CityBeat Dec. 21, 2016

CINCINNATI’S NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY • DEC. 21 – 27, 2016 • free

The Jewel in the Crown A f t er a n $11 m i l l ion r e st or at ion, M e mor i a l Ha l l seek s i t s pl ace i n t h e ci t y ’ s n ew a rt s di st r ict

BY S T E V EN ROSEN / / PAGE 10

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FRIDAY MARCH 17

VOL. 23 ISSUE 05 ON THE COVER: MEMORIAL HALL / PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

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COVER STORY 14 STUFF TO DO 15

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Bad Stuff Coming Down From Columbus Greg Carter You have a chance for debate when you vote for representation. There’s a reason Ohio Republicans control both chambers and the governorship (sorta). The issues you cite are important to voters who comprise the majority. If you don’t like it, keep trying to convince people otherwise. Then again, those efforts help to reinforce the current majority opinion.

Alice Emmons Yeah, the reason being gerrymandering. Time and again, the polls on issues like gun policy and abortion disagree with the legislation put forth by our Republicandominated government.

Richard Baldi Jr. Gotta love the ’Pubs, always looking out for the working man’s needs.

Ted Groman Local and state elections matter, too.

— Comments posted at Facebook.com/CincinnatiCityBeat in response to Dec. 13 post, “Ohio legislature’s lame-duck actions favor lower worker pay, fewer abortions”

Let’s Go to the Magical Bar

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VOICES

What a Week!

BY T.C. Britton

WEDNESDAY DEC. 14

At this point in the final weeks of the life test that is 2016, everyone should hold their babies close (in the immortal words of the late Patsy Ramsey. RIP. Sorry, there are just so many JonBenét specials on lately.) because this year is not holding back in the iconstealing department. In fact, it might be kicking it into overdrive in the final stretch. America’s dad (and, more literally, Robin Thicke’s dad) passed away early this week from a heart attack. He was 69 years old. Thicke turned out to be one of the normos from his iconic ’80s TV series Growing Pains. Think about it: Dr. Seaver’s on-screen son/D.J. Tanner’s IRL bro Kirk Cameron went on to become the kind of actor who only signs on to “keep the Christ in Christmas” movies while TV daughter Tracey Gold became the poster child for not pushing your child into early stardom. And don’t get us started on the sad story of what happened to Growing Pains’ “Boner” — how did a show starring a born-again mega-Christian get away with naming a character Boner? But Alan really did seem like a nice dad in reality — his final moments were spent playing hockey with his youngest son Carter (which is the most Canadian way to go out). However he did produce an unfortunate offspring that grew up to be the annoying caucasian face behind the most problematic earworm of 2013, “Blurred Lines,” so.

THURSDAY DEC. 15

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New year (almost), new emojis. The latest iOs 10 update unveiled this week includes hundreds of new, expanded and redesigned hieroglyphics to replace the written word. iPhone users can now find crossed fingers, baby bumps and face-palm and drooling smilies, there are a ton more occupational emojis and gender/ race customizations and nearly every type of cuisine is represented, from a croissant to pita to paella. But the best additions were truly plucked from the pop culture of 2016: There’s a clown, an avocado (the toast condiment of choice this year), a David Bowie-inspired glam rocker and, most significantly, a majestic gorilla that most definitely represents Harambe. He lives on! And just when Thane Maynard thought he was in the clear...

FRIDAY DEC. 16

Democrats might have a majority of big-name celebrities on their side, but if this election taught us anything, it’s that being Katy Perry’s best friend is not enough to become president. Donald Trump doesn’t need the support of a gaggle of celebs — that is, of course, until he needs to fill his inauguration performance lineup. Trump’s inauguration committee (presumably the “PubLIZity” girls from Kroll Show) is reportedly offering to shell out big bucks to get A-list musicians to perform — something the Obama camp did not have to do to book the likes of Aretha Franklin and Beyoncé — and still the best names they can scrounge up are Ted Nugent and Kid Rock. Luckily, their artist fees are just a 24-pack of Milwaukee’s Best, a carton of Marlboro lights and a model in a rebel flag bikini.

SATURDAY DEC. 17

This week’s fake news fuckery comes in the form of a grainy black and white surveillance-style video of CeeLo Green. In it, he appeared be talking on a cellphone in a studio when that phone proceeded to explode in his face, leaving many concerned about the musician’s safety and well-being. Green soon spoke out, apologizing for inducing panic with what was just a clip from a forthcoming music video he’ll be releasing under the name Gnarly Davidson. Ten years ago Green released “Crazy” under the name Gnarls Barkley. Now he’s Gnarly Davidson.

What’s next for the apparent pun lover? Some ideas: • Gnarly Quinn (CeeLo would totally rock sequinned hot pants) • Gnarls Jr. (shout-out Secretary of Labor!)

• Gnarlie Hebdo (too soon?)

• Gnarlycorn’s (a family-friendly bar and grill) • Chris Gnarley (comic of a generation)

SUNDAY DEC. 18

Every 18 months or so Steve Burns from the old Nick Jr. show Blue’s Clues pops up in the news again, usually as a recycled BuzzFeed “Where are they now?” listicle. As terrible humans, our first reaction is “Oh no, Steve from Blue’s Clues died!” and then “Whew, he’s OK. But oh no, Steve from Blue’s Clues is trying to be relevant again!” And just as the seasons change, Steve has emerged from obscurity again (The show debuted 20 years ago) this week in an interview with Huffington Post that “finally confirms” why he left the show after seven years. Was it drugs? Booze? Is that Blue really an old perv in dog’s clothing? No — turns out Steve just started losing his hair and feeling old. Real cool, HuffPo. We clicked that link to see if the dude died, not read about him discovering his own mortality. Next!

MONDAY DEC. 19

Trump’s tweet of the week had to be when he referred to China taking a Navy drone in international waters as “unpresidented.” He obviously meant unprecedented, but accidentally described what we all wish would become of him when the electoral college voted Monday. It didn’t happen. In fact, more tried to defect from Hillary Clinton than Trump. And while our nation’s electors might not have our backs, Merriam Webster totally did when it trolled Trump, tweeting, “The #WordOfTheDay is...not ‘unpresidented.’ We don’t enter that word. That’s a new one.” #DictionaryBurn

TUESDAY DEC. 20

If you were wondering what else can we blame on Millennials, the Wall Street Journal has an answer: poor fabric softener sales. The article looked at possible demographic factors behind the drop and, you guessed it, it’s all Millennials’ fault. Apparently companies like Downy are now rebranding to target the age group. You’d think the snowflake generation would be especially keen on super-softness of their clothes. But apparently crippling debt overshadows the need for Snuggle Bear’s delicate touch.

CONTACT T.C. BRITTON: letters@ citybeat.com

‘God bless us, every one’ Thoughts on world peace from a CityBeat staffer’s little brother, circa 1996

P E A C E

eace is what we need. Peaceful world is a happy world. verybody be nice.

Even thou peopl hert you don’t hert them. nyone can be good.

A simppel punch or kick can make a lot of violents.

ooperate and help.

Can we stop hurting people? ven one person can make a difference.

Even one peaceful thing may start a peaceful world.

Welcome to

VOICES EDITORIAL

Enquirer’s Latest Act of Outsourcing? Sports Coverage

By DANNY CROSS

visits to California, Hawaii and the BahaGannett-owned paper, the Indy Star, for a mas to cover tournaments. (These tallies pro-Butler audience. Here’s how the Star’s are based on game stories with datelines Butler beat reporter opened his piece: “Did the Butler Bulldogs need this one? Darn showing the reporter was in attendance.) right, they did.”

Skipping a conference’s media day has That’s not all. If anyone in Cincinnati upset school officials in the past. Back wanted to know where to get even more in 2007, when Brian Kelly was UC’s head Butler coverage, the story on Cincinnati. football coach and the Bearcats were comcom includes the following line at the end: peting in a different version of the Big East “Call Indy Star reporter David Woods at Conference, Kelly went off on The Enquirer (317) 444-6195. Follow him on Twitter: @ for skipping the trip to Rhode Island.

DavidWoods007. Butler vs. Indiana at Bank“I am still going to coach the team and we ers Life Fieldhouse, 5 p.m. Saturday, BTN.” are still going to compete for a Big East title,” CityBeat emailed Enquirer editor Peter Kelly said at the time. “But it is sad for the Bhatia and sports editor Jason Hoffman to fans of Cincinnati to not have a legitimate, ask why the paper, fresh off seven newsroom credible local media outlet. Our fans would layoffs and the elimination of its publisher position, nixed travel to these early-season UC and Xavier road games.

Neither team goes on a ton of trips before their conference schedules begin, but they’re important games for the programs — preconference road wins and neutral-site tournament runs can boost rankings and help teams get — Former UC football coach Brian Kelly, 2007 into the NCAA Tournament come March.

UC this year has already be better served going to Rivals, Sporting played against three ranked teams on the News or even the Boston Globe because road — their most high-profile games on the they are credible sources who care enough schedule outside the Crosstown Shootout. about their product to be here.”

The Enquirer didn’t send a reporter to any of them and also skipped one of Xavier’s two It’s difficult to imagine that The Enquirer road trips and the team’s appearance at Big either doesn’t have enough reporters to East Media Day in New York City this year. cover two sports at a time or doesn’t have Hoffman says the decision not to send UC enough money to send someone to Indiareporter Groeschen was just a scheduling napolis. What should be more concerning conflict involving his UC football responsifor local readers is the fact that Enquirer bilities. Xavier’s trip to Colorado was “covmanagement apparently thinks the resultered online” — presumably by watching the ing content is adequate. game on TV — because the person covering Here’s Hoffman’s explanation: “Because Xavier had other assignments, he says. of our coverage of the University of Cin“We will not be missing any UC or Xavier cinnati hiring a new football coach, the games the rest of the season,” Hoffman says. decision was made to leverage the coverage UC’s football schedule never seemed umbrella of the USA TODAY Network for to be an issue with Groeschen’s predecesthe UC-Butler game, which was aptly covsor, Bill Koch, who covered five out of six ered by our partners at the Indy Star. We such early season basketball road games included quotes and context from UC coach between 2011 and the time he took a buyout Mick Cronin above and beyond the stories in 2014. The Enquirer hasn’t sent a staff our partners published.” reporter to any of five since Koch left, setThe Enquirer is betting that readers can’t tling for dispatches by freelancers or reporttell the difference between outside writers ers from sister publications. and its own beat reporters, which contraThe Xavier men’s basketball beat looks dicts the idea that the publication’s reportto be facing similar restrictions after The ers are the authorities it says they are.

Enquirer let go veteran reporter Shannon It’s unfortunate because there are still Russell this fall after 15 years with the talented reporters at the paper who care paper. Going back to 2011, Russell had only what readers think and would probably missed a single non-conference road trip rather just do their jobs themselves. during the past five seasons while heading CONTACT DANNY CROSS: dcross@citybeat.com out on 14 such trips, including multi-night

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For the past two college basketball seasons, The Cincinnati Enquirer has quietly pulled back on coverage of two major sports beats — University of Cincinnati and Xavier men’s basketball — by paying freelancers in other cities rather than sending beat reporters to cover certain games in person.

Skipping these games is a relatively new phenomenon and corresponds with recent buyouts and layoffs of longtime reporters covering UC and Xavier. In one remarkably lazy attempt to pass off another publication’s reporting as its own, The Enquirer published an entire game story and video from the vantage point of an opposing college’s team, along with the phone number and Twitter handle of a reporter covering that team for a newspaper in Indiana.

This is the same Enquirer that runs advertisements touting the skills and access of its reporters, hoping to capitalize on their public images and give credibility to its coverage.

Sports sections have long been cash cows for daily newspapers, a place where travel budgets swell alongside advertisements for end-of-month car dealership inventory. Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty has traveled the world for decades on the company dime to provide local readers with the type of insight and storytelling the publication prides itself on.

Doc can’t appreciate the sights, sounds and smells of the Augusta back nine from his patio in Loveland, after all.

Yet when the 24th-ranked UC basketball team traveled to play No. 21 Rhode Island in a tournament in Connecticut last month, The Enquirer kept its Bearcats beat reporter Tom Groeschen home, instead calling in a freelancer named Will Geoghegan.

Had UC won that game, it would have faced No. 1 Duke and hall-of-fame coach Mike Krzyzewski in the tournament’s championship game — nearly 18 years to the day of UC’s last-second win over then-No. 1 Duke in the 1998 Great Alaska Shootout.

That would have been worth flying Doc in for.

Then came a roadie to Ames, Iowa, where the Bearcats handed No. 19 Iowa State a thrilling overtime defeat in a game with NCAA Tournament seeding implications.

Cincinnati.com readers only heard about it via “Tom Birch for The Enquirer” — a Des Moines Register reporter who filed his story without postgame quotes from UC coach Mick Cronin.

Next was the real shocker for Cincinnati’s sports newspaper of record: The Enquirer couldn’t even find someone to drive 120 miles up I-74 when UC played Butler in Indianapolis in yet another battle of top-25 teams.

Instead, The Enquirer re-published the very same story that ran in another

news

Faith Beyond the Law

Local congregations mull protection for the undocumented in the age of Trump

By NICK SWARTSELL

P H O T O : n i c k s wa r t s e l l

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A

s a child 35 years ago, Salvador Leavitt-Alcantara stood with his brother just off a runway at the El Salvador International Airport, trying to glimpse their mother boarding a nearby plane and desperately imagining an earthquake that would keep her from flying away.

“The earthquake never came,” he says.

“The airplane door closed, and it started to move. I remember running along with it down the platform, and then following it with my eyes full of tears.”

With that flight, Alcantara’s mother fled poverty and violence associated with the Salvadoran civil war. She left her children with their grandmother, hoping to send money back and eventually get them to the U.S as well. They were reunited here seven years later, thanks in part to a 1980s-era movement in which U.S. faith leaders and community activists shielded undocumented people from deportation.

Alcantara recounted his newly resonant story at a recent meeting in Clifton calling for the local return of those so-called sanctuary congregations. As president-elect Donald Trump repeats pledges to form “deportation squads” that will round up and kick out millions of undocumented residents, there are efforts across the country to reawaken the sanctuary movement, which was especially active in Cincinnati in the 1980s.

“I’m here to defend the right of parents who have taken the risk to leave their countries behind to escape poverty, to escape indignity, to escape civil war so they can provide a better life for their children,” Alcantara, who now lives in Cincinnati and attends Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church, said at the meeting.

The Dec. 18 event, coordinated by faith coalition the Amos Project, drew roughly 150 people from more than two dozen congregations practicing Islam, Judaism, Catholicism and Protestantism, Buddhism and other faith traditions. The crowd filled the basement of the Clifton Mosque to hear more about sanctuary congregations from organizers, immigrants such as Alcantara and veterans from Cincinnati’s 1980s sanctuary movement.

As rabbis shook hands with Buddhists, Muslim men in beards and kufis grabbed extra chairs for Unitarians and Evangelical Christians.

“We were expecting about half this many people,” Rev. Troy Jackson of Amos said as more came in. “What we’re coming together to talk about is what it looks like to have a list of congregations that are ready and available to house someone who is in jeopardy — for a night, for a week, for a month.”

Faith leaders in attendance said the need could become urgent as incoming President Trump ramps up talk about deporting undocumented immigrants, barring refugees from places like war-torn Syria and creating registries for Muslims.

“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers,” Trump said Nov. 13. “We have a lot of these people, probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million. We are getting them out of our country.”

Data from the Migration Policy Institute shows that about 820,000 undocumented immigrants have criminal records, and that the majority of them are related to violations of immigration law. Despite this, Trump has pledged to eventually deport all of the estimated 11 million undocumented residents of the U.S. Immigration enforcement spiked sharply under the Obama administration, which oversaw the arrest and deportation of more than 2.5 million undocumented people between 2008 and 2014 — more than any other president in U.S. history.

But Obama also stayed deportation for some 700,000 undocumented minors in 2012 with his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, which Trump has vowed to overturn.

Sister Alice Gerdeman, a key member of Cincinnati’s 1980s-era sanctuary movement, speaks to a crowd of about 150 faith leaders at Clifton Mosque.

Against this backdrop, those who have welcomed immigrants are bracing for the worst. As they do, they’re eyeing the possibility that places of worship could become unique points of refuge.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the agency charged with finding, detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants. However, ICE policy states that officers will not enter certain “sensitive locations” just to apprehend someone for their immigration status.

All places of worship are to be avoided, according to a 2011 ICE policy directive, except in situations in which immigrants are wanted for specific violent crimes or are suspected of terrorist plots.

But some at the meeting wondered if ICE’s policy would remain under the new administration.

“If it gets really difficult, and the worst happens, we may need homes to be opened up,” Jackson said, citing earlier sanctuary practices in many cities in which families were moved among various congregants’ houses to elude authorities looking to deport them.

That tactic recalls an earlier American sanctuary movement — the Underground Railroad — which passed through

Cincinnati. But the concept of sanctuary is much older than that, dating from the time of the Roman Empire and stretching across continents and creeds.

“When we think about acts that generate sanctuaries in our communities, these are sourced not just in one tradition, but in all faith traditions,” says Temple Shalom Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp, who is president of Amos.

There are an estimated 400 sanctuary congregations across the country, according to faith-based resettlement agency Church World Service. That’s almost as many as the estimated 500 congregations that gave sanctuary during the 1980s movement’s heyday.

A small group of concerned churchgoers first came together in the Queen City in the spring of 1981, according to Sister Alice Gerdeman, who was heavily involved in the effort. Their aim was to help families fleeing civil war and oppressive regimes, often supported by the U.S. government, in countries like Guatemala and El Salvador.

The group brought immigrant families to Cincinnati and sheltered them from Reagan CONTINUES ON PAGE 09

news city desk BY cit ybeat staff FROM PAGE 08

Chesley Selling $8 Million Home Amid Civil Judgment and Arrest Warrant

Superior Fundraising Might Have Clinched County Elections for Democrats Democrats raised more money than Republicans in five of the seven most important non-judicial elections in Hamilton County in 2016, perhaps the deciding factor in taking four of those offices last month.

The race that attracted the most money was that between Democrat Denise Driehaus and Republican Dennis Deters for one of two contested seats on the Board of County Commissioners. Driehaus, winding down a term in the Ohio House of Representatives, received 50.6 percent of the vote in her win over Dennis Deters, who was trying to keep a seat he was appointed to in January.

Having a bigger campaign war chest could have accounted for Driehaus’ margin of victory of 1.2 percentage points. She reported receiving $699,396 in contributions through Dec. 9, according to campaign finance reports filed Dec. 16 with the Hamilton County Board of Elections. Deters received $509,325. Driehaus collected $100,902 in the nearly two-month stretch after Oct. 19, compared with $64,290 for Deters.

Incumbent County Commissioner Todd Portune, a Democrat, overwhelmed his Republican opponent Andrew Pappas in both monetary contributions and votes.

Portune reported $218,594 in receipts through Dec. 9, while Pappas reported $115,835. Portune won the election with 58.4 percent of the vote.

The Driehaus and Portune victories will, in January, give Democrats control of the three-seat County Commission for the first time in more than four years.

In another race where money could have affected the outcome, Democratic challenger Aftab Pureval raised $366,810 in his quest to be clerk of courts. Republican incumbent Tracy Winkler reported $132,727 in contributions. His fund-raising superiority held till the end, as he received $56,786 in the final reporting period, compared with Winkler’s $32,245.

For more county election campaign finance totals, including sheriff, recorder, treasurer and prosecutor, visit the online version of this story at citybeat.com. (JMC)

administration deportation actions. The first family to come was a woman, her two children, her husband and his sister from El Salvador. Gerdeman says the family is still in Cincinnati, and that she still stays in touch with them. Their children are now grown up and have kids of their own.

“It’s very different now,” Gerdeman says.

“But we have the same drive.”

Members of faith organizations left the meeting at Clifton Mosque in different positions. Some congregations, including the Mosque and Mount Auburn’s Church of Our Savior, are already sanctuaries.

Others are moving toward that goal, which requires worship centers have a private place for a person or people to live, including shower and kitchen facilities. A number of organizations already have these facilities and are partnered with organizations like the Interfaith Hospitality Network to serve the homeless. Those churches are good candidates to become sanctuary congregations, organizers say.

Still others might not have facilities to host people, but are mulling becoming “solidarity congregations” that would raise funds and provide other support.

Jackson says the goal is to get at least 10 congregations willing to be sanctuary sites in time for a public event Jan. 20, the day of Trump’s inauguration. Other public events and trainings will follow.

Beyond the nuts and bolts of hiding an individual or family from the federal government, the recent meeting was a place for soul-searching and renewed commitments to values.

Pastor William Eavenson, who started Anglican church The Mission Cincinnati in Evanston earlier this year, says attending was part of a larger personal spiritual journey.

“I came here because Jesus was passionate about justice,” he says. “My background is Evangelical, but from a variety of sources.

I’m troubled by so many of the church experiences I’ve been a part of that have been tied to cultural positions of privilege and have been so quick to demonize anything that is a movement toward authentically Biblical justice. I’m here to learn.”

When Cincinnati’s earlier sanctuary movement was starting, it wasn’t always easy convincing those involved in faith communities to go against federal authority, Gerdeman says. Many had fears about breaking the law, but faith won out in the end.

Attendees at the recent meeting echoed those sentiments.

“It was illegal to move slaves from south to north,” Clifton Mosque Imam Ismaeel Chartier says. “When our Jewish brothers and sisters were seeking refuge from the evil of the Nazis it was illegal to hide them. Some things are greater than the laws of the land.” ©

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Fending off a $25 million civil judgment the last two years, the well-known former lawyer Stan Chesley is now trying to sell his 21,000-square-foot chateau in Indian Hill.

Chesley, who retired from practicing law in 2013 after being disbarred by the Kentucky Supreme Court, insists he’s not selling to pay off debts. “We’re looking to downsize,” he told CityBeat. He and his wife, federal judge Susan Dlott, have owned the house 11 years.

The house sits on five-plus acres on a quiet stretch of Camargo Road. It has six bedrooms, a wine cellar, a mini theater, seven bathrooms, a formal garden, a swimming pool, a built-in hot tub and a kitchen bigger than those of many restaurants.. The listing price? $8 million.

The money could come in handy if Chesley is ultimately forced to pay the $25 million civil judgment handed down in a Boone County, Ky. courtroom in 2014. The money is owed to victims of the fen-phen diet supplement scam. Their out-of-court settlement, a judge decreed, was deflated by excessive legal fees charged by Chesley and three other lawyers. The victims have been trying to collect the money ever since. Their lawyer, Angela Ford of Lexington, is also pursuing $59 million in personal assets that Chesley transferred to his now-defunct law firm.

Chesley, meanwhile, has used Ohio courts to keep those creditors at bay. At one point, Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Robert Ruehlman blocked the collection effort, only to be reversed in June by the Ohio Supreme Court. The high court wrote that the judge had “no legal authority” to block enforcement of the Kentucky judgment.

Ruehlman dismissed the case in August.

Chesley’s legal jeopardy in Kentucky became more dire when Boone County Circuit Judge James Schrand issued a warrant for his arrest in October 2015. That prompted another lawsuit by Chesley, this time against Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Neil, to block service of the warrant. To this day, Hamilton County won’t hand Chesley over to Boone County authorities.

“The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department said they wouldn’t serve the warrant until they run it through their prosecutor (Joe Deters),” said Jim Beach, who heads the extradition program for the Boone County Sheriff’s Department, “and Deters’ office said they weren’t going to serve it.”

Julie Wilson, spokeswoman for prosecutor Deters, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Beach said the arrest warrant is a civil warrant, not a criminal warrant, but is nonetheless “extraditable” between Ohio and Kentucky. He said Hamilton County

routinely serves Boone County arrest warrants, albeit criminal warrants.

Although Hamilton County’s cooperation appears to be a “dead issue,” Beach said, the arrest warrant for Chesley remains active.

“If he came to Kentucky and somebody were to pull him over or if he tried to fly out of their airport, he could be picked up,” Beach said.

Chesley, 80, did not want to talk about his legal issues or his house sale. “It’s not a distress sale,” he said. (James McNair)

The Jewel

in the Crown After an $11 million restoration, Memorial Hall seeks its place in the city’s new arts district

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BY STEVEN ROSEN // PHOTOS : HAILEY BOLLINGER

A

s the manager of Over-the-Rhine’s Memorial Hall, Joshua Steele has had plenty of time during the just-completed $11.2 million restoration of the 108-year-old building to ponder one of its most mysterious and eclectic features.

Constructed on Elm Street for use by the Grand Army of the Republic — a fraternal group for Union veterans of the Civil War — it was designed in richly luxuriant Beaux Arts style by the Cincinnati architectural firm Samuel Hannaford and Sons. (It also was used by veterans of the 1898 Spanish-American War, a smaller group.)

One of those luxuriant touches can be seen in the second-floor theater, above the stage. In ornate golden lettering on panels in the proscenium arch — one per panel — are the words Unity, Wisdom, Martyrdom, Patriotism, Philanthropy, Integrity, Manliness, Equity and Will. They face the audience as if each was a stern, blunt commandment hurled down from the heavens.

Even stranger than the words themselves is the fact that three of them are punctuated with periods: Unity, Integrity and Equity. “I’m not sure why,” Steele said during a recent tour. “It seems random.”

In the coming months, and well beyond if all goes as planned, probably more people than ever before (at least since the death of the nation’s last Union Civil War veteran in 1956) will have a chance to think about why those onceaspirational words are there while watching events in the theater. Further, the improvements may also position that 555-seat theater as the city’s premium mid-size concert hall at the very moment that demand for comfortable sitdown venues for popular music is growing nationally.

The nonprofit Cincinnati Memorial Hall Society, working with veteran concert promoter John Madden, intends to test the refurbished theater’s potential with the highest-profile event planned for Memorial Hall so far: the new LongworthAnderson Series. It has booked Rosanne Cash (Feb. 10),

Pink Martini (March 9), Richard Thompson (April 7) and Sarah Jarosz (June 9), just nominated for Grammys for Best American Roots Performance and Best Folk Album. All but Pink Martini are acoustic — the belief is Memorial Hall may not be acoustically right for, say, someone loud and raucous like Ozzy Osbourne. The series will have two more concerts this year; it could have as many as 10 in 2018.

“It’s featuring Grammy Award-winning or –nominated acts and bands, but it’s the same intimate hall,” says William Baumann, chairman of the Society, which was founded in 2004 as an advocate for Memorial Hall’s preservation.

“When I was contacting booking agencies about the series, I got frequent comments from people saying, ‘It’s good Cincinnati finally has a small theater we can take a look at.’ Certainly, they recognized this as something the city needed,” Madden adds.

The theater also has something else going for it — cachet among the urban-oriented. When it was the prime site for

an emerging cultural arts district along Elm Street in Over-the-Rhine. The restoration was undertaken with that in mind by the nonprofit real estate company Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC), which coordinated the majority of the financing and will manage the building; the Society, which raised $2.2 million in private donations; and Hamilton County, which contributed $1.5 million. The building was eligible for federal and state historic tax credits, as well as New Market ones; it has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978.

Steele, a 3CDC employee, put it this way at a ribbon-cutting ceremony earlier this month, as he stood at the entrance of the refurbished lobby and faced outward to the crowd of well-wishers and public officials: “Elm Street is truly going to be the epicenter of arts and culture in the city.”

A new streetcar passed at one point. He mentioned, besides Memorial Hall, the under-construction Cincinnati Shakespeare Company theater; the Transept events

center, previously a vacant German Gothic church built in 1814; Cincinnati Music Hall, currently undergoing its own $135 million restoration and scheduled to reopen in October 2017; and Washington Park, site of numerous activities — cultural and otherwise — since 3CDC, on behalf of the Cincinnati Park Board, completed a $46 million renovation/redesign of it in 2012.

“We’ve preserved so many fantastic buildings in this neighborhood,” Steele, who formerly ran the theater at Covington’s The Carnegie, said in an interview at his new compact office in Memorial Hall. “But there was this real danger of this falling into disrepair. Since we operate Washington Park, we recognized some opportunities for synergy. We assisted with securing a lot of the financing; we have expertise in construction management and so off we went.”

This will be the first indoor “civic space” that 3CDC manages. (It also programs Fountain Square

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Bryce Dessner’s MusicNOW Festival, from 2008-13, it forged a modern identity as a home for adventurous and contemporary music. A symbiosis emerged between the festival’s pride in undiscovered music and this beautiful if then-worn underappreciated space. That could help now, whatever the future is for MusicNOW after its 2017 edition at Taft Theatre.

“There’s such a realness to this space,” Baumann says.

“People saw it as hip when MusicNOW came and it was magic, really.”

But an even more influential show occurred in May 2013, when Patti Smith appeared for a reverential performance of her music and readings in connection with a Contemporary Arts Center exhibition. She loved the space. “She even commented on the hall,” Baumann says. “That was an inspiration for our trustees about how valuable this hall is and the kind of important performances that could be held there.”

Thus, one key goal of the restoration of the countyowned building is to make Memorial Hall a lynchpin of

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and Washington Park and has the redesigned Ziegler Park upcoming.) It will also be a space where admission is charged for many events — the first one since reopening, a BRICKmas LEGO display presented by American Legacy Tours, costs $10 to see. (It’s up through Dec. 30.)

“We’re aiming for the venue to be financially self-sustaining,” Steele explained, via email. “While we’d love it to generate a profit, our motive is to activate an important civic space rather than to run a for-profit venue.”

The whole building has gotten updates. There is a new 8-foot addition on the west side that allows for air conditioning and a backstage, finally. There’s a catering kitchen to serve two first-floor ballrooms and a remodeled lower-level studio that can be rented for activities.

There will also be three bars in the building.

And the infamous first-floor closet-size restrooms, each of which had just one toilet and thus long lines during events, have been replaced with new ones. The old

bathrooms have been preserved, however — one is now a box-office and the other the will-call area.

But the area where the improvements may be most appreciated is the theater. It has always been a beautiful jewel box of a place, much photographed, with its three rows of light bulbs outlining the stage arch and two rear-stage wood-framed windows that opened from the stage wall to the outdoors. With its vividly painted patriotic mural, of an American eagle clutching flags, commanding attention from under the stage’s clamshell ceiling, being there was like watching a show — whether or not there was an actual show to watch.

In years past, quite a few people studied the building’s decorative features while squirming in their chairs during events. The wooden seats were narrow and uncomfortable. Besides the lack of air conditioning, you could also hear sounds from the marble staircases and the first floor during quiet programs. Since people went

to the bathroom during performances to avoid the long lines, that created some embarrassing problems. “Someone once told me that when you’re performing on stage, you could hear someone flush the toilet downstairs,” Steele says.

“To address all that, we have dramatically updated our technical capacities,” he says. Among those changes are a new theatrical lighting rig, LED lights and — to improve sound — four clusters of three speakers, a new PA system and a fulltime technician. The stage has been tastefully, demurely remodeled; its windows have been preserved but now just look out to the new backstage.

The seating is also new, but looks old. “What we’ve done to retain the historical character, but make it more acceptable for the modern audience, is to create a new version of our seats,” Steele says. “They’ve actually crafted new wooden seats that look like the old ones, but are wider. And we now have beautiful black upholstery

Previously, it had used The Carnegie. “We’ve outgrown The Carnegie,” says Tim Swallow, of the group. “The nice thing about coming into Memorial Hall is that we have a larger number of seats available; there’s room for growth. And we’ll have brand new equipment and a much larger screen.”

Steele has been seeking what he calls “curated partnerships” to get activities into Memorial Hall. “I’m going out into the community and reaching out to groups that have high-quality existing products and an existing audience,” he says. “We add value to their work by bringing them into the hall. They help us activate the space by bringing in an audience.”

Among the “curated partnerships” he so far has booked are the Fringe Festival, ComedySportz and Matinée Musicale Cincinnati recitals (planned for the 2017-18 season). Meanwhile, Steele has also been booking events like the Found Footage (Film) Festival, Kamikaze Fireflies

comedy-acrobatic troupe, a Tony Awards party and a production of the immersive Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding, which will move from space to space as the mock ceremony proceeds and which Steele will produce. He’s also hoping to honor the venue’s history as a place for lectures and oratory.

“In the summer, there will be synergy with Washington Park,” Steele says. “We’ll see how we can use Memorial Hall to keep the party going after the park closes at 10 p.m. So on certain Saturday nights, we’ll have cult-classic films so people can come over here, watch them and have a couple of beers and relax.”

Even without those films, that might be the right time and mental state to sit in the painstakingly rehabilitated theater, ponder those periods after Unity, Integrity and Equity, and ask yourself, “Why?” To view MEMORIAL HALL’s upcoming events schedule and learn more about the recent renovation, visit memorialhallotr.com.

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on the backs and seats of all the chairs in the house. We did retain what’s called the standard, the metal portion that separates the chairs, and very amusingly we also kept the hat racks (that are underneath the seats).”

In order to inhibit outside noise from invading the theater, the nonprofit Annie W. & Elizabeth M. Anderson Foundation helped raise money for a theater renovation, which included six sleek and unobtrusive glass doors at entrances. New thick, sound-baffling curtains now block the balcony from the staircases. (The theater has been renamed in their honor.)

Steele also has added a 20-foot projection screen and a 10,000-lumen laser projector in the theater. That’s good enough to lure Cincinnati World Cinema into scheduling some screenings there. The group will present its annual screening of Oscar-Nominated Short Documentary Films on Feb. 11-12 and Oscar-Nominated Live Action and Animated Shorts on March 11-12.

Special “Krohn By Candlelight” Dec. 21

5:30 - 7:30 p.m.

Enjoy the beauty of the Krohn ‘Whimsical Wonderland’ exhibit by the light of holiday twinkle. Live music and special programs each week.

Annual 2016 Holiday Show at Krohn Conservatory November 12 – January 8, 2017 Open Daily 10 am - 5 pm (Special Holiday Hours Online)

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Admission: Adults $7

Children (5-12) $4

Children 4 and younger FREE

to do

Staff Recommendations

photo : Trans - Siberian Orchestra

WEDNESDAY 21

ART: The Carnegie’s latest dual exhibit — E IS FOR EDIE and AN AMERICAN OUTSIDER — is a massive survey of stripped-down art from Cincinnati artists Edie Harper and Tony Dotson. See review on page 24.

ART: The Cincinnati Art Museum’s reopened AFRICAN ART gallery features one of the oldest holdings of African material culture owned by an art museum in the country. See feature on page 26.

CULTURE: After an $11.2 million renovation, MEMORIAL HALL is ready to take its place as a mid-size concert hall along Cincinnati’s growing Elm Street cultural arts district. See cover story on page 14.

EVENT: LIGHTING THE SERPENT WINTER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION Celebrate the Winter Solstice at the Serpent Mound, an ancient effigy-mound in the shape of a snake with a curled tail in Adams County.

Each year since 2004, Friends of the Serpent Mound has hosted an event to light luminaries around the earthwork in correlation with the solar alignment of the Winter Solstice sunrise. All participants meet around a sacred fire and light roughly 900 candles in this nondenominational ceremony. After the lighting, guests are encouraged to walk the park and enjoy the festive atmosphere, with holiday treats, hot cocoa, tea and coffee.

4-9 p.m. Wednesday; this event is weather dependent, so call or go online before you head out. $8 per car. 3850 State Route 73, Peebles, 937-587-3953, serpentmound.org.

— MAIJA ZUMMO

COMEDY: GABE KEA AND VINCE MORRIS It’s a good thing these two comics are performing multiple nights at the area’s two main comedy clubs — it would be tough choosing who to see between the two. Gabe Kea is our adopted native son, who came to us via Saint Louis. His father played in

MUSIC: TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA’S 2016 WINTER TOUR The hypnotic Trans-Siberian Orchestra brings its festive 2016 Winter Tour to U.S. Bank Arena for two performances of The Ghosts of Christmas Eve. Based on the TSO’s 1999 movie of the same name, The Ghosts of Christmas Eve tells the story of a runaway who breaks into an abandoned theater and runs into its caretaker, who uses the building’s ghosts and spirits to help her turn her life around. Featured songs include “O’ Come All Ye Faithful,” “Christmas Canon” and “Music Box Blues,” plus an all-new second set containing some of the orchestra’s greatest fan-pleasers. 4 and 8 p.m. Wednesday. $35-$75. U.S. Bank Arena, 100 Broadway St., Downtown, trans-siberian.com. — EMILY BEGLEY

the National Hockey League, and while Kea remains a huge fan of the sport — and of the team his dad spent the most time with, The St. Louis Blues — he gravitated toward comedy. These days he discusses the foibles of being a new dad, a homeowner and dealing with his extended family. Vince Morris is from neighboring Columbus, Ohio. His wit and charm engage audiences across the country. He talks about being a father and about being raised by a single dad. Gabe Kea: 8 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday; 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday. $8-$14. Go Bananas, 8410 Market Place Lane, Montgomery, gobananascomedy.com. Vince Morris: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday; 7:30 and 10 p.m. Friday. $17. Funny Bone Liberty, 7518 Bales St., Liberty Township, liberty. funnybone.com. — P.F. WILSON ONSTAGE: CINDERELLA: AFTER EVER AFTER

There’s a very clever production onstage at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati for the holidays. Cinderella was such a big hit in 2015 that a sequel was created for this year: It’s the story of what happens after the happy ending of the familiar fairy tale. Things aren’t perfect as everyone tries to tell Cinderella and her prince what kind of wedding they should have. There are lots of amusing twists and turns before things settle down and straighten out. They’ll be happy, but on their own terms. A talented cast keeps this production fun for kids and the adults who bring them. Through Dec. 30 (No performances Dec. 24-25). $44 adults; $25 students; $18 children. Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, 1127 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, ensemblecincinnati.com. — RICK PENDER HOLIDAY: CHRISTMAS TOWN AT THE CREATION MUSEUM Let there be lights! Regardless of your

religious beliefs, one thing is certain: the Creation Museum’s expansive botanical garden is really pretty, especially in the glow of hundreds of holiday lights. The free display includes a live nativity scene (maybe with a zorse or zonkey from the petting zoo?), camel rides, a zip line, roaming Bible characters and a $6.99 Christmas dinner at Noah’s Café. Through Dec. 30. Free admission.

The Creation Museum, 2800 Bullittsburg Church Road, Petersburg, Ky., creationmuseum.org/christmas. — EMILY BEGLEY

THURSDAY 22

EVENT: THURSDAY ART PLAY: WINTER WONDERLAND With the holidays pending and winter weather keeping families with little ones stuck inside, the Contemporary Arts Center invites parents with children ages 3 CONTINUES ON PAGE 16

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HOLIDAY: MOCKBEE HOLIDAY FAIR This actually literally might be the final, final, truly final independent local holiday shopping pop-up of the season (unless you know of another one?). Head to The Mockbee on Wednesday and Thursday for two days of last-minute binge-buying from local artists, boutiques and vendors selling everything from jewelry and candles to food, games and fine art. It’s a festive party atmosphere with both alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks and live music. 4 p.m.midnight Wednesday and Thursday. Free admission. The Mockbee, 2260 Central Parkway, Brighton, facebook.com/themockbee. — MAIJA ZUMMO

WEDNESDAY 21

859.431.2201

111 E 6th St Newport, KY 41071

photo : shen yun

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE SOUTHGATE HOUSE LOUNGE OR TICKETFLY.COM

12/21 wOLFCRyER: ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 12/22 jAMES wESTON & FRIENDS 12/23 A BENEFIT FOR FORREST: THE MUDPIES wITH SPECIAL GUESTS; jOHN kADLECIk SOLO ACOUSTI’LECTRIC, jERRy’S LITTLE BAND; CAMP SUGAR, HANk ERwIN, wONky TONk 12/27 VANDAVEER 12/28 jOSH EAGLE, MAVIS GUITAR; wOLFCRyER: ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 12/29 jAMES wESTON & FRIENDS 12/30 THE MEDICINE MEN

WWW. SOU THG A T EH O US E.C O M

THURSDAY 22

ONSTAGE: SHEN YUN Discover a land populated with dragons, phoenixes, emperors, immortals and heroes.

“Shen Yun” literally translates to “the beauty of divine beings dancing,” which is exactly what you should expect when Shen Yun 2017 arrives at the Aronoff. The show transports audiences to a paradise known as the Land of the Divine, soaked in magic and splendor — a place we now know as China. Shen Yun was founded in 2006 by practitioners of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that claims to be dedicated to reviving Chinese cultural traditions and ethnic and folk dance from a time before the rise of that country’s Communist government. 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Tickets start at $67. Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut St., Downtown, cincinatiarts.org. — EMILY BEGLEY

FROM PAGE 15

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to 6 and their caregivers to join in on some winter-themed art-making activities during Thursday Art Play. Ice painting, igloo-fort building and indoor snowball fights are just what families need to blow off some steam together (or just help yourself to the complimentary hot chocolate bar).

Afterward, you can chill out together at a family-friendly yoga class in the UnMuseum. 10:30-11:30 a.m. Thursday. Free.

Contemporary Arts Center, 44 E. Sixth St., Downtown, contemporaryartscenter. org. — MARIA SEDA-REEDER HOLIDAY: FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS AND LIBATION CELEBRATION In the dark of winter, it’s time to celebrate light, peace and wine at Skeleton Root. No matter your denomination or seasonal tradition — Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa — mix and mingle with Access, Cincinnati Young Black Professionals, Urban League Young Professionals and other local YPs for a holiday mash-up featuring live music, a dreidel tournament and hearty holiday appetizers including a potato pancake bar, harvest foods, Christmas cookies and other sweet treats. All guests leave with a Christmakwanzakah gift. 7 p.m. Thursday. Free with RSVP. Skeleton Root, 38 W. McMicken Ave., Over-the-Rhine, jypaccess.org. — MAIJA ZUMMO

HOLIDAY: UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATER PARTY Is your ugly holiday sweater a work of art?

Prove it at the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. Tacky will be taken to new heights on Thursday when guests are invited to don their most hideous apparel to eat, drink and be merry.

The Young Professionals’ Choral Collective of Cincinnati will serenade the crowd from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Food and drink will be available for purchase; includes free craft making and admission to Van Gogh: Into the Undergrowth. 5-8 p.m. Thursday.

Free. Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Drive, Eden Park, cincinnatiartmuseum.org. — MAIJA ZUMMO

FRIDAY 23

MUSIC: ERIKA WENNERSTROM AND FRIENDS play Woodward Theater with Molly Sullivan and Jesse Ebaugh and The Tender Things. See Sound Advice on page 36.

EATS: FEAST OF THE SEVEN FISHES La Vigilia di Natale, or simply La Vigilia, is the traditional Italian-American Feast of Seven Fishes celebrated on Christmas Eve. It’s a literal feast of seven seafood dishes and a fast from red meat until Christmas Day — a vigil to wait for the birth of little baby Jesus. And at the

p h o t o : r ay m o n d b r i g g s

FRIDAY 23

HOLIDAY: THE SNOWMAN WITH THE POPS The Snowman receives some extra Christmas magic courtesy of the Cincinnati Pops.

The orchestra performs Howard Blake’s score live as the classic animated special screens in high definition on stage. The wordless film tells the story of a boy and a snowman who comes to life at the stroke of midnight. A motorbike ride, a snowman party and a meeting with Father Christmas ensue. 7:30 p.m. Friday. $15-$20. Taft Theatre, 317 E. Fifth St., Over-the-Rhine, cincinnatisymphony.org. — EMILY BEGLEY

The Freedom Center hosts a celebration of Kwanzaa and its seven principles: unity, determination, collective works, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith. Learn more about the Pan-African holiday and how to celebrate it with family and the community. Kwanzaa kicks off every year on Dec. 26 and continues through Jan. 1. 6-9 p.m. Monday. Free.

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 50 E. Freedom Way, Downtown, freedomcenter.org. — EMILY BEGLEY

SATURDAY 24

TUESDAY 27

MONDAY 26

HOLIDAY: KWANZAA AT THE FREEDOM CENTER

MUSIC: Indie rockers VANDAVEER play Southgate House Revival. See Sound Advice on page 36.

ONGOING shows ATTRACTIONS Festival of Lights Cincinnati Zoo, Avondale (through Jan. 1) A Whimsical Wonderland Krohn Conservatory, Eden Park (through Jan. 8) ONSTAGE A Christmas Carol Playhouse in the Park, Mount Adams (through Dec. 31)

SATURDAY 12/31 7PM BILL NYE INSPIRED COCKTAILS NO COVER / THE SCIENCE GUY SHOW MARATHON

LIMITED EDITION BILL”NYE”2017 TEES

ONE WILL BE GIVEN AWAY EVERY MINUTE FROM 11PM-MIDNIGHT!

16-BIT BAR+ARCADE OVER-THE-RHINE + 16-BITBAR.COM

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HOLIDAY: LATKAPALOOZA What are you doing Christmas Eve? Not hanging out with a bunch of Christians around a glowing tree? Why not mix and mingle without the jingle at Mount Adams Pavilion for Latkapalooza, the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati and Mayerson JCC’s annual YP party, featuring drink specials, raffle prizes and fun with friends old and new. Skip the Chinese food and sweatpants and dance instead. (However, if you do want Chinese food and comfortwear, Rockdale Temple is doing both starting at 6 p.m.) 8:30 p.m.-1 a.m. Saturday. Free admission. Mount Adams Pavilion, 949 Pavilion St., Mount Adams, jewishcincinnati.org. — MAIJA ZUMMO

PLUS

Presidents Room downtown, La Vigilia also happens to be an excellent and indulgent wine dinner, featuring seven seafood courses prepared by chef Jeremy Luers, paired with Italian wines hand-picked by the crew at WineCraft. It’s a big familystyle dinner with free-flowing vino and live carolers. RSVP to amaroc@thephx. com. 6 p.m. carolers; 7 p.m. dinner Friday. $95 per person. The Presidents Room, 812 Race St., Downtown, thepresidentsrm.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO

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••• k i s s 201 6 g o o d b y e ••• Parties, events, dinners and drinks to wrap up a cringe-worthy year. Let’s not beat around the bush here: 2016 sucked. From gut-wrenching celebrity deaths and the presidential election to a certain gorilla who shall not be named, anticipation for the New Year is particularly great. Thankfully, Cincinnati has no shortage of ways to count down the year’s final seconds. Raise your glass, kiss 2016 goodbye and toast to 2017. *All events take place Dec. 31 unless otherwise noted.

FE A STS 2016 Had Me Like… at Queen City Radio — Get rid of that hangover with brunch from the Sunny Side food truck and/or keep the booze flowing with five for $12 Miller Lite buckets at the bar. During the event, QCR will be collecting donations for Caracole, Inc., which provides safe, affordable housing and services to individuals living with HIV/AIDS. Noon-4 p.m. Jan. 1.

Free admission. Queen City Radio, 222 W. 12th St., Downtown, qcrbar.com.

Jag’s New Year’s Eve Around the World — Dining rooms will be transformed into cities from around the globe, each with its own unique menu. Step into Sydney for kangaroo roast and barbecue prawns before heading to New York for some classic pizza and cheesecake. Blacktie optional. Passports include food, entertainment, champagne at midnight and four drinks.

RSVP required. 8 p.m. $100 Silver Passport; $125 Gold Passport (includes top-shelf liquor and premium wines and beers). Jag’s Steak & Seafood, 5980 W. Chester Road, West Chester, 513-860-5353, jags.com.

Nectar New Year’s Eve — A three-course prix fixe meal with a selection of sweets for dessert.

Vegetarian menu available upon request at reservation. RSVP required. 5:30-9:30 p.m. $65. Nectar, 1000 Delta Ave., Mount Lookout, dineatnectar.com.

New Orleans New Year’s at BrewRiver GastroPub — Chef Michael Shields serves up a Creole four-course meal. RSVP required. 5 p.m.-midnight. $45; $65 with champagne. BrewRiver GastroPub, 2062 Riverside Drive, Downtown, brewrivergastropub.com.

New Year’s Eve Celebration at Restaurant L — Jean-Robert de Cavel’s newest creation serves up six courses — or nine with late seating — with optional wine pairings in honor of the New Year. RSVP required. 5:30 p.m. early seating; 9 p.m. late seating. $125 early seating; $175 late seating; wine pairing extra. Restaurant L, 301 E. Fourth St., Downtown, lcincinnati.com.

New Year’s Eve Eve at Christian Moerlein — Ring in the New Year a day early with a belly full of authentic German food. A buffet includes bretzel, schnitzel, rotkohl, wurst, sauerkraut and more, accompanied by plenty of beer and

live music by Prost. The night also includes a tour of the brewery. 7-10 p.m. Dec. 30. $35.

Christian Moerlein Brewing Co., 1621 Moore St., Over-the-Rhine, christianmoerlein.com.

New Year’s Eve at Bella Luna — A multi-course meal with a choice of Harry’s selection of red or white wines. Dish selections include choices like calamari, prime rib cannelloni, beef Barolo, pork loin and tiramisu. RSVP required. 4:30-9 p.m. $99 per couple. Bella Luna, 4632 Eastern Ave., Columbia Tusculum, bellalunacincy.com.

New Year’s Eve at Jean-Robert’s Table — Ring in 2017 at Table with a three- or five-course menu. The first seating features three courses with an optional wine pairing; the later seating features five courses, again with an optional wine pairing. Additionally at the bar, find a lobster and truffle tray for $60 all night long.

Seating is very limited; RSVP required. 6 p.m. early seating; 8:45 p.m. late seating. $75 early seating ($45 wine pairing); $135 late seating ($60 wine pairing). Jean-Robert’s Table, 713 Vine St., Downtown, 513-621-4777, jrcincy.com.

New Year’s Eve at La Petite France — Ring in 2017 with a three-course French New Year’s eve feast. RSVP required. 5 p.m. $59.95. La Petite France, 3177 Glendale Milford Road, Evendale, lapetitefrance.biz.

New Year’s Eve at La Petite Pierre — Celebrate 2017 with a four-course Parisian menu featuring innovative twists on French classics. Upgrade to a wine-pairing package, featuring vintage champagne. RSVP required. 7 p.m. $125; $200 with wine pairing. La Petite Pierre, 7800 Camargo Road, Madeira, lapetitepierre.com.

New Year’s Eve at Metropole — Round out 2016 in culinary splendor. Chef Jared Bennett will prepare a four-course prix fixe menu with an amuse-bouche and bubbly for toasting.

RSVP required. 7:30 p.m. $99. Metropole, 609 Walnut St., Downtown, metropoleonwalnut.com.

New Year’s Eve on the Cincinnati Dinner Train — Dining tickets include a four-course dinner, and drinks are available from the train’s full-service bar. The train’s trio, the Queen City Sisters, provide live music that channels the 1940s. Trains depart at 6 and 10:30 p.m. $84.95 dining ticket; $29.95 coach. Embarks from 2172 Seymour Ave., Golf Manor, cincinnatirailway.com/dinnertrain.

^

FETE S An Elegant Affair at Igby’s — Raise a toast to 2017 at this cocktail-attire bash with music

by DJ Ice Cold Tony. Bottles of Perrier Jouet Grand Brut Champagne will be available for $65. 9 p.m.-2:30 a.m. $20; VIP and premium packages available. Igby’s, 122 E. Sixth St., Downtown, igbysbar.com.

Axis Alley New Year’s Eve — Break a sweat, not the bank. Ticket price includes appetizers, drinks, DJs and a three-hour bowling package. 21 plus.

9 p.m. $65. Axis Alley, Newport on the Levee, Newport, Ky., 859-652-7250, axisalleylevee.com.

Below Zero’s Pop into 2017 — Say hello to 2017 at Below Zero. DJ Jules hosts the evening, dropping beats to keep kids bouncing, while bartenders pour alcohol and champagne

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Fifty West Brewing Company New Year’s Eve Celebration — A private four-course beer dinner from chef John Tomain to celebrate the end of 2016. The NYE-themed meal features a cocktail kick-off, and then four courses paired with four beers from brewmaster Blake Horsburgh. 6 p.m. $55. Fifty West Brewing Company, 7668 Wooster Pike, Mariemont, facebook.com/ fiftywestbrewingcompany.

Midnight in Munich New Year’s Eve Dinner Party — Celebrate the arrival of 2017 with authentic German beer, a champagne toast, a balloon drop and a live stream of the Brandenburg Gate fireworks in Berlin, Germany (which celebrates NYE at 6 p.m. Zinzinnati time), all topped off with dinner — an authentic German buffet. RSVP required. 4:30-9 p.m. $32.

Mecklenburg Gardens, 302 E. University Ave., Corryville, mecklenburgs.com.

P H O T O : S I LV E R B A C K P R O D U C T I O N S

Live Music Wed. dec. 21st

Chris Comer Trio does Christmas Jazz 6-9 pm. no Cover

tHur. dec. 22nd

Todd Hepburn plays piano with a Holiday theme 6-9 pm. no cover

Fri. dec. 23rd Steve Schmidt Trio will be performing a noteworthy edition of the “Christmas Schmidtacular at the Harth”.

6-9 solo, 9-midnight with Trio. no cover

cLOsed On cHristMAs eVe

cocktaiLs firepLaces

Fresh Funk NYE at Northside Tavern

Classic Motown, Funk and Soul cover band Fresh Funk takes over the Tavern to bring some familiar groove and nostalgia to the end of the year. 10 p.m. Free. Northside Tavern, 4163 Hamilton Ave., Northside, facebook.com/northsidetavern.

Wed. - Fri. Open @ 4pM | sAt. Open @ 6pM 125 West Fourth st. | CinCinnati, ohio 45202

www.BromwellsHarthLounge.com

specials. Includes party favors. Bring a positive attitude and a valid ID. 10 p.m.-2 a.m.

Free admission. Below Zero Lounge, 1120 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine, facebook.com/ belowzerolounge.

Bill NYE Bash at 160-Bit — Celebrate the New Year at 16-Bit with a Bill Nye-inspired bash.

Features Bill Nye cocktails, a marathon of Bill Nye the Science Guy TV show, limited-edition T-shirts and giveaways. 7 p.m. Free admission.

16-Bit Bar+Arcade, 1331 Walnut St., Over-theRhine, 16-bitbar.com/cincy.

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Boogie Nights NYE — Party Vegas-style at Hollywood Casino’s ‘70s and ‘80s nightclub. 9 p.m. $15 single; $25 couple. Hollywood Casino, 777 Hollywood Blvd., Lawrenceburg, Ind., boogienightsusa.com/indiana.

Cheers to the New Year at Rhinegeist — Celebrate 2017 with beer, wine and cocktails at Rhinegeist. The night includes food from Gomez Salsa, a balloon drop at midnight and music

by DJs Matt Joy and Will Ross in the Tap Room.

Jess Lamb will be serving up a steady dose of live Jazz and Soul in the upstairs Speakeasy.

8 p.m.-2 a.m. $20 at the door if available; pre-sale sold out. Rhinegeist, 1910 Elm St., Downtown, rhinegeist.com.

Cincinnati Donauschwaben’s New Year’s Eve — This German celebration includes a cash bar, appetizers, a sandwich bar, assorted desserts and live music by The Alpen Echos.

RSVP required. 8 p.m.-1 a.m. $25. Cincinnati Donauschwaben, 4290 Dry Ridge Road, Colerain, cincydonau.com.

CityBeat and Know Theatre’s New Year’s Eve Speakeasy Party — CityBeat teams up with Know Theatre for this 8th-annual underground party. Don your fedora and flapper dress and party like it’s 1923. Bartenders will serve Manhattans, Sidecars and Martinis throughout the evening, leading up to a free champagne toast at midnight. Proceeds benefit Know Theatre.

8 p.m.-1 a.m. $40 advance; $50 door. Know Theatre, 1120 Jackson St., Over-the-Rhine, knowtheatre.com.

Drink in the New Year at The Drinkery — Start 2017 off right at The Drinkery with alcohol, dancing and music by DJ Kenneth Wright. 9 p.m.-2 a.m. Free admission. The Drinkery, 1150 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, facebook.com/drinkery.otr.

First Midnight: New Year’s Eve Party at JACK Casino — Ticket includes two drink tickets.

Entertainment announcement forthcoming. 9 p.m.-2 a.m. $50; tables and cabanas available.

JACK Casino, 1000 Broadway St., Downtown, jackentertainment.com/cincinnati.

Leggy and Electric Citizen at The Comet — Welcome 2017 with a blend of dreamy bubblegum pop from Leggy, followed by the fringy, gauzy Rock & Roll of witchy Electric Citizen.

11 p.m. Free. The Comet, 4579 Hamilton Ave., Northside, cometbar.com.

MOMENTUM: NYE Party at 21c Museum Hotel — 21c Museum Hotel teams up with IRL Gallery and Modern Makers for this avant-garde party that toes the line between fantasy and reality.

Museum and event spaces will be filled with music, video and cutting-edge art, including a

PHOTO : HAILE Y BOLLINGER

New Year’s Package $49.99 Surf & Turf 8 oz. Prime Rib or 8 oz. Filet with lobster tail.

Includes Shrimp Bisque Soup, and a tossed or caesar salad.

Champagne toast at midnight, Live DJ! *Regular menu will also be available

Mon-Sat 11am-1am • Sun 12pm-12am 10675 Springfield Pike • Cincinnati, OH 45215 (513) 771-4816

New Year’s Eve in Wonderland at The Video Archive Venture through the secret video rental store door and down the proverbial rabbit hole to ring in the New Year in Wonderland. Don’t be late. Details to be announced. facebook.com/videoarchivecincinnati.

pop-up exhibit of virtual reality- and time-based media works. Tickets include an open premium bar and appetizers from Metropole. Music by DJ Direct Deposit and DJ Sabastooge. 9 p.m. $150.

21c Museum Hotel, 609 Walnut St., Downtown, 21cmuseumhotels.com.

Mount Adams Pavilion’s New Year’s Eve Ball — This posh party includes two DJs on two levels, party favors, a champagne toast and complimentary hors d’oeuvres. 9 p.m. $40; $50 at the door (if available). Mount Adams Pavilion, 949 Pavilion St., Mount Adams, mountadamspavilion.com/nye.

Fibonacci Brewing Hop Drop — Event includes two drinks, a champagne toast and heavy appetizers from a local Thai chef. A Hop Drop outside the brewery rings in the New Year at midnight. 8 p.m. $30. Fibonacci Brewing Company, 1445 Compton Road, North College Hill, fibbrew.com.

Hotel Covington New Year’s Eve — Dinner service will be available at Coppin’s until 10

Howl at the Moon | Splitsville New Year’s Eve — General admission tickets include an appetizer buffet, two premium drink tickets and a champagne toast at midnight. 9 p.m.-2 a.m. $35. 145 E. Second St., The Banks, howlsplitsville.com.

Listermann Brewing Company New Year’s Eve Bash — Listermann had a great 2016: the brewery won best barrel-aged beer in the USA. And they’re looking to celebrate big with drink specials, music from DJ Mowgli, light apps and Chickow. Formal dress encouraged. 8 p.m. Free admission. Listermann Brewing Company, 1621 Dana Ave., Evanston, listermannbrewing.com.

New Year’s Eve Speakeasy with the Cincinnati Pops — The Cincinnati Pops transport guests to the 1920s and ’30s inside the historic Taft Theatre, which opened its doors in 1928. The Pops and Hot Sardines Jazz band jam until 10 p.m., and beads, boas and other Roarin’ ’20s attire is encouraged. 8 p.m. Tickets start at $25. Taft Theatre, 317 E. Fifth St., Over-theRhine, tafttheatre.org.

Soaked in Champagne New Year’s Eve at Japp’s!

-FeaturingAll Champagne Cocktail Menu Big Screen Ball Drop Streaming Live Champagne Toast Atrium Balloon Drop at Midnight!

8pm-2am No Cover!

1134 Main Street (Over-the-Rhine)

by

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New Year’s Eve 2017 at The Madison — Get dressed to the nines and enjoy a full buffet dinner (and midnight snack) before exploring three floors of entertainment, including tunes

by Self Diploma. Includes a champagne toast.

8 p.m.-1 a.m. $99; $149 VIP. The Madison, 700 Madison Ave., Covington, Ky., thecovingtonmadison.com.

p.m., featuring special New Year’s Eve dishes, followed by a party in the lobby. The no-cover fête includes a NYE drink menu and specials with four bars, a DJ, dance floor, complimentary hors d’oeuvres, party favors, midnight surprises and tons of bubbly. 8 p.m.-2 a.m. $30 and under. 638 Madison Ave., Covington, hotelcovington.com.

www.thecenturyinn.com

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4 3/4 in

4 7/8 in

PHOTO : PROVIDED

Making wine Since 1890

Cincy Winter Blues Fest Jan 27-28, 2017 The Phoenix 4 STageS - 30+ acTS Friday headlinerS

Over 40 Wines To Choose From Gift CertifiCates Now available

Mike Wheeler Band | Davy Knowles

SaTurday headlinerS

Southern Avenue | Michele Lundeen

Food - Full Service Bar

Fountain Square New Year’s Eve Blast

Skate, dance and play your way into the New Year. Fountain Square’s annual bash includes food from local eateries, music by DJ Tweet and games on the Fountain Square stage every half an hour, with a Rozzi’s Famous Fireworks display over downtown at midnight. 9 a.m. rink opens; 8 p.m. music and countdown begin. Free. Fountain Square, 520 Vine St., Downtown, myfountainsquare.com.

6955 Plainfield Rd., CinCinnati, OH 513-794-4388

www.dRinkmeieRs.COm

NYE 2017 at Mynt Martini — Hang out on Mynt’s heated outdoor patio, watch a balloon drop and have a front-row seat to Fountain Square’s fireworks display. 8 p.m. $25; $1,500 VIP. Mynt Martini, 28 Fountain Square Plaza, Fifth Third Center, Downtown, myntcincinnati.com.

The Rook OTR New Year’s — Play organized group games, participate in tournaments and choose from more than 800 board games in The Rook’s library. 9 p.m. $15 online; $20 door.

The Rook OTR, 1115 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine, therookotr.com.

The Stretch NYE — The bar’s inaugural Clink and Drink party. Admission includes party favors, a Holtman’s Donut bar, champagne toast, DJ, special-edition kegs of Rhinegeist Bubbly, Eufloria Sparkling Wine on tap and a live screening of the ball drop on Times Square.

9 p.m. $15. The Stretch, 191 East Freedom Way, Downtown, thestretchcincy.com.

Taft’s New Year’s Bash — Fill up with a four-course meal complete with beer pairings, followed by a special rare beer tapping at midnight. The Eden Park Band performs live throughout the evening. Come dressed

FA M I L Y - FR I E N D L Y BB Riverboats’ New Year’s Eve Cruise — Ring in the New Year on the water. This annual cruise includes a special three-course entrée buffet, entertainment, party favors, a latenight snack buffet and a split of champagne at midnight. 8 p.m. boarding; 9 p.m.-1 a.m. sailing. $105 adults; $65 kids. BB Riverboats, 101 Riverboat Row, Newport on the Levee, bbriverboats.com.

Happy Zoo Year — An early countdown for party animals young and old. Explore the Festival of Lights one last time before it closes Jan. 1 and discover party favors and costumed characters throughout the zoo. 5 p.m. Free with zoo admission: $18 adults; $13 children and seniors.

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, 3400 Vine St., Avondale, cincinnatizoo.org.

Noon New Year’s Eve Party — The Cincinnati Library swaps a.m. for p.m. during its Noon New Year’s party for kids. Face-painting, games and family-friendly activities lead up to an early countdown to 2017. 10:30 a.m. Free. Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Main Branch, 800 Vine St., cincinnatilibrary.org.

$22.50-25/night | $40 Weekend Pass at the door $25/night | $45 Weekend Pass

2016 Had Me Like...

Queen City Radio’s Hangover Brunch Sunday, January 1st, 2017 • 12-4pm We will be collecting donations for Caracole, inc. - deodorant, shampoo, shaving cream, toothpaste, blankets, etc. each donation gets you a ra≠le ticket.

drink Specials: Miller Lite “Buy a Bucket/ Take a Bucket”

{

5 for $12

}

222 W 12th St. • Cincinnati, OH 45202 (513) 381-0918 • qcrbar.com

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Soaked in Champagne at Japp’s — Japp’s annual NYE party features a special champagne-cocktail menu, party favors and a champagne toast and balloon drop at midnight! 8 p.m. Free admission. Japp’s Since 1879, 1136 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, wellmannsbrand.com.

to impress, but no black tie required. 7 p.m.-1:30 a.m. $40 standing; $100 table reservation (includes four-course dinner). Taft’s Ale House, 1429 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, taftsalehouse.com.

TickeTS availaBle aT: www.cincyBlueS.org

arts & culture

Simple Lines, Active Minds

The Carnegie showcases a massive survey of stripped-down style from Edie Harper and Tony Dotson

BY KATHY SCHWARTZ

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T

he Carnegie is currently presenting two solo exhibits, each to give a deserving Cincinnati artist time alone in the spotlight. But sometimes 1 + 1 = 3. By pairing Tony Dotson with the late Edie Harper, exhibitions director Matt Distel has created a super-sized — and super-enjoyable — look at strippeddown visual language, with more than 300 examples in all.

For the first time, Harper — so often referred to as “the wife of Charley Harper,” the Midcentury Modernist known for his geometric paintings of wildlife — is receiving a solo retrospective of her diverse career. Who knew that she was not only a painter, illustrator and photographer, but also that she mastered sculpture, enameling and weaving?

Harper, who passed away in 2010 at age 87, had been featured alongside Charley, who died in 2007, in major shows at the Contemporary Arts Center and Cincinnati Art Museum. She also received smaller solo exhibitions during her life. But E is for Edie: An Edith McKee Harper Retrospective encompasses a half-century of work, dating to her student days in the early 1940s at the Art Academy of Cincinnati.

Dotson, whose cartoon-like folk art is familiar to Carnegie audiences from The Art of Food extravaganzas, created 50 new works for his first solo show in four years. “I wanted to set him free from a theme and let him express the insanity happening in his head,” Distel joked during a preview tour.

Though Harper and Dotson are separated by generations and tone, the prolific Cincinnati artists share an affinity for

PHOTO : haile y bollinger

basic shapes and childhood memories.

“Both practice deceptively straightforward image-making,” Distel said, “but to different ends.”

Dotson’s exhibit is titled An American Outsider. The 45-year-old is a self-taught painter who combines recognizable popculture icons with biting social commentary about racism and myths we’re fed as kids. His materials are junked wood and house paint.

Dotson’s depiction of a Disney cruise ship is a full-steam-ahead assault against “The Wonderful World of Stereotypes” seen in the studio’s early cartoons and WWII propaganda films. White folks, represented by smiling circles in the shade that Crayola used to call “flesh,” enjoy the nice view on the deck, while Hispanics, Asians, AfricanAmericans and American Indians are packed in steerage. Walt Disney has been frozen and tossed overboard.

“I do not play by the rules,” Dotson said during a gallery talk at the opening. “I see things through a 6-year-old’s eyes and put my spin on them. I paint like a child that’s been warped.”

In Dotson’s version of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Fred and Captain Kangaroo string up that interloper Barney the dinosaur.

Though Dotson built a towering, 20-foot sculpture of King Kong and the Empire State Building under the Carnegie’s rotunda, Distel does just manage to contain Dotson’s impishness downstairs, reserving the upper galleries for Harper.

Even so, visitors can’t consider one artist without thinking about the other.

“What Ever Happened to Baby Moses?” is just one of many remarkable works on display in E is for Edie at The Carnegie, the first solo retrospective of Edie Harper’s diverse artistic career.

“I could have been one of her kids,” Dotson remarked, as he compared their minimalist styles.

Harper (who was the mother of another local artist, Brett Harper) was focused on form but inspired by sweeter subjects — like nature, her cats and family gatherings. Yet she also took a tongue-in-cheek approach to everyday themes and even the Bible, with fun titles like “Super Supper” and “What Ever Happened to Baby Moses?”

Arranged chronologically and by subject, the Harper exhibit reveals an inquisitive artist with a sense of whimsy — one who freely moved from one medium to the next in order to grow creatively. In a 1947 selfportrait hung at the entrance to the show, she crosses her freckled arms, smirks and cocks her head as if to say, “I’m really too busy to sit still for a painting.”

While at the Art Academy, Harper demonstrated she was a skilled at Cubism and Surrealism, painting portraits with alien faces. Once she settled into her sparse Midcentury Modern style, she applied that lens to any medium or subject.

During World War II, while her beloved Charley was overseas, Harper was using an actual lens as a photographer for the Army Corps of Engineers in Cincinnati.

The “dullsville” job meant taking pictures of experiments with soil, concrete and airplanes, but she also created fine art by focusing her camera on the same kinds of lines, shapes and patterns that she already was painting on canvas. She received a

solo show of her photographs in 1961 at the Contemporary Arts Center.

Formalism was her overriding approach to seeing the world. In one upstairs gallery, Distel marveled at a square weaving with an open circle in the center as being “unmistakably Edie.”

When she took “a new look at the Old Book,” as one section of the exhibit is called, Harper wasn’t motivated by religion but an opportunity to create interesting modernist visuals using the Bible’s narrative. As the work was being installed, Dotson especially envied Harper’s sparse geometric paintings depicting the Apostles.

“I made a Last Supper for Art of Food that I thought was as simplified as you could get,” Dotson said. “She did 12 circles and some lines and blew me away!”

Both solo exhibits were blowing people away on opening night. According to Distel, this is the most art The Carnegie has shown at once in a long time. And for Harper, one more huge display could be ahead.

ArtWorks, which honored Charley Harper with a downtown public mural in 2012, says it hopes to add Edie to its 2017 portfolio. But now that The Carnegie has revealed how broad her talent was, will the side of one building be big enough?

AN AMERICAN OUTSIDER and E IS FOR EDIE continue through Feb. 11 at The Carnegie, 1028 Scott Blvd., Covington, Ky. More info: thecarnegie.com.

a&c curtain call

Stage and Screen Merge in ‘Event Cinema’

BY RICK PENDER

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In 2010, I attended a digital presentation Theater is increasingly available, both of Shakespeare’s Hamlet at The Carnegie in plays and musicals. Earlier this fall, Covington. It came from London’s National London’s National Theatre offered encore Theatre and starred British actor Rory presentations of War Horse and Benedict Kinnear. It was my first experience with Cumberbatch in Hamlet. Just last week, the “event cinema.” Around the same time, New National’s production of Harold Pinter’s No York City’s Metropolitan Opera made news Man’s Land with stage and screen lumiwith HD transmissions of its Saturday afternaries Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart noon performances to cineplexes across showed up, a production that received America. Such presentations actually ecstatic reviews during a sold-out limited whetted appetites for regional theaters and run on Broadway a year ago. And on Jan. 8 opera companies. at the Kenwood Theatre, Kenneth Branagh I recently connected with Jonathan Ross, will perform in John Osborne’s 1957 play executive director of the Event Cinema The Entertainer.

Association (ECA). He cited the Met broadcasts as an early catalyst. “Most opera fans can’t get to New York on a regular basis, much less afford a good ticket to see the Met Opera in person,” he said. “So event cinema has, in a sense, democratized the public’s access and ability to experience a vast range of entertainment content, from live opera to plays and musical theater.”

Event cinema has grown by 500 percent over the past five years. By 2019, it’s Disney’s Newsies: The Broadway Musical hits cineplexes Feb. 16. expected to be a $1 billion P H O T O : D i s n e y th e at r i c a l p r od u c t i o n s worldwide industry. (Most theaters in North America have gone digital, moving away from 35mm The phenomenon is encompassing more projection. That’s opened the door for more broadly popular works, too. A performance event cinema, live or pre-recorded.) of Disney’s Newsies: The Broadway MusiTwo years ago, I saw the musical Billy cal, captured live at the Hollywood PanElliot presented digitally at Cinemark Oaktages Theatre earlier in 2016, will be on view ley Station. Based on a British movie from in select local movie theaters on Feb. 16, 18 2000, the story about an adolescent boy who and 22. Admissions are typically around $20, yearns to be a ballet dancer is set in a rough considerably less than tickets for Broadcoal-mining town in Northern England. way shows or even touring productions at The characters speak and sing with dense Cincinnati’s Aronoff Center. accents that are often impenetrable onstage.

“Beyond being present for the event itself, On screen, however, dialogue and lyrics we believe that the cinema is the ideal envicame through clearly. ronment best suited to seeing and hearing Fast forward to now: ECA’s Ross said events,” Ross said. “It is that communal and there are often as many as 10 productions shared experience of witnessing something monthly by Fathom Events, the largest astounding with other people that cannot distributor. “More and more arts organizabe replicated in the home.” tions, theaters, museums and other cultural This isn’t a reason to stop seeing live theinstitutions see the value of bringing their ater on local stages. But event cinema offers performances and collections to movie the opportunity to expand your artistic screens where patrons can experience their horizons by seeing outstanding theatrical content on the ‘big screen’ with unparalleled productions that you can’t get to — or afford audio and visual quality,” he said.

— in New York City, London and beyond.

A related trend in recent years has been To stay on top of what’s being distributed, network television presentations of live check the website stageandstream.com, productions of well-known musicals. NBC, an independent online resource providing for example, has broadcast The Sound of advance notice about plays, musicals and Music, Peter Pan, The Wiz and, earlier this other events at local cinemas, on network month, Hairspray. These have been positelevision and streaming. tively received, but I believe they fall short CONTACT RICK PENDER: rpender@citybeat.com of the impact of seeing shows at a cineplex.

a&c visual art

CAM Opens Reinstalled African Art Gallery

BY MARIA SEDA-REEDER

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The Cincinnati Art Museum recently religious or spiritual practice; Home, Family, opened its reinstalled African Art gallery, Self, featuring everyday objects like textiles, which features a wide sampling of diverse dolls, baskets and cloth; and highlights objects from the museum’s Steckelmann from the Steckelmann Collection, featuring Collection. It’s a prized holding of more than some of Bridges’ favorite subjects — includ1,300 objects that the museum purchased ing the aforementioned ivory tusks. from the Indiana-raised African adventurer/ Due to conservation issues, several explorer and arts patron Carl Steckelmann objects made from light-sensitive materiin 1890. The museum first displayed the colals (including the tusks, textiles and items lection even earlier, in 1889. made from grasses) will rotate in and out of Curators and art scholars, working coldisplay every one-and-a-half years. laboratively, have thematically reframed Other noteworthy artworks in the gallery this latest installation into new groupings include an early 20th-century veranda post. that underscore the relationships between Carved out of one piece of wood, the highly the artists and patrons of African traditions-based arts.

Steckelmann’s collection is a snapshot of West African art at the end of the 19th century, and many of the objects on display in the gallery demonstrate the ways in which artists along Africa’s Atlantic coast catered to European and American patronage in the wake of centuries of the transatlantic slave trade.

These specific beautiful objects often speak to the gluttony of the art market.

The gallery had been disThe CAM’s African Art gallery features more than 1,300 objects. placed in 2014 when construcP H O T O : C i n c i n n at i A r t M u s e u m tion began on the first-floor renovation that included the new Rosenthal Education Center; it now detailed object would’ve announced the resides just beyond the education center. owner of the house as someone of high staBecause the museum doesn’t currently tus in the community. It is the only object in have a specific curator for this collection on the exhibition with a known and attributed staff, Chief Curator and Curator of Fashion maker. Sculpted by one of the most famous Arts and Textiles Cynthia Amnéus worked Yoruba artists in Nigeria, Agunna of Oke with outside curator Nichole Bridges and Igbira, the post features two figures: a male local scholar William Hommel on the riding a horse and a female holding a child. reinstallation. Together, they reconsidered The fact that most of the artists within and reframed the strengths of the collecthe gallery are listed by combining the title tion, which is one of the oldest holdings of “Unattributed artist” with their cultural idenAfrican material culture owned by an art tity speaks to the typical lack of provenance museum in the country. information for colonial collections like Bridges, who serves as associate curaSteckelmann’s. tor for African art at the Saint Louis Art “There is evidence of some really excellent Museum, was already intimately familiar artistic skill and craftsmanship throughout with the Steckelmann Collection. As a grad this gallery,” Bridges says. “But the fact that student in 2005, Bridges, a then-doctoral we don’t have named artists really speaks candidate, had come to the CAM to study to the context in which they were collected: the various ivory relief tusk sculptures that No one bothered to ask.”

Steckelmann had commissioned. Thus, she With continued investment from instituwas a natural fit for helping the museum tions like the Cincinnati Art Museum and recontextualize the objects on display. ongoing intellectual investigation by scholars These 19th- and 20th-century African like Bridges, collections like Steckelmann’s objects have been grouped into five general can better serve our understanding of themes: Leaders (political and familial); African art history in ways that acknowledge Masqueraders and Performers, including and value the voice of the African artist. masks, costumes and musical instruments; The Cincinnati Art Museum’s AFRICAN Seekers and Healers, including tools of ART gallery is now open. More info: ritual specialists, which were often comcincinnatiartmuseum.org. missioned by those involved in some kind of 295359_4.9_x_5.4.indd 1

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a&c LITERARY

The Growth of ‘The Guineveres’ INTERVIEW BY JASON GARGANO

impacting me? How do I carve out my identity even among people who have the same name as myself?”

The Guineveres brings to mind a host of likeminded stories, none more obvious than Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Virgin Suicides, another incisive portrait of young women struggling to find their own distinct place in the world. While Domet admits that Eugenides’ novel was an influence, it was far from the only one.

Sara Domet started writing her debut novel The Guineveres as a grad student at UC. P H O T O : F l at i r o n b oo k s

“Somebody wrote that my book was an homage to Eugenides and his ideas of trapped girls and I thought, ‘It’s interesting that he seems to have cornered the market on trapped girls,’ ” Domet says. “I was a trapped girl! This isn’t an homage; this was the reality of my life being raised in an institution, which struck me as kind of funny.

I love the work of Jeffrey Eugenides, but he wasn’t necessarily the only model that I looked to. I also love The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, which I think had a pretty big impact on this novel — maybe even more than The Virgin Suicides.”

Our conversation winding down, Domet returns to the fact that The Guineveres is finally out there and living a life of its own.

“The longer it’s out in the world and published, the more I, as an author, become disconnected from it because I don’t matter anymore,” she says. “But I think that’s also the beauty of it. The most interesting thing to me is seeing how other people responded to particular moments of my book that I hadn’t seen myself — to be introduced to my own writing in some ways.”

CONTACT JASON GARGANO: letters@citybeat.com

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“It’s so surreal,” author Sarah Domet says when asked about the fact that her debut novel, The Guineveres, is now out in the world for all to experience. “You labor and labor and labor in this solitary confinement for so long, and then suddenly it’s here and people are reading it.”

More than a decade in the making, The Guineveres grew out of a short story Domet wrote as a graduate student while in the creative writing program at the University of Cincinnati. Domet drew heavily from her own experiences growing up as a Catholic schoolgirl on Cincinnati’s East Side, centering the book’s narrative on four young women, all named Guinevere, who form a union in an effort to survive their fates as subordinates to the nuns at a convent called the Sisters of the Supreme Adoration.

“You’ve been thinking about this book for so long, and it’s such a part of you, you’ve cultivated it and you sort of have protected it, and then you feel kind of vulnerable when it finally gets published, because then people can read it however they want to read it or say whatever they want to say about it,” Domet says.

The Guineveres was published by Flatiron Books in early October. The reception to the book has been largely positive, garnering buzz from the blogosphere to The New York Times Book Review, which described The Guineveres as a “deft and lovely debut … it keeps unfolding and deepening, taking unexpected turns.”

Domet, speaking by phone from her home in Savannah, Ga., says that original short story — titled “Our Boys” in a nod to the four comatose soldiers who arrive at the convent for treatment — kept nagging at her.

“I just couldn’t stop thinking about these girls and what their stories were and how they arrived at the convent in the first place and what happened to them afterward,” she says. “A lot of the questions the short story didn’t really answer because it was such a compact little slice of what the novel is now.”

Domet’s prose is by turns matter of fact and often quite lyrical, conveying the girls’ yearning to transcend their tightly controlled environment and their troubled origins — each of their families has decided to jettison them to the convent for one reason or another — with rare intimacy and psychological insight.

“I see this as a coming-of-age story about four girls who are trying to kind of carve out an identity for themselves,” Domet says.

“They’re trying to understand their lives and the things that have happened to them and their families and ideas about friendship and things that are really more universal in nature: Who am I? Who am I going to become? How has my family impacted me?

How is this institution, of which I am a part,

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Why I Can’t Go Ga-Ga For ‘La La Land’

BY T T STERN-ENZI

I’ve never considered myself a contrarian. and filmmaking associations — hands There’s no need to go against the grain just out honors for the year’s best, and there for the sake of doing so. If you find yourself is La La Land, nominated by the Golden taking a stand that places you in opposition Globes for Best Motion Picture – Musical or to the consensus, then I believe said stand Comedy, Best Performances for Actor and should be based on reasoned principle or, in Actress, Best Screenplay and Director for the case of what I do as a critic, well-defined Chazelle, included in the National Board of and documented personal preferences.

Review’s Top Ten Films of 2016 and a mulI entered the Toronto International Film tiple Critics Choice Award winner from the Festival screening of La La Land fully Broadcast Film Critics Association. I see aware of the prevailing opinions of the film. the writing on the wall, and as previously The critical narrative, as is the case, had stated, it’s been there all along. already been written. Most of us had loved La La Land dazzles us with a romantic the intensity of Damien Chazelle’s Whipshow of emotion. It is familiar and true, and lash, which brought a welldeserved stamp of Oscar glory to J.K. Simmons for his demanding supporting role. We trusted the idea that Chazelle — writer and director of La La Land — would have the rhythmic sense to tell a story in song, and that he would be ably supported

by Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, the closest thing we might have to American Sweethearts today.

And there it was, right from the start: a dazzling spectacle, an L.A. traffic jam Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling sing and dance in La La Land. transformed into a multi-culP H O T O : D a l e R o b i n e tt e tural chorus line stomping its way into our hearts.

I am notoriously resistant to the movie executed with a precision that is second musical. It insults my practical adherence to none. But my critical heart wants more to narrative logic. I simply cannot abide the than an entertaining refrain. I need to face idea that people feel the need to break into loss and mourning with the knowledge that song as a means of expressing themselves. sometimes it never truly ends.

I sing in my car, but that doesn’t have anyKenneth Lonergan left me adrift in that thing to do with my worldview, and I don’t sense with Manchester By the Sea. I wanted relate to characters in movies fashionably to experience the hopelessness of being a wearing their feelings over swelling beats young black boy approaching manhood with and rhyme schemes. questions about what it means to be a fully But I have to admit that this brave new functioning person (Moonlight). TIFF supLand started working on me, breaking plied journeys back to the Civil Rights era, down my defenses. I admired its creative revealing a fierce woman defining history for strivers — a traditional Jazz musician (Gosherself and her dead husband (Jackie), while ling) and a perky and determined actress also offering the kind of love that speaks (Stone), diligently in pursuit of their dreams. louder and rewrites laws without rallying What writer wouldn’t? I didn’t mind their cries and turning the other cheek in the face tentative vocal expressions. There was pasof brutal assaults (Loving). There’s even the sion in their effort. quiet revelation captured during the identityAlthough I would be remiss if I didn’t forming college years of a smart young point out that ultimately, for as great as biracial man who one day would assume the I thought the whole affair was (and is), it mantle of leader of the free world (Barry). lacked the depth and resonance of films These films addressed several moments at like Moonlight and Manchester By the Sea. once: the immediacy of the now, the timelessMy soul might hum along at a quicker pace ness of our shared past and the hopes of our thanks to its sweet charms, but La La Land future. La La Land engaged my senses in the wasn’t providing me the necessary sustemoment, and will certainly do so any time I nance to survive the holiday season. watch it, but it will not linger like a haunting I don’t want my objection to be rooted in refrain. Sadly, it didn’t go to my head. awards season, but that’s a sticking point for CONTACT tt stern-enzi: letters@ citybeat.com me. I watch as each group — national critics

ON SCREEN ‘Passengers’ REVIEW BY T T STERN-ENZI

We find ourselves in the midst of a slate of movies that defy the traditional marketing schemes of eager sellers of simplistic dreams. I have been intrigued by the promotional sleight of hand behind the pitches for the new Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game) release Passengers, which has been presented as a sci-fi romance. Having seen it, I’m here to warn audiences to look out for what lies beneath the narrative taglines.

Due to the first of a series of systemic malfunctions, Everyman Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) wakes up 30 years into a 120-year journey from Earth to the Homestead II colony. He soon discovers there’s no way for him to return to cryogenic hibernation, which means that he’s stranded alone, save for an affable android bartender named Arthur (Michael Sheen), who dispenses top-shelf drinks and generic aphorisms with aplomb. Jim is resourceful, an engineer and problem solver, but he’s human and not made for the prospect of spending the rest of his life in solitary confinement.

Ironically, Jim is one of 5,258 passengers onboard the self-sustaining voyager.

He stumbles across the life-pod of Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence), a journalist, and begins researching her life.

Of course, he succumbs to an intense fascination fueled by his extreme isolation; he thinks it’s love, and because Passengers is a movie in love with love, we know he will wake her up to serve as his companion. We also know that he will not be truthful about his decision, which in effect robs her of the purposeful life she imagined and paid for.

Screenwriter Jon Spaihts (Prometheus and Doctor Strange) has proven to be a blockbuster-for-hire type, capable of crafting crowd-pleasers that won’t broadly insult the intelligence of viewers but don’t have the sustained complexity to force us to reflect or speculate on the human condition after our experience in the theater. Beware of longing for anything other than a breezy merging of Gravity and Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris; you will be in for a long and quite empty ride. (Opens Wednesday) (PG-13) Grade: C

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Holiday movies and TV specials have become as much a part of seasonal tradiProject Runway (Season Finale, 8 p.m. tions as gift giving, tree decorating and politiThursday, Lifetime) – The final designers cally charged arguments across the dinner put their finishing touches on collections table. From Christmas movie marathons to they debut at New York Fashion Week; a New Year’s Eve events, your TV can get you winner is crowned. through the entire holiday season.

25 Days of Christmas (Daily through Balls Deep (10 p.m. Dec. 29, VICELAND) Dec. 25, Freeform) – From Santa Claus is – Thomas explores veterans’ issues with Coming to Town! and A Christmas Carol Michelle Obama, freaks out over meeting to Jingle All the Way and Elf, this marathon Michelle Obama. features all the classic and contemporary The Mick (Series Premiere, 8 p.m. Jan. 1, Christmas favorites — and Harry Potter.

FOX) – Kaitlin Olson (It’s Always Sunny in Joe’s Pub Presents: A Holiday Special Philadelphia) stars as a foul-mouthed hard (10 p.m. Wednesday, IFC) – If variety is the spice of life, this vaguely holiday-ish comedy special is one speecy-spicy meatball. Tony Hale (Veep, Arrested Development) hosts the show — filmed in front of a live audience last month at the iconic Joe’s Pub inside Manhattan’s Public Theater — which features performances by Amy Schumer BFF Bridget Everett, musical comedian Nick Thune, the Dap-Kings (R.I.P. Sharon Jones!) and more.

SURPRISE! INSTANT Binge-watch A Christmas Story for 24 hours on TNT Saturday.

XMAS CAROL! (10 p.m.

PHOTO : TNT Wednesday, TBS) – Charles Barkley, Rashida Jones, Alfonso Ribeiro and other celebrity carolers partier suddenly put in charge of her sister’s put their spin on holiday classics in this three children. In other words, huge deparshoutily titled program. ture from her Sunny role as Sweet Dee. A Charlie Brown Christmas (8 p.m.

The Bachelor (Season Premiere, 8 p.m.

Thursday, ABC) – The Peanuts gang learns Jan. 2, ABC) – Nick Viall failed to find love the real meaning of Christmas; decorates with Andi Dorfman on Season 10 of The a sad tree.

Sense8: A Christmas Special (Friday, Bachelorette, and with Kaitlyn Bristowe on Netflix) – The telepathically connected Season 11 of The Bachelorette, oh, and on Sensates are back! This two-hour holiday this summer’s season of Bachelor in Paraepisode will have to tide fans over until dise. Because if at first you don’t succeed, Season 2 premieres in May. try, try, try again.

A Christmas Story Marathon (8 p.m.

The New Celebrity Apprentice (Season Saturday, TNT) – Christmas wouldn’t be Premiere, 8 p.m. Jan. 2, NBC) – Now taking complete without 24 hours of Ralphie and bets on new host Arnold Schwarzenegger’s his Red Ryder BB gun! version of Donald Trump’s line, “You’re A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas (9 fired.” Will it be “Hasta la vista, baby,” “You p.m. Saturday, FXX) – A highly entertaining won’t be back,” or “Who is your daddy and holiday offering. what does he do?”

Rudolph’s Shiny New Year (9 p.m. Monday, ABC) – Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia saves the day yet again when an evil bird (Season Premiere, 10 p.m. Jan. 4, FXX) kidnaps baby New Year. Wait, what?

– When an electric blanket shorts-out Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve during a viewing of The Wiz, The Gang with Ryan Seacrest 2017 (8 p.m. Dec. 31, discovers they have been turned black.

ABC) – Whew!

They set out to return to their original NBC’s New Year’s Eve with Carson Caucasian forms and the body-switching Daly (11:30 p.m. Dec. 31, NBC) – Same movie montage ensues. And people say TV countdown to 2017, different white guy host. is too PC these days…

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Best Bites of 2016

CityBeat dining writers list their favorite digestible fare from the past 365 days

BY CIT YBEAT STAFF

PHOTO : haile y bollinger

C

ityBeat’s staff of underpaid but relatively well-fed dining writers spend their year eating, drinking and reporting back on Cincinnati’s latest restaurants, food trends and au courant culinary wizardry to either mildly entertain you or help you decide where to eat dinner.

And as this year comes to a close, we asked our dedicated reviewers to list their favorite gastronomic indulgences of 2016, from clever cocktails and can’t-quit classics to $5 finds — all of which make eating in the Queen City an experience worth writing home about.

Anne Mitchell

Kung Fu movies and unpretentious Asian food never get boring at Covington’s AmerAsia. bread stops you in your tracks at Em’s Sourdough Bread stand at Findlay Market, get some. Then ask for a peanut butter cookie — a cookie that will make up for almost any bad mojo that life is bringing.

Pro-tip: Get more than one if there’s any possibility you might have to share. 1801 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, emsbread.com.

Favorite Reason to Eat Off the Floor: No, it’s not the five-second rule. Coppin’s restaurant in Hotel Covington is swanky and cool, an amazing eatery in Covington’s upand-coming city center. And several of their delicious dishes are served on hand-crafted planks that were originally floorboards in the 1910 building. The sweet corn fritters are savory bite-sized delights spiced with smoked togarashi, a Japanese pepper blend — which in this case is made in Kentucky by Bourbon Barrel Foods — and served with buttermilk dressing. 638 Madison Ave., Covington, Ky., hotelcovington.com.

Garin Pirnia Favorite New Restaurant: It’s all in the name: “pleasant.” The folks behind 1215 Wine Bar stepped it up a notch when they opened Pleasantry in the spring. Their focus is on natural wines — something rarely seen outside of big cities. Besides the array of vinos, the seasonal dishes and

housemade chai lattes are standouts. 118 W. 15th St., Over-the-Rhine, pleasantryotr.com.

Favorite Old Restaurant: Because hipster Asian gastropub AmerAsia is tucked away in a cozy spot on Madison Avenue in Covington, I sometimes forget about it. But not only is it one of the best eateries in Covington, it’s also one of the best Asian spots in the city. Their beer list features a plethora of rare brews on draft and in bottles, and you’ve got to love eating their unpretentious food while watching Kung Fu movies on multiple TVs. 521 Madison Ave. B, Covington, Ky., facebook.com/kungfoodchu.

Favorite Rebranding of a Perfectly Good Restaurant: When NuVo opened in Covington in 2014, it became the area’s first tasting-menu-only restaurant. Apparently diners gave it a tepid reception, so owner Mark Bodenstein began offering an à la carte menu along with the original. When that didn’t gel, he and his team decided to change the name and concept to a neighborhood red sauce joint: Piccolo Casa. So far, it seems to be working. The more casual dining room offers housemade pastas, pizza bread topped with burrata, affordable wines by the bottle, a long bourbon list and a tiramisu-inspired dessert called zuccotto. 308 Greenup St, Covington, Ky., piccolocovington.com.

Favorite Slow-Bar Coffee Shop: Even though it’s been located inside Reser Bicycle for a few years, many locals still don’t know about Trailhead, an intimate four-seater coffee bar. Manager/barista extraordinaire Joe Humpert takes his time making pour overs and cortados from Dayton, Ohio’s Wood Burl beans — one of the only places in town to source the regional coffee. 35½ E. Seventh St., Newport, Ky., facebook.com/trailheadcoffee.

Favorite Five-Dollar “Milkshake”: The newly opened bar/vintage video store The Video Archive boasts a cocktail menu and décor inspired by Quentin Tarantino movies, including Pulp Fiction. In the film, Mia (Uma Thurman) and Vincent (John Travolta) visit a retro diner and she orders a $5 milkshake, which was at one time shockingly expensive. The Video Archive puts a spin on the “pricey” milkshake and eschews ice cream for vanilla bean-infused bourbon, cream and whipped cream, served on the rocks. While Vincent gives Mia grief for ordering the drink, the Video Archive’s shake seems like quite the bargain. 965 E. McMillan, Walnut Hills, facebook.com/ videoarchivecincinnati.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 32

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Favorite Should-Be Menu Item: Lisse Steakhuis is a fancy new steakhouse in MainStrasse Village. And right after Lisse’s soft opening, MainStrasse held its annual Maifest, generally a celebration of large sausages. Not that I don’t celebrate the occasional large sausage, but when Lisse decided to sell little steak sandwiches out their side windows, I went petite. And damn, it was outstanding: cross-grained slices of meat that were tender and tasty, grilled onions and melty cheese, served on a crusty roll. I walked around the fest raving about it — and it was only five bucks! I obviously sold tons of them by personal testimonial because when I went back to get another, they were gone. And no sausage could console me. Lisse, bring back that meaty morsel and make me a happy woman. 530 Main St., Covington, Ky., lisse.restaurant.

Favorite Pre-Gaming Comfort Food: Lalo used to be Huit before Huit opened Neuf. And now Lalo is on Court Street, cooking up “Chino Latino” Asian fusion food for you. Lalo is a good lunch spot, but it’s also strategically placed on the edge of Drinkopolis, formerly known as OTR. Lalo serves a humungous plate of arroz con pollo with gooey sauce that will prepare you for any boozathon. The soup at Lalo is also outstanding, and the tacos are delish — the Drunken Brisket one especially. But this rice? Prevent your hangover before it happens. 29 E. Court St., Downtown, lalocincinnati.com.

Favorite Dessert: Yes, honey pie, as the Beatles sang: I’m in love and I’m not too lazy to get over to Commonwealth Bistro and grab a slab of their honey pie. On a menu of really amazing Southern cuisine, this pie is the pinnacle, the top, the “Mona Lisa.” It has that sweet and salty thing going on that makes your mouth want more. And the homemade buttermilk ice cream on top?

Yes. 621 Main St., Covington, Ky., commonwealthbistro.com.

Favorite “I Did It All For The Cookie”: When the smell of freshly baked

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F&D Best Bites of 2016 Continued from page 31

Ilene Ross

and seasonal and cushioned with an esoteric wine selection and candle-lit ambience. 3410 Telford St., Clifton, harvest-bistro.com.

Favorite Old Creamy Whip: There’s a reason that Putz’s Creamy Whip only has to operate seasonally during warm weather and has kept its seating outdoor-only since it opened in 1938. That’s because the soft serve is unlike any other, expertly balancing an authentic dairy cream taste with a silky smooth consistency that scored the family-owned restaurant the sixth spot on MentalFloss’ “12 Most Satisfying Soft Serve Stops in the U.S.” list this year. 2673 Putz Drive, Westwood, putzscreamywhip.com.

Favorite New Thing: Local culinary startup Grass Fed Gourmet’s CocoGhee is a gourmet spread made from raw organic coconut oil and grass-fed clarified butter that comes in both sweet and savory flavors — think cinnamon honey, mocha hazelnut or garlic and salt. Swirl the sweet flavors into hot coffee for a twist on “Bulletproof Coffee,” or melt them on top of pancakes. As for the savory flavors, try slathering a whole roasting chicken with the rosemary garlic flavor or melt and drizzle any of them on popcorn. gfgcocoghee.com.

Favorite French Pastry Purveyor: Whether it’s rich, all-butter shortbread or the most decadent cream puffs and eclairs, Baudry’s pastries are the some of the most authentic you’ll find anywhere this side of the Atlantic. While Monsieur Frederic Baudry maintains no brick-andmortar or website, you can find him at most farmers markets in summer and at the Findlay Market and Hyde Park farmers markets in winter. (Or you can place orders via email or phone).

The honey latte at Collective Espresso is sweet but simple.

Frederic@baudrycreampuff.

PHOTO : HAILE Y BOLLINGER com, 513-886-7019, facebook. com/baudrycreampuff.

Favorite Flavor Addition: Greek seaFavorite Dish: For authentic Thai soning from Colonel De Gourmet Herbs cuisine and street food that doesn’t skimp & Spices is the one spice blend to put on/in on the oil or slip kale in where it shouldn’t absolutely every savory dish you cook from be, visit Thai Express in Clifton. Their tofu grilled chicken to baked fish. It miraculously pad thai, a favorite of University of Cincinchanges the flavor profile to season anything nati students, is loaded with bean sprouts perfectly. As that one hot sauce commercial and chopped peanuts. The behemoth of says, “I put that shit on everything.” Multiple rice noodles and golden tofu is served in a locations including 1801 Race St., Findlay to-go container — even if you opt to dine Market, Over-the-Rhine, colonelde.com. in. Cincinnati street food at its best. 213 Favorite Dish: Anything served on or W. McMillan St., Clifton Heights, facebook. with Sixteen Bricks Artisan Bakehouse com/thaiexpresscincinnati. bread. A good one is the veggie burger at Favorite Drink: Collective Espresso Maplewood Kitchen and Bar with Havarti will not make you a crème brûlée mocha cheese, avocado, lemon-caper dijonaise and with five extra pumps of caramel and lowiceberg slaw on a Sixteen Bricks sesame fat whipped cream. The artistically minded seed bun. Don’t forget a side of shoestring espresso shop will, however, make you a fries and a housemade cookie for dessert.

Maplewood Kitchen and Bar, 525 Race damn fine cup of coffee. And Collective has St., Downtown, maplewoodkitchenandbar. gone ahead and crafted a latte for those of com, facebook.com/sixteenbricks. us with a sweet tooth: the honey latte. While it sounds simple compared to the extravagant concoctions from most coffee shops in America, the honey latte’s simplicity Favorite New Restaurant: The change allows the nuances within the tart espresso, from La Poste to Harvest Bistro & Wine smooth organic whole milk and sweet Bar exemplifies a subtle shift in branding honey to shine with each sip. Multiple and a larger change in philosophy for the locations including 4037 Hamilton Ave., Clifton standby. The swanky date-night resNorthside, collectiveespresso.com. taurant transitioned to embodying a popular Favorite 5 a.m. Donut: The wee hours farm-to-table concept and serves selections between when the Ludlow Avenue Skyline such as a $5 tomato soup du jour so good I forgot about my entrée. The menu is local closes its doors at 3 a.m. and the Blue Jay

Madge Maril

diner in Northside opens at 8 a.m. can feel like a bottomless void, leaving hungry afterparty-goers eating saltines at home. If you’re not interested in 24-hour-fast food (or too inebriated to get to it), stroll over to Bonomini Bakery. At around 3 or 4 a.m., the smell of the freshly baked donuts and pastries spills out onto Blue Rock Street and the glowing red Bonomini sign becomes a beacon of hope on a dark morning. 1677 Blue Rock St., Northside, 513-541-7501.

McKenzie Graham

Favorite Arcade-Bar Cocktail: The peach fizz at Arcade Legacy: Bar Edition is creamy, fizzy and sweet and it comes with a peach gummy. What more does a person need while they binge-play a vintage-edition Simpsons? Plus, there are convenient drink holders between every gaming station so you can grab a quick sip between Marge’s fierce vacuum thwacks. 3929 Spring Grove Ave., Northside, arcadelegacyohio.com.

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C I T Y B E A T . C O M • D E C . 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 6 • 3 3

Favorite New Thing: A housemade red wine flight full of berry flavors at The Skeleton Root urban winery makes any evening/afternoon working from “home” a lot more enjoyable. The big space makes me feel unnoticed in the best, librarywith-wine way possible and they’re always having fun workshops, like wreath-making classes with OTR florist Gia and the Blooms. 38 W. McMicken Ave., Over-theRhine, skeletonroot.com.

Favorite Old Thing: The turtles at Gomez Salsa. I thought Mazunte had tugged on my heartstrings like no Gomez Salsa’s turtle shell is an amazing burrito-tostado hybrid.

P H O T O : L I N D S AY M C C A R T Y other Mexican place could until I tried a turtle shell. And now that Gomez has opened lous drink. They call it a variation on a whisa second location a stone’s throw from my key sour, but it’s so much better. It starts apartment, I’m both scared for my waistwith blended Scotch, followed by lemon, line and overjoyed. Their turtles are like honey and ginger, shaken over ice, strained the Crunchwrap Supreme you never knew into a coupe and topped with a float of even existed — a cheese-sealed burrito-tostado more fine Scotch. The fragrance knocks me hybrid — and at the walk-up location in over! Always sit at the bar so you can watch OTR, you can add as many fillings as you the cocktail-geek staff (I mean that in the want. 107 E. 12th St., Over-the-Rhine; 2437 best possible way) ply their craft. 18 W. 13th Gilbert Ave., Walnut Hills, gomezsalsa.com.

St., Over-the-Rhine, sundryandvice.com.

Favorite Dish: The signature Pizza Alla Favorite Reason to Reconsider Bread Vodka at Strong’s Brick Oven Pizza. It’s Pudding: Yes, it’s an overused, tired dessert almost painful to try and narrow down the in many restaurants. Mostly, it’s too thick amazing pizza choices around town, but and bready and makes me wonder why this is my go-to every time I’m near the river. anyone would call it “pudding.” Then I had There are other toppings to try at Strong’s, the banana bread pudding at Bistro Grace. but the only ones that matter are cream Caramelized bananas make all the differvodka sauce and salty-sweet prosciutto ence as a main ingredient. 4034 Hamilton di Parma. There are no such things as Ave., Northside, bistrograce.com. leftovers with this pizza. 336 Monmouth St., Favorite Excuse to Parlez-Vous: All Newport, Ky., strongsbrickovenpizza.com. three of Jean-Robert de Cavel’s new ventures Favorite Drink: Maverick Chocolate —Frenchie Fresh, French Crust Café and Co.’s cold brew coffee. Maverick’s cold L — have already lured me for multiple visits. brew is barely carbonated and kept inside But while the Taft Theatre houses the Cincina kegerator. It’s brewed with a combinanati Symphony Orchestra during the renovation of coffee and cocoa beans, but doesn’t tion of Music Hall, restaurant L also happens taste thick and sweet like a bite of actual to be in the same building as the parking chocolate. Instead, it’s refreshing and garage suggested to CSO patrons. Stopping subtly flavored, and I stop by for a cup even post-symphony for a drink and bite at the bar in the colder months for a luxurious (but could become a lovely habit. 301 E. Fourth affordable) start to the day. 129 W. Elder St., St., Suite 450, Downtown, lcincinnati.com.

Over-the-Rhine, maverickchocolate.com.

2nd Dinner Entree

music

Soul Rebel

Keep an eye (and ear) on adventurous Cincinnati musician Jennifer Simone in 2017

BY MADGE MARIL

PHOTO : haile y bollinger

3 4 • C I T Y B E A T . C O M • D E C . 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 6

B

efore she begins her set, 24-year-old Jennifer Simone lights a stick of incense. The smoke curls around her as she sits on the floor of the stage surrounded by empty brass dishes, frog-shaped instruments and noisemakers of various shapes and sizes, waiting for the right moment to begin. Her first song starts with a single sound.

“It’s all improv,” she says. Each musical performance is an improvised healing process, for herself and for the audience.

Simone strikes a piece of wood against a dish, capturing the sound in a microphone connected to a looper pedal — a small device that, when activated, repeats the caught noise ad infinitum. The process is visceral and etheric. Once the sound of the first noise begins repeating, Simone transitions to another noisemaker, instrument, wind chime or her own voice, and begins layering sound over sound, voice over voice, until her music falls like water into your lap. Her singing rises and falls inward and outward, and aptly so — Inward/Outward is the name of her first EP (simonexzijn.bandcamp.com), a collaboration with artist ZijnZijn ZijnZijn!.

Simone’s music isn’t Ambient. It isn’t Punk.

It isn’t Tribal. It’s somehow all of those things, and yet none. She attributes her unique sound to influences like Ladysmith Black Mambazo, whale calls, Gregorian chants, Nina Simone, Paul Simon, Erykah Badu, Elvis and “a ton of Jazz and Blues.” As a child, church services featuring participatory music shaped her sense of rhythm.

“This was not your regular clapping on the second and fourth beat. This was clapping on the second, the fourth, everything in between,” Simone says. “Experiencing this polyrhythm in church indirectly taught me the foundations of rhythm in music.”

Simone classifies her music as Soul — as in real soul, from her soul to yours.

“People who might stumble upon me as an artist in the city create an assumption on what my art is because of my skin color, because of my identity that comes along with color,” she says.

At her shows, emotions run high. Her music evokes a powerful response — people openly cry and she often invites crowd members to sit on the ground with her. People tell Simone about their problems before she plays. And after listening to what those around her are thinking, she incorporates those feelings into her music. She believes in the healing frequencies of music — that in the vibrations of noise, there can be comfort.

“You don’t have to say a word about your problems to me to be healed by the sound in the room, although I have been there for

Jennifer Simone’s unique sound is influenced by everything from Nina Simone to whale calls. many audience members to talk to, to hug, to let them cry on my shoulder or just stare into each other’s eyes for a moment,” she says. “Things get very intimate and human within the art I create.”

But the healing had to begin internally.

Simone attended school in West Chester, Ohio from third grade until 10th grade. The suburban landscape that gave her safety and warmth as a child fostered the depression she experienced as a teenager. She had been learning baritone saxophone since the age of 11 but didn’t feel challenged at her school.

On a personal level, being one of the only African-American students also felt isolating.

Her depression peaked when her family lost their home. She spent time living in hotels. There wasn’t time to get good grades or worry about school attendance. Her parents divorced. Where other artists would have stopped, Simone continued to create.

While living with her father, she saw an episode of Taking The Stage, an MTV reality show that featured students from Cincinnati’s School for Creative and Performing Arts.

“I was stunned that this school was in Cincinnati,” she says. “I felt like someone had been hiding a great, great secret from me.”

Determined to get into the school, Simone auditioned for the instrumental music program and was accepted. That acceptance

was the key she needed as a young artist.

“Going to SCPA was the first time I had African-American teachers,” she says. “I didn’t know I needed teachers that understood what life in the skin was like, and everything that comes with it.”

Her teachers encouraged her. The hangover of depression began to clear. Simone started playing Jazz locally with friends, and then performing as a solo artist.

It was within Cincinnati’s eclectic local scene, where Jazz meets Electronic adventurism with open arms, that she first discovered her now-trademark looping sound.

“My dear friend Kafari would let me borrow his RC-30 loop pedal on occasion, and I would experiment like crazy until I saw him again,” Simone says.

People responded to the unique music she created and her solo shows garnered packed audiences buzzing with excitement.

Now, national artists are paying attention.

In October, Simone opened for Helado Negro, Roberto Carlos Lange’s celebrated and prolific Electronic music project. Two months later, she got a text message from Lange saying that he had been interviewed

by Bandcamp and had chosen her Inward/ Outward EP as his favorite Bandcamp pick.

The feeling of waking up that morning, as

an artist who had come out of seemingly nowhere four years ago, was “absolutely amazing,” she says.

“To be a musician that can be identified as a woman of color in a city that still suffers with issues of racism and sexism, to be the absolute weirdo that I am and be given the space to explore even further than I have already reached… it is such a blessing,” Simone says.

In the Bandcamp article, Lange describes her music as mesmerizing: “The music healed me that night,” he says. “It healed so many people.”

Simone plans to release a complete album this spring and notes that even when she’s not physically recording, the process of making her first album and her spiritual journey are intrinsically linked.

“Even in my free time, I am creating music.

My heartbeat and breathing rhythms when I’m doing yoga or bicycling, the tempo of my eye movement while I am reading creates a steady tempo to create a seamless experience,” she says. “You see? Everything is music.”

Hear JENNIFER SIMONE’s music at soundcloud. com/jennifer_simone and find out the latest at facebook.com/jennifersimonemusic.

music spill it

Local Holiday Tunes for Christmas

BY MIKE BREEN

the years, including the irresistible “Merry Merry,” a slightly reworked version of “Mary Mary” by The Monkees. Other highlights include the rockin’ “Ho Ho Ho and Away We Go” by Frontier Folk Nebraska and “I Don’t Want Much For Christmas” by Mad Anthony, a peculiar lo-fi ElectroFolk cut “Baloney Feet” by Billy Catfish and Pete Nienaber, Mike Ingram’s woozy, dreamy “Maybe Next Christmas,” the funky turntable workout of Tobotius’ “Jingle Jollies” and the relentless Hardcore Punk scorch of John Walsh’s “Christmastime is Here.”

If you like a little “weird” in your holiday mixtape, go to littlecricketrecords.bandcamp.com immediately.

Ricky Nye’s new Christmas album PHOTO : provided

• We told you last month about the limited-edition vinyl release of Arnold’s Holly Jolly Hangover, a compilation featuring local Roots/Americana artists doing Christmas favorites. If you’re lucky, you may still be able to find a vinyl copy at one of your favorite indie record stores. If not, the album — the sales of which benefit the nonprofit Upspring, which helps homeless youth in the area — is still available to purchase at arnoldshollyjollyhangover. bandcamp.com.

The collection includes great contributions from area artists Shiny and the Spoon, The Cincinnati Dancing Pigs, Honey and Houston, Jake Speed and the Freddies, The Part-Time Gentlemen, Ric Hickey and Bam Powell, Todd Hepburn, My Brother’s Keeper, Casey Campbell and Allen Talbot and The Tillers, who do a great “Children Go Where I Send Thee,” the traditional AfricanAmerican spiritual that has been covered hundreds of times by the likes of Peter Paul and Mary, The Fairfield Four, Johhny Cash, Nina Simone and, uh, Hall & Oates.

CONTACT MIKE BREEN: mbreen@citybeat.com

1345 main st motrpub.com

BY mike breen

Sweater Business Just like Wu-Tang Clan, rapper 2 Chainz has made a rare, one-ofa-kind item that will cost whoever wants it major cash. Unlike WuTang, it’s not an album of neverreleased material, and it isn’t being sold to the highest bidder — 2 Chainz’s offer would be better for you if you’re looking for something to wear to a Las Vegas strip club on Christmas morning. The rapper is offering a 2 Chainz “Ugly Christmas Sweater” (the most baffling music merch trend since the artist-branded thong) for $90,000. The proclaimed “World’s Most Expensivest Ugly Christmas Sweater” includes 50 carats of diamonds and 250 grams of gold and can be purchased through the MC’s web shop. But sorry husky or petite rich 2 Chainz fans — the one sweater is a large. Proceeds from the sale will go to an unspecified charity.

Cleaning Up a Bot Mess Even if you are a Trump devotee, if you’re a live music fanatic, you can now say, “Thanks, Obama,” without irony. The president recently signed the Better Online Ticket Sales Act into law, which aims to make it much easier for actual music fans to buy tickets when they go on sale.

If you’ve tried to order tickets online or on the phone for popular shows in the past couple of years, you know it’s nearly impossible. That’s largely due to the ticket resale market’s use of tech tricks (little buy-worms called “bots”) to purchase large amounts of tickets and resell them (at a vastly inflated price, usually).

The new law will make such tactics illegal.

Dim Stars for Inauguration Donald Trump’s people were reportedly having such a hard time finding bigly stars to perform at his inauguration next month that they were offering ambassadorships in exchange for their services. Trump’s camp denied the report and, to counter the rumor, announced that they indeed already had two yuuge artists lined up to perform — opera singer Andrea Bocelli and Jackie Evancho, a 16-year-old vocalist who came in second in the TV singing competition America’s Got Talent in 2010.

wed 21

heavy hinges

tHu 22

jared schaedle & the compound fractures, the rattletraps

fri 23

the auburnaires

sat 24

dj dirty c

sun 25

open at 7pm, merry xmas!

mon 26

jared clifton quartet

tue 27

writer’s night w/ lucas

word of mouth: poetry readings

free live music now open for lunch

1404 main st (513) 345-7981

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jan

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C I T Y B E A T . C O M • D E C . 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 6 • 3 5

Though it will probably not be played at anyone’s family gathering (because of the Insane Clown Posse and King Diamond tracks), for the past week I’ve been slowly building a wonderful and strange playlist of atypical holiday music. While using Spotify, I was able to include a few tracks

by Cincinnati artists. Over the Rhine has multiple albums of original Christmas songs, Foxy Shazam has tracks on a pair of compilations, Seabird put out an EP of Christmas songs in 2010 and Punk Pop group Kevin and the Octaves and Funk legend Bootsy Collins each have full albums of lively holiday favorites.

If you’re looking for some fresh locally flavored holiday music for 2016’s celebrations, you’re in luck.

• Cincinnati’s Boogie Woogie Blues king Ricky Nye’s newfound love for Christmas music came when he was asked to perform a series of shows for senior citizens featuring holiday songs. The tunes became ingrained in the pianist’s head after playing 12 one-hour shows over three days, so Nye recorded the songs for the recently released Plays Holiday Favorites, which is available at local independent record stores and on cdbaby.com.

Nye’s spin on Christmas chestnuts is enjoyable and surprisingly diverse, ranging from jazzy takes on “Christmas is Coming” and “Silver Bells” to Blues versions of “Here Comes Santa Claus” and “Blue Christmas.” Most tracks are instrumentals, with Nye on piano or Hammond organ, plus bassist Chris Douglas and drummer Paul Ellis on several songs (Ray Heckman also provides sax on two numbers). Bekah Williams offers beautiful, crystal-clear vocals on a faithful version of “O Holy Night,” then steps up the soulful energy for a raucous “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus.”

For more on the album, visit rickynye.com.

• A new DIY label called Little Cricket Records has released an expansive 44-song holiday compilation on Bandcamp that is loaded with local artists. The eclectic and often eccentric Happy Everything During The Winter On The Rocks (An Occasionally NSFW But Totally Cool Comp For Charity) is available as a free download, but the label and artists request that you make a donation to one of several charities or nonprofit organizations listed on the page.

The compilation includes some traditional songs, but there are also a lot of mischievous and amusing originals. Five excellent songs from Punk legends SS-20 (which has released a wealth of Christmas music since its local classic, Is Santa Listening?, came out in ’86) are featured, while Cincy Indie Pop mainstays The Fairmount Girls offer up four tracks recorded over

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YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND The rAiLsPLiTTers

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DELBERT MCCLINTON Cd reLeAse show

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Erika Wennerstrom with Jesse Ebaugh and The Tender Things and Molly Sullivan Friday • Woodward Theater Dayton, Ohio native Erika Wennerstrom is looking to the future. For nearly 15 years, the singer/songwriter/guitarist has kept busy building the career of the band she formed in Cincinnati in the early ’00s, Heartless Bastards. She’s led the band through five widely acclaimed albums (three for Fat Possum Records and a pair for well-distributed Partisan Records), with each successive release raising the band’s profile exponentially. Over the span, Wennerstrom also uprooted Heartless Bastards from Cincinnati and re-headquartered in Austin, Texas, switching the lineup once she relocated (although drummer Dave Colvin and bassist Jesse Ebaugh moved to Texas with her from Ohio and Northern Kentucky, respectively).

The Bastards notched most of the bucket-list benchmarks many musicians dream about along the way. The group has promoted its releases on practically every late-night Erika Wennerstrom network talk show; P H O T O : pa r t i s a n r ec o r d s taped a session for PBS’s legendary livemusic program Austin City Limits; scored positive reviews from every press outlet a band could hope to be praised by — from Pitchfork and The Village Voice to Time and Rolling Stone; opened dates for Lucinda Williams, DriveBy Truckers and Bob Seger; played major festivals like the Newport Folk Festival, Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo; and toured the country ceaselessly as a headliner, playing to ever-increasing crowds.

The band’s big, grounded Rock sound has developed into something a little more refined and Americana-flavored since its inception, with Wennerstrom’s songwriting skills sharpening with each album. The primary constant has been Wennerstrom’s colossal engulfing vocals, which have always been stop-you-in-yourtracks striking.

After the touring cyle for 2015’s Restless Ones came to an end this summer, the band was ready for a break, with the members wanting to explore other creative endeavors. With a prolific catalog of songs that continues to expand, Wennerstrom began contemplating a solo side-project.

In September, she began an extensive solo tour, performing stripped-down versions of Bastards songs, as well as some of the newer material she’s been working on. According to the press release for the tour, Wennerstrom will be recording new material that will either be released under her own name or under a different “band” moniker. And she promised the new record will be available faster than the Bastards’ standard three-year gap between albums.

Wennerstrom’s homecoming visit for solo shows this week in Dayton and Cincinnati (as well as a stop in Nashville) are being billed as “Erika Wennerstrom and friends,” with her Dayton show featuring an opening set from R. Ring (Kelley Deal of The Breeders’ project with Northern Kentucky’s Mike Montgomery) and Cincy native and busy Dayton musician Paige Beller.

Compelling Cincinnati singer/songwriter Molly Sullivan opens the Woodward Theater show Friday, along with another Heartless Bastards’ project, Jesse Ebaugh and the Tender Things. Ebaugh, who played with local acts like Heevahava and Pearlene before moving to Texas, calls the Tender Things a “songwriter project,” and it is said to reflect his Country, Bluegrass and Rock influences.

A new album with a band consisting of Bastards drummer Colvin, noted Texas guitar sideman/sessioner David Pulkingham (Alejandro Escovedo, Patty Griffin) and Elijah Ford (son of The Black Crowes’ Marc Ford, who’s released solo work and was part of Ryan Bingham’s band for several years) is expected this coming summer.

Although Wennerstrom is looking ahead at what’s next for her musically, for the holidays she’s remembering where she came from. Besides the homecoming solo gigs, she also recently played a reunion show with Shesus, the kick-ass Dayton Indie Rock band in which she briefly played bass before the Bastards took off. (Mike Breen)

Vandaveer Tuesday • Southgate House Revival In late September, if you happened to be strolling around the paying stages at this year’s all-outdoors MidPoint Music Festival on the Cincinnati event’s final day, you might have been lucky enough to catch Vandaveer’s late afternoon set on the

FUTURE SOUNDS POWERMAN 5000/ORGY – Jan. 8, The Mad Frog

Live Music

BIG THIEF – Jan. 10, Woodward Theater AESOP ROCK – Jan. 13, 20th Century Theater MOON TAXI – Jan. 20, Madison Theater FRANK TURNER & THE SLEEPING SOULS – Jan. 21, Bogart’s GARTH BROOKS – Jan. 21, 22, 27, 28 and 29. U.S. Bank Arena

Wed. dec. 21St

Fri. dec. 23rd

Chris Comer Trio does Christmas Jazz 6-9pm - no cover

MS. LAURYN HILL – Feb. 2, Aronoff Center

thur. dec. 22nd

THE CADILLAC THREE – Feb. 2, Bogart’s

Todd Hepburn plays piano with a Holiday theme 6-9pm - no cover

JOYCE MANOR/AJJ – Feb. 6, Taft Theatre (Ballroom) VALERIE JUNE – Feb. 14, Southgate House Revival ANDY BLACK – Feb. 17, Bogart’s

Steve Schmidt Trio will be performing a noteworthy edition of the “Christmas Schmidtacular at the Harth” 6-9 solo, 9-midnight with trio - no cover

cLoSed on chriStmaS eVe

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K.FLAY – Feb. 17, Madison Live RUTHIE FOSTER – Feb. 17, Southgate House Revival WE THE KINGS – Feb. 18, Taft Theatre (Ballroom) LILY & MADELEINE – Feb. 22, Southgate House Revival SHOVELS & ROPE – March 1, Madison Theater WHITECHAPEL – March 2, Bogart’s MAROON 5 – March 3, U.S. Bank Arena COREY SMITH – March 3, Bogart’s ST. PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES – March 3, Madison Theater JOSEPH – March 4, 20th Century Theater AGENT ORANGE/GUTTERMOUTH/THE QUEERS – March 5, Southgate House Revival JOHNNYSWIM – March 9, Bogart’s NORAH JONES – March 16, Taft Theatre WHY? – March 16, Woodward Theater GROUPLOVE – March 24, Bogart’s COLD WAR KIDS – March 24, Madison Theater CHUCK PROPHET & THE MISSION EXPRESS – March 24, Southgate House Revival ANDREW MCMAHON IN THE WILDERNESS – March 28, Bogart’s MARGO PRICE – April 2, 20th Century Theater LOCAL NATIVES – April 3, Madison Theater NEW FOUND GLORY – April 7, Bogart’s SON VOLT – April 14, Southgate House Revival HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF – April 24, Woodward Theater

DECEMBER 22 Don’t Call It a Christmas Party 23 Naughty Or Nice 28 Comedy Night 29 Razing Babylon 30 James Otto, Billy Brown, Trailer Choir – Benefit for Children’s Hospital!

31 Rumpke Mountain Boys NYE Ball

JANUARY

6 Tribute to: Pearl Jam, STP, Nirvana, Alice in Chains 7 Resolution: A Night of Cincy Rock and Reggae 13 21 Savage

14 Dylan Scott & Drew Baldridge 20 Brothers Osborne 21 Frank Turner 26 Dashboard Confessional 27 Breaking Benjamin (SOLD OUT) 31 Badfish

FEBRUARY

1 DNCE 2 Cadillac Three 3 Chippendales 11 CinCity Burlesque 12 Pop Evil 14 August Burns Red 17 Andy Black 18 Stephen Lynch

MARCH 3 9 24 28

Corey Smith Johnnyswim Grouplove Andrew McMahon

7 26 27 29

New Found Glory Mayday Parade The Damned Testament

APRIL

/BOGARTSSHOWS

MAYDAY PARADE – April 26, Bogart’s RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS – May 19, U.S. Bank Arena THE BLASTERS – May 24, Southgate House Revival THE WEEKND – June 9, U.S. Bank Arena TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS – Jun. 12, U.S. Bank Arena

BOGART’S BOX OFFICE | TICKETMASTER | 800.745.3000 CONTACT MINDYGOFF@LIVENATION.COM FOR VIP INFO

C I T Y B E A T . C O M • D E C . 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 6 • 3 7

WNKU stage. You would have witnessed an exceptionally muscular and diverse Indie Folk quintet equally adept at raucous stage stomping and contemplative balladry, all of it threaded together by vocalist/guitarist Mark Charles Heidinger and vocalist Rose Guerin, who offer up the kind of heartrending harmonies typically associated with people who share a genetic connection.

Even as the band’s quieter moments were forced to compete with the more amplified proceedings from the adjoining stage, Vandaveer maintained its composure without missing a beat.

“They’re having fun over there,” Heidinger noted between songs at one point.

Vandaveer’s fairly long history is evidence that the band is no flash in the pan. After a long run with the group These United States, Lexington, Ky. native Heidinger founded and fronted the Apparitions in 2002 and released a pair of albums with the ’60s Sunshine Pop-meets-’90s Indie Rock quintet. When Heidinger moved to Washington D.C. and the band remained in Kentucky, he invented Vandaveer Vandaveer as a solo project P H O T O : s a r a h l aw under a quasi-band identity, recording and releasing 2007’s Grace and Speed. Although the band dissolved, many of Heindinger’s These United States/Apparitions bandmates have remained with Vandaveer, including pedalsteel player J. Tom Hnatow and atomic drummer Robby Cosenza.

Vandaveer’s gelling ingredient was clearly Rose Guerin, whose etherealto-earthy harmonies were attentiongrabbing from her first appearance in 2007. Heidinger has often cited Guerin as the sister he never had. Since her arrival, Vandaveer has released three EPs and four full-length albums, including 2016’s masterpiece The Wild Mercury, which sounds like an unlikely collaboration between Train, David Gray and Richard and Linda Thompson. Vandaveer’s latest EP, Love is Melancholy, features a more appropriately moody arrangement of the title song, which received a jauntier treatment on The Wild Mercury, plus two brand new tracks.

If you missed Vandaveer at MidPoint, the booking gods are smiling on you.

Don’t make the same mistake twice.

(Brian Baker)

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Read us on your phone when you’re at the bar by yourself.

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.

U.S. Bank Arena - TransWednesday 21 HSiberian Orchestra (shows 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.

Blind Lemon - Dave Hawkins. 8 p.m. Folk/Celtic. Free.

Bromwell’s Härth Lounge - Chris Comer Trio. 6 p.m.

Holiday/Jazz. Free.

H

Century Inn Restaurant - Paul Lake. 7 p.m. Pop/Rock/Jazz/ Oldies/Various. Free.

Jag’s Steak and Seafood Steve Thomas. 6 p.m. Sax/ Piano/Vocals. Free.

Knotty Pine - Dallas Moore. 10 p.m. Country. Free.

The Listing Loon - Ricky H Nye. 8:30 p.m. Blues/ Boogie Woogie. Free.

Madison Live - Madison Theater Band Challenge Round 1 with Cultural Vultures, Freakquency, Joe Tellman Band, Kyla Mainous, The Mainline Funk, The Red Shift, Top Hat Theatre and Without. 6:30 p.m. Various. $10.

Marty’s Hops & Vines - Mike Biere. 7 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

Meritage - Sonny Moorman. 7 p.m. Blues. Free.

Mic’s Pub - Karaoke with A Sound Sensation/DJ Heather.

8:30 p.m. Various. Free.

Miller’s Fill Inn - Karaoke with A Mystical Sound Sensation DJ Rob. 9 p.m. Various. Free.

MOTR Pub - Heavy Hinges.

H 10 p.m. Rock/Soul/Blues/ Roots/Various. Free.

Northside Tavern - Shiny Old Soul. 10 p.m. Roots/Blues/ Swing/Various. Free.

3 8 • C I T Y B E A T . C O M • D E C . 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 6

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) - WolfCryer. 9:30 p.m.

Folk. Free.

Stanley’s Pub - Open MicSinger/Songwriter Night. 9 p.m.

Various. Free.

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Thompson House - Famous Last Words, Before Sunday, Hades in Olympus, Death of a Poet, Dead in Paradise and Dressed in Disaster. 8 p.m. Metal. $10.

Urban Artifact - Blue Wisp Big Band. 8:30 p.m. Big Band Jazz. $10.

at 4 and 8 p.m.). 4 p.m.; 8 p.m.

Holiday Prog. $39.50-$75.

Thursday 22 Arnold’s Bar and Grill - Dottie Warner and Ricky Nye. 7:30 p.m.

Jazz. Free.

Blind Lemon - Drew Rochette. 8 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

Bogart’s - Don’t Wait Up, Friday Giants and Homebound. 8 p.m.

Pop/Punk/Rock. $16.12.

Bromwell’s Härth Lounge Todd Hepburn. 6 p.m. Holiday.

Free.

Crow’s Nest - Sleepy Andy Tracy & Aaron Cordell. 9:30 p.m. Folk/ Americana. Free.

Fort Mitchell Sports Bar - Karaoke with A Sound Sensation/DJ Heather. 9:30 p.m. Various. Free.

Funk/Rock/Psych/Electronic/ Various. Free.

Friday 23 Arnold’s Bar and Grill - East of Vine. 9 p.m. Bluegrass. Free.

Bella Luna - Blue Birds Trio. 7 p.m. Classic Rock/Jazz. Free.

Northside Yacht Club - Two H Inch Winky XXXmas Show with Dan Webb & the Spiders

Blind Lemon - Michael J (9 p.m.); Brian Goins (6 p.m.). 6 p.m. Acoustic/Various. Free.

Mansion Hill Tavern - Open Blues Jam with Uncle Woody & the Blue Bandits. 7 p.m. Blues.

Free.

Monday 26

Peecox Erlanger - Saving Stimpy. 9:30 p.m. Rock. $5.

Blind Lemon - Brian Goins. 8 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

Bogart’s - Naughty or Nice Christmas Party with Zated, Gateway, Exquisite, Turich Benjy, M.I.M.E. and more. 8 p.m. Hip Hop. $10.

Plain Folk Cafe - The Bishop Brothers. 7:30 p.m. Honky Tonk/Rockabilly/Blues/Roots.

Free.

The Celestial - Tom Schneider.

6 p.m. Piano. Free.

The Redmoor - Soul Pocket. 9 p.m. Dance/Pop/R&B/Various. $10.

MOTR Pub - Jared Clifton Quartet. 9 p.m. Jazz. Free.

Live! at the Ludlow Garage - Griffin House. 8 p.m.

Singer/Songwriter. $20-$40.

H

The Comet - Comet Bluegrass All-Stars. 10 p.m. Bluegrass.

Free.

Madison Live - Madison Theater Band Challenge Round 1 with Alive Amongst The Dead, Angels of Asylum, Chasing Autumn, In Lights, Lockjaw, Men of Blues, Their Accomplices and Winston Krause. 6:30 p.m. Various. $10.

Eastgate Brew & View - Encore Duo. 6:30 p.m. Acoustic Classic Rock/Americana. Free.

Urban Artifact - Marbin Hand Elektrek. 9 p.m. Jazz/

Knotty Pine - Randy Peak. 10 p.m. Acoustic. Free

Pee Wee’s Place - Bob Cushing.

7:30 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

College Hill Coffee Co. - Dave Hawkins. 7:30 p.m. Folk/Celtic.

Free.

Southgate House Revival (Lounge) - James Weston & Friends. 9:30 p.m. Acoustic.

Free.

Sunday 25

Blue Note Harrison - Naked Karate Girls and Heather Roush Band. 9 p.m. Rock/Pop/Dance/ Country. Cover.

Knotty Pine - Mitch & Steve. 9 p.m. Pop/Blues/Rock/Various.

Free.

Plain Folk Cafe - Open Mic with Terry Metcalf. 7 p.m. Various.

Free.

MOTR Pub - DJ Dirty C. 9 p.m.

Dance/DJ. Free.

OTR Live - G Herbo. 9 p.m. Hip Hop. Free (before midnight).

Century Inn Restaurant - Jim Teepen. 8 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

H

Saturday 24

and Bloodgate. 8 p.m. Punk/ Rock/Metal.

The Hot Spot - Bob Cushing. 7 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

Mr. Pitiful’s - 5 Acts of Awesomeness benefit for Students with Special Smiles featuring Rookie of the Year, Carolina Wray, FireworksforBuddha, Founding Fathers, Season Ten and HitchBot. 7 p.m. Rock/Alt/ Various. $10, $15 day of show.

Rock. $10.

Northside Tavern - Galaxie Xmas Dance Party with DJ Chinn Chilla. 10 p.m. DJ/Dance. Free.

Bromwell’s Härth Lounge Steve Schmidt Trio. 6 p.m.

Holiday/Jazz. Free.

MOTR Pub - Jared Schaedle and the Compound Fractures with The Rattletraps. 10 p.m.

Americana/Roots/Various. Free.

MVP Bar & Grille - Blessid H Union of Souls with Victor Spoils and more. 8 p.m. Pop/

The Avenue Event Center H 2 Chainz. 10 p.m. Hip Hop. $35-$60.

Horse & Barrel - Sonny Moorman. 6 p.m. Blues. Free.

Marty’s Hops & Vines - Soucek, Flynn and Reisenberg Jazz Trio.

7 p.m. Charlie Brown Christmas music. Free.

MOTR Pub - The H Auburnaires. 10 p.m.

Garage/Soul/Rock. Free.

Grandview Tavern & Grille Basic Truth. 8 p.m. Funk/R&B/ Soul. Free.

Jag’s Steak and Seafood - The Sly Band. 9:30 p.m. Rock/Pop/ Dance/Various. Cover.

Jim and Jack’s on the River Danny Frazier. 9 p.m. Country.

Free.

Knotty Pine - Wayward Son. 10 p.m. Rock. Cover.

Live! at the Ludlow Garage Christmas with The Celts. 8 p.m.

Celtic/Holiday. $25-$50.

The Mad Frog - S.S Platinum Christmas Party. 9 p.m. Hip Hop/Dance. $5.

Madison Live - Strange Mechanics with Dizgo. 10 p.m.

Funk/Jam/Progressive/Various. $5, $7 day of show.

Mansion Hill Tavern - Losing Lucky. 9 p.m. Roots. $4.

Marty’s Hops & Vines - Rockin’ George LaVigne. 9 p.m.

Acoustic/Rock. Free.

Maury’s Tiny Cove - Ricky Nye. 7:30 p.m. Blues/Boogie Woogie.

Free.

Rick’s Tavern - 3 Day Rule. 10 p.m. Rock/Pop. $5.

Smoke Justis - Sonny Moorman Group. 9 p.m. Blues.

Southgate House Revival (Lounge) - A Benefit for Forrest: The Mudpies with All-Star Special Guests. 7 p.m.

Rock/Blues/Various. Free.

H

Southgate House Revival H (Revival Room) - Camp Sugar, Hank Erwin and. 9 p.m.

Indie/Alt/Pop/Roots/Various. $10.

Southgate House Revival (Sanctuary) - John Kadlecik Solo Acousti’Lectric and Jerry’s Little Band. 9 p.m. Rock/Jam/ Varioius. $15.

Stanley’s Pub - Hot Enchiladas with Rehugnant. 10 p.m.

Santana tribute. Cover.

Thompson House - Grave Friends, Ocean Grid, Call Me Ghost, Kyla Mainous, Derailed and Self-ish. 8 p.m. Rock/ Metal/Punk/Alt. Cover.

Tin Roof Cincinnati - Josh McIntosh & Company. 10 p.m.

Country/Rock/Pop/Hip Hop/ Various.

Urban Artifact - Moonbeau, Bliss Nova, Vinnie Sicks, Graham Lang and Chris Click. 8 p.m. SynthPop/Various. Free.

H

Woodward Theater - Erika H Wennerstrom with Molly Sullivan and Jesse Ebaugh and

the Tender Things. 9 p.m. Rock/ Various. $15, $17 day of show.

Knotty Pine - Open Mic. 8 p.m.

Various. Free.

Northside Tavern - The Qtet. 10 p.m. Funk/Rock/Jazz/Fusion/ Various. Free.

Tuesday 27 Arnold’s Bar and Grill Diamond Jim Dews. 7 p.m.

Blues. Free.

Blind Lemon - Nick Tuttle. 8 p.m.

Acoustic. Free.

Crow’s Nest - Open Mic Nite. 8 p.m. Various. Free.

Jag’s Steak and Seafood - Zack Shelly and Chon Buckley. 6 p.m.

Piano/Vocals. Free.

Madison Live - Madison Theater Band Challenge Round 1 with Candescent, Chambers of Chaos, Hello Lady, Life Brother, Off Black, The Inturns, The Uptown and Touche. 6:30 p.m.

Various. $10.

McCauly’s Pub - Stagger Lee. 7 p.m. Country/Rock. Free.

MOTR Pub - Writer’s Night. 10 p.m. Open mic/Various. Free.

Northside Tavern - The H Lovers. 9 p.m. Americana/ Soul/Rock. Free.

Shaker’s - Open Mic/Open Jam with TC and Company. 7:30 p.m.

R&B/Funk/Jazz. Free.

Southgate House Revival H (Revival Room) - Vandaveer.

8 p.m. Indie Folk. $8, $10 day of show.

Stanley’s Pub - Trashgrass Night with members of Rumpke Mountain Boys. 9 p.m.

Jamgrass/Bluegrass/Jamgrass/ Various. Cover.

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