William Van Dyke, Grave Robbing A-Hole, Delays Sentencing
One of the nastiest bits of Cleveland crime to come across the police blotter recently was William Van Dyke, the 23-year-old d-bag who swiped copper vases from graves in a Cleveland cemetery. He was due in court today to get a dose of just deserts, but the hearing has been pushed back. He’s sick. Or…
Cleveland Tops Country in Recession Recovery
Not exactly that kind of recovery. Well that wasn’t too bad, was it, Northeast Ohio? Now that we’ve totally kicked the Great Recession’s ass, it’s time to compete for who has the bragging rights to best recovery. You’ll be happy to know, Cleveland is in the top 10 for bounce-back, according to the bow-tied and…
Pic of the Day: When the Browns Had Cheerleaders
The Cleveland Browns don’t have cheerleaders. But they did once.The Plain Dealer has an excellent little piece detailing the one year that the storied franchise had cheerleaders on the sidelines. Favorite line: “We had them one year. They looked crazy. It was ridiculous,” Pat Modell, wife of the former Browns owner, said recently. “It was…
Cleveland Has the Lowest ATM Fees in the Country
The best ATM we’ve ever seen. It’s a happy occasion when a Clevelander has a chance to visit the ATM. That means there’s money to be taken out, a rare and wondrous moment indeed. Now, it’s common sense to go to the ATM of whatever bank you belong to, but sometimes that’s not possible. You…
Suspect “Too Drunk” for Sobriety Test
“Officer, I’m way too drunk to be doing this.” Things not to admit to a cop after he approaches you for possibly being inebriated and causing a one-car accident: That you’re too drunk to take a field sobriety test. From the Lorain Morning Journal: When asked to submit to a field sobriety test, a 35-year-old…
Now Someone’s Looking for the Browns Security Guard Who Posted on Craigslist
Back in early October, we brought the story of a lovestruck security guard at Browns Stadium who took to Craigslist’s Missed Connections section in pursuit of a young lass who caught his eye during a game. Now, there’s more to the story. I got an email this morning from a woman purporting to be the…
Video: Derek Anderson Freaks Out After Monday Night Loss
Derek Anderson played a deplorable game Monday night against the 49ers. Sometime during the fourth quarter, cameras captured the former Browns quarterback laughing on the sideline. After the game, a reporter asked Anderson what was so funny. That’s when Derek Anderson freaked out.
The Week LeBron Returns to Cleveland
There will be much ground to cover in LeBron’s highly anticipated return to Cleveland for Thursday night’s Cavs vs. Heat showdown. Let’s get things started with this hilarious story from ESPN’s Chris Broussard detailing how Miami’s players are unhappy with Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. While he doesn’t specify which players or how many of them,…
Happy Thanksgiving from Scene
Alright Dear Readers, Scene is going to be on break until Monday, November 29th. Have a safe holiday. We were going to put up a picture of a turkey or something appropriate, but our inner 13-year-old stumbled upon this classic. Enjoy.
Police Nab 115 Marijuana Plants in Stark County
Someone’s Thanksgiving just got ruined. Stark County Sheriff’s Deputies have scored a serious weed bust out in Hartville, so says 19ActionNews. So you know what that means — all you glaucoma sufferers are facing a drought over the holiday weekend. Better start going through that Rolodex before the high schools let out for the day.…
A Tale of Two Akron Guys in South Beach
The St. Petersburg Times has a pretty enlightening article on the relationship between LeBron and Brian Windhorst, the former PD sports scribe who covered the disposed king during his local reign and now has moved to Florida to write about the Heat for ESPN. The piece does a good job tethering together these two polar…
Ohio Puppy Mill Bills Tanks
Not sad enough for you, Ohio? In July Scene gave you a rundown of the state’s puppy breeding business, a multi-million dollar annual cash grab that’s taken hold in the state’s rural areas and Amish communities. After dragging through dirty Amish dog auctions and forcing you to look at a lot of sad puppy pics,…
Medina Bans Internet Gaming Cafes
Just like crack. The Great American Internet Gaming Debate of 2010 continues. As Scene alerted readers to recently, cities across Ohio are currently tapping their toes wondering whether or not to let internet gaming dens crop up in within their limits. For those of you who are under 65 and don’t live in Parma, internet…
GUNNING FOR GOLIATH
On a quiet day in the office, attorney Joshua Cohen talks about the case that has consumed him since its filing in 2008. It’s the one in which Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has sued 21 banks for their role in the foreclosure crisis. All the big players are named, and then some: from Ameriquest, JP…
The Mars Invasion
If pop music is a solar system of styles — planets of rock, rap, R&B, reggae, and country — then Bruno Mars wants to be your sun. A year ago, no one even knew his name, but over the past 12 months, Mars has seemingly crash-landed on everyone’s record — writing, playing, and singing some…
LIVE FROM THE BASEMENT
A deep abiding love of music sometimes seems less like a hobby than an infection that overtakes your entire life. It scrambles the senses, driving people to happily undertake the most quixotic quests with little hope for any compensation for all their time and effort. Such is the life of Jim Shelburne and his online…
Film Capsules
Due Date (R) — Director Todd Phillips’ follow-up to last year’s hit The Hangover doesn’t offer much in the way of a premise: Soon-to-be-dad Peter (Robert Downey Jr.) misses his flight home and catches a ride with aspiring actor Ethan (Zach Galifianakis), and the mismatched pair embarks on a two-day road trip from Atlanta to…
Tex Flex
There are certain kinds of Texans, those “all hat and no cattle” good ol’ boys and gals with larceny in their selfish little hearts. And a few of those craven characters show up in one delightfully nasty family in Horton Foote’s Dividing the Estate, now at Ensemble Theatre. Writing with the rough musicality of the…
Stay In!
TOP PICK — VIDEO GAME DJ Hero 2 (Activision) The sequel to last year’s game-changer (Guitars? They’re so 2008) beefs up with a brand-new set list featuring tracks by Lady Gaga and Kanye West. There’s also freestyle play, where you can spin, scratch, sample, and wikki-wikki-wikki all you want. Best of all, the multiplayer mode…
Fit for Foodies
Showing up to a holiday bash empty-handed is unforgivable. Almost as bad? Arriving with a bland, forgettable token. This season, resolve to be the bearer of sweet and delicious tidings. Your hosts will thank you. Better still, they likely will invite you back. Apple “Sauce” Tom Herbruck is only the third person in Ohio to…
Get Out!
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25 Fresh Air Thanksgiving at the Zoo If you’re not going to help, the least you can do is get the kids out of the way of whoever is preparing today’s feast. Grab your hat, coat, and as many children as possible, and take them to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo (3900 Wildlife Way),…
Rock Bottom
Danny Boyle is no stranger to claustrophobic settings. Before he won a well-deserved Oscar two years ago for Slumdog Millionaire, the British director and screenwriter made 28 Days Later …, in which the zombie apocalypse barrels down on a small English town, and Trainspotting, about young drug addicts steeped in paranoia, fatigue, and misery. Those…
Santa’s Magic Potion
In the springtime, we know that God loves us when the first flowers lurch forth from the thawing tundra. Each autumn that love is reaffirmed when the Great Lakes Brewing Company rolls its first kegs of Christmas Ale into watering holes around town. It’s hard to say at what point our collective joy over Christmas…
Home Movies
I’m Still Here (Magnolia) The week this movie hit theaters, director Casey Affleck finally revealed what many people suspected: Actor Joaquin Phoenix’s public meltdown was a hoax. The film documents the Oscar nominee’s announcement two years ago that he was giving up acting for rapping and follows him along on a series of increasingly bizarre…
Give a Bit of Cleveland
One of the best-selling T-shirts at Steve Presser’s Coventry Road novelty store, Big Fun, is the “Cleveland: You’ve Got to Be Tough” model, with its black-and-white smokestack logo. The sentiment’s true enough. But as any Clevelander will tell you, there’s plenty to cherish about our city that has nothing to do with hard times. Cleveland…
We Get Mail
A City of Hacks The article “Ghost Writers” [October 2o, 2010] points out a fact: A lot of the city’s current graffiti writers blow. Seriously, it’s okay to suck — just don’t share it with the rest of the city. Sit in your room and draw … and draw … and draw. Come back and…
No Time Like the Presents
It’s a great feeling to watch people open the gifts you bought them. It’s an even greater feeling to buy something cool and just keep it for yourself. Here are some of the season’s best gifts in the four essential food-for-your-head groups: DVDs, video games, CDs, and books. Imagine the happiness they’ll bring when somebody…
CD Review: Kanye West
After mending his broken heart with plenty of AutoTune and self-pity on 2008’s 808s & Heartbreak, hip-hop’s most visionary player comes back strong on his fifth album — an hour-plus journey into the dark, twisted, and brilliant mind of Kanye West. He’s all over the place on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy — skimming hip-hop,…
On View This Week
6,500 YEARS OF ART IN ONE HOUR Nobody keeps statistics on how many Clevelanders have never been to the Cleveland Museum of Art, but there’s no better time than Black Friday to take a first look. That’s because while everyone else is at the mall, Mark Krzysiak will lead a greatest-hits tour of the renovated…
CD Review: LEE DEWYZE
The latest American Idol champ falls somewhere between the last two guys you can name from the show. He’s not nearly as obnoxious as Adam Lambert, and he has a little more personality than blah season-eight winner Kris Allen. On his debut album, the 24-year-old Illinois native sounds like a more soulful version of Dave…
At the Arthouse
So’s Your Old Man W.C. Fields didn’t make too many silent movies. In fact, this 1926 comedy wasn’t even that well known until the Library of Congress preserved it not too long ago. If the story — a drunken inventor ups his social status after he starts hanging out with a foreign princess — seems…
CD Review: Edge of Excess
From the opening “Full Throttle” — a by-the-numbers ’80s rocker complete with cries of “c’mon little sister” and a smokin’ guitar solo — Edge of Excess’ self-titled, three-song EP owes a huge debt to David Lee Roth-era Van Halen. “Dirty Love”‘s intro sounds like it was lifted directly from “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love,” and they…
Concerts? Concerts!
CONSPIRACY OF OWLS/CLOVERS When you think of Detroit, you think of 8 Mile, Motown, the White Stripes, and Edward Furlong cruising in an old Volvo in Detroit Rock City. What you don’t think of is dreamy psychedelic pop, like the kind made by the Motor City’s Conspiracy of Owls. The band mines the vintage melodic-rock…
CD Review: Kid Rock
We could really use the old Kid Rock right now. As an alternative to hipster indie rockers who like irony almost as much as their PBRs, a filthy loudmouth who digs Stetsons, rapping, and shredding would be a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, that Kid Rock is nowhere to be found on Born Free. Instead,…
CD Review: NICKI MINAJ
Nicki Minaj has been buzzing on hip-hop’s landscape for so long, it’s hard to believe that Pink Friday is her debut album. It’s also hard to believe that the Wonder Woman-worshipping rapper who spit tentative non sequiturs on Mariah Carey remixes and Young Money cuts over the past couple of years is the same person…
Your Thanksgiving Movie Guide
Tangled Disney has played around with fairy tales before, but Tangled is a different kind of mess. Based on the story of longhaired damsel-in-distress Rapunzel (the movie’s original title, by the way), the heroine (voiced by Mandy Moore) is a stronger, more independent girl here – still trapped in that dreadful tower, but more than…
Twangin’ Again
By Jeff NieselThe Cowslingers (myspace.com/cowslingers) first got together more than two decades ago almost by accident. Frontman Greg Miller was at a concert by the Kent band the Walking Clampetts at the old Peabody’s, where he ran into bassist Tony Primiano, who was looking for a singer. The rest is cowpunk history. “If he had…
Cures for the Common Cold
[Browse the rest of our Winter Guide here: 1) Local gift guide; 2) The big, big gift guide of everything else; 3) Tales of Christmas Ale indulgence; 4) Edible and delicious gift options.] Short days, frigid nights, and a surfeit of family togetherness: If ever there was a time to get outdoors and chill, winter…
Pound Kills Wrong Dog By Mistake
Roxy. (Warning: Grab the tissues for this one.) It’s sad when a dog runs away or escapes. It’s heartbreaking, really. Wandering around, posting fliers, searching the neighborhood, calling neighbors — it’s stressful, especially when the idea creeps into your mind that you’ll never see your dog again or that he/she got hit by a car.…
