Joint Efforts
One measure of how important marijuana is to some people is the number of slang terms that exist for loco lettuce and its various mixtures, methods of toking, and paraphernalia. It’s sort of like Eskimos and their hundreds of words for snow: When something is critical to your existence, you need a lot of language…
The Catheters
At what point, exactly, did you really begin to hate garage rock? When legions of stylist-rumpled, wannabe retro-rockers took over the airwaves? When ad agencies started tapping into that “hipster sound” to sell Subarus and Happy Meals? Or when you were in Guitar Center, cringing as some golf-shirted goober flubbed the riff to “Seven Nation…
Lost in Carnations
5/29-5/30 As much as Kat Woolyung likes running through the woods, winning a medal at the North American Orienteering Championships isn’t one of her top priorities. “I have a hard time competing,” says Woolyung, a member of the North Eastern Ohio Orienteering Club. “I’m the kind of person who, halfway through the trail, is like,…
Ragin’ Asians
One of the missions of Cleveland Public Theatre is to bring new works and fresh performers to the area, and the production now playing in its upstairs theater accomplishes that exactly. Working in cooperation with the New York City-based Active Eye group, CPT is presenting Dojoji, an 11th-century Japanese fable told in a lean, frequently…
Jealous Sound
Connecting the dots of ’90s indie rock can be a bewildering task. It’s almost as if “emo,” the decade’s pet genre, were more an acronym for “Ex Members of” than the lobbed-off truncation of “emotional.” Case in point: Jealous Sound, an L.A. foursome that scavenged members from such Clinton-era heavies as Shudder to Think, Jawbox,…
Chilly Seasons
THU 5/27 Rachel Cline’s mom sold her Psychedelic Furs and Bananarama records when she left home. Just as Denny Roman’s emotionally frigid mom does in What to Keep, Cline’s debut novel. “Hasn’t everybody gone through that?” she laughs. But there are differences between the fortysomething writer and the 37-year-old actress-and-playwright protagonist of this coming-of-age story,…
On Stage
Carousel — One look at the small Kalliope performing space, and you’d wonder why anyone would try to mount a show requiring 25 cast members, some involved crowd scenes, and a couple of ballet sequences here. But director Paul F. Gurgol manages to shuttle everyone in and out while giving his singers room to massage…
Scissor Sisters
Move over, Boy George: The Scissor Sisters are the new campy cowboys in town, and their fabulous style and retro-leaning synth outrageousness spell trouble for your undisputed gay-icon status. Taking its name from a slang term for lesbians, the N.Y.C. quintet started half a decade ago with vocalist Jake Shears and multi-instrumentalist Babydaddy (they later…
Slam, Bam, Thanks, Bye
SUN 5/30 Sunday’s Citywide Cleveland Poetry Slam Championship gathers 10 champs from the past year’s worth of local slam-poetry contests. The top four placers get to represent Cleveland at the National Poetry Slam in St. Louis in August. “This is the big kahuna,” says organizer Michael Salinger. But don’t place any bets. Salinger says that…
On View
Aging in America, The Years Ahead — Being old doesn’t necessarily mean living on the fringes of society, as this multimedia show proves. Ed Kashi’s black-and-white photographs demonstrate, for example, that the Marlboro Man has nothing on the 75-year-old cowboys competing at the National Senior Pro Rodeo. A leather-jacketed senior biker chick gives meaning to…
Skinny Puppy
The mere mention of Vancouver’s Skinny Puppy elicits images of traumatic soundscapes that often spiral into the chaotic; the band’s output was matched only by its flair for the visually unsettling. It was that combination that put Nivek Ogre, cEvin Key, and the late Dwayne Goettel shoulder to shoulder with industrial icons Ministry and Nine…
Breaking the Waves
Fishing Lake Erie’s been dubbed “The World’s Best Smallmouth Bite” by In-Fisherman magazine, and it’s made many Top-10 walleye-fishing lists. Take the Jet Express from Port Clinton to Put-in-Bay and purchase a one-day fishing license for 11 bucks. Walleye, perch, crappie, rock bass, and smallmouth bass are abundant until late May. Then, it’s catfish time.…
Morning Glory
Lunch and dinner spots? We’ve got ’em by the score. But great breakfast fare? That’s a little harder to come by in Greater Cleveland. All the more reason, then, to cheer the recent Woodmere arrival of The Original Pancake House (28700 Chagrin Boulevard, 216-292-7777), a clean, contemporary, kitsch-free eatery across from the upscale Eton shopping…
Death Angel
Bay Area thrash bands of the past, rise from the grave! First it was Exodus, with Tempo of the Damned. Now the same label, Nuclear Blast, has shoved Death Angel out of the retirement home and back into the studio. But age means nothing when you’re making metal as timeless and crushing as The Art…
Eat, Drink, and Be Ferried
Watercolor Workshop, June 2-3 Rocky island waterscapes, beautiful boating backgrounds, sketches of drunken college co-eds — the Erie islands provide plenty of postcard vistas. The two-day Watercolor Workshop around Put-in-Bay offers expert instruction in painting some of South Bass Island’s most eye-catching landscapes. Noted watercolorist Clela Stenicki has geared the class toward both novices and…
Stellar Luna
It takes forever to find the place, nestled in a web of one-way streets on the edge of downtown Canton. Then, when you finally spot it — a long, brick barracks of a building, its bland facade interrupted only by high windows and a couple of beat-up metal security doors — it looks more like…
RJD2
RJD2’s first album, Dead Ringer, was a pitch-perfect mix of soul-filled, funky instrumental hip-hop and a showcase for guest rhymers like Copywrite and Blueprint. But the Columbus-based producer seems determined to prove that he can succeed without help — and with a wider array of styles than just his trademark blues and funk-filled hip-hop. The…
Enter the Sand, Man
Headlands Beach State Park Size & Sand: The beach is a mile-long “natural” stretch of sand. Weeds and rocks are frequent elements of the beach backdrop, but they only add to the natural milieu. Lifeguards: Daily, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Crowds: Big — as many as 10,000 can fill the beach on the weekends.…
Turbo Twang
Though Rosavelt frontman Chris Allen sings of the ’60s on his band’s latest, flowers have never been his thing. “They died beneath my feet,” Allen croaks on the gritty “Emerald Hope.” “They turned into something mean.” Namely, Rosavelt’s third LP, The Story of Gasoline. The rootsy Cleveland band’s first release in six years starts off…
Horrorpops
Hellcat Records, home to Denmark’s Horrorpops, has released a lot of junk. Aside from a few decent ska discs, most of the catalog is either overproduced street punk (à la label head Tim Armstrong’s Rancid) or hackneyed psychobilly. And the Horrorpops are junk too, but not stinky, useless scraps — more like a rare Pee-wee…
Beyond Burgers and Dogs
Port Clinton Walleye Festival, May 27-31 For 24 years, fish fanciers have converged on the town of Port Clinton to celebrate the city’s annual Walleye Festival. Anglers and landlubbers alike come to enjoy carnival rides, strolling entertainment, more than 100 vendors, and most of all, the walleye and perch sandwiches. The festival’s parade takes place…
Psych Out
When it comes to rock music, Japan is a fountainhead of extremes. As far as we know, there are no Rising Sun equivalents of Coldplay or Dave Matthews Band (thank Buddha for small mercies). Instead, Japan produces artists like the Melt-Banana, Merzbow, and Guitar Wolf — all of whom represent an aesthetic so over the…
Eagles of Death Metal
The bong-clutching, tweaked-out beanbag lifestyle of the ’70s seems to have made a big impression on Queens of the Stone Age mastermind Josh Homme, and while that vibe has wormed its way into all of his various projects (QOTSA, Kyuss, Desert Sessions), it dominates this latest indulgence. A collaboration with his childhood pal Jesse “The…
The Great Alfresco
It’s a known fact: Food tastes better when consumed outside. Ditto for alcoholic beverages. And while sitting on a log toasting marshmallows to the howling of wolves may do it for some, nothing beats a breezy summer night in the city. There’s no real competition here: The urban option includes a chef, a waiter, and…
High Score
If the world remembers the Porky’s movies at all, it remembers them as precursors of the American Pie films — way stations between Animal House and the most recent crop of movies that encourage us to laugh at young people and their obsession with their genitals. The more savvy film lover may remember Porky’s 2:…
Quickening
Blame it all on Weezer: Over the past three years, scores of aspiring rockers have taken to mimicking alternative artists that had radio hits around 1996. Half the emo bands in the world sound like Third Eye Blind. And though it rocks a little harder than your average “Don’t call us emo or we’ll cry”…
Hello, Cleveland!
Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles Six-Pack Weekend II: Who’s Up for Another Round? The second year of the tour sponsored by metal journal Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles will bring a scrapyard’s worth of metal to the Odeon. Local crossover crushers 13 Faces headline a showcase of today’s regional talent. Legendary heshers of yesteryear, including…
Showtime at Sand Ridge
When you’re master of your universe, the rewards are plentiful. Chief among them is the gift of lazy Wednesdays at the country club, nursing Manhattans among other fabulous people. At the Sand Ridge Golf Club in Chardon, the lawns are as crisp and green as newly minted bills, and the cobalt waters of the Cuyahoga…
Belles of the Bar
There will never be a last dance for Mary Jane. The faded heroine of Tom Petty’s 1993 hit has boogied a decade away at just about every watering hole this side of Bangor. Petty’s Greatest Hits, the album that birthed the song, is among the handful of records that’s standard equipment on jukeboxes everywhere –…
Nox Arcana
Former Midnight Syndicate collaborator Joseph Vargo and multi-instrumentalist William Piotrowski have combined their passions for darkness and music. In the course of Darklore Manor’s 21 tracks, the duo explores horror-inspired soundscapes and creepy fantasy coupled with an occasional ominous narrative. The music comes off as accompaniment to a ghost story, which is detailed in the…
Power! Money! Sex!
It’s the first warm afternoon of April, and Frank Jackson is ducking a call. The city elite is abuzz with talk of regionalism, but apparently no one has talked to the city council president. He’s feeling neglected. “Frank can’t force his way into any private discussions about regionalism,” says his spokeswoman, Maxine Greer, her voice…
Dirt’s Greatest Hit
The Cleveland band Dirt opened last Friday’s X-Fest, and it earned the time slot by roughing up another band. In a boxing match sponsored by 92.3 Xtreme Radio’s morning show, Dirt frontman Dave “DBC” Burzanko outpunched Liquid’s Joe “Joey D” DePasquale in a unanimous decision to win the concert’s coveted opening slot for the second…
A Sure Bet
A Sure Bet Time to make a virtue of necessity: I am in favor of a casino in Cleveland [“Place Your Bets,” May 12]. Gambling rakes in over $60 billion per year, and you’d be dumb, stupid, or both to ignore the vast amount of money we are missing out on. Create an aura of…
You Gotta Be There
Jamie’s Flea Market, every Wednesday and Saturday Looking for that Six Million Dollar Man lunchbox you had when you were a kid? You just might find it at Jamie’s Flea Market, where vendors unload the trash and treasures stashed in their vans and pickups. There’s room for 400 sellers, so you’re bound to find something…
Adam F
As a drum & bass DJ, Adam F’s been respected from the get-go, and he brings the heat with a multitude of accelerants: His ’98 debut, Colours, with its jazz-infused club-floor hit “Circles,” sampled rain sticks and other trance-typical sounds. He abandoned the organic angle with 2001’s Anti-Acoustic Warfare. But it was in 2000, as…
Scooter Tutor
Denny Harkai has obsessed over many things in his 61 years: radio-controlled cars, model airplanes, motorcycles. But nothing’s enthralled him quite like motor scooters. He was first hooked at 14. “Back then, we couldn’t have sex,” he recalls. “So, anything that had a motor on it was interesting.” In 1964, he sold the gray Lambretta…
Just for Kids
Lake County Captains The Class-A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians offers kid-friendly promotions galore throughout the summer. When they’re not setting off fireworks, they’re giving away yo-yos, bobbleheads, fielder’s gloves, batting helmets, and growth charts. And kids get a chance to run the bases on Family Day (May 30; June 20 and 27; July 4,…
The Second Annual Scooter and Vintage Motorcycle Show
Old stereotypes of motorcyclists as tattooed tough guys and scooter aficionados as scarf-sporting Eurotrash have been dissolving. Witness this celebration of all things two-wheeled and motorized: The Second Annual Scooter and Vintage Motorcycle Show, organized by the Modern World and P.O.C. Scooters stores (at 2078 West 25th Street), is fast becoming a premier gathering of…
Exit Interview
First Punch’s exclusive Q&A (minus the A) with former Free Times editor David Eden: First Punch: We appreciate this opportunity to finally speak with you. As editor of the Free Times, you enjoyed taking potshots at Scene, yet refused to return calls from Scene reporters. Might this interview mark a new spirit of openness? David…
Straight to Helen
Sitting through Raising Helen is an exercise in frustration, because somewhere inside this big heap of Hollywood nothing is a something (someone, actually) worth saving and savoring. Her name is Joan Cusack, always a supporting player but never a star, no matter her grace and warmth and charm even in the tiniest of parts; she’s…
Vast Aire
Since Cannibal Ox’s 2001 debut epitomized the artfully tangled thickets of word and sound that put Def Jux at the forefront of indie hip-hop, it was always going to be difficult for Vast Aire to follow it up solo — especially without the memorably abstract production of label chief El-P. On paper, the dream team…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, May 27 As Neil Diamond impersonations go, it’s hard to beat Will Ferrell’s drunken, racist take on the mellow crooner. But Super Diamond — which bills itself as the “alternative Neil Diamond experience” — treats its subject with both reverence and just a little cheekiness. It’s a fitting approach: For every “Sweet Caroline” and…
Style Counsel
Now that the hiking-boot-and-heel hybrid is fading into the backs of closets throughout America, what’s a girl to wear? First, make sure those mutations never again see the light of day. Second, have some faith in our city’s designers. Once perpetually three steps behind Los Angeles and New York, fashionwise, Cleveland is closing the gap.…
Renee Austin
It’s tempting to tout Renee Austin as a white Tina Turner and leave it at that. There are abundant traces of Ms. T’s imprint on the Texas-bred singer-songwriter’s vocals, but the complete picture bears additional good news for lovers of classic R&B. Austin’s hot delivery and formidable range (five octaves’ worth) push her to the…
MMMRibs
Sometime after 1997, when they recorded a chewy bit of bubblegum pop that had everybody singing “MMMBop,” the three Hanson brothers grew up. Not just physically, but in the business of making records too. After a six-year relationship with the Universal Music Group — which oversaw the release of half a dozen albums, including a…
It’s a Hard-Knocked Life
Those people who live in small towns, they’re not like you and me. So naive, so innocent. And adorably quirky. Why, they’ve got so many lovable quirks, you just wanna run up and hug ’em. Or, if you’re a filmmaker, perhaps you can make a movie about these simple folk, so that you can adore…
Steve Poltz
Way back in the wayback, when poking fun at Eddie Vedder and helping out a fledgling singer-songwriter named Jewel were things to put on a résumé, Steve Poltz had it goin’ on. As one of the founders of the Rugburns, one of those oh-so-scarce funny-on-purpose bands, Poltz gave the world songs such as “Me and…
Cherry Bombs
SAT 5/29 You can’t miss Howard Weiss. He’s the guy pulling a “blaster blender” out of his oversized backpack, preparing for Saturday’s Players Extreme Party at Spy. “It starts off its life as a weed whacker in a Home Depot,” says Weiss of his contraption. “Then it turns into a gas-powered blender. It’s got a…
