Miami Makes Frozen Four!

Love and honor to Miami,
Our college old and grand,
Proudly we shall ever hail thee,
Over all the land.

Alma mater now we praise thee,
Sing joyfully this lay,
Love and honor to Miami,
Forever and a day.

Read all about Miami's first ever trip to the College Hockey final four.

Cincinnati Has a Buzz

We still have a ways to go but a 4% increase in YPs is a sign that things are looking good.

I Just Want To Bang On The Drum All Day

One of the real joys of living in Cincinnati is the opportunity to hear the Cincinnati Symphony.  It's become a  bit cliche to say this, but it's true:  we are shockingly fortunate to have a symphony orchestra this good in a city the size of Cincinnati.

Last night, CSO performed three pieces, the world premiere of a piece by Jeremy Mumford, a percussion concerto by Jennifer Higdon, and Beethoven's Fifth.  Janelle Gelfand's review of Friday's concert (with the same program) is here.

I'd never heard a percussion concerto before, but it was terrific.  Read Gelfand's review for a more coherent description of the performance, but it was breathtaking.  The audience rewarded it with one of the most robust standing ovations I've seen at Music Hall (and perhaps the most sustained approval of any non-Paavo-conducted performance).  I'd read a review of Colin Currie's (the featured percussionist) performance of the work with another orchestra, so I was expecting an excellent performance from him.  I didn't realize, though, how much work the piece left for the CSO's own percussionists to do (or how brilliantly they'd do it).

I'm going to politely disagree with Gelfand's review of the Mumford piece.  That was the kind of work that gives people bad feelings about modern orchestral music.  (When the conductor feels the need to explain to his audience "how to listen to" the work his orchestra is about to perform, there's a good chance the next fifteen or twenty minutes of your life will be a bit unpleasant.)  And any time you read in a review about "tone clusters," you know that the music is comprised of the discord that pops up in the background of your worst dreams.  (Yes, my dreams are often scored--aren't yours?)

It was a particularly interesting--odd?--choice to place the Mumford on last night's program, with Higdon and Beethoven.  Beethoven's Fifth is one of those pieces that even non-hardcore symphony-goers enjoy.  So, frankly, was the Higdon.  But the Mumford?  After the concert, I couldn't help thinking of Liz's review of JeanRo's "nose to tail" dinner.  Both are artistic forays that people would really like to convince themselves they're sophisticated to enjoy, but at the end of the night, you'd be a lot happier with a classic (like Beethoven's Fifth or a fillet mignon).  So maybe it's my fault--my musical palate just isn't up to Mumford's level.

Luckily, a few weeks from now, all I (or most people, I suspect) will remember from the evening will be Currie's amazing performance of Higdon's awesome concerto.

Local, Local, Local!

I want to see more of this type of article in the Enquirer. A locally written profile of a local musician. Actual local articles about local people is so refreshing!

Yeah, I know this is done at the Enquirer on a regular basis, it is just not done enough.

Bold Fusion 2009

This year's Bold Fusion took place this past Thursday and I again had to work, so I want to open up a post to solicit front line takes on the event.

I will point people to well done first hand take from Redkatblonde.

Other reports and background are
a report from the Enquirer,
a webpage of resources from the event, and
photos of participants.

The Cincinnati Bible War

Because I didn't grow up in Cincinnati, I didn't get the education in local and state history that a lot of you received in grade school.  So I'm always interested in learning more about Cincinnati's history.

Next week, the Ohio Supreme Court will sponsor a seminar on the "Cincinnati Bible War."  Until the 1870's, a school board policy mandated daily reading from the King James Bible in public schools.  When the board acted to repeal that rule, a local group sued in an effort to reinstate the required reading.  The case ultimately made its way to the Ohio Supreme Court, which sided with the school board.  (The court avoided the Establishment Clause issues and instead rested its holding largely on the legal authority of the school board to make such a decision, and the lack of authority for the judiciary to review it.)

The provided link will take you to an interesting (and brief) introduction to the subject, led by Linda Przybyszewski, formerly of the University of Cincinnati (and the author of a really good biography of the first Justice Harlan).  I wish I could be in Columbus Wednesday for the event.  

More Signs Of A Growing Number Of Downtown Residents

One of the ways, perhaps, to gauge the success of those who want Downtown to be a neighborhood (as opposed to merely a retail, dining, and bar district) is to look for services that cater to Downtown residents.

A few days ago, I noticed a sign in a window of a building on Plum Street just north of Fourth indicating that a veterinary clinic will soon be opening.  Building Cincinnati (in all likelihood to be announced as 2009's best blog in CityBeat's Best of Cincinnati edition next week) had this story back in January.

It seems to me that this is the type of business geared towards neighborhood residents; I'd think it unlikely people will drive downtown to have their pets cared for.  So I view this as a positive sign regarding the number of people living downtown.  At some level of population density, there should be some sort of tipping point that will have lots of resident-geared services coming downtown.