Board of Education to FCC: Make us whole or no deal
The Cincinnati Board of Education has sent a letter responding to an offer made earlier today by FC Cincinnati for a land swap involving the district's Stargel Stadium in the West End. The gist of the letter: FCC needs to offer more money to the district — though it could have a deferred payment plan…
After surreal day, Cranley outlines process for removing city manager
Mayor John Cranley wants Cincinnati City Manager Harry Black to leave. But it won't be that simple. After reaching an unprecedented impasse over the past two days — Cranley yesterday released a statement saying Black was leaving, and Black countered with his own saying he would stay — the mayor today laid out the process…
Sound Advice: Imaginary Tricks (March 14)
If you didn't hear Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Imaginary Tricks' debut album Skommel after its release last March, you missed the opportunity to experience one of the year's best albums, a set so well considered and executed that it felt like the mid-catalog work of a long-established band. The group's creative spark plug is Mike Visser, who…
FCC makes one more offer to CPS; could downtown get a dedicated bus lane?; students stage walkouts over gun laws; more news
Good morning all. News has been… weird… the past couple days, so let’s dive in right away. It’s going to be an interesting Cincinnati City Council meeting today. Mayor John Cranley yesterday released a statement saying that City Manager Harry Black would exit his position. But minutes later, Black released his own statement saying that…
An Artistic Rebirth in Covington
As an ambitious woman with a modern sensibility, Suzanna Terrill prefers to focus on the present. However, parallels to the past are hard to ignore as she encourages a new generation to buy local art. In 1998, Terrill opened an eponymous gallery at 1315 Main St. in Over-the-Rhine, when that neighborhood was still waiting to…
Cranley: Cincinnati City Manager to take buyout, exit. Or will he?
After days of political friction and controversy, Cincinnati City Manager Harry Black will leave his position, according to a statement released today from the office of Mayor John Cranley. It's unclear what deal Black is being offered for his departure. His contract stipulates that he can receive up to eight months of his $267,000-a-year salary…
Cincinnati Music Festival bringing The Roots, Common and more to Paul Brown Stadium
Founded in 1962 by Dino Santangelo and legendary Jazz promoter George Wein as the all-Jazz Ohio Valley Jazz Festival, Cincinnati’s popular “Jazz Fest” has gone through a lot of changes in its half century-plus history. It has moved locations from its original Carthage Fairgrounds to Crosley Field and then Riverfront Stadium, before shifting to its…
Proposed ordinance would put limits on some rentals through sites like Airbnb
Cincinnati City Councilman David Mann will introduce an ordinance seeking to mitigate what he says are negative effects of sites like Airbnb, VRBO and others on rental tenants and the city’s available rental housing stock. Airbnb, and other sites like it, allow property owners to rent rooms or whole buildings for short-term stays, similar to…
The Best Cake Ever?
Bill Ross, an artist and co-founder of Northside's Thunder-Sky Inc. gallery has made cakes a recurring motif in his work. They have appeared in his paintings for more than 30 years “as symbols of ominous mystery,” he says. But never before had he created an 11-foot-tall pastry out of stuffed animals. “I’d always wanted to…
FCC’s West End offers a no-go with board of education, some community groups
FC Cincinnati yesterday released what it would offer Cincinnati Public Schools and the West End should it decide to build a stadium there. But the district and some community groups aren't enthused about the proposed deal. FCC would like the option to build its stadium on the site of Taft High School’s Stargel Stadium and…
Sound Advice: Hit Like a Girl with Sagermen, Useless Fox and Jess Matthew Higgs (March 20)
As far as band names go, it’s hard to nail down a description of your project as well as Nicolle Maroulis has. The New Jersey songwriter’s work is as forceful, yet lyrically tender as the alias implies. Better yet, it’s imperative: a call to action. Hit Like a Girl is the musical extension of Maroulis’…
This Art Show Takes the Cake
Ready for a treat? You’re Invited at Thunder-Sky, Inc. gallery in Northside will fill you up with birthday memories, humor and food for thought. Gallery co-founder Bill Ross, painter Harry Sanchez Jr. and Sharon Butler of O’Bryonville’s BonBonerie bakery have thrown a party where both the personal and the political have a seat. A cake…
Sound Advice: Born Ruffians with Blossom Hall (March 16)
Toronto’s Born Ruffians coalesced more than a decade ago, riding a sound equally informed by the melodious melancholy of The Shins and the ragged glory of fellow Canadians The Constantines. Yet by their third full-length, 2013’s Birthmarks, frontman Luke Lalonde admits things had not evolved in a satisfying way — the record refined the band’s…
Sound Advice: Lee Brice (March 17)
Lee Brice is an easy guy to place in a specific genre. While the “I Don’t Dance” crooner has written successful songs for the likes of Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw, the “singer/songwriter” label just doesn’t quite cover his success. The South Carolina native is undeniably a Country star — maybe even a Country legend…
Outlaw Music Festival coming to Cincinnati
Riverbend Music Center has announced that the Willie Nelson-headlined Outlaw Music Festival Tour is coming to town June 22. The tour — which will hit nine cities — began two years ago as a one-off event in Scranton, Pa. featuring Nelson, Neil Young, Sheryl Crow and others. It became a “tour” in 2017 and included…
Two Powerful Othellos
CRITIC'S CHOICES An intriguing collaboration between Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati is currently in full swing. The former has staged Shakespeare’s great 1603 tragedy Othello, in a production by guest director Christopher V. Edwards using a modern military setting. Cincy Shakes’ artistic director Brian Isaac Phillips has headed two blocks east to ETC…
‘Love, Simon’ a New Kind of Teen Movie
It’s a bit strange that Love, Simon comes from television producer extraordinaire Greg Berlanti, the creative force behind Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl. After all, it eschews super heroics for a very human story — it’s about a still-closeted Atlanta-area high-school student learning to come to terms with his sexual orientation. Berlanti worked with screenwriters…
This Week in Questionable Decisions
This Week in Questionable Decisions… 1. RuPaul says he probably won’t accept contestants who are “really transitioning” onto Drag Race. Ten or so queens have come out as transgender either during or after their time on the show. Ru later apologized. 2. A giant crocodile visited an Australian school last week as part of an…
This Is Us: Tracking the Path to The Tillers’ New Album
Mike Oberst has the bedraggled look and swimming-in-honey reaction time of a new father. He’s already got his hands full with his 3-year-old son Willie, a rambunctious toddler who has taken a recent shine to Bob Marley, a love that Oberst is fueling with repeated exposure to the Reggae legend’s YouTube videos and music. And…
We Need ‘Queer Eye’ Now More Than Ever
When Queer Eye for the Straight Guy first debuted 15 years ago, it was some viewers’ first exposure to real, out gay men. The premise was a perfect addition to the plethora of early millennium reality show offerings: five gay men, each with an area of expertise, make over a straight dude who’s lost his…
Minimum Gauge: Comeuppance arrives for both Fyre Festival founder and rare Wu-Tang album owner
HOT: This Week in Karma Billy McFarland, who created the Fyre Festival — the expensive “luxury” music fest in the Bahamas that crashed and burned spectacularly before its inaugural/swan song event last spring (with slated performers like Major Lazer and blink-182) — has been ordered by a federal court to repay $26 million to the…
What a Week!: March 7-13
All the Ladies If You Feel Me, Help Me Sing It Out March is Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day was March 8, so there’s lots of lady lovin’ in the air right now. There were numerous women’s marches around the world in support of equal rights and pay and other issues that benefit…
Napoleon Maddox Releases Debut LP with Sorg
For the better part of the last decade, Cincinnati’s Napoleon Maddox — co-founder of innovative and experimental Hip Hop/Jazz ensemble IsWhat?!, among other projects — has spent a lot of time working and touring in Europe. His current focus has been on a duo project with French producer/DJ Sorg, which released a pair of EPs…
SORTA board to hold evening meetings; decision on U.S. Bank arena looms
Good morning all. Did you go to the Neighborhood Summit over the weekend? If you didn’t, you missed the city nerd Super Bowl. It was great. It was also probably pretty awkward for some attendees who work at City Hall. I was at the opening dinner Friday night when news broke that Mayor John Cranley…
City manager’s fate could be in council’s hands after CPD drama
A leaked audit, a gender discrimination suit and charges by Cincinnati City Manager Harry Black that a small group of Cincinnati police is corrupt have all led to the dismissal of one of the city’s top cops and a reported push by Mayor John Cranley to oust Black. Sources within City Hall, confirmed by several…
Sister Rosetta Comes to Life at Cincinnati Playhouse
If you’ve heard of Sister Rosetta Tharpe — and it’s entirely possible you haven’t — you might know that she influenced early Rockers including Chuck Berry and Little Richard. Even Elvis. Why isn’t she better known? Perhaps it’s because she straddled two musical worlds in the 1930s and 1940s. She’d play church in the morning,…
King Records’ former headquarters could be in city hands soon
A historic landmark responsible for much of Cincinnati's music heritage may soon be another step down the road toward preservation. Chris Wetterich of Cincinnati Business Courier is reporting that the company that owns the Evanston site once occupied by legendary Cincinnati record company King Records appears to be close to a deal that would allow…
Guitar hero Eric Johnson looks through a wider lens at a variety of musical styles on his latest album, ‘Collage’
For Pop artists, the idea of striking a trio of Top 10 hits is a challenging but not altogether insurmountable task. But when that performer is a guitar instrumentalist, you’re talking rarefied air. So it went for Eric Johnson back in 1990 when his first album for Capitol Records, Ah Via Musicom, was taking him…
Shake It Records hosts Jack White listening party today
Today, a select number of independent record stores around the world are hosting advance listening parties for the new Jack White album, Boarding House Reach. Along with shops in Australia, Estonia, France, Japan, Portugal and Italy (among numerous other countries), Northside's Shake It Records will spin the LP today at noon. The album officially releases…
Your Weekend To Do List (March 9-11)
FRIDAY 09 EVENT: Cincinnati International Wine Festival Browse and sample a selection of 700 wines from more than 250 wineries from around the world at this year’s Cincinnati International Wine Festival, held at the Duke Energy Convention Center. Along with wine, you’ll also get the chance to sample all sorts of food that can be…
Trial date set in suit against University of Cincinnati on behalf of white nationalist
A jury trial to decide whether white nationalist Richard Spencer must pay a $10,000 security fee to speak on University of Cincinnati’s campus will take place more than a year from now, according to filings from a federal judge yesterday. The trial over a lawsuit brought by Spencer supporter Cameron Padgett, a student at Georgia…
NPR is looking for the next ‘Tiny Desk’ star
The popular Tiny Desk Concert video series created by NPR has featured everyone from The Avett Brothers and Yo Yo Ma to Moby and Run the Jewels since its creation a decade ago. Posted on YouTube and at npr.org, the series features a wide range of musical acts performing intimate 10-20-minute sets. Now, once again,…
Political forecaster downgrades Chabot’s re-election chances; Dever votes against state budget to protest money for stadium infrastructure; more news
Hello all. I’m going to refrain on commenting on the cruelty of Cincinnati weather and just get straight to the news today. Cool? Cool. Things are… weird… at CPD. Cincinnati Police Department Chief Eliot Isaac has responded to a Cincinnati Enquirer article about an allegedly unfinished audit that the paper says shows the department went…
Cincinnati Ballet Announces 2018-19 Season
Cincinnati Ballet will make its 2018-19 Season a celebration of Music Director Carmon DeLeone’s 50th anniversary, and will also more performances than before. There will also be five world premieres. Here is the schedule, announced today: September 13-23: The Kaplan New Works Series will highlight four world premieres — one by San Francisco Ballet dancer Myles…
‘Unfinished’ CPD overtime audit spirals into controversy, dimissal of top cop
Things have gotten real — or maybe more appropriately, surreal — around the Cincinnati Police Department in the past few days due to a leaked audit, a gender discrimination suit and charges by a top city official that a small group of Cincinnati police are corrupt. That's led to the dismissal of one of the…
This Week in Questionable Decisions: Feb. 28-March 6
This Week in Questionable Decisions… 1. The World Peace and Unification Sanctuary church in Pennsylvania held an AR-15 blessing ceremony where members renewed vows while toting guns; the same kind used in the recent Parkland, Fla. school shooting. 2. Iggy Azalea wants to be Latina now. The Australian rapper seems to be shifting from appropriating…
What a Week!: Feb. 28-March 6
Oscars Hot Takes Awards season finally came to a close Sunday night with the 90th annual Academy Awards. Host Jimmy Kimmel did a great job keeping things fast and loose while still addressing some of the many issues at the forefront of Hollywood and across the country right now, like the #MeToo movement. And speaking…
Oakley Community Council responds to FCC; Kasich gets philosophical; more news
Hello, all. Here’s a really quick rundown of news today as it prepares to snow outside. Mother nature, I feel betrayed. It’s no secret: the streetcar is struggling, and Cincinnati City Council’s Major Projects and Smart Government Committee got an earful about it yesterday. Without big changes, the streetcar could be running a deficit by…
This Week’s Recommended Concerts and Shows (March 7-13)
WEDNESDAY 07 MOTR PUB – See You in the Funnies with Troy Petty. 9 p.m. AltRock. Free. NORTHSIDE TAVERN – Queen City Silver Stars. 9 p.m. Soca/Calypso/Reggae/Samba/Pop/Various. Free. NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB – Stuyeyed with Mardou, Dinge and Orchards. 9 p.m. Indie Rock. SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) – Iron Chic’s technically a Pop Punk band, but…
