In Memoriam: Paul Newman

I've been trying to find a Cincinnati link to justify noting the passing of Paul Newman here. I can't.

Nonetheless, here's an excellent piece describing what is, perhaps, Newman's real legacy.


I keep wondering why AMC or some similar cable station isn't running a Paul Newman movie marathon in tribute today. Truth be told, I've never watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and now I'm thinking I should.

Local TV Thread

Kate of KRM blogs on her favorite television shows. I have to admit, I kind of had a blog crush on her (there's a good definition of "blog crush" here) until I learned of her passion for Dancing with the Stars and Desperate Housewives. She may have won me back with her fondness for Amazing Race. And like her, I enjoy watching Christina Applegate in Samantha Who?, though I suspect for entirely different reasons (hey....I'm a 34 year-old American male....I grew up watching Married With Children! And having grown up in Buffalo, I have to love a woman who agreed to star in a sitcom set in that ill-fated city.).

All that is my long-winded way of introducing a discussion topic: what's your favorite local show or TV personality? And who's your least favorite? There is, of course, precious little local programming any more, but there's some. For that matter, who are your favorite all-time Cincinnati television personalities, including folks who aren't on TV anymore?

My own favorites? I like Newsmakers. I think Dan Hurley does a pretty good job. And even though I disagreed with him (and many of you) about the Bodies exhibit (he thought it was excellent), I thought he provided a great forum for both sides to be heard. Frankly, I wish WKRC would give him a full hour. Sometimes he jumps the shark on me (for instance, when he did a couple of shows on naturalism and showed pictures of birds the whole time...yawn). But overall, he's an asset to local television journalism. I also dig Bob Herzog, but that may just be my bias in favor of lawyers.

Least favorites? One name immediately springs to mind: Dave Lapham. Maybe I'd like him more if I'd grown up in Cincinnati and was a Bengals fan when he played. But seeing him on TV and listening to him on the radio fuels one reaction: change the channel!

Finally: I guess I shouldn't make fun of others' TV viewing habits too much. The other night, I found myself switching back and forth between two television shows: Live from Lincoln Center (the NY Philharmonic with James Galway) and The Ultimate Fighter, watching each with equal rapture. Yes, something's seriously wrong with me.

So please, weigh in with your local TV favorites, as well as you diagnoses of my psychological profile based on my confessed viewing patterns.

concert:nova Season 2

The fresh chamber music ensemble concert:nova has announced their 2008-2009 season:

October: Where the Wild Things Are

December: Waiting for the End of Time: Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time and abstracts from Beckett's Waiting for Godot

February: Concert in the Dark

March: Demystifying Arnold Schoenberg

May: concert:nova and Beyond Ballet

June: The Mirror Project

Details are forthcoming, so keep checking out www.concertnova.com for updates.

Oktoberfest Zinzinnati

Get out your lederhousen and clean out the mold from your bier stein. Oktoberfest Zinzinnati is less than 2 weeks away. September 20-21 on 5th Street in Downtown Cincinnati.

Holiday Weekend, Cincinnati Style

My parents (who presently reside near Tampa, Florida) were in town visiting over the long weekend. So we decided to enjoy ourselves, Cincinnati-style. Highlights of the weekend:

Ice cream (well, a chocolate soda for Dad) at the Fountain Square Graeter's;
A Reds game (Saturday's game, which the Reds won in more dramatic fashion than they should have);
A meal at Mitchell's Fish Market in Newport (all right, maybe that's too chain-y to be a Cincinnati meal);
Watching the fireworks from a Queen City riverboat;
Sunday brunch at the Greyhound Tavern in Ft. Mitchell (Julie: if you haven't been, you ought to give it a try);
An afternoon at the Contemporary Arts Center; and
(Without me) a meal at First Watch and some book-shopping at Joseph-Beth.

What did y'all do with your weekend? Feel free to critique my failures as a host (but remember, the folks have been to Cincinnati plenty of times, so we've done lots of other stuff previously).

Open Thread: Take That, Beijing!!!

Last night, I watched the fireworks from a Queen City Riverboat, moored just east of the Purple People Bridge. Pretty darned spectacular.

So here's an open thread. What did you like best (or least)? If you stayed home, was WLWT's coverage any better than last year?

DAAP Fashion

I never went to UC (in case you missed my Miami coverage) so I don't know much about UC's various programs. What I never fully understood was the level that DAAP includes fashion design. I am impressed.

A Week After

I posted a snarky dig at The Morning After blog from CityBeat. After a week of reading the rest of the blog, I need to give the blog props. It is a huge positive to see young people out having fun in Cincinnati. I hope they fight the urge to stay where they know, and instead branch out and see the rest of the city. People don't explore enough. Take the lead and just try something you know little about.

Sunday Sundae Battle

Brian's post below reminds me that I've been meaning to ask our intrepid readers the following question for some time:

Which ice cream is better, Aglamesis or Graeter's, and why?

This is, of course, one of the most important and divisive questions facing the Queen City.

I'll post my own opinion in the comments.

You can't buy publicity like this.

Jerry Springer the Musical is opening at New Stage Collective tonight. So, naturally, we get tons of protestors...

(Yes, the same ones that protested Know's Corpus Christi a few years ago.)

For me, my thought is "If you don't want to see it, don't see it," however the group America Needs Fatima sees it differently. America Needs Fatima (not a link to them, but a background on their group) is an ultra-conservative, Catholic group that it seems most Catholics think is fringe and freaky. Freedom of speech and all of that, but hey-- they're getting the show more publicity than it could ever pay for.

And, why yes, those ARE jackboots. I'm so glad you asked.

CONCERT:NOVA at Twist

Start your week with a hot latin-inspired concert!

Join innovative chamber ensemble CONCERT:NOVA and visual artist Anya Gerasimchuk for an evening of music, art and Monday night bites at Twist! A collaboration featuring hot tango and flamenco influences, concert:nova throws traditional performance practice out the window and ushers in an eclectic selection of modern and classical work for you to dance your way into the work week at Jean-Robert de Cavel's hot new downtown lounge. Afterward, please hang out and listen to DJ Ben spin some more saucy sounds.



Admission: $10 at the door/$8 students and ETA members
Venue: Twist Lounge at Pigall's
Twist is located at 127 W. Fourth St. 45202 in downtown Cincinnati, 513.721.1345 by phone. Full bar and delicious Petit Bites Menu. Click here for a description. Street and garage parking available.Valet parking available for Pigall's dinner guests.

Please forward this event to your friends!

Find out more about the program at www.concertnova.com and Anya's work at www.AnyaGerasimchuk.com.

New Stage In The City

New Stage Collective has announced their 2008-2009 season and to celebrate they are having a party only Mr. Big could love: New Stage in the City/Sex and the City Party
Season Subscription Kickoff Party
Friday, May 16 8-11pm at Below Zero Lounge

Celebrate NSC’s new season with a swanky party worthy of Carrie Bradshaw! Below Zero Lounge (12th & Walnut St., downtown) hosts the celebration on Friday, May 16 from 8-11pm, featuring a raffle of New Stage in the City subscriptions, Sex and the City Movie swag, Sarah Jessica Parker fragrance gifts, and much more!

Also on tap is an incredible evening of music with Terry LaBolt at the piano, and featuring a slew of special guests, including performances by Richard Oberacker, Amy Warner, Charlie Clark, Taylore Mahogany Scott, Sherman Fracher, Steven Milloy, Alan Patrick Kenny, Sherry McCamley, cast members of NSC’s upcoming Jerry Springer: The Opera, and more. Hosted by Cincinnati legend Penny Tration!"

Second Sunday On Main - Mothers Day

Tomorrow this year's first installment of Second Sundays on Main, a charming event that brings together a great neighborhood. It includes great music as well, come out and hear the likes of: Tupelo Honey, Tracy Walker, Seedy Seeds and Messerly & Ewing. It starts at Noon and runs until 5PM. Since it is also mother's day, bring her out to a cute area with nice shops. The first 200 moms get free flowers. Check out www.secondsundayonmain.org for more.

How Loud Is Too Loud?

An interesting article in Sunday's NY Times explains that because of a new European Union worker protection law governing the amount of noise to which workers can lawfully be exposed without hearing protection, European orchestras have had to alter the way they rehearse and perform.


Our own Cincinnati Symphony is just returning from a twelve-concert European tour. I wonder if the law impacted their performances and rehearsals (or if the Europeans aren't all that concerned with the hearing loss of an American-based group of musicians).

I also wonder how Paavo managed to schedule 12 concerts without a single performance of anything by Mahler....

Birrrrrrrd Maaaan!

Rick Bird has a great feature in this week's Soapbox Cincinnati on the hard core truth that Cincinnati has a lot of cutting edge events in this town. Rick listed:

1. MusicNow
2. CincyFringe
3. 48 Hour Film Festival
4. Scribble Jam
5. Lite Brite
6. Midpoint

Now, who says we don't have ground breaking events in this town? Who says there is nothing to do? Oh, yea, the people who aren't doing anything because they are either too afraid or are just too stupid to tell the difference between original ideas and those you see on TV.

Let me also say I like seeing Rick Bird in print again!

Hulu is the Devil!

Some time ago, when I first embarked on a solo law practice, I was spending a great deal of time working from my home-office. The problem with that is that it was too easy to find distractions at home to keep me from doing the less pleasant tasks of lawyering. The TV was a particularly devilish distraction. Finding my willpower to be lacking, I made a radical decision: I called Time Warner and had the cable disconnected.

I very rarely work from home anymore; I'm almost always in my comfy office a few blocks from where I live. But I found that I haven't missed the cable enough to warrant having it reconnected. Once in a while, though--say visiting parents, or staying in a hotel--I'll find myself in the midst of a cable TV binge, watching hugely inordinate amounts of CNN, ESPN, and Deadliest Catch. (Oddly, the thing I often miss is Citicable and the ability to watch those whacky councilmembers in action!)

Earlier today, I was engaged in that ultimate procrastination event (websurfing) and checked in on Kate the Great's blog (a great blog--if you're not reading it, you should be, after, of course, you read the Cincinnati blog!). Kate's re-posted something from her archives (a post I'd not read before). I'm not sure why she chose this one in particular, but it turns out that Kate, too, is cable-less, but she's found a remedy: Hulu. It's a site that has both current and "classic" shows available for on-demand streaming. Offerings include shows from Prisonbreak to Lost to WKRP in Cincinnati.

Hulu, if its usage is not carefully monitored, is a terrible, terrible productivity-slayer. In fact, it's the devil. The devil, I say! And Kate is the devil's helpmate! (Of course, I guess I'm no better, spreading the word of mindless diversion even further across the blogosphere.)

My favorite thing to watch right now? Emergency! Bah.

Bockfest Hall at Former Red Cheetah

One of the big questions on this year's Bockfest has been where the main Bockfest Hall would be located. According to the map of the parade and shuttle it appears it will be at the former Red Cheetah club (aka Sycamore Gardens). If anyone can confirm the map, please chime in.

But Where's The Big Hair?

Did anyone else feel like they were trapped in some strange time warp last night? NBC's primetime lineup consisted entirely of American Gladiators and Knight Rider. (Who agrees with me that if you put the women's winner, Monica, up on a joust platform with the men's winner, Evan, that Monica would win in about 6 seconds?)

Don't get me wrong--I watched every minute of both. (As a male of a certain age, watching a new installment of Knight Rider was some sort of preordained, primordial duty.) I'm just sayin'....

Patricia Corbett, arts patron, dies.

Patricia Corbett, who together with her husband J. Ralph Corbett, supported arts organizations from CCM, to the Cincinnati Ballet, Music Hall, and countless others, died today in her sleep. She will be missed, but I'm sure her influence will be felt for years to come.

Archbishop Divides 'Bodies' In Half

The Cincinnati Archbishop deemed the 'Bodies' exhibit at the Museum Center "unseemly and inappropriate" and has decreed that local Catholic Schools should not organize field trips to the exhibit. What makes no sense is that the Archbishop instead leaves it up to the parents:

If parents, as the primary educators of their children, believe that it has educational value, they should be the ones to take their children to see it.”

So on one hand the local Catholic Church has condemned the exhibit as unseemly, but then they defer ultimate moral judgment to the parents. This is just not logical. If it is OK for Catholic school kids to go the exhibit with their parents permission, why does it matter that the Catholic school doesn't organize the trip? If it is not good to go through school, why would it be OK to go with your parents?

If nothing else, hopefully this will help the exhibit gain more attendance. If they church condemns it, more people are likely to want to go to it.