Tag: Cincinnati

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News

35 center city businesses extending business hours with "Lite the Nite"

Thirty-five businesses throughout Downtown and Over-the-Rhine will be extending their dining and shopping hours, and offering some special promotions as part of the first “Lite the Nite” retail event that is meant to highlight the diverse collection of shops, restaurants and services located throughout Cincinnati’s center city.

The Cincinnati Historic Midtown Merchants Association teamed up with Mayor Mallory on this effort that will bring extended hours to the participating stores on Friday, September 25. The “Lite the Nite” event will going on during the same time as Midpoint Music Festival so there should be tons of live music and festivities sprinkled all over Downtown and Over-the-Rhine. MPMF runs through this Saturday, September 26.

All stores will be open until 9pm or later, with many staying open late into the night. View a full map of the participating stores below with their extended hours and locations.


View “Lite the Nite” in a larger map

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Arts & Entertainment News

MPMF Is Here

By this point, everyone is aware that the 9th annual MidPoint Music Festival hits downtown Cincy this Thursday, September 24 through Saturday, September 26. Instead of giving you something you could get elsewhere, we thought we’d provide you links to a few pages that may help narrow down the 270 bands there are to choose from.

When was the last time you had 270 choices as to how to spend three evenings? Well, since 270 is a lot to choose from, we give you the MPMF homepage at CityBeat as a jumping off point. Check out the CityBeat homepage and go through the bands alphabetically; stop and listen to a few bands there but make sure to explore some on MySpace. If you do nothing else, our recommendation is that you pay special attention to the DIG lines in the description as CityBeat does their best job to point you in the right direction.

Still too much work? There are some recommendations out there, including some from our friends at EachNoteSecure here, here, here, and my very own preview here. There will be a ton more MPMF news posted in the coming days, so make sure you keep an eye on their homepage.

As you can tell there is a ton to choose from and the $29 wristband is quite a deal for three nights of music. What does $29 get you? The wristband allows you to jump in any one of the sixteen Scion Streetcars to get around town all weekend. It also allows you to go from venue to venue as many times as you want without additional charge. Truly at a cost of less than $10 a night, the wristband provides flexibility and value that are well worth the price if you plan on going all weekend or even just two of the three nights. However, there are plenty of other options including paying at the door of each venue or even free shows on Fountain Square each night over the course of the weekend. (Fountain Square shows feature bands that are playing throughout the rest of the weekend and are a true steal!)

Texts to 4632 from Cincinnati Bell Wireless accounts, and tweets using the #MPMF hash tag on Twitter or messages posted on the site will be displayed on Web-enabled monitors in festival venues, on a projection of the site on the facade of Grammer’s and on the Fountain Square video board. If you want to get a steady stream of updates be sure to follow @MidPointMusic, @MetromixCincy, and @CincyBlog on Twitter to get festival updates throughout the weekend.

Looking forward to seeing you around town this weekend. Enjoy the music! We are all lucky and better off to have it all right here in front of us for the taking!

Photo by Flickr user thadd…read his blog here.

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News

Boss Finney: Sorry Kids

Cartoon by Nick Sweeney
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News

Cincinnati lands major 2011 convention

According to the Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau, Cincinnati has landed another major convention as the Prince Hall Shriners have selected Cincinnati for their 2011 Imperial Session. The African-American fraternal organization does a considerable amount of work raising money for their three primary programs: National Diabetes Initiative, Shriners as Mentors, and Student Aid.

The group will reportedly bring more than 25,000 attendees, utilize more than 17,000 hotel room nights, and pump more than $5 million into the local economy during their visit. Cincinnati reportedly had been working on landing this convention for more than five years and beat out Phoenix to seal the deal. The Prince Hall Shriners last held their annual event in Cincinnati in 1961

The announcement continues the positive trend major ethnic organizations selecting Cincinnati as the host city for their annual conventions. In 2008, The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) selected Cincinnati and brought significant national attention to the city that included a visit from then presidential candidate Barack Obama and several other notable African-American leaders. Shortly after the NAACP convention closed, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) announced that it too would be bringing its annual convention to Cincinnati in 2011. Other events celebrating Cincinnati’s rich cultural diversity lately have included the National Hispanic MBAs in 2006, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives in 2006, the Gospel Music Workshop of America in 2009, the recently announced 2013 National Fraternal Order of Police National Conference, and the 2010 annual meeting of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.

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News

Bearcats Rising!

I haven’t commented on here about this yet, but the Bearcats are rolling early this year and have rightfully earned a lot of national attention for this early part of the season usually reserved for the established programs. But while Cincy may not be an established program yet, it seems like they may be well on their way to defending as Big East champs and going to their second straight BCS bowl game.

So far Senior QB Tony Pike has looked masterful running the high tempo offense that clearly confused and worn out all three opponents the Bearcats have faced. Aside from Pike’s large size (6’6″) and ability to scramble if need be, his accuracy on both the long and short balls has been incredible to watch (imagine a more athletic Ben Roethlisburger who can pass accurately and throw the deep ball).

Another welcome change has been the terrific play of the offensive line. Last year’s line was riddled with holding penalties, false starts and allowed defenses to put a lot of pressure on Pike at times. This year Pike has barely been touched and penalties have been so few and far between that you might have forgotten what it’s like to actually set yourself back on offense.

The great play by the offensive line is really symbolic of the overall team that looks extremely well-coached and ready to play. It’s not often that you get a conference game with so much importance as UC’s road game at Rutgers in week 1, but it’s ever rarer that a team comes out and plays so flawlessly as the Bearcats did.

As for the offense appears to be better than advertised with a confident Tony Pike who is currently in the top five for Heisman candidates. In a nutshell, the offense is scary good. The defense was the big question mark as 10 of the 11 starters from a year ago graduated and Kelly’s defensive recruits are now on the field, and like the offense, the defense has been better than advertised. They’re putting pressure on the quarterback, forcing turnovers, and holding teams to low point totals.

Before week 1 the Bearcats weren’t even in the Top 25 in either poll. Now after three straight impressive wins the Bearcats have moved up to #14 and #15 in the AP and USA Today polls respectively. Combine the impressive start with the remainder of a season in which the Bearcats should be favored, and early struggles by other top teams, and you have yourself an interesting scenario. Bearcats vs. Gators in the National Championship Game on January 7th in Pasadena, California.

The Bearcats play Fresno State at home this weekend at noon. Fresno State is coming off close and tough loses at Wisconsin and at Boise State, and should be another nice game for the Bearcats. The UC Athletic Department has announced that this game, and games against Louisville and West Virginia are all close to selling out. So get your tickets now and remember to wear white to this weekend’s game against Fresno State. Go Bearcats!