Jul 19-26, 2017
Eerie Tourism: A creepy field trip through Greater Cincinnati’s deserted history
AYE Fest showcases eclecticism of local music
The best multi-act/multi-venue/multi-genre festival for original Greater Cincinnati musical acts returns this weekend for three days’ worth of sights and sounds (primarily) in the Northside neighborhood. Launched in 2006, the community-oriented AYE Music & Art Festival has not only showcased local aural and visual artists, but also raised thousands of dollars for various local charities. This year’s…
Urbana Café debuts iced cortado
In light of the daunting summer heat, Pendleton’s Urbana Café is preparing to keep locals cool with a new, refreshing take on a year-round favorite. Urbana Café owner Daniel Noguera has taken the traditional cortado — a 50/50 split of espresso and whole milk served hot — and added ice to create his iced cortado.…
Minimum Gauge: Ironies clash in Arcade Fire’s promo schtick
HOT: Dress Code Wars? Arcade Fire’s layered meta/irony promo thing leading up to Friday’s release of its Everything Now album — an introvert version of U2’s overblown Zooropa “social commentary” — makes it’s hard to tell if any “news” about the band is real or part of the schtick. Case in point: When an unpopular…
Morning News: Urban Artifact launching local music radio station; black police leader slams FOP vote; Trump announces transgender individuals to be banned from military service
Hello all. There’s a lot of news happening right now. Let’s jump in. The sale of local radio station WNKU left a void for many music fans. But every time a door closes, a window opens and some rad jams pour out (or something. I dunno it’s really early in the morning.) Anyway, all that…
Morning News: FOP passes no confidence vote in Deters, won’t participate in Collaborative refresh; Dennison demolition paused; Trump in Youngstown as Senate mulls ACA repeal
Hello Cincy. Let’s do a brief news rundown, shall we? The Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police last night voted that it would not participate in a “refresh” of the 2003 Collaborative Agreement announced in June and also passed a vote of no confidence in Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters. FOP President Dan Hils says the…
The next evolution in the Cooking with Caitlin brand is a welcome addition to the suburbs
To borrow from the tagline for the original Disneyland in California, CWC the Restaurant might just be the friendliest place on Earth — or at least in Cincinnati. Whatever else you experience at this new eatery in Wyoming, I can pretty much guarantee that you’ll be welcomed effusively by chef Caitlin Steininger and the rest…
Morning News: Charges dropped against Tensing; mountain bikers damage Mariemont burial sites; Mandel throws support to Pizzagate conspiracy theorist
Good morning all. Let’s talk news. Hamilton County Judge Leslie Ghiz dismissed charges against former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing this morning, meaning he cannot be tried again at the state level. Two juries could not reach an agreement on murder and manslaughter charges in connection with Tensing’s shooting of unarmed motorist Sam…
Architects construct new lines of thought
Step onto a 28-foot-high scaffold. Walk beneath a 360-degree projection of home movies and Cincinnati sights and sounds. Contemplate groundbreaking artists and blank canvases inside a makeshift gallery. Wind through a “graveyard” of monuments to wood, steel, plaster and bricks, plus childhood toys and color slides. Finally, peer into a peephole to try to glimpse…
Free Summer Shakespeare
Spreading the gospel of the Bard of Avon is what Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is all about, and in July and August they make more than 30 performance stops across the Tristate to do just that. Six freshly minted professional actors, several of whom have local roots and recently joined the theater’s resident ensemble, are presenting…
Your Weekend To Do List (July 21-23)
FRIDAY 21 EVENT: PORKOPOLIS PIG & WHISKEY FESTIVAL With a nickname like “Porkopolis,” it’s no stretch to say that Cincinnati knows a thing or two about pork, and we’re celebrating the whole hog with two days of swine-centric eats, happily topped off by whiskey and music. CityBeat’s third-annual all-ages Pig & Whiskey Festival, presented by Jack…
Stage Door: The kids of CAST are alright — and so is Mozart
For six consecutive years, the Commonwealth Artists Summer Theatre (which they shorthand as “CAST”) has staged ambitious musical theater productions using high school students as cast and crew for their shows — Parade, Ragtime, The Producers, Spamalot and The Addams Family. For its sixth summer, CAST is undertaking Les Misérables School Edition with kids from…
Amid GOP failure to replace Obamacare, it’s time for single-payer health care
The latest tax cut for the ultra-rich has failed. It failed because it was masquerading as a health care bill. You know the one — repeal and replace Obamacare. It died after four Republican senators said they would not support it, two — including Kentucky’s Rand Paul — because it was too generous to poor…
A never-ending feud over building code compliance lands a Sedamsville landlord in court
A Sedamsville landlord accused by the city of Cincinnati of exposing tenants to “unsafe and unsanitary living conditions that do not meet the minimum standard of habitability” will now have to defend himself in a court of law. On Wednesday, the city filed a 51-page lawsuit against John Klosterman, his wife Susan Klosterman, five other…
Interns at Lunch: Burger Week!
CityBeat’s Burger Week is back with seven whole days dedicated to America’s favorite sandwich. Over 50 restaurants throughout the Tristate are serving up both classic and gourmet creations for only $5, with no shortage of culinary concoctions to fulfill every meaty — or vegetarian — craving. Participants can hop from joint to joint with an official…
FCC’s plans hurt news diversity and competition on local television and online services
If you’re not following what’s going on with the FCC you might be missing out on a lot more than what you realize. I’m talking about the Federal Communications Commission, not FC Cincinnati (but more on them later). The former FCC is planning to change two sets of rules that may significantly impact how you…
Morning News: Hamilton County coroner hands off rape kit testing to state crime lab; will Port Authority get involved in FC stadium?
Hello all. I hope you’re having a grand morning and that you’ve been celebrating Burger Week. Where’s your favorite burger place? Mine is Quatman’s — the no-frills family cookout-style burger and fries place in Norwood — though Brew House is right around the corner from where I live and their veggie and salmon burgers are…
MetroMoves 2.0? Todd Portune wants to unite eight counties around Greater Cincinnati with a regional transit system
Fifteen years after Hamilton County voters rejected the ambitious MetroMoves transit plan by a 2-to-1 count, another regional plan is brewing. Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune wants one transit authority to rule them all — a system that spans three states, eight counties and more than 200 local governments. But big roadblocks stand in the…
ComedySportz is the latest of the city’s growing, improving collection of improv troupes
As I watch a grown man bake an imaginary cake in slow motion, I cannot help but think, without irony or sarcasm, “Well done, Cincinnati.” I’m taking in a ComedySportz match — a type of friendly scrimmage for improvised comedy. ComedySportz Cincinnati is a 6-month-old institution that, to me, acts as a symbol of a…
Dynamic composer/saxophonist Colin Stetson’s latest album showcases different horns and a rhythmic focus
If you happen to be on a plane and a nearby seat is occupied by a covered, seat-belted object that looks large enough to be a giant table lamp or even a full-bodied cadaver, there’s a good chance that it is a bass saxophone and Colin Stetson is probably on your flight. One of the…
Building on History at Herzog Music
A new endeavor initiated by a collective of dedicated Greater Cincinnati music boosters comes alive this weekend, as Herzog Music opens its doors and hosts a grand opening celebration. For the past seven years, the Cincinnati USA Music Heritage Foundation has been headquartered downtown on the second floor of the building at 811 Race St. (also home…
What a Week! July 12-18
WEDNESDAY, JULY 12 The American Dream has been crushed by fancy restaurants. Folks without a college education who don’t know their Italian meats have been shunned by society. In a New York Times editorial dramatically titled “How We Are Ruining America,” columnist David Brooks points out the societal divides between the college-educated upper middle class and the…
‘Dunkirk’ finds the nobility of retreat
When Winston Churchill addressed the government and, by extension, the citizens of England after the evacuation of Dunkirk, France in the early days of World War II, he spoke of how this mounting war provided unheralded opportunities for youth. British and allied forces had to hurriedly retreat across the English Channel in the face of…
Emmy Talk: Surprises, Snubs and ‘SNL’
The 69th Primetime Emmy Award nominations were announced last week, signaling the who’s who of the television world. Leading the pack are Saturday Night Live and Westworld (22 nominations each); Feud: Bette and Joan and Stranger Things (18 each); Veep (17); and Big Little Lies and Fargo (16 each). It’s the most diverse collection of Emmy honorees ever (a trend for the show three years running) with 25…
Look Who’s Eating: Tamara Harkavy
Tamara Harkavy is the founding CEO and artistic director of ArtWorks, the nonprofit youth-employment organization responsible for covering our region with glorious works of art, mostly in the form of murals. Now in its 21st year, there are 130 youths working on 18 projects, 11 of which are murals, mostly in the downtown and Over-the-Rhine…
Sound Advice: Blackfoot Gypsies with Wild Adriatic (July 20)
Blackfoot Gypsies’ influences are woven into the Nashville quartet’s Harley-denim-and-paisley-hippie glamware — everything from The Rolling Stones’ Garage Blues roots to the Faces’ ale-soaked bluster to The Black Crowes’ Southern-fried revivalism. But the band’s guitar/drums origin also exhibits hints of the Black Keys/White Stripes brand of spartan translations of the same general form. The recent…
Morning News: No retrial for Tensing; Metro cutting bus routes; Portman a no on ACA repeal without replacement
Good morning Cincy. Here’s the news today. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters yesterday announced he would not seek a third trial for former University of Cincinnati Police officer Ray Tensing in the shooting death of unarmed black motorist Samuel DuBose in July 2015. Deters told reporters at a news conference that while his feelings about…
Sound Advice: Steve Earle & The Dukes with The Mastersons (July 20)
Waylon Jennings’ Honky Tonk Heroes is one of Steve Earle’s all-time favorite records. What better inspiration then for the singer/songwriter and his crack band, The Dukes, to reference on Earle’s latest album, So You Wannabe an Outlaw? “What made Waylon different than just about anyone else of that era was that it was kind of the…
Sound Advice: Priests with Swim Team and Blakkr (July 19)
I suppose it should come as no surprise that Priests’ music mixes noisy Surf-inspired Punk Rock with pointed political and cultural critiques — the quartet hails from Washington, D.C., the epicenter of our disconcerting moment in time. The band’s full-length debut, Nothing Feels Natural — released in February, but brewing for years now — feels prophetic in…
No Third Trial for Tensing
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters announced July 18 that his office would not seek a third retrial for white University of Cincinnati Police officer Ray Tensing in the shooting death of black unarmed motorist Sam DuBose. The announcement came during continued scrutiny around racially charged police involved shootings across the country, and just a day…
