What’s Up With All the Documentaries?
In the ’60s, plenty of people with no musical talent aspired to be the next Bob Dylan. They saved their lunch money for an acoustic guitar, figuring that if a warbly kid with a face like a dog’s butt could be a star, just think what a handsome fella with a few lessons could do.…
Unsane
Unsane is back. Not for long, though, so you’d better catch the band while you can, especially if you missed ’em the first time around. When Unsane first blew out of New York’s subway tunnels and sewers at the tail end of the 1980s, the group was more of a physical force than a band.…
Combating Stereotypes
Martial artists aren’t inherently violent: I like your writing talents, but I’m a bit offended by your loaded phrase “Like so many martial arts, sambo cloaks its violence in honor” [“The Grappler,” November 27]. This seems to imply martial arts lack honor or are deceptive by pretending violence is honor. There is honor in the…
Balki’s Talkin’
English-mangling Balki Bartokomous and coke-snorting Elliot Blitzer prepared Bronson Pinchot for his latest role. Actually, they prepared him for the nine roles he plays in Stones in His Pocket, the Tony-nominated comedy making its way to the Palace Theatre on January 7. “I started with a very vague idea of [who these characters are],” he…
Queen of Mean
It’s not easy being the bad guy. You get booed, hissed at, and pelted with vegetables. Just ask Lisa Skubovius, who plays not one, not two, but three different villains in Disney on Ice’s Princess Classics. “I’ve had quite a few children harass me,” she says. “When I get close enough to the audience, I…
Far From Happy
In all, 2002 was a far better film year than any in recent memory — so much so, it feels impolite and irresponsible to choose a mere 10 best among the annum’s offerings. This list remained in flux till the last possible moment; five seconds ago it featured, among others, Signs, Full Frontal, Human Nature,…
Pitching Tens
Luke Y. Thompson 10. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones — I know what you’re going to say, and I can’t entirely disagree with any of the major criticisms leveled against Mr. Lucas’s opus. Nonetheless, I also can’t dispute the fact that the last 30 minutes or so are some of the greatest…
Schmidt Happens
It’s easy to presume that About Schmidt isn’t much of a movie, since its protagonist, Warren Schmidt, isn’t much of anything. He’s portrayed by Jack Nicholson, but the actor is actually someone who looks as if he used to be Jack Nicholson. This Warren, this rinky-dink actuary banished to the wasteland of retirement, can’t possibly…
From Vivo, With Love
Lithe, lean, and suave, James Bond fills out an expensive tux the way Marilyn Monroe inhabited a swimsuit. But beyond sheer good looks, much of 1007’s animal magnetism comes from the fact that, beneath those tailored threads, we know he’s still a hairy-chested brawler, a tough guy who can whup some ass, toss back a…
New This Year
From a food lover’s perspective, 2002 was delectable. Sure, the general economy continued to limp along, but you’d never know it by the slew of noteworthy restaurants that opened in the past 12 months. Undoubtedly, the most exciting addition to the downtown scene was Vivo, in the Old Arcade (see full review in this week’s…
Shout It Out
David Lee Roth, still kicking at Blossom. Debbie Harry at Tower City Amphitheater. System of a Down’s Daron Malakian at Blossom. Judas Priest’s Glenn Tipton screams for vengeance at the Agora. Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger at Nautica. Paul McCartney plays to a sold-out Gund Arena. Steven Tyler shouts out to fans at Blossom. Rolling Stone Keith…
Leaders of the Pack
It’s been another banner year for Northeast Ohio music, with some two dozen area artists creating national releases, helping the local scene’s profile grow as fast as Axl Rose’s caboose. And with some great blues, electronica, and R&B entries in what is traditionally a rock and punk town, the area music ranks are becoming as…
Don’t Call It a Comeback
Four years ago, Marilyn Manson declared in song that rock was dead. Three years before that, Lenny Kravitz did the same. During the preceding decade, the sentiment was voiced a thousand times over, by punks and popsters alike. It’s a common complaint, one that apparently was remedied this year, when most media pundits annointed 2002…
Clutch
Any band with the stones to call an album Pure Rock Fury and write a song called “Frankenstein” has gotta be kidding, right? Moody, threatening, and invariably heavy, Clutch is dead serious. Bottom line is that this group has been in the stoner-rawk vanguard for over a decade, though wide-ranging, non-rock elements are what make…
The Holy Ghost
On the morning of November 21, the Ohio Senate Agriculture Committee played to a packed house. Nearly every seat in the chamber was taken, and two television-news cameramen took positions. Normally, the 6 o’clock news ignores ag hearings, but today’s hot topic wasn’t field fertilization. The debate was about gambling — specifically, whether Ohio should…
Long Live Cleveland Metal
If Exodus first gave headbangers a lesson in violence close to two decades ago, the rippers that make up the bill for Long Live Cleveland Metal are here to offer the CliffsNotes on pummeling ’80s thrash. Expect plenty of feverish, caffeinated leads, stampeding rhythms, and some choice upper-register wails that’ll have every hound in the…
Geek Love
This time last year was not Mark Shapiro’s finest hour. Stuck with a Geritol roster at Sotheby’s prices, the Indians’ rookie general manager got cute and tinkered. He traded Robbie Alomar for Matt Lawton and prospects. Ricky Gutierrez was recruited to play second base. Shapiro also gave closer Bob Wickman a new contract and brought…
Grafton
Grafton bassist Donovan Roth wields the mightiest beer gut in Ohio rock. It’s clearly a great source of pride for Roth, who often stalks the stage shirtless, cigarette in hand, an absurdly massive wall of amplifiers at his back. As Grafton pounds through its brutal, brawling, boozy barroom rock, his gut seems to glow and…
Porno for Pyros
After the wild success of her 30-minute video Coughing Fit, Gina had a mild case of sophomore jitters. Director Quentin Tarantino must have had them once, too, after Reservoir Dogs tore up the silver screen and he had yet to start shooting Pulp Fiction. Luckily for Gina, a wunderkind in the world of smoking-fetish websites,…
Nickodemus and Osiris
Chances are, most current clubgoers don’t think of dance music outside the context of raved-up synth melodies, trancey bass riffs, and four-on-the-floor kick beats. But Nickodemus and Osiris, both longtime resident DJs at New York’s Giant Step Records parties, would never be satisfied with such a limited sonic palette. Both jocks like to incorporate multicultural…
