Modern Maturity
The two pieces that make up this weekend’s Big [Box] offering at Cleveland Public Theatre actually have much in common, says co-creator Chris DiCello. In fact, Coming of Age: An Exploration of Changes/Transitions in Two Acts probably works better as a whole than as separate works. “We’re both dealing with things that happen to people…
Pennies for Pork
With his approval rating hovering near Eric Snow’s scoring average, U.S. Senator Mike DeWine is bragging up the pork he’s bringing home. But his efforts seem more designed to aid Mike DeWine than Northeast Ohio. The senator boasts of scoring a $3 million defense contract for STERIS, which isn’t exactly a Buckeye loyalist. In 2001,…
31Knots
Like truants and delinquents at military school, the men of 31Knots roar with frustration, but they never lose their discipline. The wiry trio strikes a good balance between emo and math rock, with riffs that forgive lines like “Hell hath no fury like me.” There’s a lot of clockwork in these songs, from the simple…
Swindled Art
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Magnolia) The best two hours you’ll ever spend learning about accounting, Enron is one part civics lesson, one part Greek tragedy, and one part political cartoon. Director Alex Gibney makes no pretense of objectivity; he wants you to hiss and boo at Ken Lay and the other Snidely…
The Big Chill
Cleveland Metroparks’ annual Winterrific program expands to two locations this year: Brookside Reservation and the zoo. That means twice the outdoor exhibits and winter-sports action! Brookside offers ice-skating, dog-sled rides, and ice-carving displays, while zoo staffers will field questions about the polar bears, reindeer, and wolves on hand. Jan. 21-22, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Scum Alert
Real locksmiths don’t use crowbars: Your story on these phony locksmiths [“Gypsies, Tramps, & Thieves,” January 11] was the most inspiring yet. You should advise the victims to file charges with the attorney general, rather than the Better Business Bureau. I have been watching this company and five more like it that have spread all…
Miles Davis
As rock had the Velvet Underground — way ahead of the curve, persevering till the world caught up — jazz had trumpeter Miles Davis. To the great dismay of his followers, Miles jettisoned his bebop-rooted approach and — inspired by Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, and avant composer Karlheinz Stockhausen — went electric, that classic swing…
Monkey Shines
Movie-based videogames have a well-deserved reputation for sucking. Ever since Atari’s E.T. — a game so ill-conceived that thousands of unsold cartridges were dumped en masse in the desert, creating the crappiest buried treasure of all time — Hollywood tie-ins have bombed big-time. Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie aims to…
Homo Movie
There are very few surprises in Gay Sex in the ’70s , a documentary screening tonight at the Cleveland Cinematheque about, well, gay sex in the ’70s. You go into this movie pretty much knowing what to expect: plenty of gay men talking about three-decades-old random hook-ups that happened in the dark corners of clubs,…
Let Them Eat Cake
I watched in horror as Cake frontman John McCrea’s face fell — and my own black heart sank — immediately after I doofishly declared Cake “the most underrated band of the alt-rock era.” Silence. “That’s a backhanded compliment that’s actually a really nice compliment,” he allowed diplomatically. Somebody kick me in the taco, please. It…
8 Ball
By employing the chopped-and-screwed mix method — a style developed by Houston’s own DJ Screw, which slows down a song’s tempo for a lurching, dizzying effect similar to the kind of high generated by codeine cough syrup — southern DJs have produced a spate of slurring, visceral remix albums that often sound better than the…
Our top DVD picks for the week of January 17.
Adventures of Superman: The Complete Second Season (Warner Bros.) Asylum (Paramount) Casino (MCA) Celebrity Mix (TLA) Final Destination: Scared 2 Death Pack (New Line) Gendernauts (First Run) Ghost in the Machine (Anchor Bay) Industrial Strength Keaton (Mackinac Media) Jamie Foxx Presents Laffapalooza! 6 (Image) Junebug (Sony) Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman –…
Twist, Don’t Shout
At today’s Healing Effects of Yoga program at Lakewood Public Library, Cathleen Donovan will show folks how they can sit in front of a computer all day and still reach a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility. It’s called chair yoga, and we’re already rejoicing! “Postures are modified to the chair and move each…
The Price Is Variable
Maybe you’ve heard of Marissa Marchant, maybe not. A couple of years ago, she was just another unsigned singer-songwriter toiling in New York City, as common as a pigeon or a hot-dog vendor. But she had bigger plans. When it came time to sell her albums, Marchant decided that her music was worth more than…
DJ Baby Anne and Jen Lasher
Orlando’s DJ Baby Anne delivers the breaks end of Assault & Battery, and her fixation on deep, winding Miami bass results in a slightly harder product than Jen Lasher’s electro half. The squealing laser-tag bursts of Product 01’s “I Like It Now” are sandwiched between Anne’s own “Freaks Groove” and “She’s the Devil,” and the…
Here are the week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe:
DVD — Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: Bueller . . . Bueller . . . Edition: Ferris is the granddaddy of teen-slacker movies. Set during one spring day, when smartass Matthew Broderick and two friends skip school, the 1986 hit is really just an excuse to verbally and physically abuse everyone over the age of 25…
Toon Up
Verb Ballets’ first appearance at the Beck Center this weekend also marks the debut of the troupe’s Pops Program, a playful dance series aimed at novices and veterans alike. “We’re always looking for ways to generate more audience members,” says artistic director Hernando Cortez. The program includes a pair of reprises: “Moon Dogg,” an oldies-themed…
Critical Fatwa
The novelty song, be it “Monster Mash,” “Fish Heads,” or “Eat It,” has always been a staple of the adolescent male. But sometimes the funniest songs are made by stone-faced men — and these men should not be congratulated. When Disco D (working with a collaborator we shall call “Mr. Britney Spears”) released the song…
Judy Henske & Jerry Yester
In the late ’60s, Warner Bros. formed the Straight Records subsidiary in order to release albums by that maestro of scatological art rock, Frank Zappa, as well as an assortment of visionaries and eccentrics Zappa was then digging: Tim Buckley, Captain Beefheart, Alice Cooper, and this duo of Judy Henske & Jerry Yester, whose sole…
Black and Blue
Prepare for Black History Month by taking a look at the Allen Memorial Art Museum’s Portraits of Black Experience, which features 20 pieces by African American painters. Artists like Richmond Barthé, Horace Pippin, and Kara Walker explore blacks’ journeys in America — from 19th-century plantations to contemporary civil rights victories — through works that manage…
Pop Goes the Easel
Approximately 20 artists contribute to the Pop Shop Gallery and Studio’s Free4All exhibit, opening tonight. There’s no real theme here. As the title implies, it’s pretty much an outlet for artists to display up to 10 new works each. No telling what to expect — except for some mighty fine art. Tonight’s opening reception (starting…
Sound Advice
Founder of metal stronghold Auburn Records and host of WJCU-FM’s Metal on Metal show, Bill Peters is the city’s leading authority on hard-and-heavy sounds. What have you been listening to lately? The new Axehammer Windrider CD, released on the Sentinel Steel label, is excellent, classic ’80s-style metal. And I’ve been playing an Italian band called…
Switched
Ghosts in the Machine documents a hit album that never was. Mainly composed of the demos for Switched’s sophomore LP, which never officially got made, this stellar two-disc set is loaded with rough, early versions of radio-friendly hard-rock songs. These Ghosts would’ve haunted the airwaves for months. But label woes kept Switched from ever properly…
Running Man
Three years ago, Ron McLarty was just another disillusioned writer with 10 unpublished novels gathering dust alongside hundreds of unreleased plays and short stories. Then Stephen King (who obtained an audiobook written and read by McLarty, who reads them for a living) raved about one of those books in Entertainment Weekly. The horrormeister called The…
OK Computer
In a million-plus years, art has evolved from drawings scratched on walls to pixels painted in cyberspace. And no one is more geeked about it than Margo Crutchfield, senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, who helped spearhead the All Digital exhibit opening today. “Nothing like this has been done in the United…
Money Where Your Mouth Is
Band: Beaten Awake (www.myspace.com/beatenawake) Hometown: Kent Sounds like: “A mix of pop sensibility and early rock-and-roll melody, fused at times with an etherealism fringing on ambient.” Fun fact: “Features members of Harriet the Spy, the Party of Helicopters, Man I Fell in Love With, and the Six Parts Seven.” Playing: Friday, Jan 20, at the…
Emmet
Emmet labels its ethereal music as “FARP” — folk-alternative-rock-pop. Symbolically balancing electric and unplugged instrumentation, the Cleveland-Akron quartet’s self-titled full-length debut makes much of the disconnect between day jobs, night life, and the unsettling dreams that buffer the two. A former solo artist, frontman James Pequignot sings, plays guitar, and writes lyrics about floating through…
It’s Official: We Like Booze
Jackie Riley and Kristy Sabo can share plenty of war stories as bartenders at O’Donnell’s weekly $2 Tuesdays. As a late-night server, Riley (pictured right) rarely gets to see family and friends; working the happy-hour shift, Sabo (left) contends with patrons who may have ogled her naked body in a low-rent horror flick she made…
Bar Exams
They may not have been the most athletic in school, but the BarJocks have been flexing pub-game muscle in beer joints around town since 2003. Eight teams of four players compete in a dozen contests — including darts, foosball, and the aim-and-shoot Buck Hunter videogame. At the end of a 12-week season, the team with…
Last Word
“The Lime Spider and the Beachland Tavern (where else can you stand behind the band?).” — Phillie N., Granger “I really like Peabody’s. The size is large enough to really meet people you know. Also, it has the Rockstar and Pirate’s Cove, which at times also has bands playing. So what else can you ask…
Belly Up
Seems like you can’t swing an Aunt Jemima bottle these days without smacking up against a name-brand pancake house, but there are certain distinguishing characteristics. For instance, the Oregon-based Original Pancake House in Woodmere is famous for its puffy apple pancakes, and the area’s numerous IHOPs (California) for their 24/7 schedule. But Le Peep, part…
Oil’s Well
We can’t think of a more cumbersome subject for an art installation than crude oil. But local sculptor and performance artist Kristen Baumliér pulls it off in Oh, Petroleum, now on display at the Sculpture Center, as part of its Windows to Sculpture series. Featuring abstract images, multimedia sounds and videos, and interactive stations, the…
Hop to It
Dick Bruna’s Miffy books are populated by animals that look like they’d pal around with Hello Kitty — but only if they all agreed to spend their summers in Bruna’s native Netherlands. Bunny Miffy is the subject of Miffy at the Library, a free art exhibit that features interactive displays and 20 original prints. Mondays-Saturdays,…
Guilty as Charged
It’s hard to embarrass Soundbites. We’re used to being the butt of jokes — especially our own. Besides, it’s difficult to take yourself too seriously when you’re the Schlitz of music critics. But we have to admit that we’re feeling a little sheepish as we tackle this week’s topic: our favorite guilty pleasures of late.…
Meat of the Matter
Say what you will about the shortcomings of Cleveland’s dining scene: Never in our history has it been easier to score a world-class slab o’ beef. Between the influx of upscale steakhouse chains, including Morton’s, Ruth’s Chris, and Fleming’s, and top-rated local options like Red, XO, Delmonico’s, and Fire (technically not a steakhouse, but just…
Across the Universe
A pair of programs at the natural history museum’s Nathan and Fannye Shafran Planetarium takes advantage of the season’s wide-open skies to reveal glimpses of some things that aren’t so clear during warmer months. Got Milky Way? explores our colossal galaxy, while Are You Sirius? takes a look at one of the brightest stars of…
Straight to Video
The seven artists who contribute to Outside the Box share a single goal: to bridge contemporary art and experimental video. The exhibit, opening today at the Emily Davis Gallery, uses computers and electronics to explore themes such as videogame-hacking, interactive movies, and database-driven films. Several tie-in programs are scheduled over the next few weeks, including…
Detroit Cobras
If Mick Collins and his Dirtbombs infantry led the Detroit garage scene into battle throughout the last decade, the Detroit Cobras were the house band the boys could come home to. Dispensing with any notions of alternative-nation building, the members of the Cobras were content to mine their considerable record collections for ’50s and ’60s…
Origin of Innocence
America — and by extension Hollywood — has an obsession with innocence and the loss thereof. Every generation has that Moment When Everything Changed, from Pearl Harbor to JFK’s assassination to 9-11. The impact takes a while to settle in, then people forget again, and future generations are similarly traumatized. But if you really want…
They Make Us Wanna Shout
Corpus vocalist Dave Sequoia takes offense at anyone who suggests that his singing amounts to little more than shredding his vocal cords at the very highest decibels. His group and four other Ohio punk and hard-rock bands will prove there’s something to be said for all that shredding at tonight’s A Night of Shouting Back…
Remix Over
After a year as a late-night techno-and-java after-hours spot, the Remix Lounge closed last weekend. “It just wasn’t working,” says owner Michelle De Frasia. “It wasn’t making any money. Basically, we’re going turn it into a bar. We’ll probably reopen in February.” Formerly the Symposium, the Lakewood club is the smallest part of the Phantasy…
Who’s Laughing?
Albert Brooks, the once-funny comic-turned-filmmaker, plays a once-funny comic-turned-filmmaker named Albert Brooks in Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, which he also wrote and directed. It’s the second time Brooks has played himself, more or less; the first was in 1979, when he made Real Life, in which he played a filmmaker whose quest…
Play Ball! Or Not
Hundreds of ex-players and fans are expected to attend today’s Sno Ball Softball Tournament’s 25th Anniversary Celebration. And they all have Larry Shaw to thank for the memories. Starting in 1981, Cleveland Heights’ parks & recreation director organized the tourney after a March of Dimes rep suggested it as a fund-raiser for the agency. At…
Black Merda
A little rock-and-roll trivia for you: What band heralds itself as the first ‘black rock band’? If your answer was Living Color, you’re way off and probably need to google the name Black Merda, the essential Detroit psychedelic band to which the designation belongs. Formed in 1969, Merda merged a wah-wah guitar tone with massive…
Double Fault
The critical consensus has Match Point as Woody Allen’s finest film since . . . oh, let’s see . . . Bullets Over Broadway, is it? Or perhaps Deconstructing Harry? Or maybe Sweet and Lowdown? One forgets where the good stuff left off, because there’s been so much bad stuff since. It’s not difficult to…
Cracking Nuts
The secret to the “soul’s code” may be found in an acorn, according to psychologist James Hillman, who’s in town tonight to discuss his theories. The author of The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling believes our lives are determined by an imprinted image of the soul — sorta like a giant oak…
Yellowcard
When Good Charlotte and Green Day experiment with portentous lyrics, they use string sections to reinforce their gravity. Yellowcard employs a violinist full-time, but on its 2003 major-label debut, Ocean Avenue, that didn’t translate into mature statements or musical departures from pop-punk form. Sean Mackin’s string-sawing doesn’t stand out on some of the band’s biggest…
Clone Wars
Rare is the drama that grabs you by the throat at the first word and throws you onto a bullet train of emotional, intellectual, and moral issues that doesn’t let up until the final curtain. If that sounds exhausting, it’s equally exhilarating, and that’s why A Number, now at Dobama Theatre, is a must-see for…
Play Us a Song, Piano Woman
Friday nights when he’s free, Ray Allmond of Cleveland relaxes by driving to Akron for Ingy’s Piano Bar. Tucked in the back of the gay club Adams Street, performer Ingy sidles up to a black baby grand piano and takes requests from the audience. “She comes in with crates and crates of sheet music, and…
Discarded Heroes
Rick Clasen has trouble remembering little things, like names, doctor’s appointments, and where he put his hat. But the 25-year-old Iraq war veteran has no problem with the details of July 27, 2004. He emerged from the underground bunkers at Camp Steel Dragons to a clear Baghdad sky. It was 7 a.m., a comfortable 80…
Chris Duarte
It seems that the typical present-day blues-rock guitarslinger is likely to step out of the confines of the genre now and again. It may be because the blues is currently in another of its periodic “out” phases in terms of popularity, or that current axe-swingers grew up with more than just the blues to cut…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Dark Room — The conventional image we have of playwrights and poets is of lonely souls slaving away in a poorly lit basement. Well, you’ve got the location and the illumination right, but everything else about the Dark Room project is much cheerier. Sponsored by the Cleveland Theater Collective, it’s a once-a-month workshop/cabaret for writers…
Map It Out
Ted Bevelacqua’s pretty proud that he’s never been tagged for a DUI. Then again, he only needs to walk across the street to get home from the daily Map Room Happy Hour. Since mid-September, the bar has catered to the “apartment crowd,” says Bevelacqua, who lives in the Bingham Condominiums on West Ninth Street. The…
Emily’s Law
Emily Lawson’s leg was smashed and mangled. The 16-year-old had been riding in the bed of a friend’s pickup in Defiance when it crashed into a utility pole. The impact catapulted her directly into the truck’s path. It chewed up her leg like hamburger. A surgeon worked through the night to reconstruct the shattered limb.…
Medulablastoma benefit concert for Skyler Kirchner, featuring MG! the Visionary
MG! the Visionary — just “the Visionary” to his friends — has rocked mics worldwide, once as a cornerstone of UpRok Records, the joint hip-hop venture between EMI and Tooth & Nail Records. The positive rhymer is from Seattle, but he’s spent the last year in Cleveland, refining his brand of hip-hop, swirling together old-school…
Go Ahead, Cry
When it comes to love-hate relationships, it’s hard to top the fascination and fear generated by the Ambitious Woman. From Cleopatra and Catherine the Great to Margaret Thatcher and Hillary Rodham Clinton, many powerful women develop a loyal following of people drawn to no-nonsense babes, those who won’t be pushed around and have the eye…
He Has a Dream
To nail his role as Martin Luther King Jr. for Cleveland State University’s annual Martin Luther King Jr./Rosa Parks Celebration, Prester Pickett has plowed through scores of the civil rights leader’s speeches. “So many of his speeches are relevant today, and the serious issues he addressed are still present,” says Pickett, who also heads CSU’s…
Call the Ringmaster
The signs of doom were evident on opening night five years ago, when the American Hockey League arrived at the Gund, bringing some of the world’s best young players to Cleveland. There to witness it was a crowd the size of an eight-year-old’s birthday party — and an ocean of empty blue seats. Still, it…
Lyrical Rhythm
One of the hottest club nights in Cleveland is more like something you’d expect to stumble across in New York City. Lyrical Rhythm began as an open-mic night, and it’s blossomed into something bigger, liver, and louder. Presented by the party pros at Chief Rocka Entertainment, the night is hosted by the Playscape Allstars &…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW Commercial Art — There’s a fairly deep line in the aesthetic sand between design and art for art’s sake. But even as this 1300 exhibit claims to explore that fascinating boundary, it mostly just sticks to one side — it’s heavy on the commercial and frustratingly light on the fine. Organized by the Little…
