With Friends Like These …
A favorite tall tale regarding philanthropic gifts to local arts organizations involves dowager Patricia Corbett and the Cincinnati May Festival, the prestigious annual choral music festival. Efforts by May Festival administrators and staff to update the series program book hit an insurmountable obstacle when told that Corbett had built bookshelves specifically for holding her collection…
Whirlygig: 100: Out on the Town
Dale M. Johnson Tall Stacks in all their glory Tall Stacks: Five Days of Peace, Love and Understanding I attended a couple of days of Tall Stacks last week with the intention of taking photos of some of the acts that performed and maybe some of the boats and such. I gave up on the…
Cover Story: A Fistful of Hollas
· JAHSON THE RESISTANCE One of the main torch-bearers on the Cincinnati Hip Hop scene, DJ/producer Jahson has crafted tracks for everyone from local acts (he was an original member of Mood and has worked with Crunch E.x. and others) to national artists (Talib Kweli, Killah Priest). On his fantastic, mostly instrumental solo effort…
Diner: Buena Comida
You don't need to look at the census to recognize Cincinnati's rapidly growing Hispanic population. Small, Hispanic-run, Hispanic-patronized restaurants are popping up in all corners of the city, providing plenty of tangible — and far less bland — evidence. I'm here to spill the frijoles about two authentic Mexican taquerias that have opened in the…
News: Safe in Their Sexuality
Jymi Bolden High school students need to know it's OK to be gay, says John Kemen. Coming of age is always challenging, but especially so for teens who are gay, lesbian, transgendered or still questioning their sexuality. The Greater Cincinnati Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, Transgendered and Questioning Youth Summit offers a safe space for youth to…
Will a woman’s secret past affect her husband’s chances for political office?
My husband-to-be is running for high political offce in the "Bible belt." He has a good chance of winning. I'm aware that campaigns can become ugly and personal. Before I met my husband, I dated women, posed for naked pictures, was into drugs and even appeared in a Girls Gone Wild video. I don't regret…
Cover Story: It’s the Shoes
David Sorcher "Just buy 'em": Ronald Hummons was in jail and then homeless while he designed his collection. The classic story of Horatio Alger story goes like this: A young man with nothing more than a dream, grit and determination turns his rags into riches. Add to that bootstrap story new Millennium ghetto fabulous flava,…
Changing Your Life
Many clients I've worked with struggle with issues of self worth, self esteem and self motivation. Perhaps they received a message, consciously or subconsciously, that they were "less than" in some area, untalented or undeserving. Fears of failure (or even success), humiliation or change paralyze them. Understanding of the way we cling to outdated and…
Cover Story: Beat Queen
Matt Borgerding Love Reign: DJ Apryl Reign rocks a recent Liberated Souls event. Ever since Pam the Funktress of The Coup showed the world she could scratch records with her breasts, it's been big up after big up for female DJs. Chloe Sevigny and other New York club-kids-turned-indie-film-ingénues have tried their hand at the wheels…
Cover Story: Wax Trax
David Sorcher Smoke 'em if you got 'em. Rare gets air at Tavern Inn the Wood. There is a 25-year-old urban legend spinning the city. Otherwise known as Daryl Henderson, DJ Mista Rare Groove might as well be Cochise, pourin' it out for the musicians who ain't here and making crowds acknowledge those whose stories…
Cover Story: Teknology Eternal
Jason Kidwell "I need a blast/ like Hi-Tek got/ so I can grab the mic/ and make your heads bop — Little Brother, "Speed" A warning came with the assignment to interview producer/beatmaster Hi-Tek: "He's dodgy and incredibly difficult to link with." Trying to hook-up with Hi-Tek is like digging a thong out of your…
Gandhi Never Waited Tables
Whoever said "the public is an ugly beast" must have spent time as a server. Although the majority of restaurant customers are wonderful (or tolerable), there exists a small percentage of butt-ugly, condescending, insipid, whiny trash who unwisely spend money better suited to purchasing a clue than dining out and trying to relate to other…
Cover Story: Pigment Affliction
April L. Martin Animal House: Animal Crackers are 8.27 esoteric white boys as varied as a pack of Life Savers. There's no father to the Animals Crackers' style of music. The group, made up of 8.27 esoteric white boys, meld together the basic foundations of Hip Hop—turntables, mixing and rhyming. On the back of their…
Cover Story: Do the Watusi
Matt Borgerding Black F.I.S.T.: Watusi Tribe drops First Installment of Soulful Tones Nov. 29. Lately it seems as though the five-member, conscious Hip Hop collective known as the Watusi Tribe is Cincinnati's best-kept secret. Despite their tireless weekly performances (locally and in other cities), their countless hours of community outreach and their long-awaited CD slated…
Cover Story: Six Crates Deep
"Do the math/ radio gets a 20 record a week stream/ but only three are ever seen/ what happens to the other 17?" — "Problemz," KRS-One DJ Perry Simmons (aka DJ Sol) knows the ledge. That is, he knows how to walk the fine line between introducing new, independent/underground Hip Hop and relying on the…
Editorial: : A Tall Order
Jymi Bolden Brian Garry Basking in the twin glow of a wonderful Tall Stacks and a stretch of beautiful fall weather, it's easy to remember why we love living in Cincinnati. Tall Stacks brought all kinds of people — young, old, black, white, urban, suburban, hipster, doofus — to the riverfront to celebrate our common…
Locals Only: : Stone Cold Foxx
Viva La Foxx Combining influences from Gospel (singer/guitarist Amy Combs grew up singing it, and Dad is a Pentecostal minister) to Delta Blues (Reuben Glaser of Pearlene is one of their guitarists) to Hip Hop ("That's a huge influence on our bass lines," says bassist/singer Danielle Bell) to groups like Wire and Scratch Acid (two…
Cover Story: Mission: Accomplished
Sean Hughes/photopresse.com Dude, stop punching me, you're fuckin' up my autofocus. Jahson is the reigning brain cell behind Mission Control Records.v Every new Hip Hop artist swears they're doing something different from the rest. Conversations with an emerging Hip Hop artist tend to follow a pattern something like this: "Yo, me and my crew gon'…
