A Couple of Wise Guys
Judging by the uniformity of local menus, a gourmet might well conclude that Cleveland’s better kitchens have run out of ideas. Is there anyplace that isn’t serving calamari these days? Is there no escaping mushroom strudel? Will we ever move beyond duck confit? Not that there’s anything wrong with any of these dishes. In fact,…
Fired Up for Lunch
Fire, chef-owner Doug Katz’s artful, contemporary restaurant on Shaker Square, began lunch service on May 1. The compact midday menu includes mushroom flatbread with arugula salad; duck salad with goat cheese and strawberries; pulled pork, rice, and beans; and sausage, tomato, and mozzarella pizza, with appetizers in the $4 to $5 range and entrées checking…
Coming Down
“This is not a film about Vietnam, this is Vietnam,” Francis Ford Coppola famously boasted upon returning from the South Pacific, after the harrowing shoot for Apocalypse Now. “We went into the jungle, there were too many of us, we had too much money, too much equipment, and little by little, we went insane.” Rex…
Hipper-Hop
“Experimental” in music usually means that the artist had high goals and took some risks, but didn’t quite hit the mark. After all, if the experiment had been successful, it wouldn’t be experimental music; it’d just be good music. And hip-hop, which has never placed a lot of value on things like concept albums or…
Tuned Out
We bitch so much about the sad state of commercial radio and the headlock that giant corporations like Clear Channel have it in, Ralph Nader’s telling us to shut up already. But instead of whining that Molly Hatchet deserves more from the broadcasting powers-that-be, some folks have taken it upon themselves to actually do something…
Do You ‘Yahu?
What’s a nice Jewish boy like Benjamin Netanyahu doing at Ashland University’s John C. Myers Convocation Center on May 3? On a Friday night — the Sabbath –no less? Considering that Ashland is home to the Ashbrook Center — a conservative think tank that’s hosted the likes of Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford — it’s…
Talib Kweli
On “Manifesto,” his contribution to the 1997 compilation Lyricist Lounge Vol. 1, Brooklyn MC Talib Kweli outlined a 10-point plan for his fellow hip-hoppers to follow. Among them: “Respect yourself as an artist,” “Make sure your crew is as tight as you,” and, most memorably, “We soldiers for God needin’ new recruits/So if you rhymin’…
The Art of Healing
Carol Vacca is at lunch, explaining how her new healing center came to be called Gustoza House. Once, at a bar, a stranger described her as “gustoza,” which he told her was Portuguese for “full of life.” Such a luscious word, it was worth filing away for future use. But now that she’s named her…
Caitlin Cary
All right, class, who can tell me which former member of the defunct Whiskeytown has released the most impressive solo album? Yes, that’s a matter of opinion. What’s a little harder to debate is that Caitlin Cary, singer and fiddler from that groundbreaking, albeit short-lived Americana group, has given us a record much more in…
Dream Weaver
Kick a boy enough times, and he’ll become a man. The question is, of what sort? In Spider-Man, the long-awaited feature portrait of the comic book hero, director Sam Raimi brings forth a kaleidoscopic answer full of hope and verve. Flashy enough for kids and insightful enough for adults, the movie will line ’em up…
Motörhead
Hammered, Motörhead’s latest album, is the best thing the band has done since 1996’s Overnight Sensation. Far beyond merely reassuring fans the trio hasn’t gone soft, it proves that Motörhead is harder than just about any band in rock. Younger acts may rivet together more complex riff scaffolding, but Motörhead built the bridge between punk,…
Bad Deal
Deuces Wild is yet another new release that is now inexplicably being distributed theatrically — rather than slinking away to the video/cable market — after having explicably sat on the shelf for upward of a year. The film’s age is immediately evident, both from how young Frankie Muniz looks (compared to recent episodes of Malcolm…
Spiritualized
Who knows what band Jason “J Spaceman” Pierce is bringing this time out in order to muster up his Spiritualized revival meeting? After famously firing the core group of players who assisted in the creation of 1997’s magnificent Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space and its subsequent live fantasias (documented on Royal Albert…
Ol’ Dirty Bastard
Ten years after The Scandal — and its negative effect on the size of his audiences and his power and independence — Woody Allen broke his longtime avoidance of the Oscar telecast with his pro-New York stand-up shtick at this year’s ceremony. The positive audience response suggested that all is forgiven . . . the…
Various Artists
People alienated by techno’s difficult veneer would never guess that pop genes are buried deep inside that music’s DNA. Or that said genes were once loved far and wide. One was called electro, a robotic groove birthed by Kraftwerk and foisted onto hip-hop via Afrika Bambaataa; the other, a form of electronic disco practiced by…
Religious Eviction
The Commodore Theatre doesn’t much look like a beacon of hope. Time has won its battle with the faded facade and wind-worn brick walls. Inside, the old movie hall resembles an airplane hangar, spiderweb cracks adorning its ceiling and floors. Yet for all its blemishes, the theater retains a luster of spirit, one nurtured by…
Tom Waits
Phantasmagorical jazzbo Tom Waits hits pay dirt with this pair of discs, mining Alice in Wonderland for the first, Robert Wilson’s play Woyzeck for the second. Although both share many instrumentalists and are loosely thematic, Alice sounds softer, Blood Money more angular. Waits, as usual, deploys a battery of voices, from the crooner of “Poor…
Rogue Businessman? Mafia Poseur? Hollywood Playboy?
The tall periwinkle home on Glengarry Drive, cradled within Aurora’s exclusive Barrington Estates, needs only a moat and a drawbridge to complete the castle effect. But despite its regal appearance from the road — and its status as the crown jewel of the cul-de-sac — the home is cold and empty inside. Its cavernous dimensions…
Anodyne
Hardcore and post-hardcore have an interesting coexistence going. All the jarhead hardcore bands seem to persist almost by instinct, without the will toward musical or philosophical evolution, let alone the ability. The post-hardcore bands, by contrast, act as though they’re racing to see which of them can become a prog-rock outfit first. (Cave In’s currently…
Bob Taft, Raw & Uncut
To: Governor Taft From: Speechwriting Dept. Re: Your acceptance speech Dear Mr. Governor Sir: Since your reelection is all but assured, we have taken the liberty of preparing your acceptance speech. You will note a decided change in tone. Despite your impending landslide, our polling reveals that voters nonetheless regard you as weak, indecisive, and…
Blue Taxi
Readers of this publication voted Blue Taxi the best Cleveland-area blues band two years ago in the annual music awards poll. But this is misleading, as “blues” only begins to describe the eclectic Northfield foursome, in which rock and jazz live alongside country, rockabilly, bluegrass, and of course, the blues. Still, Blue Taxi needed to…
Don’t Burn the Nylon
The EPA should be making a stink, too: Maybe Nylonge isn’t exceeding the limit for hydrogen disulfide [“Big Wall of Stink,” March 28]. But the name “Nylonge” definitely suggests the company processes nylon. When heated to the melting point, nylon produces significant amounts of formaldehyde gas. Formaldehyde produces a peppery smell and burns the nose,…
Brain Teasers
It’s hard to know just what you’re seeing at Shaheen gallery’s Bruce Checefsky exhibit. Not that Checefsky is trying to fool anyone. The labels clearly state that the six enchanting prints (and one short film) that make up the show are created from photograms — pictures constructed, sans camera, on photographic paper. But the black…
Skate or Die
“This is contrary to how we grew up,” Stacy Peralta is saying a few minutes after getting dropped off at a newspaper office by a limo driver. The 45-year-old Peralta, still SoCal handsome and boyish beneath a ball cap and behind a well-trimmed beard, grins long and hard–a real hell-yeah smile. Peralta’s pal Tony Alva,…
