Locals Only: : Life of the Potty
Joan Whittaker Local singer/songwriter Joan Whittaker's music career is veering straight towards the toilet. But don't worry; that's exactly how she planned it. Her new CD, Miss Joanie's Potty Party, is a children's album featuring 10 fun songs aimed to help kids transition from diapers to the toilet. Though it's her first foray into…
Medicine Wheel Rejuvenation
Recently, I met Rev. Francine Haydon, also known as "Silverwolf Woman." She's a healer who practices Medicine Wheel Rejuvenation Techniques. I was intrigued by this and asked her to provide an explanation of this process. "First, I explain the entire process to the client so there are no surprises," she said. "I show them the…
Must Be Coincidence: Bush Visits, Torture Follows
Sean Hughes/photopresse.com Amandah Povilitus and her willing victim think this kind of treatment has no place in the circus. People of means were allowed to see President George Bush when he visited an Indian Hill estate last week. The cost of admission was a $2,100 donation to the re-election campaign of U.S. Sen. Mike…
Shams Split
One of Cincinnati's finest Rock bands has decided to call it a day. Singer/guitarist Zachary Gabbard recently announced that Thee Shams have ceased to exist. Together since 1999, Thee Shams (who would only later add the "e," after another "The Shams" laid claim to the name) played swampy, authentic Garage Rock with interesting tinges of…
Cover Story: Coming Home
Sean Hughes Coming Home The hotel has a hole blown through the front of the building, slicing it in half. Gray palm trees, nearly leafless, some snapped in half, surround the fragile remains of the building. Jon Hughes' camera clicks on the destruction. "This is like fucking Bosnia," he says, his response to the…
Monkey Business
HOT Pistol-Whipping the Rock Hall While artists like KISS, Iggy Pop and Patti Smith (and their fans) eagerly await invites into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, two of this year's inductees who have long been outspoken about their trepidation toward the Hall are pissing all over the honor. In a hand-scribbled note on…
News: Combating Crime Waves With Mind Waves
Matt Borgerding Vince Lasorso Jr. teaches meditation. Vince Lasorso Jr. has had enough of Cincinnati's rising crime rate, including the 79 homicides in 2005, so he's doing something about it. He's recruiting an army of at least 3,000 volunteers that he'll train and then lead in an assault on those statistics. He'll use an…
News: Killing a Family
Graham Lienhart Eddie and Samantha Sanders are working to gain clemency for the man who killed their relative, Emma Hill, shown in framed photo. The man convicted of the crime is also a family member. The voices demanding vengeance after a murder usually come from the family of the victim. What happens when the…
When the Saints Return
Fat Tuesday and the Mardi Gras season has thankfully rekindled the quickly fading images of the jazz-singin?, sax-swingin?, feather-flyin?, tap-dancin?, pirate-prancin? city of New Orleans. Six months have moped by since Katrina evicted so many good folks from their homes; this is the time when the aid runs dry, the buzz runs low, and the…
Diner: Belly of the Beast
C. Matthew Hamby Dick Stehlin is holding his hands about 18 inches apart to frame the ribcage of a dead pig, hanging upside down at Stehlin's Meat Market in Colerain Township. "Now, this is your pork loin," he says, adding, "These are your spare ribs," running a fingertip over the evenly-spaced ribs, "and on…
Doubt
James Leynse In the Continuum, written and performed by Nikkole Salter (left) and Danai Gurira (right), is a likely production for the Cincinnati Playhouse's 2006-2007 season. How about a column of rumor mongering? Let's start with shows you might see in Cincinnati next season. A 24-city tour has been announced for DOUBT, the 2005…
Music: Unconventional Wisdom
Jason George With her own label, Sheeba, Jane Siberry asks fans to pay "what feels right." When you think of mavericks and iconoclast artists, a self-effacing, soft-spoken songstress from Canada might not be the first one who pops to mind. Yet in her quiet way, Jane Siberry has been defying expectations as well as…
Name Dropping
Irma Lazarus — patron of the arts, grande dame, visionary and one of Cincinnati's most notable women — counted celebrities like Beverly Sills and Carol Channing among her friends, along with a host of politicians, musicians and artists. "Where she was, the action was, the party was, the fun was," Sarah Kahn said to me…
Which 10 ‘Commandments’ Do You Mean?
The author(s) of the biblical covenant at Sinai must be weeping over the mountain of fervent hypocrisy burying their effort. Among those most enthusiastically wielding shovels are some Christian clergy and laity. Not content with advocacy in their pulpits and homes, they want the ancient Israelite code displayed in civic spaces. This pious campaign rivals…
Right Time for Healing
The young boy in the black and white photograph is outgoing and energetic. He's standing in a kayak in the shallow waters of a lake and holding an oar over his head like a pint-sized muscleman. "That's me at age 12," says Martin Moran, creator and performer of the one-man play, The Tricky Part. "That…
Upcoming Concert Reviews of Edith Frost, David Gray and More…
Eric Ziegenhagen Edith Frost Edith Frost with The Zincs Wednesday · Southgate House Edith Frost's last album, the crystalline Pop gem Wonder Wonder, was released in the summer of 2001 to overwhelmingly positive critical response. By the time Frost wound up traversing the country on her subsequent tour in the fall, the 9/11 attacks…
Living Out Loud: : Sitting on One’s Ass
I've been sitting on my ass a lot lately. Of course, that's how one usually sits, but I've gotten pretty damn tired of it. Last Monday I went back to the doctor and got some good news: I can start walking again a little bit for now, but I'll take what I can get.…
Liberty’s Loss Lamented
Liberty, like God, is frequently used on both sides of an argument. But both sides can't be right, according to Robert Garmong, senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute (<a "liberty,"=""liberty,"" Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper, resulting in numerous protests. "Those cartoons were an exercise of free speech, and everybody recognizes that," Garmong said. "But we…
Did Bode Miller Fail Us or Himself at the Olympics?
Jerry Dowling In honor of the ancient Greeks, who originated the Olympics, we're reminded that nature abhors a vacuum. Today, a civilization owes its gratitude to Bode Miller, who extended the ancient wisdom from nature, where we used to live, to the mediating technology of artificial need that we live in today. The problem…
Film: Boy (Just Visiting) the Hood
Rouge Pictures A stress-free day: Dave Chappelle spent his Comedy Central paycheck assembling a dream lineup of musical acts for his own Brooklyn Block Party. The ghetto that star comedian Dave Chappelle calls home is hippie enclave Yellow Springs, a 90-minute drive north of Cincinnati. In the summer of 2004, after the 32-year-old comic…
Suspects at WAIF
I would like to applaud CityBeat for the excellent story Watching at WAIF (issue of Feb. 22-28) and the details contained therein. WAIF-FM is a great organization; its programmers are all reasonable and responsible individuals who want to share with the world their views and opinions. But the installation of cameras creates an environment of…
Film: Independent Spirit
Accidental Genius Well-known stories of artistic rebellion and no-money perseverance involving actor and independent filmmaker John Cassavetes make up the majority of chapters in longtime film critic Marshall Fine's lively and engaging biography, Accidental Genius: How John Cassavetes Invented American Independent Film. The one story unknown to the most diehard film buff is the…
