Three Cheers for Modest Filmmaking
The Love Letter has the dubious distinction of being the other studio film to open this week. In a week when all the other majors have run for cover, Dreamworks has taken a gamble with a classic bit of counterprogramming–in nearly every way, this sweet romance/romantic comedy is the opposite of that other film now…
Soundbites
The eleventh installment of Undercurrents begins Thursday night, and a number of local bands will perform, including familiar acts such as B.E. Mann, C.D. Truth, Ivet, Omegacell, Al’s Fast Freight, and the TwistOffs. One Cleveland name on the schedule has never appeared in any local club listings or marquees. James Greiner, a multi-instrumentalist with a…
A Menace All Its Own
If your poodle is decked out in the complete Captain Kirk uniform, you’ve ever taken Klingon language classes, or you’ve mailed DeForest Kelly a joint taped to a piece of cardboard just to “return the favor,” the 86-minute documentary called Trekkies is must viewing–love it or loathe it. In the long, often sordid history of…
Sweetness and Lightsabers
Fans call it “that Star Wars feeling,” the raw emotional high achieved by watching or even just thinking about the films of George Lucas. It’s a sort of gut-swirling, swooning sensation, the effect of tripping on a fantasy world, a wonderland, a place unlike earth or even the movies. And the thing the junkies need…
Boss From the ‘Burbs
It’s 7:55 a.m. and Jimmy Dimora is 35 minutes late–unconscionable for most people, but not terrible by his unique standards. The Cleveland Convention Center is buzzing as a choir of grade-school students belts out gospel songs with the potency of a double espresso. Eight hundred people have assembled to celebrate the seventh annual Unity Day,…
The Edge
More Muslim Murder Arrests Likely Despite protestations to the contrary, the murder of 21-year-old Cleveland State student Methal Dayem has been investigated from the start as an “honor killing,” the execution of a Muslim woman by her relatives for perceived disgraceful actions. The recent arrests of two of Dayem’s cousins dragged the issue into the…
Women’s War
Barefoot on a lazy Sunday afternoon, Deborah looks casual in her cluttered suburban apartment, but not relaxed. She speaks softly in an intoxicatingly melodic accent, recalling a terrifying memory three decades old that still plays over in her mind. She is ten years old and helpless, being pinned to the ground by five men from…
Letters
Milkweeding Out Pagan Myths I’m the guy with the rattle at the end of Mark Naymik’s cover story [“Out of the Broom Closet,” May 6]. Attorneys and experts working for the U.S. EPA and other organizations are concerned over the so-called emergency work order and action at Frank Giglio’s property. The allegation that the vegetation…
The Graduates
Dexter Davis is the undisputed star of Club Illusion, a show that recently opened in a temporary exhibition space on the East Side. The collages of the highly touted 34-year-old, a security guard at the Cleveland Museum of Art who last year had a solo exhibition at the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, stand out…
So-So Birdie
Charles Strouse, Lee Adams, and Michael Stewart’s 1959 Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie is the show that became an institution by spoofing Elvis Presley, another institution. Since its premiere it has infiltrated more high schools than athlete’s foot and more dinner theaters than acute indigestion. It made a star of Dick Van Dyke, a Broadway…
Desperate Living
By canceling Tartuffe and booking The Beauty Queen of Leenane, the Great Lakes Theater Festival deserves some kind of medal since, with the savvy substitution of Irish grand guignol stew for French tripe, it has spared its audiences another order of moldy theatre Français. As the Play House recently demonstrated, Moliere tends to metamorphose in…
In Search of a Menu
Like a rattler shedding its skin, the Diamondback Brewery has wriggled its way through more culinary styles in the past six months than most restaurants attempt in six years. The brewpub’s search for success has taken it literally all over the map, with forays into such diverse culinary arenas as Asian, Mexican, and Mediterranean cookery.…
Growing Up in Public
Earlier this month, Garth Brooks was named Entertainer of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music. But that doesn’t mean C&W-loving punk rocker Mike Ness is suddenly filled with newfound admiration for him. “I can give you a perfect description of how I feel about Garth Brooks,” he says, his voice like a table…
Restored Faith
“Do you know anything about clogged ears?” Imperial Teen founder Roddy Bottum has a waterlogged ear and is asking me for my expert opinion on the subject. “Have you ever had your ears drained?” No, I offer, trying my best to be sympathetic, but I had a small piece of dust lodged in my eye…
Night & Day
Thursday May 20 Courtney Love’s in Cleveland on Friday with Hole, but her ex-husband, Falling James Moreland of the Leaving Trains, stumbles in today for a show at Pat’s in the Flats. Are there enough broken bottles to go around? Should be, since according to Hole’s latest effort, the sugary Celebrity Skin, Love no longer…
Pretty on the Outside
Melissa Auf der Maur is feeling frisky. She’s just spent the day shopping in Kansas City, where Hole is playing later in the evening. Auf der Maur, the band’s bass player, wasn’t trolling for a sleeveless gown but light-hearted show props. “I’m on the road, getting a little delirious,” she says via cell phone and…
Up With People
Imagining everybody in their underwear, that confidence-building technique for sweaty-palmed public speakers, might work reverse wonders for the meek attending the upcoming Celebrating the Body Erotic workshop in Cleveland. The two-day seminar is a clothes-off affair for men who are willing to “touch and be touched” all over–and reach a higher spiritual plane through orgasm.…
Livewire
Lenny Kravitz The Black Crowes Everlast Blossom Music Center May 11 Emerging from backstage to the sonic crush of “Live,” the leadoff track from his recent album 5, Lenny Kravitz preened and paraded around the dais. He had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand–or better said, upraised and pumping fists. Clad…
Flings With Fame
Jo-anne Nielson was looking for a longtime companion, someone who shared her interests–moonlit walks on the beach, playing Frisbee in the park. Just when she thought she had turned over every rock and squeaky toy, she found that special someone in her front yard, rummaging through the trash. Fine-boned and limber, Nielson’s partner–a fetching young…
Playback
Prodigy Prodigy Present the Dirtchamber Sessions: Volume One (XL-Recordings) The role of the DJ in modern culture is more prevalent and powerful than it has ever been. No mere record spinners, today’s jocks are turntable artists, capable of wrapping a series of tunes into one incendiary package; the best of them do this without exposing…
