Bridging the Gender Communications Gap
ROAD TO WELLNESS Bridging the Gender Communication Gap BY SIAN BITNER Ahusband and wife come home from a long day at work and sit at the dinner table to discuss the day. When asked how his day was, the husband answers, “Pretty good, lots of meetings.” His wife responds in great detail, “Mine was horrible!…
MidPoint Central
It's come and gone: the 2008 MidPoint Music Festival. Remember the bands, the clubs, the performances, the Scions and the crowds at this headquarters site for CityBeat's coverage of MPMF. You navigated your way around the streets of downtown Cincinnati and Newport and heard 180 bands on 17 stages over three nights. Now see the…
Don’t Punish the Children
Don’t Punish the Children Thank you for Joe Wessels’ column about Mount Washington (“Not Too Cool for the Pool,” issue of June 4). When I worked so hard to get that new rec center, my dream was to have it provide what’s needed to prevent the incidents that Wessels recounted. I saw the demographics of…
The Three-Minute Challenge
MUSIC The Three-Minute Challenge Hip Hop should reflect the historical significance of our shifting political landscape BY KEVIN BRITTON “Those songs on the radio may glorify violence, but in my house we give glory to achievement, self-respect and hard work.” – Sen. Barack Obama, June 15, 2008 (Father’s Day) Before I launch into my political…
Invisible American Families
PHOTO: GRAHAM LIENHART: Austino Lewis (left) and son, natives of Liberia, currently call South Fairmount home. On a cloudy day in the early spring, Austino Lewis sits at a table in a sleepy Arby’s in South Fairmount before taking two busses to cover his shift as a cook at a local nursing home. Talking about…
Norwegian Pie
Like their American youth-movie counterparts, the twentysomething guy friends of Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s Reprise spend a lot of time talking about and clumsily pursuing the fairer sex. Only, unlike the cast of, say, American Pie or Animal House, Trier’s characters are as much (or more) concerned with getting published as getting laid, and as…
The Girls Are Back In Town
Wandering through The Fairmount Girls’ rehearsal space — dubbed “Sprout House” because of the alfalfa sprout growing landlord who occupies the building’s first floor — on the eve of the release of Forever, their first new album in seven years, there’s a palpable sense that a yard sale of pop cul ture’s last 40 years…
Occupational Therapy
Alanis Morissette has finally learned to live in the moment. The change, call it her evolution, is evident in the lyrics on her latest, Flavors of Entanglement, which you can add to the list of strangely titled albums she’s released over the past 13 years, including Under Rug Swept, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie and, of…
Bye, Bye Blockbusters
Ahh, the fall — the temperature is cooler, the air is crisper and the films are better. A majority of 2008 has left something to be desired. Only two superheroes (Iron Man and The Dark Knight) and a robot (Wall*E) kept the first half of the year alive. Now, as usual, the fall/winter season has…
Election Party Food and Drinks
Like half the country, I’ll be attending an election party on Nov. 4. Since people are saying this is an “important election” (unlike previous elections, which might or might not have been important), it’s occurred to me that special food is in order to celebrate the occasion. The following are ideas that some irreverent and…
Dreaming of MidPoint
I was sitting on a folding chair downtown on the final day of Oktoberfest. The sun was setting, bathing the office towers along Fifth Street in bright orange. I squinted as I surveyed the scene toward the west. The sky was bright blue, people milled around, music wafted in from several places and the smell…
It’s All Goods
Asking guitarist Travis Good what The Sadies have been up to lately is like asking Bill Gates to count his money — you’ll run out of time before he finishes. With The Sadies’ notoriously double-booked recording schedule and frenetic touring calendar, it’s obvious that they’ve likely had more irons than fire, and so it is.…
Reefer Madness: The Musical (Review)
When Reefer Madness: The Musical is cooking, it cooks. Know Theatre is kick-starting its season with a rowdy, just-for-the-hell-of-it musical that decries (wink, wink) the evils of smoking marijuana. Thanks to attitude infused by director Eric Vosmeier, Know’s show does it with tongue, teeth and tonsils wedged in its cheek — just as did original…
CityBeat Wins Awards
Your favorite alternative newsweekly took home a number of writing, photography and design awards in the Cincinnati Society of Professional Journalists’ “Excellence in Journalism” competition. Winners were announced at a Sept. 19 banquet at The Phoenix downtown. First Place: “Why We Smoke” by Gregory Flannery and Mike Breen (Trend Reporting); “Dirty Laundry” by Kevin Osborne…
September 24 – 30
WEDNESDAY – Sept 24 ONSTAGE: REEFER MADNESS provides some sizzle and high moments on the Know Theatre’s stage. See review on page 43. ART: THE WESTON ART GALLERY infects with impulsive nostalgia through the exhibit Since You’ve Been Gone, a collection of ephemera from Publico’s five years of operation. See review on page 41. LITERARY:…
Together Again
It hasn’t yet been a year since Publico, the non-commercial, artist-run exhibition space on Clay Street, closed its doors. Nonetheless, the Weston Art Gallery has already pulled together the collaborators again for its current show, Since You’ve Been Gone. The exhibition sweeps Publico’s Over-the- Rhine vibe into the mainstream — the Weston is part of…
Raising Up Lincoln Heights
Tearing down the Valley Homes would seem like a good way to kick-start struggling Lincoln Heights. Walking among the mostly boarded-up government stock housing built in the 1940s to house workers at the General Electric plant during World War II, it’s clear that this place isn’t exactly prime Hamilton County real estate. But when the…
Between Rock and A Folk Place
It is a busy morning at the Dar Williams household when she picks up the phone to do an interview. As Williams fields questions about her fall tour and her new CD, Promised Land, she deals with the needs of her 4-year-old son, Stephen, and a shifting schedule that has seen several phone interviews moved…
Get to Know Why?
Why`s kaleidoscopic musical output conjures a host of descriptors, the most accurate of which might be the Oakland-based band’s own genre-spliced classification: “Pop-inflected Psychedelic Folk Hop.” The brainchild of Cincinnati native/former cLOUDDEAD member Yoni Wolf, Why? started as a oneman bedroom project (2003’s Oaklandazulasylum) and has gradually become a full-fledged band (2005’s Elephant Eyelash and…
Uncle Bob’s New Band
If you require an introduction to Robert Pollard, perhaps you should concentrate on the restaurant reviews. The most famous ex-fourth grade teacher in Dayton has been spending his “retirement” from Guided By Voices pretty much like his fans expected he would: releasing a string of solo/band project albums, further adding to Rock’s most voluminous and…
Bike Obsession
Danny Cross’ article on cycling in Cincinnati (“No One Rides for Free,” issue of Sept. 3) was passed to me today by a co-worker, and I read it with great interest. I took up cycling about eight years ago, and it’s become a real passion. My wife would call it an obsession! I don’t commute…
Toledo’s Art Museum Is Among Ohio’s Best
When it comes to Ohio art museums, we’re used to thinking that Cleveland and Cincinnati have encyclopedic ones and those in other cities are smaller with more focused — or limited — collections. But after a recent trip, it’s clear the Toledo Museum of Art can hold its own with Cincinnati’s — and I mean…
Brave New World
One aspect of contemporary dance I appreciate is that, for the most part, you can never really be certain of what you’re going to see. This notion also becomes a reason why too many people avoid it: They don’t know what to expect; perhaps they fear they won’t “get it.” But this is a Cincinnati…
He Knows What Funk Is
Once upon a time, my best friend’s mother toured briefly with Marilyn Manson. This was around 1994, after their first studio album was released but before “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” hit airwaves and Alternative Nation (remember Kennedy?), prompting the band’s meteoric rise and subsequently embarrassing fashion movement. Before the public adoration of narcotics.…
Ready, Study, Go!
There are plenty of interesting topics on which to quiz The Rockwells: their fantastic experience playing Bonnaroo in 2006 or the fact that the Knoxville-based band is made up of two sets of brothers. But the thing I absolutely needed to find out was how they developed their signature sound, an unlikely hybrid of The…
Another seven days of old guns and new hotels
WEDNESDAY SEPT. 17 John McCain spoke to a Spanish radio station today, explaining how he became a war hero, spited fellow Republicans by supporting abortion rights and then ran for president by mocking and then using his opponents’ catch phrases. But then the radio host asked if, as president, he’d respect Spain’s prime minister enough…
Power Surge
I moved to Westwood this past spring, and I like it just fine. That feeling didn’t change on Sept. 14, when the electric power went off. As of this writing, it’s still off. I guess we have Hurricane Ike to thank. The weather on that Sunday was like something I’ve never seen before — very…
Take It
We have a slew of movie tickets and DVDs to give away. Please go to citybeat.com and click on promotions for a chance to win free passes to see FLASH OF GENIUS, THE DUCHESS and/or NICK AND NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST. As for DVDs, we’re giving away FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL and ABC favorites like BROTHERS AND…
Three Games into the Season, Bengals Fans Settle for Moral Victories
Maybe the Bengals still have a pulse, which means they’re not quite as desperate as those no-good outfits from the 1990s — but they’re still 0-3, they’re still going to have their hands full with the Cleveland Browns Sunday, their quarterback still is no better protected than David Klingler and the season still is a…
The Great Buckeye Clean Up
When there’s no organized opposition to a constitutional amendment being placed on the statewide ballot — as is the case with Issue 2, which would continue the Clean Ohio program — the Ohio Ballot Board comes up with the reason to vote no. That’s the law. “If the group of members of the general assembly…
Maximum MidPoint
The 2008 MidPoint Music Festival is upon us, so get ready for three nights of sublime entertainment from the best local, regional and international musicians ever to congregate in this region during one weekend. Get in-depth with these interviews of five prominent acts, then plan out your evenings with the up-to-date schedules in the MidPoint…
The Wizards of Odd
Some words that describe legendary underground Cincinnati band The Wolverton Brothers include: enduring, eccentric, inventive, singular, influential. The band adds three more words to that canon with their sixth album, Old, Ugly and Loud, which is being released by Ionik Recordings this Saturday at the Northside Tavern. Local newcomers Starhustler open the show. Old, Ugly…
Edgecliff Room (Review)
Critic's Pick Places like the Edgecliff Room fascinate me. Cincinnati doesn’t have many of these animals — restaurants attached to a living space. These places seem like they would be most successful in densely populated urban areas like Chicago or New York, but J’s Seafood did have a long, successful run on the first floor…
The Emeralds (Profile)
It takes nature thousands of years to make a brilliant green emerald. It only took Sammy Wulfeck, Brian Kitzmiller, Peter Underhill and Ric Hickey a matter of days to make The Emeralds. And from the start, they were brilliant in spite of being green. “It was really just to get together and rock out,” says…
Fear of a Black Planet
In light of Sen. John McCain’s badly managed presidential campaign and series of outlandishly false statements, some prominent Democrats and media pundits now are saying the only reason many polls show McCain essentially tied with Barack Obama is due to the latter’s ethnicity. Gee, ya think? A recent Associated Press poll found that deep-seated racial…
