Don’t Text While Passing Through Fairview Anymore. Really. Don’t.
The next time you’re driving through Fairview Park, don’t even look at your phone. It is probably best to pretend you don’t have it with you. Citing the many dangers of texting while driving, the city passed a new law that will allow cops to pull you over if you appear to be composing, sending,…
Clinic Makes More Millionaires, Many of Whom Don’t Work There Anymore
Cleveland Clinic added to the roster of people it’s turned into millionaires in 2010, bringing the total to 15, up from 13 in 2009. MedCity News slogs through the Clinic’s latest tax filing for the scoop, which reveals that CEO Toby Cosgrove made more than $2.3 million in 2010. However, Cosgrove got a smaller raise…
Video of The Day: Woman Hides Shoplifted Case of Beer Between Thighs
We have no idea where this took place, but it’s pretty amazing. The beer was reportedly Guinness. Thanks to WMMS 100.7 for sharing.
State Finally Admits That Microbrew Fans Are Just as Good as Wine Snobs
Local brew tasting rooms coming! Our state legislature actually did something useful last week. Lawmakers voted to end the discrimination that has plagued Ohio microbreweries while favoring local wineries. What’s most important about this according to the Akron Beacon Journal, is that Westlake’s Black Box Brewery and Cleveland’s Indigo Imp are planning to build tasting…
Your Tax Dollars At Work: Cable No One Watches and Kasich’s Creative Math
Nobody’s home but the cable is on. Governor Kasich and his family don’t live in the mansion designated as the gubernatorial residence, opting instead to stay in their own home—closer to their children’s school. But it cost taxpayers $438,720 to staff and maintain the place in 2011. This includes the cable bill. Incredibly, the Kasich…
Berea Kleptomaniac Boasts of Stealing Funyuns, And Getting Away With It
It would be fun to say something along the lines of, “only in Lorain” here but to be fair, this theft highlights a crook hailing from Berea. James Thomas, 36, ventured out to the Lorain Walmart and executed one of the most elaborate shoplifting plans we’ve ever read about. He managed to successfully position a…
Post-Christmas Brew: Fans Insulted, Money Found, Bad Kids, Good Samaritans
Good morning Cleveland! We trust your long weekend was truly festive and filled with family, good friends, and food. Here are a few weekend highlights to help you transition from elves and eggnog to the upcoming confetti and champagne celebrations. And remember, the latter is only a shortened work week away. We’ll start with a…
Jon Sawyer + Kitchen Stadium = Awesome
There’s no arguing that Michael Symon’s career began its meteoric rise to full-blown celebrity status following his appearances on “Iron Chef America.” While a bona fide Iron Chef himself now, Symon first competed as a challenger against Masaharu Morimoto. Next up: Jonathon Sawyer, who makes his debut as an “Iron Chef America” challenger on January…
Merry Christmas, Cleveland
Enjoy the holiday this weekend. Drink up, try not to punch your sister, share some good food with good friends and family. Or sit alone and play video games sitting naked on the floor. What do we care? As is tradition around these parts, we leave you to your festivities with “Fairytale of New York,”…
Video: Calvin & Hobbes Tribute Video
Damn straight
Cleveland: Now in 3D!
The Avengers movie, which was shot in Cleveland this past summer and comes to multiplexes everywhere next summer, is now a 3D movie. The big-budget superhero bash was originally shot in 2D by director Joss Whedon. The Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor made a huge mess of downtown Cleveland last year fighting bad…
Snow Plow Stolen, City Can’t Find It
University Hts. needs help retrieving one of these. If you see that your neighbor has a snow plow stuffed in his garage lately, please call University Heights. They have one that’s gone missing and they can’t find it. Sun News reports that on either December 10 or 11, someone stole a city vehicle with a…
Frenzied? Don’t Be. Here Are Our Last Minute Gift Picks
Elves are ready to help at PlayhouseSquare. If you’re behind on the gifts, like most Scene staffers, here are a couple great ideas. Both also work well for those hard-to-please people who already have everything. If you’re downtown today, use the uber-convenient gift card drive-through PlayhouseSquare has set up right on Euclid Avenue in front…
Creep of The Week: Cop is “Friends” With 14-year-old Boy
Once upon a time, people told their children that if they were lost, in a fix, or needed help of any kind the best and safest thing to do was to approach a policeman. Yeah, well scrap that. A Richmond Heights mom has certainly abandoned that idea after waking up at about 4 a.m. Monday…
Celebrate the Holidays With Christmas Story Marathon, Not Your Family
You’re going to be spending way too much time with your family over the next week, so you deserve a day to yourself. And we can’t think of a better way to spend that day than by camping in front of the TV to watch TBS’ annual “24 Hours of A Christmas Story” marathon. It…
Vid of the Day: Strongsville Shopping Cart Wrangler Changes Tune Every Christmas
Newsnet 5 may not be getting a famous national news anchor, but it gets our prize today for this story. There’s a high level of holiday niceness here. Some viewers may require a tissue.
WKYC Gets A Heavyweight Anchor
No one predicted this—CBS Evening News weekend anchor Russ Mitchell will replace Ramona Robinson over at Cleveland’s own WKYC. Mitchell also anchors CBS’ The Early Show on Saturdays and is a correspondent for CBS NEWS Sunday Morning program. The announcement has media watchers wondering why Mitchell is ditching CBS after almost 20 years. The announcement…
The Plight of Cleveland Movie Houses
As holiday movie season hits high gear, the old Parma Theatre will be open for business, with first-run flicks priced to move at around five bucks a person. That hasn’t been the case in recent months, when the nostalgic 1936 movie house would often go dark on weekday nights. “We’ve been doing this on and…
Cleveland Rock Clubs Rise Up
A couple of months back, Cleveland’s pursuit of unpaid tax money from its live music clubs brought attention to the city’s high admissions tax, which greatly exceeds those of most other U.S. cities.Now the clubs are taking their message to the public in hopes of fostering some understanding — and sympathy. The Cleveland Music Club…
The Quality of Cleveland Life Report
Your guide to living in fabulous Cleveland. Inquire Within … or Without: Philips, Steris to bring high-paying health-care jobs to town, sparking concern that region is short on workers with high-paying-job experience. Occupy the John: Rumors swirl that Occupy Cleveland hopes to set up an office of its own. First order of business: sitting on…
Exactly One Year Until the End of the World—For Real
Today is very important—we have exactly 365 more days to go before the end of the world. The world was supposed to end May 21 of this year, and again on October 21. But it didn’t happen, which sucked for people who gave up their jobs and all their worldly goods in preparation. But according…
Gift Horse
At two and a half hours, Steven Spielberg’s family drama War Horse at times feels as long as war itself. But with so many movies abandoning classic filmmaking for digital gimmickry and other post-production tricks these days, there’s something admirably quaint about the director’s old-fashioned approach to storytelling (which balances out his other movie opening…
21st Century Schizoid
The temptation with something so massively popular as Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy is to hold up subsequent adaptations to everything that came before it, whether it’s the original books or the first versions to hit theaters. Fight that temptation. David Fincher’s thrilling take on the first chapter of the trilogy, The Girl With the Dragon…
Death Lives On
Back in the early and mid-’80s, before indie rock became a catch-all term for anything your mom or that metal kid down the street never heard of, the musical form included a truly independent cadre of open-minded musicians whose collections contained everything from Creedence Clearwater Revival albums to Mission of Burma 45s. It gathered the…
Film Capsules
We Bought a Zoo (PG) Cameron Crowe’s soft spot is also his weakest spot. Think of the more soppy moments in Jerry Maguire, or even Almost Famous. We Bought a Zoo is full of soft spots. In fact, it’s one big soft spot. Matt Damon plays Benjamin Mee, a big-city writer and recent widower with…
On Stage This Week
Black Nativity at Karamu: The Gospel According to Langston HughesA soulful retelling of the Gospel of St. Luke from an African-American perspective, this passionate piece of family theater was written in 1961 by Karamu’s most celebrated alumnus, Langston Hughes. It has gone on to become a seasonal staple at the venerable theater: an inspiring, feel-good…
Highway Robbery
John Walls wanted to live in Battery Park because the burgeoning near West Side development promised a light-speed trip downtown on Route 2 and imminent access to Edgewater Beach just to the north. In fact, direct access to the Shoreway and Edgewater is the main reason Battery Park — with its seventy $200,000-plus townhomes, chic…
Scene’s New Year’s Eve Guide
Hey, party people: The New Year is nearly upon us, meaning it’s time to lock in those end-of-year plans. Whether it’s comedy clubs or crab races, food trucks or five-course blowouts, you’ll find it in our dandy guide to local festivities. Restaurants, Pubs & Clubs Around the Corner: If you’ve ever yearned to welcome in…
Concert Calendar
Old Home Night You’ll be spending way too much time with your relatives this week. So why not spend a night on the town with your other family on Thursday? It’s that time of year for local musicians to share a stage with former bandmates, old pals visiting town, and guys who left music behind…
CD Review: Scrimshaw
(myspace.com/scrimshawnow) Scimshaw’s epic, swirling rock features a strong ’80s vibe that recalls bands like Simple Minds and Human League, but with stronger guitars. It’s easy to lose track of where they are at times, since each song serves up at least a couple of moods and movements. But the peculiarly propulsive grooves prevent you from…
Stay In!
The fourth of our special, slightly expanded gift-giving editions of Culture Jamming. This week: a last-minute-shopping grab bag. CD Phil Collins: Hello, I Must Be Going! 24-Karat Gold CD (Audio Fidelity) Before there were CDs, there were pricey versions of vinyl records that promised superior sound to picky audio snobs. That practice is alive and…
Get Out!
Thursday | 22 Laughing at the Improv Last Call Cleveland When it comes to Last Call Cleveland, somebody’s gonna get hurt. Don’t take our word for it: Ask Aaron McBride, who shares the stage with the comedy troupe’s fellow members Mike Polk, Mark McKenzie, and Matt Zitelli. “We usually do at least one audience-participation sketch…
Home Movies
Midnight in Paris (Sony) Woody Allen’s best movie in years includes everything you’d want in a romantic comedy by the guy who made one of the all-time best: likable leads (Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams), lovely scenery (see title), fantasy spiked with cultural history — even appearances by Ernest Hemingway and Cole Porter. Wilson plays…
Goes Great With Beer
Call it a reflection of our blue-collar roots, but some of the best food in town still goes down in Cleveland’s bars, pubs, taverns, and gastropubs. (Not sure what that last one is is? Read on.) Of course, that’s one of the fringe benefits of living in one of the best food towns in the…
We Get Mail
Turning to a Newt Newt Gingrich is right about the Occupy protesters, including Occupy Cleveland: “Take a bath and get a job” [Feedback, December 7]. Then, after years of hard work, they can be wealthy, like the people they criticize for being wealthy. Or is that too much work? They often riot, closing ports on…
One Down
Angry words boomed from across the hall as Mike Gallagher quietly sat and waited. The Cuyahoga County councilman was stuck in a downtown Columbus high-rise, sidelined alone in a conference room, still shaking the two-hour drive from Cleveland out of his legs. Down the hall, Ohio Secretary of State John Husted, the fresh-faced rising star…
Vodka Chaser
Westlake resident Rich Hellner was watching television one day when he spotted an ad for bubblegum vodka. As chance would have it, the air-traffic controller was eating some peanut butter at the time. Something clicked in his head. Vodka . . . peanut butter . . . vodka . . . peanut butter . .…
Local Band in Focus
Meet the Band: Photon Man (vocals) and Oblivion (everything else). Hair Trigger: Galactic Moustache play a mix of hip-hop, rock, and electronica. The band’s influences — including Ween, Grand Buffet, and Gwar — help explain their often funny stage show and wild theatrics. Behind the Curtain: Looking past their secret identities (which they tote with…
On View This Week
At Rotten Meat Gallery: Rock, Roll & Ruins The name of artist Dan Miller’s new gallery — Rotten Meat — doesn’t really mean anything. “That was the name of my first solo show,” he says. “There’s nothing deep or esoteric about it.” But Miller liked the ring of the name, and saw in it a…
At the Arthouse
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey Profile of the guy behind Sesame Street’s cute little red monster. Somewhere, Cookie Monster is seething over this. Cleveland Museum of Art’s Morley Lecture Hall. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, December 28. Happy Times The art museum’s holiday fest of recent Chinese movies continues with this comedy about a working-class guy…
