Salvador Dolly shot
At the end of the driveway lies a long-ago fallen, decaying sycamore, home to a billion termites, not one of them bored with eating the same old thing. A split rail fence dating back to the Civil War encircles the entire property and, as a valuable relic of the past, is itself protected from harm…
Cover Story: That Girl
Age: 26 Lives: Clifton Works: Graduate Student I've long lived in fear of becoming "that girl." You know her? She's the one who dates the same man year after year, praying, before each birthday, holiday and anniversary that this one will be the one when he presents the perfect diamond ring and pops the question.…
If Elections Were a Sport, Redistricting Would Be Cheating
The purpose of nearly any competition is to determine the best or, in some cases, the luckiest individual or team from a field of competitors. To isolate the skill being tested, rules prevent competitors from gaining an unfair advantage over one another. Runners cover the same distance to reach the finish line, weightlifters heave the…
Community Calendar
EvanstonThe Weed and Seed and Wellington Spine and Physical Therapy Senior Health Fair is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 19 at Evanston Center, 3204 Woodburn Ave. For more information, call Dr. Buchanan at 513-241-4230 or Yvonne Brown at 513-961-8834. Walnut HillsMom's S.O.S. (Saturday Out Service) is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays,…
News: Going Postal
At the Sharonville Bulk Mail Center, a curious arithmetic is at play, so that 3,000 minus 2,000 sometimes equals 5,000. If you want a sense of what the U.S. Postal Service is like at the dawn of the 21st century, this is a good place to learn. In the Information Age, communications is the impetus…
Spring has Sprung
It's time for "Channel Surfing" to do some spring cleaning of sorts: Here is a gathering of items not worth a full column, but still deserving some attention. On the eve of May sweeps, some interesting things have taken place. Perhaps the biggest news is Buffy The Vampire Slayer's move from the WB to UPN,…
Cover Story: When I Grow Up
Jymi Bolden Dayle Deardurff says if she has to spend her entire adult life working, "I might as well do it for the community." We are born with possibilities. Our parents envision us as presidents, doctors, astronauts and actresses even before we can walk or form sentences. But as we age, it seems, so…
Richard Thompson’s Action Packed: The Best of the Capitol Years
After three decades in the music business, you'd hardly think that Richard Thompson would require an introduction. But despite the fact that several of his records show up like cats 'round a tuna tin every time critics put together a "Best-Albums-of-all-Time" list, Thompson has largely escaped the attention of the general record-buying public. Serious…
News: Heads Won’t Roll
City Manager John Shirey survived the riots and gets $70,000 in walking-around money. The day before he declared a state of emergency, Mayor Charlie Luken called for "fundamental change" in Cincinnati. But given his first opportunity to change the way the city works — by firing City Manager John Shirey — Luken backed down.…
Cover Story: Playing for Keeps
Age: 23 Lives: Deer Park Works: Receptionist The commercials don't lie. It was easy. It was clear. It was blue. Before we took the pregnancy test, my boyfriend and I decided we would keep the baby and we would be grateful for the gift. He's the man I knew I would be with for the…
Cover Story: The Verve of the Verge
Age: 42 Lives: Cincinnati Works: Lab clerk Four decades and two years later, I am finally catching on. Life has beaten me up good and has cast me, at last, out of harm's way, half dead and left in a puddle of peace. Still, half dead is half alive, and it's the splitting, wiggling, struggling…
Cover Story: I Write the Songs
Jymi Bolden Tracy Walker says she's constantly working through the concept of success as a musician. I am a singer/songwriter. During my nine-plus years as a professional performer, I've worked hard and tried to work smart. Along the way I have had good fortune and have been given several awards, among them two Cincinnati…
Cover Story: Soul Mate or No Mate?
Age: 60 Lives: Norwood I was ready to settle. Compromise. In fact, we'd already made an appointment with both our lawyers to prepare pre-nups. What was his before marriage remained his after marriage and vice-versa. It seemed sensible. After all, I was 60 years old. He was nine years younger. He was the one with…
Cover Story: Breath, Eyes, Air, Memory
Age: 39 Lives: Springfield Township Works: Sales As I lay comfortably on the chaise lounge taking in fresh air and my surroundings I would have once been oblivious to, I appreciate solitude: the Me, Myself and I. I dove into my womanhood headfirst. In the induced attempt to grow up, the inner child I was…
Diner: More Than Just Desserts
Special occasions call for special places: a romantic date, a birthday celebration, a Mother's Day brunch. Each requires the proper setting to make the event memorable. Exemplary food and service would enhance the day, as would, of course, to-die-for desserts. Finding a spot that can pull off all this with an air of casual elegance…
Why Doesn’t Right to Life Try Passing Out Condoms?
Do we really want to save tax money by ending state subsidies for condoms, birth-control pills and other kinds of contraceptives? Right to Life is best-known for opposing legal abortion, but the group also wants Ohio legislators to cut off funding for efforts to prevent pregnancy in the first place. Ohio Right to Life wants…
Music: Voice of Conscience
Woodrow J. Hinton Bluegrass giant Hazel Dickens On their groundbreaking, self-titled album of 1973, Bluegrass duo Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard performed a song penned by Dickens, "Don't Put Her Down, You Helped Put Her There." The feminist theme was, to say the least, unusual in traditional mountain music. The song is, however, typical…
Wag the Sheep
"My understanding is that the man was moving a decomposing carcass of a cow and that carcass exploded and the fluid went into his mouth. I only say this to illustrate how highly unusual the circumstances were regarding their potential contraction." -Spokesman for English Prime Minister, Tony Blair, commenting April 25, 2001 on the first…
Cover Story: Who’s That Lady?
Jymi Bolden Vinnie Ray says she found true freedom after being truthful with herself, her son and her friends and family. Shhh…. She's that way. What's that mean anyway? My mother always referred to one of her friends' sister as being that way. I'm not sure I knew what it meant when I was…
News: A Police Rampage
Sean Hughes/photopresse.com Attorney Robert Newman, left, represents plaintiffs allegedly assaulted by police. Officers laughing as a Cincinnati business owner endures burning pain from being sprayed with Mace … A man hit with non-lethal ammunition as he fights to rescue a child caught in police fire … A man picking up his grandchildren after a…
The Son Also Rises
while they could they held him down and chopped him, held him up my little fish, my blueness swallowed in the air turned pink and wailed. — Natural Birth, Toi Derricotte Dear Angela: You don't know me, and it's just as well. I would be merely one in the endless swell of people in your…
Curly tales of the city
Slinking Back inMayor Charlie Luken has an uncanny ability to avoid crowds — at least crowds of African Americans protesting Cincinnati Police violence (see "Slinking Away," issue of April 12-18). Rev. Damon Lynch III led a group of 60 chanting protesters into City Hall the afternoon of May 8. One minute later, after the crowd…
Cover Story: The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
Jymi Bolden Renee Johnson was suffering a spiritual death prior to July 4, 1999, when she accepted Jesus Christ into her life. "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." — Proverbs 14:12 Prior to July 4, 1999, I lived my life in…
With a concept album under their belts and high hopes, Only Everything has big ambition
Only Everything Five graduates of the all-male LaSalle High School — all best friends and roommates — started a band in 1997. What would they stake on their success? Only everything. The band Only Everything is Chris Mouch, lead vocals, Jim Klosterman, lead guitar, Zach Long, rhythm guitar, Dan (Spike) Strasser, bass, and Adam…
Cover Story: This Woman’s Work
Jymi Bolden Devin Parrish tooka while to find her true calling. "We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him." —Romans 8:28 I'm a December 2000 college graduate who, six weeks into my undergraduate freedom, completely changed my life's objective from the attainment of praise and self-gratification to…
CDT Brings Inspiration and Faith Behind Bars
It looks like the recent street riots are behind us, and local artists and arts organizations need to ask themselves one key question: What can we do to help breathe life back into Cincinnati? One inspiring answer comes from Contemporary Dance Theater (CDT) and its Strategic Collaboration Grant award for Inside/Outside. It's a program that…
B.R.M.C.
B.R.M.C. With one of the finest releases of the year so far, San Francisco's B.R.M.C. create an engrossing and engulfing brand of fuzzed-out Psychedelic Rock on their fantastic self-titled, major-label debut for Virgin Records. The band took their name from the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Marlon Brando's biker gang in the seminal film, The…
