Heather Britt
PHOTO: JOE LAMB Dance multi-hyphenate Heather Britt has a full plate this fall: a new full-time professorship in Northern Kentucky University’s Department of Theater and Dance, where she’s teaching Jazz; choreographing student productions; and running the school’s new outreach endeavor, the Dance for Fitness Troupe. Comprised of a diverse group of dancers and non-dancers from…
Lisa from The Sound
It sounds trite, but it’s true. Lisa — the sassy queen of alternative rock on The Sound (94.9 FM) who goes just by her first name, as kooky radio personalities tend to do — got her start in radio as a listener. “Seriously, I called a local radio station one day to request a song…
Talking Bout a Revolution
Because of guidance from Elissa Sonnenberg, University of Cincinnati assistant director of journalism, today a student follows his “grandiose aspirations” toward becoming a magazine journalist. Sonnenberg remembers what “today” is without glancing at a calendar or a Blackberry. She retrieves a mental note. “Ryan starts at NYU today!” she says. As a sophomore, Ryan McLendon…
Cooling Off Cincinnati
Don’t expect Cincinnati to be covered in a polar ice cap any time soon, but our actions are speeding us toward a period of global cooling. A natural part of the warming and cooling cycles of the planet, climate change isn’t anything new, but it’s conveniently re-labeled “global warming” so it can be ignored by…
k. Jenny Jones
Jenny Jones can stake a legitimate claim to uniqueness: About a year ago she became the first female Fight Master of the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD). That means that the University of Cincinnati theater professor of acting and movement can teach performers how to throw a punch convincingly — but safely. And she…
James Flynn
James Flynn’s film directorial debut, Eastern College, tells the story of a small group of recent college graduates who are about to go their separate ways. Shot on location at Flynn’s alma mater, Miami University, Eastern College manages to avoid the clich
Fall into Romance This Fall
Fall is upon us, the time when you hear about even the most notorious workaholics and serial daters settling down, hooking up and/or falling in love. Perhaps it’s simply fear of the cold — what the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders describes as “cryophobia,” an aversion to snow and ice cubes that you…
Homo Thugs
As a casual listener of Hip-Hop since the late ‘90’s, a few things have resonated with me. Way back then, homosexual artists were either non-existent, totally closeted and/or intimidated. Then there appeared staunch anti-gay resolves in many artists’ public personas and lyrics, such as early Eminem, Ja Rule, DMX and Common. And artists widely believed…
Lauren Wells
Painter Lauren Wells says, “self-investigation is a bi-product of my painting process. Through her work, she tries to better understand the motivations behind the external self. “Typically, my stern gaze becomes the focus,” she says. Wells specializes in life-size self-portraits, two of which are on view until the end of the month at the Artisan’s…
Natural’s Not In It
There are 95 art objects by Lynda Benglis spread over three rooms in Carl Solway Gallery. Solway himself, along with Laura James, registrar at the gallery and a CityBeat contributing writer, have managed to arrange the exhibition thoughtfully, capitalizing on formal commonalities in different works. They’ve created several amazing wall compositions in which arrays of…
James Crump
James Crump just arrived in Cincinnati to serve as the Cincinnati Art Museum’s new curator of photography. His background includes a documentary film on the legendary art collector Sam Wagstaff (Black, White Gray), which premiered last year at the Tribeca Film Festival; articles published in esteemed journals like Art in America, Print and History of…
Cool Creators
Cool Creators You Suck at Photoshop masterminds want to push the Internet envelope INTERVIEW BY RODGER PILLE Donnie Hoyle is so not cool. He’s bitter. He’s condescending. He’s mean. He’s the unlikely host of one of the Web’s hottest tutori al series, You Suck at Photoshop. Take his greeting from an episode last season: “Hi,…
Cool or Uncool?
Cincinnatians often find themselves debating whether the Queen City is “cool.” The concept itself is ripe for interpretation, and ensuing discussions often uncover complex social and cultural issues too taboo to speak of publicly. But for this Cool Issue, CityBeat asked its youngest editorial staffers to do just that: Debate their hometown’s relevance to young…
Kendall Fisher
For Kendall Fisher, adjusting to her first month as Women Helping Women’s executive director felt like deja vu. She’d been the organization’s associate director from 1996 to 2001, and coming back this July was “like a homecoming,” she says. Fisher supports a women’s advocacy agency for victims and survivors of violent crimes and stalking. Her…
Wandering the Labyrinth with Ariki Hill
Even among jet-setting international winemakers, New Zealand-born Ariki Hill’s business model is unusual. Rick makes tiny-production, cult Pinot Noirs — two in Australia and two in California. Not the easiest commute, but that seems to be Rick’s style. In fact, even his career path has been circuitous, hence the name of his winery: Labyrinth. Rick…
Massive Release
Cincinnati’s finest and most popular Reggae crew, Super-Massive, will unveil its first album with two release parties this week — Wednesday at Stanley’s Pub and Thursday at The Mad Frog (where they’ll be joined by special guests Jah Roots, from Missouri). Super-Massive — formerly known as Selecter — contains several skilled, veteran musicians from bands…
Made In Mexico
Another seven days of strong wind and weak coverage. WEDNESDAY SEPT. 10 Another battle of semantics reared its easily-manipulated head today, as John McCain accused Barack Obama of calling his cute new running mate a pig. The AP reported that the drama ensued after Obama used the metaphor “lipstick on a pig” to describe some…
Fables of the Reconstruction
A lady exits her SUV holding an umbrella that had opened (and then broke) inside her vehicle. Holding the broken umbrella, she waddles over to the nearest garbage can to throw it away. This is garbage (redefined). From humble improvisational beginnings with more of those good ol’ shining naturals than you could shake a bloody…
Freedom Celebration
PHOTO COURTESY OF GSL MONASTERY Kuten Lama, who teaches at the Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Colerain Township, hosts Tibet Fest this weekend in Clifton. When the Dalai Lama fled persecution, he found refuge in India. But where do people persecuted by the Dalai Lama go? Cincinnati. This weekend the monks of Gaden Samdrupling (GSL) Buddhist…
Minding the Gap
CityBeat: To start off, maybe you could all say a little about who you are and what you do. Andrew Van Sickle: I’m the gallery owner of AVS Art on West Fourth Street Downtown. My gallery (focuses on) contemporary outsider art 1 and pop art 2 , mostly upstart artists. Mostly locals, though I do…
Jason Klapfish
Foodie Jason Klapfish has traveled the world, including the Arctic Circle and half of Mexico. Not one to settle down, Cincinnati is the only place he keeps coming back to. Current dining room manager of Tavern on the Hill’s Hillside Room in Mount Adams, Klapfish won’t be in Cincinnati for long — he’s leaving for…
Love and Marriage and Being Gay
My head’s killing me this morning. I have a headache because I’m thinking too much about same-sex marriages and all the judgmental crap that goes with it. I have Gary and William, my gay friends — indirectly — to thank for the Tylenol I’m taking. I met them in the fall of 1994. After my…
Speed Racers
Maybe the reason men aren’t gifted with the ability to give birth is that we would spawn monsters. That’s what Len Kerkhoff did and does every day. He hatches chaotic, two-wheeled beasts from the decaying corpses of yesterday’s motorcycles. He climbs on their backs and hurtles himself through the streets as fast as his rebuilt…
U Four
PHOTO: HARRY BORDEN Everyone’s always looking for a sure thing, and the music industry is no exception. When an American label looks to sign an overseas act, it’s just good business to make sure that the act in question has something of an established fan base in its home country. In the case of Bell…
Win or Lose
Six years ago, the Department of Football at the University of Southern California came from nowhere to crash the national title picture and, not quite succeeding, launched a grievance that changed college football. The proof lies not in the Trojans’ easy 35-3 win against Ohio State on Sept. 13 but in the absolute lack of…
Jeff Cappell
Jeff Cappell isn’t afraid to piss off people in his own party. Last year Cappell filed a federal lawsuit against the local GOP’s big gun — Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis Jr. — alleging Leis broke state election laws when he included a letter in pay checks to his workers urging them to support a…
Joey Votto
You have to go back all the way to 1999 to find a Cincinnati Reds player making a legitimate run at the Rookie of the Year title. That was until first baseman Joey Votto started his red-hot 2008 campaign. With a nasty combination of home run power, opposite field liners and flat-out clutch RBI ability,…
Dead Men
Chances are audiences will recog nize something familiar in Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais). He’s a sad sack, a man with no real connection to the teeming humanity around him, a misanthropic mess living on the most densely populated island in the modern stream — Manhattan. He’s not as good as it gets because Jack Nicholson…
Mike Ingram
Making cute, passionate Indie Pop with an electronic backbone and a folksy heart (banjo, acoustic guitar and accordion are the main instrumentation), The Seedy Seeds are one of the most interesting bands in Cincinnati. They also might be the most beloved. Everyone from Punk rockers to Indie hipsters have taken to the band, which is…
Joani Lacy
Local writer Joani Lacy’s second novel, Hollister House, is one spooky trip to the exotic, crumbling Southern home of the title. The book’s protagonist, Eve Hollister, is determined to start over by looking to her past when she moves into the Gothic-tinged, long-vacant Victorian homestead that belongs to her father’s family in Juniper, Miss. Mysterious…
Jessica Flores
This month, Jessica Flores begins her important new job as associate curator of contemporary art at the Cincinnati Art Museum. While her position is new, the Cincinnati native has been at the museum for some time and has already curat ed several of its recent contemporary shows, including Richard Pousette-Dart, LeWitt x 2, and Maps…
Cheryl Meadows
The Cincinnati Human Relations Commission (CHRC) is sort of the local equivalent to United Nations peacekeepers. Their community mon itors, decked out in royal blue CHRC T-shirts, work to mediate arguments and diffuse racial tensions at public events and street festivals. CHRC Street Advocates help locals with rough backgrounds (some are ex-cons) reform and find…
East Meets West Coast
The adjective “Chinese-American” will rarely, if ever, conjure up images of red hair. But Lisa See, author of New York Times bestsellers like Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and Peony in Love, is Chinese American in the most redheaded sense of the term — her almost Irish appearance belies her rich cultural and family…
Still Afloat
Say the words “show boat” to American theater lovers and most will think of Jerome Kern’s classic 1927 musical, cited by many as the first modern work of musical theater. But in Cincinnati, people are just as likely to conjure up the Showboat Majestic, which actually predates Kern’s show by four years and represents its…
Lady of the House
Julie Carpenter is still young, but she thinks old is cool. A good thing, too, as her job makes her the public’s interface with the oldest brick house in Ohio, the Betts House Research Center at 416 Clark St., two blocks west of Music Hall. Naturally, she was a history major: Wittenberg College, class of…
Stand Up for Teachers
Stand Up for Teachers What a difference to read a newspaper column about public schools that’s favorable to the staff, the core of the schools (“School Funding Fight in the Burbs,” issue of Sept. 10). Joe Wessels’ column was well written and informative. I’m the chairperson of the Fairfield Classroom Teachers Association negotiations team. We’re…
Jackie Reau
As the CEO of Game Day Public Relations, Jackie Reau promotes hip local events like the Flying Pig Marathon, the Downtown Tour of Living and Jeff Ruby’s joint venture restaurant with Bootsy Collins. She has an ongoing and intense love affair with Cincinnati and says it’s an exciting time to live in the Queen City.…
Hate Thy Neighbor
Patrick Wilson (left) and Samuel L. Jackson face off in Lakeview Terrace. It took Lakeview Terrace to remind me, in retrospect, that we didn’t know how good we had it in the early 1990s. The Soviet Union and the Berlin Wall had crumbled, leaving post-Cold War America without a real international threat; terrorism was a…
Annalisa Pappano
If the words lirone, pardessus and viola da gamba make you quivery, you already consider Annalisa Pappano the coolest number in the Classical rolodex. As artistic director of the eclectic and perpetually cool Catacoustic Consort, she’s charged with assembling world class players of ancient, rare and obscure instruments (as well as the instruments themselves in…
When the Chips Are Down
Ike just doesn’t sound like a nice person’s name. No offense if that’s your name. Sorry, too, if your name will forever be linked with the first hurricane to actually make its way to Cincinnati and wreak havoc over the entire region. I don’t know a person who wasn’t affected by the windstorms that swept…
Amy Hunter
There’s an important mantra in a recent film: “Anyone can cook.” Amy Hunter believes that wholeheartedly. She also believes everyone can get better — and enjoy it more — with a little help. Enter the Creations Community Cooking Classes at the Midwest Culinary Institute (MCI) at Cincinnati State, for which Hunter is the coordinator. The…
Joshua Steele
Joshua Steele looks younger than he is, but that hasn’t slowed him down a bit. While he was still an undergraduate studying vocal performance at Ohio State, the Sycamore High grad co-founded New Stage Collective, now one of the city’s coolest young theater companies. But that wasn’t cool enough: He want ed a career as…
Gary Owen
Though he became famous as host of BET’s Comic View, Hamilton native Gary Owen didn’t have what one could call an urban upbringing. “We lived in a little trailer park on Highway 27 called Island Lake Mobile Community,” he says. Shortly after graduating from high school, a friend rousted him out of bed and took…
Grey Gardens (Review)
Critic's Pick Generational dysfunction is the fuel that drives the new musical Grey Gardens, based on the lives of two relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (an aunt and a first cousin, both named Edith Bouvier Beale) as depicted in a 1975 documentary about their reclusive lives in a once-grand Long Island seaside mansion. The show…
Show Boat (Review)
Cincinnati’s Showboat Majestic, owned by the city and operated by Landmark Productions, is 85 years old. It first floated out from an upriver boatyard on the spring rise in 1923. Nowadays it’s the last original floating theater in America, still either tiny and intimate or tiny and cramped depending on your appetite for nostalgia, although…
Time to Get Moving on Mass Transit
Let’s face it: Although the price might fluctuate by 15 or 20 cents on any given day, the era of gasoline costing less than $3.50 per gallon is gone for good. And in all likelihood it’s probably safe to increase that threshold by a few dimes. As residents grapple with rising prices, local politicians have…
Cityside Pub and Grill (Review)
I heard a piece on NPR recently about the food choices people are making when they eat out. Apparently, while the American consumer fondles worry beads about the economy, venues like McDonald’s are reaping the benefit of all this fretting with increased sales. As a foodie and consumer I find this all rather depressing, but…
