Grand Prix Fixe
From the moment the doorman throws open the portals to the instant we daintily dab the last crumb from our lips, a visit to Century, in the downtown Ritz-Carlton, always leaves us feeling indulged. And that’s especially the case during the holidays, when the hotel sparkles with elegant Christmas decorations and the decked-out Avenue at…
Happy Halle Days
Ever wonder what woodland animals get for Christmas? Visitors to Woodland Halle Days at the Penitentiary Glen Nature Center in Kirtland will find out exactly what Father Nature, a sort of “Santa for nature,” is working on for his furry and feathered friends. Father Nature’s cabin is nestled within the Lake Metroparks’ indoor winter wonderland.…
Serious Fun
“We’re really not humping dogs, you know,” Blink-182 singer/guitarist/ millionaire wiseacre Tom Delonge clarifies during a recent phone interview. Few rock stars have felt the need to explain themselves in such a way. But when you’re in a band that’s known for running bare-ass through videos, writing songs about having sex with Hitler, and displaying…
A Measure of Angst
Let us list the ways that Hedwig and the Angry Inch, John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s musical at Cleveland Public Theatre, is like The Rocky Horror Show: Both works feature transvestites as protagonists, both are fueled by glam-rock scores, and both have stirred up a cult following that elicits get-a-life eye-rolling from much of…
Say Everything
What’d I Say: The Atlantic Story, 50 Years of Music is not your typical rock book. It’s big, self-indulgent, and self-serving. But for anecdotes and pictures (the copious photographs are knockouts), Ahmet Ertegun’s valentine to himself and his Atlantic label is a keeper. If you can lift it. Getting a handle on this book isn’t…
New Year’s Eve 2001
CLUBS & RESTAURANTS Abbasso/Bottom’s Up: House DJs Travis Owens and Quantum rock in 2002, as guests gorge on an all-you-can-eat gourmet buffet and open bar until 1 a.m. Put on your sexiest outfit and you might win a bottle of Dom Perignon during the “Solid Gold 2” costume contest. Open till 5 a.m.; tickets are…
Music Around Us
Come wintertime, trying to catch a national act in Cleveland can be an exercise in frustration. Granted, the holiday season and the new year are universal downtimes for touring, but Ohio’s inclement weather makes the few bands that are on the road hesitant to visit from the end of December through early spring. In an…
Eyes Half Open
Beneath the hazy, mystifying layers of Vanilla Sky lies a remarkable Tom Cruise performance — one that, to a great extent, takes place beneath a makeup artist’s piled-on scars and a costumer’s blank “prosthetic” mask. As David Aames, hipster publisher of Maxim-like magazines, Cruise plays a lothario so vain, he plucks out a single gray…
Angels of Light
Even when he’s trying to be romantic, Michael Gira can’t quite shake the rage, obsessiveness, and self-loathing that fueled the Swans for two decades. These days, he’s gained some distance, though; perhaps the persona he’s built up has become amusing to him. “I used to think that everyone else in the world was an enemy,”…
American Why
It took five men to concoct the hackneyed plot and conceive the brainless jokes that constitute Not Another Teen Movie, meaning there are five men in Los Angeles right now still trying to wash that stink off their soft, idle hands. Five men — five men, the very thought boggles the mind — came up…
Nelly Furtado
Nelly Furtado says she wants to be Jack Kerouac, Mona Lisa, Gandhi, and Mother Teresa all at the same time, which is unlikely. What is likely is that she’ll be around for quite some time, thumbing her nose at the short shelf life of the teen icon, which Furtado is pitching herself as — her…
Jerry Meander
David Grisman and Jerry Garcia met as young folk-roots fans-cum-musicians attending a Bill Monroe concert in 1964. Garcia, as you may have heard, went on to form the Grateful Dead; when the Dead began to incorporate more country elements into their music, they used mandolin ace Grisman memorably on their fifth (and arguably greatest) studio…
Method Man/Redman
The last time Method Man and Redman teamed up for an album, the duo turned in a minor masterpiece. You wouldn’t expect a pair of mushmouthed MCs to complement one another so well, but then again, they are two of hip-hop’s top mic rockers, and Blackout! proved it. That was two years ago. Since then,…
The New Enemy
The young men were still sleeping when the agents banged on their door. “INS,” one said. “Let us in.” When the door opened, nine immigration and FBI agents barged into the apartment. “I open my eyes, and I see a big fellow over me [saying,] ‘Wake up,'” remembers Assaf Manzur. The agents let the four…
Aerosmith
Back so soon? Aerosmith last brought its Gin ‘n’ Geritol act to town a whole five months ago, aurally turfing Blossom’s pristine lawn with boneheaded power-ballad furor — “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing,’ “Amazin’,” etc. — and an anemic, dinosaur-rock “new record” (Just Push Play) to promote. Fans wailed, critics moaned, roadies shagged, end…
A Family Framed
The parking lot of the Giant Eagle in Brook Park bustles with cars and shopping carts well into the evening. This makes for a rotten place to dump a body. Yet it was here, around 8:45 on a crisp February evening, that a shopper discovered Tracy Mora. She was dressed in an oversized Indians jacket,…
No Doubt
Gwen Stefani was everywhere this year. Or at least it seemed that way. Moby’s wan “South Side” became a much better song after the No Doubt singer’s spunky appearance sparked the remix, and her cred-defining cameo on Eve’s “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” made for one super girl-power single. Suddenly, Stefani was getting props from…
The Good Kid
David Williams has wardrobe problems. Whenever he talks about his son, his brawny chest puffs out an extra two inches. “I’m going to have to get a new shirt size,” he laughs. There are few things more beautiful than a father’s pride in his children. And Williams has ample justification. His son, Eddie Wilson, just…
Ralph Stanley & Friends
Imagine being defined by your voice all your life and then discovering that your voice is gone. At some point, all singers who keep at it long enough have to face this inevitability and make a choice: keep singing as they always have and accept that their vocals will never again be as physically or…
The Reluctant Expert
David Forte was watching President Bush’s September speech to Congress when he heard his own words come from the President’s mouth. After September 11, the Cleveland-Marshall law professor had become a man of the moment in Washington conservative circles. A friend at a think tank sent some of Forte’s writings on Islam to several Bush…
Dark Funeral
Metal is the greatest rock genre, because it’s irony-free. There are no postmodern winks in metal. Like pro wrestlers, metal bands never give away the fact that it’s all a show — at least not onstage. This can be a good thing. After all, if the listener ever got the merest hint that guitarist Kerry…
Slick ‘n’ Scruffy
Unless you’re Mister Bubble, charm, candor, and a case of free bath products will only get you so far in this world. Melissa Hostetler and Allen Harrison know this, but they don’t actually believe it. Last winter, during the darkest days of the dot-coms, the pair of partially grown-up punk rockers launched an online magazine…
3 Ft.
On 3 Ft.’s debut, there’s more of the former than the latter. With the exception of one cut on this overlong 16-track disc, every song (including the skits) is about bangin.’ It’s cool to represent, but come on, even gangstas have fun every now and then. Even thugs occasionally crack smiles in addition to skulls.…
Days of Wine and Gold
Today’s Cavaliers don’t deserve our support: Just read Pete Kotz’s piece on the Cavs [“Bad News Cavs,” November 8]. I don’t like to refer to them as the “Cavs.” That was a marketing ploy and an abbreviation to fit on a uniform — which, by the way, is the worst in the NBA, nay professional…
Yuletide Kicks
When The Nutcracker flew the coop two years ago, Cleveland’s holiday theater season lost its sheen. The city found itself in a depressed mill-town funk. Yet, last Friday, when Mayor-elect Jane Campbell stepped onto the State Theatre’s splendiferously decked-out stage in her jade-green evening gown, she had good news to deliver: This would be the…
Dark Victory
It is December 5, the day AOL Time Warner-owned DC Comics has been anxiously awaiting for almost 15 years–the day writer-illustrator Frank Miller once more dons cape and cowl to resurrect the Dark Knight, his fiercely rendered vision of an obscenely obsessed middle-aged Batman. Today, stores will finally open their doors to those waiting for…
Burning Desires
Step into Fire, chef-owner Doug Katz’s marvel on Shaker Square, and the aromas of roasting meats trigger images of ancient hunters hunkered down beside a roaring bonfire. Primordial hungers begin pulsing through the blood; essence of bear and buffalo tickle the imagination. Scent, indeed, is a wonderful appetizer, and it’s the complimentary first course at…
