El Chepil
I received a treasure of a Christmas gift in the mail this year: a handmade, well-used napkin holder from a hole-in-the-wall cantina on a dusty back street in Oaxaca, Mexico. It's a quirky, rustic little thing, assembled from plywood and covered with aluminum foil — an ingenious creation of the kind often found in parts…
Cover Story: Everyone a Star
As you can imagine, skiing is a popular extracurricular activity at the Sundance Film Festival. Dustin James Ashley plays a factory worker in the small town of Belpre, Ohio,in Steven Soderbergh's Bubble, which is being simultaneously released in theaters, on DVD and on cable television. Yellow Springs-based filmmakers Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert (above)…
Reds’ Castellini Is a Man of the People
Jerry Dowling Sketch out the ideal profile for the owner of the Reds, and behold the desire for a local with money to burn and the passion to back it up. After six years of Carl Lindner, who fired the odd silver bullet only to take it in the foot, two out of three…
Film: Old Dog, New Tricks
Clive Coote Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers' play lovers involved in a torrid affair in Match Point. Woody Allen has been working his way back from a series of terrible, geriatric comedies like Curse of the Jade Scorpion by getting out of his movies as an actor and focusing on sophisticated, intelligent young people.…
The Letter
My girlfriend of three years is a smoker. In the beginning of our relationship, her smoking didn't bother me. I come from a family of smokers, and I used to smoke. But now her smoking is a huge turn-off. I've also started a new job where I work with cancer patients and see the deadly…
The Clean House
Sandy Underwood Michele Vazquez plays a maid who prefers comedy to cleaning at the Cincinnati Playhouse. The Pulitzer Prize for drama is probably the best known recognition that a work for theater can win: While Sarah Ruhl's script, THE CLEAN HOUSE, didn't win it in 2005, it was one of two finalists — and…
Peak Performance
In my practice, I see many clients who wish to improve their performance in various areas: sports, music, public speaking, business, sales, school and so on. Usually they have the drive and/or ability to do much better than they have been, but there seems to be something holding them back. They've found their "comfort zone"…
Film: The Revolution Is Here
Magnolia Pictures A man of vision: Acclaimed director Steven Soderbergh embraces change. PARKERSBURG, W.VA. — Onetime factory manager and current job hunter Dan Christian sits in the crowd of the Smoot Theater and beams with excitement. He's dressed in a tuxedo, something he hasn't worn since his wedding. He sits alongside his wife Joan,…
A Safe Place for Artists?
Director Steven Cantor first met art photographer Sally Mann more than 10 years ago when he made his short film Blood Ties: The Life and Work of Sally Mann. At the time, Mann was at work on the series of images that would become her book Immediate Family. The film won awards for Cantor and…
Heal Me, Hurt Me
Dear Mr. Woodiwiss, It has long been the goal of United Humanthema Healthcare to provide plan members with the maximum possible coverage for the lowest possible cost. Toward that end, UHH was first to establish the Communal Outpatient Organ Program (CO-OP), an arrangement by which several patients, rather than getting costly individual organ transplants, share…
Upcoming Concert Reviews of The Apparitions, The Derek Trucks Band and More…
Splash! Public Relations BR549 The Apparitions with SundayRunners and The Turnbull ACs Thursday · alchemize Long distance relationships are tough, especially for up-and-coming Rock bands. Yet Lexington five-piece The Apparitions have survived key songwriter Mark Heidinger's move to Washington, and even benefited from the potential setback of using D.C. as a secondary base for…
CityLink Doesn’t Link
Regarding the article "CityLink Divides West End" (issue of Dec. 21-27), I live in Over-the-Rhine, I work at Procter and Gamble, and I love the city of Cincinnati. Three years ago, my wife and I decided to move to the city from the suburbs, and our new house has been on the Summer Tour of…
News: Neighborhood Power
Sean Hughes/photopresse.com The Fremont Troll, crushing a Volkswagen Beetle at a Seattle underpass, is the kind of public art that could enliven Cincinnati neighborhoods. Cincinnati, "Queen City of the West," can learn a lot from Seattle, the real Queen City of the West. They have more in common than being built on seven hills,…
Cheryl Wallace
It's regrettable to start the New Year with some bad news. On Jan. 6, esteemed choreographer, teacher and performer CHERYL WALLACE passed away. Her presence will be sorely missed in the area's modern dance community and beyond. Wallace loved to teach and strove to get people from all walks of life dancing, teaching classes inside…
“Victory” Record
Local rockers Arapyma unveil their new CD, Victory or Death, Saturday at Covington's Mad Hatter. The CD release show also features performances from Gerald's Rainbow, Black Tractor and Dayton's Once-ler. Showtime is 9:30 p.m., and admission is $5. The show is open to those 18 and up. Arapyma have elements of varying forms of hard…
Fightin’ Irish
A place of good times came to a bitter end last week with the closing of The Dubliner, a Pleasant Ridge institution that won Best Celtic Pub in CityBeat's Best of Cincinnati® issue the past five years. The Dubliner's demise is linked to an attempt at establishing a new neighborhood institution — the Ridge Market,…
Music Genome Project
HOT Pandora the Music Explorer If you're tiring of porn or perhaps just rightfully worried that the U.S. government is watching you while you are watching naked elderly women roll around in clam chowder, there's a cool new Internet distraction that shouldn't get you into too much hot water. Just as TV recording system TiVo…
Music: The Dynamic Duo
Kenneth Chojnacki No, we're not twins: Shuttlecock's John Hubbell (left) and Ken Chojnacki Back in the '70s, every Queen album was emblazoned with a bold and adamant claim: "No synthesizers!" Thirty years later, Shuttlecock takes a similar stand in their press kit, proudly announcing that the Toledo born/Indianapolis based Electronic/Rock duo (guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Ken Chojnacki…
Living Out Loud: : Life Interrupted
Life interrupted. These are the words I wrote down on that Wednesday night after I sat at my desk sobbing for over an hour. For seven weeks I've been dealing with a diabetic foot ulcer, making it difficult for me to walk, too unfocused to write good sentences and causing depression in my life. Why…
Diner: Elevated
Have you seen the "CINCINNATI" sign on downtown's expanded convention center? No? Well, that's one more reason to go back to Primavista and check out the view from Price Hill. Delicious Italian food, classic ambience, and very professional service are a few others. This wonderful restaurant has aged well without going stale. Primavista is the…
Locals Only: : Color Me Jazz
James McKenna Steve Schmidt plays piano. Even in the absence of a piano. His muscular, almost ruddy, fingers are splayed, drumming, no — tickling — the tabletop of a bar-side booth at Kaldi's on Main Street. His massive head is bowed and slightly turned to the side, as though he's playing them changes and…
News: Truants and Traffickers
Graham Lienhart Reducing violent crime will take time, according to Mayor Mark Mallory, who last week detailed the first parts of his strategy. Reeling from a record-breaking year for homicides and three attempts by suspects to shoot police officers in the past month, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory last week unveiled the first steps in…
News to Use
'Welcome' Extremist Former Drug Czar Former U.S. Education Secretary Bill Bennett, a staunch supporter of the War on Drugs, speaks at 7 p.m. Jan. 26 at the University of Cincinnati's Tangeman University Center Great Hall. On a television show, he said that a viewer's suggestion of beheading drug dealers would be "morally plausible." Join members…
The Wobblies Are Among Us
Jymi Bolden A new state law will cause Election Night confusion for the public, according to Tim Burke. One of the most storied unions in American history, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), best known as the Wobblies, has moved its international headquarters to Cincinnati. The IWW has set up operation at Knowlton's…
