Outside the Game
Greil Marcus is a rock-critic legend. A graduate of the late-’60s Berkeley scene, Marcus began his rock and social criticism with then-fledgling Rolling Stone magazine and quickly became notable for his highbrow style and brainy approach. His obvious talent and his professorial passion for dissecting rock and roll had an air of academic credibility, brought…
What a Boar
Legend has it that, while an Oxford University student was enjoying a little light reading in the forest one 14th-century day, he was attacked by a wild boar. He defended himself with the only thing handy: his volume of Aristotle. Shoving the book into the boar’s mouth, the student watched the animal choke when it…
Soundbites
Best known as Mouth, a character in the 1985 film The Goonies, actor Corey Feldman is on a quest to become a rock star. Well, maybe not a star. But for Feldman, who’s on his first tour and will make his Cleveland debut at the Blind Lemon on November 15 with his band Truth Movement,…
London Calling
Chocolate making has always seemed a somewhat magical art. But while Gene Wilder may have the average Jane convinced that singing men of small stature create delicious sweets, Harry London Candies is out to set the record straight, with chocolate factory tours that give candy junkies a taste of real life inside its sweet walls.…
The Tubes
It’s hard to imagine that a band like the Tubes is still around. It’s even harder to imagine that they would actually have some reason to be. Yet 30 years into a somewhat infamous career, the year 2000 has seen no less than five new Tubes records (all of them rehashes of older material –…
Naval Gazing
November may mean Thanksgiving to most of you, but in the film biz, it means a rush of “serious” films trying to gouge an impression into the short memories of Oscar voters. This shouldn’t be a bad thing, but since the relationship between “Oscar” and “actual interesting filmmaking” is nearly random (if not downright inverse),…
The Figgs
The only thing that the Figgs haven’t done over the course of their nearly 15-year career is make a major impact on the musical landscape. The band — guitarist Mike Gent, bassist Pete Donnelly, and drummer Pete Hayes — has been an amazingly low-key force in the pop/rock underground, scoring great reviews and inspiring slavish…
Ballet Bound
The setting of Stephen Daldry’s uplifting comedy Billy Elliot, which is about a working-class boy who wants to be a ballet dancer, is a beleaguered coal-mining town in the north of England circa 1984. A coat of grime covers the squat brick row-houses, drying laundry flaps sadly in the breeze, and the locals all have…
Prince
Seems the new millennium was a bit apocalyptic for the one guy who was preparing for it the past 17 years. Prince, the composer of the party-over-oops-outta-time standard “1999,” has been fairly inactive since the release of last year’s listless Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic. Between deciding what to call himself and battling with various…
Patriot Games
The cops had never seen anything like it. Not in one place, at least. Not in Bedford, Ohio, anyway. More than 100 pounds of explosives, dynamite, a booby-trap detonating device, and Beretta and Uzi submachine guns. As it turned out, it would take three years and a cross-country investigation by the Bedford police and the…
Ani DiFranco
While her rabid following hasn’t noticed the difference, Ani DiFranco hasn’t made a good record since 1995’s Not a Pretty Girl. It was at about that time that DiFranco, a self-described grassroots sensation, was on the cover of every major music magazine and being heralded not only for becoming successful without pandering to commercial radio…
Pump and Circumstance
Ron Nichols made the perfect poster boy. One of the most successful Shell service station dealers in the nation, Nichols was chairman of the Shell National Dealers Council and one of the most active members of the local chapter. A three-time winner of the company’s prestigious Circle of Success award, his consistent performance had earned…
Beastie Boys
With the rising popularity of DVD, a format that allows recordings to be heard in 5.1 surround sound and offers features such as separate audio tracks and alternate viewing angles, it was just a matter of time before a musical act did something that used DVD’s full potential. Beastie Boys DVD Anthology, a two-disc set…
The Stuff of History
His name is so quaint, it could be written on slate in a one-room schoolhouse: Icabod Flewellen, the letters rendered in a florid hand. But whether he was born quaint or blossomed into quaintness is hard to tell. He was a bookish child — if someone “born 40” can be called a child — with…
Outkast
The mothership has landed. Or at least it’s hovering over Atlanta, where the hip-hop duo Outkast is based and where its terrific fourth album, Stankonia, was conceived. And if master funkster George Clinton isn’t piloting the ship, he’s at least guiding the eternal funkmusicmachine in spirit. Loaded with jejune jokes, sweaty hip-hop, and respect for…
Edge
Dupe of the Week Award goes to Scene for unsuspectingly abetting the rip-off of porn connoisseurs. In our October 26 issue, we ran an ad for the “Adult Film Convention 2000,” which was to feature all the big names in the carnal passion industry — plus the chance to watch a movie being shot. But…
Superdrag; James Michael
Superdrag is a supergroup in waiting, a Mid-Atlantic powerhouse out of time. Driven by the lyrics and vocals of John Davis and the sharp, punishing drumming of Don Coffey Jr., the third full-length effort — released on an indie after two fine CDs for Elektra — by this Knoxville quartet may be its best. In…
One Orr in the Water
Random reflections on hockey’s golden age: I don’t know how you can spend five pages on the life and times of an “enforcer” in professional hockey [“Tough Guy,” October 19]. Your sophomoric essay on the trials and tribulations of Garrett Burnett show that you don’t know squat about hockey. I grew up in Boston when…
Josh Ritter
When Moscow, Idaho native Josh Ritter graduated and drifted away from Oberlin College in the spring of 1999, he left behind a shockingly assertive debut record that belied both his age and experience. Ritter came across with a folksy bent that, in wonderful moments, would splinter into the down-and-outisms of Tom Waits and assert itself…
Ransom Notes
No one likes to be seen as the roadblock to a revolution. The unfortunate soul–or the dumb bastard–who chooses to impede progress is likely to be mowed down by those charging toward tomorrow. He will become a thing to be wiped off the shoes of those who march, march, march forever onward. Woe to the…
The Dynamic Doodler
The doodle, a design or drawing typically scribbled on a notepad while one is trying to explain to the phone company that a billing error has taken place, is usually nothing more than a physical record of the most mundane moments of one’s day. Euan Macdonald’s doodles are different, though. A selection of 10 of…
A Toast to Elegance
With The Guardsman, the Cleveland Play House has taken upon itself a precarious challenge and has triumphed splendidly. This is one of those exquisite comedies of manners where high style is all — the kind of gossamer that, on this continent, only Canada’s Shaw Festival seems to be able to effortlessly weave. However, we’ve done…
A Gateway to Cleveland
My guess is that restaurateur Brett Babick sometimes feels like the guy in that joke — the one whose doctor tells him, “I’ve got good news, and I’ve got bad news.” In this case, the good news is that his Gateway restaurant and microbrewery, Barons of Cleveland, has been packed during downtown games and events…
Needing Dough?
If heaven has an aroma, betcha it’s a lot like freshly baked cookies. Yeah, yeah, we know: Who has the time to stir up a batch of sugar cookies nowadays? Well, for one, Donna Hann, chef-proprietor of the Culinary Artist Catering. The Artist has formed a sisterly partnership with Donna Chriszt (now ensconced in the…
Private Idaho
We are a people transfixed by new musical genres every month or two, so here’s what Idaho has been tagged: sad-core. Slow-core works too. A glance through the band’s press clips reveals an abundance of descriptions like “somber,” “maudlin,” and “darkly unhinged.” Its brooding, chiming, windblown music (it’s easy to get caught up in this)…
