Akron Man Nailed with Bullet Fired by Overexcited Patriot
Amurrica. Because sometimes, when the fireworks are exploding in the sky, all those pretty colors, and the family is together again, we just don’t have the chance anymore with everyone’s schedule, and your stomach is full with the heady mix of barbecue and Beast, the spirit just takes over, “God Bless America” gently between your…
The Quality of Cleveland Life Report
Your guide to living in fabulous Cleveland. Common Courtesy: ODOT installs signs around town reminding drivers that littered cigarettes can start fires in dry weather. Also asks that if you snort bath salts and get naked on the road, kindly stay on the berm so as to not hinder traffic. What a Difference?: Baldwin Wallace…
Cleveland Earns a Spot on Hottest Cities List
There are worse ways to cool off on a budget. Nobody needs to tell you it’s hot outside. It’s really, really hot, like stick your head in the icebox hot. Like ice cream for breakfast hot. Like the undersides of your legs are burned from the leather upholstery hot. Even with these downpours dumping from…
Concert Review: Death Cab for Cutie at Jacobs Pavilion
Usually, it’s best to start the show with a bang. But Death Cab for Cutie took the opposite approach last night at Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica. The band opened with the subdued song “I Will Follow You into the Dark,” a track that was made even more subdued by the fact that Death Cab singer-guitarist…
Brandon Weeden Wishes You a Happy Fourth of July
A bit of a programming alert: this blog will be silent tomorrow in honor of the holiday. We’ll be trying to keep all fingers and limbs intact, mainly because it’s harder to hold a beer bottle with no thumbs. Also, blood loss tends to put a damper on festivities of any kind. Be safe out…
Meet DJ BeatBoy, the 11-Year-Old Mixmaster Phenom
An artist probably not even old enough to buy a Pitbull CD just confirmed to open his show. Regardless, DJ BeatBoy (known as Alex Gutierrez to his mom, dad, and middle school) will drop some beats at Jacobs Pavilion on July 29. Gutierrez earned the gig after a booking executive heard him perform at the…
Women Brawl in Theater Over Kids in Rated R Movie
We’d never say anything to her face, but she also doesn’t make the kids floss. If your parents were anything like ours, they were pretty anal about R-rated entertainments. Sex, violence, too many eye-abusing frames of Pamela Anderson – these weren’t meant for the young, so turn off the television and go play unsupervised on…
Pic of the Day: Josh Mandel in Drag
HuffPo got its paws on the 1996 Beachwood high school year book, which is notable because those pages contain the picture you see above of Josh Mandel in drag (he’s on the right) spotting another dragged-up dude doing some exercises. Nice form there, Josh. Mandel is laughing it all off. When asked for the context…
Man Tries to Pay Cab Fare in Weed
The initial temptation when this post from Fairlawn-Bath Patch beamed over the internets was to pounce on Jacob Bruckner, the mohawked passenger who could only shimmy $15 out of his pockets in the face of a $24 cab fare and tried to pass off some weed on the driver to make up the difference. But…
Opening Chef at Popular Gastropub Deagan’s is Out
Demetrios Atheneos, the opening chef of the popular Lakewood gastropub Deagan’s Kitchen & Bar (14810 Detroit Ave., 216-767-5775), is no longer an employee of the restaurant, says owner Dan Deagan. The split occurred on Monday, July 2. “We have parted ways,” Deagan says. Until a replacement chef is hired, the solid crew of sous chefs…
L.A. rockers Spineshank return to headlining, play Peabody’s on Thursday
When Spineshake emerged from Southern California some 15 years ago, the metal scene was thriving. Ozzfest had just launched, and the Family Values touring festival would emerge just two years after Ozzfest. Spineshank, a band that played heavy industrial metal, established itself as a major player with the release of its 1998 debut, Strictly Diesel.…
Don’t Set Your Lawn on Fire With Illegal Fireworks This Week
It’s July Fourth week here in Amurica, which means every rightful American has the burning desire to blow something up in the name of patriotism and hot dogs and reality TV. This is problematic in most cases because it’s illegal to set off the ole M80 in your backyard for some DIY firework extravaganzas. Authorities…
Video: Remember When Tower City Center Opened in 1990?
Buildings are heading skyward all over town, the new Inner Belt Bridge and its tentative completion date of 2056 are chugging along, and new projects are being lined up all over downtown. Which brings our minds back to the $400 million Tower City Center and its opening in 1990. WEWS posted archival footage from its…
Melt is Coming to Mentor (Updated)
Update: The specific location of Melt Mentor: “We will be moving into an end storefront in the Points East Plaza at the corner of Route 306 and Mentor Avenue on the western part of Mentor.” Adjust your lactose-based dietary needs accordingly. *** Matt Fish’s emporium of cheese, which is more like a ever-expanding kingdom of…
Craigslist Missed Connections Fawn Over Cain Park Puppeteer
Who would of thunk the puppeteer in charge of Princeton in Cain Park’s run of “Avenue Q” would be such a hot target for the ladies. Not one but two Craigslist Missed Connections showed up fawning over the nameless gentleman. One is more PG than the other. The one that’s not PG is infinitely funnier.…
Concert Review: Neil Diamond at Quicken Loans Arena
Near the end of last night’s two-hour performance at Quicken Loans Arena, singer Neil Diamond reminisced about Hot August Night, his 1972 album that was issued nearly 40 years ago. He fondly recalled the shows and the way in which the album helped to launch his career. That flashback moment seemed to bring the 71-year-old…
Web of Life
Anyone who has seen more than a half-dozen movies in the past 10 years is asking themselves the same question: Isn’t it a little soon to be rebooting Spider-Man? After all, it’s been only a decade since director Sam Raimi and star Tobey Maguire teamed up for one of the best superhero movies ever made,…
Concert Review: Summer Solstice at Cleveland Museum of Art
Bernstein The Cleveland Museum of Art bills its annual Solstice concert as “Cleveland’s signature summer event,” and this year’s gala, which crammed some 5,000 people into the museum’s courtyard where food trucks and satellite bars awaited, certainly lived up to the hype. Last night’s concert featured an eclectic mix of bands that you could loosely…
Scenes From Waterloo
Second-line parade for John Kuegeler A warm, sunny day brought families, music and food lovers, and strollers out to Waterloo Road in North Collinwood for the street’s 10th annual Waterloo Arts Fest. Highlights included a set of roots reggae by Jah Messengers, Wesley Bright & the Hi-Lites playing high-energy classic soul music to a vociferous…
Packed Polka Pandemonium at Beachland Friday
Joey Miskulin, Brave Combo’s Ginny Mac, Eddie Rodick Some danced and some just listened to the lively accordion-driven music at the first annual Steve Popovich Polka Pandemonium at the Beachland Ballroom Friday night. The event, which drew a full house, honored music industry legend Popovich, who had his biggest success — Meat Loaf’s Bat Out…
WRUW’s Studio-A-Rama Looking for Bands
Sue Harshe of Columbus’ Scrawl at 2011 Studio-A-Rama Thirty years ago, Case Western Reserve University’s campus station WRUW 91.1 FM held the first of its free, all-day concerts in the courtyard of the Mather Building where the station is located. Since then, Studio-A-Rama, held in early September, has become a big outdoor party where seven…
50 Years of Gusti
Gusti Now Gusti then The term “folksinger,” applied to a female, especially in the early ’60s, conjures up a vision of a wispy sylph with a pure, sweet soprano and an earnest demeanor. That wasn’t Cleveland’s Gusti 50 years ago and it’s not her today. The one-named folksinger is releasing an 18-song compilation called Then…
Man Chokes Goose, Starts Fight
Want a piece of me, asshole? And this isn’t some trip into masturbation euphemism land. This isn’t wrestling the purple-headed yogurt slinger or choking the chicken. It’s literal: who actually chokes a goose? The Sandusky Register has a strange tale this morning that definitely involves a man fighting one of the long-necked poop machines that…
Video: Cavs’ Draft Pick Dion Waiters Highlights
Welcome. Because, come on, despite all the points you’ve been making on Facebook all morning, you had no idea who Dion Waiters was until last night. Here, scored to some blah Eminem leading into a little Drizzy, are some clips of the newbie Cav on the court.
Here’s the Trailer for That Movie Shot in Cleveland Last Year … No, the Other Movie
Here’s the first trailer for the upcoming movie Alex Cross, which was filmed in Cleveland last summer. You might remember it because one of the stars, Matthew Fox, allegedly slugged a party bus driver in the Flats after a drunken night at a club nobody in Cleveland ever hangs out at. In the movie, Fox…
Bear Necessities
Ted is just one bong hit removed from last year’s Paul, the movie about a foul-mouthed, pot-smoking alien who makes life hell for a pair of hapless fanboys. This time it’s a foul-mouthed, pot-smoking teddy bear who makes life hell for his lifelong pal John (played by Mark Wahlberg, who really isn’t cut out for…
The Full Channing
Director Steven Soderbergh doesn’t make Magic Mike just about painfully sexy men. He also stuffs a plot, along with dollar bills of course, into the cast’s G-strings. Mike (Channing Tatum) and “The Kid” (Alex Pettyfer), all chiseled abs and asses, star in an all-male revue in Tampa. Mike supports his newbie pal from that first…
Brother Undercover
In his directorial debut, Alex Kurtzman (who co-wrote Star Trek and Cowboys & Aliens) dials it down with a fairly conventional dysfunctional-family tale. But People Like Us is shot and edited with such jittery energy that it feels like a court-ordered sci-fi detox. Sam (Chris Pine) is a slick salesman whose buzz gets harshed by…
Once Upon a Time
Fresh out of story ideas for their next issue, a Seattle magazine decides to investigate a mysterious classified ad seeking a partner for time travel in Safety Not Guaranteed. Jumping at the chance to escape the bitch-work of her internship, Darius (Aubrey Plaza) joins her man-child boss and another intern to a beachfront town to…
East Side Sees Another Drive-By Shooting
The situation is still code red over on the east side, where one violent episode only seems to be giving way to the next. After a 48 hour period that saw three separate shootings — leaving 8 people wounded – over the weekend, we’re getting word of another drive-by. Fortunately, as with the gunplay that…
Help Find the Hit-Skip Driver Who Leveled a Man in Public Square
The disturbing video below shows a Ford Crown Victoria or Mercury Marquis hitting a man in Public Square Sunday and driving away. The 27-year-old victim was taken to Metro and later released, which is absolutely shocking considering how violent the impact seems from the clip. Call the Accident Investigation Unit at 216-623-5295 or Crime Stoppers…
Man Claims Bear Rang His Doorbell
Animals: they’re just like people. At least our anthropomorphic assumptions let them be, like this gentleman in Ravenna who claims a bear not only rang his doorbell, but listened to him when he asked the bear to stop eating his flowers. Enjoy the most earnest man you’ll meet today, courtesy of the Record Pub: Dan…
A Look Under the Veterans Memorial Bridge
In the opening scene of Marvel’s summer smash The Avengers, the evil Loki infiltrates a secret military research outpost for a valuable mineral that will help him conquer the world. In the following scene, Loki uses a creepy hideout to hatch his malevolent plans. The location of this creepy hideout? Cleveland’s own Veterans Memorial Bridge,…
Nun Bus Stops in Cleveland
Yesterday around noon, a large, colorful bus was parked on Howard Avenue off West 14th Street in Tremont, alongside the historic red brick building occupied by St. Augustine’s Catholic Church. A group of friendly gray-haired women in conservative skirts and jackets mingled with neighbors and local social justice activists. The Nuns on the Bus tour…
Power Ranking: The Five Most Important People in Town Right Now
A Scene weekly feature ranking local newsmakers. 1. Mark Johnson . . . But the WKYC’s weatherman’s on-air wig-out about the Heat championship pretty much hit the nail on the head. 2. LeBron James Local boy did make good . . . 3. U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur In an election, when your opponent starts megaphoning…
Area Music Scene Loses Two Players
When it rains, it pours. This week Cleveland lost two beloved — and very different — musicians with the deaths of Ed “Brother Ed” Wille and John Kuegeler. Wille played with “Brother Ant” in tongue-in-cheek psychopunk duo Uncle Scratch’s Gospel Revival, whose material spoofed religious hucksters with tunes like “Gimme Back My Bible” and “I…
Concert Calendar
Santigold You can read the shifts and jumps in style and tone of Santigold’s second album, Master of My Make-Believe, as part of the restlessness that’s gripped the former Santi White, who’s fronted a punk band, wrote glossy pop singles, and worked as a record-company rep before releasing her 2008 debut. Or you could see…
The Tallest Man on the Earth
Twenty-nine-year-old singer-songwriter Kristian Matsson, who records as the Tallest Man on Earth, does little to dispel the dark, despairing stereotypes that hound his fellow Swedes. His terrific third album, There’s No Leaving Now, is filled with songs about crushed dreams, broken spirits, and that old no-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel standby: death. Thing is, the music on There’s No…
Home Movies
The Christopher Nolan Blu-ray Collection (Warner) — We can’t think of a better way to pump ourselves up for the upcoming Dark Knight Rises than with this hefty Blu-ray box set featuring all but one of the movies made by this generation’s best director. The excellent magician-movie mind-fuck The Prestige is MIA, but everything else…
Culture Jamming
TOP PICK Yellow Submarine (EMI) As they got more and more famous, the Beatles’ movies got more and more self-indulgent. By the time they made this 1968 animated feature, they were pretty much making these things for their own head trips. But what a trip. This is pop art at its most accessible, hummable, and…
More Hodge, Less Stodge
Whether he's in the house or not, Chris Hodgson is never truly absent from his new namesake eatery. Meals begin with an amuse bouche of bacon-laced tater tots — a whimsical allusion to the food-truck fare that landed him on the Great Food Truck Race. In an attempt to sell us dessert, our affable server…
Streetwear
Glen Infante recalls the first time a major hip-hop artist wore his hand-designed threads like it was yesterday. When he speaks of it, you can almost see the excitement levers in his brain start to churn; his eyes rotating their sockets like a broken slot machine. It was 2010 and Infante’s label I Love the…
A Voice from the Radio
The wide-angle shot of Chad Zumock’s career reveals a lot of notable stops: the early days with Last Call Cleveland; a stab at stand-up in L.A. sharing bills with big acts like Sarah Silverman and Daniel Tosh; and today, a place on WMMS’s afternoon line-up. As co-host of the Alan Cox Show, Zumock pipes in…
Film Capsules
Brave Princess Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald) has a problem with authority, especially her nagging mom, who just wants her to settle down with a nice boy from one of the neighboring clans in their medieval Scottish village. She’s also a super-strong heroine who can show the guys a thing or two about charting their…
Sister Lovers
You sorta have to respect a movie that leaves you curled up, head in hands, and groaning. Your Sister’s Sister gives you many opportunities for curling and groaning as it follows a trio of characters stumbling into and over many awkward moments, and digging themselves ever deeper into a gut-wrenching pit of discomfort. And still,…
CD Review: The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips promised at least one new song a month in 2011. To help lighten the load, they enlisted a diverse cast of collaborators. The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, which gathers the results and was originally released as a Record Store Day exclusive, slaps the guests’ singular imprints on top of the Lips’…
Cheap Eats
It’s been just two months since Athan Zarnas, 26, launched Cracked Mobile Foods, one of the latest in an ever-growing collection of Northeast Ohio food trucks. Cracked’s logo cleverly depicts a broken egg, a fitting symbol for the house specialty: breakfast. “We just thought that breakfast food was kind of a niche,” says Zarnas. “Nobody…
A Reader Sounds Off on Guns
Gun Judgement I’ve read your article [“How to Shoot Up Your Neighborhood”] in the June 6-12 Scene magazine. Regarding the Treyvon Martin case: Let that sad situation be tried in a court of law and not in the media. I understand that he was killed with a gun but the underlying issue in the case…
CD Review: The Strange Familiar
The Strange Familiar play a wide range of music on their debut album, but all this jumping around makes it a little difficult to tell just what kind of band they want to be. The first single by the Cuyahoga Falls quartet — which formed from the ashes of the pop group Jaded Era —…
The 50/50 Show
The 50/50 Show, one of the most popular art events in the region, comes to East Fourth Street’s Dredgers Union this Friday. This will be its eighth appearance in ten years, and the second since the closing of its original home at 1300 Gallery. But the rules are the same as ever. Exactly 50 local…
Local Band in Focus
Meet the Artist: Singer-songwriter Sean Benjamin has opened for alt-rock types like the Goo Goo Dolls and Switchfoot, but he’s just as big on singing hip-hop hooks and playing solo acoustic gigs. Dark Side of the Sean: Benjamin’s latest record, the super-ambitious I Exist, includes both an “industrial sensual dance number” and “the spirit of…
On View This Week
Kent State’s Downtown Gallery Painting in the Dark. Class of 1982 Kent State graduate Patricia Zinsmeister Parker presents work in paint and print. Her canvas and paper works depict still lifes and domestic scenes stripped down to simple shapes and vivid colors. Her prints invoke minimal abstract Modernism, but in a freer hand. The exhibit…
Party Out of Bounds
Four years ago, Tom Welsh, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s associate director of music, put together a lineup of exotic bands to play a summer solstice event designed to show off the museum’s recent renovations. The turnout exceeded expectations and was such a success that celebrating the solstice with an open house and concert has…
At the Arthouse
Pootie Tang Louis C.K.’s 2001 comedy about a ghetto superstar screens as part of the Cinematheque’s “100 Years of Paramount Pictures” series. Let’s take a moment and let that sentence sink in: Pootie Tang is playing at Cleveland’s premier film arthouse as part of a series that’s also included the western milestone Shane and Wings,…
Savage Love
Dear Dan: My younger brother and I are close. He came out of the closet last year, although it wasn’t much of a surprise because everyone knew he was gay since forever. But for the last six to nine months or so, he’s been really depressed about not ever having had a boyfriend. He’s 21…
CD Review: Beachwood Sparks
After a decade-long break, Los Angeles-based space cowboys Beachwood Sparks return with an expanded lineup and a skyful of stars in their eyes. The original quartet, who spent the time away working on solo and other band projects, are joined by three additional musicians on The Tarnished Gold, boosting the sound on their third album…
Motor City Madman
Motor City Madman Ted Nugent is one of rock’s most outspoken voices. The fervent conservative regularly appears on TV to debate today’s most pressing issues. He’s now on tour with Styx and REO Speedwagon. Nugent talked to us about why he’s endorsing Mitt Romney in the upcoming presidential election (shocker!) and how he still gets…
Stars Will Shine in Milan
Now in its 10th year, the upcoming Food & Wine Celebration in Milan is shaping up to be one of the best yet. The can’t-miss foodie event, which is a benefit for the not-for-profit Veggie U, has attracted dozens of high-profile chefs and culinary professionals from around the country to rural Erie County. Held on…
Free Love
If you’re in the mood for a summer romance garnished with wit, satire, and a soupçon of cynicism, the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival has what you need. And to top it all, it’s outdoors and it’s free. This production of As You Like It delightfully captures old Will’s marvelous interweaving of passion and intellect, thanks to…
Polka Pandemonium
Steve Popovich, who died last year at 68, was a Cleveland music legend. He cold-called Cleveland polka king Frankie Yankovic to land his first music business job in the warehouse of the local CBS Records branch in 1962. By the late ’60s, he was in New York working with people like Bob Dylan and Simon…
On Stage This Week
Cleveland Shakespeare Festival: Henry VIII Cleveland Shakespeare Festival marks its 15th season of free outdoor theater with The Famous History of the Life of King Henry VIII, a classic Shakespearean drama about exhausted brides. No? Then it’s about intrigue among the dukes, cardinals, lords, and ladies in the court of said king. Shows continue in…
