I Just Can’t Get Enough
Everyone’s talking about the punk-themed Met Ball today, but I’m still in awe from last night’s RuPaul’s Drag Race season finale and reunion, where America’s Next Drag Superstar was crowned in true pageant style. It’s easy to confuse the two: both are over-the-top parades of outrageous fashion, debut ‘dos and bodies squeezed into numerous pairs…
Foals
Forget hitting the gym on Tuesday. If you want the best workout of your life, just head to Bogart’s and partake in the sweat-drenched fun of a Foals concert. Foals is yet another great musical gift from across the pond. The six-piece band’s music, though recently taking on a slightly darker tone, is raucous and…
The Lonely Wild
Whoever came up with the notion to sepia-fy the cover of The Sun As It Comes deserves a drink. The image on the front of The Lonely Wild's first full-length is a photo collage of skulls, rocks and mountainous scenery — a pretty good concept with humdrum execution — but the pictures' varying shades of…
Justin Furstenfeld
Justin Furstenfeld may not have invented the concept of “living out loud,” but he certainly embodies it with an enviable zeal. The Blue October frontman has never hesitated to identify his long struggle with a bipolar condition as the main grist for his songwriting mill. Furstenfeld's original solo persona when he toured alone during Blue…
Lyle Lovett and His Acoustic Group
Lyle Lovett has persevered through some rough times during his long career, yet has always come through them to make wonderful music afterward. I’m not talking about his failed marriage to actress Julia Roberts, per se, but more his run-in 10 years ago with his uncle’s bull in Texas, which proceeded to break Lovett’s leg…
Morning News and Stuff
Today is primary election day in Ohio, but there are no ballot items in Cincinnati. Some Hamilton County precincts outside the city have ballot issues, which are listed here . Polls will be open between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. An amendment snuck into the budget bill approved by the Republican-controlled Ohio House would force…
Ohio Republicans Could Limit Voting for Out-of-State Students
An amendment snuck into the budget bill passed by the Republican-controlled Ohio House on April 18 would force public universities to decide between charging lucrative out-of-state tuition rates or providing out-of-state students with documents required for voting in Ohio, raising concerns from Democrats that Republicans are attempting to limit voting opportunities in the state once…
Guest Blog: Musicians’ Desk Reference Gets Real(er)
Editor's Note: Brian Penick of local music promotions company The Counter Rhythm Group is guest blogging for CityBeat monthly to provide a behind-the-scenes look at his journey to release his interactive industry guidebook, Musicians’ Desk Reference. Read Penick's first three blogs here. I am not sure where I originally heard it, but the statement about…
Measure for Measure (Review)
There’s no disputing Shakespeare’s greatness as a playwright: His 38 surviving theatrical works are repeatedly staged. (With a production of Two Noble Kinsmen in its 20th season next year, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company will complete the entire canon, a feat accomplished by just five theaters in the United States.) However, that doesn’t mean each of Shakespeare’s…
Morning News and Stuff
The First District County Court of Appeals heard arguments over the city’s parking plan and emergency clause powers today, with both sides making similar arguments as before — except this time the city acknowledged it will probably have to move forward with layoffs because the city only has a few weeks remaining before it has…
Bus Tour to Visit Cincinnati Music Heritage Landmarks
The Cincinnati Heritage Programs put together by the Cincinnati Museum Center have been going on for over 30 years now, taking locals and visitors to some of the Queen City's most important and/or interesting landmarks. The programs have included historical presentations and bus and walking tours to the various sites. This year so far, the…
Review: New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Weekend 1
One could argue that New Orleans is one of the most fun places on the planet. You cannot beat the food, laidback attitudes and genuine hospitality. Combine all of that with some of the most talented musicians in the world and you have the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. The New Orleans Jazz Fest…
Your Weekend To Do List: 5/3-5/5
With Cinco de Mayo falling on a weekend this year, you can bet the margaritas will be a-flowing at your favorite watering hole. Join us for our fourth annual Cantina Crawl Saturday for plenty of cerveza and swag at Bakersfield (6 p.m.), Nada (7 p.m.), El Coyle (8 p.m.), Pirate’s Cove (9 p.m.) and Tostado’s…
Sister Act (Review)
You probably remember Whoopi Goldberg's popular film Sister Act from 1992, an unlikely story about an aspiring singer who witnesses a murder and needs to be hidden until the trial — in a convent. Of course, the contrast between Goldberg and the staid nuns, especially the Mother Superior (played by Maggie Smith). It became a…
Double Indemnity (Review)
Tough guys. Dames. Desperation. Shadows. Cynical narration. Sexual motivation. The Cincinnati Playhouse’s production of Double Indemnity has all the requisite elements of film noir. Best known as a classic film from that hardboiled genre, the story of murder and passion originated in a 1936 novel by James M. Cain, and that’s the source used by…
First Acts for MidPoint Music Festival 2013 Announced
This afternoon, the Facebook page of crucial, longtime MidPoint Music Festival supporters, Dewey's Pizza, announced the first handful of artists book to play this fall's MidPoint Music Festival. And, after early-bird discount tickets quickly sold out several weeks ago, the rest of the tickets are on sale now at mpmf.cincyticket.com. The first batch of MPMF.13…
Stage Door: Shake It Up
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company opens its production of the infrequently staged Measure for Measure tonight. Director Brian Isaac Phillips says, “We have discovered a lot of satire and wit as we explore the biting social criticism in this play. The behavior of these characters … is like a dark comic mirror, held up to nature. Shakespeare…
Morning News and Stuff
The National Rifle Association (NRA) will name Alabama lawyer Jim Porter its new president at their annual meeting in Houston this weekend. Porter replaces current president David Keene, whose two-year term is at an end. Porter served as the first vice president of the NRA board for two years and second vice president for another…
Fracking Flourishing in Water-Stressed Areas
A new interactive map shows hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," is flourishing in U.S. areas where water is already scarce — a potentially bad sign for Ohio counties that are allowing the water-intensive drilling process within their own borders. The map from advocacy group Ceres shows northeast Ohio counties with fracking activity are made up of…
Laundry Day
Traditionally, Monday is the day when most people wash their clothes, or so I’ve been told. For me, it’s whenever I have enough quarters for the machines to get it done. I happened to have enough quarters that morning and it just happened to be on a Monday. I have laundry facilities in the…
Music: Tracy Walker
Tracy Walker has been such a consistently popular presence on the live music scene, it’s hard to believe the Cincinnati singer/songwriter hasn’t put out a new release in a decade. Ten years after her excellent sophomore album, All This Time, Walker finally entered the studio with super-producer Erwin Musper and, now, she is ready to…
Music: MilkDrive with Mama’s Porch
Back in the 1970s, acoustic music began to expand and evolve. Bluegrass music morphed into many different genres, from Jamgrass and Newgrass to even more esoteric fare. One exciting new offshoot at the time was the “Jazzgrass” of the David Grisman Quintet. These days, acoustic music has seen a resurgence under the umbrella genre of…
Music: Olly Murs
The musically obsessed often make fun of music-based television talent shows. Rightfully so, too. Any scheme that lands Taylor Hicks and Kelly Clarkson in our faces deserves all the scoffing possible. However, sometimes there’s a diamond in the screaming, nasally roughness. Olly Murs is one such diamond. He’s like the Carrie Underwood of The X…
Tracy Walker Releases First Album in 10 Years
Tracy Walker has been such a consistently popular presence on the live music scene, it’s hard to believe the Cincinnati singer/songwriter hasn’t put out a new release in a decade. Ten years after her excellent sophomore album, All This Time, Walker finally entered the studio with super-producer Erwin Musper and, now, she is ready to…
Music: Goatwhore
Wikipedia describes Goatwhore as “blackened Death Metal.” Apparently absolutely nothing escapes being blackened in New Orleans. The band began in 1997 with Acid Bath guitarist/vocalist Sammy Duet’s intention of making raw, fast Death Metal that broke from the Gothic sensibilities of Scandanavian Metal. Duet and drummer Zak Nolan began working on Black Metal jams during…
Music: Lucero with Langhorne Slim and The Law
Lucero frontman Ben Nichols seems destined to be a Rock & Roll lifer, a guy who revels in playing 200 shows a year for a relatively small but passionate fan base. The Memphis-bred band Nichols leads has dropped eight albums since forming in 1998, moving from Punk-inflected Roots rave-ups (think The Replacements playing Uncle Tupelo…
Well, Bless My Soul: ‘Sister Act’ is Fun!
You probably remember Whoopi Goldberg's popular film Sister Act from 1992, an unlikely story about an aspiring singer who witnesses a murder and needs to be hidden until the trial — in a convent. Of course, the contrast between Goldberg and the staid nuns, especially the Mother Superior (played by Maggie Smith). It became a…
Film: Steamboat Bill, Jr. with live organ accompaniment
One national arts trend which Cincinnati lags behind is the rediscovery of silent movies — especially the public screening of them to live musical accompaniment. “I would say there’s more interest in it than ever before,” says Clark Wilson, a past recipient of American Theatre Organ Society’s Organist of the Year Award, who creates…
The Many Merits of Cycling Infrastructure
To cyclists, it’s a given that Cincinnati desperately needs more bike lanes. But recent research shows bike lanes don’t just pose advantages for cyclists; they can also help local economies and public health. Anyone who’s traveled downtown on a bicycle can attest to how scary the roads and sidewalks can be at times. Cyclists know…
Study: Medicaid Improves Mental Health Outcomes
As Ohio debates the Medicaid expansion, a new study from Harvard researchers revealed access to Medicaid in Oregon led to better mental health outcomes and reduced financial strain, but no short-term gains were found in physical health outcomes. The study, which was released Wednesday by The New England Journal of Medicine, had its most positive…
City Manager Defends Streetcar in Light of Budget Gap
Convening in packed City Council chambers on April 29, Cincinnati officials discussed the costs and benefits of the streetcar project in light of a $17.4 million budget gap revealed by the city administration on April 16. City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. said the project could and should be saved, but a minority of public speakers…
Cincinnati vs. The World 05.01.2013
According to the results of a new 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll, Republicans would rather have their freshman college student break an ankle while streaking or live in a dorm with a farm animal than teach a sex ed class. WORLD -1 New data released from the Ohio Department of Health, Violence and Injury Prevention Program…
Event: Comic Book Day and Cincinnati Comic Con
Chris Charlton will be busy this weekend on Free Comic Book Day on May 4 and at the Cincinnati Public Library’s first Comic Con on May 5, but Charlton’s interest is not simply as a comics aficionado. The former lead singer of The Host has launched his own publishing company, Assailant Comics, and a line…
Think of the Children
E lected officials and business leaders often claim preschool is one of the most impactful investments that can be made in a child’s life. Now, local officials and leaders are preparing to back that claim with the Cincinnati Preschool Promise. The Cincinnati Preschool Promise is a pledge to support a broad public-private partnership to help…
Event: Flying Pig Marathon Weekend
This weekend marks the 15th annual Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon. What began with a group of local runners (including Bob Roncker of Bob Roncker’s Running Spot), a dream and a marathon route scrawled on a bar napkin has transformed to a 30,000-some-odd person race and city-wide weekend event as well as a Boston Marathon qualifier…
Event: Tri-State Antique Market
The Tri-State Antique Market opens this weekend at the Lawrenceburg Fairgrounds for its 28th season. With an average of nearly 3,000 shoppers and more than 200 dealers at each show, the market is the largest regularly scheduled gathering of antiques and vintage dealers in Indiana. Shoppers will find antique and vintage items at all price…
Event: Savor the Season at Gorman Heritage Farm
The Gorman Heritage Farm is hosting a day of farm-to-table learning, eating and celebrating. Local chefs will provide cooking demonstrations highlighting the edible bounty of spring, including Steven Geddes of Local 127, Michael Paley of Metropole, Jose Salazar and more. In between getting tips from some of the city’s most talented chefs, take a walk…
Pedal Pushers
From the Eastside to the West End, recreational bicycling groups are popping up around the city. And if you’re apprehensive about bike riding again as an adult — either for safety reasons, lack of city riding experience, fear of cars or you just don’t know where to go — roll up to an organized ride.…
State of the Bike Union in Four B’s
The gears are always shifting in Cincinnati’s ever-evolving bike community, but here’s a quick progress report that proves Cincinnati cyclists are doing a whole lot more than spinning their wheels. Bike Lanes! The Department of Transportation added five miles of bike lanes around the city last year, making Madison Road, Mitchell Avenue and parts of…
Event: Cinco de Mayo Cantina Crawl
Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with CityBeat during our fourth annual Cantina Crawl. Bars throughout the city will be participating and our roving band of senoritas will be at select cantinas throughout the night giving away prizes and taking photos. Join the roving squad of SEñORITAS at select cantinas all around town as we celebrate Cinco…
Art: Buy Me at LOHIOH Gallery
Influenced by his work as a stylist for Amazon.com, artist James Schenck’s retail-like installation of clothing and accessories, Buy Me, demonstrates his interest in “devaluing the cult of personality that often accompanies art.” And so every object is displayed, price marked and up for sale, thereby revealing the similarities between the traditional role of an…
Bicycles Through the Ages
Like most human technological advancements, the exact milestones in the creation and development of the silent steed that is the bicycle is racked by controversy; bits and pieces of new designs are credited to a slew of industrious inventors and problem-solving pedestrians alike. And with a collective interest in making people travel faster and farther…
Art: Essex Studios “Bloom” Art Walk
More than 120 artists have put down roots and blossomed at Essex Studios for the free BLOOM Art Walk. Many painters, photographers, jewelers, graphic designers and sculptors will showcase vibrant colors and floral images to highlight the spring/summer theme. Get working in the virtual garden yourself at Studio 188, where DIY Printing and guests from…
Music: Whisky Daredevils with The Grotesque Brooms
Since the very beginning, almost a decade ago, Cincinnati has been something of a “home away from home” for adrenalized, rootsy Cleveland rockers the Whiskey Daredevils. Thanks to regular visits for shows, the band’s raucous, thoroughly entertaining live presentation has wowed enough locals to make the Daredevils a solid area club draw. And the band…
Art: The Hilton Brothers at the Miller Gallery
Photographers Christopher Makos and Paul Solberg, also known as “The Hilton Brothers,” have been combining their work into series of diptychs for more than seven years — often blurring the identity of who took which picture and why. For their upcoming CityBeat- and FOTOFOCUS-sponsored exhibition at Miller Gallery, the NYC-based artists will show their “Hippofolium…
Everybody Snacked, Nobody Crashed
To many Cincinnatians, the concept of bicycle transportation is as foreign as green tea Kit Kat bars or socialized medicine. They say the city is too hilly and the weather too crappy to go carless on a regular basis. And there’s some truth to these arguments (we’re not here to sugar coat the realities —…
Comedy: Chris Porter
“I grew up outside of Kansas City in the rural suburbs,” says comedian Chris Porter. “Becoming a stand-up comic was like being an astronaut or a NASCAR driver. You had no idea where to start.” Humor was big part of a young Porter’s family, and he was constantly trying to make his parents laugh. He…
Attraction: A Century of Brides
The Cincinnati Art Museum’s wildly popular 2010 exhibit, Wedded Perfection: Two Centuries of Wedding Gowns, showed more than 50 gowns from the late 18th century to modern day and spawned a book as well as a traveling exhibit. If you happened to miss that show or are interested in taking a look at some more…
Worst Week Ever!: April 24-30
WEDNESDAY APRIL 24 Covington City Commissioner Steve Frank last week apologized for an expletive-filled rant on Facebook about Covington firefighters and other people who anger him. Although Frank is not a fan of using paragraphs, he is a proponent of the mixed metaphor. Those linked to him through social media were made aware of this…
Onstage: The Marvelous Wonderettes: Caps and Gowns
The regional premiere of The Marvelous Wonderettes in 2010 was the best-selling show in the 27-year history of Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati. The Doo-Wop gals, Cindy Lou, Missy, Betty Jean and Suzy, return for more reminiscing from graduation in 1958 to a reunion in 1968. In fact, even before it opened, ETC extended the third version of…
Media Misses Opportunity with West, Texas, Coverage
Feds charged Dzokhar Tsarnaev with using a “weapon of mass destruction” at the Boston Marathon. One knapsack bomb, three dead. Scores wounded. No one terrorized. Lots of angst and inconvenience. Days of great video and standup opportunities for TV stars who parachute in. You want news of a real weapon of mass destruction? Try ammonium nitrate…
Morning News and Stuff
City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. gave his suggestions for fixing the streetcar budget gap Tuesday, and CityBeat analyzed the details here. The suggestion, which include temporarily using front-loaded Music Hall funds and pulling money from other capital projects, are capital budget items that can't be used to balance the city's $35 million operating budget deficit…
Women and the Wheel
The first feature-length film directed and shot by a female in Saudi Arabia is making its rounds on the festival circuit. Wadjda, a 2012 movie by Haifaa al-Mansour, follows a young girl living in the capital city of Riyadh who dreams of owning a green bicycle she sees everyday in a shop window. Bike riding…
Death by a Thousand Budget Cuts
I do hope city and county voters aren’t distracted and blinded by neither the sheen and shimmer of a rebranded Vine Street nor the seizure-inducing flicker of casino lights. Politicians here are like helicopter parents, mishandling the city in the same blatantly narcissistic manner as parents who bear children for the sole purposes of shaping…
City Manager Proposes Streetcar Budget Fixes
City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. released a memo yesterday detailing how the streetcar project's $17.4 million budget gap could be fixed by pulling funds from various capital projects and issuing more debt, upholding a promise he made at a contentious City Council meeting Monday. The five-page memo says none of the proposed capital funding sources…
Iron Man 3
Disney and Marvel enter the vaunted second phase of their multi-character comic book franchise with the Armored Avenger (Robert Downey, Jr.) leading the way. The third installment of the Iron Man saga introduces a new director — former spec screenwriting king Shane Black taking over for Jon Favreau — and finds the slick hero suffering…
Tweenage Dream
The standard operating procedure for most bands is to spend a fair amount of time amassing a sizable local following, then grind out a few more years spreading that same gospel to a wider regional and (hopefully) national audience. Cincinnati's Tweens have taken a slightly more expeditious and completely unexpected path since the group¹s formation…
A Harrowing German Odyssey
I will never forget my roundtable interview with Thomas Kretschmann more than a decade ago in support of the Roman Polanski film The Pianist. Kretschmann, who played Captain Wilm Hosenfeld, the SS officer who offered aid to Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody), a Polish Jew and superb pianist hiding in the Warsaw ghetto toward the end…
How to Get to Abigail Street
Cincinnati’s dining scene has been getting a lot of national press the past couple years, and much of that has been on food-based television shows. The Sugar Cupcakery in Milford, Camp Washington Chili, Aglamesis Brothers and Graeter’s, among others, have all been recently featured. Another press perk was when Jose Salazar, formerly of The Palace,…
Silent Films with Live Music Make a Comeback
One national arts trend which Cincinnati lags behind is the rediscovery of silent movies — especially the public screening of them to live musical accompaniment. “I would say there’s more interest in it than ever before,” says Clark Wilson, a past recipient of American Theatre Organ Society’s Organist of the Year Award, who creates…
Droning Your Sorrows
HOT Droning Your Sorrows There hasn’t been much to get excited about in the world of concert technology since the bar-code ticket scanner came along and enabled us all to save our ticket stubs, un-ripped and suitable for framing. But a music festival this summer in South Africa has a feature that could be the…
The Long, Complex Ride to Superfood Stardom
One of the rising stars of U.S. supermarket aisles, particularly for the health conscious, is quinoa. If you browse the health food racks, you’ve certainly seen an increase in products that tout their quinoa content. Quinoa (pronounced “keen-wah”) is a seed that cooks like rice. For vegetarians, it’s the perfect protein substitute — quinoa is…
Curmudgeon Notes 5.1.2013
• In a disturbing decision, public radio’s Radiolab (WVXU-FM 8 p.m. Sundays) gave Cincinnatian Phil Heimlich critical control over its March 5 program on Phil’s dad, Henry Heimlich. Phil arranged the interview with the aging physician, for whom the Heimlich Maneuver is named. However, producer Pat Walters had to promise to exclude the voice of…
Morning News and Stuff
Two Ohio House Republicans are preparing to introduce so-called "right to work" (RTW) legislation, a deceptively named type of law that would ban collective bargaining agreements between unions and employers that require union membership to be hired at a job. Since states began adopting the anti-union laws, union membership has dropped dramatically. Democrats, including gubernatorial…
Rauh House Restoration Spurs More Modernism Preservation
In 2009, after Cincinnati Magazine ran a story about a virtually unknown but magnificent early Modernist home in Woodlawn that was endangered, I drove over to see it. Or, rather, I tried. Battered and abandoned, the Rauh House had become isolated from the street after a would-be developer subdivided its pastoral wooded acreage for a…
Dishcrawl Cincinnati (Profile)
T he Dishcrawl sounds a lot like a speed dating with restaurants. Over a three-hour period, spend just enough time to become acquainted with multiple places and enjoy small courses to get a representation of what they offer. The concept is simple: Try new restaurants and meet new people. It’s power dining at its best.…
Comics Unleashed
T he gap between comic books when I was a kid and comic books today is like the difference between Bruce Wayne and Batman. My obsession dates back to the Big Three: DC, Marvel and Dell and faves like The Justice League, The Avengers, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Green Lantern and Magnus: Robot Fighter. In those…
MidPoint Indie Summer Concerts Announced
The lineups for 2013's PNC Summer Music Series on Fountain Square — featuring live music from different genres for free throughout the summer — have been coming out gradually. On April 30, we announced through our music blog the lineup so far for the Friday night MidPoint Indie Summer shows, presented by CityBeat and the…
