Candidates On: Issue 9 and Rail Spending
As part of CityBeat’s ongoing coverage of non-incumbent candidates for Cincinnati City Council, today we offer responses to another question from our recent questionnaire. The question is, “Where do you stand on the charter amendment (Issue 9) that would impose restrictions on all rail-related spending by the city?”—- Tony Fischer (Democrat): “I believe it is…
Vaughn and Co. Album Release Party
Don’t let Ronnie Vaughn’s gruff voice, muscles, short hair and stubble fool you. This frontman delivers words like a charming bear. A born storyteller, Vaughn kicks back in his coffeeshop chair, relaxing like he’s beside a campfire, shooting the shit. He shoots, “When we started playing, we were against the cover thing. We’d play for…
Fran Healy & Andy Dunlop from Travis
Just because Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop are out on an acoustic tour of the U.S. doesn’t bode ill for the Scottish quartet Travis. In fact, after six albums and nearly 20 years, things couldn’t be better. Healy and Dunlop will be utilizing downtime on their duo jaunt to pen tunes for the next Travis…
Savior of The Damned
Andrew Pinching once saw The Damned perform sometime in the late 1980s or early ‘90s, he left unimpressed. “I thought I’d never see them again,” he says of the three-decades-old English Punk band. “They were fucking terrible. Nearly everyone on stage was drunk or a bad musician.” Chuckling a little, he recalls deciding: “Damned: Scratch…
Music: The Damned
DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND THEIR CONTROL, THE DAMNED HAD TO CANCEL THEIR U.S. TOUR, INCLUDING THEIR BOGART'S DATE. CHECK HERE FOR REFUND INFO. You can still read Reyan Ali's interview with The Damned's Andrew Pinching here.
Music: The Fall of Troy
The Fall of Troy just released In the Unlikely Event, their fourth album. “I’m very excited to be doing this again,” says drummer Andrew Forsman. “Towards the end of our last run, it got kind of boring.” In a departure from the band’s last two releases, Unlikely Event was neither a rushed product (like Manipulator)…
Mallory Album Release Party With The Sundresses, State Song and More
Cincinnati Indie/Post Rock trio Mallory returned to the local club scene several months ago after an extended hiatus, and this weekend the band celebrates the birthing of its long-awaited second release, … Before It Grows. The seven-track effort is the group’s first since 2002’s the first one hundred years, a mesmerizing debut that earned the…
Week 7 – Arnold Ramos
You were under a lot of pressure tonight. What advice would you give other athletes who want to keep cool in extreme sports such as Bengals Football Bolo Toss? Keep on focusing on the objective. Is there anyone who you would like to thank who may have played a small role in your victory tonight?…
Art: Chewing Color at the Contemporary Arts Center
With the opening of Chewing Color, the new exhibition of the subversive, questioning, unnervingly intimate and maddeningly beautiful fashion photography of Marilyn Minter, the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) has three simultaneous exhibitions that prominently feature video work. The other CAC shows are Anri Sala: Purchase NOT by Moonlight and C. Spencer Yeh: Standard Definition. Only…
Legends of The Fall
The members of The Fall of Troy knew it was time for a break. As they reached the end of their touring cycle for 2007’s Manipulator album, the group was burned out on performing and still adjusting to the departure of bassist Tim Ward, who quit in November of that year due to stress. With…
Danko Jones with The Damned
Although Toronto’s Danko Jones is a big deal back home in Canada and on the festival circuit in Europe, the trio is more a Hard Rock cult phenomenon here in the States. The band, named after its charismatic vocalist and guitarist, garnered acclaim and airplay with its U.S. debut, 2005’s We Sweat Blood, but had…
Fit for a King
As Jon Hartley Fox made his scheduled appearance at a Books by the Banks event at the Duke Energy Center Oct. 17, the many years the Dayton native had spent writing the just-published King of the Queen City: The Story of King Records had finally paid off. Just the day before, in a major coup,…
Music: Mallory
Cincinnati Indie/Post Rock trio Mallory returned to the local club scene several months ago after an extended hiatus, and this weekend the band celebrates the birthing of its long-awaited second release, … Before It Grows. The seven-track effort is the group’s first since 2002’s the first one hundred years, a mesmerizing debut that earned the…
Bart Campolo on Fear and Bitterness
It is Sunday night, and I am suddenly awake at the crack of too-close gunfire. I creep to the window without turning on the light, more curious than afraid until I remember I don’t know if my daughter and her friends are home from their movie. Looking out, I see three men spread out in…
Six Incumbents Snubbed by Women’s Caucus
With two weeks left until Election Day, the Cincinnati Women’s Political Caucus has issued a mass mailing informing voters about its endorsed candidates this year for City Council, mayor and school board. Although it’s no surprise that City Council’s right-leaning minority — Republicans Leslie Ghiz and Chris Monzel, Charterite Chris Bortz and Democrat-in-exile Jeff Berding…
Spooky Podcasts for Halloween
If you enjoyed our Haunted Newport podcast, you may also like our behind the scenes tour of the Dent Schoolhouse. Jerry Gels, who was interviewed for the tour of haunted Newport was also our guest on our thirteenth podcast, the Newport Gangster Tour. —- If you like what you hear, please support our podcast by…
Lectures: Brian Joiner
Brian Joiner, a locally established artist with a national reputation, is this year’s Duncanson Artist-in-Residence at the Taft Museum of Art. His exhibition of works that accompany the residency is newly opened, featuring a range of solutions for integrating landscape paintings and other aspects of the Taft’s permanent collection into multi-media painting constructions. Transcendentalist pastorals…
Events: MainStrasse Village Pawrade
Celebrate this eighth annual furry Halloween event by dressing your dog as his/her favorite superhero. The parade starts at 1:15 p.m. at Goebel Park and continues down the Sixth Street Promenade. Prizes will be given for Best Original Costume, Best Store Bought Costume and Best Theme Costume. But even if your pooch doesn’t win, every…
Events: Mayday Opening
What happens to a bar deferred? What happens when the taps run dry and no one knows your name? You call on your friends and a helping hand from the neighbors, open under new and bright local ownership and change … everything. What promises to be a true Northside original, Mayday (formerly The Gypsy Hut)…
Events: World Peace Yoga Conference
Environmentalists, vegans, animal lovers, yogis and anyone in between will have a chance this weekend — all weekend — to take in some fresh country air, enjoy the taste of organic gardens and explore Grailville’s long trails, woods, ponds, creeks and even a labyrinth without that G.D. David Bowie trying to steal your baby. This…
Art: Matthew Shelton and Victor Strunk at Aisle Gallery
Matthew Shelton and Victor Strunk are sharing the exhibition space at Aisle. This Friday the exhibition closes (reception 7-10 p.m.) with a performance by Me Or The Moon, a band in which both artists belong. Moon is a percussive romp laced with funk and romance. Shelton’s vocals are gentle and blatant with occasionally grizzly downturns.…
Sports: UC Homecoming
Y’all ever heard of Zach Collaros? Apparently South Florida’s defensive players hadn’t when he came into the Bearcats’ Oct. 15 contest against the Bulls and proceeded to finish off the whoopin’ that Tony Pike and company started. The Cats are now 6-0 heading into Saturday’s homecoming game against Louisville, and it’s yet to be determined…
Music: Danko Jones
THE DAMNED/DANKO JONES SHOW AT BOGART'S HAS BEEN CANCELLED. CHECK HERE FOR REFUND INFO. You can still check out Brian Baker's profile of Danko Jones here.
Halloween: Mt. Healthy Haunted Hall
Nobody does spooky the way the Catholics do. The Mount Healthy Haunted Hall is a terrifically orchestrated, old-school haunted house that packs a hell of punch for the money. From the outside it looks like almost any other house on a quiet, neighborhood street, but once you’re inside a gaggle of ghoulish characters taunt and…
Dance: Swan Lake
Just the mention of Swan Lake conjures images of grand classical ballet. Its enduring popularity ensures its place among the most performed ballets worldwide. This weekend at the Aronoff Center, Cincinnati Ballet and Columbus’s BalletMet team up for a powerhouse production: a combined cast of over 50 professional dancers, with lead roles danced by Cincinnati…
Onstage: All’s Well That Ends Well
William Shakespeare wrote 37 plays in all, and if you’ve been hanging around with the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company for its 16-year run, you’ve seen a lot of them. But this week is the first time around for a comedy of yearning and desire, All’s Well That Ends Well. Director Brian Isaac Phillips has set the…
Comedy: The Capitol Steps
Elaine Newport arrived in Washington, D.C. in the early ’80s to be a legislative assistant to Illinois Republican Senator Chuck Percy. The piano major thought her primary course of study in college wouldn’t come in very handy. That was until a Christmas party in 1981 when she and several coworkers decided to provide some entertainment…
Music: Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop from Travis
Travis fans, rest easy. Just because Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop are out on an acoustic tour of the U.S. doesn’t bode ill for the Scottish quartet. In fact, after six albums and nearly 20 years, things couldn’t be better. Healy and Dunlop will be utilizing downtime on their duo jaunt to pen tunes for…
Lectures: The Architectural Foundation of Cincinnati
The Architectural Foundation of Cincinnati will present “The Architect and the Client: The Domestic Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright,” a symposium discussing Wright houses in Ohio and Indiana, 1-4 p.m. Saturday at the downtown Main Library, 800 Vine St. Several curators of Wright houses will be present, including Linda Eales of the John E. Christian…
Group in Heimlich Scandal Disbands
An Illinois nonprofit organization that once sued a local blogger after he raised questions about its program has filed dissolution paperwork with the state. The Save-a-Life Foundation (SALF) filed the papers with the Illinois Secretary of State’s Office on Sept. 17. The action ends the existence of the 16-year-old corporation.—- In July, SALF dropped its…
Candidates On: Recalling Mayor and Council
As CityBeat did in the 2007 election cycle, we’ve once again sent a questionnaire to various non-incumbent Cincinnati City Council candidates to get their reactions on a broad range of issues. Seven of the 12 non-incumbents chose to answer our questions. Others either didn’t respond or couldn’t meet the deadline.—- During the next few weeks,…
Seny Spot Gets New Eatery
The former space in Walnut Hills that once was home to Simone’s and Seny Tapas Bar now has a new tenant. Alex Chin, who previously was the owner and chef at Pacific Moon Café in Montgomery and Pacific Moon on the Levee in Newport, will open a restaurant at the site in November. The eatery…
Friday Movie Roundup: The Curious Case of Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze is a curious case. Born into the Spiegel mail-order catalog fortune (his given name is Adam Spiegel), the teenage Jonze found solace in the skateboard/BMX bike culture of the 1980s. A DIY-bred autodidact with an oddball sense of humor, Jonze’s filmmaking “career” kick-started with a series of crafty skateboard videos that caught the…
Law Abiding Citizen (Review)
Screenwriter Kurt Wimmer sees a world in which there is little balance in terms of law and order, and to right the scales drastic action must be taken. From Equilibrium to The Recruit to Street Kings, Wimmer caters to the notion that in the service of good, an equal measure of wrong must be accepted.…
The Stepfather (Review)
First off, you know this is a remake of a relatively effective 1987 thriller focusing on the horrors within broken domestic situations. The update sticks closely to that dynamic. Secondly, there’s never any doubt about the scenario because we see Dylan Walsh’s psycho calmly walk away from one family that he’s either broken or frozen…
The Boys Are Back (Review)
Based on journalist Simon Carr’s 2000 true-life memoir, this Oscar-bait drama from perpetually serious-minded director Scott Hicks finds Clive Owen back in brooding mode as the recently widowed dad of 6-year-old Artie (Nicholas McAnulty) and 15-year-old Harry (George MacKay), his estranged son from a previous marriage. Hicks, the guy behind Shine, Snow Falling on Cedars…
Stage Door: Dead Man’s Cell Phone
I was busy a week ago when Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati opened Dead Man's Cell Phone a week ago, so I didn't get around to seeing it until last evening. (You can read Tom McElfresh's review in this week's issue.) The new play by Sarah Ruhl, who's adaptation of Chekhov's Three Sisters will be onstage…
King Records Book Spotlighted on NPR
The long overdue appreciation of Cincinnati-based King Records gets another shot in the arm with the publication of Dayton-native Jon Hartley Fox’s King of the Queen City: The Story of King Records, a detailed look at the various personalities, including kingpin Syd Nathan, that made the studio such a culturally groundbreaking and creatively vital musical…
Cincinnati Music Hall – Ghost Hunt
Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast. If music can, indeed, calm the hearts of wild animals, might it not also calm the restless spirits of those who have died and wander the earth as ghosts? I could think of no better place to find the answer to that question than Cincinnati Music Hall.…
Neatherland Plaza Hilton – Ghost Hunt
One thing I have discovered about ghosts who haunt hotels is that they have excellent taste. It makes perfect sense to me that “The Lady in Green” would still be searching for her husband after all these years amid the opulent French Art Deco splendor of the Netherland Plaza hotel. Her story is a sad…
Cincinnati Art Museum – Ghost Hunt
Just as the Cincinnati Art Museum contains treasures from antiquiety to modern times gathered from all around the world, the ghosts that roam its cavernous halls after the lights are out are equally international and timeless. The Egyptian mummy. The medieval Spanish monk. The Victorian-era artist. Security guards and maintenance workers at the museum have…
Heritage Village Museum – Ghost Hunt
I've known Lonna Kingsbury for almost a decade and if she says a place is haunted, I believe her. Lonna is an artist, actress, and writer who has been involved with many arts projects in the Cincinnati area over the years. One of her current projects is an acting role. She plays Catherine Colin, the…
Week 6 – Ryan Zapf
You were under a lot of pressure tonight. What advice would you give other athletes who want to keep cool in extreme sports such as Bengals Football Bolo Toss? Drink a lot of Bud. Is there anyone who you would like to thank who may have played a small role in your victory tonight? Friends…
Har Mar Superstar, Erin McKeown, Grant Lee Phillips and Dead By Sunrise
There’s a distinct chill in the air, the leaves are turning and beginning to carpet the yard and the drizzle in the air is threatening to crystallize and dust our lawns with a touch of white. That can only mean one thing: I’m hunkered in the Bunker with a cup of coffee and my Mackinac…
Golden Lamb Inn – Ghost Hunt
When Jonas Seaman migrated from new Jersey to Ohio in 1803 and opened The Golden Lamb Inn on Broadway in the newly-platted village of Lebanon, he could never have imagined that more than two hundred years later his establishment would still be offering food and lodging for weary travelers. Nor could he have imagined that…
CityBeat Podcast 30: Haunted Newport
On this episode we hear real ghost stories from Newport. Our guest is Jerry Gels, who leads walking tours of Newport's spectral past. Jerry was also our guest on our thirteenth podcast, the Newport Gangster Tour. —- If you like what you hear, please support our podcast by subscribing to our podcast in iTunes or…
Mayhem Mansion
Driving down Decoursey Pike winding through the backwoods of Kentucky, one can’t help but feel slightly uneasy. Morningview, the home of Mayhem Mansion, feels somewhat like a deserted ghost town at 11 p.m. The boarded-up house does little to comfort a weary traveler. You couldn’t design a more fitting location. The back-story for this house…
Art: Walls, Floors and Ceilings at the Carl Solway Gallery
The ubiquity of Installation Art in museums and galleries for decades now suggests, perhaps incorrectly, that it's a widely understood concept. But Carl Solway Gallery’s latest exhibition, Walls, Floors, & Ceilings, seems to act as an introduction to Installation Art practices. The 15 artists that comprise the exhibition have created piles, puddles and wall treatments…
The Persistence of R.J. Ellory
R.J. Ellory is a persistent guy. It took the 44-year-old British-born author 16 years and 22 rejected manuscripts before he could get one of his novels, 2003’s Candlemoth, published. Six years and several successful books later, Ellory has made his mark as one the most distinctive writers of the crime thriller genre (or any other,…
The Dungeons of Delhi
When the spastic, gibbering Keeper bursts out of the entrance door to assault your group, it lets you know that the Dungeons take no prisoners. The event has expanded to the second floor of its building, redone half of the rooms on the first floor and raised the required age for volunteers (resulting in a…
Rio Grande (Review)
Tucked into an unassuming strip mall in Newport is one of the most popular restaurants in the area, Rio Grande. “It’s got the best margaritas,” a barista at one of my favorite coffee houses told me one day. “It’s kind of a dive but the food is so good. And it’s cheap.” Then a second…
The Dent Schoolhouse
Entering the dank and grimy basement lair of “Uncle” Charlie McFree, the Schoolhouse’s homicidal janitor, is an unnerving experience. His evil has corrupted all corners of the schoolhouse — from the bus parked out front to the PTA carnival. Bodies hang from hooks in the woodshop. Babbling lunatics fi ll the detention hall. The designers…
Halloween Events Guide
Bar Events Halloween Night with music by The Sleeping Dogs. $50-$300 prizes for best costumes. 8 p.m. The Beer Sellar, 301 Riverboat Row, Newport, 859-431-6969. Level Tuesday @ SUITE: Come dressed in your sexiest school girl and prep outfit for free cover. Best dressed receives $500. 50-cent Miller drafts and 10-cent tacos until midnight. 18…
The USS Nightmare
Celebrating its 18th season, the USS Nightmare is officially all grown up and stands tall (technically it floats) as the most distinctive haunted attraction in Greater Cincinnati. This wrecked riverboat has been renovated into a living nightmare that takes fright-seekers close to 30 minutes to walk through. Docked just below Newport on the Levee, the…
Fischer, Charter Committee, Golden Lion, Boehner
[LOSER] TONY FISCHER: This young, firsttime candidate for Cincinnati City Council spent the summer defying the mayor and stumping for a pledge not to layoff police officers as part of planned budget cuts at City Hall. A council majority backed the mayor and won cuts from the police union without the pledge. For all Fischer’s…
Junction Nightmare
For a new haunt, Junction Nightmare in West Chester is on the right track. Divided into two separate haunts (Ripper’s Revenge and Fear Factory), the attraction offers a diverse collection of tastefully decorated scenes ranging from Jack the Ripper’s old stomping grounds on foggy London streets to psychedelic mazes infested with deranged clowns that might…
Where the Wild Things Are (Review)
To say that Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are sometimes plays like a wrenchingly melancholy, Bergman-esque domestic drama with furry creatures — it’s even set in a locale like Ingmar Bergman’s beloved Faro Island — isn’t much help to people who want to know if children will like it. The…
Girls Gone Rock!
Now a prominent music critic for The Chicago Reader, Jessica Hopper started out playing in bands and working behind the scenes when she was just 15 — and remembers just how hard it was. In her new book, The Girls’ Guide to Rocking (Workman), she describes sitting “in a basement room for a half hour…
Sandyland Acres Haunted Hayride
A haunted hayride is an unique experience: It involves a loss of control over a tour, dragging you headlong into the maelstrom and denying any possibility of retreat. No local event plays this angle better than Sandyland. The haywagons are pulled through narrow, claustrophobic corridors cut through corn and deep into the woods. Leaves and…
Walls, Floors and Ceilings (Review)
The ubiquity of Installation Art in museums and galleries for decades now suggests, perhaps incorrectly, that it's a widely understood concept. But Carl Solway Gallery’s latest exhibition, Walls, Floors, & Ceilings, seems to act as an introduction to Installation Art practices. The 15 artists that comprise the exhibition have created piles, puddles and wall treatments…
Stacking Up
In case you’re keeping track, the most produced play in the United States this season is Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s Boom, presently in its regional premiere at Know Theatre of Cincinnati. According to American Theatre magazine, nine productions of the absurdist comedy are scheduled this season. The list excludes works by Shakespeare and holiday-themed shows. (Another…
Music: The Chocolate Horse
Local rockers The Chocolate Horse corral the wagons around Northside Tavern on Friday to celebrate the release of their limited-edition vinyl album We Don't Stand on Ceremony. This marks the band's second full-length album and is a follow-up to 2007’s well-received, heart-on-a-sleeve Patience Works!. Where Patience Works! displays guitar-driven distorted downtime, the new offering feels…
Dollars and Sense
At a convenient store on Main Street a few weeks ago, a guy was trying to buy a pack of cigarettes with some coin dollars. He had six of them. The cashier was giving him a hard time about it. The cashier told him he needed real dollars, not the “fake” coins he was offering.…
The Chocolate Horse Album Release Party
Local rockers The Chocolate Horse corral the wagons around Northside Tavern on Friday to celebrate the release of their limited-edition vinyl album We Don't Stand on Ceremony. This marks the band's second full-length album and is a follow-up to 2007’s well-received, heart-on-a-sleeve Patience Works!. Where Patience Works! displays guitar-driven distorted downtime, the new offering feels…
Music: Dr. Dog
Dr. Dog was the musical teenage pursuit of childhood friends Toby Leaman and Scott McMicken. Describing Dr. Dog’s sound is like tagging a moving carnival train from another carnival train going the other way. Imagine a basement summit meeting between Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, Robert Pollard, Stephen Malkmus, Beck and They Might Be Giants, and…
Newport Pizza Company (Lunch Review)
Sometimes after a night of imbibing several adult beverages all you want to do is spend the afternoon at the nearest pizza joint relaxing and watching some other people watch sports. So on a recent Saturday, my dining partner and I hit up the Newport Pizza Company (601 Monmouth St., Newport, 859-261-4900) to do just…
Lewisburg Haunted Cave
Seeking an all out, extreme haunt experience? Get your fix by descending into a world of hellish fright at the Haunted Cave. The cave is an abandoned mine 80 feet underground and serves as one of the most intense standalone haunted attractions in the state. Anxiety takes hold as fright seekers make their way down…
Getting in Touch With the Dead
For most people, Music Hall conjures images of the Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Opera. It’s one of the city’s most refined and classy destinations. But Teri Casper sees it differently. “That is the site of an old mental institution, an orphan asylum and also a potters field where they buried the indigent and the people…
Oct. 7-13: Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY OCT. 7It’s generally assumed that neighbors are pests who think their proximity to others constitutes automatic friendship, when it really just means they earn similar salaries or are afraid of the same minorities. Cincinnati’s Westsiders are no exception, and that’s why City Councilman Jeff Berding on Tuesday asked Council to repay a group of…
CEAs by the Numbers: 104 Nominees, 19 Categories, 13th Year
Hard to believe it’s time to announce the nominees for the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards for Music (CEAs). Where did the year go? After consulting with CityBeat’s music writers as well as local promoters, club owners, music organization heads and various other scene insiders, we’ve somehow managed again to squeeze a year’s worth of excellent local…
Lit: Books by the Banks
Celebrate the joy of reading with more than 80 local, regional and national authors. Meet the authors and purchase signed copies of their books covering a broad range of genre (including fiction, history and local history, sports, non-fiction, art, juvenile and teen literature, cooking and cookbooks, local travel and more) plus author panel discussions on…
Good Dog
Charting the history and progress of Dr. Dog requires a flexible perspective. The more recent development of Dr. Dog as a band unit actually arcs much further back to Dr. Dog as the musical teenage pursuit of childhood friends Toby Leaman and Scott McMicken. “Toby and I write the songs and we’ve been friends and…
Kings Island Halloween Haunt
Like gore haunts? Traditional haunts? Haunted trails? Ogling scantilyclad women? We do and were pleased to find that all are a part of Halloween Haunt. This season the straight-up gorefest Slaughter House was added to the mix of 13 attractions. From the equally bloody Urgent Scare to more mainstream haunts like Massacre Manor and Cut…
The Guitars (Profile)
The Cincinnati music scene is incestuous. If you had to listen to someone list what bands they’re in now or what bands they’ve been in and with whom and then what bands that person had been in or was currently in, you’d probably get bored. Whatever the reason — elitism, inability to make new friends,…
California Woods Hike
Key At-A-Glance Information Length: 3.37 milesConfiguration: Series of loopsDifficulty: Easy-moderateScenery: Woods, ravines and meadowExposure: Shade and sunTraffic: Moderate-heavyTrail Surface: SoilHiking Time: 3 hoursDriving Distance: 20 minutes from downtown CincinnatiAccess: 6 a.m. – 10 p.m.Maps: USGS Newport: Cincinnati Parks California WoodsWheelchair Accessible: NoFacilities: Restrooms and water when nature center is openFor More Information: Cincinnati Parks visitor…
Storming the Gates
While he was campaigning for the presidency last year in New Mexico, Barack Obama tried to underscore how dysfunctional Washington politics had become by issuing a desperate warning. “But another thing I know is this: We can’t steer ourselves out of this crisis by heading in the same, disastrous direction,” Obama admonished the crowd. “We…
St. Rita’s Haunted House
Entering its 34th season, St. Rita’s continues to deliver a solid traditional and largely goreless haunt. Of course, that doesn’t include the new “branding” scene in the torture chamber, where you can almost hear the flesh sizzle … brrrrrr! Every inch of the three-story house is used, with a torturous path that winds through some…
Biked and Bummed in Downtown
Dear Maija, I went to the city’s bike planning meeting last week, and I was really excited about the possibility of Cincinnati giving me a chance to ride to work without having a Biggie-sized Coke thrown against my back every day. Everything seemed legit at first — they had a slideshow and maps and stuff…
Westwood, Vigilantism and a Dirty Cop
Cincinnati’s Westwood neighborhood is a beautiful place filled with gracefully aging homes in a mix of architectural styles, tree-lined streets, family-owned businesses and an increasingly diverse population. It also has a spectacularly bad reputation throughout the rest of the city. That’s mostly due to a small group of passionate residents who probably mean well but…
Land of Illusion
For the group that can’t decide between the haunted trail and the haunted house, the Land of Illusion offers the perfect solution. This sprawling village of terror started with just a haunted trail and has grown to include a haunted house, a possessed Egyptian tomb and a demonic circus in 3-D. If you go, expect…
The Gypsy Hut Rises Again as Mayday
As their press release so eloquently puts it, “2008’s ‘Best New Bar in Cincinnati’ slowly died three weeks ago, and no one seemed to notice. From being consistently full of thirsty bohemian patrons and hosting national up-and-coming bands (Vampire Weekend played a week before their debut on SNL) to a potted-plant-ridden empty mess—The Gypsy Hut’s…
