Pure Romance to Remain in Ohio
Pure Romance on Tuesday announced that it is moving to downtown Cincinnati despite a decision from Gov. John Kasich’s administration to not grant tax credits to the $100 million-plus company, which hosts private adult parties and sells sex toys, lotions and other “relationship enhancement” products. Pure Romance will now move 60 jobs and its headquarters…
Art: Art Off Pike
If art shows have seemed more like social events to you rather than an experience for your mind, body and soul, then Art Off Pike (AOP) might be the art show for you. AOP calls itself an art show but it’s more of an urban renaissance fair, with artists selling their works in mediums ranging…
Sports: The Last Reds Game of the Regular Season
The final game of the regular season may be in sight for the Reds, but that doesn’t mean a home wildcard game — and future playoff games — are impossible. If the Reds have another winning series against the Pirates, this round at home, they’ll likely host the Bucs in a one-game playoff on Oct.…
Halloween: Fall-o-Ween
Gather up the whole family and head to Coney Island to kick off the fall season right. After enjoying Coney’s classic rides, kids can head on down the Trick-or-Treat Trail in their Halloween best to fill their bags with goodies. Stock up on some fall favorites at the harvest markets or help your little ones…
Music: Otis Williams and the Charms
King Records Month winds down with a free concert at the new riverfront greenspace, Smale Park, featuring a performance by legendary, Cincinnati-born King/DeLuxe artist Otis Williams, who had R&B hits with his group The Charms (including 1954’s “Hearts of Stone”) and also worked on Hank Ballard’s original version of “The Twist” and Little Willie John’s…
Event: Pawapalooza
The Boone County Animal Shelter presents the second annual Pawapalooza, a family-friendly (and pet-friendly) daylong event featuring animal adoptions, games, inflatable bouncy things, a K9 5K run/walk, dog agility contests, dog costume contests and more. Funds raised from the event will directly benefit the animals in the care of the Boone County Animal Shelter, supporting…
Event: Great Outdoor Weekend
Saturday and Sunday, join in on more than 150 free activities in more than 50 locations across Greater Cincinnati to celebrate a decade of Great Outdoor Weekends, a sampling of the best outdoor recreation and nature education activities in the area. Featuring everything from scavenger hunts, hikes and campfire marshmallow roasts to presentations on birds,…
Art: Art After Dark: Crystal Clues to the Sublime
Environmental artist and longstanding arts advocate Alice Weston first began photographing crystals after her daughter brought home an image of a cell under microscope. The similarity between these miniature microcosms and art that she owned (particularly a Dubuffet) was not lost on Weston. For this month’s Art After Dark series at the Cincinnati Art Museum…
Literary: Eddie Trunk
Radio DJ and TV host Eddie Trunk is an unabashedly enthusiastic lover of Heavy Metal. The New Jersey native has made it his mission to champion his musical genre of choice, and he’s been doing it in one way or another for more than three decades. Trunk’s latest endeavor arrives in the form of Eddie…
Event: CliftonFest
Come take a stroll around the Clifton Business District as local art enthusiasts transform the sidewalks and streets into works of art, proving that sidewalk chalk isn’t just for the kids’ scribbles. There will be live music, a biergarten, works of chalk art and artisan booths all weekend long. If you feel like testing out…
Event: Newport Oktoberfest
This weekend promises an Oktoberfest in true German fashion — rain or shine. Featuring brews, bratwurst and other authentic German bites and beverages, this three-day festival brings together culture, beer and community, all under the same tent. Intertwined with the festivities will be the annual Cincinnati Beer Run — a 7 p.m. Friday race to…
Comedy: Tom Simmons
After years of doing stand-up comedy, Tom Simmons believes he still has a lot to learn. “I’m going to focus more on the performing, which I haven’t really,” he says of his heavy focus on writing jokes. “I feel I’ve been getting by with one hand tied behind my back.” Simmons has also been studying…
Onstage: Moby Dick Rehearsed
Herman Melville’s legendary 1851 novel of seafaring mysticism and peril might not seem an easy choice for theater, but the legendary Orson Welles reinvented it in 1955 by employing the device of a Shakespearean company rehearsing King Lear. The actors take a break to dig into the story of Captain Ahab’s obsessive search for the…
Music: MidPoint Music Festival
CityBeat’s MidPoint Music Festival kicks off today for three days of live music, art, food, booze and fun. Bands from all over the world will descend upon Downtown and Over-the-Rhine for a packed weekend of shows with headliners including The Breeders performing their seminal record Last Splash, Soul/Pop legend Shuggie Otis, rockers Black Rebel Motorcycle…
Council Denies Car Allowances, Other Budget Restorations
City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee on Tuesday unanimously stripped budget restorations that would have reinstated car allowances, paid work days and office budgets for the city government’s top earners, including the mayor, city manager and council members. “It seems disingenuous that we would restore funding to the top earners in our city for car…
Morning News and Stuff
The streetcar project is on track for its Sept. 15, 2016 opening date, according to a monthly progress report released by the city yesterday. Through Aug. 31, the city spent $22.1 million on the project, including nearly $2 million in federal funding. In total, the project is estimated to cost $133 million, and about $45…
Qualls Unveils ‘Come Home Cincinnati’ Initiative
Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls, the Greater Cincinnati Port Authority and community partners on Monday unveiled the “Come Home Cincinnati” initiative, which promises to make vacant properties available to new occupants in an effort to increase homeownership and redevelop neighborhoods hit hardest by vacancy and abandonment. The goal is to establish a residential base that will…
Carrie: The Musical (Review)
It takes a brave theater company to stage Carrie: The Musical. Since 1988 when it lasted for just five nights on Broadway and lost its $8 million investment, it’s been ridiculed nearly as much as its beleaguered central character, who is frightened and ridiculed when she begins menstruating at age 17. In 2012, the show…
Morning News and Stuff
Gov. John Kasich’s refusal to seek another waiver for federal regulations on food stamps will force 18,000 current recipients in Hamilton County to meet work requirements if they want the benefits to continue. That means "able-bodied" childless adults will have to work or attend work training sessions for 20 hours a week starting in October…
Food Stamp Restrictions to Hit 18,000 in Hamilton County
Gov. John Kasich’s refusal to seek another waiver for federal regulations on food stamps will force 18,000 current recipients in Hamilton County to meet work requirements if they want the benefits to continue. Under federal law, “able-bodied” childless adults receiving food stamps are required to work or attend work training for 20 hours a week.…
City Administration Defends Car Allowances
Just a few months after the city avoided laying off cops, firefighters and other city employees, City Manager Milton Dohoney on Sept. 15 proposed restoring $26,640 in vehicle allowances that would subsidize car use for the city manager, the mayor and other director-level positions in the city administration. City spokesperson Meg Olberding told CityBeat that…
Your Weekend To Do List: 9/20-9/22
Happy PARK[ing] Day! Across the world today, people are converting metered parking spaces into tiny temporary public parks. Look up #parkingday on Instagram to see how artists, activists and everyday citizens are turning parking spots into amazing hangout spots — just for an hour (or as long as their meter lasts). In Cincinnati, PARK[ing] Day…
Morning News and Stuff
Ohio added 32,500 jobs between August 2012 and August 2013, but a larger amount of unemployed workers helped push the unemployment rate to 7.3 percent in August this year, up from 7.2 percent the month and year before, according to data released today by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services . The amount…
Stage Door: Choices, Choices
Lots of choices to fulfill your appetite for good theater this weekend. Best bet is to catch one of the final performances of Other Desert Cities at Ensemble Theatre (Sunday at 2 p.m. is your last chance), the story of parents and children who just can't get along. (CityBeat review here.) Heavy doses of guilt,…
Bus Stop (Review)
New Edgecliff Theatre’s production of Bus Stop, a 1955 play by William Inge, opened on Sept. 18, in the Aronoff Center’s black box space, the Fifth Third Bank Theater. Set in a small-town Kansas diner where passengers on a bus must wait out a blizzard overnight with a few friendly locals, the show is a…
Hamilton County Reprimanded in Latest State Audit
The Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services (HCDJFS) was reprimanded in a state audit released Thursday that uncovered inadequate protocols and failures to correct previous audits’ findings. But HCDJFS spokesperson Brian Gregg says a lot of the audit’s findings could be outdated because they’re based on data from 2011. “We’re working on information…
More Than Half of Cincinnati Children Live in Poverty
More than half of Cincinnati’s children live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 American Community Survey released Thursday. The 2012 rate represents a roughly 10-percent increase in the city’schild poverty rate in the past two years. In 2010, 48 percent of Cincinnatians younger than 18 were considered impoverished; in 2012, the rate…
Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me
Big Star specialized in heartfelt, tuneful Rock music driven by the blissful twin vocals of co-founders Chris Bell and Alex Chilton and a guitar sound heavily influenced by the band’s Southern surroundings. Yet, despite the adoration of critics and fellow musicians, the Memphis quartet never made it big during its three-album, early-’70s run. Co-directed by…
Qualls Unveils Platforms in Plan to Grow Cincinnati
Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls on Thursday unveiled “The Qualls Plan to Grow Cincinnati,” an outline of her platforms and what she would do during her first 100 days as mayor if she’s selected by voters on Nov. 5. The plan proposes three major changes that Qualls would pursue within 100 days of taking office: She…
Curmudgeon Notes 09.18.2013
• It was that rare 9/11 photo that was so clear, so sharp and so disturbing that it seemed to vanish from the Internet: a man clearly diving or falling head first from a burning World Trade Center tower. He almost seems relaxed. Last week Esquire.com reproduced the image . . . next to…
Absorbing Foreign Media Coverage Vital for Syria Context
Even if you embrace what Obama says is our moral duty to bomb Syria’s president into civilized behavior, perspectives from outside the White House are vital; context counts. Even as diplomats explore the Kerry/Putin suggestion that Assad let outsiders take and destroy his chemical weapons, Obama continues to threaten Syria. He isn’t wrong in the…
Morning News and Stuff
As the Oct. 1 opening date approaches for the Affordable Care Act’s (“Obamacare”) online marketplaces, outreach campaigns are beginning to take root and aim at states with the largest uninsured populations , including Ohio and its more than 1.25 million uninsured. But the campaigns have run into a series of problems in the past few…
I Just Can’t Get Enough
With two episodes of Breaking Bad left, everyone’s gone a little Walter White crazy — you’d think actual meth fumes were being released from our televisions. Jimmy Fallon & Co. have had a Breaking Bad spoof in the works for a while now, teasing fans all the while with photos and hashtags like #JokingBad. The…
Group Aims to Reduce Local Homelessness by Half in Five Years
Strategies to End Homelessness on Wednesday released its first annual progress report detailing how the organization intends to reduce homelessness in Hamilton County by half from 2012 to 2017. That means reducing the county’s homeless population of more than 7,000 to roughly 3,500 in five years. The plan doesn’t focus on providing shelter services to…
The Ridges Return to MidPoint
Athens, Ohio's Orchestral Folk Rock ensemble The Ridges has become a Cincinnati favorite thanks to frequent visits, including during several past MidPoint Music Festivals. The band is returning to MPMF this year for a pair of showcases. Since last year's MPMF appearance, the group has toured extensively (hitting the South, Midwest and East Coast hard),…
WKRP’s Musical Legacy
WKRP in Cincinnati debuted 35 years ago when I was a child just developing what turned out to be a lifetime obsession with music. I missed its initial run, but through reruns it became an interesting place to hear either cool new music I hadn’t heard or cool new (to me) music that I loved…
Salinger
Peeking behind the veil of secrecy surrounding the life and times of JD Salinger with a more complete telling of his life pre- and post-Catcher in the Rye, screenwriter-producer turned documentary director Shane Salerno (Savages) incorporates the thoughts and words of a host of filmmakers and writers — from Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton and…
Prisoners
The second runner-up for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival’s top audience prize — behind 12 Years a Slave and Philomena — Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners captivates thanks to a thrilling premise involving two sets of parents (Hugh Jackman and Maria Bello and Terrence Howard and Viola Davis) searching for their missing children with assistance from…
Jayne Mansfield’s Car
Billy Bob Thornton handles multi-hyphenate duties once again with Jayne Mansfield’s Car, a tale set in Alabama in 1969, detailing the impact of the death of an estranged matriarch on the two very different sides of her family. As co-writer (with Tom Epperson), director and co-star, Thornton has corralled the support of an all-star cast…
Cutie and the Boxer
Rarely does a documentary dare to bring audiences inside the intimate space between an artist and a long-standing/long-suffering muse. In the case of Zachary Heinzerling’s directing debut Cutie and the Boxer, the artist is Ushio Shinohara, a famous boxing painter and current New York resident who has been married for 40 years to Noriko, his…
Cool Stuff Happening This Fall
COOL GEORGE TAKEI George Takei is known for his role as Mr. Sulu in the Star Trek television series and films, his LGBTQ activism and his popularity on social media (dude posts some pretty funny stuff on Facebook). On the weekend of Sept. 20, Takei will be in Cincinnati to serve as Grand Marshal at…
Battle of the Year
Competitive dance steps to the fore in Battle of the Year, which tracks the efforts of a former American dance champion (Laz Alonso) who enlists a down-and-out buddy (Josh Holloway) to assemble a ragtag team of talented misfits (Josh Peck and Chris Brown are featured among a group of likely street dancers capable of dazzling…
Fall Flavor Sensation: Pumpkin Pie
This year, building on a decade’s worth of word-of-mouth buzz (specifically in the past few years on social media), Starbucks has received an inordinate amount of attention and press all due to one “limited time only” beverage: the Pumpkin Spice Latte. Or, as it’s known online and on chalkboards in the shop, “PSL” Food…
Poor Jenny, Poor Cincinnati
A woman named Jenny lives in Cincinnati, but not for long because her husband got a job in another city. She’s kind of glad, though, according to a collection of anecdotes described by The Enquirer in a one-source profile of one of our town’s many lonely transplants. Poor Jenny. Two years, one month and six…
Morning News and Stuff
Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls and ex-Councilman John Cranley focused most of their disagreement on the streetcar and parking lease at yesterday’s first post-primary mayoral debate. No matter the subject, Cranley repeatedly referenced his opposition to the streetcar project and his belief that it’s siphoning city funds from more important projects and forcing the city to…
Neil Patrick Harris Secures Status as Go-To Host with The Emmys
The Primetime Emmy Awards (8 p.m. Sunday, CBS) celebrate the stars of the small screen and while the spotlight is on the television shows, it’s always telling to see who’s been chosen to host these grand ceremonies. Neil Patrick Harris will “suit up” (as his TV character Barney Stinson would say) this year to host…
The Art of Being a Cool Librarian
T he media revolution — moving from physical forms of delivery like print, CDs and DVDs to virtual ones like the Internet, cloud services and video streaming — challenges libraries to stay relevant and draw patrons. But Steven Kemple, music librarian at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County’s Main Library, has the…
Filmmaker Stuart Blumberg Helms a Polite Comic Take on Sex Addiction
Adam (Mark Ruffalo) is charming, good-looking and professionally successful with an easy-going air about him. Mike (Tim Robbins) gives the impression of being a wise mentor — the guy who has seen and done it all, lived through the highs and lows and decided to share his experience with others just getting started. He’s a…
Livin’ on the Air in Cincinnati
T hirty-five years ago, writer/producer Hugh Wilson transformed his chance bar meeting with an Atlanta radio station’s ad rep into one of television’s quirkiest and most cultishly beloved situational comedies. After its wobbly Sept. 18, 1978 debut, WKRP in Cincinnati eventually became a don’t-miss show with music aficionados, attracting a loyal Queen City audience with…
The Daily Scene at TIFF 2013
THURSDAY SEPT. 5 Thank you, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), for such a marvelous birthday party. If I couldn’t have been at home among family and friends, I’m not sure I could have imagined a better way to celebrate. The first day of the festival was a decidedly low-key affair. Festival programmers eased us into…
City Officially Opposes Proposed “Stand Your Ground” Laws
City Council joined statewide efforts to avoid loosening restrictions on the use of deadly force when it unanimously passed on Sept. 11 a resolution that opposes H.B. 203, Ohio’s version of controversial “Stand Your Ground” laws. The vote puts Cincinnati in the middle of a national dialogue that’s been ongoing since the death of unarmed…
Council Puts Commons at Alaska Project on Hold for Two Weeks
The controversial proposed supportive housing facility for Alaska Avenue in Avondale was the main subject of a heated session of City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee on Sept. 16, which resulted in the committee’s decision to put the project on hold for two weeks. The committee also announced its intent to allocate $5,000 for an…
Street Artist JR Visits the CAC for His First U.S. Show
JR has been covering the world with his art — and Cincinnati is next. The 30-year-old French street artist has pasted his monumental photographic-portrait posters in some unusual places (and not always with official permission): on the sides of buses in the African nation of Sierra Leone, on the rooftop of a Palestinian building in…
City Selects New Police Chief
City Manager Milton Dohoney announced on Sept. 13 that Jeffrey Blackwell, the current deputy chief of the Columbus Division of Police, is being appointed to Cincinnati’s top police job. The appointment ends a months-long process as the city searched for a replacement for former Police Chief James Craig, who left in June to take the…
Vaunted Visage
G arey Faulkner’s business card cites his specialties as “Promotions, Beard Model, Marketing, Commercials, TV ads, Charity Fundraising.” Uh, beard model? Yes, the Amelia native and onetime pro BMX biker has parlayed his massive (and still growing) beard into something he never thought possible: a living. What began as a lark — two years ago, a…
Republican Prudes Hold Down Ohio’s Economy
In the past few weeks, it’s come out that Gov. John Kasich’s supposedly jobs-obsessed administration is letting 120 jobs leave Ohio for neighboring Kentucky instead of supporting the jobs through tax credits. The official reason: The company, Pure Romance, isn’t part of an industry that’s typically targeted with tax credits, such as biotech, energy or…
Cool Issue 2013
Ok. So, obviously using the word “cool” to describe something is, in fact, decidedly “uncool,” but that’s not going to stop us from labeling the following people, places and things as cool Cincinnati shit of which you should definitely take note. (Let’s also toss the idea out there that these “cool” things are happening in…
Enrolling Ohio
A s the Oct. 1 opening date approaches for the Affordable Care Act’s (“Obamacare”) online marketplaces, outreach campaigns are beginning to take root and aim at states with the largest uninsured populations, including Ohio. But the campaigns have run into a series of problems in the past few months, with many of the issues driven…
Radiohead’s Demo, Moz’s Book and Mumford’s Shenanigans
Demo Music (For an Auction)Before the advent of Electronic Press Kits and MP3s, aspiring bands would usually solicit interest from labels, managers and other biz players with handmade cassette demos. Often, band members would end up with boxes of the demos in their basement but, obviously, some of those tape-makers went on to be huge.…
Haunting Tales, Flying High
Occasionally I like to discuss where plays and musicals come from. We have two interesting examples locally this month: a touring production of Ghost the Musical at the Aronoff and the Cincinnati Playhouse’s regional premiere of Fly, a historical drama presented with imaginative staging. Ghost derives from the 1990 romantic film that starred Patrick Swayze,…
Shovels & Rope
It can’t be easy working as a duo. In a band, there are plenty of bodies around to share the blame; as a solo act, every screw-up is a mea culpa. In a duo, there’s only one other person to cast your aspersions upon. Look at the Civil Wars; the twosome went all North/South before…
Green B.E.A.N. Delivery EcOhio (Profile)
H aving homegrown veggies and fruit delivered to your house seems like a luxury, but for 6,000 Cincinnatians/Northern Kentuckians, receiving a green bin filled with a mixture of both locally and nationally grown produce actually supports the community, reduces carbon footprints and advances environmental initiatives for future generations. Green B.E.A.N. (Biodynamic, Education, Agriculture and Nutrition)…
Titus Andronicus
Patrick Stickles’ impassioned yelps are impossible to ignore. The frontman for New Jersey-based Indie Rock outfit Titus Andronicus sounds as if he’s on fire, fueled by the passion of his dense, richly detailed lyrical concerns, which range from the American Civil War and the dangers of contemporary capitalism to food fights and getting trashed. As…
Inspire, Equip, Expose
The past decade’s zeitgeist in Over-the-Rhine, especially on Main Street, has produced a slew of new and engaging businesses aimed at fostering a renewed interest in local goods and services catering to a burgeoning influx of young, creative and energetic people. All it took was a casual conversation at a summer barbecue for a few…
Atlas Genius
Is Atlas Genius a group or isn’t it? It’s hard to tell from recent publicity, which highlights guitarist/vocalist Keith Jeffery and his drumming brother Michael Jeffery, seeming to ignore keyboardist Darren Sell. When Sell was unavailable earlier this year, Keith and Michael toured as a duo to publicize the release of Atlas Genius’ debut full-length,…
Bluegrass for a Good Cause
The annual Bluegrass for Babies benefit concert returns to the riverfront’s Sawyer Point this Saturday for another day of family-friendly events and Americana/Bluegrass music. Started in 2009 by Matt and Anne Schneider, the event raises money for the Perinatal Institute at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, which saved the Schneiders’ son with surgery when he was less…
Cincinnati vs. the World 09.18.2013
A report from the Chronicle of Higher Education found that public state universities are giving more financial aid to wealthy students than poor ones. WORLD -1 Gov. John Kasich denied Pure Romance, a sex toy company worth $100 million, tax credits to help it locate its headquarters downtown because he and his administration don’t approve…
Savage Love
Barrence Whitfield occupies stages like a man possessed, a relentless quality he’s also brought to the studio with his band, the Savages, on his last two albums: 2010’s Savage Kings and the new, mind-blowing Dig Thy Savage Soul. In phone conversation, Whitfield’s manner is serenely reserved, as if he’s conserving energy for the impending thermonuclear…
Worst Week Ever!: Sept. 12-17
THURSDAY SEPT. 12 Football players have been banging their heads into each other for as long as the game has been played, and recent research has linked the prevalence of brain illnesses like Parkinson’s disease, depression and disorders similar to Alzheimer’s disease in ex-NFL players to the violent nature of the game. The findings led…
Gonna Make This House Your Home
Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Neil is a city block away from former Sheriff Simon Leis. There are two things I recall about Leis: He hoarded confiscated pornography and he made Justice Center inmates march in parades behind his mounted deputies to sweep up horse shit. Under Leis, incarceration wasn’t just about punishment, it was about…
