Have A Squirrely St. Paddy’s Day
Up in Oxford last Thursday, city officials were again nervous about Miami University's infamous, unsanctioned all-day St. Patrick's Day celebration, where students start drinking green beer before the crack of dawn and don't stop until the day is done (or they collapse from alcohol poisoning, whichever comes first). It's a St. Paddy's event, but it…
Lookwhos: Look Who’s Eating – Les Stoneham
Sean Hughes Les Stoneham Les Stoneham describes himself as a "coffee drinker by trade, but an espresso drinker by passion." Tasting his freshly ground, locally roasted beans made into an intense brew without a trace of bitterness and topped with a supremely dense froth, one can easily understand that passion. The nonprofit Roh's Street…
Onstage: Wild Ride
Sandy Underwood Rachel (Ericka Kreutz), on the lam, meets Lloyd (Jim Wisniewski) in Reckless at the Cincinnati Playhouse. Following a Christmas Eve she could not have imagined, Rachel (Ericka Kreutz), on the lam from a hit man hired by her husband, asks, "Do you think we ever really know people?" It's a legitimate question,…
Music: The Reluctant Product
Sony BMG Pink Freud: Pop star Pink says that her politically active, Vietnam vet father is responsible for her rebellious, independent streak. It's no secret that Pink has a beef with the Pop tarts whose genre she inhabits, but on her latest album I'm Not Dead's first single, "Stupid Girls," she threw punches at…
Diner: Understated Elegance
Joe Lamb High gusting winds, blowing snow and a low of 8 degrees. On a night like this, I'd rather stay home and have a peanut butter and salmonella sandwich than head out into the weather for a dinner review. But I'm so incredibly devoted to my faithful CityBeat readers! And, luckily, our dinner…
Damaging Ruling on Punitive Damages
Damages are a key part of the law of torts, which deals with personal injuries. When a person is injured by the negligence or inattention of another, the victim can recover damages. In most cases, the jury sets the amount of the damages based on instructions from the trial judge. Let's take the example of…
Upcoming Concert Reviews of Bitch, Ratatat and Of Montreal
James Kenoi Ratatat Bitch Thursday · Crush (above Union Station Video Café) If you think someone leaving a moderately successful band called Bitch and Animal might search for a more family-friendly moniker … well, you don't know Bitch. Bitch and Animal was actually a dreadlocked, lesbian duo comprised of Bitch (yeah, that's her name…
Why the NCAA Tournament Matters, and Why It’s a Farce
Jerry Dowling Among the dopiest elements in discourse about sports, one must count the passion expended on questions that no longer will be operative in three days. But it can hardly be avoided during the first week of the NCAA Tournament, which is one reason among many why much of college basketball has become…
Film: Playful Pastiche
Warner Bros. Entertainment Bogart and Bacall revisited: Cate Blanchett and George Clooney in The Good German. After about 20 minutes of watching The Good German, I was all set to drop a stinky load of outrage on this waste of celluloid. Then something happened. Maybe it was a brain aneurism. Before I knew it,…
Locals Only: : Kill City
Kill City Kill City "When our new drummer Sean joined the band, I told him that I hope he's ready for all the Use Your Illusion era of Guns N' Roses drama without the Appetite of Destruction success." This poignant statement from vocalist Jonni SeXXX epitomizes the general mentality of the posse of vagabonds…
Onstage: Large and Small
Tim Fuller Tina Fabrique as Ella Fitzgerald at the Playhouse. Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park's Ed Stern has been on the road a lot lately. I talked with him by phone recently in Delaware, where he's directing a grad student production of A Streetcar Named Desire. But the producing artistic director has found time…
Art: Laughing and Thinking
Graham Lienhart Robert Chaney's "Green Hell" is part of Publico's Hello Cleveland. Walking into Publico this month, you might assume that Paul Coors is jamming away at his gallery on Clay Street for the fun of it. Not so. The music — what is that, Black Sabbath? — blares from the back. It's tempting…
Web Onstage: Disharmony
You would imagine, I suspect, that a string quartet must be a set of people who finish each other's sentences, who might "be like four instruments played with one bow." That's the illusion, at least, demanded by a man who taught several members of the fictional Lazara Quartet whose story is told in Michael Hollinger's…
Web Onstage: Harold and Maude at Dayton’s Human Race Theater
When screenwriter Colin Higgins's movie, Harold and Maude (Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon), opened in 1972, Vincent Canby panned it in The New York Times and the showbiz trade paper, Variety, said it had "all the fun of a burning orphanage." The film became and remains a cult classic anyway. When Vogue magazine interviewed 50-plus…
Tuesdays With Morrie
Brian Friel Brian Friel Best-selling novels aren't necessarily the most predictable sources for good stage plays. But Mitch Albom's TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, which spent four years on The New York Times' list and became a successful TV film that picked up several Emmys, has become a popular onstage work. According to American Theatre magazine,…
News: Dying to Know
Graham Lienhart Like dozens of other family members of the victims of unsolved Cincinnati homicides, Lucy Logan is still waiting to know who killed her son. But she's done something about it. On the oddly warm winter day we meet, Lucy Logan is laid back, natural and straightforward. She wears no makeup. Behind her…
Film: Pieces of a War
Typecast Releasing Followers of Muqtada al-Sadr listen in rapt attention at a rally. When James Longley's documentary Iraq in Fragments premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, the biting, cautionary, tragic double meaning of the title wasn't so readily apparent as it is now. It was clear it referred to the classical three-act structure…
Music: Some of ‘Em Jump
Woodrow J. Hinton For six years, I worked like a dog for a limousine company. We provided ground transportation for most big acts that came to Cincy. I never asked, but pit seats would often magically appear one hour before show time. Cool adrenaline rush, but long, stressful hours, even for a dog. Coordinating…
Film: Rock Does Rohmer
Fox Searchlight Chris Rock and Gina Torres star as a married couple in I Think I Love My Wife. Chris Rock's sophomore directorial effort, I Think I Love My Wife, is also his first independent film (well, if Fox Searchlight counts), and so he's justifiably concerned about how his fans will react to the…
News to Use
Death Row Survivor Speaks A man wrongly convicted of several crimes and sentenced to death in New Mexico will speak at 5:30 p.m. March 25 in Kelley Auditorium in Alter Hall at Xavier University. This event is sponsored by the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center (IJPC), XU Students For Life and the XU Criminal Justice…
News: Backlash Against Big Media
Stephen Novotni At an FCC hearing, speakers from around the state presented testimony on the negative effects of media consolidation . Columbus — Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Connie Schultz said what passes for journalism in Ohio breaks her heart. Schultz, a Cleveland Plain-Dealer columnist and wife of Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), was among more than…
Peace-Loving Convicts
Graham Lienhart (L-R) John Monahan, Pat Mallory and Jody Mallory look at mementoes of Irish Cincinnati. One of the weirder trials to take place in Hamilton County Municipal Court in recent years ended March 13 with the conviction of four peace protesters on a charge of trespassing. The trial was distinctive in several ways:…
Vaccine Work in Progress
Margo Pierce's subhead to the article "Controversial Medicine" is an inaccurate title: "Should girls be forced to get cervical cancer vaccine?" (issue of March 7). The vaccine is against the human papillomavirus (HPV), not cervical cancer itself as the title states. There are additional facts that would have presented more accurate information about the issue.…
Living Out Loud: : Sleepwalking
For a while now, I've carried a knife. During my horse training years, knives were essential tools. Three times a day, hay bale twine had to be cut to feed the horses. Bare hands couldn't break twine, but it was fun to watch an amateur try. This year, I got a new knife — an…
Cover Story: Prevent Defense
Here is a copy of the recently uncovered letter sent to the Bengals by Maryland officials in 1995. (Click for PDF) Click here for PDF of this story. What if everything you were told about an important public issue — one that will affect Hamilton County taxpayers for decades — was wrong? When the…
