This Just In: Cleveland’s latest concert listings, grilled to perfection
Get the week’s concert announcements a day early every Tuesday at C-Notes. This week, 44 new shows to report. Van Halen tickets go on sale Saturday, August 24. The House of Blues welcomes Down, perhaps this generation’s greatest classic-rock band — not that many people know it yet. (Click the link above for the video…
Reader: Why are you being assholes to Diana Ross?
I can not believe how disrepectful you article about Diana Ross is [“Diva-Come-Lately,” August 15]. When your name becomes internationally known for nearly 50 years, then you may be justified in writing such a mean spirited article about a performer who has given countless years of enjoyment ot her fans, not to mention the forging…
Athletes may be scumbags, but not Graig Nettles
Joe P. Tone’s story “Signature Scumbags” [August 15] about retired pro athletes selling autographs includes quotes from former Tribe and Yankee third baseman Graig Nettles, which brings back memories of a Friday night Tribe game during the summer of ’71 against the Kansas City Royals. My wife and I and another couple attended the game…
Table 45 kills parking fees; spend your six bucks wisely
After getting scolded by us — and nearly every other reviewer in town, along with God only knows how many patrons – the honchos at Table 45 and the InterContinental Hotel have done the right thing and eliminated the $6 valet parking fee. We don’t usually bitch about parking costs: Like crappy weather and lousy…
Van Halen, with David Lee Roth, in Cleveland: Get’em before they’re gone
For the first time in 22 years, Van Halen is touring with David Lee Roth, who was the greatest frontman of his generation — maybe ever. They don’t make ’em like that any more. Which is why, last week, the first shows to go on sale sold out immediately. The tour hits Cleveland Wednesday, October…
Dennis Kucinich is gaining ground, says Dennis Kucinich
Dennis Kucinich at the US Congress Halloween Bash, 2005. Dennis Kucinich — Cleveland-area congressman, presidential aspirant, and part-time Stitich impersonator — is creeping up in the polls and closing in on front-runners Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, according to some information that’s not remotely true but, lucky for us, appears credible enough to make fun…
Cocktails Cleveland to host clambake for really hungry gay guys
Gay guys are pigs. At least that’s what Jim Tasker’s menu suggests for his annual clambake on September 29 at Cocktails Cleveland. A $16.95 dinner features a dozen top-neck clams, half a chicken, sweet potato, mounds of cole slaw and sweet corn, and a bowl of Tasker’s homemade clam chowder. For $24.95, he’ll throw in…
Survey says: The happiest kids are rich, white, and abstinent
Shocking news: kids whose families own lake houses are happier than kids whose families don’t. A recent poll by the Associated Press and MTV, reported on the front page of yesterday’s Plain Dealer, confirms what scientists, sociologists, you and all your friends, many small children who haven’t learned to form words yet, and several varieties…
Akron’s Bucket Shop gives up, leaves livers to wander
Last month, the Lime Spider, a famed Akron haunt that for years played host to music acts big and small, announced it would close its doors on September 8. Tears were shed. Forties were spilled. But just as people’s livers started to deal with the grief, they’ve been delivered another blow: The Bucket Shop, which…
The Plot to Overthrow Alex Arshinkoff, Enemy of Marriage
It’s been four years since Scene broke the news that while Summit County GOP chairman Alex Arshinkoff ferociously supports anti-gay legislation by day, he cruises for nubile young boys by night [“The Godfather In The Closet,” June 11, 2003]. Obviously, such homoerotic friskiness is supposed to be a no-no in the Grand Old Party, where…
Out of Votes to Suppress, Ken Blackwell Becomes Ronald Reagan Fellow
Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. Just when you thought it was safe, the High Priest of Wacko Republicans returns. Uncle Tom Blackwell, that lovable Secretary of State who did everything in his power to waste your money while keeping you from voting (“Better Dead Than Red,” November 10, 2004) is back. In his…
Rat Reprieve: Larry Jones Skates on his Corruption Sentencing Again
When last left Larry Jones, he was on the brink of trading in his street clothes for a bright orange jumpsuit courtesy of the federal government [“The Devil in Mr. Jones,” July 25]. Jones was originally scheduled in July for bank fraud and money laundering after pleading guilty to the charges around a year ago.…
French guy tours America in 80 days, kicks Clevelanders’ asses at bowling
You know your country’s gone soft when a French guy kicks some American asses at bowling. When September is over, Jean-Phillipe Devillers, a French business student, will have crossed 33 state lines, stayed with 37 different families, and driven more than 11,800 miles by car — all in the name of exploration, business, and, apparently,…
Dave Matthews plays Blossom; region’s Paxil intake to increase 32%
Dave Matthews looks over his shoulder for the grim reaper, but sees only large piles of money. As you’ve probably heard from the chick in the cubicle next to you, the Dave Matthews Band plays Blossom tonight. It will mark the 47th time since 1992 that Matthews has made the Blossom crowd erupt at the…
Free Music Monday: Mick Boogie’s new mixtape
Cleveland mixmaster Mick Boogie has teamed up with NYC producer Marco Polo for The Newport Authority, a mixtape that combines the best of old-school and the new. The disc hypes the producer’s debut album, Port Authority. Click here to download the mix, which features Skoob (of Das Efx), Masta Ace, Brand Nubian, Boot Camp Klik,…
Mikey G’s Picks of the Week
Miranda Lambert lights the Blossom stage afire this Thursday. This week’s top arts and entertainment picks around town, from the guy who’s paid to pick them: Monday: It’s not really news that the Dave Matthews Band will be in town tonight. They seem to be on the road 364 days a year, so chances are…
Indians team shop won’t stop selling other teams’ gear
If you can’t beat ’em, and joining them isn’t really logistically feasible, then sell their merchandise! That’s been unofficial motto at Jacobs Field for some time, and it ain’t changing because a few Tribe fans’ feathers were ruffled. A small stink was started over the Indians’ practice of selling other team’s gear in the shops…
Michael Stanley reads our Raspberries story, decides it sucks
Below is an actual letter — yes, Mike, it’s unedited — from the great Michael Stanley. And above, in case you somehow blocked Stanley from your memory, is a little reminder of who he is, in the form of a a video promoting a musical about him that ran last year. To whom it may…
To your lunch-hour rotation, welcome Paladar
A lunch hour is a terrible thing to waste — especially on drive-through burgers and greasy fries. Luckily, the eastside options have just expanded, with the newly minted mid-day menu at Paladar (28601 Chagrin Blvd), the Nuevo Latino restaurant and rum bar that opened in Woodmere ’s Eton-Chagrin on August 2. About the closest that…
Tim Fite’s Been Shot: An amusing takedown of Gangsta Rap
“Shot in the dick, shot in the arm …” If there’s a Grammy for Best Catchy Song to Indirectly Yet Oh So Obviously Dismantle 50 Cent’s Rise to Hip-Hop Stardom, my money’s on this one, by the very amusing Tim Fite. — Joe P. Tone
Carmona, Tribe top Tigers, tie for Central lead; the Gambler terrorizes Club Seats
If the drunken Gambler look-a-like who terrorized the Club Seats last night was hitting, he’s stroll to the plate to “Islands in the Stream.” Notes from last night’s Indians-Tigers game: *Breaking news: This Fausto Carmona fella’s gonna be decent. Although he had a slightly rocky eighth, he seems like one of those magical guys that…
Cleveland’s New Plan For Dealing With Homeless: Stiff the greedy bastards!
If you’re nice, you’ll tell this panhandler that she and her pony dreams aren’t getting shit from you. And to think, all this time you thought you were just being a heartless bastard, and you were really being a civic leader! Go you! From this morning’s Plain Dealer: If a panhandler holds out his hand…
MegaDean — the Howard Dean Tour — to Rock Cleveland Tonight
The Howard Dean bus (AKA the PsychoMotherFucker Express) will roll through Cleveland tonight for a Democratic National Committee grassroots rally at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. I don’t know about you, but the Crowne Plaza doesn’t exactly scream “grassroots.” Dean is expected to outline his “50-State Strategy” for taking the White House in 2008 [cue the…
Dr. Daryl Steiner: Protector of Babies, or Enemy of the Innocent?
Marsha Byers Mills has been in the news all over Ohio. She was babysitting a long-time friend’s children in March 2006, when one child fell down the stairs onto cement. Ms. Mills put a wet cloth on his head, called the father to tell him of the accident, and thought the child would wake up.…
Mandy Moore Opens Her Inner Umbrella. Ella. Eh. Eh.
Rihanna’s “Umbrella” is by far our favorite jam of the summer. So imagine our giddiness when we stumbled on this stripped-down cover version by Mandy Moore, who also gets us all giddy, although for entirely different reasons. — Michael Gallucci
Celebrate Elvis’ Death With The Creepy-Ass WowWee Alive Elvis
Tomorrow marks 30 years since Elvis’ bloated corpse left the building. We can’t think of a better way to commemorate the occasion than with the WowWee Alive Elvis – possibly the scariest fucking thing we’ve seen all year. And for a mere $349.99, you can have the King’s animatronic head singing you to sleep every…
Final Cut’s Cleveland show canceled
half naked girls on stripper poles (acid rain trailer) The Wednesday, Aug. 15 Final Cut show at the Agora is canceled. If you need an industrial-house-techno fix, wait till next Tuesday and check out the weekly Acid Rain party at Peabody’s (2083 E. 21st St., 216-776-9999) instead. Check the video above for a little taste.…
Pure Prairie League
Most ’70s bands still rocking are nothing but gutted impostors. The bassist — a what’s-his-face who didn’t pen a single tune — is often the only original member onstage. Although Pure Prairie League has endured nearly as many personnel changes as Fairport Convention, its situation is an odd one. “I haven’t even been with the…
Moor Rage
If Shakespeare’s plays tend to make your eyes roll around in their sockets, with all the characters and subplots to track, there’s one great script that’s as simple and focused as an episode of Leave It to Beaver, albeit with a lot more dead bodies. In Othello, old Will targeted a fairly common domestic tragedy,…
That’s Italian!
Little Italy’s century-old Feast of the Assumption actually kicked off yesterday with a sacred ceremony. But the real fun begins tonight, when area restaurants, churches, and shops fill city blocks with food, games, and music. “The religious aspects of the cultural festival, along with the entertainment, bring it full circle,” says spokeswoman Maureen Brown. For…
The Budos Band
Those willing to travel from Harlem to Ethiopia in search of the perfect instrumental funk have no truck with pimp-hat clichés and “funky” jam bands. The Budos Band, an 11-piece on New York’s Daptone Records, has spent the past five years perfecting its recipe. In a kitchen of analog tape and vintage equipment, they cooked…
Lame Dating Game
“Without a hurt, the heart is hollow.” That lovely line from the musical The Fantasticks is meant to put a golden gloss on the emotional pain so often caused by relationships. But for playwright Neil LaBute, that quote would probably end up as “Without a hurt, the day hasn’t really begun.” This master of emotional…
Projekt Rock
Linkin Park, which headlines today’s daylong Projekt Revolution concert at Blossom, gets all serious on its latest album, Minutes to Midnight. The record centers on the apocalypse and the reformed rap-rock band’s ties to it. Deep stuff. A severe case of importance also infects tour-mates My Chemical Romance, whose cancer-themed opus, The Black Parade, comes…
Why Are You Still Paying Him?
A lesser man might have feared that day in 2004. Water Commissioner Julius Ciaccia Jr. had just watched federal agents hand down the first criminal charges in a massive bribery case involving his department. For years, men in his supply warehouse had been running their own blue-light specials, allowing vendors to overcharge the city by…
H.R. and the Dubb Agents
The legendary Rasta-core band Bad Brains has recently reunited for a new album and tour. So why is frontman H.R. also playing solo shows? It’s a fair question, but anyone who follows the career of the former Paul Hudson knows that he’s a musician who always travels his own path. Over the years, this has…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Always, Patsy Cline — You’d think a play about an iconic singer who died in a plane crash at 30 would present a chance to take a profound emotional journey. But Ted Swindley, author of Always, Patsy Cline, turns this show’s namesake into a walking jukebox. Still, even such a wretchedly written show can’t torpedo…
Elvis Is in the House
Playhouse Square commemorates the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death tonight with a showing of Viva Las Vegas. It’s part of the Cinema at the Square Series, which showcases classic pics beamed on the Palace Theatre’s ginormous screen. The 1964 romp — co-starring a super-sexy Ann-Margret — features the King as a race-car driver who…
Signature Scumbags
He’s made it. He’s a handoff away from Bart Starr, walking among football legendry. And he’s toting indisputable evidence of the experience: a tiny Green Bay Packers helmet, autographed in sharp black ink by the Packers’ star quarterback of yesteryear. This is why Craig Newsome is here — why many of these people are here,…
Classic Metal Meltdown
As summer winds down, Club Scout ventures beyond the clubs, beyond downtown, beyond suburban nightlife, and into the great outdoors of Nelson Ledges Quarry Park. This bucolic setting will be the site of the Classic Metal Meltdown, a show featuring some of your favorite headbanging hits and some heavy new tunes you need to hear.…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW Exposure Cleveland — It’s hard out there for a photographer. Images are everywhere, and standing out is difficult. This makes the accomplishments of certain artists in this large, diverse exhibit all the more notable. Several of the photogs — who all belong to a year-old community called Exposure Cleveland, which was formed through the…
Cornhole V2
Tonight’s Bags Tournament at Thirst & 10 upgrades traditional cornhole contests for the video game era. It’s played pretty much like its old-school counterpart. But instead of tossing beanbags at a hole-filled target, contestants maneuver a lever that hurls virtual bags into virtual openings. Think Golden Tee without the golf. The first player to score…
Plastic Heroes
On a Friday night in July, Johnny Rotten’s, a small neighborhood bar in Middleburg Heights, sits almost empty. The rickety cafeteria tables are occupied by a middle-aged couple wearing matching Ohio State sweatshirts. At the bar, a few men with spherical bellies nurse Bud Lights and glance at the Tribe game. Clunky, 1980s arcade games…
Auralis
Trio Auralis features two keyboardists and a drummer. That’s it. Keyboardists Chetan Tierra (left) and Jonathan Cernan are both classically trained Cleveland Institute of Music alums, and Tierra has performed at Carnegie Hall. But their show’s no piano recital. They cover Tool’s “Sober” and Billy Joel’s “She’s Got a Way,” but the bulk of their…
Keeping the Meter Running
Taxi Driver: Collector’s Edition (Sony) “Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads: Here is a man who would not take it anymore.” Martin Scorsese’s 1976 vision of hell as city-of-night New York rips through the reverential treatment on this special edition like a hunter’s blade through deerskin. A second disc of eight featurettes covers everything from actual…
Crate Diggers
Even curator Steve Hartman is amazed at the nearly three dozen pieces he collected for Out of the Crate: New Acquisitions, now on view at Contessa Gallery. It took him seven years to gather the works — including an Andy Warhol print of Teddy Roosevelt and Ansel Adams’ photo of the moon over New Mexico.…
White on Black Crime
Either County Commissioners Jimmy Dimora and Tim Hagan are really, really dumb, or they just don’t care what you think. When it recently came time to award an asbestos-removal contract for the new county administration building, the two commissioners outvoted colleague Peter Lawson Jones and gave the $7.4 million deal to Precision Environmental. The catch:…
T.I.
A lot has already been written about hip-hop’s most anticipated disc of the year. But not much of it is complimentary. Sure, the split-personality concept, which basically plays out the much-discussed divide between moving units and keeping it street, is totally obtuse. But give Atlanta rapper T.I. (and his alter ego T.I.P.) credit for acknowledging…
Fill in the Blank
Ask a random person five years ago what Sudoku was, and you’d be lucky if they mumbled something about Japanese ritual suicide. But go down any supermarket’s magazine aisle today, and you’ll find whole racks stuffed with cheapie newsprint books full of the addictive puzzles. People can’t get enough. They love ’em. Psst . .…
Roll Out the Barrels
Organizers of the Sommer Oktoberfest point out the single biggest advantage of throwing its party two months ahead of schedule. “Why drink beer when it is cold outside?” asks Josef Holzer, president-emeritus of the Donauschwaben German Club, which hosts the annual event. The weekend-long fest — which kicked off Friday with a ceremonial keg-tapping –…
Crying Fowl
Rural folks jacked up about city folks’ hypocrisy: I agree with Erik Duncan’s letter about “Chicken Wars” [July 4]. I thought the article was condescending to rural people. I think NFL football is much more barbaric than chicken fighting, but Scene glorifies the violence in pro football [“Human Grenade,” June 27]. Players are coached to…
Wooden Wand
The words of James Jackson Toth rarely make sense. Unlike Dylan, who intertwines avant-garde poetry and traditional narrative, Toth (aka Wooden Wand) deals in mystical abstraction and hermetic metaphor almost exclusively. But that’s cool. It’s fun just getting lost in the dude’s gnarled wordplay. “His chief ‘mong the charges/His high treason to the crown of…
Our top DVD picks scheduled for release this week:
All Creatures Great & Small: The Complete Collection (BBC Warner) Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters for DVD (Turner) Back to School: Extra-Curricular Edition (MGM) The Black Widow (First Look) Charlie Chan Collection: Volume 3 (Fox) DangerMouse: The Complete Series (A&E) The Dark Crystal: 25th Anniversary Edition (Sony) Dynasty: The Second Season…
Ship Shape
Guinness Book of World Records pooh-bahs keep close tabs on Lake Erie this morning, when hundreds of boaters come out for the World Record Canoe & Kayak Challenge. If approximately 800 boats can simultaneously sail off Fairport Harbor Lakefront Park, they’ll break the current record of 766, which was set by the Cleveland Metroparks in…
Diva-Come-Lately
Even before playing a pseudo-Diana Ross in the film Dreamgirls, the music press had pegged Beyoncé as Diana’s second coming. Their respective career paths eerily mirror each other. Both rose to fame in female trios: Ross in the Supremes, Beyoncé in Destiny’s Child. After going solo to great acclaim, both made stunning transitions to the…
Common
Back in 1992, when he released his debut, Can I Borrow a Dollar?, under the name Common Sense, Rashid Lynn was already sage beyond his age. Since then, his work has grown only more confident. Finding Forever continues this trend so subtly that some listeners may see it as a holding action. Pal Kanye West’s…
Here are the week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe:
DVD — U.F.O.s at the Zoo: The Legendary Concert in Oklahoma City: The Flaming Lips are among the planet’s best live bands. This September 2006 performance at their hometown’s zoo includes staples like costumed fans dancing onstage, fake blood, and lots of confetti. There’s backstage footage of frontman Wayne Coyne frolicking with animals and fans…
It’s Showtime
The Cleveland Cinematheque holds its first-ever Think Local Film Festival this weekend. Five feature movies made by area filmmakers screen. “We really don’t know each other, but we’re a community,” says Rob Lucas, whose American Stories shows tomorrow night. “We all have the same goals and problems. There aren’t too many outlets for us, and…
Organic Jam
Ozomatli formed in 1995, but it’s a true 21st-century band. The Los Angeles nonet blends a variety of native and folk styles, and in a process symbolic of our shrinking world, transforms the cacophony of competing global voices into a bubbling jazz-funk brew. It started with a small revolution. Bassist Wil-Dog Abers belonged to a…
Moviola
Moviola consists of four American dudes from Ohio, a fact the band has always transmuted into myth via its finely crafted rural rock. Nevertheless, 2004’s East of Eager found the group dipping into bluegrass and folk more than any previous release. It’s a good record, but the band lacked its typical moxie, sounding subdued, even…
Wild Cards
Nobody’s life dream is to make birthday cards featuring fedora-sporting monkeys. Most American Greetings artists grew up with loftier and less lucrative aspirations. Fine Lines, now on view at Spaces, lets more than two dozen painters, sculptors, and writers roam free. The juried show includes everything from mixed-media pieces and digital drawings to poems and…
Rentals Check
A lot has changed in the eight years since the Rentals last made a record. For one thing, MySpace and iTunes weren’t around, and downloads were pretty much just a pastime for basement-dwelling computer nerds. “The entire world changed around us,” says frontman Matt Sharp. “We realize that our songs will now end up in…
Why the Hype?
Cleveland, you’re gonna drink a traitor’s blood and barbecue his ribs after reading the next sentence: The Raspberries, those local power-pop darlings from the ’70s, are totally overrated. From Big Star to Badfinger, a Beatlesesque group that fails commercially has always been one of the rock scribe’s wettest dreams. And after the Raspberries’ demise in…
Rat Skates
Born in the Basement documents the early days of Overkill, a New Jersey outfit that emerged from New York’s punk scene in the late ’70s to become also-rans in the thrash-metal movement of the ’80s. The hour-long DVD is basically an autobiography of original drummer Rat Skates, who bailed after the band’s major-label debut in…
Block Party
Cornhole competitors, airborne cyclists, and Yiddish klezmer musicians fill the sidewalks at today’s Warehouse District Street Festival. The fourth-annual bash — which takes place on West Sixth Street and St. Clair Avenue — puts the spotlight on the area’s bars, restaurants, and retailers. “It’s a cultural center,” says event coordinator Marcia Mandell. Best of all,…
Corporate Affair
Canton comedian John Rathbone splits his funny-time between clubs and corporate functions. The appeal of the latter is obvious: They pay much more than nightclub gigs. But there’s a huge drawback, he says. “People say, ‘Make fun of Bob — he likes to fish. Everybody in the company knows he likes to fish. You’re going…
Band of Horses
The video for Band of Horses’ “Funeral” features scratchy, black-and-white footage of a lonely old man drinking himself to death in a smoky bar. His only friends are the bottom of his mug, a jukebox, and memories of a dead dog. The stark imagery fits the morose song as well as the Seattle band’s talented,…
The Flat Can Co.
Screeching feedback and lysergic scuzz rock were the greatest selling points for the Flat Can Co.’s 2006 debut. Since then the quartet has evolved into a ferocious ensemble capable of heady improvisational jamming. Single Live Gonzo! documents a band conducting sweaty groove research à la the Baby Grandmothers and the Who circa 1970’s Live at…
Out of This World
Size indeed matters at tonight’s Super Star Party at the Lake Metroparks’ Penitentiary Glen Reservation. The planet-gazing outing features members of the Chagrin Valley Astronomical Society and their ginormous telescopes. “They’re massive — about 12 to 14 inches across,” says naturalist Becky Parkin. “They really give you an eye-opening experience.” Luckily, many experts will be…
Sounds From Below
Downtown Cleveland’s newest nightclub takes some effort to find, but it’s worth the walk. Underground (75 Public Square, www.itsunderground.com) is named for its location and musical agenda. The bar, which sits behind sidewalk construction and beneath the Santa Fe Café, will host its first major show Friday, August 17. Rap-rock groups R.I.A. and Third Union…
Travis Haddix
After the late, great Robert Lockwood Jr., the Cleveland bluesman known best around the planet is Travis Haddix. The singer and guitarist has been touring Europe regularly since 1992. Long before globe-trotting, however, Haddix was a mainstay of North Coast blues venues. Every ounce of the man’s old-school tutelage is in evidence on Mean Ole…
Fish and Chicks
Estrogen levels rise with the waves at today’s Women’s Day Out on Lake Erie. The fourth-annual outing pits ladies with fishing poles against a lake filled with perch. Organizer Ausra Kaminskas says the event proves that gals can handle a rod and reel just as well as the guys. “A lot of women want to…
Au Revoir Simone
Au Revoir Simone’s synth-pop is as gorgeous as the three brunettes that make up the band. The Casio-centric outfit from Brooklyn began in 2003 when Erika Forster met Annie Hart on a train from Vermont to New York. Delivering lustrous harmonies, Au Revoir Simone has expanded the sonic palette on its latest, The Bird of…
Inn Out
The Inn at Turner’s Mill, an 18-year-old Hudson landmark, announced last week that it will close its doors on Saturday, August 18. In its prime, the upscale suburban dining room did booming business, turning the tables twice even on traditionally slow weeknights and serving as many as 250 covers. Then came the regional economic slowdown,…
The Long Way
Stand-up comedian Dan Long hates giving interviews. He says it reminds him of when he was a kid. “The police would say, ‘Come on over here. We just want to talk to you,’” he recalls. “And right away, I’d clam up.” Long — who made his bones on Los Angeles’ comedy scene, but now lives…
Collie Buddz
Collie Buddz (born Colin Harper) is a white dancehall artist signed to Sony. He sounds like a quick answer to the question “Why is the record industry in trouble?” I mean, it’s bad enough being a white dancehall artist, but one named after pot? Choosing a weed reference for a stage name screams, “I’m an…
Don’t Kick the Bucket
“What’s with the name?” “Who names a restaurant that?” “Mmm . . . rusty buckets. Doesn’t that work up an appetite?” Hardly. But other than taking a few potshots at the Rusty Bucket Corner Tavern’s unappealing moniker, we don’t have much bad to say about this pleasant little pit stop in Solon. Open since May…
Extreme Makeover
The Lake County Fair looks a lot different than it did 157 years ago, when it first started. In fact, it looks a lot different than it did 10 years ago. Organizers added extreme-sports-style competitions to the schedule at the end of the ’90s, and all the motocross stunts and tractor pulls have done wonders…
Tower of Power
Digital sampling has made the concept of live musicians a novel one in R&B and mainstream pop. But apparently, somebody forgot to send the memo to Tower of Power. The horn-laden group started life in Oakland, California in 1967, where it synthesized mellow, Motown-inspired melodies, plaintive vocal harmonies, and chunky, lowrider funk. This makes ToP…
Nerd Love
The latest comic meteorite from the galaxy of producer Judd Apatow, Superbad is about two chronically unpopular best friends who, after four years stuck on the lowest rung of the high-school social ladder, find themselves invited to a legitimately cool party. Goodbye, Friday nights chugging Old Milwaukees in their parents’ furnished basements; hello, getting shit-faced…
Born to Be Mild
Leave your gowns and tuxes at home for tonight’s American Red Cross Biker’s Ball at Jacobs Field. The second-annual bash is all about letting your hair down and dressing up in your best leather chaps and denim skirts. “Loosen your ties and relax,” advises spokeswoman Jenna Tucci. “Wear your bandanas and tattoos.” Country singer Danielle…
Wallace Roney Sextet
In the late ’60s, Miles Davis went electric, embracing rock and funk — a move that alienated the jazz orthodoxy while earning the American icon a new, younger audience. Wallace Roney can probably relate. Graduating from Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the ’80s, the young trumpeter was hailed by some as Miles’ successor. Others, meanwhile,…
Buddy Pick
Light, airy, and sweet, My Best Friend, Patrice Leconte’s latest comedy, swings the director’s favorite premise — fruitful encounters between opposites — away from romance and into the wistful hunger for friendship in a careerist world. To do this, Leconte gives us François, an ambiguously successful antiques dealer who treats everyone around him with the…
Helly, Cleveland! You Suck!
Veteran comic Robert Klein proudly declares that he’s a city boy through and through. “I just love cities,” he says. Too bad he’s so disappointed with ours. “It was like somebody gave a city and no one came,” he says. “I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I was so underwhelmed. I…
