Jun 29 – Jul 6, 2016
Reinventing the Underground: Can the Mockbee’s new ownership live up to the precedent set by its previous owner and arts advocates?
Concerts and Clubs Calendar (July 6-12)
Wednesday 06 Arnold’s Bar and Grill – Todd Hepburn. 7 p.m. Blues/Jazz/Various. Free. Bella Luna – RMS Band. 7 p.m. Soft Rock/Jazz. Free. Blind Lemon – Ray Salinski. 8:30 p.m. Acoustic. Free. * Bogart’s – SWMRS with The Slippery Lips. 7 p.m. Rock/Pop/Punk. $16.12. Boswell’s – Open Mic. 7 p.m. Various. Free. Century Inn Restaurant…
Morning News: City fees too much for communities?; Model doubles down around Findlay Market; Trump stumps in Cincy
Hello all. Hope your July 4 weekend was as grand as mine was. Here’s your news today. I had a great time at this year’s Northside Fourth of July carnival, as I do every year. But organizing that festival, and others like it, has become more of a headache, community leaders say, due to increased…
Stage Door: One Hell of a Fish Story
The Independence Day holiday is a pausing point for most Cincinnati theaters operating in the summertime, so there’s not much to point you to this weekend. Except for one hell of a fish story you might consider before heading out for fireworks on Monday. I gave a Critic’s Pick to Know Theatre’s production of The…
Your Weekend To Do List: Fun. Fireworks. Parades. Live music.
FRIDAY 01 MUSIC: JUKEBOX THE GHOST Name a band other than Indie Pop threesome Jukebox the Ghost that has christened itself by mashing up Captain Beefheart and Vladimir Nabokov references. You can’t. So until someone assembles Trout Mask Bend Sinister, Jukebox the Ghost is destined to remain a cult of one. Of course, the trio,…
Morning News: MSD official details “threat” from City Hall; Duke Energy backs off pipeline plan for now; no tax levy for SORTA
The ongoing saga over payments to former City Councilman turned city subcontractor took a dramatic turn yesterday when a Metropolitan Sewer District official told reporters that the city indeed threatened to pull a contract from a Columbus-based law firm if it did not make a $55,000 payment to former councilman Sam Malone. A representative of…
Three friends from art school push their Pull Club studio to the forefront of Cincinnati printmaking
The eclectic images created by Pull Club Girl-Powered Printmaking are as whimsical as they are colorful: a bright-orange cat no bigger than a thumbtack hanging laundry on a line; crisp yellow peaches topped with healthy dollops of cream; a cluster of black-and-white rabbits curiously sniffing the air. The vibrant, hand-drawn designs, which appear on fabrics,…
As she pivots into the general election, Hillary Clinton looked to harness populist anger during her Cincinnati rally
In the arching, gold-hued rotunda of a former train station built just as the Great Depression started, Democrat presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton June 27 made a charged case against the deep economic disparities roiling American politics. But will Hamilton County — a vital purple spot in the country’s most contested swing state — buy Clinton’s…
Keller Williams plays in more than a half-dozen configurations, but his solo work shows the essence of his craft
There are so many different iterations of Keller Williams’ musical brilliance, it seems as though he may have one of the most productive cases of ADHD on the planet. Our conversation about his Cincinnati appearance this weekend took place on the eve of two big Colorado shows for Williams, one a co-bill with Leo Kottke…
Four Days of Free Music for the Fourth
Around this time for the past decade, the Northside Rock N’ Roll Carnival has brought unique music and “sideshow” attractions (as well as various vendors) to Northside, which, coupled with the neighborhood’s annual Fourth of July parade, has made it one of the country’s most unique Independence Day celebrations. The festival returns this week to…
Local Artists Reach Beyond Cincinnati
From time to time, I hope to use “The Big Picture” as a space for news about what area artists and curators are doing beyond Cincinnati. To do that, I’ll need help — emails from artists and others about what they’re involved in. Fortunately, some have been keeping me informed all along. So here is…
‘Love Wins’: The emotional journey to marriage equality
On July 11, 2013, Jim Obergefell boarded a medical plane from Cincinnati to Maryland and married the love of his life. The Supreme Court had just overturned the 17-year-old Defense of Marriage Act, meaning that the federal government could no longer make distinctions between same- and opposite-sex couples in terms of what marriages it would…
Oversexed Sea Creatures Vex ‘Fisherman’s Wife’
The publicity for Know Theatre’s production of Steve Yockey’s 2012 play, The Fisherman’s Wife, is a bit of a spoiler about what’s in store, announcing that it’s “a sex farce with sea creatures.” If you missed the show’s poster or any other promotional material and settled in for the opening scene, you’d think you walked…
Radcliffe’s flatulent corpse ignites ‘Army Man’
“Finding Harry Potter” should be the new pop cultural game played across all social media formats. Of course, when I say “Harry Potter,” I’m really talking about Daniel Radcliffe — the actor who played him — because he’s become a chameleon, popping up all over the place in unexpected and surprising roles since completing his…
From ‘The Wire’ to the ‘Black Market’
When VICE Media’s TV network VICELAND first launched in February, it seemed good enough — a variety of docu-series that all inform and entertain. They almost all feature a different host who visits a new city or country each week, looks into the overall culture of that place and then explores food, fashion, weed, LGBTQ…
New Beers and New Breweries
As always, it’s a great time to be a beer drinker in Cincinnati: Two long-awaited breweries opened this month, adding to the city’s already thriving brewery scene. And select seasonals are back in rotation at local taprooms, including MadTree’s Shade, a Gose-style brew made with blackberries and sea salt, and Joon, which is aged in…
Where to Find Cincinnati’s Iconic Blue Soft Serve Ice Cream
An affinity. A cult-following. Some might even call it an obsession. If you’ve lived in Cincinnati for any length of time, chances are you can distinctly evoke the taste of blue ice cream, a blueberry-based soft serve — although the actual name of the flavor is just “blue” — and quintessential Queen City treat. Introduced…
Sound Advice: Dawes with The Lone Bellow (July 5)
On 2015’s All Your Favorite Bands, Dawes leaves listeners drenched in nostalgia. The LP features narratives of distant memories over rich vocal harmonies, acoustic guitars and bluesy riffs. Known for emulating the folky Laurel Canyon sound of the ’60s and ’70s — think Jackson Browne and Neil Young — Dawes (which hails from Southern California)…
Sound Advice: Zac Brown Band with Drake White & The Big Fire (July 1)
In much the same way that Phish and Dave Matthews Band have organically grown their fanbases at a grassroots level without a lot of initial corporate interference, the Zac Brown Band achieved an impressive string of successes and a formidably loyal audience with a boots-on-the-ground approach. Formed in 2002, Brown hit the road relentlessly. By…
Sound Advice: Dale Watson with Wayne Hancock (June 30)
Over the course of Dale Watson’s four-decade career, the Alabama-born/Austin, Texas-based singer/songwriter has released close to 30 studio and live albums, only two of which — 2013’s El Rancho Azul and last year’s Call Me Insane — made any inroads on the Billboard charts. And yet Watson may be one of the most respected and…
Sound Advice: Jukebox the Ghost with Current Events (July 1)
Name a band other than Indie Pop threesome Jukebox the Ghost that has christened itself by mashing up Captain Beefheart and Vladimir Nabokov references. You can’t. So until someone assembles Trout Mask Bend Sinister, Jukebox the Ghost is destined to remain a cult of one. Of course, the trio, consisting of keyboardist/vocalist Ben Thornewill, guitarist/vocalist…
What a Week! June 22-28
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22 After the Senate failed to pass gun control laws last week, members of the House took matters into their own hands. And by hands, we mean butts. Civil rights icon and all-around O.G. John Lewis led many representatives in a sit-in on the House floor to call attention to the issue and…
SCOTUS Strikes Down Texas Abortion Laws
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 27 struck down a set of three-year-old Texas laws governing abortion providers in the state. Those laws, setting strict physical stipulations on facilities and requiring hospital admitting privileges for doctors providing abortions, are similar to laws subsequently passed in Ohio. Pro-choice activists believe Ohio’s laws might also prove unconstitutional…
SCOTUS Strikes Down Texas Abortion Laws
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 27 struck down a set of three-year-old Texas laws governing abortion providers in the state. Those laws, setting strict physical stipulations on facilities and requiring hospital admitting privileges for doctors providing abortions, are similar to laws subsequently passed in Ohio. Pro-choice activists believe Ohio’s laws might also prove unconstitutional…
Can the Mockbee’s new ownership live up to the precedent set by its previous owners and arts advocates?
When Cory Mangas and Jon Stevens bought the building known as the Mockbee on West McMicken Street in Brighton in November of 2015, it seemed like the next natural step for the two self-proclaimed “DIY developers.” The two property owners already held the adjacent Art and Metal Co. building, which was once part of the…
Morning News: More drama with MSD; big news about Big Boy; developer appreciates controversial urban projects
Strange happenings at City Hall: Council’s rules and audit committee spent about two hours yesterday going over a dispute between a Columbus law firm and former council member Sam Malone, who received payments for consulting on Cincinnati’s Metropolitan Sewer District. The Columbus firm, Bricker & Eckler, says someone in the Cincinnati administration threatened to pull…
