UC Basketball Steps Up, Jim Bowden Steps Down
More than once during his 16 years coaching the University of Cincinnati basketball team, Bob Huggins remarked that the Bearcats are written off locally before they’re written off nationally. A case in point might have presented itself just three days after the Bearcats beat Huggins to enhance their chance for a return to the NCAA…
Cinciditarod: Q&A with A Streetcar Named Delirious
That's right folks, the Cinciditarod. It's a sporting event that cleverly combines the words "Cincinnati" and "Iditarod," as well as the meanings of both. The Cinciditarod is sort of like the grueling 1,100-mile Alaskan dog-sled race, except that it's held in Cincinnati, without dogs, with shopping carts instead of sleds and the course is only…
Greater Cincinnati Takes Over ‘World Cafe’
Popular National Public Radio music show World Cafe has a couple of Greater Cincy's top artists performing on the program in the next couple of days. —-Today, the show — airing locally on WNKU (89.7 FM; listen online at wnku.org) at 3 p.m. — features Northern Kentucky Sub Pop recording artist Daniel Martin Moore (pictured).…
Wussy Lineup Change
Local, acclaimed Indie rockers Wussy are gearing up to support its third release for Cincy imprint, Shake It Records. The self-titled affair will be released locally March 13 in conjunction with a release show at the Northside Tavern (the band also does a release show in Cleveland the following night). Wussy goes national on April…
Sebelius Goes to Washington
Cincinnati native Kathleen Sebelius is leaving her job as Kansas governor to become the new Secretary of Health and Human Services. President Obama announced her appointment this afternoon at the White House. She fills the cabinet spot originally intended for former Sen. Tom Daschle.—- Sebelius will oversee Medicare, Medicaid, the Food & Drug Administration, the…
The Poor Man’s Guide to Partying Hard
Since the job market is still decreasing like my chances of getting paid to write this blog and my funds are depleting faster than anticipated, I am forced to find a way to party without paying. —- The average cost of a night of drinking usually runs anywhere from $10-$50, unless you are an alcoholic…
Lecture: What’s Up in Green Architecture
“At the Top in Cincinnati: National Leadership in Sustainability,” an illustrated public program at the Mercantile Library at 6 p.m. Thursday, showcases three of Cincinnati's greenest new projects — environmental design initiatives seeking to be in the forefront of the greening of America. Sponsored by Architectural Foundation of Cincinnati, the program focuses on Fernald Nature…
Events: Absinthe Tasting
Known as “the Green Fairy,” absinthe is a liquor that’s gotten a bad rap over the centuries. Usually drunk as a shot, the pale green, licorice-tasting beverage originally was made with an extract from the wormwood plant that reportedly gave it mildly hallucinogenic properties — like seeing fairies. Such legends caused absinthe to become a…
Onstage: When Winter Come
Literary arts often inspire dance, but in the case of When Winter Come, NKU Writer-in-Residence Frank X. Walker’s poetry comes to life in a very direct creative form: a “choreopoem.” The cast is comprised of dancers as well as actors from Northern Kentucky University’s Department of Theatre & Dance in a well-rounded fusion of poetry,…
Music: Agent Orange
Take the gloriously distorted melodies of Surf guitar legend Dick Dale and the virile grit of Punk iconoclasts the Dead Kennedys and throw them together into a blender set to its most violent setting. Once the appliance is finished working, the resulting mixture is bound to resemble the sound of Agent Orange, a band that…
Music: Jesse Harris, Joshua Radin and Meiko
Joshua Radin plays confessional Folk Pop at the 20th Century Theater along with other Folk artists Jesse Harris and Meiko. Joshua Radin never intended to become a musician, at least not outside of the confines of his personal life where he always quested for new ways to artistically express himself. He became a singer/songwriter and…
Timon of Athens (Review)
Critic's Pick What you have in Timon of Athens is perhaps the most obscure, least respected, least performed script in the Shakespeare canon. Contrariwise, what you have onstage at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (CSC) is a sharp-edged, frequently funny, relentlessly caustic, razzle-dazzle production that mines Timon for its cautionary values — greed is bad; gold corrupts;…
Sports: Cinciditarod
The Cinciditarodis a competitive event in which teams must push their way through a nearly five-mile course over the streets of downtown, Over-the-Rhine, Newport and Covington while physically attached to decorated shopping carts. The second annual Cinciditarod is a tribute to the Iditarod, the extreme dog-sled race held every year in Alaska, where teams must…
Music: The Kronos Quartet at MusicNOW
David Harrington, founder and leader of the world-famous — and world-traveled — Kronos Quartet, finds it hard to believe the group hasn’t played Cincinnati since 1987. Kronos will be the headliner for both nights of the MusicNOW festival, occurring next week (March 11 and 12) at Memorial Hall in Over-the-Rhine. The non-profit festival, the brainchild…
Onstage: Eurydice
When you think of Greek mythology, you probably imagine folks in togas sitting around Mount Olympus or in some ancient temple with columns. Don’t bring those old-fashioned notions to Know Theatre for their next production, even though Eurydice is based on a story from way back when. Sarah Ruhl’s 2003 play gets its Midwestern premiere…
Events: Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus
The Greatest Show on Earth goes “Over the Top” with its latest tour coming to U.S. Bank Arena Wednesday-Sunday. This wacky spectacular features more than just your standard animals and acrobatics. There will be flying dogs, hopping Asian elephants and a man facing off against a Bengal tiger. There will be double-decker trapeze acts, Chinese…
Events: Bockfest
Cincinnati’s history involves a rich German heritage that basically revolves around sausage and beer, and what better excuse for revelry does one need than that? Hence Bockfest, Over-the-Rhine’s annual street festival in celebration of our town’s brewing heritage and the coming of spring. The fun kicks off Friday at 5:30 p.m. with the Bockfest Parade,…
Art: 5 at Collector’s Art Group
Up on the second floor of 225 E. Sixth St., the Collector’s Art Group is opening a new exhibition. Simply called 5, the group show features the work of Sam Hollingsworth, Sharon Sellet, Rich Bitting, Diane Hotz-Blevins and Fred Zigler. Viewers can expect a wide range of artistic approaches, from watercolor renderings to the innovative…
Comedy: Chelsea Handler
Chelsea Handler isn’t sure what her main career is. Actress, TV talk-show host, author, stand-up comic — she does it all. But what does she put on her tax return? “Advanced drinker is usually what I put down first,” she says. The drinking thing seems to highlight a double standard. “Women don’t drink like men,”…
Art: Presence Through Absence at the Cincinnati Art Museum
Solid curating and progressive notions have gone into the Cincinnati Art Museum’s new solo exhibition Stewart Goldman: Presence Through Absence, in its Vance-Waddell Gallery now through May 10. This exhibition traces an evolution from representational painting, of recognizable rooms, into the increasingly less certain terrain of abstract painting. It is daring that the museum and…
Comedy: Neil Hamburger
As the self-proclaimed “America's $1 Funnyman,” Neil Hamburger makes his living by making audiences squirm. A sample joke: “Why did God let John Denver die? Because his records weren't selling anymore.” Quintessentially identified by his unsightly and oversized glasses, half-decent tuxedo and horrid comb over, Hamburger’s anti-humor seizes uncomfortable situations and awkward pauses to deliver…
Music: The Old Ceremony
One look at The Old Ceremony’s wide array of gigmates — Polyphonic Spree, Cake, Chuck Berry, Mountain Goats, Avett Brothers — should give a clue as to the broad diversity in the North Carolina quintet’s sound. On their third album, Walk On Thin Air, the band has the expansive vibe of electric Celtic Folk, Baroque…
Maple Madness
Maple syrup doesn't come from a bottle; it comes from trees, sap to be specific. The Cincinnati Nature Center at Rowe Woods is hosting a day-long event to "savor" this "first taste of spring" on March 14. "The experience of helping to collect sap, visiting the sugar house with the steaming evaporator, then savoring a…
Shaking, Season 16
Brian Isaac Phillips hopes that audiences have fun at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (CSC) during the 2009-10 season, announced on Saturday evening. "In these difficult times, we feel it is our responsibility to make you smile," says CSC's artistic director. "We believe that it's more important than ever to come together as a community, not just…
The Ultimate Season Shattered
The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Unfortunately for me, I don't have a Lenny Small around to shoot and blame for the things that went wrong. On Saturday I was fixin' to play some Tecmo SuperBowl with my homies when I noticed the red light on the 'Tendo flashing on…
Too Drunk To F@$%
…dancing with myself…dancing with myself…oh oh ohh ohhhhh! Ouch. I’m still drunk. Closed the Tavern last night and after soireed at Metal Mary’s. It hurts. It hurts a lot! But in a good kinda way. —- Dear Bretton: I think I left my jacket in your room! You know, one o’ those hipster varieties that…
Friday Movie Roundup: Oscars Recap; CAC Pulls All-nighter
The Academy Awards didn’t suck. Yes, the 81st annual industry wank-fest had its share of indelible moments, none more affecting than the graceful speeches by the two Milk-related winners: screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and actor Sean Penn. —- First-time host Hugh Jackman handled his duties like an old pro, and the condensed format of the…
Take This Deal and Shove It
Joshua Radin never intended to become a musician, at least not outside of the confines of his personal life where he always quested for new ways to artistically express himself. Painting and screenwriting had largely occupied these efforts until 2004 when friend and singer/songwriter Cary Brothers prodded him into recording a song called “Winter” in…
Two Gentlemen of Verona (Review)
Critic's Pick Two Gentlemen of Verona at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) epitomizes the concept of “musical comedy.” This 1971 show features music by Hair composer Galt MacDermot. It has the joyful, youthful energy of his earlier hit, plus a delightfully silly story from Shakespeare about two young men and their pursuit of love. CCM…
Jesse Harris with Joshua Radin and Meiko
During a cross-country trip that dipped through Texas nearly a dozen years ago, New York singer/songwriter Jesse Harris met a young music student who impressed him greatly. Harris had already gained some profile with his first band, Once Blue with then-girlfriend Rebecca Martin, and after the end of their relationship and band, he was looking…
Basement Dwelling and Surgery Hinder Air Hockey Duo
The CityBeat-endorsed air hockey duo of Jason Cornell and and Jeff Huisman had to put their dreams on the back burner this week, as real life interfered with their World Championship aspirations. You may recall last week’s “Air Hockey Blog — The Injury,” when Huisman dropped a bombshell, admitting that recent rumors were true regarding…
Exclusive First Listen: Neko Case
NPR's Exclusive First Listen is streaming Neko Case's new album, Middle Cyclone, which hits stores and your digital download domain of choice on Tuesday. Here's a video clip of Neko discussing various "happy accidents" during the recording. And read this illuminating interview in the New York Times Magazine, in which she confesses her desire to…
Stage Door: Two Gentlemen of Verona
If the last gasps of winter still have you shivering, you can warm up this weekend with some frothy musical theater at UC's College-Conservatory of Music, where Two Gentlemen of Verona is dancing its heart out. With a silly story (thanks to Shakespeare) and an eclectic score (from the guy who wrote the music for…
Bad Veins Hook Up with Dangerbird Records
They've spent the past couple of years working their orchestral Indie Pop magic to music fans and the music industry around the country and now Bad Veins finally has a record label home. Leaked a couple of days ago via Twitter, drummer Sebastien Schultz confirms that Bad Veins are soon to become Dangerbird Records recording…
Frost/Nixon (Review)
Tricky Dick did it again. I went to see the touring production of Frost/Nixon with high expectations. The play won praise in London and New York, and the current film based on Peter Morgan’s play has been a hit. But no more than a half hour into the 100-minute performance I felt like I’d been…
The Huggins Team That Never Was
When I decided to go to the University of Oregon for graduate school in 2005 I was like, “Those hippies are going to be bummed when I remind them of the UC basketball team beating down the No. 5 Ducks in 2002.” (There were also feelings of, “Goddang UC givin’ me an English degree that…
Mile-High Plays
I’ve often written in CityBeat about the Humana Festival of New American Plays that happens annually at Actors Theatre of Louisville. I look forward to this annual collection of new works, regarded by many as the premier opportunity in the to see fully staged works by contemporary playwrights. (This year is the Humana Festival’s 33rd…
Driehaus Pissed at Partying Bank Getting Federal Funds
U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus, about two months into his new job representing Ohio's 1st District, is one of 18 Democratic members of the House Financial Services Committee to send a letter to the CEO of Northern Trust in Chicago warning him to stop spending federal TARP bank bailout money on golf tournaments, parties and posh…
‘Cincinnati Blues Festival’ with Clarence Carter
Hall Singer/songwriter/guitarist Clarence Carter has overcome a good many obstacles in his 73 years, most of them by way of his natural musical gift. Born blind and raised in rural Alabama, he attended a school for the blind at age 6 and learned guitar at age 11 when his grandmother bought him one (and told…
Depth Charge
As part of a major promotional push for its new computer-animated feature Monsters vs. Aliens, Paramount/DreamWorks served up a 3-D commercial during the Super Bowl, made possible by glasses given away at retail displays. As a result, we were able to see the future of theatrical 3-D — only not in the way you might…
Fear of Food
An hour ago, I ate a tablespoon of peanut butter on a rice cake. So healthy and responsible, I thought. Part of my Weight Watchers strategy. I hadn’t checked to see if my brand was on the FDA’s death-by-peanut list. It was so alternative I’d assumed I was safe. Of course, I just checked five…
Slow Claw Clocks In
Though I’m not a believer in the notion that “there’s no truly original music being made anymore,” I can recognize a truly unique aesthetic when I hear one. And that’s just what I hear all over the debut album from Indie trio Slow Claw, Grandfather Clocks. The group formed out of the ashes of Junior…
Another Seven Days of New Rules and Old Inmates
WEDNESDAY FEB. 18Three years ago Jose Canseco wrote a book about all the steroid use that took place in baseball during the 1990s and early 2000s, but everyone in the sports world said, “Shut up Canseco, you suck!” Now the former Bash Brother, who admitted to using steroids and sticking needles in other players’ butts…
Waltz With Bashir (Review)
The yellow eyes of the dogs, one of the first images in Ari Folman’s animated documentary Waltz With Bashir, sear the frame with their surreal heat. The sensation is not about burning, not in any traditional understanding, because the eyes in combination with the ferocious barking, disassociated from the foaming, disjointed mouths and bodies ripping…
CAM Parts Ways with Cincinnati World Cinema
Citing diminishing returns, the Cincinnati Art Museum has ended its relationship with Cincinnati World Cinema (CWC), a presenter of art films, classics, shorts collections and documentaries that had been using its auditorium since 2007. That has left the future unclear for those who feel Cincinnati needs a non-commercial outlet for such specialized films that otherwise…
Food for Thought
David Kamp is obsessed with food. His popular 2006 book, The United States of Arugula, is the culmination of this obsession, investigating “how food in America got better and how it hopped the fence from the ghettos of home economics and snobby gourmandism to the expansive realm of popular culture.” Kamp’s impressively researched, surprisingly irreverent…
Jamaican, Horizon and Roots
[HOT] Jamaican Us CrazyLooks like Jamaica is about to get a lot less fun. Officials announced recently that there would be a ban on all references to sex and violence on the airwaves. The ban is specifically targeting music — according to the AP, the government plans to “ban any song or music video that…
Mandolin Rain
As I started to unpack the box, my stomach was in knots. I knew what was inside, and I didn’t want it. It occurred to me to simply throw the box and its contents in the trash. When a friend said he was going to ship this to me, I said, “Please don’t.” He works…
Breaking Convention
David Rosenthal, talking in the bare-bones middle room of his new Northside gallery, says, “I’m hoping to provide a place where photography can be done by lots of people and can reach into different areas in lots of different ways.” Rosenthal’s first show, the current Happy Valley or Hell-Town, signals that while photography might well…
Working (Review)
The curtain opens on a bare stage at Northern Kentucky University with a few gray geometrical objects scattered about. There's a striking lack of intimacy and human scale in this environment. When you see 39 cast members stream on (there were only 26 in the 2000 ATC production in Chicago), you realize director Ken Jones…
Life Is a Cabaret, Old Chum
My wedding reception was in a bar, spilling out onto the decks on a beautiful September afternoon. I just got back from New Orleans and spent some quality time at Pat O’Brien’s, a place I associate with wonderful Mardi Gras trips throughout the years. My friends Joe and Donna met in a bar and got…
Coffee, Cokeheads and Demons
It's typically part of my evening routine to post up in my apartment and totally unplug from reality by delving into a world of drugs, sex, ninjas, vampires and man-eating demons. No, I'm not suggesting that eating psychedelic mushrooms is one of my nightly endeavors, but rather indulging in the imaginative world that authorguy Christopher…
Police to Meet You
Independence is a sought-after yet rarely achieved ideal. If society has taught us anything in this new century, it’s that we’re not as independent as we’d wish. The Internet places the world at our fingertips, and mass transportation allows us to travel around the world in a day, assuming one has both the means and…
The Sleep (Profile)
They’re in the mood for espresso and cake. The last of the batch. And in the booth where The Sleep waits, it’s all about the ingredients and the vibe. This is vocalist Laura Smith’s debut band. With straight brown hair and bangs, she wears funky reading glasses. Quietly eating around her icing, she states, “I…
Lottery As Election
Lottery As ElectionCity Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz is correct in that the present (council appointment) process is undesirable, but I would suggest some alternatives. First, the elections should be by districts and the replacement should be by the district. In these instances, I would suggest a lottery instead of a drawn-out election. I would actually entertain…
Karma Asian Bistro (Review)
In my favorite movie, The Big Lebowski, Maud’s chauffeur tells an old vaudeville joke that starts with a litany of miseries and wraps up with the punch line, “But you know me — I can’t complain.” Well, lately, faithful readers, that joke has been my life. My dear dog died, I lost my day job…
‘That’s Just How It Is’
Richard Lambert dropped by the St. Bernard Municipal Building Feb. 10 and studied the huge exhibit boards displaying aerial photos of an eight-mile stretch of I- 75 reaching from the Western Hills Viaduct in the south to the Paddock Road interchange to the north. The images fanned out from the interstate and the ramps to…
Thursday with Four Year Strong
Thursday is a band that's always had an appetite for the ambitious. The 12-year-old New Brunswick, N.J., Post-Hardcore sextet has gracefully ascended from packing basements and bars to headlining Bogart’s this week as part of the formidable Taste of Chaos Tour. While the sextet’s music oeuvre relies on intense shouting and a volatile clamor of…
Music: Slow Claw
Though I’m not a believer in the notion that “there’s no truly original music being made anymore,” I can recognize a truly unique aesthetic when I hear one. And that’s just what I hear all over the debut album from Indie trio Slow Claw, Grandfather Clocks. The group formed out of the ashes of Junior…
Hamlet (Review)
What’s on the page gets on the stage in Falcon Theatre’s Hamlet. Words and plot are explicated with energy, clarity and conviction — but there’s little resonance to Shakespeare’s 400-year-old tale of howling revenge. Chasms of inference, implication and speculation brood beneath the bloody surface of the script, causing many critics to consider Hamlet the…
The Black Lips, Tom Rush, K’Naan and Shemekia Copeland
We’re reviewing now, boys and girls. Look at these Tuesday release sheets filled with fabulous prizes. The titles are beginning to stack up like cordwood and I’m going to be humping like Hugh Hefner at a sorority mixer to keep up. Plus I’m trying to stay a week or two ahead so the pile doesn’t…
No Easy Answers to Jail Overcrowding
Ever since voters rejected two separate proposals to raise Hamilton County’s sales tax and build a new jail, Sheriff Simon Leis Jr. and county commissioners have complained about how overcrowding at local jails has led to releasing some non-violent offenders early. Last year county officials finally closed the aging Queensgate jail, one of four detention…
Death of ‘Death of Whatever’
If you listen very carefully, you can hear the screams of the imminently demised as the media closes the lid and calls for the pallbearers to carry away the lifeless husk of someone or something that they no longer consider to be relevant or, in their parlance of brevity and metaphor, dead. The death of…
Big Costs, Empty Seats
Cincinnati City Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz has an idea: Let’s elect our council members. Seems like a great idea, huh? Straight out of the Democracy 101 textbook. No brainer, a let’s-get-going-and-get-this-done type of proposal. Problem is, most city council members are already elected and the alternative to the current system has two shocking options: big costs…
