Jul 12-19, 2017
Moved Aside: Longtime residents are being uprooted as affordable housing options dwindle in OTR
Minimum Gauge: Canadian Leader Makes Spotify Playlist, Reminds Us of Better Times
PM Yawn Our cool stepdad to the north, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, recently offered a glimpse of what North American leaders were like in gentler times with his “PM Mix” on Spotify. Though not limited to Canadians, Trudeau includes plenty (The Tragically Hip, K-OS, Robbie Robertson, Drake, etc.), while also dropping in a couple…
Morning News: Deters to announce Tensing decision today; officials fear Ark Park tax dodge; Kasich to skip GOP dinner amid Pence tiff
Good morning all. Here’s a quick news update for you. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters will announce at 1 p.m. whether he’ll seek a third trial for former University of Cincinnati Police officer Ray Tensing for the July 2015 shooting death of unarmed motorist Sam DuBose. Two juries have deadlocked on murder and manslaughter charges…
Quan Hapa Gets New (Old) Executive Chef
An old friend of Quan Hapa has returned to bring traditional Filipino street food to the Over-the-Rhine community. In March, Mapi De Veyra, Quan Hapa’s executive chef and general manager, came back to the restaurant after an 18-month stint away. With a renewed energy, De Veyra’s goal is to add fresh, exciting dishes to the…
Critic’s Pick: ‘The Magic Flute’
It is Saturday night at the Aronoff Center for the Arts and the audience is buzzing with excitement and anticipation. It is the opening night of Cincinnati Opera’s The Magic Flute. This is no ordinary run-of-the-mill production of the Mozart opera, which debuted in 1791. It has been re-imagined by the British theater company 1927…
Morning News: U.S. Bank Arena owners propose tax to fund rebuild; activists demand Tensing retrial; Pence bends truth in Kasich diss
Good morning all. I hope your weekend was as grand as mine. Let’s talk news. How are you feeling about continuing to pay a sales tax increase tied to Union Terminal in order to fund a rebuilt US Bank Arena? That’s the proposal from arena owner Nederlander Entertainment. Voters would have to approve the extension…
Prosecutor Deters used forfeiture funds to pay for friend’s tech consulting services
Two thirds of the $2.1 million paid by the Hamilton County prosecutor’s office to a former employee’s technology companies for no-bid consulting work came from the prosecutor’s criminal forfeiture fund. The companies are owned by Dennis Lima, who worked full-time for prosecutor Joe Deters during Deters’ first stretch in office, from 1992 to 1999. His…
Stage Door: Classical Stage Magic — Shakespeare or Mozart?
This week marks the first performances of Free Shakespeare in the Park from Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, its 11th year offering these reduced productions at locations across the Tristate. The kickoff will be performances this weekend of a new staging of The Merry Wives of Windsor, a rollicking comedy with the humorous Falstaff as the protagonist.…
JIMS expands with full-band-fueled ‘…And His Fellow Mandareenians’
Jimmy “Jims” Snowden’s debut EP under the JIMS project name, Mandarin, was a test for the Greater Cincinnati music scene stalwart. Stepping away from the chaotic rhythms of his band projects, Snowden assembled a suite of five solo tracks that ran the gamut from experimental Post Punk to Indie Pop with acoustic guitars, looped instrumentation…
Your Weekend To Do List (July 14-16)
FRIDAY 14 ONSTAGE: THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR Are you impatient for Cincinnati Shakespeare Company to open the doors of its new theater in September? If you need a shot of the Bard before then, Cincy Shakes launches its 11th-annual summer tour of classic plays in free, shortened versions at parks and community centers all…
What a Week! July 5-11
WEDNESDAY, JULY 05 After the world’s longest Fourth of July weekend ever, most of us returned hungover and hot dogged-out to business as usual Wednesday, but some were wrapped up in a series of tweets from NPR. For 29 years, the public radio network has aired a reading of the Declaration of Independence on July…
5 reasons Zack Cozart should name his donkey Joey Votto
Last year was tough for hardcore Reds fans — the team finished 68-94, trading away several beloved players along the way. This year, however, there have been lights beckoning through the dark tunnel that is the modern “rebuilding” process. Amongst other exceptional feats by Reds this year — Joey Votto’s best offensive output since his…
1980s-set ‘GLOW’ Is Relevant Today
When Netflix announced a new original show about 1980s women’s wrestling, I expected a campy comedy. Come on, GLOW stands for Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling! How serious can it be? But despite its presumed gimmicky subject matter, like a growing number of series that are tough to categorize, GLOW is a true dramedy with many layers. It is created by…
Rush to Cinematic Judgment: A List of the Best Films of 2017 — So Far
As we celebrate the passing of the halfway mark of 2017, it seems that critics (like the team at indiewire.com), moreso than usual, have taken to offering up first-half evaluations. That means they’re taking time to make an extra opportunity to indulge in the time-honored tradition of compiling lists. Just like regular film fans, I…
Price Hill Has Good Stories to Tell
What’s your story? Cincy Stories wants to know. The two-year-old local nonprofit that is dedicated to building community through storytelling has just opened its second neighborhood “story gallery” in East Price Hill. Through Oct. 31, people can stop by the space at 3116 Warsaw Ave. from noon-7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and share their lives.…
Just ‘Shadoobie’ It
Shadoobie, an exhibition on view at Cincinnati Art Underground through July 22, features the work of Indiana-based sculptor Daniel Combs and two Cincinnati-based artists, painter Matt Estenfelder and multi-media artist Maxwell Redder. According to gallery materials, it stresses work that originates with forms in nature, but is as inspired by the human-made environment as the…
Why are The Monkees in a psychedelic art show?
Distant Horizons: Pioneers of Psychedelic Art, the exhibit currently at the Carl Solway Gallery, is a show devoted to 1960s art at its most radically transformative. The four principal artists — Isaac Abrams, Ira Cohen, Tony Martin and the artist collective USCO (especially its member Gerd Stern) — were, in many cases, so turned on…
‘Song from the Uproar’: A Visionary Contemporary Opera
Cincinnati Opera, in collaboration with concert:nova, presents an opera about a fiercely independent woman whose life was operatic by any standard — and who was virtually unknown until composer Missy Mazzoli wrote Song from the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt. Isabelle Eberhardt was born into an unconventional family in Switzerland in 1877.…
Craft coffee and craft beer collide at Walnut Hills’ Landlocked Social House
There’s a chronological distinction between coffee and beer in that one beverage is typically intended for the morning and the other is suitable only after the day’s work is done. Mostly. With this in mind, Landlocked Social House, which recently opened in Walnut Hills, is covering the socially acceptable drinking needs of an entire day…
Listermann opens in-house Renegade Grille
Listermann Brewing Company has officially brought in a wingman to help deliver both great beers and great bites to the Cincinnati area. The brewery joined forces with Renegade Street Eats, a four-year member of the local food truck scene, to add a kitchen to the Listermann taproom. The in-house Renegade Grille officially opened on June…
Cincy Hip Hop artist Juan Cosby enlists guest MCs for eclectic debut LP, ‘Inhospitable Planet’
For a guy who’s chest deep in Greater Cincinnati’s Indie Rock and Hip Hop milieu, Nick Mitchell has a fairly normal life. When he’s not booking local Hip Hop shows, doing the day-to-day grunt work for his label Grasshopper Juice or planning his 12th-annual (and imminent) Adjust Your Eyes Music & Art Festival, Mitchell is…
Eric Nally starts a new chapter with ‘Ruby’
When acclaimed Cincinnati Rock crew Foxy Shazam announced it was going on an indefinite hiatus in 2014, it didn’t take long for the musicians to surface with various other projects, making a splash with area groups like Lung and The Skulx. Almost since the day the band went its separate ways, a buzz has consistently…
Sound Advice: Tristen with Erin Rae & The Meanwhiles (July 14)
When Chicago-area native Tristen Gaspadarek first began attracting attention with her 2011 album Charlatans At The Garden Gate (often referred to as her debut, though she’d self-released recordings previously), her unique skills as a singer, songwriter and arranger were immediately apparent to many who heard her music. Going by simply Tristen, she moved to Nashville…
Sound Advice: Elf Power (July 17)
One of the most storied music scenes in Indie Rock history is the Elephant 6 Recording Co., born in Louisiana, baptized in Denver and sanctified in Athens, Ga. by the braintrust behind Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control and Apples in Stereo. Inspired by The Beach Boys — its recording facility was dubbed Pet Sounds…
Sound Advice: Pinegrove with Vagabon and ADJY (July 17)
It might be difficult to view a band’s formation as a matter of destiny, but with Pinegrove, that conclusion seems almost inevitable when you consider that vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Evan Stephens Hall and drummer/vocalist Zack Levine have been playing music together since they were 7 years old. By the time the pair graduated from high school, they…
