Confessions of a Shopaholic
Rebecca Bloomwood (Isla Fisher) has run into a bit of bad luck. The home and garden magazine she writes for has just shut down, and she can’t afford to pay her rent. Instead of adopting a frugal lifestyle, however, she continues to frequent sample sales and a variety of designer-clothing boutiques. She simply can’t stop…
Friday the 13th
Like all Friday the 13th films, this remake works from the same plot: a bunch of dumb teenagers in the woods drinking, smoking pot and having sex, only to be killed in various ways by deformed slasher Jason Voorhees. This Friday the 13th is no different, though the elements just don’t gel in a satisfying…
The International
Much like 2007’s Michael Clayton, The International is about one man’s quest to get to the bottom of a conspiracy. In this case, that man is renegade Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen), who’s been trying to convict a Luxembourg bank of dabbling in organized crime. Salinger brings in his New York-based higher-up, Eleanor Whitman…
Local Foodie News
Like the Cleveland Browns, the Mad Greek (2466 Fairmount Blvd., 216.421.3333, madgreekcleveland.com) is undergoing a reconstruction phase. By hiring classically trained chef Robert Ledzianowski, management has shown that it is serious about improving the quality of this Cleveland Heights institution. "We're rebuilding," explains the chef. "There was a lack of refinement in what the restaurant…
Scene & Heard: Bad News For Bad People
Cramps singer Lux Interior died February 4 in California, succumbing to an infection that followed treatment for a heart condition. Born Erick Purkhiser in Stow in 1946, and known to his friends as "Rick," Lux was one of the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll cult figures. The band’s web page describes the lithe psychobilly pioneer as…
The Bank Job
Much like 2007's Michael Clayton, The International is about one man's quest to get to the bottom of a conspiracy. In this case, that man is renegade Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen), a Brit working on the other side of the pond because he had a meltdown of sorts while at Scotland Yard. In…
Scene & Heard: Bad News For Bad People
Cramps singer Lux Interior died February 4 in California, succumbing to an infection that followed treatment for a heart condition. Born Erick Purkhiser in Stow in 1946, and known to his friends as "Rick," Lux was one of the ultimate rock 'n' roll cult figures. The band's web page describes the lithe psychobilly pioneer as…
Get Out! Party Times Four
Four holidays collide at tonight's Black Love Bizarre party. Northeast Ohio's hip-hop community will simultaneously celebrate Mardi Gras, Valentine's Day, Black History Month and Presidents' Day with strings of beads, boxes of chocolates and a nightclub decked out in red. "We'll have games and trivia contests throughout the night that will commemorate all those things,"…
Voices Raised
Now that we've inaugurated the first African-American president, and writers for major newspapers are throwing around terms like post-racial, why hold an exhibition of artwork exclusively by African-American artists? Each in Their Own Voice: African-American Artists in Cleveland, 1970-2005 unintentionally asks, and then answers, just that question. A joint effort between the Cleveland Artists Foundation…
Local Reviews
GMPD Dreamscape (Psychic Dog) pureuphonic.com Once a duo defined by analog synths and Andrew "Dice" Clay impressions, Youngstown's Gil Mantera's Party Dream has reinvented itself as GMPD, in a telling nod to the '80s synth band known as OMD. The addition of live drummer Anthony Paterra of Pittsburgh-based prog soundscapists Zombi completes the transition to…
Romantic With A Capital ‘R’
Critics and conductors have had a lot to say about Johannes Brahms' extremely difficult violin concerto in D Major, Op. 77. The 19th-century German conductor Hans von BŸlow called it "a concerto against the violin." The Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman described it as "a concerto for violin against orchestra – and the violin wins!" It…
Lust: All Access
By the fall of 2002, Erie transplant Sean Carney had been in Cleveland for nearly a decade. He had some good times, although dropping out of Case Western Reserve to hang out at the Euclid Tavern and listen to underground rock groups like Craw and the Jesus Lizard wasn't a career path most advisors would…
A Rage To Live
"How does destiny work?" wonders Roberto Canessa, looking back at the stunning events of more than 35 years ago. It's not an idle question – his story naturally inspires questions about the capriciousness of fate. Canessa was one of 16 survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, which crashed in the Andes Mountains on October…
Lust: A Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Everybody has to sleep somewhere. Why not here? A quick online search shows a competitive average rate of $49; proximity to Malley's Chocolate Factory and NASA Glenn; a utilitarian-looking highway hotel all dolled up in green and peach with a pool, gym, game room and Wi-Fi. For a traveler on a budget with a sweet…
Cap Reviews Of Current Releases
OPENING Clean Slate (France, 1981) – This adaptation of a Jim Thompson novel about a French colonial township stars Philippe Noiret and Isabelle Huppert. Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. At 9 p.m. Friday, February 13. Dr. Zhivago (US, 1965) – David Lean's epic film is about a Russian poet and doctor who live through the…
Lust: Model Citizen
The raw material of Erin O'Brien is not the stuff of pinup legend. I am neither young nor thin and stand just a grilled baloney sandwich over 5 feet tall. I am not the sort who nips, tucks, primps or frets over the grays, or dons lipstick. I do, however, tend to pounce on the…
Not Another Bistro!
Another day, another bistro, right? Seems you can't pick up this newspaper without reading about an ambitious new bistro banking on a tidal wave of good cheer. Invariably, these gastro-pads are helmed by accomplished chef-owners, adhere to a strict ingredient-driven greenmarket mentality and boast menus sprinkled with phrases like "house-cured," "fresh-baked" and "just churned." While…
Culture Jamming: Tolkien Gestures
TOP PICK The Lord of the Rings: Conquest (Electronic Arts) Get your geek on in this action-packed videogame (for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and Nintendo DS) that gets right to the good stuff: kick-ass battles featuring Aragon, Gandalf, Legalos and many other warriors from Tolkien's drooled-over fantasy world. Best of all, the epic…
Rebel With A Cause
When you fight the powers that be, it's wise to have an army at your side. Michael Franti's been building one for years – progressive but detached legions across the festival-going globe with an eye for his walk-the-walk aesthetic and an ear for his gratuitously varied groove. And when he says dance, like he does…
Here Comes The Sun God
By Kevin Jaworski's reckoning, he was born a decade too late. The 31-year-old Lakewood musician discovered Nirvana as a teenager, but by the time he worked his way back and discovered bands like the Wipers, Mission of Burma, Squirrel Bait and the Dead Kennedys, they'd already disappeared. After more than a decade of fooling around…
Franz Ferdinand Leads This Weeks New Releases
Franz Ferdinand Tonight: Franz Ferdinand (Domino) The fusion of maddening bass lines and infectious guitar riffs has put Franz Ferdinand in the same category as other modern indie-rock favorites like the Strokes and Interpol. On both 2004's Franz Ferdinand and 2005's You Could Have It So Much Better, the Scottish foursome churned out clean, disconcerting…
Reel Cleveland
Last month, a new 35mm print of the extremely rare Chantal Akerman film Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, a movie that critic J. Hoberman has said "changed the face of contemporary European cinema" upon its 1975 release, showed for a week at New York's Film Forum. Now, the new print is coming…
Trepanning Times Two
When multi-instrumentalist David Mansbach was a student at Bowling Green State University, he decided to do a senior thesis that combined his two main interests: music and art. Later, he cofounded electro-rock band Infinite Number of Sounds. But the piece of classically oriented music he composed stuck with him, and a couple of years later…
Cheerful Thoughts
Dear Mr. Lerner: Listen, I realize you've been a busy man lately. New coach, new GM, some hirings, lots of firings and all the primping you do for being out in front of the camera. I understand. After crapping the bed last season, you have a veritable miracle to perform in returning this great franchise…
Around Hear: Sin City Gets Religion, Cleveland Style
Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan personally recruited Uncle Scratch's Gospel Revival to open three sold-out shows for his side project Puscifer at the Las Vegas Palms Casino from Friday, February 13 through Sunday, February 15. Keenan caught the duo live at The Horse magazine's biker convention in Arizona last year and liked their rock-evangelist theme.…
Prurient Geekdom
Packed with salacious, lip-smackin', soft-scientific inquiry, The Best of Sexology spans about 40 years of prurient geekdom. That's not surprising, given that founder Hugo Gernsback is better known for starting the first science- fiction magazine and lending his name to the prestigious Hugo Award for Science Fiction Achievement. With a flair for pulp, Gernsback began…
Local Arts News
Hey, kids! The Council of Smaller Enterprises Arts Network is taking applications for its 2nd annual Arts Business and Innovation Awards, which come with a $1,000 cash prize. If you've got an artistic venture less than three years old that you run like a small business, and if you're incorporated or in the process, you're…
A Sweeney With Heart
Black History Month is in full swing, which means our theaters are filled with thundering gospel. But it wouldn't hurt the name of diversity to acknowledge a less well-known but equally significant celebration: Oy Vey Shanah. For civilians, this is a secular festivity honoring Jewish aggravation, a time for performers to dance to Woody Allen's…
