The Frown Derby
It must have seemed like a winning concept: a Napa Valley-Asian fusion restaurant in fashionable Tower City, offering trendy California cuisine in a contemporary atmosphere. But after six months of menu tinkering and repositioning, the Hong Kong Jockey Club has yet to leave the starting gate. Instead, the restaurant seems to be trotting off in…
Playback
Cibo Matto Stereotype A (Warner Bros.) When they burst onto the scene in 1996, Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori were written off by some as just another sampling band, too lacking in creativity to write their own hooks. Besides which, they are also women, and the dumb old rock adage is that women can’t operate…
Soundbites
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame CEO Terry Stewart used last week’s summer kickoff event to give an informal state-of-the-hall address. As guests noshed on catered picnic food, Stewart was fairly candid about the Rock Hall’s attendance, financial shape, and future plans. First, the good news. The hall reports taking in as much money as…
For the People, By the People
Ozomatli singer and guitarist Raul Pacheco describes his band’s music like this: “It’s just like driving through the streets of the city with your windows rolled down. One neighborhood has hip-hop playing, and you keep driving and another has cumbias playing. It kind of goes on like that for us.” The twelve tracks on Ozomatli’s…
Strum and Clang
Beth Orton is in no mood to talk. With a U.S. tour only days away, the last thing she wants to do is discuss her latest disc, Central Reservation, or anything else that requires more than a monosyllabic answer. What Orton wants is to get back to her rehearsal space in New York City. Despite…
Spoken For
When you pass a pretty girl, slow down so she can catch the chrome gleam off the spit-shined fenders, the ones you polished in the driveway until your hands were raw. Lean forward a little on the handlebars; it makes your muscles look bigger. Keep your eyes on the road, but steal a parting glance…
Livewire
Hootie & the Blowfish Shawn Mullins Blossom Music Center June 6 The arrival of three Cleveland Indians at Blossom Sunday night epitomized the appeal of Hootie & the Blowfish. The contingent included Omar Vizquel, last seen by me at Metallica last summer; Travis Fryman, as country as country gets; and the Warped Tour-looking Richie Sexson.…
Comeback Kid
Still got that boomerang your dad bought you when you were nine? The one you threw a total of three times on Christmas afternoon? Maybe it’s time to dig it out, let go of the shame, and give it another hurl. But don’t start planning a trip to the outback just yet–a few trips out…
Night & Day
Thursday June 10 Getting a bunch of actors to goof off was the easy part. But changing a car into a spaceship–that was rough, says Sonya Robbins, artistic director of the 21st annual Marilyn Bianchi Kids’ Playwriting Festival. Actually, Robbins hasn’t quite solved the spaceship dilemma yet–check back on opening night. But there’s plenty more…
It’s Awful, Baby, Yeah!
A fine line divides inspired silliness from out-and-out witlessness; it’s a short leap from grin to groan. In 1997’s Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Mike Myers took a thin premise–spoof the ’60s by transplanting a horny Matt Helm-like secret agent into the ’90s–and danced an unsteady watusi along that line. Sure, the original was…
Full Swing
They look like people you know. They are single and married and old and young and professional and blue-collar. They sashay into the spacious ballroom, some hand in hand. They seem like middle-class America on a typical Saturday night in the heartland, headed for something about as titillating as a wedding reception. Then they take…
The Edge
Prez Hopeful Defends Demjanjuk Death-camp guard or not, Seven Hills celebrity John Demjanjuk has an admirer in Pat Buchanan, perennial Presidential candidate and master of the outrageous take. Buttonholed after a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., last week, Buchanan opined, “I think what they’re doing to John Demjanjuk is disgraceful. We…
Legendary Lush
Louis Sockalexis is one of the most famous names in Cleveland baseball history, a legend touted by the Tribe front office as “the original Cleveland Indian” and a standout on the playing field. Veteran Plain Dealer sportswriter Bob Dolgan recently debunked the popular myth that the team was named to honor Sockalexis in a 1915…
Letters
Scene Fails Its Bar Examination Thanks for finding a couple of jerks to whine to us about their jobs as bartenders [“Beer and Loathing,” June 3]. Yes, it is difficult to deal with the public, but millions do it every day and don’t paint themselves as martyrs. One piece [“How to Get a Bartender’s Attention”]…
In Farm’s Way
The current exhibit at GSI Fine Art, a selection of watercolors and oils by Thomas G. McNickle documenting the Amish farmland and surrounding environs of Volant, Pennsylvania, is guaranteed to fade into the woodwork. Though these bales of hay look like the real thing, and the sunrises and sunsets are vivid enough to get your…
The Triumph of Cacophony
Floyd Collins, a musical from 1995, has crash-landed at Beck Center like the Teflon monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. As in the movie, its mission is to lead the way into the new musical millennium. On the planet where the populace still sings twenty-year-old odes to Joseph and Evita, dances A Chorus Line, and…
A Touch of the Poetess
Any high-minded literary type who stumbles into the mysterious Greg Cesear’s production of The Belle of Amherst may have the impression that he has encountered a local branch of Lewis Carroll’s rabbit hole. The entire endeavor glows with a poignant lunacy. First, there is the uncanny Cesear himself. He is the founder of a one-man…
