlook productions on university campuses, where you'll often find classic works that deserve your…
Mark Harris
Video Still, "Marijuana In The U.K." Mark Walker, Cameraman In the summer of 2006, Mark Harris, director of UC's School of Art, documented six Chinese Rock bands at a Beijing concert he co-organized. The resulting video, paper cutouts and photographs explore the imagery of intoxication and utopian ideals. The following are five things that…
Old St. George Church
Gordon Baer Old St. George Church in better times After standing outside in freezing temperatures watching Old St. George Church on Calhoun Avenue burn a few weeks ago, I felt it necessary to dedicate a second consecutive installation of Cincitecture to a local church. At this point, if you've watched the news or a…
Welcome to Road Blocks, Motorcades and Super Delegates
If so goes Ohio so goes the nation, then here we go again. It's almost like we can't shake our political prowess or the trust, much like Iowa and New Hampshire, the country places in us. The pundits tell us that apparently we have the collective power to dictate new presidents here in the Buckeye…
Obama for President
You've heard it before: This is the most important presidential election in your lifetime. It's good vs. evil, hope vs. fear, the past vs. the future. It's about making the best choice for your children, the economy, the environment, the very future of democracy. It's a matter of life and death. Maybe you've been motivated…
Another seven days of defending English, honoring dead bodies and assaulting the uncool
You ain't cool WEDNESDAY FEB. 13 Ohio State Rep. Bob Mecklenborg (R-Green Township) has decided to take a stand for every Ohioan who's annoyed with how often we have to read sentences in other languages. According to The Cincinnati Enquirer, Mecklenborg introduced a bill to the Ohio House Tuesday requiring that all government entities…
Wasting Our Time
Clearly, the vast majority of citizens at city council's Feb. 12 Law and Public Safety Committee meeting were there to address the controversial issue of Patrick Caton's promotion to police sergeant ("Berding, Thomas Spar Over Flyer," Porkopolis blog, Feb. 13). It was, therefore, inexcusable that chairman Cecil Thomas chose to leave 90 minutes of "other…
News: Fab Four
Andy Houston After a close loss to Rep. Jean Schmidt in 2006, Victoria Wulsin is starting her second bid on March 4. One national pundit called it "a nightmare of a congressional race," but voters in Ohio's 2nd U.S. House District will get to choose among four highly distinctive candidates in the March 4…
Attend the Tale
David Allen Studio Judy Kaye and David Hess in Sweeney Todd I generally prefer to write about locally originated productions presented by Cincinnati-area theaters. There are plenty of them to see right now, but a rarity is onstage at the Aronoff Center this week and next — a truly original touring interpretation of a…
Does Xavier Have the Drive to Win; Does UC Have the Patience?
Jerry Dowling The University of Cincinnati's basketball program is nearing completion of a painful transitional phase that's passing before our eyes. The light at the end of the tunnel grows larger by the day after nearly three years of waiting for UC to find the tracks. Meanwhile, Xavier carries the flag nationally for local…
Cover Story: The Guides for Art
Sean Hughes Commercial contemporary dance might sound like an oxymoron, but if any group has flirted with pop culture outside the dance world's traditional pathways it's Pilobolus. You might have noticed their silhouetted acrobatic antics at the Academy Awards in February 2007 — bodies collectively morphing together to form representative symbols from films. Maybe…
Books: A Beautiful Song
Sarah Leen Man of many hats: James McBride James McBride's sentences move like music. They flow with the rhythm and grace of a gifted Jazz musician, dipping here, soaring there. McBride's lyrical prose shouldn't come as a surprise — he's an accomplished musician who studied musical composition at Ohio's Oberlin College. Add to that…
