Reds Future Looks Sweet
Joey Votto won the NL MVP yesterday by getting 31 of the 32 first-place votes, a dominating total that left little doubt about the 27-year-old first baseman's rapidly ascendant reputation. It's no coincidence that Votto's move into the MLB elite coincided with the team's first playoff appearance in 15 years (and just their second playoff…
Countdown to ‘Opt-Out’
Public outrage over new full-body scanners that passengers must walk through at U.S. airports has prompted a grassroots protest — National Opt-Out Day — which will take place Wednesday, on one of the busiest flying days of the year.—- Instead of submitting to a scan, organizers are asking all passengers to request a pat-down by…
127 Hours (Review)
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } 127 Hours is based on mountain climber Aron Ralston's memoir about his misadventure in Utah's Canyonlands National Park where he became trapped by a boulder and was forced to cut off his own arm in order to save his life. Director Danny Boyle is a master of movement. He understands…
Thunder-Sky Inc. Exhibits (Review)
Critic's Pick For those viewers willing to go along for the ride, the two intermixed exhibitions now at Thunder-Sky Inc. are post-psychedelic trips into alternative ways of processing thought. The innovative Northside gallery has shows featuring artists interested in outsider or folk art. On the one side is Bruce Burris’ Welcome to the Lonely Mountain…
CEAs Give Thanks to Local Music
The 2010 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards was another memorable love fest celebrating Cincinnati’s rich musical history and thriving contemporary music scene. The briskly paced show Nov. 21 at Covington’s Madison Theater featured quality performances, updates on in-the-works projects spotlighting the area’s pivotal role in American music’s evolution and the presentation of 19 awards encompassing the full…
Love & Other Drugs (Review)
Drawn from the same murky well of Hollywood ethical ambiguity that gave us Thank You for Smoking and last year’s Up in the Air, Love & Other Drugs audaciously defines its slick anti-hero protagonist as beyond reproach. Jake Gyllenhaal’s Jamie Randall is a sex-addicted stud whose effortless ability to bed women anytime/anywhere gets him fired…
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Review)
The same exponential decline in story complexity that occurred between the first and second cinematic installments of Stieg Larsson's posthumously published Millennium Trilogy continues here. Where The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo had taut crisscrossing subplots of boundless internal and external significance, the final act of the trilogy is little more than a tepid courtroom…
Media Sloppiness Leads to Guilt by Association
Why associate a homicide with an apparently unrelated business? A recent Enquirer story said an Over-the-Rhine shooting was “a block south of Findlay Market.” The headline said it was “near Findlay Market.” Nothing in the story said or indicated the victim or shooter had anything to do with Findlay Market except proximity. And in a…
Callinan to Retire Dec. 31
After more than a week of rumors, it was made official today: Enquirer Executive Editor Tom Callinan will retire at year's end to accept a professorship at the University of Cincinnati. In an e-mail sent to staffers, Enquirer Publisher Margaret Buchanan announced the retirement and said Callinan's replacement would be named "shortly after the first…
The Polarizing Cinema of Harmony Korine
Harmony Korine is a polarizing filmmaker. One either finds his films — Gummo (1997), Julien Donkey Boy (1999) and Mister Lonely (2007) — intriguing pieces of art or complete rubbish, the work of a jerk-off provocateur who represents the “end of cinema.”—- Proof can be found in this dichotomous reaction to the Dogme 95-informed Gummo,…
Freedom Tour Will Visit Cincy
Ineffective. Fiscally irresponsible. Overcrowded. Those are some of the words used by reform advocates to describe Ohio's criminal justice system. As part of its effort to publicize disparities in the state's prisons, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio will bring its Freedom Tour here on Dec. 6.—- Co-sponsored by the Urban League of…
Do the Bengals Care?
The Cincinnati Bengals suffered one of the worst losses in franchise history yesterday, a 49-31 home defeat to the team tied for the NFL's worst record at the time, the Buffalo Bills. The Bengals led 31-14 at halftime and were outscored 35-0 in the second half. The Bengals sit at 2-8 on the 2010 season…
Comedy: Robert Hawkins
Robert Hawkins is America’s premiere road comic. He wouldn’t have it any other way. While he wouldn’t turn down some TV money, he’s happy entertaining folks in clubs across America. Despite the recession, he’s never been busier. “(People) ask you all the time ‘What do you want to do?’ And my answer is, ‘I’m already…
Events: Light Up the Square
The annual Macy’s Light Up The Square is a tradition that no Cincinnatian should miss. Porkopolis will usher in the holiday season Friday at 7 p.m. on Fountain Square (at Fifth and Vine streets, Downtown) with a 60-foot sparkling spruce. Mayor Mark Mallory will do the honors of the lighting the tree. Jeff Thomas from…
Music: EOTO
The idea of improvisation in an Electronic context seems slightly counterintuitive, as samples and beats that are loaded into computers and synths to be activated by a keystroke hardly seems like the domain of musicians who are making it up as they go along. Multi-instrumentalists Michael Travis and Jason Hann, drummer and percussionist respectively for…
Music: Darker My Love with Delta Spirit
In a 2008 interview with the weekly paper Denver Westword, Darker My Love bassist/vocalist Rob Barbato adamantly refuted the notion that his band was immersed in any sense of nostalgia. “No, we’re not trying to do any kind of a throwback,” Barbato said. “You’re influenced by what you’re influenced by. We just make the music…
Everything Old Is New Again
This month's midterm elections represented a political windfall for Republicans, and many right-wingers see the victories as a mandate for smaller government and a public rejection of the Obama administration. What the GOP does with its control of the House remains to be seen, but, says former State Rep. Tom Brinkman Jr., it’s fortunate for…
Onstage: Young Frankenstein at Aronoff Center
Make no mistake about it: Mel Brooks is a dirty old man. And since his very funny film Young Frankenstein he’s gotten ever dirtier and older. What was raunchy but amusing in 1974 is simply repeated louder and cruder in this 2007 Broadway version, currently spending two weeks at the Aronoff Center for the Arts.…
Events: Winterfair
Forget the gift cards this year. Winterfair has something unique for everyone. The 32nd annual Fine Art and Fine Craft Fair returns to the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington this weekend. Prices range from $15 to several thousand dollars. You can get one-of-a-kind glass earrings for your grandma and specialty barbecue sauce for your…
Art: Yuletide at 1305 Gallery
Every year as we approach the season of holiday shopping, more and more Cincinnatians are rethinking corporate consumerism and focusing instead on buying local and handmade to support artists and artisans and also enrich the lives of gift recipients receiving original artwork and other lovingly produced objects. But 1305 Gallery (1305 Main St., Over-the-Rhine) has…
La Poste (Review)
I finally know the answer! The egg comes before the chicken. At least at my dinner at La Poste it did. La Poste, which occupies the hole Tink’s left in the Clifton dining scene, was named for the site’s original business, a post office. It plays on the theme in a sophisticated way in everything…
Music: Reverend Payton’s Big Damn Band with The Lewis Brothers
It’s been quite a year for the Reverend Peyton and his Big Damn Band, starting with the Rev and his washboard-banging wife Breezy bidding adieu to brother/drummer Jayme Peyton last December. For anyone worried that Jayme’s departure would alter the BDB’s genetic vibe, fear not. The Rev didn’t have to look to a significantly lower…
Attractions: Holiday in Lights
Want to enjoy the Christmas season without freezing your candy cane? Then Holiday in Lights at Sharon Woods was created for you. This Cincinnati tradition is a mile-long Christmas lights display that you can view from your car, heater blasting. After the trip down holiday lane, you can enjoy Sharon Woods’ Santaland, where the kids…
Art: The Chocolate Connection at Lloyd Library and Museum
The Lloyd Library and Museum — the fascinating downtown institution that collects historic material related pharmacy, botany, horticulture, herbal and alternative medicine and related topics — currently has an exhibit about Hans Sloane, a British physician and naturalist (1660-1753) who was an early advocate of the medicinal value of drinking chocolate. He learned about it…
Events: Thanksgiving 10k Run/Walk
It's that time of year again: Time for everyone to gather around and enjoy each other's company … while running or walking on Thanksgiving Day. That's right, folks, it's the 101st Thanksgiving 10k Run/Walk, which starts and ends at Paul Brown Stadium. Not what you thought? Well that's OK, because it's a great way to…
Events: Fuck You … I Love You
If you’re reading this, chances are you have at least a vague memory of a time when checking your Facebook account or updating your Netflix queue wasn’t part of your daily routine. In recognition of the ever-changing landscape of technology and its impact on us, The Mockbee (2260 Central Pkwy., Brighton) will host a multimedia…
Onstage: A Wrinkle in Time at Know Theatre
Earlier this year John Glore’s adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time premiered at South Coast Rep, one of America’s most respected theaters for new plays. The 1962 novel about precocious kids has been popular for a long time (especially with, well, precocious kids), so there’s a built-in audience. That’s certainly why Know Theatre…
New Shades of Love
In a 2008 interview with Denver's alt weekly paper Westword, Darker My Love bassist/vocalist Rob Barbato adamantly refuted the notion that his band was immersed in any sense of nostalgia. “No, we’re not trying to do any kind of a throwback,” Barbato said. “You’re influenced by what you’re influenced by. We just make the music…
Art: Bruce Burris and Aaron Oliver Wood at Thunder-Sky Inc.
For those viewers willing to go along for the ride, the two intermixed exhibitions now at Thunder-Sky Inc. are post-psychedelic trips into alternative ways of processing thought. The innovative Northside gallery has shows featuring artists interested in outsider or folk art. On the one side is Bruce Burris’ Welcome to the Lonely Mountain Community Center,…
Events: Pop-Up Shop in OTR
Support your local economy, buy green and get all your holiday shopping done by checking out Cincinnati’s first Pop-Up Shop (1213 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine). Pop-up shops have become all the rage around the country as brief tenants of unused retail space. Surround yourself with local products and gifts like ties and pocket squares from Artfully…
And the Winners Are …
On Nov. 21 at Covington’s Madison Theater, Cincinnati Entertainment Awards were presented in 19 categories. An even mix of previous CEA victors (Freekbass, Dallas Moore Band, Ricky Nye) and first-time nominees (I Am the Messenger, Mad Anthony, Pop Empire), winners received the trademark CEA “trophy,” a groovy hand-painted faux-“Gold Record” plaque. A number of nominees…
Events: Family Saturday at CAC: Shocking Chapeau!
Not that you have to press a kid to get her interested in the larger-than-life art of Rosson Crow, but the Contemporary Art Center Family Saturday extends the fun by helping parents build a Rosson Crow-inspired hat with their children. Rosson Crow: Myth of the American Motorcycle is currently on display at the CAC (44…
A Very Foxy 2010 CEAs
Something (or a few things) unanticipated usually happens at the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards show every year. After all, it's a night where hundreds of local musicians are put together in a room with loud music and multiple cash bars. But the biggest unexpected element of last night’s CEAs at the Madison Theater in Covington was…
CCV Facing Deficit
A prominent local anti-gay, right wing group sent a mass e-mail to supporters today seeking money to avoid a $150,000 deficit next year, which is close to what the group's president makes in salary. The e-mail distributed by Sharonville-based Citizens for Community Values (CCV) states it's ready to “jump into 2011 with both feet!”—- It…
Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
It’s been quite a year for the Reverend Peyton and his Big Damn Band, starting with the Rev and his washboard-banging wife Breezy bidding adieu to brother/drummer Jayme Peyton last December. For anyone worried that Jayme’s departure would alter the BDB’s genetic vibe, fear not. The Rev didn’t have to look to a significantly lower…
EOTO
The idea of improvisation in an Electronic context seems slightly counterintuitive, as samples and beats loaded into computers and synths to be activated by a keystroke hardly seems like the domain of musicians who are making it up as they go along. Multi-instrumentalists Michael Travis and Jason Hann, drummer and percussionist respectively for String Cheese…
New Over the Rhine Album Due in February
When Over the Rhine's new album, The Long Surrender, comes out early next year, it will have been 20 years since the beloved Cincinnati outfit released Till We Have Faces, OTR’s 1991 debut. In that time, OTR’s husband/wife braintrust — multi-instrumentalists and vocalists Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist — carved out one of the more…
Friday Movie Roundup: Art House Edition
As I wrote a few days ago, the local movie landscape gets a shot in the arm with today's opening of the Kenwood Theatre, which will be run by Theatre Management Corporation (TMC), the same outfit that operates the Esquire and Mariemont theaters. The Kenwood will offer a similar mix of independent fare and mainstream…
Stage Door: CCM’s Evita
So it's almost Thanksgiving and you need to find some good theater before you can begin working on all the preparations for the big meal later next week. My recommendation — Evita at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Aubrey Berg, who has headed the musical theater training program at the University of Cincinnati…
More Moore from Sub Pop in 2011
Sub Pop Records announced that the new album by Northern Kentucky singer/songwriter Daniel Martin More will be released Jan. 18. In the Cool of the Day is Moore’s second solo release for Sub Pop (and third overall — his Dear Companion full-length collaboration with Louisville cellist/vocalist Ben Solee was issued by the label at the…
Charley Harper Lives
The late, great Cincinnati artist Charley Harper lives on this month via a new coloring book, the aptly titled Charley Harper Coloring Book of Birds. Ammo Books — a crafty, discerning California-based publisher that previously put out the authoritative Harper tome, Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life — sent me a copy this week, and I…
Callinan Quiet on Enquirer Rumors
Journalism-related Web sites have been abuzz this week with rumors that Editor Tom Callinan is about to leave his job at The Enquirer. Callinan is keeping mum for now, but one of his rumored replacements says he will remain in California and not return to Cincinnati.—- The rumors began after Callinan didn't attend an editors'…
Tamara Drewe (Review)
A pompous philandering author (Roger Allam), his dutifully long-suffering wife (Tamsin Greig), a handsome groundskeeper (Luke Evans) and the titular young journalist (Gemma Arterton) constitute the foundation of this Stephen Frears adaptation of a graphic novel by Posy Simmonds, from a script by Moira Buffini (Temp). The ever-reliable Frears (The Queen, High Fidelity) fashions this…
Last Train Home (Review)
China's coming maelstrom of cultural tension is a central theme in Chinese/Canadian filmmaker Lixin Fan's Last Train Home, a gritty, verite-style documentary about a family struggling to adapt to its country's evolving, increasingly globalized economy. Lixin fixes his narrative (and inquisitive hand-held camera) on a married couple, Changhua and Suqin Zhang, onetime rural farmers who…
Cool It (Review)
Ondi Timoner's feature-length documentary platform for mapping out facts and fallacies about global warming might shed light on additionally pressing issues like global poverty and lack of clean drinking water, but it never brings the audience into the one-sided conversation. Famous (and infamous) author Bjorn Lomborg (The Skeptical Environmentalist) likes to tout his unlikely association…
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (Review)
A flawed decision to split the final installment of the Harry Potter books into two films results in a formless narrative that overstays its welcome. For as detailed as director David Yates attempts to be with slick visual effects that periodically invigorate the movie, the overemphasized spectacle merely illustrates the film's lacking storyline. We understand…
Young Frankenstein (Review)
Make no mistake about it: Mel Brooks is a dirty old man. And since his very funny film Young Frankenstein he’s gotten ever dirtier and older. What was raunchy but amusing in 1974 is simply repeated louder and cruder in this 2007 Broadway version, currently spending two weeks at the Aronoff Center for the Arts.…
The Great FOP Swindle
Once upon a time, there was a mockumentary made about the Punk band, the Sex Pistols. Filmed some 30 years ago, The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle parodied the cliches of the music industry by charting the creation, rise and breakup of the group. Now, the leader of Cincinnati's police union has formed a similarly titled group…
Last Chance for ‘Killer Instinct’
Vincent Cassel might play tough, wild-eyed guys in the movies, but he’s pussycat in “real” life. I interviewed him for a David Cronenberg film, Eastern Promises, a few years back, and he couldn’t have been more accommodating and personable, which is not always the case with actors who are forced to do publicity for their…
Senate Kills Paycheck Fairness
A bill that supporters say would've ensured women are paid the same as men for doing the same work was blocked today by the U.S. Senate in a 58-41 vote. All Republican senators — including George Voinovich from Ohio — voted against allowing debate on the bill. The bill, known as the Paycheck Fairness Act,…
Blunts, Jobs and Guns
[HOT] Blunt Objects (Allegedly) When we hear the soothing, romantic Pop songs of British singer James “You’re Beautiful” Blunt, a one-man Air Supply for the new millennium, we feel all kinds of things: rage, cynicism, shame, the vomit making its way up our throats. Turns out we should all be feeling the same kind of…
Stepping Into Success
Three innovative entrepreneurs from Ohio have started a new business that keeps women looking stylish while giving their feet some much-needed relief. Sheree Coleman of Cincinnati, along with Sherrae Hayes and Alyxaundria Sanford of Cleveland, recently began a company called Sole Discretion. Selling what the industry terms as “transition shoes,” Sole Discretion's product aims to…
Bestiary (Review)
Critic's Pick Bestiary sweeps through all three rooms of Manifest Gallery in a lively embodiment of the kind of show the East Walnut Hills gallery has to a degree pioneered and does well. An idea (in this case “animals”) is thrown out worldwide thanks to the Internet, and a stringent jury/curatorial process sifts the keepers…
Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 (Review)
Part two of the lean, explosive, unsentimental French biopic of that country’s most notorious gangster of the modern era, Jacques Mesrine, has just as much rivetingly realistic, kinetically filmed excitement and great acting as part one, which is just finishing its run at the Esquire Theatre. Public Enemy No. 1 basically covers Mesrine’s life in…
Film: Kenwood Theatre’s Opening Gala
More than a year after the Showcase Cinemas inside Kenwood Towne Centre closed suddenly (which was preceded by the unfortunate shuttering of the plush, old-school Kenwood Twin across the street back in 1995), the local movie landscape gets a shot in the arm this week with the opening of the Kenwood Theatre (7815 Kenwood Road)…
Fair Game (Review)
Walking out of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the film that set off the Brangelina phenomenon, I felt like the lone voice in the audience screaming for everything that was missing in that overly explosive affair. The movie exuded too much haughtiness, relied far too much on shocking punches and double-barreled cheap shots and simply lacked…
The Sacred Triangle (Review)
Here’s a shocking discovery for Cincinnati Pop-music historians: Did you know it was a legendary Iggy Pop performance here in 1970 that inspired David Bowie to create his Ziggy Stardust character and thus turn the British Glam Rock movement into a worldwide phenomenon? That’s one of many perceptive insights in this new documentary, which looks…
Mai Thai (Review)
Critic's Pick I’m letting you in on one of my “Bet you didn’t know about this place” places, since it’s starting to become more and more well known anyway. And it deserves to! Mai Thai is located just across the road from the quirkiest hotel in, well, just about anywhere: the Wildwood Inn. You know,…
Council Avoids Tough Decisions, While Some Grandstand
If you own a home in Cincinnati, and maybe even if you rent, you’re probably going to be paying more next year because city officials lack the political will to stand up to the local police union. Or the firefighters union. Or municipal retirees. It’s budget time at City Hall, and Cincinnati City Council is…
A Royal Revival for King Records
For years, Rock historians have said the reason Cincinnati’s King Records doesn’t have the enduring public regard that, say, Detroit’s Motown or Memphis’ Sun labels have is because it didn’t have a readily identifiable sound. King recorded too many kinds of music — even too many kinds of R&B, its greatest strength. In other words,…
Mesrine: Killer Instinct (Review)
France jumps into 2010 as the year of the crime drama with a violent splash. Vincent Cassel is credibly persuasive as the notorious French gangster of a thousand faces, Jacques Mesrine, a ruthless criminal with style and attitude to spare. Based on Mesrine's memoir, director Jean-Francois Richet pulls out all the stops to create an…
Two Good Shows At Brighton Galleries
The two Brighton co-op galleries that try to maintain ongoing, changing exhibition schedules — Semantics and U-turn Art Space — have a challenge in luring audiences to their shows. They only have regular hours of noon-4 p.m. Saturdays, along with opening-night receptions. Still, so-called “alternative art spaces” are a crucial component for any city that…
Judge Winkler and Mike Wilson
[WINNER] ROBERT WINKLER: Sometimes the system works. Winkler, a Hamilton County Common Pleas Court judge, rejected a request Nov. 16 filed by Cincinnati Tea Party leader Mike Wilson. Wilson, a Republican, challenged Democratic incumbent Connie Pillich for the Ohio House 28th District seat. On Election Night, results showed Pillich beating Wilson by five votes, but…
Punk Pioneers Revisited at Jockey Club Reunion
In 2008, local independent publisher Aurore Press (which releases chapbooks featuring local writing on everything from politics to the glory of thrift stores) presented a “reunion” concert at the Southgate House that featured bands (and many fans) who were a part of the scene at famed Punk Rock palace/dump The Jockey Club in Newport. The…
Nov. 10-16: Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY NOV. 10 Local "food" producer JTM today announced the introduction of two new products to its enthralling, mysterious line of meat products that people as locally renowned as Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo have sung songs about. After a process that's probably a lot like when you would use different shaped caps to squeeze out…
Jean-Paul’s Paradiso (Review)
Jean-Paul’s Paradiso (6732 Clough Pike, 513-231-2780) is tucked away next to a gas station in Anderson Township’s small historic district. Inauspicious surroundings belie the delights waiting within. When you enter into the tiny space, you’re greeted with the smells of freshly baked bread and pizza and a clear view of the kitchen. Paradiso is very…
Sit or Spin vs. Everything Melting
I’m set, focused on my plan. At home, dressed in all blue, I’m ready to do laundry, then kick back and watch some artsy love flick about two handsome people. Restless, I need an imagination fix. Restlessness. Lately it swallows me up, coming at me like the leaf-blowing men outside — a daily, relentless explosion.…
CEA Performers, Details Announced
The votes have been cast and counted, the winners’ plaques are being etched as you read this, and now we can all focus on this Sunday’s Cincinnati Entertainment Awards ceremony/concert/party at the Madison Theater in Covington. The CEA program — entering its 14th year of local music exaltation with Sunday’s show — is certainly about…
