Ferguson Solidarity Rally in Cincinnati Draws Hundreds
A rally in remembrance of those who have died in recent police shootings of unarmed black men drew as many as 300 downtown Tuesday evening. The rally was followed by a nearly three-hour march that made its way through downtown, Over-the-Rhine and the West End before briefly shutting down I-75 as protesters streamed onto the…
Man Wrongfully Imprisoned for 39 Years Thanks UC Program
Ricky Jackson was just 20 and fresh out of the Marines when he went to jail for murder in 1975. Authorities pinned the killing of Harold Franks, a fifty nine-year-old money order clerk in Cleveland, on Jackson and two of his friends, brothers Wiley and Ronnie Bridgeman. The conviction came on the testimony of a…
I Just Can’t Get Enough
Everyone’s favorite naughty bedtime story, Go the Fuck to Sleep, is getting a follow-up! You Have to Fucking Eat by Adam Mansbach is available now. And, like Samuel L. Jackson did for Sleep, Bryan Cranston narrates this new hilariously explicit offering. Can’t you just hear Walter White reading this to baby Holly? I’m a sucker…
Penguins of Madagascar
Animated spin-offs of fairly funny franchises tend to send up warning flares. With the focus on secondary characters that may have stolen attention in a few carefully scripted moments, does that guarantee that they can hold center stage on their own? The non-flyers of the DreamWorks zoo appear ready, willing and able to seize the…
TV to Binge On
Thanksgiving is a great excuse to eat whatever we want, as much we want — why can’t the same go for what we watch? Portlandia (9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Thursday, IFC) – Plenty of these skits have a dinner table tie-in: cacao, gluten, celery… Adventure Time (9 a.m.-2 p.m. Thursday, Cartoon Network) – Kick off the…
No Time for Humbug: A Dickens of a Christmas Story
“Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.” With those words Charles Dickens began A Christmas Carol, his legendary ghost story about the conversion of Ebenezer Scrooge from miser to philanthropist. First published in 1843, Dickens’ tale of the miserly businessman played a significant role in ensuring his writing fame.…
The Land’s Canvas
A s you drive north on Winton Road, passing by the picturesque tombs and trees that dot Spring Grove Cemetery, you come to the intersection at Gray Road. While this time of year it may live up to its name, during nature’s thriving months you’ll find sunlight sprinkled along its fields and greenhouses. The lines…
Dine-Out Thanksgiving Dinners
Thanksgiving is traditionally a time when friends and family gather around the table to break bread, make merry and overindulge in turkey before falling asleep in front of the TV. But sometimes you just don’t feel like cooking. Or your oven breaks. Or you want to completely avoid spending more time than you have to with your family. Luckily,…
Brown Bear Bakery (Feature)
Inspired by her grandma’s love of baking, Cincinnati native Blair Fornshell founded her own baked goods company, Brown Bear Bakery, two years ago. “I started baking with my grandma when I was really little,” says Fornshell, who grew up in Ross, Ohio, 30 minutes from Cincinnati. “She baked with her grandmother, and my mom couldn’t…
The Stray Birds with Jordie Lane
The challenge for any band pursuing a Folk/Bluegrass direction these days is finding the balance between serving tradition by upholding the genres’ established blueprint and updating that well-worn plan by way of a contemporary perspective infused with fresh and perhaps unexpected influences. Nickel Creek certainly blazed new trails for modern Bluegrass proponents, and The Stray…
Flosstradamus
Chicago DJs Josh Young and Curt Cameruci (aka J2K and Autobot) must have known from their 2006 start that their brand of EDM/Hip Hop mixology was unique within their chosen field. After all, the duo dubbed themselves Flosstradamus, a tweak on the name of the infamously prescient 16th-century French seer. Even if they didn’t predict…
Bobby Bare Jr.
Bobby Bare Jr. cannot hide from his family’s legacy, considering he shares the same name as his Country Music Hall of Fame father, Bobby Bare, who recorded here in Cincinnati at King Records in the 1960s. Bare Jr. first came onto the music scene in 1974, when he recorded the Shel Silverstein-penned, Grammy-nominated song “Daddy…
Papadosio
Papadosio is a hot name in the music festival scene these days, the masterful epitome of what’s come to be termed “Jamtronica.” The quintet, comprised of guitarist Anthony Thogmartin, drummer Mike Healy, bassist Rob McConnell and brothers Billy and Sam Brouse on keyboards and synths, has followed a tight but expansive trajectory over the course…
CEAs Now Accepting Submissions for Nominations
For the 2015 edition of CityBeat's Cincinnati Entertainment Awards (to be held in late January), the public now has a chance to be involved in the process of choosing the nominations from Greater Cincinnati’s amazing music scene. Previously, nominations came directly from the nominating committee, which consists of a variety of local music aficionados (writers,…
Motor Away
T ouring the world is one goal that few bands ever accomplish. It requires a ridiculous amount of hard work, dedication, time and money, and most bands make big plans that never cut through the bong smoke of their practice spaces. Valley of the Sun is not one of those bands. For more than three…
Thanks and Giving
The onslaught of the stress, anxiety and longing of the holiday season is never just limited to the abundance of Christmas TV commercials and secular Christmas music blaring in stores sometime right before Halloween. The holidays aren’t complete without the macabre sight of our neediest brothers and sisters lined up all over town in inclement…
Cincinnati vs. The World 11.25.14
Unemployment rates have fallen in 27 states since October of last year, according to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition, 35 states saw significant growth in the size of their labor force. World +2 An $80 million expansion of Newport on the Levee, dubbed Aqua on the Levee, broke ground Nov.…
Worst Week Ever!: Nov. 19-25
Research Disputes Notion That Guns Are Magical and Stop Crime People like owning guns. It gives them the notion that they’re able to stand up for themselves against a tyrannical government and all sorts of other liberating scenarios. When our nation was founded, guns took seven to 10 hours to load and the closest police…
Neighborhood Clean-Up Program Targets Walnut Hills Eyesore
A pedestrian walkway between McMillian Street and Curtis Street in Walnut Hills called the St. James Cut Through has long been a community eyesore and crime hot spot. But neighborhood leaders are working to transform the ugly plaza into a vibrant, safer space for the public. “We hope to facilitate the activation of a vibrant,…
Council Passes Streetcar Funding, Operating Agreements
Cincinnati City Council on Nov. 19 passed operating and funding agreements for the city’s streetcar, a milestone for the contested project. “Three months ago, I didn’t know if we’d be here today with a revenue stream,” said Councilwoman Amy Murray, who chairs Council’s transportation committee. Murray was opposed to the project originally, but voted for…
Morning News and Stuff
Your morning news today is gonna be a little grim and heavy. Sometimes that's how the news goes, folks. A grand jury has decided not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the Aug. 9 shooting death of Mike Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old. The incident has been highly racially charged from the start and…
State Renews License for Cincinnati’s Only Abortion Clinic
Cincinnati’s last remaining clinic providing abortions will stay open, Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio announced Nov. 20. The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) has approved a variance request from Planned Parenthood’s Elizabeth Campbell Surgical Center in Mount Auburn and renewed its license as a surgical center. The clinic had been in danger of having to cease…
JetLab Flies High on Diverse Debut
Indie Dance Rock trio JetLab celebrates the release of its self-titled debut Friday at Southgate House Revival (111 E. Sixth St., Newport, Ky., southgatehouse.com). The free show (on the venue’s Lounge stage) begins at 9 p.m. and also features performance by Analog Panda, UFOhio and Hot for Alice. JetLab was conceived by veteran local musicians…
On Track
W hen Cincinnati City Councilwoman Amy Murray and her husband wanted to take a cross-country train trip to a wedding in Lake Tahoe this spring, they found planning most of their route easy. Ridership on Amtrak, the nation’s publicly funded, for-profit rail operation, has skyrocketed in recent years, and the company offers a popular route…
Project Censored
Our oceans are acidifying — even if the nightly news hasn’t told you yet. As humanity continues to fill the atmosphere with harmful gases, the planet is becoming less hospitable to life as we know it. The vast oceans absorb much of the carbon dioxide we have produced, from the industrial revolution through the rise…
The Return of the Horrible (Studio) Bosses
The modern-day Stooges — Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day) — have moved past their initial experiences with their horrible bosses but prove to be ill-prepared to step into boss roles of their own. Could it be that they lack that horrible gene which made their former bosses despicable winners? With…
Community Talk Show Looks to Engage with “Citizen Celebrities”
On Oct. 5, Jai Washington hosted a pilot for her new talk show, All in a Day, at Mr. Pitiful’s in Over-the-Rhine. After working with friends to produce a professional sampler of the pilot, Washington submitted it to “philanthropic lab” People’s Liberty as a nominee for its Haile Fellowship. The fellowship will grant $100,000 to…
These Walls Have Heard It All: Taft Theatre
Stepping into the decorated light cast from the looming ceilings of the Taft Theatre, it’s immediately apparent the space holds memory far outreaching your own. That is, of course, unless you’re about 100 years old and happened to be around Cincinnati in your early teens. If that were the case, you’d probably remember the other…
Event: Bourbon and Bacon
CityBeat brings together two quintessential American indulgences: bourbon and bacon. At this Porkopolis party, dine on swine dishes from the likes of Django Western Taco, Camp Washington Chili and BrewRiver GastroPub. Pair that with bourbon samples from Four Roses, Makers Mark and Old Pogue, plus BATCH 19 beer, and you’ve got a party. Tickets include…
Art: Art Alive at the Contemporary Arts Center
Students from Northern Kentucky University’s “Lady Gaga, Performance and Costuming” class will present the final project for their course, led by professor Loraine Wible and overseen by the Contemporary Art Center’s performance curator Drew Klein. The performance, which will highlight such Gaga-specific approaches as extreme footwear and the use of theatrical makeup, takes place during…
Holiday: City Flea Small Mall
Not looking forward to holiday shopping madness at your local mega mall? City Flea’s Small Mall is bringing all your favorite local businesses together under one roof. Instead of City Flea’s traditional vendor market, expect fashion, vintage goods and unique gifts from your favorite brick-and-mortar shops, including Fern Studio, Article, Totem Supply Co., Hi-Bred vintage,…
Music: Anwar Sadat with Gazer and Honeyspiders
Sounding like a brutal multi-car crash at the intersection of seminal Washington D.C. Hardcore and the pioneering Post Punk of ’80s/’90s Chicago, Louisville’s Anwar Sadat has been creeping around the Punk Rock underground since 2011, gradually building attention from music blogs and growing a loyal fanbase with its combustible sound and intense live show. The…
Holiday: Downtown Dazzle
Crank up the holiday spirit with the 10th anniversary of Macy’s Downtown Dazzle. Over the course of three Saturdays (Nov. 29, Dec. 6 and Dec. 13) there will be more than 30 free and fun activities for the whole family on Fountain Square. Each Saturday will feature appearances by Santa and three of his friends…
Holiday: Crafty Supermarket Holiday Show
Last year’s Crafty Supermarket holiday show at Music Hall drew more than 4,000 attendees, and this year — for their fifth birthday and 11th market — they’re returning to Music Hall’s ballroom. This show features crafters, artists and makers from all over the country; more than 90 vendors will be representing 13 different states, including many from…
Holiday: Scuba Santa
Not only does the man in red fly, he also swims. The Newport Aquarium once again welcomes Scuba Santa, everyone’s favorite underwater holiday attraction. Santa will dive daily into Shark Ray Bay Theater, where he’ll talk to you from inside the 385,000-gallon tank, with helpers like rare white alligators Snowball and Snowflake. There’s also a…
Onstage: The Bureau of Missing Persons
You might not have heard of playwright Lila Rose Kaplan, who has made her name with modern farces, bittersweet comic dramas and musicals. But chances are good that you’ll be looking for more after you see this production of her poetic, playful 2009 play inspired by the magical realism of Jorge Luis Borges. It’s a…
Holiday: Winterfair
The holiday season struggle is upon us again, when we must search far and wide for surprising gifts for people that they probably don’t actually need. Luckily, Winterfair is back again for three days, helping consolidate that search to one massive convention center. A juried event of American-made fine art and craft, the fair features…
Comedy: Vic Henley
“I went to college and got a finance degree and was going to be a stockbroker,” says comedian and Alabama native Vic Henley. “That was just in case the show biz thing didn’t work out. I encountered so many idiots the first six weeks of trying to have a real job that I gave up…
Event: Thanksgiving Day Race
Before you gobble down all that turkey and pumpkin pie, run off the impending calories in the 105th Thanksgiving Day Race. Participants start and finish at Paul Brown Stadium, crossing throughout downtown and over into Kentucky for the 10K (aka 6.2 mile) course. Runners of all experience can attend, and any type of crazy Thanksgiving…
Holiday: BRICKmas at Newport on the Levee
Toys and Christmas go together like toys and Christmas, so it makes sense to have a holiday display made with a ton of LEGOs. In partnership with the Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana LEGO Users Group, Newport on the Levee is displaying a colorful collection of 13 large-scale models of local architectural icons for BRICKmas. See a…
Event: Booze and Tattoos
Good news for people who love permanent body art, live music and alcohol: Bogart’s is throwing a “Booze and Tattoos” party, with live performances by Hillbilly Country band Straw Boss, dancers Elements of Harmony and sexy ladies Cin City Burlesque. In addition to all the aural and visual stimulation, there will also be specialty alcohol…
Attractions: Mummies of the World
When our loved ones pass on, we generally bid them goodbye, hold them fondly in memory and send them back into the earth’s loving arms. So why would someone want to preserve a dead body for many millennia, and how does that even work? Explore the answers to such questions at Cincinnati Museum Center’s new…
Revolution Rotisserie & Bar Goes Brick and Mortar
Revolution Rotisserie & Bar owner Nicholas Pesola grew up in Chicago, working a variety of jobs, ranging from starting his own patio and landscaping company to bussing at a Greek restaurant. Ironically, he hated bussing and to avoid the restaurant industry, he went to the University of Dayton to study psychology and Spanish. After getting…
The Blunt Business of Journalism
Sometimes a question can be so blunt, so explicit, that offended listeners disregard the validity of the query. Or the evasive response. The latest example of this is Bill Cosby’s refusal to respond when interviewers ask him about rape accusations. However, over the years, I’ve asked troublesome questions. Usually, my offensive questions followed failed efforts…
Failure: A Love Story (Review)
Failure: A Love Story by Philip Dawkins is a whimsical, comedic play about the sequential, senseless deaths of three Chicago sisters. The tragic death of their parents and others are also cheerfully chronicled. Wait, what? Yes. From the whirlwind start, we know three Fail sisters will die — expiring in reverse order, youngest to oldest,…
Morning News and Stuff
Morning all. Let’s get right to the news, shall we? It’s hardly a secret that arrest rates in communities across the country are often much higher for minorities. That’s certainly true for suburbs in the Cincinnati area, where authorities often arrest a much higher proportion of blacks than whites. In Sharonville, for instance, blacks are…
Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical (Review)
Rosemary Clooney has long been a favorite of Cincinnatians. The legendary singer from Maysville, Ky., began her career here on WLW radio, singing with her sister Betty. Her life went sadly off the tracks in the late 1960s, but she resurrected herself as a performer, having a kind of “flip side.” That’s pretty much the…
The Comedy of Errors (Review)
The title of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors is today a catch phrase for situations when things go wrong. But everything is going right at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company with this delirious compendium of amusing characters and unlikely situations driven by mistaken identities involving a pair of long-separated but wholly identical twins. Cincy Shakes has established…
In Praise of Ironfest
Cincinnati is host to a great number of music festivals and it feels like every season adds another one. Midpoint is becoming nationally recognized for its ability to draw in heavy hitters, Bunbury has exploded in popularity in just a few years and Buckle Up had a great inaugural year this past summer, just to…
Mayor John Cranley Declares Dec. 3 Tom + Chee Day
Mayor John Cranley has declared Dec. 3, 2014 Tom+Chee Day to celebrate the grilled-cheese-and-tomato-soup restaurant’s five-year anniversary. Hooray for them and also hooray for us because Tom+Chee will be celebrating by offering free grilled cheese sandwiches on Fountain Square from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Shark Tank cameras will be there to film the celebration…
Your Weekend To Do List: 11/21-11/23
Things to leave the house for all weekend. Shopping. Holiday stuff. Music. Plays. Food. On Friday: The Germania Society hosts a traditional German Christmas market all weekend — Christkindlmarkt — including hot mulled wine and Saint Nicholas. ArtWorks hosts its last Secret ArtWorks fundraiser ever. Buy a ticket, get a secret 5-by-7-inch artwork. (Plus food, alcohol and live music.) In other…
From the Copy Desk
Afternoon, readers! Thanksgiving is almost here, which means an absurd amount of delicious, fattening food and stampedes of greedy consumerists who will overtake the Walmarts and Macys and the Best Buys in the days and weeks following the holiday where you're supposed to be thankful for everything you've already got. It also means three days…
Morning News and Stuff
Before news, let’s talk chili. Yesterday, true to my word, I checked out Cretan’s Grill in Carthage as part of my quest to discover the city’s smaller independent chili parlors. Excellent start. I paid five bucks for two coneys and a ton of fries. The chili was great — a little sweeter and meatier than…
Stage Door: A Girl Singer and Two Pairs of Twins
Many Cincinnati stages are momentarily paused, readying shows for the holidays. Last night the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park opened its production of Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical. Susan Haefner does a remarkable job of channeling the "girl singer" from Maysville, Ky., who grew up in Greater Cincinnati. We learn how she became a star,…
Ohio Department of Health Renews Mount Auburn Clinic’s License
The Ohio Department of Health has approved a variance request from Planned Parenthood's Elizabeth Campbell Surgical Center in Mount Auburn and renewed its license as a surgical center. Planned Parenthood recently filed a civil rights lawsuit against Ohio challenging the constitutionality of recent restrictions on clinics, saying they amounted to an undue burden on women…
Seasonal Winter Releases from Local Breweries
Tis the season for winter microbrews, and with MadTree, Rhinegeist, Christian Moerlein and plenty of others putting out unique and distinctive beers this winter, Cincinnatians have plenty of options to choose from. Your favorite craft brewers have been hard at work combining the flavorful aspects of winter into their latest creations; ones that will surely…
Rhinegeist Lights Up Tonight with Projected Video
Another historic Cincinnati building is being artfully illuminated. This year's past LumenoCity light mapping to a live orchestra on Music Hall was more popular than ever, and tonight the NEAR*BY Curatorial Collective is doing something similar at Rhinegeist. Rhinegeist brewery is housed in the skeleton of an old Moerlein bottling plant. And starting at 7 p.m. Thursday…
Places to Eat Thanksgiving Dinner That Aren’t Your House
Thanksgiving is traditionally a time when friends and family gather around the table to break bread, make merry and overindulge in turkey before falling asleep in front of the TV. But sometimes you just don't feel like cooking. Or your oven breaks. Or you want to completely avoid spending more time than you have to with your family. Luckily,…
Barrio Tequileria in Northside to Reopen
The relatively short-lived Barrio Tequileria in Northside is re-opening next weekend, under new management and ownership. Starting with a grand re-opening Friday and Saturday evening (6 p.m. Nov. 28 and 29) the weekend after Thanksgiving, new owners Thomas Placke and 3TC entertainment say the restaurant will still serve Tex-Mex-style food, with updated offerings including smoked wings, house-cured smoked bacon and…
Music Tonight: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., Empires and More
Besides sporting one of the best band names in recent memory, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. also makes wildly endearing, monstrously melodic Indie/Electro Pop. Detroit’s Daniel Zott and Joshua Epstein started the project in 2009 as a home-recording venture, but a pair of EP releases the following year drew widespread attention, leading to a deal with…
Morning News and Stuff
Before we get to news this morning, I have a query for readers. I want to venture away from the safe world of our ubiquitous chain Cincinnati chili restaurants for a day, lovely as they are, and try a smaller, more obscure chili parlor in town for lunch. Where should I go? I’m thinking about…
You Can Buy Mayday
Northside bar Mayday is up for sale. Formerly a dive bar called The Gypsy Hut, owners Vanessa Barber and Kim Maurer took over the property in 2009, renaming it Mayday. They made several upgrades to the venue — paint, new patio furniture, a brand new gastropub menu — but are calling it quits after five years.…
The Gift Guide
With Black Friday quickly approaching (aka Nov. 28, if you’re the type to pretend to ignore capitalism and Walmart ads), the hive mind of America is focusing in on the holiest of all holiday celebrations: shopping. The annual glut of markdowns admittedly brings with it the certain undeniable joy of buying a pair of $2.99…
Rosewater
Having already upended our expectations by using a comic forum to present whip-smart commentary on the news of the day (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), Jon Stewart has now decided to make a more committed attempt to settle into the world of filmmaking (after dipping his toe in film and television productions like The…
Onstage: Great Scott
Jake Heggie is one busy composer — a rarity in itself. That he’s a busy —and successful — opera composer is even more noteworthy. His latest project, Great Scott, is being intensively workshopped as part of Opera Fusion: New Works, a collaboration between Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. Heggie’s librettist…
Art: Eyes on the Street at the Cincinnati Art Museum
For Eyes on the Street, Cincinnati Art Museum’s contribution to the FotoFocus Biennial, curator Brian Sholis set out to do something more than just display still photographs and short films/videos that he liked. As this was his first show since coming to Cincinnati from New York a year ago, he wanted to posit a provocative new…
Music: Jody Stapleton
Jody Stapleton might not be drinking hot and cold running champagne from a solid gold faucet, but he’s certainly achieved a measure of critical success over the years. The frontman/songwriter for The Stapletons, Cash Flagg and The Generals has amassed a few Cincinnati Entertainment Awards that require occasional dusting, and he may have to make…
Catinflas
It is rare that American audiences get a glimpse of stars from outside the studio system prior to their arrival — to see their initial germ of talent, to feel the burning desire and ambition that drives them to beat the already astronomical odds to become sensations. Teaming up with co-writer Edui Tijerina, director Sebastian…
Music: Hot Rize
In the 1970s, Northeasterner Pete Wernick and West Virginia native Tim O’Brien migrated to Colorado, found each other and formed the group Hot Rize. Rounded out by fellow band members Nick Forster and Charles Sawtelle, the highly successful outfit brought a reverent yet open-minded approach to the genre for more than 20 years, winning the…
Music: Arch Enemy
Arch Enemy is the mad Swedish Metal concoction from ex-Carcass guitarist Michael Amott. Almost immediately upon his 1993 departure from Carcass, Amott formed the traditional Rock band Spiritual Beggars, but was still deeply interested in Death Metal and assembled Arch Enemy with ex-Carnage vocalist Johan Liiva. The band’s 1996 debut, Black Earth, was originally intended to…
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
In the first part of director Francis Lawrence’s fracturing of the conclusion of the Young Adult sensation The Hunger Games, we get the ever-heroic Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) struggling to save her Games compatriot Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) and her beloved District from the vicious, despotic onslaught of President Snow (Donald Sutherland), with the aid…
Music: Chicago Farmer
Chi-town Folk singer/songwriter Cody Diekhoff is better known by his stage name, Chicago Farmer. The moniker reflects Diekhoff’s current base in the Windy City yet also refers to the small town of Delavan, Ill., where he was raised. Delavan is a farm country hamlet of less than 2,000 people located about halfway between Chicago and…
Art: You & Me Across the Sea at Shrewdness of Apes
Hilary Nauman and Michael Boyd began their joint artistic endeavors more than four years ago, when they first started dating. After a few years of working the local and regional outdoor craft market circuit together (City Flea, Second Sunday on Main, Hyde Park Art Show, etc.), they decided to open Shrewdness of Apes, a brick-and-mortar…
Music: Jamaican Queens
Ryan Spencer and Adam Pressley, doing a brisk business under the Jamaican Queens banner, are the poster children for making lemonade from lemons. Late in 2011, producer/artist Pressley moved to Detroit with the intention of joining Spencer’s group Prussia, which disbanded before Pressley could unpack his luggage. Undeterred, the pair decided against resurrecting the band…
‘Parenthood’ Brings All the Feelings
When you want to be scared, watch The Walking Dead. When you want to laugh, watch Modern Family. When you want to feel all the feelings, watch Parenthood (10 p.m. Thursdays, NBC). The family dramedy — which breaks midseason after this week’s episode — follows three generations (almost four!) of the Braverman fam across no…
Music: Saintseneca
One of the highlights of this past summer’s third iteration of the Bunbury Festival was the electrifying appearance of Saintseneca, a supremely talented Indie/Folk quintet from Columbus, Ohio. The band was founded by Zac Little during his teenage years in rural Noble County. Saintseneca continued when Little and two of the band’s original members left…
Relationships Define ‘The Theory of Everything’
It is difficult to assess films about brilliant thinkers without making reference to Ron Howard’s Academy Award winner A Beautiful Mind, with its subtly twisted slow reveal of the tricky mind games going on in the head of its protagonist John Nash (Russell Crowe). Reality, it seems, is always in question for those with the…
Cincinnati’s Opera Fusion Workshops New Opera
Jake Heggie is one busy composer — a rarity in itself. That he’s a busy — and successful — opera composer is even more noteworthy. His latest project, Great Scott, is being intensively workshopped as part of Opera Fusion: New Works, a collaboration between Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. Heggie’s…
Onstage: Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical
Janet Yates Vogt and Mark Friedman are the creative team behind Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Story, opening this week at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Their hometown of Cincinnati will see a work by this pair with a show about Clooney, a Kentucky and Cincinnati singer who had a memorable career as a performer the…
Event: Taste of Lebanon
Put off the taste of turkey for another weekend with St. Anthony of Padua’s Taste of Lebanon. The event features authentic Lebanese food — kibbee, spinach pies, stuffed grape leaves, falafel and more — plus Lebanese pastries, folkloric dance and music. Noon-6 p.m. Sunday. Free. 2530 Victory Parkway, Walnut Hills, stanthonyofpaduachurch.com.
Lit: Garth Stein
Garth Stein began his post-academic career as documentary filmmaker — he produced the 1991 Oscar-winning short The Lunch Date — but it wasn’t long before his love of the written word took center stage. Stein’s third novel, 2008’s The Art of Racing in the Rain, about a racecar-obsessed dog who thinks he’ll be reincarnated as a human,…
Event: Balluminaria
Eden Park’s Mirror Lake will live up to its name on Saturday, creating a spectacular reflection of almost a dozen glowing hot air balloons. Cincinnati Circus entertainers and costumed characters from the Cincinnati Ballet and Playhouse will also be on hand. Or, if warm sustenance is what you seek, there will also be vendors offering…
It’s Trust vs. Wariness on Our Urban Streets
For Eyes on the Street, Cincinnati Art Museum’s contribution to the FotoFocus Biennial, curator Brian Sholis set out to do something more than just display still photographs and short films/videos that he liked. As this was his first show since coming to Cincinnati from New York a year ago, he wanted to posit a provocative…
Shrewd Apes
H ilary Nauman and Michael Boyd began their joint artistic endeavors more than four years ago, when they first started dating. “We both started doing more artwork as soon as we got together,” Nauman says. “It was one of those nice relationships where I think we both kinda got a little more inspired.” Boyd, who…
Drinking Destinations of the Future
Winter is coming, which means it’s time to hunker down at your local watering hole. From beercades to punch houses, new bar concepts are popping up all over the city. Over-the-Rhine continues to be the hot spot for new bars, but East Walnut Hills, Northside and Covington, Ky., are making plays, too. Whether beer, wine…
Swad (Review)
U p until about a year ago, I could pull into an overflowing parking lot, enter the hallowed doors of Dusmesh and encounter at least one friend. But after years of blissful naan munching at the Cheers of Indian restaurants, something changed. We all started to hear rumblings on Facebook that the beloved owners had…
Hot Rize with Red Knuckles and the Trailblazers
In the 1970s, Northeasterner Pete Wernick and West Virginia native Tim O’Brien migrated to Colorado, found each other and formed the group Hot Rize. Rounded out by fellow band members Nick Forster and Charles Sawtelle, the highly successful outfit brought a reverent yet open-minded approach to the genre for more than 20 years, winning the…
Arch Enemy with Kreator and Huntress
Arch Enemy is the mad Swedish Metal concoction from ex-Carcass guitarist Michael Amott. Almost immediately upon his 1993 departure from Carcass, Amott formed the traditional Rock band Spiritual Beggars, but was still deeply interested in Death Metal and assembled Arch Enemy with ex-Carnage vocalist Johan Liiva. The band’s 1996 debut, Black Earth, was originally intended…
Chicago Farmer with Shiny and The Spoon, Hickory Robot and The Tillers
Chi-town Folk singer/songwriter Cody Diekhoff is better known by his stage name, Chicago Farmer. The moniker reflects Diekhoff’s current base in the Windy City yet also refers to the small town of Delavan, Ill., where he was raised. Delavan is a farm country hamlet of less than 2,000 people located about halfway between Chicago and…
Jamaican Queens with ADM
Ryan Spencer and Adam Pressley, doing a brisk business under the Jamaican Queens banner, are the poster children for making lemonade from lemons. Late in 2011, producer/artist Pressley moved to Detroit with the intention of joining Spencer’s group Prussia, which disbanded before Pressley could unpack his luggage. Undeterred, the pair decided against resurrecting the band…
Saintseneca with Swarming Branch and The Yugos
One of the highlights of this past summer’s third iteration of the Bunbury Festival was the electrifying appearance of Saintseneca, a supremely talented Indie/Folk quintet from Columbus, Ohio. The band was founded by Zac Little during his teenage years in rural Noble County. Saintseneca continued when Little and two of the band’s original members left…
Jody Time
Jo dy Stapleton might not be drinking hot and cold running champagne from a solid gold faucet, but he’s certainly achieved a measure of critical success over the years. The frontman/songwriter for The Stapletons, Cash Flagg and The Generals has amassed a few Cincinnati Entertainment Awards that require occasional dusting, and he may have to…
Dokken’s Not Chicken
HOT: Dokken’s Not Chicken The difficulty for musicians to make money these days hasn’t quite reached the point where artists dress up in chicken outfits and stand in front of KFC with a sign for a payout. But it might be getting close. Don Dokken of ’80s Metal giants Dokken told Inside Metal that a…
The Cosby Show
Of course, we’d never seen anything like it: an intact, attractive, non-self-loathing black family headed by two educated, accomplished parents who clearly liked and supported one another. Shamefully, for America and American television broadcast networks the Huxtables — a dream referred by Bill Cosby — were an aberration, a space oddity and a mundane exoticism…
Morning News and Stuff
Hey all! Once again, I’m rushing toward a day of covering meetings and hearings, so let’s do this morning news thing in a “just the facts” fashion. First, about those meetings: Cincinnati City Council today is expected to pass the streetcar operating and funding plans after the Major Transportation and Regional Cooperation Committee gave it…
Buffalo Killers Launch ‘Fireball of Sulk’
Fireball of Sulk, the new EP from Cincy Rock foursome Buffalo Killers, is set for release this Monday through Sun Pedal Recordings. On Wednesday, Nov. 26 (aka “The Busiest Bar Night of the Year”), the band will perform a homecoming show in honor of the new release at Northside Tavern (4163 Hamilton Ave., Northside, northside-tavern.com)…
Cincinnati vs. The World 11.19.14
Four Cincinnati steakhouses — Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse, Carlo & Johnny, Jag’s Steak & Seafood and The Precinct — are among the Top 100 Steakhouses in America, according to OpenTable diners. Rankings were based on more than 5 million verified reviews submitted for more than 20,000 restaurants on opentable.com. Cincinnati +1 Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian…
Worst Week Ever!: Nov. 12-18
Bengals Visit New Orleans and Win Big Despite Saints Fan Being a Real Knobjob Bengals fans had to put their pitchforks down and stop talking shit about Andy Dalton after the young QB led his squad down New Orleans way and threw three touchdowns during the Who Deys’ 27-10 victory over the Saints on Sunday.…
Ohio Considers Making Providers of Execution Drugs Secret
Conservative lawmakers in Ohio’s General Assembly are pushing a new bill, HB 663, that would exempt from public records laws details about those who supply lethal injection drugs to the state. The bill is cosponsored by State Reps. Jim Buchy, R-Greenville, and Matt Huffman, R-Lima. Ohio hasn’t been able to find a source for lethal…
Council Commits to Doubling Human Services Fund
City Council on Nov. 13 unanimously passed a motion committing $1.5 million more to the city’s Human Services fund in its next budget, doubling the fund’s size. The increase is part of an ongoing rethinking of the city’s human services funding. But with this change in focus, some of the 54 organizations that receive support…
Undue Burdens
UPDATE: The Ohio Department of Health has granted Planned Parenthood's Elizabeth Campbell Surgical Center a variance and renewed its license. I n 1992, the Supreme Court ruled that states cannot enact laws that put “undue burden” on women seeking abortions. For the past two years, conservative lawmakers in Ohio have tested the limits of that…
Rosemary Clooney’s Tender Heart at the Playhouse
It’s a minor miracle that Janet Yates Vogt and Mark Friedman — the creative team behind Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Story, opening this week at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park — found each other. “We were students at UC,” says Vogt. “I was at CCM, and Mark had a band that needed a pianist.”…
