Music: Kinky Friedman
Kinky Friedman has always been a trip. A talented and unusual cat, Friedman is a renaissance man of odd and diverse proportions and categories. In the 1970s, he was an acclaimed albeit twisted Outlaw Country musician who recorded such noteworthy songs as “Get Your Biscuits In The Oven and Your Buns In Bed,” “Ride ’Em…
Sound Advice: Kinky Friedman with Brian Molnar
Kinky Friedman has always been a trip. A talented and unusual cat, Friedman is a renaissance man of odd and diverse proportions and categories. In the 1970s, he was an acclaimed albeit twisted Outlaw Country musician who recorded such noteworthy songs as “Get Your Biscuits In The Oven and Your Buns In Bed,” “Ride ’Em…
Music: Jon Pardi
One quick scan of Jon Pardi’s promotional shots and you’ll think you’re looking at Lisa Marie Presley’s illegitimate half brother, or at the very least, Chris Isaak’s happier, corn-fed little brother. But give his 2014 debut album, Write You a Song, a spin or two, or check out “Head Over Boots,” the first single from…
Sound Advice: Jon Pardi with Brothers Osborne
One quick scan of Jon Pardi’s promotional shots and you’ll think you’re looking at Lisa Marie Presley’s illegitimate half brother, or at the very least, Chris Isaak’s happier, corn-fed little brother. But give his 2014 debut album, Write You a Song, a spin or two, or check out “Head Over Boots,” the first single from…
Music: Everclear
Wanna feel old? Everclear is currently celebrating the 20th anniversary of its breakout album, Sparkle and Fade. The album gave us the depressingly optimistic single “Santa Monica” and seemed to perfectly sum up the feelings of a generation at the time. Like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” “Santa Monica” never…
Sound Advice: Everclear with Hydra Melody
Wanna feel old? Everclear is currently celebrating the 20th anniversary of its breakout album, Sparkle and Fade. The album gave us the depressingly optimistic single “Santa Monica” and seemed to perfectly sum up the feelings of a generation at the time. Like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” “Santa Monica” never…
Music: The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die
Music does interesting things to our brain chemistry when it enters our auditory canals and bounces around unimpeded in our skulls. It can access long-forgotten memories, it can swing a mood toward darkness or light, it can move us to tears, it can energize us like a heart needle of adrenaline, enflaming our passions to…
Sound Advice: The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die with Foxing, TTNG and Brightside
Music does interesting things to our brain chemistry when it enters our auditory canals and bounces around unimpeded in our skulls. It can access long-forgotten memories, it can swing a mood toward darkness or light, it can move us to tears, it can energize us like a heart needle of adrenaline, enflaming our passions to…
Ass Ponys Reunite for Pair of Weekend Shows
One of the more renowned Cincinnati bands of the past few decades, Ass Ponys, reunites this weekend for a pair of shows at Woodward Theater (1404 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, woodwardtheater.com). Tickets for the 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday shows are available through cincyticket.com for $25 (or $40 for both nights). If tickets remain, they'll be…
Tonk of the Town
G reater Cincinnati’s Jasmine Poole is the first to admit that she’s hardly the life of any party. She’s the quiet girl who finds an equally quiet corner and loses herself in the pages of the book she brought along for company. On the other hand, Wonky Tonk, Poole’s Country-music alter ego who has been…
Morning News and Stuff
Hey all! Did you play the lottery… err, I mean, uh, engage in the completely unproblematic and entirely functional democratic process today? There’s still time! And if you need some perspective on the issues from your friendly, cynical but also well-read alt weekly editorial board, we’ve got it right here. Really quickly, we suggest voting…
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse
Zombies have overtaken our televisions and our multiplexes, either as straight-up horror films, comedies or hybrids of the two. Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse seems decidedly in the latter camp, but just how funny will director Christopher Landon’s flick be with old-school support from Cloris Leachman and comedic everyman David Koechner backing up a…
Burnt
Thanks to reality television, we have an appreciation for the celebrity chef as a troubled genius diva, which is exactly what director John Wells (August: Osage County) and screenwriter Steven Knight (The Hundred-Foot Journey) working from a story by Michael Kalesniko, give us in Burnt. Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) has wasted his talent binging on…
A Ballerina’s Tale
Misty Copeland, celebrated African-American ballerina (the first principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre), occupies cultural space alongside Serena Williams as a subject of debate when it comes to race and body image in our society. These two women have forced the mainstream to reconsider the femininity and the utility of the female form. Copeland…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning all. Hope your Halloween was really rad. I spent mine dancing like an idiot while marginally dressed up like Waldo of Where’s Waldo fame. That’s right. I chose a literary themed costume because I’m classy. Some friends and I also had a pretty great picnic in Spring Grove Cemetery, which I highly recommend.…
Morning News and Stuff
Happy (almost) Halloween Cincinnati! Here are your morning headlines. Council members yesterday said they will find a way to fund the Wasson Way bike trail, even if Issue 22 fails next Tuesday. The proposed hike and bike trail would stretch from Avondale to Columbia Township and is one of the Mayor Cranley's projects included in…
Your Weekend To Do List (10/30-11/1)
FRIDAY HALLOWEEN: GLOBE IN THE DARK: DEEP SPACE People’s Liberty’s Globe Gallery hosts an out-of-this-world opening and after party complete with music, food, booze and the main attraction — an interactive iridescent dome. 2015 globe grantee Amy Lynch and partners Joel Masters and J.D. Loughead unveil Deep Space, an “immersive multisensory infinityscape” that provides an intimate…
Stage Door: Oddities, Carnies and a Big Ole Flood
Know Theatre opens Andy’s House of [BLANK] tonight at 8 p.m. The show is the spawn of the second round of Know’s Serials, a happily creative two-month program of five 15-minute episodes. This one, a musical about a shop full of oddities and a story of love, regret and time travel, was a crowd favorite…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning, Cincinnati! Here are your morning headlines to help cure that Republican debate hangover. • Mayor John Cranley rolled out a plan to help attract more immigrants to Cincinnati. Yesterday, Cranley announced the 14 short-term goals and nine longer term goals developed by the task force on immigration he convened last year. One of…
Social Media Messages at UC Imply Lynching
Racist messages, including at least one appearing to threaten lynching for black student activists at University of Cincinnati, have recently begun appearing on social media site Yik Yak in response to calls to increased diversity on UC’s flagship campus. Yik-Yak is an anonymous, location-based online message board. One of the recent messages posted on the…
Painful Splendor
When the term “Black Metal” is mentioned to the casual music fan, one of two reactions usually present themselves. The first is confusion over the use of corpse paint, overdone Satanic imagery and love of all things involving pig’s blood. The other is summed up with a blank stare and a “Huh?” However, this hackneyed…
Art: Sublime Beauty
The Cincinnati Art Museum’s new show, Sublime Beauty, marks the very first time Raphael’s “Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn” has visited the United States, itself a reason for celebration (it was loaned by the Galleria Borghese in Rome, which acquired the painting in 1682). Like many masterpiece portraits, the painting occupies both a…
![Onstage: Andy’s House of [blank]](https://i0.wp.com/www.citybeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/empty-7460.gif?fit=1%2C1&ssl=1)
Onstage: Andy’s House of [blank]
Trey Tatum and Paul Strickland grew up just 45 miles apart — Tatum in southern Alabama and Strickland in Florida’s Panhandle. But they didn’t meet until their paths crossed in Cincinnati during the Fringe Festival in June 2014. When Know Theatre announced Thunderdome, the second round of its 10-week Serials program, inviting local theater artists…
Event: Hopgeist
Rhinegeist rings in Halloween with the second-annual Hopgeist Double IPA festival. If you’re really into IBUs, this is the fest for you. Guaranteed to deliver “hair-raising hop flavors,” the fest features beers from breweries across the country — Dogfish Head, Jackie O’s, 21st Amendment — including super-rares from locals Listermann, Blank Slate, MadTree and more.…
Event: Barbers vs. Brewers
MadTree Brewing — renowned for its thickly bearded brewers — is snipping away at prostate cancer by shaving its crew’s prized possessions. In conjunction with Movember Cincinnati, MadTree is raising funds to fight prostate and testicular cancers, as well as awareness about men’s physical and mental health issues. If enough money is raised, attendants will bear witness…
Halloween: Cincinnati Pops Symphony Spooktacular
The Cincinnati Pops hosts a family-friendly, costumes-encouraged concert filled with songs familiar to kids and adults including the “Imperial March” from The Empire Strikes Back and “Harry’s Wondrous World” from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. A Family Fun Zone begins at 9:30 a.m. 10:30 a.m. Saturday. $4.50-$16. Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, cincinnatisymphony.org/pops.
Halloween: Destiny and Dante’s Inferno
The May Festival Chorus teams up with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to tackle Liszt’s Dante symphony — inspired by Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy — depicting Dante’s and Virgil’s journey through hell. Australian conductor Simone Young also leads the orchestra in Brahms’ “Song of Destiny” and “Funeral Song.” 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. $10-$104. Music Hall,…
Halloween: Fountain Square Costume Contest
If you’re looking to get some more mileage out of your Halloween costume head to Fountain Square at lunch for its ninth-annual costume contest. This large-scale event lets adults — and kids — show off their creativity individually or as a group and compete to take home a variety of prizes. Come dressed to impress.…
Music: Kwame Binea Shakedown
After growing up in London and Ghana, singer/songwriter/guitarist Kwame Binea spent his teen years in Cherry Hill, N.J., playing basketball, writing poetry and absorbing the output of artists who would become the foundation of his eventual musical persona — Led Zeppelin, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley and Parliament-Funkadelic, among others. Binea moved…
Art: A Curious Inventory at The Art Academy
The Art Academy’s Chidlaw Gallery hosts a closing reception for a solo exhibition featuring the work of interdisciplinary artist and recent Cincinnati ex-pat Joe Hedges. A Curious Inventory, curated by AAC undergrad Dani Tellez, includes Hedges’ paintings and sculptures alongside an eight-minute video documenting his Internet project, mintabox.com, which he’s been crowd-sourcing since 2012 and…
Halloween: The Malice Ball
The third-annual Malice Ball returns to OTR for a night of illusion, mystery and masquerading in the foggy underworld of the Christian Moerlein Malt House Taproom. Dress in chic, dark and elegant costumes to enter the costume contest for prizes and a parade down the red carpet; a makeup artist and masks will be at…
Halloween: Globe in the Dark: Deep Space
People’s Liberty’s Globe Gallery hosts an out-of-this-world opening and after party complete with music, food, booze and the main attraction — an interactive iridescent dome. 2015 globe grantee Amy Lynch and partners Joel Masters and J.D. Loughead unveil Deep Space, an “immersive multisensory infinityscape” that provides an intimate experience with colorful, abstract pieces that call reality…
Halloween: Art After Dark: Art of Thrones
Winter is coming…after Halloween. Head to the Cincinnati Art Museum for the latest installation of Art After Dark, a Game of Thrones-inspired installment that invites guests to show up in their most gallant medieval costumes and celebrate the current exhibit of High Renaissance art, Sublime Beauty. Snap a selfie with Ohio Renaissance Festival characters, listen…
Event: DesignBuildCincy
More than 130 top-notch exhibitors share and discuss the latest design trends during Cincinnati’s only curated design showcase. Whether you’re in the middle of a project or are just getting started, DesignBuildCincy is a place to network, share and get inspired. Personally invited to participate by DesignBuild, exhibitors range from architects, contractors and fabricators to…
Comedy: Aries Spears
Aries Spears is still plugging away. As the second-longest serving member of Mad TV, he is still recognized for his work on that program. His impressions of Sean “Diddy” Combs, Shaquille O’Neal and Wayne Brady, to name just a few, are still remembered fondly by fans. And while he will still do impressions in his…
Music: Craig Finn
C raig Finn writes songs. He can’t help it, and he isn’t stopping anytime soon. Best known as the frontman for The Hold Steady, Finn has been delivering his detailed, word-addled songs about everyday people and places for more than two decades, a tradition he continues with his recently released second solo album, the eclectic…
Music: Justin Townes Earle
Singer/songwriter Justin Townes Earle, son of legendary Country Rocker Steve Earle — and bestowed by his father with a middle name in honor of Townes van Zandt — has lived up to his lineage with a successful and cult career as the forefather of scruffy Contemporary Americana. His most recent albums, 2015’s Absent Fathers and…
Immigration Task Force Announces Recommendations
Mayor John Cranley and the Task Force on Immigration he convened last year announced a series of recommendations this morning the mayor says are aimed at making Cincinnati the most welcoming city to immigrants in the country. The task force announced 14 short-term, two-year goals and another nine longer-term, five-year goals designed to persuade and…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning, Cincy! I hope your struggle to get out of bed and commute wasn't too bad this morning. Here are your morning headlines. With less than a week left until election day, ResponsibleOhio is working hard to drum up all the support it can get for Issue 3. The most recent pro-Issue 3 TV…
CITYBEAT: Vote for Jack Conway
Ohio and Cincinnati face some tough calls in their elections, but Kentuckians have at least one easy choice on their ballot. While Democratic candidate Jack Conway has had a somewhat sleepy campaign in many regards, he hasn’t made any missteps major enough to make Republican contender Matt Bevin look any less extreme or any more…
CITYBEAT: Yes on Issues 23 and 24
These minor amendments to the city’s charter are relatively non-controversial. Issue 23 moves the city’s mayoral primary from its current date in September back to early May, putting the election in line with Ohio’s primary and special elections. While some critics have said this will give sitting Mayor John Cranley a slight advantage in the…
CITYBEAT: No on Issue 22
Like Issue 3’s effort to legalize marijuana, Mayor John Cranley’s proposal to amend the city’s charter in order to fund improvements to the city’s parks presents an ostensibly attractive goal wrapped in an untenable package. CityBeat strongly supports Cincinnati’s amazing outdoor public spaces, from Mount Airy Forest to Ault Park. Like Mayor Cranley and other…
CITYBEAT: No on Issue 3
Let’s put this on the table first: CityBeat supports the legalization of marijuana. It’s high time (no pun intended) that Ohio discarded its antiquated anti-weed laws, the enforcement of which disproportionately affects people of color and those in low-income communities. In 2010, four African-Americans in Ohio were arrested for marijuana possession for every one white…
CITYBEAT: Yes on Issue 1
Have you ever wondered why Ohio, held up as the quintessential swing state, has a General Assembly that is dominated by one party? The answer, at least in part, has to do with the state’s method for drawing its state house districts. Issue 1 looks to change that process, which is currently undertaken by the…
The Election Issue 2015
On the surface, 2015 seems like a sleepy year at the ballot box, with no major elections of legislative or executive officials on the city or national level, and none in Ohio, either. But the ballot you’ll see before you Nov. 3 does have some vexing and important decisions for voters that could radically change…
This Week’s Dining Events (10/28-11/4)
WEDNESDAY 28 Clean Eating: Eat Well, Live Whole — Learn the basics of creating a healthier kitchen: how to read labels, find hidden ingredients and deal with allergies. 6-9 p.m. $65. Midwest Culinary Institute at Cincinnati State, 3520 Central Parkway, Clifton, culinary.cincinnatistate.edu. Crab Carnival — Washington Platform’s 16th-annual Crab Carnival features a variety of crab and…
Winter Warmers and Belgian Brews
It’s the end of October, and we’re settling into fall and all of its pumpkin beer glory. Starting next month, though, winter ales will hit the market, including MadTree’s popular Thundersnow. But before we all huddle inside for the long cold ahead, there are still more fun fall activities to be had. New Beers • Last…
Tickle Pickle (Review)
Back-alley, Earth-conscious, locally sourced Rock & Roll burgers are exactly the kind of thing one would expect to find in Northside. When driving down Hamilton Avenue on a recent Tuesday afternoon, I decided to try Tickle Pickle, which happens to serve just that. Having only opened the second week of October, most establishments would still…
Did You Ever Have A Family
The author of two former memoirs about his experiences with addiction, Bill Clegg turns away from self-obsession and focuses on the “new families we choose,” in his arresting and gripping debut novel Did You Ever Have A Family. With slow, calculated deliberation, Clegg reveals how we often find solace in alternative families as a means…
M Train
Patti Smith, the sexy, seminal Punk rocker, poet goddess and performance artist, has released a sequel to her National Book Award-winning memoir Just Kids, the mesmerizing, hypnotic and glorious collection of essays entitled M Train. No longer a kid, the 68-year-old wordsmith has crafted another masterpiece, more sanguine and meditative than her first memoir, but…
Hastily Searching for the ‘Truth’
The truth is out there — isn’t that what The X-Files promised us, in hushed conspiratorial tones? — the truth, as if it were some absolute gospel according to the highest of high authorities. The truth, beyond facts and figures, beyond details and evidence; the truth, as it is, without perspective or slant, beyond point…
Enter the Coven
Pointy black hats, long black robes and broomsticks are always in fashion during late October. The spell-casting, cauldron-brewing, gray-haired witch is a classic Halloween icon — an image and costume that’s always floating around. But in real life, witches are both men and women — ordinary people with day jobs, in fact — who ditch…
Raphael’s ‘Mona Lisa’
The Cincinnati Art Museum’s new show, Sublime Beauty, marks the very first time Raphael’s “Portrait of a Lady with a Unicorn” has visited the United States, itself a reason for celebration (it was loaned by the Galleria Borghese in Rome, which acquired the painting in 1682). Like many masterpiece portraits, the painting occupies both a…
Common Ground: Creative and Weird
Trey Tatum and Paul Strickland grew up just 45 miles apart — Tatum in southern Alabama and Strickland in Florida’s Panhandle. But they didn’t meet until their paths crossed in Cincinnati during the Fringe Festival in June 2014. Playwright Tatum and his wife, director Bridget Leak, were staging his script, Slut Shaming. Strickland was back…
Follow the LEGO Brick Road
A fter puzzling over a clever #whatthebrick campaign in August that featured oversized LEGO bricks around town, what the heck should we make of The Art of the Brick exhibition now that it’s at the Cincinnati Museum Center? Is it a grown-up version of child’s play? Yes. Is it art? Yes — and not merely…
Political Spending, Park Board Bonuses Spur Further Debate on Parks Charter Amendment
Debate over Mayor John Cranley’s proposed permanent tax increase to fund park projects has gotten more contentious as revelations about questionable spending by the Cincinnati Park Board came to light last week. Private endowments held by the Park Board have been used to pay big bonuses and car allowances to board leaders, according to city…
Council Mulls Anti-Panhandling Ordinance
Cincinnati City Council could soon vote on a new ordinance that would prohibit panhandling near the city’s schools. Councilman Christopher Smitherman proposed the ordinance, which would impose fourth-degree misdemeanor charges on individuals cited for asking for money within 50 feet of Cincinnati schools. The proposal drew controversy from advocates for the homeless and raised questions…
Defunding at all Costs
W eeks after a federal court order kept two women’s clinics in southwestern Ohio from shutting down over restrictive Ohio laws around abortion, the state’s biggest provider of those services faces a new challenge — a proposed law swiftly moving through the state House of Representatives that prohibits it from receiving federal funds for health…
Slavery Is Hope
Dr. Ben Carson, the first seriously viable black presidential candidate since Barack Obama, is obsessed with slavery. Like most black Americans, Carson is trying to figure out how the S-word fits into his narrative, and in so doing he is force-feeding it to folks who’ve probably never considered slavery as part and parcel of what…
Copycat Crimes and Coverage
A common lapse involves “blackbird journalism.” It takes its name from birds sitting on a utility wire. When one flies off, the rest usually follow. You can tell when it happens: read and listen. Reporters and editors surrender our skepticism to a fear of being left behind or left out. We uncritically embrace the latest…
Faygo Kills Concert
HOT: Faygo Kills Concert In what is likely a concert industry first (we admittedly didn't go deep on research for this one), a show was recently “cancelled due to a dispute over Faygo.” If you’ve ever seen a concert by (or, really, are remotely aware of) Insane Clown Posse, you know it was the Detroit…
Onstage: Carousel
Rodgers and Hammerstein were the go-to guys during musical theater’s Golden Age. Carousel was their personal favorite, a hit two years after Oklahoma. In fact, the shows were across Broadway’s 44th Street from one another from 1945 to 1947. Carousel is about Billy Bigelow, a reckless carnival barker who’s a ladies man and a gambler…
