News to Use
Rescued by Art The annual S.O.S. Art show opens with a reception from 6 p.m.-midnight May 25 at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. This year the show includes expressions for peace and justice by more than 100 local visual artists as well as poetry, music, movies and debates. The show continues through June 3. Admission…
News: School-Rithmetic
The annual audit of the Cincinnati Public School District released last week contains more information than just assets and liabilities. Think of the audit as a numerical snapshot, a financial and demographic overview of the district. Some of the information is encouraging. For example, State Auditor Mary Taylor notes that CPS had a graduation rate…
Living Out Loud: : All In the Name of Friendship
Those who know me know I take friendships very seriously. For a friend, short of murdering someone, I'll do just about anything — including urinating on his or her behalf. I have a good friend who was trying to get on at a big corporation here in town. I'm not going to mention the friend's…
Onstage: Tragedy Within
Michael Shooner Nathan Neorr and Cat Cook star in Sam Shepard's Fool for Love. The world of Sam Shepard's 1983 play Fool for Love is a surreal one where love and relationships are twisted and incomplete and time circles back on itself. The deeper we dig, the more incoherent things seem. New Edgecliff Theatre…
Upcoming concert reviews of Stylex, Holy Fuck and more …
Mick Rock Orange ORANGE WITH EIGHTY SIXED, THE STARKWEATHERS AND OKEANAS Friday · Top Cat's When the boys of Orange met eight years ago, they were literally boys; vocalist Joe Denman and guitarist Mike Valentine met as fifth graders in their Hollywood primary school. Guitarist Jack Berglund entered the picture shortly after with drummer…
Company
Sandy Underwood Raul Esparza in Playhouse's Company, which was nominated for three Tony Awards. Tony Award nominations were announced on May 15, and the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's COMPANY, which originated at the Cincinnati Playhouse, picked up three — best revival, best director (John Doyle, who won last year for his revival of…
Tim Buckley: My Fleeting House (MDV Visual)
Tim Buckley: My Fleeting House 2007, Not Rated Buckley, the handsome Folk/Rock/Jazz/Soul/avant-garde singer/songwriter of the late 1960s/early 1970s, had a mesmerizing, multi-octave voice and introspective, melancholy-tinged songs that float in their own atmospherics. He died young (age 28) of a drug overdose but his legacy has continued — his now-deceased son, Jeff, also became…
Diner: The Nosh Pit
Last month my column echoed a theme that seems to keep building in the national press. Since that column, olives have been recalled for botulism, milk for being over-fortified or under-pasteurized and cheese risotto for salmonella threats. In fact, even the pet food scare I mentioned has transformed into a potential problem for humans. As…
Education for Women Has Come a Ways
Congratulations on the annual Women's Issue ("Equal in Name Only," issue of May 9). That story about fathers and daughters ("Her Heart Belongs to Daddy") certainly puts the Freud in fatherhood. The education story ("Moving Beyond Needlepoint") was interesting and made me think of Mary Lyon and her determined 19th-century efforts to extend education to…
Locals Only: : The Rizewelz
Graham Lienhart The Rizewelz A pensive Gypsy — one half of local Hip Hop duo The Rizewelz — chuckles briefly when asked if he's paid the cost to be the boss in Cincinnati's Rap game. "Those are your words," he says. "It's however you wanna spin it." But, really, it's just my phrasing. Gypsy…
Music: Where the Boys Are
Pamela Littky Reading (and dismissing) articles and news reports about himself helped Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz (far left) deal with some personal and emotional issues. Fall Out Boy lead singer Patrick Stump takes a moment before answering whether or not his band's bass player (and de facto frontman) Pete Wentz has very real…
The Blind ‘I’ in Bias
Sometimes a news week gives you nothing, and then there are times when you dread what's foisted upon you. Like the O.J. Simpson-Jeff Ruby situation. I'm going to get around to it, but I'd like to ask you to bear with me for a bit here because I have a roundabout way of approaching this…
Film: Out from the Shadows
Milestone Film Masked but no longer anonymous: Charles Burnett's 1977 film, Killer of Sheep, opens its two-week run at UC's MainStreet Cinema on Friday. For being one of the most important American independent movies ever made, Charles Burnett's Killer of Sheep isn't known much. In fact, strangely, it hasn't even been released theatrically until…
Fair Is Fair, and New NFL Conduct Penalties Are Wrong
Jerry Dowling The Bengals took their turns in the NFL draft two weeks ago under the cloud of a new player conduct policy that would go so far as to hold the team responsible if their players should persist in going astray. By all indications, the Bengals played it safe, as they already were…
Diner: We Live Here
Joe Lamb Paul and Emily Weckman share breakfast with their two young sons. Paul and Emily Weckman's young twin boys explain that the reason they're allowed to climb up behind the fountain and sit on the Buddha statue's lap is because, "We live here." And they do. The Weckmans own and operate Otto's and…
You Shoulda Been There
So you're out at a club on a Monday night, and you're conflicted. You're having a great time, feeling sort of like you're playing hooky because it's 11 p.m., you're drinking a beer and you're not asleep. On the other hand, you're clearly among the five oldest people in the club and you catch yourself…
Don’t Hold Up the Talking Books
Our elected officials are, of course, just humans like the rest of us, sometimes wise and sometimes not. Sometimes they make a decision based on the information available and later change their minds. Sometimes, being human, one might suddenly become a self-appointed expert on a topic in which — well, he should keep his nose…
County Rejects Voters’ Judgment
Scott Beseler Make hula dance, not war: Mothers witness for peace at Mirror Lake. Voters last year rejected a proposal to raise sales taxes to build a new jail. Dissatisfied with that decision, the two Democrats who control the board of county commissioners want another vote — only this time, they want fewer voters…
Onstage: Smokin’
Back in 1991, when director Alan Bailey and writer Connie Ray's original Smoke on the Mountain (SOTM) was new, The Raleigh News-Observer in North Carolina remarked how it "celebrates a lost age of innocence (and) old time religion in song and silliness." Say amen to that. Much the same can be said of the newest…
News: Crime Fighting Hospital
Joe Lamb Out of the Crossfire is based on a program Dr. Carnell Cooper helped launch in Baltimore. As the new best friend of anyone who ends up at the wrong end of a gun or a knife, Jennifer Williams has the difficult job of making sure it doesn't happen to the same person…
“Eyes” on the Rise
Last October, Nick Mitchell (formerly of The Terrors, currently of Chick Pimp) spearheaded an incredibly diverse, mostly local music festival at the Southgate House. The two-night affair was dubbed "Adjust Your Eyes" and featured visual art alongside a remarkable roster of local acts, ranging from Rock and Hip Hop to Bluegrass and Jazz Funk. You…
Lookwhos: Look Who’s Eating: Albert Imms
Graham Lienhart Albert Imms These days, if you go to Quatman's Café in Norwood, you're not as likely to see its owner Albert Imms as you might have been in 1966 when he bought the place. A back injury keeps 66-year-old Imms working behind the scenes most of the time while his son manages…
Music: Pedal Or Die
Sara Yaste Canadian Owen Stewart-Robertson of progressive, avant Jazz troupe Make A Circus began working with MoBo after relocating to Cincinnati in January. Bike culture is spreading to every corner of the earth. What might have once been considered an antiquated mode of transportation has grown into a full-fledged beast, dealing with issues like…
Film: The Evolution of Underneath
Graham Lienhart Behind the Underneath: Sara Mahle and Eric Vosmeier Forget Spider-Man 3. The Best of Underneath Cincinnati Film and Video Festival returns on Saturday. A longtime nurturer of (mostly) area-produced independent short films and videos, Underneath's crafty creations encompass a wide range of genres, topics and techniques, all made for a fraction of…
Patricia A. Renick
Matt Borgerding Patricia Renick, who died on May 7, had a large impact on the local art scene. Cincinnati-based sculptor PATRICIA A. RENICK passed away May 7 at age 75. Admirers of Renick's work, especially those local artists who have long referred to her as "Mother Art," understand that it is a careful balance…
News: Bus Breakdown
Graham Lienhart City council's delay has cost Metro $500,000 so far, and still no decision is in sight. Metro bus riders who think the long delay in raising fares by 25 cents on most routes is a good thing might want to reconsider, according to the bus system's operator. The transit agency describes the…
Cover Story: Less Risk, More Reward
At Ray's Mountain Bike Park in Cleveland, Kevin Morris and Adam Baumgartner take turns hitting the box-jump foam pit, a ramp that launches riders into a giant box of foam blocks so they can try new tricks without the possibility of crashing and hurting themselves. Both riders are Cincinnati locals in his early twenties and…
‘The House that was Haunted Before it was Built’
Graham Lienhart Being a fanatic of campfire ghost stories and "true" tales of haunted houses, Erica Bailey's THE HOUSE THAT WAS HAUNTED BEFORE IT WAS BUILT naturally grabbed my attention. In case you're wondering, yes, this is (kind of) an actual house and, no, it's not really haunted — at least not in the…
Cover Story: The Trick to Riding
John "Burny" Dixon Local BMX scene a raging success despite lack of venues and support. A small group of BMX riders takes turns riding their bikes straight up a 10-foot wall next to Koka Coffeehouse on Riverside Drive in the East End. They pop off the wall, turn around in the air and come…
Music: Synergy to Burn
Joe Lamb Vibe One (left) and Phiyah sizzle together both onstage and off. Sure, there are goo-gobs of MCs worldwide, but how many MCs actually marry another MC and record music side by side? Wonder twins Vibe One and his wife Phiyah are one answer to this conundrum. Last fall, a Hip Hop open-mic…
