The Quality of Cleveland Life Report
Your guide to living in fabulous Cleveland. Clear the Air: Environmentalists hail FirstEnergy’s plans to shutter four coal-burning plants in Ohio; enthusiasm later tempered by company’s newly announced initiative to invest in tire-burning plants. Lace Up With MGK: Rapper Machine Gun Kelly popped for disorderly conduct in Florida, promises fans via Twitter that there will…
Cuyahoga GOP on board with “Joe the Plumber”
You didn’t buy his book, so now he’s forced to run for Congress This probably won’t do much to improve his chances in a congressional district drawn to pack in as many Democrats as possible. But the Cuyahoga County Republican Party has endorsed Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher of the Toledo area over opponent Steven…
Why Wait Until Sunday to Watch Cleveland’s Close-Up?
You don’t have to wait until Sunday to see the new teaser commercial for The Avengers that will air during the Super Bowl. You can just click the play button on the above video for 15 seconds of intense action and shit blowing through the streets of Cleveland. Almost everyone makes an appearance. There’s Thor.…
It’s Curtain Time for Cowell & Hubbard, Bruell’s Fifth CLE Eatery
Well, it’s finally curtain time for Cowell & Hubbard, Zack Bruell’s modern French bistro in PlayhouseSquare. Slated to open this Friday, February 3, the restaurant will be the chef and restaurateur’s fifth within Cleveland’s borders. Named after Cleveland’s famed jewelry store, which occupied the space from 1920 to 1981, the historic space features 18-foot ceilings,…
Cleveland Still Making Stuff, Says Manufacturers’ News
Possibly still some manufacturing going on Manufacturers’ News, Inc., which publishes industrial directories, has some mixed news about Cleveland. On its just-released its annual list of the 50 U.S. cities with the most industrial jobs, the city of Cleveland, the country’s 45th largest city, has the 12th greatest number of such jobs. Currently, that’s 61,068,…
Say Yes to Childress, Browns Fans
“Which way is Cleveland? That way?” [Ed. Note: Welcome back Peter Rogie, sometime Scene contributor and Cleveland sports fan, who has some thoughts about Brad Childress.] January usually brings colder temperatures to Cleveland, but it’s really going to get “Chilly” in Berea now that the former Vikings’ Head Coach is on board. (Ba dum tss.)Alright,…
Creep of the Week: Stacy Matthews, Pissed Lady Who Plowed Over Pedestrians in McDonald’s Parking Lot
Rough justice. Her birth certificate — and now her Ohio Corrections paperwork — might say Stacy Matthews, but you probably know the 23-year-old Clevelander as the lead-footed nutjob who plowed over five people in a McDonald’s parking lot during the burger slinger’s much advertised hiring day last April. After trying to plead her case before…
A Reminder to Not Drive Drunk This Weekend
Hey man, did you see that throw by Tom Brady? And, ya know, ever. Super Bowl weekend is upon us, and — cue the the dramatic TV commercial voice — cops are cracking down. Over the limit, under arrest. How snappy. Just a PSA from your friends here at Scene: They’re serious. Brunswick is doing…
Video: Tribute to Randall Park Mall
Why yes, you do need this in your life. A tribute to, as Rustwire calls it, the rise and fall of Randall Park, old video is spliced with current clips of the barren, deserted concrete warzone that rests there now. Oh, and there’s a Rush cover playing over the whole thing. You’re welcome. (Via @nocoastoffense)
Graphic: All of Dan Gilbert’s Businesses
Dan Gilbert, who, along with other investors, is in talks to acquire a casino license in Maryland, has his hands in what feels like 1,763 different delicious business pies. It’s not just an illusion, though it is hard to keep track of everything. Forbes broke it all down in graphical form. As for why there’s…
‘Legend of Zelda’ Ohio Vanity License Plate is Just Awesome
What do you do if you have an Acura Legend and want a vanity license plate in Ohio? You request “OF ZELDA,” of course, because you are an awesome human being. (Via Facebook)
Machine Gun Kelly Arrested in Florida
Trouble magnet (and Cleveland rapper) Machine Gun Kelly was arrested in Florida yesterday for what the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office calls “brawling.” MGK — who was booked under his real name, Richard Baker — was booked at 3 a.m. on Sunday for “disorderly conduct (brawling).” Details are sketchy, but apparently MGK was arrested after performing…
Today in Important Jimmy Dimora Toilet News…
The stop-what-you’re-doing-and-immediately-read updates coming from Jimmy Dimora’s trial in Akron emerge fast and furious each day. There were escorts, cronyism, and more mentioned just this week. And now, we have super important news on what sort of special toilet Jimmy Dimora needed for his backyard playground. Via Cleveland.com: A plumber testified this morning that he…
Video: Bus Crashes Into News Van During News Coverage of Casino Construction Accident in Cincinnati
And that’s just in the first 30 seconds. Stick around to the end when the bus driver gets out and starts yelling at everyone that she “has a job to do.”
Heavy Metal-Inspired Artist Derek Hess to Guest on WJCU-FM Tonight
Celebrated Cleveland-based artist Derek Hess will be a guest tonight at 8:30 on the long-running Metal on Metal radio show on John Carroll University’s WJCU-FM 88.7. Hess’ first burst of fame came in the ’90s when he created powerful flyers and posters for the shows he booked at the Euclid Tavern, bills which often featured…
Video: Cop Forgets to Put Car in Park, Cruiser Crashes Into Two Cars (Updated)
Update: Remember Officer Jody Showalter from Sandusky? Read the section below if you need to brush up on your current events. Showalter, who has been involved in four traffic accidents while on duty, is now being sued by a mother and daughter who say they were injured when Showalter ran a stop sign and hit…
Trash Talk Getting Expensive in Cleveland
While the Ohio EPA is still entertaining your comments on a permit that would allow Cleveland Public Power to build a trash gasification plant at the Ridge Road transfer station, the focus is turning to the city’s rather nonexistent plan to finance the $180 million facility. Thankfully, that hasn’t stopped the city from spending like…
Farming’s Full-Court press
The folks at Food and Water Watch, a nonprofit advocate for safe food and drinking water, have chosen Cleveland as a hub of action for their support of Congress’ upcoming “Fair Farm Bill.” That bill, which comes up for reauthorization this year, deals with setting policy for the agriculture industry. “We’re concerned about mega-farms driving…
OSU Student Paper Stirs Controversy With Anti-Muslim Ad
Ohio State University’s student paper, the Lantern, is taking heavy criticism from both members of the student body and beyond after the publication ran a controversial ad in this Monday’s issue. The angry and insulted say the paper allowed itself to be a sounding board for racist blather; the paper is waving around the First…
Dennis! snags Endorsement of Massachusetts Congressman
Barney Frank As we reported yesterday, his local colleagues aren’t too eager to jump into the fray that pits incumbent Cleveland congressman Dennis! Kucinich against Toledo’s Marcy Kaptur, thanks to diabolical Republican redistricting. But retiring Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank took time out from making wedding plans to endorse his Cleveland colleague. http://kucinich.us/congressman-barney-frank-dennis-kucinich-ohio%E2%80%99s-new-ninth Frank, who is…
Reggae Fest on the Waterfront?
The Midwest Reggae Fest marked its 20th anniversary last August at Nelson Ledges Quarry Park, that bastion of nature and camping and smokable herbal remedies in rural Garrettsville. But it appears the fest’s next 20 years will start with a change of venue. “It was their suggestion that we look around for someplace else,” says…
The Quality of Cleveland Life Report
Your guide to living in fabulous Cleveland. Pour Another Drink: Governor Kasich uses Ohio’s largest growth industry — liquor sales — to prop up its private job-growth division. Newfound synergy expected to yield significant advances in keg-stand and beer-pong sectors. The Allure of … Port Stanley?: Talks resume to develop a tourist-friendly ferry line between…
Angie’s Group to Serve up Big Easy-Style Fare on Larchmere
Menu 6, the Larchmere restaurant opened by Said Ouaddaadaa (Bodega), quietly closed its doors at the end of last year. The restaurant originally opened in March of 2010, with Michael Herschman (now at Lopez) manning the range. The attractive space (12718 Larchmere Blvd.), formerly Boulevard Blue, has not been sitting vacant, however. It was leased…
Kaptur and Kucinich Differ on Fate of Nuclear Power Plant
Davis-Besse: site of a standoff? Congressional redistricting has pitted Marcy Kaptur and Dennis Kucinich head-to-head in what’s likely to be a contentious primary battle for the handsomely remodeled 9th District. Though few issues separate the two longtime Democratic leaders, there is one lingering doozy: the fate of FirstEnergy’s Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Kaptur’s stomping…
Concert Review: Ryan Adams at the Ohio Theatre
“My friend thinks you need to take it up a notch,” yelled a woman to Ryan Adams halfway through his set at Playhouse Square’s Ohio Theatre last night. What followed was a long, hilarious rant by Adams, who pointed out the obvious fact: if you wanted guitar solos, explosions, fancy lighting — or just drums,…
Sources: Tony Grossi Pulled from Browns Beat Over Randy Lerner Tweet (Updated)
Update II: PD Managing Editor Thom Fladung appeared on the Kiley and Booms show on 92.3 The Fan this morning. He commented on the Plain Dealer’s decision to move Tony Grossi off the beat. “He was not disciplined, but he’s not covering the Browns,” Mr. Fladung said. “That tweet, from a Browns beat reporter, we…
Kucinich/Kaptur Colleagues Won’t Take Sides
Sherrod Brown: “Keep me out of this!” The primary result everyone in northeast Ohio will be watching March 6 is the winner of the Democratic congressional race in the new 9th district. That’s the one that pits incumbents Marcy Kaptur and Dennis! Kucinich against each other. On March 7, one of them will be a…
Film Capsules
Haywire There are plenty of dramatically realistic fight scenes in Steven Soderbergh’s new star-packed, globe-crossing action flick. Perhaps best among them is a hand-to-hand bout between an M16 spook and MMA-fighter-turned-actress Gina Carano, who plays Mallory Kane, a stunningly beautiful and skilled operative on a single-woman mission for revenge after her private-security firm double-crosses her.…
Savage Love
Dear Dan: Have boyfriend. Several months. Love sex. First time we sixty-nine, I notice he has a little turtlehead sticking out. You get me? Second time, he has bits of toilet paper stuck in that area. CAN I ADDRESS THIS? And how do I do it without giving him a permanently flaccid penis? I love…
Louder Than a Bomb
Like Peter Parker, Rise Against frontman Tim McIlrath learned a lesson over the course of his band’s 10-year career. “There comes responsibility with this,” he says. Since 2001’s The Unraveling, Rise Against have been one of the most outspoken groups in the new wave of punk. Super-political, supporters of human and animal rights, vegetarians, and…
The O’Riley Factor
Acouple of weeks ago, old-Hollywood actress Kim Novak crawled out from wherever she’s been the past 25 years and back in the news by claiming she was physically assaulted by the award-hogging black-and-white silent movie The Artist. “I want to report a rape,” she wrote in a full-page ad she took out in one of…
On Stage This Week
At Ensemble Theatre: A Song for Coretta Five African American women find laughter and hope while waiting in the rain at Coretta Scott King’s funeral in A Song for Coretta, at Ensemble Theatre through Sunday, January 29. (From left, cast members are Angela Gillespie Winborn, Alecia Henderson, Camille Trammell, Sonia Bishop, and Neda Spears.) Inspired…
Concert Calendar
He’s My Brother She’s My Sister You can’t necessarily teach a drummer to dance, but apparently you can teach a tap dancer to drum. The adorably petite Lauren Brown of He’s My Brother She’s My Sister — and her feet — take center stage in this L.A. group, led by brother and sister Rachel and…
Stay In!
TOP PICK The Silence of Our Friends (First Second) Just in time for Black History Month comes this great graphic novel by Mark Long, Jim Demonakos, and Nate Powell about two civil rights-era families in Texas. Based partly on Long’s childhood, the story revolves around a white family and a black family that fight a…
Get Out!
Thursday | 26 This Sporting Life Bicycle Dreams at Big Dog Think the 60 miles you put on the Schwinn last weekend make you a tough guy? Get a load of some real hardasses — the men and women who ride across the entire friggin’ nation in less time than it takes us to get…
On View This Week
At Tregoning & Company: Lost in Space Two shows confronting the viewer with space itself are now on display at Tregoning & Company on Cleveland’s near West Side. In the first, Raw Materials, photographer Allen Lowry twists architecture by shooting it at angles one would never see in the course of a mundane day; we…
At the Arthouse
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within The sequel to 2007’s hit action thriller is even bigger (it’s Brazil’s highest-grossing film ever) and better (it’s one of the year’s best) than the original. This time, our hero leads a bad-ass team of cops in a prison riot that turns bloody. Soon, the good guys are up against…
We Get Mail
Michael Symon in Diapers It has been an interesting year of food in Cleveland mostly because it has been so misrepresented by Scene and its favored reviewers [“Order Up: 2011 was a fine time to be hungry in Cleveland,” December 28, 2011]. Based on the past year’s food articles by Scene, you’d think that the…
CD Review: Cloud Nothings
It’s never too early for a midlife crisis. Just ask 20-year-old Cloud Nothings frontman Dylan Baldi, whose songs are filled with disaffection and distress. On last year’s self-titled debut, he searched for his musical voice at the very same time he was winding down his teens. He’s not all that much happier on Attack on…
Talking Points
Even in her wild agitation — barely able to force out words, writhing in her seat — Sabina Spielrein’s puzzlement is clear. Her new physician proposes that she sit in a chair and he sit in a chair behind her and they talk about what might be causing such a state. And thus, in a…
Home Movies
Godzilla (Criterion) Giant-monster-caused-by-nuclear-fallout movies begin and end with Godzilla. Originally released in Japan in 1954, it was recut in the U.S. and padded with new scenes starring Raymond Burr a couple of years later. Both versions are on this excellent set, and both are worth watching. But it’s the original Gojira that will stay with…
CD Review: Various Artists
Even before he had a hit, artists were covering Bob Dylan; everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Phoenix have put their own singular spins on his songs. This four-disc set gathers 75 cuts (most of them newly recorded) by artists ranging from Miley Cyrus to Pete Seeger, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the human-rights organization.…
Generation Sell
Stepping into Wlady Daszkiewycz’s Shoe Repair is like hopping into Doc’s silver DeLorean from Back to the Future and traveling to an era when small shops lined the streets of Cleveland. Tidy rows of leather shoes, jackets, and purses, and the pungent smell of leather fill the cozy, wood-paneled shop. Wlady, the 85-year-old proprietor, looks…
CD Review: Craig Finn
The Hold Steady’s driving force has always been frontman Craig Finn and his songs, which are wrought with Catholic guilt and monster hooks. In the first few shuffling bars of “Apollo Bay” — the opening cut on Finn’s debut solo album — dark, minimal guitars chop against his voice as he spins a tale of…
The Incredible Shrinking Chef
On the evening of January 3, 2012, Rocco Whalen marched into his Tremont restaurant Fahrenheit, where he was greeted by a packed house of family, friends, staff, and colleagues. As Food Network film crews taped the proceedings, Whalen stepped onto a floor scale for a final weigh-in. Half a year earlier, the 34-year-old chef weighed…
Local Band in Focus
Meet the Band: Jeff James (vocals, rhythm guitar), David Ber (bass), George Lawicki (drums, percussion), and Robert Szucs (lead guitar). Recipe for Success: As executive chef at Reddstone, Jeff James understands that the best way to please is by creating a dish that appeals on many levels. Same goes here. Exploring the Future: After one…
CD Review: Keyel
(keyelmusic.bandcamp.com) A single line sums up this hip-hop collective’s new album: “Three MCs and a DJ/That raw shit is back again.” Backed by funky, chopped-up samples heavy on piano and strings, and mixed with futuristic synths, the quartet (HOLY, DJ Eso, Twizz, and P3453) recalls an era when rappers sounded like they were actually having…
