Jul 11-18, 2018
Super Summer Reading List: Reading recommendations from local literary authorities, book nerds and CityBeat staffers
Gold Star Locations Giving Out Free Coneys for National Coney Day
Gold Star locations are celebration National Chili Dog Day (which should be a citywide holiday in Cincinnati) with free cheese coneys. On Thursday, July 26 diners will receive one free cheese coney with the purchase of a drink — specifically a regular-sized Pepsi product. “The cheese coney is a staple in the diet of Cincinnatians,…
Take The Cake’s Melisa Mileto Transform’s Northside’s Blue Jay into Mel’s Diner for Pop-Up
Melissa Mileto of the now-defunct but greatly-missed Northside bakery and brunch spot Take the Cake is transforming the neighborhood's Blue Jay (4154 Hamilton Ave., Northside) into Mel's Diner for a nostalgic evening pop-up. Mileto be serving "a spin on diner classics like meatloaf and chicken pot pie." And mixologist Aaron Strasser of Boca/Sotto will be…
Northern Kentucky’s Fifth Annual Good People Festival Focuses on Gratitude — and Bluegrass Music
The Good People Festival is back for its fifth year, taking over the Baker Hunt Art & Cultural Center in Covington on July 22. Founded in 2014 by local business owner Rachel DesRochers, the mind behind Grateful Grahams and businesses like the Northern Kentucky Incubator Kitchen, the fest focuses on building community and giving thanks. …
This 250-unit Apartment Complex Providing Affordable Housing in the West End Could Change Hands Soon
A large apartment complex in Cincinnati’s West End that provides subsidized housing could change hands soon, according to a sales prospectus obtained by CityBeat. The owners of the Arts Apartments at Music Hall, formerly known as Richmond Village, are seeking to sell the 248-unit complex on Ezzard Charles Drive near I-75. The 21-building, eight-acre complex…
Cincinnati’s new, upcoming Cindependent Film Festival releases first preview trailer
As the first Cindependent Film Festival moves closer to occurring on Aug. 23-25 at the Woodward Theater, MOTR Pub and Mini MicroCinema in Over-the-Rhine, it is starting to get more word out about its programing. Recently, it announced some of the films it will be showcasing that have a local connection, including the debut of…
Cincinnati Neighborhood Games’ Brings 52 Neighborhoods Together to Compete and Connect
Did you know that Cincinnati has its very own version of the Olympics? Kind of. The Cincinnati Neighborhood Games brings the city's 52 neighborhoods together to engage, compete and connect while battling for their hood's bragging rights. Beginning this spring, neighborhoods participated in qualifying rounds with 16 different competitions in order to see who would represent their…
REVIEW: The Iconic Photographs of Ansel Adams at the Taft Museum and Yousuf Karsh at the Dayton Art Institute
Two of the most influential and instantly recognizable — but very different — photographs ever taken in North America were done in the final months of the same year: 1941. As fate would have it, you can study excellent prints of both at two separate, simultaneous exhibitions at local museums through Sept. 16. Both are…
Decision on Tax Increase for Greater Cincinnati Bus System to Come Next Week
Hamilton County residents will know next week whether they’ll be able to vote on a proposed sales tax increase to fund the region’s Metro bus service, officials with the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority announced last night. SORTA will hold a special meeting at 9 a.m. July 25 to vote on the sales tax ask.…
Local Fashion Start-Up Jumper Threads Launches Peppermint Panties
Jumper Threads — a multiple CityBeat Best of Cincinnati staff pick winner (in 2016 for their "underfrump"-eliminating undershirts and 2017 for their socks) — is releasing a new line of underwear: super soft ProModal briefs made with anti-microbial peppermint leaf. And they're actually more along the lines of briefs and bikinis than panties… The underwear…
REVIEW: Mariemont Players Go ‘All the Way’ with LBJ
The lights go up on stage at Mariemont Players’ All The Way and an onscreen projection interrupts the show with a special news bulletin from Nov. 22, 1963. President John F. Kennedy has been assassinated in Dallas. The stage sits silent for a moment. Then the lights go up on now-President Lyndon B. Johnson, JFK’s…
Covington’s Braxton Brewing Co. to Release Rosé and Hard Apple Cider
Braxton Brewing Company is adding a couple new beverages to their boozy portfolio: Kickback Hard Apple and Rosé Cider. Made with crisp McIntosh apples, the products took years to develop, the brewery says, and they relied on customer feedback to create a palate-pleasing sweetness. Starting the week of July 23, the drinks will be available wherever…
Movies about architecture will screen at Contemporary Arts Center on Thursday (July 19)
You’ve heard of art house cinema. So how about "architecture house" cinema? This Thursday (July 19) at 7 p.m., the Mini Microcinema presents Cinema at the Center: House and Home, a night of short films about architecture, at Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center, itself renown for its daringly modern building designed by the great architect Zaha…
REVIEW: ‘Irma Vep’ at Price Hill’s Warsaw Federal Incline Theater
Prolific comedic playwright and actor Charles Ludlam staged and performed in an amazing number of comic plays for Off-Broadway’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company, which he founded in 1984. His best-known work, The Mystery of Irma Vep, a satirical send-up of sensational “penny dreadfuls” that pokes fun at overheated Gothic melodramas, was a hit before and after…
Why are Netflix original movies so bad?
Netflix has seized the crown from HBO this year, with 112 Emmy nominations to 108 for the premium cable network. As reported in the Los Angeles Times last week, “It was the most of any network and more than double its total from two years ago.” The streaming service, working outside the evolving network and…
Recommended Concerts: Low Cut Connie (July 18)
Low Cut Connie personifies the way great musical acts have long garnered buzz — by touring relentlessly and blowing people away in person with their music and live presence. In concert, the Philly band’s relentless energy has created undeniable “word of mouth” clout, because practically every single person who witnesses Low Cut Connie perform falls…
Southern Ohio GOP Chair Resigns Over Trump Russia Comments
Controversial remarks made by President Donald Trump yesterday during a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin are causing some local fallout. Southeastern Ohio's Belmont County GOP Chair Chris Gagin last night tweeted that he will leave that role over comments Trump made suggesting that information from U.S. intelligence agencies claiming Russian operatives meddled in the 2016…
Washington Park Summer Cinema Series Screens ‘A League of Their Own’
When World War II threatens the survival of Major League Baseball — aka all the dudes are going to fight overseas — Chicago Cubs owner Walter Harvey has the bright idea of making a women’s baseball league. A League of Their Own is a fictionalized version of the real All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, following the Rockford…
Recommended Concerts: Maren Morris with Niall Horan (July 25)
Breakthrough. Breakthrough. Breakthrough? In the last two years, Country/Pop crossover artist Maren Morris has picked up that “breakthrough” tag from nearly everyone who has mentioned her name. While it’s certainly a compliment and a sentiment that Morris is no doubt eating up, it’s not exactly a fair analysis. Morris is a whole lot more than…
Recommended Concerts: Howling Rain with Mountain Movers (July 22)
Nearly 20 years ago, guitarist/vocalist Ethan Miller co-founded Comets on Fire, a raucous SoCal Psych/Garage Rock quintet with a mile-wide experimental streak and a cultishly fervent fan base. Although the band checked all the right boxes for new millennium noisemongers, Miller ultimately wanted to explore a sound rooted in Classic Rock melodicism and traditions. To…
Recommended Concerts: The Messthetics with Hher and S/heep (July 18)
The Messthetics effectively disprove a couple of musical tropes. The Washington, D.C. trio offers solid evidence that a) quasi supergroups are not boring, and b) neither are instrumental Math/Post Rock bands. On the supergroup front, The Messthetics consists of some fairly potent names from the D.C. scene: drummer Brendan Canty and bassist Joe Lally are…
Remembering the Southgate House’s Ross Raleigh
Amid the essentials found within Southgate House Revival’s office is a massive collection of show posters. Posters are hung on the walls, stacked on shelves, rolled up in plastic bins and nestled in just about every other spot that isn’t currently taken up by a computer or filing cabinet. It feels like a museum in…
Queen City Hemp Uses the Cannabis Compound Cannabidiol in its Novel CBD Seltzer
What do you drink in the morning? Smoothies? Boring. Coffee? Predictable. How about a CBD Seltzer? No, it isn’t a marijuana thing. Although it may sound a bit like a bougier version of La Croix reserved for hipsters and hippies, it’s actually more akin to taking your morning vitamins than it is a vice. The…
Cincinnati Opera launches the U.S. premiere of Another Brick in the Wall, a theatrical Rock opera based on the music of Pink Floyd
In January 2015, Cincinnati Opera’s Director of Production Glenn Plott visited Opera Montreal to check out a potential presentation. He stopped by to see the company’s general director, his friend and colleague Pierre Dufour. What Dufour played wasn’t related to the opera production Plott had come to investigate, but rather from something in the pipeline.…
This Week in Questionable Decisions: July 11-17
This Week in Questionable Decisions… 1. Yet again, The Bachelorette was interrupted last Monday by Trump’s face. This time to offer his SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh. He does not get a rose from us. 2. IHOb was a lie. The International House of Pancakes remains just that, as the company admitted its buzzed-about name change…
What A Week!: July 11-17
Kylie Jenner Is Rich The latest issue of Forbes highlights America’s 60 richest self-made women, including Oprah (No. 6), Spanx founder Sara Blakely (No. 21) and Madonna (No. 36). Ranking at No. 27 with a near-$1 billion net worth is 20-year-old kosmetic kween and Kardashian heiress Kylie Jenner. She earned $166.5 million in the last…
Cincinnati Art Museum celebrates Hamilton-born children’s book illustrator Robert McCloskey
The Cincinnati Art Museum’s Emily Holtrop pauses as she searches for the perfect words to sum up the books of Robert McCloskey, the late Hamilton, Ohio-born author/illustrator best known for taking young readers blueberry picking in Maine and on a delightful walk with ducklings, starting some 70 years ago. “They feel just kind of… sweet…
Vans Warped Tour Founder Kevin Lyman Discusses the Festival’s Final Run
Kevin Lyman is approaching this summer’s 24th edition of the Warped Tour thinking about something that never needed to enter his thoughts during most of the years he’s organized and overseen it: He’s thinking about his life without Warped. Last fall, Lyman announced that 2018 would be the last year for Warped as a traveling…
UPDATE: Hilton Netherland Cracking Mystery Safe that Hasn’t Been Opened in More Than 30 Years
Safe crackers are at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza today to open up a Mosler safe that hasn’t seen the light of day in at least three decades. Officials with the hotel say they have no idea what is inside the safe, made by the Hamilton-based safe making company that went out of business in 2001. The…
Over-the-Rhine Residential Parking Permit Plan in the Works; more news
Hello all. Happy Monday! Here’s a quick news rundown to get you started on the week. Cincinnati officials have given inhabitants of a downtown tent city 72 hours to leave the area near Third and Plum streets. You can read more about that situation — and what the city says it will do to help…
Cincinnati City Council to Mull Delay for Downtown Camp Removal
Cincinnati City Council will hold a special meeting at 2:45 p.m. Thursday, July 19 to weigh a proposal from Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard that would delay removal of a camp near Third and Plum streets downtown. Acting Cincinnati City Manager Patrick Duhaney has ordered that the camp created by people experiencing homelessness be cleared by Friday morning, citing…
ICE agents detaining immigrants in suburban Cincinnati, activists say
When he was 5, Jose witnessed a brutal massacre at Rio Lempa, a river on the border of Honduras and neighboring El Salvador. Eyewitness accounts from aid workers, doctors and others say troops from both countries, including Salvadoran forces in a helicopter, reportedly shot and killed dozens of refugees crossing the river’s 75 feet of…
Judge rules Columbus bump stock ban violates Ohio law
A Franklin County judge has ruled that a ban on so-called bump stocks violates Ohio's constitution. That ruling could eventually have implications for Cincinnati, where city officials in June passed their own bump stock ban. Bump stocks are accessories that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire fully automatically. Gunman Stephen Paddock used an AR-15 rifle modified…
‘The Who’s Tommy’ is coming to Cincinnati Memorial Hall in September
Tickets go on sale today (Friday, July 13) for four September performances at Memorial of a locally mounted, semi-staged production of The Who's Tommy, This classic Broadway musical — based on the classic 1969 Rock concept album by The Who — debuted in 1992 and became a Tony-winning smash that has inspired countless Rock musicals. Memorial…
Mueller indicts 12 in presidential election-meddling probe; more news
Hello all! Let’s do a quick news rundown to take you into the weekend. Cincinnati’s Preschool Promise has enrolled more than 1,300 area children in preschool during its first full year of operation, its executive director says. That’s below the program’s goal of 2,000 students who are three or four years old, but more than…
CityBeat TV Critic Jac Kern Gives Her Emmy Nomination Breakdown
I love the Emmy Awards because they break all the rules: The awards show is devoted to film’s low-brow sister, it takes place in September, months away from winter “awards season,” and this year it airs on a Monday. Random! But as with all awards shows, Emmy nominee announcements bring out the inner TV critic…
OTR’s The Rhined Celebrates its One Year Anniversary with Cheese Specials, Drinks and Raclette Nachos
It's been one whole year since The Rhined opened it's doors in OTR. The gourmet shop offers local artisan and domestic-focused cheese options in addition to wine, beer, an adorable patio space and specialty cheese nights where guests can gorge on options like housemade mozzarella in summer and warm raclette in winter (aka a type of Swiss…
Grease is the Word at Spring Grove Cemetery’s Outdoor Movie Night
If date night at the cemetery sounds like something reserved only for teen rebels sneaking out past curfew, think again. Spring Grove has the perfect excuse for an outing both normies and goths can dig. Grab some grub from food trucks on site like The Dapper Donut, Sunny Side Brunch & More and Quite Frankly…
What To Do This Weekend in Cincinnati: July 13-15
FRIDAY 13 OPERA: concert:nova presents The Bradbury Tattoos, a multi-media Rock opera based on sci-fi author Ray Bradbury’s short story collection The Illustrated Man. Get details here. ART: Temple of Tolerance at Thunder-Sky, Inc. presents the collected ephemera of “Temple of Tolerance” builder and artist Jim Bowsher. Get details here. MUSIC: Red Wanting Blue Formed in…
Historic Price Hill Branch Library temporarily closes due to ceiling damage
The Price Hill Branch Library, one of the oldest and most historic in the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton Country system, has been closes indefinitely due to significant damage from a ceiling collapse. Built in 1909 at 3215 Warsaw Ave., it was one of nine in the city built with funds from the Andrew…
Gaps Remain in Documentation of Councilmember’s Campaign
Months after the November election, questions remain about key documents related to a Cincinnati City Council member’s campaign. Councilman Jeff Pastor recently filed amended campaign finance reports detailing expenditures his campaign made, including some $50,000 on advertising that came out of Pastor’s own pocket. However, the nature of those expenditures is still murky, despite the…
The Ohio State Fair to Exhibit a Life-Size and Lifelike Butter Cow
The year was 1903. Teddy Roosevelt was President, The Ford Motor Company was beginning production of The Ford Model A and something happened in Ohio that would change the state forever: The first butter cow was featured at the Ohio State Fair. The annual creation of a butter cow and her calf is now an…
Tokyo Kitty and Wendigo Tea Co. Launch World’s First Nitro Kappa Matcha Latte
Locals Wendigo Tea Co., Smooth Nitro Coffee and Tokyo Kitty have combined to create the world's first nitro Kappa Matcha Latte — and a vegan one, at that. The drink debuts at "The Future of Tea" event 6 p.m, July 12 at Tokyo Kitty (575 Race St., Downtown). Wendigo Tea, launched by Sky White —…
Kasich: GOP “may not come out of its stupor” around Trump; more news
Hello Cincy. Let’s do a quick news roundup today, shall we? City officials, social service groups and downtown business groups yesterday announced a plan called GeneroCity 513 that will offer people asking for money downtown $45 a day to do basic cleanup jobs. That plan by the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation, Downtown Cincinnati Inc.,…
University of Cincinnati researchers shed new light on iconic Native American settlement
Today, Northern New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon is an eerie but magnificent collection of adobe dwellings up to four stories tall that were abandoned centuries ago. Before that, native people lived there — but how those residents subsisted in the arid climate and the number of people who lived there permanently has been the topic of…
Should a Cincinnati-based, multi-state commission eliminate its standards for Ohio River pollution?
Two decades before the Environmental Protection Agency, an eight-state commission looked out for the health of the nearly 1,000-mile stretch of water that defines Cincinnati and provides more than five million people with drinking water. But it could soon walk back from a key part of that role. Residents of Greater Cincinnati and elsewhere will…
The Vans Warped Tour Makes Its Final Cincinnati Stop as the Fest Comes to an End This Summer
The Vans Warped Tour stood tall for nearly a quarter of a century, as every other big “traveling music festival” (Lollapalooza, Lilith Fair, H.O.R.D.E., Ozzfest, etc.) either reconfigured to become “destination” fests or collapsed completely. With low-cost tickets and an egalitarian philosophy that de-emphasized the power and prowess typically allotted a festival headliner, Warped Tour…
