Looks Like Cleveland Won’t Be Talking About Kevin After All
The Cedar Lee Theatre was all set to finally open the acclaimed late-2011 movie We Need to Talk About Kevin on March 9. Then the Chardon tragedy happened, and the film — which is about a troubled boy who goes on a shooting spree at his high school — was pulled from the schedule. Too…
Wednesday Morning Ticket/CD Giveaway
We’re giving away a pair of tickets to Mutemath’s concert at House of Blues on Sunday. We also have a stack of the band’s CDs for you here, including their latest, Odd Soul. Want all this? All you have to do is leave us a comment below about the most bizarre R&B song you’ve ever…
Lil Rickie in the ’Hood Tomorrow
Wonder how he’d look in saggy jeans and an XXXL white tee? GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum has loaded up his Leadership for Life bus to hit Ohio — and he’ll be coming our way tomorrow with an early afternoon Cleveland stop sandwiched between touchdowns in Toledo and Youngstown. Naturally, with his tight schedule, you’d…
Media Hunts for School Shooting Info, Interviews on Twitter to Mixed Results
You know the old dig at the media? That when the blood’s sticky on the pavement and the siren ring is still knocking around everyone’s eardrums, they’re we’re always jamming microphones and cameras into the victims’ faces, looking for comment, tell us how it felt, tell us tellustellustellustellus? Fortunately, we didn’t see a lot of…
MGK Grabs Nuts, Makes Funny Face on Cover of XXL
Yep, that’s Machine Gun Kelly grabbing his nuts and doing that face thing he does on the cover of the latest issue of XXL. The hip-hop magazine’s latest issue celebrates the Freshman Class of 2012, an annual list of selected rappers from around the world primed for world domination over the next 12 months. (Just…
Pic of the Day: Albert Belle is Old
Halloween-enthusiast and 1990s Tribe star Albert Belle stopped by Indians spring training in Arizona today, a special guest joining other golden-era Wahoos like Kenny Lofton, Carlos Baerga, and Sandy Alomar in Goodyear. Belle retired after his hips began breaking down, a sign of a degenerative disease or a mystical symptom of Belle’s super-accelerated aging. The…
Ohio Man Pulled Over Twice in One Hour for Driving With a Suspended License
It’s illegal and wrong to drive with a suspended license. That being said, more than a few unlicensed wayfarers travel our roads each day with fingers crossed, hoping to make it to their destination and back without drawing the attention of Johnnie Law. Of course, some are not so lucky. Ryan Williams, a 40-year-old Sandusky…
Tickets Go on Sale Today for Rock Hall Induction Simulcast
If you didn’t get tickets to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Induction Ceremony bash taking place in Cleveland on April 14, and chances are you didn’t, you can still see the action sorta up close. The next best thing — well, the next best thing to actually being there or staying home and…
Scenes From Chardon High School
Monday morning was just getting off the ground when Clair Coley saw something was wrong at the school next door. The senior citizen’s house, a small neat building hung with St. Patrick’s Day decorations, sits at the corner of a quiet residential block and the driveway leading into Chardon High School. From a back window…
Attempting to Trace How the Picture of a Kid With Guns Became the TJ Lane Twitter Photo, Which It’s Not
Update: Statement from news director at WOIO at the end of post. First off: thoughts and prayers with the victims, friends, staff, students and families at Chardon High School after today’s awful, awful shootings. The news has been fast and furious since just around 8 a.m. this morning when a teenager opened fire in the…
Concert Review — Eric Church at the Wolstein Center
The beer stands were mobbed and the guitars cranked during Eric Church’s headline show at the Wolstein Center on Friday. Church is a country-rocker from North Carolina with a wide outlaw streak and a deft lyrical touch that’s granted him a bit of airplay despite a decidedly un-Nashville bent. It also explains the wells of…
The Dimora Trial Mix Tape: All the Best Stories in One Place
Courtroom trials are a snooze. Seriously. If you’ve ever ridden the benches through a complete legal proceeding from jury selection to guilty/not guilty, you know the average trial is low on regular dramatics; mostly, we’re talking about long, detail-logged witness testimony and interminable pitched battles over fine print. Even when backlit by the kind of…
Battlefield Ohio: Polls Show Santorum Still Leading Romney
What goes better with your morning Cheerios than some political polling? On that front, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has failed to capture any ground in the hearts and minds of Ohioans. This morning, poll palace Quinnipiac University released the latest data for the state before next week’s primary election. Former Senator Rick Santorum still…
An Elated Symon Wins Burger Bash Three Years Running
South Beach – On a steamy Friday night in South Beach, Cleveland chef Michael Symon secured an unprecedented “three-peat” at the sold-out Amstel Light Burger Bash at The South Beach Wine & Food Festival. After winning the coveted People’s Choice award two years in a row, Symon appeared genuinely elated upon hearing his name called…
Update: US EPA Blocks Cleveland’s Trash-Gassing Plant, For Now
The City of Cleveland fired the Mysterious Mr. Tien yesterday, saying that his Princeton Enviromental Group failed to accurately reveal how much money the city could make from a trash gasification plant, and how much trash his proposed gasifier could process. The city also says that the reports Tien completed as part of his $1.5…
Video of the Day Features “Brunstucky.” First Amendment Lessons Needed There
This “Hastily Made Brunswick Touring Video” is trending on YouTube big time this afternoon. Fashioned after local comedian Mike Polk’s ever popular “Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video,” this one points out a number of less than quaint characteristics of the southern burb. As an aside, Newsnet 5 is reporting that the Brunswick Chamber of Commerce…
Today In Rankings: You Are Fat, But Frugal
Just another day in Buffalo. Hey you. You are fat. Don’t shake your head, you are. Are you kidding? You know it, we know it, and now, again, the country knows it. Fatty. A big ol’ fatty rhino person. We know this hurts, so we’ll bring it out quickly: another national fitness magazine has come…
Pic of the Day: ‘Dennis Kucinich is Still God’
The Dennis! vs. Kaptur race has become less tender and friendly in recent days, which is to say that each campaign has resorted to shit-slinging. The general feeling is that Dennis! is doomed to lose. That will upset us and our keyboard greatly: we really have no need to use exclamation points except when writing…
Pill Slinging Granny Busted By Cops
Around certain circles of Lakewood and the west side, it looks like Frances Torres was the woman to go to for a fix in the Social Security set. The 67-year-old woman was selling off Oxy and Adderall for $30 a pop, creating enough of a customer demand to attract the notice of police. 19ActionNews reports…
U Mad, Bro?; Text Messages Show Youngstown Politicos Fighting Like High Schoolers
In this corner . . . Betras. “Bring it b—— boy. Dead last in endorsement, dead last in race. U know y? Bc u r a LOSER.” Nope, we didn’t pull that off a 13-year-old student council candidate’s Facebook wall, usually that kind of political joust occasions wittier take-downs. And no, this didn’t come from…
Orange Targets Hoarders With New Law
Either a hoarder’s kitchen, or a close-up of a skin rash. Good thing your Great Aunt Alberta and her massive collection of baby rattles don’t reside within the boundaries of Orange Village. In that sleepy little slice of suburbia on the East Side, the city council this week decided to tweak the code book in…
Even Ohio Sky’s Teaser Video for New EP Is Kinda Epic
Ohio Sky, our music feature stars of the week, just posted a 1:14 teaser clip for their new EP, which comes out in the spring. The video doesn’t reveal all that much — it’s pretty much just the band getting ready to rock their asses off at Suma Recording Studios. We’re guessing things are thisclose…
The West Side’s Health Food Surplus
The corner of the world where Lakewood, Rocky River, and Fairview Park collide will soon be the epicenter of all foodstuffs natural and organic. Whole Foods Market announced last week plans to open a store on Detroit Road in Rocky River come 2014. Another national natural chain, Earth Fare, opened just a skip down the…
Ex-Rock Hall VP Warren Zanes Back in Cleveland for Friday Del Fuegos Concert
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame supporters have fond memories of Dr. Warren Zanes, the musician-turned-professor who served as the Rock Hall’s vice president of education from 2003-2007. He left Cleveland in 2007 to move to New Jersey not because he didn’t love us, but he says, “I had to choose between the Hall of…
New Bar/Restaurant Has Some Worried W. 25th is Becoming the New W. 6th
In the past year alone, West 25th Street in Ohio City has morphed into one of the most desirable dining destinations around, with its main drag now boasting Crop, SOHO, Market Garden Brewery, Bonbon, Bogtrotters, Alaturka, and others. That growth is also what drew Fabio Salerno to the area. The chef and owner of Lago,…
At the Arthouse
An Evening With Don Hertzfeldt The Oscar-nominated animator comes to town to talk about his hilarious shorts and show off his latest work, It’s Such a Beautiful Day, the final part of his Bill Trilogy. The Cinematheque will also show the first two chapters, along with some of Hertzfeldt’s other short films. It all starts…
On Stage This Week
Did somebody say forbidden love? Memphis The latest stop on Playhouse Square’s Broadway Series is the Tony Award-hogging story of the underground dance clubs of 1950s Memphis and the lusty lads and lasses who rose out of them. The action centers around a white DJ, a black singer, and their quest to take their music…
All Greek to You
Tell me another Greek place around here that does authentic Greek food,” Tommy Karakostas asks from his perch at the Greek Village Grille, his painstakingly genuine gyro shop on Madison Avenue in Lakewood. “There isn’t one here,” he says, promptly answering his own question. “There’s four in America.” Karakostas’ ethnic pride runs as deep as…
Home Movies
J. Edgar (Warner) Clint Eastwood’s biopic about the long-running head of the FBI didn’t quite click with audiences, partly because the movie refused to take sides on J. Edgar Hoover’s controversial life. But it’s worth checking out for Leonardo DiCaprio’s sympathetic performance and Eastwood’s studied, careful dissection of a man who was once one of…
CD Review: Cursive
On previous Cursive albums, frontman Tim Kasher aired out a bunch of his dirty laundry — everything from his divorce to mother issues. On their seventh record, he pulls back on the personal stuff and gets all artsy with a 13-song concept album about twin brothers separated at birth whose good-vs.-evil battle takes on soul-shaking…
Get Out!
Thursday | 23 When Institutes Collide The Planetarium Project Takes Off The impetus behind tonight’s Planetarium Project at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History came nearly two years ago. That’s when Keith Fitch of the Cleveland Institute of Music approached his colleagues at the Cleveland Institute of Art with a suggestion: How about a collaboration…
Not So Special Sauce
It’s been well over five years since last we’ve set foot in Westlake’s Saucy Bistro. So we can’t be certain whether the present state of affairs is the result of changing times or changing talent. But we can tell you this: SB Eighty-One, as the restaurant now is called, has lost much of the culinary…
Stay In!
TOP PICK The Darkness II (2K) This sequel to the 2007 video game picks up two years later, after our hero Jackie – a gangster elevated to boss status thanks to some help from supernatural powers – still has some wrongs to right. This second outing (for the Xbox 260, PlayStation 3, and PC) is…
We Get Mail
Winners Who Lose a Lot The Lerner family is a class act, Browns fans [“The Custodian,” February 1]. Believe it or not, Randy Lerner wants the Browns to be champions as much as — maybe even more than — any of us. Keep this in mind: There are four teams in the NFL that have…
Original Mobster
In the few hours before closing time on any normal Thursday night, Big Fun on Coventry might pull in a couple hundred bucks for its vintage toys and trinkets. But on February 9, Steve Presser expected bigger things — he just didn’t know how big. So he enlisted extra help for the night, plus a…
Local Band in Focus
Meet the Band: BillMike (vocals and instruments), Shakk Erman (bass and vocals), and Jay Kuebler (drums). … And Then There Were Three? BillMike and Kuebler started playing together in 2010. Erman joined last spring. It doesn’t stop there. “Sometimes other people will learn a couple of our songs and accompany us live,” says BillMike. Raise…
Concert Calendar
Emilie Autumn Los Angeles native Emilie Autumn was a classically trained violinist at age four, but she abandoned classical music for a Victorian cabaret-inspired goth hybrid that mixed classical, rock, and electronic. In 2006, Autumn released Opheliac, exploring manic depression and self-mutilation against the backdrop of a mental institution. It was informed by her own…
Film Capsules
This Means War When Reese Witherspoon’s Lauren finds herself dating Chris Pine’s smooth-talking CIA agent FDR as well as his partner-in-espionage Tuck (Tom Hardy), she naturally recognizes their respective appeal and elegantly dissects it: FDR has “tiny hands” and Tuck is “British.” Yes, This Means War is that dumb. Worse: It thinks you are too.…
CD Review: The Darker Shore
On their debut album, the Darker Shore explore a moody metal sound that eventually charts a predictable course. The nine songs on The Mechaphysik are informed by classic metal, with elements of hardcore, thrash, and post-grunge. They tend to linger in mid-tempo — heavy on the atmospheric and epic. Guitarist Tony Klein sounds like he’s…
Savage Love
Dear Dan: I am a 24-year-old female who has known my fiancé since freshman year of college. He has a fetish where he likes to watch women use the bathroom. I knew this, and I accepted it. But while peeing in front of someone isn’t that big a deal, shitting in front of someone is…
Family Feud
The couple and their crumbling marriage at the center of the excellent Iranian drama A Separation are a small piece of a bigger picture. The movie isn’t just about a man and a woman, a husband and a wife, right and wrong. It’s also about complex societal and cultural restraints in a land where women…
CD Review: DJ $crilla & Lauren Lanzaretta
(facebook.com/djscrillamusic) Who’s to blame for this scatterbrained mess? DJ $crilla? Singer Lauren Lanzaretta? Producer Brian Lucey? There’s no focus to Color of Love, just a bunch of generic synth loops, routine drum machines, and other blah odds and ends. By the end of the album (which is available as a free download), it’s near impossible…
Lifting the Curse
Leave it to a stoner-rock band to make their debut album under illegal circumstances. Ohio Sky’s terrific new full-length, Curses, was supposed to be recorded at Ante Up Audio on East 36th, but the Cleveland quintet wasn’t happy with the sound they were getting in the studio. So they broke into the old warehouse attached…
Join the Congregation
The best track on Eric Church’s third album, Chief, is all about the redemptive power of Bruce Springsteen’s songs. It’s even called “Springsteen.” And it brings the Boss cycle full circle, since, of course, Springsteen has been singing about the redemptive power of music for 40 years now. “Even though you’re a million miles away/When…
CD Review: Sinead O’Connor
These days, Sinead O’Connor is better known for her tabloid-ready marriage problems than her music. Sort of the Lana Del Rey of her day, O’Connor’s beguiling (bald) appearance, petulant stunts (“Fight the real enemy!”), and unpredictable music (Def Leppard guitars! Prince cover! “Funky Drummer” sample!) made her a popular media target before she even turned…
On View This Week
At the Akron Art Museum: A Stranger in Paradise In 1976, at age 60, Reverend Howard Finster saw the perfect human face in a drop of paint on his finger, and he heard a voice commanding him to paint sacred art. Half a century later, the late Finster (d. 2001) is one of America’s most…
Teed Off
We [must] recognize the fact that we are African people … that we were slaves … and that since we have a common past, we have a common future.” Playwright August Wilson spelled out his very personal vision of the African-American experience in a 1998 interview with Bill Moyers. Nine years later, his play Radio…
Stiff-Arming History
Scene: Interior. Second-floor room. A glass door leads to a balcony. The camera zooms in as JIM BROWN and his YOUNG GIRLFRIEND argue. He grabs her violently. The glass door opens. He throws her off the balcony to the ground below as she screams. Gripping stuff, but you probably won’t see that sequence of events…
CD Review: Perfume Genius
Mike Hadreas, who records as Perfume Genius, knows how to push buttons. His second album, Put Your Back N 2 It, includes songs about gay sex, suicide, prostitutes, and DIY porn, and an ad for the record was rejected by YouTube for being too gay, prompting supporters like Michael Stipe to rally behind him. Hadreas…
Dennis! Marcy! Graham! Fireworks in 9th Congressional District Race!
Veysey: Ha ha, I’m half your age. You didn’t think the race in the 9th congressional district between incumbents Marcy Kaptur and Dennis! Kucinich, and newcomer Graham Veysey was going to stay peaceful, did you? Nope. As of this week, Kaptur’s running misleading ads about Kucinich’s voting record, Kucinich is writing indignant letters to the…
