The Straight Dope
What’s the story with the mysterious hum in Taos, New Mexico? I remember it was a popular subject among screwballs and scientists with nothing better to do in the early ’90s, but I haven’t heard much about it since. Is it a seismic phenomenon? Alien signals? Why can only certain people hear it and not…
Radiant Vision
On his travels along the rim of the Mediterranean Sea, Italian photographer Mimmo Jodice sought nothing less than radiance–in the landscapes, the Greek and Roman ruins of ancient towns, and the turbulent waters. Sometimes that radiance was manipulated with darkroom techniques (a blurred “starburst” achieved by moving the enlarger head during exposure); other times, he…
Letters
Free Speech When I Say So In response to Serene Dominic’s December 3 article “Kiss the Culprit,” I have been an avid reader of Scene for the past twenty years. Scene has done an incredible job serving the music industry in Cleveland, and I fear all of your hard work may be taken away with…
No Business Like Joe Business
Some people like their Bible stories served straight, with no frills. Others require florid and sexy embellishment, with large dollops of DeMille-type extravaganza and heavy breathing. The culturally inclined may prefer their Authorized Version refined by Richard Strauss high jinks for coloraturas. Then, there are those who like their Bible set to soft rock music…
“Heart’s Delight” at Bo Loong
A little bit of this and a little bit of that. That’s the essence of dim sum, the tiny treats traditionally associated with China’s long, leisurely tea rituals. The name roughly translates into “pierce the heart” or “heart’s delight.” And like Spanish tapas or Greek meze, dim sum is a collection of small dishes meant…
Verdict in Santaland
This will go down in local history as the year Cleveland Public Theatre slew family values with its parade of baby-doll convenience store nihilists, chattering vaginas, depraved circus artists, and the jaded bon mots of an ancient British pansy. In such an atmosphere, the likes of Ozzie and Harriet didn’t stand the chance of two…
A King Without Country
Give Norman Nardini a personal trainer, some ‘roids, and a bottle of peroxide, he could be a star of WCW. He’s got the patter of pro wrestler down cold. He is the self-declared high priest of the church of rock and roll. The uncrowned king. A scrappy little prick. Pound for pound, round for round,…
Makin’ the Scene
December 14, the Jazz Unit’s regular Monday night gig at the Bop Stop, doubled as a CD release party. The 22-year-old outfit founded by Jack Schantz recorded a disc of all-original music. Choices is believed to be the first big band recording in Cleveland since the early ’70s. “You hear sounds in our music you…
Lake Erie Surf
In the fall of 1995, forces converged at a rest stop in Elkhart, Indiana, creating a surf band. After catching a Dick Dale show in Chicago, three musicians–Rich Griffith, Mark Healy, and Rick Frei–were left stranded when their car broke down on their way home to Akron. As luck would have it, Dale’s Winnebago came…
Bright Idea
The rosy-cheeked Santa on the highway billboard advertising the Zmija family’s holiday lights display doesn’t tell the whole story. Nor does the Times Square-worthy arch on their square of front yard, proclaiming “Walk-Thru Christmas Display” in twinkling script. The Christmas spirit is beginning to wear on Lee and Cathy Zmija, the Cuyahoga Heights homeowners who…
Night & Day
Thursday December 17 Watching Karamu Theatre’s majestic staging of Black Nativity is kind of like sitting inside a Christmas ornament. The singers and dancers are garbed in shimmering gowns and richly colored robes for this 1961 work, which sets the gentle yet powerful lyrical poetry of Karamu alum Langston Hughes to gospel music. The first…
A Night at the Races
It’s a warm December night, and colored neon signs beckon across the starless sky. “AMERICA RACES HERE.” “CLEVELAND’S CASINO.” A flickering image depicts a driver piloting a trotting racehorse. We are at the gate of Northfield Park, home of harness racing in Northeast Ohio for 41 years. It was on this spot in 1934 that…
The Cyberpostman Always Writes Twice
Old-fashioned romantic comedies are an endangered species, and in these generally unromantic days it’s always a pleasant surprise to find a decent one like Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail. Ephron, of course, made her bones five and a half years ago with the huge hit Sleepless in Seattle, but since then she’s given us a…
The Greatest Story Never Told
DreamWorks’s grandiose attempt at an animated feature for adults is a flimsy musical about Moses–a Sunday-school film strip writ ultralarge and decked out with the spectacle of Hollywood Bible epics. Slender sermons nestle among flashy action sequences and diaphanous fashion statements from the more tasteful pages of the Nefertiti’s Secret catalog. Although prayerful snatches of…
Livewire
John Gorka Dee Carstenson Highland Theatre December 11 John Gorka kicked off his two-hour performance at the Highland Theatre with “New Jersey,” a song that had the best chance of being recognized. Afterward he explained that he always starts off with that song for the “new people.” “You know, the people who might not have…
Waltz of the Zombies
They walk, they talk, they appear to be alive. A few have been known to breathe hard enough to steam up a mirror at close range. Just don’t ask them to think. They’re the really silent majority on Clevo City Council. They’ve kept Jay Westbrook in as council prez and shuffled along to his “Rubber…
Stick and Move
When a young guitarist embarks on a music career, it helps to have friends in high places. Carl Weathersby had such an acquaintance. His name was Albert King. Actually, King was Weathersby’s father’s friend, and Carl didn’t even know this guy who hung around with dad was the same Albert King on the record “Crosscut…
See No Evil
A few months ago, the company I work for two days a week hooked up all of our computer terminals to the Internet. Which meant that I was finally able to take my maiden voyage as a web surfer. For a dyed-in-the-wool technophobe like me, though, the situation was roughly akin to being all dressed…
