Tuesday Ticket Giveaway: Ani Difranco
This is just one of her flavors. We have five pairs of tickets to Ani Difranco’s concert at Oberlin College’s Finney Chapel on February 24. For a chance at winning a pair, send your name, phone number and e-mail address to freetickets@clevescene.com. Be sure to put “Ani Difranco Tickets” in the subject line. We’ll pick…
Mine has its local premiere at CMA
A documentary about the pet ownership custody battles that took place in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Mine makes its local debut at the Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall, showing at 7 tonight and at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, February 14. Here’s our review of the film. Mine (U.S., 2009) A documentary about what happened…
LOTTERY LEAGUE RETURNS TO RESHUFFLE CLE MUSIC DECK
By way of introduction: hi, I’m Ron. I’m the Art Director at Scene and a musician participating in the 2010 Cleveland Lottery League, a massive, apparently bi-annual experiment in indie rock deck chair rearrangement. The draft was last Friday night. I am not a first-timer — I was involved in the 2008 inaugural iteration of…
Automorphosis has its local premiere at CMA
A documentary about art-cars and the people who drive them, Automorphosis makes its local debut at the Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall, showing at 7 tonight. Here’s our review of the film. Automorphosis (U.S., 2008) An art-car documentary that Harrod Blank made in college spawned this film, a fascinating look at the people behind…
Who Let the Pasty Polish Kid With the Potty Mouth On TV?
So, yeah. Your humble blogger made his TV debut tonight, ostensibly because I used a lot of vulgarities in this tirade about CC. At least that’s how I come across in the clip. You don’t know how many times I had to practice saying, “In all sincerity, I hope a seagull poops on his head,”…
HOLD ONTO YOUR WALLETS, CHEMA’S BACK
Over the weekend, The Plain Dealer published a list of 20 possible Cuyahoga County executive candidates (including just three women and two minorities, blogger Jill Miller Zimon points out). But one name that caught our attention was that of Thomas Chema, president of Hiram College. The former head of Cleveland’s Gateway Economic Development Corp., Chema…
So I met my band, wanna hear about it? Great!
As-yet-unnamed Lottery League Band #13 is Matt Mele, Mike Ocampo, Chuck Cieslik and myself. Matt Mele is a recent Chicago transplant with an admirable pedigree — he’s played for no-wavers K.K. Rampage and Coughs, and currently makes some lovely, fuzzy noises in Weird River, his duo with Rachel Starnik. Matt is a multi-instrumentalist, but will…
No Tracie Marie Tonight
This is as close as you’re gonna get. Singer-songwriter Tracie Marie was scheduled to open for Zach at the Barking Spider tonight. Now she won’t. The venue’s fireplace will still be in the house, if you feel like braving the snow. —D.X. Ferris
Tuesday Giveaway: Video Game Edition
We have two copies of the Dante’s Inferno video game up for grabs. There’s not much of a music tie-in to this (as far as we know, the Beatles don’t make an appearance). Still, there are very few things we enjoy in life more than kicking back with some music, a video game and a…
Tuesday Music News Roundup
Lil Wayne: “You gonna smoke that?” Lil Wayne is all set to go to prison … right after he smokes this blunt and records three dozen mixtapes. Michael Jackson’s dad proves the apple doesn’t fall far from the batshit-crazy tree. Meanwhile, Toby Keith called the Air Force and said, “Here, you can have one of…
This Just In: Concert Announcements
The Hold Steady, doing that rock-star thing. This week, we have 38 new shows, including everybody who’s anybody in country (except Hank). —D.X. Ferris CANCELED Suzanna Choffel: Sat., Feb. 20. Wilbert’s. The SpikeDrivers: Fri., Feb. 19. Wilbert’s. THIS JUST INThe Abominable Iron Sloth: Sun., May 9, 7 p.m., $8 ADV/$10 DOS. Peabody’s. Aloha/Pomegrantes: Sat., April…
Guest Ranter Loves — No, Wait, Hates — Matt Pond PA
We’ve got an ax to grind too. Guest blogger Danielle Sills, from There’s No Mistake in Mixtape, takes over the grumpy music writer chair this morning to share her thoughts on Matt Pond PA. I have a Love-Hate Relationship with Matt Pond and his band Matt Pond PA. I don’t normally enjoy capitalizing random adjectives…
Out Today: Hot Chip
Hot Chip One Life Stand(Astralwerks) If listening to Nickelback is like dating the captain of the football team, listening to Hot Chip is like getting with the president of the marching band. Both can provide a thrill, but the sweet, geeky Hot Chip are gonna treat you better in the long run. On their fourth…
Reviews of the Cinematheque’s weekend films
The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque is showing several great movies this weekend. Here are our reviews of just a few of them. Play It Again, Sam (U.S., 1972) The entertaining film version of Woody Allen’s 1969 stage farce came to the screen with the original cast intact: playwright-actor Allen as nudnik movie-magazine scribe Allan…
CHECK THE BAROMETER
In the last half century or so a wave of community theatre has rippled out through the suburbs in the wake of sprawl. The strength of a community theatre is an easy barometer of community life, if not a precise one. It means a bunch of volunteers have the time and energy to pool their…
Cavs Out On the Town Saturday Night: Let’s Go to the Twittertape
Delonte West was the host of a party or something on Saturday night at LUX. I wish I could personally tell you how it went, but alas, I go to bed early most nights. And even if I was up, I’m a diminutive Polish guy, so the clubs scene is probably not where I’d be.…
Fuck You CC Sabathia
The New York Post, in its quest to cover all innuendo and opinion regarding LeBron, talked to CC Sabathia recently about what the Yankee pitcher thinks LeBron should do come July 2010. First, it should be noted that they’ve apparently run out of new people to talk to about LeBron, because they already did an…
Monday Ticket Giveaway 2: Bela Fleck
Pickin’, not grinnin’. We have five pairs of tickets to Bela Fleck’s Africa Project at Oberlin College’s Finney Chapel on February 16. For a chance at winning a pair, send your name, phone number and e-mail address to freetickets@clevescene.com. Be sure to put “Bela Fleck Tickets” in the subject line. We’ll pick five random winners…
“That, LeBron, Is How You Shoot a Free Throw” — Barney Stinson
This ad for How I Met Your Mother during the Super Bowl last night prompted some people to actually call the number on Barney’s sign. This is what you would have heard if you did as well: That, Lebron, is how you shoot a free throw. Hey, Barney Stinson speaking. A recording? No, this is…
Monday Ticket Giveaway: Fucked Up
This is totally Fucked Up. We have a pair of tickets to Fucked Up’s concert at Oberlin College’s Dionysus Club on Friday. For a chance at winning them, send your name, phone number and e-mail address to freetickets@clevescene.com. Be sure to put “Oberlin Concert Tickets” in the subject line (our spam filter doesn’t like “Fucked…
New MVPuppets: Puppet Zydrunas Makes an Appearance at the Barbershop
The Cavs intricate handshake ritual gets the Nike puppet treatment. Biz Z! Follow me on Twitter: @vincethepolack.
We’ve got results.
I’d love to offer a full narrative rehash of the Lottery League draft night, but since pretty much everyone present was hammered by the third round, screw the details. (Before you even THINK about taking a tone, I didn’t start drinking until round 4. Nyah.) Despite shit weather, the turnout was very good, and the…
A Q&A with Up in the Air author Walter Kirn
Walter Kirn’s novel Up in the Air came out in 2001, just months before the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. As a result, sales of the novel, which depicted an airplane engulfed in flames on its cover, plummeted. The book got a second life, however, when Juno director Jason Reitman decided to…
New York Media Interviews Matt LeBlanc About LeBron’s Impending Free Agency
CLEVELAND — While many thought the New York media had reached a new low in the LeBron media frenzy after asking the deposed and catastrophically inept Isaiah Thomas his thoughts on where LeBron James should play next year, it seems they had not reached their journalistic depths quite yet. Today, the New York Daily News…
Video: “Please Don’t Leave 23” Stalks LeBron
As you’ve surely read by now, Austin Briggs (A. Gully) is taking his campaign to keep LeBron in Cleveland to the Q tonight for the Cavs vs. Knicks affair. Briggs will be handing out masks bearing the logo from his PleaseDontLeave23.com site for all the fans. While I’m fully behind the effort to get the…
What to Do Tonight: The Infamous Stringdusters
Before joining forces in a hybrid band schooled in the conventions of traditional bluegrass (vocal harmonies, instrumentation) while equally immersed in the genre’s contemporary jam aspects (original songs, virtuoso players), the Infamous Stringdusters have done sessions with the likes of Dolly Parton, Charlie Daniels and Rebecca Lynn Howard. After their triumphant bow at the 2004…
A WINGNUT IDEA WE ACTUALLY LIKE
Remember Tom Tancredo? He’s the former congressmen from Colorado who ran for president on a single issue: “Help! Scary Mexicans are destroying America!” (I guess I don’t have to tell you which party’s nomination he was seeking.) He may be out of the national spotlight but that doesn’t mean he’s gotten any more rational. In…
Krivda’s Detroit Connection
Krivda: Saxy! Jazz fans have something worth leaving the house for on a Monday evening. One of Cleveland’s top jazzmen, internationally acclaimed sax player Ernie Krivda — known for playing in a multitude of formats and settings — will take over Nighttown’s stage on Monday with a group of equally formidable talents — three musicians…
Campus Sportswear Company’s Striking (But Now Lost) Mural
Via Cool History of Cleveland (via Steven Tatar of Ohio Knitting Mills): This was a Kenneth Bates mural created specifically for the lobby of the new Campus Sweater Company building at 3955 Euclid Avenue. Campus Sweater Company was launched in 1922 by entreprenuers Samuel Kaufmann and Loren Weber originally in the Warehouse District. The Company…
Lottery League: Tweet twit
I should only get a dickpunch for even considering this, but I’ll be live-tweeting the Lottery League draft tonight until such time as I get mortified that I’ve become the asshole who’s barely participatory because I’m too busy tweeting. My Twitter feed is at http://twitter.com/ronk. OR – I’m just sayin’ – you could spend your…
Major League Baseball Cards
Major League movie baseball cards? Yep. And if, for a moment, you think to yourself, Wow, that’s cool, but there’s probably oodles of sets of those out there, take a minute to read this account from Indians Baseball Cards and Random Wax (more photos at that link also). The author got a comment from a…
Tweet twit
I should only get a dickpunch for even considering this, but I’ll be live-tweeting the Lottery League draft tonight until such time as I get mortified that I’ve become the asshole who’s barely participatory because I’m too busy tweeting. My Twitter feed is at http://twitter.com/ronk. OR – I’m just sayin’ – you could spend your…
Friday Music News Roundup
Kelly Clarkson hits all the right notes, says Kelly Clarkson Kelly Clarkson weighs in on the whole Taylor-Swift-can’t-sing thing. Back when, he probably thought it would be really cool to be Michael Jackson’s doctor. Carrie Underwood preps for Super Bowl appearance by dissecting “Pants on the Ground”‘s cultural significance. There may be a lot of…
Lottery League: So, let’s review.
By way of introduction: hi, I’m Ron. I’m the Art Director at Scene and a musician participating in the 2010 Cleveland Lottery League, a massive, apparently bi-annual experiment in indie rock deck chair rearrangement. Its draft event is tonight (Fri, 02/05/2010) at the Beachland Ballroom. It’s $5 a head for civilians, and it ought to…
Freedom Songs
Just add music. Bob Marley was born on February 6, 1945, and of course, Cleveland’s reggae community isn’t going to let the day pass without recognizing the towering Jamaican music legend who died of cancer at a tragically young age in 1981. Luckily, his birthday falls on a Saturday this year. The Caribbean Flavor is…
So, let’s review.
By way of introduction: hi, I’m Ron. I’m the Art Director at Scene and a musician participating in the 2010 Cleveland Lottery League, a massive, apparently bi-annual experiment in indie rock deck chair rearrangement. Its draft event is tonight (Fri, 02/05/2010) at the Beachland Ballroom. It’s $5 a head for civilians, and it ought to…
MATT HAIMOVITZ IS COMPLICATED
It’s amazing what you can say just by juxtaposition. For example, that cello virtuoso and occasionally straight up trippy musician Matt Haimovitz—as seen here is performing this cello concerto (Shostakovich No. 1, as seen here with Tina Guo and the State of Mexico National Symphony) for free with City Music Cleveland in churches around town…
Defamation makes its local debut tonight at CMA
Like an Israeli Michael Moore, Yoav Shamir sets out to find out if anti-Semitism really exists in Defamation, an intriguing documentary that makes its local debut tonight at 7 at the Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall. It also shows at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7. Here’s our review of the film. Defamation (Israel/Denmark/USA/Austria, 2009)…
Cavs Season Ticket Holders Have to Bet on LeBron’s Free Agent Decision By March
As Tony Rizzo discussed with Brian Windhorst on ESPN 850 WKNR this morning, the Cavs are asking season ticket holders to renew or get off the pot by March — well before July, when we’ll find out for sure whether LeBron is staying or fleeing. Windhorst said this isn’t anything new; it’s regular practice by…
In Defense of Taylor Swift’s Voice
Yep, we like her. A lot. You probably know I’m a huge Taylor Swift fan. No apologies. I loved her self-titled debut the first time I heard it in 2006, and 2008’s Fearless was one of my favorite albums of the year. But she has a little trouble singing onstage. Swift’s first appearance on Saturday…
Aloha Release New Album, Play Grog Shop in April
Say hello to Aloha. Atmosphere-soaked rockers Aloha, who used to call Cleveland home but are now spread out across the country, have a new album coming out on March 9. Home Acres is their fifth LP, and judging by the two tracks recently posted on Brooklyn Vegan, the quartet appears to be heading in a…
BRIDGES ARE FOR PEOPLE TOO
Cleveland’s small but lately tenacious Critical Mass crew has not yet made the Innerbelt Bridge a part of their monthly bicycle ride (which they note does not block traffic, but shows the motoring world that they are part of traffic). But one wonders what it would take for anyone who is not driving a car…
From Paris with Love is only mildly tolerable
With a Mr. Clean scalp, goatee, earring and huge neck chains, John Travolta is the major enticement in this French-made thriller directed by Pierre Morel (Taken). Oddly, his character — a wild, gun-waving special agent named Charlie Wax — owes as much to Quentin Tarantino as to screenwriters Adi Hasak and Luc Besson. Wax launches…
Radio 92.3 Haiti Benefit Has New Location
Due to gangbusters ticket sales, Saturday’s Radio 92.3 benefit for Haiti has been moved to a bigger venue. It now starts 6 p.m. at Saddle Ridge. Former Faith No More frontman Chuck Mosley headlines, with sets by Leah Lou, Leo, Random Stereo, 2nd Half, the Suede Brothers (see clip above) and This Is a Shakedown.…
It Might Get Loud
WJCU 88.7 FM, John Carroll University’s radio station, has announced a big benefit-concert weekend February 20-21 with lineups that should have strong appeal to the listeners of Bill Peters’ Friday evening (6:30-9:30) Metal on Metal show. Some of the region’s best metal and hard-rock bands will take over the Breakfast Club (11729 Detroit Ave., Lakewood)…
Second LaCave Tribute Event Scheduled
This would be a lovely place for a concert, don’t ya think? Last month, to ratchet up excitement and raise some money for this June’s reunion event celebrating Cleveland’s legendary ’60s folk/rock club LaCave, organizers staged a supper hootenanny event at the home of local folk veteran Gusti. It was intended to be the first…
LeBron Screenshot From New NBA Jam for Wii
(Via Kotaku)
What to Do Tonight: Missy Raines and the New Hip
Though some people classify bassist Missy Raines as bluegrass, her debut album as a bandleader, Inside Out, includes many different genres, including country, jazz and folk. The title track shows off her impeccable improvisational skills, while “Pootie Tang” and “In Over Your Head” recall Bonnie Raitt with a dobro. Raines, who used to play with…
What to Do Tonight: Junk Culture
Deepak Mantena — the mastermind behind Junk Culture — is like a musical Dr. Frankenstein. His debut EP, West Coast, is jam-packed with stitched-together sounds that form a monstrous new work. Cuts like “West Coast” sew pieces snagged from J. Dilla’s scratchy head-nodders to scraps of Diplo-influenced bangers. Everything is then stapled and hot-glued to…
What to Do Tonight: Cowboy Mouth
There are plenty of reasons to hate Cowboy Mouth. The band’s burly drummer sits at the front of the stage and constantly tries to rouse the crowd, saying stuff like, “Throw your hands in the air and gimme rhythm.” They write stupid songs about drunk-dialing. And they wear cowboy hats, even though they look like…
What to Do Tonight: Deanna Bogart Band
If Marcia Ball is the undisputed keyboard queen of Gulf Coast boogie, her counterpart on the Atlantic shore is Deanna Bogart. A known quantity on this coast as the featured key-banger in the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue, the Washington D.C.-bred singer-pianist-saxophonist can take both vox and axes in multiple directions. Her two-fisted roots-rockin’ piano…
Join the Love Train
The O’Jays won’t even smile in your face. When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum announced that it was devoting February — Black History Month — to the Philadelphia International Label and its lush soul sound that dominated the ’70s, there was a glaring omission in its jam-packed programming schedule: Where were…
LeBron Alley Oop Off Wall to Windmill Dunk in Practice
(Via @NoYork)
A Tradition That Needs to be Revived
I’m deep in the throes of researching some Browns history for a story that should be up next week (stay tuned, it’s a doozy), and I have a long obsession with all things Brownie the Elf, so imagine my happiness when Paul Lukas pointed me towards the comment section of a recent post over at…
TROUBLE IN TV LAND
After nine months of difficult negotiations, management at Cleveland’s WKYC-TV3 has broken off labor negotiations and implemented a unilateral pay cut for union members. The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, Communications Workers of America (NABET-CWA) says the station is in violation of its contract, which should have been in place for another 18…
THE JOY OF ART ABOUT SEX
In our recent reminder about the Scene Lust Survey, we forgot to mention that photographers and artists are welcome to submit images to accompany the survey responses in the February 10 issue. The images must be owned by you and not previously published in other newspapers or magazines. E-mail files to rkretsch@clevescene.com; please type “lust…
More Music and Arts
More Music: 2/4: Nick Oliveri at the Grog Shop 2/6: An Acoustic Cafe Evening at Kent Stage Local shows More Arts: 2/4-9: Bach Family Fireworks 2/6: An Evening with Susan Foster Through 2/21: Blue Door at Dobama Through 2/13: Anna Bella Eema at CPT Through 2/20: Subject Object Viewer and The Triumph at Sculpture Center
2/7: Best Dawggone Super Bowl Party at Boneyard
I’ll be frank: I loathe football. But I love animals. I support efforts to spay and neuter them so we don’t increase the supply of potential pets with no homes. So here’s a plug for the Best Dawggone Super Bowl Party sponsored by Petfix, a Chagrin Falls-based nonprofit mobile spay/neuter clinic that has done more…
2/6: Sustainability Symposium at Botanical Garden
Despite ravage-the-world naysayers, the idea of sustainability — protecting Earth’s resources by replacing what we use and using as little as possible — is growing exponentially. The Sustainability Symposium at the Cleveland Botanical Garden (11030 East Blvd., 216.721.1600), now in its fifth year, brings together a variety of sustainability proponents to talk about better gardening…
2/6: Smooches & Pooches Valentine Dance
Do you know why your dog is looking at you imploringly? No, not because you took that dirty sock away from him. He wants to go out dancing! So dress him up, dress yourself up — anything goes! — and the two of you head down to Parish Hall (6205 Detroit Ave.) for the Smooches…
2/6: The Infamous Stringdusters at Beachland
Before joining forces in a hybrid band schooled in the conventions of traditional bluegrass (vocal harmonies, instrumentation) while equally immersed in the genre’s contemporary jam aspects (original songs, virtuoso players), the Infamous Stringdusters have done sessions with the likes of Dolly Parton, Charlie Daniels and Rebecca Lynn Howard. After their triumphant bow at the 2004…
2/6: Great Big Home & Garden Expo opens at I-X
Wait … wasn’t the Home & Garden Show last week? We don’t blame you for being confused. After the long-running Cleveland Home & Garden Show moved from the I-X Center to the Great Lakes Expo Center and its usual February slot to an earlier one, the I-X Center booked a brand new event in the…
2/5-7: Antaeus Dance at Pilgrim Congregational Church
Antaeus Dance artistic director Joan Meggit says it’s become a tradition for her Tremont-based company to perform “Home Grown” concerts — which she builds out of works by local choreographers — every two years. For the 2010 edition, she invited Jenita McGowan and Marissa Glorioso to contribute new pieces; Meggit will round out the program…
2/5: Sweet Honey in the Rock at PlayhouseSquare
Sweet Honey in the Rock have evolved steadily over their four-decade career, with almost two dozen voices contributing to the genteel gumbo of their sound. Founder Bernice Johnson Reagon retired in 2004, but two of her original collaborators still sing with the group, which has released an album almost every year over the past decade.…
2/5: Chris Redfern and Kevin DeWine at City Club
Meet the egos — oops, I mean, men — behind Ohio state politics. The average voter doesn’t know Chris Redfern and Kevin Dewine, but both have a huge impact on the candidates whose ads you’ll be sick of by next fall. Redfern chairs the Ohio Democratic Party; Dewine heads the Republicans. Some say Redfern is…
2/5: Is He Dead opens at Beck Center
When it comes to satire, nothing drives up the value of an artist’s work like his death. That’s the idea behind Mark Twain’s 1898 story Is He Dead, which was presented as a new play in 2007 when a version adapted by David Ives premiered on Broadway. It’s the story of an artist who, with…
2/5: Death of a Salesman opens at Lakeland Civic Theatre
Willy Loman’s wife utters the lines that sum up the enduring quality of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman: “His name was never in the paper. He’s not the finest character that ever lived. But he’s a human being and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He’s not to…
2/4: Cleveland Orchestra
After a short strike and concerts in Miami, the Cleveland Orchestra returns to Severance Hall this weekend with one of the most influential musical thinkers of the past 100 years leading one of the world’s greatest pianists in a program featuring 20th-century music. Conductor Pierre Boulez — who turns 85 in March — will be…
2/4: Missy Raines & the New Hip at Kent Stage
Though some people classify bassist Missy Raines as bluegrass, her debut album as a bandleader, Inside Out, includes many different genres, including country, jazz and folk. The title track shows off her impeccable improvisational skills, while “Pootie Tang” and “In Over Your Head” recall Bonnie Raitt with a dobro. Raines, who used to play with…
2/4: Junk Culture at Now That’s Class
Deepak Mantena, the mastermind behind Junk Culture, is like a musical Dr. Frankenstein. His debut EP, West Coast, is jam-packed with stitched-together sounds that form a monstrous new work. Cuts like “West Coast” sew pieces snagged from J Dilla’s scratchy head-nodders to scraps of Diplo-influenced bangers. Everything is then stapled and hot-glued to the 8-bit…
2/4: Cowboy Mouth at the Beachland
There are plenty of reasons to hate Cowboy Mouth. The band’s burly drummer sits at the front of the stage and constantly tries to rouse the crowd, saying stuff like, “Throw your hands in the air and gimme rhythm.” They write stupid songs about drunk-dialing. And they wear cowboy hats, even though they look like…
2/4: Deanna Bogart Band at Beachland
If Marcia Ball is the undisputed keyboard queen of Gulf Coast boogie, her counterpart on the Atlantic shore is Deanna Bogart. A known quantity on this coast as the featured key-banger in the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue, the Washington D.C.-bred singer-pianist-saxophonist can take both vox and axes in multiple directions. Her two-fisted roots-rockin’ piano…
2/4: Animal Attractions at the Zoo
It’s cold outside, but it’s toasty inside the RainForest at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo (3900 Wildlife Way, 216.661.6500). That’s why it’s the perfect location to fete animal lovers who might want to do a little something extra for the zoo’s denizens. Tonight’s Animal Attractions fundraiser from 6-9 p.m. will provide beverages, dishes from 10 area…
The Man Behind King Cool: Donnie Iris’ Chief Counsel
Check out this week’s Scene for a profile of Mark Avsec, the Cleveland musician-turned-attorney who co-wrote “Angel Love (Come for Me),” the first single from the new, expanded reissue of Santana’s Supernatural album. Avsec penned the song with Texas guitar hero Mason Ruffner and Cleveland blues veteran Alan Greene, who had been Avsec’s bandmate in…
CD Review: Lil Wayne
White guys with backward baseball caps and lousy attitudes aren’t the only ones who shouldn’t jump genres. It goes both ways. On his long-delayed “rock album” Rebirth, rapper Lil Wayne replaces hard hip-hop beats with soggy guitar riffs and primeval drum thumps straight outta 1999. “American Star” even launches the album with a semi-scorching fret…
Cruiser
On a Thursday afternoon, about 30 aspiring attorneys and practicing lawyers visiting from China, Thailand and Vietnam fill the Case Western Reserve University School of Law’s Gund Hall. Today is the first session of Law of the Music Industry, a class attorney Mark Avsec teaches each spring. Dressed in a black suit, Avsec introduces himself…
Goodbye Guido, Hello Clevo
Welcome to Jersey Shore, MTV’s latest reality schlock where you’ll romp with the likes of Snooki, JWOWW and “The Situation,” all of whom are more outrageous cartoon characters than any you’ll find on Nickelodeon. Our fun-loving gang of self-described guidos and guidettes stumble through meaningless days and nights, cigarettes dangling from their fingers and F-bombs…
Around Hear: Mosely For Haiti
They Care a Lot: Former Faith No More frontman Chuck Mosley will headline a benefit for Haiti thrown by Radio 92.3 WKRK at 6 p.m. Saturday, February 6, at Saddle Ridge in Parma (5100 Pearl Rd). Admission is $5. All proceeds go to the Red Cross. Program director Dominic “Nard” Nardella says he had the…
NEW BOSSES
At the end of 2009, we asked a few dozen Clevelanders to name one wish for the region in the new year. At the top of our own list was the hope that we’d be proven wrong about Issue 6, which we’d described as a blatant power grab dressed up to look like county government…
Arts District: An Evening With Sutton Foster
If you took the kids to New York to see Shrek, the plump green girl you saw opposite the titular ogre was played by Sutton Foster. The singer just finished a two-year run as the ogre bride Princess Fiona in the Broadway production. You can hear her on a slew of original cast albums, including…
Return to Sender
Dear John is the latest novel by bestselling author Nicholas Sparks (Message in a Bottle, The Notebook) to be adapted for the screen. It shares Sparks’ familiar themes: a coastal setting, illness, tragedy and star-crossed lovers kept apart by fate (but not by marriage, since adultery offends Sparks’ religious sensibilities). Set in Charleston, South Carolina,…
KIDS THESE DAYS
A parent’s conviction that kids these days don’t know what good music is and the kids’ certainty that their parents’ musical tastes are hopelessly tired are nothing new. That dynamic played out in the 18th-century German household of prodigious composer and sire Johann Sebastian Bach. The father of 20 offspring, 10 of whom survived infancy,…
Ordinary People
French modernist/visionary Claire Denis has been crafting sensationally tactile and sensual movies for more than two decades now, yet she’s still virtually unknown outside of the international festival circuit. Perhaps it’s because the hermetic, self-enclosed worlds Denis traditionally navigates — whether a French Foreign Legion unit in Beau Travail, a West African plantation in Chocolat…
Not a ghost of a chance
It takes the expansive mind of a Charles Dickens, August Wilson or even a Toni Morrison to pull off a ghostly saga of family redemption. Playwright Tanya Barfield seems to have the mind of a graduate student in her attempt at this genre. Her competent but limited Blue Door unfolds with the dogmatic purposefulness of…
Enhanced Interrogation: MARK SEIFERT
Cleveland-based ESOP (Empowering and Strengthening Ohio’s People) was on the front lines of the foreclosure crisis before it became a national story. Today, despite its impressive track record for keeping families in their homes, ESOP’s work is threatened by decreasing funding. Foreclosures don’t make headlines like they did a year ago. Has the rate slowed?…
TRAILER-PARK GOLEM
When children are stressed, they often resort to creating imaginary friends or escaping into stories populated with anthropomorphic animals and goblins. That’s exactly what a 10-year-old girl does in Anna Bella Eema, the fascinating but ultimately frustrating play now at Cleveland Public Theatre. This co-production with Theater Ninjas features a torrent of finely crafted narration,…
Film Capsules
Opening Automorphosis (U.S., 2008) Harrod Blank has been making movies about lavishly customized “art cars” since he was in college. Automorphosis is a fascinating look at the people behind some of these cars. We meet Uri “Spoon Man” Geller who has covered his car with utensils and a German guy who drives around in a…
Assembly Required
A wheeled mechanism circles a roller coaster-like toy-train track mounted on cast-steel trestles. A mysterious, stylishly out-of-date object — maybe a chunk of homemade stereo equipment or cool art of a certain age, like Lee Bontecou’s mothership gun ports from the late 1950s — is being hauled by 13 small wooden cows toward a rough…
Reel Cleveland: Cleveland SGS
A collective of local graphic artists and photographers, Cleveland SGS has posted on its website a series of avant-garde videos that were filmed in Cleveland. The latest clip, El Voyage Maximo, follows a guy in a spacesuit as he makes his way through the city, stopping to play volleyball at Edgewater Park and greeting everyone…
Homeriffic!
TOP PICK The Simpsons Season 20 (Twentieth Century Fox) The Simpsons celebrates its 20th anniversary with its first batch of HD episodes on its inaugural Blu-ray set. All 21 episodes from the 2008-09 season are on these four discs, including a funny Da Vinci Code spoof. Plus, Homer and Ned become bounty hunters. VIDEOGAME Army…
Starting over
There have been casualties. A pair of ceramic owls and the glass window between the band’s practice room and lounge area fell prey to Lovedrug frontman Michael Shepard’s mercurial moods. The band went through eight musicians on their first two albums and three EPs. But the storm seems to have passed as Lovedrug prepare to…
IN DOG WE TRUST
Hot dogs and sausages get a bad rap. What other food’s manufacturing process is invoked to describe the most loathsome aspects of politics? Yes, lots of unpopular parts of uncuddly animals are ground up to make the tubular treats. But show me a ballpark or backyard barbecue that doesn’t offer them — or at least…
UNPLUGGED AND UNCONTROLLABLE
The music on Nick Oliveri’s latest album, Death Acoustic, is some of the most brutal the bassist has ever recorded. For his accompanying solo acoustic tour, Oliveri should have a Woody Guthrie-style sticker affixed to his instrument, reading “this machine kills fascists, and anything else in a 300-yard radius.” But for all the bile that…
CD Review: NICK JONAS & THE ADMINISTRATION
As the most talented and ambitious Jonas Brother, Nick carries a lot of weight. Apparently he also carries a head full of ideas that needs to be cleared every 10 months or so. On Who I Am, a solo project with a group of session musicians called the Administration, Nick doesn’t stray far from JoBros…
Americana Triptych
A conservatory-educated violinist, a classically trained cellist and an Ivy League ethnomusicology major walk into a bar. Sounds like a setup for a bad joke. But it’s also a way to describe the three performers on the Acoustic Café Evening tour. The violinist is Carrie Rodriguez, the cellist is Ben Sollee and the Ivy Leaguer…
CD Review: Rob Zombie
Sequels are generally inferior to the original, and it’s no exception with Rob Zombie’s follow-up — a dozen years and two albums later — to his breakthrough solo disc. That said, Zombie stays consistent in his role as the psychobilly answer to Marilyn Manson. His amped-up, industrial, B-movie rave-ups offer chunky, childish frills as they…
Local CD Reviews
THE DEVIZE (self-released) myspace.com/thedevize Alice in Chains is clearly one of the most influential band of the past 20 years. The Devize is a prime example of how AiC’s sound still provides inspiration. The six songs on Heaven’s Gate follow the AiC template skillfully, with earthbound rhythms, chugging guitars and low, wailing vocals that mingle…
CD Review: Hiromi
Recent recordings and live performances by Japanese-born, U.S.-based jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara found her giving the concept of fusion a much-needed shot in the arm. Playing acoustic and electronic keyboards at last summer’s Montreal Jazz Festival, she and her band Sonicbloom wowed the crowd by melding engaging melodies, audacious and creative soloing, and a touch…
CD Review: Midlake
It’s not easy for a band to come up with a memorable sophomore album, so it was auspicious when Midlake uncorked a masterpiece on their second release, 2006’s The Trials of Van Occupanther. It’s a distillation of the band’s love for the psych folk and classic rock/pop of the ’70s and their own interpretive indie-rock…
CD Review: Eberhard Weber
The CDs in this box — Yellow Fields, Silent Feet and Little Movements — collect out-of-print work by the German double-bass virtuoso Eberhard Weber and his exceptional chamber-jazz band. Each consists of long, lyrical works, almost all by Weber, a founding architect of the ECM sound: quiet, melodic, patient, almost classical in its austere elegance. Analyzing…
