Whodunit? Altmandunit
Who would have guessed that, 31 years after M*A*S*H, the film that made Robert Altman’s reputation, he would still be turning out movies as good as his latest release, Gosford Park? Full of the director’s usual energy, powered by the sense of controlled chaos that marks all of his ensemble films, Gosford Park also finds…
Working Girls
The combatants in Patrick Stettner’s compelling first feature, The Business of Strangers, are a middle-aged software executive (Stockard Channing) wearing a steel-blue suit and an air of professional hauteur; the executive’s mysterious new assistant (Julia Stiles), fresh out of Dartmouth and full of self-righteous aggression; and a cocky “headhunter” (Frederick Weller) who imagines himself suave…
Baron Landscape
Early in the season, the crowds at Cleveland Barons games were so quiet, you could hear skates skimming ice. That’s because there were no crowds. It was like attending the wake of a guy who never picked up a dinner check. Call it the legacy of Larry Gordon and Hank Kassigkeit. Two years ago, Gordon,…
Protect the Country, Buy American
Bob Pryor has given 22 years to the Ansell Perry surgical glove plant in Massillon. His chances for a 23rd are dim — the plant shut down last month. But in an unlikely and altogether unwanted twist, Pryors livelihood could be saved by anthrax.I dont want to say the anthrax scare has been good, because…
Why Mike White Shouldn’t Be Forgiven
The resurrection started before the burial. On May 23, Mayor Michael White announced that he would not seek a fourth term. After serving 12 years — longer than any mayor in Cleveland history — it was over. He was going to spend more time with his children. He was going to be a “full-time husband.”…
The Forgetting Place
In the paupers’ graveyard, the fallen snow stays perfect for a long time. This bothers Father Don Dunson, who would like to see at least a few footprints mussing the white blanket. “I believe that very, very few people come here,” says the small, ruminative priest with soft blue eyes. “You can’t even find the…
Do the Math
Cleveland is squandering young minds: David W. Martin’s feature “Plaid Skirt Welfare” [November 29] fails to address any of the First Amendment rights of U.S. citizens and their children. In 1990, there were 129,000 children in the city of Cleveland. Taxes are collected to educate all the children of this city, but the superintendent and…
Just Shoot Me, Please
As the new year begins, so, too, does a new TV season — that no-man’s-land of programming occupied by filler, fodder, and folly, otherwise known as the new NBC series starring Hank Azaria, Imagine That. In coming weeks, two Supreme Court dramas make their debuts (First Monday, starring Jim Rockford; The Court, with the Flying…
Town and Country
Although we maintain that no kitchen shows itself to best advantage with mass-produced fare set out on a buffet line, the days when Sunday brunch meant a $5.95 spread of congealed eggs and stale danishes are fading away. Today’s brunch is more likely to include a wide selection of well-prepared dishes served in a handsome…
Marduk
There’s black metal, and then there’s Marduk. No hockey-rink keyboards. No wailing female background vocals. No slow parts. Just pure pain, from first crushing drumbeat to last. Marduk is like a 1,000-mph version of 1984-’85-era Swans: It is so relentless in what it does that the listener’s only option is to curl up in a…
Sage Advisory
Despite the economic chill, it’s heartwarming to see that the local restaurant scene is still sizzling. The newest dining room to light up the Tremont landscape is Sage (2391 West 11th Street, 216-861-3734), situated across from Lincoln Park in the space that used to be OZ. Following a thorough redecorating, the restaurant and bar –…
The Langley Schools Music Project
As is the case with most “outsider art,” the tale of the Langley Schools Music Project is full of serendipity. It begins in the mid-1970s, when a long-haired, underemployed hippie named Hans Fenger takes a job teaching music at three elementary schools in the rural Langley District of western Canada. Bored by conventional kids’ songs…
Hits and Grins
The frontman and songwriter for a popular West Coast pop-punk band is asked whether his group has considered releasing a single-disc collection of career highlights. (In 15 years, the band in question has released about 10 albums and EPs with several different lineups.) His face clouds, as if the thought had never crossed his mind.…
John Coltrane
Bebop trumpeter Art Farmer contended that concerts are showcases for the tried and true. Clubs, Farmer insisted, are where the “research and development” — the searching and the unpredictable — takes place. On Live Trane, a new seven-disc box culled from two European tours (November of 1961 and 1963), saxophonist John Coltrane and his bands…
M Is for Mystery
The American folk tradition has always been a deep well for music’s thirsty avant-garde. Distinctly American geniuses like Charles Ives, Bob Dylan, and John Coltrane have long dropped their creative buckets into that bottomless darkness to draw up its myth and mystery. And now it’s Dave Pajo’s turn. You may not know Pajo’s name, but…
Hood
Melancholy is a hybrid emotion: Never fixing upon a single object, it flits between various strands of sadness. So perhaps it’s fitting that Hood’s fifth long-player, Cold House, is not only one of the most melancholy records of late, but also a triumph of musical gene splicing, drawing together folk-flavored indie rock and the skittering…
Tongues Lashed
Just past midnight on January 1, fireworks lit up 4311 Lorain Avenue. A similar scenario played out all across town. But at the art/music collective Speak in Tongues, things were different. The cherry bombs and ladyfingers were lit inside the building, as the ill-tempered thrash ensemble Nine Shocks Terror tore through a set nearly as…
Lords of the Highway
When it comes to the kind of deconstructed, truck-stop rockabilly that the Lords of the Highway trade in, high concept is pretty much confined to the complicated, gravity-defying hairdos of Southern Culture on the Skids bassist Mary Huff. But leave it to the liquored locals in Lords of the Highway to bring a bit of…
Rising Lion
With the recent sweep of concert cancellations among Jamaican reggae performers (almost half the acts scheduled to play Cleveland in 2001 canceled), it’s refreshing to have at least one out-of-town reggae outfit making an appearance. And a good one at that. Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, Rising Lion is composed of lead vocalist/guitarist Danny Dredd…
Moonlight (in) Bay
Planet-gazers and amateur astronomers alike have reason to thank their lucky stars. The Walter R. Schuele Planetarium, at the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center in Bay Village, has expanded its programming, now offering presentations every Saturday afternoon at 1 and 2, and every first and third Saturday at 7 p.m. Topics covered in the…
OK Go
As of this writing, the best tune OK Go performs live is a They Might Be Giants cover. “Kiss Me, Son of God.” Great tune. Catchy, quirky. Effortless. OK Go’ll be writin’ stuff that good in, say, 10 years. Described as “the new breed of Chicago rock,” OK Go is aiming straight for that asexual…
A Hipster’s Dilemma
Jazz or poetry? Poetry or jazz? What’s a retro hipster to do when the choices are this overwhelming? JazzPoetry allows hep cats to have their espresso and drink it, too. Founded by local poet and musician Vince Robinson in 1998, the gathering takes place on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at Robin’s…
The Burns Sisters
The title of the Burns Sisters’ debut disc, Endangered Species, has proven to be prophetic. Seldom do folk/country/pop artists make much of a dent in America’s mainstream music scene, and this long-embattled trio is no exception. These gals have imparted their signature brand of deep-fried, country-tinged rock and roll to the music industry with little…
