As Bad as It Gets
In the rancid nightmare farce called Very Bad Things, Peter Berg, in his movie writing-directing debut, creates characters that you immediately want to see killed off. From the title to the ads to the website (which features a Vegas stripper who will dance for you), Very Bad Things has been positioned as an edgy independent…
Thunder Roadwork
You wonder whether Bruce Springsteen knew he was going to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year when he put together Tracks, his new four-CD collection of outtakes, B-sides, and demos. If he wasn’t going to the Hall of Fame already, this box set certainly makes a case for inclusion.…
Nude ‘n’ Lewd
Bars, booze, butts, boobs, bouncers, and bureaucrats. How can Mouth not bite into an issue like that? Yep, that law banning nudity in Ohio taverns is freshly rewritten and back from the constitutional graveyard. Ohio’s Liquor Control Commission just revised Rule 52, with expert legal assistance from Attorney General Betty Montgomery. Earlier this year, a…
Here We Go Again! Or Maybe Not …
Damn! I was hoping to devote this month’s-end wrap-up column to some analysis, however typically shallow, of the November 3 election results. My usual “I told you not to bother voting!” screed, in other words. God knows, there sure as hell was enough weird shit that went down! We Ohioans went ahead and gave our…
Straight Dope
I just returned from a holiday in the States. While there I rented a 1998 Ford Mustang. There was a notice on the visor to look on the other side. I did and took a picture of the second notice. Am I crazy, or is it logical for a safety device to have a notice…
Letters
Dont’s Challenge My Memory Let me begin by saying that I do appreciate the coverage that Scene granted me and my band through a feature story that ran in the November 19 issue. However, I would like to address the quote that led off the story. The quote was taken out of context and was…
Above the Surface
Printmaker Michael Sean Holihan regards his art as “a diary, a journal . . . between me and what I perceive.” Although their imagery may be very much of the world–madonnas recur in the five paintings he’s showing at the Cleveland Institute of Art’s Faculty Exhibition–his works are ultimately reflective. Whereas Pop Art is all…
Little Rascals in Suburbia
Ever since Charlton Heston hurled those stone tablets down from a papier-máche Mt. Sinai at some disobedient young Hebrews, audiences have thrived on the misadventures of rowdy young rebels. It’s a hormonal line that stretches from Our Gang, the Bowery Boys, and Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney musicals to such films as The Wild One,…
Passions Spin the Plot
Once again Ensemble Theatre, the Little Theater That Could, has regally zoomed into the station, a proud and feisty Super Chief. On board is Arthur Miller’s 1955 A View From the Bridge (through December 6). This venerable heavy-breather is no Kiss and Tell. It’s full of those raw emotional scenes, operatic betrayals, and hellish harangues…
Changing the Sheets
Whatever muses there are in Australia’s outback appear to have led Midnight Oil full circle, back to the days when the band was simply a cult phenomenon. “If you’re real, that’s what you’ve got to do,” says vocalist Peter Garrett, referring to the approach the band took with Redneck Wonderland, the fourteenth studio release by…
Mexico in University Circle
On November 1, when I took my family out for a Mexican dinner, we thought Halloween was over. One of my kids had the stomachache to prove it, having devoured her entire take from the night before. Sounds of activity and a moving jumble of colors soon had us craning to look across the restaurant.…
The Wonder Years
Just when it seemed childlike idealism went down with John Denver’s plane, up from the cold sea pops Paul Senick, splashing and hugging a twelve-string guitar. Senick, the lead singer and lyricist for the area rock band Wish, would probably rather say that he arose from the bottom of his “well of wishes,” a synonym…
Livewire
The Silos Johnny Smoke The Wahoos Wilbert’s November 20 A few random facts about the Silos. Of the thirteen or so musicians credited with performance and co-writing on Heater, the Silos’ latest release, only one appeared at Wilbert’s last Friday: Walter Salas-Humara. Of the two musicians who did show up with Salas-Humara, one didn’t even…
NIGHT
As the balloon wranglers untangle Barney from the Chrysler Building (the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, airing from 9 a.m. to noon on WKYC-TV/Channel 3), do your own good turn. St. Procop’s church hosts a Thanksgiving meal for the needy, elderly, and alone today from noon to 1 p.m. Volunteers are needed to serve meals and…
Music
Skinny looks offended. One question, and already I’ve been too intrusive. I dared ask, What is your real name? I follow that up with How old are you? After a painstaking silence, Skinny, drummer in the area band Mushroomhead, answers, “Almost 28, but please don’t print that.” He makes me feel guiltier than if I…
Start Making Sense
A third of the way through Home Fries, you may begin wondering if the filmmakers haven’t outsmarted themselves. Overloaded with oddities but a bit short on horse sense, this is one of those stubbornly defiant, attitude-driven movies that’s so busy scrambling genres, breaking rules, and dashing expectations on the road to becoming art that it…
Hype Shy
Talk to some bands, you get the sense that they’re trying to milk as much out of their success as possible. It’s almost as if they can hear their fame clock strike the fourteenth minute. Usually, the result is one video too many, one tour too many, before they slowly fall back to earth. Gravity…
Making a Mountain Out of an Anthill
Surprise and pleasure come wrapped together in A Bug’s Life. This big adventure about tiny critters is the latest piece of robust whimsy from Pixar, the computer animation studio that broke into features with the 1995 smash Toy Story. It should prove irresistible to children. Toy Story opened up the secret lives of toys in…
