Boxing: The Legend of Boom Boom Mancini, 25 Years Later
Twenty-five years before Youngstown produced middleweight champ Kelly “the Ghost” Pavlik, there was another, perhaps even more promising fighter to rise from that city: Boom Boom Mancini. For all practical purposes, Mancini’s career prematurely ended on this day in 1982. During a fierce bout in Vegas, he pummeled unknown Korean Duk Koo Kim into the…
Breaking News: Rather Than Lose Out, Browns Hope to Win Another Game
Romeo Crennel says he thinks the Browns should not go in the tank. “Browns are looking to get back on the right track” That’s the headline in the newsprint version of this morning’s Plain Dealer, where Mary Kay Cabot reports in her “Browns Insider” that Coach Romeo Crennel thinks “it’s vital the Browns get back…
For Iron Chef Symon, It’s All About the Beets
Some people may have been shocked by Michael Symon’s creative use of pressure-cooked beets during Sunday night’s Iron Chef competition, but we were not. On Saturday during the I Fabulous Food Show at the IX Center, Symon, wearing a Van Halen t-shirt and his trademark grin, demonstrated how to make one of his favorite Thanksgiving…
When it Comes to Vying, No One Does it Better Than Cleveland
City officials say the Clinic’s top-ranked heart center makes Cleveland the front-runner for the 2027 Cialis Tour. If there’s one quality unique to Cleveland, it’s our uncanny ability to bounce back after repeated rejection. We hoped and prayed to win the bid for the 2008 Republican National Convention, yet lost out to Minneapolis. We put…
Reader: Judge John Plough is the New Kucinich
Here’s one caller’s response to last week’s story, “Judge Nasty,” a glimpse into one of America’s most terrifying judges, John Plough: “I remember the judge while I was a professor at Kent State, obviously in Portage County, and you know it reminds me of the famous saying, I believe, by lord Acton – power corrupts…
Scene Holiday Gift Ideas, Part 1 of 1: Get Cracked Out with Cracked
The six weeks of incessant gift-idea Best Buy commercials finally hit the airwaves last week — What took you guys so long!? — which means it’s time for C-Notes to start (and then, with any luck, stop) talking about holiday gift ideas. If you haven’t picked up a humor magazine at your local newsstand recently,…
This Just In: The Man Can’t Keep Down Our Concert Announcements
Avril Levigne, perhaps the best quasi-edgy Canadian pop singer since Alanis Morisette, plays CSU in March. This week, 26 big new shows, including the greatest singer in ze wooorld, Celine Dion, and pop motherfrakkin’ princess Avril Lavigne, most recently of “Girlfriend” fame. — D.X. Ferris SOLD OUT The Academy Is…, Saturday, November 17. House of…
In the Steel City, a Rivalry Carries on in the Stalls
It was a fight on the field at yesterday’s Steelers-Browns game, but the real battle took place in the women’s bathroom at Jerome Bettis’ new Pittsburgh restaurant, Grille 36. At half time, things were not looking so golden for the Steelers, which didn’t sit well with many Pittsburgh fans. In the ladies’ rest room (which,…
At Oberlin, It Pays to Poop. Literally.
At Oberlin, this Taco Bell meal now pays for itself. All those old men who revel in telling tales of trudging through blizzards to school, and delivering newspapers for 10 cents an hour, ready your pacemaker: your grand-kids are being paid a quarter to poop. Giving a new meaning to the phrase “dirty money,” Oberlin’s…
Suggestions for Stories on the City Council, Library Spying, and Fannie Lewis’ Sleeping Habits
Somebody in the group that is trying to have a recall election of nasty Cleveland City Councilman Joe Santiago said that to try to prevent recall elections of other bad Cleveland Councilmen, City Council has decided to enact a law in 2008 to make it much more difficult to do a recall election of any…
Bold Leadership: The Arnold Pickney Version
Speaking at an Urban League luncheon last week, political consultant Arnold Pickney announced his bold blueprint for rebuilding Cleveland. The man behind Mayor Frank Jackson’s election argued that by holding more community forums, and attracting retail and manufacturing to the city, things would be way more swell. Pickney is believed to be the 746th community…
Free Music Monday: Kanye West, courtesy Mick Boogie & Terry Urban
The latest top-shelf mixtape from Mick Boogie & Terry Urban — Cleveland’s dynamic hip-hop DJ duo — is a Kanye West comp, The Graduate. You can read more about it in this week’s Scene, which should be lining your neighbor’s birdcage by Wednesday night. Or you can visit Mick’s web site to download a copy…
Symon Wins! Cleveland restaurateur is Next Iron Chef
Winner winner, chicken dinner! That roar coming out of Tremont last night didn’t come from a mighty blast furnace: It was simply the sound of Michael Symon’s closest friends – all 200 of them — screaming their sweetbread-lovin’ heads off at Lolita, as the Cleveland chef brought home the title of the Food Network’s Next…
If You’re the Kind of Person Who Dreams About Owning Gary Coleman’s Things …
In case you haven’t noticed, Gary Coleman hasn’t had steady work since Diff’rent Strokes went off the air in 1984. That probably explains why the onetime Arnold Jackson’s GameCube is up for grabs on eBay. You’ve got the rest of the weekend to bid on Coleman’s gaming console of choice (dude probably can’t afford an…
Weather Amnesia: It’s a Real Disease!
With temperatures dipping into the thirties and winter jackets being pulled out of the closets and studiously checked for moth bites, it appears that winter has fallen suddenly upon us. [Insert your favorite expletives here.] Why don’t we remember it being so cold before? Why don’t we remember the way the wind bites our faces…
Don’t Look Now, But … No, Seriously, Don’t Look
The rivalry between Browns and Steelers fans in the run-up to this Sunday’s showdown in Pittsburgh has officially gotten ugly. This photo was sent to the web site of 19 Action News. We would put it on our site, but don’t want people accidentally stumbling across it and throwing up on their keyboards. So, far…
Today’s Sign That We’re All F*$@ed
Behold, the lyrics to the no. 1 single in America this October … Soulja Boy up in it (OH!) Watch Me Crank Dat Watch Me Roll Watch Me Crank Dat Soulja Boy, that Super Man Dat (OH!) Now Watch Me Do Crank Dat Soulja Now Watch Me Do Crank Dat Soulja Now Watch Me Do…
Spoiler Alert: And the Next Iron Chef is …
Did Mike Symon finally bring Cleveland a title? Or did he get ousted by John Besh? Well, we’re not exactly sure, but we’ve got a damn good hunch, thanks to a Toronto Star restaurant column. Columnist Amy Pataki may have spoiled Sunday’ finale of The Next Iron Chef, in which Cleveland’s own Mike Symon is…
Diversion of the Day: It’s Friday! Crack Open an Ice Cold Busch!
Today’s ode to getting regrettably drunk in an effort to effectively block everything that happened in the previous work-week comes courtesy of the comics at Last Call Cleveland, who reportedly killed 47 cases of Busch and one unsuspecting jack-rabbit in the making of this video. Happy Friday!
Your Music Cheat Sheet: Kevin Drew/Broken Social Scene
Kevin Drew and the Broken Social Scene play House of Blues on Friday. Who: Kevin Drew/Broken Social Scene When: Friday, November 9 Where: House of Blues Why: Drew is the frontman for Broken Social Scene, a revolving Canadian collective that includes pretty much ever instrument-playing Canuck under the age of 35 Latest Album: Spirit If…
Money Where Your Mouth Is: Masters of Luxury
This time, the Scene Music Department passes the mic to Masters of Luxury, the stoner-prog band that’s taking the southern (330) territories by storm. Band: Masters of Luxury Web:myspace.com/molband Hometown: Tallmadge Sounds like: “Sort of like Dillengerclublacksabbastadown back when they were still good.” Recommend for fans of: “Black Sabbath, Clutch, Dillinger Escape Plan, Tool and…
There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch. Thanksgiving Samplers on the Other Hand …
Two days ago, the food editor at The Plain Dealer wrote a small blurb about a free Thanksgiving food tasting at Whole Foods last night. Managers expected between 50 and 200 people tops. Instead, they got closer to 300 patrons. The line for the free grub – which included small, Dixie cup-sized servings of stuffing,…
Diversion of the Day: The Joys of Tutoring
The Tutors of 826 LA on FunnyOrDie.com Today’s break from the madness comes courtesy of 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up director Judd Apatow, who rallied his favorite actors to make this inspirational movie for 826 LA, a Los Angeles writing center founded by author Dave Eggers. Enjoy.
SuccessTech Parent: District Safety Plan Would Work Better If People Actually Worked
There’s been a lot of talk about the new metal detectors, X-ray machines, and security guards that Cleveland school officials are scrambling to install in the wake of the SuccessTech Academy shooting. The multi-million dollar hardware and “human-ware,” as district officials like the call it, are supposed to make students and staff feel safer, and…
Tea House Noodles, a Downtown Staple, Branches East
“The sky’s the limit!” says Tea House Noodles’ owner Kyle Lynch, speaking from the “Nu-Asian” diner’s newest digs on Murray Hill Road. Open since June, the 30-seat spot is the second outpost for this Cleveland original, which began in a tiny slice of real estate on downtown’s East 6th Street. But if Lynch’s plans proceed…
ESPN Plays Soft-Toss With Winslow and Exposes Two of its Own
I actually rushed home last night to catch E: 60, the newish sports-magazine show on ESPN, which featured a story about Browns tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. Winslow’s a relatively interesting guy as pro athletes go: the physically freakish son of an NFL great who has a penchant for mouthing off and one insanely moronic…
In Lakewood’s Mayoral Race, a Battle of Two Bush League Shit-Talkers
As yesterday’s mayoral election approached in Lakewood, undecided voters could only be sure of one thing: The next mayor would really suck at insulting people. In the days leading up to the vote, residents were bombarded by leaflets from Mayor Tom George and Councilman Ed FitzGerald castigating each other in the most uninventive terms. FitzGerald…
Dennis Kucinich’s Blowout Sale! Act Fast!
If you double date with Dennis and Liz, be sure to order your steak extra rare. He may suck at most everything related to his actual job, but Congressman Dennis Kucinich is proving to be quite the savvy marketer. He’s made a mint by selling pocket copies of the U.S. Constitution signed with his autograph…
The Luchagors: Former WWE Diva Lita Takes the Stage
Atlanta punk-rockers the Luchagors feature vocalist Amy Dumas, the onetime WWE diva formerly known as Lita. High-flying singalong choruses never sounded this smokin’. Don’t write her off as cheesecake, though: In one brass-knuckles chorus she warns, “Don’t pick me up / I’m not your baby.” It sounds like she still has a pile-driver with your…
Green on Screen
Brent Green’s animated short films, which wrestle with messages of mortality, are featured in tonight’s opening reception of his debut exhibit, Animation in 4 Dimensions. “I wake up every morning and think, ‘Damn, I’m going to die. I need to make something wonderful,'” says the 29-year-old Green. And he has. The Pennsylvania native assembles stop-motion…
Our top DVD picks scheduled for release this week:
The Best of the Colbert Report (Paramount) Blame It on Fidel! (Koch Lorber) Blood Car (TLA) The Crown Prince (Koch) Deck the Halls (Fox) Election (Tartan) Flight of the Conchords: The Complete First Season (HBO) Help!: Deluxe Edition (Capitol) I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (Universal) James Bond Ultimate Collector’s Set (MGM) The King…
Leon Russell
The cover of Leon Russell’s new album, Angel in Disguise, is initially alarming. The veteran keyboardist, singer, and songwriter looks older than Mickey Rooney, and you wonder if he’s got any more music left in him. But there’s no need to worry; Russell has rarely disappointed. As soon as his familiar rasp breaks through on…
For the Health of It
Bring along a gag bag of jokes tonight if you’re going to sit in on Pamela Venus’ Laughter Yoga session. The licensed therapist insists a few hearty chuckles can lower blood pressure, clear digestive tracts, and increase blood flow throughout the body. “When you laugh, you actually get an aerobic exercise,” says Venus. “It’s really…
So What?
Running water, teacups, and toy pianos get a workout tonight from the tonal experiments of So Percussion during their concert for the Cleveland Museum of Art’s VIVA! & Gala Around Town musical series. The modern-music band uses everyday objects as if they’re orchestral playthings. “Their performance is at once free-form and extremely precise. They create…
Pass the Raid
As many of us know firsthand, there is a paper-thin wall between profound love and psychotic delusion. That barrier is wadded up and incinerated in the claustrophobic, disturbing Bug by Tracy Letts, now at The Bang and the Clatter Theatre Company. Focusing on a couple of scruffy down-and-outers in a fleabag Oklahoma motel, this play…
Keith Urban
Keith Urban is the closest thing country music has to a rock star. He’s married to a famous actress (Nicole Kidman), he’s been in and out of rehab, and he plays arena-packing concerts that are relatively twang-free. It doesn’t hurt that the scruffy, hunky Aussie is a guitar virtuoso who exudes tons of charisma. He’s…
Ho-Down
A happy hooker learns about being a good Samaritan this afternoon in Lake Erie College’s production of The Good Woman of Setzuan. In Bertolt Brecht’s epic tale, three gods come to a bustling Chinese city to deal with the immorality of the poor and miserable. To their surprise, they find one “good soul” in a…
Britney Speared
One of Cleveland’s newest comedy troupes will lay into Britney Spears’ parenting skills during tonight’s performance of Torque . . . Full Throttle Improv. The off-the-cuff skewering will go down during the eight-member cast’s game of “Challenge,” in which they split into two teams to debate the singer’s child-rearing techniques. The group’s leaders liken the…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit — As musical-revue franchises go, they don’t come much healthier than Forbidden Broadway, which has enjoyed several iterations over the past 25 years. Featuring comedy knockoffs of popular musicals, this most recent version is a mix of old material (Les Miz lampoons) and newer stuff, like spoofs poking The Lion…
Blues Traveler
Blues Traveler and its harmonica-wielding frontman, John Popper, have been making music for almost 20 years now. Along the way, they managed to get songs like “Run-Around” and “Hook” on the radio with little compromise of their jam-band aesthetic. But their latest album, Cover Yourself, sounds like a really bad joke. Unlike, say, Tony Bennett…
Going, Going, Gone!
A happy-hour reveler will score a one-year lease to a 2008 Volvo at tonight’s Largest After-Work Party. The second-annual blowout features a car raffle to benefit both the Children’s Miracle Network and Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital. It also spotlights a silent auction of goodies, including Cleveland sports memorabilia, private wine-tastings, and a four-course dinner…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW Martin Ball – You probably didn’t realize geometry has a philosophical side, but that’s what you’ll discover in these fascinating oil-and-wax paintings by Ball, an English-born Kent State professor. The show consists of nine pieces from two series: “Carceral” and “Erasure.” Both hail from the late 1980s and early ’90s, and both are debuting…
Georgie James
There’s little doubt that the floor of Georgie James’ pad is covered in shag. It’s also very likely that crystals line the living-room hearth, and there’s probably plenty of polyester — everywhere. The duo (made up of singer/songwriter Laura Burhenn and former Q and Not U multi-instrumentalist John Davis) channels ’70s-era Laurel Canyon folk, sunny…
He’s So Klose
Pop-singer Jann Klose unleashes a new sound tonight for his Wadsworth concert, where he’ll go big in hopes of winning support for his upcoming CD, Reverie. The 30-year-old German will break out the synthesizers, he says, to create an “orchestral feel” for his latest single, “Beautiful Dream/Hold Me Down,” and other new tracks. “I wanted…
Ruhlman’s Rules
Kitchen-savvy cats and kittens can catch up with Cleveland author, chef, and food authority Michael Ruhlman at two upcoming signings for his newest book, The Elements of Cooking — Translating the Chef’s Craft for Every Kitchen. First up, a Friday, November 16 signing at The Viking Store (24703 Cedar Road, Lyndhurst) from 6:30 to 8:30…
Enslaved
Progressive Viking metal duo Enslaved formed in 1991, when Ivar Bjørnson and Grutle Kjellson were still teenagers. Habitually stretching songs well past the 10-minute mark and spinning tales about Norse mythology in ancient Norwegian, Enslaved became known for its sheer extremity in an already extreme scene — even though it spins black metal through a…
Skinheads Unite!
In This Is England, a gang of teen neo-Nazis inducts a 12-year-old boy into its fold. The lad soon shaves his head and masters the art of street fighting in his hometown, a blue-collar hamlet on England’s western coast. The group’s charismatic leader then adopts the boy as his protégé as they pave a path…
Veal Stock for the Soul
Rich, savory aromas fill my kitchen as Michael Ruhlman’s voice hums inside my head. Make veal stock, the Cleveland author whispers, and learn to fly. “Taking this one item . . . and adding it to your kitchen is like taking the four-cylinder engine of your Mitsubishi and turbocharging it,” he vows with characteristic fervor.…
The Olympic Ass Kickin’ Team
Here’s a whoopin’ that’s pure joy: The Olympic Ass Kickin’ Team is the kind of old-school, good-time rock and roll combo with a hip-shaking keyboard player — kind of like NRBQ, but fun. Hard-punching drummer Terry Anderson wrote some songs for the Georgia Satellites, and he also plays with the Yayhoos — those colorful cats…
Sly as a Fox
Comedian John Fox has been working the stand-up circuit so long, he can’t even remember vintage jokes off his 12 albums. So a few weeks ago, he bought three of the old CDs in a truck-stop bin (for 99 cents each) and gave them a listen. “I was laughing my ass off. It was like…
Dull Roar
Robert Redford’s Lions for Lambs may be the gabbiest movie ever made about American foreign policy. It was written by hot young screenwriter Matthew Michael Carnahan, who is fresh off his alpha-male script for another poorly executed war movie, The Kingdom. Perhaps that explains the presence, early in Lions for Lambs, of The Kingdom’s director,…
The Luchagors
Atlanta punk-rock group the Luchagors features vocalist Amy Dumas, the onetime WWE diva formerly known as Lita. High-flying sing-along choruses never sounded this smokin’. Don’t write her off as cheesecake, though: In one brass-knuckles chorus she warns, “Don’t pick me up/I’m not your baby” like she still has a dropkick with your name on it.…
Bedside Manners
Comedian Sheryl Underwood’s comic delivery can sometimes be crude. And her material can be downright nasty. “I got caught in bed with my best friend’s man, and the bitch gonna get mad at me,” says Underwood. “She says, ‘Sheryl watcha doing?’ I said, ‘Bitch, I’m trying to help you. He said if he doesn’t get…
Santa’s Brittle Helper
Over the years, Vince Vaughn has mastered the jabber-talking Good-Time Guy, a character he’s ridden, with slight physical variations, to big-budget comedy success. Vaughn’s leading role in Fred Claus, a PG holiday movie tailored for the SUV set, is something of a departure: Re-teaming with Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin, Vaughn dives into the kiddie…
Bob Dylan
It’s been 10 years since Bob Dylan sparked a renaissance with Time out of Mind. Now three albums into his creative rebirth, his record company has compiled a triple-disc retrospective that gets it mostly right. Dylan plays out chronologically, starting with selections from the singer-songwriter’s 1962 self-titled debut and wrapping up with last year’s Modern…
10 Worst Jobs in Cleveland
Heifer-impregnator, cool your ego. Steel smelter, thanks for burning off your hands and all, but you won’t be receiving a plaque this week. When publications run lists of the worst careers, they usually teem with occupations involving cramped environments, extremely hot or cold conditions, and, of course, fecal matter. But here in Cleveland, those working…
Black-Hole Son
During his stints with Soundgarden and Audioslave, Chris Cornell played the part of the brooding singer who had no time for glad-handing or show-business convention. So why the holy hell did he agree to appear on Spike TV’s Guys Choice Awards in June, where he bantered with co-presenter Mandy Moore and handed a trophy festooned…
Various Artists
This compilation documents the astonishing response that Latin America’s guitar-wielding longhairs offered their American and European counterparts back in the 1960s and ’70s. In many cases, the music summons psychedelic rock’s usual qualities, but it also detours into the region’s indigenous sounds and other surprising terrains. Sinfonia de las Aves Brasileñas’ schmaltzy organ and bird…
Judge Nasty
It was sometime in the late ’70s that Fred Kanter first met John Plough — a meeting that Kanter wishes never happened. Plough, the Portage County prosecutor at the time, was trying a drug case in which Kanter was the defense attorney. “He was very low-key,” Kanter remembers. “He was a very good lawyer —…
Red Zone
An all-star group of Cleveland nightlife pros has opened a new clubhouse, The Reddstone — and you’re invited! “It’s the best promoters in Cleveland, all doing one thing together,” says Dan Cull, head of Gorilla Productions and former partner at Peabody’s. “We’re always out drinking, and we wanted our own place to hang out.” The…
Serj Tankian
System of a Down is one of the trickiest bands making music these days for one reason: It’s not shy about letting its freak flag fly. Artier and politically sharper than any of its hard-rock contemporaries, SOAD infuses its songs with dashes of wit, grandeur, and bombast. Plus, singer Serj Tankian delivers each and every…
Caucasian Countdown
“Racism Reversed,” October 24 Whiteout this mayor’s title: The only thing wrong with this article is the title — racism is racism. There’s no such thing as “reverse racism.” What’s more, as a black woman — hell, as a human being — I am thoroughly disgusted with this woman. Her so-called attempts to empower blacks…
What I Really Want to Do Is Sing
There was a time during the mid-’90s when actress Juliette Lewis teetered on the verge of mainstream stardom. She snagged lead roles in Natural Born Killers, The Basketball Diaries, and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? She even dated Brad Pitt pre-mega-star. But she never quite escaped the quirky supporting parts she was offered more and more…
Flying Burrito Bros.
Gram Parsons and his band, the Flying Burrito Brothers, are are among rock and roll’s great cult legends — a short-lived group of dope-smoking Californians who laid the foundation for country rock, alt-country, and even those damn Eagles. Yet most folks, including the Burritos themselves, remember them as a lousy live act: under-rehearsed and way,…
Blue Farce
When Ben Childs’ car was stolen from a West Ninth parking garage last week, he was forced to endure an even greater trauma: dealing with Cleveland police. Here in the City That Never Works, reporting an auto theft means your odds are about 50-50 that someone will actually show up and pretend to care. So…
Devil’s Advocate
It’s hardly surprising that a lawyer would sing about roasting side by side with Lucifer. But attorney-turned-singer-songwriter David Childers isn’t talking about himself on the title track of his new album, Burning in Hell. True to his torturous nature, Childers plunges innocent folks neck-deep in pain and misfortune, leaving only enough room for their twisted…
Keratoma
Besides Chimaira’s Chris Spicuzza, Keratoma programmer Tom Shaffner is probably the least superfluous keyboard dude in rock these days. But make no mistake: Even with keys in tow, Keratoma is a killer thrash-metal band that positively smokes the fashion-core kids who’ve overrun Headbangers Ball. Its debut album, 2005’s Smoke and Mirrors, remains one of Cleveland’s…
Peter Principle
When Alabama-born guitarist Peter Karp takes the stage tonight at Fat Fish Blue, he suspects the ghost of Robert Lockwood Jr. to whisper words of wisdom about the blues. It wouldn’t be the first time; the legendary guitarist often doled out advice to up-and-coming artists before he died in Cleveland last year at the age…
Buzz Kill
As editor of Bee Culture, North America’s most popular beekeeping magazine, Kim Flottum quickly realized that something was horribly awry. Last November, a beekeeper in Florida went out to his backyard hive to find two-thirds of his bees gone — their carcasses nowhere to be found. A man transporting two truckloads bees to California arrived…
Mad Professor
You can’t blame British pop eccentric Robyn Hitchcock for feeling a bit out of time lately. Next week, Yep Roc will release a five-CD box set, I Wanna Go Backwards, which contains three of his early solo albums plus a whopping 57 bonus tracks. With that project wrapped, Hitchcock is now hard at work prepping…
Cleveland BOYZ
Hip-hop duo Cleveland BOYZ wastes no time calling out rivals on its debut, Volume One. “Ask yourself: Are you a wolf or a sheep?” asks rapper Wise Supreme on the very first cut. For the next hour, Supreme and MC Brandon Bishop chime in with a resounding “Baaa!” Nearly every track on Volume One copies…
Runts’ House
It’s no accident the Asterisk Gallery resembles an elementary-school art room today. “I want the walls plastered, totally covered with artwork,” says artist Russ Seligman, the man behind Seeds of the Future, a kids’ art show that opens in Tremont this weekend. “It’s not your typical one-level show, where you have a canvas, then wall…
The Kids Were Alright
Sesame Street: Old School Volume 2 (Genius) On the heels of the Electric Company boxed sets, which were at once educational and groovy as all get-out, comes the latest in greatest hits from Sesame Street before the neighborhood was gentrified for Elmo’s protection. Chief among the copious highlights in this triple-disc acid trip down Amnesia…
Broken Social Scene/Kevin Drew
Spirit If . . . isn’t quite sure if it’s a new Broken Social Scene album or the solo debut of frontman Kevin Drew (the record is credited to Broken Social Scene presents: Kevin Drew). Doesn’t really matter. BSS records are free-for-alls featuring seemingly every Canadian musician under 35; Spirit If . . . includes…
Class Act
Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve probably seen High School Musical on the Disney Channel since the made-for-TV movie first aired early last year. To cash in on the popularity, the kiddie-TV network brings the flick’s theatrical counterpart to Playhouse Square tonight through Sunday.The musical tells the story of a popular basketball star…
Riveting Rockwell
It isn’t easy to condense an artist’s entire career into one exhibit. Take Norman Rockwell: The famed illustrator and father of 20th-century Americana produced more than 4,000 works in his nearly six-decade career at The Saturday Evening Post and Look magazine. But in today’s opening of American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell, at the…
A Little Sucky-Sucky
Castlevania, the vampire-hunting series that stretches over 20 years and as many games, has basically two kinds of fans. There are the traditionalists, who’ve followed the games since they were straight-up action titles with thumb-busting combat and infamously steep difficulty curves. Most agree that the best of the old-school Castlevanias is 1993’s Rondo of Blood,…
David Kilgour
Earlier in the year, this prince of New Zealand indie pop (who used to front cult heroes the Clean) released The Far Now, his sixth album of songs about wistful recollection and wry resignation. Backed by atmospheric keyboard fills and sinuous cello hums, Kilgour aims for understated catharsis on The Far Now. The CD’s dozen…
Pole Dancing
Poland’s colorful Mazowsze ensemble breaks into their national polonaise dance tonight, when its 100-member cast kicks off its 10th U.S. tour, starting in Cleveland. The performance also helps mark the company’s nearly 60 years on the road, which has taken them to more than 50 countries as Poland’s cultural ambassadors. “Being part of Mazowsze means…
Supreme Power
For four years, the Stylettes have been charming Pickwick & Frolic audiences with their energetic renditions of Motown’s female-driven hits of the ’60s. This weekend, their repertoire ranges from Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High” to the Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love.” “It’s the kind of music that everybody respects, no matter who you are,”…
La Dolce Vita
TOP PICK — Immagine in Cornice (Monkeywrench/Rhino) Pearl Jam visited Italy last year and played five concerts. This intimate DVD documents the shows and goes behind the scenes for acoustic performances and backstage musings. While several tunes come from 2006’s so-so Pearl Jam, there are plenty of classic cuts — like “Corduroy” and “Better Man”…
Caribou
As the irresistibly luminescent new CD Andorra demonstrates, Caribou’s Dan Snaith has come a long, long way since being legally stripped of his old Manitoba moniker. These days, the same guy who once playfully goofed on post-rock’s fetid corpse (on albums like Up in Flames and Start Breaking My Heart) writes delightful, textured, fake-’60s pop baubles.…
Jive Turkey
Turkey Day is right around the corner, and you probably have no clue what you’re going to put on the table. But don’t get your apron strings in a jumble; a kitchenful of cooking pros has come to the rescue in the form of today’s Fabulous Food Show. The action starts in the I-X Center’s…
