Jun 5-11, 2013

Jun 5-11, 2013 / Vol. 44 / No. 24

Hyde Park’s ML Tavern Debuts in Old Fountain Spot

Anchoring the Moreland Hill’s retail complex that currently houses Paul Minnillo’s Flour, ML Tavern fills the void that was left in Fountain’s wake. The space at 34105 Chagrin Blvd. has been transformed from a European small-plates parlor to an American-style fine-casual tavern. It’s a homecoming of sorts for the operators. “We operated a Hyde Park…

Scene Predicted Exactly What Would Happen to Misbehaving Police Officers

In case you missed the news yesterday, 12 Cleveland police supervisors (1 Captain, 1 Lieutenant and 10 sergeants) involved in the November 29 cross-town chase faced administrative charges for their actions. According to City Hall, one officer was fired — Sergeant Michael Donegan— the lieutenant and the captain were both demoted, and eight sergeants were…

North Ridgeville Humane Officer Under Fire For Kitten Killings

Barry Accorti returned to work today as a humane (sic) officer in the city of North Ridgeville. He’s been the focus of scrutiny and calls for his termination since Monday, when he reportedly shot five kittens in someone’s backyard. The gist of the story involves Accorti, a retired sergeant and current part-time humane (sic) officer,…

Annual Apocalyptic Wind Storm To Descend Upon Midwest Today

What’s moving toward us right now is called a “derecho.” It’s a line of intense fast-moving windstorms that travel across great distances and blow the living daylights out of the Midwest about once a year, say freaked-out meteorologists nationwide. Today “might be the worst severe weather outbreak for this part of the country for the…

Alt-J at House of Blues: Concert Review

ERIC SANDY/SCENE Joe Newman, Gwil Sainsbury and Thom Green of Alt-J perform at House of Blues. Alt-J is sort of an enigmatic band. Their sound doesn’t fit most conventional descriptors (nor does singer Joe Newman’s patently, um, *unique* voice). Also: If you need a hint as to the meaning of the band’s name, type it…

Here’s a Video of Ariel Castro’s “Not Guilty” Plea

Via Cleveland.com, Ariel Castro pleaded not guilty to 329 crimes, including two counts of aggravated murder. Castro’s attorney Craig Weintraub, reading a statement after the brief court appearance, said that some of charges are beyond dispute, and that he’d like very much to avoid an “unnecessary” trial. The “not guilty” plea was characterized as a…

New “Transit-Oriented Development” Planned for Ohio City

Via WKYC, Cleveland has OK’ed plans for a mixed-used “transit-oriented development” project on the corner of Lorain and W. 25th St. in Ohio City. Proposed is a 200-unit apartment complex with retail on the first floor which “will be centered around the RTA station on the corner of Gehring and Lorain.” RTA has already committed…

Beer Market (Not Bier Markt) to Join Offerings at Uptown

Look for the Beer Market, which has locations in Illinois, Pennsylvania and soon the Flats East Bank, to join Uptown in University Circle this fall. The new chain “borrows” concepts from World of Beer, Winks, Winking Lizard and other firmly established brands by offering a staggering amount of beer, real-time beer lists, and a beverage…

Pic of the Day: ‘Colorized’ Photo of 1907 Cleveland

Thanks to the deft work of Ryan Urban, we have a more personal look into downtown Cleveland circa 1907. Here’s a photo of Public Square – fully outfitted with color, by way of the magic of Photoshop – that shows just how much the city has grown in the past 100+ years. Check out his…

‘Restore the Fourth’ Rally Being Planned in Cleveland

Following Edward Snowden’s massive intelligence leak, groups around the country are gathering in support of Fourth Amendment rights. “Restore the Fourth” rallies are being planned in major cities throughout the U.S. to coincide with our upcoming national day of independence. A local rally is expected to take place July 4 at Edgewater Park. The planning…

The Most Disgusting, Perfect Description of the Cuyahoga River

Journalist Edward McClelland, author of Nothin’ But Blue Skies: The Heyday, Hard Times and Hopes of America’s Industrial Heartland, will speak tonight at the Happy Dog as part of the Write to Assemble series in conjunction with Ohio City Writers. McClelland’s book is fantastic, chronicling the auto industry’s rise and fall and the familiar wastelands…

Lorain Man Tells Police His Weed Was Stolen

A Lorain man talked with a police officer and reported that someone had stolen his pot. He said he was carrying the bag around in his sweatpants, but it wasn’t there anymore. The man had spent the morning accusing his girlfriend and her sons of stealing his herb, and he had simply had enough of…

15 Photos From Our Weekend Around Cleveland

From Chef Jam to a hike out to Detroit for the Orion music fest, from Little Italy to Darube at Liquid, from a wedding where a kid wore a kangaroo head to a day on the lake, we were all around town this weekend. Check out some of our staff’s choicest shots.

Here’s Cleveland’s New Independent Bookstore in Gordon Square

Detroit-Shoreway is getting hipper and hipper by the month. The latest retail storefront to join the gang is “Guide to Kulchur,” a bookstore-cum-zine-making-paradise-cum-hangout helmed by the blissfully wedded academics Liz Bly (Ph.D!) and RA Washington. Washington, seated outside his shop during the pARTy in Gordon Square on Saturday, said his wife Liz was the creative…

Ohio EPA Sets Trash Incinerator Hearing

The Ohio EPA set a public hearing for the proposed trash incinerator Cleveland Public Power is hoping to build on Ridge Road. Anyone interested in learning more or speaking out may attend at 6 p.m. June 12 at Estabrook Recreation Center: 4125 Fulton Road in Cleveland. In essence and jargon: “The facility would house three…

Concert Review: Orion Music + More in Detroit

Orion Music + More, the two-day Metallica-curated music festival that took place this past weekend on Detroit’s Belle Isle, certainly presented its share of logistical problems. In order to the get to the festival grounds, fans had to take a 20-minute shuttle ride from the COBO Center in downtown as access to the island by…

LeBron Emasculates Spurs as Heat Even Series

For a man of his size, Tiago Splitter doesn’t dunk often. Now the world knows why. In the midst of his team being on the wrong end of a 30-5 late-game run Sunday night in Miami, Splitter caught a Tony Parker pass at the dotted circle, took a step toward the bucket and rose, ball…

Death Grips at Beachland Ballroom: Concert Review

Ensconced in near-total darkness, MC Ride and Flatlander delivered a night of insanity and pulsing, throbbing bass. Death Grips has taken much of the music world by storm over the past several years. Since dropping a blistering mixtape, Exmilitary, in 2011, the punk-hop trio has thrown down a melange of angry poetry, avant-garde beats and…

The Russo Brothers are Really Sorry About the Traffic

Scene got to catch up with Anthony and Joe Russo yesterday afternoon, and — lest Cleveland’s traffic has soured your opinion of them — they remain two of the classiest, most down-to-earth dudes working in the film industry. Joe’s wife and daughter were in town, and the four of them were grabbing a bite to…

Concert Slideshow: Orion Music + More in Detroit, Day 1

The Red Hot Chili Peppers headlined Day 1 of the Metallica-curated Orion Music + More festival in Detroit. Metallica also made an unannounced appearance on a side stage, where they were billed as Dehaan and introduced as “a mysterious cult band from Baltimore.”

Basketball in Lakewood is a Really Touchy Subject

An account published by Anthony Davis over at lovelakewood.com illustrates a fairly amazing breadth of controversy surrounding Lakewood’s Kauffman Park basketball court. Basically, a 58-year-old man flipped out and damn near started fighting several pre-teens because they were shooting hoops after-hours (8 p.m.). Instead, he threw some punches at a 48-year-old man who witnessed the…

10 Stats to Put Ariel Castro’s Charges in Perspective

Ariel Castro was indicted yesterday on 329 criminal counts. Charges included kidnapping, gross sexual imposition, felonious assault, and the eminently disturbing “possession of criminal tools.” This is in no way to make light of Castro’s unfathomable misconduct — only to contextualize — but here are 10 other things that there are 329 of: 1. 329…

Concert Review: B.B. King at Akron Civic Theatre

The blues can convey more emotion in one perfectly placed note from the guitar than most songs can ever express. At 87 years old, B.B. King still plays over 100 shows a year as he continues to try to revitalize an often forgotten style of the blues that no one else has come close to…

Plans Revealed for Lakewood’s Sullivan’s Irish Pub Space

There’s been a lot of recent activity on Madison Avenue in Lakewood, particularly in the home of the shuttered Sullivan’s Irish Pub (13368 Madison Ave.), which closed last year after nearly a 10-year-run. And now we know why. In early July, the site will reopen as Brew 133, a sports bar. “If you look at…

5 Must See Movies This Weekend

1) Shot in Chagrin Falls, The Kings of Summer is the kind of indie flick that festival audiences love; the film’s sweet coming-of-age storyline will benefit more from positive recommendations than from a big marketing campaign, even though the film isn’t without its star power (Parks and Rec’s Nick Offerman, for example, has a significant…

Some Public Employees Aren’t Good At Facebook

If the taxpayers are cutting you a check, watch your ass the next time you log onto Facebook. That’s probably sage advice for anyone, but local public employees (oh, a county prosecutor, a Cleveland principal, you know…) have found themselves in hot water this week. Most recently, the newly assigned principal of Bolton Elementary School…

Ohio Budget Bill Hinders Reproductive Rights, Women’s Rights

It’s (still) budget season down in Columbus, which means some of you are probably slamming a shot of Jim Beam each time House Speaker Bill Batchelder cries “Defund!” And if that’s the game, well, you’ve got a fairly boozy night ahead of ye. The Ohio Budget Bill passed through the State Senate this week on…

Three Kids Jump from Drunken Father’s Moving Car

It’s unclear whether a drunken man from Ohio who was arrested in Palm Coast, Fla., earlier this week was a Miami Heat fan. But authorities say his three children jumped out of his moving car because he was shitfaced drunk behind the wheel. So probably a Heat fan. The children told deputies there that they…

The 5 Best Eating Challenges in Cleveland

Get hungry, Cleveland. And loosen those belts. Here are the five best food challenges that can be found in our robust, peckish town. Touch’s Tuesday Burger Challenge Where: Touch Supper Club ( touchohiocity.com) 2710 Lorain Ave Ohio City If you are adventurous, you can attempt this burger behemoth. It is free if you finish, or…

FYI: Police Checkpoint on Detroit Avenue in Lakewood Tonight

In the interest of journalistic excellence and, ahem, public service: Hey! There’s gonna be a police checkpoint on Detroit Avenue in Lakewood tonight. The red-and-blue lights will flash from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. tonight at the corner of Northland and Detroit. This is more of a reminder of public safety than a PSA to…

Layoffs and Reorganization at Morning Journal, News-Herald

Yesterday didn’t end so well at The Morning Journal and The News-Herald, Northeast Ohio’s two Journal Register Co. properties. A source tells Scene that several management-level staff members were either laid off or “forced” into retirement, such as Morning Journal Editor Tom Skoch, during a meeting yesterday afternoon. Publisher Jeff Sudbrook, who oversees both newspapers,…

New Lebanese Eatery Coming to Solon

As early as next week, Saaj Lebanese Bar and Grill (33003 Aurora Rd., 440-349-2300) will open in Solon, in the former home of Pacific East. Serving lunch and dinner, the restaurant will feature Lebanese cuisine. “Three Lebanese entrepreneurs joined together to open a Lebanese restaurant,” explains partner Lina El-Richani. “We’ve been wanting to do something…

Here’s Chris Perez’s Mugshot

It turns out 169 grams of pot was the grand total of the delivery to Chris Perez’s home that has the pitcher and his wife, Melanie, in trouble. Police say charges are coming. Meanwhile, here are the lovely couple in their booking photos.

A Very Cleveland-y Cleveland Proposal Video

Finally, someone has made a proposal video with Cleveland, Ohio, as its background and central theme. (Full disclosure: This guy, Curtis, is a friend of mine and I took part in the video’s creation). Personal connection notwithstanding, this struck me as a city homage on the order of “Shitty Cleveland Tourism Video,” only without the…

Goldfish Saga Continues at Perry Plant: UPDATE

For the three people following this story, the Mystery of the Perry Nuclear Plant Goldfish has been SOLVED! Basically, two workers admitted to smuggling five goldfish into the plant earlier this year (though only two were found). Four other workers admitted to knowing about the “prank,” as The PD’s John Funk writes. A quick suggestion…

The 5 Best Food Events This Weekend

1. Tonight, the Taste of the Heights once again comes to the Heights Youth Club (2065 Lee Rd., 216-321-CLUB) in Cleveland Heights. Starting at 6 p.m., this annual event brings together some of the best local eats and live music to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Cleveland. More than 20 great local establishment…

Trent Reznor’s 80s Synth-Pop Led to Nine Inch Nails Domination

Circa the late 1980s, ladies and germs: Trent Reznor When we first heard that Cleveland-native Trent Reznor was reviving Nine Inch Nails earlier this year, we fell into a burst of spasmodic seizures and then blogged about it. Well, we’re super-jazzed yet again to chat about NIN’s Oct. 5 show at CSU’s Wolstein Center with…

Here’s New Cavs’ Assistant Vitaly Potapenko Looking Positively GORGEOUS

If you haven’t heard the news, former Cavaliers’ big man Vitaly Potapenko — the “Ukraine Train” — is returning to the organization as a player development coach. According to Mary Schmitt Boyer at the PD, that basically means he’ll interact with the players during practice and stuff, but won’t travel with the team. Head Coach…

The Most Offensive Cleveland Indians Hat Ever

According to Major League Baseball, the Cleveland Indians will not be wearing a stars-and-stripes special edition Chief Wahoo cap on the 4th of July. And thank God. New Era Caps, responsible for the butt-ugly design, mistakenly assumed that all teams would be sporting their primary logos. Instead, the Tribe will don their block-C cap, on…

Cleveland Park Space Gets So-So National Ranking

Cleveland: Where asphalt meets beauty The Cleveland Metroparks are kinda the crown jewel of our fair city (along with Matt Fish’s contribution to sandwiches). In other words, don’t even try to tell us our green space is any less than the greatest in the WORLD. The Trust for Public Land, however, just stepped over the…

Cuyahoga Falls High School Misspells City Name on Diplomas

Cuyahoga Falls High School, that pillar of secondary education preparing our youth for college and beyond, had a bit of a boo-boo at graduation — the school’s leather-bound jackets for the diplomas misspelled “Cuyahoga Falls” as “Cayahoga Falls.” Fabulous. Onward and upward, students. (Via the ABJ)

5 Cleveland Missed Connections To Brighten Your Day

Craigslist has effectively written the obituary on newspaper classifieds — wink wink — and with missed connections like these, it may soon render traditional dating obsolete. Check out these five beautiful (variations on) courtship propositions, all from today, which should demonstrate the caliber of date-able suitors in Northeast Ohio. Presented with limited editorial analysis to…

First Look: Toast Wine Bar

Federal attorney by day, wine bar owner by night, Jillian Davis has parlayed her fondness for great food and wine into Toast, a great new addition to the Gordon Square neighborhood. “From frying chicken with my mother to making chocolate mousse at age 12, I have always found the kitchen to be a refuge,” Davis…

Go Do Something Fun This Summer, People

JUNE Wade Oval Wednesdays June 12-August 28 Bring a blanket or lawn chair as University Circle launches its series of Wednesday-evening outdoor festivals, with music, food vendors, and a farmers market. Wade Oval, University Circle, 216-791-3900 universitycircle.org Festival of the Fish June 14-16 It’s Vermilion’s annual celebration of the sea, with parades, including a lighted boat…

The Kings of Summer Rules

Shot in Chagrin Falls, The Kings of Summer premiered earlier this year at Sundance and has played small festivals in the attempt to build word-of-mouth. That’s a smart move since this is the kind of indie flick that festival audiences love; the film’s sweet coming-of-age storyline will benefit more from positive recommendations than from a big…

Summer Mixtape

Each summer seems to bring it with a set of new cool grooves. While we’re not good at predicting which songs will break big, we do know which songs we’d put on our summer mix tape. After careful consideration, here’s what will be rocking our world this summer (and you can check out these songs…

Snapshot: London: The Modern Babylon

London: The Modern Babylon, a documentary film that wistfully celebrates the UK’s capital and largest city, is the finale in the 2013 National Docurama Festival. For the past seven weeks, Cleveland Cinemas—at both the Cedar Lee and the Capitol—has played host to documentaries spanning the breadth of current content interests: politics, the environment, social issues,…

Cowboy Junkies

While country acts dominate the summer concert schedule, there’s still a show for every taste Back in February, Live Nation began pushing a Country MegaTicket that included admission to all of the summer’s big country concerts. And there are a lot of them. They kind of dominate the summer schedule. Tim McGraw played a sold-out…

We Get Mail

On: “Movie Cops Don’t Like You Taking Pictures of Filming” Guess what? It’s a public street! Deal with it like the 38,000 cars are dealing with the shoreway! —John Petrus You do realize these PAs make shit money and are only doing their jobs, right? No need to post pictures of their faces and insult…

Summer Blockbusters

The Internship Dir. by Shawn Levy. Starring Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Rose Byrne Vaughn and Wilson, merry fortysomethings both, return to the bromantic comedy stylings that brought them such critical acclaim and box-office success with Wedding Crashers. The Internship centers around two dudes who soamehow secure — you guessed it — an internship. Only it’s…

Band of the Week

Meet the Band: Mike Crooker (guitar, bass), Christopher Foldi (vocals, keyboards), Michelle Strong (vocals) and Rob Crossley (drummer) It Takes a Woman’s Touch: Crooker and Foldi have known each for about 10 years and have worked together on a variety of projects over that time. Crooker works on film soundtracks and would often need Foldi…

The Cleveland Craft Beer Report

Fat Heads recently made national beer news with an unprecedented announcement. The Cleveland-based brewery celebrated four years of business by revealing that a new brewpub is in the works—not in Akron, Toledo or even Cincinnati, but in Portland…Portland, Oregon! Does this mean Fat Heads is on its way to becoming a chain? Not exactly. The…

CD Review: Cletus Black

cletusblack.com “Everyday is Friday,” singer-guitarist Cletus Black bellows on the intro to this, his latest studio album. And that opening salvo sets the tone for the following 13 songs. A song like “Santa Rosa” swings a bit more than Black tunes of the past and the newfound swagger suits this veteran bluesman well. “Who Got…

The Airborne Toxic Event turns up the heat on its new album

Nearly ten years ago, The Airborne Toxic Event singer-guitarist Mikel Jollett originally set out to write the Great American Novel. He ended up writing a collection of songs that would eventually form the band’s debut. You could say he wrote a Great American Album instead of a novel. “I don’t know if it was conscious…

The Dandy Warhols celebrate one anniversary, prepare for another

This year marks the 13th anniversary of The Dandy Warhols’ classic neo-psychedelic album Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia. To celebrate, the band will play the album, which also will be reissued as a box set with a slew of bonus material, in its entirety on the current tour. Keyboardist Zia McCabe recently phoned in from a…

Savage Love

Dear Dan — I love my husband of 20 years, but our sexual differences are putting a strain on our marriage. Ten years ago, he asked me to talk dirty to him about having sex with other men. It has progressed to him wanting to be a cuckold. I only want to be with him,…

COLOR IT DIDACTIC

People who write tend to enjoy the sound of their own voice, and why not? When you’ve been able to pen a story, a play or anything else, you have earned the right to happily wallow in your own verbiage. Up to a point. Lee Hall, the author of The Pitmen Painters, is an accomplished…

Pulling Their Own Weight

What do you do when staring at Ohio’s 7-percent unemployment rate? Well, if you’re an artist, you hire 200 people to haul eight tons 25 miles for a public critique of employment culture. That is the ostensible aim of Pull!, a performance art piece happening this weekend masterminded by artist William Pope.L and SPACES. Between…

Also On Stage This Week

Rusted Heart Broadcast Cleveland Public Theatre Aside from the ten-minute blackout that starts the second act, you’re not likely to find a more stimulating production than the world premiere of Rusted Heart Broadcast, now at Cleveland Public Theatre. This work of devised theater, created by director Raymond Bobgan and his nine-person ensemble, engages both the…

Also On View

Cleveland Museum of Art and MOCA MIX. In this special collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art, the CMA will display works by Jackson Pollock, with materials relating the Abstract Expressionist’s work to MOCA’s ongoing exhibit of Kate Gilmore’s Body of Work. Gilmore will also give a performance of her “Hold Her Hand” project. Free…

Scene’s Sensational Summer Guide

Well, look at that, the sun. Howdy, friend. It might not last as long as we’d like, but dammit if these aren’t our favorite three months of the year. And we Clevelanders know how to pack a year’s worth of fun into that short period where parkas aren’t mandatory for stepping out the front door.…

No Whining Allowed

Here in Cleveland, most of us don’t pay much attention to that great body of water to our north. But to wine growers out east, Lake Erie makes possible an entire industry by creating a climate so favorable to grape growing that the area boasts more wineries per square mile than any other region in…

Culture Jamming

TOP PICK Greg Friedman Can’t Talk Now (Populuxe Records) This San Diego-based singer-songwriter has a good ear for pop hooks. That much is apparent right from the start of this fine album. The opening tune, “Melancholy Melody,” is every bit as infectious as anything by Weezer and even features a groovy mid-song guitar solo. The…

A Lake Erie Fish Tale

When my friend suggested that we make a pit stop for lunch on our way to his family’s cabin in Port Clinton, I said “sure thing.” After all, it was summer, and this was a road trip, and impromptu stops and improvised routes are precisely what give road trips their appeal. And then he said…

Literally Literary

Kauser Razvi, the project manager for the region’s upcoming Literary Lots project, talked with Scene about bringing classic children’s books to the streets of Cleveland. The whole thing has involved a great deal of work up front, but Razvi and everyone else involved are planning on unveiling their work at an otherwise vacant lot in…

What’s Fresh @ Pura Vida, Blue Canyon

Brandt Evans is one of the region’s culinary superstars. If you’ve dined at either Blue Canyon in Twinsburg or Pura Vida downtown, you understand the chef’s commitment to freshness, as well as his ability to push the farm-to-table envelope, as evidenced by his “urban picnic” menu concept at Pura Vida. Conceived on the back of…

The 16 Patios You Have to Visit This Summer

Just when you thought Cleveland couldn’t possibly squeeze in another patio, somebody opens another one and proves us dead wrong. Not that we’re complaining, mind you. Blessed with more alfresco eating and drinking options than our already feeble livers can handle, our fair-weathered village on a Great Lake is primed for its best summer ever.…

Foals and Surfer Blood at House of Blues: Concert Review

ERIC SANDY/SCENE Foals at House of Blues With an extended musical prelude – and a segue into the band’s song “Prelude” – Foals stepped into Cleveland with the allure of hypnotic power in mind. Singer Yannis Philippakis, a heartfelt artist clearly embedded in his band’s music, led a supercharged ride through a set of mostly…


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