Blaming Sept. 11
At Continental Airlines, the days of Frank Lorenzo seem long ago. In 1983, Lorenzo, who owned the company, declared bankruptcy chiefly to repudiate wage agreements. Continental slid into bankruptcy again in 1994. But under Chairman Gordon Bethune’s plainspoken leadership, it emerged to become regarded as one of the nation’s best-run airlines. It posted 26 consecutive…
Trembling Blue Stars
An illuminating statement of grandeur and elegance, the Trembling Blue Stars’ Alive to Every Smile is simply the best new romantic Brit-rock album since Belle & Sebastian’s Tigermilk. Comparisons to B&S have plagued this group, the latest vehicle of ex-Field Mice singer-guitarist Robert Wratten and his various ingenues. It’s a natural comparison: The group has…
The Dangerous Candidate
John Hartman is a dangerous man, though it may not be apparent at first glance. Soft-spoken, slight of build, middle-aged, and bearded, he looks more Father Christmas than Fidel, more likely to nap through a revolution than incite one. And while rainbow-striped suspenders say many things about a man, “I’m dangerous” isn’t one of them.…
Beachwood Sparks
Back when Gram Parsons split from the Byrds and formed the Flying Burrito Brothers, no one could have predicted that, in one simple act, a musical revolution would have its Che Guevara. Lately, there’s been a movement afoot to rethink Parsons’s place in the birth of country rock, as if it were possible to suddenly…
Unfavorite Son
Clyde, Ohio, is just a speck of a town near Sandusky, but it proudly lays claim to the grand title “Washing Machine Capital of the World.” It’s not an empty boast: Clyde’s Whirlpool factory unloads 20,000 washers a day. But even before it had all that sparkling enamel to live up to, Clyde liked to…
Le Tigre
A mere seven months ago, Le Tigre frontwoman Kathleen Hanna was calling for New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s head. It had something to do with the 41 bullets pumped into Amadou Diallo by the city’s police. On Le Tigre’s second album, Feminist Sweepstakes, Hanna is no less radical, but in light of the tragic events…
No Credit Limit
The Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board advises the President on the quality of America’s spy services. It would seem a critical role, given the rash of scumbags blowing up buildings these days. Which has The Edge wondering why Cleveland banker Al Lerner was recently appointed to this august body. Lerner is, of course, the owner of…
Various Artists
Put Michael Stanley, Huck Jones, the James Gang rhythm section, and Kid Rock’s keyboardist and guitarist (Jimmy Bones and Kenny Olson) on the Rock Hall stage, and you’ve got a perfect date for another North Coast bootleg. Until they start playing. Even with allowances for the Rock Hall lobby’s notoriously bad acoustics, this is barely…
Land of Five-Dollar Hookers
Going down on Cleveland development: While on business in your city, I was amused to read The Edge’s views about development in Cleveland and how businesses would prefer to build new facilities in the South [August 23]. Frightfully, to build here in the South, many places are forgoing “buying the mayor a pint of whiskey…
Reel War
Two weeks ago, it would have been possible to use the name of the man interviewed below; indeed, it would have been expected, as he is no mere “spokesman,” the only identifier by which he is to be referred. Two weeks ago, it would have been possible to point out the specific location of his…
The Pleasure of Youth
Beck Center is quickly becoming our most audacious purveyor of theatrical delights. Currently on display is the bracing voice of Kenneth Lonergan, whose 1998 play, This Is Our Youth, is making its exciting Cleveland premiere. The history of theater is a fascinating form of evolution: Without Homer, there would have been no Sophocles; without Plutarch’s…
Corned Beef Comfort
Renowned restaurant critic and writer Ruth Reichl was all over the airwaves earlier this year, promoting her newest best-selling memoir, Comfort Me With Apples. But with all due respect to Reichl, the editor of Gourmet magazine, I must demur: Sometimes it takes more than apples to replenish our spirits and lessen our woes. Not that…
Tea Time
Finally, a proper British tearoom, where even manly men can feel at ease. Despite its entirely too-cute moniker, Mrs. Ticklemore’s Tearoom, in Akron’s West Point Market (1711 West Market Street, 800-838-2156), is handsome, homey, and not a bit fussy. Manager Jennifer Tavanello says the space — formerly a small snack area — was designed to…
Pulp Fashion
It isn’t pretty, but it’s true: One of the hottest fashion trends of the 1960s started as a campaign for toilet paper. It was the paper dress, offered in 1966 by the Scott Paper Company as a promotional gimmick for its “Color Explosion” bathroom tissue. Patterned in either psychedelic paisley or Op-Art plaid, the “Paper…
Pledge Drive
“Right now, it’s nice to head up a tour called Pledge of Allegiance,” says Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison. “It’s weird how it all fit together. This is the tour to see right now to get some aggression out.” Indeed. These bands not only have released two of the season’s most eagerly awaited hard rock albums,…
The Liberator
The funny thing about Liberace — and there’s a lot that’s funny about him — is that, for all his celebrated kitschiness and questionable taste, he was one hell of an accomplished pianist. This artistic paradox is at the heart of Michael Daugherty’s Le Tombeau de Liberace, a four-movement suite for piano and chamber orchestra,…
Finding Nirvana
Heavier Than Heaven, Seattle-based journalist Charles R. Cross’s riveting, in-depth look at Nirvana singer-guitarist Kurt Cobain, involved four years of research and 400 interviews. Cross had the full cooperation of Cobain’s family, friends, bandmates, and widow Courtney Love. In addition, Cross drew from Cobain’s private journals and unsent letters, giving this bio its intensely personal…
Blood Brothers
Here you’ll find madness, mayhem, and murder in no short supply. The Hughes brothers, Albert and Allen, have always had a knack for horror, as evidenced by their edgy gangster flicks, Menace II Society and Dead Presidents, which they’ve stated were influenced by the styles of Brian De Palma and Martin Scorsese. Their latest offering,…
Strapping Lads
There’s nothing rock and roll about the BioPlastics building in Avon Lake. Its egg-carton-like exterior is nondescript. Inside, the whir of conveyor belts and machinery creates a sweatshop atmosphere, with workers laboring over plastic straps of all dimensions, turning some into dog collars, others into harnesses. In a small, isolated cubicle, Rob Stevens and Aaron…
Dead Last
Some guys have the kind of face that suggests they’ve been to hell and back. The narrow, steely eyes, graying hair, and deep lines crisscrossing the countenance of a James Coburn or Clint Eastwood can practically do all of their acting for them, in any role that calls for a fallen or flawed hero to…
Incubus
Thanks mostly to 1999’s Make Yourself, Incubus’s mixture of inoffensive metal and spacey hip-hop crosscurrents has quietly amassed salivating devotees. The fivesome formed as teenagers in Calabasas, California, in 1991, jamming out bad funk-metal tracks that sounded a lot like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Faith No More. It released a forgettable EP (“Enjoy…
Hollywood Hells
Ask David Lynch, and he will tell you apple-pie America just isn’t what it seems. People behave strangely, sometimes violently, and sometimes they even transform into different people without being polite enough to warn you first. Eerie and freaky, shot through with sporadic bursts of humor and sex, Mulholland Drive is a loose, choppy effort…
The Misfits
Just in time for Halloween, the Misfits return to celebrate the darker side of punk. Formed in 1977, the Lodi, New Jersey band — bassist Jerry “Only” Caiafa, singer Glenn Danzig, and a rotating cast of guitarists and drummers — threaded sneering four-chord rock with lyrics inspired by the schlock cinema of the ’60s. Albums…
Herald and Mod
No one has more to say about life than someone who hasn’t lived it yet. While pop culture’s juvenile slaves would shout down this concept to their last breaths — jeans slung at half-mast, navel rings linked in passionate solidarity — there’s only so much material to be strip-mined from the angst of youth, especially…
Cursive
Cursive has been churning out an emotional, angular brand of hard rock since 1995, and in only six years, the band has already endured a breakup and numerous lineup changes. After a handful of seven-inches and two independent full-length releases, original guitarist Scott Pederson announced he would be attending law school. That, along with singer-songwriter…
Dr. No
Dr. Robert Corn has been an orthopedic surgeon for 22 years, a success by any measure. He was chief of orthopedics at Huron Hospital and has his own practice in Highland Heights, all of which has given him a most comfortable life. He owns five and a half acres in Gates Mills, where he lives…
Tori Amos
Tori Amos has always underscored her elegant alt-rock with a sense of reflection. The ruby-haired pianist’s 1991 debut, the EP “Me and a Gun,” was centered around the title track, a harrowing song about when she was raped at gunpoint. Over the next decade, Amos released five poignant and personal albums that showcased her piano-ballad…
