Scene Spotlight: A Special Wish Foundation
The Cleveland Chapter of A Special Wish Foundation has jumped head first into the non-profit world of Northeast Ohio. Only the second wish-granting organization in the state, along with Make-A-Wish, A Special Wish Foundation was founded in 1982 in Columbus. Since then, the non-profit organization has granted hundreds of wishes throughout the state, but hadn’t…
Cleveland Museum of Art Appoints New Director, Prays He’ll Stay
Seven months after the Cleveland Museum of Art’s board of trustees attempted to ignore and then cover up the extramarital affair of former Director David Franklin and former employee Christina Gaston, an affair which may or may not have directly led to Gaston’s death and which certainly led to Franklin’s abrupt dismissal, veiled as a…
Cleveland Public Power Trying Really Hard to Reset Business, Retain Customers
Fresh off the unequivocal endorsement of the Sin Tax, Cleveland City Council has returned to advocating for its citizens and its public utilities. In a boring meeting Monday afternoon, Council’s finance committee approved two ordinances intended to increase Cleveland Public Power’s competitiveness with regional private-sector behemoth FirstEnergy Corp. Right now, CPP enjoys roughly a 10…
The Black Keys Raise Almost $30,000 with Sale of West Akron Baseball League T-Shirts
Sales of limited edition West Akron Baseball League t-shirts, sponsored by local rockers The Black Keys, have raised nearly $30,000 for the youth baseball league that band members Pat Carney and Dan Auerbach were once a part of. At $25 a pop, over 1,000 shirts have been sold from the Black Keys online store and…
Alice in Chains Opens Outdoor Summer Concert Season with a Bang
Joe Kleon Original Alice in Chains singer Layne Staley had a distinctive sneer that made the Seattle-based grunge band into multi-platinum megastars. When he passed away in 2002, the group took a hiatus of sorts to figure out if it could proceed without him. After some soul-searching, it eventually replaced Staley with singer-guitarist William DuVall.…
Warning: This News Story Will Depress Your Intellectual Instincts
The news media machine has set its sights on “trigger warning” policies cropping up at universities of late. In essence, and according to the New York Times, these warnings are “explicit alerts that the material they are about to read or see in a classroom might upset them or, as some students assert, cause symptoms…
Video: Indians Fan Takes Tossed Ball Directly in the Face
I got it! I got it! I got it! I…. ow. //instagram.com/p/oM01S7K55p (H/T Deadspin)
Indie Punk Rockers the Faint Return to Form with New Album
Todd Fink, the lead singer in the Faint, a veteran indie punk rock band outta Omaha that performs at House of Blues on Thursday, originally thought he’d become a pro skateboarder. But when knee problems derailed his career path, he took up music in its place. That was in 1995. Looking back on it, he…
Scene Podcast: Changes at the West Side Market, Rude Audiences, Loren Naji and Immigration
1. Do subscribe to the Scene podcast on iTunes if you haven’t already done so. 2. Stream this week’s episode below. Download it directly here. 3. What you’re getting: This week, host Craig Lyndall is joined by Sam Allard and Eric Sandy to talk about the changes coming to the West Side Market as it…
RIP Murray Saul, Cleveland Radio Icon
Murray Saul has died at age 86. The WMMS icon is best remembered for his Friday afternoon rants, always coming after “Born to Run” and issuing forth a galaxy of enthusiastic ramblings and the important plea that “We GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA GOTTA GET DOWNNNN, DAMMIT!” From Scene contributor…
Lady Gaga Brings Incredible Spectacle to Quicken Loans Arena
Popular in the ’80s, raves were underground concerts that took place in huge warehouses. They featured DJs and rappers, and patrons would often show up in crazy costumes and consume copious amounts of illicit drugs. Eventually, raves went by the wayside as law enforcement officials shut them down. With her current artRAVE: The ARTPOP Ball,…
Here’s a Hilarious and Completely Vulgar Juvenile Defendant Explaining Why He Doesn’t Want to Be In Court
This back and forth between a juvenile defendant and the sixth district court of appeals in Lucas County went down back on May 16. There aren’t any names in the transcript, this involving a juvenile and all, and the background of the case really doesn’t matter: Just enjoy one defendant who very clearly has no…
Food Truck Mondays Coming to Legacy Village in June
Photo via Facebook Folks looking for an East Side equivalent to Walnut Wednesdays are in luck: Legacy Village has just announced the launch of a new lunchtime series: Food Truck Mondays. Beginning June 9, a handful of the area’s most popular food trucks will take up curbside residence at the Lyndhurst mall between 11:30 a.m.…
Tauk Rips Up Beachland Tavern With Funky Sunday Night Show
About a year ago, a band called Aqueous performed among other things an exploratory version of The Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” It’s worth mentioning today only because Tauk ripped up the Abbey Road classic just last night in the vein of hellacious instrumental funk. I mean it. Their take on that song…
BSpot Honored for Best Bacon Burger in the U.S.
Photo via B Spot Burgers, Instagram For years, chefs have been tossing thick cuts of bacon onto burgers, making the topping one of the most popular (and tasty) add ons in the country. More recently, the fine folks from Food and Wine magazine scoured the U.S. for the best bacon burgers they could find (those…
Pasta and Pastry Abruptly Closes After Just Three Months
Just three months after opening its doors in Ohio City, Pasta and Pastry (3800 Whitman Ave.) has shut them for good. “After storm damage on Wednesday forced us to close the restaurant, it was our final straw,” explains owner Diane Miller. “I decided to close the restaurant for good.” The weather damage was just the…
Piccadilly Artisan Creamery Introduces Cleveland to the Next Big Thing in Ice Cream
Last night, brothers and business partners Adrian and Cosmin Bota unveiled the latest concept for their homegrown Piccadilly Artisan Creamery. Piccadilly’s third ice cream shop, located in University Circle across the street from the Cleveland Institute of Art, introduces Clevelanders to the coolest trend in ice cream. “We can make ice cream or yogurt on…
Derf Ends 24-Year Run of Comic Strip ‘The City’
Local cartoonist Derf Backderf published the final installment of “The City” today. Have a bittersweet look-see. Here’s the rationale in his own words: I’m ending the strip So I can concentrate full-time on graphic novels. It’s all good. I’m not slinking away from a failed endeavor as a washed-up has-been. I’m leaving it behind in…
Video: Youngstown Cop Loves Driver’s Pulp Fiction-Inspired “Bad Motherfucker” Wallet, Excuses Traffic Ticket
A Youngstown police officer who pulled over a car that ran a red light on Wednesday is apparently a big fan of Quentin Tarantino films. The driver — Youngstown-resident Nicholas Serra, who was filming the traffic stop with his iPhone — got an excited reaction from the cop as he reached into his pocket for…
Godzilla is a Different Kind of Blockbuster
Godzilla is hands-down the best Godzilla movie ever made. Thanks to inventive visual effects and a prioritization of suspense over incident, the film feels materially different than the summer blockbusters that have been pummeling audiences nationwide since the dawn of advanced CGI. The current Godzilla, which opens Thursday night at theaters area-wide, is inspired heavily…
Cleveland Theater Historian Weldon Carpenter Keeps the Past Alive
Weldon Carpenter has thousands of photos of Cleveland theaters from over the years – going back to the early 20th century. His Lakewood home is decorated with memorabilia from long ago. He’s seen the initial rise (through his historical research), the fall (through his preservation work alongside Ray Shepardson) and the subsequent and brilliant rise…
10 Things Going on in Cleveland this Weekend (May 16 – 18)
Two of the city’s most anticipated spring events return to Cleveland this weekend: The Hessler Street Fair and the Cleveland Marathon. Between moseying around Hessler Street and hitting the new marathon course, make time to catch a Tribe game or two, check out Ohio Burlesque at the Beachland, and get your copy of Dead Giveaway…
North Royalton Boy Goes “Hillbillly Fishing,” Rescues “River Monster”
Via the Associated Press and local news outlets, a North Royalton 16-year-old rescued a three-foot, 40-pound fish that was seen Monday night on the flooded streets of the southern suburb. The “River Monster” was a white amur, or grass carp, which can sometimes grow up to 80 pounds. The intrepid Jake Sawyer, having grabbed his…
Lost in the Wall of Sound at Mogwai’s Show at the House of Blues
but first Security Guy #1: You guys ready for some head-banging?! Security Guy #2: Yeah! I’ve never heard these guys before. Security Guy #3: You won’t be head-banging. You will be doing a lot of spacing out, though. That snippet of conversation took place stage-right just before Scottish post-rock band Mogwai began their set at…
Open-Carry Advocates Spark Controversy in Medina
You can openly carry a gun in the state of Ohio. WE GET IT. That should be the end of the discussion, which often leans heavily in favor of gun rights. OK. But some pro-gun “advocates” thought to drive the point home last week in fairly suburban Medina, where they posted up in historic Public…
Improvisation is Everything for Avant-garde Saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock
Saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and her husband, drummer Tom Rainey, have intertwined their prolific careers over the past dozen or so recordings with various ensembles. Whether it’s standard jazz tunes or avant-garde improvisations, these two bring a thrilling sincere energy to their art, and can now be heard on their first duo recording: And Other Desert…
Seven Crazy Days on the Cleveland Sports Beat With the AP’s Tom Withers
Starting last Thursday with the first round of the NFL draft, it’s been seven crazy days in Cleveland sports. You could well say that about most weeks on the shores of Lake Erie, but you’d be hard pressed to find more news squeezed into seven days encompassing the highest highs and, because this is Cleveland,…
Urban Farmer to Begin Serving Public Thursday, May 15
This week, the new Westin Downtown will celebrate its opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony. On Thursday, diners can celebrate the opening of Urban Farmer by cutting into a thick steak. Billed as a high-end, farm-to-table steakhouse, the 250-seat Urban Farmer will welcome its first paying customers tomorrow, May 15. Run by the Denver-based Sage…
Ignoring Warning Signs, Cleveland Meteorologist Dick Goddard Required Rescue from Flash Flood
As torrential downpours, funnel cloud sightings, flash floods and hail wreaked havoc across Northeast Ohio on Monday night, local legend Dick Goddard found himself in a bit of a predicament. Turning off of I-71 onto State Route 3, en route to his home in Medina, the 83-year-old Channel 8 weatherman noticed the car in front…
Kevin O’Brien’s Hate Speech Goes Unfiltered Yet Again
Fear not, gentle readers. Kevin O’Brien, the Plain Dealer’s dauntless right-wing deputy editorial page editor and resident nutjob, is “standing by” his statement that illegal immigrants are driven by nothing but a “mercenary interest.” He is wholeheartedly committed to the stance he advanced in a morally outrageous column on April 8 entitled “Illegal immigrants don’t…
Flower Power: A Conversation with the Guys at Urban Orchid Who Helped Hingetown Bloom
Brandon Sitler and Jeff Zelmer, the owners and operators of Urban Orchid in Hingetown, have been arranging floral bouquets like woah during the week leading up to Mother’s Day. It’s the busiest holiday of the year for this chic flower shop on the near west side, where Sitler and Zelmer have been basically the only…
A Final Bow for Reuben Silver
He never lost his timing. Reuben Silver, master of many theatrical arts including acting and directing, died last week at the age of 88. And even though he had been ailing for quite a while, it still seems like a shock that someone so vital, so wise and so funny would ever leave us. In…
Felons and Falsettos: The Post-Juvenile Delinquents are Back in Jersey Boys at Playhouse Square
Know how to tell a high-class Italian restaurant from a dump? “They don’t sell slices.” That, plus other nuggets of wisdom, is now available because the uber-popular jukebox musical Jersey Boys has landed again at Playhouse Square. The melodies rattled off by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons still have that familiar glow. The production…
Band of the Week: Instrusaurus
Meet the band: Todd Sharp (electric, acoustic and baritone guitars), Jamey Haddad (drums, percussion), Sean Jones (trumpet, flugelhorn), Joe Miller (trumpet), Jeff Caimpa (bass), Shea Pierre (piano/keyboard), Howard Levy (harmonica), Johnny Cochran Jr. (baritone and tenor sax), Dave Thomas (Hammond organ), Larry Galloway (trombone), Paul Christensen (saxophone), Bobby Selvaggio (alto sax and arrangements), Jay Ashby…
Film Spotlight: Locke
As he’s driving home from work one day Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) stops at a traffic light. It turns green and he doesn’t move. A cement truck honks at him. He pauses. He eventually adjusts his turn signal and heads off in the opposite direction. And so begins writer-director Steven Knight’s Locke, a movie that…
Film Review of the Week: Million Dollar Arm
Before we dive headlong into what will be (spoiler) an overwhelmingly positive review of the new Disney baseball flick, Million Dollar Arm, which opens areawide on Friday, let me try to get blurbed here real quick. Ahem: Million Dollar Arm is a triumph! Million Dollar Arm recalls that glorious era when the happiest marriage in…
High Art in Low Places: The Cleveland Orchestra Takes Up Residency in Lakewood
For many people, the concept of attending a classical music concert involves putting on fancy clothes to watch a man waving a stick at a huge group of musicians. Contrary to this, recent trends have been bringing classical programming out of the concert hall into non-traditional venues. Places like Le Poisson Rouge in New York…
All Over the Map: Chicago’s Robert Lamm Challenged his Band Mates to Explore New Territory and they Responded
When talking about a rock and roll band like Chicago that’s closing in on a half century of performing, it’s easy to assume that they’ve probably done it all. But in fact, they’re still visiting new areas as a group. Singer/songwriter Robert Lamm phoned us from a Canadian tour stop and shared that Chicago had…
The Journeymen: Alice in Chains Bassist Mike Inez Discusses Carrying on with a Replacement Singer
After original singer Layne Staley died in 2002, it wasn’t certain that grunge icons Alice in Chains would continue. But in 2005, the band regrouped for a benefit concert for the victims of the tsunami that struck South Asia. Guest vocalists such as Tool/A Perfect Circle’s Maynard James Keenan and Heart’s Nancy Wilson sang Staley’s…
Drew Anderson and Luke Visnic: Kings of Kraut
There are a number of dishes and drinks that characterize Cleveland’s gastronomic culture — pierogies, corned beef and craft beer among them. Sauerkraut also should be included on that list. Until recently, the fermented food was available to local shoppers only in its more conventional form. Now, future brothers-in-law Drew Anderson and Luke Visnic are turning traditional sauerkraut…
Sweet Nothings: The East-Side Outpost of Sweet Melissa Tries to Live Up to Its West-Side Reputation
Eastsiders have a habit of descending upon new restaurants like participants in a cash mob, and that’s certainly been the case at Sweet Melissa, which opened a few months back in University Heights, near the campus of John Carroll University. It’s no exaggeration to say that lines usually extend clear out the front door, an…
Ashley Brooke Toussant Displays Natural Talent on New Album
Ashley Brooke Toussant, With Regards to You, (self-released) ashleybrooketoussantmusic.com KENT-BASED SINGER-SONGWRITER Ashley Brooke Toussant acted and sang in plays such as Guys and Dolls and Bye Bye Birdie before she embraced folkies such as Joni Mitchell and Carole King. You can hear their influence on this fine new five-song EP. “Days and Days,” a song…
On the Capital Offense: State Task Force Released 56 Recommendations for Ohio Death Penalty Application
The botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma late last month was sufficiently horrific to inspire the pro-death-penalty Obama administration to do some long overdue soul searching. “Deeply troubling,” was how Obama characterized the Oklahoma fiasco, which went like this: Medical staff failed to locate a suitable artery on Lockett’s body and elected to insert…
The Next Century
It’s a beautiful, crisp spring day at the West Side Market. The sun is shining, the leaves are budding on the trees and everyone’s happy. Except those two guys fighting over parking, leaning out the windows of their cars and spewing vitriol at each other. “Asshole!,” a middle-aged guy in a minivan yells at a…
