Death Be Not Proud
What if fate has something horrific in store for you, and you can’t escape it? It’s an idea that’s been around for a long time, from Greek myths like Oedipus to the New Testament to EC Comics and The Twilight Zone. Cinematically, we tend to prefer the idea that destiny is going to be a…
Furnace St.
After releasing two albums (1996’s cassette-only Erie County Solid Waste Division and 1998’s Neuromantic), Furnace St., which formed in Oberlin in 1996, has developed an ardent following among the local Goth/industrial crowd. The band, now based in Lakewood and consisting of singer/multi-instrumentalists Adam Boose and Lisa Jorgensen, creates dark, moody music that has its roots…
Fatal Flaws
The street corner where Scott Strothers shot the life out of 15-year-old Penny Chang is a most unlikely spot to commit aggravated murder. The intersection of Lee Road and Van Aken Boulevard is smack dab in the middle of Shaker Heights, a suburb of liberal affluence, where even the police drink gourmet coffee. Positioned a…
Peter Searcy
Singer-guitarist Peter Searcy, who performs with Neve at Tower City’s Hard Rock Café on March 17, as part of the “Jolly Rancher Rocks” tour, will have played in Cleveland more times in the past two months than he has in the previous year. Searcy, who lives in Louisville, is on the road to support his…
The Edge
Sharp cookie! The columnist makeover at The Plain Dealer has gone cutthroat with the signing of Regina Brett, a lifestyle commentator who penned her final column for The Beacon Journal last week. Brett, a soft touch whose musings on everything from breast cancer to irradiated meat are scheduled to start later this month, is only…
Letters to Editors
The Trouble With HarveyThe cartoon by the much overrated Harvey Pekar on why he will never visit the Rock Hall [Music, March 2] is a good example of why Cleveland will never progress until the last members of his myopic generation are extinct. These pessimistic, do-nothing dinosaurs (including Feagler, Bartimole, Lanigan, Trivisonno, et al.) do…
East Side Hope
“Do we have a trauma bed open?” a voice shouts above the din in Huron Hospital’s emergency room. A car accident victim is on the way. The ER is already a blur of action, with doctors and nurses in green and blue scrubs darting through, grabbing ringing phones behind a long desk, and conferring quickly.…
Suitable for Framing
At the turn of the 20th century, two famous composers had an argument about the purpose of music. Jean Sibelius, the Finn, said that what he liked best about composing symphonies was the opportunity for paring away nonessentials so he could arrive at something that was concise. Gustav Mahler, the Austrian, snarled that the symphony…
War Is Swell
If, by some improbable quirk of fate and alcohol, Judy Garland and Hank Williams had cohabited, the resulting love child would have grown up to be Larry Gatlin. In this country singer-songwriter, their gifts coalesce. It’s all there — the emotional honesty, the intensity, the Kentucky bourbon wail, and the halting catch in the throat.…
The Only Game in Town
By big-city standards, modest little Epiq might not win rave reviews. But out here, in the fields and forests of Concord Township, chef-owner Tom Quick’s bistro and wine bar is the toast of the town. As has been the case in many of the once-rural communities surrounding Cleveland, Concord’s former farmers have given up on…
Side Dish
Pyramid to Desert Its Old Digs The Pyramid (12657 Lorain Avenue, 216-671-9300), that West Side monument to Middle Eastern cookery, is planning to move to larger quarters in early April. Abu Rami, chef and part owner, says the new digs, located less than two blocks east, on the corner of Lorain and West 125th Street,…
Air Apparent
If Hollywood could design the perfect hedonistic pop star, equal parts pretty boy and hell-raiser, Third Eye Blind’s Stephan Jenkins would be their man. With an affinity for fast cars and fast women, he’s exactly the kind of guy that people like Kurt Cobain used to rail against. Brash, playful, and unapologetic, Jenkins isn’t bogged…
Wary o’ the Green
Mossy Moran is getting thirsty. He’s a few Irish rebel songs into his first set at the Castlebar Inn, a small pub near Kamm’s Corners, but he’s not about to wait until he’s finished playing his song. Moran grabs the full pint of stout from the barstool in front of him with his teeth, lifts…
Runaway Successes
“Mike Tyson is here,” Donna A. (née Brett Anderson), lead singer for the Ramones-inspired Donnas, relates via phone from a Waffle House on their way to their first-ever Albuquerque appearance. “Every tour has had a theme. The last one was the “Fitness Tour,’ because we thought that our label thought we were too fat. All…
The Gunga Din, The Connection, and Eugene Iowa
Driving halfway across the country to play to an empty bar is every independent musician’s worst nightmare, and the New York City-based quintet Gunga Din, which has received much acclaim in its hometown, came to the harsh realization that it was a long way from home as it played to the half-empty Grog Shop. Led…
Mr. Smith Goes to Milwaukee
Things have a way of spinning further out of control the harder you work on them. What was supposed to be for director Chris Smith a short side project “about an unknown filmmaker in Wisconsin” turned instead into a four-year project that resulted in a feature-length documentary, American Movie. Or take the subject of American…
Eels
On 1998’s Electro-Shock Blues, Eels frontman E chronicled his family’s tragic period of loss. His sister’s downward spiral to suicide and his mother’s long illness leading up to her death made for a depressing listen. But through the pain, E managed to wring out a tinge of optimism. It’s a highly intense and personal work,…
A Dog’s Life
Chagrin Falls author Sandra Philipson is used to wide-eyed audiences encountering her work. Whether it’s the lay public trying to wade through a medical informed-consent document she helped a doctor dumb down or a child entranced by tales of her springer spaniels, the level of concentration is similar for both groups. It will be the…
Sex Mob
Steven Bernstein draws on an odd combination of influences, including New Orleans R&B, marching band music, and traditional jazz, on his new Sex Mob album. Most performances are relatively brief, and ensemble work, rather than long solos, is emphasized. Sex Mob’s music has a riotous, good-humored quality. Led by Bernstein on slide trumpet and mellophone,…
Boobs a Lot
The film is called Erin Brockovich, but it might as well be titled Julia Roberts. Never before in the actress’s erratic career has a film been so custom-made for her; it’s as though a screenwriter has been replaced by a seamstress who knows Roberts’s every curve. No matter that she plays an out-of-work single mother…
Patti Smith
After a pair of astonishing comeback albums that chronicled her creative resilience and emotional strength, punk poetess Patti Smith has emerged from the long, dark teatime of her soul with a new outlook and a new sonic temperament. Widely seen as the completion of the trilogy that began with her reemergence after a hiatus from…
