Oct 11-18, 2017
Blink of an Eye: Innovative Light and Art Events Will Transform Cincinnati a “Future City”
‘Faces Places’ Is About Art and Life
JR, the young French street artist who pastes large photographic portraits on outdoor structures, proved quite a hit when the Contemporary Arts Center organized his first U.S. solo museum show in 2013. The story-telling humanism of his work energized people, as did the dramatic effect of his black-and-white work. He empowers and collaborates with his…
A ‘Curious’ Choice for a Play
A mystery opens Thursday at the Cincinnati Playhouse, where tales of Sherlock Holmes have often been well received. This one is quite different, however — although The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time sounds like a case that would have enticed Holmes and Watson. The truth is, this tale has its own fascinating and…
Media vs. Audience Bias
We’re in our second week at UC’s adult ed program where I lead a class on media ethics and missteps. It’s never been more challenging or fun. My only question was where to start this annual class for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). I only teach in the fall; elections provide so much material…
What a Week! Oct. 11-17
Late-Night Junk Food Go-Tos Expand into Apparel What do you get when you mix fashion with fast food? Disintegrating leggings and diarrhea? OK, yes, but I’m talking about the Taco Bell-inspired line of clothing that dropped at cheap shopping mall staple Forever 21 this week. This collab features taco-laden T-shirts and bodysuits that look like…
The Dining Guide
The New York Times recently recommended an impressive schedule of eating, drinking and sightseeing in Cincinnati over a 36-hour period. Now, sightseeing is all well and good, but we’re here to focus on the eating and drinking aspect. Our annual Dining Guide offers recommendations for where to eat now (new restaurants and hotspots), where to…
Sound Advice: Foo Fighters with The Struts (Oct. 20)
Sometimes memories are vague and other times you remember every last detail. Take, for instance, the first time I heard Foo Fighters. I still feel the tingling sensation as the way-too-small Vinnie Barbarino-banded t-shirt cut off circulation to my chunky arms while I stared up, dumbfounded, at the "Monkey Wrench" music video playing on the…
Where to Eat Next
So you’ve already eaten three square meals today, but where are you eating tomorrow? We’ve collected some of the newer restaurants that have opened — and a few that are coming soon — to add to your radar or weekend dining plans. Sartre OTR | French Jim Cornwell, the culinary mastermind behind Dutch’s in Oakley,…
Appetite-Busting Bloody Marys
The bloody mary has a couple of origin stories. It was either invented in 1921 at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris (and later perfected by the same bartender in the 1930s at the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan) or invented by Vaudeville actor and comedian George Jessel as a basic blend of vodka and…
Elevated Bar Bites
Long gone are the days when bars served only cold potato skins and limp french fries. Today, “pub grub” doesn’t have to be a dirty word (or two). Local drinking establishments are applying a craft cocktail mentality to their kitchens and kitchenettes, offering streamlined menus that play with bold flavor combinations, add swagger to comfort…
Brunch Your Way
What type of Sunday bruncher are you? Pick the description that best fits you and then decide where to dine. Classic You’re a greasy spoon, breakfast-served-all-day kind of morning person. You want diner coffee with shelf-stable creamer and the ability to choose between a perfect cheese omelet with a side of goetta or a double-decker…
Albums from Young Heirlooms, Buffalo Killers Due Friday
Dynamic Indie Folk collective Young Heirlooms — which is nominated for the Folk/Americana and Best Live Act Cincinnati Entertainment Awards this year (the full 2017 CEA nomination list will be released this week) — is finally set to release its anticipated new full-length, The Hammer. The album is the first Young Heirlooms full-length since their…
Minimum Gauge: Kurt Cobain’s actual Blockbuster video rental card can finally be yours
HOT: About a Card While Kurt Cobain notoriously developed a disdain for fame, he did have a good sense of absurdist humor. So it’s difficult to know if he’d be disgusted by the exploitation or delighted by the ridiculousness of several items tied to his legacy (in various, sometimes routine ways) that recently went on…
Flamin’ Groovies return to shake some more action
If you browse around online or at local shops selling vintage prints, you might come across a certain concert poster from Cincinnati’s Ludlow Garage, Jim Tarbell’s iconic, long-lamented Rock club. It’s going for $150 on eBay now. The ornately decorated blue-and-white flyer is for Jan. 9-10, 1970 shows featuring Holland’s Golden Earring (“Radar Love”) and…
Morning News: BLINK brings largest downtown crowd in city’s history; activists gear up for white nationalist speech at UC
Good morning all. I hope you had a very fun, very full weekend. Lady Fest took over Northside, the Fade2Black film festival was at University of Cincinnati and of course, BLINK was all over downtown. It was a great few days to be in Cincy. Here’s some news that happened while you were out partaking…
Ohio Legislature halfway to decriminalizing concealed guns in no-carry zones
The Ohio Legislature is marching toward passing a Clermont County representative’s bill that would decriminalize taking legally concealed weapons into gun-free zones such as schools, restaurants, courthouses and open-air arenas that serve alcohol. House Bill 233 was approved in July by a Republican-dominated Ohio House of Representatives that fast-tracked the measure. Not even 50 days had…
Don’t Rock the Boat
It turned out to be quite the mediocre Halloween horror year in 1993. With Jennifer Aniston’s film debut in the laughably bad Leprechaun, to the un-scary — yet somehow wonderful — Hocus Pocus, we weren’t exactly binging on fun-size Snickers bars to numb the fear. However, that year still managed to birth a local All…
‘Marshall’: The Biopic as History Lesson
Chadwick Boseman has cornered the market on African-American historic figures. Having rousingly brought Jackie Robinson (42) and James Brown (Get On Up) to life, he’s going for a hat trick in Reginald Hudlin’s Marshall, embodying the charismatic and forceful civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall. The film is set long before Marshall’s time as the country’s…
Harvest Pizzeria OTR in Findlay Market is the latest in a slew of new craft pizza parlors
I’m hard-pressed to think of a more universally beloved food than pizza. Humans have been enjoying some version of grilled or baked flatbread with toppings for thousands of years. We have so many places around town that serve pizza — not to mention an entire aisle of frozen ones at Kroger — because we just…
Morning News: UC officials mum on potential white nationalist speaker; Ohio reps vote against hurricane relief
Good morning all. Here’s some news for you today. More than 100 residents living in affordable housing at the Alms in Walnut Hills will get to stay in their homes for now. A federal judge yesterday granted a preliminary injunction that keeps the Department of Housing and Urban Development from pulling its subsidies from the…
Stage Door: Connections and Misconnections, a Vampire and a Shoe Repair Shop
Friday the 13th is brings forward Halloween shows and Cincinnati’s exciting new light festival, BLINK, which kicked off on Thursday. If festival organizers’ attendance projections are close to accurate, navigating downtown and Over-the-Rhine could be challenging. Illuminated, animated murals on 22 buildings all along the route of the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar as well as…
Federal judge temporarily blocks HUD from leaving the Alms
More than 100 residents living in affordable housing at the Alms in Walnut Hills will get to stay in their homes for now. A federal judge yesterday granted a preliminary injunction that keeps the Department of Housing and Urban Development from pulling out of the building. U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Black’s ruling doesn’t end…
Stage Door: Connections and Misconnections, a Vampire and a Shoe Repair Shop
Friday the 13th brings forward Halloween shows and Cincinnati’s exciting new light festival, BLINK, which kicked off on Thursday. If festival organizers’ attendance projections are close to accurate, navigating downtown and Over-the-Rhine could be challenging. Illuminated, animated murals on 22 buildings all along the route of the Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar as well as music and…
Sound Advice: Low Cut Connie with The Yawpers (Oct. 21)
The story of Low Cut Connie's birth is nearly as improbable as the Indie Rock band's subsequent success. American piano pounder Adam Weiner, influenced by Jerry Lee Lewis and Iggy Pop, was doing solo gigs under the name Ladyfingers, while British drummer/guitarist Dan Finnemore exhibited his Punk roots in an equally solo fashion as Swampmeat.…
Sound Advice: Open Mike Eagle with Ronin, Vibe-One and Juan Cosby (Oct. 21)
For the sake of expediency and efficiency, it’s easiest to label Open Mike Eagle’s music “Alternative” or “Indie” Hip Hop — he himself offered a handy introductory descriptor by titling his 2010 debut solo album Unapologetic Art Rap. But the Chicago-raised/L.A.-based writer/musician/MC’s work is so richly layered and uniquely imaginative, it seems insufficient to compare…
Sound Advice: Dälek with Street Sects, Massive Nights and Destruction Squad (Oct. 20)
If you've ever wondered what would happen if Reese's got bored with peanut butter and chocolate and turned its attention to Hip Hop and Industrial music, you're about 20 years too late. Back in the late ’90s, Newark, N.J. native Will Brooks began cross-pollinating Hip Hop with a variety of disparate yet oddly complementary influences,…
Proposal would tie city tax incentives to living wage
Last year, the Ohio General Assembly passed legislation prohibiting cities from setting their own minimum wages. That has hamstrung efforts by Democrats on Cincinnati City Council to set requirements that employers pay above Ohio’s $8.10 an hour minimum wage. But Councilman Chris Seelbach is proposing legislation that may provide a partial end-run around the State…
Morning News: Mallory endorses first council candidate; is Cincy really under the radar when it comes to beer?
Good morning all. I skipped the news update yesterday to take care of some longer-term election-related coverage, but we’re back today and ready to catch up. Let’s get going. Mayor John Cranley and Councilwoman Yvette Simpson got together Tuesday night at the Cincinnati Art Museum for their one-millionth general election debate (note to the CityBeat's…
Cranley, Simpson spar on approaches to economic inclusion
Just a month before voters go to the polls, Mayor John Cranley and Councilwoman Yvette Simpson faced off Oct. 10 in a forum that drew out their differences more sharply than ever. While the candidates pinged between questions about transit, police-community relations and other topics, they cycled, again and again, back to a couple core…
Displaced from OTR, a small business starts again in Northside
Behind the counter of Anybody’s Dream convenience store in Northside, 56-year-old Reginald Stroud points to a TV flashing red and yellow satellite imagery of Hurricane Irma to explain the way his last three years have felt. His plight isn’t exactly the same as folks affected by the storm, he says, but there are parallels. As…
