Sammy III once again does battle with race
Headline: Celebrity leeches feed on lazy nation Date: November 28, 2006 Topic: Sam Fulwood III, The Laziest Columnist in America (TM), accuses America of being lazy when he takes on last week’s most obvious column fodder: The O.J. Simpson and Michael Richards cases. In this episode, the master argues that both cases aren’t really about…
The Bologna Bandit
It appears that Northeast Ohioans are experiencing a rash of burglaries, in which the thieves have consistently taking, among other things, cold meats. Brian, a West Side victim who posts on the Ohio City message board, wrote: “Sometime Thursday, Friday or Saturday morning, someone pried open a locked rear window and took a computer, digital…
American Hardcore comes to the Cedar Lee
In American Hardcore (which opens at the Cedar Lee Theatre on Friday) a bunch of sweaty, shirtless white guys growl into microphones while a rapturous audience (made up of equally sweaty, shirtless white guys) hangs on every word. Welcome to the world of 1980s punk rock, which spanned shore to shore — including just about…
Guns N’ Roses: The six-hour wait was worth it
After months of rumors that Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy would be released November 29 — an album eight years in the making and GNR’s first proper record since 1991 — the disc failed to appear in stores today. The leaked tracks we’ve heard indicate that it’s not worth holding your breath for — though…
Replacing corrupt with corrupt?
Incoming Attorney General Marc Dann has just announced the replacement for his Youngtown Senate seat: Capri Cafaro. Cafaro, a former child prodigy who graduated from Stanford while still in her teens, is the billionaire daughter of mall builder J.J. Cafaro. In 2004, she lost in a not-quite close House race to Republican incumbent Steve LaTourette.…
Truth in music
The last time Scene checked in with Larry Marshak, he was busy exploiting the legacy of old soul musicians by touring fake versions of The Drifters, The Coasters, and The Platters [“Great Pretenders,” November 1]. But that may all come to an end. Today, The real Drifters’ attorney, Cindy Salvo, filed a motion in a…
Fleeing Euclid
Everybody can jump of the wagon of great offense and get real with it [“New Black City,” November 8]. I am a black living in Euclid for the last 17 years. I live in the Heritage Park neighborhood. When I moved here is it was nice and white. Does one have to do with the…
“Northern chapter of the KKK”
I am a resident of Euclid for over 30 years. I also work in the city. We own a beautiful home and have no interest or desire to move out. Our house is in the top 10% of property values. We have much invested in our community. Our neighbors are a mixed lot and all…
Football, Onion-style
While you were busy inhaling turkey, the dedicated reporters at the world’s funniest newspaper, The Onion, published their own take on Ohio’s infamous football rivalry. Under the all-too accurate headline, “Ohio State Defeats Michigan 42-39 In Ultimately Meaningless Game,” the paper skewered all our dreams of grandeur. Highlights include a fake sound bite from Coach…
Stuck in the Bedford Heights jail
Zoltan Olah is about as American a name as Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Written on a piece of paper, it’d probably set off an airport metal detector. Olah came to Cleveland from Hungary in 1994 seeking asylum. Five years later, he got married. By then, he and a friend had a roofing business restoring antique houses in…
Roger Brown, RIP
Leave it to Roger Brown to become even more annoying, egomaniacal, and utterly worthless in his final column for The Plain Dealer. Brown — one of 64 PD staffers to take a lucrative buyout packgage geared at trimming the fat at the Incredible Shrinking Daily — signed off on Sunday. After predicting Romeo Crennel’s firing,…
Euclid story sucked
I’m saddened by this article, “The New Black City” [November 8]. It perpetuates racial steriotypes, suggesting that Euclid is a rare place were district lines maybe drawn to disrupt the back voice. Unfortunately, one could find these types of racially biased districts across the country. The fact that the goverment has stepped in becasue the…
“Axl was hot!”
I was at the Guns N Roses concert at the Q Friday night (11/24/06). We had front row seats and actually stood (counting the hours we stood in line) for 12 straight hours. GNR were supposed to start at 11, but did not take the stage until 12:05 A.M. Saturdary morning. It was so well…
Guns-N-Poseurs
What is the difference between Axl Rose and Pete Rose? First, both men will never make it into any Hall of Fame. Axl’s performance, or lack of, proved he does not deserve to be inducted. His concert lacked substance and flow and he selected a group of musicians with very little talent or deserve to…
Built for thieving
This is allowed because all of the laws are made by people with money who always set the laws up for the attorneys and the wealthy to get the money if there is a suit that can be brought [“The Great Pretenders,” November 1]. You go from one thief to another! How can you win…
Gone Fishin’
To embrace the great holiday tradition of giving thanks, drinking way too much, and watching the goddamned Detroit Lions, C-Notes will be on leave for the rest of the week. We will resume our usual taut, gut-wrenching literary action on Monday, November 27. Till then, we bid you sweet ‘morrow, dearest reader. The Management
Stop the vote!
Uncle Tom Blackwell and Jim Petro may have lost the election, but they’re waning days of power, they’re still determined to fail spectacularly at their jobs. Their latest tactic: Attack the guy who helps people vote. Subodh Chandra, Cleveland’s former law director and unabashed elections geek, has spent the last few months working to ensure…
Ticketbastards
What better way to spread the holiday joy than with a gift card from Ticketmaster, where you can buy tickets to all your favorite shows at prices marked up like Afghan heroin. This year, Ticketmaster unveiled its first-ever gift card. They start at $25, which at today’s prices might get you into a stand-up show…
Euclid story a tribute to the ‘geniuses at Scene.’ Not.
Your article [“New Black City,” November 8] caught my eye as a long time Euclid resident. I moved recently to Cleveland Heights, a city very similar to Euclid as far as cultural diversity goes. But I feel that I can speak on Euclid just a tad more intelligently than you. Like any inner ring suburb,…
Vaccines caused the autism epidemic
I want to second the notion that mercury-laden vaccines caused the autism epidemic [“Raising Joshua,” November 15]. How can you explain an over 500 percent increase in the number of children with vaccines? My wife and I have four children, two of whom are affected by autism. Our first two children were given all the…
Treating autistic kids as puzzles
Lisa Rab hit the core of the Shoemaker family story [“Raising Joshua,” November 15] when she observed that the parents are an attractive and sociable couple for whom having an autistic child “wasn’t part of the plan.” Their unwillingness to accept their son’s autism led them to embrace a drug regimen for which a coherent…
Snake Oil Solutions
Creams and quack pills don’t cure autism: The mercury myth [“Raising Joshua,” November 15] is nuts. Mercury is not synonymous with mercury compounds. Thimerosal hasn’t been used in childhood vaccines since 2001, and the autism rate has not gone down. The symptoms of mercury poisoning are nothing like autism. The autism-cure industry is a cruel…
And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
Poor Conrad Keely — no one seems to understand the Trail of Dead frontman. The chorus he leads on “Wasted State of Mind,” from the Austin prog-punkers’ new disc, exemplifies Keely’s anguish: “Caught in a stasis, feels like I’ve wasted all this time/With people and places who’ve never related or desired.” But more often than…
Hick Shtick
Say what you will about the decline of America, but there’s still no better country in the world for poking fun at rural hicks. More than 20 years ago, the trio of Jaston Williams, Joe Sears, and Ed Howard decided to make a buck off rube-roasting with Greater Tuna, a slapped-together montage of scenes involving…
Fat Chance
Don’t freak out if you wolfed down 7,000 calories’ worth of turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie yesterday. Most Americans ate more than they should have. But Jason Zell and his crew of Bally’s fitness trainers come to the rescue today with free workout sessions at Feeling Fat Friday. “People [treat] Thanksgiving [like] an all-you-can-eat buffet,”…
Chinese Fire Drill
Over the past 15 years, Axl Rose has done everything humanly possible to make hard-rock fans not give two shits about Guns N’ Roses, a group that critics once anointed the new Rolling Stones. Undeterred by Rose’s long string of high-profile shenanigans, as well as the guy’s inability to hold onto musicians, his fans keep…
Snoop Dogg
Tha Doggfather does much more than just show up on his eighth solo outing, though the same can’t be said for Pharrell and R. Kelly, who once again lather the tracks with squishy R&B. On “Vato,” a refreshing and rather startling chunk of low-rider G-funk, Snoop’s nasal whine recaptures that ominous vibe that originally hooked…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Nite Club Confidential — The 1950s had some musical high points that didn’t involve Elvis and Jerry Lee, and those are captured to some degree in this mildly pleasant show at Kalliope Stage. A couple dozen lounge tunes are draped on a rickety storyline, which follows Sinatra wannabe Buck (a game but ultimately uncharismatic Steve…
He-Man Wman-Haters Club
After three decades, Pere Ubu still makes challenging music. The band’s refusal to play by conventional record-making rules has served it well over the years: Its first two albums, The Modern Dance and Dub Housing, are conceptual-sound masterpieces. On its latest CD, Why I Hate Women, Pere Ubu (led by corpulent frontman David Thomas) find…
Artist Interrupted
Acclaimed keyboardist Henry Butler had a great house in New Orleans: a 4,100-square-foot spread with a studio and plenty of room for his collection of musical instruments, including a 1925 Mason & Hamlin piano — one of his most beloved possessions. “My apartment in Boulder [Colorado] was a campground compared to that,” Butler says. He’s…
Johnny Cash
Originally released as a single LP back in 1969, At San Quentin captured only a sliver of the late Johnny Cash’s incendiary performance before a rowdy gathering of California convicts. This spiffy new reissue, on the other hand, consists of two discs presenting the concert in its entirety. In addition to Cash’s complete and uncensored…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW Misdemeanor — If art is supposed to expand horizons, this whimsical group show accomplishes the mission. Eleven artists give free rein to their most impish imaginations, bridging the real and the fantastic by deploying everyday objects and materials in ways never intended. The results are creative at worst and most often enchanting. By tilting…
The Lederhosen Were Hung by the Chimney With Care
Holidayfest 2006, which kicks off in Akron today, features fireworks, shopping, and an ice-skating rink. And there’s a blitzkrieg of Germanic events — from vendors selling handcrafted ornaments to cooks preparing bratwurst. “We have one of the best sister-city relationships in the world with Chemnitz, Germany,” says organizer Elizabeth Sheeler. “That’s well expressed here.” That’s…
From Hell
Tech N9ne ain’t looking real wild these days. Gone is the signature explosion of spiked, red-dyed hair — a look inspired by the rapper’s long affair with the drug Ecstasy. No longer rolling on pills, but still riotous onstage, the 35-year-old rapper now rocks the sophisticated, older-guy look, with thin, gray hairs sprouting from his…
The Twilight Singers
The Twilight Singers’ A Stitch in Time features two of the last decade’s great voices: ex-Afghan Whig Greg Dulli and former Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan. And while Dulli steers the ship (more a rotating cast than an actual band), this EP sees Lanegan finally seizing more control. Transforming Massive Attack’s bluesy “Live With Me”…
Bad News With Al
An Inconvenient Truth (Paramount) This isn’t exactly the kind of DVD you buy to watch again and again; the ending doesn’t get happier, and there are no twists to decipher with repeated viewings. The producers hope instead that you buy it and share it; it’s less movie, after all, than droning agitprop — effective, compelling,…
The Saints Are Coming
Thanksgiving just isn’t complete without football, and if you want to truly give thanks for the gridiron, try visiting the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Its new Superdome exhibit pays tribute to the New Orleans Saints’ vaunted stadium, which reopened on September 25, a year after Katrina shut it down. Items include a team-signed football…
Beelzebabs
Did you know Barbra Streisand, or simply Babs, is the top-selling female American pop artist of all time? Yes, it’s true. Her middling talents have generated 2 Oscars, 6 Emmys, 11 Golden Globes, 10 Grammys, 2 Cable Ace awards, an honorary Tony, and lifetime achievement awards from the American Film Institute and the RIAA. Concerts…
Jeff Samuel
When talking electronic dance music, no club freak mistakes Ohio for Michigan, the birthplace of techno. But at least the Buckeye State can lay claim to several gifted DJs and producers, including Dan Curtin, Morgan Geist, Girl Talk, and Jeff Samuel. Having grown up in Cleveland, Samuel now resides in Europe, where he’s made a…
Encore Performance
Guitar Hero gave party games a much-needed kick in the ass. No one expected this rhythm game — sold with a miniature plastic guitar — to play to sellout crowds. But it became the most addictive game of the year and one of the most attractive to nongamers. The reason is simple: It’s karaoke with…
Drag Race
Dennis Werntz takes no more than 30 minutes to make himself up as the statuesque Denise Russell. And unlike other drag queens who lip-sync their acts, Werntz can actually sing. Tonight, he’s in Akron to croon Carol Channing and Ethel Merman standards and impersonate Katharine Hepburn. Offstage, Werntz is a make-up artist; he helped run…
Final Scream
The third and final Cleveland’s Screaming concert will feature Knifedance’s first full live set since the band’s 1990 breakup. The set will also mark the release of Discography: 1985-1990, a CD with all the band’s vinyl releases from 1988 to 1990. Over the last year and a half, the shows have reunited Cleveland punks from…
Mission of Burma
With his 2001 book Our Band Could Be Your Life, rock scribe Michael Azzerad officially etched the Mission of Burma story in stone. But the band’s tale never grows stale. Battling commercial indifference as well as guitarist Roger Miller’s intense tinnitus, MoB sold few records in the early ’80s, yet became one of the most…
Here are the week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe:
DVD — The James Bond Ultimate Edition Volume 1 and Volume 2: Hot on the heels of the latest 007 adventure come the first two volumes in a new comprehensive series that gathers every single Bond movie ever made. Each gloriously restored film — five per volume — gets two discs, filled out with deleted…
Thanksgiving at the Zoo
The Cleveland Metropark Zoo celebrates Thanksgiving today with free admission and a series of special events to keep both animals and visitors entertained. Today’s programs are even holiday-related: Chimps use tools to dig for cranberry sauce, a leopard hunts a papier-mâché turkey, and grizzly bears make their way through a corn maze to get to…
Paul Van Dyk
Nobody ever called Paul Van Dyk a rock-star DJ. Even at the turn of the millennium, when his fan base ballooned to pop-star proportions, the German trance-jock never popped open champagne bottles in the booth while picking out his nightly conquest from a line of fawning groupies. In fact, judging by Global, Van Dyk’s 2003…
Inhale Exhale
The screamo-metalcore of Inhale Exhale stopped being novel about two years ago. Like genre giants Underoath and Atreyu, the Canton band has a lead singer who yelps, a drummer who contributes vocals, and a hook in every song. But Inhale Exhale’s twist on the ever-popular combination of metal guitar and hardcore breakdowns is far from…
Our top DVD picks for the week of November 21:
American Slapstick (Image) Alias: The Complete Fifth Season (Buena Vista) Boston Legal: Season Two (Fox) The Cry Baby Killer (Buena Vista) Devil Times Five (Code Red) Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist: Season Two (Paramount) Fall Out Boy: Solid Gold Uncertainty (Music Video Dist.) A Fish Called Wanda: Collector’s Edition (MGM) Freedom Fries and Other Stupidity We’ll…
Conan the Librarian
Fans of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s breakout role will love tonight’s session of In Other Worlds, which features discussion of Robert E. Howard’s The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian. Lakewood Library’s monthly book club, the group meets on the last Monday each month to discuss sci-fi and fantasy lit with host and “resident barbarian” Nick Kelley. Tonight’s…
Sepultura
In the late ’90s, lots of fans swore up and down that Sepultura without Max Cavalera would fail. Then they heard Soulfly, the departed singer-guitarist’s next project, and decided that Sepultura minus Cavalera still rocked a thousand times harder than that crap. And whaddya know? With 2005’s Dante XXI, Sepultura Mark II, now featuring Cleveland…
Colin Dussault’s Blues Project
On his second album of the last year, the prolific Colin Dussault demonstrates his mastery of the modern American songbook, from Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” to a blues-harp rendition of the Andy Griffith Show theme. The six-man Project follows Dussault off the path, swerving into disco for his ribald original “Plastic,…
Macho Man
Chad Dubral recently celebrated Halloween by getting in a little trouble with the law. “I punched a cop,” he says. “I thought he was one of the Village People.” The stand-up comic claims he’s not homophobic; he’s just tired of some of the lifestyle’s tell-tale signs. “If you wear a ring on your right ring…
Flora Express
Paul Busse’s model-train exhibits are staples at botanical gardens throughout the nation. The former Kentucky landscape architect’s latest creation, Trains Across the Valley, is now on display at Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens. The five-train exhibit replicates locomotives barreling through the Cuyahoga Valley. For scenery, Busse fills in spaces with natural materials, including twigs, tree…
Blue Cheer
Blue Cheer’s Dickie Peterson says his band has at least one thing in common with the James Gang: “Both bands play what I call ‘lateral blues.'” This is Peterson’s pet phrase for classic hippie-greaser funk, and he’s right. From the pummeling psychedelic boogie of Blue Cheer’s “Summertime Blues” to the post-Hendrix crunch captured on the…
Strike Zone
Downtown’s much-anticipated East Fourth Street “entertainment district” rolls one frame closer to completion on December 7, with the 8 p.m. opening of The Corner Alley (402 Euclid Avenue) and its associated restaurant, The 4th Street Bar & Grill. A joint venture of California’s Trifecta Management Group and downtown developer MRN Ltd., the 20,000-square-foot project will…
Tex Appeal
In Greater Tuna, two actors play everyone who lives in a small Texas town. The Beck Center’s production of this comedy by Jaston Williams, Joe Sears, and Ed Howard stars Nicholas Koesters and Kevin Joseph Kelly as the men, women, kids, and animals of Tuna, Texas’ third-smallest town. It’s not the first time Koesters and…
In With the Old
The Dunham Tavern Museum Antiques Show celebrates its 111th anniversary this year. That’s older than a lot of the ancient collectibles you’ll find at this annual outing! The venerable show — which ranks as one of the nation’s longest-running — features more than 75 dealers from across the country, unloading everything from tables and chairs…
Heartless Bastards
Influenced by Aretha Franklin and the MC5, the Heartless Bastards deliver hard-edged blues-rock. Singer and multi-instrumentalist Erika Wennerstrom has a talent comparable to that of Tracy Chapman and Edie Brickell. And while the Cincinnati trio’s debut exuded more of this bluesy vibe, its latest, All This Time, highlights the group’s growing versatility. Sure, “I Swallowed…
Cheesy Romance
From silken Brie on a crusty baguette to shiny Velveeta between slices of bouncy “balloon” bread, there’s just something about the combo of cheese plus bread that cuts across time, culture, and possibly even species. It’s one of the most elemental comfort foods on the planet. Hyperbole, you scoff? Then clearly you didn’t observe the…
Pigskin with a Sid eof Bacon
The Hard Rock Café’s Rock the Dawg Pound features plenty of pre-kickoff festivities before the Browns take on Cincinnati today. The event — which takes place prior to all home games this season — starts at 9 a.m. with a tummy-filling brunch spread. WKNR-AM 850’s Greg Brinda and Bob Karlovic broadcast live from the Hard…
Outrageous Fortune
Billy Wilder’s 1966 comedy The Fortune Cookie is one of the filmmaker’s funniest movies. Partly shot at the old Municipal Stadium, the film stars Jack Lemmon as a TV cameraman who’s injured on the sidelines of a Browns game. Walter Matthau, who won an Oscar for the role, plays his brother-in-law, Whiplash Willie, a shady…
Gary Puckett
Christmas season does wonders for shows like this one. Gary Puckett, former frontman for the Union Gap, manages to channel the warm and fuzzy nostalgia that sells cashmere sweaters at Banana Republic. Puckett’s been performing his admirable sheaf of familiar pop-soul tunes for decades now, so expect a slick if well-worn production — including his…
One-Toke Wonder
The first few minutes of Tenacious D in ³The Pick of Destiny² are something to behold: a four-minute rock opera cranked to 11. A doughy young boy with dirty-mop locks (Nacho Libre’s Troy Gentile, once more playing lil’ Jack Black) laments his tragic plight: He’s stuck in Kickapoo with “a humble family, religious through and…
You’ll Shoot Your Eye out
Brian Jones didn’t even know where Cleveland was when he purchased the Christmas Story House on eBay last year. “I had to look on MapQuest,” says the 30-year-old Californian. Jones was making a pretty good living manufacturing and selling leg lamps — like the one featured in the 1983 movie A Christmas Story — when…
The Plot Dickens
Even Andrew May, who directs the Great Lakes Theater Festival’s production of A Christmas Carol, is at a loss for words when it comes to explaining the appeal of the annual favorite. All he knows is that Great Lakes’ take on Charles Dickens’ holiday classic has become one of Cleveland’s holiday traditions. “This town has…
Norma Jean
With 2005’s O God, the Aftermath, Norma Jean took brutal metalcore as far as it could go. The gang of Christians roared like demons over relentless bursts of guitar and concussive drum bursts. On Redeemer, Norma Jean’s latest, the band cuts out the Headbanger’s Ball clichés and just rocks without sacrificing the heavy. The Atlanta…
L.A. Story
For Your Consideration pulls off the neat trick of skewering the movie industry while remaking it in its own image. The latest ensemble comedy by Christopher Guest and company may take place in Los Angeles, but its imaginative provenance lies somewhere between the La La Lands of Entourage and Mulholland Drive. Embellished with anachronisms, affectations,…
Polka Hero
Forget what you know about polka. It’s not just riff-repeating dance music played by accordion-wielding drunks, argues Bob Dolgan, author of America’s Polka King: The Real Story of Frankie Yankovic. It was an integral part of post-war culture. In a way, polka was the hip-hop of its era: It celebrated hedonistic good times, its stars…
Homeboy
New York comic Ray DeVito spends Thanksgiving tonight telling jokes in his native Lakewood. And he’s bringing along his gag bag, which is stuffed with jokes about the opposite sex. “I read that women are sexually attracted to men’s eyes,” he quips. “If that’s true, thank you, ladies, for picking the one part of our…
Insecurity
You’ve seen him rousting tweens at Orange Julius or pacing for hours around Dillard’s lingerie department. His weapons are usually a walkie-talkie, an official-looking uniform, and a decent-sized beer belly. After being inspired by a 10-hour marathon of Cops, he decided to find work in mall security, chasing the occasional shoplifter and guarding against food-court…
Converge
You Fail Me, Converge’s 2004 debut for Epitaph, earned the hardcore band waves of fans. Unfortunately, it lacked the intensity of previous efforts, so old fans were disappointed. No Heroes, on the other hand, sees Converge reasserting itself: It’s an extreme-music masterpiece, brutalizes the ears unlike any other in the band’s 15-year history. Live, Jacob…
The Whole World in His Hands
For progressives lifted, however temporarily, by the swell of a turning tide, Bobby can be seen clearly for what it is — an Airport movie with the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy as the central calamity and an all-star cast deployed like multiple George Kennedys. Juggling some 22 main characters on June 4, 1968, in…
Hello, Cleveland!
Today’s Emerging Cleveland bus tour covers a lot of ground as it cruises past some familiar and not-so-familiar city landmarks. The itinerary includes stops at the old Gospel Press building in Tremont and the art colony at Tyler Village on East 36th Street. “Cleveland is a great, livable city compared to New York and San…
Nautical Art
The Beck Center has long been home to one of the area’s best theater companies. Now it’s making a strong play in the visual arts; a new program features local artists showing off their work. First up is Boatscapes and Landscapes, featuring new paintings by Barbara Kinsman Swasey. The 24 works live up to the…
Sympathy for the Rich Man
What can you buy with a few hundred million and a dream? Marketing magnate Daniel Snyder bought the Washington Redskins and reserved parking on annual Worst Sports Owners lists. Peter Magowan, a grocery-store mogul, bought the San Francisco Giants and the right to be vilified for both protecting and disrespecting a famed steroids junkie. Here…
Eloe Omoe
Not many white dudes can pull off a full-on Afro. Back in the hippie days, Rob Tyner of the MC5 headbanged with one, as did the Deviants’ Mick Farren. But neither of their respective domes ever matched that of Eloe Omoe drummer Tim Leanse. In addition to laying claim to the biggest ‘fro in all…
Fountain of Shame
Solemn, flashy, and flabbergasting, The Fountain — adapted by Darren Aronofsky from his own graphic novel — should really be called “The Shpritz.” The premise is lachrymose, the sets are clammy, and the metaphysics is all wet. The screen is awash in spiraling nebulae and misty points of light, with the soundtrack supplying appropriately moist…
Wild’s Style
DJ Danny the Wildchild balances the dark and the danceable tonight when he spins a frothy mix of hip-hop and drum n’ bass in Akron. “No time for rest — just hard drums and sick B-lines,” he says. “My sound is big. It’s primetime, main-room, dance-floor business.” When he was 12, Daniel Garcia was making…
Will Rock for Food
Like the Fray and Rob Thomas, local band View From Everest specializes in SUV-friendly tunes. Most of the songs on its debut CD, Live & Learn, are filled with hooks. And the album’s maximum-impact production aims straight at radio’s soft heart: adult-alternative. The trio’s members — all vets of other area bands — headline a…
Crime University
The last time Punch checked in with the University of Akron, it had just hired a man indicted on rape charges to be a residential assistant in its dorms [“Perv in the House,” September 13]. Stanley Smith’s questionable hiring came just after the school had endured serious scrutiny for the death of Charles Plinton. Plinton…
Catie Curtis
The problem with folk? It’s so folky. Catie Curtis wallops folk in its anemic gut by bringing a little bit of pop fun to the party. Written while she was becoming a first-time parent, the crisp and driving Long Night Moon is personal, and it’s mellow, and it’s touching. But it’s also some of the…
Tony Scott, Trailblazer
OK, so Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott were asking for it by naming their latest mega-production Déjà Vu. These dudes aren’t exactly paragons of innovation, unless taking rhetorical hysteria to awesome new heights counts. As the opening credits roll–by which of course I mean roll, zip, flicker, fade, zoom and swerve–you get a good solid…
St. Nick and a Flick
It’s not Christmas without at least one viewing of A Christmas Story and a visit to Santa. Lucky for you, the Canton Palace kills two partridges with one pear at today’s A Christmas Story Movie & Cookies With Santa. Fri., Nov. 24, 6 p.m.
Thankful? You Bet!
Click here to find out what we’re thankful for.
Ibiza Night
If your refined tastes draw you to the right places, Sunday can be the best night of the weekend. DJ Filippo Andaloro hosts the city’s only Ibiza Night at Traffic, spinning up-to-the-minute European dance, cut with just a little techno. Rub elbows with Clevelanders from all over the world in the newly remodeled downstairs lounge,…
Freak, Out
Do artists actually see more than ordinary people? That’s what my high school art teacher thought. So, apparently, does Nicole Kidman — at least that’s the way she plays Diane Arbus (1923-71) in Fur, the celebrated photographer’s exceedingly curious “imaginary portrait.” Kidman acted around a prosthetic proboscis to win an Oscar for her impersonation of…
Hair Apparent
Kathryn Koch and David Nanni say that other musicians treat them like a Red-Headed Stepchild. So they adapted the adage as their moniker. “I knew that whatever we did musically wasn’t going to fit in anybody’s mold,” says Koch. “I give audiences credit, because they don’t care what box you fit in.” Originally from Buffalo…
