Life Without Fulwood: Day 14
Cleveland has suffered many losses as of late. First, there was the untimely passing of Gerald Levert. Then, before the tears dried, blues icon Robert Lockwood Jr. died. Now, add a third prominent voice to the list of the silenced: Sam Fulwood III has not written a column in 14 days. The Trey is not…
The Real Metal Countdown
Who cares what MTV says. The real metal masters of 2006 were these vaguely effeminate guys. If you didn’t catch it this weekend, MTV2’s Headbanger’s Ball has officially jumped the shark. Once a reliable source for quality heavy metal videos, the show has now become just as suspect and corruptible as any other media outlet.…
Translated: Romeo’s Last Press Conference
Team security didn’t bar Romeo Crennel from Browns headquarters Monday so, barring a last-minute staph infection, his job appears… not completely unsafe. But at least he was down to his last press conference of the year with the foggiest beat writers in football, none of whom, sadly, are expected to be cut for salary-cap reasons.…
Michael Stanley in the Flesh!
Michael Stanley: Eternally busting out that ’80s look. For a few weeks now, Scene’s been urging people to check out Last Call Cleveland’s recent performance of Michael Stanley Superstar, a faux tribute to the local rock legend. For once, our recommendations actually paid dividends — especially for anyone who showed up for the Friday-night performance.…
Concerts: This Just In…
The Bad Religion show is sold out. For punk fans, good news and bad news in this week’s concert annoucements. The good news: Old-school L.A. lads Bad Religion are coming to the Rock Hall. The bad news: The show’s sold out. In other notable announcements, Eminem cohort Obie Trice hits Peabody’s stage this Friday. Jim…
A Vote for Jac’s
We visited Jac’s last month. The duck was the best I’ve ever had. My husband enjoyed his chicken salad very much. Sliced pears, raspberries, strawberries and candied pecans set a wonderful contrasting tone for the perfectly cooked juicy chicken on a bed of mixed greens. There was crusty, fresh french bread and my Vodka Gimlet…
Ode to the Norton Furniture Guy
Confession: Sometimes, I go for days without drinking, which means I go days without staying up past midnight, since there’s nothing to do past midnight besides get drunk. (Okay, so I don’t do well with the women; thank you sooooo much for asking.) Being sober is fine. But, if I’m being honest, there’s something I…
Local Discs 2006: The Honorable Others
Bone Thugs-n-Harmony In this week’s issue, the Scene’s resident music nerds gave you their ten most played Cleveland jams of 2006, but they felt like more discs just had to be listed (they’re music nerds). So here are the honorable mentions for 2006: 20goto10, Elizabeth. Haunted by Ghosts (Plastiq Musiq): Dark, sensual, female-fronted electro-rock. Beyond…
ESPN Geek Questions Cavs
ESPN: We won’t know if the Cavs are real till they head west to take on the likes of Alllen Iverson If the Cavs should resolve anything this new year, it’s to get Eric Snow more involved in the offense. The guy’s scoring like a rookie benchwarmer on starter minutes. But if there’s room for…
Remembering Boom Goldberg
Legendary former WMMS DJ Len “Boom” Goldberg was found dead in his home Wednesday, December 27. He was 74. Goldberg was the voice of the city’s most storied rock station, 100.7 FM “The Buzzard,” for three decades. Scene contributor Matt Wardlaw, a DJ for 92.3 K-ROCK, recalls Goldberg: During my time working at WMMS in…
Trouble for Ohio’s Vineyards
The warm temperatures may be doing wonders for our complexions, but they’re wreaking absolute havoc on Ohio’s vineyards. December is normally the time of year when winemakers force themselves out of bed in the middle of the night to harvest their late winter grapes. The fruit is then pressed into a sweet “ice wine.” The…
Our Brave Critic’s Top 10 CDs for 2006
Hold Steady ‘Tis the season… To drink too much Christmas Ale. To feign joy over really crappy gifts. To make Top 10 lists. Every year around this time, I’m asked to submit a list of my favorite albums of the past 12 months to various publications across the country. As we head into 2007, I…
James Brown: King 0f the World
Who’s the most influential musician of the 20th century? It’s gotta be one of the more popular barroom debates that doesn’t involve sports. After knocking back a half-dozen beers (or more), introduction of this issue will always induce a motley crew of C-Town drunkards to spit names back and forth, including all the usual suspects:…
Akron: The Height of Literature?
David Evanier Akron isn’t usually synonymous with high brow literati types. But that hasn’t stopped Chris White. He launched Rager Media this fall with a star-powered roster of nationally-acclaimed authors, including NY Times bestseller David Evanier, whose The Great Kisser, a coming-of-age tale of teenage infatuation set in Queens, is based on Evanier’s life experiences.…
A Present for Sherwin-Williams
Merry Christmas, Sherwin-Williams. Canton and Cincinnati have now joined four other Ohio cities in suing our hometown company for poisoning kids. The suits allege what many historians have already proven: that Sherwin-Williams knew its lead paint was harming kids for decades before it stopped selling it [“The Poison Kids,” August 16). Now the cities –including…
The Spanking DeWine Aide
Jessica Cutler: Can’t a girl just rat out her spanking fettish lovers these days? When last we saw Jessica Cutler, the former aide to U.S. Senator Mike DeWine had written a tell-all blog about her sexcapades on Capitol Hill, and had just finished a “fictional” book about her experiences. She’d also managed to piss off…
Investigating Santa
Ace reporter Cris Glaser goes undercover as a random drunk to investigate Santa Claus Nothing motivates revelers into the holiday spirit faster than free booze for hundreds of your closest customers. This John Katsaros understands. Last week, the owner of Twist (11633 Clifton Boulevard; 216-221-2333) mailed 500 invitations to his seventh-annual holiday party on Wednesday…
Cupid Scorned
Just in time for Hanukkah, this rag was honored in the august pages of the Cleveland Jewish News. The weekly tabloid dedicated a full-page column, written by esteemed editor Cynthia Dettelbach, to our recent expose on the Jewish dating scene [“Cupid’s Crisis,” December 13]. At first, we were overjoyed. Look! There’s even a picture! But…
The New Rain Dance
Forget umbrellas. The newest way to fight Mother Nature’s wrath is with cannons. Very, very loud cannons. A small group of farmers in Ohio and across the country are convinced that they’ve found a way to thwart the weather. They say that recently developed hail cannons, machines that emit loud, thunderous, electronic blasts, can break…
Slayer Fans: The Photo Gallery
Slayer Fans: If only your daughter would bring home nice guys like this. Nothing quite speaks to sentimental holiday tidings like Slayer. From the band’s soothing, melodic stylings, to its message of love and hope, Walter Novak: Action Rock Photographer offers this commemorative photo gallery of Slayer fans from the band’s 2004 show at the…
The Year in Music
Joan Jett Walter Novak: Action Rock Photographer uses his magical powers to capture the Year in Rock Cleveland-style. See his photo gallery here.
A Plea from Michael Stanley
Last Call Cleveland, the local comedy troupe, will be performing “Michael Stanley Superstar,” its shrewd and hilarious tribute to local rocker Michael Stanley, at the House of Blues this weekend. The Friday and Saturday shows will start immediately after the real Stanley rocks HOB (probably around 11:30). All proceeds — the suggested donation is five…
A Bigger, Better Elephant Exhibit
No word on whether the zoo will also be housing cartoon elephants The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has given the city a big ol’ Christmas present — but we’re gonna have to wait till 2010 to open it. The zoo’s new African Elephant Crossing exhibit — said to be a “model for zoos nationwide” — will…
The Top 10 Scams of 2006
Via the exciting new field of stuffing envelopes, you can now be wicked rich while working at home Although 2006 wasn’t the best of times for Cleveland (poorest city in America, snubbed by the Republican National Convention, Sam Fulwood still has a job), local thieves and low-rent con-artists had one of their best fiscal years…
My Fourteen Top Ten Albums for 2006
Teeth of the Hyrda’s “Greenland” comes in at No. 2 on the X-man’s list. 12) Youngblood Brass Band, “Is That A Riot?” (Layered Music) NOT a brass band. Not even close, really. More like rap-rock meets a marching band. Like Rage Against the Machine unplugged, with a sousaphone. Seriously. 11) Jucifer, “If Thine Enemy Hunger”…
Not Quite Top of the Pops
In 2006, the pop singles market continued to dominate because the pick-n-click mentality of online music stores and ringtone sites gave consumers unparalleled freedom to choose their own musical adventure. What suffered in the meantime was the quality of pop-rock albums. Sure, many spawned great singles (including hits by the Rapture, Pearl Jam, and My…
It’s Soooo High School
Dashiell Hammett goes to high school — the perfect studio pitch. Yet after Brick wowed ’em at the film fests, Rian Johnson’s knockout debut as writer and director languished in theaters and on DVD. It took a bunk, as Hammett mighta said, and wound up wearing a wooden kimono. Johnson, who wrote Brick when he…
Put on Your Snow Shoes
At today’s Family Holiday Hike, Cleveland Metroparks naturalist Chris Larson-McKenzie leads a walk along one of Rocky River Reservation’s snow-covered trails. The vigorous outing comes at a good time — sandwiched between Christmas-week food binges and New Year’s Eve festivities. After the hike, gather around a campfire to rest your feet, warm up, and enjoy…
Snap to It
According to The New York Times, 2006 was the year rap went regional. There’s plenty of evidence to support this claim: Ever since the Dirty South shook off the bicoastal stranglehold of the mid-’90s, hip-hop has developed burgeoning scenes in no less than a dozen major markets. These towns have their own sounds, their own…
Hall of Famer
On an early December afternoon at the offices of Malpaso Productions, Clint Eastwood’s four Academy Awards have been placed in thick velvet carrying bags, while that famous poncho — the one Eastwood donned for the entirety of Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy — is being carefully loaded into a large shipping box. But that doesn’t mean…
Here are the week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe:
CD — U218 Singles: After more than a quarter-century, the world’s biggest band finally releases its first single-disc best-of set. The songs reach from the anthemic (“Beautiful Day”) to the political (“Sunday Bloody Sunday”) to the just plain gorgeous (“One”). Two new tracks — including a collaboration with Green Day — sound out of place,…
Steel Wheels Keep on Turning
DJ mixes have been multiplying like e-mail spam over the last decade. The sheer volume makes one wonder: Who the hell is buying them? There must be a demand if labels keep issuing the things — as if the record industry has a future. Whoever you are, bless you for keeping this art form financially…
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
There are only a few days left to check out Spaces’ cool Mis-demeanor exhibit. The multimedia display features new work by 11 local and national artists, including Euclid’s Richard Fiorelli, Tsehai Johnson from Denver, and a collaboration between Houston residents Marty Magsamen and Stephan Hillerbrand. The pieces revolve around the theme of transformation; the artists…
Sweet!
Visitors to Candy Wonder Land will navigate gumdrop mountains, peppermint woods, and a lollipop forest. The exhibit at the Penitentiary Glen Nature Center is like a board game come to life. Based on the kiddie fave Candy Land, it’s part of the Lake Metroparks’ annual Woodland Halle Days program. In this game, everybody wins. Sat.,…
Independents Day
Nobody needs a primer on indie rock. We all have our own idea of what it is. But why is it that so few of us can agree on who deserves such a designation? Fact is, defining indie rock is as futile a task as trying to explain why Nyquil is green and Dayquil is…
Taking the Long View
A car speeds down a forest road, only to be surrounded in an instant by armed crazies who materialize from the nearby woods. In the visual grammar of big-budget action films, the sequence that ensues should be a scattershot barrage of images: Wheels! Guns! Blood! Shriek! Fireball! Crash! Add a soundtrack that amounts to a…
Fat Chance
The YMCA of Greater Cleveland’s annual fat-bustin’ blowout at Tower City features activities, programs, and displays designed to keep participants in shape throughout next year. “This is our own grassroots effort to help make the community healthier and fit in spirit, mind, and body,” says spokeswoman Audra Kessler. “This is our way of saying, ‘Let’s…
It Was Free Cuz I Stole It
Now is a bad time to be a giant music corporation, but ethically challenged music fans couldn’t ask for better days. Bootlegging has always been about catering directly to the fans, and the internet breeds the best bootleggers yet: bigger, stronger, and faster than ever before. It’s 10 million filesharers trading a billion and a…
Strike Force
The sounds of bowling balls knocking down pins will mingle with noisemakers and champagne at tonight’s Corner Alley New Year’s Eve party. All night long, teams of up to eight players will compete on the alley’s 16 shiny new lanes, which come complete with touch-screen scorecards. Between games, bowlers can belly up to the neon-lighted…
Vision Jest
Nine years ago, Patrick DeGuire contracted an eye disease and lost much of his vision. He then began performing stand-up comedy as a form of “self-therapy,” he says. Amazingly, he won the 1998 Improv/Harrahs National Comedy Club Talent Search and toured with Tommy Davidson, George Lopez, and Paul Rodriguez. Now he uses his disability as…
Modern Sounds in Country
The Nashville way of making music is unlike any other, comparable only to the studio system of Hollywood’s golden age — a closed system of songwriters, producers, record labels, and artists that creates most of the sounds you listen to when no one else is in the car. This system creates consistently good — but…
Family Ties
Made when he was a stripling of 24, Argentinean filmmaker Daniel Burman’s first feature, A Chrysanthemum Burst in Cincoesquinas, was a violent story of love and revenge. He must have gotten that out of his system: Though Burman’s subsequent movies also traffic in what he calls “the great transitions of life” — identity, marriage, parenthood,…
Be Their Guest
Beauty and the Beast is one of the Disney classics that works just as well — maybe better — onstage. Unlike the abstract Lion King, Beauty’s stage transformation sticks pretty close to the movie’s narrative. The Beck Center’s production of the award-winning musical makes a perfect holiday treat for families. The colorful costumes, lavish sets,…
Everlasting Sounds
This story was supposed to be a compilation of the year’s best boxed sets and other reissues. But then it hit us: In today’s shuffle-driven iPod world, with the pace of pop culture moving at breakneck speed, it’s pointless to make such temporal distinctions. The past is ever-present, and the present quickly becomes the past.…
Date With Destiny’s Child
Style and sophistication mark tonight’s music-filled Cleveland Toast New Year’s Eve Party. The end-of-the-year shindig starts on the main floor of the Galleria, where former Destiny’s Child LeToya Luckett and ’80s funksters the Zapp Band perform. Browns wide receiver Dennis Northcutt will host, thus ensuring that a ball will drop. Upstairs, revelers with VIP passes…
Spring Ahead
Winter’s only a week old, and we’re already pining for springtime. In the meantime, Daiv Whaley’s photography exhibit at the Beck Center, Les Fleurs Modernes, is a nice preview of what we have to look forward to. The local artist presents inviting fields overflowing with flowers — in bloom and bursting with color. Mondays-Fridays, 10…
Blast Beats & Monstrous Melodies
The criterion for this list was simple: Only the hardest, heaviest metal albums were considered. Bands who play a hybrid style of metal that is not thrash, speed, death, black metal, hardcore, grindcore, or some amalgamation thereof were not included. What follows is pure f’n metal. Bang your head . . . off. 1. Lamb…
Cleanup in Aisle ’06
As the curtain falls on another year of Cleveland theater, we take time to reflect on the most memorable moments and the ones we’re trying to forget: Great Sex Cleveland Public Theatre cornered the market on hot-and-steamy costumes in 2006. In director Craig J. George’s M4M, an all-male version of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, six…
All That Jazz
The Terence Hazly Quartet helps Akron ring in 2007 a few days early at tonight’s Jazz Poetic outing. The pre-New Year’s Eve party also marks a musical revival in the city’s Historic District, where jazz once ruled the nightclubs. “There was a surge in the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s that set a nice tone for…
Jewish Stereotypes R Us
The secret link to crackhead rapists: Your article on the Jewish dating scene [“Cupid’s Crisis,” December 13] was one of the most patronizing pieces I’ve read. You didn’t miss a chance to hit every stereotype about Jewish people. I’m left wondering if you even know any Jews beyond what you may have picked from Mad…
The Not-Forbidden Dance
North East Ohio Tango puts its best foot forward at tonight’s New Year’s Eve celebration in Akron. During the city’s First Night Akron party, the group will perform a number of “hit and runs,” in which it’ll blast a boombox in a crowded public area, dance a jig or two, and then move on to…
X Marks the Spot
Get your mind out of the gutter before you go to tonight’s X-Rated Monday at Club Argos. There won’t be any porn on the gay club’s 11 TV screens. Instead, bartender Trent will pour half-price cocktails and shots from the X vodka and liqueur lines — like the Perfect X, which is made from three…
El Sucker
Ever wonder who falls for those foreign lottery scams? So did Anthony LoPresti. (Note the past tense.) The retired security guard and Italian immigrant from Parma was always getting letters informing him of lottery victories. All he need do was wire $59 to collect his millions. But LoPresti was no sucker. Then a letter arrived…
Go Fish
Every New Year’s Eve, Port Clinton releases a 20-foot, 600-pound fiberglass fish from a crane at the stroke of midnight. “If Georgia can drop a peach, why can’t we drop a walleye?” reasons Tom Brown, the city’s mayor and chairman of the Walleye Madness at Midnight Committee. After all, Port Clinton is the Walleye Capital…
Purr-fect Game
At today’s Battle of the Cats, the Ohio University Bobcats take on the University of Cincinnati Bearcats in college hoop action at the Q. The teams used to be longtime rivals; up till about 30 years ago, they met every year. Since then, they’ve played each other only three times. The Bearcats have come out…
So, What Do You Do for Fun Around Here?
Ranking the year’s best releases totally works if they’re arranged by genre. But attempting the same thing according to locale makes not a lick of sense. Think about Northeast Ohio: Who’s to say This Moment in Black History’s screaming post-hardcore is better than Play Havoc’s hip-hop? Or that the blues of Cleveland Fats hits harder…
Juices Flowing
Jackass Number Two: Unrated (Paramount) The sequel to the dumb-ass jamboree makes its predecessor look plain and inoffensive. In short: more puke, more blood, more semen (from a horse, consumed nonetheless), more shit, more piss, more everything till you’d think the Jackasses (Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, etc.) would be tapped bone-friggin’ dry. Oh, and…
Coyote Pretty
Markus Pierson credits a 1976 Joni Mitchell song for inspiring the coyote paintings he’s made over the past two decades. Eighteen of the pieces are now on display at Contessa Gallery’s 20 Years of Changing Lives. “There’s an emotional integrity that coyotes offer,” says Pierson. “If they’re heartbroken, you can’t miss it. If they feel…
The Year in Pictures
Click here to see the best rock and roll photos in Cleveland from 2006, the work of Scene photographer Walter Novak.
Happy Zoo Year!
The zoo holds its inaugural New Year’s Eve Party this afternoon with lions, tigers, and Radio Disney. The family-friendly event includes appearances by Dr. ZooLittle, Radio Disney’s dance team, and a bunch of furry critters. There’s also games, crafts, and snacks. Plus, the zoo drops a ball at noon, ushering in 2007 a full 12…
Pony Up
If your little girl asked Santa for a pony and didn’t get one, make up for it by taking her to My Little Pony! The World’s Biggest Tea Party. In the stage show, Pinkie Pie and her equine friends throw a bash — complete with cake, streamers, and rainbows. The live production features people in…
The Madison Crawl
Roll into 2007 at the Garage with Madison Crawl, the barrelhouse boogie kings of Cleveland. Picture the Stray Cats with a whiskey buzz and horn section. And if you thought the climactic swing-dance scene in Swingers looked fun, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Our top DVD picks for the week of December 26:
Airwolf: Season Two (Universal) Be With Me (Film Movement) Dane Cook’s Tourgasm (HBO) Danica (First Look) Factotum (IFC) The Family Values Tour 2006 (Firm Music) Girls Behaving Badly, Volume One (Starlight) Haven (Fox) Mars Invades the Earth! (Alpha) Mi Amigo (Velocity) Mr. Fix It (First Look) The New Adventures of He-Man: Volume One (Brentwood) Riding…
Season’s BeaTngs
Tonight’s WWE SmackDown & ECW Present Supershow at the Q combines two wrestling shows in one. SmackDown faves like the Undertaker, Kane, and Mr. Kennedy beat each other senseless, while Extreme Champion Wrestling grapplers RVD, Hardcore Holly, and Sandman bring on the ultraviolence. It all culminates in a steel-cage battle between Batista and “King” Booker…
The Night Before New Year’s Eve Party
Beat the New Year’s Eve traffic by celebrating early. Before the clock strikes ’07, the Lime Spider hosts some of the Rubber City’s finest, from alt-rock vets Jaded Era to Cleveland’s Chris Allen, the former frontman of roots-rockers Rosavelt. And here’s one more item for your to-do list before the year ends: Experience Rachel Roberts…
Jump Start
You can learn all about the science of cold and then watch Tom Hanks as a strikingly real animated character in The Polar Express at today’s New Year’s Eve Eve celebration at the Great Lakes Science Center. In addition to seeing the 2004 CGI movie as it was meant to be seen — on the…
Bowling Alley Chic
If anyone doubts that formal dining has become a culinary dinosaur, events of the past year — most notably the demise of Century, at downtown’s Ritz-Carlton, and Classics, in the InterContinental Hotel — should prove instructive. Both spots earned high marks with national surveyors, including AAA and Zagat. Both offered luxurious menus, doting service, and…
Resistance Isn’t Futile
Imagine two game producers rushing down the hall. One wants to pitch a WW2 game, the other a sci-fi shooter. They round a corner, crash into each other, and their papers go flying everywhere — and in one of those great “You got chocolate in my peanut butter!” moments, Resistance: Fall of Man is born.…
2006
2006 won’t go down as a vintage year for classic albums. Sure, a pair of hip-hop’s prodigal sons returned, but neither Snoop’s Tha Blue Carpet Treatment nor Jay-Z’s Kingdom Come had anybody screaming The resurrection is here at last! In fact, Jibbs, a 16-year-old rapper from St. Louis, outshined ’em both with just a single…
Same Old Story
It’s official: Hollywood has run out of original ideas. If you thought 2006 was bad, just wait. In 2007 the studios will give up on birthing blockbusters in favor of cloning them, with sequel after sequel after sequel. Familiar titles will be followed by so many numbers that filmgoers looking for a Friday-night flick will…
Listen Up
Mother Rapper and Madame CB spit words about Kwanzaa at today’s installment of Gallery 324’s weekly Literary Readings. The local actresses call their show BUSTinITout! “Ain’t no crime to bust a rhyme,” says Mother Rapper, aka Rene Matthews-Jackson. “We do it wid da flava all da time.” The program launched in June. Since then, local…
