Ingrid Woode Celebrates New CD/DVD Release
Cincinnati singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Ingrid Woode and her group The Woode Tribe Orchestra celebrate the release of a new CD/DVD package with a concert Saturday at the Fairfield Community Arts Center Theater (411 Wessel Drive, Fairfield, 513- 867-5348). Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show are $12, which includes a copy of the new release, titled Going LiVe…
Holy Pipe Dreams
HOT: Holy Pipe Dreams Singer Sinead O’Connor has always been incredibly personal in her songs, but when she discovered the Internet, her world became a completely open, deeply annotated book. Recently she took to her blog to claim the American Music Awards approached her about appearing on the awards show next month with Pope Francis,…
Morning News and Stuff
So it’s not Monday anymore, which is a plus, but still. This week is the first week in my mission to give up caffeine and donuts. It’s going to be a long, long haul. Anyway, on with the news. The city administration yesterday described in more detail a parking plan for Over-the-Rhine that’s been floating…
Music Tonight: Method Man and Redman, Unearth and More
Between Wu-Tang Clan reunion shows and the seminal Hip Hop group’s forthcoming new album, two Wu members/affiliates have hit the road to headline the World Wide Rollers Tour, presented by The Smokers Club, a group of weed/Hip Hop aficionados that have booked five national tours and launched a clothing line and record label (smoking products…
Laverne Cox to Speak at NKU Next Week
Transgender advocate and actress Laverne Cox will give a keynote speech at Northern Kentucky University in celebration of LGBT History Month on Tuesday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m. Many will recognize Cox for her groundbreaking role as Sophia Burset, an incarcerated transgender woman, in the Netflix com-dram series Orange Is the New Black. Earlier this…
Valley of the Sun Tour Diary: A Guide to Packing/Overpacking
Remember in my first blog when I said I was worried that I had over packed? Guess what? I over packed. I’ve been on tour for a week now and these are a few things I’ve learned so far, in no particular order. Hopefully they help you the next time a Rock band drags you…
Music Tonight: JEFF the Brotherhood and More
Two of the leading lights from Nashville’s exploding underground Rock scene, JEFF the Brotherhood and Diarrhea Planet, perform tonight at Northside Tavern. Admission is $10 and the show starts at 9 p.m. Locals Gazer and See You in the Funnies open. JEFF the Brotherhood recently released a covers EP, Dig the Classics, on Warner Brothers…
The Right (or No Right) to Privacy
The growing national conversation about privacy is a curious thing. There seems to be no generally accepted definition of privacy or agreement on whose privacy is to be protected. Ranging from the newsroom to the bedroom, it’s a puzzle to reporters and editors. Privacy in public life already was dying when the news media and…
Morning News and Stuff
Hello Cincy! Here’s what’s going on this morning. Though you won’t find a way to help shore up the building on the ballot in November, efforts to fund renovations of Music Hall may get a big boost soon. Advocates for the Cincinnati landmark have applied for $25 million through the Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit…
The Birds (Review)
You should put aside what you think you know about the narrative of The Birds if you’ve seen Hitchcock’s classic movie. Only the essential concept remains in Conor McPherson’s (The Seafarer, Shining City) 2009 adaptation of the original Daphne Du Maurier novelette: If the birds turned on us, it would be terrifying. In McPherson’s tale,…
Comedy: Ron Babcock
It’s a road tour quite unlike any other. Comedian Ron Babcock is bringing his "Benz it Like Babcock Tour" to Mayday in Northside as part of their Bombs Away! Comedy Night. The Benz part of the tour’s name comes from the restored 1975 Mercedes-Benz Babcock is driving coast-to-coast. "I wanted to submit for a half-hour…
The Palace’s Chef Joe West Wins CityBeat’s Iron Fork
Wednesday, Oct. 15, kicked off CityBeat’s maiden voyage for Iron Fork Cincinnati, a Iron Chef-esque cooking competition complete with famous chefs from around the city, closed-circuit television and, of course, plenty of food and drink to keep the attendees happy and buzzed. The event, which raised money for local nonprofit Gabriel’s Place and its Junior…
New Art World Documentary has Strong Cincinnati Connection
Next Friday, the documentary Art and Craft is opening at the Mariemont Theater. It's the story of an art forger, Mark Landis, who gave his work away to museums and colleges. He was exposed by Matthew Leininger, before the latter became a Cincinnati Art Museum registrar. While in Cincinnati, in 2012 Leininger and Aaron Cowan,…
Your Weekend To Do List: 10/17-10/19
A little bit of this and a little bit of that. Cincy Shakes gets a little spooky with a stage adaptation of The Birds. Sherman Fracher channels Tippi Hedren. Fort Thomas' Village Players tackle Sam Raimi's cult classic, Evil Dead, but in musical form and sans Bruce Campbell. The front row is a designated splatter zone and…
Music This Weekend: Wussy, Cory Branan, Ben Frost and More
Cincinnati greats Wussy continue to surge into the national spotlight, playing sold-out shows across the country and continuing to garner glowing press for their spectacular Attica! album. The band also recently posted several photos of the members filming something for CBS in New York City recently (more info TBA), which should escalate its status even…
Two FotoFocus Shows Not to Miss
Hard to believe, but we’re halfway through October, the main month of the FotoFocus Biennial. (Some FotoFocus-related shows run longer.) So this weekend is really a great time to get out and see some of the shows — fotofocusbiennial.org has a full list. Find CityBeat's full FotoFocus preview here. Two that I highly recommend, and…
Morning News and Stuff
All right. It’s beautiful outside right now and I’m at a desk (as I imagine you are) with a load of election stories to write. I’m sure you’ve got your own stuff going on as well; let’s do this news thing quick so we can all be a little closer to getting to the weekend.…
Valley of the Sun Tour Diary: Venue Variety
Let’s take a moment to talk about Rock venues in the States, shall we? In my mind, there are two distinct types: you either have the nice, well-kept venues that often lack a certain spark that make them truly special or the dives that feel like a Punk Rock haven but smell like a dirty…
Stage Door: An Iliad, Varekai, and Other Items of Note
On Wednesday evening I attended one of the most remarkable solo performances I've ever seen: Bruce Cromer starring in An Iliad at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati. Based on Homer's epic poem about the Trojan War, the poetic but dynamic script calls on one actor to play a dozen or so characters. Cromer does everyone of them…
City Will Drop Big Bucks to Clean Up Big Mess
It’s probably safe to call 80,000 tons of rotting meat and vegetables a big mess. In fact, I don’t want to live in a world where such a thing doesn’t qualify for “big mess” status. The deeper issue is what can be learned from such a mess and who will be held responsible. Council voted…
Comic Musical Duo Igudesman & Joo Performs at SCPA Tonight
Comic musical duo Igudesman & Joo performs at the School for Creative and Performing Arts’ Mayerson Theater tonight, presented by the Constella Festival. Korean-British pianist Richard Hyung-ki Joo and Russian violinist Aleksey Igudesman mix Classical music with other popular genres and humor for a wholly entertaining performance. Check out this popular performance (which has more…
Ten for 10: Phratry Records Celebrates 10th Anniversary
Though the traditional 10th anniversary gift is tin or aluminum (WTF?), a more fitting present for the Cincinnati label Phratry Records to congratulate it on its 10th year of service is your attendance at this weekend’s two-night Phratry showcase at Newport’s Southgate House Revival. Local musician Jerry Dirr (Knife the Symphony) launched the label in…
Music Tonight: Ruthie Foster, Dreamers, Misfits and More
Texas Blues artist Ruthie Foster plays Oakley’s 20th Century tonight with local great Kim Taylor opening. Foster’s first album came out in 1997, but her last two (2009’s The Truth According to Ruthie Foster and 2012’s Let It Burn) really helped her make a name for herself; both earned Grammy nominations. Her latest is Promise…
From the Copy Desk
Good morning readers. It was slim pickings in this weeks issue for "Words Nobody Uses or Knows." I only found three, which is OK, because I'm still recovering from last night's Iron Fork event (where I may have had one too many samples of bourbon) and the less thinking I have to do, the better.…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning Cincy! I’m a little groggy today after last night’s Iron Fork event, which was awesome. If you were at the Moerlein Taproom for the chef showdown and restaurant sampling festivities, you probably saw me with the group that pretty much monopolized the giant Jenga set all night. Sorry ‘bout that. Anyway, on with…
An Iliad (Review)
Critic's Pick As the Poet in An Iliad, the just-opened production at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, actor Bruce Cromer says, “Every time I sing this song, I hope it’s the last.” Avid theatergoers should hope that’s not really the case, because Cromer’s performance is one of the most compelling you’re likely to see in many a…
Rudderless
When faced with the prospect of a familiar performer making the transition into a multi-hyphenate role, we, as audience members can experience a range of thoughts and emotions about said career moves. In the case of William H. Macy, the talented actor who has enjoyed a stellar career as a notable supporting player, the decision…
Men, Women & Children
It is safe to say that we have surrendered to the persuasive pull of social media and virtual living, retreating into auto-correct emoticons and an annoyance with human interaction. So it is interesting to watch the ensemble cast of Jason Reitman’s latest film — Men, Women & Children (which had a muted screening at the…
The Book of Life
An animated romance spans worlds as a young lover (voiced by Diego Luna) contends with the Day of the Dead with help from a stone-jawed hero (Channing Tatum) in order to claim his true love (Zoe Saldana). Director Jorge R. Gutierrez (who co-wrote the screenplay with Douglas Langdale) has crafted a fantastic kaleidoscope of color…
The Best of Me
Switching back and forth between the current timeline with the adult versions of Amanda (Michelle Monaghan) and Dawson (James Marsden), separated lovers are brought back together after the death of an old friend (Gerald McRaney) who helped to support the younger Amanda (Liana Liberato) and Dawson (Luke Bracey) during their star-crossed meet and greet. Michael…
Comedy: Greg Warren
For years, Greg Warren has populated his stand-up set with various characters drawn from his St. Louis upbringing. But these days, Warren is making the act more about himself and merely peppering the routine with silly voices. “I think I’ve kind of gotten away from really well-defined, repetitive characters,” he says. “It’s a little more…
‘Orange Is the New Black’ Star Debuts Trans Doc
Laverne Cox is best recognized as Sophia, a transgendered inmate and prison hair stylist on Orange Is the New Black. The actress and activist has used her Orange fame as a platform for educating people about the issues faced by transgendered people, speaking on talk shows, in schools and now as part of a new…
‘Fury’ Fights a Dirty Personal War
More than any other contemporary filmmaker, David Ayer is the epitome of a street warrior. He is a brawler, a literal head banger, the kind of guy you want at your back when you run into that alley ready to fight. All’s fair in love and war — well, I’m not sure Ayer believes in…
FotoFocus’ Sharp, Smart Programming at Memorial Hall
The centerpiece of the FotoFocus Biennial’s programming was its five days of events at Memorial Hall — films, panel discussions, lectures and a Saturday-night performance of This Filthy World by John Waters. As the Wednesday-Sunday events coincided with other key FotoFocus events — the excellent Screenings exhibit of short art films curated by the biennial’s…
Selfie Queen Vivian Maier: A Quiet Pursuit of Personal Reflections
Vivian Maier is the art world’s current mystery artist du jour. And the serendipitous “discovery” of her work coupled with the circumstances of her very private life has made the quality of her photography even more mysterious (and attractive) to collectors and curators alike. The American-born Maier spent most of her early life in France…
I Just Can’t Get Enough
Who you gonna call? Lady Busters! After years of talk about another Ghostbusters film, Paul Feig (Freaks and Geeks, The Heat, Arrested Development, Bridesmaids, The Office) say he will direct a femme-centric sequel and co-write the script with The Heat’s Katie Dippold. Here’s to them casting Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig and Mindy Kaling with Seth…
Nuts About Nut Butter
Once primarily the domain of health food stores, nut butters that aren’t peanut butter (or are variations on the peanut butter theme) have been popping up with greater frequency in average neighborhood supermarkets. Peanut butter’s long-running popularity is understandable. (Chances are, if you check the cupboards in a majority of U.S. households, you’ll find a…
Creatives in Clifton
O n a recent Wednesday in September, the crowd in the foyer of the Clifton Cultural Arts Center (CCAC) ate, drank and talked quietly as the New Horizons Orchestra performed “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and the sun set through stained glass windows. Inside the adjacent art gallery, five filmmakers (Jesse Byerly, Russ and Amy Faust,…
Foodie Meets Family
The words “kid-friendly” and “foodie” are seldom spoken in the same breath. That is, unless you are speaking with Jean-Robert and Annette de Cavel, founders of the de Cavel Family SIDS Foundation and hosts of the foundation’s annual Friends and Family Brunch at the Midwest Culinary Institute. SIDS, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, is a…
Homestyle for Herbivores
Classic comfort foods are frequently hard to come by if you follow a vegetarian or vegan diet. Most of those stick-to-your-ribs recipes don’t just have a meat base but are also loaded with butter and real cheese — filling and unmistakable flavors that can be difficult to source cruelty-free. Fear not, veg heads, CityBeat has…
Comfort Food Classics
Comfort food and homestyle cooking may be trending, but people have enjoyed the spoils of the South for years — especially in Cincinnati. Ever heard of our ribs? And while Montgomery Inn may be one of the first things you think of locally when you think of barbecue-sauce covered meats, the Queen City has a…
Morning News and Stuff
So much stuff has happened in the last 24 hours. I’m just going to hit you with all of it without my usual witty introduction. A jury found Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Tracie Hunter guilty on one felony count yesterday. The jury says Hunter broke the law by gaining access to confidential files relating…
The South Rises Again
Southern food inching its way north of the Mason-Dixon line isn’t really anything new. After all, international chain restaurant KFC has been around forever with that gateway drug to all things Southern: fried chicken. Lately, however, there seems to be a whole new infiltration of Southern restaurants and barbecue joints into the Queen City, but…
The Dining Guide: Northern Comfort
Cincinnati is just a stone’s throw away from officially being part of America’s South — but that doesn’t mean Southern comfort food classics like barbecue, fried chicken and mac and cheese haven’t unofficially made their way across our border. With a history steeped in pork production and beer, this city can claim chicken shacks and…
Phratry Records Celebrates 10 Years of Indie Label Greatness
Once upon a time, local music fan and musician Jerry Dirr decided he wanted to start a record label. And he wanted to do things right and create something enduring and community-oriented, taking inspiration from some of his favorite independent labels growing up, like the Dischord, SST and Touch and Go imprints. Ten years after…
Music Tonight: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Surfer Blood and More
• Ohio Hip Hop crew Bone Thugs-N-Harmony are still kicking. The ensemble, called by MTV the “most melodic Hip Hop group of all time” (thanks largely to their deft ability to work melodies not only into chorus hooks, but also their rhymes), performs at Bogart’s tonight at 7 p.m. The group, which came into the…
Some People Call Him Maurice
If you count live albums, early cassettes and compilations (and why wouldn’t you?), Cincinnati singer/songwriter Maurice Mattei’s latest release, Celebrity Issue, is the 21st entry in his diverse and vastly entertaining catalog. And while Mattei’s extensive press archive detailing that impressive body of work features plenty of Bob Dylan references (with Celebrity Issue offering some…
Ben Frost
You can count on the Contemporary Arts Center’s Performance Series to bring in the best cutting-edge musicians right when their latest albums are accumulating Best of the Year accolades. Merrill Garbus’ project tUnE-yArDs played the CAC after 2011’s Whokill won Village Voice’s Pazz & Jop poll’s Best Album honor. Now, the Australian-born, Iceland-based composer Ben…
Richard Thompson with Amanda Shires
Richard Thompson has been playing guitar since our current president was in diapers. For the mathematically challenged, that’s more than five decades, a career in which the English-born Thompson has worked with everyone from his late-’60s group Fairport Convention to more wide-ranging contemporary artists like The Pointer Sisters, R.E.M. and The Futureheads. In the ’70s…
Ruthie Foster with Kim Taylor
Ruthie Foster, the comparatively young (she’s 48) Blues singer from Texas, has taken a while to find her audience. Her first album came out back in 1997, but her last two, 2009’s The Truth According to Ruthie Foster and 2012’s Let It Burn, both netted her Grammy nominations for Best Blues Album and elevated her…
Surfer Blood with Eternal Summers
Florida’s Surfer Blood burst onto the scene seemingly fully formed behind its debut full-length, 2010’s Astro Coast, which garnered kudos from just about every corner of the Internet, including the profile-boosting tastemakers at Pitchfork. Unlike a lot of blog-driven hype, the praise was well deserved: Astro Coast holds up every bit as well as it…
Four Runs, No Hits, No Errors
C ory Branan has a way with words but there’s one that sticks in his throat: compromise. The North Mississippi-raised, Nashville, Tenn.-based singer/songwriter has been praised for his relentless originality and singular determination to blaze a musical trail regardless of prevailing mainstream trends. Theoretically, Branan should fit comfortably under Country’s umbrella, but refusing to adhere…
The Color of Ebola?
Ebola is the latest mysterious evil — ranking high among AIDS, tribal genocide, female genital mutilation — to have emerged from the place white explorers used to call the Dark Continent because of Africa’s alleged “unlearned,” “untamed” and “uncivilized” black peoples and their exotic ways. And just as white explorers took generations to wrestle with…
Lorde Works in Mysterious Ways?
HOT: Lorde Works in Mysterious Ways? South Park’s ability to instantly respond to current events has long been a marvel, but a recent episode took things to meta new heights. After a throwaway gag where one of the kid’s dads dresses and performs as Lorde at a party, a writer at Spin knee-jerked a self-righteous…
Cincinnati vs. The World 10.15.14
Investors want to turn the former Champion Paper factory building in Hamilton into a $30 million sports complex. Moses B. Glick LLC, a scrap and salvage company that owns the property, and an unnamed investor are paying $60,000 for a feasibility study to be conducted on the site. Cincinnati +1 In a drastic shift of…
Worst Week Ever!: Oct. 8-14
Populace Still Unclear on Why Uninformed People’s Opinions Matter on Climate Change For a while, social media seemed like a great thing that would enable us to communicate more easily and share and learn together. Then we realized it’s all pretty annoying and the best way to go is to use it infrequently and grumble…
New York City Officials Tour Cincinnati Public Schools
New York City Vice Mayor Richard Buery was in Cincinnati Oct. 8 and 9 touring the city’s groundbreaking community learning centers. He visited to glean best practices from CPS as New York Public Schools ramps up its own community learning center program. “What Cincinnati does, that they have probably done better than any other city,…
County Budget Proposal: Increase Sales Tax, Lower Property Tax
A budget proposal by Hamilton County Administrator Christian Sigman unveiled Oct. 13 calls for a .25 percent increase in sales taxes and a decrease in property taxes for the county. The decrease would amount to $38 for every $100,000 worth of property, meaning homeowners would generally see a wash or net savings on the deal…
Dems Decry Polling Place Signage Bearing Jon Husted’s Name
Democrats are up in arms over signage the secretary of state’s office is requiring polling places to post bearing the prominent name and signature of Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted. Husted says recent voter information signs prominently featuring his name are standard issue for secretary of state. But Democrats say he’s taking unfair advantage…
True Believers
T hough this year’s election season is marked by some pretty uninspiring races, there’s at least one intriguing undecided contest. The race between Cecil Thomas and Charlie Winburn for the Ohio state Senate’s Ninth District hinges on unpredictable questions: Can Thomas overcome his support for a controversial judge embroiled in a legal battle and an…
Duo Igudesman & Joo Keep Audiences Laughing All the Way
In 2004, Korean-British pianist Richard Hyung-ki Joo and Russian violinist Aleksey Igudesman staged the kind of concert they wanted to attend. It turned out thousands of others wanted to attend them, too. Imagine the anarchy of South Park and the Marx Brothers mashed up with the musical virtuosity of pianist Lang Lang and violinist Nigel…
A Poet (and an Actor) Explore the Nature of War: You See?
Most Cincinnati theatergoers know Bruce Cromer as Ebenezer Scrooge in Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park’s production of A Christmas Carol, a role he has filled annually since 2004. (For seven years before that he was Scrooge’s beleaguered but good-natured employee Bob Cratchit.) He teaches acting at Wright State University, so a few years ago I…
