The Flowering of the Cincinnati Art Museum
If you've been to Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM) to view the current Long Time No See exhibition of objects usually in storage (see Jane Durrell's review here) you've also seen the final gallery displaying a design concept for the museum's planned expansion/renovation. It raises more questions than it answers, dominated as it is by a…
Lil Ed & the Blues Imperials
Ed Williams comes by his nickname honestly, but don't be fooled by his diminutive stature — Lil' Ed is a Blues giant. From the power of his guitar prowess, in slide mode or straight-ahead riffing, to the rumbling essence of his gritty vocals, Lil' Ed Williams is among the last and best of the old…
Several new DVDs beg the question: What makes a movie star?
Since I started teaching film feature and review courses as an adjunct two years ago, first at Xavier University and now with the University of Cincinnati, at least once a quarter I have engaged my students in an increasingly lively debate about the current crop of movie stars. I do so with an eye toward…
Katy Perry, LaVell Crawford, Kanye West, lots of new art and much more
WEDNESDAY 7/30MUSIC: KATY PERRY, cheeky former Christian Pop singer, will most likely perform her bi-curious hit "I Kissed a Girl" at the Van's Warped Tour. See interview here. ART: CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM's Long Time No See is a grand grab bag of more than 100 objects pulled from storage to hammer home the museum's need…
Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones (Profile)
Just a couple blocks away from the front door to the Butler County Sheriff's Office in Hamilton sits a thriving corner market with a sign outside that reads "Super Mercado y Carniciera." On any given day, numerous Hispanic men, women and children enter and leave the ramshackle little store in a tired-looking and dilapidated working-class…
Immigrant Song
Immigration continues to be a hot button issue everywhere in the country, even here in the mostly insulated Midwest. We're not engulfed in the controversy over building a wall along the Mexican border, as Americans in the Southwest are, but we're not untouched either. As this week's cover story points out, the number of Hispanic…
Five Years into Marvin Lewis’ Rebuilding, the Bengals Continue to Underachieve
The days of opening Bengals training camp and expecting good to come of it were short lived. The Marvin Lewis era, so promising not so long ago, now rests on dwindling hope as the Bengals line up in Georgetown for his sixth summer session. It's hard to say where it all went wrong. It's easy…
Former Christian music singer Katy Perry rides faux bisexuality up the charts
Being a gay icon isn't easy. Judging from the tried and true examples of celebrities that have inadvertently amassed grandiose homosexual appeal, it doesn't appear to be all bunnies and sunshine. Let's look at a few examples of persons still relevant, despite career missteps. They each boast courageous yet frightening fashion efforts and have quite…
Coney Island
Summer is reaching its hot, sweaty peak, and for months King's Island has been packed with hordes of youths enjoying their precious few months of freedom. Nowadays it's the amusement park of choice, sure, but the local scene used to be dominated by another "Island" park: the sprawling, riverside retreat of Coney Island. Coney Island…
What the Spiritual Masters Teach Us about Big-Ass Appetites
I've been thinking a lot about appetite lately — when you gain 30 pounds in six months, it's something to ponder. I keep returning to the same question: "What is the origin and nature of sudden-onset, big-ass appetite?" The kind of appetite once satisfied by turkey burgers and a side of vegetables that is now…
Embracing Foundations of Our Own
In the late 1990s, my mother's fascination with genealogy hit its peak. She traveled to her father's hometown in the Slovak Republic, developed friendships with distant relatives and, on her mother's side, amassed a collection of wills, birth records and obituaries that reached back two centuries and east to Spotsylvania County, Va. Spotsylvania County plays…
Local coffee roaster makes big difference with small sacrifice
Making profits and being guided by your conscience are considered mutually exclusive by many business owners. "I do all the work so I ought to get maximum rewards" is not the mentality of Joe Morris and Andy Timmerman, co-owners of Seven Hills Coffee. The Blue Ash coffee bean roaster adopted a South American family farm…
Big Changes Looming at City Hall
The next election for Cincinnati mayor and city council won't occur until November 2009, but some major changes in local government might lie on the horizon. Ohio Democratic Party leaders are seriously considering appointing Mayor Mark Mallory to replace Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray if Cordray is elected as state attorney general this fall. Although Mallory…
Made in Japan
When I got up that morning, a Sunday, I remembered it was her birthday. I tried to dismiss the thought. We were no longer what you'd consider friends. Thoughts of her stayed on my mind throughout most of the week. Now it was late Friday morning and, while getting ready for my therapy session, I…
Cincinnati Art Museum unearths some gems from its vaults
For the most fun you'll have at an exhibition all summer, don't miss Long Time No See, the grand grabbag of more than 100 objects the Cincinnati Art Museum pulled from storage to hammer home its need for more gallery space. (See Steven Rosen's related column on the proposed CAM expansion.) Aaron Betsky, museum director,…
Another seven days of drinking Cosmos and wearing panties
WEDNESDAY JULY 23 George Bush gave a group of Texas Republicans the lowdown on the country's housing-market mess and really bad economy last week, describing Wall Street investors as having been drunk and saying that the problems won't go away until they get rid of their hangovers. The private speech was caught on cameraphone and…
A Bit Much
I am currently at a major university studying psychology, working on my Ph.D. I was rather alarmed at the rather blatant misrepresentation of facts in the article "Background Checks for House Guests" (issue of July 23). The idea that pedophiles can be cured is a rather gross exaggeration of medical fact. The true numbers are…
Barefoot in the Park (Review)
For its annual summer fling into lighter fare, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (CSC) has elected to reinterpret a Broadway classic: Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park, now 45 years old. The result is a thoroughly wrong-headed mishandling of the script — introduced on opening night as (director) "Matt Johnson's production of Barefoot in the Park" —…
Relish Modern Tapas (Review)
Critic's Pick I know, it's a strange title for a review on a new tapas restaurant, but with martinis such as the French Kiss (topped with creamy pineapple juice and brewing with Stoli Vanilla vodka, Chambord and champagne) I would be remiss if I didn't mention the drinks at Relish Modern Tapas first. Besides, Relish's…
Captain of Industry crafts a world-class work on their third album, The Bronze
Like any regional scene, the greater Dayton musical community has had its share of triumphant feasts and disappointing famines. Guided by Voices (and most things related to Robert Pollard), the Breeders and Brainiac certainly fall into the former category while a good many lesser lights comprise the latter. Captain of Industry frontman Nathan Peters has…
Keeping the Dream Burning
WAIF (88.3 FM) is a bit more than a radio station. It's like a dysfunctional family that never really gets the help it needs. The all-volunteer run community radio station is a unique place in the landscape of Americana. It was founded 32 years ago by a group of hippies perplexed by the mainstream media's…
