NEWS & VIEWS Downtown Cincinnati, Museum Center Both Pin Hopes on IMAX 3-D Page 5 y A *,*8^ ONSTAGE Dayton’s CITYFOLK takes Audiences From Latin America to Africa
Page 24 FOOD & DRINK Daily Grind Should Begin With the Best Coffee Beans
Page 25
Page 7
Volume 1, Issue 8
editor/co-publisher John Fox
GENERAL MANAGER/CO-PUBLISHER Dan Bockrath
managing editor Alison Tranbarger
news editor Nancy Firor
arts editor/essayist Daniel Brown
contributing editors Mike Breen, Music; Dale Doerman, On Stage; Rick Pender, On Stage; Steve Ramos, Film
contributing writers Karen Amelia Arnett, Brian Baker, Maureen Bloomfield, Terry Brown, Elizabeth Carey, Jane Durrell, Jon Hughes, John James, Billie Jeyes, Josh Katz, Jonathan Kamholtz, Michelle Kennedy, Brad King, Kim Krause, Craig Lovelace, Perm Mahler, Susan Nuxoll, David Pescovitz, Jeremy Schlosberg, Althea Thompson, Fran Watson, Kathy Y. Wilson.
photographers Jymi Bolden, Staff; Jon Hughes; Marty Sosnowski
listings editor Billie Jeyes
editorial intern Dennis Breen, Joe Ciborek
art director Paul Neff
ad design/production Mark Dodge, Jeffrey Borisch, Steve Libbey, Stephen Sullivan
display
23 E.
News&Wews
Is it
Burning
tive to tie up traffic with highway construction? Will removing off-duty temptations make for better Cincinnati police officers? 5
DailySrecf
Environment Help preserve endangered tropical woods by shopping
Center of attention: Downtown Cincinnati is not the only potential benefactor of the proposed IMAX 3-D complex at Fountain Square West. Officials of Museum Center at Union Terminal are looking at the theater complex to pull them out of financial woes.
Plus, a review of an IMAX 3-D experience. News, 5 & 6.
State of the arts: New leaders of Cincinnati’s visual arts institutions gather for a first-time forum on outreach, funding and their collective future. CoverStory, 7.
envelope.
Unsolicited material accepted for publication is subject to CityBeat’s right to edit and to our copyright provisions.
deadlines: Calendar listings information, noon Thursday before publication; classified advertising, 5 p.m. Friday before publication; display advertising, noon Monday before publication. Next issuer will be published Jan. 12, 1995.
PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER WITH SOY-BASED INKS
ON THE COVER:
UtterKiosk
Index to calendar listings 14
Music Bob Belden’s jazzy arrangements of songs from the artist formerly known as Prince are so good they could make doves cry 16
Film Susan Sarandon had a chance with Safe Passage to make a mark for mature actresses but blew it 19
Literary Author Nelson DeMille and his politically incorrect guys 23
Onstage CITYFOLK brings the world to Southwest Ohio 24
Food & Drink A good cup of coffee begins with the bean 25
ClassifiedAcfs
How to submit an ad 27
Classified Ads Help wanted, for sale, for rent, music, services 27
Back Beat Answer CityBeat’s question of the week 28
Stepping stones: Victor Paruta (right), owner of a New Age bookstore in Covington, talks of his personal beliefs in John O. Young’s “Spirituality” column. DailyBred, 13.
Expatriate painters:
Kim Krause reviews an engaging show of Americans, including William Turner Dannat (whose “Woman in Red with Mirror” is pictured at left), who learned their craft in Europe. Art, 21.
Photo by Jymi Bolden
Design by Paul Neff
Pictured: (Seated from left) Dhana Bradley-Morton, Barbara Gibbs, Peggy Sambi, Toni Birckhead, (standing) Phillip Long and Mary McCulloughHudson.
Straight Dope
BY CECIL ADAMS
Whenever I watch an old Tarzan movie on TV, right when Tarzan and a few of the intruding white guys are worried sick and looking high and low we suddenly hear the drums.
Tarzan stiffens, puts a hand to one ear, and announces
“They have the girl. She is well, but they will not give her back unless you shut down your mines. They are 200 men strong and have guns. They will be here before dark tonight.
Huh? How did he get thatfrom a few drumbeats? Is there really a way to communicate any message besides “I’m beating a drum” across the jungle like this? And while you’re at it, what’s the story with those smoke signals the Indians were always sending?
Lying Awake in Wonder, Anna Banana, Olney, III.
You don’t believe everything you see in the movies? In the age of Oliver Stone this is comforting news. But there really are such things as talking drums.
First let’s kiss off Indian smoke signals. Some Native American tribes did use smoke signals, particularly on the Plains or in the Southwest, where the sky was usually clear and the view unobstructed. But the message was pretty basic. An Army captain in the 1860s. writes: “Apache smoke signals are of various kinds, each one significant of a particular object. A sudden puff, rising from the mountain heights indicates the presence of a strange party upon the plain below. If these puffs are rapidly repeated, they are a warning that strangers are well armed and numerous. If a steady smoke is maintained for some time, the object is to collect the scattered bands of savages at some designated point, with hostile intention, should it be practicable.” Other means of signaling included fires, gesticulating with blankets, or reflecting the sun off mirrors.
For your chattier Western Union-type communication you have to go to central Africa, where the Bantu family of languages is spoken. Many Bantu languages have drum equivalents, which work like Morse code except that the fundamental message unit is words rather than letters. Drum language is based on the fact that a key determinant of meaning in
Bantu words is high vs. low intonation. In the Bantu language Kele, for example, liala means “fiance” if the syllables are intoned low-high-low and “rubbish pit” if pronounced L-L-L. You will appreciate therefore the importance of keeping Bantu intonations straight.
Drum telegraphy is accomplished
using two-tone drums that duplicate these tonal patterns. You are thinking you see a fatal flaw in this approach: like there’s only one three-syllable word in Kele that’s intoned L-H-L? Of course not. To provide unique tonal combinations, common words are replaced by stock phrases. Thus songe (moon, H-H) is distinguished from kaka (fowl, also H-H) by stretching out the former into songe li tange la manga, “the moon looks down at the earth,” H-H-L-H-L-L-L-L, and the latter into kaka olongo la bokiokio, “the fowl, the little one which says ‘kiokio,’” H-H-L-H-H-L-L-H-L-H-L. This procedure gives drum messages a somewhat discursive quality. The English sentence, “The missionary is coming upriver to our village tomorrow. Bring water and firewood to his house,” parses out to the drummed equivalent of the following: “White man spirit from the forest / of the leaf used for roofs / comes upriver, comes upriver / when tomorrow has risen / on high in the sky / to the town and the village / of us / come, come, come, / bring water of lakaila vine / bring sticks of firewood / to the house with shingles high above / of the white man spirit from the forest / of the leaf used for roofs.” Such
The #1 rated Country band THURSDAY-FRIDAY-SATURDAY ONLY!
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Double Dare
I read your Editorial View
in Issue 7 of CityBeat and the biggest question I had about “the rag” you answered! Why is it CityBeat sounds so much like Everybody’s News?
Because everybody at CityBeat used to be at EN.
Yet many questions remain unanswered: Why the mass exodus from £7V? What is the mission of CityBeat exactly, and how does it differ from EN? Is this mission so different that we need CityBeat? Rest assured, the answer to these questions and 50 cents will get you a cup of coffee.
What CityBeat lacks most is diversity. I put it to you Mr. Fox: Please find a staff member of CityBeat that did not vote (or would not have voted) for McGovern, Mondale, Carter, Dukakis or Clinton and publicly humiliate them by publishing their name. Or would that be cruel and unusual punishment?
If I remember correctly, Mr. Clinton got 43 percent of the vote in 1992. It shouldn’t be too hard to find somebody who didn’t vote for him, and hire that person to write for CityBeat. Hell, even the fascist pigs at The Enquirer print Molly Ivins, Carl Rowan, William Raspberry and Anna Quindlen.
Maybe Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, Jesse Helms, Strom Thurman and Phil Graham are a bunch of idiots. Does this, by default, make Teddy Kennedy,
Howard Metzenbaum, Jim Wright, Dan Rostenkoski, A1 Gore and Carol Mosley-Brown our saviors?
Without a view from the other side, an alternative paper differs from the mainstream media in this way only: Alternative newspapers can’t stand Republicans/conservatives and say so; mainstreamers hate them as well, but wanting to act as if they are unbiased don’t say so.
Mr. Fox, I too remember the first issue of CityBeat. In that issue, you stated that you wanted CityBeat to be like a conversation among friends, not a lecture from above. You preceded this statement with “Cincinnati is its people, not its buildings.... If there was ever a city that needed to.be reminded of this, it is Cincinnati.”
Sounds like a lecture to me. Hopefully you can change this in 1995. Oh, by the way, tell Mr. Tomorrow that time flies when you’re in a coma! James Abt, Cincinnati
Editor responds: Thanks for reading CityBeat James, although you haven’t been reading all that closely. If you ever get past Page 4 with my editorial and the syndicated “Tom Tomorrow” cartoon you’ll no doubt pick up on the essence of what we’re doing here: strong, fair news coverage and timely, interesting features. And if you think Cincinnati’s mainstream media can’t stand Republicans/conservatives, you’re not reading them very closely either.
And Father Makes 3
I found Daniel Brown’s essay “What Is a Family?”
0CityBeat Dec. 8) a veritable stew of self-contradiction, bad history, worse logic and enough straw men to populate all the cornfields in Iowa. In attempting to redefine “family values,” he stretched the term so thin that it didn’t mean anything.
If he did his homework, he’d find that the nuclear family is as old as civilization itself. Even the “extended” families of colonial New England he mentions are extended nuclear families, in that they always had a husband and wife (or some other authority figure) at the center; hence the name. And the nuclear family continued to be the norm until sexual mores began changing in the 1960s.
Even so, many of the “altemative families” resulting from the changes managed to be nothing but pale imitations of the nuclear family. As Margaret Mead once observed, “No matter how many communes anybody invents, the family always creeps back.”
“Friends can and do create families,” Brown says, but nowhere does he demonstrate that such “families” have anywhere near the stability or strength of the nuclear family. Can your friend or roommate show you the same love or concern that your father or mother would show you?
Would their rejection hurt half as much as that from a blood relative? Such arrangements I might call households, but hardly families.
The only place I know where strangers can become friends and even family is the Christian church, where we address God as “Father,” Jesus Christ as “Son of God” and each other as “brothers and sisters in Christ.” Likewise, each church is referred to as a “family.” Such a relationship gives us a great unity and purpose found in no other group.
(Yes, I am aware that other religions use some of these same concepts; I use the Christian example because I know it best.)
Brown tries to show that homosexuals can create families but fails when he all but admits they have to resort to heterosexual models and means, such as the nuclear family. Homosexual couples cannot procreate by themselves, nor can they be “joined” the same way as a man and woman in the married state. This might be one of the strongest arguments against inborn homosexuality: It can’t be fully enjoyed without concessions to heterosexuality. When society abandons the traditional, monogamous sexual mores, the public practice and acceptance of homosexuality is the extreme result and the harbinger of societal decline.
I should also point out that relaxed sexual standards also raise the number of illegitimate children bom outside of wedlock to a single mother. In 1960, less than 6 percent of children were bom to unwed mothers, and that shot up to 28 percent in 1990. Most of these children are bom into poverty, and the weaker structure of the single-parent family tends to keep them there.
When you also consider that most of today’s criminals come from single-parent homes, you have one of the best arguments against “alternative families.”
Changing times do not require a redefining of family values, as Brown suggests, but a reaffirmation of the institution that has nurtured us all. Remembering history, we should bend society to accommodate the family and not the other way around. Like democracy itself, the nuclear family can be noisy, messy, and inefficient but it’s the best social institution we have.
Dan Nattier, Clifton
Daniel Brown responds: I stand by my statement that the so-called “nuclear family” is a recent American invention, rarely found in the world’s various cultures. Please remember that the Christian church, your model family, has suffered several schisms over the centuries and splintered into separate sub-families (most notably the Protestant faith that broke away from the Catholic Church), all of whom still seem to serve their members.
Talking Back
Each week, Cincinnati CityBeat poses a question on its back page. Our staff selects the best responses to print the following week. Here are some of the responses to last week’s question: “If you were a city leader, what would you build on Fountain Square West?”:
BARBARA L. SCHUMACHER: An enclosed, sill-weather roller coaster. It would be the perfeet combination of tourist attraction and downtownworker stress reliever.
JAY SPRINGER: A REAL ice-skating rink that during the off season could be an outdoor cafe. U-shaped plaza will be surrounded by small specialty shops and topped by a majorTetail attraction.
BRIAN EWING: Gallows, for the public execution of all city leaders!
GERALD STEWART: The color green would be nice. A big grassy spot. Make paradise instead of a parking lot. In the center of town across from the square. How about a garden of beautiful flowers there. A wide open space. A place to breathe. Changing with the seasons are the beautiful trees. Erect a building? I say never!
Selling the Salon
Hostingfirst-time get-together poses a challenge but produces a winning combination
EDITORIAL BY JOHN FOX
Happy New Year from CityBeat, and welcome to 1995. There’s nothing like pulling the insides out of a postage meter without touching the date/postage mechanism itself, smearing red ink on everything you’re wearing, and then carefully pushing a tiny wheel with the point, of a pencil to change a microscopic “94” into “95” to remind you of all the joys and opportunities a brand new year offers.
One of those opportunities is represented by this week’s cover story, the first in a series we’re calling “The CityBeat Salon.” The concept of salons is certainly not new, of course. People for generations have been gathering together to discuss issues and share ideas. After being “rediscovered” by the Utne Reader and others a few years ago, however, salons have seen a resurgence in popularity both locally and nationally.
Two forces came together to produce The CityBeat Salon. First, our desire to introduce new ideas in Cincinnati print media. Harper’s magazine has held national “forums” like this for years, and the daily papers here occasionally host round-table discussions around election time, but this salon presentation is unique as far as I know.
The second reason is our commitment to spur discussion of important community issues. By bringing together people in Greater Cincinnati who do not normally meet face to face and placing them in a comfortable, non-threatening environment, we may be able to foster some talk. Which may lead to consensus. Which may lead to action. Hey, you never know until you try. In the case of our first salon, we selected an area of natural interest: the arts in Cincinnati. Natural because covering the arts is one of the paper’s specific missions, and natural because the city’s visual arts institutions have seen an upheaval in leadership over the past year and a half. The leaders who attended the salon directors of the Fine Arts Fund, Cincinnati Art Museum, Taft Museum, Arts Consortium and under-construction Aronoff Center Gallery, plus the education director of the Contemporary Arts Center had never met as a group. Most assumed their positions in 1994.
Based on the conversation, which begins on Page 7, the gathering seemed to be a success. Information was exchanged, concepts agreed to, future meetings set up. And it was all captured on tape for us to hear.
This summer, Tristate commuters using Interstate 71 will be subjected to the same delays, traffic jams and aggravation Interstate 75 commuters endured from 1989 to 1994. Plans for the $36.6 million 1-71 project, which involve repairs stretching nine miles from the Lytle Tunnel to Kenwood Road, are expected to tie up traffic for two years.
In contrast, repairs on seven_major freeways that sustained severe structural damage in the Jan. 17, 1994 Los Angeles earthquake took less than 10 months to complete and cost $250 million an average of about $36 million per freeway. Incentives offered to contractors to get the job done ahead of schedule and disincentives they faced for being late were the key, said Pat Reid, a media information officer for the California Department of Transportation.
Meanwhile, the 1—71 contract being devised by the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) most likely will include disincentives but not incentives.
Disincentives fines for late completion of work also were included in the 1-75 project, said Kim Patterson, an ODOT public information officer.
Incentive clauses for early completion, like those used in Los Angeles, usually are more expensive, Patterson said.
Is it more cost effective to tie up commuters with two years of traffic jams?
"It’s a tough call,” said Steve Bailey, a City of Cincinnati traffic engineer. "We could probably calculate millions of dollars in savings from keeping motorists from sitting in their cars, but the money isn’t really there.”
Good Cop, Bad Cop
Steven W. Weber is the third Cincinnati police officer to be accused of or investigated for alleged criminal activity within the past two weeks.
Weber resigned last week following a charge of felony theft in office. He is accused of misrepresenting the time he worked for an off-duty employer.
News of the charge came on the coattails of the suspensions of two other officers, Claudia Vercellotti and Andre Eddings, amid an investigation into bribery and extortion allegations.
The investigation of Vercellotti and Eddings stems from the arrest of Bengals’ fullback Derrick Fenner at the Parktown Cafe and allegations that the cafe manager offered $5,000 to each officer to downplay the charge against Fenner.
What the two cases have in common is that the allegations focus on officer conduct in the course of working off-duty security details a service businesses pay for.
Col. Kenneth Schneider, acting police chief, has said publicly that the Cincinnati Police Division might try to head off such problems by altering the types of details officers are allowed to work. At issue, he said, are rules officers are supposed to follow when they work outside establishments that sell liquor. Officers, he said, are not allowed to enter such establishments unless there is a life-threatening situation. Schneider said Vercellotti and Eddings violated that rule.
Are police administrators suggesting that removing temptation will solve the division’s apparent inability to employ only officers whose conduct does not lead to such allegations?
“No, absolutely not,” Schneider said. “If you have a bad officer, you have a bad officer. The opportunity, if you want it, is already there.”
BURNING QUESTIONS is our weekly attempt to afflict the comfortable.
News&Views
An Alternative Look at How and Why It Happened
Rescue in 3-D
In addition to spurring downtown revitalization, aims to reverse Museum Center'sfinancial woes
BY NANCY FIROR
Ahigh-tech theater complex is being praised as a proposal that could save the day for downtown Cincinnati’s entertainment needs on Fountain Square West.
But Cincinnati Museum of Natural History (CMNH) officials who proposed the theater complex also hope it saves the day for Museum Center at Union Terminal by generating income to combat a history of ftnancial losses.
And officials at Union Terminal’s Robert D. Lindner Family Omnimax Theater see the complex as a way to get the jump on what might be inevitable: another company launching a high-tech theater that would go toeto-toe with the Omnimax.
A proposed merger between the CMNH, the Cincinnati Historical Society and the Museum Center Foundation, which operates the Omnimax Theater, would create one entity the Cincinnati Museum Center for Natural and Cultural History and Science. That organization will receive income from the proposed theater complex, which will help support all parties in the merger, said Ron Roberts, a member of the CMNH’s board of directors and executive director of the Cincinnati Business Committee.
The merger’s fate depends on a final vote by Historical Society members, expected to take place Thursday.
While the Fountain Square West project is part of a plan to combat deficits, Roberts said last year’s $1.4 million combined deficit for the three Union Terminal organizations was not an uncommon occurrence for museums and arts institutions. Museum Center, he said, simply has decided that it is time to become less reliant on fund-raising efforts by generating more revenue and meeting the demands of today’s competitive market.
Gislason said a combined the Natural History Museum Center Foundation showed it made sense the deficits, Gislason Historical Society contribute
The idea for a high-tech the yet-to-be built with the CMNH’s board, Dependent upon million in private donations, includes:
An IMAX 3-D appear on an eight-story as though they are An IMAX Discovery er roller coaster-like images. A planetarium.
The day before Cincinnati City Council, Union Terminal’s three City Council members (DCI) officials have the perfect replacement
PHOTO:
The 3-D experience that tourists are enjoying in York may soon be available in downtown Cincinnati.
RESCUE: FROM PAGE 5
the conservatory a project that was not guaranteed to repeatedly attract great numbers of visitors.
“The IMAX theater... will be the savior of downtown retail,” City Councilman Phil Heimlich said. “The million-plus visitors this will bring will do more than anything to keep Saks and McAlpins” in downtown Cincinnati.
David Duszynski, director of Union Terminal’s Omnimax, said that the Museum Center-owned-and-operated theater complex would not cause harmful competition for Omnimax, as would be created by a new theater with a different owner.
“If it was another entity in town, say a private group coming in and doing that, then there would be a real sort of competition problem, which is one of the reasons we wanted to do (this project)...,” he said. “In cities where there’s two theaters they’re competing for certain films.... It would have a terrible economic effect on us if we were bidding for films.”
Instead, Duszynski said, more educational films such as Searchfor the Great Sharks would continue to play at the Omnimax while those with an entertainment angle would play at Fountain Square West.
Though not complete, plans also will call for the Fountain Square West project and the Omnimax to promote each other in ways that include running trailers of each other’s films. The benefits, Duszynski said, will not be reaped by Omnimax or the Fountain Square West project alone.
At America's only 3-D IMAX theater,; getting into the show is most of thefun
REVIEW BY STEVE RAMOS
On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, a few blocks up from Lincoln Center, stands a new type of arts center, Sony Lincoln Square. Inside, there are no stages or orchestra pits. With nine state-of-the-art cinemas topped off by a 3-D IMAX auditorium, Sony Lincoln Square is a high-tech temple to the art of the moving image.
Cincinnatians are interested in this place. More specifically, certain officials at the Museum Center at Union Terminal think that a 3-D IMAX theater would be perfect sitting atop a department store at downtown’s Fountain Square West.
Before these 3-D groupies start banging their drum too loudly, though, maybe they should go to Sony Lincoln Square and watch the film for themselves.
There are two experiences for anyone who steps off Broadway and 68th Street and into Sony’s four-story glass atrium.
Ultimately there’s the 3-D experience itself. Before ticket buyers file into their seats, however, they pass through an eclectic, fun house-like environment. On one wall, a bank of video monitors flicker with the latest coming attractions.
Across the room, automated ticket takers suck in credit cards and spew out receipts. Surrounding everyone are fullservice concession and souvenir stands that pulsate in neon. The lobby is mind-twisting, a wild, Technicolor ride
‘Weakening Web’ to Strengthen Museum Budget
Between rental fees and bookings, the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History’s (CMNH) first traveling exhibit is breaking even.
Six months after the museum’s $2.5 million “Our Weakening Web: The Story of Extinction” exhibition started traveling to other cities, one of three traveling versions has opened in five cities, said Susan Schultz, director of traveling exhibits.
The exhibition is booked to open in 18 more cities and CMNH staffers are negotiating another 12 contracts, she said.
If all goes as planned, she said, the exhibition the first the museum has made to travel will turn a $200,000 profit.
The “Weakening Web” exhibit is expected to tour the United States and Canada until May 1998. It is the first of several projects the CMNH has planned in an effort to combat deficits it has faced for the past four years. The museurn’s projected deficit for the 1994-95 year is between $500,000 and $800,000.
Also in the works to generate revenue are the museum’s next traveling exhibit,“In the Dark,” and plans to produce films to play at Union Terminal’s Robert D. Lindner Family Omnimax and other theaters. The Museum Center also has proposed plans for a high-tech theater complex to sit atop the yet-to-be built Lazarus store on Fountain Square West.
The “Weakening Web” exhibit was launched after a feasibility study in 1989 and market research that identified the museum’s best choice for an exhibit topic. The exhibit tells a story of extinction that dates from 530 million years ago to the present and explains how people are affecting the extinction rate and the environment.
“In the Dark” will explore the world of animals that dwell in environments with little light, such as caves and dense forests. Two versions of the exhibit are scheduled to start traveling in fall 1996.
NANCY FIROR
through a swirl of bright lights and loud music. Imagine an innocent fantasy of Times Square on New Year’s Eve brought to life.
The topper becomes a steep escalator ride soaring up to the atrium’s fourth floor. Ushers pass out wrap-around, plastic visors that will make the screen’s 3-D visions come to life. No cardboard glasses to balance on one’s nose here that’s old-fashioned 3-D. These clunky head pieces make everyone look like some B-grade Power Ranger. Welcome to the future.
Sony currently offers two films in the 3-D IMAX format, Into the Deep and The Last Buffalo; most customers see the underwater documentary Into the Deep. Did you ever press your nose against an aquarium and look at the fish swim by?
Well, that sums up what watching this 3D deep sea film is like. Fish flop off the screen and swish before your eyes. Realistic? Sure. Exciting? No, not really. Unless you’re Jacques Cousteau, watching an endless stream of sea life may lose its fascination fast.
The 3-D IMAX format offers entertaining possibilities, but it still comes down to whether a movie is any good or not. Watching Into the Deep, my mind wandered back to a 3-D western, Cornin’ at Ya! (1981). One of its big 3-D scenes involved a baby’s butt being thrust into the audience’s faces. I remember thinking what a waste that movie was. Here’s this cool technology, and the filmmakers use it for creating a baby’s bottom in 3-D. Into the Deep is a lot like that bad 3-
D western. With all its possibilities, the filmmakers come up with an endless stream of fish and kelp. Drama and tension are just as much a necessity to these type of specialty films as they are to traditional studio releases. Creating realistic 3-D images itself doesn’t cut it. New York audiences are being teased with the trailer for Wings of Courage, the first dramatic narrative to be filmed in the Sony 3-D format that’s being directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud (The Bear, Questfor Fire).
IMAX continues to serve as an amusement park-like excursion for the visiting tourist. The full house that I sat in was teeming with families, most clad in out-of-state college sweatshirts. Listening to their conversations after the show, they chatted mostly about how Into the Deep compares with other attractions. “It’s not as good as Captain Eo," said one young boy to his father. Taking the escalators back down, the IMAX audience criss-crosses with hundreds of New Yorkers on their way to see Dumb and Dumber or other Hollywood fare. Here lies the key to Sony Lincoln Square’s success: The entertainment complex offers something for both the out-of-town tourist and the local resident, who mix and mingle under the glass of a lobby that returns the movie-going experience to its opulent heyday.
Cincinnati’s visual arts institutions are changing directions as a slew of new directors have taken over the reins during the past year. At CityBeat’s invitation, four of them Aronoff Center Gallery Director Toni Birckhead, Arts
Consortium Executive Director Dhana Bradley-Morton, Cincinnati Art Museum Director Barbara Gibbs and Taft
institutions (Art Museum, Taft, CAC, Symphony, Opera, Ballet, Playhouse in the Park and May Festival); it is also referred to as The Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts.
Clockwise from left: Barbara Gibbs of the Cincinnati Art Museum, Mary McCullough-Hudson of the Fine Arts Fund, Dhana Bradley-Morton Sambi of the Contemporary Arts Center, Toni Birckhead of the Aronoff Center Gallery, CityBeat arts editor Daniel Brown and Phillip Long CityBeat arranges a first-time meeting among the new directors of Cincinnati’s visual arts institutions
MODERATED BY DANIEL BROWN
PHOTOS BY JYMI BOLDEN
Museum Director Phillip Long gathered with Fine Arts Fund Executive Director Mary McCullough-Hudson to discuss mutual challenges, problem areas and ways to work together in the future. The Contemporary Arts Center had just begun its search for a director and was represented by Curator of Education Peggy Sambi. The setting was an art-filled riverview apartment on the pleasant afternoon of Nov. 30.
Each participant was asked to read the Fine Arts Fund’s Rowe-Joseph and LeBlond-Joseph reports (published in 1985 and 1991 respectively), which make strong recommendations for increasing efficiency and collaborative possibilities. The FAF is the umbrella organization that raises money for the city’s Big Eight arts
Begun in 1926 with money left by the Tafts for the family house to be maintained as a museum, the Fine Arts Fund was originally endowed to support the Taft Museum and secondarily the Symphony. The Art Museum and Opera joined the FAF later, and in 1978 the so-called “Little Three” (CAC, Ballet and Playhouse) came on board along with the May Festival.
The discussion this afternoon was informal, indicative of a newer and younger generation of leaders raised in the 1960s. An edited version of the recorded session appears here. (The full session was transcribed into 59 pages!)
Funding was on everyone’s mind, as were arts education, downtown development and ideas for sharing services. The candor and friendliness within the group, which had not sat down together until this day, was evident and encouraging.
CONTINUES ON PAGE 8
CityBeat: The primary issue in the arts these days seems to be funding of cultural institutions the chase for the dollar, for grants,.for corporate and private funding. Let me begin by asking if the Aronoff Center Gallery will seek funding from the Fine Arts Fund.
Birckhead: It does not receive any money from the Fine Arts Fund. It will not. It never has occurred to anyone to go to the FAF because that’s not our mission.
CityBeat: What is the gallery’s mission?
Birckhead: Our mission is to show regional art, both historical and contemporary. We want to provide space for regional artists to show their work, and we wish to work collaboratively with the existing institutions in order to bring a new venue into being to showcase some of the very things they can’t do.
CityBeat: So anybody in this room can come to you with an idea, or you could come to them?
Birckhead: Absolutely.
McCuUough-Hudson: It’s my understanding that the Aronoff Center, as Director Warren Sumners has said repeatedly, is a break-even operation. That they do not intend to do annual fundraising. That it’s going to be self-sustaining.
Long: CAPA (Cincinnati Association for the Performing Arts, which manages the Aronoff Center, Music Hall and Memorial Hall) will be responsible for
7/ieCityBeatSalon
funding exhibitions in that space. If any of us is asked to either jointly or severally do an exhibition with your blessing, initially CAPA is going to raise some of the money.
Birckhead: That’s correct. It’s not going to be financial or hard cash responsibility for the institutions, but it’s going to provide a different venue. We will have to get funding, sponsorships for particular shows, if they are outside of our budget.
CityBeat: Would one of those possible sources be the Fine Arts Fund?
Birckhead: No. I don’t think we’re the kind of institution that would go to the Institute.
McCullough-Hudson: As it stands now, we don’t have a mechanism to fund anything outside of our major eight except for the Projects Pool. I mean, there’s a study going on right now about the needs of the smaller arts groups that Toni has co-chaired. Anything could change. But, as it stands now, that is the only vehicle by which FAF money can be funneled to organizations outside of the major eight.
CityBeat: Do you see the Aronoff Center for the Arts competing for dollars?
McCullough-Hudson: Maybe I’m being optimistically naive, but I’m of the opinion that a rising tide lifts all ships. Anything that gets people out from in front of their TVs and VCRs is a good thing. Anything that gets people going downtown and going to venues is a good thing for all of us. The Aronoff Center was positioned as downtown economic development, not an arts project. And I was sort of halfway skeptical, as I think everyone was. I can’t speak on behalf of the fundraising that’s been done by individual institutions, but I know we have yet to hear any donors say “our dollars are going to the Aronoff Center instead of to the FAF.” The controversy around the Center and the concern about it hurting Music Hall induced a certain amount of pressure within the corporate community, which were the primary funders, to visibly show that they were not going to abandon the existing organizations at the same time they were building the Aronoff Center. So I think it actually may have helped.
CityBeat: Then the long-standing premise that there’s more corporate money available in this city has been proven to be correct.
McCullough-Hudson: It’s true that there’s money. It’s how it’s chosen to be allocated.
CityBeat: The two FAF reports urge corporations to give more, particularly in a community like Cincinnati, which prides itself on an abnormally large number of cultural institutions. There are less foundation dollars here than there are in most comparable cities. Who are the major corporate donors to the Fine Arts Fund? Are you allowed to say?
McCullough-Hudson: Oh, we publish it. How we look at this is combined corporate and employee dollars, not necessarily the top five corporate donors. Our top five are Procter & Gamble, GE Aircraft Engines, Federated/Lazarus, American Financial and Cincinnati Bell.
CityBeat: As individual institutions, off the top of your heads, who are yOur top corporate sponsors?
Long: We have one. Surprise, surprise. (NOTE: Phillip Long was Senior Vice President of Fifth/Third Bank before joining the Taft Museum in January 1993.)
CityBeat: I was told they’re putting a Jeanie machine in the museum’s lobby. (Laughter)
Long: Which is probably a reason that I’m sitting in the chair today.
Gibbs: It’s hard for me to answer that question because of our capital campaign and the recent nature of our corporate funding, but Fifth/Third Bank, PNC Bank and Scudder Stevens & Clark are
some of the exhibition sponsors.
Bradley-Morton: For the Arts Consortium, in terms of corporate support, I think our top supporters would be Fifth/Third, CG&E and PNC Bank. But not nearly the dollars we’d like and need.
Sambi: I’m honestly not sure about the Contemporary Arts Center, and I wouldn’t want to say since I don’t do development and I’m not the executive director.
McCullough-Hudson: I think it’s interesting. I think you would hear a different list perhaps regarding performing arts organizations.
CityBeat: I haven’t heard Krogers, the Lindner empire, Western-Southern. Any others?
Sambi: Well, Cincinnati Bell right now is sponsoring our virtual reality show. After the Mapplethorpe controversy, we lost a lot of corporate funding.
CityBeat: Do you know specifically which corporations pulled out?
Sambi: Almost all of them.
Long: It’s not so much pulled out as not continuing.
Sambi: But it’s started to change. I think that there has been a concentrated effort on the part of the CAC to regain community confidence, so we are very encouraged by Bell’s support and also that Procter & Gamble has come back on board.
CityBeat: What about the possibility of the Ensemble Theatre and the Arts Consortium becoming part of the FAF? I’m not asking Mary, but how does everyone else feel about their inclusion?
Bradley-Morton: We would not have a problem with that. Of course, it would require us looking at what the requirements are, what the qualifications are and how it’s going to affect us. I am still getting acclimated to the Arts Consortium and to Cincinnati.
Gibbs: Baptism!
CityBeat: That’s why it seems easier to ask the questions now, when you’re new. Because there’s no subtext. Is the FAF considering adding on institutions such as the Arts Consortium and ETC? How does that work?
McCullough-Hudson: We’ve never been approached. The last time we added any organizations was in 1978. This isn’t something we do on a regular basis, so there is no policy. But the FAF Board looks at the kinds of funding any applying organization could bring to the campaign to provide additional incremental funding without taking away from the existing institu-
Barbara Gibbs, Cincinnati Art Museum
Toni Birckhead, Aronoff Center Gallery
Peggy Sambi, Contemporary Arts Center
tions. I think there would have to be some demonstration that an organization would indeed bring in new or other funding.
CityBeat: So what am I to conclude? That you’re open to somebody, at least discussion?
McCullough-Hudson: Sure! We will soon be in a positive financial position with all eight of the major groups, but up until this time we certainly haven’t sought out additional responsibilities when our own organizations have been struggling.
CityBeat: The LeBlond-Joseph Report has a lot of suggestions about collaborative efforts not necessarily programming but more about costs. All eight institutions are now on one health-care plan. Are your computer systems all hooked up?
Long: Some of us are, but not all of us.
McCullough-Hudson: Purchasing, I believe has been collaborative, as are office supplies. One of the
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things that comes out of that is the institution directors meet on a monthly basis,.as do the finance directors and the marketing people. So I think there is a lot of communication and a lot of looking for opportunities to cooperate. But they’re very different operations.
CityBeat: Could others, such as the Arts Consortium, Ensemble Theatre and others in the Projects Pool group, be included in such meetings?
Birckhead: I’d like to speak to that. This is what the small arts review committee is studying at this moment. The committee took its founding from the LeBlondJoseph Report, and we are interviewing organizations other than the Big Eight to see what their service and financial needs are. We have sent out questionnaires to 160 institutions. We’ve had field interviews with 18 of them that have budgets over $100,000 and 20 interviews with some the rest. We have had a series of round-table discussions. And the committee is trying to collate all this data and to analyze it. Some of the concerns are: Can there be shared services? Can there be a person hired to help facilitate marketing, mailing, procurement of bricks and office supplies, insurance, common databases? So, to answer your question, these things are being actively worked on now.
Bradley-Morton: Part of the Arts Consortium’s challenge is that we have a very small staff but a budget of over $100,000. What I have found is that there’s no mechanism in place for those groups who are too big to be considered a small arts group but by the same token aren’t the Big Eight. So at the city and state levels there don’t seem to be funding or technical assistance support mechanisms in place for those groups. So we’re kind of out there floundering alone.
CityBeat: Is it possible that the individual FAF members could, for lack of a better word, help and/or mentor the smaller groups?
Gibbs: To ask the larger institutions to provide technical assistance would be a great idea. I think it’s the nature of arts organizations to maximize their resources. Whether you’re a $50,000 storefront group or a $6 million museum, you’re just pushing the edge all the time. I mean, it’s amazing when you get this group together, as diverse as we are in terms of our institutions, that we all have the same problems. We’re all nodding. Like my staff, our sentences all begin “Well, my staff is small and....” Speaking for the Art Museum’s administrative side, we are lean. We can barely keep up with what we want to accomplish in terms of marketing and development. So there isn’t any excess capacity. Sambi: In theory this type of collaboration sounds absolutely wonderful, but the CAC has been cut back so much to meet the balanced fiscal year budget that collaboration becomes an extreme burden for time, money and energy. Dhana and I are working on a collaborative thing now, and the idea was great, the process was great, but now we have to implement it. And you get right down to the wire and you think “Oh gee, this was a bad idea.”
McCullough-Hudson: What we’re trying to say is: Instead of you having a marketing director and you having a marketing director and you having a marketing director, couldn’t we have a marketing director within the system who’s doing the marketing for all?
Long: Have one marketing director, and then maybe we all have support staff and secretaries.
McCullough-Hudson: We’re starting to see some of that happen where organizations feel it’s not going to impact their ability to deal with their own individual programming. Gus Stuhlreyer, for instance,.is handling both the Opera and Ballet. And then what’s happening at the Museum Center (recently announced merger of the Natural History Museum, Cincinnati Historical Society and Omnimax Theater).
Long: An example of working together is that all the institutions have conceptually agreed to use part of our operating income to fund a data processing body at the Symphony that would be on call for all of us. We all don’t need a technical expert on staff at all times. There is going to be a pool of three bodies available. All eight are gonna get in the loop eventually.
McCullough-Hudson: We do that now. We pay the Symphony a fee to have access to their MIS expertise. They have two MIS people now; they will add a third, and the cost of that person will be shared among the FAF organizations.
CityBeat: According to the FAF reports, St. Louis has hotel and motel taxes that help fund arts institutions’ operating expenses. Operating expenses seem to be the toughest to get funding for.
CONTINUES ON PAGE 10
Hey Santa, you didn't get me any cool duds this year! Yeah! All I got was a pair of stiffy Wranglerjeans!
Dhana Bradley-Morton, Arts Consortium
Phillip Long, Taft Museum
Mary McCullough-Hudson, Fine Arts Fund CityBeat
Long: Putting on my old bank hat, the charitable crowd feels like if you can’t afford to operate then maybe you shouldn’t exist. That we will pay for the special exhibition, the capital project, the icing as it were but if you can’t afford your cake then maybe you shouldn’t be there.
Gibbs: Where do they think the cake is coming from?
Long: Memberships and tickets, however you earn income.
CityBeat: The idea of a tax on hotels, motels and restaurants is recommended in the FAF reports.
Long: It’s been kicked around for a number of years. I, for one, think it’s a good idea. I don’t really know why it hasn’t proceeded.
McCullough-Hudson: Look at the Convention Center and Riverfront Stadium.
Long: Look at the customer base. Roughly 50 percent of visitors to the Taft Museum are out-of-towners who pay none of our operating expenses. OK, three bucks (admission), but that’s peanuts. But a hotel-motel tax would solve a lot of problems.
Gibbs: The hotel-motel tax is fueling San Francisco’s arts renaissance.
Birckhead: And Columbus, Ohio has a big one.
Sambi: That kind of tax has a greater chance of surviving than the idea of a levy, which worked for the Zoo some years ago. But school tax levies have failed consistently for the last few years, and the homeowner is not going to pass
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an arts levy when they’re not willing to pass a schools levy.
CityBeat: Could the Convention and Visitors Bureau help with funding?
McCullough-Hudson: I think we still have a big education project as an arts community with the Convention Bureau and with the Chamber of Commerce. I think, ironically, that the proposed city funding cut (for the arts) has really mobilized us into talking less about “warm and fuzzy” and more about economic impact and downtown development, which is catching the attention of some of these people. We all salivate when we see what’s happening in other communities with hotel-motel taxes.
Our problem is that city leaders have been dedicated first to the Stadium and then to Convention Center renewal.
Adding more taxes on to Cincinnati hotels that are going into bankruptcy has not exactly been a popular subject.
CityBeat: But, by any measurable figure, the city’s arts institutions generate more dollars except for the Reds.
McCullough-Hudson: We could bring a softness to the crass commercialism of the sports. I mean, it could be very interesting as we monitor what’s happening with the Stadium.
CityBeat: What about the issue of the so-called “popular show” as a way of raising money? The CAC’s always had such a holiday show.
Gibbs: But I’ll bet you didn’t make any money on it.
Sambi: Probably not. That’s what they have found nationally, and that’s
one of the reasons the blockbusters are becoming a thing of the past.
CityBeat: Blockbusters are also very expensive. But “popular” doesn’t mean blockbuster necessarily.
Gibbs: Even if you think about the Charles Schultz Peanuts exhibition that’s traveled or things like that, I don’t think those exhibitions make money for the museums. First of all, we don’t budget that way. I think if you were to slice the operating expenses associated with a museum during the time that the Charles Schultz show was on, it wouldn’t cover them.
CityBeat: Education and educational outreach could be the next buzzword that brings together the cultural leaders, the corporate leaders, the city, the government.
McCullough-Hudson: I was at a conference in Louisville in September on arts education and the focus was corporate leadership. CEOs of major corporations talked about the workforce weneed for the 21st century and how we’ve shot ourselves in the foot by cutting out arts programming, because we lose the creative expression, communications skills and discipline that the arts offer. It’s a pragmatic approach. It’s not do you want Suzy and Johnny to be able to draw pictures but do you want Suzy and Johnny to be able to get a job?
Gibbs: I think one of the most heartbreaking aspects of our culture in the United States is that we’ve sort of labeled the arts as “elitist” or for “somebody else.” Arts are often intimidating, that’s true. And more intimidating because we’re not educating our children. I mean, a baseball game would be intimidating if you’d not been to one ’til you’re 25.
Sambi: Football’s still intimidating for some of us.
CityBeat: But I’ve seen for myself how visitors are treated at arts institutions. Receptionists don’t receive. Nobody says “May I help you?” or “Is there something you’re looking for?” It’s your first take that’s often intimidating. And you’re going to walk out.
Gibbs: Those are commercial galleries! (Laughter)
Sambi: Focus group studies gleaned tons of information from people about comfort levels and said the two things that people looked for the most when they come to art museums is where they can eat and where they can sit down. They’re looking for comfort. I don’t think it’s just intimidation. I think a lot of it has to do with the perception of museums maybe not being fun. I mean, it’s hard to compete with the Reds.
McCullough-Hudson: I think we’ve reached the level of so many choices in how we amuse ourselves. When I was a kid I was exposed to a lot of things because there wasn’t that much else.
Just take television, for example. You had three channels and so you watched the Bell Telephone Hour and you watched Playhouse 90. Tthere wasn’t much else to do. I have a second grader whose teacher said that what she’s finding with kids is they don’t know how to ponder. Everything is instanteous.
“Either I know or don’t know it.” And not
“I don’t know it but if 1 think a while
maybe it’ll come to me.” It’s the computers, it’s the TV, it’s everything.
Long: Kids are losing their ability to reason.
CityBeat: What about adult education? Very successful people, business leaders, lawyers, doctors, whatever, often know nothing about art and can feel very defensive. So perhaps there’s a perception or an image problem that there’s still this elite not among children, but with the adults.
Bradley-Morton: Seventy-five to 80 percent of the participants of the Arts Consortium are young people. So we recognized early on that support in terms of audience development is going to have to start with the,babies, watching them as they grow up. When the child is there, they bring mom and dad. What I have recognized is once they come inside the door and go to the galleries, it’s like “I didn’t know you had this.” The other thing is I try really hard to be at the front door. I have a receptionist, but I’m trying really hard to say “Come on in, we’re glad you’re here.” The Arts Consortium supports and is supported by the West End community, and I had to tell our staff not to make the assumption that this community does not want an art gallery or an arts agency. I cannot tell you how much I despise that elitism thing. I really have a very, very serious problem with that.
CityBeat: So you think education of children can be the way out of that perceived problem?
Bradley-Morton: Oh sure!
Long: Well, nothing’s more important than our educational effort.
Gibbs: I just made a department.
Sambi: A department? That’s great!
Gibbs: I think education is an equal partner with the curators. I don’t think education is subordinate to the museurn’s curatorial aspects.
Sambi: But one of the problems that we’re running into is that, since school levies are failing, there is no bus money for the children to be brought to our institutions. Some cities have established what are called bus funds, and basically it works out that enough of an endowment can provide scholarship money where the institutions are actually able to pick up at least part of the bus costs.
CityBeat: You as a group could contract with a charter bus company as another joint effort.
Sambi: We have so many financial needs at the CAC that it’s just' not possible for me to go out and approach somebody to help us start an endowed bus fund to bring children, but it’s becoming an absolute necessity.
CityBeat: The corporations are saying education matters a lot because they need an educated workforce for the future.
Long: That’s certainly the pitch we should use when we go to them.
McCullough-Hudson: There are two different issues here. I think that experiential art education is really critical, and that’s what students get going to the institutions. There’s a whole other subject, too, about art being infused in the schools’ core curriculum.
CityBeat: Both FAF reports ask for
★
Eastgate.)
MILK MONEY
MIXED
voices of Patrick Stewart and Whoopi Goldberg. (Rated G; gloses Thursday at area Loews Theatres; opens Friday at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair, Biggs Place Eastgate and Westwood.)
★ 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. IfPulp 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. (Rated R; at Showcase Cincinnati; opens Friday at the Little Art Theatre, Yellow Springs.)
Hollywood Scapegoat
Older actresses can blame Sarandon’s performanceforfailing to offer them safe passage tofuture roles
It’s one of the sad realities about Hollywood that good roles for women are hard to come by. No news flash here; it has been that way for some time. Just ask the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences who are struggling to come up with five nominations for Best Actress this year.
A Simple Twist of Fate, Steve Martin keeps searching for a hit movie. Unfortunately, director Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle) does not provide the vehicle that Martin needs to jumpstart his career. Next time, Martin better team up with Jim Carrey. With Madeline Kahn. (Rated PG-13; 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 and Turfway.)
★ NELL With her own production company (Egg Pictures), Jodie Foster has emerged as the industry’s most powerful woman. So what does Hollywood’s superwoman pick as her latest project? Nell, based on the stage play Idioglossia, tells a story about a young woman who lives in cabin deep in the woods. Discovered by Dr. Jerome Lovell (Liam Neeson), a local physician, Nell gains the attention of some university psychologists, including Dr. Paula Olsen (Nastasha Richardson). Questions concerning Nell’s rights arise. For these doctors, her secret language holds the mystery to her capabilities. Well, it’s no wonder Foster leapt at this chance to play a backwoods Solomon. Nell is the antithesis of Hollywood star. In Nell, Foster proves that she can tackle a role that is far removed from how audiences perceive her (very smart, articulate and attractive) and makes it work. With Jeremy Davies. (Rated R; at area Loews Theatres.)
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
just the way kids want him turn the child-star into a cartoon. A young boy, afraid ofjust about everything is transported off into cartoon land, where he
with
figures from
novels. What did the kiddies think? Well, this reviewer saw The Pagemaster with a couple hundred children one Saturday moming, and they cheered more during the trailer for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie than the feature movie. With the
READY TO WEAR Just because Miramax changed the title from Pret-a-Porter to Ready To Wear doesn’t mean that this grandiose blunder by director Robert Altman suddenly turns into a decent film. This story that he co-wrote with Barbara Shulgasser brings together an inane plot about a possible murder into the hightension world of the Parisian fashion shows. Too many characters, little story development, no definite conclusions to any of these varying subplots and very few laughs result in a mess that may remind filmgoers of Quartet. Worst of all, Altman ends this movie with a tired version of the old emperor-without-clothes joke. Ifyou enjoy high-fashion, stay home and watch Elsa Klensch on TV. With Marcello Mastroianni, Julia Roberts and a cast of seemingly thousands. (Rated R; at area Loews Theatres and the Esquire Theatre.)
★ RICHIE RICH A little rich boy in real life, Macaulay Culkin has finally found the role that he has been groomed to play. Based on the popular children’s comic book, Richie Rich weaves a rather simple message about the importance of friendship with a lighthearted romp about kidnapped parents. What makes Richie Rich an enjoyable family movie is that director Donald Petrie never weighs the story' down with heavy, adult concerns. Plus, Warner Bros, unveils its.first new Roadrunner cartoon, a short titled Chariots of Fur, in more than 30 years. With Edward Herrman. (Rated PG; at area Showcase Cinemas.)
★ 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 arid 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 Straithaim. (Rated PG-13; at Norwood, Turfway and Biggs
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Add another obstacle to the equation, and make the woman’s role one of a mature age. Few things in the movies are rarer than that.
So Susan Sarandon should be thrilled, right? Not only has she snared a part that allows her to act her age (Sarandon is 48), she even plays the lead in director Robert Allan Ackerman’s Safe Passage.
Mag (Sarandon) is ready to begin a new life. Estranged from her husband, Patrick (Sam Shepard), she plans to move into a new house and a new job. Six of her seven sons have-moved off oh their own. Now with her youngest son, Simon (Nick Stahl), in tow, Mag prepares for change.
The past has a way of stepping forward and affecting one’s future plans. Mag’s husband wants to move back into the house. Her young son does not want to move at all. Then, tragedy strikes. Marine barracks in the Middle East are bombed in a surprise, late-night attack. Inside, might have been her son Percival (Matt Keesler), who joined the Marines to escape tensions with his family.
With her future plans put on hold, Mag must sit and wait for news. The rest of her sons and husband return home and join in the vigil. While waiting, she reflects upon past events and choices. In the process, Mag learns some new things about herself. Times of great worry and anxiety often lead to personal enlightenment. They’re also the type of scenarios that make for great melodrama. When a character practically runs through the gamut of emotions, something interesting normally happens. Sarandon probably saw this role as a no-lose situation. Watch her squirm in worry. See her scream out in anger. Sarandon takes turns at playing moody, angst-ridden and agitated all in one movie. It’s a bit much. The difference between a character who expresses great range and one who represents an encyclopedic mish-mash of personality traits is the difference between an entertaining movie and a bad one. Poor Sarandon. She must hate herself. Here, she receives a cherished part and botches the job. Sarandon could have been a hero. Safe Passage might be a critical hit and a box-office favorite. Yeah, right. Safe Passage will probably sink without a trace, and Sarandon will emerge as the scapegoat for actresses everywhere. Just what Hollywood needs to confirm their biases ^bout mature women, another loser at the box office with an older female lead.
Sarandon’s failure is a bit of a mystery. Every emotion that she reveals poorly in Safe Passage, Sarandon has shone with great skill in some other work. She worried well in Little Women. Sarandon showed authentic anger in the hit movie Thelma and Louise. For director Louis Malle, Sarandon was believably moody in Atlantic City. Her on-again, off-again agitation toward Kevin Costner in Bull Durham was a joy to watch. As an angst-ridden drug dealer in director Paul Schrader’s Light Sleeper, Sarandon revealed an unsavory character
in a sympathetic light. Now in Safe Passage, she fashions all of these quality parts into one erroneous whole. Not exactly a great welcome for stage director Ackerman’s feature film debut. Strangely, his critical acclaim has not followed him onto the silver screen. Ackerman has won Obie Awards for his stage work (A Prayerfor My Daughter), Emmy nominations for his TV productions {Mrs. Cage and David’s Mother) but his work here comes off as blasd. Even Shepard, who normally excels in dramatic pieces {Days ofHeaven, Country, Frances') suffers under Ackerman’s heavy directorial hand that offers nothing fresh or any noticeable support for his actors.
Seven young men (including Robert Sean Leonard and Sean Astin) round out the cast as the family’s sons. Each has a distinct personality. Their varying characteristics function as a kind of Whitman Sampler of emotional types. None appear realistic nor true to life. These characters were finely honed to represent a singular characteristic. There’s the sensible one, the brainy one, the jock, etc. Never satisfied with showing just a littie, screenwriter Deena Goldstone (based on author Ellyn Bache’s novel) throws in the entire kitchen sink. Don’t these people know that moderation is a virtue? It might have saved this movie. It certainly would have softened Sarandon’s fall here and prevented the women’s movement in Hollywood from taking another hard knock. As it is, Safe Passage offers up some dramatic scenes so stiff that they will probably make audiences cringe. The one bright side? Safe Passage will leave viewers with a renewed appreciation for filmmaker Ingmar Bergman.
CityBeat grade: F.
Susan Sarandon and Sam Shepard star in Robert Allan Ackerman’s Safe Passage.
on technology and low on drama.
Too bad, trekkers deserve better.
With Patrick Stewart. (Rated PG; at area Showcase Cinemas.)
Film
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. Kids may eat up the story about a grouchy dad who becomes Kris Kringle. In film, quality and box-office draw do not always match. With the holidays history, will ticket buyers still flock to a Christmas-theme movie? That’s a question as big as Allen’s fake tummy. With Judge Reinhold. (Rated PG; at area Showcase Cinemas.)
STREET FIGHTER Jean-Claude Van Damme might have finally found the perfect vehicle for himself. Inspired by the video game, Street Fighter puts the Muscles of Brussels in a cartoon environment that requires few thespian skills. Van Damme leads an Allied Nations commando team against the psychotic warlord Gen. M. Bison (the late Raul Julia). Steven De Souza has proven his knack for action by writing the successful screenplays for Die Hards 18c 2. Now, he gets the chance to prove if he can direct all the cool stuff that his imagination comes up with.
With Kylie Minogue. (Rated PG-13; at area Loews Theatres.)
★ THE SWAN PRINCESS
Director Richard Rich’s (The Fox and the Hound) 14 years at Disney are evident from Swan Princess’ high-quality animation. In this version, a prince’s sexism, more than an evil sorcerer’s spells becomes an obstacle to young love. How very modem. Parents, you may have some explaining to do. With the voices of John Cleese, Sandy Duncan. (Rated G; at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair, Biggs Place Eastgate and closes Thursday at Westwood.)
THE SPECIALIST Two of Hollywood’s hardest bodies, Sly Stallone and Sharon Stone, come together in a soft-and-limp action vehicle. On paper, the film looked like a winner. The sad reality is a story with too much talk and not enough action. With James Woods. (Rated R; at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair, Biggs Place Eastgate and closes Thursday at Westwood.)
TIMECOP Jean-Claude Van Damme desperately wants to be another Sylvester Stallone. To his frustration, goals once considered easy quickly turn difficult. Timecop pales in comparison to Sly’s earlier take sci-fi, Demolition Man. The Muscles of Brussels may be a second banana now, and with Street Fighter playing to moderate crowds, it looks like that status may be here to stay. With Ron Silver. (Rated R; at Norwood.)
SPEECHLESS Director Ron Underwood’s Speechless tackles the most basic of stories two adults falling in love. Two political speech writers, Kevin Vallick (Michael Keaton) and Julia Mann (Geena Davis) meet incognito in the middle of a tense campaign for a New Mexico congressional seat. Speechless takes two seemingly intelligent adults and forces them to say stupid things and act in foolish ways. With Christopher Reeve. (Rated PG-13; at area Showcase Cinemas.)
STARGATE Cutting-edge special effects wrap around a rather oldfashioned science-fiction epic. Unlike recent action films, Stargate takes nothing seriously. Its childlike innocence is refreshing. Consider Stargate as a hip Forbidden Planet. In true ’90s fashion, The Crying Game’s Jaye Davidson steals the show instead of Robby the Robot. With Kurt Russell. (Rated PG-13; at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair, Biggs Place Eastgate and Westwood; closes Sunday at the Little Art Theatre, Yellow Springs.)
TRAPPED IN PARADISE Three small-time crooks from the Big Apple are soon overwhelmed by the sincerity and kindness from the inhabitants of a small town named Paradise. Bringing together the talents of Nicholas Cage, Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz should guar'antee some laughs. Unfortunately, Junior acts as a painful reminder that a great cast is only half the battle. With Madchen Amick. (Rated PG-13; closes Thursday at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair and Biggs Place Eastgate.)
TRUE LIES Big Arnold Schwarzenegger does not save the day here. A better editor would have. Director James Cameron has made a movie so big that it needs two plots. The part that focuses on
STAR TREK GENERATIONS There is a changing of the guard in the Star Trek movie universe. TV’s Next Generation has pushed James T. Kirk and company off the silver screen. Who would have thought that a seemingly momentous occasion would result in such a dull affair? Generations’ flimsy story about an evil scientist who harnesses a rift in time is high
Oive
VERSATIONS IN VERMONT In conjunction with the exhibition Robert Frank: The Americans, the Wexner Center brings together these three movies by Frank. All serve as a wonderful companion to his print photography and illuminate his skill in all visual media. Pull My Daisy offers a look at America’s avant-garde in the late ’50s. O.K. End Here looks at a New York couple spending a quiet Sunday afternoon together, and Conversations in Vermont is an autobiographical look at Frank’s relationship with his children, Pablo and Andrea. (Unrated; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus.)
Arnold’s home life bores. To no surprise, the action sequences excel. See if the theater manager will let you sneak in for the last 30 minutes; that is the only portion of the movie worth seeing. With Jamie Lee Curtis. (Rated R; at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair and Biggs Place Eastgate.)
★ VANYA ON 42ND STREET In Vanya on 42nd Street, Malle rests his camera on the work of two old friends, Andre Gregory and Wally Shawn, as they run through a rehearsal of Anton Chekov’s Uncle Vanya. Set inside the decrepit New Amsterdam Theater in Manhattan’s Times Square, Vanya on 42nd Street comes alive through the passion of its players. Malle’s film moves beyond the realm of documentary and into the arena of a true dramatic narrative. Vanya is truly a work of love. The result is a rare film that qualifies as beautiful. With Julianne Moore. (Rated PG; at the Esquire Theatre.)
★ WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? Director Robert Aldrich benefits from two inspired performances from Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in this tale of dementia and murder in the Hollywood hills. A crazed ex-child star (Davis) torments her invalid sister (Crawford). Here’s a film that was destined for camp status. With Victor Buono and Anna Lee. (Unrated; 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Emery Theatre.)
WINTER FUN —Those nice folks at the Public Library are always offering free flicks for the kiddies. Appropriately, this selection has a winter 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.)
* WES CRAVEN'S NEW NIGHTMARE Forget Frankenstein and those hip vampires, Freddy outscares them all. Director Wes Craven takes the monster that made him famous and puts him in a twisted movie-within-a-movie plot. With Robert Englund. (Rated R; opens Friday at Norwood, Turfway, Forest Fair, Biggs Place Eastgate and Westwood.)
★ BEFORE MICKEY Dating from 1900 to 1928, these 25 short films from America, France, Germany and Russia reveal the beauty of silent animation that existed before someone named Walt Disney even picked up a paint brush. (Rated G; 1 p.m. Saturday at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis. 317-923-1331.)
Repertory
DEVIL MAN, MACROSS PLUS Two programs reveal the latest in Japanese sci-fi computer-based animation. Devil Man brings back the comic-hero Akira to battle some demons. Macross Plus looks at a test pilot and his super-stealth aircraft in the year 2040. (Unrated; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus.)
REPO MAN Deftly combining elements of science fiction and black comedy, director Alex Cox’s Repo Man may be the epitome of the midnight cult movie. A repossessor of cars discovers something strange inside a vehicle’s trunk. In the process, a number of unknown dangers jeopardize his life. Cox borrows from every film genre that one can think of and still manages to craft a story that is strikingly original. Based on this film and Sid and Nancy, Cox should have been a Hollywood force. Instead, his recent movies (Highway Patrolman, Walker) have faded into obscurity. Too bad. With Emilio Estevez. (Rated R; midnight Friday and Saturday at Westwood.)
★ ROBERT FRANK: PULL MY DAISY, O.K. END HERE, CON-
Theater Directory
DOWNTOWN EMERY THEATRE 1112 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine. 721-2741. THE REAL MOVIES 719 Race St., Downtown. 651-3456.
CENTRAL ACT 1 CINEMA 11165 Reading Road, Sharonville. 733-8214
CENTRAL PARK 11 CINEMAS 4600 Smith Road, Norwood. 531-7655.
SHOWCASE CINCINNATI 1701 Showcase Drive, Norwood Lateral and Reading Road, Bond Hill. 351-2232.
WEST LOEWS COVEDALE THEATRES 1&2 4990 Glenway Ave.,
FEBRUARY 9 7:30 P.M.
Openings
Opens Monday. Through Jan. 31. 10 a.m.4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, or by appointment. Dixie Terminal Arcade, 49 E. Fourth St., Downtown. 651-5885.
LOUISVILLE VISUAL ART ASSOCIATION Oddities such as losing lottery tickets, mattress tags and underwear are part of the exhibit of Bart Kasten’s Permanent Collections. Opens Friday. Through Feb. 26. 3005 Upper River Road, Louisville, Ky. 502-896-2146.
★ MIAMI UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM Distinctfrom Shellfish: Collaborations Diana Duncan Holmes and Timothy Riordan is a collaborative effort between husband-andwife Cincinnatians who combine superior poetry with photographs and mixed-media pieces. Opens Tuesday. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. TuesdaySunday. Free. Patterson Ave., Oxford. 513-529-2232.
NORTHERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY —Metals Form in Chaos will open Thursday with John Moylan’s exhibition of paintings and drawings, Fragments, and the international exhibition Paper: USA/Finland Contrasts and Connections.
Opening reception 4-7 p.m. Jan. 12. Through Feb. 3. 9 a.m.-9 p.m. weekdays; 1-5 p.m. weekends. Fine Arts Building, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights. 572-5148.
★ TANGEMAN FINE ARTS
GALLERY The annual Faculty Exhibition for UC’s College of D.A.A.R will include the works of John Stewart, Roy Cartwright, Denise Burge, Jane Alden Stevens and Nicholas Chaparoa to name a few of the 12 faculty whose work will be on display. Opening reception 5-7 p.m. Friday. Through Feb. 17.10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. Thngeman Student Center, University of Cincinnati, Clifton. 556-2962.
WENTWORTH GALLERY Artists Claerebout, Kam, Jian, W. Shue, Mouly and Schluss are featured in Music. Opens Tuesday. Through Jan. 16.10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday; noon-7 p.m. Sunday. Kenwood Towne Centre, 7875 Montgomery Road, Kenwood. 791-5023.
★ WEXNER CENTER FOR THE ARTS Challenging conventional notions of photographic beauty and blurring the line between art photography and photojournalism, Robert Frank in 1958 produced The Americans, off-angled, gritty images of America and Americans. The last remaining complete set of prints now on national tour stops at the Wexner Center. Opens Saturday. Through March 26.10
a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday; noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Ohio State University, North High Street at 15th Avenue, Columbus. 614-292-3535.
840 GALLERY Photographer Sam Olfano exhibits his summer research fellowship work of desert images. Opens Monday. Through Jan. 20. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays.
D.A.A.P. Building, University of Cincinnati, Clifton. 556-2962.
Galleries & Exhibits
ARTERNATIVE GALLERY
Acrylics on paper by Lynn Arnold Back Room Sale of eclectic art pieces and wearable art through Jan. 31. 10 a.m.-7 p.m. MondayWednesday and Friday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday; noon-5 p.m. Sunday. 2034 Madison Road, O’Bryonville. 871-2218.
ARTS CONSORTIUM OF CINCINNATI, UNION TERMINAL —Art for City Walls is a yearlong exhibit focusing on local artists. 1-5 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; noon-5 p.m. weekends. Union Terminal, 1301 Western Ave., Queensgate. 241-7408.
ARTS CONSORTIUM OF CINCINNATI, LINN STREET 1-8 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekends. 1515 Linn St., West End. 381-0645.
BABA BUDAN’S ESPRESSO BAR The photographs of Cincinnatian Derek Fenner will be on display through January. 7 a.m.11 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 7 a.m.1 a.m. Friday; 11 a.m.-l a.m. Saturday; 11 a.m.-l 1 p.m. Sunday. 243 Calhoun St., Clifton. 221-1911.
BASE ART Voices highlights works by 18 Cincinnati art therapists. Noon-4 p.m. Saturdays and by appointment. 1311 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. 491-3865.
BEAR GRAPHICS AND ILLUSTRATION GALLERY Noon 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. 105 E. Main St., Mason. 398-2788.
BLEGEN LIBRARY A photo exhibit focusing on Quadres, the first African-American student organization at the University of Cincinnati, established in 1934, is on display in the lobby, through Jan. 31. Taft in Caricature, an exhibit of historical political cartoons is on display in the University Archives the eighth floor, through Feb. 28. Noon-10 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, 1-10 p.m. Sunday.
BORDERS CAFE ESPRESSO Cincinnatian Richard Brown’s works will be hanging in the coffee bar through Jan. 31. 9 a.m.-l 1 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday. Borders Books and Music, 11711 Princeton Road, Springdale. 671-5852.
★ TONI BIRCKHEAD GALLERY Group show focusing on abstract painting highlights the works of Tarrence Corbin, Alan Crockett, Stuart Fink, Peter Gooch, Frank Herrman, Tom Levine and Thom Shaw. Opens Monday. Through Feb. 24. 10 a.m.4 p.m. weekdays, Saturday by appointment. 342 W. Fourth St., Downtown. 241-0212.
MORE, PAGE 2 2
Timeless Themes
19th century Expatriate Americans lookfor technique
REVIEW BY KIM KRAUSE
The Taft Museum, well-known for mounting small but substantial temporary exhibitions in its courtyard galleries, is presenting The Expatriate American Artist and Other Selections From a Cincinnati Collection. The show includes 30 works, mostly paintings, from a private Cincinnati collection. This exhibition provides an opportunity to view the accomplishments of several celebrated 19th century American artists who went abroad in search of inspiration, influences and a supportive community.
Except for a temporary shift to New York after WWII, Europe has been the center of the art world for centuries. During the mid- to late-19th century, American artists, hoping to learn from the very best, packed their palettes and chisels and set off to the major European art capitals to pursue their careers. In London, Paris and Munich they found masters who were able to pass down the skills, insights, even the passion necessary to become artists of true excellence. The art of the period required a basis in understanding form through drawing, a prerequisite for painting. Then, as now, only a few artists possessed the erudition of spatial notation and the keen ability to instill that knowledge in the hungry student.
These American expatriates found another desirable component to a successful career in Europe, the patron. It was no secret that wealthy Americans traveled abroad to purchase art from the recognized masters, as well as contemporary art. Networks of art academies, studios, salons and galleries simply didn’t exist in the United States. So, in addition to learning, working as an artist in Europe could provide a living.
Cincinnati-born Elizabeth Nourse is featured with four oil paintings and two watercolors. She studied at the McMicken School of Art (later to become the Art Academy of Cincinnati) for seven years before graduating in 1881. She returned several years later to continue studying the figure before departing for Europe in 1887. Settling in Paris, she attended the Academie Julien and soon afterward had work accepted at the Salon.
Nourse was an artist of exceptional facility and pow-
with the old bridge and the water of a quiet afternoon. the French painters and clean delicate light and phonic use of color. “Grand Stanley cool saturated allows the method
Elizabeth Infant,”
This is installation Gallery’s One ing could “Landscape” work by their color value to light and missed.
Figure notables Sprague Henry Mosler, Two other paintings by Frank Duveneck, is probably painted in Venice the Munich countryside This work possesses all would later become associated and exceptional manipulation tones to form the equivalency beginning to abandon an exploration of light his time between the many years before returning dean of the Art Academy
The other painting like Duveneck, received Bavarian Academy in in 1879. “Femme en Rouge for “The Woman in Red” Salon of the Paris Exposition portrait of a woman, in gown, and coming five still caused quite a stir. offers up to the viewer
All the works in the engagement by
artist
PHOTO: TONY WALSH/COURTESY OF THE TAFT MUSEUM
Art
Cincinnati’s earlier artists including Frank Duveneck, John Henry Twachtman, Herman and Bessie Wessel, Charles Meurer, William Louis Sonntag, John Weis, Charles Salis Kaelin and Henry Mosler. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.'-6 p.m. Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday. 401 Race St., Downtown. 762-5510.
CAFE ELITE Photographs by Donald Elliot features modem sculpture and the human form, as well as studies of natural flora. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily. 364 Ludlow Ave., Clifton. 281-9922.
CLOSSON’S GALLERY KENWOOD Continuing exhibition of maritime paintings and prints by Cincinnati favorite John Stobart through Saturday. Wildlife oils and prints by John Ruthven through Friday. Reflective Moments spotlights paintings by Adeline Hoagland. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday. 7866 Montgomery Road, Kenwood. 891-5531.
CARNEGIE ARTS CENTER
Heaven and Earth features the oils of Kentuckian Frances Hemmer in McCarthy Gallery. Acrylic paintings by Cincinnatian Mary Linn White in Downstairs Gallery.... Beautiful Things Remembered As The Art of Healing Hands highlights mixedmedia works by the physicians of St. Elizabeth Hospital in Downstairs Gallery. 10 a.m.-5:30
★ CELIO! Includes paintings by Roger Pelton, Rocky Woods and Lisa Schare. Good work from emerging regional talent. 11 a.m.-7
GALLERY 99 Noon-6 p.m. Thursday and Sunday; noon-9 p.m. Friday-Saturday. 1101 St. Gregory St., Mount Adams. 651-1441.
GLASS CRAFTERS STAINED
p.m. Wednesday-Saturday. 1341 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. 352-0090.
GLASS STUDIO —Features handcrafted stained and beveled glass miniatures, windows, lamps, mirrors and more. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday. 11119 Reading Road, Sharonvifle. 554-0900.
CHIDLAW GALLERY, ART ACADEMY OF CINCINNATI 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. Art Academy of Cincinnati, Eden Park. 562-8777.
★ GOLDEN RAM GALLERY Features antique fishing equipment. Sounds interesting. Through Tuesday. 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.
CINCINNATI ART CLUB Club members are presenting works at the Golden Lamb restaurant in Lebanon, 27 S. Broadway, through Saturday. 621-8373.
HARROGATE Works exhibited are mostly of maritime themes including 19th and 20th century paintings, ship models and artifacts. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. MondaySaturday. 3075 Madison Road, Oakley. 321-6020.
CINCINNATI ART GALLERIES Panorama ofCincinnati includes works by Henry Mosler and William Sonntag. Through January. 9 a.m.5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. 635 Main St., Downtown. 381-2128.
HEBREW UNION COLLEGE
SKIRBALL MUSEUM —Aishet Hayil: Woman of Valor features paintings, textiles and sculptures. Through March. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 2-5 p.m.
★ CIRCLE CD’S & RECORDS
Holiday exhibition of limited-edition silkscreen prints and Rock concert posters by artists such as Derek Hess, Frank Kozik, Linsey Kuhn, M. Getz, J. Hollans and Uncle Charlie. A revived art form reminiscent of Haight Ashbury. Through Jan. 16. 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. 5975 Glenway Ave., Western Hills. 451-9824.
CIVIC GARDEN CENTER OF GREATER CINCINNATI 9 a m4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday. 2715 Reading Road, Avondale. 221-0981.
★ CLOSSON’S GALLERY DOWNTOWN Permanent collection includes some of the best art by
Sunday. 3101 Clifton Ave., Clifton. 221-1875.
★ HEIKE PICKETT GALLERY
A one-person show by Steve Armstrong featuring carved and painted wooden pieces with wooden gear mechanisms; one 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, noon-5 p.m. Saturday. 1209 Main St., Overthe-Rhine. 421-7883
★ 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, Katleen Sterck and Terry Rozo and the X-Art Foundation. Known for its exquisite installations, in situ presents landscape works from fresh, well-conceived perspectives. Through Jan. 21. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. 1435 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. 651-4613. INNER SPACE DESIGN Presents one-of-a-kind necklaces by New York jewelry designer Nancie Taphom. Through Feb. 28. Contemporary Works on Paper, a collection of works by Kelly, Dine, Motherwell, Rauchenbert, Indiana and Lichtenstein ends Saturday. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday. 2128 Madison Road, O’Bryonville. 533-0300.
★ JAMAR GALLERY Works by five artists include photographs by Boris Yusupov titled “New Eyes on Cincinnati”; oils and watercolor/ papercuts by Russian artist Oleg Lazarenko; oils by C. Savchenko; floral watercolors by Crimean artist Elvira Letz; and the cloisonne enamel pieces of Joseph Treppetti. Jamar’s ongoing interest in Russian art is manifested again. Through Jan. 31.... Ghani Ghupor, dean of the Art Department of Xinjiang Art College in Urumqi, China, will be the artist-in-residence during January and will accept appointments to paint portraits. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday. 135 W. Fourth St., Downtown. 333-0022.
JULIA’S GALLERY OF PHOTOGRAPHY Sixty Years of Photography is a retrospective of the work of Ruth Bernhard, a pioneer of American photography, who focuses primarily on the nude figure and still life. Through Feb.
15. Civic Center Shops, 410 West Vine St., Lexington, Ky. 606-225-8260.
KZF GALLERY Paintings and drawings by Ken Landon Buck; sculpture by Barbara Beatrice; paintings and prints by B.B. Hall. Through March. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. 655 Eden Park Drive, Walnut Hills. 621-6211.
LEFTHANDED MOON Polaroid transfers by Ann Riley. Through Wednesday. 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Saturday. 48 E. Court St., Downtown. 784-1166.
MACHINE SHOP GALLERY Chairs, an exhibition by University of Cincinnati industrial design students, will be on display through Feb. 10.11 a.m.-2 p.m. TuesdaySaturday. 100 E. Central Parkway, Over-the-Rhine. 556-1928.
★ MALTON GALLERY Foreign Exchange: New Talentsfrom the Old Countries features the etchings of Sweitlan Kraczynam, a Polish/Russian-bom artist working now in Florence, Italy; the pastel drawings of Tatjana Krizmanic, a native of Yugoslavia currently residing in Nova Scotia; and the paintings on handmade paper of Vladzimir Isupov, born in Siberia now living in Russia. A refreshing exhibit of new Russian artists. Through Jan. 31. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday. 2709 Observatory Ave., Hyde Park. 321-8614.
★ MASON FINE ART GALLERY
A well-curated exhibition showcasing mostly regional talent and featuring silverpoints, watercolors and egg tempera paintings by Cincinnatians Ken Landen Buck and Jan Brown Checco, and New Yorkers Irwin Greenberg and Kenney Mencher. Buck’s work is a must-see. Through Jan. 15. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 6-9 p.m. Wednesday. 108 W. Main St., Mason. 398-7469.
MILLER GALLERY The paintings of Northern Illinois University Professor of Art Ben Mahmoud will be on display through Feb. 3. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday. 2715 Erie Ave., Hyde Park. 871-4420.
★ MULLANE’S PARKSIDE CAFE
Oils and acrylics by Charles Grund. Good to see this multi-talented regional artist re-emerge. Through Saturday. 11:30 a.m.-lO p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-ll p.m. Friday, 5-11 p.m. Saturday. 723 Race St., Downtown. 381-1331.
★ OLMES GALLERY Lynda Riddle’s explosive career continues on the mark, and her new works currently 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.
★ ONE SHOT GALLERY Presents new works by Cincinnati artist Mils, with vintage political cartoons by fellow Cincinnatian Claude Shafer. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays, weekends by appointment. 658 Main St., Downtown. 721-1193.
ONLY ARTISTS 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 De Luco furniture. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. 1315 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. 241-6672.
★ LAURA PAUL GALLERY An elegant mix of work in a classy gallery setting, The Art of Giving... The Giving ofArt highlights original works by Enrico Embroli and Bruce Hall, sculpture by Charles Herndon and jewelry by Angela Cummings. Through Jan. 30.10 a.m.-4 p.m. MondaySaturday. 49 E. Fourth St., Dixie Terminal, Downtown. 651-5882.
★ GRETA PETERSON GALERIE Swedish folk art is view in 20 Days ofChristmas, which also includes new paintings, textiles and decorative art. The gallery continues its strong tradition in eclectic international exhibitions. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. 7696 Camargo Road, Madeira. 561-6785.
RAYMOND GALLERY Permanent collection of Cincinnati artists. 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 You can see X-rays and family portraits of dolls in Heidi Steinke’s new exhibition, Dollhouse. Through Jan. 25.1-4 p.m. weekdays, noon-5 p.m. weekends. 1125 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine. 684-0102.
CARL SOLWAY GALLERY 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 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 Art From the Heart showcases large and small works on canvas and paper by M. Katherine Hurley, winner of a recent Artist’s magazine award. A good look at conservative landscape work. Studio 701 of the Pendleton Art Center, 1310 Pendleton St., Over-the-Rhine. 241—1123. SUB.GRESSIVE By appointment only. 1412 Main St., Over-theRhine. 651-4613. TOON ART GALLERIES Disney Dimensions highlights limited-edition and one-of-a-kind 3-D pieces from raku pottery to collector plates and jewelry. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. By appointment Monday. 21 E. Fifth St., Westin Hotel, Downtown. 6513500.
UC CLERMONT COLLEGE ART GALLERY 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. 4200 Clermont College Drive, Batavia. 732-5224.
★ UC MEDICAL SCIENCE LIBRARY Paper, scissors, rock features construction, watercolor, pastel and sculpture by Jerome Olander and Diane Szczepaniak. A thoughtful look at the "new” abstraction and wall sculptures (constructions). Through Jan. 13. 231 Bethesda Ave., Clifton. 558-5627.
PATRICIA WEINER GALLERY The holiday exhibit features recent acquisitions of paintings by European and American artists of the 19th and 20th centuries. Through Friday. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday. 9352 Main St., Montgomery. 791-7717.
WENTWORTH GALLERY Country Landscape features the works of Soler, Parsons, Anderson and Preston. Through Monday. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, noon-6 p.m. Sunday. 7875 Montgomery Road, Kenwood Towne Centre, Montgomery. 791-5023.
WOMEN'S ART CLUB OF CINCINNATI Parisian Gallery, Forest Fair Mall, 1047 Forest Fair Drive, Fairfield. 922-3585.
★ WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERIES Perpetrators, lithographs of Nazi war criminals by Sid Chafetz, and War Through Children's Eyes, a collection of art by refugee children in the Bosnian and Croation areas. A superb exhibition of political art. Through Jan. 29. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, noon-5 p.m. weekends. Creative Art Center at Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio. 513-873-2978.
YWCA WOMEN’S ART GALLERY Celebrate! features watercolors by Jane McCullock and an exhibition by members of the Art Bank cooperative. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. 898 Walnut St.,
The Prehistoric Earthworks of the Central Ohio Valley, a photographic show by Cincinnati artist Alice Weston, has been extended through Sunday. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 1-5 p.m. weekends. $2 adults; $1 .students and seniors. Devou Park, Covington. 491^1003.
BENNINGHOFFERN HOUSE This restored Victorian mansion, built in 1861, provides the setting for the Butler County Historical Museum. 1-4 p.m. TuesdaySunday. $1 adults; free children 12 and under.
BUCKINGHAM LODGE A preCivil War house now home to the Indian Hill Historical Society. By appointment only. Camargo Road, Indian Hill. 891-1873.
CAREW TOWER OBSERVATION DECK Come to the top of the tallest building in Cincinnati for a breathtaking view of the city’s seven hills. 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. $2 adults; $1 children 5-12; free to children under 5. 441 Vine St., Downtown. 579-9735.
CINCINNATI CHILDREN’S MUSEUM Newly opened interactive museum presents a musical mystery with the twins from TVs Full House. 12:30, 2 and 3 p.m. Saturday. Celebrate the Centennial Birthday of the National Council of Jewish Women. 2 p.m. Sunday.... Pre-registration is required for the six-week computer workshop for children, FUTUREK1DS. 10-10:45 a.m Tuesday for ages 4-5 and 4-4:45 p.m. Tuesday for ages 6-7. Museum hours: Schools only, 10 a.m.-noon Wednesday-Friday. General admission, noon-5 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday. $6 admission; children under 5 pay their age in dollars. Annual membership is $55 for two people (at least one adult); $75 for a family of three; $95 for a family of four. Those with than four family members may add $20 for each additional person. Longworth Hall, 700 W. Pete Rose Way, Downtown. 421-5437.
CINCINNATI FIRE MUSEUM Featuring the permanent exhibit The Early Volunteer Fire Fighters of Cincinnati. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays, noon-4 p.m. weekends. $2.50 adults; $1.50 children 2-12. 315 W. Court St., Downtown. 621-5553.
CINCINNATI HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM Temporary exhibits include Winter Light: Festive Art From the Collection of The Cincinnati Historical Society, paintings by Frank H. Myers, John H. Twachtman and John Weis and etchings by Caroline Williams and E.T. Hurley; through Jan. 15.... Model Railroads includes balloon-stack wood burners of the mid-1800s; through Jan. 15. Permanent exhibits include Cincinnati: Settlement to 1860 a re-creation of the city’s origins from a Western frontier outpost to a booming manufacturing center, and Cincinnati Goes to War, a portrait of the homefront during WWII. Museum hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. $4.95 adults; $2.95 children; members free. Children ages 3-12 will gain free admission to exhibits by presenting a piece of paper with the word “Weatherschool” written on it. Museum Center at Union Terminal, 1301 Western Ave., Queensgate. 287-7030.
CINCINNATI MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY The new computer-animated simulation film Dino Island takes viewers on a rollercoaster ride in The Reactor, a virtual reality theater with seats that move and shake. $3. Through Sunday. $4.95 adults; $2.95 children 3-12; children ages 3 and under free; members free. Children ages 3-12 will gain free admission to exhibits by presenting a piece of paper with the word "Weatherschool'' written on it.... Museum hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. Museum Center at Union Terminal, 1301 Western Ave., MORE, PAGE 24
Politically Incorrect White Man
Nelson DeMille’s newest novel harkens back class guys were knights in shining armor
BY BILLIE JEYES
to a time when middle-
With all the recent hoopla about spousal abuse, Nelson DeMille’s latest novel, Spenserville (Warner, $23.95), couldn’t have come at a better time.
The husband, Cliff Baxter, is so despicable it is hard to believe his wife, Annie, could have stayed with him for all these years. In fact, he is so loathsome he is a caricature, not a character.
Enter Keith Landry, Annie’s childhood sweetheart whom she hasn’t seen since he was sent to Vietnam. A victim of the Cold War’s demise, his services are no longer required by the government, and he is back in town ready to reclaim the woman he loves.
With her children safely out of the nest and in college, Annie is ready to run off with Keith. But Cliff isn’t ready to let her go and is prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to stop her from leaving.
“I describe Cliff as the class bully,” says DeMille. “And sometimes the bully becomes the sheriff. If you want to become a sheriff, you’re either a dedicated publie servant or you’re a psychotic.”
Baxter falls into the latter category.
“I think that making Cliff Baxter so bad, it’s hard to believe why Annie would stay. But women do. Especially if they’re not being physically abused. A lot of women stay because of the children. They sense a good provider.”
A different country
Spencerville is essentially an old-fashioned love story with Annie as the damsel in distress and Keith as the knight in shining armor. It is certainly not a novel of female empowerment. You get the sense that, without Keith, Annie would spend the rest of her days with her brutish husband.
tation grenades and wasn’t a big thing, a lot of hysteria.”
It was not until DeMille he started to write.
“I was writing a Vietnam interested in it. They in those days. The thing tainment industry was Coming Home and The those rare cases where vanguard of a movement.
OK to talk about.”
writers. ...”
DeMille describes it as “a female rescue fantasy” and “the male fantasy of recapturing youth.” “Spencerville is a breather for me,” he says, almost
DeMille is dismissive ers. “Some of these novels, really introspective pieces ers’ fault. It’s become gone through a massive
PHOTO: GINNY DEMILLE
Attractions
Queensgate. 287-7020.
CINCINNATI PLANETARIUM
Sting narrates Prokofiev’s family classic, Peter and the Wolf: A Laser Tale, which opens Friday. Native American Skies opens Saturday. 1 and 3 p.m. weekends
Other continuing shows are Laser Doors, 8:15 p.m. ThursdaySaturday; Lazerpalooza, 9:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday; Laser Zeppelin, 10:45 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; and Laser Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon, midnight Thursday and Friday. 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 has been extended through Sunday. 5-9 p.m. Ice skating, free with zoo admission, continues 10 a.m.-4 p.m. each weekend in January. Skate rentals cost $3 per pair. Sunday-Thursday; 5-9:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday.
DELHI HISTORICAL SOCIETY A restored 1880 farmhouse. Closed until Feb. 5. 468 Anderson Ferry, Delhi Township. 451-4313.
CINSMORE HOMESTEAD A historic farmstead built in 1841-42. 1-5 p.m. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. $3 adults; $2 seniors; $1.50 children under 12. 5654 Burlington Pike, Burlington, Ky. 586-6117.
★ FOUNTAIN SQUARE CHRISTMAS VILLAGE See the lights' and trimmed trees, visit Santa’s toy-making village and then skate awhile. Ice-skating rink open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday; closed Sunday. Starting Tuesday, the ice-skating rink will be open noon-8 p.m. MondayWednesday; noon-5 p.m. Thursday; noon-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. 684^945.
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 Monday. 151
★
Rococo Revival furniture and an exceptional collection of early lighting devices. Ghost of Christmas Past features antique trees including an aluminum tree from the 1950s, a revolving tree with bubble lights and a 1930s Marklin table-top train display. 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. Through Sunday. Starting Saturday, the hours are 1-6 p.m. weekends. $4. 412 E. Second St., Covington. 261-9000.
PROMONT Completed in 1867, this Italianate villa belonged to forOhio Gov. John M. Pattison. All rooms are furnished with period antiques. Victorian Christmas runs through mid-January. 1:304:30 p.m. Friday and Sunday. $2 adults; $1 children; group tours can be arranged. 906 Main St., Milford. 831^704.
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
Guided tours of eight 19th centuiy 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 and brunch 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.
jVILDER-SWAIM HOUSE This 1832 farmhouse, originally owned by the Wilder family, is now home to the Montgomery Historical Society. By appointment only. Free. Zig-Zag and Cooper roads, Montgomery. 793-0515.
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT
NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE
Designated by Congress in 1969, this Greek Revival-style house has been restored to its appearance during the years Taft lived here as a child and young adult, and serves as the only memorial to the nation’s 27th president and 10th chiefjustice. Free. 2038 Auburn Ave., Mount Auburn. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. daily. Closed Monday. 684-3262.
Promoting Understanding
CITYFOLK
brings the music and dance of the world to Southwest Ohio
BY RICK PENDER
Onstage
From Africa to the American Plains, from French Canada to Latin America, CITYFOLK will present some of the most arresting concerts to be heard in Southwestern Ohio this year.
Over its 14-year history, CITYFOLK, Dayton’s traditional and ethnic arts organization, has presented concerts of traditional music and dance from around the world. On Saturday, the focus looks south of the border with a Salsa Dance Party featuring Impacto Nuevo at the Dayton Polish Club.
Though the Polish Club accommodates a seated audience, CITYFOLK regulars know the dance floor won’t stay empty for long. Indeed, the 10-piece Latin band’s contagious music is made for movement. Impacto Nuevo’s Salsa tunes mix Jazz with dance rhythms from the Caribbean. The concert’s co-sponsor, the Puerto Rican Cultural Society of Dayton, will provide Latin dance lessons 7-8 p.m. as part of the program.
The Salsa Dance Party is the second of three CITYFOLK dance events during the 1994-1995 season. A Delta Blues Party was thrown in November, and an Irish Dance Party, or ceili, is on tap for May 20.
Back for the second year will be Cleveland’s Morning Star, a ceili band that models itself on the driving rhythms and compelling melodies of the renowned Bothy Band.
According to Phyllis Brzozowska, CITYFOLK’s executive director, “They were so fantastic, we invited them back. Some people plan to come and just listen, but it’s impossible to sit still. You have to get up and dance.”
CITYFOLK has no direct analog in Cincinnati. In addition to music-and-dance concerts, it puts together educational workshops, in-school programs and films to showcase the wide range of artists and reflecting the cultural diversity of the com-
Floor, Cheryl L. West’s hit play about the bittersweet nature of family love, opens Jan. 12. Public previews take place 7 p.m. Tuesday and 8 p.m. Wednesday. $16. Through Feb. 9. Not recommended for children. $19-$31 adults. Robert S. Marx Theatre, Eden Park. Tickets to all shows are half-price when purchased noon-2 p.m. the day of the show. 421-8888.
★ VICTORIA THEATRE ASSOCI-
ATION Carol Charming makes a triumphant return to the stage as the unforgettable Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! 8 p.m. ThursdaySunday. $18.50-$30.50. Memorial Hall, 125 E. First St., Dayton, Ohio. 513-228-3630.
Classical Music
ATHENAEUM CHORALE
Presents settings of English carols arranged for choir and string orchestra for the Epiphany Vespers and Carol Concert.
7:30 p.m. Sunday. Free. 6616 Beechmont Ave., Mount Washington. 231-2223.
CINCINNATI DULCIMER SOCIETY Performs at 3 p.m. Sunday. Seasongood Nature Center, Woodland Mound Park, Old Kellogg, Anderson Township. 521-7275.
CINCINNATI SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA Jesus LopezCobos conducts the CSO with solo violinist Alyssa Park. Program includes Schuman’s American Festival Overture, Barber’s Violin Concerto, Op. 14; and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 in E. Major. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. $10-$26. 381-3300.
DAYTON PHILHARMONIC
ORCHESTRA Indian-born pianist Priya Mayadas, winner of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Award and the New Jersey Governor’s Award in Arts, debuts with the DPO in Concertos for Everyone. The program includes works by Back, Handel and Ginastera’s. The Coffee Concert begins at 10 a.m. Friday, and concertgoers are invited to start the morning at 9 a.m. with conversation, complimentary doughnuts and coffee. Casual Classics at 6:30 p.m., but stop by an hour early for complimentary hors d’oeuvres. $10-$14. Victoria Theatre, 138 N. Main St., Dayton, Ohio. 513-224-8521.
FACULTY BRASS QUINTET
The Northern Kentucky University Quintet performs at 3 p.m. Sunday. Covington Cathedral Basilica, 1140 Madison Ave., Covington. 572-5464.
★ JEROME BARRY The internationally acclaimed baritone who has sung with the Israel Philharmonic, the Boston Pops and the Baltimore Symphony presents Yiddishi, a potpourri of Jewish song, ranging from art songs by renowned Jewish composers to Jewish folk melodies, Hassidic music and well-known pieces from the Yiddish theater. 7:30
seniors. Jewish Community Center, 1580 Summit Road, Roselawn. 761-7500.
Now, Thai’s Good Coffee!
Enjoyment of
the
daily grind begins with the bean Food & Drink
Comedy
AGO BANANAS Alex Raymundo headlines through Sunday, with Rod Paulette as the featured act. Buzz Sutherland headlines Wednesday with Mark Sweeney is the featured act. 8:30 and 10:45 Friday-Saturday; 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. 8410 Market Place, Montgomery. 984-9288.
ges old, coffee has maintained its role as the most popular non-alcoholic beverage in the world. Caffeine-laden, it is de rigeur for most people as a part of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Like any beverage though, there are good cups of coffee, and then there are just OK ones.
While I wouldn’t suggest that you grow your own coffee plant just to get that perfect cup, there are ways to ensure that what you get is better than your average cup of Folger’s.
RAY COMBS CINCINNATI COMEDY CONNECTION Boasts a new emcee, Todd Lynn, who hails from the Queen City and has appeared on DefComedy Jam..
Coffee is said to have originated somewhere around 600 A.D. in the Middle East. The story, according to Barbara Hill, author of The Cook’s
8 p.m. Thursday and Sunday, 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. Friday. Over 21.
Coffee Co., are seen with their 90-pound-capacity bean roaster, the largest of the three roasters at their Blue Ash plant.
Book ofIndispensable Ideas, centers around a sleepy Muslim hermit, trying to stay awake during meditations.
Readings, Signings & Events
“He spoke about his problem to a passing shepherd, who told the hermit about a certain bush that grew nearby,” Hill writes. “It seemed that when the shepherd’s sheep ate the berries that the bush produced, they became extraordinarily lively and would prance around for hours even all night.”
BARBARA HANSEN The author of Picking Up The Pieces: Healing Ourselves After Personal Loss signs copies of her book.
Thus the discovery of the coffee bean gave rise to coffee the drink. It wasn’t until the 1600s that the beverage was discovered by the Europeans, and then spread all over the world. Now, the beans grow in places like Puerto Rico, Brazil and Java to give us a plethora of taste from which to choose.
Hansen was paralyzed in a car accident when she was 19 but went on to become a professor of English at UC.. 2 p.m. Saturday. Barnes & Noble, Sycamore Plaza, 7800 Montgomery Road, Kenwood. 794-9440.
Good coffee depends on three things: the bean, the roast and the grind.
STEVE LEHRER The author of Cooking with the Chicken Breast signs copies of his book. 2 p.m. Saturday. Barnes & Noble, Sycamore Plaza, 7800 Montgomery Road, Kenwood. 794-9440.
★ MERCANTILE LIBRARY 1995
The bean’s flavors will vary from country of origin to country of origin. For instance, mocha beans from the Arabian Peninsula are extremely acidic and harsh, while beans from Java tend to be mild and not very acidic. Taken separately, neither would be palatable for many people. But blended, they produce the familiar Mocha Java. Most coffees are blends of various coffee beans. While purists may enjoy the taste of say, Venezuelan, most coffee drinkers prefer milder, smoother blends.
NIEHOFF SERIES Jonathan Kamholtz, associate professor of English and Comparative Literature at UC, presents the first of five informal lectures: Tobias Wolffs This Boy's Life, Tuesday. The lecture starts at 12:45 p.m., with dessert and coffee served at 12:15 p.m. Members pay $40 for the series, non-members $45. 414 Walnut St., Downtown. 621-0717.
Picked by hand
Coffee beans must be hand-picked Really! It’s no marketing ploy because mature beans, immature beans and the plant’s flowers are present on the coffee bush at the same time. (It’s unknown how many of the pickers are named Juan, though.)
An average plant produces 2,000 beans per year, enough to make one pound of roasted coffee. Once picked, the raw beans are shipped to coffee companies all over the world. Joe Morris, co-owner of Seven Hills Coffee Co., 11561 Grooms Road, Blue Ash, says beans arrive raw in 70-kilo bags. The beans are roasted at
TAMILEE WEBB The Buns of Steel guru signs and holds demonstrations from her book, Tamilee Webb's Step-Up Fitness Workout. 7-8:30 p.m. Monday. Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Rookwood Pavilion, Madison and Edwards roads, Norwood. 396-8960.
STORYTIME Children can enjoy stories about snow. 10 a.m.
between 438° and 480°; the different temperatures give the beans their different strengths.
“We roast them in a hot-air roaster,” Morris says.
“Depending on the roast regular, Vienna, French or espresso they reach different temperatures. Once they reach their desired temperature, the air shuts off, and the cooking stops.”
Flavorings, if desired, are added after roasting.
Coating beans with concentrated, alcohol-based flavorings adds more oomph to the brew.
Hazelnut, cinnamon, French vanilla and Irish cream are some of the more common flavorings and make coffee a little more palatable to those looking for taste instead of caffeine. Sometimes pieces of nuts are included with almond-flavored coffee.
“Since nuts aren’t really water-soluble, it’s really just for looks,” Morris says.
Start fresh
What makes a great cup of coffee? According to Morris, it’s all in the bean. Once ground, the beans have more contact with air and begin to lose their flavor.
“Buy your coffee phoio: jr»i boldeh weekly, and grind your own,” Morris advises. “Coffee beans will last several weeks, but once it’s been ground, it gets stale quickly.”
Start with a clean grinder. (Oils, grounds and flavorings can muck up the works of a grinder, which can affect the coarseness of the grounds.) Grind the beans in small amounts, just enough to make one pot, and store the rest away from air. (The easiest way to accomplish this is by keeping the beans in an air-tight container in your freezer, Morris says.)
The fineness of the grind determines how strong your coffee will be. Coffee is produced when water comes in contact with the grounds. The more coffee that is hit by the water, the more coffee flavor that is extracted. For instance, espresso grounds are fine and produce a strong coffee. A stream of hot water forced through the grounds adds to the strength of the espresso. For automatic drip coffee, a medium grind gives a mild, full-bodied flavor. Water seeps through the grounds one time and produces the coffee most of us drink on a daily basis.
Two final notes: Wash coffeepots regularly; stained carafes do not add anything to the flavor of the brew, and use soft water.
Thursday. Oakley Blue Marble, 3054 Madison Road, Oakley. 731-2665.
Groups
BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
Meets the fourth Monday of every month at 7 p.m. in the May Sarton Room. Crazy Ladies Center, 4039 Hamilton Ave., Northside. 541-4198.
BOOKED ON THURSDAY The general interest reading group will discuss the Newberry-winning novel The Giver. 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Little Professor Book Center, 814 Main St., Milford. 248-BOOK.
CHRISTIAN WRITERS’ FELLOWSHIP Critique group meets at 7:30 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month at Vineyard Community Church, 1391 E. Crescentville Road, Springdale. 521-1913.
CINCINNATI PLAYWRIGHTS
Critique group for playwrights meets at 7 p.m. every Monday at the Carnegie Arts Center, Robbins and Scott streets, Covington. 556-3914.
CINCINNATI WRITERS PROJECT Support group for writers of every genre offers monthly meetings. 689-5283.
CINCINNATI WRITERS PROJECT FICTION CRITIQUE GROUP
Meets at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Arnold’s Bar & Grill, 210 E. Eighth St., Downtown. 771-6899.
GATHERING HOUSE Offers classes and workshops for writers. 100 S. College Drive, Oxford. 513-523-4284.
GREATER CINCINNATI WRITERS LEAGUE Critique group meets at 8 p.m. on the second Friday of every month at the Regency, 2444 Madison Road, Hyde Park. 753-5697.
MYSTERY BOOK GROUP
Meets on the first Tuesday of every month at Little Professor Book Center, 814 Main St., Milford. 248-BOOK.
OHIO VALLEY ROMANCE WRITERS OF AMERICA Local chapter of the national organization meets at 1 p.m. on the second Saturday of every month in the community room in Forest Fair Mall, or if that’s occupied, the community room at Parisian. 1047 Forest Fair Drive, Fairfield. 863-6053.
QUEEN CITY WRITERS CLUB Critique group meets at 7:30 p.m. on the third Monday of every month. Northside Bank and Trust, 9135 Colerain Ave., Colerain Township. First meeting free. 522-0108.
SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS Organization of workingjournalists and writers offers monthly programs, monthly
Suburban Torture
newsletter and subscription to national Quill magazine. Local and/or national dues. 665-4700. WRITING LIVES WRITING
WORKSHOP Workshop for women writers. 871-8702.
CINCINNATI CYCLONES IHL
hockey vs. Fort Wayne on Friday; Phoenix on Saturday; Indianapolis on Tuesday. All games start at 7:30 p.m. $6-$12 adults; $4-$10 students. Cincinnati Gardens, 2250 Seymour Ave., Norwood. 531-7825.
TURFWAY PARK Live racing. 7 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; 1:30 p.m. weekends. Simulcasts from Churchill Downs, Hollywood Park, Bay Meadows, Fairgrounds and Aqueduct. Parking $2, valet parking $3; grandstand admission $3.50, clubhouse $2.50. 7500 Turfway Road, Florence. 371-0200.
★ CROSS-TOWN SHOOTOUT
UC men’s basketball vs. Xavier. 8:05 p.m. Monday. $12 adults; buy one, get one free for UC students. SOLD OUT. Shoemaker Center, Stadium Drive, University of Cincinnati, Clifton. 556-CATS.
BY JULIE LARSON
Classes & Exhibits
ANIMAL RIGHTS COMMUNITY The Wildwood Rehabilitation Project has been finding more and more injured and orphaned animals. Learn how you can assist by attending a talk by wildlife rehabilitator Justyn Anderson. 8 p.m. Thursday. Free. Star Bank’s Meeting Room, 425 Ludlow Ave., Clifton. 542-6810.
ANTIQUE CLASSES Study furniture, ceramics, folk ark, the Cincinnati artist, New England antiques and tips on buying at auction with Ray Mongenas. Classes begin Tuesday and run until Feb.
28. 1-3 p.m. or 7:30-9:30 p.m.
Tuesday. The Indian Hill Historical Society, 8100 Given Road, Indian Hill. 321-3885.
CONSUMER CREDIT COUNSELING SERVICE OF CINCINNATI Offers two four-week Money Control Workshops to be held from 7-9 p.m. each Wednesday in January. $40 for couples, $25 for singles. CCCS, 151 W. Fourth St., Downtown. 651-0111.
FLYING CLOUD ACADEMY OF VINTAGE DANCE Offers classes in 19th and 20th century social dance at 8 p.m. every Wednesday. $3 members; $5 non-members. University YMCA, 270 Calhoun, Clifton. 351-7462 or 733-3077.
GLASS CRAFTERS STUDIOS Offers classes in the art of stained glass. 11119 Reading Road, Sharonville. 554-0900.
HOW TO MAKE A QUILT PANEL Free workshop for those interested in making a paqel to memorialize those who have died as a result of AIDS. 7-9 p.m. Monday. Resulting panels will be displayed at the University of Cincinnati during the April 19-22 exhibit of the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. Meet in the lobby at 7 p.m. University Hospital, 234 Goodman, Clifton. 771-6832.
LIVING TRUST WORKSHOP AND SEMINAR Registered investment adviser Dan Spahr offers financial advice. 3 and 7 p.m. Monday. Barnes & Noble, Sycamore Plaza, 7800 Montgomery Road, Kenwood. 794-9440
PIANO MASTER CLASS Priya Mayadas, who won her first international piano award at 9, will give a master class. Noon Saturday. Baur Room, opposite the Corbett Auditorium, University of Cincinnati, Clifton. Free. 556-2683.
WNKU'S ANNUAL CHRISTMAS TREE RECYCLING Bring your unadorned trees to parking lot L, where they will be chipped, courtesy of Asplundh Tree Expert Co. Please bring plastic bags to takes some of your tree mulch home. The remainder will be used by the landscaping department at Northern Kentucky University. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday. Highland Heights. 572-6500.
Events
* KAHN’S AFRICAN CULTURE FEST 10th anniversary of African Culture Fest kicks off 4 p.m. Sunday with a Gospel Fest at Taft High School, 420 Ezzard Charles Drive, West End. The festival officially begins Jan. 14 at Cincinnati Museum of Natural History. Featured performers include the Khamisi Drum Ensemble, Afrikan Drum and Dance Ensemble, Essence of Africa, Over-the-Rhine Steel Drum Band, Sister Friends, Queen City Dance Theater, Drums for Peace; storytellers Geralding Robinson, Julane Yancy and Lany Joiner; and artists Shelley Lindsay, Victor Siffel, Marietta Owens and Robert Davies. Through Jan. 16.... Events in the rotunda are free, all other events are included in the price of museum admission. Museum hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. MondaySaturday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday.
Groups Programs
AIDS VOLUNTEERS NATI AVOC offers groups for persons living as well as their families, and loved ones. All services free and confidential. Parkway, West End. THE CENTER FOR DENT LIVING OPTIONS agency that works with with disabilities to achieve independence. 23 E. Suite 601, Downtown.
ENJOY THE ARTS stantial discounts to organizations. Only full-time dents are eligible. $24.50 year, $39 for two years.
LAVENDER LIGHTS lesbians helping the homeless in Cincinnati. teer or get information,
Opportunities
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TRINIDAD FOLKSINGER & CANDLELIGHT
ZARABANDA WORLD CAFE 3213 Linwood Ave. 321-1347
GJ’S GASLIGHT
Where you get real mashed potatoes with lumps. 354 Ludlow, Clifton, 221-2020
CAFEZ
Comfort food, homemade daily
$4.95 LUNCH & DINNER SPECIALS
FREE BUFFALO WINGS!
Every Friday during Happy Hour, 4-8:30 411 West Pete Rose Way
227 W. 9th St, 651-3287
CINCINNATI RECREATION
WHERE NOTHING IS ORDINARY
LeftHanded Moon 48 E. Court St., 784-1166
ROWING & FITNESS CENTER
$40 PER QUARTER
Located at Montgomery Inn at The Boathouse. Call 241-BOAT.
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?
DAILY BREWS AND DAILY SPECIALS
This week’s question: How did you spend your Christmas bonus?
