Reviews of the Cinematheque’s weekend films
The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque is showing several great films this weekend. Here are our reviews of just a few of them. Araya (Venezuela, 1959) This Venezuelan documentary, unreleased in the U.S. for 50 years, plays like a meditation on the history of an ancient land populated by poor salt miners and fishermen. There…
Disgrace makes its local premiere tonight at CMA
A film about life in post-apartheid South Africa, Disgrace makes its local premiere at Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall at 6:45 p.m. Friday, Jan. 22 and at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 24. Here’s our review of the film. Disgrace (Australia/South Africa, 2008) This adaptation of a J.M. Coetzee novel commences as a drama about…
The Tooth Fairy finds the Rock in a hard place
In The Tooth Fairy, Derek (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), a brute of a minor league hockey player who hasn’t scored a goal in nine years and has essentially been relegated to an enforcer role, gets nicknamed “the tooth fairy” because he hits players so hard, he’s been known to knock a tooth or two out.…
What to Do Tonight: Cahn and Yang
Before they even signed a record deal, Los Angeles-based duo Cahn & Yang made more headway than most bands do with label backing. They sold some music to the Discovery Planet TV show Battleground Earth, their cover of the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” become part of a Democratic National Committee video and they placed…
STRICKLAND PICKS RUNNING MATE, GOP COMES OUT SWINGING
Governor Ted Strickland today announced his pick of Yvette McGee Brown as his running mate for lieutenant governor, replacing Lee Fisher, who’s running for U.S. Senate. Ohio Republican Party chair Kevin DeWine wasted no time revealing either his ignorance or deliberate duplicity (you decide): “He’s had nearly a year to make this selection, and the…
1/21: Haiti Fundraiser with Kim Kardashian at Barley House
Celebrity model/reality TV star Kim Kardashian will be at Cleveland’s Barley House (1265 W. 6th St.) Thursday January 21, hosting a benefit for the Troy Smith Foundation. Proceeds benefit earthquake victims in Haiti. The shindig kicks off at 9:30. Tickets ($25 general admission, $75 VIP) are available at the Barley House web site. On Wednesday,…
Metal Dude Trades Classic Metal for Obama
Classic Metal Show co-host Chris Akin is leaving the program to focus on a new, internet-based political talk show, podcast and website. The news and views won’t be new ground for him. He’s woven politics into the show over the years, jagging Ministry’s Al Jourgensen, badgering S.O.D.’s Billy Milano and matching wits with Megadeth’s Dave…
More Just In: New House of Blues Shows
HIM/We Are the Fallen/Dommin and Drive A: Thu., Apr. 1. 6 p.m., $26 ADV/four-pack of general admission tickets $78 (LiveNation.com). House of Blues. Ohio Sky/Forged in Flame: Dual CD release. Sat., Apr. 3. 9 p.m., $10 ADV/four-pack of general admission tickets $30 (LiveNation.com). House of Blues. A Day to Remember/August Burns Red/Silverstein: Fri., Apr. 16.…
Ohh La La!
One of my favorite actresses, Marion Cotillard (she won a Best Actress Oscar for La Vie en Rose, played Johnny Depp’s girlfriend in Public Enemies and was the best thing about Nine) has just released a song with Franz Ferdinand. It’s called “Eyes of Mars,” and it’s really just something that she and the Scottish…
And We Didn’t Question His Judgment Before We Hired Him?
This story from the Washington Post is from back in early December, but it’s worth passing on just to show how smart Browns fans can be sometimes. And to see what could have been done with $700 billion. Neil Kashkari is a Northeast Ohio-bred wonderkid who was put in charge of TARP. For our purposes…
Tuesday Music News Roundup
Wyclef makes news two days in a row. That hasn’t happened since the days when he was hanging out with Pras. A bunch of hipster assholes will be in California in mid-April. Our orchestra isn’t on strike … for now. La Toya Jackson thinks she’d be great on American Idol. She also thinks cows from…
Video Roundup: MVPuppets, Virtual Shaq, Michael Redd and a Pilgrim
New MVPuppets. “Shoes on Fire.” Michael Redd staying busy while his injury leaves him on the Bucks’ shelf: From Muscle Milk’s augmented reality campaign with Shaq: And another Muscle Milk commercial, because it involves a rapping Pilgrim.
This Just In: Concert Announcements
Black Lips, awesome mustaches. The Appleseed Cast: Tue., April 20, 9 p.m., $8 ADV/$10 DOS. Grog Shop. Baby Dee: Thu., April 15, 8:30 p.m., Tavern, $10. Beachland. Tim Barry (from Avail)/Red Clay River: Fri., April 2, 8 p.m., Ballroom, $10. Beachland. Black Lips/Mark Sultan: Wed., March 31, 9 p.m., Tavern, $12. Beachland. Robert Bradley’s Blackwater…
Shaq Involved in Trademark Lawsuit Over “Shaqtus” Nickname
Shaq and a company that he has officially licensed his name and image to are involved in a lawsuit in Las Vegas with another company that has been using O’Neal’s “Shaqtus” nickname on apparel and a Website. Yes, the man of 1000 nicknames is at the center of a little trademark brouhaha all because someone…
Out Today: Surfer Blood
Surfer BloodAstro Coast(Kanine) While their classmates were racking up debt at the college bookstore, the guys in Surfer Blood put their scholarship money to use buying musical equipment. The four were University of Florida freshmen when they wrote and recorded Astro Coast in their dorm room. The results are as fresh and vibrant as their…
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. Act of God (Canada/Britain/France, 2009) This artistic documentary looks at a variety of people who have been struck by lightning and gives them a forum to discuss the experience. The film includes…
STRIKE UP THE BAND
In a city fretting over whether New York might eventually pluck Lebron James (who makes $15.7 million a year) by making him a salary offer the Cavs can’t match*, the Cleveland Orchestra players negotiating over their median $140,000 salaries might seem like small potatoes. After all, the orchestra is perennially ranked among the best in…
Monday Music News Roundup
In news that will shock absolutely no one, Bono joins the big Hope for Haiti benefit event. Our orchestra goes on strike! Wyclef makes the news for the first time in a decade, and it ain’t good. Lady Gaga: still “exhausted,” still canceling concerts. —Michael Gallucci
Up for Grabs: Another Free Smashing Pumpkins Song
If you haven’t heard, Billy Corgan is putting together a new Smashing Pumpkins album, and he’s releasing the album’s 44 songs as a series of free downloads. The second song, “Widow Wake My Mind,” is out today. And unlike the first track, “A Song for a Son” (which was released last month), it doesn’t completely…
TEXAS GOD-SQUADERS CLOSER TO NATIONAL TEXTBOOK DOMINATION
Talking Points Memo reports on under-the-radar wingnuttery deep in the bowels of Texas: The conservative bloc on the Texas State Board of Education won a string of victories Friday, obtaining approval for an amendment requiring high school U.S. history students to know about [anti-feminist] Phyllis Schlafly and the [’90s-era Republican] Contract with America as well…
What LeBron Will Be Wearing at the All Star Game
Well, not that jersey — that’s Dwight Howard’s. But this is what the All Star game jersey for the East will look like. With images of the uniforms kinda, sorta out in public now, Paul Lukas over at Uni Watch posted the pics he took during a trip to the NBA offices of what the…
A Q & A with Smokin’ Aces 2 director P.J. Pesce
In 2006’s Smokin’ Aces, Jeremy Piven plays a drug addicted informant who is placed in the custody of a FBI agent (Ryan Reynolds) that must protect him from a gang of would-be assassins. Directed by Joe Carnahan (Narc), its over-the-top violence and pulp friction turned the film into a cult hit. Produced by Carnahan, its…
What to Do Tonight: Rural Alberta Advantage
Is there really an advantage if you come from rural Alberta? This Canadian trio is able to sop up an inordinate number of influences, if that counts for anything. The Rural Alberta Advantage’s debut album, Hometowns, casts singer Nils Edenloff (actually the only band member from Alberta) as quite the mimic. So apparently the disadvantage…
What to Do Tonight: Melvin Davis & the Nu Knight Sounds
Detroit has produced a number of soul singers over the years. But unlike many of his Motown brethren, Melvin Davis never became a household name. Not only a talented singer, Davis played drums for Smokey Robinson & the Miracles and even hooked up with Wayne Kramer before Kramer started kicking out the jams with the…
Friday Music News Roundup
Lady Gaga cancels a concert because of exhaustion. You’d be exhausted too if you had to be Lady Gaga all the time. Paula Abdul is missed on American Idol, says Paula Abdul. Songwriter Bobby Charles dies. See you later, alligator. Adam Lambert asks “Whataya Want From Me” in new video. Well, since you asked, how…
What to Do Tonight: Resist
Blame it on the harsh, snow-clogged winters, or the decaying remains of the Rust Belt’s once thriving industry, but Cleveland has a knack for spawning metal and hardcore bands. Resist have been one of those dark and bludgeoning groups that calls the North Coast home for more than eight years. Following in the footsteps of…
Jimmy Fallon Does Something Funny
I really don’t like Jimmy Fallon. I never thought he was funny on Saturday Night Live (even though he thought he was funny — he laughed more at his jokes than the audience did). And the best part of his late-night talk show is his band. But last night Fallon performed “Pants on the Ground”…
What to Do Tonight: The Dutchess and the Duke
Kimberly Morrison (the Dutchess) and Jesse Lortz (the Duke) channel their love of Dylan-era folk and Stonesy rock through a contemporary sensibility informed by plaintive ballads (just like My Morning Jacket) and punk passion (inspired by X’s John Doe and Exene). The duo’s second album, Sunset/Sunrise, is slightly lighter than 2008’s She’s the Dutchess, He’s…
What to Do This Weekend: Bye Bye Birdie
The 1960 stage musical Bye Bye Birdie was the first fictional work of mass-media consequence to take satirical stabs at rock-star idolatry. It poked fun at Elvis with a retro-hip wink, but pulled it off during the King’s early reign impressively without benefit of hindsight. The story, concerning a cheesy and slightly sleazy Elvis parody…
Photo Show: Sarah Borges and the Big Sweet at the Beachland
Crystal Pirri saw Sarah Borges and Canton’s 15-year-old Pavement fans the Big Sweet at the Beachland Tavern last night. You can read her review here. Mark Pirri took a bunch of cool pictures. You can see them below.
100 More Kid Cudi Tickets Available for Tonight’s Show
If you’re bummed that you didn’t get tickets to Kid Cudi’s Agora concert tonight before it sold out, we’ve got some good news: 100 more tickets are going on sale at 10 a.m. at the Agora Box Office. Immediately after the show, there’s an official Chip Tha Ripper afterparty (the Cleveland rapper opens for Cudi)…
Concert Review: Sarah Borges at the Beachland, 1/14
If Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles had been a fraction less entertaining, their opener, the Big Sweet would have stolen the show. The Big Sweet are four 15-year-old boys from Canton — teenage heartthrobs who sound more like Kings of Leon than Jonas Brothers. Parents and teenage girls filled the Tavern, making it obvious…
When Size 23 Shoes Meet Normal Sized Hands
During the affair in Golden State the other night, Shaq stepped on Warriors’ rookie Stephen Curry’s hand. Want to know how that felt? Curry wrote a blog about it for GQ: Two nights ago, against the Cavs, I was going down the middle and threw a pass to our center, and then I fell on…
KASICH JUST MADE A REALLY DUMB MOVE
John Kasich, Republican gubernatorial challenger to Gov. Ted Strickland, confirmed this afternoon the rumor that state auditor Mary Taylor, currently the only Republican to hold a statewide office, will be his running mate. Democrats across Ohio could be heard heaving relieved sighs, as Republicans helped them snatch victory from the jaws of self-engineered defeat. The…
Thursday Music News Roundup
Big-voiced soul singer Teddy Pendergrass dies. Perez Hilton is looking for boys for a new band … yeah, that’s it, for a band … Katy Perry says her dickhead boyfriend didn’t knock her up. Garage-punk rock guy Jay Reatard dies. —Michael Gallucci
JESUS’S NUMBER 1 CLOWN IS AT IT AGAIN
Unfairlybalanced.com Pat Robertson, founder of the Virginia-based Christian Broadcasting Network and host of its 700 Club talk show, said yesterday that this week’s earthquake in Haiti was due to a “pact to the devil” that country made 200 years ago to help free the country from French colonial control. Maybe it’s time to evacuate Virginia.…
Club Trillion Goes Audio/Visual
Watch, trust me. Mark Titus, Warrant, fundamentals, lightning, winking, and basketball.
Jay Reatard. Dead.
Sucky news: Garage-rocker, punk-rock hellraiser and all-around shitkicker Jay Reatard died today. There aren’t too many details right now. You can read a little bit about him here. After that, find the Matador singles albums or last year’s Watch Me Fall somewhere online and listen to them for a couple hours. I am. —Michael Gallucci
SELF-STYLED INDEPENDENT JOINS COUNTY EXEC RACE
What was that smell in the room as Ken Lanci announced his campaign for Cuyahoga County executive Wednesday? We can guess how some political observers would answer that one. But actually, the room smelled of chemicals. Lanci held his kick-off press conference in an industrial printing room inside his Cleveland business, Consolidated Graphics Group Inc.…
KeSha Puts an End to Our Nightmare
Well, I was wrong. No, not about Thirty Seconds to Mars. They still suck. I was wrong about Susan Boyle’s time at the top of Billboard’s album chart. One week after I wrote that Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream would be at the top for a few more weeks, Ke$ha’s Animal debuts at No.…
REPUBLICANS STILL SCHEMING TO KILL HEALTHCARE REFORM
House Minority Leader John Boehner still wants to kill the healthcare bill: “The bottom line is, I believe we can beat this bill,” Mr. Boehner said. “The American people are with us.” Sure they are. And what would Republicans offer instead? Probably the same “alternative” presented in November, which was largely cribbed from the insurance…
More Arts
1/15-17: Kill Will and Cramped at CPT 1/17: Verb Ballets at The Breen Center Ongoing: Jerry’s Girls at Cleveland Play House Ongoing: Terry Durst at Arts Collinwood More goings-on in Arts District.
More Music
1/14: Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles at the Beachland 1/16: Keelhaul at Spitfire Saloon 1/20: Nile at Peabody’s More goings-on in Around Hear and at C-Notes, Scene’s music blog.
Cashin’ in on Cash
Never mind that he’s been dead since 2003 — there’s another Johnny Cash/American Recordings album coming out next month. His record company says that American VI: Ain’t No Grave is the sixth and final outing in the series. The set of songs — once again produced by Rick Rubin, who helped stage one of the…
ZANOTTI GETS BYRNED (SORRY WE COULDN’T RESIST)
Former Parma Heights Mayor Marty Zanotti this week’s cover story and current Lakewood Mayor Ed FitzGerald have been sniping at each other over the latter’s candidacy for the new county executive position. Zanotti says FitzGerald’s a hypocrite, because he opposed Issue 6, which created the new office (and scraps the three-commission system). FitzGerald says Zanotti,…
1/20: Cahn & Yang at the Grog Shop
Before they even signed a record deal, Los Angeles-based duo Cahn & Yang made more headway than most bands do with label backing. They sold some music to the Discovery Planet TV show Battleground Earth, their cover of the Kinks’ “You Really Got Me” become part of a Democratic National Committee video, and they placed…
1/18: Martin Luther King Jr. Day Festivities
With no school today to commemorate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a host of activities are scheduled around town — some honoring King’s legacy, others just to keep the kids busy. The biggest blowout is University Circle’s annual celebration, which includes both tributes and diversions among the activities offered by numerous UC-area…
1/17: Rural Alberta Advantage at the Beachland
Is there really an advantage to being from rural Alberta? This Canadian trio is able to sop up an inordinate number of influences, if that counts for anything. The Rural Alberta Advantage’s debut album, Hometowns, casts singer Nils Edenloff (actually the only member of the Toronto-based band from Alberta) as quite the mimic. So apparently…
1/17: Polka Brunch at the Beachland
The Beachland Tavern’s weekly brunches are a treat any Sunday, with well-prepared, moderately priced dishes — many of them vegetarian or even vegan — and hip indie music provided by various DJs. It’s also been hosting weekly swing-dance lessons in the Ballroom next door. Today, the food, music and dancing come together for a special…
1/17: Cleveland Orchestra’s MLK Day Concert
The music isn’t religious, but there’s a liturgical feeling to the Cleveland Orchestra’s 30th annual Martin Luther King Day concert program. Choral works that resonate with patriotism and black pride alternate with orchestral music that inspires and expresses American optimism — even as Europeans Franz Joseph Haydn, Nikolai Rimsky- Korsakov and Ludwig van Beethoven all…
1/16: Melvin Davis & the Nu Knight Sounds at Beachland
Detroit has produced many soul singers over the years. But unlike many of his Motown brethren, Melvin Davis never became a household name. Not only a talented singer and songwriter, Davis played drums for Smokey Robinson & the Miracles and other Motown artists and even hooked up with Wayne Kramer before Kramer started kicking out…
1/15: Kid Cudi at the Agora
You won’t find any rhymes about what a badass Kid Cudi is on his debut album, Man on the Moon: The End of Day. This glasses-wearing rapper (who’s originally from Shaker Heights) is all about kicking back, toking up and flipping through his existential angst. Kanye West produces a couple cuts (including the all-star single…
Looking Back at the Browns Season With 17 Cartoons From Derf
There’s lots of retrospectives out there looking back at the eventful 2009-2010 Browns season. From the quarterback competition to Braylon’s punching antics, from the early anger and embarrassing losses to the four game win streak, from anticipating Mangini getting shipped out of town to the unlikely retention of ManGenius and the arrival of Mike Holmgren,…
1/15 & 16: West 78th Street Studios Experience
Legation, A Gallery director Hilary Aurand calls Intrepid a conceptual sculpture show that conveys the “broken structure and unsettled tensions” that working people endure as they ride the industrial economy and get through life. The show’s two artists approach this concept from materially different perspectives. Derek Gelvin — a 2006 Cleveland Institute of Art graduate…
1/15: Resist at Peabody’s
Blame it on the harsh, snow-clogged winters or the decaying remains of the Rust Belt’s once-thriving industry, but Cleveland has a knack for spawning metal and hardcore bands. For nearly a decade, Resist have been one of those dark and bludgeoning groups that calls the North Coast home. Following in the footsteps of forefathers like…
1/15: The Dutchess and the Duke at Grog Shop
Kimberly Morrison (the Dutchess) and Jesse Lortz (the Duke) channel their love of Dylan-era folk and Stonesy rock through a contemporary sensibility informed by plaintive ballads (just like My Morning Jacket) and punk passion (inspired by X’s John Doe and Exene). The duo’s second album, Sunset/Sunrise, is slightly lighter than 2008’s She’s the Dutchess, He’s…
1/15: Collections as Evidence of Now at Zygote Press
The last time Shelly DiCello and Margot Ecke collaborated on a show at Zygote Press, they presented their own work as documentation of places and lives. The exhibit included DiCello’s intaglio prints and Ecke’s collection of objects — intriguing bits like a lock of hair and a World War II-era German glass eye. This time,…
1/14: Sleeping With the Sun in His Eyes author at Mac’s Backs
When Akol Ayii Madut — a refugee who’s one of the “lost boys of Sudan” — got off a plane at Hopkins Airport after a snowstorm, he walked into a brand new world. “What he saw everywhere was wheat flour,” writes local publisher and poet Bree in Sleeping With the Sun in His Eyes, which…
1/14: Cleveland Orchestra
A decade ago, violinist Leila Josefowicz spent a year as the face of Chanel’s Allure perfume. If that sounds somewhat frivolous for a classical musician (and a child prodigy at that), Josefowicz is anything but. She made her concert debut when she was eight, playing Max Bruch’s Romantic first violin concerto, not some easily metered…
1/13: Chicago opens at Palace Theatre
Onetime reality-TV star Ashlee Simpson-Wentz is most famous for a couple of gaffes she made early in her musical career. First there was the failed lip-sync incident on Saturday Night Live, which was quickly followed by an off-key performance at the Rose Bowl. She eventually found some redemption onstage as accused murderess Roxie Hart in…
Muscle Milk Deploys Virtual Shaq Using Bottles and Your Webcam
Want to see a cyber Shaq pop up on your computer screen with a guitar, singing and dancing about Ohio landmarks? Well, pick up a bottle of Muscle Milk and get your webcam ready, because Muscle Milk has gotten involved in augmented reality marketing using the Big Shaqtus. Techcrunch explains: Now Muscle Milk is getting…
HAMMING FOR HERMAN
Director Frank Lucas has come up with a crafty inspiration by rendering Jerry’s Girls — a musical revue celebrating the songs of Jerry Herman — as senior-citizen catnip. This brand includes nods to such early ’60s and ’70s TV institutions as Sing Along With Mitch and The Lawrence Welk Show. Lucas’ Ensemble Theatre production —…
Summer Time
TOP PICK (500) Days of Summer (Twentieth Century Fox) Even though it claims from the start that it isn’t a love story, this terrific movie (one of 2009’s finest) is indeed a love story — the best since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in fact. Two twentysomethings hook up, fall in love and then…
Answer Only With Your Eyes
Strands of wiry music, barbed with emotional truth, seemed to unspool through the air, winding around Terry Durst’s weathered-looking assemblage works, at the opening of his show The Carter Excavations. A scratchy late 1920s recording featured highlights from the repertoire of country music’s “first family,” the Carters: Alvin, Sara and Maybelle. As Durst made the…
Short Takes: Female Trouble
Angel*** Based on a tome by British writer Elizabeth Taylor (not that Elizabeth Taylor), François Ozon’s (Swimming Pool, 8 Women) yummy retro fairy tale about the meteoric rise and cataclysmic fall of a female novelist in Edwardian England is the ultimate in guilty pleasure treasures. Bratty schoolgirl Angel Deverell (Romola Garai, best known as Keira…
THE UN-DINER
If dining at Dottie’s Diner (and subsequently Chris & Jimmy’s) felt like being shoehorned into the back of a European budget rail car, then visiting Clyde’s Bistro is like taking a ride on the Orient Express. Clyde Mart’s $150,000 makeover of the Lee Road diner cars has served as an upgrade from coach to first…
Reel Cleveland: Science Fiction Marathon Returns!
The 35th annual Science Fiction Marathon returns to Case Western University’s Strosacker Auditorium (2125 Adelbert Rd., 216.368.2463, films.cwru.edu) this weekend. It kicks off at 8 p.m. Friday, January 15, with a screening of last year’s critically maligned Terminator Salvation. In addition to contemporary fare like last year’s Moon, Duncan Jones’ tribute to old-school sci-fi classics…
Bites: Zack Bruell’s Finishing Chinato
As you read this, Zack Bruell is putting the finishing touches on Chinato, his contemporary Italian restaurant at the corner of Prospect and East 4th. Over the past few months, Bruell and his team have converted a cold, blunt warehouse space into a warm, light-filled trattoria. The large room is now divided in half, with…
CD Review: Ringo Starr
There’s a case to be made that there are six good Ringo Starr albums in the drummer’s 14 solo works. Clearly more prolific early on — perhaps because he had more to say in the wake of the Beatles’ demise — Ringo’s recent albums have been as sporadic as their quality. As a drummer, Ringo…
CD Review: Vampire Weekend
Forget the Afro-pop label garnered by Vampire Weekend’s eponymous debut. This time around, the four preppy Columbia grads throw in Brazilian funk, reggaeton, dancehall and ska. New cultures collide, cheerfully bopping next to each other on an album that finds inspiration from almost every corner of the world. But somehow, the New Yorkers still sound…
CD Review: OK GO
Though they’re one of the past decade’s few memorable mainstream pop/rock groups, OK Go have only released two albums. This long-awaited third record preserves everything fun, smart and snappy about OK Go, while adding the heightened confidence and proficiency that ideally comes with age. The band’s current style amplifies the earlier material’s funky boogie-pop components.…
CD Review: Katharine McPhee
Verve Forecast attempts to do what RCA couldn’t — sell some Katharine McPhee albums. Dropped by RCA after lackluster sales of her 2007 debut, the American Idol runner-up signed to Verve Forecast, a subsidiary of venerable jazz label Verve. But don’t confuse McPhee with any jazz legends. She’s got a decent enough voice with surprising…
CD Review: Freedy Johnston
Rain on the City is Freedy Johnston’s first record of original material in eight years, and it’s a welcome return. Johnston is best known for his enduring near-hit “Bad Reputation” from 1994’s This Perfect World. But the rest of his output is nearly as fine. Simple but elegant tunefulness and his novelist’s attention to detail…
CD Review: Ben Davis
Ben Davis’ name may not be familiar, but the guy is no stranger to indie rock. Davis has done time with bands like Milemarker, Sleepytime Trio and Bats & Mice, while also dropping three solo releases in the past decade. And while Davis’ solo output may never reach the blustery abandon of Sleepytime Trio’s hardcore…
Boston Bruins
Sarah Borges didn’t hone her onstage skills fronting a band. It was something she picked up in a decidedly less rocking atmosphere. “I did a lot of musical theater in school,” says Borges, who was a musical-theater major at Emerson College. “I got the performing element out of the way earlier, in terms of learning…
The Zanotti Way
Marty Zanotti relinquished his mayoral seat in Parma Heights on New Year’s Day, ending a nine-year run at the top of the tiny suburb. At Zanotti’s final council meeting days earlier, officials took turns thanking Zanotti for his service; one councilman appeared on the verge of tears. Zanotti lowered his head. When they finished, he…
Subject to Change
Keelhaul are a progressive-metal band’s band. For more than a dozen years, they’ve earned the approbation of acts like Isis, High on Fire and Mastodon — the latter once opened for them — generating more respect than commercial success. Their knotty fire is documented on four albums, and in the late ’90s and early ’00s,…
DEATH, TAXES AND IGNORANCE
Last September, a federal court in Missouri convicted three men of making and selling phony State Department cards identifying the bearer as an “ambassador” with diplomatic immunity. They also sold license plates that were equally worthless and illegal. But it worked. So many people were taken in by their pitch that one of the men…
Local CD Reviews
Dan Miraldi Thirsty (self-released) danmiraldi.com “I’m just a pretty face you drag all over the place,” sneers Akron-based singer-guitarist Dan Miraldi on “Sex Symbol,” the opening track on his new album. It’s a start to an appealing record, as Miraldi alternately channels the Stooges on the ghoulish “Premonition” and Buddy Holly on the retro-sounding “More…
THE KING’S MAN
It has been three summers since Cavs assistant coach Chris Jent was made responsible for the NBA’s equivalent of the Mona Lisa. He is the one man LeBron James trusts to tinker with his shot, and that’s got to be on par with guarding da Vinci’s masterpiece. The main difference is that LeBron’s jump shot…
Metal Smackdown
South Carolina native Karl Sanders had an odd introduction to heavy metal. “Fifteen or 16 years ago, when things were first starting, I went to my jazz guitar teacher and asked him to show me some chords that sounded like ancient Egypt that I could use in a death-metal band,” he recalls. “He looked at…
Around Hear: Dodgeball is All Class
Indie concert club Now That’s Class (11213 Detroit Ave.) will host its second annual dodgeball tournament on Saturday, January 16. Co-owner Paul Schlacter says to expect plenty of faces from the music scene, including “play-by-play commentary by Parma’s greatest natural resource Tony Erba and his sidekick Scooter the Vine Street Heartthrob. Even if you don’t…
Film Capsules
Opening An American Journey: Revisiting Robert Frank’s The Americans (France/U.S., 2009) In this documentary, filmmaker Philippe Séclier retraces the steps Robert Frank took some 50 years when he put together his photo collection The Americans. Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 20. The Beaches of Agnes (France, 2008) Agnes Varda,…
Arts District: International Children’s Festival
The election of Barack Obama was hardly the first time people considered degrees of “Blackness.” Slavery spawned a vocabulary of ancestral fractions, with people of mixed descent being described as “mulattoes,” “quadroons,” “octaroons” and more, depending on how much European and African blood had mixed in their family histories. Julius Lyles has been exploring the…
Jackie of All Trades
If you’re a longtime Jackie Chan fan hoping for another Police Story or even a Rush Hour, you can probably skip The Spy Next Door. The plot is standard-issue, the performances are flat and Brian Levant’s direction can best be described as competent. The movie basically skates by on Chan’s likeability, martial-arts skill and knack…
FIGHT CLUB
Like so many directors, husband-and-wife fight choreo-graphers Josh Brown and Kelly Elliott wanted to put their stamp on Shakespeare. So they started with a dictionary of the Bard’s characters, which notes whether each character dies, and if so, how. That’s the part that interested them. “We found every death in Shakespeare, and we made a…
Dead on Arrival
Having adored Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, I was understandably anxious about Peter Jackson’s much-delayed screen version. After the Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong, could Jackson even work on a human scale again? Or would the same CGI elephantiasis that afflicted his unfortunate 2005 Kong remake squash the bejesus out of Sebold’s…
WOLVES AND PIRATES IN THE BALLROOM
Former Cleveland Ballet principal dancer Pamela Pribisco credits the dancers of Verb Ballets with helping her create her choreography for Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, the beloved piece of music and narration that has introduced so many children to orchestral instruments. “Creating dance involves a lot of improv,” says Pribisco, who left the Cleveland…
Enhanced Interrogation: Joseph Calabrese
After a week of often-heated public hearings over proposed service cutback, Calabrese talked with Scene about the challenges facing RTA. What’s the most popular misconception you’ve heard in the course of these public meeting? I think the one thing that is most hurtful to me that is certainly a misunderstanding is that we don’t understand…
