The Negro Problem
Let’s be honest: As much as people may complain about Spike Lee’s public pontifications on race or his controversial stances or his being a rabble-rouser, that’s the way we like him. What first comes to mind when you hear his name mentioned? Certainly not Girl 6 or The Original Kings of Comedy. No, Spike will…
Everlast
Back when Everlast’s résumé consisted of two words (“Jump Around”), the House of Pain rapper’s impact on pop culture appeared limited. But on 1998’s Whitey Ford Sings the Blues, he became a melancholic mouthpiece for the downtrodden, matching simple guitar strums with simple hip-hop beats on the down-and-out anthems “What It’s Like” and “Ends.” Huge…
Edge
Earlier this month, billboards for the new Fox series The Street invaded our charming autumn landscape with towering T&A. Moms and ministers alike called the local affiliate in disgust. The billboards — about 30 of which were placed in neighborhoods and highways across Cleveland — pictured a woman from the neck down wearing men’s briefs…
Talib Kweli & Hi Tek
Before he hooked up with master MC Mos Def on 1998’s Black Star project, Talib Kweli was one half of Reflection Eternal with DJ Hi Tek. The pair constructed a few underground singles that moved along the same black-thought boulevard as Black Star, but never really ignited. With his group on hiatus, as Mos Def…
Much to Their Chagrin
Her husband is dead, and her kids have long since moved away, but Norma Pomeroy isn’t going anywhere. “Forget it,” says the 72-year-old. “I wouldn’t move out of here for anything.” Pomeroy’s sentiments are hardly unique — at least not for someone who’s lived most of her life in Chagrin Falls, the tony village that…
The Bill Evans Trio
The Warner Bros. boxed set Turn Out the Stars enjoyed a certain enviable double distinction. The set captured the last (and last great) Bill Evans trio in the very club where the first great Evans trio (with Paul Motian and the much lamented young Scott LaFaro) recorded the live albums that would alter the state…
The Man of Many Face
It has often been written of Chris Guest–or, if you prefer, Fifth Baron Christopher Haden-Guest, son of diplomat Peter Haden-Guest, who could once vote in Parliament–that he has the demeanor of cold stone and the temperament of the dead. He possesses, one often hears, an impenetrable façade, that of the serious man who comes to…
Silo the Huskie
Formed six years ago, Columbus’s Silo the Huskie sounds like an indie rock band from another era. The dynamic guitar work and high-pitched vocals compare to acts such as Camper van Beethoven, Hüsker Dü, and Dinosaur Jr. — bands that defined independent rock in the early and mid-’80s. After two self-released cassettes, the band released…
Tough Guy
The Tough Guy circles forebodingly in the grainy, homemade videotape. He suddenly lurches forward, throwing a wild series of punches before tumbling to the ice. The next moment, he is seen stripped of his jersey and shoulder pads, swapping mean, arching fists with a player from Rochester. In the next fight, he is clutching a…
Rose-Colored Glasses
It’s society’s fault: Thank you so much for your article on Joel Rose [“The Unusual Suspect,” October 5]. This whole story broke out while I was visiting my mother in Cleveland, and I was completely shocked! “Joel Rose shoots himself in the head?” . . . I couldn’t believe it. Although I left Cleveland in…
Paintbrush Poetry
Experts have tried to categorize Charles Burchfield’s art without much luck. Some classified the brilliant watercolorist as a 20th-century American scene realist who was a sort of rural Edward Hopper. Others pegged him as a quaint visionary in the Grant Wood mold. Still others found a deeply mystical strain in his vividly colored flora and…
A Reuben Special
Be forewarned: If you enter CSU’s Factory Theatre to see Alan Brandt’s 2-1/2 Jews, you may be struck by a flying “Hava Nagila.” This Jewish musical standard primes us for a night of strenuous Israeli folk dancing. Soon our expectations are dashed when, instead of lissome young dancers spinning like dreidels, there comes an exasperated,…
Grill of My Dreams
If their new Chagrin Falls restaurant is any indication, the members of Cleveland’s Hyde Park Group are about to do for seafood what they have already done for steak: provide comfortably upscale outlets for some of the best, most precisely prepared dinners around. The casually sophisticated Blake’s Seafood Grill, the group’s first expression of its…
Mann Handled
A couple of years ago, when Aimee Mann delivered a new album to Geffen Records, her record label at the time, its parent company was in the process of a merger that would ultimately unite two of the world’s biggest music distributors and cut its new collective roster practically in half. Mann had a brand…
Ghost Stories
As two-thirds of the critically hailed, commercially failed Galaxie 500 in the late ’80s, Damon Krukowski and Naomi Wang knew the frustration of having a unique and respected band and helplessly watching it dissipate. Reassembling briefly in 1991 as Pierre Etoile (sans Galaxie 500’s Dean Wareham, who went on to found Luna) before settling on…
Soundbites
Last month, Cleveland Poetics kicked off a monthly spoken-word series at the Beachland (15711 Waterloo Road) that’s attempting to resuscitate the local scene. Its inauguration wasn’t particularly auspicious, however. While one aspiring poet dangled a cigarette from his hand while reading a poem scribbled in a notebook and another made references to beat icon Jack…
UK Subs
Punk rock has, over the years, been adopted by countless bands with diverse sounds, all of whom have redefined the format to fit their own sensibilities. But, if punk were to be assessed stylistically, its defining moment would have to be that of England circa 1977. With the Sex Pistols in the lead, bands popped…
More Than S’Mores
Cooking in the great outdoors used to consist of a can of beans and a package of hot dogs, cooked over an open campfire and topped off with blackened marshmallows skewered by a crudely whittled fallen branch. But camping isn’t just for wieners anymore. The Cleveland Metroparks Institute of the Great Outdoors is offering The…
The Promise Ring
Rising from the ashes of a number of groups, particularly the widely regarded Cap’n Jazz, Milwaukee’s emo-pop sensation the Promise Ring has been on an amazing streak since its inception five years ago. With three albums, a handful of singles, a side project (Vermont), and a relentless road ethic (including this year’s opening gig for…
Haunted Big House
Chances are the inmates at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield weren’t offered the services of Mr. Fries or the elephant ears buggy. But despite the presence of such purveyors of fine fair foods in the jail’s driveway, the haunted prison tours of the site for the Halloween season are quite foreboding, thanks to the…
Mighty Mighty Bosstones
“I’m your fucked-up dance instructor. You’re here for your lesson. So dance.” Thus demands Mighty Mighty Bosstones frontman Dicky Barrett on “High School Dance,” the most convincingly rocking track on Pay Attention, the band’s latest full-length stab at ska-core perfection. It’s not a bad little album, actually; it’s loaded with pop hooks, guitar swoops, and…
American Ply
To put it mildly, it is uncomfortable and embarrassing to have one’s cynical ass whipped by a huge, hulking Hallmark card, and this is exactly the sensation one takes away from Mimi Leder’s Pay It Forward. Not that the near-total emotional submission isn’t preceded by a knock-down, drag-out battle for one’s vulgar pride; this story…
Mose Allison
A fine blues singer, Mose Allison (who’s white) comes from Tippo, Mississippi, so he doesn’t have to fake a Southern accent. He’s a consistently humorous and sometimes profound lyricist (e.g., “If you feel neglected by someone you love/Even get rejected when push comes down to shove/You think nobody gives a damn ’bout what you’re goin’…
