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Good Dennison Takes; Bad Dennison Take Stay tuned. The Josephs will appeal the decisions of boards and courts until they get their way, or until our side runs out of money to defend it. The best chance to #SavetheDennison is to force them to sell. — Chris Heckman
Amazing. I’m surprised and pleased. — Michael Christian-Budd
The Josephs are unscrupulous jackals. — Marty Milligan
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Cincinnati needs to learn to let it go. We need visionary leaders and not the old farts who want to keep it the same. For what??? It’s an empty, nasty building. Yeah to the Joseph family for their vision. — Marilyn Korte Comments posted at Facebook.com/CincinnatiCityBeat in response to June 16 post, “Historic Conservation Board Says No to Dennison Demolition”
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Idiots with Guns Prep for Unwanted Appearance at Local Community Event Gun owners, like many people who feel passionately about one issue or another, are represented most loudly by their dumbest group members. Sane, rational people who believe the Second Amendment and all that good stuff don’t make for riveting news these days. In light of the latest massacre that prompted Americans to go through their customary song and dance about how things need to change, and before people realize that things won’t and then go back to their business, there’s a little stretch of time where even local news affiliates get some grist for the mill as far as nutballs who like guns go. This week, a local schlemiel released plans to do an “Open Carry walk” during the parade portion of this year’s Cincinnati Pride Week. While this seems quite insensitive and unnecessary to most people, the organizers of the festival are trying to remain open-minded. After idiots with guns conclude their “I got a gun, check this shit out, man!” exercise, Cincinnati Pride’s head honchos are reportedly going to ask the open carry bros to also attend the Ohio Renaissance Festival later this year so they can wave crossbows around and get more practice at being uninvited and unwanted at community get-togethers from other eras.
Police Program in Ohio Treats Drug Addicts as Something Other than Criminals
Ohio City with NBA Team Clinches Title in Dramatic Game 7 Showdown
attempt at escape has led scientists at the facility to run new tests to see if robots will improve their attitudes and keep performing their menial duties just well enough to not be fired until they are close to the end of their life cycle, at which point they will have more free time to be ignored by younger robot family members and ponder if their journey to the afterlife will be mercifully quick or agonizing and slow.
One of the bad parts about being a loser with no notable accomplishments to brag about is having to either act like you are happy when others in your vicinity or region accomplish something you cannot and/or will not. Take the “probably rigged to make sure there was a Game 7” National Basketball Association Finals, for example. Cincinnatians who want to feel like they’re part of something 300 miles away took time this week to be all like “LeBron is the greatest!” after his Cavaliers defeated the Golden State Warriors and were crowned champions. Huge parades are planned in Cleveland, but here in Cincinnati our City Council has yet to release any info on what we plan do to acknowledge You can’t control me anymore! and celebrate the Cavs’ historic PHOTO : COURTESY OF PROMOBOT accomplishment. Before an announcement is made, Cincinnati residents would first like our council members to figure out how the hell Cincinnati lost ownership of the Royals (now the Sacramento Kings) back in the day even though the team had two former University of Cincinnati and future NBA Hall of Fame ballers (Jack Twyman and Oscar Robertson) on the squad and then This country of ours is the kind of place strike that person or those people’s names where it is easier to get expensive computfrom our city’s history forevermore. ers donated to political conventions than it is to get them in schools to help underprivileged kids learn how computer windows work so they don’t spend all summer outside breaking real ones. As such, Apple last week weighed in on all the tech stuff it had planned to send over to the Republican By the time robots are ready to take over, National Convention this year in Clevemost of us probably will have died from land — basically, the company isn’t going starvation or a nuke that got sent our way to help anymore because it thinks Donald because President Trump brought his MarTrump sucks. The Donald is very upset by shall Mathers brand of politics to the rest this turn of events and has threatened to of the world and pissed someone off real start a program in American grade schools bad. That said, hearing about the advancein which young students will be told how ments these cute mechanical critters who most people who own super-expensive are going to render us all useless one day Mac products don’t need them and can get is interesting, especially the details of machines that do all the functions they’ll their virtual lives in labs all over the world. require for a fraction of the price Apple’s Just the other day over in Perm, Russia, a smarmy asses charge for their shiny and robot made a brief dash for freedom after well-boxed products. not being locked down inside a robotics factory. The robot didn’t make it very CONTACT ISAAC THORN: letters@citybeat.com far before its battery died, but the brief
Popular Computer-Maker Upset by Mega-Racist Presidential Candidate Pulls Convention Support
Russian Robot Rushes to GTFO Out of Soul-Sucking Professional Atmosphere
CINCINNATI vs .
THE WORLD Following the devastating shooting attack on Orlando, Fla. gay club Pulse that killed 50 people and wounded 53, the U.S. Senate did about what you would expect it to do: nothing. The Republican-led Senate this week voted down four gun-related measures. U.S.-born Omar Mateen committed the horrific shooting with a semi-automatic rifle and pistols he purchased legally. World -1 Of course Donald Trump would have something to say about the tragedy in Orlando, and of course it would be controversial. The presumptive GOP nominee used the attack to call for racial profiling against Muslims. Gunman Mateen pledged loyalty to various (and competing) radical Islamist sects in a 911 call during his rampage. “Other countries do it, and it’s not the worst thing to do,” Trump said of profiling. World -1 Cincinnati officials have pledged to step up security at this year’s Pride festival following the Orlando shootings. City Manager Harry Black said the city is working with multiple law enforcement agencies to ensure public safety during Saturday’s parade and festivities and throughout Cincinnati Pride Week. Cincinnati +1 City officials on June 21 announced plans to build a skate park in Lower Price Hill. The Warsaw Federal Skate Park, which will occupy the neighborhood’s Evans Park, should be ready for shredding by late July. It will be one of the city’s only outdoor skate parks. Cincinnati +1
THIS WEEK: Cincinnati: 2 World: -2
YEAR TO DATE: Cincinnati: -6 World: -19
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Although most Cincinnatians can’t pinpoint Newark on a map, the small central Ohio town does have two good things going for it. One would be that it’s not Newark, New Jersey, a chaotic and hellish place that is home to the Mos Eisley Spaceport of airports. The other is that the police of this municipality have unveiled a new effort designed to push drug addicts toward rehabilitation, counseling and treatment rather than the traditional practice of incarcerating them and helping them never get jobs again. Under the Newark Addiction Recovery Initiative, citizens can fork over unused drugs and paraphernalia without fear of being charged, so long as they agree to seek treatment. The program is modeled after one started in Massachusetts in 2015. It’ll be a while before data on the effectiveness of such programs can be evaluated, but in the meantime officers in both jurisdictions have reported that it’s going to take some getting used to when it comes to viewing drug abuse as a health issue rather than a situation the addicted hopped headfirst into
because he or she thought would be fun and strengthen their bonds with their employers, friends and family members.
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Members of minority groups know the stomach-turning sensation when something awful happens and news media join the hunt for someone to blame. Jews, Arab-Americans, Chicanos, Vietnamese immigrants and others all silently hope the perp wasn’t “one of ours.” It happened again with the massacre at Pulse, an Orlando, Fla. LGBTQ night club. Authorities quickly identified the killer as Omar Mateen. Hours after police killed Mateen, Ron Hopper, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Orlando bureau, told CNN: “We do have suggestions that that individual may have leanings toward that particular ideology (Islamist terror) but we can’t say definitively.” After 9/11 and more recent slaughters in Paris, San Bernardino, Calif. and Fort Hood, Texas, it was Mateen’s name that triggered anxieties in ways that the names of mass killers Timothy McVeigh, Dylann Roof or James Holmes didn’t. Mateen was born not far from Donald Trump’s home. He was as American as McVeigh, Roof and Holmes. That didn’t matter. Mateen’s name aroused frightening stereotypes. It was red meat for the news media and anti-immigrant politicians and organizations. That’s all it took. At first we didn’t know if he were an immigrant, an American convert, the son of immigrants or what. Mateen’s name launched a thousand speculations in the news media and online sites. Within days, nonstop news media coverage advanced speculation about the motivations for Mateen’s rampage. Experts on just about everything speculated that he acted because he was a Muslim, he was radical, he was a radical Muslim, he was a wife-beater, he was obsessed with gays, he was a closeted gay or his Afghanimmigrant father was pro-Taliban. To be fair to Hopper and reporters who accurately reported what the FBI agent said, Hopper might not have been stereotyping in the crudest, xenophobic way. He might have learned what the FBI already knew about Mateen from previous investigations that pointed toward the killer’s enthusiasms for Islamist organizations. Hopper might also already have been told about Mateen’s 911 calls while he slaughtered mainly gay men at Pulse for “Latin night.” Meanwhile, reporters swarmed the worlds of American Muslims as if there was collective guilt. Leaders of mosques and Muslim-American organizations issued heartfelt but obligatory condemnations of the killings but rejected any link between Islam and the Orlando slaughter. A few representatives of these Muslim groups also bravely but wisely asked why
any religious group should be expected to adjure violence by one distant member. Shakila Ahmad, president of the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati Board, told The Enquirer, “We don’t do that with other races or other religions. We don’t hold other people accountable or even ask them” to condemn an attack. It’s a diplomatic way of telling reporters, “Fuck off.” Of course, Cincinnati’s Ahmad is right, and her comments reflect the growing confidence of Muslims in America. Nineteen years ago, the same rush to blame obsessed the news media after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City. There, 168 men, women and children died. The initial search was for men who fit the stereotype of “Arab” or “Middle Eastern.” None were found because there were none. McVeigh, a white U.S. Army veteran, was executed for the mass murder at the Murrah building. Although he was raised a Roman Catholic, I don’t recall anyone calling him a “Christian terrorist.” Oklahoma City was an all-American attack by McVeigh and two white accomplices. Arabs, Iranians, Turks or other immigrants from Muslim-majority countries were not involved. None of the news media I followed demanded formulaic, traditional condemnations from militias, Catholic bishops, the NRA, the KKK, Christian Identity or anti-government groups in Idaho forests. Swarming minority groups however linked to mass killings in part reflects the way social media and news media nurture our national mania for simple answers to complex problems; the more we learn about Omar Mateen, the more complex his possible motivations appear. That, however, doesn’t cool the inclination to blame our bogeyman of the moment, the “Muslim terrorist.” It’s too early to assess the news media performance after Orlando, but four years after the 1995 Murrah attack, the American Journalism Review showed the way. It asked, “Did the media jump too quickly to speculate that the bombing was the work of Middle Eastern terrorists? Or were they simply reporting what federal law enforcement presumed for the first day-and-a-half after the explosion?” Either way, “they blew it,” Jeff Cohen, executive director of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), told AJR. His liberal group monitored coverage of the bombing.
No matter what law enforcement said behind the scenes, the press went overboard on the Middle East angle and underplayed other scenarios, he told AJR. In its appraisal, AJR found, “Within hours of the bombing, most network news reports featured comments from experts on Middle Eastern terrorism who said the blast was similar to the World Trade Center explosion two years earlier. Newspapers relied on many of those same experts and stressed the possibility of a Middle East connection.
“Cincinnati’s Shakila Ahmad is right, and her comments reflect the growing confidence of Muslims in America.” John R. MacArthur, publisher of Harper’s magazine, told AJR, “We were, as usual, following the lead of public officials, assuming that public officials are telling us the truth.” MacArthur said the news media overemphasized the possible Middle Eastern link and ignored domestic suspects because initially the police were not giving that angle much thought. “Reporters can’t think without a cop telling them what to think,” MacArthur says. “If you are going to speculate wildly, why not say this is the anniversary of the Waco siege? Why isn’t that as plausible as bearded Arabs fleeing the scene?” Most news organizations did mention other possible culprits, AJR added, and federal law enforcement officials cautioned reporters about naming potential suspects. The FBI agent in charge in Oklahoma City, Weldon Kennedy, said, “We have not ruled out any motive or any avenue of investigation at this point.” That wasn’t good enough in the heat of competitive journalism, AJR noted. “Authorities who couldn’t be quoted by name said their first suspicion was radical Islamic terrorists. Buttressing such comments was an all-points bulletin broadcast on the day of the blast describing the suspects as two men of ‘Middle Eastern appearance’ with ‘dark hair and beards.’ ” That was 21 years ago. Plus ça change. CONTACT BEN L. KAUFMAN: letters@ citybeat.com
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Digging In
Historic Conservation Board blocks demolition of the Dennison Hotel building, but the Joseph family plans to fight BY NICK SWARTSELL
P H O T O : N I C K S WA R T S E L L
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Preservationists won the first battle over the Dennison, but more fighting looks inevitable. Conservation Board and voted to deny the Dennison demolition permit. A seventh member of the board is drawn from the city’s planning commission on a rotating basis. Columbia’s appeal will hinge on the record produced by previous hearings before the Historic Conservation Board, making those hours-long slogs through witnesses and documents all the more vital. Looking back over those hearings gives a glimpse into the evidence the appeals board would consider. The Josephs, an influential Cincinnati family that runs a number of car dealerships in the region, say it’s too expensive to rehabilitate the building. The group’s critics say that’s not the case — an assertion echoed by the city’s urban conservator, Beth Johnson. Preservationists argue that Columbia bought the building with plans to demolish it, a move that is against historic preservation rules. The Josephs say they bought the building to protect the value of other investments they have in the area, namely a number of parking lots surrounding the Dennison. In past filings around the application, the Josephs have indicated they were motivated to purchase the property to prevent it from becoming affordable housing. They say they’d now like to develop the site as the potential home of an as-yet-unidentified Fortune 500 company.
At the previous May 26 hearing, attorneys for the Josephs laid out their case. That meeting had its fair share of contention: Columbia attorney Barrett moved to have Johnson’s testimony stricken from the proceedings. Barrett said that Johnson has shown “extreme prejudice and bias” and that the Josephs “have a stacked deck against us going in” to the demolition application Johnson wrote a report taking staunch issue with the Josephs’ assertion that anything other than demolishing the building would present the company with an economic hardship, pointing out the building’s sound structural condition and the fact that studies on the economic feasibility of redevelopment of the building didn’t take into account historic state tax credits and other incentives. Lance Brown, the executive vice president of Beck Consulting, which drew up the economic feasibility report, told the board that no normal type of use — apartments, condos, office space — was feasible for the Dennison. However, when pushed by the board, Brown admitted he wasn’t specifically familiar with incentives like state historic preservation tax credits, LEED tax credits or city grants and tax credits that could have made the project more feasible. Most of the presentation restated the key points of this assertion in greater detail,
but there was at least one new revelation: how the Cincinnati City Center Development Corporation, which purchased the building for $1.2 million and then sold it to Columbia for $740,000, recouped money on the deal. Representatives for the Joseph family say the group paid 3CDC further development costs after the initial sale, making up the missing money. Columbia opponents argue other developers could rehab the building. Paul Muller of the Cincinnati Preservation Association said at the June 16 hearing that the preservation association has eight letters from interested developers. But the Dennison’s owners say the building isn’t for sale. Because the Dennison, which was built in 1892 by the firm of noted architect Samuel Hannaford, sits within the Cincinnati East Manufacturing and Warehouse District, one of 29 historic districts in the city, special permission is needed to demolish it. Plenty of barbs flew back and forth during that three-and-a-half-hour hearing leading up to the board’s decision. Attorney Sean Suder, who represents preservationists looking to save the building, dueled attorneys Burke and Barrett, who represent Columbia and its owners the Joseph family, on a number of points, CONTINUES ON PAGE 13
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f you’re a fan of long legal battles and arcane architectural and construction details, your Super Bowl might be on the way. An exhausting three-and-a-half-hour Urban Conservation Board hearing on the fate of downtown’s Dennison Building June 16 ended with cheers from preservationists. But that hearing — which capped months of maneuvering, rescheduled hearings, testimony and protests — looks unlikely to end the battle over the 124-yearold building, a controversial fight that could go all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court. There are a lot of steps to go through before that can happen, but Dennison owners the Joseph family say they’re ready to exhaust all legal options. The next move for the influential family of automobile dealers: appealing to the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals, which considers certain zoning disputes for the city. The conservation board denied an application to demolish the Dennison, at 716 Main St., by the Josephs’ real estate company Columbia REI, LLC, citing the company’s failure to prove it was an economic hardship to redevelop the building in one of downtown’s historic districts. The battle over the Dennison has come to represent how the city will navigate tensions between downtown growth and preserving Cincinnati’s historic urban fabric. The June 16 hearing was preservationists’ turn to argue against the building’s demolition following a previous four-hour hearing May 26 during which lawyers Francis Barrett and Tim Burke presented the Joseph family’s case. The board’s decision, which temporarily headed off the possibly precedent-setting demolition of a contested building in a protected historic district, will now set off another round of legal wrangling. Should the appeals board side with preservationists, the next step would be the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas. From there, the Josephs could appeal all the way up to the state’s highest court. Hanging in the balance, some say, is the way the city deals with its historic architecture, which preservationists and city officials alike cite as one of Cincinnati’s biggest assets. Four members of the seven-member zoning appeals board — Reginald Lyons, Emily Supinger, Michael Sweeney and Mark McKilip — were appointed by previous City Manager Milton Dohoney. Two others, Michael Moran, and Robert Zielasko, were appointed by current City Manager Harry Black. Zielasko also serves on the Historic
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news city desk BY cit ybeat staff
Council, City Administration Wrangle Over Last-Minute Budget Details Cincinnati City Council needs to approve the city’s fiscal year 2017 budget in the coming days. But some last-minute drama around the process by which the budget is being hammered out unfolded at Council’s June 20 Budget and Finance Committee meeting. City Manager Harry Black last month handed down budget recommendations, and Mayor John Cranley has forwarded his own proposals, including some $34 million in projects throughout the city. Council has passed all of that through committee. But the projects proposed by Cranley became a sticking point this week. Councilwoman Yvette Simpson proposed a resolution that asks city administration to review each of the mayor’s proposed projects and to engage the community councils in each neighborhood around them. Simpson said that three projects in particular in West Price Hill, Bond Hill and Roselawn have lacked necessary outreach to the community, according to community councils there. “I’m fully supportive of any funding that goes to the neighborhoods,” Simpson said. “My concern is that there are some projects where the community has been left out, doesn’t know what the project is.” Council members Kevin Flynn and Chris Seelbach both had complaints about the way in which some of their budget proposals were handled by city administration. Flynn for many months has been working on a rerouting of certain funds used to pay for Cincinnati’s streetcar and has gone so far as to recently threaten a lawsuit against Cranley. Cranley did not refer Flynn’s motion around the funding switch to committee until June 17, appearing to utilize a socalled “pocket veto” on the item. After threatening the lawsuit, Flynn’s legislation made it onto a committee agenda. Cranley says that’s a coincidence. Seelbach experienced his own difficulties with his budget proposals. While other council members found any proposal they were able to get five signatures on rounded up into one omnibus spending resolution, Seelbach’s were broken out separately, even though they had majority support. Seelbach demanded to know why his budget requests, including restoring $90,000 in funding to Keep Cincinnati Beautiful’s Future Blooms program and $70,000 for maintenance to the city’s stairsets, were separated. “Everyone who submitted budget items had their motions with more than five signatures combined,” Seelbach said. “My items
are separated one by one. Who decided to treat me differently?” After the dust cleared, Council moved forward many of the budget items proposed by Cranley, including: • $2 million to preserve affordable housing in Over-the-Rhine and another $2 million for affordable and mixed-income housing around the city; • More than $500,000 to bring human services funding back up to last year’s levels; • $450,000 to buy the site of a controversial Alaska Commons proposed affordable housing project in Avondale; • $12 million to purchase right-of-way for the proposed Wasson Way bike trail; • Millions in other neighborhood-specific projects. Other items, including those pushed by Seelbach, are still in question and will need to be hammered out in subsequent meetings. Council will need to vote on a finished budget before the fiscal year ends. (Nick Swartsell)
Kasich Vetoes Bill Requiring Voters to Pay for Extended Polling Hours Ohio Gov. John Kasich on June 19 vetoed a bill that would have required those requesting extended voting hours to post a cash bond when doing so. That bill was filed in response to controversial decisions both last November and in the March primaries by Hamilton County judges to extend polling hours due to traffic and technical difficulties. It was authored by state Sen. Bill Seitz, a Republican who represents Green Township. “I agree that there is a need to create a uniform process for the common pleas judges in all 88 counties to follow when they may be considering requests to keep polling places open after 7:30 p.m. due to some extraordinary circumstance,” Kasich wrote in a statement about the veto, noting that he agreed with the process laid out in Seitz’s bill. But the portion of the bill requiring a bond for those requesting extended voting hours was “a step too far,” he wrote. Seitz expressed his consternation in a statement following the announcement. “Without the bill, there could be 88 different sets of voting hours in Ohio’s 88 counties set by state court judges bent on appeasing their political allies to rig the elections,” Seitz’s statement read. “Should this occur, the blame will fall squarely on the governor.” Kasich wasn’t the legislation’s only opposition. Democrat lawmakers — and even some Republicans — balked at the bill, saying it would create a chilling effect that would keep voters from requesting necessary extensions to voting hours, making voting more difficult. (NS)
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including the relevancy and availability of state and federal historic preservation tax credits, the building’s historic significance, its present condition, whether rehabilitation costs cited by Columbia were accurate and more. A number of witnesses testified on behalf of the building’s historic significance and the economic feasibility of saving it. Kathleen Norris, a Cincinnati real estate consultant, reviewed the report commissioned by the Josephs that purported to show there was no economically advantageous way to rehabilitate the building into office space, a luxury hotel, condominiums or apartments. Norris took issue with that last conclusion, saying that a “tremendous shortage of market rate apartments in the Central Business District” and the coming streetcar, which has a stop just a few blocks from the building, would make it very attractive to renters and allow rents as high as $2.80 per square foot. That’s similar to market rates for apartments at riverfront development The Banks. “The fact that the Dennison isn’t The Banks is an asset, not a detriment,” Harris said, heading off rebuttal about the difference between the mid-downtown location and the riverfront. Harris said some renters would want a less-active location than the commercial and entertainment destination.
John Blatchford, of Over-the-Rhine-based Kunst, which does tax credit consultancy, said he reviewed data about the building’s tax credit eligibility and said it was “possible and highly likely” that a project to rehabilitate the Dennison could net as much as $1.4 million in federal and $900,000 in state historic tax credits. Barrett and Burke pugnaciously crossexamined most of the preservationists’ experts, and the intense atmosphere spilled over into the public comment segment of the hearing, during which both Burke and Barrett cross examined citizens speaking in support of efforts to preserve the building. “I don’t think I need a geography lesson,” Over-the-Rhine Community Council President Martha Good snapped at the attorneys when they questioned her about why OTRCC was interested in a downtown building. For Good, the battle over the Dennison is about more than a single building. She argued that a demolition permit for the Dennison would set a precedent that could endanger other historic buildings around Cincinnati. OTRCC has voted unanimously to oppose the demolition permit. Following the board’s decision to deny Columbia’s demolition permit application, the company has 30 days to appeal the decision, a move attorneys for the Josephs say they will make. ©
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• P H O T O : J E S S E F O X • S T Y L I S T: A M A N D A B O W M A N L ay e r s o f L G B T Q p r o g r e s s
The Pride Issue 2016 riage in the United States — in a decision that will forever include the name of Cincinnatian Jim Obergefell, who sued for the right to be recognized as the surviving spouse on his husband John Arthur’s death certificate — this past year has truly become a jumping-off point for LGBTQ progress, both here in Cincinnati and across the world. The push for marriage equality has gained traction globally; voices big and small have shined light on the crushing realities many transgender people face daily; and powerful new advocates for equality have emerged. Locally, the world premiere of the Cincinnati Opera-produced Fellow Travelers has taken on increased meaning in light of the tragic shooting June 12 in Orlando, Fla. The piece in part details how homosexuals were grouped in
with “subversives” during the McCarthy Era. The New York Times wrote of a performance on June 19: “The large clusters of audience members who stayed behind in the lobby after Sunday’s performance discussing and analyzing the show suggest that — at this moment in time, in particular — it offered much more than mere entertainment.” There are still questions as to the motivation behind the shootings, but the nation’s response demonstrated a renewed consideration and respect for the LGBTQ community. Cincinnati quickly illuminated the convention center sign in rainbow colors, and hundreds rallied at Fountain Square and outside Below Zero Lounge in Over-the-Rhine to show support for those affected in Orlando and to stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ community here. Cincinnati police have taken additional precautionary measures ahead of this year’s Pride celebration.
Having such a horrific event occur in what was previously seen as a safe space for both the LGBTQ community and for people of color, who were the overwhelming majority of the victims in the the shooting, serves as an important reminder of the continued need to fight for equality. Even though history will remember 2015-16 as a monumental year in this push, there is obviously still much to be done. In celebration of Pride Week, we looked back on the significance of the past year in LGBTQ-related news; touched base with Rachel Dovel, whose fight for health care benefits is furthering the local conversation about transgender issues; and checked in with three local choruses participating in a major national LGBTQ choir festival. And, as always, we looked ahead to a festive week leading up to the Cincinnati Pride Parade and festival on June 25. — Da n n y C r o s s , Pr o j e c t Edi t or
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F ol l ow i ng t h e h i s t or ic S u p r e m e C ou r t ru l i ng on e y e a r ag o that legalized same-sex mar-
The Fight Goes On: Looking back on a B Y K AT T E N B A R G E I t ’ s be e n a p p r ox i m at e ly on e ca l e n da r y e a r s i nc e t h e S u p r e m e C ou r t reached its
landmark decision legalizing same-sex marriage across the land. In one fell swoop, each and every American earned the right to marry whomever he or she chooses. For many same-sex couples, it was a day they never thought they’d see. We enter year two of legalized same-sex marriage knowing that a growing collection of powerful advocates support the ongoing push for equality. For every tired homophobe like Kim Davis, there exist dozens of people and entities actively supporting LGBTQ-friendly causes — from the nation’s highest office to the leaders of a multibillion-dollar professional sports league. There is still much progress to be made, especially globally, but the following collection of news and notes is a reminder that we have made significant recent headway in the fight for equality and dignity for all.
Ireland ’ s Historic Popular Vote In May of 2015, Ireland became the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage with a popular vote. Despite the country’s former domination by the Catholic Church, 62 percent voted in favor of the referendum — about 1.2 million voters and all but one of the republic’s 43 parliamentary constituencies. Irish health minister Leo Varadkar, who came out this year as the country’s first openly gay minister, referred to the overwhelming success of the campaign as “almost like a social revolution.” With the world watching, marriages began Nov. 17. Cormac Gollogly and Richard Dowling were the first same-sex couple married; they had been together for 12 years.
Mexico Overturns Same-Sex Marriage Bans
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Last June, a series of decisions by Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that state bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional. A recent poll found that 64 percent of Mexicans believe homosexuality is an “acceptable way of life,” a
huge difference from 27 percent in 2000. The President of Mexico has launched an initiative to revise the entire legal framework of discriminatory laws in the country, paving the way for what he refers to as a “Society of Rights.” Both Cyprus and Chile also passed civil union legislation in 2015, though they have yet to grant full marriage equality.
Thailand, Vietnam and Bolivia Promote Transgender Visibility In September, Thailand passed legislation called the Gender Equality Act, creating the first national legislation in Southeast Asia to protect transgender rights. The law prohibits discrimination against someone who is “of a different appearance from his/her own sex at birth.” Then, in November, Vietnam followed with a similar law that also legalized gender reassignment surgery. Nearly 90 percent of the assembly voted in support. Meanwhile, Bolivia lawmakers approved a proposal that allows transgender people to change their name and gender on legal documents. Those wishing to do so only have to prove they are adults.
United Nations Releases Landmark Report on State of LGBT-Rights In releasing a report titled “Discrimination and violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity,” the United Nations continued to ally itself with LGBTQ rights. Previously, the body enforced initiatives to counter homophobia, such as the UN Free & Equal Campaign and the “Being LGBT in Asia” initiative. Under Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s leadership, the report disclosed substantial progress for LGBTQ equality. But it also noted that continuing violence and impunity, criminalization and discrimination in areas such as housing, legal frameworks, healthcare and education leave a lot to be desired. Specifically, violence and discrimination and a hateful rhetoric against LGBTQ people were highlighted in The Gambia, Honduras and Belarus.
Ireland becomes the first country to legalize same-sex marriage via popular vote.
APRIL 2015
Randy Berry is appointed the first-ever LGBTQ Envoy for the U.S.
Kate Brown is elected governor of Oregon, becoming the highestranking LGBTQ official in the U.S. Bolivian legislation allows transgender people to change legal name and gender.
may 2015
U.S. Supreme Court Makes Marriage Equality a Reality Perhaps the most significant event in LGBTQ history this past year, the landmark Supreme Court marriage equality ruling in June, jumpstarted a year of celebration and same-sex marriages across the country. The 5-4 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges struck down bans in 13 states and Puerto Rico and cemented the constitutional right to marry. President Obama chose to rejoice with the masses as he illuminated the White House in rainbow colors the night of the ruling and endorsed the Equality Act.
Berry Becomes First Ever Official LGBTQ Envoy Randy Berry finished off his first year of being the official LGBTQ Envoy this April. The United States became the first country in the world to appoint such a figure, a dedicated senior officer whose sole position is to advance LGBTQ rights and equality around the world. Berry has an accomplished career as a foreign service officer. He has announced that anti-transgender violence around the world remains a “grave” issue, that his priority is to combat anti-LGBTQ violence abroad and that discriminatory laws in North Carolina and Mississippi will not undermine LGBTQ efforts overseas.
Oregon Swears in Bisexual Governor In other news concerning political figures, Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown became the highestranking openly LGBTQ official in the country when she was appointed governor of Oregon this year after the resignation of John Kitzhaber. The openly bisexual politician easily won the state’s Democratic primary in May and will be on the November ballot hoping to take on Kitzhaber’s final two years. Brown joined the ranks of out U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin and a scattered number of LGBTQ House Representatives as LGBTQ people in top
Caitlyn Jenner reveals new gender identity on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine.
JUNE 2015
Boy Scouts of America lifts ban on gay and bisexual scouts, volunteers and employees.
Mexico rules state bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizes same-sex marriage. U.S. Air Force announces acceptance of openly transgender service members.
JULy 2015
big year for LGBTQ progress U.S. government posts. Brown’s signature on the Youth Mental Health Protection Act banned conversion therapy aimed at minors.
Air Force Allows Openly Transgender Service Members The U.S. Air Force announced that transgender airmen and airwomen will not face release from active duty for openly identifying as LGBTQ. “Neither gender dysphoria nor self-identification as transgender is an automatic circumstance that generates involuntary separation,” an Air Force spokesperson said last June. President Obama shook hands with a uniformed and active-duty out transgender service member, Senior U.S. Airman Logan Ireland, when he and his fiancée attended the White House Pride celebration. In August, it was reported that the Pentagon had laid out a timeline for allowing openly transgender people to serve in all areas of the military, in light of criticism that these measures were not already put in place.
The Jenner Effect Caitlyn Jenner is a controversial figure, and while many members of the LGBTQ community do not consider her a worthy spokesperson of the transgender community, there is no denying that she dominated the media this past year. From the iconic Vanity Fair cover revealing her transformation to the popularity (and lack thereof) of her reality show I Am Cait, Jenner basked in the airwaves that continuously surround her famous family. But her statements about being Republican, supporting Donald Trump and not understanding the socioeconomic struggles of the greater transgender community left her gender-nonconforming peers alienated and unrepresented.
Leelah Alcorn Changes the World In news that hits close to home for Cincinnatians, Leelah Alcorn made news globally when the 17-year-old committed suicide and posted a blog detailing her struggles with
SEPT 2015
U.N. passes resolution to combat violence and discrimination against LGBTQ people. Pope Francis privately meets with former student and his boyfriend during U.S. visit. Kim Davis jailed after refusing to issue marriage licenses to samesex couples.
Pope Reconnects w ith Former Student and His Boyfriend Pope Francis met privately with a gay couple and their friends at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C. during his visit in the fall. Yayo Grassi, now a caterer in the D.C. area, was taught by the future pope in high school in Argentina and brought his longtime partner and some of their friends to the meeting. “Me being gay is no different than me having blue eyes,” Grassi said. “It’s not different than me living in Washington. It is part of my life. And the way he accepted my boyfriend, it is a validation of how happy he is that two people of the same sex can be together and happy.”
gender identity, sparking much pushback, including travel bans to the state and celebrities canceling tours. Even the National Basketball League has expressed opposition to the legislation, suggesting that North Carolina risked losing Charlotte as the location for the league’s All-Star Game if the law isn’t overturned.
Boy Scouts Lift Ban on Gay Leaders After its 2013 decision to remove the ban on gay youth members, the Boy Scouts of America in July lifted the ban on gay and bisexual adults serving as volunteers, scouts and employees. While the organization as a whole will support its LGBTQ members, local troops and councils can still make their own decisions regarding refusing troop leaders based on sexual orientation.
Kim Davis Goes to Jail After the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage last summer, a Rowan County, Ky. clerk named Kim Davis made headlines when she refused to grant same-sex marriage licenses to couples wishing to marry. Davis argued that “God’s authority” should overrule the nation’s highest court. She ended up serving five days in jail. Upon her release, Davis returned to work but her office began granting the marriage licenses.
Religious Freedom Laws Spark Criticism
Obama Sets a Tone w ith Bathroom Edict
In April, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed a bill that allows businesses and religious groups to deny services such as counseling, wedding planning and adoption support to LGBTQ people on the basis of “sincerely held religious beliefs and convictions.” While liberal opponents labeled the bill as discriminatory by nature, supporters cited freedom of speech. Similarly, in Georgia last month, faith-based organizations were given the option to deny their services to LGBTQ people. North Carolina’s state house passed legislation preventing trans men and woman from using the bathroom that aligns with their
The Obama administration has effectively ordered all public schools in the nation to allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice, following controversy in states over discriminatory bathroom bills. Now a Virginia school board is ready to fight for their right to utilize single-stall bathrooms for transgender students. Such situations will likely be decided in court, but the current administration has been clear in its intention to demand equal opportunity for students of all genders. ©
OCT 2015
Chile’s same-sex civil union legislation goes into effect.
Vietnam legalizes gender reassignment surgery.
Nick Jonas and Demi Lovato cancel North Carolina tour stop due to HB2 bathroom bill.
Dec 2015 Cyrus recognizes same-sex partnerships with civil unions.
NOV 2015
Cincinnati bans conversion therapy.
APRIL 2016
MAY 2016
Obama administration issues order to public schools saying transgender students should be allowed to use the bathroom of choice.
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Thailand passes Gender Equality Act to protect transgender rights.
being a transgender teenager in a conservative Christian household. Her parents refused to allow her to undergo sexual reassignment surgery and instead sent her to Christian conversion therapy that Alcorn said contributed to depression and identity crises. After news of her suicide broke, a petition for “Leelah’s Law” was created by the Transgender Human Rights Institute to ban conversion therapy and raise awareness of the psychological effects that stem from it. The petition was endorsed by President Obama, and within a year conversion therapy was banned in Cincinnati.
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Coverage Gap Rachel Dovel is battling the Public Library for trans-inclusive health care INTERVIEW BY NATALIE KREBS On J u ne 26, 2015, w h i l e m a n y Ci nci nnat i a ns c e l e br at e d the Supreme Court ruling that legal-
ized gay marriage across the country, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County employee Rachel Dovel got some bad news. Dovel, 33, who has been transitioning from male to female for the past two years, says the library informed her it did not cover her gender confirmation surgery under its health insurance plan. Since then, Dovel and LQBTQ-rights lawyer Josh Langdon have been entangled in a battle with the library’s board of trustees to get the procedure covered. On June 14, the library board voted to not include the procedure in its health plan. Dovel has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and has said she is considering legal action if the library doesn’t change its policy soon. CityBeat recently sat down with Dovel and Langdon to discuss the case and transgender issues in the community. CityBeat: When did you discover the library’s insurance wouldn’t cover your procedure?
RD: I’d rather not have to talk about it in public because it is a private issue, but, you know, we tried — we tried to talk about it in private with the people who make the decisions. We tried to explain how this affects me, affects other employees in the library, but (the library’s board of trustees) just doesn’t seem to be affected by that. If it means talking about something embarrassing in public, well, I guess I’ll just have to do that. CB: You’ve worked at the library for 10 years. How has this changed your relationship with the library? RD: It’s been stressful, very stressful. I mean, I go in there every day, and I work as hard as I can, but sometimes I wonder why I’m doing that for my health needs. This is a benefit I’ve agreed to. There’s a contract somewhere that says I will do this work and you will pay me this amount and give me these benefits, and that’s what capitalism is. It’s a business contract. There’s a staff forum that is supposedly anonymous (for library employees to express various concerns). It’s been an interesting little debate back and forth between people who support me on this and the people who don’t. A bunch of people have said, “I want us to cover it.” Some people have said, “I don’t want us covering unnecessary cosmetic surgery.” CB: What is the general process you have to go through in order to get gender confirmation surgery approved by an insurance company? RD: If you’re going to get the surgery, there are all these prerequisites to make sure that you’re not, I don’t know, doing this for no good reason. You have to have been on hormones for at least a year. You have to have been living full time in your desired gender identity for a
year. There’s a thing called the “lived experience,” which means being socially out as your gender identity. Then, two letters from mental health professionals. One has to be a psychiatrist. CB: Transgender issues have been in the news recently with the passage of HB2 in North Carolina requiring people to use the bathroom of the gender listed on their birth certificate. What has been your reaction to that? RD: Those (laws) are infuriating. The North Carolina law is maddening. The governor of the state is sitting there talking about, “We just have to protect our daughters and our wives from people creeping on them in the bathroom.” Basically, this just files us right in the category of we’re all rapists and pedophiles, which is not true at all. It’s illegal to assault or spy on people wherever, not just bathrooms. So I would think that law would already be enough to cover this kind of stuff, but, also, even if these people were doing that, why do trans people have to pay? That’s not our problem. CB: Are you surprised the board voted not to extend a number of benefits to its employees, including the coverage you requested? What are your next steps? RD: I was a little surprised, honestly. I had been feeling a bit hopeful. Given the educational effort we made and the obvious direction our country is heading as far as LGBT rights, I had hoped the board at least saw the writing on the wall, if not actually felt sympathy for the struggle of its LGBT employees — or maybe that the publicity of their discriminatory behavior would shame them into doing the right thing. I’m also surprised they aren’t more concerned about their legal obligation; both the Affordable Care Act and Title VII make clear that discrimination based on gender identity is not OK. ©
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Rachel Dovel: I’ve been transitioning since 2014. I came out at the library in February 2015. I came out at work, and that went really well, so I felt really confident. I just kind of assumed that if you were insured, you were insured. In mid-June (of 2015), that’s when I called the insurance company, and they said this is excluded. I went up to human resources and said, “What’s going on with this? Can you look into this?” And they said yes. At that point I was feeling pretty good about how they were reacting to the issue. They seemed like they were practical and wanted to do something about it. But then two weeks later — on the day that the Supreme Court decision about equal marriage came out — they called me up to the office and told me that it was excluded. I basically went to Josh (Langdon) right after work, and I said, “What can we do about this?”
CB: You had a press conference about your fight with the library in April. Why did you decide to come out publicly about it?
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Choral Community Three local LGBTQ choral ensembles head to Denver to participate in the annual GALA Festival BY ANNE ARENSTEIN T h e p ow e r of s ong h a s a lway s be e n a f or c e f or s o c i a l j u s t ic e . Inspired by music
not nervous — in part because there’s so much support. Their featured set on July 3 will include a MUSE commission, “Phenomenally,” Rosephanye Powell’s setting of Maya Angelou’s poem. The GALA experience has profoundly affected many straight members of MUSE. Lois Shegog, MUSE’s assistant director, calls her first GALA in 1996 “a real learning trip.” “As a straight African-American woman, I saw how much more complicated life was for my lesbian sisters,” she says. “It also motivated me to join the board, to be a voice for women, as well as for African-American women.” Shegog was also struck by MUSE’s diversity, which sets it apart from many other groups. “It’s not just about being a rock star,” she says. “No one else looks like us when it comes to ethnicities or age range. No one.” “Really seeing how we’re role models for people across the country and beyond made this the experience of my life,” says Marie-Elyse Krulewitch-Browne, whose solo begins MUSE’s GALA set. With more than 200 performances and workshops over a five-day period, sets are timed down to the last second, and it’s impossible to hear everything. “Imagine it — now there are 29 women’s choruses, a transgender section, a program featuring people of color and youth choruses,” Roma says. And when the choirs come home, MUSE member Debbie Piper hopes that they will be inspired by what they hear and learn. “GALA is a safe place for GLBTQ communities to sing for what we believe,” she says. “What we’re singing for today may be different from what was sung in 1986, but it’s all part of a journey. It may never be complete, but still, we celebrate in song.” A special GALA SEND OFF CONCERT featuring all three ensembles will take place 3 p.m. Sunday at Mount Washington Presbyterian Church. More info: cincinnatimenschorus.org or musechoir.org.
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from the Civil Rights Movement of the ’50s and ’60s, LGBTQ communities began to harness that power to bring about change starting in the early 1980s. MUSE: Cincinnati’s Women’s Choir was founded in 1983; Cincinnati Men’s Chorus was established in 1991. In 2014, Diverse City, the area’s first LGBTQ/straight alliance youth choir, began. All three groups will be in Denver July 2-6 for the GALA Festival — GALA stands for Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses — the world’s largest LGBTQ performing event. Held every four years, this year’s event will draw more than 6,000 participants representing 173 ensembles from all over the world, including China and Cuba. Today, 190 choruses, ranging from youth ensembles to 300-voice groups, are on the GALA roster. For many of these groups, this festival is the high point of their choral experience. “It’s more than the amazing performances,” says Kevin Craig, a 10-year member of the Cincinnati Men’s Chorus. “It’s the sense of normalcy and really seeing the power of the movement.” Dr. Catherine Roma missed out on the first GALA Festival in 1983 because she was moving to Cincinnati for doctoral studies at the University of Cincinnati’s CollegeConservatory of Music. She had founded Anna Crusis Women’s Choir in Philadelphia in 1975 — the longest-tenured member listed on GALA’s timeline. Roma’s experience in Philadelphia led her to start MUSE here. Roma attended the 1986 Festival in Minneapolis and quickly became an outspoken advocate for women’s groups and a leader in the organization. “It was a beautiful thing to meet so many amazing gay men who were so welcoming,” she says. “They wanted women’s choruses involved and they were dedicated to that.” MUSE made its GALA debut at the 1989 Seattle Festival, a
performance Roma remembers as being off the charts. “We were one of only nine women’s choruses, and we upstaged the New York Gay Men’s Chorus, who had to follow us,” she says. Since then, MUSE has taken on rockstar status. Casey Hayes was the assistant director and accompanist for the Indianapolis Men’s Choir when he first attended the 2000 Festival in San Jose, Calif. He calls the experience life-changing. “ As a gay man, knowing these choruses had been out there building bridges between our community and others really affected me,” he says. “It’s why I do what I do.” Hayes is completing his fifth year as the artistic director of the Cincinnati Men’s Chorus. It’s been eight years since CMC appeared at GALA. “I didn’t realize the power of the movement or how strong it was,” says CMC member Craig, recalling the 2008 Festival in Miami. “There were 5,000 people like us and so different. I’ll never forget how warm everyone was, whether they were gay or straight.” Denise Taylor describes her first GALA as liberating. “As an African-American lesbian, just holding hands with my partner in public was something I couldn’t imagine doing anywhere else.” Rhonda Juliano was assistant director of the Seattle Women’s Choir in 2004 and couldn’t take in everything at that year’s Montreal Festival, because she and her other ensemble, Diverse Harmony, were making history as the first American gay/straight alliance youth choir to appear at GALA. “To think that teenagers could be on stage sharing their stories was so powerful,” Juliano says. “So many in the audience never had that kind of openness.” Cincinnati’s gay/straight alliance chorus Diverse City and its director Steve Milloy will make their GALA debut this year. Juliano is returning to GALA as MUSE’s artistic director, a responsibility she deems an honor. She says she’s
Your Guide to Pride: Navigate your way through COMPILED BY EMILY BEGLEY P ride W e e k is u p on u s , a n d wit h it c om e s parti e s , parade s , drag s h ows , m u sic , trivia , bru nc h e s a n d mor e . From a special Summer Cinema
installment and an interfaith service to the uber-popular parade and festival, the final days of June are filled with dozens of ways to celebrate pride and the LGBTQ community. To help you plan your Pride itinerary, we’ve compiled a list of goings-on in and around the city that continue all the way through June 30.
CLUELESS
• P H O T O : pa r a m o u n t
• denotes unofficial/unaffiliated Cincinnati Pride events.
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WEDNESDAY 22
Summer Cinema: Clueless — Pack a picnic dinner and settle in for a special Pride Week installment of Washington Park’s weekly free screening series. This week’s movie is Clueless, in which rich, plaidwearing high-schooler Cher tries to boost a new students’ popularity (ugh, as if). Wear your plaid — the best-dressed guest will win a prize — and snack on Pride Popcorn from Popcorn Pizzazz, with proceeds benefitting Cincinnati Pride. 9-11 p.m. Free. Washington Park, 1230 Elm St., Over-theRhine, washingtonpark.org.
THURSDAY 23
Cincinnati Pride InterFaith Service — This spiritual service celebrates the blessings the LGBTQ community brings to
the city. All are welcome to attend an evening of readings, music, prayer and inspiration, regardless of religion. 7 p.m. Free. Truth and Destiny Covenant Ministries Fellowship United Church of Christ, 2645 W. North Bend Road, Monfort Heights, cincinnatipride.org. CityBeat’s Pride Outing — We’re accompanying the unveiling of this year’s CityBeat Pride Issue with a party at the casino, featuring drag performances, $6 cocktails and music from DJ Jess the Ripper. Local favorites Amaya Sexton, Kataleya Giles and Mr. Continental Mykul Jay Valentine take the stage; the Femme Fatale Karmen Kazzi and Jade Jolie, RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 5 contestant, will also be in the building. Donations will be collected for Cincinnati Pride
JULY 1-4
Pride Week and beyond throughout the evening. 8 p.m.-12:30 a.m. Free. JACK Cincinnati Casino, 1000 Broadway St., Pendleton, citybeat.com. Karaoke at Below Zero Lounge — Show off your pipes at this late-night party hosted by Matt and Patrick. 10 p.m.-2 a.m. Free. Below Zero Lounge, 1120 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine, 513421-9376, belowzerolounge.com. • In Living Karaoke at Simon Says — Belt it out at the bar every Thursday night with Pulse Entertainment Productions. #SingResponsibly. 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Free. Simon Says Bar, 428 Walnut St., Downtown, 513-381-7577, facebook.com/ simonsaysbarcincy. •
FRIDAY 24
CABARET
• PHOTO : JES SE FOX
Cincinnati Pride Community Recognition Ceremony — Hosted by the Contemporary Arts Center, this event recognizes and awards leaders within the city’s LGBTQ community. Dinner will be served prior to the ceremony. Dinner 6:30 p.m.; ceremony 7 p.m. $30 individual; $240 table. Contemporary Arts Center, 44 E. Sixth St., Downtown, cincinnatipride.org.
Friday Night Dance Party — DJ S.y.i.m.o.n.e. takes over Below Zero Lounge; you take over the dance floor. Dance like no one’s watching until 2 a.m. 10 p.m.-2 a.m. Free. Below Zero Lounge, 1120 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-4219376, belowzerolounge.com. •
Business Association
Friendly Fridays & Fireball — PennyTration and the girls blast you into Pride weekend with an As Seen on TV show featuring the cast of The Cabaret. Grab a Fireball and enjoy. 11:15 p.m. Free. Below Zero Lounge, 1120 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-421-9376, belowzerolounge.com. •
SATURDAY 25
Cabaret Saturday Drag Show — PennyTration hosts an all-star cast of the best drag queens in the Midwest: Brooklyn Steele-Tate, Mystique Summers, Chelsea Pearl, Mirelle Jane Divine, Quasi and The Lady Jetta. 11:15 p.m. Free. Below Zero Lounge, 1120 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-421-9376, belowzerolounge.com. • Cincinnati Pride Parade — More than 60 participating organizations kick off the biggest day of Pride with this dazzling, colorful, noisy, interactive and mesmerizing
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parade. The route begins on Seventh Street and winds its way down Vine, then veers left on Freedom Way, continuing down Main Street. The procession comes to an end at Saywer Point and Yeatman’s Cove, where the celebration rolls right into this year’s Cincinnati Pride Festival. 11 a.m. Free. Route begins on Seventh Street, Downtown, cincinnatipride.org/parade. Cincinnati Pride Festival — The week culminates with the 43rd-annual Pride Festival, featuring dozens of vendors, local eats, a family-fun zone and two stages of entertainment. Refuel after the parade with bites from Skyline Chili, streetpops, Buona Terra and more before browsing booths manned by HOMAGE, Earthwise Pet Supplies, the Cincinnati Men’s Chorus, cincygayweddings.com and many others. The family-fun zone in Yeatman’s Cove comprises stilt balloon artists, crafts, inflatable jousting, a water slide and giant Jenga, plus an interactive show with trapeze artists. The main attraction, however, is the fest’s diverse lineup of entertainment. Headlined by Pop duo Karmin, additional acts include MUSE: Cincinnati’s Women’s Choir, Cin City Burlesque’s Sweett Biscutt and several drag showcases throughout the afternoon and evening. Noon-9 p.m. Free. Sawyer Point and Yeatman’s Cove, 705 E. Pete Rose Way, Downtown, cincinnatipride.org/festival.
HERITAGE
Pride Pink Party at Below Zero Lounge — Below Zero Lounge transforms into a pink paradise for its annual bash in conjunction with Pride. Dress in pink from head to toe and expect plenty of drink specials, music and giveaways. 10 p.m.-2 a.m. Free. Below Zero Lounge,
1120 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine, 513421-9376, belowzerolounge.com.
SUNDAY 26
Cincinnati Pride: A Pop Up Drag Brunch — Local drag queens keep the Pride party going with a series of searing performances at 21 Museum Hotel’s restaurant, Metropole. Chef Jared Bennett prepares a family-style brunch accompanied by a welcome mimosa and Metropole’s signature cocktails. 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. $35; call 513-578-6660 to make reservations. Metropole, 609 Walnut St., Downtown, metropoleonwalnut.com. Leelah Alcorn Memorial Highway Cleanup — Leelah Alcorn, a 17-year-old transgender woman from Kings Mills, tragically committed suicide on a highway on Dec. 8, 2014, leaving behind a poignant note on her Tumblr page that ended with a plea: “Fix society. Please.” The Leelah Alcorn Memorial Highway organization has adopted a section of Interstate 71 and hosts four cleanups per year in memory of Leelah, simultaneously hoping to educate the public and promote tolerance. Volunteer to help pick up litter along the highway. 10 a.m.-noon. Sign up at leelahhighway@gmail.com. 658 Corwin Nixon Blvd., South Lebanon, leelahhighway. wordpress.com. • Starlight Sunday at Simon Says — Savannah L Judd hosts this drag show that features DJs and boozy snacks (think drunken gummy bears) at Cincinnati’s oldest gay bar. 11:30 p.m. June 26. No cover. Simon Says Bar, 428 Walnut St., Downtown, 513-381-7577, facebook.com/ simonsaysbarcincy. •
• PHOTO : JES SE FOX
now found in tHe tri-state • 15 minutes from otr Red Wing Shoe Store: 8071 Connector Dr. • Florence, KY 41042-1466 • (859) 283-2909
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Handmade for 111 years
• PHOTO : PROVIDED Jim Obergefell
MONDAY 27
Pool at Rosie’s Tavern — Play pool for free every Monday at Rosie’s Tavern, with $2 Wells and $6 domestic beer pitchers. Bar opens at 3 p.m. Free. 643 Bakewell St., Covington, Ky., 859-291-9707, rosiestavernnky.com. • Monday Night Trivia at Northside Tavern — Exercise your brain! Questions revolve around music, movies and pop culture. Arrive early to pick your team. 8 p.m. Free. Northside Tavern, 4163 Hamilton Ave., Northside, 513-542-3603, northsidetav.com. •
TUESDAY 28
WEDNESDAY 29
Poetry, Stories & Desserts Galore — Cincy Straddlers, a group of queer women, trans* individuals and their friends, hosts a relaxed evening of stories, art and poetry. Read a poem you’ve
THURSDAY 30
Love Wins: A Panel Discussion with Jim Obergefell — Local activist, author and speaker Jim Obergefell shares how his love story became a legal battle that contributed to a history-making decision — a journey described in his recently published book, Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality, which he coauthored with Debbie Cenziper. When husband John Arthur lost his battle with ALS in 2013, Obergefell filed a case against Ohio for a simple reason: to be listed as Arthur’s husband on his death certificate. Because that suit against the state happened to have the lowest case number, the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges — which legalized marriage nationwide in June of 2015 — bears his name. Joining Obergefell on the panel are his attorney Al Gerhardstein, attorney Scott Knox, Judge Martha Daughtrey and Arthur’s aunt Paulette Roberts. Proceeds from the event benefit the ALS Association. 5:30 p.m. reception; 6:30 p.m. panel discussion. $30; $25 Mercantile members; reservations requested. Mercantile Library, 414 Walnut St., Downtown, 513-621-0717, mercantilelibrary.com. •
Rodizi o is Ame Grill First B rica’s raz Steakh ilian o Restau use rant
As Ambassadors of Brazil, we welcome you to our home and invite you to celebrate with us the warmth, alegria, and abundance of Rodizio Grill's authentic Brazilian dining experience. Located at the New Liberty ceNter open 7 days a week for lunch and dinner weekend brunch offered both Saturdays and Sundays 11am - 3pm happy hour MoNday - Friday 11aM - 7pM, featuring a traditional brazilian appetizer menu and drink specials 513-777-4777 www.rodiziogrill.com/liberty-center/
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Fellow Travelers — This locally produced world-premiere opera, based on a 2007 novel of the same name by Thomas Mallon, takes a look inside the 1950’s McCarthy Era Lavender Scare, during which gay government employees were persecuted and blackmailed. The New York Times calls Fellow Travelers a “heart-wrenching yet musically lucid drama.” And, luckily, this important piece of theater, which illuminates a frequently ignored and unexplored period in LGBTQ history, is on stage in our own backyard through July 10. 7:30 p.m. Onstage through July 10. Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut St., Downtown, cincinnatiopera.org. •
written yourself, share another’s work that has moved you or simply come and listen. Roebling’s coffee counter will be open during the event, and some desserts will be available; guests are invited to bring their own drinks and some snacks to share. 7-9 p.m. Free. Roebling Point Books & Coffee, 306 Greenup St., Covington, Ky., cincystraddlers.com. •
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Headliner:
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cincinnati • pride JUNE 25, 2016• SAWYER POINT
Custom Sponsors
www.cincinnatipride.org Media Sponsors
In Kind Sponsors
PNC Stage
Emcee - Tyese Rainz
4:15pm - Diverse City Youth Chorus
4:30pm - The Imperial Sovereign Queen City Court of the 3:30pm - Cincinnati Pride Drag Buckeye Empire Showcase featuring... (ISQC CBE) Show • Alice Hatter featuring Emperor • Sarah Jessica Darker Owen Cash and • Mari Jane Empress Alana Reign • Kataleya Dimon • Judith Iscariot 5:00pm - MUSE Cincinnati 2:30pm - DJ Jacob Hardesty
cincinnati • pride JUNE 25, 2016• SAWYER POINT
ENTERTAINMENT LINEUP
4:00pm - Comedy featuring Sweett Biscutt
Women's Choir
(from Cin City Burlesque)
Belterra Park Gaming / Fifth Third Bank Mainstage Emcee - Brooklyn Steele-Tate 2:00pm - DJ Jules 3:00pm - Cincinnati Pride Drag Showcase featuring... • Kisha Summers • Savannah Judd • Velma Tration • Misty Phoenix St. James • Jessica Dimon 3:30pm - DJ Jules 4:00pm - Cincinnati Pride Drag Showcase featuring... • Tina Hightower • Nikki Dimon • Icyee's Entertainment Family • Chasity Marie • Aubree Dimon
4:30pm - DJ T.R.U.B.
5:00pm - Cincinnati Pride D • Aaliyah Milian • R • The Dimon Girls 5:30pm - DJ Charlee
6:00pm - Cincinnati Pride D • Marilyn Malicious
6:20pm - The Denton Affai
6:30 - 8:00pm DJ Jessica T
8pm - Karmin (Cincinnati P
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Drag Showcase featuring... Rita Dela Novah • Mirelle Jane Divine • David Starr
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Family Fun Zone
The Ripper
The BIG Show where youth can learn to juggle, trapeze artists, interactive with the audience.
Pride Headliner)
• Stilt balloon artists • Kids crafts • Inflatable jousts • Inflatable bounce houses and water slide • Yard sized Jenga/Connect Four Shows will be every 1 1/2 hours starting at 2pm
Progress, love and pride— three terms which encompass our communities mantra as a whole. What many consider as the impetus for the beginning of national pride celebrations, the Stonewall riots in 1969 inspired our community to stand together, at least once a year, and march in celebration and remembrance of those we’ve lost. Forty-seven years later, we’ve made progress, we’ve spread love, and we’re proud of the things we’ve accomplished.
Committee
Shawn Baker
Board Co-President
Brooklyn Steele-Tate Board Co-President
Thomas Haddock Board Secretary
Cincinnati has been one of the cities to help pave this road. June 25 will mark the 43rd anniversary of Cincinnati pride with a parade kickoff through downtown Cincinnati— culminating in one of the greatest parties of the year! Cincinnati Pride is the 4th largest event for Cincinnati and we only grow as the years go by. Cincinnati Pride began on a Friday night at a spaghetti dinner at St. John’s Unitarian Church that was attended by over 150 people. Following a brunch on Saturday morning at the gay dance club “Badlands,” the first pride parade stepped off and ended at Fountain Square with live music, political speakers and various theatrical skits in April 1973. However, the Cincinnati Gay Community disbanded shortly after and another Pride march wasn’t held until 1978 when it was revived by the Greater Cincinnati Gay Coalition. In the meantime, on April 15, 1973, LGBT activists held their first annual “Red Shirt Day” at Kings Island and on May 8, 1973 about 150 people participated in the first state-wide Pride March in Columbus. Throughout the 80’s and early 90’s many various events were held to celebrate Gay Pride. Fountain Square, City Hall and Washington Park were key points of interest for the celebrations. However, in 1995 (1993) after the passing of Article 12, a law that states the city was not required to provide protection to LGBT people, activism dropped sharply as Cincinnati began to be viewed as unfriendly towards our community. After smaller events throughout the next couple of years, Northside, Cincinnati’s first “Gayborhood” brought back the parade and rallies in the year 2000 at Burnett Woods. For many years after, the rally, parade and festival would begin at Burnett Woods, travel through Northside and Hoffner Park would host the festival.
Joel Lam
Board Treasurer
Andrew Morano
Tom Wible
Board Member/Festival & Parade Co-Chair
Aubrey Wilson
Alynn Rousselle
Board Member/Festival & Parade Co-Chair/ Sponsorship Co-Chair
Andrea Muhlhauser
Board Member/Festival & Parade Co-Chair/Food Vendor Chair
Board Member/Festival & Parade Co-Chair/Parade and Vendor Chair
Board Member/Festival & Parade Co-Chair/Beer and Liquor Chair
Megan Green
Randy Womble
Matt Pappert
Volunteer Coordinator
Social Media
Liquor Control
In 2004, Article 12 was repealed and two years later Cincinnati passed an amendment to protect members of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual community, as well as the trans community— one of the early cities in Ohio to do so. July 4, 2010, would make history again with the parade and festival culminating on Fountain Square but two years later, Cincinnati had outgrown Fountain Square and moved to Sawyer Point. History was being made each year but in 2014 we suffered a huge loss to our community with the suicide of Leelah Alcorn. Cincinnati Pride organizers looked for ways to celebrate Leelah’s life and give hope and strength to our kids and influencing them to look for outlets in a peer pressured world. Erika Ervin, also known as Amazon Eve, from American Horror Story fame was our celebrity Grand Marshall in 2015. Herself transgendered, she walked with 50 or so trans family members to show strength and solidarity. At this same time Marriage Equality was sweeping the nation and it added fuel to the fire of celebration. This year, we come to pride again with grief on our hearts. In June 2016, a terrorist took the lives of 49 of our brothers and sisters in the largest terror attack on United States soil since September 11th. This year we march, once again, to show we do not give into hate. Our community has always been, and will always be, about love and acceptance. We will march with pride toward progress. We will never let hate or fear win.
Shawn Baker Co-President • Cincinnati Pride
Brooklyn Steele-Tate Co-President • Cincinnati Pride
Dustin Lewis
Dubravka Maric
Entertainment Chair
Sponsorship Co-Chair
Gary Goodman
Annie Burton
Storage/Warehousing Co-Chair
Karl Rece
Storage/Warehousing Co-Chair
Interfaith
Callie Wright
Audio/Visual Coordinator
Michelle D’Cruz Reverb/Graphics
Jacob Parker Media Liason
Leo D’Cruz
Reverb/Graphics
Jeff Groneck
Signage Coordinator
Tony Phillips
Dog Tag Campaign
Joshua McShane
Signage Coordinator
Lisa Johnson Angie Vance
Cincinnati Police Department LGBTQ Coordinators
to do
Staff Recommendations
WEDNESDAY 22
EVENT: Kick off Pride Week with a special Summer Cinema screening of CLUELESS at Washington Park. For more Pride Week events, see calendar on page 22.
THURSDAY 23
MUSIC: Powerhouse Blues/Rock/Soul outfit SISTER SPARROW & THE DIRTY BIRDS plays Hamilton’s RiversEdge Amphitheater. See Sound Advice on page 50.
COMEDY: JARED LOGAN When comedian Jared Logan was in grade school, he was picked on by boys who had more of what he calls “athletic prowess.” “When I was in fifth grade they asked us, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ ” he says. Apparently every boy said, “Basketball player.” “That didn’t make a lot of sense because we lived in West Virginia. We were all white, most of the kids were short; some had nutrition problems. ‘Really, Tyler? Your family only eats Pop Tarts.’ ” Logan went on to major in theater, which he found to be a liability in the job market. “I was at an interview and this guy goes, ‘I see theater on your resume. Is that going to interfere with your ability to work?’ ” Logan told him, “No, I’m very responsible. I’ll be here at 9 a.m. ready to go. And he says, ‘Yeah, but you’re an actor. You could be lying to me and I wouldn’t even know.’ I’m not a sociopath. When you get a theater degree you don’t get special powers.” Thursday-Sunday. $8-$14. Go Bananas, 8410 Market Place Lane, Montgomery, gobananascomedy.com. — P.F. WILSON
FRIDAY 24
ART: The Cincinnati Art Museum’s Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt exhibit brings the INTERNET CAT VIDEO FESTIVAL to town this weekend. See feature on page 37.
MUSIC: Experimental Electronic artist KISHI BASHI provides the soundtrack for the journey to the center of your mind’s eye at Fountain Square. See Sound Advice on page 51. ONSTAGE: THE FISHERMAN’S WIFE If the 2016 Cincy Fringe Festival built your appetite for weird theater, you don’t have to suffer withdrawal, thanks to the folks at Know Theatre. Inspired by a famous erotic Japanese woodcut, this sex farce by Steve Yockey, whose Pluto was a surreal hit for Know back in 2014, is a wicked tale about a stale marriage between a fisherman and
SATURDAY 25
MUSIC: Local Psych Rock trio THE HARLEQUINS celebrate their record release at MOTR Pub. See interview on page 46.
ONSTAGE: Broadway star and petite powerhouse KRISTIN CHENOWETH performs with the Cincinnati Pops. See interview on page 34. EVENT: CINCINNATI PRIDE FESTIVAL After a morning filled with the vibrant colors and jubilant crowds of the Cincinnati Pride Parade, the celebration transitions right into the pinnacle of Pride Week — the Cincinnati Pride Festival. The 2016 festival takes over Sawyer Point and Yeatman’s Cove with bites from local eateries, a family-fun zone, more than 100 vendors, including Playhouse in the Park, the Freestore Foodbank, Love Must Win, Inc. and many others, plus two stages of entertainment. Performers include MUSE, the Cincinnati Men’s Chorus and the Diverse City Youth Chorus, with drag shows taking place throughout the day. Pop duo Karmin headlines at 8 p.m. on the Mainstage. Noon-9 p.m. Saturday. Free. Sawyer Point and Yeatman’s Cove, 705 E. Pete Rose Way, Downtown, cincinnatipride.org. — EMILY BEGLEY MUSIC: KINO KIMINO Singer/songwriter/guitarist Kim Talon has been making music for more than a decade. The Canadian native was once one half of eclectic L.A.-based duo Eagle and Talon before she struck out on her own and moved to New York City, where she released an album under the name JAN in 2012. Talon’s latest project, Kino Kimino, recently released its debut, Bait is for Sissies, which was recorded at Sonic Youth’s Echo Canyon West studio with Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo on guitar and Steve Shelley on drums. That’s some impressive Indie Rock star power, but Talon is clearly the star of the show and the key to the appeal of Bait, which mixes dynamic Post Punk with winding song structures, hyper-melodic Art Pop hooks and Talon’s captivating vocals and lyrics. Fans of PJ Harvey, Sonic Youth, Sleater-Kinney and CONTINUES ON PAGE 28
FRIDAY 24
EVENT: PLAY LIBRARY AT PEOPLE’S LIBERTY As part of People’s Liberty’s $15,000 Globe grants initiative, Julia Fischer, who has been in the toy and children’s entertainment industry for more than 12 years, will open her Play Library project at the organization’s Globe Gallery on Friday evening. Similar to other lending libraries, the Play Library will loan out toys and games to kids and adults of all ages in an effort to connect families, friends and communities through play. Visitors at the kick-off event will enter through the gallery and sign up for a library card before heading upstairs for the party. Reception 6-10 p.m. Friday. Free. Globe Gallery, 1805 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, playlibrary.org. — MARIA SEDA-REEDER
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MUSIC: PASSION PIT brings exuberant and shiny Synth Pop dance nuggets to Bogart’s. See Sound Advice on page 50.
J u l i a F i s c h e r at t h e P l ay L i b r a r y // p h o t o : p r o v i d e d
his wife that gets a jolt from a couple of ocean-dwelling deviants. The cast features some wild and crazy local actors including Miranda McGee and Eileen Earnest, so be prepared for a naughty night at the seashore. Through July 16. $20; free performances on select Wednesdays. Know Theatre, 1120 Jackson St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-300-5669, knowtheatre.com. — RICK PENDER
photo : provided
FRIDAY 24
EVENT: PANEGYRI A Cincinnati summer staple and repeatedly voted as one of the best church festivals in town by CityBeat readers, the 42nd-annual Panegyri brings a taste of the Mediterranean to Finneytown. This weekend’s event features everything from live traditional Greek bouzouki music and dance performances to Greek history exhibits to food, drinks, rides, raffles and more. Grab a gyro or slice of Greek pizza and a bottle of Cretan wine from the taverna before scarfing down a baklava sundae. Or visit the pastry shop to take home a box of kataifi, melomakarona and more. The Greek word “philoxenia” means “love for strangers,” and it’s this notion that drives the members of Holy Trinity-St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox church to hand-prepare traditional and delicious Greek meals and create an immersive cultural experience for guests year after year after year. 5-11 p.m. Friday; 3-11 p.m. Saturday; 1-8 p.m. Sunday. $2; free ages 12 and younger. Holy Trinity-St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, 7000 Winton Road, Finneytown, panegyri.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO
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Tweens will likely instantly fall in love with Kino Kimino’s deft blend of sweetness and discord. 10 p.m. Saturday. Free. The Comet, 4579 Hamilton Ave., Northside, cometbar. com. — MIKE BREEN EVENT: CELESTIAL SIPS Enjoy a celestial alcohol tasting under the stars as you sample four wines and a bourbon while contemplating the wonders of the universe. This unique Cincinnati Observatory event also lets participants get a glimpse at Jupiter and Mars through the oldest public telescope still in use in the Western Hemisphere (if the sky is clear, of course). Munch on hors d’oeuvres, take a tour of the historic buildings, bid at the silent auction and contribute to the educational programs that reach more than 26,000 people annually. With a premium ticket, enjoy a set of limited-edition etched wine glasses and a premium champagne beverage. 8-10:30 p.m. Saturday. $60; $100 premium. 3489 Observatory Place, Mount Lookout, cincinnatiobservatory.org. — KAT TENBARGE EVENT: WESTFEST The 15th-annual WestFest promises a weekend of beer, food and music that both
West-Siders and East-Siders alike can enjoy. With more than 15 food trucks serving everything from deep-fried Twinkies and garlic fries to pulled pork tacos and bacon and cheese steak burgers, plus more than 20 live local bands, it’s no wonder this street party pulls in 30,000 people. There will also be a Family Friendly Kid Zone with rides, games and contests for the younger crowd. 1 p.m.-midnight Saturday; 1-10 p.m. Sunday. Free. 3703 Harrison Ave., Cheviot, cheviotwestfest.com. — KAT TENBARGE
SUNDAY 26
ONSTAGE: MUSE, Cincinnati Men’s Chorus and the Diverse City Youth Chorus perform in a GALA SENDOFF CONCERT in advance of their appearance at the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses Festival in July. See Pride feature on page 21. EVENT: OPERA IN THE PARK The 96th-annual Cincinnati summer opera festival kicked off last week at the Aronoff Center with Strauss’ whimsical Die Fledermaus and the groundbreaking worldpremiere of LGBTQ opera Fellow Travelers, set during the McCarthy Era’s Lavender Scare. This week, the opera brings libretto to the public with a free performance in
p h o t o : a n n e t t e n ava r r o
UNLESS YOU GOT CRAZY FLIPPER FINGERS... SATURDAY 25
EVENT: THREE YEARS OF THIRST Rhinegeist was justified when they dubbed their upcoming three-year-anniversary party “a fantastical birthday bash,” which serves as a heartfelt thank-you to its many loyal Geisters. The highlight? Rarity releases, which take place every hour on the hour, for a total of 12 releases, one of which features a brand-new brew slated to join the regular Rhinegeist lineup. But that’s just one aspect of this eclectic party, which includes a outdoorsy Campgeist theme, live music and DJs all day and night, plus games and prizes benefitting local nonprofits and a hefty dose of unusual surprises (perhaps a mechanical puma?). Kids are welcome through 8 p.m., before things “get a bit messy.” Noon-2 a.m. Saturday. Free to attend; RSVP online. Rhinegeist, 1910 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, facebook.com/rhinegeist. — EMILY BEGLEY
Washington Park. Opera in the Park features a selection of opera and musical theater favorites performed by the stars of the 2016 Cincinnati Opera season, along with the Cincinnati Opera Chorus and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Food trucks will be onsite and alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase. 7 p.m. Sunday. Free. Washington Park, 1230 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, cincinnatiopera.org. — MAIJA ZUMMO
TUESDAY 28
LITERARY: LEAH STEWART Local author and University of Cincinnati creative writing professor Leah Stewart’s latest fictional effort, The New Neighbor, centers on Margaret Riley, a 90-year-old mystery novel addict who lives on a mountaintop in rural Tennessee. Things get interesting when a woman and her 4-year-old son move into the long-dormant house across the pond from Margaret, kick-starting a narrative as mysterious as her book genre of choice. Stewart’s no-nonsense prose, keen psychological detail and nuanced characters fuel a story that’s as gripping as it is poignant. Stewart reads from and discusses The New Neighbor — recently published in paperback — at Joseph-Beth Booksellers. 7 p.m. Tuesday. Free. Joseph-Beth Booksellers, 2692 Madison Road, Rookwood Pavilion, Norwood, 513-396-8960, josephbeth. com. — JASON GARGANO
ONGOING SHOWS ONSTAGE Fellow Travelers Aronoff Center, Downtown (through July 10)
Over-the-Rhine + 16-BitBar.com
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EVENT: DOG DAY OF SUMMER AT SPRING GROVE For 364 days a year, dogs are not permitted on the grounds of Spring Grove Cemetery in an effort to ensure a safe, disruption-free experience during visitations and burial services. But a special exception is made on their annual Dog Day, when guests are invited to explore more than 400 acres alongside their favorite canine. Wander through more than 45 miles of paved roads showcasing thousands of plant species or participate in an organized Dogwood Trail Walk at 10 a.m. Have your pooch star in his very own pet portrait before heading to a luau picnic for some snacks straight off the grill. Adoptable pups from local rescue Tails of Hope will also be onsite. 9 a.m. Sunday. Free with donation to Tails of Hope; find wish list items at tailsofhope.org. 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village, springgrove.org. — EMILY BEGLEY
GAME OVER.
arts & culture
The Captivating Chenoweth
Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth shares her personal journey through song with the Cincinnati Pops BY ANNE ARENSTEIN
PHOTO : PROVIDED
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K
ristin Chenoweth may stand at just 4 feet 11 inches, but she has a voice as powerful as the Empire State Building is tall. A Broadway star whose career also includes acclaimed television and film roles, Chenoweth appears at Riverbend Music Center on Saturday with the Cincinnati Pops under the baton of John Morris Russell. Chenoweth’s success as a Broadway leading lady propelled her into television and film. The list of her performances across genres is truly staggering: seven Broadway shows, almost a dozen OffBroadway ones, 24 films and such television programs as The West Wing, Pushing Daisies and Glee. (She even briefly had her own network series, Kristin.) And all that doesn’t even count her many concerts. Her program with the Pops is billed as “a charming evening of Broadway and Hollywood.” But according to Chenoweth, there will be much more — everything from her beloved Broadway to Gospel and American Songbook classics to Pop. “It’s an eclectic program,” she says in a phone interview. “These are songs that made an impression on me throughout my life, and I’ll talk about that.” Her set list includes pieces by Leonard Bernstein, Andrew Lloyd Webber and a few surprises, including the possibility of Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times.” “I change the program all the time,” she says. “But fortunately, this incredible orchestra is capable of playing anything, so I might pull out ‘Hard Times.’ It could have been written today. The words apply to everyone.” Chenoweth’s first New York appearance was in the 1993 revival of Animal Crackers. She made her Broadway debut in 1997 in Steel Pier, and in 1999 she earned a Tony Award for her role in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. For many Broadway babies, Chenoweth will always be Glinda, Wicked’s Good Witch of the North — another Tonynominated role. Writing in Playbill, critic Ben Rimalower wrote of her performance in that phenomenally successful musical, “The gold standard was unquestionably and indelibly set.” She left Wicked in 2004, nine months after it opened on Broadway, but has remained a constant presence in New York theater, most recently in the 2015 revival of On the Twentieth Century. Chenoweth’s remarkable career began in her hometown of Broken Arrow, Okla., where she began singing Gospel as a child. After completing a graduate degree
Acclaimed actress Kristin Chenoweth has been a Broadway star for three decades. in opera performance at Oklahoma State University in 1993, she was accepted to the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. But while helping a friend move to New York City, she won a leading role in Animal Crackers and never looked back. Most recently, Chenoweth did a 180, playing the witch Maleficent on the Disney Channel’s movie Descendants. “When I look at the roles I’ve had, Glinda was a bit of a villain, but she looked like a princess,” she says. “Maleficent looks like a villain and I really enjoyed the role, especially the costumes, and even the 5:30 a.m. makeup call.” Shuttling between television studios, concert and theater stages and film roles requires more than everyday stamina. Chenoweth says she considers herself an athlete, comparing her travel schedule with the equally grueling demands on professional sports teams. “I was watching the NBA semi-finals and I was struck at how hard they play,” she says. “They’re tired, and then they have to get up and play the next day or travel to the next venue for another game. And I’m like an athlete that way. “It’s all about taking care of my body. I don’t smoke and I don’t drink much,” she continues. “I exercise as much as I can, and
eating healthier and getting enough rest is really important.” Another vital element of her well-being is her religious faith. “It’s everything,” she says. Prayer has always been a guide for her, and she says it was a force in her decision to establish a foundation to support arts education in her hometown. “Last year they named a theater after me in the new performing arts center,” Chenoweth says. “That really motivated me to have a summer arts camp program, and I’m so proud to be working with the kids this summer. “I love it when I see kids doing songs I performed, like ‘Popular’ or ‘My New Philosophy.’ Their energy is wonderful,” she continues. She was even more impressed when she gave master classes at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music shortly after she left Wicked in 2004 and was performing with the Pops. The feeling was mutual: Aubrey Berg, chair of CCM’s Department of Musical Theatre, remembers her as being gracious and supportive. There’s no indication of the Chenoweth juggernaut slowing down. This tour continues through October with more films and television shows in the works. By
now, her audience includes the kids of people who saw her in the early part of her career, and she’s delighted to have a multi-generational fan base. “When I do my show, I look out from the stage and see all ages, and that really makes me happy,” she says. “I love doing these concerts and sharing that love with the audience.” Chenoweth’s music director and arranger Mary-Mitchell Campbell will join her on stage. One of Broadway’s foremost conductors and arrangers, Campbell has worked on next to normal, The Addams Family, Tuck Everlasting and John Doyle’s 2006 revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company. “She’s my musical soul mate. We are so in connection that she can feel me take a breath,” Chenoweth says, adding that she insisted Campbell sing with her because their voices blend so well. “She didn’t want to sing at first, but now we do it all the time,” she says, laughing. “It’s great to be with someone who’s not afraid to switch it up.” KRISTIN CHENOWETH appears with the Cincinnati Pops 8 p.m. Saturday at Riverbend. More info/tickets: cincinnatisymphony.org.
a&c curtain call
Whatever Happened To Jasson Minadakis? BY RICK PENDER
artistic leader at Marin Theatre Company. “I’ve been lucky enough to produce some amazing new work,” he says. At Marin, he has overseen productions of three winners of the prestigious Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play awards for two works by Bill Cain (Equivocation in 2010 and 9 Circles in 2011). Cincinnati Shakespeare’s evolution also has been positive, he says. “We made the
6/19 - 6/25 Jasson Minadakis PHOTO : provided
right choices in the end,” he says. “By focusing on Shakespeare and the classics, (it) has grown in remarkable ways. And I have been able to focus on creating and supporting new American work in my subsequent career.” Minadakis is proud of his eight seasons in Cincinnati. He produced 70 shows and directed 37 of them. The company’s budget grew from $17,500 to $720,000. He also played a key role in launching the League of Cincinnati Theatres. “We brought many talented artists to Cincinnati,” he says. “It’s been amazing to watch them create lives in the city and become leaders in the arts community.” Minadakis was one of the spark plugs that fired up the local theater scene. “It was an amazing decade with the start of so many new companies, many of which are still producing,” he says. “It was a very troubled time for the city, socially and politically, and it was a challenge to create work that entertained while simultaneously responded to events happening in the community. But it was that developing intersection of art, community activism and social justice that informed and guided the ensuing 14 years of my artistic career.” CONTACT RICK PENDER: rpender@citybeat.com
Celebrating Well Crafted Beer In Welcoming Environments VISIT www.cincinnatibeerweek.com for a full schedule of events.
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When I started writing about Cincinnati theater in the late 1980s, there wasn’t much beyond the Playhouse and Ensemble Theatre. But starting in 1994 (the same year CityBeat began), things began to heat up with the arrival of Fahrenheit Theatre Company. After two seasons, it evolved into the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, the forerunner of today’s Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, currently engaged in building a new $17 million facility in Over-the-Rhine. The most visible driving force behind Fahrenheit and Cincinnati Shakespeare was Jasson Minadakis, the company’s artistic director. This summer I’m reporting on theater professionals who have spent time locally, starting with the guy I once called the “Energizer Bunny” of Cincinnati theater. Minadakis is now in his 10th season leading Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley, Calif., north of San Francisco. But he began his career in Cincinnati. “I accepted a directing internship at Ensemble Theatre for the 1993-94 season,” he says. “I was interested in getting to know the city and the arts community because I was looking to start a theater company with some college friends from James Madison University in Virginia — Marni Penning, Nick Rose and Ceeko Scheeren.” They decided Cincinnati was fertile ground for a company producing classics and new works. Fahrenheit’s first season included Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar and Twelfth Night; an adaptation of the medieval English epic Beowulf; and a new play by Stacy Jordan Pershall, The Color Wheel. After several temporary venues, Minadakis and his company eventually found a space once occupied by a repertory cinema downtown on Race Street. When it decamps for Over-the-Rhine next summer, the company will have spent 16 seasons there. Minadakis departed at the end of 2002. “Producing new plays, specifically new American plays, was becoming my core focus and the center of my interest,” he says. “I had a strong desire to stage work that was responsive to the events unfolding in Cincinnati and across the country. New work was integral to the founding of Fahrenheit, but it took a less prominent role when we became Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival.” He sought to balance classics and new works. “That turned out not to be an ideal formula for the organization,” he says. “I ultimately had to make a decision about whether or not it was the right home for the work I needed to produce.” Early in 2003, Minadakis was named artistic director of Actor’s Express in Atlanta, where he reinvigorated its involvement with the National New Play Network. In 2006, he moved to the West Coast as the
a&c onstage
CAC’s Performance Series Offers ‘Radical Variety’ BY STEVEN ROSEN
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It’s not an overstatement to characterize Dec. 8, 2016: Dane Terry, a theatrical the Contemporary Arts Center’s justNew York composer-performer-keyboardist announced, upcoming Black Box Perforwho grew up in Columbus, offers his recent mance Series as being like “nothing you’ve Bird in the House show. It concerns an ever seen.” adolescent coming out in Middle America. Even if you have a ticket and go, you won’t Jan. 20-21, 2017: SoōPercussion, with be able to see the new season’s first program choreographer/performer Emily Johnson, — a movie — unless you’re a preselected will present the controversial A Gun Show, elementary school student. That’s because in which the New Music ensemble examBritish filmmaker-artist Britt Hatzius’ Blind ines America’s gun culture by using mallets Cinema, which occurs Sept. 28-Oct. 1, will on drums and dissembled sniper rifles. require adults to sit blindfolded in a theater Feb. 2-3, 2017: Sweat Baby Sweat is while a movie plays with a soundtrack but a multimedia dance/movement piece by no dialogue.Behind each row of adults at The Carnegie’s Otto M. Budig Theatre in Covington will be a row of students, who will softly describe the action to their vulnerable, dependent elders. The 10 other presentations in the 2016-17 season — all of which have ticket prices — are an imaginative and invigorating mix, with shared emphasis on having both a diverse group of international artists and some Ohio-based projects. So Percussion brings A Gun Show to Contemporary Arts Center. “This season is one of P H O T O : S t e ph a n i e b e r g e r , 2 016 radical variety,” says Drew Klein, the CAC’s performance curator. “As our seasons go on, our series continues to develop. It’s Flemish choreographer Jan Martens, who important to broaden our offerings and examines the intimate life-long relationship introduce people to new work that is chalof a man and woman (performers Steven lenging.” (This will be the fifth full season.) Michel and Kimmy Ligtvoet). All the shows following Blind Cinema Feb. 22-24, 2017: This is the world are at the CAC’s Black Box theater/perforpremiere of Twice the First Time, a performance space except So Percussion’s Jan. mance piece by Napoleon Maddox, a Cincin20-21, 2017 event, which will occur at an asnati Hip Hop vocalist whose group Iswhat?! yet-unspecified locale. Here is the schedule: has developed a strong European following. Nov. 3, 2016: Columbus-based artist The piece is about Maddox’s great-great Brian Harnetty’s Shawnee, Ohio is an aunts, who were conjoined twins. audio/visual portrait of the Appalachian March 9-10, 2017: Ligia Lewis’ Minor town of the same name. This is primarily a Matter is a performance piece in which presentation of “storytelling via sound,” in three performers — including the DominiKlein’s words, in which new songs percan Republic-born, German-based Lewis — formed by an ensemble will accompany dance while bathed in red light. recordings of town meetings, interviews April 6-7, 2017: A U.S. premiere, Climax with residents and more. This project was of the Next Scene is a video triptych by co-commissioned by the CAC, the Wexner South Korean artist Jisun Kim that creates Center for the Arts at Ohio State University a parallel universe of online games. and Duke Performances at Duke University. April 20-21, 2017: Two men from Nov. 15, 2016: Classical violinist JenniAustralia, Anthony Hamilton and Alisdair fer Koh’s Shared Madness, Part 1 will have Macindoe, will hold a Meeting, in which her perform 16 of 30 short pieces written they swirl and move within a circle of 64 for her by contemporary composers. She tiny boxes that are percussion instruments. will also be performing with the Cincinnati The CAC is offering a discount of 15 Symphony Orchestra on Nov. 18 and 19. percent for those who buy tickets to three Nov. 17-18, 2016: Radhouane El Meddeb or more performances at once. You can puris a French-Tunisian choreographer whose chase tickets for all shows beginning today Je danse et vous en donne a bouffer transat contemporaryartscenter.org. lates as “I dance and I feed you.” As Meddeb CONTACT STEVEN ROSEN: srosen@ citybeat.com dances, he cooks couscous for his audience.
a&c visual art
Art Museum Has a Divine Summer for Cat Lovers BY CASSIE LIPP
Save the Animals Foundation, Aronson became the exhibit overseer partly because of her love for the animals. However, Divine Felines was curated by the Brooklyn Museum’s Yekaterina Barbash, who drew from its Egyptian collection. Cincinnati is the first stop for the traveling exhibit. Aronson said the exhibit looked like the perfect combination of something that could be very accessible and popular while
“I only have eyes for ”
- Ricky Nye
Across from Kenwood Towne Centre
7599 Kenwood Road 513•891•2020
“Cat’s Head,” 30 B.C.E.-Third Century C.E. P H O T O : C o u r t e s y B r oo k ly n M u s e u m
at the same time allowing the museum to show Egyptian art of high quality. Standout pieces, she says, include a 3-foot-tall wooden sculpture of a cat with a scarab set into its head, and some other wooden objects that used to contain mummified cats. Most of the artwork dates back to Egypt’s New Kingdom (approximately from the 16th to 11th century B.C.E.) and later. Many of the pieces featured are actually very small trinkets. “You can create something that’s just so beautiful in something that’s so tiny,” Aronson says. “It kind of shows you the extent to which the Egyptians really loved these animals.” Visitors can stroll through three related exhibitions during Divine Feline’s run: Modern Cat, featuring art museum prints from 1890 to 1980 (on display through Sept. 11); Master Cats, a loaned selection of 19th and 20th century Japanese prints (July 11-Nov. 13); and Elizabeth Nourse: Sketchbooks and Archive, which includes cats, dogs and monkeys (on display through Nov. 13). DIVINE FELINES runs through Sept. 11 at the Cincinnati Art Museum. For more information, visit cincinnatiartmuseum.org.
Saturday, August 27, 2016 at 6:30pm at the Cincinnati Masonic Center BeneFiting
This year’s honorees are: Freeman Durham and Jim Schwab Emceed by: Moe Rouse Tickets available by calling 513-761-1480 or online at caracole.org/party-in-plaid/
All proceeds support cArAcole – cincinnAti’s comprehensive hiv/Aids service orgAnizAtion providing prevention, housing And cAre.
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In its quest to create a “purrfect” summer for visitors, the Cincinnati Art Museum is mixing serious scholarship — Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt, an exhibition of 80 cat-related objects, plus three smaller shows — with the sublime silliness of the Internet Cat Video Festival. The latter is a free public event occurring this weekend. The festival’s hour-long program of some 100 videos was curated by Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center, where outdoor screenings of the short cat films have drawn thousands. The festival is on a world tour this year, coming to Cincinnati after stops in Japan, Australia, Germany, Memphis, Boston, Portland and more. The Internet Cat Video Festival occurs outdoors here at 9:15 p.m. Friday at Seasongood Pavilion in Eden Park, right after the 5-9 p.m. Art After Dark: Cats and Cocktails party at the museum. (Heavy rain and/or lightning will cancel the outdoor screening.) There will also be an indoor screening for families at 11 a.m. Saturday at the museum’s Fath Auditorium. Cat attire is encouraged for this, but masks are prohibited and, of course, actual cats are not allowed in the building, much as they might want to see this. Seating is first-come, first-served. With that out of the way, attention can be focused on Divine Felines, which has already opened and runs through Sept. 11. The exhibition offers a chance for us to look at how similar ancient Egyptian culture was to our own. For instance, like everyone’s favorite YouTuber Debbie the Cat Lady, ancient Egyptians were obsessed with cats. Egyptians domesticated cats as companion animals and also used them to protect grain stores from vermin. They lauded their complex duality — the animals were admired for their ferocity and hunting abilities as well as their maternal and protective instincts. The cute critters were popular in Egyptian artwork, as their love of basking in the sun drew associations to the sun god Ra and the change of the seasons and days. In fact, many of their gods possessed catlike features; lions and lion-headed goddesses are featured prominently throughout the exhibit. The pieces in Divine Felines come in a variety of materials, which have endured thousands of years — wood, plaster, stone and even hard-to-preserve mediums like textile. “It is fascinating how old these objects are, that they come down to us today, and we can enjoy and relate to them in our own way at this point in time,” says Julie Aronson, CAM’s curator of American paintings, sculpture and drawings. The “parent” to three cats named after famous female artists and a volunteer at
Join other young professionals in helping families from around the world care for their critically ill children.
a&c film
‘Golden Days’ of Being Young and in Love BY JASON GARGANO
Go to www.rmhcincinnati.org for more information.
2 days!
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Junior Brown (Fri) & Maps &
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About halfway through talented French for the airport after spending an evening director Arnaud Desplechin’s intoxicating with a good-natured blonde woman, the My Golden Days, his latest exploration into first of many characters to come to witness messy relationships of one kind or another, Paul’s mysterious yet alluring nature. Lying four teenagers gather around a television to in bed together, he looks into the camera watch a live shot of the Berlin Wall coming and, in voiceover, says, “I remember …” down, its graffiti-strewn sections being which sets off a series of flashbacks. dismantled one section at a time. The bulk of narrative centers on three Three of them take in the historic prochapters of Paul’s life, from ages 16 to 21. He’s ceedings with a kind of giddy fascination a young man (beautifully played through — a symbol of division is falling away before this period by Dolmaire) living in the city of their eyes. The fourth, Paul Dedalus (played Roubaix, still reeling from the suicide of his by newcomer Quentin Dolmaire), has a melmother several years earlier and trying to ancholy look on his face. The others ask why he seems sad. “I am sad,” he says. “I see my childhood ending.” Childhood and the ways in which the bonds of family can impact us are an increasingly vital aspect of Desplechin’s richly crafted movies. It’s almost as if he is working backward from the traditional trajectory; My Golden Days, with its preoccupation on family and its evocation of burgeoning adulthood, seems like a first effort. In fact, Desplechin’s Quentin Dolmaire and Lou Roy-Lecollinet in My Golden Days debut, 1992’s The Sentinel, PHOTO : MAGNOLIA PICTURES was a sideways, conspiratorial thriller in the mode of deal with a father that is a reminder of what French New Wave master Jacques Rivette. will forever be missing from his life. And Desplechin’s 1996 breakthrough, the Enter Esther (Lou Roy-Lecollinet), an playfully titled My Sex Life… Or How I Got enigmatic high school classmate of Paul’s into an Argument, was an endlessly romanyounger sister Delphine (Lily Taieb). Blonde tic three-hour coming-of-age story about a with cerulean eyes and uncommonly full red group of sexually adventurous postgradulips, Esther is the object of everyone’s desire. ate Parisians trying to make sense of adultPaul, back home on a break from university hood. At its center was none other than Paul in Paris, strikes up a conversation with Dedalus (played by longtime Desplechin her that is at once awkward and endearing. collaborator Mathieu Amalric) — a selfThey’re immediately smitten with each other involved, undeniably compelling figure who — and, inevitably, we are with them. is a version of the aforementioned Paul we The rest of My Golden Days, despite encounter in My Golden Days. some compelling digressions, is obsessed If 2004’s exhilarating, often disorientating with the pair’s tempestuous, oft-interrupted Kings & Queen was another seriocomic look love affair, one marked by Desplechin’s at relations between men and women (in this keen eye for detail and his ability to coax case, the central couple is played by Amalric naturalistic performances. Roy-Lecollinet and another Desplechin regular, Emmanuand Dolmaire are first-time movie actors, elle Devos), it was 2008’s A Christmas Tale and each is stellar in roles that might not be that fully invested itself in the familial. Unias effective with more inhibited performers. versal and utterly singular at the same time, My Golden Days’ epilogue hinges on a this elegant, unpredictable tale cemented chance encounter Paul has with a childhood Desplechin’s reputation as one of our most friend whose presence triggers memories talented post-New Wave movie-makers. of Esther. As Paul relays his regrets about Which brings us back to My Golden what might have been, Amalric’s pained Days. In many ways, it is the director’s face tells us everything we need to know most straightforward, intimate and moving effort. It opens 25 years or so after the fall about My Golden Days’ central dilemma — of the Wall. A middle-aged Paul (played by that Paul’s glorious youth, and Esther’s part Amalric), now an anthropologist, is finally in it, is never coming back. returning to his native France after nearly a (Opens Friday at the Esquire Theatre) decade of work abroad. He’s about to depart (R) Grade: A
IN THEATERS FREE STATE OF JONES – Writer-director Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) races out of the gate with this Civil War-era drama about Newton Knight (Academy Award-winner Matthew McConaughey), a poor Mississippi farmer who leads a group of armed rebels (white farmers and black slaves seeking their freedom) against the Confederate army. His insurgency led to the rise of Jones County being dubbed the “Free State of Jones,” a seceded region that continued to struggle throughout Reconstruction to maintain its independence. Based on the trailers, Free State of Jones sets the stage for a compelling historical double feature with Nate Parker’s upcoming The Birth of a Nation chronicling the nation’s fight against slavery from different perspectives. (Opens wide Friday) – tt stern-enzi (R) Not screened in time for review INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE – Twenty years later, Earth has unified and adapted the technology of its alien invaders in preparation for their inevitable return. That time has come in Independence Day: Resurgence, Roland Emmerich’s follow-up to his monumentdestroying blockbuster, which solidified Will Smith’s presence as a box office phenom. It could be seen as curious that Smith is now missing in action, while every other recognizable member of the first film’s ensemble enlisted for the nextlevel assault. The creative team must be holding out hope that new entrant Liam Hemsworth will be an adequate heroic stand-in, able to lead the charge and set the stage for a rousing concluding chapter in much less than two decades. (Opens wide Friday) – tts (PG-13) Not screened in time for review THE NEON DEMON – Director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive) collaborates with writers Mary Laws and Polly Stenham on this strikingly perverse tale about Jesse (Elle Fanning), a rising young model intent on commanding the Los Angeles fashion scene who must combat a gaggle of beauty-driven rivals willing to go to any length to preserve their status. Refn gathers an eclectic cast (Christina Hendricks, Jena Malone, Keanu Reeves) and employs stylistic flourishes befitting the material, but one has to hope the film rises above the vacant stares we’ve come to expect from the model class. (Opens Friday at The Esquire Theatre) – tts (R) Not screened in time for review
a&c television
‘Curb’ Episodes to Catch Up On BY JAC KERN
WEDNESDAY 22
Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons (Series Premiere, 10 p.m., HBO) – The sports commentator’s weekly talk show will touch on current events, pop culture and technology, in addition to athletics.
THURSDAY 23
Thirteen (Series Premiere, 10 p.m., BBC America) – This British miniseries sounds
like equal parts Room and The Family. After being held captive in a cellar for 13 years, a young woman named Ivy finally escapes and returns to her family. But as the investigation to find her kidnapper ensues, it becomes clear that she may be protecting her captor.
CITYBEAT JUST NAMED FLIPDADDY’S #1
FRIDAY 24
Adventures in Babysitting (Premiere, 8 p.m. Disney) – The remake of this 1987 clas-
Larry David will revive Curb Your Enthusiasm. PHOTO : PROVIDED
sic marks Disney’s 100th original made-orTV movie. It will be interesting to see if the famous line “Don’t fuck with the babysitter” makes it into this version.
SUNDAY 26
Game of Thrones (Season Finale, 9 p.m., HBO) – How can Thrones top last week’s over-the-top nail-biter? With the longest episode to date. Clocking in at 69 minutes, the Season 6 finale will cover Cersei’s trial, Davos’ confrontation of Melisandre, the Lannisters’ alliance with the Freys, more Bran visions and Littlefinger lovin’. Preacher (9 p.m., AMC) – Jesse is seen as the star of Annville; Cassidy connects with Tulip; the Cowboy makes a choice. Silicon Valley (Season Finale, 10:15 p.m., HBO) – Richard is at a moral crossroads; Laurie prepares to part ways; Dinesh’s video chat app gains traction.
Veep (Season Finale, 10:45 p.m., HBO) – Selina and friends prepare for the inauguration. CONTACT JAC KERN: @jackern
Cats & Cocktails Have a purrfect evening on Friday, June 24, 2016 5 – 9 p.m. Live music by The Young Heirlooms from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Internet Cat Video Festival, 9:15 p.m., Seasongood Pavillion, Price: Furreee
Image Credit: Cat’s Head, 30 B.C.E. to third century C.E.. Bronze, gold, 2 3/8 x 1 3/4 x 1 13/16 in. (6 x 4.4 x 4.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum. Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 36.114.
Sponsored By: Free Admission | Cash Bar | Parking: $4
CityBeat | PNC Bank | WVXU
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Life must be pretty decent for Larry David. He creates an iconic comedy series “about nothing,” uses his own less-than-likable qualities to shape characters that audiences love and, five years after the last season of his HBO series, decides to do it again. HBO announced recently that Curb Your Enthusiasm is far from over and will return for a ninth season. The premiere date hasn’t been announced, but in the meantime here are nine episodes to watch in anticipation for Season 9. “Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm”: Where it all began. Curb started as a 1999 HBO special about — what else? — Larry David getting his own one-hour HBO special. “The Massage”: Larry pays for restaurant crimes, avoids a “stop and chat” and learns about happy endings. (Season 2) “Krazee-Eyez Killa”: An unlikely bromace develops between Larry and Wanda Sykes’ rapper fiancé. Plus: The hunt for an important jacket and the politics of home tours. (Season 3) “The Survivor”: The show explores the different meanings of the word in the title, from the Holocaust to 9/11 to a reality show. Also: “Somebody get a sponge!” (Season 4) “Meet the Blacks”: The Davids adopt a New Orleans family, the Blacks, displaced by a hurricane. Larry is tickled by the fact that they’re actually black. A crucial plot point since it introduces one of the best Curb characters, Leon (J.B. Smoove). (Season 6) “The Bare Midriff”: A hilarious introduction to actress Jillian Bell (Workaholics, Idiotsitter, Eastbound & Down), who plays Larry and Jerry Seinfeld’s assistant who makes overly confident wardrobe choices. Also: a urine-soaked miracle. (Season 7) “The Table Read” and “Seinfeld”: What Seinfeld fan hasn’t dreamed of a show reunion? Watching that scenario play out on Curb is a “prettay, prettay, prettay” good consolation. (Season 7) “Larry vs. Michael J. Fox”: Where it all left off. The Season 8 finale first aired in September 2011 and features Larry giving his girlfriend’s effeminate son a sewing machine and questioning whether Michael J. Fox’s head shaking is a sign of anger or just Parkinson’s.
AW SHUCKS, Thanks you guys
T:10 in S:10 in
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S:10.125 in
TOA S T ED L AGER. A MER IC A N S T Y L E A M B ER L AGER . B RE W ED W I T H A B L EN D OF SI X S PECI A LT Y M A LT S FO R A FL AVO R A S RICH A N D U N IQU E A S T HE TOW N I T ’S FR O M .
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©2016 Blue Point Brewing Company, Toasted Lager ®, Patchogue, NY and Baldwinsville, NY | Enjoy responsibly.
SoMe DaYs, BiG UgLy CaN Be SpOtTeD RoAmInG ArOuNd ThE MaRiNa. To Be ClEaR, BiG UgLy Is ThE CaT.
eats
Smalls Plates, Big World
Little Planet Supper Club offers carefully curated tapas-style dinners from around the world Review by McKenzie Graham
PHOTO : provided
“M
Halloumi Kebabs with Watermelon Salad Recipe provided by Erin Ragsdale Serves 4
Little Planet Supper Club plated barbecue dishes from around the world at its most recent pop-up dinner party. of year-round food preservation that historically helped people through months of dark winter.” “For our North American dinner, we realized the substantial mark that French colonialism left on the flavors in every dish,” she continues. “Why is ghee used heavily through parts of Asia and the Middle East? How did cardamom become such a predominant spice in Scandinavian countries despite being unable to cultivate it? There are often centuries of trade and war and climate change that have brought these recipes to fruition; the least I can do is take an afternoon and appreciate that.” It’s the diners who get to sit down and enjoy every aspect of these worldly dinners, and Ragsdale and Celsor work tirelessly to make the dinners happen. “From start to finish, each supper club takes up about a week of my month,” Ragsdale says, and that’s on top of day jobs for both parents. “The only difficult thing about starting up was finding the confidence to finally do so,” she says. “It was a lot harder realizing that I could take what I had been daydreaming
about and make it into a reality and even moreso that I might even realize a measure of success. Everything else is just paperwork. I still find myself sitting back, amazed, when strangers purchase tickets to our events having never heard of us before.” Celsor might not cook the delicious dishes, but he’s just as busy. Little Planet Sound System is his contribution — find it on Sound Cloud and sample some of the international music he has handpicked for the dinners. After all, if food is the biggest link uniting the denizens of the globe, then surely music is a close second. “We do extensive research into indigenous music to play as a backdrop,” Ragsdale says. “It’s amazing the difference good music can make to really change the tone and feel of the meal.” For now, you can only enjoy dinner through Little Planet — next up is South East Asia on July 7 — but Ragsdale adds a little show-stopper when she drops the B-word: Next up for Little Planet? Brunch. Find more information about LITTLE PLANET SUPPER CLUB or buy tickets at eatlittleplanet.com.
Ingredients: Kebabs: 18 ounces of halloumi cheese, cubed (*Note: Seitan can be substituted as a vegan option) 20 cherry tomatoes 6 medium shallots, peeled and quartered 1/2 teaspoon sumac 1 teaspoon fresh thyme Extra virgin olive oil Salt and pepper to taste Salad: 1 small watermelon, cut into chunks 1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced 1 English cucumber, diced 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar 1/2 cup loosely packed mint leaves, torn Salt and pepper to taste Instructions: Mix all salad ingredients together, allowing to chill for half an hour, tossing as needed to fully saturate the watermelon. Using either metal skewers or bamboo skewers that have been soaked in water overnight, thread tomatoes, cheese and shallot onto skewers. Using a pastry brush, generously paint with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper and sumac. Grill on high heat until cheese and tomato begin to blister. After removing from grill, sprinkle with fresh thyme. Serve kebabs over salad.
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y history with food started as a vegetarian years ago,” says Little Planet Supper Club chef Erin Ragsdale in a surprising plot twist — just days ago I had enjoyed a hearty “Around the World” dinner of succulent and juicy barbecued meat from a menu of her own devising. Ragsdale and her husband, Mark Celsor, began Little Planet, a monthly pop-up supper club that brings international cuisine to various locations around the Queen City, about two years ago after they decided to embark on a personal journey across the globe from their own kitchen. “There’s a lot more we have in common with one another, and despite so many of us thinking of barbecue as a strictly American obsession, it just isn’t true,” Ragsdale says. She proved that statement with the aforementioned dinner; the first course was Korean bulgogi beef tenderloin, followed by Cuban mojo-glazed pork shoulder, Moroccan lamb kabob and applewood-smoked pulled chicken. Each plate had a flavorful side, like the sour orange-marmalade-andcilantro slaw that accompanied the Cuban pork. For dessert, phyllo dough was layered under pie cherries and brushed with bourbon for a sweet finish. The bulgogi started dinner off on a high note: It was juicy, flavorful and wrapped in Boston lettuce for a refreshing crunch. I thought it was an appetizer, but Ragsdale actually makes each course about the same size, so the dinner felt more like a delicious wine tasting with meat instead of booze. Variety is what makes the world go ’round (or something), but there were moments when I wanted to press pause and grab a discrete additional armful of my favorite dishes. By the end, I was content, but not uncomfortably full. The dinner took place at Braxton Brewing Company in Covington, so each course was paired with one of their beers. We tried the Storm cream ale, Crank Shaft IPA, Haven hefeweizen and Dead Blow tropical stout, in that order. All of Little Planet’s menus are carefully planned with comprehensive details and references to the country of origin. It’s a part of Ragsdale’s mission to prove that we have more in common with one another than not, and it’s a message that, in light of recent world events, we could all stand to listen to more closely. If we can substitute our mouths for our ears in this case, I won’t be one to complain. “All of our suppers require a good deal of research beforehand,” Ragsdale says. “Our Scandinavian supper led to my learning about the deeply rooted culture
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Isis Arrieta-Dennis and Christopher cheese, beans and plantains, which added Dennis, natives of Colombia, have always a light ,sweet taste, it was the perfect wanted to own their own restaurant, but pocket-sized meal to eat while wandering they couldn’t find the right fit. That is until around the market. they moved to Cincinnati. The grill also has four salsas, which you “We moved here for family, but we still can add to your arepa. I topped my meal wanted to own a restaurant without having with the salsa roja, full of tomatoes, green to invest so much money,” Isis says. onion and red pepper, and it soaked into When they were given the opportunity to the beef to add a refreshing twist. have a weekend booth at Findlay Market — My sister ordered the all-cheese arepa with help from Marianne Hamilton, direc($5) with salsa blanca. The cheese arepa tor of the incubator Findlay Kitchen at Findlay Market — they jumped at the chance and opened The Arepa Place Latin Grill. The idea for the grill has been on Isis’ mind for a while. “I love to share my culture with people, and I love doing that through food,” she says. More specifically, Isis shares her culture by making arepas. “In Colombia, when friends have gatherings, they provide the food,” she says. “But A rich and cheesey beef arepa from The Arepa Place Latin Grill in America, people bring PHOTO : jes se fox dishes (to friends’ houses), so I started to bring arepas.” The word “arepa” means is simply grilled corn dough with melted corn. The dish is a flat, round piece of cheese, and it is everything you could want unleavened dough made with corn or in a grilled, cheesy meal. As an experiment, maize — it can be grilled, fried or baked. we took some of the beef from my arepa Arepas play a significant role in the South and paired it with the cheese in hers and it American diet, but they are most popular in was amazing. Venezuela and Colombia. If you’re more adventurous, try the arepa “Arepas are like the bread of Colombia,” supreme ($10), which features shredded Isis says. “(Colombians) eat arepas like chicken, beef and all the other fixin’s served Americans eat bread.” on top of a cheese arepa. Isis and her husband make everything The grill also serves a beverage called from scratch using an arepa recipe passed down from Isis’ mother, who owns her own aguapanela con limón ($1.50) — sugarcanerestaurant in Cartagena, Colombia. They water with lemon. On a hot summer day, boil and grind fresh corn, form it into patit was extremely refreshing, with a flavor ties, then grill it for a nice, crispy texture similar to that of an Arnold Palmer. It tastes and top it or fill it with meats or cheese. very natural with just a hint of lemon. “You come and place your order, and you Isis is happy to be at Findlay Market. can either stay and eat at the market or you “We are getting a lot of attention for being can take it to go,” Isis says. (I know from a part of Findlay Market Kitchen, so we personal experience that arepas stay nice would like to keep promoting,” she says. and hot long after you have ordered them.) Eventually, a brick-and-mortar restaurant The grill has six different arepas, rangcould be in the works. ing in price from $5 to $10. Each arepa is For now, if you can’t make it to Findlay, stuffed with cheese, beans and plantains, The Arepa Place Latin Grill will be selling and then your choice of beef, chicken arepas at Fountain Square 11 a.m.-2 p.m. or both, sourced from Findlay’s Mackie Tuesday, June 28, as part of the Strauss Quality Meats. Troy Market. When my sister and I visited The Arepa For more information on THE AREPA PLACE LATIN Place Latin Grill on a recent weekend, I GRILL or to view a full menu, visit facebook.com/ ordered the beef arepa ($8.50), which was thearepaplacelatingrill. filling and delicious. The beef was perfectly shredded and rich in flavor. Paired with the
special thanks to our participants
The Famous Neons Unplugged, Melt Eclectic Cafe, Bravo! CUcina Italiana, Keystone Bar & Grill, Northside Yacht Club, 27 Bar + Kitchen, Cuban Pete Sandwiches, O Pie O, Holtman’s Donut Shop, Rodizio Grill, Lydia’s On Ludlow, Seasons 52, Brunch Cafe at Findlay Market, Gramma Debbie’s Kitchen, Nation Kitchen and Bar, The Pub Rookwood, Depot Barbecue, and Lookout Joe Coffee Roasters.
congratulations to our winners
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Best Mimosa: Northside Yacht Club / Best Bloody Mary: 27 Bar + Kitchen
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eats classes & events Most classes and events require registration; classes frequently sell out.
WEDNESDAY 22
Cincinnati Beer Week — A full week of beer-related events taking place at venues throughout Greater Cincinnati. Expect pint nights, tap takeovers, special events and a culminating craft can festival. Through June 25. cincinnatibeerweek.com. Lobstapalooza — Washington Platform’s fourth-annual Lobstapalooza features a cavalcade of crustaceans. Special menu items include lobster mac and cheese, lobster rolls, lobster curry, whole Main lobster and more. Through July 2. Prices vary. Washington Platform, 1000 Elm St., Downtown, 513-421-0110, washingtonplatform.com. Blank Slate Beer Dinner — Celebrate Beer Week with Blank Slate and The Mercer OTR. Brewer Scot LaFollette will be at the restaurant to pair five beers with five course of chef Jack Hemmer’s cuisine. 6:30-9:30 p.m. $75. The Mercer OTR, 1324 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, themercerotr.com.
Free Northside Farmers Market Shuttle — From 4-6:55 p.m. every Wednesday, the Northside Farmers Market will be offering free shuttle services to help customers get to the market. Complete information can be found at northsidefm.org. Taste the World Food Tour — Learn about the history of Ohio’s oldest public market, sample small bites from five specialty merchants, discover hidden gems and more. Limited space; reservations required. 11 a.m. Wednesdays; 3 p.m. Saturdays. $20; $5 optional add on for a beer/wine tasting. Leaves from Daisy Mae’s Market, Findlay Market, 1801 Race St., Over-theRhine, cincinnatifoodtours.com.
FRIDAY 24
Taste of Silverton — The second-annual Taste of Silverton features samples from Silverton restaurants including Italianette Pizza, Silverton Café, MVP Sports Bar & Grille, Meier’s Winery and more. Includes live Motown music from The Mistics. 4-9 p.m. Free. Meier’s Wine Cellars, 6955 Plainfield Road, Silverton, silvertonohio.us.
Panegyri Greek Festival — Holy TrinitySt. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church hosts their annual celebration featuring authentic Greek cuisine, music, dancing, raffles, games, amusement rides and more. A portion of proceeds benefits the Freestore
SATURDAY 25
Three Years of Thirst — Celebrate three years of thirst and explore Rhinegeist in all her glory. The brewery will be decked out in wild ephemera themed toward summer camp and the great outdoors, with beer releases, live music, DJs, activities and more. Noon-2 a.m. Free admission. 1910 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, rhinegeist.com.
Swad Indian Restaurant
1810 W. Galbraith Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45239 513-522-5900 previous Owner/ Chef/Staff from Dusmesh Indian Restaurant
Celestial Sips for the Summer Solstice — Celebrate the Summer Solstice with a wine tasting at the Cincinnati Observatory. Sample four wines (and some bourbon), while enjoying hors d’oeuvres, tours and viewings of Jupiter and Mars (weather permitting). 21 and older. 8-10:30 p.m. Saturday. $60. 3489 Observatory Place, Mount Lookout, cincinnatiobservatory.org. Great Parks Dinner Series — Hamilton County Parks hosts this unique themed dinner with TG Rivers’ comedy hypnosis show. Buffet included. 7 p.m. $29.95 plus motor vehicle permit ($3 daily). Mill Race Banquet Center, 1515 W. Sharon Road, Winton Woods, greatparks.org.
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SUNDAY 26
Carriage House On-Farm Dinner Series — Watch chefs prepare multiple courses on a wood-fired oven and grill, then indulge in the dishes on the farm’s open-air dining terrace. Each dinner in the series is prepared by a different chef; this evening features Ryan Santos of pop-up restaurant Please. 5 p.m. Sunday. $105. Carriage House Farm, 10251 Miamiview Road, North Bend, carriagehousefarmllc.com. The Road Not Taken Brunch: Against the Grain Brewery — A three-course brunch featuring a menu inspired by those who blaze their own path. 11 a.m. $35. Fifty West Brewing Company, 7668 Wooster Pike, Mariemont, fiftywestbrew.com. Pop-Up Drag Brunch — Local drag queens perform at 21 Museum Hotel’s restaurant, Metropole, for Pride Week. 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. $35. Metropole, 609 Walnut St., Downtown, metropoleonwalnut.com.
TUESDAY 28
The Art of the Steak — Cooks move from the kitchen to the grill in summer and instructor and Eddie Merlot’s executive chef Bryan Hopping teaches home chefs to grill up some flavorful meat. Learn how to butcher, flavor and prepare different cuts of meat. 6:30-9 p.m. $62. Cooks’Wares, 11344 Montgomery Road, Harper’s Point, cookswaresonline.com.
Where the locals come to eat, drink and have fun
6/22 - Wednesday Wing Night
60¢ House-Smoked Wings Live Music from Love Train 6-9pm Tap Takeover! Avery Brewing Co. Boulder, CO Featuring Pils, Rascal, Raja, and Reverend
6/23 - Thursday Night Jazz & Wine
BRUNCH
Sunday : 10:00am-2:00pm
LUNCH
Tuesday-Friday : 11:30am-2:00pm
DINNER
Monday-Thursday : 5:30pm-9:30pm Friday & Saturday : 5:30pm-10:00pm
513-281-3663 3410 Telford Street. Cincinnati, OH, 45220
Wine Tasting: 5 Wines for $9 Live Music from Steve Barone 6-9pm
6/24 - Friday
Chef Philip Kurtz Dinner Specials Live Music from Old Green Eyes & BBG 7-10pm
6/25 - Saturday
Chef Philip Kurtz Dinner Specials Live Music from Seth Forester & Sonny Hill 7-10pm
6/26 - Sunday Neighborhood Night 27% OFF for the 45227 Live Music from Kyle Hackett 5-8pm
6818 Wooster Pk. Mariemont, OH 45227 (513) 561-5233
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OTR Beer Fest — “Cincinnati’s only canned beer festival” marks the end of Cincinnati Beer Week. This craft can party takes place in Washington Park and includes hundreds of different canned brews, food trucks and live music. 6-10 p.m. Friday; 2-10 p.m. Saturday. Free admission; $5 drinking wristband. Washington Park, 1230 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, otrbeerfest.com.
Foodbank. 5-11 p.m. Friday; 3-11 p.m. Saturday; 1-8 p.m. Sunday. $2 adults; free for 12 and under. 7000 Winton Road, Finneytown, panegyri.com.
Batter Up For Cookies!
music
All for One
Members of Cincinnati’s The Harlequins are back together with a vengeance on new album BY BRIAN BAKER
PHOTO : Jon Fl annery
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T
hree years isn’t an inordinate amount of time for a band to allow an album’s worth of material to coalesce. For Cincinnati’s The Harlequins, the gap since the band’s last releases — the Sex Change EP and a rarities collection, Bee Sides: Volume 1, both issued in 2013, and a live album from 2014 — has been filled with almost everything except material for its new album, One With You. Just prior to Sex Change, the local Psych/ Pop/Garage trio — guitarist/vocalist Michael Oliva, bassist Alex Stenard and drummer Rob Stamler — played Texas’ famed South by Southwest festival/conference, and the musicians were considering how to proceed in capitalizing on the momentum of releasing their self-titled full-length in 2012 and the aforementioned EP. They had been working on material — new songs and a backlog of older material that they’d never brought to the studio, plus a revised version of “Hear Me Out” from their eponymous album that they wanted to explore further. The options seemed limitless. “We were like, ‘Should we do an EP or a full-length?’ We weren’t really sure,” Oliva says. “Also, our friend Aaron Modarressi, who recorded most of our stuff, was getting ready to move, so we were thinking about working with other people.” Before the trio could resolve their next recording step, fate intervened in the form of touring buddies and good friends Gringo Star, an established band from Atlanta. The group’s Nick Furgiuele called Oliva with an interesting proposition. “They had all these tours booked, they were about to put out an album, their guitarist quit and they were always between drummers,” Oliva says. “They were like, ‘Would you and Rob want to join us on this tour and play together for a little bit?’ We didn’t want it to take over both bands, but it was kind of a perfect thing. We didn’t have much going on and we’ve always been friends with them.” After receiving Gringo Star’s then-new album, Floating Out to See, Oliva and Stamler practiced constantly on their own before being joined by Gringo’s Nick and Peter Furgiuele for a marathon band rehearsal. A couple of weeks later, The Harlequins played Cincinnati’s MidPoint Music Festival, sharing a bill with Kurt Vile, then prepared to hit the road with Gringo. “We played that (MidPoint) show, went home, packed our shit, slept for like three hours, drove in the middle of the night to Atlanta, rested a bit, then practiced the same set for two days,” Oliva says. “So we had like three practices, then started the West Coast tour. It was so awesome. We come
One With You is The Harlequins’ debut for Michigan-based indie label Dizzybird Records. from similar influences (as Gringo Star) so it wasn’t hard to pick up, but I was doing more technical stuff on guitar. They were opening for J. Roddy Walston & The Business, so we got to play some sick venues. Alex couldn’t be involved in (the tour), but we asked him first and he was cool — we were like, ‘It’ll probably give us connections for the band.’ ” Indeed it did. In 2014, The Harlequins again played shows at South by Southwest, with Oliva and Stamler doing double duty with Gringo Star for their fest appearances. One of the shows was at a small Irish pub, which was attended by Nicole LaRae and Brian Hoekstra, founders of newly formed Grand Rapids, Mich. label dizzybird records. The pair ended thoroughly impressed by both bands. “(LaRae and Hoekstra) posted that their favorite band was The Harlequins in this Irish pub,” Oliva says. “Everything, even with Gringo, was just all organic. We got a message from Brian and he was like, ‘We want to do something when you’ve got enough for an album. We really like your stuff and we want to get it out there.’ ” With a label secured, all that was required was enough material for an album. Once the trio reconnected to focus on its plans, the musicians thought in concrete terms about what they expected from the album. “There was fear,” Oliva says with a laugh. “I was like, ‘Just don’t make it suck!’
I wanted it to be a really cohesive album, even though it’s pretty eclectic. I think it’s the most eclectic mix of songs since (2009’s debut full-length) Baron Von Headless, and that was kind of the goal. I didn’t want to do anything too new, but I wanted to do the same thing in a different way.” Around the time of the Sex Change EP, The Harlequins had advanced to the point of having fully absorbed their influences and were now translating them instead of channeling them. As such, the songs on the selfrecorded One With You don’t steer far afield from The Harlequins’ typical sound and fury, but the album exudes an unmistakable air of confidence and authority. It’s particularly evident in the band’s new live presentation — last fall’s firing-on-all-cylinders show at Washington Park during MidPoint was one of the festival’s highlights. Oliva says that the new album reflects the band’s maturity. “We’ve been a band for almost a decade,” he says, “and as we grow older, we hope to age like a fine wine rather than rotting or turning like spoiled milk.” Although Oliva notes there isn’t an actual theme to One With You, he does say it is perhaps the band’s most autobiographical material to date. There are a handful of songs that touch on Oliva’s relationship with his wife, artist Ellina Chetverikova, and others that deal with the grind of life.
“The subject matter of our past work were ideas, but there were always real experiences at the heart, sometimes more conceptual or philosophical,” Oliva says. “This one was more personal.” The Harlequins are banging in their stalls to tour behind the vinyl/digital download release of One With You, which comes out Saturday. But an injury nearly took touring off the table. Last November, in a rare state of inebriation, Oliva severely jammed his thumb while trying to remove his boot doing the old one-foot whiskey hop. As a result, he suffered a ligament tear and a chipped bone and is still doing physical therapy, which could continue for several more months. But he has been resilient. The Harlequins continued playing regularly across the region, and along with this weekend’s hometown release show, the band so far has dates booked in New York and Philadelphia in the coming months. “We didn’t have to cancel any shows,” Oliva says. “They fitted me with a splint so I could play, and even use it as a slide sometimes. I could still form chords, but some were a little weird, like the song ‘Over a Hill,’ the bridge has this Jazz chord, so we couldn’t play that live for a little while.” THE HARLEQUINS play a free show Saturday at MOTR Pub. More info: motrpub.com.
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music spill it
Summer Music Fests in the Great Indoors BY MIKE BREEN
Ambient music and beyond. As Rich writes in the press release, “Some stuff is harsh and intense, some stuff is real mellow, some stuff is creepy, some stuff is just weird.” Thursday’s show begins at 8 p.m. with one of the big draws of the festival: Cincinnati’s John Bender performs publicly for the first time in over 30 years. Bender’s DIY recordings from the late ’70s/early ’80s circulated among experimental music fans for years, resulting in Bender being recognized as a pioneer of the lo-fi Elec-
Duo mr.phylzzz plays Northside fest Saturday. P H O T O : T r av i s B r a n d n e r
tronic music that has been dubbed Minimal Synth, Minimal Wave or Cold Wave. Bender finally began to approve official reissues in the past few years — most recently, San Francisco’s Superior Viaduct label reissued his 1980 debut album, I Don’t Remember Now/I Don’t Want To Talk About It. Joining Bender Thursday at No Response are Aaron Dilloway (formerly of Wolf Eyes), Hair Police and Vancouver’s Sarah Davachi. Friday’s lineup (which begins at 9 p.m.) features C. Spencer Yeh, formerly a key member of the local experimental music scene, in his first performance in Cincinnati since moving to New York several years ago. Yeh — whose music has combined electronics, vocals and violin — is an extremely active artist in New York, working in a variety of formats and having his work presented at museums and festivals all over the world. Also on the bill Friday: Bill Orcutt (formerly of Harry Pussy), Chicago’s Kevin Drumm and LA’s Sissy Spacek, led by Noisecore favorite and multimedia artist John Wiese. Advance single-day tickets are $15 through cincyticket.com, while two-day passes are $28. (noresponsefestival.com) CONTACT MIKE BREEN: mbreen@citybeat.com
1345 main st motrpub.com
BY mike breen
Public Domain Crusaders The lawyers who got “Happy Birthday” put in the public domain are back in court working to have two other iconic songs join it. The firm is going after the two companies that claim copyrights on “We Shall Overcome” and “This Land is Your Land.” The lawyers, who took up the “Overcome” case for filmmakers who were denied usage of it in their movie about the song, say that the anthem is not copyrightable because it was based on a 19th-century AfricanAmerican spiritual and was in the public domain for years prior to being copyrighted in 1960. More recently, representing a band afraid of being sued for covering “This Land,” the lawyers went after the same companies, arguing writer Woody Guthrie’s 1945 copyright expired in 1973, and their overlapping 1956 copyright was illegitimate. Rockers vs. Aliens Ex-Blink-182 member Tom DeLonge recently offered perhaps the greatest excuse for quitting a band ever. Last year, DeLonge’s bandmates said that before quitting he kept putting off recording sessions. Now we know why. In an interview with Mic, DeLonge said he just didn’t have time to do Blink-182 and pursue his other passion — investigating UFOs and aliens. DeLonge called his pursuit a “national security issue,” and when asked about evidence said, “I know of stuff I can’t talk about right now.” Nuge Plays for a Fiver A nine-day music festival in New Hampshire featuring acts like Fuel and Bret Michaels was (shockingly!) plagued by poor ticket sales, leaving promoters unable to pay the bills. By the penultimate night, with Rock-star-turned-delusional-right-wing-loudmouth Ted Nugent headlining, ticket prices were dropped from $67 to $5. But Nugent’s post-show interview with ultimateclassicrock.com made the sad experience sound like the best Rock concert ever. Bragging about his set, Nugent talked up the “jamming crowd,” calling the show “an out of the park musical home run.”
thu 23
ona elk creek
fri 24
jack burton overdrive margaret darling
sat 25
harlequins (record release) heaven’s gateway drugs
sun 26
future science (sketch comedy)
mon 27
motr vinyl session w/ dj dirtyc
tue 28
writer’s night w/ lucas word of mouth: open poetry
wed 29
vibrant troubadours motel faces, communications free live music now open for lunch
1404 main st (513) 345-7981
july
sidwalk chalk
july
13
hurray for the riff raff
7/ 17
david liebe hart
7/ 18
digable planets
8
buy tickets at motr or woodwardtheater.com
(513) 345-7981
C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 2 – 2 8 , 2 0 1 6 • 4 5
While it’s officially the “summer music festival season,” those adverse to standing outside in a field all day are in luck, as two excellent and unique fests with local music components await you this week — and both take place (mostly) indoors. • The Northside Music Festival was conceived by local arts and music Renaissance dude Jason Snell in 2007. The festival soon grew to two nights, and Snell brought in his pals Mike Gibboney and Scot Torres to help organize and manage the event. Heavy on local artists (while gradually adding touring acts), the Northside Music Festival has taken over Northside Tavern (4163 Hamilton Ave., Northside, northsidetav.com) for nine straight years now. The 2016 festival takes place Friday and Saturday, utilizing three stages at the Tavern — the larger back-room stage, plus one in the front room and one in the courtyard (which is outside). Music begins each day at 7:30 p.m. in the courtyard, and the event is completely free. On Friday, local Indie Rock/Pop groups Old City, Frontier Folk Nebraska and Culture Queer play in the courtyard, while Kid Stardust and Comprador perform on the front-room stage. The back-room stage will feature some unique and amazing Hip Hop on Friday from Cincy’s internationally renowned IsWhat?! and brilliant Chicago “Art Rap” MC Open Mike Eagle, as well as a collaborative set from Yoni Wolf (leader of the popular Hip Hop-turned-Art-Pop group WHY?) and DJ Northside Nick Simmons. Saturday’s courtyard lineup features Craig Fox (founding frontman of Cincy Garage Rock giants The Greenhornes who has also played with local bands like The Cincinnati Suds and Oxford Cotton) and the rootsy, rockin’ Alone at 3am, plus Dayton, Ohio’s The Motel Beds. The front-room stage Saturday has Blues/Rock/Soul crew the J. Dorsey Band, theatrical Psych Rock merrymakers Go Go Buffalo and “Trash Rock” duo mr.phylzzz. Northern Ohio’s Album and Columbus, Ohio’s Eye are joined on the backroom stage Saturday by local supergroup All-Seeing Eyes (featuring members who’ve played with Soledad Brothers, The Guitars and Cut in the Hill Gang, among others) and raucous Punk faves The Dopamines. (northsidemusicfest.com) • This Thursday and Friday, the Woodward Theater (1404 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, woodwardtheater.com) plays host to the first No Response Festival, the brainchild of John Rich and Jon Lorenz, who have helped keep experimental music alive in Cincinnati for the past decade-plus by operating various venues, booking shows and hosting the influential Art Damage radio show. The event features a broad range of unique styles, from Noise Rock to Electronic
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TOP 5 LOCAL BANDS 1 CURRENT EVENTS 2 BLANK STATE 3 GO GO BUFFALO 4 GREEN LIGHT MORNING 5 ARLO MCKINLEY
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Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds double-disc Fowl Play, is a stunning testawith Holy Ghost Tent Revival ment to the concussive power of the Dirty Thursday • RiversEdge Amphitheater Birds as a band and of Sister Sparrow as a (Hamilton) raspy Blues howler with the conviction of Sparrows are among the most familiar Janis Joplin in her Big Brother & the Holdand populous birds on Earth. They are ing Company days and the contemporary also among the most undervalued; their nuance and range of Grace Potter. great numbers, generally drab appearance If you’re a fan, you know what’s coming. and unexceptional song have made them If you’re merely curious, prepare to be baptargets of neglect or derision. In the late tized in Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds’ 1950s, China even declared them a danger holy birdbath. (Brian Baker) because of their grain diet and included Passion Pit with Bishop Briggs them in the Four Pests Campaign, leading Friday • Bogart’s to their near extinction, a subsequent rise Last November, during an uncommonly in the locust population and, at least tancandid conversation with novelist and burgentially, the Great geoning podcaster Chinese Famine. Bret Easton Ellis, Arleigh Kincheloe Passion Pit frontman obviously has a very Michael Angelakos different opinion said he couldn’t of the sparrow. She remember a time chose the unremarkwhen he didn’t hate ably amazing bird for himself. Angelakos her nom du rocque, also discussed his Sister Sparrow, and bipolar disorder and dubbed her band unequivocally came with a name more out as gay. often attached to the Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds Those facts can’t voluminous species: PHOTO : Joshua Timmermans help but inform The Dirty Birds. For listeners’ perception the past eight years, of Passion Pit, the Sister Sparrow & The musical outfit AngelaDirty Birds has defied kos founded in 2007 the reputation of its — the irony is that namesakes with a such exuberant, shiny visceral and bloodmusic could spring boiling presentation from such apparent that includes Blues, personal turmoil. Rock, Soul and R&B, “The greatest part played at a volume of Passion Pit is that and intensity that people are dancing could be dangerous and singing along to Passion Pit for anyone with a these super-depressPHOTO : Has san Rahim heart condition. ing lyrics — what Sister Sparrow’s better way to deal music career began with that than in this populist sound?” in New York’s Catskill Mountains, where she Angelakos said in an interview with the sang with her family’s band at age 9. Nine Chicago Tribune late last year. “It’s like years later, she relocated to New York City mainlining caffeine when you get to sing with brother Jackson Kincheloe, a mindthese songs in front of people who are just blowing harmonica player, armed with the as into it as you are.” songs she’d been writing for years, and Passion Pit’s third and most recent fullformed The Dirty Birds, a powerhouse live length album, 2015’s Kindred, bursts forth outfit that immediately attracted a fervently with maximalist effect, its 10 Synth Pop loyal fan base. nuggets powered by surging keyboards, The band’s gifts were effectively displayed taut rhythms and Angelakos’ high-pitched on its 2012 studio debut, Pound of Dirt, and vocals. Album opener “Lifted Up (1985)” its follow-up 2013 EP, Fight. But shortly sounds like French Pop masters Phoenix after, the bulk of the original Dirty Birds wired on Pixy Stix — the soaring chorus, flew the coop for other projects, leaving in which Angelakos tells us that “1985 was Sister Sparrow and brother Jackson to a good year,” is potent enough to arouse rebuild their Blues/Rock dynasty. Against Jeb “Please Clap” Bush. (For the record, all odds, The Dirty Birds returned stronger Angelakos was born in 1987.) than before — last year’s The Weather Below The sweetly swaying “Where the Sky was the group’s best album to date. And its Hangs” brings to mind M83 fronted by first official live recording, the just-released the guys in Orchestral Manoeuvres in
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the Dark — its ’80s Pop romanticism wouldn’t be out of place on the soundtrack of a vintage Molly Ringwald movie. “My Brother Taught Me How to Swim” seems to address Angelakos’ struggle to deal with his sexuality (he was previously married to a woman), but it could just as easily be about committing to a relationship of any kind, regardless of genders. Then there’s “Dancing on the Grave,” in which Angelakos relays what now seems like a mission statement: “Someone told me that I’ve run too far away/Someone told me I should just give in and stay.” (Jason Gargano)
FUTURE SOUNDS ZAC BROWN BAND – July 1, Riverbend
TO BENEFIT:
Saturday, November 12, 2016 Newport Aquarium
SPECIAL GUEST
John Lennon’s Sister, author JULIA BAIRD
ARONOFF CENTER FRIDAY, JULY 22 For tickets, visit: cincinnatiarts.org
The Largest Selection of Hemp on the Planet
DEF LEPPARD – July 5, Riverbend GUNS N’ ROSES – July 6, Paul Brown Stadium “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC – July 8, PNC Pavilion GRIFFIN HOUSE – July 9, Live! at the Ludlow Garage SLIPKNOT/MARILYN MANSON – July 12, Riverbend LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO/SWEET HONEY IN THE ROCK – July 14, Fraze Pavilion HALL & OATES – July 20, Riverbend LOW CUT CONNIE – July 21, RiversEdge Amphitheater HEART/CHEAP TRICK/JOAN JETT – July 22, Riverbend KENNY ROGERS – July 23, Fraze Pavilion 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER – July 26, Riverbend DISTURBED/BREAKING BENJAMIN – July 27, Riverbend THE LONDON SOULS – July 28, RiversEdge Amphitheater TEDESCHI TRUCK BAND – July 30, PNC Pavilion GOO GOO DOLLS – Aug. 3, PNC Pavilion KORN/ROB ZOMBIE – Aug. 7, Riverbend HANK WILLIAMS JR./CHRIS STAPLETON – Aug. 27, Riverbend MAROON 5 – Sept. 29, U.S. Bank Arena
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C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 2 – 2 8 , 2 0 1 6 • 4 7
Kishi Bashi with Us, Today Friday • Fountain Square Over the course of his decade-and-a-halflong career, Kaoru Ishibashi has enjoyed the best of all possible worlds, exploring the boundaries of Electronic Pop with his own band, Jupiter One, helping Kevin Barnes realize his creative visions with of Montreal and establishing his own unique sonic platform with the distinct solo project that bears the pseudonymous title Kishi Bashi. Kishi Bashi Raised in Norfolk, P H O T O : K a d e n S h a l l at Va. by his college professor parents, after his 1994 graduation from high school, Ishibashi attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston where he studied film scoring. After college, he utilized his estimable violin skills as an accompanist for the likes of Regina Spektor, Alexi Murdoch and Sondre Lerche. In 2003, he co-founded Jupiter One with multi-instrumentalist Zac Colwell after they met in the circus orchestra of 1999’s Ringling Bros. Barnum’s Kaleidoscape production. In its 10-year history, Jupiter One — a reference to the spaceship in the ’60s TV show Lost in Space — created a fascinating blend of Indie Rock, Synth Pop and New Wave across two EPs and three albums, including its final fulllength, 2009’s Sunshower. Several Jupiter One songs received wide exposure in TV programs, commercials and video games. In 2010, Ishibashi (and Jupiter One’s Colwell) joined of Montreal’s rotating collective, ultimately becoming a crucial collaborative partner on the band’s acclaimed 2012 album, Paralytic Stalks. While working with Barnes, Ishibashi launched his solo Indie Pop project Kishi Bashi with his debut album, 2012’s 151a, which also enjoyed a push through commercial placements and an endorsement from NPR radio host Bob Boilen; the All Songs Considered
host and Tiny Desk Concert series creator cited Kishi Bashi as his favorite among the year’s new artists. Jupiter One effectively ended due to its members’ outside schedules, and Ishibashi left of Montreal to concentrate on Kishi Bashi, which resulted in extensive C fan base-building touring across North America, Europe and the U.K. Kishi Bashi M has since released 2014’s Lighght, which Y nearly cracked the Top 50 of the Billboard 200, and two live sets — 2014’s Live on Val-CM entine’s and last year’s Kishi Bashi StringMY Quartet Live! As Kishi Bashi, Ishibashi’s live violin- CY and-vocals performance is enhanced CMY through the use of looping and beat boxing and is an amazing evocation of his studio K work. Decidedly different, mind-bendingly expansive, breathtakingly unique and still endearingly accessible, Kishi Bashi is ready to provide the soundtrack for the journey to the center of your mind’s eye. (BB)
music listings Wednesday 22
Arnold’s Bar and Grill - Todd Hepburn. 7 p.m. Blues/Jazz/Various. Free. Bella Luna - RMS Band. 7 p.m. Soft Rock/Jazz. Free.
513-671-7433 • 32 W. CRESCENTVILLE, CINCINNATI, OH 45246 • LOCALSKATEPARK.COM
$5 ADMISSION ALL TIMES
MON-THURS 1PM-9PM
FRIDAY 11AM-9PM
SATURDAY* 9AM-11PM
SUNDAY 9AM-9PM
*9AM-11AM for 12 & younger only
Century Inn Restaurant - Paul Lake. 7 p.m. Pop/Rock/Jazz/Oldies/Various. Free. Esquire Theatre - Ricky Nye & Ethan Leinwand. 7 p.m. Blues/ Boogie Woogie. $5.
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Fountain Square - Reggae Wednesday with Milton Blake & The River Nile Band. 7 p.m. Reggae. Free.
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DownTowne Listening Room H Second Anniversary Show with Alice Wallace and G. Burton. 7:30 p.m.
MOTR Pub - Ona with Elk Creek. 10 p.m. Alt/Rock/Indie. Free.
AltCountry/Folk. $12.
Newport on the Levee - Live at the Levee with The Whammies. 7 p.m. ’80s Pop/Rock/Dance/Various. Free. Plain Folk Cafe - Open mic with Chad Applegate. 7 p.m. Various. Free.
Fountain Square - Indie Vol. 2016 H with Kishi Bashi and Us, Today. 8:30 p.m. Indie/Pop/Post Rock/ Various. Free. Fraze Pavilion - Jake Owen with Brandon Lay. 7:30 p.m. Country. $30, $35 day of show.
RiversEdge - Sister Sparrow & The The Greenwich - Sonny Moorman H Dirty Birds and Holy Ghost Tent H & Final Friday Blues. 8 p.m. Blues. Revival. 6:30 p.m. Indie/Roots/Rock/ Cover.
Northside Tavern - Lonesome Fugitives. 9:30 p.m. Country. Free.
PNC Pavilion at Riverbend - Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band. 8 p.m. Rock. $56-$146. Pit to Plate - Bluegrass Night with Vernon McIntyre’s Appalachian Grass. 7 p.m. Bluegrass. $2. Silverton Cafe - Bob Cushing. 8 p.m. Acoustic. Free. Southgate House Revival (Lounge) Jared Schaedle with Ian Mathieu and Little Miami String Band. 9:30 p.m. Roots/Americana. Free. Southgate House Revival (Revival Room) - Dylan LeBlanc with The Pollies and Ben Knight. 8:30 p.m. Americana/ Folk/Rock. $12, $14 day of show. Southgate House Revival H (Sanctuary) - Blitzen Trapper with Quiet Life. 8 p.m. Indie Rock. $13, $15 day of show. Urban Artifact - Blue Wisp Big Band. 8:30 p.m. Big Band Jazz. Free (donations encouraged). 4 8 • C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 2 – 2 8 , 2 0 1 6
The Listing Loon - Mike Tittel with Chris Arduser and George Cunningham. 9 p.m. Singer/Songwriter. Free.
Knotty Pine - Dallas Moore. 8 p.m. Country. Free.
Meritage - Sonny Moorman. 7 p.m. Blues. Free.
Yeatman’s Cove - 5:13 with 3 Day Rule. 5 p.m. Rock/Various. Free.
Thursday 23
Arnold’s Bar and Grill - Dottie Warner and Ricky Nye. 7:30 p.m. Jazz/Blues. Free. Behringer-Crawford Museum - Roger Drawdy & The Firestarters. 7 p.m. Celtic Rock. $5.
Fountain Square - Salsa on the Square with ¡Zumba Band! and Malik Spencer. 7 p.m. Salsa/Latin/Dance. Free. The Greenwich - Bianca Graham: H Apollo Fundraiser. 7 p.m. R&B/ Soul/Pop. $10 (suggested donation). Jag’s Steak and Seafood - Steve Thomas. 6 p.m. Piano/Vocals/Sax. Free.
6/16/16 8:55 AM 6/16/16 8:55 AM
Crow’s Nest - Honeywise. 10 p.m. Folk/Roots. Free.
Quincy’s Bar & Lounge - Adia Dobbins and Jim Connerley. 8 p.m. Jazz Pop. Free.
Northside Yacht Club - Worriers, H Mikey Erg, Beverly and Flowers. 9 p.m. Rock. $5.
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The Comet - In Details. 10 p.m. Indie Rock. Free.
Jag’s Steak and Seafood - Steve Thomas. 6 p.m. Sax/Piano/Vocals. Free.
The Listing Loon - Cincinnati Folksinger and his Uptown Band. 9 p.m. Folk. Free.
Send reStaurant tipS, newS and preSS releaSeS to
Kings Island - SpiritSong with Casting Crowns, Jeremy Camp, Andy Mineo and more. 5 p.m. Pop/Rock/Various. $64.
Various. Free.
Southgate House Revival (Revival H Room) - Malcolm Holcombe and David Olney. 8 p.m. Folk/Country/ Blues. $15, $18 day of show. U.S. Bank Arena - R. Kelly. 8 p.m. R&B. $69-$109. Urban Artifact - King Buffalo, The Terror Electric and mr.phylzzz. 9 p.m. Rock. Free. Village Green Park - Groovin’ on the Green with Miami Steel Drum Band. 7 p.m. Steel Drum. Free. Washington Park - Bandstand Bluegrass with Billy Strings. 7 p.m. Folk/Bluegrass. Free. Woodward Theater - No Response Festival: John Bender, Sarah Davachi, Hair Police and more. 8 p.m. Experimental. $15.
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Friday 24
404 - Samantha Carlson Quartet. 8 p.m. Jazz. Cover. Arnold’s Bar and Grill - River City Roustabout. 9 p.m. Folk. Free. Axis Alley - Trailer Park Floosies. 9 p.m. Dance/Pop/Rock/Country/ Various. Free.
Backstage Cafe - The Wankers H (reunion show) with Pasty, Transmissions, Cutpots and more. 7 p.m. Rock/Punk/Various. Cover. Bella Luna - Blue Birds Trio. 7 p.m. Classic Rock/Jazz. Free. Blue Note Harrison - Amy Sailor and East of Austin. 9 p.m. Country. Bogart’s - Passion Pit with Bishop H Briggs. 7 p.m. Indie Pop. $45.30. Buzzard Bay Pub - Pandora Effect. 9:30 p.m. Rock. Cover. Century Inn Restaurant - Jim Teepen. 8 p.m. Acoustic. Free. Clifton Plaza - April Aloisio. 7 p.m. Brazilian Jazz. Free. College Hill Coffee Co. - Ricky Nye and Ethan Leinwand. 7:30 p.m. Blues/ Boogie Woogie. Free.
Grandview Tavern & Grille - Basic Truth. 8 p.m. Funk/R&B/Soul. Free.
Jag’s Steak and Seafood - Wet Soul. 10 p.m. R&B/Soul/Funk/Jazz/Various. Cover. Kings Island - SpiritSong with TobyMac, for King & Country, Rend Collective and more. 5 p.m. Pop/ Rock/Various. $64. Knotty Pine - Wayward Son. 10 p.m. Rock. Cover. The Listing Loon - Brendan Bogosian and Ally Hurt. 9 p.m. Singer/ Songwriter. Free. MOTR Pub - Jack Burton Overdrive with Margaret Darling. 10 p.m. Alt/ Rock/Various. Free. Madison Live - Infinity Spree (EP H release) with Young Colt. 9 p.m. AltRock. $6, $8 day of show. Mansion Hill Tavern - The Heaters. 9 p.m. Blues. $4. Martin’s Someplace Else Tavern Jessica Lauren Miller. 9 p.m. Acoustic. Marty’s Hops & Vines - Kick the Blue Drum. 9 p.m. Blues/Rock. Free. Mount Adams Pavilion - What She Said. 8 p.m. Rock/Pop/Dance. Northside Tavern - Northside H Music Festival: Open Mike Eagle, Culture Queer and many more. 7 p.m. Indie Rock/Hip Hop/Various. Free. Plain Folk Cafe - Bob Cushing and Jeff Workman. 6 p.m. Acoustic. Free. Quincy’s Bar & Lounge - Lee Stolar Trio. 8 p.m. Jazz. Free. The Redmoor - Kelly Richey. 8 p.m. Blues/Rock. $10. Rick’s Tavern - 90 Proof Twang. 10 p.m. Country/Rock. $5. Silverton Cafe - Night Owls. 9 p.m. Blues/Soul/Rock/Various. Free. Southgate House Revival (Lounge) Hobilly with The Absolute Beginners. 9:30 p.m. Rock/Roots/Various. Free. Southgate House Revival (Revival Room) - Punk Rock Night. 9 p.m. Punk Rock. $5. Southgate House Revival (Sanctuary) - Peewee Moore & The Awful Dreadful
CityBeat’s music listings are free. Send info to MIKE BREEN via email at mbreen@citybeat.com. Listings are subject to change. See citybeat.com for full music listings and all club locations. H is CityBeat staff’s stamp of approval.
WANTS YOU TO Snakes with Straw Boss. 9 p.m. Outlaw Country/Rockabilly. $10, $15 day of show.
Kings Island - SpiritSong with Kari Jobe, Crowder, RED and Stars Go Dim. 5 p.m. Pop/Rock/Various. $64.
Thompson House - Bipolar with Ladyy Ace & Paco, Sells, Kenny Bryant and A T Mstr. 8 p.m. Hip Hop/Rap. $10.
Knotty Pine - Bad Habit. 10 p.m. Rock. Cover.
Trinity Gastro Pub - Bob Cushing. 8:30 p.m. Acoustic. Free. U.S. Bank Arena - Justin Bieber. 7:30 p.m. Pop. $50.50-$116. The Underground - Warshful, Mad After Dark, Undivided and Cierras. 7 p.m. Rock/Various. Cover. Urban Artifact - John Gold, Brenda and Moonbeau. 9 p.m. Indie/Pop/Various. Free.
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Washington Platform Saloon & Restaurant - Mike Wade (John Ford at 5:30 p.m.). 9 p.m. Jazz. $10 (food/ drink minimum). Woodward Theater - No Response Festival: Bill Orcutt, C. Spencer Yeh, Sissy Spacek, more. 9 p.m. Experimental. $15.
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Saturday 25
404 - Mike Wade Quartet. 8 p.m. Jazz. Cover. Arnold’s Bar and Grill - Modern Groove Jazz Band. 9 p.m. Jazz. Free. Bella Luna - Blue Birds Trio. 7 p.m. Classic Rock/Jazz. Free. Blind Lemon - Mike and Melissa and Kyle Hackett. 6 p.m. Acoustic. Free. Blue Note Harrison - Pure Grain. 9 p.m. Country. Cover. The Carnegie - Suits That Rock. 8 p.m. Rock. $60-$85 (benefiting The Carnegie’s children’s education programs).
Legends Nightclub - Room for Zero. 11 p.m. AltRock. Free. The Listing Loon - RX-2. 9 p.m. Instrumental/Various. Free. Live! at the Ludlow Garage - Mipso. 8 p.m. Bluegrass/Folk/Gospel/Various. $15-$30. MOTR Pub - The Harlequins (album H release show) with Heaven’s Gateway Drugs. 10 p.m. Psych/Garage/ Rock/Pop/Various. Free. MVP Bar & Grille - The Refranes. 9 p.m. Dance/Rock/Various. Cover. Mansion Hill Tavern - Turner South. 9 p.m. Blues. $3. Marty’s Hops & Vines - Just Two Howlers. 9 p.m. Classic Rock. Free.
The Comet - Kino Kimino. 10 p.m. H Post Punk/Indie Rock. Free. Crow’s Nest - Chelsea Stepp. 10 p.m. Indie Pop. Free. The Fling Barn - Johnny Fink & the Intrusion. 8 p.m. Blues. Cover.
The Greenwich - Erwin Stuckey & the Omega Band. 9 p.m. Jazz. $5. Harry Whiting Brown Community Center - Summer Concerts on the Green with Not Your Dad’s Jazz. 6 p.m. Jazz. Free. Indian Creek Amphitheatre H Shooter Jennings and Waymore’s Outlaws. 4 p.m. Country/Roots/Rock/ Various. $25. Jag’s Steak and Seafood - Why So Serious. 10 p.m. Dance/Pop/Rock/ Various. Cover. Jim and Jack’s on the River - Arvis Austin. 8 p.m. Country. Free.
Mansion Hill Tavern - Open Blues Jam with The Ben Duke Band. 8 p.m. Blues. Free. The Mockbee - INC Cincinnati: Laundry Room Squelchers, Wasteland Jazz Unit, many more. 6 p.m. Noise/Ambient/Drone. $5.
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Northside Tavern - Grace Lincoln. 8:30 p.m. Soul. Free. Riverbend Music Center - Rascal Flatts with Kelsea Ballerini and Chris Lane. 7:30 p.m. Country. $25.50-$55.25.
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Sonny’s All Blues Lounge - Sonny’s All Blues Band featuring Lonnie Bennett. 8 p.m. Blues. Free.
Sawyer Point • July 1 & 2
Southgate House Revival (Revival Room) - Irene Kelley. 4 p.m. Bluegrass. $10.
Rock/Punk/Alt/Various. Free.
Various. Free.
Plain Folk Cafe - Ronnie Vaughn and Co. and Tony Hall. 6 p.m. Acoustic/ Various. Free.
Mansion Hill Tavern - Acoustic jam with John Redell & Friends. 8 p.m. Acoustic/Blues/Various. Free.
The Redmoor - Eugene Goss with Triage. 8:30 p.m. Jazz. $10.
McCauly’s Pub - Sonny Moorman. 7 p.m. Blues. Free.
Rick’s Tavern - Final Order. 10 p.m. Rock. $5.
Meritage - Sonny Moorman. 7 p.m. Blues. Free.
Rising Star Casino - Three Dog Night. 8 p.m. Classic Rock/Pop. $40.
The Mockbee - Pop Empire, Dry H Summers and Drag Sounds. 9 p.m. Rock. Free.
Silverton Cafe - Retrovibe. 9 p.m. Rock. Free. Southgate House Revival (Lounge) JIMS. 9:30 p.m. Rock/Various. Free.
(release party). 7 p.m. Blues/Rock/ Various. $10. Southgate House Revival (Sanctuary) - Emily Gimble. 9 p.m. Jazz/Blues/ Americana/Various. $10, $12 day of show. The Underground - Backdoor, Jamwave and Sebrina. 7 p.m. Rock/ Various. Cover. Urban Artifact - And the Kids, Nice H Try, Faux Fiction and Tiger Sex. 9 p.m. Rock/Indie/Pop/Various. Free. Washington Platform Saloon & Restaurant - Jim Connerley & Friends. 9 p.m. Jazz. $10 (food/drink minimum).
Sunday 26
BrewRiver GastroPub - Ricky Nye and Ben Levin. 6 p.m. Blues/Boogie Woogie. Free. The Comet - Comet Bluegrass AllStars. 7:30 p.m. Bluegrass. Free. Findlay Market - Ricky Nye. noon Blues/Boogie Woogie. Free. Fountain Square - Gospel Sundays with Rodney Posey. 4 p.m. Gospel. Free.
Northside Tavern - The Qtet. 9:30 p.m. Funk/Jazz/Rock/Various. Free. Urban Artifact - Tropicoso. 8 p.m. Latin/Salsa/Dance. Free.
Tuesday 28
Arnold’s Bar and Grill - Diamond Jim Dews. 7 p.m. Blues. Free.
Blind Lemon - Nick Tuttle. 8 p.m. Acoustic. Free. The Comet - Cough It Up with H Blakkr and Swim Team. 10 p.m. Rock/Punk/Various. Free. Crow’s Nest - Open Mic Night. 8:30 p.m. Roots/Folk/Americana/Various. Free. Fraze Pavilion - Bob Dylan with H Mavis Staples. 7:30 p.m. Rock/ Folk/Soul. $54-$94. Jag’s Steak and Seafood - Zack Shelly and Chon Buckley. 6 p.m. Piano/ Vocals. Free. The Listing Loon - Andrea Cefalo and Phillip Burkhead. 9 p.m. Jazz. Free.
June 24 Passion Pit 29 Brian Fallon & The Crowes
JuST AnnOunCeD:
July
TiCkeTS On SAle FriDAy
6 SWMRS 9 10 Years 15 Stone Temple Pilots Tribute 16 Liquid Nation 22 The Paper Kites 26 The Struts 29 I Prevail
RailRoad EaRth September 22nd MElaniE MaRtinEz September 27th
TiCkeTS On SAle FriDAy
/BOGARTSSHOWS
MOTR Pub - Writer’s Night. 10 p.m. Open mic/Various. Free. The Mockbee - Milkman, Nithing and Gassed. 9 p.m. Metal. Free.
Stanley’s Pub - Trashgrass Night with members of Rumpke Mountain Boys. 9 p.m. Jamgrass/Bluegrass/ Jamgrass/Various. Cover.
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C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 2 – 2 8 , 2 0 1 6 • 4 9
Fountain Square - FSQ Live with H Automagik and Orchards. 8 p.m. Indie Rock. Free.
The Listing Loon - The AMPhibians. 9 p.m. Surf/Rock/Instrumental. Free.
Northside Tavern - Northside Monday 27 H Music Festival: Dopamines, Eye, Knotty Pine - Open Mic. 8 p.m. All-Seeing Eyed and many more. 7 p.m.
Southgate House Revival Plaza - The Hiders. 7 p.m. H (Revival Room) - Joe Wannabe H Clifton Indie/Rock/Roots/Various. Free. and the Mad Man’s Blues Band College Hill Coffee Co. - Kim and Dee. 7:30 p.m. Acoustic. Free.
Knotty Pine - Randy Peak. 10 p.m. Acoustic. Free.
crossword puzzle
Split Decision
BY Brendan Emmet t Quigley Across
JaCk CinCinnati CasinO Friday, July 29th (5pm-10pm) saturday, July 30th (11am-10pm) sponsored by
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PIG offerInGs from
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5 0 • C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 2 – 2 8 , 2 0 1 6
Just Q’in
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1. ___ Blanc (white wine grape) 7. Podcaster Maron 11. Pool ball with a blue stripe 14. As an example 15. Mental flash 16. Extra-hoppy drink 17. Have a purse? 18. Butt-shaped pushpins? 20. Rembrandt’s birthplace 22. High-andmighty type 23. Auctioneer’s banger 25. Decision to stop swinging, for short 26. Flavored like some turkey stuffing 28. Shooter who just grazes a narcotics agent? 33. Cross letters 34. Way off base, initially 35. “O.J.: Made in America” judge 36. French dessert on fire? 41. “Independence Day: Resurgence” vehicle 42. Country layovers? 43. Kinda whatever 44. Pooch-in-ablender dish? 47. Horseback rider’s holding 48. Chinese restaurant General 49. India neighbor 51. Shared playlist’s predecessor 54. NBA star Lillard 57. Home filled with stomachchurning stuff? 61. Vote in the news ... and alternate title for this puzzle 63. Sallie ___ 64. Legal document 65. “It’d be my pleasure” 66. Threesome in Cincinnati?
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7
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18 20
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11
41
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40 43
48
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47 50
54 58
59
60
55 61
63
64
65
66
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67. Shots of alcohol 68. Beck’s album with a Komondor on the cover Dow n
1. Bus. money man 2. Scream out loud 3. Coastal bird 4. “Don’t sweat it” 5. Tomorrow 6. Israeli desert 7. Congresswoman Love 8. Pre-rolls, e.g. 9. In medias ___ 10. Mountain range of New York 11. Crunchy TexMex snack 12. Nevada city 13. Programmable thermostat brand 19. Shortly 21. ___ Rocknroll (Kate Winslet’s husband) 24. Pressures, mafia-style 25. Apartment off the ground floor, likely 26. Big problem 27. Strong feelings 29. Fill with wonder 30. 2003 bomb imdb.com
32
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46
57
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25 29
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52
13
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34 37
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www.brendanemmettquigley.com
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described as “The violent story about how a criminal lesbian, a toughguy hit-man with a heart of gold, and a mentally challenged man came to be best friends through a hostage” 31. Filmmaker Coen 32. Kind of IRA 33. “Shut that alarm off” 37. Gets into bed 38. Prefix meaning “inside” 39. Neither Dem. nor Rep.
56 62
40. “My feelings are...” 45. Make an engraving 46. Dropout’s deg. 47. Powder packer 50. “The Life of ___” 51. Silent entertainer 52. “Sign me up” 53. Some Jaguars 55. Spin in the rink 56. Naldi of the silents 58. Ocean State sch. 59. Tiny drink 60. “Independence Day: Resurgence” extras 62. Plaything
l ast week’s answers S P C A A R I D W I L D S A L Z O N E I N T N E R D R O A M F I E D I M S E L G B L A C T E M P S T E R
T H A R C O X E S E B E E S T T Y A L Y O Y O D S H I P S A P E P S T E D B R O S S E I F O A S T I C K U M S C A D K E Y E D P I S A U T R E A N
D A M
F E R R A N T E
A I D E S R S T E A E P
A T S O T H O S E A M S L U I L I C E O A H A F L Y S E E S V S O H E I N A R K S A N T I G O R D E W Y
THE CLASSIFIEDS B E AU T Y/ FA S H I O N / MODELING We are looking to add some new friends to our BackStreet Studio Team. We have a very nice diverse neighborhood. Art Deco Studio, Feng Shui, Green, Established since 1992. A very cool space! Looking for License White Hair Care, and Ethnic Black Natural Hair Care Managing Cosmetologists- Independent contractors! Booth Rental, Great Marketing, Web Site, Social Media, One week Free Vacation, and more. We love what we do, and do what we love! We are looking for the same! We have a great time! Please have a clientele, with room to grow. Please Contact Tom & Pegge for more information. We are offering a referral fee as well. Thank You! www. backst st udio.com. 513-662-6559
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Next Show Sunday, July 3
contractors NEEDED to deliver CityBeat
CityBeat needs contractors to deliver CityBeat every Wednesday between 9am and 3pm. Qualified candidates must have appropriate vehicle, insurance for that vehicle and understand that they are contracted to deliver that route every Wednesday. CityBeat drivers are paid per stop and make $14.00 to $16.00 per hr. after fuel expense. Please reply by email and leave your day and evening phone numbers. Please reply by email only. Phone calls will not be accepted. sferguson@citybeat.com
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