CityBeat | May 31, 2023

Small Businesses Get a Big Boost From New Hamilton County Office and Grants

Hamilton County residents now have a place to go with their questions and list of needs to start a small business.

BY MADELINE FENING

Hamilton County residents can strengthen their small business or get their idea off the ground thanks to a new county office and grant program.

The Hamilton County Commissioners’ office held its first-ever Small Business Day on May 22 at the Sharonville Convention Center to mark the opening of the new brick-and-mortar Hamilton County Office of Small Business.

The office is located in Norwood at 1776 Mentor Ave. The Hamilton County Office of Small Business is operated by Alloy Development, a commercial capital lender and startup growth lab that provides help with grant applications, business plan development, loan readiness, bid preparation and more.

Nearly 1,000 people attended the Small Business Day event, where guests could network, get connected with marketing resources, and apply for a $10,000 small business grant with the help of coaches to walk applicants through the process and answer questions.

Small business, big dreams

Antoinette Worsham is one of those business owners applying for the grant. She operates two small businesses, one of which is a women’s clothing boutique. Worsham moved her Diva Defined Boutique into a space in the Northgate Mall in November 2022, but she started her clothing business

during the height of the pandemic in July 2020. She said the government stimulus checks gave her a chance to invest in Diva Defined.

“I was like, ‘What am I going to do with all this money?’ I don’t have any grandchildren, just a granddog, and I’m a business woman anyway,” Worsham said. “I thought, ‘I’m going to open up a women’s fashion boutique.' I love fashion.”

Worsham credits the Women’s Business Center, the African American Chamber of Commerce, and the Greater Cincinnati Microenterprise Initiative for helping her to figure out Facebook marketing and SEO, skills small business owners can get connected with at the new Hamilton County Small Business Office.

“I was able to level up my business and move out of a small suite and into the Northgate Mall,” Worsham said. “I really was able to scale my business just off of Facebook.”

Giving her first small business a second chance

This time around, Worsham is hoping the $10,000 Small Business Relief Grant can help her resurrect her other small business, Medical RevCycle Management. She started RevCycle in 2019 but said the pandemic forced her business on the back burner. Worsham said the grant could help jumpstart her marketing and outreach to find new clients struggling to deal with their

medical insurers.

“I have a degree in health information management,” she said. “You go to the doctor, we code it, send it off to the insurance company, the insurance company doesn’t pay for some kind of reason, I’m on their back.”

Building a small business infrastructure

Hamilton County Commissioner Alicia Reece told CityBeat that inperson assistance for grant applicants is a game changer for small business hopefuls who already have a lot on their plate.

“It can be overwhelming. You can have a great idea but you don’t know how to write a business plan so you can go to a bank or apply for a grant because you’ve got to get the concept on paper, it has to be in a business format,” Reece said. “Coming here today you can get right to the person you need."

The county has $4 million in federal dollars to divide up amongst grant applicants, which Reese said is needed to strengthen the small business economy in Hamilton County.

“If we’re going to be a county for the future, we have to have an infrastructure for small businesses. Anyone who doesn’t have an infrastructure for small businesses, they’re gonna go down,” Reece said. “I grew up in a small business, I understand the challenges.”

Growing up, Reece said her family owned a small advertising and promotion agency, and then a banquet hall.

“There would be days she would come home from work and say, ‘We’re gonna eat beans today because we had to pay our workers,’” Reece said. “I had to learn at the banquet hall, if someone didn’t show up for work, I had to put the apron on.”

Services offered

The Hamilton County Office of Small Business lists available services on its website, including:

• One-on-One Business Coaching

- Provide coaching on business plans and connections to resources

• Group and Individual Training

- Training on targeted topics in group or 1 on 1 settings

• Funding Access - Assistance in identifying funding sources for small businesses

• Incubator Services - Alloy’s Growth Lab provides growth services for tech-enabled start-ups

Applications for the Small Business Relief Grant are still open and will be accepted through June 20.

Visit hamiltoncountyohio.gov to review a list of eligibility requirements for the grant.

Nearly 1,000 people attended the Small Business Day event, where guests could network, get connected with marketing resources, and apply for a $10,000 small business grant through Hamilton County.

PHOTO: MADELINE FENING

Fox News Digs Up 2021 Cincinnati Public Schools Memo That Mentions Trans Students

BY MADELINE FENING

Cincinnati Public Schools is pushing back against an article posted on the Fox News website that resurrects an excerpt from a 2021 Cincinnati Board of Education memo.

The article, posted May 18, says the board instructed the district to “consider reporting child abuse to child protective services if a student’s parents are unsupportive of his or her gender identity,” pointing to a Sept. 13, 2021 memo from the board’s Policy and Equity committee. The article states that the memo was distributed to all CPS principals via email at the start of the 2021 school year as the district’s official position.

“Parents may or may not be supportive of the student's gender identity,” the board’s minutes reads under a section titled “Title IX Update” on page 30. “This information should not be shared with parents if disclosing the information to parents could put the student at risk of harm at home. In that case, the administrator should also consider whether there is a mandatory duty to report child abuse to 241-KIDS.”

The article features an interview with Nicki Neily, the president of Parents Defending Education, a national organization that crusades against what it calls “gender ideology.”

But CPS told CityBeat the claims made in the story are inaccurate and misrepresented.

“Cincinnati Public Schools is aware of a Fox News article that is filled with inaccuracies and misleading inferences about the district to support their article narrative,” a CPS spokesperson told CityBeat in an email. “The District does not recommend, suggest or require any staff member to report parents or guardians for child abuse if they are

unsupportive of a student's gender identity."

A 2021 study from the American Academy of Pediatrics found transgender adolescents are more likely to be abused at home than cisgender adolescents, with 73% of transgender adolescents reporting psychological abuse, 39% reporting physical abuse and 19% reporting sexual abuse.

"In addition, our data set enabled us to examine subgroup differences in childhood abuse between [transgender adolescents and cisgender adolescents]. In particular, transgender adolescents assigned female at birth were more likely to report psychological abuse by

parents or other adults in the household," the study reads.

CPS emphasized to CityBeat that the district reports all suspected cases of child abuse, no matter the child.

"Regardless of the reason, cause or situation, staff are required to report child abuse if there is evidence or signs of abuse per the Ohio Revised Code 2151.421 in all circumstances. Cincinnati Public Schools has requested Fox News to update their article to reflect actual policy and procedures as required by law," the district said.

Fox News did not respond to CityBeat's request for comment by press time.

Republicans in the Ohio House are working to pass a bill that would outlaw gender-affirming care for minors in the state. If House Bill 68 is passed, it would prohibit physicians from prescribing cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers, and from performing any type of gender-affirming surgery on minors, which is very rare. HB 68 would also bar Ohio physicians from “aiding and abetting” gender-affirming care for minors in other states.

CPS told CityBeat the claims made in the Fox News story are inaccurate and misrepresented.

PHOTO: ELEMENT5 DIGITAL, UNSPLASH

"It is unconscionable that a public school system would casually toss families into the wood chipper of the child protective services bureaucracy based on mere speculation that parents may or may not be ‘supportive’ of a child’s gender identity," Nicki Neily told Fox News.

How to Test Your Cocaine and Other Drugs for Xylazine

BY MADELINE FENING

Xylazine, or "tranq dope," a drug with "flesh-eating" effects, has been found laced into the wider illegal drug supply in Ohio and across the country. An Ohio organization that combats overdoses is now offering ways to find out if your drugs are cut with the deadly "zombie" drug.

The SOAR Initiative (SOAR stands for Safety, Outreach, Autonomy, Respect) alerts subscribers via text or app about deadly batches of drugs, often laced with unknown amounts of fentanyl and most recently xylazine. Along with fentanyl test strips, SOAR announced on May 16 it will now start distributing xylazine test strips to keep those who use drugs safe.

What is xylazine?

Xylazine is a non-opioid veterinary tranquilizer meant for sedating animals. It’s a central nervous system depressant that can cause drowsiness and amnesia, along with slowed breathing, heart rate and blood pressure. The drug is known to cause scaly wounds on all parts of the body, known as eschar, giving xylazine the "zombie drug" nickname. When left untreated, eschar can lead to amputation of the limbs.

In a previous interview with CityBeat, Jessica Collier, a harm reduction

and outreach specialist at SOAR, said she's seen the up-close effects of xylazine.

“You can snort, smoke and inject and still get these sores anywhere on your body,” Collier told CityBeat “Wound care is super, super important, but there’s not a lot of places out there that offer it."

Unlike fentanyl, a xylazine overdose cannot be reversed through the nasal spray naloxone (name brand Narcan), making testing paramount.

How to test your drugs for xylazine

SOAR lists four steps for testing drugs for xylazine in its Instagram post:

• "Add sterile water to your empty baggie or cooker you just prepped and mix well! (Use about 5ml or 10 drops of water per 5-10 mg of substances.)"

• "Dip the strip in water wavy lines first, for 15 seconds."

• "Let strip sit for at least five minutes."

• "Check the strip – one line is positive for xylazine and two lines is negative."

Casual drug users and those struggling with substance abuse disorder

are all encouraged to test any illicit drug before use for both fentanyl and xylazine. You can order one xylazine test strip when you order five fentanyl test strips from SOAR by clicking here. Test strips are free and there is no requirement to provide a name for the order. Packages can be discreetly delivered with no return label.

Because of its limited supply, SOAR encourages those looking for fentanyl test strips in Hamilton County to first submit an order through the county by texting "FTS" to 22999.

Overdose deaths on the decline, but still high overall

Harm Reduction Ohio (HRO), an organization that equips people to fight overdose deaths and aggregates overdose data, has forecasted that overdose deaths might actually be on a slight decline in the state. HRO pulls overdose data from coroners all over the state, and investigations into some deaths can take time, meaning it's still too soon to say exactly how many Ohioans died of an overdose in 2022.

Data from HRO shows that around 5,300 Ohioans died of an overdose in 2021. Ohio had the fifth highest number of overdose deaths in the country in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Currently, Xylazine is not a federally controlled substance, meaning it's easier to obtain and difficult to track. The high overall overdose death rate in Ohio is largely caused by the high level of unknown drugs like fentanyl and xylazine laced into common street and party drugs like cocaine, heroine and pressed pills, according to Harm Reduction Ohio.

"Most people don’t know that Ohio has drug use levels that are below the national average. Our state’s overdose epidemic has been driven by dangerous adulterants coming into Ohio’s drug supply earlier than in other states," HRO writes on its site.

HRO also pulls illicit drug testing data from crime labs across the state, showing at least 18% of the state's cocaine supply was laced with an unknown level of fentanyl in 2022, the highest adulteration level among all illicit drugs.

Data on the level of xylazine found in Ohio's illicit drug supply is not yet available, but coroners across the country are starting to see more people killed by the drug, prompting the Biden administration to designate fentanyl adulterated or associated with xylazine as an emerging threat to the United States in April.

To sign up for SOAR's deadly drug batch alerts, southwest Ohio subscribers can text "SOAR" to 513-447-6276.

To sign up for SOAR's deadly drug batch alerts for Southwest Ohio, text "SOAR" to 513-447-6276.

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

Thousands of Black Market Botox Injections Seized by Federal Agents in Cincinnati

BY MADELINE FENING

As the desire for fuller lips and younger-looking skin swells in the US, so does the black market for injectable products.

According to a news release from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), two Cincinnati CBP officers seized thousands of unapproved cosmetic injectables such as Botox, Juvéderm, and other fillers during the last week of April and first week of May.

The department said the shipments originated in Bulgaria, Spain, China, Hong Kong and Korea to be distributed throughout the United States. A single shipment of Botox from Hong Kong held 10 vials, or about 1,500 injections.

Cosmetic injectables are used to treat an array of health problems, but are most often used to treat aesthetic concerns such as smoothing wrinkles on the face and pumping up the size of a patient’s lips. A number of different injectable types were seized by CBP officers in Cincinnati, including:

• Botox

• Juvederm

• Meditoxin

• Radiessa

• Dermalax

• Neuramis

• Restylane

• Hutox

• Sculptra

The value of all the seized injectable shipments would have had a combined value of $175,399, according to the release.

“Purchasing unapproved injectables, such as Botox, is a health and safety risk,” said Cincinnati Port director Richard Gillespie. “Cheaper is not always better, especially when it concerns your family’s health and welfare. The officers in Cincinnati diligently work to intercept illegal shipments and ensure safety to the American people.”

Assistant commissioner for import operations, Dan Solis, said the Food and Drug Administration is keeping a sharp eye on illegal injectables.

“The FDA is especially concerned about the illegal importation of injectable prescription medications, as these drugs may pose a significant risk to patients,” Solis said. “Like the drugs seized by our partners at CBP, there is no way to know whether these drugs were made under good manufacturing practice conditions, and sterility of these products are not always assured.”

The department urges anyone who is interested in cosmetic injectables to seek out a licensed medical professional who can assess the product and package quality and monitor patients for potential adverse effects.

As the desire for fuller lips and younger-looking skin swells in the U.S., so does the black market for injectable products.

PHOTO: JONATHAN BORBA, PEXELS

THE SHOW MUST GO ON

How Cincinnati’s music venues are stillsurviving challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Local musicians, including Mol Sullivan (pictured), managed to find inspiration and creativity amid the obstacles presented during the pandemic.

PHOTO: BROOKE SHANESY, JESSIE CUNDIFF, KINSLEY SLIFE, JESSIE HOFFMAN AND ANDREW ELABAN

In March of 2020, music venues across the world were forced to temporarily close as cases of COVID-19 began to rise. For the first time ever, Cincinnati’s music venues had to think outside the box to give locals the one thing they desperately needed amid the isolation of a global pandemic: community. No matter what they had to do to bring music and community to Cincinnatians — virtual performances, limited-capacity concerts and major career pivots — local venues, producers and musicians were willing to take a chance.

In a survey conducted by the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) in June of 2020, 90 percent of independent venue owners, promoters and bookers said that they would have to permanently close in the following

months if they did not receive additional funding. Despite the unprecedented threat, none of Cincinnati’s independent music venues have permanently closed since the COVID-19 pandemic first halted operations in March of 2020. In fact, Cincinnati gained two new venues out of the pandemic — MegaCorp Pavilion and the Andrew J Brady Music Center.

To get a sense of how Greater Cincinnati’s music scene is bouncing back and overcoming obstacles presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, CityBeat spoke with local music venues, musicians, producers and tour managers who are working to keep the heart and soul alive in the local music scene.

Business Booms — and Margins Slim — as Big Cincinnati Concert Venues Push Onward

BY KILLIAN BAARLAER

If you thought 2021 was a hard year for you, imagine trying to open a major new music venue in it. Both MegaCorp Pavilion — once known as PromoWest Pavilion at OVATION — and The Andrew J Brady Music Center opened that year as the COVID19 pandemic continued to drag on. Located in entertainment districts along

the Ohio River, the venues were in prime positions to host big-name acts with large crowds of concertgoers who could spend money at nearby businesses — but they found themselves navigating what it meant to promote and host concerts in a market that was vastly changed by the pandemic.

As more established venues learned as

well, it was a matter of adjusting to new regulations and expectations almost on the fly. Maximum capacities had been stripped back, masking requirements were the new normal and proof of vaccination or recent COVID testing was common. Parlay these uncharted protocols with fluctuating case numbers that put virtually any show at risk of being canceled, along with buyer hesitancy spawned by increased ticket prices and health safety concerns, and Cincinnati suddenly had a music scene that needed to get its swagger back.

When MegaCorp Pavilion opened that August, they faced the risk of shows being canceled even while grappling with the challenges of building a reputation in a new city. It didn’t knock them off track.

Even so, a few shows that were canceled for various reasons muddied operations during the first few months that the venue was open to the public. Some concertgoers were wracked with hesitancy, doubting if a given show would actually happen, and others were uncomfortable entering crowded and confined public spaces — even as the venue aimed to establish itself as a power player in the local music scene, Marissa McClellan, the marketing director for MegaCorp Pavilion, tells CityBeat “We started building the venue before anyone had ever heard of COVID, so we definitely weren’t planning for something like that to happen…We opened to a completely different world than we were used to,” McClellan says.

The learning curve was steep. But as both MegaCorp Pavilion and the region’s other big venues soon realized, with new challenges came new opportunities.

New, post-pandemic norms

As live music returned, venues scrambled to design new strategies to accommodate fans’ safety concerns about attending live events, while artists’ increased asking prices narrowed profit margins, often resulting in additional fees being passed on to ticket buyers. The months following the height of the pandemic proved unpredictable.

MegaCorp Pavilion and Madison Theater report surging attendance at shows in the backend of 2021, outperforming pre-pandemic expectations, presumably because of fan fervor to re-engage with events and rituals that had been halted during the first year of the pandemic, according to both McClellan and Frank Hulefeld, programming director at Madison Theater.

Todd Duesing, chief operating officer and vice president of Cincinnati Arts Association, which manages Cincinnati Music Hall and the Aronoff Center, says following the return to full capacity in late 2021, venues noted an unusually high number of paying no-shows. Although there’s no exact science to identify the reasons for increased noshows, Duesing believes that people decided last-minute not to attend the concerts that they had purchased tickets for after thinking over the potential

The War On Drugs perform at MegaCorp Pavilion. | PHOTO: RON VALLE

threat of spreading COVID. This trend has tempered in the past year-and-ahalf, says Duesing, although concertgoers generally continue to be more wary about spreading and catching illnesses than they were before the pandemic.

In turn, venues have modified their strategies to adapt to new consumer habits and COVID-related health standards.

Cincinnati Symphonic Orchestra first offered livestream shows in September 2020 when in-person concerts were prohibited, transitioning into hybrid format shows with online and limited capacity in-person attendance options in January 2021. Hybrid format shows are now a mainstay in CSO’s concerts at Music Hall, according to Duesing, balancing the brightness of live music with inclusivity for those who can’t get in the room physically.

This model has been especially helpful for sharing the symphony experience with schools around the city that are typically unable to transport children to see CSO shows at Music Hall, says Duesing.

Increased competition

An abundance of big-name shows heightened by the expanded network of major venues in Greater Cincinnati has created a crowded concert market with plenty of opportunity for fans. However, fans often have limited income that they are willing to spend on concerts. With venues trying to optimize profitability through ticket sales, they’ve had

to consider how to draw people to their shows instead of their competitors’.

“Let’s say you’re some 25-year-old and you’ve got 100 bucks to spend every six months approximately on concerts — you get one or two shows. Well, now, there’s so many shows going that the likelihood that one or two [shows] that person is going to attend is at your venue is greatly diminished,” says Hulefeld.

To cope with the tenacious competition in the Cincinnati market, Hulefeld sets his sights on shows he knows will turn heads and draw crowds, sacrificing some shows to other venues in order to get the ones he’s confident will be profitable.

Some fans are struggling to keep up with the cascade of shows. “We’re competing with our own dollars with how many shows we’re putting through the market. You know, the general person only has so much money that they can spend on their ticket,” McClellan says.

At the same time, artist fees have risen, with many demanding higher “artist guarantees” than before the pandemic. That forces venues to operate with tighter margins and pass on bloated ticketing fees to consumers.

“We tend to not make a ton of money, but the money we make through shows or through small, incremental revenues are enough to really keep our venues operating,” Duesing tells CityBeat. “It’s a challenge, particularly with more and more that artist guarantees increase.”

Stubborn inflation gives artists a rationale for demanding higher guarantees,

Duesing says. While this slims the monetary wiggle room for venues, they are left with limited alternatives — meeting artist demands is necessary to keep the venue programmed, he says. Music Hall has experimented with new streams of revenue to compensate for some of this loss, such as VIP and pre-show exclusive ticket package options, says Duesing.

The competition can be fierce. Hulefeld recalls stout bids for sought-after shows getting outbid by other local venues.

During the bidding process, musical artists scheduling tours solicit proposal offers from multiple venues within the markets they want to play in. If an artist expresses interest in playing a show in Cincinnati, tour agents will usually reach out to multiple venue promoters in the area to shop for the most attractive offer. Beating out offers by Madison Theater’s competing venues has been a challenge, says Hulefeld.

Madision Theater joined D Tour, a national collaborative of independently programmed venues that works with artists, to get a piece of the bustling action in touring. D Tour acts symbiotically with artists by connecting partnered venues with artists. Artists who schedule shows at partnered venues are referred to other D Tour venues around the country, helping venues land touring acts and also helping musicians simplify the task of booking a series of shows.

Even with plenty of big venues, Jonathan “Jon Jon” Curl of Kiss 107.1 FM says Cincinnati is often an overlooked

destination for artists making on-air appearances and performing at shows promoted by iHeartRadio syndicates. Many artists will opt for fewer stops in larger markets along the iHeartRadio trail, leaving Cincinnati off their travel plan, he says.

But not all. Duesing says the variety of venues catering to different audiences and different musical styles makes Cincinnati an alluring destination for touring acts. The ecosystem of venues supports musicians’ career trajectory, boasting both places for artists to perform when they’re a nascent star and steps up in venues to host visits as their fame climbs.

“We can have somebody play in a 400-seat room, and they can jump up to 1,000-seat rooms, and then they can jump to 2,700, and then they can get to 4,000,” says Duesing. “So it’s nice to have all those different levels because we can follow the progression of an artist.”

Cincinnati: A musical city

Music venues around the city have seemingly arrived at the consensus that competition is a healthy aspect of the business that empowers the music scene and gives concertgoers a good problem to have: choice.

A total of 932 concerts and performance arts events were held in Cincinnati in 2021, rocketing to 1,461 in 2022 and currently sitting at 870 through August of 2023, according to data collected by PredictHQ and provided by

Somerset, which opened in 2021, dealt with unique issues, like supply chain interruptions, that were

a direct result of the pandemic. | PHOTO: SOMERSET

Randie Adam, vice president of marketing and visitor experience at Visit Cincy. “Competition is good, right? That means the area is going to get a lot of shows, especially with two very new venues. A lot of shows are coming to the market that maybe wouldn’t have before,” says McClellan.

Any given night serves up a diverse offering of things to do, from live music, sporting events, bars and restaurants. While increased entertainment options pose exciting opportunities for many, the emergence of new sites has posed some issues for long-established venues.

Since opening in May 2021, TQL Stadium has heightened traffic and parking concerns for its neighbor, Music Hall, whenever the venues host events at the same time.

“We’re just now feeling the effects of having a stadium and a historic theater next to each other, and the audiences are trying to adjust to being at the same place at the same time. We’re making it, together, as neighbors and partners,”

Duesing tells CityBeat.

But logistical hurdles don’t detract from the real prize: the city’s

entertainment industry is booming.

Options for entertainment are again cementing Cincinnati as a tourist destination. In 2021, a year that was at least partially dampened by the pandemic, Cincinnati’s overnight visitors spent $182 million on recreation and entertainment — 14% of their total expenditures, according to data provided by Adams. This figure is inching steadily toward the $223 million high achieved by Cincinnati in 2017.

Curl, contemplating how the ecosystem of large music venues in Cincinnati has changed since the pandemic, recalls a night in May 2022. The Who played at TQL Stadium in front of a packed crowd, while Paycor Stadium filled up to see Garth Brooks. Two crowds, each containing tens of thousands of people, convened at separate locations on the same night. Curl believes this example is a testament to the big potential for business that exists in Cincinnati. Despite the new, unexpected obstacles presented by the pandemic, the results speak for themselves: give the people what they want, and the crowds will come.

Local artists — and indie venues — found ways to survive, and even thrive

BY BRENT STROUD

Alittle over three years out from the start of the world-halting global pandemic that led to a seemingly ever-extending period of uncertainty, local venues and musicians recall their experience.

Facing down uncertainty

The Cincinnati music community has been a constantly developing and largely thriving group of creative circles influencing each other — and at times, even the world — for decades. The city is filled with bands, singers, rappers and musicians from all walks of life creating and entertaining in bars, venues and clubs nightly.

That came to an abrupt stop in March 2020.

Northside Tavern owner Ed Rush tells CityBeat how it felt in the beginning. It was becoming obvious that COVID19 would be a national issue, but, as Rush says, “No one really expected how wide-ranging the outcome would be.” He recalls the last days of being open before the statewide shutdown: “We were open, but people were getting scared, and then we had to absolutely close at 9 p.m. March 15, 2020.”

MOTR Pub and Woodward Theater co-owner and proprietor Chris Schadler

tells CityBeat, “We closed down March 2020, so it was like ‘OK, let’s see what happens,’ and things just got worse and worse and worse.” After ten full months with the doors closed, Schadler says he began to really feel the uncertainty when they reached the point where they had to start getting rid of expired food and drink inventory. “The possibility crossed my mind that we would not reopen again.”

The sudden stop was no less jarring for artists. Siri Imani, a local hip hop artist, poet and community organizer, spoke with CityBeat about her experience in that first year. “It was a rough time spiritually and financially,” she said. “Everyone was disconnected and it really didn’t seem it would ever end.”

Drummer Rob Stamler of local acts such as The Harlequins, Grotesque Brooms and Ernie Johnson from Detroit also felt the abrupt change.

“My favorite aspect of music is playing live and going to see live music,” Stamler said. “With that being said, I was super depressed that none of these things were going to happen for a while… Honestly, it was brutal. I had some really pivotal musical opportunities that were going to take shape in the summer and fall of 2020 but were obliterated by the virus.”

Peyton Copes, a Cincinnati-based

tour manager for artists including Waxahatchee, was on the road when he said he got a call from a Live Nation representative saying that shows would be canceled that day and for the next five days. That, of course, turned into the rest of the year. Copes says he didn’t get back on the road until August of 2021.

On the other hand, the pandemic offered some musicians a reset. Vacation

frontman Jerome Westerkamp says things shut down after the band’s tour ended on March 7. With his newfound free time, he settled into producing music for himself and others at his recording studio, Checkered Flag.

“I remember thinking, ‘Finally, this feels like the job I want to be doing — wait a minute, why can’t this be my job?’” He went on to complete three records

“No one really expected how wide-ranging the outcome would be,” Northside Tavern owner Ed Rush tells CityBeat of the pandemic’s impact. |

PHOTO: AIDAN MAHONEY

The pandemic inspired Sam Richardson to finally make his side hobby, Feel It Records, a full-time effort. | PHOTO: JULIE FERGUSON

during the height of the pandemic in 2020. “The music and creativity only blossomed during this time period, and I’ve tried to keep that freight train running ever since,” Westerkamp said.

Singer-songwriter Mol Sullivan also used the height of the pandemic to refocus her priorities.

“I figured if it wasn’t an option to be actively pursuing music, I could at least start chipping away at some deeply settled insecurities so that I would be ready to hit the ground running as my most confident self when the world opened back up,” Sullivan said.

Cincinnati transplant Sam Richardson said the pandemic forced him into a “sink or swim type moment” when his unemployment initially didn’t get approved and he made the move to turn his then-hobby label, Feel It Records, into a full-time operation.

The pandemic also brought a handful of new bands. Singer-guitarist Will Ross says that though it wasn’t apparent at first, “having all the time in the world to just practice away was a blessing.” He recalls writing around 50 new songs over the pandemic. “I got a chance to just reimagine what kind of music I could make, and think it really paid off.”

It seems it has, as Ross’ post-pandemic band Willie and the Cigs has emerged as one of the city’s most sought-after acts coming out of the first year of the pandemic, along with peers such as Spoils, TV Art and CLEÖCRT among others.

Finding alternatives to connection and expression

Both venues and artists found ways to keep moving forward and try to come out the other side of the pandemic intact. One integral part of this for venues was government assistance offering much needed lifelines to help keep venues from disappearing from the cultural landscape — in some cases, by way of grassroots organizing.

NIVA (National Independent Venue Association) was formed by a group of industry members who were largely responsible for advocating for the Save Our Stages Act, now known as the Shuttered Venues Operators Grant Program (SVOG). The program earned approval and became the largest U.S. federal investment in the arts, allocating $16 billion in funds administered by the SBA (Small Business Administration) to preserve arts organizations, including venues. Schadler likened the SBA’s help to a jumpstart.

Through all of this, with doors literally shuttered in some instances, things felt increasingly uncertain. Musicians and audiences alike had a need for distraction and continued creativity. DIY instincts kicked in and a handful of forward-thinking individuals helped get things moving again, at least a little bit.

It was during this time that the music community went online, outdoors and underground. Steve Schmoll, owner of West Side record store and venue Black Plastic, used equipment he had from doing live sound and bought webcams to broadcast live streamed performances from the shop starting in June of 2020, when bands and audiences had no outlet for live music. “We got a lot of positive feedback. The song would end and there is silence, but you look at the Facebook feed and see that 100 people are watching, and that is the applause.”

In Northside, Liz and Josiah Wolf opened their home to musicians and audiences in August 2020. They called it Hexagon House, and at the now defunct personal residence/venue, musicians would perform from the home’s stylishly decorated deck to an audience spread across the back lawn.

The DIY ethos took a similar path at Lambda Research, an artist collective, studio and gallery where organizers Blake Lipper and Drew Christman explain they realized the potential of the space they had occupied with friends and fellow artists through the worst of the pandemic. To help preserve a place for independent, underground culture, they added “music venue” to the space’s list of purposes as things started loosening up in the early winter of 2021.

Reopening

Just like a ghost light on a theater stage

always staying lit, Cincinnati venues held on and, luckily, never fully went dark. On May 21, 2020, Ohio allowed venues to reopen. Kentucky soon followed, allowing music venues to host limitedcapacity shows beginning June 29.

Northside Tavern reopened on a Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend. Rush says they had to close no later than 10 p.m. until February of 2021, so the bar didn’t have live music until that spring. Woodward Theater opened for private events in spring 2021 and they held off for the smaller, MOTR Pub until June of that same year.

canceling bookings from local and touring bands.

Other CDC guidelines and reopening orders required venues to follow protocols such as maintaining distance between both employees and patrons and using physical barriers when distancing wasn’t possible, as well as encouraging surface cleaning, masking and hand cleanliness, among others.

Jessica Rusch, a longtime bartender at Junker’s Tavern, tells CityBeat about throwing out the compact bar’s booths in place of much smaller tables to make space, in addition to the plastic barriers

Reopening was by no means without hiccups. The celebration was cut short briefly for MOTR Pub when someone contracted COVID-19 from a wedding held at the Woodward within the first few months of hosting live performances again, and they had to shut down, following CDC guidelines, for two weeks,

and hand sanitizer that became a regular sight at the beginning of the reopening phase of the pandemic.

In addition to health concerns, the reopening process wasn’t without its own set of obstacles. Supply chain issues were an after-effect felt by many. Staffers at Somerset and Alice have a unique

“I remember sitting back by the lamp (at the far corner of the bar looking on to the stage) and I was just filled with kind of joy, like, ‘My god, this is so nice, there’s somebody on stage, and the lights and glow,’” Chris Schadler said of the feeling he got when MOTR Pub finally reopened.

Like many other local venues, MOTR Pub faced mandated closures as a result of positive COVID-19 cases. | PHOTO: AIDAN MAHONEY

perspective, having opened during the pandemic. Creative director and partner James Fisher tells CityBeat about the many delays and setbacks the Lost Hospitality group, which owns both Somerset and Alice, experienced preparing to open during a global pandemic that were even more magnified since the ambitious establishments include materials sourced from all over the world. The stone used for their bar tops was delayed from Sri Lanka arriving two weeks before opening day after being stuck in the news-making Suez Canal backup in 2021. Fisher also says, “Sourcing some booze was weird, we’ve had some supply chain hiccups even this year.”

Northside Tavern’s Rush recalls “any item could be out for any number of weeks, reappear, then be unavailable again.” He adds, “Customers were, and are, very understanding about this.”

Watts says Schwartz’s Point even had to change the menu at times due to supply issues.

Rising costs was yet another obstacle. Somerset and Alice were hit hard with shipping container costs going up. Also, Fisher mentions with a laugh, “The cost of lemons goes up 300% and I need to buy 700.” Venues are dealing with these rising costs and trying to shield customers. Fisher says, “I don’t think we really passed on any price increases, we tried to keep it affordable.” Watts says the same, comparing it to a “balancing act” trying to keep prices down when costs go up.

For musicians, reopening was a breath of fresh air, returning to normal and getting back on track. Stamler talked about understanding some people’s hesitancy to return to live shows, but he was more than ready for “something normal.” As for hiccups in the process, Imani recalls, “Audiences had to relearn concert experiences, artists had to brush up on performances. And all while being anxiety ridden about catching COVID.”

Jeff Seeger, frontman of Stallone N’ Roses, remembers crowds being “so stiff” at first. “They’d get up then sit right back down,” Seeger said. “It felt like you

almost had to have permission to have a good time.”

This seems to reflect in the gradual recovery experienced by venues as well. Venue owners explain that things didn’t snap right back, but recovery has been gradual. Things seem to be leveling back out, as they all seem to agree that things are getting back to normal, with business improving each year consecutively and now getting back to pre-COVID numbers.

The Queen City is getting her groove back

As the pandemic seems to have mostly drawn to a close, it looks like we’re on the other side of darker times.

“Things are basically back to normal. It’s less and less common to have to present vax cards and/or negative tests, shows are selling to full capacity, attendance rates are higher than when we were deeper in the pandemic, basically no one is wearing masks,” Copes says of the international touring scene.

Locally, they may even be better. There are a ton of new bands, singers and talent adding to the already stellar music community and lineage that helps make the city what it is. Also, in addition to not losing any venues during COVID, new venues have opened up, and with them came new opportunities.

The stage lights are warmed up, bars are restocked, venues are open for business and the varying music communities are alive and well.

“I’d say the music scene has gotten 110% stronger since the COVID experience. Folks have moved to this city from elsewhere (for the first time ever?), great bands and labels have formed, show attendances have been exceptional and people have really taken notice of music coming out of Cincinnati,” Westerkamp says. On any given night, audiences have the opportunity, once more, to experience one of the most significant parts of their city, buzzing again with life and sound.

Music Hall found a new way to connect with patrons through virtual performances during the pandemic. | PHOTO: AIDAN MAHONEY

ARTS & CULTURE

An Artistic Quest for Calm

Wave Pool is hoping to slow down speeding drivers with a new art installation in Camp Washington.

BY KILLIAN BAARLAER

Wave Pool is taking art to the streets this summer with the mission to create safer roads through their Art for Pedestrian Safety project.

Wave Pool executive director Cal Cullen recalls a handful of occasions that Wave Pool’s building has been crashed into by vehicles in its almost nineyear tenure on the corner of Colerain Avenue and Rachel Street in Camp Washington. Luckily, a traffic-calming solution that aims to slow drivers down and reduce traffic accidents that perfectly aligns with Wave Pool’s mission has gained traction around the country and in Cincinnati: street murals.

“Our medium really is the community,” Cullen tells CityBeat. “It can be any kind of medium so long as we’re focusing on solving community issues.”

The Wave Pool street mural project will extend the curb by using street paddles to contain artwork painted on the street by the corners of the sidewalk. By reducing the space drivers have to take turns, the curb extensions will

force drivers to slow down to take the turn. One street mural will sit directly in front of the corner of the intersection of Colerain Avenue and Rachel Street that Wave Pool occupies, and spans 20.5 feet. The other street mural will be on the adjacent corner of the Colerain Avenue and Rachel Street intersection, occupying 24 feet of Colerain Avenue and 25 feet of Rachel Street. The murals will consist of an arrangement of overlapping native plants with pastel greens, yellows and blues.

The City of Cincinnati’s Pedestrian Safety Projects program identifies areas where traffic patterns lead to pedestrian vulnerability and creates solutions to help combat traffic-related deaths.

Melissa McVay, manager of the Pedestrian Safety Projects program, says street murals increase traffic safety by grounding vehicle operators in a sense of place through shared public art.

The use of street murals to prevent traffic accidents has proven to be effective around the country in a range of settings. A study by Bloomberg

Philanthropies that tested the number of traffic accidents before and after the installation of asphalt art across a range of sites — high-density urban, medium to low-density urban and suburban — found that crash rates dropped 17.3% after street murals were installed. Crashes resulting in injury fell 36.5% and crashes involving vulnerable travelers, like pedestrians, scooter users and cyclists, fell 49.6%.

Anecdotally, McVay says street murals that have been installed around the city have been effective in getting people to slow down. Other street murals in the city, like the one in front of Frederick Douglass Elementary School on Park Avenue in Walnut Hills, are mid-block and intersection street murals.

“We do hear that from residents that they feel like, at least when the murals first go in that, yeah, people do slow down and check it out,” says McVay.

The Wave Pool street mural will be the first curb extension mural in the city, says McVay, combining a tested traffic-slowing method — curb extensions — with artistic elements.

“They (street murals) do slow people down. They do have a purpose, but I think pairing them with curb bumpout paddles will double efforts, really,” Cullen says.

Wave Pool held an open call in April and May of 2023 to community artists, soliciting design idea submissions.

Hannah Parrett, an adjunct instructor at the University of Cincinnati’s DAAP School of Art, and Miranda Holmes,

Wave Pool’s new street mural project will take over cross streets in front of their Camp Washington location.

PHOTO: EMORY DAVIS

“The research shows that when we create these places that are unique and interesting, drivers slow down, because I think there’s two things happening,” says Melissa McVay. “One, you can tell that somebody cares about this place, right? Because somebody has put effort into it, and so it’s intriguing. I think the other thing is that it’s something new and something different in the street and so drivers by nature kind of slow down.”

an adjunct instructor at the Ohio State University’s Department of Art, teamed up on designs that were selected by a jury of community members and artists assembled by Wave Pool.

Parrett and Holmes’ earthy design features a composition of native plants, lithely arranged in layered patterns that suggest movement and the harmonious relationship of local plant life.

Design criteria for street murals is relatively lax. Artists can take liberties with colors and pictorial representations so long as they don’t include words, universally recognized images and logos, or symbols that could be confused for traffic signals, according to the Paint the Streets guidelines. This gives communities and artists the opportunity to create something that truly reflects the community’s aura and values.

By inserting imagery of local plant life in a bustling urban neighborhood, Holmes and Parrett hope to spark passerby’s consciousness and appreciation for surrounding natural wonders. “It kind of stimulates curiosity about what is a native plant even, and how come we don’t see them that often,” says Parrett.

Parrett anticipates the design will wow drivers and passersby, which she imagines will encourage more drivers to slow down and take in the street murals.

Wave Pool received funding for this project from a grant from Keep Cincinnati Beautiful as a part of their Safe and Clean program, which accepts

applications for projects concerning community safety and livability with neighborhood-level development projects. The Wave Pool street mural project, with its hybrid pedestrian and traffic safety and aesthetic-enhancing outcome, was seen as a great community-building solution by Keep Cincinnati Beautiful grant reviewers, says Ania Cosby, who manages their Safe and Clean grants.

“Art, it can really be tied into safety. When you have areas that are having murals and art projects on the ground and everywhere, you create a sense of community pride and usually people don’t want to do crime,” Cosby told CityBeat. Community art, despite not being a definitive solution, can be a good building block for continued improvement of neighborhood safety, says Cosby.

The Wave Pool street murals are scheduled to be painted in June and July. The date in which the murals will be unveiled to the community has yet to be announced. Along with Parrett and Holmes, community volunteers are invited to help in the painting process.

“Being able to work on something this large, this public, the possibility of bringing in other people to help, I think, kind of adds a different kind of power to the image-making,” says Holmes.

Cullens tells CityBeat that Wave Pool currently videotapes the corner of Colerain Avenue and Rachel Street, where the street murals will be located, so they will be able to visually assess whether drivers are slowing down after the murals’ installation. And of course,

for Wave Pool to measure the success of Wave Pool’s Art ,

A mockup of one of Wave Pool’s street murals.

PHOTO: MIRANDA HOLMES AND HANNAH PARRETT

Cincinnati Ballet Provides Immersive Dance Experience with Second-Annual Bold Moves Festival

BY MEGAN FINKE

The Cincinnati Ballet is closing out its 2022-2023 season with the second-annual Bold Moves Festival, featuring world-renowned choreographers’ work across two programs, interactive events and immersive performances, providing an opportunity for many to experience a new style of dance.

The festival features two programs held on various dates from June 9-18 for the community to enjoy at the Aronoff Center for the Arts.

“I think the festival, how it stands out is it has a more robust offering of events and I think that is what makes it stand apart from our other programming. Each program that we present gives the audience a lot of opportunity to engage,” Cincinnati Ballet Artistic Director Jodie Gates said.

Nicole Doll, Cincinnati Ballet’s vice president of marketing and brand strategy, said the company wanted to give the audience something different but still highlight the dancers’ and choreographers’ talents.

“We wanted to create an experience for our community, as well as for people who might want come from other parts of the country and experience some really high caliber contemporary choreography, and also experience some dance genres that they perhaps hadn’t experienced before,” Doll said.

With the festival split up into two programs, Gates said those who attend will have the chance to see two completely different shows.

“Each program has a contemporary aesthetic, so it’s seeing ballet through a contemporary lens,” Gates said.

The first program will take place at 8 p.m. June 9, 2 p.m. June 10, 7:30 p.m. June 15, 8 p.m. June 17 and 1 p.m. June 18. The program features choreography by Cincinnati Ballet’s resident choreographer, Jennifer Archibald, and veteran choreographer William Forsythe, who has worked for the Paris Opera Ballet, Boston Ballet and English National Ballet. There will also be a performance by flamenco artist Irene Rodríguez.

“We have a guest artist, Irene

Rodríguez, and she’s a flamenco artist,” Gates says. “She trained classically at the National Ballet of Cuba in Havana and now she’s a flamenco artist, and she’s going to be taking the stage and performing on the same evening as our beautiful dancers,” Gates said. “The two other works on the program give you a variety of what classical ballet looks like within a contemporary format.”

The second program will be performed 8 p.m. June 10, 1 p.m. June 11, 8 p.m. June 16 and 2 p.m. June 17, and will feature choreography by Val Caniparoli, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Garrett Smith.

“Program two has three completely different pieces, each of which give a narrative of sorts by three different choreographers,” Gates said.

The second program will also host a special LGBTQ+ Pride night during the performance on Friday, June 16. Those who attend will receive a free Cincinnati Ballet Rainbow Legs poster and, following the performance, Somerset will host an afterparty.

Doll said that Cincinnati Ballet’s seasons don’t typically run through June, so they were excited to incorporate Pride festivities into the Bold Moves Festival this year.

“(This year’s Bold Moves Festival) is in June, which is kind of cool because it coincides with Pride Month, so we’re able to have a Pride night at the festival this year, which is really awesome,” Doll said.

Tickets start at $29 and can be purchased on the Cincinnati Ballet’s website.

In addition to the performances, the festival includes various activities like free art installations, partner exhibits and interactive photo opportunities at the Aronoff Center.

“The sort of array of opportunities to see dance in different ways is exciting for our audiences, and to bring dance to everyone and make it accessible is really, I think, something that I believe our community really loves,” Gates said.

Bold Moves Festival guest artist Rodríguez will lead a dance class on June 13 at 6:30 p.m. in the Sheakley Family Premier Studio. Admission is $5.

There will be a Pride night screening of the dance documentary, DANSEUR, which shares the struggles of men who are pursuing their ballet dreams. The screening will take place at the Margaret and Michael Valentine Center for Dance on June 14 at 6:30 p.m. and will be available for those who have tickets to program two. In addition, there will be screenings at the Aronoff Center during each performance where any ticket holder can drop-in.

The Cincinnati Ballet’s Second Company, which is a select group of 14 up-and-coming dancers, will perform classical and contemporary pieces on June 14 at 8 p.m. at the Jarson-Kaplan Theater. Tickets start at $20 and the performances will include Confetti by Gerald Arpino, In Auxiliary by Heather Britt, I Feel Good by David Morse and more.

“What’s great about this festival is the real opportunity to experience an array of world class, internationally recognized choreography,” Doll says.

“It’s contemporary; it’s something that regional ballet companies typically can’t really do.”

Cincinnati Ballet’s Bold Moves Festival takes place June 9-18 at the Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut St., Downtown. Info: cballet.org.

Cincinnati Ballet’s Bold Moves Festival will feature two weekends of performances and interactive events.

PHOTO: FACEBOOK.COM/CINCINNATIBALLET

FOOD & DRINK

Leveling Up

Patrons can play pinball, Skee-Ball and a large selection of arcade games while sipping specialty cocktails at Level One Bar + Arcade.

BY BRIAN CROSS

While plenty of adults these days have a nostalgic connection to arcade video games, it was a love for pinball that gave rise to an arcade bar called Level One. And much like playing a game of pinball, a bit of luck helped the bar’s second location land in just the right spot.

Level One Bar + Arcade, which started in Columbus, recently opened a second location in the previous 16-Bit Bar+Arcade space on Walnut St. in Over-the-Rhine.

The new arcade bar features many classic ‘80s and ‘90s cabinet arcade games like “Space Invaders,” “The Simpsons” and “Paperboy,” but what sets Level One apart is the selection of pinball titles (and a couple of Skee-Ball lanes).

Owner Paul Burkhart kept his childhood passion for pinball alive through the years, and it’s on display at the Level One locations in Columbus and Cincinnati.

“When I was a kid there were only pinball machines, there weren’t video games yet. So I developed a passion for pinball.[...] Everywhere that had a pinball machine I’d try to seek it out and play it, and I always thought someday I’d have a pinball (machine) of my own,” Burkhart told CityBeat

The first machine Burkhart bought as an adult was the one he would play at the YMCA on his way home from junior high school. That game was “Gold Strike.”

“I played that a bunch and then I thought, ‘I wanna buy another one,’” Burhhart said.

He bought a Simpsons machine in the early ‘90s, and later a South Park machine.

“I started picking up more and more machines. I had a walkout basement at the time, so I could fit a lot of them in there. I just kept buying and buying stuff.”

What’s left to do once you fill your basement with retro games? Throw a

party, of course. Burkhart and his wife started hosting annual Halloween parties that were a big hit with their friends. Then came the suggestions that he should open an arcade. An idea he liked, but always brushed off. He brushed the idea off again when his brother told him about a new arcade bar in Brooklyn he visited. That bar was Barcade, now thought to be the first ever arcade and bar. Still, Burkhart mentally filed the throwback arcade idea under “someday”.

Not long after, he heard through his pinball connections that 16-Bit had beat him to the punch and was opening in Columbus. After initially thinking that the ship might have sailed on the idea, he gave it some more thought.

Discussing the idea with his wife, Burkhart reasoned, “If we’re in our 80s and we’re on a porch rocking, I’m going to regret not having done it. But if we’re rocking on a porch and we did it and it failed, I’m going to have no regrets.”

With his wife on board, Burkhart

Level One Bar + Arcade serves up cocktails named after classic games.

PHOTO: BRIAN CROSS

Visitors to the bar and arcade can play 12 pinball titles in addition to video arcade and console games.

PHOTO: BRIAN CROSS

opened the first Level One in the northern suburbs of Columbus, as to not directly compete with 16-Bit which was located downtown. That was about 8 years ago.

In 2020, the pandemic put a damper on the idea of expanding to a second location. But on a trip to Cincinnati to catch a Reds game with his two sons, he happened upon a retail space for rent in Over-the-Rhine.

“We walked past this space that we’re in now and it had a for lease sign on it and I was like, ‘Hey, this looks like a good spot for an arcade bar.’ Well, lo and behold it used to be 16-Bit.” Burkart told CityBeat.

Also, serendipitously, Burkhart met previous 16-Bit bartender and assistant general manager, Jacob Carson. Carson now works with Gorilla Cinema Presents, who Burkhart eventually hired to manage Level One’s OTR location.

“They manage a lot of places and we really liked Jacob Trevino (owner of Gorilla Cinema Presents) and Jacob Carson so we ended up bringing them on to be the management,” Burkhart said.

Gorilla Cinema owns and operates some of Cincinnati’s most creative bar concepts, like Tokyo Kitty, Overlook Lodge and Tiki Tiki Bang Bang.

Now open, Level One features 12 pinball titles in addition to the video arcade games and several console games.

Burkhart says there was somewhat of a pinball renaissance in the last 10-15 years, giving rise to several companies that make new pinball games. Many of the pinball titles at Level One are newer, including the Stranger Things machine. There’s also a Deadpool machine, Godzilla, The Simpsons and Star Wars machines among others.

Visitors can play any Super Nintendo or Nintendo 64 game ever made, since the whole library now fits on a special cartridge called Everdrive. “Super Smash Bros.,” “Mario Kart” and “007” headline the Game Cube offerings.

Players can duel it out on the big screen during “Mario Kart” and “Super Smash Bros” tournaments. Burkhart says other tournaments and leagues are on the way.

“We’re still putting together our portfolio of leagues and tournaments and events. We’re going to highlight the pinball league but we’re going to try to start up a Skee-Ball league as well.“

The arcade video game selection isn’t lacking. There are about 40 cabinets at Level One, with games ranging from early ‘80s classics like “Galaga” and “Donkey Kong” to ‘90s titles like “Mortal Kombat” and “NBA Jam.” But you’ll find some less common options as well.

“I always try to work in some odd ball titles which you don’t see very often,” Burkhart told CityBeat. “We’ve got a

Japanese ‘candy cabinet,’ which is a white sit-down cabinet that plays a lot of ‘Street Fighter’ and fighting games. It’s a 2-person fighting game.”

The candy cabinet at Level One currently plays “Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes.” Games other than pinball and Skee-Ball are free to play, as long as you’re buying drinks.

At the bar, you’re in good hands with Gorilla Cinema at the helm. They’ve created a cocktail menu with drinks named after and inspired by classic games. The Kong Barrel features plantain-infused Four Roses bourbon and walnut bitters.

The Tron is a bright blue concoction of blueberry vodka, blue Curaçao liquor, lemonade and soda. For non-drinkers, there are some tasty N/A options as well.

The beer selection is huge, with 24 taps

highlighting mostly local area breweries, plus a few domestics. Another 20-plus beverages are available in bottles or cans.

Burkhart says the Columbus location hosts about 6-8 parties per weekend, and he hopes parties, events and happy hour gatherings catch on in Cincinnati too. Level One is open for all ages on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 6 p.m. Outside of that time, anyone under the age of 21 is not permitted to enter Level One.

Level One doesn’t serve food, but guests are free to bring food in or have it delivered.

Level One Bar + Arcade, 1331 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine. Info: cincinnati.level1bar.com.

Level One Bar + Arcade now has locations in Cincinnati and Columbus.

PHOTO: BRIAN CROSS

Pop-Up Dunch Blurs the Lines Between Dinner and Lunch, Past and Present

BY SAMI STEWART

After a decade in the industry, Chad Esmeier and Michael Villareal are at the helm of their new pop-up, Dunch, a nomadic dining concept where they put nostalgia at the forefront.

The name is a joke. No, really –– it started out as a saying between them. “Like brunch, but dinner and lunch,” Esmeier says. “It has devolved into…just any good meal at this point,” Esmeier says. It’s a microcosm of their concept, proving that two things can be true.

It’s the marriage of lunch and dinner, two meals with varying degrees of formality and lightness. The concept is mostly inspired by their respective childhoods –– Esmeier growing up in an Italian family and Villareal having Filipino heritage. The menus are at once playful and deliberate, using top-shelf, as-local-as-possible ingredients to make a menu full of dishes inspired by their childhoods, or a trio of cocktails cheekily named Gaslight, Girlboss and Gatekeep.

Though this is their first time at the helm of a food program, Esmeier and Villareal are veterans of the service industry. They both have spent years honing their bartending skills. Villareal started out at Coppin’s at Hotel Covington, Esmeier at Sundry & Vice. Esmeier currently works at Juniper’s in Covington, where Dunch pops up most Mondays. “They were gracious enough to give us the floor on Mondays,” says

Villareal. Juniper’s was coming up short staff-wise on Monday evenings, which presented a prime opportunity for Dunch. They started out making small plates and snacks alongside a concise menu of specialty cocktails. “And then it just turned into a whole other thing,” Villareal says.

One of the fun challenges of pop-ups is having to adapt to the environment and work with the space and tools available. Dunch’s larger pop-ups have a prep-intensive menu and a fleshed out concept that mirrors the vibe of the host. During their pop-up at Saeso in late April, they opted for an Italian menu. “It’s more of a casual place, it’s not super uptight,” Villareal says. Italian food dovetails beautifully with Saeso’s aesthetic, which is both foreign and familiar. But that wasn’t their only logic for choosing Italian.

Esmeier comes from an Italian family, and both he and Villareal lean on nostalgia for inspiration in their menus. Pulling from Esmeier’s upbringing meant upscaling some of his childhood favorites. “The focaccia sandwiches, specifically, are definitely an Italian-style sandwich,” he says, “just elevating those flavors that are familiar from childhood.” Subbing in smoked mortadella for ham or bologna, and upgrading giardiniera with a pesto version takes the sandwich from a fond memory to a modern classic.

Dunch functions much like an

amoeba, shaping themselves to fit the environment while maintaining their core values. An Italian menu just made sense, “but if we do something somewhere else, we want to make sure it works there too,” Villareal says. “It’s not going to be the same thing we’ve done at Juniper’s. It’s not going to be the same thing we’ve done at Saeso. We just want to keep pushing what we can do with what we’re given.”

There will always be at least one zero-proof cocktail on the menu. Same goes for the food menu. Vegetarian dishes are a must-have and they’re certainly not playing second fiddle to the omnivorous options. On a Monday night at Juniper’s, Dunch served up jackfruit musubi as a playful contrast to the classic spam musubi, both unique in their own right and equally delicious.

They’re always searching for the balance between allowing themselves plenty of creative freedom and being inclusive to as many groups as possible. “We want to bring as many people along for the ride as we can,” Villareal says. “We also don’t want to compromise on what we’re putting out. We try to do as much as we can.”

Walking into a space that isn’t their own and creating an environment where they can put their ideas at the forefront is no small feat. Esmeier and Villareal have had Dunch on their minds for no less than six months prior to popping up. The mental labor that

goes into executing a creative concept usually goes unseen, even by the most heartfelt supporters. On top of their full-time jobs, Esmeier says they sink in up to 30 extra hours into planning, procuring, prepping and designing for Dunch. Ahead of their pop-up at Saeso last month, they pulled their first allnighter prepping. “It was fun. A learning experience for sure,” says Esmeier. Their connections in the industry landed them strong relationships with purveyors and possible hosts for their pop-ups. Dunch features quite the allstar lineup of products –– mushrooms from Rich Life Farm, bread from Allez Bakery, seafood from Sen, pastries from Chako Bakery Cafe, and plenty of odds and ends from ETC Produce & Provisions as well as Madison’s in Findlay Market.

While they keep the menu items rather light on Mondays, there is no shortage of creativity on the plates. One Monday evening they hosted a Filipino night at Juniper’s in Covington, which gave Villareal the spotlight. He’s perfectly positioned to knock the dessert menus out of the park. Not only did he grow up baking with his grandmother, his first job was at Cold Stone Creamery, where he mastered mix-ins over a nine-year tenure.

“Sweets are a really big thing in Filipino cuisine,” he says, specifically nodding to halo-halo and leche flan, two classic desserts he featured during Dunch’s Filipino night. Halo-halo is a mixed parfait with shaved ice, red bean, fruit jellies and sweetened condensed milk, among a variety of other possible ingredients. It’s the unofficial dessert of the Philippines and a dessert that’s near and dear to Villareal. “Taking something that I really enjoy and have really resonated with a lot of my life and being able to present it in a way that’s different…that, I was happy about,” he says.

With their cultures as a touch point, Esmeier and Villareal are cooking from a multilayered place, drawing from their heritage, life experience and a spectrum of emotions. “It’s not soul food, it’s our souls’ food,” Villareal says. “The idea of what food would be like to our soul, that’s what this is really about.”

Typically, Dunch has pop-ups every Monday from 4-9 p.m. at Juniper’s, 409 W. 6th St., Covington. For more information about Dunch, visit their Instagram page @dunchprovisions.

Dunch owners Chad Esmeier and Michael Villareal create dishes inspired by nostalgia.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF DUNCH

MUSIC

Love in a Dangerous Time

Bruce Cockburn’s latest album, O Sun O Moon, takes listeners on an equally hopeful and honest quest.

BY STEVEN ROSEN

Over the course of his 53-year career as a solo recording artist, Bruce Cockburn has won admiration for the finely crafted imagery and poetically descriptive details of his personal and political songs, the subtly emotional quality of his vocals and the virtuosity of his guitar playing. He’ll be making a comparatively

rare Cincinnati appearance at Ludlow Garage on June 16; Dar Williams is opening the show.

Granted, his fame is greater in his native Canada than in the U.S. There, he’s regarded on equal footing with fellow Canadians Leonard Cohen and Gordon Lightfoot as a major singersongwriter. (Cockburn has lived in San

Francisco since 2009). But he has had an appreciative U.S. following ever since he scored a hit single in 1979 with the gently catchy “Wondering Where the Lions Are.” It may be, he has said, the only top 40 song ever to contain the word “petroglyphs.”

His other songs — particularly “Lovers in a Dangerous Time,” “If I Had a Rocket Launcher,” “Pacing the Cage” and “Waiting for a Miracle” — have become recognized here through either album rock airplay of his own versions or covers by such artists as Jerry Garcia, Shawn Colvin, Barenaked Ladies, Judy Collins and more. Though written earlier, “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” and “Pacing the Cage” drew increased attention during the worst of the pandemic.

It really is a distinguished, accomplished career in retrospect. But at age 78, he’s not looking backward. On his new record O Sun O Moon, his 38th studio album, he begins with a bluesy, soulful rocker built around this memorable refrain: “Time takes its toll/But in my soul/I’m on a roll.”

It seems a pretty upbeat notion, driven along by a hot electric guitar solo by Colin Linden, who also produced the record. So CityBeat’s first question to Cockburn during a phone interview is if the song is meant as a motivational statement for the audience that has aged along with him.

At first he laughs, then addresses the inquiry with the kind of serious introspection that has been a constant in his career. “I think I’m talking to

Bruce Cockburn

PHOTO: COURTESY OF BRUCE COCKBURN

myself as much as to you,” he says. “But that’s all right if they (his audience) think that. We all hope people will pay attention to the album.”

“On a Roll” is a good example of how his songs can make you think and, for that matter, how much thought goes into the songwriting. Positive as that refrain seems, the verses aren’t morale boosters. An example: “Howl of anger, howl of grief/here comes the heat with no relief/social behavior/beyond belief/throw those punches, drop that ball/commit to nothing, excuse it all/ here comes the future/here comes the fall.”

The song’s seeming positivity relates to Cockburn’s searching, questioning, non-violent view of Christianity, to which he’s long been devoted. “Looking around the world, it’s in a mess and that’s nothing new,” he explains. “In the Trump era in America and then post-Trump, the notion of bad manners sort of vanished, along with the notion of good manners. So there’s a reference to that and all these other things going on — this external chaos.

“But inside, well, I’m getting older — that’s time taking its toll,” Cockburn continues. “But at the same time, I feel like I’m getting closer to the relationship with the divine that I want and hope for. I can’t really define that relationship very well for you, but that’s been a theme of mine from the get-go, so it’s a hopeful statement on a personal level in spite of all the crap going on around us.

“It’s probably not for everybody, but I don’t think I’m alone on this,” he explains about his religious belief. “As the horizon approaches, you start thinking about what’s on the other side. I don’t want to meet God and not recognize him. That matters to me. That’s the driving principle behind my ongoing efforts to get that relationship in good shape.”

(Cockburn expresses those thoughts even more directly on the new album’s strong closing song, “When You

Arrive).”

Born in Ottawa, he took an early interest in music, especially jazz, and went on to study composition at Boston’s Berklee School of Music in the mid-1960s before dropping out. He then found his way into rock and folk.

As his career and following developed, so, too, did his concern with war and economic inequities. One of his most memorable and controversial songs, 1984’s “If I Had a Rocket Launcher,” came about after Cockburn visited a Mexican refugee camp for Guatemalans fleeing the brutality of their country’s military government.

The song shocked fans who regarded Cockburn as firmly non-violent; others saw it as a rallying call to arms against government-sponsored violence.

It’s a song Cockburn still finds a need to explain today — it’s about him being glad he didn’t have a rocket launcher handy. “The word ‘if’ gets overlooked a lot when people think about that song,” he says. “One of the things I was trying to say is that the enemy — in this case, the Guatemalan military — was inflicting horrendous abuses on its own citizens and forfeiting any claim to humanity by their actions. I was outraged by those things, and my outrage was motivating the song. I don’t think it was an appropriate response really, but I wanted to share with my peers how easy it is to get into that state of mind.”

When Cockburn includes the word “love” in his songs — and he does so on four different O Sun O Moon tracks — he doesn’t do it casually or as a songwriting cliché. His vision of love somewhat parallels his vision of beauty in life. On one of the new album’s loveliest ballads, the quietly hymnic “Us All,” he sings, “I pray we not fear to love/I pray we be free of judgment and shame/Open the vein/let kindness rain/rein/O’er us all.”

Bruce Cockburn plays Ludlow Garage at 8:30 p.m. June 16. Info: ludlowgaragecincinnati.com.

“Every now and then something in your life triggers this sense of being part of the human picture — that feeling to me is love,” Bruce Cockburn explains. “When I think about what love is, it’s the glue that holds the universe together, or at least it allows us to tap into our sense of belonging in the universe.

“The love that we can share with other people is a manifestation of that. It’s kind of love at the local level, you might say.”

SOUND ADVICE

PAT METHENY

June 13 • Memorial Hall

What if a legendary jazz performer invited up-and-comers to collaborate on a project that blended his new music with his classic songs, encouraging the youngsters to add fresh interpretations? That’s the thinking behind guitarist extraordinaire Pat Metheny’s 2021 Side Eye album, which features drummer Marcus Gilmore and keys wizard James Francies.

Since the album’s release, Metheny has

toured with the Side Eye project throughout the world, filling the seats behind kit and keys with an ever-changing pair of budding bandmates. This month he’ll bring this ingenious concept to Memorial Hall.

“I wanted to create an ongoing platform to host a rotating cast of the newer generations of musicians who have particularly caught my interest,” Metheny tells fans on his website. “The constant factor for me as a leader … is to draw on the strengths of the players I have with me

at the time and to encourage everyone to do their best.”

This year’s supporting “cast” includes pianist/organist Chris Fishman and drummer Joe Dyson. The trio will perform Metheny classics like “Better Days Ahead” and “Have You Heard,” as well as music from Side Eye, such as “It Starts When We Disappear.” Fans can also expect to hear his beloved closing number, “Are You Going with Me?”

Since he debuted in 1976 as a teen wunderkind with his first album, “Bright

Size Life,” Metheny has chalked up 20 Grammy Awards. He has continued to surprise — and even, at times, confound — his fans by taking long creative leaps, blending genres and employing new technology to reinvent himself. This approach, along with his generosity to young players and old fans alike, has kept him at the top of his musical game.

Pat Metheny plays Memorial Hall at 8 p.m. June 13. Info: memorialhallotr.com. (Jack Heffron)

Pat Metheny

PHOTO: RICCARDO ALTAVILLA, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

PIXIES

June 14 • Andrew J Brady Music Center

Here comes your band. When thinking of indie rock bands from the late ‘80s to the early ‘90s — bands that helped to redefine the alternative rock scene — it’s difficult not to place the Pixies on the top of your list. With songs about monkeys going to heaven, waves of mutilation and references to obscure surrealist films, the Pixies were the ‘90s sui generis weirdos; there was no one else like them. It’s rare that a band can seamlessly stitch together an eclectic mix of influences the way Black Francis and company did. When forming the Pixies, Francis placed an advertisement seeking a bass player who was influenced by both the saccharine songwriting of 1960s trio Peter, Paul, and Mary and the hardcore punk of Hüsker Dü. He found the perfect blend in Kim Deal. They were able to move effortlessly from the jagged, unresolved tension and dissonance of songs like “Break My Body” on their 1988 debut studio album Surfer Rosa, to the much-covered and ubiquitous “Where Is My Mind?,” with Deal’s haunting and memorable “ohhh’s,” all within the space of thirteen songs. They followed Surfer Rosa with Doolittle, released just a year later in 1989, and considered by many to be their masterpiece. Almost every song is a classic in its own right. You’re hooked right out of the gate with “Debaser,” a frantic and catchy pop song with violent undertones and lyrics about “slicing up eyeballs,” a reference to the 1929 surrealist silent film Un Chien Andalou, directed by Luis Buñuel and written by Buñuel and Salvador Dali. As an album replete with Biblical imagery, themes of environmental

catastrophe, prostitution and murdersuicide, it’s a marvel that Doolittle contains so many memorable, and deceptively upbeat, songs with such dark materials. After several hiatuses and the departure of Kim Deal to form her own wildly successful and influential band, The Breeders, the Pixies are once again in the studio and on the road, having recently released their eighth album, Doggerel, in 2022. If you’re seeking bands that perfectly encapsulate the restless experimentation and moody angst of the ‘90s, only a handful of names come to mind: Nirvana, Radiohead, R.E.M., Sonic Youth, Pavement, and…the Pixies. Don’t pass up the opportunity to see these living legends live.

Dex Romweber plays the Andrew J Brady Music Center at 6:30 p.m. June 14. Info: bradymusiccenter.com. (Derek Kalback)

DEX ROMWEBER

June 15 • Southgate House Revival

Underground music legend Dex Romweber is known for his passionate performances and recordings exploring new territory in old forms — breathing new life into older musical traditions.

As frontman of the influential rockabilly-punk duo Flat Duo Jets, Romweber influenced a new generation of musicians with albums like the 1990 self-titled debut full length and the seminal Go Go Harlem Baby, along with appearances on MTV’s The Cutting Edge and a roaring 1990 performance on The Late Show with David Letterman. The 2006 documentary, Two Headed Cow, features artists like Cat Power and Neko Case talking about the band’s influence, as well as Jack White, who also

notes Romweber’s heavy influence in the 2008 documentary, It Might Get Loud

Romweber released a handful of solo records between 1996 and 2016 that have shown his near-musicologist approach to

crafting a record. Romweber’s catalogue ranges from the home-recorded and spare Folk Songs (1996) to Chopin-inspired original piano pieces on Piano (2006), and even the varied range on Blues That Defy My Soul (2004).

Romweber is making a Cincinnati appearance in support of his new release, Good Thing Goin,’ a record dedicated to the memory of his sister Sara Romweber who passed away from a brain tumor in 2019. Sara, a musician of note herself, was the drummer in ‘80s power-pop band Let’s Active followed by Snatches of Pink until the early 2000s when she joined her brother to become the Dex Romweber Duo. The two recorded and toured together as the Dex Romweber Duo, recording a handful of revved-up roots records with Sara’s steady and dynamic rhythm supporting her brother’s high energy, often explosive delivery, including a 2009 release produced by and featuring Jack White. Romweber displays the spark of rock and roll, delivering seemingly timeless ballads in his distinct, heart-on-sleeve baritone.

Dex Romweber plays Southgate House Revival at 7:30 p.m. June 15. Info: southgatehouse.com. (Brent Stroud)

Dex Romweber

PHOTO: ANTHONY NGUYEN, FLICKR

Pixies

PHOTO: VLADIMIR, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

CROSSWORD

GOING TOO FAR

BY BRENDAN EMMETT QUIGLEY WWW.BRENDANEMMETTQUIGLEY.COM

Many of the answers in this crossword are too long and won’t fit in the spaces provided. Each of these answers will either begin or end in the gray square immediately before or after it. When the puzzle is done, all the gray squares will have been used exactly once, and the letters in them (reading left to right, line by line) will spell out a quote by Demitri Martin.

Across

1.  “Wynnona ___” (Melanie Scrofano series)

4.  More run down

8.  Jazz home

12. Room with defibs

13. Dalai Lama’s birthplace

14. Said aloud

15. Good times

16. “¿___ estás?”

17. Man’s name at the end of a famous palindrome

18. Do a TSA job

20. Benchmate of Ketanji and Amy

22. Pricing word

23. Battlefield doc

24. “Heads up!”

27. Right now

29. Baking giveaway

31. Trains around town

34. Like fables involving talking animals

35. “Preacher’s Daughter” singer Cain

36. Ruling issued by a mufti

37. Credit union claim

38. It’s a snap

40. Busy body?

44. London mayor Sadiq

45. Without question

46. Without question

49. Country that will be the world’s most-populous mid-year

51. Hombre’s home

52. 49-Across language

53. Cajun stew

54. Comprehend

55. They do taxing work: Abbr.

56. Expiration-date preceder

57. TV actress Ward

Down

1.  Civil engineer Gustave with an eponymous Tower

2.  “Precision Crafted Performance” sloganeer

3.  Like some hard-to-read characters

4.  Reeves’ assassin

5.  Woodwind instrument

6.  It’s good for what ails you

7.  Spirit that comes in Vanil, Peachik, and Ohranj flavors, for short

8.  Situated atop 9.  Little kid 10. Similar (to)

11. “A Quick One, While Away” (The Who song)

19. No longer sailing

21. Change actors

23. Rising point

24. Little jump

25. Kuwait leader

26. Colorful desktop computer that comes with Dolby Atmos

28. Action film star Lundgren

30. Raising hell

31. Messy sandwich

32. Alien-seeking grp.

33. Archaic pronoun

34. Warmth

36. Snack with a communal dipping bowl

39. Chills out with

41. Over 18

42. Oil holder

43. Mistakes that were printed

44. PF Flyers rival

45. Treat delicately

46. Ingredient in edibles

47. Persistent problem for a plumber

48. Italian article

50. Precarious perch on a poplar

LAST PUZZLE’S ANSWERS:

Bertha G. Helmick

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