Playhouse Square Reveals 2011-2012 Broadway Schedule
Million Dollar Quartet: Celebrity likenesses impersonated. Playhouse Square revealed the lineup of its 2011-2012 Broadway Series Tuesday in a multimedia press conference at the Westfield Insurance Studio Theatre. The new lineup, opening this fall, is heavy on formative moments in the history of rock & roll — with hearty doses of irreverence, stunning choreography, and…
Richard Hennessey Caught Masturbating at Mentor Super K-Mart
K-Mart: Not the public library computer room. Place: Holding Cell, Mentor Police Station. Time: Monday afternoon Inmate 1: Man, I’ve been in here for hours. What you in for?Inmate 2: I hear that, my man. I’m OVI, you? Inmate 1: Child support payments. What about you over there?Inmate 3: I got caught masturbating at Super…
At New Mashiso, Diners ‘Wrap it, Roll it, Bowl it’
Brothers Jason and Steve Kocab felt there was room in the marketplace for a quick-service Asian food concept. After one too many “bad $10 meals” on the road, the brothers pulled a Bill Clinton and said, “We can do better!” On March 1, the pair opened Mashiso Asian Grille (24954 Brookpark Rd., 440-801-1184) in N.…
East Clevelander’s Charges Dropped, But Stuff Not Returned
When Gerald Strothers was picked up by East Cleveland police in a drug raid last November, the mild-mannered IRS employee claimed it was a case of wrong place, wrong time. After spending a week in the East Cleveland jail and spa, Strothers went public about the horrible conditions there — claims supported by state inspections…
Akron’s Bid for Biomed
The University of Akron’s polymer science and engineering department consistently ranks among the top three in the nation, and city officials hope it will do for Akron what Cleveland Clinic does for Cleveland. Last week Mayor Don Plusquellic announced a new biomedical start-up incubator with an eye toward attracting medical device hopefuls from around the…
Cleveland Urban Farm Takes One Step Forward, One Step Back
One of Cleveland’s most ambitious urban farming projects took a big step forward and one step back last week. Community Greenhouse Partners raised enough money to start putting up its first “hoop house,” a greenhouse-type growing structure, at East 67th and Superior. But their attempt to have the water turned on in the rectory of…
Man Beats Roommates Because His Beer Is Missing
You know how it is. You work hard all day, you get home, and all you want is a nice, cool, refreshing beer. You had the fridge all loaded up, ready for a swig. The sweet taste of beer, all chilled and delicious, is waiting. And then you get home, open the fridge, and the…
No One Cares About LeBron’s Second Trip Back to Cleveland
Remember the heated hatred of early December when the deposed King made his way back from Florida to Cleveland for the first time? Serious, right? Tickets for the December Cavs vs. Heat game went quickly, and the secondary market was burning up with Clevelanders ponying up plenty of dough for the right to sit and…
Japanese Radiation Turns Up in Local Rainwater; Cue Hysteria Relax
While you were couch-planted and taking in all that disaster porn coverage from the Japanese earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown, you probably thought you were safe, that those bad vibes a world away weren’t going to mess up your weekend, no sir. All TV, no reality. Well, actually, this globe of ours is a lot smaller than we’d…
Video: Cavs Players, Mascots Dance With Old People
This could have been titled, “Old white women dance with young black men and furries,” but we thought that would be insensitive. The Cavs visited the Heights Care and Rehabilitation Center in Broadview Heights on Saturday night for a spring dance. J.J. Hickson was there in an all-white tux. Baron Davis and Byron Scott went…
Kurt Vile Plays a Free Show at Music Saves. You Should Go
“Nothin’ to see here. Just keep movin’ … ” Singer-songwriter Kurt Vile, whose new album Smoke Rings for My Halo, is a great laid-back listen for those days you don’t feel like doing anything, will play a free acoustic set at Music Saves on Wednesday. Vile will be in town that night opening for former…
Jimmy Dimora Used Bribe Money to Buy a Tiki Hut
“Can I at least make sure the torches aren’t lit in the tiki hut before we go?” The Cuyahoga County corruption saga is the gift that never stops giving. Today’s mirthful update is centered around an information filed against Charles J. Randazzo, a managing member of Financial Network of America. Prosecutors charged Randazzo with bribing…
Watch a Drunk Lady Try to Say the Alphabet
We hate to make too much light of this woman’s roadside DUI stop, but this video is too good not to share. Among all the field sobriety tests officers administer if they think you’ve been saucing and swerving, the whole “say the alphabet backwards” is the most ridiculous option. But that’s not what this Alliance…
Pic of the Day: Lingerie Football Tryouts in Cleveland
Tryouts for Cleveland’s new Lingerie Football League team, the Cleveland Crush, were held yesterday. WKNR’s Kenny Roda has an entire album from the sportsbra session on his Facebook page if you’re bored at work and no one’s standing behind you.
Concert Review: Willie Nelson at House of Blues
Willie: possibly high, definitely great Willie Nelson is so well known for his distinctive voice that when you watch him perform live you’re reminded that his guitar — which he calls Trigger, after old-timey cowboy Roy Rogers’ horse — is an integral part of Willie’s Family Band. Secured with a red, white, and blue strap…
Video: Kid Throws Punch at Youth Soccer Game in Ohio
No details on this video — no date, season, city, etc. — except that J.D. has the ball and the crowd is cheering him on. Then he gets cold-cock sucker-punched by the defender and goes down like… well, an 8-year-old who just got jacked in the face. For once, a soccer player goes down and…
Concert Review: Warpaint at the Beachland
The lovely ladies of Warpaint, ready to assault your ears Warpaint’s debut album, The Fool, swept over us late last fall, briefly threatening to pull us under as the hype roared. Fittingly, the album’s narrative is stuffed with imagery “full of swimming thoughts beneath deep breathing that sinks so far down” (those are words from…
Glenn Burbridge, 86, Kills Wife Because She No Longer Loves Him
— 911, where is your emergency?— This is Mr. Burbridge. 1138 South Cleveland-Massillon Road. Get me an ambulance here. Emergency. Emergency. — OK. What’s the problem, sir?— I just shot my wife. The caller on the line is Glenn Burbridge, an 86-year-old Copley Township resident who allegedly (or I guess you could say admittedly?) capped…
‘Daily Show’ Tackles John Kasich, Calls Him ‘Dickish’
Just watch, Ohio. Just watch. Jon Stewart examines how new governors are faring around the country, including our very own John Kasich. The Daily Show – Gov HurtsTags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook
Glenn Wilsey, Vermilion Army Recruit, Dies from Binge Diet
This is a sad story, so just buckle up. Why it’s sad is pretty clear on the surface (dead kid), but hanging behind the headline tragedy is a trainwreck of recklessness, both on personal and official levels. Reasons, details, and accountability — it’s all mucked up at this point. What is pretty clear? Authority figures…
Hanford Dixon Named Coach of Cleveland’s Lingerie Football Team
Legendary Browns defensive back Hanford Dixon was named the head coach of Cleveland’s new lingerie football team, the Cleveland Crush. Back when Dixon was patrolling the field with Frank Minnifield, this is probably just what he envisioned for his post-NFL career. Bob Golic, he of the Golic’s restaurant on W. 6th and the batshit-crazy talk…
Lyndhurst Man Calls Cops Because of Bird in His Dishwasher
Sadly, this is all we have from the Sun police blotter. So many questions left unanswered. ANIMAL COMPLAINT, IRENE ROAD: A man said March 19 a bird somehow got into his dishwasher, and he requested help removing it. The bird was removed. We would have paid the dispatcher $100 if they would have responded, “Sir,…
‘TCH-KIDS’ Is a Real Ohio License Plate, Probably Not As Clear As Owner Thought It Would Be
Teach kids, touch kids — same difference these days in schools. Vanity license plates are denied all the time for vulgar language, insulting references, and sexual double meanings, but somehow Ohio let this one fly. Only way this would be better is if the plate was plastered on a big, white, windowless van. (Pic via…
Afternoon Brew: Wolfgang Puck Comes to Cleveland, Smithsonian Shows Us Love, Lady Charged for SWAT’s Appearance, and Republicans Don’t Know Who Sherrod Brown Is
Good afternoon, Cleveland. Here’s some stuff to read while you root for Butler and San Diego State tonight. Oh, that’s just us? Nevermind. — Wolfgang Puck will be opening a ‘Wolfgang Puck Express’ in University Hospital’s new Seidman Cancer Center. Nothing cheers up dying people like an $18 pizza. (Cleveland.com) — Smithsonian Mag has a…
Thieves Storm Birthday Party, Steal $12
Hey, at least it wasn’t a deranged clown. “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear… HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT!” A trio of Class-A shitheads from Akron stormed a house looking for loot Wednesday. What they found was a birthday party… and not much loot. But that didn’t stop them…
The Indians Will Win at Social Media if They Can’t Win at Baseball
The light at the end of the tunnel might be visible with the Tribe, but the Wahoos aren’t there yet. In the meantime, while trying to climb out of the cellar of the AL Central, the team’s continuing their push to be winners on at least one front: social media. Progressive Field sported a fancy…
A Reader’s Poem About Bridget McCafferty
For the most part, reader reaction around these corners alternates between, “You guys are idiots,” and veiled racism and hatred. Every once in awhile, however, you surprise us. Our inbox lit up with a missive from “T.S. Idiot” this morning, and he came armed with a not-at-all-bad parody of T.S. Eliot’s “McCavity – The Mystery…
6-Foot Deep Pothole Stops Van Dead In Its Tracks
Pothole season just got serious. “The city need to pay me.” That’s the sentiment of David Broxton, who was driving his van around E. 79th and Superior yesterday when the ground beneath his vehicle gave way. Think those dinky, annoying potholes around town that jumble your car as you drive over them are bad? Try…
Teen Arrested After Selling Drugs to a Drug Task Force Agent
What could possibly draw attention to 19-year-old Joseph Cornelius? Blends in, right? Just the look you go for if your trade is hawking drugs. Smart. Inconspicuous. Shockingly, Cornelius was sniffed out by the cops, but not because he’s got the Warped Tour vampire look going on. According to the Medina Gazette, Cornelius went to make…
Adult Son Upset When Mom Throws Away Pot
“Ma, the meatloaf!” Living with your parents as an adult has its upsides: free food, reliable laundry, no rent, a better cable package, etc. There are obviously downsides, as well, and we’re not just talking about the lack of privacy or the stigma of living with mom. Sometimes the ‘rents toss out something you wanted…
Man Tries to Rob Woman Sleeping in Back of Car in Church Parking Lot
There’s all sorts of karma going on in this story. A woman was napping in the back of a car in the parking lot of the Lighthouse Baptist Church Sunday afternoon. Her family was inside at the service. She was not. That’s a double whammy of tempting fate — skipping church by sleeping outside the…
Afternoon Brew: 119-Year-Old Woman, Lingerie Football Tryouts, Funeral Home Can’t Dipose of Liquefied Bodies in Sewer, and Calamity Days Approved
Good afternoon, Cleveland. Here’s some stuff to read while you wonder what a 119-year-old woman looks like in a sportsbra. — There’s supposedly a 119-year-old woman in Warrensville Heights. Her family wants her certified as the oldest living person in the U.S., but the Guinness people need a birth certificate to make it official. Alas,…
Newsflash: Fat People Threaten Bus System; Anarchy
When will the fat-bashing end? Here’s a news flash: fat people ride buses. Along with skinny people, slightly overweight people, right handed folks, lefties, communists, and members of the Clergy. But fat people, they ride the buses too, but in increasing numbers, according to the Federal government, but we’re not sure how many exactly, but…
FirstEnergy to Distribute Those Light Bulbs Again
Remember back in 2009 when FirstEnergy tried to force compact fluorescent light bulb use by shipping them to customers’ doorsteps unsolicited? There was uproar because the Akron-based utility planned to add a fee to monthly electric bills for 3 years to pay for the pricey luminaries. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio halted the plan.…
Food Network Bringing Sandwich to Progressive Field Concessions This Season
If peanuts and hot dogs are just too good for your refined palate, take comfort, Tribe fans — the Food Network is bringing a fancy super sandwich to Progressive Field this season. Eight ballparks will be blessed with the “Red, White & Blue steak sandwich,” a special recipe created in the top-secret kitchen labs at…
Joe Haden Showed Up to the Cavs Game in Full Uniform
Not sure how we missed this earlier in the week, but Browns defensive back Joe Haden, a regular in the front row of Cavs games, showed up to Monday night’s tipoff in full Cavs uniform — shorts, headband, socks, jersey. As WFNY points out, some Cleveland athletes don Yankee caps, others show up in full…
Frank Russo Testifies, Judge McCafferty Smokes, and a Juror Trips
Frank Russo took to the stand yesterday to testify in the Fed’s case against former Cuyahoga County Judge Bridget McCafferty as he looks to shed some time on his sentence on a variety of corruption and bribery charges. He’s agreed to cooperate with the Feds as part of his plea deal. During his three hours…
Man Pulled Over for DUI Debates With Himself Whether to Take Breathalyzer
If you have any friends who are lawyers or who have endured the unfortunate DUI stop, you’ve probably heard the advice that you should never take a Breathalyzer. In the heat of the moment, however, with the cop staring you down on the side of the road and hazy, booze-clouded thoughts running through your head,…
Cops Called on Man Who Refuses to Pay Blind Date’s Portion of Restaurant Bill
What happens when a blind date goes badly? Hopefully, for the sake of saving face and not making a public spectacle, both parties stay until the end of the meal, thus avoiding the always conspicuous stomp-out routine or solo dinner party. Then you can have the awkward goodbye outside without the prying eyes of strangers…
Pic of the Day: Depressing, Beautiful Sign for Cleveland
The RTA station at the airport at 3:30 p.m. yesterday afternoon. Photo by Brian McAllester.
Stay In!
TOP PICK – VIDEO GAME MLB 11 The Show (Sony) Get ready for opening day with the world’s best baseball video game. The latest edition of this perennial favorite (for the PlayStation 3 and PSP) adds better detailed training modes, more inclusive online play, and unpredictable weather conditions. It’s just like the real thing, right…
Media Mugging
Let’s say you go to the airport and you know where you’re going. Indeed, you can name your destination and you are, in fact, flown “there.” That doesn’t mean you’re in the right place. In fact, you may be tragically far away from where you need to be. Such is the conundrum that faces the…
Take the Money and Run
By It’s safe to say that 2010 was good to Travie McCoy, the Miami singer and rapper behind “Billionaire,” one of last year’s most ubiquitous songs. His debut album, Lazarus, was somewhat of a hit too, with McCoy testing the waters as a solo performer while his bandmates in the alternative hip-hop group Gym Class…
Dreamgirls
For a bunch of women from Los Angeles, Warpaint sure sound like a bunch of guys from Brooklyn. The kind of guys from Brooklyn who down-tune their guitars, hunch over their instruments, and make the sort of murky dream-pop that falls somewhere among “artsy,” “pretentious,” and “totally fucking awesome.” On their debut album, The Fool,…
Seller’s Market
On an isolated strip of Prospect Avenue just east of the Inner Belt, a short row of storefronts is aglow on an otherwise sleepy Friday evening. Defying the nighttime desertion on the fringes of downtown, the William Busta Gallery is packed with visitors checking out recent work by some of the region’s most gifted artists.…
Get Out
Thursday | 24 Waiter, There’s a Girl in My Nigiri! Naked Sushi Night at Suite Sixx As if using chopsticks wasn’t scary enough, along comes nyotaimori, the practice of using those chopsticks to eat sushi off a nekkid model. That’s the drill at tonight’s Naked Sushi event at Suite Sixx in the Warehouse District. Meantime,…
Drink of the Week
We like our ‘tinis the way we like our men: strong, straight up, and garnished with blue-cheese-stuffed olives. And that’s just they way they make ’em at the intimate Red the Steakhouse. Bombay Sapphire gin, a drop of dry vermouth, a vigorous tango in an ice-filled shaker concluded by the melodic plop-plop of two plump,…
On View This Week
Figuratively Speaking River Gallery explores figures and narrativesFormer Dead Horse Gallery proprietors Mindy Tousley and Kim Schoel assembled five women for River Gallery’s March show, but not because it’s Women’s History Month. Rather, what unites the artists is the use of figure and narrative in their works. Tousley’s collages, for example, combine tintype photography and…
Home Movies
Network (Warner) – Back in 1976, Network’s themes of reality TV skirting moral and public laws, corporate meddling, and an anything-for-ratings mentality came off like a hyperbolic send-up of how not to run a TV network. How things have changed: 35 years later, Network is not only prescient; it’s downright scary how spot-on it is.…
Lost and Found
You really can’t miss it. Right next to two sunny-side-up googly eyes, the outline of a big, funny nose swoops to the edge of an eight-foot-tall canvas. Once, it might have belonged to Cyrano or Jimmy Durante, or maybe the classic, anonymous Kilroy caricature. But these days it may be that nasal humor isn’t instantly…
Suburban Surprise
We’ve all heard the old saw about a restaurant’s quality being inversely proportional to its distance from the nearest big city. And while there are numerous tasteful exceptions, there is no denying that suburbs generally get the short end of the fine-dining stick. One chef seems single-handedly bent on remedying that imbalance. For a year…
At the Arthouse
The Not-for-TV Blooper Movie Back before DVDs started filling space with gag reels (look, Ben Stiller is cracking himself up!), bloopers were a rarity. Occasionally Dick Clark would host some lame TV special showing Bill Cosby forgetting his lines or that woman from Who’s the Boss? tripping over something. But the really old-school stuff —…
Punch-Drunk Stupid
Zack Snyder’s totally bonkers new action movie resembles a live-action anime brought to vibrant but largely incoherent life. Committed to a maximum-security asylum where she’s scheduled to receive a lobotomy in five days, Baby Doll (Emily Browning) unleashes her inner fantasy life. Her prison morphs into a tony brothel, where a thickly accented Polish madam…
Film Capsules
The Adjustment Bureau (PG-13) — This muddled story about a popular politician (played by a coasting Matt Damon) whose fate is in the hands of some mysterious agency loses itself between worlds. There’s a love story, with Emily Blunt as a dancer who stumbles into his life the night he loses a big election. Then…
Local Band in Focus
Meet the Band: “Hot Sauce” Joe Landes (guitars and vocals), Dave “Mann Wolf” (guitar and vocals), Adam Rich (bass), and Ernie Richmann (drums) A Different Flavor: In 2007, Rich and a pal were gathering musicians for a straight-up rock group when they picked up bluesmen Landes and Mann. The other dude left for law school,…
Buff Movies
It’s just coincidence that the 35th Cleveland International Film Festival opens and closes with sports dramas based on true stories. The fest kicks off on Thursday with Hamill, about a deaf wrestler from the small-town of Loveland, Ohio. It winds down 10 days later with Soul Surfer, another movie about an athlete overcoming adversity —…
Bites: Dragonfly Rebranded
Veteran chef-restauratuer Marlin Kaplan is teaming up with Garage Bar owners Jeff Allison and Adam Waldbaum to rebrand Ohio City’s Dragonfly as a “nouvelle American/Asian-fusion restaurant.” Following a brief closure at the end of the month, the dewy new Dragonfly will emerge the first week of April. The team will be revamping the entire menu.…
CD Review: Gucci Mane
Here’s what we’re dealing with: After spending a year in prison on an assault charge, Gucci Mane was arrested on multiple traffic violations. Then he was committed to a psychiatric hospital. Topping it all off, he had a big-ass tattoo of an ice cream cone inked on his face. So don’t expect stability or logic…
CD Review: James Blake
London electronic phenom James Blake meshes spare atmospheres with well-mannered arrangements on his debut, yielding a warm and lush sound that emphasizes texture and production over structure. Take the classical piano that drives “Give Me My Month,” or the chopped ‘n’ screwed gospel hymn that is “To Care (Like You).” Blake favors minimalist beats cushioned…
We Get Mail
A Pair of Predators In between theory and student-teaching practicums, colleges ought to start looking at some mandatory ethics and legal courses [“Teacher Accused of Having Sex With Student Gets Two Years in Prison,” at the Scene & Heard blog]. Had this been a male teacher, the situation would have been different. But I hardly…
Concert Calendar
Eli “Paperboy” Reed You have to go all the way back to the ’80s and Simply Red to find a white soul singer as convincing as Eli “Paperboy” Reed. With a voice driven by nonstop energy and punctuated with one of the most potent screams this side of James Brown, the Boston native is a…
CD Review: Time
The four fortysomething members of Avon Lake’s Time have played together since they were 16. Their camaraderie comes through on their self-titled debut, which sounds exactly like you’d expect a record made by guys raised on classic rock would sound. On the opening “Kissing You Goodbye,” frontman Tom Coffin channels Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander and…
Out of the Garage
Dave Swanson, who fronts the local garage-rock outfit the Rainy Day Saints, first met Cynics guitarist Greg Kostelic 25 years ago. Back then, Swanson was a member of the Reactions, and Kostelic had just started his own Pittsburgh garage-rock band. They bonded over their love of ’60s psychedelic music. “We’ve remained friends ever since then,”…
On Stage This Week
The Color Purple, Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the black female experience in the early 1900s, is as potent a work today as it was upon publication in 1982. You may have seen the Steven Spielberg movie it inspired; better still, this weekend you’ll have the opportunity to see the triumphant story of Celie…
CD Review: The Strokes
On their first album in five years, the Strokes get back to what they do best: being the Strokes. In the years between the blah First Impressions of Earth and the nimble new Angles, all five members kept busy with side projects, solo albums, and guest spots. The break did them good. They sound like…
Franklin Castle Fire Ruled Intentional
Fire crews were called to the infamous Franklin Castle in Ohio City last night after smoke was seen coming from the carriage house. Investigators say the fire was intentional, but no other details have been released. We’re guessing a ghost did it, but that’s just a guess. Charles Milsaps, the longtime caretaker of the “haunted”…
New General Manager Could Put the “Med” Back in Med Mart
Finally! In an uncharacteristic move, Med Mart developer MMPI has hired a general manager for the project who has actually dabbled in the health care trade show business. You may recall that MMPI’s expertise lies in the home furnishings arena, which may explain why so many potential Med Mart tenants sell furniture, rather than medical…
Club Isabella 2.0 Nears its Debut
For the better part of seven months, chef Fabio Mota and his team have been methodically constructing the new home of Club Isabella (2175 Cornell Rd.). Located in the former Goose Acres Music in Little Italy, the restaurant is a short walk from the original jazz club, which was razed in 2007 by University Hospitals.…
