Letters
Keep It Up, Keep It Coming I just finished Cleveland magazine’s article “Boxing Match” in the March issue, about the war between Free Times and Scene. Why does this have to be a war? Or if it does have to be a war, can’t a common enemy be irresponsible journalism? I’ve read Scene for years,…
The Little Prints
When the Cleveland Museum of Art exhibits the work of a photographer who uses a toy camera, the temptation is to wonder what the hell is going on. One of the premier arts institutions in the country is exhibiting twenty photos taken with a camera that sports a plastic shutter? Furthermore, that camera has a…
A Tale Told by an Idiot
To try to recapture the hellish ninety minutes that make up Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile at the Cleveland Play House, one must conjure up the worst symptoms of the flu. Under Peter Hackett’s feverish direction, everything passes before the audience’s eyes in a blur, and all of it is feverish, futile, nonsensical,…
Snicker’s Really Satisfies
I’m a fool for a fireplace. Ask anyone who has stopped by my hearthless home over the holidays to find me mesmerized by the flickering images on “The Fireplace Channel”–our public access cable station that, during December, shows nothing but a close-up of an actual wood fire. How much more satisfying, then, to bask in…
Reluctant Godmothers
Eleven years ago, the recording of Scrawl’s first album, He’s Drunk, was interrupted when Sue Harshe had to return home to Columbus. Duty beckoned, in the form of college graduation. “When Mom and Dad pay for it, you’re going to wear the cap and gown,” she says. “Of course, it did take me six years.”…
Livewire
Alanis Morissette Liz Phair Gund Arena February 15 The voice is as big live as it is on record. Alanis Morissette’s lungs pumped long and loud for her appreciative fans at Gund Arena. Dressed like Juliette Lewis in one of her retard roles, Morissette hammered her demanding material with precision and emotion. No studio trickery…
What He’s Like
Whitey Ford almost wasn’t going to be singing much of anything, the blues or otherwise. A few hours after putting the final touches on his recent solo album, Whitey Ford Sings the Blues, a year ago, former House of Pain frontman Everlast suffered a massive heart attack that knocked him out for four days and…
Soundbites
Jane Reed thought she was hearing things. After sitting at her son’s hospital bedside for 74 days, she could be forgiven for questioning her sanity. Her son Kevin had been in a coma since an ash tree, five inches in diameter, fell on his head in a farm accident. Plans were being made to discharge…
Playback
XTC Apple Venus Volume 1 (TVT) After a ten-year moratorium on touring, it was no surprise when 1992’s Nonsuch quietly became the last studio effort by XTC. Nor was it surprising that Andy Partridge placated his fans throughout the ’90s with repackaged singles, B-sides, and outtakes from when the band did tour. Finally, there is…
Night & Day
Thursday February 25 Okay, so you’ve kissed the Pope’s ring. Now it’s time to get to know some really important people. Like Lonnie Johnson, the inventor of the Super Soaker squirt gun, who “changed the face of water pistols,” according to Rini Paiva, co-curator of American Innovation, a new exhibition that features creations by women…
Air Canada
Pounding out aggression Turns into obsession Cannot kill the battery –Metallica, “Battery” Nobody told Kevin Dabbs. Nobody tracked him down a year-and-a-half ago to say, “Hey, you left some videotapes you made in Vancouver. One of them has you playing air drums to a bunch of Metallica songs. Would you like it back?” Nobody told…
Under the Flashlight
Stronger than a cast-off candy wrapper, lighter than a grocery bag, able to leap pipe cleaners in a single bound (and crush tissue paper with his bare hands!)–Yes, it’s Not-a-Superhero, the Kleenex-caped crusader with a body of tinfoil, who references Nietzsche and battles the evil Temporius, Guardian of Pseudocyclical Time. Trapped in the frame-by-frame world…
Disco Redux
Time may have healed most of the wounds opened by the backlash against disco, but not all of them. Although the frequently bashed genre is enjoying a revival of late, thanks in part to the boom in throwback nightspots, the popularity of these joints owes more to nostalgia and camp than it does to a…
Toast Points
At a fashionable dinner party around the turn of the century, George Bernard Shaw was asked to deliver a toast on the subject of sex. The Irish playwright stood, raised his glass, and said, “It gives me great pleasure . . .” Then he sat down. A hundred years later, pints will be raised to…
Marshall Law
Director Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman, Beaches) has always tended toward unrealistically feel-good movies, and The Other Sister is no exception. Billed as “a love story for the romantically challenged,” it concerns Carla (Juliette Lewis), a mentally challenged young woman struggling for independence from her overprotective mother (Diane Keaton). With the exception of one scene late…
Smoke and Mirrors
Under the opening titles of 200 Cigarettes, we hear Bow Wow Wow’s near-peerless bubble-gum anthem “I Want Candy.” The movie that follows seems designed to satisfy that craving–it’s sweet, tart, brightly colored, insubstantial, and utterly lacking in nutritional value. It’s also fun to consume, and harmless enough, as long as it isn’t your whole diet.…
The Straight Dope
I’ve heard of people under general anesthetic who become physically paralyzed but remain mentally alert. They feel the surgeon’s scalpel, but are helpless and unable even to blink an eye or make a sound. Could you give me the straight dope on this phenomenon? –Pandora, via the Internet It happens, babe. Get a load of…
Dead Man Gawking
It’s got emotion. It’s got conflict. It’s the landmark event Ohioans have waited 36 years to see. Welcome to the gut-wrenching docu-drama . . . One Life To Give, starring Bob Taft as the studious governor, Betty Montgomery as the steely attorney general, and Wilford Berry as the sullen anti-hero known as “The Volunteer.” Also…
