Cat’s Paw
There wasn’t one single crystallizing moment that spurred retired Cleveland police officer Billy Evans back into action. Just a thousand little nicks, like the time last month when Evans drove his 85-year-old mother around their old neighborhood near East 86th Street and Wade Park Avenue. “There were three or four stolen cars sitting in a…
Holocaust and Reward
Returning to one’s childhood home is usually a mixed experience. For some it’s two parts nostalgia to one part bitterness; for others, it’s a blend of ingredients that are difficult to isolate. Judy Harlan seems to belong in the latter category. When the 46-year-old Cleveland artist returned to her childhood home in Romania recently, she…
Parading on the Rain
While other theaters are about to render us bilious in Yuletide indulgences, the air on Coventry at Dobama is sweet and clear. Nary a whiff of candy-cane condescension, Scrooge’s wails, or a boy soprano’s noel. Instead, there is Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain, which may turn out to be the season’s greatest gift –…
Encore
Roaring through Beck Center’s studio theater like the dreariest forest fire ever encountered by Smokey the Bear is The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged). This revue, which, for some reason, has transgressed on stages in England and the States, tries to pump mileage out of a theatrical flat tire — a frat house revenge…
A Big Hit in Little Italy
It’s not that the staff rushes you on a Saturday night at Salvatore’s Ristorante. Sure, the place is tiny, and behind the snappy service may lie a need to turn over the tables as quickly as possible. But everyone, from the speedy waitresses to smiling hostess and General Manager Francesca Geraci, is so darned friendly…
Yeast Meets West
Those huzzahs that you hear may be coming from East Side patrons of Great Harvest Bread Company, who were left high and dry when the company’s Shaker Heights location on Van Aken Boulevard closed its doors last summer. But now, folks who have been pining for thick slices of dense Honey-Whole Wheat or seed-coated Dakota…
Plane and Simple
The last thing former Jawbox singer-guitarist J. Robbins wanted to do after the group broke up in April 1997 was form another band that sounded exactly like Jawbox. He wanted to do something completely different, write songs in a different way. It wasn’t that Robbins was ashamed of anything he or Jawbox had done in…
Ship of Fools
It’s the day after the Cleveland Browns’ first victory, and even Robert Pollard, who says he generally roots for the Bengals, is excited about the win. “Did you watch that game yesterday?” the raspy-voiced singer asks via phone from his home in Dayton. “There’s all these Browns fanatics around here. I was laughing at them…
Keeping Blues in the Black
Last April, the Music Maker Relief Foundation packed Fat Fish Blue with a concert by Grammy-winner Taj Mahal, the septuagenarian acoustic blues artists Cootie Stark and Neal Pattman, the somewhat younger electric blues guitarist Beverly Watkins, and the youthful Mudcat band, led by slide guitarist Danny “Mudcat” Dudeck. A few years ago, the blind guitarist…
A Taste of Japan
Japanese culture is endlessly complex and fascinating. It is especially interesting if you approach it as an American, with this country’s penchant for rugged individualism and loud, disposable sensibilities. The two cultures are so different, they are amazing when taken together. Once you get past the ridiculous stereotypes attached to most things non-Western, you will…
Livewire
Backyard Babies Quazi Modo Euclid Tavern November 22 Known mostly for the fact that singer-guitarist Dregen was one of the founding members of Sweden’s hard-rocking Hellacopters, the Backyard Babies have a new claim to fame. According to a vague report issued by the band’s PR firm, one of the members (who wasn’t named) was arrested…
The Elf Files
Who among us hasn’t toiled in retail or restaurant hell during the holidays to pick up some extra cash? Who hasn’t racked up a sleighful of horror stories involving frantic kids and their even more frantic parents? And who hasn’t considered him- or herself a mall whore during the four or five weeks spent in…
Playback
Rakim The Master (Universal) With partner Eric B., rap stylist Rakim was the architect behind some of hip-hop’s pioneering moments: “Paid in Full,” “I Know You Got Soul,” “Follow the Leader.” The flow between DJ Eric B.’s deft turntable skills and Rakim’s equally smart rhymes was ground zero for many of the genre’s dynamic duos…
Friends and Grudges
As American film has increasingly dominated the world’s cinemas and the once-healthy European film industries have grown unable to sustain themselves, the idea of multinational co-productions — with funds supplied by producers from a variety of countries — has become the norm. This trend was well-established in the ’80s, making it tough to determine just…
Soundbites
With their squeaky clean good looks, gold necklaces, platinum ‘dos, and wisps of facial hair, you’d think the R&B band Youngstown, which just released its debut, Let’s Roll, came straight outta Orlando (the home of like-minded acts such as ‘N Sync and the Backstreet Boys). But, as its name suggests, Youngstown — singers Dallas (James…
Super! Thanks for Asking!
“A Joel Schumacher film.” Are there any four words more guaranteed to send shudders of revulsion down the spine of any Gen-X film geek? Ever since he allegedly ruined the Batman film franchise, Schumacher’s name has become almost the equivalent of a swear word on many Internet film sites, and comic book fans have called…
The Front Line
The day starts in long single-file lines. One by one, the students flow through the front doors of Anton Grdina Elementary School, adding to the blaring buzz of small voices in the lobby talking, talking, talking. The scene looks deceptively like the morning routine at any other primary school in urban America. “Excuse me!” yells…
A Light Workload
Wrapped from trunk to tip in blue electrical wires, the tree appears to be in the advanced stages of a fungal infection. But when the switch is flipped, triggering miles of extension cords, it’ll just look pretty. “See this tree?” says Heather Wilson, admittedly a taskmaster when it comes to “lacing” shrubbery with lights. “It…
Edge
Say what? It was a toss-up between confusion and comedy at last week’s arraignment of Richard Lewis and Joan Bowman, the “common law” devotees accused of trying to scam eight vehicles out of a Cadillac dealership in August. The anarchic twosome signed in as “secured individuals” and refused to stand when Common Pleas Judge Thomas…
