Onstage: Review: Man of La Mancha
Northern Kentucky University's Summer Dinner Theatre, now in its 27th season, has the formula down pat: It routinely sells out its productions by giving audiences what they love — musicals and comedies. The season opener, Man of La Mancha, offers both in a well-seasoned production. In May, NKU took La Mancha to Romania and presented…
News: Exonerated — Sort of
Matt Borgerding Dave Petersen of the West End Community Council is critical of the Cincinnati Police Department's handling of acriminal investigation of State Rep. Dale Mallory. Even after the case has been closed, a seven-month long criminal investigation of State Rep. Dale Mallory that involved local police and the FBI continues to raise more…
Kevorkian Is No Humanitarian
Stephen Drake, research analyst for Not Dead Yet, a Chicago-based disability rights organization, wonders aloud if the media is suffering some collective amnesia or, worse, a dismissal of standards with regard to handling news of Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian. I'd frame it another way. I'd say some among us just aren't seeing too clearly. Let's…
Music: Hope and Faith
James Minchin III Unlike some artists, the members of Flyleaf proudly admit their faith informs everything they do. Flyleaf is one of those bands that put me in touch with my inner 15-year-old. The songs on their self-titled 2005 LP encompass the three Cs — crisp, concise and catchy — and Lacey Mosley's vocals…
News: Dirty Fight
Mark Bealer Billy Embree, a student, was forced by security guards to leave the campus of Cincinnati State College when he distributed literature in support of janitors. After receiving a warning from the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio (ACLU), Cincinnati State Technical and Community College is allowing the distribution of literature for the…
To Do List: : Radiant Baby
Zachary Copfer Oh, Baby There was a time in the mid-1980s when graffiti art was just beginning to rise to public consciousness as a legitimate art form. Keith Haring, a young graphic designer from Pennsylvania, landed in New York City and saw it everywhere: It inspired him and his contributions made graffiti something to…
Film: The Heart of the Matter
Paramount Vintage Michael Winterbottom (far right) directs Angelina Jolie on the set of A Mighty Heart. Michael Winterbottom has directed one movie a year for more than a decade, but there are few people on this side of the pond who could name them. It's not that he's a bad director. In fact, he's…
The Bridge (Koch Lorber)
The Bridge 2006, Unrated Over the course of one year, filmmaker Eric Steel and crew filmed San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. The shots captured from cameras set up on parallel shores detail the bridge in its stoic majesty, standing beautiful as the morning fog rolls over the bay underneath and as the twilight reflects…
The Great and the Not So Great
We're a nation fascinated with the exhibition of athletic greatness, yet we can be oblivious to it unless it's homegrown or brazenly displayed. We loved Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan, who have come to symbolize the American spirit. They were (and are) larger than life. But we've proven to be less willing to…
Friends of Immigrants
Joe Lamb Children march in front of City Hall, calling for compassionate immigration laws. Dick Wiesenhahn, who played golf for justice, died June 18 after suffering a heart attack. Wiesenhahn was a longtime supporter of efforts to unionize migrant farmworkers and was also active in opposition to the war in Iraq. Wiesenhahn, retired from…
News to Use
Free Peace Camp for Kids Peace Camp is a two-week free day camp where students ages 6-12 participate in activities focused on conflict management, diversity appreciation, cooperation and effective communication. The program is sponsored by the Center for Peace Education and the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center. Peace Camp meets from 9 a.m.-noon June 11-22…
Diner: Review: Hugo
Joe Lamb The Southern states have a storied past, but there's no denying a certain charm. An instinctual sense of hospitality has survived the Civil War and decades of battering hurricanes, and Hugo, named for the hurricane that roared through Charleston, S.C., in 1989, is the embodiment of that charm. People seem to come…
Lookwhos: Looks Who’s Eating – Michelle Brown
Graham Lienhart Michelle Brown Like many of us, Michelle Brown grew up when there wasn't much of a food culture in America — in the dark days before TV shows like Top Chef and Emeril Live ruled cable — but she always loved cooking for her friends at Walnut Hills High. "A friend got…
Cover Story: His Everything
Woodrow J. Hinton 'I Am So Tired of Feeling Powerless' His favorite color is blue. His favorite foods are pizza, donuts and Skyline chili. Reese Witherspoon is his favorite actress, and Otis Redding recorded his favorite song, "Try a Little Tenderness." It's not hard to get to know Justin Jeffre. Just look at the…
Know Theatre Of Cincinanti
Dean Rettig Pamela Kay Day and Darin Art will reprise their performances in Footlighters' dramatic musical Parade in a community theater excerpt competition this weekend. KNOW THEATRE OF CINCINNATI keeps on rolling. Just after finishing up their hard work as presenters of the 2007 Fringe Festival — the best attended Fringe in four years…
Lovely Crash CD release, Mark Chenault tribute, mallory show and more
There is an irresistible tendency deep inside music reviewers to compare women-led bands with other female musicians. In some ways it makes sense — with vocals usually being the most prominent thing in the mix, it's hard to think of boy singers for a point of reference. And in other ways, I guess it's kind…
Cover Story: Blog Launches Newspaper
Mark Bealer Jason Haap Jason Haap is having too much fun to worry about the new conventional wisdom. While newspapers rush to the Internet with all of their resources, Haap is a solo blogger moving to print, creating Cincinnati's newest free newspaper, The Cincinnati Beacon. "I don't think anyone has done this before," he…
The Diehl House
Graham Lienhart The Diehl House in Green Township has a long, illustrious history, including that it was the childhood home of Marge Schott. For this first installation of "Cincitecture," a monthly column that highlights Cincinnati's architectural heritage, we're taking a journey to the West Side. The significance of THE DIEHL HOUSE is not necessarily…
Living Out Loud: : Scattered
I should think of some other name for this week's column but I'm not going to, because I'm tired and grumpy and don't feel like it. Besides, the column is only on the Web this week, and nobody reads it there, right? If somebody does actually read this online, by the time you do and…
Sound Advice: : The Eames Era, Look Mexico, Everthus the Deadbeats
The Planetary Group The Eames Era The Eames Era with Exit Clov Saturday · The Comet If the New Pornographers were a more functionally integrated sum of their delightfully schizophrenic parts — Carl Newman's skittering Power Pop anthemics, Dan Bejar's off-center Art Pop deconstructionism, Neko Case's '60s chick Pop classicism — and if they…
Gray Matters (20th Century Fox)
Gray Matters 2006, Rated R It's a glum experience watching good talent go wrong. With Heather Graham, star of the wrong-headed — make that dunderheaded — coming-out romantic comedy Gray Matters, you wonder how she could let all the goodwill she established by playing lively, erotic young women in Boogie Nights and Two Girls…
Music: Nine Lives and Then Some
Alligator Records Charlie Baty (left) and singer/harpist Rick Estrin, with a rotating cast of Nightcats, have been making "Americana" Blues (and more) since the '70s. In the tradition of the J. Geils Band, that gentleman at the front of the stage during a Little Charlie and the Nightcats show, blowing a mean harmonica and…
Christians, Terrorists and a Museum
I wanted to take a moment to comment on last week's cover story "<a I believe that God is so complex that as much as we research, study and preach about Him, as humans we can't truly fathom how large of a force he really is. Nor can we compare him to man, with the…
News: To Hell, You Say
Rachel Robertson Micah Armstrong addresses a group of sinners at the University of Cincinnati. As University of Cincinnati students walked May 23 across McMicken Commons — the grassy core nestled among four college buildings and the Tangeman University Center — these words, sung in a cacophonous, dissonant tone, rang in many ears: "It's not…
Wait Till Your Father Gets Home: The Complete First Season (Warner Home Video)
Wait Till Your Father Gets Home: The Complete First Season 1972, Not Rated Having already produced animated sitcoms set in the Stone Age (The Flintstones) and the future (The Jetsons), a contemporary effort seemed obvious for Hanna-Barbera. However, what helped WTYFGH more than its heritage was a move in the '70s to make the…
Big Easy To Big Empty (Disinformation)
Big Easy To Big Empty 2007, Unrated The lack of response to Hurricane Katrina, pre- and post-disaster, has inspired outrage and investigation on several fronts but seemingly little in terms of real outcomes. Reporter Greg Palast made a trip to New Orleans in 2006 for an update on the recovery process and to assess…
The Beginning of the Affair
It was an ungodly hour of the morning when I heard the pounding on my door. Bill Willy, a good friend with a stupid nickname, was fresh from another fight with his girlfriend. He was going to New York to visit his friend, he announced. Did I want to go? He was leaving in 5…4…3…2……
Reds Are Done, but Will Dunn Still Be a Red?
Jerry Dowling Unless you're a baseball junkie belonging to the category of lost causes, it's difficult to watch the big leagues at this time of year. As usual, the sagacious Marty Brennaman put it best many years ago when he said, "I have no desire to see the Reds play the Texas Rangers." Brennaman…
Locals Only: : Angels of Meth
Angels of Meth After weaving my way through the back corridors of The Mad Hatter, a place Angels of Meth acknowledge as "home base," I find myself sitting in a cryptic, windowless "luxury" suite littered with beer bottles and cigarette butts, all accentuated by the scent of sweat and dirt. Sitting across from me…
