Cleveland Museum of Art hosts The Lovely Bones sneak preview
Peter Jackson’s (Lord of the Rings, King Kong) adaptation of the Alice Sebold novel The Lovely Bones doesn’t open in Cleveland until January 15. But at 6:30 Wednesday, Jan. 6, the Cleveland Museum of Art hosts a free sneak preview of the film, which stars Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Susan Sarandon. Though the screening…
The ten worst movies of the year
1. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Nearly as sickeningly indulgent and morally reprehensible as Michael Bay’s last putrid sequel, Bad Boys. Notice I said, “nearly.” Be thankful for small favors. 2. The Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day If a not-terribly bright, sexually confused 13-year-old boy who had seen Pulp Fiction too many times wrote…
45365 returns to Cleveland Museum of Art
A couple of years ago, brothers Bill and Turner Ross quit their Hollywood jobs and returned to Sidney, Ohio, to make a documentary about life in small-town America. For their film, 45365, they followed several subjects, including a man who gets arrested, the high-school football team and a woman preparing for her wedding. “For a…
ROKAKIS SAYS THANKS BUT NOT THANKS
Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis says he will not seek the new county executive position next fall. Rokakis’ proclamation came as he announced a six-month moratorium on foreclosures for delinquent property taxes, according to PD scribe Henry Gomez. The moratorium is expected to give relief to about 1,700 owners already in the foreclosure process. Those…
A Q &A with (500) Days of Summer director Marc Webb
Told out-of-order (like Memento), (500) Days of Summer is a break-up movie that’s as much a coming-of-age story as a romantic comedy. You see the break-up happen early on. While that would normally ruin any sort of suspense, this dramedy (or “bromance,” if you will) doesn’t suffer for its out-of-sequence narrative. Rather, the relationship between…
Money Where Your Mouth Is: The Strange Familiar
Here’s where we let a band speak for itself to plug a show, ’cuz we’re busting our butt, trying to get out of here early to hit the barbershop so we look good for the Christmas party. Today we have the Strange Familiar, which grew out of longtime local favorites Jaded Era. Click here to…
This Just In: Concert Announcements
Backyard Tire Fire: Sat., May 1. 9 p.m., $10. Beachland Tavern. George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic: Tue., Feb. 16, 8 p.m., $32 ADV/four-pack of general admission tickets $96 (LiveNation.com). House of Blues. Norman Connors: Sat., Feb. 13, two shows: 8 and 10 p.m., $30. Nighttown. Copeland: Fri., Mar. 12. 8 p.m., $15 ADV. Musica. Band…
VOINOVICH LOVES PORK, HATES THE TROOPS
Alleged “deficit hawk” Senator George Voinovich loves to rail about spending, but never fails to pat himself on the back for bringing home the bacon. In his latest press release, he bragged about the $69.2 million coming to Ohio from the just-passed FY 2010 Defnese Appropriation bill, thanks to Voinovich’s position on the Senate Appropriations…
Nine sneak preview at Cinematheque on Sunday
The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque’s Fellini series is almost over, but as one final hurrah, the theater hosts a sneak preivew of Nine, the film based on the Broadway musical that’s based on Fellini’s classic film 8 1/2. Directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago), the movie stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz,…
BRUNNER STIRS THE POT
When U.S. Senate candidate Jennifer Brunner ventured to Washington D.C. Wednesday night for a fundraiser, she did quite a bit more than raise a few bucks in her attempt to keep her campaign viable in the face of her Democratic primary opponent Lee Fisher’s seasoned fundraising machine. She also talked to National Journal’s Hotline, which…
12-18 & 12/20-22: Holiday Shows at Nighttown
Helen Welch Cleveland Heights’ Nighttown will be bursting at the seams with holiday spirit this week. Tonight is the second of two nights of jazz vocalist Helen Welch’s “Jungle Bell Swing,” with shows at 7 and 9 p.m. Then, on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, December 20-22, Great American Songbook maven Bill Rudman will present his…
Nighttown Holiday Shows This Weekend
Helen Welch Cleveland Heights’ Nighttown will be bursting at the seams with holiday spirit this week. Tonight is the second of two nights of jazz vocalist Helen Welch’s “Jungle Bell Swing,” with shows at 7 and 9 p.m. Then, on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, December 20-22, Great American Songbook maven Bill Rudman will present his…
ANOTHER DEM IN SECRETARY OF STATE RACE?
We’ve reported recently on how unhappy many progressives are with the Ohio Democratic Party’s current candidate for secretary of state in next year’s election. State Representative Jennifer Garrison of Marietta has a track record of being anti-gay marriage and anti-choice and no apparent interest in elections issues, the most significant part of the secretary of…
Gartner Auditorium prepares to reopen
Though the Cleveland Museum of Art’s recently renovated Gartner Auditoirum doesn’t open to the public until February 28, the museum hosted a media preview yesterday. While construction workers continued to put the finishing touches on the venue, a handful of media representatives walked through the hall as Massoud Saidpour, director of performing arts, music, and…
SPARE THE ROD? NAH, LET HIM SUFFER (UPDATED)
You gotta love when a self-righteous scumbag falls on his face. The Columbus Dispatch reports that Ohio’s biggest rightwing douchebag is in trouble: The Rev. Rod Parsley has issued a desperate plea for money, telling his flock that he is facing a “demonically inspired financial attack” that is threatening his ministry. Parsley is asking for…
FITZGERALD ENTERS COUNTY FRAY
Lakewood Mayor Ed FitzGerald has joined the jostling for the new county executive post created by the passage of Issue 6. The ambitious FitzGerald — he’s been positioning for a move into county politics for months — says he has the skills to restore public faith in a scandal-plagued government. “This corruption scandal is not…
Free Xmas (re)Mix Download
Click here to download Christmas Remixed, a free holiday mix by misterbradleyp, one of the resident DJs from the B-Side Liquor Lounge. It’s a 41MB download, one long mp3 file. It uses dance beats and big-band strings to flow from new Xmas tunes by Snoop Dogg to old favorites by Billie Holiday. —D.X. Ferris
Local web series mockuments the making of an indie film
A few years ago, local filmmaker Matt Pallotta started thinking about making a movie about making a movie. But he wanted to have a little more experience from which to draw. “I had the basic premise a couple of years ago but hadn’t gotten my hands dirty enough to make something about independent filmmaking because…
New Inhale Exhale Video
Inhale Exhale debuted a new video, “Did You Ever Have a Touch to Lose?” on AOL’s Noisecreep this week. It’s the Canton-Akron metal band’s first video from Bury Me Alive, their raging third album for Christian metal label Solid State/Tooth & Nail. They just wrapped a tour with buzz band Iwrestledabearonce. You can see the…
Crispin Glover on 669
Crispin Glover was in town Friday to screen two of his films at the Cineamtheque and do some early plugging for his upcoming role in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. He stopped by the WCSB 89.3 FM studios to appear on 669, a longrunning cult show that plays like an underground, heavy-metal version of The…
The Fuzzy Stones Get in the Holiday Spirit
The Fuzzy Stones, the locally based animated band that plays kids music for rock fans of all ages, has partnered with University Hospitals/Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospitals for a promotion involving sales of its CD Get it Together, a collection of 11 original tunes about favorite colors (“Blue”) and puppy love (“Little Red Dot”). Half…
Fisticuff Wants Your Vote
Akron’s Fisticuff have reached the semi-final round of this year’s Project Independent contest. More than 900 groups entered; the local metal band is one of 63 remaining. The winner will receive a spot on a national tour and $50,000 in gear. Semifinals’ voting ends on Sunday. —D.X. Ferris
Flimsy premise sinks Did You Hear About the Morgans?
Did You Hear About the Morgans? has such a flimsy premise, it’s almost not worth explaining. But the story goes something like this. Paul Morgan (Hugh Grant) is a lawyer who cheated on his wife Meryl (Sarah Jessica Parker) while on a business trip. She found out and now they’re separated. Only he’s trying to…
Free Class About Holiday Songs (There Won’t Be a Quiz)
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame CEO Terry Stewart will host a free night class about the history of rock and roll holiday records tonight. The class is part of the Rock Hall’s ongoing, free Rock and Roll Night School program. Expect him to cover A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector, Woody Guthrie’s…
12/23: Bears at the Beachland
In the spirit of the season, Bears plan to throw their upbeat harmonies and effervescent keyboard plunking into a few non-traditional Christmas songs to mix up their set at this year’s Yulesville Pre-Holiday Bash. The warm tones that radiate from the local band’s swoon-worthy vocals and subtle handclaps help you forget that they’re singing about…
12/22: Grant Hart at the Grog Shop
Bridging rock’s evolutionary gap between 1970s punk and post-Pixies grunge, Hüsker Dü were one of the ’80s coolest and most influential college-radio bands. The group’s kinetic songs alternated vocal and songwriting duties between its creative core of drummer Grant Hart and guitarist Bob Mould. After Hüsker Dü’s 1987 split, Hart recorded solo and with a…
12/21: Burning River Brass Band
Just back from a gig at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (where they played in the Medieval Sculpture Galleries), the Burning River Brass is home for the holidays. You can’t get more festive than a dozen musicians with trumpets, tubas and trombones … unless you add a mighty pipe organ to the mix. And…
12/20: Mercury Summer Stock’s Winter Wonderland
Winter Wonderland, Mercury Summer Stock’s annual family holiday event, serves the double-barreled purpose of raising money for the theater and stirring up excitement for its next summer season. This year’s theme is “Any Dream Will Do,” heralding its upcoming production of the ol’ standby Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Actors will be on hand…
12/19: Jingle Bell Follies at Union Station/Bounce
WingedHeart Productions is a new Cleveland theater company that will present gay-interest productions, starting with Love! Valour! Compassion! in February. But it’s already swinging into action with tonight’s Jingle Bell Follies, “A Night of Music and Mayhem” benefiting Providence House (which provides services for children in crisis). The charitable event features an all-star lineup of…
12/19 & 20: Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the Q
A Christmas tradition that seemingly knows no bounds, Trans-Siberian Orchestra has taken its show to more cities and bigger venues since forming in 1999. This season’s tour, which kicked off in early November, runs through early January. TSO is so popular these days, it takes two different touring groups to bring the synth-heavy rock opera…
12/19: Thirty Seconds to Mars at HOB
Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman Jared Leto is kind of a douche. He’s surly, confrontational and generally unpleasant. Maybe it’s just another role for the actor, best known for My So-Called Life, Fight Club and Requiem for a Dream. Maybe “asshole rock star” is his performance of a lifetime. None of that would matter much…
12/19: Jim Brickman at PlayhouseSquare
Most noteworthy Cleveland Institute of Music alumni perform while sitting in orchestral chairs or standing next to conductors. Pianist Jim Brickman has built a whole different kind of career. To some, his compositions are background music; to others, it’s good date music. He doesn’t mind either setting. Brickman credits CIM theory professor Marshall Griffith with…
12/19: Last Minute Handmade Market
The last place you’d look for a rivalry is within the community of people who make local handmade gifts — even if we are talking about Cleveland and Pittsburgh craftsmen. But the Last Minute Handmade Market and Screw Factory Open Studio distinguishes itself with a little competition on Saturday. A cooperative venture among Screw Factory…
12/18: Ugly Radio Rebellion at The Wincester
Ike Willis had been Frank Zappa’s guitarist and right-hand man for more than a decade and a half when he made a promise to Zappa just prior to the legend’s passing in 1993. Willis vowed to keep Zappa’s music alive for subsequent generations — an oath he’s kept through his work with Zappa cover bands…
12/18: Black Poetics Society at CMA
Three times a month, the Cleveland Museum of Art sponsors the Nia Coffeehouse at Karamu House and Coventry Village Library, an open-mic-style event that gives poets and jazz musicians a chance to strut their stuff. From 6:30-9 tonight, a very special Nia Coffeehouse (under the auspices of the Black Poetic Society) called Inside the Pro(s)…
12/18: African Soul International
Sista Jewel Jackson is a force of nature. Ever since she founded the African Soul International dance company in 1998, her relentlessly upbeat personality has been lighting up rooms full of people who know nothing about African dance but can’t resist her energy and her drummers’ rhythms. Besides the many festivals where local audiences have…
VOINOVICH: MORE MACHINE NOW THAN MAN
We keep hoping that Senator George Voinovich will show some evidence of deserving the “moderate” and “deficit hawk” descriptors that the mainstream lazily bestow on him at every mention. But he keeps disappointing us — and frankly, it hurts. We can’t go on like this, so we’re ending it, now. And for the record, it’s…
(Her) Back to the Future
Nothing beats the drama of rags to riches, and art history is full of humble beginnings that end up as star turns. In 1889, Monsieur Volpini’s Café des Arts, located at that year’s big Exposition Universelle in the center of Paris, seemed an unlikely venue for enduring art. Yet it was here that the movement…
Local CD Reviews
Rare Blend (self-released) rareblend.net Veteran Cleveland instrumental act Rare Blend, which centers on the duo of keyboardist Bobbi Holt and guitarist Victor Samalot, offers 14 live and one-take tracks on their fifth album. They deftly balance guitar-dominated sections that lean gently toward rock with moderately aggressive keyboard sections that avoid the new-age trap. While some…
GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS
There are many ways for Northeastern Ohioans to actualize their holiday season. First and foremost, there’s the prophet Bing, tapping his pipe and bestowing his magical baritone rendition of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” to win World War II and forever defining our Yuletide yearnings. Then there are all those churches, malls, the Internet and, for…
Contact High
Usually when bands say “We don’t sound like anyone else” or coyly refuse to name influences, you can categorize them and pick out their influences in a second. When you slip Mr. Gnome’s new CD, Heave Yer Skeleton, into iTunes, what comes up in the “genre” column is “unclassifiable.” And for once, that’s pretty much…
MORE FAIRY DUST, PLEASE
Christmas season is when cash cows appear in the local theatrical pasture, as companies bring out the old reliables (A Christmas Story, A Christmas Carol, The Santaland Diaries) that haul in bountiful houses and much-needed moolah. So it’s unsurprising that the Beck Center is again treating us to Peter Pan, its latest annual holiday extravaganza. …
‘I HAD TO WAKE UP THE WIDOWS’
An excerpt from chapter 11 of Gimme Rewrite, Sweetheart: Tales From the Last Glory Days of Cleveland Newspapers by John H. Tidyman. Death is an integral part of life, and few stories are as reportable or readable. Shondor Birns went up in a mighty roar, followed by flames and smoke. His appendages were scattered hither…
‘Tis the Season to Be Fragging
TOP PICK Left 4 Dead 2 (EA) The follow-up to one of the best zombie shooters ever is the most cathartic game you’ll play this season (not much beats blasting the heads off the flesh-hungry undead). There’s an arsenal of chainsaws, axes, grenade launchers and gas cans to play around with on the Xbox 360.…
FORCED HOT AIR
In 2004, the Ohio legislature stripped cities of the power to regulate gas and oil drilling within their borders and gave it to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR). Little noticed at the time, the law has proven increasingly controversial, as drilling has spread from rural to exurban and even suburban communities (see Scene’s…
IN THE MOOD FOR SOMETHING … DIFFERENT
VINE & BEAN CAFÉ 12706 Larchmere Blvd. 216.707.3333, vineandbeancafe.com Swapping scones for biscuits might be considered treasonous down South, but Heather Haviland does it to no ill effect in her deliciously homespun biscuits and gravy ($11.25). A split cheddar-scallion scone is topped with gently scrambled eggs, ladlefuls of creamy sausage gravy and a sprinkling of…
The Emerald Dilemma
In Norse mythology, a great ash tree called Yggdrasil holds up the world. Inside the tree, a serpent — Nidhogg, the tearer of corpses — gnaws away at the wood and roots, weakening the tree. Living beneath the tree are giants, who guard the wells of wisdom and fate that feed its roots. At stake…
CD Review: Animal Collective
It could be argued that Animal Collective should stick to EPs. The group’s tripped-out sonic concepts are most effective in limited-format bursts. Exhibit A: last year’s exhilaratingly wiggy Water Curses EP. Exhibit B: the new five-track Fall Be Kind, an immersive bit of oddity that runs counter to the poppier straightforwardness of January’s full-length Merriweather…
CD Review: Manu Choa
Latin Grammy and sold-out U.S. tour aside, singer-guitarist Manu Chao is hardly a household name in North America. Yet he’s an international star, something this excellent live collection taken from an inspired show in France proves. Between the two CDs and single DVD here, Chao offers a little bit of everything. Highlights include the Clash-inspired…
CD Review: Allison Iraheta
What 16-year-old Allison Iraheta brought to the most recent season of American Idol was rock-chick spunk, a goofy teen countenance, a fondness for hair products and the husky, Marlboro-stained belt of a singer three times her age. What the now 17-year-old Allison Iraheta brings to her debut album, Just Like You, is a diluted version…
CD Review: Clipse
The Thornton siblings return with the follow-up to 2006’s critically acclaimed second disc, Hell Hath No Fury, but fail to match its fire. Blame for the wait — after their last long-delayed album — may lie with the meticulously crafted sound and a raft of guest appearances. Overall, it’s a mixed bag. Jettisoning the grim,…
Film Capsules
Opening American Casino (US, 2009) A documentary about the recent sub-prime mortgage meltdown. Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. At 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 18, and 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 19. Avatar Reviewed at clevescene.com. Did You Hear About the Morgans? Reviewed at clevescene.com. Easy Rider (U.S., 1969) In Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, author Peter Biskind…
WILDER AT HEART
Like The Graduate and Jerry Maguire, Up in the Air, the new film from director Jason Reitman (Juno) is that increasing rarity in Hollywood today: a true zeitgeist movie that speaks directly to how we live now, how we got here and where we’re heading. Without sugarcoating or pandering, Air is also that increasing cinematic…
Reel Cleveland: Still Bill
Matthew Wilkening moved from Boston to Akron about two months ago with his fiancée, a psychologist with family in the area. As a “good way to introduce himself” to the music and arts community, he’s hosting a screening of Still Bill, a feature-length documentary about soul singer Bill Withers, best known for the songs “Lean…
Survival Story
The Road is an apocalypse movie. But unlike Roland Emmerich’s recent 2012, it’s not a film about the mechanics of destruction. Rather, it’s concerned with the effects such devastation would have on the survivors. As is the case with the Cormac McCarthy book upon which it’s based, there doesn’t seem to be much hope. Groups…
Around Hear: Stocking Stuffers
Akron zine Coreography Council has assembled a big, cheap multimedia stocking stuffer for local-music fans. The Volume Two comp includes a 20-page comic book by Matt Horak (the artist who created artwork for the last two Houseguest records) and three professionally duplicated CDs stuffed with 49 Akron/Kent bands. “The first CD is mellow stuff,” says…
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
Despite premiering to justifiable critical acclaim at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival, Richard Linklater’s (Before Sunset, Slacker) enchanting Me and Orson Welles languished in exhibition limbo for nearly a year before finally securing an American distribution deal. Yet instead of the Weinstein-era Miramax or present-day Sony Classics — two savvy distributors who could have parlayed…
Charles in Charge
The Charles Bronson in Bronson is a real person. But it’s not the hard-ass Death Wish actor. This Charles Bronson is a hard-ass British prison inmate who’s spent 30 of his 34 years behind bars in solitary confinement. It all started with a post-office robbery, but numerous brawls extended his original seven-year sentence into a…
Arts District: The Orchestra’s Budget
A small group of invited guests took a look at the result of the collaboration between David Shimotakahara and his GroundWorks Dancetheater ensemble with choreographer Dianne McIntyre and composer Olu Dara to create a new dance piece. Last week at Cleveland City Dance’s Shaker Square studios, the company previewed an as-yet untitled piece they’ll debut…
Jam on It
Comparing emo rockers with jam bands is like trying to find similarities between lemon juice and bleach. They’re on opposite sides of the spectrum, and the combination can sound nightmarish. Casual Encounters, who play this weekend as part of the annual holiday bash put on by indie record stores Music Saves and Square Records, take…
