Metro Rejects Fact-finder’s Report
Trustees who oversee Cincinnati's Metro bus system voted today to reject a state fact-finder's recommendations for a new labor contract. The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) said the fact-finder's recommendations were too expensive and vague. The agency's contract with its 676 bus drivers, maintenance and support employees expired Monday.—- Workers will continue to operate…
Comedy: Jo Koy
During his own childhood in Tacoma, Wash., Jo Koy and his sister were encouraged by their mother to take part in school talent shows. His sibling is now a singer in Las Vegas, which is also where Koy first did stand-up in 1996. Of Asian decent, Koy hates when people try to guess his heritage.…
The (Free) Recording Label, WNKU Expands
Electronic Rock duo Pop Empire has released its debut full-length, The Devil’s Party, available now for free download via The Recording Label Web site. The “all free!” label is the brainchild of Cameron Cochran, formerly of The Sheds and one half of Pop Empire (along with Henry Wilson). PE and label-mates Sacred Spirits (whose Some…
Playing By Heart
The Heart Is A Drum Machine is an excellent documentary film from last year that explores the mystery of the human experience with music. The film includes interview segments with dozens of prominent singers and musicians and a score by Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips. The film’s score is now available on its own…
Carrie Brownstein, Beatles Studies and Courney Love
[HOT] Funny Grrrl Thanks to onscreen performances from Elvis to Mariah Carey, music stars who give acting a try are almost universally met with hardcore skepticism. It usually takes a spectacular performance or two before a musician is taken seriously for their acting (who would have thought P Diddy would be one of the more…
The Wild Inside
On the mountain top, I was naked, listening to rattlesnakes. California nudist resort, years ago. Man, the stars. As far as I looked, radiant star patterns burned into the black sky. Next to me, a brown-eyed woman smiled, smelling like musk, like trees, like her. She was wickedly funny, sharply smart, artistic, too free-spirited and…
Onstage: Aliens with Extraordinary Skills
Give Know Theatre credit for presenting plays with unexpected perspectives. Its current production, Aliens with Extraordinary Skills, is by Saviana Stanescu, a playwright from Romania who lives and works in New York City. Her play is about a pair of clowns, Nadia (Liz Vosmeier) and Borat (Matthew Lewis Johnson), who have arrived in the U.S.…
Events: The Sky’s The Limit
Oh, the places you can go with an imagination. Are you or your children Harry Potter or Chronicles of Narnia fans? Entertained by the magical world of Hogwarts and the mystical world of Narnia? If so, “The Sky’s the Limit” is the event for you. Fly and flutter out of the Saturday morning cartoon routine…
Events: Voodoo Carnival: Mardi Gras Masquerade
Freaks, chic and some sweet beats — that’s what The Voodoo Carnival: A Mardi Gras Masquerade is in a nutshell. Held on Saturday at the Southgate House (24 E. Third St., Newport), the Carnival will be host to all kinds of devious events. The Queen City Cabaret will perform along with the Pickled Bros. Sideshow,…
Literary: Linda and Tony Cole
“I have no pulse,” 12-year-old Anthony Cole Jr. told a classmate on the playground one September day in 1998. Moments later, Cole collapsed. It took paramedics 13 attempts to restart his heart, which had been stricken by Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, a rare condition that features an extra electrical pathway between the heart's upper and lower chambers.…
Music: Sacred Spirits
You don’t see a great deal of civility in the world these days, so it tends to stand out prominently when it’s present. As Sacred Spirits bassist Ben Lehman and I pick out a table in the back room of Sidewinder Coffee in Northside for our interview, Lehman quickly checks with our table neighbor, who…
Art: Weston Art Gallery Exhibitions
Dennis Harrington, director of downtown’s Weston Art Gallery, looks for connections when he brings artists together for exhibition. This time, however, he did not find a common thread linking artists Diana Duncan Holmes, Todd Reynolds and Elissa Morley, whose work is now on display. So there’s no need to overexert yourself in search of a…
Onstage: My Perfectly Beautiful Life: A Musical
Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative regularly offers readings of new scripts by its members. These tend to be small gatherings of friends and perhaps a few interested theatergoers or acquaintances of the actors in the Aronoff Center’s small (and under-utilized) black box theater. But something bigger is planned for Tuesday when Tatiana Cameron’s new musical gets its…
Let Me In (Review)
Matt Reeves' remake of Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson's atmospheric vampire thriller — both of which are based on John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel Let the Right One In — is not as restrained or as poetic as its predecessor, but Let Me In's nuanced take on the genre generates unexpected empathy for its central duo in near…
Art: FOUND Magazine’s Davy Rothbart
Hopefully, you'll be able to find your way to the Contemporary
Here Comes the Sun
There was something in the air in Park City, Utah, as the 2011 Sundance Film Festival picked up steam — and, thankfully, it wasn’t several feet worth of falling snow. In 2010, roads and sidewalks were snarled with one storm after another. This year, the sun shone brightly for all but a few brief, furious…
Onstage: Over the Tavern
Every year during the holidays an impoverished but caring family with four kids, the Cratchits of 1843 London, take up residence at the Cincinnati Playhouse for A Christmas Carol. Those endearing folks have been displaced by another struggling family with four kids, the Pazinskis of Buffalo in 1959, in Tom Dudzick’s nostalgic comedy, Over the…
Art: Mark Warren Jacques at YES Gallery
YES is one of several recent additions to Over-the-Rhine’s art gallery culture that combines exhibition space with working studios. The backend of YES (1417 Main St., Over-the-Rhine) is equipped for screen-printing and a large portion of the gallery is given over to prints, ’zines, chapbooks, printed clothing, bags and a cleverly curated array of artist-made…
Music: We Came As Romans
Yet another facet of the Detroit scene is exemplified by the Indie Rock melodicism-meets-Thrash Metal mayhem of We Came as Romans, a wildly eclectic sextet from Motown and nearby Troy, Mich. The band began six years ago when a group of friends assembled as This Emergency, soldiering on through a succession of personnel changes (only…
Music: Conspiracy of Owls
Detroit is likely to retain its title as the Motor City for a good many more years, but music has been a vital moving part in the city’s engine for most of the last 50, and that won’t be changing anytime soon. The stylistic range in Detroit that was once defined by the distance between…
That’s the Spirits
You don’t see a great deal of civility in the world these days, so it tends to stand out prominently when it’s present. As Sacred Spirits bassist Ben Lehman and I pick out a table in the back room of Sidewinder Coffee in Northside for our interview, Lehman quickly checks with our table neighbor, who…
Onstage: Mahler’s Symohony No. 7
Gustav Mahler’s music is better known for irony rather than a comic sensibility, but his Symphony No. 7 in E minor will make you reconsider. Start with the scoring. To the usual orchestral resources, add a tenorhorn (usually heard in brass bands), guitar, mandolin, two Glockenspiels, tambourine, cowbells and a rute, a bundle of sticks…
Oldies But Goodies
I like to write about the excitement of new works and regional premieres, which are important in sustaining theater as an art form. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t respect the classics. In its prior 16 seasons, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company presented all but five of the Bard’s 37 plays. They’ve checked another one off the…
Acclaim for Shows at ETC, Playhouse
Two shows that opened last week have been recommended by the Acclaim Awards: Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati’s production of Next Fall by Geoffrey Nauffts and the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park’s revival of Over the Tavern by Tom Dudzick, which was a popular work in its 1998-1999 season. A show earns a recommended designation when…
Worst Day Ever!
It didn't take Gov. John Kasich long to institute a much beloved Republican principle in one of the state's major departments, as his plan for privatizing the Department of Development is expected to easily pass the House today. The change will allow California venture capitalist/interim development director Mark Kvamme to do unpublicized things with the…
All WNKU All the Time
As the clock struck midnight Monday night, WNKU's broadcast signal blasted out of a new home. Two new homes, actually: 105.9 FM (based in Middletown) and 104.1 FM (based in Portsmouth). It was a pretty heady climax to the year-long celebration of WNKU's 25th anniversary. At midnight the stations' country music format ended and the…
Reds Take Care of Own in Quiet Offseason
Anyone else ready for baseball? Mired in the middle of a painful, almost entirely sunless winter, there are few phrases any more satisfying than this: Pitchers and catchers report in two weeks. —- Coming off their first division championship in 15 years, the Reds haven’t generated this much offseason enthusiasm since the winter of 1999,…
Pop Empire Releases Debut LP Online
Electronic Rock duo Pop Empire has released its debut full-length, The Devil’s Party, available now for free download via The Recording Label Web site. The “all free!” label is the brainchild of Cameron Cochran, formerly of The Sheds and one half of Pop Empire (along with Henry Wilson). PE and labelmates Sacred Spirits (whose Some…
Aliens With Extraordinary Skills (Review)
Give Know Theatre credit for presenting plays with unexpected perspectives. Its current production, Aliens with Extraordinary Skills, is by Saviana Stanescu, a playwright from Romania who lives and works in New York City. Her play is about a pair of clowns, Nadia (Liz Vosmeier) and Borat (Matthew Lewis Johnson), who have arrived in the U.S.…
Newspapers Scramble to Make Profit on Web
The Enquirer/Cincinnati.Com is joining an arrangement where a monthly fee will let subscribers read some or all of a broad selection of dailies and news sites on the Internet. It promises one-stop convenience even though much of the content is free elsewhere. Called Ongo.com, it is the latest effort to stanch losses of readers and…
Conspiracy of Owls
Detroit is likely to retain its title as the Motor City for a good many more years, but music has been a vital moving part in the city’s engine for most of the last 50, and that won’t be changing anytime soon. The stylistic range in Detroit that was once defined by the distance between…
We Came As Romans
Yet another facet of the aforementioned Detroit scene is exemplified by the Indie Rock melodicism-meets-Thrash Metal mayhem of We Came as Romans, a wildly eclectic sextet from Motown and nearby Troy, Mich. The band began six years ago when a group of friends assembled as This Emergency, soldiering on through a succession of personnel changes…
Movement, Stillness and War
Critic's Pick Dennis Harrington, director of downtown’s Weston Art Gallery, looks for connections when he brings artists together for exhibition. This time, however, he did not find a common thread linking artists Diana Duncan Holmes, Elissa Morley and Todd Reynolds, whose work is now on display. So there’s no need to overexert yourself in search…
Worst Day Ever!
Briston Palin won't get to tell the world about the consequences of teen pregnancy after students at Washington University in St. Louis protested the $20,000 it would cost to pay her and three other panelists to discuss abstinence. Students took the high road on the “No Thanks, Bristol” Facebook page, ignoring Palin's stupid message and…
The Rite (Review)
So the Catholic Church issued an order for every diocese to have an exorcist and then backed off as soon as the media went viral over the notion that a worldwide cadre of demon hunters fighting a pea soup epidemic might not be the best image makeover for the Vatican. Mikael Hafstrom’s adaptation of The…
Two CityBeat Live Chats This Weekend
Hi, friends! CityBeat this weekend will be running two live chats — one during the UC-West Virginia basketball game Saturday and another during the SAG Awards Sunday. Feel free to stop by and share your thoughts on Bob Huggins' return to Cincinnati (maybe he'll wear the mustard yellow suit — have to join our chat…
Over the Tavern (Review)
Critic's Pick Every year during the holidays an impoverished but caring family with four kids, the Cratchits of 1843 London, take up residence at the Cincinnati Playhouse for A Christmas Carol. Those endearing folks have been displaced by another struggling family with four kids, the Pazinskis of Buffalo in 1959, in Tom Dudzick’s nostalgic comedy,…
Stage Door: Falling for Next Fall
Quite a few local theaters are opening new productions this week, but if I were to point you to just one for this weekend, it would be Next Fall, a new play by Geoffrey Nauffts, at Ensemble Theatre.—- Next Fall is a fine production of a thoughtful script (it was a 2010 Tony nominee for…
Worst Day Ever!
Did you hear the news? Jeff Berding will resign his council seat and allow Charterite Chris Bortz to decide who will take over being a dick to homeless people.—- John Kasich is the first governor in 48 years to go with an all-white cabinet. Black lawmakers are upset by this and would like him to…
Friday Movie Roundup: Blue Valentine’s Dedicated Duo
The recent double-barreled Robert De Niro developments of his Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes and the release of a 30-year anniversary Blu-ray edition of Raging Bull remind us how far the actor once went to portray his characters as authentically as humanly possible. Few actors today go as deep as…
Music Education Program Benefit Tonight
Locally-based Blues/Rock singer/songwriter/guitarist Kelly Richey hosts a benefit for her non-profit Music 4 Change program tonight at The Redmoor in Mount Lookout. Richey — once described as “Stevie Ray Vaughan trapped in a woman’s body with Janis Joplin screaming to get out” — is joined by Diana Chittester and Amy McFarland with Trinity for the…
Kevin Smith’s ‘Red State’ Coming to Ohio
Kevin Smith's Red State premiered to mixed reviews and a small group of protesters at the Sundance Film Festival Jan. 22. But, even more than the film's provocative premise — which has been described as “a horror/comedy/satire about a Westboro Baptist Church-esque fundamentalist community that murders those it finds abominations in God's eyes (aka gay…
Next Fall (Review)
Geoffrey Nauffts’ Next Fall, currently onstage at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, refers to a moment that’s just beyond reach — and never to be attained. It’s when Luke (Ryan Wesley Gilreath), a young gay man, promises to come out to his conservative family, perhaps allowing for greater peace and balance in his relationship with Adam…
UC vs. Rutgers Live Chat!
The Bearcats defeated the Scarlet Knights behind 20 points from Rashad Bishop and several Sprites by CityBeat reporter Luke Lewis. Click below to relive the glory: <a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=0f973144b3" >UC vs. Rutgers Live Chat!</a>
SAG Awards Live Chat
What the hell are the SAG Awards? The newer but still prestigious acting awards show in Hollywood? A bunch of actors giving each other handjobs year-end pats on the back? Join CityBeat writers for a friendly discussion of all things SAG starting at 8 p.m. Sunday. We're going to have snacks. <a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=cf5a706d32" >SAG Awards…
UC vs. West Virginia Live Chat!
CityBeat writers and friends will share their thoughts and feelings during the University of Cincinnati basketball team's 8 p.m. Saturday contest with Bob Huggins' West Virginia Moutaineers. CityBeat will have reporters inside Fifth Third Arena providing the insight you can't get from TV or radio (such as, "How tall does the other team look?"), and…
Berding Will Resign from Council
Is it because he's tired of being on the losing side of debates? Is it because he doesn't have a party endorsement and also lost his base of conservative, West Side voters? Is it because the boss at his day job with the Bengals is tired of all the negative publicity? Whatever the reason, Cincinnati…
New Daniel Martin Moore Video
Below is the video for "In the Cool of the Day," the title track of Northern Kentucky singer/songwriter Daniel Martin Moore's latest album for Sub Pop Records, which was released Jan. 18. Moore performs a free in-store concert Saturday at Shake It Records in Northside in support of the new release. Music starts at 7…
Worst Day Ever!
Streetcar supporters are once again defending a project that has been approved by city leaders and voters multiple times. City Solicitor John Curp doubts if the latest attempt by streetcar opponents to stop the project will work if the charter amendment passes. John Schneider, a Downtown businessman and a leader of streetcar proponents, compares the…
Kayne West Tops Pazz & Jop Poll
The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop music critics' poll was unveiled last week. As expected, Kayne West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy stomped the competition, garnering nearly twice the points as the No. 2 album, LCD Soundsystem's This Is Happening, resulting in the largest ass-kicking in the poll's 37-year history. —- I suppose it…
Over the Rhine Builds Pre-Release Buzz
The Long Surrender, the new album from longtime local music greats Over the Rhine, won’t be released until Feb. 8, but the Joe Henry-produced full-length is already garnering attention and praise.—- Yesterday, American Songwriter magazine posted an excellent Q&A with OTR’s married braintrust, Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist, in which the couple discusses the new…
Natural Is Beautiful
CityBeat: How did you come up with the idea for Home Grown Cakes?Andrea Dee: The idea for Home Grown Cakes came out of demand. In high school I started decorating cakes at a local bakery after school. Family and friends, and family and friends of theirs, started requesting I do cakes for them outside of…
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (Review)
Oliver Stone’s Wall Street is entirely of its time: a note-perfect portrait of 1980s superficiality and money-lust appropriately channeled through a world where wealth and class can be bought and sold daily. It made a true star of Michael Douglas, who delivered an iconic performance as Gordon Gekko, the cold-hearted, crazy-rich corporate raider who takes…
The Mechanic (Review)
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Simon West, director of Con Air and The General's Daughter, has been off the big-screen radar long enough to properly contemplate the slick little cinematic take-over that is The Mechanic. The film's generic poster of a handgun made up of roughly sketched weapons cleverly conceals an ingenious update on the…
Anticipation Is Half the Fun
T hough all of the variables can seem overwhelming, preparing for the big day can be practically as exciting as the celebration itself. The cake, the dress, the invitation list and the music are just a few of the many choices for brides- and grooms-to-be to make, and bridal events and exhibitions make the process…
Shawn McCoy [Brown Dog Cafe]
Good food that is not pretentious. That’s what owner and chef Shawn McCoy of the Brown Dog Café (5893 Pfeiffer Road, Blue Ash, 513-794-1610) wants to provide for his guests. And with a creative menu served in his cozy Blue Ash restaurant, he does just that. CityBeat: What’s the last great meal you ate and…
Residents Seek State Help to Reopen IGA
Owners of the Keller’s IGA store, a longtime anchor of the Gaslight District on the Ludlow Avenue business strip that was forced to close its doors earlier this month, still are optimistic that they can reopen soon but readily admit there are too many obstacles in the way to “breathe easy” just yet. Forced to…
Mobiles
Get an inside look at the work of local artist Terry Welker.
Protest Keeps School Open
As of a few weeks ago, it seemed the classrooms and hallways of William H. Taft STEM Elementary School in Mount Auburn would be vacant come next school year. Parents of about 330 students received a letter late last month informing them about the likelihood of closing Taft at the end of the academic year.…
Casino Jack (Review)
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Released just a few months after Alex Gibney's Jack Abramoff documentary, director George Hickenlooper's feature version of the same tale of corruption shellacs rather than shackles its GOP super-lobbyist antihero. Kevin Spacey's portrayal of Abramoff fails not due to any lack of solid choices on the actor's part; he is…
Blue Valentine (Review)
N o Strings Attached captured hearts and the opening-weekend box office by giving audiences the same old vision of love — which, in the end, isn’t really about love at all. Love doesn’t live at the multiplex. The reflection of it that Hollywood casts bends and swirls like a carnival funhouse frame, stretched too thin…
Taste This: Pringles
The evolution of flavor represented in Americans’ diet over the course of U.S. history has gone from a timid, “lightly salted” hint to today’s loud barrage of often bewildering tastes. During a recent grocery trip, I was in the snack aisle and was stopped dead in my tracks by an almost psychedelically colorful tower of…
Colleen Deegan and Forest Hills Schools
[WINNER] COLLEEN DEEGAN: Cincinnati might have its first breakout reality TV star of the new millennium. No, we’re not talking about Nick Lachey (boring) or Chad Ochocinco (over-exposed). We’re referring to Police Officer Colleen Deegan, who is among the four people featured in TLC’s Police Women of Cincinnati series that debuted a few weeks ago.…
Encore! Encore!
R ay Bowman turns his gaze lovingly toward his bride-to-be, Terrie Robinson. “I feel pretty good about getting married again,” he says. “I found the other half of me.” There’s a poignant honesty in Bowman’s words, you can tell they come from the heart. Bowman, divorced, and Robinson, widowed, recently took marriage vows for the…
U.S. Uses Third-World Tactics on Its Own Citizen
Right now, as you leisurely read this issue of CityBeat while sipping a beverage at a coffee shop, sitting in your favorite chair at home or using the toilet, your taxpayer dollars are being used to illegally abuse a U.S. citizen who hasn’t been convicted of a crime. The citizen in question is Bradley Manning…
Another Year (Review)
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Another Year is often as depressing as its title. Of course, this being a Mike Leigh production, that's the point. The veteran British filmmaker behind such fare as Naked, Secrets & Lies and Happy-Go-Lucky again immerses his working-class characters in the messiness of everyday life, this time focusing his neorealist…
Have Your Cake and Like It Too
“Y our wedding cake may just be the most significant confection you ever buy,” according to www.theknot.com, one of the leading bridal information Web sites. And it’s probably right. It’s not like you regularly match your birthday cake with your outfit and home décor. (Unless you do. No judgment.) And with the increasing popularity of…
Sis’s Family Affair (Review)
W hen someone offers you the option of “Good news first?” or “Bad news first?” which do you take? I’m the kind of person who likes to delay bad news as long as possible. So, on the good news front, Sis’s Family Affair in Newport has plenty to offer. The staff is unbelievably friendly, not…
It’s Your Party and You’ll Have It Where You Want To
W ell, realistically, you’re never going to be the first bride to have your wedding at any of these locations — they’re all well-prepared to host your big day. But you don’t have to be the first to enjoy matching your event to your personal sense of style. 20th Century TheatreThis Art Deco-style movie theater…
Worst Day Ever!
President Obama's State of the Union address was last night. Did you watch it? Did you enjoy it? Did you only watch it because it preempted all your normal shows? What did you think? Feeling better about the country? Appreciate Obama's defense of social security? Don't appreciate his lesser support for Medicare and Medicaid. Are…
Stone Sour’s Josh Rand Talks Tour, New Album
Stone Sour is a Heavy Metal band from Des Moines, Iowa. They will be at U.S. Bank Arena Saturday with Avenged Sevenfold. Since 2006, the group has been composed of Corey Taylor (lead vocals), Jim Root (lead guitar, backing vocals), Josh Rand (rhythm guitar), Shawn Economaki (bass guitar) and Roy Mayorga (drums, percussion). The group…
