Free Biggie From Mick Boogie
Notorious B.I.G. Mixtape kingpin Mick Boogie newest smash is Unbelievable, a mixtape that marks the tenth anniversary of the untimely demise of Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G. The mix features some fresh takes on Biggie classics, with creative new beats by Boogie, Terry Urban, the Kickdrums, and others — all dished up with verses…
Free Coffee & Rachel Ray
Dunkin’ Donuts is giving away free coffee and Rachel Ray As part of their ongoing quest to invade Starbucks turf, all 34 Cleveland-area Dunkin Donuts stores will be giving away free 16-ounce iced coffees all day, Wednesday, March 21. According to its PR flacks, Dunkin’ Donuts has developed an “innovative” process for brewing iced coffee,…
Mayor Thinks Article Sucked
Mayor David Bentkowski with good friend Justin Timberlake A voicemail from Seven Hills Mayor David Bentkowski to Scene editor Pete Kotz, in response “Seven Hills soap opera,” the fourth item in this week’s First Punch: “This is Mayor David Bentkowski from Seven Hills. I haven’t seen the hard copy yet, but I just found this…
50 Reasons Why Opera Cleveland is in Trouble
You should look into the opera a little deaper – this was perfunctory [“The Fat Lady’s Finale?” March 7]. See below: 50 Easy Steps to Remove a Major Metropolitan Opera Company 1. Begin Search for new General Director of company. Ignore the 3-year oportunity for such. Do not research background of candidates, and do not…
Mikey G’s Entertainment Picks of the Week
Anti-Flag This week’s top arts and entertainment picks around town, from the guy who’s paid to pick them: Monday: Tonight’s Cleveland Comedy Festival Preview Showcase gives folks a little taste of what’s in store come October, when a bunch of local funny people will try to make you laugh for four whole days. Mike “The…
The Director’s Guide to the Cleveland Film Fest
With more than 150 movies, the Cleveland Film Festival can be a tough place to navigate. That’s why we stole a copy of the Film Festival Board of Directors’ guide to the not-to-be-missed films. They saw all 200 gazillion movies, so you don’t have to. The Top 22: Reprise Darius Goes West 12:08 East of…
Douchebag Movie Review: 300
300 guys with memberships to Bally’s — er, I mean from Sparta — take on some Greek guys so they don’t steal their hot chicks. Movie Reviews by the Douchebag Sitting Behind You Holy shit! This movie friggin’ kicked ass! In fact, it seemed like the director actually sat down and wrote this movie with…
Can We Have More Mentally Unstable B-Listers, Please?
Did you know Amanda Peet’s muscles “solidify quickly”? Way fascinating. Because there are never enough reality television shows to go around, Bravo decided last year to launch a show called Work Out, starring Jackie Warner, owner of a popular LA gym. But since watching people exercise isn’t nearly as interesting as, say, watching washed up…
High School Debaters: Welcome to the Bigs
Earlier this month, more than 1,000 students piled into Youngstown’s Boardman High for the state debate tournament, which took two 15-hour days to complete. All debaters dressed professionally, you know, to respect the decorum. The problem — according to one debater, at least — was that the decorum wasn’t exactly worthy of respect. The student…
Pilla Does Poverty
In a heartwarming tribute to youthful idealism, more than 1,000 local Catholic high school students gathered this week for a poverty summit. They discussed such pressing issues as homelessness, education, and workers’ rights. Punch is certain that every single one of the youngsters was motivated by a sense of moral obligation, and not at all…
Mikey G’s Weekend Entertainment Picks
This weekend’s top arts and entertainment picks around town, from the guy who’s paid to pick them: Friday: Cirque Dreams cast members say folks always confuse them with the infinitely more popular Cirque du Soleil troupe. Well, that’s gonna happen when you not only give yourself a similar name, but crib your whole damn act…
Dan Gilbert Can Pay the Mortgage on Your Beer
The next time you’re at the Cavs game, and you’re headed upstairs to take out a second mortgage on your beer, do yourself a favor and make a stop at the owner’s box. You should find Dan Gilbert, rooting on the Cavs or firing off emails from his Blackberry [“Sympathy for the Rich Man,” February…
Beware of McClatchy, that Skank
When the computers at the Akron Beacon started crashing on February 27, the paper quickly realized it had contracted the technological equivalent to a bad case of herpes. “We can contain the virus,” says metro editor David Helmick. “But we can’t get rid of it.” Reporters had to bring personal laptops to work or stay…
LeBron’s Tank is Now Full
After a brief period of suckage, Jon argues that’s no longer the case Not so fast, my friends. I know JP Tone has been blogging recently about Lebron’s pre-All Star break vacation-like performance, but check out the stats since Vegas: 36.6 PPG, 56.5 FG%, 45.0 3PT%, 6.4 REBs and a 4-1 record. Looks like someone’s…
Professional Guinea Pigs
Last year, Scene reported the story of three Cleveland med students who took part in painful, potentially harmful medical experiments to help pay the bills [“Guinea Pig Gang,” March 22, 2006]. NBC affiliates recently picked up on the story. A deal is now in the works for the students to host a show on the…
Sammy Gets Totally Street!
We Read America’s Worst Columnist, Sam Fulwood III, So You Don’t Have To Headline: Justice denied interracial couple Date: March 8, 2007 Topic: Sammy writes about the acquittal of Cleveland cop William Forrest — a.k.a. Notorious White Guy — who was charged with inciting a 2005 fight with Aric Jackson — Unnotorious Black Computer Geek…
Cleveland gets a C!
Like the sucker that I am, I picked up the March issue of Men’s Health recently, while I was waiting to pay for my ice cream and ranch dressing. I was persuaded by a cover blurb — “LOSE YOUR GUT! SCULPT YOUR BODY IN JUST MINUTES A DAY!” — only to find out that those…
Get Over It Day
Got something or someone eating away at your psyche, sucking the very life force outta your soul? Hate your boss, your bf, or your body? Finally realize you’ll never get that boob job, that back pay, or that bitchin’ babe? As it turns out, Friday, March 9 is the official Get Over It Day, so…
Fulwood Discovers Research
We Read Sam So You Don’t Have To Headline: Newfound brother asks, “Who am I?” Date: March 6, 2007 Topic: Sam marvels at the cunning and ingenious research techniques of Anita Poindexter, who was trying to track down her biological brother. The techniques, all foreign to Sam, include searching the Internet, using the telephone, and…
You Know Nothing of Orchestras
I am a new percussionist in the Cleveland Orchestra. I just wanted to comment on “Sour Notes” [February 14] — specifically the audition process of the Cleveland Orchestra. I am from Boston, and studied at the Manhattan School of Music. Prior to my audition last March, I had never been to Severance Hall to see…
Punked by Timken
Monday night’s Cavs game against the Houston Rockets was totally F-ed up. I’m not talking about the way LeBron totally punked down Rockets forward Chuck Hayes during a jump ball, leading the Cavs to a 91-85 victory. I am talking about is the rotating banner beneath the scorer’s table — an undecipherable set of Chinese…
Ink by Henk
NYC tattoo artist-painter Dan Henk will be a special guest at Cleveland’s 252 Tattoo from March 30 to April 4. He’s created album cover art for Shai Hulud and contributed pics to Death Scenes: A Homicide Detective’s Scrapbook. He’s a go-to guy for horror, death, and decay. So if you’ve been itching to get a…
Free Roots Show
Roots drummer ?uestlove has a record collection bigger than his haircut The Roots, everyone’s favorite live-band hip-hop crew, are playing a free show at a Cleveland club Thursday, March 15. Click here for more details and free tickets. Tix are free while they last, and you need to RSVP by Tuesday, March 13. Must be…
Jewish Love, Manufactured by Rab
For all the kvetching Jews have done over Lisa Rab’s December story on the sorry state of Jewish dating in Cleveland, at least one shidduch (match) has resulted from it. Rab interviewed Eric Greenberg, a 29-year-old architect, about his frustrations in finding a nice Jewish girl in Cleveland. “Anyone that’s single I’ve either been out…
Bice lands at the Ritz-Carlton
Long-awaited Italian restaurant Bice opens Thursday, March 8, at 5 p.m., in downtown’s Tower City Center (230 W. Huron Rd.). Part of an international chain that stretches from Beverly Hills to Tokyo, the upscale ristorante takes over space formerly occupied by Century at the Ritz-Carlton. Well-pedigreed key staffers help make the spot sound particularly promising:…
You Can Own a Gold Record
Wild Cherry: Pioneering the fabled Steubenville funk period Steve Popovich, the local record exec who actually takes responsible for making Meat Loaf a star, is auctioning one of his gold records on eBay this week. Popovich — president of Cleveland International Records, which has also released albums by David Allan Coe — donated the gold…
Twinsburg Seafood Special
We’re not sure if it fits into the mode of Lenten self-denial or not, but now through May 1, lobster lovers can snag a major dinner deal at Twinsburg’s Lobster Trap (9453 Ravenna Rd., 330-425-2257): two whole, 1 � pound, live Maine lobsters, plus a choice of soup or salad, potato, and veggie, for a…
Joni on Ice
Sweden is a mountainous, musical country, home to such Europop icons as ABBA and the Cardigans. Even today, its ripe alpine valleys produce some of the continent’s best indie pop. Fine-tune a radio station in Stockholm, and you’re liable to hear loads of celebrated rock stars with names like “Jens Lekman.” Listen long enough, and…
Arcade Fire
Aside from A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole’s only other book is Neon Bible, written in 1953 at the age of 16. It didn’t compare to the Pulitzer-winning Confederacy, but his observations about cultural intolerance in the South were remarkable — if predictably overwrought, given that he was a teenager. Neon Bible is an…
Booger and Borat. You Likes?
Revenge of the Nerds: Panty Raid Edition (Fox) Revenge of the Nerds is a great movie. No, really. It’s got a bitching new-wave soundtrack and some truly inspired performances — memorable enough to wreck the careers of Robert Carradine (Lewis) and Curtis Armstrong (Booger). But mostly it’s the mix of innocence and sexual frenzy that…
Funny Business
Mike “The Comedy Professor” Veneman headlines tonight’s Cleveland Comedy Festival Preview Showcase, a foretaste of the city’s inaugural yuckfest, which debuts in October. Fellow funnymen Chris Hegedus, Dave Arena, and Ryan Dalton also perform tonight. The four-day fest will include comedy showcases, contests, and workshops. Organizer Joe Hannum is even trying to lure Cleveland-born comics…
In Need of Organ
In the past decade or so, organ combos have seen a popular resurgence in jazz. Younger players such as Joey DeFrancesco and Medeski, Martin & Wood gave the sound a booster shot. And back in 2004, saxophone monster James Carter tossed his hat into the ring, concentrating on his Organ Trio, which features ace organist…
Robin Thicke
Whatever the issues were that put Robin Thicke’s sophomore album on the shelf for the better part of a year, they’ve likely been forgotten now that the sultry “Lost Without U” has become a long-running number one. We reviewed an early advance of Evolution last year, but since then, Thicke has tweaked the finished product,…
No Replay for Wii Play
Unlike its Wii Sports predecessor, only two players can play Wii Play at a time — barely living up to the definition of “We.” And playing Wii Play alone is a hollow feeling. Strangely, Wii Play acts as a “Wii Remote 101” tutorial instead of an inspired game collection. The emphasis is “Check out what…
Kid Rock
Ralph Covert plays kids’ music unlike any you’ve ever heard. There are no cloying rhymes in his songs, and he doesn’t play grown-up tunes that adults think children might like. Covert — who performs as Ralph’s World with a full rock and roll band — makes plugged-in music that kids and their parents can unabashedly…
Crimewave vs. Wolfmother
Wolfmother’s website claims “The true rebirth of the power trio is upon us,” but that’s nothing but a smoking pile of PR bullshit. Sure, that singer’s got a set of pipes on him. But if you’re a freak for them freedom-rock daze — biker rock, psychedelia, boogie, proto-metal — you know the cuddly Wolfies jam…
Belinda Carlisle
Belinda Carlisle might have been the sexiest female singer of the ’80s, and her alto vibrato was just as alluring as her American-girl glow. But she’s been MIA since 1996, lounging in southern France, where she perfected her delivery of the most romantic of all Romance languages for this all-French album. (Early pressings feature a…
Here are the week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe:
CD — Four Winds: Bright Eyes’ six-song EP tides fans over till next month, when the new album drops. The title tune anchors the upcoming Cassadaga, but it’s the five exclusive B-sides that make this worth picking up. Conor Oberst has gotten even more wordy since 2005’s double whammy of I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning…
Creature Feature
Modern-dance troupe Momix finds inspiration in the most unlikely places. Artistic director Moses Pendleton studies the way exotic animals move and then bases pieces on them. “Lunar Sea,” which Momix performs this weekend, started out as a “10-person Holstein cow,” he says. But after a dancer sporting green tights walked in front of a light,…
Smashed Pieces
Everyone eyes each other nervously as I descend the stairs into the Six Parts Seven’s practice space, the basement of guitarist Allen Karpinski’s house. The area is just about the size of a ticket box office, barely accommodating six people with instruments. If someone didn’t shower, you’d know it — but the concern here isn’t…
The High Llamas
Craftsmen are underrated, too often lost in our culture’s pursuit of something novel or innovative. That’s why an act like the High Llamas never receive their proper due. Inspired by the plush, majestic pop of Brian Wilson and Burt Bacharach, leader Sean O’Hagan has fashioned eight albums of alluring, impeccably coiffed pop. Breezy like 1996’s…
Our top DVD picks for the week of March 6:
A Brush With Death (New Light) Buster Crabbe Collection (St. Clair Vision) Captain Horatio Hornblower (Warner Bros.) Care Bears: Friends Forever (Lions Gate) Commissar (Kino) Confetti (Fox) Death Row (Anchor Bay) The Electric Company’s Greatest Hits & Bits (Shout) Fast Food Nation (Fox) The Full Monty: Fully Exposed Edition (Fox) Hawaii Five-O: The First Season…
Storytellers
Tonight’s singer-songwriter showcase at the Beachland features a trio of artists who share affection for rootsy rhythms and sharp narratives. Clevelander Joe Rohan plays classic heartland rock on his new album, These Days, while Doug Wood (who also lives here) plays complicated acoustic guitar runs that barely leave room for lyrics. Best is San Francisco…
The Rust Belt Represents
Rusty old Cleveland never sends as many bands to South by Southwest as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, but we manage to represent come March. This year, the annual Austin-based music festival has invited three C-Town bands that truly capture our love for heavy music: This Moment in Black History, the Alarm Clocks, and…
Mighty Baby
Too many rock writers marvel at the fact that all but one dude from the Band was Canadian. These Greil Marcus types drone on and on about the perceptions of the “American Dream” through the eyes of outsiders. It’s something to chew on . . . if you’re bored, but I’d rather spend valuable brain…
A History of Violence
In Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, historian Michael Oren chronicles the 225-year timeline that’s led us to the war in Iraq. “America’s history in the Middle East did not begin after World War II,” he says. “We have a long, rich, and nuanced history in the region.”…
Display of Integrity
On Harder They Fall: A Tribute to Integrity, bands from six countries pay tribute to the Cleveland band that influenced an entire generation of metalcore. “[Integrity] shaped the world of heavy music with their music, lyrics, and philosophy,” says Escapist Records owner Michael Phillips, a 26-year-old Cleveland native who grew up on the scene and…
Mick Boogie and Little Brother
“Mixtapes . . . the labels is gonna have to adapt/Cause at the end of the day . . . people just wanna hear good music,” declares an interlude called, reasonably enough, “The Purpose of Mixtapes.” This collaboration between North Carolina indie hip-hop duo Little Brother and Cleveland DJ and mixtape king Mick Boogie backs…
Master of Disaster
Youngstown native Maureen McGovern launches into an American songbook of big-band and Broadway classics at today’s University of Akron JazzFest 2007. Accompanied by the school’s Jazz Ensemble, she’ll work her way through standards like “I’ll Be Seeing You” and “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead.” “It’s great, feel-good music,” says McGovern. “There’s a freedom, joy,…
Chris Difford
Beneath its buoyant melodies, Squeeze’s songs often depicted the alcohol-soaked aftermath of wrecked relationships. Chris Difford wrote the lyrics, remarkable for their frank sexuality and self-sabotaging characters, and Glenn Tilbrook composed the catchy hooks. Difford’s strikingly bright vocals infused these bleak tales with an incongruity that optimists might interpret as the beleaguered protagonists’ resilience. But…
Dogkuff
Every track on Dogkuff’s debut is bigger, nastier, and uglier than the last one — and gloriously so. Song titles like “Dead Baby Blues” only begin to hint at how gutter-gritty the disc is. Guitarist Farrell grinds out one stoner riff after another, while the metal-plated biker rock occasionally slows down into melodic classic rock…
Urban Sprawl
Over the past two years, DJ Terry Urban has built a devoted fan base in local nightclubs with his hip-hop sets. But expect the 29-year-old Maple Heights resident to spin more rock and pop tracks when he works the tables at the Corner Alley tonight. “Hip-hop used to be about having fun,” he says. “Now…
The Ataris
Ataris main man Kristopher Roe may have named his band in a bout of videogame nostalgia, but there’s nothing bloopy about the music he makes. It’s dream-pop with fuzzy, melodic guitars and a sweetly crooning falsetto served straight up. Unfortunately for Roe’s celebrity dreams, it’s a sound made far more famous by the oft-bedraggled My…
Diamond Dust
Fans of Lockkeepers, Frank Sinito’s fine-dining restaurant at 8001 Rockside Road, have from now till Labor Day to say their goodbyes. New owner and hotshot chef Dante Boccuzzi arrived in the kitchen Monday, and by the end of August, he’ll be unveiling an entirely new concept — including a new name, a new menu, and…
Bong-Worthy
Massillon artist Bili Kribbs creates works that look like something the Brady Bunch kids could appreciate. His latest show, Purging of the Whimsical Data Mix, features paintings, sculpture, and furniture that are simultaneously groovy and far out. The brightly colored pieces alternate between the fanciful (large-eyed aliens, soaring skulls) and the playful (silver-shoed birds, pink…
The Samples
The following statement will surely annoy Sean Kelly’s cultish supporters: The Samples are long past their prime. The folk-pop outfit used to be a Colorado foursome offering summery, wistful shades of what a post-Synchronicity Police might have sounded like. Up through 1996’s major- label effort Outpost, the band’s organic interplay and Kelly’s songwriting style made…
Survivor: Cleveland
It’s cold but sunny this Sunday morning in Ohio City, and we’re so cranked up on UV rays that we scarcely mind parking in a snowbank. Church bells chime, ice crystals sparkle, and the hard-packed snow squeaks beneath our boots as we hurry toward Heck’s Café. On this venerable tree-lined street, the circa-1860 building’s worn…
All Over the Place
On Snapshots of the Universe, former Clevelander Michael Jantz divides his time between rash rocker and introspective singer-songwriter. Jantz (who’s now based in Washington, D.C.) is at his best when the tunes on his second album reach poppy roots-rock territory, like on the swirling “Better Than You.” The mishmash of styles, which can be a…
Pete Yorn
Pete Yorn wears his heart on his sleeve, and we, the adult-album-alternative demographic, are the better for it. You see, he could be tagged as just another angst-ridden “singer-songwriter,” the way actors were tagged “communists” by the federal thought-police in the ’50s. But Yorn rocks too often and has a dandy flair for power-pop hooks,…
Man on Man Action
Long ago there reigned a clan of Speedo-wearing, militaristic psychopaths called the Spartans. They lived beneath a copper-colored sky, in a copper-colored land, amid copper-colored fields, within copper-colored homes made from copper-colored stone. Legend has it they would outline their copper-colored pecs and abs with ash to enhance their manly buffness — and yet these…
Welcome to the Jungle
Cirque Dreams: Jungle Fantasy features just as many acrobats, strongmen, and balancing acts as Cirque du Soleil. But performer Marco Balestracci has to go out of his way to explain to people that his troupe has nothing at all to do with the more famous ensemble. “They say, ‘You guys are amazing. I’ve seen you…
This Moment in Black History/Roué/Self Destruct Button
Featuring three of Cleveland’s most combustible acts, this show traces a spectrum of ’80s post-punk avenues. This Moment in Black History combines the chaotic intensity of Black Flag with the sinewy churn of Minor Threat. They’re fronted by Iggy Pop’s spastic, bespectacled spiritual cousin, singer Chris Kulcsar, who rivals the Jesus Lizard’s David Yow for…
Miss Congeniality
As a child I couldn’t stand Beatrix Potter, and not just because her cute, jacketed critters bored me senseless. I loved tough children’s tales, but Potter’s stories were manipulative and twisted, filled with punitive authority figures — Mrs. Rabbit is a prissy scold, Farmer McGregor an evil-tempered lout — visiting tight-lipped moral justice on insipid…
String Theory
If you’re wondering why a lute player is one of the featured performers at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Classical Guitar Weekend, organizer Armin Kelly says the old-school stringed instrument is an obvious ancestor. “Many works originally written for lute are now performed on classical guitar,” he says. When Grammy-nominated Paul O’Dette strikes up his…
The Fat Lady’s Finale?
It’s never been easy for opera to sell itself beyond the elderly and well-heeled. In the age of streetcars, it attracted A-list crowds. Today, most Americans prefer to get their classical music from beef commercials. “There is nothing realistic about two people standing on opposite sides of the stage, screaming at each other in German,”…
Mickey Avalon
The dude poses on the cover of his self-titled debut like a character from an early Gus Van Sant flick captured by the late Helmut Newton; the image brings to mind the boy toy of some wealthy disco habitué. It also illustrates the tale presented in his bio — a former Hollywood male prostitute and…
Tone Deaf
Ed Harris as Beethoven? The man who would be John Glenn is hardly the most instinctive choice to play the legendary composer, especially if you recall Gary Oldman’s performance in Immortal Beloved. Oldman embodied the maestro. Still, as Jackson Pollock in Pollock, Harris did bring to life a tormented, alcoholic artist who broke new aesthetic…
All Aboard!
Unlike other pasty-skinned reggae revivalists, the guys in Westbound Train prefer their rasta music a little on the moody side. The seven-piece Boston band eschews the partytime ska most of its contemporaries play, in favor of a slow, druggy dub style. Everything the group learned about keeping it real on their first two albums –…
The Exorcists
The gallery in Judge Earl McGimpsey’s courtroom is here to see a hanging. In farm-country Norwalk, it doesn’t get much better than the sentencing for the “caged-kids couple,” Sharen and Michael Gravelle. No, says a man in front with a handlebar mustache, it hasn’t been this good since a man stabbed his 11-year-old foster daughter…
Anal Cunt
Some bands are best experienced live; others are best experienced on record. The ideal Anal Cunt experience is standing in a record store with a friend, flipping through the band’s CDs and laughing out loud at the track titles. That’s because hearing the music that corresponds to such songs as “Ha Ha, Your Wife Left…
Tried and True
One of the enduring pleasures of watching Gone With the Wind is seeing Hattie McDaniel play Mammy, the protective and sassy maid who often puts Scarlett in her place with a sideways glance or a well-placed harrumph. That’s the trouble with some of the hackneyed historical images of African Americans: They can be so endearing…
This Band Hates You
Extreme-metal Canadian combo Kataklysm has one purpose: to make listeners feel its pain. On the group’s latest album, In the Arms of Devastation, singer Maurizio Iacono barks pleasantries like “You’ll never know what you did to me/Until I take my last breath/I’ll take you to hell with me!” and “Born into life with a feeling…
Action Memo
To see a memo from Carl Monday to Tom Meyer about Monday’s move to Action News, click here.
Daughtry
With the right amount of marketing, any American Idol can sell millions of mediocre albums. Androids like grunge-rocker Chris Daughtry are engineered deep in the laboratories of 19 Entertainment, the record label run by Simon Fuller, the English music and television producer who created all the world’s Idol talent shows. Playing a lone rocker in…
Dead On
Death is one of the most challenging subjects for a playwright — or anyone else — to handle, which is why we are often left to fall back on the opposing force of humor to deal with it. As Woody Allen once said, “It is impossible to experience one’s own death objectively and still carry…
Look Who’s Stalking
Alone With Her’s gimmick is a pretty good one, as far as movie gimmicks go. Colin Hanks (Tom’s son) plays a loner with a video camera who stalks a young woman. But director Eric Nicholas never sets his own camera directly on the stars. Rather, the story is seen through the lenses of the various…
Me Too!
The City of Cleveland doesn’t have an exclusive franchise on the minority-front company scam, whereby black contractors are guaranteed a percentage of government projects — in hopes of creating black jobs — but instead simply serve as fronts and kick most of the work back to Whitey. Scene’s recent cover story “Black on Black Crime”…
Nikki Benz
Triple-X supermodel Nikki Benz visits the newly remodeled Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club this weekend. Become her online friend at www.myspace.com/nikkibenz. According to Benz’s profile, her interests include travel, Starbucks, Thai food, and getting naked onstage. Any questions?
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
The Music of Jacques Brel — Cleveland has a notable history with this Belgian musician, since Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris played more than 500 performances at Playhouse Square and had a role in preventing those grand theaters from becoming parking garages. Brel himself was a composer and lyricist of…
Just Axing
Rusty Barrel patrons strap on the plastic axes tonight to compete in the weekly PS2 Guitar Hero Challenge. “Some of these people are freakin’ unbelievable,” says Rusty Jesset, the club’s owner. “I guess they sit in their basement and practice all day long.” The popular video game allows amateur guitarists to play along to songs…
Letters to the Editor
Running on the Race Card The insanity of black betrayal: While reading the story “Black on Black Crime” [February 21], I became sad, hurt, and angry. For all that we have gone through — struggling against a system that denied us our rights as human beings — being treated no differently by our own people…
Andy Caldwell
They don’t call it the Cool House Collective because it sucks. The CHC’s Daniel Stark (pictured) will warm up the dance floor for Grammy-nominated Bay Area house titan Andy Caldwell, spinning make-you-sweat tech house, minimal house, progressive house, and electro house, painting it all with breaks. “The main thing I focus on is building energy,”…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
Bodily Landscape — It’s hard to say exactly what Virginia artist Tai Hwa Goh is trying to express with this wan, highly conceptual installation, but it might have something to do with identity. Not that it isn’t beautiful in its way. Four columns of translucent Korean paper hang from the ceiling a few feet apart,…
Living for the City
Every week, the View toasts city living at Resident Wednesdays, a gathering for urban dwellers. “Most people living downtown barely know their neighbors, let alone someone who lives in another building,” says Marcus Sims, the club’s marketing director. “Here’s a chance for a person who lives in Reserve Square to get to know people who…
