Once More, With Feeling
Although it didn’t specifically mention him by name, the Ohio Ethics Commission today issued a draft advisory opinion warning Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Bortz not to vote on any streetcar-related matters. In response to a request from City Solicitor John Curp, the commission’s 10-page draft opinion essentially reinforces an earlier, non-binding opinion issued to Bortz…
Acclaim Awards: Long Night of Tribute
I spent two-and-a-half hours watching the Acclaim Awards last night — 150 minutes with no intermission. Thanks to affable hosts Charlie Clarke and Mark Hardy (the well-dressed “scoundrels” of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels last September at The Carnegie), there was a lot of humor, but I put an emphasis on “a lot” as in “maybe too…
Literary: Robert Olmstead
Robert Olmstead’s latest, Far Bright Star, grabs one from the get-go via the novelist’s spare yet descriptive prose style. From early in the first chapter: “There was a drought and the land was parched and dry and the country bleached, burned out, and furnacelike. At first, dogs attended the troopers, but then they experienced a…
Events: Cincy Bike-About
Bike Month is almost over so if you haven’t participated already, get outside and explore the Queen City with the Cincinnati Bike/PAC (Pedestrian Advisory Committee) and riders from all over town in a Bike-About. Bike-Abouts are two-wheeled tours/adventures around Cincinnati. Most Bike-Abouts are less than 10 miles and are suited for beginning to intermediate level…
The Media’s Jewish Problem
When Elena Kagan was nominated for the Supreme Court, an immediate story was that her confirmation would mean “three Jews, six Roman Catholics and no Protestants.” That’s perfect for the Take Back America crowd with its Know Nothing heritage: no Protestant on the court for the first time. God, that must drive them nuts —…
CityBeat Music Stage at Taste of Cincinnati
If you're thinking about dropping by Taste of Cincinnati this weekend, make sure you come downtown on Sunday, when the “CityBeat Stage Presented by Riverbend Summer 2010” features a stellar collection of national up-and-comers and local heroes. The music stage is located at Fifth and Race streets. Headlining at 9:30 p.m. is Chicago DJ duo…
Music: Like Bells and Lifelike
On Like Bells’ self-titled debut album, the Oberlin, Ohio band made waves in the music press with their instrumental, progressive sound, earning comparisons to The Dirty Three (thanks to the skilled, expressive violin of Garrett Openshaw) and Post Rock faves Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Palma, the band’s sophomore effort (the release of which coincides with…
Attractions: Flying Trapeze School
Newport on the Levee is a giant concrete mass teeming with things to do — from boutique bowling alleys to aquariums to restaurants and comedy clubs. Finally, they’ve really put the cherry on top with their new Flying Trapeze School operated by a member of the Cincinnati Circus Company. This 32-foot-tall rig will be located…
Events: CityBeat & Fringe Kick-Off Party
Hey, Fringe freaks! Can’t wait for the “explosive and experimental” 2010 Cincinnati Fringe Festival? Not a problem because it’s here, and we’re throwing a party with the Know Theatre to kick it off! Festivities begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Art Academy's Childlaw Gallery to celebrate the opening reception of the Visual Fringe with…
Events: Taste of Cincinnati
Have you ever wondered what Cincinnati tastes like? Asphalt? Chili? Well, wonder no more because the annual Taste of Cincinnati descends upon downtown this Memorial Day weekend to answer that question. As the nation’s longest running culinary arts festival, Taste brings over 40 restaurants out of their storefronts and into booths to line six blocks…
Comedy: Darren Carter
Comedian Darren Carter has always seemed like a bit of an outsider. “Yeah, I’m a rebel,” he says, laughing. “I think that was essentially true earlier in my life, growing up. As a redhead you are an outsider. Something like three percent of the population has red hair.” These days the Fresno, Calif., native gravitates…
Music: Francis and the Lights with Drake
Neo-soul crooners Francis and the Lights will open for Canada's hottest rapper, Drake, at a sold-out show at Bogart's on Friday. The band's rise to fame is often compared to Vampire Weekend's, as the band members got together at Wesleyan University. Fronted by the distinctive Francis Farewell Starlite, the band creates a New Romantic sound…
Like Bells and Lifelike
On Like Bells’ self-titled debut album, the Oberlin, Ohio band made waves in the music press with their instrumental, progressive sound, earning comparisons to The Dirty Three (thanks to the skilled, expressive violin of Garrett Openshaw) and Post Rock faves Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Palma, the band’s sophomore effort (the release of which coincides with…
Events: SPCA Doggie Dash
Humans and their furry, four-legged friends are invited to the eighth annual SPCA Doggie Dash “walk for kindness,” which helps support the SPCA’s mission to prevent cruelty to animals. And whether you have a dog for not, you can still join in the two-mile walk along the Ohio River (beginning at Sawyer Point) to help…
Music: CityBeat Music Stage at Taste of Cincinnati
The annual Taste of Cincinnati offers more than just delicious local eats, as evidenced by the CityBeat Music Stage tasty serving of some excellent local and national bands on Sunday. Kicking off at 1:30 p.m. is Seattle Garage Pop/Rock group Visqueen, which features Kim Warnick from The Fastbacks, Ronnie Barnett from The Muffs and super-producer…
Art: The Genius of David Bumbeck at the Sandra Small Gallery
Artist David Bumbeck’s work is a deepening pleasure: The longer you look, the more you see. Thoroughly versed in art of the past, Bumbeck makes art for today but gives it a more than nodding acquaintance with what has gone before. A range of his work appears in this exhibition curated by Daniel Brown, who…
Art: Paul Coors at Clay Street Press
Paul Coors gave the city a great gift when he and his group of friends ran Publico, an alternative gallery in Over-the-Rhine until 2008. Since then, Coors has stayed active by helping organize art shows at The Comet in Northside where he works, exhibiting his own work in many local venues and being included in…
Music: Jessica Lea Mayfield
Although Jessica Lea Mayfield isn't technically old enough to get into the Southgate House, she will be filling the venue with her Bluesy, Bluegrass tunes on Friday. The Kent, Ohio native has been immersed in music since birth, playing music with her family's band and writing her own songs before she hit her teens. At…
Music: Sloppy Seconds
The Junk Rock punks of Sloppy Seconds will hit the stage at The Mad Hatter on Friday with Situation Red, Reanimated, The Zvilles, The Junkards and League of Horny Evil Doers. The band first formed in 1984 at a house party when the unpolished crew decided to play a few impromptu punk covers for their…
Onstage: The Fantasticks
Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park ends its 50th season with musical that has been around just as long. The Fantasticks, originally directed by Word Baker, boasts 17,162 continuous performances in New York City from 1960 to 2002. The Fantasticks is a simply told fairytale about a boy and a girl who fall in love, swept…
The National: High Violet
After the almost excruciating emotional impact of Boxer, The National’s 2007 breakthrough hit, the stakes for its follow-up couldn’t be higher if they were bundled with a science experiment bound for the next shuttle flight to the International Space Station. Because of those rather inflated expectations, the greatest danger for either diehard fan or casual…
Hoodoo Gurus: Purity of Essence
For well over a quarter of a century, Hoodoo Gurus have been one of Australia’s most revered Rock bands, playing a visceral mix of Power Pop, Garage and Surf Rock and building a rabid home audience that propelled them into the rarified superstar stratosphere down under. By the same token, the Gurus haven’t gotten quite…
Jessica Lea Mayfield
For someone who won’t be old enough to drink in the places she plays until the end of August, Jessica Lea Mayfield certainly has an impressive resume. The 20-year-old singer/songwriter was born in Kent, Ohio, into a musical family (her older sister, Amanda Williams, is a member of Cadillac Sky) and started playing with her…
Francis and the Lights with Drake
Drake, the hot rapper from Canada who has a sold-out Bogart’s show Friday, has an unusual background. Aubrey Drake Graham (his full name) first became known as an actor, playing Jimmy Brooks on Degrassi: The Next Generation before becoming a favorite of Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Eminem and Jay-Z. Fittingly, in Francis and the Lights,…
Onstage: Ain’t Misbehavin’
Thomas Wright Waller knew how to have a good time — musically speaking and otherwise, apparently — and the Jazz piano melodies he wrote have entertained music lovers since they first came to be in the 1920s and ’30s. “Fats” Waller generated more than 400 tunes before he died in 1943 at the age of…
Five-Sided History
At 56, after four decades of touring and recording, there aren’t many firsts that Pentagram frontman Bobby Liebling can notch for himself. But on the day of our interview, Liebling’s 24-year-old wife had an ultrasound that determined their unborn child’s sex. “We’re going to have a boy,” a shell-shocked Liebling says. “It’s my first on-paper,…
Incline District (Profile)
Beaming, I announce that I can quote the movie Red Dawn. They tell me I’m a good person. Here, the coolness factor is a little kooky. We agree on Beastmaster — that guy was ripped with a huge, mysterious belt. Hell, maybe the pyramid was made of plywood, but it’s still a classic. On the…
Say Yes to Cocktails With Dinner
On a “first date,” my friends Dave and Giselle went to China Grille, an upscale Asian restaurant off New York City’s Fifth Avenue. This was long ago, but even then I was into wine, so as he later related the details of their evening I asked what they drank. I laughed when he told me,…
The National, Hoodoo Gurus, Kris Kristofferson, Sage Francis, Otis Taylor and Marco Benevento
If this column was my home, I wouldn’t be in foreclosure but I’d definitely be explaining to someone why I was late. I’m about a week off the pace at this point, and it looks as though work will be keeping its boot on my neck well into next month. Not that I’m complaining: I’ve…
Sloppy Seconds
In celebration of a weekend-long house party thrown in 1984, a bunch of friends decided to put together a makeshift band called Sloppy Seconds to run through a few Punk Rock covers. The players weren't too adept at their instruments, but its level of ability suited a boisterous project done on a lark. By late…
Helmet Talks Before Rock on the Range
Helmet, the alternative metal band from New York founded in 1989 by vocalist/guitarist Page Hamilton, is preparing to release its latest album, Seeing Eye Dog this summer. Leading up to Rock on the Range last weekend in Columbus, we were able to catch up with Hamilton via phone for an interview.—- CityBeat: What inspired you…
The Fantasticks (Review)
Critic's Pick There are several obvious reasons why Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park is wrapping up its 50th anniversary season with The Fantasticks. For one, the long-running musical (17,162 continuous performances in New York City from 1960 to 2002) began its onstage life the same year the Playhouse first presented plays in a Cincinnati Parks…
MacGruber (Review)
There’s a funny scene in the most recent Saturday Night Live spin-off MacGruber: The newly dedicated hero has changed out of the jungle clothes he’s worn since swearing off crime-fighting 10 years prior when an arch nemesis, Dieter Von Kunth (a fat Val Kilmer), killed his wife on their wedding day. MacGruber is wearing a…
Friday Movie Roundup: Devaluation of a ‘Star’
Peter Biskind — a former Premiere magazine editor and longtime journalist who wrote the fascinating, endlessly entertaining book about the 1970s American movie scene, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls — recently published a biography called Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America. I’ve yet to read the book, which, among other things, apparently tells us that Beatty…
Casino Jack and the United States of Money (Review)
Overloaded to the point of diminishing returns, Alex Gibney’s soup-to-nuts examination of super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff doesn't know when to cut bait. Audiences already numb to the staggering scale of America’s ongoing governmental corruption will have a tough time digesting the cynical climate of greed that allows Abramoff’s manipulation of congressmen and senators to continue under…
The Secret in Their Eyes (Review)
Deserving winner of the 2009 Best Foreign Film Oscar, The Secret in Their Eyes is a gripping mystery film layered with canny cultural, political, psychological and romantic elements. Argentinean writer/director Juan Jose Campanella methodically lays the narrative groundwork of a murder case in which a 23-year-old bride was brutally raped and murdered, leaving her loyal…
Shrek Forever After (Review)
The revitalized Shrek Forever After tosses our ogre friend and his Far Far Away pals into another homage to It’s a Wonderful Life. Fuming once more about being domesticated and forced to deal with husband/dad responsibilities, Shrek (voice of Mike Myers) wonders what it would be like to be his old, fearsome self again. And…
Stage Door: ’80s Tribute for a Cause
Looking for something fun on a Friday evening? I suggest you invest $15 (in advance, $20 at the door) and stop by Below Zero Lounge (1122 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine) for Broadway Loves the '80s, a benefit featuring the cast of Legally Blonde the Musical. —- It supports an array of worthy causes — Broadway Cares/Equity…
Poor People’s March Arrives Here
About 100 people who are marching from New Orleans to Detroit to call attention to the problem of poverty in the United States stopped in Cincinnati this afternoon. Marchers in the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign arrived at the Purple People Bridge, then proceeded to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center where they discussed…
Enquirer Writer Deleted on His Own Blog
An unusual online exchange Tuesday between an occasional CityBeat freelancer and an Enquirer sports blogger led to the blogger’s own comments being deleted for violating the newspaper’s terms of service. The comment seems to have been deleted by a moderator for being racist against Hispanics.—- Chick Ludwig, who oversees the Typing Away sports blog on…
Beer by the Numbers
There’s an ongoing debate over how wine experts arrive at their ubiquitous ratings. Many oenophiles (or “wine geeks”) disparage ratings that aren’t the result of “blind tastings” (i.e., those made without knowledge of what’s being tasted). Proponents contend it’s the only way to “ensure objectivity” — to avoid prejudices regarding producers, regions, vintages, etc. But…
A Modest Proposal to Save the United States
One of the best ideas I’ve heard in a long while is a simple one that would have the support of most Americans, but politicians are probably too cowardly or greedy to do it. The action would involve passing an amendment to the U.S.Constitution consisting of two short, straightforward sentences. Its creator calls the amendment…
Art: Peak and Flow at Country Club
Fritz Chesnut apparently was California dreamin’ during his 11 years in New York. The 37-year-old artist (who grew up in Santa Barbara) is living in L.A. now, and his new abstract paintings radiate a definite West Coast vibe. Pacific waves crash. Malibu mudslides ooze. But the appeal of the Californian’s Peak and Flow is nearly…
May 12-18: Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY MAY 12 Sometimes it’s easy for people in charge to act like they don’t know anything about the heinous things people do on their watch (CityBeat intern writes good story — we helped; CityBeat intern tells a blog commenter to “eat a dick” — we knew nothing). Miami University President David Hodge today did…
Music For Dogs, Mozart and The Doors
[HOT] Perfect (Dog) Day Lou Reed hasn’t always pleased the critics and his fans (see: Metal Machine Music, those Honda scooter commercials in the ’80s), but he and gal pal Laurie Anderson may have found a new fanbase — dogs. The couple has announced plans to present a “high-frequency” concert next month in Australia designed…
Streetcar Project and Local Judges
[WINNER] STREETCAR PROJECT: Last week was a good one for Cincinnati’s long-discussed streetcar project. Not only did City Council approve issuing $66.5 million in bonds to help pay for construction, but the OKI Regional Council of Governments approved $4 million in funding and state officials approved another $15 million. For those keeping score at home,…
Learning the ABC’s of Being GLBTQ
Patrick Moloughney knows first-hand how difficult it is to be open about your sexuality in today’s society, despite the progress that’s been made. While he was grappling with discovering his sexual identity, as many people do in college, Moloughney lost his school funding once his colleagues in the Navy ROTC program found out. “I had…
County Tries Again With Hiring Policy
For anyone who visits The Banks’ Web site, it appears the $800 million taxpayer-funded project along Cincinnati’s downtown riverfront is progressing smoothly, on schedule and under budget. What the flashy Web site fails to mention, however, is the ongoing saga of workforce-related issues that have plagued the project since construction began in April 2008. The…
Blues Challenge Splits in Two
Due to the abundance of submissions/competitors this year, the Cincy Blues Society is expanding its annual “Cincy Blues Challenge” (now in its 12th year) to two days. The winners of the Challenge get to represent Cincinnati at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, while organizers will pick other artists from the competitions to perform at…
Tom Acito [Café de Wheels]
You’ve seen the big black truck parked in various downtown locations during lunch or outside your local bar at night. But Café de Wheels also keeps busy by catering everything from surprise parties and weddings to estate sales. They do things a little different than other mobile eateries and aspire to win “Best Burger” in…
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Germany is addressing its past. At least that’s the broad assumption that can be made reflecting upon recent German films that have found success in American theaters: Downfall (the last days of Hitler); The Lives of Others (life under the STASI); and Goodbye, Lenin (the fall of the Berlin Wall). The Baader Meinhof Complex, a…
A Life in Artworks
Right now, the Carl Solway Gallery has a show important to its remarkable history. Works from the Gallery Collection features pieces by more than 60 major artists who, as the 75-year-old Solway puts it, mostly are “people of my generation or close to it.” But what’s most impressive about the show, which features prints as…
Cincinnati Art Museum Announces 2010-2011 Season
For art museums, one effect of the Great Recession has been to reexamine priorities — try to do more with the collections you already have, saving money on importing prestigious but costly traveling shows. For the 2010-2011 exhibition season, Cincinnati Art Museum’s three major shows will be in-house-curated and highlight its own collection — borrowing…
Music: Thee Silver Mt. Zion
Since entering pop culture over three decades ago, Punk has become a muddled word with a small army of variations and sub-categories following in its wake. While the notion’s nucleus still refers to Rock with blitzing guitars and incendiary leanings, it’s astounding to consider that the Misfits, Simple Plan, Blondie and The Casualties have all,…
One Desert Night
A few weeks ago I struck out on a random road trip, heading for quiet roads and woods. After a few miles, I started thinking about James, a gentle man, a lanky cat who rode with me out West in 1996. Long story short, a friend mentioned that James needed a ride to California. Without…
