Marcy Kaptur Introduces Herself to Cleveland Airwaves
Toledo congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, running in the Cleveland media market for the first time since congressional redistricting put her in the same district as Dennis! Kucinich, has done her first TV ad buy in Cleveland. According to Roll Call, she’s dropped $90,000 for the upcoming air campaign. She takes a couple of cues from Kucinich…
American Greetings’ War on Nigerian Princes
Yes, that’s exactly how it works. Cleveland’s own American Greetings has more worries than simply helping Grandma get you that birthday card with the $5 check in it. The advent of e-cards, which AG launched back in 1996, gave rise to a host of new woes: all the spam and phishing that comes along with…
The Quality of Cleveland Life Report
Your guide to living in fabulous Cleveland. Invest in Hot Pockets: Nestle reveals plan to move itsHot Pockets business team fromColorado to Solon, which could result in dozens of local jobs. Team’s key function includes exclamations of joy that people actually buy Hot Pockets. A Baller’s Life: Cavaliers rookie guard Kyrie Irving surprises everyone with…
Vote in Best of Cleveland Poll Today, Like Right Now
The annual Best of Cleveland issue will spew forth from these hallowed editorial halls in March. But before that happens, we need to hear from you, the reader. There are some two hundred categories this year. By sheer probabilities, you have an opinion on at least a couple dozen of those, even if it’s by…
NASA Video: All the Airtraffic Over the US in a Single Day
Holy moly, folks. Just watch. Includes video of atypical days as well (9/11, weather troubles, etc.)
Cleveland burlesque queen Bella Sin featured in new book
Bella Sin at last year’s Ohio Burlesque Festival Los Angeles-based photographer Brian C. Janes’ fascination with the new burlesque movement took him across the country as he interviewed and photographed performers for his book It’s All That Glitters. A stop in Cleveland connected him with local burlesque performer/promoter Bella Sin, who has run La Femme…
Welcome to Weird and Wacky Steubenville, OH
He had never seen a sky so vast and ashen with empty fury; had never heard such dire ceaseless rumblings and deafening wails. It was as if misery, the most human of states, had taken on the dimensions of an existence apart from humanity; for it was not any sense of human misery he perceived…
Super Bowl Star Madonna Is Coming to Cleveland
Hot off her halftime gig at the Super Bowl a couple days ago, Madonna is gearing up for a world tour that will bring her to Cleveland in November. Her new album, MDNA, comes out on March 26. The tour kicks off in Tel Aviv two months later. After spending most of the summer in…
Musicians Rally Around Clubs in Admissions Tax Fight
Let’s stock the mayor’s iPod! Brent Kirby is one of Cleveland’s busiest musicians. He plays with the Jack Fords, as a solo act both with and without a band, and with his Gram Parsons tribute band New Soft Shoe. But he’s found time is his nonstop schedule to rally local musicians in support of the…
Updated — Comic Book God Talks About Harvey Pekar
UPDATED You can still donate by Paypal (at hpekar@aol.com) or by clicking below: Over the weekend, Alan Moore — the comic-book god who penned, among other classics, Watchmen and V for Vendetta — held his first mass webchat. And it was all done because of the Kickstarter campaign to get a statue built for late…
Dad Gives Kids Oxycodone And Collects Their Urine To Pass Drug Test (Updated)
Update: It was awhile ago, so we’ll forgive you if you forget the lovely Conneaut parents who dosed their kids with Oxycodone so that their dad, who was taking Oxy like prescribed, but also weed, which was not prescribed, could pass a piss test. Well, the mom in the case was just sentenced to two…
USA Today Picks 11 Things It Likes About Cleveland
USA Today’s Pop Traveler just unveiled “11 Reasons to Visit Cleveland.” The list was actually written by a Clevelander, Big Business (or Chris M.), who claims he’s “not a storyteller, humorist, columnist, musician, satirist, or radio personality.” At least he got some of the best things about Cleveland right, even is there are some glaring…
Yes, OSU’s Football Schedule Calls Michigan “That Team Up North”
Urban Meyer hasn’t been in Columbus long, but he already gets it. Via Dr. Saturday at Yahoo!, here’s next year’s schedule in the OSU locker room. It’s never not worth it to needle That Team Up North. Somewhere, Woody Hayes is smiling.
Viktor Schreckengost Museum Opening Delayed Amid Allegations of Misconduct (Updated)
Update: The Vicktor Schreckengost Museum is being delayed again. Where have we heard that story before? Oh, that’s right. What was supposed to be a Spring 2011 launch got pushed back after what sources told us was some hinky conduct by its former director. The reasons this time around are much less sinister and more…
Betty White Picks the Browns for Next Year’s Super Bowl
Here’s Hot in Cleveland star and resurgent nonagenarian funnywoman Betty White congratulating the Giants on their Super Bowl win and picking the Browns to be in the same position next year. It’s a joke of course, unless the Browns sign White to play corner instead of Sheldon Brown. Then we might have a chance.
Tracy Morgan’s Mom Goes Public with Family Fight
Not so funny stuff. “Life smacks Tracy Morgan in the face,” is how the SNL and 30 Rock funny man laid it out himself while sitting down with NPR’s Terry Gross in 2009 for a surprise kleenex-soaker of an interview upon the release of his hard knocks memoir, I Am the New Black. Barely damming…
MGK Song Tapped As Soundtrack to Fake Wrestling Match
It’s been a busy week for Cleveland rapper Machine Gun Kelly. He kicked it off last weekend by spending a few hours in jail after “brawling” in Florida. And now his new single “Invincible” has been tapped as WWE star John Cena’s theme song for Wrestlemania XXVIII. Cena will enter the big fight — which…
Cleveland Ranked 23rd Drunkest City in America
The Daily Beast checks in today with another batch of city rankings, this time centering on booze. Since those are two of our favorite things in this entire wonderful world, we thought we’d share the data. Cleveland, as you can see in the helpful graphic to the right, comes in at No. 23 on the…
Update: Weed vs. Weed
We have a correction on this. The Ohio Medical Cannabis Amendment ballot language that originally was rejected by the Ohio Attorney General allowed for double the pot than specified in the competing group’s ammendment. But no longer. The recently approved version of the proposed amendment that may go before voters doesn’t put a limit on…
Congressional candidate Graham Veysey to Host Twitter Town Hall Tomorrow
I haven’t figured out how to tweet a large sausage-and-mushroom yet, but I’m working on it. Want to get to know more about Graham Veysey, the congressional candidate we wrote about this week who is challenging incumbents Dennis Kucinich and Marcy Kaptur in the Democratic primary for the 9th district congressional seat? Veysey, a 29-year-old…
Help the Kitties! Waterloo Alley Cat Project Fundraiser Tomorrow.
Thanks for the eats, Waterloo Cat Project! When Pete & Debbie Gulyas opened Blue Arrow Records on Waterloo Road a few years ago, they became aware of the number of feral cat colonies in the North Collinwood neighborhood. Being cat lovers, they decided to do something to help the cats, and the Waterloo Alley Cat…
Ohio Reps Busy Cooking Up Car-Related Legislation
This little guy here? He could change up the road rules. You don’t have to be a Not-In-My-Backyard Ron Paulist to appreciate a little breathing room between the government’s reach and your regular spin through the daily routine. But we’ve got a feeling the more libertarian-leaning among you are going to get a little red…
Cloud Nothings Making More New Music
This has nothing to do with the Cloud Nothings single. We just like to freak you out once in awhile According to Pitchfork, Cloud Nothings will release a new exclusive single this year as part of Suicide Squeeze Records’ 2012 singles series. The limited-edition seven-inch singles are kinda like hipster Holy Grails, since such a…
Punxsutawney Phil, Buckeye Chuck Disagree on Winter Prediction
“I predict I’ll bite you on the nose if you don’t move away from my cage.” It’s Groundhog Day, which means furry animals are manhandled by chubby men who hold the groundhogs high in the sky and proclaim something about something. We forget, really. Where’s Bill Murray? There’s the most famous Marmota monax, Phil, of…
Kip Winger: When Hair Metal Grows Up
You might remember Kip Winger as the guy who sang about banging 17-year-old girls as frontman for the late-’80s metal band Winger. While most of his hair-metal pals can be found these days whining about how hard it is to get stripper girlfriends once you’re fat and broke, 50-year-old Winger has aged with amazing grace.…
Cleveland Job Growth Lagging Behind Other Ohio Cities, Rest of the Country, All Mankind, Known Universe
Where??? Coming in the wake of such rosy, much-hyped hiring opportunities and a steady drop in the number of people applying for unemployment in these parts, this news is a bit of a let down, to say the least. According to the latest crunched numbers, the Cleveland area is actually behind other parts of the…
Food Fight: Battle for Battery Park
When two talented chefs square off for neighborhood bragging rights, things can get a little heated. At least, we’re hoping for some hot fun during the upcoming Battle for Battery Park, Cleveland’s first-ever comedy food fight pitting Chef Jeff James of Reddstone against Chef Dimitris Ragousis of Battery Park Wine Bar. What, exactly, is a…
Dan Gilbert May Be Getting a Casino in Baltimore
Dan Gilbert’s Rock Gaming has yet to open its Cleveland gambling palace, but already it’s eyeing other pastures. Along with partner Ohio Caesars, Rock is now the lone bidder for a shot at building a 3,750-slot casino in Baltimore. If Maryland approves the bid in early April as anticipated, the casino could open as early…
Silence is Golden
The Cinematheque recently kicked off a two-month series devoted to the movies’ first couple of decades — you know, before they learned how to talk. Artists of the Silent Screen features more than a dozen films from the early days, from foreign classics to popular favorites, all with title cards and pasty actors in heavy…
CD Review: Imperial Teen
Ever since their 1996 debut, Imperial Teen have stuck to a schedule that caters more to what members have going on in their personal lives than to a desire to make music with any sort of regularity. Their fifth album — and first since 2007’s The Hair, the TV, the Baby, and the Band —…
CD Review: Lana Del Rey
Unlike her recent snoozy performance on SNL, Lana Del Rey’s debut album is a slinky exercise in sonic seduction. The 25-year-old super-buzzed New York City singer offers jazzy melodies that pulse with indie-rock edge and girl-group snap underscored by sampled orchestrations, beatbox rhythms, and tool-shed atmospherics. Her vocal presence is a suggestive mix of Kate…
We Get Mail
Just Try to Win, Baby Tony Grossi should be thanked for finally speaking up about the Browns [“Tony Grossi Calls Randy Lerner ‘Pathetic’ and ‘Irrelevant Billionaire’ in Now-Deleted Tweet,” at the Scene & Heard blog]. It’s about time someone had the balls to say something about this travesty. These big-name people — Mike Holmgren, Tom…
Color Us Impressed
For 15 years, Red Wanting Blue have been the very definition of indie success. The Columbus band has self-released eight albums since forming in the mid-’90s, rotated membership, toured relentlessly, and assembled a slavishly loyal fan base that follows every curve in the path. That paradigm shifts a little with the recent release of the…
Rise and Shine
Unlike so many of the artists legendary studio curmudgeon Steve Albini has worked with, Youngstown indie rockers Asleep are neither crunchy nor abrasive. In fact, the songs on their new album, Unpleasant Companion (which comes out next week), are kinda sweet and chewy, propelled by Todd Kaden’s soft, tuneful voice. It’s a far scream from…
Rhymes With ‘Uneasy’
On a recent Sunday afternoon, as another winter day’s meager sunlight fades into night, Graham Veysey is sitting in a Starbucks on Clifton Boulevard near Cleveland’s Lakewood border. He’s sipping on a murky green health drink and chatting about his favorite subjects: politics, sustainability, his communications business, and the civic projects he’s involved with around…
On View This Week
At Spaces: Creative Destruction Baltimore installation artist Marty Weishaar’s Speculative Models, opening this week at Spaces, presents a modern megalopolis half in ruins, animated by planes and ships dry-docked “like trophies.” The massive work, which encompasses some 700 square feet of floor, plus the walls and ceiling, appears haphazard, built from matchbox cars, cardboard, zip…
On Stage
At Dobama: Telling Lives An amateur writer pens her memories and unwittingly sparks the family drama she had hoped to avoid in Telling Lives, a new work by award-winning playwright Faye Sholiton. The full-length play is part of Dobama’s new GYMrep program, showcasing productions from local talents. Performances continue in repertory with The Mighty Scarabs…
At the Arthouse
OSS 117: Lost in Rio Before they made the excellent The Artist — which is finally playing in Cleveland, so you should go see it — director Michel Hazanavicius and star Jean Dujardin hooked up for a pair of James Bond parodies. The Cinematheque is showing both this week. This 2009 outing crams in most…
Savage Love
Dear Dan: My husband is very kinky and submissive. When we were dating, I found out that he had been talking to people online and that he had met up with a professional dom a couple of times. I felt betrayed that he had done this all behind my back even though I had told…
When Restaurants Go Bad
Each week on the Food Network’s Restaurant: Impossible, chef Robert Irvine gets two days and $10,000 to save a failing restaurant. On Wednesday, February 8, that restaurant will be Moss’ Prime Rib and Spaghetti House in Elyria. Scene caught up with Irvine to chat about restaurants, stubborn owners, and social media. Who initiates contact: you,…
Get Out!
Thursday | 02 Signs of Spring Baseball & Beer in Ohio City Is Groundhog Day the new Mardi Gras? It could be, if you take John Smatana’s advice. The owner of Ohio City’s Johnnyville Slugger, maker of fine, custom-crafted baseball bats, says his plans to make today a major party day began with a chance…
Concert Calendar
The Cab/the Summer Set The Top 40 may be dominated by Auto-Tune, candy-colored electro, and splashy hip-pop, but the pop-rock underground is thriving. The Everything’s Fine Symphony Soldier tour features some of the genre’s best. The Cab (pictured) hew closest to mainstream pop’s glossy ideals. In fact, it’s not a stretch to surmise that had…
Stay In!
TOP PICK Family Guy: Volume Nine (Twentieth Century Fox) The 14 episodes on this three-disc DVD are plucked from the eighth and ninth seasons of the show. As expected, there’s plenty of cutaway scenes, inappropriate remarks involving race issues/gay people/sloppy sex, and pop culture references so obscure you’ll need a cheat sheet by your side…
The Custodian
Randy Lerner is wearing a Browns Backers Sri Lanka T-shirt and khakis when he greets me at the team’s headquarters in Berea late in August. “Hey, I’m Randy, good to meet you,” he says, offering his hand. The Browns owner, who has rarely spoken to the media since taking over the team after his father…
Still Shining Bright
Ask local dining devotees about the town’s top spots, and chances are that AMP 150 will make their list. That diners are still talking about an airport-hotel restaurant after the loss of its gregarious chef, Ellis Cooley, is a testament not only to Cooley, but also to his replacement, Jeff Jarrett. While Cooley’s heady legacy…
Home Movies
Drive (Sony) One of 2011’s best movies plays even better at home, where Nicolas Winding Refn’s turbocharged thriller about a stunt man who moonlights as a getaway driver burns with an almost effortless intensity. Refn piles on the style and speed as Ryan Gosling (in his most understated role of a breakout and versatile year)…
CD Review: Die Antwoord
The first time you heard South African rappers Die Antwoord’s “Enter the Ninja” was such a rush, right? Between Yo-Landi Vi$$er’s pixie-voiced sing-songy choruses and Ninja’s super-quick, often incomprehensible rhymes, it sounded little like the formulated hip-hop we’re used to and more like the most fucked-up party jam ever created by backwoods kids who just…
Film Capsules
The Woman in Black After playing Harry Potter for 10 years and airing out his dick on British and Broadway stages, Daniel Radcliffe jumps into the next logical phase of his career: a period Victorian horror movie about a vengeful ghost terrorizing a small village. On the plus side, it’s the first movie in 35…
