Cranley Calls for U.S. Moratorium on Syrian Refugees
Following attacks in Egypt, Beirut and Paris that killed hundreds, the United States should place a moratorium on Syrian refugees, Mayor John Cranley said in a Nov. 16 statement. “I understand the dire circumstances Syrian refugees face because I personally visited a refugee camp in Jordan last summer,” Cranley said in that statement. “However, the…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning! Here are your morning headlines. Mayor John Cranley yesterday joined a growing number of politicians across the U.S., including Ohio Governor John Kasich, in calling for the federal government to stop admitting Syrian refugees into the U.S. The push comes in the aftermath of recent terrorist attacks in Egypt, Lebanon and Paris, where…
Ironfest Rumbles On
Greater Cincinnati is now home to several major music events. Summer festivals like Bunbury and Midpoint capture a lot of the public interest and fill downtown for days at a time. But for fans like me who prefer their music with a bit more bite, there’s really only one fest in the area that matters…
Morning News and Stuff
Hey Cincy. Good morning. Hope your weekend was chill. I got to eat some rad kimchi and embarrass myself via karaoke at a Korean restaurant. Fun times. Anyway. Here’s what’s going on around town and beyond today. Things are getting hot around the new I-71 interchange being constructed in Walnut Hills and Avondale, with property…
Nominations Now Open for Local Music Awards
The Cincinnati Entertainment Awards, returning for its 19th year of honoring original local music-makers, is now accepting nominations from area music lovers. Click here for the online ballot and then write in the local music acts you feel had an especially great 2015 and deserve a CEA nomination. (More details are available on the ballot…
Stage Door
I’m in New York City this week to check out some Broadway shows, so I’m missing the opening night of the Cincinnati Playhouse’s production of Low Down Dirty Blues. It’s the holiday “alternative” to A Christmas Carol, and alternative it is. It’s set in a nameless Blues club on Chicago’s South Side that’s closing for…
Your Weekend To Do List (11/13-11/15)
FRIDAY MUSIC: SUFJAN STEVENS “Fourth of July,” the centerpiece of Sufjan Stevens’ latest album — the stripped-down, Elliott Smith-esque Carrie & Lowell — is as intimate and revealing as anything in the crafty singer/songwriter’s songbook. It’s about Stevens’ long-estranged mother, the “Carrie” from the album’s title, who died of stomach cancer in 2012. Spare and…
Morning News and Stuff
It’s Friday. It’s early. I haven’t had coffee yet. For all those reasons, I’m going to hit you with a briefer version of the morning news today. Think of it as fewer words between you and your weekend. You’re welcome. So, did Mayor John Cranley violate election rules by literally giving a shout out to…
I Just Can’t Get Enough
The big news this week is not that Donald Trump is still an actual candidate for president, but that Saturday Night Live let him host last weekend. I mean, I’m as grossed out by Trump as the next woman, minority, immigrant, democrat or human with a brain, but I sure as hell was not going…
Morning News and Stuff
Hey everyone! Here are your morning headlines. Residents of an Avondale apartment complex are demanding their landlords pay up after the collapse of the apartment's roof last Friday. Approximately 70 residents of the Burton Apartments have been living in a Days Inn since last week, and with the help of Legal Aid Society and the Greater…
Spoonful of Cinema: Spectre
When it comes to the James Bond pictures that have hit theaters in my lifetime, none hold a more important place in my memory as Daniel Craig’s embodiments in Casino Royale and Skyfall. So when I saw Spectre, the fourth and final Daniel Craig-led installment in the iconic spy series, it was more than just…
The 33
Audiences will likely remember the real-life events surrounding the collapse of the gold and copper mine in Chile that trapped 33 miners underground for 69 horrific days. It is curious that The 33, Patricia Riggen’s feature-film adaptation of the story, reached the big screen rather than heading straight for television, as most ripped-from-the-headlines dramas tend…
Love the Coopers
Nothing defines the holidays like star-studded movies focusing on disparate generations of families coming together to bicker and backstab while eventually bonding and basking in the glow of the season for a precious few days. In the case of director Jessie Nelson’s Love the Coopers, the Coopers — presided over by Charlotte (Diane Keaton) and…
Heist
Director Scott Mann (The Tournament) seems to fully embrace the old-school B-movie aesthetic, based on the premise of his latest film Heist. A pair of co-workers (Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Dave Bautista), each in desperate need of cash, foolishly plan to rob a casino owned by a notorious crime lord (Robert De Niro), but the…
How Ass Were My Ponys
The wholly unexpected announcement of a pair of reunion shows by one of Cincinnati’s greatest bands, Ass Ponys, inspired a sense of excitement within me that was matched only by the birth of my two children, the legal end of my first marriage and meeting the woman who convinced me to sign up for a…
Holiday: Poinsettia Express at Krohn Conservatory
Take a walk through a winter wonderland at Krohn Conservatory. The conservatory’s holiday floral show, Poinsettia Express, takes visitors through a charming array of floral arrangements whose colors resemble candy canes as toy trains carry peppermints through a village of gingerbread houses. In the Schmalz Family Holiday Village, see motionettes from the 1940s and ’50s…
Music: Hippo Campus
Just a couple years ago, the four members of Hippo Campus were in (or had just graduated from) Saint Paul Conservatory for the Arts, a high school in their native Minnesota. Almost immediately, the group attracted major buzz, first in its hometown and then among critics and music fans in the U.S. and U.K. But…
Event: Tap & Screw’s TapFest
Tap & Screw’s TapFest features 10 locally homebrewed beers from the concluded 27th-annual local Bloatarian Brewing League Beer & Sweat homebrewing competition. At 5 p.m., an expert panel will award one of the finalists with the Judges Prize, which includes a brewery upgrade kit that will greatly enhance the brewer’s ability to replicate their award-winning…
Music: Ma Crow and the Lady Slippers
Appalachian music is famous for its high, lonesome sound, eerie harmonies and themes of doomed love, faith and longing for the wild beauty of a region extending from Southern New York down into Georgia and Mississippi. When it came to planning a concert that featured traditional and new Appalachian sounds, MUSE, Cincinnati’s Women’s Choir, turned…
Art: SHOP: Cincinnati at Brazee
Peruse one-of-a-kind gifts for the holidays (or just because) at C-LINK Gallery’s annual SHOP: Cincinnati exhibition. Beginning Friday, the gallery inside Brazee Street Studios will showcase a treasure trove of handmade items crafted by local artists, including everything from jewelry, ceramics and ornaments to greeting cards, paintings and more. Through Dec. 26. Prices vary. C-LINK…
Dance: Performance and Time Arts
Cincinnati-based choreographer and dancer Diana L. Ford produces the newest Performance and Time Arts (PTA) show, sponsored by the Contemporary Dance Theater. On the bill are excerpts from Ford’s “Welcome to America: There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This Crap,” and segments from locals Regina Ford-Fowler, Ivy Pea, Robin Alicia-Clare Hoskins, Pamela Carter Pitts, Jeremy Reneau,…
Film: OutReels Cincinnati
Since its inception four years ago, OutReels Cincinnati has pursued a mission to showcase LGBTQ issues through lectures and film. Presented by the Cincinnati Film Society, the festival returns to the Tristate this weekend with more than 20 short and feature films from around the world, screened over three days at the Aronoff Center. Among…
Event: Greater Cincinnati Holiday Market
Get all your Christmas shopping done early at the Greater Cincinnati Holiday Market. Artists, boutiques and specialty stores from Cincinnati and beyond gather to sell their best holiday goods, flea-market style. This three-day event showcases homemade jewelry, food and accessories, as well as specialty clothing, household goods and kitchenwares. Check out cooking demonstrations at the…
Event: Jungle Jim’s International Wine Festival
Wine and dine at Jungle Jim’s International Wine Festival. More than 90 wineries from across globe — including California, Italy, Spain, New Zealand and South America — will be pouring 400 wines, all available for tasting. Live music sets the mood, and each country pairs food tastings with the wines offered. General tickets include tastings,…
Art: EgoMaps at the Ice Cream Factory
The Ice Cream Factory hosts a solo show of work by self-taught photographer EgoMaps. The photographer’s eponymous documentary endeavor engages people as subjects in “35mm poetry,” influenced by Buddhist thought regarding the ego. EgoMaps first began the project in 2013 and the photographer’s subjects demonstrate the sober, vegan, transgender artist of color’s access to a…
Music: One City, One Symphony
We expect the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to perform great music that will entertain and inspire audiences. But this weekend’s concerts are the culmination of an annual project that goes well beyond the presentation of Classical music: One City, One Symphony is a collaborative initiative using music to bring together citizens from across the Tristate. Since…
Event: The Bacchanalian Society Fall Wine Tasting
The Bacchanalian Society is Cincinnati’s vino-focused young professional group that mixes and mingles social and professional networking with philanthropy in the name of Roman god Bacchus, the deity of wine and merriment. Their fall wine tasting invites the public — in teams of up to three people — to bring three bottles of the same…
Comedy: Kyle Grooms
Comedian Kyle Grooms spends quite a bit of time in Miami, where he once worked in television — he has a semi-regular gig there, but mostly headlines clubs across the country. Comedy fans might recognize him from his work on Chappelle’s Show or from his Comedy Central Presents special. “People judge you just because of…
Onstage: Low Down Dirty Blues
In an after-hours jam session at a Blues club in Chicago late on a Saturday night easing over into early Sunday, musicians and singers are swapping stories and songs. And those songs are bawdy ballads from the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Big Mama Thornton and more. The cast includes Felicia P. Fields, a…
Confused By ‘Enquirer’ Parks Levy Endorsement
The election’s done, but I’m still puzzling over the Enquirer endorsement of the parks levy. Did the editorial board ignore reporter Carrie Blackmore Smith’s well-researched, well-told and damning stories?From what the two endorsement editorials said about the park board, its president Otto Budig and Mayor John Cranley, I expected Enquirer opposition to the levy.Even if the…
Angst Coffeehouse Redux: A Community Café
If you’re in search of a fancy latte or in dire need of a cappafrappamocha-whatever, Angst Coffeehouse & Pub in Walnut Hills is not the place for you. But, if you’re looking for a neighborhood hangout that reminds you of someone’s sleek yet super-comfy basement where you can meet your friends and enjoy a cup…
‘Leftovers’ Promises No Miracles, Much Mysticism
The premiere season of The Leftovers (9 p.m. Sundays, HBO) focused on the fallout from the “Great Departure” of 140 million people who mysteriously vanished one day in 2011. Such an event would force anyone to question their religious beliefs, sense of self and even mental health. While last season was based on the titular…
What We Mean When We Discuss All-American Stories
All of the great real-life sports dramas work from the same basic premise — that of an underdog facing nearly impossible odds with determination and an undeniable sense of hope. Such is the case of Freddie Steinmark (Finn Wittrock), an undersized dreamer who wants nothing more than to play college football. Thanks to a herculean…
Everybody’s Treehouse
Hidden in the largest city park in Cincinnati is a magic treehouse. Few know about it, but those who do come from all over to live out childhood dreams. This otherworldly, elevated structure buried in trees and seemingly snatched out of a fantasy novel is the Mount Airy Treehouse. It’s located in Mount Airy Forest…
Who’s on First?
I frequently extol the virtues of Cincinnati’s theaters. They are a subset, of course, of a vibrant arts scene — one that a friend of mine often says “fights above its weight class.” While we don’t have the number of theaters or arts organizations found in larger cities, our theaters offer high quality and a…
‘Drums Are Beating Nightly’
W e expect the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to perform great music that will entertain and inspire audiences. But this weekend’s concerts are the culmination of an annual project that goes well beyond the presentation of Classical music: One City, One Symphony is a collaborative initiative using music to bring together citizens from across the Tristate.…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning! Here is your daily roundup of streetcar issues and past and future elections. Democrats and Republicans gathered in front of the board of elections yesterday scratching their heads and trying to figure out just what went wrong on Election Day when a series of glitches forced Hamilton County polling places to stay open…
Niche Market
C hristiaan Minella is a Cincinnati kid, even if he didn’t grow up here. His mom, Melissa, is from the West Side. His dad, Dan, is from the East Side. Though Minella was born here, life took him and his family to Pittsburgh, which is where Christiaan spent his youth — and where he first…
More Than a Game
T o sports fans, the colorful characters that adorn the uniforms and branding of their favorite teams speak to the tradition and community created by those professional, minor- league and high school squads. But for Native Americans, some of those symbols bring up a darker, more painful history. A panel hosted by the National Underground…
Officials: Investigation Into Voting Difficulties Underway
The Hamilton County Board of Elections is investigating difficulties a number of voters faced last week as they sought to weigh in on controversial local and state ballot issues. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted called for the investigation in light of hurdles voters faced Nov. 3. Those problems led to an order to keep…
Lose to Win
It might appear that two top administrators at the University of Missouri — President Timothy M. Wolfe and Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin — stepped down late on Nov. 9 under pressure from black students demanding more action in response to campus-wide racist acts. Feels like a real kumbaya moment, doesn’t it? These men took an…
Worst Week Ever! Nov. 11-17
Pairing of Ancient Poll Workers and Modern Technology Unexpectedly Results in Election Day Problems We must respect our elders because one day (barring a gnarly death before that chapter of our own lives comes to be) we will be like them, with hair coming out of our ears that doesn’t help us hear better and…
Music: The Mowgli’s
The Mowgli’s follow the tradition of bands that start out by building a strong grassroots audience organically through touring and word-of-mouth, ultimately leading to broader mainstream success (think The Lumineers, Mumford & Sons or Dave Matthews Band). With an irresistible blend of Indie Rock, hyper-melodic Pop, hippie-tinged Folk and occasional splashes of Reggae and Hip…
Sound Advice: The Mowgli’s with Lights and Phases
The Mowgli’s follow the tradition of bands that start out by building a strong grassroots audience organically through touring and word-of-mouth, ultimately leading to broader mainstream success (think The Lumineers, Mumford & Sons or Dave Matthews Band). With an irresistible blend of Indie Rock, hyper-melodic Pop, hippie-tinged Folk and occasional splashes of Reggae and Hip…
Music: Sufjan Stevens
“Fourth of July,” the centerpiece of Sufjan Stevens’ latest album — the stripped-down, Elliott Smith-esque Carrie & Lowell — is as intimate and revealing as anything in the crafty singer/songwriter’s songbook. It’s about Stevens’ long-estranged mother, the “Carrie” from the album’s title, who died of stomach cancer in 2012. Spare and moody, “Fourth of July”…
Sound Advice: Sufjan Stevens with Gallant
“Fourth of July,” the centerpiece of Sufjan Stevens’ latest album — the stripped-down, Elliott Smith-esque Carrie & Lowell — is as intimate and revealing as anything in the crafty singer/songwriter’s songbook. It’s about Stevens’ long-estranged mother, the “Carrie” from the album’s title, who died of stomach cancer in 2012. Spare and moody, “Fourth of July”…
Music: The Griswolds
There is nothing in the world quite so bracing and magnificent as Pop/Rock from the Land Down Under. Australia has produced some of the finest examples of the form over the past four decades, obviously refracted through their unique cracked-prism perspective. For proof, just witness the eccentric brilliance of Daddy Cool, Men at Work, INXS…
Sound Advice: The Griswolds with Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, New Politics and LOLO
There is nothing in the world quite so bracing and magnificent as Pop/Rock from the Land Down Under. Australia has produced some of the finest examples of the form over the past four decades, obviously refracted through their unique cracked-prism perspective. For proof, just witness the eccentric brilliance of Daddy Cool, Men at Work, INXS…
Music: Turquoise Jeep
Founded in 2009 by rappers/singers Flynt Flossy and Whatchyamacallit, crafty Hip Hop/R&B crew/label Turquoise Jeep features a loose collection of collaborators who revel in the Jeep’s ribald, unrelentingly humorous take on genre conventions. The Jeep first gained noticed by dropping songs like “Lemme Smang It” (with Yung Humma) and “Did I Mention I Like to…
Sound Advice: Turquoise Jeep with Abiyah and Super Origami
Founded in 2009 by rappers/singers Flynt Flossy and Whatchyamacallit, crafty Hip Hop/R&B crew/label Turquoise Jeep features a loose collection of collaborators who revel in the Jeep’s ribald, unrelentingly humorous take on genre conventions. The Jeep first gained noticed by dropping songs like “Lemme Smang It” (with Yung Humma) and “Did I Mention I Like to…
Aaron Collins Brings Blind Conductors to New EP
Last year, Cincinnati musician Aaron Collins, who at the time was known mostly for his singing and drumming in the well-regarded local band SHADOWRAPTR, decided to release some of his solo material, issuing the stunning Godlessly Oscillating album to the dropped jaws of anyone unaware of his unique talent as a player, singer, guitarist and…
From the Mundane to the Sublime
S wedish singer/songwriter Jens Lekman has consistently won praise — and a devoted, growing international fan base — for the idiosyncratically observational details of his lyrics in songs like “Every Little Hair Knows Your Name,” “A Postcard to Nina” and “An Argument With Myself.” Few other songwriters can do what Lekman does in “Your Arms…
O Pie O (Review)
First, it was cupcakes. Sex and the City and Andy Samberg (vis-à-vis the SNL short “Lazy Sunday”) propelled Magnolia Bakery to the top of the pop-culture bucket list, and TV station TLC even gave Georgetown Cupcake in Washington D.C. its own show. Then came Dominique Ansel’s cronut, a croissant-donut hybrid that had foodies waiting in…
Singing the Women’s Journey
Appalachian music is famous for its high, lonesome sound, eerie harmonies and themes of doomed love, faith and longing for the wild beauty of a region extending from Southern New York down into Georgia and Mississippi. When it came to planning a concert that featured traditional and new Appalachian sounds, MUSE, Cincinnati’s Women’s Choir, turned…
The Art of Laundry
HOT: The Art of Laundry Rocker Noel Gallagher told Esquire UK that if Radiohead’s Thom Yorke “shit into a light bulb and started blowing it like an empty beer bottle,” it would be hailed as a masterpiece by critics. Critics might be considering something similar in February when experimental Electronic duo Matmos releases Ultimate Care…
