Cropicana Sees 1,000 on Opening Night; More to Come
When we stumbled onto Whiskey Island around 6 p.m. on Cinco de Mayo, there was a healthy crowd of about 200 or so folks. By the time we finally dragged ourselves out of there sometime after 9 p.m., those numbers no longer applied. There were folks inside, outside, on boats, pretty much everywhere you looked.…
DUI Suspect Arrested on Way to AA Meeting
Alliance has been busy with news-worthy DUIs this week. According to the Alliance police Facebook page, cops pulled over 48-year-old Daniel Bradley on Sunday on a suspicion of driving under the influence. The interesting nugget: he was on his way to an AA meeting. We’re pretty sure that’s not how it’s supposed to work.
Pic of the Day: Cory Snyder is ‘Gunsmoke’
It’s almost impossible to categorize every brilliant detail of this masterpiece. This Cory Snyder poster was one of many from Costacos Bros., the fine folks who designed just about every awesome sports poster kids had on their walls in the 80s. Up until a few days ago, the internet was bereft of an image of…
Cuyahoga County Council Begins Preparation to Leave Home Behind
Cuyahoga County Council has introduced talk of ditching its digs at the corner of Lakeside and Ontario. At a work session last week, members said they might tap into Med Mart and convention center backup funds to enhance the property’s future value. The plan would make it easier for a developer to knock down the…
Improved Rail Service in NEO Could Happpen, But Not Soon
The scenic route to work. When millions of dollars in federal money earmarked for Ohio inter-city rail fell apart last year, the dreams of train-loving commuters looked dead on the tracks. Now a new plan has emerged that could lead to rail service between Akron and Cleveland someday. According to transportation planners and rail advocates,…
The Quality of Cleveland Life Report
Your guide to thriving in fabulous Cleveland. Bracing for a Brownout: Downtown businesses fear economic impact of a prolonged NFL lockout and potential shortened season. But so far, no complaints from the fine folks who clean up Sunday vomit in the Muni Lot.Celebrate Diversity: Sam Miller agrees to induct new members into Cleveland International Hall…
No One is Paying Smoking Ban Fines
It’s been four years since the Ohio smoking ban went into effect. At the time, the law seemed like a big fire extinguisher sprayed at the tip of collective Flavor Country with rules, fines, and enforcement mechanisms to ensure that establishments complied. In reality, flagrant flouting of the rules and Ohio’s inability to collect the…
Downtown Businesses Worried About NFL Lockout
As the NFL lockout drags on through court motions and snippy shots fired through the media, downtown Cleveland businesses are worrying about the potential economic impact of a shortened season. Fans are concerned over missed games; bars, restaurants, and other businesses are concerned over lost dollars. Every Sunday brings thousands downtown to eat, drink, stay…
Students Holding Separate Prom After School Cracks Down on Dirty Dancing
It wasn’t that long ago that horndogs students in Medina organized a separate, independent dance after their school cracked down on dirty dancing. Now students in Bellevue are doing the same thing. Bellevue, if you’ll recall, was the site of a bit of controversy after photos of kids grinding at an earlier school dance made…
Machine Gun Kelly Talks Diddy and Blowjobs
“Yo.” Cleveland rapper Machine Gun Kelly is buzzing all over the place these days. He’s played some of music’s biggest fests — including Bamboozle and South by Southwest — and he just had a triumphant homecoming gig at House of Blues this past weekend. Hip-hop website GlobalGrind has an extensive interview with MGK, in which…
Cavs Take Back Job Offer from Ted Williams, Homeless Superstar Turned Fameball Flameout
Way back in 2010, the Cavaliers very publicly offered Ted Williams, the homeless man with the golden voice, a job doing voice-over work for the Cavs and Quicken Loans Arena. They even offered him a house. Then Williams went all celeb flipout on the world, entering rehab, leaving rehab, entering rehab again, and displaying just…
Run the Cleveland Marathon in Under 4 Minutes
Suckers. You know what’s better than running the course of the Cleveland Marathon? Driving it. You know what’s better than driving it? Having someone else drive it, film it, and then watching their video while sitting at your desk.
Concert Review: Manchester Orchestra at the Beachland Ballroom
Manchester Orchestra took the stage this past Friday night at the Beachland Ballroom with a sold-out crowd in front of them. Given that fact, you would think the band wouldn’t have a whole lot to prove. Especially when that band is beloved and on the rise like Manchester Orchestra. After finding mainstream success with “I’ve…
Shoplifter Grabs Oreo Snack, Caught Later With Evidence on Face
One word, man: napkins. Hell, use your sleeve if you have to. Or shave. 19 Action News reports that 54-year-old William Thigpen was picked up on April 28th for shoplifting (this would be his 13th shoplifting offense). But that’s not where the real nugget of this story resides. Cops say Thigpen hit both a Family…
Pic of the Day: Chardon Schools Know the Alphabet
Chardon, like many other school districts around the state, had a levy on the ballot last week asking the taxpayers to open their wallets and fork over some money. And like many other school districts around the state last week, Chardon’s levy failed (3,091 to 2,299). Reasons for this are many, but Chardon’s mailer couldn’t…
Concert Review: Rise Against and Bad Religion at Jacobs Pavilion
Rise Against strike a pose There were just as many fresh mohawks as old tattoos at the Rise Against and Bad Religion concert that kicked off Jacob Pavilion at Nautica’s concert season on Saturday night. Old-school punks Bad Religion’s set sounded super-tight, which is to be expected since the band has been doing this since…
Crashing Into a Police Station Will Draw Cops’ Attention
Morning Journal A man who admitted to cops that he had been drinking drove his SUV over a sidewalk, up a set of steps, and into the front of Lorain City Hall last night at 10:38 p.m. 37-year-old Steve Wooten, you may have guessed, did not avoid detection, especially since, yes, the Lorain police headquarters…
‘Rock the Vote’ Visits Cleveland School
The 20-year old nonpartisan organization Rock the Vote, whose mission is to get young people engaged in the political process, made a stop at John Hay High School yesterday as part of a 40-plus city tour to promote its Democracy Class program. Eric Axelson, a former teacher who now works for RTV, led a group…
Mentor Man Arrested After Calling Police to Home
Not this many, but a lot. We’re really into black and white applications of the law these days, in part because readers seem to dig into the debate and go at it. Here’s another situation spinning through the news cycle about a guy who didn’t know he was violating statute, but ended up on the…
Pic of the Day: Willie Mays’ Famous Catch, From the Other Side
Willie Mays turns 80 today. We’ve all seen the famous picture of Mays’ famous catch against the 111-win Cleveland Indians in first game of the 1954 World Series, which of course the Giants went on to win in a sweep, but how about a view of “The Catch” from the other side? (Via Deadspin)
Ohio Hotel Bombarded With Complaints After Mechanical Issue Leaves Flag Half-Staff After Osama bin Laden Killed
Well, the headline should sum up exactly how silly the situation is, but we’ll endeavor further because people continue to amaze us. The Hampton Inn in Springfield, OH, has an American flag. Two days before the U.S. tracked down and killed Osama bin Laden, the hotel had an issue: the flag wasn’t in the best…
Stephen Colbert on Superman Renouncing His U.S. Citizenship
Tangentially Cleveland on two levels: Superman, and Dennis! Kucinich, who might still represent Cleveland in Congress. We’re actually not sure at this point. Plus, you need a video to watch during lunch. Anyway, our favorite line from Colbert on Superman renouncing his U.S. citizenship: “The guy’s basically Dennis Kucinich with heat vision.” The Colbert ReportTags:…
Meth Lab Parts Showing up on Roadsides in Ohio
You see an empty two-liter bottle on the side of the road. Could be your everyday litter. Could be the urine-filled vessel of a trucker concerned with efficiency. Or it could be the remnant of a mobile meth lab. Fun. As if syringes, garbage, loose concrete, and the usual motley assemblage of disgusting trash on…
Ozzie Newsome Thinks Art Modell Should Be in Hall of Fame
As ClevelandFrowns points out this morning, there might only be one man left on the planet who thinks that Art Modell — son of Mephistopheles, brother of King Coward III, godfather and mentor of Clay Bennett — deserves to be inducted in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Sadly, that man is Ozzie Newsome, Baltimore…
Cedar Point’s New Ride Delayed, Again
Cedar Point’s new ride, the Windseeker, will not be ready for riders when the park opens on May 14. Standing 30-stories high, the ride (which we’ll just call “Nightmare Fuel”) is like those regular swing rides you’ve seen at kiddie parks with a couple notable exceptions: you’ll be 300 feet in the air and spinning…
Gary Burton, Busted for Growing Pot to Ease Wife’s Pain
For love. If medical marijuana advocates were scanning the news vomit factory feed for a story baggy with potential empathy, enough emotional juice to make even your most stone-hearted pot-hater shed a tear, they’ve found it. 69-year-old Gary Burton was just trying to do right by his old lady, according to 19ActionNews. The Chippewa Lake…
Hudson-Based Flip Side to Open Burger Biz in Cleveland
Michael Schwartz, designer and partner in the Hudson-based Flip Side burger restaurant (49 Village Way, 330-655-3547), has disclosed that they will open a second location in Cleveland. Schwartz says he has reached an agreement with Randy Ruttenberg of Fairmount Properties to open a Flip Side in the Flats East Bank project, within the complex that…
Cleveland Ranked 6th for Dog Attacks on Postal Workers
The tenuous relationship between canines and mailmen has been fodder for plenty of comedy over the years, but a cursory news search shows just how serious the situation can be. As it turns out vicious, unleashed dogs present a larger threat to postal workers than even other postal workers do. A little nugget in the…
Hammer Time
It’s going to be a busy summer for superheroes, with Captain America, the X-Men, and Green Lantern all heading to the big screen. First up is Thor, the hammer-wielding god of thunder, who stumbles in his movie debut. Director Kenneth Branagh attempts to bring his usual and impeccable sense of Shakespearean heft to the Marvel…
One Night Bland
When attorney Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin) sleeps with law school crush Dex (Colin Egglesfield) the night of her 30th birthday, it should be the start of a beautiful romance, or at least a fun fling. Unfortunately, since Dex is already engaged to Rachel’s high-maintenance best friend Darcy (Kate Hudson), their stealth affair is actually a lot…
Ohio Secretary of State Says Provisional Ballots Could be Ohio’s Version of Florida’s Hanging Chads
Disputed, miscounted, or otherwise effed-up provisional ballots could be Ohio’s version of Florida’s hanging chads. At least that’s what Secretary of State Jon Husted is worried about. And with provisional ballots — as many as 105,000 were cast statewide in 2010 — possibly being the focus of a close, contentious 2012 election, Husted testified that…
Goodyear Ditches Blimps For Zeppelins
A rendering of a Goodyear Zeppelin. Alternate name: Zoso. Get ready to say goodbye to the blimp and hello to the zeppelin. After 100 years of building and flying blimps, and after 43 of using (basically) the same blimp design, Goodyear announced that come 2013, it will be swapping out its three blimps with zeppelins,…
Michael Jackson, Liz Taylor, and Marlon Brando Fled to Ohio After 9/11?
“Which way to Chillicothe?” According to Vanity Fair, that’s what happened. According to one of Liz Taylor’s assistants it’s definitely not. As the story goes, Michael had two concerts in New York in the days before 9/11. Liz Taylor and Marlon Brando, two of his closest friends, were with him. The terror attack hit, the…
Ohio Home to 27 Companies on New Fortune 500
Outsiders tend to judge your city or state on a short list of benchmarks: how many sports teams you have, number of gourmet cupcake shops, and Fortune 500 companies. Ohio does pretty well on at least two of these fronts. (We could really use more gourmet cupcake shops, to be honest.) Via Crain’s, the new…
Concert Review: Ted Leo at B Side
“Mr. Narrator, this is Bob Dylan to me.” Is Ted Leo the best songwriter of his generation? That wasn’t a bad question to ask yourself last night at the B Side, where the indie rock staple showed up for a short, early-evening solo gig. With no stage to speak of other than a huge oriental…
A Mac and Cheese Omelet? Sure, Why Not
Slow news day, empty belly. Via HuffPo, the Mac and Cheese omelet at Sweet Pea Cafe in Fairlawn. Anyone had it?
26 Arrested In Car-Theft Ring Bust
200 cars over the last 18 months. Five chop shops around the area. At least 26 people arrested. Quite the numbers to remind you that car theft isn’t just a small-time, small-crew affair. Cleveland police say the group represents the largest “auto theft ring” to operate in NEO in the last 25 years. Chances are…
Worlds Apart
Most of the Danish movie In a Better World revolves around two boys, Elias (Markus Rygaard) and Christian (William Johnk Nielsen), whose disparate paths cross when Christian stands up for the picked-on Elias and sends a bully to the hospital. Under Christian’s wing now, Elias watches helplessly as the two are launched headfirst down a…
How Affordable are Cleveland’s Apartments?
The National Low Income Housing Coalition tracks rent, wages, and other numbers, eventually tallying them up in reports that show how affordable apartments are across the country. What’s the situation like in Cleveland, an area that by all standards should have reasonably affordable rentals available to a struggling population? Not great, not bad. In the…
The Black Keys Cover Buddy Holly on New Album
“That’ll be the day that I … oh, wait a second” The Black Keys are among the handful of great artists who pay tribute to the late Buddy Holly on a new album coming out next month. The Keys’ contribution to Rave On Buddy Holly is “Dearest,” which isn’t one of the Texas rocker’s many…
I Scream, You Scream, Say Hello to Ohio City Ice Cream
Last summer Bob and Nancy Mino purchased the Dari Delite, an old-fashioned ice cream stand in Ohio City. Now called the Ohio City Ice Cream Co., the sweets shop is introducing a brand new product line. In addition to the customary soft-serve category, Bob Mino prepares approximately 20 varieties of high-quality hand-packed ice cream. Sorbets,…
Reader’s Digest Will Save Northeast Ohio
Localities here and across the nation are opening their wallets to find a note: “Break piggy bank in case of emergency.” Then they go to the piggy bank, smash it with a hammer, and discover nothing but three Skittles and a $5-off coupon for Suzy Orman’s “Young, Fabulous, and Broke” DVD. Where will the relief…
How PlayhouseSquare Became Economically Viable
As the Wall Street Journal points out in a lengthy piece today on how PlayhouseSquare remains economically viable, “‘Arts and culture is losing its market share of philanthropy,’ according to the latest National Arts Index.” In a struggling city with dwindling resources and fewer patrons spending what little dough they have left on the arts,…
Listen to Girl Talk’s Summer Playlist
This is what a Girl Talk show looks like before the music starts GQ is getting a jump on summer by offering a playlist featuring 10 of Girl Talk’s favorite seasonal songs. We love us some Girl Talk here at Scene. And it’s not just because the dude behind the flying hair, Gregg Gillis, is…
Video Game Fight Leads to Real Fight
Video games are serious business. They’re poisoning the minds of our youth, desensitizing them to violence, and keeping them from wholesome outdoor activities like basketball or beating up the neighborhood runt. Or something. Anyway, tempers can flare over video games, with virtual spats bleeding into the real world. Take a case from Westlake, for example.…
Cuyahoga County Workers Receive Ethics Training
Ethics! County Executive Ed FitzGerald brought Cuyahoga County workers together Monday for ethics training courtesy of the Ohio Ethics Commission. Gee, wonder what that’s all about. Convening the meeting is much about PR as it is about actual training, but when bribes and ice-makers and keys to covert love-shack apartments have been passed around the…
Bites: Slurp City
As the popularity of late-night happy hours continues to soar, there was no way Dante Boccuzzi was going to let the craze pass him by. But rather than offer up the same-old, same-old, the well-traveled chef-owner of Dante in Tremont opted to go with traditional Japanese-style noodles. “We recently passed our one-year mark,” he says,…
Rocky Relations
Over the past couple of years, several esteemed theaters in our area have been permanently dispatched by the economic downturn. That makes it especially gratifying when a new professional theater arises, such as the Fairmount Performing Arts Conservatory. Led by artistic director Fred Sternfeld, FPAC has focused on educating and training young people. Now it’s…
What Curse?
Political economists have long argued that popular elections too often make a casualty of good government, because the rational voter concludes that the effort to gather the information needed for a well-informed decision isn’t worth the small chance his vote will change the outcome. In fact, so the argument goes, this brand of rationality explains…
On Stage This Week
West Side Story A modern musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story opened on Broadway in 1957. Written by Arthur Laurents, the groundbreaking show included soaring music by Leonard Bernstein, satiric lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and stunning modern dance numbers from Jerome Robbins. Recast as a conflict not between families but between ethnic…
Labor Pains
America’s big economic picture isn’t pretty, but it’s the one we all have hanging over our heads, if not over the family couch. Most of the news is bad, except when it’s ironic. On April 19, as unemployment edged toward 9 percent, McDonald’s took on 62,000 new minimum-wage employees as its first-ever “national hiring day”…
Get Out!
Thursday | 05 Six Weeks of Dance Verb Ballets Kicks Off CPT’s DanceWorks It’s time again for DanceWorks, Cleveland Public Theatre’s annual showcase of local dance companies. This year, six celebrated troupes will perform over the course of six weekends, beginning tonight through June 5. This weekend’s spotlight shines on the contemporary dance company Verb…
Spice of Life
Located in a vintage space in downtown’s Warehouse District, Zdara offers a tempting blend of well-prepared Mediterranean fare and a hip attitude befitting its West Ninth Street address. A lengthy bar commands much of the open, loft-like room, with exposed brick, slender support columns, and double-height ceilings completing the blueprint. Friday-night belly dancers provide entertainment…
Film Capsules
Fast Five (PG-13) — In yet another Fast and the Furious sequel, the original crew (Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, et al.) heads to Rio to orchestrate an Italian Job-style heist that could just as easily have been staged in Santa Monica. The fifth entry in this decade-old boys-and-toys franchise is just loud and mindless enough…
Cape Expectations
Every year it’s the same thing: a whole new squad of superheroes flies into movie theaters. But this year you can start your own Justice League with all the superheroes showing up onscreen. There’s X-Men: First Class, Green Lantern, and Captain America: The First Avenger. And those are just the ones coming out this summer.…
CD Review: Fleet Foxes
There are moments on Fleet Foxes’ second album when the vocal harmonies are so clean and the melodies are so crisp that you half-expect the brittle edges to fall off. The Seattle sextet’s self-titled 2008 debut drew comparisons to Crosby, Stills & Nash and other Woodstock-era hippies for its laid-back, folksy songs. Helplessness Blues is…
Home Movies
Smiles of a Summer Night (Criterion) Ingmar Bergman’s breakthrough movie from 1955 is as frothy as his next two films (and undisputed classics), The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries, are convoluted. It’s a sex comedy about trading partners that’s influenced Stephen Sondheim (A Little Night Music), Woody Allen (A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy), and 85…
CD Review: Stevie Nicks
Despite her long career and legend status, Stevie Nicks is only as good as her collaborators. Think Lindsey Buckingham, who guided her through her prime Fleetwood Mac years, or Prince’s royal synths on “Stand Back.” On her first album in a decade, Nicks teams up with Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard (best known for…
CD Review: One Day’s Notice
(myspace.com/odnband) These pop-punks formed only last year, but already they’ve played a primo gig on the Warped Tour’s local stage last summer. Their debut album doesn’t stray much from the genre’s formula: The snappy “Shake It Out” and “Out of the Blue” feature call-and-response choruses that sound like a mash-up of Jimmy Eat World and…
We Get Mail
Ohio, Priced to Move Proponents of Ohio’s casino referendum were very wise to craft it in a way that people like our current governor cannot change [“Musical Racetracks,” April 13, 2011]. A group of spineless politicians fought gambling at every turn for decades. Now, when the voters have spoken, they complain that the deal is…
Concert Calendar
Ted Leo Ted Leo is best onstage with his longtime band the Pharmacists, who give his tuneful indie rock a burst of punk rock fury. (Hearts of Oak, from 2003, is one of the decade’s most underappreciated albums. Give it a listen if you’ve never heard it.) But Leo’s almost as good by himself, armed…
Dream Big
Eric Ling and Shanna Delaney met as Kent State students seven years ago. Though she was a singer into old-time country music and musical theater, and he was all about Bright Eyes and Elliott Smith, they started an indie-rock band and eventually got married. By 2009 their band, Bethesda, released its debut EP; last year…
Stay In!
TOP PICK – VIDEO GAME Shift 2 Unleashed (EA) There’s nothing really revolutionary about this racing game from the Need for Speed crew, but there aren’t too many that are as much fun to play. There are some new features on the second outing — like longer racing modes and an awesome helmet cam —…
A Funky Situation
If you wanted to get all psychoanalytical about it, you could say Kevin Barnes’ soaring falsetto is a mere manifestation of his restlessness. And all those words he crams into Of Montreal’s songs? Same thing. The dude feels he has so much to say and so little time to say it in that he spits…
What Your Butts Buy
The cheery green and blue logo proclaiming the support of Cuyahoga Arts and Culture is ubiquitous. It’s tucked onto a corner of every announcement put forth by the art museum and the orchestra and Playhouse Square. It pops up on most every community theater program and flier for neighborhood music or arts events. Occasionally, it…
CD Review: Kate and Anna McGarrigle
Before she passed away from cancer last year, Kate McGarrigle married fellow folkie Loudon Wainwright III, gave birth to singer-songwriters Rufus and Martha Wainwright, and recorded a series of albums with her older sister Anna. Their first two — 1976’s Kate and Anna McGarrigle and the following year’s Dancer With Bruised Knees — anchor this…
At the Arthouse
Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today Stuart Schulberg and his writer brother Budd (who penned On the Waterfront, among other gritty classics) documented the Nuremberg trials of 1945 and 1946 for a movie that was all set for release in 1948. But for some reason it never made it to U.S. theaters. More than 60 years later,…
Return of the Living Dead
On their great 2002 album Source Tags & Codes, … And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead married raw power, plainspoken beauty, and just enough sheen to keep their new major-label bosses happy. Much has happened to the Austin noisemakers since then. They’ve made a few good records and more than a…
On View This Week
Natural Impulses Harris Stanton Gallery’s Extraordinary Environs offers two deeply divergent ways of approaching nature. Charlotte Lees is historic in her orientation, referencing the styles of African, Egyptian, Greek, and Indian designs, as well as 20th-century artists who drew on those traditions. In studying both ends of art history, Lees surveys and comments on the…
Local Band in Focus
Meet the Band: David Chavez (guitars, vocals, synths), Cynthia Dimitroff (vocals, synths, guitars), Jeff Dubois (bass), and Jeff Pell (drums) Back in Black: Flowers in Flames grab inspiration from ’80s-era goths like Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and the Cure. Sprinkle some even older-school Velvet Underground and David Bowie in there too for “a captivating spark of…
Shady ‘Get Motivated’ Seminar Coming to Cleveland
Splashy ads all over town have been heralding the arrival of next Wednesday’s Get Motivated seminar at Quicken Loans Arena. It’s billed as a day of very famous rich people telling you how to stop living like a schmuck. For the everyday low price of $1.95 — or $9.95 for your whole office, seriously —…
Peter B. Lewis Wants Marijuana Legalization Issue on Ohio Ballot
Eccentric billionaire, Clevelander, Progressive head, and noted marijuana enthusiast Peter B. Lewis has long been a supporter of the movement to legalize pot. Just last October, his “philanthropy” adviser told the New York Times that Lewis was holding back on political donations in favor of “building progressive infrastructure and marijuana reform. That’s just where his…
