Wickliffe’s Basketball Drama: Maybe It Ain’t About Race
The basketball hoops are going back up in Wickliffe’s city parks, ending a two-week coup d’etat by an overly wholesome mob of Little League parents and old people who think swearing is “talking evil.” They came down last month, after more than a hundred angry residents piled into a city council meeting to complain about…
Presidential Aspirants Coming to Cleveland for Festival of Empty Promises
Starting Thursday, a cabal of politicians will descend on downtown Cleveland to discuss earth-shattering news: Apparently, American manufacturing is kaput. Since this comes as a surprise to no one but people who have never held a screwdriver, those are the folks who’ve been invited to speak. The forum, organized by the Steelworkers, will feature such…
Jeff Garcia Jerseys: Get ’em before Goodwill Does!
Monday’s SportsCenter features a day in the life of Jeff Garcia, the former quarterback of the 49ers, Browns, Lions, and Eagles, current quarterback of the Buccaneers, and the future back-up quarterback of a co-ed flag team in Gary, Indiana. The piece starts on a golf course with Garcia and his really average-looking wife, Carmella DeCesare.…
An Interview with Alt-Rap Kingpin Buck 65
Check out this week’s Scene for a feature about Sage Francis, who’s sharing a bill with Buck 65 at the Grog Shop (2785 Euclid Hts. Blvd., 216-321-5588) Wednesday, June 11. It’s two of indie-rap’s best writers and rhymers on the same bill. And Buck’s of helluva producer too — he made the beat in Sage’s…
This Just In: Concert Announcements
For your holiday pleasure, 22 new shows. Blazin’ hip-hop from Z-Trip and Gift of Gab. Unplugged grunge lives on as Days of the New Returns. Trouser-dropping Jesus Lizard frontman David Yow returns in Qui. And crazy-ass metal from Raven (above) and Piledriver. Bang thy head. THIS WEEK: THURSDAY, JULY 5 The Element: 8 p.m., $10.…
John Mayer: As He Proved at Blossom, He’s No Comic
John Mayer’s concert at Blossom last night was so hot you almost forgot it was, oh, 45 degrees or so on the lawn. His sound was polished, he played a nice mix of old and new (“Belief,” “Why Georgia,” “Gravity,” “Covered in Rain,” “Waiting on the World to Change”), and he even managed to abstain…
Money Where Your Mouth Is: Beatallica
The Scene Music Department could tell you why you need to see Beatallica — the world’s best simultaneous tribute to Metallica and the Beatles — live, but ut why take our word for it when the band’s available? Band: Beatallica Hometown: Milwaukee, WI Sounds like: “Beatles and Metallica, rammed together at high speed!” Fun fact:…
Mikey G’s Entertainment Picks of the Week
This week’s top arts and entertainment picks around town, from the guy who’s paid to pick them: Monday: Idaho’s Built to Spill have become increasingly noodly over the past decade. Twenty-five-minute solos, Neil Young covers, and all-star jam sessions (which occasionally include members of the road crew and opening bands) happen frequently onstage. But they’re…
Connie Schultz Gets Some (Polite) Payback
What’s it like to have a Pulitzer winner swing her prize at you in print? Some folks at The Plain Dealer just found out. PD columnist Connie Schultz’s new memoir hit bookstores last week. And His Lovely Wife chronicles the 2006 campaign of her husband, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown. But Schultz also ruminates on her…
It’s Easy to be Zen when you Drive a Beemer
Last week, 100 yoga practitioners descended on Edgewater Park with their rolled up mats, designer shades, and bottles of Evian. The day marked the beginning of the Summer Solstice. By Hindu tradition, the yogis were there to perform 108 salutations to the sun. But most weren’t exactly sure of the day’s meaning, preferring to concentrate…
Respect for the Dead: It’s Illegal in Cleveland
When we last checked in with Cleveland Memorial Gardens, the city cemetery resembled more muddy marsh than tranquil home for eternity [“Burial At Sea,” November 8, 2006]. Tombstones were completely submerged in water. The grass was unwilling to grow. At the time, Maureen Harper, spokeswoman for Mayor Frank Jackson, said the city hoped to fix…
Ken Lapine takes the Lazy Lawyer Defense to New Heights
It’s odd that Joanne Schneider is credited with creating Ohio’s largest Ponzi scheme [“The $60 Million Pyramid,” April 19, 2006]. After all, she hired attorney Ken Lapine of Roetzel & Andress, one of the state’s most prominent law firms, to advise her on the legality of her rather innovative methods of fundraising. Even after the…
Coming to a Wallet Near You: Another Taxpayer Fleece
Commissioners Hagan and Dimora know the words and The Plain Dealer is providing the music to the latest “fleece the taxpayers for their own good” notion. The spinmeisters have started the push to get an increase in sales tax to finance a medical mart, something that private interests could afford to build themselves. If the…
Mikey G’s Weekend Entertainment Picks
This weekend’s top arts and entertainment picks around town, from the guy who’s paid to pick them: Friday: More than 200 varieties of vino from across the globe will be poured at this weekend’s Cleveland Wine Festival at Voinovich Park. Reds, whites, and zinfandels from Australia, France, and Italy are on tap at the second-annual…
Bobby Cutts, Racially Persecuted? Naah.
Bobby Cutts Jr. is an asshole. That’s something we can all agree on. For those of you who don’t watch local news or the 24-hour cable channels dedicated to missing white women, Cutts is the Canton cop charged with murdering his girlfriend and unborn child. But here’s something else Cutts can be labeled: Newspaper war…
Slideshow: Wynton Marsalis at the Allen Theatre
On June 18, Wynton Marsalis and Ghana musician Yacub Addy performed at the Allen Theatre, where they revived New Orleans’ Congo Square, a legendary place that served as a breeding ground for jazz and most other African-American music forms in the 18th and 19th centuries. Aiding Marsalis and Addy were the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra…
Happy Hour in Hudson
It may have started at the corner bar, but the trend toward value-laden happy hours has arrived at even the high-end restaurants. The latest hotspot to hop onboard: Downtown 140, Shawn and Tiffany Monday’s much honored restaurant and wine bar in Hudson. From 5 to 7 p.m. each Monday through Thursday, a mere $7 is…
Celebrity Spotting: Carl Monday Hits the Weights
Either someone was jackin’ it at the Fitworks gym downtown, or “C.M.” – the artist formerly known as Carl Monday, before he left WKYC for 19 Action News and had to figure out a sneaky way to get around his non-compete clause – is working on his pipes. Monday, who gained infamy and became a…
Mr. Posh Spice Won’t be Coming to Cleveland After All
A showdown between the Cleveland City Stars and British soccer stud David Beckham apparently wasn’t meant to be. On a humid Tuesday night, the Richmond Kickers capitalized on their hometown advantage to edge the Stars 2-1 in the second round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. The victory sets up a third-round match between…
We Thought You Shaker Guys Were Supposed to be Smart
Shaker Heights has been long been lauded for the academic achievements of its public schools. So perhaps city planners should think of consulting high school kids the next time they put up signs on Shaker Square. Exhibit A: A new sign erected near Michael’s diner says “Do Not Cross Tracks.” Ironic, since the sign is…
Pink Power Weekend in Northeast Ohio
This weekend, Northeast Ohio will wrap up its two-week festival aimed at raising awareness about violence against women. Known as V-Day: Until the Violence Stops, the event is part of a global movement launched by Eve Ensler, creator of The Vagina Monologues. Through plays, spoken-word performances and community events, the festival tries to educate people…
The Real Truth Behind Jerry Falwell’s Death
In response to the question posed in my June 6 letter as to the real cause of Rev. Jerry Falwell’s death: I have since discovered the answer, thanks to information leaked to me by insiders at Falwell’s Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. Falwell died of severe constipation, caused by an extremely tight ass.…
A word on steroids from Brady Quinn
Thank God at least one other local sports hero is taking a stand on the important issues of our time. (Assuming, of course, that Ira Newble doesn’t count.) Yesterday Browns quarterback Brady Quinn told the Palm Beach Post he supports a new Florida law requiring high-school athletes to be tested for steroids. After all, he…
Cleveland filmmaker goes pro
One of our favorite movies from this year’s Cleveland International Film Festival, Hero Tomorrow, makes its international premiere next month at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival. The flick – a comic-book spoof helmed by local filmmaker Ted Sikora – has popped up at a few comic conventions over the past year, but the July 15 screening…
The Crapola Rag
Did somebody sleep through Journalism 101? Since I know the parties involved, I decided to read your little rag, only to find what I suspected — that it’s full of crap. Not only is the article [“Smooth Criminal,” May 30] poorly written, it is full of factual errors (at my last count it was up…
DJ Mayonnaise
DJ Mayonnaise is the Axl Rose of the Anticon collective. The dude spent eight years producing Still Alive, his sophomore record. The title addresses the delay, but also describes his label. Once an indie hot spot, thanks to Sage Francis’ Personal Journals, the hip-hop imprint made a respectable but not popular decision to explore the…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
New Storage Space — Memory is a well-scoured subject, the inspiration for countless books, films, and musical compositions. But never has it been examined from so many angles simultaneously. The eight artists in this thoughtful group exhibition address the way we create, frame, alter, repress, and recall memories — and practically every viewpoint manages to…
Last Laugh
Stand-up comedian Troy Davis is actually a pretty funny guy — no matter what Last Comic Standing says. Davis auditioned for the second season of the reality show, but he didn’t even get a whole joke out before the judges showed him the door. “I’m like, Wait a minute — I’m funny,” he says. These…
The Human Grenade
They describe him with words that a young, violent man might secretly appreciate: He’s an assassin, a grenade, they say. A reckless kamikaze. But Jason Short makes his living playing football, a game of plotted precision, where even improvisation is diagrammed. Recklessness may be its ultimate sin. So with training camp a month away, Browns…
White Stripes
On Icky Thump, the stripped-down garage blues that made the White Stripes the most imaginative revivalists of their generation has been replaced by half-assed, half-hearted prog. Thump’s two blues tunes, “300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues” and “Catch Hell Blues,” have such an awkward gait, they actually feel like they’re played by obligated divorcées. It sounds…
Crackers & Cheese
Black Snake Moan (Paramount) The best place to see Craig Brewer’s mash-up of blood-boiling exploitation elements would be a Mississippi drive-in circa 1972. His tale of a black bluesman (Samuel L. Jackson) who chains up a seething, scantily clad cracker nympho (Christina Ricci) would’ve had the lot under martial law by reel three. Since Americans…
Artsy Bazaar
At today’s first-ever Larchmere Flea Market and Festival, the highfalutin art area’s shops and restaurants peddle their goods, while the locals set up tables full of their own merchandise. Everything from specialty yarn (at Fine Points), vegetarian eats (at Café Limbo), and indie reads (at Loganberry Books) will be available from vendors. Most of the…
I Want My MP3
All hell is breaking loose with online digital music sales. Last month, Amazon announced that it will enter the fray, challenging iTunes’ hegemony. Two weeks ago, Apple debuted iTunes Plus, a service that sells high-resolution, restriction-free downloads. The launch is in collaboration with EMI, the first major to offer files without Digital Rights Management (DRM).…
James Blood Ulmer
“There’s power in the blues!” shouts James Blood Ulmer near the end of his new disc. All you can do is agree after the free-jazz guitarist and blues banshee doses you with hit after hit of uncut emotion –potent proof that the blues can speak to this century as much as it did to the…
Bored Games
Everyone’s got a different sense of what makes a killer party. For kids, maybe it’s whacking a piñata and overdosing on cake. For adults, it could be sticking a beer bong down your gullet and declaring yourself Mayor of Schlitz City. But since 1999, the Mario Party series has served up its own version of…
Sleeplessin Canton
The William McKinley Presidential Library and Museum celebrates its centennial by staying open for the 100 Hours Celebration! The bash started yesterday and runs through Sunday afternoon. “We’re each taking shifts,” says Christopher Kenney, the venue’s director of education. “But I think we’re going to be up longer than we think. There’s something [happening] every…
Mr. and Mrs. Perfect
Singing couples are a country-and-western tradition. From Johnny and June to George and Tammy, they are more than just stars; they are family. Fans speak of their trials and tribulations as if they are aunts and uncles living a block over. Country’s reigning husband and wife are Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, who are currently…
Nick Drake
Like Janis Joplin and Hank Williams, Nick Drake has sold more discs after death. Although Drake released only three albums before dying in 1974, his well is not dry. Family Tree is a collection of home recordings (as well as “contributions” from family members), revealing a different side to the singer-songwriter. Drake’s original releases consist…
Here are the week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe:
DVD — Dragon Dynasty series: Four films by kung-fu kings the Shaw Brothers make their disc debut: The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, King Boxer, My Young Auntie, and One-Armed Swordsman. Everybody from the Wu-Tang Clan to Quentin Tarantino was influenced by these violent ’70s pics. RZA and the Pulp Fiction director even provide commentary on…
In With a Bang
Just in time for the Fourth of July, the Pop Shop’s Bottle Rocket Show features more than a dozen local artists. The exhibit, which opens tonight, includes paintings by Dana Depew, Chris Zahner, and Dave Savage. It all revolves around young artists. Owner Rich Cihlar compares them to firecrackers: “If you’re close enough, you can…
BMX Kids
Like Robert Mitchum in Night of the Hunter, Lucero guitarist Brian Venable has four-letter words tattooed across the knuckles of both hands. Not Mitchum’s love and hate, but hero and fool. Raised on punk rock, the tats reflect the idealism that drove him to form a band in the late ’90s, just a month after…
Dublin Death Patrol
Metal’s purest genre isn’t an instrumental style, but a lyrical school: bloody tales of far-fetched, worst-case-scenario death. Its pinnacle was 1985’s “Pirahna,” a true ripper about deadly fish by thrash legends Exodus. Nearly 25 years later, the seeds of the genre are finally unearthed in “Unnatural Causes.” The proto-thrash tale of fires and firing squads…
Our top DVD picks for the week of June 26:
The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3: The Complete Series (Shout!) Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (Anchor Bay) Dead Silence (Universal) Echo & the Bunnymen: Dancing Horses (MVD) Film School (Docurama) Frankenstein Conquers the World (Tokyo Shock) Going Under: Unrated Version (Blue Underground) High School Musical: The Concert — Extreme Access Pass…
Carmen Electric
U-Carmen brings Georges Bizet’s classic opera to a South African shantytown, where poverty and exoticism serve as backdrop to the tragic tale. The film follows Bizet’s original narrative: Boy falls in love with a loose girl. Boy loses his job and pride to be with girl. Boy ends up killing girl after she rejects him.…
Ladies Love Are Outlaws.
Ever since Gretchen Wilson’s “Redneck Woman” seized No. 1 in 2004, a new outlaw movement has threatened to ransack Nashville: the badass country mama. We’re talking about a gritty babe who takes no shit from men, who’s honed her barstool feminism in roadhouses, who knows “all the words to every Charlie Daniels song.” To date,…
Mick Boogie Presents Al Fatz
Al Fatz is the latest Cleveland rapper to ink a major label deal. This Mick Boogie-assisted mixtape is a teaser for Al’s proper debut for Atlantic and features an MC whose obvious Biggie infatuation is given a new twist: Al breaks into the kind of Midwest swing that Nelly swiped from Bone Thugs. However, parts…
Back in the Fight
It takes Bruce Willis awhile to get warmed up. He’s always just a bit below room temperature — a cool brother, dig, dating back to his Moonlighting days as a private dick belting out “Tighten Up” while going undercover as a man of the cloth in Wayfarer shades. He’s been on the personal appearance tour…
Shoot to Thrill
Pictures tell a thousand history lessons at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Icons of American Photography. The exhibit includes more than 100 black-and-white pics culled from the venue’s extensive contemporary-art collection. They document the United States during the first half of the 20th century. “It is a rich and diverse survey of artistic and technical…
Still Steel
As it approaches a quarter-century of molten heavy metal, Auburn Records is having its busiest year since Metallica had long hair. The label has two new bands on its roster, while its classics will release a series of new albums and reissues in the upcoming months. “The thing I have missed most about doing the…
Iced Earth
Overture of the Wicked will surely ignite heated debate among fans of power-metal legends Iced Earth. This EP consists of a new single, “Ten Thousand Strong,” and a rerecording of “Something Wicked Trilogy,” the closer on Something Wicked This Way Comes, the band’s landmark album from 1998. With vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens stepping in for…
Blowing Up
When Sherry Bradshaw opened the Artseen gallery Memorial Day weekend, she prepared for a shit-storm regarding its first exhibit, Mined Games. To her relief, the Bush supporters never showed up to see the show — an anti-war display that focuses on turmoil in the Middle East. “The community is thrilled to see cutting-edge art,” she…
Starr Time
Stand-up comedian Joe Starr is beginning to feel his age. “Every damned day I’m reminded, as my body falls apart,” laughs the 37-year-old New Yorker. “I have to accept the fact that I’m actually middle-aged. The average life expectancy of males in this country is 74.” Plus, doctor’s visits are getting a little awkward, he…
Minus Story
Minus Story excels at capturing its avant-rock sound in its bedroom studios. Drawing comparisons to the Elephant Six Collective, the Missouri quintet has self-produced four albums of dense noise-pop full of unique instrumentation and lo-fi studio tricks. Unfortunately, the group’s live sets don’t live up to its recorded output. “They would always turn into these…
Beer, Here!
Garin Wright wasn’t looking to open a restaurant. The brewmaster mostly just wanted an outlet for his beers: award winners like Sasquatch Pale Ale and Mammoth Stout, and crowd-pleasers like Hippie IPA, Beatnik Brown, and Vanilla Bean Porter, all handcrafted by the Buckeye Brewing Company, his 10-year-old labor of love. He hoped for nothing more…
Bawdy Bard
Texan drawls replace Elizabethan accents at the Ohio Shakespeare Festival’s season opener, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, now playing at Stan Hywet. Artistic director Terry Burgler insists that Larry L. King’s ribald musical isn’t that far removed from the Bard’s work. “The title is eye-catching, a little bit naughty, and the play itself is…
White Mice
Providence, Rhode Island’s White Mice keep the city’s chaotic artcore tradition alive by performing in costume, injecting its music with smartass attitude, and flirting with classic rock accessibility. Jokes abound (a holiday album titled Do They Know It’s Christmice?), but the music is more than just artsy shenanigans. White Mice takes its heavy jams seriously,…
The Next Big Thing
We don’t mean to wish away summer, but we can hardly wait for Labor Day. That’s when sizzling young chef Dante Boccuzzi’s name will go up on the soon-to-be-former Lockkeepers (8001 Rockside Road in Valley View, 216-524-9404), and Clevelanders finally can taste his modern American cuisine. Dante, the 35-year-old Boccuzzi’s new restaurant, is scheduled to…
Dog Day Afternoon
The country’s top canine jumpers try to break two world records at this weekend’s Buckeye DockDogs competition. The contest is divided into two categories: Big Air — in which dogs leap off a 40-foot scaffold into a 27,000-gallon pool — and Extreme Vertical, where they snatch a disc from the top of an 8-foot pole…
Ana Popovic
A great performer, Ana Popovic is arguably the most exciting female guitarist on the blues circuit today. She began playing in her teens but progressed quickly, showing great natural talent. In her early 20s, Popovic attended a music conservatory in the Netherlands. There, she started a blues band to help pay tuition. But the band…
Dr. Feelgood
“We’re Americans. We go into other countries when we need to. It’s tricky, but it works.” So declares Michael Moore in the midst of his new documentary, Sicko. You might think Moore is riffing on the war in Iraq, to name only our most recent intervention, but he’s actually referring to Americans crossing the Canadian…
California Split
At the top of the decade, indie-rockers Ozma were hailed as the next Weezer. Even Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo chimed in with his support. Then the band broke up. “We were drained,” says singer and bassist Daniel Brummel. “We all tried doing different things and played with different bands. But we looked at how much…
Parts & Labor
Three noisemakers from Brooklyn have been busy breeding melodies and mayhem. They call themselves Parts & Labor, and their beastly offspring, sporting names like “Fractured Skies” and “Unexplosions,” are best described as racket jazz, noise pop, and avant-rock. Walk into the band’s latest zoo, 2007’s Mapmaker, and watch these creatures molest indie pioneers Sonic Youth,…
Yippee-ki-noooo!
Bruce Willis’ Det. John McClane begins Live Free or Die Hard by busting a frat boy who’s been trying to cop a feel off his daughter Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Oh, Dad! Since much of the ol’ action hero’s aging core audience has presumably moved on since McClane’s last adventure, the main duty this time…
Full Screams Ahead
All was going well for Chicago’s Redwalls a couple years ago. The alt-rockers, just out of their teens, released their major-label debut, De Nova, and toured with Keane, the Dresden Dolls, and Oasis. Then they hit a bump. “Our record label collapsed,” says guitarist Andrew Langer. “One second, everything was good. Then the next second,…
Guitar Shorty
Some of Guitar Shorty’s licks will sound awfully familiar. The axeman, blues-shouter, and stage-performer supreme exerted a heavy influence on his young, impressionable brother-in-law: some kid named Hendrix. Young Jimi even claimed he added guitar pyrotechnics to his act because he couldn’t match Shorty’s onstage backflips and somersaults. Born David Kearney, Shorty kicked it with…
Incredible, Edible
“Anyone can cook, but only the fearless can be great.” So goes the personal mantra of the late celebrity chef Auguste Gusteau, whose spirit guides the rodent hero of Ratatouille toward his goal of culinary excellence. Gusteau also seems to be guiding writer/director Brad Bird. Bird might make “cartoons” — a form usually granted the…
The Grape Outdoors
More than 200 varieties of vino from across the globe will be poured at this weekend’s Cleveland Wine Festival at Voinovich Park. Reds, whites, and zinfandels from Australia, France, and Italy are on tap at the second-annual outing. “Our goal is to give people the chance to try different types of wine,” says spokesman Chad…
Ian McLagan & the Bump Band
Keyboardist for the Small Faces and later just the Faces, Ian McLagan is best known, via classic-rock radio, for his cascading Hammond B-3 line on “Stay With Me.” If that’s where your knowledge of the Faces begins and ends, and you think Rod Stewart sings great when he’s sitting on a stool, you need to…
Blah-Blah Sisterhood
Parked uneasily between sensitive indie and studio chick-flick, Lajos Koltai’s Evening makes star-studded hash of Susan Minot’s beautifully written if emotionally constricted novel about a terminally ill woman trying to wrestle meaning out of the shards of her memories. Floating in and out of delirium in her Cambridge, Massachusetts home, Ann Lord — a former…
Lunch Bunch
Watch Lucy get tanked on Vitameatavegamin today, when I Love Lucy beams onto a ginormous video screen outside Playhouse Square. The classic episode is part of the It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere lunchtime series that takes place every weekday this summer. You can gawk at 10-by-12-foot images at the corner of Euclid Avenue and East 14th…
Polluted Utopia
Standing amid the ancient trees and lush green grass in Stan and Hildegard Prislan’s backyard, you imagine you’re in the Black Forest. It’s the little accents that take you there, like the smokehouse and the wooden rocking horse Stan built for the grandkids. That’s why the couple moved to Timberlake Village, a tiny burgh of…
Built to Spill
A lot of my friends think Keep It Like a Secret is Built to Spill’s best record. I happen to think it’s Perfect From Now On, but we’re sort of splitting hairs. The band had a great run in the ’90s, releasing a trio of fantastic records that casts a long shadow and still towers…
Kid Power
If you think there was a lot of pent-up anticipation for the last episodes of the Sopranos, you should have been around in the 1800s, when the masses were kept pining for the latest installments of Charles Dickens’ serialized novels. It’s said that in New York City, Dickens groupies actually stood on the pier, waiting…
Welcome to Wonderland
On his third album, Continuum, John Mayer streamlines the sweet talk and laid-back pop of his past records and slips a new dynamic into the mix: solid songwriting and general amiability. Working with drummer Steve Jordan and bassist Pino Palladino — who both helped shape 2005’s left-field live blues outing Try! — Mayer effortlessly weaves…
A Hero’s Welcome
José Rivera could have escaped this war. His four years with the Marines ended in 2001, well before Baghdad’s marketplace bombs became staples on the nightly news. But back home in Cleveland, he struggled to switch from mortar fire to civilian life. He missed the band of brothers he found in the service — the…
Fourth of July Week.
It’s the Fourth of July times four: The Interbelt’s red, white, and blue blowout kicks off Wednesday the fourth, with music by DJ Skotty K, a patio fireworks show, and an indoor ladies’-night show from Samantha Styles and Her Kings. Thursday is a special fund-raiser event to send Brionna Brooks to the Miss National Entertainer…
Butt Boys
As long as the idea of seeing male genitalia makes people go weak in the knees, there probably will be a place for The Full Monty. Because, unlike many shows in the last couple of decades that actually disrobed performers, this coy show teases, but never delivers. That’s probably a good thing, given the lumpy…
Bruise Crews
The Burning River Roller Girls slam into North Olmsted’s Soccer Sportsplex for tonight’s Rock ’n’ Roller Brawl of Dames doubleheader. More than 60 local gals make up the four-team roller-derby league — which began its monthly contests back in April, after more than a year of intense practice sessions. The squads — the Cleveland Steamers,…
Deception HQ
Most large law firms proudly announce the locales of their corporate headquarters. Skadden Arps, America’s third-largest firm, boasts of headquarters in New York. Baker & McKenzie (no. 1) regularly notes its central Chicago location, while Latham & Watkins (no. 4) never denies it’s based in L.A. But while no. 2, Jones Day, may be one…
Charles Feelgood
After laying the foundation for the Baltimore house scene, DJ Charles Feelgood is upheaving his ongoing party, heading from Maryland to California. Along the way, he’s stopping in Cleveland for a shot of grit to help him adjust to all that sunshine. The Feelgood music is funky techno and hard house that’s also moving west…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels — Set on the French Riviera and based on the 1988 movie starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin, Scoundrels follows continental conman Lawrence and American grifter Freddy, who meet on a train and sense a common bond: the love of cadging money out of rich women. They challenge each other to a…
Heritage Daze
This weekend’s staging of the dance piece Ancestral Voices looks a lot different than it did seven years ago, when it premiered. The production — which is based on Ukrainian folklore and combines modern dance, theater, and puppetry — stems from director Nadia Tarnawsky’s heritage. “There’s an old song about two sisters — one who’s…
