Strife Is Beautiful
Samurai have never been strangers to film; in fact, an entire genre has sprung from their legend, with plenty of attendant offshoots, cross-pollinators, and beneficiaries (westerns, slasher films, Star Wars). Lately, the feudal Japanese warriors have enjoyed a particular bounty of screen time: 2003 brought us The Last Samurai, in which a sword-wielding Tom Cruise…
Megadeth
Metal is retrenching after the shameful rapcore years. Guitarists are learning to play solos again, drummers are screwing that second kick-drum back into position, and DJs are going back into their bedrooms, where they belong. In this atmosphere of classicism, it’s the perfect time for a Megadeth comeback — and frontman Dave Mustaine’s ready. The…
Looter’s Paradise
One afternoon in October, Pat McNamara inspected his new house. He was about to pay the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development $61,000 for the little white bungalow on a block in North Collinwood where residents raise pink mums in flower boxes and trim their bushes into sharp-edged squares. McNamara took photos of the…
Hypocritical Oaths
If the tiny Quebecois island of Sainte Marie-La Mauderne is any indication, Michael Moore was right: Canadians do not lock their front doors (an assertion he made in Bowling for Columbine). Of course, the 125 residents of this tiny fictional community have no need to: Murders are unheard of here, and not only would a…
Robyn Hitchcock
Robyn Hitchcock has a reputation. He’s that quirky English eccentric. The Lewis Carroll of rock and roll, anthropomorphizing sea creatures, balloons, and insects in his darkly comic ditties. If Syd Barrett and Bob Dylan had been trapped on the Yellow Submarine, their songs would have sounded like Hitchcock’s. But for his new album (Spooked, on…
Drive Shaft
Remigio Hernandez Ramos dialed slowly. He was nervous about making the call, unsure whether he’d be more relieved if no one answered. The California area code told him where he was calling, but he knew nothing about whom. This person would help him avoid trouble with the law, he’d been told. But he also knew…
Shoot First
The premise of The Last Shot conforms perfectly with our stereotypical image of Hollywood — which is to say it’s so far-fetched that it almost sounds plausible. An undercover FBI agent poses as a movie producer and convinces an aspiring, totally gullible director that he wants to make the director’s film. In reality, it’s all…
The Court and Spark
“Suffolk Down Upon the Night,” the opening track on the Court and Spark’s third album, is so lush, precise, and layered that it could’ve rolled out of Lindsey Buckingham’s obsessive, circa-Tusk mind. Replace white-line fever with something less paranoia-inducing, and you have an idea of the full palette this San Francisco institution is working with…
Keep Out!
Friends know Susannah Petrie as the Virgin Queen. You’d never know it by looking at her. A statuesque blonde with an air of certainty, she would have no trouble getting laid — if that were her thing. Yet at the ripe age of 28, she remains chaste. Petrie decided when she was 13 that she…
Culture Collision
Caught in the gears of our daily lives, we can find it easy to forget what a remarkable social invention the United States really is. No other country has ever brought together such widely disparate ethnic and religious groups, in such large numbers, to live relatively peacefully on the same turf. At least, that was…
Luna
Luna frontman Dean Wareham is the musical equivalent of those wizened old chaps you see at county fairs, presiding over arts-and-crafts booths. His band’s latest, Rendezvous, is the New York indie-rock outfit’s seventh studio album since 1992, when Wareham formed the band after breaking up Galaxie 500, his pioneering Boston slowcore group. It will also…
Sleazy Does It
The presidential race wasn’t the only one to get nasty in the final days. Ohio Republicans did their damnedest to create an alternate reality by any means necessary: · Most incumbents who are up 64-to-32 percent in the polls and holding an 8-to-1 war chest advantage would just run out the clock. Not U.S. Senator…
It’s All Right
Women who are sexually abused are just man-hating feminists who probably had it coming. Whether you agree with that statement or not (hopefully not), it proves how easy it is to be controversial: Just make a statement that goes against the currently accepted “liberal” conventional wisdom, and you’re sure to ignite some arguments and maybe…
Hot Water Music
“Mature” and “polished”: two words that strike fear into the hearts of hardcore fans when used to describe their favorite group’s newest efforts. Granted, it’s silly to expect long-running punk bands who aren’t named the Ramones to operate ad infinitum with the same songwriting template and a recording budget less than the cost of a…
Krautbawlin’
Krautbawlin’. . . Scene, that hotbed of Republicanism: Are you absolutely daft, or are you just some sort of tightass xenophobe [First Punch, October 20]? Perhaps you were under the impression that Akron is a bastion of culture. FYI, this is a great opportunity for the myopic (like you) and the genuinely arts-inclined to experience…
On Stage
Crowns — In the African American community, churchgoing women still bedeck their heads in feathery and sequined flights of fancy, and that tradition is given a loving and rousing tribute in this show. Playwright Regina Taylor has adapted this work from the book Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats, mixing stories, mini-profiles, and…
The Blues Explosion
Who’d’ve thunk Jon Spencer could last this long? After getting mostly slagged for Pussy Galore, the crass trash combo (now a prime influence on the punk scene) that he put together in New York City in the late ’80s, he finally garnered respect for the sweat-pouring, punk-blues innovations of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Then…
Just Shoot Me
Bernadette Gillota shakes her head as she talks about some of the 350 movies she had to screen for the Ohio Independent Film Festival. Some were too grainy; others had audio she could barely hear. She blames the third-rate cheesiness on mini-DVD cameras. “They’re the death of us all,” she groans. “You buy the camera…
On View
Dukes and Angels — This exhibition transports modern viewers to the court of Burgundy in the 14th and 15th centuries. Included are luxury objects belonging to the first Valois dukes of Burgundy, Philip the Bold and John the Fearless: portraits of the dukes, illuminated manuscripts (such as Aristotle’s Ethics), crowns, stone sculptures, and devotional images.…
Handsome Boy Modeling School
Since Handsome Boy Modeling School’s lone release in 1999, high-concept hip-hop albums with a sense of humor have become common enough that it’s easy to forget the role Chest Rockwell and Nathaniel Meriwether played in developing this subgenre. The faux-stylish studs (aka super producers Prince Paul and Dan “the Automator” Nakamura) emptied their imaginations and…
This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, November 4 Girls really dig Ryan Cabrera. And it’s not just any girls that dig him. It’s the crucial teen and ‘tween set — the group that went to see Titanic a gazillion times and made it the biggest movie ever. The group that’s logged countless phone hours voting for its favorite American Idol.…
Totaled Recall
At Gateway’s New York Spaghetti House, the pasta is seasoned with nostalgia and served with a side of misty-eyed remembrances — an emotional MSG, with the power to transform even mediocrity into a peak experience. How else to explain the rapt look on the faces of diners as they gobble down heaping platters of flaccid…
Various Artists
He lives in a pineapple under the sea. Absorbent and yellow and porous is he. He’s SpongeBob SquarePants, a giddy, childlike sponge who’s been the star of a self-titled Nickelodeon cartoon since 1999. A one-Porifera Ren and Stimpy for the pre-teen set (minus the gross-out humor and double entendres), he’s now the star of The…
Take That, Broadway
The latest musical by the House of Mouse team that produced the Broadway hits Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Aida is a tuneful stroll through the history of Disney’s song catalog. “When You Wish Upon a Star,” “Someday My Prince Will Come,” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” — all part of On the Record, which is…
Early Thanks
For those with seasonally tuned palates, it’s time to hop to it: Fall’s bounty is now being celebrated on menus throughout the region. Whether it’s a 12-ounce pork chop over roasted cranberries and turnips, topped with fried leeks and a Scotch reduction sauce at OPA! on 25th (1834 West 25th Street, 216-344-0575), or an indulgent…
Gwar
Long before it became fashionable for underground metal bands to enhance their image via masks, uniforms, and oddball antics, the Antarctic exiles (via Richmond, Virginia) of Gwar kept busy carving a swath of mayhem through studios and on stages. How can one not find endearing the golden-throated goodness of Oderous Urungus and sublime bass work…
Grape Escape
11/5-11/7 If you told Peg Neeson nine years ago that the World Series of Wine would still be around today, she would have clobbered you with a bottle of Shiraz. A November blizzard pummeled the area on the morning of the first outing in 1995. “We said, ‘Nobody’s going to come! It’s going to be…
Page Turning
For a guy who had pieces of collarbone pretty much jutting through his skin less than two months ago, Page Hamilton is in a surprisingly good mood. It’s the Vicodin keeping him from screaming in agony across the phone line, he laughs. Seems the affable, Los Angeles-based Helmet singer and guitarist decided to do some…
American Music Club
Reformed after a 10-year hiatus, San Francisco’s mope-rock kings have retooled for a new generation of manic-depressives. Gone are the country-punk influences that made early releases California and Engine so vital. Instead, lead moaner Mark Eitzel has brought along the song-stylist baggage that cluttered up his spotty solo efforts. But his verbosity is now backed…
Hello, Moto
SAT 11/6 In Europe and on the West Coast, supermoto racing is the true test of guts for speed demons. On Saturday, Northeast Ohioans will find out what the buzz is about at Lorain Speedway’s KTM Supermoto Expo and Motocross Race. The contest gathers 100 racers, all retirees from the body-taxing supercross circuit. “These guys…
Under Her Skin
Avril Lavigne is a good sport. Not since before she was 16 has the Canadian ‘tween-rock pioneer lived a day the way a typical teenage North American might, the way one of her typical teenage fans might: driving around, talking shit, hanging out, killing time. As she describes on the phone from a tour stop…
The It*Men
Cleveland’s the It*Men are the perfect bridge between the frat-rock insanity of early ’60s legends the Sonics, the Kingsmen, and the Wailers, and the bombastic melodrama of the MC5, Blue Cheer, and Black Sabbath. The band’s debut is like a soundtrack of a more innocent time, when listening under the covers to Alice Cooper or…
Buggin’ Out
11/4-1/30 M. Lee Goff, a founding member of the American Board of Forensic Entomology, wants to dispel one myth propagated by TV’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. “We don’t dress as well [as our television counterparts]. We’re basically a bunch of slobs.” The good doctor, a consultant on CBS’s hit show, is the curator of another…
Everybody Loves a Happy Ending
During the 1980s, Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith of Tears for Fears weren’t afraid to intellectualize pop music. The Bath, U.K. duo debuted in 1983 with The Hurting, grayscale synthpop with a Ph.D. in cerebral gloom, highlighted by the lyrical daymare “Mad World” (“I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad/That…
Laura Webster
Tiny Sarah Lawrence College, just north of New York City, has produced more than its share of recognizable names in the music business. AOR goddess Carly Simon, 1960s teen-angst queen Lesley Gore, and Yoko Ono are all alumnae. Add to that list Laura Webster. The Shaker Heights native isn’t famous, but if she keeps writing…
Play Dates
11/6-11/20 The big news at this year’s Next Stage Festival of New Plays (at the Cleveland Play House) is that seven of the eight works featured at the 10th annual playwriting fest were penned by women. “It’s unprecedented,” says producer Seth Gordon. “I’m excited about the different styles.” Among the works being read and tested…
Pop Oppression
Lindsay Lohan wants you to back up off her. For reals. She’s tired of being hounded by photographers, tired of getting the attention of a Snickers smuggled into fat camp. Lindsay lets us know all this in her new video for “Rumors,” the first single off her debut album, in which she sweats a lot,…
Whitechapel
The Phantasy helped launch Nine Inch Nails, who redefined what was possible with a keyboard. Whitechapel’s second live performance could mark the beginning of Cleveland’s next technologically informed rock phenomenon. “We’re a postmodern, ’80s, New Order kind of band,” says keyboardist Nate Tomasch, the trio’s most recent addition. Singer-guitarist Ben Childs’s vocals have been described…
Heroes Welcome
Myriad filmmakers have attempted in vain to film Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen, a comic book in which costumed superheroes have been outlawed and are being summarily exiled and executed by an unknown baddie. At the moment, Darren Aronofsky (Pi) is set to direct a screenplay by X-Men scribe David Hayter for release next…
Symposium Remixed
The Symposium has temporarily closed and will reopen Friday, November 12, as the Remix Lounge (11794 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood), eliminating an intimate rock club and replacing it with a designated chill zone that has a full bar, serves gourmet coffee, and stays open late. “I’m very much into downtempo and trip-hop, but I’ve found a…
Girls’ Nite Out
With more top-shelf cosmos than a Sex and the City DVD set, Bossa Nova’s Girls¹ Nite Out has become one of the hottest singles mingles in Cleveland, attracting scores of immaculately attired partygoers. And if a room full of beautiful people isn’t enough, the upscale comfort lounge (and restaurant) offers free spa treatments from 7…
Mad About Murnau
F.W. Murnau was a great mood-setter. No matter which genre he was working in — melodrama, horror, documentary — the German director was a master of Expressionism, that silent-screen form that often placed style above story. But Murnau managed both in his films. Before moving to Hollywood (where he died in a car accident in…
New Edition
A sixth mic is being kept open just in case, but don’t count on Bobby Brown humpin’ around on New Edition’s comeback tour. Whitney Houston’s husband-/sparring partner has his hands full developing — what else? — an upcoming reality series, while dodging various legal woes. But the rest of New Edition — Michael Bivins, Ricky…
Candy Caine
Writer-director Charles Shyer’s Alfie is less a remake of the 1966 film that made Michael Caine a star than it is a retooling that softens the horrific blows struck by the original; it’s sweeter, too — cotton candy spun from decades-old arsenic. The original, written by Bill Naughton (who also penned the play) and directed…
The Used
Dr. Arthur Janov’s famous concept of primal therapy — a process commonly mislabeled “primal-scream therapy” — pushes patients to exorcise inner demons by throwing what amounts to loud temper tantrums. Coincidentally, this melodramatic catharsis sounds suspiciously like the modus operandi of screamo bands such as the Used. Notorious to many for their backstory — vocalist…
