I Just Can’t Get Enough
Move over, Vincent Chase! DC Comics’ Aquaman will come to life on the big screen in the form of Jason Momoa, aka Game of Thrones’ Khal Drogo, aka My Sun and Stars. Aquaman/Momoa was recently added to the cast of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, joining Amy Adams (Lois Lane), Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman),…
Cincinnati vs. the World 07.09.2014
Google began banning porn ads from its search engine July 7, adding to the site’s previous ban of underage, non-consensual sexual content and prostitution services. WORLD +1 Don Cheadle’s film about jazz icon Miles Davis started filming in the Queen City; Cheadle was spotted around the corner from CityBeat’s office. The movie, Miles Ahead, was…
My Brother’s Sleeping
I have long held that black women in America are under attack. We get harsher criminal prosecution than our white counterparts; we are murdered by intimate partners at higher rates than any other groups. And now President Obama is helping prove me right. In late April with “My Brother’s Keeper,” the president announced a $200…
Who Guards the Guardians?
Barack Obama’s Justice Department remains at war with reporters, invoking national security so often we should check to see if the sky is falling. Bruised in its recent battle with the AP and Fox News over seizures of reporters’ phone and email records, DoJ uttered predictably duplicitous and pious assurances that it only wanted to…
The Natural Life
W hen the Keller’s IGA on Ludlow Avenue in Clifton’s Gaslight District shuttered more than three years ago, it left a bustling neighborhood without a grocery store. Since then, the community has been rallying to raise funds to bring a full grocery store back to the area. But in the meantime, there’s a beacon of…
Morning News and Stuff
This news this morning is all (well, mostly) about politics, so put your civics hat on. Former Procter and Gamble executive and prospective head of the Department of Veterans Affairs Bob McDonald has quickly gone from wrangling over local sales taxes as head of the Cultural Facilities Task Force here in Cincinnati to meeting with…
Double Down
Cincinnati, are you ready for two back-to-back weekends of three-day festivals, packed with national acts, local bands and up-and-comers? Get ready for the fest weekends with CityBeat's coverage of the two. Read Brian Baker's interview with Bunbury Music Festival founder Bill Doabedian and his new follow-up fest, Buckle Up. In case you need some advice…
Going, Going, Gonzo
Last fall, a Foxy Shazam interview was convened at bassist Daisy Caplan’s Northside home for the purpose of discussing the band’s tour-ending, two-show extravaganza in Cincinnati — a full production at Bogart’s in Corryville, and an intimate club date at Northside’s Mayday. One topic that was very much on everyone’s mind that evening (and yet…
Ten Don’t-Miss Buckle Up Music Festival Acts
It seems unnecessary to spotlight droolingly anticipated shows like Willie Nelson, Alabama, The Band Perry, Alison Krauss, Old Crow Medicine Show and Drive-By Truckers, so we’ll stick to some of the lower-tier artists that deserve your attention at the inaugural Buckle Up Festival. For Country fans unfamiliar with the format, many acts will be playing…
Ten Don’t-Miss Bunbury Music Festival Acts
This year’s Bunbury Music Festival lineup is a virtual stacked deck of amazing artists, from the top of the marquee all the way down to the fine-print talent at the bottom of the poster. This year’s topliners — Empire of the Sun, Fall Out Boy, Paramore, Young the Giant, Flaming Lips — are guaranteed to…
Attack of the Killer B’s
If you saw Bill Donabedian’s weary face in the waning hours of the last day of the first Bunbury Music Festival in 2012, you might have correctly discerned that the promotional genius who conceived the event was a) bone-tired from the months of preparation and the constant on-site troubleshooting involved in the three-day Indie/Alt concert…
Morning News and Stuff
Long weekends mean lots of news. Let's get caught up. Another incident involving pitbulls this weekend has some in Cincinnati calling for the city to reintroduce a ban on the breed. Over the weekend, a pitbull attacked a Jack Russell Terrier in East Price Hill, which has led its owner and others to demand action.…
Stage Door: Cincinnati Stages Are Waking up This Week
Cincinnati stages were pretty quiet over the Independence Day weekend, but this week they start waking up and getting ready for more. Tonight at 8 p.m. is the second installment of Serials! at Know Theatre. You can see six fresh, 10-minute episodes of brand-new plays by local playwrights — Trey Tatum, Chris Wesselman, Jon Kovach,…
Local Art-Pop Trio Leggy Plays Northside Fest Tonight
On a closed off street in Northside, behind yesterday's Rock N’ Roll Carnival, band members of Leggy distribute the last of their cigarettes evenly amongst each other. The three-piece “art-rock-influenced-punk-pop” band (download their EP Cavity Castle for free here and come up with your own interpretation) consisting of Véronique Allaer on guitar, Kirsten Bladh on…
Q&A with Andy Grammer
Andy Grammer has a unique blend of musical talent, meshing his piano and guitar playing skills, smooth vocals and Hip Hop-like hooks to get crowds across the world fired up. Since his self-titled debut album in 2011, he has found great success through radio airplay and tours with the likes of Train, Natasha Bedingfield, and…
Morning News and Stuff
It's almost the 4th of July, and what's more American than protests, historic music venues, under-funding education and weird robot selfies? That's what's on tap for the morning news today. A Hamilton County judge ruled yesterday that nine Greenpeace protesters who hung huge banners from Procter and Gamble headquarters in March are still on the…
From The Copy Desk
All right guys, you know the drill. I found nine words this week to choose from, the most I’ve noticed so far. Maybe the writers are doing it on purpose? Be sure to check out the issue (and subsequently this blog) before the Fourth of July food coma and drunken stupor sets in. That doesn't…
I Just Can’t Get Enough
Here at IJCGE, we’re in the business of talking trash and making jokes, not patting ourselves on the back. That being said, some readers might be interested to know that this blog was recognized last week at the Cincinnati Society for Professional Journalists’ Excellence in Journalism awards, which we assure you sounds incredibly fancier that…
Morning News and Stuff
Here at the morning news desk (which is really just my desk, only in the morning), we usually lead off with some local news. But the big story of the moment comes from across the river. Kentucky's gay marriage ban is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled yesterday. The judge struck down Kentucky’s amendment to its…
Happy Birthday America!
Isn't it nice when the Fourth of July falls on a Friday? We've got the holiday weekend covered with America-saluting events all weekend long. Click on these for a look into this week's cover package: Happy Birthday, America!: Q&A with Emily Schaffer, a staffer involved with planning Red, White & Blue Ash Things that Go…
Cincinnati vs. the World 07.02.2014
A woman was accidentally shot during a concealed carry demonstration at a Pennsylvania gun show on June 28. The victim said she feels bad for the gun owner, and she’ll still attend gun shows in the future. WORLD -1 A Cincinnati pet store owner rescued two puppies that were stolen out of his Mount Healthy…
Media Musings From Cincinnati and Beyond
A Page 1 Enquirer story described sometime violent misbehavior in Hamilton County courtrooms and courthouse hallways. A headline said there was chaos in the judges’ “chambers.” Wrong. The story didn’t say that. Chambers is a fancy name for judges’ offices. It’s not a synonym for courtroom where trials take place. I hope Kimball Perry wasn’t…
No. 104
On the occasion of 14 on-again years with one newspaper. I wasn’t so sure about this, this coming back to CityBeat when Editor Danny Cross first sent me an email in 2012 explaining his plan to overhaul the paper I’d freelanced for from its first issue in 1994, then joined first as a part-time writer…
Core Questions
F ormer Florida Governor Jeb Bush on June 16 made a trip to Cincinnati to speak at a fundraiser for the Republican National Committee. As he entered the posh Cincinnati Club downtown, he was confronted by protesters. They weren’t left-wingers decrying his Republican politics, though. They were conservative activists, clad in boat shoes and khakis,…
Pure Grain Drops ‘Indiana Sun’ on Fountain Square
Country crew Pure Grain, which hails from nearby Bright, Ind., will be celebrating the release of its brand new album, Indiana Sun, when it performs as part of the free, weekly “American Roots” concert series this coming Tuesday on Fountain Square. Shoot Out the Lights opens the show at 7 p.m.; Pure Grain takes the…
‘Nathan For You’ and the Sacha Baron Cohen Dilemma
Prank shows are nothing new. Candid Camera spanned seven decades, Punk’d targeted celebs and now even Betty White has a prank show for old people called Off Their Rockers. Nathan For You (10:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Comedy Central) is pegged as a prank show or parody of the dime-a-dozen business-rescue programs on today, but it’s actually…
A Family-Friendly Call From ‘Earth to Echo’
Earth to Echo wastes no time setting up its premise. Three young teens — Alex (Teo Halm), Tuck (Astro) and Munch (Reese Hartwig) — as awkwardly nerdy as can be, land themselves in the middle of quite an adventure when they begin investigating cell phone disturbances in their soon-to-be redeveloped community in Nevada. They see…
UC Brings Art Therapy to Students with New Certificate Program
Jenny Ustick has always been artistic. Coming from a family of engineers, carpenters and do-it-yourselfers, she was encouraged by her parents at an early age to cultivate her skills. She learned how valuable the arts could be in her life through her schooling and personal experience. Ustick grew up on the East Side in Anderson…
CAC’s Performance Series Moves Way Outside the Box
Not content to merely think outside the box with its Performance Series, the Contemporary Arts Center plans to physically travel outside the box — the confines of its Black Box Theatre, that is — for several of its 2014-15 programs. How far outside? For one piece scheduled for April 24-25, 2015 — the U.S. premiere…
The Guardian of the Paper Mache Pig
See that paper mache pig in the photo up above? My twin brother made this back in high school. My mother was the guardian of it until she died in 2000. Now, I have it. My brother made this in art class at Vevay High School in Vevay, Indiana in 1968. We were freshman, and…
All the Right Questions
O ver three January days in his unheated Dayton apartment, 2013 Ohio University theater graduate Anthony Kochensparger forced himself to his desk (in all the layers he could manage) to write Milkwhite — a one-act play about a ballerina who goes to college, becomes involved with a girl and then cheats on her girlfriend with…
