Awwwwww! Josh!
Via Josh Cribbs’ Instagram: “It’s been a blessing to be in Cleveland, wishing the best to the city & the Team. If I could stay I would…” He followed that up with a sad-face icon. Excuse us while we use these back issues as hankies.
Internet Cafe Regulations Approved By House, Sent To Senate For Vote
The Ohio House of Representatives passed HB 7 yesterday, giving the green light to Internet cafe regulation and sending the idea along to the Senate for approval. The bill essentially caps sweepstakes prizes at a tall $10 and prohibits cash giveaways. The vote in the House was 66-29. It’s an issue that’s rested among the…
Here’s the Ohio GOP’s Site Trashing Fitzgerald
The Ohio Republican Party has initiated a web campaign to raise awareness about Ed Fitzgerald’s alleged corruption. The site calls Fitzgerald “Public Official 14” and urges people to sign a petition and spread the word of his foul deeds via social media. “Ohio doesn’t want the Cuyahoga County corruption scandal to come to the statehouse,”…
Department of Justice Launches Investigation of Cleveland Division of Police
ERIC SANDY/SCENE Tom Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, announces the investigation into the Cleveland Police Department. The U.S. Department of Justice will launch an independent, external review into the Cleveland Police Department with a goal of determining if there is a pattern of practice of excessive force. Assistant Attorney General for…
Argentinian Cardinal is New Pope
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina is the new Vicar of Christ on earth. He has taken the name Francis I, and is the first Latin American and first member of the Jesuit order to be elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church. At St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Francis issued his…
Nighttown Introduces New Chef, New Menu, New Patio
Nighttown is the only $3.5 million per year restaurant where “nobody eats the food,” jokes owner Brendan Ring. “What puzzles me is that we do 2,500 to 3,000 lunch and dinner covers per week,” he says in response to the commonly held misconception that fans of the place come mainly for the drink and music.…
RTA Bus Collision Downtown
Via the PD, a car trying to make a left turn onto Euclid Avenue from East Fourth Street pulled in front of an RTA HealthLine bus this morning, causing a collision that sent eight people to local hospitals. The bus was driving west on Euclid Avenue at 10:30 a.m. when it collided with the car,…
Updated: Rocky River Institution to Shutter After 24 Years
The Linden Tavern, a Rocky River staple for over 24 years, is closing its doors this Friday. Owner Herb Eglinski confirmed that he and his family are ending their quarter-century run in the space. When asked why, Eglinski mentioned tenancy issues. “Regrettably, we were having too many difficulties with the lease,” he says. First and…
Plain Dealer Predictions By Way Of Syracuse
After bungling Daylight Saving Time production and botching Sunday delivery to many customers, the Post-Standard in Syracuse, N.Y., and the less beloved syracuse.com bear little but negative portents for us in Cleveland. Many customers are getting used to a reality in which newspapers just aren’t delivered in any timely sense at all or, for instance,…
New Food Tour Company Debuts in Cleveland
Cleveland is the next location for the rapidly expanding progressive-dinner outfit known as Dishcrawl. The special-events company launched three years ago in San Jose and has quickly expanded to numerous urban markets. The local branch will be headed up by “Dishcrawl Ambassador” and Cleveland native Sylvie Branch, a Yahoo contributor who covers food and restaurants.…
White Hathaway Brown Teen Missing, Then Found
On Friday afternoon, a school bus deposited Hathaway Brown 8th-grader Devon Smith at her home in Westlake, but she never went inside. That evening, she was reported missing. The Westlake and Shaker Heights Police Departments, along with the Hathaway Brown community and concerned neighbors, were all on the case. Smith’s photo predictably surfaced on Facebook…
Hey! We Can Read Stuff, After All!
Most of you, for better or worse, will be able to read this little news item. The fairly esteemed Central Connecticut State University recently had the good fortune to spell out “Cleveland, OH” on its rankings of the U.S.’s most literate cities. We clock in at 14th, behind such reading meccas as Seattle, Denver, Boston…
Chef Chris Hodgson Nominated by Food & Wine Magazine
Chris Hodgson, chef and partner at Hodge’s Cleveland, has been included in Food & Wine magazine’s The People’s Best New Chef competition. The chef will be competing both in his region — Great Lakes — and the entire nation. He is among 100 outstanding chefs, divided into 10 regions, who will compete for votes from…
Pic: Dump Truck Hits Bridge on I-90
Well, this is a lesson to all dump truck drivers out there: don’t drive down the highway with the trailer raised. There are, ya know, bridges and stuff, and your trailer, should it hit one, could cause the scene you see above. It was early this morning when just such a clusterfuck took place on…
Local Celebrity to Host Live Trivia
Everyone’s favorite Slovenian NFL tackle turned Saved by the Bell: The College Years star is hosting an evening of Sporcle live trivia on March 21 at Bob Golic’s Sports Bar & Grille downtown. The host? Bob Golic himself. He’ll be making his cameo in honor of a trivia round devoted exclusively to Saved by the…
Here’s a Rundown of Major Gund Foundation Grant Recipients
At its winter meeting last week, The George Gund Foundation approved 59 grants for local organizations totaling $10.3 million. Among the more notable: —A grant of $3.75 million to Neighborhood Progress Inc., so they can continue mapping the (evidently very expensive) frontiers of vibrant urban neighborhood development. —A grant of $880,000 to implement CMSD’s Cleveland…
Poll Shows Clevelanders Don’t Floss
“What I’m doing is flossing. This is called floss.” DenTek Oral Care, the company that manufactures those stabby little floss picks that would probably make decent shivs in a pinch, released its hotly anticipated “Look Who’s Flossing” survey on Wednesday, and—shocker!—it turns out Cleveland is the number one “worst city for flossing.” Los Angeles is…
Tremont’s Spotted Owl Given Permission to Take Wing
At last night’s economic development meeting at Tremont West, Will Hollingsworth received 100-percent approval to go ahead with his plans to build out Spotted Owl. At last week’s block club meeting, the project received 96-percent approval, thus clearing the way for the bar’s liquor license transfer. “Now that I’ve got the neighborhood’s blessing, I’m really…
Neighbors’ Battle Over One Family’s Home Nears Its Tired End in Lakewood
It’s a story that alternately makes homeowners around the area yawn and burst out into angst-ridden shudders. A contingent of wealthy homeowners banded together late last year to try and garner approval for the historic designation of a home in the neighborhood. Problem was, the homeowners of that home, the “Heideloff House,” didn’t want that…
State Highway Patrol Busts Cleveland Man For Crack Cocaine Possession
Ohio State Highway Patrol officers stopped a driver in Cleveland last night and – well, *lookee* here – discovered an ounce of crack cocaine stashed in his ’97 T-Bird. Marijuana residue in plain view prompted a probable cause search of the vehicle, according to officers. Willis Bell, 31, was arrested and tossed in Cleveland City…
Do’h! Drug Arrest Nets Zips’ Alex Abreu An Untimely Suspension
Abreu Shortly after the Akron Zips clinched the Mid-American Conference regular season title, point guard Alex Abreu found himself in handcuffs following a trafficking and possession bust for marijuana. …Five pounds of marijuana. …Two third-degree felony charges. He and an 18-year-old buddy were arraigned in court this morning. Bond was set at $5,000. In many…
Chefs Okin and Bostwick Team up on new Restaurant
“This is my last shot,” says chef Brian Okin, only half-jokingly. “All kidding aside, if this doesn’t work, I’m going to stock the shelves at Giant Eagle.” Admittedly, Okin has had a rocky few years as a chef, jumping from his own restaurant Verve to Fountain in Moreland Hills to Luxe in Detroit Shoreway. His…
Reader: Sale of Cleveland Schools Building Would be an Abomination [UPDATE]
[This letter we received back in October, 2011, is especially resonant today. The Missouri-based Drury Southwest hotel chain purchased the historic CMSD headquarters for $4.8 million at auction. They plan to re-purpose the building as 170-180 hotel rooms. The Cleveland school board will review (and likely approve) the bid at their March 12th meeting. School…
First Taste: Swirl Wine Bar
“This is one of the first 10 homes built in Solon,” Richard Aliamo says of the historic structure that now houses Swirl Wine Bar (33325 Bainbridge Rd., 440-349-6900), which opened at the tail end of 2011. Aliamo and his partners Frank Bonsignore and Tom Steinbauer purchased and renovated the classic 1860 cottage home, transforming the…
This Week’s Culinary Calendar
Thursday, March 7The Cleveland Pickle (http://www.clevelandpickle.com), a downtown sub shop, reaches a milestone Thursday, March 7, when it crosses the one-year mark. Popular from the start, the mostly take-out eatery has created a bit of “pickle mania” in C-Town that had even the owners Josh Kabat and Kiaran Daley a bit taken aback. “We knew…
AHH! Battery Acid All Over I-90 Westbound!
Check out these images from the PD’s Gus Chan. They depict chemical agents from batteries that a truck spilled all over 90W. All Westbound lanes are closed for now.
Save the Date: LeBron’s Getting Hitched
LeBron James and high school sweetheart Savannah Brinson are getting married, according to People.com. The ceremony is set for sometime between September 13-15 in San Diego, California. In predictably lavish fashion, the “Royal Couple” have issued “Save the Weekend” pre-invitations in lieu of the more humble Save-the-dates. Reports describe the card’s artwork as a caricature…
Donovan Owens, Rocky River Shooting Suspect, Claims Self-Defense
Owens Donovan Owens, the 21-year-old Cleveland man accused of shooting two men (one fatally) in Rocky River, pursued the claim of self-defense in court. The prosecution didn’t buy it. The PD’s Michael McIntyre writes: “Prosecutors were not swayed by a defense lawyer’s argument that Donovan Owens killed in self defense while in his own vehicle…
Video: Terry Francona Riding a Scooter
Video below from the faraway land of Arizona and spring training where new Tribe skipper has taken to riding a scooter around. He even promises to ride it to The Jake during the season since he lives about a block and a half away from the stadium. No word on whether he’ll eat fried chicken…
Medina City Schools Superintendent Picks Up Massive Bonus
Medina City Schools Superintendent Randy Stepp is sitting pretty right now with a fresh stack of cash. But taxpaying voters are rising up with fury over Stepp’s supersized paycheck and signing bonus. The Medina Gazette has the details surrounding Stepp’s current contract: a bottom line of $186,000 in annual salary and a cool $86,000 just…
Strongsville Realtalk: This is Why Strikes are Dangerous
NewsNet5 Just what the hell is happening in Strongsville? On Tuesday morning, the second day of a teachers’ strike in Cleveland’s southern-suburb-with-a-big-mall-that’s-not-Parma, an angry parent drove through a picket line at Kinser Elementary School in a ‘graze’-and-run. No one was injured. On Monday, frazzled residents called Strongsville High School a war zone. Students likened it…
A Pissing Match Long Overdue
The plight of urban emergency medical service is a study in dire, vague statistics, but it is best illustrated in absolutes: There are never enough medics; there are never enough ambulances; there is never enough time. That’s not 100-percent accurate, but across the nation, city EMS divisions have been stretched so thin that it’s beginning…
Opening: Oz the Great and Powerful
Neither great nor powerful, Sam Raimi’s (Evil Dead, Spider-Man) film about the Wizard of Oz is as much a remake as it is a prequel. And it ultimately succeeds on neither count. James Franco hams it up as Oscar “Oz” Diggs, a Kansas carnival magician who gets in a bit of trouble after seducing the…
Savage Love
Dear Dan — My girlfriend and I read your column religiously, and I have you to thank for being comfortable enough with my kinks to tell her about my interest in BDSM. She is very GGG and has indulged all my kinky fantasies and discovered some of her own. Our latest adventure has her locking…
Sifting Through the Ashes
The Cleveland Museum of Art’s The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection could easily be the subject of a semester of art history. I mean that in a good way. The exhibit gathers together hundreds of objects produced over three centuries by artists fascinated with the ruin of Pompeii, the Roman city buried alive…
Also On Stage This Week
Earth Plays (Part Two of the Elements Cycle) Cleveland Public Theatre This assemblage of short pieces, conceived and directed by nine people and then further developed by nineteen cast members, addresses different aspects of our clusterfucked environment. This is part two of CPT’s Elements Cycle, which began last month with the stunning Water Ways and…
On View This Week
Proximity Passed Lives. Linda Ayala fuses animal and human elements together in fine-grained detail to create semi-comic but emotionally involved portraits. Andy Dreaming wolf uses the techniques of traditional portraiture to depict impossible eccentrics. An opening reception will be held March 8 from 6 to 10 p.m. Through April 26 at 1667 East 40th St.,…
Screens
Sam Raimi has a new film coming out this week called The Great and Powerful Oz. Being a Raimi fan who, just like you, is waiting to see it this weekend, I’ve compiled this week’s column with enough of his work to keep me from fully freaking out until then. Evil Dead (1981, Netflix Streaming)…
The Fuzzy (Warm) Science of a City’s Happiness
The group swells slowly as people trickle into the room. They each comment initially with a jubilant curiosity on how difficult it was to get here. “Well, that shows you’ve got grit and perseverance,” Louis Alloro says with a smile. “At times we thought the whole thing was a test!” one man says. “With all…
PSYCHO SEXUAL
If you think all you need to create laughs on stage is to combine a brainless beach blanket movie with a multiple personality psychodrama and then layer in some quasi-slasher movie shocks, you’d be absolutely right. At least when it comes to Psycho Beach Party by Charles Busch, now at Blank Canvas Theatre. Busch, a…
Adventures in Argyle
Ever since I was fired from the radio, everyone that I’ve come in contact with has asked me to do a podcast. (In case you were wondering, I’ve been in contact with my mom, my mom and my mom since being fired from the radio.) A lot of comics these days are doing it –…
Under the Hood(ie)
Social media has proven that artists can have success even if they aren’t signed to a record label. New York’s Hoodie Allen is one of those success stories. After leaving a very comfortable job three years ago, he’s released four mixtapes and toured across both the States and the U.K. His home-grown career can be…
Shake, Muddle and Pour
We’ve all done it. In a few hours, guests will begin arriving for a little get-together at the casa and it’s time for a booze run. So it’s off to the local liquor store to round up some hooch. We grab a bottle of this, a bottle of that, and head out the door, giving…
Slow and Steady
“What’s Hoppin’ John?” I asked my server. “It’s black-eyed peas and rice,” he responded matter-of-factly. “Is it good?” I wondered. “If you like black-eyed peas and rice it is,” he quipped. That was just one of the many service snags that got in the way of a perfectly good dinner at Stonetown, the latest restaurant…
Pop Culture PIcks for the Week
TOP PICK Wreck-It-Ralph (Buena Vista) This Oscar-nominated animated flick about a video game character who tries to become a good guy and leave behind his destructive tendencies has a real heart and will appeal to both young kids and anyone old enough to remember video games like Donkey Kong and Pac-Man. Hiromi Move (Telarc) This…
Reel Life
The Cleveland International Film Festival barrels into its 37th year from April 3 – 14. Yes, that’s 12 days, one more than the festival had been running, and it’s a product of the immense popularity and growth one of Cleveland’s best events has enjoyed in recent years. Record films, record attendance, record everything. It’s a…
Film Capsules
West of Memphis Seeing this Peter Jackson-produced wrongful-accusation documentary is sort of like reading one of those really long, really elaborate stories in the New Yorker — one of those intricately researched tales of injustice with equal parts procedural drama and anecdotal frill. There’s even a point in the viewing experience akin to what some…
We Get Mail
On: “Cleveland Clinic Reminds Us We Could All Be a Little Nicer” Regardless of who Cosgrove is and which doctors are not measuring up to a standard, this message is very powerful and I think it’s great that Clinic doctors are being asked to show kindness and empathy so much needed in this world Tatyana…
Band of the Week
Meet the Band: Damon aka Mr. Smith (MC/guitars), Jerel aka Jean Kong (MC/keys), Iddrisu aka The Thundacat (vocals/percussion), Kevin (drums), Nick (bass/vocals), Gabe aka The Notorious B.L.G. (guitar/facemelting) Origins: In 2004, rapper Mr. Smith and keyboardist Jean Kong originally played as a duo; three years ago, they met the rest of the guys one night…
CD Review: Oldboy
This indie rock act has been kicking around town for a couple of years now but this represents its full-length debut. The album kicks off with the twangy “Prelude/My Dear,” a tune that’s not bluegrass-y enough to be compared to the current revival that’s spearheaded by Mumford and Sons/The Avett Brothers. The song concludes with…
Record Rendezvous
Justin and Allie Markert are relaxing indoors on a rainy Tuesday evening in Cleveland. Two delightfully cute cats meander around their loft apartment. The occasional “meow” filters through the air. The sounds of Cellar Door Records Vol. IV fill the room, as well. The album will hit the streets during this weekend’s Cellar Door Rendezvous…
Sound Advice
When people see the name “Figure” (the stage name of Indiana-based 27-year old producer Josh Gard) on a track, they know it’s time to buckle up. More often than not, Gard’s sound is on the heavier side of the spectrum and features pounding drums, rough synths and remarkable oscillation. Having produced electronic music for about…
