Event: Wurst Date Night Ever
Bring your beau to the Cincinnati Observatory for an evening of food, drink and stargazing. Kick things off at Mount Lookout’s Wurst Bar in the Square for dinner and drinks, then hop on a complimentary shuttle at 8:30 p.m. to the observatory to view Saturn (weather permitting) and take a tour of the historic building…
Event: Macy’s Kids, Cultures, Critters and Crafts Festival
Head to the Cincinnati Zoo for Learning Through Art’s 10th-annual Kids, Cultures, Critters and Crafts Festival, featuring a mosaic of arts and culture performances by Chinese dance troupes, the Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati and more, plus bird shows, animal encounters, face painting and wandering circus performers and belly dancers. It’s a day of education and…
Eats: Cincinnati Burger Week
It’s a rare opportunity — or should we say medium rare — that carnivores can delight in $5 gourmet and off-menu burgers throughout their city. Through Sunday, Cincinnati Burger Week pays homage to the American-cuisine staple by having chefs prepare burgers with their unique spin. Local restaurants from Anderson to Covington will participate in the…
Leftovers: What We Ate This Weekend
Each week CityBeat staffers, dining writers and the occasional intern tell you what they ate this weekend. We're not always proud — or trendy — but we definitely spend at least some money on food. Ilene Ross: Friday was the BF’s birthday and since he’s always wanting to go on a picnic, I thought I’d…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning all. Here’s the news today. An unidentified University of Cincinnati police officer shot and killed 43-year-old Sam Dubose during a traffic stop at the corner of Rice and Valencia streets in Mount Auburn around 6:30 p.m. yesterday. Dubose, who has been identified by his family but not yet by law enforcement officials, died…
DEVO’s Mark Mothersbaugh to Perform at Cincinnati Concert (Update)
Roughly one month in advance of the Contemporary Arts Center opening Myopia, its highly anticipated retrospective of Mark Mothersbaugh’s artwork, he will come to Woodward Theater for a special concert. The Aug. 28 performance will be what the CAC is calling a “three-headed evening.” It will start with a small orchestral group playing DEVO covers…
‘American Originals’ Pops Concert Recording Due in September
Back in January at Music Hall, the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, under the direction of conductor John Morris Russell, presented its unique “American Originals” concerts. During the performances, the orchestra collaborated with several local and national Folk/Americana artists to perform and celebrate the music of Stephen Foster and other early songs that are the foundation of…
Your Weekend To Do List (7/17-7/19)
FRIDAY EVENT/ARTS/CATS!: LIL' BUB'S BIG ART SHOW “Perma-kitten” Lil Bub — the Internet, TV, movie and book sensation — uses her looks to help others. The Bloomington, Ind., feline with the perpetually visible tongue and bulging eyes has raised more than $300,000 for animals in need. Now she’s headed to Leapin’ Lizard Gallery in Covington…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning all. Here’s your news today. Well, Toby Keith says his favorite bar has winners and losers, but it seems like Mr. Keith himself is on the losing end lately. The country star’s Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill location at The Banks was shuttered suddenly yesterday, reportedly due to being a…
Stage Door
Every year, Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati brings together a group of young professionals who spend a season at the Over-the-Rhine theater understudying roles, working backstage, helping build sets and run lights and sound — learning the ins and outs of professional theater. Many of them stick around town continuing their lives in the theater. Several of…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning Cincy. Here’s what’s up in the news today. The city of Cincinnati is instituting new measures to vet minority-owned businesses in the wake of a federal investigation of Evans Landscaping, which is suspected of minority hiring fraud. Evans subcontracted to minority-owned Ergon Site Construction LLC for $1.9 million in demolition contracts with the…
I Just Can’t Get Enough
The All-Star Game brought thousands of people to Cincinnati this past week — most importantly, celebz! Snoop Dogg, Josh Hutcherson, Ciara and tons more famous types stopped by the city, so it only made sense that hometown Indie Pop crew Walk the Moon joined in on the fun. Watch them love on Cincy: Your browser…
Calle Cantina Now Open in Mount Adams
Mount Adams welcomed another new eatery last week with the opening of Calle (kai-yay), a Mexican street-food cantina in the Pavilion Street spot that formerly housed Tap and Go. Whit Hesser of Sprout and Mazunte owner Joe Wamsley teamed up to inject some culinary diversity into the top of the hill, focusing their concise menu…
Music: Quiet Life
With the Independence Day dustup on Fountain Square a couple of weeks ago and the madness of the recent All-Star Game festivities, worldwide media influx and fancy bunting in the rear-view mirror, it’s time for Cincy to get back into its regular groove. This Tuesday, the Portland, Ore., trio Quiet Life will be making an…
Music: Sage Francis
There’s a thin line between self-absorption and self-awareness. Eminem is self-absorbed. Sage Francis is self-aware. He’s also literate, erudite, contemplative and brutally honest, so at least that’s one thing he shares with Eminem. Although his appearance might be better suited for a Metal guitarist or a band of Southern Rock crazies, Sage Francis is a…
Music: Warped Tour
Th is year’s Vans Warped Tour lineup is decidedly Rock-centric, with a lean toward Metalcore, Hardcore and edgy Indie Rock. For a festival tour that started out in the mid-1990s being focused on Punk and Ska — music that had a strong underground following at the time — it’s quite a shift. But Warped founder…
Onstage: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Back in February 2005 I was in New York City to see some shows, and at the last moment (on a Saturday afternoon) I was offered the chance to see a new off-Broadway show I hadn’t heard of, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. I was totally charmed by the tale of adolescents (played…
Event: Double Talk
Little-known fact: Northern Kentucky is home to the Vent Haven Museum, the world’s only museum dedicated to the art of ventriloquism. And Sunday marks their annual fundraiser show, Double Talk, a fun and raucous afternoon of comedy, audience participation and ventriloquist dolls (don’t call them puppets). Featuring performances from around the country, including the No.…
Art: Enduring Sprit: Edward Curtis & The North American Indians
Edward Curtis was an early 20th-century American ethnologist and photographer who captured the disappearing world of the American Indian. In the Taft Museum’s Enduring Spirit exhibit, Curtis chronicles the living culture of Native Americans from 1900-1930 through gelatin silver photographs, cyanotypes and platinum prints, among others. Profoundly moving, the images depict everything from powerful portraits…
Music: The English Beat
In junior high school, The English Beat was my favorite band, causing me to wear out my cassette copy of the group’s 1980 debut, I Just Can’t Stop It. Emerging from the British 2 Tone Ska scene of the late ’70s/early ’80s, the original band (which lasted just five years) transcended the genre thanks to…
Event: Cincy Summer Streets
Cincy Summer Streets — a program that converts streets from dangerously busy thoroughfares for motorized traffic to idyllic urban playgrounds for pedestrians and cyclists, at least for a few hours — kicks off its 2015 season on Saturday in Walnut Hills. East McMillan Street will be reserved for such activities as cycling (rental bikes are…
Comedy: The Wonderful World of Boning
“It’s just taking a loving and humorous look at how terribly we tackle such an important topic,” says sex educator and comedian Lux Alptraum of her show The Wonderful World of Boning: Sex Ed with a Sense of Humor, a new outcropping of the popular Found Footage Festival series. “I had these movies in my…
Event: Bastille Day Celebration
Bastille Day is fun because it’s a holiday based entirely on the fact that a bunch of French peasants went and guillotined a bunch of French aristocrats — a bit like our Fourth of July Independence Day celebration, but bloodier. To fête the beginning of the French Revolution, the city of Montgomery will be holding…
Film: Star Trek Live in Concert
Live long and prosper with an in-sync live performance of the score to the 2009 blockbuster Star Trek (PG-13). Held at the Taft Theatre, the Hollywood extravaganza will be thrillingly soundtracked by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra with Constantine Kitsopoulos as conductor. Watch the film, the first in the latest Star Trek franchise reboot, and listen…
Event: Imperial Theatre Mohawk Community Cleanup
The historic Imperial Theatre, located in the recently declared Mohawk Place Historic District of McMicken Avenue, was built in 1913 as a community theater. During the 1960s, it transformed into a sort of porn house that screened adult movies and eventually staged live burlesque shows. The theater has recently been purchased and is in the…
Event: Danger Wheel
Pendleton transforms into a sort of Fast & Furious franchise with the inaugural Danger Wheel, a downhill big-wheel race fundraiser where adults get to climb onto over-sized big-wheels and race down 12th Street to win the title of Danger Champion. This outdoor event features not only an epic crash-course, but also booths by local breweries…
Comedy: Jen Kirkman
Comedian, best-selling author, screenwriter and actress Jen Kirkman is the voice for what the world is actually thinking, and her stand-up act is an honest and humorous way of saying exactly what’s on her own mind. Not only is Kirkman well-known for her frequent appearances on Comedy Central’s Drunk History and @midnight, her Netflix Original…
Onstage: Clybourne Park
Community theaters often produce tried-and-true shows that keep people laughing and happy. But Sunset Players isn’t afraid to make its audiences think, and that’s what will be happening over the next two weeks with a production of Bruce Norris’ Pulitzer Prize-winning script, set in a Chicago neighborhood in 1959 and 2009. In the first act,…
Event: Lil Bub’s Big Art Show
“Perma-kitten” Lil Bub — the Internet, TV, movie and book sensation — uses her looks to help others. The Bloomington, Ind., feline with the perpetually visible tongue and bulging eyes has raised more than $300,000 for animals in need. Now she’s headed to Leapin’ Lizard Gallery in Covington for an art show to benefit Ohio…
Morning News and Stuff
Hey hey all. Our big, extended weekend basking in the MLB All-Star Game spotlight is over, and it seems like the city represented well. Our guy won the home run derby, we’ve got columnists expounding on the virtues of Cincinnati chili (and giving shoutouts to CityBeat) and even though the American League won the game,…
Eats: Roadkill Café
Now you can partake in a special kind of edible delicacy, straight from the street to the stove to your stomach. Washington Platform is hosting its ever-popular Roadkill Café, which offers the perfect opportunity to try new things. But we’re not talking about water chestnuts here — at the Roadkill Café, you can have forkfuls…
Elevating Cold Coffee
R emember last summer when everybody was drinking cold-brew coffee (including us)? Well, cold brew is now considered somewhat passé. Starbucks has since jumped on the bandwagon, and, honestly, there are better-tasting coffees out there. Joe Humpert, barista extraordinaire at Trailhead Coffee inside Reser Bicycle in Newport, doesn’t even sell cold brew; the demand for…
It’s Back to Camp for ‘Wet Hot’ Stars
Fourteen years ago, a massive cast of comedians embarked on their last day of camp in David Wain’s Wet Hot American Summer. The raunchily titled comedy spoofed the hypersexual teen movies of the ’80s.’ Wet Hot was a sleeper hit that gained a cult following after its initial release (the DVD’s “alternate track with extra…
Marvel’s Ant Caper Is Fast and Fun
Sometimes it pays off big to make a few small, albeit risky departures from convention. Take the case of Marvel Comics and Disney’s joint leap of faith with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this sprawling collection of stories and characters dependent upon the idea of a shared world in which heroes of all types — chemically…
Celebrating Portsmouth Sinfonia and Other Fluxus-Inspired Acts
Two veterans of Cincinnati’s co-op gallery scene, now students at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will present their strange and fascinating new project, Thing-stead artist-books, Saturday night at Camp Washington’s Wave Pool gallery. And given that Chris Reeves’ and Aaron Walker’s work is deeply inspired by Fluxus, the mixed-media (or “intermedia”) movement of the…
Branderyhaus Is for Entrepreneurs
In a move further distinguishing itself from other startup accelerators in North America, The Brandery is now offering slightly subsidized housing to its enrollees. Located on the 1100 block of Walnut Street, the building known as Branderyhaus — owned by Urban Sites — is a simple solution to a problem faced by many entrepreneurs entering…
City Desk July 15-21
City Releases Police Chief Blackwell’s Proposed Severance Agreement The city of Cincinnati on July 10 released documents showing what it would have offered Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell had he left the department last May after discussions with City Manager Harry Black. The departure contract included a year of Blackwell’s $136,000 salary plus a $5,000 lump…
Stealing Time
J uan Alvarez was one of 10 undocumented workers from Guatemala recruited by Jorge Padrilla, an undocumented Mexican, to do the framing and drywall work for an addition at the Ohio Theta House fraternity on Joselin Street in Clifton Heights last July. Although the men were working 12-hour days and on weekends to get the…
Media Musings From Cincinnati and Beyond
Obviously, the editor who wrote the headline on Wednesday’s Food cover page for the Enquirer didn’t read Polly Campbell’s story about the Woman’s City Club. Campbell got it right: Woman’s. Headline on the cover page about the club’s cookbook said Women’s. Yes, Women’s. Maybe the editor thought it was the A&E section. So much for…
Lucy, Chad, Nicole and the Quest for Medicine
Lucy Scholten is a beautiful girl: long, thick, dark eyelashes; a big, round face; long limbs. She has grown considerably in the few years I have known her folks. She is becoming a young lady. Describing Lucy Scholten is a delicate task. She is, after all, someone’s daughter and as precious as any daughter comes…
Better Together?
J ust two blocks from the bustling strip of Hamilton Avenue that runs through Northside’s business district, an empty white building, once a Save-A-Lot discount market, stands boarded up and dark. Until it closed in 2013, Northside resident DeBorah Reed frequented that store at 4145 Apple St. She says she depended on it for her…
Sound Advice: Quiet Life with Crow Moses
With the Independence Day dustup on Fountain Square a couple of weeks ago and the madness of the recent All-Star Game festivities, worldwide media influx and fancy bunting in the rear-view mirror, it’s time for Cincy to get back into its regular groove. This Tuesday, the Portland, Ore., trio Quiet Life will be making an…
Sound Advice: Metz with Crosss and Viet Cong
Metz’s latest album, its second full-length simply titled II, charges out the gates with “Acetate,” another raging blast of Hardcore from a band that shows no signs of turning down the volume or intensity anytime soon. The Toronto trio hasn’t altered its fierce approach much since its 2012 self-titled debut. Kicking off II, frontman Alex…
Sound Advice: Sage Francis with Trademark Aaron and B-Shields
There’s a thin line between self-absorption and self-awareness. Eminem is self-absorbed. Sage Francis is self-aware. He’s also literate, erudite, contemplative and brutally honest, so at least that’s one thing he shares with Eminem. Although his appearance might be better suited for a Metal guitarist or a band of Southern Rock crazies, Sage Francis is a…
Local Acts Announced for MidPoint Music Festival
A third batch of artists slated to appear at September’s MidPoint Music Festival (which is owned and operated by CityBeat and returns to various venues in Over-the-Rhine and Downtown Sept. 25-27) was recently unveiled, revealing several of the Cincinnati-area acts performing at this year’s event, as well as more touring artists booked for the fest.…
‘Misfit Summer Camp’ Rolls On
Th is year’s Vans Warped Tour lineup is decidedly Rock-centric, with a lean toward Metalcore, Hardcore and edgy Indie Rock. For a festival tour that started out in the mid-1990s being focused on Punk and Ska — music that had a strong underground following at the time — it’s quite a shift. But Warped founder…
Music: Metz
Metz’s latest album, its second full-length simply titled II, charges out the gates with “Acetate,” another raging blast of Hardcore from a band that shows no signs of turning down the volume or intensity anytime soon. The Toronto trio hasn’t altered its fierce approach much since its 2012 self-titled debut. Kicking off II, frontman Alex…
Art: Thing-Stead Artist-Books
Two veterans of Cincinnati’s co-op gallery scene, now students at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will present their strange and fascinating new project, Thing-stead artist-books, Saturday night at Camp Washington’s Wave Pool gallery. And given that Chris Reeves’ and Aaron Walker’s work is deeply inspired by Fluxus, the mixed-media (or “intermedia”) movement of the…
Onstage: 1776
We all know the basics of how the Declaration of Independence turned out, especially this time of year when we celebrate that historic document on the Fourth of July. But do we really know much about the men who fussed and debated in Philadelphia in 1776 to craft the words that set in motion the…
