Carol Klinger will take on the Gay Godfather of Summit County
Carol Klinger For months now, Senator Kevin Coughlin has been leading an effort to oust Alex Arshinkoff from his Summit County GOP chairmanship. though he’s been vociferous about his opposition, Coughlin’s been mum about who he’s putting up against the party godfather. Today, Coughlin finally put that matter to rest. Carol Klinger announced that she…
Countdown to Opening Day: ESPN ranks five Indians among the 50 best young players
Jhonny Peralta at No. 21? With the kind of defense he plays? Rob Neyer of ESPN.com put together a list of the top 50 players to watch for in the next five years. With self-imposed limits of no minor league prospects and a focus on players in their 20s who will be great for the…
WTF? Convention centers are the VHS of civic investment ideas
Commissioner Jimmy Dimora is investing $903 million in an industry that was down 40 percent before the depression. Fortunately, he’s doing it with your money, not his. In their ongoing quest to blowtorch your wallet, then stomp it to death while doing Cherokee war cries, Cuyahoga County commissioners may have fashioned their worst deal yet…
Mic Check: Avril Lavigne at CSU’s Wolstein Center on Wednesday
It’s been six years since Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated” came out — six long years. These days, Lavigne fans shrug indifferently when the Canadian singer performs the song in concert. They reserve their loudest cheers for “Girlfriend” and other songs from last year’s The Best Damn Thing. Avril’s grown up (she’s married and owns a multimillion-dollar…
This Just In: Dave Matthews, Foo Fighters lead the week’s concert announcements
Dave Matthews broods at Blossom in July. This week, 54 new shows, delivered to you under sniper fire. The biggest shows of the summer are here, including a full Warped Tour lineup, the Dave Matthews Band, Maroon 5 & Counting Crows, Poison, Jonny Lang, Iron Maiden, and the Foo Fighters. Big club shows from the…
Dick Feagler: Why don’t National City execs kill themselves?
Today’s topic: Dick thinks National City is run by a bunch of fairies… I was at the coffee shop, and the guys all agree: Bankers these days are light in the loafers. Why, back in my day, bankers weren’t prancers like the ones they have today. If you were the chairman of National City back…
Mae to do pre-show unplugged set and meet-and-greet at Agora tonight
Before their show at the Agora Ballroom (5000 Euclid Ave., 216-881-6911) tonight, Mae will make a special pre-show appearance at the club. The Virginia Beach emo/rock band will play an acoustic set, meet and greet fans, and participate in a Q&A session. The additional $5 cover benefits Habitat for Humanity, a charity that builds homes…
Hello, Cleveland: This Week’s Concert Calendar
No fewer than 62 shows to choose from this week, and Spring isn’t even here yet. Former teen punk queen Avril Lavinge is gonna rock the Wolstein – go ahead, try to act like you don’t like “Girlfriend.” Blues fans, Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express is bringing B-3 action to Nighttown. And Broadway’s Bernadette Peters brings…
Small wonder: Flying Fig chef shares recipe with Food & Wine world
Expect Karen Small’s recipe in Food & Wine to show up at her Ohio City gem, the Flying Fig. Apparently not content merely to own one of the city’s top restaurants, chef Karen Small (Flying Fig) has turned to tempting the entire nation’s tastebuds, with her recipe for Goat Cheese Mousse with Red-Wine Caramel, featured…
Mick Boogie’s House of Blues birthday gets Lebronified
The Chosen One followed his small entourage through the crowd and to a little corner of the room, where he began to, well, stand there, like some guy at a party. When you and I throw a birthday party, we toss all of our clothes from the floor of our living room into our closet,…
In Lorain, the beauty of the paid vacation known as ‘administrative leave’
Cleveland may have seen its snowiest March in history, but try telling that to Lance Desvari, Lorain’s building chief. It’s been one month since Lorain police began investigating Desvari on charges of dereliction of duty, intimidation and issuing improper building permits. And from the looks of it, Desvari’s sins may require another two months to…
PD election board story: Exhibit A why people don’t trust the mainstream media
Any worker who hears the full story will only want to know why this man wasn’t beaten with a hockey stick. On Sunday, The Plain Dealer reported that Ohio Republicans are mighty pissed over the dismissal of Alex Arshinkoff from the Summit County Board of Elections. Earlier this month, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner refused…
Mic Check: British Sea Power at the Grog Shop on Wednesday
A little pretension tossed into guitar-powered tunes about the Larsen B ice shelf. Way before Vampire Weekend started singing about Mansard roofs, Oxford commas, and other things that need Googling, England’s British Sea Power was writing songs about some super-lofty subjects. Russian literature, historical figures, and tons of nautical themes run throughout the band’s three…
Slideshow: Anne E. DeChant’s farewell performance at the Winchester
Last night in Cleveland: Anne E. DeChant’s heading to Nashville For more than two decades, singer-songwriter Anne E. DeChant has been a Cleveland institution. First, as leader of Odd Girl Out; then as a popular solo artist. Her 2006 CD, Girls and Airplanes, was a hit in Nashville. So DeChant is packing her bags and…
Michael Symon, Iron Chef and master of Lola, named finalist for Beard Foundation’s Best Chef award
Mike Symon, a James Beard finalist whose specialties include mac ‘n’ cheese. Now that’s reppin’ Cleveland. It’s official. For the second year running, our own Iron Chef, Michael Symon (Lola, Lolita), has been listed among the nation’s top toques, nominated as one of the Best Chefs in the Great Lakes by the James Beard Foundation.…
WTF? Funding the Medical Mart, Ken Lay style
When told about the deal in an interview from Hell, Ken Lay let out a hearty chortle of admiration In their ongoing quest to blowtorch your wallet, then stomp it to death while doing Cherokee war cries, Cuyahoga County commissioners may have fashioned their worst deal yet to build a new convention center/medical mart in…
Slideshow: The night LeBron became the Cavs’ all-time leading scorer
Okay, so we know the guy can score. But can’t he do something about the beer prices at the Q? On Saturday night, LeBron James became the Cavs’ all-time leading scorer in a game against Toronto. Action Rock Photographer Walter Novak was there to capture the ground-breaking moment with his latest slideshow.
PD story unveils the truth behind National City’s self-inflicted wounds
The Plain Dealer is no longer soft-peddling National City implosion. In case you missed it, The Plain Dealer ran a wonderful story in its Forum section yesterday about the demise of National City. In the past, the paper has soft-peddled the bank’s self-inflicted wounds, at one point referring to how it was “sucker punched,” as…
Countdown to Opening Day: Seven Days Until Snow Angels, Mittens
Tribe fans, we’re only a week away from Opening Day, and as I look out the window and still see snow, I can only wonder if this year’s festivities will be anything like last year’s snowy debacle. Hopefully not, but the grounds crew should keep the leaf blowers handy, just in case, because the ten…
C-Notes’ Entertainment Picks of the Week
The stage version of The Color Purple comes to Playhouse Square Every Monday, Scene calendar editor Cris Glaser provides a random but reliable sampling of things to do in the week ahead. For more options, log onto entertainment.clevescene.com. And check back Friday for C-Notes’ Picks of the Week. Monday: Five Russian artists depict their post-Soviet…
Free Music Monday: Metallica live at the Agora, 1983
Metallica has made a Cleveland show from 1983 available for free on their website. Metallica made their name as the thrash-metal greats, and later turned into one of the world’s biggest rock and roll bands. But they’re more recently known for ratting out Napster users who downloaded their tracks without paying, meaning they’ll surely be…
New rules to keep the Cavs from sucking down the stretch
Wally’s Rule: No dribbling. And, dude, leave your shirt on, eh? In his blog entry following the Cavs’ loss to Milwaukee on Saturday, Brian Windhorst mentioned that Anderson Varejao needs a rule when it comes to his role in the offense. Wrote Windy: “Before Anderson Varejao wanted to prove he was a scorer he led…
Mailbag: Scene’s food critic tells an out-of-towner exactly where to go
As Scene’s expert on all things delish, restaurant critic Elaine Cicora gets a lot of email, and she tries to answer all of it. Occasionally, it’s worth sharing: I was born in Cleveland and have not been there for over 40 years. My older sister, me, and my younger sister are coming back home next…
Arnold Schwarzenegger snubs Kelly Pavlik. Arnold Schwarzenegger sucks.
This guy thinks he’s cooler than Kelly Pavlik. He also uses Twisted Sister for his theme songs. Isn’t he a bouncer at Shooter’s? The annual Arnold Sports Festival, held every March in Columbus, is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s chance to take a break from being Arnold in California to celebrate being Arnold in Ohio. He gets to…
The first 100 hours of David Quolke’s new war
Schools CEO Colonel Sanders better tread lightly. There’s a new union chief in town. David Quolke is preparing for battle. The newly elected Cleveland Teacher’s Union president plans to hit the district with a blunt forearm of diplomacy. After his April 25 swearing in, he’s promising the first one-hundred hours will be productive. We assume…
Welcome home, son. Now we’re going to steal your stuff.
Donald Black Jr. returned to home sweet home, where we naturally stole all his stuff. Donald Black, Jr. was trying to do the right thing. The photographer’s work has been shown in New York, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. But last fall, he decided to move back home to the East Side of Cleveland. He grew up…
For March Madness lovers, the Boss Button is a gift from on high
If you’re one of the many people who spend their work days sitting in front of a computer, the recent introduction of live web broadcasts has no doubt made your life a little brighter. And if you’re a college basketball fan, this new feature holds special importance over the next few weeks. With March Madness…
‘4 Minutes’ in Heaven with Madonna
Heard the new Madonna song, “4 Minutes”? It’s good: cool breakdown in the middle, Justin Timberlake channeling Michael Jackson, and producer Timbaland in full wika-wika mode. We’re pretty sure it’s gonna be huge. Madonna’s new album, Hard Candy, comes out on April 29. In the meantime, give “4 Minutes” a spin below. — Michael Gallucci
Picks of the Weekend: Bold-colored belts and blue paint are all the rage this weekend
Every Friday, Scene calendar editor Cris Glaser provides a random but reliable sampling of things to do this weekend. For more options, log onto entertainment.clevescene.com. And check back Monday for C-Notes’ Picks of the Week. Friday: Take your turn at the joystick on the latest Call of Duty, Rock Band, and Super Smash Brothers games…
Mic Check: The Cribs at the Grog Shop on Sunday
The Cribs are three British brothers who have a lot in common with the Arctic Monkeys. They like going out to clubs, drinking way too much, hitting on girls, and, more often than not, heading home alone (by the end of the night, they just can’t muster the enthusiasm to talk to girls, let alone…
Ripper Watch: Tim “Ripper” Owens rocks the world
Judas Priest/Iced Earth singer Tim “Ripper” Owens is hard to keep up with, but C-Notes is trying to stay abreast: We’ve learned that Ripper recently recorded a tribute to slain Pantera/Damageplan guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott, with some other metal heavyweight: Shadows Fall drummer Jason Bittner and former Megadeath bassist David Ellefson. The song is slated…
Elyria woman hawks Jesus-shaped fish sticks on eBay, has some serious explaining to do
Holy. Holy. Holy. It’s all one needs to explain the miracle of Christ that Elyria resident Victoria Landis found in her freezer recently. According to an Associated Press report, this is what went down: “I went to cook them one day and I poured them out into the pan and there were three kind of…
Michelada Madness: Drinking in spring’s arrival at Ohio City’s Momocho
Chalk it up to spring fever, but we just can’t get our mind off micheladas, those zesty, zany Mexican concoctions of beer, ice, salt, lime, Worcestershire sauce, and Tabasco. According to Eric Williams, chef-owner of Ohio City’s Momocho (1835 Fulton Road), the drink — poured over ice and served in a salt-rimmed glass — was…
Hello, Cleveland: The Weekend’s Concert Calendar
The Blue Man Group plays the Q for this weekend’s biggest show, which, trust us, is worth seeing; we know it sounds cheesy, but it kicks ass. If you’re not into painted men, Cleveland icon Anne E. DeChant plays here final full-band gig before leaving. And Superstar DJ HeavyGrinder spins accessible techno that sounds as…
The Real Housewives of NYC should really be flying to Chardon
Real Housewife of NYC, meet a real housewife from Ohio, who could kick your ass at a scrambled egg cookoff. On a recent Tuesday night Laylah Figueroa, the general manager of Slender You Spa in Chardon, was watching the Bravo reality show The Real Housewives of New York City with her husband. The program featured…
New convention center: Another gift for Sam Miller?
Sam Miller, seen here laughing about the time he bit off the head of a really cute bunny. It’s a funny story. Ask him to tell it sometime. For the past few days, we’ve been treated to a series of glowing Plain Dealer articles about the city’s new convention center and Medical Mart plans. County…
Al Sharpton, hoping to kill Canton’s Hall of Fame Game, enlists Pacman Jones
Come on down, folks! It’s time for another round of Follow the Tortured Logic of a Reverend with Bad Hair! The Associated Press reported this week that Al Sharpton is upset with the police department in Canton, the proud home of football’s Hall of Fame and one sweet McDonald’s Playland. And, once again proving our…
South by Southwest in six words or less
We’re still recovering from last week’s SXSW festivities. Too much beer, too much sun, too much beer in the sun. The one thing we didn’t get too much of was all the music happening in Austin. But with thousands of bands performing over four days at hundreds of clubs, there were only so many places…
If Kent State loses to UNLV, Sidelines has the beer specials to dull the pain
Wear your blue-and-gold today if you plan to root on Kent State on with Mike Abdoo and his ex-college roomies at Brunswick’s Sidelines Sports Bar & Grill. The club’s 12 big screens are going to blare the ESPN broadcast of KSU’s game against Nevada-Las Vegas in the first round of the NCAA tourney at 2:55…
Census: Cuyahoga County losing more population than any large county
Hellooooooooo? Is there anyone out there?
Money Where Your Mouth Is: Fenian at Peabody’s on Saturday
In case you need one more reason to see the hardcore show of the year: For this week’s Money Where Your Mouth Is, C-Notes passes the mic to Fenian, mostly because if we get it wrong, they’re definitely the type to make us pay for it later. No, seriously. These Cleveland hardcore veterans found inspiration…
Learn how to racially profile and accept graft at Cleveland’s Citizen Police Academy!
You know how cops are always dragging you out of your vehicle and beating you because you’re black? Well, if such finer points of law enforcement interest you, we have the perfect learning experience for you! In April, the Cleveland Police Department will be holding two free seven-week “Citizen Police Academies.” …
Restaurant of the Weekend: Christopher’s Aurora Bistro
It’s been a tough winter, and while the calendar says spring is finally here, you couldn’t prove it by looking out the window. Don’t fight it. Just take it as an excuse to keep enjoying hearty, rustic fare this weekend –dishes like braised short ribs, lamb shanks, and osso buco, which make cold weather almost…
If celebs moved to Ohio: a mass email worth opening
C-Notes couldn’t help but chuckle over the newest Ohio-centric e-mail forward making the rounds. Through artful and imaginative application of Photoshop, we get a harrowing vision of what celebs might look like if they relocated to the Buckeye state. It’s unknown if the original creators of the photos or perhaps the Powerpoint mavericks who created…
O’Brien Factor: Kevin fears Obama’s race speech was full of hidden blackness
We read Kevin O’Brien so you don’t have to … Column: Obama’s response to Rev. Wright is a split decision Topic: Kevin’s stern disapproval, and savvy decoding, of Barack Obama’s race speech Kevin’s Sanity Level Today: 47 percent What Your Head Would Feel Like if You Read it Yourself: Ever see that video of Fabio…
Murderer or Martin Sweeney lackey? This, alas, is your choice for city council
The voters in Cleveland’s Ward 6 narrowed their choices for a new City Council member down to two on Tuesday, and boy are the options tempting. Underdog John Boyd is a convicted murderer, and front-runner Mamie Mitchell is supported by Council President Martin Sweeney, Cleveland’s leading sexual harasser. Let’s think about this for a minute.…
Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner gets JFK Award; Republicans blow a fuse
Crusading Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner on Wednesday received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Brunner was recognized for her efforts in providing paper ballots to Ohioans during the March 4th presidential primary, and for openly questioning the reliability of electronic voting machines. While the award might have caught some by surprise,…
Come celebrate the King of Persia’s decision not to kill us!
Purim is the Jews version of Halloween, with a little bit of St. Patrick’s Day spirit thrown in for good measure. The holiday, which takes place on Thursday, commemorates the time when Persian Jews were almost killed off by the evil Haman, an anti-Semite who held some kind of important political post back in the…
Back away from that Easter egg, kid. The Chinese got ahold of the lead again
Ahhh, Easter. Time to air out the frilly, pastel dresses. Time for cute five year olds in mini Gap khakis to hunt park grounds for plastic eggs. Time for hundreds of kids to… be rushed to the hospital with lead poisoning?! That’s what an Ashland University professor is worried about. An informal study produced by…
Cleveland Teachers Union’s new leaders talking tough
Give Hoffa an apple and a denim jumper, and basically you get a CTA union steward. Tracy Radich, the newly elected Sergeant at Arms for Cleveland Teacher’s Union, is seriously pumped. She feels like the union finally elected a group of executives who will meet the needs of teachers. This new group, led by Dave…
Death Cab for Cutie’s ‘Narrow Stairs’ — standard-issue dreampop with one lengthy nightmare
Death Cab for Cutie has a new album coming out on May 13. It’s called Narrow Stairs, and by all accounts, it’s pretty much the same indie-pop wispiness the Washington band has been making for a decade now. Except, that is, for the CD’s first single, which is an eight-plus-minute behemoth called “I Will Possess…
Some black readers go sphincter over LeBron’s Vogue cover
On Monday, we reported that LeBron James had become only the third man to be featured on the cover of Vogue. The photo features a snarling James with his arms around supermodel Gisele Bundchen. It seems like a run-of-the-mill celeb magazine photo. LeBron’s looking like a basketball player, and Gisele’s looking like your standard prancing…
LeBron James Leave-o-Meter: It was just dinner with Hova. Or was it?
The Latest Sign of Impending Doom: Cavs lost to New Jersey 104-99 at the Izod Center in East Rutherford. LeBron had dinner with Jay-Z the night before in New York, and then played patty-cake with Jigga Man after the game. How it Went Down in Cleveland’s Mind: It was just dinner, right? Wrong! Clearly they…
Moveable Feasts: Anatolia Café moves on; Peking Gourmet lives on
After months of delays, Yashar Yildirim’s Anatolia Café has finally made the move from its former digs in a soon-to-be demolished South Euclid strip mall to a handsomely remodeled space in Cleveland Heights. Find the new Anatolia, and its daily lunch and dinner menus of Turkish delights, at 2270 Lee Road, 216-321-4400. …
$13 at … Lola
Lola’s fried bologna is signature Symon. In this weekly feature, C-Notes stretches your dollar at restaurants around the region, just in case the Great Depression hits but you still want to impress that hottie from accounts receivable. This week … Lola 2058 E. 4th Street, Cleveland, (216) 621-5652, www.lolabistro.com For Scene’s full review, click here.…
Kevin Pollak tops the week in Cleveland comedy
Unless you recognize a comedian’s name as That Girl From that Movie or the Dude from That One HBO Special, it can be hard to tell whether a stand-up is worth seeing. Lucky you: Scene did the legwork, and the skinny on this week’s big comedy shows, video included, is just a click away. –…
Tree huggers go corporate with Eaton spokesman
Remember the good old days when green activists were hemp-wearing hippies who enjoyed getting tear-gassed at WTO meetings? It was a time Kevin O’Brien would have loved, the days when few believed in global warming because it occasionally got cold outside. Environmentalists who spread the message of doom and gloom had to employ nuns just…
Living-room rock
On his latest CD, There’s No Love in This War, the Gunshy refers to letters his grandpa wrote from the battlefront during World War II to a girl back home in Pennsylvania. And with titles like “Jule, I’m Not Ready to Die” and “I Shot a Man,” the songs speak for themselves about the harsh…
Finally, a Cleveland cure for the sneakerhead cult
The men hustling into the Independence Holiday Inn are skipping like British schoolchildren, trying to keep the slush from ruining the prized possessions on their feet. They’ve been waiting months for this day. Mother Nature is not cooperating. They head to a convention room that’s filled with the scent of freshly processed leather, like a…
Meshuggah
Meshuggah divides listeners. Some think the metal band’s music all sounds the same; others are consistently surprised by its intricately played tech-thrash. Both sides have a point. There’s little change from one Meshuggah album to the next. Practically every song builds on the same foundation of jackhammer drumming and percussive, cyclical guitar riffing, while mono-everything…
Made to Mimic
You probably recognize Kevin Pollak as Tom Cruise’s mouthy sidekick from A Few Good Men or as a baddie from The Usual Suspects or The Whole Nine Yards. But when he’s not on a movie set, the 50-year-old San Francisco native tours the country with his gag bag of celebrity impersonations that he fine-tuned as…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Arcadia — Playwright Tom Stoppard is smarter than you. A lot smarter. And he never lets you forget it in this play, now being presented by the Case/Cleveland Play House MFA Graduate Ensemble. Directed by Ron Wilson, set in one room, and split into two eras separated by almost 200 years, Arcadia raises many densely…
Jack Peñate
London singer-songwriter Jack Peñate may remind you of Billy Bragg. It’s not just the thickly accented delivery (which falls somewhere between overwhelming glee and heartbreaking resignation), but also the way both troubadours write about love like it’s the only thing that matters. That’s not to say love is all the 22-year-old Peñate sings about on…
Some things shine at Akron’s Big City Chophouse. If only the food was one of them.
The space is urbane, the service attentive at Akron’s Big City Chophouse — the newest entry in downtown’s “casually upscale” dining scene. And when the day finally arrives when the food is as polished as the vibe, the spot is apt to be a knockout. For now, though, visitors will have to make do with…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
ONGOING Black and Blue — Judith Brandon’s work is about control — and about losing it. It’s hard to tell whether the dribbles and streaks of inky color that make up her atmospheric landscapes are serendipitous or the marks of an exceptionally skilled hand. In “Hurricane,” she applies horizontal bands of deep indigo that bleed…
Sons & Daughters
This Scottish quartet (two guys, two girls) doesn’t really have anything new to say. It’s all in the delivery. Singer Adele Bethel excitedly tears through each song like she can’t wait to get to the next one. On its second album, Sons & Daughters dips into a whole lotta retro noise: ’60s girl-groups here, doo-wop…
The 1900s
The 1900s: If you dig Belle & Sebastian and the Arcade Fire, here’s your band. The coed combo plays breezy orchestral pop that’s way more pop than orchestra. The press materials that accompany the new Cold & Kind album claim the record wasn’t made in 1967, but we’re not so sure we believe it. If…
Holes, Karamu Theatre’s clumsy adaptation of the book and Disney flick, leaves the story in tatters
It’s exceedingly rare for a movie to be turned into a play, and many of the reasons for that are on display in Holes, now at the Karamu Performing Arts Theatre. Written by Louis Sachar, the man who won awards for the original young people’s novel and the Disney movie adaptation of the same name,…
The Teenagers
Imagine a really awful soundtrack to an equally horrible fashion show, and you’ve got a pretty good idea what the debut album by the Paris-based Teenagers sounds like. The trio mines a bunch of late-’80s/early-’90s Britpop on Reality Check, but it all ends up sounding like leftovers from one of New Order’s blah ’00 comebacks.…
BoomBox
The producer/DJ-guitarist/singer combo BoomBox is like an all-out big-room DJ show that’s actually fun. The duo’s all-encompassing groove is in demand, and live shows sell out all over the country. It’s a trance-like experience that’s finding a crossover crowd of techo heads and jam-band fans, and for good reason: Zion Rock Godchaux, the live musician…
Ben Fambrough, former Sans Souci chef, moves closer to opening a dream kitchen on Larchmere
We’ve missed Ben Fambrough since the talented chef left downtown’s Sans Souci in August. During his six-year tenure, he illuminated the restaurant’s menu with a deft mix of classical technique and top-notch ingredients. Still, you can’t fault a guy for wanting to do his own thing, and since his departure, Fambrough has launched a catering…
Sean Mic
New Heights is the promising debut EP from Cleveland rapper-producer Sean Mic. The seven-song disc is full of head-bobbing beats that are layered with jazzy basslines and trippy guitar samples. He’s also pretty talented on the mic. His flow is clearly inspired by East Coast MCs like Nas and Ghostface Killah, and he channels Wu-Tang’s…
Justice Maureen O’Connor says campaign money doesn’t affect her
In 2006, the Ohio Supreme Court found itself sweating beneath the national spotlight. The New York Times had run a damning article detailing how the court routinely favors those providing hefty campaign contributions. According to the paper’s research, justices ruled on behalf of donors 70 percent of the time. Some, like Terrence O’Donnell of Rocky…
The History Boys are in session at the Beck Center and earning an A for execution
The trauma, hope, and withering grind of being in high school is familiar to us all, but few have functioned at the heady level of the gifted English school lads in The History Boys. Still, the script by Alan Bennett makes their world richly accessible, and this Beck Center production is so consistently superior that…
No Nadertini?
Every March for five years, Budapest Blonde owner Ilona Simon has celebrated the NCAA basketball tournament by naming certain martinis after the teams. But with the presidential election this year, she’s opted to christen the drinks after Barack, Hillary, and John for tonight’s March Madness Martini Tasting. “It’s a twist on the election, with martinis…
Owen Wilson’s a bad fit for an ass-kicking bodyguard in Drillbit Taylor.
Rare is the star-vehicle that is as poorly matched to its star as Drillbit Taylor, which casts Owen Wilson as a homeless army deserter and con man, able to fool people into believing he’s both a substitute teacher and a master of hand-to-hand combat. It’s a part that requires bluster, and Wilson’s laid-back delivery just…
Hot Rails
On its full-length debut, rip-roarin’ Hot Rails plays the kind of punky, country-fried, bluesy rock that takes root so easily in the city’s cloudy climate; under Cleveland’s gray skies, this quintet makes its own heat. Providing hardcore beats for back-alley poetry, Charlie Druesedow guns his drums like a V8, and the roughshod chords of “Bitchin’…
The O Network
New York native Jeannette Bayardelle clearly remembers the day she was going to meet the new producer of The Color Purple on Broadway. Little did she know that she was about to shake hands with one of her talk-show idols, Oprah Winfrey. “I was sitting in the dressing room. There were these cameras, lights, and…
Caramel, Nadine Labaki’s film about fighting for forbidden love in Lebanon, became a film-festival favorite
The multiply blessed young Lebanese writer-director Nadine Labaki looks sublimely like Anna Magnani crossed with Penélope Cruz. More important, she has the brass and the chops to not only direct her first film, but also star in it. In Caramel, Labaki plays a Beirut beautician stewing in a dead-end affair with a married man, while…
Trampled by Turtles
Minnesota’s Trampled by Turtles has been called the Ramones of bluegrass music. Since its 2004 debut, Songs From a Ghost Town, the band has gathered plenty of touring miles under its collective shell. The Turtles are especially popular on the summer-festival circuit, but the guys are just as at home playing punk-rock basement shows. They…
From Russia, With Paint
Margarita Shuster has been keeping tabs on artists from her native Russia ever since she immigrated to Cleveland 19 years ago. So it’s fitting that she would make room in her art gallery for New Arrivals, a 25-piece exhibit of oil paintings, watercolors, and etchings by five Eastern European artists, including Ukranian Andrei Protsouk, who…
Ohio may be discovering that bagging on homos is bad for business
For the fourth time, state Senator Dale Miller (D-Cleveland) has introduced legislation that would make it illegal to discriminate against gays and lesbians in Ohio. In the past, the chances of his bills passing were akin to Vegas’ odds on Jay-Z dumping Beyoncé for Donald Rumsfeld. But something very weird is happening in Columbus: “I…
Crystal Castles
Crystal Castles began in late 2003 as a twitchy electronic project for multi-instrumentalist Ethan Kath. By mid-2005, an accidental single catapulted it into a blogospheric frenzy. A random microphone test featuring collaborator Alice Glass eventually ended up on Kath’s MySpace page as “Alice Practice.” Soon, everybody from Pitchfork to Spin was writing about the duo.…
Snob Sisters
In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the Bennet sisters’ overbearing mom and pissed-off dad don’t make matters any easier as the siblings are wooed by a couple of handsome suitors. A cavalcade of rumors and class struggles in 19th-century England also gets in the way of the relationships. “It’s all about the education of the…
Fuzzy Fights
Sometimes it’s the terrible ideas — say, a TV show about nothing, or stirring corn into your mashed potatoes — that turn out to be genius. Super Smash Bros. landed on the Nintendo 64 nearly 10 years ago, kicking off a concept that initially sounded nauseating: “lovable Nintendo characters in a fight to the death.”…
Anne E. DeChant
After two decades as a full-time musician in her native Cleveland, singer-songwriter Anne E. DeChant is taking her career to the next level: She’s moving to country-music mecca Nashville, which embraced her 2006 CD, Girls and Airplanes. But the outspoken DeChant would never leave without saying goodbye to the legions of local fans who’ve supported…
Park & Rides
Potato-sack slides and Tilt-a-Whirls invade the 20-acre I-X Center this weekend for the start of the annual Indoor Amusement Park. While it’s still too early to think about Cedar Point, the indoor carnival offers 60 rides that are bound to cure your cabin fever. And it’s not just for kids. There’s also a “parents’ pavilion”…
Akron’s Matinee club starts Cleveland outpost
One of the more enduring figures in Akron nightlife has set up a franchise. Last week, Mario Nemr opened a second Matinee club at 2527 West 25th Street, the Ohio City location that was formerly the blues/jazz spot 2527. Nemr opened the first Matinee in Akron’s Highland Square in 2006, after booking, managing, and spinning…
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ill-fated Street Survivors tops this week’s pop-culture picks
TOP PICK — Lynyrd Skynyrd: Street Survivors — Deluxe Edition — 30th Anniversary (Geffen/UME) Three days after Street Survivors was released in October 1977 (yeah, this 30th-anniversary reissue is off by a few months), a plane crash ended the original lineup of these legendary southern rockers. It remains a fitting finale. This two-CD set includes…
Tusco Terror
Tusco Terror noisemaker Stoney compares his band’s live shows to “falling into a zone. Sometimes it comes together, and sometimes it doesn’t.” Sounds a lot like other groups’ work models. But for this local quintet, it’s literally true: The guys never know what shape their songs will take onstage . . . or on record,…
Designer Dude
So you don’t make a fashion faux pas this season, here are a few pointers from Waki Wear designer Vaughn Glover: Silvers and grays are the new black, bold-colored accessories are the bomb, and safari prints are now the party clothes of choice. “They’re very affordable and unique,” says Tony Harris, who’s helping launch Glover’s…
Bombay Quagmire
How’s this for a gut punch? Your employer ships your job off to a bunch of lackeys in India, and he asks you to fly there to train them. That’s the premise of the John Jeffcoat-directed Outsourced, in which a manager for a novelty company is sent to a small town outside Bombay to teach…
Progressively Political
“How Progressive insurance lost what made it progressive,” March 12 Company atmosphere? Overtly aggressive: Progressive beat me into submission. I used to be a free-thinker and contribute ideas and suggestions. Now I lie in the shadows, afraid of making decisions. We have no standard procedures, just a patchwork of contradicting e-mails and counterarguments that muddy…
The Cribs
The Cribs are three British brothers whose first two albums didn’t make much of an impression in the States — mainly because they weren’t released here. But the new Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever slams down one killer riff after another, igniting both their career and Britpop in the process. Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos plays…
Mussel Men
Mussels drummer Brody Boyer admits it’s the first time he’s ever been in a band that “had its shit together.” To say the least. The quartet is on its first national tour, which included a stop at Austin’s SXSW music festival last week. They’ve also released their self-produced and hand-numbered CD, Little Voices. “It has…
Pillow Talk
By the time he dies, Tim Miller calculates he’ll have slept in at least 1,000 hotel rooms after all his book-signing tours throughout the Midwest. And the self-christened “queer performer” has been obsessing about it ever since he was a kid. “The idea thrilled me as a boy, since I loved being in bed greatly…
Avril Lavigne has had a bitch of a year, but she hopes a new tour will bring back the fun
Remember when people were calling Avril Lavigne the great grrrrl hope? Remember when Women-Who-Rock-minded scribes got all excited by Lavigne’s punked-up image on the cover of 2002’s multiplatinum debut, Let Go? Remember when feminists cheered along to songs on 2004’s Under My Skin, which included lines like “Don’t think that your charm and the fact…
Tilly & the Wall
Omaha’s Tilly & the Wall doesn’t have a drummer. But the band’s figured out a way to lay down the beat just the same: Member Jamie Pressnall provides percussive rhythms by tap-dancing. Yes, tap-dancing. Left to the wrong feet, it could all turn into a gimmicky, indie-pop version of Riverdance. But the five cute and…
Lions Awake Tonight
After the success of its debut album, Volume One, a major record label knocked on Lions’ door with a less-than-appealing proposition. The Austin quartet declined. “They wanted us to hone in our sound and direct it out, rather than expanding it,” says Matt Drenik, the band’s singer. “They said, to make it commercially appealing, they…
Band of Gold
The five-comic Friends With Benefits improv troupe pimps for laughs and a few bucks tonight in the Flats, to help the Shaw High School Marching Band pony up $300,000 to play at the Summer Olympics in Beijing this summer. The plan just might work: In January, the ensemble raised $1,000 to send to the Dominican…
His record company dead, Pitbull can focus on his career
Cuban American rapper Pitbull made his first appearance on the celebrity-news website TMZ.com recently. And it was for the worst possible reason: He was hit in the head with a bottle while performing at a San Antonio club. He left the stage almost immediately, but returned with a blood-soaked towel held to his noggin, challenging…
British Sea Power
U.K. indie-rockers British Sea Power were Ivy League smarty-pants way before Vampire Weekend came on the scene. On their 2003 debut, The Decline of British Sea Power, they penned melancholy songs about old-school Russian literature and obscure historical figures. On the new Do You Like Rock Music?, British Sea Power picks up the pace a…
Manual Labor
As Blue Man Group trucks its How to Be a Megastar Tour 2.1 into the Q tonight, it’ll be an Ohio homecoming of sorts for member Michael Rahhal. That’s because the Oklahoma-bred thespian is a 1995 graduate of Ohio University, where he caught the acting bug for live theater. “On top of being classically trained,…
It’s All Good
Matthew Good has been rocking solo ever since his self-titled band broke up in the ’90s. While he’s on tour to promote his third CD, Hospital Music, he’s traveling with only two others: a lighting dude and someone to babysit his guitars while he’s “walking out onstage like Dylan.” “Usually, there’s an illusory disconnection between…
From R.E.M. to Kimya Dawson, South by Southwest 2008 celebrated indie legends past and future
Nowadays, there’s really no place for music fans at South by Southwest. If you were at the four-day music fest in Austin last week, it seemed that you were either in a band, working for a band, promoting a band, or writing about a band. Thousands of artists played; I had time to see only…
Destroyer
Dan Bejar is one of indie-rock’s most accomplished stylists. The Vancouver-based singer and songwriter has honed a vision uniquely his own over the past decade, as both a member of the New Pornographers and as frontman for Destroyer. On the latter group’s eighth album, Trouble in Dreams, Bejar replaces the glam elements that permeated 2006’s…
All in the Family
From the day Tiffany Apan was born, her family knew she’d make a living as a songbird. Her grandparents scored the minor country hit “Whispers” in the ’50s, her dad banged the drums in a couple of rock bands in the ’70s, and her great-aunt, Betty Joy, was a ’40s supermodel, who guest-starred a few…
Opera Divas
L.A. novelist Lisa See resurrects the true story of three women in 17th-century China in Peony in Love. Together, the gals wrote a scathing critique of one of the country’s infamous operas. The catch is that women could only read its libretto, but weren’t allowed to see it performed in public because many thought it…
Airport Director Ricky Smith was supposed to take Hopkins to new heights, but he can’t get anything off the ground
In 2006, just two weeks into his new job, Hopkins Airport Director Ricky Smith made what he thought was a routine decision: He raised airport parking by a buck. The change brought the price back to where it was in 2002. And since it wasn’t something Smith needed to get approved — he was the…
The Kills
The only reason we never suspected that the Kills were actually a techno group is their name. Techno guys would never settle for such a simple moniker. But in retrospect, it makes sense, since the male-female duo never really seemed committed to the guitars-and-drums thing. On Midnight Boom, the Kills ditch the punky blues-rock of…
