Tragedy Re-Revisited
Those who will sit around wondering whether Munich is the work of an anti-Israeli or just a self-hating Jew — which is to say, Steven Spielberg, who has been branded as both by Israeli officials and newspaper columnists in recent weeks — give the movie and its maker far too much credit. The story of…
‘Headed to Megaforce
Masked Cleveland-metal icons Mushroomhead have signed a worldwide deal with Megaforce, the New York City label that released pioneering albums by Metallica and Anthrax. “We had a couple labels interested,” says drummer-producer Steve “Skinny” Felton. “But this deal was right. They came to four or five shows on the last tour, and they came to…
Fellowship of The Ringer
It’s impossible to talk about The Ringer, a comedy about someone pretending to be retarded in order to rig the Special Olympics, without mentioning that episode of South Park in which Cartman does the same thing. The Ringer was already in production when that episode was made; it has taken its sweet time coming out,…
Amy Rigby
The hungry “I” that seduces so many singer-songwriters into writing therapeutic, self-referential mush is no vice for sweet-voiced Amy Rigby. The wily troubadour writes mainly from the first person — the first instinct of anyone who’s ever picked up an acoustic guitar. But while her songs are often insights into her own life, they’re hardly…
Yuletide Fear
The notion that Wolf Creek is opening nationwide on Christmas Day brings to mind the scene from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, in which a young boy opens up his holiday gift and finds a severed head. Made by a disciple of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre school of horrors, the movie is about…
The Cheater Slicks
The Cheater Slicks’ gruff rumble is definitely a singular sound in modern rock. Here are two brothers and an old pal who have played together for so long (18 years, eight albums, scads of singles) that they’ve fused themselves into one marauding being onstage. All three are obsessively versed in all manner of American, blues-based,…
Asia Minor
“Agony and beauty for us live side by side,” laments Mameha (Michelle Yeoh), the most successful geisha in Gion. You’ll know how she feels: Memoirs of a Geisha, as directed by Chicago’s Rob Marshall, is beautiful to look at, but when it comes to the dialogue and storytelling, agony just might be the appropriate term.…
Michael Stanley and the Resonators
We confess, we have an enduring respect for performers who didn’t quite get their hands on that brass ring in the ’70s and ’80s, but still keep at it — folks like Ellen McIlwaine, Willy DeVille, and hometown hero Michael Stanley. All the aforementioned artists received critical acclaim, released some very good — and some…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Black Nativity — Karamu’s annual presentation of Langston Hughes’ gospel extravaganza has less of a plot than other versions. But the combination of spectacular singing and emotional, energetic dancing makes the evening memorable on many counts. In two clearly differentiated acts — the first recounts the story of Jesus’ birth, and the second takes place…
Annual Grog Shop X-Mas
For the Annual Grog Shop X-Mas, This Moment in Black History frontman Christopher Kulcsar says that loyal members of the band’s local cult can expect Chrismukkah and a nativity in Black. “[Guitarist] Buddy is going to dress up like Santa, and he’ll be lying on a medical table, with his legs in stirrups,” says Kulcsar.…
The Impossible Bomb
Serenity (Universal) Joss Whedon’s film version of his TV series Firefly came and went like a lightning bug in October; the predicted phenom stuck around the multiplex just long enough to lose millions. But like Firefly, which sold enough boxed sets to warrant a movie, Serenity’s bound to do well on DVD, with its 15…
The Flunk-Out
Buck Henry walks into a studio boss’ office and pitches him a movie. Says it’s gonna be a sequel to a movie he wrote called The Graduate, the beloved Mike Nichols film that starred Dustin Hoffman as 21-year-old Benjamin Braddock and Anne Bancroft and Katharine Ross as the mother and daughter he fucked one hazy…
The Schwartz Brothers
When some familiar hometown faces at Detroit’s legendary Grande Ballroom greeted Clevelander Glenn Schwartz in the spring of ’69, he asked whether he could ride back to Ohio with them. Schwartz was then lead guitarist for Pacific Gas and Electric, which was headed for a triumphant return to this town’s own underground rock haven, La…
The week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe.
TV — A Very Quentin Christmas: We can’t think of a better dish to serve on Christmas day than a full plate of Tarantino. All five of his movies — including Pulp Fiction and both Kill Bills — air over the course of 12 hours (starting at noon on Encore). The films are uncut and…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW Launching Zorcutt — If Zachary Orcutt is anything like his eccentric alter ego Zorcutt, he’s a guy you want at your party. In this off-the-wall show inspired by flight (both real and metaphorical, as in the artist transcending the mundane), Orcutt crafts large-scale flying machines that are more pleasing to the eye than functional;…
A Blessid Union Christmas
Renowned rural soul stars Blessid Union of Souls have a special holiday gift for Cleveland: A Blessid Union Christmas. In one of only two American performances, the group’s three founding members (including frontman Eliot Sloan) are presenting an acoustic set split between hits like “Hey Leonardo, She Likes Me for Me,” then finishing the night…
Loaded GUN
The myth of the Wild West has mutated over the past half-century. Where once we thrilled to the wholesome exploits of the Lone Ranger, now we wallow in the mesmerizing depravity of HBO’s Deadwood. Film geeks can argue about when it started to change, but by 1992’s Unforgiven, pop culture was only big enough for…
Zen, and Now
It’s been well over five years since Fire first sprang to life on Shaker Square, with a cool vibe and a sizzling menu of contemporary American fare; and despite the Square’s own ups and downs over the years, today’s Fire is burning brighter than ever. The changes have been subtle but significant. Chef-owner Doug Katz’s…
Our top DVD picks for the week of December 20
The Amazing Race: The Seventh Season (Paramount) Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.0 (Universal) The Biggest Loser: The Workout (Lions Gate) Bob the Butler (First Independent) Cry_Wolf (MCA) ER: The Complete Fourth Season (Warner Bros.) The Exorcism of Emily Rose (Sony) Frankie & Johnny Are Married (MCA) The Great Raid (Miramax) Ice Men (Wolfe) Johnny Cash: Live…
Meet Taza
The Lakewood-based Aladdin’s restaurant chain debuted its newest concept, Taza, in Woodmere at the Eton-Chagrin shopping center last month. A sort of grown-up version of the company’s health-conscious, vegetarian-friendly, reasonably priced Aladdin’s Eateries, Lebanese-style Taza is all that — and a full bar too. While “casual” is still the operative word, an upscale ambiance and…
The Lovethang Christmas Party
Between working with San Francisco’s internationally acclaimed Imperial Dub Recordings and sponsoring Imperial Dub retreats to Hawaii and Mexico, Canton native HeSoHi has done more than his share to spread dub bass lines, natty drums, and somewhat acidic synths through the Midwest underground. And while his Lime Spider shows always make for a memorable night,…
Targeting Wal-Mart
Its architecture would please the Supreme Soviet. The 100,000-square-foot concrete box perches at the edge of Brookpark Road and Great Northern Boulevard with a “Where else you gonna shop?” pugnacity. The hues of its gray and beige cinder blocks coordinate with the dismal winter sky. There are no windows, only darkly tinted sliding doors. Exiting…
Holiday Dysfunction
When asked about favorite Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa memories, most people remember the good times. You know, the stuff they write songs about to get you into the holiday spirit — deck the halls, fa la la la, and all that jazz. Now, ask a musician the same question, and instead of poignant tales of…
Guitar Wolf
The sheer longevity of “Japan’s Greatest Rock-and-Roll Band” (18 years!) is amazing enough, but consider that most who pursue such cacophony usually burn out immediately. For nearly two decades, Guitar Wolf has spewed a surprisingly consistent rock tornado mangled in that particularly Japanese way, all the while looking impossibly cool in jet-black pants and pompadours,…
Reality Bites
When Julie Durkin turned 17, her mother signed her up with a local modeling agency. Agents were impressed by her pep and her toothy, Julia Roberts smile. She appeared in a few local commercials and print ads, but by the time she turned 18, her career was stagnating. “You have to go to New York…
Kapusta Kristmas
For several years, back in the ’80s and ’90s, rock-and-roll keyboard legend Al Kooper had a very cool Yuletide custom. Kooper was (and is) an avid collector of prank calls, celebrity bloopers, weird songs, hilarious answering-machine messages, and studio banter, and each December, he would press up some of the best on vinyl and send…
Yoko Solo
Bay Area producer Brandon LaSan once taught Oakland high school students and at-risk youths the art of beat construction. Now he does the same for esoteric/electronic-music heads. LaSan specializes in cramming maximal amounts of data into his compositions; much of his second outing under the name Yoko Solo recalls fellow Bay Area denizens Meat Beat…
Blankety Blankistan
PC meter’s all tense now: It would smack of sour grapes for me to take issue with anything Zachary Lewis said about my artwork showing at the Doubting Thomas gallery in Tremont [On View, December 14], so I won’t. But I must point out that the title of the blues-themed painting he described is “The…
Critical Fatwa
All hail Slayer! The monstrous sound of Reign in Blood inspires to this day. Unfortunately, much of what it inspires is adolescent claptrap — like the majority of death metal. Even though most fans of this “scariest” form of music are pimply dipwads, every once in a while the music attracts a batshit loonball who…
Mary J. Blige
“Went to the edge of the ledge/But I didn’t jump.” That couplet from “Good Woman Down” gives you the Behind the Music soundbite of Mary J. Blige’s career; the artistic dilemma for the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul came after she stepped back from the ledge. Since promising “No More Drama” in her life a few…
Free Food Alert!
To get the weekend started, the upscale lounge Impulse rocks with its 5:01 Wine & Cheese Party. Chef Bob Gideon feeds the masses with his menu of mouthwatering munchies. “There are times when there’s a line from the doors all the way past the front desk, through the lobby, around the corner, and toward the…
Sound Advice
The Grog Shop is a Cleveland institution, where everyone from Oasis to the Dandy Warhols has played en route to stardom. Owner Kathy Simkoff shares some favorites. What have you been listening to lately? Honestly, a lot of Mozart and Beethoven. It keeps my baby from crying in the car. After a long, loud night…
Ennio Morricone
The glossy booklet of stills from countless bizarre Italian films that accompanies this two-disc retrospective of Italian soundtrack composer Ennio Morricone only hints at the kaleidoscopic weirdness squirming beneath. With contributions to everything from Fistful of Dollars to Kill Bill (not to mention the 500 Italian titles in between), Morricone has penned themes from forgotten…
Cross-Dressing for Christ
The average person receives 2,200 spam e-mails a year, many of them peddling sex. So a Hudson group called Nuns Against Porn is preparing to do battle against the “killer incest site” messages filling your inbox. But with moralists fighting so many wars on so many fronts, they’re running a tad short on soldiers. Nuns…
Money Where Your Mouth Is
Band: Red Wanting Blue (www.redwantingblue.com) Hometown: Columbus Sounds like: “Unforgettable Fire-era U2, I guess. Maybe a poor man’s Snow Patrol, or something like that. Hopefully, the next record is gonna sound like it was done with Andrew Bird in a bathtub methamphetamine lab, and then, boy, the faces are gonna melt.” Fun fact: “A guy…
Rambler 454
Adding studio sheen to Rambler 454 is like renting a tuxedo for a bar brawl: This hard-rockin’ honky-tonk trio is best served raw and greasy. Rambler’s latest, the five-track EP Gabe, is the group’s most underproduced album yet, a suitably ragged, off-the-cuff recording that sounds as if it were tracked in a garage in one…
Backhanded Slapstick
The Jerry Lewis chromosome is running amok again inside Jim Carrey, and if you don’t feel like getting clubbed half to death with a slapstick, stay away from Fun With Dick and Jane. On the other hand, if Carrey’s tireless antics — slithering onto nightclub tables, speaking in tongues, and all manner of rubber-faced craziness…
Last Word
“I call it ‘music to sharpen my axe to’: The Metal Show, Sunday nights from 10 p.m. to midnight on Xtreme Radio 92.3 FM and Bill Peters, Friday nights from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. on WJCU-FM 88.7. (I know I picked two, but I live in a binary world.)” — Metal Bastard, a robot, Cleveland…
Various Artists
Rubber City Records: Decade in Wax collects 10 of label head Clinton Bott’s favorite songs from his back catalog, plus rare and unreleased tracks from under-recognized hardcore and rock groups like the Pricks and Strange Division. Each band is more brutal than the last, and few scenes can boast a comp that’s both this coherent…
Springtime for Mel
In 1968 it was a movie. In 2001 it became a musical. Now it’s a movie again? Yep, and there’s actually pretty good reason to return The Producers to the screen. The original film, though intermittently inspired, was slow and often boring, and its homophobic, misogynistic humor no longer plays well, if it ever did.…
Grammy Gripes
For once, it was refreshing to hear Kanye West shoot his mouth off. “If I don’t win album of the year, I’m gonna really have a problem with that,” he told MTVNews.com after the 2006 Grammy nominees were announced on December 8. “I said I was the face of the Grammys last year. I’m 10…
Lil’ Wayne
Lil’ Wayne is the Al Green of rap: He could recite the phone book and have listeners hanging onto each of his curvaceous vowels and smoldering consonants. On The Carter II, Wayne more or less does just that, injecting familiar rap tropes (sample chorus: “Get money, fuck bitches, get money, fuck bitches”) with his own…
