Scene and Heard: Scene's News Blog

These types of news stories really roast our turkey. We can all probably relate to the poor guy sitting front and center in this news item, just a simple American going about his businesses, trying to provide, when he's confronted with an agent of chaos. True tragedy this is, when people just put common decency between their teeth like a pit bull with a child's arm and start chewing. Terrible.

Seriously, how can you not feel for the guy who puts in an order at the drive-thru, a Taco Bell no less, only to see he's been maliciously stiffed a $0.99 taco once the delicious smelling paper plastic bags are handed over. A Taco Bell taco, we should point out. At Taco Bell. Anyway, the victim in this case was forced to settle on the only understandable recourse: smashing his car into the Taco Bell.

This crime against good taste went down this morning outside of Dayton.

Rachel, a 28-year-old mom and Army wife, was in the Cleveland Clinic to have 60% of one lung removed because of congenital emphysema. After surgery, she posted a photo of herself to Reddit from the ICU with a short note: "IAmA 28/f who had 60% of her lung removed today and can't fall asleep in the ICU. I'm currently in the ICU of the Cleveland Clinic. My pain is being reasonably managed, but I cannot fall asleep. Anyone care to entertain me?"

Reddit, in fact, did. And the internet loved her.

Pretty soon she became "Ridiculously Photogenic Surgery Girl," a takeoff on the "Ridiculously Photogenic Guy" (Zeddie Little) meme. Hundreds of comments and captions came pouring in, all of which delighted the Dayton woman sitting in her hospital bed.

She wrote: "OMG you guys are killing me! I am still an emotional roller coaster on lots of pain meds! I don't know if I should thank you, or laugh, or cry! In real life, no one ever says anything about the way I look. I don't get hit on all the time(maybe because I don't like leaving my house if I don't have to) and I feel pretty average. People have been saying so may nice things about me the last few days. I've never felt more beautiful. Thank you :)"

And there's your daily reminder that the internet isn't always a horrible place.

It's been a great couple of years for Cheetah Chrome, the Cleveland punk legend who played guitar in the Dead Boys and Rocket From the Tombs.

He wrote a revealing book about himself a couple of years ago, and last year he hooked up with some old Cleveland pals for a cross-country tour to talk about their younger days as hell-raising punks.

Now the not-so-reformed rocker, who's 57 and lives in Nashville, plays a part in a new movie about the famed New York City club CBGB.

The movie has just been cast, with Rupert Grint —Ron Weasley in all of the Harry Potter movies— cast as Chrome.

Grint's old Potter costar Alan Rickman plays Hilly Kristal, the founder of the legendary rock club, where U.S.-bred punk got its start, with the Ramones, Television, and Blondie all coming up there.

The project is just getting started, so we have no idea what Grint will look like as Chrome or if any of the Dead Boys' infamous onstage stories —several involving all sorts of body fluids— will be recreated. —Michael Gallucci

There were some black bear sightings down in Streetsboro recently and Fox 8 dispatched Melissa Reid to get the hard-hitting story. The bears probably aren't hungry for humans, she wants us to know while standing in the middle of a bunch of foliage for some reason.

It's not exactly Emmy-worthy work here, but the end product put together by the team at WJW is a big step up for the local station, most notably in that they didn't resort to using a fake cardboard bear to illustrate the action. Hearty congratulations are in order. Steps are being taken in the right direction, guys. Good job.

Below, the latest report on bears — BEARS! — contrasted with the infamous gold-standard video from Fox 8 and Todd Meany from a few years ago that briefly set the internet on fire.

Update: The New York Times chatted with John Waters about his hitchhiking odyssey across America, which the director said took 8 days and 15 rides. What was it all for? A book, tentatively called "Carsick." And partially to relinquish control of an over-scheduled life, giving himself to the road and the hodgepodge of friendly strangers who stopped their cars to pick him up. "Pot smokers, cops, I got everybody. And everybody was lovely," he said.

Via the NYT:

“You think maybe you’re standing by a highway for a long time, it’s a Zen-like experience,” he said. “It isn’t. It is a despairing experience to figure: No one’s ever going to stop. I’m here forever.”

Over all, Mr. Waters said he was fascinated to see what happened when he cast aside any vestiges of celebrity and threw himself to the vagaries of the road. “There’s not an airport in the world I’m not recognized in,” he said. “But who thinks it’s you on the side of the street?”

About a third of the people who picked him up, Mr. Waters said, had no idea who he was and another third were convinced by his explanations (or by a Google search) that he was a personality of some renown.

And all his other benefactors, Mr. Waters admitted, had him made right away. “My mustache got me a third of the rides,” he said. “I had it working.”

There you go, kids. If you're going to hitchhike, make sure you're sporting a bitchin' mustache. — Grzegorek

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Apparently director John Waters — who made super-overweight transvestite Divine eat dog shit in one of his movies — was in Ohio today. Hitchhiking.

"Look, that one opens and closes. I love it!" says a woman swathed in a pink hoodie and jeans. Despite her sweaty disposition thanks to this 85 degree Cleveland day, she couldn't help but appreciate the unique art at GuitarMania. The event, which kicked off today, showcases and auctions 10-foot Stratocaster guitars designed by local artists and celebrities. Birthed in 2000, GuitarMania has raised over $2 million for United Way of Cleveland, catapulting it to rock star status in the non-profit sector. And today in no way deviated from the event's previous success. One "hybrid" design--half string instrument, half car--proved a crowd favorite though.

The designer, Justin Riolo, only weeks from graduating from North Olmsted High School, created his guitar to resemble a Mercedes Benz, complete with butterfly doors. Riolo drew from an unlikely source though--National Geographic magazine. You might expect such an expedition for inspiration to end with a cheetah print instrument, but Riolo came across an ad for an old Mercedes Benz in the magazine's pages. That combined with the sexy look of the 2012 Mercedes Benz racing AMG and Riolo found his muse. "I wanted to make it look like you could open the door of the guitar and get in and drive it," he says. Despite Riolo's obvious creative knack, his future lies with the Marines. But he says he'll never lose interest in art.

To put a cherry on top of that cherry red guitar, the design was a natural fit for president of Collection Auto Group Bernie Mereno, who then owned three (now four) dealerships in the greater Cleveland area. The company dropped 10 grand each on three unique designs, the most of any of GuitarMania's sponsors. "I shouldn't say I have a favorite, but this one's my favorite," Mereno says. Well, Bernie, you're not alone. --Christina Sterbenz