Repent. The End is Upon Cleveland. Really.
Every so often one group or another tells us that the Rapture is coming. They name a date, tell people they better repent, and then…..well, nothing happens. But listen up people! There really are only 25 more days to practice your preferred form of debauchery because Judgment Day is going to be May 21! We…
Grab a Drum and Celebrate John Adams’ 3000th Indians Game
John Adams has been faithfully banging his drum in the bleachers since approximately 1932. (Or, to be more specific, August 24, 1973.) How many games has he tomahawked his way through? It will be 3000 on Saturday, a day on which the Tribe will honor their most recognizable fan with a special ceremony which will…
Pic of the Day: Cold Storage Building Coming Down
Thomas Nebesar It’s the beginning of the end for the Cold Storage Building, that somewhat endearing relic perched to the side of the Inner Belt Bridge that has served as massive advertising space and little else, which must come down for the new Inner Belt Bridge. ODOT says it will likely take all summer to…
Welcome to the Rainiest April Ever
As you trudged to your car holding your umbrella for what seemed like the 18th day in a row, praying that the wind wouldn’t turn the flimsy protection inside out leaving you soaked for the commute home, you might have thought to yourself, “Hey, self, it’s rained every freaking day in April. This has to…
CSU Student Paper Shines Floodlights on School Budget
Did you buy that? Anyone who’s had to work for their college tuition, or, worse, felt that slow pang of helpless guilt when your parents pay it, has wondered if it’s going to the right places. I’m paying for school, right? Not mashed potatoes or some tenured flack’s all-expenses-paid jaunt to the Marshall Island to…
The Quality of Cleveland Life Report
Your guide to thriving in fabulous Cleveland. Wanted: Enormous Wrench: Parts arrive for largest wind turbine in North America, to be installed in Euclid. Pieces initially shipped to Independence after being mistaken for poolside fan at Jimmy Dimora tiki-hut complex. Remember Newspapers?: The Plain Dealer solicits “Cleveland memories” from readers online. Most submissions thus far…
Rights Group Wins Victory for Cows
Your future hamburgers are breathing easier these days. Last year, the Humane Society of the United States gathered more than half a million signatures to put three animal-friendly issues on the Ohio ballot. To avoid a contentious and costly campaign, then-Governor Ted Strickland brokered an agreement between the Humane Society and its opponents at the…
Tom King, Cleveland Rock Pioneer, Dies
One of Cleveland’s key rock and roll pioneers, Tom King, died Saturday at the age of 68 in Wickliffe. Tom King & the Starfires were one of a number of primarily instrumental combos that formed in the area in the late ’50s and early ’60s, and dominated the local club scene with their superlative chops.…
The Biggest Wind Turbine in North America Arrives in Cleveland
Cleveland Magazine Who has the biggest wind turbine in North America? We have the biggest wind turbine in North America. Damn straight. Cleveland Magazine reports that parts for the behemoth arrived this morning at the port. How big is this sucker, which will be installed at the Lincoln Electric Company in Euclid, gonna be? *…
Cleveland Museum of Art Collecting Wedding Photos
The landscapes around the Cleveland Museum of Art and Wade Lagoon have long been a favorite spot for wedding-day photos. At the very least, it’s a better option than in front of the Best Steak & Gyro on Superior. Anyway, Mark Schwartz, of visual communications firm Nesnadny + Schwartz and member of the museum’s board…
Concert Review: The New Pornographers at the House of Blues
The New Pornographers had only played the Beachland Ballroom during stops in Cleveland before Saturday’s show at the House of Blues, something that lead singer Carl Newman mentioned shortly into the concert. He said something to the effect of, “If you only see Cleveland through that neighborhood [Collinwood], you’d think it was a wasteland.” (Paraphrasing…
Ohio Ranked Least Green State
If Captain Planet’s not available, we’ll totally take Recycling Man. Monday morning rankings fun from Huffington Post… For all of Northeast Ohio’s measures toward sustainability, recycling, locally sourced food, farmer’s markets, and, most importantly, telling everyone how awesome we are at those things, it appears that all the good being done on the shores of…
New Polish Holiday Comes to Cleveland; Happy Dyngus Day, Everyone
Happy Dyngus Day, everyone. What’s Dyngus Day? Glad you asked. It’s a Polish holiday that a trio of west-side establishments is bringing to Cleveland, starting today. Without doing any research, here’s what we imagine festivities on Dyngus Day involve: After 364 straight days of making pierogies, Polish grandmothers take a day off. They gather in…
Bridget ‘Flour Girl’ Thibeault to Open Bakery and Cafe
For the past five years, pastry chef Bridget Thibeault has operated her high-end sweets biz Flour Girl out of her home. By the end of May, Flour Girl will have a commercial home in Cleveland Heights with the opening of Luna Bakery and Café (2482 Fairmount Ave.). Taking over a pair of storefronts once home…
Video: Indians Fan Humps Mascot
Here’s an Indians fan trying to go all backdoor slider on Slider. The YouTube description says: “He’s not wearing any pants. It just seemed right.” He gets a few furious pumps in on the supple, purple-furred backside of the Tribe mascot before Slider notices and reacts, understandably we might add, unfavorably. A good lesson for…
Happy Easter; Here’re a Bunch of Cadbury Eggs Being Destroyed
Have a nice Easter, everyone. To get you in the mood, here’s a video of scientists destroying Cadbury Eggs in a bunch of deliciously and unnecessarily creative ways. You’ll learn more than you ever wanted to know about the chemistry of the little seasonal treats.
Teacher Found Drunk, Asleep at School (Updated)
Rule No. 1 of blogging: You use this picture anytime you can. Update: NewsNet5 has the picture of the saucy substitute and one other important detail: the vodka was Grey Goose. How much are we paying subs these days? (NewsNet5)*** Can you blame her? Well, we guess you can. According to Westlake Sun News, 57-year-old…
Reggae Star Carlos Jones Invited to Roll With President Obama
Carlos Jones, Reggae Ambassador. Back in November of 2008, Carlos Jones & the P.L.U.S. Band performed at an Election Night party at the House of Blues. Cleveland’s most popular reggae act celebrated the news of Barack Obama’s victory that night with a spirited version of Jamaican reggae artist Cocoa Tea’s tune “Barack Obama.” On Monday,…
Video: The Joe Tait Special
Some tech-savvy soul put “Have a Good Night Everybody,” FSN Ohio’s Joe Tait special, on YouTube. It’s viewable in six parts, or at least it will be until it gets yanked. Either way, it’s up now, so kill the rest of your Friday workday with the sweet sounds of Joe Tait. (Find parts 2 through…
Pic of the Day: Peeps Art
It’s Easter weekend, which means marshmallowy Peeps. Parma native David Ottogalli takes Peeps and turns them into art. Seriously. Want to know more about him and his journey to becoming the Van Gogh of Peeps? Read this Sun News piece. Just want to check out more of his Peeps art? Visit his site.
Man Charged for Barking at Police Dog Says Law Violates Free Speech
Remember this fella? Ryan James Stephens was charged with barking at a police dog after a cop witnessed Stephens standing outside his police cruiser while… well… barking at the police dog in the back. Stephens claimed “the dog started it,” which probably didn’t help his cause with the police. Now he’s hired a lawyer, claiming…
Case Researchers Invent Self-Healing Material
File this under both, “Coolest thing you’ll see all day,” and, “Gee, we feel super dumb by comparison.” Engineers at Case Western have invented a self-healing polymer that fixes itself if you shine UV rays on it. So that scratch on your car? Yeah, it would fix itself. Seriously. Stuart Rowan, a professor of engineering,…
Exclusive: The Rock Hall Addresses That Go-Go’s Problem
You may have heard that the Go-Go’s aren’t too happy about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s decision to leave them out of its upcoming Women Who Rock: Vision, Passion, Power exhibit, which opens on May 13. The group’s bassist, Kathy Valentine, has been tweeting like crazy that the Rock Hall’s oversight may have…
Man Tries to Pay Cab Fare With Pot, Flips Off Cabbie
For as much grief as cab drivers get, you have to admit they lead an unenviable existence. Drunks, belligerents, small tips, pushy fares, the constant threat of violence or being robbed — the gamut, most nights, could charitably be called eclectic, but more likely, it’s one of stress and few rewards. Nicholas Baker was one…
Will Work for Peanuts
Depression-era Jacob (Twilight’s Robert Pattinson), whose parents die just as he’s completing veterinary school, is left penniless, so he hops the train of a traveling circus, where he shovels manure until August (Inglourious Basterds’ Christoph Waltz) enlists him as vet and trainer for his latest attraction, Rosie the elephant. As Jacob tries to protect the…
Shin-Soo Choo is a Machine
Despite the sluggish start to the season, Tribe outfielder/basher/awesomer Shin-soo Choo is a superstar, even if no one’s talking about him. You know that, though, so we’ll just skip right to the sweet stuff. Sports Illustrated has a nice piece about Choo — his life in Korea, his current mega-watt superstar status there, his work…
‘Aggressive Drivers’ Being Targeted in Cleveland
You may notice an uptick in cruiser presence along I-271 and I-90 in the coming weeks, and if you’re driving like an asshole, they’re going to notice you. State troopers are camping out specifically to target “aggressive drivers,” by which we assume they mean the good ones, but whatever. Eight troopers have been assigned to…
Ohio Attorney General Goes After Blast
Remember the furor over Four Loko? Turns out AGs across the country, not to mention the FDA, weren’t done with caffeine-powered, alcohol-bloated debauchery that was casually labeled “blackout in a can.” There’s a new liquid villain on their radar these days: Blast, a colorfully packaged, high-alcohol content product from the fine folks at Colt 45,…
Pic of the Day: Kid With a Beer at Tribe Game
This is a few days old, but we’re just stumbling upon it. Scene: Tribe vs. Orioles the other day at the Jake. Child with beer. Dad engrossed in Indians baseball (which is perhaps the most amazing thing about the pic). (Via Let’s Go Tribe and Deadspin)
Woman Arrested After Flashing Inmates at Jail
Andrea Musser understands that fellas in jail are desperate, lonely, and suffering from a serious lack of female contact. That, or the 19-year-old, who stopped by the Erie County jail this week to visit 19-year-old David Arden, has a streak of Lindsay Bluth in her. The Sandusky Register reports that after Musser made her visit…
Ohio City Near West Development Corporation Changes Its Name
But Ohio City is still just Ohio City, right? The neighborhood that brought you the West Side Market, Great Lakes Brewing Company, that one guy who always asks you for money outside the Souper Market, and no shortage of other signature attractions now brings you a development group whose name you can pronounce without tripping.…
International Beer Fest Unscrolls Lengthy List of Tasty Choices
If you need a little SFW excitement to put you through that under-caffeinated last stretch of the work day, here’s something to get the blood shooting. The International Beer Fest, or as we call it in these parts, Go Home Uncle Tony You’re Drunk Already At Noon Day, has unleashed the full line-up of international…
Local Hoover Exec Pulls Ads From ABC Over Soap Opera Cancellations
Brian Kirkendall, defender of soap operas. ABC recently announced that “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” would not be returning to the screens of lonely housewives, relaxing stay-at-home moms, and old women after this season. This news sent shockwaves through the country. Soap operas, after all, are part of the fabric of TV…
When It Rains… Another CLE Food Tour Co. Set to Launch
In 2008, Jeff Swedarsky launched a popular culinary-based tour company in Alexandria, Virginia. Since then his company, Food Tour Corporation, has expanded into D.C., Baltimore, Annapolis, and Swedarsky’s hometown of Indianapolis. In 2010, the company tastefully guided approximately 10,000 customers on its various tours. Next up, says Swedarsky, is Cleveland. “I believe the way people…
Policy Matters Ohio: Privatized Prisons Don’t Always Save Money
As part of his budget rethink, new Governor John Kasich has proposed a number of initiatives that have come under fire from opposition. Privatizing the state’s liquor agency, creating a non-profit public/private job creation outfit, selling off the state’s prisons to private operators — all theses have been proposed with the guiding spirit of cost…
Man Claiming to be ‘The Lord’ Arrested in Westlake (Updated)
He looks different than our theology teacher said he would. Update: ‘The Lord’ (aka John Julius) pleaded not guilty to charges of abduction, attempted abduction, receiving stolen property and failing to comply with a police order.(WKYC) *** What does the Lord do before His obviously busy Sundays? Well, he hangs out around Westlake and forces…
Oprah, ESPN Team Up to Give Cleveland Man His Dream
Oprah is in the midst of her final season, and before her show ends (and with it, the world, right?), she’s doling out surprises left and right because that’s what Oprah does. Well, that and cook marshmallows with burning $100 bills and defecate rainbows. One of her special gifts has a local connection. Ron Brown,…
Video: Brawl Outside MLK High School (Updated)
Update: The brawl occurred on Friday, April 15, according to CMSD. The school is aware that the video is online and is reviewing the footage in an attempt to identify students. “It’s a matter of student discipline and the Safety and Security Division is investigating,” said CMSD spokesperson Roseann Canfora. (Fox 8) *** Searching for…
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony Drama
We don’t care to get into the whole background of what’s going on with Cleveland’s own Bone Thugs-N-Harmony right now. Suffice it to say, there’s drama. The quick version: Krayzie Bone’s leaving the group and no one’s happy about how it’s going down. Flesh went on the Latin Assassin show on Z-107.9 and talked about…
Browns Pitching Mixed-Use Lakefront Development
A sketch of what the Browns envision around the stadium. Who shall ride to the rescue after decades of incompetent misuse of Cleveland’s priceless lakefront? Perhaps the Cleveland Browns, according to the PD. Sketches provided to the paper show a greenworld of — gasp! — actual stuff surrounding Cleveland Browns Stadium. The team, which has…
At the Arthouse
Cell 211 A young prison guard gets caught up and left behind in a riot and does the only logical thing, given the circumstances: He disguises himself as one of the prisoners. This hugely popular movie snagged eight Goya Awards (which are like the Spanish Oscars) last year. No surprise that Hollywood is now working…
CD Review: tUnE-yArDs
Artsy-fartsy Merrill Garbus makes a lot of noise with very few tools. On her second album, the one-woman band from Oakland builds sonic mosaics out of drums, horns, synths, and her big, powerful voice, often manipulated to abrasive extremes. Garbus rarely plays by any conventional sense of rhythm or style. tUnE-yArDs are an art project…
Drink of the Week
What seemed weird in 2006 has gone on to become a best seller: the vibrant Cucumber Margarita at Momocho. “It’s become unbelievably popular,” says chef-owner Eric Williams, and with good reason. Unlike its lesser kin, this $8 refresher is clean, crisp, and never too sweet. “I tell people it’s like a salad in a glass,”…
Porn to Rock
Let’s get this out of the way: Neko Case is part of the New Pornographers’ spring tour, which kicked off a week ago and comes to town this weekend. So yes, the most famous and popular member of the Canadian group that rarely includes all eight members onstage at the same time will be in…
Home Movies
The King’s Speech (Anchor Bay) Did this old-fashioned biopic about the stuttering King George VI deserve the Best Picture Oscar? No. Did Colin Firth as the stammering monarch deserve his award? Definitely. And it’s his performance (along with his terrific costars Helene Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush) that carries this excellent movie. If it occasionally…
Paper Jam
Five years before Cuyahoga County Recorder Pat O’Malley resigned in May 2008 — one of the first dominoes to fall in the county’s ongoing shame game — he quietly closed a deal that garnered little interest at the time. It was a pact with Data Trace, a California company that specializes in snapping up title…
Ice Cream Dreams
When Jeffrey Moreau promised that his dessert shop would be unique, exceptional, and authentic, only he could truly comprehend the meaning of that pledge. Now that Sweet Moses has opened in the Gordon Square Arts District, we can all appreciate what he meant. “It came out exactly as I had envisioned,” Moreau says via a…
Film Capsules
Arthur (PG-13) — Russell Brand’s drunken, druggy past served him well in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek, where he basically played himself. So he was a natural choice for this remake of Dudley Moore’s 1981 hit about a drunken libertine forced to change his lifestyle to avoid losing an inheritance. A…
Best of the Big Top
Monkeys. Clowns. Peanuts in paper bags. What’s not to love about the circus? (Besides the smell, dancing poodles, and clowns?) Surprisingly, there haven’t been a ton of movies set at the circus. Not so surprisingly, there have been very few good ones. Water for Elephants, which stars Reese Witherspoon and Robert Pattinson in a love…
We Get Mail
Superstars of Farming Thank you for your recognition of Community Greenhouse Partners’ recent progress in breaking ground. However, there are farmers far more deserving of recognition as Best Urban Farmer [“Best of Cleveland,” March 30, 2011]. There are so many champions whose years of breaking new ground and forward thinking paved the way for our…
CD Review: The Approach and the Execution
(theapproachandtheexecution.com) This Akron-based prog-metal band aims big on its debut, a concept album about a medieval philosopher who winds up in jail because of his radical beliefs. Before you can say 2112, his apprentice gathers a freedom-fighting army. You’ll have to scroll through the lyrics to get to the story, since the caterwauling vocals and…
Meet the DJs
Graydar is the brainchild of two local gray-haired DJs, MisterBradleyP (Brad Petty) and Peter PleasureCruise (Peter Greilis). Graydar fill their sets with late-’70s disco 12-inches, early-’80s electro-funk, and modern-day nu-disco cuts. “When the crowd gives talented DJs a chance, and resists making requests, they will usually be more fulfilled in the long run,” says MisterBradleyP.…
Concert Calendar
Crocodiles San Diego’s Crocodiles may remind you of a few other primal garage-rock duos who trade in raw guitars and even rawer emotions. But there’s a little more subtlety to their bash-and-run. For one thing, you can hear a lot of the Jesus and Mary Chain in their echo, reverb, and songs that sound like…
CD Review: Jessie J
Buzzing British singer and “Party in the U.S.A.” co-writer Jessica Cornish doesn’t have much personality. And the total lack of humor on her debut album make comparisons to Lily Allen and Kate Nash seem lazy. But once you get past the awful album opener and first single “Price Tag,” Who You Are improves considerably. Unlike…
Get Out
Thursday | 21 Funny Stuff Jon Lovitz Brings the Love You know him from his Emmy-nominated roles on Saturday Night Live (“Yeah, that’s the ticket!”) and countless performances in films like The Wedding Singer. And then there was that recent Hot in Cleveland guest spot. But now the comedian with the distinctive nasal whine brings…
Such Great Heights
About a month ago, Cleveland Heights High School grads Brian Williams and Mai Moore started talking about putting together a reunion featuring alumni who had pursued music after graduation. Within weeks, they secured the lineup for Once Again: Cleveland Heights Throwback Artist Showcase, which takes place at 8 p.m. Friday at the Euclid Tavern. “There’s…
Stay In!
TOP PICK – CD Take a Look: Aretha Franklin Complete on Columbia (Columbia/Legacy) Before she became the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin recorded seven albums for Columbia. This 12-disc box gathers them plus various singles, outtakes, and mixes. (There’s also a DVD featuring a 1964 TV appearance.) Aretha was occasionally saddled with sappy songs and…
Let There Be Light
There are numerous ways men and women differ from each other, and one of the biggies is how women have to balance their intellectual and occupational aspirations with the powerful biological and emotional pull towards having children. Obviously, men often have virtually no conflict in this situation, while women frequently need to make wrenching and…
The Price of Peace
In 1996 seven French monks were beheaded in Algeria, capping two months spent as hostages of an armed Muslim group during that country’s decade-long civil war. But it’s barely a footnote of a story that is almost impossible to grasp in a country where true faith is a fleeting concept. Things start to go bad…
CD Review: Panda Bear
No matter how much they strip away the occasional debris that clutters their records, the members of Animal Collective, together and solo, can’t help but sound a bit pretentious. Noah Lennox’s fourth album as Panda Bear streamlines the sounds and textures of Animal Collective’s 2009 masterpiece Merriweather Post Pavilion and finds restless comfort in the…
Our Harsh Reality
Matt Dibble’s abstract painting “Lake Erie Shoreline” feels like a long minute lived somewhere along Ohio’s north coast. The small work mixes brutal masses of bluish black with streaks and splashes of white, as if the painter had ripped a cold chunk out of a March day. It’s a painting that remembers intimate, difficult things…
On Stage This Week
Two Gentlemen of Verona It’s not too late to catch a performance of Two Gentlemen of Verona, the Shakespearean comedy that wraps up Great Lakes Theater Festival’s 49th season. Like all of the Bard’s best, the romantic romp asks a question that resonates down through the ages: Bros before hoes, or vice versa? In this…
Bites: Jeni’s Splendid Comes to Chagrin
Northeast Ohio foodies have so embraced the products of Columbus-based Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams that owner Jeni Britton Bauer selected the region as the site of her first scoop shop outside her hometown. Located at 67 North Main St. in Chagrin Falls, Jeni’s officially opened its doors last Friday, April 15. “The attention we’ve received…
Local Band in Focus
Meet the Band: Matt Hectorne (guitars, keyboards, vocals), Jeff Sutton (bass, accordion, vocals), Anthony Foti (drums, vocals), and Nick Wise (guitars, vocals) Hipsters Should Really Dig Them: Lots of different things rush through your head when you listen to Humble Home. On one hand, they sound like one of those cool bands scoring your favorite…
On View This Week
The Lure of Painted Poetry The latest exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art is designed to illuminate the intricate connections between Chinese poetry and its reinterpretation as visual art by Japanese and Korean artists. The Lure of Painted Poetry features approximately 80 diverse works, including calligraphy, painting, and decorative arts, spanning nearly seven centuries;…
Swede Dreams Are Made of This
Music, like life, ferments out of all kinds of strange and different situations. Listening to Junip’s gently sweet, dreamily psychedelic music, with its jazzy percolating rhythms, you don’t hear a trace of hardcore music. But like so many of their peers, the Swedish trio started off playing hardcore when they were in their teens. Today,…
