Strongsville School Board To – FINALLY! – Hold Meeting Tonight
ERIC SANDY/SCENE Strongsville teachers gather outside the school board offices. The board will hold its first public meeting in nearly two months tonight. The Strongsville school board will meet tonight after nearly eight weeks of the public teachers’ strike has torn the community asunder. It’s the first public meeting since before the strike began, as…
Winking Lizard Celebrates Double Debut in Copley
Talk about a “grand” opening. Today, the Winking Lizard family welcomes two new babes into the mix. Located under one very big roof in Copley is both a Winking Lizard Tavern and Lizardville Beer Store and Whiskey Bar. “This is the ultimate all-in-one Lizard Nation experience,” explains Winking Lizard marketing manager, Jamie Guzik. Housed in…
25 Questions for Dan Moulthrop, New City Club CEO
1) Have you ever fallen asleep at a City Club talk? 2) Were you drunk at the time? 3) What’s your favorite book by Dave Eggers? 4) Will this new position occasion any significant upgrades in your suit/shoe rotation? 5) As City Club CEO, will you institute a “No Girls Allowed” rule, just for fun?…
Concert Review and Slideshow: Anthrax at House of Blues
When thrash rockers Anthrax came through town last summer on Mayhem festival, they reportedly insisted that they play the side stage and not the main stage. It was a wise decision. Unlike, say, Metallica, Anthrax is best suited to a more intimate setting, even if it’s just the Blossom parking lot. The band’s high-energy set…
Record Store Day Is April 20
Record Store Day, that hallowed celebration of all things vinyl, is this Saturday. So is the colloquially hazy 4/20, but we’ll leave it up to you to find your way to that party (hint: in your buddy’s basement). Here’s the lowdown on this year’s RSD: There will be hundreds of premium releases available at stores…
Slideshow and Video: Best of Cleveland Party 2013
Were you at the downtown library with us last Friday night for the Best of Cleveland party? Do you wish you had been there? Yeah, it was as blast, and there’s video and photographic evidence. Cleveland Scene Magazine – Best of Cleveland Party from FRFX AVE on Vimeo.
Pic of the Day: Donkeys Loose in Brecksville
That dog does not look impressed. This photo, courtesy of WEWS and resident Becca Reutenlhuber Craig, captures some donkeys that got loose from some nearby stables and went galloping through a neighborhood. They were corralled before they could be too big of jackasses.
Tower City Lights Go Dim To Protect Migratory Birds
@TOWERLIGHTSCLE Putting ecological mindfulness before aesthetic intrigue, Tower City Center is starting to dim its lighting at night. The fact is, those bright lights – at times red, green, orange, etc. – actually disorient flocks of birds making their way across town. “The lighting does have the potential to confuse the birds during spring and…
Parents Freak Out Over School District’s “Eastern” Mindfulness Program
Image: Akron Beacon Journal Idle bodies are the Buddha’s workshop While Strongsville continues to struggle with its eons-long teachers strike, the Akron Beacon Journal reports that parents and students in Plain Township north of Canton have finally triumphed over a more perilous scourge: infidel Buddha-worshipers and their occult “mindfulness” agenda. After a pilot so-called mindfulness…
Martin Sweeney Has Lost His Pager
Not many people carry pagers these days — we’re not even sure if drug dealers still do (any readers/dealers want to chime in?) — but Martin Sweeney does AND HE HAS LOST IT. This has been an update on everyone’s favorite pager-carrying council president.
Iron And Wine’s ‘Ghost on Ghost’: New Music Tuesday
Never one to rest on his laurels, Sam Beam takes Iron and Wine to yet another degree of dazzling heights with his latest album, the esoterically dashing Ghost on Ghost. Favoring the jazzy over the circuitous, Beam’s songwriting on this go-around has a very smooth, straightforward sheen to it. “The Desert Babbler” would fit in…
Steve’s Lunch Turns 60 Today!!
Long before Drew Carey made this near west side landmark famous in the opening of The Drew Carey Show, diners of all walks of life have been chowing down chili dogs 24 hours a day at Steve’s Lunch. Suits, hipsters, cops, neighbors and the occasional prostitute call this joint home whether it is 2 p.m.…
10 Amazing Tweets from the Cleveland Metroparks
If you missed the big news yesterday, the Cleveland Metroparks’ Twitter account was named the second-best parks and recreation account to follow (and imitate) in the country by Activecommunities.com. The @clevemetroparks account is also only behind New York City Parks & Rec for most followers in the country. Take that, Chicago. If you’re not following…
Free Indians Shuttle a Reality for Tremont
The experimental Opening Day free shuttle that ferried Tribe fans between Tremont and The Jake (nope) was such a success, that the Indians have decided to extend the service for the foreseeable future. “We were very excited with the support and turnout from the Tremont neighborhood on Opening Day for our Indians free game day…
Willowick Police Department Issues Friendly Boulder Warning
You’re probably familiar with the scenario: you’re driving by a McDonald’s, and because you’re a grown-ass self-respecting adult, you’re thinking, “Gee, look at all those sad slovenly putzes lined up at Mickey D’s’ rancid oil-drenched feeding trough. I can’t wait to get home to my Rachel Maddow and quinoa and broccoli rabe GAAAAH MCRIBS YES…
Man Pays Back Childhood Theft To Fisher-Fazio’s Grocery Chain
CLEVELAND MEMORY PROJECT Fazio’s on Warren Road Remember Fazio’s? The local supermarket chain that at other points in its history went by Fisher Foods? Well, one California man certainly does. He wrote to Matthew Fazio recently in an effort to clear his conscience after years of guilt: “…When I was a young kid in California,…
Cleveland Film Fest’s Biggest Attendance Ever
The Cleveland International Film Festival attracted more than 93,000 attendees to its 12-day Tower City movie extravaganza. Despite parking concerns, sporting events, and the lure of the casino, CIFF managed to squash its previous attendance record. Of the 180 feature films and 164 shorts, “Good Ol’ Freda,” a documentary about Beatles’ secretary Freda Kelly, won…
Floating Plastic Debris Invades Lake Erie
Image: 5Gyres See what your Bioré exfoliating scrub has wrought? Smash sensation Lake Erie Is Freaking Disgusting, already boasting a star-studded cast, including Asian carp and toxic algae, just announced a new attraction: menacing microplastics! You may recognize this frequently toxic, minuscule debris, known more poetically as “mermaid’s tears,” from previous appearances in the Pacific…
Culinary Calendar: Cleveland Flea
On Saturday, April 13, The Cleveland Flea kicks off the first of a new series of events that will take place every second Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Billed as part urban treasure hunt, part culinary adventure, and part maker center, the event is filled with all matter of creative pursuits. In addition…
Lizard’s Winks Brand Heading to Beachwood
Winking Lizard Tavern has announced that the second Winks Bar and Grille will open in Beachwood. The original opened at the Galleria this past fall. The next in what likely will be a fast-growing regional brand will open in the former home of The Pit at 25800 Central Parkway, behind P.F. Chang’s on Chagrin Boulevard.…
Cleveland Announces ‘Superman Day’ For April 18
With the 75th anniversary of everyone’s most people’s some people’s favorite superhero, Mayor Frank Jackson officially dubbed April 18 “Superman Day.” He’ll make a big statement at 1 p.m. that day. Hooray? The announcement a) pays homage to one of Cleveland’s more treasured contributions to pop culture and b) gives The Plain Dealer something to…
Climate Action Plan: Public Meeting Slated For Tonight
The city of Cleveland’s Climate Action Plan, part of the Sustainable Cleveland 2019 campaign, is taking shape. A public meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. today at Tri-C’s Metro Campus Center Building, Room 10. Like many instances of targeted environmental reform, the plan revolves around decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. Goals include cutting emissions in half…
Plans Emerge for One Walnut Space
One Walnut, chef Marlin Kaplan’s downtown hotspot, closed about two and half years ago, and since that time the space at the corner of East 9th Street and Walnut has been vacant. That will soon change when the space and one formerly occupied by Atlanta Bread Company — both in Ohio Savings Plaza — reopen…
The Resonator
As Michael Stanley walks into the downtown Winking Lizard, he’s greeted by a super fan who acknowledges that when he had his 12-night farewell run at the old Front Row Theatre, she attended 7 of the shows. “There’s no accounting for taste,” Stanley laughs in response. Currently the afternoon drive DJ on WNCX, Stanley can’t…
BRAIN P
You’d think that a play would be absolutely riveting if it included two ship wrecks, incest, death, an innocent young woman sold into slavery in a brothel, and a final wondrous reuniting of a family. These are just some of the things that happen in Perhaps Pericles, the re-working of a play written by William…
Female Trouble
While not a household name by any stretch of the imagination, transgender singer-pianist Baby Dee is a true Cleveland treasure. Born and raised in Old Brooklyn, he started out as street performer and moved to New York City, where, after a stint as a music director at a Catholic Church, “he” became “she.” Baby Dee…
Savage Love
Dear Dan — I’m a gay man who has been seeing a devout Christian gay guy for one year. We have a great relationship. We have many of the same interests and respect each other’s feelings and beliefs. However, I am a Catholic who is not that religious, and he is an Orthodox Christian. Some…
Female Trouble
Director Danny Boyle (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire) signed on to helm Trance at the same time that he started work on 127 Hours, the James Franco movie about a rock climber who has to cut off his own arm in order to free himself from the boulder that has lodged between him and a…
Tyler Zeleny delves into the human experience in solo exhibition
The iconographies of living and dead mythologies are irresistible not only because of the association with things of “ultimate concern” that they have accumulated over their history. Often, they are affecting in themselves, bypassing cultural particularities to speak directly to the extremes of human experience, usually its various modes of suffering. Tyler Zeleny, a 2012…
Bars & Clubs
Best Bar BEST HIPSTER BAR BEST NEIGHBORHOOD BAR HAPPY DOG Writers have written that bars in Brooklyn, New York spend hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to create a vibe as authentic and original as Happy Dog’s, which seems to possess it with no effort at all. No longer exclusively a hipster enclave in Gordon…
A Little of This, A Little of That
“Beer cocktail” sounds like the ultimate oxymoron. Is it beer? Is it a cocktail? Is it a little of both, and if so, why the hell would you go and do something like that? The term refers to any number of concoctions made by combining beer with spirits and/or other ingredients. If you’ve ever had…
Food & Drink
Best Restaurant Best Sandwich Shop Melt Bar & Grilled You don’t get where owner Matt Fish has gotten by being unpopular. And as evidenced by the spreading ooze of his melted cheese empire – which now reaches as far east as Mentor and as far south as Columbus – Fish knows what people want. By…
Opening: The Place Beyond the Pines
The chiseled and erratically tattooed torso of Ryan Gosling commands the screen in the opening shot of The Place Beyond the Pines. It’s a torso which defies a switchblade Gosling flings around like a nunchuck in his carnival camper before processing to the “Cage of Death.” It’s a mesmerizing opening sequence, janglingly percussive and intimate,…
People & Places
Best reason to stay in Cleveland The people Come for the most non-existent potential for a sports success story, stay for the people. It’s a motto that most everyone in Cleveland takes to heart. The people – the masses, the unrelenting horde—enliven this town and give us all a reason to stash our dreams of…
The Finest
I had no intention of revisiting Flour on a professional level – we were just regular folks having dinner. But that all changed by the second or third course – it was the porchetta, I’m pretty sure – when it was clear that pleasure had morphed into business. And by the time we stumbled out…
Sports & Recreation
Best Team to Root For Cleveland Browns Sure, they might not be very good, and might not have been very good for a long time now, but that doesn’t mean Cleveland doesn’t love its Brownies. The team has a storied tradition and a history 180 degrees opposite its modern-day track record, but Ohio is the…
The Cleveland Craft Beer Report
Willoughby Brewing keeps climbing towards the top of the list of the best breweries in Northeast Ohio. Since new ownership took over in January 2011, quality and consistency have skyrocketed. Willoughby’s latest beers are among their best. Supernova Double IPA debuted in February to celebrate the brewery’s 15th anniversary. This 10-percent ABV monster is loaded…
Shops & Wares
Best Place to Spend a Day Shopping Best Place to Buy Meat Best Place to Buy Produce Best Farmers Marker West Side Market There’s nothing quite like ambling around Cleveland’s century-old landmark whether you’re toting a grocery list or not. From fresh produce to some of the most delicious pierogies this side of the Atlantic,…
What’s Fresh At:
“I’m kinda known as the Queen of Pork,” says Melissa Khoury, executive chef at Little Italy’s Washington Place Bistro (2203 Cornell Rd., 216-791-6500, washingtonplacelittleitaly.com). And in a town that loves its swine, that really is an honor. And when it comes to “What’s Fresh” on the WPB menu these days? Well, it should be no…
Shops & Wares
Best Place to Spend a Day Shopping Best Place to Buy Meat Best Place to Buy Produce Best Farmers Marker West Side Market There’s nothing quite like ambling around Cleveland’s century-old landmark whether you’re toting a grocery list or not. From fresh produce to some of the most delicious pierogies this side of the Atlantic,…
Ingenius
James Krouse, the artistic director of Ingenuity Festival, is a man with abiding love for Cleveland. And what would you expect from the man tasked with spearheading the curation and programming of what has become one of the region’s hallmark festivals? Krouse is a playwright and director who spent time in New York and London…
Arts & Entertainment
Best Local Festival Best Art Event Ingenuity According to its web site, Ingenuity’s mission is to “ignite the creative spark where the arts, science, and technology intersect.” And over the course of nearly ten years, the festival has done just that. Formed in 2004, it was originally intended to show off local artists and entrepreneurs.…
Destiny’s Child
After he saw Abel Gance’s 1927 film Napoleon when he was in film school, director Derek Cianfrance knew he wanted to emulate it and one day make a triptych film of his own. So he spent the next few years thinking about a movie about a stunt man who uses his motorcycle to rob banks.…
Best of Cleveland 2013
Best of Cleveland Twenty Thirteen voting is officially over and in the books – this book, to be exact. The people have spoken. For five weeks, readers cast the vote – over 35,000 in all– to let their voices be heard. You selected the people, places, things and ideas that are pushing Cleveland forward as…
Band of the Week
Meet the Band: Steev Inglish (vocals, guitar, wooden box with a tambourine inside of it) On Discovering the Blues: A child actor who used to perform at London’s West End Theatre, Inglish, who’s formerly known as Mr. Downchild, gravitated to the blues after his parents started listening to the albums they’d get from American expats…
CD Review: Flowers in Flames
reverbnation.com/flowersinflames This import-only EP, the second release from local alt-rock veterans Flowers in Flames, cracked the European Alternative charts when it come out at the end of last year. It’s easy to hear why it would connect with a Euro fanbase. With its prickly guitars and androgynous vocals, EP opener “Chameleon” recalls Brit acts such…
Talking Thrash
Collectively known as the Big Four, Anthrax, Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth all emerged as forces to be reckoned with in the ’80s. Each band played a style of music that would ultimately be called thrash or speed metal and ushered in an entirely new era of hard rock. Oddly enough, all four bands released seminal…
