Q&A with Def Leppard’s Phil Collen
Last night at Riverbend, I finished off some personal business for my 12-year-old self. I finally got to see Lita Ford sing “Kiss Me Deadly” live on stage, hear Poison play “Nothing But a Good Time” and catch Def Leppard perform “Pour Some Sugar on Me," live and in person, all on one hot evening…
World Choir Games Dinner Deals
The hills — around here, anyway — are alive with the sound of music! Everyone is singing this week in honor of the World Choir Games, which, you’ve got to admit, have actually become the Very Cool Thing that our civic leaders were predicting. It’s nice to see the city filled with people, arriving from…
Kind of Blue
Hot on the heels of Monet in Giverny, this summer the Cincinnati Art Museum showcases the life and legacy of pioneering African American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner in Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit. A full-scale retrospective, Modern Spirit is a provocative examination of one man’s journey to discover a pictorial language capable of expressing an…
We Go Way Back
It's no secret that the Northside neighborhood throws an Independence Day party like nobody’s business. Folks flock from all over the Cincinnati area to spend some time in the city’s hub of all things hip for two full days packed with live music, local food, a family-friendly carnival and, of course, the annual Fourth of…
I Just Can’t Get Enough
When I was 16, on a family trip to New York City, I mapped out all the real locations mentioned in The Catcher in the Rye because I was a cliché emo teenager it’s cool to visit restaurants, shops and other places your favorite pop culture characters frequent in books, movies or television. And when…
Sitting on the Stoop
I’m sitting on the stoop outside my apartment building in Covington. It’s around ten o’clock in the morning and it’s clear and sunny out. I can hear the traffic going up and down Madison Avenue — people rushing to get to where they’re going. My body isn’t rushing anywhere, but my mind is. I have…
Art: Second Sunday on Main
Clean out your ears and prepare to experience an exquisite performance by choirs from Columbia, Indonesia and the United States. That’s right. The World Choir Games is making an appearance this week at Second Sunday on Main in historic Over-the-Rhine. Gawk at the traditional dances and clothing, listen to the colorful rhythms and allow the…
EdenSong Begins 49th Anniversary Series
Though rootsier acoustic music seems to be almost trendy now (it’s a “fad” that seems to come around every 15 years or so, often as young people rediscover the music), the local organization Queen City Balladeers has been celebrating and nurturing Folk and Americana music for decades in the Queen City. Next year will mark…
Music: Music of Change: Hymns, Blues & Rock
The current Music of Change: Hymns, Blues & Rock at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is an exhibition with broad appeal, something that will likely cause a lot of potential visitors previously on the fence to finally visit the riverfront museum. The “time capsule of American history and the music that drove the change”…
A Happy Third of July in Northside
Today, the free Northside Rock n’ Roll Carnival brings a little pre-Independence Day fun to Jacob Hoffner Park (at the corner of Hamilton and Blue Rock St.) in Northside. Conceived in 2005 by MOTR Pub’s Chris Schadler and put into action in 2006 by Schadler and Leslie Scott, the event is also a warm-up for…
Morning News and Stuff
Someone really smart in Todd Portune’s office warned his or her superiors that the monthly first-Wednesday siren test might scare the living hell out of tens of thousands of foreign people visiting Cincinnati for the World Choir Games, so there will be no siren test this month. River Downs applied for some slot machines, the…
Event: Paradise Gardens Nudist Club Open House
National Nude Recreation Week starts Saturday July 14, but you can get a head start this weekend at Paradise Gardens, one of the area’s two nudist resorts. From 9 a.m. until 6 p.m., first-time visitors receive free admission at the facility’s Open House. The 37-acre resort is located on Blue Rock Road, just west of…
Art: First Friday Art Walk
With all the focus on metropolitan Cincinnati’s current cultural development, it’s easy to forget that many artists (being the independent thinkers that they are) choose to live and work away from the hubbub of the urban jungle. Artist-supported spaces outside of the city proper, like The Loft Gallery, turn out quiet exhibitions of quality artistic…
Event: Washington Park Grand Opening
Washington Park was once deemed as Cincinnati’s second oldest park, having been around since 1855. Now, after more than $50 million in renovation and expansion, it will stand as the city’s newest — though, of course, still tipping its hat to good ol’ history. After all, its historic value is what set it apart in…
Comedy: Geoff Tate
Cincinnati comedy fans have an opportunity to see native son Geoff Tate headline this week at Go Bananas in Montgomery. Tate made his national TV debut on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson this past February and has been performing around the country ever since. He recorded a CD and DVD in April at…
Lips’ New Record, Adele’s New Project and Metal Scapegoats
HOT: 24 Hour Arty People The Flaming Lips have broken the world record for most concerts performed in multiple cities within the span of 24 hours. The new Guinness World Record holders hit eight cities in the U.S. South, where they performed at least 15-minutes (per the rules). The exhausted Lips closed out the day-tour…
Onstage: The Foreigner
Larry Shue’s 1984 comedy The Foreigner is one of the funniest plays you’re likely to find on any stage. When painfully shy “Froggy” LeSeuer accompanies a friend on a fishing trip in rural Georgia, he tries to avoid social interaction by letting everyone think he’s a foreigner who doesn’t speak English. As a result, he…
Cincinnati vs. The World 07.03.12
The volatile Asian silver carp, an invasive fish species notorious for its ability to “leap” out of water and injure boaters, has been discovered at the mouth of the Great Miami River, its first-ever spotting in the Cincinnati region. CINCINNATI -2 In support of Pride Month, Kraft Foods released an image of a rainbow-stuffed Oreo…
Event: Yelp IndependAnce Day Party
Lackluster BBQs have you feeling red, white and blue? Light a sparkler under this Independence Day at Yelp’s Independance Day Party. Taking over The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, bust out your best dance moves on three different floors with various musical accompaniments ranging from live music, DJs and karaoke. With more than 20 food…
Event: Newport Motorcycle Rally
If you still associate “piston” with Grant Hill or “crankshaft” with a crotchety old cartoon bus driver, then you might want to head to Newport and learn a thing or two. That’s right, it’s time for the annual Newport Motorcycle Rally. The rally will include live entertainment, contests, food and prizes. The first night of the…
La Russa Returns to Role of Villain
It took all the way until the first day of July, nearly a week from the All-Star break, to figure out just what was off about this baseball season. We’ve had plenty of exciting games, the Reds have spent their fair share of time in first place and still there was something missing, and I…
Fit to Live
O hio death row inmate Abdul Awkal wasn’t trying to avoid his execution. He just wanted his meals prepared according to his Muslim faith. Awkal contacted attorney David Singleton in 2010 asking for the assistance of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center (OJPC), a Cincinnati non-profit that works to protect the rights of Ohio inmates…
Heaven Is For Real
From the very beginning, Pomegranates have been guided to a certain degree by the quirky New Wave rhythmatics of Talking Heads. So is it coincidence that the Cincinnati quartet’s fourth and latest album shares its title with one of Talking Heads’ most famous songs? “We never even thought of that,” says keyboardist/vocalist Joey Cook. “That’s…
Anti-Western & Southern Video Removed from YouTube
A video parody of Western & Southern Financial Group’s continued attempts to stop a planned renovation of the Anna Louise Inn women’s shelter was removed from YouTube on June 28 shortly after an Enquirer story detailed the video’s premise and origin. The video, which was emailed to local media on June 25, features an actor…
Worst Week Ever!: June 27-July 3
WEDNESDAY JUNE 27 A Sparta, Ky., attorney is in a fine kettle of fish after the feds seized from various safety deposit boxes $800,000 of what they believe to be unreported income. During opening statements in federal court, the accused’s attorney attributed the stashed cash to his great-grandfather losing all his assets in the Great…
Kasich Signs Human Trafficking Bill
Gov. John Kasich on June 27 signed into law Ohio’s Safe Harbor Act, what is being touted as one of the country’s toughest human trafficking bills. The law’s passage comes shortly after Kasich received a list of 26 recommendations from the Human Trafficking Task Force, established in March, outlining ways to better coordinate efforts statewide…
Alive and Well in 2012
It's a rare night, an even more rare weekend night when I’m without my wife and daughters, so I find myself hanging out at the Oak for a guys’ night out with couple of friends, eager to watch the Reds and talk some trash. The young night grows old and soon I’m one of the…
Dear Close Male Friends
Dear Close Male Friends: There have been times over the years when some or most of you entered into serious, sometimes long-term relationships. I believe I have been extremely patient with each of you, understanding that your respective significant other might be meeting various universal human needs and making your life better. It has helped…
Anatomy of a Blackout
U sually, we lose power along the T-shaped intersection where I live in Walnut Hills when somebody spits on the sidewalk or a moderate wind blows through. So when the lights flickered the first time in TJ Maxx, I knew what was up. " Ooh, one more of those and the power’s gonna go out,”…
Chabot Attempts to Deny Federal Streetcar Funding
A voice vote introduced to the U.S. House by our own Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) led to an approved amendment to the 2013 Transportation and Housing Urban Development spending bill that bars federal transportation funds from being used to design, construct or operate a Cincinnati streetcar. Chabot’s efforts by no means indicate the city’s inability…
Found in Translation
“Be flexible, be prepared and be ready for accepting changes,” advised Karin Kraeling, administrative assistant Choir Games coordinator for Cincinnati USA Sister Cities Association, during a recent meeting for World Choir Games volunteer translators. This tip has become something of a mantra among volunteers, for as recently as one week out from the games several…
Like We Were Made for it
Sometimes the greatest discoveries in life arise from a Google search. That’s exactly what led Todd Duesing, director of operations for the Aronoff Center for the Arts, to stumble upon the 2012 World Choir Games — a fortuitous click of his mouse that, unbeknownst to him, would help pave the way for an unparalleled boost…
“MidPoint Indie Summer” with Lydia Loveless plus The Ready Stance and Patrick Sweany
At 22, Lydia Loveless has already lived a couple of musical lifetimes. The Columbus resident started playing in the family-centric Carson Drew at 13, started playing solo shows at 15 and then focused on her own career when the band broke up. Inspired by classic Country (Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Patsy Cline), quirky…
Fuck Knights
Even when spoken slurred and quickly, “Fuck Knights” and “Dark Knight” sound only vaguely alike. But do you think we'd let a petty thing like that derail us from comparing this gang of Garage Punk hellraisers to Batman? Hell no! Let's begin by assessing drinking habits. When ol' Bruce Wayne does alcohol, he likely sips…
Trevor Hall
South Carolina’s Trevor Hall doesn’t make the kind of music you might expect to come from a native of the American South. Instead, Hall’s music has a Reggae streak, the kind of tunes he may have heard growing up in the beach community of Hilton Head or later at the arts school he attended in…
Umphrey’s McGee with G. Love
In 1997, members from two popular Notre Dame University bands explored their inner Jam children, concocting a new entity dubbed Umphrey’s McGee. Although UM quacked like a Jam duck (two nightly sets, extended improv noodling, open taping policy), they incorporated more Prog, Metal and Hard Rock influences than their gentler brethren, expanding the Jam palette…
Morning News and Stuff
While anti-urban Cincinnatians gripe over the twice-approved $95 million streetcar project — some going so far as to attach anti-funding amendments to federal bills that will never be included in the final legislation — authorities on the other side of the river are demonstrating just how little $20 million on transportation funding can provide. The…
Fountain Square Gets Poptastic Tonight
Tonight's free MidPoint Indie Summer concert on Fountain Square is a bit different than most of the shows in the series. Not only is the bill all-local, it also represents three of the finest "Pop Rock" entities to ever emerge from the Queen City. Despite sharing a knack for writing incredibly memorable songs exploding with…
Your Weekend To Do List: 6/29-7/1
Pride Week is underway, so don your hottest rainbow garb, stay cool and get ready to celebrate the local LGBTQ community. It's been a good year to be gay and there are plenty of events this weekend to cap it all off. You can find a full guide in our Pride Issue, but weekend highlights…
Weekend AYE Music & Art Festival Schedule
Locally based independent label Grasshopper Juice Records has been presenting the Adjust Your Eyes Music & Art Festival, an annual showcase of local visual art and some of the label’s artists (plus other Grasshopper-friendly acts from Cincy and around the region), since 2006. Along with showcasing some of the city’s most creative original music makers,…
Stage Door: Last Chances
It’s a weekend of last chances, as several shows that have been entertaining audiences wind up their runs just before Independence Day. Let’s start with The Second City 2: Less Pride … More Pork. If you haven’t yet caught this evening of poking fun at our local foibles and sacred cows, you have only until…
Morning News and Stuff
Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls responded to Rep. Steve Chabot’s Wednesday attempt to block federal funding for Cincinnati’s streetcar construction by calling it “an outrageous interference in local government decision-making.” The Enquirer today recapped the situation, which involves Chabot adding the following amendment to a massive federal transportation bill: “None of the funds made available by…
Review: Friends’ ‘Manifest!’
Naming your band Friends is a good way to make it very difficult for people to find you on the Internet, but the relatively new Brooklyn band of that name is worth the few extra clicks — you can and should find them. Released earlier in June, Friends' debut album Manifest! is ready to become…
Your Thursday To Do List
In September 2011, ArtWorks was awarded funds from ArtPlace, an organization of foundations, federal agencies and banks that invests in art and culture programs across the country. ArtWorks put these funds toward SpringBoard, their business planning and development program for artists, artisans and creative entrepreneurs. ArtWorks celebrates SpringBoard artist-entrepreneurs, a new space and local creativity…
Porgy and Bess (Preview)
George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess ranks as America’s most famous opera. Its arias and ensembles are firmly ensconced in the American Popular Songbook: “Summertime ,” “I Got Plenty o Nuttin’,” “Bess, You Is My Woman Now,” “I Loves You, Porgy.” “It Ain’t Necessarily So.” No other opera comes close except Carmen , and that’s French.…
Music Tonight: Big Chocolate, Jimkata and More
Don't be a-scared of a little heat; there's lots of live music to be heard out there today in the Cincinnati area. Should you choose an outdoor event, be sure to hydrate, sunscreen up and try not to complain too much. You can work up a sweat in the comfort of AC at Covington's Madison…
Madea’s Witness Protection
Tyler Perry’s Madea has long been a rough shelter in the storm for an assortment of outcasts and miscreants in need of tough love, so in Witness Protection, she’s taking in a Wall Street investment banker (Eugene Levy) and his family who are on the lam from the mob. The cross-cultural mash-up (North vs. South,…
Safety Not Guaranteed
On the heels of Sound of My Voice, an indie speculative science fiction tale of about a woman who may or may not have come from the future, comes Safety Not Guaranteed, from director Colin Trevorrow and writer Derek Connolly, a more comic look at time travel. Imagine a team of eager magazine employees investigating…
Magic Mike
Channing Tatum just might be a real Hollywood swinger and one shrewd customer. Dreaming of fictionalizing his early days as an exotic dancer, Tatum teams up with Steven Soderbergh (after approaching Nicolas Winding Refn of Drive fame) for Magic Mike, which, from the spirited trailers, gives the impression of a return to the fun-loving Ocean’s…
Olympic Songs, Black Keys Sue and Beatles Desecration
HOT: Playlist of Champions If I remember correctly, when the summer Olympics were in Australia, the opening ceremonies used two Men at Work songs, INXS’s greatest hits and 43 versions of “Waltzing Matilda” for the soundtrack. But popular music in the U.K. has a bit of a deeper bench, so opening-ceremony director Danny Boyle had…
Music Tonight: Todd Snider, Tracy Walker and More
Todd Snider & the Burnouts return to Cincinnati tonight for a hump-day show at the 20th Century Theater in Oakley with special guest Rosi Golan. Snider is one of the more acclaimed songwriters of his time, earning early support from high-profile fans like John Prine and Jimmy Buffett. Releasing high quality albums since 1994, Snider…
Debut EP From WolfCryer Released Tonight
Former experimental Jazz artist Matt Baumann has totally shifted gears and is now performing as banjo-playing Americana artist WolfCryer. Tonight at MOTR Pub in Over-the-Rhine, Baumann (as WolfCryer) celebrates the release of his debut, self-titled EP by performing the recording live in its entirety starting at 10 p.m. From the sounds of the EP, WolfCryer…
Time to Adjust Your Eyes Again
Locally based independent label Grasshopper Juice Records has been presenting the Adjust Your Eyes Music & Art Festival , an annual showcase of local visual art and the label’s artists (among others), since 2006. With each year, the festival continues to grow. Along with showcasing some of the city’s most creative original music makers, the…
On A Rocky Mountain High
M usician jokes have made the rounds for the years, but none are quite as deliciously nasty and largely undeserved as those aimed at drummers. (Q: What did the drummer get on his IQ test? A: Drool.) That’s why it’s particularly satisfying when a drummer’s arrival elevates a band, which happened with Alone at 3AM.…
Cincy, NKY Taxi Drivers to Collaborate for World Choir Games
In honor of the World Choir Games, the largest international event to ever take place in the Cincinnati region, city leaders have already taken several measures to step up the taxi infrastructure to cater to the some 20,000 participants expected to flood into the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky region. As part of that initiative, the…
LGBTQ Year in Review
SEPTEMBER 2011: • Family-friendly amusement park Kings Island hosts its 15th annual Pride Night. • President Barack Obama signs the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” For the first time in America’s military history, openly gay service members don’t have to fear reprisal for revealing their sexual orientation. NOVEMBER 2011: • Nov. 8, 2011: Chris…
2012 Pride Schedule
Wednesday, June 27 6:30 p.m. St. John United Church of Christ Night at the Movies will present Thy Will Be Done a documentary that follows male-to-female transsexual Sara Herwig on her journey to ordination in the Presbyterian Church. 520 Fairfield Ave., Bellevue, Ky. Free. rwinters70@gmail.com, 859-496-1477. 7-10 p.m. Wiggin’ OUT 3! Supporting Pride 2012! will…
Pride in Print
“Cincinnati was certainly not on my list of places to live,” says Rich Sherman, the brain behind local monthly, printed GLBT-friendly community guide, the CNKY Scene. “In fact, it was on the top three of where I was not willing to move!” he adds, laughing. Sherman moved to the Queen City from Minneapolis, his…
(Not So) Alone in a Crowd
For too long, being gay meant life on the fringes. There were certain places you could hang out, certain people you could talk to, certain ways you could act. Fed up with accepting “how it’s always been,” these young organizers are creating safe, accepting spaces where there were none before — and finding out they…
Your Wednesday To Do List
Art on the Streets Cincinnati is a new local initiative to encourage performance and art in public spaces across the city. The group’s initial efforts will unleash dancers, singers, painters, musicians and other artists to parks and sidewalks during the World Choir Games (July 4-14) to welcome visitors (up to 90,000 of ‘em) and get…
Morning News and Stuff
City Council is expected to vote this morning to divert the $4 million for the City Hall atrium project to jumpstart the Music Hall renovation, which has brought the city and arts supporters interested in owning and operating the historic venue closer to a compromise. Council could vote on the renegotiated deal later Wednesday, though…
Cincinnati’s Hope for a Sole Surviving Daily
I am a pessimist by nature and experience. The catch phrase under my senior photo in the high school yearbook was something like, “Whatever your solution is, I have a problem for it.” My inclination still is to trouble-shoot rather than to jump on passing bandwagons. So it is with deep reservations that I admit…
Worst Week Ever! : June 20-26
WEDNESDAY JUNE 20 Residents of Bethel, Alaska recently learned that they were victims of a cruel hoax in which flyers touting the opening of a Taco Bell in town got everyone all excited for nothing. The town of 6,000 is only accessible by boat or plane and has only a Subway when it comes to…
Fashion Slaves
P ostmodern black American enslavement is quite a spectacle. Witness the temporary thunderclap of comfort and the blinding shinola emitting from the upper middle classes every time a black American charges an expensive purchase or, better yet, uses payday Friday bill money to floss. All black everything. The election and nearness of the re-election of…
The World According to Barf
In 300 years, when machines run the earth, our robot scientist overlords will be able to study our ancient society’s morals and taboos via what we allow and eventually embrace in pop culture. Film and television will be a huge part of future anthropological research. Researchers will marvel at how we were once so…
Cincinnati vs. The World 06.27.12
Antarctic chinstrap penguins have lost 36 percent of their population during the past 20 years due to a warming planet that’s caused sea ice to melt, destroying the penguins’ natural habitat and the krill population, a large component of the chinstrap penguin diet. WORLD -2 The Chicago Tribune published a glowing article praising Cincinnati’s rich…
The Class Act of Sean Casey
Quite honestly, a team Hall of Fame never seemed like a big deal to me — a nice honor, sure, but nothing like Cooperstown. It’s something, I always thought, to which those being inducted paid lip service: They’d make the speech, eat their free dinner, shake some hands and go about their own lives. That…
Developers Break Ground on Mercer Commons in OTR
The $54 million residential and commercial development project Mercer Commons broke ground in Over-the-Rhine June 26, paving way for 126 apartments, 28 condos, 17,600 square feet of commercial space, a 340-space parking garage and a 19-space surface parking lot. Stakeholders and city officials attended a morning groundbreaking ceremony, which marked the beginning of the first…
City Accepting Art Fellowship Applications
Cincinnati’s newly established Art Fellowships program will accept applications through Aug. 31 for $50,000 in funding for individual artist grants. According to City Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan, who helped secure support for the funding, the effort indicates that Cincinnati is “an art-friendly city and encourages artists to live here.” Interested artists, who must be residents of…
Wasson Way Bike Plan Moves Forward
Advocates of converting into a bike trail the space on the long-vacated Wasson Way railroad tracks that snake through several healthy residential and business districts gleamed new hope Tuesday when Cincinnati City Council’s Livable Communities Committee passed a resolution to approve the space to be preserved for a public hike-bike path, protect the area using…
Future Funding
A U.S. Department of Education survey has found that Ohio’s public colleges are among the most expensive for students nationwide. On the survey’s “net price” rankings, Miami University is listed as No. 2 most expensive in the nation at $22,303 per year. Ohio State is No. 10 at $18,253, Ohio University is No. 13 at…
Existentialism in a Dog Suit
When Ryan decides his disappointing, mundane life has come to an end, he downs a NyQuil-and-pill-spiked smoothie. But his plan to doze off into eternal sleep is foiled when his neighbor, Jenna, in a bind asks Ryan to watch her dog, Wilfred. Ryan (played to perfection by Elijah Wood) is shocked to discover that while…
