OUT & ABOUT STAFF PICKS

Best Gourmet French Fries:
Cut fresh daily and double fried, the taters at JeanRo have a beautiful rich brown, crispy exterior. Wrap them in parchment paper, serve in a stainless steel tumbler and viola! You’ve got one classy, damn tasty fry.
413 Vine St., Downtown, 513-621-1465.

Best Bar Drama (Not Involving a Fight):
Last November actor and Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival co-founder Nick Rose portrayed an Irish rogue in a bar — and he did it in a bar. Rose so engaged audiences that The Good Thief, originally planned for two weekends of performance, ended up running for more than a month in the back room at Mt. Adams Bar & Grill.

photo: sean hughes/photopresse.com Best New Club: Alchemize Rohs Street Cafe Photo: Mandy Janes

Best New Club: Alchemize
In less than a year, this Over-the-Rhine live and dance music haven has earned a solid reputation for being a comfortable, cool hang-out with ambition; CityBeat readers voted it Best New Bar/Nightclub. The place struggled to find a permanent name and motif for years, changing from Club Gotham to DV8 to The Cavern but never really clicking with local club-hoppers. With broader vision, the go-getting group of owners (which includes city council hopeful Nick Spencer) are succeeding in making a scene by combining live music (from some of the best Rock and Indie acts from the local scene, plus cutting-edge touring acts), niche dance nights (Drum ’n’ Bass, Neo-Soul, Reggae, Latin, ’80s), artwork from local artists and a general hip but welcoming atmosphere. The space has also been used for fund-raisers, including a two-night concert to support the repeal of Article 12 and a pro-Kerry rally that featured guest speaker Sarah Jessica Parker. In an area of town that has struggled over the past few years (even more so with BarrelHouse shutting its doors recently), alchemize is now the anchor.
1120 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-381-2400. (Mike Breen)

Best Death Scene(s):
It seems like every play Chris Guthrie performs in they wind up killing him off. Is that any way to treat one of Cincinnati’s finest actors? Guthrie recently bit the dust offstage as Rosencrantz in both Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival and onstage in Wonder of the World and Streamers at Know Theatre Tribe. He’s slated to kick the bucket again in Ovation Theatre Company’s Macbeth and CSF’s upcoming bloodbath Titus Andronicus, in which his character’s blood and bones shall be made into a pastry and fed to his mother. Kind of a strange job, isn’t it?

Best Facelift:
We don’t need no stinkin’ reality TV — the Taft Museum of Art took off the wraps of a two-and-a-half year, $22.8 million renovation in April that not only restored the historic museum in an 1820 house to its earlier glory. It added a new wing for temporary exhibitions and expanded the beloved garden space. It’s an oasis on the east end of Fourth Street.
316 Pike St., Downtown, 513-241-0343.

Best New Face on Another Old Friend:
It was sad to say farewell to the BarrelHouse Brewery on 12th Street in Over-the-Rhine, but the Art Academy of Cincinnati is changing an entire block of the neighborhood with its conversion of two old buildings into a new facility to train tomorrow’s artists, including the former BarrelHouse space. When it opens in September, the new Art Academy will bring another shot of vitality to a promising locale.
12th and Jackson streets, Over-the-Rhine, 513-562-8777.

photo courtesy AMERICAN THEATRE WING Best Reminder Of Something We Already New: Playhouse Wins the Tony Rohs Street Cafe Photo: Mandy Janes

Best Reminder Of Something We Already New:
Playhouse Wins the Tony
For years CityBeat has been telling readers that Playhouse in the Park was a remarkable theater that much larger cities would covet. In case you doubted us, last June those guys in New York who hand out the Tony Awards (they’re known as the American Theatre Wing) finally woke up to our Mount Adams playspace and recognized them with the mother of all theater recognitions: The Regional Theatre Tony Award for 2004. Ed Stern gave a classy — if quick — speech on national TV (although he said a few more words, what was broadcast was, “A very, very big thank you to the great city of Cincinnati, Ohio, where the arts, all the arts — performing and visual — are flourishing. You are the best. Thank you.”). Today the award is enshrined in a glittering showcase in the Playhouse’s lobby for all to see. Forgive us if we say, “We told you so.” 962 Mount Adams Circle, Mount Adams, 513-345-2242. (Rick Pender)

Best New Home for an Arts Organization:
Since it left the Cincinnati Zoo in 1972, Cincinnati Opera has called Music Hall home, but the staff has long been crowded into cramped, windowless offices. A $4 million conversion of Music Hall’s north wing has transformed an ancient exhibition hall (more recently serving as storage space) into a real home. The Opera re-opened windows that had been bricked up for years, literally and symbolically celebrating their role as a key institution in Over-the-Rhine.
1243 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-768-5500.

Best Performance by Amateur Actors for a Worthy Cause:
Around the world every February, Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues gets one-night readings to benefit local women’s organizations. This year Cincinnati Experimental Arts filled Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati with an audience who laughed, wept and cheered performances by 10 local women — from former Mayor Roxanne Qualls to arts leaders Victoria Morgan of Cincinnati Ballet and Linda Shearer from the Contemporary Arts Center. By the way, CityBeat’s Stephanie Dunlap and Donna Covrett did their parts pretty damn well, too, as CineX raised more than $6,000 for Planned Parenthood of Greater Cincinnati and the Rape Crisis Center (formerly known as Women Helping Women).

photo COURTESY EUGENE GOSS Best Musical Reason To Believe In Love: Eugene Goss Rohs Street Cafe Photo: Mandy Janes

Best Musical Reason To Believe In Love: Eugene Goss
When I hear Eugene Goss play and, better yet, sing, I know I’ll be transported. I never listen to him casually or in passing — his is not background music. Using hand percussion and his voice as a sandy-scraped Stevie Wonder one-man horn section, Goss elevates music back to the future of the best of the 1960s and ’70s when a rapturous love song sang in Soul language headed off the despair and anxieties of war, civil and otherwise. But Goss is no escape artist. Like every working musician in Cincinnati, blacks especially, he knows the stinginess of club owners and the fickle nature of clubgoers. Still, he isn’t bitter. He uses his performances to teach listeners about the Brazilian, African and Afro-Cuban polyrhythms he entices from his drums and shakers. He finds Rumba in R&B, Rio in Rock. At his creative core, though, there is tranquility. (Kathy Y. Wilson)

Best Second Round:
Cincinnati Playwright Thom Atkinson gave his one-woman play Cuttings its world premiere at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati back in 2003. More recently it got a new staging in Fort Myers, Fla., that did so well another Florida theater in Cape Coral picked it up. Cincinnati audiences would be well served by another production locally. Round three, anyone?

Best Reason to Kick up Your Heels:
Every August (this year it’s Aug. 13) ballettech ohio performing arts organization assembles an array of the world’s best ballet dancers for an astounding showcase of solos and duets at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. It’s a gala fund-raiser, but the show is totally worth it. (ballettechohio.org)

Best “Drag Show” in Cincinnati:
Did you really think we’d choose anything other than Jacob’s? Every other Friday night the “Chicks With Dicks Show” starts at 10 p.m. and rocks until 11:30 or midnight. Dance with the tunes and pony up a few bucks to get a hug from one of the queens. Upcoming shows are April 1, 15 and 29.
4029 Hamilton Ave., Northside, 513-591-2100.

photo: dale johnson Best Reason For A Music Fan To Go: Club Closings Rohs Street Cafe Photo: Mandy Janes

Best Reason For A Music Fan To Go: Club Closings
Nothing lasts forever, but it still hurts when we lose a great original music venue. Live music staple BarrelHouse was sold, signaling the end of an amazing 10-year run and leaving a lot of local bands deeply saddened (including those at the final night, pictured). Likewise for Covington’s Radio Down, whose manager and promoter Frank Hulefeld abandoned the popular all-ages venue after a successful but too-brief year of national and local Rock, Indie, Punk and Emo shows. (Mike Breen)

Best Gypsy Jazz:
Made popular in Paris in the 1930s by Django Rheinhart and the Hot Club Quintet, Gypsy Jazz has been featured in Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown and the French animated movie The Triplets of Belleville. Locally you can get a live jolt of this infectious, string-based music from The Faux Frenchmen, who have a standing gig on Monday nights at Tinks in Clifton.
3410 Telford Ave., Clifton, 513-961-6500.

Best New Downtown Happy Hour:
If you happen to be driving downtown and find an open parking spot near the Convention Center, take it and check out Fathom. The under-the-sea theme will make you forget about that huge presentation you have to give tomorrow, as will a Skip-and-Go-Naked — an alcohol-pink lemonade drink. The friendly service and “aim-to-please” attitude make this the new hot spot for after-work drinkers.
301 W. Fifth St., Downtown, 513-333-0000.

Best Regular Downtown Happy Hour:
With plenty of drinks on tap, Rockin Robin can cheer up any tough day. This narrow bar serves up lots of Miller Lite any night of the week, and even some of those other beers you might drink. The festive atmosphere and friendly bartenders makes this bar a great spot for downtown regulars.
10 W. Seventh St., Downtown, 513-621-1000.

photo: SEAN HUGHES/PHOTOPRESSE.COM Best Reason For A Music Fan To Stay: Madison Theater Rohs Street Cafe Photo: Mandy Janes

Best Reason For A Music Fan To Stay: Madison Theater
After reopening following a massive, expensive renovation, this old movie theater seemed like a sure bet to be one of the area’s top music venues. The Madison is a gorgeous room, but it failed to fully live up to its potential. Enter the House of Blues and reputed Austin, Texas, promoter Charles Attal Presents (represented by folks pictured L-R: Huston Powell, Amy Corbin and Charles Attal), who took over and began booking the club this year, bringing in top-of-the-line touring bands immediately. Now that it has the backing it deserves, the Madison’s potential stands to be fully realized. 730 Madison Ave., Covington, 859-655-4800. (Mike Breen)

Best After-Hours:
If you like to party later instead of just after work, check out the funky groove and hot beats at Lava Lounge. Cover is cheaper if you go before midnight, but this place stays open until 4 a.m. on weekends so you have plenty of time to boogie. Those 19 and up are invited to this popular House music venue, except on Saturdays, when you must be 21.
835 Main St., Downtown, 513-333-0889.

Best Use of a Bedpan:
Northside’s punky thrift store Avant Garage polished its bedside manner in July with the bedpan art of Dayton, Ohio, resident David Sparks, who’s with “Appalachian Cabaret/Art Rock” band Drexel. Either irreverent comments on “social ogres” (the “Bill O’Reilly Bedpan of Doom”) or tributes (“Ann B. Davis: Sex Machine”), Sparks’ bedpans featured photos of the subjects in the “bowl” area with dots of puffy paint. Fun, and kinda sick.

Best N’Awlins Hook-up:
At Fat Fish Blue, it’s not the Blues or the Lousiana food but the matchbooks, which have lines on the inside for “phone number” and “comments.” Here’s a tip: Maybe your chances would be better if you actually spoke to someone.
Newport on the Levee, Newport, 859-261-4401.

Best Cigarette Machine Recyclery:
The Art*o*Mat at ArtWorks. October opened with the unveiling of the much anticipated recycled cigarette vending machine that dispenses tiny works of art, which some of last summer’s ArtWorks apprentices created. And you never really know what you’re going to get for $5, but you can bet it’ll be provoking.
811 Race St., Downtown, 513-333-0388.

Best Place to Enjoy Art and Get Educated Too:
Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Learning Center was formed by a Xavier professor, a UC professor and a Xavier student as a gallery to highlight student artwork from the Tristate — but after other artists and professors got involved, they expanded the featured work to local, regional and national artists in addition to students and added classes to the bill. Next up on the schedule is Rites of Passage 1 (April 5-22), a competitive regional show for graduating art and design college seniors.
2727 Woodburn Ave., Walnut Hills, 513-861-3638.

Best Literary Newcomers:
The best effort thus far from the new writing nonprofit InkTank — aside from the packed crowds at its February Final Friday open mic — was last May’s Writers’ Day, a day complete with readings, seminars on getting published and an open poetry slam. The highlight of the day, naturally, was the appearance by author/publisher Dave Eggers, who announced he was fronting the money for an InkTank book, molded after his own Bay Area writing center’s. InkTank has expanded the event this year into a Writers’ Weekend, set to occur May 13-15. Here’s hoping it grows exponentially.
1311 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-542-0195.

Best Transformation of the City:
The opening night party for the Contemporary Arts Center’s Beautiful Losers exhibition was like something out of a New York City fever dream: gritty, eye-catchingly unique art and a just-as-distinctive crowd celebrating the art. Favorite and most curious visage: Prankster/filmmaker/former Chloë Sevigny boyfriend Harmony Korine admiring his own video installation for nearly an hour, much of it by himself (narcissism at its finest?). Elsewhere, Terry Richardson’s wall of photos left us both entralled and aghast. Which was appropriate. We could go on and on. A once-in-a-Cincinnati-lifetime event. (contemporaryartscenter.org)

Best Little Lincoln Center:
UC’s College-Conservatory of Music offers some of the city’s best performance spaces — Ralph Corbett Auditorium, Patricia Corbett Theater, Robert J. Werner Recital Hall, Cohen Family Studio Theater and Deiterle Vocal Arts Center — grouped around a sleek plaza. CCM is the home of eclectic programming, operas, chamber concerts and musical plays often featuring CCM students and faculty. Better yet, most performances are free. (ccm.uc.edu)

Best Thing About the Cicadas:
Performer Paul Kreft and a diverse group of artists ranging in age from 20 to 50 gathered at the rickety College Hill Town Hall last June for Cicada: The Musical, a series of funny and eclectic performance pieces set to the themes of cicadas. Performances included Eric Appleby’s homage to Matthew Barney’s tap-dancing satyr in his Cremaster films and spoken word artist Keith Wahle’s pairing with dancer Claire Miller. Granted, Cicada: The Musical had some missteps, but there were enough highlights to offset the avant-garde baloney that often drags down shoestring productions.

Best Public Humiliation of a Non-Politician:
Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy got fed up with a fan who kept interrupting songs by screaming, “Turn up Jeff’s guitar!” during a Feb. 11 concert at the Taft Theatre. After offering to refund the unhappy fan’s money, Tweedy surmised what he might look like, down to the white Reeboks and fanny pack. But later Tweedy apologized, summing up the concert this way: “We laughed, we cried. I said some rude things. You said some rude things. It’s like every relationship in the world: band-audience, boy-girl.”

Best Local Music Quid Pro Quo:
Venomous Valdez’s “20 Questions” on cincymusic.com with a variety of area musicians is an entertaining and insightful read. Updated with a new “victim” every week (ranging from newcomers to veterans), the column allows local artists to tell about their first concerts, albums and musical memories, plus favorite books, musicians and movies, among other things. It’s an insightful look at the local music scene from a more personal angle. (cincymusic.com)

Best Empowerment Music Fest:
The estrogen-laced Chicks RockFest with local and national acts expanded to two days last year, turning the Southgate House into a packed mansion of feminine Rock power. Founder Jen Schmidt has transformed the fest from a three-band show into a 30-act event in just four years, building the brand name by drawing interest from bands (with at least one female member) from around the country. This year’s CRF goes down April 8-9 at the Southgate House. (chicksrockfest.com)

Best Dinner-and-a-Rock-Show:
Most local Rock clubs literally give you peanuts to sustain you before and during a long night rockin’. At York Street Cafe, a top-notch restaurant beneath the music bar insures you’ll be belching up tasty goodness while you check out some of the best the local music scene has to offer in one of the best music rooms in the area.
738 York St., Newport, 859-261-9675.

Best 1-2-3 Concert Punch:
Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson/Todd Rundgren and Trey Anastasio will appear on consecutive nights at the Taft Theater May 5-7, giving Cincinnati a better lineup of musical horses than Louisville will have at the Derby the same weekend.
317 E. Fifth St., Downtown, 513-721-8883.

Best National Record Label With Cincy Love:
Mississippi-based Fat Possum Records started as a pure Blues outlet, but in recent years, they’ve gone after Blues-inspired young bands with a more contemporary bent. And they apparently see something in the Cincinnati area’s talent pool, signing Thee Shams and then Heartless Bastards. The upside for us: a little national attention for the local scene. The downside for the label: probably getting daily phone calls from Cincinnati bands saying, “Sign us next!” (fatpossum.com)

Best Hip Hop Writing:
Yeah, Kevin Britton is one of ours, but no one locally writes about Hip Hop as insightfully as he does. His column “The Ledge” appears monthly in CityBeat and has drawn a devout following of Hip Hop heads. Britton loves Hip Hop like a fat kid loves cake, and it shows in his every word, even when he’s being justifiably critical of the sometimes beleaguered art form.

Best Spoken Word Showcase:
Once upon a time in Cincinnati’s spoken word heyday poems and mics were like assholes — everyone had one. Then the bottom fell out, and all the perpetrators listening to Love Jones on repeat returned to their civil service day jobs. But real poets live that shit, and Olufemi (all respect to the 144,000 collective) and her likewise nappy-headed crew of poets, griots and MCs have landed at The Greenwich, entering every Wednesday and the last Saturday monthly like artistic nightcrawlers seen only when the moon and the soil are just right. Conditions are poetical.
The Greenwich, 2442 Gilbert Ave., Walnut Hills, 513-221-1151.

Best Alt.Karaoke:
When the Southgate House was built in 1814, we doubt its owners thought it would one day be a nightly music hot spot. Add your tunes to its history on Tuesday nights, when Southgate hosts a rockin’ karaoke event. A valid I.D. is all you need to be invited to this event, which starts at 9 p.m.
24 E. Third St., Newport, 859-431-2201.

Best Reason to See Red:
When the Fine Arts Fund kicked off its 2005 Sampler Weekend in February, it moved beyond the predictable ho-hum, young professionals gathering with “Red” — offering red food, red drinks, a drag troupe from Dayton (The Rubi Girls) and probably a few red faces. (fineartsfund.org)

Best Free Eats With a Serving of Culture:
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s Thursday Night Buffet Series is a cheap night out ($17 for a symphony concert, and you get a meal beforehand), and now that they’ve opened up Music Hall’s Ballroom you don’t have to balance that lasagna on your lap in the overcrowded lobby.
1241 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-621-1919.

Best Arts Exports (Domestic):
Graduates of the musical theater program at UC’s College-Conservatory of Music are all over Broadway this season, including Shoshana Bean (class of 1999) currently starring as a green witch in the megahit Wicked.

Best Arts Exports (International):
On a tour of Europe in November, Paavo Järvi and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra sold out concert halls in Paris, Vienna, Barcelona and Madrid. It’s great to have a world-class ensemble right in our own back yard. (cincinnatisymphony.org)

Best Drum Solo:
Neal Peart? Tommy Lee? Nah. They don't hold a candle to the Kodo drummers from Japan, who brought their current One Earth Tour to the Aronoff Center for the Arts March 12. Combining breathtaking physical prowess along with delicate precision, the drummers put on an impressive two-hour show for a mesmerized audience.

Best New Arts District:
Dotted along Madison Road heading north in Oakley, you’ll find a surprising crop of new galleries, funky shops and great restaurants. Phyllis J. Weston-Annie Bolling Galleries has its home here, along with M. Willis Interiors and Voltage. Intuitive, a favorite downtown spot for eclectic gifts, will make its new home here this summer. In addition, Boca recently relocated here, and across the street you’ll find Jean-Robert de Cavel’s PhoParis as well. New places will continute to spring up, so stay tuned.

Best Best-Kept Secret:
Stashed up past the other bars on Main Street, Mr. Pitiful’s is a spacious haven for happy hour or a quick drink with a colleague. The jukebox provides an eclectic mix of fun music, and the weekends offer a variety of live music. In addition to the pool tables, it doesn’t hurt that the drinks are reasonably priced and they have Blue Moon on tap.
1323 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-369-0202.

Best Unofficial Pub Crawl:
Unbeknownst to most of the city, the Cheviot bar scene has quietly emerged as one of the best places to bar crawl. There are several good gin joints in the western neighborhood, with something literally for everyone — Second Street Saloon, Patrick’s, Rooties, Gary’s Westsider and the Smokin’ Monkey, to name a few. And they’re cheap enough and close enough to allow you to spend the night in one neighborhood.

Best Place to Sit Outside and Drink (Legally):
Bar none, the best place to imbibe outdoors is Mainstrasse in Covington. Great people-watching, good eats and ever-lasting liters of Strongbow. Our reigning favorite bar is still the Cock and Bull English Pub, and its (limited) outside seating on the corner is ideally located.

Best Adapted Law in the City:
OK, the repeal of Article 12 was pretty great. But when city council voted to lift the general “festival” seating ban last August, it finally — 25 years after The Who concert tragedy — let us see a concert the way other cities do. And land the concerts that other cities do. The time most certainly had come. Now someone get U2 and Green Day on the phone.

Best (and Least Known) Drinking Room in the City:
Most everyone knows about the great Vineyard Cafe in Hyde Park. Not enough people know about the Vineyard Wine Room a couple doors up. It’s slightly disconnected, but you can still order off the Vineyard menu and you can drink any number of good wines they have. Plus it’s the coolest room in the city.
2645 Erie Ave., Hyde Park, 513-871-1110.

Best Cocktail in Town:
The Vanilla Sky at Palomino is to die for. Cool-looking, great for dinner or by itself and can easily knock you on your ass.
505 Vine St., Downtown, 513-381-1300.

Best Hideaway Hangout:
Too often thought of as stuffy (like its upstairs French neighbor), LaNormandie is the exact opposite. The bar area is casual and fun and boasts live music several nights a week, including the great (and unplugged) Robin and Joani Lacy on Wednesdays. A fine place to meet after work or before the show.
118 E. Sixth St., Downtown, 513-721-2761.

Best Local Music Weekend:
Jumping from 25,000 attendance in 2003 to 40,000 revelers last year, MidPoint Music Festival (featuring hundreds of national and local musical acts) gets closer to being a major national music conference player with each successful year. It’s becoming a must-attend event for unsigned artists, and music fans are enjoying the ride as well. If you went, you know it’s one of the best things going on in the city right now, as the Main Street area of Downtown and Over-the-Rhine floods with energy and excitement (commonly overheard: “It feels like a real city!”). With organizers now prepping for its fourth year (with a goal of 50,000 attendees), local music fans will want to start getting extra sleep now in preparation. (mpmf.com)

Best MidPoint Casanova:
Art Alexakis of Everclear, Midpoint Music Festival’s compelling keynote speaker, was everywhere MPMF weekend … including under bright street lights making out with an anonymous woman. He made reference to the Rock & Roll lifestyle ruining marriages and relationships during his keynote address and then showed everyone later that night how to not avoid temptation. It was “show and tell” in reverse.

Best Local Band Comeback:
OK, the Wolverton Brothers didn’t go anywhere and have remained a constant on the local club front. But the underground music warriors released their first album in years, A Better Place, which is also their best ever. The most unique, consistently creative band in town for the past two decades and running. (wolvertons.org)

Best Indie Music and Film Mind Meld:
Lite Brite Fest mixed independent film and music and boosted Newport’s cultural IQ another 100 points. Local and national artists from both fields converged around the Southgate House to help Newport come another step closer to becoming “Cincinnati’s Brooklyn” (in the words of organizer Dan McCabe). Look for this year’s event July 29-31 to be bigger and even more indie-licious. (litebritetest.com)

Best Arts Partnership:
Cincinnati Opera likes to hold hands with other arts organizations. Last July, while producing their own operatic version of The Maids, the Opera convinced Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati to assemble a staged reading of Jean Genet’s original play. ETC put together a knock-out cast — Bruce Cromer, Todd Almond and Sam Womelsdorf — and crafted a riveting performance that was a worthy complement to the production at Music Hall. (cincinnatiopera.com)

Best Reason to Rent ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ Again:
To get another look at Petra and remember the Cincinnati Art Museum’s blockbuster four-month exhibition from the “Lost City of Stone” in Jordan. (Oh, there’s Harrison Ford, too.)
953 Eden Park Drive, Mount Adams, 513-721-2787.

Best Quarter Century of Singing:
We live in a singing city — from the May Festival to Jazz diva Kathy Wade — but in 2005 we get to celebrate 25 years of choral work by the Vocal Arts Ensemble, a collection of 24 professional voices who sound like the heavenly host. Catch them in concert at an area church, and you’ll have a religious experience. (vaecincinnati.org)

Best Loss of Cobwebs:
The Cincinnati Chamber Music Society has been presenting top-notch Classical musicians for 75 years, so there’s no doubt they know which end is up when it comes to small ensembles. But we applaud the “Chamber Raves” kick-off for their anniversary season — a weeklong series of noontime concerts to connect younger audiences to a passionate art form. They made a lot of people sit up and take notice. (cincychamber.org)

Best Swan Song:
After eight seasons of humbugging in A Christmas Carol at Playhouse in the Park, actor Joneal Joplin has hung up Ebenezer Scrooge’s nightshirt to spend more holiday time with his own family in St. Louis. His portrait of the old penny-pincher grew richer every year, and in 2004 he truly touched the hearts of one and all.

Best Arts Organization With Vision:
With a growing cache of artists and a mission filled with heart, Visionaries and Voices is a studio/
gallery for artists with disabilities that’s growing in number as well as in frequency of exhibitions and collaborations. They’ll be interesting to watch in the coming year.
2515 Essex Place No. 172, Walnut Hills, 513-861-4333.

Best Feel Good Campaign:
Highlighting some of the best and funkiest events in Cincinnati’s arts scene, Enjoy the Arts’ annual 20/20 Festival has become the centerpiece of the area’s fall arts scene. With a schedule that touches every corner of the city and a vision of Cincinnati that’s anything but ordinary, there’s no way to feel anything but good about Cincinnati. Enjoy the Arts/START,
1338 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-621-4700.

Best Strings Attached:
Cincinnati children might be some of the most spoiled in the country when it comes to varied and evocative entertainment opportunities. The Frisch Marionette Company offers kids the opportunity to experience sophisticated storytelling in a format that’s slower and more intense than the usual plastic cartoons that are almost numbing with flashy and shallow, color and noise. Adults would and do undoubtedly appreciate the artistry and painstaking work that goes into the creation of just one marionette (an entire month is needed to craft each piece) not to mention the collaborative effort behind the crafting of each show. This company is a diamond in the rough, producing children’s entertainment in rare form — smart, creative and hanging by a thread.
Hanselmann Lodge Theater, 6125 Ridge Ave., Montgomery, 513-451-8875.

Best Movie Theater Marketing:
Competition from nearby Rave Motion Pictures has resulted in Showcase Springdale doing some plush upgrades and creative outreach to local movie fans. A recently opened lobby bar serves a full menu and drinks to moviegoers. One auditorium has been refashioned into an IMAX theater, and other theaters have been remodeled. Special screenings target parents with infants. Pair these Springdale improvements with the ultra comfortable theaters at Rave, and it’s clear that suburban movie fans are in the best spot — two high-end multiplexes within miles of each other.
Springdale 18: Cinema De Lux, 12064 Springdale Pike, Springdale, 513-671-6917; Rave Motion Pictures West Chester 18, 9415 Civic Center Blvd., West Chester, 513-463-2316.

Best Local Online Community:
Semantikon.com the literary/visual arts-minded site might not be the easiest to navigate, but its heart’s in the right place: promoting local artists. They even mail free T-shirts for promotion. (semantikon.com)

Best New Gallery:
You know M (An Ultra Modern Gallery) isn’t your mother’s art gallery when an artist calling himself The AK47 is sticking syringes in his strangely lovely canvases. One year after photographer Mason Paul opened M in Covington’s Mainstrasse, the gallery is moving two doors down to a space that’s just one large room rather than three smaller ones. Then this fall Paul curates a show benefiting InkTank that will feature works conceived around musings of the homeless Cincinnatians who write for InkTank’s Word on the Street program.
M, 519 Main St., Covington, 859-393-2054.

Best Real Estate Deal:
Local community volunteers from Kennedy Heights and the surrounding neighborhoods of Silverton, Pleasant Ridge and Amberly Village gained enough support to acquire a long-shuttered funeral home at the junction of Montgomery Road and Kennnedy Avenue and save it from a developer with less “artistic” intentions. Like all worthy arts projects, the Kennedy Heights Arts Center is a work in progress. Fund-raising continues to finish renovation of the building and to staff and operate the center.
6546 Montgomery Road, Kennedy Heights, 513-631-4278.

Best Unusual Performance Venue:
So moisture still drips down the walls of the Mockbee’s cavernous lower level, which is now closed except to intrepid adventurers who promise not to break their necks. Nevertheless, the former brewery, featuring 14-foot vaulted ceilings and stone walls, still trumps other multimedia performance spaces. Recent shows included a benefit for Thin Air Studio’s interactive horticultural/sculptural installation, a poetry reading hosted by InkTank’s A Moveable Feast, Summerfair’s Emerging Artist Exhibition, screenings from Underneath Cincinnati and “Brutal Cincinnati Damage: Two Days of Multimedia Anxiety” and benefit for the WAIF (88.3 FM) radio program Art Damage.
2260 Central Pkwy., Brighton, 513-929-9463.

Best Butt Hut:
Meetings of all anti-smoking ban activists — or F.O.S.S. (Friends of Second Hand Smoke) — take place at the landmark Brew House tavern, where the wall-to-wall smoke cloud and nicotine-stained drop ceiling confirm its status as a smoker’s oasis. The drinks are strong and cheap. The food is casual and good (be sure to order the fish on rye). The staff is friendly. Everything about the Brew House smacks of 1973, which helps explain why everyone smoking like the Marlboro Man hasn’t died of cancer.
1047 E. McMillan, Walnut Hills, 513-961-9058.

Best Return from Wetness:
After extensive water damage caused a long hiatus, the transition from Plush to Crush was smooth, offering up an eclectic roster of events in a cozy, hip atmosphere. From the best original local music to the occasional touring Indie act, Crush is dedicated to delivering a unique experience, a goal we’ll defend ’til we die.
825 Main St. (above Carol’s on Main), Downtown, 513-651-2667.

Best Supporter of Local Music:
It’s becoming cliché in these pages but, yes, Northside Tavern continues to host a wide array of stellar original local bands (and the occasional touring act) seven days a week, always for free. Then there’s the fact that it might be the best bar in town, offering up an eclectic clientele, uniquely-stocked jukebox and, most importantly, a Mrs. Pac Man/Galaga combo!
4163 Hamilton Ave., Northside, 513-542-3603.

Best Bar for Starving Liberals and Artists:
The drinks at Milton’s Prospect Hill Tavern are cheap, the conversation’s reliably a notch above and so is the jukebox. Any given night at Milton’s you’ll likely find a good mix of local theater artists, political activists and those who write about them, locals and other ne’er-do-wells. Loudmouth owner Kevin Feldman embodies the twisted wit of the warm-brick tavern: “No xenophobes,” his ads say. “Where do you want to be when rapture happens?” If rapture happens on a Sunday or Thursday, there’s also free pool.
301 Milton St., Liberty Hill, 513-784-9938.

Best Reinvention of a Bar:
Cooper’s on Main. Though former Moose on Main might have misread its patrons by providing valet parking, new owner Jason Cooper nailed the idea by pretty much transplanting his neo-hippie joint Main City Bar a block south. But with its live music, this place feels even more like a downtown version of the Northside rocker haven The Comet — always a compliment. For bar fare served late, the food’s nearly gourmet and a new menu is on the way.
1345 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, 513-381-0400.

Best New Blues Revue:
Though there are a few good ones, there’s not a glut of Blues clubs in the area. A touring Blues act (outside of the biggies in the field) can’t be blamed for leaving Greater Cincinnati off their itinerary. That is until the emergence of Fat Fish Blue, a new Louisiana-style restaurant/club at Newport on the Levee. The venue (which has a sister location in Cleveland) boasts a consistent lineup of local acts, but it’s the regional Blues breakers (and the local fans who’ll likely love them) who benefit most from the new hot spot. Newport on the Levee, Newport, 859-261-4401.

Best Local Music Compilation:
A joint effort among local Indie labels Tiberius, Serve Your Servant and State Bird Records, Organelle wasn’t just a slap-dash, random collection of songs (that’s what iPods are for). This disc stood alone as an “album,” melding tracks from some of the city’s best (including The Light Wires, Humans Bow Down, The Defrost Star and Hilltop Distillery) to create a fluid, cohesive piece of work, start to finish. (organellecd.com)

Best D.I.Y. Music Cult:
Recording studios all over the country are going out of business due to the rise of affordable home-recording gear, and that suits the Vibrating Needle Recording Collective just fine. The collaborative of like-minded local musicians (including the bands Folk?, For Algernon, The Minni-Thins and The Minor Leagues), all of whom are home-recording enthusiasts, joined together last year to create the collective as a support system that enables them to cross-promote and share ideas and feedback. Strength in numbers in action. (vibratingneedle.net)

Best Henna Tattoos (Seasonal):
Ever heard a woman shout “Heeeennnnaaa” at the top of her lungs for three minutes straight? No breaths in between? In a time of limited media capabilities, people did what they could to get the word out. The Ohio Renaissance Festival, open nine weeks a year, offers the paying public a glimpse into days of yore with jousts, turkey legs, corsets and some of the best temporary body art in a 20-mile radius. The talented (and long-winded) staff has an extensive catalogue of designs to choose from and also doesn’t mind taking suggestions from patrons. Oddly enough, these oh-so dated merchants accept credit cards. (renfestival.com) ©