NOW Backs Robison Inquiry
The National Organization for Women's Cincinnati chapter is backing the local Democratic Party chairman's request for an investigation into remarks allegedly made against State Rep. Denise Driehaus (D-Price Hill) by her Republican opponent. Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairman Tim Burke has said GOP candidate Mike Robison has campaigned on Cincinnati's West Side by stating that…
Sept. 8-14: Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY SEPT. 8 Consider the following hypothetical situation: You're taking a leisurely drive down Columbia Parkway, enjoying the wide lanes and beautiful river views. Maybe you're listening to a favorite musician or chatting nonchalantly about current events when, out of nowhere, a man who looks like he's asleep swerves left of center and nearly kills…
Curtis Fuller
At age 75, trombonist Curtis Fuller’s biography is nothing less than a timeline of modern Jazz. Orphaned and institutionalized at an early age, the Detroit native was school pals with Paul Chambers and Donald Byrd and was well acquainted with Milt Jackson and Thad Jones. Learning trombone as a teenager, Fuller played with the Adderley…
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey
There is still no “Jacob Fred” in the band, but The Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey has certainly lived up to the second half of its name over the course of 16 years and 20 albums. Founded by pianist Brian Haas in Tulsa, Okla., the group has honed its adventurous, improvisational acrobatics on the road since…
Conventional Wisdom
Comic book conventions empower creators, helping them fly above the seemingly countless submissions flooding the comics industry. These are some boiled-down comments from locals Woodrow J. Hinton III and Josh Blair, both appearing this weekend at the Cincinnati Comic Expo. Hinton's work ranges from graphic novel covers to fantasy and sci-fi artwork for role-playing games,…
Cool Cincinnati
Cool Records: Mole’s Record Exchange When I was a junior high/high schooler, the coolest part of town was the area around UC we called Clifton but real estate agents and Mapquest call Corryville. In the mid-’80s, my friends and I would regularly bus it to the area and make the rounds of the record stores…
Pledge Music, Will.I.Am, Gold Zeppelin
[HOT] Whoring Without a Pimp It appears we’re just getting started when it comes to crazy marketing schemes and “package deals” designed to help musical acts fund their careers. Pledge Music has been connecting musicians with fans to help them actually make some money in today’s download-crazy music world, and there appears to be no…
The Last Day of Summer
The 2010 MidPoint Summer Series ended with blow out performances.
Losing Scarlet
There’s a lot of competition in the female-fronted Metal band sweepstakes these days (Evanescence, Halestorm and Lacuna Coil being the obvious frontrunners), but Chicago’s Losing Scarlet brings a welcome melodicism and an uncharacteristic multi-culturalism to the table. Vocalist Jodi Kell, presumably inspired by a Bullet For My Valentine performance, approached guitarist Scott Haith in 2007…
Jean-Robert’s Table (Review)
CRITIC’S PICK The opening of Jean-Robert’s Table was a much-anticipated event in Cincinnati dining — so much anticipated, in fact, that I think we might have visited a bit soon. Sooner than we usually do for a CityBeat dining review. So with that caution in mind, how was master chef Jean-Robert de Cavel's new adventure?…
Of Montreal’s Sci-Fi Dance Party
With rampant stories regarding predatory men of the cloth, it’s easy to read darker meanings into of Montreal’s new album, False Priest. Kevin Barnes, oM’s primary creative spark plug, admits he’s had fun with the phrase’s conjured imagery. “When I was trying to create song titles for (2007’s) Hissing Fauna, I would read Dylan Thomas…
The Root of All Evel
From what I can remember from my wedding day, my husband and I were about to take the next big step in life together — the birth of our first child. We were so excited for this baby but had no idea what we were about to get ourselves into. I remember standing in my…
The Town (Review)
There is a portion of Boston, the Charlestown area, that's a capital of sorts for criminal activity, so much so that bank robbery is an occupation, for instance, an artisan trade handed down from father to son. It seems to go deeper than our societal and cultural associations with gang and mob life. To this…
U.S. Boosts Crime in Mexico
Forget what Lou Dobbs, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and U.S. Sen. John McCain are saying about the dangers coming into this nation from Mexico. A recent study suggests it's Mexicans who should be irate about the United States. Police reports have already shown that crime is actually down in many towns along the U.S.-Mexico border,…
Music: Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey
There is still no “Jacob Fred” in the band, but The Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey has certainly lived up to the second half of its name over the course of 16 years and 20 albums. Founded by pianist Brian Haas in Tulsa, Okla., the group has honed its adventurous, improvisational acrobatics on the road since…
Music: Curtis Fuller
At age 75, trombonist Curtis Fuller’s biography is nothing less than a timeline of modern Jazz. Orphaned and institutionalized at an early age, the Detroit native was school pals with Paul Chambers and Donald Byrd and was well acquainted with Milt Jackson and Thad Jones. Learning trombone as a teenager, Fuller played with the Adderley…
Onstage: High at Cincinnati Playhouse
Sister Jamison Connelly (Kathleen Turner) is a blunt, hard-boiled nun with a past. She’s a hard case with a mouth like a longshoreman and an argumentative, no-nonsense manner. She meets her match in Cory Randall (Evan Jonigkeit), a young drug addict so far gone it’s hard to imagine his recovery. Nevertheless, he’s assigned to her…
Music: Of Montreal
With rampant stories regarding predatory men of the cloth, it’s easy to read darker meanings into Of Montreal’s new album, False Priest. Kevin Barnes, OM’s primary creative spark plug, admits he’s had fun with the phrase’s conjured imagery. “When I was trying to create song titles for (2007’s) Hissing Fauna, I would read Dylan Thomas…
Music: Losing Scarlet
There’s a lot of competition in the female-fronted Metal band sweepstakes these days (Evanescence, Halestorm and Lacuna Coil being the obvious frontrunners), but Chicago’s Losing Scarlet brings a welcome melodicism and an uncharacteristic multi-culturalism to the table. Vocalist Jodi Kell, presumably inspired by a Bullet For My Valentine performance, approached guitarist Scott Haith in 2007…
Art: Weston Art Gallery Opener
The Weston Art Gallery’s new fall season opens Friday with three solo exhibitions that push shape, color and the other building blocks of art making to new, personal places. Upstairs in the airy lobby space, Jarrett Hawkins presents Limits and Boundaries, an exhibition of totemic sculptures that deal with elemental themes with their reduced, formalist…
Onstage: Thoroughly Modern Millie at Showboat Majestic
Dance your way back to New York City in 1922 when everyone was crazy for the Charleston. This lighthearted Broadway musical from 2002 is the story of a young woman who recently moved from Kansas City to the Big Apple in search of a new “thoroughly modern” lifestyle of a flapper. The Roaring Twenties were…
Teaching Media Ethics to Two Generations of News Consumers
Next Wednesday I’ll pursue a favorite past time — that is, introducing a class of University of Cincinnati undergraduates to the ambiguities of journalism ethics. Even in this lousy economy and shrinking industry, some journalism grads will get the jobs they want. I want to help prepare them for the workplace and suggest ways to…
Art: Thomas Gainsborough and the Modern Woman at CAM
Cincinnati Art Museum's 2010-11 season gets underway Saturday with the debut of Thomas Gainsborough and the Modern Woman, a small (16 paintings) but important attempt to use the English painter's 18th Century portraits of women as a means to study Georgian England's attitudes toward women in society. The show celebrates the restoration of the museum's…
Art: Where the Kids Are Goin’ Tonite
Three days of live performances at MidPoint Music Festival not enough for ya? Well you are in luck. The downtown library is hosting its own take on Cincinnati music with Where the Kids are Goin’ Tonite: Music Photography by John Curley, David Garza and Michael Wilson. The local photographers snap images of Cincinnati bands Magnolia…
Events: StreetScapes
Local artists will literally leave their mark on Clifton Saturday and Sunday at the eighth annual StreetScapes: A Street Painting Festival. The two-day festival will allow artists to showcase their talents by recreating famous works of art from the Renaissance, Modern and Contemporary Art periods in chalk on the asphalt. Aside from the pavement work,…
Comedy: Michael Kosta
“I always joke that I went from being a starving athlete to a starving artist,” says comedian Michael Kosta. A native of Ann Arbor, Mich. and a talented tennis player, he wound up forsaking his hometown college (the University of Michigan) to attend the University of Illinois. “Michigan fans are very arrogant,” Kosta states. “I’m…
Events: Greater Cincinnati GLBTQ Youth Summit
Launched in 2002 to connect greater Cincinnati’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth and communities and eliminate discrimination against GLBTQ persons, the Greater Cincinnati GLBTQ Youth Summit holds its ninth annual summit Saturday at Northern Kentucky University’s Student Union (Nunn Drive, Highland Heights). The free, all-day event will feature workshops on exploring relationships, gender…
Events: J. Todd Anderson Lecture
Hollywood storyboard artist J. Todd Anderson will make an appearance at the Art Academy of Cincinnati to lecture about his work with the Coen Brothers, capping it off with a live storyboarding demonstration. He has contributed to and been credited for the storyboarding of almost every Coen Brothers film, including Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big…
Events: Restaurant Week
Gearing up for a girl’s night out? Tired of take out? Love a good deal? Restaurant Week is what you need. It is a seven day extravaganza that includes being wined and dined by the city’s finest food joints. The event features three-course meals for a fraction of the price. The swankier eateries will offer…
Events: Oktoberfest Zinzinnati
All things German (beer, Chicken Dancing, bier, lederhosen and more beer) are celebrated in one of our fair city’s defining festivals. Oktoberfest Zinzinnati has been a tradition since 1966 and offers Deutsch delights including great local microbrews, food and drink of the Motherland, dancing and a gaggle of games. Free admission. Fountain Square Garage parking…
Resident Evil: Afterlife (Review)
Alice (Milla Jovovich) returns once again to battle the insane viral infection that has transformed most of the human race into undead creatures, but this time she’s bringing friends, including a battalion of butt-kicking clones, tough sidekick Claire Redfield (Ali Larter) and newbee warriors Luther West (Boris Kodjoe), Angel Ortiz (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) and the mysterious…
Collected Stories (Review)
Critic's Pick Good theater can result from good stories, good writing, good acting or good directing. All are in evidence in Ensemble Theatre’s 25th season opener, Donald Margulies’ Collected Stories. The play was a Pulitzer finalist in 1997, was filmed for PBS in 2002 and had a Broadway revival earlier this year. ETC’s production is…
High (Review)
Sister Jamison Connelly (Kathleen Turner) is a blunt, hard-boiled nun with a past. She’s a hard case with a mouth like a longshoreman and an argumentative, no-nonsense manner. She meets her match in Cory Randall (Evan Jonigkeit), a young drug addict so far gone it’s hard to imagine his recovery. Nevertheless, he’s assigned to her…
General Butler Park Hike
Key At-A-Glance Information Length: 6 milesConfiguration: Series of loopsDifficulty: DifficultScenery: Woods and valley vistasExposure: Shade and full sunTraffic: ModerateTrail Surface: Soil and mowed pathsHiking Time: 3-4 hoursDriving Distance: 1 hour south of CincinnatiSeason: Year-roundAccess: Dawn-duskMaps: USGS Carrolton; General Butler State Resort Park mapWheelchair Accessible: NoFacilities: Water and restrooms at lodgeFor More Information: General Butler State…
Legendary (Review)
In spite of its prosaic dramatic trappings, Legendary is brought to fitful life with perceptive performances from its ensemble cast that includes a strong turn from an underrated John Cena (pictured). Patricia Clarkson knocks an especially solid homerun as Sharon, a small-town mother of two polar-opposite sons. Eldest son Mike (Cena) has been disenfranchised from…
Atmosphere Returns to the Scene of the Rhyme
The last time Slug felt as sick and contradictive as this was the last time he played a show in Cinci. He and the other half of Atmosphere, DJ/producer Ant, haven’t played one since, save a Scribble Jam or two. But the last headlining show that Atmosphere played in Cincinnati was nearly seven years ago.…
MPMF 2010 Bands: O-R
A-C D-G H-K L-N O-R S-T U-Z Oblio Nashville • Alternative/RockInspired by everyone from Paul Simon to Arcade Fire, this trio makes a huge, engulfing sound full of spacious guitars and passionate vocals that somehow still manages to come off as intimate and personal. Together since 2004, Oblio’s catchy, epic songs have led to steady…
The Kite Runner (Review)
Critic's Pick Khaled Hosseini’s debut novel, The Kite Runner, spent more than five years on The New York Times bestseller list. It’s been published in 42 languages and made into a 2007 movie. The novel, which follows the life of a young Afghani from the mid-1970s until 2001, has resonated with readers worldwide, a universal…
MPMF 2010 Bands: L-N
A-C D-G H-K L-N O-R S-T U-Z Leaf Bird Chicago, IL • Indie/FolkLeaf Bird began with three members of the band Fingers and Toes and has now expanded to a six-piece group. The ensemble’s music is winding and adventurous, like a swaying, often dreamlike version of Prog Folk with Nick Drake-like vocals providing the melodic…
MPMF 2010 Bands: H-K
A-C D-G H-K L-N O-R S-T U-Z Holy F*ck Toronto, Canada • Electro RockToronto’s latest primo export (after Joey Votto, of course) pimps instrumental soundscapes that range from ambient murmurs to beat-heavy freak-outs, sometimes within the same song. The quartet’s freshly minted album for XL, Latin, is a smorgasbord of dynamics best exemplified by the…
MPMF 2010 Bands: A-C
A-C D-G H-K L-N O-R S-T U-Z +/-Brooklyn, NY • Electro RockThe seeds of +/- were planted nearly a decade ago when James Baluyut was coming up with home-recorded snippets of musical ideas in the wake of the slow dissolution of Versus, Baluyut’s primary band. When Teenbeat label owner Mark Robinson recorded at Baluyut’s home…
MPMF 2010 Bands: U-Z
A-C D-G H-K L-N O-R S-T U-Z Uncle MountainAsheville, NC • Indie/Americana/RockThis North Carolina-based quintet is hard to describe with a quick and easy genre tag thanks to having three prominent songwriters that each craft songs in different styles and bring them to the others for expansion and tinkering. The three writers have been pals…
MPMF 2010 Bands: S-T
A-C D-G H-K L-N O-R S-T U-Z Sam GoodwillYoungstown, OH • Indie/ProgressiveSam Goodwill isn’t a guy but a trio that makes creatively shaped Art Pop, folding in elements of slinky, twilight Soul, skittish Funk and subtle Electronica. It’s not often that you can say a musical act is doing something truly unique but here’s one…
MPMF 2010 Bands: D-G
A-C D-G H-K L-N O-R S-T U-Z da muttss Cincinnati • Hip HopDa muttss, which recently returned to the Cincinnati club scene with a lineup reuniting the group’s MCs Kyle David, El Born and Bimu Bishop, make some of the most diverse, multi-dimensional and creative Hip Hop in Cincinnati. The crew split in 2008 immediately…
MPMF: The Place for Groundbreakers, Risk-Takers and Innovative Sound Makers
The MidPoint Music Festival (MPMF) has grown and evolved in so many ways since the first festival in 2002. The event’s founders, local musicians Bill Donabedian and Sean Rhiney, started with a staunch “independents only” policy (no label acts allowed) and built MPMF to help artists showcase their music and learn the tools of the…
Still Time to Volunteer
V olunteers are the face, muscle and might that propel the MidPoint Music Festival forward each year. Participating as a volunteer is a great way to get behind the scenes at MidPoint, meet new people, discover new music, score a new T-shirt and build diverse experience while nurturing your Cincinnati pride. New things are planned…
The Triumphant Andre Williams
Rock & Roll and Rhythm & Blues have their legions of foot soldiers — men and women who played a role in the recording, writing, producing and/or performing of great old songs but, for whatever reason, never became known outside their tight-knit world. Yet, as the decades go by and the music retains its staying…
The Catcher in the Rhine
In 2006, shocked by the city’s highest recorded homicide rate and witness to a 300 percent increase in gunshot wounds at the Children’s Hospital, Dr. Victor Garcia enlisted the help of a New York City criminology professor to create the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV). Three years later, Garcia claims CIRV is “necessary, but…
MPMF: Saturday’s Schedule
THURSDAY – FRIDAY – SATURDAY ARNOLD’S BAR & GRILL210 E. Eighth St., Downtown, 513-421-6234Wristband or $10 at the door 12:15 AM River City Extension11:15 PM Jessie Torrisi & the Please, Please Me10:15 PM Michael Saranga9:15 PM The Galt Line ARTWORKS20 E. Central Pkwy., Over-the-Rhine, 513-333-0388Wristband or $10 at the door 11:00 PM Love in October10:00…
Bringing Home the Bacon
On the last Saturday in August, PAC Gallery in East Walnut Hills opened a new exhibition with an inventive strategy for including performance art in a commercial gallery exhibition. The gallery’s E-invite explained that Kris Ebeling’s solo exhibition The Pleasure of Your Companionship would open with an exclusive performance event for no more than 30…
Modern Masters from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Review)
Modern Masters from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, now on display at the Dayton Art Institute, showcases revolutionary Abstract Expressionists’ work that caused a sea change in the way the western world came to view art. The exhibition also includes works created in response to this mid-20th-century American movement’s initial impact. Full of vim, overflowing…
Ride the Shuttle
C ome downtown for the MidPoint music, enjoy the urban experience and move your feet — but save your shoe leather for the dance floors. With so many bands to see each evening in a variety of clubs, festival organizers are once again providing shuttle service to get you around quickly. Metro, Cincinnati’s transit authority,…
Drinking on the High Seas
My family recently cruised up the East Coast aboard an enormous ship called “Celebrity Summit.” Stopping at ports in Maine and Canada, I tasted local beers in Portland, Bar Harbor and St. John. At Halifax, I enjoyed (endured?) the strangest tour of all time at Alexander Keith Brewery — which was (if possible) a bit…
MPMF: Thursday’s Schedule
THURSDAY – FRIDAY – SATURDAY ARNOLD’S BAR & GRILL210 E. Eighth St., Downtown, 513-421-6234Wristband or $10 at the door 12:00 M Coralee and the Townies 11:00 PM Andy Cook and the Wander Loons 9:00 PM Messerly and Ewing ARTWORKS20 E. Central Pkwy., Over-the-Rhine, 513-333-0388Wristband or $10 at the door 11:00 PM Richard Buckner 10:00 PM…
Star Lanes (Review)
The new Star Lanes at Newport on the Levee is connected to (and shares a kitchen and menu with) the restaurant Toro. They also have a full bar and a number of booths and high-top tables for eating and drinking. Servers wait on the patrons at each bowling lane and at the tables in the…
MidPoint Poster Expo
A major mission of the MidPoint Music Festival is to draw attention to the region’s creative community, and 2010 has a new offering: the MidPoint Poster Expo, focusing on contemporary music and event posters, mostly with limited print runs. Many of the posters are silkscreened by hand, but other applications will be on view as…
Covington Police and Joe Deters
[WINNER] COVINGTON POLICE: When four people were injured as the result of a gay bashing on Aug. 14 at a gasoline station in Covington, police and city officials there took the situation seriously. The City Commission held a news conference reaffirming its commitment to the local human rights ordinance, while police increased patrols near the…
Painting 100 Favorite Songs
Song lists are everywhere on the Internet and in magazines these days. The briefest of Google searches turns up ones as tame as “100 Greatest Love Songs” or as wild as “Top 20 Worst Song Titles of All Time” (No. 4 on the list is “If I Can’t Be Number One in Your Life, Then…
Good Old Dog Days
Now, since I’m having another birthday, it’s a time for reflection, a time to purchase reading glasses, a time to eat straight icing until I feel like hurling and a time to crawl under a rock and hide with my dark blanket of complete, utter, desperate, lonely depression. Joking. Actually, last night I thought about…
Ticket to Ride: The Essential MidPoint Wristband
MidPoint offers 250 bands on 25 stages in three districts (downtown, Over-the-Rhine and Newport) over three nights — with so much to see and hear, why waste time standing in line to pay cover charges at each club? Festivalgoers in the know pony up for a three-day wristband ($39) and guarantee themselves smooth sailing. The…
Animal Kingdom (Review)
As movie catch phrases go, it’s up there with “I drink your milkshake” from There Will Be Blood. Janine “Smurf” Cody (Jacki Weaver), the Lady MacBethian mother of a dysfunctional family of Melbourne criminals in Animal Kingdom, stares at a crooked cop — her eyes alight with knowingness as she smiles — and states, “And…
Tracy Monson [Essencha Tea House]
Tracy Monson is the kind of person who gets an idea into her head and then goes for it. In college, she dreamed of seeing the world, then spent two and half years visiting places like Morocco and Sri Lanka. She speaks almost reverently of her time in Japan, where she learned to appreciate the…
Music, Art and Film at the Public Library
T here’s no need to shush anyone at the Main Public Library during the 2010 MidPoint Music Festival. The library, right in the heart of the festival’s downtown action, is hoping to keep MPMF fans busy during the daytime hours with free live music and music-related art shows and documentary films. MPMF artists will perform…
Dems Cry Foul in Driehaus-Robison Race
If you were to believe some West Side Republicans, State Rep. Denise Driehaus is caught in a predicament that would do Romeo and Juliet proud. As anyone who read Shakespeare's famous play in high school can tell you, the Capulets and the Montagues were locked in a nasty feud, causing all sorts of grief for…
MPMF: Friday’s Schedule
THURSDAY – FRIDAY – SATURDAY ARNOLD’S BAR & GRILL210 E. Eighth St., Downtown, 513-421-6234Wristband or $10 at the door 12:15 AM The Cincy Brass11:15 PM Girls Guns and Glory10:15 PM Richard Thorne9:15 PM Uncle Mountain ARTWORKS20 E. Central Pkwy., Over-the-Rhine, 513-333-0388Wristband or $10 at the door 11:00 PM Henry Wagons10:00 PM The Young Republic9:00 PM…
Machete (Review)
Robert Rodriguez, sharing directing duties with longtime editing assistant Ethan Maniquis, expands the mock-trailer from Grindhouse about an ex-Federale (Danny Trejo) taking on corruption all over the place into a mash-up of what, in the hands of his buddy Quentin Tarantino, would have been epic proportions. But Rodriguez lacks the focus to bring his large-scale…
Sept. 1-7: Worst Week Ever!
WEDNESDAY SEPT. 1 If you were lucky enough to be at a local drinking establishment for the debut of Cincinnati Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman, then it's likely that you are still ashamed of the boner you got when he threw a 103 mile per-hour pitch aware that Barack Obama was also making news this evening…
Listen to the 2010 MPMF Compilation Now
Every year, a compilation featuring several of the artists performing at the MidPoint Music Festival is lovingly compiled to give an overview of some of the fest’s participants. MPMF10’s comp has been assembled and you can listen to it right here. While the amount of already well-known acts performing at MPMF10 is something that makes…
