Art: Review: Vanishing Frontier
Cincinnati Art Museum Henry Farny's "Indian Scout" "And now … the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history," declared historian Frederick Jackson Turner in a speech at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. His statement shocked the American public. For decades, the American identity had been…
Sound Advice: : They Might Be Giants, Josh Ritter and The Secret Handshake
They Might Be Giants The Secret Handshake Friday · The Underground To the average music fan, it might seem inconceivable that a Metal drummer and a laptop constructionist could find enough common ground to carry on a polite conversation. Luis Dubuc is proof that those two entities not only inhabit the same space, they…
Music: Bald As Love
Andy Houston The Swarthy Band at the 2007 MidPoint Music Fest As I'm attempting to schedule some interview time with local Pop/Rock maestro Swarthy (born Brian Love), I'm having to rearrange the planned meetings due to some personal issues. First we're going to go bowling. Then we're going to meet up after Swarthy and…
News: New Moves on Board
Joe Lamb Eve Bolton The Cincinnati Board of Education — it's a job few really want. That's how it looks with only four candidates vying for three open positions, two of which are being vacated by incumbents opting not to run for re-election, John Gilligan and Florence Newell. The challengers — Eve Bolton of…
Music: Playing the Evens
Woodrow J. Hinton Ian MacKaye finds his collaboration with Amy Farina in The Evens "effortless" Sid Vicious might have been renowned for his delightfully dreadful version of "My Way," but Ian MacKaye has always preferred to live the song's message. He is one of the recognized architects of the Washington, D.C., Hardcore sound and…
Music: The Adventurers
Dan Karlsberg Snake-like ribbons writhe outward, a flurry of colors bursting in tiny explosions of motion. Strange birds and animate objects swoop and wriggle in an air that breathes, rippling. It's not a painting, nor a French Surrealist animation. It's the scene that unfolds before my closed eyes as I listen to Dan Karlsberg's…
Cover Story: Into the Light
CityBeat sets 'em up in our endorsements, you knock 'em down on Election Day. That's how we roll. Download our famous "Who's Endorsing Whom" charts in PDF format 168kb here For a little while now, I've been feeling that the city of Cincinnati is breaking out of a decade-long dark period and slowly emerging.…
Sondheim fans have two more local shows to see
Playhouse In The PArk Stephen Sondheim's work is again on stage in Cincinnati. If you're a fan of Stephen Sondheim, this is a week to celebrate. The great composer-lyricist was recognized last spring by our Fine Arts Fund for his many contributions to Cincinnati's local theater scene (exemplified by the Cincinnati Playhouse's revival of…
Living Out Loud: : A Place Among Friends
When my hair begins to resemble the mane of a deranged circus clown, my wife has to use a special machete to keep it under control. Her special machete is effective against high grass, jungle vines and my wiry hair. She's a hairstylist and has worn out many of these things on my hair over…
Chew Me Up, Chew Me Down
1. Madame, Monsieur, good evening. In addition to our customary menu selections, the chef has also prepared three very special entrees for tonight's guests, which, if you like, I can go over for you now… First, we're offering an herb-infused game sinus sampler. In this dish, the sinus glands of undomesticated deer, wild boar, pheasant,…
Diner: Review: Mama Vita
Mama Vita's Ristoranté Italiano First impressions can be deceiving. Mama Vita's Ristorante Italiano, for instance, first appears to be just another neighborhood Italian joint. You see, Mama doesn't try to awe her patrons with gilded cherubs and ornate fixtures like some Michelin three-star wonder in Monte Carlo. No, she opts for vaguely Etruscan sponge-painted…
Books: Life After the Book Club
Nancy B. Morgan Revisiting a frontier legend: Robert Morgan Oprah is good at a lot of things. She's good at making people cry and catching sex offenders and giving away cars and building schools. She's also really good at making people read books and, consequently, making less-known authors really famous. If it's on Oprah's…
MainEvent: Brink shows off best of the area’s new music
Eat Sugar On the Brink For the past seven years, CityBeat has presented BRINK: A NEW MUSIC SHOWCASE as an addendum to the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards' music program. While the CEAs are a party intended to celebrate the accomplishments of local musicians over the past year (and to celebrate the local music scene as…
Add to Friends
Roxanne Qualls must really believe that name recognition is going to win her a seat on the 2008 Cincinnati City Council. She has only 195 MySpace friends. Qualls' profile on myspace.com, the most popular social networking Web site on the Internet, states that the 54-year-old single Pisces enjoys the Bourne Identity movie series, biking and…
The American League Continues to Dominate Baseball
Jerry Dowling The Boston Red Sox did a favor for the entire nation, not just their own, by quickly disposing of the World Series and mercy killing the most lopsided and boring postseason ever. As the baseball world now turns, one begins to dread more of the same. Out of seven different series in…
Ultra Violent CD
Local Hard Rock trio Bastion presents its "official" CD release party for Ultra Violent this Friday at Covington's Mad Hatter (the disc was originally made available in June). Bastion's music reminds me of bands like Chevelle and Deftones in that, while it has elements of the standard, generic sound of Radio Rock and attracts fans…
Voters Prevail on Issue 5, Sheriff Backs Down
CityBeat Archive A state appeals court upheld the ballot initiative passed by city voters in 2001 that would allow Police Chief Thomas Streicher Jr. to be replaced by someone outside the Cincinnati force when he retires. Six years after Cincinnati voters decided that the city manager should have the right to hire the police…
Michael Moore Hates America (Allumination)
MICHAEL MOORE HATES AMERICA 2004, Rated R Michael Moore might find it ironic that another Midwestern documentarian named Michael (in this case Michael Wilson) decided to tilt at windmills a bit in a quixotic quest to interview a famously successful man who had earned his fortune on the backs of others. Moore might even…
Locals Only: : entheos
entheos At the MidPoint festival this year, I wandered into New Stage Collective, pleasantly happening upon breathy, soul-driven tunes that poured out from the theater, spilling down the stairs like a long, thick, earth-toned tongue, a rolling carpet made of open-throated sound. The band, entheos, was fully in mood-setting action when I reached the…
Frank Satogata
Frank Satogata Frank Satogata Of Japanese ancestry and born and raised in Honolulu, FRANK SATOGATA integrates elements of both Eastern and Western culture into his artistic identity. His paintings are on view through Nov. 30 at the Carnegie. The following five things motivate him. (Tamera Lenz Muente) Zen calligraphy and Abstract Expressionism. Spontaneous brushstrokes…
NiggyTardust
HOT Another Marquee Musical Giveaway Amazing spoken world/musical artist Saul Williams is following the lead of Radiohead and is giving away his new album. The release should find Williams a bigger audience, not just because of the wallet-friendly price tag, but also because it was made in collaboration with Trent Reznor (whose Nine Inch Nails…
Onstage: Review: Darkside
If Halloween reminded you that you fear the dark, think twice about seeing Northern Kentucky University's production of Darkside, a 1985 script by theater professor Ken Jones, who also serves as director. The play imagines an Apollo space mission to the moon that goes horribly awry: Two astronauts on the moon's surface are trapped by…
Welcome Addition
Five months ago, Iranian-born Abdul Amir Fealzadeh bought Diner on Elm, renamed it Marrakech Café (801 Elm St., Downtown, 513-421-0049) and created a tasty, affordable downtown lunch and dinner alternative. Diners immediately feel welcome in the new café. People relax at the counter and chat with the staff or sit at the tables and chat…
Film: Unique Visions
Fox Searchlight The whimsical kid: Filmmaker Wes Anderson on the set of The Darjeeling Limited. The unique visions of writer/director Wes Anderson leave one either bewitched or bemused. There's little middle ground. Writing in his The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, film critic and historian David Thomson notoriously wrote this spare assessment of Anderson:…
News to Use
Followers of Jesus and Allah Talk "Christians and Muslims: Toward a Shared Future" is the topic of a presentation at Xavier University at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 7 at the Schiff Family Conference Center in the Cintas Center. This event is free and open to the public. Amir Hussain and Elias Mallon some of the ways…
Fido (Lionsgate)
FIDO 2006, Rated R George A. Romero butts heads with Douglas Sirk in this bizarre but endearing horror/comedy. In the years following zombie wars which pitted man against hordes of hungry undead, the victorious human population was stuck with a major problem: What to do with the remaining zombies and, even more importantly, those…
News: Antioch Remains in Limbo
Stephen Carter-Novotni Antioch College students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends gathered on the Yellow Springs campus Oct. 27 to hear a decision from the board of trustees about the alumni association's offer of $12 million to help keep the school open. A decision wasn't announced, and the waiting continues. Antioch College is a mess.…
Basquiat
Like a time machine back to Wild West days of New York City's art and music worlds colliding in 1980, this coming Tuesday, Recall Records is releasing the soundtrack to the documentary film Downtown 81, staring the young, wildly talented artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Featuring 21 strobe-light and avant-garde memories, highlights include the wet and stinky…
Film: Documenting A Life
Steve Gebhardt's first introduction to John Sinclair — the subject of his just-released DVD documentary from MVDvisual, 20 to Life — came during University of Cincinnati's 1968 Spring Arts Festival. An event barely remembered today (and which ought to be revived as either a university or citywide event), the annual Spring Arts Festival brought…
Syudio 60 on the Sunset Strip: The Complete Series (Warner Home Video)
STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP: THE COMPLETE SERIES 2006, Not Rated As they did with Lisa Kudrow's great but ill-fated The Comeback, wrong-headed TV critics attacked the daring Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Aaron Sorkin's knowing, brainy and fantastically-acted follow-up to the The West Wing. They labeled it "pretentious" and "not funny…
