Local High School Teacher’s Erotic Fiction Raises Questions
Carol Ann Eastman, an English teacher at North Canton Hoover High School, is garnering some unwanted attention after her erotic novel hit shelves. In “Schooled,” Eastman authors a red hot litany of encounters with students. She published the novel under the pen name Deena Bright. Sample the salaciousness for yourself with a peek into the…
Owl City Coming to House of Blues
Just over five years ago, Adam Young was loading trucks in a warehouse. Now, thanks to the catchy indie pop hits he’s released under the moniker Owl City, he’s become an Internet sensation. Touring in support of his latest album, Midsummer Station, he returns to House of Blues at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, February 24. Tickets…
Maneater: Hall Bitten by Oates
That’s the actual headline from this story from this Sandusky Register story, which deserves a round of applause.
Man Proposes With a Pizza
Second thoughts? Just, eat the evidence maybe a little heartburn otherwise, no worries. Carl Blaine proposed to Jaimie Bast with a heart shaped pizza from Baja Pizzafish in North Canton. Baja Pizzafish opened this past summer boasting a regional menu from Southern California. Should inspiration lead to romance, they’ll be glad to put it in…
Rock Hall announces Class of 2013
Joe Kleon The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced the inductees for 2013, and the Canadian prog rock trio Rush (pictured) has finally made the list. While the group probably should have been inducted years ago, it’s a well-deserved nod. The other performer inductees include Heart, Albert King, Randy Newman, Public Enemy and…
County Council to Vote on Consumer Affairs Department
Cuyahoga County Council members are expected to vote on the formation of a new Consumer Affairs Department at today’s meeting, scheduled for 5 p.m. at the Justice Center. You can read the meeting’s agenda here, if agenda reading is your kinda thing. The idea behind the legislation is to assist local residents in combating investment…
Bear Here: Win DVDs at Saturday’s Pub Crawl
Critics gave TED, Seth MacFarlane’s film about a crude, tough-talking Teddy bear, mixed reviews when it came out over the summer. But you know how it goes — every movie, no matter how poorly reviewed, gets a second chance when it arrives on DVD. To promote the movie’s release to Blu-Ray and DVD, the Kamms…
8 Things Cleveland Can Expect from The Plain Dealer’s “Press-Ageddon”
By: Rebecca Theim When former journalists and alumni of the New Orleans Times-Picayune heard the news about the imminent changes at The Plain Dealer, our hearts broke for Cleveland. Both newspapers are owned by New York-based Advanced Publications, a chain of nearly three dozen dailies and weeklies stretching from Portland’s Oregonian to Staten Island, New…
House of Blues announces three new shows
Ed Kowalczyk The House of Blues has announced several new shows. First up, is Ed Kowalczyk, the former lead singer of Live, the alt-rock band that had a number of huge hits in the ‘90s (including moody, post-grunge tracks such as “Lightning Crashes” and “I Alone”). He’ll perform acoustic at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 16.…
Hall & Oates coming to Akron Civic
Though some of their tunes are admittedly rather cheesy, Daryl Hall & John Oates are — as they boldly claim on their website — the number one selling duo in music history. Take that, Simon and Garfunkel. Hall & Oates spent a good chunk of 2012 on the road in support of their box set,…
PlayhouseSquare announces ‘Walking Dead’ event
AMC’s The Walking Dead is one of the most popular cable TV shows ever and its ratings continued to climb with the season that just ended. To capitalize on the success, cast members Norman Reedus (Daryl), Steve Yeun (Glenn) and Lauren Cohan (Maggie) and executive producer/special effects guru Greg Nicotero have teamed up for a…
The Vegan Controversy at Happy Dog is Over Now, We Hope
Vegan? You tell us. In what feels like a plot from a Portlandia episode, there’s now a vegan controversy surrounding Happy Dog, the veg-friendly home to hipsters. Wienergate! The Happy Dog Facebook page erupted with comments from angry vegans in recent days after someone said that while the veggie hot dogs are vegan, the bun…
Someone Found a Scene Magazine in Singapore
File under: random but fucking awesome emails we get sometimes. I live in Singapore. I recently bought here an old Tom Paxton vinyl album for $2. Inside the cover was a paper publication called The Scene (Notheastern Ohio). It is a free publication dated July 18-24 1974 (vol 5, no 27). On the cover is…
Slideshow: Scene’s Seven Event on W. 6th
Click through, weary morning browsers, to see what you missed at Scene’s Seven event last weekend on W. 6th. People are nutty and fabulous.
Concert Review and Slideshow: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals at House of Blues
Last night at House of Blues, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals finished off their lively two-hour set with “I’ll Be Your Medicine,” a high-energy rock number that served as a metaphor for Potter’s appeal. “I got the medicine that everybody wants,” Potter sang over and over during the song’s furious conclusion. Yes, Potter has that…
Caribou Coffee in Rocky River Closes
Caribou Coffee on Detroit Road officially closed its doors late last week. The location, which has been inbusiness for many years, closed abruptly. Caribou spokesperson, Megan Framboni explains, “We carefully evaluate a store prior to closing toensure that we are making the right decision; unfortunately in this case the Rocky River store closed due to…
Savage Love
Sometimes I kick the proverbial hornet’s nest intentionally—”bullshit in the Bible,” for instance—and sometimes I kick the hornet’s nest accidentally. I honestly didn’t expect the outraged response I got after I wrote that poly wasn’t a sexual identity in the “sexual orientation” sense of the term. Some people identify as poly, of course, just as…
Opening: Playing for Keeps
There are two good things about this odd romantic comedy from Italian director Gabriele Muccino: Gerard Butler gets to speak in his native Scottish lilt; and it features a touching portrayal of the difficult relationship between a divorced dad (Butler) and his 9-year-old son (Noah Lomax), similar to the daddy-son duet in Muccino’s Pursuit of…
Chestnuts Roasting
Have you ever suspected that the one thing the holiday season is lacking is a good, juicy dose of soft-core porn? Well, this year a salacious Santa has heard your wish, and Debbie Does Dallas, the Musical is merrily ringing its jingle balls under your tree at the Blank Canvas Theatre. Based on the iconic…
Top Pop Culture Picks for the Week
TOP PICK The Dark Knight Rises (Warner Bros.) In which Batman goes out with a bang. The final chapter in the trilogy helmed by director Christopher Nolan features an epic battle between the caped crusader (Christian Bale) and bad guy Bane (Tom Hardy). Johnny Cash The Complete Columbia Album Collection (Legacy/Columbia) Fifty-nine original albums from…
Bombs Away!
In a 1951 talk, William de Kooning observed, “Today, some people think that the light of the atom bomb will change the concept of painting once and for all.” In Hiroshima, that light had remade the world with terrible minimalism: “For one instant, everybody was the same color.” Yet nuclear weaponry did not revolutionize artistic…
Vintage Eats
Sal’s Menu Restaurant Where did we go wrong? When were we brainwashed into forgetting about the venerable Cleveland diner? Are the prices really that much better at McMuffinland? In a word, no. A full meal at most diners is still cheaper than your average fast food chain. Nor are diners giving away anything in quality.…
Can The Plain Dealer Be Saved?
Sometime early in the new year, an announcement will be made that The Plain Dealer is cutting its print edition to three days a week. Along with that change, there will be layoffs and a restructuring of the paper under a new digital umbrella. Despite an impassioned campaign launched by newsroom staffers, there is simply…
Culinary Calendar
Thursday, December 6 The Melting Pot’s Great Lakes Holiday Beer Dinner Great Lakes Christmas Ale has been blended with everything from ice cream to marinades. Add fondue to that list tonight as The Melting Pot throws its Great Lakes Holiday Beer Dinner. The legendary fondue restaurant will be serving a four-course beer-pairing dinner starting at…
On the Upswing
Inspired. That is the first word that comes to mind in describing the new Uptown project and its surrounding University Circle neighborhood. This one-of-a-kind development is the first niche neighborhood in Cleveland that combines big-box retail and national restaurant brands with local hospitality. This is a testament not only to the developers — the Maron…
The Little Theater That Could
The groundbreaking last week for Near West Theatre’s new home in Gordon Square marked an important milestone not just for the company, but for musical theater in Cleveland. Near West was founded in 1978 by actress, director, and choreographer Stephanie Morrison-Hrbek, who wanted to offer a constructive activity for neighborhood teenagers. The daughter of two…
Replacing the Replacements
When director Gorman Bechard, who will introduce a screening of his 2011 Replacements documentary Color Me Obsessed at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 12 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, first saw the Replacements in 1983 when they opened for R.E.M., he wasn’t impressed. “My girlfriend and I were right up against…
Opening: Hitchcock
Hitchcock Sacha Gervasi’s biopic about director Alfred Hitchock attempts to dramatize what was going on behind the scenes while Hitchcock filmed Psycho, the cinematic benchmark that would become his most popular film. The movie centers on the relationship between “Hitch” (Anthony Hopkins), as he was affectionately called, and his wife, Alma (Helen Mirren). While the…
Great Wall of China
The Argentine film Chinese Take-Away tells the familiar story of the displaced immigrant reluctantly adopted by a native loner. Versions of this fable have been told in films like The Visitor and Le Havre. Chinese Take Away, written and directed by Sebastián Borenzstein and opening Friday at the Capitol Theatre, is a particularly lovely expression…
CD Review: Sun Spots
The new psych pop band led by former Good Touch Bad Touch singer-guitarist Ryan Wilkins, Sun Spots makes quite an impression on its vibrant debut that recalls the indie pop of the ’90s. Featuring contributions by members of local acts such as Village Bicycle, Voxcaster, the Dreadful Yawns, and Spacer Ace, the album took the…
String Fling
No one has expanded the possibilities of his instrument more than Béla Fleck, the banjo virtuoso. Even the phrase “banjo virtuoso” didn’t exist in the musical lexicon before Fleck burst on the scene in 1990 with his band the Flecktones, with an eponymous release that immediately redefined the possibilities of bluegrass music and the range…
The Book of Barnes
When Of Montreal front man Kevin Barnes, a Rocky River native who still thinks of himself as a lifelong fan of Cleveland sports teams, moved to Athens, Ga. some 15 years ago, he consciously wanted to embrace the city’s rich musical history. Inspired by watching Athens, Ga. Inside/Out, a documentary film about the music scene…
A Great Awakening
Because the Phoenix-based Christian hardcore group Blessthefall has been through some lineup changes since forming in 2003, every CD the group puts out feels like its debut. Their 2007 debut, His Last Walk, was so well received it got the band onto the Warped Tour for the entire summer after its release. Then, after a…
