Relationships
This past Christmas I sent out 25 holiday cards. If you exclude the cards from my man, my parents and my travel agent, I think I received five. That's one crappy return rate. That's what I like about Valentine's Day. I'm sending only one card, and I only expect one card in return. Because the…
Cover Story: Love Hurts
Jymi Bolden "The Sling" at Pyramid Leather Crypt and Gallery "Spank me!" Would you like to hear these words on Valentine's Day? Would you like to say them yourself? Would you like to give your partner a brand new paddle as a sign of your love? Cincinnati might have a reputation for being conservative,…
Media Bridges announces relocation to ‘The T’
The architectural drawings are stunning, but the news itself is even more exciting: Media Bridges, the non-profit group managing the city of Cincinnati's cable access programming, is moving to the corner of Central Parkway and Race Street in Over-the-Rhine. For those keeping track of Over-the-Rhine's growing list of arts proposals, a scorecard is definitely needed.…
Pussy Control
"Nigga you crazy if you don't know/ Every woman in the world ain't a freak." — "Pussy Control" by Prince There is power in the Pussy. Guttural, but true. Women have used it since the advent of the Pussy itself. Think about it: Why in the world was Adam so gungho to taste the forbidden…
Cover Story: Singing for Your Sex
Ryan Greis As Tina Turner once sang, "What's love got to do with it?" The answer here is, of course, "Nothing. It's purely physical." Although this week's CityBeat is the annual Love & Sex issue, I've avoided L-O-V-E as much as possible. Were I to create a list of great love songs, I could…
Cover Story: Hot off the Press
Ryan Greis The old saying goes: Those who can, do; those who can't, teach. It makes you wonder about the background of those who write sex books. Maybe those who can, do, and those who can do it really well rewrite the Kama Sutra. Love and sex books proliferate around Valentine's Day, and not…
Veteran singer/songwriters Elliot Murphy and Iain Matthews join forces on La Terre Commune
Iain Matthews (L) and Elliott Murphy Reading the individual discographies of veteran singer/songwriters Iain Matthews and Elliott Murphy is like reading a Who's Who of Rock and Folk. Iain Matthews first came to prominence as a founding member, along with Richard Thompson, of Fairport Convention. Matthews lent his perfect tenor to the seminal English…
Why the Hurry to Repeal Housing Retention Law?
Two city councilmen want to make it easier for Over-the-Rhine landlords to raze dilapidated buildings, possibly creating more parking lots for residents and businesses in other buildings. But why not wait a few months for the Over-the-Rhine Steering Committee, a coalition of residents, city staffers, landlords and business owners, to finish a long-awaited comprehensive plan?…
Drink Up! Trips to the Loo Are Good for You
In the interests of intrepid reporting, I'm writing this dispatch from seat 17E of a commercial aircraft, cruising at 36,000 feet somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean. I haven't moved from my seat since we passed Iceland almost four hours ago. Oh, and I'm drunk, too. My current location and behavior put me at risk of…
When Love Fails
Like most holidays, Valentine's Day brings out both our best and worst. For those in love, it is a celebration of that love. For those who are missing out on that joy, it is a painful reminder. In itself, love is an extremely simple thing: the unconditional acceptance of one being by another. It is…
Curly Tales of the City
Nathaniel Livingston Jr. Nate's Going to Run — and This Time No One's ChasingHere's an arresting development in local politics: activist and radio host Nathaniel Livingston Jr. wants a seat on Cincinnati City Council. Or the Cincinnati Board of Education. He isn't sure yet, so he's taken out nominating petitions to run for both.…
Cover Story: It’s in His Kiss
In Cincinnati Ballet's Romeo and Juliet, a world premiere with choreography from Artistic Director Victoria Morgan, perhaps no moment depicts passion and plight more than a kiss between the star-crossed lovers. In rehearsal last week, I saw the famous balcony scene, the marriage scene and the powerful crypt scene, each with its own kiss…
Love: One of the Answers
"I can't figure it out," a friend said to me the other afternoon. "Sometimes it feels serious, other times I think we're winding down." She was referencing her current relationship. The guy she's dating. Been dating. For five months. Which is why her comments completely baffled me. In an effort to clarify, I asked her…
Local Jam band 4 Ohms works hard to find a local audience
4 Ohms Most original bands will play a cover or two in a set, whether to build audience interest or just fill time. How many bands, though, would play the theme song to Peanuts or Sesame Street? Well, we know of at least one. A band from Fairfield, 4 Ohms, keeps the audience interacting…
Rene Marie
Rene Marie With the physical elegance of Nancy Wilson, the vocal ballsiness of Dinah Washington and the sheer musicality of Ella Fitzgerald, Virginia-based singer Rene Marie quietly crept up on us last year with her MaxJazz debut release How Can I Keep From Singing? It remains a rhetorical musical question as well as a…
Cover Story: Passing the Grade
My senior year of high school I was nominated "The most likely to have the most consecutive long-term relationships." For graduation, my best friend bought me a copy of The Rules inscribed with the message, "For the girl who has broken every single one of these and found good guys anyway." I was lucky.…
Diner: Doin’ It for Ourselves
In the cult of coupledom that we know as Valentine's Day, food is essential to the propaganda machine. Maxim and Mademoiselle may present it differently, but both offer the same basic strategy: Get the object of your desire into the sack via the dinner table. Now, as someone else's better half, I am by no…
