Worst Week Ever!: Sept. 10-16
Al Franken Still Afraid to Get High and Look in the Mirror Al Franken was pretty funny back in the day — his Stuart Smalley character always kept you hoping for the day when he’d get high before talking to himself in the mirror and realize that he was never good enough and everybody hated…
This Woman’s Worth
The National Football League left me no choice. And in the paraphrased parlance of all those iconic black self-help mammas — Iyanla Vanzant, Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou — who all seem to be sampling and remixing quotes and advice from one another from the same feel-good weekend, I now know it’s not just other people…
Event: The Big Dinner: Autumn Equinox
Celebrate the autumn equinox with Modern Makers and nourish cincinnati — a community-centered wellness education and experiential initiative surrounding healthy food — as they prepare a five-course, all plant-based tasting menu. Experience food as art and discover new recipes. 6 p.m. Tuesday. $25; $15 students/seniors. Niehoff Urban Studio, 2728 Vine St., Corryville, facebook.com/modernmakers. Tickets here.
Literary: Chuck Klosterman
Everyone’s favorite New York Times Magazine ethicist and pop culture expert on sex, drugs and Cocoa Puffs comes to Miami University Hamilton for “Stranger Than Fiction: An Evening with Author Chuck Klosterman.” Klosterman will look at how pop culture has become inextricably linked with our memories and how it helps us understand the world as…
Art: Regional Roundtable/Conversations Around American Gothic at the CAM
Perhaps the only thing that trumps the experience of seeing Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” in person is having a conversation around the issues raised by the Regionalist painter in his work. Easily considered one of America’s most beloved paintings, Wood advocated for a uniquely American visual language that sharply contrasted with the European push toward…
Event: Fall Harvest Festival
The Heritage Village Museum, a living history museum depicting life in Southwestern Ohio through the 19th century, hosts a Fall Harvest Festival with wagon rides, a donut-eating contest, old-fashioned games, pumpkin painting and more, including Annie Oakley doing trick shooting. The village will be open as well for hearth cooking and cider presentations and tours. …
Event: World Peace Festival
The United Nations’ theme for the 2014 International Day of Peace is “The Right of Peoples to Peace.” Celebrate this right with a day of art and music at the World Peace Bell. The day includes an interfaith ceremony, educational activities, peace-themed performances, information booths, food, drink, a ringing of the peace bell and more. …
Music: moe.
Acclaimed progressive rockers moe. (described by Rolling Stone as a “legendary jam band”) are approaching their 25th anniversary, and the group is showing no signs of letting up any time soon. Indicative of the band’s improvisational magic, moe.’s latest album, No Guts, No Glory (the group’s second for Sugar Hill Records and 11th studio full-length…
Event: Cincinnati Comic Expo
If you love comics, heroes or action-adventure in general, Cincinnati is doing it big. Vendors fill more than 100,000-square-feet of the Duke Energy Convention Center this weekend with everything from comics and art to costumes, cards and collectibles. Media guests include Star Wars legend Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), as well as Lou Ferrigno (The Hulk), John…
Art: Flooded 2014: A Gig Poster Exhibition
The 21c Museum Hotel hosts an atmospheric evening of live music and art during Flooded 2014: A Gig Poster Exhibition. The exhibit — a collaboration between the 21c, Powerhouse Factories, the Contemporary Arts Center and other regional screen printing studios — highlights handcrafted, screen-printed show posters. The night will also feature a performance by State…
Halloween: USS Nightmare
On a dark, foggy night, the William S. Mitchell steamboat careened into a bridge, killing many on board, including the captain and his daughter. Ever since, anyone who has worked on the now-defunct ship has been doomed to die onboard — at least 112 have — cursed to forever haunt the vessel along with the other…
Event: The Sidewalk Project
Park(ing) Day, held the third Friday in September, is an open-source global event where citizens, artist and activists collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spacing into public spaces. Keep Cincinnati Beautiful and marketing firm PB&J have partnered to create The Sidewalk Project, a community-wide project where people can share their ideas, stories and opinions on…
Event: Oktoberfest Zinzinnati
This weekend, a stretch of Fifth Street will transform into a lederhosen-laden gala as Cincinnati draws on its rich German heritage to host the biggest Oktoberfest celebration in America. Romp around to traditional German music, snack on some schnitzel, and let your inner bird out at the World’s Largest Chicken Dance — led by Nick and…
Comedy: Al Jackson
“It was weird,” says comedian Al Jackson when asked about how he started in comedy. “I was teaching middle school, seventh grade public school in Miami. I had been teaching for four years and I wanted something to do at night. I started looking around and found an open mic.” Jackson had never told a…
Film: Cincinnati Film Festival
The 2014 edition of the Cincinnati Film Festival features a diverse lineup of more than 100 films representing filmmakers from around the globe. Screening 1:45 p.m. Saturday at the Duke Energy Convention Center, Bending the Light is a fascinating documentary from director Michael Apted (The Up Series, The World is Not Enough) that compares and…
Onstage: Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music: The 20th Century Abridged
The Contemporary Arts Center starts off the new season of its daring, innovative and always progressive "Performances" series this Thursday and Friday with the wonderful playwright-actor-performance artist-singer-songwriter Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music: The 20th Century Abridged/1939-2014. 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday. $20; $15 members. 44 E. Sixth St., Downtown, contemporaryartscenter.org.
Event: Yappy Hour at Washington Park
It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, and what better way for humans and canines to escape the pressures than joining together to enjoy food, good company and a few drinks. Washington Park’s Yappy Hour offers Quite Frankly hot dogs, dog treats and training tips from I & Love & You, full bar service with drink…
Onstage: A Streetcar Named Desire
Tennessee Williams received the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for drama for his play about the neurotic, vulnerable Southern belle Blanche DuBois, who falls on hard times and has to move into a seedy New Orleans apartment with her sister and her brutish husband. Marlon Brando originated the role of Stanley Kowalski onstage and in a 1951…
Literary: Claire Messud
The people who run the University of Cincinnati’s Department of English and Comparative Literature once again show their good taste by inviting author Claire Messud to be a featured speaker at the department’s annual Visiting Writers Series. The versatile Messud is equally adept at fiction (The Emperor’s Children, which was a New York Times Book…
Noon News and Stuff
Afternoon, y’all. I hope you’re enjoying the amazing fall weather as much as I am. My morning bike ride down Sycamore to the office was brutally, eye-wateringly cold refreshingly brisk and left me 100-percent awake. Which is good, because this morning has been all hustle preparing for all the great stuff in the coming week's…
WATCH: Walk the Moon Plays New Single on ‘Late Night’
The reigning Cincinnati Entertainment Award winners of the Artist of the Year honors, Alt Pop quartet Walk the Moon, are finally set to release their second album for RCA Records. The album's lead single, "Shut Up and Dance," was released Sept. 10 and last night the group performed the song on Late Night with Seth Meyers.…
The Dandy Warhols with Bonfire Beach
Did anyone believe that the decadent clan known as The Dandy Warhols would be around two decades after their formation in Portland, Ore.? Frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor will be the first to say, "No way." But he also can't imagine a life without music — a mutual obsession he shares with bandmates that are still making Psych-tinged…
Morning News and Stuff
Hey Cincinnati! Here’s your news for the day. Mahogany’s at The Banks is closed, but the controversy continues. The restaurant closed Friday after its landlord asked it to vacate The Banks due to state sales tax violations and back rent the restaurant owed. Yesterday, owner Liz Rogers and her attorney presented the city with a…
Chris Smither
So great and vast was the singer-songwriter revolution of the 1960s that we take for granted the long, steadily productive careers of many of its practitioners. That is the case with Chris Smither, who has put out 16 studio-recorded albums since 1970’s I’m a Stranger Too! His rough-hewn voice has the rugged authenticity of moss…
A Streetcar Named Desire (Review)
It is a wonderful risk any time a theatre company takes on a classic like Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. It is an especially wonderful risk for actors who go up against our collective or personal expectations of what their performances should look like. The stakes are particularly high with this great American classic,…
Taste of Malaysia This Weekend
Cincinnati gets a little more diverse this weekend as the Taste of Malaysia celebrates its second anniversary on Sunday, Sept. 14. The event, produced by Mason restaurant Straits of Malacca, presents a glimpse into Malaysian culture, providing food and vendor booths along with Malaysian performances. Those that love to experience other cultures will have plenty…
Stage Door: Sherlock Holmes & More
Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Suicide Club opened last night at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. It's a new adventure for the Victorian sleuth. How can that be, you might ask, if you're a Sherlock fan — this isn't a familiar title. That's because playwright Jeffrey Hatcher picked up Sir Arthur Conan…
Morning News and Stuff
Things happen. News things. Even on Fridays. That’s why I’m here. Let’s do this. The city will not step in to help Mahogany’s, the embattled restaurant at The Banks. The establishment’s landlord, NIC Riverbanks One LLC, served Mahogany’s an eviction notice last week after the restaurant fell behind on rent and state sales taxes. The…
MidPoint Music Festival Guide Available Now
Be sure to grab a copy of this week’s edition of CityBeat to check out the official guide for the 2014 MidPoint Music Festival, which kicks off two weeks from today. You can also view the guide online here. The guide once again features short previews of all 150-plus artists performing at MPMF, as well…
Morning News and Stuff
Good morning Cincy! Here’s what’s going on around the city and other, less cool places in the world. There’s a new proposal to help fund operating costs for Cincinnati’s streetcar. The Haile Foundation, which has pledged donations to help cover some of the project’s funding gap, has suggested that a special improvement tax district covering…
Pokey LaFarge with Dom Flemons, The Tillers and more
The knock on modern Jazz and Big Band singers like Michael Bublé is that if he lived in the heyday of the 1940s Swing era, he would rank about 49th compared to the other artists of that time. It’s not that Bublé isn’t talented; it’s just that those musicians back in the day were living…
John Cowan with John McFee and Friends
J ohn Cowan will forever be associated with the group New Grass Revival. Along with an array of musicians that included founder Sam Bush, Béla Fleck and others, Cowan and crew burst onto the American Roots Music scene in the early 1970s and set Bluegrass music on its ear. With its mix of Bluegrass, Rock…
The Features with Seabird
When The Features made their major label debut, 2004’s Exhibit A, and exploded with the coiled energy of Eddie Vedder fronting The Voidoids while maintaining an exquisite melodic sense, the Sparta, Tenn., quartet had already been a band for a decade. Starting out as an eighth grade trio covering Camper Van Beethoven and Guns N’…
Califone with S. Carey
In the late ’90s, guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist/songwriter Tim Rutili shuttered his noisy skronk Blues outfit Red Red Meat and launched Califone as an outlet for his Electronic/Folk/Pop experiments. His sonic laboratory has been churning out fascinating results ever since. Early on, Rutili, percussionist Ben Massarella and a variety of studio guests staked out an amorphous new sound…
Your 2014 MidPoint Adventure Awaits
The end of summer (last day: Sept. 22) is a bittersweet time in Cincinnati. “Bitter” (if you’re an autumn hater) because school’s back in session, you can’t go swimming as much and the days and nights turn a little chillier. “Sweet” because everything pumpkin spice is back, TV gets better, Cincinnati’s notorious humidity disappears and,…
Jad Fair and Danielson with Darlene
Jad Fair and Danielson have just released a terrific album, Solid Gold Heart, full of strong melodies and a Rock & Roll enthusiasm that is as ageless as Fair himself. (He’s 60, but doesn’t feel or show it.) As an anthemic affirmation of their music’s power, standout album track “Rockin’ on the Good Side” is…
Frontier Folk Nebraska, Pop Empire Make MOTR Release Party Central
Two great Cincinnati-based bands take over Over-the-Rhine’s MOTR Pub (motrpub.com) this weekend to celebrate their excellent new releases with free shows. • On Friday, rockers Frontier Folk Nebraska will trumpet the release of their third full-length, Frontier F**k Nebraska (the cover of which is presented to the right), which was recently released nationally by No…
Art: Building Pictures: Architectural Photographs by Édouard Baldus
A great advantage of early photographers using buildings as subjects instead of people is that buildings hold still. No messy business of a smile gone wrong or an inadvertent cough; a building can maintain a lengthy pose. Perhaps that is why Édouard Baldus chose to photograph buildings — indeed he seemed to prefer the built…
These Walls Have Heard It All: Bogart’s
Bogart’s, the never-so-clean music venue that sits along the construction-ridden stretch of pavement known as Short Vine, goes back far beyond any concert you may have seen there in the past several decades. It holds a rich history dating back more than a century, although this isn’t so easily apparent now. Live Nation, a national…
Music: Paul Weller
A fair measure of success within the context of a music career could logically be calculated by a greatest hits collection. Artists should rightly be allowed to view themselves from a position of legitimacy when their previous work has been sifted, annotated and compiled into a separately marketed package. So where does Paul Weller fit…
Event: Second Sunday on Main
Celebrate the vibrant Over-the-Rhine community at Second Sunday on Main, an eclectic, family-friendly street festival. There will be more than 80 vendors selling everything from handmade jewelry to unique home goods, a handful of specialty food trucks, an outdoor beer garden and a theme of “Take the Stage,” meaning there will be a showcase of…
Get Weller Soon
A fair measure of success within the context of a music career could logically be calculated by a greatest hits collection. Artists should rightly be allowed to view themselves from a position of legitimacy when their previous work has been sifted, annotated and compiled into a separately marketed package. So where does Paul Weller fit…
The Fall of an ‘Empire’
Boardwalk Empire (9 p.m. Sundays, HBO) has explored many different themes outside its domain of America’s early gangsters, but it’s maintained its position as a period piece of the 1920s. Not anymore for this final season. Sunday’s premiere spanned 1884-1931, with flashbacks to Nucky Thompson’s past and his introduction to the Commodore punctuating scenes from…
The Trip to Italy
Writer-director Michael Winterbottom (The Trip) enlists Steve (Steve Coogan) and Rob (Rob Brydon) for another road trip. The two men embark on a journey to share six meals in six different destinations around Italy, but you can only imagine the havoc that will ensue along the way. The Trip to Italy sounds like the loud…
No Good Deed
Trouble invades the Atlanta suburbs, in particular the home of Terri (Taraji P. Henson), a stable wife and mother who, late one rainy night, opens her door to Colin (Idris Elba), an endlessly charming and even more dangerous convict on the lam. The most immediate thought that comes to mind, beyond the clichéd notion that…
The Drop
In adapting his own short story (“Animal Rescue”), screenwriter and novelist Dennis Lehane (Gone Baby Gone and Shutter Island) shifts the action from the mean streets of Boston to pre-hipster Brooklyn, N.Y., recalling the glory days of underworld rule. But there is a slow-burning, neo-noir vibe at play with Bob (a brilliantly self-contained Tom Hardy),…
Dolphin Tale 2
Cute dolphin Winter is back for another outing; this time seeking to overcome the loss of her surrogate mother. The human team behind Winter (featuring seasoned performers Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd and Harry Connick, Jr.) decides to find a suitable dolphin companion, but must race against time or lose Winter completely. The addition of Bethany…
The 2014 TIFF Alternative: Managing High Expectations
Six years of attending the Toronto International Film Festival is a relatively short-period baseline for gauging expectations, but the festival team has set the bar rather high with each year surpassing the previous one, seemingly without letting the effort show. The 39th annual festival features an arrangement with the city of Toronto that allows for…
Morning News and Stuff
Morning all! Here’s all the news you need today. The trial of Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Tracie Hunter begins today after two days of jury selection. It promises to be a wild ride. Hunter has been indicted on nine felony counts, including misuse of a court credit card, records forgery and other offenses involving…
When Photography Was New
A great advantage of early photographers using buildings as subjects instead of people is that buildings hold still. No messy business of a smile gone wrong or an inadvertent cough; a building can maintain a lengthy pose. Perhaps that is why Édouard Baldus chose to photograph buildings — indeed he seemed to prefer the built…
Cincinnati vs. The World 09.10.2014
A Catholic, all-girls high school in suburban Detroit fired a gay chemistry teacher after she announced she was pregnant in August. School administrators were concerned that her pregnancy was “nontraditional.” The teacher hasn’t decided whether she’ll take legal action. WORLD -2 Kroger announced that it plans to hire another 20,000 permanent workers in its stores;…
The Strange Regionalism of ‘American Gothic’
The wall text for Cincinnati Art Museum’s Conversations Around American Gothic exhibit has an excerpt from a 1934 Time article about Regionalism, the then-new U.S. art movement associated with “American Gothic” painter Grant Wood of Iowa. In part, it says: “The War [World War I] took the public’s mind temporarily off art but at its…
Carnegie Wins
T he Carnegie in Covington, Ky., is both the protagonist and setting of a story rich with history, riddled with hardship and once close to ending. In 2007, its trajectory as an educational arts center seemed aimless, its supporters discontent and its doors soon to shut on 35 years of gallery shows and youth education…
Last Stand at The Banks
T he long, often difficult saga of the only black-owned business at The Banks appears to be coming to an end. Mahogany’s owner Liz Rogers announced Sept. 9 that the upscale Southern restaurant will move from the city’s prized riverfront development. “We find that we are in the midst of a climate that is not…
Media Musings From Cincinnati and Beyond
Poynter.org says Gannett — owner of The Enquirer, Louisville Courier-Journal and Indianapolis Star, among others — is reorganizing newsrooms, job and pay scales “to better attract an (online) audience of 25- to 45-year-olds.” Emphasis will be on reporting, Kate Marymont, Gannett’s vp for news, told Poynter. “We’re going to invest the fewest resources necessary in production.” That’s Gannettspeak…
Larry Flynt Was Right
Buried in old files from decades of teaching reporting and journalism ethics is a flyer mailed to local homes by pornographer Larry Flynt. Filled with vivid images of war’s brutality, it was Flynt’s way of defining obscenity. A furor erupted. That was such an innocent era. Pictures on paper. Mail. Now we get online videos…
Game Film
What a way to kick off the new NFL season — with a sucker punch we all felt now that we’ve seen it. It took a tabloid television show to release the seminal portion of a Feb. 15 elevator tape of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice knocking out his then-fiancée, Janay, before Commissioner Roger…
