Cleveland Again Ranks High on List of America’s Manliest Cities
Just another Cleveland guy, livin’. Hell yes, all you XY chromosome’d members of the greater Cleveland area. All that afternoon drinking, high cholesterol and hours at the softball batting cage has finally paid off with some national chest thumping. The list of America’s manliest cities was put out this morning, and Cleveland – the city…
Ratner Money Leaning Toward Sherrod Brown Over Josh Mandel
There’s been a lot of talk about how much support Republican U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel will attract in his race against incumbent senator Sherrod Brown from Northeast Ohio’s wealthy and liberal Jewish community — which has supported his runs for state legislature and state treasurer. But it turns out that Northeast Ohio’s largest and…
Cleveland’s New Garbage Plan Smells Like the Same Old Trash
Last month Cleveland City Council gave the administration and Cleveland Public Power $200,000 for a new trash consultant, and said it would investigate all trash processing options — kinda. After spending a few million in a stalled attempt to build the first U.S. high-tech gasification plant to turn garbage into cool stuff like decorative bricks…
RIP Todd Ankrom, Local Drummer
Todd Ankrom’s 10-year stint on the local music scene epitomizes the musical everyman — a drummer who kept gigging while holding down a full-time job at Lubrizol. Ankrom kept the rhythm in a handful of forgettably named metal and progressive bands often listed in concert poster fine print but that you likely never caught live.…
The Quality of Cleveland Life Report
Your guide to living in fabulous Cleveland. Fleeing Fans: Cleveland Gladiators players strike just hours before a home game at The Q, forcing the team to forfeit the game while all five fans begin to reevaluate their choice of available hobbies. Kitchen Help Coming: Once Mayor Frank Jackson gets approval from Ohio House and Senate…
Law Enforcement Agencies Bust Massive Coke Ring
The news day in Northeast Ohio got rolling this morning with scattered reports of armored-up federal agents knocking down a lot of doors. The first word was that a massive drug raid was underway, the majority of the boot stomping going down in the Collinwood neighborhood. This afternoon, the federales held a press conference where…
Pic of the Day: Football Hall of Fame Gets Snazzy New Doors
Down in Canton, the Pro Football Hall of Fame has just unveiled its new entrance. As you can see from these post-op photos from the Repository, the new in-and-out is pretty classy.
Concert Review: Richard Lloyd at the Grog Shop
When singer-guitarist Richard Lloyd, drummer Billy Ficca and singer-guitarist Tom Verlaine played together in the ’70s in the NYC proto-punk act Television, there was reportedly an unusual amount of tension in the group that led to its early demise. While the band has subsequently reunited for the occasional tour, those reunions have been few and…
Video: Kent State Advances to the College World Series
Kent State is going to the College World Series. Let that sink in for a second. The Golden Flashes beat Oregon last night in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the ninth inning to punch their ticket for Omaha, winning the best-of-three Super Regional 2-1. They play Arkansas at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Once again,…
Cuyahoga County Has More Printers Than Anyone Ever Needs
Office supply distribution and stocking is an issue everywhere — Why don’t we have any plastic silverware! No pink pens? What, are we afraid of communists? How am I supposed to write in my diary now? — from the halls of Metro to schools to your local Arby’s to the offices of Scene, where we…
Peter Bower, Alleged Dog Sex Abuser, Found with Life-Sized Inflatable Sheep (Update)
Are you surprised? Update IV: Remember that handsome gentleman pictured over at the right? If you don’t, Peter Bower is the name, dog sex is the game. Fido fondness led Bower to previously engage in unspeakable acts with pooches, which he admitted. But Ohio didn’t have any bestiality laws on the books, so the four-legged…
Off-Duty Police Officer Assaulted, Another Man Shot in Warehouse District
Home sweet home. Last night was a pretty disturbing one down here in the Warehouse District, the neighborhood Scene happens to call home. According to various media outlets, in the wee hours linking Sunday to Monday a police officer was assaulted and another man shot. The incidents both happened within a few clock ticks of…
NPR Celebrates a Revitalized Downtown Cleveland
WCPN’s story on downtown Cleveland’s ongoing revival got picked up by NPR’s Morning Edition and blasted all over the nation to ears that probably aren’t as familiar with the uptick in development in the Forest City as those who live and work and play and panhandle in it. The general gist is one you could…
Chris Perez Puked on the Field After Closing Out Yesterday’s Tribe Win
The Tribe capped off a nice weekend in St. Louis with a 4-1 win yesterday, all closed out by Pure Rage Chris Perez, who promptly vomited on the field after the final out was tallied. Summing up the cause of the on-field spewing, Perez basically said, “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice,…
Cleveland Cinemas’ Dark Knight Marathon Wins Best News of the Day Award
Three Cleveland Cinemas theaters will show all three Batman movies on July 19, and frankly we shrieked like excited little J-Pop fans when we heard the news. Of course we’re talking about Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, not the increasingly shitty franchise that started with the blah 1989 Tim Burton movie. The Capitol Theatre, Chagrin Cinemas,…
Listen to Bobby Womack’s New Album
Bobby Womack is cancer-free and has new music out. Those are two wonderful things. NPR is streaming “The Bravest Man in the Universe” right now, and we heartily encourage you to click over this very minute (or sometime this weekend, we guess, if you’re workplace is anti-streaming or something lame like that) and listen. Here’s…
Video: Celtics Fan Dumps a Beer on LeBron
Here’s a Celtics fan dumping a beer on LeBron James after last night’s Heat victory in Boston. Classy.
Out of This World
They’re claiming that Prometheus isn’t technically a prequel to Alien, despite the same universe and director. But that’s not quite the truth. And that’s not going to stop comparisons to Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi classic. Set roughly a quarter-century before Ripley’s fateful space run, Prometheus follows a crew of explorers (played by Noomi Rapace, Michael…
Closed Ohio Plant Now Filled With Rats as Big as Cats (Updated)
Rats are disgusting, so here’s a super cute cat. Update II: A local farmer named Richard Bonner bought the old liquid plant and promises to clean up the some 1.5 million gallons of rotting liquid that have bred mutant rats that will eat the earth. The news gave the Record-Pub occasion to include more than…
Man Reacts Bravely to Raccoon
It’s times like this we wished the local police blotters from Cleveland.com carried names with the items, because this gentleman from Strongsville deserves to be commended for his sterling act of manhood and courage in dealing with an intruder that entered his house. Like, an award from the mayor or something. Maybe a billboard. Just…
Concert Review: Radiohead at Blossom Music Center
Thom Yorke, in between spazzy dance moves. Photo by Joe Kleon The thing about Radiohead is that they’re never done with their work. You might think OK Computer, Kid A, and Hail to the Thief are pretty perfect albums, but they think otherwise. That’s why they’re constantly tinkering and tweaking their music – with remixes,…
How to Shoot Up Your Neighborhood
There’s a piece of gallows humor you might hear if you bum around courthouse steps or firing ranges long enough. “If you shoot somebody on your porch,” the rusty adage runs, “you’d better drag him inside the house.” And there’s some truth rattling around those words. They’re a reference to the “castle doctrine,” a scrap…
The Dork Side
Afew months ago I was invited to a secret pinball tournament, one of several that takes place throughout the year at the houses of the various pinball and arcade-game collectors in Northeast Ohio. Like with Fight Club, I’m not supposed to talk about them. Even though I blabbed all over Facebook and Twitter, I was…
Concert Calendar
Kathleen Edwards Canada’s Kathleen Edwards has been making records for almost a decade now. They’re pleasant, singer-songwriter-troubadour records you’d hear while ordering your medium dark roast and scone in the morning. Which makes the colorful sounds of her fourth album, Voyageur, all the more surprising and sensational. No real shocker where this new-found interest in…
Drink Up
Give us a bowl of creamy hummus and we’re generally happy campers. So imagine how giddy we were to discover Happy Hour at Taza, the upscale sister in the region’s popular Aladdin’s family? Situated in the intimate space that once was home to Crop Bistro, this Warehouse District beauty knows how to make us smile.…
Home Movies
The Sting (Universal) The greatest con job this 1973 Oscar winner for Best Picture pulls isn’t the one Paul Newman and Robert Redford reveal onscreen. It’s the one the movie pulls on the audience. This Depression-era buddy pic — about two swindlers looking to get even with the mobster who killed their pal — never…
DJ E-V Says Hello
DJ E-V — better known at the BMV as Eric Vajda — hocks some of the best ear candy in Cleveland. From his perch in downtown clubs and on drive-time 96.5, the 26-year-old is constantly churning out fresh material — from creatively rejiggered popular songs to new hip-hop. Along the way, he’s toured the world…
Bad Vibrations
Can we please stop giving Brian Wilson a free pass on everything he does? Pet Sounds — the album he wrote for and recorded with the Beach Boys in 1966 — is a classic, yes. It’s one of my all-time favorites. Smile — the long-lost follow-up record that was abandoned by Wilson in 1967 after…
Film Capsules
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most WantedThe Penguins of Madagascar is one of the few TV shows that’s better than the movies it’s spun off from. That’s probably why the third outing in this increasingly tiresome animated franchise gives the aquatic flightless birds — along with their lemur and monkey co-stars, all originally supporting characters — more…
Culture Jamming
TOP PICK Tenacious D: Rize of the Fenix (Columbia) From its bird/penis cover art to the many dick jokes to songs about getting it on with ladies pushing 40, Jack Black’s goofy metal duo pretty much has one thing on its mind for its first album in six years. Black and partner Kyle Gass (along…
CD Review: Japandroids
The Canadian indie-rock duo Japandroids know that the best records don’t fuck around and waste your time. Their second album, like their first, 2009’s Post-Nothing, includes eight tracks and clocks in at a super-tight 35 minutes. Nothing is superfluous, and everything has its place. Celebration Rock lives up to its title, with the band tearing…
Surfin’ Cleveland
This summer marks the 19th year of the Tremont ArtWalk — the region’s most expansive open house, for which galleries fling open their doors every second Friday of the month. This week’s installment offers a showcase of Cleveland creatives’ interaction with the national music scene, a reassurance in tumultuous times, and artists angry in the…
The Quad Couple
The Intouchables is huge in France. Avengers huge. It’s one of the most popular movies of all time overseas, and it was nominated for a bunch of awards when it was released there last year. And it’s easy to see why: The movie is funny and heartwarming, and brings together two guys from completely different…
On View This Week
Heights Arts Materiality. Three winners of the Creative Workforce Fellowship exhibit. Michael J. Mikula’s intricate, stylized glassworks depicting designs of the 20th century channel Art Deco. Stephen Yusko’s metal constructions are instantly recognizable in their embodied functions. Sai Sinbondit’s adaptable structures draw upon his own family’s experiences in refugee camps to provide practical possibilities for…
We Get Mail
Betting on Improvement I work at the Casino. No, tips have not been what we thought they would be, but management has adjusted pay rates to make up for it. [“Job Engine Breakdown,” May 30.] Yes, we have had to work some long hours, but we had no experience and had to cover for those…
The Art of It All
Northeast Ohio’s incredibly diverse art scene finds a whole new gear every summer, with festivals and art walks and other celebrations unfolding just about every weekend in virtually every corner of town. As several of the season’s biggest events prepare for liftoff this weekend, we offer this roundup of the top stops on the summer…
CD Review: Patti Smith
Patti Smith’s lyrical tone and meter are the main instruments that drive her 11th album. But it’s her longtime band that offers the diverse settings for the 65-year-old singer-songwriter’s rich language — notably on Banga’s mid-record trio featuring a punky revolutionary cry (the title track, with Television’s Tom Verlaine on guitar), an intoxicating sitar-driven dip…
At the Arthouse
American Hot Wax Cleveland DJ and honorary rock & roll pioneer Alan Freed’s story is told in this 1978 movie starring Fran Drescher (pre-Nanny), Jay Leno (pre-Tonight Show), and Laraine Newman (pre-obscurity). It explores the controversial stuff: Racists hated that Freed brought black music to their white children, and his career ended with a messy…
CD Review: Rhett Miller
After bleeding the line between his solo career and his role as frontman of the Old 97’s for the past decade, Rhett Miller seemed to have finally settled on a balance: His band gets the twangy songs, and his own records receive the ornate pop tunes. But on his sixth solo album, the 41-year-old singer-songwriter…
A Big Turn On
Imagine igniting an entire neighborhood with the proverbial flick of a switch. That’s what entrepreneur Alan Glazen has in mind for the North Shores Collinwood neighborhood, specifically the stretch of Waterloo Road by the Beachland Ballroom. Rather than open one new restaurant in the underperforming neighborhood, Glazen is working with multiple parties to simultaneously launch…
Savage Love
Dear Dan: I’m a gay man and a hunter with a gay boy who’s a vegan. But he likes how I look in my camo, holding a rifle, so it works. Last fall, I went to Idaho and shot a black bear and a 13-point buck. A taxidermist mounted the buck’s head, which hangs above…
Cheap Eats
The fact that some of the most authentic Cajun and Creole food you can get in these parts is served from a big yellow rig has much to do with the guy at the helm. Originally from Baton Rouge, Johnny Schulze went to culinary school in The Big Easy — the obvious source of his…
The American Dream on Crack
You don’t have to watch many cable news shows to realize that politics in this country is now, and always has been, like an overly dramatizing teenager. Simultaneously looking for acceptance and flouting convention, with pouty sneer firmly in place, we truly are the land of swooning, starry-eyed Obama lovers and loony Gingrich/Palin fact destroyers.…
Mother Earth Blues
Mentioning what musicians do as their “day job” sometimes seems like a subtle way of suggesting that they’re not all that serious about their music. But some of them are fortunate enough to have day jobs that blend easily with their “night job.” And musicians and environmental advocacy seem to have a special affinity. Singer-songwriter…
Indians Pitcher Joe Smith Involved in Bar Fight, Is Dating Fox 8’s Allie LaForce
Indians relief pitcher Joe Smith was involved in an altercation early Sunday morning at a bar in Put-in-Bay. Smith tried to walk into a bar without showing his ID, the employee at the door asked for it, and Smith responded by saying he was a player for the Cleveland Indians. The police report notes Roundhouse…
