CityBeat | Feb. 21, 2018

Comedian Geoff Tate’s new album forgoes political humor for no-holds-barred bits about onions, his religious upbringing and chainsaw jugglers

make america

TATE again

Ta ftTh e at re.org

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WHAT A WEEK!

BY T.C. B R I T TO N

Holiday! Celebrate!

This time of year kind of feels like a holiday wasteland after indulging in office parties, gift exchanges, tasty smorgasbords and lots of wine in the months leading up to January. But there were actually a ton of holidays packed into last week, starting with Galentine’s Day. This Valentine’s Day Eve gathering of ladyfriends has transcended its origin as a fictional celebration on Parks and Recreation into a bonafide fête, complete with commercial holiday status (Galentine’s Day Sale, anyone?).

Also on Feb. 13: Mardi Gras aka Fat Tuesday aka Shrove Tuesday. Mardi Gras is the culmination of the Christian Carnival leading into the Lenten season — those 40 days before Easter. But for most people celebrating around the Tri-State, country and world, this holiday involves tasty glazed king cake (don’t swallow the baby!), hurricane cocktails and loads of purple, green and gold beads. Fun fact: Elton John was smacked in the face with a strand of beads during a Las Vegas concert. He’s OK. Fat Tuesday leads to Ash Wednesday, a Christian holy day for peace. It’s a big one for Catholics, so you probably saw some locals with ashy black crosses on their foreheads on Wednesday. Lent is the season to make a sacrifice, so get ready to hear Catholics and others talk at length about their holy sugar fasts like a new vegan offering unsolicited diet advice.

Of course, Wednesday was also Valentine’s Day, and if you didn’t post a picture of the flowers you received, do you even have a man?

Finally, what better way to celebrate Black History Month than with Black Panther’s opening weekend? That movie was fire! The Marvel fl ick grossed around $235 million during its three-day opening — the fifth-biggest box office debut ever.

Wakanda forever!

Hopes for a Retro Reunion

Valentine’s Day is all about romance (I guess), but for one Hollywood couple, it marked the death day for their relationship. Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux reportedly saw each other “one last time” that night before announcing their separation Thursday.

The two have been together since 2011 and got secret-married in a surprise ceremony in August 2015. Apparently Justin and Jen broke up late last year and have been trying to keep it under wraps, but since paparazzi gonna pap, they released a statement confi rming that Theranniston is over.

Maybe if they had a catchier celeb couple moniker they would have made it at least five years.

TMZ has jumped in to stir the pot with the report that their crack team of investigators could fi nd no legal evidence of a marriage license for the couple in Los Angeles County. And since no divorce lawyers have come forward about working with them, some are speculating they never even made it offish in the eyes of the law.

If it was legal, it would be Justin’s first marriage and Jennifer’s second. She was famously married to Brad Pitt from 2000 to 2005 and got even more famously dumped in favor of Angelina Jolie. Now that Brangelina is no more, fans are calling for the ultimate 2000s reboot: Brad and Jen 2.0.

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Happy Year of the Dog

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There really were a shitload of holidays this week! As of Friday, It’s the Year of the Dog! Maybe this is a good sign for our shitty world.

After all, 2017 was the year of the Cock (OK, I realize it’s Rooster and no one uses that term anymore, but bear with me), and it sucked a big one.

Since everyone loves puppers and a cute dog video is one of the only things on the internet most people can enjoy without completely attacking one another in the comments, maybe this bodes

well for 2018.

And the reigning king of the Year of the Dog is 5-yearold bichon frisé Flynn, who was crowned Best in Show at the 142nd Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show last week.

Flynn basically looks like a cotton ball with feet, which is to say, very adorable, and he beat out six fi nalists including a precious pug named Biggie. Let’s hope they all remain friends.

PyeongChang?

More Like PenisChang (Sorry)

South Korea loves some phallic public art.

An installation titled “Bullet Man” near the Olympic media center and ski jump center features three giant silver men, Ds out, faces covered with helmets that also look like penis heads. They have obviously gone viral, but the dicks don’t stop there! East of the PyeongChang Olympic village in Sinnam is Haesindang Park, which is seriously known as Penis Park. There are penis cannons, penis totem poles, penis benches and even more penis warrior men statues.

In other Olympics news, two figure skaters experienced a poorly timed wardrobe malfunctions (but handled it like champs).

Viewers seemed to enjoy the way speed skaters push each other on the butt during the relay. A Russian curler is suspected of doping. U.S. ice prince Adam Rippon was offered a role as NBC commentator for the final week of the games, but he turned it down so as not to abandon his teammates. A new rule allowed figure skaters to compete to music with lyrics, and a French duo did not disappoint with their selection of Disturbed’s “The Sound of Silence.”

U.S. freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy (who, along with Rippon, are the first openly gay American Winter Olympians) shared a celebratory kiss with his boyfriend, which happened to be caught on cameras in perhaps the fi rst televised same-sex kiss at such an event. Team USA snowboarder Shaun White won a record-breaking third Olympic gold — America’s 100th in all of the Winter games— on halfpipe, but the #MeToo movement came after Shaun, who recently settled a sexual harassment suit out of court. As of press time, the U.S. is in fi fth place for gold (5) and medals overall (10).

Contact T.C. Britton: letters@citybeat.com

This Week in Questionable Decisions…

1. Parents of kids with life-threatening allergies are boycotting Peter Rabbit for “allergy shaming” due to a scene where bunnies attack a man with blackberries (to which he’s allergic) and he has to use an EpiPen. 2. Sacha Baron Cohen reportedly paid O.J. Simpson $20,000 to appear in an upcoming movie.

3. Outback Steakhouse fired a server for complaining on Facebook about a group that placed a $735 carryout order and did not tip.

4. Louise Linton, the rich ’n’ fancy wife of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, told Elle magazine she’s “super-duper sorry” for coming off like a modern-day Marie Antoinette, who enjoys the phrase “super-duper.”

5. A Spanish PR company sent a sexist rejection letter to an applicant that said the position she applied for “needed a man who could handle the pace of working with big companies.”

6. Chris Brown announced big plans to tour with a number of major artists, including Rihanna.

7. A televised Chinese New Year sketch featured actors in blackface.

8. Kid Rock may have been having an affair with Julie Andrews’ granddaughter for the past decade.

9. A U.K. resident left an angry note on a paramedic vehicle, warning, “now move your van from outside my house,” as EMTs answered an emergency call.

10. Because women’s looks and clothing aren’t criticized enough, a New York Times opinion piece suggests women should stop trying to be “sexy” at the gym and opt for sweats, not yoga pants, when working out.

11. A Chicago news anchor told Iranian-American blogger Hoda Katebi in an on-air interview, “You don’t sound like an American.”

12. Marilyn Manson experienced a bit of a meltdown at a recent show, incoherently ranting and begging fans to say they love him.

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Waiting in the West End

NEWS

A difficult history with development informs some West End residents’ worries about a about a potential soccer stadium there

BY N I C K SWA R T S E L L

R

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back, groups like the Cincinnati NAACP say.

Dornal lives in City West, just west of Stargel. She remembers being moved from Lincoln Courts when it was torn down last decade. She says her mother, who now lives on the other side of the neighborhood in Richmond Village, was told she would be able to move into City West, but was not able to.

The Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority says it doesn’t have any records of complaints by people who were removed from Lincoln Courts and weren’t given housing in City West, but residents like Dornal dispute that.

Now, they’re struggling with different problems.

“No one is accepting the Section 8 vouchers,” she says. “That’s why people want to stay where they’re at.”

According to Dornal, the number of landlords who take the housing subsidies has dwindled. Over the last few decades, HUD and housing authorities began switching to the vouchers over government-owned housing projects like Laurel Homes and Lincoln Courts. That could accelerate in the coming years as CMHA looks for new ways to manage its costs through programs like Rental Assistance Demonstration, which effectively privatizes public housing, and as federal housing policies move further away from public housing projects.

There are other, bigger demolitions in the West End’s past.

Lisa Anderson was born on Hopkins

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is needed, but we want it to be equitable with the community at the table.”

Others — residents and outsiders — have echoed similar views in public forums around the stadium plans.

A few dozen residents came to a public input session held by Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses and the West End Community Council on The West End Feb. 15.

FCC General Manager PH OTO: NIC K SWARTSELL Jeff Berding and former mayor Mark Mallory spoke first, promising the neighborhood would receive a community the stadium in and of itself. benefits agreement and highlighted the “I really would like it, in certain aspects,” economic development that could come she says. “I would like it to fit what this to the neighborhood and asking what resineighborhood is, though. There should dents wanted out of a potential stadium have been a better way to sell it to the deal. community.”

The team has retained former mayor For residents like Dornal, the potential Mallory to do community development changes call up unpleasant memories. work in the West End as well as Newport The lots where FCC proposes it will build and Oakley, the stadium’s other potential the new Stargel Stadium — and land north sites. Mallory, one member of a prominent of that where it has gained a purchase West End family, also spoke to the neighoption from the Cincinnati Metropolitan borhood’s community council Feb. 13.

Housing Authority — once held Laurel His brother Joe Mallory, vice president of Homes and Lincoln Courts. Those projects Cincinnati’s NAACP branch, opposes the were demolished as part of the federal stadium in the neighborhood. government’s Hope VI program in the “The bottom line is, if FC Cincinnati early 2000s. hears a majority of residents saying they That has left sour memories in the don’t want a stadium here, it won’t be here,” neighborhood, some say, even though the former mayor Mallory said, to applause program resulted in the construction of from some in audience. He continued: the mixed-income developments called “Gone with it will be an opportunity to City West. reinvest in the West End.” Laurel Homes and neighboring Lincoln Berding and Mallory were then pepCourts, constructed in the 1930s, were pered by questions and deep concern from once home to 5,000 low-income people residents. Again and again, themes arose: in 2,000 housing units. They were down the stadium would bring rising prices, to roughly 1,100 units of old, deteriorated property speculation and displacement. housing when they were demolished dur“Everything is showing us that’s what’s ing the Hope VI program. going to happen,” says resident Tabitha Initially, 250 owner-occupied town Dornal of potential changes to the neighhomes, 338 market-rate apartments and borhood. “The new restaurants and bars 434 subsidized apartments were supposed on Vine Street (in neighboring Over-theto be built as part of that project. But the Rhine) — we go to those places, we can project suffered delays and accusations of kind of afford them sometimes, but none mismanagement. of this stuff is going to help us. We’d love to Eventually, 686 new units of mixedhave our neighborhood fixed up, but why income housing were created in place of can’t it happen for us? Why does it need to Laurel Homes and Lincoln Court. Some be fixed up because of a stadium?” residents who were promised housing in Dornal says she’s not deadset against the neighborhood were never able to come

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ecent moves by FC Cincinnati have shined a new spotlight on Cincinnati’s West End, a historically African-American neighborhood just west of downtown and Over-the-Rhine.

On Feb. 12, FCC told the Cincinnati Public Schools Board of Education that, should it win a Major League Soccer franchise, it would like to consider building its new, $200 million soccer stadium on the site of Stargel Stadium next to Taft High School.

In exchange, it would build a new stadium for CPS students south of Ezzard Charles Drive on the site once slated for higher-end housing as part of CitiRama.

The idea isn’t a done deal. FCC is still considering Newport and Oakley, team officials say. But if it were to happen, FCC leadership says the move would bring development to the low-income neighborhood.

However, opponents of the potential plan say it could spark real estate speculation in the West End and lead to the displacement of residents there.

“I can assure you that there will be displacement of residents as other people begin to speculate about what they can do in the community,” said Cincinnati City Councilman Wendell Young after FCC’s presentation to the CPS board last week.

“We’ve seen this before, the West End in particular, always in the name of progress.”

Others, however, say that wouldn’t happen.

Long home to a large portion of Cincinnati’s black population, the West End has seen decades of disinvestment as well as some very disruptive large-scale demolition. It’s home to a sizeable low-income population, large amounts of both subsidized and non-subsidized affordable housing, historic architecture and local African American cultural landmarks, all in various states of vulnerability or protection.

Even without the destruction of housing, a multi-million-dollar stadium in the West End could trigger rent increases, property tax spikes and land speculation that could cost some renters — who make up 84 percent of the West End’s residents — their homes. That’s made some in the neighborhood very nervous about big changes coming.

“The West End’s history is rich with devastations,” resident Tia Brown told the Cincinnati Public Schools Board of Education earlier this month during a meeting about FCC’s plans. “We know that development

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Street in the West End 78 years ago, and moved out of the neighborhood when its southern half, called Kenyon-Barr by city planners, was razed in the early 1960s to make way for I-75 and as part of federal “slum clearance” programs. Some 25,00030,000 residents, mostly black Cincinnatians who hadn›t been permitted to live many other places in town, were displaced by that effort. The area, now called Queensgate, is mostly industrial land, some of it vacant.

Anderson was finally able to make her way back to the West End in 2010, and now lives in senior housing on Linn Street a couple blocks from where the new Stargel Stadium will be.

“They want to put it right in the midst of where people are living,” Anderson says.

She’s concerned about the noise, traffic and other disruptions she could experience from the soccer stadium and the new Stargel Stadium, which will be very close to her.

Anderson wants to know why the Lindners, who own United Dairy Farmers and whose Carl Lindner III is a part owner of FC Cincinnati, won’t put a UDF in the West End. The neighborhood doesn’t have a grocery store or bakery, she points out, and needs those things first.

She’s also worried about being displaced again.

“This is going to bring a lot of pain for me,” she says.

While it’s hard to say whether FCC’s stadium could cause displacement of the neighborhood’s residents, we can look beyond the myths about the West End — that it’s mostly vacant, or that it’s almost all housing owned by Cincinnati’s housing authority — to understand a little bit more about what’s at stake, who may be vulnerable and why at least some residents are worried about the idea of a large stadium near their homes.

According to the 2016 American Community Survey, roughly 6,140 people live in the West End — more than live in Over-theRhine. That’s counting the neighborhood’s three complete Census tracts and Census tract 265’s block group one, which accounts for a small southern corner of the neighborhood containing around 800 people. The second, larger block group of that tract accounts for a big swath of wealthier, whiter areas in downtown.

While the ACS data is just an estimate, it matches up well with more rigorous 2010 Census results.

African-Americans make up about 86 percent of West End residents. The median household income for the neighborhood is roughly $15,000 a year — well less than half the city’s overall median.

Overall, the neighborhood has a vacancy rate of around 22 percent. There are empty buildings here, but many housing units are occupied.

Using CAGIS, Hamilton County’s online mapping tool, it’s possible to explore each part of the neighborhood directly around the stadium to see who owns what and where people live.

About 2,400 people live in Census Tract

264, where the stadium would be located.

That tract is bounded by Linn Street to the west, Central Parkway to the east, Liberty Street to the north and Court Street to the south.

Some live in about two dozen buildings containing affordable housing owned by the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority west of Stargel. The Community Builders, a Boston-based developer, own about another 250 below-market rate rental units in the area called City West that currently have rent restrictions due to the fact they’ve received Low Income Housing Tax Credits from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

That represents most of the units in the neighborhood that have rent restrictions, save a few units on Mound Street in the southern part of the neighborhood and a tower on Ninth Street on the border with downtown.

There are also about three dozen privately owned residential multi-family properties in the area along Laurel Park, Laurel Park East, Laurel Park West and Ezzard Charles Drive.

South of where FCC would build the new Stargel Stadium is the Betts-Longworth historic district, a few blocks of historic single-family and small multi-family buildings, some of the oldest still standing in the city. A few more nearby blocks contain more recently constructed rowhouse-style buildings.

Census tract 269 is directly to the north of the stadium’s proposed site. This tract, with a population of roughly 1,900 people, contains another series of large CMHA developments — roughly 500 units of affordable housing at Stanley Rowe Towers and nearby townhouses.

The southern part of that tract along Liberty Street is mostly zoned manufacturing. Further north, it contains dozens of privately owned multi-family rental buildings along Poplar, Livingston and other streets, as well as historic single-family homes in the Dayton Street historic district.

The area also has a rather unique attribute — a small urban land trust created by churches in the neighborhood in 1981 to prevent displacement of some of the neighborhood’s low-income black residents.

Many sources say it was the first such urban land trust in the country, though others have since sprung up in other cities.

The neighborhood’s final full Census tract, tract 2, has a population of just more than 1,000 people and is dominated by several large apartment complexes. One, Parktown Community Homes, is a cooperatively owned 370 unit housing development constructed in 1961 as an early attempt at integrated housing. Some of its residents have lived in the development since it was built.

To the south of Ezzard Charles Drive are apartments like Richmond Village, a 250unit senior apartment complex where West End resident Dornal’s mother lives. These apartment buildings are privately owned, but accept Section 8 vouchers.

FCC officials have said that the stadium won’t add to the neighborhood’s woes,

instead offering positive contributions.

South Bronx.”

Berding said he spent 10 hours in the West Varady says the city could play a role in End on the weekend of Feb. 10, and touted a whether the stadium is a positive or negacommunity survey that spoke to more than tive in the West End. 160 West End residents about their concerns “The city could ensure that the soccer and wants from the prospect of the stadium. team signs a community benefit agreement The team has lauded the construction of which would ensure that construction a soccer stadium in Orlando’s Parramore firms employ minority/local residents,” he neighborhood, a similarly low-income, says. Such a benefits agreement has been historically African American commusuggested by Cincinnati City Councilman nity. Some residents there are hopeful that David Mann, and FCC has agreed to sign the 20,000-30,000 soccer fans coming every it. “Such agreements have been worked out game will bring better economic prospects in other cities. Parking would be a major to the neglected community, and even a issue — and the city and other levels of govchurch that refused to sell its land to make ernment should increase the public transit way for the stadium admits there are some options. The latter existed for Crosley Field benefits to the team being next door, though and also currently exist for Camden Yards they say there have been negatives, too. (in Baltimore).”

But the jury is still out on the impact the Varady also says the team should conduct stadium has had, and some experts say to outreach in the neighborhood to “involve temper expectations. youngsters in what is mostly a suburban“That sounds like a lot of economic activity, oriented sport in the U.S.” but it’s a tiny drop in a very large pond in As debate over the stadium rages, West terms of the economy,” Florida State UniverEnd Community Council president Keith sity economist Tim Chapin told the Orlando Blake says elected officials and outside Sentinel about the stadium there. “There will groups should let the West End make its be a few winners in this, but it’s not a rising own decision. tide that lifts all boats.”

“We still have a lot of people who are not What would a similar stadium in the West residents in the community trying to speak End mean for residents there? It’s complex, on the community’s behalf,” Blake says. urban planning experts say.

“That’s a dangerous, dangerous thing. The “It depends on a lot of factors,” says Unicommunity council, the voice of the comversity of Cincinnati urban and community munity, hasn’t said yes or no. We need to let planning professor David Varady. “Downthe residents of the community decide what town arenas can spur downtown revitalizahappens. It’s not a done deal.” tion, which I think is a good thing. I think Blake says he’s working to arrange private two historically significant ball parks, Wrigmeetings between residents at Stanley Rowe ley Field and Fenway Park, have benefited Towers, Parktown and other complexes and nearby areas in Chicago and Boston. On the the team. He admits he’s open to the posother hand, Yankee Stadium has genersibility of an FCC stadium in the West End. ally not benefited surrounding areas of the “But I have one vote,” he says.

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BY BRIAN BAKER

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a

few questions into this interview, comedian Geoff Tate pauses, sizes me up from across the table at the Blue Jay Restaurant in Northside and asks, in the wryly laconic manner that characterizes his stand-up, “You do that thing where you don’t say anything to see if I keep talking, don’t you?”

I admit as much and justify it with, “I don’t want to cut you off in the middle of saying something brilliant.”

“There’s no chance of that,” he shoots back. “The best you can hope for is ‘accidentally incendiary.’ ” Don’t believe a word. Tate’s sometimes-subdued delivery cloaks his flamethrower wit, which has earned him opening slots for Doug Benson and Doug Stanhope, appearances at South By Southwest and Bonnaroo and his own Cheers-themed podcast, MSHD PODCASTO. Tate has been ecstatically praised by The Huffington Post Post, City Pages, Comedy Reviews and The Laugh Button, but his greatest

reviews have come from his comedy peers, including Todd Glass, Ryan Singer and author/actor/humorist John Hodgman.

“I got to know Geoff in Boston at the Wilbur theater,” Hodgman says via email. “He was doing (Doug Benson’s) Doug Loves Movies in the afternoon and then I was going to do my show. Backstage, I immediately liked him for the same reason everyone does, onstage and off: He’s a shrugging, funny, huggable mess of a nice guy. I asked him if he wanted to do 10 minutes before me and then I saw the rest of Geoff Tate: All of the hem-hawing self-deprecation, the gruff-love (and) the weird beard, shifted slightly — like a Transformer — as he deployed his smarts, his principles, his vulnerability.”

On his recently released fourth album, People Are What People Make ‘Em, Tate takes intentionally inflammatory aims at onions (“When did we decide onions are OK in

everything and it’s my fault for not liking them?”), the contemporary lack of respect for jugglers (“Have you ever thrown one chainsaw? If I threw a chainsaw to you and you caught it, everyone would be like, ‘That was fucking cool’ ”) and religion in the business community (“I think it’s a way to get people to take your sub-par fucking service just because you have the same favorite book”).

You won’t hear Tate banter onstage about the current political landscape. He acknowledges late-night talk show hosts have a more frequent podium from which to address those increasingly timely issues, but he has a more direct explanation for his own acquiescence from the debate.

“If a joke I tell (is what) convinces you that Trump is bad, then you’re just unbe-

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PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

lievably stupid,” he says. “I don’t like to do it just to do it. If I talk about it, it’s got to be useful in some way. If I’m just venting, that doesn’t help anybody, even if it’s funny.

“The people that don’t like him don’t need my jokes either. They came (to my show) because they probably want to get away from all that. I want to get away from it. We should all just establish that he’s the worst and then, here’s comedy.”

Beyond that, there is little about Tate’s world that is off-limits as comedy fodder.

He’s referenced a party at Ohio University that he attended while tripping on acid, the catch being he didn’t know it was a Halloween party until he arrived — the story includes Tate tackling a group of Storm Troopers who have Chewbacca in handcuffs. He’s also done a bit about a friend having a seizure in church summer camp and the counselor ignoring possible medical reasons for the attack and immediately assigning the cause as demonic possession.

That last anecdote-turned-routine is particularly relevant to what Tate calls his “origin myth.” With his itinerant minister father, housewife mother and fellow captive, his brother Troy (who accompanied

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Tate’s brand of wry, self-deprecating humor helped him deal with his itinerant childhood as a pastor’s son.

Comedian Geoff Tate’s new album forgoes political humor for no-holds-barred bits about onions, his religious upbringing and chainsaw jugglers

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him to the interview and offers helpful reminders and additions throughout), Tate lived in a dizzying number of locations as a child to accommodate his father’s profession.

“I can’t do it in any order but here’s the places I lived: Hawthorne, Inglewood, Camarillo, Campbell, Granada Hills, Turlock, Stockton, all in California; Weiser, Idaho; Olympia, Washington; and Grayville, Illinois,” Tate says. “Then we moved to Landen (Ohio). I think I might have missed a couple. Our father kept changing churches; we had about 15 months on average at each church. When we got here, there was enough in the area that we kept switching churches, but we didn’t have to leave Cincinnati.”

Tate’s sense of humor was the saving grace in dealing with the perpetual motion machine that was his childhood. With little time to establish friendships and almost no chance to maintain them, Tate turned being funny into an emotional Kevlar vest.

“It was a defense mechanism for every time we moved,” he says. “It was easier for me to be funny than it was to be another type of kid. No matter how much basketball I played, I was going to be the funny guy who played basketball, not the basketball player who was kind of funny.”

Once the Tates found their footing in the Cincinnati area, the brothers became slightly more grounded as they moved

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from Landen to Springdale to West Chester, but remained tied to a central location.

Tate and Troy attended the same high school for the duration of their teenage years.

“We went to a private school — not one of the good ones,” Tate says. “It was where pastors’ kids went for half tuition and tuition was already the cheapest. At that time, it was pastors’ kids and the kids who had been expelled from any public school they could have gone to already. If you know anything about pastors’ kids, they’ll give hoodlums a run for their money.”

Shunning football, the Tate brothers found their bliss on the court rather than the gridiron. Troy recounts that, while all school basketball records remained safely enshrined while they were on the team, they still had their followers. “We each had a couple of games — him one year, me the next — where a contingent of students was chanting for us to come into the game,” Troy says with a laugh. “We were a couple of Rudys.”

The relative stability the Tates enjoyed in the Cincinnati area may have led them to remain here permanently. The brothers currently reside in Northside, where they routinely dine at the Blue Jay and shop for their other passion, music, at Shake It Records. In fact, the cover of Tate’s second album, 2014’s Just Another Clown, was shot in the store’s basement as a tribute to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Hard Promises.

Music figures prominently in Tate’s big bag of influences and chief among his musical icons is the late Petty, as evidenced by his album titles. People Are What People Make ‘Em is from the lyrics to “I Forgive It All” on the second album by Petty’s group Mudcrutch. Tate’s 2012 debut, I Got Potential, and Just Another Clown are references to lyrics in “Nightwatchman” and “Something Big,” respectively. And Tate’s third album, 2016’s Again, could have come from several Petty sources: “Fooled Again (I Don’t Like It),” “You and I Will Meet Again,” “It’s Rainin’ Again,” “Christmas All Over Again.”

“Nothing has influenced my life more than Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers,” Tate says. “I don’t end up in the same situations as them, but I take my cues from Tom Petty. He seemed to have a pretty solid idea of what was important in the business and to himself: the ability to walk away.

“At some point, you’ve got to decide, as a comedian, who you’re doing it for. There’s a guy in Columbus that books, like, 13 Funny Bones, and a lot of people in this region try to figure out how to do comedy to get that guy to like them. And I did, too, but that wasn’t what I liked about comedy. I had to be willing to not be a comedian anymore.

That’s a hard point to get to. I wasn’t ever what that guy in Columbus was looking for, but I’m still a comedian.”

Regarding comedy influences, Tate’s peer group from his nascent career certainly looms large, but a comedy icon

from his childhood is still the object of his adoration.

“To this day, I love Sinbad,” he says. “He tells long stories but is also a goof and a clown. When Afros and Bellbottoms (the 1993 TV special and video) came out, I was like 12 or 13. We probably watched that 50 times. I watched it recently because I wondered if that was just funny because I was 13. No! It made me laugh a lot now. And it broke my heart when he said, ‘I’m 36,’ and I (thought), ‘Oh, fuck, I’m older than Afros and Bellbottoms Sinbad now?’ I saw him a couple years ago at a festival; he did like two hours and it was unbelievable.”

Tate’s stand-up journey began in his early 20s, a decade and a half ago. He balanced restaurant work with open mics at Go Bananas in Montgomery, honing his material and learning to navigate comedy’s treacherous waters. Tate rose through the ranks, doing endless nights of open mics, then hosting shows, then doing middle slots. He worked locally and regionally, got fired from nowhere jobs and even worked the door at Go Bananas.

“When I worked the door, I didn’t tell anybody I was a comedian,” Tate says. “It’s weird sometimes when you go into a club and everyone’s a comic, and everybody’s judging from that specific angle. So I was like, ‘I’m the door guy and I’m good at it.’”

Tate’s big break came in 2006 when renowned comic Mike Birbiglia was scheduled at Go Bananas and Tate was working the door. That night, Birbiglia’s

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the results are about the former Queensryche vocalist; and he’s released four albums in five years. The door guy did pretty good.

Oddly enough, Tate actually tried to quit doing comedy at least twice in recent years, which prompted him to seek the help of career counselors and a therapist. The counselors showed Tate how to quantify his feelings over the things he loved and hated about stand-up, and the therapist helped him deal with his long-simmering childhood issues, particularly with his father, who appears in his act with cathartic frequency.

“The only time my dad ever got offended by anything I said was when I made it sound like he was a bad Republican,” Tate Tate is a “shrugging, funny, says. “I’ve made jokes where he huggable mess of a nice was a bad father, a bad Christian, guy,” says actor/humorist a bad husband, a bad minister, a John Hodgman. bad teacher, an all around ne’er do well. When I made it sound PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER like he was a bad Republican, he tried to stop the show. I heard about it later. I couldn’t tell what opener failed to show up and Birbiglia got made me more mad: that he tried lost on his way to the club. It was proof of to do it or that he half-ass did it.”

Tate’s observation that you don’t decide to Tate’s past shows up on the cover of go the next level in comedy, the next level People Are What People Make ‘Em with a presents itself. scrapbook photo of him and his brother as “The manager comes up to me and children. Their examination of the shot is a goes, ‘You gotta change your shirt and go bit unto itself. next,’” he says. “ ‘And also, we don’t know “The idea of the title came from the picwhere Mike is.’ I’d never done more than 30 ture,” Tate says. “A picture of us laughing, minutes in a row and that was pushing it a probably moments away from being yelled bit. I had to do almost an hour; the guy that at for laughing.” was hosting the show was supposed to do Through experiences on the comedy 15 and he did like seven. I had known Mike circuit and with career counseling and for a couple of years, but as the door guy. So therapy, perhaps the most important thing Mike walks in, sees the manager and goes, Tate has acquired over the years is per‘Your door guy is doing pretty well.’ ” spective. He takes his work seriously, but Tate’s impromptu set for Birbiglia paid he never takes himself or his place in the big dividends; he added Tate to his Secret comedy food chain seriously. After 15 years Public Journal Live tour in 2007 and, at a of figuring out the “rules” of comedy and point where Tate thought he’d have to go navigating his way around, through and job hunting, Birbiglia filled the bulk of the over them, he has come to a fairly simple rest of Tate’s year with opening slots. conclusion about his place in the grand “One of the shows was one of Mike’s scheme of things. hour-long specials, so everybody from “There’s no fucking boss in comedy,” Comedy Central was there,” Tate says.

Tate says. “I don’t have to kiss anybody’s “I got on Live at Gotham the next year. I ass or live in L.A. People in L.A. spend all was able to travel the country with Mike their time trying to convince other people my first year. I got to meet a lot of people. they’re funny. I just want to do stand-up.

That’s where I met Todd Glass. I’m still “I don’t have time to convince (bookers). good friends with Henry Phillips and You either come to the show or you don’t. If John Mulaney — I think he’s president of you want to see if I can do the thing, come comedy now. I made more money that year watch me do an hour. If you want to see if than any of the years since then. I think I’m I can do an hour by watching me do four still chasing that much money.” minutes, you’re fucking stupid. I’ve ended Subsequently, Tate has opened for Stanup being friends with most of the people I hope and Benson, and become a regular looked up to 15 years ago when I started, on Benson’s Doug Loves Movies, Getting so it must not all be garbage. I’d be friends Doug with High and High Court podcasts; with a bunch of shitty hacks if I was a shitty he’s been a frequent guest on Marc Maron’s hack.” podcast; he made an appearance on The Learn more about Geoff Tate, Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson; he’s his projects and upcoming tour dates crisscrossed the country dozens of times; at justanotherclown.com. he has over 15,000 Twitter followers; when you Google him now, only 70 percent of

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CELEBRATION!

March 28 • 5:30-9 pm • The Phoenix Entertainment: Silent Disco | Framester | Photosphere | Old Green Eyes (Presidential Package Only)

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The Anchor OTR (Presidential Package Only) | Bogart’s | The BonBonerie | Brezel OTR | Camp Washington Chili | The Capital Grille (Presidential Package Only) | Chart House | Coffee Emporium | Court Street Lobster Bar | Dewey’s Pizza | Django Western Taco | Eli’s BBQ Flipdaddy’s Burgers & Beers | FUSIAN | Graeter’s Ice Cream | Izzy’s | Hen of the Woods (Presidential Package Only) | Holtman’s Donut Shop Keystone Bar & Grill | Lil’s Bagels | Macaron Bar | Matt the Miller’s Tavern | Mazunte | nada | Pompilios The Presidents Room (Presidential Package Only) | Queen City Radio | Revel OTR Urban Winery | The Rhined | Seasons 52 (Presidential Package Only) Share: Cheesebar (Presidential Package Only) | Taste of Belgium | Terry’s Turf Club | We Olive & Wine Bar | & more to be announced!

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tickets on SalE NOw! bestofcincinnati.com

STUFF TO DO SATURDAY 24

EVENT: Everything is Terrible!

Since 2007, art collective Everything Is Terrible has curated some of the internet’s trippiest, most meme-worthy found footage. There’s the iconic “DUANE!!!,” which features a kid busting horrible, yet iconic dance moves at a “Barbie Dance Club” in 1989. There’s “Kids On the Net,” a web-surfing tutorial from the late ’90s that offers vital info on how to download sick screensavers and send an email to president Clinton. There’s even a recreation of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain, cobbled together with footage from dog movies. This Saturday, Everything is Terrible’s demented stage comes to the Woodward Theater, fusing the troupe’s signature psychedelic video editing with onstage performances that prominently feature mascots and giant puppets. This tour’s theme is “T H E G R E A T S A T A N.” Attendees would do well to check their souls at the door. 8 p.m. Saturday. $12 advance; $15 day of. Woodward Theater, 1404 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, woodwardtheater.com. — JUDE NOEL

WEDNESDAY 21

ART: Take a road trip to Columbus’ Wexner Center for the Arts to see the vibrant All of Everything: Todd Oldham Fashion. See interview on page 18.

ONSTAGE: Deborah Zoe Laufer’s world premiere play Be Here Now bursts through the gloom and offers a new and uplifting perspective at the Playhouse in the Park. See review on page 20.

ART: The Contemporary Arts Center’s Glenn Kaino: A Shout Within a Storm utilizes sculpture, spectacle and technology to visualize actions of social-justice movements. See review on page 21.

THURSDAY 22

FRIDAY 23

CLASSICAL: Guitar Fever: Artyom Dervoed Russian guitarist Artyom Dervoed has been dubbed “the tsar of guitar” and is one of the world’s leading classical guitarists, with a string of highly successful albums, concert and television appearances and 16 awards for his virtuoso performances. He oversees arts festivals, chamber music projects and has commissioned several works for guitar. His appearance as Constella Festival’s opening act marks one of his all-toorare appearances in the U.S. He’ll lead a jam session with guest artists including Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra musicians Ilya Finkelshteyn, Anna Reider, Joanne Wojtowicz and Constella founder, Tatiana Berman. Art by Mary Barr Rhodes, Spencer Van Der Zee and Laura Laureto will also be on exhibition.

7:30 p.m. Friday. $25; $10 student. National Under Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 50 E. Freedom Way, Downtown, constellaarts. com. — ANNE ARENSTEIN

SATURDAY 24

MUSIC: Philly Psych/Hard Rock quintet Ruby the Hatchet plays Northside Yacht Club with Proto Metal Pallbearer. See Sound Advice on page 28.

MUSIC: Nashville Acid Pop band TWEN plays CincinNative in Northside. See Sound Advice on page 29.

EVENT: A’cat’emy Awards Extravaganza Let’s face it: cat videos probably deserve their own Oscars category. Is “Keyboard Cat” any less of an artistic triumph than The Shape of Water? Shouldn’t Lil Bub be able to share the stage with Streep? Until our feline friends can garner the recognition they so rightfully deserve, the Ohio Alleycat Resource & Spay/Neuter Clinic (OAR) will host their own awards show, honoring Cincinnati’s cutest clips starring cats. Hosted by Local 12’s Paula Toti, the A‘cat’emy Awards’ proceeds will benefit OAR, which found homes for over 550 cats last year, spaying and neutering almost 11,000. Enjoy dinner,

drinks, an auction, games and, of course, the main awards show. 5:30 p.m. VIP; 6:30 p.m. general admission Saturday. $75; $125 VIP. The Phoenix, 812 Race St., Downtown, ohioalleycat. com. — JUDE NOEL EVENT: 20th Century Cincinnati Modernists take note: Cincinnati’s annual retrospective of vintage modern design is back. Ushered in by industrialization and social change, the movement is largely characterized by its conscious rejection of old Victorian models; visual artists broke away from Realism and architects began favoring function.

At 20th Century Cincinnati’s show, vintage modern pieces from more than 70 dealers will be on display and for sale this weekend at the Sharonville Convention Center. The show is best known for its furniture and lighting selection, but this year’s event will also feature Blenko Glass, a small West Virginian company that’s been handcrafting colorful CONTINUES ON PAGE 18

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VISUAL ART Swoon: The Canyon 1999-2017 Contemporary Arts Center, Downtown (through Feb. 25)

MUSIC: Poliça & s t a r g a z e: Music for the Long Emergency brings the Minneapolis drum-and-bass quartet and Berlin-based ensemble to the Contemporary Arts Center for a collaborative Classical/Dark Wave show in partnership with MusicNOW. See feature on page 26.

EVENT: Art After Dark: Love is in the ‘Hair’ Head to the art museum after hours to check out the slightly bizarre but deeply fascinating Mementos of Affection: Ornamental Hair Hairwork in Jewelry and Portrait Miniatures, a collection of 18th- and 19th-century jewelry that incorporates or is made of human hair. Human hair used to be given and kept as a sign of love and devotion (or as a memento of a deceased relative). This exhibit displays a range of brooches, pendants, rings and necklaces that preserve that tradition. In addition to weird hair art, the event also includes access to the rest of the museum collection, live music by Young Heirlooms, a braid bar and hairstyling by AV Beauty Bar, interactive love-themed tours and specialty cocktails and food (available for purchase). 5-9 p.m. Friday.

Free admission. Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Drive, Mount Adams, cincinnatiartmuseum.org.

— MAIJA ZUMMO

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Ongoing Shows

PHOTO: JIM NEWBERRY

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COMEDY: Big Jay Oakerson Big Jay Oakerson knows what the fans want when they come to see him, and

he’s happy to oblige. “More filth and dicks and stuff,” he says. “I’m doing a little bit more relationship stuff that sounds dramatic, but at the end of the day, it’s about explaining to girls why we like anal.” However, he is confident in his broad appeal. “Even if you’re a Bible thumper, you’ll laugh at my jokes,” he insists. Indeed, when not telling jokes onstage, he co-hosts the podcast Legion of Skanks with fellow comics Luis J. Gomez and Dave Smith.

They describe it has “the most offensive podcast on Earth,” which of course suits Oakerson perfectly. If people are put off by his stand-up set, he’s not worried. “I don’t mind trivializing my own work,” he says. “I’m just trying to make people laugh.”

Through Sunday. $20.

Liberty Funny Bone, 7518 Bales St., Liberty Township, liberty.funnybone.com.

— P.F. WILSON

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work since 1893. A sand blast from the modern past. 11 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Satur p.m. Saturday and Sunday. $8; good for both days. Sharonville Convention Center, 11355 Chester Road, Sharonville, 20thcenturycincinnati.com. — MCKENZIE ESKRIDGE EVENT: Cincinnati Home and Garden Show Looking to remodel your place or improve your garden? The Cincinnati Home and Garden Show at Duke Energy Convention Center features exhibits for any room in the house or spot in the yard, with 10,000-square-feet of landscape displays, design presentations and renovation and DIY tips and vendors to help you plan your project.

Have a drink while you’re at it, lounging in the MadTree beer garden or Oberfields wine garden. Toss a coin into the fountain and make a wish at Fiona’s Cove, a garden water feature inspired

by Cincinnati’s favorite hippo.

Looking to downsize? Take a tour of a Tiny Home. Active and retired military, police, firefighters, EMTs, medical professionals and teachers enter free on Hero Day (March 1). 10 a.m.-9 p.m.

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SATURDAY 24

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EVENT: The Price is Right: Live Remember tuning in to The Price Is Right on a high school sick day, imagining how fun it would be to spin the Big Wheel or drop a chip into the Plinko board?

Daydream no longer: the long-running game show’s non-televised counterpart is currently on tour, making a stop at JACK Casino. Grab a ticket for your chance to “come on down” and revel in the set’s ’70s kitsch, trying your hand at classic games like Cliffhangers and Punch-A-Bunch. 8 p.m.

Saturday. $40. JACK Casino, 1000 Broadway St., Pendleton, jackentertainment.com.

— JUDE NOEL

Saturday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Sunday; additional dates through March 4. $13; free children 12 and under. Duke Energy Convention Center, 525 Elm St., Downtown, cincinnatihomeandgardenshow. com. — ZACHARY PERRIN EVENT: Beer Choir Games It’s week four of ArtsWave’s 2018 ArtsWave Days and they’re calling for Cincinnatians to dig deep into the city’s German roots on Saturday at Urban Artifact for a traditional beer hall sing-along and accompanying festivities. Members from over 25 local choral organizations will lead the crowd, but you can download the Beer Choir Hymnal in preparation. One dollar from every beer sold during the Beer Choir Games will benefit the local arts agency, which supports more than 100 arts and community organizations in the region.

The annual ArtsWave Days community campaign spans 12 weeks this year, with a different event every Saturday between Feb. 3 and April 21; ArtsWave’s full schedule is posted online. 3-5 p.m. Saturday.

Free. Urban Artifact, 1660 Blue Rock St., Northside, artswave.org.

— MCKENZIE ESKRIDGE EVENT: Presidential Pub Crawl In preparation for President’s Day, celebrate our country’s rich history of democracy and freedom the way the founders intended: with a night out on the town.

Twelve bars across three neighborhoods are participating in the Presidential PHOTO: PROVIDED

Pub Crawl, hosted by Taft’s Brewing Co. The bars participating include Northside Yacht Club, Higher Gravity, Chameleon and Arcade Legacy: Bar Edition in Northside; Mt. Lookout Tavern, Millions Cafe, Wurst Bar in the Square and Proof in Mount Lookout; and Habits Café, Oakley Pub and Grill, Animations and The Oak Tavern in Oakley.

Pick up a free punch card to fill out with Taft’s Brewing Co. drafts and win some cool stuff. Utilize your freedom of speech to post about your President’s Day party with the hashtag #TaftsTubCrawl.

7 p.m.-2 a.m. Saturday. Free admission. More info at taftsalehouse.com.

— ZACHARY PERRIN

SUNDAY 25

EVENT: The Best of Fluidity: Benefit Concert After a year of helping to pay it forward for area nonprofits, Fluidity: Creative Choral Community for a Cause is holding its own benefit concert. Fluidity was founded by director Rhonda Juliano with the mission of presenting events that promote and benefit nonprofits doing amazing work you’ve never heard of. Since its debut last February, the 43-member chorus has raised money for La Soupe, Groundwork Cincinnati-Mill Creek and UpSpring. You’ll hear an eclectic program featuring selections from Fluidity’s previous concerts, including songs from the Pop charts, Broadway and CEA winners The Pinstripes. In keeping with Fluidity’s event format, a reception follows. 3 p.m.

Sunday. Free but donations

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THURSDAY 22

ONSTAGE: Guys and Dolls One of the great shows from the Golden Age of Broadway musicals is onstage at the Covedale Center. Based on Damon Runyon’s fanciful imaginings of New York City, the tuneful show — music and lyrics by Frank Loesser — won the 1950 Tony Award. It’s an entertaining story of roughand-tumble gangsters and gamblers and straight-and-narrow religious reformers. The unlikely romance of bad boy Sky Masterson and good girl Sister Sarah Brown (plus the comic pairing of Nathan Detroit and Miss Adelaide) make for the kind of show Covedale audiences love. Through March 11. $29; $26 seniors/students/children. Covedale Center for the Performing Arts, 4990 Glendale Ave., Covedale, clpshows.org. — RICK PENDER

and canned donations for SEM Food Pantry are welcome. Mt. Washington Presbyterian Church, 6474 Beechmont Ave., Mount Washington, fluiditycccc.org.

— ANNE ARENSTEIN

YOUR WEEKEND TO DO LIST: LOCAL.CITYBEAT.COM

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EVENT: International Polar Bear Day The Cincinnati Zoo is celebrating International Polar Bear Day with interactive activities, a thermostat challenge and special animal encounters to reinforce the call for people to reduce their carbon emissions to help save these arctic animals. Polar bears require sea ice to hunt for their food, and climate change = less sea ice = fewer polar bears.

Starting at 10:15 a.m., the zoo will go live on Facebook in Lords of the Arctic for a special encounter,

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ONSTAGE: An Evening with Audra McDonald The Cincinnati Pops brings Broadway’s six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald to Music Hall for an evening of musical theater

TUESDAY 27

EVENT: Women of Cincy Boozy Hour Women of Cincy is a local initiative and website that aims to celebrate and share the stories of Cincinnati women, working to “empower and elevate local women of all backgrounds, colors, shapes and abilities.”

Starting tonight, the group plans to gather once at month at a female-owned establishment for cocktails, conversation and mingling.

This time, the happy hour is at Landlocked Social House in Walnut Hills, a third-wave craft coffee and beer bar owned by husband-and-wife team Anne and Andrew Decker. 4-9 p.m. Tuesday.

Free admission. Landlocked Social House, 648 E. McMillan St., Walnut Hills, facebook.com/womenof facebook.com/womenofcincy. — MAIJA ZUMMO cincy

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EVENT: The Secret Society of Spirits: Love Potions If you’re still pining over Valentine’s Day, head to Memorial Hall for a special cocktail class. The Secret Society of Spirits class includes recipes and instructions for how to make three different alcoholic “love potions” for all levels of mastery. Surprise guests from the culinary world will also be on hand to pair unique bites with the booze. 4 p.m.

Sunday. $40. Memorial Hall, 1225 Elm St., Over-theRhine, memorialhallotr.com.

— MAIJA ZUMMO

favorites. She’ll be performing her signature songs including works by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim and George Gershwin. The Pops are predicting a sell out. 7 p.m.

Sunday. $35-$125. Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Over-theRhine, cincinnatiarts.org.

— MAIJA ZUMMO

followed by other animal activities with the painted dogs, manatees, lions, meerkats, elephants, arctic foxes and more. In addition to International Polar Bear Day’s efforts and recognition, the zoo’s CREW (Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife) is also dedicated to conservation efforts through studies on the bear’s physiology and reproduction. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday. Free with admission: $8.50 adults; $6 children/seniors. Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, 3400 Vine St., Avondale, cincinnatizoo.org. — MAIJA ZUMMO

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ARTS & CULTURE Columbus Show Spotlights Todd Oldham His exuberant fashion designs show the gentle influence of his Cincinnati-artist friend Charley Harper

BY K AT H Y S C H WA R T Z

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odd Oldham places his hands over his heart at the mention of his Cincinnati-artist friend Charley Harper.

“I loved Charley,” the multifaceted designer, author/editor and onetime MTV House of Style contributor says. “He was very dear — is very dear. He’s just not with us anymore.”

The Modernist Cincinnati wildlife artist is no longer living, but his influence is alive, quietly, in the new exhibit All of Everything: Todd Oldham Fashion at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus. Like Harper, Oldham took the traditional and turned it around for his couture career.

Oldham knew Harper only five years before he died in 2007 at age 84. But the artist had an effect on the Texas-born Oldham long before then as illustrator of 1961’s Giant Golden Book of Biology. As a boy, Oldham, now 56, memorized the drawings that ranged from mammals to molecules.

Oldham sought to meet Harper after realizing that the Ford Times magazines that caught his eye at a thrift store in 2001 were illustrated by the same artist behind his beloved biology book. Harper’s joyful art “inspired me to be interested,” Oldham says in Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life, the 2007 monograph he produced in appreciation of his friend.

Yet Harper practiced what he called “minimal realism.” Oldham’s 1990s clothing is described as “exuberantly styled and deliriously embellished” in the Wexner retrospective’s literature.

“There’s a Minimalist quality to what I do, too, that’s not that apparent,” Oldham says, while in Columbus for the exhibit’s opening. “It’s the duality of these two sides (of design) that makes it most interesting.”

In signage accompanying his silk Comb Suit, Oldham informs visitors that he actually loves conservative fashion and classic, even Minimalist, design elements such as pinstripes. He merely chose to design the stripes for this suit out of blown-up images of combs from a clip-art book.

“Ridiculously opulent” pinstripes on a

black skirt are made out of handstitched freshwater pearls. The red trousers in his Après-Ski Ensemble “are just simple beaded plaid slacks,” according to his tongue-incheek text. Sparkling with sequins, they’re hardly ho-hum.

Elaborate embroiFrom the All of Everything: Todd Oldham Fashion exhibit at the RISD Museum in 2016. dery and sheens wouldn’t read as well PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE RISD MUSEUM, PROVIDENCE, RI. on confusing forms, Oldham explains. A shimmering tuxedo “shirt” became only bangs and clean-shaven countenance. garden that introduces order to the natural a satin bib as he “added less and less and The bright blue eyes that sparkled on the world — sort of like Harper did with his less.” runway alongside supermodels Cindy Minimalist wildlife art. The 60 or so outfits “So, there is a Minimalist underneath,” Crawford and Tyra Banks now rest behind in this final gallery take on the appearthe designer acknowledges with a chuckle. glasses. There’s still some boyishness ance of rows of blossoms springing from a As Oldham leads a tour of the exhibit about Oldham, but he’s humble as videos chartreuse lawn. There is a hint of Harper that he originally designed for the RISD of his energetic fashion shows play in the in the charming bumblebee detail that (Rhode Island School of Design) Museum exhibition’s lower gallery.

Oldham added to a flowery dress he made in Providence, it’s clear that, like Harper, Rather than begin his tour by speakout of pipe cleaners. The desert blooms, he, too, wants to inspire others to be ing about the designs on the mannequins, succulents and birds that adorn ensembles interested — especially in detail and the Oldham instead calls attention to the influenced by photos in Arizona Highways handmade. people, materials and processes behind magazine suggest what kind of fashions Harper once famously described his each piece. He uses “we” more often than Harper might have created on his 1947 simplified style by saying, “I don’t see “I.” His collaborators include a workshop in Southwestern honeymoon if he and wife the feathers in the wings. I just count the India that has been practicing embroidery Edie weren’t painting landscapes from wings.” By contrast, “I counted the feathfor 400 years. their road trip instead. ers,” Oldham says in our interview.

“There’s not one digital moment within With fashion in his own rearview mirror, Then he interrupts himself to comment all three of these galleries,” Oldham says.

Oldham today is focused on motivating on yet another detail he’s just noticed — “Every bit of this is analog, 100 percent kids just as his hero did, through the Kid my fused-glass ring reminds him of some made by hand.”

Made Modern line of craft projects. “It’s of the buttons that his studio produced He did create one new, over-the-top something I’ve always sort of instinctively out of glass, resin, silver, gold, pearls and ensemble for the exhibit. Ever gracious, he wanted to do, but having interfaced with even cocoa shells, nails and screws when it refers to it as a dress that “I got to make Charley, it’s more deliberate now,” Oldham couldn’t find just the right finishing touch. with my friends at RISD.” says.

More than 2,000 examples of buttons, belt The gown’s very full skirt is a single “Charley was able to sort out of lot of buckles and other accessories are in the 20-foot length of screen-printed fabric feainformation in a very clean way that we exhibit. “There was no end,” Oldham says. turing brushstrokes of every shade imagincould assimilate at once. And I love that.

Almost 20 years removed from the noisy able, floral patterns, images of insects and Isn’t that a great call to arms?” world of fashion designing, Oldham looks an explosion of spangles. Underneath lies professorial these days — and he has spent more than 2,000 feet of colored tulle. The All Of Everything: Todd Oldham Fashion time teaching at RISD, even though he gorgeous silhouette evokes a bent tulip continues through April 15 at the Wexner didn’t attend design school himself. Closeoverwhelmed by its own beautiful petals.

Center for the Arts, 1871 N. High St., cropped gray hair and a bushy goatee have In fact, Oldham has laid out the rest of Columbus. More info: wexarts.org. replaced the younger man’s long brown the exhibition to resemble a formal French

BIG PICTURE

Marcel Duchamp’s Local Connection

BY S T E V EN R O S EN

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What a surprise it is to find that a gallery Afterward, in the 1950s and ’60s, he crein the Cincinnati Art Museum is newly ated six additional series — about 300 devoted to Marcel Duchamp. Not that total — without the suitcases. Many are in this French-born artist, who spent much museums. time in New York and died in 1968, doesn’t The “Boîte” he gave to the Harrisons is deserve it — he’s often ranked, along with from 1963’s Series E. It is stunning when Picasso and Matisse, as one of the three you come across it in the art museum now, greatest 20th-century artists. But until displayed almost like a sacred text. Prints very recently, the Cincinnati Art Museum Curator Kristin Spangenberg has dramatihasn’t owned enough by Duchamp to cally placed it in the center of the room, merit an exclusive gallery. (It has a color under a giant see-through protective cover. etching from 1964, “Mirrorical Return.”)

However, a gift the museum received at the end of 2016 is now being celebrated with the current gallery show Marcel Duchamp: Boîte-en-Valise.

Even more surprisingly, the museum only received the object because of its strong Cincinnati connection.

Around 1964, Duchamp himself gave “Boîte-enValise (Box in a Valise),” a kind of portable museum consisting of miniature reproductions of his preWorld War II work, to Agnes and Carl (Charles Learner Jr.) Harrison, who lived on a Anne and Jeffrey Harrison at the art museum with their gift farm in Clermont County.

Agnes, whose Cincinnati PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER family’s name was Sattler, was the older sister of Alexina (“Teeny”), who had married Duchamp Its parts, which slide or fold out from the in 1954 after first being married to Pierre box, reveal 68 finely rendered miniature Matisse, an art dealer and son of Henri replicas, photographs and color reproducMatisse. She was familiar with the art tions — some on paper, some sculptural — world of Europe and New York and lived in of Duchamp’s own work.

New Jersey when she met Duchamp.

And on the label of one miniature, “Aggie (Agnes) got to study in Paris in “Coeurs volants (Fluttering Hearts),” is her later teens and was able to convince a personal inscription in French: “To her parents to let Teeny come,” says Jeffrey Agnes and Carl grande affection Marcel Harrison, who helped his mother (and Duchamp.”

Agnes’ daughter-in-law) Anne W. Harrison To Anne Collins Goodyear, a Duchamp donate the family’s “Boîte” to the museum scholar and co-director of the Bowdoin after her husband R.F. died in 2012 and College Museum of Art, that dedication she moved from the farm. “Aggie stayed elevates the importance of this specific in Cincinnati, lived in the country, led a “Boîte.” She had come to the art museum pretty quiet life, acquired a piece of art or last week with the Harrisons to see the two. Teeny was off in this other world. But Duchamp installation. they did stay close.”

“Although we think of him as an Duchamp was a conceptualist who extremely cerebral person, something I’ve knew how to use visual art to provoke peocome to appreciate about him a great deal ple into thinking about what it means to is that I think he had a very strong affinity be creative. Two of his most famous pieces for family,” she says. “This particular object are 1917’s “Fountain,” a purchased urinal provides so much important information that he signed “R. Mutt” and entered into about Duchamp, his family and even the an art show, and his 1919 found-object role of Cincinnati in how it shaped Teeny readymade “L.H.O.O.Q.,” for which he and her sister Agnes. It was obvious this added a mustache and goatee to a postcard box was being well cared-for in the context reproduction of the “Mona Lisa.” in which it lived. But it needed to make its Duchamp had conceived and assembled way from this family into the public arena.” the first edition of 20 “Boîtes” (each in Marcel Duchamp: Boîte-en-Valise will an actual leather suitcase) from 1935-41, only be on display through May 6. More finishing as pressure grew for him and information: cincinnatiartmuseum.org. his art to escape Nazi-occupied France.

19

ONSTAGE

‘Be Here Now’ Ask Us to Do Just That

BY JAC K I E M U L AY

CRITIC’S PICK

In a time that often feels like nothing matin thrust in the Shelterhouse Theatre ters, Be Here Now bursts through the gloom (meaning the audience is on three sides of and offers a new and uplifting perspective. the stage), there’s a risk audience memBe Here Now is a commissioned work bers will find opportunities to zone out.

— a world premiere for the Cincinnati PlayHowever, the expertly crafted staging by house in the Park by Deborah Zoe Laufer, Krieger was fantastic. The performances a very busy playwright whose Leveling were done in a way that ensured no part Up had its premiere at the Playhouse in of the audience felt blocked out or ignored.

2013. It asks poignant questions about life And the thrust staging actually lent intiand happiness throughout the 90-minute macy to the production by allowing the existential crisis of its main subject, Bari audience to feel almost like participants in (Eva Kaminsky). the emotional journey displayed onstage.

The play takes place in a small town in At several moments during the producupstate New York, where Bari is a dryly humorous yet cynical ex-professor disdainfully working at a curio shop while toiling away at her doctoral dissertation on nihilism (the philosophic belief that nothing matters). Negativity seeps out of Bari at all moments, but never seems to penetrate the tireless optimism of co-worker Luanne (Emily Kratter) or shatter the rock-like confidence of childhood friend Patty (Michele Ragusa).

But that all changes the moment she meets Mike Be Here Now’s Eva Kaminsky and Torsten Hillhouse (Torsten Hillhouse), a scruffy local who collects PHOTO: MIKKI SCHAFFNER garbage and brings life to the concept that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Set up on tion, there were audible reactions from the a blind date by Patty, a mutual companion, audience as events unfolded. This wasn’t the two don’t exactly hit it off right away. disruptive, but rather a unifying experiThey are complete opposites. ence that appropriately fit the theme of the In all things, where Bari sees the void, play.

Mike sees the beauty. As these two starkly Lighting designer Thomas C. Hase contrasting souls begin their curious first brought a gorgeous design sensibility that encounter, the date quickly turns from made the production even livelier. Harsh amusing to tragic, and propels the story white light contrasted with rainbows of from a fun small-town comedy to a meancolor to make the audience feel as if they ingful search for happiness and compancould see exactly what the characters were ionship. Be Here Now is a story that takes experiencing. The costuming, designed the audience on an existential ride to the

by Gordon DeVinney, also was appropriintersection of despondence and joy. ate: Where dreary Bari wears dark, muted The play is brimming with vibrant tones from head to toe to underscore her characters that, in everyday life, might cynicism, Luanne wears bright blues and seem a bit overwhelming. However, superb pinks to spotlight her quirky optimism and direction by Portia Krieger and sincere Patty’s vivid red hair accentuates her fiery performances make these characters come confidence. alive in a way that is both charming and The ending leaves you asking innumerelectric. Kaminsky delivers an emotionally able questions about life and the pursuit of vulnerable performance as Bari, giving happiness. Are we born with our outlook, real meaning to the great questions of life. or do we choose how we view our life and As Mike, Hillhouse brilliantly melds the world around us? Is it a mixture of personal devastations with a zest for life. both? What is happiness? Why do we seek Together, these two bring wildly different it and how do we obtain it? Ultimately, Be perspectives to Be Here Now that create a Here Now is a lovely production that will richer picture of life and happiness. These leave you with a new appreciation for life. characters and their encounters blend to Be Here Now is onstage at the Playhouse form a work that is ultimately about conin the Park through March 11. Tickets/more necting to those around you in order to information: cincyplayhouse.com. truly find yourself.

Because Be Here Now is performed

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VISUAL ART

‘A Shout’ for Action at the CAC

BY M A R I A S EDA - R EED ER

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palindromic title.

In most of the work in Shout, Shout Kaino freezes the moment of potential energy inherent in radical social actions. For example, the sculptural installation “Suspended Animation” features rocks from sites of political resistance around the world, arranged along a 14-foot conveyor belt precariously balanced on two wheels. These remnants of landscape have been collected from friends and colleagues living in protest sites such Glenn Kaino’s “A Shout Within a Storm” installation as Egypt, Yemen, the Philippines, Indonesia, Crimea, Benghazi and PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND HONOR FR ASER G A L L E R Y, L O S A N G E L E S Ferguson, Mo., so Kaino is elevating these otherwise inert objects Los Angeles-based conceptual artist Glenn into instruments for revolution.

Kaino’s first mid-career survey, A Shout In others, acts of resistance are perWithin a Storm, exhibits the work of the formed by the artist himself. “Spontanetrained sculptor, whose choice of media is ous Combustion,” for instance, features a inventively fluid. The Contemporary Arts video showing a white-cotton American Center’s exhibit, curated by Steven Matijflag, basted in Civil War-era tarring solucio, shows how that fluidity allows for the tion, spontaneously combusting when the artist’s continued investigations of ways fabric is folded. Kaino’s short performance to visualize the actions of social-justice action results in a black, white and yellow movements. tie-dyed pattern upon the recognizable Twenty-three works are displayed, stars and stripes and serves as a larger alleincluding drawings, sculptural instalgory for the growing extreme polarization lations, videos, interactive robotics and of political thought in America today. One print-based media. The idea, itself, is the of the four flags used in the video is part of keystone to Kaino’s work, and his processthe display. based ways of realizing an idea as art often Located in a space on the lower portion involve collaborations with radicals and of the second-floor gallery where the ceilagents of change. ing juts up to be more than 20 feet high, Kaino is known for “kitbashing” — a “L’ènetènafionale” is an installation featurmodel-making term referring to the ing an animatronic crescent moon and practice of taking small parts off existing a Pierrot clown whose face features the models to create ones that are wholly new. countenance of the radical, anti-colonialThat process is integral to Kaino’s work in ist 20th-century writer Frantz Fanon. The Shout. moon’s one eye tracks visitors who enter The exhibit contains three of the artist’s the blackened space and when three or large-scale examples of kitbashing: “In more assemble, the moon sings the French Search of New Systems (Southern Skies),” socialist anthem “The Internationale.” That “In Search of New Systems (Logarithmic)” anthem is also the source of Fanon’s classic and “In Search of a New Model (Photobook on the violence inherent in decolonisphere).” They include hundreds of parts zation struggles, The Wretched of the Earth. from model kits of tanks, planes and other The show’s title comes from a large-scale military machines cast in silver and gold, installation of copper-plated steel arrows as well as sparkling clusters of amber and the length of a Zen archer’s arrow (said to quartz. know its target before it’s even released “Now Do I Repay a Period Won (Syria)” is from its bow). All of the piece’s more than an installation of stainless steel surfaces, 100 suspended arrows converge to point at based upon specific windows of U.S. a shared (invisible) target. “A Shout Within embassies in foreign cities and countries a Storm” is titled after an essay written by (Benghazi, Damascus, Yemen, Turkey, Mexico’s Subcomandante Marcos, the pen Cairo, Athens and Sudan) where glass has name of Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente been broken by area activists. Kaino thus of the Chiapas-based Zapatista National is working with those actions — with those Liberation Army. protesting U.S. colonial-like interventions Kaino uses the ostensible invisible target in foreign ecosystems. In doing so, he is as a larger metaphor for the ways in which collaborating with the political protestors ideas on revolution can gather volume to make his art. Kaino further throws rocks when all are headed toward the same goal. gathered from those various regions to Glenn Kaino’s A Shout Within a Storm dent the surface of the steel, thereby giving is at the Contemporary Arts Center the piece an exponentially broader, more through April 22. More information: metaphorically expansive space than the contemporaryartscenter.org. geographic one referred to in the (mostly)

21

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‘Versace’: True-Crime Drama at its Best

BY JAC K ER N

The long-awaited second installment of the miniseries American Crime Story may include Gianni Versace’s name in the title, but this season truly focuses on the sociopathic serial killer who murdered him — Andrew Cunanan. In 1997, the 27-yearold ended a three-month cross-country murder spree by shooting and killing the beloved Italian designer, Versace, outside of his Miami, Fla. home.

Like its O.J. Simpson-centric predecessor, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (10 p.m. Wednesdays, FX) — based on Maureen Orth’s nonfiction book Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History — examines a very public and publicized crime. But many don’t remember or even recognize Cunanan the way they do the players of the Simpson trial, and even less so his bizarre story and the murderous path that led to Versace’s South Beach doorstep.

Similar to how The People vs. O.J. Simpson featured a limited amount of Cuba Gooding Jr.’s Simpson, this season is really about Cunanan. While viewers are treated to indulgent glimpses of Versace’s life, there are entire episodes devoted to his killer’s journey. Cunanan was a chameleon — he exhibited the unique ability to significantly alter his appearance with just a pair of glasses and haircut — and could be very charismatic and convincing.

The same can be said of actor Darren Criss, who nails Cunanan’s manic, psycho killer ways. Cunanan wasn’t a skilled murderer, but he was a deranged one — one who managed to evade authorities for months. Getting to know Cunanan’s background and what makes him tick — as much as can be understood — makes him all the more terrifying.

Where The People vs. O.J. Simpson delved into the larger race issues of the time, The Assassination of Gianni Versace contemplates the implications of being gay, particularly for men in the 1990s. And those experiences vary greatly between characters. Of course you have Versace, who was an openly gay man with a partner of 13 years, Antonio D’Amico. As the founder of an international fashion house, Versace was able to publicly come out in Advocate magazine in 1995, despite his sister Donatella’s concerns about the effect it would have on the company. He was no stranger to personal struggles; in the show, it is revealed that Versace was HIV positive (his family has long denied this).

But being a wealthy celebrity, Versace saw some privileges that most gay men at the time did not experience. Cunanan’s first victim was a former U.S. naval officer who we see struggle with “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” and gay-bashing in the military.

Cunanan himself used his sexuality to take advantage of and manipulate people. He frequently befriended wealthy, older men

Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace PHOTO: PROVIDED

— sometimes closeted men with wives and families — and bragged about the lavish gifts he’d receive. In a split second, he’d hold the arrangement over their heads as a threat.

Iconic figures and lesser known reallife characters come to life thanks to a phenomenal cast. Criss will undoubtedly receive award attention for his role; the Versace siblings are uncannily portrayed by Édgar Ramírez and Penélope Cruz.

Ricky Martin’s take on D’Amico is surprisingly solid. Other supporting actors like Finn Wittrock and Max Greenfield (regular players for producer Ryan Murphy) and newcomer Cody Fern give fantastic performances, if only for an episode. The top-notch acting, paired with colorful, extravagant sets, thoughtful storytelling choices and a spot-on soundtrack make this season a feast for the senses.

Versace is truly producer Murphy at his finest — it’s scarier than American Horror Story, with dark humor à la Nip/Tuck and Story dotted with his signature camp featuring a heavy dose of glamour and the grotesque.

And yes, I think it’s better than Simpson.

The TV giant just signed a five-year, $300 million deal with Netflix (one of the biggest in TV history), but that doesn’t mean Murphy’s many 20th Century Fox projects are making the move or getting cut short. American Crime Story will continue for at least two more seasons, which will focus on Hurricane Katrina and the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal; his other projects American Horror Story Story, Feud and 9-1-1 all have new seasons in the works. As if he isn’t already, Murphy is about to be everywhere, but let’s hope he focuses on quality, not quantity. Because when he’s on his game, he can produce a work of this caliber — one that’s not to be missed.

Contact Jac Kern: @jackern

FILM

What the Success of ‘Black Panther’ Means

BY T T S T ER N - EN ZI

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C I T Y B E AT. C O M

Black Panther is more than just a hit movie — it’s a cultural sensation. Over Presidents Day weekend, Variety reports, it took in a record $235 million in North America and has now become a must-see movie for everyone. As a super-hero film based on a Marvel comic book, big opening-weekend numbers aren’t completely Chadwick Boseman (foreground) in a battle scene unheard of. But Black Panther isn’t just another PHOTO: MARVEL STUDIOS Marvel success.

For the first time, African-American audiences, along with that. It’s complete with the expected CGI people of the African diaspora around the action sequences and fun nods to James globe, get a celebratory vision of an African Bond-style global espionage hijinks. homeland with a glorious past and a role in But it’s also speaking to black audiences shaping the future of civilization. We who in a coded cultural language accented comprise that audience also get a more with musical, visual and narrative flair. meaningful realization of the complex The world of Wakanda becomes an Afrofudebate regarding how we see and interact turistic dreamscape. Talk about black to among ourselves. And we get to see Eurothe future. Too often, we’ve been presented centric outsiders as sidekicks and pawns in with visions of timelines without people our central narratives. of color, as if we never existed in the first And it’s a great film, too, as directed and place — never enslaved, never abused by co-written by Ryan Coogler, whose first the hands of oppressors and never turned feature was Fruitvale Station. into second-class citizens by the arbitrary In the comic book story, Black Panther, application of the rules of law. also known as T’Challa, has returned to his What’s particularly fascinating and African kingdom of Wakanda after engagimportant about Coogler’s film is that it’s ing in outside conflicts involving psyable to assert so much black power not just chological inversions, planet-devouring on the screen but also behind the scenes. cosmic life forces and collapsing parallel He’s found a sweet spot that allows for universes only to find a nation divided. greater integration and opportunity for His subjects question whether or not he others, seen in the dynamic and allurreally is (or wants to be) Wakanda’s king. ing costume designs of Ruth E. Carter Along the way, he has to corral the spirits (Malcolm Malcolm X and Selma Selma) and the gorgeous of Black Panthers past in order to unite cinematography of Rachel Morrison (the his fragmented people and usher in a new first female Academy Award nominee in democratic age. that category for her work on Mudbound).

In Coogler’s vision, Wakanda veers far As penned by Coogler and co-screenand away from this notion — it’s an African writer Joe Robert Cole, there is an underlykingdom that has escaped colonization and ing sense of urgency to the story. And we utilized its main resource (an alien metal get the strong warrior women of the Dora known as vibranium) to create a technoMilaje, who protect the crown, much like logical haven, an advanced, hidden gem of Wonder Woman’s Amazonian legion on a society that protected itself via isolationThemyscira. There is an elevation in their ism and deception. As T’Challa, Chadwick impact on the social order that acknowlBoseman ((42, Get On Up Up), and Letitia edges the fierce female intelligence behind Wright as T’Challa’s tech-wizard younger the society’s technological advancement. sister, Shuri, bring that world to life.

This cinematic version of Black Panther Of course, any nation seeking to thread weaves seemingly disparate strands this international needle does so at its together rather seamlessly, presenting own mortal risk. Black Panther has a more than enough comic book acrobatics gripping story that frames larger quesand mayhem to satisfy the core fan base. tions about that dilemma. To take over the Yet it also speaks a necessary degree of throne, T’Challa has to fend off a challenge truth to power about the responsibility from within (Winston Duke’s rival chief such a fictional nation might have to its M’Baku) and also from outside (Michael scattered kin across the globe. And it is B. Jordan’s African-American soldier of impossible to miss the message T’Challa fortune Erik Killmonger). receives at the end of the film: the call to Coogler creates a startlingly approachengage. It is a lesson for us all. And, as the able sense of double consciousness, craftopening box-office numbers show, we’re all ing an entertaining Marvel Cinematic hearing it. (Now playing) (PG-13) Grade: A Universe installment for those who love

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MadTree Releases Beer Cookbook

BY G A R I N PI R N I A

In December, MadTree Brewing self-pubbeer and figured out the flavor profiles and lished a 125-page cookbook, Mix & Mash: created the recipes from there. One of the Recipes for the Table and Glass, in which things we threw on the chefs was, don’t every recipe contains one of their four core make the recipes too overwhelming or too beers: Happy Amber amber ale, Lift kölsch, complicated.”

PsycHOPathy IPA or PSA American pale Recipes include a spicy Psycho Humale. The book was inspired by the brewery’s mus from Jeff Ledford of Catch-A-Fire Chef Series, in which MadTree and local Pizza; PSA beer-battered grouper from chefs pair up to brew special beers.

Jose Salazar of Salazar and Mita’s; six-hour In September 2013, chef Mike Florea braised pork belly from Brad Bernstein of Maribelle’s eat + drink and MadTree created the first beer in the series — Flölsch, a kölsch brewed with lime, ginger and ancho chiles. Since then, 15 other chefs have contributed unusual brews including November’s Rabbit Paw, a Berliner Weisse brewed with pawpaws, from a collaboration with Covington’s Commonwealth Bistro.

Last spring, MadTree decided to use the series as a jumping off point for a cookbook.

“We’ve always had this MadTree’s cookbook bridges beer, food and philanthropy. culinary aspect in our DNA,” says Mike Stuart, PHOTO: PROVIDED MadTree’s director of people and social strategy.

The brewery wanted to bring chefs together of Postmark; and Happy Amber baked and “flip the script on them.” apples with candied pecans and mascar“The chefs normally come in here, but pone from Rachel DesRochers of Grateful let’s go into their kitchen and see what they Grahams. (With her S’More Gratitude beer, can do,” he says.

DesRochers became the first female chef Because MadTree is so anchored in the to take on the Chef Series and is the only community, they decided to contribute a female chef with a recipe in the book.) portion of the book’s proceeds to local La February marks a big month for the Soupe, chef Suzy DeYoung’s food waste inibrewery. On Feb. 27, they will host an offitiative that turns old or ugly produce into cial cookbook party at their taproom, and nutritious meals for the food-insecure. last week they celebrated their fifth anni“The chefs were all intrigued by the idea versary. Stuart, who started at MadTree of doing it, and then once they heard we two-and-a-half years ago, has watched the were donating to La Soupe, they all immebrewery expand and grow. diately jumped in because it’s near and “Sometimes it’s wild to look back and dear to all their hearts,” Stuart says. think where we were five years ago and Mix & Mash was an “all-hands on not too much farther before that,” he says. deck effort” for the brewery. Employees “Our co-founders (Kenny McNutt, Jeff conducted brief chef interviews (a total Hunt and Brady Duncan) were making of 15 chefs are included in the book) and beer in their basement, and here we are compiled the 25 food recipes and the four now in a $20 million new brewery facility brew-your-own MadTree beer recipes; and expanding our markets.”

MadTree’s in-house photographer Shay However, Stuart says they wouldn’t have Nartker took the photos. gotten this far without community support.

All of the chefs featured in the book had “It’s why we have our tagline that says, at one point brewed a Chef Series beer, and ‘Beer builds community and community many of them had cooked for MadTree’s builds beer.’ We feel like it’s an inverse relaHop-Up pop-up dinners. MadTree gave tionship there, so it all goes hand in hand. the chefs carte blanche when generating We don’t take any of this for granted. We the recipes — the only stipulation was continue to find different ways to improve everyone had to use beer as an ingredient. ourselves every day.”

“We guided and challenged them,” Stuart Mix & Mash retails for $50. Buy a copy at says. “We’d say, ‘Hey, we want you to take MadTree’s taproom (3301 Madison Road, this beer and do a starter or appetizer,’ Oakley), website or Joseph-Beth Booksellor, ‘Take this and make a main dish and ers. More info: madtreebrewing.com. a dessert.’ They ran with it. They got the

CLASSES & EVENTS WEDNESDAY 21

Raclette Night at The Rhined — The Rhined takes a big old half-wheel of raclette cheese (a semihard cow’s milk Swiss) and heats it and scrapes it onto different stuff, like potatoes and charcuterie. 5-8 p.m. $12. 1737 Elm St., Overthe-Rhine, facebook.com/ therhined.

Cocktails 101 — Catherine Manabat leads this cocktail class about how to make restaurant-worthy drinks at home. Learn how to identify good quality spirits, build your own bar collection at home, craft a cocktail, create your own flavored syrups and incorporate kitchen ingredients. 6-8 p.m. $75.

Findlay Kitchen, 1719 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, tablespooncookingco.com.

February Puzzle Crawl — For nerds who like to drink, this puzzle crawl is a mystery and pub crawl in one.

Crawl your way through OTR to discover who stole all the bock beer, just days before Bockfest begins. 6:30-9:30 p.m. $25. More info at puzzlecrawl.com.

THURSDAY 22

Madeleines with Karen Hughes — A French classic made simple. Learn how to make madeleines and their history and get a free Trudeau madeleine pan to take home. 6:30-7:30 p.m. $35. Artichoke OTR, 1824 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, artichokeotr.com.

Mary, Queen of Heaven — Offered every Friday — during Lent, Mary, Queen of Heaven boasts a huge menu of fried Icelandic cod including their signature Holy Haddock sandwich. Sides offered include fries, mac and cheese, coleslaw, green beans and more. And the namesake Codfather, aka John Geisen, the CEO of Izzy’s, dresses in Mafioso gear and carries a huge stuffed cod around the fry for cherished photo ops. 4-8 p.m.

Fridays during Lent. Mary, Queen of Heaven, 1150 Donaldson Highway, Erlanger, Ky., mqhparish.com.

Saint Boniface Northside Fish Fry — Grab fried or baked cod, fried shrimp, cheese pizza, stewed tomatoes, French fries and more to go or eat in. 5-7 p.m. Fridays through March 23. $9 adults; $5 kids. St. Boniface School, 4305 Pitts St., Northside, stbonifacecincinnati.com.

Saint Francis Seraph Church Fish Fry — Join in the celebration with a fish fry at the Christian Moerlein Malt House Taproom.

Grab a craft beer and fish sandwich while listening to live music. 5:30-9 p.m.

Fridays through March 23. 1621 Moore St., Overthe-Rhine, facebook.com/ SFSChurch.

Maple Sugar Days — Celebrate the spring awakening of the maple trees with Maple Sugar Days, a weekend of tastings, crafts, demonstrations and hikes.

Noon-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Free. Farbach-Wer Farbach-Werner Nature Preserve, 3455 Poole Road, Groesbeck, greatparks.org.

bonbonerie.com

Paella with Ruth Zanoni — Make authentic Spanish paella with saffron rice and a mixture of seafood and meats. It’s a festive but simple one-dish meal for family gatherings. 6:30-8:30 p.m. $65. Artichoke OTR, 1824 Elm St., Over-theRhine, artichokeotr.com.

Off the Beaten Path in Emilia-Romagna — This wine and food class takes students through EmiliaRomagna on a journey through the “bread basket” of Italy. The food menu features dishes like piadina fritta, rosette al forna, polenta condita, insalata mista and torta di riso paired with wine. Noon-2:30 p.m. $75. Jungle Jim’s, 5440 Dixie Highway, Fairfield, junglejims.com.

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SUNDAY 25

Society of Spirits: Love Potions — Get in the mood and learn how to make cocktails inspired by the season. Learn how to make three cocktails with surprise partners from the culinary world, who will be presenting unique bites to pair with your booze. 4 p.m. $40; $36 for groups of eight or more.

Memorial Hall, 1225 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, memorialhallotr.com.

TUESDAY 27

Date Night: Couples in the Kitchen — Grab your sweetie for this hands-on class featuring a menu of steak au poivre with cognac sauce, mashed potatoes with goat cheese, ovenroasted ratatouille and Nutella brownie tart. 6-8:30 p.m. $150 per couple.

Jungle Jim’s, 5440 Dixie Highway, Fairfield, junglejims.com.

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

Fabulous Fish Friday at Bridgetown Finer Meats — Home of Fabulous Fish Friday and a biggerthan-the-bread giant fish

All Saints Fish Fry — Go for the fish tacos and stay for the beer. Fried cod, grilled salmon or tilapia, fish tacos, pizza, fries (sweet potato available) coleslaw, baked potatoes, mac and cheese.

And to finish it off: Beer and wine. 5 p.m. Fridays through March 23. All Saints Church, 8939 Montgomery Road, Kenwood, allsaints.cc.

SATURDAY 24

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FRIDAY 23

sandwich. Menu also includes lobster bisque, lobster mac and cheese, Big John’s shrimp boat, famous green beans, homemade tartar sauce and coleslaw. 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Fridays through Easter.

Bridgetown Finer Meats, 6135 Bridgetown Road, Bridgetown, bridgetownfinermeats.com.

Someone You Know May Need a Birthday Cake

F E B . 2 1 – 2 7, 2 0 18

A Taste of the Finer Things with Remy Martin — Head to Brown Dog Café for a collaboration with Remy Martin. Cognac lovers will enjoy some interesting flavor pairings and combinations, including two cocktails, with a five-course tasting menu.

6:30-9 p.m. $45. Brown Dog Café, 1000 Summit Place, Blue Ash, thebrowndogcafe. com.

Most classes and events require registration and classes frequently sell out.

25

MUSIC The Art of Collaboration Poliça and s t a r g a z e bring their unique musical worlds together at Memorial Hall

BY JAS O N G A R G A N O

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

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F E B . 2 1 – 2 7, 2 0 18

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dventurous collaborations between Indie/Art Rock outfits and forwardthinking orchestral troupes have dotted the musical landscape in recent years. For proof, see none other than Bryce Dessner’s Cincinnati-set MusicNOW festival, which mixes more conventional bands like his own group, The National, with composers like Nico Muhly and Chamber music masters like Eighth Blackbird.

The latest such fruitful collaboration pairs Minneapolis ElectroPop outfit Poliça with s t a r g a z e, a German-based orchestral collective founded by composer André de Ridder. Poliça’s beat-driven, electronically enhanced approach mixes the shimmering, high-lonesome vocals of Channy Leaneagh with the sleek production work of Ryan Olson. But they’re no ordinary electro-synth outfit — a pair of drummers and an expressive bassist anchor the band’s atmospheric songs, which nonetheless leave plenty of space for the rich orchestral sounds of s t a r g a z e to enter into and enhance the picture.

The two outfits initially collaborated for a one-time live event put together by Liquid Music, a project run by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in Minnesota.

Enthralled by the results, the relationship continued, yielding the recently dropped album, Music for the Long Emergency. The live event inspired six of the record’s seven songs. The seventh, “How Is This Happening,” leapt from Leaneagh’s dazed mind the day after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The resulting 10-minute epic fuses the singer’s haunting vocals with s t a r g a z e’s rich, tension-laced backdrop, which is punctuated by a lonely, melancholic horn and throbbing atmospherics.

It’s an unpredictable musical odyssey that could only have sprung from this particular collaboration.

CityBeat recently connected with Maaike van der Linde, a Dutch-born flutist in the s t a r g a z e collective, to investigate everything from Leaneagh’s unique presence to how the current political climate impacted what would become Music for the Long Emergency. The collective’s appearance Friday is presented by the Contemporary Arts Center and MusicNOW.

CityBeat: Why were you interested in collaborating with Poliça? What, from your perspective, makes them unique or different from the other Pop/Rock/Indie musicians Poliça and s t a r g a z e s t a r g a z e has worked with PHOTO: GRAHAM TOLBERT previously?

Maaike van der Linde: What struck me was Channy’s communicating, and we want to support enchanting stage presence, which was those words and communicate our mesboth warm and ethereal and distant at sage with our music and our instruments. the same time. That, in combination with There are many moments in the music that the two super-tight grooving drummight give you a sense of impending doom, mers and a bass player who also has the because we are playing our instruments in voice of an angel, created a really special a painful-sounding way. This is how we feel sound. I could hear that there was a lot of about certain things that are happening space for us in the music because of this around us, so for us it only makes sense to instrumentation. We basically completranslate that into sound and word. ment each other. Poliça takes care of the rhythmic flow, the deeper bass sounds and CB: I read somewhere that the only the vocals and words. The harmonic side is song that started with lyrics was “How Is left quite open and sparse on Poliça’s side This Happening,” which Channy appar— there is no guitar or keys filling up that ently wrote as a reaction to Donald Trump space and that is why there is a lot of space becoming President. How did starting with for what we bring with s t a r g a z e. After Channy’s words and voice impact the writ writhearing that during their concert in Berlin, ing of the song? and after meeting them for the first time MV: Channy sung her melody and and really getting along, I could feel that words to us as an a capella song. She this was going to be a very interesting and was singing it freely, sort of unsure and fruitful collaboration. searching for direction. I started following Channy’s melody on my flute, and CB: What was it like for you, as an because there is no set meter, it was as if orchestral group, to have to incorporate lyrwe were both searching for each other to ics and vocals? How did that alter or inform connect because we both know we have to the way you wrote and performed your do something, go somewhere but we’re not contributions? entirely sure how — like walking together MV: The lyrics are very important in through the darkness and trying to stay this project. As a European/American close to each other. This way of playing group, we want to react to what is hapresonates so strongly with what Channy is pening around us, and with globalization, singing, that the whole song is based upon we are aware of what is happening on the the meaning of the words and the way other continent — or at least we think we Channy was timing them. are. Political decisions influence us all, and as musicians we want to make our CB: Speaking of “How Is This Happening,” voice heard and spread a movement that Channy drops out during the second half of creates awareness. Language is of course its 10 minutes, culminating with this quite an extremely powerful and direct way of ominous instrumental outro. When writing

a song that can seemingly go anywhere and stretches out that long, how do you know when it’s finished?

MV: Some of our songs are shorter and have a traditional song structure, and even they are filled with unusual sounds and effects. It was never our aim to write an easy-listening fast-food album. We wanted to challenge each other and our audience.

We wanted to make something different and good, so when we have 10 ideas for a song and they’re all too good, we just find a way to make it work. It becomes a longer journey or a musical collage. We experimented a lot with the structure of songs.

Sometimes two compositions became one track. In the end, Ryan (Olson) is the producer, and he helped by making a few final decisions on structure.

CB: You guys have talked about this album being a result of and a reaction to the political climate of the last two years. Yet there are no overt references to particular issues or political figures. Was that intentional? Were you wary of being too literal in that sense?

MV: You can see this album as a time document, but one that could also have been written a long time ago in a different place. Or it might be a piece of music that people relate to in 100 years — let’s hope not. But, as Channy sings, “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Poliça & s t a r g a z e: Music For The Long Emergency takes place Friday at Memorial Hall. Tickets/more show info: memorialhallotr.com.

SPILL IT

Us, Today Returns with New Single

BY M I K E B R EEN

Us, Today’s new single is out Friday.

P H O T O : U S C O M M AT O D AY. C O M

More Local Notes

Rock band O.A.R. have been getting some well-timed publicity from the Winter Olympics. Right after announcing a new album and tour, the band’s initials received attention in Olympic coverage, where “OAR” is used to designate the “Olympic Athletes of Russia,” the games’ weak-ass response to banning Russia after widespread doping by the athletes. The band has been contacted for interviews by numerous press outlets and is taking it all with a sense of humor. Though wouldn’t be more humorous if the musicians were absolutely furious about it?

Pumpkins Unsmashed (Sorta) After much build-up, “The Smashing Pumpkins” announced a “reunion” tour and, yes, trademark drama ensued. Guitarist James Iha is back from the original lineup, but bassist D’arcy Wretzky has been left out.

While band statements suggest the door remains open, in interviews, Wretzky blamed Corgan for her absence. She also released text exchanges that didn’t support her accusations, with Corgan saying she could participate as much as she wanted. In the texts, Wretzky also asked about Jack Bates (the most recent Pumpkins bassist), but initially thought he was “Jack White” (she’s a “big fan” of The White Stripes, apparently), whom she refers to as “Patty (sic) Smith’s son.”

Shock Jerks?

Marilyn Manson and Morrissey both had some, uh, “uncomfortable” moments at recent shows.

Marilyn Manson angered fans attending his Huntington, N.Y. concert after he reportedly rambled incoherently, stopped and started songs and “jammed” for an hour and 15 minutes (refunds weren’t offered). By those standards, Morrissey’s fumble in Glasgow, Scotland a few days later was like Paul Anka getting a tiny blister on his microphoneholding hand, but it was still enough to reportedly cause people to walk out mid-show. The singer asked if anyone actually liked Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, saying her “hands will be in anybody’s pockets.” Sturgeon has been staunchly against the U.K. leaving the European Union; Morrissey is pro“Brexit.” Glasgow is a hotbed of support for Scottish independence in the name of remaining in the E.U.

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C I T Y B E AT. C O M

Contact Mike Breen: mbreen@citybeat.com

O.A.R. is Not in the Olympics

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• Northern Kentucky’s pastoral Rock foursome Wallace Woods released its first single, the gentle, emotive “Father’s Son,” last year as part of a compilation of songs by artists on the SofaBurn Records label.

This Saturday, the quartet (which features members of bands like Alone at 3am and Heroes and Madmen) celebrates the release of a new self-titled EP for the label with a free show at Octave (611 Madison Ave., Covington, theoctavebar.com). Sarah Davis opens the night at 7 p.m. A limited number of hand-packaged and signed copies of the EP will be available at the show.

Find more on Wallace Woods at facebook.com/wallacewoodsband.

• Earlier this year, several Cincinnati area bands joined together at Woodward Theater to pay tribute to Tom Petty, who died unexpectedly last fall. The love and appreciation for Petty is so cross-genre-ational and vast, it seems fitting that another large tribute featuring several of our area’s finest original bands and musicians is set to take place this Saturday at the Southgate House Revival (11 E. Sixth St., Newport, Ky., southgatehouse.com).

Local acts slated to appear at the event — dubbed Tom Petty’s Last Dance — include Ben Knight & the Well Diggers, Wilder, Wilder Lost Coast, Krystal Peterson & the Queen City Band, Magnolia Mountain, Frontier Folk Nebraska, The Grove, 500 Miles to Memphis, Pike 27, 27 Boxcar Suite, The Brand, The Lovers, No Sorrow, Sorrow Moonshine & Wine, Nick Baker, Baker Arlo McKinley & Dave Faul, Calumet and The Kentucky Struts.

The show begins at 8 p.m. and tickets are $7.

BY M I K E B R EE N

F E B . 2 1 – 2 7, 2 0 18

Unique, experimental Cincinnati Rock trio Us, Today returns this week with a single, its first new publicly released music since 2015’s breakthrough album T E N E N E M I E S. That album led to touring opportunities, endorsement deals and glowing press, including a write-up in The Wall Street Journal as a result of the group’s appearance at the Secret Stages festival in Alabama. The band features Kristin Agee on vibraphone and keys (as well as electronic ornamentations), Jeff Mellott on drums and guitarist Jeff Griggs.

A preview of the band’s forthcoming album due later this year, Us, Today’s single “What is Time Now. Goodmorning?” takes its title from a spam message the group received through its Facebook page.

The similarity of Us, Today to USA Today has lead to endless messages intended for the newspaper, including, according to the press release accompanying the single, “invitations to join the illuminati.”

Who knows, though? Maybe the illuminati is looking for a good soundtrack for their meetings and future advertising campaigns. “What is Time” — an instrumental, like all of Us, Today’s music — would certainly fit that mood. A great example of the trio’s textural and eclectic compositional and arrangement skills, it’s nuanced, expressive, mysterious and enigmatic, with resonating vibraphone providing the melodic thread as the drums and guitar oscillate wildly. The sound is a wonderfully focused illustration of Us, Today at its best, as the band traverses, defines and destroys the crossroads of and borders between Indie Rock, Post Punk, Post Rock and Jazz Fusion to conjure its own distinct brand of compelling Art Rock.

“What is Time Now. Goodmorning?” will be available Friday on major platforms like Spotify and iTunes, as well as through the

group’s Bandcamp page (ustodaymusic.bandcamp.com). Us, Today is also releasing a live video to accompany the single. The clip will be available on the trio’s own YouTube channel as well as via the website for the Vic Firth company (vicfirth.com), one of the largest percussion stick and mallet manufacturers in the world. Agee and Mellott use and endorse Vic Firth products, because outside of the Broadway production of Stomp, is there another musical entity more perfectly suited for such a partnership?

This spring, Us, Today heads out for more tour dates, including a visit to Austin, Texas for the annual South by Southwest showcase/conference/festival in March.

For more on the trio, visit uscommatoday.com.

MINIMUM GAUGE

27

SOUND ADVICE

Pallbearer PHOTO: DIANA LEE Z ADLO

Pallbearer and Ruby the Hatchet

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

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

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F E B . 2 1 – 2 7, 2 0 18

Saturday • Northside Yacht Club

28

the all-new

.com

• To call Pallbearer simply a Metal band is to do the Arkansas-based quartet a grave injustice. The band definitely has made a name for itself through an evocative and sharply honed variant of Black Sabbathstyle Doom Metal, but dropping the group into that one niche ignores its moments of haunting melody, beauty and, at times, even hope. Of course, there’s no denying Pallbearer’s heavier roots once it winds up the riffs and slams them squarely across your chest.

Since its first full-length was released in 2012, Pallbearer has been iterating on the formula set forth by Doom’s forefathers.

While Sorrow and Extinction explored the boundaries beyond Black Sabbath’s sludgy recipe, 2014’s Foundations of Burden pushed the band further away from a reliance purely on auditory assault and gave the tracks even more room to breathe.

That experimentation reached a new height with the band’s most recent release, 2017’s Heartless. On the album, Pallbearer follows the branches that extend from Metal’s roots and intersperses the clambering tomes with hints (or outright elements) of genres like Prog and Classic Rock. What emerges are tracks that wrap around the listener and draw them deep into the calming depths, lulled into security by vocalist Brett Campbell’s powerful but soothing singing before rocking the boat — or shaking it violently — with rumbling Heavy Metal power. Songs like “Thorns” are built upon a Metal foundation, flowing on a rolling and romping riff before becoming a more introspective melody.

This dichotomy can be divisive, especially for adamant fans of one musical camp or another. Pallbearer doesn’t quite drive as hard as some of its Doom Metal colleagues, but the group still brings a noise that may cut into a listener’s blissful journey. When a band assembles so many layers, there’s bound to be some necessary acclimation. Luckily, the journey is half

the reward; Pallbearer creates albums for tall speakers, dim lights and big, comfy couches. These are tracks to be experienced; whether they’re heavy enough for you is another matter. What does matter is everything Pallbearer has done to surround the Doom with a complex layer of variety and depth. (Nick Grever) • If Ruby the Hatchet’s latest album, last summer’s Planetary Space Child, sounds particularly vintage, it’s because the recording approach used by the Philadelphia-based quintet was old school. Or, more accurately, “old estate.” The band decamped to a 19th-century home in the wilds of Pennsylvania that was designed by an architectural revolutionary of the time. Ruby the Hatchet used the almost supernatural acoustics of the house as a virtual sixth member in the creation of its best and most atmospheric album to date.

The band also availed itself of a wealth of vintage recording and performance gear to achieve a sound that harkens back to the simmering fury of Black Sabbath, the symphonic expanse of Deep Purple and the booming deep-space echo of Hawkwind, all energized with a contemporary jolt of energy and perspective. When the musicians started the process of recording at Kewadin, the official name of the Pennsylvania estate, they had the skeletal framework of each song, but allowed their surroundings to seep into the process. As a

Ruby the Hatchet P H O T O : T H E H AT C H E T. B A N D C A M P. C O M

Future Sounds Eyehategod/Cro-Mags – March 26, Northside Yacht Club My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult – April 12, Southgate House Revival Marco Benevento – April 13, Octave No Age – May 8, Northside Yacht Club Big Sean – May 30, PNC Pavilion Parker Millsap – May 31, Southgate House Revival Reverend Horton Heat – June 13, Southgate House Revival Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – June 23, Woodward Theater Jimmy Buffett – July 10, Riverbend

TWEN PHOTO: RIAN ARCHER

Wednesday 2/21

thu 22

wild rivers the sea to sea honeysuckle shiny & the spoon

Todd Hepburn & Friends 8-11

Fri 23

jsph, sarob

Friday 2/23

s at 24

talk, in the pines

sun 25

ceramic animal modern aquatic

tue 27

word of mouth: open poetry writer’s night w/ lucas

wed 28

the lovers kate barnette

Jess Lamb & The Factory 8-11

Thursday 2/22

The Steve Schmidt Trio 8-12

saTurday 2/24 CLOSED for private event cocktaiLs

firepLaces

Wed. - Fri. open @ 4pm | Sat. open @ 6pm

chords in Cambridge while still enrolled at Harvard. It’s also where the four members of TWEN met — in Boston, circa 2015 Though the band has since relocated to Nashville, Tenn., its debut EP — TWEN LIVE — is a woozy amalgam of its hometown’s signature sounds. The record’s title isn’t a touch of ironic embellishment. It’s actually a recording of TWEN’s first-ever show at The Trade Shack in Allston, Mass., brimming with anxious energy. Standout cut “Damsel” ripples with the languid Jangle Pop riffage of Drop Nineteens, tinged with some of Real Estate’s New Jerseyan tranquility. Stir in Blake Babies’ Folk Pop sentimentality and you’ve got the recipe for the Garage Rock that TWEN strums up with apparent ease, glistening with summery melodicism and kissed by coastal breezes.

“Mostly, we feel our music has been informed by our college years in Boston and the bands,” guitarist Ian Jones told Nashville’s The Deli Magazine in an interview last year.

There’s definitely a sense of this homesickness tucked away in TWEN’s sound.

Singer/guitarist Jane Fitzsimmons — who has designed an impressive catalog of Bandcamp album covers — sends vowel sounds spiraling into the bittersweet abyss forged by Jones and bassist Jim Connily.

Imagine Molly Rankin’s reverb-soaked yawps, sprinkle in a considerable amount of gloom and you’ll get the picture.

The quartet plans to drop a 10-song LP this spring, via Florida-based Fuzz Baby Records. Until then, the band is maintaining a steady touring schedule. (Jude Noel)

wed 21

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free live music open for lunch

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TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE SOUTHGATE HOUSE LOUNGE OR TICKETFLY.COM 2/21 - missy raines & the new hip, no sorrow; adam lee - feb artist in residence

2/24

everything is terrible

2/22 - john 5 and the creatures; alex culbreth, mike oberst (of the tillers) 2/23 - nora jane struthers & the party line, andrew leahey & the homestead; scott h. biram, the hooten hallers; the whiskey charmers 2/24 - tom petty’s last dance; vessel, the summit; ohio valley salvage

3 /2

2/27 - george shingleton 2/28 - simo, brass owl; adam lee: february artist in residence 3/1 - cash o’riley 3/2 - roots of a rebellion, elementree livity project, the cliftones; ona, calumet; patrick coman

W W W . S O U TH G A TE H O U S E.COM

3 /4 3 /8

the yugos

carriers, kid esp

anna wise

madison mcferrin, zenizen ben sollee & kentucky native, mipso

buy tickets at motr or woodwardtheater.com

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

Saturday • CincinNative Historically, Massachusetts is a hotbed for fuzzed-out College Rock. It’s where Amherst’s Dinosaur Jr. first fiddled with the Muff pedal knobs that gave You’re Living All Over Me its iconic sludginess.

Galaxie 500 strummed its first droning G

no cover

|

TWEN with GRLwood, Scanner and Spoiled Milk

Trombone Shorty/Galactic/Preservation Hall Jazz Band – Aug. 25, PNC Pavilion

1345 main st motrpub.com

F E B . 2 1 – 2 7, 2 0 18

result, Planetary Space Child is a groovetastic example of psychedelic Hard Rock layered with sci-fi/fantasy themes and performed with an amazing combination of precision and abandon.

Ruby the Hatchet blossomed in 2011 from a series of basement jams in New Jersey, quickly relocating to Philadelphia and establishing itself as a potent force in the Hard Rock/Stoner/Doom scene. The band’s moniker was the result of drunkenly misreading a T-shirt depicting Jesus and Satan shaking hands under the banner “Bury the Hatchet.”

Ruby the Hatchet self-released its debut EP in 2011 and followed it up the next year with the full-length Ouroboros. Bassist Lake Muir joined vocalist Jillian Taylor, guitarist Johnny Scarps, organist Sean Hur and drummer Owen Stewart after the departure of original bassist Mike Parise.

Muir arrived just as the band signed with Tee Pee Records for a sophomore album, 2015’s Valley of the Snake, which led to long touring runs, including shows with Cincinnati’s Electric Citizen.

After a brief respite to record Planetary Space Child, Ruby the Hatchet has returned to the road, its natural habitat. Be prepared for the best possible version of a full frontal assault on your senses. (Brian Baker)

Agent Orange – Aug. 25, Southgate House Revival

Live Music

29

LISTINGS

CityBeat’s music listings are free. Send info to Mike Breen 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.

WEDNESDAY 21

20TH CENTURY THEATER - Missio. 8 p.m. Pop/Rock. $15, $17.50 day of show.

BOGART’S - Big Gigantic with shallou. 8 p.m. Electronic/Various. $27.

H

MEMORIAL HALL Valerie June with The War and Treaty. 8 p.m. Alt/ Pop/Rock/Roots/Various. $18-$34.

H

MOTR PUB - Wild Rivers with The Sea to Sea. 9:30 p.m. Indie/Folk/ Pop. Free.

PIT TO PLATE - Working Title Steam Band. 6:30 p.m.

Steampunk/Rock/Blues/ Jazz/Various.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (LOUNGE) Adam Lee. 9 p.m. Acoustic/ Alt/Pop/Various. Free.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - Missy Raines & The New Hip with No Sorrow. 7 p.m.

Bluegrass/Americana. $8.

TAVERN ON THE BEND Carl G. 7:30 p.m. Acoustic.

Free.

URBAN ARTIFACT - Blue Wisp Big Band. 8:30 p.m.

Big Band Jazz. $10.

THURSDAY 22

H H

BROMWELL’S HÄRTH LOUNGE - Occidental Gypsy. 7:30 p.m. Jazz. Free.

CROW’S NEST - Buffalo Wabs & The Price Hill Hustle. 9 p.m. Americana. Free.

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F E B . 2 1 – 2 7, 2 0 18

THE GREENWICH - Now Hear This!. 8:30 p.m. Jazz. $5.

30

OCTAVE - The Southern Belles. 9 p.m. Rock/Funk/ Country/Jam/Various. Cover.

LIVE! AT THE LUDLOW GARAGE - The Why Store.

8:30 p.m. Rock. $10.

H

MADISON THEATER Madison Theater Band Challenge Semi-Finals with 6 Hours to Kill, National Barks, RIND, Samson, The Alphas, The Thrifters, These Fine Gentlemen and Vermont. 7 p.m. Various. $10.

THE REDMOOR Cincinnati Contemporary Jazz Orchestra: Dizzy Gillespie Centennial. 7 p.m.

Jazz. $20.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT JAZZ & ACOUSTIC CLUB Brandon Scott Coleman Trio.

8:30 p.m. Jazz. Cover.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (LOUNGE) - Alex Culbreth with Mike Oberst.

9:30 p.m. Acoustic/Folk.

Free.

H

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) - John 5 and The Creatures. 9 p.m. Rock/Progressive/Various. $18.

FRIDAY 23

H

AMERICAN SIGN MUSEUM - Signs and Songs featuring Ricky Nye Inc. 7 p.m. Blues/Boogie Woogie. $10, $15 day of show.

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Moonshine Drive. 9 p.m. Bluegrass. Free.

H

BOGART’S - Iced Earth with Sanctuary and Kill Ritual. 7:30 p.m.

Metal. $32.

MANSION HILL TAVERN Noah Wotherspoon Band. 9 p.m. Blues. Cover.

MARTY’S HOPS & VINES Encore Duo. 9 p.m. Acoustic Classic Rock/Americana.

Free.

H

MEMORIAL HALL Poliça and s t a r g a z e. 7:30 p.m. Indie/Orchestral/ Electronic/Experimental. $25, $28 day of show.

H

MOTR PUB - JSPH with Sarob. 10 p.m.

Soul/Pop/Hip Hop/Various.

Free.

OCTAVE - The Vims with Season Ten and Misnomer.

8 p.m. Rock. Free.

JAG’S STEAK AND SEAFOOD - London Street. 9 p.m. Pop/Dance/R&B/Funk/ Various. $5.

MADISON LIVE - You vs. Yesterday and Heavy Things with Softspoken, A Liar’s Eyes and Friday Giants. 7 p.m. Rock/Various. $10, $12 day of show.

H

JIM AND JACK’S ON THE RIVER - Danny Frazier. 9 p.m. Country. Free.

MOTR PUB - Honeysuckle with Shiny & the Spoon. 10 p.m. Indie/Folk/Pop. Free.

L’BURG DRINKS & MORE - Trailer Park Floosies. 9:30 p.m. Rock/Pop/Dance/Rap/ Country/Various. Free.

KNOTTY PINE - Flatline. 10 p.m. Rock. Cover.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT JAZZ & ACOUSTIC CLUB - Pat Kelly Trio. 9 p.m. Jazz.

Cover.

MOTR PUB - TALK with In the Pines. 10 p.m. Alt/Rock/ Pop/Various. Free.

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - Beat Faction Third Anniversary with DJs Troll, Mindcandy and Jay Downs.

10 p.m. DJ/Alt/Dance/Various. Free.

H

H

CINCINNATIVE TWEN with GRLwood, Scanner and Spoiled Milk. 7 p.m. Indie/Rock/Pop/Post Punk/Punk/Various.

H

THE GREENWICH B.J. Jansen’s Common Ground featuring Delfeayo Marsalis & Duane Eubanks.

8 p.m. Jazz. $15-$40.

JAG’S STEAK AND SEAFOOD - Brass Tracks Band.

9 p.m. Rock/Funk/R&B/ Dance/Various. $5.

JIM AND JACK’S ON THE RIVER - Jamison Road. 9 p.m. Country. Free.

JOCKO’S PUB - MixTape.

10 p.m. Rock/Dance/Various.

Free.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (LOUNGE) - The Whiskey Charmers. 9:30 p.m. Ameripolitan. Free.

H

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - Nora Jane Struthers & The Party Line with Andrew Leahey & The Homestea. 8 p.m. Americana. $10.

MACADU’S - Ambush. 9 p.m. Rock. Free.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) - Scott H. Biram with

MANSION HILL TAVERN Blue Ravens. 9 p.m. Blues.

Cover.

SATURDAY 24

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Working Class Villain. 9 p.m. Americana. Free.

SILVERTON CAFE - The Groove. 9 p.m. R&B/Funk/ Soul. Free.

H

Jesse Johnson, Johnny Fink, Dudley Taft and Ben Levin Duo. 8 p.m. Blues/Rock. $15, $17 day of show.

H

DOWNTOWNE LISTENING ROOM - Amy Gerhartz with Taylor Henry. 7:30 p.m. Folk/ Rock/Pop/Soul. $15.

RICK’S TAVERN - 3 Piece Revival. 10 p.m. Rock. Cover.

LIVE! AT THE LUDLOW GARAGE - Crystal Bowersox. 8 p.m. Pop/Various. $15-$40.

WASHINGTON PLATFORM SALOON & RESTAURANT - Pan Vibe Quartet.

9 p.m. Jazz. $10 food/drink minimum.

NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB - Memphis Rap Night with DJ Plan B. 8 p.m. Hip Hop/DJ.

THE COMET - Discoverer, Silvis and Useless Fox. 10 p.m. Indie/Rock/Punk/Various. Free.

THE GREENWICH - Sonny Moorman & Final Friday Blues. 8 p.m. Blues. $5.

URBAN ARTIFACT - ThunderTaker, Motel Faces, New Moons and Salvadore Ross.

7 p.m. Indie/Alt/Rock/Various. Free.

THE COMET - Fox Grin and Pop Empire. 10 p.m. Rock/ Various. Free.

ORCHIDS AT PALM COURT - Brad Myers Quartet. 9 p.m. Jazz. Free.

THE HAMILTON - Will Pope. 7 p.m. Guitar/Various. Free.

TAFT’S ALE HOUSE - “Bands & Brews: Benefiting Cincinnati Children’s” featuring 3 Piece Revival. 8 p.m. Rock

MVP BAR & GRILLE - Lying in Ruins and Blue Print. 8 p.m. Rock. Cover.

BROMWELL’S HÄRTH LOUNGE - Steve Schmidt Trio. 8 p.m. Jazz. Free.

CROW’S NEST - James Funk. 9:30 p.m. Americana.

Free.

The Hooten Hallers. 9 p.m.

Roots/Americana. $15.

LIVE! AT THE LUDLOW GARAGE - The Ballroom Thieves. 8 p.m.

Bluegrass. $12-$20.

MADISON LIVE - Southern Charm, The NantzLane Band and High Road Band.

8 p.m. Country/Rock. $8, $10 day of show.

H

MADISON THEATER Four Aces Guitar Fest with Sonny Moorman, Jay

NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB - Pallbearer and Ruby the Hatchet. 9 p.m.

Hard Rock/Doom/Progressive/Various. $12, $15 day of show.

OCTAVE - ’70s Dance Party with After Funk.

9:30 p.m. Funk/Rock/Soul/ Dance.

ORCHIDS AT PALM COURT - The Five Little Bears. 9 p.m. Jazz. Free.

H

PLAIN FOLK CAFE My Brother’s Keeper.

7:30 p.m. Bluegrass/Americana. Free.

THE REDMOOR - MS Society Fundraiser with The Generics. 7 p.m. Rock/ Dance. $25.

RICK’S TAVERN - Second Wind. 10 p.m. Rock/Soul. $5.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT JAZZ & ACOUSTIC CLUB Emily Jordan, Jordan Pollard & Judy Tsai. 9 p.m. Jazz.

Cover.

SILVERTON CAFE - Big Trouble Blues Band. 9 p.m.

Blues. Free.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - Vessel and The Summit. 9 p.m. Rots/Roots/ Various. $7.

H

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) - Tom Petty’s Last Dance featuring Ben Knight & the WellDiggers, The Grove, Pike 27,The Lovers, No Sorrow, Moonshine & Wine, Nick Baker, Arlo McKinley & Dave Faul, Wilder, Lost Coast, 500 Miles to Memphis and more.

8 p.m. Tom Petty tribute. $7 (benefiting Brighton Center).

H

STANLEY’S PUB John Kadlecik. 9 p.m.

Solo Acousti’Lectric. $10, $15 day of show.

SYMPHONY HOTEL & RESTAURANT - Ricky Nye and Bekah Williams. 8 p.m.

Jazz. Free.

TAFT THEATRE - Gaelic Storm. 8 p.m. Celtic. $32.50-$37.50.

H

URBAN ARTIFACT Strange Mechanics with Desmond Jones. 9 p.m.

Funk/Progressive/Rock/ Jam/Jazz/Various. $10.

WASHINGTON PLATFORM SALOON & RESTAURANT - Eugene Goss & Pat Kelly. 9 p.m. Jazz. $10 (food/drink minimum).

SUNDAY 25

H

MOTR PUB - Ceramic Animal with Modern Aquatic. 8 p.m. Alt/Indie/ Rock. Free.

H

THE SKELETON ROOT - Cookin’ Hearts.

2 p.m. Americana. Free.

SONNY’S ALL JAZZ LOUNGE - The Art of Jazz featuring the music of Art Blakey. 8 p.m. Jazz. Free.

MONDAY 26

MCCAULY’S PUB - Open Jam with Sonny Moorman. 7 p.m. Blues/Various. Free.

NORTHSIDE TAVERN Northside Jazz Ensemble.

10 p.m. Jazz. Free.

TUESDAY 27

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Diamond Jim Dews.

7 p.m. Blues. Free.

BOGART’S - Why Don’t We. 8 p.m. Pop. $49.

THE COMET - Ball of Light.

10 p.m. Indie Rock. Free.

H

MUSIC HALL - Rain: A Tribute to The Beatles.

7:30 p.m. Beatles tribute. $35-$68.

H

NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB - Women in Rock magazine release party with Shellshag, Black Planet and The Virginia Creepers. 9 p.m.

Rock/Punk/Indie/Various.

Free.

PUZZLE AC R O S S

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BY B R EN DA N E M M E T T Q U I G L E Y

If the following sounds like you, we’d love to speak with you:

Cincinnati CityBeat has served the Greater Cincinnati area for 22 years with cultural and political reporting, entertainment previews, food and drink reviews, events coverage and much more.

Today, we are a diverse media entity, serving our clients needs via digital, print, ecommerce, social and experience-based marketing solutions.

Our Account Executives are key members of a dedicated team, focused on mutual success for our clients and our business.

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3 Legal thing 4. Impassioned 5. Where the first sinner sinned 6. Cleaning brand 7. Org. on toothpaste tubes 8. Booming spot 9. Weight lifterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s powder 10. Threaten 11. Whitey 12. Gets better 13. Guesserâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s phrase 16. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Boy, am I stupid!â&#x20AC;?

20. Lunch from a deli 22. Lunch from a pizzeria 23. Deck with Death 24. Range name 26. Miracle-___ (green thumbâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s product) 29. Numero de dĂ­as en una semana 31. Mojave mound 32. ___ Raw (clothing line)

first contact through maintenance â&#x20AC;˘ Meet and exceed monthly, quarterly and annual sales goals

F E B . 2 1 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2 7, 2 0 18

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10. When doubled, a Hawaiian fish 14. Wanting it all 15. Soundproofed 17. Blends perfectly 18. Provided that 19. Biblical character whom Jacob fathered at age 105!

21. Alter ego of the hidden hero 22. Mailing need 25. Alternative to Rogaine 27. Cover for a teapot 28. San Diego suburb whose name means â&#x20AC;&#x153;the tableâ&#x20AC;?

30. Cut off short 33. Rial man 35. Them 36. Kittenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cry 39. Intense disrespect 41. Event to buy outdoor things?

43. Boarding pass info: Abbr.

44. Show the ropes 46. Non-believer 47. Charadeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s motion 49. Trip to the store 50. Not quite closed 53. Fisherman with pots 55. Barreled toward 56. Actor Chadwick who plays this puzzleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hero on the big screen 59. Bed board 61. Aversion 63. Soft drink that comes in Peach Citrus flavor 67. Like some runs in baseball 68. â&#x20AC;&#x153;No more for meâ&#x20AC;?

69. Its affects can last for over 8 hours 70. Some fish and chips fish 71. Actress Lupita of the movie based on this puzzleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hero

A HERO AMONG US

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