CINCINNATI’S NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY • JUNE 21 – 27, 2017 • free
PRIDE
Celebrating the Queens of the Queen City, LGBTQ+ activism, fundraising and Cincinnati Pride PAGE 15
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JULY SATURDAY
VOL. 23 ISSUE 30 ON THE COVER: QUEENS OF THE QUEEN CITY // PHOTO: scott dittgen
Sat 7/9, 7–9 p.m. Winton Woods Cincinnati Brass Band
VOICES 04 NEWS 13
Sat 7/16, 7–9 p.m. Winton Woods UC Community Band
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Sat 7/23, 7–9 p.m. Miami Whitewater Forest BW Collab
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Thu 7/21, 6–9 p.m. Glenwood Gardens Hank Stephens Experience
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STUFF TO DO 31 ONGOING SHOWS 33
ARTS & CULTURE 34 TV AND FILM 38
FOOD & DRINK 41 EVENTS AND CLASSES 43
MUSIC 44
SOUND ADVICE 46
CLASSIFIEDS 51
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Fine Thoughts on the Budget Deficit Jeff D Bruce: Legalize weed like Colorado. Boom! Fixed. We all know beer and streetcars aren’t saving this city. Terri Bennett Mafazy: Small businesses are the foundation of a community and should receive some tax relief in order to grow and increase hiring. Comments posted at Facebook.com/CincinnatiCityBeat in response to June 16 post, “The state is facing a $400 million budget deficit this year, and conservatives are looking to cuts to various programs to offset that loss.”
Crooked Broadcasters? Terry Vincent: It’s the lot if them. From the courts to the cops to WLW. All crooked. Comments posted at Facebook.com/CincinnatiCityBeat in response to June 14 post, “The friendship track to a 13-year monopoly on the county prosecutor’s IT business”
Yes to Beer Cheese
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kara19s: @errk27 Yum!!! Beer cheese trail. mrock32: @mrou03 @sutton302 Beer cheese trail?! Forget covered bridges, that’s my next birthday tour!
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mrou03: @mrock32 Yes! Comments posted at Instagram.com/CityBeatCincy in response to June 19 post, “Garin Pirnia, author of the upcoming ‘The Beer Cheese Book,’ discusses some of the best places to try cold (and even warm) beer cheese in this week’s issue.” Photo: @haaailstormm
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What a Week! BY T.C. Britton
WEDNESDAY JUNE 14
Women dressed like characters from The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood’s novel-turned-Hulu series) crashed the Ohio Senate this week as legislators made their case for Ohio’s SB 145. The women dressed as handmaids to protest the bill, which would effectively criminalize abortions in the second trimester. If you’ve been under a rock and don’t know what women in giant bonnets and red capes have to do with reproductive rights, the book/show depicts a dystopian future where women are stripped of their rights and reclassified based on fertility. Fertile women are forced to bear children for elite couples who can’t. Upon seeing the cloaked crowd, one senator begged “No spoilers! I’m only on Episode 4!” while another confused the reference completely, thinking of The Scarlet Letter. “Yes… All women who have abortions must wear the scarlet mark. We’re adding that to the bill!”
THURSDAY JUNE 15
There are three things Dennis Rodman loves: basketball, Hot Topic body jewelry and his BFF Kim Jong-un. Rodman returned to his fave vacay spot North Korea this week as part of his ongoing effort to “bring sports” to the country and help encourage peace between it and the U.S. The trip was sponsored by PotCoin, which is basically a Bitcoin for legal weed. While he was unable to meet with Kim Jong-un, he did meet Korean basketball players and Olympic athletes, visited an orphanage and spent time with the country’s “minister of sports.” Oh, and Rodman gifted the leader with Donald
Trump’s shitty book, The Art of the Deal. Of course, none of this had anything to do with North Korea releasing Cincinnati-area native Otto Warmbier, who had been serving a 15-year hard labor sentence for tearing down a propaganda poster and was sent home in a comatose state the very same day. He died shortly after returning home. Jesus. This reads more like a Mad Libs story than an actual news item.
FRIDAY JUNE 16
Sometimes as a journalist, you get scooped. You land an interview, thinking you’ll be the first to break a story, and the next day you come to find your source has spoken to another outlet who runs the story first. But what about when the source scoops you? That’s what happened to Megyn Kelly this week after interviewing performance artist and conspiracy theorist extraordinaire, InfoWars’ Alex Jones. People were pissed that the former Fox News anchor, now on NBC, would give airtime to a dude who says Sandy Hook was a hoax (Kelly was dropped from hosting a Sandy Hook benefit because of the interview). In response to the controversy, InfoWars claimed Kelly was all sweet to Jones at the time, but NBC edited the interview to look “tougher” on Jones. So before the episode aired, he decided to publish secretly taped audio from the pre-interview. The shade! Kelly essentially pulled a Joan Callamezzo, promising to go easy on Jones before employing some gotcha journalism and inviting families affected by the Sandy Hook massacre to the show for a segment. So who came out looking worse?
Anyone who actually wanted to watch Megyn Kelly interview Alex Jones.
SATURDAY JUNE 17
Every year, the “Teacher of the Year” finalist from each state is invited to the White House and the next Supreme is named and celebrated. This year’s event took place earlier this spring, but everyone’s just talking about it now thanks to Rhode Island specialeducation teacher Niko Giannopoulos. In his official portrait with Donald and Melania Trump, Giannopoulos stole the show by striking a fierce pose with a black lace fan. Don’t worry: the man was not carted off by security for injecting too much fabulocity — Trump approved, calling him stylish. This is the best photo op to come out of the Oval Office since the Beverly Hillbillies — a.k.a Sarah Palin, Ted Nugent and Kid Rock — posted up in April.
SUNDAY JUNE 18
Sunday was Father’s Day. While you were golfing with your pops or gifting him a coffee mug (real original!), Jay Z was bailing dads who can’t afford attorneys out of jail. On late night TV, Jimmy Kimmel challenged kids to sneak up on their fathers and yell, “I love you, Dad!” and Jimmy Fallon shared #DadQuotes. Meanwhile, the day takes on new meaning with the popularity of dad hats (otherwise known as basic baseball caps), dad jokes (otherwise known as basic corny jokes) and “dad bods” (otherwise known as basic dude bodies). Just be sure to shield your father from the emerging alternative use of the word “daddy.”
MONDAY JUNE 19
Singer-songwriter and lil goth bb Lorde is super-talented. At age 20, she’s already had hit records, won Grammy, Billboard and World Music awards and just dropped her second album. And if you thought this young kiwi couldn’t be any cooler, she revealed this week that she anonymously ran an onion ring review Instagram, @OnionRingsWorldwide. Well, she tried to. After being outed by New Zealand website NewsHub, who noticed the posts corresponded with her travel schedule, Lorde copped to being the onion ring queen and deleted the page (she didn’t want to reek of desperation to seem #relatable — the girl just loves her some battered and fried onions). Journalism isn’t dead after all!
TUESDAY JUNE 20
This week in questionable decisions: Bill Cosby yelled the Fat Albert line, “Hey, hey, hey,” upon leaving court for his rape case, which ended in mistrial; Beyoncé’s shady dad tweeted a holy twin birth announcement ahead of any confirmed news that the babies were born; N-word user Bill Maher interviewed Breitbart editor-in-chief Alex Marlow and agreed with him on many issues; Minnesota officer Jeronimo Yanez was acquitted in the killing of Philando Castile; FC Cincinnati set its sights on a new dedicated soccer stadium… in Kentucky; Caitlyn Jenner spoke at a convention of the College Republican National Committee and joked about the GOP congressional baseball practice shooting: “Fortunately the guy was a really bad shot… liberals can’t even shoot straight.”
Things That Should Be Delivery Services 0 6 • C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 7
BY JEFF BEYER Does UberEATS deliver hot food fast? John Matarese, WCPO consumer watchdog will tell you, twice. While developed countries such as South Korea and New York City have been delivering food for decades, Matarese tells us in a recent report that 800-pound fast-food gorilla McDonald’s has teamed up with delivery Goliath Uber in order to bring fast food (and 30-minuteold-tasting fries) to your Tristate doorstep via the Chimera known as McUber. While fast-food delivery is indeed a great service, we have come up with some extremely brilliant ideas that will make not leaving your house even more possible. Mountain Dewber: Certain local neighborhoods (you know who you are) just can’t the resist the sweet siren’s call of this magical soda water. But how can you possibly get off the couch without a full two liter of this wild mountain moisture? Mountain Dewber will deliver two liters of Mountain Dew® directly to your couch and/or
bedside for consumption via jar or IV. Within no time you will be a hootin’ and hollerin’ up and down the valleys and hills as you complete your daily tasks — one of which will no longer be wasting time waiting in line behind Meemaw Sweets while she’s countin’ her coupons at the Piggly Wiggly. Mtn Dew® Kickstart™ and Diet Mountain Dew® also available. This paragraph was paid for by Mtn Dew®. Hooters: Hooters is actually available and very popular on the UberEATS app, but the scantily clad waitresses that provide the restaurant its cheeky namesake will not arrive at your door (only the menu items). However, astute hetero men grooming their girlfriends for an actual in-person visit to the boobies-and-butts-centered sports bar can convince their bae that they really do love Hooters’ onion rings and french fries by ordering them frequently through the app and thus eventually earning a romantic night at this café de gastronomie.
Chewber: While not really a delivery service, this chewing service app can save a lot of time for busy, lazy or weird people. Customers can request a person to drive to their house and chew various objects. Most objects are food-based, such as potatoes, General Tso’s chicken, pork chops and corn, while others are not: pen caps, fingernails, Hooters’ onion rings and tobacco, for example. Chewber is a great option for people who are trying to lose weight or break unhealthy habits, and also for children who don’t want to eat “yucky” foods. Diabetes Double Order: This one also exists via mail-order, but can be packaged with McUber delivery in order to save future trips to the doctor due to ordering too much McUber. This one is obviously low-hanging fruit, but it was also easier to write than actually putting in the effort to think of another thing for this story.
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Considering Inaccurate Stories By Ben L. Kaufman
Staying with a story until it’s right — even admitting the original was wrong — can be satisfying. Embarrassing, but satisfying, especially when seemingly reliable sources knew or should have known better. Locally, The Enquirer did that after digging farther for numbers being tossed around in City Hall about the streetcar system. Farther afield, NPR colleagues didn’t believe official versions of how two staffers died in an Afghan ambush. They learned how wrong and misleading the original versions — including theirs — were. The Enquirer’s original streetcar 2018 deficit story quickly blew up. Reporter Sharon Coolidge’s second story said, “The Cincinnati Bell Connector won’t run at a deficit next year.” It was a classic case of not having all of the information available to the city and SORTA and, possibly, not knowing what was missing. Here’s how she began her turnabout: “A budget request released earlier this week and reported on by The Enquirer was incomplete. It suggested funding woes, but a closer look shows that’s not the case. The Enquirer has spent two days since then sorting out streetcar math.” I have no idea when Coolidge realized something was amiss in the data or her analysis, but here’s what she said, “The story published earlier this week, based on the limited amount of information available, said the streetcar budget is facing a nearly halfmillion dollar shortfall. That’s not the case.” She said, “the documents on which the earlier story were based did not include tax incentive money that companies along the route contribute to the operating budget. That revenue is projected to come in at $531,000 next year.” Instead of all of the information she needed, “there were memos and press releases but an overall lack of clarity. SORTA, which oversees streetcar operations and made the budget request, sent out written information that did not answer The Enquirer’s questions; officials there also did not consent to an interview. And the city simply said it was reviewing the budget request. So no conversation. And thus, confusion.” I’m sympathetic. A reporter is always at the mercy of people who control needed information. If the reporter doesn’t know what’s missing, it falls into the infamous “unknown unknowns” abyss. In a rare commentary, editor Peter Bhatia responded to streetcar supporters in an editor’s note that read: “The headline in print read, ‘Sinking ridership forces streetcar to seek money.’ The story indicated that the operation faced a
shortfall of $474,530 and would require an influx of financial help in the coming year. “The story said the shortfall existed because ridership had fallen short of projections. Neither SORTA nor city officials would discuss the finances for this story in interviews. The story was based in large part on financial documents released by SORTA and the city. “It became evident by Wednesday, however, that The Enquirer had not been given all relevant documents. In particular, the documents on which the story were based did not include tax incentive money that companies along the route contribute to the operating budget. “When this information is taken into account, the streetcar is projected to operate next year not with a deficit but with a $45,523 surplus.” Then there were the headlines. As Bhatia wrote, “Our readers would have been better served if we made clearer at the time that the second story was corrective of the first.” He might also have noted that the flawed story was all over page 1 but the correction was inside the paper. In Afghanistan, NPR asked what really happened when a Taliban ambush killed journalists David Gilkey and Zabihullah Tamanna recently. “It’s a very different story from what we originally understood,” NPR said. “The two men were not the random victims of bad timing in a dangerous place, as initial reports indicated. Rather, the journalists’ convoy was specifically targeted by attackers who had been tipped off to the presence of Americans in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.” So much for earlier, official versions of the attack. More reporting by reporter Tom Bowman and producer Monika Evstatieva revealed new, disturbing details about how the two journalists were killed. “Tamanna did not die from a rocket-propelled-grenade attack, as originally reported. He was shot. This fact was suspected by other NPR journalists who saw his body shortly after the attack and is now confirmed by the Afghan Ministry of Defense. And unlike Gilkey, Tamanna did not suffer any burns, a fact that further casts doubt on the original story of a sudden, random attack by hand-launched explosives.” Early accounts, based on information from the Afghan National Army, said Gilkey and Tamanna were killed by the Taliban,
when their vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.” This goes beyond the “fog of war.” It recalled months of lies by Americans after former NFL player and Ranger Pat Tillman died in Afghan combat — from friendly fire. NPR said an autopsy on Gilkey by U.S. military doctors added to the confusion. It noted the obvious burns but didn’t find any other injuries and determined that the burns killed him. NPR asked military doctors with years of combat trauma experience. “They said … with a rocket-propelled grenade, you would often see serious tissue or organ damage from a blast. Such wounds were not present.”
“(Bhatia) might also have noted that the flawed story was all over page 1 but the correction was inside the paper.” Bowman and Evstatieva called Baryalai Helali, a Defense Ministry spokesman, and got a different story: “Tamanna wasn’t killed by an RPG. He was shot, outside the vehicle. Helali had no explanation for how Tamanna got out of a Humvee, without any apparent injuries, if it had been attacked by an RPG with enough force to kill the person sitting next to him.” Bowman and Evstatieva said that doesn’t make sense. “How could they both have died the same way, when their bodies looked so different?” Sources in Afghanistan confirmed to NPR that Taliban fighters knew they were coming — were very happy about it, one source said — because they had been tipped off by someone at the governor’s palace that morning. Bowman called the Taliban to ask. Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that Taliban forces carried out the attack but said the group had information indicating that American military troops were in the convoy, not journalists. “This attack was not meant to target journalists, but [an] American caravan and American soldiers,” Mujahid said, adding, “If these journalists had informed us ... in advance about their visit to our area, we would have given them a safe route.” CONTACT BEN L. KAUFMAN: letters@ citybeat.com
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Pixels and Perception
A jury must wrestle with intent and evidence in the Ray Tensing retrial By NICK SWARTSELL
P H O T O : N I C K S WA R T S E L L
P
Things escalated quickly. Tensing asked DuBose for license, which DuBose did not produce. DuBose asked multiple times why he was being stopped and Tensing cited his missing front plate. Tensing then found a gin bottle full of air freshener, which DuBose handed over. Tensing asked DuBose to unbuckle his seat belt and attempted to open his car door. DuBose pulled the door closed again and started his car. Tensing’s body camera footage recorded the officer shouting “stop!” twice, then shooting DuBose in the head. But did Tensing have reason to feel he was in danger in those seconds? That’s what a jury must decide. “I made a split-second decision,” Tensing said when he testified June 16. “Experts can break it down and analyze the video, but they weren’t in my mind when this happened.” Tensing was referring to the prosecution’s expert video analyst Grant Fredericks, who has spent 30 years in the field. Fredericks broke down Tensing’s body camera footage frame by frame, as he did last trial, highlighting areas he says contradict Tensing on several of his claims. According to Fredericks, Tensing drew his weapon before DuBose’s car began moving. He fired just a split-second after the car lurched forward a few feet. Further, Fredericks said the video doesn’t show
Audrey DuBose, mother of Samuel DuBose, gathers with family and supporters outside the Hamilton County Courthouse June 19 after closing arguments in the retrial of Ray Tensing. Tensing’s arm caught up in the steering wheel or trapped anywhere else in the car, as he claimed. “All I can say is within 0.4 seconds, Officer Tensing’s hand is at the chest area, so there’s no image of being pinned, and we have full continuity of his hand pretty much throughout the rest of it until a shot’s fired,” Fredericks testified June 12. “The moment he yells, ‘Stop,’ the vehicle is not in motion. He’s not being dragged.” Hamilton County assistant prosecutors Stacey DeGraffenreid and Seth Tieger worked to hammer that point home throughout the trial and during their closing statements. Tensing did have to backtrack at times. He said that he realized after watching the video that DuBose was pinning his arm to the wheel with his own hand. Prosecutors challenged that assertion as well, and used Tensing’s changing perceptions to try and poke holes in the rest of his story. “When you perceive something, what does that mean to you?,” Tieger asked Tensing about his mistaken perception regarding the steering wheel. “Are you telling the jury you may have been wrong? I’m not talking about perception. I’m talking about what actually happened.”
The defense had its own expert witnesses who worked to show that Tensing was dragged by DuBose’s car and had good reason to fear for his life. Retired Columbus police officer and expert use of force witness James Scanlon said the video seemed to show that Tensing acted appropriately because he was being dragged. He also took issue with the prosecution’s assertion that Tensing should never have reached into DuBose’s car to try and turn it off, a move Tensing attempted seconds before shooting DuBose. “My opinion is the actions of Officer Tensing were reasonable, justified and in accordance with recognized police practices,” Scanlon said. Scanlon has testified in a number of police-involved shooting cases, including one in Lima in 2008 where an officer was acquitted in the fatal shooting death of an unarmed woman who was in the same building where police were undertaking a drug raid. The defense also offered the testimony of Scott Roder, who founded CONTINUES ON PAGE 13
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rosecution and defense rested June 19 in the retrial of Ray Tensing, leaving the jury to decide one of the country’s highest-profile police shooting cases based on a few seconds of blurry video and the ancient question of perception. For prosecutors, the family of unarmed black motorist Samuel DuBose and the hundreds of protesters who took to the streets following a hung jury in Tensing’s first trial back in November, it’s cut and dry: Former University of Cincinnati police officer Tensing shot DuBose July 19, 2015 after a traffic stop in Mount Auburn for no justifiable reason. But Tensing’s defense, led by attorney Stew Mathews and backed by its own expert witnesses, held tight to the assertion that Tensing feared for his life. Now, as protests mount outside the Hamilton County Courthouse and tension swirls around cases of police-involved shootings, the jury will have to decide whether Tensing goes to jail for murder or manslaughter charges or if he will walk free. The jury deliberates under the weight of both Cincinnati’s history — the city experienced days of civil unrest after Cincinnati Police officer Stephen Roach shot unarmed black 19-yearold Timothy Thomas in 2001 — and current events elsewhere. (The jury concluded day two of deliberations the day this story went to press. Visit CityBeat.com for continuing coverage.) Last week, a jury acquitted Minneapolisarea police officer Jeronimo Yanez, who shot Philando Castile,within 62 seconds of initiating a traffic stop. His acquittal has caused national outrage. “Regardless of what this verdict is, we have to keep going forth,” Audrey DuBose, Sam’s mother, said outside the courthouse after closing statements concluded. Dubose, along with local groups like faith-based nonprofit the AMOS Project and Black Lives Matter Cincinnati, have promised further action pushing for a conviction for Tensing. “What’s happened here is terrible,” she said. “Our eyes are not deceiving us.” During his testimony June 16, Tensing led the courtroom through his version of events, sometimes crying as he did so. Tensing said he saw DuBose driving down Vine Street and noticed his Honda Accord didn’t have a front license plate on it. He ran DuBose’s back plate and found out it was registered to DeShonda Reid, who turned out to be DuBose’s fiancé. Reid had a suspended license. Tensing began to follow DuBose, trying to pull him over just outside his patrol area on Thill Street. DuBose rolled slowly a few blocks, turning onto Rice Street, before pulling over.
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Clermont County to Fed Judge: Force EPA to Turn over Dump Records With a closed hazardous waste dump slumbering just five miles away from one of its main sources of drinking water, Clermont County tries to stay as informed as it can about possible contamination. CECOS International landfill opened in 1972 and began taking cancer-linked PCB chemicals in 1979. The hazardous waste dumping ended in 1990, and the landfill shut down. Ever since, CECOS has undergone environmental remediation under close scrutiny by the U.S. and Ohio EPAs. And although it is kept informed along the way, Clermont County covers itself by routinely sending Freedom of Information Act requests to the U.S. EPA. For the first time, though, the county’s director of environmental quality, Paul Braasch, says the EPA is holding out on the release of information. The county’s FOIA request of March 2016 drew an EPA denial of 60 documents that “appear to contain factual information about the geology” below the CECOS landfill. The county appealed, but only received nine minor documents. Now Clermont County is asking a federal judge in Cincinnati to order the release of the records it was denied. Braasch says he doesn’t know what’s in them. No new events are fueling the county’s concerns about the landfill. Braasch says the county simply keeps tabs on the old dump. “It’s a concern because it’s a large pile of hazardous waste that’s upstream of Harsha Lake, which is a water supply for Clermont County,” he says, “and we have a keen interest in making sure that nothing leaves the facility.” The EPA has not yet responded to the lawsuit. A spokesman said the agency does not comment on pending legal cases. The 208-acre CECOS landfill was controversial in the 1980s. It ‘s now owned by Phoenix-based Republic Services, the nation’s second-biggest collector of solid waste and recyclables. Braasch says he has no beef with Republic, only the EPA. “We’re pretty surprised that we can’t get documents from them,” he says. “I don’t know why they wouldn’t give them to us. That’s what really got our interest up.” (James McNair)
Beer and Politics to Mix No More in Sycamore A Hamilton County ethics investigation has ended with an agreement that allows the Republican-led Sycamore Township to keep giving its summer festival beer concession to the township’s Republican Club as long as
the club donates its profit to charity instead of to politicians’ re-election campaigns. The flap, featured last December in CityBeat, was the subject of a 2014 complaint by the Hamilton County Democratic Party to the Ohio Ethics Commission. Party Chairman Tim Burke noted that three of the township’s trustees — Tom Weidman, Cliff Bishop and Dennis Connor — were officials in the Sycamore Republican Club that ran the Festival in Sycamore beer concession in 2013. Sycamore Parks and Recreation Department head Mike McKeown, who was said to have chosen the beer vendor, was a Republican Club director. Of the $24,241 in beer profit from the 2013 festival, $17,500 went to the re-election campaigns of Weidman and Bishop. According to the agreement, Weidman, Bishop, Connor and McKeown have resigned from the Sycamore Republican Club. If the club is chosen to run the festival beer booth, it will have to pay its own expenses and any sponsorship fee, then donate any profit to any charity “recognizable” in the township. No profit can be steered into partisan politics. “While three years is far too long for this blatant abuse of township power for personal political gain to go on,” Burke says, “at least this slush fund is finally shut down once and for all.” The agreement was negotiated by a special prosecutor, Michael Tranter, on behalf of Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, who is a Republican. (JM)
Kroger Stocks Take Hit Of all the Kroger Co. shareholders hurting from last week’s plunge in the company’s stock price, CEO Rodney McMullen had reason to moan more than most. Kroger shares took back-to-back hits Thursday and Friday. First, its projection of lower profit took the stock price down 19 percent and made the Cincinnati-based company the biggest loser in U.S. stock markets. One day later, Kroger crumbled another 9 percent after Amazon.com Inc. announced it would be buying Whole Foods Market. The double-dose of bad news put Kroger shares in the markdown bin. The stock, which closed last Wednesday at $30.28, ended the week at $22.29. For a while Friday, it was down to $20.46. McMullen, Kroger’s CEO since 2014, took a massive hit because he owns 3.5 million shares, according to the latest report with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The $7.99 drop in share price cost him $27.6 million in overall net worth. That’s more than his total compensation of the last two years combined. He received $13.2 million in 2016, $11.8 million in 2015. The consolation to McMullen, a 37-year Kroger employee, is that the $27.6 million was likely just a paper loss. (JM)
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Cleveland-based The Evidence Room, a forensic animation company. Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Leslie Ghiz declined to allow Roder’s animation of the DuBose shooting to be admitted as evidence, but did allow Roder to testify as a video analyst, despite the fact Roder admitted that’s not his area of expertise. “Apparently, I am now,” he responded to prosecutors’ questions about his credentials as a video analyst, citing Ghiz’s ruling allowing him to testify as such. Roder challenged Frederick’s testimony that DuBose’s car wasn’t in motion when Tensing drew his gun, saying it may have moved as much as 27 feet in the seconds before and after the shooting. He was at times openly combative with prosecutors, exhorting them to “use common sense” when they questioned his assertions. Last year, a federal judge blasted Roder for “assumptions conflated with data, all of which he is interpreting,” and described him as “not being an expert capable of asserting several of the opinions he offers.” Other skirmishes broke out around the role of race in the trial. Tieger tried to ask Tensing about statistics showing the officer wrote a higher proportion of tickets to black motorists than any other on the UCPD force. Department-wide, 62 percent of tickets went to black motorists. But
Tensing wrote 81 percent of his tickets to black motorists the year he shot DuBose. Mathews quickly objected to that — an objection Ghiz upheld. It wasn’t the first time Ghiz had worked to keep race out of the courtroom. In a pretrial hearing earlier this month, she ruled that a T-shirt prominently featuring a Confederate flag Tensing wore under his uniform the day he shot DuBose would not be admitted as evidence because it would be “too inflammatory” for the jury. Even without questions of race, however, prosecutors pressed their case aggressively, trying to systematically prove Tensing could not have perceived a threat when he shot DuBose. “There’s nothing to show you that he was in imminent harm 1.059 seconds before he fired his gun into Mr. DuBose’s head,” prosecutor DeGraffenreid said in her closing arguments. “At that time, the defendant could not have perceived that he was in danger of harm. The vehicle was not in motion.” Assistant prosecutor Tieger took a more emotional tack in his closing arguments, saying that Tensing lacked remorse for his actions. “Those tears are not for Sam DuBose,” he said, referring to Tensing’s weeping when he testified. “They’re for himself. Because he feels sorry for himself.” ©
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Queens of the Queen City For these favorite Cincinnati drag queens, performance and Pride go hand in hand BY ELISABETH DODD The headliner of this year’s Saturday night Pride Festival is a collection of queens who competed on RuPaul’s Drag Race: Derrick Barry, Pearl, Tatianna, Roxxxy Andrews and BenDeLaCreme. And while they may be closing out the evening, the Queen City’s rich queen scene will be on full display all day on two stages with a handful of drag showcases featuring everyone from blonde queens and Goth queens to rhinestonebedecked queens and fully choreographed lip-sync queens stomping it out on stage. But as entertaining as drag is, it isn’t just a reality show or a sideshow for Becky’s bachelorette party — it’s a culture. Drag is an art fueled by resistance: resistance to the social construction of gender and the feeling of being made invisible, which should be doubly appreciated during Pride, an annual celebration and affirmation of personal, sexual and gender expression. It’s drag queens who leverage their stage to raise awareness and money for individuals and the community. In Cincinnati, drag is activism and LGBTQ+ expression, and these lovely ladies are at the forefront.
Jessica Dimon
Drag is an expression of self, but when she started performing, Jessica Dimon didn’t know who she was. “I knew I was transgender but I didn’t know what it was or what I was feeling, so I assumed I was gay,” she says. “I thought my feet were too big and I was too tall to transition.” When her best friend, Nomi, introduced her to drag, she really introduced Dimon to who she truly was. “I dressed up one time and it was everything,” she says. “For me, drag was not about beautiful wigs and dramatic makeup, it was about being a woman. It was my escape to figure out who I was and years into it I figured out I could transition. I can like who I am.” Now, Dimon (pronounced Diamond) is the It Girl of Cincinnati — an over-the-top, glamorous blonde bombshell. Think
Drag Show Etiquette
Performances: 8 p.m. Wednesday at Queen City Radio, 222 W. 12th St., Over-the-Rhine, qcrbar.com; 4-4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Pride Festival, Sawyer Point, 705 E. Pete Rose Way, Downtown, cincinnatipride.org; regular performances 11:30 p.m. Fridays and Sundays at The Dock Nightclub, 603 W. Pete Rose Way, Downtown, searchable on Facebook.
Judith Iscariot
Drag is about pushing society’s boundaries and few do it better than “black sheep” performer and social satirist Judith Iscariot. “I test the limits of what people feel they are comfortable with laughing at. It’s intelligent stupidity,” Iscariot says. “I come off as a dark Goth queen, but I consider myself more of a twisted comedy queen.” Judith is a feminization of Judas Iscariot from the Bible. With her name, Iscariot questions whether Judas is the ultimate villain or a betrayed martyr. Iscariot has been there. After breaking up with an emotionally abusive man who put her through hell, she was vilified. She needed an escape. “I heard about an open stage drag competition and thought that just for one night I could escape (myself) and become Judith,” she says. “I’d found a performative therapy to get in touch with my emotions and let an entire audience know how I’m feeling.” Iscariot proves that drag goes deep, and she feels pride in what she does and in the history of the moment. “Drag is the artistry that set the LGBTQ+ fight in motion,” she says. “The very first person to throw a brick during Stonewall was Marsha P. Johnson, a trans woman of color considered to be a drag performer. Drag was at the forefront of LGBTQ+ equality. As a staple of the community, drag queens have to be included. Queens should be at the forefront of pride parades and every year I make sure that I do something important.” While Iscariot is not a part of a regular cast, she can be found most often at Main Event (835 Main St., Downtown), but prefers being booked for private events where her versatility is challenged and her dark charm is appreciated.
Performances: 2:30-3 p.m. Saturday at the Pride Festival, Sawyer Point, 705 E. Pete Rose Way, Downtown, cincinnatipride.org.
KISHA summers
Kisha Summers is a natural actress — a true chameleon who enjoys playing characters in meaningful ways. With her constantly changing look, ranging from your every day girl to
an off-the-wall wild character, her only constant is that she will never be the same. Well, that and her signature pop of neon color. She truly appreciates the theatrical nature of drag, having performed all throughout high school. “Drag is nothing but bigger things in life,” she says. “Everything is bigger, everything is more dramatic and everything is more out of the box.” Her stage persona is “a girl that knows what she wants and knows how to get it,” yet this actress relishes the opportunity to use the stage to help her community. “I have friends who’ve had low points,” she says. “One of my friends from high school passed away and he and his family were vulnerable. I took a three-day weekend to raise funeral costs for him because it was very sudden and his family couldn’t afford it. I took all of my pay and tips, and raised that money for him.”
Performances: 6-6:30 p.m. Saturday at the Pride Festival, Sawyer Point, 705 E. Pete Rose Way, Downtown, cincinnatipride.org; regular performances Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at Main Event, 835 Main St., Downtown, facebook.com/maineventcincinnati.
Mirelle Jane Divine
Mirelle Jane Divine wasn’t always the glamorous queen she is today. In high school, she was the only openly gay boy in a small school. “The hate I experienced isn’t something I’d wish on my worst enemy,” she says. “My best friend in high school was my leg to stand on so I picked her middle name, Mirelle, as an homage to her because she helped me survive an environment I normally would have perished in.” Years later, almost as if by divine intervention, Divine was persuaded by friends to try drag in college for a benefit. It was a perfect fit. “I put the wig on and the rest was history; I took to it like a duck to water,” she says. Divine is old Hollywood glamour. With her sultry brown hair and arresting cat-eye gaze, she is the elegant Parisian model. “She’s the kind of performer who can captivate the room on a look alone,” Divine says. Yet her performances are never the same. There is always a part of her real life and the LGBTQ+ community being poured into the Mirelle Jane Divine mix. What remains consistent is that she is fighting for LGBTQ+ folks on stage. “Drag culture is a caricature of masculinity and femininity. Drag represents the extremes in life,” she says. “When you have two extremes represented in a space, anyone in between those isn’t going to get the backlash that they’d normally get. Drag queens become the icon that turns the attention away from that person who isn’t comfortable in their masculinity or femininity and allows them to feel comfortable and grow.” Drag culture has changed as it has become more visible, but Divine exemplifies how self-expression is still at the heart.
Performances: 2:30-3 p.m. Saturday at the Pride Festival, Sawyer Point, 705 E. Pete Rose Way, Downtown, cincinnatipride.org; regular performances 11 p.m. Thursday-Saturday at Below Zero’s upstairs The Cabaret, 1122 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine, cabaretcincinnati.com.
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Six important lessons from queen Mirelle Jane Divine on how to not act like an asshole at a drag show. • Respect drag for the art form it is. • Tip! Drag is an art investment. Sephora isn’t cheap. • Support the drag and LGBTQ+ community by showing up when you’re needed. • Dance and have fun, but don’t jump on stage unless invited. The attention should be on the queens. • Realize that drag is to be appreciated not consumed; don’t appropriate the culture. • Snapchats and pictures are encouraged, but no texting. Nothing is ruder than being glued to your phone. • Embrace the atmosphere and the opportunity to be your most authentic self!
big hair, big boobs and big personality. She is the host and show director of the drag show at The Dock Nightclub. “Being a host, you get to talk and help people feel welcome,” she says. “I never try to insult people, instead I try to lift them up and help them feel better. My audience are my friends not my fans. I really focus on that.” Dimon’s job is to ensure everyone is having a good time, but she takes it further to help those who are trans. “There are so many people who are trans and don’t even know it, so many people who are suicidal or depressed and unhappy because they can’t figure out who they are and I try to guide them,” she says. “I perform in benefits for them to help with housing and fund hormones. Personally I’ll introduce them to doctors and talk to them.”
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History, Her-story and Theirstory Nancy Yerian’s “Vibrant Kin” nancy yerian • PHOTO: scott dittgen
shares an earlier generation of LGBTQ+ activism in Cincinnati BY KATHY SCHWARTZ
“I had one foot in the feminist movement and one in the gay one,” Beiser says via email. “Now, at 67, it’s amazing to realize that same-sex marriage is the law of the land.” Vibrant Kin recounts the LGBTQ+ community’s highs and lows as it moved from battle to battle. “This is a really personal exhibit for me,” says Yerian, who came out at age 14. “I don’t see this as a conservative city anymore so much as I see it as a city with a lot of activism on all sides.” The homophile wave in the 1960s focused on the decriminalization of sexual activity, but the non-confrontational societies soon yielded to the radical groups that emerged as the hippie movement grew. Those new organizations included Cincinnati Gay Community, which held the city’s first Pride event in 1973. On Jan. 1, 1974, Ohio dropped its sodomy law. After achieving that stamp of legitimacy, Cincinnati’s activists moved to a new cause: a human rights ordinance. “By far, the longest arc of the story is the fight for nondiscrimination protections,” Yerian says. “It goes from 1977 to 2006 before actually, finally, getting nondiscrimination protections in the city that stick.” During the unsuccessful 1977-78 effort to sway City Council to adopt an ordinance, activists were outraged when nearly 70 gay men were arrested in Burnet Woods and Mount Airy Forest over 10 days. Allegations of entrapment swirled around the police crackdown. “That, in a way, is Cincinnati’s ‘Stonewall moment,’ ” Yerian says. “Once this backlash starts, it’s a big awakening to a lot of people who may not have been involved in the formal movement.” Pride returned in 1978 after a five-year absence. In 1982, The Cincinnati Enquirer published “Homosexuals: A Cincinnati Report.” It was a stark contrast to a 1964 series labeled “Cincinnati’s Hidden Problem,” which focused on crime. Some individuals used their real names and agreed to be photographed holding hands in a park or cooking at home. “When you talk to older activists, it meant a lot to them,” Yerian says. “It meant change was coming.” But lasting change still would take years. The elation over having City Council adopt a human rights ordinance in 1992 that included protection against bias based on
sexual orientation was followed by deep disappointment next year when 62 percent of voters passed Issue 3, a referendum to block such rights. “Everyone I talk to that was active in the 1980s, it was such a huge blow to them,” Yerian says. “They talk about just being tired after Issue 3. It’s sort of a community trauma.” The Greater Cincinnati Gay and Lesbian Coalition, which once represented 40 organizations, disbanded in 1995. That same year, the Pride parade went away. And in 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court left intact Article XII of the city’s charter, which prohibited anti-discrimination measures on behalf of LGBTQ+ people. By the time the gay community tried again in 2004, new coalitions had formed. “There are still some of the older activists in this, but there’s sort of a generational changeover,” Yerian says. “They make the choice to come out to talk specifically about gay and lesbian rights.” Voters repealed Article XII, and in 2006 City Council amended the human rights ordinance. A decade later, Yerian is concerned about isolation between the generations. Last month, all ages met for SAGE Table, part of a national effort by Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders. Older people spoke of the loss of places like Crazy Ladies for making friends. “The more we’re accepted, the less we need a place that accepts only us,” says Sandy Dulaney, 72, of West Chester with some wistfulness. Yerian says younger people want to hear the history, but they also want their experiences to be honored. For instance, “queer” is a word that still carries hurt for senior gays. “But for younger people it can symbolize liberation and something that feels right in terms of labeling themselves,” Yerian says. Beiser, the archivist, knows there’s work ahead but is optimistic. “The young people have so much energy!” she writes. “I trust that these activists will carry the torch of fairness and freedom.”
VIBRANT KIN will premiere noon-9 p.m. Saturday at the Cincinnati Pride Festival. More info: vibrantkin.org.
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When Nancy Yerian returned to Cincinnati in 2013 after graduating from Smith College, she doubted she’d stay. She didn’t feel connected to her hometown’s LGBTQ+ community. “I didn’t see a vibrancy or radical activism,” she says. It turns out the history major just needed to look back a half-century. Yerian, 26, now hopes her peers will discover the city’s legacy of LGBTQ+ activism and meet the people who pushed for rights long before Cincinnati elected Councilman Chris Seelbach, celebrated James Obergefell’s samesex marriage case and banned conversion therapy for minors after Leelah Alcorn’s suicide. At this year’s Pride Festival, Yerian will debut an exhibit of 50 years of stories about the individuals she calls Vibrant Kin — the name Yerian also chose for her project sponsored by People’s Liberty. In addition to the traveling display, she is holding events this summer to encourage conversations between generations. “In two years, all over the country, there is going to be tons of stuff about the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, which is really important. But I wanted to honor what had happened here,” she says. As a volunteer with the Ohio Lesbian Archives at Clifton United Methodist Church, Yerian indexed copies of Dinah, a local lesbian newsletter published from 1975 to 1997. In one issue, she found a reference to the founding of the homophile/gay right’s Cincinnati Mattachine Society in 1967 — two years before the uprising at New York’s Stonewall Inn. That stuck with her. “Seeing that date tells us Cincinnati has formal activism going back a really long time,” Yerian says. “It wasn’t all on the coasts.” Dinah editor Phebe (Karen) Beiser says she “sprang forth an activist” after coming out in 1971. She rallied at Fountain Square and City Hall, co-founded the Ohio Lesbian Archives and helped run Northside’s Crazy Ladies Bookstore from 1979 to 2004. She joined other Cincinnatians at the first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1979.
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Tough Transitions A local win for trans-
inclusive health coverage comes as new battles loom under the Trump administration
MAIN LIBRARY • PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER
By NICK SWARTSELL a big risk, taking on that much debt, but if I was going to have a normal healthy life any time soon, I had to get it done.” The library on May 15 announced it had settled with Dovel. “We are glad Anthem ultimately added this coverage to our base plan,” library human resources director Andrea Kaufman said, “and glad to have reached a happy resolution with our employee Ms. Dovel.” Neither Dovel nor the library will comment on any financial dimensions of that settlement, but it does require the library to extend trans benefits and provide training on transgender issues to employees. “Employers across the country should take note that denying medically necessary care for transgender employees is unlawful,” said the National Center for Lesbian Rights in a statement on Dovel’s settlement after it was filed. NCLR helped represent Dovel in court. Despite Dovel’s victory, the larger battle over transgender access to health benefits has become increasingly murky with the election of President Donald Trump. Just a month before the library announced its settlement with Dovel, for example, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the state of Wisconsin, which changed its policy on Feb. 1 to exclude transgender-specific procedures and treatments from the health benefits it offers its 300,000 employees. The state’s Department of Employee Trust Funds (ETF) passed the policy including trans benefits in July 2016 after U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regulations associated with the Affordable Care Act were interpreted by the Obama administration as requiring employers to offer trans-inclusive care. Those were the same regulations cited by Dovel’s lawyers in their legal filings around her lawsuit. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican who has been a staunch opponent of LGBTQ+ rights, opposed ETF’s move to include benefits for trans people. Walker would eventually get his way. In December 2016, a federal judge in Texas placed a preliminary injunction on those Affordable Care Act regulations. The Department of Justice could challenge that decision, but
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, appointed by Trump, shows no sign of doing so. With Affordable Care Act protections for trans-inclusive health care hamstrung, Wisconsin’s ETF department promptly reinstated its trans benefits exclusions. Dovel’s attorney Jennifer Branch, as well as national groups like the ACLU, argue that this violates federal discrimination laws, like Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin and religion, as well as the U.S. Constitution. “Public employers, like the library and other government entities, are prohibited by the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution from discriminating against employees based on sex; this constitutional protection cannot be changed by the Trump administration or Congress,” Branch says. The situation in Wisconsin is especially hard, trans activists say, because the state will also require a new, more onerous process in order for employees to change their listed gender. Previously, individuals transitioning from one gender to another merely had to present a letter signed by a licensed physician to get their correct gender listed on driver’s licenses and other documentation. Now, however, individuals must provide proof of gender confirmation treatment, including the date that treatment began and details about the nature of that treatment. Ironically, those are the same treatments no longer covered by the state for its employees. The DOJ’s unwillingness under Sessions to enforce Affordable Care Act regulations against transgender discrimination makes the outlook hazy for more victories like Dovel’s. Meanwhile, Dovel hopes her struggle with her employer will help others locally. The decade-plus library veteran has said she knows others there who will benefit from her case. “It’s good to feel that my well-being is valued by my employer, and that any library employees or their family members who need this kind of health care in the future will have an easier time accessing it,” Dovel says. “There is still lots of work to be done, especially given the animosity of Trump and Congress toward marginalized people.” ©
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Last month, a Cincinnati resident prevailed in efforts to get her high-profile public employer to cover transgender-inclusive medical care. But other battles loom. While employees of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County won’t have to fight as Rachel Dovel did for such care, legal confrontations over employer-provided health care for transgender individuals are brewing elsewhere in the country as President Donald Trump’s administration looks to be markedly less LGBTQ-friendly than his predecessor’s. Dovel’s victory was hard-won. It dragged on for more than a year, and in the meantime, she paid for an expensive gender confirmation procedure she says was medically necessary. In 2014, her doctor diagnosed her with gender dysphoria, or psychological distress caused by a person’s sex as assigned at birth. She changed her name, came out to coworkers in early 2016 and began planning to undergo gender confirmation surgery. But she learned her employer-provided Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plan did not cover that procedure or other trans-specific medical care. The library didn’t yield after Dovel made some inquires, and in April 2016, she held a news conference outside the library’s downtown location to go public with her complaints. The Library Board of Trustees voted in June 2016 not to purchase the coverage, citing the cost to taxpayers. That September, Dovel and her attorneys filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the library was violating Dovel’s 14th Amendment right to equal protection, federal employment laws barring sex-based discrimination and provisions in the Affordable Care Act prohibiting such discrimination by insurers receiving federal funds, as Anthem does. In the suit, Dovel asked for monetary damages, a jury trial and court orders to prohibit the library from buying and Anthem from selling coverage that excludes trans-specific healthcare. Two months after filing the suit, Dovel took out a loan to get the surgery she needed. “My doctors, my therapist and honestly the whole of the reputable medical community all agree that gender-confirmation surgery is a necessary thing for some people, and that it leads to good health outcomes for those people,” Dovel says. “It was
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Queer Visibility on TV BY JAC KERN LGBTQ+ characters and storylines depicted on TV are often met with controversy. Pushback comes from both sides of the aisle: Some argue these choices are a sign of liberal media spreading the “gay agenda” (the jury’s still out on what agenda that might be). On the flipside, token representations of LGBTQ+ characters can be stereotypical and offensive. Nevertheless, television is one way to introduce audiences to a range of faces, stories and experiences. Sure, Ellen didn’t abolish homophobia and Modern Family hardly paved the way for marriage equality, but mass media representation of LGBTQ+ communities still plays a major role for audiences. It’s all about visibility. These shows engage in the conversation in a significant way, from celebrating queer relationships to breaking down gender norms to exploring intersectionality and real-world LGBTQ+ issues. When it comes to visibility, it’s hard to top Orange Is the New Black. The prison dramedy features a diverse cast of actors in terms of age, body types, gender, race and sexuality. It catapulted the career of Laverne Cox, who has used the platform to promote LGBTQ+ issues. Besides offering a collection of queer actors and characters, the show also brings to light the many failures of the criminal justice system, which so frequently affect women, people of color, trans people and other minorities. (Netflix) I avoided Modern Family for a long time because I’m a bit of a network TV snob
and it felt rife with stereotypes. I eventually gave it a shot and changed my mind, and there’s no denying this is one of the strongest sitcoms of our time. It’s just been renewed for a ninth and 10th season. Is it the perfect representation of same-sex couples and families? No, that does not exist. What Modern Family does do well is present couple Mitch and Cam on the same level as Gloria and Jay or Phil and Claire, with their own strengths, quirks and flaws, just like anyone else. (ABC, USA, Hulu) Newish network VICELAND has made a clear commitment to diversity in its programming — shows about everything from food and fashion to indigenous communities and women’s issues feature hosts that fall along all spectrums of race, gender and sexual orientation. Like many VICELAND series, Gaycation has a travel aspect, sending actress Ellen Page and her friend Ian Daniel to cities across the globe to explore different LGBTQ+ cultures. They’re not afraid to tackle dangerous territory, like Rio de Janeiro, which has the highest LGBTQ+ murder rate in the world. (VICELAND) There are few champions of queer culture quite like RuPaul. He sings, he acts, he makes one helluva beautiful woman and helped bring drag culture into the mainstream with the addictive competition show RuPaul’s Drag Race. And contrary to the hypersensitive “safe space” culture synonymous with queer communities, RuPaul doesn’t take any of it too seriously.
From his autobiography: “You can call me he. You can call me she. You can call me Regis and Kathie Lee; I don’t care! Just as long as you call me.” Thus, Drag Race is a perfect mix of irreverent humor and amazing artistry — with a lot of heart. (VH1) How would you react if your 70-year-old dad (or ex-husband) came out as transgender? No, we’re not talking Caitlyn Jenner. In Transparent, even the most progressive family struggles with such a surprise. Over the seasons, we watch Maura (Jeffrey Tambor) and the Pfeffermans (Gaby Hoffmann, Amy Landecker, Jay Duplass and Judith Light) adapt to this transition while balancing their own selfish tendencies. At once hilarious and heartbreaking, it’s one of my favorite current shows. And while the choice to cast a cis man as the lead trans woman is worth pondering, Tambor takes on this role with great care, playing it beautifully. (Amazon) Showtime drama Billions explores power, wealth and corruption in the New York finance world. By no means a categorically LGBTQ+ show, Billions features what’s considered the first nonbinary (not identifying as male or female) character — played by nonbinary actor Asia Kate Dillon — on mainstream American TV. Taylor Mason (Dillon) is a brilliant hedge fund intern helping Bobby Axelrod (Damian Lewis) scheme his way to the top. And, like Dillon, Taylor’s gender is just one facet of their identity — Billions explores the topic without harping on it. (Showtime) ©
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C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 7 • 2 3
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A Royal Organization Fronted by an emperor and empress, ISQCCBE has a single mission: to fundraise for the local LGBTQ+ community
ISQCCBE EMPEROR scot fromeyer & EMPRESS molly mormen • PHOTO: Sarah CochraN Photography
BY EMILY BEGLEY fundraising chairs; this year’s monarchs are Fromeyer and Empress Molly Mormen aka Michael Wilson. “Although it may sound cliché, I love serving our community and being out and about with such a vibrant and diverse group of organizations and individuals,” Wilson says. “Every event and every interaction with those we work with and serve makes me want to be better in one way or another.” New this year was the implementation of the Fire & Ice scholarship, a perpetual fund awarded to members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community to attend college. The scholarship was awarded to two students and a teacher returning to school for a graduate program. Funds can be utilized in any way a recipient wishes; one student received a full ride from her college, Cotrell says, and used the Fire & Ice scholarship to cover the cost of books. The deadline for 2017 scholarships is Sept. 15, and the number of recipients will be determined by the number of applicants and available funds. Cotrell says the organization also placed a heavier focus on families this year, hosting events like bowling, a kids’ Easter egg hunt and Drag Queen Story Hours, in which members dress in drag and read to children. For the first time, kids were also involved in the emperor and empress voting process (although their votes, listed on different colored paper, weren’t actually counted). Family serves as the heart of the group in many different ways — despite whether or not that’s referring to relationships molded by blood. “The ISQCCBE has become my family,” Wilson says. “Growing up Mormon and gay in Utah was a challenge; I left Salt Lake City five years ago and almost immediately lost contact with my immediate family because of my decision to come out and live openly and authentically.” “Being in a new state, in a new city that was 1,500 miles from any type of support or social network was difficult — I’d lost my family, my faith and church and most of my friends,” he continues. “When I discovered the Court here in Cincinnati, I immediately discovered a core group of friends who loved me for who I am and showed me ways
to give back to our community and those in need in ways I never thought possible. These men and women truly became my family of choice.” Fromeyer, who became a member in 2008 after attending an event and learning more about ISQCCBE, agrees, citing the lifelong friendships he’s made within the group as one of his favorite aspects of his involvement. Membership costs $15 a year, and new members are welcome to join at any time. “A paid member receives a title bestowed upon them by the reigning emperor and empress, walks at all out-of-town and in-town coronations and is entitled to all voting privileges within the ISQCCBE,” Fromeyer says. This year’s Coronation 26 takes place Oct. 5-8, during which members will celebrate the reign of Fromeyer and Molly Mormen and usher in a new emperor and empress, who will be elected and announced July 30 at the secondannual ICP Ball. Events throughout the weekend include a fashion-through-the-ages gala, a show at The Cabaret and a victory party celebration at Below Zero Lounge. In the meantime, members are anticipating upcoming events that will continue to support the LGTBQ+ community. “I look forward to several events that highlight the diversity of drag and expands our reach as entertainers and fundraisers,” Wilson says. “Over the next several months, we have events for women to get dressed up as drag queens and raise money for the Women’s Health Initiative, we have another competition for women who want to present as men and perform as drag kings, and we have a brand new event that focuses on the ‘gent’ aspect of performing, which is men who perform as men. “We thrive on diversity and support any way we can bridge divides and show support to all areas of our community.”
To learn more about ISQCCBE’s local chapter and upcoming events, visit isqccbe.org. For more on the International Court System, visit impcourt.org.
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San Francisco, 1965: José Sarria, an openly gay Latino, drag queen and political activist, proclaims herself the empress of the California city. The declaration lays the foundation for the Imperial Court de San Francisco, an organization aimed at fostering a greater sense of gay pride, identity and unity within the community. Fifty-two years later, that organization has metamorphosed into the International Court System, which contains more than 68 chapters across the United States — including Cincinnati’s Imperial Sovereign Queen City Court of the Buckeye Empire. Since its formation in 1991, the group has worked toward a solitary goal: to support the financial needs of the Tristate’s LGBTQ+ community. “Basically, it’s totally a 100 percent fundraising organization,” says vice president Michael Cotrell — otherwise known as Brooklyn Steele-Tate, a well-known local drag queen. “Our primary focus is only to raise money for charity.” The group currently works with organizations including Caracole, which provides HIV prevention and testing services and affordable housing for families living with HIV/ AIDS; GLSEN, which works to create safe and affirming schools for all regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression; and the Women’s Health Initiative, a long-term national study focused on preventing diseases prevalent in women. ISQCCBE works with these organizations to raise funds in a variety of ways, including hosting drag shows and movie nights and participating in large-scale events like Cincinnati Pride. In order to become one of the group’s designated charities, interested organizations must be classified as a 501(c)(3) and complete short interviews with ISQCCBE in September of each year. To date, ISQCCBE has donated more than $1.2 million to charities supporting LGBTQ+ youth, transgender health and support groups, suicide prevention, women’s health and those affected by HIV/Aids, according to Scot Fromeyer — aka Emperor 25. ISQCCBE holds a coronation each year to elect a new emperor and empress, who serve as its
wednesday, august 23 newport on the levee 5:30-8:30 pm
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a tribute to all things tequila, with live music from beloved youth
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Saturday, June 24th • 8pm Sawyer Point • Free Admission
Belterra Park Gaming Tunnel Stage Emcee - Tyese Rainz
ENTERTAINMENT LINEUP
2:30-3:30pm DJ Set - Venus
4:45-5:30pm Flying Underground (band)
3:30-4pm Drag Showcase 1 Sayla Vee Velma Tration Davion Summers Rahanna Mitchell Jayla Baitt
5:30-6pm Drag Showcase 2 Adonis Casanova Fera Wang Zoey Knight David Starr Karina
4-4:30pm Cincinnati Men’s Chorus
6-7pm DJ Set - DJ Eazy Kutz
Fifth Third Bank Mainstage Emcee - Brooklyn Steele-Tate 1:30-2:30pm DJ Set - DJ Jules 2:30-3pm Drag Showcase 1 Sassy Meadows Mirelle Jane Divine Chasity Marie Nikki Dimon Judith Iscariot 3-4pm Jamison Road (band)
4:30-4:45pm Diverse City Youth Chorus
4-4:30pm Drag Showcase 2 Jessica Dimon Kataleya Giles Demi Sexton The Denton Affair
6-6:30
4:30-5pm DJ Set - Charlee McGinnis (DJ Charlee)
6:30-
5-5:30pm Drag Showcase 3 Nichelle Kartier Rita Dela Novah Aaliyah Milian Lady Jetta Sarah Jessica Darker
7-8pm
5:30-6pm DJ Set - Ricky Lee Hiett (DJ Iceberg)
8-9:30
Festival Map
Parade Map
0pm Drag Showcase 4 Chulo Cartel Savannah Judd Kisha Summers Bella Dolce
-7pm Black Ice Drill Team, Elite Squad
m TBA
0pm Cincinnati’s Drag Race Show Host - Michelle Visage BenDeLaCreme Pearl Derrick Barry Tatianna Roxxxy Andrews
Kroger & Pepperidge Farm Family Fun Zone Packed with activities for kids of all ages! Cincinnati Circus Big Show including Pirate actors, pirate games, jugglers, magicians, stilt walkers, and stage combat lessons for kids. Face Painting, crafts, an inflatable bounce house, and inflatable slide will also be onsite.
PROUD, STRONG, UNITED... PRIDE
Cincinnati Pride, Inc Board of Directors
This year is Cincinnati’s Pride 44th year for the Festival & Parade. Cincinnati Pride has been voted #1 Charity/ Festival by CityBeat readers. The celebration is bringing in an estimate of 90,000 people on June 24,2017. As another year goes by, our city and our community grows bigger and stronger! We couldn’t put on such a great atmosphere without the community volunteers, sponsors and the love we have for this great city!
Brooklyn Steele-Tate
The mission of Cincinnati Pride is to provide the Greater Cincinnati LGBTQ community and our allies, a forum celebrating and affirming our individuality and importance to the Greater Cincinnati area, by giving expression to our community’s rich history and diversity It also renews our dedication to promoting acceptance of all individuals, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. We provide information, support local economic growth by partnering with the community to attract individuals to the Greater Cincinnati area, collaborate with other organizations through outreach programs, citizen involvement, and events, and educational resources to those inside and outside of the LGBTQ community. Come join us and celebrate the local LGBTQ+ community and allies — and the individuals, groups and businesses that make it up — and embrace the diversity of Pride. Watch as a parade makes its way through Cincinnati, starting downtown at the intersection of Seventh Street and Central Avenue before funneling onto Vine Street, Freedom Way and into the festival grounds at Sawyer Point/Yeatman’s Cove. This year’s Pride Grand Marshals are Lea DeLaria from Orange is the New Black and Chuck Beatty, director of the local OutReels Cincinnati Film Festival. Parade Kicks off at 11am, and the Festival kicks off at noon, at Sawyer Point. Andrew Morano Co-Festival & Parade Chair Board Member
Aubrey Wilson Co-Festival & Parade Chair Board Member
President
Dubravka Maric Sponsorship Chair
Joel Lam Treasurer
Aubrey Wilson
Planning Committee Co-Chair
Thomas Haddock Secretary
Andrew Morano
Planning Committee Co-Chair
Planning Committee
Planning Committee Co-Chair
Planning Committee Co-Chair
Aubrey Wilson
Brooklyn Steele-Tate
Benjamin Morano
Dubravka Maric
Dustin Thomas Lewis
Gary Goodman
Jeffrey Groneck Signage Chair
Non-Profit Vendor Chair
Karl Rece
Matthew Pappert
Megan Green
Randy Womble
Tony Phillips
Andrew Morano
Food Vendor Chair
Storage Logistics Co-Chair
Storage Logistics Co-Chair
Social Media Chair
Sponsorship Chair
Liquor Tent & Bartender Chair
Website Chair
Board President Head Emcee
Entertainment Chair
Jeremi Jay Phillippi
Volunteer Chair
Heart to Heart with Heartland Heartland Trans Wellness
Jonah Yokoyama • PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER
Group director Jonah Yokoyama talks LGBTQ+ needs, services and Pride INTERVIEW BY MACKENZIE MANLEY
CityBeat: Tell us about your services? Jonah Yokoyama: I think one of the most important things we do is crisis-related work. We don’t bill ourselves as crisis care simply because there’s not enough of us to handle the need, but that’s what comes my way so much: people who are suicidal, people who have been kicked out, people who have been a victim of an assault or some kind of violence. … We do what we can. We not only get these contacts from local folks, but nationally and internationally. There’s just not enough people doing this work around the world. Besides crisis care work, one of the other things we do is professional training. I’ve provided training for everything from a local hospital to a small business who might want to serve their employees or customers better. CB: With Pride approaching in Cincinnati, how would you say trans and queer issues differ in the Midwest compared to other regions? JY: We have exceedingly high rates of violence here in the Midwest. Ohio has been up there in deaths and assaults of trans people. That’s something I continue to see. I’ve been the victim of violence here in Cincinnati. I’ve lived in California and in Texas, and I haven’t experienced as much violence as I have here. There are limited providers. We don’t have enough doctors that are trans competent. We have people who will drive all the way to Chicago or Columbus to get care. We’re lucky that we have the Cincinnati Trans Clinic at Children’s Hospital, who are serving over 600 youths age 24 and under. We’re the only city in quite some distance that serves youth, but for the adult folks, there’s just not enough. We still have employment issues. We’re not very protected here. The climate a lot of folks run into — not just here, but everywhere — is we’re still treated as the tacked-on “T” to the “LGBT.” I know that the Pride committee here has been making some great efforts to be inclusive and to up their trans competency in the events that they run. CB: As a registered nurse, how does your profession play into your work at Heartland?
JY: One, I’m a psychiatric nurse so it works really well for me to do the crisis work that I do for Heartland because I do a lot of that anyway. We also do testosterone and estrogen workshops (which help) people learn about hormone replacement therapy and how to give injections. It also helps with the assessments, or trying to figure out what someone might need. People don’t always know what’s available. CB: Have you made any changes in the past year? Any upcoming changes? JY: (We have started) offering more programming at this location, (including) more workshops and social gatherings. Every month we have multiple events planned. That’s been a huge change. We continue to be inundated with folks who are in crisis and folks who need referrals or resources. We have about three people doing professional services and we have more than 1,000 clients in the Greater Cincinnati area, not to mention all the contacts we get from (around) the world. We don’t have enough people to do this work. I’m consistently two-months behind in non-crisis emails. We’re trying to build funding, structure and a volunteer base so we can do more. This has been a year of growth and preparation in a lot of ways. CB: Can you speak on how the events you mentioned will ultimately provide for the at-risk LGBTQ+ community? JY: We just partnered with Equitas Health and TransOhio in April for a legal clinic so people could get assistance with paperwork for legal name changes — ID changes, social security and passports. That’s a big need. The social things we do, if you look at it this way, most minority groups, say a religious or ethnic minority, tend to have a place to cluster, whether it’s a neighborhood where similar people have settled or a religious place where people come together. Trans people pop everywhere so to have community we have to build it. We have to come together.
To learn more about HEARTLAND TRANS WELLNESS GROUP, visit transwellness.org.
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A framed sheet crowded with signatures from 2015’s Pride march sits next to the door of Heartland Trans Wellness Group. Each year, an average of 600 to 700 people stop by their table at Cincinnati’s Pride, making it a vital moment of exposure. The center, which moved to its new location in Mount Auburn two years ago, is an alcove of community in Cincinnati that provides accessible resources to trans, queer and other LGBTQ+ individuals. The center is located in a space leased from Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church; the next closest center that specifically deals with trans issues is more than 100 miles away in Columbus. Jonah Yokoyama, director of Heartland and a registered nurse, says deaths within the trans community attracted a spike both in awareness and the need for Heartland’s services. Specifically, he mentioned Leelah Alcorn, a trans teenager from Mason whose suicide attracted international attention; at the time, Heartland received a 20 percent increase in contacts. The need never went back down. Though more trans people and their families have sought Heartland’s help, the organization’s funding has stayed the same. They have an annual budget of $10,000, which they receive through donations and grants from organizations such as the Trans Justice Funding Project. If they were to be paid for what they do, they would receive upward of $90,000, according to Yokoyama. In 2014, the Arcus Foundation, which supports LGBTQ+ social justice, found that only 7 percent of all LGBTQ+ funding goes to trans organizations. Yokoyama said that this gap is difficult to overcome. Yokoyama, assigned female at birth, first heard the term “trans” in 1996 when he was 16 but didn’t feel safe to come out until he was 18. “Kids now hear about it younger and understand who they are,” he says. “Parents recognize it at a younger age and are less likely to shame them or force them to be something they’re not. We can connect them to other trans adults so they can see that it’s not all Jerry Springer or the ridiculousness you sometimes see in media. They can have a life. They can be OK.” As Cincinnati Pride approaches, we asked Yokoyama more about Heartland and what they do.
Pride Week Calendar
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WEDNESDAY 21
Pride Movie Night: Hairspray — Grab a blanket, come dressed as your favorite character (and win prizes doing so) and watch Hairspray at Washington Park. Singing along with the film is encouraged. Film begins at dusk (9 p.m.-ish) Wednesday. Free. Washington Park, 1230 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, washingtonpark.org.
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Pop Up Drag Show — After the movie, mosey over to Queen City Radio for a pop-up drag show, hosted by Jessica Dimon and featuring Rita Dela Novah, Nichelle Kartier, Rahanna and Kataleya. A portion of the money raised from Jell-O shot sales will be donated to Cincinnati Pride; QCR will double the amount of money raised. Food and snow cone vendors will be onsite as drag queens strut for Pride. Ages 21 and older. 11 p.m. Wednesday. Donations recommended. Queen City Radio, 222 W. 12th St., Over-the-Rhine, qcrbar.com.
THURSDAY 22
Pride Party — The sexiest night of Cincinnati Pride Week, this party features go-go dancing from Andrew Christian Models’ own Austin, Jacob and Jorge with Cin City Burlesque performers Koko Ganache, Rocky Road and Ruby Porte. Dance unabashedly throughout the night and don’t forget to bring cash to tip. Ages 21 and older. 9 p.m.-1 a.m. Thursday. $15 advance; $20 at the door. 20th Century Theater, 3021 Madison Road, Oakley, the20thcenturytheatre.com.
FRIDAY 23
Cincinnati Pride Community Recognition Awards — Honor members from the LGBTQ+ community for their work and activism. 7-9 p.m. Friday. $15. Contemporary Arts Center, 44 E. Sixth St., Downtown, contemporaryartscenter.org.
The Babadook: Pride Screening — Unfurl on The Video Archive’s cinema patio for a screening of the The Babadook, a movie whose main monster recently rose as a gay icon via Tumblr. Bring a blanket to hide under and “prepare to be Babashook” all while celebrating Pride and slurping on an array of cocktails. 9 p.m. Friday. Free admission. The Video Archive, 965 E. McMillan St., Walnut Hills, thatgrindhousebar.com.
SATURDAY 24
Cincinnati Pride Parade — Celebrate the local LGBTQ+ community and allies and the individuals, groups and
businesses that make it up by embracing the diversity of Pride. Watch as a parade makes its way through Cincinnati, starting downtown at the intersection of Seventh Street and Central Avenue before funneling into Vine Street, Freedom Way and into the festival grounds at Sawyer Point/Yeatman’s Cove. This year’s Pride Grand Marshals are Lea DeLaria from Orange is the New Black and Chuck Beatty, director of the local OutReels Cincinnati Film Festival. 11 a.m. Saturday. Free. Downtown, cincinnatipride.org. Cincinnati Pride Festival — The Pride party continues after the parade at Sawyer Point. Bring a rainbow flag and some sunblock — the festival runs all day. Entertainment will fill two stages with acts including local DJ sets, drag showcases, performances from the Cincinnati Men’s Chorus and more, including a headlining “Cincinnati’s Drag Race Show” at 8 p.m., hosted by Michelle Visage and featuring RuPaul’s Drag Race favorites BenDeLaCreme, Pearl, Derrick Barry, Tatianna and Roxxxy Andrews. Expect food trucks, Pride-themed cocktails and a family-fun zone with magicians, jugglers and inflatable slides. Noon-9 p.m. Saturday. Free. Sawyer Point, 705 E. Pete Rose Way, cincinnatipride.org. Lea DeLaria: An Evening of Music and Comedy — Comedian, actress, musician and 2017 Pride Parade Grand Marshal Lea DeLaria (Orange is the New Black) presents an evening of music and comedy. 7:30 p.m. Saturday. $45$75. Live! at the Ludlow Garage, 342 Ludlow Ave., Clifton, liveattheludlowgarage.com.
SUNDAY 25
My Big Gay Brunch — Spend the morning after Cincinnati Pride basking in a rainbow-infused brunch at the Metropole at 21c. Includes cocktails, performances by local drag queens and a delicious meal to boot. Afterward, head to the lobby: The 21c’s traditional yellow penguin sculpture has been joined by a flock of rainbow friends in a special art installation. 11:30 p.m.-2 p.m. Sunday. $35. Metropole at 21c, 609 Walnut St., Downtown, 21cmuseumhotels.com.
Cincinnati Queer Yoga — No yoga experience necessary. Includes a curated playlist of some favorite queer artist icons. Class donations benefit local LGBTQ+ organizations. 10 a.m. Sunday. $15 suggested donation. The Yoga Bar, 15 W. 14th St., Over-the-Rhine, facebook. com/cincyqueeryoga.
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O V E R 5 0 VA R I E T I E S O F W H I S K E Y, I N C L U D I N G :
FREE & OPEN TO ALL AGES Friday, July 21 • 5-10 p.m. Saturday, July 22 • 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
F E AT U R I N G F O O D F R O M :
BLUE ASH SUMMIT PARK E N J O Y M U S I C B Y: F R I DAY
P R E S E N T E D B Y:
S AT U R DAY
S P O N S O R E D B Y:
3 0 • C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 7
5pm: Willow Tree Carolers 6pm: Wonky Tonk 7pm: The Missy Werner Band 8pm: Justin Paul Lewis 9pm: Jay Jesse Johnson Band 2pm: Joe Wannabe 3pm: Ethan and Joey 4pm: Ma Crow and the Lady Slippers 5pm: The Rosetint Collective 6pm: Right Turn Clyde 7pm: Taylor Shannon 8pm: Royal Holland 9pm: Comet Bluegrass All-Stars
FOR MOR E I N FO, V I SI T C I T Y B E AT.C OM/ C I T Y B E AT-E V E N TS
F E AT U R I N G B E E R F R O M :
to do
Staff Recommendations
photo : provided
WEDNESDAY 21
ONSTAGE: Commonwealth Theatre Company offers dinner theater with THE 39 STEPS. See Curtain Call on page 35.
FILM: PRIDE MOVIE NIGHT: HAIRSPRAY Enjoy a special screening of Hairspray for Pride at Washington Park’s Summer Cinema series. Dress as your favorite character to win prizes, and channel your inner Tracy Turnblad by singing and dancing along. Watch social change happen in the 1960s while we make it happen in 2017. 9 p.m. Wednesday. Free. Washington Park, 1230 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, cincinnatipride.org. — ELISABETH DODD EVENT: QUEEN CITY POP-UP DRAG SHOW Queen City Radio highlights the true queens of Cincinnati during a drag show after the Hairspray screening at Washington Park. Hosted by Jessica Dimon, this Pride party features performances by five of the city’s most notable drag queens and Jell-O shots. All of the money raised from those shots will be donated to Cincinnati Pride, and Queen City Radio will double it. 11 p.m. Wednesday. Free admission. Queen City Radio, 222 W. 12th St., Over-the-Rhine, cincinnatipride. org. — ELISABETH DODD
THURSDAY 22
MUSIC: Garage Punk surrealists LE BUTCHERETTES take the stage at the Taft Theatre. See Sound Advice on page 46.
FRIDAY 23
MUSIC: Former David Letterman band leader PAUL SHAFFER plays Kettering’s Fraze Pavilion. See interview on page 44.
EVENT: STREET PUB Deschutes Brewery is taking its taps on tour this summer with a Street Pub traveling pop-up party. The one-day-only outdoor pub will feature more than 50 beers on tap, local food from Thunderdome Group
EVENT: STEELING CINCINNATI One of the prized possessions of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County is its recently refurbished 1848 daguerreotype panorama of downtown Cincinnati by Charles Fontayne and William S. Porter. At 1 p.m. Saturday, the Main Library celebrates it with a preview of Robert Coomer’s upcoming printing of that photographic image on steel, using modern techniques while remaining true to the original’s look. Christopher Smith, genealogy and local history librarian, will talk about the daguerreotype’s history and visitors will be able to see it close-up. (Coomer’s project, Steeling Cincinnati by Robert Coomer: An Exciting Look at Cincinnati’s Past, debuts 5-7:30 p.m. July 8 at Row House Gallery, 211 Main St., Milford.) 1 p.m. Saturday. Free. Main Library, 800 Main St., Downtown, cincinnatilibrary.org. — STEVEN ROSEN
(Bakersfield, Maplewood, Eagle, etc.) and Metropole and live music from the likes of Hebdo and Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas (see Sound Advice on page 46). A portion of proceeds will benefit local charities. Street Pub’s next stop? Roanoke, Va. 2-10 p.m. Friday. Free admission. The Banks, Downtown, deschutesbrewery.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO ONSTAGE: ACT CINCINNATI 2017 CONVENTION Annually on the fourth weekend of June, the Association of Community Theatres of Greater Cincinnati — aka ACT Cincinnati — brings together numerous community theaters for a celebration featuring excerpts from one show for each group’s past season. Excerpts can be up to 30 minutes long; three will be presented on Friday evening, with six more starting at
9 a.m. Saturday. It’s a perfect chance to see samples of the depth and breadth of theater work put onstage by hard-working and talented volunteers. Performances include musicals American Idiot, Side Show and Always, Patsy Cline and plays such as Arthur Miller’s All My Sons and Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out. 7 p.m. Friday; 9 a.m. Saturday. $20. Parrish Auditorium, Miami University-Hamilton, 1601 University Blvd., Hamilton, actcincinnati.org. — RICK PENDER EVENT: PANEGYRI GREEK FESTIVAL Go Greek for a day — or the whole weekend — at the 43rd Panegyri Greek Festival. Traditional music and folk dance will transport guests to the mainland and islands of Greece. Visit the marketplace to find jewelry, icons, olive oil and other imported goods and get ready to eat — the highlight of this festival
is the food. Grab a gyro and an imported glass of wine, then hit the zaxaroplasteio for traditional Greek desserts like baklava, kourambiethes, melomakarona and more. Live cooking demonstrations will teach guests how to prepare their festival favorites. 5-11 p.m. Friday; 3-11 p.m. Saturday; 1-8 p.m. Sunday. $2; free 12 and under. Holy Trinity-Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, 7000 Winton Road, Finneytown, panegyri.com. — GRACE HILL EVENT: OVER THE RHINE: LIVE AT HOME CONCERT Cincinnati-based Folk duo Over the Rhine will fill Washington Park with bluesy Rock & Roll and Gospel-inspired tunes Friday as they raise money for the United Way of Greater Cincinnati, which helps to lift Cincinnati children and families out of poverty. CONTINUES ON PAGE 32
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COMEDY: GREG MORTON Comedian Greg Morton is probably best known for the Star Wars mash-up he has closed his act with for several years. Not surprisingly, the recent Star Wars resurgence has helped increase interest in that original bit. “It’s been fantastic,” he says. It started out as just a few vocal references before morphing into a full bit. Morton has added more such performances to his repertoire including a take on Lord of the Rings. “They’re like little skits,” he says. Showtimes ThursdaySunday. $18. Liberty Funny Bone, 7518 Bales St., Liberty Township, liberty.funnybone.com. — P.F. WILSON
SATURDAY 24
PANEGYRI
p h o t o : c i n c i n n at i p r i d e
G ree k Festi val JUNE 2017 Fri 23
5-11pm
Sat 24 3-11pm
Sun 25
1-8pm
SATURDAY 24
www. PANEGYRI.com
Holy Trinity-St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church
7000 Winton Rd. • Finneytown, Cincinnati, OH • (513) 591 - 0030
EVENT: CINCINNATI PRIDE PARADE AND FESTIVAL Celebrate the local LGBTQ+ community and allies and embrace the diversity of Pride as the Pride Parade and Festival wraps up Cincinnati Pride Week. Grab your flags, friends and rainbow-colored accessories and join the city’s most fun march as it makes its way through the streets of downtown, starting at the intersection of Seventh Street and Central Avenue before funneling onto Vine Street, Freedom Way and pooling into festival grounds at Sawyer Point/Yeatman’s Cove. The parade turns into a party at the all-day, family-friendly Pride Festival, an event filled with food trucks, bouncy slides, themed cocktails, vendors and live entertainment. Entertainment will fill two stages with local DJ sets, drag showcases, performances from the Cincinnati Men’s Chorus and more. The headlining “Cincinnati’s Drag Race Show” takes the main stage at 8 p.m., hosted by RuPaul’s Drag Race judge Michelle Visage and featuring RuPaul’s Drag Race favorites BenDeLaCreme, Pearl, Derrick Barry, Tatianna and Roxxxy Andrews. 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday. Free. Sawyer Point, 705 E. Pete Rose Way, Downtown, cincinnatipride.org. — MACKENZIE MANLEY
FROM PAGE 31
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And if good music isn’t enough to persuade you to stop bingeing Game of Thrones before Season Seven premieres on July 16, maybe bonus food trucks and craft beer are. See Spill It on page 45. 6-10 p.m. Friday. $20 suggested donation. Washington Park, 1230 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, washingtonpark.org. — AMANDA WEISBROD FILM: THE BABADOOK: PRIDE SCREENING Unfurl on The Video Archive’s cozy cinema patio for a screening of the The Babadook, a movie whose main monster recently rose from the rainbow ashes as a gay icon via Tumblr. Bring a blanket to hide under and “prepare to be Babashook” during a film about a mother and son, their suppressed emotions and a monster who comes to life from a child’s storybook. 9 p.m. Friday. Free admission. The Video Archive, 965 E. McMillian St., Walnut Hills, thatgrindhousebar.com. — MACKENZIE MANLEY EVENT: FRIDA Follow the endearing, troubling and triumphant life story of iconic Mexican painter Frida Kahlo as Robert Xavier Rodríguez’s
1991 opera Frida comes to Cincinnati this weekend. As a young girl, Kahlo dreamt of becoming a medical doctor, only to have that dream crushed by a near-fatal bus accident. But out of her time spent recovering in bed came Kahlo’s striking selfportraits that explore identity, femininity and heritage through her surrealistic take on the female form and Mexican tradition. 7:30 p.m. Friday and Tuesday; 3 p.m. Sunday; 7:30 p.m. June 29, July 1, 6 and 8. $104-$139. Aronoff Center, 650 Walnut St., Downtown, cincinnatiopera.org. — AMANDA WEISBROD MUSIC: PERSISTENCE OF SURF MUSIC: RAIDERS OF THE URBAN ARTIFACT Fans of instrumental Surf Rock — the beachy, vocal-less style popularized by the likes of The Ventures and Dick Dale — will find a musical heaven at Northside’s Urban Artifact this weekend. Longtime Surf supporters and promoters Beth and Don Schott continue their “Persistence of Surf Music” series with shows featuring national, regional and local acts like The AmpFibians, Grateful Surf and They Never Came Back!. Headlining Friday night’s festivities is The Blair-Pongracic
photo : spring grove cemetery & Arboretum
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EVENT: DOG’S DAY OF SUMMER Bring your furry friend to Spring Grove for the 10th-annual Dog’s Day of Summer, the one day a year the cemetery and arboretum is dog-friendly. With hundreds of acres of green space and walking trails, it’s a great place for a pup. Still looking for the perfect pooch? Tails of Hope will be there with dogs that need a forever home. And new this year is a Remembrance Service to honor the pets that have passed on. Bring a photo of your lost loved one to attach to a white luminary bag, which will be set around the Rose Garden. Event includes pet photos, an organized Dogwood Trail walk and a luau picnic. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. Free. Spring Grove Cemetery & Arboretum, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village, springgrove.org. — ELISABETH DODD
Band, featuring L.A.’s John Blair, a music historian and author of several books about Surf and “Hot Rod” music, and Ivan Pongracic, lead guitarist for Indianapolis Surf champs The Madeira. Headlining Saturday’s matinee show is Atlanta, Ga.’s masked Surf marauders, The Mystery Men?. 8 p.m. Friday; 2 p.m. Saturday. $10 per day. Urban Artifact, 1660 Blue Rock St., Northside, artifactbeer. com. — MIKE BREEN
EVENT: Magician DAVID BLAINE brings his death-defying illusions to the Taft Theatre. See interview on page 34.
EVENT: O.F.F. MARKET Get in the routine of supporting the Queen City by shopping small and local at the monthly O.F.F. Market. Bathe in the rainbow with bath bombs from Blue Bubble Soaps, spread some Made by Mavis jam on your morning toast or show your Cincinnati stripes with a print of baby Fiona, neck rolls and all, by r.ewers designs. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Free admission. Oakley Square, Oakley, theoffmarket.org. — GRACE HILL
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MUSIC: Pop party group MISTERWIVES plays Bogart’s. See Sound Advice on page 47.
ONGOING shows Visual Art A Shared Legacy: Folk Art in America Cincinnati Art Museum, Mount Adams (through Sept. 3)
Over-the-Rhine + 16-BitBar.com
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ART: JACK MEANWELL EXHIBITION AT MARY RAN GALLERY The Mary Ran Gallery hosts an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Canadian-born, Cincinnati-based Abstract Expressionist Jack Meanwell (1919-2005). Meanwell studied commercial art during the Depression, went into advertising after serving in the war and returned to painting after working in the family coffee business for several decades. A longtime teacher at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky University, the painter was known for his heavy strokes of impasto to create bright, colorful abstracted landscapes and figures. Opening reception 5-8 p.m. Friday. Through July 21. Free. 3668 Erie Ave., Hyde Park, maryrangallery.com. — MARIA SEDA-REEDER
SATURDAY 24
arts & culture
Ambitious Illusions
David Blaine brings signature tricks and “insane” new feats to the Taft Theatre INTERVIEW BY JASON GARGANO
PHOTO : provided
D
avid Blaine is a singular figure, a man with seemingly supernatural talents and a superior mindset. The New York City native has carved out a unique place for himself on the cultural landscape as a magician who is as deft at performing a card trick as he is at completing seemingly death-defying feats. He’s done everything from burying himself underground for seven days to holding his breath for more than 17 minutes while submerged in a tank of water to catching a gun-fired bullet in his mouth. And now the 44-year-old might be attempting his most difficult endeavor to date — a 40-city tour in which he’ll be performing many of his signature feats for an audience that will, in typically collaborative Blaine fashion, no doubt become part of the show. CityBeat recently touched base with the magician by phone to discuss everything from early and ongoing influences like Harry Houdini to how having a child has impacted his approach to performing.
CityBeat: This is the first time you’ve done a tour like this. Why now? David Blaine: I’ve been so excited about it. I’ve been dreaming of doing this for the last decade, trying to think about what I can do and make it different and interesting. I feel like it’s ready to move in that direction, so I’m excited. It’s a very ambitious, physical challenge. It will be more difficult than any stunt that I’ve ever done. CB: I read that when your doctors saw the set list, they told you not to do it, that it would be too dangerous and physically taxing to do over an extended period.
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DB: That’s what makes it fun for me — the challenge of doing something that shouldn’t be possible. CB: So what can we expect from you on this tour? DB: You’ll see things that I’ve done on TV: the ice pick, the hanger, water tanks. Some things I’ve done, and you’ll see some new things. Some will be magic, some will be real and all of it will be insane. And it’s not recommended for kids — it might be a little rough for kids under the age of 10. Anything can happen at this show. Many things can go wrong, and I’m sure things will go wrong. All the people, like Harry Houdini, that I studied as a kid, that I looked at and thought their stuff was incredible and didn’t believe it was possible, lots of that will be incorporated into
Magician David Blaine says his dangerous new show is too intense for children to see. this show. This show will be very interesting hopefully to the audience but definitely for me as well. CB: A lot of the stuff you do is as much a mental feat as it is a physical feat. Can you talk about the balance between the mental and the physical and how a lot of times the obstacle is more of a mental challenge than it is whatever you’re doing in a physical sense? DB: And at times the mental will override the physical on some level. There’s only so far that you can go, but that’s true. I think that most of the things that I find most interesting in magic are things that occur when the mind overrides the body and you do something that you shouldn’t be able to do. CB: You’ve gone all over the place to perform for different kinds of people for your TV specials. Often it is a kind of guerilla-style, almost Punk Rock version of magic where it’s very stripped down and you’re interacting with people on a more intimate, visceral level. Why are you interested that type of interaction? DB: When I did magic as a kid, my first audience was my mom. When I would do things
that would amaze her, she would really react and get excited and laugh and freak out. I think it began there. And as you start performing more and more, you start to love watching people react. I like going into situations where normally they wouldn’t see this type of magic and bringing it to them and surprising them and changing their day for a moment. It’s a great feeling.
cannot be copied. They’re taking a risk because they have such a hardcore training regimen and a mindset and focus that they know the risks are very calculated. That’s the type of stuff that I like. I don’t like, for my own self, when I see somebody and I know that it’s a trick and it’s all hocus-pocus and an illusion. That’s not the type of entertainment that I go for.
CB: Some people have criticized you about the dangerous elements of your act. I read recently where Penn Jillette said the bullet-catching stunt was immoral. What do you say to the people who say you are a bad influence?
CB: Finally, before you go, I did want to ask how having a kid has influenced what you do as a magician? Does your daughter ever get worried about some of the feats you’re attempting?
DB: (Laughs.) I don’t want people to copy what I do, definitely not. I like to make the distinction that this is years of training and it is me putting myself at risk. As a kid growing up I was never raised on the big illusions, I was raised on the guy who could do the incredible slight of hand and Harry Houdini and people who do things that were real. And not even just the magic or Houdini, I was blown away when I saw Evel Knievel or Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson or Philippe Petit — people who were risking their safety to do things that
DB: She has grown up with me doing what I do, so I think she understands that it is what drives me in many ways and that it’s my passion and art. She’s pretty supportive and believing and, by the way, influential. She gives me really interesting things to say. And she says, “Be careful if you do this.” It’s pretty unbelievable for someone who is 6 years old. She gives me input that’s on the same level as some of my magic consultants who are their 30s and 40s. DAVID BLAINE performs Saturday at the Taft Theatre downtown. Tickets/more info: tafttheatre.org.
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Dinner and Some Shows at NKU BY RICK PENDER
was a different time in musical theater. Shows and songs could be longer; audiences’ attention spans were longer. Shows opened and closed differently.” BurgerTown has been staged in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Europe and across the United States, Jones points out. “But we never felt like it was exactly where we wanted it,” he says. “So this is a great opportunity to do it again.”
JULY 15 WOMEN’S HEALTH FAIR 1 PM - 4 PM CORRYVILLE RECREATION CENTER PRESENTED BY
A Shared Legacy: Folk Art in America Roderick Justice in BurgerTown P H O T O : C o u r t e s y N o r th e r n K e nt u ck y Un i v e r s i t y
What’s been changed? “It’s sleeker,” Jones says. “We’ve taken out any excess that was there. For instance, we had a beautiful love ballad duet, but it was almost five minutes long. We’ve trimmed it to three minutes. That really propels the musical along at a faster pace and gets you into the characters quicker. Listening to the show over the years, you start to see how you could make a character funnier or really pull the heartstrings. We’ve moved things around, but we’ve kept the heart.” They held onto one more important element: Actor Roderick Justice played Dan 12 years ago, the year he graduated from NKU. Today, the talented singer, actor and dancer is the artistic director of the Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati, but he has returned to Commonwealth to play Dan. “He was one of the reasons we wrote BurgerTown,” Jones says. “The irony is that when he did it then, he was really the wrong age. He’s the right age now.” That seems to be the case for NKU’s summer dinner theater, too. At 34, it has also reached the right age for solid success. Find more information at commonwealth. nku.edu. CONTACT RICK PENDER: rpender@citybeat.com
This exhibition is drawn from the Barbara L. Gordon Collection, and is organized and circulated by Art Services International, Alexandria, Virginia.
Now–September 3, 2017
Presented by:
Tickets available at cincinnatiartmuseum.org or by phone at (513) 721-ARTS (2787). Members receive free tickets. Attributed to John Scholl (1827–1916), United States, The Wedding of the Turtle Doves (detail), 1907–15, white pine, wire and paint, Courtesy of the Barbara L. Gordon Collection
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For more than three decades, summertime has meant dinner-theater entertainment in Highland Heights via productions by Northern Kentucky University’s Commonwealth Theatre Company, typically lighter fare in the form of comedies and musicals. The current two-show season offers a production of The 39 Steps, the very tonguein-cheek, four-actor stage rendition of an Alfred Hitchcock spy movie masterpiece. It’s already onstage, with performances through June 25. It will be followed by a locally created musical, BurgerTown (July 5-23), that’s already been a hit with local audiences. “Summer theater has been around at NKU for 34 years,” says Ken Jones, theater professor and director of NKU’s School of the Arts. “Twenty years ago we created the Commonwealth Theatre Company.” That became the organizing force behind a semi-professional dinner theater, he says, featuring everyone from Equity (professional) actors and alumni to student actors. This summer’s ensemble features three recent grads. “We add actors and directors into the mix, and that gives students who join in for the summer a chance to work side by side with professionals,” Jones says, adding that many of them also work backstage handling lights, sound and props. “They get paid very well.” The summer program became so popular that getting tickets for performances in NKU’s 120-seat Stauss Theatre was not always easy. It’s an affordable evening out, offering dinner and a show for $37. Jones expanded from a Thursday through Sunday schedule to include additional performances on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Meals, catered by Chartwells, NKU’s campus food service, are served buffet-style in the adjacent Corbett Theatre lobby. For the season’s second production, BurgerTown, the buffet features diner-style food. That’s in keeping with the musical that playwright Jones created 15 years ago with lyrics by his wife Christine and composer Jamey Strawn, another NKU faculty member. Set in a humble Chicago diner under the city’s elevated rail tracks, the show is the story of Dan O’Reilly, a timid fry cook who accidentally invents the Triangle Burger, a concept that becomes a fast food craze. Dan’s adventure exposes him to disgruntled customers, corporate greed, organized crime and some romance along the way. The show was a hit for NKU’s dinner theater a dozen years ago, and audiences fondly remembered it. The show’s publisher had been eager to reissue the script, and this inspired Jones to do some rewriting before BurgerTown was offered again. “Every song has been rewritten,” he says. “When we wrote the show 15 years ago, it
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a&c LIT
Two Books; One Odd, One Unusual
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BY JANE DURRELL
Journalism is an unsure route to either fame or fortune, but early in the last century, Oscar Odd McIntyre, once of the Cincinnati Post, went to New York City and achieved both in spades. A recently released biography of McIntyre, An Odd Book by R. Scott Williams (Newseum), recounts “how the first modern pop culture reporter conquered New York.” It’s a story that catches the reader’s interest because, like McIntyre, we are likely to find vicarious fascination in his fame and fortune. Also, McIntyre is an appealing protagonist. Named Oscar Odd for a maternal uncle, he was called Odd — pronounced “Udd” — and raised by his grandmother in Gallipolis, Ohio after his father turned him, his sister and brother over to her following the early death of their mother. The book’s Part I takes him from boyhood into journalism and includes his romance with Maybelle, who would become his wife and an unwavering supporter of his career. Odd began early to read as many periodicals as he could, including Puck, a humor magazine that would help to shape his own thinking. He didn’t finish high school but landed at one of Gallipolis’ five local dailies before his father sent him off to business college in Cincinnati. Here, he lived with a sister on West Seventh Street. At school he failed everything except touch typing, but touch typing would make it possible for him to become the world’s highest paid and mostread columnist of his era. McIntyre’s career included a stint at the Post early in the 20th century, when it was staffed by young reporters and encouraged lively writing. Grammar and punctuation were not his strong points, but catching the reader’s attention clearly didn’t depend on that. His style now reads as dated, although some word choices are good, but at the time it was clearly a grabber. The early New York years were hard and troubled by mental illness, but Maybelle provided staunch support, and his dual careers as publicist and columnist took off. He would become known for his syndicated column, “New York Day by Day.” This book gives us an interesting picture of a journalist and of his times. • Trampoline, which was first published in 2015 by Ohio University Press, has been developing a growing regional following — author Robert Gipe has appeared at events at Thomas More College and the Cincinnati Art Museum in recent months. Trampoline’s cover identifies it as “an illustrated novel” with the heroine/narrator shown right there, hair and glasses slightly askew, lined out in a black-and-white drawing like those found throughout the book. Both the illustrations and the story are by Gipe, who lives, writes (and draws) in Harlan, Ky.
Gipe knows the life and people of that story-telling culture intimately. Here he sinks without visible effort into the identity of his first-person narrator, Dawn, a young woman telling about being 15 years old in Appalachia. As all of us who have been 15 and a girl can tell you, this is a fraught and exciting time, full of new rules and new expectations. In Appalachia, where mining compa-
Oscar Odd McIntyre PHOTO : Courtesy Universit y of Rio Grande
nies raise passionate feelings pro and con, there’s an additional, almost daily drama. Dawn’s story is also a family story, inevitable in this strongly family-oriented society, and we come to know her mother and her grandmother well. Both Momma and Maw Maw are significant figures in Dawn’s life, perhaps partly because her father’s death has left her mother a grieving alcoholic and drug addict. The society itself is steeped in both those means of escape. Illustrations are integral to the story. Dialogue is often presented through them, the words becoming part of the composition. Dawn’s friend Evie, explaining that she always gets kicked out of school on Thursdays, is shown looking regretful with the words, “Thursday is my bad day, she said.” running left edge to right edge. Note the period within the quote; Gipe is grammatically sound. The trampoline of the title is found in a family backyard — it’s something of a symbol of the lives we meet here. These people catch our interest and our emotions. “The sound of people telling one another stories is the most precious sound in the world. Trying to catch that sound on the page is my favorite part of writing,” Gipe has said. It should be; he’s very good at it. ©
a&c culture
OPENING NIGHT FRIDAY, JUNE 30 • 6-8 PM
World Culture in Covington
DPMT7: Un Teatro del Nuovo
BY KATIE GRIFFITH
Exhibition Sponsor:
Exhibition Co-Sponsor: Mu Sinclaire and The Sinclaire Family Foundation Additional Support:
GALLERYTALK JULY 12 ▪ 7PM Weston Art Gallery
Sean Cottengim, Untitled, 2017, mixed media on plywood, 30 x 25 inches
JUNE 30 – AUGUST 27, 2017 Admission is free and open to the public.
Aronoff Center for the Arts / 650 Walnut St., Cincinnati, OH 45202 / www.WestonArtGallery.com 2016-17 Season Sponsor: Dee and Tom Stegman Judith Titchener
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His eyes are closed. His shoulder-length “global citizen,” a “cultural ambassador.” dreadlocks begin to escape the knot on top In 2015, the Covington Center for Great of his head as he moves to the beat. He is Neighborhoods awarded Moses a $5,000 leading an African drumming class with a Creative Community Grant. Moses contribseries of long, bottomless chants, a handuted a series of classes and performances carved djembe drum between his knees and called “Ajoyo” — meaning celebration in a conga drum to his right. Yoruba, Moses’ native language and tribe — The setting is Baoku’s Village in Covington, to the Cov200 bicentennial festivities. but something about the draped tapestries “It’s a unique opportunity to bring in people ballooning from the ceiling, ethnic art on like him who have a talent, have a skill, have the walls and traces of sage in the air make something that they want to share with the it feel like somewhere else: Africa, maybe, or community either as a performance or as somewhere in India. Owner Baoku Moses created this cultural arts and wellness space to feel exactly that way — like it’s not anywhere in particular. “We have this huge landmass called a planet but we are actually closer to each other than we realize,” Moses says. “Because of that, I get so excited to think of the world as one tiny village.” The bi-weekly Joyful Expression African Drumming class is one way Baoku’s Village supports its overall Baoku Moses likes to think of the world as one tiny village. mission of preserving world P H O T O : K at i e G r i f f i th culture — to use education and arts to promote multicultural awareness, unity and diversity. more of a workshop,” says Shannon RatAll of Moses’ efforts fall under Positive terman, community development program Image Arts, an organization that includes director at Great Neighborhoods. his career as a solo musician, his performBaoku’s Village also acts as a retail space ing band and the ever-changing group for local artists. So the activities happen African Folklore Ensemble. Baoku’s Village among handmade products such as jewelry, is the most tangible facet of Positive Image purses, natural soaps and clothing. Arts, an idea Moses has been molding since Brenda Zechmeister, business manager before he came to the U.S. 15 years ago. and yoga instructor at Baoku’s Village, “As a creative mind, I began to see that I selects the word “openness” to represent have an obligation to convey messages to the studio and what it contributes to the the people about themselves, about hope, neighborhood. “We are opening up ourabout life, about peace and unity and justice selves and also opening up the space to give — how we are supposed to do better with others the opportunity to be a part of this everything around us,” he says. community, as far as teaching and leading Moses came to the U.S. from Nigeria in but also participating,” she says. 2002, initially to play at a music festival Since finding and renting the building at in Florida. He settled in New York briefly 1008 Lee St. last year, Moses has renovated before securing a two-year work visa and the space, recruited more than 10 local artlanding a job with Bi-Okoto Cultural Center, ists, secured six different classes and hosted an African performing arts company a successful grand opening celebration in and school in Cincinnati. He has since November. The short-term plan, Moses says, graduated from Cincinnati’s entrepreneuris to offer eight classes per day. But the longial-training program Mortar, gained dualterm goal is much more ambitious: “National citizenship and worked odd jobs to support and global bases for Baoku’s Village,” he says. his inclination toward the arts. For now, classes run Monday through But he wasn’t always so inclined. Thursday, and regular business hours are “Before I found arts, I had no hope, no 2-9 p.m. “This is as much your place as it is ambition of what I’m going to become, no mine,” Moses says. He repeatedly emphahope of becoming great in my life,” he says. sizes that all are welcome. He describes the younger version of himself BAOKU’S VILLAGE is located at 1008 Lee St., as “a mute,” very shy and introverted. Covington, Ky. More info: baokusvillage.com. Nowadays, though, he refers to himself as a
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I love the old adage that if you smile as long as possible. Hours of instruction the whole world smiles with you. While and practice lead to events and contests watching the gloriously infectious docustaged all over the globe where the spirit mentary Alive and Kicking about the of competition achieves levels generally international resurgence in Lindy Hop and associated with the ideal of the Olympics. Swing Dance, I felt that there should be an Glory doesn’t simply come from winning; equally strong and compelling addendum instead it is about surrendering to the to the smile factor. eternal love of the dance. Wouldn’t it be great if you danced and All of this sounds like some kind of the whole world danced right along with utopian cult of personality, engendering a you, too? cynical reaction to the notion. But, trust Director and co-writer Susan Glatzer, me, that will fade away in the face of the who partnered with Heidi Zimmerman on the shape and scope of the narrative, works a particular kind of magic, offering up one hell of a call and then daring audiences to not respond. The film explores the roots of Swing Dancing, going all the way back to Harlem, where the Savoy Ballroom was the first dance club that allowed whites and blacks to not only share the same space, but also begin to intermingle as partners. Some may have seen Swing, Alive and Kicking explores the roots of Swing Dancing. linked to improvisation P H O T O : S u s a n G l at z e r much like Jazz (which it was set to), as a safe means of interacting. With its wildly energetic athletic and rhythmic moves of the dancapproach, there seemed to be little concern ers, caught in their religious ecstasy on the for the intermingling to cross over into verge of breaking free from the planet’s legally banned intimacy. gravitational pull. Watching them hints at Yet, as seen and heard in anecdotes what it must feel like to speak in tongues from a new generation of dancers from all or to have an out-of-body experience. over the globe, Swing Dance might have I spoke earlier of the idea that Alive been one of the most charged forms of and Kicking sets up a call and response, dance. Despite lacking the formality of the reminiscent of watching a Fast and Furiballroom showcases or the romance of the ous movie and then wanting to push the Tango, Swing revels in the rubber band pedal to the metal for a quarter mile at a snap that comes from throwing a partner time on the way home. After the credits out and then snapping them back into a roll at the end and the lights come up, you fast and fevered embrace countless times. will be overcome by the feverish need to Constant contact in clenched hands, held head to the nearest dance floor with a firm by a pleading trust, makes momentary kicking and swinging band so that you strangers feel like born lovers. can Lindy Hop the night away. Alive and Kicking takes us inside the Thanks to Cincinnati World Cinema, lives of an inner circle of adherents — local audiences won’t have to go far. The some partnered couples (although none of 7 p.m. southwestern Ohio premiere of those featured are romantically involved), Alive and Kicking at Memorial Hall on some solo swingers who latch onto the Saturday will be followed by a dance next available dancer and hang on for demo and lesson by the Cincinnati Lindy dear life — and let’s them tell what we Society, live music by the Ron Purdon come to see as a universal story about Quintet and time for participants to put their lifestyle. Also, the film takes the the impromptu lessons to practice during time to engage respected elders, like an opening dancing segment. Proceeds Frankie Manning, whose love of the form from this one-night only event — dubbed and the resulting culture sustained him Cincinnati Swings — will benefit Cincinduring years when it seemed as if Swing nati World Cinema and WMKV Radio. had all but disappeared. ALIVE AND KICKING screens 7 p.m. Saturday at Each and every one of them heeds the Memorial Hall. More info: cincyworldcinema.org. same call to dance with all their might for
ON SCREEN A ‘Hero’ for All Seasons BY T T STERN-ENZI
More than any other actor I can think of, Sam Elliott is the epitome of a hero, despite the fact that he has never played a superhero, a super spy or the kind of dashing figure we typically expect when we utter the word “hero.” He’s like a hero sprung free from the page of a novel, a Western to be sure, where his rugged looks and deep rumbling voice call to mind a sense of fairness and old-fashioned justice. He is the embodiment of what we believe a hero should be, but rarely is. As Lee Hayden, in Brett Haley’s indie gem The Hero, Elliott wistfully walks in the shoes of an actor much like himself, except Lee had the good fortune of playing a great and faithful hero once in his career and then had to live what is beginning to seem like an eternity and be remembered for that role. It is a burden of sorts, but one that Lee endures with the patience and grace we would assume comes with being this kind of man. Elliott relishes showing Lee’s human failings, his dependence on marijuana, a relationship with Jeremy (Nick Offerman), a former actor and friend who now serves as his pot supplier, and the dismal gulf between Lee and his daughter Lucy (Krysten Ritter). When it is time for Lee to woo a young woman (Laura Prepon) he meets by chance while in the midst of a high with Jeremy, he doesn’t make a cheesy move. Instead, he just plays the wounded hero as only he can. Life catches up with Lee, and The Hero forces him to come to grips with the inevitability of a life full of missed opportunities. Of course, Haley, whose last feature, I’ll See You in My Dreams, covered similar ground from the perspective of a widowed singer-songwriter (Blythe Danner), refuses to let his protagonists go quietly into the night. Each day grants them a new chance to be the hero of their own stories and they certainly seize the day. (Opens Friday.) (R) Grade: A-
a&c television
Rooting for the Women of ‘Fargo’ BY JAC KERN
Wants YoU to
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C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 7 • 3 9
On the surface, it’s easy to know who to Nikki is Ray’s ride or die — and in many root for in Fargo (Season Finale, 10 p.m. scenarios where she should by all means Wednesday, FX). Every season features be defeated, she manages to pull herself bad guys and good cops, but sometimes up and fight back. Winstead unearths all the good guy breaks bad (like Martin the complexities in a character that in any Freeman’s Lester Nygaard in Season other show could have been a sexy, shal1) and you’re left pulling for the oftenlow afterthought. Nikki may be a con and compelling villains (Bokeem Woodbine even a murderer, but she’s far from the as Mike Milligan and Zahn McClarnon as baddest of the bunch. Hanzee Dent in Season 2, to name a few). Which brings us to V. M. Varga. David In this third season, two characters Thewlis portrays perhaps the most terrise to the top as protagonists worth rifying villain of all time. Or at least all cheering on: Minnesotan police chief Gloria Burgle (Carrie Coon) and Nikki Swango (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a street-smart ex-con. These women might seem to be on opposite sides of the law, but they have a shared strength, resilience and ability to take charge of their very different situations. Gloria has had a rough go. Her career as police chief is in limbo after the county absorbs her small town’s department; she has Mary Elizabeth Winstead (left) and Carrie Coon in Fargo recently divorced from her PHOTO : Chris L arge/F X husband who realized he’s gay; and in Episode 1, she discovers her stepfather brutally murof Fargo. When Emmit tries to pay off dered. When she connects the crime to a a business loan early in the season, the larger web of corruption, she’s dismissed grotesque and mysterious Varga shows by her disinterested new boss, despite the up to inform him the loan was actually an fact that the body count continues to rise. investment from a crooked corporation, Nikki is a competitive bridge whiz and and their work together has just begun. devoted girlfriend to her parole officer, Varga methodically and mercilessly Ray Stussy (a heavily disguised Ewan seizes all that Emmit has worked for. So McGregor). Ray is embattled in a longwhen Ray, Nikki and eventually Gloria standing rivalry with his slightly older, come after Emmit, they’re really messmuch more successful brother Emmit ing with Varga — and his ghastly gang of (also McGregor — can you say Emmy henchmen. And these are not the villains bait?), whom he turns to for a loan to buy you want to stump for. Nikki an engagement ring. When Emmit Creator/writer Noah Hawley is three refuses, Nikki is swept into a family feud for three in near-perfect installations that plunges much deeper than the inheriof this anthology. Complex storytelling tance dispute at the surface, leading to anchors the series, juxtaposing dark a chain of crimes ranging from breaking crime with “Minnesota nice.” and entering to murder. This season is especially referential, Of course we root for Gloria. She’s a capturing the vibe of Twin Peaks (Ray sympathetic everywoman, relentless in Wise appears in both), The Big Lebowski her pursuit of the truth. As an audience, (like the original Fargo, a Coen Brothwe have the benefit of knowing she’s right ers film) and A Serious Man (starring on with her suspicions and suspects. And Michael Stuhlbarg, also featured here). she’s played with a quiet strength by Coon, Will Nikki and Gloria come out on top? spring TV queen (she also starred in The Can they both? Leftovers) who’s impossible not to love. Even in the small-town friendly Fargo But we have to pull for Nikki, too. universe, the good guys — however you Sure, she’s a criminal, but her conviction define them — rarely win. is almost admirable. She pep-talks her CONTACT JAC KERN: @jackern man through schemes to get back what they believe is rightfully Ray’s, and she completely and consistently has his back.
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Anderson Pub & Grill | Bard's Burgers & Chili | Brown Dog Cafe | BRU Burger Bar | Bucketheads | Buffalo Wings & Rings | BURGERFI Burger Brothers at Belterra Park | Burgers & Crafts | Chandler's Burger Bistro | Chapter Mt. Adams | CrossRoads Sports Bar & Grill | deSha’s Cincinnati Django Western Taco | Drake’s | Fifty West Brewing Company | Flipdaddy's Burgers & Beers | FlipSide Liberty | Gabby's Cafe | Hangovereasy | House of Orange Sports Bar & Grill | Izzy’s | Keystone Bar & Grill | Lachey's Bar | Ladder 19 | Mac’s Pizza Pub | Martino's On Vine | Mt. Adams Pavilion | MOTR Pub | Murray’s Wings Pub & Grill | Nation Kitchen and Bar | The National Exemplar | Nicholson’s Tavern & Pub | Nine Giant Brewing | Oakley Pub and Grill | Parkers Blue Ash Tavern Patty Burger | Prime Cincinnati | The Pub Crestview Hills | The Pub Rookwood | Salem Gardens | Sammy’s Craft Burgers and Beer | The Sandbar | Slatt’s Pub Smoke Justis | Tavern On The Bend | Tela Bar + Kitchen | Tickle Pickle Northside | Tres Belle Cakes and Coffee Shop | TRIO Bistro Washington Platform Saloon & Restaurant | Willie's Western Hills | Zola Pub & Grill
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FOOD & DRINK
Worth Waiting For
The much-anticipated Mexican/Latin restaurant Casa Figueroa puts Pleasant Ridge on the culinary map REVIEW BY PAMA MITCHELL
PHOTO : haile y bollinger
M
Casa Figueroa’s menu skews Mexican, with a focus on really great tacos. As for the cocktails, the Casa Fig ($10) was a refreshing, tall drink made with limoncello and red wine, while the Mezcal Old Fashioned ($10) had a satisfying smoky flavor and was my favorite of the two. Margarita lovers can choose from basic citrus, blueberry or prickly pear versions ($8-$9.50). Wine options surprised me, in a good way, with Spanish whites such as verdejo or godello as well as a couple of unusual reds, also mostly from Spain. And I’ve never seen St. Mayhem wines on a local list; this Napa Valley winery infuses sauvignon blanc with jalapeño and habanero or ginger and peach ($12 for a glass; $40 bottle). Sounds weird, but next time I might have to try one. With our more recognizable drinks we enjoyed housemade chips and guac ($6 or $9, depending on size), which showed us right away that the Casa does simple very well. The chips were warm, full of corn flavor and not at all greasy; the guacamole had a chunky consistency and few if any ingredients other than avocado. In retrospect, I feel somewhat apologetic that our foursome didn’t venture beyond chips and tacos ($5-$6 each), but at least we did sample six out of seven of those. The tacos we loved best included Baja fish
(fried cod, cabbage and herb slaw, grilled ramp and avocado), smoked duck confit (with parsnip and radish slaw, charred carrot and queso fresco) and chicken and chorizo (with smoked garlic aioli and shaved romaine). That last one was my fave and it wasn’t even on my plate — my husband let me try a bite of his. The chicken was crispy, the chorizo housemade and an extra hit of crispy meat flavor came from a sprinkling of chicharrónes (fried pork skins). Most of the tacos were very mildly spiced, although the chicken and chorizo had a little more kick. When I asked our server for something to spice it up, all she could offer was a small container of “hot sauce.” They might want to reconsider making sauces or salsas available for ramping up the heat factor of the food, especially the tacos. Casa Figueroa offers an option with your tacos: beans, rice, feta and herbs ($6). Get
it! The rich flavors made this side dish one of the big hits at our table, with three of my companions all going for it. I selected the green salad instead ($6), a refreshing accompaniment to the savory tacos with arugula, shaved Brussels sprouts and a little avocado and pumpkin seed. This restaurant was a long time coming, for sure. A server said she had been hired last summer and waited until late April for the job actually to start. In a follow-up conversation, general manager Zach Zuke told me that owner Heather Byer “was willing to put in time so that the restaurant is exactly what she wanted it to be.” “We wanted to be a destination,” he added. Mission accomplished. It seems evident that folks from around the metro area will find their way out Montgomery Road to spend fun, appetite-satisfying evenings.
Casa Figueroa GO: 6112 Montgomery Road, Pleasant Ridge; CALL: 513-631-3333; INTERNET: casafig.com; HOURS: 4-10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 4-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 4-9 p.m. Sunday.
C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 7 • 4 1
ore than a year ago, I heard that an important addition to our foodie world was coming to an out-of-theway corner of the metro area. A Mexican/ Latin restaurant with an ambitious chef and design-conscious owner would open in Pleasant Ridge, probably by the end of last summer. As it happened, though, the chef went elsewhere and Casa Figueroa took almost another year to open its doors. But based on one terrific visit, I’m happy to report that the end result definitely rewards the wait — at least from a patron’s viewpoint. The food and drink do not disappoint, and perhaps even more interestingly, the entertaining ambiance of the restaurant’s many varied spaces adds a level of engagement that puts Casa Figueroa in a class by itself in Cincinnati. Well before you sip or bite anything, you’ll be wowed by the artwork and décor — from displays of Mexican folk art to wall-sized murals (mostly on the façade outdoors) painted by Danny Babcock and a gorgeous dried-flower creation adorning the main upstairs dining room, handmade by Dana Burton. Those two artists, with close collaboration from owner Heather Byer, have crafted an eye-popping experience everywhere you look. And with a patio, a bar/dining room, a larger upstairs dining room and a basement decorated like a boho 1950s living room, there are a whole lot of places to look. Chef Matthew Schroeder, most recently sous-chef at Anchor OTR, developed a menu that so far skews mostly Mexican (heavy on really good tacos), with eventual plans to move toward a more pan-Latin cuisine. As of mid-June, the menu includes three salads, along with appetizers such as fried calamari and steamed mussels. There were seven tacos and three entrées ($14$24): pork chilaquiles, grilled shrimp and asparagus salad, and pan-seared scallops. Although there’s a greater variety to the Casa menu than I expected, somehow my companions and I ended up sticking to the basics: chips with guacamole, and tacos. Not that we regretted any of our choices, and in fact our lack of adventurousness just gives me an excuse to visit again for further exploration. We settled in with drinks and chips and didn’t feel any pressure to hurry our meal. I tried a couple of house cocktails, while everyone else had beer. My husband thought the name of his beer was perfect — Yum Yum American Session Ale by Indiana brewery 3 Floyds ($6 on tap) — while our friends Jim and Cathy each had a Tecate Light Lager ($4).
F&D THE DISH
Clifton Market Launches Home Grocery Delivery
Where the locals come to eat, drink and have fun
BY AUSTIN GAYLE
Weekly Specials Tuesday: Local Artist Spotlight Wednesday: Wing Night Thursday: Wine Tasting & Live Jazz
Live Music 6/21 Love Train 6-9pm 6/22 Steve Barone 6-9pm 6/23 Johnny Delagrange 7-10pm 6/24 Kyle Hackett 7-10pm 6/25 Seth & Sonny 5:30-8:30pm 6/27 Reilly Comisar & Friends 6-9pm
6818 Wooster Pk. Mariemont, OH 45227
(513) 561-5233
fe aturing all local dr afts cr aft beer menu nk y’s original bourbon bar
fo od s pecia l s Monday-Thursday $7 burgers $8 flatbread PiZZ as
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4 2 • C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 7
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Swad Indian Restaurant
1810 W. Galbraith Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45239 513-522-5900 • 513-580-1200 Online Ordering Now Available With Free Limited Area Delivery
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Everybody loves an underdog, especially “In this day and age, you have to have one that is fighting in their own backyard. it as an element to be competitive in this The Gaslight District’s sparkling new market,” Adam adds. Clifton Market has initiated an online Customers can visit Clifton Market’s ordering and home delivery system to go official website to place an order for either toe-to-toe with its competitors, including pick-up ($2) or delivery ($10). Categories the recently formed Goliath in the Whole include everything from adult beverages Foods/Amazon deal. and baby care to pet products, produce To take a deeper dive into the groand ice cream. There’s no minimum cery market, Amazon purchased Whole required purchase and customers can set Foods Market for $13.7 billion on June 16, a time for groceries to be delivered when ultimately fueling an already well-known they checkout online. If you’re picking up, competitor of local grocery stores. Despite the Clifton Market’s small scale and already inherent competition with nearby Kroger locations and similar-minded purveyors of artisan and organic groceries and grab-and-go meals, the store’s board president Adam Hyland is confident he can outperform his competitors with a more personal approach. “Our customers are not just numbers,” Adam says when asked how Clifton Clifton Market’s wide selection of groceries, household items and Market differs from bigger even beer and wine are now available for delivery within I-275. grocery chains. “They’re P H O T O : s c ott d i tt g e n our neighbors, our friends. When people come in the store, our general manager calls them Clifton Market aims for an hour turn‘guests.’ We have a commitment to serving around, says Marilyn. people on a human scale.” However, the personal approach Customers are also frequently shareholddoesn’t stop there. ers, as Clifton Market operates on a co-op “We always say we take it from our model, where members of the public are shelves to yours,” Adam says. “It’s more invited to purchase ownership in the store than just delivering to your door. You can to gain a voice in operations as well as opt for full service delivery right onto special shopping incentives. But anyone your shelves in your kitchen. So folks with and everyone is welcome to shop at Clifton disabilities, older folks or people who are Market, whether they’re shareholders or not. just busy can have it easy.” Marilyn Hyland, Adam’s mother and Adam also assures customers that they Clifton Market’s director of marketing, should expect all of their groceries to also emphasizes the value in the store’s land on their shelves in pristine condition. ability to take care of its customers on a “Eating is one of the most personal personal level. things you can do, and you need to trust “We can be nimble,” Marilyn says. “We’re the people who are picking your food and one store. You tell it to us, we hear it and know they care about you,” Adam says. we can react. We believe that’s huge.” “Nobody here picks anything out that they Taking care of their friends and neighwon’t put on their own table.” bors, Adam and his mother have taken While Clifton Market still offers a the mom-and-pop shop to the next level, valuable in-store experience with weekly pouring nearly a year’s worth of effort into events and happy hour specials, customers creating a functional home delivery system can now opt for that market experience to to share their products with residents migrate from the store to their home panwithin the I-275 loop. try shelves — a tech-savvy and thoughtful “We felt like it was a really great way to one-two punch in this digital age. enable people to experience Clifton Market The CLIFTON MARKET is located at 319 Ludlow and the fresh foods that we have without Ave., Clifton. For more on the market’s new having to come into the store,” Marilyn delivery/pick-up system, visit cliftonmarket.com. says. “People are really receptive to it and excited about it.”
F&D classes & events Most classes and events require registration; classes frequently sell out.
WEDNESDAY 21
Brewed Food Cincinnati with Chef Jose Salazar — A collaboration dinner with Rhinegeist, New Belgium and chef Jose Salazar with Brewed Food lab chef and cicerone Jensen Cummings. Every dish will feature brewing ingredients. 6-9 p.m. $65. Salazar, 1401 Republic St., Over-the-Rhine, brewedfoodcincinnati.brownpapertickets.com. Keep ’Em Coming: Getting the Most from Your Garden — Join Melinda O’Briant for a relaxing morning walk through the gardens at Turner Farm. Proper harvesting, watering, shading and succession planting will be covered. 6:30-8 p.m. $15. Turner Farm, 7400 Given Road, Indian Hill, turnerfarm.org. Groceries & Grilling: Pride Night — Head to Findlay Market for late-night market hours and special Wednesday grilling parties. Guests will get the recipe and list of ingredients so they can shop and then grill the recipe onsite. 5-8 p.m. Free admission. Findlay Market, 1801 Race St., Over-theRhine, findlaymarket.org. Lobstapalooza — A cavalcade of crustaceans. Dine on lobster curry, lobster rolls, lobster bisque, lobster mac and cheese and more. Through July 2. Prices vary. Washington Platform, 1000 Elm St., Downtown, washingtonplatform.com.
THURSDAY 22
Haute Chocolate Pretzel Fest — Haute Chocolates’ Lisa Cooper-Holmes demonstrates how to combine chocolate and pretzels. Light supper will be served. 6:30-9 p.m. $50. Cooks’Wares, 11344 Montgomery Road, Harper’s Point, cookswaresonline.com.
20 Brix Summer Chef Series — A series of tasting events highlighting the cuisine of 20 Brix and chef Paul Barraco, featuring dishes paired with wine or beer. Seating is limited to 12. The theme of this dinner is “summer vegetarian.” 6 p.m. $50. 20 Brix, 101 Main St., Milford, 20brix.com.
FRIDAY 23
Cincinnati Streetcar Food Tour — Take the streetcar to tour and taste at various area restaurants. On Fridays, stop by Izzy’s, Nicholson’s and Arnold’s. 1 p.m. Tuesday and Friday. $59. Leaves from Howl at the Moon, 145 Second St., Downtown, riversidefoodtours.com.
Home-Grown Herbs: Infused Vinegars — Learn how to make your own flavorful and infused vinegars using fresh cut flowers, herbs and spices. 10 a.m.-noon. $20. Civic Garden Center, 2715 Reading Road, Avondale, civicgardencenter.org.
354 Ludlow Ave Cincinnati, OH
513-961-3600
Spring Cookie Decorating, Kid’s Style — Just for kids. Mini-bakers can unleash their creativity and decorate cookies to take home. Please bring an apron and small container. 1-3:30 p.m. $40. Cooks’Wares, 11344 Montgomery Road, Harper’s Point, cookswaresonline.com.
LuNch & DINNeR buFFet
Taste of Silverton — Grab dinner by the bite from area Silverton restaurants, with wine samplings from Meier’s Wine Cellars and live music. 4-9 p.m. Free admission. Meier’s Wine Cellars, 6955 Plainfield Road, Silverton, silvertonohio.us.
FuLL bAR
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SUNDAY 25
My Big Gay Brunch — Metropole celebrates Pride with brunch. Includes food, a welcome mimosa and performances by local drag queens. Daring and divine costumes encouraged. After brunch, stop by the hotel’s rainbow penguin exhibit in the lobby. 21c’s traditional yellow penguin statue has a flock in all colors of the rainbow. 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. $35. Metropole at 21c Museum Hotel, 609 Walnut St., Downtown, reservations at 513578-6660, metropoleonwalnut.com.
GRILL OF INDIA
www.bonbonerie.com
LuNch buFFet $1.50 OFF 2 peRsONs
2ND DINNeR eNtRee $5 OFF cARRy-Out $6 OFF DINe-IN
River City Kosher Barbecue Festival — Enjoy Kosher barbecue delicacies. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Free admission. Northern Hills Synagogue, 5714 Fields Ertel Road, Northern Hills, jewishcincinnati.org.
MONDAY 26
Breakfast of Champions with Ilene Ross — CityBeat dining writer Ilene Ross teaches kids ages 8-12 how to make easy breakfast dishes like triple berry smoothies, classic pancakes and cheesy scrambled eggs. Noon-2 p.m. $35. Cooks’Wares, 11344 Montgomery Road, Harper’s Point, cookswaresonline.com.
TUESDAY 27
A Culinary Tour of the Mediterranean — Yen Hsieh takes guests on a culinary tour of the Mediterranean with stops in France, Spain and Morocco. 6:30-9 p.m. $55. Cooks’Wares, 11344 Montgomery Road, Harper’s Point, cookswaresonline.com. Explore the Sour Side of the River — Rivertown Brewery introduces drinkers to carefully crafted sour beers. Learn how the beers are fermented, what makes them sour and how to sip them. 6:30-8 p.m. $29. Rivertown Brewing Co. Tap Room, 607 Shepherd Drive, Lockland, rivertownbrewery.com.
C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 7 • 4 3
Panegyri — Everyone’s favorite Greek summer fest returns with live Greek music, Greek food, Greek wine and Greek sweets. 5-11 p.m. Friday; 3-11 p.m. Saturday; 1-8 p.m. Sunday. $2; free 12 and younger. Holy Trinity-Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, 7000 Winton Road, Finneytown, panegyri.com.
SATURDAY 24
Rainbow cookies for a rainbow weekend
music
As Seen on TV
Paul Shaffer takes his vintage Rock and Soul passion — as well as his old TV band — on the road BY STEVEN ROSEN
PHOTO : COURTESY OF CBS
4 4 • C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 7
F
or 33 years as David Letterman’s music director, bandleader and keyboardist, and before that as a musician and occasional featured player during Saturday Night Live’s first years, Paul Shaffer cultivated the image of a cheerfully old-school hipster, caustically mocking the Pop and Rock music he played. He may have even been condescending about showbiz itself, it seemed. But now that it’s been two years since Letterman retired, Shaffer is touring with The World’s Most Dangerous Band (featuring the musicians who played with him on the late-night talk show) to support their new album of mostly older Pop, Rock and R&B songs. And as the album shows — and Shaffer reinforces in a telephone interview — there’s no mockery intended (although maybe, sometimes, some good-natured spoofing). He loves showbiz subjects, musical and otherwise, and always has. “It’s funny how people don’t always get that, but it’s absolutely true,” Shaffer says. And that reminds him of a story — he has many, many stories — related to the late Gilda Radner’s impersonation of Barbara Walters on Saturday Night Live. “I was sitting at a piano with Barbara Walters — don’t ask why — once and saying, ‘When Gilda used to do you, I would always play ‘Wah-Watusi’ by The Orlons in support, because she called her character ‘Baba Wawa,’ ” Shaffer says. “She said, ‘I hated that so much, because my career was not at the top of my game and I felt they were picking on me.’ I said, ‘Oh my God, not at all! Gilda revered you!’ ” Another misunderstanding is that Letterman — with his ironic, sometimes-sarcastic put-on humor — disliked Shaffer. “People say, ‘Why was David Letterman so mean to you?’ What? It was so obvious this guy loved me and it was touching for me,” Shaffer says. “We could have fun with each other; we were going a little bit edgy because we can. But we did like each other so much.” Shaffer, 67, also likes the selections on his new album very much. Most of them are oldies from Rock’s and Soul’s ’60s-’70s golden era, like Timmy Thomas’ “Why Can’t We Live Together,” Georgie Fame’s “Yeh Yeh,” The McCoys’ “Sorrow,” Soul Brothers Six’s “Some Kind of Wonderful,” Ray Charles’ “I Don’t Need No Doctor” and more. The album (titled Paul Shaffer & The World’s Most Dangerous Band) has guest vocals by Dion, Jenny Lewis, Darius Rucker, Bill Murray, Shaggy and others; Shaffer himself takes a few turns singing,
Paul Schaffer has kept rockin’ since his late-night-bandleader days ended in May of 2015. as does bassist Will Lee and guitarist Felicia Collins. Raised in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Shaffer loved the music he heard on the radio and developed a quick-recall memory for Pop music’s details that he never lost. He started taking piano lessons and stayed with it, gaining proficiency while playing in bands as a student at the University of Toronto. And he had his eye on the prize — being part of the music business as a performer. He arrived in the Big Apple in 1974. “I came from such a remote location,” he says. “I wanted to get to New York and live that kind of life, to some extent. That to me was so romantic.” Accompanying Shaffer and his band on this tour is Valerie Simpson, who will join Collins on “I Don’t Need No Doctor” as she does on the album. Along with Motown classics for Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “You’re All I Need to Get By” and “Your Precious Love,” Simpson co-wrote “Doctor” with her late husband, Nickolas Ashford. “I’ve been a fan since I saw her name listed as a composer on so many great Motown hits,” Shaffer says. “When I got to New York and started doing studio work, I found she was doing it, too. I met her when I was arranging commercials. She came in
to sing and was emoting so much that I had to say, ‘Valerie, please! It’s just a jingle.’ ” On the album, Shaffer sings the swinging mid-tempo R&B song “Just Because,” a 1960 hit for Lloyd Price. Shaffer’s vocal has a slightly echoing depth to it, reminiscent of John Lennon’s 1975 cover version. “The original was the model, but I can see where you might say that,” the affable Shaffer says. “Certainly (Lennon) was known as a guy who was insecure about his own lead vocals, wasn’t he? And he’d often put an effect on, an Elvis-style slap echo or something. “I’ll confess doing same thing,” he adds. “But I thought of the idea independently of him, putting a period-sounding effect on the voice that maybe will hide a few of my vocal inconsistencies.” It almost seems perverse that Shaffer should close his album with the Bob Dylan song “Wigwam.” As a songwriter, Dylan is considered such a great wordsmith that last year he received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his lyrics. But “Wigwam” — from 1970’s Self Portrait album, which was heavily derided upon release but has more recently been reappraised — has no lyrics, just Dylan wordlessly singing along to a lovely little melody. Shaffer’s version has
a more orchestral-sounding arrangement, with horns, and keeps the same vocal approach. “It’s a beautiful melody,” he says. “And we were recording it right around when Dylan was so controversially getting the Nobel Prize. I just said, ‘This guy can (also) do that kind of work.’ It’s really a hell of a melody.” Over the course of his decades on TV with Letterman, Shaffer has had opportunity to meet and musically accompany virtually every performer active during that time. One, however, stands out to Shaffer — James Brown, who appeared on Late Night With David Letterman in 1982, during the first year of the NBC show. “That was the most significant for me, and I talk about it in (the live) show,” Shaffer says. “He hadn’t sung in a little while, but hadn’t lost anything. He did three numbers and it was just magical. He did (Letterman’s show) many times after that, but for this first time he just brought two horns and played with my four-piece rhythm section. It just takes off.” PAUL SHAFFER & THE WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS BAND play Kettering, Ohio’s Fraze Pavilion on Friday. Tickets/more info: fraze.com.
music spill it
Aaron Collins Strips Down for ‘Cloud Hug’ BY MIKE BREEN
More Local Notes • Fresh off of its Memorial Day shows in rural Ohio, Cincinnati music faves Over the Rhine return to the neighborhood that gave them their name this Friday. The band is playing Washington Park (1230 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine) to raise money for United Way, with acclaimed singer/songwriter Peter Mulvey kicking things off at 6 p.m. You can make things easier on yourself by pre-purchasing tickets to the concert, which is dubbed “Over the Rhine: Live at
Home” and is being presented by Cincinnati Bell (the company featured OTR’s music in a Super Bowl commercial earlier this year). Buying tickets online (suggested donation is $20) at eventbrite.com gets you a free streetcar pass and early entry into the show at 4 p.m. Walk-ups can purchase tickets at the gate (while they last) and enter starting at 5 p.m.
Aaron Collins P H O T O : fa c e b oo k . c o m / a a r o n c o l l i n s th e m u s i c i a n
• The annual Northside Music Festival returns to Northside Tavern (4163 Hamilton Ave., northsidetav.com) this Friday and Saturday. Music runs on three stages (on the venue’s patio, in the bar’s front room and in the back room) and begins at 8:30 p.m. Friday and 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Friday’s lineup includes performances from Brian Olive, Andy Gabbard (Buffalo Killers), Chuck Cleaver (Wussy), Kuber, Brianna Kelly and Temple. Saturday is headlined by Nashville’s JEFF the Brotherhood, and also includes local acts like Even Tiles, Moira, The Harlequins, Siren Suit, John Bender and more. The entire festival is free. • Numerous musicians and comedians are teaming up for Saturday’s Dump Trump 2, a show of resistance and a benefit for Proclaim Justice, which fights for the wrongfully incarcerated. Joining comedians like Brad Thacker, Jay Armstrong and Zach Hale for the event at the Southgate House (111 E. Sixth St., Newport, Ky., southgatehouse.com) are The Whiskey Shambles, Lovecrush 88, Go Go Buffalo, Dead Man String Band, Draculas, The Spectacular Fantastic and more. Showtime is 8 p.m. and admission is $5. CONTACT MIKE BREEN: mbreen@citybeat.com
1345 main st motrpub.com
BY mike breen
Naming Rights Though much of the coverage of the Supreme Court’s ruling that not granting a trademark for something that is deemed offensive is unconstitutional focused on the Washington Redskins’ ability to now trademark its name, the case SCOTUS was actually reviewing was brought by an independent Rock band from Oregon called The Slants. For several years, the Asian-American group has fought for the right to trademark its name, which was intended as a reclamation of the offensive term. The band’s frontman, Simon Tam, told The New York Times that the victory was a “win for marginalized groups,” and offered to share his mounting legal bills with the millionaire owner of the football team that will benefit greatly from all of Tam’s hard work.
wed 21
dj preference
thu 22
surfer blood winter
fri 23
jane decker
sat 24
sarah shook & the disarmers
sun 25
future science: sketch comedy
mon 26 tue 27
the crane wives writer’s night w/ lucas
word of mouth: featured/open poetry
free live music now open for lunch
Return of the Hyphen For some reason, JAY-Z is again trying to make life harder for the copy editors of the world. A few years ago, it was noted that the rapper (and recent Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee) had dropped the hyphen from his stage name; he later said it was because the punctuation was “not useful anymore.” But with his imminent new album, the hyphen (which, of course, has its own Twitter account now) is apparently useful once again, as are capital letters — the MC’s name is now to be stylized in all caps. ’Mark of a Beast Noted asshole and KISS bassist Gene Simmons is attempting to claim legal ownership of the “devil horns” hand gesture popular among Heavy Metal lovers. Simmons applied for a trademark of the gesture, saying he invented it in 1974 and that others using it (“either in the identical form or in such near resemblance”) are confusing or deceiving consumers. Many doubt the trademark will be granted due to its “generic” nature, given its widespread use and varied meanings (it’s sign language for “I love you” and John Lennon was photographed flashing the sign in the ’60s). Besides, there’s a different hand signal (one involving a single finger) more appropriate for Simmons.
ghost wolves
1404 main st (513) 345-7981
6 /23
6 /30
Black Joe lewis & the honeyBears, ernie Johnson From Detroit
an evening with
the church
6 /25
issa sip & shop
7/5
Diarrhea planet, Daap girls, stallone n roses, Death BeFore Disco
buy tickets at motr or woodwardtheater.com
C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 7 • 4 5
Multi-talented Cincinnati musician Aaron Collins has drummed for progressive local Indie Rock bands like SHADOWRAPTR and Comprador, and he’s been a singer in the vintage Funk/Soul/Motown cover band Fresh Funk. His solo and bandleader ventures have been captivating and equally diverse. On his debut solo album, Godlessly Oscillating, Collins showed the breadth of his talent, writing, arranging and playing most of the instruments on the album, which was a deep, textural and hypnotic Indie Rock tour de force. Collins formed a full band to play live, recording the Aaron Collins and The Blind Conductors EP in 2015, which showed different sides to the sound Collins introduced with Oscillating. Collins again switches things up on his forthcoming solo effort, Cloud Hug, in which he goes in the opposite direction of his full-band pursuit to create something engagingly intimate. Cloud Hug features songs that center on piano and vocals, with very light, atmospheric ornamentation. And it’s gorgeous and soulful, distilling Collins’ distinct songwriting skills and the mesmerizing aura his music creates down to their bare essence. Collins says the idea for the album began when he was working at a coffee shop that had a piano, which he played during his frequent downtime. Growing up with a piano in the house, he says the album “feels like a return home,” and that sense of comfort and warmth comes through for the listener as well. Though the instrumentation is minimized, the songs still glow loudly, making for a wildly compelling listen. Cloud Hug will be available July 7 at aaroncollins.bandcamp.com. Hard copies of the album will be available when Collins hosts a release party on July 7 at The Lodge (231 Sixth Ave., Dayton, Ky., thelodgeky. com). Adam Petersen (A Delicate Motor) will also perform, playing his own solo piano songs. Petersen and Stephen Patota will join Collins to play Cloud Hug in full. Showtime is 9 p.m. and there is a $5 suggested donation at the door. For the latest on Collins, visit facebook. com/aaroncollinsthemusician.
MINIMUM GAUGE
Don & Beth Schott - KoKopelli Stages Presents:
PERSISTENCE OF SURF MUSIC V 5&6
Raiders of the Urban Artifact An Exciting Two Day Mini Surf Music Festival
June 23-24 at Urban Artifact 1660 BluE RoCK ST., CInCInnaTI, oH 45223
V5 June 23, 8pm The John Blair Ivan Pongracic Band (California) The Ampfibians (S. Indiana) Grateful Surf V6 June 24, 2pm the Mystery Men? (Atlanta) Team Void Nicky Kay Orchestra (Dayton) The Ampfibians Grateful Surf They Never Came Back!
SHOWS ONLY
4 6 • C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 7
$
10
EACH
Tickets available at Shake It Records, Moles Records, Everybody’s Records or online at CincyTicket.com, KokopelliStages.com
MUSIC sound advice Telefono (and dropping Friday), it features Le Butcherettes one album in English and the other in SpanThursday • Taft Theatre (Ballroom) ish. Even more curious is the fact that, unlike Teresa Suárez is an uncommonly intense artists who have attempted similar bilingual woman. Best known as Terri Gender endeavors, each version will be slightly difBender, her stage name as the frontwoman ferent, both lyrically and sonically. for the lacerating Rock band Le Butcher“Spanish tends to make things a little ettes, Suárez also has a lighter side, some of softer and a little more bubblegum,” Hernanwhich shines through via her other musical dez said in a recent interview with Colorado projects with good buddy Omar RodríguezSprings Independent. “So sometimes López (of The Mars Volta and At the Drive there were some weird creative calls I had In fame): Bosnian Rainbows, Kimono Kult to make to get the same edge that the song and, most recently, the stellar Crystal Fairy, might have in English. I might have made which also features Buzz Osborne and Dale the Spanish one a little bit grittier and Crover of The Melvins. dirtier, just to evoke that same emotion.” Suárez is a riveting frontlady — her Telephone’s first expressive vocals and single, “Hot Damn,” is unabashed physicala taut, Blues-infused ity conjure a mix of rocker in the mold PJ Harvey, Siouxsie of early Yeah Yeah Sioux and even Pat Yeahs, with HernanBenatar — no matter dez’s versatile voice the context or outfit moving from pouty to in question. She’s righteous as the song currently on tour with moves from the verse Le Butcherettes, a trio to the chorus. whose most recent The title track is a album, 2015’s A Raw Le Butcherettes slow burner in which Youth, moved from P H O T O : L a u r a M ay Hernandez sings Punk to New Wave about a seemingly to oddball Prog with long-distance relationsurprising dexterity. ship that is both aided Suárez grew up in and hindered by the Denver until the age of telephone. Horn and 13, which is when her keyboard stabs accenfamily moved back to tuate the conflicted its Mexican homeland tone in her voice, as after her father, a she admits that comprison guard, died municating via such a from a heart attack. device is “not enough “All the feelings of for you right now.” unworthiness and Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas The album closes doubt had been pent P H O T O : N i c hol a s W i ll i a m s with “Fire & Ice,” a up in me for far too slinky, funked-out long before I created Soul tune that finds Hernandez delving yet Le Butcherettes (in 2007),” she said in a again into her favorite topic: relationships recent interview with The Void Report. “I and how they’re impacted by both physical am a very explosive and violent person. It and mental interaction. has been ingrained in me because children Hernandez and her band’s Cincinnati show are like sponges and I grew up in a very… is at Deschutes Brewery’s temporary “popinteresting household. Being underestimated up” bar, in between the riverfront stadiums and treated like an invisible worthless object at The Banks. Saturday’s event — which in society can have its negative effects on raises money for the Starfire Council and the self. Lucky for me, I was able to drown Cincinnati Children’s Hospital — is familymy sorrows with the hard-earned death of friendly and free, running 2-10 p.m. (JG) my father. In a way, his death saved my life, because it made me focus more than ever on MisterWives with The Greeting our obsession with art.” (Jason Gargano) Committee Tuesday • Bogart’s Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas In a relatively brief five-year span, New with Hebdo, Clubhouse and The York-based MisterWives has compiled a Buzzard Kings press kit filled with impressive accomplishSaturday • Deschutes Brewery ments. The band got its start in 2012 when Street Pub lead vocalist Mandy Lee was looking for Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas’ longan ’80s cover band to play her 18th birthday simmering follow-up to their well-received party and decided to form one rather than 2014 debut, Secret Evil, is a double album hire one. Lee started with percussionist with a unique wrinkle — dubbed Telephone/
SQUIRREL NUT ZIPPERS – July 9, Woodward Theater AVENGED SEVENFOLD – July 10, Riverbend Music Center ONEREPUBLIC – July 11, Riverbend Music Center ROGER CLYNE & THE PEACEMAKERS – July 11, Woodward Theater JUNIOR BROWN – July 12, Southgate House Revival WILLIE NELSON – July 12, PNC Pavilion at Riverbend UNKNOWN HINSON – July 13, Southgate House Revival CECE WINANS – July 15, Taft Theatre CHICAGO – July 15, Riverbend Music Center CHRIS KNIGHT – July 15, Southgate House Revival AESOP ROCK – July 16, Bogart’s PINEGROVE – July 17, Southgate House Revival SEETHER – July 18, Bogart’s VANS WARPED TOUR – July 19, Riverbend Music Center PRIESTS – July 19, Woodward Theater COLIN STETSON – July 20, Woodward Theater STEVE EARLE AND THE DUKES – July 20, Taft Theatre TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND/ THE WOOD BROTHERS/ HOT TUNA – July 21, PNC Pavilion at Riverbend KESHA – July 22, Lawrenceburg Event Center KOOL KEITH – July 22, Northside Yacht Club SPLIT LIP RAYFIELD – July 22, Southgate House Revival JASON ALDEAN – July 22, Riverbend Music Center AMOS LEE/LAKE STREET DIVE – July 25, PNC Pavilon at Riverbend THE WAILERS – July 27, Bogart’s NEGATIVE APPROACH – July 27, Northside Yacht Club THE MENZINGERS – July 27, Southgate House Revival HIGHLY SUSPECT – July 29, Madison Theater FASTBALL – July 27, Taft Theatre (Ballroom) INCUBUS/JIMMY EAT WORLD – July 27, Riverbend Music Center ANIMAL COLLECTIVE – July 30, Madison Theater CHERRY GLAZERR – July 30, Woodward Theater KORN – Aug. 1, Riverbend Music Center TEGAN AND SARA – Aug. 2, Madison Theater HANS ZIMMER – Aug. 3, U.S. Bank Arena
FUTURE SOUNDS MARSHALL CRENSHAW/LOS STRAITJACKETS – June 29, Southgate House Revival THE CHURCH – June 30, Woodward Theater JASON ISBELL – July 1, PNC Pavilion at Riverbend MEGADETH – July 2, PNC Pavilion at Riverbend DIARRHEA PLANET – July 5, Woodward Theater TRACE ADKINS – July 6, PNC Pavilion at Riverbend BILLY STRINGS – July 6, Southgate House Revival
ROYAL BLOOD – Aug. 3, Bogart’s FASTER PUSSYCAT – Aug. 3, Southgate House Revival THE COATHANGERS – Aug. 3, Northside Yacht Club TESLA – Aug. 4, Taft Theatre ROD STEWART/CYNDI LAUPER – Aug. 4, Riverbend Music Center SUPERSUCKERS – Aug. 4, Southgate House Revival NAPPY ROOTS – Aug. 5, Woodward Theater PENTATONIX – Aug. 6, PNC Pavilion at Riverbend
AJR – July 8, Madison Live!
FOREIGNER/CHEAP TRICK – Aug. 8, Riverbend Music Center
SAM HUNT – July 9, Riverbend Music Center
BRAD PAISLEY – Aug. 10, Riverbend Music Center
C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 7 • 4 7
Etienne Bowler and bassist William Hehir and eventually brought in guitarist Marc Campbell and multi-instrumentalist Jesse Blum to round out the band (saxophonist Mike Murphy would join later). Within a year of their formation, MisterWives — a variation on the polygamist phrase “sister wives” — played their first NYC show, which was attended by their future managers and booking agent. Two days later, the band signed with Photo Finish Records — a rep from the label had been at the show as well. It’s easy to see why the label was excited by MisterWives. Lee effectively combines her pure love of ’80s Pop with contemporary touchstones like Sia and Lorde and the twin personae of Gwen Stefani (the hiccuppy Indie Rock energy of No Doubt and the Dance/Hip Hop/Pop glitter-ball bounce of her solo work). The band’s debut EP, Reflections, generated almost universally promising reviews and impressive sales of over 20,000 copies. In the wake of the solid buzz for the EP, MisterWives scored a plum opening gig for Twenty One Pilots on their world tour, MTV tapped their track “Vagabond” to serve as the theme song for its teen drama Finding Carter and the band played to a national MisterWives audience on Jimmy P H O T O : M a r y E l l e n M atthe w s Kimmel Live!. The following year, MisterWives dropped their debut full-length, Our Own House, which led to being featured on Kia Motors’ web series Rediscovered, where they sang the Hall & Oates hit “Out of Touch” with John Oates. The group also played fests like Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits, while opening for the likes of Walk the Moon and Bleachers, among many others. The band’s second album of heartpunch Indie Pop majesty, Connect the Dots, was released last month. Tighten the laces of your dancing shoes; MisterWives won’t stop until you’re barefoot and breathless. (Brian Baker)
859.431.2201
111 E 6th St Newport, KY 41071
music listings WEDNESDAY 21 20TH CENTURY THEATER H James McMurtry with Jonny Burke. 8 p.m. Folk/Americana.
live MusiC
$20, $25 day of show.
no Cover
Wednesday 6/21
The Burning Caravan 8-11p
Thursday 6/22
Todd Hepburn & Friends feat. Chico Converse 8-11p
Friday 6/23
Steve Schmidt Quartet feat. Mandy Gaines 8-12p
saTurday 6/24
Steve Schmidt Trio feat. Dan Radank 8-12p CoCktails
fireplaCes
Wed. - Fri. open @ 4pm | Sat. open @ 6pm 125 West Fourth st. | CinCinnati, ohio 45202
www.BromwellsHarthLounge.com
TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE SOUTHGATE HOUSE LOUNGE OR TICKETFLY.COM
BROMWELL’S HÄRTH LOUNGE The Burning Caravan. 8 p.m. Gypsy Jazz. Free. FOUNTAIN SQUARE - Reggae Wednesdays with Elementree Livity. 7 p.m. Reggae/Various. Free.
6/21 moonshine & wine - june artist in residence, the newbees, twig&Leaf
H
6/22 paLeface, adam Lee; janeLLe & the gentLemen, brother airborne
KNOTTY PINE - John B. Kinnemeyer and Zach Myers. 10 p.m. Various. Free.
6/23 parker miLLsap, garrett owen, punk rock night: steaLing voLume, kiLL city, the scratch ‘n’ sniffs, rat trap, rhythm and booze; andrew hibbard 6/24 dump trump 2: the arrivaL anaLog cannibaL, buLLet to bLame, dead man string band, dracuLas, forestfox, go go buffaLo, ric hickey, the spectacuLar fantastic, the whiskey shambLes, Lovecrush 88, toon town, jay armstrong, and many more!
H
PNC PAVILION AT RIVERBEND H - My Morning Jacket with The Record Company. 7 p.m. Rock. $42.50-$49.50.
SMALE RIVERFRONT PARK Cocktails and Crown Jewels featuring Brent Gallaher & Five Little Bears. 6:30 p.m. Jazz. Free.
H
SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (LOUNGE) - Paleface with Adam Lee. 8 p.m. Anti Folk. Free.
THE MOCKBEE - The Mockbee Summer Solstice Fair featuring Molly Rhiannon Morris, Joke Ferrell, Marjorie Lee, Elsa Maria and Mayan Ruins. 6 p.m. Various. Free.
SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - Janelle and the Gentlemen and Brother Airborne. 9 p.m. Rock. $10.
NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB - Wo Fat with The Well. 9 p.m. Hard Rock. $7. SILVERTON CAFE - Root Cellar Xtract. 8 p.m. Country Rock. Free.
6/27 revivaLists softbaLL tuesdays
SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (LOUNGE) - Moonshine & Wine with The Newbees and Twig & Leaf. 8 p.m. Roots/Various. Free. SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - Amy Black. 8 p.m. Blues/Soul/Rock. $10, $12 day of show. URBAN ARTIFACT - Blue Wisp Big Band. 8:30 p.m. Big Band Jazz. $10.
THURSDAY 22 ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Dottie Warner and Phil DeGreg. 7:30 p.m. Jazz. Free. BROMWELL’S HÄRTH LOUNGE Todd Hepburn and Friends. 6 p.m. Various. Free.
TAFT THEATRE - Le ButcherH ettes. 8 p.m. Rock. $12, $15 day of show (in the Ballroom). URBAN ARTIFACT - Xenia Rubinos with Marcus Alan Ward and Xzela. 7 p.m. Soul/Various. $10.70. VILLAGE GREEN PARK - Ricky Nye Inc. with Li’l Red & the Rooster. 7 p.m. Blues/Boogie Woogie. WASHINGTON PARK - Bandstand Bluegrass with Warrick & Lowell & Casey Campbell & His Band. 7 p.m. Roots/Americana. Free.
H
FRIDAY 23 ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - The New Royals. 8 p.m. Funk. Free. BLUE NOTE HARRISON - Southern Savior. 9 p.m. Country/Rock. Free. BROMWELL’S HÄRTH LOUNGE - The Steve Schmidt Quartet featuring Mandy Gaines. 8 p.m. Jazz. Free.
COMMON ROOTS - Open Mic. 8 p.m. Various. Free.
COLLEGE HILL COFFEE CO. - Ricky Nye. 7:30 p.m. Blues/Boogie Woogie. Free.
FOUNTAIN SQUARE - Salsa H on the Square with Kandela. 7 p.m. Salsa/Latin/Dance/Various.
COMMON ROOTS - Blvck H Seeds. 8 p.m. Alternative/ Various
THE GREENWICH - Now Hear This. 9 p.m. Jazz. $5.
FOUNTAIN SQUARE - Indie Vol. H 2017 with Family & Friends, Edward & Jane and Jim Trace &
KINGS ISLAND - Spirit Song Fest featuring Skillet, Sidewalk Prophets, Mac Powell, Hollyn and more. 5 p.m. Various. $57-$67 (includes park admission).
JACK CASINO CINCINNATI - Isley Brothers. 8 p.m. R&B/Pop/Soul/ Rock. Sold out.
Free.
4 8 • C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 7
NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB Greggo with Blvck Seeds and ADDvantz. 9 p.m. Hip Hop/Various. Free.
THE LISTING LOON - Ricky Nye. 8:30 p.m. Blues/Boogie Woogie. Free.
6/25 ray wyLie hubbard, darrin bradbury; bLackingcoaL
W W W . S O U TH G A TE H O U S E . CO M
MOTR PUB - Surfer Blood with H Winter. 10 p.m. Indie Rock. Free.
KNOTTY PINE - Chalis. 9 p.m. Rock/Pop/Blues/Various. Free. LIVE! AT THE LUDLOW GARAGE - Griffin House. 8 p.m. Singer/Songwriter. $20-$45. THE MOCKBEE - Corveon, Vick Baker, Eazy El Loco, AYK, Big James, Devin Tyral, Mars The Shinobi and Partyocalypse. 9 p.m. Hip Hop. $5-$10.
the Makers. 7 p.m. Indie Folk Rock. Free.
JAG’S STEAK AND SEAFOOD - My Sister Sarah. 9 p.m. Pop/Rock/ Dance/Various. $5. JAPP’S - Burning Caravan 5:30 p.m. Gypsy Jazz. Free. JIM AND JACK’S ON THE RIVER Stagger Lee. 9 p.m. Country. Free. KINGS ISLAND - Spirit Song Fest with Chris Tomlin, Crowder, RED and We Are Messengers. 5 p.m.
Various. $57-$67 (includes park admission). KNOTTY PINE - Wayward Son. 10 p.m. Rock. Cover. LIVE! AT THE LUDLOW GARAGE Average White Band. 8 p.m. R&B. $20-$45. MADISON LIVE - Jerry’s Little Band. 9 p.m. Rock/Jam. Free. MANSION HILL TAVERN - Tickled Pink. 9 p.m. Blues. $4. MARTY’S HOPS & VINES - Roger Wright. 9 p.m. Acoustic. Free. MOTR PUB - Jane Decker. 10 p.m. Pop/Rock. Free. NORTHSIDE TAVERN - NorthH side Music Festival with Brian Olive, Chuck Cleaver, Andy Gab-
bard and Grape Whizzer, Brianna Kelly, Brenda, Kuber, Eye, Temple and The Dummy Ups. 8 p.m. Rock/ Various. Free. NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB - Hex Bombs, Yellow Paper Planes, Lost Coast and JIMS. 9 p.m. Rock/ Punk/Roots.
PLAIN FOLK CAFE - Rhyan Sinclair & All the Little Pieces. 7:30 p.m. Country/Rock. Free. THE REDMOOR - DHR Guitar H Concert Series with Rhett Butler, Craig Wagner, Brad Myers, Brandon Scott Coleman, Carlos Vargas-Ortíz and more. 8 p.m. Jazz. $20.
RICK’S TAVERN - Black Bone Cat. 10 p.m. Rock. $5. RIVERSEDGE - Whimmydiddle H 2017 with Pokey LaFarge, Mike & the Moonpies, 90 Proof Twang and The Easy Leaves. 6:30 p.m. Americana/Roots/Country. Free.
SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (LOUNGE) - Andrew Hibbard. 9:30 p.m. Acoustic. Free. SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - Stealing Volume, Kill City, The Scratch N’ Sniffs, Rat Trap and Rhythm and Booze. 8:30 p.m. Punk Rock. $6. SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL H (SANCTUARY) - Parker Millsap with Garrett Owen. 8:30 p.m. Americana/Rock/Blues/Various. $15, $17 day of show.
STANLEY’S PUB - Version City Reggae Tour featuring King Django with C-RAS. 9 p.m. Reggae. Cover. THOMPSON HOUSE - Underestimate with Hell Scorched Earth, Sleep Comes After Death, 13 Arrows of the Apocalypse, Dead Beat and Third Person Omega. 8 p.m. Metalcore. $10. URBAN ARTIFACT - PersisH tence of Surf Music featuring The Blair-Pongracic Band, The AmpFibians and Grateful Surf. 9 p.m. Surf Rock. $10.
WASHINGTON PARK - Over the H Rhine with Peter Mulvey. 6 p.m.
CityBeat’s music listings are free. Send info to MIKE BREEN via email at mbreen@citybeat.com. Listings are subject to change. See citybeat.com for full music listings and all club locations. H is CityBeat staff’s stamp of approval.
Folk/Pop/Americana/Various. $20 (benefits United Way)
MOTR PUB - Sarah Shook & the Disarmers. 10 p.m. Country. Free.
WASHINGTON PLATFORM SALOON & RESTAURANT - John Zappa. 9 p.m. Jazz. $10 (food/ drink minimum).
NORTHSIDE TAVERN - NorthH side Music Festival with JEFF the Brotherhood, Even Tiles, Brian
WOODWARD THEATER - Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears with Ernie Johnson From Detroit. 9 p.m. Soul/Rock/Funk/Various. $15, $17 day of show.
H
Draband + Kevin Frye, John Bender, Siren Suit, Moira, Run Believers, The Harlequins, Disaster Class and Dinge. 7:30 p.m. Rock/Various. Free.
SATURDAY 24
NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB - Turbojugend with HeWhoCannotBeNamed, Governess and Red Hot Rebellion. 10 p.m. Rock/Punk. $10.
BLUE NOTE HARRISON - R.P. Coltrane. 9 p.m. Rock. Free.
PIRATES COVE BAR & GRILLE The Refranes. 8 p.m. Rock
BOGART’S - GlowRage. 9 p.m. EDM/Dance/DJ. $12-$50.
PLAIN FOLK CAFE - Ronnie Vaughn. 7:30 p.m. Acoustic. Free.
BROMWELL’S HÄRTH LOUNGE Steve Schmidt Trio featuring Dan Radank. 8 p.m. Jazz. Free.
THE REDMOOR - The Young Jazz Messengers. 8 p.m. Jazz. $10.
CINCINNATIAN HOTEL - Philip Paul Trio. 7 p.m. Jazz. Free. THE COMET - We’re Witches! H and DC/AC. 11 p.m. Rock. Free. CROW’S NEST - Highbeams. 10 p.m. Folk Rock. Free. DEPOT BARBECUE - April Aloisio. 7 p.m. Jazz/Bossa Nova. Free. DOWNTOWNE LISTENING ROOM - Sarah Peacock with Brittany Gillstrap. 7:30 p.m. Acoustic Rock. $15.
H
FOUNTAIN SQUARE - FSQ Live with The Classic Rock Experience. 7 p.m. Classic Rock. Free. THE GREENWICH - The Feel Good Show. 8 p.m. R&B/Soul. $10. JAG’S STEAK AND SEAFOOD - The Fun Size. 9 p.m. Pop/Dance/Various. $5. KINGS ISLAND - Spirit Song Fest with TobyMac, Rend Collective, Tedashii and Ryan Stevenson. 5 p.m. Various. $57-$67 (includes park admission). KNOTTY PINE - Under the Sun. 10 p.m. AltRock. Cover. THE MAD FROG - OTEP with Forces of Nature, Desensitized, 7L9v9ls, Deadbolt Band, Grey Cloud Nein, Bipolar Opposites and Saints Among Us. 5 p.m. Metal. $27.50.
MANSION HILL TAVERN - Johnny Fink & the Intrusion. 9 p.m. Blues. $4. MARTY’S HOPS & VINES - Jason Erickson. 9 p.m. Various. Free. MAURY’S TINY COVE - Ricky Nye. 7:30 p.m. Blues/Boogie Woogie. Free. THE MOCKBEE - Beat Faction featuring DJ Xian, DJ Troll and Christian “Mindcandy” Vesper. 10 p.m. DJ/Dance. Free.
RIVERSEDGE - Whimmydiddle H 2017 with 90 Proof Twang, The Steel Woods, Natalie Stovall & the Drive and The Skallywags. 6:30 p.m. Country. Free.
SILVERTON CAFE - Balderdash. 9 p.m. Rock/R&B. Free. SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL H - Dump Trump II: The Arrival featuring Analog Cannibal, Bullet to Blame, Dead Man String Band, Draculas, ForestFox, Go Go Buffalo, Ric Hickey, The Spectacular Fantastic, The Whiskey Shambles, LOVECRUSH 88 and Toon Town,. 8 p.m. Rock/Comedy/Various. $5.
STANLEY’S PUB - Jared Presley Experience with In Details and Icky Romantic. 9 p.m. Psychedelic/ Indie/Rock. Cover. THOMPSON HOUSE - Blood Brothaz, Mundo, Lantana Easy, Gelati Zoe, Larry Smith, GBM, Wes Jamell and more. 9 p.m. Hip Hop. $10, $15 day of show. URBAN ARTIFACT - PersisH tence of Surf Music featuring The Mystery Men, Team Void, Nicky Kay Orchestra, The AmpFibians and Grateful Surf. 3:30 p.m. Surf Rock. $10.
WASHINGTON PLATFORM SALOON & RESTAURANT - Jeremy Long. 9 p.m. Jazz. $10 (food/drink minimum).
SUNDAY 25
THE MOCKBEE - Book Club Rejects and guests. 8 p.m. Rock. Free. MOTR PUB - Ghost Wolves. 8 Hp.m. Rock. Free. RIVERBEND MUSIC CENTER Lady Antebellum with Kelsea Ballerini and Brett Young. 7:30 p.m. Country. $32.75-$66.25. SONNY’S ALL BLUES LOUNGE Blues jam session featuring Sonny’s All Blues Band. 8 p.m. Blues. Free. SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (LOUNGE) - Black King Coal. 9:30 p.m. Soul/Roots. Free. SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) - Ray Wylie Hubbard with Darrin Bardbury. 8 p.m. Country. $22, $25 day of show.
MONDAY 26 THE GREENWICH - Baron Von H Ohlen & the Flying Circus Big Band. 7:30 p.m. Jazz. Cover. MANSION HILL TAVERN - Acoustic Jam with John Redell and Friends. 8 p.m. Acoustic/Various. Free. MEMORIAL HALL - The SanguiHnaria Trio. 7 p.m. Jazz. $6. THE MOCKBEE - OH jam! presents OFF tha BLOCK Mondays Open Mic with Stallitix, Goodword, DJ Noah I Mean, NonPlus, Chestah T, Gift of Gabi, Knifer and more. 10 p.m. Hip Hop. Free. PUB - The Crane Wives. H10MOTR p.m. Indie Folk. Free. NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB H Shellshag, Intrepid Hearts and Sharkpact. 9 p.m. Punk/Rock/ Various
URBAN ARTIFACT - Old Time Mondays with Avon Dale. 10 p.m. Blue/ Rock/Soul. Free.
TUESDAY 27 BREW HOUSE - Dave Gilligan with Dave and the Dogs and more. 9 p.m. Roots/Various. THE MOCKBEE - Skeleton H Hands, Blood Handsome, Crime of Passing and Black Shield. 9 p.m. Electronic/Post Punk. Free.
H
NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB - Guts with We Should Have Been DJs, Jims and New Third Worlds. 9 p.m. Rock.
THE COMET - The Comet Bluegrass All-Stars. 7:30 p.m. Bluegrass. Free.
RIVERBEND MUSIC CENTER Train with O.A.R. and Natasha Bedingfield. 7 p.m. Rock/Pop. $25-$79.50.
BOGART’S - MisterWives with The Greeting Committee. 8 p.m. AltPop. $25.
THE MAD FROG - When Autumn Calls with Third Person Omega, The Ruffins, Watch Frogs, Brian Grimes and Written In Red. 6 p.m. Rock. Cover.
STANLEY’S PUB - Trashgrass Tuesday featuring members of Rumpke Mt. Boys. 9 p.m. Bluegrass. Cover. URBAN ARTIFACT - The Matt Cook Collective. 8 p.m. Jazz. Free.
C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 7 • 4 9
MADISON LIVE - Jon Schuyler and Ray Will as St. Francis with Naquia Chante, Oski Isaiah, John Roe, Macho Means and Mave. 8 p.m. Hip Hop/Various. $10.
RICK’S TAVERN - Top This Band. 10 p.m. Pop/R&B/Funk. $5.
MANSION HILL TAVERN - Open Blues Jam with Sonny Moorman. 6 p.m. Blues. Free.
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C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 7 • 5 1
1. Fall back from the beach 4. The mark “v” in string music 9. Trapper’s catch 13. Shakespearean lament 15. Gas-X alternative 16. Role that Peter Fonda combed over 17. Young zebra 18. Become a contestant 19. Heavy base supporting a statue 20. Smug 23. Like students that still have naptime 24. Megan Boone’s “The Blacklist” role 25. They’re sometimes blocked online 28. “I Am the Walrus” persona 32. Knuckle to the head 34. Crunchy sandwich, for short 36. Sweet froyo topping 38. New, in Nicaragua 39. Expression of great approval, on-line 43. Gruesome 44. Sax object? 45. Cam Newton stat 46. Winking phrase 48. Massive impasse 51. Actor Bentley of “American Horror Story” 52. Concealed carry lobby 54. Gulf of Mexico, to many 56. Cold pressor test measurements 61. Golf’s Aoki 64. BYU’s location 65. Dog that appears to be 20% tongue 66. Funeral flames 67. Concentrated beam
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5 2 • C I T Y B E A T . C O M • J U N E 2 1 – 2 7 , 2 0 1 7
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