Oct 26 – Nov 2, 2016
Edgy Embroidery: Northside’s The Hoop & Needle unravels traditional subject matter
Minimum Gauge: Twitter reveals Aerosmith drummer hates Obama, Oakland A’s take no crap from Smash Mouth
HOT: Tweet Heat of the Week After meeting Barack Obama by chance while at the same Florida airport, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry probably thought nothing of having a photo of the meeting posted on the band’s Twitter account. But Aerosmith’s drummer, Joey Kramer, was pissed, tweeting that the POTUS post (which wasn’t at…
Morning News: Tensing jury chosen; Clinton to FBI in Cincy: bring it; Ohio sends state troopers to Standing Rock
Good morning all. There’s a lot going on today so let’s get right to it. After just one day of jury questioning in the Ray Tensing trial, prosecutors and defense attorneys chose the final 12 jurors and four alternates yesterday. The jury for the trial against former UCPD officer Tensing, who is charged with murder…
Big Money on a County Election
The cost of dueling for control of Hamilton County’s legislative branch has passed the $1.3 million mark, far outpacing the money raised and spent toward other county elections next Tuesday. Campaign finance reports filed last week with the county Board of Elections show dollar amounts given to County Commission candidates that rival the fundraising of…
Morning News: Jurors questioned for Tensing trial; Clinton coming to Cincy; CPD records show use of force down, lingering racial disparities in shootings
Happy Halloween! Hope your holiday weekend was as fun as mine was. Now it’s time for something really scary: the news. Both defense attorneys and Hamilton County prosecutors in the Ray Tensing trial are beginning questioning of a large pool of potential jurors today at the Hamilton County courthouse. They’re working with Hamilton County Common…
The Judge Who Had the Tensing Case, Then Didn’t
It might not have made any difference, but for a fleeting moment in 2015 — less than a day — a different judge was assigned to hear the murder trial of former University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing. Tensing is accused of shooting and killing Samuel DuBose during a traffic stop last year on…
Data: CPD use of force down, racial disparities remain in officer-involved shootings
As the trial for a University of Cincinnati police officer involved in a high-profile, racially charged police shooting moves forward, new data shows what progress has — and hasn’t — been made by Cincinnati Police Department, which has faced its own scrutiny over similar incidents over the last decade and a half. The number of…
Reprimanded chief bailiff shifted into new job
(This story has been updated to include additional information provided by the clerk of courts office) Donald Robinson, a high-ranking Hamilton County courthouse official who was recently reprimanded for pressuring subordinates into doing campaign work for Clerk of Courts Tracy Winkler, has been relieved of his duties and transferred into a newly created job under…
Michael Moore’s anti-Trump film to screen locally Nov. 6
Michael Moore in TrumpLand, the film the provocative documentarian released less than two weeks after staging and recording a two-night October performance at Wilmington, Ohio’s Murphy Theatre, has gotten a just-announced single (so far) Cincinnati screening. It will play at the Esquire Theatre at 5 p.m. on Nov. 6, to be followed by a Skype…
FotoFocus Report: Two landscape exhibits at area museums remind us why pictures matter
The Dayton Art Institute exhibit is the perfect wake-me-up for anyone feeling FotoFocus fatigue at the end of October. Using infrared film to turn the lush greens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo into shocking shades of lavender, Irish photographer Richard Mosse captures viewers’ attention and jolts them into remembering why pictures matter. Mosse’s…
Your Halloween Weekend To Do List (Oct. 28-30)
. FRIDAY 28 ART: TRANSFER PROTOCOL AT IRL GALLERY IRL Gallery, a new contemporary art gallery on Main Street in Over-the-Rhine with a mission of “blurring the experience between viewing art in real life and seeing documentation online,” will host its first exhibition this Final Friday with a group show exploring the idea and practice…
Stage Door: Great shows by August Wilson, great acting at Cincy Shakes
August Wilson is one of America’s great playwrights, as I pointed out in my recent CityBeat column. Timothy Douglas’s sterling production of Jitney at the Cincinnati Playhouse is a great reminder. A group of unlicensed cab drivers in 1977 Pittsburgh josh, argue and ponder their future, threatened by urban renewal. Douglas is one of America’s…
Morning News: DuBose medical, criminal records inadmissible in Tensing Trial; streetcar ridership hits 200,000
Hello all. Here’s some quick news today. Hamilton County Judge Megan Shanahan ruled yesterday that criminal and medical records for unarmed black motorist Samuel DuBose, who was shot in 2015 by then-UCPD officer Ray Tensing, cannot be used as evidence in Tensing’s trial. Shanahan said the information wasn’t relevant to the case and that it…
Review: ‘Certain Women’
Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women aligns nicely with the cinematic aesthetic she’s developed and nurtured over a career that now spans more than 20 years and six full-length features: stylistically spare, elliptical, emotionally nuanced and told from a distinctly female perspective. Reichardt specializes in small-scale stories about everyday people. Curiously, Certain Women is also something of a departure for…
What a Week! Oct. 19-25
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 19 This week kicked off on a sour note with the third and final presidential debates. (Editor’s note: CityBeat weeks run Wednesday through Tuesday, thanks to our production schedule, which means Wednesdays are kinda like Mondays and Tuesdays are a really bad time to call our office asking a staffer to Google something for…
Reflecting on ‘Black Mirror’
Fans of the British sci-fi series Black Mirror (Season 3 now available on Netflix) have been waiting nearly two years for new content — the last new episode was just a one-off Christmas special that aired in Dec. 2014. Netflix picked up the satire on technology in Sept. 2015, promising new episodes but presenting many questions:…
Time is on Kelly Reichardt’s side
At this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, I enjoyed a miraculous moment during a journalistic function — a meaningful conversation rather than a formalized interview — with Kelly Reichardt, whose film Certain Women opens at the Esquire Theatre this week. Reichardt has emerged, over the course of the six features she has made since 1994’s River of…
Is ‘Carnival of Souls’ the right movie for RiffTrax?
Talking back to movies has become a participatory sport and a big business. We can do it at home, thanks to cable television and devices that allow us to screen films from the comfort of our couch. And we can do it in theaters at events like “RiffTrax Live: Carnival of Souls,” a nationwide broadcast presented…
A season of August Wilson at local theaters
Eleven years after playwright August Wilson’s death in 2005 at age 60, his reputation continues to grow. He will be most remembered for his trailblazing American Century Cycle — 10 plays about the African-American experience, one for each decade of the 20th century. Two of his plays won Pulitzer Prizes: Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990). Wilson’s remarkable talent…
‘Hamilton’ triumphs in Chicago
Last Friday, I was in Chicago to see the recently opened second production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hip Hop historical musical Hamilton. The show, based on a 2005 biography by Ron Chernow about Alexander Hamilton, a lesser known but influential Founding Father who died in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr in 1804, has been…
A Satisfied Mind
Some of us — I daresay most of us — waited for Clarence Wilson to die. Whether it was so one among us could finally be free of the lies he had been telling himself about Clarence, or whether she merely wanted it over already or whether they were sick of the anxiety they heard each time the…
Boca’s paired dining series, Cadenza, elevates and emphasizes the restaurant’s unparalleled culinary expertise
Boca Cadenza: a dining experience inspired by Classical music and the short, intense instrumental solos that captivate both the artist and audience alike. Much like the impression left after a musical cadenza, the inimitable Boca aims to create a series of dining performances that hone in and focus on an individual theme, designed to stand…
Edgy Embroidery
At first glance, nothing seems out of the ordinary inside Northside’s The Hoop & Needle, an easily recognizable needlecraft supply shop nestled on Hamilton Avenue with a bright teal and playfully decorated façade. But it doesn’t take long for customers to realize that the store is a far cry from traditional. “Don’t be a douche,”…
From Westwood to the World
In a self-portrait, Steve Chabot would draw himself as an eagle or a hawk, keeping a sharp eye on federal extravagance and clawing it apart. His thriftiness carries over into his personal life. He drives a 16-year-old Ford Explorer in Cincinnati and a 22-year-old Chevrolet Cavalier in Washington, D.C. He lives in working-class Westwood in…
Sound Advice: Dex Romweber with One Trip Little and The Stealth Pastille (Oct. 27)
It’s hard to imagine a musical landscape untouched by the far-reaching influence of guitarist/vocalist Dexter Romweber. The Batesville, Ind. native was certainly one of the innovators of the guitar/drum duo concept, launching Flat Duo Jets with his man-mountain drummer Crow in 1985. Jack White has said that the Jets sent him into paroxysms of six-string…
Sound Advice: Yelawolf with Bubba Sparxxx, Jelly Roll and Struggle Jennings (Oct. 27)
At 36, Michael Atha — aka Yelawolf — is one of Hip Hop’s elder statesmen by virtue of his age, not necessarily his tenure. Although Yelawolf has recorded three studio albums, seven mixtapes, three EPs, over a dozen singles and a ton of cool features and guest appearances (and he has collaborated with Eminem, Ed…
Sound Advice: Loreena McKennitt (Oct. 31)
Beyond her Scotch/Irish parents, Loreena McKennitt was neither culturally nor environmentally predisposed to Celtic music, and yet she’s become one of the legends of the form over the past three decades. Blending foundational Celtic Folk with Middle Eastern elements, Gregorian chanting and a veritable kitchen sink of musical ideas from around the world, McKennitt has…
With resplendent melodicism and bold reinvention, The Jayhawks’ new album confirms the band is still in top form
What are the expectations of a band three decades into a music career infused with Pop hooks, Rock classicism and understated tenacity? The Rock & Roll blueprint would suggest features like dealing with the ecstasy and toll of relentless road work, inevitable breakups, intermittent reunions and substance abuse issues, but also the will to keep…
Local bands play musical ‘dress up’ for Halloween
This year, the Devil played a mean trick and decided to have Halloween fall on a Monday. While some bars and venues will still celebrate the holiday that day, mostly it will be during the weekend when you’ll see clubs decorated with spider webs and patrons dressed as witches, zombies and Ken Bones. Many musicians…
