Sound Advice: : Maps & Atlases and Sound Tribe Sector 9
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Onstage: Review: Florencia en el Amazonas
Philip Groshong (L-R) Nmon Ford, Arturo Chacon-Cruz, Shana Blake Hill, Burak Bilgili, Carlos Archuleta and Emily Golden in Florencia en el Amazonas How often does even the most avid Cincinnati opera fan get to see and hear a work that
Mi-Hee Nahm
Mi-Hee Nahm Mi-Hee Nahm Mi-Hee Nahm, originally from South Korea, reconnects with her past through art. See selected drawings by Nahm in Young at Art at Phyllis Weston-Annie Bolling Gallery beginning Friday through Aug. 16. Here's what motivates this talented young artist. (Tamera Lenz Muente) Moving to America. I came to America from South…
Art: Review: Exodus/Elegy
With Exodus/Elegy, sculptor Anthony Becker meets the challenges of the difficult street-level space at the Weston Art Gallery in an exhibition well worth seeing. Working with inexpensive brown paper more usually used by house painters as drop cloth, Becker transforms sweeps of it into suggestions of flocks of birds in flight. When the light is…
Music: Shock and Release
Carnary Promotion and Design Joel Hamilton of The Working Title Imagine — knocked-up clouds roll in, about to erupt. The sky is growling. Slow motion. Your skin, littered with goose bumps. You're driving when the storm hits and someone pulls out in front of you. Tires screech. You feel the jerk, the swerve, the…
Mooning for Old Time Radio
I'm delighted to note Katie Laur's mention of Moon Mullins in the recent Living Out Loud column ("Back in the Day," issue of July 2). I well remember Moon's on-air penchant for ending a record he didn't particularly like. Laur's recollections bring back my own fond memories of a unique character. I had the pleasure…
News: Bumpy Ride for Now
Frustrated that Hamilton County pays virtually nothing for Metro bus service but controls the agency that oversees the system, Cincinnati officials are demanding some changes or they're threatening to begin a new transit agency that will offer them more oversight and input. If that happens, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) — current operator…
News: Street Wise
Joe Lamb Carol Thornton hopes Off the Streets gives prostitutes opportunities to turn around their lives. The statement "Women are prostitutes because they want to be" is judgmental, dismissive of the issues that lead women to sell sex, dangerous and flat out not true, according to Carol Thornton. "I'm gonna say 95 percent of…
Another seven days of strong words and weak economies
Fruit or human? WEDNESDAY JULY 2 News out of Iran today suggests that leaders of the homosexual-free nation are either completely unafraid of the U.S. or complete and total smartasses worthy of intense bombardment. According to the AP, Iran Foreign Minister said the U.S. economy is too shitty and our soldiers are too busy…
Books: Complex History
Raven Bull Dr. Tyrone Williams, author of On Spec Dr. Tyrone Williams is a poet and literary theorist born in Detroit. He's been in the English Department at Xavier University since 1983. On Spec is his second book of poetry. Published this February by Omnidawn, this collection reads like a hybrid text, full of…
The Total Experience of a Purchase
My brother recently got a new job with much higher pay than he was previously making. After getting the job, he bought himself a motorcycle, something he's wanted for a while. He's incredibly happy with it and proud of it, even driving it to work to save on fuel costs. For him, it was a…
Film: Review: Journey to the Center of the Earth
Warner Brothers (L-R) Josh Hutcherson, Brendan Fraser and Anita Briem try to survive a Journey to the Center of the Earth. This maiden feature-length digital 3-D movie is a breathtaking adaptation of Jules Verne's classic sci-fi novel, filled with eye-pleasing gags and sudden shocks of surprise that fall under the spell of strong performances…
Art: Review: Beneath the Roses
The Artist, Luhring Augustine, New York, White Cube, London and Gagosian, Los Angeles Gregory Crewdson's cinematic photography, including this untitled piece at CAM, is meticulously crafted. To say that Gregory Crewdson goes to great lengths to produce a photograph is a gross understatement. Each photograph in the current exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Museum,…
Laser Magic, Juston McKinney, St. Rita Festival, Adrian Belew Power Trio and much more
Alice Pixley Young's work is on view at Aisle Gallery. WEDNESDAY 7/09 ART: WESTON ART GALLERY houses three exhibits (Exodus/Elegy, piece work and Fundamentalism), each featuring either sculptural works or paintings. See Jane Durrell's Exodus/Elegy review here. ART: CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM features a collection of detailed, David Lynch-esque Americana photographs by Gregory Crewdson. See…
Madras Lounge (Profile)
Madras Lounge Madras Lounge "This is the first interview I've ever done," says Madras Lounge vocalist/guitarist Aaron Madrigal near the end of our chat. There was little shock in this announcement. When I met him on Fountain Square last week to get a copy of the band's debut CD, Redshifted, he asked if CityBeat…
Why Do the Tampa Bay Rays Flourish While the Reds Flounder?
Jerry Dowling At the end of the 2007 season, the Reds completed their seventh straight year of losing with a 72-90 record. Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays ended their 10th straight year of losing with a 66-96 record. What's happened since then? Tampa changed the team name, dropping their Devil and becoming the…
Cover Story: Opera Ahoy!
Kurt Strecker Modern Lover Among his many duties as artistic director of Cincinnati Opera, Evans Mirageas sends CDs of contemporary operas he considers "a stretch" to the board members advising him on programming. Like other major opera companies, Cincinnati tries to do something new and adventurous each season. To get support, Mirageas has to…
Film: Review: Hellboy II
Universal Pictures Ron Perlman's garishly macho hero is back for Hellboy II. Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy sequel is a simultaneously exhilarating and underwhelming experience due to the idleness of its characters and nebulous subplot elements that contrast against the director's trademark of baroquely drawn details. Hopelessly macho lug Hellboy (exquisitely played by the one…
In Praise of Kindness
These are things I have seen and heard…. When I was a child in a fitful home, my Aunt Mary took my brothers and me to her home for extended visits, making us feel loved. When my daughter Sarah Maria was 2, she feared the neighbors' dog but wanted to play in their yard. Her…
Special: CityBeat Stands Up, Files Lawsuit
On July 8 CityBeat filed a federal lawsuit against government officials in the city of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Campbell and Kenton counties in Northern Kentucky and Dearborn County in Indiana. We charged them and a coalition of local religious and nonprofit leaders led by Citizens for Community Values (CCV) of violating our First Amendment rights,…
Cover Story: Head Over Heals
Kurt Strecker Alexandra Coku plays the lead diva in Cincinnati Opera's Florencia en el Amazonas. Although experience has taught her to be wary of contemporary opera, Alexandra Coku has fallen in love with Daniel Catan's Florencia en el Amazonas. She has the role of Florencia Grimaldi, the diva returning to her native South America…
Recognizing Good Theater With the CEAs
On June 25, nominees for the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards were announced. The 20 categories include nearly 100 nominees (20 percent more than in past years) since the decision was made to expand from four to five nominees per category. You can see the full list of nominees here. Readers have posted comments on my blog…
Al-Qaeda Wants to Thank You
Some Americans must secretly cheer for Osama bin Laden and his radical Islamic brethren, especially those who like their vehicles big, flashy and decked out with all the latest accessories. Those people recently helped him realize a long-cherished goal he set almost a decade ago. Look around at the high number of large, gas-guzzling vehicles…
A First Amendment Battle Worth Fighting
On July 8 CityBeat filed a federal lawsuit against government officials in the city of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Campbell and Kenton counties in Northern Kentucky and Dearborn County in Indiana. We charged them and a coalition of local religious and nonprofit leaders led by Citizens for Community Values (CCV) of violating our First Amendment rights,…
Music: The Chick Can’t Help It
Stephanie's Id from North Carolina is one of the featured bands Saturday at Chicks Rockfest. Unpretentious, irreverent and opinionated, the "Chick" behind Chicks Rockfest (a music showcase featuring Rock bands with a female presence), takes her seat across from me at Rock club Dirty Jack's in Elmwood Place, illuminated appropriately by moody dive bar…
Sub Pop Comes Back
The Koala Fires In 1989, The Afghan Whigs signed a deal with then-burgeoning/eventually-seminal Seattle-based imprint, Sub Pop Records, becoming the first band outside of the Pacific Northwest to sign with the label that would define (for better or worse) "Grunge." It's only taken about 20 years, but Sub Pop has mined Greater Cincinnati's rich…
City View Tavern (Lunch Review)
Critic's Pick You can be the best Pilates-taking, nonfat-latte-drinking, flossing-religiously kind of person, and yet there will come a time — possibly lunchtime — when only a cheeseburger will do. Not a mass-produced, held under a heat lamp burger, either. When that cheeseburger moment arrives, don't risk disappoint with a lesser burger. Go to City…
The Summit (Review)
Joe Lamb The Summit It would be easy to assume The Summit was named for its location — the top of a hill where the Cincinnati State & Technical College campus overlooks Central Parkway and Ludlow Avenue. But that would be missing the point. To me the restaurant's name can only refer to the…
