Jesse Jackson Speaks About Race, Activism at UC
Civil rights leader and former presidential candidate Rev. Jesse Jackson visited the University of Cincinnati on Tuesday, speaking to students and activists for about 45 minutes on a number of topics related to recent national discussions around race, college activism and voting. Jackson’s remarks drew a packed house of about 100 at the school’s African…
Beyond the Books
Every piece of art has a story, but what we don’t often remember is that the story of the artist can be even more enthralling. Donna King of River’s Edge Pottery Studio shared not only her trade but her history with a group during a pottery demonstration at the Covington branch of the Kenton County…
Morning News and Stuff
Hey Cincy. There’s a ton of interesting stuff going on today. Let’s talk about some of it. • The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce this morning is hosting a series of discussions about transit in the region, and the event has drawn a packed house. The event comes on the heels of a less-than-stellar…
Art: After the Moment: Reflections on Robert Mapplethorpe
Seven regional curators have each chosen five new works by local artists that reflect how Mapplethorpe’s The Perfect Moment influences today’s artistic landscape. When the CAC presented that show in 1990, law-enforcement officials infamously and unsuccessfully prosecuted it on obscenity charges. Thirteen of Mapplethorpe’s own photographs will be displayed; many — if not all —…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning Cincy. Let’s talk about what’s been going on in the news the past few days. The University of Cincinnati and city officials continue to work on a revised memorandum of understanding in regard to the university’s police force, officials for both organizations told Cincinnati City Council’s Law and Public Safety Committee today. Following…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning Cincy! Here are your morning headlines. • A new study released Thursday by the University of Cincinnati Economics Center found that 75,000 Cincinnati jobs are unreachable by public transit. The study found that while 70 percent of businesses are within a quarter mile of a bus stop, Metro's services sometimes isn't good enough…
Stage Door: Playing House
“Florala.” That’s where you are when you head down the ramp to see Know Theatre’s production of Andy’s House of [Blank]. It’s set on the state line between Florida and Alabama, but it’s recreated in two-dimensional cardboard props (telephones and ice cream cones) and decorations (comically taxidermied animals, including the backside of a dog) imaginatively…
Your Weekend To Do List (11/6-11/8)
FRIDAY ART: AFTER THE MOMENT: REFLECTIONS ON ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE OPENING CELEBRATION As the Contemporary Arts Center prepares to open After the Moment: Reflections on Robert Mapplethorpe this Friday, the show — especially the opening itself — is taking on a much more historical dimension than first planned. The primary thrust of the show remains: Seven…
FotoFocus Takes its Mapplethorpe Symposium on the Road
After a successful symposium here last month, FotoFocus is taking its Robert Mapplethorpe presentation, The Perfect Moment: 25 Years Later, on the road. (The Cincinnati symposium was called Mapplethorpe +25.) In observance of the 25th anniversary of the unsuccessful obscenity trial in Cincinnati of the Contemporary Arts Center following the exhibition of The Perfect Moment…
Spoonful of Cinema: Steve Jobs
How do you manage to pack the lifetime of a generation-defining innovator into just more than two hours of screen time? This is the challenge that Danny Boyle (director of Slumdog Millionaire and Trainspotters) faces with his latest directorial effort, Steve Jobs. With a trademark rat-a-tat screenplay from Aaron Sorkin (Moneyball, The Social Network), the…
This Week’s Dining Events
FRIDAY 06Cincinnati Cheese Festival — Get ready to get cheesy. Imbibe unlimited samples of more than 300 cheeses from international artisan producers at the Cincinnati Cheese Festival, which takes over the Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. on Friday. Things heat up during the Grilled Cheese Meltdown, when local eateries like C’est Cheese, Taste of Belgium and CRAVE…
Morning News and Stuff
Hi Cincy! Think you're finally done with election stuff? Think again! Results may be in for this year, but they've just started gearing up for election day 2016. Here are your morning headlines. • So you're tired of thinking about parks and marijuana? Well, how about shifting those thoughts to preschool? Just a day after…
New Chef to Take Ownership of Django Western Taco
There’s a new chef at Django Western Taco, and as of the beginning of the year, he’ll also own the joint. After stints in both The British Virgin Islands and New York City, chef Josh Campbell, formerly of Cincinnati restaurant Mayberry, has returned to town and has found a home at the popular Northside “Cowboy…
Art: After the Moment: Reflections on Robert Mapplethorpe Opening Celebration
As the Contemporary Arts Center prepares to open After the Moment: Reflections on Robert Mapplethorpe this Friday, the show — especially the opening itself — is taking on a much more historical dimension than first planned. The primary thrust of the show remains: Seven regional curators have each chosen five new works by local artists…
Music: Ass Ponys
One of the more renowned Cincinnati bands of the past few decades, Ass Ponys, reunites this weekend for a pair of shows at Woodward Theater (1404 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, woodwardtheater.com). Tickets for the 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday shows are available through cincyticket.com for $25 (or $40 for both nights). The band will be playing…
Suffragette
In the United States, most social/political movements tend to adopt non-violent means to further their causes, preferring to appeal to the goodwill of both adversaries and the undecided masses watching from the sidelines. Director Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane), working from a script by Abi Morgan (Shame and The Iron Lady), presents a counterpoint from the…
Spectre
After much debate about whether or not either of them was interested in making a return to the Bond franchise after scoring the largest hit of the long-running series with Skyfall (also one of the most emotionally engaging and narratively dense installments of any blockbuster franchise), director Sam Mendes and star Daniel Craig signed up…
The Peanuts Movie
The timing couldn’t be more perfect for this re-introduction to Charles M. Schultz’s loveable collection of underdogs — regular Everykids from a by-gone era — that have been able to capture and maintain a death-lock on our culture for decades. Director Steve Martino (Ice Age: Continental Drift) brings us all of The Peanuts favorites as…
Of Men and War
Born in Paris, France, filmmaker Laurent Bécue-Renard, a Fulbright Visiting Fellow at Columbia University and a graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris, has long chronicled wartime narratives — in particular the war in Bosnia. But with Of Men and War, he sets his sights on American soldiers returning home from conflict zones and…
Miss You Already
Lifelong best friends Milly (Toni Collette) and Jess (Drew Barrymore) have been co-stars in a long-running saga — The Milly Affair — which has been a Sex and the City-inspired account of Milly’s life as seen via Jess as the glorified hanger-on dragged into every frame. Jess narrates the overall story that is Miss You…
Event: Holler Festival
Nearly 5 million barrels of bourbon are aging in the Bluegrass State, and you get to enjoy the best of them at the first-ever Holler Festival. Join Kentucky breweries and distilleries as they showcase their signature craft beers and whiskeys. Learn the secrets of the trade, sample drinks and heavy appetizers, grab your special-edition glass…
Event: Northside Record Fair
The third-annual Northside Record Fair returns to North Presbyterian Church for an afternoon of musical digging and discovery. Vendors from across the region will be bringing thousands of rare records covering all audio ground from Jazz and Punk to Prog and Country. Search more than 40 tables of LPs, 45s, cassettes, posters, CDs, T-shirts and…
Art: Tiger Lily Press Print Sale
Tiger Lily Press is having its annual fine-art print sale Saturday. Some 15 members of Tiger Lily will be offering limited-edition handmade original etchings, screen prints, woodblocks, collagraphs, lithographs and linocuts, framed and unframed, for sale along with cards, artists’ books and other items. They will also be present to explain their work and the…
Onstage: Sleuth
Mystery fans have a tasty treat in store for them at The Carnegie in Covington with this 1970 award-winning play by Anthony Shaffer. It’s a two-man show about a renowned mystery writer who loves to play games, but when he discovers that his wife is about to leave him for another man, he maps out…
Event: Pumpkin Chuck
If you find yourself in Stanbery Park this Saturday and notice trebuchets slinging pumpkins through the air, do not be alarmed. The annual Mount Washington Community Council’s Pumpkin Chuck features live local music, food and drink vendors and, of course, the high-velocity launching of massive pumpkins with medieval military equipment. Noon-5 p.m. Saturday. Free. Stanbery…
Film: Trees in Trouble
Local filmmaker Andrea Torrice noticed trees painted with an “X” in Burnet Woods and was curious. Three years later, her investigation led to the documentary Trees in Trouble. Torrice chronicles why cities across the nation are losing their green canopy and shows how Cincinnati is working to solve its urban tree crisis. Taking Root and…
Event: Cincinnati Cheese Festival
Get ready to get cheesy. Imbibe unlimited samples of more than 300 cheeses from international artisan producers at the Cincinnati Cheese Festival, which takes over the Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. on Friday. Things heat up during the Grilled Cheese Meltdown, when local eateries like C’est Cheese, Taste of Belgium and CRAVE compete to whip up…
Literary: Mike Lupica
Longtime New York Daily News sports columnist and ESPN commentator Mike Lupica began writing novels in the mid-1980s and hasn’t stopped since, dropping works of fiction — from mysteries to stories for younger audiences — every few years. Just in time for the new NBA season, Lupica’s latest novel, Fast Break, centers on a gifted basketball…
Event: Holiday Beer Extravaganza
Every Cincinnatian knows that the Christian Moerlein Lager House is one of the premier spots to down a cold one. But this Saturday Christian Moerlein is taking things to festive levels of fun with its Holiday Beer Extravaganza. The extravaganza will boast more than 20 different selections of imported and craft beers — just what…
Sports: Pucks and Pinot
If you’re a fan of hockey and wine, head to the Cincinnati Cyclones game against the Adirondack Thunder early on Friday for a pre-game wine tasting featuring Hanover Winery. Taste eight favorite local wines and sample a selection of hors d’oeuvres. There will be music provided by local Folk/Americana band Young Heirlooms, and event tickets…
Art: Stew-topia at 21c Museum Hotel
Justin Hoover and Chris Treggiari, the artists behind the ongoing project War Gastronomy — “a dual-industrial tricycle system that unfolds into a pop-up food cart and cultural archive of personal stories of relocation, dislocation and overcoming struggle” — present Stew-topia, another community food- and story-sharing event at 21c Museum Hotel in conjunction with their participation…
Music: Blues & Boogie Piano Summit
One of the region’s most unique musical events, the Blues & Boogie Piano Summit, is not just a “Blues festival,” it’s also a two-day concert that spotlights a specific sub-genre of Blues — Boogie Woogie. The vintage and uniquely American artform still maintains an international audience of die-hard fans, as local Ambassador of Boogie Ricky…
Onstage: Megan Hilty: Rosemary Clooney’s Songbook
Broadway songstress and vocal diva Megan Hilty (you may know her from her turn as Glinda in Wicked or from the TV-series Smash) takes the stage to perform Tristate sweetheart Rosemary Clooney’s classic songs, including “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “April in Paris,” “Tenderly” and more, in a moving tribute with accompaniment from the Cincinnati…
Comedy: Brooks Wheelan
For 40 years, Saturday Night Live has served as a launching pad for successful comics. But what happens when things don’t work out on America’s most popular live sketch-comedy show? Enter Brooks Wheelan, now a Los Angeles-based comedian who was hired and then fired from SNL in less than a year’s time, announcing his departure…
Comedy: Lisa Landry
Recently divorced, life goes on for comedian Lisa Landry. “Best thing I’ve ever done,” she says before correcting herself. “It wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever done. I should have shot him in the head. My mistake was I paid a lawyer instead of a judge.” That experience has been the source of some material…
Aziz Ansari ‘Masters’ Personal, Dark Comedy
Since beloved comedy Parks and Recreation ended its seventh and final season earlier this year, fans have been jonesing for their Tom Haverford fix. Aziz Ansari was a quick standout as the underachieving, high-styling Kanye of the Pawnee parks department, teaching the world the true meaning of “Treat yo self.” With Master of None (Series…
Our (Film) Brands in Crisis
Not so long ago, we used to be compelled by a sense of brand loyalty. We believed that brand names mattered, and that belief was manifested in two key ways, especially in relation to Hollywood studio content providers. The studios delivered projects fronted by “stars” like Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, Adam Sandler and Will Smith,…
Brooks Wheelan’s Post-‘SNL’ Journey
For 40 years, Saturday Night Live has served as a launching pad for successful comics. But what happens when things don’t work out on America’s most popular live sketch-comedy show? Enter Brooks Wheelan, now a Los Angeles-based comedian who was hired and then fired from SNL in less than a year’s time, announcing his departure…
Awash in Memory: ‘Mad River Rising’
Walk into the Marx Theatre at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park for Mad River Rising and you’ll be in a different world: the hayloft of an ancient Ohio barn. (It’s an engaging design by Jeff Modereger.) The farm’s decline is reflected in this timeworn structure. Hand-hewn beams and planks don’t look as sturdy as…
Andres Serrano Opens ‘After the Moment’
As the Contemporary Arts Center prepares to open After the Moment: Reflections on Robert Mapplethorpe this Friday, the show — especially the opening itself — is taking on a much more historical dimension than first planned. The primary thrust of the show remains: Seven regional curators have each chosen five new works by local artists…
Beatles Historian and Author to Speak at Main Library
Mark Lewisohn, the internationally recognized Beatles historian who is working on his epic All These Years biography of the Fab Four’s story, will discuss the first book completed and published in the planned trilogy — Tune In — at 7 p.m. next Tuesday in the Main Library's Reading Garden Lounge, 800 Vine St., Downtown Cincinnati.…
Lost and Found
T he interest just keeps growing for Charley Harper, the late Cincinnati artist whose work has become recognized as a colorfully stylized pinnacle of mid-20th-century Modernism. Always popular in Cincinnati for his wildlife depictions, Harper died in 2007 just as national discovery of him started in earnest with the publication of Todd Oldham’s Charley Harper:…
What Happened Here in Hamilton County?
One of the most important questions to come out of last night’s election isn’t about the results of any specific ballot issue, but instead about the process by which voters cast, or, in some cases, had a hard time casting, their ballots. Many are wondering why voting was so arduous in Hamilton County yesterday, with…
Project Censored
W hen Sonoma State University professor Carl Jensen started looking into the new media’s practice of self-censorship in 1976, the Internet was only a dream and most computers were still big mainframes with whirling tape reels and vacuum tubes. Back then, the vast majority of Americans got all of their news from one daily newspaper…
Immigration Task Force Announces Recommendations
Mayor John Cranley and the Task Force on Immigration he convened last year announced a series of recommendations on Oct. 28 aimed at making Cincinnati the most welcoming city in the country for immigrants. The task force announced 14 short-term, two-year goals and another nine longer-term, five-year goals designed to persuade and help immigrants settle…
Messages Against Activists on UC Campus Social Media Imply Lynching
Racist messages, including at least one appearing to threaten lynching for black student activists at the University of Cincinnati, have recently begun appearing on social media site Yik Yak in response to calls to increase diversity on UC’s flagship campus. Yik Yak is an anonymous, location-based online message board. One of the recent messages posted…
Geographies of Need
S eteria Carter of North College Hill has been battling cancer for four years. An intense regimen of chemotherapy and attendant complications caused her to drop out of school, where she was training to be a medical assistant, and has kept her from working. In that time, she’s relied on federal food assistance from the…
Media Musings From Cincinnati and Beyond
With good reason, the embarrassed FBI concedes that London’s daily Guardian does a better job of tracking killings by police in America. The latest examples are stunning.The choke-hold death of New Yorker Eric Garner and shootings of Ohioans Tamir Rice and John Crawford “are missing from the federal government’s official record of homicides by officers…
Election News and Stuff
Good morning all. I hope you’re shaking off your post-election-party and/or Twitter binge hangovers. Now that the dust has cleared on a pretty intense election night, let’s check out the results, shall we? I’ll summarize in case you fell asleep early and then we’ll talk about the big ones in depth. Statewide stuff: Issue 1:…
Did He Start the Fire?
HOT: Did He Start the Fire? It makes sense that quintessential New Yorker Billy Joel is a fan of the New York Mets. It makes sense that he would sing the national anthem before the team’s Game 3 win over the Kansas City Royals in the World Series. And it makes sense that Mets fans…
Attraction: Ice Rink at Fountain Square
Fountain Square’s Ice Rink is officially open, offering daily skating and special events all the way through February. Rent a pair of skates on-site and spend the day in the heart of downtown. Open daily. $6 admission; $4 skate rental. Fifth and Vine streets, Downtown, myfountainsquare.com.
Inspirado at Madison Gallery (Feature)
After many years as a corporate chef for Kroger and making the rounds at many of the top kitchens in the city, chef Baron Shirley has finally landed in a place of his own with his brand new Inspirado at Madison Gallery in downtown Covington, and it’s so much more than a restaurant. As the…
