Cold Beer Here
You don’t need to tour Jacobs Field to learn that beer sales keep baseball solvent, but if you do grab a behind-the-scenes look at the ballpark, you may have a hard time hearing the trivia over the various machines used to transport the kegs and cases. Forklifts, trucks, golf carts, and hand trolleys full of…
Ringo Reexamined
On the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album, Ringo Starr sang about how he got by with a little help from his friends. That was 1967, and the news must have seemed like the understatement of the century: Ringo was perceived by many as the less talented band member who sweated profusely in the back while John,…
M:I-2 Gets the Job Done
Early on in Mission: Impossible 2 (or M:I-2, as the confident Paramount now calls it), hero Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) complains to his boss about his new assignment: “It’s going to be difficult.” “It’s not mission difficult, Mr. Hunt,” the boss icily replies, “it’s mission impossible. “Difficult’ should be a walk in the park.” Similarly,…
Notes to the Dead
Randal Myler is becoming the Cleveland Play House’s personal bard of the Woodstock generation. Last year, he plangently pitched the exaltation and dangers of hippie rebellion in Love, Janis, which functioned as a powerful ode to Joplin’s music and an elegy to her implosion from drugs and booze. This year, he has turned from psychedelic…
Enter the Drag
Do not judge Shanghai Noon by its trailer, which serves as the very antithesis of advertising: It begs you to stay far away from any theater in which this film is screening. Laden with dreary sight gags (a horse that stays by sitting . . . just like a dog) and woeful puns (“Your name…
Side Dish
When it comes to talent, some folks seem to be on a first-name basis with the Muse. Take, for example, West Siders Todd Thompson and Bridget Ginley. When this husband-and-wife team aren’t at their “real” jobs — he as Wine God and assistant manager at Pier W, she as admissions counselor and recruiter for the…
Unorthodox Judaism
By their very nature, fundamentalist religions demand conformity. Original thought and personal aspirations are subordinated to duty and ritual, both prescribed by scripture, be it the Bible, the Koran, or the Torah. Accounting for a small but often highly visible presence within a religious order, extremist movements tend to flourish within a patriarchal society, in…
Dark Days in Tangier
The two well-dressed, middle-aged women in the Tangier powder room talked as though they knew their way around a plate of food, and what they had just polished off hadn’t pleased them. “This place has really gone downhill,” sniffed the first. “I remember when this was one of the best restaurants in Akron,” agreed the…
High Roller
Anyone involved in Cleveland politics knows the same three things about local restaurant developer Tony George: He raises heaps of money for politicians. He launched the chain of once ubiquitous Slam Jams sports bars. And he’s feuding with County Recorder Pat O’Malley, once his close friend. What they think they know about George is this:…
A Maker-Break Album
If you’re looking for a subject for your master’s thesis on the evolution of rock music at the end of the 20th century, you’d do well to give the Makers a call. Since forming in 1990, when they were still adrenaline-and-testosterone-fueled teenagers, the Makers have mutated at a pace that would make one think that…
Flying Fracas
Ed McCabe is a big, rock-solid guy with a craggy face and a commanding, growly voice. He’s his own boss — the owner of a construction and engineering firm — and not the kind of person who enjoys being told what to do. So if he wants to park his helicopter on the 15 acres…
Rock Beats Paper
In Let It Blurt, author Jim DeRogatis (music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times) calls his subject “the great gonzo journalist, gutter poet, and romantic visionary of rock writing — it’s Hunter S. Thompson, Charles Bukowski, and Jack Kerouac all rolled up in one.” Lester Bangs was a writer who made his mark during a more…
Hit Parade
Before a packed house, William Watkins is beating his wife. He slams her to the floor and whales away, her screams drowning in the force of his blows. “You need help,” shouts a well-dressed spectator, unable to contain herself. “Why did she let herself get in a situation like this?” wonders another aloud. For Better…
Julie Doiron
While the name Julie Doiron probably doesn’t mean a thing to most American music listeners, in Canada she’s all that and a bag of chips. Doiron’s latest musical excursion, Julie Doiron and the Wooden Stars (recorded with her band, the Wooden Stars), recently earned her a Juno award (the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy). Of…
Inside the Soap Box
Michael Moore often worries about being seen–and worse, dismissed–as the plump, ball-cap-wearing windbag who barges into company headquarters, demands to see the chairman of the board, then gets kicked out or even arrested. He frets about being reduced to a stuntman of shtick, Captain Ambush, the guy called upon whenever a TV talking head needs…
KRS-One
KRS-One (Kris Parker) was preaching about the old school before there even was such a thing. This makes him a prophet of sorts and an elder statesman/spokesman in hip-hop circles. This also makes him a bit of a pain in the ass. He theorizes, philosophizes, and socializes on the good word of hip-hop with an…
Hiring Hiatus Hits Legal Hitch
Racial roulette! With negotiations moving like molasses, the hiring stalemate in the Cleveland Fire Department looks court-bound. “It appears an agreed-upon settlement will not occur and this case will most probably proceed to litigation,” says an unsigned letter sent out last week by Cleveland Firefighters for Fair Hiring Practices, the disgruntled white group pressing for…
The Upper Crust
The Upper CrustImagine a band with the chops of AC/DC and the closet sense and sensibility of Kiss — and then throw in cover art by Fragonard. That sort of gets you inside the ornate maze of the ill-mannered and well-born rocque and roll cotillion known as the Upper Crust. The Boston quartet, consisting of…
Letters to the Editor
Goode Was as Good as They GetIn response to “Tangled Up in Blue, by Jacqueline Marino, in the May 11 issue of Scene: I was the attorney who represented Sgt. [Gerald] Goode in the defamation action brought against Gabriella D. Kaplan, M.D., following her false allegations of brutality by him. The prior incidents of alleged…
Groovie Ghoulies
The Groovie Ghoulies dress like the Munsters and sound like the Ramones — anything beyond this description risks redundancy. Not that the band seems to care. Dice up a midtempo rhythm, mix in three or four distorted chords, sprinkle with some throwaway lyrics about lost love or Frankenstein’s foxy daughter, cook for anywhere from 45…
Various Artist
While some tributes work better than others, ‘Til We Outnumber ‘Em, the Woody Guthrie tribute recorded at a star-studded 1996 Severance Hall concert during the Rock Hall’s first American Music Masters symposium, is something fans of Guthrie and the performers involved will appreciate — though not listen to often. New Coat of Paint: The Songs…
Catherine Wheel
There’s a part of Catherine Wheel that loves its guitars loud, fuzzy, and crunchy. The louder, fuzzier, and crunchier, in fact, the better. And yet amid the racket the British band creates, it’s often difficult to uncover the center of the songs. Because if you ever did, you’d quickly realize there’s very little keeping them…
Anthony Rother, Steve Vath
Over 25 years have passed since Kraftwerk released Autobahn, an album of robot rock fueled by synthetic beats so unusual, their impact is still being felt today. While rumors of a new Kraftwerk record abound, the German electro scene marches onward with Frankfurt’s Sven Vath and Bad Nauheim’s Anthony Rother, two suitable heirs, leading the…
Me So Oily
Monday nights are typically hard sells for rock clubs — but not for the Revolution (3415 Brookpark Road, Parma), which has been booking local rock acts since opening late last year. Every Monday, the venue’s small parking lot is full, and a boisterous crowd is whistling and cheering, as if the Tribe took the World…
Ridin’ That Train
Campouts and music go hand in hand, like skewers and shish kebabs, but it’s usually just some tuneless friends “jamming” on acoustic guitar and bongos. For Columbus’s Ekoostik Hookah, that wasn’t good enough, so in the spring of 1994, they invited 800 of their closest friends and fans to their farm in Fredericktown and had…
