Shawn Womack explores the ‘elements’ of modern dance
Page 25
INTERVIEWS
Authors June Stephenson and John Robbins discuss their thought-provoking stands on men and meat
Pages 27. 29
Volume 1, Issue 21
editor/co-publisher John Fox
GENERAL MANAGER/CO-PUBLISHER Dan Bockrath
managing editor Alison Tranbarger
news editor Nancy Firor
contributing editors Mike Breen, Music; Dale Doerman, Onstage; Billie Jeyes, Literary; Rick Pender, Onstage; Steve Ramos, Film; Fran Watson, Art.
contributing writers Anne Arenstein, Karen Amelia Arnett, Brian Baker, Dennis Breen, Polly Campbell, Elizabeth Carey, Jane Durrell, Jeff Hillard, Jon Hughes, John James, Josh Katz, Jonathan Kamholtz, Michelle Kennedy, Brad King, Kim Krause, Craig Lovelace, Susan Nuxoll, David Pescovitz, Jeremy Schlosberg, Peggy Schmidt, Kathy Y. Wilson, John 0. Young.
photo editor Jymi Bolden
photographers Jon Hughes, Staff; Bonnie Greer, Sean Hughes, Doug Motto, Marty Sosnowski.
listings editor Billie Jeyes
cartoonists Gary Gaffney, Julie Larson, Tom Tomorrow.
ART DIRECTOR Paul Neff
production Mark Dodge, Mark Shepherd.
display advertising Michael Finney, Bill Kellerman, Mimi Thomas.
classified advertising Jenifer Marcinkoski
distribution Media Distribution Services
published by Lightbome Publishing Inc. Thomas R. Schiff, ChiefExecutive Officer
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deadlines: Calendar listings information, noon Thursday before publication; classified advertising, 5 p.m. Friday before publication; display advertising, noon Monday before publication. Next issue will be published April 13, 1995.
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DailyBred
Health & Fitness What you can do to lessen allergy attacks 13
Technology Online with local bands, African-American youths and Stanford University’s Yahoo 13
UtterKiosk
Index to calendar listings 15
Music Tribute and all-cover albums have hit it big 17
Music Check out Positively Yeah Yeah Yeah and Spill It 18,19
ClassifiedAcfs
How to submit an ad 31
Film Exotica's Mia Kirshner is more than your standard-issue Lolita 22
Classified Ads Help wanted, for sale, for rent, music, services 31
Back Beat Answer CityBeat’s question of the week 32
APRIL 6-12, 1995
Onstage Interview with dance pioneer Shawn Womack, plus reviews of new work at Ensemble Theatre and Playhouse in the Park 25, 26 Food & Drink Ex-ice cream heir John Robbins talks about the myths
Department. And so nine Cincinnati phers left March 16 for six days stranded in the Miami airport. T-shirt is writer Jeffrey Hillard, above, flanked by Levis Lombida Mesa, left, and Ivan Fraga.)
Wandering throughout Havana, the nine travelers interact-
The Straight Dope
BY CECIL ADAMS
How do “ear candles" work?
Recently my hearing became impaired, and I was advised that my ears were impacted with wax. Afriend recommended that the wax could be removed ifI stuck a candle in my ear and lighted the other end. To humor her, I accompanied her to a homeopathic-remedy shop. Ear candles were prominently displayed.
An ear candle is a hollow paper cone impregnated with ordinary candle wax. The large end is about 1 inch in diameter. The other end is small enough to go into the ear. As I lay on my side with the candle in place, my friend lighted the other end. The candie burned slowly and smoothly, with (I was told) some wisps ofsmoke circulating downward to the small end. There was no discomfort or noticeable warmth. After about 10 minutes she removed the candle and snuffed out theflame.
Immediately my hearing in that ear was back to normal. The end of the cone had a considerable amount of earwax in it. The process was equally suecessful in the other ear.
Saxe Dobrin, Santa Monica, Calif.
And to think I could have given this up for a job selling life insurance. Ear candling is the latest New Age fad, being to the ’90s what colonic irrigation was to the ’80s. I guess that’s progress. While I did not subject the candles to the rigorous clinical analysis they obviously deserve, it’s reasonable to suppose they work by means of “wicking.” As the wax in the top of the cone burns, the wax at the bottom softens and is drawn upward, which in turn softens and draws up the wax in your ear. I got into an argument once about whether wicking was due to capillary attraction or to nature-abhorsa-vacuum, but we didn’t come to any conclusions before we got to the end of the six-pack. At any rate I’m willing to believe ear candling works and is probably a sight to behold besides. An informal poll of ear specialists elicited a mixed response, with some opining that you were crazy and the rest saying you were nuts. The procedure does present some obvious risks, such as setting your hair on fire or dripping hot wax on you. On the other hand, many doctors’ idea of an efficacious treatment for “impacted cerumen” (packed-in earwax) is to pour in a “cerumenolytic” (earwax loosener) and then extract the gloppy result with a syringe. One survey of UK ear doctors found 38 percent had encountered complications using this technique, which is a polite way of saying
they poked a hole in some poor sod’s eardrum or otherwise made him worse instead of better. Admittedly serious problems arose in only 1 out of 1,000 cases, but geez, this is earwax we’re talking about. Not that I’m endorsing ear candling, but how much worse could it be?
The other question you’re dying to ask is: Why do we have earwax anyway?
Typical medical response No. 1: Earwax kills harmful bacteria. Typical medical response No. 2:1 don’t know, but No. 1 is wrong. Take your pick.
Questions We’re Still Thinking About
The Downtown Council's1995 Progressive Dinner Wednesday Evening, April ID 'j y 5:30 to ID PM
Ifyou stuck your head over a pot of boiling lardfor a few weeks would you gain weight?
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Lee, Johnson, Hermosa Beach, Calif.
I was bom in the United States. My lover was bom in Mexico and lived
there until he was 12. Would it be possible through ingestion of his semen to obtain his tolerance to the bacteria in the drinking water ofMexico? If so, how much would it take? Ifnot, how about a partial blood transfusion? STDs have already been ruled out. —Name withheld, Chicago
April 12
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Several of our patients have told us oftheirfear that ifthey burp, fart and sneeze simultaneously they will die. Like so many other areas of concern to the general public, this topic was inadequately covered, if at all, in our medical education. Furthermore, many of us have experienced the simultaneous
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call for information on immunizations required for foreign travel and where these vaccinations may be obtained throughout Ohio.
Cincinnati Health Department clinic addresses, telephone numbers and hours of operations.
Online capability to order birth and death certificates on individuals who were bom or who died within the city limits of Cincinnati.
Information on where to write or call to obtain a birth of death certificate for individuals who were bom or who died anywhere in the United States.
Information on the Ohio Adoption Registry.
Legal Notices of the Cincinnati Board of Health.
The telephone number for this BBS is (513) 352-1492. We invite you to access this Bulletin Board (free of charge excluding long distance charges, if any) and leave your suggestions and/or comments.
This Bulletin Board has
Healthy BBS
To Elizabeth Carey, who wrote the “Cruising the Neighborhood” article in the March 23-29 CityBeat: I’m pleased that you listed some computer bulletin board systerns in your article. You left out a great one that your readers should know about.
The Cincinnati Health Department has a bulletin board system with the following special interest areas: Current news releases and meeting agendas of the
TOM TOMORROW
m m ft am. THAT “WHINER" WAS 71 YEARS OLD, AND THE COFFEE WAS SO SCALDING HOT THAT SHE RECEIVED THIRD DEGREE BURNS ACROSS HER GROIN, THIGHS AND BUTToOCS-.SHE UNDERWENT SKIN GRAFTS AND SPENT Eight days in the hospital, resultIMG IN A MEDICAL BILL OF MORE THAN SlO,OOO...M‘ DONALD'S OFFERED s’aR $800.
50 5HE WENT TO COURT, WHERE SHE WAS AWARD ED THE FAMOUS $3 MILLION SETTLEMENT--
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Funk You
Thanks for a great article and photo on SHAG [“Southern Exposure,” March 23-29]. It’s such a good feeling to come back home after an event like South By Southwest and realize you have that hometown support. Take care, and keep the funk alive! Chris Sherman, SHAG Cincinnati
Talking Back
Each week, Cincinnati CityBeat poses a question on its back page. Here are some of the responses to last week’s question: “If you could be anyone in the O.J. Simpson courtroom, who would you be and what would you do?”
Angela Keebler: I would be Judge Ito, mainly because he wears that cool black gown.
BURNING QUESTIONS
BY ELIZABETH CAREY
Downsizing Government, Downsizing Police
Citing a need to downsize, save money, better allocate resources and “push decision making down the ranks,” the Cincinnati Police Division has eliminated an assistant chief position.
The city’s Public Safety Director, William Gustavson, estimates that the move will save the city $100,000 in departmental and non-departmental funds $70,000 in salary, the rest from miscellany and benefits.
On March 29, however, the Ohio 1st District Court of Appeals found that the City of Cincinnati should pay the wages nine police officers lost in being improperly refused advancement opportunities.
The officers filed a lawsuit against the city in 1987. The lawsuit claimed that the officers were denied promotions to sergeant when the city eliminated the seven sergeant positions.
In 1991, the appeals court ruled that the decision by the city to eliminate the positions was wrong.
As the case goes on to trial court for a determination on remuneration, the officers are asking that they not only receive back pay but also receive 10 percent interest on the wages they never got.
On the heels of this decision, Cincinnati Police Division administrators argue that the elimination of an assistant chief’s position is a completely separate issue.
“The ruling has nothing to do with the elimination of the assistant chief’s position,” Gustavson said.
Hiring and promotion
The decision to eliminate an assistant chief’s position comes at a time when heated controversy has been erupting over hiring and promotion practices within the division.
At issue are court-ordered affirmative action plans aimed at hiring and promoting a proportional number of black and female officers.
Among the candidates for an assistant chief’s position are Capt. Phyllis Caskey, who placed sixth on the list after taking the test. She is the highestranking female officer in the division and the first female officer to come within reach of becoming an assistant chief.
The decision to eliminate the position was announced a week before the test was given, said Lt. Cindy Johns, division spokeswoman.
The elimination of the assistant chief’s position ultimately leaves Caskey and others with fewer opportunities to advance, a situation similar to that of the nine officers in 1987.
Given the appeals court’s decision, why would the city set itself up for another court case?
Gustavson said the city could cut whatever positions it wanted to, as long as it did so within the rules set forth by the Ohio Revised Code.
“The court determined that the manner in which the sergeant’s positions were eliminated was done improperly,” Gustavson said. “It has never brought into question the city’s authority to reduce its complement (of officers)."
BURNING QUESTIONS is our weekly attempt to afflict the comfortable.
News&Views
An Alternative Look at How and Why It Happened
Slapped Your Child Today?
As police clamp down on domestic violence offenders, some question whether new law has gone too far
BY NANCY FIROR AND ELIZABETH CAREY
A39-year-old Price Hill woman is arguing with her son. He calls the police.
When police arrive, he tells them, “My mother struck me across the face, and I want to press charges.”
Charged with domestic violence, the boy’s mother becomes another statistic in a surge of arrests that have followed last month’s enactment of a new Ohio domestic violence law.
But, at least on the surface, her case is typical of those some officials have begun to question. At issue is whether the law is encouraging arrests that stem from “minor threats” or simply an alleged victim’s statement. Those arrests have added to the potential overcrowding problem at the Hamilton Countyjail and threatened to clog the court system and increase costs to the taxpayer, Hamilton County Commissioner John Dowlin said.
“The law makes arrest ‘preferable,’ he said. “(Lawmakers) say it’s not mandatory. That is a distinction without a difference.”
State Rep. Barbara Pringle, D-Cleveland, who sponsored the bill that became law, disagreed.
“If (police) do not feel they should arrest... if they do not feel there was reason to arrest, they don’t have to arrest,” Pringle said from her Columbus office.
But the City of Cincinnati, which has had a mandatory
Domestic Violence Arrests by Cincinnati Police
In a sampling of domestic violence arrests made, in Cincinnati between March 18 and March 25, CityBeat found incidents that included the following “facts of arrest” as they appeared on the arrest sheets:
“(Complainant) stated above suspect called her at her place of employment and threatened to beat her up.”
“(Arresting Officer) received (radio run) to above loc. for man & woman fighting. Upon arrival, officers spoke to (complainant) who stated that she was involved in verbal altercation with arrested. According to (complainant), (suspect) punched her in the face. As the two were fighting, (suspect) punched her again.
(Complainant) states that she then picked a beer
Arrests under Ohio’s new domestic violence law are crowding Hamilton County jails and clogging the courts.
he or she fill out a report not made. That report
daughter were very threatened physical during this day.”
“Arrested stated arrested’s daughter)
“Arrested subject a verbal altercation. the complainant and with her, one way or fears for her safety.”
“(The arrested) officers) that she was ass if her son spends lence.”
“The above arrested plainant’s) child. Call(ed)
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ABUSE: FROM PAGE 5
subject to administrative review and possibly investigation.
The law took effect March 9 and was pinpointed as the reason Hamilton County’s jail population reached 2,180 34 shy of capacity during the weekend of March 25. Since April 1, jail occupancy has fluctuated from 2,098 to 2,158, jail officials said.
Pringle said domestic violence arrests and the new law were not to blame for the problems of overcrowded jails local officials were grappling with.
“I understand the jails are getting full down there,” she said. “Were theyjust ignoring domestic violence (before the law went into effect) or what?”
Ann MacDonald, executive director of Women Helping Women, also said the increase was a positive sign.
“Domestic violence is a severe problem nationally,” she said. “It’s also a problem in our community, and these numbers more closely reflect the violence that’s occurring.”
If questionable arrests should come through the system, however, they will not help the law gain acceptance, she said. But, she said, the bottom line is that it is better to err on the side of safety.
A driving force behind the law was to allow for a comprehensive investigation that would yield evidence to prosecute the offender regardless of whether the victim chose to testify. Another driving force, Pringle said, was to provide a police record of reports that could be used to help defend a victim who, after years of ongoing abuse, took retaliatory and possibly fatal action against the offender.
While some maintain that implementing the law has not meant major changes, others say new procedures are stretching the offense of domestic violence to extremes. The issue of liability, as some police departments are interpreting it, could be part of the reason.
Since 1990, Cincinnati police have followed a local ordinance requiring mandatory arrest when the officer determined there was probable occurrence of violence. The policy was revised and officers went to new training sessions when the new state law took effect. In those sessions, officers were told that “the preferred course of action is to make an arrest,” said City Prosecutor Terrence Cosgrove.
While the training guide, obtained from the Cincinnati Police Division’s administration, refers to “reasonable cause” in seeking an arrest warrant, police are protected by the new law in making an arrest that is based solely on the alleged victim’s statement, Cosgrove said. By the same token, he said, officers who decided not to make an arrest could face lawsuits.
Box Frame
Cosgrove offered the following, hypothetical example:
A child reports that a parent is abusing him but the officer determines domestic violence has not occurred. He decides not to make an arrest and files his report explaining why, which is forwarded for review to the police administration. Three weeks later, the child is found dead and, in the course of an autopsy, the coroner determines there is evidence that the
child has been abused.
While Cosgrove said the city had anticipated that there might be some unusual arrests under new procedures, none had yet come to his attention.
Likewise, Steven Tolbert, head of the Hamilton County prosecutor’s Municipal Division, said he was not aware of any out-of-the-ordinary arrests under the new law. Officers, he said, had not stopped basing arrests on probable cause.
“If there is not probable cause, they should not make an arrest...,” Tolbert said. “It’s still a judgment call. The elements of the crime have not changed.”
But Madeira Police Chief Gerald Beckman said the law meant significant changes that some officials would not publicly question for fear of being labeled as someone who did not take domestic violence seriously or opposed punishment for those who committed the crime.
“I think that’s the problem,” he said. “People are afraid to speak out.”
While the signs of spousal abuse are well-documented and, therefore, easier to act upon, Beckman said two other cases his department recently handled illustrated the complexity of what police now had to do to in determining whether domestic violence had occurred. Madeira police did not make an arrest in either case, but they spent numerous hours analyzing and deciding upon the correct course of action, Beckman said.
The first involved a 12-year-old who reported his grandmother and aunt for beating him. The second was a 10-yearold who accused his mother of abuse.
“His mother stated that he (the 10year-old) threw a tantrum after being refused a snack before dinner and was out of control, that he pushed his sister out of the way (knocking her over) and that she did what was necessary to discipline him,” the officer wrote in his explanation to the chief. “Complainant did have faint red marks on his back. No arrest was made since both parties stated that complainant had been very sassy with his mother, complainant is only 10 years of age, and the entirety of circumstance points towards parental discipline rather than abuse.”
Beckman said he had to send the report back with a question: Did the mother push the boy into a wall as he claimed?
“(The mother) stated that she did not push (the boy) into the wall, but that during her attempt to grab hold of (him) he pulled away and fell against the wall,” the officer wrote.
The child’s father also was interviewed. And police contacted a worker at 241KIDS who said the agency likely would not open a case based on the circumstances, police records showed.
Such incidents, and the investigations they now demand, likely will increase as more youths learn about the new law, Beckman said. He also fears that police will not be certain how the law applies if reports of common fights between siblings rise and have to be investigated as domestic violence.
“I think we’re going to see a lot of juveniles,” he said. “We’re going to get siblings calling in on each other. More thought could have gone into (the law).”
Censoring the News
Project Censored reveals significant stories from 1994 that never made it to thefront page
BY CHRISTINE TRIANO
Recognize these headlines?
“More Than 10 Years Later, 170,000 Americans Still Not Informed of Exposure to Cancer-Causing Chemicals,” “Defense Department Pays Giant Corporations to Merge,” or “Waste Incineration Poisoning Food Chain.”
Probably not. They were never written. But the stories they introduce are real and important, according to Project Censored’s newly released Top 10 “Censored” Stories list for 1994.
Now in its 19th year, Project Censored has built its reputation by tugging at the conscience of the mainstream media, each year pointing out significant stories that did not make the front page or, in many cases, were not covered at all.
“I think this list basically reflects the state of America,” said the project’s assistant director, Mark Lowenthal. “It documents a lot of the serious problems we’re facing: worker safety, environmental and public health concerns, the rise of the Right and corporate welfare.”
Project Censored is founded on two core principles: that real and meaningful public participation in society is possible only if all ideas are allowed an equitable chance to be heard in the media marketplace, and that the mass media are the public’s primary sources of information. Thus, any suppression of information via bias, omission, underreporting or self-censorship rates as “censorship.”
This year’s judges include such esteemed media watchers as Ben Bagdikian, University of California at Berkeley journalism professor; journalist and Backlash author Susan Faludi; George Gerbner, dean emeritus of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania; Harvard economics professor and syndicated columnist Julianne Malveaux; and Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics and philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Top 10 Censored Stories
1. Deadly Secrets of Occupational Safety Agency, (“Unfinished Business,” Public Citizen Health Research Group’s Health Letter, March 1994). All told, 240,450 workers surveyed in the early 1980s by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health had been exposed to cancer-causing chemicals such as asbestos, silica and uranium on the job. As a result of the Reagan administration’s refusal to fully fund the notification program, less than a third of this original group has been contacted.
2. Ultra-Conservatives’ Secret Think Tank, (“Right-Wing Confidential,” Joel Bleifuss, In These Times, Aug. 8, 1994). Central to much of the current electoral success of conservatives in America is a little-known think tank called the Council for National Policy, currently led by Ed Meese, Jerry Falwell, Oliver North and Sen. Jesse Helms. The group is so secretive that its Washington office will neither confirm nor deny where or if the group meets.
3. Defense Department Pays Defense Contractors to Merge, (“Flak for Defense Merger,” Patrick J. Sloyan, Newsday, July 28, 1994). A Congressional hearing last summer revealed a Pentagon plan to underwrite defense contractor mergers and acquisitions. Described was a $350 million payment to Martin Marietta Corp. in connection with the company’s purchase of former subsidiaries of General Electric and General Dynamics.
4. Incineration's Toll on Public Health, (“Poisoning Ourselves: The Impact of Incineration on Food and Human Health, An Executive Summary,” Mick G. Harrison, Government Accountability Project [GAP], September 1994). The toxic chemical dioxin is a byproduct of incineration that accumulates through the food chain much like the banned pesticide DDT accumulates in the environment. Harrison wrote, “Incineration
has rapidly proliferated throughout the country as the ‘profitable answer’ for disposing of the nation’s stockpile of toxic waste and garbage.”
5. Clinton Administration Retreats on the Ozone Crisis, (“Full of Holes: Clinton’s Retreat on the Ozone Crisis,” David Moberg, In These Times, Jan. 24, 1994). Since the late 1970s when the U.S. banned chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) aerosols, increasing evidence has revealed that the destruction of the ozone layer and the resulting dangers to human health and the ecosystem are more serious than scientists first recognized. Instead of leading the way on ozone protection, Moberg wrote, the Clinton administration has been moving backward.
6. Why Human Radiation Experiments Were Censored, (Steven Aftergood, Secrecy & Government Bulletin, March 1994; “The Radiation Story No One Would Touch,” Geoffrey Sea, Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1994). These two articles paint a picture of how the government’s entrenched classification system abetted one of the most shocking stories to emerge in recent years: the Cold War radiation experiments on unsuspecting humans.
7. 60 Billion Pounds of Fish Wasted Annually, (“Special Report: A Farewell to Fish?” Peter Steinhart, Hal Bernton, Brad Matsen, Ray Troll and Deborah Cramer, Mother Jones, July/August 1994). As the global finfish catch quadrupled between 1950 and 1990, the world’s oceans have dried out. But, according to this report, fishing fleets dump enough
fish and seafood every year for 120 billion meals.
8. The Return of Tuberculosis, (“Why Don’t We Stop Tuberculosis?” Anne E. Platt, World Watch, July/August 1994). Tuberculosis, or TB, has re-emerged as the number one killer among the world’s infectious and communicable diseases. In 1993 alone, TB killed 2.7 million people and infected another 8.1 million; what makes the numbers all the more stunning is the fact that TB is curable.
9. The Pentagon’s Mysterious HAARP Project, (“Project HAARP: The Military’s Plan to Alter the Ionosphere,” Clare Zickhur and Gar Smith, Earth Island Journal, Fall 1994). The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project (HAARP), a joint project of the Air Force and the Navy, is the latest in a series of secretive Pentagon ionospheric experiments. Under construction at an isolated Alaskan base, HAARP’s mission is to build the world’s most powerful ionospheric heater to uncertain ends.
10. News Media Masks Spousal Violence in the “Language of Love,” (“Crimes Against Women: Media part of problem for masking violence in language of love,” Ann Jones, USA Today, March 10, 1994). A man drags his ex-girlfriend out of work, shoots her to death, then turns the gun on himself; the media calls him “lovesick.” Jones said, “This type of slipshod reporting affirms a batterer’s most common excuse for assault: ‘I did it because I love you so much.’”
NEW ART 4:
Disowned by the Soviet Union four years ago, Cuba struggles to make economic ends meet. The basics of everyday living food, water, electricity, money are difficult to come by.
Yet young Cubans seem anxious and hopeful in the face of an uncertain future.
“He has seen only the city, each day more broken. He lives in a time that does not exist, clutching at a city that does not exist.
Jose Yaries, from “Havana Is a City in Waiting”
HAVANA, Cuba Cuba’s young people live a world apart from the “Generation X” of other Western cultures.
Cubans bom after Fidel Castro’s rise to power in 1959 have known their everyday lives, their very existence, crossed through by the “X” of socialism’s economic chaos. Their isolation from the United States so tantalizingly close, yet hopelessly out of reach has denied Cubans access to American financial aid and, some would argue, to the affluence that comes with it.
In recent years Cuba has been buffeted by the obliteration of its main benefactor, the Soviet Union, and the realization that an aging Castro might not lead for much longer. Young people here are poised anxiously on the edge of an uncertain future.
Cuba legalized the use of U.S. dollars in August 1993, creating an urgent and ironic scramble for American currency throughout the country. The dollar has promoted some competition here, but the prominent food and craft markets cater to turismo, tourist services where dollars crisscross non-stop among hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, tour companies and hotel shops. (All tourists, no matter what nationality, are required to exchange home currency for U.S. dollars upon entering Cuba.)
In the new Cuba of socialism coated with capitalistic maneuvering, a generation of young people is locked into
a system that both astonishes and aggravates them.
There’s little fiscal relief for those who can acquire dollars, and it’s even more painful for those subjected to purchasing only with Cuban pesos. A variety of food and products is available only on the black market, and only with dollars.
The problem is twofold: Cuban workers are paid in pesos, and black market prices exceed their paltry salaries. The average salary of a Cuban worker whether in government, industry, education or tourism is about 300-400 pesos ($8$10) a month. Even Cuban surgeons and engineers earn less than $20 a month.
JEFFREY HILLARD AND DENNIS BREEN
PHOTOS BY
JYMI BOLDEN, DENNIS BREEN, JON HUGHES, SEAN HUGHES AND MICHELLE DEAN
About the Trip
As part of an ongoing visitation program for American journalists, nine Cincinnatians traveled to Cuba March 18-24: Jymi Bolden, Dennis Breen, Gary Cox, Kate Dahlgren, Michelle Dean, Jeffrey Hillard, Jon Hughes, Sean Hughes and Lew Moores. Further reports will appear in future issues of CityBeat.
Many young Cubans are eager to tell their stories and seem amazed that an American would listen. They earn very few pesos, or find it nearly impossible to get dollars. Personal budgets afford little more than food and bus fare.
But there is a palpable energy among Cuba’s young adults equal parts of hope, uncertainty, naivete and determination. They don’t know what the future will bring, but they say they’re ready for whatever it brings.
Francisco Perez meets us at an open-air craft market on the Avenue of the Presidents, which for eight blocks is lined with Cuban artisans and craftmakers displaying assorted metal, copper, glass and wood works, paintings and sculptures.
Perez is a 28-year-old former student of English literature at the University of Havana. He decided to hone a talent for creating small copper and bronze sculptures, ashtrays, trinkets and plates by dropping out of the universityin 1994.
“I’ve always been an artist, always creating, so when the dollar was made legal, I knew where my future was if I want to eat,” Perez says. “In Cuba you don’t have many choices. But now with dollars, we look for ways to get them. This is my way. We may sell at other places, too, mostly places where tourists are found.”
Perez sells sculptures for $2-$4 and, on the average, sells two to three pieces a week; an outstanding week translates into sales totaling $20-$30. As with most facets of Cuban society, the government requires some compensation, and Perez pays 60 pesos ($1.50) a day for his table space. He is not required to pay a percentage of his sales to the government.
“I never planned on selling my work, but I have to do it this way,” he says. “I’ll do this work for a long time to come.”
Since 1989 at least, Cubans have lived on the edge. They are in a “Special Period,” a term Castro concocted that year to justify a sweeping reduction of all living conditions stemming from the Soviets’ decision to trim their monetary aid and exports such as petroleum and machinery.
Subsequent cutbacks on electricity, paper and oil further numb what spirit Cubans have left. Food rationing, blackouts and isolated curfews are regularly enforced. Every month a family of four is permitted two loaves of bread, two quarts of milk, a whole chicken, a pound of
CONTINUES ON PAGE 10
STORY 'BY
CUBA: FROM PAGE 9
rice and assorted vegetables and fruit. Electricity is turned off in some neighborhoods three evenings a week, a mild advancement compared to daily blackouts in 1993.
Elena and her fiancd, Juan, visit us at the Hotel Presidente. Full of bravado and insight into what it’s like to survive in Cuba today, Elena speaks flawless English. It’s important that she perfect her English, she says, because the future of Cuba will embrace English-speaking people.
Elena says she made the right decision to study English because competition for tourist industry jobs has reached a premium. She’s 22 now, in her fourth year at the university, and aspires to work as a tour guide.
In the solace of a hotel room, away from other Cubans, Elena does not repress her outrage at what she calls the government’s unfair practice of allowing Cubans to suffer from hunger and denying them urgent medical needs. She does, however, ask us not to use her or her fiance’s real names.
Elena is blunt, confident, often questioning the relevancy of the 1959 revolution now that the present communist state offers her and her friends slim opportunity for personal achievements. University students receive a stipend of about 80 pesos a month and access to one cafeteria meal a day the only meal of the day for most students, she says.
“I have friends so tired from walking and lacking food they fall asleep during class,” she says. “We drink grapefruit juice to stay awake, for the sugar. And blackouts are more common than ever around the university, so it makes studying hard. We burn candles or light kerosene lamps.”
Elena and Juan explain that when students graduate, the government places them in their field of study as vacancy becomes available; their monthly salary is set at 400-500 pesos ($10). Yet, in reality, for the first two years after graduation the government keeps 200 pesos of that salary each month as a sort of repayment for university education. This leaves graduates with less than $5 a month on which to live.
“Everyone hears about free education in Cuba, but it’s not free with a system like this,” Elena says. “It’s deceptive. It goes against what the revolution preached.”
Elena wishes some of her friends shared her uneasiness over the inequalities she sees, but they don’t. They’ve become complacent with restrictions, rationing and censorship, she says. “Some believe the ‘Special Period’ is a kind of hope. I think the government secretly wants to overlook our problems. They’ve got so many people believing something is being done for a golden future.”
Elena tells a story about her university dormitory.
“There was a student there, a boy,” she says. “Everyone liked him. One day last year, he goes to the elevator, and there are no lights in the hallway and so he couldn’t see. He lived on the 10th floor. The elevator door
“This is one of the better places,” Becky says. “They gave it to us because we’re foreigners and teachers.”
opened and he walked in, but the elevator was not there. Four days later there was a terrible smell. They thought it was a dead animal, a dog or something.”
Guillermo says, “I had to do a tremendous amount of lying to get in here. I had to tell them that my parents live outside Havana and some other things.” He wouldn’t say what those other things were.
Her voice drops off. “And everybody liked him a lot.”
Guillermo talks of his being a student and a practicing journalist and passes around some of his work recently published in Cuba Intemacional, a glossy magazine distributed in several Spanish-speaking countries. He says he recently wrote a controversial piece about AIDS and Cuban prostitution, but his editor killed the story out of fear of reprisal.
Just one block away from the Hotel Presidente, the 21-story student dormitory juts above the Malacon, a black stone retaining wall around Havana’s northern rim. At night the ocean pounds against this 4-foot wall, sending a white spray cascading over its edge onto the adjoining roadway a beautiful moonlit scene from the dormitory’s cement balconies.
“It was a great article,” says Israel. Becky later says that Guillermo does not get paid for his work, that his money goes to the government.
Israel, 22, is a fourth-year English language student who studied in the former East Germany. He is a writer of fiction and poetry. He wears his thick sandy brown hair down to his shoulder blades, smokes filterless cigarettes
Israel gives a tour. The kitchen contains a small box refrigerator and a sink that at one point must have been white but is now gray. Becky explains that water is hard to come by, especially on floors 15 and higher.
“They use a gasoline-operated pump at the base of the building which doesn’t create enough pressure to push the water that high,” she says. “It’s really quite awful.”
The bathroom was much worse. The water in the toilet bowl had been fouled by several uses, but the residents wouldn’t flush until they could be assured of more water. The walls had been turned to a gooey paste that you could push your finger through.
In a corner of the hall is an uninsulated metal heating coil sitting in a metal bucket full of water. The electrical socket is without a cover, and the exposed wires of the heating coil have been crudely twisted on the equally bare outlet wires.
Israel shrugs and smiles sheepishly. “My mother gave that to me,” he says. “Many of the students have these. It’s the only way to get some warm water.”
When the water does come, students on the upper floors must capture it in buckets, pails and anything they can use to bring it back up to their fiats. They wash their bodies, clothes and dishes in it, but there is not enough to wash their living space.
The bedrooms are as small as walk-in closets, with bunk beds. Becky says they are lucky their electricity runs off the same line as the hotel’s because they aren’t blacked out like other students. Being able to study at night is considered a luxury and the main reason why many students lie and pull what strings they can to live in this building.
A young Cuban journalist, Guillermo, endures bleak living conditions but continues to write.
and seems genuinely happy with his life.
We walk back down the dark stairwell, through the small lobby and back to the Presidente bar, where we are met by Israel’s friend Renay. We sip Crystal, a delicious Cuban beer, and listen to Renay tell jokes, of which Castro is the principle butt. Israel stretches out his legs, amused by his friend.
“There is a universal reason for our suffering, all suffering,” he had said earlier in the day while sitting in the shade near the hotel’s swimming pool, his middle and index finger pinching a burning cigarette. He smiled playfully at the thought.
“There was a little boy named Pepe,” Renay says. “One day Pepe found out that Fidel’s brother Raoul would be driving down the Malacon, and so he waited in a plot of land near the roadway. As he saw him coming, he began
CONTINUES ON PAGE 12
Now he explains to a dormitory guard that his American friends are journalists, and the man waves us through. We push through the metal door to the stairwell, which is nearly pitch-black, and move up the steps. There is the smell of urine, and white trash bags litter several landings, some of which are lit with dim incandescent bulbs. In several spots the hand railings are missing or dangerously unstable.
Reaching the eighth floor, we move along the corridor to where Israel’s friend Guillermo shares a flat with two 18-year-old British women, Becky and B., who teach English at the university. The flat is lit with a pale florescent bulb and sparsely furnished with an old green vinyl covered couch, a couple of wooden chairs and a gray balding mat for a rug.
“This is it,” says Israel, smiling. “How do you like it?”
PHOTO: JYMI BOLDEN PHOTO: JYMI BOLDEN
PHOTO: DENNIS BREEN PHOTO:
ince 1979 Shiki Buton
to eat ferociously at the grass. Raoul stopped the driver and got out. ‘What are you doing!?’ Pepe replied, ‘I am just a poor boy with nothing at all to eat, so I eat this grass.’ Raoul said, ‘Oh no! We cannot have this. No boy in Cuba goes hungry!’ Raoul takes the boy Pepe and feeds him a most sumptuous meal, then sends him on his way saying, ‘Now don’t eat any more grass!’ A week later Pepe hears that Fidel will be riding down that same section and so goes back to the little field, pleased with himself. When Fidel sees Pepe eating grass, he stops the car and says, ‘What in the hell are you doing?!’ To which Pepe says, ‘Your excellency, I am just a poor boy with no food.’ Fidel thinks it over a minute and says to his driver, ‘Remind me to put grass on the ration card.’
Renay, 27, served in the Cuban army for three years before going to school as an English student.
“I hate any kind of system that limits freedom,” he says with fiery conviction. “I don’t care if it is fascism or communism, it’s nothing more than some dictator’s bullshit. I have several friends who were killed in Angola and a few more who are in jail for what they’ve said. Castro has killed some people, and I don’t care if you kill one person or 1 million, you’re still a fucking murderer.”
“What do you think is going to happen with the embargo?” Renay asks with some concern, following with the question that every Cuban seems to ask: “What is America’s perception of us?”
The otherwise relaxed Israel leans forward over the table. We explain that Cuba is not discussed in Cincinnati or in much of the United States for that matter. Only when Cuba hits national news, such as when the rafters were trying to get to Florida, do Americans in the Midwest seem to take notice.
Renay takes a long pull on his beer and launches into another joke.
Levis Lombida Mesa, 25, walks along practicing American phrases and cliches, leafing through a stapled copy of 520 Most Used American Phrases.
“Listen to this,” he says. ‘Walk softly and carry a big stick.’ iyhat’s that mean?” Told that no one in America much uses that phrase, he keeps on.
‘A rolling stone gathers no moss.’ I like the sound of that one,” he says. ‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.’ What’s that mean?”
We pose a new phrase not in his book, “I don’t have a pot to piss in,” and explain that it’s a popular metaphor for not having much money or for being left without much hope.
Mesa repeats it twice. “Oh, I can see how Cubans could need to know that one,” he says. “That phrase is about the whole Cuban society.”
Mesa’s English is remarkable, considering the way he learned most of it. During his mandatory three-year military training, from age 18 to 21, Mesa became obsessed with American movies. Each time an American movie appeared on television, Mesa taped thick paper to the bottom of the television to block out Spanish subtitles. He mimicked the dialogue, pronouncing the sound of words and phrases. He often quizzed himself by repeating dialogue late at night before going to sleep.
“I spent a lot of days watching movies and talking to myself,” Mesa says. “I listen to rock music lyrics, so I pick up words all the time.”
Mesa attends the Abraham Lincoln Language School, a preparatory school for students studying foreign languages, especially English, French, German and Italian. He is hardly ambivalent about his future. “I know I’ll get into the university, no problem,” he says. “Then when I graduate, if I stay in Cuba, I’ll go into tourism, where the dollars are.”
Mesa flips through ‘Parting is such
Francisco Perez, a sculptor, displays his work.
Rene Bendamio’s hood of his 1962 Soon, they’re urb of exclusive, buildings where eign dignitaries Nobel Prize-winning owns al English, English Miramar? ment too.” economy, fessional, travels routinely offices know-how. raise OK er ($8). bers, living Havana Rene relies on the get at a state store, clothes. When he travels tempted to bring den by the government. Customs officials businessmen returning Rene is not optimistic he’s paid respectably might meet like laughs. “It will be Blanca Acosta, most prestigious story she has translated ning American writer, could peddle it hopes an American offer a contract. She needs the despite the fact a British publisher. house, she makes though, in 1993, Literary Translation
PHOTO: MICHELLE DEAN
SILICON INJECTIONS
BY DAVID PESCOVITZ
Issues ^ Bom of
Believe the Hype
In an effort to turn African-American youths on to empowering digital tools, music journalist Harry Allen, also known as Public Enemy’s "media assassin," has launched rapdotcom magazine. The quarterly analyzes the intersection of Hip-Hop culture with technology, featuring stories like “Online With Russell Simmons" and "Takin' It to the Net: Snoop Doggy Dog Don't Give a Puck."
“My position is that black people, as a cultural group, have the most to offer this technology and the development of it,” Allen said in Blaster magazine. "When Hip-Hop artists got hold of sampling, they took the issue of technology to center stage. If artists like Q-Tip, Jeru and Chuck get a hold of these (new digital) tools, it’s going to warp the Net the same way.”
For more information, e-mail rapdotcom@aol.com or send snail mail to GPO Box 7718, New York, NY 10116.
Cincinnati Sound Online
Borgia Popes and Afghan Whigs images, songs and trivia have appeared online recently, bringing two different tastes of the Cincinnati music scene into the Global Village.
As part of their multimedia efforts, psychedelic Goth rockers Borgia Popes have established a sleek presence on the World Wide Web. The Popes’ fluid home page offers songs, press clippings, photos, a biographical "mythology,” show dates and links to choice fringe culture and futuristic science sites on the Web. Through the Net, the Borgia Popes aesthetic is instantly available to an estimated 40 million people.
“Until now, the size of the world has made it impossible for artists to find a large audience without the resources of a major backer to get their material from point A to point B,” Popes guitarist Tony Dare says in an email message. “Geography becomes insignificant when information propagates at the speed of light."
Point your WWW browser to http://www.popes.com
Online Borgia Popes followers without Web access can join the group’s Internet mailing list for news and concert schedules by sending e-mail to: info@popes.com
The independently organized Afghan Whigs Internet mailing list, "Congregation," is also in full swing. Fans from all over the world send e-mail to a central hub, where it is automatically distributed to several dozen other Whigs enthusiasts. In recent weeks, list members planned an Afghan Whigs music-video compilation, reviewed concert bootlegs, were annoyed by Whigs singer Greg Dulli’s photo being published beside the unworthy Trent Reznor in the last issue of Seventeen and discussed why Dulli and Liz Phair should be married.
To join the list, send e-mail to majordomo@iglou.com with only the words “Subscribe Congregation” in the body of the message.
A Net-sawy Whigs fan at Bowling Green State University, in Bowling Green, Ohio, also has created the unofficial Afghan Whigs World Wide Web home page, including a discography and gallery of album cover art.
Point your WWW browser to: http://www.bgsu.edu/~bfundak/afghan_whigs
Pit Stop on the Infobahn
For an astounding online “yellow pages” of the World Wide Web, proceed to Stanford University’s Yahoo site, with links to more than 35,000 Web locales. Yahoo is broken down into almost every general or esoteric subject imaginable and offers a “search” function to quickly find what you’re after.
Point your browser to: http://www.yahoo.com
DAVID PESCOVITZ (pesco@well.com) is an associate editor at Blaster, a new technology and youth culture magazine. He also writes Wired’s "Reality Check" column.
The Nose Knows
Spring has sprung and so have the allergies when 'ah-choo' becomes the most-uttered expression in Greater Cincinnati
BY SKIP TATE
Spring has sprung. April showers will bring May flowers, and June is about to bust out all over. And as a result, millions of Greater Cincinnatians are in misery. Why? Allergies. Ugh!
Those first warm days that most people die for are the same days that make allergy sufferers feel like they are dying. Like some sort of required rite of passage into warm weather, with the final bit of melting snow comes the sneezing, sniffling and suffering of spring. As billions of particles of pollen from the area’s abundance of trees, grasses and flowers float through the air, a simple snootful sends an allergy sufferer’s body into a frenzy. “Ah-choo” becomes one of the most widely used words in Greater Cincinnati.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases estimates that allergy sufferers spend $6.2 billion annually in search of relief. More than $2 billion of that is spent on over-thecounter relief medications, according to a study done by the marketing research firm Frost & Sullivan Inc. Billions more are spent for physician services and prescription drugs.
And it’s no wonder. The harrow of hay fever the common term used to refer to allergies that come from airborne pollens and molds, although hay fever has nothing to do with hay and is not a fever is the third most common chronic condition in the country behind chronic sinusitis and high blood pressure, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It all begins, says Dr. Jonathan Bernstein, assistant professor of clinical medicine at the University of Cincinnati Medical School, as a result of a mating game played among the area’s flowers, grasses and trees shortly after the spring thaw. A botanical sex-fest happens but don’t tell Phil Burress. That is combined with a hypersensitive, perhaps paranoid immune system in those who are allergic. The immune system, for yet unknown reasons, Bernstein says, goes haywire, misinterpreting the threat of the normally harmless pieces of pollen as some major invader. The body, in turn, launches an attack of antibodies to rid itself of the allergen. The same process happens with other allergens, such as dust and pet dander.
Add to that, he says, high humidity and air pollution, which hang over Greater Cincinnati like a cloud of misery, holding in the allergens and continuing the torture through the summer, at which time grass pollen begins
Health & Fitness
to fly. In the fall, ragweed and mold from wet leaves take control. And for some, whose affliction includes dust and pet dander, the agony of allergies becomes a year-round event.
“Allergies are a genetic predisposition,” Bernstein says. “It’s some sort of immunoregulatory defect. We become exposed to a substance, and we undergo an immunologic reaction that creates allergic antibodies called IgE (Immunoglobulin E). These IgE antibodies sit on receptors, and upon re-exposure the receptors become active and release chemicals such as histamine that cause the physiological conditions commonly associated with allergies. The elevation of IgE amounts in the body does correlate with the severity of the disease. The levels of IgE can be quite high, and as a result, allergies can be quite debilitating.”
Debilitating indeed:
“I used to get really sick each March,” says Janice Heimkreiter, a tax-department employee at PNC Bank in Cincinnati. “One spring I was sick for three weeks I mean crawling to the bathroom sick. And I heard a lot of people say, ‘It’s all in your head.’ Believe me, it’s not something that is just in your head.”
“My reaction to pollen can be pretty bad on windy days,” adds Greg Schaber, associate editor of Cincinnatibased The Artist’s Magazine. “On extreme days I don’t go outside. Or if I do, I take several antibiotics before I leave.”
Schaber’s list of allergic objects includes all pollens, dust, tobacco, feathers and cat hair. Even so, he tries not to let it control his life, he says, adding that he owns two cats, two birds and plays in a Blues band three times a week in smoky bars and restaurants.
“Years ago they told me I was allergic to goat hair as well,” he says. “I guess that affected how I live because it turned me away from being a shepherd or starring in Heidi."
Not all allergies are as debilitating as Schaber’s or Heimkreiter’s, says Bernstein, but allergies are certainly common among the nation’s populace and can be limiting to a degree in just about everyone. Approximately 50 million people suffer from allergies, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, with 35 million suffering allergies from airborne pollens and another 15 million suffering from asthma, of which allergies are the major cause.
CONTINUES ON PAGE 14
ALLERGIES: FROM PAGE 13
And researchers at the institute found those allergies resulted in the following:
28 million days of restricted activity;
6 million days of bed rest;
3.5 million days of work loss;
2 million days of lost school;
And almost 8.5 million visits to physicians. It’s a high cost, both to the sufferer as well to American business.
What can be done to ease allergies? Not breathing would help, but that is not really an option. Moving to another part of the country doesn’t help much, either, say researchers at the American Academy of Allergy & Immunology (AAAI). Allergists find that those individuals predisposed to allergies will more than likely develop an allergic reaction to something in any climate.
What helps are rainy, cloudy and windless days, according to the AAAI, because pollen doesn’t move about during those conditions. Or, recommends Bernstein, get the allergies under control. Most allergies can be identified, treated and controlled, he says, through a three-step treatment plan. First, he says, is avoidance of the allergens. (See box for some tips.) It’s a big part of the treatment, he says, but also the most neglected part of the treatment. Second, try antihistamines and nasal sprays. A wide selection of over-thecounter medications are available. More powerful prescription medications can be recommended if those don’t work. Third, allergy injections weekly shots. Ouch.
“Injections are the only possible means of disease modification,” Bernstein says. “But you can’t just get the shots. In order to get the shots, the allergy has to be more than just something that is around for one or two months out of the year.”
The one bit of good news is that if allergies haven’t developed by age 30, they probably won’t, according to the AAAI. Allergies often develop early. In fact, one in five children visiting a pediatrician has a major allergic disorder, and 6 million children have hay fever. So if you’re allergic, you probably know it by now.
Plus, Bernstein adds, if you’re allergic to one item, more often than not, you’re allergic to others as well. Ragweed is the most common villain nationally, according to the AAAI, grabbing the largest number of sufferers, mostly as a result of its quantity. Ragweed grows just about everywhere. Pollens from common local trees
such as oak, elm, birch, ash, hickory, poplar, sycamore, maple and walnut also are a large part of the problem.
With all of the conditions so favorable for allergies to develop locally, it’s almost hard to live here and not have an athletic nose constantly running or some kind of ah, ah, a-Uergy.
“If all else fails,” suggests Schaber, “you can always try voodoo.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION, call the American Academy of Allergy & Immunology's referral line at 1-800-822-ASMA (2762), or the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology at 1-60—842-7777.
Easing the Agony
The American Academy of Allergy & Immunology offers these tips for allergy sufferers:
Get a vice grip. Need a reason to quit smoking or drinking? Smoking can bring on an asthma attack.
Alcohol dilates blood vessels and can increase runny noses and watery eyes.
Chill out. Close the windows at home and in the car and use an air conditioner, which filters and dries the air. Being too cold may aggravate symptoms, though, so avoid the deep freeze. And have air conditioners cleaned regularly to avoid mold.
Shower. Pollen is attracted to hair and clothes, which can then rub off on pillows and chairs.
Shower with Fido and Fluffy. If you can’t say good-bye to the pets, bathing them keeps their dander down.
Sleep in. Plants release the most pollen 5-10 a.m.
• Do a rain dance. Rain washes pollen from the air. On the other hand, it also increases the mold count. Get arid. Drying the air inside with a dehumidifier helps eliminate molds and dust mites.
Act first, don’t mine before heading Dive, dive, dive. ground, so if exercise or biking through much, try swimming.
Save a goose. forters collect dust synthetics. Covering plastic also keeps Clean. Dusting mites and keep molds and bowling trophies, Uprooted. Minimize inside. Moist soil
Don’t move. will help? Think porary relief, other That special likely a bedroom conditioned, has humidity and is well-dusted.
Be well groomed. Grass pollens come from blooming grass, er than 3 inches.
Listings Index
Music (concerts, clubs, varied venues) 15
Film (capsule reviews, theater guide) 21
Art (galleries, exhibits, museums) 24
Onstage (theater, dance, classical music) 25
Events (cool happenings) 27
Attractions (museums, historic homes) 28
Sports (recreational, spectator) 28
Literary (signings, readings, events) 29
Etc. (events, meetings, attractions) 30
Upcoming (a look at what’s ahead) 30
Recommendations ★ CityBeat staffs stamp of approval
To be included
Submit information for CityBeat calendar listings in writing by noon Thursday, seven days before publication. Mail to: Billie Jeyes, Listings Editor, Cincinnati CityBeat, 23 E. Seventh St., Suite 617, Cincinnati, OH 45202. Fax: 665^369.
Please include a contact name and daytime phone number.
W. Eighth St., Western Hills. $12.50. 749-4949. THE SAMPLES WITH THE VAINGLORIOUS Rock. 7:30 p.m. Friday. Bogart's, 2620 Vine St., Corryville. $12/$13 day of show. 749-4949.
★ THE CAULFIELDS WITH CERTAIN DISTANT SUNS The Caulfields is a great Alternative act that is in the vein of early Elvis Costello. Besides, try to find something else to do for less than $3. 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Bogart's, 2620 Vine St., Clifton. $2.97. 749-4949.
BILLY RAY CYRUS Country. 7 p.m. Sunday. Hara Arena, 1001 Shiloh Springs Road, Dayton. $18.50 and $22.50. 749-4949.
MARIAN MCPARTLAND Jazz piano. 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Xavier University Center, Herald and Legewood avenues, Evanston. $14. 745-3161.
Not Just an Entertainment Calendar... A State of Mind
This Week’s Theme: Spring cleaning
If you notice a gathering of GRIMY-FACED GEEZERS heading toward you, don’t panic. The National 1 WwNSVv Association of Chimney
I \ vScSiF/ Sweeps is in town for its annual meeting. So, be ft \ friendly. These people climb up chimneys for a living, for God’s sake. The least you can do is buy them a drink, maybe a Black and Tan. (See Events listings.) The Cincinnati Art Museum is gearing up for its Big Sale. So CLEAN OUT your cupboards and GET RID of all the junk that’s been gathering dust. If you haven’t seen it since the ’80s, odds are you’re never going to use it. Do you really think that the Miami Vice look is going to come back? (See ETC.) Clean out your mind and get rid of all that‘consensual reality nonsense when you attend the Cincinnati Yoga Teachers Association Yoga Fitness Day. Really, how can you pass by a workshop titled Past Life Experiences? (See Events.) The Dinsmore family never spring-cleaned. THEY KEPT EVERYTHING letters, diaries, even receipts leaving us with a glimpse of late 19th century life in Northern Kentucky. You can see it all at the Dinsmore Homestead in Burlington. (See Attractions.) Somewhere under the bed, in your bottom drawer or in the to-be-thrown-away pile are those poems you wrote in junior high. DIG THEM UP and decide on their true merit. Maybe they weren’t so bad, after all. Maybe they were. Throw them away; write something new. Or be really daring and read them on open mic night at the York Street International Cafe. After all, you can’t possibly be as bad as Pat Barry can singing “My Way” on karaoke night at a certain downtown bar. (See Literary.)
BRIAN EWING Alternative Folk. 8 p.m. Saturday. Blue Mountain Coffee Co., 3181 Linwood Ave., Mount Lookout. 871-8626. LINDA HOWARD Classical vio lin. 8 p.m. Saturday. Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Rookwood Pavilion, Madison and Edwards roads, Norwood. 396-8960.
JOHN GOULD Acoustic. 8:30 p.m. Sunday. Blue Jordan Coffeehouse, 4573 Hamilton Ave., Northside. 541-FORK.
PAM TEMPLE, DON SCHOTT, AND LYDIA AND MERVYN Acoustic open mic. 7 p.m. Sunday. The Leo in the University YMCA, 270 Calhoun St., Clifton. 321-9357.
STEPHEN GOACHER AND THE NKU JAZZ ENSEMBLE Jazz. 8 p.m. Monday. Greaves Hall, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights. 572-5433.
IVORY’S OPEN HOUSE Jazz. Ivory’s. Free. JOHN ZAPPA QUARTET Jazz. Ogden's Place. Free.
KATIE LAUR Jazz. Blue Wisp. Cover.
KEN COWDEN AND CHRIS GOINS Acoustic Rock. Shady 0’Grady’s. Free.
KEVIN TOHLE Classic Rock. Zipper’s. Free.
KRIS BROWN Acoustic. Blind Lemon. Cover.
LITTLE SISTER WITH THE LEMMINGS Rock. Ripleys. Cover. LYNN CALLAHAN Acoustic. Local 1207. Cover. MILHAUS Alternative favorites. Annie’s. Cover. MODULATORS Eclectic. Mt. Adams Pavilion. Cover. THE NEMATONES, LAURA HAZEN, AND SCHOTT AND MORRIS Acoustic. Courtyard Cafe. Free. MORE, PAGE 16
MUSIC
ALLYN’S CAFE 3538 Columbia Parkway, Columbia-Tusculum. 871-5779.
SKIPPER’S LOUNGE 1752 Seymour Ave., 631-3212. SONNY’S CAFE AND 1227 California Ave., 242-4579. SOUTHGATE HOUSE 24 E. Third SL, Newport. 431-2201. STACHE’S 2404 N. High St., Columbus. 614-263-5318. THE STADIUM
6407 Glenway Western Hills.
user
COIMCERT SERIES
BOGART’S
IN THE UNIVERSITY VILLAGE
CALL THE 24-HR EVENTLINE: 281-8400
TICKETS: BOGART’S & TICKETMASTER
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THE SAMPLES
w/THEVAINGLORIOUS FRIDAY, APRIL 7
That About Covers It
‘CityBeat’ looks at the most recent slew of tribute and cover albums
REVIEWS BY MIKE BREEN
Maybe it’s because of the major success of 1993’s Eagle’s tribute album, Common Thread. Maybe it’s a lack of creativity. Or maybe it’s truly a chance to show respect to the songs of idols. Whatever the reason, albums featuring appropriations and tributes to other artists’ work have been all the rage in the past couple of years. This year’s first few “tribute” releases range from fun and creative to drawn-out, flaccid and boring.
JULIANA HATFIELD w/JEFF BUCKLEY & COLD WATER FLAT WEDNESDAY, MAY 24
THE CAULFIELDS w/ CERTAIN DISTANT SUNS SATURDAY, APRIL 8
DEADFEST ‘95: RIVERRUNT SPOOK FLOATERS w/THE WHY STORE & ZIONITES FRIDAY, APRIL 14
OUR LADY PEACE w/54-40 & RUSTY TUESDAY, APRIL 18
THROWING MUSES w/ ASS PONYS SATURDAY, APRIL 22
DREAD ZEPPELIN w/ THE WEASEL BROS. SUNDAY, APRIL 23
SHAG FRIDAY, APRIL 28
5B —Jm *f,i si J m
BACK DOORS w/ BROTH ERS-N-ARMS SATURDAY, APRIL 29
GRANT LEE BUFFALO w/ THRONEBERRY SUNDAY, APRIL 30
ADAM ANT FRIDAY, MAY 5
SPYRO GYRA SATURDAY, MAY 6
VERUCA SALT WEDNSDAY, MAY 17
DEL AMITRI SATURDAY, MAY 20
SIMPLE MINDS MONDAY, MAY 29
IT’S ALWAYS BEEN TRUE. THIS BUD’S FOR YOU
Star Power! (Pravda) is an excellent example of the joys of appropriation. The mostly Chicago Alternative bands that appear on the record cover the super sounds of the 70s. The record (the third in a series) is a send-up of those wonderfully cheesy K-Tel compilations. The instrumental group Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet somehow manages to salvage the hit “Popcorn,” turning it into a quirky surf strut. Fig Dish does a rousing celebration of “Kung Fu Fighting,” while Rex Daisy strikes with a funny, low-fi, romping rendition of “Welcome Back,” John Sebastion’s theme song from the television program, Welcome Back, Kotter. Duran Duran Red Red Meat’s “I’m Not In Love,” a slinky slurring version of the lOcc classic, is the album’s highlight. The group’s tongue-in-cheek approach epitomizes what makes this record such an enjoyable listen. Even if you hate the songs (like the dreadful “A Horse with No Name”), any fan of spirited, inventive Alternative music will dig the goodnatured, loose spontaneity of this great collection.
A Tribute to Bob Marley: The Riddim of a Legend (Relativity) is different from most tribute records because the songs weren’t “commissioned” but actually culled from Marley disciples’ back catalogs. (The songs span from 1972 to 1993.)
Not being told or asked to do the songs shows that the artists were genuinely affected by Marley’s words, wisdom and musical genius. The renditions are by individual artists (Freddie McGregor, Grover Washington Jr.), family members (his wife Rita, sons Ziggy and Stephen, and daughters Cedella and Sharon all make appearances) and former peers of the King of Reggae (Johnny Nash, Peter Tosh, Inner Circle).
Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers deliver (naturally) the most stunningly
true tracks
“Rainbow include year-old Mahal’s scious ings prophetic Annie Marley’s covers since Lennox tunes Blues stirred The impossibly beautiful Bring Just Page/Robert Yeah
Ecomium:
Music
HEAVY WEATHER Alternative Rock/Funk. Ripleys. Cover. IN THE POCKET Blues. Ivory's. Cover.
and urgent vocals. Sudsy Malone’s. Cover. BLUE BIRDS Blues. Allyn’s Cafe. Cover. BOB CUSHING Acoustic. The Straushaus. Free. CAT CITY Jazz. Blue Wisp. Cover. DAVE SAMS Acoustic. Blind Lemon. Cover. THE IMPULSE BAND FEATURING RICHARD DANIELS Jazz. Babe Baker’s. Free.
JOHN KOGGE AND THE LONESOME STRANGERS Folk. The Stadium. Cover.
JAYNE SACHS WITH 00 00 WA Rock. Canal Street Tavern. Cover.
LUBE, OIL AND FILTER Rockabilly. Mt. Adams Pavilion. Cover.
JOHNNY FINK AND THE INTRUSION Blues. Mansion Hill Tavern. Cover.
K.T. AND THE BLUES BODY Blues. Greenwich Tavern. Cover. MOJO FILTER KINGS Blues Rock. Tommy’s. Cover. LAGNIAPPE Cajun. Arnold’s. Free.
THE MENUS Rock favorites. Blue Note. Cover. MILHAUS Rock favorites. Blue Note Cafe. Cover. NOAH HUNT AND JASON DENNIE Acoustic. Tommy's. Cover. ROMANOFFSKY AND PHILLIPS Folk. Canal Street Tavern. Cover. STACY THE BLUES DOCTOR WITH BLUES U CAN USE Blues. Local 1207. Cover.
THE MENUS Rock favorites. Blue Note. Cover.
MONDAY APRIL 10
MICHAEL DENTON Acoustic. Blind Lemon. Cover.
MYSTERY WAGON Folk Alternative. Zipper’s. Free.
ONLY MORTALS Rock favorites. Club Gotham. Cover.
BOB CUSHING Acoustic. Cloverleaf Lakes. Free. DAYTON JAZZ ORCHESTRA Big Band. Gilly’s. Cover. ED MOSS SOCIETY BAND Jazz. Blue Wisp. Cover.
FRED GARY AND DOTTIE WARNER Eclectic. Arnold’s. Free.
OVERDUE Rock favorites. ChugA-Lugs. Cover.
MARC MICHAELSON Rock. Mt. Adams Pavilion. Cover.
SECOND NATURE Rock. The New 90s. Cover.
PHIL BLANK Blues. Burbank’s Tri-County. Free.
SHIRLEY JESTER JAZZ TRIO Jazz. Coco’s. Cover.
SWEET ALICE HOSKINS Blues. Allyn’s. Cover.
SCOTT KARNER Acoustic. Blind Lemon. Cover. SLOT WITH MOTH Alternative. Sudsy Malone’s. Cover.
TOM MARTIN Rock. Mt. Adams Pavilion. Cover.
TONY FESTA SCHOTT AND MORRIS, AND OTHERS Acoustic. Empire. Free.
TUESDAY APRIL 11
BRIAN LOVELY AND THE SECRET Alternative Rock. Tommy’s. Cover.
COVERS: FROM PAGE 17
appropriating band’s own personality into the tune.
Sheryl Crow does the same thing with the acoustic guitar-driven “D’yer Maker,” and the influence of Zeppelin on Blind Melon’s own music is made vivid by “Tangerine.” It’s worth the price of the disc to hear Jesus Lizard’s David Yow (backed by Helmet) blissfully warble “Custard Pie” in true Yow style.
Duran Duran contributes “Thank You” to the Zeppelin album, and the track also shows up on the heartthrobs’ new album, appropriately titled Thank You. In the tradition of Brian Ferry’s and David Bowie’s allcover-song records of the ’70s, the boys of Duran Duran serve up a collection of tunes they love. The result is sometimes surprising, sometimes horrifying.
INDIGO GIRLS'
THE UNKNOWN BAND Rock. Club One. Cover. THE WEBSTERS, MILHAUS AND WOODPECKERS Rock favorites. Caddy’s. $5. WILLY WISELY TRIO Blues. Ozzie’s. Cover. WONDERLAND Dance Rock. Murray’s. Cover.
with their band
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SUNDAY APRIL 9
★ ANTIETAM WITH MOVIEOLA Led by gifted songwriter/guitarist/ vocalist Tara Key, this trio works great songs into a lush field of noisy guitars
The group is at its best when it serves up versions in the Art-Pop tradition of its own music. Elvis Costello’s “Watching the Detectives” is given a pretty straight, moody send-up, though Costello die-hards would probably cringe in agony. Both Iggy Pop’s “Success” and Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” are glossy yet simplistic and, overall, flattering appropriations. The biggest surprise is the band’s psychedelic and true translation of the Door’s “Crystal Ship.”
The album’s biggest downfall and it’s a BIG one is singer Simon LeBon’s inept decision to rap on Public Enemy’s “911 Is a Joke” and the Temptations’ classic “Ball of Confusion.” Hip-Hop may be a favorite of the group, but lily-white Brits who’ve spent the last 10 years sipping champagne in the back of a limo should probably keep that passion to themselves. Be afraid be very afraid.
POSIIIVELY
BY JOHN M. A Drizzling
The words “romantic" fused together when to me in trying to melodies that float Vini Reilly and his In its earliest inception, to record for the Factory Records returned to the fold imprint Factory Too, in the States. The the shimmering echoes and soaring about guitar primarily able vocal synergy
The Durutti Column or anyone else ving not rock, three. The perfect accompaniment tion tank. Highly
New, Rare
Atavistic Records
Flaming Lips’ Unconsciously originally put out holographic jacket, track gem should item try to dig soundtrack music Stylings, on Bar ance from Deen inch single from ing “Budd Nakid Nine Inch Richards try version of Nine sion “Closer to Hogs” mals lending a hand. take your pick of be on The Late Show Matthew Sweet O’Brien.
Releases
And like the winds, change. American (Reprise), EP; Boredoms (Warner Bros.), all motion picture
Amos and Michael (Columbia); Melissa
CityBeat grades: Star Power, A; A Tribute to Bob Marley, A; Annie Lennox, D; Ecomium, C; Duran Duran, C.
BRAINIAC Sudsy Malone’s. Thursday, April 27. Cover. 751-9011.
HELIUM Sudsy Malone’s. Friday, April 28. Cover. 751-9011.
GRANT LEE BUFFALO WITH THRONEBERRY Bogart’s. Sunday, April 30. $7/$8 day of show. 749-4949.
CHARLIE HAYDEN’S QUARTET WEST Renaissance Auditorium in Dayton. Sunday, April 30. $15. 513-223-3655.
ADAM ANT Bogart’s. Friday, May 5. $11/$13 day of show. 749^1949.
VERUCA SALT Bogart’s. Wednesday, May 17. $12/$13.50 day of show. 749-4949.
JULIANA HATFIELD WITH JEFF BUCKLEY AND COLD WATER FLAT Bogart’s. Wednesday, May 24. $10/$12 day of show. 749-4949.
JIMMY BUFFETT Riverbend. Friday, Saturday and Tuesday; May 27, 28 and 30. $53.25, $35.75 and $25.75. 749-4949.
SIMPLE MINDS Bogart s. Monday, May 29. $15. 749^1949.
LUTHER VANDROSS Riverbend. Tuesday, June 20. Prices TBA. 749-4949.
THE TEMPTATIONS, THE FOUR TOPS, JUNIOR WALKER AND MARY WILSON Riverbend. Wednesday, June 28. Prices TBA. 749-4949.
VINCE GILL AND PATTI LOVELESS Riverbend. Sunday, July 2. Prices TBA. 749-4949.
MARY-CHAPIN CARPENTER WITH THE MAVERICKS Riverbend. Wednesday, Aug. 9. Prices TBA. 749-4949.
JEAN LUC PONTY, AL DEMEOLA AND STANLEY CLARKE Riverbend. Friday, Aug. 18. Prices TBA. 749-4949.
MORE, PAGE 21
locking into a collective groove with an almost possessed fervor. One of the cool things about this Cincy fivesome is that the sound is strangely familiar. But, refreshingly, there isn't one direct reference point in describing the band. Nevertheless, if you dig the full-throttle pummeling of groups like Death, Cannibal Corpse, White Zombie and Pantera (all influential on the band), then you need to hear Full Circle. The disc is available in stores or from Leviathan Records, PO Box 745, Tyrone, GA 30290.
Local Scene SPILL IT
The Secret’s Out
BY MIKE BREEN
Bomb Tracks
Although it doesn’t get much press around town, there’s an extremely talented handful of original, hopeful rappers lurking in Cincy’s Hip-Hop underground. While there have been glimpses of national success for some local rappers (Jibri had a modest hit in the early ’90s; Craig Mack was signed to Zoo Entertainment around the same time but was subsequently dropped), there has yet to be any sort of big breakthrough.
Brian Lovely and the Secret’s self-titled debut is in stores now. The album is an impressive effort as Lovely and bandmates CC Thomas and Ted Wilburn pour gracefully through the album’s 10 well-crafted tracks. Lovely combines Funk, Soul and Rock with a natural ease that shows the true link between the gods of popular musical history (James Brown to the Beatles to more modern song masters) is a lot closer than you may think. The connectiveness is cemented by the album's closing track, a soulful reading of one of the first “heavy” Rock songs ever, the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me.” The musical technique, production and tightness of this CD are stellar. If you're agoraphobic and can’t get to the store to buy it, write CellarSongs/ Strugglebaby, 2612 Erie Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45208.
Mayor’s 801 Plum Concerts
Local label Powerblast Recordings has been providing the most consistent Hip-Hop Tristate releases, focusing on the powerful delivery of rapper The G. Powerblast released The G’s intense debut Censomati in 1992, and the label's most recent record is “The Mad Bomber’’ single backed with “Outrage" by the duo Bombthreat.
Looking for a different way to start off your Friday night carousing? The Mayor’s 801 Plum Concerts is a series of Classical performances that strive to eliminate the “stuffy” enigma surrounding the music.
This Friday, the enthralling and youthful Amernet String Quartet, nationally acclaimed for its interactive performances, will perform with CSO pianist Michael Chertock. The concerts in the series take place in Council Chambers of City Hall, 801 Plum St., Downtown, and get underway at 7 p.m. The next show will be May 5. Send all music-related
These fierce tracks are a collaboration between The G and producer Terror and a full-length manifestation, C4: Explosive Material, is due out later this year. To the point, raw and, indeed, explosive, Bombthreat's record will have you wondering if the national breakthrough for Cincy Rap isn't right around the corner.
Total Metal Breakdown
Speaking of power, hard Metal fans should definitely check out Negative, the first record from metallic-groove meisters Full Circle.
Vocalist Doug Carter, formerly of Simple Aggression, leads the FC attack with an authoritative voice and lyrics that constructively examine the inner struggle and anger of today’s youth. The musicians in the band are no slouch either,
ere’s your chance to win a pair of Gold Circle Floor Tickets to the sold out Jimmy .Page/Robert Plant concert on Tuesday, April 25th, and enjoydinner for 2 at a Cincinnati restaurant the night of the show, Md receive their latest CD, “No Quarter” and have your story pub lished in CityBeat.
What
Have you got any plans for Earth Day? We're heading to a party, and we'd like you to come, too. Saturday, April 22, at the Rentschler Forest near Hamilton, 97X and the Butler County Metroparks will be celebrating Old Mother Earth with a full day of events, music, food and information on how we can make this big blue marble last a little longer.
To start off the day, the March For Parks steps off at 8:00 a.m. from the forest in a 5K or 10K walk. 97X moves in around 11a.m. to set the stage for an afternoon of acoustic music brought to you by the area's best local musicians. On the bill are Brian Ewing, Jayne Sachs and Tornado House. You could spend the whole day at the stage, but why? All day long there will be activities and information on conservation, recycling, and doing your part to clean
The House That Modern Rock Is Helping To Build (and Paint)
Calling all stout, able-bodied Modem Rockers: We need your brains and brawn Saturday, April 29, to help us put the final touches on Oxford's first Habitat for Humanity house. So here's an invitation to join us for some hard work, great fun, and maybe some free eats!
The house is located at 513 North Beech in Oxford. A groundbreaking took place on March 4, and since then the whole community has rolled out the red carpet, the donations, and the manpower to raise the house.
Habitat for Humanity, as you may know, is a national organization that builds and rehabs houses for low income people. The Habitat recipients in turn work side by side with volunteers to raise the house from the ground up.
up the planet. For the ecologically fit, there's the EcoOlympics. For the creative conservationist there's projects like Soil Prints, Junk Art, and for the truly adventurous, some delightful edible compost. That's just the beginning. Bird and Wildflower Walks step off at regular intervals and you can pick up an ornamental tree seedling that you can plant and nurture... You'll breathe the wonderful oxygen it will produce for years and years to come.
Rentschler Forest is about two miles north ofHamilton on Reigart Road offRoute 4. It's a free event, but you do need a Motor Vehicle Permit to drive in. You can get one that day for $2.00 a day, or $5.00 for the whole yeargeez, you could probably find that much in the car seats!
Now, for our part. Saturday, April 29, the 97X crew and you are invited to come out and lend a helping hand. Knowing that we shouldn't be trusted with structural matters, we've offered to come in and put the finishing touches on the place. Our work day may include painting, landscaping, some drywall hanging and the ever popular, "other duties as assigned." We're expecting a full work day from about 10:00 to 5:00.
We will provide bus transportation from the station to the site Saturday morning, t-shirts for the 97X crew, lunch, and of course, the best work music around. If you are interested in pitching in, please call Julie Maxwell at (513) 523-4114 or e-mail your R.S.V.P. at WOXY97X@AOL.COM and reserve your space on the work crew. We are limited to about 30 people, so please call early.
The proud owner of the house is Karen Byrd - and as with all Habitat recipients, she is a partner in this project. (To paraphrase the Habitat motto, don't give a hand out, give a hand up.) Karen must put in at least 250 hours of her own "sweat equity" in order to make the house hers. She and her kids, Derrick, 20, and Tiffany, 10, are expected to move in in early June.
SUMMARIES AND CAPSULE REVIEWS
BY STEVE RAMOS
Opening
BAD BOYS Will Smith (The Fresh Prince of Bel Air) and Martin Lawrence (Martin) leap from the safe haven of successful TV sitcoms to the unknown waters of feature films. Sure, they've been in movies before, but in supporting roles. Starring in an action-comedy is a whole other ball game. Two sassy, Miami cops chase bad guys, recover $100 million in stolen heroin and protect an innocent woman. Bad Boys sounds like Beverly Hills Cop times two. Whoops! That’s what the publicist said. (Rated R; opens Friday at area Loews Theatres.) No screening.
DON JUAN DEMARCO Witness the passing of a torch. Marlon Brando, America's greatest actor of post-World War II cinema, steps onto the screen with Johnny Depp, one of Hollywood’s brightest young stars. The result? Folks, looks like we’re in big trouble. A psychiatrist (Brando) prevents a young man (Depp) from jumping off a New York building. Dressed like Zorro, it becomes clear the young man believes himself to be Don Juan, the Spanish lover. Don Juan DeMarco fails because it’s the cinematic equivalent of a doughnut. With Depp at its lead, there’s nothing in the center. Sure, Depp looks fine with his shirt unbuttoned to his waist and a silk mask around his eyes. He even sword-fights adequately. A believable lover? Depp brings little to this spin as a romantic lead. Nothing smolders. There’s little magic. Passion? Forget it. Fine in other performances (Ed Wood, What's Eating Gilbert Grape?), Depp’s portrayal here is flat and erotically vacant. Rudolph Valentino, he’s not.
Funny, looking overweight, pastyskinned and in poor health, Brando still walks onto a scene and steals it from everyone around him. Brando has salvaged bad films before (The Formula; A Dry, White Season). But Don Juan DeMarco becomes too much even for Brando. This attempt at a sexy comedy is nothing but a real snoozer. Hopefully, Brando won't give up on today’s young talent. How about Brando and Leonardo DiCaprio? One can hope. With Faye Dunaway. (Rated PG-13; opens Friday at area Showcase Cinemas.)
battle that sweeps across the Highlands. Here, justice requires blood, sweat and tears.
Actress Jessica Lange solidifies her position as one of America’s true female stars in her role as Mary, Rob Roy's wife. She provides a strong center to Rob Roy. Julia Roberts couldn’t pull off this performance. This is the kind of role that requires more than youth. It calls for stature, presence, intelligence and true stardom.
Neeson has all that, too. Rugged, but believably romantic and tenderhearted, he steps into a whole new level of acting. He has been in largescale movies before, but those films such as Schindler's List always seemed larger than his performance. Here, Neeson takes hold of a massive production and makes it his own. Rob Roy is one big film, but Neeson is bigger.
A classic use of historical drama and on-location use of Scottish locales, Rob Roy reminds one of Hollywood’s heyday. But calling Rob Roy old-fashioned is not accurate. It’s a meeting of two worlds. Still, its real power belongs to the talent of Neeson, Lange and Roth. Indeed, Hollywood cannot only make movies like it used too, it can even do it better. With Eric Stoltz. (Rated R; opens Friday at Showcase Cinemas Cincinnati.)
CityBeat grade: A. THREE NINJAS KNUCKLE UP
Those high-kicking, arm-flailing, karate kids are back. With louder shrieks and goofier slapstick, Three Ninjas continues to deliver what America’s kids want. Sure, these ninjas are OK, but those Mighty Morphin Power Rangers would probably kick their butts. (Rated PG-13; opens Friday at area Showcase Cinemas.) No screening.
Continuing
BORN TO BE WILD Punished by his mother (Helen Shaver), 14-year-old Rick (Wil Horneff) faces the burdensome task of cleaning her animal research lab everyday after school. Life stinks. But then, Rick meets a new friend at the lab, Katie. She’s funny. Smart. A real friend. Oh yeah, Katie’s also a 3-year-old gorilla. When Katie’s previous owner (Peter Boyle), reclaims her for display at his flea market, Rick leaps to help his new friend. He frees Katie, then the two of them hit the highway for the Canadian wilderness. You’ve heard of puppy love? Well, this is ape-bonding. Inspired by ’93’s box-office success of Free Willy's a-boy-and-his-whale story, filmmaker John Gray looks to make the same impact with a boy and his gorilla. Before all the children fall for Disney’s Pocahantas, maybe they’ll go ape over this. (Rated PG; at area Loews Theatres.)
sequence, Vic faces a date (Janeane Garofalo) from hell.
Have Fun, Drink Beer, Make Money
Bye Bye, Love sets out with the simpie goal of making people laugh and hits the target more than it misses. In fact, you’ll laugh so much that its lack of plot and annoying use of music over dialogue fade into memory. Oh, for those simple movie pleasures. With Amy Brenneman and Lindsay Crouse. (Rated PG-13; at area Loews Theatres.)
Roth never wanted to act in a big movie th a friend mentioned Rob Roy en
BY STEVE RAMOS
CANDYMAN FAREWELL TO THE FLESH Poor Candyman (Tony Todd), he could have been a horrormovie contender, the next Freddy Krueger. Now, after this awful sequel to the hit film Candyman, he’s just a monster-bum. It’s a bit sad really. Whereas the first film placed an interesting spin on the horror genre by combining contemporary myths with a poor urban locale, Farewell to the Flesh serves up tired old jolts and slasher-movie imagery. Caroline (Caroline Barclay), a young schoolteacher, discovers her family possesses a close relationship to Candyman. As a result, she must face an ancient curse. Ho-hum. Based on a short story by Clive Barker, director Bill Condon wastes good material. Worst of all, the film ends with a redundant scene of a young child in danger from the monster. Candyman, if I say your name five times, would you give these filmmakers the hook? With Veronica Cartwright. (Rated R; at area Showcase Cinemas.)
At 33, life’s finally changing for actor Tim Roth. At bars, fans buy him beer. There’s a new tuxedo hanging in his closet. After starring in popular movies like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, fame’s bound to happen. Soaking up the paparazzi at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Roth likes the attention. “The ones who claim they don’t like it are the ones who want to go up the red carpet twice,” he says. “I know it’s part of selling a film. I know it’s an industry. I kind of enjoy it.”
It wasn’t always this way. For years, Roth struggled to earn a living. Raised in a working-class neighborhood in South London, Roth was never considered for roles in MerchantIvory costume dramas. Those parts are for a different class of actor, the Kenneth Branaghs, the Hugh Grants. Still, Roth found work in films like The Hit; The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover; and Vincent and Theo.
CIRCLE OF FRIENDS Love and laughter in 1957 Ireland. Considering herself fat and ugly, young Benny (Minnie Driver) falls in love with Jack (Chris O’Donnell), the cutest boy in her freshman university class. Her friends follow suit with affairs of their own. Benny may learn more from this relationship than from all her school work put together. Director Pat O’Connor brings to the screen this well-known novel. With Colin Firth and Saffron Burrows. (Rated PG; at Loews Kenwood Towne Centre.)
★ DESTINY IN SPACE Sure, everything looks cooler when it’s blown-up super huge in the IMAX format, but too often the initial excitement fades fast. (Remember Antarctica?) This time, IMAX cameras follow the space shuttle as it repairs the Hubble, and the images are amazing. Move over Star Trek Generations, here’s a real out-of-space adventure. (Unrated; at Robert D. Lindner Family Omnimax Theater.)
Wigs, horses and
Tired of small paychecks and inspired by a friend, actor Gary Oldman, Roth moved to America. Upon arriving, he told every casting director one thing: I’m playing Americans.
“I wanted to do no English characters for a while,” Roth says. “I want to be thought of someone who can act, instead ofjust a British person.”
Roth learns new accents just like he learns his lines. Look at his diverse roles: a guy from the Bronx in Jumpin’ at the Boneyard, an undercover L.A. cop in Reservoir Dogs and a Russian hit man in this spring’s Little Odessa.
★ DISCLOSURE Sex. Power. Betrayal. Disclosure, director Barry Levinson’s film of the best-selling novel by Michael Crichton, rightfully sidesteps any controversy and sticks to pure entertainment. Set in the offices of Digicom, a high-tech computer firm, Disclosure turns sexual harassment upside-down. Few topics are as timely and volatile as sexual harassment. Those who go to Disclosure expecting an intelligent treatment of a controversial issue are forcing their brains where they do not belong. With Michael Douglas and Demi Moore. (Rated R; at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair, Biggs Place Eastgate and Westwood.)
A fan of 70s American movies such as The French Connection and Mean Streets, Roth likes working with independent filmmakers. Directors like Pulp Fiction’s Quentin Tarantino and Little Odessa’s James Gray excite him. It’s selfish, but that’s how he works.
“Everything I do is about me,” Roth says. “I do the type of film that’s exciting, something that I would like to go see. Otherwise, acting would be a bore, a financial consideration.”
★ DOLORES CLAIBORNE
CityBeat grade: D. THE GOOFY MOVIE Mickey’s done them. Donald’s done them. Hey! Let’s give Goofy a shot at his own feature movie. In The Goofy Movie, Goofy takes his son, Max, fishing. Chaos is inevitable. Maybe, this movie will finally reveal one of Hollywood’s great mysteries. Is Goofy a human? A dog? Or both? (Rated G; opens Friday at area Showcase Cinemas.) No screen-
THE BRADY BUNCH On a resi dential street in a Los Angeles suburb, something a bit strange is going on. It’s 1995 and TV’s favorite predisco family, the Bradys, is still hanging around. The twist is that the world around them has moved on, but that wacky Brady Bunch is trapped in the '70s. Keeping true to her TV roots, actress Shelley Long (Diane of TV’s Cheers) takes a spin at portraying pulp icon Carol Brady. Just like ABBA, The Brady Bunch is suddenly pretty hip with the alternative crowd. With Gary Cole and Michael McKean. (Rated PG-13; at area Loews Theatres.)
★ BULLETS OVER BROADWAY
Working in independent cinema, Roth found himself broke a lot. So when an old drinking buddy, director Michael Caton-Jones offered him a role in the big-budget adventure Rob Roy, Roth said yes.
With Dianne Wiest taking home an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, Woody Allen’s fantastic comedy returns. In this story, play-
Listen to a mother’s advice: “Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hold onto." It’s what Dolores Claiborne (Kathy Bates) shares with her estranged daughter, Selena St. George (Jennifer Jason Leigh). A sharp-tongued New York journalist, St. George returns to her isolated hometown of Little Tall Island, Maine, for the first time in 15 years. Claiborne is a suspect in the murder of her employer, elderly Vera Donovan (Judy Parfitt). Local detective John
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right amount of syrupy pathos with humor in his portrayal of a simple man’s travels through life. The masses adore Forrest Gump. So did those 4,924 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. (Rated PG-13; at area Showcase Cinemas.)
that are far better than the book. Sure, nobody’s calling King's books great literature, but Dolores Claiborne does wonders with King’s material. (Rated R; at area Showcase Cinemas.)
HIDEAWAY Officially declared dead after an automobile accident, Hatch Harrison (Jeff Goldblum) is brought back to life by Dr. Jonas Nyebern (Alfred Molina). The experience leaves Hatch with a new sense of tranquillity. It’s feeling that does not last long. Horrifying images of brutal murders begin to haunt him.
★ EXOTICA American audiences don’t know Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan. Upon the release of his latest film, Exotica, Egoyan had better get used to the spotlight. Granted, it’s only March, but Exotica is the best film so far in ’95.
At the strip club Exotica, young Christina (Mia Kirshner) develops a relationship with a loyal patron, Francis (Bruce Greenwood). Although never intimate, their relationship swells with an intensity that is sensual and emotional. In Egoyan’s story, nothing is what it seems. Hints at pedophilia reveal themselves to be something completely different. Subplots regarding black-market smuggling turn in a completely different direction. Like the nightclub’s decor, Exotica is complex and richly detailed. Fans of Egoyan’s earlier films, such as Calendar and The Adjuster, will find Exotica to be his best work yet. For the uninitiated, get ready to be overwhelmed. With Elias Koteas and Don McKeller. (Rated R; at Loews Kenwood Twin, the Esquire and New Neon Movies, Dayton.)
Hatch’s wife, Lindsey (Christine Lahti), fears for their safety. Something happened to Hatch before the doctors brought him back to life. Evil has entered the lives of the Harrison family. Finding the source of this evil may be their only hope for survival. Famous for his groundbreaking use of computer effects in The Lawnmower Man, director Brett Leonard brings the same technical wizardry to this adaptation of author Dean R. Koontz’s best-selling thriller. Koontz failed in his attempts to have his name removed from the film’s credits. Wonder what he was afraid of? With Alicia Silverstone and Jeremy Sisto. (Rated R; at area Loews
Mia Kirshner: Lolita? Not on Your Life
BY STEVE RAMOS
Nineteen-year-old Mia Kirshner needed no persuasion from director Atom Egoyan to play a stripper named Christina in Exotica.
“Exotica’s voyeurism, alienation, sex and violence appealed to me,” says Kirshner, in her New York hotel room. “Cinema’s about voyeurism. You’re alone in the audience and have a personal relationship with the film’s protagonist. I hope Exotica’s audiences experience the same voyeurism that its characters experience.”
A longtime fan of Egoyan’s movies, Kirshner and Egoyan hit it off right away. Sharing ideas. Researching strip clubs. “I said to Atom, ‘If this movie’s going to work, Christina cannot be a Lolita.’”
Every sexual young woman gets labeled a Lolita.
“I think Lolitas are boring,” Kirshner says.
DUMB AND DUMBER Before movie audiences get to see Jim Carrey vamp it up as the Riddler in Batman Forever, he returns just in time for some tomfoolery. This time, he teams with Jeff Daniels to play bumblers who cross the country to return some stolen loot to its rightful owner. Rumors are that in France, people have thrown out their posters of Jerry Lewis and replaced them with ones of Carrey. A new slapstick god is born. With Teri Garr and ex-MTV veejay Karen Duffy. (Rated PG-13; at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair, Biggs Place Eastgate and Westwood.)
★ FORREST GUMP After raking in six Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor, our man Gump is playing strong at a theater near us. Tom Hanks combines the
LOSING ISAIAH Desperate for crack, Khaila Richards (Halle Berry) abandons her baby in a Chicago alley. A white social worker, Margaret Lewin (Jessica Lange), discovers and adopts the black infant into her family. Years later, Khaila discovers her son is alive. Off drugs and desperate to start a new life, she wants her child
Studies come first for the first-year literature major at Montreal’s McGill University. Acting, that’s private. Still, no other student at McGill is represented by high-profile talent agency C.A.A. in Los Angeles or has just finished a movie, The
Grass Harp with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.
Her future? She appears later this year as a dominatrix in director Denys Arcand’s Love and Human Remains. Ironically, director Adrian Lyne wants her for the lead in a remake of Lolita. Kirshner just wants interesting work. “I’m attracted to projects that are provocative, evocative and intelligent.”
editors, poets and humorists as literary geniuses or simply bunch of hard-drinking, loose-living decadents? To no surprise, they’re a little bit of both. Sure, the Academy ignored Leigh’s inspired portrayal of Parker, but then, it ignored Hoop Dreams, too. With Campbell Scott and Matthew Broderick. (Rated R; at the Esquire Theatre.)
MURDER IN THE FIRST Based on a true story from the '40s, Henri Young (Kevin Bacon), faces unrelenting brutality during his incarceration at the notorious prison Alcatraz. His quest for justice teams him with an idealistic public defender, James Stamphill (Christian Slater). With Gary Oldman and Embeth Davidtz. (Rated R; at Norwood and Turfway.)
★ MURIEL’S WEDDING In the movies, ugly ducklings turn into beautiful swans all the time. For Muriel’s Wedding, first-time filmmaker P.J. Hogan puts a unique spin on this tried and true tale. Everybody calls Muriel (Toni Collette) a loser her family, her so-called friends. Life’s pretty bad in Muriel’s tacky, coastal hometown of Porpoise Spit, Australia. Still, at least dream. She envisions the day when she walks down the church aisle, dressed in her wedding finery. Upon moving to Sydney with her friend Rhonda (Rachel Griffiths), Muriel plots a scheme that will change everyone’s perception of her once and for all. Funny, fresh and touchingly poignant, Hogan's movie makes a star out of newcomer Collette. Muriel's Wedding combines crowd-pleasing comedy with a very heart-felt tale about peer pressures, personal dreams and self-esteem. Granted, its ABBA soundtrack sticks in one’s mind for an uncomfortably long time. Still, it’s the laughter that you’ll remember most. With Bill Hunter. (Rated R; at Showcase Cinemas Cincinnati.)
★ NELL Jodie Foster, the industry’s most powerful woman, tackles Nell, a story about a young recluse who is discovered by Dr. Jerome Lovell (Liam Neeson), a local physician, and some university psychologists, including Dr. Paula Olsen (Nastasha Richardson). Lovell believes Nell should be left alone and the university psychologists feel that Nell should be placed in a hospital under their care. Foster proves she can tackle a role that is far removed from how audiences perceive her (very smart, articulate and attractive) and make it work. With Jeremy Davies. (Rated R; at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair, Biggs Place Eastgate.)
★ NOBODY’S FOOL An American acting treasure returns to the silver screen with a melancholy tale of an older man named Sully (Paul Newman), who faces up to abandoning his family in a small New England town. Based on the novel by Richard Russo, Nobody's Fool offers Newman fantastic dialogue, touching scenes and a character worthy to his abilities. With Bruce Willis and Melanie Griffith. (Rated R; at area Loews Theatres.) OUTBREAK Inspired by recent best-selling books like The Hot Zone and The Coming Plague, screenwriters Laurence Dworet and Robert Roy Pool craft a tale about an officer from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, Col. Sam Daniels, M.D. (Hoffman), who investigates a village in the African rain forest. There, a "hot" virus has wiped out the population. Daniels fears that the virus may spread to the States. His warnings to the authorities at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention go unheeded. Later, when residents of a small California town begin to experience flulike symptoms with deadly results, Daniels fears for the worst.' The story behind Outbreak is fascinating. Let’s see if the movie is equally entertaining. With Morgan Freeman and Donald Sutherland. (Rated R; at area Showcase Cinemas.)
★ PULP FICTION Director Quentin Tarantino has shifted from cult favorite to Academy darling, taking home an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. With wild frenzy, Tarantino mixes gun play, drug abuse and racial epithets into a series of interrelated crime tales. If'Pulp Fiction did not reveal strong growth in Tarantino’s technique, his personal hype might have overshadowed this fantastic film. An accurate reflection of what really makes America go round" violence, drugs and racism. With Uma Thurman. (Rated R; at area Showcase Cinemas; opens Friday at the Little Art Theatre, Yellow Springs.)
★ QUIZ SHOW Failing in its Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor for Paul Scofield’s performance as the elder Mark Van Doren, Robert Redford's Quiz Show returns to the nation’s box offices looking for that audience that never materialized. Taking a cue from attorney Richard N. Goodwin’s book Remembering America: A Voice From the Sixties, director Redford has crafted his best movie to date. With Mira Sorvino and David Paymer. (Rated R; at Norwood, Turfway, and Biggs Place Eastgate.)
★ RICHIE RICH A little rich boy in real life, Macaulay Culkin has finally found a perfect role. Based on the popular children’s comic book, Richie Rich weaves a rather simple message about the importance of friendship with a light-hearted romp about kid
napped parents and a search for hidden loot. Plus, Warner Bros, unveils its first new Roadrunner cartoon, a short titled Chariots of Fur, in more than 30 years. With Jonathan Hyde and Edward Herrman. (Rated PG; at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair and Biggs Place Eastgate.)
ROOMMATES Being inspired by a true story does not necessarily make a movie good. After the death of his parents, young Michael moves in with his 75-year-old grandfather Rocky Holeczek (Peter Falk). What develops is a friendship that spans than 30 years. In real life, Rocky and Michael’s story probably inspires. Well, screenwriters Max Apple (The Air Up the There) and Stephen Metcalfe (Cousins) bring none of that poignancy to the silver screen. Pity actor Peter Falk (A Woman Under the Influence, Wings of Desire). It took five hours a day to apply the layers of latex for him to appear as an old man. The makeup works. Nothing else in the film does. With Julianne Moore and Ellen Burstyn. (Rated PG; at area Loews Theatres.)
THE SANTA CLAUSE Tim Allen makes the leap from TV stardom to the big screen. Kids may eat up the story about grouchy dad who becomes Kris Kringle. Do they know what “tool time” even means? In film, quality and box-office draw do not always match. With Judge Reinhold and Peter Boyle. (Rated PG; at Turfway, Forest Fair and Biggs Place Eastgate.)
★ THE SECRET OF ROAN INISH You’ve got to admire filmmaker John Sayles. Stepping into the Hollywood loop just long enough to earn decent money (Sayles wrote the screenplay for Ron Howard’s upcoming Apollo 13), he then steps aside to continue to craft original films that leave most Hollywood projects in the dust. Can a poet and true intellectual make it in the movies? Well, by scraping up international finances and setting minuscule budgets, Sayles sueceeds.
Based on Rosalie K. Fry's 1957 novella, Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry, Sayles brings tenderness to this tale.
A young girl, Fiona (Jeni Courtney), longs for her young brother, Jamie (Cillian Byrne), who is believed dead. She sees him floating ashore inside a cradle, on Roan Inish, an island where her family once lived. Desperate for her brother’s return, Fiona knows that seeing him is a sign that she and her grandparents must return to their island homestead. Are ancient spirits teasing with a young girl’s mind, or is Jamie alive? The Secret of Roan Inish looks at the importance of family, remembering one’s past and place.
Working again with cinematographer Haskell Wexler (Matewan), Sayles crafts a story so beautiful, The Secret of Roan Inish qualifies as art. Magical and lyrical, it possesses the tempo and rhythm of fine poetry. Multiplexes won’t know what hit them an intelligent family movie. With Eileen Colgan and Mick Lally. (Rated PG; at Showcase Cinemas Cincinnati.)
★ SHALLOW GRAVE Looking for another roommate, three friends Juliet (Kerry Fox), David (Christopher Eccleston) and Alex (Ewan McGregor) discover more than they bargained for in director Danny Boyle’s homage to American film noir, Shallow Grave. Any movie in which a woman pounds a knife into a man’s body using her shoe has to be appreciated for its verve. Thankfully, Shallow Grave benefits from strong performances, breathtaking set design and some legitimate shocks. Everyone knows that friends fall out over money all the time. Here, Boyle keeps his plot turning, the twists coming and wraps everything inside some pretty cool photography. Hollywood may have invented film noir, but this Scottish filmmaker goes one up on American studios with this first-time effort. Fast and funny, Shallow Grave is one bloody good time. With Ken Stott and Keith Allen. (Rated R; at Loews Kenwood Towne Centre.)
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
Based on the Stephen King short story “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,” director Frank Darabont inspires more than frightens with this tale of friendship behind bars. With Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins. (Rated R; at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair, Biggs Place Eastgate and Westwood.)
STAR TREK GENERATIONS TV’s Next Generation has pushed James T. Kirk and company off the silver screen. Generations' flimsy story about an evil scientist who harnesses a rift in time is high on technology and
low on drama. Too bad: Trekkers deserve better, and non-fans won’t get any of the inside jokes. With Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes. (Rated PG; at Forest Fair.)
★ STRAWBERRY AND CHOCOLATE For American moviegoers, few places are as foreign as Cuba. Strawberry and Chocolate offers us a glance at a world seldom seen.
Based on the short story The Wolf, The Forest and The New Man by Senel Paz, directors Tomas Gutierrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabio bring to screen this tale of two young men. David (Vladimir Cruz) and Diego (Jorge Perugorria) meet and develop a friendship. David, a university political science student, follows Communist Party doctrine with a fervor. An artist, Diego smuggles contraband scotch, criticizes the government and flaunts his homosexuality. With his friends encouraging David to turn Diego over to the government police, trust comes slowly to their friendship. Although political by nature of its story, Strawberry and Chocolate plays more like some '50s American melodrama. Strengthened by Perugorria’s phenomenal portrayal of Diego, Strawberry and Chocolate hits a fine dramatic note. Its politics, both sexual and governmental, pale in comparison to the characters’ emotions, hopes and feelings for each other. That's how it should be. With Mirta Ibarra. (Rated R; at the Movies.)
STREET FIGHTER Inspired by the video game, Street Fighter puts Jean-Claude Van Damme, the Muscles of Brussels, in a cartoon environment about an Allied Nations commando team against the psychotic warlord Gen. M. Bison (the late Raul Julia).
Director Steven De Souza, screen writer for Die Hards 1 & 2, gets the chance to prove if he can direct all the stuff that his imagination comes up with. With Kylie Minogue and Wes Studi. (Rated PG-13; at Norwood)
TALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS DEMON KNIGHT With the Crypt Keeper as a ghoulish host, Tales from the Crypt takes its unique mix of black comedy and pulp horror to the big screen. Director Ernest Dickerson (Juice) does his best to keep the horror and gross-out fiends happy. With Billy Zane and Jada Pinkett. (Rated R; at Norwood and Forest Fair.)
TALL TALE THE UNBELIEVABLE ADVENTURES OF PECOS BILL Daniel, a feisty young boy (Nick Stahl), conjures up some legendary characters from the Old West John Henry (Roger Aaron Brown), Paul Bunyan (Oliver Platt) and Pecos Bill (Patrick Swayze). Daniel needs his new friends’ help. Determined to help save his family’s farm, he asks these mythical figures to help him fight J.P. Stiles (Scott Glenn), who wants to take the farm away. (Rated PG; closes Thursday at area Showcase Cinemas.)
TANK GIRL Live fast. Die young. That’s life in 2033. Good-bye Generation X. Hello Generation Dry. See, this meteor crashed into Earth and turned weather upside-down. In fact, it hasn’t rained in 11 years. Living in an isolated farmhouse, Rebecca Buck, a.k.a. Tank Girl (Lori Petty), and her boyfriend Richard (Brian Wimmer) survive by siphoning water from the Department of Water and Power. Kesslee (Malcolm McDowell), Water and Power’s ruthless leader, is not pleased. He wants all the water for himself and no wisecracking, beer-swilling, punked-out neophyte is going to stop him. Along the way, young meets up with a tank and befriends another woman who hangs out in a jet. Do the bad guys get it in the end? Well, this is based a comic. Stuffing funky graphics, neon colors and over-the-top attitude in one’s face, Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin’s Tank Girl comic hits high on the hip meter. What works well on a two-dimensional
Head Lines
BY GARY GAFFNEY
Openings
the classic French Impressionist manner by Sotiris-Corzo. Opens Friday. Through April 29. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday. 2715 Erie Ave., Hyde Park. 871-4420.
NORTHERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY The Main Gallery features works by graphic design majors Janet Creekmore, Amy Goff, Melissa Grafton, Michael Hardcom, Toya Jawkar, Susan Kemme and Mary C. Wallace. The Third Floor Gallery features the works of graphic design majors Betsy Kallendorf and Rhonda Saccone. Opening reception: 4-7 p.m. Thursday. Through April 14. 9 a.m.-9 p.m. weekdays, 1-5 p.m. weekends. Fine Arts Building, NKU, Highland Heights. 572-5148.
★ STUDIO SAN GIUSEPPE AT THE COLLEGE OF MOUNT ST. JOSEPH Senior Thesis II highlights works by arts seniors in their major areas of concentration and serves as a bridge to professional careers in the visual arts. April 9-17. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 1:30-4:30 p.m. weekends. College of Mount St. Joseph, 5701 Delhi Road, Delhi Township. 244-4314.
★ TANGEMAN FINE ARTS
GALLERY Enlightening the Classics: 18th Century Etchings of Ancient Roman Architecture. Opening reception: 5-7 p.m. Thursday. Through April 27. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. Tangeman Student Center, UC, Clifton. 556-2962.
UC CLERMONT COLLEGE ART
GALLERY Photography by Mary Nemeth. Opening reception: 1-4 p.m. Saturday. Through May 5. 8 a.m.6 p.m. weekdays. 4200 Clermont College Drive, UC Clermont College, Batavia. 732-5224.
WENTWORTH GALLERY Women, featuring the works of Tarkay, Fairchild, Guy, Treby and B. Wood, opens Tuesday. Through April 17. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, noon-7 p.m. Sunday. Kenwood Towne Centre, 7875 Montgomery Road, Kenwood. 791-5023.
Galleries & Exhibits
★ ADAMS LANDING ART CEN-
TER Five in Photography features color photos by Barry Anderson, handcolored photos by Diane Kruer, Polaroid transfers by Ann Segal, lightboxes by Connie Sullivan and installations by Michael Wilson. Through April 15. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. WednesdaySaturday or by appointment. 900 Adams Crossing, Downtown. 723-0737.
★ ART ACADEMY OF CINCINNATI The Senior Fine Art Exhibit, features the work of India Behrens, Stephanie Winters and Chad Wheeler. Through April 7. Chidlaw Gallery. In the Exo Gallery, there will be an exhibit of Ukrainian photography. Through April 6. 9 a.m.-lO p.m. MondayThursday, 9 a.m.-lO p.m. Friday, noon5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Next to Cincinnati Art Museum. Eden Park. 562-8777.
ARTERNATIVE GALLERY Features pottery by Animalia, painted silk scarves by Vera Stastny and Kymberly Henson, and new jewelry by various artists. Through April 30. 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Wednesday and Friday: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday: noon5 p.m. Sunday. 2034 Madison Road, O’Bryonville. 871-2218.
ARTISTREE STUDIOS Offers an array of artwork in a variety of media from artists around the Tristate.
ArtisTree also offers classes, workshops and lectures. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Sunday. 6818 State Route 128, Miamitown. 353-2100.
ARTS CONSORTIUM OF CINCINNATI, UNION TERMINAL Art for City Walls is a yearlong exhibit focusing on local artists. Bein' Round Natti Town, a permanent exhibition, highlights the first 150 years of African-American presence in Cincinnati. 1-5 p.m. WednesdayFriday, noon-5 p.m. weekends. Union Terminal, 1301 Western Ave., Queensgate. 241-7408.
ARTS CONSORTIUM OF CINCINNATI, LINN STREET Art for City Walls is a yearlong exhibit focusing on local artists. 1-8 p.m. TuesdayThursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekends.
1515 Linn St., West End. 381-0645.
BABA BUDAN’S ESPRESSO BAR Works by Aaron Butler. Through April 30. 7:30 a.m.-ll p.m. Monday-Thursday, 7:30 a.m.-l a.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-l a.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-ll p.m. Sunday. 243 Calhoun St., Clifton. 221-1911.
BASE ART Images Center for Photography’s spring exhibition is a juried show titled Renewal. Through April 22. Noon4 p.m. Saturdays and by appointment. 1311 Main St., Overthe-Rhine. 491-3865.
BEAR GRAPHICS AND ILLUSTRATION GALLERY The Art of the Car features original illustrated automotive art by Bob Woolf, David Skrzelowski, Steve Petrosky, Tom Osborne, Mike Brann, Russ Brandenburg and David Lord. Through May 31. Noon-5 p.m. TuesdaySaturday. 105 E. Main St., Mason. 398-2788.
BLEGEN LIBRARY Photo exhibit of University of Cincinnati campus architecture. Noon-10 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, 1-10 p.m. Sunday. UC, Clifton. 556-1959.
CAFE ESPRESSO Works by Thomas Greene Jr. 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday. Borders Books and Music, 11711 Princeton Road, Springdale. 671-5852.
★ CAFE Z A series of lithographs by April Foster are on display. Twentyfive percent of the proceeds go to AVOC (AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati). Through May 31. 227 W. Ninth St., Downtown. 651-3287.
★ C.A.G.E. Presents Erkel's Salon, an exhibit of local art and music. Through April 30. Noon-8 p.m. Friday, noon-6 p.m. Saturday, noon4 p.m. Sunday. 1416 Main St., Overthe-Rhine. 381-2437.
★ CINCINNATI ART GALLERIES Works by Potthast, Weis and the Wessels as well as a fine collection of Rookwood pottery. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.4 p.m. Saturday. 635 Main St., Downtown. 381-2128.
★ CLOSSON’S GALLERY DOWNTOWN Presents 19th and 20th century American, European, regional, Far Eastern and West African paintings, prints and sculpture. Through May 1. Permanent collection features some of the best art by Cincinnati’s earlier artists, including Frank Duveneck, John Henry Twachtman, Herman and Bessie Wessel, Charles Meurer, William Louis Sonntag, John Weis, Charles Salis Kaelin, Julie Morrow DeForest and Henry Mosler. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, noon5 p.m. Sunday. 401 Race St., Downtown. 762-5510.
★ CLOSSON’S GALLERY KENWOOD Recent Paintings: Art of the Flower displays works by Melinda Bitting. A devoted birder, Bitting is the principle illustrator for a Fieldguide to the Birds of the Philippines, to be published this year by Oxford University Press. Through May 12. 10 a.m.8 p.m. Monday-Saturday. 7866
HILLEL JEWISH STUDENT CENTER A joint exhibit features works on paper by Haifa native Itzhak Shalhevet and stone sculptures by Andrew Barnett Davis. Through April 28. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday. 2615 Clifton Ave., Clifton. 221-6728.
★ IN SITU Element!: Solum, Aer, Ignus, Aqua
a.m.-5 p.m. MondaySaturday. 2128 Madison Road, O’Bryonville. 533-0300.
JAMAR GALLERY Has closed and is currently looking for a new location. It will be located temporarily at 79 Locust Hill
LEFTHANDED
Montgomery Road, Kenwood. 891-5531.
★ COLLECTOR BOOK AND PRINT GALLERY Works by Cincinnati novelist Robert Lowry, who died in December, are on display through April 6. 3-6 p.m. WednesdaySaturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. 1801 Chase Ave., Northside. 542-6600.
SHARON COOK GALLERY Serene transitional to wild abstract imagery. The gallery represents Phoenix Art Press and Winn-Devon. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday. 1118 Pendleton, Over-the-Rhine. 579-8111.
DIJOHN Paintings by Fran Watson and relief sculptures by Larry Watson. Through May 31. 742 Madison Ave., Covington. 781-0623.
★ FITTON CENTER FOR CREATIVE ARTS Phosphorescent Paintings by Tom Bacher can be found in Gallery I. Through April 7. W. Bing Davis’ Pots, Paintings, Mixed Media Works are exhibited in Gallery II. Through April 7. 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m.-noon Saturday. 101 S. Monument Ave., Hamilton. 863-8873.
★ GALLERY AT WELLAGE & BUXTON Small Works On Paper highlights works by Gretchen Andres. Through April 25. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 b.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. 1431 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. 241-9127.
GALLERY 48 Action Auction Art. Through April 28. The auction will take place April 20-28. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. 1223 Central Parkway, Over-the-Rhine. 381-4033.
GLASS CRAFTERS STAINED GLASS STUDIO - Features handcrafted stained and beveled glass miniatures, windows, lamps, mirrors and more. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday. 11119 Reading Road, Sharonville. 554-0900.
GOLDEN RAM GALLERY Original oil paintings by Nelle Ferrara. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. 6810 Miami Ave., Madeira. 271-8000.
HARROGATE Works exhibited are mostly of maritime themes including 19th and 20th century paintings, ship models and artifacts. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday. 3075 Madison Road, Oakley. 321-6020.
★ HASSELLE POTTERY AND DESIGN ARTS GALLERY Presents New Work in Clay by Robert Hasselle and Terri Kern. Through April 30. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday. 4046 Hamilton Ave., Northside. 541-1171.
★ HEBREW UNION COLLEGE SKIRBALL MUSEUMContemporary Jewish and Israeli artists present Aishet Hayil: A Woman of Valor. Through April 23.11 a.m.4 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 2-5 p.m. Sunday. 3101 Clifton Ave., Clifton. 221-1875.
556-1928. MARITAIN GALLERY Paintings by William Schickel and prints by Georges Rouault. Through April 30. 1-5 p.m. Sunday-Friday. 127 W. Loveland Ave., Loveland. 683-1152.
MARTA HEWETT GALLERY Glass sculpture by Edward B. Francis. 6-10 p.m. Friday. Through April 10. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, noon5 p.m. Saturday. 1209 Main St., Overthe-Rhine. 421-7883.
OLMES GALLERY Artists of Disguise displays reinterpretations of works by the Masters by students at Anderson, Indian Hill and Turpin high schools. Through April 7. 11 a.m.6 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday, 11 a.m.3 p.m. Thursday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday-Saturday. 3515 Roundbottom Road, Newtown. 271-4004.
ONE SHOT GALLERY Presents new works by Cincinnati artist Mils, with vintage political cartoons by fellow Cincinnatian Claude Shafer. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays,
Cincinnati. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. 1315 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. 241-6672.
LAURA PAUL GALLERY - Fresh Paint features original works on canvas by Carol Griffith and Enrico Embroli, functional
Museums
★ CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM
Rona Pondick, whose sculptures are composed of body parts or furniture associated with the body, has 11 of her sculptures and eight of her drawings featured in New Art 4. Through July 16. All The World Arrayed, a salute to the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, showcases the museurn’s finest examples of ethnic dress. There also is a display of 30 dolls in traditional dress. Through Oct. 1. The Dawn of Engraving: Masterpieces from the 15th Century features many fine examples of late Gothic and early Renaissance engraving, including works by Mantegna and Durer. Through July 23. Singing The Clay: Pueblo Pottery of the Southwest, Yesterday and Today features 111 examples of pottery from 12 pueblos. Through June 4. Richard Bitting: Nine Summer Hpiku is a suite of nine color lithographs with music and text transformed into designs. Through April 9. Air in Motion, Heart in Motion includes 14 prints by Shinoda Toko, best known for her paintings. Through May 14. Barnett and Childlaw: The Art Academy of Cincinnati and Modernism features four paintings by Barnett and a recently acquired work by Chidlaw. Through Sept. 4. $5 adults; $4 students and seniors; children free. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Eden Park. 721-5204.
★ CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER Horizons features the work of Diane Samuels, in particular, the formation of personal alphabets, including a Hebrew prayer/poem that she "translated” into various languages. This installation is accompanied by the sounds of different people reciting the prayer and the alphabet in different languages. Through May 28. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday-Saturday. $2 adults; $1 students and seniors; children 12 and under free; free to CAC members; free to alJ on Mondays. 115 E. Fifth St., Downtown. 345-8400.
MIAMI UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM Carol Summers Woodcuts runs through July 30. Le Corbusier: Unite features aquatints by the architect which were printed by Atelier Crommelynck in 1963 and 1965. Through Oct. 1. Forever Flowers continues through Oct. 1. Stitched, Woven and Plaited: Contemporary Craft Traditions of Africa; through June 11. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. TuesdaySunday. Free. Patterson Ave., Oxford. 513-529-2232.
NATIONAL AFRO-AMERICAN MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTER From Victory to Freedom: Afro-American Life in the '50s is'a permanent exhibition. $3.50 adults, $1.50 students. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. 1350 Brush Row Road, Wilberforce. 513-376-4944.
Elemental Experience
; Shawn Womack draws j from personal stories
BY KATHY VALIN
inspirationfor dance projects Onstage
Theater
MM ^ou know, I’m not sure that I intended HI anything,” Shawn Womack says softly but with disarming directness as she remembers the creation in 1986 of Shawn Womack Dance Projects. “I think that I was just looking at my next work, and the company unfolded with how my next work evolved.”
BP ENTERTAINMENT Presents Where Do I Go From Here? 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Through April 9. $15.50. Taft Theatre, Fifth and Sycamore, Downtown. 749-4949.
The lithe redhead with luminous blue eyes is seated on the second floor of the renovated red brick house into which she recently moved. Tall uncurtained windows look out onto the flowering pear trees that line the street, and three curious cats check out the scene as we talk on this cool, overcast afternoon.
CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK Stage, TV and film veteran M. Emmet Walsh and Ralph Waite, best known as the father on The Waltons, star in Ed Graczyk’s Hometown Heroes, winner of the Lois and Richard Rosenthal New Play Prize.
8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 5 and 9 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday. Through April 23. $22429. Shelterhouse Theatre. Tickets to regular performances are half-price when purchased noon-2 p.m. the day of the show. Eden Park. 421-3888.
★ ENSEMBLE THEATRE OF CINCINNATI Mark Mocahbee directs Suzanne and Gabor Barabas’ Holocaust drama, Find Me A Voice. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday. The final two performances are at 2 and 8 p.m. April 16. $20 adults; $15 students and seniors. 1127 Vine St., Over-theRhine. 421-3555 or 721-1000.
“Most of my work has been based on personal stories, whether they’re mine or those of people involved in the work. Stories communicate the details. Of course, there is an elemental, essential thing about dance a non-specific thing. But it seems to me that dance loses expressiveness when it merely generalizes grief or joy, for instance. I feel that the particulars that a story adds deepen the emotional expression. A story is a window to the deeper aspects of being human.”
FOREST VIEW GARDENS Hot on Cole, a Cole Porter review, opens Thursday. Through April 30.
Reservations required. ThursdaySunday. 4508 North Bend Road, Monfort Heights. 661-6434.
Since its founding, Womack’s Cincinnati-based modern dance company has steadily created and performed critically well-received dance-related projects in dozens of extraordinary situations even as they have become as acclaimed for their work in the community.
THE FOXROCK THEATRE COMPANY Presents Eric Overmyer’s Dark Rapture. Opens Saturday. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday. Through April 23. $10 adults; $5 students and seniors. Carnegie Theater, 1028 Scott St., Covington. 541-2860.
On Saturday, company members perform at Clermont College, site of a recent 10-month residency, and reprise the premiere last year there of Womack’s “Fireworks.” Besides Womack, company members include Elodie Andrews, Kelly and Shelly Gottesman, Renee McCafferty, Judith Mikita and Mike Walsh. Also, more than 20 Clermont College students and 10 high school students will appear.
THE LIBRARY CLASSICS SERIES Author and playwright Hank Fincken performs Almost, Mr. Edison, Almost. 2 p.m. Sunday. $6 adults; $4 students. Lawrenceburg Public Library, 123 W. High St., Lawrenceburg. 812-537-4251.
Also on Saturday’s program is “Party for Two,” created by Gottesman identical twins to portray the experience of “twin-ness.” In this athletic, funny and revealing work, the brothers struggle to create individual lives but finally learfi to lean on each other, sharing the weight of living.
water, and I thought, ‘It’s so big, it’s so broad, it’s so wet. I can’t do that!’
But a structure for the piece evolved out of calling up her own elemental, archetypal memories.
She brought the same mythic approach to “Fireworks,” drawing from company and community members. “In ancient cultures, fire had great significqnce. Now it seems to be something that’s at least inconvenient and at worst catastrophic. Even though it’s controlled, it’s something to be feared. I wanted to highlight this contrast to explore what has been lost of magic and wonder in contemporary culture.”
Womack feels “Fireworks” is a “culminating” work after a decade of community and educational residencies. “Of course, we do community work, but without our ereative work, it would feel very hollow. For us, community work is not only a means to another end; it is a way of broadening our art by broadening our audience and our input.”
For her company it’s a true exchange, a give and take.
“Contemporary dance is often outside the realm of most people’s experience,” she says. “We shake up peopie’s ideas of dance. People often assume ‘professional’ dancers are going to be ballet dancers. When they see our dance, which I equate with blood and sweat, they’re saying to themselves, ‘Aha! That’s what it is!’
Charges of artistic elitism are confusing to her. “Funding has made the arts more populist than ever before. Jazz and modern dance are truly American forms,” she says.
Art that’s personally relevant
Womack sees the process of creating and performing for an audience as an exchange: “I hate the word ‘outreach.’ It suggests that you are imposing your art form on audiences, when in fact you are creating a circle. Your audience’s response closes that circle.”
By Eric Overmyer
4/8,13-15,20-22:8p.m. Sun, 4/9 and 4/23: 7p.m.
★ THE TAFT MUSEUM Etchings by Whistler and Zorn features seven 19th century etchings. Through May 28. Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Pamela R. Lessing Friedman Collection comprises more than 100 exquisitely decorated snuff bottles dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. Through May 28. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. 316 Pike St., Downtown. $3 adults; $1 seniors and students; children 12 and under free. 241-0343.
The Carnegie Theater 1028 Scott Street
Covington
MARIEMONT PLAYERS David Edwards Ranjit Bolt's adaptation of Lysistrata, Aristophanes’ bawdy, antiwar comedy, has been extended through April 8. Directed by David Edwards, the cast features Teresa Ripple in the title role with Bill Keeton as the Magistrate. 8 p.m. ThursdaySaturday, 7 p.m. Sunday. $10. Walton Creek Theatre, Muchmore Road, Mariemont. 684-1236.
Information: 541-2860
Mature Audiences Only
Supportedby a grantfrom the Projects Pool ofthe Fine Arts Fund
An element to be feared
An ambitious piece that derived from nearly 70 workshops, “Fireworks” examines the role in contemporary society of fire partially by contrasting modern humanity’s need to control fire with its lost mythic con•nection to generation, fertility, purification, magic, sexuality and spirituality. Also included are video, text and “the best costumes I’ve ever had.”
MIAMI VALLEY DINNER THEATRE Gypsy, the musical based on the life of Gypsy Rose Lee, runs through April 29. $26.95-$34.95. Route 73, Springboro. 513-746-4554.
Like George Balanchine, famed choreographer of the New York City Ballet, Womack has made dance out of other “elements” besides fire.
“When I was doing ‘Swimming in the Absence of Water,’ I had been asked to work with the concept of
MORE, PAGE 26
What inspires her? Womack reflects on her early ballet training: “The technique is very strictly defined. There are very clear rights and wrongs, and when you mess up, it’s obvious! In addition, ballet almost requires that you sublimate yourself to the form. Although that was a very valuable experience in my life, it was restrictive.
“When I started doing my own work in contemporary dance, I began to make dance that was personally relevant and hopefully interesting to the viewer as well,” she says. “I was, in a sense, celebrating the self revealing the self rather than sublimating the self. Yet, I think you do have to master the technique to be able to express through the technique.”
PHOTO: SANDY UNDERWOOD
Members of Shawn Womack Dance Projects
Onstage
and Pamela H. Leahigh’s Waiting for Breakfast in Amsterdam. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. $2 does not include cash bar. University Center Theatre. 745-3578. Classical Music
CINCINNATI DULCIMER SOCIETY Presents an afternoon of music. Visitors can bring their own dulcimer or just listen. 3 p.m. Sunday. Seasongood Nature Center. Woodland Mound, Old Kellogg, Anderson Township. 521-PARK.
CINCINNATI OPERA OUTREACH The Arts and Humanities Resources Center for the Elderly presents Famous Lyricists of
‘Hometown Heroes'
REVIEW
BY RICK PENDER
Hometown Heroes is a play about promises and dreams uiifuifilled: men who fight for their country but don’t get a permanent reward, men who work hard but never quite make it. It’s about pride and love and humor, and even more, about disappointment.
Those are powerful themes, and playwright Ed Graczyk’s work, the winner of the Rosenthal New Play Prize being staged at Playhouse in the Park, delivers them in a disarming manner.
Graczyk, a longtime resident of central Ohio, tells the story of a long night’s dialogue between two men in small town America, Willie (Ralph Waite) and Joe (M. Emmet Walsh). Veterans of World War II, they each mourn their friend Carl, who shot himself to death in his 1945 DeSoto stored in Joe’s garage.
These men epitomize the values of an earlier generation with a more optimistic perspective on America and the world. They cannot fathom how the world around them has evolved. “No war has made sense since ours,” one of them observes. They can’t make ends meet; the bank and the power company are hounding them for payments. Their marriages
What’s Unsaid Weakens and Strengthens 'Voice’
REVIEW BY DALE DOERMAN
nsemble Theatre of Cincinnati has introduced its latest world premiere, Find Me A Voice. This performance piece by SuzAnne and Gabor Barabas assembled from songs, poems, music and recollections of the Holocaust is presented in a series of episodic narrative vignettes.
It has been 50 years since the Allied Forces liberated the concentration camps of Hitler’s Europe. For several nations, it has become an exercise in responsibility to ensure that future generations never forget the inhumanity of this campaign to eradicate Europe’s Jews.
Find Me A Voice is loosely organized on the premise of a writer (Buz Davis) haunted by the ghosts of Holocaust victims. Murmuring the phrase “find me a voice,” they eventually take
UtterKiosk
Fails to Earn Medal
have either crumbled or failed. Their sons are gone one dead in Vietnam, the other banished for his politically dissident views.
Joe describes a dream that has been troubling him involving Charles Kuralt, a Japanese takeover of America (their fictional town is not far from Marysville, Ohio, home of a Honda plant), and a restaurant that he, Willie and Carl had dreamed of launching. He has a book about interpreting dreams, and the desire to understand dreams and how we achieve or lose them becomes a recurrent theme.
Joe and Willie are people one could find living in most Midwestern towns. They are genuine, with real values, feeling real pain. The dialogue Graczyk has written for them is a coarse, natural, colorful, everyday speech that makes them exceedingly human.
But just as Graczyk’s play focuses on unfulfilled promises, so is Hometown Heroes itself a promise not quite fulfilled. We come to know these men and to care about them, but we are left wondering what is the point of their story.
Every time the play is about to turn a corner toward a profound insight addressing life’s frustrations, it skids off the road with a comic line or a plot twist that is distracting. Some of the humor including a silly decision to rob
the stage and tell their tales. Families are separated; fate saves one woman from the gas chamber, and a grandson remembers the grandfather he never knew as he makes an imagined journey with him to the death camps.
Five performers play a great many roles, with support from a chorus of seven.
For the most part, the performers interpret the work with passion. Annie Fitzpatrick’s work is focused. Davis has a memorable scene as a charismatic public speaker. Gordon C. Greene fills in on many of the fatherly roles, and Dale Hodges shows off her linguistic ability by using a variety of languages and dialects.
But the runaway favorite is child-actress Emily Mocahbee, the director’s daughter. She handles her lines with more poise and technical ability than would be expected from a youngster. But being the only child on stage at times diminishes the ensemble presence.
Staged on a series of ramps leading to various platforms with suggestions of barbed wire, stone walls and railroad tracks, the visual effect suggests an imaginative dream world. Each “scene” is a self-contained episode. The performance sometimes moves awkwardly
a convenience store would seem more appropriate in a television sitcom. That’s not to say it isn’t funny. But we constantly feel something more could be offered. Unfortunately, the delivery never happens. As Willie, TV veteran Waite (the father on The Waltons') is crotchety, irascible and a littie crazy. His next-door neighbor, Joe, as played by Walsh, is nervous and fearful of dayto-day life. Their interaction is familiar, always brimming with the chemistry of old friends who care about one another but who know exactly how to get under one another’s skins. Other than some opening-night line fluffs, their performances are enjoyable to watch. Similarly satisfying is Paul Shortt’s crowded set, the back porches and yards of shoulder-toshoulder homes in a run-down part of town. With Jackie Manassee’s moonlit lighting plot and sound designer David Smith’s barking dogs and other sounds, it’s easy to believe you’ve dropped into a back street in central Ohio. Hometown Heroes makes audiences laugh and think of people they know. It make them think about how our values shape or misshape our lives. It’s too bad it doesn’t go the final mile and show us how those themes might have meaning for Joe and Willie. That could be truly heroic.
HOMETOWN HEROES continues at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park through April 23. 421-3888.
from scene to scene, especially where large set pieces are trundled on and off. But set designer Kevin Murphy has provided an effective canvas for director Mark Mocahbee to arrange a variety of visual composition.
Unfortunately, remembrance is primarily a passive exercise. The audience sees the photos, hears the poetry of prisoners, the accounts of the too many dead and tortured, and in so doing, remembers. But is this enough? Must we only witness the remembrance, or does our obligation go further? What about the millions of non-Jewish victims? What about the millions dying today? There are no reminders of Bosnia, Rwanda or even Cincinnati’s own Issue 3 and other acts of American intolerance. While it is well and good to remember those lost in the Holocaust, Find Me A Voice focuses on remembering without making any conscious connection to today’s similar problems. The production allows audience members to draw their own connections, which is the weakness and the appeal of Find Me A Voice.
Cappuccino
UNIVERSITY BRASS CHOIR The
LET US DELIVER LUNCH OR CATER YOUR NEXT BUSINESS MEETING $30 MINIMUM
"My goal is to bring you the highest quality, freshest, healthiest, food available."
Trompetchor, a smaller trumpet ensemble, is featured in the concert. The program includes 18th century ceremonial music from the court at Lisbon, Fanfares by Richard Wagner and Andrew Glowaty’s Halley’s Voyage. 8 p.m. Wednesday. Free. Greaves Concert Hall, NKU, Highland Heights. 572-5433.
525 Elm St., Downtown. 352-3750.
Dance
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MEDIA PHOTOGRAPHERS The Ohio Valley Chapter of ASMP presents The Art Mind & Soul of People Photography. George Anderson, Robert A. Flischel, D.R. Goff and Wilbur Montgomery will speak on the art of communicating with photography. 9 a.m.-l p.m. Saturday. Free to ASMP members, $15 adults; $10 members of the Art Directors Club of Cincinnati (ADCC) and the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA); $5 students. Museum Center at Union Terminal, 1301 Western Ave., Queensgate. 381-4164.
DAYTON CONTEMPORARY
ANTONELLI INSTITUTE FASHION SHOW Unlimited Style takes place 7:30 p.m. Thursday. $6. The Terrace Hotel, 15 W. Sixth St., Downtown. 241-4338.
DANCE COMPANY The second companies of DCDC and the Dayton Ballet present Dance Tool. 8 p.m. Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday. $8 adults; $5 children. Northridge High School Auditorium, 2251 Timber Lane, Dayton, Ohio. 513-228-DCDC.
CINCINNATI CHARTER CHAPTER OF THE AMERICAN BUSINESS WOMEN'S ASSOCIATION (ABWA) Hosts a dinner, followed by a lecture. 6 p.m. Thursday. $17. Regal Cincinnati Hotel, 141 W. Sixth St., Downtown. 929-2098.
★ SHAWN WOMACK DANCE PROJECTS —UC Clermont College hosts a Community Arts Benefit Performance with two dance pieces: Fireworks and Party for Two. 7:30 p.m. April 8. $7 adults; $5 students. Krueger Auditorium, Clermont College, 4200 Clermont College Drive, Batavia. 732-5224.
CINCINNATI KLEZMER PROJECT
There will be a special service of outreach to the Russian-speaking community, followed by Oneg Shabbat reception featuring the music of the Cincinnati Klezmer Project. 8 p.m. Friday. Rockdale Temple, 8501 Ridge Road, Amberley. 891-9900.
CINCINNATI YOGA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION YOGA FITNESS
Comedy
GO BANANAS Vic Henley through Sunday. Alan Proffitt and John Kirby open Wednesday. 8:30 and 10:45 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. $5 weekdays, $7 weekends. 8410 Market Place, Montgomery. 984-9288. ALBERT B. SABIN CONVENTION CENTER T.C. Enterprises holds its convention, through Sunday. Estimated attendance is 4,000. Find yourself some bargains at the Police Auction. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. A $ / 4
525 VINE ST. ONTHESKYWALK
DAY The daylong seminar with registration at 8:15 Saturday. Workshops include “Transformational Breath” and “Past Life Experiences." Wear loose-fitting clothes and bring a mat or blanket and a brown bag lunch. $40. First Unitarian Church, Reading Road and Linton Street, Walnut Hills. 357-6607.
E PLURIBUS UNUM Karyl Cunningham, director of Black Student Services at the College of Mount St. Joseph, and Gerald Polesky, senior consultant analyst and total quality adviser for General Electric Co., will speak on the "melting pot" and how learn to value those with differing backgrounds. 7-9:30 p.m. Thursday. $35 includes coffee and dessert. Harrington Room, Seton Center, College of Mount St. Joseph, 5701 Delhi Road, Delhi. The program repeats at 8-11 a.m. Saturday. $35, which includes a continental breakfast. Marriot Hotel, 11320 Chester Road, Sharonville. 244-4610. THE GREAT HUNGER AND HISTORICAL REVISIONISM Gerry Curran, historian for the Ancient Order of Hibernians, presents a lecture to mark the 150th anniversary of the Great Irish Hunger. 2 p.m. Sunday. Huenefeld Tower Room, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, 800 Vine St., Downtown. 369-6900. ISSUES A.M.: THE WORLD VIEW OF TODAY AND TOMORROW John Pepper, Rick Salerno, Leonid Dodin and John A. Epling present four distinct perceptions of Russia vis-d-vis America and its position in the world community. 7:30-9 a.m. Wednesday. Free. Science Lecture Hall, Thomas More College, 333 Thomas More Parkway, Crestview Hills. 344-3623. THE NATIONAL CHIMNEY SWEEP ANNUAL MEETING Holds its annual meeting. SaturdayApril 13. Hyatt Regency, 151 W. Fifth St., Downtown. 579-1234, MORE, PAGE 28 COME TASTE THE WORLD! INTERNATIONAL
Lifting the Veil
Former ice cream heir: Companies use marketing to obscure realities of animal slaughterhouses
BY BILLIE JEYES
John Robbins has been a vegetarian for 30 years, ever since he was 17.
“At the time,” he explains, “I was a student, trying to live as inexpensively as possible. I had always been fairly compassionate toward animals. I do not like to see them hurt or mistreated.”
Heir to the Baskin Robbins ice cream empire, Robbins had decided early on that he couldn’t reconcile himself to a life of hypocrisy, thus walking away from his vast inheritance.
“My parents thought I was crazy,” he says. “Originally, my father had planned for me to take over the business. He had outlined a whole script for my life. In order to follow my own path, I needed no trust funds or dependence on my dad’s fortune. That was hard for them to understand.
“Ice cream is essentially frozen butter, fat and sugar. The more you eat, the more problems you have with diabetes and heart disease. My uncle, Burt Baskin, died of a heart attack. My father now suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure. He changed his dieting habits recently.”
Robbins’ book, Diet For A New America (Stillpoint, 1987), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, details the miserable lives that factory farm animals lead before their slaughter. It is not a book that readers can stomach easily.
The treatment of calves for veal has probably been the most publicized of all the abuses in the meat industry. Robbins elaborates anyway. It’s clear this is not the first time that he has described the process. As founder of EarthSave, a non-profit organization devoted to providing education and leadership for transition to more healthful and environmentally sound food choices, he travels the country, conducting up to 75 major presentations a year. He will speak Sunday at Kresge Auditorium.
“Veal calves are fed govemment-surplus milk powder and petroleum and kept in chains so tight they can’t lick themselves. They are in the dark for 23 hours a day. After four months, the excretion builds until they’re knee-deep in their own excrement. Their instincts to run and frolic are never allowed. It is one of the most grotesque, obscene crimes against nature. This is standard operating procedure. This is the way veal is produced. The fact that this is taken for granted, is atrocious.”
“Antibiotics says Robbins. mals. They that, I thought marketing. animal the veil
“But to quantify experience. ner by table. They other; there mon shared the experience People they’re Eating system
Robbins says, “Antibiotics are given to the animals biochemical that the there are than others. ucts are used as The livestock, major health
John Robbins
UtterKiosk Events
SOLO MAGAZINE NIGHT Joseph-Beth Booksellers has signed on with the city’s new quarterly magazine for singles, Solo, to host its monthly party. 7-10 p.m. Wednesday. Rookwood Pavilion, Madison and Edwards roads, Norwood. 396-8960.
TAFT LECTURE Anthropologist
Helaine Silverman presents the free lecture, “Cahuachi: An Ancient Ceremonial and Pilgrimage Center on The South Coast of Peru." 4 p.m. Friday. Room 501, Swift Hall, UC Campus, Clifton. 556-2772.
TRI-STATE GLOBAL BREAKFAST
John Helie, conflict Net director with the Institute for Global Communications, presents an Internet demonstration titled “A Global Community by Computer.” 7:30-9 a.m. Wednesday. $12. Fifth and Race Conference Center, Downtown. 621-2320.
1995 ROBERT S. MARX LECTURE R. Lea Brilmayer, New York University professor, presents "Transforming World Politics: An American Role for the Post-Cold War Era.” 11 a.m. Tuesday. Room 114, UC College of Law, UC Campus, Clifton. 556-0063.
SHOWCASE
across all four UC campuses. 10 a.m.9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday. Free. Shoemaker Center, UC Campus, Clifton. 556-2215.
AMERICAN MUSEUM OF BREWING HISTORY AND ARTS Houses the largest display of brewing and beer artifacts in the world. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. $4 adult tour and tasting; $3
CINCINNATI HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM The museum has been collecting and preserving materials related to the Cincinnati area since its foundation in 1831. A four-part lecture series on the Cincinnati railroads continues with Nostalgic Trip Through Transit History, 2 p.m. Saturday, and Interrubans Ohio and Kentucky, 3:30 p.m. Saturday. Free. Museum Center’s Newsreel Theater. 651-7245. Howard Bros. Miniature Circus, a 4,000-square-foot scale model; through Sept. 10. Permanent exhibits include Cincinnati: Settlement to 1860, and Cincinnati Goes to War. Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. MondaySaturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. $4.95 adults; $2.95 children; bers free. Museum Center at Union Terminal, 1301 Western Ave., Queensgate. 287-7030.
CINCINNATI MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Dinosaurs A Global View traces the
by appointment. 302 Park Ave., Franklin. 513-746-8295.
JOHN HAUCK HOUSE MUSEUM The Italianate house, built during the Civil War, features the postcard exhibit Cincinnati at the Turn of the Century; through the fall. 10 a.m.4 p.m. Thursday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. $2 adults; $1 seniors; $.50 children. 812 Dayton St., West End. 721-3570.
★ KROHN CONSERVATORY Lilies,
15TH ANNUAL MIAMI UNIVER-
SITY RED BRICK RUN 5K The race starts at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. Millet Hall, Miami University, Oxford. 513-523-4530.
★ 1995 CINCINNATI SPRING FLING DART TOURNAMENT
The three-day tournament, sponsored by the Darters of Cincinnati Tournament Committee and the Southern Ohio Darting Association, begins at 7 p.m. Friday with a Cricket Singles and a $2,400 Luck of the Draw at 8:30 p.m. Saturday; Sunday’s events begin at 11 a.m. $7. Kings Island Inn, 5691 Kings Island Drive, King’s Island. 631-BULL.
’95 CABIN FEVER FISHING
SERIES The fourth annual amateur fishing tournament continues 7 a.m. Saturday. Anglers fish for trout, crappie and bluegill as they compete for prizes and gift certificates. $30 per two-person team includes boat rental. Registration begins at 5 a.m. Winton Woods, U.S. 42, Sharonville. 791-3872.
A Taxing Question
Waynesville. 513-897-2437.
Readings, Signings & Events
★ EDWARD ALEXANDER UC’s 18th annual Feinberg Memorial Lecture in Judaic Studies features the author of The Holocaust and The War of Ideas. Alexander, a professor of English at the University of Washington, discusses Irving Howe and Secular Jewishness: An Elegy. 8 p.m. Thursday. Room 112, Lindner Hall, College of Business Administration, UC Campus, Clifton. 556-2297.
BOOKFEST ’95 Rick Sowash, author of Ripsnorting Whoppers, performs the Mount Washington Branch Library. 7 p.m. Tuesday. 2049 Beechmont Ave., Mount Washington. Juggler Tom Sparough performs 7 p.m. Tuesday. Mount Health Branch Library, 7608 Hamilton Ave., Mount
NEW YORKYOU'LL FIND DOWNTOWN
Pizza by the slice
Sicillian Pan Pizza Stromboli Calzones
Healthy. Cali 369-4469 for reservations. Scottish Pirate Thomas McGregor combines music, humor and storytelling. 10 a.m. Wednesday, Avondale Branch Library, 3566 Reading Road, Avondale; and 7 p.m. Wednesday. North Central Regional Branch, 11109 Hamilton Ave., Colerain Township. The Bookfest Storytellers perform classic children’s stories 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. Harrison Branch Library, 300 George"Sh7 Harrison; 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. Miami Township Branch, 8 N. Miami, Cleves; 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. Bonham Branch Library, 500 Springfield Pike, Wyoming. 369-6960.
Should taxes be pro-rated according to gender? June Stephenson, author of book on crime, thinks so
BY BILLIE JEYES
June Stephenson, author of Men Are Not Cost-Effective, believes that women’s taxes should be pro-rated.
The reason: 94 percent of the nation’s prison inmates are male, which costs taxpayers, men and women alike, $300 billion.
★ SUSAN BORDO The author of the 1993 Pulitzer-nominated book, Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and The Body discusses cultural preoccupations with the body in “Curricular Politics: Beyond the Polarities in the Pursuit of Truth." Noon Friday. Room 402 of Tangeman University Center. UC Campus, Clifton. 556-6776.
“Prison creates monsters,” Stephenson says. “Young men and boys go into prisons, and they are treated like animals.”
A DAY FOR THE WRITER
Her solution: “Teach them to read. Most inmates are not high school graduates. Above all, concentrate on cutting down on probation time.
begins in childhood.
Boys are expected to become little men soon after their first haircut. Unlike their sisters, they are taught to keep their feelings to themselves and are discouraged from running to their mothers whenever they have a problem.
“Women are primary caregivers,” she explains. ’’But we raise children according to what society expects of us.”
The problem could be solved, she believes, if men became more involved in the child-rearing process.
“A third of peopie in prison are in there on drugrelated charges,” continues Stephenson, who believes that the war on drugs has resulted in needless prison overcrowding. “Unless he’s a drug dealer, there are other ways to deal with him.”
Words & Things Publishing Co. and the Poets’ Society present a writers’ conference. Tom Clark, editor of Writers' Digest,' will speak. Melanie Marnich, winner of the Market House Theatre One-Act-Play Competition, will present a workshop titled "From Start To Stage.” Saturday. Conference Center, Quality Inn Kings Island, 5589 Kings Mills Road, Kings Island. 1-800-880.-7638.
SHARON DRAPER Draper, who is head of the English Department at Walnut Hills High School and winner of the 1991 Ebony magazine literary contest for her short story, “One Small Torch,” reads from her fiction and poetry. 6:30 p.m. Monday. Eden Park Building, Room 204, Eden Park. 562-8777.
Stephenson, who has two.
“If the father’s warm, loving body were as readily available to the small boy as his mother’s,” writes Stephenson, “the boy would not see that his body is different from that of his principle caregiver. There would be no sense of betrayal.”
daughters, taught Women’s History at Napa High School from 1975 to 1985. She quit teaching in order to write and has since published several books, including The Two-Parent Family Is Not the Best, Women’s Roots and It’s All Right To Get Old.
★ JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN As part of UC’s Distinguished AfricanAmerican Lecture Series, the renowned historian and author of From Slavery To Freedom, will deliver a keynote address on "Plantation Dissidence and Runaway Slaves.” 4 p.m. Friday. Room 112, Lindner Hall, UC, Clifton. 556-1824. Wright State University Art Galleries, Dayton, Ohio. 513-873-2978.
★ BETTY FRIEDAN The groundbreaking feminist author speaks on Women's Rites of Passage: Telling The Story. 7 p.m. Sunday. Wright State University, Art Galleries, A128 Creative Arts Center, Dayton. 513-873-2896.
She got the idea for Men Are Not Cost-Effective from reading the news. “I was looking at the paper,” she explains, “and I noticed that all of these crimes were committed by men and boys.”
VALDA HILLEY The author of Windows 3.1 Configurations SECRETS visits. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Borders Books and Music, 11711 Princeton Road, Springdale. 671-5852.
★ BRIAN JACQUES The author of the popular children's series, Redwall, will visit to introduce his seventh epic, The Bellmaker. 1-3 p.m. Sunday. Tickets required, free with purchase of a book. Oakley Blue Marble, 3054 Madison Road, Oakley. 731-2665.
JANE PHILLIPS-MATZ The author of Verdi: A Biography presents a lecture on the composer’s life and works. 4 p.m. Saturday. OtterbeinLebanon Chapel, 585 State Route 741, Lebanon. 932-5960.
TONI SCIARRA POYNTER The Cincinnati native and author of From This Day Forward: Meditations on the First Years of Marriage conducts a workshop for brides and grooms. 7-8:30 p.m. Thursday. Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Rookwood Pavilion, Madison and Edwards roads, Norwood. 396-8960. She will talk about how published. 2
The result is a very disturbing book. Divided into chapters titled “Murder,” “White-Collar Crime,” “Environmental Destroyers,” “Hate Crimes,” “Drunk Driving,” “Arson,” “Crime in Government,” “Rape,” “Other Crimes Against Women,” “Con Men,” “Drugs,” “Gangs,” “Burglary and Robbery,” “Treason” and “Crimes Against Children,” Men Are Not Cost-Effective is filled with a litany of examples for each type of crime. Stephenson has obviously done thorough research but, after a while, the constant bombardment of case after case becomes hard to digest.
According to Stephenson, the problem
As it is, boys learn to separate themselves from the world of the female, and thus from the qualities that are considered stereotypically female: compassion, empathy and understanding.
“We are raising a generation of dangerous peopie,” she says. “We’re all afraid. By not allowing boys to express a softer side, they have difficulty in being empathetic.”
In Men Are Not Cost-Effective, Stephenson suggests that men should be charged a $100 user fee on their IRS return “since men are using the criminal justice system almost exclusively.”
Says Stephenson: “Of course, it won’t happen because legislators are all male.”
The reaction to her controversial stance has been mixed. When she appears on radio programs, most of the time is spent discussing her views on the tax structure.
“Some men agree with me,” she says, “but there are others who hate me. I even had a death threat. I say, don’t kill the messenger.”
JUNE STEPHENSON will sign copies of her book at 7 p.m. Friday at Crazy Ladies Book Store, 4041 Hamilton Ave., Northside. 541-4198.
June Stephenson, author of Men Not Cost-Effective.
Classes & Exhibits
Groups
CINCINNATI
CINCINNATI WRITERS PROJECT Support group for writers of every genre offers monthly meetings. 689-5283.
CINCINNATI WRITERS PROJECT FICTION CRITIQUE GROUP Meets at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Arnold's Bar & Grill, 210 E. Eighth St., Downtown. 441-5573.
GREATER CINCINNATI WRITERS
LEAGUE Critique group meets at 8 p.m. on the second Friday of every month at the Regency, 2444 Madison Road, Hyde Park. 753-5697.
FICTION READING GROUP Discusses Charles Dickens' Hard Times. 7 p.m. Wednesday. Borders Books and Music, 11711 Princeton Road, Springdale. 671-5852.
OHIO VALLEY ROMANCE WRITERS OF AMERICA Authors Elizabeth Bevarley, Beth Henderson and Leigh Riker discuss writing and revising. 1-4 p.m. Saturday. $3. Banquet Room, Holiday Inn, 3422 Lyleburn, Sharonville. 863-6053.
SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL
JOURNALISTS Organization of working journalists offers monthly programs. Marc Emral, 683-5115.
WRITERS WORKSHOP Open to all emerging writers, the workshop meets once a month to discuss and share works in open forum atmosphere. $3. Arts Consortium of Cincinnati, 1515 Linn St., West End. 381-0645.
CINCINNATI ARGENTINE TANGO
SOCIETY Offers dance classes in authentic Argentine tango. 8 p.m. every Thursday. $3, $5 non-members. University YMCA, 270 Calhoun, Clifton. 631-6215.
CITIZENSHIP CLASSES Travelers Aid International continues its citizenship classes. The non-profit group also offers English for the foreign born, immigration counseling, application assistance, finger printing and photos. 707 Race St., Suite 300, Downtown. 721-7660.
CIVIC GARDEN CENTER OF GREATER CINCINNATI Offers a garden variety of classes. 2715 Reading Road, Avondale. 221-0981.
CONTEMPORARY DANCE THEATER Offers classes in tap, jazz, ballet, modern dance, African dance, creative movement for children and yoga. The Dance Hall, Vine Street and East Daniels, Corryville. 751-2800.
FLYING CLOUD ACADEMY OF VINTAGE DANCE Offers classes in 19th and 20th century social dance. 8 p.m. Wednesdays. $3 members; $5 non-members.
GAIA UNLIMITED INC. Offers 3 1/2-hour workshops on the electronic superhighway. 6:30-10 p.m. Tuesday and April 24. $50 includes materials and a free one-month access to the Internet. Finneytown High School Auditorium, 8916 Fountainbleau, Finneytown. 333-0033. MODELING WORKSHOP Learn how the modeling and talent industry works. Meetings take place 7:30-9 p.m.
on the fourth Sunday of every month. $20. 411 Oak St., Clifton. 221-2299. THE GREATER CINCINNATI LITERACY TASK FORCE - Dedicated to providing services for those who cannot read or write, its members promote community awareness of the adult literacy problem. 621-7323.
IKRON The oldest community mental health facility in Southwest Ohio holds its annual meeting and open house. 5:30 p.m. Thursday. 2347 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine. 621-1117.
INTER-ETHNIC COUNCIL OF GREATER CINCINNATI Its mis sion is to provide a forum for ethnic and nationality groups in the area, to meet and educate its members and the public and to promote the values of a multicultural society. 721-7660. PARENTS WITH HEARING
IMPAIRED CHILDREN SUPPORT GROUP Meets at 6:45 p.m. every third Thursday of the month. Cincinnati Bible College, Room 251, 2700 Glenway Ave., Price Hill. 541-9073. UNITED WAY HELPLINE Provides counseling,
CINERGY
for entries. 1-800-428-3534, Ext. 3404.
FIFTH THIRD BANK ART ON THE SQUARE Volunteers 16 and over are needed for the May 19-21 celebration of the city’s artistic heritage. Volunteers will receive free admission and a free commemorative T-shirt. Those interested in buying artwork can contribute to the festival’s Purchase Prize program; ask for Tracy Daugherty. 744-8820.
THE ISIDOR SCHIFRIN ESSAY CONTEST Essays must answer the question: “Jewish
Bureau of Jewish Education, 1580 Summit Road, Cincinnati, OH 45237.
522-0117. YWCA PROTECTION FROM ABUSE PROGRAMS Alice Paul House and House of Peace are emergency shelters providing housing, advocacy and support to battered women and their children. 241-2757.
Auditions & Opportunities
ARTS IN COMMON This collabo rative program between Hamilton County’s Fitton Center for Creative Arts and the surrounding community offers mini-grants for qualifying arts projects, defined as a new or existing program designed to educate, enlighten or involve individuals in the visual or performing arts. Awards of up to $1,500
MIAMI WHITEWATER FOREST AND WOODLAND MOUND The Hamilton County Park district is looking for dedicated adults to join the volunteer staffs. Volunteers will greet visitors, answer the telephone, operate the cash register and assist the naturalist staff. Call Nancy Hemmer at 521-PARK.
NYU SUMMER ABROAD Earn nine-12 credits when you join NYU’s Music and Dance Program in Pisa, Italy. Seminars and workshops in composition, new music performance and experimental dance are available. Concerts will be held in Pisa, Lucca and Montepulciano. There also will be a two-day multimedia festival in Pisa, July 14-15. The application deadline is May 15. 212-998-5090.
OHIO ARTS COUNCIL The OAC is accepting applications for its programs in Art in Public Places, Design and Presenting/Touring through April 15. A one-time-only Art Student Scholarship is open to Ohio high school seniors who plan to continue their arts training. Finalists receive $1,000 to be used at the Ohio college or university of their choice. Apply by April 15. Applications for the LongTerm Assistance Program, a grant that helps minority arts organizations, should be submitted by May 1. 614-466-2613. The Ohio artists who receive NEA grants will be supported by the Ohio Arts Council’s International Program, which provides much $5,000 to eligible Ohio arts organizations and as much as $2,000 to Ohio artists and performers. The deadline is May 15 for projects beginning Nov. 1. For collaborative projects, residencies should call Silvio Lim at 202-682-5422. Artists and performing artists should contact Pennie Ojeda at 202-682-5422.
PEPSI JAMMIN’ ON MAIN The May 12-13 festival, designed to showcase Cincinnati's diverse musical heritage, is looking for volunteers 16 and older. Volunteers will receive free admission to the festival and a free commemorative T-shirt. 744-8820.
BY JULIE
TALL STACKS The Greater Cincinnati Tall Stacks Commission is seeking volunteer supervisors for the Oct. 11-15 event. 397-0555. VOICES AND VISIONS OF URBAN YOUTH - Filmmakers Spike Lee, Marcus Turner and Hark Bohm will judge the photographers, videographers and filmmakers’ completed work, which should challenge the policies and politics of cultural representation, supersede the negative, commercialized and stereotypical images of youth and expand the margins and assumptions constructed around “minority cation
651-9114.
PSYCHIC TALK TO A LIVE PSYCHIC! Learn about your future... Money, romance, happiness, Get individual consultation. 1-900-420-2444 ext. 070.18 years and older. $2.99/minute. 24 hours, touch tone required. Avalon Comm., 305-525-0800.
PSYCHIC DEVELOPMENT
Beginning Wednesday, April 12, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., join Krista Hanson in a unique ten week Psychic Development class at the Mt. Auburn Community Center. Topics will include application of psychic energy, meditation techniques, introduction to psychic tools, and personal symbolism and dream interpretation. Class size is limited. Call to register or for more information, 381-1760.
PSYCHIC READINGS & MORE Experience the energy! Victory Books is a metaphysical emporium at 609 Main Street, Covington. Featuring new and used books, New Age cassettes and CDs, incense, oils, tarot cards, jewelry, crystals, and much Psychic, tarot, and astrological readings by appointment. Open daily. Call for information, 581-5839. READINGS
Norita Ruehl, spiritual advisor and professional reader, offers private or group readings. Receive the to specific questions and personal concerns. Hostess Plan is available is available with a group of ten. All information is strictly confidential. Call 606-441-0908. STRESS THERAPIST/ HYPNOTHERAPIST Ron Scanlon, Certified Stress Therapist/ Hypnotherapist, uses Relaxation, Emotional Clearing, and Muscle Tension Release to balance the body, heart, and spirit. Understand and let go of everyday aches and pains. 1-513-298-4939.
THE BODY MALL Understand yourself and those you love better. Professional astrologer Jeri Boone offers counseling through the art of astrology and numerology. Or join Jeri and Beverly Boone, both licensed massage therapists, as they offer therapeutic sage, Swedish massage, cranial sacral, body reflexology, polarity therapy, and accupressure. The Body Mall has a fully trained professional staff, and offers study groups, development workshops, children’s classes, and many alternative methods of caring for yourself. 3519 Glenmore Avenue, 662-5121.
THE GIFT OF PEACE We are looking for three offices with at least four people to participate in our own survey. We come to your office and do a 10 or 15 minute chair massage. What is a chair massage, you may ask. It is a seated massage which relieves mental and physical stress by calming your nervous system, releasing tight and painful muscles, and increasing circulation. If you feel your office could benefit from this, please submit your name and number, and indicate how many people will be participating. Inner Peace Massage, located at 3907 Harrison Avenue, in Cheviot- only minutes from downtown. Call 661-0302.
THERAPEUTIC BODYWORK
Bodywork is individualized and includes Massage-Swedish, Deep tissue, and Amma; Acupressure- jinshindo; Energy Work- Reiki, Therapeutic Touch; and Integrative Bodywork. Kirk Prine, Ed.D., C.M.T., by appointment only. 431-3112.
Call and find out why doctors, athletes, business professionals, and ordinary peopie are joining a company that is sweeping America. Not a 9 to 5 job, but a once-in-alifetime opportunity. 95% phone work. Call 24 hours, 929-2266.
GIFT SHOP - AVAILABLE
Retail/established, popularjewelry and gift shop. Prestigious location, profitable, $55,000. Will train. 929-2366.
THE PERFECT BUSINESS
No inventory, no deliveries, no collections, no customer risk, no employees, no quotas, no products to purchase, no complicated math or paperwork, no experience necessary. Call 631-8935.
Business Services
$19 HOUSE CALLS
$19 house call for TV/VCR repair. Call Service Techs, 333-8687.
CERTIFIED NURSES ASSISTANT
Experienced certified nurses assistant available for in home care, mornings and afternoons. Have references and reliable transportation. Quotes available upon request. Call Tawana Moore at 271-6411.
DESKTOP PUBLISHING 20% Off
B&B Publishing is offering 20% off on Typesetting/Design fees on your initial order. Call or fax 481-0515.
VIDEO DESIGNER
Do you have a project that needs that special touch? Specializing in documentation of events, arts and commercial projects. Call Bob Leibold, 481-3011. Fax, 481-1444.
Classes Lessons
BEADS BEADS BEADS
Your complete jewelry and bead shop. We offer a variety of classes, including wire wrap jewelry and stained glass. Please call for details. Treasure Island Jewelry, 241-7893.
MATH Does your fear of math affect your business dealings? Do you wish you had a better grasp on basic math? Do you want to prepare for the GMAT/GRE without spending hundreds of dollars? Joseph Speier offers customized individual and group tutoring for people who want to hone their math skills. For more information, call 481-1828.
PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP
Master photographer Robin Victor Goetz
ATTENTION YOUNG SINGERS A band is auditioning vocalists. Serious calls only. Call Chris at 984-0108.
BASSIST & DRUMMER Original mainstream alternative band looking for stylish bassist and drummer. We have songs, studio,
INTERNET ACCESS CINCINNATI Internet is your access to world resources. Internet Access Cincinnati is offering a 3 1/2 hour workshop combining lectures with live demonstrations to take you into the wonderful world of the Internet, for beginner and experienced computer users. Held at Finneytown High School Auditorium, 8916 Fountainbleux Terrace (off Winton Rd.), Tuesday, April 11 & Monday, April 24 from 6:30 -10:00 p.m. For information & pre-registration, call 333-0033.
USED IBM COMPUTERS
Do you want a computer but don’t want to spend thousands on a brand new system? have used computers that will meet your needs. All are IBM compatible XT’s, 8088’s, 286’s, all under $600- several as low as $100! I also have faxes, tape back-ups, modems mouse, printers, CAD printers for $750, and laser printers. If you have any questions, please call me. Remember- don’t buy a computer that’s new until you see what mine can do! Call Kevin Birchfield and leave a message, 598-9703.
BOAT
1970 16 ft. fiberglass V-haul fish/ski runabout. 1968 85 HP Evinrude outboard. Good condition. Asking $1250. Call 248-8467.
BRICKS
420 new orange bricks - ideal for barbeque pit - $30. 2 five gallon off white Sherwin Williams indoor flat latex paint, $25 each. Call Mike, 684-0361.
BUD LIGHT SIGN
Neon Bud Light sign in block lettering. 13 x 18 inches in size, including base. Deep royal blue when lit. Mint. Call after 7:00 p.m., 281-5023.
GREAT DEALS!
Call David. 755-8155.
PREVENT HEARING LOSS Musicians, protect your ears the way professionals do. Use ER-15s. Call Lewis Hearing Services, 351-3277.
RECORDING EQUIPMENT
Spring cleaning has started early! I've found several items that I’m willing to part with-dirt cheap. Kodak disk camera, $25. LaRosa’s employee watch, of great sentimental value, a possible collector's item, $20. Three entrepreneurs manuals, published by the American Entrepreneural Association, hard cover, $40 each. Dark cowhide leather tri-fold wallet, $10. All items in good condition. Call 541-4155.
SCIENTIFIC CALCULATOR
A.P.I. and M.I.C.-pre
“There’s never been anyone more afraid of numbers than I."...Goethe. Casio fx7500G scientific calculator with manuals.
A mere $25. Call 291-7053.
VOODOO DOLLS!
SAMPLER
Boss, co-worker, lover, ex, neighbor, whoever giving you the blues? Get even! Great gift or conversation piece. See back page for more information and ordering instructions.
Help Wanted
SEASONED
C.A.S.A. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
SHARE
Citizens Against Substance Abuse is seeking volunteers. Our biggest need is for general office help to cover any or all of our regular office hours - from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you answer phones, photocopy, type, and use a computer (especially WordPerfect), we can use you! One, two...five days a week. Any amount of time you can spare would be a help. Great hours, great boss, and a good deed for a great community. Call Ann Collins at 684-7000.
PERSONAL CARE ASSISTANTS
People with disabilities are seeking assistance to achieve an independent lifestyle. Need assistance with personal hygiene, housekeeping, driving. Must be dependable and punctual. Transportation and telephone required. Call 241-2600.
THE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM
BackfSeaf
Classifieds 6654700
SALSA! SOCA! REGGAE! Come dance in our LITTLE RED RHUMBA ROOM! Eveiy Saturday
ZARABANDA WORLD CAFE & RESTAURANT 3213 Unwood Ave., 321-1347
JAMAICAN NIGHT! Come listen to acoustic reggae and wear rasta colors. Special menu. Every Thursday. ZARABANDA WORLD CAFE & RESTAURANT 3213 Linwood Avenue, 321-1347
TAXES ARE RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER!
Come & relieve some stress at INNER PEACE MASSAGE
Outcalls available. Receive $5 off any service when you mention this ad. 3907 Harrison Ave., Cheviot, 661-0302
BIRCHFIELD, 598-9703. LEAVE MESSAGE. See classified ad on inside page!
ENERGY BODY CENTER MASSAGE, ACUPRESSURE, & ENERGY WORK Kirk Prine, Ed.D., C.M.T., 431-3112
THE BODY MALL offers counseling through the art ofAstrology and Numerology. Also offering Therapeutic Massage, Body Reflexology, Polarity Therapy, & Acupressure. Featuring study groups, develpoment workshops, & children’s classes. AN ALTERNATIVE METHOD OF CARING FOR YOURSELF. 662-5121. 3519 Glenmore Avenue
Welcome to Back Beat, the back page of Cincinnati CityBeat. This last page is your last chance to have the last word.
So talk back to us! Answer our sometimes silly, sometimes cerebral weekly question. Then beat it to the nearest mailbox, fax or modem. If we print your response in our letters section next week, you get a free Cincinnati CityBeat T-shirt. Not a bad deal for the cost of a stamp or fax, eh?
This week’s question: What’s yourfavorite aspect ofthe Internet? Why?
