BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Sights from the weekend: Boogie, blues, baubles and boys in bras . . .
ON THE RUN: A guy in shorts and a pink brassiere casually walking down Court Street prompted the question: This is Cincinnati?
A drag queen in checkered panty hose, 6-inch heels and a megaphone prompted it again: Cincinnati??
Yep. It was the annual Drag Races, a Kym and Joe Carr gender bender consisting of a two-block sprint down Court Street from the New Pipeline to Shooters in front of cheering hundreds. Runners are in drag -- heels, handbag, wig and hat are required.
Here's how it goes: Runners in undies begin by slamming a shot at the Pipeline, dashing outside to dress, sprinting to Shooters for another shot, then handing a baton of sorts off to the next member of the relay team.
The five teams did it in everything from skag drag (non-glam) to granny to boa-glam, with sequined pumps everywhere, fright wigs soaked by water balloons from upstairs windows and Super Soakers cooling runners and crowd.
The bars were packed with a party crowd that arrived early and stayed waaaay late. Oh yeah, the winner: Carol's on Main's team. The event is a fund-raiser (via donated bartender tips and team entry fees, $20 per team) for AIDS-related charities.
ON AN ISLAND: Saturday was tamer but glitzier when Hot Summer Nights opened Once on This Island with a Bankers Club dinner and show on campus. Sounds along the way:
Tony Award winning composer Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime and Island) talking about his first show, a 1980 revue at CCM -- he's a graduate -- directed by Worth Gardner and how "CCM is so wonderful because you're encouraged to be a creative as possible." Later in the Omni bar, he talked about being eager to hear the Cincinnati Pops recording of his Ragtime theme on a future Broadway-themed album.
Patricia Corbett talking about how good it was to be getting about without the cane she had been using since a fall two months ago aboard the Mike Fink. It was her first outing sans cane.
Shirley Bernstein, Fink owner, recovering from a post-Cincinnati opera party two nights earlier: "120 people at my house very late." Broadway vet and Cincinnati resident Pam Myers talking about her June trip to New York to sing at a Judy Garland tribute with Elaine Stritch and Lorna Luft and how Stritch is trying to talk her into moving back to New York to do a show.
EBONY AND IVORY: Then there was the boogie and blues at Saturday's Queen City Blues Fest at Sawyer Point.
For those wondering who gets the thank-you note for the dozen pianists on the Arches Piano Stage: A bunch of doctors, that's who. Seems four Christ Hospital physicians have for the past five years teamed up to book and pay fees for Blues Fest piano players. This year, says Dr. Phil Leming, the 12 players may have been the largest such gathering in the world. He, Dr. Robert Cody and Dr. Douglas Hawley, all oncologists, and emergency room doc Jeff Craven got it together.
"It's our accumulated hobby that has grown so big," Dr. Leming says. "The only other that even approximates it is an annual show in Paris.
"One reason we do this, is because we're all busy with work and can't get involved in charity work. So we do this to give something back."
How much back? What does it cost to bring in 12 of the world's best? "A whole lot," is all he would say.
Psst! appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
KNIPPENBERG ARCHIVE
