Virtual Tour of Cincinnati’s Horseshoe Casino
Now that John Kasich has let casino developers get back to turning the giant hole in the ground at Broadway Commons into a casino, they've given us a sneak peak at what to expect when it opens in early 2013. There's gonna be a steakhouse in there, along with other stuff. Check it out: —-
Morning News and Stuff
A new International Monetary Fund chief is in line to be appointed after receiving a major endorsement from the Obama administration today. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde would be the first woman to head the lending organization, replacing Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned last month after being charged with sexually assaulting a New York City hotel…
Craig is Next Police Chief
Almost a full decade after Cincinnati voters passed a charter amendment that changed the way police chiefs are selected, it's being used for the first time. City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. announced this morning that he's selected a candidate from outside the current police ranks to head the Cincinnati Police Department. James E. Craig, who…
Andre Hyland Raps with JT
We've been keeping an eye on the latest projects/schemes that Cincinnati-native Andre Hyland has been getting involved with out in Los Angeles. Don't believe us? Check out our Best of Cincinnati Staff Pick on Hyland (way at the bottom, sorry!), whose work since leaving town after his adventures on public access show Tracy, Dean &…
Queen City Bike Asks Cyclists to Complete Survey
The city of Cincinnati is planning to restripe a section of Martin Luther King Drive between Reading Road and Victory Parkway and would like input from cyclists who commute into Clifton and Walnut Hills. Queen City Bike today sent out an email asking anyone who regularly uses the route to fill out an online survey…
Poker Players Are the Worst
I'm not ashamed to admit that I've been playing a lot of poker lately. That's not to say I'm not somewhat embarrassed each time I tell a fellow adult that I “play poker” — a statement which normally garners a response connecting the game to something along the lines of the lottery or Bingo. “Oh…
Morning News and Stuff
The Los Angeles Dodgers today filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11, which will allow the Dodgers to use $150 million for daily operations until they can obtain a new media deal in order to ensure long-term financial stability. The Dodgers cited Major League Baseball as a direct cause for their bankruptcy filing after MLB…
Looking Ahead to a 30-Year Energy War
You might be unaware that there exists a website dedicated to syndicating alternative press news stories. Maybe you don't even know what this means. Basically, this website alternet.org grabs the most left-leaning stories in all of the liberal media, offering a daily dose of how hugely screwed the world is. It can be a pretty…
Winter Wonderettes (Review)
Critic's Pick Although Cincinnati’s theater scene offers lots of fine work from September through May, the pickings are usually thin during the summer. So it’s great that Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati is offering the regional premiere of a holiday-themed musical Winter Wonderettes when the theater is typically dark. The sequel to The Marvelous Wonderettes, ETC’s…
Vigil Planned for Human Rights
To help kickoff the long Fourth of July holiday weekend, a local anti-poverty group will hold a vigil to commemorate human rights. The Contact Center will hold the vigil beginning at 11:45 a.m. July 1 in front of downtown's Federal Building, located at 550 Main St. The site is next to the Government Square bus…
The Topp Twins (Review)
This warm, engaging, entertaining and award-winning documentary concerns a New Zealand singing duo — Jools and Linda Topp — with a singularly unusual background. They are middle-aged twin sisters, lesbians and in their act mix rootsy, heartfelt Folk/Country material with the creation of comic characters. The effect is like Indigo Girls meets Ab Fab, and…
Bad Teacher
Jake Kasdan, son of Hollywood heavyweight Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill), burst onto the scene with Zero Effect, a twisted little detective farce that screamed of independence from mainstream thinking and should have paved the way for a satisfying hand-to-mouth career outside the studio system. But bad choices, like the meandering college road-trip Orange County…
Morning News and Stuff
New York Senate Republicans continued their closed-door meeting this morning in the hopes of coming to a conclusion on the vote on the legalization of gay marriage in New York. Last night’s marathon session ended up nowhere and Senate Republican Leader Dean Skelos ended the latest meeting around 11 p.m. out of concern for his…
Friday Movie Roundup: ‘Tree of Life’ Edition
Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life is finally here. Like everything the acclaimed 68-year-old filmmaker does, Malick's latest — just his fifth film in 38 years — has gone through a mysterious gestation, changing release dates and distributors numerous times (it was originally slated for a Dec. 25, 2009, release), all the while simultaneously revealing little…
Stage Door: Winter Wonder and Theater Radio
Betty Jean, Cindy Lou, Missy and Suzy are back onstage at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. Those characters — played by Sara Mackie, Mia Gentile, Brooke Rucidlo and Denise Devlin — kept ETC audiences coming back for more in the spring of 2010 for The Marvelous Wonderettes, the theater's biggest box office hit ever, extended three…
Future Bleak for Metromix: The Paper (UPDATED)
(** UPDATE FOLLOWS AT END) With another round of layoffs hitting The Enquirer and other Gannett newspapers nationwide, time will tell if a separate trend at the media company will occur soon in Cincinnati. Gannett announced last week that it was pulling the plug on the print editions of two faux alt-weeklies, Metromix in Indianapolis…
Happy Birthday, Allyn’s!
Allyn’s Café, that fantastic little Cajun/Mexican restaurant tucked along Columbia Parkway, is turning 20 years old and this Sunday they’re having a blowout party to celebrate, featuring food and drink specials and live music all day. —- As their motto goes, Allyn’s is “More Than A Café.” In 2001, Allyn’s opened its Wine and Beer…
Roebling Rocks Saturday
The eerie humming sound that kicked off The Afghan Whigs' 1993 major label debut, Gentlemen (considered by many to be one of the best albums of the ’90s), sounded mysterious to those who’ve never visited Greater Cincinnati. But those in Northern Kentucky and Cincy knew that rhythmic buzzing wasn’t a swarm of bees or a…
Boehner and Kasich on Jimmy Fallon
President Obama, Joe Biden, John Boehner and John Kasich did what a lot of old dudes do on weekends and enjoyed a game of golf together Saturday. I could make a lot of jokes about the amount of tears shed, containers of sunless tanner used and conversations of how to make Ohio cooler, but I'll…
Equinox Parade & Festival 2011
Thursday, July 7 2011 Cincy Pride Interfaith Service The Unitarian Universalist Council of Greater Cincinnati will present an evening of music, inspirational readings, prayers and rituals from Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Native American, Pagan and many other religious traditions under the theme, “Together in a Spirit of Love.” 7 p.m. St. John’s Unitarian Universalist Church, 320…
Artful Culinary Adventure
I honestly don’t know what percentage of people are forced to cover their heads with a napkin to stick a small, blind, booze-soaked bird in their mouth — feet first, beak out — but I’m sure it happens, especially at secret food things. And a piping hot “Ortolan surprise” was something of a fear as…
Reality Check
O n June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded the first AIDS case in the United States. Today it’s estimated that more than 1.1 million Americans carry the HIV infection. It’s also estimated that one out of five people are living with HIV and don’t even know it. In this…
Picture This
FotoFocus, the citywide celebration of photographic and lens-based art planned for October 2012, is now well enough along that its organizers have shared detailed plans. In their first major press release, they also have announced their intention of making this ambitious photography event biennial. Under the event’s umbrella, shows by such well-known names as Doug…
Pink Freud
From the waxed and elaborately curled mustache to the artfully crafted, brow-furrowingly cryptic lyrics to the untethered stage presence, it’s not difficult to draw a line from Foxy Shazam’s Eric Nally to Vaudeville Freud’s Paul O’Moore. The similarities are more apparent when O’Moore reveals his longstanding devotion to Nally and Foxy. “I grew up watching…
WLW Host Ignorant of Religion
Racism and rants on talk shows at WLW (700 AM) are bred in the bone but morning host Doc Thompson raised the standard for anger and ignorance when he derided Goshen College’s decision to bar “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the college’s sports events. I could almost hear the spittle when he referred to Goshen’s “liberal…
Like Bush, Obama Ignores Constitution for Convenience
Barack Obama, it seems, is unfamiliar with the Internet and the facts of life in the wired age. Or maybe he just hopes no one is paying attention. In his feeble attempts to justify the continued U.S. military involvement in NATO’s efforts to oust Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi from power, Obama is directly contradicting numerous…
Adam Easterling [Lunch on Main]
In January 2010 Adam Easterling decided to start his first businessventure in the already crowded downtown lunch trade. Adam took a gamble, but he felt that if he took classics, gave them a fresh spin and used the best ingredients, his sandwich shop would succeed where others have failed. A year and a half later,…
Greening Construction, Changing Minds
C incinnati’s role as a national center for green progressivism gets spotlighted this week when the Greening the Heartland conference brings some 1,000 attendees and 100 exhibitors to downtown’s Duke Energy Conference Center. The theme of the three-day conference, which starts June 22 and is sanctioned by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Midwest region, is…
Seelbach 4 All
A sk many LGBT people across the Tristate region about Cincinnati’s reputation as a welcoming place and they likely will say it’s a negative one. That’s partially due to the lingering stigma from Article 12, the anti-gay law passed in 1993 that finally was repealed 11 years later, coupled with unflattering comparisons to more thriving…
OTR Foundation and John Boehner
[WINNER] OTR FOUNDATION: Or at least we hope the Over-the-Rhine Foundation will be a winner. The nonprofit group currently is in the running to receive a $25,000 prize in a contest held by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. If the local group wins the online voting competition, it will use the money to save…
Who Needs Broadway?
The 2011 Tony Awards have come and gone: The Book of Mormon, an irreverent musical collaboration by the guys behind the satirical TV series South Park and the Broadway show Avenue Q, were the big winners, receiving nine awards from 14 nominations. War Horse, an emotional play about a boy and a horse he raises…
Don’t Adjust Your Set, Adjust Your Eyes
It’s the House, the whole House and nothing but the House when Nick Mitchell’s sixth annual Adjust Your Eyes Music & Art Festival takes over every square inch of the historic Southgate House mansion this Friday night. Every year, Mitchell uses AYE to benefit a different worthy cause, and this year’s might well be among…
EPA Approves Pleasant Ridge Cleanup
Three months after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved Hilton Davis’ plan to clean up its industrial site in Pleasant Ridge, no progress has been made and some residents still are concerned about the plan’s details, calling them inadequate. The agency and Hilton Davis worked together for years to come to an agreement on how…
Ever-Changing Scene
T he ebb and flow of the gay cultural tide in Cincinnati behaves as any other major American city. New bars open their doors while others shutter them. Events occur en masse during some months while others keep queers indoors. Performances by cultural icons clutter the city’s halls and galleries, then become distant memories. In…
Tex-Mex, Here I Come!
I drive Red Bank Road at least three times a week and watched with interest when I saw a new Tex-Mex restaurant going into Red Bank Village. I never turn down a chance for Mexican or Tex-Mex food! El Jinete (3972 Red Bank Road, Mariemont, 513-271-4080) is the family-owned sibling of El Jinete in Taylor…
June 15-21: Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY JUNE 15 Angry Vancouver residents took to the streets today after their beloved Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals to the Boston Bruins, doing their best to re-create scenes from the last stages of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Coverage of the riot began once the American media’s disbelief of the…
LGBTQ Resources
HEALTH SERVICES AIDS Volunteers of Northern Kentucky: Offers support and community for people living with HIV. Monthly dinners provide social contact with other HIV-positive individuals. 513-483-5757, www.avnk.com. Caracole: Provides affordable housing and supportive services for persons living with HIV/AIDS. Their SOPHIA program coordinates the Homeless Management Information System. 513-761-1480, www.caracole.org. Stop AIDS (formerly AVOC): Provides…
Back to the Future
American stained glass windows, long shrugged off as a Victorian enthusiasm, are attracting increasing interest, say museum curators, and Cincinnati is on the leading edge of this trend. The Taft Museum of Art recently opened In Company with Angels: Seven Rediscovered Tiffany Windows. And at the Cincinnati Art Museum conservation is under way on four…
The Uncoupling
In Meg Wolitzer’s The Uncoupling, a suburban New Jersey town falls under a strange spell as the local high school prepares its stage adaptation of Lysistrata. The play is a centuries-old Aristophanes comedy in which women are called upon to withhold sex from their men in an effort to end the Peloponnesian War. Its ancient…
Still Monkeying Around
Yes, the appearance of The Monkees — Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Peter Tork — at the Aronoff Center for the Arts on Saturday night could be considered merely an oldies/nostalgia show. But it's much more. The group, augmented by a veritable orchestra of musicians, will play the hit songs first recorded when their stylish,…
The Tree of Life (Review)
The Tree of Life opens with a bit of Scripture (Job 38:4, 7), which asks, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation … while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” Where were we, indeed? That is the question that Terrence Malick’s latest dares to pose…
David Bixler
There's a duality that informs David Bixler’s work as one of the premiere alto saxophonists in contemporary Jazz. A Wisconsin native, Bixler studied Classical piano as a child but was inspired by the legendary Dexter Gordon to take up the saxophone, which led him to the music program at Indiana University. After graduation, he relocated…
Viva Voce
One might imagine a band that would christen itself after a Latin phrase might be a little loftier than your garden variety Indie Rock band, but Viva Voce doesn’t have a pretentious 4AD bone in its musical body. The band was formed in 1998 by husband-and-wife duo Kevin and Anita Robinson in their hometown of…
Into the Light
This is not what you wanted to read. Normally, you wouldn’t. Most would rally, sweep this under the rug. All the same, for whatever reason, tonight it’s the cutting-room floor, the tail end of a month that demanded that you write three stories, collate a manuscript, apply to a festival, ready for a performance and…
Enquirer Layoffs: 2011 Edition
Although it doesn't compare to the wholesale hacking and slashing of staff that occurred in 2009, the latest round of layoffs at The Enquirer includes several positions in the newsroom, which already had seen significant reductions. At least 16 people on the newspaper's editorial staff were laid off, and another chose to retire, according to…
Interview with Brandon Scott Perry
"Can't stop, won't stop." These words may seem meaningless to some, but for the past 72 days they have been the motivation for Brandon Scott Perry. On April 3, 2011 Perry embarked on a journey that will affect himself and thousands of others for the rest of their lives. What started out as a dream…
‘Bicycle Dreams’ Screens Tonight
Just wanted to give a heads up to those bicycling enthusiasts out there: Stephen Auerbach's Bicycle Dreams, a documentary about some badasses who bike across the U.S. in 10 days — essentially 300 miles a day — has its one-time local screening tonight at the Esquire Theatre in Clifton. —- The 7:30 p.m. screening is timed…
Morning News and Stuff
Tea Party Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) wasn’t appreciative of the distortion of his patriotism by the “idiot Liberals” at Florida’s New Times. Last week the Florida paper provided commentary on how West celebrated Flag Day: diving with an American flag. “There's nothing really bad to say about Rep. Allen West going diving off the coast…
