Bootsy Jams with Yo Gabba Gabba
Cincinnati born and bred legend Bootsy Collins is known for his collaborations, from James Brown, George Clinton and Deee-Lite to more recent (and more unusual) hookups, like William Shatner, Charlie Daniels and Dr. Cornel West. But his latest collabo might be his strangest — and most fun — yet. Last night, Collins joined The Roots,…
Music, Movies and the Not So Mundane
Hip-hop media mogul/self-help author Russell Simmons and rapper/narcissist Kanye West showed up at Occupy Wall Street yesterday. The two were mobbed and eventually OkayAfrica put a camera in their faces. Like Don King before a big prize fight, Simmons did all the talking for Yeezy, who just stared into space like a dope and nodded.…
The Piatts Would Approve
Demonstrators filling downtown's Piatt Park on Garfield Place as part of the anti-corporate, Occupy Wall Street protests should take heart: The park's namesakes likely would support your actions. In an excellent post on The Daily Bellwether blog, writer Bill Sloat looks at the history of the Piatt brothers, Donn and Abram, and the causes they…
LCT issues some more awards
The League of Cincinnati Theatres LCT) continues its program of recognition for 2011-2012 theater productions with recently announced awards for productions of As You Like It at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and Gruesome Playground Injuries at Know Theatre of Cincinnati. Nine shows have now been handed awards by panels of informed theatergoers.—- There…
Borrowers
It took three buses for me to reach her apartment in Colerain Township, but I was on a mission. I was determined to get a piece of my property back. Walking up to her apartment door, I had purpose. I would be polite but I’d be direct. I wanted the damn book back. She borrowed…
Rocking the Status Quo
In the dysfunctional world of Cincinnati City Council, the group that theoretically guides the direction of our fair metropolis is currently divided 5-to-4 about how to avoid a looming $33 million deficit next year. Just as it was divided in July. And just as it was in April. The seasons might change, but council's inaction…
Fine ‘Art’ History
Under different circumstances, Matthew Sweet’s astonishing new album, Modern Art, would be the focus of his latest tour. The updated set would be crowded with Sweet’s newly crafted evocations of ’60s Pop and fleshed out with selections from his almost supernaturally consistent catalog. But this is no ordinary touring cycle for Sweet. The release of…
Rumors, Lies and General Misunderstandings
Eclectic singer/songwriter Jason Ludwig (formerly of the band Noctaluca) celebrates the release of two new albums Friday at the Southgate House in Newport. The Newbees and Sassy Molasses kick off the 9 p.m. show. Tickets are $9 or $12 at the door. Most artists would die to have one album in their catalog as strong,…
Kenny G, Steve Jobs and Tupac
[HOT] Sax Offenders Although Jack White still has them beat in the “Most Awkward Collaboration of the Year” category for working with Insane Clown Posse, Pop sensations Foster the People nailed down the No. 2 slot during their recent appearance on Saturday Night Live. Perhaps a nod to Michael Bolton’s appearance with Andy Samberg’s Lonely…
Footloose
The barn door has completely blown off the hinges in this big twister of activity and touched down in the raging river far from home. But it is now time, in the aftermath of this storm of Hollywood remakes, for someone to evaluate the damage and take it upon themselves to slap another door up…
Music Makes A City
The Louisville Orchestra is in a sad state these days. While it attempts to reorganize after bankruptcy, its musicians are on strike and its fall season canceled. So while waiting and hoping for it all to sort out, it’s a good time to watch this new documentary on the orchestra’s remarkable history. Founded in 1937…
Tis the Season for Frisch’s Pumpkin Pie
I recently posed a question to my legion of Facebook admirers: “Pumpkin pie. Frisch’s?” And the response I got was basically, “There are others?” Point taken. In Cincinnati and its surrounding areas, the fall tradition that always outperforms our high-dollar sports teams is an 8-inch-round pie that retails for just under nine bucks. I met…
Ed Stern’s Roller-Coaster Ride
“I love theater,” says Ed Stern, producing artistic director at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park for 20 seasons. He’s been responsible for more than 200 productions during his tenure, remarkably long for an arts leader. When he came to town in 1992, things were in disarray. “The theater had financial difficulties and decreasing subscriptions,…
Fired Up
CRITIC’S PICK Darren Goodman plays with fire. It’s part of his artistic medium of choice — he blows glass. His extraordinary, downright gorgeous results are now on view in the Cincinnati Art Museum’s biennial 4th Floor Award exhibition, this year titled Trial by Fire. It’s up through year’s end. The 4th Floor Award is made…
Combining Artistic Energies
Last fall, as the economy continued its downward spiral and arts organizations laid off staff, Tatiana Berman started to map out plans for a new arts festival in Cincinnati, and this week — defying the odds — the Constella Festival of Music and Fine Arts debuts, aligning an impressive array of artists with the city’s…
Morning News and Stuff
Occupy Cincinnati protesters lined up for more citations last night at Piatt Park, with more than 20 occupiers receiving tickets while more protesters stood outside the park, protesting in un-ticketable fashion. There are now about 15 tents in the park. Authorities in Boston arrested approximately 100 Occupy Boston protesters around 1 a.m. this morning after…
Book Explores Cincinnati Anti-Crime Program
Cincinnati is front and center for a large part of a book that recently was published as its author, criminal justice expert David Kennedy, visits here Oct. 11. Don't Shoot: One Man, a Street Fellowship and the End to Violence in Inner-City America is one-part memoir and one-part academic report, filled with the sort of…
Music, Movies and the Not So Mundane
Former Weezer bassist Mikey Welsh died in his Chicago hotel room Sunday. Chicago police spokesperson Laura Kubiak said that there is nothing to indicate foul play at this time and the cause of death is undetermined pending autopsy results. Weezer posted a message on its website, calling Welsh's time with the band "vital, essential, wild…
Man Man
When Rock critics run short on adjectives while describing a band, they typically fall back on an old saw like, “They don’t sound like anything you’ve ever heard before.” Philadelphia’s Man Man might well be the band for which that statement is wildly true long before the critics start searching their brainpans for descriptively colorful…
Odd Future
Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All — also known as OFWGKTA or, more simply, Odd Future — has increased its profile greatly over the past year. But the Hip Hop ensemble still remains one of those musical entities that way more people have heard of, but not actually heard. The group is this year’s…
Tim Easton
For the past five or so years, Tim Easton has been channeling his inner Gram Parsons out west in the solitude of the Joshua Tree desert, but regardless of his address, he’s still a favorite son of Ohio. Easton formed his first band while a student at Ohio State, sharpened his performance edge as a…
Gruesome Playground Injuries (Review)
Critic's Pick “Does it hurt?” Kayleen (Beth Harris) asks Doug (Jens Rasmussen) that question repeatedly in Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries at Know Theatre. We observe their intersections at various moments in their lives between the ages of 8 and 38. In the first scene (age 8) his cheek is split open following an Evel…
As You Like It (Review)
Critic's Pick Enter the Cincinnati Playhouse’s Shelterhouse Theatre for the current production of As You Like It and you’ll immediately sense you’re going to see an unusual Shakespearean production. A glowing red carpet is contrasts with a stage curtain of verdant green, a contest of passion and nature. The many characters — 17 actors play…
NAACP Icons Urge ‘No’ Vote on Issue 48
Although the current leader of the NAACP's local chapter is trying to block Cincinnati's planned streetcar system, two former leaders of the organization are coming out in support of the system in a big way. Milton W. Hinton and Judge Nathaniel R. Jones have endorsed a “no” vote on Issue 48, the proposed anti-rail charter…
Morning News and Stuff
More than 20 Occupy Cincinnati protesters last night received citations for staying at Piatt Park after its official closing time, a process which included warnings by police and then some peaceful ticketing before police left the occupiers to their business. CityBeat has launched a page dedicated to our ongoing coverage of the protests, including a…
Occupy Cincinnati Live Feed
NOV. 1: Morning News and Stuff 11/1 OCT. 26: Occupying Democracy: We the People, not We the Corporations OCT. 26: Oct. 19-25: Worst Week Ever!OCT. 24: Morning News and Stuff 10/24OCT. 21: Photo gallery of arrests and protest OCT. 21: Morning News and Stuff 10/21 OCT. 21: Police Arrest Protesters Just In Time For Lindner…
Your Weekend To Do List: 10/7-10/9
Hold on to your knickers, girls! This weekend is full of excellent music, arts, theater and shopping events. Here we go: Ides of March premiers tonight (FINALLY). Check it out and see how many Cincinnati landmarks you can spot. Or just look at Ryan Gosling. Read our interview with an actor who is not Gosling…
Squeeze the Day(s) for 10/7-10/9
Music Tonight: Rapper Machine Gun Kelly returns to Greater Cincinnati for his first show since a packed appearance on Fountain Square in June and since singing a deal with Diddy's Bad Boy Records in early August. Read more about tonight's show at Covington's Madison Theater here. The 9 p.m. concert is open to fans of…
Friday Movie Roundup: ‘Ides of March’ edition
George Clooney's The Ides of March opens today. Given the avalanche of local press its already received (mostly by the endlessly smitten Enquirer, but also via hordes of social-media geeks), need much more be said about the behind-the-scenes aspects of Clooney's political thriller? (If you answered “yes” to that question, read my interview with Ides…
Music, Movies and the Not So Mundane
Music sales in the U.S. are set to increase over the previous year for the first time since 2004. Sales are up 3.3 percent over the last nine months, rising from 221.1 million to 228.5 million. The ascent is contributed to digital sales which are up 19.7 percent, mostly thanks to Adele’s 21, which sold…
Clifton Heights Music Festival 5 Begins TONIGHT
Tonight is the kick-off for the fifth installment of the Clifton Heights Music Festival, a constantly excellent showcase (and increasingly popular — attendance grew over 700 % from 2009 to 2010) of some of the best music being made in Greater Cincinnati. The diversity is as impressive as the quality of acts, featuring everything from…
Foxy Shazam Signs with Relaunched I.R.S. Records
Twenty years ago, one of Cincinnati's most successful bands — Over the Rhine — signed a record deal with I.R.S. Records, the label founded by Miles Copeland (brother of Police drummer Stewart) and home to key "Alternative" music releases by R.E.M., The English Beat, Concrete Blonde, The Go-Go's and many others. Now, I.R.S. is back…
Morning News and Stuff
The Ides of March opens nationally today. Here's what one of CityBeat's highly respected film critics thinks of it. And here's an interview with Max Minghella by another smart person who works here. —- Cincinnati Public Schools is suing a private charter school operator for purchasing a CPS building and then using the building to try…
State of Reunions: Who’s Next?
Seems like for the past few years, a day doesn't go by without an announcement that some band or other is getting back together for a reunion show, tour and/or album. The reasons vary. Usually it's a combination of wanting to play for fans that never got to see you, wanting to play for superfans…
Music, Movies and the Not So Mundane
Stop waiting for a streetcar to pick you up! Get on your fixed-gear and go get yourself a "poop as you go" TOTO Biogas Bike. This Japanese invention runs completely on human waste and the company calls poop the "new coal." TOTO is predominately a toilet maker but thought they'd try their hand at making…
Clooney on ‘Charlie Rose Show’ Tonight
The Ides of March is nearly here. George Clooney's political thriller, partially shot here in Cincinnati, opens wide tomorrow, and the film's publicity blitz is now in full effect with TV spots flooding the airwaves (you know, the ones pimping Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers' typically overly exuberant blurbage) and Clooney himself doing a few…
Q&A with Gavin Rossdale of Bush
Bush was the peak of Alternative music success in the mid and late ’90s. After an eight year break, the band reformed with as fresh a sound as they ever have provided. From its first No. 1 album, Razorblade Suitcase, Bush was an unstoppable force until its split in 2002. In 2010, lead singer Gavin…
Morning News and Stuff
The internet is buzzing with kind words for Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died yesterday after a lengthy battle with cancer. Jobs is best-known for his involvement in the transition of Xerox's graphical user interface into the first Macintosh computer and his forward-thinking leadership of the company. Jobs in 1986 purchased Lucasfilm's computer graphics division,…
Squeeze the Day for 10/6
Music Tonight: Locally-bred guitar superhero Adrian Belew is back in his homestate for a special gig at the Southgate House in Newport. Belew shows are always amazing, but tonight's performance is part of the Two of a Perfect Trio tour, which teams the Adrian Belew Power Trio with Stick Men, featuring Belew's mates from King…
Restless
Enoch (Henry Hopper) attends funerals and memorial services of people he’s never met; you can spot him a mile off. He’s wearing the suitably hipster black suit with a pocket chain, his blunt blond hair cut just so, and his hangdog expression is so emo he’s actually closer in spirit to the original goth…
Real Steel
Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is a former journeyman boxer who attempts to regain his self-respect and that of the son (Dakota Goyo) he abandoned years ago through the sport of robot boxing (think Rock-Em, Sock-Em Robots for the virtual age). The cute, Rocky-meets-The Transformers vibe inadequately hides the fact that the story is loosely…
Machine Gun Preacher
The story of Sam Childers is one of a bad man reformed, but it doesn’t exactly adhere to the typical arc. Apparently, Childers was a small-time biker-criminal, a snatch-and-grab guy who was in the game for the cash and the highs (both adrenaline and drug varieties), and he wasn’t afraid of things getting messy. After…
Candidates On: City-operated Health Clinics
As part of CityBeat's continuing election coverage, we’ve once again sent a questionnaire to the non-incumbent Cincinnati City Council candidates to get their reactions on a broad range of issues. Nine of the 14 non-incumbents chose to answer our questions. Others either didn’t respond or couldn’t meet the deadline. During the next few weeks, we…
Music, Movies and the Not So Mundane
The Simpsons is facing a possible cancelation after negotiations with voice actors hit a standstill. According to The Daily Beast, if the actors don't take a 45 percent pay cut, the show will end after this season. If they do, Fox will still make back-end profits off syndication and lower production costs. If the actors…
Squeeze the Day for 10/5
Music Tonight: Brooklyn's Izzy and the Catastrophics swing back through Cincy after a successful appearance last month during the MidPoint Music Festival. Here's how our Brian Baker described the band in our MPMF preview issue: "If Izzy & the Catastrophics were just a marginal band, they’d get bumped up a notch simply by virtue of…
Boats
Perhaps the first thing one notices upon listening to Boats is that the Canadian band works a trebly lo-fi groove and an Indie Pop lockstep that suggests a third-generation version of XTC. And the band’s odd lyrical content might become apparent relatively quickly, conjuring apparitional suggestions of Robert Pollard and Carl Newman, lyricists who have…
Machine Gun Kelly
What a difference a few weeks can make in the accelerated pace of the new music world. On June 18 this year, when Cleveland rapper Machine Gun Kelly performed a packed, free concert in Cincinnati on Fountain Square, he was one of the biggest unsigned Hip Hop artists on the planet, having amassed a huge…
Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew is a local boy who’s made considerably better than good, a Covington native who parlayed a solid reputation as a regional guitar hero into global adoration. Belew’s prowess in the late 1970s attracted the attention of Frank Zappa, who tapped Belew to record and tour his Sheik Yerbouti project, which led to a…
Morning News and Stuff
Occupy Cincinnati has changed the location of its first-scheduled occupation, which will take place 11 a.m. Saturday at Lytle Park rather than Sawyer Point, due to a previously scheduled event. (The Revolutionaries are respectful of other organizations' fundraising walks.) The occupation has no scheduled end time. Several unions in New York City have endorsed the…
The Ides of March
Stephen Myers (Ryan Gosling) — the precociously successful political media consultant at the center of The Ides of March — knows how to handle his business. Sure, he might believe that the man he’s working for, Pennsylvania Gov. Mike Morris (George Clooney), is the best candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination and the man who…
Little Women (Review)
A stonishing: It’s what Jo March yearns to be, pacing in her attic, spinning gruesome, spectacular tales to take the publishing world by storm. But Louisa May Alcott, the real-life author the fictional Jo grew up to become, made her name not by startling readers but by moving them with a simple story of four…
Sept. 28-Oct. 4: Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY SEPT. 28 Here’s reason No. 1,826 that Republicans will continue trying to ruin President Obama’s jobs plan (what was reason No. 1,825? He killed a fly that one time?): A survey of economists says the American Jobs Act “would push down the jobless rate in 2012,” which would “possibly boost Obama’s reelection bid with…
Better Late than Never, Americans Target Corporate Greed
I t probably should’ve begun about three years ago, but finally many Americans are starting to wake up to the true culprits behind the Great Recession and our broken political system , and demanding change. In what’s fast becoming the progressive alternative to the Tea Party movement, the political left in the United States is…
Big Move for Boca
Big news: Boca’s moving downtown to the home of the long-loved and lamented Maisonette on Sixth Street. My reaction is, “Yay!” in a word, but for everyone of a certain generation who says yay, there are dozens of younger people who say, “Huh?” People who started college this year were born in 1993. I have…
Goin’ Back to Clifton …
The biannual Clifton Heights Music Festival returns this weekend for another incredibly diverse celebration of local music (and a smattering of regional performers). The fifth CHMF takes place Friday and Saturday in six venues — Baba Budan’s, Rohs Street Café, Mac’s Pizza Pub, Christy’s, Murphy’s Pub and Roxx Electrocafe, a coffee/gaming café on Calhoun. Featuring…
Nabbing Stolen Bikes on the ’Net
A short scroll down the Cincinnati Stolen Bike Network’s Facebook page reveals tale after tale of bicycles swiped outside of workplaces, bars and garages around the city. Some were stolen in the dark of night, some in broad daylight. Unfortunate owners post photographs of their beloved bikes and their relevant stats: make and model, color,…
Putting on the Pressure
W hen founders of the Anna Louise Inn created the institution more than 100 years ago, chances are they never believed their choice of location would one day leave its owners and residents entangled in multiple lawsuits. Last summer the facility’s owners rebuffed an offer from the powerful Western & Southern Financial Group to buy…
Faith No More (Sort Of)
S ince rising from the Metal hotbed of Tampa, Fla., in 1997, Underoath has undergone many structural and philosophical changes. The original quintet’s musical direction encompassed Metalcore as well as Death and Black Metal and, perhaps most importantly, they identified Underoath as a “Christian Metal” band. Since then, Underoath has rotated membership regularly, to the…
Norse Code
T he Vikings were an interesting breed. They were vicious, bloodthirsty warriors who glorified slaughter, brutal killers who lived from one battle to another. But they also put a great emphasis on death and the afterlife and looked forward to eternal battles in Valhalla. This mixture of vicious power and fatalistic sorrow can be heard…
Queen City Convert
M ax Minghella is no stranger to film sets. As the son of the late filmmaker Anthony Minghella, the now-26-year-old Max would watch as his dad worked with a bevy of capable actors and crew on such films as The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain — experiences that inform his own…
Beasties, City Limits and Radiohead
[HOT] Hello Tasty It’s hard to be an aging Hip Hop artist. You can retain your dignity and status only so long before some young whippersnapper MC conjures up the most destructive dis of all: “You’re old.” So kudos to Ad-Rock of The Beastie Boys for somehow managing to not completely embarrass himself or his…
The Passenger
Exiled from Main Street XXXXIII: for Amy Winehouse I’m gonna tell you the same thing I told the police. When I picked him up from the airport, he didn’t seem all that bad off. Pale, perhaps, with rings around the eyes, but nothing alarmingly different than anyone else I had picked up that was in…
Enoteca Emilia (Review)
I was truly excited to try Enoteca Emilia. After all, I used to live in Bologna, which is the capital city of the Emilia Romagna region of Italy, and I have always lamented the lack of Northern Italian restaurants in our area. Enoteca Emilia’s concept was enticing in that the owners were going to focus…
Richard Hamilton: Pop Art Pioneer
At Carl Solway Gallery in the West End, on a wall by a stairway leading up to his office, is a small but heartfelt tribute to the British Pop Art pioneer Richard Hamilton, who died last month at age 89. On the wall is one of Hamilton’s prints: “Kent State,” based on a photographic image…
Still Trippin’
W hat a long strange trip from Miami University and back it’s been for 1958 graduate Ken Babbs. He returns to Miami, where he graduated in 1958, at 7:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday for two Sixties Extravaganza free public events at the school’s Leonard Theatre in Peabody Hall. On Monday, there’s a screening of the…
The Paper Chase
S ara Pearce had the world — many worlds — at her fingertips, but her fingers couldn’t feel. The former Enquirer arts reporter had volunteered for a buyout from the paper in September 2008 and wanted to become an artist herself. She’d finally create collages from the antique world maps, fashion magazines and other papers…
