News: Artists Behind Bars
Natalie Hager Artists participating in the Inside/Outside Prison Project include (L-R) Jefferson James, Bet Stewart and C. Pic Michel. No divas allowed: It's an improbable guideline for a group of female artists, but it's essential when coordinating a six-week, multi-disciplinary art program that teaches drama, movement, visual art and writing to 20 prison inmates.…
Living Out Loud: : Anxiety Attack
Have you ever had one of those days where you feel like you're doing everything wrong, everyone knows it and you're a complete idiot? If you have, then I want to welcome you to the past six months of my life. Some time back, I decided to get off my ass and go back to…
News: Controlling the Stairs
Graham Lienhart Working to permanently re-open a public stairway are (L- R), in front, Bob Roncker, David Doepke, Bob Dinser, Doug Davis, and Laurie Keleher. Twisting through wooded hills and down steep inclines, the concrete structures trail along cliffs and into ravines, unknown by many Cincinnati residents but fiercely protected by a group of…
X-Clan — Return From Mecca (Suburban Noize)
X-Clan — Return From Mecca Hip Hop has changed — for the worse, some argue — since X-Clan released their last full-length CD in 1992. Crunk music and her Bay Area-bred cousin Hyphy now represent the dominant sounds in mainstream Rap, and most people within Rap's target demographic are more concerned with "ghostriding the…
Cover Story: Bigger, Louder, Faster, Better
Sundance Film Festival Chasing Ghosts PARK CITY, UTAH — When I covered my first Sundance Film Festival nine years ago, the old-timers all talked about how big it had gotten since Robert Redford's Sundance Institute took over the struggling, almost-quaint U.S. Film Festival in 1985. Now I talk about how big Sundance has gotten…
Xavier Rudd — Food in the Belly (Anti/Epitaph)
Xavier Rudd — Food in the Belly Duality is the overriding theme of Xavier Rudd's life and career. A citizen of both Australia and Canada, the 26-year-old guitarist/surfer/social activist finds himself musically encamped in a variety of related yet distinct genres, from the acoustic finger-picked Folk contemplation of Leo Kottke and Richard Thompson to…
Diner: Istanbul Spreads Out
Newport on the Levee is the envy of us folks living on the north banks of the river, and the opportunity to do a little food globe-trotting there doesn't help one bit. The Turkish restaurant Café Istanbul, one of the Levee's first venues to offer an international flair, has recently expanded its own reach. The…
Music: Give Pieces a Chance
Michael Lavine Bucking Rock tradition, The Rapture's sophomore CD is better than its debut. There's a lot of truth to the old music industry maxim about artists taking 25 years to make their first album and nine months to make their second. More often than not, bands go into a studio with their oldest…
Cover Story: Sincerely Sundance
J.D. Cutter Sincerely Sundance PARK CITY, UTAH — The Sundance Film Festival has long been a fixture in my mind's eye. An impressionable teenager when Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies, and Videotape caused a sensation at the 1989 festival (and eventually with me via VHS), I found the idea of the snow-capped resort town of…
Dennis Parlato
Brian C. Mehring Broadway actor Dennis Parlato returns to Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati for a role in Fiction, his fourth ETC production. DENNIS PARLATO has worked in a lot of theaters — he's been on Broadway frequently and recently has been flying back and forth to London for the workshop of a musical based…
Kings, Spies and Sorry Blogs
Matt Borgerding With protesters locked out and reporters locked in, the story went largely untold. One of the defining controversies of the so-called War on Terror takes center stage in a Cincinnati courtroom this week: The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals was scheduled to hear oral arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit that aims…
Me, You and Art
I am an artist. A successful artist. My art has been sought after and acquired by the rich and famous; esteemed by the cognoscenti and intelligentsia; exhibited on les Rives Gauche et Droit; paid for by American Express, Visa and once, though I'm not proud of it, Discover Card. "Are you a painter? A sculptor?…
News: Together Against War
Jim Albers Cincinnatians marching in Washington D.C. against the war included (at far left) City Councilman David Crowley and (right) Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory WASHINGTON, D.C. — An estimated 250 Cincinnatians traveled here last weekend to send a loud and clear anti-war message to the federal government. Before leaving for the demonstrations, hundreds gathered…
Art: The Ties That Hinder
Scott Beseler Tracey Featherstone's "Fall Out" comments on Western culture's focus on comfort. How many of us want to believe that Western culture, so ravaged with politics and money, is a corrupted version of the way life is "meant to be?" Which of us looks to the handmade products of so-called Third World countries…
Locals Only: : The Flock
The Flock The Flock The Flock has been entertaining in small Cincinnati venues for 20 years, playing regularly at Arnold's Bar & Grill since 1987. Then they were known as Ma Crow & The Flock. Nowadays, Ma Crow has her own Bluegrass band, The Motherpluckers, and Jenny Lynn Shepherd, formerly of Shepherd's Pi, sings…
Web Onstage: Twist and Shout
FICTION Admired novelist Linda Waterman (Amy Warner) tells a class of writing students that her most respected teacher once said, "The lies begin when we lift the pen." The distance between lies and fiction isn't all that far, it appears, and that's the energy source for Steven Dietz's Fiction, getting its regional premiere presently at…
Upcoming Concert reviews of Ronnie Baker, The Dwarves and More…
Coy Koehler The Dwarves Ronnie Baker Brooks with The Tommy Castro Band, Magic Dick and Deanna Bogart Wednesday · Southgate House A quick scan of the nominees for the 2007 Blues Music Awards' "Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the Year" reveals that Ronnie Baker Brooks will be vying for the honor at the Memphis…
How a Newcomer to Cincinnati Found Righteous Music
Jerry Dowling We interrupt our regularly scheduled Super Bowl hype for a moment of reflection so we might insert a short, overdue eulogy or two into a busy sports column. New to Cincinnati in early 1986, a young man in search of a drinking problem wandered up Vine Street from his downtown office around…
Film: Black Gold
Fox Searchlight The Last King of Scotland's Forest Whitaker (left) leads a strong group of Oscar nominated African-American actors. With the announcement of the 79th Annual Academy Award nominees Jan. 23, globalization seemingly emerged as the signature issue spurring voting members of the Academy. Past Oscar nominee Salma Hayek, who along with Academy President…
Rumors, Lies and General Misunderstandings
· Those behind the revitalization of the area around the "new" Fountain Square downtown are eager to get local music in the mix. Beginning in the spring, the square will host local acts on Fridays for its "Rock the Square" concerts. The initial schedule of events also includes "Unplugged Thursday," which will showcase acoustic performers…
Take the Time
I read Larry Gross' recent column ("The Out-of-Towner," issue of Jan. 24) with amusement, but I suppose it's really not funny — more sad than anything that someone from out of town needs to point out that Cincinnati's downtown mall needs some promotion. A simple thing like putting a sign on it letting people know…
News to Use
Where is King's Dream? Martin Luther King III and Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.) headline the panel discussion, "Where is the Dream Today: Reflections on Civil Rights Activism Past and Present." The program is at 7 p.m. Feb. 16 at the Cintas Center at Xavier University. Admission is free, but seating is limited. To make reservations,…
