This Week’s Day-By-Day Picks
Thursday, October 16 There are few movie images as badass as Robert Mitchum sporting “love” and “hate” tattoos on his knuckles in The Night of the Hunter. The 1955 thriller — about a psychotic preacher stalking two children who have knowledge of a stash of stolen cash — is a moody rumination on religion and…
Three’s a Charm
If executive chef John Kolar worked in oils rather than in foodstuffs, it would be easy to imagine him intently dabbing at the canvas, slowly building up exotic images from layer upon layer of sheer pigments. But even though Kolar’s is the artistry of the kitchen, not the easel, that same painstaking process of layering…
Stereolab
Since the Franco-Anglican collective Stereolab started putting out albums in 1991, it has been hailed by critics and fans alike as a band of swinging, space-age, retro-pop futurists. Now, on what seems like its 9,276th release, “Instant 0 in the Universe,” the group isn’t doing anything to change that impression. All the touchstones of Stereolab’s…
Razzle-Dazzle ‘Em
Richard Gere’s stellar performance as fast-talking lawyer Billy Flynn in last year’s Chicago kinda ruined it for succeeding actors playing the role onstage. But Gregory Harrison, who plays Flynn in the touring production of Chicago that comes to the State Theatre Tuesday, claims he feels no pressure. “I don’t really care whether I’m close to…
Jack’s Is Aces
Hotel restaurant: For discriminating diners, the mere words are enough to induce fright. Toss in “airport,” and it’s no wonder I had a hard time convincing a companion to dine with me at Jack’s Steakhouse, in the Cleveland Airport Marriott (4277 West 150th Street; 216-252-5333). Turns out, though, we were pleasantly surprised: he, by the…
Various Artists
When a CD comes out that’s composed of artists performing versions of a music legend’s songs, usually the question is “Who’s on it?” But a better question is “What’s on it?” The choice of material should be even more important than the selection of artists. Most of the songs on Just Because I’m a Woman…
Friday With Mitch
FRI 10/17 Mitch Albom is carving out quite a niche with warm, fuzzy stories about how sentimental he gets around old guys. His 1996 memoir, Tuesdays With Morrie, was a long-standing best-seller that recounts his relationship with his dying mentor. His new book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, is a novel about a…
Barbie, Beware
That Peaches sure has a one-track mind. And no, smartypants, it’s not that the smut-talking electroclash diva spends all her time thinking about sex. Get your head out of the gutter. Seriously. Of course, getting your mind off S-E-X can be hard, when one of the Canadian chanteuse’s infectious, beat-driven tunes has arrested your synapses…
Chew’s Eye Shop
Industrial rock, as popularized in the mid-’80s and early ’90s, has long since returned underground. Go to goth night at the Chamber, and you’re likely to find it dominated by a hybrid of bland electronic fare, set to lyrics lifted from a poorly written self-help book. That is, until you encounter Cleveland’s industrial enclaves: Filament…
Clash of the Titans
FRI 10/17 Robert Boynton couldn’t care less if his Amherst Comets football squad is considered an underdog in Friday’s game against longtime rival Avon Lake. “I would assume Avon Lake would be the favorite, but we always like that,” says Boynton, who coached the team in the late ’70s and is now the school district’s…
Roll Over, Tutankhamen
When Napoleon’s army discovered the Rosetta Stone along the banks of the Nile in 1799, little did they know that the tablet of black basalt would provide them with a key to unlocking the cryptic riddle of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Never did they say to themselves, “Perhaps someday this slab of carved symbols will lead a…
Rainy Day Saints
Almost as wide-ranging as the bands Dave Swanson has played in are the instruments he’s manned in said bands. The Cleveland rock lifer has made the rounds as a guitarist, bassist, and drummer for Death of Samantha, Cobra Verde, Speaker/Cranker, and the New Salem Witch Hunters, among others. On his latest project, he plays all…
Stalk With the Animals
10/17-10/31 It’s an annual rite of passage around here — dressing up the little ones for a moonlight stroll amid the lions, tigers, and bears. Cleveland and Akron are both celebrating the season with Boos at the Zoos — and both are more than mere quests for sweets. The Metroparks’ outing, which includes jugglers, storytellers,…
Citizen Arcane
In the hit cult movie High Fidelity — a music geek’s Citizen Kane — there’s a semi-famous scene where record-store clerk/arch-rock-snob Barry (played by Jack Black) scorns a customer’s request for Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You.” “Ooh, I’m sorry, is your daughter in a coma?” Barry mocks the befuddled, out-of-touch…
Make Room for Gloom
FRI 10/17 The partying reaches pagan proportions at Friday’s Horror Rock Showcase — four hours of satanic screaming designed to blow your Halloween mask off. The shriekfest sets the stage for a trio of goth-rock bands, including the Guttervamps (pictured), Cult of the Psychic Fetus, and the Coffin Bangers. “I wanted to have a theme…
Shenoah Bound
Jon Sayre, frontman of Cleveland metal-rockers Erase the Grey, has joined the ranks of Shenoah, the new post-metal side project of former Chimaira guitarist Jason Hager. Sayre says that Hager has been asking him to join ever since launching Shenoah six months ago. Sayre also had an in or two: The lineup comprises Erase the…
Frocked Up
FRI 10/17 Eddie Izzard has cross-dressed and crossed over from stand-up comic (HBO’s Dress to Kill) to dramatic actor (he was the best thing about Velvet Goldmine). But the British actor, who still sells out 10,000-seat venues in his homeland, says he has no intentions of scrapping the laughs. “I pushed endlessly to get my…
Justin Timberlake
Right from the jump, Justin Timberlake has wanted to be down with the black folk. Performing bubblegum pop with four white dudes from Florida may have been a way of getting his foot in the door, but now that he’s in the building, he wants it known that he’s a soul brotha at heart. Timberlake’s…
All the Rage
Dave, a man who’s barely there, lulls his son to sleep with stories of a boy, lost in the woods, who escapes from wolves; it’s a thrilling bedtime story for the child, a tale that never loses its excitement with each retelling. Dave, played by Tim Robbins like some ghost who can’t quite touch anything…
Suck-Free Zone
Eyes are still watering from the mushroom cloud Metallica unleashed with St. Anger. An overwrought stab at recapturing lost glory days, the big-budget bomb was only one of many this year. It’s enough to send music fans scurrying underground to avoid the fallout. That’s fine: Digging through the major-label topsoil to find the buried gems…
Jury Doody
Watching Hollywood’s endless stream of John Grisham adaptations — The Firm, The Chamber, A Time to Kill, etc. — it would be easy to assume that Grisham is the worst sort of hack writer, with simplistic morals that usually overwhelm logic and come close to contravening the very law the author is supposed to be…
The Weakerthans
Since leaving behind the punk agitprop of Propagandhi, John Samson has discovered that less is more. Less abrasive and overtly political, the Weakerthans remain committed to social criticism, though Samson’s lyrics are more poetic and rife with metaphor. For example, the band’s new album, Reconstruction Site, features “Plea From a Cat Named Virtue,” where his…
Help Wanted
The plight of Cleveland Works is as ironic as it is tragic. With its founder and former executive director facing drug and racketeering charges, the welfare-to-work agency that used to enjoy national attention and was once touted in a speech by President Clinton is now struggling just to stay afloat. Cleveland Works has already been…
Saint Veronica
Veronica Guerin isn’t at all a bad movie, and some kind things will be said about it here. But cynical appraisal also has its place, so we’ll cover that aspect as well. Even before that, a significant disclaimer: Since this review is being written for several New Times publications, which boast many of the finest…
John Mayall
While the late Alexis Korner more rightly deserves the “Father of British Blues” tag, John Mayall is certainly the U.K.’s most enduring blues artist. And a not-too-shabby talent scout to boot. After his band’s lead guitar slot had catapulted Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor, each in his turn, to greater recognition during the…
Blind Eye
When activists from the East Side Organizing Project first mentioned Fairbanks Capital on the air, they were broadcasting from a relatively obscure AM gospel station, on a Sunday at 7 a.m. They hadn’t even planned to mention Fairbanks. They were talking about mortgage fraud when someone used the Salt Lake City firm as an example,…
Holmes Fried
If you lie down with dogs, you’ve got to expect to get up with fleas. And when you go to a movie about a coked-out former porn star who was implicated in the grisly murders of four lowlife drug-dealers — a case that remains “officially” unsolved to this day — well, you’d better figure on…
Thursday
Major labels must have been dozing in class the day their teachers covered the wisdom of philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” How else to explain nü metal, which amounted to little more than the mutated hellspawn of late-’80s hair bands? Or today’s musical climate, where suits…
From Capetown to Cleveland
Haybrie Ross met McDonald’s millionaire Warren Anderson in the South African summer of December 1994. In America, she has since learned, the seasons are reversed — December is wintertime. In the years to follow, Ross would come to view many things in America as backward, particularly the justice system. Before meeting Anderson, she would not…
Come Together
A humorous and touching tale about unexpected friendship, The Station Agent marks the auspicious writing and directorial debut of an actor named Tom McCarthy. It concerns three people who have absolutely nothing in common, except for the solitary life that each leads. For Finbar McBride (Peter Dinklage) and Olivia Harris (Patricia Clarkson), being alone is…
Sound of Urchin
On stage and record, Sound of Urchin’s M.O. is to build to a slow boil. In an attention-deficient rock world, it hasn’t paid high dividends; they’re a textbook example of how the music industry smothers acts it should be nurturing. Steve Ralbovsky, the A&R rep who signed the Beastie Boys and Red Hot Chili Peppers,…
“N***** Dave”
The first time David Thomas was called a n*****, he’d spent just 45 days on the job. Two co-workers had taken to announcing that they hated “that n***** Dave” to anyone who would listen. Thomas, an even-keeled and courteous man — the kind who calls you “mister” — had no idea what he’d done to…
Diaper Dreams
You gotta love John Sayles. No, really — you gotta, or else a mob of indie-minded cineastes will club you into submission. Sometimes it’s easy to comply, as with City of Hope and Sunshine State, both astute portraits of uniquely American class, race, and real-estate struggles that boil down to the burning question of identity.…
Simon and Garfunkel
When Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel touch down in Cleveland Monday at the Gund, the nostalgia faucets are sure to turn on full force. The “Old Friends” tour reunites the key duo of the ’60s and ’70s in a concert sure to be long on classics — and Simon tunes. (Despite several solo records, Garfunkel…
Season on the Blink
By the time the Indians wrap up their rebuilding phase, there may be few viewers left to bask in the glory. Fox Sports, the cable network that brought you 150 games’ worth of Tribe futility last season, could be too expensive for cable providers’ tastes by the time the team gets good. That’s because an…
A Show of Hans
Jackson Pollock was not the original dripper. Hans Hofmann, the most influential art teacher in America from 1932 to 1958, splattered and drizzled on his paintings as early as 1939 — several years before Jack “invented” action painting. But Hofmann’s legacy runs much deeper than dribbling. His teaching, art theories, and exuberantly colorful paintings molded…
Saul Williams
For the average person, “spoken word” is not a good thing. It evokes images of people with mics, flannel shirts, strident voices, and issues with their parents (or parent-substitute, the government). No thanks. Spoken word was pitched as a trend, hyped as poetry-meets-rock-and-roll. Suddenly, every coffeehouse had an open-mic night, Lollapalooza had onstage poetry slams,…
The Right Stuff
The Right Stuff A straight shooter deserves respect: Thanks for the article on PD columnist Connie Schultz [“Liberal Pukes Like You,” September 24]. Long before I met Connie, I admired the authenticity of her writing. You don’t have to agree with her to respect her. She doesn’t talk down, doesn’t hold back, and doesn’t seek…
The Mad Prince
It’s Halloween month, so what better time to cozy up with a dandy ghost story, replete with treachery, stabbings, poisonings, madness, and, oddly enough, quite a few laughs. No, it isn’t Scary Movie 5; it’s none other than Hamlet, now being performed in repertory with Tartuffe at the Great Lakes Theater Festival. This elegantly straightforward…
Ludacris
In the grand pantheon of guilty pleasures, Chicken and Beer ranks right up there with Häagen Daz and Hustler. But for the third time, Ludacris brings another round of deep-fried reefer rap, where subtlety is as taboo as sobriety. The Atlanta MC remains preoccupied with gangsta grossouts, forsaking southern gentility in favor of rhymes about…
Bobby on Board
Bob Burnquist is a self-anointed “trickmonster,” one of 15 world-class skateboarders and BMX bikers amping the ramps for Tony Hawk’s Boom Boom HuckJam. The show is a carnival-on-wheels, complete with a million-dollar ramp system and a mammoth half-pipe encircled by a Motocross track. “This is something totally different than Gravity Games,” Burnquist says of the…
Damp Match
Love’s a bitch, ain’t it? You search for it, you can’t find it anywhere, and then, when you’re ready to give up and invest in a truckload of romance novels or join the Inflatable Doll of the Month Club, love sometimes whomps you upside the head from the least predictable direction. Let’s face it, the…
Paul Westerberg/Grandpaboy
Come Feel Me Tremble is a sharp rock record timed to coincide with the release of a DVD/movie of the same name. It features Paul Westerberg in full rock mode, from the Oxycontin drive of “Hillbilly Junk” to the Stonesy “Pine Box” and the retro, catchy “Wild & Lethal.” Westerberg’s singing is righteous and energizing…
