Ben Roethlisberger’s Good Deed for Cleveland
Compelling new evidence surfaced last week that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger might not be 100 percent scumbag after all. As part of his annual effort to bandage the bleeding sores of his public image, Big Ben gives away money through his foundation. Typical recipients include potential litigants and organizations in the cities where Pittsburgh…
Tim Hagan to Join Staff at Metro
Former County Commissioner Tim Hagan has a new gig at Metro. At a time when hospital is cutting costs, they’ll be taking on Hagan as a senior adviser. According to the PD, which references Metro’s press release: Hagan will be working with Vice President of Government Relations and Community Affairs, John R. Corlett, according to…
Fracas Still a Work in Progress
The dictionary defines the word “fracas” as a noisy, disorderly disturbance, but on the night we visited Fracas Restaurant (2781 Euclid Heights Blvd., 216-321-6000, fracascleveland.com), a diner could hear an olive drop. Granted, it was the week between Christmas and New Year’s, but that doesn’t always translate into slow business. Billed as a gastropub, the…
Elyria Man Arrested Twice in One Night
There are distinctions and honors among thieves, as faithful Wire watcher knows. One of the best (or worse, depending on where you’re looking in from) is the Two-Arrests-in-One-Night. It’s a rare achievement, one that normally takes years of practice and study to achieve. But we’re happy to announce that a precocious youngster out of Elyria…
Video: The Homeless Guy With the Golden Radio Voice
Just watch and listen. You will not believe your ears. This homeless man in Columbus holds a sign proclaiming his god-given golden radio voice, and he’s not lying. Welcome to the best minute and a half of your day.
Crop’s Move to W. 25th Delayed
Original plans called for Crop Bistro (1400 W. Sixth St., 216-696-2767, cropbistro.com) to shut its oven doors at the stroke of midnight on December 31. Of course, the closure was planned only as a temporary one as chef-owner Steve Schimoler focused his attentions on the new Ohio City space. Well, there has been a slight…
Album Review: Cloud Nothings
CLOUD NOTHINGSCloud Nothings(Carpark) By the sound of things, you’d never guess that Dylan Baldi — the 19-year-old Westlake native who records as Cloud Nothings — made his full-length debut in a real studio. After recording a series of low-fi singles and a buzzed-about EP in his parents’ basement, Baldi spent a few weeks in a…
DUI Suspect Blames Arrest On Ozzy Osbourne
“Drink and drive, I say. Drink and drive!” We’re not sure how we missed this fantastic little nugget over the Christmas break, but here it is now. Ozzy Osbourne and his music have long been a scapegoat for deviant behavior, but never before has the Prince of Darkness been blamed for a DUI. On Christmas…
Clevelander Creates Social Networking Site for Divorcees
Parma resident Sheila Hall-Blagg never saw herself as a social-networking maven — not until three years ago, when she and several friends were enduring divorces. “I knew what kind of help I was looking for, but it’s hard to know where to look — especially when you’re limited in funding,” she says. Rather than opting…
Big Dog Theater Set to Bark At Last
Santa Claus was good to Big Dog Theater, the improv/comedy production group whose plans to open in the Centrum Theater in Cleveland Heights’ Coventry Village were waylaid by building inspection issues. After working for more than two months toward an October 1 opening, Big Dog director Don Mitri learned a few days prior that a…
Our Favorite Stories From 2010
Goodbye, 2010. We’ll miss the glasses the most. Before we completely forget about 2010, we take this moment to look back at our favorite moments of merriment from the past year. After all, we couldn’t do this without you. And by that we mean you the reader, and you the bizarre and interesting people who…
Video: Randy Lerner Gets Excited About His Team
No, not the Cleveland Browns. In fact, while the Cleveland Browns were being drubbed by the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, Randy Lerner was in jolly ole England watching his soccer team, Aston Villa, play Chelsea. When Aston knots up the game at 3-3 in the 90th minute, Lerner explodes with emotion and hugs chief executive…
Drunk Man Accidentally Stabs Himself
Stephen Colbert shows proper technique. I guess it bears repeating folks: be careful when holding weapons when you’re drunk. From the wonderful town of Lima, OH: Police in Ohio say a man who had been drinking stabbed himself while investigating a noise at his front door. He told police he had grabbed a small knife…
ESPN Anchors Celebrate Mangini Firing
Adam Schefter and Hannah Storm show some poor taste after news is broken that Browns head coach Eric Mangini had been fired this morning. EMBED-BobsBlitz.com ~ Adam Schefter Not Laughing at Eric Mangini – Watch more free videos (Via Bob’s Blitz)
Eric Mangini Fired By Browns According to Report
Update: Browns have officially announced Mangini has been fired. *** ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reports that the Browns have already fired head coach Eric Mangini. Let your unbridled hatred or staunch support of Mangini be heard in the comments section. (Via Cleveland.com)
New Radio Station Sounds a Lot Like Old Ones
Now with a new station There’s a new radio station in town today. 106.5 The Lake launched this morning, promising Clevelanders a radio station that’s “unlike unlike any other Cleveland radio station.” The Lake is an “Adult Hits” station, meaning that you’ll hear lots of songs from the ’80s, even though they promise to hit…
A Reasoned and Sober Browns Fan Reacts to the Loss to the Steelers
This young man has many complaints after the Browns lost to the Steelers again yesterday. Chief among them seems to be that it ruined Facebook for him, which we can all agree is an egregious sin against humanity and something that would also drive us to make a video for YouTube. (Oh, a NSFW language…
Kid Dances Home, Scares Neighbor
We admit it, if he looked like this, we’d call the cops too. Yup, we can just about see 2011 peaking up over the horizon. It’s been a good year, Scenesters, but before you unscrew those bottles of Andre and de-lint your sport coat, we invite you to take one more trip with us to…
Make Sure You Like Your Drug Purveyor
In recent times, retailers’ competition to earn your pharmacy dollars has resulted in a weekly sweepstakes of savings: a gift card for switching your prescriptions to Target, cheap gas for bringing your new business to Giant Eagle. Consumer science proves that medicine works better when it comes with free crap. But a new state law…
Scene’s Top Reader Comments of 2010
Good night and good luck, dear readers. Warning: This post contains language and images that may not be suitable for children. Parental discretion is advised. Up here from our perch in the ivory tower of journalism (aka the bar at Applebee’s), the Scene staff has an affinity for one part of the job in particular:…
Video: Anderson Varejao Punches Himself in the Head
Vajerao’s got good looks to spare. Here’s video of the Wild Thing going all Mike Tyson on his own head last night. And not just one punch. Multiple. You certainly can not question his intensity. (Via Stepien Rules)
Spinning Plates
They say that if you don’t like the weather in Cleveland, wait a minute and it will surely change. The same can be said of our city’s dynamic restaurant scene, which undergoes constant adjustment. So as we do every year, we offer a gastronomic look back at the newsmakers of the past 12 months. No…
Looking For Something to Do For New Year’s?
Family Fun A Furry Family New Year’s Eve (Cleveland Metroparks North Chagrin Nature Center) Park staffers will lead a one-mile hike to Buttermilk Falls followed by hot cocoa around a campfire. Free; for more information or to register, call 440-473-3370. The park is at 3037 SOM Center Rd. in Willoughby Hills. Fantastic Hike and a…
More Top Film Goodness
Milan Paurich: 1.The Kids Are All Right, Please Give, Somewhere (tie) — If 2010 was not a banner year for movies, it was a fantastic year for women directors. With these three films, it’s starting to look like Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar win for The Hurt Locker was less of a fluke than a bellwether. 2. Carlos…
Dream On
If 2010’s best movies weren’t messing with your mind, they were daring you to sit through some potentially dreadful premises. The behind-the-scenes startup of a website. A psychological thriller revolving around ballerinas. A historical drama about a guy’s speech impediment. A film centered on some dude whose arm is stuck underneath a giant rock for…
The Weems Way
A regular week at the Weems School was a minefield of surprises for staff and students alike. For students, that was a blast: The lunch menus were constantly changing, any given day could yield an unannounced field trip, and there was always the possibility you’d show up and find the doors locked and lights out.…
Flesh and Fantasy
So many artists aimed big this year. They made grand thematic albums about 21st-century detachment. They made sprawling concept albums about the Civil War. And they made ego-fueled albums about their out-of-control egos. That sound you hear is 2010 busting out of its tiny shell, exploding redneck badasses, ragtag punks, and Kanye juice all over…
A TOAST FOR THE DOUCHEBAGS
The top song of 2010 was heavier than the rest of the best. Even Cee Lo Green’s “Fuck You” sounds like a sunny summer day next to Kanye West’s epic-length tribute to dickheads. “Runaway” certainly doesn’t sound like anything else released this year, but it’s an appropriate starting point to the 10 songs you should…
We Get Mail
Your Unfriendly Neighborhood Building Department The Cleveland Building Department is mean-spirited, self-serving, unprofessional, and dare I say racist against whites [“Hostile Fire,” December 1, 2010]. I believe Frank Jackson to be a fair and unbiased man, but how every mayor of this town lets the building department do whatever it wants is beyond me. Can…
Stay In!
TOP PICK – VIDEO GAME TRON: Evolution (Disney Interactive) The new movie plays like a two-hour video game, so it’s no surprise that the tie-in game plays a lot like the movie (following that?). The action-adventure game (for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC) is a prequel to TRON: Legacy, focusing on the years…
Do You Hear What THEY Hear?
Chimaira (chimaira.com) put together their first Christmas concert on a whim a decade ago. “It’s one of those things that just happened, and it worked out again and again,” says singer Mark Hunter. The metal band spent most of the year touring, playing the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Tour and sharing a bill with This or…
CD Review: Chris Hatton
(chrishatton.bandcamp.com) Chris Hatton — a former member of the jam band League of Proper Musicians — takes a step in a new direction on his solo debut, My New EP. The six-song mini-album begins with the somber “The Milky Way” before heading into the equally pensive “Something to It.” They’re a slow start, but things…
Your Weekly Concert Calendar
CLUTCH/KYLESA Clutch didn’t invent stoner rock, but they’re one of its strongest supporters. While many of their more metal-minded hesher comrades lock into deeply rutted, mind-numbing grooves, Clutch (pictured) prefer supple muscularity. Their blues-funk is hard but agile, offering a greasy southern-flavored rock slink that’s capable of ample thump, but dynamic enough that it never…
Get Out!
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30 Family Fun Flying With Kids Never Looked This Fun Imaginations take flight at the Aviation Education Center at the International Women’s Air & Space Museum. “We offer very unique aviation activities, and it’s all hands-on,” says Toni Mullee, the museum’s executive director. Tops among them is a simulator that allows junior pilots…
The Paramount Pledge
By the time your fourth fruity pink concoction is suitably shaken or stirred, it’s unlikely you’ll know — or care — whether Ketel One or Korski is providing the kick. Liquors with fancy names and hifalutin prices fall in and out of favor as fast as their buzz gives way to brain ache. But generic…
On View This Week
HONEYED DREAMS “I am much more interested in how the subject feels to me, rather than how it looks,” says painter Janis Schilling. Her impressionistic landscapes, still lifes, and scenes bear that out with their use of dreamy light that makes everything look just a little bit better than real. The Twinsburg resident works in…
