Media Companies Face Rough Times
It’s a tumultuous time in Greater Cincinnati’s media scene. In addition to The Enquirer’s ongoing staff shakeups, troubles abound at Clear Channel Communications and at the firm that owns Cincinnati Magazine. This all occurs just a month after the recent sale of CityBeat to Nashville-based SouthComm, Inc. Clear Channel, which owns the most radio stations…
Your Tuesday To Do List
Avengers or X-Men: whose side are you on? In one of the largest comic happenings of the year, Marvel Comics releases its new dual-team comic series Avengers vs. X-Men this week. To celebrate, Newport's Arcadian Comics & Games host a launch party tonight. Comic book fans young and old are encouraged to come out and…
Jack White, Bootleg Ring and Megadeath
[HOT] Demented Distribution When it comes to promoting music, Jack White is like a less desperate version of those minor-league baseball teams that host “Villainous Mustache Night” or give away Osama Bin Laden punching bags in order to drum up business. In March, according to Rolling Stone, White celebrated his label Third Man Records’ third…
Time to Get Over Opening Day Snub
I know I will lose any claim to being an actual Cincinnatian with this statement, but I’m not really bothered that Major League Baseball’s first pitch of the season wasn’t thrown in our city. In case you missed it — and it’s very possible you did — the 2012 MLB season began on March 28…
Cincinnati vs. The World 4.4.12
A 118-year-old pump station and water tower in Eden Park could soon be home to a microbrewery and tasting room if city officials approve the developers’ request to overhaul the building. The developers are reportedly members of the Martin family, which already owns the Cincinnati Beer Company. CINCINNATI +1 Indonesia’s strict anti-pornography laws will soon…
Is This the Real Thing?
The opening reception of a most unusual exhibit for a major arts institution will take place 5-7 p.m. Thursday evening. It’s FAUX REAL: A Forger’s Story, at the gallery of University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. That esteemed DAAP is devoting a show to an art forger — one whose work…
Music Tonight: Daughtry
Young rocker Chris Daughtry worked very hard on his way to stardom, traveling the country back and forth in a tiny van with his bandmates, playing any dive that'll have him and hustling to make business connections any chance he got. Oh, wait — actually, he came in fourth place on a TV singing contest.…
Art: Charley Harper Exhibition and Sale
It might not be the most recent publication, but surely some of us have set our eyes upon a copy of The Golden Book of Biology. Whether you have or not, know this — it was the brainchild of Cincinnati-based American Modernist artist Charley Harper. Harper played a huge role in promoting wildlife conservation and…
Onstage: Tigers Be Still
For a play about depressed people, the Cincinnati Playhouse’s current Shelterhouse show is surprisingly upbeat. Sherry, age 24, is about to start a job as an art teacher at a middle school. She’s been fretting that her degree in art therapy wouldn’t to lead anywhere. As she outlines her life so far, we meet her…
Event: 1940 Census Release
One of the biggest events of the year — in years, actually — for American historians, sociologists, genealogists and researchers of all types is the release, 70-plus years after the fact, of the 1940 U.S. Census. This census captured a radically changed America, as it was still struggling to escape the turmoil of the decade-long…
Art: Painting, Drawing, and Other Things
Currently on view at the Alice F. and Harris K. Weston Gallery downtown, Alan and Clara Crockett’s Painting, Drawing, and Other Things is an evocative display of line, shape and color. An emeritus associate professor at Ohio State University, Alan Crockett’s large-scale paintings are replete with dynamic brush strokes and saturated hues. Keen observers will…
This Date in Music History: April 3
On this day in 1989, Pepsi dropped Madonna as a spokesperson after complaints about her "blasphemous" video for the single (also used in the Pepsi commercial campaign) "Like A Prayer." The Vatican condemned the video for its imagery of burning crosses and Madonna kissing a black man, while religious groups called for a boycott of…
Art: Paper Trail: Contemporary Works on Paper
Origami isn’t the only way to transform paper as an art medium. A new exhibit coming to the Phyllis Weston Gallery explores the variety of ways paper can be used as a medium. Three artists are featured, each with a different focus. Kim Burgas uses the human figure as an object to show the juxtapositions…
UC and Miami to Host Rallies Against Hate Crimes
University of Cincinnati and Miami University student organizations will hold rallies at 5 p.m. Thursday in response to the March 24 assault of two students — one from UC and one from Miami — on the Miami campus. The events are meant to show support for GLBT people and call for an end to hate crimes.…
Music: The Heights Music Festival
For the past seven years, the biannual Clifton Heights Music Festival has showcased some of the best new and established original acts in Greater Cincinnati from many genres, covering everything from Indie, Punk and Folk to Rock, Hip Hop and Electronic music. Each fest has topped the previous one, and this spring’s installment should be…
Event: Young Buck Thursdays
A Country-Western themed gay bar hosts a dance party in Downtown Cincinnati on Opening Day? This town’s big enough for the both of ’em! Shooters Bar hosts its inaugural night of Young Buck Thursdays with drink specials, the ubiquitous and always-flattering Flashbox photo booth and nonstop dance music. It’s not easy to find a place…
Event: Findlay Market Opening Day Parade
Food, drinks, baseball and a parade. Celebrating the start of the baseball season is done in Cincinnati like nowhere else. The 93rd annual Findlay Market Opening Day Parade seeks to wow and excite fans right before the Opening Day game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Miami Marlins. With a history of record-setting home runs…
The Mars Volta’s Noctourniquet
From the moment Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala left At the Drive-In to form The Mars Volta more than a decade ago, the duo and their co-conspirators have made a conscious effort to challenge even their staunchest fans and completely confound their easily befuddled critics. Finding their general direction somewhere in the floating nexus of…
The Shins’ Port of Morrow
Strangely, but perhaps predictably, James Mercer’s recent career moves seem indicative of diva behavior — signing with Columbia, dismissing his longtime bandmates and making The Shins something of a solo venture while exploring outside projects like Broken Bells. All of that plus a five-year gap since the last Shins album have intensified the scrutiny of…
I Love Loosey
S ometimes the universe offers options you might never have otherwise imagined. Post Rock/Prog trio Pharaoh Loosey had already decided on the Mad Frog as the venue to celebrate the release of its debut CD, (h)wak formal, but when they ventured into the Corryville club’s catacombs, they found an ideal gig location. “The basement has…
Buz (Review)
Some weeks need to end on a good buzz, and I was delighted to head off to a brand new restaurant, Buz, in Columbia Tusculum, as last week wrapped up. Buz is the new sister restaurant of The Green Dog, and as we drove out Columbia Parkway there was a gorgeous bright rainbow in the…
Comedy: Ryan Singer
“We’re all going to go to a place called Comedy Wondertown,” says Ryan Singer of his upcoming set of dates at Go Bananas. “And nothing bad ever happens in Comedy Wondertown.” The Dayton native, now living in Los Angeles, returns home to record a new CD at the club this week. He’s still as silly…
The Bittersweet End of a Swell Season of Love
Once upon a time, audiences fell in love with Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová as their characters in the hit movie Once fell slowly into an unrequited affair rooted in their shared musical passion. They stepped off the screen together, formed a group (The Swell Season) and took their love affair on the road. In…
Looking Through Another Alice’s Looking Glass
In Lewis Carroll’s 1871 sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice traverses a mirror above her drawing-room fireplace to enter the “Looking-glass House.” Once there she discovers a chamber that is both familiar and bizarre — a place identical in dimension to the humdrum parlor she has departed, but where chess pieces frolic and poems…
The Arts as Hero
“I ’ve seen the future,” Prince sang back in 1989 on the soundtrack to Tim Burton’s Batman, “and it will be …” Gotham City was on the cusp of change; a hero had arrived on the scene to usher in the new. Cincinnati has been waiting, always on the verge of its own bankable opportunity…
Morning News and Stuff
Even though it has provided it for years, Xavier University will stop including contraceptives in its health insurance coverage for faculty and staff beginning July 1. The Jesuit university employs about 950 people. In a letter posted on the university website, Xavier President Michael J. Graham wrote, “it is inconsistent for a Catholic institution to…
Life After Death
Sometimes really big changes can happen due to the smallest of reasons. For Dale Recinella, his life underwent a major transformation after having a plate of raw oysters for dinner one night in the late 1990s. A corporate attorney working in international finance, Recinella was enjoying a comfortable lifestyle in southern Florida with his wife…
MusicNOW 2102: Friday Night Video
If you were unable to attend Friday night's grand finale of the MusicNOW festival, featuring a "workshop" presentation of a new song cycle by The National's Bryce Desnner (also MusicNOW's proud papa), Nico Muhly and Indie superstar Sufjan Stevens, Pitchfork unearthed some footage of the concert on YouTube. The composition being performed in the first…
“An Evening of Music Video Magic with Feist and Martin De Thurah”
Consider this one some sound and vision advice. Canadian singer/songwriter (and member of the Broken Social Scene collective) Leslie Feist (better known as simply Feist) is coming to the Contemporary Arts Center Monday, but not to sing. Part of the complimentary programming related to the current music video exhibit Spectacle, Feist will join filmmaker Martin…
The Revival Tour with Chuck Ragan, Dan Andriano, Cory Branan and Nathaniel Rateliff
What would you call a rotating collection of Punk superstars who assemble for an annual acoustic front porch hootenanny that crisscrosses the country to the ecstatic response of thousands of their biggest fans? Chuck Ragan calls it The Revival Tour, while the Phoenix New Times dubbed it “Punk Rock’s answer to the Traveling Wilburys.” Conceived…
Dom Kennedy with DJ Drowsy
In four short years, Dom Kennedy has gone from Rap dabbler to influential figure in the West Coast Hip Hop scene. After a garden-variety childhood, his parents’ divorce and an uneventful high school experience, Kennedy enrolled briefly in junior college as a business major, a path he ditched in favor of his blossoming interest in…
Snow Patrol
Remember when every single song played on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy suddenly became a hit? That’s how nearly everyone (stateside, at least) became infatuated with Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars.” The Irish/Scottish band might have formed 12 years earlier, but it took “Chasing Cars” to earn them some well-deserved hype in the U.S. Pop/Rock scene.…
Feist and Martin de Thurah to Visit Contemporary Arts Center
Singer-songwriter Feist and award-winning filmmaker Martin de Thurah will present a musically-charged evening at the Contemporary Arts Center April 9. Feist and de Thurah (who's worked with Kanye West, Fever Ray and Röyksopp) will discuss the creative process of creating a music video, a perfect event to coincide with the CAC's current exhibit Spectacle: The…
Your Monday To Do List
You know when you discover something new, like a word or band, and suddenly, they're everywhere? Well, if you've recently started following comedian Geoff Tate, you're probably having a similar experience. Dude is popping up left and right. Two weeks ago, the Cincinnati native appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson after the…
This Date in Music History: April 2
On this day in 2003, the singer of one of the best known anti-war protest songs, "War," died from a heart attack at his home in England. Born in Nashville and raised in Cleveland, Edwin Starr (born Charles Hatcher) moved to Detroit in the ’60s and eventually started recording for Motown. In 1968, he had…
Review: Alison Krauss at Taft Theatre
Some musicians get jaded and cynical when they become mostly known for only a handful of songs that aren’t even necessarily the best examples of their work. When this happens, bands sometimes fall entirely on their most popular songs and use them as a crutch. Or they shy away from playing them at all. Alison…
Stray Cats
Strange sounds outside my apartment window in Covington have some along with the warmer weather. I often hear stray cats howling or even fighting early in the mornings. One recent morning in particular, they woke me up at five o’clock. It was a day I wasn’t really looking forward to. I was supposed to meet…
Morning News and Stuff
The person hired 15 months ago to lead the Hamilton County Public Defender's Office is having extreme conflicts with her staff, according to an assessment done for the commission that oversees the office. Before she was hired here, Shelia Kyle-Reno headed a much smaller public defender's office based in Elizabethtown, Ky. “It is obvious that…
Ohio Creates Human Trafficking Task Force
“Can you tell me how a 13-year-old kid can be snatched, blackmailed, drugged, raped, in our state? In our country?” That’s the question Ohio Gov. John Kasich asked audiences Thursday before signing an executive order to create the Human Trafficking Task Force, which is intended to combat human trafficking across the state and help victims…
Worth the Hype: A Look at ‘The Hunger Games’
When I go see a movie, it better be a great one — at least a good one so that I didn’t waste an evening. Being in my final year of college I don’t exactly have all the time I want to go out to the theater. There have been numerous movies that are already…
Review: Margot and the Nuclear So & So’s – ‘Rot Gut, Domestic’
Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s frontman Richard Edwards may be the most tenacious man in rock. In 2009, the band’s Indianapolis home base was heavily damaged by fire, they were dropped by Epic after the controversy over Animal/Not Animal and the majority of the band quit. That would have been the end of…
This Date in Music History: March 30
On this day in 2005, two young musicians died well before their time. After reportedly battling a bipolar disorder and drug addiction, SoCal Punk drummer Derrick Plourde — who had played with bands like The Ataris, Lagwagon (the band that gave him his start), The Mad Caddies and others — killed himself with a gun.…
Your Weekend To Do List: 3/30-4/1
Happy Final Friday! If you're hitting up the monthly gallery/bar hop, stop by Yes (Primaries, 6-10 p.m.), Clay Street Press (The Revolution Says, 6-9 p.m.) and The Art Academy of Cincinnati (Sub-Surfaced, 5-8 p.m.) in addition to the several other participating venues. Read more about these featured exhibits here. Want to enjoy a more cosmic…
Did Santorum Use ‘N-Word’?
Some critics of Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum said video footage of a speech at a campaign event shows him starting to utter a racial slur while referring to President Obama, then cutting himself off mid-word. While speaking to a group of supporters in Wisconsin on Tuesday, Santorum said, “We know what the candidate,…
Full Warped Tour Cincinnati Lineup Announced
After Lollapalooza created the "package tour" craze in the ’90s, most of the tours collapsed, faded away or adjusted, including Lolla itself. But the folks behind The Warped Tour figured out how to make it work (mostly by not overpaying bands or treating anyone like prima donnas) and Warped is by far the most consistent…
Stage Door: Entertainments For All Ages
Thanks to spot-on casting of the four actors who bring Kim Rosenstock’s new play Tigers Be Still to life at the Cincinnati Playhouse, the show about people dealing with depression is charming, funny, optimistic and even heart-warming. It’s about a young woman with a recently earned degree in art therapy; she’s been down in the…
Morning News and Stuff
Ending months of speculation about why a special prosecutor was investigating her, a Cincinnati Ben-Gals cheerleader was indicted Thursday for allegedly having sex with an underage student while she was a teacher at Dixie Heights High School in Edgewood. A grand jury indicted Sarah Jones on first-degree sexual abuse and a charge of unlawful use…
Sports Editors Quit, Buyout Near at ‘Enquirer’
The Enquirer’s top two sports editors are resigning from the newspaper, and 26 other staffers reportedly are ready to depart soon. Assistant Managing Editor/Sports Barry Forbis and Deputy Sports Editor Rory Glynn announced their resignations last week in separate emails to fellow staffers. Forbis, whose resignation becomes effective April 4, is leaving to join Fox…
Riverside Drive Bike Lane Might Be Postponed
Cincinnati’s Department of Transportation and Engineering (DOTE) is indefinitely postponing a Riverside Drive bike lane project due to concerns over construction on I-471 diverting traffic to Riverside Drive. The delay could range from a year to two years. [UPDATE: City Council on March 28 put its support behind constructing the bike lane despite DOTE's recommendation.…
Sheriff Ends Some Township Patrols
Beginning in April the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office will end free patrol service in some townships. Sheriff Simon Leis Jr. has said requiring townships to pay for the patrols is how he is handling a $4 million budget cut ordered by county commissioners. The cuts for mean that Leis will pull 22 of the 150…
Review: Paul Weller – ‘Sonik Kicks’
Paul Weller has traveled a fascinating trend-bucking career arc since his debut with The Jam during Punk’s heyday in the late ’70s. When every other band was pursuing a gobsmacked, adrenaline-soaked and barely coherent version of Rock, Weller and The Jam were turning out their highly stylized spin on The Who’s Mod period. When The…
Ranking Jose Canseco’s Global Warming Tweets
Former Major League Baseball player Jose Canseco doesn’t have the best image. After breaking into the majors as a super fast, freaky power hitter with the Oakland A’s and winning a World Series with his fellow Bash Brother/performance-enhancing-drug-user Mark McGwire, Canseco’s career and reputation were marred by injuries and a series of embarrassing moments on…
New Mixtapes Video and Audio
Local Pop/Punk band Mixtapes is gearing up for its debut full-length release for the No Sleep label, a West Coast-based imprint that has put out records by successful and on-the-rise acts like I Call Fives, Balance and Composure, Aficionado and The Wonder Years. The album is expected out as early as May, but a brand…
Kerry Kennedy To Visit Cincinnati Friday
Human rights activist and author Kerry Kennedy, one of the late Robert F. Kennedy’s daughters, will be in Cincinnati Friday to speak about women who create social change. Kennedy will appear at an event sponsored by the Woman’s City Club of Greater Cincinnati. The speech will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Millennium Hotel, 150 W.…
Music Tonight: MusicNOW Night 2
Grammy-winning Classical music ensemble eighth blackbird will be joined by Philip Glass tonight at Memorial Hall for Day 2 of the MusicNOW festival (which kicked off last night at the Christ Church Cathedral and Westminster Abbey assistant organist James McVinnie). Glass — also in town to check out the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's world premiere of…
Riverside Drive Bike Lane Project Back On?
Bike advocates that have been holding their breath in hopes of seeing the Riverside Drive bike project come to fruition can exhale again, thanks to another change in the status of the project. The issue still hasn't been resolved, but on Wednesday supporters of the Riverside Drive bike lane project crossed a major barricade when…
Bunbury Music Fest (Almost) Full Lineup Announcement
After previously teasing its inaugural lineup by announcing performers like Jane’s Addiction, Weezer, Death Cab for Cutie, Airborne Toxic Event, Manchester Orchestra and Gym Class Heroes, the Bunbury Music Festival today announced most of the remaining acts for the July 13-15 festival along the riverfront at Yeatman's Cove/Sawyer Point. There will reportedly be over 100…
Your Thursday To Do List
Shepard Fairey returns to Cincinnati tonight! The street artist-turned-superstar is being honored with ArtsWave's Rosa F. and Samuel B. Sachs Fund Prize for his artistic contributions across Cincinnati in 2010. Fairey will be at the Contemporary Arts Center to DJ a dance party at 9 p.m. He has made a limited amount of exclusive prints…
This Date in Music History: March 29
On this day in 1973, wishful thinking channeled through a Pop song paid off for rootsy New Jersey Rock group Dr. Hook when they appeared on the cover of the Rolling Stone. The band formed in 1967 and, in 1970, Dr. Hook was asked to cut a couple tracks for a film that featured songs…
Morning News and Stuff
Cincinnati officials appear ready to ignore the recommendations of city staffers and allow a project that would add a bicycle lane along an East End road to proceed. The city's Transportation and Engineering Department had wanted to delay the bike lane on Riverside Drive for up to two years while construction was occurring to reconfigure…
Sandro Perri Q&A
An avalanche of adjectives comes to mind when listening to the music that has spilled from the boundless mind of Sandro Perri over the last dozen years. The multitalented Toronto native has immersed himself in everything from Jazz guitar to ambient-driven Electronic Dance music (under the moniker Polmo Polpo), has worked on film scores, collaborated…
Tedx Around Cincinnati, Explained
There's hardly such thing as too much TED, but its presence in Cincinnati is getting a little confusing. There are a number of different TEDx events popping up this spring, each with a different theme and set of speakers. Each of the three impending events are to follow the same format as the original TEDTalks,…
Enquirer’s Opinion Editor Takes Buyout
(**UPDATE AT BOTTOM) The Enquirer’s sole remaining editorial writer is among the employees who will be departing the newspaper as part of a round of “early retirement” buyouts. Executives accepted the buyout application submitted by Ray Cooklis, the newspaper’s editorial page editor, multiple sources have confirmed. Cooklis assumed control of The Enquirer’s Op/Ed pages in…
Review: The Mars Volta – ‘Noctourniquet’
From the moment Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala left At the Drive-In to form The Mars Volta over a decade ago, the duo and their co-conspirators have made a conscious effort to challenge even their staunchest fans and completely confound their easily befuddled critics. Finding their general direction somewhere in the floating nexus of Neo…
This Date in Music History: March 28
On this day in 1995, what was seen as one of the strangest "celebrity marriages" ever came to an end as movie star Julia Roberts and singer/songwriter Lyle Lovett announced their separation after being married just 21 months. Although, in hindsight, was the coupling really as odd as it was made out to be at…
Event: Cinema Toast Crunch Presents Chopping Mall
The security guards at Park Plaza Mall are fed up with shoplifters. Really fed up. So fed up, in fact, that they've decided to sic military-grade robots on a group of mullet-donning, cig-tokin', acid jeans-wearing punk-ass teens who've decided to camp out at the mall after hours to get rowdy. Now it's up to them…
Music Tonight: MusicNOW Begins
The seventh annual MusicNOW festival begins tonight, but not at the fest's usual headquarters. And you don't need a ticket for tonight's opening festivities. For last year’s MusicNOW, the festival ventured outside of its usual home, Memorial Hall, but not very far — organizer Bryce Dessner’s band The National played Music Hall, right next door.…
Morning News and Stuff
Here they come again: the pigs, that is. Artists around Cincinnati are putting the finishing touches on another round of decorated fiberglass pigs that will be unveiled in May as part of the next Big Pig Gig. Co-sponsored by ArtWorks and C-Change, the event is modeled after the one held from May to October 2000…
March 21-27: Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY MARCH 21 Americans like to multitask, as long as it doesn’t involve trying harder at their place of employment. That’s why driving and texting has become such a problem. The Kentucky Office of Highway Safety states that cellphone use while driving has caused 186 crashes so far this year. A story in today’s Enquirer…
War Is On the Horizon In ‘Game of Thrones’
Secret affairs. Family drama. Wolves. Incest. Cross-dressing. No, this isn’t some warped new Bravo series — HBO’s Game of Thrones returns this week for a second season (9 p.m., Sunday). Based on George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, this fantastical medieval drama isn’t just for fantasy nerds. Game of Thrones…
12 Reasons For Reds Optimism In ’12
Much of the offseason optimism for the Reds was dashed this weekend when it was announced that closer Ryan Madson would require Tommy John surgery on his right arm and miss the season. But it’s spring, the sun is out, every team (in the National League at least) is undefeated and now is not the…
The Heights Music Fest Returns Next Week
Since it’s such a huge, kick-ass music festival that spotlights the newest and best of the local, original music scene from several genres, we thought we’d give you a little heads up on next week’s Clifton Heights Music Festival so you can make plans early. The event returns April 6 and 7 to five venues…
UC Gets Drawn into Free Speech Battle
O ur own University of Cincinnati is at the very top of a new national list of colleges and universities released March 27, ranking above such hallowed institutions as Harvard, Yale and Johns Hopkins. Unfortunately, the list doesn’t involve academics or athletics, and isn’t exactly anything to brag about. UC topped the list of the…
Lynne Ramsay Returns With Haunting Tale of Family Discord
Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay has a thing for misery. Her memorable 1999 feature-length debut, Ratcatcher, is set amid a Glasgow tenement block in 1973 and follows a 12-year-old boy who, after his friend’s accidental drowning, increasingly retreats into his own solitary world, a place where he befriends an abused girl and spends time in a…
Glad I’m Not There
The loneliest I’ve ever been was when I moved from Cincinnati to Los Angeles at age 20. My ultimate destination being San Francisco, I had stopped there to hang out with my best friend for a bit. Adversity struck soon afterwards. Said friend, a motorcycle messenger, crashed and thus couldn’t work. I offered my nest…
The Addams Family (Review)
When you base a musical on legendary cartoons (as well as a classic TV show and popular movies derived from the same material), you better be sure that the original material is referenced and that it delivers the same level of humor. That means more in the way of faithfulness than originality, but who cares…
