Film Disclosure rates high on entertainment, low on insight 17
Music Releases from Soul Coughing and Boxing Gandhis prove white men can jump 22
Art CAC exhibit raises questions about why art is created 23
Food & Drink Finding pie that tastes homemade 27
Onstage ETC’s panto Snow White forces laughs 28
Literary Interview with David Morrell, creator of Rambo 29
ClassifiecLAcfs
How to submit an ad 31
Classified Ads Help wanted, for sale, for rent, music, services 31
Back Beat Answer CityBeat’s question of the week 32
Stranger than fiction: Andrew Gurland and Todd Phillips aim their films at an ignored generation by aiming their cameras at cutting-edge subjects, such as the late shock-performance artist GG Allin, at right. Film, 18
Bearing arms: Zoo officials cite lack potential danger to people as reasons Zoo does not have a shoot-to-kill policy out-of-control animals. Other U.S. Diego and Columbus, do have such human life is in danger. News & Views,
CAC far from crisis
I am writing in response to Daniel Brown’s essay, “CAC on the Cutting Edge” (Dec. 1-7 Issue). While we are pleased that Danny had many good things to say about our institution, the essay is, unfortunately, replete with inaccuracies, only some of which we will respond to here.
Although the Contemporary Arts Center is currently searching for a new director, the Center is far from operating in a crisis mode or contemplating any mergers. Rather, in the years since the Mapplethorpe case (there, I said it: the “M” word), the Center has been operating without a deficit, making unprecedented inroads into the corporate funding coramunity, and providing an active, independent voice for artistic points of view that otherwise are not readily available in Cincinnati.
Regarding Mr. Brown’s implication of divisiveness on the CAC Board: contemporary art is a broad field. The CAC has a large Board with a range of tastes. But the Board has always been able to come together to support a full range of exhibition and educational programming, and to ensure fiscal responsibility and accountability.
Perhaps what concerns me most is Mr. Brown’s suggesting that the CAC is at odds with the Fine Arts Fund and the Cincinnati Art Museum. Nothing could be further from
Correction
In a Dec. 1-7 story on arts institutions’ trustees, Cincinnati CityBeat referred to Andy Stillpass as Larry Stillpass’ son.
However, Andy Stillpass is Larry Stillpass’ nephew.
the truth. We work closely with each of these institutions and plan to do so in the future.
We hope that Mr. Brown, a former CAC Trustee, will continue to be a supporter of the CAC and recognize the job we are trying to do, as does the publisher of CityBeat and many of its readers.
—Anthony Covatta, Chairman, The Contemporary Arts Center
Assistance would be appreciated
I’ve read your first three issues of CityBeat and have found it interesting, to say the least. I would like to encourage you to expand your “Onstage” section to include the over twenty Community Theatres which exist in the Greater Cincinnati area.
Broadway may be the dream of many people involved in Community Theatre, but the places where Broadway begins are the rehearsal halls and minuscule budgets of hundreds of community theatres across the United States.
Cincinnati is blessed to have one of the strongest, most active and most talented organized theatre groups in the country. Any assistance which CityBeat is able to give by way of a performance calendar and audition calendar would be greatly appreciated.
Michael L. Morehead Board Member, The Footlighters Inc., Newport
Do your ABCs
A doesn’t feel like working hard, and has no hamburgers.
B disciplines himself, works very hard, and has three hamburgers.
C says this isn’t fair. He takes the three hamburgers from B, gives one to A, then one to B and keeps one for himself.
B says this isn’t fair. He calls C a left-wing socialist. C calls B a right-wing fundamentalist bigot.
A and C say that C is a great humanitarian.
What do you think? Anonymous, Cincinnati
Editor’s note-. I’m not quite sure what to think. I do know that P? + B^ C&
Letters policy
CINCINNATI CITYBEAT accepts letters for publication.
mail to: Letters, Cincinnati CityBeat 23 E. Seventh St., Suite 617 Cincinnati, OH 45202
fax TO: 513/665-4369
Please include the letter writer’s name, address and daytime phone number.
Writers may request their names be withheld from publication. Letters may be edited for length. Please type letters if possible.
Talking Back
Each week, Cincinnati CityBeat poses a question on its back page. Our staff selects the best responses to print the following week, with published responses meriting a CityBeat T-shirt.
Here are some of the responses to last week’s question, “What’s the first thing you’d do if you won the lottery? (Quitting your job doesn’t count.)”:
ROSANNE SHEA: Buy a house, pay off debts and put much in savings.
JAMES COLE: Use the money to create a pilot for a sitcom called Family Values, starring Charlie Winburn (and Carl Lindner doing a cameo as God).
MARC HOROWITZ: The money’s won, we think that’s great.
What better way to celebrate
Than find the panhandler two weeks gone by, This time looking right in his eye And apologize, your funds were late.
SUSANNE PHELPS: Buy an apartment building (or more than one, if the jackpot is big enough!).
W.B. LEWIS: Cash the check before the state’s general fund nabs it from the schools and highways the money was intended for.
DAVID GOSSETT: I’d take a round-the-world trip hitting the hot-spots in London, Paris, Rome, Moscow, Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Taipei and Rio! Now if only my numbers would come up
Thrill Seekers
Fountain Square West
to become the opposite of its big brother
BY JOHN FOX
Fountain Square has long been the central meeting place for Cincinnatians.
It’s the public plaza where World Series celebrations, political rallies and Oktoberfests are staged. It has been the scene for city accomplishments (last year’s Art on the Square) and abominations (the Ku Klux Klan cross).
Fountain Square is the city’s civic bulletin board. If you don’t promote your charity event with celebrity three-on-three basketball “on the square” or hold your annual book-a-thon “on the square,” nobody knows about it.
And Fountain Square represents what all of us hope downtown Cincinnati is (or should be): the right mix of tourist attraction and hometown comfort.
The square, highlighted by its quaint old fountain donated to “the people of Cincinnati,” is arguably the city’s most photographed feature. Who doesn’t take out-of-town guests there for a quick visit? At the same time, who among us downtown workers doesn’t wander by the square during lunch time on a sunny day to hang out for a few minutes?
Fountain Square is, in a word, perfeet. Luckily for us it was designed a long time ago, or else it might have a roller coaster in the middle of it.
Or a simulated roller coaster. Next to a bigger-than-life movie screen. Or it might be on top of a department store.
Of course I’m referring to Fountain Square’s adopted little brother, Fountain Square West, the misunderstood parking lot that’s trying to figure out what to do with its life. Last week, Cincinnati’s city fathers finally took back the car keys and grounded Fountain Square West with some hard realities you will be a Lazarus store, damn it, topped by a “world-class entertainment and education center.” Then it’s off to an Ivy League college, law school, internship at Baltimore’s harbor front and home for a successful career as a dollar magnet.
The announcement of the Museum
Editorial View
Center’s proposed IMAX/planetarium complex for Fountain Square West took many by surprise including the two groups supposedly in charge of downtown development, City Council and Downtown Cincinnati Inc. The idea itself sounds fascinating, to be sure, even though the details are sketchy (like how much money the venture will bring in each year and if it’ll be profitable).
But there are two problem areas.
One, an eight-story-tall movie screen showing IMAX 3-D adventure films has the words “tourist attraction” written all over it. So does the adjacent fourminute-long “movie ride” simulator. The state-of-the-art planetarium seems to have the best shot at regular local business. Not that there’s anything wrong with grabbing tourist dollars, but for some reason, I was under the impression that new downtown development was being planned to get Cincinnatians to live and shop and party downtown.
Why not offer us local riff-raff something we want a regular, old-fashioned, popcorn-selling movie multiplex downtown? Let us see Drop Zone the week it comes out, without carpooling to the suburbs, and then maybe we’ll drop some bucks on IMAX 3-D.
The second problem is how this “edutainment complex” materialized out of thin air. With $7 million of state money already attached. Without local elected officials knowing anything about it.
The best qualification anyone can come up with about the project is that it’s free! Well, practically. Mostly private donations, with some state money. I didn’t know all we had to do was come up with a plan that didn’t cost taxpayers! There actually was an idea proposed once back when our little parking lot was still a twinkle in a crane operator’s eye that wasn’t going to cost anything to build. Someone said, “Let’s bulldoze the whole thing and build a park. Like Fountain Square over there.”
Hamilton County broke ground this week on a project that eventually will extend public water service from Cincinnati Water Works’ Bolton Treatment Plant to Crosby and Whitewater Townships.
The expansion is expected to spur further residential and commercial development in the area. But it will also bring relief to some in Crosby Township near the former Fernald Uranium Processing Plant who have had to rely on bottled water for years.
Some residents’ private wells were found to have been contaminated because of a plume of radiation in the Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer, the underground water source that also supplies water for treatment to the Bolton Plant, said David Rager, Water Works director. The plant is two miles northeast of Fernald.
How do you assure the public that using water from the Bolton plant is not a risk?
In conjunction with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Rager said, water is being monitored all along the aquifer. And the Bolton plant not only monitors water coming into and leaving the plant but also the aquifer, with special attention focused south of the plant.
“We’re sampling way south of the plant so we would know years in advance if a problem was coming,” he said.
NANCY FIROR
Expensive Speculation
As a possible solution to the stadium controversy, Mike Brown has announced his Bengals could play at a college stadium while a new football stadium was being erected.
Brown discussed the possibility of playing at Ohio State University or Northern Kentucky University, while the University of Cincinnati offered the only Cincinnati stadium where the Bengals could play.
UC's Nippert Stadium seats about 35,000 people. Riverfront Stadium seats about 59,000 for football.
Total ticket revenue lost from playing at UC would be $672,000 per game based on the $28 average Bengal ticket price and reduced seating capacity at Nippert.
So how would ticket prices be affected if the Bengals decided to stay in Cincinnati and play home games at Nippert Stadium while a new facility was being built?
“This is something Mike Brown just tossed out as something he would be willing to do if it would lead to building a new stadium," said Jack Brennan, Bengals publie relations director. “It hasn’t been considered yet in any substantive way.”
BRAD KING
Theaters for Real People
Cincinnati City Council is excited about the latest plans for Fountain Square West. The Museum Center Board recently announced plans for a high-tech theater complex to sit atop the new Lazarus store and house an IMAX 3-D theater, a Discovery Simulator and a planetarium.
An IMAX 3-D theater opened successfully last month at Lincoln Center in Manhattan in a new complex that also contains opulent movie theaters with the latest technology. The cinemas broke box-office records for Sony/Loews.
Today downtown Cincinnati residents and workers cannot even see a Hollywood movie nearby. Where are downtown's regular theaters?
“Current IMAX movies are very short," said Buck Niehoff, chairman of the Museum Center Development Committee. “Our planetarium shows are less than an hour. This will be a natural for people who work downtown to break away for an early lunch or take a long coffee break in the early afternoon.”
Even if someone wanted to come forward and put regular cinemas into this complex, Niehoff does not think there’s room for improvement. “We have filled up the site with what we have already. The footprint is filled.”
STEVE RAMOS
BURNING QUESTIONS isour weekly attempt to afflict the comfortable.
Zoo Decides Not to Bear Firearms
More thanfour years after a polar bear attack Cincinnati Zoo keepers are still concerned about their safety
BY NANCY FIROR
In the days that followed the 1990 polar bear attack on Cincinnati Zoo keeper Laurie Stober, at least one of her coworkers began earring a handgun to work for protection.
The 750-pound bear, caged in a bear den out of public view, had gotten a taste of human flesh. If the bear decided it wanted more, the keeper with the gun was going to be ready.
“I wanted to have something there for protection,” said the former bear keeper, who did not want to be named.
As Stober testified during a civil trial that ended last week with a judgment of more than $3.4 million against the zoo, coworkers came to her rescue with the only weapons they had. They hit the bear with a crowbar and broomstick while the bear chewed Stober’s right arm, then bit it off below the elbow.
Despite safety concerns that erupted after the attack and the court decision in Stober’s favor, the Cincinnati Zoo has not adopted a shoot-to-kill policy as some other U.S. zoos have for dangerous animals that jeopardize human safety.
Though the zoo had a high-powered rifle at the time of Stober’s attack, employees could not get it to the bear dens before the bear bit off her forearm. And because bullets could ricochet off the walls of the bear’s enclosure, it probably would not have been advisable to use the gun at all, Edward Maruska, the zoo’s executive director, said this week.
“I would not be comfortable with the use of firearms unless our people had the proper training, sanctioned and approved by the Cincinnati Police Department,” Maruska said.
But Theresa Groh, one of Stober’s lawyers, said that what Maruska “really meant was: ‘You do not use (firearms) because (the bear is) expensive, and it’s a breeder.’
Smart bombs
After the March 28, 1990, attack, the Cincinnati Zoo obtained “Bear Bombs” for keepers who work with bears, apes and large cats. Though the bombs a pepper gas spray similar to those used by police officers are not proven to subdue polar bears or other large, captive animals, they have offered some peace of mind to the keepers who carry them.
Maruska said his keepers know they cannot rely on
the “Bear Bombs,” which in some cases might further provoke an attacking animal.
“It’s better than nothing,” said Michael Maciariello, a keeper in the zoo’s Cat House and president of the zoo keepers union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 282.
Officials at the San Diego Zoo, the Columbus Zoo and the Indianapolis Zoo all of which have shoot-to-kill policies in place for dangerous animals that threaten human safety said they had not heard of “Bear Bombs” being used by ZOOS.
“I can’t expect a zoo spraying (repellent) in the face of a. bear that’s attacking a keeper” would help, said Jeff Joue’tt, director of public relations for the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Wild Life Animal Park.
While the Cincinnati Zoo has firearms, which Maruska said he would use if necessary, zoo employees have not received firearms training.
He said that zoo officials investigated the possibility of having the police department give firearms training to zoo employees after the 1990 attack. But, he said, the training was not available and that technically, under city law, zoo employees were not allowed to discharge firearms at the zoo.
So, instead of a shoot-to-kill policy, future emergencies at the Cincinnati Zoo will activate a plan under which the police will be called and tranquilizer guns will be the first weapon for zoo employees to consider if a method of subduing an animal is needed.
Though Maruska said such tranquilizers would, immobilize an animal “within minutes,” he pointed out that they would not have worked quickly enough to help Stober.
Officials at the three other zoos said that, assuming a tranquilizer dart landed in the correct position to allow injection, such drugs take 10 minutes or longer to take effect.
At those zoos, officials said, tranquilizers would be tried only if an animal was not threatening a person’s safety.
Peering into the employees’ entrance to the bear dens at Cincinnati Zoo.
Assuming the dart hits an animal in the correct part of its body to allow injection of a tranquilizer, drugs used at the Columbus Zoo take about 10 minutes to
CONTINUES ON PAGE 6 PHOTO:
ZOO: FROM PAGE 5
Zoo management, workers seek common ground on safety issues
BY NANCY FIROR
Despite improvements made in the aftermath of a 1990 polar bear attack in which Cincinnati Zoo keeper Laurie Stober was maimed, employees with safety concerns still struggle to be heard, the president of the Cincinnati Zoo keepers’ union said this week.
Many problems in the bear dens and Elephant House publicized in 1990 and 1991 have been addressed, said Michael Maciariello, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 282'. But the zoo’s safety committee, formed after the attack to detect problems and make recommendations to management, is losing steam, he said.
“The union’s always struggling to bring problems to management’s attention,” said Maciariello, a keeper who’s also a member of the zoo’s safety committee.
Zoo officials said the safety committee had been very active and that management was attentive to its concerns.
“If our employees have issues, they have a safety committee” to take them to, said Mona Morrow, a public relations officer at the zoo.
But Maciariello said it was beginning to appear that problems were resolved only after someone got hurt and authorities such as agents of the the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) took action. As a result, he said, it might be just a matter of time before someone gets hurt again.
As an example, he cited a problem in the zoo’s African Veldt area. Since the attack on Stober, zoo management installed a hydraulic lift to carry 55-gallon drums of manure up a steep slope for disposal.
Until then, the keepers hauled the manure up the slope in garbage cans, Maciariello said.
But because the hydraulic lift works much more slowly than the area supervisor will accept, keepers still feel pushed to carry the manure themselves in order to get the work done faster, Maciariello said. Compounding the problem, he said, is that the lift is now broken.
“I don’t want somebody breaking their back before it gets fixed,” he said.
If the zoo cannot install an elevator that moves more quickly, then a written policy should be established making it acceptable for keepers to wait until the hydraulic lift gets the job done, Maciariello said.
But Edward Maruska, the zoo’s executive director, said that already was the policy and that no one was being forced to get the job done faster than the lift could work.
Since March 28, 1990, when part of Stober’s right arm was bitten off by a 750-pound polar bear, Maruska has maintained that there were no safety problems at the zoo or in the bear dens that caused the attack the only serious incident at the zoo in 120 years.
Throughout the trial on Stober’s lawsuit against the zoo, Cincinnati Zoo officials maintained that Stober, who no longer works at the,zoo, caused the accident by putting her hand through the bars of the bear’s cage. The trial ended last week with a judgment of more than $3.4 million against the zoo a decision the Cincinnati Zoo will appeal, Maruska said.
After the attack, Stober, who was tossing a grape to the bear when the attack occurred, said she did not put her hand through the bars.
Stober and other bear keepers said tossing food through the bars was a standard practice approved by the area supervisor, used to lure
bears into the cages and keep them there long enough to shut the cage doors.
After last week’s court decision, Stober hopes zoo officials will take worker safety seriously in the future, said Theresa Groh, one of her lawyers.
While the zoo issued a number of written procedures for keepers after the attack, Groh said she hoped those procedures had become practice.
Maruska said written procedures specific to each area of the zoo were in place and being used. Prior to that, written procedures governing the overall zoo were being used, he said.
All procedures have emphasized that keepers exercise “care” and “avoidance,” when around dangerous animals, which Stober was not doing at the time of the attack, Maruska said.
Procedures for feeding and moving bears were questioned in findings issued by OSHA as a result of its investigation of the bear dens after the attack. More findings were issued in January 1991 after OSHA inspected the Elephant House and African Veldt area. The findings have been resolved between OSHA and the zoo. Details of how the case was closed are confidential, OSHA officials said.
Maruska said all changes made by the zoo were minor and would not have prevented that attack because Stober caused the attack by sticking her hand through the bars.
A new feeding chute in the male bear’s cage is among changes that have been made in the bear dens, Morrow said, but it was not needed to avoid an accident. Sound procedures for moving bears involving putting food in the cages when the bears are not in them have always been in place for moving bears from cage to cage and from the bear grotto into the cages, she said.
work, said Dr. Lynn Kramer, the Columbus Zoo’s director of animal health.
“If a person was in danger, you would use a real rifle,” he said.
Getting into position to shoot a tranquilizer gun- also can take precious time, Jouett said.
The handling of a tiger escape last February at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, he said, is a good example of the park’s policy on subduing out-of-control animals.
The tiger, Jouett said, escaped its enclosure but was quickly spotted by zoo security personnel, who were equipped with rifles. Keepers and zoo veterinarians with tranquilizer guns were called while the tiger sat quietly under a bush near the zoo’s perimeter fence.
If the tiger were to make it over the fence, Jouett explained, it would roam free in a residential neighborhood a threat to public safety. About two hours passed while the tiger sat under the bush; zoo veterinarians prepared correct dosages of tranquilizers and moved in closer in an attempt to take the correct position to tranquilize the tiger. But the tiger walked away from the bush and turned toward the fence, at which point the decision was made to kill it, Jouett said.
“It was a dangerous animal that was about to get out of a controlled situation,” he said.
While committed to preserving human life before the life of an animal, Maruska said mixing guns and panicking people who had no firearms training would not be the way to do it.
Had Cincinnati Zoo workers gotten the rifle to the bear den before a call came over the radio that the bear had released Stober, Maruska said using the gun in the bear’s enclosure where ricochets were possible could have further endangered Stober’s life along with the lives of those trying to save her.
Obstacles such as a ricochet-prone wall behind the attacking animal must be evaluated by an employee trained in the use of firearms, said Vern Metz, assistant director of operations at the Columbus Zoo.
The Columbus Zoo has employees who are trained in the use of high-powered rifles and 12-gauge shotguns and in how to evaluate each situation, he said. Under the zoo’s policy, the threat of injury to a person is countered with fatal action against the animal.
“If anybody’s going to do any shooting (at the Cincinnati Zoo) it would have to be the police,” said Maciariello, who also is a member of the zoo’s safety committee, which was formed after the polar bear attack.
Unfortunately, he said, zoo employees would be uncertain about what their role would be in the event of another emergency. Though the zoo has a contingency plan, Maciariello said, it has not held any drills to allow employees to practice.
MUSIC LOVER'S EXPO V. TRADE QUARTER MILLION Compact Discs, Albums^ 45's and Tapes. Lots of hard to find. Lots of deals. Cheap CD's. Imports.Thousands of ALBUMS for only $1.00 each.
Dealers from Canada, Atlanta, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, L.A., Nashville, Memphis, New York, Reno, Dayton, Kansas City & MORE!
only $1.50 with ad (discount good for 2 admissions}
What Is a Family?
Re-examining 'family values’ as holidays approach
ESSAY BY DANIEL BROWN
As we enter the holiday season, many paradoxes of families emerge: misty memories of seemingly simpler times, unbroken families, the adult’s view of childhood.
In reality, holidays can bring relentless obligations and tensions, fights and disruptions. In and amongst families, ’tis the season for depression as well as joy. (“We’re not taking the children to your grandmother’s on Christmas Eve; she was vicious to Josh last year.” “Give me my grandmother over your loud-mouthed drunken father any day.”) And so it will go, phony smiles beaming while cursing in the kitchen. As my own sister said at my wedding, “my fake smile glands hurt.”
The upcoming holidays present us with a context to re-examine those value-laden, political buzzwords “family values.”
Many long for a lost Utopian time when men were men and went to one job and women stayed home with two jobs, mom and homemaker. Boys played with boy toys, while girls played with dolls. Grandma baked turkeys and cookies, while Grandpa was taciturn but a softie at heart. Today’s fantasized cultural construct reinvents families where no divorces existed, monogamy was assumed, all went to church on Sunday and children played in safe neighborhoods, made lemonade stands and walked to public school.
All these ideas were part of a partial reality we sometimes call “family" last manifested in the Donna Reed/Ozzie Nelson/Leave It to Beaver ’50s that included the provably mistaken idea that bad marriages should stay together “for the children.” Such white, middle-class memories have become part of an idealized image, manipulated by right-wing politicians and Christian fundamentalists attempting to re-create and reimpose such “family values” upon an America which no longer exists.
“Family values” conjures up magical images of seemingly simpler times, the family farm, Main Street, U.S.A. Families and communities were disrupted and/or destroyed by corporate decisions during the last 30 years, by economic policies undertaken by the same Republicans and fundamentalists who rail against their loss. Corporate interests took precedence over families, inverting the newly politicized agenda. The great contradiction of “family values” lies here: Disrupted families re-create themselves and have reinvented the very concept of
family. “Alternative families” are consistent with the American genius for fluidity and with overall advances in 20th century American democracy. The two sides exist symbiotically, one induced by the other.
The resistance to “alternative families” is predicated upon America’s Puritan history, where, in ideological politics, “pro-life” means no sex (or “if you play, you pay”). White men should dominate, say biblical politicists. “Be fruitful and multiply,” except if you’re not married, black or poor. “Family values” were constructs of families modeled on the Reagans and the Quayles, who actually represent the realities of divorces, acrimony, working mothers. Perversely, Hillary Clinton gets the rap for heading an unbroken family because of the “family values” she allegedly symbolizes.
Human needs
Marriage, the fundamental(ist) institution in life, creates the operative definitions of families. Human needs for nurturing and structuring are both genetic and hereditary. “Family values” politicians confuse a specifically Christian ideal with a multiracial, multicultural America. Their own capitalist entrepreneurial ideals have been paralleled, even pre-empted, by those reinventing the concept of family.
In December 1993-January 1994, I guest curated an exhibition for Cincinnati’s Arts Consortium that examined “The Family” through artwork. Although all images differed, the underlying themes and psychological needs were the same, regardless of age, race or gender. My curatorial premise stated that “a family consists of any group of people who willingly choose to live and/or work together, sharing ethical and moral standards which may be passed along intergenerationally.”
Many African-American families, in spite of historical disruptions, have formulated networks of extended “families,” even if not blood-related, just as upper-middle and upper-class WASPs often do. “Uncle” or “aunt” are often not kin. Neighbors/friends/family members create communities similar to Israeli kibbutzim, sharing chores, money, children, education.
Such innovative families are proven successes but baffle and contradict fundamentalist beliefs, extending beyond their framework of reference. Smug, social-engineering liberals, however, often compound such problems by assuming that Christian beliefs are only cynical ploys, tut-tutting the genuineness of fundamentalists’ beliefs. Liberals seek approval rather than acceptance, the historical American norm.
Redefining family
The so-called decline of the family, therefore, calls for a redefinition of family. The current middle-class concept of workplace “time-sharing” might well examine mechanisms literalized by extended African-American “families.”
“You can’t choose your family, but you can choose your friends” is a cliche, but
also a truism. Friends can and do become families. The origin of communal living, the “back to the land” movement in the ’60s, was a romanticized but ultimately conservative attempt to re-create the extended, non-nuclear “family” modeled on the old family farm but with a new sense of a “community of neighbors.”
Putting It Together
The truly radical cultural construct is the middle-class nuclear family, where, for example, grandparents are dumped in nursing homes. The nuclear family is alien to American history. Many New England houses look architecturally odd, even whimsical, because rooms were added generation by generation to accommodate extended families and later friends under one roof.
There is an assumption among some that gay men and lesbians cannot create families or “family values” which is littie more than an ancient religious prejudice against non-procreative marriages. (Where do infertile heterosexual and post-menopausal marriages fit into this paradox?) The well-documented promiscuity of gay men in the ’60s fails to mention the parallel promiscuity of a sexualized culture created through advertising by a white male elite on Madison Avenue. Gays often want and need the legal rights of marriage; Republicans and fundamentalists are coy by refusing to acknowledge the tax, estate and health-care advantages that come with marriage.
The Log Cabin Republicans are a group of conservative gays and lesbians who will convene in Cincinnati in 1995. The assumption of political radicality, or a “homosexual agenda” that’s “anti-family,” just doesn’t hold up. Fundamentalists have a fundamental misunderstanding of the Constitution’s reasons for separating church and state, which rejected European precedents because the Founding Fathers were fearful of New England Puritanism.
Our current “family values” politicians have the real political agenda: They want control over women in the kitchens, gays in the closets, sex only in marriages a world which cannot be legislated, and never could be.
Census figures indicate that only 16 percent of Americans live in a two-parent, one-worker family. The vast majority of Americans have already re-created “families” with “values,” excesses on both left and right notwithstanding. Politically, however, a well-heeled minority seeks to cling to power and to reimpose its concepts of an ideological “family” on an America which has creatively evolved with changing times and circumstances.
The idea of “family” is being consciously manipulated. As Tom Wolfe wrote so poignantly, and we all really know during the holidays, “You can’t go home again.”
Winton Hills activists oppose expansion of the ELDA Landfill and claim ‘enough is enough.’
Amountain of garbage.
For some hundreds of Cincinnatians, this is little more than a soup can’s throw away from their apartments. It’s the view that greets them every morning when they look outside.
The Environmental Land Development Associates (ELDA) Landfill, owned and operated by Waste Management of Ohio Inc., is situated in the heart of Cincinnati. The 3,000-some residents of Winton Hills and the 6,000-some residents of Winton Place live with the stench of the trash mountain, which holds all of the Queen City’s garbage'. Putrid odors remain trapped in the air on calm, foggy mornings. Then there are the noise and fumes from an endless stream of diesel trucks not only municipal garbage trucks but also semi-trailer transports that truck in garbage from neighboring counties and even from out of state. Each day, an average of 1,700 tons of refuse is deposited at ELDA, run by Waste Management of Greater Cincinnati.
Landfill neighbors have complained of rashes, allergies and other symptoms for years, though no correlations with the garbage have been officially found. And now landfill officials are planning a 106-foot vertical expansion of the 100-plus-acre trash mountain.
Yet change is in the air. A handful of area residents are working hard not only to oppose the expansion but to shut down ELDA all together.
A polluted place
“Tell City Council to Stop Dumping on Us!” reads a heading in a recent newsletter of the Winton Place Civic Club. As part of a loosely knit group known as the ELDA Landfill Coalition, the environmental committee of this neighborhood organization has kept busy.
Winton Place is the most polluting neighborhood in Greater Cincinnati (because of a high concentration of industry situated along the Mill Creek), and in 1990 it was deemed the most polluting in the state. But Winton Place also is a neighborhood with pride and community spirit. Now that Waste Management is arguing that it will run out of space for the city’s trash in less than two years and is applying for a permit to expand, residents are saying “enough is enough.”
The permitting process is a dual track. Locally, approval must come sequentially from the city’s
Buildings and Inspection Department, City Planning and City Council. Simultaneous approval is required from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA).
The process requires these governmental bodies to seek input from the effected communities themselves, and members of the ELDA Landfill Coalition are making themselves heard. On the eve of a recent public hearing by Cincinnati City Council’s Intergovernmental Affairs & Environment Committee, the coalition staged a publicity event, flying weather balloons on 106-foot tethers to demonstrate the height which the trash mountain would reach if expansion is approved.
“There are no positives from the landfill for the community,” says Dave Laumer, head of the Civic Club’s environmental committee. “That kind of thing doesn’t belong in a city.”
STORY BY KAREN PHOTOS AMELIA BY JON ARNETT HUGHES
If there is anything good that comes of the fight, it is that it has been “effective in bringing neighborhoods closer together,” he says. “We see that we all have the same problem and have to work together.”
He sees the dumping on and degradation of Winton Hills as a matter of exploitation, both of inexpensive land and of low-income residents who lack political clout.
ELDA should not be blamed for all of the dumping and degradation, says John Stark, Waste Management division president. Heavy industry throughout the Mill Creek Valley shares in the blame. Realizing that there have been environmental ramifications, Stark says, the landfill’s managers have worked to communicate with residents and bring positive programs to the neighborhood.
“I think we have been responsive and we’ve been part of the community,” he says.
Residents of Winton Hills have been complaining for years about the ill effects of the landfill in their backyard. Waste Management enclosed the landfill with a chain link fence after nearby residents complained that children were playing and exploring amid the trash. And fears about methane gas seepage were addressed by placing almost 40 methane sensor alarms in apartments closest to the landfill.
Residents say they have had to work hard and persistently to get attention focused on their grievances. They point out that EPA siting guidelines for new landfills specify a 1,000-foot buffer zone from wildlife preserves and historic districts.
For many, there is neither the energy nor the resources to keep up a constant battle to safeguard healthy living conditions. Life holds many struggles for the residents of Winton Hills.
Many playgrounds in Winton Hills sit empty because parents don’t want their children playing so close^to the ELDA Landfill
Decades of concern, work
Ann Rogers, active in the ELDA Landfill Coalition, says she feels the residents’ fight is an uphill struggle. A grandmother, her busy years behind her, she now has time to be an activist.
“God knows I’ve put in my time in this project," she says. “I’ve walked and given out papers and talked.”
She was involved with the balloon event. She’s been to countless meetings, but she’s angry and “flusterated.”
“Poor folks is fighting so many things,” Rogers says.
“Just when you think you’ve got one thing won, it’s another thing. How can we deal with this? It takes money to get downtown" to council meetings and public hearings. “I’ve burned up my rent money and heat money. I depend on my Social Security to cany me through.”
cerns to the highest levels of government on a variety of issues.
One such delegate is Carrie Cornist. A dynamo of a woman, in her seventies but with the energy of a 20 year old, Cornist seems a born activist. Yet she became active on community issues only in her sixties.
Neat rows of photographs of children and grandchildren fill the walls of her home. She lived in the Ridgewood Hills Apartments complex, directly adjacent to the landfill, in the 1970s and ’80s. She has voluminous files of newspaper clippings on a variety of issues “up on the hill (Winton Hills)” including pollution problems, toxic waste, incinerators, drugs and crime, housing and the costs of medicine for seniors.
Despite the difficulties, she continues to work to express her grievances. She plans to write President Clinton.
“Maybe he can do something about it,” she says.
ELDA has received some high-level attention, thanks to the work of an organization known as Communities United for Action (CUFA), a coalition of grassroots groups and individuals from the neighborhoods of the Mill Creek Valley. Through this organization, the landfill coalition draws support from a growing number of communities such as Hartwell, Elmwood and Carthage, which are not immediate ELDA neighbors. Yearly, CUFA sends delegates to Washington, D.C., to express con-
In the 1980s, the only thing she knew about ELDA was a big flame a short distance behind her apartment. She then noticed that the garden vegetables and grass started dying. The trees up on the hilltop appeared burned. She says no one knew exactly what was causing it, but she suspects it was methane. This was before waste managers knew that methane gas could seep underground a distance from the garbage, where fermentation produces it. There were other unauthorized, possibly toxic, waste sites in the neighborhood.
“We had adime with the children,” Cornist says. The children would go exploring in the unfenced landfill and come home reeking ofgarbage. Waste Management had tried to buy up a neighborhood basketball court, she says, and only strenuous neighborhood opposition prevented the company’s expansion plans.
Cornist went door to door in the housing projects and conducted a survey of her neighbors’ medical problems, which she suspected of being connected with the local toxins. She took her survey results to Washington in the late ’80s and presented them to the director of the EPA Superfund. “We are in the midst of chemical warfare and we are getting sick of the chemicals,” she says she told him. “We want answers. Don’t just throw our demands in the garbage when you get back to your desk.”
Have her efforts born fruit over the years? There have been some victories, Cornist says. A coalition arose in the past three to four years to oppose plans for a toxic waste incinerator in the neighborhood.
“We got it done,” she says. “We stopped the incinerator. You can’t give up. It’s for the children.”
John Stark, division Management, to concerns of ELDA Landfill
Opened: 1974.
Location: Este Winton Hills.
Size: 185 Acres.
Garbage intake: mately 1,700
Expected life: approved, the about two years.
Sources of Landfill: More County; about Butler and percent from
Source: ELDA
Not giving
There’s a lot of spoken Betty Apartments, speaks been active just expansion of ELDA about landfill to get more local
“There’s nothing door to door,” She wants erage of the subject neighborhood.
“We’ve got lot about the Hills says. “I tell dren’s future. place. The trees, color. They (the anybody we’re acres of land around to so many people? have the whole Gazaway encounters given up, who heard. A common
“I have faith,” far. We’ve gotten hear us before.” pounding the get involved. “If
As a representative of the ELDA Landfill Coalition, Lundy has contacted City Council, OEPA directors, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters, the Cincinnati Health Department and the city’s director of Buildings and Inspections. Through CUFA, he was able to meet with national EPA Chief Administrator Carol Browner. Getting attention at such high levels feels like progress, he says, though substantive
for studies to conclusively correlate health problems with the landfill, which would help in obtaining closure.
Documentation of the kind needed to carry out such a study is not kept by doctors, who tend to be oriented to treating the immediate health problem, says Susan Montauk M.D., a Cincinnati Board of Health member and associate professor of clinical family medicine at the University of Cincinnati.
And a great complication, she says, lies in the fact that cigarette smoking causes symptoms similar to those complained about.
Meanwhile, Winton Hills residents must live in the shadow of an ever growing mountain of refuse. In summer, the stench is often so overpowering that peopie in the Ridgewood Hills Apartments cannot barbecue outdoors. Most people there must keep their windows closed to the fresh air and even wedge towels under their doors.
One group has found a positive way to give voice to the community’s feelings of frustration and anger. The Winton Hills Women’s Writing Project is working on a collaboratively written play about life in the neighborhood. They have a goal of performing the play in April.
For these women, as for many others, this neighborhood is home for better and for worse. Some find beauty in their neighborhood. Moving out is not a solution. Along with their activist neighbors, all they want to do is make it livable.
The Rev. Solomon Lundy: ‘This neighborhood is the dumping place of the city.’ change is slow in coming.
“I like,to return to the City Council members as the elected officials of the people,” Lundy says. “They ought to be working in our best interests. There has been some support by City Council in this matter, yet I see no movement to actual legislating to say, ‘Enough is enough.’ We expect them to make a more forthright decision.”
Although the council’s position seems to reflect the feelings of the neighborhood, Lundy says, “why they aren’t more forthcoming is bewildering.”
No magic wand
City Councilman Tom Luken, chairman of council’s Intergovernmental Affairs & Environment Committee, says the feeling of council reflects that of the neighborhood.
Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) is holding an INFORMATION SESSION on the Environmental Land Development Association Recycling and Disposal Facility (ELDA RDF) at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Winton Terrace Recreational Center. 5170 Winneste Ave. Waste Management of Ohio Inc., which owns the landfill, has applied for a permit to expand the landfill’s height by 106 feet. The OEPA, which has not yet issued a decision on the application, will explain the application and field questions from the public during the meeting. Following are poems generated by the Winton Hills Women’s Writing Project: America, look what you have given to us: Purple Mountains Majesty, we have our Garbage Hill of American Dreams
What America has given to Winton Hills Garbage Hill Cincinnati Hills Winton Hills Garbage Hills
“We’d like to close the thing (ELDA),”
holiday season, Rock... your pockets with We 2629 Vine Street Cincinnati, OH. 45219
Family / Education
Caring for Cincinnati’s kids
Tight finances have a lot of parents searching for adequate and affordable child-care providers to be there for their children when they cannot. And the YMCA, the largest child-care provider in the nation, fits the bill for many working parents.
In Cincinnati, the 25 largest “Y” branches have Latchkey Programs at more than 80 satellite locations, with more than 3,000 kids enrolled. The Cincinnati Business Courier recently ranked the Gamble-Nippert YMCA as the city's No. 1 child-care provider in capacity, working with up to 357 children daily.
Like other YMCA Latchkey Programs, Gamble-Nippert accepts children ages 5-12. The program’s hours are 6:30-8:30 a.m. and 3-6 p.m. Monday-Friday during the school year and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. in the summer'.
During the school year, counselors help the children with homework along with offering dramatic play, science and music activities. "The staff does help, one-on-one, with homework,” says Kim Dooley, who directs the Latchkey Program at Gamble-Nippert and its 11 satellites located in schools and churches on the West Side. “But they encourage the kids to think for themselves.”
The children can be transported from daycare to school in the morning and from school to daycare in the afternoon. The Gamble-Nippert satellite at Ross Elementary also accepts special-needs children and integrates them with cfther children.
From June through August with the expanded hours, the children can go to summer camp, which involves weekly field trips and special events such as a carnival and having their own Olympics.
The staff, along with holding early childhood education degrees, must submit to a background check and are fingerprinted with the FBI before being hired.
Costs range from $29 for mornings only to $36 for afternoons, or $50 for both. There is also a scholarship-assistance plan that provides a discount of 20 to 80 percent for those who qualify.
For more information on Latchkey Programs, contact Elien Buchsbaum or Colleen O’Leary at 651-2100.
RENEE ROBERSON
Holiday coloring
The YWCA, through its Women’s Art Gallery, is offering a seasonal coloring book that could be useful in teaching children about four winter holidays: the solstice, Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.
A note in the coloring book reminds parents and teachers that the holidays are “a time when children learn the secrets of their grandparents’ kitchens and help their parents unpack the family holiday decorations. It is a time of sharing stories, warm hugs and thankfulness.”
To that end, the 28-page book includes one-page histories of the four holidays. The history of Kwanzaa, for instance, lists the holiday’s seven value-centered principies for everyday life (unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith). The history of the winter solstice explains how traditions of ancient peoples are still used today, such as lighting candles, giving gifts and making special foods.
The book features white and magenta figure-ground drawings by artist Ali Flansen. In the back are pages for notes and an invitation to children to send in their own holiday recipes, stories and drawings for use next year.
The coloring books are available for $6 from the YWCA
CONTINUES ON PAGE 13
Ecological Christmas
Tipsfor now through Dec. 25 and beyond are nice on Earth
FROM THE SANTA FE REPORTER
If you’d
rather be part of the solution than part of the landfill problem, consider having an ecological Christmas. As with anything worth doing, this will take some time and energy, but basically, all you have to do is ask yourself, “is this reusable?”
From now on
If you plan to give holiday gifts that are environmentally friendly, you might start putting up jams and jellies when produce is plentiful and at its peak. It’s also time to build that doll house or knit that sweater, both environmentally responsible gifts.
You’ve been thinking about special gifts lately, gifts that aren’t detrimental to the environment, and so you aren’t in a shopping frenzy. Relax, sit home in front of a cozy fire, sip some hot chocolate (and maybe continue working on those handmade projects).
If you’re all thumbs when it comes to making things, imagine a service you could perform for someone during the coming year (and then do it). For example, offer to house-sit. Promise diaper service to expectant parents. Or give to a charity in someone else’s name.
tiny ones that aren’t as power-hungry as larger bulbs. By the way, burned-out Christmas tree light bulbs are not recyclable.
In mid-December
Now you can get that living tree, at almost any local nursery or greenhouse.
Consider height and weight. While a cut tree can easily be 10 feet tall and look magnificent in rooms with high ceilings, a living tree has its roots attached. This root ball adds so many pounds to the total weight of the tree that most living trees will not be more than 6 feet tall.
Adding color with live plants will, technically, help the oxygen supply in your home, besides being pretty and cheerful and future food for the compost pile.
Start thinking about your Christmas tree a living one. That’s right: You’ll get a tree this year that won’t end up in the landfill. Figure out where in the yard you want it to go when the holidays are over. Dig a hole, then cover the soil with plastic to keep it unfrozen.
Throughout December
Packing. As packages arrive in the mail or by delivery service, dump the plastic foam “peanuts” or “popcom” in a bag for use in your packages, or take them to a mail center to be reused. Bubble wrap is also reusable.
Wrapping. As you wrap the presents you’re going to give, use paper grocery bags (with the printing toward the inside) or the Sunday comics. Both kinds of paper are recyclable and offer you a chance to be clever with the decoration. Or, embellish boxes so wonderfully that friends will save them to use again.
Decorating. Think about dressing up your home with pine roping and wreaths made from branches that are a renewable resource that is, the trees can grow some more. The branches can be cut up later and added to your compost pile. (The smaller the pieces, the faster they will compost.) Or, lay whole branches over beds of perennials to protect them from the cold.
Adding color with live plants will, technically, help the oxygen supply in your home, besides being pretty and cheerful and future food for the compost pile. Poinsettias, Christmas cacti and cyclamen can last for years. Or, if you had the forethought last summer to pick plants and let them dry, decorate with those.
Using candles on the tree instead of lights saves on electricity, but of course this poses a danger. Use care and good judgment. If you do use lights, select strings of
Living trees are also about 50 percent more expensive than cut trees, as you’re paying for someone’s digging and handling.
What if you like the idea of a living tree but you don’t want to plant it outside when all is said and done? There is probably a school or agency in town that will accept it gratefully. What if you like the idea of a living tree but you don’t want to plant it or donate it? You can cut it up and use the branches for more good old garden mulch.- Then chop up the main stem for firewood.
What if you don’t want to give up the romantic notion of going on an outing in the wilderness and cutting your own tree? Well, couldn’t you just go hiking and get your romance somewhere else? Don’t strip the forests of nature’s trees. Buy cut trees Only from vendors selling from a tree farm or plantation, a place that has raised trees specifically for cutting. The planned, staggered growth of these trees translates into good things for the environment.
Remember: A living tree can be inside a week to TO days before it will break dormancy. And if you want to recycle it, do not decorate it with “snow” (whatever the heck that unnatural stuff that is).
Dec. 22-24
If you want your living tree up for New Year’s, you can get it now.
Dec. 25
Merry Christmas! When all the pretty packages under the living tree have been torn into, it’s time to clean up a little differently. The ribbons and expensive foil papers cannot be recycled, but do collect the other paper (the grocery bags and the comics you used).
Whether voyaging to themoon or climbing Mount Everest, we as humans love to explore our world. The world of spirituality and religious customs, though well-documented, remains a mystery.
“Spirituality” is meant to be an exploration of alternatives in spirituality present in the local area. The monthly column will explore what spirituality, religion and beliefs mean to the individuals who accept them.
It is not the intention to promote any specific religion. It is, however, in my opinion that an individual’s experience is more valid than a group’s collective experience. Here is one example.
It is Nov. 8, Election Day. The sky is a brilliant blue, faintly brushed with clouds. Gusts of wind cause fallen leaves to dance like children at play. The weather begins an early plot for the day. I am visiting the St. Joseph Catholic Church in Cold Spring in order to attend one of the Virgin Mary’s visitations.
I am not Catholic, but so many rumors have circulated about these events that I must experience them for myself.
Inside the large church, a group of people has gathered to pray in a side chapel. The chapel focuses on a statue of the Virgin Mary. Ones enter, genuflect,
pray and then when leaving dab themselves with blessed water. Some fill containers, even using sports-drink bottles, with the water.
Everyone is silent. It is only outside that I find someone to ask of directions to the “farm.” Three ladies from Shelby County, Ohio, tell me I can follow them.
Forty minutes later, we are deep within Kentucky in Pendleton County. It is an actual farm to which we have gone. We travel on a gravel lane to the site, and our cars are herded onto hillsides become parking lots. Cynicism wells within me because many people are here also, some arriving on buses. Inwardly a sigh; this, then, will be the circus.
Heading toward the largest knot of people, I expect the show to~begin. Instead, it is a peaceful crowd. The elderly and the disabled are being assisted. No one bickers for good seats. When babies start to cry, mothers are greeted with smiles and knowing nods, not frowns. And the ultimate surprise, nothing for sale! There are unobtrusive contribution boxes but no hawking of “Mary photos” or “blessed” objects.
This is a miracle.
The sky continued its dramatic show for those assembled. Oddly lighted clouds scuttled about allowing the imagination to see shapes in them. The wind
would gust and then fall very still.
A sun dog, or partial rainbow, appeared and was announced over the loud speaker. Cameras were raised to capture this manifestation of the divine. Then the prepared portion of the assembly commenced with a priest and women and children speaking. Then it was finished. The vision evidently occurred.
If I were to say I saw nothing, I would be lying. Though I did not see a vision of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God.
I saw something beneficent. People from different;parishes, different income levels and ethnic backgrounds were gathered together peacefully. Though the event had the trappings of “High Church,” there were not the traps of church during the assembly. This was a crowd of humans out in the open on a hillside. No massive stones walled them into traditional mind-sets. Rather this was primitive church, and I welcome its existence. It is hard to be judgmental when you are surrounded by earth and sky outside the molding stones and hard pews of tradition. In the open air it seems sounds and sins are more easily ignored or forgotten. On a hillside under the open sky I believe humans may find a place for miracles.
For more information, write to OUR LADY’S FARM, Route 159, Falmouth, KY 41040. The best way to get to the farm is to follow On the 8th of each month, parishioners gather at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Cold Spring, 4011 Alexandria Pike (441-1604). Arrive at the church by 10 a.m. Pack a lunch.
HOME: FROM PAGE 12
Women's Art Gallery, 898 Walnut St., Downtown. 241-7090.
ALISON TRANBARGER
Plastic
philanthropy
Seven Greater Cincinnati social services organizations stand to benefit from a new affinity charge card.
Fifth Third Bank and the Greater Cincinnati Community Association (GCCA) are offering the NeighborCard Visa to help, the Brighton Center, Christ’s Community, Coalition of Neighborhoods, Santa Marie Community Services, Victory Neighborhood Services, St. John Social Service Center and Youth Opportunities
Recommendations ★ (MyReal staffs stamp of
Call us CRAZY, but we at CityBeat find something slightly AMISS in the Cincinnati area for this coming week. Just a few ODD events here and there that somehow challenge the rules of nature. Like? Well, how about MAN-MADE trees: the Sugarplum Tree at the Krohn Conservatory or aluminum Christmas trees from the 1950s at Covington’s Mimosa Mansion. (Get info on both in our Attractions listings.)
There’s nothing more STRANGE for many of us than cooking big holiday meals for our relatives, but if you get the itch check out the cooking lessons offered by downtown’s Lazarus Department Store (see Etc. for details). Looking for an UNREAL literary experience? Meet the author of Prozac Nation at Joseph-Beth Booksellers and thank your lucky stars you didn’t go through what she did (see Literary listings). But when it comes down to it, if we’re talking about UNIQUE, DIFFERENT and SPECIAL, there are only two names to know this week: Ace Frehley and Jim Knippenberg. The former KISS dude plays Annie’s this weekend, while the current kiss-up-to-’em-in-the-Awgmrer dude hosts the grand opening of Main Street Brewery tonight. It’s for charity the brewery thing, that is. See Ace in Music, Knippenberg in Etc. (filed under “Events”).
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—4369.
Hollywood to take a bite out of the politically correct pie. Hollywood is not in the business to develop polemics. Hollywood makes movies that entertain. Those who go to Disclosure expecting an intelligent treatment of a controversial issue are forcing their brains where they do not belong. All of which makes Disclosure great entertainment.With Michael Douglas and Demi Moore. (Rated R; opens Friday at area Loews Theatres.)
City Beat grade: A.
Please include a contact name and daytime phone number.
DROP ZONE If skydiving itself is exciting, then one would think that a movie about the sport also would be riveting. Putting scenes of people jumping out of planes into a plot about terrorists stealing secrets from the Drug Enforcement Agency should guar-
antee an exciting time. Wrongo. Drop Zone has arrived just in time to accept the trophy as worst action film of 1994. Seldom does a film take an exciting stunt as its premise and craft an excruciatingly boring film around it. Director John Badham (War Games, Blue Thunder) has crafted fine action films before. Here, he has some excellent tools at his disposal. Gary Busey is developing a good track record playing villains. Wesley Snipes possesses the magnetism and physical presence to be a strong action lead. Their talents are wasted. Still, Drop Zone's biggest disapointment is how it throws away a strong female performance by Yancy Butler (Hard Target). Action movies seldon are blessed with a great female, action role. Butler is fantastic. Unfortunately, everything around her is awful. What is really frustrating about Drop Zone is that the skydiving sequences do not even look believable. In this era of state-of-the art special effects, Drop Zone comes off like some flick from the ’50s. In a holiday season with few.
CityBeat grade: F. ★ GRIEF Director Richard Glatzer’s Grief is a hip, urbane, slightly gay look at a bunch of TV writers in Hollywood whose desires intermingle among themselves. Creators of the wacky daytime soap opera The Love Judge, their show is full of circus lesbians and
UtterKiosk
base excitement. Sure, we’re not talking Last Tango in Paris, but Erotique offers women a chance to address some topical issues with intelligence. Consider the fact that there are also gratuitous thrills as icing on the cake. With Kamala Lopez-Dawson, Priscilla Bames and Hayley Man. (Unrated; at Real Movies.)
★ FORREST GUMP The phenomenon continues. America never tires of Forrest Gump. Tom Hanks combines the right amount of syrupy pathos with humor. Those people who complain about the movie’s glorification of the retarded are forcing politics where it does not belong. Let’s hope that the Christian Coalition does not use Gump as some kind of twisted poster boy. With Gary Sinese and Sally Field. (Rated PG-13; at area Loews Theatres; and closes Thursday at Esquire Theatre.)
CAMP NOWHERE Now, today’s kids have their own version of Meatballs. Based on its box-office results, this film is even too childish for children. With Christopher Lloyd. (Rated PG; at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair and Biggs Place Eastgate.)
★ CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER Some critics refer to Harrison Ford as the thinking man’s Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ford deserves better kudos than that. Clear and Present Danger brings some unexpected substance to a normally flimsy genre. Canadian actor Henry Czerny excels in his role as Jack Ryan’s nemesis. This movie is for those who like a little brain with their brawn. (Rated PG-13; at Turfway, Norwood, Forest Fair, Biggs Place Eastgate; closes Thursday at
With Jada Pinkett, Charles S. Dutton and Sally Richardson. (Rated R; at area Showcase CinemasJ ★ BULLETS OVER BROADWAY With this film, Woody Allen remains one of American film’s more consistent creators of comedy. Let’s hope that he never tries to be Ingmar Bergman again. Allen the man may be something of an enigma, but the filmmaker is simply brilliant. In this story, a young playwright (John Cusack) receives tips from an unlikely source. Allen’s trademark elements of witty dialogue, quality production and a stellar ensemble cast are in place. Thankfully, his work pace is prolific. One can never see enough of such smart, funny films. With Diane Wiest, Chazz Palminteri and Jennifer Tilly. (Rated R; at Loews Kenwood Towne Centre, the Esquire Theatre; closes Thursday at Neon Movies in Dayton, Ohio.)
Westwood.)
★ CLERKS Smart people stuck in stupid jobs. That awful truth sums up life for many young men and women today. Film-school dropout Kevin Smith lived the life of a convenience-store clerk and made a film about it. Clerks is sometimes crude, often rude but always hilarious. This cheaply shot, black and white movie is as far away from Hollywood as any film can be. Just when you thought that Miramax Films was becoming another blase, big studio, it takes a chance on a refreshingly honest American independent. With Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson. (Rated R; closes Thursday at the Esquire Theatre; opens Friday at New Neon Movies, Dayton.)
★ THE CLIENT Novelist John Grisham and Hollywood are made for each other. Both churn out mindless entertainment. Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon are two of the industry’s more intelligent actors. It’s fun to watch them in a no-brainer. Luckily, director Joe Schumacher’s film moves so fast that you do not realize there is nothing there. With Brad Renfro, Mary-Louise Parker and J.T. Walsh. (Rated PG-13; at Norwood.)
★ CORRINA, CORRINA After a long drought, Whoopi Goldberg gets a role which is equal to her abilities and intelligence. This tender drama about love and loss is one of the best family movies of the year. Although the idea of an early ’60s, bi-racial romance brings a fantasy element to what might have been a more sober drama. With Ray Liotta. (Rated PG; closes Thursday at Norwood.)
★ 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.)
THE COLOR OF NIGHT Director Richard Rush (The Stunt Man) fought his producers over the final edit on this thriller about a psychiatrist who falls prey to one of his patients. The studio fought the ratings board over a NC-17 rat ing. Either way, everyone loses on this muddled mess. You won’t see a full-frontal nude shot of Bruce Willis in this version. Wait for the director-cut video, which the ratings board decided to give an R. Go figure. With Jane March and Lesley Ann Warren. (Rated R; opens Friday at Norwood and Turfway.)
★ ED WOOD Filmmaker Tim Burton possesses the morbid style, dark humor and most importantly the authentic affection to bring Ed Wood’s story to life. Wood (Johnny Depp) epitomizes the crass showmanship which is integral to the Hollywood myth. His film Plan 9 from Outer Space says as much about American filmmaking as Star Wars. Wood’s story is funny, touching and worthy of this class treatment. The buzz has Martin Landau earning an Oscar nomination for his incredible turn as Bela Lugosi. With Sarah Jessica-Parker and Patricia Arquette. (Rated R; opens Friday at Little Art Theatre, Yellow Springs, Ohio.)
★ EROTIQUE Three female filmmakers come together to explore issues of sexuality, but with an emphasis on the woman. For the male-dominated movie industry, their project is legitimately unique. Erotique tells three separate stories: “'Let’s Talk about Sex,” directed by Lizzie Borden; “‘Taboo Parlor,” by the German director Monika Treut; and “Wonton Soup,” by Hong Kong director Clara Law. To be honest, don’t bother looking for grand political statements in Erotique. Its pleasures are not that cerebral. They’re basically carnal. The sex scenes in Erotique are not any more graphic than the countless soft-pom titles that line the shelves at Blockbuster. The difference is that with Erotique women are not the victims but the victors. For that one quality alone, the film reaches above the level of
★ INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE It still puzzles why Anne Rice took a full-page ad out in Variety (later reprinted by producer David Geffen in the New York Times) to praise Neil Jordan’s adaptation of her novel. Her grandiose, self-congratulatory stance outshines the movie which is just good, not great. Interview possesses a few scary moments, some horrific, blood-drenched sequences and one truly creepy scene. Unfortunately, these scenes unfold between long, dull stretches.
(From left) David Mamet, Debra Eisenstadt and William H. Macy confer during the filming of Oleanna, Mamet’s film about sexual harassment.
Hollywood, she churns out crap. With Travis Tedford and Bug Hall. (Rated PG; at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair and Biggs Place Eastgate.)
MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN All of actor/director Kenneth Branagh’s pomp and circumstance result in a monster movie that contemplates the metaphysical more than menace. Robert DeNiro’s spin on the monster is all makeup and little action.
Branagh’s version stays truer to Mary Shelley’s vision than other movies. Unfortunately, it seldom With Tom Hulce and Helena Bonham Carter (Rated R; closes Thursday at area Loews Theatres.)
★ THE MASK In this
special-effects-laden comedy, Jim Carrey’s performance resembles a Tex Aveiy cartoon. Still, his manic contortions remain true to the spirit of the film. Of all the fluff from this past summer, The Mask possessed the most originality. With this hit, Carrey became a million dollar baby. With Dumb and Dumber coming out this Christmas, the pundits are waiting to see if he strikes gold again. With Peter Riegert and Cameron Diaz. (Rated PG-13; at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair and Biggs Place Eastgate; closes Thursday at Westwood.)
★ MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET
Sure, we have seen this tale of a departmentstore Santa Claus who insists he is the real thing before, but this version really shines. Give credit to the wonderful performances from its leads, Richard Attenborough and young Mara Wilson. It’s not often that young girls experience strong role models such as Wilson
at the movies. Of all the family-movie fare out there, this take the 1947 original really hits pay dirt. With Elizabeth Perkins, Dylan McDermott and Frasier’s Jane Leeves. (Rated PG; at area Showcase Cinemas.)
★ NATURAL BORN KILLERS
Director Oliver Stone (Platoon, Wall Street) pushes his cinematic skills to new heights. As a result, Natural Bom Killers may be the most daring studio release of the year. Stone’s script is based on a original story by Hollywood hot man Quentin Tarantino. What the film lacks in substance, it makes up with hypnotic visuals. (Rated R; at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair and Biggs Place Eastgate; closes Thursday at Westwood.)
ONLY YOU Rehashes often appear tepid in comparison to the original. Director Norman Jewison and screenwriter Diane Drake would argue that their work is distinct and different from either Moonstruck Roman Holiday. Still, Marisa Tomei’s misguided search for romance in Italy feels like travelogue than movie. True love is far more interesting than this. With Robert Downey Jr. and Bonnie Hunt. (Rated PG; at Forest Fair, closes Thursday at Norwood and Turfway; opens Friday at Westwood.)
THE PAGEMASTER The older Macaulay Culkin gets, the less kids like him. At least, that’s what Hollywood fears. Well, the folks at 20th Century Fox have found a way to keep Mac just' the way kids want him turn the child-star into a cartoon. A young boy, afraid ofjust about everything is transported off into a cartoon land, where he must battle with famous figures from classic novels. The Pagemaster teaches kids some great lessons about bravery, friendship and more importantly good reading skills. Unfortunately, this cool world is not that cool after all. His wacky new friends are more boring than wacky. What did the kiddies think? Well, this reviewer saw The Pagemaster with a couple hundred children one Saturday morning, and they cheered more during the trailer for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie than the feature movie. The children have spoken. With the voices of Patrick Stewart and Whoopi Goldberg. (Rated G; at area Loews Theatres.)
★ THE PROFESSIONAL
French filmmaker Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita, Subway) revolves his bloody action story around an unlikely protagonist, a young girl. Just cinema violence begins to seem blase, Besson shakes things up by throwing a child in the mix. Did we also mention that she’s sexy? Besson’s The Professional thrills like few films this year. With Jean Reno and Natalie Portman. (Rated R; at area Showcase Cinemas.)
★ PULP FICTION After only two films, director Quentin Tarantino has shifted from cult favorite to mass media darling. With wild frenzy, Tarantino mixes together gun play, drug abuse and racial epithets into, a series of interrelated crime tales. Certain to send teen-age boys into wet-dream heaven. Adults may rather emphasize Tarantino’s skill at fast and funny dialogue. 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 John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman. (Rated R; at Showcase Cincinnati.)
★ THE PUPPET MASTERS
Now that the Cold War is over, Robert Heinlein’s story may have lost its ideological punch. Simply as a creepy sci-fi thriller, The Puppet Masters hits the mark. Gooey aliens and the always unnerving Donald Sutherland come together for a fun and frightening ride. With Eric Thai, Julie Warner and Will Patton. (Rated R; opens Friday at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair and Biggs Place Eastgate.)
★ QUIZ SHOW Finally, a film whose qualities proportional to its critical acclaim. Taking a cue from attorney Richard N. Goodwin’s book Remembering America: A Voice From the Sixties, director Robert Redford has crafted his best movie to date. Today, many people may regard the scandals regarding TV game show Twenty-One as trite. Through phenomenal performances from Ralph Fiennes as star contestant Charles Van Doren, Rob Morrow as Goodwin and John Turturro as discontent Herb Stempel, Quiz Show both entertains and educates. Sure, it’s not historically accurate, but that makes Quiz Show more pleasur
able. With Mira Sorvino, David Paymer and Paul Scofield. (Rated R; at Loews Tri-County, Northgate and Florence.)
★ THE RIVER WILD Meryl Streep takes a successful leap as an action heroine in the latest effort from director Curtis Hanson (The Hand that Rocks the Cradle). Streep’s character leads her husband and son on a white-water rafting trip, only to face terror from two criminal goons. What the story lacks in substance and character development, it makes up with frantic action and breathtaking photography. For her fans, Streep’s role may seem like slumming. Hey, the girl just wants to have fun. With Kevin Bacon and David Straithairn. (Rated PG-13; at area Loews Theatres; closes Thursday at Little Art Theatre in Yellow Springs.)
★ THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE Nutty Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (Anthony Hopkins), breakfast cereal kingpin and health maven finds a kindred spirit in director Alan Parker (The Commitments, Mississippi Burning). Based on T. Coraghessan Boyle’s novel, Parker’s film re-creates all the mayhem of his 1907 Battle Creek (Mich.) sanitarium. Hopkins as the good doctor leads a march of lunatics through an enjoyable romp. Parker’s tendency for going overboard seems appropriate to the material this time. With Mathew Broderick, Bridget Fonda and Dana Carvey. (Rated PG-13; opens Friday at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair and Biggs Place Eastgate.)
THE SANTA CLAUSE Tim Allen makes the leap from TV stardom to the big screen. His sense of ease for kiddie comedy is wasted on this unimaginative story.
Marshal Pete Nessip (Wesley Snipes) and Jessie Crossman (Yancy Butler) track down a skydiver for their exhibition skydiving team in Drop Zone.
the last 30 minutes; that is the only portion of the movie worth seeing. With Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold and Tia Carrere. (Rated R; at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair, Eastgate and Westwood.)
THE WAR First, Kevin Costner had to answer for Wyatt Earp, and now this. Well, there is not anything more difficult for actors to hold onto than superstar status. Hey, there’s always Waterworld. Director Jon Avnet (Fried Green Tomatoes) contemplates issues of poverty, racism and violence in the Deep South, circa 1970. The young stars of director Jon Avnet’s drama, Elijah Wood and Lexi Randall, shine. Its seasoned performers, Kevin Costner and Mare Winningham, languish. The disappointing result is a mixed film, which should have been great. With Christopher Fennell and
Donald Sellers. (Rated PG-13; at Forest Fair and Biggs Place Eastgate, at Norwoodl closes Thursday at Turfway; opens Friday at Westwood.)
UtterKiosk
Just Relax And Enjoy It
Don’t expect Disclosure to provide insight into sexual harassment it’s sheer entertainment
Repertory
REVIEW BY STEVE RAMOS
Sex. Power. Betrayal. Disclosure, director Barry Levinson’s film of the best-selling novel by Michael Crichton, brings together a Christmas wish list of adult pleasures into one, star-studded production. In a movie season mostly filled with Lion Kings and Santa Clauses, Disclosure stands distinctly apart.
★ FRITZ THE CAT —Based on the cult comic strip by R.H. Crumb, animator Ralph Bakshi (Cool World, American Pop) brings this famous New York alleycat to the silver screen. Never before has a cartoon feature contained so much obscenity and violence. The folks at Disney probably shake in their boots every time that Fritz the Cat is shown. Chances are Simon Leis does the same whenever it comes back to town. (Originally Rated X; midnight Friday and Saturday at Westwood.)
BOSNA French philosopher Bemard-Henri Levy co-directed this film, the first to be released in the United States on the war in the former Yugoslavia. Utilizing unseen footage, archive material, interviews and news broadcasts, Bosna! shocked audiences when it opened in Paris earlier this year. Here in America, one hopes that Bosna will strip away the current complacency about the war.
(Unrated; 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus. 614-292-2354..)
★ SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS Sure, everyone is buying the video, but wouldn’t you rather see this classic film on a big screen? TV does not do justice to the beauty of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. After the flick, stroll by and look at some of the film’s original animation cels. You won’t find them inside your video box. (Rated G; 1 p.m. Saturday at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianaplois. 317923-1331.)
Set in the offices of Digicom, a high-tech computer firm, Disclosure turns sexual harassment upside-down. Tom Sanders (Michael Douglas), a DigiCom executive is excited about his future. His employer is moving closer to a merger that should make him rich. Office gossip has Sanders in line for a big job advancement. Suddenly, everything changes for the worse. An ex-lover, Meredith Johnson (Demi Moore) arrives unexpectedly from the company’s main office. She receives the coveted promotion. She also has her sights on renewing past affairs. Late at night, she invites Sanders to her office for a meeting. Flirtations turn to foreplay, which evolves into passionate sex. Here, occurs the twist of the Story: The man walks away, and the woman accuses him of harassment.
Legal issues evolve into an office conspiracy that will jeopardize not only Sander’s job and family, but the future of DigiCom.
A fight for a man’s integrity soon becomes a fight for one’s life.
Few topics are as timely and volatile as sexual harassment. Countless best sellers address the reasons why men and women can’t understand each other. Any subject that involves sexual politics begs for heated discussions, intelligent inquiries and thoughtful questions. Now, along comes Hollywood to take a bite out of the politically correct pie. The purpose is not to educate, but to entertain. Hollywood is not in the business to develop polemics. Hollywood makes movies that entertain. Those who go to Disclosure which opens Friday at area Loews Theatres expecting an intelligent treatment of a controversial issue are forcing their brains where they do not belong.
CHRISTMAS STORIES Those nice folks at the Public Library are always offering free flicks for the kiddies. Appropriately, this selection of cartoons has a holiday theme. Hey Mom and Dad, on your way out grab the little ones a book. You don’t want them watching movies all the time do you, then they might grow up to become a movie critic. (Rated G; 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Main Library, Downtown. 369-6922.)
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE
SHOW Kids just love to do the time warp again and again and again. Sure, it gets a little old throwing toilet paper and toast around every weekend. Still, The Rocky Horror Picture Show offers the guilty pleasure of seeing Susan Sarandon at her worst. With Barry Bostwick and Nell Campbell. (Rated R; midnight Saturday, New Neon Movies, Dayton, Ohio.)
This stuff hits you in the gut. The mind is pretty much ignored. All of which makes Disclosure great entertainment. Here, the fluff flies fast and furious. Consider the source. Author Michael Crichton, along with John Grisham, is made for Hollywood. Books that are mostly read by people at the beach beg for movie treatments. Theirs are the type of matches that are made to make money. These partnerships usually work (Jurassic Park, The Client). When they do not (Rising Sun, The Pelican Brief), it is because that somebody in Hollywood took the writers’ work too seriously.
No one should take Disclosure seriously. Sit back and enjoy the mindless entertainment. Its story reveals the importance of the ordinary. When characters reach
★ SCHINDLER'S LIST —This grand achievement by director Steven Spielberg becomes more poignant upon each showing. All the annoying hype and crass marketing have diminished. What remains is simply Schindler's List, the movie. Don’t settle for watch-
the point of cliche, stories to follow. Everything makes clearer fashion. Nothing villainess is young and people if she was to be allows the story to move the unexpected that slows Levinson knows to keep stinging from his last two Hollywood), he is a filmmaker his career energized. A
At the high-tech firm of DigiCom, Meredith Johnson Sanders (Michael Douglas) then charges sexual harassment
his future is less likely to al. Levinson strikes gold true. Disclosure plays as No new questions are raised) What’s wrong with giving Moore and Douglas give want. Douglas has carved strongfemmefatales (Fatal Instinct). He can tousle women and still come off performance of Tom Sanders Douglas settles comfortably probably work well every when he attempts a role
Guerrilla Filmmakers
Stranger Than Fiction Films offers controversy sought by infotainment-hungry audiences
INTERVIEW BY STEVE RAMOS
Inside a run-down office building on Lafayette Street, at the edge of Manhattan’s fashionable Soho distriet, two 23 year old men talk about the next wave of American filmmaking. Andrew Gurland and Todd Phillips, co-founders of the avant-garde distribution company Stranger Than Fiction Films, do more than just talk about changing American cinema.
By releasing cutting-edge documentaries such as Chicken Hawk: Men Who Love Boys, these men turn their talk into reality.
Sitting in their sparse office, littered with pop cans and pizza boxes, they explain why America is ready for them. “There is a generation of filmgoers that is being ignored,” says Phillips.
Gurland agrees: “They don’t want to see Mrs. Doubtfire or The Piano. They want to see something that is alternative but more geared to a hipper audience.”
with other people telling us what to do.”
Answering phones at Disney was not even an option for Gurland. I’d end up stabbing somebody,” he says.
The company also grew out of a strong work ethic, which Phillips says is “stronger than our love for film.”
“Filmmaking is far too expensive a hobby to do it for yourself,” he says.
“Fifty percent of making a film is getting people to come and see the film.”
Gurland believes Stranger Than Fiction will remain true to its target audience and still branch out. “We want to create a certain appetite for the kind of films that we ourselves like to see. We don’t have the ability to advertise to a mass audience. We have to cash in on free publicity, whenever we can. This is really guerrilla-style distribution.”
PHOTO: COURTESY OF STRANGER THAN FICTION FILMS
Start your weekend with a great party for a GREAT cause!
Come to the Sponge/XC-NN/Mother May show at Hurricanes Friday, December 9. Bring (2) non-perishable food items to get into the pre-show party with the bands sponsored byWAQZ and Chaos Records - only the first 107 people will be admitted. Free goodies and give-aways until showtime. All donations will go to the Freestore Foodbank.
Pre-show from 7-9 pm Show starts at 9 pm
18 and over admitted with proper I.D.
[Tickets available at the door]
CANES
Todd Phillips and Andrew Gurland
This audience wants the “infotainment” product that Stranger Than Fiction releases. Phillips and Gurland’s documentary about the North American Man Boy Love Association,’'Chicken Hawk, just finished a successful run in Chicago. So much controversy erupted in Cincinnati, the film almost shut down the Real Movies Cinema. (At the last minute, the theater’s owners decided to pull the film, which prompted the manager to assume complete financial control.) Hated a hard-hitting look at Punk rocker GG Allin, now deceased, whose performances involved self-mutilation and onstage defecation has sent audiences reeling.
Gurland and Phillips met as undergraduate students at New York University’s film school. Both fought frequently with department faculty. Gurland battled over a planned documentary on dwarf-tossing. Phillips struggled to finish Hated. They shared little in common with their classmates. They say most students were simply interested in finishing senior projects for the year-end film festival and getting internships.
“My NYU experience helped me find focus,” says Phillips. “I don’t have the options that (another student) has. I have to work 10 times harder because he has 10 times the amount of money I have.”'
Gurland believes that Stranger Than Fiction evolved out of problems with authority. “Both Todd and myself have severe authority problems. We can’t deal
For inspiration, Gurland and Phillips look to filmmakers such as Ismail Merchant and James Ivory (Howard’s End, A Room with a View) and Harvey and Bob Weinstein, the heads of Miramax Films. When Miramax was started, foreign films were mainly shown on college campuses. Since then, the specialty-film market has grown to be an important part of the movie industry.
“They have really been models for us in terms of how to run a business and how to stay loyal to a particular type of product,” Gurland says.
One thing separates Gurland and Phillips from others in film. They both credit their love for professional wrestling as a source for their success.
“Andrew and I grew up watching professional wrestling,” Phillips says. “It’s all about energy, creating conflict. This me vs. you, I’m going to step on you.”
Adds Gurland: “We are the products of wrestler Vince MacMahon, who is the greatest filmmaker there ever was, and he never even made a film.”
After much success, Gurland and Phillips still have plenty of goals. They want to tackle a narrative movie and accomplish a cross-over hit in at least 30 markets.
Gurland has a criteria for.knowing know when they have made it: When people will associate us with a certain type of product, and we don’t have to sell ourselves.”
CityBeat’s music listings are free of charge and are for all concerts as well as clubs that feature live music on a regular basis. Contact MIKE BREEN at 665-4700 or fax to 665-4369. All listings are subject to change. The following listings are for Dec. 8-14.
* ASS PONYS, G LOVE AND SPECIAL SAUCE, BLACK 47 AND TOM SNIDER Four Modern Rock giants perform for 97X-mas Gift, a benefit for the Mary Magdalene House and the United Way. 7 p.m. Thursday. Bogart’s, 2621 Vine St., Corryville. $5. 281-8400.
SKULK WITH FUNTIME FREDDY AND RED HERRING 7:30 p.m. Friday. Bogart’s, 2621 Vine St., Corryville. $4. 281-8400.
HELMET WITH QUICKSAND AND CASPAR BROTZMANN MASSAKER 7 p.m. Tuesday. Bogart’s, 2621 Vine St., Corryville. $15. 2818400.
Varied Venues
BILL BRANZEL QUARTET Jazz standards. 8 p.m. Friday. Borders Books and Music, 11711 Princeton Pike, Springdale. Free. 671-5853.
AMETHYST BRASS QUINTET Brass Classical. 8 p.m. Saturday. Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Rookwood Pavilion, Madison and Edwards roads, Norwood. Free. 396-8960.
Local success with open-mike events reflects thriving music scene BY
THURSDAY
MIKE BREEN
ALICE AND THE UNFINISHED BUSINESS BAND Blues. Allyn’s Cafe. Cover.
TTHE BLUE BIRDS Blues. Shady O’Grady’s Pub. Cover.
hink of an “open mike” performance, and what do you envision? Nervous amateur poets sweating and shaking as they read for the first time to a non-receptive crowd? Greedy, egotistical folk singers hogging the stage with extended renditions of “The Times They Are A Changin’ ’’?
THE DOGS Blues. Burbank’s Eastgate. Nocover.
ED MOSS Jazz. Ivory’s. Cover.
FOREHEAD Alternative favorites. Blue Note Cafe. Cover.
To see what open-mike is truly about, look no further than the various Greater Cincinnati clubs where the open-mike music scene is blossoming.
FRANK POWERS TRIO Eclectic. Arnold’s. No cover.
GOSHORN BROS. Classic Rock. Tommy’s. Cover.
IDENTITY Reggae. One Hundred West. Cover.
JOHNNY SCHOTT WITH T’KILA
RHED AND AIN'T HELEN Open mike. Courtyard Cafe. No cover.
THE JUNCTION Rock. Ripleys. Cover.
LEN CALLAHAN Acoustic. Local 1207. Cover.
“None of these things are truly open-mike,” explains Johnny Schott, a veteran local performer who has been key in organizing many open-mike events. “Nobody walks in and just grabs the mike. We allow it to be open-mike in the sense that anyone can call me and get a set, but we are prebooking. That way, people know when they’re going to play, and they can have their playing hat on.”
MODULATORS Eclectic. Mt. Adams Pavilion. Cover.
PLOW ON BOY Folk Rock. Top Cat’s. Cover.
PSYCHOLOGICAL VACATION Rock. Palace Club. Cover.
RICHIE AND THE STUDENTS Classic favorites. New Nineties. Cover.
SNOWSHOE CRABS Alternative Rock favorites. Salamone’s. Cover.
SPOONBENDER WITH CLIFFORD
NEVERNEW Alternative. Sudsy Malone’s. Cover.
Schott an entertainment renaissance man who has appeared as an actor in films, commercials and TV shows and also has worked as a model and announcer currently is responsible for running three regular open-mike nights. Every Tuesday, Schott and friends can be found at Zipper’s in Covington. On Thursdays, catch them at Courtyard Cafe in Over-the-Rhine. And every Sunday, Schott and Co. express themselves at Tommy’s on Main, also in Over-the-Rhine. There is no cover charge at any of these shows.
STAIN Rock. Club One. No cover.
Short sets benefit all
UPTOWN RHYTHM AND BLUES Rhythm and Blues. Stow’s. Cover.
WILLIE RAY - -Blues. Burbank’s Sharonville. No Cover.
FRIDAY
In 1970, Schott began what he calls “the first open-mikes in Cincinnati.” Since then, he has seen ups and downs and has moved the performances from Mount Adams to thriving Over-the-Rhine and beyond. He seems genuinely taken aback by the positive response to local music and his open-mike nights in the past year.
ACE FREHLEY Metal. Annie's. $8
“It’s gotten almost out of hand,” says Schott. “I don’t think we’re the only people in town that that is happening for. Music in town, in general, is on an upswing.
ROCK ART
ANN CHAMBERLAIN JAZZ TRIO Jazz. Coco’s. Cover. THE AVENUES Classic favorites. Jim and Jack’s. Cover.
Circle proudly offers limited edition lithograph and silk screen rock art prints. ‘Born in the 1960’s, this uniqueform ofart continues to be an important part of rock <§- roll's history. National artists include JCozik, Jiess, ■Kuhn. Grimshaw and others. Ifady toframe, these amazing color prints make great gifts. As seen in Time and Rolling Stone magazines!
PAT KILBRIDE Celtic. 1 p.m. Sunday. Borders Books and Music, 11711 Princeton Pike, Springdale. Free. 671-5853.
BLUE LOU AND THE ACCUSATIONS Blues. Mansion Hill Tavern. Cover.
“1 can remember years when Sunday nights were absolutely impossible,” he continues. “I went to Allyn’s (Cafe) a few weeks ago, and the Bluebirds were playing and the place was packed. And I went to the Blue Note (Cafe in Price Hill) and the place was wall-to-wall people. Arlin’s has an open-mike every other Thursday that I imderstand is doing very well. So I don’t think it’s just us.”
BRIAN LOVELY AND THE SECRET Alternative. Club One. No cover.
CALIBER Classic Rock. Ms. Kitty’s. Cover.
Kathy Terry, an employee of Arlin’s, confirms the rise in popularity, especially on the club’s every-otherThursday open-mike nights. “I work those nights, and there is a lot of people that come in,” she says. “The last one we had (before Thanksgiving), we had to quit letting people in.”
CAPTAIN WOODY WITH CRAFTER, PROTEX BLUE AND VOODOO CHILLI Underground Rock. Palace Club. Cover. THE DOGS Blues. Burbank’s MORE, PAGE 20
The music played at Schott’s open-mike events is mostly in the Rock or Folk vein. Performers call Schott ahead of time, and he sets up a time schedule allowing performers to promote their spot and be ready to play
Music when the time comes.
Each artist does a short performance allowing a consistent turnaround onstage that keeps the audience’s attention throughout the six or seven sets each night.
“One of the great things about these evenings is that most of the players play for 20 minutes, and feature sets play for 40. So even if you’re not fond of one player’s style, there’s something else coming and you’re not locked into three hours of the same situation.”
Playing short sets also benefits the artists because, Schott says, most of the musicians are Johnny Schott organizes three open-mike nights: Tuesdays at Zipper’s, Thursdays at Courtyard Cafe and Sundays at Tommy’s on Main.
more willing to do shorter sets than play for four hours. It also allows them a chance to try out things in front of a crowd and develop.
“Some of the talent has developed remarkably in the five or six months they’ve been coming around,” he says. “The people expect to hear things they haven’t heard; they expect to hear new people. So they’re very receptive to that, and having a receptive audience is very addicting. That’s very good for the performers and very .good for performing skills. You can tell that week to week they are getting better, and it’s weird to see it that quickly.
“There are moments that I literally go up to a player and say, ‘1 know I told you this two weeks ago, but this was the best set I’ve ever heard you play.’
Female performers wanted
Schott says his only gripe about his open-mike events is that he would like to see more female performers involved.
“Almost exclusively in the earlier stages of it this summer it was men,” Schott says. “That is not as much the case anymore, but I still would love to find some women who’d like to get out and play and have their music heard. I’m not at all trying to discourage any of the guys, but it seems to be harder to find women who play something and sing. Years back, it was more 50/50.”
What has happened to make this movement such a success?
Schott notes that people have been drinking more responsibly in recent years, making the setting for his events less threatening and more sedate. But he gives a lot of the credit to the dedicated and increasingly non-apathetic music community.
“The problem was that a lot of us were sitting around waiting for something to happen,” Schott says. “And the only thing that happens when you sit around is you get a big butt.”
MS. KITTY'S SALOON
218 W. Third St., Downtown. 721-9520.
Clubs Directory
MT. ADAMS PAVILION
949 Pavilion St., Mount Adams. 721-7272.
MURRAY’S PUB 2169 Queen City Ave., Fairmount. 661-6215.
MUSIC
ALLYN’S CAFE
3538 Columbia Parkway, Columbia-Tusculum. 871-5779.
ONE HUNDRED WEST 100 W. Sixth St., Downtown. 431ROCK.
OZZIE’S PUB & EATERY
ANNIE’S
4343 Kellogg Ave., Columbia-Tusculum. 321-0220.
116 E. High St., Oxford. 1-523-3134.
PALACE CLUB
ARLIN’S
307 Ludlow Ave., Clifton. 751-6566.
2346 Grange Hall Road, Dayton, Ohio. 1-426-9305.
RIPLEYS
ARNOLD’S BAR & GRILL
2507 W. Clifton Ave., Clifton. 861-6506.
210 E. Eighth St., Downtown. 421-6234.
SALAMONE’S
BLIND LEMON: 936 Hatch St., Mount Adams. 241-3885.
THE WATERFRONT 14 Pete Rose Pier, Covington. 8:30 p.m.-2 a.m. Friday-Saturday. 581-1414.
3456 River Road, Riverside. 2517977.
KALDI’S COFFEE HOUSE & BOOKSTORE
1204 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. 241-3070.
Snaggletooth, Ditchweed and Ass Ponys (again!) will perform. There will be a donation/cover charge and doors open at 8 p.m.
Local Scene
Sunday, there will be a show to raise money ’or St. Vincent DePaul, which has provided emergency services to needy Cincinnatians for 125 years. “Blues For Hunger" will feature Cincinnati’s finest Blues masters, includ ng the High Street Rhythm Rockers, the Phil Blank Blues Band, Sneaky Pete and the Fabulous Sneakettes and James Ibold and the Imposters.
The concert will run 4 p.m.-l a.m. at Stow’s on Main, 1142 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. Admission is $7, or $5 if you also bring a canned food donation.
BY MIKE BREEN
All in all it’s a pretty great weekend for music, and the bonus of having your money go to a great cause means there’s no excuse to miss any of it.
Giving the Gift of Music
Local musicians are getting in on the holiday spirit vibe by donating their time for three worthwhile benefit concerts this week.
They Want You to Want Them
Saturday marks the debut of Big Eyes, a Cheap Trick tribute band, at Top Cat’s,
Tonight, 97X is giving its listeners a “97X-Mas Gift” and giving all the proceeds to the Mary Magdalene House (a Cincinnati-based shelter for battered women) and the United Way of Oxford.
The lineup represents a wide spectrum of Alternative music: Todd Snider (of “Seattle Grunge Rock Blues” fame), Celtic rockers Black 47, the Blues/Hip-Hop masters G. Love and Special Sauce, and Cincinnati’s favorite sons the Ass Ponys. The doors open'at 7 p.m. at Bogart’s, 2621 Vine St., Corryville; tickets are only $5.
THE DOGS Blues. Burbank’s Florence. No cover.
On Saturday, Sudsy Malone’s (2626 Vine St., Corryville) will be the site of a Rock For Choice benefit featuring some of Ohio’s best Alternative bands.
Rock for Choice is a coalition of musicians and other volunteers whose purpose is to perpetuate awareness and fight for a woman’s right to make her own reproductive choices.
ED MOSS TRIO Jazz. Ivory's. Cover. FAST FORWARD Rock. Shady O’Grady’s. Cover. GOSHORN BROS. Classic Rock. Tommy’s. Cover. H-BOMB FERGUSON Blues. Burbank’s Sharonville. No cover.
★ HEAVY WEATHER One of Cincy’s most entertaining bands, Heavy Weather plays soulful Funk with elements of Rock and Jazz thrown into the mix. Hurricanes. $5/$6 day of show.
Dayton’s Honeyburn, Columbus’ Scrawl and Cincinnati’s
Music
Florence. No cover.
ED MOSS TRIO Jazz. Ivory’s. Cover.
HIGH STREET RHYTHM ROCKERS Blues. Stow’s On Main. Cover. JOHNNY FINK AND THE INTRUSION Blues. Mansion Hill Tavern. Cover. LAVIEENA CAMPBELL Jazz vocalist. Greenwich Tavern. Cover. NEW BEDLAM Rock. Club One.
FEEDER WITH FLOWERFIST AND THE WENDELL BROS. Alternative. Top Cat’s. Cover.
GOSHORN BROS. Classic Rock. Tommy’s. Cover.
H-BOMB FERGUSON Blues. Burbank’s Sharonville. No cover.
HIGH STREET RHYTHM ROCKERS Blues. Allyn’s Cafe. Cover.
IDENTITY Reggae. First Run. Cover.
LAGNIAPPE Cajun. Arnold's. No cover.
RICKY NYE AND THE REDHOTS Rock. Shady O’Grady’s. Cover.
SPIDERFOOT WITH OYSTER AND SPEAKBOY Alternative. Sudsy Malone’s. Cover.
SPONGE WITH XCNN AND MOTHER MAY I Alternative. Hurricanes. $5/$6 day of show.
★ THE VERVE PIPE Alternative rockers in the vein of Live and Toad the Wet Sprocket (but more interesting) come to town in support of their latest CD, Pop Smear. Ripleys. Cover.
in of Ae ItoaywtiYy oh He ftrjfsfy of btctthkm Sqid } ThWS 4 ciohd H Ht shy H*t looks Jih* & \tkj>koYlt f\(l *1S Jiqrs sficf\ foqfHtr.
★ NEZ PEACH WITH UNDER THE SUN With original Rock leaning toward the ’70s side, Nez Peach has a new CD. Come help the group celebrate at the official release party. Salamone’s. Cover.
PHIL BLANK Blues. Burbank's Eastgate. No cover.
POINT FOUR Classic favorites. New Nineties. Cover.
PSYCHODOTS AND FOREHEAD Alternative. Blue Note. Cover.
WARSAW FALCONS Rock. Local 1207. Cover.
SATURDAY
BIG EYES WITH BORGIA POPES Cheap Trick favorites. Top Cat’s. Cover.
BRIAN LOVELY AND THE SECRET AND FOREHEAD Alternative. Blue Note. Cover. CALIBER Classic Rock. Ms. Kitty’s. Cover.
★ DITCHWEED, SCRAWL, ASS PONYS, SNAGGLETOOTH AND HONEYBURN Ohio’s best Alternative rockers join forces to raise money for Rock for Choice. Sudsy Malone’s. Cover.
Openings
show constructions using animal bones and images of imaginary creatures. Also exhibited are illustrations by commemorative stamp designer C.F. Payne. Through Dec. 31. 12-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. 105 E. Main St., Mason. 398-2788.
TONI BIRCKHEAD GALLERY Collaborative studio furniture by husband-and-wife team Rob Gartzka and Kathie Johnson, who jointly combine painting and sculpture, functional and sculptural “artiture.” Through Dec. 30. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays; Saturday by appointment. 342 W. Fourth St., Downtown. 241-0212.
BORDER’S CAFE ESPRESSO Illustrations by Cincinnati Post cartoonist Jeff Stahler. Through Dec. 31. 9 a.m.-ll p.m. Monday-Thursday; 9 a.m.-l 1 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday. Borders Books and Music, 11711 Princeton Road, Springdale. 671-5852.
CAFE ELITE Recent Quilts and Sculpted Dolls by Cody Goodin. Through Dec. 31. 11 a.m.-lO p.m. daily. 364 Ludlow Ave., Clifton. 281-9922.
C.A.G.E. The Cincinnati Artist Group Effort’s annual Holiday Bizarre, now in C.A.G.E.'s new headquarters on Main Street, offers works handcrafted by local artists. Through Dec. 24. 12-8 p.m. Friday; 12-6 p.m. Saturday; 12-4 p.m. Sunday. 1416 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. 381-2437.
Exhibits
CARNEGIE ARTS CENTER —A Primordia and the Continuum: Watercolors by Karen Shunk. Duveneck Gallery. Heaven and Earth features the oils of Kentuckian Frances Hemmer. McCarthy Gallery. Acrylic paintings by Cincinnatian Mary Linn White. Downstairs Gallery. Beautiful Things Remembered as The Art ofHealing Hands highlights mixed-media works by the physicians of St. Elizabeth Hospital. Downstairs Gallery. 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 12-4 p.m. Saturday. 1028'Scott Blvd., Covington. 491-2030.
CELIO! Includes paintings by Roger Pelton, Rocky Woods and Lisa Schare. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday. 1341 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. 352-0090.
CHIDLAW GALLERY, ART ACAD-
EMY OF CINCINNATI The students, faculty and alumni of the Art Academy bring together artwork, crafts and unusual objects in The Showfiake Extravaganza for show and sale. Through Dec. 22. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. Art Academy of Cincinnati, Eden Park. 562-8777.
CINCINNATI ART CLUB Presents its annual Christmas Bazaar with works by more than 15 artists. 1-5 p.m. weekends through Dec. 17. 1021 Parkside Place, Mount Adams. 241-4591.
CINCINNATI ART GALLERIES Panorama of Cincinnati IX spotlights more than 70 works by deceased regional artists such as Robert Duncanson, Edward Potthast, Elizabeth Nourse, Joseph Sharp and Henry Mosler, and living Cincinnatians Cole Carothers, Michael Scott, Tom Bacher and Margot Gotoff. Through Dec. 31. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. 635 Main St., Downtown. 381-2128.
CIVIC GARDEN CENTER OF GREATER CINCINNATI Laura Clevenger exhibits new works through Dec. 27. 9 a.m.^1 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday. 2715 Reading Road, Avondale. 221-0981.
CLOSSON’S GALLERY DOWNTOWN Continuing exhibition of maritime paintings and prints by Cincinnati favorite John Stobart. Paintings From Our Past includes oils on canvas by Frank McElwain.... Closson’s commemorates artist John Ruthven’s 30-year anniversary with a special print, "Cardinals on the Ohio.” All MORE, PAGE 24
Spirits Renewed
Created in therapy, vibrant work from Harlem Horizon Art Studio raises questions about why art is made
REVIEW BY MARK WARREN
As a painter and retired art therapist, I was asked to review a show of art by emotionally disturbed-young people. I was certain I would see art that was spectacular, active, colorful and loaded with non-verbal messages portraying all kinds of problems, concerns, hopes and fears.
Indeed, Renewing the Spirit: The Art ofHealing at the Contemporary Arts Center is not to be missed.
A CAC program accompanies the Harlem Horizon Art Studio show. It’s in four parts and includes panel discussions, works of child art from a therapy program at Children’s Hospital, a storytelling activity and a lecture centering on images of disability in Western art and literature.
The exhibitions investigate art-as-healing from multiple points of view. Former Director/Curator Elaine King’s conceptual and curatorial concepts propose such overlapping exhibitions,.in this case successfully; the exhibitions are regional and national.
The creative efforts of the young people from Harlem Horizon Art Studio are definitely “real” artwork, aesthetically as valid as the New Expressionism and certainly is as valid as any folk or “outsider” art. I was captivated by the beauty and charm of the small painting “Red Room” by Karima Sappe. My training can allow me to guess about her mind’s state in one painting, which manifests joy and health and sustains the premise that art can be healing.
In art-therapy settings, art is produced spontaneously by patients who do not receive art instruction. They express the fullness of their emotions in a safe, nonjudgmental haven for affirmation, attention, love and positive feelings of accomplishment. Success is therapeutic; quality and technique are irrelevant. In the true clinical art-therapy setting, all art expression is therapeutic and significant from a single black scribble on a large piece of white paper to a blazing riot of abstract or literal, colorful shapes, but there’s more to it than that.
These young people in their art-therapy environment received benefit beyond therapeutic consequences, and unfortunately those benefits are not known by school educators and school boards, which cut school art programs. (Research shows that brain-cell growth is stimu-
see, understand, better what my life”?
These kinds of elementary only when the case is known For the most part art therapy other therapies. Only in tions of symbolic language apeutic processes thus cures by art therapy only
Often friends would bring their children and timidly not wanting to hear any meaning, but I back out an interpretation impossible the child’s case if, in fact, creates an elephant, it may different from the meaning another’s elephant. It would for me to tell a parent that be a message about a too day by day life of the child. phants.
I was taken aback by the show. I wondered how painter’s mind while making filled. In some forms of mental spaces with objects may
painted wooden pieces with woodgear mechanisms; of the strongest faux naif carvers, combined with one of the oldest and most prestigious Kentucky folk art groups. Concurrent invitational group show features 27 artists. All through Jan. 15. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. 522 W. Short St., Lexington, Ky. 606-233-1263.
MARTA HEWETT GALLERY Solo show by Salvatore Ventura featuring large-format architectural watercolors. Through Jan. 15. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 12-5
COLLECTOR BOOK AND PRINT
GALLERY 48 New works by Cindy Matyi investigate images rooted in Celtic heritage and impressionist paintings. Through Jan. 3. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. 1223 Central Parkway, Over-the-Rhine. 381-4033.
GALLERY 99 Features works by 20 gallery members through Dec. 31. 12-6 p.m. Thursday and Sunday; 12-9 p.m. Friday-Saturday. 1101 St. Gregory St., Mount Adams. 651-1441.
★ GOLDEN RAM GALLERY Features antique fishing equipment; sounds interesting. Through Dec. 25. 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.
HEBREW UNION COLLEGE SKIRBALL MUSEUM Aishet Hayil: Woman of Valor features paintings, textiles and sculptures. Through Feb. 25. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 2-5 p.m. Sunday. 3101 Clifton Ave., Clifton. 221-1875.
★ HEIKE PICKETT GALLERY A one-person show by Steve Armstrong featuring carved and
p.m. Saturday. 1209 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. 421-7883.
★ HILLEL JEWISH STUDENT CENTER Survival in Sarajevo:
How a Jewish Community Came to the Aid ofIts City by Berlin artist Edward Serotia. Activist photographs recontextualize an empowered Jewish community in Eastern Europe inverting Jew-as-victim; “political art” at its finest. Through Friday. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday. 2615 Clifton Ave., Clifton. 221-6728.
★ IN SITU Inside/Outside is a group exhibition featuring landscape multiples by national and regional artists Laurie Rousseau, Suzanne Caporael, Joan Nelson, Wade Hoefer, Ellen Phalen, Sterck/Rozo and the X-Art Foundation. Through Jan. 21. 11
a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. 1435 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. 651—4631.
INNER SPACE DESIGN Contemporary Works on Paper includes the works of Kelly, Dine, Motherwell, Rauchenberg, Indiana and Lichtenstein. Through Dec. 31. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday. 2128 Madison Road, O’Bryonville. 533-0300.
JAMAR GALLERY Quietudes features realist paintings by Cincinnatian Blair Beavers through Dec. 23. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays; 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m.-3
p.m. Sunday. 135 W. Fourth St., Downtown. 333-0022.
KALDI’S COFFEE HOUSE & BOOKSTORE Sculptures by Brian Huff through Dec. 31. 7 a.m.-l Monday-Thursday; 7 a.m.-2:30 a.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-2:30 a.m. Saturday; 10 a.m.-midnight Sunday. 1202 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. 241-43070.
KZF GALLERY The Natural Environment; the Built Environment features works by emerging regional artists Kenny Mencher, Jerome Mussman, Thomas Lohre Jr. and Louise
★ MASON FINE ART GALLERY Features silverpoints, watercolors and egg tempera paintings by Cincinnatians Ken Landen Buck, Jan Brown Checco and New Yorkers Irwin Greenberg and Kenny Mencher. Through Jan. 15. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 6-9 p.m. Wednesday. 108 W. Main St., Mason. 398-2625.
MILLER GALLERY Objects of Desire III features eclectic ceramic teapots, decoupage by Cincinnatian Alice Balterman and crystal sculptures by Christopher Rice and Gary Fitzgerald.
★ ONE SHOT GALLERY Presents works by Cincinnati artist Mils, with vintage political cartoons by fellow Cincinnatian Claude Shafer. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays; weekends by appointment. 658 Main St., Downtown. 721-1193.
ONLY ARTISTS - Minne Adkins and the Kentucky Folk Carvers features brightly painted whimsical animals created by a 15-member group of naive carvers. Through Friday. For the Holidays... From the Hand and the Heart explores the traditions of folk art with a unique selection of hand-carved ornaments, santas, angels, Bybee pottery and Joe Deluco furniture. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. 1315 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. 241-6672.
★ LAURA PAUL GALLERY The Art ofGiving... The Giving ofArt includes original works by Enrico Embroli and Bruce Hall, sculpture by Charles Herndon and jewelry by Angela Cummings. Through Jan. 30. 10 a.m.-M
Niklas. Through Friday. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. 655 Eden Park Drive, Walnut Hills. 621-6211.
LOUISVILLE VISUAL ART ASSOCIATION Presents Mainz Art: Paperworks through Dec. 31. 3005 Upper River Road, Louisville. 502-896-2146.
★ LEFTHANDED MOON Black and white prints and photographs transferred to stones and tiles by Robert Giesler and landscapes by Susan Naylor. Both run through Dec. 31. 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Tarot readers available 12-3 p.m. every Saturday. 48 E. Court St., Downtown. 784-1166.
MACHINE SHOP GALLERY Fifth-year University of Cincinnati architecture students have produced design models and drawings of artists’ living and work spaces, a gallery, outdoor sculpture plaza and cafe to bring new life to Over-the-Rhine’s Clay Street. Friday and Saturday. 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. 100 E. Central Parkway, Over-the-Rhine. 556-1928.
MALTON GALLERY —Artistic Park explores diversity in media and process using animal imagery featuring the works of Anne Embree, Kendahl Jan Jubb, Martha Wolf and Bill Reid. Through Dec. 24.10 a.m.-5 p.m. MondaySaturday. 2709 Observatory Ave., Hyde Park. 321-8614.
Native Americans and the West features the works of W. Steve Selzer, Robert DeLeon and Hubert Wackermann. All through Dec. 31. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday. 2715 Erie Ave., Hyde Park. 871^1420.
MULLANE’S PARKSIDE CAFE First watercolor exhibition from Art Academy star alum Heinz Pradac. Through Dec. 30. 11:30 a.m.-l0 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 11 a.m.-l 1 p.m. Friday; 5-11 p.m. Saturday. 723 Race St., Downtown. 381-1331.
NORTHERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY NKU offers its Senior Show with works by Millicent Straub, Chaz Schaffner, Cynthia Schmid-Perry and Jeanette Vance in the Main Gallery. A collaborative effort by students in Professor Steven Finke’s Special Topics class is presented in the Third Floor Gallery. Both through Friday. 9 a.m.-9 p.m. weekdays; 1-5 p.m. weekends. Fine Arts Building, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights. 572-5148.
★ OLMES GALLERY Lynda Riddle’s explosive career continues on the mark, and her works are currently on display. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday; 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursday; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 3515 Roundbottom Road, Newtown. ■271—4004.
★ RAYMOND GALLERY First-ever prints by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jim Borgman of The Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati Post cartoonist Jeff Stahler; a coming art form internationalized by Art Spiegelman. Through Dec. 31. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday and Wednesday. 2700 Erie Ave., Hyde Park. 871-7373. SEMANTICS GALLERY Paintings, drawings and sculpture by 22 local artists. Through Dec. 18. 12-5 p.m. weekends. 1125 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine. 684-0102.
CARL SOLWAY GALLERY Alan Rath: Recent Sculpture highlights new works by the San Francisco-area artist. Through Dec. 31. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday; Saturday by appointment. 424 Findlay St., West End. 621-0069.
★ STUDIO SAN GIUSEPPE AT THE COLLEGE OF MOUNT ST. JOSEPH Gyorgy Kadar: Survivor ofDeath, Witness to Life features haunting images from a Hungarian Nazi concentration-camp survivor. The drawings are first-rate, reminding us of art’s potency to bear witness; a real coup for Mount St. Joseph. Sponsored by Jewish Federation of Cincinnati. Closing reception features speaker and Holocaust rescuer Irene Opdyke at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. 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. STUDIO 701 Fine art and graphic design on display. The Pendleton ArtCenter, 1310 Pendelton St., Over-the-Rhine. 241^123.
SUB.GRESSIVE Works by Peter Huttinger, Vicki Mansoor and Marion Wilson. Organized in conjunction with In Situ Gallery. Through
13.12-4
Museums
eclectic group of acclaimed artists working with light as their medium; well-conceived in an era of complex technologies. Curated by former CAC director/curator Elaine King; through Jan. 13. San Francisco artist Lynn Hershman’s Room of One’s Own is an interactive videodisk computer installation dealing with the ideas of woman as object and voyeurism. Through Jan. 29.... Columbus midcareer artist Elizabeth Fergus-Jean interacts with area junior and senior high school students in Sacred Space: Dreams Awakening, through Jan. 8.... Pieter Laurens Mol highlights the artist-asalchemist who utilizes unusual materials to address the moral/ aesthetic contradictions of the Modem Age. Through Jan. 15. 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 all on Mondays. 115 E. Fifth St., Downtown. 721-0390.
DAYTON ART INSTITUTE
Childe Hassam: Etchings and Lithographs by the tum-ofthe-century American artist; through Jan. 29. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Sunday; 9 a,m.-9 p.m. Tuesday. 465 Belmonte Park North, Dayton, Ohio. 1-223-5277.
★ INDIANAPOLIS MUSEUM OF ART Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Swarfs: An Art in the Making spotlights more than 150 original animation drawings, watercolor backgrounds and cels. Through Feb. 5. Textiles by West African Nakunte Diarra is on display through Dec. 31.
Paintings by Indiana nativeturned-superstar Kay Rosen in Back Home in Indiana, through Jan. 8.... Written on Stone with Garo Antreasian; through Jan. 15. Riley to Tarkington: Images of Indiana Authors through March 12. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Thursday; 12-5 p.m. Sunday. $4 adults; $3 students and seniors; children 12 & under free. 1200 W. 38th St., Indianapolis. 317-923-1331.
MIAMI UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM Continuing exhibits include Stitched, Woven and Plaited: Contemporary Craft Traditions ofAfrica through Jan. 11 and The Belle Epoque in Caricature through Feb. 19.11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Free. Patterson Ave., Oxford. 1-529-2232.
NATIONAL AFRO-AMERICAN MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTER From Victory to Freedom: Afro-American Life in the ’50s is a permanent exhibition featuring artifacts staged in settings reminiscent of the period. Mississippi Freedom Summer Remembered: 1964-1994 is a photographic exhibition commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Summer that took place in Jackson, Miss. $3.50 adults; $1.50 students. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 1-5 p.m. Sunday. 1350 Brush Row Rd., Wilberforce. 1-376^1944.
SOUTHERN OHIO MUSEUM Stars and Diamonds is a 15th anniversary exhibition of brilliant cut glass from the Harold Micklethwaite Collection; through Dec. 30. Portsmouth Structures II highlights Will Reader’s paintings of local scenery; through Dec. 30. A Neoclassical holiday display of decorations by Frances Jones Poetker along with a Victorian Christmas tree and a collection of antique toys; through Dec. 31.10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday. 825 Gallia St., Portsmouth. 614-354-5629.
★ THE TAFT MUSEUM The Expatriate American Artist and Other Selectionsfrom a Cincinnati Collection features 30 paintings, watercolors and sculptures, including works by five “Duveneck” school artists. Also includes a Herter Bros, furniture display. Superb Elizabeth Nourse paintings from turn-of-the-century mix with period furniture from original Cincinnati Probasco home as director Philip Long attempts to make the Taft a living house once again. Through Jan. 15. 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. Free admission to visitors bringing any
non-perishable food items or personal care products. 241-0343.
WEXNER CENTER FOR THE ARTS House Rules pairs ten teams of social critics with architects to re-examine the concept of the single-family dwelling through text, models and drawings; three visual artists also address images of “home.” Through Sunday. Burning Beds features paintings, drawings and mattress sculptures by Argentinean artist examining identity and place, memory and loss. Through Dec. 31. Between the Frames: The Forum includes eight videos by installation artist Antonio Muntadas with more than 100 interviews from North Americans, Western Europeans and Japanese regarding how contemporary art is presented, created and interpreted among differing cultural institutions. Through Dec. 31. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday; 12-5 p.m. Sunday. Ohio State University, North High Street at 15th Avenue, Columbus. 614-292-3535.
Earthworks of the Central Ohio Valley, a photographic show by Cincinnati artist Alice Weston, has been extended through Jan. 8. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 1-5 p.m. weekends. $2 adults; $1 students and seniors. Devou Park, Covington. 491-4003.
BENNINGHOFFERN HOUSE
This restored Victorian mansion, built in 1861, provides the setting for the Butler County Historical Museum. 1-4 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. $1 adults; free children 12 and under. 327 N. Second St., German Village, Hamilton. 893-7111.
BICENTENNIAL COMMONS
More than 300,000 lights are displayed throughout the riverfront park for the Honda Starlight Celebration. The lights are on 5-10 p.m. daily through Jan. 2. Skating hours: 4-9 p.m. Thursday; 5-10 p.m. Friday; 12-10 p.m. Saturday; 12-6 p.m. Sunday. Admission: $2 adults; $1 children 12 and under. $1 skate rental; $2 rollerblade rental. WGRR-FM and the Cincinnati Recreation Commission sponsor a skating party at 5-7 p.m. Saturday. Free carriage rides, courtesy of
AMERICAN MUSEUM OF BREWING HISTORY AND ARTS Houses the largest display of brewing and beer artifacts in the world. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekends. $4 adult tour and tasting; $2 under-21 tour and non-alcoholic tasting; $3 adult tour only; $2 beer tasting only. Oldenberg Complex, Interstate 75 at Buttermilk Pike, Fort Mitchell. 341-2802.
BB RIVERBOATS Lunch, dinner, sightseeing, Santa and holiday choral cruises with area high school choirs available. Cruises depart from BB Riverboats base at Covington Landing. $4.50-$27.95. 261-8500.
BEHRINGER-CRAWFORD MUSE-
UM Housed within the historic Devou family home, it is the only museum of Northern Kentucky natural and cultural heritage. Holiday Toy Trains features characters from Thomas The Ti'ain and the Lionel American Flyer. Through Jan. 8. Silent Testimony: The Prehistoric
CAREW
by Joel Otterson, a memorial to Richard Allen Shiftier who died of
is on display at the Cincinnati Art Museum through Jan. 1.
Attractions
15. Evening shows $6; afternoon shows $4 adults, $3 children 12 and under. Located in the Geier Collections and Research Center of the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History, 1720 Gilbert Ave., Walnut Hills. 395-3663.
★ CINCINNATI ZOO AND BOTANICAL GARDEN The annual Festival ofLights transforms the zoo into a winter wonderland with lights, reindeer, caroling, rides and a holiday ice-skating show. Through Dec. 31. 5-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 5-9:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Regular zoo hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. $7.50 adults, $4.50 children 2-12, $5.25 seniors; $4.50 parking. 3400 Vine St., Avondale. 281-4700.
DAYTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY A seven-month-old red fox who was too tame to be reintroduced into the wild can be seen in Wild Ohio, a zoo containing animals native to Ohio. The' Anthropology Department hosts A Swedish Christinas 7-9 p.m.
ages 3-17; free to children 2 and under. 2699 DeWeese Pkwy., Dayton, Ohio. 1-275-7431.
DELHI HISTORICAL SOCIETY A restored 1880 farmhouse. The exhibit room features antique dolls in winter scenes and the parlor will be decorated for a Victorian Christmas. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; 1-3 p.m. Sunday. Free. 468 Anderson Ferry, Delhi Township. 451-4313.
DINSMORE HOMESTEAD A historic farmstead built in 1841^12. 1-5 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. $3 adults; $2 seniors; $1.50 children under 12. 5654 Burlington Pike, Burlington. 586-6117.
DRIVE THRU NATIVITY Depicts ten different Christmas
scenes with live animals and inspirational music. 6-10 p.m. Sunday. Free. Church of the Savior, 8005 Pfeiffer Rd., Montgomery. 791-3142.
★ FOUNTAIN SQUARE CHRISTMAS VILLAGE See the lights and trimmed trees, visit Santa’s toy-making village and then skate around awhile. Ice skating rink open 12-8 p.m. MondayWednesday; 12-5 p.m. Thursday; 12-9 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday; and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. Through Feb. 20 (weather permitting). $1 to skate, $1 skate rental. 684-4945.
GINGERBREAD VILLAGE The Hyatt Regency presents its 11th annual Gingerbread Village made from 225 pounds of gingerbread, 280 pounds of candy and 22 galIons of icing. Through Jan. 2. 151 W. Fifth St., Downtown. 579-1234.
GLENDOWER STATE MEMORIAL The Warren County Historical Society offers tours of the 19th century Greek Revival mansion. Glendower will be decorated in the style of a Victorian Christmas wedding with carolers, music and refreshments to celebrate Christmas at Glendower. 1-8 p.m. Saturday. Through Dec. 11. $3 adults; $1 students through high school. Glendower State Memorial, 105 Cincinnati Ave., Lebanon. 932-1817.
HARDING MUSEUM OF THE FRANKLIN AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY Open 1-5 p.m. Sunday and by appointment. 302 Park Ave., Franklin. 1746-8295.
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE HOUSE Open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday. Free. 2950 Gilbert Ave., Walnut Hills. 632-5120.
I&O SCENIC RAILWAY Join Santa Claus and his favorite elf on a nostalgic excursion train. Weekends. $12 adults; $10 seniors and children 11-16; $6 children 3-10. The Mason Station is just off U.S. Route 42 in the heart of Mason; the Lebanon Station is on South Broadway in downtown Lebanon. Call 398-8584 for departure times.
JOHN HAUCK HOUSE MUSEUM Enjoy a Victorian Christmas at an Italianate townhouse and garden. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays, 1-5 p.m. weekends. $2 adults; $1 seniors; $.50 children. 812 Dayton St., West End. 721-3570.
KROHN CONSERVATORY The Sugarplum Tree is a six-foot tree bearing fruit, candy and blossoms populated by gnomes, poinsettia trees and model trains. The railway landscape was created by Krohn florists and nationally-acclaimed landscape architect Paul Busse, who also designed and constructed the New York Botanical Garden’s major holiday show. Opens Friday. Through Jan. 8. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Admission free for Cincinnati residents, children 5 and under and school groups; $2 adults; $1 children, seniors and groups of 25 or more. 1501 Eden Park Drive, Eden Park. 421-4086.
LITTLE RED SCHOOLHOUSE Built in 1873, the brick house served as a school for 63 years. Restored by the Indian Hill Historical Society, it is now a museum. By appointment only. Free. 8100 Given Road, Indian Hill. 891-1873.
MIMOSA MANSION Built in 1853-55 as a Tuscan Villa featuring 1850s laminated Rococo Revival furniture and an exceptional collection of early lighting devices. Ghost of Christmas Past features antique trees including aluminum tree from the 1950s, a revolving tree with bubble lights and a 1930s Marklin table-top train display. You can also hear Liberace’s rendition of White Christmas on a Mason and Hamlin grand player piano! 1-8 p.m. weekends; weekdays and evenings by appointment. $4. 412 E. Second St., Covington. 261-9000.
PROMONT Completed in 1867, this Italianate villa belonged to former Ohio Gov. John M. Pattison.
All rooms are furnished with period antiques. Take a trip back in time for the candlelight Christmas tour. Friday and Saturday. 7-9 p.m. The house will be filled with Civil War re-enactors and live dulcimer music. Victorian Christmas through mid-January. 1:30-4:30 p.m. Friday and Sunday. $2 adults; $1 children; group tours can be arranged. 906 Main St., Milford. 831-4704.
QUEEN CITY RIVERBOATS Lunch, dinner, sightseeing cruises. $6-$24.95. All cruises depart from Queen City Landing, 303 Dodd Drive, Dayton, Ky. 292-8687.
SHARON WOODS VILLAGE Drive-through display of over 80,000 lights including Santa in Space through Jan. 1. 6-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 6-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. $6 per car
Sunday-Thursday; $7 Friday and Saturday. Also, guided tdurs of eight 19th century homes, restored, furnished and seasonally decorated. 1-5 p.m. weekends. $5 adults; $3 seniors; $2 children 12-6; free to children 6 and under. Sharon Woods Park, Route 42, Sharonville. 563-9484.
STAR OF CINCINNATI
Featuring lunch, dinner, weekend brunch, Starlight Party and TGIF cruises. Cruises depart from Star Landing at 15 Mehring Way, Downtown. 723-0100.
WARREN COUNTY HISTORICAL
SOCIETY MUSEUM Features artifacts from 1790 to the present, including Shaker and Victorian furniture, as well as an extensive collection of paleontological and archaeological artifacts. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. 105 S. Broadway, Lebanon. $3 adults, $1 students. 932-1817.
WILDER-SWAIM HOUSE Zig-Zag and Cooper roads, Montgomery. 793-0515.
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT
NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE
Designated by Congress in 1969, this Greek Revival-style house is the only memorial to the nation’s 27th president and 10th chiefjustice. 2038 Auburn Ave., Mount Auburn. 684-3292.
$3 members; $5 non-members. University YMCA, 270 Calhoun, Clifton. 351-7462 or 733-3077.
FRENCH IMPRESSIONIST
GALLERY TALKS Manet: Artist ofModem Life by Diane Smith-Hurd, Associate Professor of Art History at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. 2 p.m. Saturday. Cincinnati Art Museum, Eden Park. 721-5204.
HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE Celebrate the season with the Greenhouse’s third annual Holiday Open House. Warm cider and cookies will be served and holiday flowers and plants will be available for purchase. 5-8 p.m. Thursday. Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1200 W. 38th St., Indianapolis. 317-923-1331.
★ IMAGES OF WHOLENESS: OUR HEALTHY COMMUNITY AND THE HEALING ARTS A panel discussion about contemporary approaches in art therapy. Panelists include Bill Richards, Director, Harlem Horizons Art Studio; Kathy Clark, Injury Prevention Program, Children’s Hospital Medical Center; Janice Dovel, Art therapist, Spectrum Program, Bethesda Oak Hospital; and UC Professor of Geography Sara Storjohann, whose son suffered traumatic injuries in car accident. 7 p.m. Thursday. Contemporary Arts Center, 115 E. Fifth St., Downtown. Space is limited, so call 345-8400 for reservations.
LOVELAND ART CENTER
Offers classes in watercolors, oils, calligraphy, papermaking, acrylics and pastels for adults and children. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. $59 per 12-hour course. 118 Taylor St., Loveland. 683-1888.
MINI AT ART Children ages 4-6 will explore the world of printmaking and visit the exhibition of nationally known lithographer, Gary Antreasian: Written on Stone 1-3 p.m. Tuesday. Krannert 1, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1200 W. 38th St., Indianapolis. 317-923-1331.
OHIO ARTS COUNCIL Provides matching money grants to artists, arts programs and major institutions. Call for applications. Summer fellowships for teachers of the arts also are available. Contact Christy Fambauch. Nominations for the Ohio Arts Council’s 1995 Governor’s Awards for the Arts are being accepted. Contact Bill Nordquist, Ohio Arts Council, 727 E. Main St., Columbus, OH 43205-1796. 614-466-2613.
SAVE OUTDOOR SCULPTURE (SOS) A public/private initiative designed to document and increase public awareness of outdoor sculpture. Workshops are being planned for early 1995 in Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton. People, interested in participating should contact Patricia Henahan at the Ohio Arts Council. 727 E. Main St., Columbus, OH 43205-1796. 614-466-2613.
WINTER WONDERLAND WORKSHOP The Art Academy of Cincinnati’s education department offers its popular workshop for children 5-14. 9:30-11:30 a.m.
Events
AFRIKAN AMERICAN DRUM AND DANCE ENSEMBLE Offers classes every Saturday. 12:30-2 p.m. $5 adults; $2.50 children 12-16; $1 children under 12. West End YMCA, 821 Ezzard Charles Dr., West End. 281-7909 or 241-9622.
CREATIVE KITCHEN CLASSES Marilyn Harris presents Best Ever Southwest Cuisinefor Unique Entertaining 6-9 p.m. Thursday. $34.... Carol Tabone and staff prepare of their favorite cookies for A World ofHoliday Cookies 10:30 a.m.-l:30 p.m. Saturday. $28. Diane Haslam and Peter Poliakine show you how to make An Unforgettable New Year’s Eve Buffet-A Couple’s Class 6-9 p.m.. Monday. $34. Bring along your spouse and save $10!... Join Carol Tabone for Lunch on the Run-A Festive Light Holiday Luncheon 12-12:45 p.m. Wednesday. $18. Lazarus Department Store, 699 Race St., Downtown. 369-7911. FLYING CLOUD ACADEMY OF VINTAGE DANCE Offers classes in 19th and 20th century social dance every Wednesday at 8 p.m.
PUBLIC LIBRARY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY Kathryn Gardette and Charles Miller presentCelebrating Kwanzaa, a participatory exploration of the seven-day African-American holiday of Kwanzaa. Noon. Tuesday. Main branch hours: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. weekdays; 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday; 1-5 p.m. Sunday. 800 Vine St., Downtown. 369-6960.
Classes & Exhibits
free and confidential. Cookbooks, holiday gift cards and sets available. 2183 Central Parkway, West End. 421-2437.
Bereavement Support Group
For people who have experienced loss related to HIV. Meets at 7 p.m. every other Wednesday.
Common Bonds For individuals living with HIV. Meets at 7 p.m. every Tuesday.
Family, Friends & Loved Ones
For loved ones of persons living with HIV/AIDS. Meets at 7 p.m. every Tuesday.
Room With A View An AA-based group for individuals who are HIV+ and in recovery from chemical and/or alcohol dependency. Meets at 8 p.m. every Wednesday.
Womancare For women who are living with HIV. Meets at 7 p.m. every other Wednesday.
ENJOY THE ARTS Offers substantial discounts to various arts organizations. Only full-time students are eligible. $24.50 for one year, $39 for two years. 751-2700.
TRI-STATE HARVEST A volun teer organization whose sole purpose is to transport surplus food to those who need it in the community. To donate food or become a volunteer, call 281-FOOD.
UNITED WAY HELPLINE Provides counseling, supportgroup information, crisis intervention and assistance 24 hours a day. 721-7900.
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.
2-4 p.m. Sunday. Little Professor Book Center, Brentwood Plaza, 8537 Winton Road, Finneytown. 931-4433.
The Crusty Crusades
DAVID HAYES The Xavier University student will host an hour of festive stories and crafts. 11 a.m. Saturday. Oakley Blue Marble, 3054 Madison Road, Oakley. 731-2665.
Questfor the best pie in town leads to Madison Road but nice old lady in apron hasn't been found
Food & Drink
Readings
Signings & Events
CAFE VIENNA— Cincinnatians Jim Barrett and Nick Barrows, whose poems can be found in Forklift, Ohio and Ohio fiction writer Robert Bowie, who will be published in Kennesaw Review, read from their work. 8 p.m. Tuesday. Free. 1141 St. Gregory St., Mount Adams. 621-6655.
SHARON DRAPER The head of the English department at Walnut Hills High School signs copies of her children’s books, Ziggy and the. Black Dinosaurs and Tears of a Tiger. 2-4 p.m. Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Rookwood Pavilion, Madison and Edwards roads, Norwood. 396-8960.
BY POLLY CAMPBELL
TCONNIE REMLINGER-TROUN-
here is something about pie that inspires hope in the heart of anyone who loves good food. That’s why I always stop and order pie at any country cafe that advertises home cooking.
STINE The Hyde Park resident signs and reads from her children’s novel, The Worst Christmas Ever.
2-4 p.m. Saturday. Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Rookwood Pavilion, Madison and Edwards roads, Norwood. 396-8960.
★ GREG RHODES— Signs The First Boys ofSummer: Baseball’s First Professional Team, which he co-authored with Cincinnati Post sportswriter John Erardi.
2-2:30 p.m. Saturday. Little Professor Book Center, Brentwood Plaza, 8537 Winton Road, Finneytown. 931-4433.
I will go out of my way by great distances to try some hole-in-the-wall recommended for its pies by Jane and Michael Stem their book, Roadfood. Even if my “homecooked” meal has consisted of tough roast beef on instant mashed potatoes and white bread with gravy out of a can, I’m game to try dessert. “Maybe their pies are better,” I tell myself. “Maybe the owner’s mother is wielding a rolling pin in the back room.”
I have eaten a lot of bad pie.
RICK SOWASH The nationally known storyteller, who has just moved to Cincinnati, signs copies of Ripsnorting Whoppers, a collection of midwestem tall tales. 1
But good pie is so good, I keep on trying. And it ought to be made in a little country cafe or bakery, by a nice old lady wearing an ample apron and a hairnet.
★ DARK RAIN THOM AND JAMES ALEXANDER THOM
Dark Rain, an Ohio Shawnee, signs copies of The Shawnee: Kohkumthena’s Grandchildren, a study of her people, illustrated by her husband, historical novelist James Alexander Thom. 2 p.m. Sunday. Borders Books and Music, 11711 Princeton Road, Springdale. 671-5852.
FRANCES WEAVER Signs and discusses There’s More to Me Thank I’ve Used Yet, a collection of her writings for and about seniors. 7-8:30 p.m. Thursday. Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Rookwood Pavilion, Madison and Edwards roads, Norwood. 396-8960.
This time of year, a pie for dessert is perfect when family gets together and everyone feels the glow of good old-fashioned values. And so the quest: Find in Cincinnati a really good pie that you could take home and serve as^ proudly as if you made it yourself. (I was thinking of only homemade-type pies not espresso white chocolate mousse creations.)
I warmed up by trying the larger bakery establishments such as Busken and Servatii. Their pies looked good no machine-crimped crust. (That’s one reason these pie quests can go on and on; it’s not hard to make pie look good.) Servatii’s crust is nice and crisp and sugary, and Busken’s doesn’t skimp on the blueberries. But pies were just OK.
★ ELIZABETH WURTZEL Signs
Prozac Nation, an eloquently written account of her depression and the methods used to treat it. 7-8:30 p.m. Friday. Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Rookwood Pavilion, Madison and Edwards roads, Norwood. 396-8960.
JACK YORK AND BRIAN KRUEGER The Cincinnati writers sign Hard Labor, a humorous anthology of anecdotes about being pregnant. 1-2:30 p.m. Sunday. Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Rookwood Pavilion, Madison and Edwards roads, Norwood. 396-8960.
Then, there were the neighborhood-bakery pies: an apple pie from Virginia Bakery in Clifton, a kosher pecan from Golf Manor Bakery, a dutch apple from the Little Dutch Bakery in Mount Healthy. I had breakfast one day at Sugar n’ Spice Restaurant in Bond Hill and went home with an apple pie. Great breakfast, mediocre pie. All these pies were fine in their own way, but the fillings had the bland taste and texture of canned or frozen fruit, and the crusts were ho-hum. It was “home cooking” the way that Kraft Macaroni and Cheese is home cooking.
I'feel sure that some great pies are waiting for me south of the Ohio River, but oddly there are no Northern Kentucky bakeries listed in the Yellow Pages.
LOUISE BORDEN AND GEORGE
Try the West Side, said my editor. Good pie ought to be a West Side value. Nope. I crossed Interstate 75 to visit several neighborhood bakeries and encountered some really bad pie (got lost, too). Doughy, cakey crusts, artificial-tasting, gelatinous filling.
ELLA LYON Sign their ehildren’s books, respectively, Just in Timefor Christmas and My Mama Is a Miner. 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturday. The Blue Marble, 1356 S. Fort Thomas Ave., Fort Thomas. 781-0602.
The nice old lady in the flowered apron was nowhere to be found though I know she’s out there, somewhere. (Maybe I should have tried the lemon meringue.)
Her rolling pin has been passed along to deserving hands. It turns out that the best pie in Cincinnati is
BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP Takes place the fourth Monday of every month at 7 p.m. in the May Sarton Room. Crazy Ladies Center,
TRISET DEFONSEKA Signs and
made by a different type altogether: nitely, but not old. They run ativity and a real affection the weird part: they’re all Road. This is Cincinnati’s Broadway Tin Pie Pan Alley.
There are two exits on
• In O’Bryonville, there and around the corner, the Dinner?
The Bonbonerie tops its pumpkin pies with walnuts and
• On the other end, in Oakley, restaurant, and right next Torta.
For Thanksgiving, the Bonbonerie Road) made pumpkin nut made plenty of other things, tried.) The crust was free-form, etably and spicy. Spilled over cup of nuts encased in a penuchelike Christmas, they will leave chocolate peppermint pie tart ($15). Co-owner Sharon they’ll be back to making different pies (real apples!), the cream
★ BROADWAY SERIES Presents The Sisters Rosensweig, the uproarious comedy by Pulitzer Prize winner. Wendy Wasserstein, through Sunday. TV actors Linda Thorson, Nancy Dussault and. Greg Mullavey star in the Broadway Series’ only non-musical for the 1994-95 season. 8 p.m. weekdays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday. $24.50-34.50. Taft Theatre, Fifth and Sycamore, Downtown. 749-4949.
★ CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK Larry Gallagher's Beehive is a musical tribute to nearly every girl group and female pop artist of the ’60s, with Cincinnati favorite Kathy Wade in the ensemble. Great music, hot singing and check out.all the wigs! The run has been extended through Jan. 8. 8 p.m.
price when purchased noon-2 p.m. the day of the show. 421-3888.
★ ENSEMBLE THEATRE OF CINCINNATI Mark Mocahbee and Robert B. Rais have created Snow White: A British Pantomime with original music by David Kisor. For the uninitiated, a pantomime is a great family outing that allows for audience participation. Through Dec. 31. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. $20 adults; $15 students and seniors. You can eat lunfch in the enchanted forest and receive Snow White coloring book and souvenir photo as part of ETC’s Panto Picnic 1 p.m. Sunday. $10 children; $5 adults. 1127 Vine St., Over-the-Rhine. 421-3555.
★ FAHRENHEIT THEATRE Continues its season with Shakespeare’s holiday classic Twelfth Night through Saturday. A mature, settled performance from an emerging company. 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday. $7.50 adults; $6 students and seniors. Group rates available. Gabriel’s Corner, 1425 Sycamore, Over-the-Rhine. 559-0642.
FALCON PRODUCTIONS Presents Psycho Beach Party outrageous comedy by Charles Busch. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. $7 adults; $5 students and seniors. Westwood Town Hall, Harrison and Montana Avenues, Westwood. 779-0571.
FOOTLIGHTERS Present Godspell, the 1960s musical based on the Gospel according to Matthew. Through Dec. 17. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 7 p.m. Sunday. $10. Stained Glass Theatre, 8th and York Sts., Newport. 793-1435.
FOREST VIEW GARDENS Sit down to a three-hour meal brought to you by singers-servers who perform Festival of Carols. Through Dec. 30. 6 p.m. Thursday; 7 p.m. Friday; 5 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 5 p.m. Sunday. Reservations required. 4508 North Bend Road, Monfort Heights. 661-6434.
JOHN BODY PLAYERS
Re-emerge from the underground for their fifth production of the 1994 season. Brian Griffin’s Jesus-Man and Devil-Guy is a technicolor comedy that brutally investigates themes of power, subjugation and betrayal within the confines of a comic book future existence not unlike 8 and 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. $4. The Dance Hall, Vine and E. Daniels ,Corryville. 684-0774.
MIAMI VALLEY DINNER THEATRE Presents the musical revue Memories of Christmas 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. WednesdayThursday; 6 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 10:45 a.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday. Through Dec. 31. $26.95-34.95. Route 73, Springboro. 1-746-4554.
NORTHERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY The NKU Theatre Department presents Shakespeare’s last play, The Tempest. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday. Main Stage Theatre. Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights. 572-5464. SCHOOL FOR CREATIVE AND PERFORMING ARTS Presents The Gifts ofthe Magi, a play based on the classic O’Henry short story. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday; 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday. $5. Black Box Theatre, 1310 Sycamore St., Over-the-Rhine. 632-5910.
VILLAGE PLAYERS OF FT. THOMAS Present the children’s play, The Mirronnan. 7:30 p.m. Friday; 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. weekends. $3 plus a 50-cent service charge. Village Players, Highland and Fort Thomas avenues, Fort Thomas. 441-3257.
VILLAGE PUPPET THEATRE Presents The Elves and the Shoeinaker. 4:30 and 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 2, 4:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 4 p.m. Sunday. Through Dec. 23. 606 Main St., Covington. 291-5566.
Someday, the End Will Come
Despite searing satire and delightful dwarfs, ‘Snow White’ panto runs on too long
REVIEW BY RICK PENDER
Timing, as we’ve heard, is everything. Well, almost. It’s at least something, and there’s not quite enough of it in the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati’s production of this season’s holiday “panto,” Snow White.
For the uninitiated, ETC’s production is inspired by the English tradition of pantomime, an entertainment dating back the mid-19th century. It takes a popular fairy tale and translates it into a musical production full of slapstick, sight gags, off-color jokes and political pokes. It’s a great concept, and there are a lot of moments in Snow White that are completely entertaining.
Unfortunately, there aren’t two hours’ worth, although that’s the length of the show. Snow White is too long for younger kids to sit through, and its humor is too forced most of the time for the adults who’ve used their kids as an excuse to attend. Too often the audience is pushed and nudged to force another laugh, instead of allowing simply funny situations to tickle the viewers’ funny bones. Some judicious pruning of the original script by Mark Mocahbee and Robert B. Rais perhaps a half-hour or so would have considerably tightened things up for both the staging and the stoiy line.
Snow White’s most entertaining moments are its opening in which co-author Mocahbee and fellow actor Keith Brush sweep the stage, tell some bad jokes, give the rules of panto and generally set the tone for the tomfoolery that will follow. They do some great slapstick in the style of Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello, and they really get the audience into the spirit of what is to follow.
And there are a lot of ways in which Snow White works well. There are some truly funny satirical elements. If you’re quick, you’ll catch a bagful of great one-
Onstage
liners that skewer local politics, national news and more. (The bright 9-year-old who joined me for the performance laughed out loud at a lot of the foolishness that got tossed at us.) But director David A. White III needs to keep in mind that less is more: After a while, overload sets in and it’s hard to appreciate the truly funny things that go flying by.
For example, the Seven Dwarfs are a genuine stitch. In particular, Matthew Dunaway plays an ill-tempered “Bitterly,” and Regina Cerimele is “Gaetrix” (pirn intended), who speaks something that sounds like English but doesn’t make much sense. The rest of the dwarfs Itchy, Sleezy, Sticky, Artsy look great. Except for the seventh, a “big guy” named Alan, the dwarfs have been costumed by Rebecca Senske in short suits with shoes on their hands to make them look dwarflike standing behind the scenery. But they march around too much, and the freshness of their humor becomes tedious as the evening drags on.
David B. Kisor’s original music includes several funny tunes. Snow’s wicked stepmother, Queen Narcissa (Kristin Orr, who vamps and pouts in a style that had the audience responding, as invited, with boos and hisses) is deliciously nasty in “She’s Bad.” The queen has the show’s other funny number in “Is That the Best You Can Do?” an anything-you-can-be-I-can-be-meaner tune competing with Terell Finney, who plays Snow’s Nurse Nanny Fanny. By the way, you won’t recall “her” from any version of Snow White you’ve ever heard: Pantos always have a cross-dressed character, a man in exaggerated drag.
The remainder of the show’s musical numbers (there are 12 in all) miss the mark: They’re too serious or too silly or too full of words flying by so fast that you miss most of what’s being said.
CONTINUES ON PAGE 30
Joanna Parsons, left, plays the prince and Berni Weber is Snow White in ETC’s holiday panto.
Classical Music
BACH’S LUNCH Bring your own lunch and enjoy a menu of light musical fare by Dayton’s Philharmonic Woodwind Quartet. Free. Miami Conservancy District, 38 E. Monument, Dayton. 1-224-3521.
* CINCINNATI MEN’S CHORUS
Begins its fourth season with its annual holiday concert, An Evening in December with CMC. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Included in the program is the world premiere ofNowell by New York City composer Edgar Colon-Hemandez, who will be present for both concerts. $12. Memorial Hall, 1225 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. 861-4042.
CINCINNATI POPS Join con-
ductor Erich Kunzel and special guests, the Indiana University Singing Hoosiers, for a Holiday Spectacular featuring music from Hollywood’s greatest musicals. 8 p.m. Friday-Sunday. $12-25. Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. 381-3300.
DAYTON PHILHARMONIC
JUNIOR STRINGS ORCHESTRA
Conductor Xiao Guang Zhu presents Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, Geminiani’s Concerto Grosso No. 12 in D Minor and Vivaldi’s Violin Concerto No. 6 in A Minor, op. 3. 4 p.m. Sunday. Free. Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio. 1-224-3521.
COLLEGE OF MOUNT ST.
JOSEPH Dennis Murphy directs the Western Cincinnati Chorale, the Mount Chamber Singers and prominent guest soloists from the community in Amahl and the Night Visitors, a mini opera. 8 p.m. Friday; 2:30 p.m. Sunday. $5 adults; $3 seniors and students; $2 children 12 and under. College Theatre, MSJ, 5701 Delhi Rd., Delhi Township. 244-4373. Enjoy the Mount Community Concert Band’s annual Christmas Concert at 8 p.m. Monday. Free. St. Paul’s Lutheran Village, 5433 Madison Rd., Madisonville. 244-1956.
CATHEDRAL CHOIR OF HYDE PARK COMMUNITY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH Neil V. Hamilin conducts the Cathedral Choir and Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah, spotlighting soprano Charla B. Drake, alto Jeannie Vail-Geraci, tenor J. Ryan Stephenson, baritone Steven L. Dauterman and bass William F. Sontag. 4 p.m. Sunday. Donations accepted. 1345 Grace Ave., Hyde Park. 474-9369.
NORTHERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY Presents its Christmas Choral Concert 8 p.m. Thursday. The Northern Kentucky Community Chorus, under the direction of Dr. John Westlund, will present Part I of Handel’s Messiah. Soloists tar the concert are Gayle Sheard-Shrout, soprano; Karen Strow, alto; Joseph Auth, tenor and Ben Besone, bass. 3 p.m. Sunday. $5. All events at Greaves Concert Hall, Northern Kentucky
Queen City and has appeared on Def Comedy Jam. ComicView's Marvin Bell headlines and Scott Huffman is featured, through Sunday. Jeff Wayne headlines beginning Wednesday. 8 p.m. Thursday and Sunday; 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. Friday. Over 21. $6.50 weekdays; $8.50 weekends. Carew Tower, 441 Vine St., Downtown. 241-8088.
Exorcising Demons
Like the lead character in ‘Desperate Measures author is pulled backfrom his grief
INTERVIEW BY BILLIE JEYES
At the beginning of Desperate Measures, the new novel by David Morrell, Matt Pittman puts a gun in his mouth, fully intending to kill himself. Distraught over the death of his teen-age son, he is pulled back from the brink by a timely phone call.
Morrell knows what it’s like to lose a child. In 1987, his 15-year-old son, Matt, suffering from a rare form of bone cancer, died just a few days before he was scheduled to leave the hospital.
Concerts
OVER THE RHINE Cincinnati Folk-rockers, still touring on their hit I.R.S. album Eve, play their first hometown show in four months. 8 p.m. Dec. 16. $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Emery Theatre, 1112 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine. 721-2741.
“One of the reasons that I’d been working very hard was to build some security for the family. When he got sick and died, I suddenly realized, quite naively, that it’s impossible-to have security. That everything is an act of faith.”
In response to his son’s death, Morrell turned to his habitual form of therapy, writing, and produced Fireflies, a non-fiction account of his son’s life. He sees Desperate Measures (Warner Books, $22.95) as the end of a long grieving process.
AFGHAN WHIGS AND THRONEBERRY The Whigs, the first of the ’90s Cincinnati bands to hit it big nationally, are coupled with one of the area’s most recent national successes. It’s the Whigs’ first local concert since last Christmas. 7 p.m. Dec. 23. $10. Bogart’s, 2621 Vine St. 2818400.
“I finally achieved some kind of objectivity about losing Matt in the same way the main character does in the book. The pain will still be there, but at least I became functional.”
Onstage
SORG OPERA COMPANY
Morrell has used his writing to work out many of his demons. One of his early novels, Blood Oath, deals with a man searching for his father’s wartime grave in France, only to find that it doesn’t exist.
Presents special matinee performances of Gian Carlo Menotti’s one-act opera Amahl and the Night Visitors at 2 and 5 p.m. Dec. 18. $10 adults; $5 students. 63 S. Main St., Middletown. 1—425-0180.
“It’s so simple when you think about it. I’d been hiding the fact that my father had died in the second World War and that I had grown up without a male authority figure. As I began to recognize the theme in the books, it began to disappear. Because I had come to terms with it.”
CSO NEW YEAR’S EVE CONCERT AND BALL Celebrating its centennial season, the Cincinnati Symphony offers its New Year’s Eve concert featuring members of the Cincinnati Ballet, 7:30 p.m. Dec. 31. Dinner and dancing follow. $15 and up for concert only; $100 and up for the ball; combo packages available. Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. 381-3300.
In Brotherhood of the Rose, another theme took root: the issue of orphans. “When I had been young, after my mother lost her husband, she had been forced to put me in an orphanage. She said it was only for six months, but I remember it being much, much longer seasons changing. And it haunted me in a way that I didn’t understand. That theme began to disappear around the time that my son died.”
Events
WORLD’S LARGEST OFFICE
The impetus to delve into his own psyche dates to his days at Penn State. “A professional writer named William Ted suggested that I seek out fear as a subject. He compared fear to being like a ferret in my subcon-
PARTY 5-10 p.m. Dec. 15. $8. Proceeds go to the Cincinnati Center for Developmental Disorders. Hyatt Regency, 151 W. Fifth St., Downtown, 579-1234.
ART ATTACKS A festival of art, crafts, music and poetry for ages
scious that would duck and pivot and burrow. If I could find out what I was afraid of, I would have a substantive theme.”
Until 1986, Morrell taught American Literature at the University of Iowa. His books, ostensibly thrillers, deal with a variety of important issues and could be considered didactic, especially by those who disagree with him. His frequent targets, to name a few, include the wealthy elite, the military, religious fanatics and arms merchants.
But, despite his suecess, Morrell wishes critics would take his work more seriously.
“It’s well-known that I am a professor,” he says ruefully. “And it has amazed me that, by and large, with some exception, the critics who have read my book seem to check their brains at the door.
“There is a substance and a complexity of technique in this stuff which I’ve tried to hide so it doesn’t upstage the thrill,” he continues. “But it is definitely there.”
Morrell, a Canadian, is probably best known for his 1972 novel, First Blood, which was made into a series of movies starring Sylvester Stallone. The Rambo movies became a symbol of the Reagan years and the ’80s ethos, a fact that disturbs Morrell.
“They took the plot of the novel, which had been published 10 years earlier, and layered onto it a kind of ’80s attitude, which is so out of keeping with my attitude. The decade that made me what I am was the ’60s, particularly the latter half of the ’60s.
“The intent in First Blood was to write a book that tried to depict the tensions in American society at the time and to say, ‘All right, you want to send young American males halfway around the world to get killed in a swamp for something called the Domino Theory. How would you like it if it happened in your back yard?’
David Morrell is best-known for his 1972 novel, First Blood, the basis for the series of Rambo movies. He says the intent of the book was to ask, “All right, you want to send young American males halfway around the world to get killed in a swamp for something called the Domino Theory. How would you like it if it happened in your back yard?”
UtterKiosk
Suburban Torture
BY JULIE LARSON
PIES: FROM PAGE 27
time of year Barnett also makes pumpkin and plain apple. In the summer, they turn to seasonal fruits. Again, give two days’ notice to order. 321-4404.
Down in Oakley at Torta (3204 Madison Road), Angela Columbus turns out .some impressive pastries. Her sweet-potato pie is beautiful, with flower cut-outs on the crust, encircling a light and citrusy sweet-potato filling ($9). She also successfully dolls up sweet potato or pumpkin, with a tri-level pie of cheesecake, then pumpkin and praline on top ($13). A similar sweet topping is on the sour cream apple tart, which comes in a big pie ($17) or in cute little pies ($2.50). I liked this better when I took off about half the topping: It overpowered the sour cream-smooth and Granny Smith-tart filling. To be safe, allow two days’ notice. 871-6023.
A sour-cream apple pie was ready to SNOW WHITE:
Bemi Weber plays an engagingly vapid Snow White, and the prince is portrayed by another cross-dressed character, Joanna Parsons. The story calls for him/her to remind us of Prince, the singer whose name is now an unpronounceable symbol; she carries a large version of it around with her. Parsons does a great take on the original, but like so many other things in this production, a little of it goes on for way too long. Snow White can be a lot of fun. But be prepared for some stretches of forced
go in the oven next door at The Production Line (3210 Madison Road) when I looked in, sniffing out pies, just before lunch. When I came back later (my days have been organized around pie-eating lately) it was still warm, and I got the first piece. When a pie is really good, the first piece always falls apart, so I got a plate of flaky crust, creamy filling, soft Rome and Winesap apples and a nutty brown sugar topping in no particular order. I was happy. Owner Kyra Alex makes a pie every day this time of year for the restaurant at lunch, or order one whole. ( The restaurant’s special is dinner to go.) It might be raspberry-pear, pumpkin, cranberry or something else. ($10.95-$15.95.) Order one day ahead. 321-1205.
humor. The show isn’t quite up to previous years the best was a genuinely funny Jack and the Beanstalk but it’s worth taking the time to see, espedally if you’re weary of the warm-hearted, smiley-face holiday shows that populate stages tliis time of year. SNOW WHITE is performed Wednesday
How to Submit Classified Ads
must be placed at commercial classified rates. Rates and discounts will be quoted upon request by calling 865-4700 during regular business hours.
Deadline for receipt of paid classifieds is Friday, 5 p.m., 6 days prior to publication. To keep our rates as low as possible, payment must accompany all ad orders. We accept cash, local check, money orders, Visa or MasterCard. Ads can be placed by phone, in person or by mail.
(Note: Deadlines will likely be advanced during holiday weeks).
Please check your ad and report any errors to us within 1 week of publication so that corrections can be made. Publisher will not be responsible for errors or failure to run an
except to the extent of the cost of the
Publisher
of
the right to categorize, edit, cancel or
DRUMMER SEEKS BAND Drummer, age 40, versatile, energetic, sane, looking to play with experienced, focused musicians. Interests include alternative, jazz/rock, progressive blues: anything with some commercial potential. Not interested in playing with drunks, druggies, ego freaks. Please call. Jack 244-2382
DRUMMER WANTED Feeder Needs a Drummer Heavy, Alterna-punk band needs ereative, committed, talented drummer for travels, fun and ambitious pursuits. No flakes. Call 559-9625 or 861-2346.
FLUTE A great student flute. This one was used hardly one year and is in very good condition only $185.00. Call 244-2629.
FLUTE Artley Symphony flute with silverhead in good condition available for $150.00. Call 281-8208 GUITAR Ibanez Explorer guitar, korina wood, molded neck, original condition $395. Call (513)274-9190 or (513)746-5689.
MUSICIANS WANTED Society /Lounge Band Forming small society, swing, smokey-bar lounge band (a strip down version of the big band sound). Need female vocalist, drummer, piano player (keyboard with midi/horns) and others. Please call James 721-6646. Serious inquiries only. PRO BASSIST SEEKING WORK Versatile player with vocal capabilities and studio/touring experience. Call 321-0390
Get pro results & pay budget studio rates. Call Backstage at 292-TUNE
BUSINESS MEETING ROOM:
BOOK KALDI’S MEETING ROOM
For your next breakfast or lunch meeting. Accommodates up to 12. Call KALDI’S 241-3070
MULLANE’S PARKSIDE CAFE
Lunch & dinner. Great food. Art shows. 723 RACE ST. 381-1331
WALL
OF T-SHIRTS
ROCK & ROLL & ALTERNATIVE
PUNK & CULTURAL ICONS SCENTIMENTS/ROCK CITY
2614 Vine St. University Village, 281-1667
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 would you name a female-oriented counterpart to Hooters restaurant?
LOVELAND ART CENTER
Art classes for adults and children
Artist’s club, supplies, custom-framing & do-it-yourself available 683-1888
BEST BLACK BEANS AND RICE ZARABANDA WORLD CAFE
3213 Iinwood Ave. 321-1347
HO! HO! HO!
Gifts by nationally known folk artists
Unique hand carved Santas, ornaments, angels & more.
ONLY ARTISTS, 1315 Main Street
Over The Rhine Tues-Sat 11-5 241-6672
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
THE GOOD DEED EXCHANGE
Send information about skills and services you can contribute. We’ll find a worthy match. Write: PO Box 9316 Cinti., OH 45209-0316
SEND NO MONEY OPEN YOUR HEARTS PASS THE WORD
HOLIDAY GIFT BASKETS
Coffees, Teas, Mugs, Chocolates MADE TO OfeDER KAFFEE KLATSCH
120 E. 4th St., Mercantile Arcade, 721-2233
ANGRY HOUR Fridays, 4pm-9pm DOLLAR NITE Tuesdays
Send responses by 5 p.m. Tuesday to: Back Beat, Cincinnati CityBeat 23 E. Seventh St., Suite 617, Cincinnati, OH 45202 fax: 513/665-4369
Name:
EXPERIENCE THE MUSEUM OF THE FUTURE LIGHT INTO ART FROM VIDEO TO VIRTUAL REALITY Now through Jan, 14, 1995
Address: Daytime voice telephone number:
THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS CENTER
Call 345-8400 for hours and information
“GO BELLY UP!” pool tables, foosball, cheap drinks, no cover!
THE BELLY UP (formerly Kilgore’s) 2900 Jefferson Ave Now open at 4pm
NERVENET INFO SYSTEMS
Largest free library for Techno Phreaks! Hacker *UFO*Magick*Pyro./Kaos*XXX US Robotics V.FC 28.8k*Helpfull SysOp ~751-7515*24 HRS-
AVALON CLOTHING 230 W. McMillan St. 651-3847
CINCINNATI MEN’S CHORUS PRESENTS AN EVENING IN DECEMBER
Friday, Dec. 9 and Saturday, Dec. 10; 8pm Memorial Hall. Tickets $10 advance. Call the CMC Hotline at 861-4042. CHRISTMAS
PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK Needs creative, enthusiastic people to promote our best season ever. Fun team. Great boss. Free tix. Part-time eves. CALL 291-2216 TODAY!
ROCK-CAN-REGGAE
FOURTH ANNUAL FREE STORE Benefit Featuring: RIVERRUNT SPOOK FLOATERS & THE ARK BAND. SATURDAY, DEC. 10, 10PM RIPLEYS
$2.00 off your admission with any canned good.
NEZ PEACH
CD RELEASE PARTY, FRI12/9 Salamone’s, 5800 Colerain Ave. 385-8662 CD only $5 - night of show only.
