Bonnaroo 2010: Day 2 Musings
When the sun rises at 6 in the morning and temperatures climb to 95 degrees by 9 a.m., it’s impossible to sleep in while camping at Bonnaroo, which means your buzz never really wears off after the first night. If you have any hopes of surviving Bonnaroo, this is a critical time to hydrate with…
Rock on the Range Roundup
The quintessential Columbus rock festival, Rock on the Range, drew great crowds this year. We met with a flock of artists to get the scoop on this galaxy of music. Here are interviews with many of them: Killswitch Engage is a metalcore band from Westfield, Massachusetts, formed in 1999 after the disbandment of Overcast and…
Music: Bradley Leighton
The flute hasn’t always been considered the coolest of instruments — though certainly ahead of accordion and tuba — but “cool” is surely a word that comes to mind when listening to the smooth Jazz sounds of San Diego’s Bradley Leighton. The master Jazz flautist has been praised for brining a presence to the flute…
Music: The Ready Stance Album Release Party
New local band The Ready Stance makes its debut appearance Saturday at Northside Tavern, and local music fans who have been following the scene since before Facebook and MP3s likely will recognize at least a couple of familiar faces in their rank. Guitarist Wes Pence and drummer Eric Moreton were founding members of Middlemarch, one…
Events: The Pretty Things Peepshow
“Travel back to a time when vintage vixens performed stunning acts of danger and desire.” So says the Pretty Things Peepshow press release. When this time was, we don’t exactly know, but these broads are back in fringe and fishnets at 10 p.m. Monday to frolic at Mayday in Northside. This traveling peepshow will feature…
Water and Stone (Review)
Critic's Pick The idiosyncratic personality of the Zaha Hadid-designed Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) elicits conversations similar to those that Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum long has generated. On the one hand, there are concerns that the building overpowers the work. On the other, when an artist or exhibition manages to strike up a spirit of…
Art: Rebecca Nava Soto at Semantics Gallery
Through June 26, Cincinnati painter Rebecca Nava Soto is showing work from her Chamula Series at Semantics Gallery (1107 Harrison Ave.) in the Brighton District. The work was made in response to her visit to a church in the Mexican village of San Juan de Chamula that combined Mayan rituals with Catholicism. Her work uses…
Events: Goettafest
This weekend it's time once again to celebrate and give gratitude for the best gift German immigrants brought to the area: goetta. MainStrasse Village’s “Original” Goettafest is back for the 10th year and is sponsored by J.B.’s Barbecue. Come out and try the exciting food possibilities Goettafest has to offer this year, including Goetta Reubens,…
Music: American Cancer Society Benefit Featuring The Guild of Calamitous Intent
Spawned out of a Radiohead tribute show two years ago, after winning over the audience with a version of “2 Plus 2 Equals 5,” The Guild of Calamitous Intent was born. Vivid emotion pushes the structure. Intense drum parts creep in to bang-bang-shake things up, and then the mood settles into rich guitar riffs. Both…
Music: MidPoint Indie Summer Series: Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
During Jason Isbell's six-year run with Drive-By Truckers, he contributed a great deal to the band’s song coffers. And yet during the last two and a half years that Isbell spent with the Truckers he was diverting a number of songs to a solo project he called Sirens of the Ditch, which he released after…
Kinda Weird, Like You
The seventh annual Cincy Fringe Festival finished last Saturday evening. And in a year when many arts organizations have suffered in attendance and revenue, the Fringe — operated by Know Theatre of Cincinnati — held its own. Sales of multi-day passes were almost identical to 2009, while single ticket sales declined slightly. Overall attendance for…
Music: Magnolia Mountain Album Release Party
Local Americana/Roots outfit Magnolia Mountain remembers the old days of vinyl records and wanted to connect with them in some significant way, so they’re releasing their new ambitiously sized CD, Redbird Green, in a double-album vinyl format. It was clearly a structure Magnolia frontman Mark Utley was working toward — the titles on the back…
Onstage: Smokey Joe’s Cafe
Some people use the term “jukebox musicals” with a disdainful tone and a curled lip. The truth is that a good jukebox can be a wonderful thing: It really depends on who’s pushing the buttons and what they’re playing. Smokey Joe's Cafe, which is making waves on the Showboat Majestic, was a Broadway hit in…
Events: Bloomsday
Bloomsday sounds like a summer floral event, but it’s not. It’s actually about books. Or one book in particular: James Joyce’s Ulysses. Celebrated each June 16 in more than 60 countries, this event with a literary twist looks at the lives of the ordinary citizens of Dublin as seen through the eyes of James Joyce.…
Art: Kate Kern and Jim Wainscott at Aisle Gallery
Aisle Gallery's space is divided up right now for two solo projects, one by Kate Kern and the other featuring Jim Wainscott, who continues his project of circular, highly layered paintings of his surrounding environment. Kern’s Small World is populated with works that are not quite “book arts” as much as “book-aware” art. The grandly-scaled…
Comedy: Kenny Smith
A regular on The Bob & Tom Show, Kenny Smith has been a fixture on college campuses for several years now and is starting to become a draw at comedy clubs across the country. Perhaps it’s those university gigs that have made him more socially conscious. “Don’t say the 'N' word, white people, no matter…
Music: Wakey! Wakey!
Before Wakey! Wakey!’s Mike Grubbs started making anthemic Chamber Pop/Indie Rock that sounds like a cross between Ben Folds, The Shins and Modest Mouse as produced by Van Dyke Parks, he played bar gigs for drunken collegiates, joined a Rock band working a Southern boogie groove and did time with the touring productions of Camelot…
Events: Fathers and Daughters Cooking Together
Celebrate Father’s Day weekend with some quality time in the kitchen. Grailville Retreat and Program Center in Loveland is hosting this Rites of Passage gathering in which fathers and daughters can together learn how to create and share simple and healthy foods. Rites of Passage gatherings are designed to support the physical, emotional, intellectual and…
Events: Taste of the NFL
Spend an evening enjoying delicious hors d’oeuvres, entrées and desserts while rubbing elbows with celebrities at Cincinnati’s largest venue, Paul Brown Stadium. The Freestore Foodbank presents this year’s Taste of the NFL, which brings together Bengals players, fans and the best restaurants in the area to take on the increasing problem of hunger in Greater…
Love, Loss and What I Ate
My neighborhood is very close-knit. When you read a review I’ve written, chances are good that it was a neighbor dining with me. On New Year’s Eve this year, we feasted — with our neighbors — on what became “The Great Fried Chicken Smackdown” article, pitting two popular local chicken eateries against each other. I…
The Red and Black Adds Some Green
Say “University of Cincinnati” in a crowd of locals, and someone is bound to reply with colors: red and black. The university is known by its trademark hues as much as for anything else in this town. But for all the people who think that way, there’s a growing push on campus to have people…
Magnolia in Bloom
Gather round, kids. Pappy wants to tell you how it was in the old days. Way back then, we used to get our music on big black dinner plates that we put on a revolving platter and played using an arm with a diamond needle at the end, which would run along in a groove…
Events: Juneteenth Festival
Juneteenth Festival in Eden Park is a family event celebrating the end of slavery in America with a slew of eclectic activities, ranging from historical reenactments to drum line performances by local talent. Since Cincinnati’s initial Juneteenth celebration in 1988, the festival has blossomed into an event that draws nearly 20,000 people, ranging from young…
Bonnaroo 2010: Day 1 Musings
It’s all said and done. Roughly 130,000 people attended Bonnaroo Music Festival this year, and now that only a few crazed partiers still linger on festival grounds the record shows that most survived. Temperatures soared over 100 degrees each day. Plenty of good men and women went down hard from heat stroke. Others had to…
Nine Decades Strong
Cincinnati Opera’s 90th anniversary season already has more drama than a Verdi potboiler in an Italian opera house about to go on strike. But despite casting woes for the opening work, there’s plenty to celebrate: a gala and three great operas with world-class performers, conductors and directors. The festivities kick off with a gala concert…
The A-Team (Review)
Joe Carnahan (Narc and Smokin' Aces) brings his usual explosive energy to this big-screen adaptation of the hit television series, which kicks off with the now-standard segment because this A-Team unit isn’t your father’s beloved crew of salty Vietnam vets who were wrongly accused of a crime they didn’t commit. No, Carnahan’s big-screen A-listers (well,…
The Guild of Calamitous Intent (Profile)
Spawned out of a Radiohead tribute show two years ago, after winning over the audience with a version of “2 Plus 2 Equals 5,” The Guild of Calamitous Intent was born. Let’s get right down to it. Here, vivid emotion pushes the structure. Intense drum parts creep in to bang-bang-shake things up, and then the…
The Karate Kid (Review)
Adhering closely to the original 1984 Karate Kid blueprint that made Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita household names, this Will Smith-produced remake ups the stakes by moving the action to China. Casting Jackie Chan as Mr. Han, a martial-arts master (disguised as apartment building maintenance man) who teaches his young protégé Dre (Jaden Smith) how…
The Ready Stance
New local band The Ready Stance makes its debut appearance Saturday at Northside Tavern. The free show also includes performances by Goose and Wussy’s Chuck Cleaver. Local music fans who have been following the scene since before Facebook and MP3s likely will recognize at least a couple of familiar faces in The Ready Stance’s rank.…
Bradley Leighton
The flute hasn’t always been considered the coolest of instruments — though certainly ahead of accordion and tuba — but “cool” is certainly a word that comes to mind when listening to the smooth Jazz sounds of San Diego’s Bradley Leighton. The master Jazz flautist has been praised for brining a presence to the flute…
Juneteenth Festival Featuring The Deele, Slave, The Last Boppers and More
This Saturday and Sunday at Eden Park marks the return of the Cincinnati Juneteenth Festival, an annual cultural event celebrating the end of slavery. The event features tons of music on two stages, beginning Saturday at 1:30 p.m. On the Seasongood Pavilion stage Saturday you'll see performances by local artists like Ms. Jaz, Basic Truth,…
Bonnaroo 2010: Getting There
(Editor's Note: For the 2010 Bonnaroo music festival in Manchester, Tenn., CityBeat dispatched a team to cover the event. ’Roo vet Ric Hickey returned, joined by newcomers Adam Sievering and photographer Chuck Madden. We'll be rolling out their reports here over the next several days. Here is Hickey's first dispatch.)—- It’s been a couple years…
Fringe Finale
Saturday evening was the final night of the 2010 Cincinnati Fringe Festival. At the closing party at Know Theatre’s Underground bar, three picks were announced. Fringe organizer Eric Vosmeier made the point that it’s not really about competition but rather to give Fringe artists who eke out meager paychecks based on attendance at their respective…
Friday Movie Roundup: Back to the Future
What's up with all the 1980s love currently spilling out of multiplexes? Sure, Hollywood and marketers of all sorts have long mined nostalgia as a powerful enticement tool in the marketplace. But is 20 years enough time to generate sufficient yearning for a period whose mainstream culture is best represented by the rise of stupid…
Women’s Caucus to Question Candidates
The public is invited to attend and help question local candidates at the annual endorsement meeting of the Cincinnati Women's Political Caucus 7-9:30 p.m. June 24 at First Unitarian Church, 536 Linton St., Avondale. Although the public may attend, only caucus members will be allowed to vote on endorsements after the question and answer session.—-…
Dreamgirls (Review)
Critic's Pick Dreams can lead to aspirations achieved or to high hopes crushed. They can be the source of creative genius or can motivate evil deeds. They can result in love or, when broken, be the source of despair. Every one of those results is at play in the 1981 musical Dreamgirls, loosely based on…
The Comfort of Anger
Playwright Fernando Dovalina says The Comfort of Anger is a work in progress, and he’s right. It’s not there yet. The lean cast (four actors, two handling 11 roles between them) does the best it can with multiple balls in the air, but perhaps 70 Fringe minutes aren’t enough to handle rape, abortion, giving a…
Wakey! Wakey!
Before Wakey! Wakey!’s Mike Grubbs started making anthemic Chamber Pop/Indie Rock that sounds like a cross between Ben Folds, The Shins and Modest Mouse as produced by Van Dyke Parks, he had to endure the childhood musical gauntlet of piano lessons. In Grubbs’ case, those lessons came at the hands of his mother, whose work…
MidPoint Indie Summer Series Featuring Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
It can’t be easy for a prolific songwriter to be in a band with other prolific songwriters. One doesn’t have to imagine the pressure George Harrison was under during his tenure with The Beatles; the proof is all over his three-album solo debut, All Things Must Pass. Clearly Jason Isbell didn’t build up that kind…
Stage Door: On the Fringe
If you're just tuning in to the Fringe, I can make no better recommendation for this weekend than to buy a six-show pass (for the price of five tickets) and go see some of the Critic's Picks that CityBeat writers have identified (head here to read through all the reviews).—- My personal Fringe choices are…
Queer in the U.S.A.
The program for Queer in the U.S.A. states: “I ask you to transgress, to step beyond the bounds of reality and into a magical space where one man can play eight different characters with minimal set, sound and lighting.” There is no problem with one man playing eight characters or with having minimal technical accouterments.…
Money Back Guaranteed
Critic's Pick Houston-based Psophonia Dance Company has proven itself again to be a thoroughly modern dance ensemble in every sense of the word. In their returning Cincy Fringe appearance, the ensemble once again addresses contemporary issues with fun, flair and plenty of enjoyable dancing. Through a series of lively, colorful vignettes, Money Back Guaranteed explores…
Trust
Critic's Pick First off, folks, you need to reconfigure your schedule for Trust at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati. In the only error I’m aware of in the awesomely complicated Cincy Fringe lineup, the two-hour production is listed as 50 minutes. But find time for it — it’s the most show for the money you’ll come…
Harry Brown (Review)
Purely for the reliable pleasure of Michael Caine's company, I came ready to praise what threatened to be another miserabilist drama of life and death in Broken Britain. For a while, Caine holds his own as the titular pensioner, defeat registered in the quiescent slump of his shoulders, as he trudges through his last days…
Muscatatuck: Chestnut Ridge
Key At-A-Glance Information Length: 0.5 milesConfiguration: LoopDifficulty: EasyScenery: Woods, wetland, wet woods, and pondsExposure: ShadedTraffic: ModerateTrail Surface: Paved, recycled plastic boardwalk, and gravelHiking Time: 30-45 minutesDriving Distance: 2 hours west of CincinnatiSeason: Year-roundAccess: Sunrise-sunsetMaps: Chestnut RidgeWheelchair Accessible: YesFacilities: Nature center and shop, restrooms, and drinking waterFor More Information: Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge, (812) 522-4352 or…
Time to Run It Up the Flagpole…
I’m one of those rare liberals who live in southwest Warren County, in a suburb that’s almost certainly one of Sarah Palin’s "pro-America" areas of the country. On primary election day, when I announced my party affiliation, everyone looked up and laughed. Yet, shockingly, few American flags fly in my neighborhood on a daily basis.…
Three Nights Left to Fringe
The 2010 Cincy Fringe Festival has three days/nights left, and tickets are going fast for the final performances of the more critically-acclaimed shows. CityBeat's review crew has now posted reviews of 27 of Fringe's 29 productions, with the final two coming later today on our Fringe micro-site.—- From a quick scan of our site, 14…
Onstage: Dreamgirls
In a summer season that’s pretty sparse on theater, Broadway in Cincinnati is giving us a major shot of glam starting on June 8 when Dreamgirls sashays into town. Maybe you saw the big-screen version in 2006 (Jennifer Hudson won an Academy Award as big-voiced Effie White), but Dreamgirls actually got its start on Broadway…
Heading North
Most of the time I extol the virtues of Cincinnati theaters, but we don’t have a corner on that market, so I’d like to give Dayton its due. Demographers tell us that sooner rather than later our two metropolitan areas will become one with I-75 as our main street, so it’s worth paying attention to…
Pizza With The Works
My husband and I recently enjoyed a lunch date while sampling what many have hailed as some of the “Best Oven-Fired Pizza” in Greater Cincinnati at The Works Brick Oven Restaurant (20 Grear-Millitzer Lane, 513-697-8408), near the bike trail in downtown Loveland. Within the walls of the city’s landmark water filling station for steam trains,…
Let Freedom Sing: Of 19th Century Americans (Review)
Vivian Kline is a Class A name-dropper. The names she drops — Nicholas Longworth, P.T. Barnum and sister poets Alice and Phoebe Carey among them — have the satisfying clunk of historical import and might mean most to history buffs. Although, if you’re not, this is a good place to begin. Kline, of Cincinnati, lays…
Events: Cincinnati Summer Pop Festival’s 40th Anniversary at the Main Library
On June 13, 1970, Grand Funk Railraod, Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop and the Stooges and many more iconic bands took over Crosley Field at the Cincinnati Pop Festival. This Sunday, revisit this moment as the Main Library screens Midsummer Rock, a documentary about this festival featuring rarely seen concert footage. There will be a panel…
Tim Burke and Greg Hartmann
[LOSER] GREG HARTMANN: When a Republican-controlled Hamilton County Commission persuaded voters to approve a sales tax hike in 1996 to pay for new stadiums, it included a property tax rollback to make it more palatable. Years later, sales tax revenues aren’t enough to pay for stadium debt and the sole GOP commissioner — Hartmann —…
Pop Goes Cincinnati
Forty years ago this Sunday, Iggy Pop — 23-year-old front man of The Stooges, a defiantly loud and grungy Detroit band — created Rock & Roll mythology at the Cincinnati Summer Pop Festival. Bare-chested, singing “T.V. Eye,” he scrambled from the outdoor stage at the home of the Cincinnati Reds, Crosley Field, and went into…
A Summer to Remember
“Get in your car, brother, and get down with the people in Cincinnati. A gathering of the people. Celebrate the beginning rites of Summer with the spirits of the Sun, Sky, and Stars.” — from the press release for the Cincinnati Summer Pop Festival, June 1970 On the Saturday afternoon of June 13, 1970, a…
Young Joins City Council in Controversial Deal
Two people that most readers have never heard of before were the deciding factor last week about who became the latest member of Cincinnati City Council, in a process that’s left a bad taste in the mouth of many voters. The pair in question was Miles Lindahl and Dawn Jackson. For anyone not familiar with…
Music: MidPoint Indie Summer Series
Can't wait until September for the MidPoint Music Festival? Every Friday you can get a free MidPoint preview from local and national bands on Fountain Square. This week's show features Neon Indian (pictured), Wild Nothing, The Minor Leagues and For Algernon. You can also save cash by purchasing your all-access MidPoint wristband at the MPMF…
Truth/Beauty (Review)
Photography is the artform that has most in common with comedian Rodney Dangerfield. Historically, it got no respect. It was all right in its way, critics said, but was it art? Late-19th/early-20th-century Pictorialist photographers said, “Yes!” The Pictorialist exhibition at the Taft Museum plants their flag immediately with its title, Truth/Beauty, echoing a phrase from…
Judge Rejects COAST’s Claim, Scolds Prosecutor
Ronald Reagan once supposedly said the unwritten 11th commandment, at least as far as politics was concerned, was “Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.” People of good conscience, however, know that simply isn’t true. Sometimes a person’s actions are so egregious or unethical that leaving them unchallenged would be detrimental. A person’s first…
Marvin Smith [Ollie’s Trolley]
Marvin Smith, owner of Ollie’s Trolley in the West End and inventor of the Ollie Burger, has been known to eat an occasional Burrito Bowl at Chipotle — vegetarian style, with loads of veggies, black beans and a side of guacamole. As he enters the busy outdoor barbecue season, it’s a little break from smoky…
June 2-8: Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY JUNE 2 If you were to believe 1980s stereotypes, college fraternities and sororities would be a bunch of mean rich kids adored by administrators even though they’re total dicks to everyone else (you might also believe that red cars are cool and black men are scary). The Enquirer reported today that Miami University, the…
Fringy Faves
The 2010 Cincy Fringe Festival is headed toward its second and final weekend, wrapping up Saturday. If you haven’t made your move yet, we’re ready with some recommendations. Here are short takes on six productions still running that CityBeat reviewers have labelled “critic’s picks.” These are excerpts from longer reviews; for the full commentary about…
MidPoint Tickets on Sale Now
Last Friday marked the kick-off of the free MidPoint Indie Summer series on Fountain Square, a jammed-pack affair headlined by Scottish Indie Pop troupe Camera Obscura. It also marked the first time you could purchase tickets for the MidPoint Music Festival (Sept. 23-25). While they last, MidPoint three-day passes will be available at all MidPoint…
Neil Young’s Greendale (Review)
You might already love Sun Green. You might already love her flowing blonde hair, her activist demeanor and her happy place, the Double E Ranch. She is the center of the Greendale “musical novel” and film, both written and produced by Neil Young. Now the Greendale story is ready in graphic novel form via Vertigo,…
Decade of Contrition
I met Kate at a poetry slam at Casa Cantina in Athens, when we were undergraduates at Ohio University. We were the kind of people you’d find at a poetry slam in an Athens hippie co-op bar. We became instant friends as we breathlessly confessed every book we both loved, every CD we both owned,…
Beck, Rand Paul and Limbaugh Loves Elton
[HOT] Get a “Kick” Out of Beck One of the coolest just-for-the-hell-of-it projects by a musical superstar in recent memory is Beck’s “Record Club” project, a loose-yet-focused jam session of sorts that features Beck and an impressive list of pals covering classic albums in full. The entire albums are recorded in one day and then…
New Camp Helps Kids With Mental Health Issues
For most kids summertime means freedom. It’s a time of exploration and long days of fun without the rigid structure of the school day. Nothing sums up that childhood rite of passage than time away from home at summer camp, a place where children can make friends and learn new things. But for other kids,…
