The Doghouse
I felt tired walking up to Walgreens on a Tuesday morning in Covington. The night before, a barking dog kept me up until 2 in the morning. It was a vicious bark with practically no letup. I couldn’t figure it out. All around me are apartment buildings. Why would a dog be kept outside all…
Health Dept. and Cincinnati
[WINNER] HEALTH DEPT.: The city's Health Department will administer a $760,000 grant from the state to create the Reproductive Health Improvement Collaborative, in conjunction with University Hospital’s Center for Women’s Health. The new initiative will try to lessen health disparities in 19 area zip codes — mostly low-income areas — that have high Infant Mortality…
Crunching the Numbers
In April, Citizens for Civic Renewal (CCR) embarked on an ambitious mission: Learning if the city of Cincinnati’s police budget could be cut without compromising safety. Following months of research and public meetings, the organization recently posted its findings online that include expert testimony, research data and citizens' opinions. The organization continues to collect public…
Rumors, Lies and General Misunderstandings
Kelly Thomas is well known in local music circles for her many benefit concerts and events, as well as releases with Second Sister, The Tammy WhyNots and a duo album with 500 Miles to Memphis’ Ryan Malott. Now, what Thomas calls her “primary band” — Kelly Thomas and the Fabulous Pick-Ups — is finally gearing…
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Last week there was a confluence of milestone events and anniversaries that all seemed loosely interrelated. R.E.M., one of the “godfathers” of Alternative music, announced its breakup. Nirvanamania re-swept the nation as the press and fans celebrated the 20th anniversary of an album that helped shove Alternative music further into the mainstream. And the 10th…
Bullets, R.E.M. and Unemployment
[HOT] Shanghai Surprise Most Rap and Rock stars who get busted with weaponry at airports usually have similar excuses, along the lines of, “Damn, I was rushing and thought I grabbed my wallet but accidentally picked up my back-up Uzi!” During an ordeal in China recently, the singer for Vancouver Indie Rock band Behind Sapphire…
Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter
Gamers are typically no sufferers of hardship. They are neither starving nor homeless nor prevented from participating in civic activities. To game, you need a couple hundred bucks and copious free time. Yet to be a gamer among art lovers is to be the blackest sheep in a platinum pack, one that finds themselves defending…
Building a Cinematic Community
The rapidly growing international film festival circuit has become a vital distribution network, a place where smaller, less overtly commercial films can find audiences eager to experience works that once more readily graced art-house and specialty cinemas. And while the young, still-evolving Cincinnati Film Festival (CFF) might not have the reputation of a Sundance or…
Taste This: Let’s Review
When I’m not playing the culinary rube and writing this column about unusual food items found at most local grocery stores, I write about music. So the past several weeks I’ve been crazy busy working on coverage of the 2011 MidPoint Music Festival in Cincinnati. In honor of my hectic schedule and MidPoint’s 10th fest,…
![Todd Kelly [Chef, Orchids at the Palm Court]](https://i0.wp.com/www.citybeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/lookwhos_todd_kelly_courtesy_orchids_at_palm_court.png?resize=1200%2C900&ssl=1)
Todd Kelly [Chef, Orchids at the Palm Court]
I used to have a rule: Never eat in a hotel, and never sleep in a restaurant. In downtown Cincinnati, though, that rule is made to be broken. Orchids at the Palm Court in the Hilton Netherland Plaza is world-class. Executive Chef Todd Kelly was named Chef of the Year by the American Culinary Federation.…
Planet of the Apes
Could art be the missing link? Oxford, Ohio, native John Bavaro would probably say yes. His current exhibition in the Duveneck Gallery at the Carnegie Center Visual and Performing Arts Center in Covington uses both traditional and digital painting to examine the similarities between humans and non-human primates. The exhibition is a sort of homecoming…
In the Know
Eric Vosmeier, artistic director at Know Theatre, the purveyor of Cincinnati’s annual Fringe Festival, keeps building on a concept of a community of artists as he maps the edgy theater’s future. Know began in 1997 as an itinerant company that moved from place to place; it parked for a while at Gabriel’s Corner, a church…
Bootleggers, Booze and Hypocrisy
Ken Burns believes his new three-part, 5½-hour Prohibition series, to be shown on public-television station WCET at 8 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday, contains many revelations about the disastrous era when America banned booze. But the key revelation is that it was not a weird, unprecedented and un-American aberration to usually rational political process — not…
Ali Baba (Review)
I’ve been on a Mediterranean food kick lately where there is no such thing as “too much hummus.” So the opportunity to try Ali Baba Mediterranean Grill couldn’t have come at a better time. Owner and cook Bahaa Dawoud, a native of Palestine, opened Ali Baba in July of this year. This is Dawoud’s first…
Music, Movies and the Not So Mundane
With the exception of dopes like Joel Tannenbaum and Jammie Rasset, record labels have moved away from trying to sue the poop out of individuals for copyright infringement. But before you go look for Feist's new album on thepiratebay.com, there is a new group called Digital Rights Corp. that will go out and find suspected…
Music, Movies and the Not So Mundane
A 10-year-old Idaho boy went toe-to-toe with a mountain lion in a rural area of Boise, Idaho, escaping with only minor scratches. He was apparently unfazed by the event, claiming his biggest fear is that his friends at school won't believe his story. The boy and his father were looking for a missing hunting dog…
MPMF.11 Day 3: Live from MidPoint, it’s Saturday Night!
I love the last night of MidPoint. And I hate the last night of MidPoint. I love it because it’s typically the most attended of the festival’s three nights, the energy is beyond amped, the venues are packed, the very air seems charged, like Duke abandoned electric cables and is beaming power through the aether…
MPMF.11 Day 3: All in All, Savage
Lucky score — found a wicked parking spot on Court, and I wandered over to Below Zero for Brooklyn’s Bear Hands. Standing in front of the bar’s enormous red “Z” on the wall, singer Dylan Rau also played bass and keys. Backed by two guitars and drums, Rau’s voice had a strong Post-Punk, New Wave…
Morning News and Stuff
With a government shutdown looming if Congress can't figure out a spending plan, some say the mopes aren't even close to agreeing on the smaller details.—- Meanwhile, it's going to be a “rocky road” to the GOP presidential nomination, even if it ends up being a two-man race and we lose all the fun craziness…
MPMF.11 Day 2: Fried, Eh? Friday!
The news reports all called for possible rain and low temps in the evening, but that Babylonian weather deity we blew last year apparently threw in a freebie as a tenth anniversary present because the nastiness stayed away for at least one more night. And what a night.—- I started off at Grammer’s to catch…
Candidates On: The Planned Streetcar System
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…
Squeeze the Day: MPMF.11 Saturday!
Have fun at MidPoint on Friday? Did you temper your drinking habits and take care of your eardrums well enough to get back out there tonight? Below check out some audio/visual previews of a few of Saturday's best MidPoint Music Festival bets (read our previews off all of these acts and more at mpmf.com). And,…
MPMF.11 Day 2: Downtown Takeover
Started the night off with a bang, bang — Jagjaguwar Records’ Okkervil River at Grammer’s. The tent was packed — so packed that it was hard to weave to the front — but I was sneaky. From Austin, Texas, and labeled Folk Pop, Okkervil didn’t disappoint. Will Sheff, frontman with a beard and black-rimmed glasses,…
MPMF.11 Day 1: 10th Anniversary Adventures
I love music festivals. Like, love. The crowds, the music, the excitement in the air. MidPoint Music Festival is special for all of these reasons, but also because it’s essentially in my backyard. I don’t have to find a hotel, or crash on a friend of a friend of a friend’s couch (see: Lollapalooza 2011)…
Candidates On: What to Do About the Tax Rollback
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
Fox can't stop, won't stop making Kiefer programs with Kiefer Sutherland killing terrorists. A new show, Touch, was created and written by Tim Kring, the guy who did Heroes. Alongside big Kief will be Danny Glover, who is reportedly not too old for this shit. The show has Kiefer trying to connect with his mute…
MPMF.11 Day 1: Here’s How a Thursday Should Go
I love the first night of MidPoint; the anticipation, the excitement, the friends, the music, the potential for getting wetter than you’ve been since the birth experience. It’s magic, a sensation perhaps intensified on Thursday, being the first night of the festival’s tenth anniversary.—- I had just picked up my very impressive media badge at…
MPMF.11 Day 1: Turn On, Tune In, Rock Out
I haven't done LSD in at least a decade, but Thursday's MidPoint Music Festival sure felt like a psychedelic flashback. My long-ish, strange-ish trip began at 9 a.m., as I drove into downtown and found Central Parkway colorfully dressed up as if an army of elderly women had sneaked in overnight and turned the strip…
Health Officials to Host HIV Public Forum Monday
Young, African-American men who sleep with men (MSM) are among fastest growing demographic groups for new HIV infections, according to Andrew Ruffner, director of the University of Cincinnati's Early Intervention Program (EIP), an HIV testing and prevention program. UC's Department of Emergency Medicine is among a group of agencies that will host a forum Monday,…
Friday Movie Roundup: Time to Get Serious
The recently wrapped Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is traditionally the unofficial kick-off to the fall movie season, a period in which Hollywood's awards-season fare is unveiled and a number of the smaller films that garner critical love debut. This year is no different, as one can tell by taking a gander at my TIFF…
MPMF.11 Day 1: Bring It On
Everything was easy — parking, finding venues, moving from place to place. Easy street. Even the weather was easy — not too hot, not too cold, not even crisp yet. Clouds just hung out in the sky, slightly alive, so gray. Steel. When I literally jumped out of the car in front of SCPA,…
Morning News and Stuff
President Obama came to town yesterday, rolled up his sleeves and told a group of 1,500 supporters to tell Congress to get to work on passing his jobs bill. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell reportedly stayed in Washington, called the speech “political theater” and then ate some steaks. These mopes fact-checked the speech, finding that…
Squeeze the Day: MPMF.11 Friday!
How was your MidPoint Thursday? Ready for more!? I can't heeear you? Below check out some audio/visual previews of a few of Friday's best MidPoint Music Festival bets. There are so many good acts at MPMF.11, it's hard to post every worthy show (most of them are), so feel free to pimp anyone we failed…
Candidates On: How to Budget for Public Safety
As CityBeat did in the 2007 and 2009 election cycles, 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…
Dolphin Tale
The grading, in this case, is on a generous curve because this inspired by a true story family drama from actor-turned-director Charles Martin Smith has all the hallmarks of a terribly mainstream project (cute kids, returning soldiers with rehabilitation issues, a wounded animal and Morgan Freeman paired with Ashley Judd and Harry Connick Jr.)…
Music, Movies and the Not So Mundane
The creator of The Drew Carey Show, Bruce Helford, has signed on to write and run Charlie Sheen's new television show, Anger Management. The show will be based on the 2003 movie of the same name about an average Joe forced to attend group anger-management sessions led by a crazy therapist. Sheen will probably play…
Watch All Night Party’s MPMF Ultrasessions LIVE
All throughout MPMF.11, local promo group will be hosting several area performers for daytime "Ultrasessions" at Ultrasuede Studio. And you can watch them from the comfort of your cubicle/couch/bed as they happen! Click below for the schedule and UStream portal. Hurry — The Chocolate Horse start at 1 p.m.! —- Today, catch locals The Chocolate…
Squeeze the Day: MPMF.11 Thursday!
Today marks the first day of the tenth annual MidPoint Music Festival in venues throughout Over-the-Rhine (and a few Downtown). AND the President of the United States is in town. I don't think the two are related, but who knows — maybe Barack Obama is a huge Mansions on the Moon fan? Mr. President, I'm…
Morning News and Stuff
Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson has some explaining to do after being caught yesterday receiving a shipment of 2.5 points of weed to his home. Authorities found another 6 pounds inside the Crestview Hills house, which Simpson owns. Here's how the incident will affect your fantasy football team, should you have made the mistake of…
Moneyball
“Nobody re-invents this game,” a baseball announcer smugly intones late in the deliciously entertaining Moneyball — and the same sentiment could represent the general approach to baseball movies. Over the years, baseball has been a cinematic metaphor for lost innocence, daddy issues, the struggles of a lone warrior for redemption against impossible odds, the…
Candidates On: Balancing the City’s Budget
As CityBeat did in the 2007 and 2009 election cycles, 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…
Music, Movies and the Not So Mundane
Tony Bennett, singer/political advisor(?), is on the hot seat after telling Howard Stern on Monday that President George W. Bush admitted to him that the Iraq War was a mistake. “He told me personally that night, he says, ‘I think I made a mistake,’ ” Bennett said, referring to the Iraq War and not the…
Peace, Man!
Today is Peace Day, a day for “wide-scale community action and a day for UN agencies and aid organisations to safely carry out life-saving work,” according to a global organization called Peace One Day.—- The organization is currently working on a campaign called “Global Truce 2012,” a yearlong call for world peace by this date…
Does NAACP Approve of COAST Hijinks? (UPDATED)
(** UPDATE FOLLOWS AT BOTTOM.) Mark Miller isn't a subtle guy. Miller, treasurer of the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST), recently apologized publicly after using the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to tweet a comment comparing the attacks to a political battle about the planned Cincinnati streetcar system. Now Miller…
Squeeze the Day for 9/21
Music Tonight: The tenth MidPoint Music Festival begins tomorrow, so tonight you can either a) hit the sack early and build up energy for MPMF's long weekend (Thursday-Saturday), or b) go into training mode and catch some live music to get your ears (and, if you’re so inclined, liver) in shape. If you’re up for…
Morning News and Stuff
President Obama's Cincinnati bridge visit is an attempt to literally and figuratively connect Mitch McConnell and John Boehner. No word on whether the top two Republicans in Congress will show up, but Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer is reportedly going to pop in. —- A new report suggests that Ohio health insurance costs could either go…
Sept. 14-20: Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY SEPT. 14 It’s not every day that Catholics get to drink alcohol in public while celebrating the traditions of their hometown (aside from high school football games, charity events, festival season and at church they barely ever get to do it). Unfortunately for them, one of Cincinnati’s most noted public celebrations next year is…
Homeless People and Indiana Officials
[WINNER] HOMELESS PEOPLE: People who live on the streets and have mental problems soon will get some much-needed help. Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services recently received a $300,000 grant from the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati to fund a three-year joint project with the Cincinnati Health Network. It will provide behavioral health services to homeless…
Latest MPMF.11 Updates
Hit up MPMF.com for all of the last-second news about the 10th MidPoint Music Festival (running Thursday-Saturday in venues throughout Over-the-Rhine and Downtown). If you missed it when it appeared in CityBeat a couple of weeks ago, copies of the official MPMF Guide — with write-ups on all 180-plus acts and full fest details —…
Famed Law Firm Targets Vatican for Abuse
T hroughout its 45-year history, the Center for Constitutional Rights hasn’t been timid about tackling legal cases that are daunting or perhaps seem even hopeless. Founded in 1966 by a group of attorneys that included William Kunstler and Arthur Kinoy , the Center initially was designed to offer support to civil rights activists who were…
Political Battle May Be Buzz Kill
F or once, I feel kind of normal,” Chris Amberger says today. He was an eager 17 when he joined the National Guard in 2002; his first tour of Iraq started early in 2005. Within five months he saw one of his leaders burn to death when his Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb.…
The Young and The Loveless
A t an age when most people are contemplating the direction of their life, Lydia Loveless has already blazed an impressive trail. The 21-year-old native of Coshocton, Ohio (between Columbus and Canton), and current Columbus resident began playing bass with her two sisters in their band Carson Drew when she was just 13 and was…
Deeper Cut
C ut Copy’s move from Australian Electro-Dance upstarts to internationally recognized, festival-headlining purveyors of sophisticated Art Pop is complete. The foursome — led by frontman and founder Dan Whitford — has released three albums since 2004, including the recent Zonoscope, another addictive, synth-driven effort that also finds the band moving in new, less party-starting directions. Think New…
Smorgasbord of Cinematic Riches
T he Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is not only the biggest and most vital film festival in North America — it now rivals Cannes as most important cinematic event on the planet. More than 300 films (the majority of which were world, international or North American premieres) from 65 different countries screened during the…
School of Rock, Tea Party and Interscope
[COLD] Minding the Sound As many schools around the country face tough decisions about what to cut in the face of epidemic budget crises, the first things to go are often arts-related. But at least one school system is showing a rededication to music education in public schools, and they’re updating the curriculum to make…
My Mother in September
This time of year, I tend to look out my window at the changing season. I notice that the leaves are starting to fall from the trees and there’s coolness in the air most mornings. Summer is almost gone and it’s time to prepare myself for the chilly winter season that will come much too…
Box It Up
N ow in its 10th year, the MidPoint Music Festival has grown from an annual outlet for local musicians to one of the best and brightest fests in the region, this year offering nationally and globally renowned acts such as Cut Copy, Mates of State and The Album Leaf. This year will also see the…
