Worst Week Ever!: Nov. 28-Dec. 4
WEDNESDAY NOV. 28 Whether it’s London, England or London, Ky., people tend to get pissed off when they find out their children have been banned from one day entering the pearly gates of heaven. The London in Kentucky made news today after a parent filed an ethical complaint against a teacher who told her students,…
Minority Report 2012
Commemorative looks back at particular periods in history are usually instigated to celebrate notable anniversaries, but I’m aiming for something a little different with this Minority Report capping off the year that was 2012. I’m setting the way back machine 10 years because 2002, in hindsight, didn’t necessarily signal the anticipated high watermark, especially for…
Just Drive
“When surgeon’s drawing lines on skin, trust/ When you board the plane and strap yourself in, trust/ It’s easy to understand we hold each other’s lives in our hands/ Don’t betray my trust” — The Bears, “Trust” (1987) One of the main things that holds our society together is trusting one another. We, as humans,…
Coffee Talk
People love Dojo at Findlay Market for their gelato. I am hopeless in the face of their delicious affogato. This espresso/gelato float has gotten me through many a difficult day. On a recent visit, Dojo owner Michael Christner advised me that he was about to up the ante. He informed me that after my next…
A Baker’s Story
I n the opening scenes of the movie A Christmas Story, our young, four-eyed hero stands with nose blissfully pressed against the Higbee’s toy store window, dreamily absorbing the object of his desire: the Red Ryder BB Gun. A similar wonder exists at a storefront in Cincinnati, where a special brand of delectably displayed goods…
Staycation Destination
A hybrid of a boutique hotel, a fine dining restaurant and a museum, downtown Cincinnati’s 21c Museum Hotel is a jaw-dropping, sui generis masterpiece. The only thing similar to Cincinnati’s is its progenitor, Louisville’s 21c, founded in 2006 by art collectors Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson. Retaining the same concept, this hotel is bigger…
Report: Kasich Met with Billionaire GOP Donor
UPDATE 12/5/12: In a video posted by the Ohio Capitol Blog, Gov. Kasich responds to reporters' questions about the meeting: "
Qualls to Announce 2013 Mayoral Run
Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls will be formally announcing her run for the top spot in Cincinnati on Thursday. Qualls’ campaign site has been up for some time already, and the vice mayor’s team had a meeting with political writers and bloggers on Nov. 26. The vice mayor will be joined by current term-limited Mayor Mark…
Event: Japp’s “Get Wet” Repeal Party
Imagine: It's Dec. 5, 1933. It’s been 14 long, dry years since the sale of alcohol has been legal in the U.S.; today, the 21st Amendment changes all that. Crowds swarm the local speakeasies, celebration erupts. It’s been 79 years since prohibition was repealed, but alcohol consumption is still an integral part of today’s culture,…
Event: CityBeat Jingle and Mingle Party
We at CityBeat are fully aware how tiring the holiday season can be. In fact, it can be flat-out soul-sucking. Now, we aren’t usually in favor of stereotypes, but they can be pretty nifty when you’re making a holiday gift shopping list and checking it twice. Our Jingle and Mingle Party celebrates our effort to…
Event: Burlesque-a-Pades Holiday Inn Show
Heat things up this holiday season with the world famous Pontani sisters. Spreading seasonal cheer, this duo is taking to stages across the country for Holiday Inn, a 90-minute stage show celebrating the golden age of burlesque entertainment. All tied up in a big red bow, the sisters will have you on the edge of…
Music: Chappo
Brooklyn’s Chappo had another stellar year in its short lifespan in 2012, the culmination of what has been a fairly meteoric rise in the Indie music world. The trippy, playful Indie Pop four-piece recorded its first EP, Plastique Universe, on its own in 2010, never dreaming that the EP lead-off track, “Come Home,” would wind…
Event: The City Flea: Wrapped Up Holiday Market
It’s the same City Flea shindig you’ve come to expect, colored with sounds, sights and smells from local artisans all available for your purchase. In honor of the bustling holiday shopping season, this flea goes European Christkindlmarket-style in honor of the famous holiday fest held annually in Nuremburg, Germany. This festive nighttime market in a…
Event: Redsfest
Yes, Cincinnati sports fan are undeniably bitter about the outcome of the Reds’ post-season performance. A season characterized by hope and promise ended in a 3-2 series loss to the San Francisco Giants. All that is behind us now, though, with RedsFest, the annual two-day winter warm-up for the 2013 season. The event will be…
Art: Powerhouse Factories’ Annual Holiday After Party
If the work holiday party isn’t exactly your idea of the perfect evening — but you’re obligated to spend a little time schmoozing and elbow-rubbing — Powerhouse Factories in Newport offers its annual holiday after party as an antidote. Whether you’re looking for a poster for your cooler-than-you sibling (who always knows about the best…
Onstage: Alice in Wonderland
I’m not sure what Lewis Carroll would think of a retelling of his classic childhood fantasy portrayed as a “toe-tapping tale of a lost girl, a cool cat, a wild hare and the original ‘dancing queen.’ ” But I do know that audiences have loved Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati’s charming musical take on the story. This…
Comedy: Maronzio Vance
Comedian Maronzio Vance hails from North Carolina, but he refuses to admit he’s from the South; after all, his home state starts with “North.” His storytelling style covers everything from shopping to sex. “I went into a Walmart last week and they had a Target inside it,” he tells an audience. “I’m like ‘damn, this…
Morning News and Stuff
Republican Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel is hiring political workers and friends at his job again . His latest hires are Joe Aquilino, former campaign political director to Mandel’s U.S. Senate campaign, and Jared Borg, former campaign political coordinator. During the 2010 campaign for the state treasurer’s office, Mandel said, “Unlike the current officeholder, I will…
The Naughty List (Review)
Introducing Know Theatre’s holiday offering, The Naughty List, artistic director Eric Vosmeier reminded those in attendance that the company had done a seasonal show in the courtyard at Arnold’s Bar & Grill a few years back. Placing his tongue firmly in his cheek, he fiercely announced, “And now we’ve taken it back.” Then he sheepishly…
Wanda Jackson
The title of Wanda Jackson’s new album is Unfinished Business. Really, Wanda? If anyone can claim to have finished business, it’s you. Jackson has spent most her 75 years on the planet dedicated to expressing herself through music, specifically via a voice that mixes uncommon grit and grace, expressive in all the right ways. A…
Arlo Guthrie
While Arlo Guthrie has blazed his own legendary path in music, he will forever be known as the son of iconic songwriter and singer Woody Guthrie. Friday, Arlo will celebrate his father’s historic life with a show at the David Finkelman Auditorium at Miami University Middletown titled “Here Comes The Kid: A Tribute to Woody…
Six Organs of Admittance
If Ben Chasny had his way, he wouldn't be trapped here on Earth but rather levitating somewhere far above it. Over the 14-year span of releases from Six Organs of Admittance, Chasny's pet project fleshed out by a rotating cast of players, he's made his love for the heavens perfectly clear. On 2011's Asleep on…
Silversun Pickups
Certain bands should just be required to tour every summer and then spend the fall and winter making a new album. Bands like 311, Best Coast, The Flaming Lips and Silversun Pickups, for example. There’s just something about those acts’ poppy, mellow Rock sounds that require a summer sunset, warmth on your shoulders and flip-flops…
Budget Hearing Raises Questions About Parking Privatization
Cincinnati City Council members today focused a lot of attention on a contentious plan to lease city parking assets during a Monday committee presentation on the 2013 budget. It was the first opportunity council members had to publicly question the budget’s architects. The proposed budget would cover the first half of 2013. The city is…
Hartmann Considers Reducing Property Tax Rollback
The Hamilton County Board of Commissioners held a public meeting today to discuss options for balancing the stadium fund. Commissioner Todd Portune, the lone Democrat on the board, on Nov. 28 proposed a 0.25-percent sales tax hike . At the meeting, Board President Greg Hartmann, a Republican, suggested reducing the property tax rollback by 50…
Pro-Gay Marriage Play Tonight at Ensemble Theatre
Paralleling today's likely U.S. Supreme Court decision on California's Proposition 8, Clifton Performance Theatre is hosting a one-night performance of 8 at Ensemble Theatre tonight at 8 p.m. 8 is the real-life story about two loving same-sex couples living in California who want to get married but can't because in 2008 Proposition 8 took away the…
Watch: The Shanks’ Song/Video About Local Concert Tragedy
On this date in 1979, 11 music fans died when trying to see The Who perform at Riverfront Coliseum. Check out this video for "Feel The Holes" about the tragic event, by Toronto Hard Rock duo The Shanks. The video was made in Cincinnati and directed by David Markey. The Shanks (who released the Feel…
Morning News and Stuff
Ohio’s fracking boom might not be living up to the hype. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources originally estimated that 250 fracking wells would be built by the end of the year, but only 165 have been completed and 22 are currently being built . The disappointing results are being blamed on low natural gas…
Jersey Boys (Review)
Critic's Pick It’s not hard to identify the charm of Jersey Boys, the 2006 Tony Award-winning best musical on Broadway. Of course, it’s full of Pop hits from the 1960s by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. But the show takes you behind the scenes for the personal history of four kids who made it…
Alice in Wonderland (Review)
Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati’s production of Alice in Wonderland by Joseph McDonough and David Kisor is a colorful, energetic take on Alice, Wonderland and the oddballs who live there. Alice’s curious journey is remarkably durable, holding up as a novel, an animated Disney film, a creepy live-action concoction by Tim Burton, a straight play and —…
War Is Declared! On Babies!
America is a country at war. While the war in Iraq ostensibly drew down in December 2011, the United States has been quagmired in a war in Afghanistan for more than a decade. But we're also in the midst of a number of other wars — cultural wars. It started with Nixon’s War on Drugs,…
City Slashing Media Bridges Funding
Mitt Romney was criticized for wanting to “kill Big Bird” due to his proposed cuts to publicly funded media, and now City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. could face similar criticism. In his 2013 budget proposal , Dohoney suggested eliminating $300,000 in support to Media Bridges, an organization that provides public access TV and radio stations…
Watch: Those Guys’ Explosive “You Ain’t Know” Video
Those Guys have emerged as one of the more impressive up-and-comers in Cincinnati Hip Hop, both via their digital/CD releases (a handful of singles and a trio of excellent mixtapes) and their live show, which incorporates a three-piece live band. Those Guys features MC's J.Al and Jova, who met as high school freshmen and started…
Hey! What Happened to the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards?
Right around Thanksgiving time, CityBeat began to receive several queries via email, Twitter and Facebook, all essentially asking, "What the hell happened to the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards?" CityBeat's annual celebration of Greater Cincinnati's best original music had been held for 15 years on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The reasoning was that musicians who tour a…
Stage Door: Non-Holiday Edition
So Thanksgiving was early this year, and that means that not only retailers but all of our local theaters have fired their starting guns earlier than usual with family-friendly holiday shows. That began with Ensemble Theatre's opening of Alice in Wonderland on Nov. 28, and continues with Cinderella at the Covedale, A Christmas Carol at…
Morning News and Stuff
Mitt Romney’s big loss is finally getting to Ohio Republicans. Ohio Senate President Tom Niehaus made procedural moves to block the heartbeat bill from a vote before the end of the lame-duck session. Niehaus, a Republican, said his decision was largely influenced by Romney’s loss on Nov. 6 . When the heartbeat bill was originally…
Ohio Democrats Push for Puerto Rico Statehood
A group of Ohio House Democrats wants Congress to move quickly and grant statehood to Puerto Rico, which has been a U.S. possession since the Spanish-American War ended in 1898. The Ohioans do not say where the star should go on a redesigned American flag, but they said statehood would “respect the rights of self-governance…
Chick-fil-A Sends CityBeat Delightful Calendar
Here at CityBeat, I never get mail. So to make me feel better about myself, sometimes people stick mail they don’t want or things addressed to former employees in my box to make me feel better. Imagine my delight when there was a 2013 cow-centric calendar from chicken-slinger Chick-fil-A. Perhaps hoping for some positive press…
WATCH: Emery Sessions Go Hip Hop
Deft local MC Buggs Tha Rocka, who balances his excellent solo work with performances and recordings with the group Gold Shoes, has become the first Hip Hop artist to participate in the ongoing "Emery Sessions," a series of excellent music videos, filmed in one-shot by world-class photographer Michael Wilson at the restored classic Cincinnati venue,…
Merry Christmas from Thelma and Roy
During the Christmas season of 1969, my grandmother on my mother’s side of the family, Grandma Nora, and her sister, my Aunt Huda, received a Christmas card from Thelma and Roy. There was no last name to go along with their first names. It was a religious type of card and the envelope to it…
Ex-Withrow H.S. Basketball Star Fights State Ban In Court
A Hamilton County judge plans to hold an emergency hearing next week that will allow Alexxus Paige to challenge a rule that has kept the star guard from playing her senior year at Winton Woods High School. Last month, the Ohio High School Athletic Association declared her ineligible for the current basketball season. It says…
Aroldis Chapman Hotel Robbery Case Closed
First she was Aroldis Chapman’s, uh, hotel guest during a Cincinnati Reds road trip to Pittsburgh on May 29. Then she was the weaver of a fictitious police report of an attempted robbery involving a plumber impersonator and a Louis Vuitton bag with $200,000 worth of Chapman’s jewelry. Now, to bring this bewildering comedy to…
Morning News and Stuff
The Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority is making a move to buy up the city’s parking services . Cincinnati is pursuing parking privatization as a way of balancing the budget. If it accepts the Port Authority’s deal, the city will get $40 million upfront, and $21 million of that will be used to help…
Portune Suggests Sales Tax Hike
County Commissioner Todd Portune is proposing a 0.25 percent sales tax hike to stabilize the stadium fund and preserve the property tax rebate promised to voters in 1996. The Hamilton County Board of Commissioners will have to approve the hike before it becomes law. It would raise the county sales tax from 6.5 percent to…
I Just Can’t Get Enough
I spent a hefty number of hours watching Trapped in the Closet this past holiday weekend, thanks to IFC’s marathon of the R. Kelly Hip Hopera followed by a debut of a new chunk of chapters. Despite my avid enthusiasm for T in the C as a teen, I must have lost track of the…
Cincinnati Gets Mixed Results in LGBT Index
When it comes to LGBT rights, Cincinnati received a score of 77 out of 100 from the Human Rights Campaign's first Municipal Equality Index (MEI). Cincinnati tied with Cleveland, but lost to Columbus, which scored an 83. The index looks at cities’ laws, policies and services to gauge how friendly they are to LGBT individuals.…
Curmudgeon Notes 11.28.2012
• It was a double scoop when HUC Prof. Ben Zion Wacholder and doctoral student Martin G. Abegg Jr. released their bootleg translations of previously unpublished Dead Sea scrolls. Their highly accurate texts were created without seeing the scrolls and they shattered secrecy created by a cabal of scholars who for decades restricted other researchers’…
Review: Various – ‘Play It Like You Did Back to George Street’
Cincinnati enjoys a reputation as a city with a rich and colorful musical history, exemplified by the influential reach of Syd Nathan’s roster at King Records, a label that attracted and embraced every conceivable style of music and musician. And there’s a case to be made that King’s diversity was simply a reflection of the…
Why Such Hard Feelings for Palmer?
Most people remember at some point in life dating someone we now refer to as “crazy.” The use of the word can sometimes feel as misleading as the choice of “dating” in the same sentence. Batshitfuckingcrazy is often the preferred description. But even so, we probably don’t think about these people much at all anymore…
Lips Stay Weird, W.K. Uninvited and Rihanna’s Bad Trip
HOT A Long Strange MonthWhat’s it like to be a member of Psychedelic Pop cult heroes The Flaming Lips? November’s Lips’ headlines offered a fittingly bizarre glimpse. The band saw its Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots album turned into a stage musical, released a full remake of King Crimson’s debut album and headed up a…
State to Replace Standardized Test
The Ohio Graduation Tests will soon be no more. The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) and Board of Regents have agreed to establish tougher tests with a focus on preparing students for college and beyond. Private companies will soon be able to compete for a contract to design and help implement the new standardized tests.…
New County Budget Includes $14.4 Million in Cuts
On Nov. 24, the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners approved $14.4 million in across-the-board cuts for 2013, the sixth straight year the county’s budget will get cuts. Democrat Todd Portune voted against the budget, while Republicans Greg Hartmann and Chris Monzel voted yes. The budget’s cuts will affect every county department, but the budget will…
City to Pursue Privatizing Parking to Balance Budget
City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. on Nov. 24 unveiled his 2013 budget plan. The proposal, which must be approved by City Council and the mayor, seeks to close a $34 million deficit while avoiding major cuts and layoffs. The proposed budget will only set the city’s course until mid-June, when the city will transition into…
Cincinnati vs. The World 11.28.2012
Celebrity gourmand Anthony Bourdain was asked by a reader during a live chat on Gawker.com to validate the quality of Cincinnati chili; he responded that it was not good but could be “enjoyable when stoned.” CINCINNATI -2 Scientists in the UK have discovered a way to help paralyzed dogs walk again by transplanting cells from…
Local Budgets Show Bad Requirements
It’s been a big week for government budgets. The Hamilton County Board of Commissioners approved the county’s 2013 budget, and City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. unveiled his budget proposal, which now the mayor and City Council must approve. At the federal level, the “fiscal cliff” still looms as federal officials fight over how to handle…
The Evolution of Equality
In 2004, while most Democrats around me reeled from the defeat of John Kerry, I had other post-election problems: With 62-percent voter approval, gay marriage and same-sex civil unions had been officially banned in Ohio. I was devastated. I was 14 back then. I wasn’t sure about much, especially when it came to my sexuality.…
Northside Gets a Record Fair
Record expos aren’t what they used to be thanks to the music collector’s newfound ability to purchase almost any record they want online (physically through an auction site or digitally). But the inaugural Northside Record Fair — this Saturday at Hoffner Lodge (4120 Hamilton Ave.) — has a ton of fresh potential. It’s in Northside,…
Healthy Interest
I t’s an unfortunate fact that has disturbed doctors and health activists: Younger people are making up a greater share of HIV infections. As it’s continued to pop up in report after report, the grim statistic has rallied health organizations to fight back. Now, a University of Cincinnati program is bringing together community organizations in…
Classical Blast
The brothers Marsalis are an interesting study in dichotomy. Wynton, the younger, is an absolute giant in the Jazz community and he has no qualms about his genre elitism, vociferously and famously proclaiming the need to maintain Jazz’s purity and sanctity and rejecting anything outside of his definition (although he teamed up with Eric Clapton…
Morning News and Stuff
The Ohio Senate will not take up the heartbeat bill and a bill to defund Planned Parenthood in the lame-duck session. The heartbeat bill was called the most radical anti-abortion legislation in the country when it was first proposed. It sought to ban abortion after a heartbeat is detected, which can happen as early as…
Anna Karenina
To fully appreciate what Joe Wright has wrought with his adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic tale of adultery among the 19th century Russian aristocracy, audiences should prime themselves with Wright’s surreal battlefield interlude from Atonement. That film’s painterly portrait of the Dante-esque Inferno of war gets replaced here with an equally compelling conceit. Anna Karenina…
Cage Re-Engaged
Like arts institutions all over the world, University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music is celebrating this year’s John Cage Centennial. A concert featuring work of the visionary 20th century American composer occurs at 8 p.m. Thursday, with the CCM Philharmonia joining Percussion Group Cincinnati for American Voices XV – Celebrating John Cage at 100. CCM’s…
Liz and Criss: The Wedding Event of the Century
Fresh off the premiere of Lifetime’s unintentionally hilarious monstrosity, Liz and Dick, comes a new chapter of a love story that defines a generation. This week, Liz Lemon and Criss Chross will be joined in holy hotdog matrimony on 30 Rock (8 p.m. Thursday, NBC). For six years, audiences have watched the nerdy, night-cheese-eating, workaholic…
Appreciating Non-Mainstream Media
An insight from The Nation last week reminded me of the importance of print media outside the mainstream. Other columnists and analysts parroted the conventional wisdom that the election changed nothing; Obama and the GOP in the House and Senate remain gridlocked. Wrong. We re-elected our first black president with popular and Electoral College majorities.…
Worst Week Ever!: Nov. 21-27
WEDNESDAY NOV. 21 Kylee Bennett probably had a better week before Thanksgiving than you did. Suburban news organization/coupon adviser Mason Buzz reported today that the Mason Intermediate fifth-grader got to bring Cincinnati Bengals’ super human/NFL star A.J. Green to class with her on Thursday. Bennett won the “Show ‘N Tell with the NFL” sweepstakes and…
Film Books That Go Deep Behind the Scenes
I’ve long had a soft spot for books about the movies. My space-challenged loft features a shelving unit, embarrassingly overstuffed from floor to ceiling, dedicated to the topic — from collections of critical essays and reviews to interviews with or biographies on filmmakers to wide-ranging histories of an art form that’s still in its relative…
Yes We Can (But We Already Knew That)
Can women be funny? It’s a question so brain-numbingly idiotic that it’s best left ignored, but that’s difficult when multiple facets of the media — from pop culture bloggers to comedians on Twitter — recycle the “debate” over and over again. A sense of humor and timing is developed over many years, but I believe…
St. Elmo’s Fire
Once upon a time, there lived a presumptuous and possibly troubled, grown-ass man who made his living by pitching his voice cartoonishly high to the precipice of nasal annoyance. Oh, he was gifted, all right. No doubt. This man did things with a puppet that made him beloved by children — and adults — the…
