An Ivy League take on Cleveland
We don’t need a PBS documentary to tell us how depressing Cleveland is. Still, gluttons for punishment can tune in to WVIZ Channel 25 at 8 p.m. on Thursday for Cleveland: Confronting Decline in an American City, which doesn’t see much hope on the smoke-covered horizon. Business leaders, commentators, and residents look for life in…
Battle over bad photos
Jeff Coryell, bad photographer Bad photo of Matt Lundy This photograph of Matt Lundy, the Democrat challenging Rep. Earl Martin in the 57th Ohio House District, is the subject of a tense legal battle. It was taken by blogger Jeff Coryell, who claims to have a master’s degree in fine arts from Northwestern University, and…
Porn star whips frat boy’s butt
Janine Lindemulder Porn star Janine Lindemulder showed Diamond Men’s Club an ass-whipping good time Friday Night. The Vivid Vixen, best known for her work in Where the Boy’s Aren’t as well as starring as the naughty nurse in a Blink-182 video, took the stage at approximately 12:45 p.m. to the tune of Pantera’s “Walk,” which…
Study: Drinking makes you money
As if I needed another excuse to get wasted, some professors at the venerable San Jose State University have discovered that people who drink make more money than people who don’t. Wrote Yahoo! News: “The study published in the Journal of Labor Research Thursday concluded that drinkers earn 10 to 14 percent more than teetotalers,…
Front row seats at Chubby’s
Blue collars and Baldwin-Wallace coeds have all been jockeying for stools during this football season at Slim & Chubby’s sports bar (www.slimandchubbys.com) in Strongsville. The bar’s 40-plus TVs have been playing to sold-out crowds for Ohio State games. The club even holds a drawing every Saturday to pick eight fans to sit in recliners in…
Doing without drinking
Don’t get me wrong, I love getting smashed just as much as the next Northeast Ohioan, but this daily bar ac tion is getting old seriously old. The other day I called roughly a dozen people to see if they wanted to take advantage of the late summer by bike riding or walking through the…
Nazis in Baghdad
Remember Erich Gliebe, the neo-Nazi leader from Parma who oversaw the collapse of the National Alliance? After reading our story “Fall of the Fourth Reich, reader Suzanne Metelko sent us an article about his comrades in the military. The article, published in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report, talks about how the most elite…
Fulwood Watch: Sam explores sex tourism!
Headline: Sex trip article ignores serious study Date: September 21, 2006 Topic: Sam actually makes a feint toward an interesting topic (2,000 black men take sex tours to Brazil annually), but quickly falls back into his reliable narrative: The Black Struggle as seen through the eyes of a Shaker Heights dilettante. In this case, it’s…
Did Tops hire Eichmann?
The insert ad for Tops in the September 24 PD included a column of foods for celebration of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, which most people know to be a fasting day. Perhaps they meant foods for the evening before or after. However, the selections included “bagged spinach,” which has not quite marched back onto…
Death To False Cowbell
As true believers in the unmatched rock & roll power of the almighty cowbell, the Scene Music Department was so grossly offended by Jet’s desperately contrived new single, “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is,” that we were hard-pressed to put our rage, scorn, and wrath into words. Once the sound of authenticity, this noble…
Interview with DJ Terry Urban
Representing Cleveland hip-hop DJ crew the League, Terry Urban spins at 107.9 FM, Sirius Radio, and the Warehouse District’s Cloud 9. So profound are the mixmaster’s insights that they couldn’t be contained on the printed page, so the Scene Music Department hereby offers an expanded version of his recent interview. What music do you listen…
Good mourning music picks
Recommended Somber Songs of Mourning, Loss and Fond Remembrance: When a near-and-dear one’s depature from this mortal coil leaves you chasing Blue Moons with Bushmills, go all out with the cathartic experience by setting the mood with these expertly picked songs of mortality. When you need this kind of tune, it’s hard to beat REM’s…
The Daily Show comes to OSU
If you watch Comedy Central, you know Ohio provides the network’s faux news staffs with as much material as any other state in the land, a tribute to the morons who run this place. (Just in case, here are two hilarious examples, courtesy of You Tube: The first is from The Daily Show, and profiles…
Dainty Democrat slurs
Today, the Sherrod Brown campaign sent over a press release denouncing Mike DeWine’s latest TV ad, in which the good senator twists newpaper stories to make it seem as if said papers are with him, and that Brown is very, very bad. As political ads go, this is to originality what Sam Fulwood is to…
OSU Football/Gay Bath House Update . . .
If you’re having trouble finding interesting reads in the region’s Incredible Shrinking Dailies, you might want to seek refuge at the nearest magazine rack. The September 18 Sports Illustrated features a cover story about Troy Smith, the Glenville High grad and Heisman candidate who has Ohio State rolling toward a BCS game. The September 11…
Reporter weighs in on PD’s demise
This email arrrived from a guy named “Reporter Bob.” After conducting extensive research to verify its veracity — which entailed three guys sitting around saying, “Hey, whattaya think?” — we concluded that “Reporter Bob” is not his real name, but a clever pseudonym created by a PD reporter to hide his identity. His missive: Do…
Reader rails against Board of Elections
On September 13 computer scientists at Princeton University issued yet another in a series of damning reports on the Diebold AccuVote TS electronic voting machine that is currently in use in many states. The TS is the predecessor of the TSx model recently purchased by Cuyahoga County, the machine that was used in the disastrous…
Uncle Tom’s latest blunder
Secretary of State Uncle Tom Blackwell is a huge fan of the one-size-fits-all solution to complex problems. It matters not that his plans never work — and often entail disaster. The Tomster’s lone pursuit is offering wonderfully simplistically ideas on the campaign trail. (That’s What Jesus W0uld Do.) And since he wants to be Ohio’s…
Night of the Zombies
The Rolling Rock and Roll Show, presented by none other than Little Steven’s Underground Garage, made its way through Cleveland on September 15. This lazy lady didn’t drag her ass out to the Beachland to watch the garage-rock-britpop spectacle, but heard that both the Zombies and the Mooney Suzuki sounded well-rehearsed. Also found some funny…
Becky’s Coffee Crisis
I’ve never been much of a coffee drinker (too much caffeine causes premature wrinkles — yuck!). But a few weeks ago, after growing a tad sick of my watery (but super healthy!) green tea, I acquired a craving for an extra-large, iced, coconut-flavored coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts. But where to get one? I racked my…
How Not to Get Gigs
Nick Zuber, a 21-year-old singer-guitarist from Painesville, recently tried to land a gig at the Lime Spider, a prime indie stage in Akron. When the club ignored several of his e-mails, the kid fired off a note to club management, claiming the Spider “doesn’t care about local musicians and looks down upon them as if…
Smoke on the Trainwreck
Hair today: Kyle Gass (left) looks like a wreck. What Tenacious D is to the overblown conceits of metal, Trainwreck — featuring Tenacious D’s other half, Kyle Gass — is to 1970s southern cock rock: plenty of fatuous soloing, roots flavor (more Toto than Black Crowes), and excursions into prog. It’s pouring out and it’s…
Fancy Food News
Lola: They don’t do pizzaburgers. “Your cooking makes up for all the other crappy food I have to eat in this job,” was my backhanded compliment to Cleveland’s celebrity chef-restaurateur Michael Symon, not long after I first started this gig. And with last week’s reopening of Lola, it’s as true now as it was eight…
Mike DeWine: Media Impresario
The latest Rasmussen note to coders: Poll numbers have Sherrod Brown jumping out to a six-point lead over Mr. Excitement, aka Senator Mike DeWine (R-Yawn). The state has now gone from a “toss up” to one that “leans Democrat.” So what accounts for DeWine’s dip in popularity? It couldn’t possibly be his totally craptacular TV…
Wine, Weirdos, and Song
If Cleveland Public Theatre succeeds in its master plan of bringing arty crowds to the near West Side of town, it better also get a plan for parking their asses. Pandemonium 2006 fund-raiser was a feast of wine, weather, and weird artists doing unconventional things with lycra — but it was a famine for the…
Spotless Mind#$&%
Michel Gondry deserves a big hand. Maybe two. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of the best movies of the decade. Dave Chappelle’s Block Party isn’t bad either. Michel Gondry, the brilliant French director who made both these films, returns Friday with The Science of Sleep, a surrealist mindfuck disguised as a romantic…
Silly Sod
Performance art can be a beautiful thing — so long as it stays the hell away from our workaday life. Today at noon, your friends at SPACES gallery will blitz the streets of downtown Cleveland to transform metered parking spaces — you know, the one you’ve been circling Public Square for 20 minutes to find…
Members Only at Ikea?
I know Cleveland feels so slighted after Ikea rejected us for its first Ohio store. But, hey, can you blame them for picking good ol’ Cincinnati? Yeah, I totally wasn’t aware that racist Republicans go crazy for those streamlined Klippan sofas either – so gay, right? I was sure those people still mounted buck heads…
Dude, This 15-Year-Old Really Hates Schoolmarms
Craig Scheidler, a high schooler in Ohio’s 2nd District (Cincinnati area), wants to “send Jean Schmidt packing.” It’s a righteous fight: This is the severe woman who dissed a Vietnam vet on the floor of Congress. But where we would have simply railed about it over beers, 15-year-old Scheidler decided to do something about it.…
Gay Bait and Switch
Cleveland’s gay club-hoppers are notorious for their cliques. Once you find a gang’s home bar — and it lets you in with nary a secret handshake — it’s damn near impossible to free yourself from its grip. Too bad nobody told Marc Hewlett. The owner of Hamilton’s on Playhouse Square opened his chic, three-story bar…
Reformed Felon Strikes Again
The Rev. Mark C. Olds has made a name for himself in recent years preaching the song of redemption. Having overcome a checkered past filled with drugs, robbery, and the requisite involuntary manslaughter conviction, he transformed into an earnest spokesman for reform when he moved to Cleveland. Last year, he helped draft a state bill…
Pigskin Paradise
An hour before the Browns host the Baltimore Ravens today, eight football fans will take their place at the Best Seats in the House at Slim & Chubby’s. This season, patrons can buy a $1 raffle ticket an hour before each Browns and Ohio State Buckeyes game. After two names are drawn, each winner gets…
Play Ball!
Of all the World Adult Kickball Association’s rules, only one is rigidly enforced: All players are required to go to the bar after each game. The Tavern Company on Lee Road is the watering hole of choice. “When I first heard about it, I thought, ‘How hard can kickball be?'” says player Kelly Maloney. “‘And…
To Rob a Predator
The screen glowed before his squinting hazel eyes as he logged onto his Yahoo! Chat account. This was where he found solace, where he could hide his sins behind emoticons. The 32-year-old chose an Ohio chat room, looking for small talk with folks tuned to his Wooster sensibilities. Sure, he had a fiancée, but some…
Dave Alvin & the Guilty Men
Dave Alvin was barely into his 20s when he wrote “American Music,” the roots-rock anthem that serves as his watchword. With the Blasters, the Knitters, and on his own, Alvin surveys the expanse of America’s musical landscape, including rock, country, folk, rockabilly, and the blues. Voiced in his rough-hewn but sonorous tones, his songs convey…
The Lonesome Stars
The Lonesome Stars actually keep fine company. Rosavelt bandleader Chris Allen sings and plays guitar in the down-home trio, heading up an all-star cast of Cleveland musicians gone cowboy, including bluesman Austin “Walkin’ Cane” Charanghat and standup bassist Tom Prebish (Boys From County Hell). In backwoods ballads and bluegrass jams, the three pay homage to…
The Gods of Hair
Ten of the world’s top hairstylists will handpick 150 follicly challenged Northeast Ohioans for new ‘dos at tonight’s Aveda Model Call. “We need curly hair, straight hair — all ethnicities, all backgrounds,” says Lisa Anderson, education coordinator for the Aveda hair- and skin-care line. “Obviously, we want pretty girls. And we’re especially looking for men.”…
Inside the CIA
Digital images combine with loud, throbbing music in “Rule of the Soul,” an installation by local artist Kasumi. It’s one of the highlights of Cool Meets Innovation, the Cleveland Institute of Art’s annual faculty exhibit. While the artists — who use animation, photography, and sculpture — weren’t given a specific theme to develop, most of…
Lord Help Us
Pilla’s silence speaks volumes: It is unbelievable that Anthony Pilla remains a bishop in good standing in the Roman Catholic Church, given the accusations in “Crimes Against Catholics” [September 6]. If only half the things he has been accused of are true, he should be arrested for conspiracy. If they aren’t true, why hasn’t he…
The Black Lips
Atlanta’s Black Lips cast a Gaussian blur over psychodelic garage rock. Or maybe these unhinged flower punks — coming from the crustier end of the Back From the Grave spectrum — see it through the haze rising off the tarmac, or maybe in the opalescent oil slick of acid-rain-beaded glasses. To the lysergic lads, rawk…
View From Everest
Like a chick flick, View From Everest’s full-length debut offers plenty for the ladies and little for the fellas. Live and Learn is the work of four stylish gentlemen lyrically dissecting romantic relationships with a lovelorn playfulness. View From Everest’s pop-rock features candy-coated melodies and light brush strokes of guitar. The hooks float by pleasantly…
The Hungry Witch Project
Thanksgiving comes early today for area pagans, who celebrate the annual Pagan Pride Mabon Festival. Mabon — which means “Thanksgiving” in Celtic — is also designed to dispel myths about the religion. “Every day, I have to educate people that we’re not devil-worshipers,” says James Harper of Akron’s Church of the Spiral Oak. “When you…
There Is Surf in Cleveland!
While the rest of Northeast Ohio huddles in front of cozy fires in the winter, Scott Ditzenberger grabs his surfboard and heads to frigid Edgewater Park. The waves there are the next best thing to those in Hawaii, California, and Florida, says the Lakewood resident. His digital pics are part of Out of Place: A…
Number of the Beast
With polls giving him a 20-point deficit in the governor’s race, it appears that Ohioans have finally wised up to Uncle Tom Blackwell. But if you’re still feeling pangs of misplaced pity, Punch offers reason No. 72,941 to fear his election: The moron is helping thieves steal your identity. The problem came to light last…
Sally Spring
The friends of folk singer Sally Spring are not only loyal; they make up a dazzling group of rock icons spanning three decades. Her latest release, Mockingbird, was produced by Chris Stamey (dBs) and features Gene Parsons (Byrds), Fred Smith (Television), Marshall Crenshaw, and Caitlin Cary (Whiskeytown), among others. Spring’s charming voice and introspective writing…
Small Worldly
John Kolar’s new Medina restaurant, Thyme (716 Court Street, 330-764-4114), will open on October 9. The 65-seat spot in the former Sarafina space will feature what Kolar calls “contemporary cuisine with worldly influences.” Sure, that sounds a little vague — but when it translates into globally inspired dishes like aromatic short ribs, dry-rubbed in fragrant…
Vote for Pedro
The Cleveland Cinematheque kicks off its two-week Pedro Almodóvar film retrospective at 7:30 tonight with the Spanish director’s greatest work, 1989’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. It’s the highlight of Viva Pedro, an eight-film series that is now making its way around the country. Almodóvar’s movies, which he also writes, balance the…
Sympathy for the Cons
Headline: Hope, help needed for life after prison Date: September 14, 2006 Topic: Though people tend to believe that listing a prestigious penitentiary on your résumé provides automatic entry into most executive training programs, it’s not true. As Sam discovers, being an ex-con is way hard. Originality: 1/10. Since the concept was first written about…
Isis
In this age of Ph.D. metal, Isis is undoubtedly a dean of the new school. The group blends the intricate sweep of King Crimson-style prog rock, the deft whisper-to-roar-and-back dynamics of Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and the doomy power-sludge headtrips of Neurosis and the Melvins. Since ’99, the Los Angeles quintet has cranked…
Thanks for the Memories
There are drawbacks to a life of constant dining out, not the least of which is the danger of looking like the “before” model in those NutriSystem ads. But here’s what may be the biggest challenge: Making time to revisit old favorites when countless newcomers are clamoring for attention. So a recent phone conversation with…
Ghosts of Cleveland
On the heels of its popular Homicide Cleveland Style and Torso Murder Tours, Haunted Cleveland’s Rock Bottom Ghost Tour features more local spots where the dead don’t rest. The company’s latest sightseeing adventure starts at the Rock Bottom Brewery. When the Powerhouse was renovated years ago, a body was found there, buried in a car;…
Get High, Mr. Chips
Even curriculum-clutchers might prefer to leave a child behind, rather than let her learn from Half Nelson’s Mr. Dunne (Ryan Gosling), a Brooklyn junior-high teacher whose off-the-cuff history lessons are based–brace yourself, Bushies–on dialectical theory. History is change, and change, the white teacher tells the kids, most of whom are black, is the result of…
Has Tri-C Got a Beef With Lesbians?
Brandy Lusk and Akilia Wharton are Tri-C students. Lusk is white, Wharton black. There’s an age gap, too — Wharton is 31, eight years older than her girlfriend. That’s right: They’re lesbians, mixing race and generation to boot. “The triple whammy,” says Lusk. Or so they’ve been told by administrators at Tri-C, who apparently are…
Method Man
Street beef: Method Man doesn’t seem happy with the way Sean Carter is running Def Jam, and he doesn’t seem to be alone. After all, his 4:21 . . . The Day After was released on the same day as another huge Def Jam project, The Roots’ Game Theory, and neither seems to be basking…
Populist Mechanics
According to its publicity, bringing Robert Penn Warren’s 1946 novel All the King¹s Men to the screen again has been “a cherished dream” of executive producer James Carville. If we consider the project from the cheap seats, the film would appear to belong to Sean Penn. Let loose with a meaty all-American role within a…
Liar, Liar
Many stand-up comics draw on their lives for material. Not Daniel Tosh. In fact, the subversive Los Angeles funnyman likes lying so much, he titled his hit comedy CD True Stories I Made Up. And he doesn’t shy away from controversy: He’s all for steroids in sports — because bulked-up players look better on his…
Get Scared!
Ghostly Manor & XD 3D Motion Theater- Two Attractions One Location www.ghostymanor.com www.xd3dtheater.com Ghostly Manor: Rated top 10 in the U.S. Open Year Round. This old mansion instantly comes alive. Walk through this amazing haunt filled with chills and thrills. Discover ghosts and sprits. And now a 3D motion theater which transcends time, space and…
What’s Wrong With This Guy?
Since 1791, Ames Sword in tiny New London has been supplying military, police, and fraternal organizations with its trusty cutlasses. But by the time Russel Sword — yes, that’s his real name — became president in 1995, the country’s last remaining sword manufacturer was suffering from years of mismanagement. Reports weren’t being completed. Mail wasn’t…
Cursive
Now that the buzz around the Faint and Bright Eyes has subsided, maybe Saddle Creek labelmate Tim Kasher can finally get some attention. The timing is certainly right. While his divorce and post-breakup malaise provided ample fodder for several dyspeptic albums, that direction was beginning to look like an emotional blind alley. Kasher’s theatrical autobiography…
Feckless
Fans of Hong Kong cinema have been anticipating Jet Li’s Fearless all year, if not longer. The star is arguably the best in the business at combining major ass-kicking with actual acting; the director is Ronny Yu, known here for over-the-top horror sequels, but more familiar to genre fans as the director of The Bride…
Before They Were Famous
Did you know that before she started dating Han Solo, Ally McBeal’s Calista Flockhart regularly appeared on the Cleveland Play House stage? Six Degrees of Separation, From the Play House to Broadway, pays tribute to our farflung stars. Blazing Saddles’ Madeline Kahn, Mary Tyler Moore’s Ed Asner, and Jane Krakowsi, Flockhart’s former Ally castmate, are…
The Empire Shtick’s Back
As scientists further explore the inner workings of our DNA, perhaps they will stumble upon a physiological explanation for why audiences always applaud a kick line. Set up a few actors onstage, get them to kick roughly in unison, and ticket-buyers clap as reflexively as Pavlov’s dogs on a Snausage buzz. Linear leg lifts are…
Welcome the Savior
Inside the cardboard box, the members of Mushroomhead stand alone, masked men surrounded by a black-and-white nightmare maelstrom. Flanked by a giant iconic evil face and an oversized pumpkin, Mushroomhead drummer-producer Skinny drops the shipment on a leather couch in the band’s headquarters, tears it open, and passes out the limited editions of the group’s…
Child Abuse
If the bands on this bill needed to create a cutesy moniker for their tour, they could call it “the Rocking Horror Picture Show.” Silentist, the side project of former Glass Candy man and Get Hustle’s Mark Evan Burden, brings the horror with its dark, almost metal-sounding free jazz. Backed by taped loops of guitar…
Madly Ever After
Despite its title, Confetti, a chaotic mockumentary in the finest tradition of English vulgarity, has nothing whatever to say about marriage. It’s a loud belch in the face of a billion-dollar wedding industry that has sprung up to service the longings of the post-feminist young for ceremonial opulence. Broad as an oak beam and blithely…
Get Shorty!
Back in the early ’60s, Jimi Hendrix used to skip out on his Army duties to check out Guitar Shorty, whose searing guitar licks and frantic stage shows taught the pre-“Purple Haze” Hendrix a riff or two. Last month Shorty released a new CD, We the People, which bristles with smokin’ solos that still resonate.…
Bashed-In
A good party can be the solution to just about any problem, but it takes a more devious mind to use a party for revenge on an abusive lover. That’s the plot driver in Andrew Lippa’s Wild Party, a sleazily agreeable musical now playing at the Kalliope Stage. Based on a 1928 narrative poem of…
Monsters in the Garden
Crystal frontiers and mariachi trumpet blasts. Airplane graveyards and instrumental mood pieces. Link Wray surf guitar and abandoned ghost towns. Black-topped deserts and spaghetti-western epics. Calexico’s music has been framed by the sounds and images of the Southwest for a decade — synonymous with parched, widescreen desert landscapes and the cross-border cultural mélange of Tucson,…
Take It to the Streets Tour
Don’t ask punk-turned-folky-blues-troubadour Saint Andrew how he wound up on a bill full of rappers. But here he is. You may recognize him from his days with Knifedance and Stepsister, or more recently from the corner of St. Clair and West Sixth streets, where he busks every Friday and Saturday night, playing guitar and harmonica,…
Flight of Fancy
Anyone who wants to start feeling good about war again — and hey, pilgrim, isn’t it about time? — would do well to take in Flyboys. In this elaborate, computer-generated fantasy, the plucky volunteer pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille are once more cast as “knights of the sky”: dashing young Americans who soar aloft in…
Room Service
In the U.S. indie film The Motel, Ernest, a Chinese American who pens autobiographical stories in notebooks, spends his after-school hours cleaning a motel’s toilets and masturbating to porn mags he finds under the beds. He befriends Sam, a Korean American who spends his days drinking, picking up whores, and brooding over his failed marriage.…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
A Murder of Crows — This frequently comical rant on hypocrisy, bigotry, and heroism is the latest in a number of playwright Mac Wellman’s works produced by Convergence-Continuum. And if an hour seems like a short show, it’s not when you’re listening to Wellman’s breathless, airtight screeds, which are often directed actor-to-audience, with no pretense…
The Final Cut
Roger Waters is a lyrical genius. Too bad he’s such an egocentric shit. We’ve endured many of that codger’s cantankerous, anti-establishment tirades over the years. He’s called out more people than Biggie and Tupac combined. One favorite from Waters’ highlight reel: Shaming former Pink Floyd mates for performing Dark Side of the Moon on tour,…
Jackass Number Two premiere party
It’s pretty base — we’ll give you that. But a good crotch shot has a timeless appeal. And all the other business about the Jackass crew strapping themselves to rockets and careening down rocky slopes — that’s all gravy. Check out the new movie early, and ask Don Vito how the guys survived the stunts.…
The Single Life
Cincinnati-bred stand-up Josh Sneed is enjoying the single life. “My old girlfriend was noisy and bulimic,” he says. “I was always going, ‘Honey, keep it down.'” Still, Sneed, a former Procter & Gamble systems analyst (who has a Comedy Central special premiering later this year), says that he’s looking for someone special — but she…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW Miscellaneous Debris — You’ve probably never bothered to look closely at a late-night TV test pattern, but it’s actually an impressive study in contrasts, as one of these quirky creations by Clevelander Dana Depew demonstrates. Though steeped in pop art, Depew’s work transcends pop’s rather narrow boundaries with keen observation, humor, and unusual materials…
Local Spotlight
Terry Urban represents Cleveland hip-hop DJ crew the League. He can be heard on Z107.9 FM, Sirius Radio Channel 40, and at the Warehouse District’s Cloud 9. What music do you listen to that would surprise fans? A lot of people just think I’m a hip-hop DJ. I listen to old punk rock like the…
Aaron Neville
Since Hurricane Katrina, Aaron Neville’s New Orleans band, the Neville Brothers, has been quiet. Aaron, meanwhile, has gone into the studio to record 13 R&B favorites — which is like Michael McDonald tackling Motown: warm, friendly, and not very ambitious. Two predictable Sam Cooke classics — “You Send Me” and “A Change Is Gonna Come”…
Kiss and Tell
Linda Frederickson found the inspiration for her first play, Avail 4, in the local dating scene. “It’s OK to go out alone and meet people,” she says. “If there was a way we could remove the stigma, there would be more people jamming into places to meet others.” The comedy centers on two men and…
Our top DVD picks for the week of September 19:
After Sex (New Yorker) Bob & Tom Radio: The Comedy Tour (Image) The Boris Karloff Collection (Universal) Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul (Strand) 8th & Ocean: The Complete First Season (Paramount) Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema (Wolfe) Gilmore Girls: The Complete Sixth Season (Warner Bros.) Go for Zucker (First Run) Grease: Rockin’…
Twisted Talent
Counterclockwise MC Mr. Burns doesn’t move so much as tumble forward, as if held aloft by strings. His long dreads, black bowler, baggy Linus sweatshirt, and DayGlo yellow kicks add up to a ragamuffin look suggestive of a 21st-century Artful Dodger. He’s accompanied by diminutive bassist Kaya, playing Oompa Loompa to Burns’ colorful Willy Wonka.…
Grizzly Bear
Bettering the already respectable showing of Horn of Plenty, its ’04 debut, Brooklyn’s Grizzly Bear journeys down an evocative and fertile path, which is partially (and purposely) obscured by misty turbulence on its follow-up, Yellow House. Just as elaborate and transcendent as its predecessor, this latest effort is less reliant on tape-looped fragments, subliminal still-frames,…
Sneers With Your Beers
The Brit-rock group Kasabian has picked more than its fair share of fights with other bands. First, singer Tom Meighan referred to the Rolling Stones as “granddads [who] should be drinking cups of tea in their armchairs.” Then he took aim at Justin Timberlake, a “knobhead . . . midget who is just trying to…
Poetry and Puncture Wounds
The Proposition (First Look) There’s an old saying about Ginger Rogers, who did everything Fred Astaire did — but backwards and in heels. This Australian western seems to be saying something similar about gritty American westerns: You think that’s hard? Try living in the Outback. The Proposition mucks about in dust, blood, and moral ambiguity…
Desert Isle Discs
American Rockstar singer-guitarist Dallas Riffle picks five faves. 1. The Beatles, The Beatles The Beatles weren’t just four guys in matching suits singing “Yeah, yeah, yeah” — they were fucking visionaries. 2. Def Leppard, Hysteria A masterpiece. This record made me want to be a rock star. 3. Guns N’ Roses, Appetite for Destruction You…
The Mars Volta
The first two full-length music features from the Mars Volta (2003’s De-Loused in the Comatorium and 2005’s Frances the Mute) were amazing and strange rock operas. Both concept albums sounded like surreal sci-fi soundtracks — Fellini’s version of Flash Gordon — written and scored by the Latin Queen, aka Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. The…
Art Imitates . . . Art?
At Massillon Museum’s Adaptations, you get two exhibits for the price of one. The show features rare artifacts from the museum’s collection — like a 1916 steam engine and a cigar-store Indian — alongside brand-new work by local artists. The mix stems from the museum’s intriguing challenge to painters, sculptors, and other artists: Create a…
Puddle of Fun
LocoRoco arrived with impossibly high expectations. This ridiculously cute new game for the PlayStation Portable debuted as a demo in April, and since then, the gaming press has tripped over itself to anoint it the successor to Katamari Damacy or Guitar Hero. Now the game’s finally here, and at first glance, it more than lives…
Feelin’ Groggy
The air was charged with the pulse of Roger Miller’s Fender guitar, setting off syrupy waves of distortion that buffeted the packed house at Mission of Burma’s first Cleveland show in two decades. The closest fans could have touched the guitarist on that July night or looked bassist Clint Conley in the eye — maybe…
Quantic
Will “Quantic” Holland is a rare breed. The U.K. programmer and multi-instrumentalist is a downtempo version of Prince. His latest release deemphasizes the trip-hop of 2002’s Apricot Morning and 2004’s Mishaps Happening in favor of something warmer and more organic. While Quantic’s fourth effort does offer a couple shots of breakbeat vertigo (“Blow Your Horn,”…
Hula Girls
If you’re good at moving your hips, head down to Put-in-Bay’s Hula-Hoop Contest tonight to compete for a $50 prize. But don’t expect it to be easy: Back in 1976, an 8-year-old girl won by Hula-Hooping nonstop for 10 hours and 47 minutes. The organizers of tonight’s event don’t expect that sort of endurance, but…
Green Screen
Movies about Mount Everest and the Yosemite Valley look awesome on the big screen, but it’s the critter flicks that most resonate at tonight’s Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Similar to March of the Penguins, Ride of the Mergansers chronicles the early life of Great Lakes ducklings;…
Here are the week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe:
CD — The Cure reissues: These three new double-disc sets are a great way to get to know goth’s most tuneful depressives. B-sides, outtakes, live tracks, and demos chart the making of 1984’s The Top, the following year’s The Head on the Door, and 1987’s Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. Thanks to the stellar…
Johnny Winter
Back in ’69, the buzz was that the next big blues star was going to be a white man — a very, very white man. Johnny Winter was tailor-made for stardom. With his snow-white locks, the Texas-bred albino cut the most mesmerizing guitar-god figure this side of Hendrix. While his command of the blues roots…
Bad Brains, Live at CBGB 1982
Anybody who saw Bad Brains live –Henry Rollins, the Beastie Boys, and Big Takeover publisher Jack Rabid, to name three –swears that the group put on the most amazing live show in the history of rock and roll. Live at CBGB 1982 proves that’s no exaggeration. You can’t say that the four black Rastafarian reggae…
Blast From the Past
At today’s FallFest: 18th Century Festival at the Cleveland Metroparks, you’ll get to see what people did before plasma TVs and iPods. Attractions include candlemaking, fresh cider, and folk songs. Reenactors will also stage scenes from the Revolutionary War, complete with old-fashioned weapons and food that tastes like leather. There are tons of demonstrations and…
Charmed
It’s just a coincidence that Gabe Saporta formed Cobra Starship right around the time all that internet buzz started for Snakes on a Plane. The frontman for the New Jersey emo band Midtown wanted a side project that was “more lighthearted than the stuff I usually do.” What he got was a hip-shakin’, wall-rattlin’ launchpad…
Meet the Revolution
As you drive down Wooster Street in the Kansas-flat college town of Bowling Green, past front-lawn cornhole games and sidewalk trains of girls in low-rise jeans and guys sloshing plastic cups of Natty Light, there’s no indication that this is ground zero for the revolution. But in a meeting room at the student center, a…
AP on XM
Cleveland-based Alternative Press — the leading magazine for breaking punk, emo, and power-pop bands — has started broadcasting a weekly radio program on XM Satellite Radio. The AP Show, hosted by Editor-in-Chief Jason Pettigrew and Music Editor Scott Heisel, is a commercial-free hour of bands featured in the magazine, including exclusive material from some of…
Beyond Fear
On Beyond Fear’s debut, Iced Earth (former Judas Priest) singer Tim “Ripper” Owens finally assumes principal songwriting duties, crafting a power-metal tour de force that’s a nearly flawless homage to the new wave of British heavy metal and thrash that Owens and company cut their teeth on. It also suggests that Owens’ former associates would’ve…
How We Get Fish Sticks
It’s hard to get kids interested in outdoor activities these days, says Summit County Metro Parks naturalist Mark Ludwig. “We’re dealing with a society that’s indoors all the time.” Still, the annual Fall Fishing Derby hooks plenty of kids each year. Today’s reel extravaganza for kids under 15 takes place at the F.A. Seiberling Nature…
Ladies on Display
For its latest exhibit, Contemporaries: 8, Bonfoey Gallery shines its spotlight on eight area women at the very top of their game. The artists — including Ruth Bercaw, Susan Danko, and Peggy Kwong Gordon — contribute abstract oils, serene landscapes, and slice-of-life photographs bursting with bright colors and striking, celebratory images. Sept. 23-Oct. 14, 9…
Church Lady’s Revolt
Lily Belvy-Holt is a welcoming kind of lady. Potted magenta flowers overflow her back stoop, and a plaque in her entryway reads “God Bless Our Home.” Her voice holds the honeyed cheer of the 1950s. She greets guests with such overpowering warmth that one half-expects to find a tray of milk and cookies waiting in…
Heavy Trash
The tattooed and pompadoured corpse of rockabilly is regularly exhumed by kids young enough to be its great-grandchildren. Few of them have the guts to treat it irreverently and take a whiz on its grave, angering it enough to rise from the dead for an hour. Former Madder Rose bassist Matt Verta-Ray and Blues Explosion…
The Subtones
The Subtones don’t take the time to make their roughshod punk rock sound pretty, and it’s better off for that. Backup singer Holly Berry provides all the color they need, filling out Ramones-style whoa-ohs and fronting the band for the power-pop showstopper “This Town.” Titles such as “Somebody’s Whore” and “There’s a Curse on Me…
