Out Today: The Cribs
The CribsIgnore the Ignorant(Warner Bros.) British rockers the Cribs loaded 2007’s Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever with razorblade vocals and guitars. On this follow-up, they get a little poppier and lot moodier, thanks to ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, who joined the three Jarman brothers last year. There’s still considerable crunch to songs like “We Were…
What to Do Tonight: New Found Glory
Florida pop-punks New Found Glory were pop-punk before anyone decided to lazily name the genre. A dozen years into their career, they still come off like a bunch of pouty teens on their most recent album, Not Without a Fight. Singer Jordan Pundik still can’t catch a break with girls: They avoid him like he’s…
What to Do Tonight: Karl Denson
Purists claim jazz lost something on its way to becoming a respected art form. Not to suggest jazz (or any genre) shouldn’t be esteemed, but as hard bop and free styles flourished, its creators embraced artistic integrity over immediate rapport with audiences. The concept of “entertainment” became anathema, and “crossover” was synonymous with “sellout.” New…
10/28: New Found Glory at Peabody’s
These Florida pop-punks were pop-punk before anyone decided to lazily name the genre. A dozen years into their career, New Found Glory still come off like a bunch of pouty teens on their most recent album, Not Without a Fight. Singer Jordan Pundik still can’t catch a break with girls: They avoid him like he’s…
10/28: Rev. Gene Robinson at Trinity Cathedral
The election of the Rev. Gene Robinson in 2003 as bishop of New Hampshire’s diocese was a catalyst for a conservative wing within the U.S. Episcopal Church to act on their grievances: A handful of dioceses and parishes announced their intention to leave the U.S. church communion due to its increasing acceptance of gay unions,…
10/27: Say Anything and Moneen at Beachland
Say Anything and Moneen are both Vans Warped Tour alum, and it’s not hard to figure out why. Both bands are rooted in a pop-punk/post-hardcore style that gets gobbled up by fans of the annual cultural steamroller. Neither group can go long without doling out the chunky guitar riffs and soaring choruses typical of Warped.…
10/27: The Subjects at HOB
Clearly influenced by the Kinks (bassist Dave Sheinkopf sounds a lot like Ray Davies), Wings and other vintage British pop groups, the Subjects alternate catchy beats and smart harmonies with more introspective, guitar-based melodies. Their songs pinpoint the disillusion and angst brought on by a recession, a crippling war and an unclear future. The band…
10/27: Third Eye Blind at HOB
There’s no way around it: The super-huge hooks that power Third Eye Blind’s fourth album, and first in six years, are kinda awesome. We were all set to hate on Ursa Major but were eventually won over by those big, crunchy, mid-’90s alt-rockers. There’s also no way around something else: Frontman Stephan Jenkins is one…
What to Do Tonight: Royal Bangs
Thanks to a deal with Akron’s Audio Eagle, Knoxville’s Royal Bangs are ready to make some noise. They recently released their third album, Let It Bleep, a mix of electronica, garage-rock and other random sounds. Vocals scream over equally screaming guitars, giving the music the sort of texture the Rolling Stones would have had if…
What to Do Tonight: The Misfits
The Misfits’ skull logo appears on everything from shoes to jewelry these days. How exactly did a punk band achieve this level of brand saturation? Thirty or so years ago, the originators of horror-punk offered something freshly packaged but perpetually in fashion: pure escapism. And they’re quite good at it. Former frontman Glenn Danzig is…
What to Do Tonight: The Get Up Kids
Forming in Missouri 14 years ago, the Get Up Kids were at the forefront of the nascent emo scene, making them a huge influence on a generation of whiny rockers. Guitarist Jim Suptic has publicly apologized for spawning so many lame imitators, but his guilt was hardly warranted: If the landscape painting sucks, don’t blame…
Get to Know the Band: Captured! By Robots
As far as indie-rock novelties go, it’s hard to top Captured! By Robots. The outrageous act consists of a lone human named JBOT and his robot captors, which include, among others, GTRBOT 666 and DRMBOT 0110. And when we say “robots,” we’re seriously talking fully functional musical mechanoids that strum, toot and beat themselves to…
What to Do Tonight: Eric Church
Nashville newcomer Eric Church hates urban cowboys with big hats and big mouths. The 32-year-old North Carolina native lets you know that on his second album, Carolina, which came out earlier this year. What Church doesn’t hate are big hooks and honky-tonk tradition, which are all over the record. The singer’s lonesome twang works overtime…
What to Do Tonight: Jay-Z
Invulnerability is the pot of gold at the end of hip-hop’s proverbial rainbow, the brass ring every rising MC aspires to seize. Jay-Z has had it for the better part of the decade: consistent album sales, unimpeachable crossover appeal, a decent-if-unspectacular run as president of Def Jam, marriage to modern R&B’s flyest multimedia diva, and…
Rock Hall’s From Songwriters to Soundmen Returns Tonight
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s From Songwriters to Soundmen: The People Behind the Hits program returns at 7 tonight with pioneering indie-label head Joe Bihari. The presentation will be structured as an interview, conducted by author John Broven, and will include an audience Q&A opportunity. Joe Bihari, now 84, is the…
Concert Review: St. Vincent at Beachland Ballroom, 10/20
If St. Vincent’s Annie Clark applied the same philosophy she uses for songwriting to painting, she’d be splattering blood and guts on a Monet. Her set at the Beachland Ballroom last night began with “The Strangers,” the same track that opens her latest album, Actor. As her ethereal voice echoed through the ballroom, meandering flute…
What to do Tonight: Moonspell
Portugal’s predominant metal band is, big surprise, dark and heavy. Moonspell celebrate the close of their second decade this year by touring in support of 2008’s Night Eternal. Their nine-album catalog is quite varied, filled with equal parts experimentation and insipidity. Being a longtime fan of the group isn’t easy. Still, their dark, brooding metal…
So, the Season Ends When He Almost Drowns in a Chocolate River? — Eric Mangini as Augustus Gloop
*Subtitle: Down the Brown River: Gluttony, Hubris, Self Control and Adolescent Urges in Augustus Gloop and Eric Mangini* Stick around til the end for the “Mangini is really just a momma’s boy” discussion. By now it’s probably old news to you that a piece appeared in Rolling Stone blasting Eric Mangini and the Cleveland Browns.…
Video, Just Because: Browns Win Championship in Tecmo Bowl Over Vikings
Is watching this more fun than watching the actual Browns play every Sunday? Well, that’s for you to decide.
Common/Brady Quinn Video From House of Blues
By now you know that during his appearance at the House of Blues in Cleveland Common dissed Brady Quinn a little in a freestyle, and whaddya know, Brady happened to be in attendance (along with Josh Cribbs, Braylon and Shaun Rogers from the looks of this video). Naturally there’s video of the incident, which I…
10/25: Karl Denson at the Grog Shop
Purists claim jazz lost something on its way to becoming a respected art form. Not to suggest jazz (or any genre) shouldn’t be esteemed, but as hard bop and free styles flourished, its creators embraced artistic integrity over immediate rapport with audiences. The concept of “entertainment” became anathema, and “crossover” was synonymous with “sellout.” New…
10/25: Cleveland Chamber Symphony
Composer Jing Jing Luo’s life is straight out of a movie. After her father was killed during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, communist party chair Mao Zedong’s government imprisoned her in a labor camp in the Gobi Desert. When she was 16, she walked out. She then became a nurse’s aide until the government spotted her…
10/25: Breastfest at Brothers Lounge
What began eight years ago as a small, informal group of local women musicians and artists spotlighting breast cancer and raising some money for related charities has grown into an annual event that brings together some of the area’s most talented female performers. This year’s lineup is the largest and most impressive yet, with mainstays…
10/24: Stellaluna at Ohio Theatre
Staging a children’s book always raises questions about the adaptation: Will it ruin the story? Will the costumes and sets fall short of replicating the book’s magic? Will producers try something so completely different that they’ll sever the critical connection the book has made with its young fans? Yet putting something familiar onstage to get…
10/24: Royal Bangs at the Beachland
Thanks to a deal with Akron’s Audio Eagle, Knoxville’s Royal Bangs are ready to make some noise. They recently released Let It Bleep, a mix of electronica, garage-rock and other random sounds. Vocals scream over equally screaming guitars, giving the music the sort of texture the Rolling Stones would have had if they were just…
10/23: The Misfits at Peabody’s
The Misfits’ skull logo appears on everything from shoes to jewelry these days. How exactly did a punk band achieve this level of brand saturation? Thirty or so years ago, the originators of horror-punk offered something freshly packaged but perpetually in fashion: pure escapism. And they’re quite good at it. Former frontman Glenn Danzig is…
10/23: Inherit the Wind at Cleveland Play House
There was a time when Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee’s courtroom play Inherit the Wind portrayed a bygone era, when trials regarding the right to teach science seemed quaint. But that was then. Now we have a new breed of political extremism, global-warming deniers and museums trying to turn creation into science. This atmosphere…
10/23: The Human Subject at CSU
The Human Subject, Cleveland State University Art Gallery’s new show about the human figure, focuses on a subject the venue hasn’t tackled in quite some time. “We’d been focusing on technology and new art, and really got away from traditional work,” says curator Tim Knapp. The exhibit isn’t really a return to a dead tradition;…
10/23: Eddie Griffin at the Improv
After starring in 2002’s Undercover Brother, charismatic comedian Eddie Griffin scored praise for what seemed to be a breakthrough role. But the 41-year-old Griffin has yet to make the jump to the next echelon, still stuck on the B-movie circuit (Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, Scary Movie 3). Griffin says he should be really famous by…
10/23: The Get Up Kids at HOB
Forming in Missouri 14 years ago, the Get Up Kids were at the forefront of the nascent emo scene, making them a huge influence on a generation of whiny rockers. Guitarist Jim Suptic has publicly apologized for spawning so many lame imitators, but his guilt was hardly warranted: If the landscape painting sucks, don’t blame…
10/22: Jay-Z at Wolstein Center
Invulnerability is the pot of gold at the end of hip-hop’s proverbial rainbow, the brass ring every rising MC aspires to seize. Jay-Z has had it for the better part of the decade: consistent album sales, unimpeachable crossover appeal, a decent-if-unspectacular run as president of Def Jam, marriage to modern R&B’s flyest multimedia diva, and…
10/22: Eric Church at HOB
Nashville newcomer Eric Church hates urban cowboys with big hats and big mouths. The 32-year-old North Carolina native lets you know that on his second album, Carolina, which came out earlier this year. What Church doesn’t hate are big hooks and honky-tonk tradition, which are all over the record. The singer’s lonesome twang works overtime…
Listen to New Rihanna Single
Chris Brown’s punching bag Rihanna has a new album coming out on November 23. It’s called Rated R. The first single, “Russian Roulette,” began streaming a little while ago at Rihanna’s website. It’s not a great first shot like “Umbrella” was (but what is? That song is one of the decade’s best), but “Russian Roulette”‘s…
Danzig Days: Tribute Tuesday
Danzig wrote one of the last songs recorded by the golden-era Guns ‘N Roses lineup. “Attitude” (originally from 1978) was an original blast of tough-guy hardcore, and it’s been a cult favorite through the years, even if the tributes seldom measure up. Guns performed a flatline version on 1993’s The Spaghetti Incident?, the covers album…
Photo Show: Gwar/Red Chord/Mobile Death Camp at HOB, 10/18
Johnny Angell got his ass rocked off at the Gwar/Red Chord/Mobile Death Camp show at House of Blues the other night. He and his camera emerged with these pics.
U2 to Stream Obscenely Expensive Show on YouTube
U2 will stream their entire Sunday concert from Pasadena’s Rose Bowl on YouTube live, as it happens. That’s good news for Clevelanders who were passed up on the band’s current 360 Tour. The bad news is that the show doesn’t start till 10:30 p.m. (that’s 7:30 p.m. Pasadena time, but still …). And since U2…
Photo Show: The Mars Volta at House of Blues, 10/16
Johnny Angell got all proggy at House of Blues on Friday night with the Mars Volta. Here’s what he saw.
Janis Joplin’s Old Band Is Still Making Music
A chance meeting led guitarist Sam Andrew to form a band with Peter Albin more than 40 years ago. After all these years, Big Brother and the Holding Company are still around. “It was one of those aimless things,” says Andrew. “If I had turned left instead of right, it might have never happened. I…
This Just In: Concert Announcements
This week’s big new shows include Jared Leto’s 30 Seconds to Mars and the return of Raekwon. —D.X. Ferris CANCELED Enter the Haggis: Wed., Nov. 4. Beachland. The Damned: Wed., Oct. 21. House of Blues. THIS JUST INAuburn Records 25th Anniversary Concert: Destructor/Breaker/Shok Paris/Manimals/Wretch/HATE/Black Death AD (Black Death tribute featuring members of BD, Sacred Few…
eBay Item of the Day: Browns Zubaz Shorts
Sure, they’re not as classy as the Zubaz pants, but really, what is. But you can have these never-worn Cleveland Browns Zubaz shorts for just $24.99. Wear ’em out to those preseason games when it’s still too hot for pants. Wear them at home when the Browns have destroyed your will to shower and leave…
New Springsteen Book Chronicles Darkness Tour
Lawrence Kirsch first saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band on 1975’s Born to Run tour. “The guy killed us with three-and-a-half hours of jumping off scaffolding and pianos and going into the audience and going totally bezerko,” Kirsch recalls. He instantly became a fan. So when his cousin offered him a ticket to…
RUMBA SINFONICA TWO FOR ONE FOR SCENE READERS
Venezuela Ricardo Lorenz’s Rumba Sinfonica—for orchestra and latin band—has been played by no less than 22 orchestras, which is an astonishing number for a piece of new music. No surprise. Everyone from hip hop artists to smooth jazzers to Dancing with the Stars wants a piece of Latin music these days. And as Lorenz told…
A Q&A with Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight director Murray Lerner
While Woodstock was three days of (relative) peace and love, the 1970 Isle of Wight festival was a far more raucous affair. Documentary filmmaker Murray Lerner was there for the entire time, filming the performances for a documentary that wouldn’t see the light of day until 1995. His footage of Leonard Cohen’s mesmerizing performance that…
OHIO HAS YET TO DEAL WITH LAST ROUND OF RAMPANT DRILLING
Our collective disregard for the consequences of rampant drilling is nothing new: BOWLING GREEN – Thousands of wells from the Ohio oil boom at the turn of the 20th century are surfacing in Wood County as dangerous relics that may threaten public health, county commissioners were warned recently. … To demonstrate the potential for water…
All You Need to Know About Philly and Cliff Lee
(Via Philly.com)
Video: Bobby Valentine Acting on Japanese TV Show
Listen, there are a multitude of reasons as to why Mark Shapiro should hire Bobby Valentine to fill the Indians vacant managerial position. Some of them actually have to do with baseball, and that’s fine. It would help to have a guy that has some semblance of baseball acumen. For me, however, it’s about the…
Monday Music News Roundup
Malaysian people have a “moral issue” with Beyonce. Apparently, they want her to put a ring on it first. Garth Brooks: still an asshole. Miley Cyrus has a role in the new Sex and the City movie. Wait a minute … she’s not a horny old lady. Good Charlotte guy says he’s happy being a…
Danzig Days: Misfits Monday
The Misfits anthem “We Are 138” is a hardcore blitz. Like much of the ‘Fits material, the repetitive, razor-sharp singalong hook makes the song instantly familiar, and you’re lucky if it doesn’t stick in your head all day. Amazingly, this still-respectable blast was recorded in 1978, when the hardcore era had barely launched — before…
Monday Ticket Giveaway
We got a pair of tickets to the Sounds’ concert at House of Blues on November 2. All you have to do is send your name, phone number and e-mail address to freetickets@clevescene.com. We’ll pick a random winner at noon on October 29.
What to do Tonight: Pitbull
Cuban-American Pitbull (born Armando Cristian Perez) is one of the principal voices who helped carry reggaeton out of Spanish radio and into hip-hop’s mainstream. His collaborations with Daddy Yankee and Elephant Man introduced the style to non-Hispanic audiences, expanding its reach well beyond the limits of his tight-knit South Florida community. But foremost Pitbull is…
Viking Madness
With single game tickets going on sale Monday for CSU’s 2009-2010 men’s basketball season — they have West Virginia and the ESPNU Bracketbuster game at home this year, as well as Butler, of course — Cleveland State officially launched the season with Viking Madness at Woodling Gymnasium Saturday afternoon. Coming off the school’s strongest season…
What to do Tonight: Fra Fra Sound
If you like your music labeled, Fra Fra Sound will leave you scratching your head. Call the Amsterdam-based group world music, call it jazz, call it anything you want. Formed 25 years ago, the septet takes its name from the Surinamese “Fra Fra,” meaning “mysterious” or “hybrid.” The Afro-Caribbean band is touring behind its latest…
10/19: Merling Trio
You can blame Slavic composers for some words that sound pretty damn funny in English, including “dumka” — which, in plural form, are called “dumky.” Depending on which composer, country and time period you’re talking about, the word refers to either a melancholy ballad or a piece that explores fleeting musical ideas, especially when the…
10/19: Pitbull at HOB
Cuban-American Pitbull (born Armando Cristian Pérez) is one of the principal voices who helped carry reggaeton out of Spanish radio and into hip-hop’s mainstream. His collaborations with Daddy Yankee and Elephant Man introduced the style to non-Hispanic audiences, expanding its reach well beyond the limits of his tight-knit South Florida community. But foremost Pitbull is…
10/20: St. Vincent at the Beachland
St. Vincent is really Annie Clark, a 26-year-old singer-songwriter from Oklahoma who loads her albums with synth squalls, chiming harmonies and big, ready-to-collapse background noises. She used to play with the Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens, so this all comes kinda naturally. On her breakthrough album, Actor, she slips, slides and slinks beneath the grooves…
10/21: The Damned at HOB
While the Sex Pistols got all the punk glory, the Damned should get at least some of the laurels. They not only released the first punk record — Damned Damned Damned, a worthy rival of the Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks — but have demonstrated real staying power. Though there have been a number of…
10/21: Langhorne Slim at the Grog Shop
Sean Scolnick always had dreams of moving to New York City to become a famous singer, and he figured a good nickname was the first step. So the Langhorne, Pennsylvania, native adopted the name of his hometown and set out to conquer the Big Apple’s open-mic nights. The moniker stuck, even as Scolnick outgrew coffeehouses…
10/21: Moonspell at Peabody’s
Portugal’s predominant metal band is, big surprise, dark and heavy. Moonspell celebrate the close of their second decade this year by touring in support of 2008’s Night Eternal. Their nine-album catalog is varied, filled with equal parts experimentation and insipidity. Being a longtime fan of the group isn’t easy. Still, their dark, brooding metal packs…
What to do Tonight: Kasim Sulton
By the time Kasim Sulton joined Todd Rundgren’s Utopia in 1977, the 18-year-old was already a music-biz pro, having played piano with David Bowie-publicist-turned-glam-rocker Cherry Vanilla for nearly two years. Utopia led Sulton to many gigs: He launched a solo career, played bass on Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell, and toured and recorded with…
GRAPHIC NONFICITION: TROTSKY
In the way that a spoon full of sugar can help the medicine go down, it seems a slew of publishers are using the visual sweetness of the graphic novel to help the information go down. A pile of graphic nonfiction books have arrived on Scene’s desk lately, and so we might as well dig…
SEAN HANNITY: CRYBABY
Sean Hannity was in Northeast Ohio recently for a high-dollar fundraiser for Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich, whose fundraising lags far behind Governor Ted Strickland’s. (You may have noticed us spotlighting some of Hannity’s greatest hits). Apparently, the Ohio Democratic Party was doing the same thing, and delicate little Sean didn’t like it one single…
The Stepfather has little going for it
In The Stepfather, a remake of a 1987 film, Dylan Walsh plays David Harris, a guy who’s not just your everyday, run-of-the-mill mean stepfather. The guy’s a bona fide serial killer who tracks down single moms, gains their trust and then offs them and their kids. After a brief run-in at the grocery store, he…
Adam Marsland Says “Hello Cleveland”
When Los Angeles-based power-pop singer-songwriter Adam Marsland played at Cleveland’s Barking Spider on October 4, he mentioned that he was planning to spend one of the his upcoming two days off in Cleveland recording a “noisy punk-rock album all my fans will hate.” He followed through, and the album, Hello Cleveland, is in the can.…
Concert Review: Metallica at the Q
I now realize why Metallica was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April. The San Francisco metal pioneers utterly destroyed a nearly sold out Quicken Loans Arena, playing in the round (or rectangle, really) in support of last year’s stellar Death Magnetic. For over two hours guitarist/singer James Hetfield, drummer Lars…
Danzig Days: Funny Friday
Glenn Danzig may be rock and roll’s dark Elvis, but he has to eat, just like everybody else. Here’s the signer running through his shopping list. Now that we’ve seen it, we think it may be fake. Sure is a howl, though. A wolf howl. —D.X. Ferris
Just Like Movie Hillbillies, People Will Play Music on Their Porches
Perhaps the success of the first Porchfest this past summer in Cleveland’s Larchmere neighborhood has inspired others to replicate the engaging, low-key, casual music event. The village of Peninsula is staging its first Music on the Porches event from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. tomorrow. Music will take place not only on house porches and patios, but…
Out Today: The Twilight Saga: New Moon Original Soundtrack
Various ArtistsThe Twilight Saga: New Moon Original Soundtrack(Atlantic) I never thought of Death Cab for Cutie as vampire music, but the band’s maudlin “Meet Me on the Equinox” provides an appropriately dreary intro to the soundtrack for New Moon, the sequel to last year’s hit vampire love story Twilight. “Everything, everything ends,” sings frontman Ben…
What to do Tonight: Dr. Dog
Dr. Dog have a knack for immersing themselves in a world of warm and breezy California summers. Every minute of the band’s easygoing ’60s surf-pop is like a walk on the beach. Sugary harmonies stretch through the air, and the rhythms chug along at a pace perfect for sipping tall, cool lemonades. As the weather…
Original Bones Crew Reuniting
The original members of Bones Thugs-N-Harmony (Bizzy, Krayzie, Wish, Layzie, Flesh, Sleepy, Slappy and Doc Bone) are reuniting for their first album since 2000’s BTNHRESURRECTION. The new album, Uni5: The World’s Enemy, is due on December 22. Flesh was in prison for most of the past decade on an assault charge, which kinda kept the…
Thursday Music News Roundup
Somebody punched Leona Lewis in the face. Bet she was bleeding more than love. Garth Brooks comes out of retirement. Music fans around the world wonder, “He retired?” Not even death will keep the Michael Jackson juggernaut from moving forward. Avril Lavigne files for divorce. We’d tell you about it, but the details are, um,…
WHATAYA EXPECT, HE’S FROM MICHIGAN
Detroit band Electric Six takes some shots at its red (and gray) Ohio neighbors in “Escape From Ohio,” track four of the group’s new album, Kill. The song name-checks Joe the Plumber, then rhymes, “Lord be merciful and let me die / 15 miles south of Lodi / Round on both ends and the middle’s…
Danzig Days: Slow-Jam Thursday
Danzig made a name for himself writing ecstatic songs about blood, mutilation, death and horror — and he’s also penned some excellent power ballads. Without abandoning his major motifs, “Blood and Tears” — from 1990’s Danzig II: Lucifuge — is a full-on throwback to the ‘50s. It’s be great for a slow dance at a…
Please Don’t Say They Looked Alike
The Plain Dealer is reeling from a series of embarrassments in the last month, from misspelled headlines to running the wrong pictures with news articles. The most laughable — and arguably deplorable — gaffe includes Eddie Jackson, the man who has been called LeBron James’ father figure and one-time beau of Queen Mother Gloria James.…
PLEASE DON’T SAY THEY LOOKED ALIKE
The Plain Dealer is reeling from a series of embarrassments in the last month, from misspelled headlines to running the wrong pictures with news articles. The most laughable — and arguably deplorable — gaffe includes Eddie Jackson, the man who has been called LeBron James’ father figure and one-time beau of Queen Mother Gloria James.…
COUNTY SALES TAX REVENUE PLUMMETING
From economic watchdog George Zeller: The Economic Indicators analysis of the trend in the inflation-adjusted Cuyahoga County sales tax collection level has been updated today with newly available data for October 2009. The report on this newly updated tax revenue figure is on here (PDF). The level of sales tax collected in Cuyahoga County in…
HotChaCha: Hot Video Video, CD Release Party
The Grog Shop hosts a CD release party for the full-length debut by HotChaCha tomorrow. Scene just named them city’s best all-girl group, but don’t get us wrong: They’re one of the best bands in the region. Period. And the album, The World’s Hardest Working Telescope and the Violent Birth of Stars, is on my…
Reviews of the Cinematheque’s weekend films
Somers Town (Britain, 2008) The working-class London of Somers Town isn’t always a pretty place, but it is a loving and forgiving one. And in Shane Meadows’ concise black-and-white film, the residents work, drink and bitch about their losing football team. Then they go to sleep, get up and do it all over again. Teenage…
Danzig Days: Written-By Wednesday
Today’s Danzig Days pick: Johnny Cash’s “13,” which was written by Glenn Danzig. That’s right: The men behind the albums My Mother’s Hymn Book and 6:66 Satan’s Child collaborated. Johnny Cash’s recording career was considered dead and buried before he teamed with producer Beastie Boys/LL Cool J producer Rick Rubin for 1994’s unplugged masterpiece, American…
10/18: Severance Hall Tours
It’s the little things — like a brass machine screw among the chips of marble in the terrazzo lobby floor — that will stick in your head long after you tour Severance Hall. But the real reason you should take an extended look at the Cleveland Orchestra’s home is to gawk at the magnificence. Initially…
10/18: Fra Fra Sound at Nighttown
If you like your music labeled, Fra Fra Sound will leave you scratching your head. Call the Amsterdam-based group world music, call them jazz, call them anything you want. Formed 29 years ago, the septet takes their name from the Surinamese “Fra Fra,” meaning “mysterious” or “hybrid.” The Afro-Caribbean band is touring behind their latest…
10/18: Ensemble Theatre Benefit
If Cleveland’s Ensemble Theatre had folded after its 2008-2009 season, people would have understood. Earlier this year, both Lucia and Licia Colombi, the sparkplugs behind the company, passed away. But the company, with its mission of reviving classic 20th-century American pieces, regrouped and moved on under new artistic director Bernard Canepari and managing director (and…
10/17: Paranormal Writers of Ohio
We assume that by “Paranormal Writers of Ohio,” the Parmatown Mall Borders (7793 West Ridgewood Dr., Parma, 440.845.5911) means “Writers of Books on the Paranormal.” Then again, Mary Ann Winkowski, inspiration for Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character in Ghost Whisperer, will be there, so who knows. Also expected are John Kachuba, Casey Daniels, S.A. Swann, Vicki…
10/17: Kasim Sulton at Wilbert’s
By the time Kasim Sulton joined Todd Rundgren’s Utopia in 1976, the 18-year-old was already a music-biz pro, having played piano with David Bowie-publicist-turned-glam-rocker Cherry Vanilla for nearly two years. Utopia led Sulton to many gigs: He launched a solo career, played bass on Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell, and toured and recorded with…
10/17: Nevin Martell at Fireside Books
Nevin Martell will discuss and sign his new book, Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip, at Fireside Books (29 N. Franklin St., Chagrin Falls, 440.247.4050) today. He’ll give four small-group presentations starting at 1 p.m., followed by sessions at 2, 3:30 and 4:30 p.m. Fireside…
ANOTHER MYTH DEBUNKED — WILL IT STOP THE LIES?
Cincinnati CityBeat reports on a study examining mainstream coverage of Republicans’ hysterical claims about ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now): They studied the 647 ACORN stories during 2007 and 2008 produced by 15 major news organizations: USA Today, New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal (the four the highest circulation national…
10/16: The Mars Volta at HOB
The Mars Volta have always been about the noise — the rolling, room-shaking, mind-blowing and beautiful noise. On their fifth album, Octahedron, they go kinda quiet, turning down the amps and turning up the soft lights. The lyrics are still so cryptic you’ll need Wikipedia and a bong to help penetrate them, and there’s still…
10/16: Fabulous Fiesta at 10,000 Villages
Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cameroon, Kenya and Nepal are just some of the countries that provide stock for Ten Thousand Villages, a nonprofit, fair-trade retail outlet that boasts 155 stores across the U.S. and Canada, including two in the Cleveland area and one in Akron. It sells handmade items from around the world, returning a significant amount…
10/16: Dr. Dog at the Beachland
Dr. Dog have a knack for immersing themselves in a world of warm and breezy California summers. Every minute of the band’s easygoing ’60s surf-pop is like a walk on the beach. Sugary harmonies stretch through the air, and the rhythms chug along at a pace perfect for sipping tall, cool lemonades. As the weather…
10/16: The Abecedaria Project
ABC books are among the first most of us ever hold. They introduce toddlers to the alphabet as well as to the general form and feel of books. With their second annual Abecedaria Project, the members of Art Books Cleveland certainly appreciate how letters fall together into words. But they’re aiming for something bigger than…
10/15: Trey Songz at HOB
Trey Songz rips a lot from R. Kelly’s playbook. He’ll sweet-talk you into taking your clothes off (the first cut on his latest album, Ready, is called “Panty Droppa”). He’ll boast about how he invented sex. And he’ll get all freaky ’til the breakadawn, annoying the hell out of the neighbors who are trying to…
10/15: Metallica at the Q
Metallica’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. After more than a decade of lackluster albums, last year’s terrific Death Magnetic put the veteran metal band back on track. On 2003’s St. Anger, they sounded like they were a million miles away from…
10/15: Cleveland Orchestra
California-born soprano Nicole Cabell studied at the Chicago Lyric Opera Center for American Artists before making her debut with the Chicago Symphony. For the past few years she’s been busy on both concert and opera stages. The Cleveland Orchestra snagged Cabell for this weekend to perform a symphonic repertoire including Johannes Brahms’ massive Ein Deutches…
10/15: CH-UH Library Book Sale
Imagine a sprawling library basement filled with books — 100,000 of them, including 40,000 adult graphic novels, all for sale for pocket change. For book lovers, that’s a dangerous proposal, but the Cleveland Heights/University Heights Library (2345 Lee Rd., 216.932.3600) is dangling that catnip in front of us. From 8 a.m.-9 p.m. today and tomorrow,…
10/15: They MIght Be Giants at the Beachland
They Might Be Giants’ 1990 album Flood marked the endearingly nerdy band’s transition from college-radio cult darlings to major-label stars. The album went platinum and includes fan faves like “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” and “Birdhouse in Your Soul.” This week, the Giants’ two Johns — Linnell and Flansburgh — will perform the ambitious Flood in its…
10/14: City Music Cleveland area tour
Music director James Gaffigan takes a break from the City Music Cleveland schedule this week, when guest conductor David Alan Miller (a Los Angeles native and Juilliard grad) takes the podium for a program featuring the world premiere of Christos Hatzis’ Redemption, Mozart’s Serenade in D and Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Suite. Miller was…
Concert Review: Mike Doughty at the Beachland, 10/13
A jazz club doorman turned beat poet-inspired frontman, Mike Doughty has carved out a singular niche for himself over the course of a career that now spans two decades. While he certainly had the most notoriety leading Soul Coughing, the New York-based avant-jazz act that appealed to hipsters and jam-band fans alike, he’s also done…
Best Show at an Alternative Gallery
Better known for his hundreds (maybe thousands) of often brilliant illustrations and flyers immortalizing the many weird dimensions of the local music scene in black marker on paper, prolific artist Jake Kelly has lately displayed some remarkable works on glass, made using only smoke (we didn’t ask what kind). Kelly’s hallucinatory images of catastrophe, mayhem…
Best Neighborhood Catalyst
A decade ago there was no Waterloo Village Arts and Entertainment district. That strip of North Collinwood was a desolate zone of empty storefronts. And the neighborhood of modest working-class homes around it didn’t escape the scourge of the foreclosure crisis of the past 10 years (yeah, 10). But some people see defeat; some see…
Best Cleveland Sports Owner
The competition is weak: Randy Lerner refuses to talk about the Browns and seems more focused on Aston Villa, his English soccer investment, and the Dolans take body blows left and right from Indians fans desperate for some loosening of the purse strings. Still, Dan Gilbert is not only a model owner, he’s becoming a…
CLEVELAND-ISM
With its huge windows and soaring interior, Convivium33 gallery, located in the former St. Josaphat Church, reinvented as Josaphat Arts Hall, brings out the best in art and its audience. Its current show offers work by 14 Cleveland Arts Prize Winners. CAP executive director Marcie Bergman says it’s the first attempt at an exhibition of…
Best New Beer List
The first thing guests see when they cross the threshold of Bar Symon is a picket fence of beer taps. The 40 or so handles, each festooned in its own brewery colors, march down the bar like a pixie parade of infinite glee. Michael Symon promised an American brasserie bursting at the seams with good…
Best Fresh-Baked Bread Bargain
Presti’s Bakery, a family business in Little Italy since 1903 now run by the granddaughters of the original owner, moved in 1999 from its hole-in-the-wall quarters to a sprawling space a block away on the corner of Mayfield and East 121st. There it was able to offer an expanded menu of prepared food, pastries and…
Best Outlet Store
Even though the abandoned Euclid Square Mall looks like something out of a George Romero film, the Dillard’s clearance store is well worth the trip — especially if you’re a bargain hunter. Clothing prices are always super-cheap, but the real deals happen during the big holiday-weekend sales. Recently, men’s short-sleeve shirts were going for as…
Photo Gallery: Best of Cleveland 2009
Derek Hess & Kent Smith (Best Lefty Rabble Rousers) at Mahall’s 20 Lanes (Best Bowling Alley) with Spudnuts (Best Donuts) Cindy Barber (Best Neighborhood Catalyst) at Blue Arrow (Best Place to Buy Trashy Pulp Novels) Myra Orenstein (Best Behind the Scenes Organizer) at the Superman House (Best Belatedly Appreciated Treasure) with Crostata’s (Best Old-World Pizza)…
Best Use of an Obsolete Structure
It’s become a habit for James Levin to find unused pieces of the city and fill them with activity. The latest happened in the subway level of the Detroit-Superior Bridge, which was made obsolete with the elimination of streetcar lines back in the ’50s. The entrances to both Cuyahoga River valley banks — now portals…
Best Place to Buy Trashy Pulp Novels
Blue Arrow Records and Books opened last year as an expansion of This Way Out, the vintage store underneath the Beachland run by Pete and Debbie Gulyas. It’s a repository of pop-culture artifacts, with vinyl at the heart of its mission, but a lot more. Music books, T-shirts, magazines, 45s, posters and weird novelties are…
Best Fan-Friendly Team
Pro hockey has always been a harder sell than it should be in snowy Northeast Ohio, and a minor-league team has to work twice as hard. The Lake Erie Monsters (affiliated with the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche) do that and then some, regularly reaching out to youth-hockey programs across the region with ticket vouchers, player and…
PLAY ON
We who regard musical comedy as the Godliest art take special satisfaction in Great Lakes Theater Festival artistic director Charles Fee’s simple but elegant rendering of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. The reason for this giddy satisfaction is to see Fee — with one foot in Idaho — follow the template of Meredith Willson’s beloved Iowa…
Best Museum You Probably Haven’t Been To
Polka was more than just that ridiculously upbeat music your grandparents danced to. It was a marker of an era in Cleveland history, culture and lifestyle. Cleveland-style polka emerged 100 years ago from the Slovenian immigrant community and the folk music they brought from the old country. While the stars of its ’40s-’50s heydey have…
Best Re-use of an Industrial Building
The former home of the Lake Erie Screw Corporation in Lakewood’s Bird Town was left empty when the company moved to Indiana. But building manager Ralph Lukich wasn’t going to let the concrete behemoth just sit there. Starting with printmaker Phyllis Fannin and a few other noted Cleveland artists, Lukich constructed artisan studios in the…
Best New Brewery
Former Rocky River Brewing Co. brewer Matt Cole opened Fat Heads in the old Danny Boy Farm Market in April, and the place has been, um, hopping ever since. Fat Heads features its own distinctive line of brews (it rolled out a Christmas ale as a “Christmas in July” special, and the smoked porter just…
CD Review: The Flaming Lips
Before they reinvented themselves as the world’s most awesome prog-rock band on 1999’s The Soft Bulletin, the Flaming Lips were a bunch of noise-loving kids from Oklahoma who made music that was a perfect soundtrack to your late-night LSD trips. On their 12th album, they return to their mind-wrecking roots. The soundscapes on Embryonic are…
Best Dynamic Duo
Painter Arabella Proffer and knitter Shannon Okey are among the busiest artists in town. Proffer’s portraits — inspired by portraiture of the Renaissance aristocracy, but informed by punk rock — are currently in group shows in several states and a solo show in Pittsburgh. In Cleveland, she’s shown at Asterisk, William Rupnik Gallery and many…
Best Donuts
When people from other states visit and demand that you take them to Spudnuts, you know you’re in the presence of some delectable fried goodness. The secret to these donuts isn’t so secret — it’s right there in the name. Spud, baby. Spudnuts uses potato flour, which gives your favorite anytime indulgence an even, hearty…
Best Free Saturday Morning Activity
Cars are magnets for ill-fortune: Insurance companies, mechanics and traffic courts use them to take your money, thieves want to steal them, other drivers crash into them. It’s easy to grow weary of the car-centric world we’ve created. That’s why the Ohio City Bicycle Co-op is so refreshing. It reminds us that transportation can be…
Speed Racer
TOP PICK Need for Speed Shift (EA) The veteran videogame series remakes itself as a terrific racing game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Unlike past outings — where you maneuvered your pimped-out ride through crowded streets like a Fast and the Furious douchebag — Shift is all about skills behind the wheel. Still,…
Best Micropub
From time to time, a man feels the need to be proactive in his own inebriation — not simply purchasing the booze, twisting off the cap or plunking down a few dollars for his favorite draft. No, he feels the need to brew, to craft that which he will later enjoy from start to finish.…
Best Rapper to Have on Your Mixtape
Chip’s Wikipedia page may have been deleted because he hasn’t had a charted hit yet, but that shouldn’t lessen the rapper’s impact on Cleveland’s hip-hop scene. He’s a friend of hometown hero Kid Cudi (the two worked together on an album a few years ago, before Cudi moved to Brooklyn) and regularly plays local rock…
Best Holiday Display
It used to be a tradition for families to go downtown to see the spectacular holiday window displays in department stores. With those stores now history, the Cleveland Botanical Garden’s annual WinterShow recreates some of that period charm. The Garden is already a pretty magical place, with its 10 designed garden spaces for strolling or…
CD Review: Lou Barlow
In the ever-shifting spheres of indie and (semi-) popular music, today’s It Boy/Girl is destined to be tomorrow’s has-been. Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh’s Lou Barlow doesn’t have to worry about such petty things. Goodnight Unknown finds him in fine form, retaining the right stuff but also aging (a recurring theme) quite gracefully. The album begins…
Best Walking Tours
Cemetery strolls aren’t just for morbid goth kids with Bauhaus on their iPods. Rambling, pastoral Lake View Cemetery, 150 years old this year, is a repository of the area’s history — both human and natural. A walk through its 285 acres yields an overwhelming store of information about the city’s former citizens, sculpture and design,…
Best Bang for Your Buck
Mention the phrase “family meal” and images of grease-stained buckets of fried chicken invariably come to mind. Mention that phrase at Luxe, and prepare to be wowed with a multi-course meal that costs little more than the aforementioned bucket. Adventurous diners who order the family meal are rewarded with a three-course spread served family-style for…
Best Recreational Sports Facility
If you want to lollygag, drink and chat up hotties, try something else. If you want to test your limits, join a Sportsplex soccer league. People come here to play hard — maybe too hard, considering that their blood, sweat and tears aren’t exactly bringing home the World Cup. But the competition creates fascinating social…
DON’T SWALLOW THAT
Like the animals trapped in the feed lots and the cages of Confined Animal Feeding Operations, we are trapped in the finely woven web of an industrial food system that dominates our grocery stores, limits our food choices and controls the family dinner table. The promoters of Issue 2 want to keep it that way.…
Best Place to Get a Lotta Crap for $20
There are so many bargains to be found at this twice-weekly flea market (the largest in the area) that you could probably deck out your house for less than $100. Need a couple of new chairs for the dining room? You’ll find them here. Need a plastic clip to keep the Fritos bag closed? You’ll…
Best Behind The Scenes Organizer
As president of her own marketing and advertising company, CATV, Inc., Cleveland Heights’ Myra Orenstein has worked with big shots like MasterCard International, HBO, Showtime, the Disney Channel, even the White House. But we love her for what she’s done for Northeast Ohio. As consultant to the Coventry Village Special Improvement District, she suggested reviving…
Best Corned Beef Sandwich
In a town like Cleveland, where mile-high corned beef sandwiches are considered a birthright, loyalty to a particular provider can be fierce. Blessed with no shortage of quality candidates, local CB fans take pleasure in debating the finer points of fat and meat, salt and seed, height and weight. Pound for pound, the best sandwich…
CD Review: Mariah Carey
Ever since her rebirth a few years ago, Mariah Carey has been on a roll. Once destined as a pop-star-flameout punch line (she started the decade with the nearly career-killing Glitter), Carey has spent the past four years and three albums renovating into an R&B sex kitten and reclaiming her title as one of her…
Best Place to Get Geek Toys
We used to make monthly trips to Carol & John’s for the latest comic books and graphic novels (and maybe the occasional pack of Marvel Masterpieces trading cards). But now we go to the store every month to stock up on all the geeky toys they carry. In addition to the shelves filled with action…
Best Ice Cream
Now in its 10th year, Mitchell’s boasts three (soon to be four) locations around town, but our favorite is the original in Westlake — a homey, spacious shop where the friendly staff scoops up mounds of the cool, sweet stuff behind a super-long counter. Always-on-the-menu favorites like banana cream pie, black raspberry chip and coconut…
Best Sledding
If there’s one good thing about winter — at least for those of us who don’t ski — it’s sledding. It’s OK — grown men and women can admit liking it or at least wanting to do it. No shame there. When the mercury hits freezing and enough snow covers Northeast Ohio to turn every…
Best Tribute Band That’s Not Wish You Were Here
AC/DC tribute band Bonfire is all about the music. While Bonfire’s core trio doesn’t go out of its way to look much like AC/DC, the guys have spent the better part of a decade working on the Aussie rock icons’ sound. That said, recently added guitarist Will Halikias gives them all the visual flare they…
Best Music Store
Even as indie music stores become an endangered species, Cleveland and Akron still have more than their share of good ones. But Music Saves has a couple legs up on them all. First and foremost, it’s got location. Just down the street from the Beachland Ballroom, the Collinwood shop specializes in the kind of indie-rock…
Best Place for Gringos to Practice Spanish and/or Buy Mexican Groceries
Clevelanders are likely familiar with Mi Pueblo’s east- and west-side eateries, but the latter also features a small grocery store that is essential for Mexican-food aficionados and lovers of all things south-of-the-border. Chances are, if you’re buying Mexican chorizo in Cleveland and you’re not buying it here, it isn’t Mexican chorizo. The stuff they sell…
Best Movie Theater
Perhaps the best-known theater in the growing Cleveland Cinemas empire, the Cedar Lee is the heart of Cleveland Heights’ other cool restaurant and retail strip, Lee Road. The theater screens some mainstream releases but tends toward art-house fair, stuff you’ve heard of (Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story) and stuff you probably haven’t (Die Walküre…
CD Review: Paramore
The best songs on 2007’s Riot! were the ones that emphasized the pop part of Paramore’s pop-punk equation. On this follow-up, the Tennessee quintet loads up on melodies, shoving aside the blurry guitar grind of a thousand whiny emo bands in favor of major hooks. Twenty-year-old frontwoman Hayley Williams comes on like a redheaded firecracker…
Best New Band
A happy accident that came out of a jam session, Freedom formed while the ashes of Roue, one of Cleveland’s best bands of the decade, were still smouldering. Featuring Roue singer-guitarist Justin Coulter, Freedom — which also includes singer-guitarist Anthony Merritt, synth player Chris Kulcsar, and drummers Steve Mehlman and Jason Gintert — live up…
Best Reasons to Turn on the Radio
Most of us have a music fanatic or news junkie in our lives. Let me tell you about my friends. OK, they’re not my personal friends, but I spend a lot of time with them. They know everything there is to know about all sorts of music and topics — indie-rock, private-press psychedelia, black metal,…
Best Downtown Coffee
When Phoenix Coffee opened its second downtown spot in the Warehouse District (there’s another shop on East 9th St.), they made a bold decision to brew their standard cup of joe via the French Press method. Instead of dripping water through a filter of ground coffee, like a typical drip coffeemaker, French Press involves steeping…
Best Food at Games
You could say that nothing’s better than a hot dog, maybe some peanuts and a cold domestic draft at a ballgame, and you’d be right most of the time. Not if you’re at the Q, however, where you can sample some of Michael Symon’s succulent burgers for under $10. We highly recommend the “Symon Says”…
Best Idea So Crazy It Just Might Work
Christopher Axelrod’s vision begins with a rockometer — “a retro measuring devise or pulse meter, which indicates the ‘spirit’ or civic ‘heartbeat’ of the City of Cleveland.” A little strange, but clear enough, right? Here’s the catch: The Rockometer in Axelrod’s dreams is a massive meeting center/performance venue/tourist destination next to the Rock Hall, on…
Best New Brew
Everybody loves those inspirational yarns where the little guy beats all odds to find success in a harsh and indifferent world. Matt Chappel is that guy. In a country where craft-beer consumption still tops out at just 4 percent of the market share, Chappel launched a garage brewery poised for greatness. Working on a shoestring…
Best Small Publisher
About three years ago, local environmental activist Stefanie Penn Spear decided to jump back into publishing. She’d put out an environmental newspaper called Affinity for 10 years before taking a break to focus on her family. The bi-monthly nonprofit EcoWatch Journal, which has a print run of 65,000, is a handy guide to who’s doing…
Best Pop-Art Standard Bearer
It was a tough blow for the Cleveland art scene when 1300 Gallery shut its doors. And while new galleries have taken up residence in that lovely space — and fine galleries they are — it’s Bill Rupnik, a lanky, unassuming skater kid with an easy smile, who took up 1300’s flag in grand style,…
Out of Africa
This documentary about Nigerian cinema, which now ranks behind only India and the U.S. in the number of films produced, is shot about as well as your average reality-TV show. But that doesn’t diminish the movie. A look behind the scenes at the burgeoning Nigerian cinema scene that produces some 2,500 movies a year (most…
Best Art Gallery Matchmaker
American Greetings’ former creative studios on West 78th Street have attracted artists and galleries for years. Ever since the old 1300 Gallery left, owner Dan Bush has managed to court a long list of artists and studios, all coming together for open-house events that amount to art walks under one roof. You’ll find Kenneth Paul…
Best Use of a Band’s Song on TV
This Akron duo’s music has shown up in movies like Black Snake Moan and School of Rock and in ads for Sony Ericcson and Victoria’s Secret. But their coolest screen gig comes during the opening credits of Hung, HBO’s TV series about a high-school teacher who becomes a male prostitute to help pay the bills.…
Best Restaurateur
Beard, Bar Symon, B Spot — it’s been a big year for our celebrity hash slinger. In addition to snagging — finally! — the James Beard Award for Best Chef, Symon birthed his wildly enjoyable American brasserie, Bar Symon. Apparently on overdrive, the chef recently teamed up with the Cavs and Aramark to open two…
Best Place for Aimless Game Watching
Most of us have spots for watching our favorite teams. A tailgate, a house, a bar — whatever, there’s no changing tradition. When it comes to watching a bunch of different games at one time, watching games for the sake of watching games or checking out events not broadcast by your local cable or satellite…
Best Entertaining Scandal
So on at least one occasion, the tough-talking mayor of East Cleveland donned women’s underwear and a wig, and posed and pouted for homemade boudoir photos. Here’s what we don’t understand: Why anyone cares. Yes, it’s embarrassing for him and kinda funny for the rest of us. But Brewer had never played the “family-values” card,…
Best Chef
It takes stones to do the kind of cooking Jonathon Sawyer (right) does at the Greenhouse Tavern. Most diners quickly settle into a routine at restaurants, gravitating toward a handful of favorites and rarely venturing on. Those folks are screwed at Greenhouse. Here, the only constant is change. Consumed by an intense form of culinary…
Best Female Vocalist
Not to pat ourselves on the back too much, but last winter when we named Christa Ebert’s Uno Lady project one of our bands to watch in 2009, we turned out to be pretty damn spot-on. Since then, she’s released a cassette-and-digital album of her stunning and unearthly music — composed from layers of interwoven…
Best Cocktail Not from the Velvet Tango Room
The Manhattan was the classic cocktail of choice of the Rat Pack and of happy-hour bound salesmen in the ’50s, and for good reason — a well-crafted one is lush, complex and flavorful, and a so-so one is still a large whiskey drink, after all. It’s also a simple enough recipe to allow your bartender…
Reel Cleveland: Woody Allen Film Fest
Dubbed “Hannah and her Predecessors,” the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque’s Woody Allen film festival continues this week with screenings of Allen’s 1983 film Zelig. The film, which shows in a new 35mm print, features Mia Farrow and Allen, who plays Leonard Zelig, a chameleon-like character who turns up in all sorts of archival footage…
Best New Gallery
The East Wing galleries begin in the glass-walled jewel box that shows off the museum’s Rodin sculptures, and it’s hard to imagine a better space for them. Walk north, and you go forward in time through the dramatic evolution of European painting of the 19th and 20th centuries. Smooth traditional portraiture and landscapes give way…
Best Adult Toy Store
We’re sure that the customers of those “adult” stores on the highways are content with the service and setting. But for better or worse, we aren’t all bold enough to find out what’s for sale inside a windowless, bunker-style building out in the middle of nowhere. So Ambiance takes an entirely different approach, operating well-lit…
Best Downtown Expansion
In its original, unassuming Fairview Park location, this popular sandwich shop prepares mouth-watering sandwiches and soups that make lunchtime mealtime. But who has time to drive all the way out to the west-side suburb during lunch hour? The recently opened downtown Presto’s — tucked into a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it spot in the front of the Old Arcade…
Best Roller Derby Team
Years before roller derby became a big-screen Hollywood subject, it was a way of life for women who had to blow off some steam on the weekends. More than 60 rough-and-tumble girls from all over Northeast Ohio compete on the four teams that comprise the Burning River Roller Girls, Cleveland’s first all-female, skater-owned, flat-track derby…
Best Restaurant
The word “best,” especially as it applies to restaurants, is as subjective as they come. What one diner finds exceptional, another may deem downright abominable. Many eaters prefer to play it safe when ordering, while others dine out specifically to explore the culinary scenery. And then there’s the inconsistency: good service on Wednesday, chaos come…
Best Free Music
Whether or not you can afford other orchestras’ tickets isn’t the point. City Music Cleveland deserves a spot on your calendar. The ensemble was founded with accessibility in mind, so all of its concerts are free. And it doesn’t matter where you live in Northeast Ohio; there’s a pretty good chance it’ll be performing in…
Rockingest Foodie Fundraiser
It seems that every year, some organization concocts another food-based fundraiser, where big-hearted chefs are strong-armed into donating their time, cash and resources in support of a worthy cause. Now, we’re certainly not knocking the causes, just the events, which too often are stuffy snooze-fests crammed with supercilious gourmands. And then there’s the food —…
Best Neighborhood Collaboration
It doesn’t hurt that James Levin got the ball rolling 25 years ago by founding Cleveland Public Theatre in a neighborhood that was then lined with board-ups and dive joints. It also doesn’t hurt that a bunch of small businesses landed like snow on concrete and melted before accumulation. But ever since the Detroit Shoreway…
London Calling
The working-class London of Somers Town isn’t always a pretty place, but it is a loving and forgiving one. And in Shane Meadows’ concise black-and-white film, the residents work, drink and bitch about their losing football team. Then they go to sleep, get up and do it all over again. Teenage Tomo (Thomas Turgoose), on…
Best Broadcasters
Dee Perry, host of the daily Around Noon show aired from noon-1 p.m. on public radio outlet WCPN, gives a forum to musicians, composers, choreographers, actors, directors, filmmakers, artists, designers, architects, curators, authors, poets and others to expound on their passions. Along with reporters David C. Barnett and Dan Polletta, she offers thoughtful, unrushed, respectful…
Best Punk-Era Holdover
Yes, Derf. It’s not just because we work with him (disclosure: We work with him), and it’s not just because Pere Ubu is only intermittently active. It’s because of his book from last fall, Punk Rock and Trailer Parks. It’s a first-person account of the improbably disproportionate influence Northeast Ohio had on the development of…
Best Old-World Pizza
Some will have you believe that pizza sans pepperoni is blasphemy. But in Naples — and Highland Heights, Ohio — pizzas are topped with mozzarella di bufala, artichokes, maybe some nice prosciutto. At Crostatas, the Neapolitan-style pies are prepared the old-fashioned way: Dough is made fresh daily and allowed to rise slowly overnight; imported tomatoes…
Best Coach
The Indians are in search of a new manager, Eric Mangini has been roundly panned and opinions on Mike Brown are split. So this year, Cleveland’s best coach comes from the college ranks. Gary Waters, at the helm of Cleveland State’s men’s basketball team, has already taken the Vikings to the verge of the Sweet…
Best Source of Art Supplies
Artists have never been shy about their trash-foraging habits. But Zero Landfill takes the idea to a citywide level, working with architecture firms, designers, construction companies and others to rescue usable supplies, like samples provided to companies, and make them available to artists and teachers as raw material. This summer, the project rescued 25 tons…
Best Sharing of the Road
A bicyclist can feel the different moods of traffic, and those moods can change, depending on the neighborhood, time of day and, of course, drivers. The people who drive Detroit Avenue through the Gordon Square Arts District — which has been under construction for months, with traffic narrowed to two tight lanes — have proven…
Best New Bookstore
Book lovers mourned when chaotic used-book haven Bookstore on West 25th finally closed after years of back-from-the-brink financial emergencies. But many of them cheered when Horizontal Books opened in the space this past spring. In a reverse of the trend of stores moving from bricks and mortar to the Internet, the store is a physical…
Best Sweet Treat
Lisa Paige Blair’s chocolate-covered-pretzel creations — “Sweets with a twist” — are like little works of art, almost too pretty to eat. Almost. We took a platter of them to a party recently, and they quickly became the center of attention; adults were shooing kids away to claim more for themselves. If that sounds cruel,…
Shorttakes: And Justice for All
Law Abiding Citizen ** 1/2 Working from a script that borrows heavily from Se7en, Law Abiding Citizen can’t make up its mind if it wants to be a right-wing revenge fantasy à la Death Wish or an indictment of those kinds of attitudes. The movie seems to want it both ways. Consider the storyline: Clyde…
Best Books by Local Authors
Home chefs, rejoice — casting off the shackles of recipes no longer means relying on guesswork, luck and familial forgiveness. Michael Ruhlman explains little-known formulas behind making almost anything in Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking. Like reading music or mixing paints, grasping ratios allows for endless creativity. Revealing artistry was…
Best Surf Guitar Band
This quartet bills itself as “The Rock & Roll Capitol’s #1 Surf Rock Band.” Like the surfers who brave the chilly waters of Lake Erie looking for a ridable swell, KB & the Riptides don’t have much competition. But they’d likely have the distinction even if they had to fight for it. The band is…
Best Bowling Alley
As the neighborhood lanes die and mega-obnoxious bars/dance clubs/restaurants try to cash in on the belated hipster/urban appeal of bowling, you can take solace in Mahall’s. A Lakewood institution, this testament to the game remains a bastion of elegance and simplicity. The machines and decor look vintage because they are — not much has changed,…
Best Run by a Cleveland Athlete
There is one Cav who has been LeBron’s teammate since the moment the King was drafted. He’s unheralded, yet one of the most prolific and dominant centers in franchise history. And this very well might be his last year in a Cavs uniform. From the early foot injuries to his imminent move to back-up behind…
Best Ice Cream With a View
Wanna know why we look about 40 pounds heavier in the summer? It’s because of Honey Hut. Actually, it’s the Honey Hut at Huntington Beach’s fault. See, during warm-weather months, we frequently head to this tiny ice-cream stand tucked away in the Cleveland Metroparks’ Bay Village site, order a single (which includes two heaping scoops;…
Best New Bakery
Nothing lifts a neighborhood like a great bakery, and thanks to Tom and Adria Clark, residents living near the Lakewood-Rocky River border have received the biggest lift of all. Originally from Lakewood, Tom spent the last decade working in Portland, Oregon’s bakery biz. He returned home and perfected his craft at the wonderful On the…
Best Addition to Cleveland’s Music Scene
One of only a handful of vinyl-pressing plants still operating in the U.S., Gotta Groove Records started taking orders in August. It isn’t capable of putting out 7-inches yet, but the 12-inch machines are state-of-the-art (well, they date back to the 1950s, but that’s as new as these things get). Owner Vince Slusarz is devoted…
Best Cupcakes
Let’s just be upfront about Cleveland’s embarrassment of cupcake riches and allow that there are a lot of contenders in this category. From Hudson’s Main Street Cupcakes to Beachwood’s White Flower (ha ha) to the closer-in Cleveland Cupcake Company and Lucky’s Café, you can find sweet delights to satisfy tastes from the pedestrian to the…
Travelin’ Woman
It’s a coming-of-age tale we’ve heard a hundred times before: Young girl escapes war-ravaged Bosnia, spends her formative years in Germany and eventually arrives in Cleveland, where she finds employment as a social worker for the elderly and moonlights as the exhibitionist lead singer of an art-punk band. OK, so maybe it sounds more like…
Best Theater Production
Normally, the Great Lakes Theater Festival’s tenderly wrought Seagull would be crowned with all of our critical laurels. But in an uncanny fluke, Chekhov the Character trumped Chekhov the Playwright as CSU brightened our summer evenings with John Driver and Jeffrey Haddow’s obscure Chekhov in Yalta. The experience was not unlike an encounter with a…
Best of Cleveland Readers’ Choice
Cleveland Living | News & Media | Goods & Services Dining | Nightlife | Arts & Entertainment Cleveland Living Best Reason to Live in C-Town People Best Reason to Leave C-Town Weather Best Neighborhood Tremont Best Area You’d Like to See Revitalized The Flats Best City Service RTAriderta.com Best Bus Line RTA riderta.com Best Local…
Best New Franchise Players
There wasn’t much good to say about the Wahoos after they dropped to the cellar of the American League in 2009, but one bright spot (other than the end of the Eric Wedge era) was the emergence of Cabrera and Choo. Each guy hit about .300 for the season. Each plays some spectacular defense in…
Best Restaurant Promotion
Tattooing the name of your sweetie is one thing, but permanently carving a sandwich-shop logo into one’s flesh is another entirely. Lakewood’s Melt has been known to inspire a certain level of fanaticism. And while that devotion is wholly earned, an alarming new trend is sweeping across Browns town: Melt tattoos. It isn’t just a…
Best Cultural Export
With the Browns, the Tribe and the foreclosure crisis helping to form a pretty crappy image of Cleveland, it’s nice to have the Cleveland Orchestra expanding its schedule of residencies. In addition to its regular stays in Miami and Vienna, the orchestra recently sealed summer residencies at the Lincoln Center for 2011, 2013 and 2014.…
Best Place to Hang with Bikers
Geneva-on-the-Lake sometimes seems like the resort town that time forgot. The greasy snack bars, the dusty game arcades, the dodge-em cars, the miniature golf and the vintage postcards in the souvenir shops all seem left over from another decade. But you know what that means? It’s cheap and informal. While the town was known three…
Best Lefty Rabble-Rousers
Though their book Please God Save Us appeared in July 2008, its continued brisk sales and the ongoing popularity of its creators’ personal appearances keeps it in the running for best of 2009. If Derek Hess (left in photo, with dog Jose) needs an introduction, you’re obviously new here — his dark, sketchy drawings have…
Pitch Black
When you think black metal, you probably think Scandinavia: long-haired dudes wandering the frost-bitten forests of Norway and Sweden, their faces painted black and white, and their spiked boots sinking into the snow as they look for ancient churches to burn … right? In fact, black metal has spread across the planet like some new…
Best Hip-Hop Night If You’re Not That Into Hip-Hop
Here’s irony for you: The era of hip-hop chronicled nightly on MTV’s rap showcase Sucker Free is, in fact, dense with suckers. If you’re old enough to remember the way-more-fun Yo! MTV Raps — or if you just have a thing for old-school jams — I Got Five on It is the party for you.…
Best Green Product
Since 1996, the Cleveland Botanical Garden’s Green Corps has been engaging Cleveland public high-school students in urban farming, reclaiming unused land, and growing and selling crops. One of the results of the students’ efforts is Ripe From Downtown Salsa. Working from a recipe provided by Chef Sergio Abramof (Sergio’s at University Circle and Sergio’s Sarava…
Best Young Hopes
The haul from the Sabathia trade has finally made its way to the majors. Michael Brantley came up late in the season, looking as if he was born to hit leadoff in the Show. LaPorta showed the power that so excited the Indians as they were mining the Brewers’ minor league system for prospects to…
Best Pro Wrestling
Blood was shed and bodies were broken in July at War Games, the biggest monthly show yet by Firestorm Pro Wrestling. Regularly drawing between 200 and 400 fans at the Phantasy Theater, the Cleveland federation concentrates on homegrown and regional talent, and regularly welcomes veterans like Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka. (Even a now-infamous appearance by Jake…
Best Cookies
The Cleveland Cupcake Company has taken the city’s traditions of culinary innovation and meat-and-potatoes cuisine to a new height with its Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies. The rich, smoky slabs of sweetness are about the size of the palm of your hand. Lisa Zack and Megan Jenny founded the company in 2008 and scour the city’s…
Best Tour Guide to the Ultimate Riff
Listen up, my brothers and sisters in rock. Is your life a quest for the most rockin’ tuneage you’ve never heard before? Mitch Capka’s got the goods. It’s unlikely you’ll emerge from Kick Out the Jams, his long-running, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday program on WJCU 88.7 FM, without having heard at least one track that…
Best Festival
Anyone with a hankering for red meat can’t look at the dozen-plus stands at the annual Hamburger Festival in Akron and say anything with a straight face. They really can’t say anything at all, what with all the drooling. Every year, this meaty fest hosts the best and boldest burger flippers for a carnivore’s dream…
Best Music Blog Besides Ours
This Lakewood-based music blog is worth visiting multiple times daily for multimedia diversions and local and national music news. Site founder Matt Wardlaw has long been a fixture in town — formerly as host of WMMS’ The Metal Show, more recently as a DJ at 92.3 FM. Despite his metal past, Wardlaw is a musical…
Axe to Grind
After a hard-fought career that’s approaching two decades, Converge may well be the kings of hardcore. One of the genre’s biggest bands records for big indie Epitaph, whose umbrella stretches from Tom Waits to Bad Religion. And lacerating songs like “Plagues” and the new “Damages” make a case for Converge as the most artistically evolved.…
Best Concert-Poster Artist
When Uno Lady needed a poster for a recent CD-release show at Now That’s Class, she enlisted local artist John Greiner, who drew a colorful illustration of the oddball singer in the “Officer Pizza” outfit she wore on Halloween a couple of years ago. Greiner even included a drawing of her dog, Mr. Flip Mo…
Best Progressive Crusader
Former Cleveland law director and candidate for state attorney general Subodh Chandra (left) is a really nice guy, but he does not suffer fools gladly. Recently he filed a complaint against fellow attorney Orly Taitz, the most vocal member of the “birther” movement that claims Barack Obama isn’t a U.S. citizen. “While lawyers have a…
Best Time to Either Celebrate or Jump Off a Bridge
It’s the date on the calendar that has been circled since LeBron signed his last contract. New York wants him, New Jersey wants him. He leads an unprecedented NBA free-agent class, and everyone wants to know: Will he stay or will he go? To say that the fate of Cleveland itself rests on the decision…
Best Soccer Sensei
It would be just about impossible to calculate the number of kids who have loved soccer — for a season or for life — because of Sean Sullivan. Weekdays until 3, he’s a Cleveland Heights teacher (and was the district’s Educator of the Year in 2003). But most evenings and weekends for well over a…
Best Advocate of Indie Cinema
John Ewing — director of the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque and the town’s most knowledgeable film buff — is so dedicated to bringing revivals of classic movies to town, he’s called consulates to reserve prints that come to the U.S. for New York showings. The Cinematheque regularly hosts series devoted to the work of…
Best New Restaurant
“Opening this restaurant was an absolute no-brainer,” explained chef-owner Zachary Bruell just weeks before introducing the Best New Restaurant of 2009. He was referring, of course, to the tactic of bringing updated French bistro fare to the University Circle carriage house that for decades housed That Place on Bellflower. It appears he hit the proverbial…
Best Place to Adopt a Pet
The APL has provided me with two healthy, well-adjusted felines. A word of warning —don’t visit unless you’re ready to take a pet home, because you will find yourself giving in once you’ve made eye contact with an animal in need. If you’re curious, visit the APL’s web site, which offers pictures and descriptions of…
Best Bar Your Dad Used to Drink At
Fact: Any bar about which your father says, “Yeah, I used to drink there,” is a fine American drinking establishment. It means the joint has character and staying power. And your old man has good taste, so he wouldn’t steer you wrong. The Harbor has been slinging cheap beer and liquor in the Flats for…
Local CD Reviews
Bravo and DJ K-Nyce Before the Standing Ovation (self-released) A mix CD put together by Bravo and DJ K-Nyce, Before the Standing Ovation is a rollicking, radio-friendly collection of head-bobbing club tracks, echoing hip-hop of the late ’80s and early ’90s — think A Tribe Called Quest or Pharcyde. In fact, one of the strongest…
Best Female Singer Songwriter
Bay Village native Voegele hasn’t reached Kelly Clarkson-sized superstar levels yet, but she’s getting there. Her second major-label album, A Fine Mess, debuted at No. 10 in May. Her songs regularly show up in TV shows (especially One Tree Hill, where she portrays a singer-songwriter very much like herself). And she’s been on the road…
Best Government Watchdog
After a brief stint as a regular journalist, Roldo Bartimole published his own newsletter, Point of View, for 32 years, holding the feet of Cleveland’s wealthy and powerful to the fire while the mainstream media held their coats for them. He retired in 2000, but with The Plain Dealer’s incessant fawning on the big-business community,…
Best Sports T-Shirts
There are myriad issues concerning Delonte West, the Cavs’ troubled guard. This past offseason, however, Delonte once again claimed his title as one of funniest basketball players on the face of the Earth. His correspondent piece for Jim Rome, in which he demands that the rookies bring him donuts, and his freestyle rap outside a…
Best Way from Downtown to the Forest on Bike
So here’s what you do: Take your favorite route from downtown to Tremont. Get to the south end of West 14th Street and, just before the moron-death roundabout, you’ll see an asphalt path to your left headed down the hill on Quigley Road. Take that path — it’ll lead you through a couple of small…
Best Place to Get a Sugar High
It doesn’t matter how old you are, as soon as you step into this massive candy warehouse, you’ll turn into a blubbering 12-year-old, chanting “Candy! Candy! Candy!” as you march up and down the aisles, filling your arms with just about every chewy/chocolate/sour treat you can think of. BA Sweetie stocks the usual supermarket finds:…
Best Place to Get Medieval on Someone’s Ass
There’s much to love about this annual summer fest, which runs for six weekends on a wide patch of land in the middle of nowhere in Ashtabula County. You’ve got big-ass turkey legs. You’ve got busty wenches pouring beer. You’ve got burly guys walking around in 90-degree weather wearing gambesons and leather pants and greeting…
Best Free Music
Whether or not you can afford other orchestras’ tickets isn’t the point. City Music Cleveland deserves a spot on your calendar. The ensemble was founded with accessibility in mind, so all of its concerts are free. And it doesn’t matter where you live in Northeast Ohio; there’s a pretty good chance it’ll be performing in…
Best Belatedly Appreciated Treasure
Anyone with an appreciation for history and the power of young imaginations should grok the significance of the Glenville house where Jerry Siegel dreamed up one of the most recognizable characters of the last 100 years, Superman. Last year, decades after local officials first paid lip service to preserving the home, author Brad Meltzer helped…
Soundcheck: Jason Castro
Not every American Idol star is catapulted to overnight success. While 2006 contestant Chris Daughtry might be packing arenas, 2008 contestant Jason Castro — like Daughtry, a fourth-place finisher — is currently on a mall tour. The first Idol to actually play an instrument on the show, Castro’s big moment came when he delivered a…
Best Male Singer-Songwriter
Megalis kicked off 2009 by moving to New York to fine-tune his one-man-band bedroom projects, which are just as inspired by Ornette Coleman’s free-form aural explorations as they are T.Rex’s fuzzbox stomps. But six months later he was back in Broadview Heights, after spending most of his time in Brooklyn writing tunes about Cleveland. (One…
Best Place to Hang Out if You’re Broke
Corporate downsizing equals lifestyle downsizing, and many a Clevelander has had to say goodbye to little luxuries. So you had to drop the Netflix subscription and say no to the megaplex. You had to postpone that vacation to China and closed your iTunes account. You can’t afford to buy The Economist anymore, much less the…
Best Place to Mini-Bowl
Few bar activities are as rewarding and wholesome as mini-bowling, and Prosperity has one of these vintage machines stashed in the back of the bar. A quarter or two, a beverage or two, a friend or two, and you have a guaranteed good time. Little skill is involved, unlike regular bowling. No special shoes are…
Around Hear: Edotkom Brings Real Rap Back
“Real rap is back,” declares MC Siege at the onset of Idols & Icons, the new album by Edotkom, a duo that was once one of Cleveland hip-hop’s bright lights. In street years, 2002’s Obsidian was an eon ago. But that’s not a problem for the group; it never was big on street cred. The…
Best Advocate of Indie Cinema
John Ewing — director of the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque and the town’s most knowledgeable film buff — is so dedicated to bringing revivals of classic movies to town, he’s called consulates to reserve prints that come to the U.S. for New York showings. The Cinematheque regularly hosts series devoted to the work of…
Best No-Budget Indie Horror Flick
Who knows what evil lurks in the dark heart of Westlake? The vampire/gothic/horror/romance B-movie Revival of Darkness: Beyond the Grave features local musicians, actors, artists and 9-to-5ers who thought it would be fun to make a movie. Now available on DVD, the flick was filmed locally, in various backyards, the Phantasy Concert Club and goth…
Best Vintage Sweaters (and More)
We have limited space, so we’ll skip the backstory. What you need to know: There’s a huge cache of never-worn, gorgeous vintage sweaters that were made here in Cleveland from 1947-1974. It’s the kind of design and quality you can’t get anymore, at least not in pieces this striking. And it’s not just sweaters and…
Best Girl Group
Calling Hot Cha Cha a girl group is like calling Mushroomhead a boy band, but the arty, all-woman indie-rock quartet deserves every single accolade it’s gotten. After two years together, the group is poised for a breakout. Their full-length debut, The World’s Hardest Working Telescope & the Violent Birth of Stars, captures their raw-nerve hybrid…
Enhanced Interrogation: Dan Gilbert
Casino gambling is back on the ballot. This proposed state constitutional amendment to be decided by voters on November 3 would not only legalize casino gambling, it would grant exclusive rights (for now) to Cavs and Quicken Loans owner Dan Gilbert and Pennsylvania-based Penn National Gaming to develop four casinos, one each in four cities.…
Best Recording Studio
Its halls are lined with gold records from the national artists who have recorded there, but Ante Up Audio is foremost a local-music haven. Sure, Dave Matthews will swing by to get a little studio work done when he’s in town, but homegrown artists are just as welcome to record there. Singer-songwriter Kate Voegele made…
Best Politician Quotes
While many politicians talk around issues for fear of displeasing someone, North Collinwood’s Councilman Mike Polensek calls a spade a spade —and a thug a thug. He became notorious in 2007 for a letter to a young constituent arrested for dealing drugs in which Polensek called him “a crack-dealing piece of trash,” a “moron” and…
Best Pregame Bar
So, you’re hitting up a Cavs or Indians game. Your instinct is going to tell you to stay close to the arena or stadium and settle for one of the multitude of options around the Gateway complex. If you’re looking for nothing more than proximity, that’s fine. Otherwise, your instinct is flat wrong. For ambiance,…
BACK-TO-BACK HOME RUNS
Many people have a difficult time accepting the passing of loved ones. For example, after baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams died, his son had his father’s body and head placed (separately) in cryogenic suspension, so that future medical breakthroughs could restore him to life. If you think that’s grotesque, it’s got nothing on the…
Best Place You Didn’t Expect To Find This Many Beers
So, you’ve wandered into this unspectacular joint at the corner of Route 303 and Ridge Road in Hinckley. It looks like just about the only restaurant in town, situated across the street from a hunting shop, caddy corner to the library and the firehouse. This is someplace where you stop for a simple domestic brew…
Best West Side Expansion
It’s about time. For nearly 20 years west-siders have trekked all the way to the other side of town to pick up whoopee cushions, vintage Star Wars action figures and Wacky Packages at the much-loved Coventry Road toy store. Whether you’re a geek who collects old-school Planet of the Apes toys, a kid who thinks…
Best Happy Campers
It’s astounding. Time is fleeting. Madness takes its toll. Does this sound like your life? We all need a psychic reboot from time to time, and nothing combines gleefully childish behavior like screaming and dancing with grown-up perks like staying up late as beautifully (or raunchily) as The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Non-virgins know that…
Best of Cleveland 2009
We’ve selected the best of the best of the past year. Navigate the 2009 Best of Cleveland issue just to the left of Cleveland Superman here, browsing either by category, clicking one-by-one through every blurb, or jumping to one of the sections below. Best of Arts and Entertainment Best of Food and Drink Best of…
RATTLING CAGES
The battles surrounding Issue 2 may be lost to some in an election season dominated by county government reform and casino gambling. But if you eat eggs, cheese and meat, and care about the price and quality of your food, the controversial ballot initiative demands attention. Cut through the rhetoric and the dueling images of…
