Cyclones Primo Promo Nights
The Cincinnati Cyclones are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their first Kelly Cup Championship on Saturday, welcoming back select players and giving the first 3,000 fans a commemorative poster. While this is exciting for both fans and players alike, there are several other possibly more exciting promotions happening this Cyclones season, including multiple dollar beer nights (Whoop! Whoop!).
- Nov. 22: Kick off the biggest bar night of the year — Thanksgiving Eve — at dollar beer night. The Cyclones will be playing the Toledo Walleyes while you drink multiple cans of beer for $1 each. Other dollar beer nights take place Nov. 29; Dec. 7, 13 and 27; Jan. 6; Feb. 8 and 28; and March 22, 30 and 31.
- Dec. 5: Do you turn your nose up at Hudepohl and Miller Light but are also interested in kind-of-cheap beer? It’s $5 craft draft night with affordable pours from MadTree and Christian Moerlein. Taa-daa!
- Dec. 9: In a galaxy very near by, inside the U.S. Bank Arena, it’s Star Wars night. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is slated for release Dec. 15. Nerd out with the team — they’ll be in special jerseys and you can take photos with multiple people dressed like Star Wars characters.
- Dec. 15: Winter hat giveaway time!
- Dec. 31: Ring in the New Year early with some family-friendly on-ice fireworks. This special NYE game against the Brampton Beasts kicks off at 6:05 p.m. so kids can make it home in time for bed. Fireworks happen after the game, not during, although that would be very interesting.
- Jan. 6: Throwback night. Get in, get drunk and eat a hot dog for less than $20! Tickets are $10 and hot dogs, pizza, soda and beer are only $1 each.
- Jan. 27: Is this the most important promotion of the year? Yes. Celebrate the 25th anniversary of the film The Mighty Ducks. Coach Gordon Bombay, aka noted Cincinnati fan Emilio Estevez, better make an appearance. Quack, quack, quack, quack
- March 3: Next most important promotion: Wiener Dog Races. Dachshunds compete during intermission to see which of the short-legged little freaks is the fastest on the ice. Bring your own dog — wiener or not — to the game with special Pucks & Pups tickets. Fittingly, it’s also $1 hotdog night.
WEDNESDAY 01
ONSTAGE: 13 Dead Dreams of “Eugene” and A Zombie Odyssey
If you like to be spooked, Know Theatre is ready to serve up several servings of extended Halloween-season creepiness, courtesy of veteran Fringe Festival performers. 13 Dead Dreams of “Eugene” was created and is performed by Paul Strickland and Erika Kate MacDonald, a pair of popular Cincy Fringe and Know regulars. Ricky Coates was part of the Fringe in 2016 and his contribution for this seasonal double-bill is three Zombie tales: A Zombie Odyssey, Ides of Undead March and Daughter of the Dead. Dead Dreams is presented in almost total darkness, using a few lamps and a sheet to provide spooky shadow effects, plus small handheld flashlights for further ghostly images. MacDonald and Strickland narrate the piece as if it’s been a personal experience — and it was, at least partially. They happened on Sabina, Ohio, an hour from Cincinnati, a few years back and learned about the embalmed body of an unidentified man, found dead in a rural ditch in 1929. For 35 years his body was on display in a funeral home outbuilding, theoretically in hopes someone might identify him. But he became a roadside attraction for curiosity seekers. Eventually local residents took pity and buried him in 1964. Dreams are linked by rangy, recorded narration by a man claiming the ghost of “Eugene” possessed him and guided his hands to type his story. His repeated query: “Who am I?” A parallel yearning for understanding is at the core of Coates’ A Zombie Odyssey, a one-actor monologue. A man named Brian dies in a car accident, but strange forces resurrect his body. Some of his consciousness remains, and he vacillates between being horrified by what he has become and driven toward flesh-eating behavior. 13 Dead Dreams of “Eugene” and A Zombie Odyssey are in rotating repertory at Know Theatre through Saturday. Tickets/more info: knowtheatre.org. — RICK PENDER
THURSDAY 02
ONSTAGE: The Earth is Flat
The Earth is Flat at CCM tells the story of young adults’ search for identity. The play focuses on the awkwardness that permeates the college experience when young adults are searching for identity without knowing where they’re headed. He calls the story of purple-haired Ethan’s first tentative steps toward self-knowledge an “unexpected comedy.” Ethan tells Derek, his new roommate, that his bold hair color was his sister’s idea. A tragedy back home pulls him out of college shortly after he arrives and we learn more about his background. Returning to campus he meets a young filmmaker whose conspiracy theories are played out in YouTube videos. In particular, she’s a “Flat Earther,” convinced that we’ve all been lied to our entire lives. That’s the source of the play’s title. Ethan and Derek talk about what it would mean if the earth really were flat. The Earth Is Flat will be performed Thursday through Saturday. Admission is free; reservations required. More info: ccm.uc.edu. — RICK PENDER
MUSIC: Beach Slang
It’s been an interesting year in the life of Beach Slang. The Philadelphia-based quartet was riding high on the back of a pair of turbo-charged Rock & Roll records (2015’s The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Us and 2016’s A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings) when things imploded onstage during a live show in October 2016. By the end of last year, only frontman James Alex and bassist Ed McNulty remained. Beach Slang’s first post-lineup-shift effort, the recently released four-song EP We Were Babies & We Were Dirtbags (Quiet Slang), is a serious tonal reconfiguring when compared to the previous releases, moving from the punky, guitar- and heart-swelling bombast of anthems like “Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas” and “Future Mixtape for the Art Kids” to a more modest, stripped-down approach. The band — which added guitarist Aurore Ounjian and onetime Afghan Whigs drummer Cully Symington at the beginning of this year — is clearly in a transitional phase. Will they return to the Hüsker-Dü-by-way-of-Jawbreaker thrust of their earlier work, or will the Quiet Slang approach win out? Beach Slang plays Thursday at Southgate House Revival. Tickets/more info: southgatehouse.com. — JASON GARGANO
COMEDY: Chad Daniels
One worry many parents have these days is whether or not their kids fit in at school. Comedian Chad Daniels has no such worries. “I let them handle it,” he says. “I remember back in high school thinking, ‘Oh, my God, am I popular enough? Am I hanging out with the right people?’ Then I remember being 30 and realizing none of that matters even a little bit.” And while you must watch out for things like bullying, Daniels feels a little struggle is probably a good thing. He likens it to professional sports. “You don’t send someone who has never played football right into the NFL.” Showtimes Thursday-Sunday. $8-$14. Go Bananas, 8410 Market Place Lane, Montgomery, gobananascomedy.com. — P.F. WILSON
FRIDAY 03
FILM: The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) has the perfect life. He’s a successful heart surgeon married to the beautifully icy Anna (Nicole Kidman). They have two children — daughter Kim (Raffey Cassidy), an emerging teenager, and the younger Bob (Sunny Suljic) — who are the new molds of their parents, just waiting to be broken. The Murphys, in their successful family-values lifestyle, are such throwbacks to the 1950s that audiences of The Killing of a Sacred Deer, the new release from Greek director/co-screenwriter Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster), might want to check early on whether maybe the film’s setting is that bygone time. But it isn’t. The real treat for the attentive regional filmgoer will be to spot the Cincinnati-specific markers letting them know that not only does the city serve as the location, it is allowed to portray a contemporary version of itself and not some time-displaced version of New York. But beneath the familiar sites, Lanthimos certainly toys with the city we know and love, twisting it into an alternative version of itself, one as radical as the dystopian-nightmare locale of The Lobster. The Killing of a Sacred Deer shows us that the nature of suffering and the stain of guilt looms over us all. Opens Friday. — TT STERN-ENZI
FILM: Loving Vincent
There’s actually a very practical reason why the first feature to be animated from hand-produced oil paintings is titled Loving Vincent. Opening Friday at the Esquire Theatre, it’s about Vincent van Gogh and is told mostly by using painted recreations of his Post-Impressionist masterpieces. As the film’s narrative points out, he closed a letter to his beloved brother Theo with the signature, “Your loving Vincent.” It perhaps could have been predicted that an animated movie about van Gogh, one that tried to find an innovative way to use his art to tell his story, would be successful. After all, the interest in his art and life keeps getting stronger. The rich colors, pronounced brushstrokes, enhanced details and sometimes-skewed perspectives of his paintings appeal both visually and psychologically for what they may say about the artist. But Loving Vincent is a risky project nonetheless, because of the arduous and expensive work involved in bringing it to fruition. According to its U.S. distributor, Good Deed Entertainment, Polish director Dorota Kobiela first thought of the idea (as a short) in 2008. Before the feature-length movie was finished by Kobiela and her husband/co-director/co-writer Hugh Welchman, it required 125 painting animators and 65,000 frames of individual oil paintings on canvas — each second of the film requires 12 frames. Some 120 of van Gogh’s artworks are referenced in Loving Vincent. It was first shot as a live-action film with actors so footage could be used as reference material. Storywise, Loving Vincent uses a familiar Citizen Kane narrative structure that should appeal to those interested in the tragic aspects of his life. A year after van Gogh’s death, young Armand Roulin — son of a postman — travels to the French town where van Gogh died, Auvers-sur-Oise, with the painter’s last letter to his beloved brother, Theo. It’s been undeliverable because Theo died shortly after Vincent. But in that town, Armand becomes interested in the mysterious circumstances of van Gogh’s death, so the film takes on something of a whodunit nature. Opens Friday at Esquire Theatre. — STEVEN ROSEN
EVENT: Fall Bourbon Dinner Cruise
It’s finally starting to feel like fall in Cincinnati, and what better way to warm yourself up than by sipping some bourbon on the Ohio River? Hop aboard BB Riverboat’s Fall Bourbon Dinner Cruise and raise a glass to cooler temperatures. Sample a selection of bourbon and indulge in a dinner buffet featuring bourbon-glazed salmon, carved porkloin with apple chutney, au gratin potatoes, green beans and more — all topped off with bread pudding and cheesecake. Although alcohol takes center stage on the cruise, all ages are welcome to set sail for fall fun and (non-alcoholic) flavors. 6:30 p.m. boarding; 7:30-10 p.m. sailing Friday. $60 adults; $40 children; $27 adult sightseeing ticket; $18 children sightseeing ticket. BB Riverboats, 101 Riverboat Row, Newport, bbriverboats.com. — EMILY BEGLEY
MUSIC: Blues & Boogie Piano Summit
Fats Domino’s recent passing has turned the spotlight back on the foundational Rock & Roll icon’s musical and historical importance, which was largely fueled by the early, dominant influence of Boogie Woogie Blues piano players like Pinetop Smith and Meade Lux Lewis. Domino’s blockbuster success is the biggest example of how crucial Boogie Woogie was to the development of Rock & Roll. Veteran Cincinnati musician Ricky Nye has become one of the more renowned modern pianists helping to keep the lively Boogie Woogie style alive and well. Along with international touring, one of the cornerstones of his mission has been the Blues & Boogie Piano Summit, a crown-jewel musical event that attracts a large number of local and out-of-town music fans with its annual roster of international performers. For this year’s two-night 18th-anniversary event, the summit presents four Boogie Woogie duos: Nye and regular partner Bekah Williams will be joined by San Francisco’s Wendy DeWitt and Kirk Harwood and the Netherlands’ Martijn Schok and Geta Holtrop, as well as Liz Pennock and Dr. Blues, Ohio natives now based in Saint Petersburg, Fla. 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. $20-$30 per night. Southgate House Revival, 111 E. Sixth St., Newport, southgatehouse.com, rickynye.com. — MIKE BREEN
EVENT: Monsters in the Sky Planetarium Show
Burnet Woods’ cozy Trailside Nature Center opens its Wolff Planetarium for an evening of legends and stargazing. Adults (and children ages 5 and older) can learn about constellations and the stories behind them, including monstrous tales of gorgons, the wrath of ancient gods and the release of the Kraken. The Wolff Planetarium is one of Cincinnati Parks’ best-kept secrets: The oldest planetarium west of the Allegheny Mountains, it seats 20 under a 12-foot dome. RSVP required. 7-8 p.m. Friday. $5. Wolff Planetarium, Trailside Nature Center, 3400 Brookline Ave., Clifton, cincinnatiparks.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO
ART: The Kinsey African American Art & History Collection at the Freedom Center
Over four centuries’ worth of African American culture is documented in The Kinsey Collection, a compilation of artifacts, artwork and historical documents that tell the story of African American life since 1600, showcasing art from the likes of Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence and Richard Mayhew, with archival materials from historical figures Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X. The collection has been displayed in over 24 cities and viewed by over 6 million visitors and was compiled over the course of four decades by Bernard and Shirley Kinsey, who will be speaking at the opening reception on Friday. Opening reception 6 p.m. Friday; on view through March 4. $5 with general admission. National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 50 E. Freedom Way, Downtown, freedomcenter.org. — ERIN COUCH
SATURDAY 04
CLASSICAL MUSIC: The Storm that Built Music Hall
It was a dark and stormy season for the May Festival Chorus in 1875 when endless rainfall pounding on the tin roof of their performance hall, Saengerhalle, overpowered their singing voices. In response, Music Hall was born (and was intentionally constructed without a pesky tin roof). The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the May Festival celebrate the inception of Music Hall by performing monumental pieces from that historical season, including Bach’s Baroque Magnificat, Brahms’ Romantic Triumphlied and the world premiere of Julia Adolphe’s Equinox, rendered in a cappella. 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. $14-$107. Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, cincinnatiarts.org. — ERIN COUCH
ONSTAGE: Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical
Her nephew George is the big Clooney name in today’s entertainment world, but long before he stepped up, his aunt Rosie was topping the music charts with a career that lasted nearly five decades. She grew up in Northern Kentucky, so it’s fitting that this biographical show by Janet Vogt and Mark Friedman is being presented at the Carnegie. It was a big hit for the Cincinnati Playhouse back in 2014, and with local theater veterans Dee Anne Bryll and Ed Cohen staging it, you can be sure it’s going to be an entertaining evening. Through Nov. 19. $30; $27 members; $23 students. The Carnegie, 1028 Scott Blvd., Covington, thecarnegie.com. — RICK PENDER
EVENT: Mount Washington Pumpkin Chuck
Mount Washington is celebrating more than a decade of launching past-their-prime Halloween pumpkins into Stanbery Park. Using three unique trebuchets, jack-o-lanterns will sail into the ravine while attendees enjoy live music, food and beer. Noon-5 p.m. Saturday. Free admission; $3-$5 pumpkin launch fee. Stanbery Park, 2221 Oxford Ave., Mount Washington, mwcc.org. — MAIJA ZUMMO
LIT: Niehoff Lecture XXX
Zadie Smith, multi-award-winning author of Swing Time, NW, White Teeth and On Beauty, comes to Cincinnati Saturday as the Niehoff XXX Lecturer. Hosted by the Mercantile Library, the lecture series is a black-tie dinner and fundraiser that celebrates distinguished writers and benefits library operations. NPR describes Smith’s latest work Swing Time, about two mixed-race best friends who meet in 1982 in a tap-dancing class in London, as breaking “the idea that we can ever come to a concrete identity, or reach the safe plains of self-knowledge.” 7 p.m. Saturday. $175 Mercantile members; $200 non-members. Westin Hotel, 21 E. Fifth St., Downtown, new.mercantilelibrary.com. — EMILY BEGLEY
EVENT: Tour of Kitchens
Peek inside the lives of top Cincy chefs by taking an up-close look at where the mouthwatering magic happens. The seventh-annual Tour of Kitchens, hosted by the Junior League of Cincinnati, examines the kitchens of homes, vendors and services, exploring unique entertaining spaces in Over-the-Rhine and downtown — all with additional small bites and sweet treats provided by chefs and caterers. The event also includes chefs’ demonstrations, beverage tastings and local decorators showcasing home-design ideas. 10 a.m. registration; 11 a.m.-3 p.m. tour Saturday. $35 general admission. Begins at Junior League of Cincinnati, 35000 Columbia Parkway, Downtown, jlcincinnati.org. — EMILY BEGLEY
ART: Tiger Lily Press One-Day Print Sale
Once a year, this nonprofit fine-art printmaking studio offers a sale of work by regional printmakers. On display will be framed and unframed original etchings, screen prints, woodblocks, collagraphs, monoprints, letterpress, lithographs and linocuts. All are limited-edition and handmade and include prints, cards, artists’ books, journals, fine art papers, fabric items and more. Besides the participating Tiger Lily artists, there will be work by members of other regional studios, clubs and co-ops. Artists will be present to discuss their work. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Free admission. Clifton Cultural Arts Center, 3711 Clifton Ave., tigerlilypress.org. — STEVEN ROSEN
SUNDAY 05
MUSIC: Regina Spektor
Somewhere between Tori Amos’ conversion of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” into a piano Pop torch song and the rise of keyboard balladeers like Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson, Russian émigré Regina Spektor created a hybrid of traditional, Classical and contemporary music and turned the Pop scene on its proverbial ear. Spektor (whose current tour is a purely solo venture, featuring no backing musicians) learned piano at age 6 on an upright that her grandfather gifted to her mother, a college music professor. Spektor’s father, a photographer and hobby violinist, introduced her to The Beatles, Moody Blues and Queen, in addition to Russian classicists and the standard complement of Classical composers. At age 9, Spektor and her family left the Soviet Union due to pervasive discrimination against Jews. Although initially interested solely in Classical music, Spektor’s teenage focus turned to Hip Hop, Rock and Punk, and then, after hearing Joni Mitchell and Ani DiFranco, writing her own songs. Her varied education included piano studies at the Manhattan School of Music during high school and a music composition degree from the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College. Last year saw the release of album No. 7, Remember Us to Life. Spektor has also made a name for herself as a dedicated philanthropist, raising funds for causes like Darfur relief, human rights in Tibet, Planned Parenthood and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, among many others. Spektor is one of those rare artists whose multicultural background and truly broad range of influences have legitimately resulted in a beautiful and compelling style that defies mere genre tags. 8 p.m. Sunday. $32.50-$62.50. Taft Theatre, 317 E. Fifth St., Downtown, tafttheatre.org. — BRIAN BAKER
MONDAY 06
EVENT: Cincinnati Pizza Week
Cincinnati Pizza Week has returned, offering seven days of $8 pizzas at eateries across the Tristate. Participating restaurants from Brick Oven Loveland and Catch-a-Fire Pizza to Goodfellas, Taft’s Brewpourium and a ton more will bake up their own specialty pies to celebrate, from signature staples to secret-menu items. Grab a Cincinnati Pizza Week passport to guide you as you hop from shop to shop snagging discount eat-in pizzas, and turn stamped passports in for a chance to win a pizza lover’s prize package. Through Nov. 12. Find more details, passports and a list of participating restaurants at cincinnatipizzaweek.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO
TUESDAY 07
MUSIC: Shilpa Ray
A New Jersey native, Shilpa Ray has lived in New York City for 17 years, scraping by as a visceral Rock & Roll performer with a small but passionate fan base. Her latest album, Door Girl, centers on her experiences as, yes, a door girl at Pianos, the noted Indie Rock club on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It’s the story of one woman’s economic, creative, physical and psychic fight to survive in an unforgiving city. Door Girl opens with “New York Minute Prayer,” a brief, piano-based ditty in which Ray comes off as Fiona Apple in Doo Wop mode. “Morning Terrors Nights of Dread” is a mid-tempo rocker anchored by Ray’s escalating vocal hysterics, which culminate in a ferocious mess of yowls and yelps. The jaunty, beat-driven “Revelations of a Stamp Monkey” rides on Ray’s continual plea, “You wanna know where my heart went?/My heart went straight to makin’ the rent” and sounds like Soul Coughing fronted by Patti Smith — which is nowhere near as bad as that description might seem. Speaking of Smith, “EMT Police and the Fire Department” is a Horses-esque barnburner, with Ray ranting about a hot summer night on the Lower East Side, one marked by rats and roaches crawling out in droves and tension that can be cut with a knife. Yet the final third of Door Girl is more wistful than one might expect. “After Hours” is a dead ringer for one of Sharon Van Etten’s beautifully rendered mood pieces (though Sharon has never reveled that she pissed herself on 168th Street). Most curious of all is “Manhattanoid Creepazoids,” another stripped-back ode to Doo Wop that sounds sweet — until you realize it’s told through the point of view of a male pig on the make. Junker's Tavern, 4156 Langland St., Northside, facebook.com/northsidecincy. — JASON GARGANO
MUSIC: Milk Carton Kids
Over the past six years, Milk Carton Kids has become one of the primary standard bearers for the new millennium perspective on traditional Folk, earning them glowing comparisons to fellow duos like Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Everly Brothers and Simon and Garfunkel. Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan began their journey in Eagle Rock, Calif., where both had begun pursuing individual solo careers. Neither had achieved much success alone, but when Ryan saw one of Pattengale’s performances, he introduced himself and the pair merged their ambitions to form what would become a fruitful partnership. Adopting the name Milk Carton Kids, the duo released Prologue, its debut studio album in 2011. Fueled by praise from the likes of T Bone Burnett, Billy Bragg and Garrison Keillor, the band signed to Anti- Records for 2013’s The Ash & Clay, which received a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album. In 2014, MCK did the score for indie film Refuge and appeared at the magnificent Inside Llewen Davis concert organized by the film’s creators, the Coen brothers, and Burnett, who executive-produced the soundtrack. 2015 was a busy year for the increasingly in-demand twosome — they played the “Life and Songs of Emmylou Harris” tribute concert (and featured on the subsequent live release taken from the show), collaborated with Country singer Chely Wright for her 2016 album I Am the Rain and issued their universally acclaimed full-length Monterey. It must be time for new Milk Carton Kids music. 8 p.m. Tuesday. $28.50-$38.50. Taft Theatre, 317 E. Fifth St., Downtown, tafttheatre.org. — BRIAN BAKER
Ongoing Shows
VISUAL ART: A Loaded Conversation
Clifton Cultural Arts Center, Clifton (through Nov. 3)
ONSTAGE: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Mount Adams (through Nov. 11)
