Barn Appétit
If Santa has an outpost in Ohio, surely it’s in the Pine Tree Barn and Farms (4374 Shreve Road) in Wooster. Yes, it’s a bit of a ride — about 70 miles south of Cleveland, in the heart of Wayne County, to be exact. But the trip is lovely, with lots of rolling countryside, Victorian…
For the Love of Lasagna
Attorney-turned-food-critic Jeffrey Steingarten has made a tidy sum off his critically acclaimed book, The Man Who Ate Everything, a chronicle of his struggle to overcome inborn prejudices against kimchee, anchovies, and the like, in preparation for his new job at Vogue. I admire Steingarten’s lighthearted enthusiasm for tackling his culinary phobias head-on: Too many of…
Content to Coast
Singer-songwriter Marshall Crenshaw doesn’t seem concerned about the future. He’s not sure whether he’s still contracted to the New York independent label for which he recorded most of his ’90s albums. He’s not sure when he will start writing new songs, and he’s equivocal about working with a band again, if only because he enjoys…
Logic’s Brew
While the ’90s might have been categorized by the rebirth of gnashing guitars, the natal fostering of drum machines, and the dawn of electronic loops, the next century has already reared its fledgling bastard — turntables. Sure, turntablists have been popular before, but mostly as a mere sideshow to the main attraction, providing an occasional…
Soundbites
“When you called before, I shoulda dropped everything and talked, but I was in the middle of a few things, and it’s kinda hard for me to change gears out here and go from chief engineer to rock legend,” former Alarm Clocks guitarist Bruce Boehm says via cell phone from a freight ship that’s somewhere…
Monky Business
Somewhere between his boyhood in Kansas and life in New York City, author William Claassen realized he had lost something: silence. He knew it was still out there, so he set out to find it, on monastic retreats throughout the world. He relates the results in his book, Alone in Community: Journeys Into Monastic Life…
Man or Astro-Man?
Inspired equally by Devo and Dick Dale, Man or Astro-Man? has always espoused a bizarre, Ventures-meet-the-Residents ethic. Yet on last year’s EEVIAC: Operational Index & Reference Guide, the band, which was formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1992, came up with sonic textures that sounded like 2001’s HAL reprogrammed for synthesizer and guitar. The group’s latest…
Packing a Punch
Puppeteer Nancy Sander, who has been performing around Cleveland for the last 29 years, has a bone to pick with the late Jim Henson. To her way of thinking, Henson led people to believe puppets were made only to entertain children, which puts a crimp in her style, since her puppet “troupe,” Puppets With Pizzazz,…
Jack Schantz and the Jazz Unit
Among the finest large jazz ensembles — not only locally, but nationally — the Jazz Unit has been playing regularly on Monday nights at the Bop Stop since 1994. But since that venue is temporarily closed, the band is doing this gig at Nighttown to keep a presence on the local scene. The Unit has…
Triumph of De Vil
In 102 Dalmatians, a new brood of puppies is born, one of which, Oddball, doesn’t develop spots. The resulting feelings of inadequacy are such that the poor thing runs away from home and hides in a cave, gets bitten by a bat, and turns into a slavering mad dog. Cruella De Vil is in the…
Twiztid
Five years from now, Twiztid’s second album, the just-released Freek Show, is going to be seen as a masterpiece of post-apocalyptic rap-metal. Its cultural scavenging will be perceived as a sharp and perceptive look at society on the brink of a mass breakdown. And its auteurs, Madrox and Monoxide, will be elevated to the position…
Fish Lips
Not being a reader of The National Enquirer, The Star, People, or Us, I didn’t know about comedienne-actress Margaret Cho’s struggles with depression and drug and alcohol addiction, or about her near-death from kidney failure brought on by extreme dieting. In fact, I didn’t know anything about her at all except that she had been…
Yngwie Fucking Malmsteen
“Yngwie Malmsteen Changes Middle Name to Fucking.” So read a headline in The Onion, the satirical newspaper that bills itself as “America’s Finest News Source.” Actually, Yngwie J. Malmsteen has been known as Yngwie Fucking Malmsteen since the mid-’80s, when he and other six-string masturbators such as Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen, and Joe Satriani…
Reform Schooled
For years, Greg Coleridge asked Akron government for help in attracting federal funds for neighborhood projects. And too often, he says, the city didn’t listen. “No matter how well prepared [we were], the city councilpeople would kind of look over their shoulder at the planning department. Whatever the mayor’s people said, is what happened.” Coleridge…
Waco Brothers
A full-throated, full-bodied delight, the Waco Brothers’ fifth CD furthers the tradition of the Stones, Graham Parker & the Rumour, and the Pogues. Above all, the Wacos evoke the Band. Like that Canadian-American hybrid, this British-American collective melds a variety of strains, from vernacular country to hard-charging rock and roll, for music that always swings…
Here, a Pin Drops
The earth constantly spins on its axis, in the meantime orbiting around the sun. Now, that’s multitasking. Drill three finger-holes in that round world, and you’ve got plans for Saturday night. “The pink balls are eight pounds, the purple balls are six pounds, and the orange balls are ten pounds,” says Ann Allen, fairy god-owner…
Wu-Tang Clan
The Wu-Tang Clan had three years to make The W, the follow-up to its 1997 double-disc opus Wu-Tang Forever, yet there’s still an oddly disjointed, hurried, and unfinished feel about the album. Look no further than resident nut Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s sole contribution, “Conditioner.” It literally sounds phoned in, as ODB repeats the same phrase…
The Ream Team
On an overcast weekday morning in Northeast Ohio, not far from the scene of so many of their struggles, two young men sit in their dorm room, telling an improbable tale. Jordan Kaltman and Ryan Catignani have repeated the story so many times that it comes easy now, three years on. Isn’t that the job…
Judi Silvano
Judi Silvano is a fine jazz singer. Married to Cleveland tenor saxophone great Joe Lovano, she has appeared on some of his albums, but here she’s the leader and he’s the sideman. Trained as an opera singer and modern dancer, as well as a writer of classical chamber works, she has composed five tunes and…
The Edge
Brown-for-a-day Chris Spielman and wife Stefanie appear in advertisements promoting University Hospitals’ Ireland Cancer Center. The former Massillon and Ohio State star, you may remember, took a year off from the NFL to be with his family as Stefanie battled breast cancer. If the ads lead you to believe University Hospitals treated Stefanie, you’d be…
The Raspberries
Between 1970 and 1975, the Raspberries released four albums on Capitol Records that yielded several hits and cast the group into the national spotlight. The Raspberries combined elements of the Beatles, the Who, and the Beach Boys, but their career was short-lived, and internal strife — particularly between the two main songwriters, Wally Bryson and…
Trail of Broken Dreams
A new road to follow: I am the youngest of the Lemieux clan, and I am writing about what was reported in your November 23 issue on American Indians. I understand the bitterness of my brother (a father of three) toward my father (a father of TWELVE) for his actions in a time and place…
Ideas on Display
The nine artists whose work is included in Surface Tensions , the new exhibit at Spaces, are like deep-sea divers. As the title of the show suggests, they explore beneath the surface of personal and societal tensions and bring them to conscious awareness. Some are more successful than others in this endeavor. Akron artist Kate…
Dead on Arrival
At its best through the decades, Dobama has served as an oasis, refreshing us with many varied and interesting works that would never have made it to our shores without this theater’s fortitude. Yet, its negative side is that it loves to roost precariously on New York’s cutting edge. Glorying as a basement boutique of…
