Maybe That Wasn’t the Best Time to Taunt Ohio State Fans
Many things can drive a man to violence – things like a cheating spouse, anabolic steroids, or football. So we begin our tale at the BW3 in Streetsboro, where fans poured in to watch last week’s national title game between Ohio State and LSU. Alas, Howard Staton, a 37-year-old Brookpark resident, decided to pop in…
Reader: Why Didn’t Cleveland Sue National City, KeyBank for Predatory Lending?
Plain Dealer reporter Henry Gomez did not reply to the following email, asking him if he asked Mayor Jackson the obvious (but unasked) question: Why didn’t Jackson include any Cleveland banks in his predatory lending lawsuit? So it falls to you to find out and publish the answer. You might as well include the fact…
Frank Jackson’s Suit Against Banks is an Empty Gesture
Last week, everyone cheered as Mayor Frank Jackson announced that the city had filed a lawsuit against 21 banks for predatory lending. Finally, Cleveland was taking to task the thieves who that have turned our city into a ghost town, thanks to destructive subprime mortgages that have forced thousands into foreclosure. The only problem is…
Road Trip! For foodies, Chicago’s Old Town Brasserie is worth the drive
Among NEO diners of a certain age, bemoaning the passing of the French restaurant ranks right up there with polishing the chafing dish as a food-related hobby. But if our recent weekend getaway to the Windy City is any measure, the format may be poised to make a comeback — and in a fashion as…
An Author’s Recollections of a Son In Cleveland
Charles Baxter, author of such acclaimed books as Harmony of the World and Saul and Patsy, calls himself a “midwestern writer in a postmodern age.” Last year, The Minneapolis native’s 2003 novel, Feast of Love, was made into a movie starring Morgan Freeman, Fred Ward, and Greg Kinnear. The New York Times didn’t think much…
Diane Keaton Drops F Bomb on Good Morning America
We’re all for people saying “fuck” on network TV. It’s even better when it comes as Moms are sipping their morning coffee after the house is cleared of spouse and kids. Diane Keaton drops the F-bomb at the 25-second mark in this clip from today’s appearance on Good Morning America. She hasn’t been this cool…
Money Where Your Mouth Is: U2 tribute Vertigo
The Scene Music Department is lost, wandering in a downtown blizzard, and they’re down to their last PBR. So U2 tribute Vertigo USA will do its own talking regarding why you need to see them this weekend. Band: “Vertigo USA — the U2 tribute band.” Web: and www.MySpace.com/VertigoU2tribute Hometown: Chicago Sounds like: “U2.” Recommend for…
When in Cleveland, Disney’s High School Musical Does Yoga
So forget everything you’ve heard about the House of Blue’s swanky Foundation Room as being the only place to meet hot shots in Cleveland. Seems the best celebrity hang-out spot is the downtown Karma Yoga studio. Last week, C-Notes discovered the entire Indians minor league team piling into the studio. Yesterday, many of the girls…
On the Flats’ East Bank, a Vision of a Pop-Up City
Until Scott Wolstein’s bulldozers start swinging this spring, the Flats’ East Bank will be among the most desolate stretches in this, the City of Desolate Stretches. Old River Road, a former epicenter of debauchery, has been on life support for years. Now, save for the Hustler Club, that resilient ode to naked ladies, the plug…
After LeBron James’ Speeding Ticket, Experts Claim He’s Not Immortal
On the front page of today’s Plain Dealer, tucked below a hard-hitting story on network television’s recent reliance on reality programming, was a shocking story about Cavaliers star LeBron James. Contrary to popular belief — not to mention the tat on his back — James, the PD claims, is as susceptible to injury, and even…
Today’s Sign That We’re All F*$@ed: Pfizer releases pill for disease that may not exist
According to the New York Times, the average patient suffering from fibromyalgia is Don Rickles. To all sufferers of the mysterious disease fibromyalgia, we have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that a drug has just been approved for the disease. The bad news: It may not be a disease…
PD’s Readers Out-Feagler Feagler, Debate Sterilization for Black People
Two Sundays ago, The PD’s Dick Feagler wrote a column about the white lawyer who was beat up by a gang of little black kids in Shaker Heights, essentially arguing the inevitability of white flight. Though some found it racist – and just as many agreed – it could likely be chocked up to an…
PD Unleashes Wildebeest On City Hall
According to a Plain Dealer memo, the paper’s new city hall reporter is a whiz at public records but has a tendency to accidentally knock over secretaries. The Plain Dealer is shuffling several of its news reporters this month, unleashing an apparent “wildebeest” on City Hall, moving to the courts beat a reformed “neophyte ……
Tim “Ripper” Owens Speaks Out About Firing
Northeast Ohio’s own Tim “Ripper” Owens gave a long interview to New York city DJ Eddie Trunk, speaking at length about his unceremonious dismissal from power-metal group Iced Earth just before Christmas. Click here for highlights. Bassist Dennis Hayes, also a local guy, was cut loose along with the signer, who apparently really got the…
Cavs Extend Brown. But Why Now?
Mike Brown now has four years to prove himself. Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown received a gracious two-year contract extension today. His previous agreement was set to expire after the 2008-2009 season. Danny Ferry and Dan Gilbert had been discussing a possible extension since last summer, after the Cavs’ startling run to the NBA Finals.…
In Missouri, Hell Freezes Over
Brace yourselves, people, this is an actual new story: The Associated Press reports that city officials in St. Charles, Missouri, are considering banning swearing in bars. Apparently, they think the rule “is needed to keep rowdy crowds under control because the historic downtown area gets a little too lively on some nights.” And it gets…
The Prog? The Pro? Man, Nicknaming This Thing’s Gonna be a Bitch
Oh, Jake, it seems like we hardly knew ya. The Indians announced today that Jacob’s Field is no more. After searching for the right company (read: the guys with the most loot) to buy the naming rights to the home of the Tribe, the Indians have reached an agreement with Mayfield-based Progressive Insurance. Thanks to…
O’Brien Factor: Kevin Explains Away Ken Blackwell’s Whoring
We read Kevin O’Brien so you don’t have to … Column: “We’re all paying and paying for Florida’s 2000 election meltdown” Topic: Voting machines. Kevin’s Sanity Level Today: 77 percent What Your Head Would Feel Like if You Read it Yourself: Not that bad. Think of sharing a cab with Joan Rivers, though you’re periodically…
Feagler, Morris Go Toe-to-Toe Tonight on WVIZ
When readers opened last Sunday’s paper to read Dick Feagler’s column in response to the beating of a white attorney by seven black teens in Shaker Heights, many thought they’d accidentally picked up a copy of The Klansman Gazette. Feagler unapologetically painted the beating as a race issue, blaming the influx of black residents to…
The Shins’ Marty Crandall Proves that Even the Artsy can get in on Domestic Abuse
The Shins’ Marty Crandall with longtime sweetheart and supermodel Elyse Sewell, presumably before their Sacramento arrrest If you thought that domestic violence was a pastime of coked up defense lawyers and drunk bow hunters, think again. Earlier this month, The Shins’ Marty Crandall proved that arty hipsters can get down and dirty with the best…
Admit it: Wouldn’t You Wanna Be Named “The” Dan Miller Experience?
Who hasn’t found their name a bit boring at times? Shout the name “Mike” at a baseball field and watch 30 heads swivel. So Dan Miller — or shall we say the former Dan Miller – decided to do something about it. Last fall, the Akron native began the process of legally changing his name…
Maybe Yoga Can Help the Tribe Beat Boston
As regular noontime students at the downtown Karma Yoga studio stumbled out of class Friday, they encountered something most of them have never before seen in the studio: men. Lots of them. Recounts one witness: “They were amazingly hot.” Curious, they decided to investigate (by which we mean ogle). That’s when they came across a…
Les Claypool Cancelled, Billy Morris to Open for Eddie Money
Former Warrant guitarist Billy Morris and his band, the aptly named Billy Morris Band, will open for Eddie Money. The Les Claypool show just announced for Thursday, February 14 at House of Blues has been cancelled. Primus sucked anyhow; plus the guy hung out with that dude from Phish, who also sucked. You’re better off…
Give Us a Sign, Please
We made a big deal out of the name change forced upon Beachwood’s new Melange in this week’s restaurant review. Long story short, the spot opened as Marmalade, learned that the name was already in use, and then had to come up with a new moniker in short order – with all the attendant confusion,…
McCain: That Feagler is a Man Among Goddamned Fairies
Editor’s note: Dick Feagler is off today. Today’s morsel of nostalgic Wisdom from Dick was written by Republican presidential candidate John McCain, on his new favorite topic: Dick Feagler I was on my campaign bus, and my aides all agree: This Feagler is my kind of Goddamned stand-up throwback son of a bitch. Why, I’m…
C-Notes’ Weekend Picks
Close Encounters screens Sunday at Now That’s Class. Which is a bar. Which means it has beer. See where we’re going with this? A random but reliable sample of the weekend’s entertainment options, cooked up weekly by C-Notes … Friday: Thrash quartet Know Think drops in to the Davenport (6287 Pearl Road, Parma Heights) for…
Dude Weather + Dennis Kucinich = Good Times
A loyal reader sent along the above video, which features a guy named Dutch doing the weather in Minneapolis for a segment he calls “Dude Weather.” In this particular installment, Dutch suggests that it might be a good idea for various presidential candidates to swing by Minneapolis to shovel his drive, because wouldn’t that be…
McCain, Left for Dead by Esquire, Now Way Less Dead
In its December issue, Esquire magazine ran a sprawling feature story on John McCain’s wandering presidential campaign. The message of “One of Us,” writer Chris Jones’ second installment of a series, was pretty clear: McCain’s a great man — he was a POW, he’s gruff and principled, and he lets reporters get some sweet access…
Reader: You Went Soft on Sweeney, Commissioners in Modell Awards
So you mean to say that telling date-rape jokes about Martin Sweeney was being too kind? An anonymous caller, in response to the 2007 Art Modell Awards… I just read your article about those Modell Awards in the Scene magazine. First and foremost, I think you went a little too easy on Martin Sweeney and…
Aragorn Loves Kucinich, and it’s a Two-Way Street
Count Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen among the Hollywood types stumping for West Side Congressman Dennis Kucinich in his courageous bid to stay on the presidential campaign long enough to become a Hilton Honors Gold member. In the above video, filmed hours before the New Hampshire primary, Mortensen gives an impassioned plea for…
Dimora’s Feeble Sense of Democracy, and the Media’s Failure to Expose It
Democratic Party Chairman Jimmy Dimora recently rewarded incumbents for making Cleveland the most prosperous city in America. The party’s endorsement meeting took only 9 seconds, with no debate. After 6 years in the U.S. Army and 2 tours of duty in Iraq, I decided study political science. I wanted to learn how the political process…
Elyria Strip Joint Sues Over New Licensing Law
You never know if this stripper was once convicted of drunk and disorderly, thus putting us all at risk. 2007 was hardly a good year for Ohio’s strippers. They lost their fight with lawmakers to preserve the ancient art of the lap dance. Worse, they’re not supposed to get naked after midnight, just when our…
Jackson Unveils Plan to Get the Guns — and the Gangs
Jackson cautions that his plan could lead to more shootouts and car chases. Somewhere, TV newscasters are rejoicing. The front page of today’s Plain Dealer carries a lengthy story about Mayor Frank Jackson’s new “assault on crime.” Jackson’s basic plan is to have police aggressively target people who are illegally carrying guns. Special teams of…
(Previously) Unpublished Excerpts from the Mitchell Report
According to unpublished excerpts from the Mitchell Report obtained by McSweeney’s, farmer Ray Kinsella and writer Terry Mann used illegal celestial beings to profit off of innocent baseball fans in the late 1980s. While Roger Clemens’ heated denials are making the most headlines regarding Senator George Mitchell’s investigation into the use of banned substances in…
Thoughtful Discourse from Juggalo Nation
ICP, inspiring the use of the word “bitchboy” for years. Scene writer Cole Haddon’s reflection on his brief stint as a fan of Insane Clown Posse has sparked a lively war of words, with juggalos voicing their complaints in lengthy, thought-provoking comments at the end of Cole’s short concert preview, which included this passage: That’s…
London Calling
Culture Clash/A Strummer’s Life? Thanks to vintage BBC radio recordings, the self-anointed “father of punk” in the ’70s narrates his own life story in the Julien Temple-directed Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten. In the two-hour doc, the Clash founder explains that his ultra-political lyrics were a by-product of his upbringing as the son of…
Shelf Life
In his new book, The Greatest Music Never Sold, writer (and Scene contributor) Dan LeRoy tells the stories behind 20 albums recorded by A-list artists like Beastie Boys, David Bowie, and Sheryl Crow. But chances are, you probably never heard them, since they haven’t been released (at least not officially; you can track down bootleg…
Shift Happens
When I was 12, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway totally screwed me over. After visiting the famed Brickyard and eagerly paying 10 bucks to take “a lap around the track,” I was placed in a golf cart that putted around the asphalt at a not-entirely-death-defying 9 mph. This was not the pants-soiling experience I had dreamed…
Expecting Rain
Originally an acoustic duo, these Cleveland folk-rockers have since blossomed into a full band. And then some: Fifteen musicians contribute harp, flute, cello, and other floral instruments to Saint Cecilia. Songs like “Bedroom Piano” and “Randal’s Resume” recall the soft-strummed elegance of Simon & Garfunkel, while the somber “It Ends With an Ellipsis” summons the…
Wherefore Art Thou, Juliette?
Because of a British poet’s coaxing, an African refugee chronicles her family’s murder in tonight’s preview performance of Dobama Theatre’s I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady From Rwanda. The Sonja Linden drama brings together a poet named Simon and a Rwandan ex-pat named Juliette in a London…
Break Out the Haterade
There are a lot of cocky but affable rappers out there for people to cheer on these days. But who needs to go over a list of the most beloved rhymers, when there are so many jackasses worth writing about? With last month’s deluge of A-list rap albums still in our CD players, it’s a…
Our top DVD picks scheduled for release this week:
The All New Super Friends Hour: Season One, Volume One (Turner) American Carny: True Tales From the Circus Sideshow (Koch Vision) Cary Grant: 4-Disc Collector’s Set (Republic) Casablanca (Warner Bros.) Death Sentence (Fox) Eagle vs. Shark (Miramax) Evil Roy Slade (TMG) Golden Door (Miramax) Happy Tree Friends: Complete Season One (BCI/Eclipse) Harvie Krumpet (Medialink) The…
The Library Is on Fire
The title of the Library Is on Fire’s debut album isn’t just a token act of indie-rock nostalgia; it’s part of a high-concept theme that runs from the music to the CD booklet, which includes a lengthy essay (plus endnotes!) that reference Devo and poet Wallace Stevens. Frontman Steve Five believes that all art captures…
The Force Be With You
Twenty-three-year-old businessman Jake Johnson has given himself a yearlong crash course on how to be a rock and roll entrepreneur. And the North Royalton native’s first self-taught lesson has led his fledgling indie-record label to foot the bill for well drinks and draft beer for the prettier half of the clientele at his nightclub’s Full…
‘Bell and a Ball
Subterranean Akron rock-club Annabell’s (784 West Market Street) has new owners, fresh paint, and more music. “We love Annabell’s,” says Suede Brothers frontman Dylan Francis. “The fact that it has no stage is my favorite part of it. You’re right there in the crowd. The all-red lights add to the heat and the intensity of…
New York Dolls
With characters named Lucy the Slut and Mrs. Thistletwat, Avenue Q raises red flags signaling that its Sesame Street facade isn’t tailor-made for preschoolers. But that doesn’t mean their parents won’t double over in laughing fits as its potty-mouthed cast of characters tackles racism, porn, and gay civil unions. Set in the heart of New…
Idol Chatter
Northeast Ohio’s answer to Jordin Sparks and Ruben Studdard has been lurking under the spotlight at Sly Fox Idol ever since the singing competition started in early November. And tonight’s semifinals mark your last chance to get in on the action for next week’s $1,000 grand prize.Hosted by Cruisin’ bluesman Ron Howard, the 10-week contest…
Eddie Money
Way back in 1978, Eddie Money recorded a song called “Can’t Keep a Good Man Down” on his second album, Life for the Taking. It’s pretty much served as the campaign slogan for Money’s hit-packed 30-year career. Local music fans in particular have shown a longstanding loyalty to the former New York City police officer.…
Tanked & Filed
Getting pretty never seemed so attractive than at La Barberia’s weekly Martini & Manicure Nights. While a manicurist sparkles your nails and a masseuse soothes both your hands and ego, you can sip on pumpkin-pie, lemon-cake, and key-lime martinis as if they’re liquid candy. And it’s not just for the gals anymore. “A lot of…
Mirage of Safety
“The Wild, Wild West Bank,” December 12 A grande latte, with a bullet on the side: A few weeks ago I opened Scene and read someone talking about how bad the Mirage and Metropolis are, but mainly noted the comments about the woman who was shot. I, along with my cousin, were there that night,…
Bent Left
The punks of Kansas City’s Bent Left shout out verses, choruses, and bridges in unison — just like their mohawk-sporting influences used to back in the day. As you might have gathered from its moniker, Bent Left swings political. Not that you’d know that by a quick glance at the contents of its new EP,…
Trax to Grind
From the House of Blues and Carnival Cruise Lines to Sammy Hagar’s Cabo Wabo resort in Mexico, Time Trax has piled up an impressive résumé of venues where the Brunswick-based quartet, with its more than 100-song set list, has jammed. With leader Mike Morris on bass, Mandy Bay handles lead vocals across a gamut of…
Screwed by the Bulb
Chuck Masilonis sketches electrical drawings on the back of a notebook with chapped, scarred fingers. He’s trying to explain the inner workings of a light bulb, the various tubes and glass globes he’s dedicated the last 28 years to producing. It’s not easy for an outsider to understand. Masilonis is a small cog in a…
Fred Eaglesmith
How unfair is it that Toby Keith is a superstar, while a true guitar-toting talent like singer-songwriter Fred Eaglesmith remains relatively unknown? At least Keith has good taste: He covered Eaglesmith’s “Thinkin’ ‘Bout You” in his otherwise awful movie Broken Bridges. The upside of Eaglesmith’s not being rich and famous is the intimate settings of…
Bridal Wave
That special day when two people commit to each forever can be a blissful occasion marked with a lavish ceremony, mile-high cake, and bottles of bubbly. Or it can be an expensive nightmare from the bowels of chiffon-covered hell. Fortunately, there’s today’s All the Steps You Need to Walk Down the Aisle Bridal Fair, with…
Smack That!
TOP PICK — Time for Heroes — The Best of the Libertines (Rough Trade) Before he consumed tons of drugs, dated Kate Moss, and gave British newspapers something to write about, Pete Doherty led these tuneful punks on two terrific albums. This 13-song CD gathers a bunch of songs from the Libertines’ 2003 debut, Up…
Big Leg Emma
Americana jam-band Big Leg Emma likes to throw listeners off by tossing fiddles, mandolins, and djembes (it’s a hand drum) into its mix. But the music the sextet makes isn’t nearly as complicated. In fact, it’s a laid-back blend of Appalachian mountain jams, Grateful Dead-like guitar licks, and strumming alt-country twang. On record, this can…
Beyond Her Years
When you’re a 16-year-old girl, you have enough problems without looking like you’re 72. That’s the dilemma facing the main character in Harmony Players’ production of Kimberly Akimbo. David Lindsay-Abaire’s comedy focuses on a teen who has a disease that makes her age at nearly five times the normal rate. Kimberly not only looks older…
Rights Wronged
In the early summer of 1964, less than 7 percent of voting-age blacks in Mississippi were registered to vote. Four decades later, a black man is a front-runner in the race to become president. Some of the credit for that change goes to 1964’s “Freedom Summer” — an effort to register black voters in arguably…
Eric Selner Band
Though 26-year-old Catwalk Blue singer and keyboardist Eric Selner has had a successful career with the local jazz-rock outfit, he says it’s time to give a solo project a shot. But this doesn’t signal the end of Catwalk Blue, which Selner formed with a bunch of high-school buddies five years ago; it’s merely an opportunity…
Graham I Am
Cleveland native Graham Girard has been dealt his fair share of lemons for a 25-year-old songwriter. But like any trooper, he’s turned sour notes into sweet songs. Take his dad’s death while he worked on his untitled album about a breakup with a girlfriend. “My father’s passing kind of changed directions from there,” says Girard.…
Eulogy for Spy Bar
The once-chic Spy Bar is no more. Since opening in ’97, the Warehouse District nightclub established itself as one of Cleveland’s swankiest spots and strongest celebrity magnets. Its VIP room hosted A-listers like Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, Prince, and even that magician who’s married to that hot chick. “David Copperfield was the nicest man,” says…
Suzy Wong & the Honkeys
Albany, New York, is a lot like Cleveland: dilapidated, stained with rust, and covered in snow during the winter. Of course, the little burg hasn’t produced the kind of earthshaking music C-Town has, but over the years it has had its share of underground weirdos. The four punks in Suzy Wong & the Honkeys lurk…
Hold the Jalapeño
Closing Room owner Scott Anderson settles in for his birthday today with a few bowls of his favorite cold-weather comfort food at the watering hole’s sixth annual Chili Cook-Off. And here’s a tip, if you’re going to enter a Crock-Pot of the beefy dish: Lay off the heat. “Make a basic stick-to-your-ribs type of chili…
What’s in a Name?
Along with savvy management, a deft chef, and a boatload of greenbacks, name recognition is a key factor in getting a new restaurant off the ground. So right from the moment of its mid-October opening, this pretty Beachwood dining room had its work cut out for it, stuck as it was between two monikers, Marmalade…
Ten Count Fall
A Grog Shop gig isn’t just another night out for a pop-punk band like Ten Count Fall. Since its crown-snagging performance at Peabody’s Battle of the Bands in 2005, the group has played at places as varied and strange as pottery shops and Chinese restaurants. It’s pretty much anything goes for these four Youngstown natives,…
Get Out the Goat
Since the late ’80s, Patrick Malley hasn’t let a January go by without his Capricorn Party in downtown Cleveland. For him and anyone else born between December 22 and January 19, it’s the one night of the year when the usually hardworking, ambitious, and practical sign of the goat can let loose and party hard…
New Noshing
The waning weeks of 2007 brought a smattering of new restaurant openings. Café Toscano, veteran restaurateur Carl Quagliata’s newest project, opened December 6 in Aurora. While pacing dragged during our mid-December visit, executive chef Gaetano Ricci’s Italian preparations were smartly crafted. That included the well-appointed antipasto platter ($12); the snappy homemade pappardelle with wild-boar Bolognese…
Lords of the Highway
The Lords of the Highway have been ruling Routes 77, 480, and 71 for . . . let’s just say a while now. But the punkabilly cowpokes are sharper — and sleazier — than ever. The band recently survived auditions for Next Great American Band, where it got the boot from Sheila E. and that…
Kate of the Union
Between concerts this month in L.A. and Miami, Bay Village native Kate Voegele squeezes in a benefit show tonight for Bay Skate & Bike Park. The concert also helps the 20-year-old singer peddle her debut CD, Don’t Look Away. The disc is Voegele’s reply to the “timeless” (her quote?) Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and James…
Animal Abuse, Inc.
It was 8:00 p.m. on a breezy spring night last May, and Carol Smith’s family was just finishing dinner. They were still at the kitchen table, lingering over the last crumbs and arguing over dishwashing duties. But the lull of day’s end was interrupted by a sharp knock at the door. It was Patty Brooks.…
Boys Noize
Not content to let the French have all the fun with machines, German DJ Boys Noize (born Alexander Ridha) crams a storm of electronic sounds onto his debut album. He’s an old-school hip-hop fan (one cut is called “Wu-Tang”; another cribs Public Enemy’s “Don’t Believe the Hype” title and spirit). But Ridha is at his…
He’s All Mime
A rainy day in the mid-’60s changed the course of Avner the Eccentric’s life. While studying chemistry and biology at the University of Washington, he ducked into a theater to avoid the deluge. “I got a part in the play,” says Avner, who’s in town tonight to perform his Exceptions to Gravity pantomime show at…
California Burning
There Will Be Blood recounts the tale of a ferociously successful wildcat oil driller named Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), who is introduced as a solitary miner in 1898 and is seen traveling the West with a small boy (Dillon Freasier), whom he introduces as his partner and son. Attempting to convince squabbling landowners to lease…
Robert Cherry
Cleveland rock expatriate Robert Cherry (pictured) returns home, late for the holidays — but he’s a new dad now, and parents are always running late, so you’ve got to bear with him. The singer-songwriter plans to play a set heavy on new material with optimistic working titles, including “Don’t Let Me Mess Up My New…
The Iceman Cometh
Beneath figure skating’s beauty and grace lies the sport’s dark side. Just ask Stephen Smith about its unpredictable demands in Disney’s High School Musical: The Ice Tour, which opens this weekend at the Q. “Someone gets injured; someone gets sick; and blades fall off,” says Smith, who plays jock Chad Danforth in the slippery counterpart…
Rock of Ages
Live Nation’s High School Rock Off, which crowns Northeast Ohio’s wickedest teen band, has come a long way since its 1996 debut as “three chords and a cloud of dust.” In tonight’s first of six semifinal matches, you’ll hear 12 of the 72 groups thrashing for a grand prize of $500 cash, a $1,000 Sam…
Eye of the Beholder
At last year’s Cannes Film Festival, filmmaker Julian Schnabel won the Best Director award for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, his French-language adaptation of the best-selling memoir by the late Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby. Felled by a massive stroke at age 43, Bauby was left fully conscious but completely paralyzed, save for the…
Beanie Sigel
Beanie Sigel’s rough-and-ready new CD stands in direct contrast to his onetime mentor Jay-Z’s latest. While Hov reminisces about his pre-posh days on American Gangster, Sigel is still living them on The Solution. Since his last album (2005’s The B.Coming), Sigel was acquitted of attempted murder and spent some time in prison on a weapons…
Jesse Dayton and Brennen Leigh
Keeping it real is always tricky. People who hate “new country” complain that it’s not “authentic country.” While that may be true, it’s no guarantee that every Gram Parsons-influenced, alt-country shit-kicker will be any more genuine. Jesse Dayton and Brennen Leigh’s Holdin’ Our Own is neither “new country” nor “alt-country”; it’s an unspoken, letter-perfect tribute…
War of the Weird
You’ll get two premieres for the price of one at tonight’s screening of Southland Tales. First, it’s the Cleveland debut of Richard Kelly’s cult fave. And second, it’s the inaugural appearance of American Pie’s Seann William Scott on a Cleveland Cinematheque screen to add a layer of weirdness to a film that’s already bizarre. “There…
Close to Home
The first sound on Baby Dee’s Safe Inside the Day is a spare piano note, struck tentatively and with a ping of sadness. Thirty seconds later, it’s followed by a distant, haunting voice — part operatic flamboyance, part off-key casual — singing, “Songs that go forgotten/Are found, remembered, loved, and sung again.” Penned by the…
Gary Allan
Back in 2004, country singer-songwriter Allan’s wife killed herself. A year later, he released Tough All Over, a painfully brutal record of his coming to terms with her death. Living Hard begins the healing process, but scars remain in songs like “Watching Airplanes,” “We Touched the Sun,” and “Yesterday’s Rain” — all ostensibly about lost…
Marah
Fans will undoubtedly hail Angels of Destruction! as Marah’s best album. It’s certainly the band’s most accessible record. It’s also its most expansive. There’s always been an honest theatricality and a colorful, imaginative flair running through Marah’s musical stories, but they’re taken to another level on Angels of Destruction! The Philadelphia group’s sixth album is…
Murphy’s Law
Comedians usually make the leap from the grit and grime of comedy clubs to the glitz and glamour of movies and TV. Not Charlie Murphy. The film actor and screenwriter readily admits his career has taken a back-assward path, now that he’s fine-tuned his stage show cross-country for five years. “There was a demand for…
Rock Steady
Only Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees has been declared dead as many times as rock and roll. Even as the music industry hits an all-time low, rock remains as solid as, well, a rock. There are several reasons for its most recent comeback. First, some facts: Until Josh Groban suckered tons of old ladies into…
Boy Trouble
Joshua (Fox) George Ratliff’s movie, a sort of satirical take on Rosemary’s Baby, came and went upon its release; seems no one got the joke about how parents (Sam Rockwell and Vera Farmiga, in this case) are scared shitless of their own children — especially the titular Joshua, played by Jacob Kogan like he’s drained…
Styles P
New York rapper Styles P is as well known for his personal drama as he is for his music. He had a couple of hits as a member of the Diddy-guided Lox back in the ’90s. But after the crew left Puff’s Bad Boy label, they demanded (and eventually received) a bigger cut of their…
