We Are So Scrooged
Imagine, if you can, an entrepreneur addressing a gathering of business owners today and stating: “Mankind — not profit — is our business, the common welfare is our business. Charity, mercy, and forbearance are our business.” That speaker would no doubt be hooted down by the assembled titans of commerce, scorned as a wussy liberal…
Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe
Karl Denson brings the funk to Cleveland once again, powered by his shiny silver flute and lungs that just won’t quit. Denson is a flute evangelist of sorts, converting his instrument from fussy to funky and making true believers out of his audiences. His songs perch quietly at first, as he slowly builds them –…
The Quick &The Dead
When Trentina Perry met Dr. Dinesh Shah for the first time on May 12, 2000, both had much to lose. Perry was pregnant and three days past due with a large, healthy baby. She had already named the boy D’Antre. Shah was director of the maternal-fetal medicine department at MacDonald Women’s Hospital in Cleveland, a…
Homeward Bound
Human beings are the only creatures, as far as we know, who can imagine better lives for themselves and then try to make those situations happen. These dreams — fulfilled, denied, or postponed — make us the fascinating life forms we are. And the best part is, the dreams don’t have to be enormous to…
Kelly Clarkson
To those who feel that American Idol represents the worst aspects of the pop-music assembly line, Kelly Clarkson is just another Mariah Carey clone. However, the Texan’s rags-to-riches back-story touches the part of us that finds something endearing about the high school show-choir aspect of AI; namely, the earnest soloist with professional aspirations, tugging at…
The Stylist Will See You Now
LaDosha Wright gently hangs up the phone, then settles herself into a big black leather seat next to her newest client, her feet tapping to the jazz that envelops her Coventry Road salon. “If you’re coming here looking for Halle Berry hair, or you just want a stylish updo, you should go somewhere else,” she…
On Stage
Fully Committed — Here in Cleveland, it’s hard to imagine the intensity of hypercompetitive New York City dining, where trendy eateries are often booked solid for weeks or even months in advance, leading desperate gastronomes to pull every VIP string or negotiating ploy they can summon to get their name on the reservation list. This…
Clutch
After nearly 13 years of almost nonstop rocking and touring, Clutch has yet to repeat itself. The Maryland-based outfit continues to put out creative, unpredictable music pulling from influences such as Led Zeppelin, the Who, John Coltrane, and Chuck D. From the aggro-hop of 1993’s Transnational Speedway League to the spacey, polyrhythmic, and category-defying compositions…
Let There Be Pigskin
To Councilman Mike Polensek, Thanksgiving Day in 1967 might well have been yesterday. He recalls his mom hugging him, how his “heart just skipped a beat” as he walked onto Municipal Stadium field. That day St. Ignatius, a power then as now, put a whup on Polensek’s undefeated Collinwood. Yet for a city kid, playing…
On View
NEW Katarina Sevic: New Work — After six weeks as artist-in-residence at SPACES (part of the gallery’s World Artists Program), Budapest artist Katarina Sevic has produced a six-minute video and an apparently unrelated proposal for a Free Shop in Cleveland, where “items can be donated and taken with no exchange of money.” The video consists…
Nas
Now that Jay-Z is retired (albeit in theory only), who’s his greatest rival trying to impress with this double-disc extravaganza? Maybe no one but himself: By turns confused, fascinating, frustrating, and brilliant, Street’s Disciple justifies its bloat apparently because Nas needed this much room to work out its musings on race, hip-hop’s roots, family, and…
Never Mind
Dr. John F. Clarke had twice been sued for malpractice, so he knew the drill. In 2000, the 64-year-old family physician suffered a stroke during a routine cyst operation conducted by Dr. Allan Sandel and anesthesiologist Steve Mitchell. As a result, Clarke was forced into early retirement from his Fairlawn family practice. He’ll also get…
Far From Home
It’s probably no more than 40 minutes from downtown Cleveland to LaGrange’s new Grey Hawk Golf Club. But tooling toward the tiny town, on a two-lane road running past farms, fields, and wood lots, is like a trip into the heart of starkness. South of Elyria and west of Grafton, little LaGrange is hardly more…
Gwen Stefani
Gwen Stefani’s obsession with material wealth borders on the pathological on Love, Angel, Music, Baby, the No Doubt frontwoman’s solo debut: She’s got her “million-dollar contract,” she wants to “clean out Vivienne Westwood in my Galliano gown,” she’s “luxurious like Egyptian cotton.” This is tiresome rhetoric, particularly from someone who’s been able to afford high-end…
15 Forever
15 Forever One man’s porn is another man’s choir: I enjoyed your story on Akron Cable Access Channel 15 [“Debbie Does Akron,” November 17], but I was dismayed by the sensationalism, and worse, by the idea that you are playing into the hands of those who would down this valuable public resource. I love Channel…
The Scoop
Wooster’s Woo City Ice Cream Co. is poised to break into the big time. After years of selling mainly to upscale restaurants and natural-foods markets, the maker of 141 flavors of all-natural, mostly organic ice creams, sorbets, and frozen tofu is preparing to launch a nationwide network of franchises. According to company prez David Steel,…
Jay-Z/Linkin Park
A street hustler turned jillionaire entrepreneur, Jay-Z doesn’t need to sell records. And while rap-rock is one of the few holes on his résumé, his semicollaboration with Linkin Park is less easy payday than image rehabilitation: After a few weeks on the road with R. Kelly, Jigga could stand to be seen with some mild-mannered…
Bloody Good
Cleveland Opera has a cheery little holiday production for you: Sweeney Todd, the story of a vengeance-seeking barber, the bloody path he cuts through 19th-century London, and his partner’s mysterious meat pies. “It’s my idea of fun,” laughs Myrna Paris, who plays Mrs. Lovett, the lady behind those tasty delicacies. “I’m proud of them for…
Killing Time
“I wouldn’t consider us a throwback, but I also wouldn’t say we’re reinventing the wheel of rock and roll,” says Ronnie Vannucci, drummer for the Killers. “We’re taking the best parts of the music we were influenced by, putting them in our songs, and making them our own.” The Killers are hardly the only contemporary…
Anthrax
Anthrax is a much more muscular band than it was in its early days. Part of this is due to vocalist John Bush. His earthier, grittier vocals have gradually drawn the band in a rougher direction than they’d probably have pursued if the high-pitched and melody-minded Joey Belladonna had stuck around. This is made clear…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, December 2 In Good Bye, Dragon Inn, a Taiwanese movie theater is showing its final film, a martial-arts pic from the ’60s. A small audience has gathered to watch the flick, look for love, and aimlessly wander the cavernous halls. This meditative film is mostly silent (the movie’s half over by the time the…
Best of the Bedroom
Soul legend Al Green may be a minister, with his own Memphis church. He may have struggled for years, as so many R&B stars have, over the balance between the sacred and the secular, taking a long powder from popular music during the ’80s and ’90s in the process. But if you figure he’s going…
Xe La
Alex “Xe La” Alvarez doesn’t just work hard — the guy works often, hosting three open-mic nights and occasionally rocking out with new-wave art-rock band 3io. Even on a good night — like the one captured here — it’s hard to get a full dose of him in one sitting. Every bit as insightful as…
Butt Check
If Steve Petrencak placed a classified ad, it would read something like this: “SWM, 36, powerlifter from Sagamore Hills, will flex his 15-inch biceps and 39-inch chest for gold.” And he’s hoping the judges will hear his call this weekend at the World Open Bench Press Championships of the International Powerlifting Federation. For the first…
Winging It
The story goes that a sloshed fellow in a bar claimed that the glam band Poison was the Eagles of death metal. Jesse “the Devil” Hughes was around to hear this declaration, and it inspired him to concoct one of the silliest bands of all time, Eagles of Death Metal. There are other stories of…
Dead Boys
Be forewarned: If you buy this DVD for your family’s resident punk fanatic this holiday season — and you most definitely should — he/she may spontaneously combust from excitement, and this fiery film may just set off ol’ Tannenbaum, as well. Live at CBGB’s is the stuff punk-rock dreams are made of: a three-camera, full-color,…
Bewitched
12/2 – 12/4 Think of Hansel and Gretel as an up-and-coming holiday tradition. While Engelbert Humperdinck’s 1893 opera may not be as widely performed as Handel’s Messiah or The Nutcracker, the Cleveland Orchestra hopes to change all that with its production this weekend — the first time it’s performed the piece in more than 40…
Thursdaze
Everyone wants to be Jason Byers’ friend tonight. It’s not just because he’s the guy filling shot glasses to the brim and popping the caps off one Budweiser after the next with a quick flick of the wrist, an angler casting for well-dressed drunks. Byers, who tends bar at the Garage, is also the frontman…
Greg Morton
Greg Morton contributed voices to such Hanna-Barbera cartoons as The Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show and The New Flintstones, he’s a regular on The Bob and Tom Show, and he’s renowned for his dead-on pop-star impressions. But we suggest you see him for his two-minute rendition of the Star Wars trilogy (the good one).
Return of the Steelhead
WED 12/8 The 60-mile trip to Kirtland for their monthly meetings got old really fast for Bill Grake and his fishing buddies from Lorain County. So in January, they founded the Firelands Fly Fishers. In less than a year, the group has grown to 40 members, who meet on the second Wednesday of every month…
Major-Label Love
Canton’s Lovedrug inked a deal in April with rising indie The Militia Group, hoping to use the California emo label as a stepping-stone to a major label. That day has already come: The artfully rocking band has signed to Columbia Records. Lovedrug’s current LP, Pretend You’re Alive, will be rereleased in February as a joint…
Scott Holt Band
After a childhood of exposure to country, ’50’s rock and roll, and Southern gospel, Scott Holt found religion when he heard Jimi Hendrix. He didn’t start playing guitar until he was 19, but, inspired by Stevie Ray Vaughn, he caught on quickly. Before striking out as a solo artist, Holt served a 10-year apprenticeship under…
Battle States
THU 12/2 ‘Tis the season — to get into shoving matches at Wal-Mart over the last Cabbage Patch Kid. To scream at the maniac in the SUV for cutting you off. And to tell your co-workers what you really think of them at the office Christmas party. Ron McMillan has a solution. The co-author of…
Jesse Malin
In the solo work he’s released since the dissolution of his casually tolerated glam-punk outfit D Generation, New York-based roots-rocker Jesse Malin has done quite a bit to cultivate a reputation as a solipsistic fuckface. Actually, that’s unfair — the sort of name-calling that benefits no one except seekers of cheap laughs, a constituency handily…
Honey I Scorched the Kids
SAT 12/4 Back in the day, Jason Ringenberg was at the forefront of the cowpunk movement. In the ’80s, as leader of Jason & the Scorchers, he kicked country music in the ass by playing it twice or even three times its normal speed, injecting it with much-needed fervor. These days, Ringenberg is doing the…
DJ Heather
Dancefloor Principles, the latest from DJ Heather of the house-centered, Chicago-based Super Jane Collective, marked the sixth anniversary of Vancouver, B.C.’s Sonar nightclub, a haven for all genres of dance music in the Pacific Northwest. Putting her extensive talents to work, DJ Heather creates a disc that captures the experience of spinning a set created…
Closer to Fine
Mike Nichols’ new film, Closer, is a boiling pot of lust, mistrust, and double-dealing that might well be taken for outright soap opera — or, in quite a few places, soft-core porn — were it not for the sophisticated gleam of its well-heeled London desperadoes and its viciously dazzling dialogue. Adapted from a bitterly funny…
Tegan and Sara
The whole girl-with-a-guitar genre is like your first “A Woman Needs a Man Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle” bumper sticker: Its overt earnestness is initially very empowering and, subsequently, extremely embarrassing, once you’ve moved out of the dorm and into the messy, “post-feminist” world full of things like strap-ons and Peaches (wait — is…
Boy Meets Whirlwind
Movies pushing the indomitableness of human nature tend to make me puke, mainly because they’re often created with a palpably self-congratulatory air by film-biz insiders whose real-life concept of “suffering” extends to being brought an incorrectly prepared frappuccino. This emetic response is doubled when the featured indomitable human being happens to be a little boy…
Alvin Youngblood Hart
Back in the ’90s, just as the blues’ first full generation of white practitioners began to gray and the black masters of the form departed with greater frequency, up popped a handful of young African American artists seemingly bound and determined to claim their legacy and revitalize blues from the bottom up. Artists such as…
His Will Be Done
Hey, have you heard about that new Danish film that came out in September? Distributed by Lars von Trier’s Zentropa Entertainments, has the same star as one of the Dogme ’95 movies, and features a dysfunctional family full of people who yell at each other? Wait . . . don’t run away! It’s a good…
Boyz II Men
By sales figures, at least, Boyz II Men still claim the title of the world’s most successful R&B act, and it’s undeniable that their doo-wop-inspired singles resuscitated harmony singing in urban music. But after reaching almost unimaginable commercial heights during the early ’90s, the group has experienced a slow but steady slide. As teenage imitators…
