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NEWS

Cincinnati’s Human Services Fund Faces Big Changes Some members of Cincinnati City Council want the administration of the city’s human services funding brought in-house if the United Way exits the process.

Others, however, are adamantly opposed to that idea.

City Hall PH OTO: NIC K SWARTSELL

BY N I C K SWA R T S EL L

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or a decade, the City of Cincinnati has decided how to divvy up the money it uses to fund outside human services organizations tackling poverty, neighborhood violence and other issues by relying on recommendations from a board overseen by a committee administered by the United Way. However, that will likely change soon.

Discussions in Cincinnati City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee revealed that the city and United Way are parting ways on that partnership.

That conversation comes as some on council have asked questions about whether the city should take the process back — or farm it out to another agency.

Currently, the city taps a board called the Human Services Advisory Committee, overseen by the United Way of Greater Cincinnati, to make calls about city funding for organizations fighting poverty, helping Cincinnatians find employment, pushing back against the drug addiction crisis and other efforts. This year, HSAC oversaw the expenditure of more than $4.8 million from the city.

Now, however, the city and United Way are mapping out a way for the latter to step away from that process.

“While we are proud of the work we have done for the past decade to provide a neutral, non-political grant-making process for the City, it has become clear that some members of City Council want to move the process in a different direction,” reads a statement a United Way spokesperson sent to CityBeat. “On October 30, we communicated with the City Administration our intent to not renew our contract to facilitate the fund once our contract expires on 7/31/2020. We also made clear we will work cooperatively with the City to transition the process with minimal disruption to the agencies and the people they provide services to.”

Council member Greg Landsman says discussions about a new process will continue in the coming weeks. He says he’d like to see the city move the funding process in-house under a performancedriven review process the administration uses for other outside contracts.

“As you know, they’ve been doing this at a loss for a long time financially,” Landsman

said of United Way in council’s Nov. 12 Budget and Finance Committee. “I think they feel like they’ve met their obligation.

My hope is that we’ll be able to vote on that transition document and a plan that we all feel good about that allows us to continue to have the politics removed from all of this but also where we have all of our contracts under one roof going through what I believe to be a very rigorous process.”

Other council members have wanted the current arrangement to continue, however, saying that when the elected body divvied up the money itself, wrangling between members got too intense and decisions were made along political lines instead of based on outcomes and data.

It’s unclear what will happen next if there are changes to the way human services funding is administered. Some council members supportive of United Way’s work, including Chris Seelbach and David Mann, are adamant about keeping council out of the process.

“I would never support it coming to the city and making this political,” Seelbach said at the meeting. “I think that’s the worst option ever. If there are other providers like United Way that we look at as, ‘Could they do a better or different job?’

— I’m open to looking at that.”

Others are more open to bringing the decisions in-house, much like other city funding processes for outside organizations.

“When people talk about the process being political, I think you can fill in the word ‘democratic,’ right?” council member P.G. Sittenfeld said. “People elected by the people make the decision. We do it on decisions a lot more controversial than human services funding. I’m fine with that.”

This isn’t the first time the subject has come up recently. In October, council member Tamaya Dennard introduced a motion asking city administration to explore bringing the process for selecting the groups receiving the money back into City Hall. That motion didn’t pass, but council members Wendell Young, Landsman and Vice Mayor Christopher Smitherman supported it.

“I respect and admire United Way as an organization,” Dennard said. “But as we start to peel back the layers and looking at

poverty and disparity in our city, we have to do things differently. A lot of people that benefit from the funding now are people who are African-American. But the organizations (getting funded) aren’t led

by African-American people.”

Dennard and Young both also cited a dust-up last year involving the United Way in which the nonprofit’s then-CEO Michael Johnson left after alleging “subtle threats” and a “hostile work environment.” The departure of Johnson, who is black, set off a debate about race and leadership at the organization.

A group of prominent African-American leaders protested Johnson’s treatment, saying his departure is indicative of the resistance black leaders often face in Cincinnati.

The Cincinnati Black Agenda, a group led by former Cincinnati mayor Dwight Tillery, called for the United Way to be removed from the human services funding process following the shakeup.

Roughly 64 percent of those served by programs funded through HSAC are African-American, according to reports from the committee, though few of the organizations funded by the process are led by African-Americans.

In a letter to Cincinnati City Council last December after Johnson’s departure,

however, members of HSAC noted they were predominantly African-American.

“We all share — and many of us experience painfully in our professional lives — your concern about the pervasive racism afflicting work in institutions across this city,” HSAC’s letter read. “But we all agree that the Human Services Advisory Committee process helps counteract bias and favoritism, which are byproducts of racism, by ensuring that grants are awarded according to fair, transparent and evidence-based criteria. This process protects the city’s human services grant-making process from power plays and lobbying which can create significant disadvantages for small, qualified grassroots and minority nonprofits.”

Funding for human services done outside United Way’s process has been a flashpoint between the mayor and city council in recent years.

One focal point of that battle has been the Center for Closing the Health Gap. Over the last few years, the nonprofit health group founded by former Cincinnati Mayor Dwight Tillery saw its funding cut under the city manager’s and the mayor’s budgets. Council restored its CONTINUES ON PAGE 07

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NEWS

As the U.S. Supreme Court Weighs DACA Repeal, Local Immigrant Communities Wait Local advocates rallied in Price Hill during a pivotal moment for a program that allows undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as minors to remain here

Local activist Sandra Ramirez (left) speaks at a rally supporting DACA in East Price Hill

BY N I C K SWA R T S EL L

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s a group of nine black-robed men and women in Washington, D.C. consider the fate of an Obama-era program granting rights to young undocumented immigrants, some Cincinnatians are feeling the legal battle’s high stakes.

On Nov. 12, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments over Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a 2012 program that temporarily let almost 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought here as children prior to 2007 stay in the country with the right to work and go to school as long as they met some basic requirements. The administration of President Donald Trump has sought to end DACA, though three federal appeals courts have struck down those attempts thus far.

The ongoing efforts to end DACA have caused deep anxiety among immigrant communities across the country — including those in Greater Cincinnati.

Sandra Martinez is one of more than 1,000 DACA recipients living in the region.

She attended a vigil supporting DACA the evening of Nov. 12 at Holy Family Church in East Price Hill, a neighborhood home to a number of immigrants from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.

Many of those immigrants are coming to seek better economic or educational opportunities or to escape strife, famine and corruption in their home countries.

In 2014, Guatemala had the 10th-highest murder rate in the world. Simply crossing a border doesn’t offer escape: Honduras and El Salvador, to the south, have the world’s highest and second-highest murder rates, respectively, and Belize, to the east, has the world’s seventh-highest. While parts of Mexico are safer and more stable, other areas are gripped with poverty and wars between rival drug cartels.

More than 17,000 immigrants came to Hamilton County from other countries between 2010 and 2018, Census estimates

suggest — many of them from Central American countries.

Other counties in Greater Cincinnati saw less impact on their population due to immigration. Warren County gained about 3,600 immigrants, while Butler County added more than 6,000.

Ohio gained 169,000 new immigrants.

Without those immigrants, the state’s population would have dipped by about 12,000 people.

Nationwide, about 10 percent of counties saw their populations buoyed by immigrants, including the nine fastest-growing counties in the country.

Census data does not differentiate between documented and undocumented immigrants.

Martinez came to the U.S. with her father from Mexico when she was 6. But it took her a long time to realize that her undocumented status presented limits.

“I didn’t really know I was undocumented until I’d go home and talk to my dad about college and he’d always say, ‘It’s good to dream, but sometimes it’s harder for us,’” she says. “I didn’t really know what he meant by that, but then things started clicking… oh, I can’t go to college because I don’t have this (document).”

She first heard about DACA in ninth grade and her father immediately helped her sign up for the program, giving her the ability to continue her education at a vocational school in Butler County.

Youth Educating Society, a group made up of young local immigrants and their allies, organized the vigil at Holy Family.

The youth-led organization is part of Cincinnati nonprofit Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center.

Cincinnatian Sandra Ramirez, 20, is a college student and the current director of

PH OTO: NIC K SWARTSELL

YES. She says the group began organizing the vigil — set to coincide with the beginning of the U.S. Supreme Court case over DACA — about a month and a half ago.

Ramirez says the group has long been pushing for DACA and deeper immigration reform — including a path to citizenship for those without documentation — and will continue to do so.

“We have been fighting by reaching out to our senators and our representatives to encourage them to support DACA, getting (the program) to accept applications again and possibly creating a pathway to citizenship for those who have DACA,” she says. “We decided that it would be nice to have a vigil here in Cincinnati, because not everyone can be in Washington and because a lot of our members are DACA recipients themselves or have family members who are.”

From an immigrant family, Ramirez lost a brother to deportation in 2017.

“I know the struggle of having to say goodbye to a loved one, and how outdated our immigration system is,” she says. “It gave me a reason to be a voice in the community.”

The legal battles over DACA have stretched on since Trump first announced in 2017 that the program would be eliminated. Since that time, potentially eligible immigrants have not been permitted to file applications to join DACA. Trump, who ran on promises to curtail undocumented immigration into the U.S., says the program needs to end to send the message that crossing the border without authorization will not be tolerated.

Attorneys for the Trump administration

argue that the Department of Homeland Security has the legal authority to end DACA, which was not passed by Congress but enacted by an Obama executive order.

However, federal appeals courts have blocked efforts to end DACA, saying DHS hasn’t provided adequate reason to do so.

Trump’s attorneys argued before the high court that DHS is within its rights to end the program, which they claim is likely unconstitutional anyway. The questions before the U.S. Supreme Court, then, are about executive power: whether the court should even be considering the case, whether DACA was a legal action by the Obama administration and whether the Trump administration via DHS has legal grounds to end the program.

The court has shifted since Obama was president, with a 5-4 conservative majority on the bench.

The decision will likely come down to Chief Justice John Roberts. He’s generally considered a conservative jurist, but ruled against the Trump administration in a recent high-profile decision over an effort to place a citizenship question on the U.S. Census.

As the court weighs DACA, local immigrant communities are holding their breath.

“It’s living with fear,” Martinez says of life without DACA. “Because in the back of your mind you have that thought — is this the last time I’m going to be able to see these people or have these experiences?

It’s taking every step, every decision with extra care. It’s really hard to just live normally.”

FROM PAGE 04

funding in the last two budget years.

The popular nonprofit, which saw a large number of supporters turn out to advocate for restoration to its funding during the city’s budget hearings this summer, works to bridge health disparities experienced

by Cincinnati’s black residents. The Health Gap says it has touched more than 360,000 people through its Do Right! Campaigns and has hosted annual health expos providing more than 100,000 attendees with more than 30,000 free health screenings.

Cranley has said that the Health Gap should go through the same process overseen by the United Way that other nonprofits apply to in order to get city funding — though, under his tenure, the center’s funding via the city went up multiple years in a row outside that process.

That is until the nonprofit found itself the focus of media scrutiny around its spending practices and was caught up in a political fight between Tillery and his onetime ally Cranley. After Cranley and Tillery had a falling out in late 2016 over an appointment to the Cincinnati Health Department, Tillery backed Cranley’s mayoral opponent Yvette Simpson.

The fight between the two got more contentious when the budget drawn up by the

city manager’s office the next year looked to cut funding for the Health Gap. That came after media reports that raised questions about the organization’s spending on a program that provided fresh fruit to convenience stores and a few thousand dollars invoiced to the city by the Health Gap for events by a political organizing group called the Black Agenda.

The Health Gap later returned that money after the city said it represented improper spending on political events. A city audit later found less-than-ideal billing practices at the Health Gap, but laid part of the blame for those lapses at the city’s feet.

Tillery left his leadership role at the Health Gap last year.

Mann has expressed concerns that more political wrangling could result from a departure from an outside arbiter for human services funding and remembers a time before the United Way process existed.

“I think that would be a very unfortunate decision,” Mann said in explaining his vote against Dennard’s motion last month. “I don’t think it’s helpful to put politics right back in the middle of it… I lived that way during my earlier service on council.”

SORTA Board Approves ‘Streetcar Divorce’

BY N I C K SWA R T S E L L Members of the board of the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority voted Nov. 19 on a plan that will, pending Cincinnati City Council approval, formally cede control of and responsibility for the Cincinnati Bell Connector over to the City of Cincinnati.

The move separating the 3.6-mile transit system from the transit authority comes as SORTA looks to present a .8 cent Hamilton County sales tax levy for voter approval next year to fund a revamp of the region’s Metro bus system.

The 13-member board voted on four related motions regarding the streetcar.

One actually hands over control of the streetcar. Another strikes a 2013 action by the board that states that SORTA holds financial responsibility for the

transit project. Two others transfer SORTA’s agreement with Transdev, which runs the streetcar’s day-to-day operations, and Cincinnati Bell, which pays for naming rights, over to the city.

Streetcar critics have drawn attention to the rail loop’s ridership numbers — which continue to be well below projections — and expense as reasons to oppose the coming bus levy, even going so far as to call it a “streetcar tax.”

Cutting ties with the streetcar has been seen as a vital step in SORTA’s effort to pass the bus levy.

The split has been in the works for more than a year. If city council approves, the city will take over operations — and the streetcar’s expenses — starting in January 2020.

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S ʼ T A E B CIT Y

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T

he first issue of CityBeat was published Nov. 17, 1994 — the same year Pulp Fiction hit theaters, Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan took their rivalry off the ice and we all watched O.J.’s white Bronco lead police on a really low-speed car chase along the freeways of Los Angeles. Helmed by editor/co-publisher John Fox (who left local altweekly Everybody’s News to launch his own) and general manager/co-publisher Dan Bockrath, the stated identity of CityBeat was this: “We are a small, enthusiastic group of journalists, designers, photographers and sales people hoping to provide what we think is sorely needed here: a locally based, independent media voice that provokes thought and encourages action.”

And over the course of 25 years, that pursuit hasn’t changed.

Today, it’s my privilege to be at the helm of this publication, continuing its mission and helping assert its relevance now and into the future.

I started my career at CityBeat as an intern and literally never left (except for a six-month stint where I had a “real” editing job; it sucked). I hung around the office like a ghost with a journalism degree, leaving small presents on editors’ desks to engender their goodwill and doing data entry for $8 an hour. I worked my way up from that “weird intern who won’t go away” to listings editor, then associate editor, then I made a women’s magazine under the CityBeat umbrella, then that folded and I became CityBeat’s senior editor/special sections editor/dining editor and now editor-in-chief. This curriculum vitae is not just to show I’ve had a job for 15 years (slow clap), but to emphasize that when that original group of humans launched this paper in 1994, they made something bigger than themselves.

Something someone like me would devote more than a decade of their life to.

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The foundational importance of critical journalism and free speech to our country and our democracy is imperative, and its value cannot be overstated (I mean, it can be; just have several drinks with a journalist and say the words “fake news” and prepare for a wild ride). And as an alternative media voice in an ever-conglomerizing landscape, we take this job very seriously, with a commitment to ethics, honesty, integrity and transparency. With an increasing demand for immediate information and a (really) small staff size, this job is harder than ever — and perhaps more maligned than ever — but none of us are in it for the money or to please social media trolls; trust me. You ever been paid in gift cards?

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CityBeat has covered Cincinnati news, music, arts, culture, dining, drinking and the city’s ups and downs with wit and insight for more than two decades (we’re basically a cool, printed time capsule) and it’s been a communal effort since the beginning. The amount of work and the quality of work our brilliant, dedicated staff produces and their ability to constantly adapt amazes to me — and a third of them weren’t even born when the paper launched.

CityBeat would not exist without them and all of the other staffers and freelancers who have contributed their voice and their words to shaping this publication. I am eternally grateful for all of it. And if you look back through the years (which you will soon actually be able to do because we’re digitizing the archive), you’ll see many of the city’s best writers got their start with us.

But it wouldn’t mean anything without readers. So, if you’re reading this, thank you for coming along for the ride.

In this issue we’ll be featuring reminiscences and recaps of our coverage since 1994 — including stories from people who met through CityBeat — and we’ll also have special callbacks to old ads and gone-but-not-forgotten columns, like the “Dating Diva” and Kathy Y. Wilson’s “Your Negro Tour Guide,” which prompted its own book.

And sure, things have changed over the past 25 years. We have to use the internet now, classified ads don’t pay the bills and the CityBeat smoking lounge is gone (see managing/music editor Mike Breen’s recollections on page 17), but we are still that same small, enthusiastic group of people, striving to be an independent voice that provokes thought and encourages action.

― Maija Zummo, Editor-in-Chief

ch of City Bea t; City Bea t uire r stor y abo ut the laun L to R: A Cinc inna ti Enq tos: City Bea t Arc hive Pho lette r from the edit or // co-f oun der Joh n Fox ’s first

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W

hen the first issue of CityBeat was published in late 1994, Cincinnati was not what it is today. Sure, it was the “Queen City,” a river town on Ohio’s border with Kentucky with a couple of frustrating sports teams and an odd proclivity for meat soup poured over spaghetti and drenched in shredded cheese.

But the city’s neighborhoods, its people, its national reputation and its sense of self have all changed quite a bit — and, in general, for the better.

Cincinnatians have always had a bit of a chip on their shoulder about the city. But a quarter century ago it seemed like that sense of pride would often be tempered with a big dose of insecurity. We’d insist there was more to the city than detractors knew, but deep down, many of us knew a lot of the reasons for which people dismissed or mocked the city were legit.

yBeat ere when Cit h re e w t a th ore 25 things n’t here anym re a t u b , d e rt sta

BY MIKE BREEN

Twenty-five years on, that defensiveness is still there but the insecurity feels lessened because it feels more like the good things about the city outweigh the bad.

From our perch here at CityBeat, covering local news, the food scene, arts, culture and more in the city during that period, the change in mentality has been especially noticeable. Cincinnati doesn’t feel as behind the rest of the country as it once did.

In many ways we’ve become a progressive city, shedding a lot of the well-earned puritanical image that often made us a laughing stock.

Looking back on things that were here 25 years ago but are now gone is a good way to gauge how far we’ve come. I’ve been lucky to have a good seat to watch that changeover. It’s not for me to say how much CityBeat has played a part in that change, but I’m proud to have been a part of monitoring it for the last two and half decades, helping to chronicle life in Cincinnati for current and future generations.

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Some of the things that are gone are just buildings, businesses or other local establishments. Some represent a lot more. A lot of it we miss. And some of it gets a hearty, “Good riddance.”

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RIVERFRONT STADIUM

The Cincinnati skyline of today wouldn’t be completely unrecognizable to a time traveler from 1994, but it’s quite different. Great American Tower (which opened in 2011) peeks out from behind our two prominent sports stadiums, with the Freedom Center nestled in the middle. But 25 years ago, those stadiums weren’t there. Instead stood the white, saucer-like Cinergy Field (aka Riverfront Stadium), where both the Reds and Bengals played their respective sports on ugly green carpet.

and, early on at least, being our natural enemy (they famously started their own faux altweekly in the ’00s to essentially attempt to push us out of business). The Post published its final edition on the last day of 2007, an early sign of the gradual decline of print media. If you believe that a daily newspaper is reflective of its readership, The Enquirer is a good example of that, having largely shifted to, at the very least, a more centrist ideology, doing away with much of its editorializing for fear of going the way of its old co-daily buddy.

RIVERFRONT COLISEUM

EVERYBODY’S NEWS

Riverfront Coliseum is still a part of the riverfront skyline, but its name and tenants have changed a lot since the mid-’90s. A sign of the rise of corporate sponsorships of venues, it’s been the Firstar Center, The Crown, U.S. Bank Arena and now the Heritage Bank Center. Sports teams of varying stripes have called the arena home over the past 25 years, playing everything from arena football and indoor soccer to basketball and, of course, hockey (go Cyclones), and the venue still regularly hosts concerts by some of the biggest musical acts that come to town.

THE CINCINNATI POST

Cincinnati was a two-daily-paper town when CityBeat began. It wasn’t hard to be an “alternative newsweekly” in Cincinnati circa 1994. Though still fairly conservative, The Cincinnati Post was considered the more “liberal” paper, with The Cincinnati Enquirer holding it down for the right wing

In 1994, Cincinnati was also a two-altweekly town. Everybody’s News begat CityBeat — co-founder John Fox was Everybody’s News’ editor, but he broke off to create something he hoped would be bigger and better. There were hard feelings when we were both in competition with each other until Everybody’s closed in 1999 after 16 years. But it seems unlikely there would have been a CityBeat without an Everybody’s News. Its place in Cincinnati’s press history looms large, carrying on the tradition of our city’s alt/underground outlets by keeping an eye on the powers that be and pushing the culture forward.

CITIZENS FOR COMMUNITY VALUES

Citizens for Community Values is still technically a thing, but as the city (and the world in general) has evolved, CCV’s power is far less than what it used to be. And it used to be unreasonably powerful. CCV played

a huge role in fostering the city’s prudish reputation, launching numerous campaigns against adult entertainment, the arts and the LGBTQ community. The group was the force behind the attempt to shut down a photo exhibit featuring the sexually graphic work of legendary photographer Robert Mapplethorpe at the Contemporary Arts Center in the early 1990s. The CCV was also a leader in the campaign to have gay marriage declared unconstitutional in Ohio in 2004. As a progressive, LGBTQ-friendly voice, CityBeat was one of CCV’s favorite targets. In 2008, they got local officials to sign a letter demanding we stop selling ads advertising adult services. CityBeat successfully sued all parties involved and reached a settlement in which they agreed to back the fuck off and let us publish freely.

As a sign of their gradual impotence, in 2011, Larry Flynt opened an adult store in downtown Cincinnati (once forbidden thanks to CCV’s efforts). And the city didn’t fall into a pit of fire.

SUDSY MALONE’S

SHERIFF SIMON LEIS

Along with Bogart’s, Top Cats, Sub Galley and Daniel’s, Wizard Records was another popular stop on Short Vine in 1994. The shop — which employed a steady stream of local musicians to work the counter — had a couple of spots in the area, all within a few yards of each other (it was next to Bogart’s in ’94, with the Wizard’s Cave around the corner in the store’s original spot selling used stuff). John James (who also wrote the “Yeah Yeah Yeah” music column for CityBeat in the early years) moved the store to Oxford, Ohio in 2000 and closed up shop for good the following year.

Simon Leis was the Hamilton County Sheriff when CityBeat published its first issue. Leis was another leader of the anti-pornography fight, going back to his time as Hamilton County Prosecutor in the ’70s — he famously prosecuted Larry Flynt for “obscenity” in 1977 and as sheriff he declared that controversial Mapplethorpe photo exhibit “criminally obscene.” One of the main faces of Cincinnati’s puritanical crusades, Leis retired in 2012.

In 1994, the University Heights/Corryville area was the “cool part of town.” The spine of that hipness was Short Vine, a strip of record stores, cheap eats and music venues that made it ground zero of the Cincinnati Alternative/Indie music scene. At the heart of the scene was Sudsy Malone’s, famous for being a bar/laundromat that gave locals like The Afghan Whigs and Ass Ponys a home, while also hosting some of the biggest names on the national Indie/Alt circuit from Superchunk, Neutral Milk Hotel and Sleater-Kinney to Modest Mouse, Jeff Buckley and Beck. Local booking legend Dan McCabe (also a former CityBeat employee who’d go on to create MOTR Pub and Woodward Theater) was responsible for making Sudsy’s both a locally beloved institution as well as a favorite of touring acts (partly because, duh, you could get your laundry done while you played).

WIZARD RECORDS

CITYBEAT’S SMOKING LOUNGE

We weren’t always headquartered at our current home in a six-story building on Race Street. In 1994, CityBeat opened up shop at the Provident Bank building at Seventh and Vine. And at that time, it wasn’t illegal to smoke indoors. Now, it’s a good thing that smoking has become stigmatized and you can no longer light up in an office building where other people work, but in our early years, the CityBeat smoking lounge directly across from the main offices was the place to socialize, at least among the staff smokers (of which there were many early on).

With a simple wooden table and a few vending machines, it was a nice opportunity to step away for a few minutes, bond with our colleagues and gossip about our non-smoking bosses (just kidding, John and Dan!).

THE BLUE WISP JAZZ CLUB

Cincinnati has always had a good Jazz scene (though in recent years, with the general decline in interest, things have cooled down a bit). Part of that was/is due to the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, which had/has a great Jazz program that fosters new talent and gives teaching jobs to musicians to keep them in town. But the other big draw for Jazz artists and fans was the Blue Wisp Jazz Club. A breeding ground for the local scene’s greatest players that also hosted international stars, when CityBeat launched, the Wisp was downtown in a cozy basement space along Garfield Place. It bounced around to a couple of different locations until it closed for good in 2014. The Blue Wisp Big Band still plays weekly; they’re currently at Caffè Vivace in Walnut Hills.

THE CAC ON FIFTH STREET

One of the architectural jewels of downtown is the Contemporary Arts Center’s Zaha Hadid-designed building at the corner of Sixth and Walnut streets. But before moving there in 2003, the CAC was tucked into a much smaller space across from the bus stops at Government Square, above a Walgreens and at the end of an under-used “mini-mall.” It still managed to host worldclass exhibits, including that infamous Mapplethorpe show. We love the current CAC, but there was something cool and cozy about that little spot on Fifth Street.

Our renowned local amusement park in Mason has remained relatively intact since opening in the ’70s. But there have been some notable changes, including the closure of a pair of beloved Kings Island rollercoasters. In 1994, you could still ride the King Cobra, the first real stand-up coaster in the world. After 17 years, it shut down in 2001. More recently, another ride there 25 years ago, the Vortex, was also shuttered. Its last ride was in October after a 32-year run.

Larry Gross was 40 years old in 1994 and while he wasn’t yet a member of CityBeat’s staff, he was very much a part of the Cincinnati scene, working (I believe) at a downtown furniture store and doing volunteer work for AIDS Volunteers of Cincinnati. But he’d soon become a big part of CityBeat’s history. He first came aboard in the ’90s as our gruff-but-loveable accountant, later asking editor John Fox if he could give writing a shot. He did and was a natural — his “slice of life” column “Living Out Loud” became one of the most popular things to ever run in CityBeat. And his conversational-yetorganically-poetic style of prose was one of the paper’s clearest connections to the pioneering altweeklies and underground papers that paved the way for CityBeat. Our hearts collectively broke when Larry died unexpectedly in 2015 at the age of 61.

JEFF BLAKE

In 1994, a month before CityBeat’s first issue, the Cincinnati Bengals’ starting quarterback David Klingler went down with a season-ending injuring, leaving the team with an 0-7 record. In came flashy young quarterback, Jeff Blake, who gave fans hope for the future. “Shake-N-Blake” led the team to a 3-13 record, but in 1995, Blake went to the Pro Bowl — even though the Bengals finished 7-9. Blake had a decent 1996 season but the Bengals had convinced Boomer Esiason not to retire and he ended up returning to the team and starting in the second half of the season.

Esiason quit playing the following year to go into broadcasting because he was offered more money. Blake left in 1999 after doing back-up duties for two more years and his era became one of many bungled and mismanaged moments in the team’s miserable history.

ED STERN

In 1994, Ed Stern was just two years into his role as artistic director for the renowned Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Coming aboard during a rough patch for the theater (financially and artistically), Stern ended up guiding the Playhouse through some of the theater’s most successful years. The Playhouse earned national recognition for its productions and premieres and, in the ’00s, it won a pair of Regional Theatre Tony Awards. Stern, who left the Playhouse in 2013, died this year at the age of 72.

MYRA’S DIONYSUS

It’s a damn shame that University of Cincinnati students will never get to experience the glory of Myra’s Dionysus, a small restaurant across from campus that sat on the bottom floor of an apartment building on Calhoun Street. From fantastic coffee and desserts to Mediterranean specialty offerings, homemade soup and many vegan/ vegetarian options, the wildly-affordable restaurant had the bohemian ambiance of old Clifton, before the Calhoun/McMicken strip got all slicked up with chain restaurants and a Target.

WOXY

If they had a decent radio antenna, CityBeat’s founding staffers could listen to WOXY, aka 97X, the beloved Oxford, Ohiobased station that was one of our area’s leading purveyors of Alternative music, years before that style would break big. We didn’t just love WOXY because they were advertisers from the get-go — its playlists mirrored CityBeat’s music coverage, with a dedication to local music and the weird things mainstream stations wouldn’t touch.

After being sold in 2004, 97X went internetonly and still maintained a dedicated fanbase (with listeners all over the world), but in 2010, the station went dark.

MARGE SCHOTT

Marge Schott is one of the best-known Cincinnatians of the 20th century — and she often wasn’t such a great representative of the Queen City. By 1994, Schott — part owner, president and CEO of the Cincinnati Reds — was embroiled in one controversy after another. Most of the controversies were centered around racist statements. She seemed to use the N-word a lot, including when talking about “her” players. She also reportedly collected Nazi memorabilia. Not a great mix. In a 1996 interview with Sports Illustrated, Schott praised Hitler and eventually was banned by the MLB from day-to-day operations.

She left the team in 1999.

KALDI’S COFFEE HOUSE

A year before CityBeat’s debut, Kaldi's Coffee House opened up and became the heart of the arts scene in Over-the-Rhine.

Coffee, drinks and a great casual food menu made it a go-to spot for the artsy set, many who lived in OTR. Kaldi’s ambiance was also a big draw — dark, often filled with nottoo-loud live music and enclosed by walls of used books (which patrons could buy).

The beloved hangout shut down at the end of 2008.

MAIN STREET 1994

Kaldi's was the anchor of a very odd strip of Main Street in OTR circa 1994. Along with the artists, writers and musicians that frequented were longtime residents, who all peacefully co-existed. When college students and people from the suburbs dared to venture into Over-the-Rhine, Main Street was the only place they felt safe thanks to the two or three popular dance clubs in the area at the time. It made for an odd mix on the weekends, but it was a great peoplewatching opportunity, particularly on Fridays and Saturdays after closing time.

THIS MODERN WORLD

Sadly, CityBeat stopped running the great Tom Tomorrow comic This Modern World a few years back due to belt-tightening budgetary concerns. But there it was on page 4 of Issue 1 of the paper, mocking the far-right with typical altweekly flair. We still miss Sparky the penguin. And Tomorrow’s cutting satire and commentary (though he’s thankfully easy to find elsewhere online).

BOB HUGGINS

Cincinnati sports legend Bob Huggins was five years into his career as head coach of the University of Cincinnati basketball team in 1994. In the modern era, outside of perhaps Reds icon Sparky Anderson, it’s hard to imagine a more popular coach than Huggy Bear was in Cincinnati. (OK, maybe not among Xavier fans.) Huggins turned the team around and into a national powerhouse, making it to the Final Four and two Elite Eights. Huggins was forced out in 2005 by then-UC President Nancy Zimpher and has continued his Hall of Fame career at his alma mater, West Virginia University.

THE REAL MOVIES

Before the burgeoning new Cincinnati Shakespeare Company took its place, the theater at 719 Race St. was a repertory cinema. In 1994, it was called The Real Movies, showing the latest indie flicks, classics and “midnight movie” faves. When CityBeat’s first issue dropped, Killing Zoe and the brand new The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert were being shown. The theater closed in 1998.

JIMMY BUFFETT AS THE BIGGEST ENTERTAINMENT EVENT OF THE YEAR

In 1994, if you only consumed mainstream local media, you’d think that Jimmy Buffett was the biggest entertainment event of the year, every year. His visits to Cincinnati were treated like Mardi Gras, though if you were reading CityBeat — which offered endless other local arts, cultural and social options (and our occasional anti-Parrothead rants) — you knew better. Buffett is still a big deal when he comes to town, but these days most non-Boomer locals know better than to believe it’s the unequivocal “party of the year.”

ANALOG-ONLY CITYBEAT

An analog-only CityBeat is now — mercifully — a distant memory. When the paper started, there was no citybeat.com and, of course, no social media. We did all of our research physically — press kits for movies and music came in the mail and you’d have to check facts with books and phone calls.

For a while we had one “internet computer” we shared in the office. And we meticulously cut and pasted — again, physically — the pages of the paper onto boards that were driven to the printer. It’s easy to take for granted just how much more efficient the publishing/journalism world has become in the digital age. And it’s a weird irony that by the time the industry had endless resources at its fingertips, our digital selves — and digital outside forces — were starting to eat print media out of the marketplace.

Nevertheless, we persist.

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THE KING COBRA AND THE VORTEX

LARRY GROSS

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sy years ic scene in 25 ea us m ’s ty ci a r ve How to co

M

y daughter was born in 1994. So was CityBeat. They both turned 25 this year.

Holy crap on a communion cracker, I’m old.

When John Fox recruited me for his new venture back in ’94, he changed my life in a significant way. I had written album reviews for him when he was the editor of Everybody’s News while dipping my toe into a return to freelance writing as an adjunct to my graphic design career. When Fox laid out his philosophical plans for CityBeat, he made it clear that he didn’t need me for my sharp reviewer’s ear. He wanted me to write features, which I had done for local publications like The Entertainer and Ink Wire in the ’80s, but hadn’t taken a crack at in nearly five years. He asked if I could commit to that. I swallowed hard and said yes. I never guessed that I’d still be fulfilling that promise nearly 20 years into the new millennium.

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When I first arrived in Cincinnati in 1982, the music scene was populated with a healthy percentage of human jukeboxes — bands playing the hits of the day for bar patrons who wanted the immediacy of live music but merely as a loud soundtrack for excessive drinking and attempts at getting laid. But there was an infinitely more interesting scene bubbling up in the Clifton area’s various venues — Shipley’s, Cory’s, Dollar Bill’s and Bogart’s, among others — which featured a variety of bands performing original material across a wide stylistic spectrum. I was desperately homesick my first few months here but my initial exposure to The Raisins and the Warsaw Falcons led me to the conclusion that I didn’t have to go home — I was already there.

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Further scene safaris revealed a huge subculture of insane musical creativity: The Modulators, The Auburnaires, The Libertines, Junta, Mara, Wheels, the wildly compelling H-Bomb Ferguson and his pet constrictor Boo Boo, the always amazing Peter Mayer in whatever form he took at any given moment, Spike and all subsequent iterations of guitar wizard David T. Chastain’s projects. It was almost an anti-scene, as old bands inspired the formation of new bands, not for the purpose of sounding like the old band but to do something completely original. In that moment, music felt synonymous with magic.

When Fox approached me about writing for CityBeat, I’d been covering local music for about a decade. He had

BY BRIAN BAKER

already secured Mike Breen as his music editor, which I thought was a great selection; I had always loved Breen’s features and reviews in Everybody’s News and looked forward to having a working relationship with him. Twentyfive years later, he and I (and theater critic Rick Pender and arts writer Jane Durrell) are the last names remaining from the masthead from CityBeat’s first issue, and I still look forward to everything Breen puts on the page.

By the time of CityBeat’s debut in mid-November of 1994, Cincinnati’s music scene had scored a number of impressive successes outside of the city’s confines. The Afghan Whigs — the first non-Northwest band to sign a contract with renowned indie label Sub Pop — were a year out from releasing their breakthrough Elektra Records debut, Gentlemen. The Ass Ponys had secured a major label deal with A&M Records. And Over the Rhine had hit so quickly with their first self-released album, 1991’s ‘Til We Have Faces, that they were tapped by Bob Dylan to open a string of Midwest dates; they signed with IRS Records in 1995.

As the local music scene grew and evolved in the mid’90s, CityBeat bore witness to the kaleidoscopic array of musical talent that was emerging from the Cincinnati community. More importantly, the paper became an active force in shaping the scene by shining a light on bands and artists that might not have received coverage in the absence of a broadly inclusive alternative weekly with an informed and committed writing staff. The names have changed many times in 25 years, but the consistent qualities that have characterized everyone who has ever covered music for CityBeat are a passion for music in all its varied forms and the desire to tell the stories of the artists that create that music.

Throughout my tenure at CityBeat, I’ve been given the sacrosanct duty of factually recounting the stories of local, regional and national artists in order to attract album and ticket buyers, which in that light seems like little more than crass commercial promotion. I tend to view it on a slightly higher plane. People entrust me with the responsibility of talking about their art and their lives to a wide audience in an effort to entice readers to engage in musical explorations they might not have undertaken without our journalistic intervention. I know that my fellow freelancers, from those who appeared in CityBeat’s inaugural issue

to the current crop of excellent writers, would agree with that assessment, because I’ve read it within and between every passionate line of their stories.

When I began writing about Cincinnati music, the artists I covered were my peer group. Now, a broad percentage of the people I cover for CityBeat are young enough to be my children. The one constant in that long arc is that, in many instances, interview subjects have become friends.

Very often, getting to the heart of a musician’s influences necessarily involves discussing their early lives and that can lead to the potentially uncomfortable situation of having an intimate conversation with a relative stranger.

I’ve always made an effort to have conversations rather than conduct interrogations, sharing stories about my own life to put my subjects at ease and let them know that the exchange of personal information is a two-way street. The dividends of that methodology have been open, honest discussions resulting in better stories and a personal bond that transcends the reasons for our initial meeting. Some interviews have been lightning strikes, a single meeting leading to a single story, others have been ongoing conversations over many years that have grown into friendships. In any event, I value each and every interaction with the amazing and fascinating people that I’ve had the honor of covering in CityBeat.

The bands have certainly changed since CityBeat’s earliest days; some morphed into different forms, some took long breaks and came back as strong as ever, some disappeared after an impressive start, some stretched out to take a shot at the brass ring. Most of the venues that were publicized in the paper’s nascent stage (The Warehouse, Tommy’s on Main, Ms. Kitty’s, King Tut’s Wa Wa Hut, Ripley’s, Salamone’s and so many more) either changed ownership or names or both, while others disappeared entirely. The true constant in all of this continental shifting has simply been that local bands play gigs and venues book them. Since 1994, CityBeat has been helping our readers make an informed decision about how to spend their entertainment dollars, and with a little luck, we’ll revisit this conversation in 2024. Hopefully, my hoverchair will be charged up and ready to carry me to interviews with kids young enough to be my grandchildren, where I will try to explain why I think they sound like a band called The Beatles but with, you know, a Death Metal/Synth Pop/ Hip Hop twist. Those will be the days.

ter Music 25 Years La On and On: Local In the IRL music world, keeping a band together on a DIY level isn’t easy. Making it to five years is a milestone. So there aren’t a ton of original bands still active today that were around when CityBeat published Issue 1 in 1994. But there are a few, and several musicians from that era have kept the music alive in other forms.

BY MIKE BREEN

• The Tigerlilies have been a CityBeat favorite from Day 1. The Pop Rock/Post Punk group is still going strong after 30 years.

• Likewise, Over the Rhine continues to make some of the best music of its career three decades after they first came together, with the now-married Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler still at the heart of it all.

ME E T C UTE

Over the Rhine // Photo: Michael Wilson

• Indie Rock trio Clifford Nevernew was profiled in the premiere issue of CityBeat. Singer/guitarist Matt Hart (also a poet) and bassist Eric Appleby have explored other creative endeavors since but recently reteamed to form a new band, Nevernew (sorry, Clifford).

• AltRock faves Snaggletooth were also profiled in CityBeat’s first issue. Singer Ali Edwards would later lend her voice to the sublime Ruby Vileos, which recently reunited after several years apart.

• Funk powerhouse SHAG — one of the first local bands to make CityBeat’s cover — is no longer making audiences sweat, but bassist Freekbass has continued to thrill crowds nationwide fronting his own eponymous project.

• The Blue Wisp Big Band — a combination farm league/all-star team for the local Jazz scene — has kept its legacy alive with residencies in local clubs since 1980. They’re still going strong, playing every Wednesday at Walnut Hills’ Caffè Vivace.

• In 1994, Cincinnati rockers Throneberry released Sangria, its acclaimed debut album that attracted international attention. After the band split, the musicians went on to play in local acts like Goose and Culture Queer — which has a brand-new album out. Throneberry reunited in January to celebrate Sangria’s 25th birthday.

• The Mortals were also in peak form in 1994 and garnering widespread acclaim, but the very first Spill It column (CityBeat’s long-running local music roundup) included notice that the band was splitting up. The band got back together late last year for a Woodward Theater reunion show.

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• The Afghan Whigs released their seminal album Gentlemen in 1993.

Splitting in 2001, the band reunited earlier this decade. Bassist John Curley has remained in Cincinnati, playing with bands like Fists of Love and Staggering Statistics and engineering/ producing numerous local acts.

I met my wife at CityBeat. Not through an event or a concert or even at the famed MidPoint Music Festival (back when it was good). We both worked at CityBeat.

Actually, years before we really met, we were both interning for the paper, though we worked on alternating days, so our paths didn't cross until the cover shoot for the Aug. 19, 2009 intern issue (our photos are adjacent to each other on the cover, but she won't let me take that copy out of a box in the attic anymore, something about the ’80s yearbook theme and her hair...) and even then we probably didn't say two words to each other that day.

Her first memory of me was three years later as the guy who wore a seersucker suit to a job interview at the local altweekly (in my defense, I was coming from a reporting job in Alabama). My first memory of her was the cute editor who shared a cubicle wall with me. There was a tiny window between the cubicles and I used its illogical placement to crack a joke to break the ice. That tiny window made it into my wedding vows.

We were just friends for years. We kept up as I got a reporting job in Washington, D.C., and then got laid off from that job in D.C. It felt like we talked every day. She was my best friend and confidant. I took a job back in Cincinnati working for the Business Courier, and I got her a job working there with me. When we moved to a new office, I asked our boss on the sly to put our desks next to each other.

And then, as life happens, often not as sweeping or dramatic as the movies, one day she asked me to kiss her. And that was pretty much it. Two years later we were married. She's still my best friend and confidant, and we still talk every day (to be honest, it'd be a bit weird if we didn't).

— Andy Brownfield, Cincinnati Business Courier

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BY MACKENZIE MANLEY, RICK PENDER, STEVEN ROSEN, AND CITYBEAT STAFF

covering the city’s arts scene 25 years of recollections about

I

n the past three decades, Cincinnati’s art scene has undergone an evolution of sorts, with new galleries, theaters and organizations making their mark and Queen City stalwarts finding innovative ways to stay relevant. Founded as an altweekly with a focus on arts and culture, a piece of CityBeat’s mission has always been to delve into the latest arts happenings — be they popular or under the radar.

While there’s likely hundreds of other moments we could mention, here’s a solid list of 25 in celebration of, you guessed it, our 25th anniversary.

CINCINNATI SHAKESPEARE COMPANY

In late 1993, some recent college grads — Jasson Minadakis and Chris Reeder, who interned at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, as well as Nick Rose, Marni Penning and others — launched Fahrenheit Theatre Company, presenting classics and new plays at Gabriel’s Corner, a church basement in Over-the-Rhine. They assembled a group of young actors who moved from venue to venue — The Carnegie in Covington and then the black box Fifth Third Bank Theater at the new Aronoff Center. Before long they became the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival. CityBeat covered them steadily as they evolved into the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and moved into the onetime Real Movies cinema on Race Street in downtown Cincinnati. Now 26 seasons along, CSC has its own new theater on Elm Street just south of Washington Park.

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ZAHA HADID AND THE CAC

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Downtown’s Contemporary Arts Center began in 1939 as the Modern Arts Society in the basement of the Cincinnati Art Museum.

In 1964 it would move to the Women’s Exchange Building and then to the Mercantile Center in 1970 where it occupied 10,000 square feet of exhibition space. But it was in 2003 that the CAC moved to its most iconic home — the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art. Designed by the late, acclaimed architect Zaha Hadid, it was named the “most important American building to be completed since the end of the cold war” by The New York Times. It also marked the first museum in the United States to be designed by a woman. With over 80,000 square feet of space, the building has remained not only a Queen City icon, but a national one, too.

MUSICNOW FESTIVAL

God bless Bryce Dessner! Rather than just

forgetting Cincinnati after moving to Brooklyn and starting (with other Cincinnatians) the successful AltRock band The National, he remembered his hometown. Beginning in 2006 at the Contemporary Arts Center, and then moving to Memorial Hall, Music Hall and the Taft Theatre (with special events elsewhere), his MusicNOW Festival has attracted a national following for its mixture of adventurous Classical, AltRock, Jazz and other progressive music. The line-ups, which he curates, are memorable — guests like My Brightest Diamond, Nico Muhly, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Kronos Quartet, Dirty Projectors, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Tinariwen, David Lang, Julia Wolfe and, of course, The National. In 2018, coupled with The National’s new Cincinnati AltRock festival, Homecoming, MusicNOW moved to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and had its single best show ever — Eighth Blackbird’s collaboration with Will Oldham on composer Frederic Rzewski’s thrilling, chilling “Coming Together.” When both festivals were then put on hold in 2019, the fear was Dessner had moved on. But both MusicNOW and Homecoming will be back in 2020.

BLINK

BLINK — a four-night light and art experience spanning 30 city blocks through Over-the-Rhine, downtown and, new in 2019, across an illuminated Roebling Bridge into Covington — first took over Cincinnati in 2017. Its inaugural year drew in over an estimated one million attendees and cost $3 million to stage. The stakes were upped for BLINK 2019, which featured new large-scale murals, light installations, interactive sculptures, performance art, live entertainment and projection mapping works. An extension of the now-ceased Lumenocity — which fused the sounds of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with dazzling light projections — BLINK was a reach for something more. As outlined in their manifesto: It’s

meant to envision a “future city.” Produced by local creative agencies Brave Berlin, AGAR and ArtWorks, with support from the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, the Carol Ann & Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation and a number of other sponsors, if BLINK’s hype is any indication, we can bank on its return.

THE CINCINNATI ART MUSEUM GETS CUTTING EDGE

The Cincinnati Art Museum has been through some action-packed recent years, beginning in 2006 when Aaron Betsky became the director. Trained as an architect and also a provocative writer, he led the museum’s quest for a major expansion and chose the Dutch firm Neutelings Riedijk Architects to build, as part of a campus expansion, a flower-shaped tower that would become a civic landmark. But the recession stopped that project. Betsky had other ideas, many very good, but he elicited great opposition when he approved a 2014 project by artist Todd Pavlisko to have a sharpshooter fire bullets into a brass cube in the Schmidlapp Gallery. The event and resultant show occurred, but he left before the year was out. Cameron Kitchin arrived from Memphis’ Brooks Museum of Art as a successor and, although much less outspoken, supported a succession of exhibitions that were both very successful and, often, cutting-edge — work

by Gillian Wearing, Ragnar Kjartansson, Iris van Herpen and William Kentridge, plus a visit from China’s Terracotta Army. In 2019, he supported what became the museum’s most popular show ever: No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man.

SWING HOUSE

From the exterior, Mark de Jong’s Swing House doesn’t appear any different from neighboring homes. CityBeat’s Steven Rosen described the 1880s three-story residential brick building in Camp Washington

as “an ambitious and unusual house-sized sculptural installation.” Inside awaits lofty ceilings — de Jong removed the interior walls and upper floors — and a single suspended swing in the home’s center.

“It represents freedom from architectural convention — it’s a radical departure from our expectations of everyday domesticity,” wrote Rosen. “It is, thus, not merely a swing. It is an experiential and experimental artwork — as is the house that surrounds, complements and is named for it.” From April to September 2018, the home and its ephemera — plus new work by de Jong — were the subject of an exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center. Keep an eye peeled for open tours of the house and, if you’re looking for a quirky staycation, you can rent the one-bedroom, one-bathroom space on Airbnb.

ARTWORKS’ MURALS

ArtWorks has been a Queen City force since its inception in 1996. But it’s perhaps best recognized today for its mural program, which kicked off in 2007 and has been behind over 180 murals in neighborhoods across Greater Cincinnati. That effort was first spurred by a request from then-Mayor Mark Mallory, who was inspired by a trip to Philadelphia; their mural program, at the time, had completed over 3,000 murals.

We’re not there yet, but the nonprofit organization has a lot to be proud of, from a vibrant larger-than-life portrait of King Records artist James Brown to a flock of birds soaring above a wintery Cincinnati Zoo in “Martha the Last Passenger Pigeon” to renderings of works by Cincinnati Modernist naturalist Charley Harper.

KNOW THEATRE AND THE CINCINNATI FRINGE FESTIVAL

In 1999, CityBeat began covering the itinerant “Know Theatre Tribe,” a new company

launched by Jay B. Kalagayan and other recent Xavier grads who presented their first productions of drama and poetry in art galleries and bookstores. Eventually they settled into Gabriel’s Corner in OTR and sharpened their focus to cutting-edge new works. Jason Bruffy, a young actor with Cincy Shakes, mapped out and launched a Fringe Festival in 2003. A year later he became Know’s artistic director, eventually moving the company into a permanent theater space on Jackson Street in Overthe-Rhine. Know became the producer of the annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival, a much-anticipated offering of offbeat theater that continues to draw people who are “kinda weird.” CityBeat has been the Fringe’s media sponsor for years, providing advance notice and just-in-time coverage of productions.

MATURING FILM FESTIVALS

Back in 2008, CityBeat did a cover story asking if Cincinnati might be ready for a broad-based, high profile, true film festival, “the kind that most people would assume a city of Cincinnati’s size and cultural reputation might want by now.” In 2020, we could write the same story. There has been progress — the specialized Jewish & Israeli Film Festival and Cindependent Film Festival have shown growth; and the Overthe-Rhine Film Festival is trying to emerge from its past as the specialized Reelabilities Film Festival (devoted to films about people with disabilities) without forsaking its roots.

(Its curator, CityBeat film critic tt stern-enzi, scored a major coup in 2019 by booking the documentary What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael before its New York theatrical release.) But in that 2008 story, native Cincinnatian Brian Gordon — then the artistic director for the Nashville Film Festival — spelled out what kind of festival a city like Cincinnati should have: “A film festival owes it to its public to find the best American indies out there, and to pursue more than just indies. I’m sure plenty of people in Cincinnati want to see a good foreign film.

And you want to have diversity, to attract different audiences within a community.” We’re not there yet.

VISIONARIES + VOICES

MEMORABLE ARTS SUPPORTERS

The past 25 years have seen the loss of some of our biggest fine arts supporters.

There are too many to properly credit, but here are some: Peggy Frank Crawford, who in 1939 was one of the three women to found the Cincinnati Modern Art Society, which evolved into today’s Contemporary Arts Center, died in 2015; Harris and Alice Weston, who were major supporters of the visual arts and gave their name to the nonprofit Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center, died in 2009 and 2019, respectively; arts philanthropist Patricia A. Corbett passed away in 2008; Louise Nippert, who left $85 million to arts organizations, especially those supporting Classical music, died in 2012; Erich Kunzel Jr., who was the Cincinnati Pops Conductor for 32 years, died in 2009; Lois Rosenthal, who with husband Richard, supported the Playhouse in the Park, the Contemporary Arts Center (its Zaha Hadid-designed building bears the name Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art) and others, passed away in 2014; and Harry Wilks, who created Hamilton’s Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and was a supporter of Cincinnati Opera, died in 2014.

BEAUTIFUL LOSERS: CONTEMPORARY ART AND STREET CULTURE

While the Contemporary Arts Center’s most famous exhibition remains 1990’s Robert Mapplethorpe retrospective The Perfect Moment, its most influential one may eventually turn out to be 2004’s Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture, which was curated by the CAC, San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Christian Strike and Aaron Rose of Iconoclast.

That show, which has had an international impact, ushered in street artists to the world of museums, and the CAC has never looked back. In 2010, it featured a retrospective of Shepard Fairey’s poster work — at the time, he was hot for his Barack Obama “Hope” poster. In 2011, it co-curated Keith Haring: 1978-82. Perhaps most importantly, in 2013 it held the first solo museum show for French street photographer JR, who has gone on to ever-higher levels of public acclaim for his worldwide efforts to commemorate everyday people via giant photographic posters in public spaces. In 2017-’18, it featured Swoon in an exhibit, and February 2020 brings in the work of Portuguese street artist Vhils, who removes surface layers of urban walls to create textured portraits.

CINCINNATI ENTERTAINMENT AWARDS FOR THEATER

CityBeat helped to elevate awareness of Cincinnati’s theater scene with a 14-year run

of recognition (1997-2010) via the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards. Initially presented in tandem with the CEAs for music (which just had its 22nd event), the theater CEAs continued until the program merged with the Acclaims, which was launched by The Cincinnati Enquirer in 2004. The CEAs started with 13 categories in 1997 and eventually expanded to 27 in the final year. Typically, four candidates were named; some awards were decided popularly by online voting, others only by the panel of critics who saw a broad array of shows and could assess relative quality. The awards recognized many outstanding productions including those at Playhouse in the Park (like its 2005 revival of Sondheim’s Company, which went on to win the 2007 Tony Award on Broadway); Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati; Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, the short-lived New Stage Collective; and community theaters including Falcon Theatre, Cincinnati Music Theatre, Showbiz Players and Footlighters.

Alternative productions were added as a category in 2005, often singling out Cincinnati Fringe Festival shows. Sadly, the joint program ran aground during the 2010-2011 season. And while it’s unfortunate there’s no longer a theater awards program in Cincinnati, our local companies continue to mount excellent productions.

DAUBIGNY, MONET, VAN GOGH: IMPRESSIONS OF LANDSCAPE

Lynne Abrosini, the Taft Museum of Art’s chief curator, spent some 14 years researching and organizing her 2016 exhibition Daubigny, Monet, Van Gogh: Impressions of Landscape, and the result was worth her sizable investment of time. Building on the fact that the museum’s founders, Charles and Anna Taft, collected works by a relatively conventional 19th-century French landscape painter, Charles-François Daubigny, the exhibit brought together paintings by him with those of such Impressionists and Post-Impressionists as Monet, Pissarro and van Gogh to show how the overlooked Daubigny was an influence upon and ally of them. Ambrosini got loans from such museums as the Scottish National Gallery and Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, and also featured some 40 works

by Daubigny. Charles and Anna Taft would have been proud, even if they declined to collect Impressionism in their lifetime.

FILM CINCINNATI

For over three decades, Film Cincinnati has brought a wealth of film production teams to our city — especially in the last decade.

Incorporated as a nonprofit in 1991, the office has been responsible for bringing Oscar-winning and -nominated movies like Rain Man, Traffic, The Ides of March, Carol and Seabiscuit to shoot at least a few scenes in the Queen City. Others include My Days of Mercy, Miles Ahead, The Fits, GOAT and the Robert Redford-starring The Old Man & the Gun. Cincy was the backdrop of 2017’s nightmarish Killing of a Sacred Deer, too, which filmed at the Christ

BABY BE AT Are there many humans who would not exist if there were never a CityBeat? I know of at least one.

Many of the best things in my life have come as a result of me working at CityBeat, including the very best thing — my daughter, Nico. About a year after the paper started, CityBeat hired a recent Miami University grad name Amy Firis, who became the paper’s lit section and calendar editor. During a journalism conference near Chicago, sparks flew, a relationship blossomed and a few years later, long after Amy had departed CityBeat for the more lucrative world of public education, we welcomed Nico Breen into our worlds.

She is — go figure — a really good writer.

As if to hammer the connection home even more — Nico was born exactly one day after CityBeat’s founding editor John Fox’s son Jack was born… in the same hospital. She's also at the CityBeat offices for a couple of hours after school every week, waiting for dad to take her home. If CityBeat needed a mascot, I'd nominate Nico (and then she'd murder me in my sleep).

— Mike Breen, CityBeat Managing and Music Editor

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Visionaries + Voices, a nonprofit that works with artists with disabilities, celebrated its sweet 16 this year. Since its founding in 2003, V+V has spearheaded myriad programs, classes and exhibitions related to its practice through its studio spaces in Northside and Springdale. In 2011, it ushered in a Teaching Artists Program, which has graduated 27 art teachers who now instruct classes throughout Cincinnati’s public and private schools. And in 2017 it opened The Visionarium in Oakley: a storefront that was intended to expand V+V artists’ professional opportunities, be it by teaching or selling their art/merchandise. Though beloved, The Visionarium closed its doors in August 2019.

Its spirit will live on through the work of the artists and staff who were able to craft a space for creativity and community outreach

during its brief stay in Oakley and work can still be bought online and at the nonprofit’s Northside gallery.

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Hospital as well as Hyde Park and Northside. And Zac Efron, as serial killer Ted Bundy in Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, took Northern Kentucky by storm for the flick in early 2018. Most recently, Carol director Todd Haynes returned to Cincinnati to film the just-released Dark Waters, a harrowing docudrama starring Mark Ruffalo and based on the real-life work of local lawyer Rob Bilott, who took on chemical company DuPont.

Lynn Meyers was hired by ETC to take on the sad task of shutting down the struggling company on Vine Street. Instead, she brought energy, passion and an emphasis on staging premieres. CityBeat was a proponent for growth and revitalization of historic Over-the-Rhine, a cause that Meyers was all for. Telling audiences about ETC’s productions helped the theater grow and attracted more people to the neighborhood.

PUBLICO

People’s Liberty launched in 2014, setting out to invest in the next generation of leadership in Cincinnati by awarding grants to individuals with ideas, not to organizations.

The five-year effort came to a close in 2019, but its lasting impact will likely continue to be felt for years to come. As an arm of the Carol Ann & Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation, it funded a diverse array of projects, from The Mini Microcinema, an experimental cinematheque, to pop-up Turkish coffeehouse Rüya and the Play Library, which still lends toys and games to members at its Over-the-Rhine storefront at 1306 Main St. As it exits, the philanthropic lab has ushered in two new like-minded organizations: In Our Backyards and the Urban Consulte.

Publico — an “alternative space” in Overthe-Rhine — was manifested by brothers Matt and Paul Coors and their friend Dan Reddinger in a renovated loft apartment on Clay Street on Jan. 31, 2003. And over the course of five years, Publico staged some of the most compelling programming in the region, with 10 exhibitions a year and plenty of parties, musical performances and events sprinkled in between. Initially sourcing from the Art Academy of Cincinnati and the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, in 2004 they expanded to artists from outside the city with Good World, a show that ran concurrently with the CAC’s nationally lauded Beautiful Losers street art exhibit.

On the cusp of Publico’s closing in 2008, Matt Distel wrote in CityBeat, “The gallery produced superb exhibitions, tough and uncompromised. It organized music and poetry events that rivaled any arts organization in the Midwest, regardless of size.

It did all of this on something less than a shoestring budget.”

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THE ART ACADEMY OF CINCINNATI TURNS 150

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The Art Academy of Cincinnati is currently in the midst of its sesquicentennial, having released a book in 2018 chronicling its 150-year history — from its origins as the McMicken School of Design and Drawing in 1869 to merging with the University of Cincinnati in 1871 and its departure in 1887, in which it crystallized as the AAC and resided within the Cincinnati Art Museum. It wasn’t until 2005 that the academy moved to its current space at 1212 Jackson St. in Overthe-Rhine. Former CityBeat Arts & Culture editor Steven Rosen interviewed Kim Krause, a now-retired faculty member who was the school’s fine arts chair from 19972012 and academic dean from 2013-2018, in a cover story about AAC’s 150th celebration and Krause said, “The first few years were iffy; we had some staff who refused to move downtown with us. We also knew we had to change our mission. We wanted to be a much edgier kind of school. …We had to get people convinced (the move) was a really good idea. In hindsight, a lot has happened since in that neighborhood. Our presence was a catalyst that told people, ‘It’s going to be OK.’”

ENSEMBLE THEATRE CINCINNATI

Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, around since 1988, was having problems attracting audiences in the early to mid ’90s. By 1996, D.

PEOPLE’S LIBERTY

FOTOFOCUS BIENNIAL

Founded in 2010, the FotoFocus Biennial has since celebrated lens-based art and works from more artists than can possibly be mentioned. The 2018 iteration saw over 90 exhibits and events unfold at spaces across Greater Cincinnati, Dayton and even as far as Columbus. Big names included Berenice Abbott, Eugène Atget and British artist and Turner Prize winner Gillian Wearing. Other programming includes a symposium, lecture and visiting artist series.

It will be back in 2020.

GLOBAL TREE PROJECT: HANGING GARDEN

Of Shinji Turner-Yamamoto’s Global Tree Project: Hanging Garden — a 2010 installation at Mount Adams’ old Holy Cross Church — CityBeat’s Steven Rosen wrote that it was the “best public-art project” he had seen since moving back to Cincinnati in 2007. He went on to write that it was so “contemplatively beautiful it should be permanent.” Unfortunately, since one of the two suspended trees was alive and needed care/ watering, that wasn’t sustainable. A related exhibition, Disappearances, ran through 2011 at the Contemporary Arts Center.

FAR FLUNG

In a similar vein to Turner-Yamaoto’s work is Far Flung, a large-scale, outdoor sculpture on the grounds of the historic Taft Museum of Art — and it is pretty, pretty cool. Sculptor Patrick Dougherty and volunteers manipulated and twisted more than six tons of willow tree saplings into whirling shapes that call to mind hobbit homes, a fairy garden or a Dr. Seuss-style dream manifestation. The best part? Visitors can touch and walk through it.

First installed in April 2018, the creation was made to last 18 to 20 months — so you still

have a chance to experience its whimsy.

SUMMERMUSIK

Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra first introduced its popular multi-week Summermusik festival in 2015, featuring fresh programming in unique settings. Originally designed as a way to fill the gap between the end of the Cincinnati Opera’s season and the start of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s, the fest features traditional concert fare alongside more low-key variations; “chamber crawls,” for example, feature small ensembles in local bars. Concerts often sell-out and the festival has managed to remain relevant since its inception.

OPERA FUSION: NEW WORKS

Opera Fusion: New Works was founded in 2011 as a collaborative effort between the Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music with the goal of championing new American operas. The collab has found success not only locally, but on a national scale. In 2016, Fellow Travelers was named one of that year’s top Classical music events by The New York Times. Based on Thomas Mallon’s 2007 novel set in Washington D.C. during the “lavender scare” of the 1950s, it centers on a love affair between two men working for the federal government. It was an undeniable success for the still-burgeoning initiative — Fellow Travelers was, at the time, only the second Opera Fusion premiered by CO. This year’s Blind Injustice was also a hit. In fact, CityBeat’s Anne Arenstein called the production a “masterpiece.” Based on University of Cincinnati law professor and Ohio Innocence Project co-founder Mark Godsey’s 2017 book Blind Injustice: A Former Prosecutor Exposes the Psychology and Politics of Wrongful Incarceration, the opera unravels corruption in the criminal justice system through the reallife stories of those who have been wrongfully convicted. Powerful and impacting, Opera Fusion’s offerings point to a focus on important social issues. Here’s to more.

WAVE POOL AND THE RISE OF CAMP WASHINGTON AS AN ARTS HUB

In 2014, Wave Pool, the community-driven, artist-led experimental art gallery, was one of the first generation of new artistic outposts to stake a claim in Camp Washington. Situated in a repurposed firehouse, Wave Pool has become a burgeoning force for change and action in the small community. It also acts as a haven for artists-inresidence (via its Art Space Is Your Space program) and niche exhibitions. In 2017, Wave Pool — alongside immigrant and refugee resource group Heartfelt Tidbits — launched social enterprise the Welcome Project. Part workshop, part retail space and part cozy hangout, the Welcome Project began as a way to empower Cincinnati’s “newest neighbors” and provide a support system for recent refugees and immigrants to Cincinnati.

HE ARTBE ATS

— Richard Cooke and Martin Wagner, co-founders of Tea Dance Cincinnati

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Almost 23 years ago we went on our first date. This was before the internet was widely available and there were certainly no social media dating apps.

I was exiting a relationship and decided to try my luck on one of the dating phone lines published at the back of CityBeat. I nervously recorded my message — it was a voicemail system. Anyone that was interested could respond to my recorded message and leave me a voicemail with contact information.

When I heard Marty’s message, I was so intrigued. I felt I had to speak to him and plucked up the courage to call him on his home phone. (Cell phones were not widely available either in those days.) We talked several times at length on the phone and decided to meet on Jan. 9, 1997.

I remember it was very cold and it had snowed a lot. We decided to meet inside Tri-County Mall outside Ruby Tuesday’s. When our eyes met, it was love at first sight. It was hard to get the words out as my heart was fluttering and I could hardly breathe.

We had agreed to have lunch but just chatted intensely for the whole time and didn’t eat a thing. Our stomachs were in knots with excitement and in anticipation of our next meeting.

Two weeks later we moved in together as a result of me fully exiting the relationship I was in. We’ve been together ever since and often tell our story to anyone who is inquisitive about how CityBeat brought us together. Last year we finally married and we look forward to many more fun, happy and healthy years ahead with our families and friends.

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iting about that are still worth wr ts an ur sta re ti na in nc 25 Ci

he local food scene has been a cornerstone of CityBeat coverage since the beginning, albeit originally in slightly more obtuse ways — like we used to discuss the merits of baguettes versus rye and listed restaurant health code violations (a gross but informative early column). It wasn’t until later in 1995 that dining writer Polly Campbell — yes, The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Campbell did a stint as a CityBeat contributor — started regularly featuring and reviewing local restaurants. In that time, we’ve seen many establishments come and go — some good, some really good and some, honestly, kind of bad — and eaten at/written about most of them. Turns out, we’re pretty hungry and pretty opinionated. But in that constant ebb and flow of mastication, digestion and composition, there have been restaurants that have stood the test of time, including these favorite Queen City mainstays.

BY MAIJA ZUMMO AND CITYBEAT STAFF MECKLENBURG GARDENS

CityBeat contributor Felix Winternitz nicely summed up Mecklenburg Gardens’ status in local lore in a 1996 story: “Opened more than a century ago as a German biergarten, it evolved into a horse-gambling den, a source of illegal booze during Prohibition, a pizza joint, a billiard hall, a Mobil four-star restaurant and today a casual dining spot.

Throw in some fires, at least one police shooting, plus the abductions and deprogrammings during the days it was owned by an ashram, and you’ve got the stuff of legend.” Mecklenburg’s also once served as a town hall for an imaginary German village — “Kloppenburg” — to help immigrants learn about American politics. And as much as the restaurant introduced Germans to American culture, today the beloved institution is a place to reconnect with Cincinnati’s Germanic roots. The grape-vine-laden arbors surround one of best biergartens in America (rated No. 1 by Travel + Leisure magazine in 2011). And while they do have a modern slant to some menu items, Mecklenburg’s excels at serving the best of the wurst: bratwurst, mettwurst and goettawurst on sauerkraut; wiener schnitzel; goulash; sauerbraten; spaetzle; soft pretzels with Düsseldorf mustard… all washed down with a hefeweizen or kölsch which, yes, you can get in a 1-liter glass boot. 302 E. University Ave., Corryville, mecklenburgs.com.

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MAURY’S TINY COVE

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Maury’s Tiny Cove has been packed full of flavor and West Side tradition since 1949.

The dimly lit supper-club vibe backdrops an extensive menu consisting of all the classic steakhouse options: tender, juicy filets, seafood and chicken cooked just right, plus pasta, Atomic Age sides (shredded lettuce salads; a complimentary ramekin of pickles on every table) and a perfect martini. And in 1995, writer Steve Ramos paid tribute to this comforting stalwart, comparing the diner to Shangri-La with a baked potato on the side: “Maury’s is a culinary temple to permanence. Dining fads come and go, health trends constantly change. But Maury’s stays the same: red meat, baked potatoes, salads.

We’re not talking about some retro diner a la Johnny Rockets that tries to recreate an oldfashioned eatery with a ’90s twist. This is the real thing.” And you can’t forget Maury’s

iconic sign, featuring a kitschy cartoon steer holding a martini. The restaurant is still a staple and was immortalized on screen in the Oscar-nominated, Cincinnati-filmed movie Carol. 3908 Harrison Ave., Cheviot, maurys-steakhouse.com.

AMBAR INDIA

In January 1995, Campbell wrote about the recently opened Ambar India in Clifton’s Gaslight District via a guide on Indian cuisine that lists the ingredients of different dishes as well as a pronunciation key (“Korma: KOOR-ma”). Ambar, noted for its “large dining room” and big takeout business (and then-$5 lunch specials; RIP), still serves owner Jagdev Singh’s ’90s recommendation of chili chicken, made with sliced green chili peppers. Ambar, truly one of the best places for Indian in the city, does indeed do a huge takeout business and almost always wins CityBeat’s Best Of Cincinnati reader pick for Best Indian.

350 Ludlow Ave., Clifton, searchable on Facebook.

BRONTË BISTRO

took about a 14-month hiatus to rebuild after a devastating kitchen fire in 2015, but they are back and better than ever, serving breakfast, brunch and lunch to locals and suburbanites who love not only the anything-goes urban hospitality but also the basic comfort food and all-day breakfast standards.” And one of the many great things that has separated Tucker’s from a typical greasy spoon diner is their use of local and Findlay Market-sourced ingredients, as well as their surprisingly vast vegetarian options. 1637 Vine St., Over-theRhine, facebook.com/tuckersrestaurantotr.

In the very first issue of CityBeat, Campbell examined the trend of bookstore cafés (how times have changed), mentioning the long-gone Kaldi’s Coffee House & Bookstore, Barnes & Noble in Kenwood, Sug ar n’ Sp ice Borders Books & Music in Springdale // Pho to: Ha iley Bo llin ge r and also Joseph-Beth’s still thriving Brontë Bistro. Of Brontë — then the Joseph-Beth SUGAR N’ SPICE Café — she wrote “the menu is filled with Back in 2016, we chatted with then-owner of quite delicious items,” none of which are still Paddock Hills cult favorite eatery Sugar n’ available, unfortunately. But, to relive some Spice about the restaurant’s 75th anniprice nostalgia, the Indonesian egg salad versary. Opened in 1941 by Mort Keller sandwich cost $3.95 in November 1994.

— using a “wispy thin” pancake recipe Today, a chicken salad sammie from Brontë he bought from an eatery during a trip to will set you back $10. Wash down the inflaCalifornia — Steve Frankel took over the tion with a themed author cocktail, like the restaurant from a friend in 2010. In that F. Scott Fitzgerald gin rickey. 2692 Madison interview, Frankel said, “It’s been here for Road, Rookwood, josephbeth.com. so long at this point, everyone has a story here. …We aren’t considered an ‘East Side’ TUCKER’S or ‘West Side’ establishment. We are just In our first Best Of Cincinnati issue in 1997, a Cincinnati establishment.” Now, almost Tucker’s got a staff pick for the Best Five-neight decades in, it remains one of the city’s Dime Lunch Counter. They got a staff pick most popular places for people of all ages again last year for Best OTR Diner with Grit: and socioeconomic backgrounds to grab “Tucker’s Restaurant has been an Overbreakfast. Earlier this year, Adam Mayerson the-Rhine mainstay for decades. Operated — the sixth owner — bought Sugar n’ Spice

by Joe Tucker and his wife Carla (Joe’s from Frankel and has little plans to change parents opened the diner), the restaurant

the original location. But a second Sugar n’ Spice in the former Joe’s Diner in Over-theRhine is in the works (hopefully with more seating and the same rubber ducky toys to go). 4381 Reading Road, Paddock Hills, eatsugarnspice.com.

THE COMET

In our Dining Guide from 1996 — “Cincinnati’s Restaurant Scene: Uncovered,” which did indeed have two naked people eating on the front — we listed “eight urban restaurants” defining the city’s emerging “exciting dining spots.” The Comet was one of them.

The blurb reads, “Housed in a former bar and grocery store and 1970s pizza parlor, (The Comet) offers burrito-centered fare and a bar/pool hall conveniently fashioned after the 1963 Mercury Comet automobile.” With the belief that burritos are the “cornerstone that every city should have,” owner Dave Cunningham (and his then partner) made a menu of burritos modeled after those found at famous joints like El Toro in San Francisco. In a review that year, Campbell wrote: “I love the basic Comet burrito, with creamy pintos and melting Monterey Jack cheese, rice and lots of good medium salsa. Very garlicky.” And bless her if it isn’t still true. With a kitchen open nightly until 1 a.m., The Comet is still the place for jukebox-listening, pool-playing, scooter-riding burrito eaters to convene with a slew of potent and delicious salsas whose garlicky notes will be oozing out of your pores and coating your taste buds for days after dining. 4579 Hamilton Ave., Northside, thecometbar.com.

NICOLA’S

Italian darling Nicola’s opened in a renovated car barn in Over-the-Rhine two decades ago, with Nicola “Nick” Pietoso at the helm. (Pietoso immigrated from Italy in 1991.) We revisited the spot last year when executive chef Jack Hemmer returned to the kitchen after stints in other eateries.

Dining critic Pama Mitchell wrote that Nick

and his wife, Maureen, were true pioneers in the OTR renaissance and Nick “has to be one of the kindest, most personable restaurant owners in this city.” “Patrons will be delighted by the lovely main dining room the Pietosos have created on Sycamore Street, greeting diners with a beautiful interior where everything your eye rests on makes you feel indulged.” Hemmer made some updates to the menu but kept fanfavorite dishes, including the tagliatelle with bolognese and four-cheese gnocchi. That tagliatelle goes discounted on Mondays during Bolo Night (a full serving with a house salad for $15). But opting for a $1.99 bread basket is a must: “The quality and variety of the focaccia, sliced Italian bread and crunchy breadsticks is well worth the small charge,” writes Mitchell. It’s a cult favorite and worth every carb. 1420 Sycamore St., Over-the-Rhine, nicolasotr.com.

THE BONBONERIE

Thirty-six years ago, Mary Pat Pace and Sharon Butler opened The BonBonerie, crafting delicious and stunning pastries, including their famous Opera Cream Torte.

Next to the bakery is a tearoom — like a real deal, English-style tearoom — which in 1996, Campbell called “one of the nicest places in Cincinnati, full of flowers, ceramics, art, assorted tables and chairs and, of course, nice smells and the friendly clinking of china.” Afternoon tea is still served (with at least 24-hours’ notice) and features a menu of 15 specialty teas and a three-tiered stand of goodies, from finger sandwiches and macarons to freshly made clotted cream. Perfect for a special occasion or when you want to feel like the Queen — or at least Duchess Meghan. 2030 Madison Road, O’Bryonville, bonbonerie.com.

colorfully schizophrenic tiled dining room wall of Scotti’s, are you really a Cincinnatian? Run by multiple generations of the DiMarco and Scoleri families for more than a century, dining here is a real experience.

The red-and-white checkered tablecloths, lit by dripping candles in old Chianti bottles, offer a bizarre portal into another time and place, filled with veal and pasta and the voice of early 1900s baritone Antonio Scotti (the restaurant’s namesake). Even in 1996, we loved this odd, historic gem for its singular ability to stand still while the world turned. “Scotti’s remains steadfastly anachronistic, evoking an old-fashioned view of Italy: Sicily, red sauce, opera singers. The cottage exterior is charmingly continental; inside, the narrow dining room was decorated by some kind of berserk tilesetter — the effect is halfway between the Watts Tower and your grandmother’s bathroom.

Opera music plays, and the ancient cash register takes an amazing amount of banging and ringing to complete a sale. It’s all rather weird and wonderful and it’s impossible not to have a fondness for the place.”

Grazie mille. 919 Vine St., Downtown, scottiscincinnati.com.

If you haven’t taken a selfie against the

In January 1996, Campbell ate dinner at Allyn’s Café with musician Duran from ’90s Cincy Funk band SHAG. With a casual fusion menu of Cajun and Mexican eats (it actually won Best Mexican in the 1997 Best Of Cincinnati), she called it “beer food rather than wine food” and “dress-as-youare unpretentious…run by real people, not a marketing plan.” Allyn’s hasn’t changed much at all since its inception in 1991. It’s still a place for lots of live music, a real boozy Hurricane and your choice of eats, ranging from a fried shrimp po’ boy and etouffee to burgers, beans and quesadillas — even vegan ones. A perfect joint for those who want blackened alligator for dinner and vegan cheesecake for dessert. 3538 Columbia Parkway, Columbia Tusculum, allynscafe.com.

ow Pa ig e De gl // Ph ot o:

BOCA

Original co-owners and chefs Dan Reis and Cathy Armstrong-Reis opened this “urbane” eatery on Hamilton Avenue in Northside with moderately priced seasonal dishes and vegetarian options. Later, current Boca owner and chef David Falk bought the restaurant, eventually relocating it to Oakley.

Of that space, we wrote in 2005: “With some of the most dramatic food in the city coming out of chef David Falk’s kitchen, a table in Boca’s handsome main dining room is the hottest ticket in town to score. If you do, expect to hear the expressive moans of well-dressed, high-rolling food and wine connoisseurs extolling the virtues of Falk’s signature dish of sea scallops with caramelized Brussels sprouts in brown butter truffle vinaigrette.” Closing some kind of cosmic, high-end culinary loop, Falk made more moves when he decided to take over and renovate the former five-star Maisonette

In 1998, we ran a cover story on Camp Washington Chili asking whether progress could spell demise for the chili parlor. Nope. Opened in a former Kroger in 1940 by current owner Johnny Johnson’s uncle (Johnson, a Greek immigrant, started working there in 1951), the original Camp Washington Chili had to relocate next door during a road-widening project on Hopple Street. The new building, modeled after a 1950s-style diner and featuring the same iconic “chili” sign from the 1960s, carries on Camp Washington Chili’s 75-year legacy. Still helmed by Johnson and his family, the 24/6 diner is a James Beard Award winner, has been featured in a ton of national media and includes a menu of greasy-spoon breakfast offerings, double decker sandwiches, Cincinnati-style chili, coneys and even a few salads. “Chili is his passion, his first love,” Johnson’s wife Antigone said in the CityBeat story. “Everything else come(s) second. He’ll never retire.” It’s that devotion, plus the dependable sense of familiarity, family and neighborhood — and maybe a dash of that secret-recipe chili — that makes this parlor so iconic. 3005 Colerain Ave., Camp Washington, campwashingtonchili.com.

ME E T THE BAND In the past decade, the rise of social media — Facebook, in particular — and dating sites/apps killed off personal and classified ads, which had the added effect of killing a vital revenue stream for newspapers.

The loss of such ads in CityBeat also provided a hit to local musicians in a way that probably wasn’t obvious to most. The “Musicians Exchange” section of the paper and website was quite active in our earlier years, giving local players an outlet to find gear, gigs and, most importantly, each other.

It’s probably a lot easier these days to find a band to play with — just join a Facebook group or send a quick direct message to a friend of a friend who knows someone looking for someone.

But once upon a time, such connections involved a little more legwork, be it hanging up one of those flyers in the local record store (the ones with the fringe of tear-away tabs with contact info) or contacting CityBeat’s ad sales department.

In the ’90s and ’00s, there was a common thread in CityBeat’s stories about local bands. It seemed like every other group we profiled had formed by way of our “musician’s wanted” classifieds.

Among the fruitful connections made was the Black Veil Brides. In 2006, an ambitious West Side kid named Andy Biersack used one of the ads to find musicians to fill out what became BVB. Biersack then moved the project to L.A., where they turned into international Hard Rock sensations.

— Mike Breen, Cit yBeat Managing and Music Editor

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SCOTTI’S

ALLYN’S CAFÉ

CAMP WASHINGTON CHILI

KNOTTY PINE ON THE BAYOU

A Cajun classic, our 2005 cover story “Where to Eat” listed dining destinaBo ca tions to impress a date, dine alone, see and be seen, etc., with Knotty Pine on the Bayou listed as a place to go when you “want to feel like you’re some place other than Cincinnati.” “From the slanted floors and the pastoral view of the Licking River to the ‘gator stew and gumbo, we swear — if we squint just so — that we’re actually in swampy, Cajun low country. This laid-back roadside inn attracts a share of local residents, but on weekends (or Thursday nights for crawfish boils) you’ll run into swells of foodies lookin’ to get their Creole on.” The family-owned and -operated spot is also celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and while they don’t do crawfish boils every Thursday anymore, you can still get the little red crustaceans on Tuesdays during crawfish season. 6302 Licking Pike, Cold Spring, theknottypineonthebayou.com.

building and its downstairs La Normandie bistro on Sixth Street downtown. Boca and lower-level trattoria Sotto opened in 2013 and are still some of the city’s best places to see and be seen. Last year, both eateries made OpenTable’s list of the 100 best restaurants in America. And you can still get Falk’s famous scallops and Brussels sprouts — and a side of revisited Maisonette favorite, the pommes soufflées “1949.”

114 E. Sixth St., Downtown, bocacincinati. com.

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FINDLAY MARKET

We devoted an entire cover to Findlay Market in 1996, with a photo essay and a written essay waxing poetic about the gestalt of the place — its ties to history, its rows of pigs feet, its butchers, its bakers and its never-failing ability to offer the emotional pull that other grocery outings just can’t.

Ohio’s oldest public market was this year named one of the top 10 food markets in the world by Newsweek and the “epicenter of Cincinnati’s culinary revival” by Travel + Leisure. Constantly changing — and now seemingly ever-expanding — the market has undergone a renaissance of sorts with nearby storefronts transforming into high-end and cult-favorite eateries, some by the city’s most well-known chefs, including Jean-Robert de Cavel and Jose Salazar.

And all without changing its prime purpose of providing affordable food with a side of history (and goetta). 1801 Race St., Overthe-Rhine, findlaymarket.org.

at a booth or a seat at one of the shared family-style tables. 1036 Delta Ave., Mount Lookout, zipscafe.com

ARNOLD’S BAR & GRILL

Open since 1861, Arnold’s is the oldest continuously running tavern in town, complete with dark wood walls, vintage memorabilia and a big ol’ bathtub rumored to have been used to make gin during Prohibition. A Cincinnati classic, it serves up a nice range of lunch and dinner options — pasta, sandwiches and burgers, plus vegan and gluten-free options — at bargain prices, a concept instituted in the 1970s by then-owner Jim Tarbell. Enjoy a local draft in the outdoor courtyard, once used as a stable and carriage house, and almost daily live music. It was named one of the best bars in America by Esquire magazine and current executive chef, Kayla Robison, recently competed on Food Network’s Guy’s Grocery Games. 210 E. Eighth St., Downtown, arnoldsbarandgrill.com.

menu since 1977, Oriental Wok serves upscale, fresh and chef-prepared cuisine that’s never boring — from five-spice tofu over stir-fried greens to sea bass with black bean and garlic sauce and Chinatown chop suey. Overseen by generations of the Wong family, CityBeat staff rightly gave the restaurant the nod for the Best Place to Feel Like Family in our 2011 Best Of Cincinnati issue: “Oriental Wok in Fort Mitchell is freaking fantastic. We don’t know if it’s the delicious food, the 1980s staircase in the dining room or that owner Mike Wong will sit at your table and, with beer in hand, demand that he whip you up something special.” The recessed koi ponds, golden railings, Chinese décor and outfitted hostesses are all slightly reminiscent of Club Obi Wan from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which makes dinner here a transportive and slightly theatrical experience. The service is impeccable and you can’t help but fall in love with the Wongs, some of whom recently appeared on Food Network’s Family Restaurant Rivals. (Their Chinese New Year party is also a blast.) 317 Buttermilk Pike, Fort Mitchell, orientalwok. com.

CACTUS PEAR

This Clifton “Southwestern bistro” has been slinging Tex-Mex dishes since 1992. In 2010, it was honored with a CityBeat staff pick for Best Reason to Avoid a Diet: “Cactus Pear’s Cheese Enchiladas are definitely on our ‘What would you eat for your last meal?’ list. A plate of gooey cheeses and a margarita (or four) — we can die in peace.”

The building’s cactus-green façade is an ingrained part of Jefferson Avenue and its plethora of colorful margaritas — in flavors ranging from blood orange and chipotle to strawberry and “x-rated” — are frequent winners in our Best Of Cincinnati reader picks as well. 3215 Jefferson Ave., Clifton, cactuspearcincy.com.

BLUE JAY RESTAURANT Hai ley Boll inge r Zip ’s Caf e // Pho to:

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Open since 1926, Zip’s Cafe is an East Side institution and perennial Best Of Cincinnati staff and reader pick winner. The cafe’s claim to fame — besides the little toy train that runs along the ceiling — is having some of the best burgers in town: fresh, flamebroiled Avril-Bleh beef patties (sourced locally every day), served on a honey-egg bun. The fan-favorite Girth burger — named by former Bengal punter Pat McInally — features a classic Zip burger topped with a split, grilled Avril-Bleh mettwurst. With worn wood flooring and dark wood paneling, the small space is separated into a dining area and a bar by a saloon-style door. Zip’s owner Mike Burke says that years ago, the bar area or “code room” was where customers placed illegal bets on horse races.

Today, head to the code room to grab a local beer on draft while you wait for space

PELICAN’S REEF

For more than 25 years, the laid-back island oasis Pelican’s Reef has been serving up super fresh seafood in Anderson. Now, if you aren’t from Cincinnati’s very inland East Side, you’ve probably never heard of the Buffett-esque Reef. But rest assured the fish, prepared by chef John Broshar (a former regular who bought the restaurant with his wife in 2012), is worth the drive. In our first Best Of Cincinnati, it won a staff pick for Best Fish Filet Sandwich. Rotating seasonal seafood specials come in daily from places like Hawaii, Alaska, Florida and Maryland. And there are plenty of choices for diners who don’t want fried foods, like seafood stew, grilled mahi mahi and nine different Caesar salads topped with various sea creatures. 7261 Beechmont Ave., Anderson, thepelicansreef.com.

ORIENTAL WOK

Transcending the typical Chinese American

In 2017, Northside’s Blue Jay celebrated its 50th anniversary. Of that anniversary, dining contributor Lauren Moretto wrote, “Near the corner of Hamilton Avenue and Medill Alley in Northside sits a piece of the American dream. Since its opening in 1967, the Blue Jay Restaurant has, for the most part, remained the same, boasting a nostalgic image and homestyle eats that keep regulars coming back and draws others in to experience the food for the first time.”

Opened by Greek immigrants and still family owned, the diner boasts forest-green vinyl and vintage Formica and serves Cincinnatistyle chili in bowls, on coneys and 3-ways, plus classics like all-day breakfast, double decker sandwiches and homemade pie. Its vintage appearance has also drawn the eye of Hollywood and the Blue Jay was featured in locally filmed movies including The Old Man & the Gun and The Killing of a Sacred Deer. 4154 Hamilton Ave., Northside, searchable on Facebook.

FRED & GARI’S

For more than 30 years, Fred & Gari’s has been a bustling favorite of the downtown

lunch crowd, with its ’80s-throwback neon sign, house-roasted meats, pizza and homemade dessert — the fresh cookies are to-die for and have been a staff favorite since we gave them a Best Of Cincinnati pick in 1999 (and if it’s your first visit, you may get a free one). The deli also specializes in a damn-good soup-and-sandwich combo and the egg salad is a nostalgic throwback, full of mayonnaise-y goodness and topped with lettuce, tomato and onion.

While you wait for your sandwich to arrive in its Styrofoam container, enjoy the lighthearted banter between Fred, Gari and the slew of regulars. 629 Vine St., Downtown, facebook.com/fredgaris.

SKYLINE CHILI & GRAETER’S

These two Cincinnati institutions have won the Best Of Cincinnati reader pick for Best Chili and Best Ice Cream every single year.

Multiple locations, skylinechili.com, graeters. com.

DEE FELICE CAFÉ

Opened by Jazz drummer Dee Felice in 1984, this MainStrasse mainstay blends live music and Cajun flavor. In 1997, we wrote: “Entering the bistro you feel as if you’ve walked through some magic wall and into New Orleans’ French Quarter. You immediately encounter the smell of cayenne, Tabasco, crawfish and booze, and, if you concentrate enough, you can imagine a whispered ‘Throw us some beads!’ from the patrons.” The menu features all the classics — blackened catfish, jambalaya (with handmade andouille), po’ boys and an etouffee with a sauce so good they sell it by the jar — plus an iconic boll de neige dessert: basically a ball of chocolate cake and melted chocolate infused with rum, chilled and covered in whipped cream. 529 Main St., Covington, deefelicecafe.com.

POMPILIO’S

Open since 1933, Pompilio’s is locally beloved for its family-friendly Italian fare and appearance in several motion pictures, including that toothpick scene in Rain Man and ’90s Rollerblading film Airborne (actor Shane McDermott who played relocated surfer Mitchell Goosen alongside the likes of Jack Black and Seth Green said Pompilio’s stands out as one of his favorite places in the city). Founder Colonel Pompilio was also the first to secure a liquor license in Kentucky after Prohibition ended, so they have a surprisingly extensive bourbon list.

The menu is classic red-sauce Italian with dishes like homemade lasagna, manicotti and ravioli topped with Pompilio-family recipe sauces and served with a literal loaf of sliced white bread. The Pomp Salad (with homemade ranch dressing) and the killer cannoli are a must. The food is as casual and comforting as the surroundings, with a Sunday family dinner-vibe and a bonus bocce court. 600 Washington Ave., Newport, pompilios.com.

s We RIP: 25 Restaurant st Have Loved and Lo

The Maisonette and La Normandie Pho Paris — See also: JRo’s Greenup Café, Lavomatic, Pigall’s, Chalk Food + Wine Slim’s Arboreta Daveed’s at 934 The Rookwood La Petite France Barresi’s Italian Restaurant Mesh Myra’s Dionysus Honey Bella Luna Virgil’s Cafe The Celestial Mayberry Maribelle’s food+drink Nectar Mount Adams Fish House Mullane’s Parkside Café

Pomodori’s Pizza Take the Cake Paula’s Café Cumin Funky’s in the Kenwood Towne Centre

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Shadeau Breads

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tur y, y’all

r-cen wild quar te a n e e b ’s It

BY NICK SWARTSELL

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or a midsized city in what some folks derisively call “flyover country,” Cincinnati has seen more than its fair share of major news stories over the past quarter-century. This isn’t an exhaustive list — each Cincinnatian has their own ideas about what is and isn’t huge news — but these are some of the major events CityBeat has reported on (or watched unfold while making snarky comments about) since our first issue*. *In no particular order

CINCINNATI POLICE SHOOTING OF TIMOTHY THOMAS AND RESULTING CIVIL UNREST

April 7, 2001 forever changed Cincinnati.

The shooting death of unarmed black citizen Timothy Thomas in Over-the-Rhine by Cincinnati Police officer Stephen Roach and subsequent unrest here presaged incidents in Baltimore; Ferguson, Missouri; Chicago and elsewhere by more than a decade.

Since 2001, reforms like the Collaborative Agreement have been put in place and those outside the city have lauded changes undertaken here. But activists — and to some extent, data — suggest there is more work to do. Long after the protests ended, after the curfews were lifted and after buildings were rebuilt — in some cases replaced with shiny, new storefronts — the fateful shooting in a dark alley just off Republic Street has continued to have a ripple effect.

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It was about as big as local news stories get — the 1998, 18-page investigative piece in The Cincinnati Enquirer revealing that thenlocal fruit giant Chiquita Brands International, its subsidiaries and security forces were engaged in a number of environmentally and ethically questionable business practices in Central America. But as quickly as the story hit the papers, The Enquirer was retracting the piece, firing investigative reporter Michael Gallagher and eventually paying Chiquita more than $10 million in damages for the article. The issue wasn’t necessarily veracity, but methods — the company charged that Gallagher and co-writer Cameron McWhirter illegally gained access to Chiquita executives’ voicemails. Questions about Chiquita’s business practices in Central America received some validation in 2007, when the federal government fined the

company $25 million for paying and supplying arms to right-wing militia groups accused of human rights violations.

THE REPEAL OF ONE OF THE NATION’S MOST RESTRICTIVE ANTI-LGBTQ ORDINANCES

For this one, we need to go all the way back to a year before CityBeat was born. In 1993, after a campaign from conservative groups, Cincinnati voters approved a charter amendment known as Article XII, which effectively kept the city from passing laws protecting LGBTQ Cincinnatians from discrimination.

For 11 years, the city kept that amendment — one of the most restrictive in the country — helping it earn a reputation as a place hostile to the LGBTQ community. Signs that the city was changing, however, came in 2004, when voters finally repealed Article XII after a two-year campaign by those appalled by the law.

OBERGEFELL V. HODGES

Cincinnati wasn’t done changing its ways after the repeal of Article XII. As it happens, the man who lent his name to the historymaking 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case was a resident of Over-the-Rhine. James Obergefell was one of the plaintiffs challenging Ohio’s ban on same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges, the case in which the Supreme Court decisively ruled that states can’t bar same-sex couples from being wed.

GREAT AMERICAN BALL PARK/PAUL BROWN STADIUM DEAL

Ah, yes. Remember when voters in 1996 approved a half-cent sales tax to fund the construction of not one, but two new stadia on the city’s riverfront? Depending on your view of publicly financed sports facilities, building Paul Brown Stadium and Great American Ball Park may or may not have been a good idea in the first place. But then

the costs ballooned, with the price of building the two structures running up to $800 million instead of the projected $550 million.

And the long-term details of the plan have been especially generous to the Cincinnati Bengals. Those factors have caused some observers to dub it one of the worst stadium deals ever. Whether that’s true or not, it’s a decision that county taxpayers continue to pay for.

METROMOVES

Perhaps chastened by their 1996 stadia decision, or maybe because they were just bigger fans of our losing sports teams than public transit, Hamilton County voters in 2002 turned down another half-cent sales tax increase that would have partially funded a plan by the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority to greatly expand the region’s bus system and add rail transit. The game-changing proposal came with a headspinning price tag — $4.2 billion overall — though county taxpayers would have only paid for a quarter of that. Sixty-eight percent of voters said no thanks to MetroMoves, leaving the region’s transit system to greatly atrophy and indirectly setting up a new tax levy ask from SORTA you’ll see on the ballot next year.

RIVERFRONT STADIUM IMPLOSION

Thirty-two really isn’t that old. But if you’re a ballpark on Cincinnati’s riverfront, it’s apparently ancient. And when a new set of ballparks needs to go up, an old one must come down. That’s how we lost Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium in 2002, at half the age its predecessor, Crosley Field. The implosion was an epic farewell to the 52,000-seat behemoth, with rounds of explosives going off inside the structure before it disappeared into a cloud of its own dust on a cold morning in late December. Farewell, short-lived friend.

CONSTRUCTION OF GREAT AMERICAN TOWER, THE “TALLEST” BUILDING IN CINCINNATI

For 81 years, Cincinnati’s Carew Tower lorded over downtown as the city’s tallest building. But in 2011, a new queen claimed the height record by virtue of her crown.

Great American Tower at Queen City Square stands 91 feet taller than Carew, put over the top with the added boost of a decorative element architect Gyo Obata said was inspired by the late Princess Diana’s tiara.

Western & Southern Financial Group had been considering building a tower for at least two decades and ended up with a $322 million, 800,000-square-foot office building that dominates the city’s skyline. But if you’re going to call it the tallest building in the city, be prepared to argue with some dedicated Carew fans.

SAM DUBOSE SHOOTING

In a tragic 2015 echo of the series of police shootings that led to the 2001 civil unrest in Over-the-Rhine, the eyes of the nation once again turned to the Queen City when University of Cincinnati police officer Ray Tensing shot and killed an unarmed black motorist named Sam DuBose in Mount Auburn. The resulting protests mirrored those around other contemporaneous police shootings at a time when the issue drew national scrutiny. Two separate juries could not agree on a conviction for Tensing. The case was dropped when prosecutors declined to pursue murder charges a third time.

TRACIE HUNTER SAGA

The tangled, tragic and contentious story of former Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Tracie Hunter saw a coda this year when Hunter was dragged from a county courtroom to spend a portion of a six-month sentence in jail. But the saga has its roots as far back as 2010, when Hunter, a Democrat,

incinnati ca

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sued for a recount in a razor-thin election for her juvenile court seat. She prevailed but was then indicted on eight felony counts in 2014. A jury convicted her on one of those counts later that year for allegedly providing confidential documents to her brother, a court employee charged with hitting a juvenile inmate. Hunter spent the next four years appealing that conviction. Her appeals ran out this year, and she eventually spent roughly four months in jail.

BLINK

Cincinnati basically had a lowkey neondrenched rave in its living room and invited a million people over to party in 2017. It was so fun, the city did it again this year and even more folks showed up. The marquee event engaged artists from all over the country to paint murals and make installation art, drawing huge crowds and rave reviews from national publications. BLINK grew from another hugely popular light art display — Washington Park’s Lumenocity — that also put Cincinnati on the map for the city’s embrace of innovative cultural events.CityBeat sues the city, Citizens for Community Values Sometimes, the news outlet becomes the story. That’s what happened to CityBeat in 2008, when conservative group Citizens for Community Values, then-Cincinnati City Council member Charlie Winburn and some law enforcement agencies singled the publication out for adult-themed ads it ran in the paper. The upshot was that CityBeat stood accused of aiding and abetting prostitution, and a letter from 39 conservative officials and law enforcement personnel sounded a threatening note: Stop the ads or else.

But CityBeat fired back, asserting its First Amendment right to publish what it pleased in a lawsuit against the city, CCV and others. Those groups settled out of court a year later.

THE CURSED STREETCAR

THE BANKS

Another long-running Cincinnati topic that people occasionally like to argue about: the massive development project on the city’s riverfront simply called The Banks. The effort to build out the space between Paul Brown Stadium and Great American Ball Park — including restaurants, apartments,

CHANGES IN OVERTHE-RHINE, OTHER NEIGHBORHOODS AROUND CINCINNATI

The cover of the very first issue of CityBeat — a pair of scuffed up Converse facing a pair of polished wingtips symbolizing the squaring off of activists and business interests in Over-the-Rhine — was prophetic all the way back in 1994. Who knew that 25 years, a bout of civil unrest, hundreds of millions of dollars in development, renovated historic buildings and a significant number of displaced low-income residents later, we’d still be debating the sweeping changes in Cincinnati’s urban core?

CINCINNATI’S POPULATION BEGINS GROWING AGAIN

At some point last decade, Cincinnati’s population — long on the decline from a high of 500,000 people in the 1950s — slid below 300,000. But thanks to a number of factors — a reawakening in interest in urban living, efforts to attract suburban residents to the city’s core, even high gas prices, perhaps — people began trickling back into the Queen City this decade. By 2017, we were at an estimated 301,301 residents — a rebound of more than 4,000 people from the 2010 Census — and we’re still growing.

But the city isn’t growing at the same rate for everyone. Cincinnati’s black population had dropped to almost 50-year lows by 2016 even as the city’s overall population slightly grew.

MARGE SCHOTT BANNED FROM MLB OVER COMMENTS ABOUT HITLER AND NAZIS

Of course, for every shining sports moment or hometown hero, the Queen City has an embarrassment as well. One of the Queen City’s most notable examples came in 1996, when Cincinnati Reds owner and philanthropist Marge Schott was banned for two years from overseeing day-to-day operations of the team by Major League Baseball for comments she made asserting that Adolf Hitler was “good in the beginning, but went too far.” It was the second time Schott had received such discipline — the first coming from the league in 1993 for racist comments she made. Schott sold her share of the team in 1999 shortly after coming off her ban.

THE NEW DOWNTOWN KROGER

It took 50 years, but downtown Cincinnati got a full-service grocery store again in 2019. Kroger on the Rhine — a 52,000-square-foot, two-story store with a 139-unit apartment tower and parking garage atop it — was 15 years in the making, Kroger officials say. About $15 million in city, state and federal funds helped make the $90 million project a reality. As it opened, OTR bid farewell to a smaller Kroger location a few blocks away. It was demolished for parking.

RISE OF FC CINCINNATI AND STADIUM CONSTRUCTION IN THE WEST END Few could have predicted that when FC Cincinnati launched in 2015, we’d be watching a Major League Soccer stadium rise in the West End just a few years later fueled by the team’s massive popularity. Perhaps more expected was the pitched battle over the impact that $250 million, 26,000-seat stadium would have on the neighborhood, especially after CityBeat uncovered that a handful of residents and businesses would need to move from nearby buildings.

KEN GRIFFEY JR.’S BASEBALL STARDOM

Let’s be honest — Cincinnati has sorely needed hometown sports heroes over the last 25 years. And you couldn’t ask for a higher-profile star than Ken Griffey Jr. in the 2000s. Griffey came complete with a Queen City origin story — his dad, Ken Griffey Sr. played for the Reds in two World Series appearances; Junior attended Moeller High School and then played for the Reds himself. Yes, yes, he did leave for the Seattle Mariners first, where he amassed much of his fame and played his best baseball. But his 2000 return and eight-year stint with the Reds was a triumphant one for Cincinnati as Griffey climbed up the lifetime homerun rankings. Junior made the Reds’ Hall of Fame in 2014 and the MLB Hall of Fame two years later.

UNION TERMINAL/MUSIC HALL RENOVATIONS

Two of Cincinnati’s most iconic buildings got much-needed attention in the last few years. The 85-year-old Union Terminal building, originally constructed as a train station and used for a brief time as a shopping mall before it became the home of the Cincinnati Museum Center, had never been renovated before county voters approved a sales tax levy in 2014 and private donors stepped up to fund a nearly three-year, $224 million renovation effort needed to keep the radio-shaped half-dome structurally sound.

Over-the-Rhine’s Music Hall didn’t make the cut for that tax levy ask, but in 2016 private donors and public funding stepped in to fill the void for the stately 1878 performance venue’s $143 million renovation.

FOUNTAIN SQUARE SHOOTING/CAMEO NIGHT CLUB SHOOTING

Cincinnati saw two of its biggest contemporary tragedies in back-to-back years with the Cameo Night Club shootings in 2017 and the shootings at Fifth Third’s downtown headquarters on Fountain Square a year later. The late-night fusillade of bullets at Cameo killed two and wounded 15, while the morning shooting at Fifth Third’s headquarters claimed three lives and injured two other people. The motives that drove the shooters in both tragedies remain unclear, but the incidents drew national attention and kicked up calls for everything from stricter gun laws to better access to mental health care.

THE SHOOTING OF KABAKA OBA

It was a bizarre, brutal moment in Cincinnati history: an outspoken, sometimes coarse public access TV personality was gunned down outside City Hall during a Cincinnati City Council meeting in 2006. Kabaka Oba, who often peppered his show, radio call-ins and in-person appearances before council with controversial invective, had a yearslong running feud with restaurateur Howard Beatty when Beatty fired a .357 into Oba’s car outside City Hall. He later died from his wounds. Beatty originally faced murder charges, but a judge ruled that Oba provoked him with threats before the killing and gave him 13 years for manslaughter instead.

THE DOWNTOWN CASINO

It took a few years after Ohio voters opted in 2009 to legalize gambling in the Buckeye State, but in 2013, Cincinnati got one of the state’s four full-scale casinos, a massive gaming facility straddling downtown and Pendleton. In the time since, it’s gone through a few names — Horseshoe, JACK and, coming soon, Hard Rock — and overall hasn’t quite lived up to the promised tax revenue it was supposed to provide for Ohio’s public schools, county funds and other public coffers. But supporters say the casinos in Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland and Toledo are better than not having anything at all when Ohio is surrounded by states that also have legalized gambling.

NATIONAL UNDERGROUND RAILROAD FREEDOM CENTER

It took years of planning and fundraising, but the landmark museum commemorating resistance to slavery first planned by Cincinnatians in 1994 finally became a reality in 2004. The $110 million, 160,000-square-foot structure at The Banks commemorates the Queen City’s role as an important waypoint on the Underground Railroad and its location in the first free state that many escaping slaves stepped foot in on their flight from the South. The center’s purpose isn’t just to mark history, however — it serves as a focal point for ongoing efforts to end slavery and win human freedom across the globe.

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All local political arguments eventually take a 3.6 mile loop around downtown and circle back to Cincinnati’s streetcar. And, given that this is Cincinnati, it’s no surprise that the ongoing debate is well over a decade in the making. After local advocacy, Cincinnati City Council voted to launch the streetcar project in 2008, and by 2011, the city had seen not one but two ballot initiatives trying to block it. Voters, however, batted down those referendums. But that didn’t end the fight — nor did a 2013 pause on construction of the rail loop or the 2016 completion of the project. Sagging ridership has hobbled the streetcar to a degree, but rest assured, conversation about the rail system is sure to light up local Twitter well into the future.

Smale Riverfront Park, a huge General Electric office building and more — has grown by leaps and bounds since officials first solicited public input in 1996, drew up initial plans the next year and finally broke ground in 2008. But the effort hasn’t come without sometimes-intense battling between Cincinnati and Hamilton County officials, including a recent dust-up over the placement of a music venue there.

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BY MACKENZIE MANLEY

M

y entire lifespan has been a witness to the decline of traditional print media. I was born the same year as Craigslist went live — 1996. And while many in the decades since have blamed the site for snatching away classified ad revenue — newspapers’ most reliable cash cow — and thusly shuttering papers, it’s more complicated than that. In the age of dot-coms, it was inevitable.

Algorithms twist news feeds. Traditional dailies and newer online sites — like Huffington Post, Vox, Vice and Buzzfeed — compete for clicks in a world that feels hungry for news but doesn’t want the cost. Everything is faster and more, more, more, except for actual staff room numbers.

I’m 23, which makes me two years shy of CityBeat’s 25 years. You could measure my life in newsprint. Or, better yet, data. I’m too young to know what it feels like to be working in a thriving journalism industry.

And, though I came of age with the internet and social media, I don’t have the answers for how to best tackle all the changes it unleashed. Except, well, Mark Zuckerberg can shove it. And for all the talk of today’s youth having short attention spans, loving fancy infographics and killing entire industries, an important point of discourse is often muddled in generational squabbles.

Journalism — in whatever structure it takes in the coming decades — is very much needed to take on the plethora of complexities unfolding both in our own backyards and internationally.

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I’ve often been asked why I would enter a field that seems to be collectively running from an avalanche of problems. “Print media is a dying industry!” you say.

“It’s on fire!” you gasp. Perhaps the field can best be personified through that cartoon of a dog sipping coffee while surrounded by flames. But frankly, the whole world feels that way. The climate crisis will likely ensnare most of my mid-adulthood. People everywhere are overworked, underpaid and treated poorly in the name of saving a dollar. Fake news is rampant. Natural resources are fast dwindling. We wade in an ocean of global inequalities — that’s also filled with trash. As a country, we are in wars we’ve forgotten we ever entered and mass killings have become the norm. I could go on...for pages.

My reply to the ever-asked question? I chose journalism because I love to write and see it as a vital aspect of a functioning democracy. Be it breaking news, pop culture analysis or niche features, communities — no matter what form they come in — need a space for what journalism provides. At its best, that work functions to inform audiences on topics in an ethical, meaningful way. It gives a platform to burgeoning artists, activists, businesses and more. In short, it creates a space for communities to connect and understand what’s happening around them.

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STUFF TO DO

Ongoing Shows ART: Antique Christmas Taft Museum of Art, Downtown (through Jan. 5, 2020)

WEDNESDAY 27

MUSIC: Abbey Road: A 50th Anniversary Beatles Celebration The Newbees have been flexing their impressive songwriting muscles in the Greater Cincinnati music scene for 15 years.

Like most great Pop Rock bands, the Newbees’ wellconstructed, highly-melodic songs show the influence of The Beatles. Led by Jeff and Misty Perholtz, the group also shows its Fab Four love in more overt ways. Their creative Beatles tribute shows have turned a lot of heads, earning them repeated invites to huge Beatles gatherings like Abbey Road on the River near Louisville. The night before Thanksgiving, The Newbees will be giving hometown fans a treat by celebrating the classic Beatles album Abbey Road, which turned 50 this year.

They’ll be joined by their string and horn sections for the show: The Bee Strings and The Horn-Its, respectively. 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 27. $35-$45. Memorial Hall, 1225 Elm St., Over-theRhine, memorialhallotr.com.

— MIKE BREEN

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY KROHN C O N S E R V AT O R Y / C I N C I N N AT I P A R K S

p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 5:30-10 p.m. FridaySaturday. Through Dec. 31. $15 per vehicle. Sharon Woods, 11450 Lebanon Rd, Sharonville, holidayinlights.com. — MACKENZIE MANLEY EVENT: Art After Dark: Girl Power The Cincinnati Art Museum is celebrating revolutionary women in art along with ArtsWave’s Power of Her initiative, a city-wide arts project to mark the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment in 2020. Get in the spirit with a performance by Cincinnati Lush Punk royalty Leggy and docent-led tours of the museum’s new Women Breaking Boundaries exhibit, showcasing women in art from the 17th century through today. Food is available for purchase from Eli’s BBQ and specialty cocktails abound. 5-9 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 27. Free admission.

Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Drive, Mount

Adams, cincinnatiartmuseum.org. — MORGAN ZUMBIEL ATTRACTION: A Zinzinnati Holiday at Krohn Conservatory The Krohn’s annual holiday display’s theme is A Zinzinnati Holiday and the conservatory’s cache of tropical and lush green plants will be complemented by “representations of Cincinnati’s historical architecture,” fragrant holiday floral displays, model trains and mini Cincinnati buildings constructed out of whimsical natural materials. Through Jan. 5. $10 adults; $7 youth; free ages 4 and under.

Krohn Conservatory, 1501 Eden Park Drive, Mount Adams, cincinnatiparks.com.

— MAIJA ZUMMO EVENT: Bon Vivant: Street Eats Northside brewery Urban Artifact is hosting an epicurean street food festival.

Bon Vivant includes eight food and beer pairing creations. Each dish has been

hand-crafted by a chef from a different food truck — New Orleans to Go, Wildfire Pizza Kitchen, Mahope, Bistro de Mohr, Pretzefuls, Renegade Street Eats, Empanadas Aqui and Wicked Hickory — to bring out the flavors of one of Urban Artifact’s Epicurean barrel-aged beers. Epicurean brews blend food flavors into the beer to make beverages like a cranberry chutney beer, arugula and endive beer and pineapple brulee beer. Each ticket includes unlimited pairing samples. 5-9 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 27 $55 advance; $65 door. Urban Artifact, 1660 Blue Rock St., Northside, artifactbeer.com.

— MAIJA ZUMMO ONSTAGE: We Will Rock You: The Musical The massive success of the film Bohemian Rhapsody — which fared surprisingly well at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony, winning four Oscars (the most of any movie) — has seen a major resurgence of interest in the

music of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Queen. That says a lot considering the lasting endurance of the group’s music, which has continued to be played live to millions of fans at packed concerts all over the world, with the surviving band members touring with Freddie Mercury stand-ins Paul Rodgers and, more recently, Adam Lambert. Another popular Queen-related event that has helped keep the band’s music in the forefront is the Rock musical We Will Rock You, which premiered in London’s West End in 2002 and, according to press materials, has been seen by more than 16 million people in 19 countries since then. Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen were music supervisors for the show, which isn’t biographical like Bohemian Rhapsody, instead operating as a jukebox musical to tell a separate story, à la Jersey Boys and Escape from Margaritaville. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 27. $32.50-$64.50. Taft Theatre,

317 E. Fifth St., Downtown, tafttheatre.org. — MIKE BREEN

THURSDAY 28

EVENT: Thanksgiving Day Race Burn some calories before your Thanksgiving binge during the 110th annual Thanksgiving Day Race.

The 10K (aka 6.2 mile) route starts at Paul Brown Stadium and takes runners/ walkers through downtown and Over-the-Rhine, then into Newport and Covington and back across the Ohio River to finish at the stadium. In addition to the adult race, there will also be an aptly branded Pepto KIDS Fun Run which starts before the big race at 8:30 a.m. and only goes 3/8 of a mile. Afterward, the stadium will be full of food and refreshments. The Thanksgiving Day Race benefits myriad nonprofits including the Ronald McDonald House, Girls on the Run, CONTINUES ON PAGE 39

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EVENT: Holiday in Lights at Sharon Woods Instead of braving the chilly weather to check out some holiday lights, kick back in your car and take a joy ride through a mile-long stretch of Sharon Woods. Dial the radio to Warm 98 — the illuminations are synchronized to the music. New this year are Pixel light displays and more lighted trees. After or before, take the kiddos to the wonder-filled Santaland, open through Dec. 23. A portion of proceeds benefit A Child’s Hope International to help feed children around the globe. 6-9

A Zinzinnati Holiday

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FRIDAY 29

ART: Total Facade at Bunk Spot Gallery Decaying, disheveled architecture will be the focus of Bunk Spot Gallery’s Total Facade, a joint show between Cincinnati natives Jim Swill and Ben Brown — the latter being a curator for the gallery and local art collective Bunk News. Both Swill and Brown have lived in California and much of the featured work was created during their respective time there. While mostly comprised of photographs, collages will also be on display. Swill says via email that the depiction of damaged buildings act “as a narrative to discuss time and mortality.” Later in the evening (9 p.m.), Swill’s short film Burner Phone will screen. Free black-and-white posters will be up for grabs — first come first served — and if you feel like sippin’ it’s BYOB. 7-11 p.m. Friday, Nov. 29. Free admission. Bunk Spot Gallery, 544 E. 12th St., Pendleton, bunknews.com. — MACKENZIE MANLEY

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY BUNK SPOT

FROM PAGE 37

UC Barrett Cancer Center and more; there will also be a Goodwill Coat Drive on site. Held rain, shine, sleet, snow, etc. 9 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 28. $48.50 registration online; $50 in-person at JackRabbit O’Bryonville; $55 day of race; $20 Kids Fun Run (no race-day registration). Paul Brown Stadium, 1 Paul Brown Stadium, Downtown, thanksgivingdayrace.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO

FRIDAY 29

MUSIC: Joslyn & the Sweet Compression bring R&B to Ludlow Garage. See Sound Advice on page 61.

ONSTAGE: Cincy Shakes’ Merry Wives of Windsor is a farce that follows Sir John Falstaff and his attempts to woo two wealthy wives. See review on page 47.

EVENT: Many breweries are doing special Black Friday beer releases and events. See which ones in What’s the Hops on page 54.

and more. 9 p.m. Friday. $12-$50. Southgate House Revival, 111 E. Sixth St., Newport, southgatehouse. com. — MIKE BREEN COMEDY: Billy Wayne Davis “I’m originally from a small town in Tennessee,” Billy Wayne Davis tells an audience. He now lives in L.A. “When I tell people in Los Angeles that, it confuses them. ‘Oh, like Chattanooga?’ No, you have no idea do you? When I was in fifth grade my older cousin went to field party, got into a fight and killed a dude.

When I was in high school, the dead dude’s sister asked me to the prom. That’s a small town, you guys.” Davis declined the invite. “My dad said, ‘I don’t know. She might have forgotten, but I don’t think her daddy did.’

People in the South love that joke so much. People outside the South get sad.

People from the South are like, ‘That’s just two good dads right there.’” 7:30 and 10 p.m. Friday, Nov. 29 and Saturday, Nov. 30; 8 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 1. $8-$14.

Go Bananas, 8410 Market Place Lane, Montgomery, gobananascomedy.com.

— P.F. WILSON

MUSIC: Trans-Siberian Orchestra The Trans-Siberian Orchestra is bringing its longrunning Christmas “multisensory extravaganza” back to Cincinnati this holiday season. Founded by musician/composer Paul O’Neill (who died a few years ago), Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Prog/New Age holiday spectacle has played in over 80 cities to more than 100 million people (collectively) and donated $11 million to charity. The new tour — “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” — is based on the album of the same name and follows the life story of O’Neill. According to a press blurb, “The story is set on Christmas Eve when a young angel is sent to Earth to bring back what is best representative of humanity. Following favorite TSO themes of ‘strangers helping strangers’ and ‘the kindness of others,’ ‘Christmas Eve and Other Stories’ takes listeners all over the world to help reunite a young girl with her distraught father.” 4 and 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 29. $49.50 and up. Heritage Bank Center, 100 Broadway St., Downtown, heritagebankcenter.com. — MIKE BREEN

ATTRACTIONS: WinterFest at Kings Island WinterFest has returned to Kings Island for the 2019 holiday season, transforming the park into a nostalgic winter wonderland. Kings Island’s International Street will be decked out with holiday lights and displays, featuring a Snow Flake Lake ice skating rink under the Christmas tree-styled Eiffel Tower. In addition to strolling carolers and holiday shows, you can stop by an artisan village selling holiday crafts, indulge in booze-infused hot beverages, watch ice carvers in the “Action Ice Zone,” take a horse-drawn carriage ride and stop by Blitzen’s Hot Beverage Bar for some blue hot chocolate. Nineteen of the park’s rides will be open to enjoy, including Mystic Timbers and Kings Mills Antique Autos, with plenty of vignettes in between — like the oversized Candy Cane Lane — for family-friendly photo ops. Through Dec. 31.

Tickets start at $27.99. Kings Island, 6300 Kings Island Drive, Mason, visitkingsisland.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO MUSIC: Rick Ross and Jim Jones Respected Hip Hop artist and entrepreneur Rick Ross has been touring this year in support of his 10th album, Port of Miami 2, which was released in August through Ross’ Maybach Music Group and Epic Records. It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard album chart. The tour, including dates with DaBaby and Jeezy, largely wound down in late October, but it’s being reignited for a few one-off dates, including a Cincinnati show that will also feature Jim Jones, another esteemed Hip Hop veteran.

A sequel to Ross’ highly acclaimed debut from 2006, Port of Miami 2 features a jaw-dropping guest list that includes Lil Wayne, Drake, Denzel Curry, John Legend, Meek Mill, the late Nipsey Hussle and many others.

Reviews from the tour have been glowing. Ross reportedly does a crowd-engaging retrospective of his hits from over the years, from “Hustlin” to “Aston Martin Music” to “Stay Schemin’,” with the newer material lightly sprinkled throughout. 10 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 29. $40-$80.

OTR Live, 209 E. 12th St., Over-the-Rhine, otrlivemusic. com. — MIKE BREEN

SATURDAY 30

EVENT: Crafty Supermarket celebrates a decade of pop-up markets with a two-day show at Music Hall. See feature on page 49.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 41

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MUSIC: Frontier Folk Nebraska celebrates the release of Freaks at the Southgate House Revival.

See feature on page 57.

MUSIC: Funksgiving with Freekbass and the Bump Assembly Veteran Cincinnati Funk artist Freekbass has had an especially busy and fruitful 2019. The bassist/vocalist and his band The Bump Assembly — including singer Sammi Garett of Brooklynbased group Turkuaz — have kept up their usual steady touring schedule, while also clocking studio time. This spring, Freekbass’ All the Way This. All the Way That — his debut album for Denver collective/label Color Red — was released, and he’s since returned to Colorado to work on music for his next Color Red project. As the year is winding down, Freekbass will once again host a hometown Thanksgiving-timed shindig at the Southgate House Revival.

This is the fourth year for the crew’s “Funksgiving” throwdown. The event will feature a special appearance from Garett’s Turkuaz bandmate Greg Sanderson on horns, plus an opening set from locals Drop the Sun. This year, fans can purchase special “Five-Course Funk VIP” tickets, which include merch, a signed poster, a special pre-show performance and meet-and-greet

EVENT: Greater Cincinnati Winterfair The 36th-annual Winterfair juried fine art and craft event invites shoppers to explore a plethora of work by more than 200 artisans from across America. Head to the Northern Kentucky Convention Center to discover ceramics, jewelry, photography, wearable art and more. A marketplace on the second floor will also feature specialty gourmet food items. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 29 and Saturday, Nov. 30; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 1. $7 adults; free kids 12 and under. Northern Kentucky Convention Center, 1 Rivercenter Blvd., Covington, ohiocraft.org. — MAIJA ZUMMO

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SUNDAY 01

MUSIC: It Was 50 Years Ago Today: A Tribute to the Beatles’ White Album The “It Was 50 Years Ago Today: A Tribute to the Beatles’ White Album” tour features Todd Rundgren (who was recently announced as a nominee for the next class of the Rock and Roll of Fame), Monkees legend Micky Dolenz and Soft Rock hitmaker Christopher Cross, as well as Jason Scheff of Chicago and Joey Molland of Badfinger. As the title suggests, the all-star group is celebrating The Beatles’ 1968 self-titled album — better known as “The White Album.”

Reviews from the tour say the musicians switch off on vocals for the “White Album” material — Rundgren fronts the group on “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide but Me and My Monkey” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” for example, while Cross handles songs like the mellower “Martha My Dear” and “Blackbird” and Dolenz takes center stage for “Why Don’t We Do It In the Road” and “I’m So Tired.” The musicians also play some of their individual greatest hits. 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 1. $39-$119. Aronoff Center, 650 Walnut St., Downtown, cincinnatiarts.org. — MIKE BREEN

EVENT: December Tea Dance: Winter Wonderland This LGBTQA+ afternoon dance party takes over Igby’s with a “Red” theme.

Dress to impress while you listen to music by Ben and Milkshake, imbibe specially priced drinks and meet new people. For 21 and older.

4-8 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 1.

Free. Igby’s, 122 E. Sixth St., Downtown, facebook.com/ teadancecinci. — LIZ DAVIS

WEDNESDAY 04

MUSIC: Western Swing duo The Farmer & Adele head to the Southgate House Revival. See Sound Advice on page 61.

FRIDAY 06

MUSIC: Undie Rock duo The Skivvies bring their “I Touch My Elf” holiday show

to Ludlow Garage. See interview on page 45.

EVENT: Redsfest 2019 Reds fans have a chance to get up close and personal with some of their favorite players during Redsfest 2019. Major leaguers, minor leaguers, coaches, broadcasters and alumni slated to appear include Luis Castillo, Joey Votto, Kyle Farmer, Marty Brennaman, Eric Davis, Todd Benzinger, Thom Brennaman, plus tons more (see a full list online).

There will also be activities spread throughout the event like batting cages, speed pitch, a mascot meeting room and third-floor kids fun zone. And expect plenty of merch and memorabilia booths. 3-10:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6; 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 4 2

WEDNESDAY 04

ONSTAGE: The Naughty List OTRImprov is bringing its “unscripted holiday dinner show” back to Arnold’s Bar & Grill for the eighth year. The improv comedy troupe will be lambasting everything we love and hate about the holidays using audience suggestions. OTRImprov (a Best Of Cincinnati Best Improv Troupe winner multiple year’s running) will be creating scenes on the fly with games, jokes and some seasonal cheer. “The Naughty List provides an incredibly unique holiday entertainment experience, where no performance is ever the same as the last but all of them ensure that you get a say in how the evening goes, whether you’re a Buddy the Elf or an Ebeneezer Scrooge,” says director Chris Wesselman. Arnold’s will also be offering an à la carte menu before the show. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 4; Tuesday, Dec. 10; Wednesday, Dec. 11; Tuesday, Dec. 17; Wednesday, Dec. 18; and Thursday, Dec. 19. $10 Dec. 4; $20 all other shows. Arnold’s Bar & Grill, 210 E. Eighth St., Downtown, OTRimprov.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO

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FRIDAY 06

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PHOTO: PROVIDED BY THE DENT SCHOOLHOUSE

FROM PAGE 41

Saturday, Dec. 7. $25 adults two-day; $17 adults single day; $12 kids two-day; $7 kids single day. Duke Energy Convention Center, 525 Elm St., Downtown, mlb. com/reds/fans/redsfest.

— MAIJA ZUMMO EVENT: Unsilent Night at Washington Park Head to Washington Park for an evening of unconventional caroling.

Things kick off around the fire pits on the porch, where hot chocolate and boozy beverages will be available along with crafting supplies to create some wearable art. Then, at 6 p.m., grab your phone (or a boombox) and press play on Phil Kline’s original composition “Unsilent Night,” which was “written specifically to be heard outdoors in the month of December,” says an event description. Each “caroler” will get one of four tracks in a cassette, CD or MP3 to play together to create the music. Each part comes together to make a greater whole.

Time Out New York said, “Phil Kline’s postmodern boombox caroling walk is more than just performance art: It’s a demonstration of community.” Hosted by the Contemporary Arts Center.

5-7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6; rain date Dec. 7. Free.

Washington Park, 1230 Elm St., Over-theRhine, washingtonpark. org. — MAIJA ZUMMO

SATURDAY 07

MUSIC: Prog/Jam collective Dopapod heads to Madison Theater. See Sound Advice on page 61.

MUSIC: Pink Talking Fish brings the music of Pink Floyd, Talking Heads and Phish to Ludlow Garage.

See Sound Advice on page 63.

FILM: White Christmas Sing-a-Long at The Esquire Theatre If you’ve been dreaming of singing about a white Christmas, the Esquire is turning its theater into an interactive White Christmas event, where crowd participation — and belting the lyrics to “Sisters” — is highly encouraged. The 1954 holiday classic stars Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as two musical World War II soldiers who attempt to save their former commanding general’s Vermont lodge from ruin (and pay tribute to the “Old Man”) with spirited singing sister duo Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen. There’s romance, costuming by Edith Head, weird song-and-dance

EVENT: A Christmas Nightmare at The Dent Schoolhouse The ghouls of favorite horror attraction the Dent Schoolhouse get in the holiday spirit with A Christmas Nightmare, a freaky yuletide take on the classic haunt. Dent’s classrooms and hallways will be illuminated with lights, garlands and Christmas trees, while willing participants wander through scenes staffed with evil Christmas creatures. Krampus and his twisted cohorts will be deciding if you’ve been naughty or nice, and Charlie the janitor will be Santa Charlie; admission tickets include a photo op. 6 p.m.-11 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6 and Saturday, Dec. 7; 6-11 p.m. Friday, Dec. 13 and Saturday, Dec. 14. $25$55. The Dent Schoolhouse, 5963 Harrison Ave., Dent, frightsite.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO

numbers about choreography and a very concerning minstrel show number, liverwurst sandwiches and buttermilk and some light cross dressing. 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7. $15. Esquire Theatre, 320 Ludlow Ave., Clifton, esquiretheatre.com.

— MAIJA ZUMMO EVENT: Ohio Explored Holiday Maker Mart Website Ohio Explored is hosting its annual Cincinnati maker mart weekend.

Head to Urban Artifact to shop from hand-picked vendors who will be offering everything from apothecary items and artisan eats to jewelry, ceramics and fiber art. You can preview a full list of vendors who will be present online. Noon-6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7 and Sunday, Dec. 8. Free admission. Urban Artifact, 1660 Blue Rock Road, Northside, ohioexplored. com. — MAIJA ZUMMO EVENT: Covington Winter Night Bazaar If you need more shopping opportunities this weekend, head to the Covington Winter Night Bazaar, a descriptively named outdoor maker mart with fire pits and festive

Experience Artful Shopping

Winterfair!

Nov. 29-Dec. 1 200 artists and a specialty market in one place for holiday gifting!

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY SOUNDTREX

lighting. This year’s event has a Krampus Night theme, so expect the horned goatman of European Christmas lore to be wandering the fest with a couple of wooden switches and a bag to carry off naughty children (or adults). There will be more than two dozen vendors, plus hot buttered rum from Second Sight Spirits. 5-11 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7. Free admission. Covington, rcov. org/covingtonnightbazaar.

— MAIJA ZUMMO

EVENT: Dark Charge Day Braxton Brewing Co.’s fifth-annual celebration of bourbon-barrel-aged stouts is back. For 2019’s Dark

Charge Day, the brewery is releasing multiple barrelaged Dark Charge variants coinciding with a winter block party featuring live music from the likes of the Hot Magnolias, Young Heirlooms and Arlo McKinley; food; and limited beer bottle sales. Braxton will also be releasing a special “cakebox” of beers. The “handcrafted trio of imperial pastry stouts

is aimed to satisfy your sweet tooth,” says Braxton. There will also be a slew of specialty dishes from the Coppin’s, Rich’s Proper Food & Drink, Flipdaddy’s and more. 11 a.m.-1 a.m.

Saturday, Dec. 7. Free; $75 VIP. Braxton Brewing Co., 27 W. Seventh St., Covington, darkchargeday.com.

— MAIJA ZUMMO

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EVENT: Ugly Sweater Crawl: OTR Dress in your best, worst holiday sweater and join the fourth-annual Ugly Sweater Crawl through Over-theRhine. Think tacky and get ready to toss back a few discounted drinks at participating bars including 16-Bit Bar+Arcade, MOTR Pub, Mr. Pitiful’s and more. Tickets include your very own ugly sweater crawl T-shirt, a koozie, DJs playing holiday tunes and a map to the bars.

2-10 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7. $19.99; $25 last-minute tickets; $17.99 group rate.

16-Bit Bar+Arcade, 1331 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine, facebook.com/uglysweaterbarcrawls. — MAIJA ZUMMO

SATURDAY 07

MUSIC: Band of Friends Irish Blues/Rock guitarist and singer Rory Gallagher died in the mid ’90s following a liver transplant, but his legacy lives on in the artists inspired by his music. Gallagher — who reportedly turned down a gig playing guitar with a little band called The Rolling Stones in the early ’70s — is still the source of celebrations and tributes all over the world. One of the Gallagher torchbearers burning brightest is Band of Friends, which was formed earlier this decade by longtime Gallagher cohort and bassist Gerry McAvoy. Band of Friends — which is fronted by noted Blues/Roots/Rock guitarist Davy Knowles — performs music from throughout Gallagher’s storied career, but McAvoy shies away from calling it a “tribute band,” saying in a press release, “The interpretations of the material can be quite spontaneous and unique… It’s not a note-fornote replica of Rory’s material or concerts from decades past.” The Band of Friends visited Greater Cincinnati earlier this year, kicking off the first leg of their U.S. tour at the Southgate House Revival in March, just months after BoF drummer Ted McKenna (another Gallagher collaborator and Sensational Alex Harvey Band member) died from complications after routine hernia surgery. Brendan O’Neill is playing drums on the latest leg of the group’s tour. 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7. $22; $25 day of show.

Southgate House Revival, 111 E. Sixth St., Newport, southgatehouse.com. — MIKE BREEN

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ARTS & CULTURE

The Skivvies Strip Down Holiday Classics “Undie-Rock” act The Skivvies bring their “I Touch My Elf” tour to Ludlow Garage

BY R I C K PEN D ER

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Nick Cearley (left) and Lauren Molina as The Skivvies PHOTO: PROVIDED BY THE SKIV VIES/ J A C Q U E L I N E P AT T O N P H O T O G R A P H Y

one another’s musical skills and a shared comedic sensibility, they began to perform in each other’s gigs. Hanging out one afternoon in 2012, they decided to put a cover of Rihanna’s “We Found Love” on YouTube.

“We decided to take the song and strip it down. We just did it on ukulele and guitar,” Molina says. “I was trying to figure out what to wear for the video, walking around my bedroom in my bra, and Nick said, ‘Why don’t we just do that?’”

From there, they did a stripped-down video series featuring covers by artists like Carole King and Robyn. It went viral.

Molina’s boyfriend suggested they call themselves The Skivvies, a slang term for underwear. Eventually, they took their concept to the stage, where the lack of clothing for themselves and special guests has since been a hook for attention.

Cearley says people have told him, “You guys are too talented. You don’t have to take your clothes off.” His answer: “Well, if we hadn’t, you wouldn’t have clicked.”

Their talent is as evident as their uninhibited appearances. Though the collaborators have also performed together in Off-Broadway’s Sex Tips For Straight Women From A Gay Man and as Brad and

Janet in The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Bucks County Playhouse, The Skivvies has become a significant component of their performing careers.

“We’re pretty equal in terms of our ideas,” Molina says. “We collaborate, so if one person has an idea, the other one brainstorms what they think could be funny or how the song could be improved.”

Their set list routinely includes mashups such as Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” paired with Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me with Your Best Shot”; another cross is “Alexander Hamilton” from Broadway’s Hamilton with Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al.” At one point, Molina borrows an audience member’s cell phone, scans text messages and creates a song on the spot.

Molina and Cearley are front and center performing what they might call “Undie Rock.” She plays electronic cello; he’s often on the ukulele. But they are quick to pick up offbeat instruments — from a glockenspiel to a toy melodica — as well as improvised items such as plastic PVC pipes, which underscores their playful approach.

Their Cincinnati appearance comes at the beginning of their holiday tour, the aforementioned “I Touch My Elf,” a

riff on the 1990s hit “I Touch Myself” by Australian Rock band Divinyls. With a comedic bent, they’ll press together classic holiday tunes with modern songs like “The Little Drummer Boy” with The Go-Go’s “We Got the Beat” and “Frosty the Snowman” with Modern English’s “I Melt with You.” They’ve even developed a special Hanukkah number.

Performing with them will be Matt Doyle, a Broadway veteran (Spring Awakening, War Horse, The Book of Mormon) who was recently announced for the cast of the gender-bending production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company coming to Broadway from London. Local actress Sara Mackie, a regular at Ensemble Theatre, also joins them.

“Even though we’re in our underwear, don’t think of this as a raunchy show,” Molina says. “It’s really about the music, and it’s really a good time for all ages — maybe 16 and above. It’s more like a big pajama party.”

The Skivvies will perform at the Ludlow Garage (342 Ludlow Ave, Clifton) at 8:30 p.m. Dec. 6; doors open at 7 p.m. More info/tickets: ludlowgaragecincinnati.com.

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ick Cearley and Lauren Molina — both halves of musical act The Skivvies — perform stripped-down takes of today’s hits and past classics.

Literally. While performing, they sport nothing but their underwear. Once described as treating the stage “like a glorified sandbox for grown-up children” and both “paradoxically sophisticated and innocent” by The New York Times, the duo also has Cincinnati ties.

Having grown up in Fairfield, Cearley trained as a young dancer at a Cincinnati studio. Now working in New York City, he’s returned over the years to perform as a Barbra Streisand fan in Buyer & Cellar at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati (2015), as nerdy Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors at the Playhouse (2017) and earlier this year as shy, thoughtful Linus in the Playhouse’s You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Detroitnative Molina joined him in Charlie Brown as the overbearing Lucy. In fact, the pair co-conceived the production, which featured actors playing their own instruments.

Molina, a classically trained cellist, performed on Broadway in 2005 in the Tony Award-winning actor/musician production of Sweeney Todd. She also originated the role of Regina in the 1980s-infused musical Rock of Ages when it began on OffBroadway’s New World Stages.

But together, Molina and Cearley are The Skivvies. Singing eclectic covers, eccentric originals and hilarious mashups, they’ve performed locally a few times at Ensemble Theatre and Hamilton’s Fitton Center. They’re regulars in New York City at Joe’s Pub and the cabaret stage at the Public Theater and have performed shows in Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia and more. This fall they’re touring a holiday show — “I Touch My Elf” — that will stop at Cincinnati’s Ludlow Garage on Friday, Dec. 6.

Molina and Cearley first met in 2003 doing a children’s theater tour, performing in what Cearley terms “the grandest cafetoriums in the land.” Recognizing

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THIS HOLIDAY SEASON FEEL SOMETHING.

ONSTAGE

‘Merry Wives’ is Funny But Unfocused R E V I E W BY JAC K I E M U L AY

NOV. 9, 2019 – JAN. 5, 2020

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Jealousy, sex and revenge abound in mannerisms from some of the male Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s characters were another element that production of Shakespeare’s farcical The added additional confusion to the Merry Wives of Windsor. production’s hazy tone. For a play set in Widely regarded as one of the the Edwardian period, these moments felt playwright’s weaker and hastier efforts, anachronistic and unclear.

Merry Wives has the propensity to feel Though unfocused, the production did over-the-top and rambling. Cincy Shakes’ feature plenty of riveting talent. Company production is no different. member Billy Chace dons stained overalls The play follows the antics of the boorto play the delightfully foul Sir John Falish and lascivious Sir John Falstaff and staff. Chace has a way with Shakespeare’s his efforts to dig himself out of financial language that makes it feel as effortless hardship by wooing two wealthy wives, as breathing air. He brings a marvelous Mistress Margaret Page and Mistress Alice cadence to his words that shapes every Ford, at the same time. scene he’s in. It’s genuinely pleasing to Of course, these women are Sir John’s woefully cunning counterparts.

They discover his halfbaked scheme and exact revenge on Sir John in the most humiliating ways possible. Set in the late Edwardian period at the turn of the 20th century — concurrent with the women’s suffrage movement in Britain — Cincy Shakes’ production uses this era in an attempt to add its own spin on the comedy.

However, this theme does little else for the production than add a hasty and unfocused tie-in to the ArtsWave-inspired “Season of the Woman” campaign. Only focused The cast of Cincy Shakes’ The Merry Wives of Windsor on or included in the production for the first 20 PHOTO: MIKKI SCHAFFNER PHOTOGRAPHY minutes or so, the theme — which was prominently advertised — soon drops out of existence. listen to him craft each sentence.

Naturally, every Shakespearean comedy The merry wives themselves had natural must end in a wedding, and Merry Wives and delightful chemistry together. As follows suit — though this marriage is one Mistress Page and Mistress Ford, Jennifer of many simultaneous and less-riveting Joplin and Abby Lee, respectively, left subplots that comprise the play. a lingering craving for more in the air.

Merry Wives focuses on the middle and Lee, in particular, had an astoundingly lower classes of British society. And though malleable face that gifted purely members of the ensemble certainly make funny expressions. It’s a shame that use of their absurd characters to evoke Shakespeare’s comedy doesn’t lend more laughter, some of the choices made by scenes to the two cunning women. director Brian Isaac Phillips (who is also The play certainly has its hilarious the producing artistic director at Cincy moments, both in writing and delivery.

Shakes) felt, at times, cruel.

However, there were far too many modern For the first few scenes, women in and added asides to Merry Wives to keep the cast march across stage carrying the audience anchored in the production. misspelled signs that call for women’s right Though Merry Wives is typically to vote. Other than for quick laughs, the regarded as one of Shakespeare’s weakest purpose of these crosses and props feels plays, it is a work that, nonetheless, has unclear. What is the message the signs endured for over 400 years. It does not are sending? That the suffrage movement need modern references to make it was silly? Or that the working class is palatable. Adding lines to Shakespeare’s doltish and unimpactful? I’m certain that play does both the work and the audience neither Phillips nor anyone involved in the a disservice. production meant it to come off this way, Cincy Shakes’s The Merry Wives of but without greater focus on the theme Windsor runs through Dec. 7. More info/ these elements feel nebulous. tickets: cincyshakes.com.

Seinfeld-esque entrances and

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CULTURE

Crafty Supermarket Celebrates 10 Years

BY M O R G A N Z U M B I EL

It seems like a single weekend in Cincinnati doesn’t go by without a craft fair taking over a brewery, art space or park, but the city wasn’t always such a hotbed for independent makers.

Crafty Supermarket first entered the scene a decade ago, originally setting up shop in the Northside Tavern. Now, the biannual show hosts 100 vendors touting jewelry, fine art, apothecary, ceramics, artisan edible goods, housewares and more. And on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, the city’s longest-running indie maker market will head to the Music Hall Ballroom to celebrate its 10-year anniversary with an expanded two-day craft show.

A previous iteration of the Crafty Supermarket PHOTO: COURTESY OF CR AF T Y SUPERMARKET

Crafty Supermarket takes place 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 30 and Sunday, Dec. 1 at Music Hall (1241 Elm St., Overthe-Rhine), Free admission. More info: craftysupermarket.com.

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In 2009, Crafty Supermarket co-founder Chris Salley Davis was splitting time between working for the Girl Scouts of the United States of America and using her vacation days to accompany her musician boyfriend (now-husband), Ben, on tour. An illustrator herself with a fine arts background, their travels lit a creative spark.

“I would notice this indie craft thing happening in other cities,” she says. “Like we’d be in Chicago or New York and I’d hear about Renegade Craft Fair — which is huge — or I’d stumble upon little shops that were selling only handmade goods. I’d come back (to Cincinnati) and I just didn’t see that kind of network.”

And so she set out to create what she thought the Queen City was lacking: a craft fair of our own.

Living in Northside at the time, Salley Davis started a Facebook group called “Bring Your Own Project,” where members would meet up at Happen, Inc. — a nonprofit art space — to hang out, spin records and work on their projects. She also began to work on opening Fabricate on Hamilton Avenue, a store dedicated to selling one-ofa-kind, handmade craft goods. (It has since closed.) But still, there weren’t any craft fairs like those she’d seen in other cities.

Then she met writer Grace Dobush and artist Alisha Budkie (who would go on to open the pay-what-you-can arts supply

store Indigo Hippo). They were trying to put together a small craft show called Crafty Supermarket. The three met up at Northside’s Sidewinder Coffee, Salley Davis joined the team, and the inaugural market was born.

The first show had 20 vendors and no cover charge. There was a line around the block to get in to the Northside Tavern.

“It was a great first show,” Salley Davis says. “No risk. I don’t even know if the Tavern charged us.”

After that, she says “makers started coming out of the woodwork.” With increased demand (and concerns about fire code), the market quickly expanded into a biannual event at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center before outgrowing that space in favor of the Music Hall Ballroom.

These days, Crafty Supermarket pops up around Mother’s Day and after Thanksgiving, receiving hundreds of vendor applications per show and welcoming thousands of visitors. Around 7,000 shoppers are expected to attend this year’s holiday market, which coincides with Small Business Saturday.

“The most important thing to me is to get shoppers there for the makers, and getting to see the makers’ businesses grow,” Salley Davis says.

Case in point: the inaugural Crafty Supermarket was local artist Jessica Wolf’s first ever craft fair for her fledgling paper arts business Paper Acorn.

This past October, her glowing paper sculpture installation “Arborealis” canopied a Findlay Market alleyway during BLINK — a couple was even married beneath it.

For Salley Davis, the key to Crafty Supermarket is keeping the focus on accessibility, for attendees and creators alike. The show continues to be free, so even shoppers with tight budgets can come to hang out and appreciate the art.

“Now there are tons of maker events where people can sell in the city but when we started, there was no event like this,” she says. “Cincinnati is changing a lot, and rapidly. All the breweries that are around — not a one of them was around 10 years ago, and all of them have a craft fair now. I love that makers have so many opportunities, and if the city can support it then the city can support it. So far we haven’t seen a decline in participation.

“That’s kind of the amazing thing about Cincinnati. It’s really cool to see all these businesses spring up.”

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TV

The Feisty Female Gaze of ‘Mrs. Fletcher’ R E V I E W BY JAC K ER N

Kathryn Hahn is comedic gold. Early in her in winning the affections of his less present career, she stood out for her scene-stealing dad, who’s busy with a new wife and kid. sidekick characters in TV and movie He’s a not-so-special brand of Gen-Z dick comedies like Step Brothers, Parks and Recthat’s had access to porn as long as he can reation and, in one of her first roles, How imagine and is immersed in a hookup to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Bawdy and ballsy, culture that welcomes rough sex but never Hahn seems like she would fit right in with catching feelings. the women of early-2000s Saturday Night Live, with her memorable characters and penchant for improv (and not just because she bears a striking resemblance to Ana Gasteyer).

But she’s also adept at portraying more nuanced, genuine roles — her take on a rabbi in Transparent is a powerful performance in which she shines in a whole new light.

In HBO limited series Mrs. Fletcher (10:30 p.m., Sundays) — based on Tom Perrotta’s (The Leftovers) bestselling novel — Hahn plays the title character in a not-so-unfamiliar tale: With her son off at college, a single mom gets her first taste of the empty nest.

Eve Fletcher has long filled the role of provider Kathryn Hahn as Eve Fletcher in Mrs. Fletcher and protector: as a primary caregiver to her son P H O T O : S A R A H S H AT Z / H B O after her divorce, and even at work as a senior center director, where she’s on the front lines As he heads off to college, he proves that alongside families with older loved ones. it’s not just his mom or women he doesn’t When she’s not overwhelmed with work, respect — he doesn’t really have respect Eve — like her friends that are also moms for anyone or anything. And while in some of young adults — has no idea what to do high school circles that kind of apathy is with herself. So naturally, she discovers built into a too-cool persona, it’s certainly porn! In media and real life, there are so not the case for most young people today. many hang-ups about women being sexual, Brendan finds that even the typically especially mothers, but Mrs. Fletcher popular kids on campus — like athletes blows right past that while still keeping and partiers — care about social issues, a woman’s perspective — the female something he can’t even begin to muse gaze — at its center. Daring sexual scenes on. This makes him feel truly alone, which are handled delicately, and Eve is sexy frankly puts him at risk for dangerous because she feels empowered, not because behavior. No one quite realizes this. a man tells her she is.

While I find his character the least We watch her navigate singledom, and sympathetic and least relatable, I am fully something always reels her in for better invested in Brendan’s journey. or worse. When set up on a perfectly nice Hahn gives a beautiful performance of a date after much debate, Eve is turned off character anyone would feel for, but White by the notion of settling into a comfortable as Brendan reveals an ugly but all too old married couple. When she finds herself familiar kind of man. Can the woke kids at mingling with a much younger guy, she college save him in ways his previous peers, ends up defaulting into mom mode — but parents or authority figures haven’t? saving the day at the same time. It’s not a Coming-of-age tales often follow kids question of whether Eve will end up with a on the precipice of adulthood, but Mrs. guy — or gal — but if she can find happiFletcher shows how two people with very ness and fulfillment in this new chapter. different trajectories can experience their On the other side of the Mrs. Fletcher own identity crises, sexual awakenings coin is Eve’s son Brendan (Jackson White) and the need to be loved at any point in life. who’s eager to fly the coop and escape his loving (s)mother despite the fact that he’s Contact Jac Kern: @jackern had it totally made. He doesn’t appreciate his doting mom and is far more interested

FILM

The Splendid Simplicity of ‘The Irishman’

Stunning Spectacle

R E V I E W BY T T S T ER N - EN ZI

THE DANCE DEPARTMENT GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE SUPPORT OF THE CORBETT ENDOWMENT AT CCM.

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CCM ON STAGE DANCE

THE ART OF MOTION “dancing ...is no mere translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself” -Havelock Ellis

DEC. 5-8, 2019 PATRICIA CORBETT THEATER

DEIRDRE CARBERRY, DIRECTOR

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Martin Scorsese operates on a narrative of honor. In truth, what becomes clear is plane beyond heroes and villains; his that these two men have the “it factor” that characters live in moral compromise, compels men like Sheeran to follow them. where even the idea of the anti-hero fails to Pesci’s godfather is a quiet man, eager to define them. And at no time is that plainer be liked — although Sheeran’s daughter than in his latest film, The Irishman. sees through him, much like she does with Take Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro): her father. He’s decisive but indirect in the As a World War II veteran and a member way that any good Mafia leader should be of the Greatest Generation, he’s the kind to keep himself out of the limelight. of man we’re supposed to celebrate. But Hoffa, though, is the real character, the way Sheeran tells it, his experience drawn in broad yet familiar strokes. He wasn’t so honorable. As enemy soldiers is the general who wears the crown with were forced to dig trenches, he stood by pride and embraces the responsibilities and executed his orders to shoot them, that come with it. watching them fall into shallow graves for quick burial. He didn’t take the moral high ground; instead, he did as he was instructed. Even if he lost any sleep at first, he quickly rationalized these actions and moved on.

Sheeran is definitely not Franz Jägerstätter (August Diehl), the protagonist of Terrence Malick’s new release A Hidden Life.

Jägerstätter was an Austrian citizen went through Nazi basic training but couldn’t bring himself to serve. He endured comThe cast of The Irishman munal ostracism from his PHOTO: COURTESY OF NETFLIX farming community for his conscientious objection, and then solitary confinement before As a director, it seems in this case, his eventual execution in 1943 at the age of Scorsese sides more with Bufalino.

36. His wife and family stood in solidarity Scorsese does not draw attention to with him, despite not being as philosophihimself; instead, he lets his actors do what cally driven to do so. they need to and captures the effort. The Comparatively, Sheeran took a post-war Irishman marks Scorsese’s ninth feature job delivering meat for butchers and delis. collaboration with De Niro and his fourth When propositioned, he accepted money with Pesci, so he knows they’re pros. They to let cargo disappear from his trucks from paint his scenes just right, even when time to time. Compared to other wartime there’s more going on below the surface. jobs, this was a petty crime. But if the And there’s so much at play in The situation warranted — and sometimes it Irishman. would — he could turn mean in the streets.

De Niro, Pesci and Pacino are de-aged, Just ask his young daughter, Peggy (played which allows them to play much younger

by Lucy Gallina and then Anna Paquin versions of their characters over the course as an adult), who watched him beat the of decades, but there’s never a sense of owner of the neighborhood deli where she overplaying the effects. The Irishman is worked. Though swift and casual for him, it more of an accounting of the past, for both leaves a lasting impression on her. the director and Sheeran, which allows There’s nothing stylized about Sheeran’s each to look back without the heady pomp journey. He’s a man following orders and of youth. Such wisdom calls for a more painting houses — as the film explains his clear-eyed approach. efforts as a hitman — with workmanlike We live for a return to righteousness focus. As an Irishman caught up in the or, at the very least, some semblance of Mafia world, De Niro’s Sheeran doesn’t innocence. Either that or we happily cast fit in. It could be argued that he’s equally people out. In the way Scorsese handles ill suited for these narrative times as well.

Sheeran’s story, he would likely be satisfied He’s an unrepentant killer, a loyal foot with this fate. soldier who lived and died by a code that It seems the same applies to the director. would never offer him a hint of redemption.

He’s living by his own filmmaking code The closest he comes to being a real hero with honor and devotion to his craft. (In is in his relationships with Russell Bufalino theaters for a limited time; streaming on (Joe Pesci) and Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino).

Netflix Nov. 27) (R) Grade: A Here, we see Sheeran’s loyalty and sense

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New Chef, New Menu for The Littlefield

FOOD & DRINK

Chef Joe Stalf took the reins of the Northside bourbon bar and bistro last year and has added some Asian and Southern flair R E V I E W BY PA M A M I TC H EL L

E

Labor Day, the wait was over.

A graduate of the Midwest Culinary Institute at Cincinnati State and veteran of several area kitchens, Stalf strikes me as a committed farmto-table advocate, which made for a smooth transition from the likeminded Anderson. He said that local purveyors provide 70 to 80 The Littlefield percent of the 3934 Spring Grove Ave., food coming out littlefieldsns.com of his kitchen.

Since coming on board about a year Stalf said he gets the pork from ago, Stalf has reorganized the kitchen and Black Willow Farms in Bellville, Ohio, a streamlined its staff, which he said makes small farm that supplies only about seven it easier to move around in a fairly small restaurants with meat from its Berkshire space. When I asked him how his cookpigs. He smokes a whole loin with a crust ing differs from Anderson’s, he said that of togarashi, a Japanese spice blend that while they share many values, his tastes includes sesame seed, dried chiles, ginger lean toward combining elements of both and seaweed, among other ingredients.

Southern and Asian cuisines. For instance, Next, he cuts the loin into half-inch slices, the Littlefield’s new brunch menu abounds coats the slices with panko and pan-fries with Southern dishes such as fried-chicken them for crispness. It’s topped with katsu biscuits ($14) and shrimp and grits ($15), — a Japanese curry sauce — blended with a a hickory-smoked pork tostada with housemade barbecue sauce.

Memphis-style barbecue sauce at lunch The chop is served sliced cross-wise, ($10), and for dinner, the chicken and corn and the tastiest morsels tend to be on the chowder with cornbread ($14) feels about edges where bits of fat have gotten crispy. as down-home as you can get.

The plate is finished with a cooling slaw As for the Asian influences, I think made from thinly sliced veggies — local that’s where Stalf’s cooking really shines.

Napa cabbage, red cabbage and carHis knowledge of (especially) Japanese rots — and dressed with a ginger/basil/ ingredients is impressive and has resulted lime vinaigrette enriched with sesame oil. in one particular standout dish. The Spectacular. smoked pork katsu ($16) might be one of A variety of items not particularly Souththe best things I’ve eaten all year. On a ern or Asian round out your choices. Stalf couple of visits this fall, one of my dining recommends the Italian beef sandwich on companions tried this unusual pork chop a hearty Cuban roll ($13). It features sliced, and raved about it, but I didn’t even ask for smoked chuck roast with spicy pickles, a bite. For the most part, I don’t eat much tomato jam and fontina cheese. pork, but last time I went for dinner there, If this food sounds like a meat-lover’s I decided to see for myself why people paradise, vegetarians need not worry were saying “yum” so many times during because you have options. There’s an dinner. exemplary roasted garlic hummus plate

L to R: buttermilk panna cotta, shrimp and grits and smoked pork katsu PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

($13) that works as a shared appetizer or a nice meal for one person. Or try the savory tofu banh mi ($12). Stalf added vegetable risotto ($13) to the fall dinner menu, made with local, seasonal vegetables and manchego cheese.

Dessert was always one of Anderson’s strengths and for the most part, Stalf has continued to offer her pies, cookies and other sweets. His buttermilk panna cotta ($6) topped with seasonal fruit and shortbread crumble tastes marvelous, too.

I haven’t even mentioned the Littlefield’s excellent bourbon selection and reliably good cocktails, so don’t overlook one of the raisons d’etre of the place. Another thing I love about the Littlefield is the inimitable Northside vibe — friendly, eclectic and non-judgmental no matter who you are or how you dress. You’re likely to be greeted by one of my favorite Northsiders, the super-chill Corbly Brockman, who has been a server there from day one and is now head of service and special events.

He and the rest of the staff of servers and bartenders will make you feel completely at home — or in your third place.

FIND MORE RESTAURANT NEWS AND REVIEWS AT CITYBEAT.COM/ FOOD-DRINK

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very neighborhood should have a place like Northside’s The Littlefield.

While you might not drive across town to eat, drink or hang there, if it’s close to home, you might just make it your third place. That is, the spot you’re most likely to be found when not at home or work.

I’m not saying that the Littlefield wouldn’t be worth a crosstown trek. But I’m grateful to be able to hop in my car and get there in five minutes. And while this place has become a mainstay since opening about five years ago, a new chef and menu made me think it’s a good time to delve into what’s changed and what hasn’t in recent months.

Ownership of what started as a bourbon bar with a small menu remains in the hands of a quartet of Northsiders, who initially brought in chef Shoshannah Anderson to create the food offerings.

More recently, the foursome — John Ford, Mike Berry, Matt Distel and Chad Scholten — opened a game room/sports bar called Second Place next door to the Littlefield. And after a few years of Anderson’s cooking in a tiny kitchen, the team decided to create a larger canvas for her food artistry: Last December, they opened Branch in East Walnut Hills, with Anderson as head chef.

Branch is a little more ambitious — not exactly formal by any means but leaning more toward elegance with somewhat higher price points and a significantly wider choice of dishes than you’ll find at the Littlefield.

But the Northside spot never skipped a beat after Anderson’s departure. They hired Joe Stalf to oversee food service at Second Place and the Littlefield, charging him with creating what eventually became five of his own menus in the ensuing months. Stalf said he crafted menus for brunch at both establishments, evening fare at Second Place and lunch at the Littlefield before finally debuting a dinner menu at the Littlefield in early September.

They had kept Anderson’s dishes from last winter all through the spring and summer. There was good food on that menu, but I kept asking why we were eating pot pies and stews — however well executed — in 90-degree weather. And I was anxious to see what Stalf had to offer. Finally, around

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WHAT’S THE HOPS

Black Friday Beer Releases, Plus Brewery Holiday Events and New Year’s Eve Parties

BY G A R I N PI R N I A

The best part of Thanksgiving is the day after, aka Black Friday (Nov. 29). Several breweries will be selling rare and special bottles of beer — and it’s an excuse to escape your family.

On Black Friday, all of the following events are happening: Grainworks will tap What’s In The Middle, an Oreo-infused milk stout, and The White Stuff, a Golden Oreo-infused golden cream ale. Also, merchandise will be 30 percent off. Sonder Brewing will team-up with Mason’s Duck Donuts for a release of Sunrise Lemon Icing Berliner Weisse and Taken For PomeGranted, a pomegranate liqueur barrelaged sour. Sunrise will be available in cans and Pome-Granted will be sold in bottles.

Listermann will open at 9 a.m. and host their annual Black Friday bottle release, which includes bottles of Vanilla Discrepancies and other variants. Christian Moerlein gets into the Black Friday spirit with Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. They’ll sell $4 pints and $4 flights of dark beers and have $8 growler refills. Swine City will also celebrate with 10 taps of stouts. Streetside will release cans of #Blessed and John Lemon and will open nice and early at 8 a.m. Little Miami Brewing Co. brings back Prancer, an American gingerbread ale brewed with real ginger root, and Blitzen, a strong Scottish ale, on tap. (No reindeer were harmed in the brewing process.) And Braxton has everyone beat by opening at 7:30 a.m. on Black Friday. They’ll preview a Barrel-Aged Starter Coffee (featuring a Coffee Emporium roast aged in bourbon barrels for two years) and offer 10 percent off merch, a Taste of Belgium waffle bar and Holtman’s donuts.

NEW BEERS

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• Locoba by Platform recently added Red Martian, a slushie-style fruit punch sour ale, to its draft and can lineup. On Black Friday they’ll release bourbon-barrel aged imperial stout High River in cans.

• On Nov. 22, Fretboard released a barrel-aged canned version of Cliftone Cookie Jar, named after the local Reggae

54

band The Cliftones. The imperial stout was brewed with Maverick Chocolate and graham cracker flavors.

• Braxton Labs has brought back its Sweet Potato Casserole — brewed with 115 pounds of roasted sweet potatoes, cinnamon and vanilla — on tap and in four-pack cans.

• Taft’s released its annual Santa’s Bribe, a Christmas cookie ale with notes of cinnamon, vanilla and ginger. Try it on draft and buy it in cans.

EVENTS

• Various breweries are hosting holidaythemed trivia nights: Listermann hosts A Christmas Story trivia on Nov. 27; Sonder Brewing hosts Christmas Vacation trivia on Dec. 2; Swine City hosts Die Hard trilogy trivia on Dec. 4; 16 Lots hosts Elf trivia on Dec. 4 and Christmas Vacation trivia on Dec. 18; and the Samuel Adams Cincinnati Taproom hosts Christmas Vacation trivia on Dec. 10 and Elf trivia on Dec. 17.

• On Thanksgiving Eve, relieve holiday stress at Darkness. Ike Ike Baby, a vanilla and maple imperial brown ale, will be back on tap along with food from Darkness Diner, plus trivia and live drink ‘n draw.

• On Dec. 4, bring your pooch to Streetside Brewing for photographs with Santa.

A $10 donation will benefit the League for Animal Welfare.

• Hoxworth Blood Center needs your blood. On Dec. 6, head to Listermann for a blood drive. Give blood in return for a Listermann tulip glass.

• Krampuslauf Zinzinnati is a local group that spreads the love of Krampus during the season. On Dec. 6, they’ll be at Streetside to pose for photos, possibly hold lashings and raise money for the Boys & Girls Club of Cincinnati. On Dec. 14, they’ll hit up West Side Brewing and do the same except the brewery will also release Krampus Kandy beer.

• Dec. 7 marks Rhinegeist’s fifth annual Dad Day in which you wear plaid and bring your dad to the brewery to enjoy the release of Dad, a hoppy holiday ale.

Braxton’s Dark Charge Day “cakebox” varietals PHOTO: PROVIDED BY BR A X TON

The event is free, but for $30 you have the option of taking a family photo, receiving an ornament and getting a pint of beer.

• Braxton’s yearly Dark Charge Day takes place on Dec. 7. The winter block party features variants of bourbon barrelaged Dark Charge — Maple Breakfast, Mole and Luxardo Cherries & Citrus — live music and local food vendors. In addition, this year will feature a super rare release of a trio of pastry-inspired Dark Charge brews available in a “cakebox”: Dark Charge German Chocolate Cake, Dark Charge White Chocolate Raspberry and Dark Charge Bananas Foster.

• On Dec. 8, bring your pittie to Fifty West for a photo with Santa. For $15, Cincinnati Pit Crew will take photos and give you a $5 beer ticket.

• On Dec. 12, Mt. Carmel Brewing Co. hosts a four-course dinner paired with four beers. Menu items include duck rillette paired with Mt. Carmel IPA; scallops with Mt. Carmel Blonde Ale and coffee caramel crème brûlée with Mt. Carmel Stout. Tickets are $65.

• On Dec. 21, Listermann throws an ugly

sweater party and bartenders will judge the most hideous fashions.

• Dec. 21 is the Winter Solstice — the darkest and longest night of the year. Come to Fibonacci for Barrel-Aged Imperial Tollhouse and a new golden stout release, plus mulled wine and ornament crafting.

• New Year’s Eve parties abound, including a few “Roaring Twenties” ones.

Grainworks rings in the 2020s with a 1920s-themed party. Flapper dresses and pinstripe suits are encouraged. The $10 cover gets you DJ Xtina spinning Big Band and Swing Music and special brews.

Sonder Brewing amps up the 1920s New Year’s Eve party theme with a live dueling piano show, unlimited drinks, a sparkling wine toast, “heavy” hors d’oeuvres from BrewRiver and $5 off Uber. Tickets are $100 or $25 for designated driver. Dead Low’s Brew Year’s Eve Bootlegger Bash features new beer releases, Champagne cocktails, live music and a midnight keg drop. Tickets range from $50 to $100 for VIP. Contact Garin Pirnia: request@citybeat.com

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MUSIC

Preserving Your Inner Freak Northern Kentucky Rock group Frontier Folk Nebraska’s new album Freaks is about becoming who you are without losing who you were

BY B R I A N B A K ER

F

Frontier Folk Nebraska auditioned drummers and Batson got the call.

“Six months or so later when Mark quit, they asked me to fill in for a couple of shows, and I guess I did OK because here I am,” Batson says. “That was actually most of the way through the recording process for this new record.”

“It was obvious that he was an awesome musician,” McCormick says. “We tried multiple great drummers and I don’t want to say he was the best drummer, but he was the best fit.”

“A band is about a vibe and he gets along with us,” Talbert adds. “A lot of it is he’s really quiet. He was there the day we tracked three of the songs in West Virginia.

We were doing a run to play shows and record, and Elijah came with us to play the shows, but we didn’t want to put him under the microscope (for the recording) right away. What he did was agree to the horrible terms of learning all the songs and not having a setlist. If you agree with that, you’re kind of stuck in the band.”

Leading up to the recording and as the band tracked Freaks, discussions turned to an obvious question — was Frontier Folk Nebraska making a concept album?

It’s a question that remains even after the album’s completion.

“I don’t know that the four of us ever sat down and said, ‘Are we making a concept album?’ ” McCormick says. “I don’t think ‘concept album’ ever came up.”

“It did — in the van a lot,” Talbert says. “I feel like we talked about it as we were doing it.”

“There was definitely a conversation,” Hensley confirms. “A lot of the dynamic talk came up too because the pacing of the album had to be perfect. It was a process of multiple years of conversations of what worked and what didn’t. That’s why the EPs came out, that’s when Elijah joined and that changed the dynamic itself.”

“I must have fallen asleep in the van a lot,” McCormick says with a laugh. “I don’t remember any conversations about concept albums. But I don’t remember a lot of things.”

A large part of the differentiation in these new Frontier Folk Nebraska songs is the mature reflection that anchors them.

The dichotomy and irony that Hensley has written a mature song called “Teenage Freaks” is not lost on him.

“That’s what happened!” he says, laughing. “I can think clearly about what happened at that time, how it felt when we

Frontier Folk Nebraska: The High School Years PHOTO: PROVIDED BY THE BAND

were 17. ‘Teenage Freaks’ and ‘All Systems Go’ were the first songs that were starting to feel more mature and thought out, like there was more to the songs than we’d done before, and they were more interesting to play.”

An important part of Freaks as a conceptual piece is framing the songs with the tracks “Freaks Prologue” and “Freaks Epilogue,” which were recorded with Grant Husselman in Covington. Hensley originally wanted to end the album with a song provisionally titled “Joy,” but ultimately he didn’t like it. Talbert had written a brief piece called “Freaks,” with spoken word passages about old times spent hanging out in the basement, watching movies and jamming, which he emailed to Hensley for his consideration. With its vivid details and reflective musings, along with giving the album a title, it ended up setting the tone for Freaks, conceptually.

“He emailed me back something like, ‘I really like that. Can you do one where they’ve all grown up?’” Talbert says. “He prompted me to do (‘Prologue’).”

The earliest and best review of Freaks came from longtime band compadre Justin Chalfant, who, Hensley says, “gets mail as J.T. Money.” Chalfant played drums for Hensley and Talbert when they were in high school and still learning guitar. Their old pal gave the album “the J.T. Money

stamp of approval,” particularly enjoying the lyrical reference to “watching Guns ‘N’ Roses live in Tokyo” in the prologue.

“I said to him, ‘You’re the target audience to me,’ ” Talbert says. “If Justin didn’t like, it’s useless.”

There’s a strong dose of nostalgia in Freaks, but it’s thoughtfully and creatively connected to the present day. It’s about becoming who you are without losing who you were.

“The Freaks concept is that I’m sitting here at 34 and I want to do the same stuff,” Hensley says. “I watch my grandfather still watching Andy Griffith, and I guess I’m going to still watch the stuff that made me mature and grow up. With the album, every time I’ve listened to it, I’m like, ‘What does this mean to me in the lyrics?’ And it all tied together perfectly. In certain sections, it’s like, ‘Here’s the landscape for the majority of this section of my life.’ You dive back down into childhood, and growing up, and then hitting that wall called 30, where it’s ‘Something has to change, something has to die off.’ When you get to (the songs) ‘Hovering’ and ‘Crazy Like Foxes,’ it’s like you’re reborn or something.”

Frontier Folk Nebraska celebrates the release of Freaks Friday, Nov. 29 at the Southgate House Revival. Tickets/more show info: southgatehouse.com.

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our years ago, Northern Kentucky’s Frontier Folk Nebraska booked two shows at the Southgate House Revival in Newport with the intent of recording the performances for their 2016 live album, This One’s for the Kid in the Back. Then there was the album’s actual release and the supporting tours that had to dovetail with the quartet’s daily work and family schedules.

After that, Frontier Folk Nebraska released a pair of cassette EPs, 2017’s Warpig and 2018’s Foolish Frank, named for the skull figure, drawn by vocalist/ guitarist Michael Hensley, that occasionally appears in band materials (“He’s our Eddie,” jokes guitarist Travis Talbert, referring to Iron Maiden’s mascot). As Hensley was conceiving new material, he noticed a significant difference and an interesting pattern in some songs. He held back the ones that hung together and grouped the others into the EPs. “There was definitely connective tissue,” Hensley says. “‘Freaks’ wasn’t the first thing that popped in my head, but there was definitely the aura of that concept — of telling the story of your life through the process of how far you’ve lived it and then realizing it’s about to be flipped on its head with a new direction.”

Hensley’s oddball songs became Frontier Folk Nebraska’s imminent new studio album, Freaks. The band was recording the album’s instrumental tracks in Point Pleasant, West Virginia with producer Bud Carroll at his Trackside Studios when longtime drummer Mark Becknell opted out of the band. Carroll sat in on drums for three tracks (Becknell had already played on four) while Frontier Folk Nebraska began the search for a new rhythmatist, which quickly culminated in the hiring of Elijah Batson.

Batson’s youth is not wasted on him. In addition to being enrolled at the University of Kentucky, the multi-instrumentalist fronts his own solo project, Blueprints and Elements, and drums with Queerpunk band Creamboy, whose debut album is completed and slated for release in 2020.

Batson came to the band’s attention through bassist Matt McCormick, who gave Batson guitar lessons at Covington’s Baker Hunt Art & Cultural Center. One of Batson’s bands at the time played the center’s year-end recital, which was attended

by McCormick and Hensley. It was there they first saw Batson’s skills as a drummer and vocalist. After Becknell’s departure,

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SPILL IT

Recap: The 2019 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards

BY M I K E B R EEN

Bluegrass victors Rumpke Mountain Boys and Country champ Dallas Moore were also touring and unable to collect their CEAs, while Blues CEA winner Ricky Nye was running late and missed accepting his award because he had a gig across town. Fellow winners Freekbass (Funk/R&B/Soul) and Carriers’ Curt Kiser (who won Album of the Year) did make it to the show but it took some doing — they both had driven hours to make it back in time for the CEAs, after playing in Michigan and Washington, D.C. (respectively) the night before.

But that’s a good example of why those artists — Bla’szé performs at Memorial Hall for the 2019 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards and all of the other nominees — were P H O T O : B R I T TA N Y T H O R T N O N being celebrated.

They’re all local BLUEGRASS: Rumpke Mountain Boys music ambassadors in their own ways, be FOLK/AMERICANA: Over the Rhine it by touring their asses off to share with outsiders or gigging locally to entertain ALTERNATIVE/INDIE: Sundae Drives music fans in their hometown.

ROCK: Go Go Buffalo Congratulations to all of the winners and nominees, and thank you to every ELECTRONIC: Moonbeau single person who worked on this year’s SINGER/SONGWRITER: Arlo McKinley show, as well as all of the attendees. The sentiments expressed by nearly every BEST LIVE ACT: The Tillers person who took the CEA stage was pretty BEST MUSIC VIDEO: 500 Miles to Memspot-on — with the wealth of talent and phis – “Hold on Tight” (directed by Casey support in the Queen City, whether you Shelton) are a music lover or a music maker, you’re really lucky to live here.

NEW ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Madqueen Here’s who won what at the 2019 ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Carriers — Now Is Cincinnati Entertainment Awards: COUNTRY: Dallas Moore

The Time For Loving Me, Yourself & Everyone Else

PUNK: Tiger Sex

ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Triiibe

WORLD/REGGAE: The Cliftones

Culture Queer Returns with ‘Fantasy Farm’

JAZZ: Blue Wisp Big Band METAL/HARD ROCK: Lift the Medium R&B/FUNK/SOUL: Freekbass HIP HOP: Triiibe BLUES: Ricky Nye

Longtime Cincinnati Indie Pop/Rock band Culture Queer is adding another great entry to their spectacular discography.

Named for a low-key former area amusement park, Fantasy Farm is the quartet’s fifth album and it once again showcases

the group’s many strengths — expertlycrafted Pop arrangements, an engaging (but never heavy-handed) quirkiness and a non-stop flood of ear-grabbing melodies.

It’s remarkable that Culture Queer isn’t a nationally renowned Indie band, touring the country and playing to sold-out crowds of fervent fans. Fantasy Farm is another reminder of the group’s powerhouse talent — in a just world it would be near the top of Pitchfork’s forthcoming list of the best albums of 2019. As the ’10s come to a close, it stands as one of the best Cincinnatiproduced albums of the decade.

A spectacular lineup of local acts will be joining Culture Queer to celebrate Fantasy Farm’s release on Saturday, Nov. 30. The free show at Northside Tavern (4163 Hamilton Ave., Northside, northsidetav.com) will feature special guests Wussy, Joesph, Slow Glows, Lemon Sky and Mohenjo Daro performing on both of the Tavern’s stages throughout the night.

Get more info about Culture Queer at facebook.com/culturequeer.

Contact Mike Breen: mbreen@citybeat.com

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On Nov. 24, the 22nd annual Cincinnati Entertainment Awards party/ceremony returned to Over-the-Rhine’s Memorial Hall. Local musicians and the supporters who love them once again turned out to show their support for — and sing the praises of — each other.

The 2019 CEA show was exploding with love for the richness and depth of Greater Cincinnati’s music scene, with most award winners deflecting praise for themselves in order to shout out their peers and fans.

Likewise, all of the presenters (various local figures from the music world and beyond) eloquently explained how much local artists have meant to them.

There were several great live performances from a few of the night’s nominated acts, showcasing our music scene’s impressive diversity. Former WNKU music director Aaron Sharpe — who co-hosted for the second year in a row with local DJ Chanell Karr — saluted the attendees for sticking with the show as it shuffled through a wide array of styles and sounds.

Maria Carrelli and her band delivered a couple of songs’ worth of her wildly charming brand of earthy, honky-tonkin’ Country, while Bla’szé wowed the crowd with an energized set of modern R&B that also featured some expert choreography and dance. Superb Hip Hop trio Patterns of Chaos also had the audience hyped with some engaging “Rap Music” (as MC Jay Hill — dressed in what appeared to be a life-sized hamster onesie — shouted a few times during their set). This year’s winners of the Rock CEA, Go Go Buffalo, gave the night a dose of heavy surrealism with their oddball theatrics and singular sartorial choices (singer Jeremy Moore left little to the imagination with his neon green tutu), while Multimagic offered a pair of unshakeable Indie Pop earworms for attendees to take home with them and Soften unspooled a wonderfully mesmerizing Shoegaze mini-epic.

The show kicked off with the announcement that the annual Cincinnati Music Ambassador Award — given to homegrown acts who spread the good word of local music far and wide while never forgetting the community from which they sprung — was being renamed in honor of music icon Bootsy Collins, who gave thanks for the honor via video.

The recipient of the very first Bootsy Collins Music Ambassador Award, was, very fittingly, Over the Rhine, who celebrated 30 years in music in 2019.

Over the Rhine’s Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler sent some very gracious words along for longtime friend Phil Nuxhall to read as he accepted the award in their place — the musicians were wrapping up a string of West Coast tour dates and couldn’t be there themselves. (OTR also won the “Folk/Americana” CEA.) That was a running theme of the night.

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APRINA JOHNSON AND GUESTS

MON 2

8P, TRUTH SERUM: COMEDY GAME SHOW 9:30, LIVE MUSIC TBA

MON 9

LIVE MUSIC TBA

TUE 3

WRITER’S NIGHT W/ DAVE FEAT. KELLI REDDING

TUE 10

8:45P SIGNUP: WRITER’S NIGHT W/ ROB FEAT. BOO LEE CROSSER

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CINCY PROHIBITION PARTY 2020

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SOUND ADVICE

Joslyn & the Sweet Compression

Friday, Nov. 29 • Ludlow Garage

The Farmer & Adele with Mike Oberst

Wednesday, Dec. 4 • Southgate House Revival Keenan Wade and Grace Adele, doing

Joslyn & the Sweet Compression P H O T O : D W AY N E L LOY D

a brisk business as The Farmer & Adele (hi-ho the derry-o… get it?), have become the latest Nashville denizens to simultaneously honor and update the Western Swing tradition. The pair got together with an ear toward contemporizing the singing cowboy/cowgirl routine and came up with a whole lot more than merely Roy Rogers and Dale Evans in the 21st century.

The Farmer & Adele currently host a morning radio show on WSM 650 in Nashville and have become the station’s house band for their pre-show coverage of Grand Ole Opry events. Their debut album, 2015’s Into the Wide Open Sky, features the acclaimed Riders in the Sky as their backing band, and in 2018 and again this year they were nominated in the annual Ameripolitan Music Awards for Best Western Swing Group.

The band began in the duo’s hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Wade was a Jazz player who was looking to find a place for the mandolin in his chosen genre when he discovered Country and Western Swing, while Adele, a classically trained ballerina, pursued auditions as a Rockette and sang at home to finance her New York trips.

Eventually, singing overtook dancing and led to the Nashville move, and with Wade’s capable help, she formed Grace Adele & the Grand Band, which played a blend of Country, Swing, Folk and Indie Rock and ultimately morphed into the more traditional rootsy Swing stylings of The Farmer & Adele.

In addition to writing their own Western

Swing material, The Farmer & Adele continually mine the genre’s past for obscure songs to populate their sets, from classic artists like Bob Wills and Gene Autry to forgotten relics like Al Clauser and His Oklahoma Outlaws.

The duo offers a potent balance of Western Swing’s Southwestern traveling dance band origins and the cowboy/ cowgirl home-on-therange/cattle lullaby traditions, creating The Farmer & Adele an amazing campfire PHOTO: DANIEL LEWIS stew of hoedown and slowdown.

As befitting the time of year, The Farmer & Adele are headed to town for their annual Country Western Christmas Ranch Party, featuring our very Mike Oberst on a busman’s holiday from The Tillers as their special guest. The setlist for the show typically includes a number of classic holiday tunes, a few seasonal originals and a brilliant Western Swing version of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite,” which guarantees an evening of countless hoots and a couple dozen hollers, all with the distinct scent of pine, eggnog and trail dust. (BB)

Dopapod with Paris Monster Saturday, Dec. 7 • Madison Theater

Dopapod began just over a decade ago as a keyboards/drums duo with fellow Berklee School of Music wonks Eli Winderman and Michelangelo Carubba. Over the next two years, the pair added guitarist Bruce Compa, bassist Chuck Jones and percussionist Neal Evans (who switched to drums with Carubba’s departure, and then was replaced by Scotty Zwang, but returned in 2013 after Zwang left). The band released its debut album, Radar, a decade ago. The

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Lexington, Kentucky native Joslyn Hampton has a powerfully emotive R&B voice, reminiscent of early Patti LaBelle, Etta James and Jill Scott. And, like her predecessors, she’s not afraid to use her expressive instrument across a broad range of Blues, Soul and Funk settings.

Those settings are perfectly provided by Hampton’s backing band, the Sweet Compression, a racially and musically diverse group that sounds like they could have split their time between Motown in Detroit and Stax in Memphis during the ’70s. It’s completely fitting that the band closes out their recently released eponymous debut album with a cover of Frankie Beverly & Maze’s “Changing Times,” but the bar is set incredibly high with Hampton and the Sweet Compression’s original material.

Hampton began her musical journey at the age of 3, singing in her grandmother’s church. From her earliest memories of being asked what she wanted to do when she grew up, the answer for Hampton has always been music. She sang in the Kentucky State University concert choir and took opera lessons for years. For a long time, Hampton, a security officer at the University of Kentucky, made a part-time living playing covers in area venues. But three years ago, her stepfather, Marty Charters, a veteran guitarist who had played behind Junior Wells and Cincinnati’s own H-Bomb Ferguson (among many others), asked Hampton if she’d be interested in making an original record that wouldn’t mimic prevailing trends.

She decided that was exactly the kind of record she wanted to make, and the Sweet Compression (Hampton, Charters, bassist Smith Donaldson, keyboardist Steve Holloman, drummer Rashawn Fleming, saxophonist Joe Carucci and trumpeter Kyle Fox) were assembled for the task.

Hampton was already a known commodity in the Lexington music scene, but with the Sweet Compression, she has cemented her reputation as an R&B star in the making. The band’s current Midwest tour is an attempt to broaden their horizons and bring their sweet, soulful soundtrack to as many new ears as possible. In a promotional video from 2017, Charters noted that if the band could find a way to impart the good time they were having onstage to the people in the audience, they could go anywhere and do anything. Given Joslyn Hampton’s extraordinary voice and the Sweet Compression’s stellar musicianship, that particular ticket has already been punched. (Brian Baker)

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Dopapod PHOTO: BEN WONG

Upcoming shows Static X November 29 Merkules November 30 Bonerama December 13 Afroman - A Merry Spliffmas December 21 Prizoner “The Final Show” / 2nd Annual Annie’s Reunion December 28 Smells Like Grunge Night January 4 Insomnium and Summoner’s Circle March 20 Flotsam and Jetsam May 19

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Where

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COZY, ECO FRIENDLY CAF CAFÉ É BREAKFAST & LUNCH LOCALLY SOURCED Open Daily - 8am | Sundays - 9am Open Late - Thursday, Friday, Saturday

CALL FOR CATERING 513-381-3436

MUSIC EDITOR MIKE BREEN KNOWS MUSIC.

BE LIKE BREEN.

Performances Become Legend

Pink Talking Fish

riverfrontlivecincy.com Ticket Information 513-321-2572

Prog/Jam collective has since become renowned for its almost constant road presence, generating (and then transcending) comparisons to the likes of Disco Biscuits, Phish and Frank Zappa.

In the early days, it wasn’t difficult to connect the dots of Dopapod’s influences and their subsequent sonic translations: wild time signature and melodic shifts; abrupt changes in dynamics, from rafterrattling volume to lean-in-and-listen quietude; long solo breaks; and lyrical passages that suggested herbal mind expansion and reflection (at least since 2012’s Redivider, as the first two albums were instrumentals).

That latter quality leaked over to the titling of Dopapod’s albums, all of which have been palindromes, reading the same left to right or right to left, including 2011’s I Saw Live Dopapod, Evil Was I. Only their most recent concert recording, Live at the Capitol Theatre, has broken the palindromic string.

After 2017’s Hip Hop-tinged Prog set Megagem and its naturally strenuous touring cycle, Dopapod announced they would neither record nor tour in 2018 in order for band members to recharge and spend time with family and friends.

The quartet’s fifth studio album, Emit Time, was released back in May and is comprised of music that each member conceived on their own during the hiatus.

In many respects, Emit Time is a return to the sound and texture of Dopapod’s early works, as well as the vocal shift on Redivider. (BB)

Saturday, Dec. 7 • Ludlow Garage

READ CITYBEAT.COM/MUSIC EVERYDAY.

In the wild world of tribute bands, standard operating procedure is to pick a group that you revere, learn their material inside out, come up with an engaging and entertaining stage presentation and attract the original band’s hardcore followers.

Pink Talking Fish has taken a slightly

different tack. As their on-the-nose name would indicate, the Boston-based quartet is actually a hybrid tribute act, offering their unique translations of the catalogs of Pink Floyd, Talking Heads and Phish.

Taking the tribute concept a step further, Pink Talking Fish not only honors the sonic stylings of its favorite bands, it finds connective threads between seemingly disparate songs and weaves them together for fascinating new combinations. Pink Floyd’s “On the Run” gets dropped into the center of Phish’s “You Enjoy Myself,” while Floyd’s “Run Like Hell,” the Talking Heads’ “Making Flippy Floppy” and Phish’s “Piper” get strung together in a lengthy jam mash-up.

Pink Talking Fish also hits more traditional tribute notes — two years ago, the band performed four entire Pink Floyd albums (Animals, Dark Side of the Moon, Meddle and Wish You Were Here) over three consecutive concerts.

Pink Talking Fish was conceived by bassist Eric Gould after he played his final shows with his longtime Electronica outfit Particle in 2014. Pink Talking Fish originally operated as a rotating cast of whoever was available at any given time, but Gould solidified the lineup after seeing Phish tributers The Phreaks, recruiting drummer Zack Burwick and guitarist Dave Brunyak full-time. The arrival of keyboardist Richard James expanded the band’s sonic range. Earlier this year, Pink Talking Fish announced they had amicably parted ways with Brunyak, who left the band to pursue an original music direction with his new project, DB, and new guitarist Cal Kehoe was subsequently introduced.

Pink Talking Fish recently announced it would be doing a few Beastie Boys tribute shows in December — with DJ Logic filling the Mix Master Mike role — so perhaps they’ll be adding “Boys” to the end of their moniker at some point in the near future.

(BB)

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63

LISTINGS

CityBeat’s music listings are free. Send info to Mike Breen 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.

WEDNESDAY 27

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - The Tillers. 8 p.m.

Folk/Americana. Free.

BLIND LEMON - Tom Roll.

8 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

BOGART’S - Grunge Tribute with Bronson Arroyo Band, Lift The Medium, Hollow and Rootbound. 6 p.m.

Grunge. $13.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Blue Wisp Big Band. 8 p.m. Big Band Jazz. $10.

FRETBOARD BREWING COMPANY - River City. 7 p.m. Pop/Dance/Various.

Free.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Brad Myers Quartet with Meghann Watkins. 6 p.m. Jazz. Free.

JIM AND JACK’S ON THE RIVER - Excalibur. 9 p.m.

Rock. Free.

KNOTTY PINE - 90 Proof Twang. 10 p.m. Country.

Cover.

LUDLOW GARAGE - The Flex Crew. 8:30 p.m. Reggae. Cover.

H

MADISON LIVE Discogiving with Dizgo, Peridoni and Eyeris Wide. 9 p.m. Rock/Electronic/Jam/ Various. $10, $15 day of show.

MANSION HILL TAVERN Johnny Fink & the Intrusion.

8 p.m. Blues/Rock. Cover.

H

C I T Y B E AT. C O M |

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MEMORIAL HALL Abbey Road: a 50th Anniversary Beatles Celebration with The Newbees and Friends. 8 p.m. Beatles tribute. $35-$45.

64

H

MOTR PUB - Ernie Johnson From Detroit.

9 p.m. Funk/AfroBeat/Various. Free.

MVP BAR & GRILLE Prizoner. 9:30 p.m. Hard Rock. $5.

H

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - The Dukes are Dead with Still Witches. 9 p.m.

Rock. Free.

H

PLAIN FOLK CAFE Hickory Robot. 7:30 p.m. Bluegrass/Americana.

Free.

H

THE REDMOOR - Ariel, Jay Cam, DJ Cue, DJ Fresh, Animal Crackers, E Will, DJ Mista Rare Groove and more. 8 p.m. R&B/Soul/ Hip Hop/Dance/Various.

Cover.

REVEL OTR URBAN WINERY - “The High Note.” 8:30 p.m. Jazz. Free.

RICK’S TAVERN - House Party. 9:30 p.m. Pop/Rock/ Dance. $5.

SOUTHERN LANES - Saving Stimpy. 9 p.m. Rock.

Free.

H

THE SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL - Get Stuffed on Local Music featuring Calumet, The Tammy WhyNots, Lost Coast, The Ophelias, Saint Bernard, Veronica Grim, The Poor Hours, The Dummy Ups, Cold Stereo, Isabelle Helle & The Hell’s Bells and Randy Steffen. 7 p.m. Rock/ Roots/Various. $10, $12 day of show.

H

STANLEY’S PUB Funksgiving Eve with Strange Mechanics and Project 504. 9 p.m. Funk/ Jam/Various. Cover.

H

THOMPSON HOUSE - Hekler. 9 p.m. EDM/ Bass. $20.

VINOKLET WINERY AND RESTAURANT - Bluegrass Wednesdays with Vernon McIntyre’s Appalachian Grass. 6:30 p.m. Bluegrass.

Free.

H

WESTSIDE VENUE - Chasing Autumn, Hyoscene and Mask of the Charlatan. 8 p.m. AltRock.

LOUNGE - Steve Schmidt Trio. 9 p.m. Jazz. Free.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - John Zappa Trio. 8:30 p.m. Jazz.

Cover.

CAMP SPRINGS TAVERN - Jordan Smart. 8:30 p.m.

Americana.

THE COMET - Phoul Phill andt Guill. 10 p.m. Indie Rock. Free.

HERITAGE BANK CENTER - Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas Eve & Other Stories. 4 p.m.; 8 p.m. Holiday Prog. $49.50-$79.50.

H

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Ricky Nye Inc. with Bekah Williams. 9 p.m. Blues/Boogie Woogie. Free.

JAG’S STEAK AND SEAFOOD - Airwave Band. 9:30 p.m. Pop/R&B/Dance/Various. Cover.

KNOTTY PINE - Under the Sun. 10 p.m. AltRock. Cover.

H

LUDLOW GARAGE Joslyn & The Sweet Compression. 8:30 p.m.

R&B. $10.

THE MAD FROG - Conrank.

9 p.m. Dubstep/Various.

Cover.

H

MOTR PUB - New Third Worlds with AM Nice and Disaster Class. 10 p.m.

Rock. Free.

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - Ace of Wands, Adam Flaig and Brianna Kelly. 8 p.m. Rock/ Various. Free.

H

OTR LIVE - Port Of Miami 2 Tour with Rick Ross and Jim Jones. 10 p.m.

Hip Hop. $60-$125.

WIEDEMANN BREWERY AND TAPROOM - Thom Stephenson Trio. 7:30 p.m.

Rock/Blues. Free.

PARKERS BLUE ASH TAVERN - Encore Duo. 6 p.m.

Acoustic Classic Rock. Free.

H

H

FRIDAY 29

THE REDMOOR - Soul Pocket. 8 p.m. R&B/Dance/ Pop/Various. $10.

WOODWARD THEATER - Dawg Yawp. 8 p.m. Indie/Alt/Folk/World/ Pop. $12, $14 day of show.

H

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - The Cincy Brass. 8 p.m. Brass/Funk/ Dance/Pop/Various. Free.

BLIND LEMON - Jamonn Zeiler. 9 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

BROMWELL’S HÄRTH

PLAIN FOLK CAFE Part-Time Gentlemen.

7:30 p.m. Americana. Free.

RICK’S TAVERN - HiFi Honey. 9:30 p.m. Pop/Rock/ Country. $5.

RIVERFRONT LIVE - StaticX with Mushroomhead, Dope and more. 7:30 p.m.

Rock. $25.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT - The Emily Grace Jordan Trio.

8:30 p.m. Jazz. Cover.

H

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - Frontier Folk Nebraska (album release show) with The New OldFashioned and Alex Salcido.

7:30 p.m. Rock. $10, $15 day of show.

H

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) - Funksgiving with Freekbass & The Bump Assembly with Drop the Sun. 9 p.m. Funk. $12, $15 day of show.

STANLEY’S PUB - The Funk Factory with Dustin Smith and the Daydreamers.

10 p.m. Funk/Jam. Cover.

THOMPSON HOUSE Blacktop Mojo. 7:15 p.m.

Rock. $15.

H

URBAN ARTIFACT Glostik Willy with Go Go Buffalo and IN2ITIV3. 9 p.m. Rock/Hip Hop/Jam/ Various.

WASHINGTON PLATFORM - EWI Quartet with Lectliter & Simon. 9 p.m. Jazz. $10 (food/drink minimum).

WIEDEMANN BREWERY AND TAPROOM - Pandora Project. 8 p.m. Rock. Free.

H

WOODWARD THEATER - Pomegranates.

9 p.m. Indie Rock. $14, $16 day of show.

SATURDAY 30

H

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Jess Lamb and the Factory. 8 p.m. Alt/Pop/ Rock/Soul/Various. Free.

BOGART’S - Elton John Vs. Billy Joel. 9 p.m. Pop/Rock tribute. $10.

BREWRIVER CREOLE KITCHEN - Ricky Nye. 11 a.m. Blues/Boogie Woogie.

Free.

H

CENTER FOR SPIRITUAL LIVING - Matt Venuti. 7 p.m. Ambient Americana/World Music. $15, $20 day of show.

H

THE COMET - Siren Suit, Sistern and Sharp Toys. 10 p.m. Indie Rock.

Free.

HERITAGE BANK CENTER - Michael W Smith & Amy Grant Christmas Tour. 7 p.m.

Christmas/Pop. $32.50-$125.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (LOUNGE) Ducain. 9:30 p.m. Rock/ Roots/Blues. Free.

H

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) - The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band with Col. JD Wilkes. 9 p.m.

Blues/Americana. $20, $25 day of show.

STANLEY’S PUB - The Stolen Faces. 10 p.m. Grateful Dead tribute. Cover.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Jim Anderson Quartet. 9 p.m. Jazz.

Free.

H

JAG’S STEAK AND SEAFOOD - 3 Piece Revival.

9:30 p.m. Pop/Rock/Dance.

Cover.

WASHINGTON PLATFORM - Jim Connerley Trio.

9 p.m. Jazz. $10 (food/drink minimum).

JEN’S BAR AND GRILL The Pandora Project. 9:30 p.m. Rock.

WIEDEMANN BREWERY AND TAPROOM - Everything’s Jake. 7:30 p.m. Rock/ Blues/Folk. Free.

JIM AND JACK’S ON THE RIVER - GenX. 9 p.m. Rock/ Country/Various. Free.

KNOTTY PINE - Lt. Dan’s New Legs. 10 p.m. Pop/Hip Hop/Dance/Various. Cover.

LUDLOW GARAGE - Anna Stine with Night Owl. 8:30 p.m. Singer/Songwriter. $15-$25.

MANSION HILL TAVERN - VooDoo Spiders. 8 p.m.

Blues. Cover.

H H H

MEMORIAL HALL Sierra Hull. 8 p.m.

Americana. $28-$40.

MOTR PUB - Joseph Nevels. 10 p.m.

Pop/R&B. Free.

URBAN ARTIFACT Baoku and AC the Entity. 9 p.m. World/Hip Hop.

SUNDAY 01

H

ARONOFF CENTER FOR THE ARTS - It Was 50 Years Ago Today: A Tribute to The Beatles’ White Album with Todd Rundgren, Christopher Cross and Micky Dolenz. 7 p.m.

Beatles tribute. $39-$119.

H

BOGART’S - Waterparks. 7 p.m. Rock. $25.

THE COMET - Comet Bluegrass Allstars. 7:30 p.m.

Bluesgrass. Free.

H

DEAD LOW BREWING - Vince Herman, Hickory Robot and Highly Likely. 6 p.m. Bluegrass/Roots. Free

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - Culture Queer (album release show) with Wussy, Joesph, Slow Glows, Lemon Sky and Mohenjo Daro. 9 p.m. Indie Rock/Pop. Free.

KNOTTY PINE - Randy Peak. 10 p.m. Acoustic/Various. Free.

PLAIN FOLK CAFE - The Midwestern Swing. 7:30 p.m.

Western Swing. Free.

LUDLOW GARAGE - Poco.

8:30 p.m. Rock. $30-$65.

RIVERFRONT LIVE Merkules. 8 p.m. Hip Hop. $17-$70.

LATITUDES BAR & BISTRO - BlueBirds. 8 p.m.

Rock/R&B. Free.

MOTR PUB - Ricky Nye and Chris Douglas. 8 p.m. Blues/ Boogie Woogie. Free.

BROMWELL’S HÄRTH LOUNGE - Mandy Gaines and The Steve Schmidt Trio.

9 p.m. Jazz. Free.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT - Ron Enyard Quartet. 8:30 p.m.

Jazz. Cover.

NORTHSIDE TAVERN Annex with Sour Ground and Crime of Passing. 9 p.m.

Post Punk. Free.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Mambo Combo. 8:30 p.m. Jazz.

Cover.

SILVERTON CAFÉ - Night Owls. 8:30 p.m. Blues/Soul/ Rock. Free.

H

REVEL OTR URBAN WINERY - Anna Applegate, Shane Cooley and LaTayna Foster. 6 p.m.

Singer/Songwriter/Various.

Jazz. $10.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT Paul Patterson Ensemble. 6 p.m. Jazz. Cover.

H

STANLEY’S PUB - Open Jam. 9 p.m. Various. Free.

WESTSIDE VENUE - Open Rock and Blues Jam. 7 p.m.

Rock/Blues. Free.

WIEDEMANN BREWERY AND TAPROOM - Slick Willie and the Kentucky Jellies.

5 p.m. Rockabilly. Free.

MOTR PUB Madqueen with Feral Friends and War on TV. 10 p.m. Indie Rock. Free.

REVEL OTR URBAN WINERY - “The High Note”. 8:30 p.m. Jazz. Free.

RICK’S TAVERN - House Party. 9:30 p.m. Pop/Rock/ Dance. $5.

H

BOGART’S - Silversun Pickups with Michigander and Upsahl. 8 p.m.

Alternative Rock.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - The Farmer & Adele Country Western Christmas Party with Mike Oberst. 8 p.m. Country/ Western Swing/Americana. $12, $15 day of show.

MCCAULY’S PUB - Open Jam with Sonny Moorman. 7 p.m. Blues/Various. Free.

STANLEY’S PUB - El Ritmo del Mañana. 9 p.m. Latin Jazz. $7.

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - The Qtet. 9:30 p.m. Funk/Jazz/ Rock/Fusion. Free.

VINOKLET WINERY AND RESTAURANT - Bluegrass Wednesdays with Vernon McIntyre’s Appalachian Grass. 6:30 p.m. Bluegrass.

Free.

MONDAY 02

H

STANLEY’S PUB - Jazz Jam with The Stanleyband.

9 p.m. Jazz/Improv. Free.

TUESDAY 03

BLIND LEMON - Nick Tuttle.

8:30 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

H

BOGART’S - Louis the Child. 8 p.m. Electronic/ Pop/Dance/Various. $33.50.

BREWRIVER CREOLE KITCHEN - The Twirlers. 7 p.m. R&B/Classic Pop/Standards. Free.

H

CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL - Music Live@Lunch with Ricky Nye and Bekah Williams. 12:10 p.m. Blues/Jazz. Free.

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - Insignificant Other. 9 p.m. Indie Pop. Free.

STANLEY’S PUB - Trashgrass Troubadours with Moriah Haven. 9 p.m. Bluegrass/Americana. $5.

WEDNESDAY 04

H

20TH CENTURY THEATER - Livingston Taylor with Rebecca Loebe.

8 p.m. Folk. $30-$35.

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Philip Paul Trio.

7:30 p.m. Jazz. Free.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - On a Limb.

7:30 p.m. Jazz. Cover.

COMMON ROOTS - Open Mic. 8 p.m. Various. Free.

DELHI PUB - Rockne’s Open Mic. 8 p.m. Various.

Free.

LUDLOW GARAGE - Rockapella. 8:30 p.m. A Capella/ Holiday/Pop. $15-$35.

H

MOTR PUB - Still Witches with J. Dorsey Band. 10 p.m. Rock/Blues.

Free.

H

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - Daisychain and Fickle Hellcat. 8:30 p.m. Blues/ Garage Rock. Free.

NORTHSIDE TAVERN The Insiders. 9 p.m. Tommy Petty tribute. Free.

THE PIKE BAR AND GRILL - Ricky Nye. 6 p.m. Blues/ Boogie Woogie. Free.

BOGART’S - Big Hairy X-Mas with Steel Panther. 8 p.m. Rock. $26.

H

SCHWARTZ’S POINT - Jordan Pollard with Dan Drees.

8 p.m. Jazz. Cover.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Blue Wisp Big Band. 8 p.m. Big Band

H

STANLEY’S PUB Velvet Underground

URBAN ARTIFACT - Audio Indemnity. 9 p.m. Alt/Indie Rock. Free.

FRIDAY 06

H

BOGART’S - Radio Romance, Derek Alan Band, Kevin McCoy Band, Raleigh Keegan and Tyler Moore Band. 7:30 p.m.

Country. $15.

BROMWELL’S HÄRTH LOUNGE - Steve Schmidt Trio. 9 p.m. Jazz. Free.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Arnold Culbreath Trio. 8:30 p.m.

Jazz. Cover.

JAG’S STEAK AND SEAFOOD - My Sister Sarah.

9:30 p.m. Pop/Rock. Cover.

JIM AND JACK’S ON THE RIVER - Danny Frazier. 9 p.m. Country. Free.

KNOTTY PINE - Prizoner.

10 p.m. Rock. Cover.

H H H

LUDLOW GARAGE The Skivvies. 8:30 p.m.

Undie Pop/Holiday. $15-$35.

THE MAD FROG - ill.

Gates. 8 p.m. Bass. $15.

MADISON LIVE - Aqueous with LITZ. 9 p.m.

Groove Rock. $15, $18 day of show.

H

MOTR PUB - Bailen.

10 p.m. Indie/Folk/Pop. Free.

NORTHSIDE TAVERN Sexy Time Live Band Karaoke. 8 p.m. Rock/Various. Free.

PLAIN FOLK CAFE - BackTracks. 7:30 p.m. Rock/Pop/ Various. Free.

RADISSON CINCINNATI RIVERFRONT - Basic Truth.

8 p.m. R&B/Soul/Funk. Free (in the Fifth Lounge).

RICK’S TAVERN - DV8. 10 p.m. Rock. $5.

H

SCHWARTZ’S POINT Miles Davis Tribute with the Eric Wurzelbacher Quartet. 8:30 p.m. Jazz. Cover.

H

STANLEY’S PUB Julian Davis & the Situation and Stringus Khan.

9 p.m. Bluegrass. $10.

H H

H H

THE VENUE CINCINNATI - The Classic Rock Experience. 7:30 p.m. Classic Rock. $10.

RICK’S TAVERN - Second Wind. 10 p.m. Rock and Soul. $5.

THOMPSON HOUSE September Mourning. 7 p.m. Rock/Various. $15.

URBAN ARTIFACT Reggae Night with Fyakey and Jamwave. 9 p.m.

Reggae.

WESTSIDE VENUE - First Friday Open Mic with Pete Denuzio and Flat Top Dave.

6:30 p.m. Various.

WIEDEMANN BREWERY AND TAPROOM - Jet Pack Academy. 8 p.m. Rock/ Disco/Country. Free.

SATURDAY 07

12 MILE CREEK WINERY - Encore Duo. 5:30 p.m.

Acoustic Classic Rock. Free.

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Cincinnati Dancing Pigs. 8 p.m. Americana/Jug band. Free.

BROMWELL’S HÄRTH LOUNGE - Mandy Gaines and The Steve Schmidt Trio.

9 p.m. Jazz. Free.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Camille Saba Smith Smooth Quartet.

8:30 p.m. Jazz. Cover.

CAMP SPRINGS TAVERN - Randy Steffen. 8:30 p.m.

Roots JAG’S STEAK AND SEAFOOD - Gee Your Band Smells Terrific. 9:30 p.m. ’70s Pop/Rock/Dance. Cover.

JIM AND JACK’S ON THE RIVER - Bourbon Road. 9 p.m. Country. Free.

KNOTTY PINE - Prizoner.

10 p.m. Rock. Cover.

H

LUDLOW GARAGE Pink Talking Fish. 8:30 p.m. Pink Floyd/Talking Heads/Phish tribute. $20.

MACADU’S - Ambush. 9 p.m. Rock. Free.

H

MADISON THEATER - Dopapod with Paris Monster. 9 p.m. Rock/Jam/ Various. $20, $24 day of show.

MOTR PUB - Spoken Nerd and Juan Cosby.

10 p.m. Hip Hop. Free.

MOTR PUB - Aprina Johnson. 8 p.m. R&B/Soul/Pop/ Various. Free.

NORTHSIDE TAVERN The Grove and See You In The Funnies. 9 p.m. Rock/ Various. Free.

RIVERFRONT LIVE Through Fire. 6:30 p.m. Hard Rock. $9.65.

H

RIVERFRONT LIVE Chaos Ritual, Temper, Dark Soul, Bag of Bones and Saint Christopher. 8 p.m.

Rock. $10.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT George Simon Trio. 8:30 p.m.

Jazz. Cover.

SORG OPERA HOUSE Blue Wisp Big Band. 8 p.m.

Big Band/Jazz. $20, $25 day of show.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (LOUNGE) - J.H. Sitton. 9:30 p.m. Americana duo. Free.

H

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - The Yugos with Joesph and Kid ESP. 8 p.m.

Indie Rock. $7.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT Paul Gibby and Sasha Strunjas. 6 p.m. Jazz guitar.

STANLEY’S PUB - Open Jam. 9 p.m. Various. Free.

WESTSIDE VENUE - Open Rock and Blues Jam. 7 p.m.

Rock/Blues. Free.

WIEDEMANN BREWERY AND TAPROOM - John Ford. 5 p.m. Blues. Free.

MONDAY 09

MCCAULY’S PUB - Open Jam with Sonny Moorman. 7 p.m. Blues/Various. Free.

H

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (LOUNGE) - Hillbilly Casino and Strawboss Hillbilly Holiday Extravaganza. 7 p.m. Roots. $8, $10 day of show.

STANLEY’S PUB - Jazz Jam with The Stanleyband.

9 p.m. Jazz/Improv. Free.

H

TUESDAY 10

STANLEY’S PUB - Bucket.

10 p.m. Americana/Rock. $5.

BREWRIVER CREOLE KITCHEN - The Twirlers. 7 p.m. R&B/Classic Pop/Standards. Free.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) - Band of Friends. 9 p.m. Rory Gallagher tribute. $22, $25 day of show.

THOMPSON HOUSE Castle No Kings. 7 p.m. Post Hardcore. $10.

TOP CATS - “Double Vision” Tour featuring Champagne Drip, Luzcid and more. 10 p.m. EDM. $10.

WIEDEMANN BREWERY AND TAPROOM - Furious George. 8 p.m. Rock/Blues.

Free.

BLIND LEMON - Nick Tuttle.

8:30 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Lynne Scott, Lee Stolar and Lou Lausche. 7:30 p.m. Jazz CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL - Music Live@Lunch with Darren Goodman. 12:10 p.m. Holiday favorites. Free.

MEMORIAL HALL - Jim Brickman. 8 p.m. Christmas Jazz/Pop. $45-$65.

SUNDAY 08

THE COMET - Comet Bluegrass Allstars. 7:30 p.m.

Bluegrass. Free.

KNOTTY PINE - Randy Peak. 10 p.m. Acoustic/Various. Free.

LATITUDES BAR & BISTRO - BlueBirds. 8 p.m.

Rock/R&B. Free.

SEE CITYBEAT.COM FOR FULL MUSIC LISTINGS AND ALL CLUB LOCATIONS.

N O V. 2 7- D E C . 1 0 , 2 0 19 | C I T Y B E AT. C O M

H H

THURSDAY 05

Tribute with Nelson Slater and Friends. 9 p.m. Rock.

Cover.

65

66

C I T Y B E AT. C O M | N O V. 2 7- D E C . 1 0 , 2 0 19

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