Sammy Discovers Juvenile Crime!
We Read Sam Fulwood III So You Don’t Have To… Headline: Juvenile justice needs an overhaul Date: January 23, 2007 Topic: Echoing the paper’s lead Sunday story, Sam writes that Ohio’s juvenile justice system needs an overhaul. He’s not sure how to do that, but he thinks it should involve marching on the state capitol…
Tales of Cancer
I just read the article about cancer and City View [“Tomb With A View,” January 10]. My mom also passed on from brain cancer about 6 years ago. We were all in shock, for she was such a strong woman. My stepdad also fought cancer for 7 years till his death. I was ill for…
Smashing H&R Block
When Dorothy Adzema ran her car through a H&R Block office, she didn’t realize that she was doing herself a favor. On January 18, the 80-year-old headed to an H&R Block office in Ellet, one of the bluest collared hoods in Akron. She hoped to get an early start on her taxes. But as she…
The Methane Mall
My sadness goes out to those families affected by this toxic dump [“Tomb With A View,” January 10]. What a nightmare. The Methane Mall (City View) will only cover up the issue for a while. It’s obvious our city leaders don’t give a damn about the people of this city, and the EPA is loving…
Mayor Longo Digs a Hole
Garfield Heights Mayor Tom Longo needed a quick explanation after Scene uncovered that his pet project, the City View shopping center, had been built on top a festering mound of toxic waste [“Tomb With A View,” January 10]. So he went to his pet newspaper, The Neighborhood News, where reporters respectfully refer to him as…
Cancer Victims: Suck it Up
This letter is in regard to the article I read about the toxic waste dump in Valley View [“Tomb With A View,” January 10]. It is sad to see that people are still trying to blame everyone else for bad things that happen to them. Obviously God is pissed at Mr. Berger for something he…
Rob O’Reilly Needs Your Help
Rob O’Reilly Cleveland comic Rob O’Reilly desperately needs your vote. Too bad the folks at The Tonight Show are giving you a tough time casting it. On Friday night’s show, Leno rolled clips of 10 contestants in contention to become a “Tonight Show Correspondent.” The winner scores an on-camera job as the show’s freelance interviewer…
Infernal Affairs
The Departed Little surprise that this morning’s Academy Award nominations included The Departed, Martin Scorsese’s violent crime thriller about the Irish mafia. The movie picked up five noms, including one for Best Picture. This week, the Cleveland Cinematheque is showing Infernal Affairs, the 2002 Hong Kong movie that inspired The Departed (in fact, Scorsese’s pic…
Tribe Grade Inflation
David Dellucci The Indians were nice enough to hit the local media with an email recently pointing us to Sports Illustrated’s off-season report card. “Red Sox, Indians get high marks; Twins, A’s don’t,” the email read. This, of course, left me wondering if I had missed something. Had the Indians pulled off some magic deal…
Concerts: This Just In…
Wolfmother is coming to the Agora No fewer than 47 new concert announcements this week, from Los Straitjackets’ Rock En Espaol surf guitar extravaganza to two of the year’s hottest local-band showcases. Wolfmother brings its ongoing album-rock revival to the Agora Theater Sunday, March 4. It’ll be a ‘fro fest, for sure. THIS WEEK: WEDNESDAY,…
The Wine Matchmaker
For anyone who ever wondered what wine goes best with haggis, writer Natalie MacLean has the answer on her new interactive Wine and Food Matcher. It’s all part of her website, Nat Decants, a chatty and info-packed look at all things wine and wonderful. The Matcher is one of the most comprehensive we’ve come across.…
Fall Out Boy Pics!
See the latest photo gallery from Walter Novak: Action Rock Photographer as he treads where no man dares to go: The Fall Out Boy show at the Agora.
Movie Review: Pan’s Labyrinth
One of Pan’s better scenes. I slept through it. Movie Reviews by The Douchebag Sitting Behind You: Pan’s Labrynth. Disclaimer: Let me start off by saying that I have no idea what this movie was supposed to be about. I came in late, then fell asleep in the middle. And it was in some dumb…
Concert Review: Fall Out Boy
Of course, when Fall Out Boy hit the Agora last Thursday, selling the place out while supporting the forthcoming disc Infinity on High, the Chicago suburbanites blew away teenage heads with their anthemic pop-punk/emo/whatever shtick. The kids — decked-out in Hot Topic (oversized hoodies, dyed hair, tiny skirts) — dug the jams hard, especially the…
Cheap Deals on Cheap Houses!
Those looking for a head-start on Valentine’s Day now have the perfect gift option: a poorly constructed house! That’s right — for a limited time, Rysar Properties — the company that brought you a neighborhood full of publicly subsidized houses with slanted driveways and sinking steps — is offering discounted houses for that special someone.…
Levert Album Due in February
Atlantic Records releases Gerald Levert’s final album next month. The Cleveland R&B star completed In My Songs shortly before his death of a heart attack in November. The CD hits stores February 13 — the day before Valentine’s Day. It’s no coincidence. Levert’s bedroom tunes have inspired couples to make babies for more than two…
PD Boss Heading Out
Cleveland.com reports that Plain Dealer editor Doug Clifton will retire on June 1, exactly seven years after he took the job. You can read Clifton’s statement to his staff here, and Publisher Terrence C.Z. Egger’s statement here. Or, if prepared statements make you want to throw a stapler at your own head, you can read…
AbortionFest ’07
It’s that time of year again: The day we commemorate the Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion. But as always, the celebration comes with a warning: The ruling can always be overturned . . . This year’s doomsday speech, “Religious Fundamentalism and Reproductive Rights,” is sponsored by the Freedom of Choice Cleveland Coalition. Author…
Another French Surrender
Anyone who doubts that running a small restaurant is a tough way to earn a living should talk to Michael Crowdes. The former corporate guy turned cr�pe maker is looking for a buyer for Le Oui Oui Cafe, his teensy Ohio City cr�perie originally founded by local Francophile Denajua. (Crowdes is the third owner.) After…
Make Your Kid a Rock Star
Julian: He can’t kick the bottle. The producers of the reality show Finding Julian’s Band will hold auditions at the Agora (5000 Euclid Ave.) on Saturday, January 20. They’re looking for musicians and singers ages 10 and under to back toddler drummer Julian Pavone, who has appeared all over the morning TV circuit. The project…
Slayer on TV Friday Night!
(Written in the voice of an overenthusiastic Slayer fan and web-poster.) Slayer’s on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Show Friday night! It’s gonna be on like 12:05 a.m., or that’s when it starts or whatever. Slaaaayeeeer!!!!! The friggin’ pigs that run the show are only running one song, but they’ll play five songs on the dude’s outside…
Last Call in the Money Round
This video from Last Call Cleveland, the local comedy troupe, is one of six finalists in TBS’s “Funny or Not” contest. If the guys win, they get 10 grand, the video gets shown on TBS, and I have yet another thing to blog about that requires little more than watching videos on the internet. Needless…
Another Anne E. DeChant Fan
Damn, she really is good. After seeing Anne E. DeChant at the the Winchester last weekend, I became the 5,786th person to deem her a goddess of local folk rock. Performing with her full band (which — news flash — actually includes dudes!), she ripped out delectable cuts from her 2004 album Pop the Star…
Corned Beef’s New Home
When Sam Sarkisian closed his cozy Macedonia deli last summer, we cried bitter tears. Where would we ever again find corned beef sandwiches as ample, or corned beef hash as savory, as the stuff that he dished up? Well, now we know. Sarkisian has resurfaced a few miles north, in the rear of a Bedford…
Why Buildings Should Be Named After Dead Guys
In 1995, Kent State University proudly unveiled the new Paul H. Jones Child Development Center, named in honor of Ravenna’s former mayor. Today, KSU officials are a wee bit less proud. On Thursday, Paul Jones pleaded guilty to three counts of filing false tax returns and five counts of mail fraud. Students may learn a…
Guest Columnist: Martin Luther King!
FULWOOD WATCH: We Read Sam So You Don’t Have To Headline: Dr. King confronts the cynicism of ’07 Date: January 16, 2007 Topic: Martin Luther King Day means a day off for many Americans, and that rankles Sam. He’s rankled that we spend the day honoring the fallen civil-rights leader and rankled that it happens…
Sloan
Once considered the Great Pop Hope From the Great White North, Sloan became one of Canada’s most popular indie-pop bands during the ’90s, but the Halifax quartet never duplicated that success here in the States — even when crafting great albums like the Geffen-released Twice Removed in ’94. Since that time, indie-Canada has gone hipster,…
Eyes Wide Shut
Expectations are the WD-40 of our lives, the lubricant that allows us to maneuver through the world and get things done. We understandably expect that cars coming toward us will stay on their side of the road or that we can walk into a crowded store without fearing bodily harm. Without those expectations, and millions…
Chan-tastic!
Before he started making lame Hollywood movies with Owen Wilson, Jackie Chan was a kick-ass kung-fu star back home in Hong Kong. Tonight, Lakewood Public Library screens Chan’s solo directorial debut, 1980’s Shi Di Chu Ma. The movie — better known in the U.S. as The Young Master — revolves around a familiar tale of…
Terror
The kids are not all right; in fact, they’re f’n pissed off. Case in point: California’s Terror, total hardcore dudes regurgitating the same juvenile jock mentality that made local Clevo “kids” One Life Crew into underground antiheroes. On its newest disc, Always the Hard Way, Terror pulls no punches, delivering a straightforward onslaught of us-against-them…
Hefty Fare
Now and then, the unique aspect of live theater — the fact that these are real people onstage and not just flickering images — hits home with unexpected power. If you see an overweight woman on TV or in a movie, it could likely be Tyra Banks or Sharon Stone in a fat suit that’s…
Devil Made Her Do It
In Requiem, an epileptic college girl believes she’s possessed by the devil. Sound familiar? That’s because the same true events inspired 2005’s The Exorcism of Emily Rose. But this German film is a more subtle beast, hurling skepticism at the screen while simultaneously supporting the girl’s credibility. Her fainting and shouting spells may be the…
Pedophile Inc.
At age 53, Robert Cikraji’s health was failing. The social-science professor had always been a sickly sort. In high school, he spent two years in bed with pneumonia; his lungs never fully recovered. So it was of little surprise when his respiratory system collapsed again in 1998. For one scary week, he lay in Mansfield…
The Hackensaw Boys
Taking their cues from punk, folk, and bluegrass, the Hackensaw Boys defy simple tags. “While it’s true that we try to bring a punk ethic, sensibility, and spirit to our performance, we are most easily classified as a secular gospel band,” explains mandolinist Rob Bullington [a.k.a. Mahlon Hackensaw]. “I think what we’re trying to get…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Of Mice and Men — As the consummate buddy story gone horribly awry, John Steinbeck’s classic is about colliding passions, including the obsession for survival and human connection in a parched and hostile environment. On a farm in Depression-era California, clever George and his large, dim-witted sidekick Lennie try to eke out a living while…
Chutes to Thrill
The Chalet Toboggan Chutes of Cleveland Metroparks are 700 icy feet of action. It’s like taking a roller-coaster ride wearing mittens. Plus, the twin refrigerated chutes work whether it snows or not. “That ice isn’t going anywhere,” says the Metroparks’ Dan Crandall. Prepare to wait your turn, however. The popular event is always crowded. Our…
BCS, Here We Come
For college students, the road trip is a rite of passage, like getting beat up by your freshman-year roommate. But for Justin Stenger and Mike Maier, both Ohio State seniors, this isn’t just any excursion. These 22-year-olds are embarking on the ultimate road trip to end all ultimate road trips: to see their beloved Buckeyes…
Colin Dussault’s Blues Project
If you haven’t seen Colin Dussault’s Blues Project — one of Cleveland’s great musical calling cards — lately, here’s what you’ve been missing: “Dead Skunk” no longer belongs to Loudon Wainwright, who wrote the tune. Dussault has wrapped an Arlo Guthrie-type yarn around the ditty and made it his own. Dussault and new drummer Freddie…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW Model, Protagonist — To Jo Nelson, an MFA student at Hunter College in New York, buildings are more than static objects — they’re unique reflections of humanity, and we interact with them profoundly. It’s an intriguing hypothesis, but it could use a little more development and defense. Not that what she has here isn’t…
Extra Credit
Last year, local high school students were asked to create artwork based on their Holocaust studies. The results can be seen in Victims, Perpetrators, Rescuers, and Survivors: A Multigenre Response to the Holocaust, a multimedia exhibit that balances faith with hopelessness. Mondays-Fridays, 8 a.m.-10 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sundays, 1-10 p.m. Starts: Jan. 18.…
Hiroshima Heights
In an apparent attempt to save money on this year’s Fourth of July fireworks display, word has it that Garfield Heights will hold its annual Home Days celebration at the City View shopping center [“Tomb With a View,” January 10], where explosive levels of methane emanating from a landfill could inexpensively put the “grand” back…
Omarion
It’s rare when showing less rather than more passion is the measure of a performer’s maturity, but that’s the case with Omarion. The emotional deep freeze of “Ice Box,” the Timbaland-produced track from King O’s sophomore album, stands worlds away from the fuzzy puppy love of his boy-band past in B5. You can almost feel…
He’s Really Doing That
The Protector (Genius Products) Thailand’s Tony Jaa has made clear his plan to take Jackie Chan’s crown as the king of Holy crap, did he just do that?! He’s about halfway there. Though Jaa is devoid of Chan’s charisma, his hyperathletic kickboxing style will make your jaw drop; here’s a movie to watch like porno,…
Mix It Up a Little
A Celebration of Diversity lives up to its name by exhibiting black art in the heart of predominantly white Chagrin Falls. “We’re taking baby steps — as far as opening the concepts of art to people that we might not normally touch,” says Dana Davis, the Valley Art Center’s new director. Celebration of Diversity marks…
The New Ohio
To find out how Ohio politics have changed since the 2006 election, click here.
The L-Word
Things are heating up on the always-steamy, always-dramatic L-Word. Bette’s struggling to adjust to her new job in the world of academia, with her new take-no-prisoners boss, Phyllis, played by Cybill Shepherd (pictured). Jenny’s book’s not getting a warm reception. And then Helena had to move in with Alice. Watch the days of their lives…
Paper Tigers
Viva Piñata begins with you acquiring the deed to a barren patch of land on “Piñata Island,” a strange place where everyone wears masks and the main form of currency is chocolate coins. Your first order of business is a little gardening, breathing some life back into your dusty plot. This not only makes it…
The Busking Stops Here
Manitoba folkie Dan Frechette takes time away from busking on street corners to play the Barking Spider tonight. He’s promoting his debut CD, Lucky Day, with a tour that has taken him across North America and to Europe. Frechette says his “musical rambles” have shaped his songwriting. “I started listening back to myself with a…
Victim Negligence
How not to get your stuff swiped: This is in response to the article “The City That Never Works” [January 10]. Seems that Christina is mad about a lack of help from Cleveland police, when her purse was stolen from an unlocked residence and her car stolen after she tried to play P.I. Now the…
Gob Iron
Uncle Tupelo, Jay Farrar’s first band, may have invented alt-country, but it was so busy channeling Neil Young and Gram Parsons through ragged atmospherics that the band forgot to fully bake its songs. But two bands and a solo career later, Farrar has not only recorded the kind of indelible album that always eluded Uncle…
Here are the week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe:
CD — Al Green: The Definitive Greatest Hits: No single-disc compilation could sum up Green’s deep catalog, but this 21-song collection comes close. All of the jukebox and bedroom faves are here, including “Let’s Stay Together” and “I’m Still in Love With You.” Best is a six-track DVD that includes a pair of smoldering TV…
Fly Girls
In 1961, 13 women pilots secretly trained to become America’s first female astronauts. The International Women’s Air & Space Museum’s Mercury Women: Forgotten Link to the Future exhibit chronicles their plight. But not their flight: After the ladies completed the very same rigid tests the Mercury 7 male astronauts passed, NASA pulled the plug on…
Unknown Legend
Joe Ely was born along the Rock Island line in Amarillo, Texas, three blocks from Route 66. At age 6, he witnessed Jerry Lee Lewis pounding a piano on the back of a flatbed truck; at 12, his family moved two hours south to Lubbock, the hometown of Buddy Holly. Years later, in his early…
Diana Ross
She hasn’t made an album in more than seven years, but Miss Ross still possesses an exquisite sense of timing. The former leader of the Supremes smartly reenters the market on the heels of Dreamgirls, the film adaptation of the Broadway show based on her group’s fabled Motown career. And while you can salute the…
Our top DVD picks for the week of January 16:
Clerks II (Weinstein) Council of the Gods (First Run) Die You Zombie Bastards (Image) Dreamland (Image) Employee of the Month (Lions Gate) Gridiron Gang (Sony) Grim Reaper (Lions Gate) Her Minor Thing (First Look) La Moustache (Koch Lorber) Lucky Number Slevin (Weinstein) Monroe: Class of ’76 (Image) Pulse (Weinstein) Rotation (First Run) Seven Swords (Genius)…
Super Sized!
Hurricane on the Bayou, the latest feature film to hit the Great Lakes Science Center’s humongous Omnimax Theater, has the potential to be a major downer. After all, who wants to view pain and devastation on a screen the size of the Superdome? But the film isn’t just about Katrina. In fact, the filmmakers began…
Kids Incorporated
The teenage heroes of The Cheetah Girls 2, a Disney Channel movie about an aspiring girl group, are clearly destined to live in the spotlight, though it might be shining down on a stripper pole. It’s their names: Galleria, Chanel, Dorinda, and Aqua. Elegant, in a rhinestone-studded Lee-Press-On-Nails kind of way. But their star power…
Mic Mulligan and S. Future
Mic Mulligan and S. Future claim to be from another planet, but a little research reveals they actually hail from Seattle. Then again, after listening to Original Space Neighbors, maybe there’s another Seattle — perhaps on Mars. That, or these dudes spent their early years strung out on lo-fi alien flicks. Either way, the space…
Sing Out
The North Coast Men’s Chorus is looking for a few good gay men tonight when it holds auditions for an upcoming show. First, prospective singers will have to get past the ears of Rich Cole, director of the 90-member ensemble. “You don’t need to practice the National Anthem, but you’ll have to match pitch,” says…
Monster Mash
At today’s Monster Truck and Thrill Show at the Wolstein Center, big-ass rides perform such excellently named moves as the Sterilizer and the Superman Seat Grab. Watch out for the Raminator, a 2006 Dodge that Mark Hall has driven to four Monster Nationals championships. In the two decades Hall’s been maneuvering four-wheel beasts over ramps…
No Repeater, Please
Like his former Fugazi comrade Ian MacKaye, Joe Lally is busy these days exploring new worlds of sound. “I remember the grief we would get in Fugazi for not being just a straight hardcore band,” Lally says, phoning from his home in Washington, D.C. “In the beginning, it was such a big deal. But boy,…
Mos Def
Strange, this package looks more like a bootleg version of True Magic, Mos Def’s latest. But, it’s the real deal — unless, of course, it was purchased from a man selling discs out the back of his car. Released ahead of schedule — no cover art and little promotional support — the record has spawned…
Cooking With Fire
Campers fire up their grills at Summit County Metro Parks today… even if the temperature dips below freezing. At the weekly Ice Breakers winter-cooking class, experts give culinary tips on whipping up entrées, soups, and stews outdoors over an open fire. The first rule, says park naturalist Mary Beth Filon, is to cook everything in…
The Way They Do the Things They Do
In its prime, Motown Records produced more knockouts than Chuck Liddell. The Play House’s Motown! (opening tonight) pays tribute to the songs people are still humming 40 years later. Local R&B singers and a live band work their way through Motown’s vast catalog. Expect to hear such classics as “My Girl,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,”…
Sound Hunters
Let’s zap back for a moment to the early 20th century, to what college snobs today call “folklorists.” They were men and women who hiked the rural South, toting tape recorders and stacks of staff paper. They archived American roots music — the songs and sounds of blacks, prisoners, and the hill people of Appalachia.…
Nick Wolff Band
Cle-Punk lifers will recognize most of the Nick Wolff Band as a reconstituted version of Pride of Ohio, the gritty punks who sang odes to the Ohio underground in the early days of the 21st century. Wolff’s new band began as a goof, but took a serious turn when Amps II Eleven guitarist Aaron Dowell…
Paprikash vs. Paprikash
Chicken paprikash isn’t difficult to make. All you need is some poultry, a pot, and various spices. Very simple… unless you’re participating in tonight’s Chicken Paprikash Cook-Off at the Studio of 5 Rings, where the competition gets fierce and the flavors get complex. “The number of variations seems limitless,” says Matt Cook, owner of the…
A Real Fine Place
Six months ago, most blue-state dwellers had no idea who Sara Evans was. But after the country singer’s turn on Dancing With the Stars and, more notably, her departure from the TV show in the middle of a nasty divorce in October, she became tabloid fodder. And a star. With most of those unpleasantries behind…
More Love for Militia
After a stint with Columbia Records, Canton’s Lovedrug has returned to California’s Militia Group for its upcoming second album. Everything Starts Where It Ends is slated for release March 6 on the emo indie label, whose roster includes Copeland and Cleveland’s Brandtson. “It wasn’t any sort of a negative situation where we got screwed by…
The Chrome Kickers
Fun, fast, and filthier than the men’s room at the old Peabody’s, the Chrome Kickers were punk before most of the genre’s current practitioners were even born. Members cut their teeth in various local outfits in the early ’80s, and though the band has gigged steadily around town for the last five years, it just…
Rhyme and Reason
In The Future of the Funk, playwright Najaa Young chronicles her 20-year passion for hip-hop. “It’s like that relationship that you can’t figure out why you’re still in it,” she says. “Some days, it’s just not good for you.” The performance premieres this weekend as part of Cleveland Public Theatre’s Big [Box] series. Young, 34,…
Kiss the Bottle
Back home in San Francisco, Paul Hlebcar fronts the seven-piece DeSotos — rockers who have shared stages with everyone from Bo Diddley to Eddie Money. But on the road, the veteran singer-songwriter plays solo. For more than 20 years, he’s traveled across the country with an acoustic guitar and harmonica for unplugged gigs. He comes…
Metal Church
Metal Church hits Cleveland in support of its 2006 album A Light In the Dark, the band’s 10th release since forming in 1981. Given that there’s only a single original member still rocking — guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof — metal purists might question the group’s legitimacy, but at least the touring lineup is the same one…
Nice Thai
Ly’s Thai Gourmet (25800 Central Parkway), the first Cuyahoga County restaurant for industry vet Ricky Ly, opened January 2 in Beachwood. A handsome orchestration of wood, Eastern artwork, and soaring windows, the newly constructed, 156-seat space serves up a serene, contemporary vibe, complemented by cloth napkins and white-porcelain dishware. And the pan-Asian menu is a…
City Life
In City Folk: A Selection of Work by Archived Artists, local painters and sculptors depict Cleveland’s buildings, bridges, and people. The exhibit gathers old and new pieces by artists like Sid Rheuban and Shirley Aley Campbell. From the abstract to the lifelike, City Folk is a colorful tribute. Saturdays, 12-4 p.m.; Wednesdays-Fridays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.…
Go East, Young Men
At tonight’s Silk Road Ensemble performance at Severance Hall, the esteemed group eschews the usual classics in favor of some relatively obscure tunes written by Eastern composers. The troupe — founded by hotshot cellist Yo-Yo Ma — features members who are in their early and mid-twenties. “The way they portray classical music is very free…
Nancy Wilson
Like peers Dinah Washington and Tony Bennett, vocal diva Nancy Wilson confidently straddles the divide between jazz and pop. Born in 1937 in Chillicothe, Wilson recorded with jazz legends Cannonball Adderley and George Shearing, scored a string of pop hits (including one produced by Philly soul wizards Gamble and Huff), hosted a television variety show…
Packin’ Heat
With all the numbers being shouted, it could have been Friday night at the bingo hall. “Gimme an eight. No, wait, make it a six!” “That’s a four? Wow, then make mine a three!” Nah, it was just another dinner hour at Lakewood’s India Garden, a comfy little Northern Indian eatery where the vibe is…
Be Happy Now
Bobby McFerrin is best known as the singer of 1988’s bubbly “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” But that annoying hit represents only one side of this prolific performer, who’s been making records for 25 years. He’s collaborated with jazz giants like Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, as well as with classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma. At tonight’s…
Sandbox Games
Every year, the Children’s Museum of Cleveland builds a ginormous sand sculpture. This year’s offering, Egyptian Sands, turns the museum into a land of pyramids and pharaohs with more than 70 tons of sand. Visitors aren’t allowed to touch the intricately sculpted pieces, but they can get their mitts on many of the interactive exhibits…
The Nimrods
“We are all in our thirties now. Jobs and family demand a lot of time, so the Nimrods only play every once in a while,” says Ric Mallardi, better known as Ric Nimrod, guitarist and vocalist for the Akron band. That’s one of the reasons their upcoming reunion is not to be missed: This just…
Behind Enemy Lines
In the new Clint Eastwood movie, ordinary young men — husbands and fathers, artisans and aristocrats — are drafted into a war whose motives many of them do not fully understand. There, on an island called Iwo Jima, they fight against an enemy who has been demonized by wartime propaganda — a supposedly brutal oppressor…
Art Brutal
In Permanent Collection, a white patron of the arts dies and leaves his collection to a black university. Thomas Gibbons’ drama — which opens at Karamu House tonight — explores how art and race converge and collide over the collected works. After controversial businessman Sterling North takes over the Alfred Morris Foundation, he discovers a…
Pat Dailey
Bakersfield has Merle Haggard, south Florida has Jimmy Buffett, and the Great Lakes have . . . Pat Dailey? Yep, Mr. Dailey’s the Pasha of Put-in-Bay, but don’t call him the “Jimmy Buffett of the North.” Though he shares a few stylistic similarities with Cap’n Parrothead, Dailey’s a lot wittier. In fact, he collaborated frequently…
Magic Touch
Pan’s Labyrinth, the latest from writer-director Guillermo del Toro, is something alchemical. To an astonishing degree, the 42-year-old Mexican filmmaker best known for his contribution to the Blade and Hellboy franchises has transformed the horror of mid-20th-century European history into a boldly fanciful example of what surrealists would call le merveilleux. Literally and figuratively marvelous,…
A Rare Bird
No one’s seen a passenger pigeon in nearly a century. Harvey Webster explains why at tonight’s Of Mast & Men: The Life, Times, and Demise of the Passenger Pigeon program at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. More than five billion pigeons lived in Ohio until the late 1800s. But deforestation killed the birds’ favorite…
