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NEWS

Amateur predator-catchers are using camera phones and YouTube to confront and publicly shame would-be pedophiles. I L L U S T R AT I O N : E VA N S U LT

To Catch A Predator Amateur predator-catcher groups are sprouting up across Ohio, armed with cell phones, not badges BY M A R K O P E R A

oday is catch day at the Mundy household. Joshua Mundy, his wife Miranda and his childhood friend Jay Carnicom are hunched over their smartphones around a kitchen table in Fremont, Ohio, their pitbull Hopper balled up and antsy beside them. The Mundys’ three kids are at school for the day. A sheet pizza is on its way. Miranda’s phone dings with regularity, breaking up the silence of a seemingly routine Friday afternoon in February. “Got one,” Miranda says when another text arrives. She’s talking to Jake. He’s a married man with step-children who lives in a nearby well-to-do suburb. He says he’s in his mid-20s. And he thinks, at this moment, that he’s got a pretty good shot of getting fellatio from a middle schooler. “He said he wants to pick me up!” Miranda exclaims at the head of the table. Joshua hunches over her. “Just say, ‘Come meet me.’ Say, ‘No big deal.’” “He said he can’t do that.” “He’s gonna come. He’s invested by now.” Miranda’s fingers move rapidly as she

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

types. She stands up. “OK! OK! He said he’s on his way!” This is a weekly scene for Dads Against Predators, a trio of twentysomething do-it-yourself predator catchers based in Sandusky County. Refusing to rely on the efforts of local law enforcement — namely, the Fremont Police — DAP define themselves as a citizen-run, anti-predator Guardian Angels outfit unique to the social media age. Instead of SWAT-led sting operations a lá Dateline, DAP battles probable sex offenses through means closer in theory to mob rule: Entice would-be pedophiles on Grindr or Whisper into a public meetup, confront them with camera phones rolling and then shame them with a YouTube post. In Ohio and across the country, self-styled predator catcher groups have drawn big audiences on YouTube (DAP’s videos have collected more than 800,000 views), the support of the public, and the frustration of the authorities. “In my town, kids are getting sexually molested all the time,” Joshua Mundy, DAP’s tall and burly de-facto leader, told me in February. “Most precincts don’t have the budget for the task force. I just wanted a better preventative force.

SEPTEMBER 2020

So I made one myself.” Though Joshua posted his first sting in January — a catch that led to the arrest of a 39-year-old for a visa violation — the roots of DAP stem back to an attempted kidnapping at Hayes Elementary School in 2018, where one of Joshua’s daughters attends. For years, Joshua said, he had been passively witnessing a string of similar incidents, mostly involving older men, and wondered if Fremont Police were responding sufficiently, if at all. Then, a man was caught outside Hayes in an apparent attempted kidnapping. (Fremont Police told me the kidnapping was a “misunderstanding.”) Regardless, Joshua snapped. He called up his longtime friend Jay Carnicom and pitched him on a video series similar to Predator Poachers or POPSquad, two widely popular predator-hunting YouTube channels with a track record of hundreds of catches. Also a parent of three, Carnicom saw eye-to-eye immediately. “We were at first like, ‘Dang, POPSquad has like 160 videos so far, I wonder how many guys we could catch around here?’” Carnicom, an Army vet born and raised in Fremont, says. “We made an account saying we were 14. Thirty seconds later, we had three guys saying they wanted to meet up right away. It was just wild.” Their first sting, in January, was fraught with unknowns: Who should hold the camera? Who should be interrogating? They followed protocol subconsciously emulated from other channels: Master tween-like language on Whisper, schedule meets at

Walmarts or Family Dollars, film the suspect, keep an eye on their hands, shout out their license plate before they peel off. At nine in the morning on Jan. 25, the two drove to a nearby Walmart on Route 53 to meet their man, Rafael, in the video game section, a plan the two finalized not even an hour before. “Oh my god that’s him, bro,” Carnicom can be heard whispering in the video, as the two approach watchfully. Joshua’s hands shake, his deep voice quivers as he says to a deer-in-headlights Rafael, “So, why are you here to meet a 14-yearold boy?” And minutes later, shouting in the Walmart parking lot, “Stay the fuck out of my town, you fucking pervert!” Shortly after the video hit YouTube, DAP quickly blew up in Fremont, a farming town of roughly 31,000. Joshua appeared in a local news broadcast reaffirming DAP’s mission, as he was flooded with back-pats by parents and concerned residents, soon to be followed with death threats from those who felt differently about the enterprise. But on Facebook, where DAP posts its videos to a public group, residents generally expressed collective praise, along with shock. “They’re an inspiration,” one comment read. “I never would’ve guessed Sandusky County had a big problem with predators.” “I am a mother of 6 girls,” added another. “I wish law enforcement would step up and do something as well.” The reaction was a welcomed wave of affirmation for Joshua and Carnicom,

a pair of self-proclaimed do-nothings from broken homes who saw predatorcatching as a redemption turn. “I thought I was going to be a bum,” Joshua says. “I was out smoking weed, drinking every night, not taking life seriously. And then I had a family, and things changed.” He had been attending Terra State Community College with aspirations to be an educator and working part-time as a security guard, but DAP provided him the potential status of folk hero. It was a golden opportunity, Joshua says, “to change the legacy of my last name.” Their only problem, besides the fact that DAP produces little revenue, was that law enforcement wanted them to stop what they were doing. On Jan. 23, Chief Dean Bliss of the Fremont Police Department officially denounced the YouTube-style outing of predators. The Fremont News Messenger hastily dubbed the crew “unlawful vigilantes” — “Painting us as more Punisher than Spiderman,” Joshua jokes. Citing Ohio’s Importuning Statute, Bliss made very clear that, according to state law, the only persons that could legally arrest and prosecute creeps pursuing underaged sex are members of the force — not a duo of iPhone-wielding “vigilantes.” “Believe me, I want these people prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Bliss said, flanked by the Sheriff and County Prosecutor. “However, I want the investigations to be done correctly.” DAP set up a meeting with Bliss, Captain Ty Conger and Detective Jason Kiddey to ease tensions between the two sparring parties. The authorities gave them honest warnings and obvious reasons to quit: they could get hurt on a catch, or encourage violating pedophiles to skip town. And then, Bliss reminded them, this was just the law — nothing personal. “But that’s why I want to do this,” Joshua said to the officers. “I want those laws to get changed.” ••• The first thing the novice learns about predator hunters is that the vast majority of them utterly despise the term “vigilante.” Most told me they just prefer “informed citizen” or simply “predator catcher,” if any descriptor is needed. “I literally just yell in someone’s face and make them feel shitty,” Alex Rosen, the 20-year-old founder of Predator Poachers in Houston, Texas, told me over the phone in February. “I mean, we’re not breaking the law to enforce the law.” Then, there’s the medium. What all DIY predator hunters can agree on is that views are king and currency of their art, and that the groups earning them have increased exponentially in the past few years (NBC found more

than 30 exist across 23 U.S. states, as of 2019). While all worship Chris Hansen of To Catch A Predator fame as their turtlenecked lodestar, each group reps an individual style and tone when it comes to roping in perverted men. Anxiety War, run by computer programmer Zach Sweers out of Michigan, is laced with pro-style jump cuts and Gen Z-styled comedic zingers. Cassady Campbell, an actor in Dallas, often approaches his subjects in character as a hot-headed, cowboy hat-wearing patriot, or, when teamed up with Alex Rosen, as a duo of “wangster” security guards. There’s also the Langley Creep Catchers, the Predator Snatchers, the Predator Patrol and the Oklahoma Predator Prevention. Some post self-shot comedy sketches or gaming vlogs to boost subscribers; others sell branded T-shirts or stickers on their merchandise page. Some videos are amateurish and highly unedited, with long interludes and cameramen heard giggling in the background, as if this is amateur Jackass, not an earnest digital prevention of child rape. “The big part of making these videos is making them entertaining,” Rosen, a recent college dropout and part-time delivery driver, told me. “Like, ‘What’s Alex gonna say next?’ It sucks that they have to be entertainment — but we have to get views.” Other than POPSquad in New Jersey, run by 32-year-old Shane Erdmann, Rosen’s Predator Poachers may be one of the most successful and more controversial options in the sphere. After Rosen’s younger brother was sexually extorted by a man on Instagram, Rosen started the Predator Poachers in early 2019 (it now has over 160,000 subscribers) to expose Houston-area creeps. Since last March, he has accumulated over 120 catches, from youth ministers to out-of-state high school teachers to 76-year-old stay-at-home retirees and married sex-offender duos. “Scumbags,” he explains. “All of them.” Like several of his imitators, Rosen has worked to find the appropriate balance along the spectrum of public servant and Gen Z entertainer. In several of his videos, Rosen — a 6-foot-4 former football star — seems to instigate fights, or use excessive profanity and derogatory terms. (Excessively enough to earn him two strikes from YouTube; three, and his channel will be expelled). He’s also received cease and desist letters for “online impersonation” — four times by the same predator’s lawyer — and had his life threatened on several occasions. It’s why, like most catchers learn, Rosen forces partners to sign a liability waiver (“They could get shot”) and keeps a Houston-based lawyer on retainer. But he doesn’t stress too much: Seven Poacher affiliates — down from 14 before COVID — are continuing to

build and amplify his virtual footprint with hundreds of thousands of devoted viewers. “People just like seeing scumbags exposed,” he says. “It’s just human nature.” It was Predator Poachers’ videos that encouraged Bee, of Keen N Zerk, to start his own effort based in his hometown of Akron. After one of Bee’s best friends admitted that a 35-yearold molested him when he was 15, Bee decided to pivot a YouTube channel he ran with a high school friend named Austin from comedy to predator catching. “We were thinking, ‘This is what we could do to make up for my friend.’ I mean, we had to do something.” Around mid-December, about two weeks before Christmas, Bee and Austin began the usual process, starting with a Grindr account with Bee’s picture (“I’m 19, but I look 15,” he says). In minutes, a 49-year-old man named “Adam” hit up Bee looking to meet Bee and “his brother.” “You gonna suck my dick tonight,” “Adam” messaged. “I’ll do whatever you wanna do hahaha,” responded Bee. “What about a threesome,” “Adam” said. “I’m sure he’ll be down,” Bee said. They would meet in the bicycle section of the Walmart, as Bee suggested, where they had hidden a camera on a nearby shelf. In the video it captured, a white-haired, bespectacled “Adam” — really an Akron-area teacher — strides up to Bee, hands pocketed. “Are you the guy? Adam?” Bee says, visibly anxious. “Do you wanna head outside?” “Adam” whispers. “So, what do you wanna do?” Bee, says, rubbing his chin. Twenty seconds later, Bee’s crew rushes “Adam,” sticking their phones in his face. “What are you doing here, bro?” Bee shouts in a deeper voice. “You know I’m 15, right?” “Adam” scowls, aware he’s been busted. He throws up the hood on his windbreaker to hide his face and walks coolly to the exit. As he does, Bee screams to shoppers in the aisle, “Watch out, everyone! He’s here to meet a 15-year-old boy!” Months later, on March 4, the local school district where “Adam” worked announced that they were putting him on administrative leave and removing him from his classroom after officials saw the video posted on Bee’s YouTube channel. The Stow police responded by saying they would investigate the incident as a criminal act. For Bee, the path from initial contact to investigation was anything but light YouTube entertainment. Up until March, he endured months of repeated verbal harassment from “Adam,” who threatened Bee with legal repercussions and physical violence if he didn’t delete the sting. (Lawsuits are rare, but two groups nationwide have faced defamation and privacy suits for their actions.)

“He was gonna ‘visit’ mine and Austin’s homes,” Bee told me. “Whatever that meant.” For months before he posted the video, Bee endured a tortuous cycle of indecision, fueled by “Adam’s” threats. Near the end of February, Bee gave up. The public had to see “Adam’s” freakish texts, he decided. In a later reposting of the video, Bee included an emotional prelude, summarizing months of stress on him and his family. Rewatching it now, viewers could be left with both anger and confusion: Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh declined to charge “Adam” with any wrongdoing, citing limitations of Ohio’s Importuning Statute. “It still boils my blood,” Bee says. “It’s clear as day! You can see the tension right there on camera. And in the end, very few people know the feeling of what it’s like to stand right next to a predator. If only they knew.” ••• “He said he’s going to be in a black Nissan SUV.” “Tell him to come inside.” “I just did.” It’s 1:45 p.m., and DAP and I are careening to the back of a Family Dollar on State Street in Fremont in order to finally confront Jake. By now, Jake has called decoy Miranda 14 times pining for midday phone sex and begging Miranda to “skip school.” We separate into teams of two, pretending to peruse the aisles. Carnicom and I take our positions near the dairy coolers, hiding as if we’re plainclothes SWAT in grey hoodies. “It’s always nerve wracking,” Carnicom says. “Like someone’s waiting outside, and you’re about to fight them.” Before the Family Dollar, we talk about the souring mental effects of constant predator chasing, about the endless chain of farmers, teachers, Marines, basketball coaches and driving instructors who think that soliciting a 13-yearold for sex is, well, permissible. (Forty men contacted DAP’s decoy with lewd messages in about a 20-hour period). “There are times when I have to put my phone down,” Carnicom told me. “Then I think, ‘What if they’re trying to meet up with my daughter? My nephew?’ That’s how I look at it. ‘Dude, I got to do this.’” At the Family Dollar, we convene in front of the coolers, slouched over Miranda’s phone on speaker mode. Jake’s calling. Joshua is red-faced as he makes silent directions. “Hiiii,” Miranda coos, in her girly decoy tone. “Come outside,” Jake orders. “There could be someone else (with you).” “Whatttt?” Miranda says. “You’re really going to leave me stranded?” Jake then says,

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pissed off, “I told you that I wasn’t going in.” Jake hangs up, so Joshua leads a spontaneous rush to the Family Dollar entrance. “Fuckin’ A,” he grunts, as he readies his phone’s video camera, bolting to the parking lot. Joshua is panting, filming every car in sight. We all convene. It’s more than obvious by now that Jake isn’t here. “I can’t believe it,” Joshua says. “He punked out.” ••• In terms of the criminally prosecuted predator, the kind you see darting out of kitchen stings led by Chris Hansen, most if not all are caught in Ohio with the assistance of operations bankrolled by the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather than a team of three, their squads — from 24-hour-operating decoys to SWAT members and vestwearing sergeants — run way past 100 in numbers. While DAP’s operations are virtually costless, save for the time it takes to set up a sting, a state-led task force’s individual takedown cost can run way into the thousands of dollars. After considering the legal effect of a professional operation, it’s no wonder residual tension exists between both the law and the vigilante. “Our position is that we’re 100 percent against what DAP is doing,” Carl Sullivan, the director of the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, says. “Sure, they expose the problem. But it’s us who are going out and actually doing the arrest.” If you’ve read about predator takedowns in the news, it’s likely the Task Force is behind them. In December, they orchestrated the sting that busted Robert McWilliams, the Strongsville priest who was sexually extorting teenage boys for sex and graphic selfies. Last spring, Sullivan helped craft a Triple Play All-Star weekend, in which a coalition of 150 took down 28 predators in Newburgh Heights in just four days — all under the same Importuning Statute. Sullivan helped convict 130 sex offenders last year, with offenders coming from nearly every Ohio county, all of whom will serve, on average, two to four years behind bars. “And they’ll be registered as tier offenders,” Sullivan adds, “for life.” Thus, the legal statute puts an operation like DAP into a never-ending dilemma: Is the public shaming equal to due process of law? All of the predator catchers I spoke with laughed at the premise that they should just back down — there was little or no due process where they’re from, they argued. “And when’s the last time you’ve actually looked at the sex offender database?” Rosen, of Houston’s Predator Poachers, retorts. “Yeah, probably never.”

Sullivan begs to disagree. The physical risks to both catcher and catchee are not worth the digital exposure. Neither is spoon-feeding predators your entire gameplan. “To me it’s just a lot of boasting and bragging,” Sullivan says about the channels. “It’s about YouTube fame and notoriety. If it were me, and I was a parent, I personally would want this left up to the police.” Sitting around the Mundys’ kitchen table, I bring up this notion of law versus vigilantism, and the conversation quickly turns to superheroes and morality. Joshua says he sees himself in the famous Spiderman quote — “With great power comes great responsibility” — along with the David Hume is-ought principle, that what one should do in their life, one ought to do no matter the repercussion. (Like being banned for life from Walmart, as he is, “everywhere from Iraq to Italy.”) As usual, our conversation turns quickly back to the police. Chief Bliss told Joshua in February he “had a plan” developing with Sheriff Chris Hilton, that he was aware of “the problem apps,” yet didn’t go into any specific details. “We can promise,” he told Joshua, “that something is going to happen.” “They told us, ‘Oh, we camp out at bars with binoculars.’ We do this. We do that,” Joshua says. “And you’re telling me you don’t have the budget to do stings on an iPhone?” Carnicom adds. “You would think they have — like training. ‘We have quarterly training. What’s going on? What’s the new thing?’” “But they’re still probably out there,” Carnicom says, “just writing tickets.” ••• A little less than two days after Jake started texting and calling, Joshua, Carnicom and I drive to a McDonald’s close by the Mundys’ home to finally meet him. An hour before our arrival, Joshua, instead of Miranda, had answered Jake’s call and told him the situation. “Hi, Jake. This is Dads Against Predators, and we want to let you know we have alllll your texts and phone calls.” After shock and hesitation, Jake agreed to meet with us to supposedly clear the record. (What he doesn’t know is that all his chat logs will be posted on DAP’s Youtube channel despite any confession.) Around four o’clock, a bespectacled white guy with a wrap-around hipster beard walks inside and sits timidly across from the three of us. He’s real, that guy who wanted to fuck a middle schooler. “So, why are we here, Jake?” Joshua begins, his phone out and recording. Joshua’s legs shake; his forehead beads with sweat.

The DAP crew at the Mundys’ house in Fremont, Ohio P H OTO : M A R K O P E R A

“We’re here,” Jake says, “because I’m an idiot.” For 20 minutes, Jake tries to justify his messages on Whisper by detailing a quarter-life crisis: his wife, now ex-wife, is in the midst of leaving him; he’s spiraled into a state of drunken catatonia; he’s lonely, and it’s affecting his work. Joshua plays therapist, offering to assist Jake in “getting help,” which he admits he’s already looked into. But the absurdity underlining the rendezvous is always present. “Let’s not do the drinking, let’s not do the divorce,” Joshua quips. “I mean, you wanted to have phone sex an hour ago.” Behind his frames, Jake’s eyes are finally watering. Maybe he’s come to terms with what he’s done, maybe he hasn’t? But nevertheless, he’s facing a very real and very public reckoning. “I guess I just had nothing else going on,” he admits, coldly. “I was not thinking about nobody except myself.” A few months after our confrontation with Jake, Joshua decides in the middle of June to host an anti-predator march through the center of Fremont, to publicly call out what he perceives to be the inaction of the Fremont Police. By now, their Facebook group has passed 8,000 members, the YouTube page 10,000. There’s now a DAP men’s softball team, sprint cars boasting DAP logos on the Fremont Speedway. Days after the rally announcement, Joshua’s contacted by Chief Bliss and Mayor Danny Sanchez, who ask DAP to call off the rally in light of new developments. A month later, on July 13, the Fremont Police announced news: Ten predators were convicted on fifth-degree felony charges after a massive county-wide sting. One of them, ironically enough, DAP filmed back in February. “It’s still one of our proudest achievements,” Joshua says. Back at the McDonald’s where we

met Jake, Joshua cautiously escorts the 25-year-old out to his Nissan repeatedly explaining, “This is so you don’t do anything stupid.” Carnicom and I wait silently in his minivan, which is messy with child car seats and a scattering of toys. We all wonder for a moment what will happen to Jake, whether his life will be changed for the better, or if it could suddenly spiral into self-harm. “I can allow myself to have sympathy, and I can not allow myself,” Joshua says. “I guess I do believe in second chances.” And what if Jake ends up ending his life? It’s a fair question, both men admit. And they’d have to face it soon enough. A few weeks after Jake’s video was posted on DAP’s Youtube channel, Joshua called me panicking. The day before, he did a catch with a man who was a well-known driving instructor in the Fremont area. The catch was surprisingly quick: He was waiting in his car outside Carnicom’s old house — waiting for sex with a 14-year-old — when Joshua rushed him with his camera on. The man sped off. “He told me, ‘I’ll be dead in the morning,’” Joshua says. The next day, Joshua received a frantic call from the Fremont Police: The man had hung himself in his living room. For days, Joshua wavered between guilt and apathy, wondering how the man’s suicide factored into his moral compass. Seeing the public praise on Facebook solidified his initial reaction. “I guess I just feel like a soldier,” Joshua says. “That he was a bad guy on the other team. I mean, think of how many lives he potentially ruined.” This story was originally published in CityBeat’s

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sister paper, the Cleveland Scene

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SEPTEMBER 2020

“Tyler Davidson Fountain” PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

the aftermath of Breonna Taylor’s killing in Louisville on March 13 and George Floyd’s in Minneapolis on May 25 — and the murder of countless other unarmed Black citizens before and since — people of all ages, races and ethnicities have come together to protest racial injustice, demanding an end to racist policies and actions today. And they’re also calling for the removal of certain public monuments — those which symbolize the inequalities of the past — sometimes defacing and toppling them themselves. And the protests are not confined to Southern cities where Confederate monuments abound. Even here, north of the Ohio River, people are demanding the removal of particular memorials. Case in point, the proposed motion by Cincinnati City Council member Chris Seelbach to remove the William Henry Harrison equestrian statue in Piatt Park. Harrison — the first U.S. President from Ohio — once owned enslaved peoples, participated in the slave trade and politically supported slavery. Cincinnati’s Harrison monument features a bronze-man-on-horse mounted atop a tall granite base. It represents the quintessential definition of “monumental” — something large, permanent and unchanging. But even if the sculpture’s physical appearance has remained the same for decades, its meaning has changed as society’s values have evolved. By strict definition, a “monument” doesn’t need to be big. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a monument is “a statue, building, or other structure erected to commemorate a famous or notable person or event.” So, the piece can be as modest as a metal placard or as grandiose as a neoclassical colonnade. And many incorporate works of art, whether conventional, like an equestrian sculpture, or daring, like a stainless-steel portal supporting a big rock (more on that later). Regardless, a public art monument is just that — public — and it reflects the public’s many opinions and interpretations, often leading to differences and controversies. These six art monuments in Cincinnati are all located in and around downtown. Some are universally loved; others, not so much. Yet over time, public opinion has often changed about each one.

“Tyler Davidson Fountain” Artist: August von Kreling (Royal Bavarian Bronze

Foundry) // Date: 1871 // Location: Fountain Square

The Tyler Davidson Fountain is arguably the city’s most beloved public art monument. For nearly 150 years, this urban icon has served as a gathering place for citywide celebrations. Commissioned by Henry Probasco (who made his fortune selling hardware in the early 1800s), the fountain commemorates Tyler Davidson, Probasco’s onetime business partner and brother-in-law. And this popular monument is also dedicated to the people of Cincinnati (as evident in the opening credits of WKRP in Cincinnati). Some say the fountain is also a monument to temperance. In 19th-century beer-drenched Cincinnati, it served as a source of clean water. German artist August von Kreling designed it to be easily accessible, providing an alternative to the ever-plentiful ale. The four sculptural figures marking the fountain’s perimeter represent boys with aquatic animals — turtle, snake, duck and dolphin — and water streams from each animal into small basins designed to be (and still functioning as) drinking fountains. Typical of high-Victorian eclecticism, the style and detailing are all over the place, incorporating Gothic, Baroque and Classical elements, which often seem to fight one another. However, the artist modeled the human figures according to

Beaux-Arts conventions, each realistically proportioned and naturally posed. What was controversial at the time — even radical — was Kreling’s incorporation of both allegorical and non-allegorical figures within the same work of art. “The Genius of the Water,” standing atop the monument with outstretched arms, is allegorical. From her hands, rain pours down on the figures below who represent everyday people — farmer, bather, healer and fireman — all benefitting from the many uses of water. Another bit of controversy: When first installed, the Fountain displaced the city’s butcher markets, then located along Fifth Street. In 1871, the majority of Cincinnati’s outdoor public spaces were devoted to commercial use; Piatt Park was the only downtown recreational area. But the city relocated the butchers closer to Findlay market, and the fountain moved to its new home: a treelined “island” running down the center of Fifth Street between Vine and Walnut streets. In honor of its centennial in 1971, the fountain was relocated to the Fountain Square we know today. But over the past 50 years, more and more structures have cluttered the square and slowly encroached upon the artwork, decreasing the open space around it and making it less of a focal point. Yet, despite all that, the Tyler Davidson Fountain still remains very accessible — and popular.

This statue of abolitionist James Bradley is one of several installed along Covington’s Riverside Drive PH OTO : G R AC E L AWL E R

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“William Henry Harrison” PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

slaves. In 1791, after his father’s death, he joined the U.S. Army and headed west to Fort Washington (located where downtown Cincinnati is today). Harrison made his way through the ranks and was eventually appointed first governor of the Indiana Territory in 1800. Around that time, he also inherited 11 or 12 enslaved people from his mother (sources differ) and reportedly kept seven as indentured servants at Grouseland, his plantation-like home in Vincennes, Indiana. But Harrison was also personally engaged in the slave trade, purchasing enslaved people from Kentucky on several occasions. Once transported to Vincennes, he changed their legal status from slave to indentured servant (which was little different than slavery itself ). Harrison’s political support of slavery served to entice white Southerners to relocate to the Indiana territory, helping to force out Native American tribes. He fought against the Shawnee and a confederation of American Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, and his victory there helped to evict all Native peoples from the territory, despite a treaty guaranteeing their right to live on the land. Later, Harrison moved to North Bend, Ohio, his wife’s hometown and became an Ohio politician. He ran for U.S. President, winning the office at age 67 in 1840. His only distinction: the shortest term of any President — only 31 days in office. (He contracted pneumonia after giving a 1.5-hour inauguration speech in the pouring rain.) And so, today’s battle rages on. Do we keep the Harrison monument in place, preserving it as a symbol of Ohio’s pride of being “The Mother of Presidents”? Or remove it from its place of public prominence, to make a statement against the entrenched racism that continues to plague our society?

“William Henry Harrison” Artist: Louis T. Rebisso // Date: 1896 // Location: Piatt Park

Cincinnati’s only bronze equestrian statue is located downtown in Piatt Park. Unveiled in May of 1896, the sculpture represents William Henry Harrison, “Ohio’s First President” (and it says so — in huge letters — on the sculpture’s base). The movement to create and install a monument to honor our ninth U.S. President followed a long and circuitous route. Ten years before its unveiling, in 1886, a “Special Committee on Programme Recommendations” for Cincinnati’s centennial celebration of 1888 suggested “the erection of a monument to General William Henry Harrison, first President of the United States from Ohio, to be located in this city.” The timetable proved to be overly ambitious. A “Memorial Committee” was soon formed and secured $25,000 in funding from the Ohio State Legislature (nearly $675,000 today). But that was the easy part. In the following years, the process was slowed down by accusations of embezzlement, objections to the choice of artist (eventually Louis T. Rebisso), delays in approval

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of the design and the necessary time needed to model and cast the sculpture. Rebisso, a Cincinnati transplant from Italy, studied art in his home country, so the sculpture’s forms and proportions follow classical models. The bronze horse-and-rider was placed atop a 13-foot-tall granite pedestal, way up high. The monument feels very inaccessible, especially when compared to the Tyler Davidson Fountain, which was unveiled 25 years prior. A contemporary newspaper account from 1896 reported on the festivities surrounding the unveiling of the Harrison monument “amid the blare of trumpets and wild huzzas of the assembled thousands.” In his speech, Judge John F. Follett of the monument commission asked the city of Cincinnati to “faithfully and conscientiously protect and preserve this magnificent testimonial to one of our greatest citizens...a perpetual example to our aspiring youth that virtue will ever bring its own reward.” The speeches of 1896 gave no mention of Harrison owning enslaved peoples and supporting the slave trade. Born in Virginia on Berkeley Plantation in 1773, Harrison grew up in a family that owned

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“Law and Society” PH OTO : G R AC E L AWL E R

location under the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge (aka the Big Mac Bridge). Here’s where it stands today, with no marker or label telling visitors the name of the artist or the title of the sculpture or the history behind it. And its title and location are missing from all the Bicentennial Commons maps. Adding insult to injury, the stainless-steel cladding was vandalized and severely damaged. Cincinnati Parks removed the cladding, revealing the steel structure underneath, which has been painted black. But the steel is now rusting due to its exposure to the elements. Still no love for this unusual monument.

“James Bradley” Artist: George Danhires // Date: 1988; restored in 2016 // Location: Riverside Drive, Covington

“Law and Society”

Artist: Barna Von Sartory // Date: 1972 // Location: Sawyer Point

In 1972, one year after the Tyler Davidson Fountain was re-dedicated on its centenary celebration, an unconventional — and very controversial — monument appeared on Fountain Square. It soon became the sculpture that everybody loves to hate and is now exiled to a location underneath the Big Mac Bridge. Titled “Law and Society,” this work of public art commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Cincinnati Bar Association. It was financed through a private gift from Charles Sawyer, a past president of the Bar Association and former Secretary of Commerce under President Harry Truman. A committee of contemporary art lovers (including Joseph Hirshhorn, the namesake of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden) chose an obscure Hungarian artist named Barna Von Sartory to create the sculpture. Sartory’s design is purposefully abstract; no representations of people or animals, but instead architectural in form. It features a 35-ton, rough-hewn, Indiana limestone block — nicknamed “The Rock” by Cincinnatians — which sits atop a polished stainless-steel portal. Sartory constructed the monument on Fountain Square where the public could see his process. But most were baffled by what they saw. According to contemporary newspaper accounts, a common question was: “What is it supposed to be?” Others concluded, “It’s a mess,” “It’s a disgrace,” “It’s a urinal for the winos.” Then-Cincinnati City Council member

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Jerry Springer called it a “giant rip-off,” even though the city hadn’t paid a dime for the sculpture. Yet Springer’s sentiment seemed to resonate with many Cincinnatians who compared “Law and Society” to the fable of the Emperor’s New Clothes and cautioned: “Let the buyer beware.” Although abstract, the artist intended the sculpture to be symbolic. According to Sartory, the giant limestone block represents “Society” and the reflective portal represents “Law” (upholding society). He conceived the sculpture as a kind of gateway to Fountain Square, and local art critics suggested various architectural precedents for its form, including prehistoric megaliths (think Stonehenge), Roman triumphal arches and Japanese torii. Writing in The Cincinnati Enquirer shortly after the monument was unveiled, art reporter Owen Findsen admitted that “(‘Law and Society’ is) viewed by most with astonishment,” but then he poked fun at Cincinnati’s conservative tastes, adding that “anyone who expected a figure of George Washington in a toga was doomed to disappointment.” “Law and Society” was meant to be on display on Fountain Square for a short time. But the sculpture stayed in place for about six years before it was relocated to Government Square, partially obscured by the bus shelters along Fifth Street. Around 1985, “Law and Society” moved again, this time to Sawyer Point, the former junkyard turned riverside park — with funds donated by the same Charles Sawyer — and installed by the small amphitheater. In 1988, with the creation of Bicentennial Commons, “Law and Society” was moved yet again, this time to a rather undistinguished

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Trends in art come and go — and often, these trends are cyclical. For much of the 20th century, the trend moved away from representation and toward abstraction. But naturalism and realism eventually made a comeback in the 1960s and 1970s. Around the time “Law and Society” was relocated under the bridge, a new monument was installed along Covington’s Riverside Drive. This installation, sponsored by the Greater Cincinnati Bicentennial Commission, features bronze likenesses of seven historic individuals who represent a range of personalities with connections to the region spanning time, race and gender. From east to west along the route, these figures are: • Daniel Carter Beard, founder of the Boy Scouts • James Audubon, naturalist and artist • Chief Little Turtle, military leader • James Bradley, abolitionist • Mary B. Greene, steamboat captain

• Simon Kenton, explorer • John A. Roebling, bridge engineer Each sculpture was created by a different artist — and the quality of each varies. (Sadly, Chief Little Turtle’s pose is awkward, his proportions are off and he’s not well modeled. If this sculpture is intended to be about the idea of the man, rather than his actual likeness, then it’s missed the mark. Chief Little Turtle was a great leader and warrior — nothing about this sculpture conveys that idea.) However, the best by far is the bronze of James Bradley, a noted abolitionist. The artist, George Danhires, chose to model the figure according to standard human proportions. The Bradley sculpture sports a natural pose as it sits on a park bench, facing Cincinnati’s skyline, and reads a (bronze) book. It invites interaction with viewers; many sit down next to the figure and take photos, enjoying a spontaneous social media moment. What we know about James Bradley is largely through Oberlin College, where he attended the Lane Theological Seminary as its first African American student. Bradley was kidnapped from West Africa at the age of 2 and brought to the United States by slave traders. He was sold to a slave owner in Pendleton County, Kentucky, but eventually escaped and made his way to Ohio where he became an important figure in the Underground Railroad. At Oberlin, Bradley participated in the Great Lane Seminary Debate of 1834, where he argued in favor of the abolition of slavery, but not the return of former enslaved peoples back to Africa. There are no existing portraits of Bradley, so artist Danhires imagined Bradley as a thoughtful, educated man who fought with the power of his intellect to free himself and others. Right across the river, in Smale Riverfront Park, is another monument to African Americans. These men fought physically for freedom — and for the protection of the whole city — during the Civil War. Cincinnati’s Black Brigade, a volunteer contingent of 718 men, dug defenses and built fortifications in Northern Kentucky to repel Confederate forces. Their story is told by four artists: Tyrone Williams (writer), Eric Brown (graphic designer), John Hebenstreit (sculptor) and Carolyn Manto (sculptor). Completed in 2012, this monument represents a trend in collaboration between artists of diverse backgrounds and talents, bringing more voices together in the conversation. This is a welcomed change from the traditional Civil War monuments of an earlier era which typically commemorated a single personality, conceived by a single artist. In the South, the subject is often a Confederate leader; in the North, it’s often Abraham Lincoln in the role of the “Great Emancipator.”

“Abraham Lincoln” PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

“Abraham Lincoln”

Artist: George Grey Barnard // Date: 1917 // Location: Lytle Park

In 1917, on the centenary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth, Charles P. Taft (brother of President William Howard Taft) and his wife Anna Sinton Taft presented a sculpture of Lincoln to Cincinnati. Today, more than 100 years later, people walk and jog past this statue of Lincoln and think “Oh, it’s Lincoln,” but when unveiled in 1917, the bronze likeness stirred up a lot of controversy. It was viewed by many — especially art critics — as a caricature of the 16th President of the United States, in contrast to the idealized hero the public was accustomed to seeing. The artist, George Grey Barnard, modeled his figure of Lincoln with oversized hands and feet and a beardless, wrinkled face, which included a pensive look. Some considered this representation to be disrespectful of the great man who was credited with preserving the Union and freeing the enslaved. But looking at the sculpture today, through our contemporary lens, Lincoln’s enlarged hands and feet give the statue a sense of strength. And the pensive qualities of Lincoln’s face convey the huge import of his decisions

and responsibilities while in office. (And, reportedly, Lincoln hadn’t grown a beard until he ran for President in 1860 at age 51 — up to that point, he had a clean-shaven face.) Currently, the bigger controversy involving a traditional “heroic” likeness of Lincoln revolves around the “Emancipation Memorial” (1876) in Washington, D.C. and its copy in Boston. The monument, created by sculptor Thomas Ball, depicts a Black man wearing broken chains kneeling at Lincoln’s feet, apparently in gratitude for his freedom. Protestors have called for the removal of this particular memorial. For now, the original in D.C. is staying in place, but the Boston Art Commission has voted to remove their casting from Boston’s Park Square. Currently, art conservators in Boston are researching the best way to move it — and Boston officials have not yet determined where the monument will go. Nearly 150 years after the unveiling of D.C.’s “Emancipation Memorial,” our telling of history is more inclusive, and our monuments reflect that. Cincinnati’s aforementioned “Black Brigade” conveys the role of African Americans as active participants, not as passive viewers. And the people relaying these stories are more diverse, too, reflecting the true nature of our society today.

“James Bradley” PH OTO : G R AC E L AWL E R

SEPTEMBER 2020

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“Armstrong” PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

“Armstrong” Artist: Eduardo Kobra and ArtWorks muralists // Date: 2016 // Location: Sixth and Walnut Streets

Cincinnati’s public art of the past 50 years — from the time “Law and Society” was unveiled — counters the notion that monuments are reserved for military generals and national politicians. Today, monuments commemorate a variety of people who manifest the idea of heroism in different ways. And, these monuments don’t need to be sculptural works of art created from cast metals and carved stone — they can be paintings, too. For the past 25 years, ArtWorks has produced outdoor murals in and around Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Many of these large-scale works commemorate famous (and not-sofamous) Cincinnatians, including James Brown, Ezzard Charles, the Isley Brothers, Elizabeth Nourse, Annie Oakley, Susan O’Malley, Mamie Smith, Jim Tarbell and even Martha, the last Passenger Pigeon. By far, the largest ArtWorks mural to-date is located in downtown Cincinnati’s arts district, facing Walnut Street across from the Contemporary Arts Center and the Aronoff Center for the Arts. Truly of monumental proportions, this work pays tribute to astronaut Neil Armstrong, an Ohio native, and the first person to walk on the moon in 1969, not quite 50 years before the mural was completed in 2016. Simply titled “Armstrong,” this monumental painting was designed by world-famous Brazilian street artist Eduardo Kobra. His style features photorealistic human figures, typically

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rendered in black-and-white, and incorporates rainbow colors in a variety of patterns. But Kobra didn’t create this work on his own. He had help from four student apprentices. An objective of ArtWorks is to employ local students, ages 14 through 21, to help — and learn from — professional artists. To date, ArtWorks has engaged 3,600 students in this creative process since its founding in 1996. If only there were some controversy to inject into this work, but with “Armstrong,” there isn’t much. In fact, most of the murals commissioned through ArtWorks have garnered high praise. “Armstrong” is a great example of the type of public art being created in Cincinnati today. Its message is clear, and its aesthetics are highly accessible. The question is: Will the meaning and relevance of today’s contemporary monuments change in the future? And if so, how? And should we even worry about it? It seems that monuments speak more to the people who create them, than to the posterity they are intended to engage. As for removing those historic monuments which offend today’s audiences, council member Seelbach now says removal can be a “slippery slope.” In a recent phone conversation, he suggests the need for standards to help decide which monuments to remove and where they should go. To achieve this, Seelbach is creating a committee of citizens to formulate guidelines, bringing “the public” back into the discussion of public art.

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ARTS & CULTURE

One of Jill Cleary’s murals on the outside of Bunk Spot P H OTO : H A I L E Y BOLLINGER

Northside Gets a New Art Space Bunk Spot gallery joins forces with arts agency (DSGN)Cllctv in a new, mural-wrapped Northside building BY M AC K E N Z I E M A N L E Y

endleton artist collective and gallery Bunk Spot has a new home in Northside. And the space at 4148/4150 Hamilton Ave. is currently being shared by (DSGN)Cllctv, an arts consulting business formed in 2019 by Julia Green and Michael Gonsalves. Bunk Spot is dividing its portion of the building between a showroom, a fabrication shop and an area to display merch. (DSGN)Cllctv’s offices and framing facility will temporarily be housed here, too, though Gonsalves notes that they plan to move their operation elsewhere, with sights set on Camp Washington. Green and Gonsalves are partners both in life and business. They met while students at the University of Cincinnati and, more specifically, through a mutual connection with Bunk Spot curator Ben Brown. The goal of (DSGN) Cllctv is to create jobs and opportunities for emerging artists, commercially, so that they can gain exposure and make a living wage. “We really wanted to have a connection with a gallery; it happened to work out with Ben because he lives down the

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street from us,” Green says. (All three are Northsiders.) “We were taking a walk during quarantine and just started chatting, and the stars aligned. It was a perfect partnership because the type of program and artists that he hosts are who we are in line with as well.” Gonsalves laughs, adding that the story is a “bit more whimsical.” When the duo moved to Northside a year ago, they started searching for an office building for (DSGN)Cllctv. As more artists joined their roster, they decided they wanted to include a gallery in their space. Happenstance would have it that Brown was looking to move Bunk Spot, formerly at 544 E. 12th St. in Pendleton. “In the new space, we’re trying to do some of the same stuff, but we have a lot more space,” Brown says. “It’s probably at least two times larger in just the gallery portion.” Bunk Spot — also known as Bunk News — has a strong DIY bent and has been behind a slew of local art and music shows since its formation in 2005. Described as a “place where scenes and genres disappear,” their partnership with (DSGN)Cllctv will also enable the gallery to operate under regular hours

SEPTEMBER 2020

(as opposed to oneoff/by-appointment shows). Their first project rolled out at the end of August: a livestream with local Electronic music outfit #Freshlist and aerial performances by Elevated Aerials. The prospect of having people physically in the space is up in the air due to (DSGN)Cllctv’s Michael Gonsalves and Julia Green P H OTO : H A I L E Y B O L L I N G E R COVID-19, but they want to host their runs alongside of it — that’s always first art opening in there and will continue to grow,” Brown September. A Halloween installation is says. also in talks. Green notes that “by a stroke of luck” Instead of their usual Final Fridays, the building was tagged with three Bunk is shooting for openings to be pieces by the late tattoo and street artist held on the last Saturday of every Jason Brunson. month. “You’re never going to want to do When they do start rolling out shows, anything to that,” Green says. “So that safety, Brown says, is paramount. In the gave us the idea to just cover the whole meantime, the building’s exterior has (building) in art.” been opened up to mural artists. Fifteen artists, including those who One of local artist Jill Cleary’s psymarked up (DSGN)Cllctv’s exterior, chedelic “Jibe” murals, seemingly an are currently among those on the homage to the noodly cartoons of the agency’s roster. Other artists in their 1920s and ‘30s, serves as the space’s ranks include Richard A. Chance, Girl main showpiece. Stroll around the Mobb, Dan Becker, Brian Uhl, Antonio property and you’ll also find a batty Mcilwaine, Randy Wilson, Justin Green, work by Vladimir Plitsyn; Hitchcockian Carol Tyler and Halcyeti. street art by Technique 2012; a blue gradient piece by Tenzing, his last artistic excursion before heading off to college; Bunk Spots and (DSGN)Cllctv are and a blazing mural by Empire Citizens; located at 4148/4150 Hamilton Ave., among others. Northside. Keep up with openings “(The building is) kind of like a public and announcements on Instagram gallery, if you will, and the alley that @dsgn_cllctv and @bunk_news.

CULTURE

Madisonville’s Fill More Waste Less Offers Eco-Friendly, Refillable Products for Conscious Consumers BY O L I V E C O L L I N S N I E S Z

Twenty-seven-year-old entrepreneur and waste-free enthusiast Gabrielle Lauren has found a way to make an impact and help others do the same by offering environmentally, ethically and economically friendly ways to “Fill More Waste Less” — the descriptive name of her independent business venture. Lauren found her way into the world of waste-free living while running her own candle, bath and body business called H&B. When she learned of the negative environmental impact of this industry, she wanted to make a change. “I fell in love with having a business and cultivating a line of products to present to people, but as I continued on that journey, I realized how not environmentally friendly candles were,” Lauren says. “I started diving into different venues to explore how I could create (eco-friendly) products for people and serve as a resource as well as a saleswoman.” And so, the idea of a zero-waste refillery, Fill More Waste Less, was born. One of Lauren’s initial aims was to create a local spot where people could come to shop for eco-friendly products with reasonable prices at any point in their waste-free journey. On her website, it says: “As a nation, the U.S. population sends an average of 7 lbs of waste per person to landfills every day accounting for 30% of the planet’s total waste, even though we only make up 4% of the global population. We know what you’re thinking, ‘no matter how big of a change I make it’s not going to make a difference.’ But we have found this lifestyle change brings fulfillment, a sense of gratitude for the things that we do have and empowers us to make changes that have a positive impact on our environment — big or small.” “Trying to debunk the traditional zero-waste living and make it attainable was my goal,” Lauren says. “You don’t have to fit a year’s worth of trash into a jar to make a positive impact.” But, like most things, the original sales and marketing plan of hosting pop-ups around town was dashed by COVID-19, leading Lauren to switch to an online selling platform. At fillmorewasteless.com, shoppers can find household essentials from laundry powder and deodorant to biodegradable kitchen sponges and reusable coffee filters. She explains that some of the most popular products she carries are dish brushes with replaceable heads and kitchen towels (to

replace paper towels). “It’s the easiest switch that makes the most sense and isn’t a huge adjustment,” she says. Fill More Waste Less also offers sleek and refillable jars that you can fill and refill with shampoo and conditioner, lotion, hairspray, toothpaste and more. Lauren tests and researches all of the products available personally and with the help of her mother. They ensure that the products meet their quality standards, are cruelty free, if not vegan, and that those who produce the products are making a fair wage. And Lauren actually says that launching at the start of a pandemic may have helped her business. “I definitely think that at the beginning of COVID, people’s Fill More Waste Less offers refillable products including shampoo, laundry detergent, hand sanitizer and more. mindsets switched,” P H OTO : F I L L M O R E WA ST E L E S S she says. “People started thinking about change of scenery will the everyday things they were bringing be welcome, as the into their lives and wanted to simplify business has outgrown and find (products) that were benefiits current space. cial to not only themselves, but to the “It will be much environment.” easier to reach customLauren found that the Cincinnati ers and be there as a community was in need of a zeroresource and cut out waste resource, but she also received the barriers for people an influx of customers and attention to attain zero-waste due to her business being recognized essentials with a storeand shared as a Black-owned business front,” Lauren says. during the ongoing Black Lives Matter While being a twenmovement. tysomething, Black, Because of the success of her online woman businessshop, Lauren will be opening a Fill Gabrielle Lauren owner and entrepreMore Waste Less storefront come fall P H OTO : F I L L M O R E WA S T E L E S S neur is plenty to be 2020. Located at the corner of Bramble proud of, Lauren says and Whetsel avenues in Madisonville, of Cincinnati, providing services and that her biggest pride is the way that the shop will be “clean, simple and resources, and expanding in the future her customers have “showed up, and modern, with a vintage twist.” if needed. continue to show up.” A resident of Madisonville for almost “It brings me a little bit to tears three years, Lauren wants to “bring because I didn’t expect this,” she says, more of a community feel to the BramFor more information about what “It’s what I’ve worked for, it’s a feeling of ble and Whetsel corner and continue to Fill More Waste Less offers, fulfillment in every way. I’m just really build the community up from within.” and for storefront updates, visit thankful.” After operating out of a two-bedroom fillmorewasteless.com or Lauren says that she plans to conapartment since the genesis of Fill @fillmore.wasteless on Instagram. tinue to meet the zero-waste demands More Waste Less, Lauren says the

SEPTEMBER 2020

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

FILM

Still Learning from a Long-Ago Journey Down Route One BY ST E V E N RO S E N

Great movies allow their main characters to live their own lives, to be set free from the kind of rigid determinism that all too often comes from too-carefully plotted screenplays or too-conventional audience expectations. By those standards, as well as many others, director Robert Kramer’s Route One/ USA — which is streaming on Cincinnati World Cinema’s website through Sept. 30 — is a great movie. First released in 1989 but little seen then, Route One has been restored and digitized by Icarus Films and is getting a national release. Because it is four hours long, it streams in two parts. In The New York Times recently, critic J. Hoberman said that the film feels so timely “most of it could have been filmed last year.” It features the actor Paul McIsaac as Doc, a 1960s political radical who became a physician and is now returning to this country after working in Africa. He comes back for a road trip with an old friend, director Kramer, to see how the country has changed — or hasn’t — during his absence. Doc is looking for a place to be an altruistic doctor as well as a decent person. He is friendly, sometimes hopeful, but also deeply introspective and, in general, constantly searching. He consistently takes actions that catch us — and the movie — by surprise. In Boston, Doc visits a neighborhood Portuguese food market/gift shop, winding up drinking wine with the owner sitting among the wooden kegs. “I think you’ve built a good life in America,” Doc says, before ruefully confessing that his own father — a Scottish immigrant — did less well. In a Bridgeport, Connecticut, which looks like a city bypassed by progress, Doc fidgets at a free but formalized Thanksgiving dinner for the needy, then goes outside and meets a man who offers booze from a juice glass. The man, somewhat worse for wear, proudly says he put his kids through college. In Fayetteville, North Carolina, he visits a frail middle-aged newspaper reporter, Pat Reese, who tells him he was shot in the mouth by a man he was investigating. Doc hugs him. What is especially surprising is that Route One/USA is a documentary. Despite the presence of the fictional Doc, most of the people he meets are exactly who they say they are. (There are a few recognizable public figures, like Jesse Jackson and Pat Robertson.) Critic Hoberman compared it to Robert Frank’s classic 1950s photography

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

series, The Americans, for its ability to non-judgmentally allow its subjects to reveal themselves, as well as the nation they live in, for better or worse. That makes the presence of the fictional character Doc a great risk, but it works triumphantly. Rather than being nostalgic, it comes across as relevant — urgent, even — today. “Looking at Route One, I have to look at it not only in the context of what we did when we did it, but where we are today,” says McIsaac, in a phone interview from Long Island. “I’ve lost none of my enthusiasm for our political and moral commitments of that time as I see it again.” Kramer, who died in 1999, himself was a 1960s radical who had left his country to be able to keep making films abroad. He envisioned Route One as a chronicle of his homeland return after a decade in France. He and a small crew would take a long road trip from Maine to Key West along U.S. Route 1, which had been the primary route along the East Coast before modern expressways. Kramer helped found Newsreel Films, a collective of politically active filmmakers out to document protest/ resistance during a time of freedom/ anti-racism struggles and opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam. He also moved into still-political but more personal projects, like 1970’s Ice, a drama about American leftists actually staging a revolution, and 1975’s Milestones, a poetic film about trying to adapt to changing times. McIsaac, himself a political and cultural activist, met Kramer at Newsreel Films meetings, and was cast in Ice as one of the revolutionaries who survives the crackdown. He also had a background in acting, including improvisation. After losing touch, the two rekindled their friendship at a 1984 reunion of Free Vermont, a collective of activists — including Newsreel Films veterans — who had settled in that state. (An affiliated organization, the Liberty Union Party, started Bernie Sanders’ political career.) At the time, McIsaac was a radio documentarian making “Reunion of Radicals” for National Public Radio. Because they both were still working in the creative arts, their talk turned to working together. They discussed the idea of a character who felt the 1960s revolution and turned to medicine to help others. (Doc was somewhat based on Weather Underground member Alan Berkman, who survived a jail term and as a physician dedicated himself to

SEPTEMBER 2020

helping AIDs patients.) So they made 1988’s Portugal-set Doc’s Kingdom, about a physician fighting burnout. For Route One, Kramer wanted to apply his skills, and his political sensibility, to a documentary focused on his own American discoveries. Still from Route One/USA He had a tiny crew and P H OTO : C O U RT E SY I CA RU S F I L M S at first wanted McIsaac to serve as a kind of any kudos here. Nobody is going to go location scout. ooh and aah when you say what you’re “One of the things I knew to do (as a doing. It’s a slow war on people, slow journalist) was to go into town and figwar on us.” ure out who is the most interesting perThey knew Doc was a fictional son to talk to,” McIsaac says. “(Kramer) character being played by McIsaac, but said, ‘Why don’t you do that? We’ll have it didn’t matter. “They were expressing a little money for it, and see what you themselves and saying just what they’d find.’ So, I got on the road and started say to (a real) Doc,” McIsaac says. doing that. Now this is me — there was Apart from the narrative, which can no discussion of Doc at all. And as we reveal itself in short, sharp segments did that...we realized I wasn’t just findthat don’t always provide context, ing people, but Doc was sort of pressing director Kramer’s movie is consistently himself into it.” visually arresting — beautiful in its The result is that Doc’s character dedication to both straightforward and explores his own past as well as that of artful abstractions. He puts together the country he left. In Concord, Masquietly moving montages, like one of sachusetts he visits the meeting hall the foggy, doomy landscape around where Henry David Thoreau spoke out New Hampshire’s Seabrook Station in support of abolitionist John Brown, Nuclear Power Plant that conjures who had raided a federal armory ghosts of Chernobyl. Or he can focus in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia to seize underwater to portray a coral reef weapons and arm slaves for a rebellion. within an ethereal green dreamscape. Brown was executed for his act. Doc The film also lets him explore some of reads the speech from the stage, breathhis own interests and has a beautifully ing heavily from the strain. spare musical score. McIsaac says that Kramer’s crew had McIsaac has said in the past that misgivings about his desire to play Doc Route One/USA, Doc’s Kingdom and Ice in the film, since Route One/USA was to shape him as a kind of Odysseus trying be about encounters with real people. to come home from the wars. That’s This change meant those people would true, but the sorrows he finds in Amerstill talk about themselves, but now to ica — environmental concerns, racan actor playing a role rather than to a ism’s legacy, violence, stressed health documentarian asking questions. professionals, struggling immigrants, “They said people are not going to talk decaying cities, a nascent religious right, to a fictional character,” McIsaac recalls. a press under attack — also make this “I said I don’t agree, this is America and film effective as a report from America people are completely mediated. I was today. And Doc serves as an inspiration right...People know what it is to play for change. themselves.” “It’s very exciting to try to help and The scene that still amazes McIsaac be part of movements today, based on comes in Brooklyn, where Doc has a what we did back then,” McIsaac says. job interview with physicians helping “That’s very dynamic and very exciting, AIDS patients at a beleaguered city not as nostalgia but as a feeling that hospital. One asks him how he could one’s life has continuity.” last for 10 years working in Africa and not be exhausted by the demands; he answers that “the idea of revolution Route One/USA streams in two pushed me for a time, then alcohol, parts through Sept. 30 at Cincy some drugs.” One of the interviewers World Cinema online. For tickets and warns him, “You’re not going to get more info, visit cincyworldcinema.org.

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FOOD & DRINK

Good Plates Eatery P H OTO : H A I L E Y B O L L I N G E R

Good Plates, Great Sauce Husband-and-wife duo Andrew and Jamie Schlanser have opened casual restaurant — simple with big flavors — in CUF’s former Cilantro space R E V I E W BY L E Y L A S H O KO O H E

ood Plates Eatery is a real family affair. Husband-andwife team Andrew and Jamie Schlanser opened the casual restaurant in the former Cilantro location on McMillan Avenue in Clifton Heights this August. The pair met as employees at a bar in Northside before later reuniting as employees at Chapter in Mount Adams. They married and had twins in 2018. (Fun fact: Twins Gibson’s and Posey’s initials are mirrored in Good Plates’ name.) “January of this past year, Andrew took me out to lunch for my birthday and told me he wanted to buy a restaurant for my birthday present,” Jamie says. Andrew had been friendly with the proprietor of Cilantro, the Vietnamese bistro that formerly occupied Good Plates’ location. When he learned about its impending closure, he knew this was their shot at making a go of restaurant ownership. But 2020 had different plans. “We signed the lease and three days later the entire world shut down,” Jamie says. “Andrew’s previous restaurant Chapter ended up shutting down and

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that was terrifying but it pushed us to the edge of, ‘We gotta do this now. There’s no choice. This is it.’ ” From the outset, their goal had been to open Good Plates by the time the University of Cincinnati’s fall semester started. Good Plates fits in with the college scene: a cozy space with a welcoming and friendly vibe, hardwood floors and black-and-cream furniture. For those familiar with restaurantspeak, it’s easiest put this way: Jamie is front-of-house, Andrew is back-ofhouse. He started in the industry at 15, and grew increasingly fond of the restaurant side of things. His expertise is all gained from hands-on experience. The menu reflects that hardearned wisdom; it is approachable without being basic, and aspirational without being snobby. “With the area we’re in, I wanted everything to be big flavors, but simple enough to be quick and easy to get out,” Andrew says. Sandwiches and bowls comprise the bulk of Good Plates’ menu, with a smattering of starters, desserts and side dishes. Each item has a little twist

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that takes it from standard to satisfying, often found in the sauce. The turkey sandwich has a basil aioli, the Southwest quinoa bowl has a cilantro yogurt sauce, the adobo brisket and cheese has a horseradish aioli. “He loves to make sauces and relishes and jams and spreads,” Jamie says. “Anything he can add a sauce to, that’s all that he loves to do.” For a work-from-home lunch one day recently, I ordered the cold-fried chicken sandwich ($8.50), because the name was endlessly intriguing. The chicken is not fried cold (something I wouldn’t put past the realm of possibility in the year of our Lord 2020), but is served cold — a fun riff on next-day leftovers. “The way our kitchen is set up, it’s just not conducive to breading and frying a sandwich,” Andrew says. “So, in my mind, I was like, if you get fried chicken from KFC or Lee’s or whatever and you have some leftover, and you open the fridge the next day and pull some off, it’s delicious. I was like, ‘Why wouldn’t that be good as a sandwich?’” Marinated in buttermilk and hot sauce, the filet is breaded and fried, then chilled and served the next day. The slab of fried chicken was legitimately the length and nearly the width of my hand, with a stack of thin-sliced pickles and smear of garlic aioli. Served on a chewy Sixteen Bricks bun, I expected to eat half of it and surprised myself 20-odd minutes later when it was all gone. I also ordered the poutine ($7), which is made with a mushroom gravy, and tried the Brussels sprout slaw ($3), which was fresh and tangy.

Every bowl on Good Plates’ menu is vegetarian, with the option to add meat for a slight upcharge. In fact, several of the dishes can also be made vegan. I am a meat eater, myself, so for dinner another day, I walked to Good Plates to order a Smash Burger ($9) to go, figuring the calories burned on my two-mile walk would compensate for those consumed. MyFitnessPal says otherwise, but I don’t regret it. The cheddar was good and melty, the patties big and well-cooked and 100% worth it. I also grabbed a bag of Herr’s jalapeno and ranch chips (calling all Office fans!) and an Ale 8. Good Plates doesn’t have a liquor license yet, but when they do, canned cocktails and beers will be available. For now, the nostalgia-inducing variety of canned soft drinks does the trick. (Grape soda! Root beer!) Desserts are supplied by local Unprocessed Baking Co., including a darn good brown butter chocolate chip cookie. If there’s an item customers think should be on the menu, submit your dish and it could be a featured item of the week. For every five people that order it, you get a $5 Good Plates gift card. If enough people order it, it could become a regular menu item. Saturday brunch is on the horizon, and for now, walk-up and catering business is brisk. “If the pandemic hadn’t been going on, none of this probably would have happened — at least how quickly everything came around,” Andrew says. Good Plates Eatery, 235 W. McMillan Ave., Clifton Heights, goodplateseatery.com.

THE DISH

Pata Roja Taquería Brings a Taste of Mexico City to a Walk-Up Window in Over-the-Rhine BY SA M I ST E WA RT

Derrick Braziel loves tacos and Cincinnati. But he didn’t grow up with authentic Mexican food adorning his dinner table. He hadn’t even discovered his favorite type of taco — tacos al pastor — until visiting Mexico City for the first time several years ago. “It activated some taste buds I didn’t know I had,” he says. Braziel’s Pata Roja Taquería inhabits the walk-up window in the back of The Takeaway deli and grocer off Main Street in Over-the-Rhine. The name is a loose translation of “red leg,” in a joint celebration of Mexican and Cincinnati cultures. “It’s an opportunity to educate, to expose people to new foods and to honor this culinary tradition that has so much depth, but is still so unfamiliar to so many eaters — especially here in Cincinnati,” Braziel says. Pata Roja’s menu is kind to the indecisive: it only lists three tacos, four salsas and a $5 chips and guac. Though tacos al pastor are the focal point, there are also bistec (steak) and seasonal veggie taco (right now they’re mushroom) for those who don’t eat pork. Forget the FOMO and order one of each, then pregame your taco flight with chips and guac. That should give you enough time to consider which salsas to slather on your paper-plate feast. Creamy? Hot? Smoky? Mild? Since his first visit, Braziel has been to Mexico 10 times. Each time he goes, he immerses himself in the culture, discovering the ins and outs of Mexican cuisine and learning Spanish along the way. Last December, Braziel spent five weeks in Mexico City working in a taquería. “Those cooks were cussing me out all the time, telling me how much I sucked,” he says, laughing. “Well, I’m assuming that’s what they said based on their tone.” As he learned to cook Mexican food trial-by-fire style, he also got an expedited education in Spanish. He got serious about becoming fluent so he could communicate more effectively in the kitchen. Then he got seriously hungry for tacos al pastor once he got back to the States, but came up short in his search. His day job as the development director at MORTAR, a nonprofit focused on getting BIPOC startups off the ground, was a good petri dish to help cultivate the idea of opening a taqueria. “Last March, I ended up buying a taco

Pata Roja’s tacos, chips and guac and salsas P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY D E R R I C K B R A Z I E L

cart and starting the business,” he says. Braziel founded Pata Roja Taquería to sate his own craving for tacos al pastor and share that experience with Cincinnati. The taquería is only open on Fridays and Saturdays from 6 p.m. until sell-out, which means prep begins on Thursday. He stops by his butcher, El Valle Verde, where he picks up his proteins. “They know how to prepare al pastor,” Braziel says. “I’ve tried many other butcher shops. These guys do it the best.” He picks up tortillas from Tortillería García, which he also deems the best in Cincinnati, and then he hits the kitchen to start the marinades. On Friday morning, it’s time to form the trompo. Spanish for “spinning top,” the trompo is that dreamy stack of thinlysliced meat speared onto a rotisserie and bookended with a pineapple. Once the spit is loaded, he throws it in the fridge to let it take shape, pulls it out two hours before service and begins roasting it. “Once it develops that first crust, I shave it off and that’s where the real magic starts to happen because it begins to caramelize,” Braziel says. “That’s where it starts to really take the al pastor shape and is ready to serve.” Braziel’s tacos are rooted in Central Mexican culinary traditions, which he’s applied and adapted to use at Pata Roja.

“(My business) is a combination of me being a Black American who has a love and passion for Mexico and how those two worlds Derrick Braziel collide,” he P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY D E R R I C K B R A Z I E L says. not simple. It’s not quick. But it yields “I’m hoping an unmatchable result. to build on the culinary traditions of “When it roasts, it creates a crust on Mexico, to honor those traditions, but the outside, so there’s this crunchiness, at the same time, bring my own unique then there’s the tender pieces,” Braziel flavor to it.” says. “All these things combined are Braziel adds a bit of “United Stateslike a science experiment, and when ian flare” to his tacos by melting cheese you get that right, there are few things directly onto the tortilla until it crisps better.” up. “I think it gives (the tacos) an Braziel’s plans for Pata Roja include interesting texture,” he says. expanding his business beyond a threeBeyond their punchy flavor, taco menu and into a brick and mortar tacos al pastor are known for their location. simultaneously crispy and juicy texture “The vision I have is so far into the thanks to a very long marinating and future, but right now, I’m just focusing roasting process. on making sure the product is excellent Mexico City has Lebanese every single weekend,” he says. immigrants to thank for bringing their centuries-old spit-roasting technique with them across the pond. In Lebanon, Pata Roja Taquería, 1324 Main this technique is used to make St., Over-the-Rhine facebook.com/ shawarma. The Greeks use the same patarojatacos. technique to make gyros. Across several cultures, this technique is beloved. It’s

SEPTEMBER 2020

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THE DISH

Haven Café Is a Mindful Coffeeshop in Covington BY O L I V E C O L L I N S N I E S Z

When Sabyle Zeringis made the choice to start living a healthier lifestyle, she struggled to find coffeeshops in her area that used the kind of quality ingredients she wanted to put in her body. So she began crafting her lattes at home, using alternatives she couldn’t find on menus and soon realized that maybe she wasn’t the only one facing this choice. Zeringis opened Covington’s Haven Café to offer a “safe haven” for people looking for recognizable, high-quality ingredients. “(Customers) don’t have to worry about anything being hidden,” she says. Haven Café uses A mocha organic syrups, local P H OTO : H A I L E Y dairy with zero hormones or antibiotics and dairy alternatives including oat milk. They also offer a variety of classic coffee and espresso drinks, along with creative alternatives such as an organic matcha mango lemonade and turmeric-infused lattes. Grab a charcoal lavender cookie, specially made for Haven by Brown Bear Bakery, a breakfast sandwich or a toast, like the one from summer with goat cheese, honey and fresh peaches on sourdough. (More breakfast and lunch items are coming soon.) They also carry gluten- and dairy-free donuts from local Charnees Doughnuts. Zeringis says that Haven Café stands apart from other coffeeshops, not only because of their wholesome ingredients, but also because of the healthy add-ons they have begun to offer, such as collagen supplements and adaptogens (an herb family used to boost the body’s ability to handle stress). Haven Café will soon have a sister holistic business called Haven Spa to offer additional ways to nourish the body. “Beauty and (what we eat) go together. A lot of what you’re internally feeding yourself reflects externally,” says Zeringis, “so we wanted to have options that really coordinate and benefit each other.” Zeringis knew she wanted to open a café/spa hybrid spot but chose to focus on getting the café open first because that is the newer challenge to her, having come from the spa industry originally. “I have less experience with coffee, so I wanted to get the café up and running

and sustained on its own and then pivot my energy toward officially opening the spa side,” she says. The goal is for Haven Spa to be open in fall 2020, offering manicures and pedicures, facials and waxing, along with some Eastern medicine techniques such as Gua Sha, a lymphatic

BOLLINGER

Breakfast sandwich and iced matcha drink P H OTO : H A I L E Y B O L L I N G E R

drainage treatment. The café and spa will have separate entrances to the same building and can be cross-accessed from within. The vision comes from the idea that Zeringis doesn’t want people to feel like they’re walking into a spa to get their coffee or vice versa, but she wants each to be easily accessible to the other. Opening a small business in 2020 has, of course, had its detours, but Zeringis is thrilled to finally be operational and in a welcoming community. “I started realizing that a lot of businesses don’t come over the bridge and bring business here,” Zeringis says about opening in Covington. “There are holes in the market here, so why wouldn’t we fill that gap and provide people a neighborhood spot that they’re looking for?” Haven Café is offering “flavor without sacrifice” and “beauty without compromise” just over the bridge. For more info on Haven Café (332 Scott Blvd., Covington), follow them at @havencafecov, or visit the website at havencov.com.

Multimagic in the Air

MUSIC

Frontman Coran Stetter comes back from the brink with a new line-up for Multimagic and the band’s long anticipated debut album, Manic Daze BY B R I A N BA K E R

y virtue of their fast start, it feels like Multimagic should be celebrating their sophomore album and thinking ahead to gigging and writing toward their inevitable third release. Instead, the band’s frontman/founder Coran Stetter endured medical setbacks and his original line-up’s dissolution, followed by Multimagic’s organic rebirth and the recording of their aptly titled debut album, Manic Daze, just in time for the coronavirus pandemic. “Our guitarist Jimmy (Ruehlman) gave us the idea,” Stetter says. “He said, ‘Flaming Lips put out an exclusive vinyl 7-inch last year. Why don’t we put out exclusive vinyl and it’ll buy us time to figure out the digital side.’ So that’s what we did.” New keyboardist/vocalist Meg Kecskes says, “We almost canceled it because we couldn’t do (a) show, but looking back to artists that held back their releases, I think they regret it now. That’s what people needed more than anything during this quarantine: new music.” Multimagic launched in 2014 as an outgrowth of Stetter’s band affiliations. Initially a true solo project, he searched for band members but came up empty. Around that time, Stetter heard producer Eric Tuffendsam’s work as an artist and contacted him; their subsequent conversation led them to collaborate. “We had the idea that we should take one song into the studio, get some musician friends to learn some parts and figure out what we wanted this band to sound like,” Stetter says. “The result was the song ‘Let Go,’ which I put out on May 13 – 5-13 – through Cincy Music when they were doing their Download of the Week thing.” By year’s end, Multimagic solidified its lineup with high-profile local luminaries Sebastien Shultz (ex-Bad Veins) on drums and Mia Carruthers (ex-Curtains) on bass and vocals. Based on the buzz around “Let Go,” then in regular rotation on WNKU, Multimagic booked two successful MOTR Pub shows and was among the handful of Cincinnati bands asked to play the Bunbury Music

Multimagic P H O T O : D E V Y N G L I S TA

Festival in its inaugural year under new owners PromoWest. By a stroke of good fortune, Multimagic wound up playing for 2,000 people at one of the big Yeatman’s Cove stages, sandwiched between Wussy and Father John Misty. Similarly fortuitous programming resulted in a big crowd at the MidPoint Music Festival three months later. Multimagic’s local presence grew exponentially, and they gained industry notice at SXSW and CMJ showcases. As Stetter and the band began working up material for what was intended to be their first album, Multimagic’s progress stalled as the band prepared for Shultz’s destination wedding. The big blow came early in 2017. Stetter went to a clinic for a chronic cough and was diagnosed with bronchitis and prescribed a combination of prednisone and codeine. Stetter’s devastating reaction to the medication triggered a serious manic episode that escalated into a near psychotic break; his girlfriend and her parents, both former Navy medics, determined that he should be hospitalized. “They called my parents and they came over and they all went downstairs to talk,” Stetter says. “I was in the kitchen with their dog. I heard the dog. We talked.” Stetter’s recovery was slow; in addition to coming down off the medication — he had never used drugs recreationally and was at best a light drinker — he also suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder-like symptoms from a hospital incident where a transport officer applied a law enforcement control hold during his agitated state and threatened to break his arm if he didn’t comply.

Time and therapy eventually brought Stetter back to an emotional place where he could continue his musical pursuits, but by then the band members he painstakingly assembled had found other projects. In late 2017, the last vestiges of Multimagic told Stetter he should move on without them. Stetter quickly realized his new songs reflected the aftermath of his manic period and were, in a very real sense, an important therapeutic recovery tool. At the same time, Stetter began informally jamming with friends — guitarist/ vocalist Ruehlman and drummer Evan Brown — and sowing the seeds of Multimagic’s next iteration. “Once it was confirmed that the old line-up wasn’t coming back, I came to Jimmy and Evan and said, ‘I really enjoy playing with you guys, we’ve got these new songs that are about my manic episode,’” says Stetter. “Should this be Multimagic now?” Among the last to join was Kecskes, whose voice is an amazing texture in the new Multimagic, a perfect blend with and counterpoint to Stetter. She was recruited by friend and workmate Brown and she had a particular affinity for Stetter’s contemplative songs; she’s had experience with mental health issues and easily identified with the material’s emotional core. She also understood the psychology of people’s reaction to Stetter, who was AWOL for weeks after his hospitalization. “You have all these people who you knew and were in your life and they don’t know how to treat you,” Kecskes says. “A lot of people keep that person in isolation almost out of ‘protection,’ because they don’t want to freak them

out. I think the society that knew Coran felt it was best to not reach out to him, and that was keeping him from getting back into normal life.” Multimagic fell back into place with bassist/vocalist Anthony Maley being the last piece of the puzzle, and Stetter brought in songs that predated his medical issues — some going back to the band’s original version. They tweaked the old songs that complemented the new ones, and ultimately collected 10 solid tracks for Manic Daze, produced as intended by Tuffendsam and bristling with the muted joy and dark abandon of ‘80s Synth Pop and contemporary Indie Rock. Soul Step’s Melvin Dillon, a fan since the MidPoint show, released Manic Daze on vinyl back in April; the album was teased in January 2019 with the track “Dreams” and a physical 7-inch later in the summer backed with the song “Sunshine” to promote the band’s comeback show at the Woodward Theater. The album’s vinyl release was designed to tee up local gigs and regional touring this year, but the pandemic derailed all that. Stetter decided to hold the full release of Manic Daze until later in the fall; it dropped Sept. 4, having already garnered stellar reviews for its vinyl version. Manic Daze wasn’t the only positive to emerge from Stetter’s meltdown: One of his medication-fueled plans was to raise millions of dollars to save WNKU, the sale of which had been announced during his manic phase. The ultimate outcome was the more feasible creation of local independent Inhailer Radio, conceived and launched

SEPTEMBER 2020

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C I T Y B E AT. C O M

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in 2018 by Stetter and Taylor Fox. All things considered, Stetter is in a great place at the moment, pandemic notwithstanding. His girlfriend is now his fiancĂŠe, Inhailer just celebrated three years on the air, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s revived Multimagic with a cohesive and committed new line-up and theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not only looking forward to promoting Manic Daze, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re also eagerly anticipating their sophomore album and their newold bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bright future while celebrating the journey that brought them all together. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I feel like this record is about Coran writing about his experience and how we all came together to relate in our own personal ways, about getting to know yourself through a hard time, and then getting back up,â&#x20AC;? Kecskes says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As far as the next record, we feel strong and together and now we have this newfound confidence in ourselves and each other that I think is going to come out in the next cycle.â&#x20AC;?

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Multimagicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s debut album Manic Daze is available on vinyl at Soul Step Records via soulsteprecords. com and available to stream on all platforms. Learn more at multimagicband.com.

Subject Areas

PUZZLE

BY B R EN DA N EM M E T T Q UIG LE Y

AC R O S S

24. Miasma

1. Art that is in creasing

DOWN

1. Big name in frozen food

25. Topic of discussion

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29. What a pot user might collect

15. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Star Trekâ&#x20AC;? race with a V-shaped forehead

31. Heat star Kendrick ___

16. PDF reader

34. Make a go of it

17. Quarantine, e.g.

35. Implant material

18. Really passionate

37. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Let go of that thing!â&#x20AC;?

19. Marlins manager Mattingly

38. Classes you might Zoom through, and a hint to this puzzleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s theme

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62. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got big heads

44. Retreat, as a wave

14. 28-Down problem

63. â&#x20AC;&#x153;La Vie BohĂ¨meâ&#x20AC;? musical

45. Primer for wall paint

23. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mack the Knifeâ&#x20AC;? composer

47. See 42-Across 49. Nasty dogs 53. Dismissal from a position 57. Like better cheddar

56. Darn clothes

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

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61. Tactical maneuver

55. Affair

12. Black, poetically

54. Sleep Number rival

43. Action star Jackie

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48. Golfing with the stars events

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41. Reaching the top, as a wave

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SEPTEMBER 2020

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65. Like romantic walks

36. Voice actor Michael of â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Lego Batman Movieâ&#x20AC;?

66. Unleashes oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s claws upon

37. Katy Turâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s network

67. Bettorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; practices

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38. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Heaven help us!â&#x20AC;?

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