The Changeling
Written by veteran TV producer J. Michael Stracynski after a year of meticulous research, Clint Eastwood’s period thriller tells the story of Christine Collins, an L.A. single mother whose son, Walter, disappeared in 1928, setting off a bizarre series of events that exposed deep corruption in the L.A. Police Department. Angelina Jolie plays Collins, a…
Role Models
Wheeler (Seann William Scott) and Danny (Paul Rudd) have got it made. Wheeler is a ladies man who seems to hook up with someone different every night. Danny is living with his girlfriend Beth (Elizabeth Banks), a brainy beauty who’s a practicing lawyer. But for whatever reason, Danny just isn’t happy. So one day, he…
House
No, not a remake of that gloppy camped-up 1986 poltergeist movie of the same name – nor a theatrical outing for the grouchy TV doctor. No, this House, directed by Robby Hanson, adapts a novel by Christian-specialty-market horror authors Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti, who also co-produced (and filmed in Poland with a largely Yank…
Sukiyaki Western Django (Japan, 2007)
An uber-stylized, flamboyantly overripe spaghetti Western homage/pastiche by Japanese cult director Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer) in which an unnamed gunman (Hideaki Ito) moseys into a lonely mountain town and gets involved in an internecine feud between two rival clans (the Genji Whites and the Heiki Reds) over a fortune in hidden gold. The…
All Over But The Shouting
ALL OVER BUT THE SHOUTING Hold the presses. You liberals actually endorsed ONE Republican, Annette Butler! Holy Toledo, Batman, Scene is so unbiased – about as unbiased as Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Jazeera and all the other socialist lapdogs for B. Hussein Obama and his sidekick, Botox Joe Biden, the world's only living brain donor! Since…
Your Complete Concert Calendar
THIS WEEK THURSDAY, NOV. 6 Anathallo CD Release Party/Cale Parks/State Bird: $10. Musica, 51 E. Market St., Akron, 330-374-1114. Guitar Shorty: 9 p.m., $15. The Winchester, 12112 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216-226-5681. Last Comic Standing Comics: 7:30 p.m., $25-$35. E.J. Thomas Hall at University of Akron, 198 Hill St., Akron, 330-972-7570. Johnny Mathis: 7:30 p.m., $45-$75…
Wine & Gold Notebook
When asked why he wouldn't publicly support political candidates, Michael Jordan once supposedly and famously quipped, "Republicans buy shoes too." That brand of absentia from activism ruled for decades among the NBA's marketing elite, when the only platform endorsed by megawatt superstars was that of the Swoosh. That's why this election was refreshing, as a…
The Prodigal Son
Singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle is one of the fresh faces coming to Kent this year for the 42nd go-round of one of the oldest ongoing festivals in the country. As in previous years, the festival is bringing in veteran performers to draw the crowds and new names to get us excited about folk's future. Seasoned…
Artscape
TAKING AIM CityMusic Cleveland launches broader tour than usual, Wednesday, November 5CityMusic Cleveland, the orchestra that tours Northeast Ohio offering free concerts and building relationships, is aiming beyond the region this week, taking its show on tour for the first time. Executive Director Eugenia Strauss says the idea is to offer more work for the…
Blackbird Singing
Tim Munro has a broad role in the ensemble known as eighth blackbird. He plays flutes – the standard C concert flute, plus piccolo and alto flute – but there are also tasks that some contracts would describe as "other duties as assigned." "I also bang on things and scrape things," he says. "And I…
Short Takes
Christmas Caper The Flaming Lips' whimsical film opens at the CinemathequeThe Flaming Lips began filming Christmas on Mars, their bizarre foray into the world of cinema, more than seven years ago. At the time, the group had yet to release Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, the album that would elevate the Lips beyond cult-band status.…
Get Out! With Superman And Comedians
Wednesday 11.5 MARC TYLER NOBLEMAN Marc Tyler Nobleman used to think he'd grow up to be a superhero. After all, his last name sounded like one. Instead, the Connecticut-based cartoonist wrote Boys of Steel: The Creators of Superman, a book about the two Clevelanders who invented the world's greatest superhero. "It's hard to believe that…
Around Hear: Viper Grounded
Pressure from a Florida guitarist's label has put the kibosh on the full-length debut from Cleveland supergroup Tenafly Viper. The metallic southern-rock supergroup features Mushroomhead frontman Waylon Reavis, Mushroomhead programmer Steve "Skinny" Felton, Chimaira bassist Jim LaMarca and Tommy Church, guitarist of Florida headbangers the Autumn Offering. "It's just a bunch of good ol' boys…
Wendy Poltorek And Third Union Get Graded
Wendy Poltorek Frame by Frame (self-released) myspace.com/wendypoltorek Formerly of Otis and the Shoreway Saints, singer-songwriter Wendy Poltorek has a strong voice that's bound to elicit comparisons to Jewel (before the starlet went country, that is). That's apparent from the opening riffs of "48 Hours," the catchy kick-off track that features a sinewy guitar solo courtesy…
Gimme Shelter
Not long ago, Ken Lurie was a hero of Cleveland community activists. His Rysar Properties built new homes in the moderate- and low-income neighborhoods that were largely ignored by other developers. But that was in the seemingly long-ago era of easy access to mortgages. In the past 18 months, credit – for developers, like him,…
House Of Lights
Over the past 20 years, Los Angeles-based artist Jorge Pardo has explored many ways in which art traverses the permeable socio-economic, psychological membrane that divides regular experience from the aesthetic kind. But it's the properties of the membrane itself that really interest him as he plays an extended game of "house" involving, but not limited…
He Could Do Better
On VH1's The Pick up Artist, a creepy sexy dude, "Mystery," counsels nerdy guys on how to approach women. Three or four episodes in, I realized that I should kill my high-school guidance counselor for not bringing this career possibility to my attention. I should be the Pick Up Artist. I'd be way better than…
We Got Dibs On Her Hide
Sarah Palin just might be Mayor Maverick after all. Not only did she connect with all the Joe the Plumbers out there with those rootsy aphorisms highlighting her plucky backwoods beginnings, but she did it all decked out in Fifth Avenue's best with $150,000 from the Republican National Committee. That's like bringing a boxed lunch…
Where’s The Beef?
Joe the Plumber, the favorite pull-toy of the blessedly concluded McCain/Palin campaign, attained fleeting iconic status. But given the economic nuclear winter that will greet the winner of the 2008 election, the dignity of even brain-numbing employment is nothing to denigrate. So local playwright Cliff Hershman is on to something in his new play, International…
The Cure, Eagles Of Death Metal, And More Get Graded
Cradle of Filth Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder (Roadrunner) Listeners unfamiliar with the band might say every song by norte–o kings Los Tigres del Norte sounds the same; and to a first-timer, they probably do. But a devotee understands the value of subtle changes on a theme. For the same reason, an album as utterly…
Glass Half Full
Like many musicians, Andrew McMahon writes the most when he's going through a tough situation. In the past few years, the 26-year-old has fought leukemia, broken up with his old band, Something Corporate, and started Jack's Mannequin. Even though McMahon has been through a lot lately, writing still offers what it did when he started…
Cheesy Machismo
In the late 19th century, Ibsen's Nora famously slammed the door on her proverbial doll house, leaving behind husband, children and an intolerable situation. This generated a still-roiling tidal wave of feminist rebellion. More than a century later, in a sick retaliation to all this female empowerment, William A. Parker's pissed parole officer in Waitin'…
Our Little Secret
Most restaurants go out of their way to make noise. Others quietly chug along in hopes of getting noticed. Americano clearly falls in the second category, yet if given the opportunity, I'm fairly certain they'd prefer to be in the first. Almost imperceptibly, the Euro-American bistro slipped into One Bratenahl Place, the posh twin-condo compound…
Folk Legend
Many years ago, when eminent documentarian Les Blank visited Cleveland with one of his short features about an "outsider artist," an eccentric self-taught painter-sculptor-costumer-composer-architect (The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists, highly recommended; catch it if you can), I tried to interest the famed filmmaker in East Cleveland's own Rev. Albert Wagner as a celluloid…
Lion’s Roar
When the guys in Driver Side Impact started recording their new album, Lion, a few months ago, they forced themselves not to listen to any other music. They didn't want to be directly influenced by anything they were absorbing at the time of the recording. "We wanted to have a complete open mind," says guitarist…
Good Listeners
Not long after U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden learned he was going to be named director of the National Security Agency in 1998, he and his wife went out on a date. The Haydens lived in Seoul, South Korea, where he was stationed with the United Nations Command, and they decided to take…
Culture Jamming: Alien Nation
TOP PICK Dead Space (EA) This creepy videogame for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC is kinda like Alien … after all the carnage. You play a space-age engineer who's sent to a ship to figure out why it's lost communication. It soon becomes obvious by all the blood and shredded flesh on the…
This Week’s Concert Picks
Monsters of Rock Gojira at the Agora Theatre, Sunday, November 11 France hasn't kicked this much ass since Napoleon was calling the shots. In metal, "melodic" pretty much always means "watered-down and sissified." Then there's France's Gojira, who – against all odds and conventional wisdom – proves the genre still has fertile ground to be…
Big Easy Or Bust
NEW ORLEANS – New Orleans' Voodoo Music Experience, which celebrated its 10th anniversary over the weekend of October 24-26, incorporates the city's culture in ways that other festivals don't. While its New Orleans flavor isn't as pronounced as the springtime JazzFest, it's still a thoughtful combination of pop, hip-hop and rock with the blues and…
New Offerings From Ohio City Pasta And A Sweet Deal At Momocho
Nick and Giovanna Kustala have sold their eight-year-old Lure Bistro (38040 Third St., Willoughby, 440.951.8862) to chef Jaret Havanchak. The Kustalas are devoting their time and attention to a new project (more on that venture in the coming weeks). Havanchak, who is 26, has worked for the past year as Lure's chef de cuisine. Before…
Into The Wild
Reference, self- and otherwise, is a huge part of modern-day animated films. If the kids are going to drag Mom and Dad to each and every talking-animal movie, you better give the grown-ups a little something to make them feel, you know, grown up. That's why the Shrek films are loaded with references to everything…
