Film: Showgirls’ Sister
A girl and her pole: Nomi Mallone (Elizabeth Berkley) rises to the top of the Las Vegas exotic dancing world in the 1995 drama Showgirls. When I handed him my stack of five Angelina Jolie films over the video store counter, the frat boy clerk said with a smirk, "Having an Angelina Jolie marathon?" The…
Music: Heavy Hitters
Lords of the Next-Big-Things? Mastodon says the lofty expectations foisted upon them haven't affected their approach to writing and playing. The music industry in general and its genre-specific subsets in particular are always looking for the "next big thing," followed in short order by the media who reports on such things and the fans who…
Locals Only: : ribbed, for you pleasure
American Hardcore The first thing that strikes you about American Hardcore is that they look like a band. You're not going to mistake them for people who sell insurance, for instance. They ooze sex and danger just like a "dirty Rock & Roll band" (to borrow their description) should. "When I was getting into the…
I thought you were someone else
I Thought I Knew America I was recently disturbed by a message left on a fellow student's computer, including several links to Web sites to buy plane tickets, find housing and gain Canadian citizenship. It read: "For those of you planning to leave the country if Bush wins, here's help! Get there faster; you should…
Open and Closed
In all the editorial skirmishing about electronic voting machines and their potential for everything from glitches to deliberate fraud, one alternative seems to have been overlooked: using open-source software. Computer programmer Troy Davis — the founder and president of the Cincinnati Programmers' Guild and a programmer for Metaphor Studios — is so convinced that using…
Local filmmaker Craig Highberger on Jackie Curtis
Sean Hughes/photopresse.com As a kid growing up in Pittsburgh, Craig Highberger first heard the name Andy Warhol from an uncle who went to college with the celebrity artist in the 1950s. Childhood curiosity turned to teenage obsession after Highberger — just 18-years-old at the time — snuck out to watch the Warhol film, Flesh, a…
more concerts and shows of note
Luna Luna with Palomar Thursday · Southgate House When Dean Wareham embarked on a solo career in 1991 in the aftermath of the contentious dissolution of his cultishly revered band Galaxie 500, expectation ran unreasonably high. To his credit, Wareham delivered a typically quirky EP, Anaesthesia, and then showed up on Mercury Rev's stellar "Car…
Almost Blue
Standing in the Election Day rain outside the Evanston Neighborhood Community Center might not qualify as the deciding factor for Gary Wright, chairman of the repeal-Article 12 group Citizens to Restore Fairness (CRF), or his other pro-tolerance volunteers, but it helped secure victory for a group of local liberal voters accustomed to defeat. After months…
Good for Us, Bad for Them
Sean Hughes/photopresse.com CityBeat Editor John Fox (left) accepts a proclamation from Mayor Charlie Luken. World doesn't end There's no sense in wasting a perfectly usable proclamation, so Mayor Charlie Luken last week declared Nov. 11 CityBeat Day in the city of Cincinnati — even though the event wasn't quite what he'd hoped it would be.…
Jeff Snyder – The Gravity Car
Jeff Snyder – The Gravity Car · Guns N Roses — Use Your Illusion I This album never ventures very far from my CD player, because there's always room for Guns N' Roses. Use Your Illusion I is just a glamorous Rock album that lifts a giant middle finger to everyone. It's a very mood-appropriate…
Diner: Becoming a Fixture
While all restaurateurs share dreams of longevity for their establishments, some aspire to truly integrate their eatery into the surrounding neighborhood as a crossroads for gathering by providing an accessible atmosphere and menu. Tom and Amy Elliot are on their way with their user-friendly Kona Bistro, a casual urban-contemporary restaurant in the former Big Sky…
News: Demanding Investigation
Stephen Novotni Barry Edney of Columbus asks why we can track lottery tickets but not votes. COLUMBUS — There's more to the 2004 election than you've heard, according to Sharon Lettman of People For the American Way, a panelist in an unofficial Nov. 13 public hearing on voter suppression and fraud in Ohio. "Ever since…
Legislating Republican Control in Ohio
The Nov. 2 election is behind us, leaving cheering Republicans eager to complete their reclamation of America and deflated Democrats terrified of unbridled conservatism. As predicted by most, Ohio was the prized jewel of the election, the vote so close that challenger John Kerry didn't concede the state's valuable cache of 20 electoral votes until…
News to Use
It's Not Too Late for Iran and Syria The Coalition for Peace With Iraq (CPWI) is organizing to help rebuild the anti-war movement. CPWI meets from 4-6 p.m. the first and third Sundays of each month at Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church. The next meeting is Sunday.Rebirth in Old SpaceThe Crazy Ladies Bookstore, which since the…
Cover Story: Jumping to Amazing Conclusions
Dale M. Johnson Big Joe Duskin performs at his CD release party on Nov. 13. For more info on the CEA's click here. "What's goin' on, Big Joe?" bass player Ed Conley asks. "Ain't nothing goin' on but the weather, time and old age," Big Joe Duskin replies. With all due respect, Duskin's wrong. At…
Cover Story: Yin and Yang
Darin Overholser For more info on the CEA's Darin Overholser For more info on the CEA's click here. Early last May, Ed Stern, producing artistic director at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, had an early morning call from an actor in New York congratulating him on winning the Regional Theatre Tony Award. Stern almost…
Muting the Volume on the Chad Johnson Show
Jerry Dowling A new media personality has burst onto the sports horizon in the person of Chad Johnson, the Bengals' publicity-addicted wide receiver. We should be so lucky. The Bengals evidently have one of these dynamite star pass catchers, and we didn't even have to wait for a playoff appearance before finding out about it.…
Television and Radio: One Date at a Time
Mark Matson Mitch Hedburg is co-headlining at Bogart's. Comic Mitch Hedburg has built a successful career primarily through relentless touring. He spoke to CityBeat from his home in Hollywood, Fla. CityBeat: How did you get into stand-up comedy? Mitch Hedburg: It's an answer I try to make creative, because it's really kind of simple. One…
Go Away, Little Boy
I'll keep this short. Like Mike Allen's rise through the ranks of the Hamilton County GOP. Like Rebecca Collins' law career in Cincinnati. Former Hamilton County Prosecute Her Allen's $5 million countersuit against the woman with whom he engaged in nearly four years of consensual whoring and who allegedly ruined his political career is why…
Living Out Loud: : Nancy’s Big Fat Belly
My sister is having a baby. Nancy's my only sister and this is her first baby. I also know I probably won't be having any more children, so this baby is kind of special to me. I'll be able to hold an infant in my arms again, coo at him, smell him and fall asleep…
Getting Back to the good stuff
When did your sex advice column become a political column? That's not why I read your column. Please get back to what you do best: fetish sex advice. Get back to peggers and piss drinkers. If I find anything about politics in your column next week, I am done with you. I want info and…
Esalen Bodywork
Esalen (pronounced ESH-a-lon) is a Japanese style of full bodywork with many uplifting benefits. I spoke with Maria and John, who practice this technique. Esalen incorporates a rocking motion of full body strokes and effleurage using 50 to 60 strokes in each body area before moving on to the next. Also included are deeper kneading…
Music: Lali Pops
The sound of now: Lali Puna headlines the Indie/Electronic Moor Music Tour. Lali Puna is the sound of now. What began in 1998 as an arty drum-and-bass solo project by singer/keyboardist Valerie Trebeljahr has evolved into one of the more singular Avant Pop units of our age. Hailing from Munich, Germany, the band now features…
Local CD Release Bonanza
· Jake Speed & the Freddies release their third album, Huzzah!, in conjunction with a show at Arnold's on Saturday. There's something instantly grabbing about Speed's clever spin on "old timey" Folk music, which touches on Bluegrass, Ragtime and Blues. By spinning that sound with youthful exuberance and contemporary local landmarks and reference points, Speed's…
News: Natural Learning
Anthony Antal Art isn't just a subject at Waldorf. The Cincinnati Waldorf School is taking a more holistic and natural approach to elementary education than most other schools. With no principal or traditional grading system, Waldorf offers a curriculum that includes conventional subjects such as history and chemistry, but with a mix of the unconventional:…
Brigadoon
Mark Lyons Joseph Medeiros is Harry Beaton and Savannah Wise is Maggie Anderson in CCM's Brigadoon. University theaters often provide offerings that you simply won't get to see at venues that are more dependent on ticket sales. The production of BRIGADOON happening this weekend at UC's College-Conservatory of Music is unusual in that it's being…
