Boxed Set Excess
One of the more culturally imperative mainstays of the holiday season of the late 20th century is the boxed set of compact discs. They’re often impressive, if only for packaging and annotation. In many cases, they’re very good, maybe essential, primarily because of their archival value. But this year, it seems they’ve gone over the…
The Hero Takes a Ball
Five hundred anxious schoolchildren are filing into the gymnasium at Brush Elementary School in Grafton for a special assembly. Standing inside the music room, Harlem Globetrotter Otis “OK” Key awaits his grand entrance, nervously spinning the trademark red, white, and blue basketball on his fingertip. Key, the designated “Goodwill Ambassador” for the Harlem Globetrotters –…
Livewire
Jay-Z Agora December 19 Jay-Z (Sean Carter — but you can call him “Jigga”) has got some nerve. Apparently unfazed by his recent arrest on charges of stabbing record exec Lance “Un” Rivera, whom he suspected of leaking his forthcoming record to radio, he has posted $50,000 bail and continued to promote his new album,…
Bogey Down
For complete details on the Bogart film series, see Film Repertory.
Soundbites
Most famous as the guitarist for the now defunct Dead Boys (a Cleveland punk band that formed in the ’70s and released two albums before disbanding), Jimmy Zero recently decided to end his self-imposed retirement. His new band, Lesbianmaker — which also includes bassist Rae Gunn, drummer Ant, and guitarist Bobby J. — will make…
Ego Trip
Ah, what a miracle that Andy Kaufman was. So sublime his wit, so pioneering his spirit. Astonishing! A hero to be loved, adored, and emulated by all artists and performers for the rest of eternity. An opener of doors, a smasher-down of barriers, a glorious, luminous, intrepid spirit without whom we’d all be lost forever!…
Keep on Trekkin’
On the face of it, it wouldn’t seem too hard to do an effective parody of Star Trek. Certainly many have tried. The only problem is that most of these parodies get hung up on dated costumes, melodramatic acting, and the obsessive nature of the show’s fans and often come off as mean-spirited and shallow.…
Super Sunday
Let’s hear it for sports movies! The most avid sports fan can occasionally be bored by lackluster games, but even the casual spectator can appreciate what the big screen can do for an athletic contest, even one played by actors rather than athletes: the closer-than-life close-ups, the dramatic use of slo-mo (preferably highlighted by driving…
Ripley, Believe It or Not
Writer-director Anthony Minghella has chosen to follow up his Oscar-laden The English Patient with another literary adaptation — this time, of Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. Highsmith is best known to film buffs as the author of Strangers on a Train, the basis for one of Alfred Hitchcock’s best thrillers; but her work has…
Plain Jane? Not Here!
The last half-decade has been very good to Jane Austen: Besides Ang Lee’s estimable 1995 version of Sense and Sensibility, we’ve been given film or TV adaptations of Emma, Persuasion, and Pride and Prejudice, not to mention Clueless, Amy Heckerling’s remarkably apt updating of Emma. Now Miramax and the BBC have co-produced a new version…
Counter Punch
Not long into examining the 1990 census figures, poverty researcher George Zeller came across a remarkable find. Certain streets in the heart of Cleveland’s most blighted neighborhoods had little or no population — according to the census, at least. That seemed odd, if not impossible. Zeller had lists of welfare and other government aid recipients…
Feature
True story about Mr. Jingeling: He and Halle’s employee Ron Newell were relaxing in a 10th-floor office in the old Halle Bros. building some years ago. Mr. Jingeling had just taken off his wig — you sweat like crazy in those things — and had placed it on the window ledge to dry when a…
Edge
Move over, Edward R. Murrow! Jeweler-turned-journalist Larry Robinson’s foray into Cuba last week bent ears from here to Havana, and not just for the “rum and Coke were flowing” flavor of his reports. Robinson was identified as a National Public Radio correspondent on WKYC-TV, an appellation WCPN Community Relations Director Tara Renk is quick to…
Mid-Life Journal
The mid-career retrospective calls for a curatorial high-wire act. The trick is to cast a judicious backward glance on the work that made an artist well-known without making it seem as though he’s dead. A new exhibit at the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art called Malcolm Cochran: [Re]collection is a retrospective of one of Ohio’s…
Red, Fat, and Blue
Downtown Cleveland is a long way from the bayou. But suddenly, between Fat Fish Blue and the similarly conceived Red Fish Cajun Grille and Bar, we have more jambalaya around these parts than a hungry man can shake a stick at. Homegrown Fat Fish Blue, founded by Clevelander Steve Zamborsky in 1993, opened at its…
Side Dish
Solon’s wildly popular Italian restaurant and pizzeria Jimmy Daddona’s (440-248-2444) is still settling into its more spacious new quarters at 6200 Enterprise Parkway, near the Regal Cinemas. Jimmy and his staff completed the move on December 6. The new location more than doubles the seats — from less than 50 to more than 100 –…
The Hits That Missed
With the millennium on everyone’s mind, somehow the end-of-the-decade thing has been shoved aside. Critics have been quick to assemble lists of the century’s greatest this or that, but the ’90s (remember them?) are being treated like a kid whose birthday happens to fall on Christmas. Some music “best of” lists have appeared (and most…
In the Raw-the Really Raw
As the ’90s draw to a close, we’re easily reminded of the good times, when artists came to town and lived up to expectations. Whether it was U2’s tongue-in-cheek technological onslaught on the sly “Zoo TV” tour or Pearl Jam’s angst-filled, generation-defining show at Peabody’s DownUnder, there have been many memorable nights that will bring…
