Cheney Applies for Government Aid
During its eight years in power, the Bush-Cheney Administration was a big supporter of privatizing services that traditionally were performed by government. The ostensible purpose was to save taxpayer money, although it often seemed like the real reason was to enrich the cronies of George Bush and Dick Cheney, including companies like Halliburton. It’s odd,…
The Tillers Meet Tom Brokaw!
The fantastic Cincinnati Folk trio The Tillers will make its television debut Wednesday at 7 p.m. on the USA network. The acoustic band (Michael Oberst, Sean Gell and Jason Soudrette) were interviewed in June by legendary news anchor Tom Brokaw for a documentary about the people and places along Route 50, the stretch of highway…
Art: The Architecture of Painting at the Columbus Museum of Art
If you want to get ahead of a major artistic rediscovery in 2010, travel up to Columbus Museum of Art before Aug. 2 to see The Architecture of Painting: Charles Burchfield. It includes watercolors the Ohio-born artist made between 1918-1920 in his home state, after returning from World War I and before moving to Buffalo.…
Onstage: Eyes Open Festival
If you're interested in how empowering the arts can be, it's worth spending Saturday downtown attending the 2009 Eyes Open Festival, which features artists, musicians and films that celebrate black LGBT contributions to the arts in our community. It's at the Aronoff Center for the Arts’ Fifth Third Bank Theater, at the corner of Seventh…
Music: Hyacinth House
Hyacinth House is dirty, sexy, seedy. And without a doubt, kickin’. A souped-up Beta Band. LCD Soundsystem with a li’l bit of Modest Mouse. That about hits it. High energy, this music’s got “late late night trouble,” dark rooms, weird lighting and couch surfing written all over it. In a good way, nasty. Electropunk band…
Events: Outdoor Movies in the Park
It’s like the drive-in, but free and sans the exhaust fumes, long ticket lines and stuffy car interiors. Enjoy a flick under the stars at Eden Park’s Seasongood Pavilion gratis, courtesy of the Cincinnati Park Board’s “Outdoor Movies in the Park” series. This time around, catch Hitchcock’s old-school, Oscar-winning classic To Catch a Thief (1955),…
Hyacinth House (Profile)
Dirty, sexy, seedy. And without a doubt kickin’. A souped-up Beta Band. LCD Soundsystem with a li’l bit of Modest Mouse. That about hits it. High energy, this music’s got “late late night trouble,” dark rooms, weird lighting and couch surfing written all over it. In a good way, nasty. “I like driving to it.…
Tapping the Veins
Bad Veins are busy men these days. I say "Hello" and sit down on the outdoor bar furniture with friendly and spry drummer Sebastien Schultz and singer/guitarist Ben Davis, who acts as the more measured and reserved half of the band. The two are pathologically antsy — they return to pounding their feet on the…
Events: Dayton Celtic Festival
Forget Boston. This weekend, everything Celtic-related in the U.S. is happening in downtown Dayton. Beginning Friday, the eighth annual Dayton Celtic Festival brings you all things Celtic. There will be live bands, a 5K run/walk, a family fun zone and a historical re-enactment of Highland Scots arriving in the colonies, as well as Celtic workshops…
Engaged! (Review)
Critic's Pick Gilbert and Sullivan operettas are one of my guilty pleasures, and I loved the film Topsy-Turvy about the renowned lyricist and composer. But I never fully appreciated the cleverness of William S. Gilbert as a writer until watching Engaged!, his 1877 comedy that Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (CSC) is offering as a deliriously entertaining…
Oklahoma! (Review)
Successfully reviving a classic musical can be tough. Such shows can come with a ton of expectations. Oklahoma! faces the added challenge of music and a story that are broadly familiar — by modern standards, the 1943 show can feel corny and nostalgic. Jersey Productions’ 2009 summer season has kicked off with a production that…
The Dead Weather, Drive-By Truckers, David Thomas Owen IV and Robin Trower
On July 1, we reached the halfway point of the year and this week marked the halfway point of my daughter’s summer vacation. Just three weeks ago we experienced the longest day of the year, and now each day is getting progressively shorter, just in time for there to be less of 2009 to be…
Onstage: Godspell
The youthful exuberance necessary to bring Stephen Schwartz’s musical based on the Gospel according to St. Matthew should be in ample supply this weekend at the Covedale Center for the Performing Arts. That’s because this is the 28th annual production for Cincinnati Young People’s Theatre, an organization that has involved more than 2,000 young performers…
Comedy: Danny Bevins
Comedian Danny Bevins has a hard time following current events, at least on cable news. “When I get my news, I’ve got to read it,” he explains. “That’s the only way I can retain it. I can’t watch the news because there’s too much stuff going on. They’ve got the dude talking, and then the…
Art: Rendered Obsolete at Aisle Gallery
The current exhibition at Aisle Gallery, Rendered Obsolete: Printmaking by Rachel E. Heberling and Katherine Rogers, focuses on a centuries-old practice — printmaking. Of course, the practice has changed and expanded since its inception, but Heberling and Rogers seem to have found their niche in concentrating on straightforward lithography and etching, and the beauty that…
Music: Cass McCombs
Try picking a venue here that suits Cass McCombs and his Catacombs well. Would it be the Mad Hatter? (Maybe.) Madison Theater? Taft? If he is touring the new album, he needs a lot of space, some place where he could thrive — at least on the material from Catacombs, his fourth and latest offering.…
Music: The Builders and the Butchers
Most bands pour heart and soul into a debut album and then coast on that momentum through a sophomore effort. Or, as the old industry maxim goes, “You spend your whole life making your first album and nine months making your second album.” The Builders and the Butchers don’t follow conventional thinking in any form.…
Events: Native Plant Conference
Looking for a way to support your natural environment? Then you should attend the first Ohio Native Plant Conference, which runs Friday through Sunday at the Hope Hotel in Dayton. Guests will get the chance to learn more about the important role of our native plants and will have the opportunity to learn about subjects…
Music: Fuck Knights
If you’d like to have your face blown off, but don’t want the cost and mess of a shotgun to the mouth, head to The Comet in Northside Friday for a free show by volatile Minneapolis trio Fuck Knights. The explosive band — which features former Cincinnati musician GD Mills (that’s Sir Getsalottapuss to you,…
Onstage: Carmen
Bizet’s sultry Carmen ranks among the most popular, well-known operas for good reasons. Hummable, memorable melodies? Yes. Exotic historical setting? Check. Temperamental, brazen temptress? Indeed. Few operatic characters are as dangerously sensual as the brassy, sassy Spanish gypsy Carmen. But mastering the tempestuous role is anything but devil-may-care. Romanian mezzo-soprano Ruxandra Donose says playing Carmen…
Music: The Cab
They grow up so fast these days. It seems like it was just four years ago that vocalist Alex DeLeon and bassist Cash Colligan were Las Vegas high school students recording home demos, posting them on their MySpace page and assembling the first version of The Cab. And it seems like it was just two…
Ohio Arts Council Facing Huge Budget Cut
It was reported today that the Ohio Arts Council will be facing a budget reduction of 47 percent, one the largest percentage cuts in the new state budget. From the OAC web site: As the state’s budget heads to Governor Strickland’s desk for his signature, Ohio Arts Council staff is diligently working with final budget…
Putting Journalists in Danger, Enquirer Firings and the Death of Robert McNamara
In my University of Cincinnati ethics classes, I argue that the greater the risk to journalists the less necessary the story or image is to their readers, viewers and listeners. My conclusion arises from taking chances, sending colleagues into potential danger and knowing that others do the same, sometimes with fatal results. I was reminded…
The Cab with Rocket To The Moon
They grow up so fast these days. It seems like it was just four years ago that vocalist Alex DeLeon and bassist Cash Colligan were Las Vegas high school students recording home demos, posting them on their MySpace page and assembling the first version of The Cab. And it seems like it was just two…
Cass McCombs with The Walkmen and Pomegranates
Try picking a venue here that suits Cass McCombs and his Catacombs well. Would it be the Mad Hatter? (Maybe.) Madison Theater? Taft? If he's touring the new album, he needs a lot of space, some place where he could thrive — at least on the material from Catacombs, his fourth and latest offering. Take…
The Builders And The Butcher with Wonky Tonk
Most bands pour heart and soul into a debut album and then coast on that momentum through a sophomore effort. Or, as the old industry maxim goes, “You spend your whole life making your first album and nine months making your second album.” The Builders and the Butchers don’t follow conventional thinking in any form.…
My Time in NAMM
CityBeat Advertising Director Brian Kitzmiller and I went to Nashville for the weekend to cover this year’s Summer NAMM show. NAMM stands for the National Association of Music Merchants and they actually host two big conventions each year. Generally, the Winter NAMM fest is a bigger event held in California, but this year’s Summer NAMM…
Of Politicians, Panhandlers and Willie
Just two days after he proposed the idea, Cincinnati City Councilman Jeff Berding quietly dropped his proposal to tax panhandlers and require them to wear signs stating how much the city contributes to social service agencies on an annual basis. Despite the sudden flip-flop, Berding's idea has inspired a similar concept targeting City Hall.—- Jason…
A Pomegranate Goes It Alone
Joey Cook, lead singer for awesome Cincy Indie Pop band Pomegranates, has started what his PR folks are calling a "solo" project (though he teams with his pal Sophia Cunningham) under the name Firs. Cook has released a couple of EPs on his own as Firs and now the Poms' label, Lujo Records, is giving…
Musical of Musicals: Best Showboat Show Ever
I've been seeing theatrical productions aboard the Showboat Majestic for at least 25 years. Like the Ohio River adjacent to the "Boat" at the Public Landing, they're up and down, sometimes beautiful and sometimes a bit stinky. But I can offer you an unqualified recommendation for the current production, The Musical of Musicals: The Musical.…
CityBeat Podcast 17: Music by Brandon Dawson and friends
This episode presents a July 6 concert by local acts Brandon Dawson and Saw Fist Tree. Hen's Teeth Duo from Brooklyn also performs. The music was recorded live at 1801 Mills. If you like what you hear, please support our podcast by subscribing to our podcast in iTunes or via our RSS feed. Also, please…
Jumping the Gun?
A few Cincinnati City Council members snickered at a memorandum that Councilman Jeff Berding distributed to them this morning, while some others were irritated. A memo to the mayor and City Council, written on Berding’s official city letterhead, begins, “Mayor Mallory and Council Colleagues.” The document then asks council to hold public hearings on the…
‘Better Than the Van’ to the Rescue!
Touring the country in a van is not for softies. It's a daunting proposition for even the heartiest, scrappiest bands (see Henry Rollins' melodramatic yet entertaining Get in the Van for proof). But for anyone with a rusty Econoline and a rag-tag group of fellow-minded musical miscreants, it's a sort of birthright that's there for the taking. It's also…
Fashion Inspiration: The Brush Factory
For all of you well-groomed and fashion-friendly folk out there, hone in on your sewing and/or fashion design skills with a fine-toothed comb at The Brush Factory. Located in historic Brighton at 2019 Central Ave., The Brush Factory used to be a, you guessed it, Cincinnati brush manufacturing company for over 100 years. —- Cincinnatian…
Forgive the Inconsistencies in Latest Potter Film
When the quietly haunting notes of Nicholas Hooper’s score begin to play a little past midnight on July 15, cueing the opening scene of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, my heart feels like a hot cauldron bubbling with a jumble of emotions: excitement, anxiety, and even a slight trace of fear, in case things…
WOXY Says Goodbye to Cincinnati
After an over-quarter-century history as a musical institution in the Cincinnati region, widely acclaimed Alt/Indie radio outlet WOXY (once 97X, now woxy.com) is relocating to Austin, Tex. —- As of Sept. 8, woxy.com will be broadcast from the Austin Theater. Besides location, not much else will change with the station, except on the "plus side."…
It’s (Almost) Time to Praise the Lord Again
Duke Energy Center isn’t the first place that comes to mind when the words “sacred space” are uttered, but evidently God don’t give a damn (sorry — dang) about the venue, just so long as you’re singin’, praisin’ and believin’. The big building formerly known as the Convention Center is the site of the 42nd…
Taking a Stand Against Discrimination
If someone is refused an apartment, a job or credit because he or she is gay, you might think that Cincinnati’s Human Rights Ordinance offers some legal recourse. Not really, says local attorney Scott Knox. Although the ordinance bans numerous types of discrimination including sexual orientation and race, local people who believe they have experienced…
July 8-14: Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY JULY 8You know the economy is in bad shape when rich people start tightening up the purse strings (though we don’t really feel it ourselves until the money stops trickling down to us). The Enquirer reported today that the Village of Indian Hill, known for its lavish estates and for never having interstates constructed…
Wine Is Not Better in the Skies
On a recent family trip to England I tasted a number of wines that warrant some discussion. On the Delta flight over (which was an absolute clusterfuck that arrived more than six hours late and included an unscheduled maintenance stop in Atlanta), they offered a choice of two red wines, each of which was virtually…
Greater Cincinnati’s Vent Haven is the World’s Only Public Ventriloquism Museum
For a world-class museum, Greater Cincinnati’s Vent Haven Museum attracts precious few visitors — about 900 to 1,200 a year. How to increase attendance is problematic since it raises the issue of what kind of place Vent Haven is meant to be. It's the only major public museum devoted to ventriloquism (the art of throwing…
Cities of the Underworld: Season Two
Just when you thought there couldn’t be any more really interesting buried places, Don Wildman is back sinking to new depths. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist). The 11 episodes of season two find Wildman returning to Germany, this time to explore Berlin’s hundreds of World War II bunkers. In New York, it’s secret societies, not unlike…
Art Institute of Chicago’s Modern Wing: Beautiful and Challenging
Over the July 4 weekend, I visited the Midwest’s hottest visual-arts destination this summer — the Art Institute of Chicago’s new Renzo Piano-designed Modern Wing, which opened in May. In Chicago, a town that takes architecture very seriously, the building is being hailed as a masterpiece. Although it’s three stories high, it feels light, intimate…
Zabriskie Point
Just before making Zabriskie Point, Michelangelo Antonioni — one of cinema’s great existential modernists — had paired his view that the world makes little sense but has great beauty with the swinging London of the 1960s, resulting in the enduring masterpiece Blowup. So the next logical step was to put the Italian filmmaker’s vision up…
Harry Potter: The Half-Blood Prince (Review)
Right out of the gate in the sixth episode of the long-running Harry Potter saga, sex casts quite a spell. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) have grown into young adults at an alarming rate. It’s actually quite humorous to see Ron fretting over his performance in the upcoming round of…
Comical Courting
If the name William S. Gilbert doesn’t ring a bell, perhaps you know him as half of Gilbert & Sullivan, the witty team whose operettas were hits in the late 19th century. But Gilbert didn’t just put together witty lyrics for Sir Arthur Sullivan’s tunes. Before they joined forces to create popular musical works like…
Vent Haven: The Sights and Sounds
The nation's largest ventriloquism museum is located in Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky just south of Cincinnati.
Fighting the Good Fight with The Read
It seems to be on everyone’s tongue around here lately, our city’s most recent news item of national note: Through a mysteriously tabulated statistical aggregation provided by an online service called neighborhoodscout.com, a small sliver of Over-the-Rhine has been “officially” named the Worst Neighborhood in the United States. When I ask the members of The…
Bam Powell (Profile)
Q: What did the drummer say just before he was fired? A: Let’s try one of my songs. Clearly that old joke has never applied to Rick Powell — Bam to his friends, and that’s just about everybody — one of the busiest and most musical drummers in the Cincinnati scene. The Lebanon High School…
Copeland with Barcelona
Love it or hate it, “You Are My Sunshine” is an immortal Pop standard, one re-imagined by B.B. King, Arethra Franklin, Johnny Cash, Bing Crosby and many other notable artists. Copeland joined that long list when it released The Grey Man EP in February, and its version of the classic finds Aaron Marsh flirting with…
I Love a Piano (Review)
Opening on the Northern Kentucky University campus a few days after America’s 233rd birthday, I Love a Piano is a reminder of things good, right and foursquare. Irving Berlin wrote tuneful, good-hearted and, well, all-American music. Some 65 of his tunes are in this revue at least in part. Despite his ethnic roots, this is…
Remembering Teri
I’ve lived in Westwood for more than a year now but still have a box or two I haven’t yet unpacked. When I decided to unload one a few days ago, I came across an old memory. As I looked at the Xerox image of her hand, I smiled and remembered what prompted it. More…
Tinsley Ellis Rocks the Blues
Nobody understands life’s cyclical, circular nature any better than Tinsley Ellis. After learning guitar at an early age and then joining The Alleycats in the late ’70s and in 1982 forming The Heartfixers, his Atlanta-based Blues/Rock outfit, Ellis eventually felt the pull of a solo career when he realized he wanted to be a Blues…
Colin Hay with Peter Mulvey
When the world at large was first introduced to Colin Hay in the early ’80s, the chameleon-eyed vocalist was extolling the virtues of Vegemite and mugging shamelessly in charmingly entertaining videos with his band, Men at Work. America loved the band — the group’s U.S. debut, Business as Usual, sold 5 million copies, broke The…
tour de force (Review)
Gnarled tree limbs arc above each entrance of downtown’s Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Art Gallery. Lashed together with twine, the limbs create a web-like mass that spreads throughout the Weston’s lobby, soaring above in great domes, coiling around pillars, growing up and out of the stairwell. An earthy, wooden smell permeates the glass,…
Chi-nnati’s Pizza (Review)
I’ve whined in the past about Cincinnati’s mediocre pizza offerings. Sure, there are some exceptions — Dewey’s springs to mind — but for the most part, nothing here wows me. Uno’s pizza was something I used to look forward to when I visited my Chicago siblings, back before I discovered that there were other Chicagoonly…
Une Femme Mariee
The career of French auteur Jean-Luc Godard can be viewed in stages: a celebrated debut with the Nouvelle Vague; a controversial, confrontational, Maoist phase; and an uncompromising, artistically vibrant period that runs into the present and finds the onetime enfant terrible of the press working far from the spotlight. Une Femme Mariee (A Married Woman)…
Enquirer Layoffs Hurt Us All
If you think CityBeat staffers are rejoicing over last week’s abrupt demise of CiN Weekly, think again. Produced by The Cincinnati Enquirer, CiN Weekly was CityBeat’s primary competitor. Although our newspaper had philosophical differences with CiN about what a free weekly should be, it’s never a good thing when a newspaper ceases publication or people…
Lonely & Employed and Concerned in Camp Washington
Dear Maija,I am a 30-year-old man with a decent job (almost six figures) and I’m interested in a woman at work. She’s about my age (maybe just a bit younger!) and we have a great work relationship. The thing is, this other dude just got run right out of the company for slapping a different…
Bloggers, Local Motorist, Maisonette and Rape Crisis
[WINNER] BLOGGERS: The Illinois-based Save-A-Life Foundation voluntarily dropped its lawsuit this month against local blogger Jason Haap, a.k.a. “The Dean of Cincinnati.” Haap wrote a well-sourced online article alleging the group taught a discredited technique to help drowning victims and misled donors about its finances. Save- A-Life’s baseless suit was an attempt to intimidate critics,…
stellastar* with Wild Light
Considering that stellastarr* began as three young artists studying at the prestigious Pratt Institute in New York, it’s no surprise that the quartet’s nearly four-year hiatus found the members occupied by largely non-musical pursuits: Frontman Shawn Christensen painted and wrote screenplays, bassist Amanda Tannen did graphic design work for fashion magazines and drummer Arthur Kremer…
Kanye’s Gap, Get The Digits and Halle-POO-jah
[HOT] Kanye Falls Into The Gap Kanye West is a weird (if incredibly talented) fella. Not Michael-Jackson-weird, but strange nonetheless. So it wasn’t a monumental shock to read that the rapper has picked up a little side gig — at chintzy clothing company The Gap. West apparently isn’t folding khakis and asking customers if they…
King Makes a Comeback
We here in the CityBeat music universe just got word that thanks to a vote last month by City Council, $950,000 of a capital improvement program allocation earmarked for Evanston will go toward rebuilding King Records Studio a few blocks up from its original location at 1540 Brewster Ave. While the recently placarded historical site…
You Disgust Me
I spent the last week in Mexico and I realized two things: A) I have a freakish inability to tan. I mean, seriously, if it’s possible, I left Mexico whiter than when I arrived. And Two) somebody needs to regulate the sale of skimpy bathing suits. —- Skimpy swimwear, like Speedos™ and bikinis, are like…
Oxford Film Festival Moves to Cincinnati
The third annual Oxford International Film Festival (OIFF) is moving south. Previously held on Miami University’s Oxford campus and initially set to move to the Savannah Center in West Chester for this year, festival organizers announced this week that the majority of the screenings will now take place at the Esquire Theatre (320 Ludlow Ave.,…
Recycled Jewelry: Hot or Not?
Last spring when I was in school full time, working two jobs, I envisioned a craftalicious summer ahead of me. Well, school’s been out for a month, one of my jobs went out of business and I still do not have anything handmade to show for myself. Major fail. So this week I’ve punctuated my job searching…
