(High) Humans of New York
On the surface, High Maintenance (11 p.m. Fridays, HBO) is a comedy that follows a friendly bike-riding pot dealer. But at its core, the show is truly a portrait of New York life — for people who happen to use marijuana (and even many who don’t). The brainchild of Ben Sinclair (who stars as the…
On Second Thought…
It’s been decades since I fired an assault rifle. It was the standard weapon of the South African Defense Force. Intimidating. I was more at home with the British STEN, a World War II submachine gun. Mine, I was told, was made in the colonial Rhodesian railways machine shop. That was a keeper. The South African rifle’s…
This Week in Questionable Decisions: Feb. 21-27
This Week in Questionable Decisions… 1. A flight from Dubai to Amsterdam had to make an emergency landing in Vienna thanks to a gassy passenger who reportedly refused to stop farting. Always think twice about stopping at Taco Bell on your way to the airport. 2. Jay-Z spent more than $90K at a Manhattan lounge…
What a Week!: Feb. 21-27
Good News for Winos Guzzling some pinot noir may result in a red-stained wine mouth, but according to a recent study, drinking wine can actually protect your teeth and gums. As if we needed another reason to hit the bottle. New research out of Spain suggests that the antioxidants in wine destroy mouth bacteria and…
Tech and transit are why Amazon passed on Cincy for HQ2; Newport approves needle exhcange; more news
Hello Cincy. Let’s get our news on. If you were wondering why Amazon decided to bypass Cincinnati as a finalist for a second headquarters location while shortlisting peer cities like Indianapolis and Pittsburgh, well, wonder no more. In short, we don’t have enough tech workers and our transit infrastructure is lacking, according to local economic…
Author Min Jin Lee Discusses ‘Pachinko’ Here
When Min Jin Lee was a college student, she heard a talk by an American missionary who worked with Korean people in Japan. It left a deep impression. “He told the story of a 13-year-old Korean-Japanese boy who climbed to the top of his apartment building, jumped off and died,” she says. “His parents were…
A Fest for Women’s History Month
With March being National Women’s History Month, local AlivenArts is producing a new festival devoted to women whose talents enliven the local and regional arts scene. The organization has the goal of engaging the community via arts education, performances and experiences. Last year, its founder Rachel Kramer attended LUNAFEST — the national women’s traveling film…
Two Plays, Two Views of ‘Othello’
Two Cincinnati theaters are engaged in an inventive collaboration. Let’s start with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, now settled in its new Over-the-Rhine theater. This Friday begins its staging of Othello (running through March 24), Shakespeare’s great tragedy about a bold military man driven to madness and murder by Iago, his scheming lieutenant who manipulates the newly…
Sound Advice: BoDeans with Tolan Shaw (March 4)
Thirty-plus years on from their classic debut, Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams, BoDeans are still plying their brand of Roots Rock all over America. With the exit of co-founder Sammy Llanas in 2011, Kurt Neumann, the last-standing original BoDean, songwriter and lead singer, leads the current incarnation of the band. Hailing from Waukesha,…
Sound Advice: Judah & the Lion with Tall Heights and Colony House (March 5)
The mainstream resurgence of Nu-Folk and banjo music can be traced to the rise of The Avett Brothers, who found widespread success about 10 years ago. Wild, raw and (at times) oh-so-sad, it was a perfect storm of what a younger audience needed from Bluegrass — what it already was and what it had not…
LISTEN: Freedom Nicole Moore & The Electric Moon’s “Everytime”
Freedom Nicole Moore has risen through the local music ranks over the past couple of years, singing background vocals with artists like Indie Folk/Rock band Royal Holland and Neo R&B sensation JSPH, developing as a solo singer/songwriter and playing shows with acts like Chastity Belt, Jacob Banks and Leggy. As those résumé bullet-points suggest, Moore’s…
Sound Advice: The Oh Hellos (March 3)
On the Bandcamp page for Eurus, the new EP from Texas-based The Oh Hellos, one fan writes, “Listen for the Leitmotifs. Who else puts Leitmotifs in their music?” That the group — founded and led by duo Tyler and Maggie Heath — has people referencing a phrase more commonly associated with Classical compositions and operas…
Minimum Gauge: Rapper sentenced to prison over lyrics critical of Spanish royal family
HOT: Spanish Unity for Free Speech In a move the current criticism-averse U.S. leadership surely loved, Valtonyc, a Hip Hop artist in Spain, was recently sentenced to three and a half years in prison over lyrics the Spanish Supreme Court decided defamed the country’s royal family and glorified terrorism. Among other songs used in the…
Citizens for Community Values blasts Children’s over transgender treatment, council member pushes back
Conservative group Citizens for Community Values has filed an ethics complaint with the Ohio Medical Board over Children's Hospital Medical Center's treatment of transgender youth, CCV announced today during a news conference in front of the Hamilton County Courthouse. That's drawn sharp rebuttals from trans rights activists, including Cincinnati City Councilmember Chris Seelbach. CCV leadership…
Cincinnati rockers The Grove keep things fresh for their audience and themselves
A high school band is often a person’s first foray into fulfilling their Rock & Roll dreams. And the members tend to make up for lack of skill, organization or natural aptitude with pure excitement. At least for about a year or two before the band inevitably implodes. But what if the band doesn’t give…
Wave Pool offers Evil Eye glove-making class to prep for March 24 March for Our Lives
Cincinnatians will join in on a series of March for Our Lives events springing up across the country on March 24, organized by activists and survivors of the Feb. 14 mass shooting that killed 17 people at a school in Parkland, Fla. Debate has swirled once again around gun control following a steady drumbeat of tragedies across…
Children’s Museum at Union Terminal will reopen this spring; Butler County sheriff Richard Jones expands CCW course; more news
Good morning all. Hey, did you know the river is really high right now? My Twitter and Instagram posts are uh… I’m sorry… flooded with pictures of the swollen, soupy brown Ohio River against a gray sky as every budding photographer in the city races to capture the historic event. Beautiful, y’all. For real though,…
Wussy announces release date for seventh album
One of Cincinnati’s greatest musical exports, Wussy, is gearing up for a new album. What Heaven is Like is the rockers’ seventh full-length release, coming on the heels of its most acclaimed effort yet, 2016’s Forever Sounds (read CityBeat’s cover story on the band and Forever Sounds here). The album is again being released through…
Frail, shimmering love in ‘Annihilation’
The state of love in science-fiction films is a curiously fragile thing — as Alex Garland’s new Annihilation shows so very well. In this film, love is a human ideal under attack by looming threats from beyond. An audio analogy would be the epically sublime soundscape from the 1980s, “Moments in Love” by the Art…
Tom Petty honored by Greater Cincinnati musicians Saturday
Earlier this year, several Cincinnati area bands joined together at Woodward Theater to pay tribute to Tom Petty, who died unexpectedly last fall at the age of 66. The love and appreciation for Petty is so cross-genre-ational and vast, it seems fitting that another large tribute featuring several of our area’s finest original bands and…
Students stage walkouts over gun laws; Ohio won’t pause medicinal marijuana licensing despite snags in the process
Hello all. It is, somehow, by some mysterious alignment of the stars, both National Margarita Day and National Chili Day. God help us all. If you need direction on where to go to get your downtown margarita on, well, my intrepid coworkers blazed that trail for you yesterday. Check out the story here. On to…
CPS board hears concerns about — and some support for — FC Cincinnati stadium in West End
Cincinnati Public Schools last night held another public forum on FC Cincinnati’s proposal that would swap land with the district so it can build a privately financed $200 million soccer stadium on the current site of Stargel Stadium near Taft High School in the West End. The team would then build a new Stargel Stadium…
LISTEN: Wallace Woods’ “Trouble You No More”
Northern Kentucky’s pastoral Rock foursome Wallace Woods released its first single, “Father’s Son,” last year as part of a compilation of songs by artists on the SofaBurn Records label. This weekend, the quartet (which includes members of bands like Alone at 3am and Heroes and Madmen) is releasing a new self-titled EP with the area…
Do This Downtown Margarita Crawl
In honor of National Margarita Day on Feb. 22, a celebration that is oddly in February instead of, like, say, summer but definitely still acceptable. We decided to commemorate the “holiday” by creating a downtown Margarita Crawl so we could a) drink during work and b) self-promote our Margarita Madness event (May 23 at Newport…
