Back in the Saddle
Today, the American Gold Cup returns to its Northeast Ohio roots after a 36-year absence. Horse-show buffs credit a refurbished Cleveland Metroparks polo field for the homecoming. Last year, the field’s grassy surface was gutted and replaced with a mix of sand and shredded fabric. “It’s one of the softest footings for the horses,” says…
Some guys just can’t get enough of Derf’s White Middle Class Suburban Man.
Whoever you are, you’re as dumb as your cartoon is in Scene magazine. Your web page probably reflects the inside of your brain and I don’t mean the gray matter. I am an inner city suburban white male and I’m tired of diversity pandering to minorities and dead beats like you. If you had to…
Cibelle
Inside Cibelle’s spacecraft, the Brazilian diva’s glitchy electronic-diary log is looping through 14 personal poems, titled The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves, played to a sweet and strange samba electronica somewhere between Bebel Gilberto and Björk. Bouncing off the ship’s hulls, these beautiful songs echo like a futuristic time capsule of “travel poems,” sung in…
Longest Yawn
“The Rock” — formerly known as “Flex Kavana” and, a bit later, as “Rocky Maivia” — was a working actor long before he turned to movies and started taking down $12 million paychecks. The happily deluded throngs who used to watch him lay signature moves like the People’s Elbow or the ominously named Charging Double-Leg…
Word Play
It’s called Artistry of Words, but the Lee Road Library celebration features more than just books, authors, and poets. The two-day fest (which started yesterday) also includes live music, workshops, and sidewalk art activities. Plus, a pair of experts will show you how to preserve family documents, while a local artist reveals how to make…
Leaving So Soon?
The way Rachel Zinn sees it, this weekend’s Full Circle Festival might help plug Cleveland’s brain drain. If she steers college students to local cultural attractions, she figures, they’ll want to stay here after graduation. “Students ask why I get paid to put on parties,” says Zinn, coordinator of College 360º, which tracks local college…
The Foreigner Sellout
I am writing to counter points made by Ken Blackwell, Mitch Daniels, and Bob Taft. They all make it seem to be such a great idea to sell a state asset to a foreign firm to make money. They seem to forget that hardworking Americans work on the toll road, not foreigners. These people all…
Celtic Frost
Celtic Frost is one of the few ’80s thrash giants that hasn’t been co-opted by the forces of hipster irony. The Swiss hellions released an inexplicable (and excellent) hair-metal album in 1988’s Cold Lake, but that’s not what you want from the death/doom/black-metal pioneers. (Kurt Cobain was a big fan of the disc, and Bleach…
Guarded State
Those twentysomethings, poor dears, can never catch a break in the movies. First this maligned generation is told, in countless gritty indies and perky studio comedies, that they’re rowing through life without oars. Now, with The Last Kiss, director Tony Goldwyn’s admirably understated handling of dispiritingly slender material suggests that if you’re pushing 30, you’re…
Along Came a Spider
For 20 years, the Barking Spider has been a great place to check up-and-coming local acts, a legacy that will be celebrated today at the Barking Spider’s 20th-Anniversary Party. Owners Martin Juredine and Bruce Madorsky opened the bar in 1986 and quickly earned props for booking live music acts every single night of the week.…
It’s All Relative
Stand up comedian Bil Benden finds much of his material in his family life. So, don’t expect “a lot of dark, edgy shit,” he says. “I can’t go, ‘Hey, I’m a dad, and here’s my kid. And by the way, here’s a child-molesting joke.'” Benden also finds inspiration in TV biographies. He recently watched one…
Turn This Mutha Out
George Clinton’s influence on American music is inescapable. From the theatrical, booty-bumping live shows to the witty music and adventurous language to his colorful hair and iconic presence, George Clinton is a musical Hall of Famer. “P-Funk is like the DNA for hip-hop,” Clinton says, and it’s no empty boast. But Clinton’s reach extends beyond…
Starberry Sausage Party
Here’s the kind of sausage party you want to attend. Long-absent pop-rock duo Starberry returns for its second annual Sausage Party, a display of Pat Casa’s multidisciplinary expertise as a drummer and purveyor of hot links. Casa’s other family business, Holiday Italian Sausage, brings the beef (and pork) for the Man (or Woman) Vs. Meat…
Prenuptial Aggrievement
Farce is an ideal clearing ground for hostility. Like mystery, it’s a genre that typically passes through disruption en route to the restoration of order, albeit with greater likelihood of an airborne pie. It makes sense, then, that every irresolvable conflict will eventually get the version of Meet the Parents it deserves — one that…
Chalk This Way
The Cleveland Museum of Art’s annual Chalk Festival always brings out the sidewalk Picassos. For 17 years, folks have decorated the concrete paths surrounding Wade Lagoon with sketches of rainbow-drenched sunsets and other colorful subjects. In addition to the budding artists making their mark, look for a group of professional chalkers who’ll undoubtedly sketch something…
It’s All Relative
Stand up comedian Bil Benden finds much of his material in his family life. So, don’t expect “a lot of dark, edgy shit,” he says. “I can’t go, ‘Hey, I’m a dad, and here’s my kid. And by the way, here’s a child-molesting joke.'” Benden also finds inspiration in TV biographies. He recently watched one…
Extended Holiday
Has it really been more than 20 years since Madonna writhed on that gondola in those crimped, dishwater-blond curls and that stretchy Lycra? “Like a Virgin” made her a star. Whether you liked her was beside the point — you had to give her props for her unblinking “blond ambition.” Through shameless self-promotion and constant…
The Roots
No band has been more successful than the Roots at leveraging commercial endeavors to buy artistic freedom. As hip-hop’s best live act, the Philadelphia collective has backed a host of mainstream stars; those gigs have given the band the cachet to cash in on its own adventurous recordings. None has traveled further afield than Game…
Schmuck in the Muck
An act, more than anything, of homage to David Mamet, theatrical provocateur of the ’70s and ’80s (as opposed to Mamet, screenplay doodler of the ’90s and ’00s), the film version of Edmond, his 1983 one-act play, is a pleasant actor’s spectacle. You never have to get involved; as with so much of Mamet’s stagecraft,…
One Hip Hop
With more art galleries popping up in the Galleria these days, this weekend’s Sparx Gallery Hop has added the downtown shopping complex to its fourth annual tour of local art spots. In total, 80 different art venues are included on the Lolly the Trolley-guided Hop. Jazz bands, dance troupes, and jugglers perform on the sidewalk…
Double Looped
Break out the beer steins — it’s time for the 26th annual Oktoberfest at Geauga Lake. In addition to authentic German eats and music, a new village and “festhaus” feature glass-blowers and bead-makers. But we go for the Beer School, where participants sample various brews. Down several mugs and ride the Thunderhawk roller coaster —…
Forty and Going Strong
So what is garage rock, anyway? “Everyone has their own definition of what ‘garage rock’ means,” says Dan Elektro, drummer for the soulful southern stomp quartet the Woggles, by phone from San Francisco. “My definition is a pup tent, and some describe it as a circus tent. What’s the difference between ‘rock’ and ‘rock and…
Around the Corner 32nd Anniversary Party
Start the weekend early at Around the Corner’s 32nd Anniversary Party, a gathering of longtime (and future) regulars, where you can gorge yourself on the cheap with generous food-and-beverage specials. Ace cover trio Rock Shop will be playing hard-hitting renditions of favorites by bands from Sublime to the Buggles. Trust us — “Because the Night”…
Law & Disorder
Anyone who’s been in a real courtroom — as opposed to the prettied-up ones on TV — knows how intellectually squalid these supposedly hallowed venues are. While lawyers wrap slivers of truth around mounds of bullshit, the judge dutifully disallows relevant evidence for all manner of arcane reasons. And naturally, out of this chaos, justice…
Putting Around
At the Northern Ohio Putting Championship, the golfer with the best shot will walk off the course with a $25,000 check. At several qualifying rounds this summer, participants had to sink two consecutive eight-foot putts. Nearly 50 golfers made the cut, and in today’s elimination round, they’ll try to knock down two 10-foot putts in…
In the Mix
After a year spent exhibiting the work of other local artists, Pop Shop Gallery owner Richard Cihlar is unveiling a series of his own mixed-media pieces in All Mixed Up. The dozens of works include relief collages and abstract paintings that blend pop iconography and traditional images. The results are almost as disorienting as they…
Band of the Month
Houseguest’s pop shuffles and sashays with off-kilter grace, like a defiant drunk finding his way home. Guitars shamble and rumble with repressed power, rising in hooky swells that call to mind Guided by Voices, Beat Happening, and the Feelies. Next week the band will release High Strangeness, its debut LP, on Audio Eagle, the label…
Bonnie Prince Billy
There are memorable collaborations throughout Will Oldham’s musically promiscuous career, including recent ones with Tortoise, Matt Sweeney, and Jason Molina. The latest to bear fruit is with Drag City labelmate Dawn McCarthy of Faun Fables, whose contributions to The Letting Go are understated by such adjectives as “integral” or “essential.” McCarthy’s voice is capable of…
Capsule reviews of current area theater presentations.
Let Freedom Ring! — Bill Rudman and Eric Coble have fashioned a revue from the many musicals with an active social (i.e. liberal) consciousness. The 40 or so songs raise issues from class warfare to exploited workers, from the futility of war to the banality of suburbia. But as inspired as the concept is, the…
Go for the Food, Stay for the Art
This weekend’s Tremont Arts and Cultural Festival celebrates food from around the world. Churches and cultural organizations will serve up ethnic dishes from Italy, Mexico, and Vietnam. “It’s a pretty good cross section,” says organizer Scott Rosenstein. Local artists get plenty of space at the annual fest as well. More than 60 booths feature paintings,…
Demolition Crew
Powerman 5000’s goth-metal assault takes a tuneful turn on its fifth album, Destroy What You Enjoy. With a Billy Idol-like sneer from frontman Spider (Rob Zombie’s little bro) gracing the cover and songs like “All My Friends Are Ghosts,” Destroy is the band’s most brazenly pop work. The glam stomp is notched up a bit,…
Live Wire
Upstaging the band you support isn’t easy, but it comes naturally for Cleveland quintet Living Stereo. Taking to the stage with a brief instrumental that sounds like one of the Who’s outtakes, the band does everything short of swinging from the rafters to get the audience’s attention. Bubbling with a generous dose of volatile energy…
Loren Connors
Bluesman is such a loaded term, it hardly needs explaining; its traditionally rigid definition invokes the vivid American caricature of a black man, guitar in hand, bellowing into endless night. If one musician has truly exploded the parameters of the blues, it is Loren MazzaCane Connors. In fact, his version of the blues compacts the…
Capsule reviews of current area art exhibitions.
NEW Alexander Reyna — At first blush, these seven large paintings by New Yorker Alexander Reyna evoke the spirit of the ’60s, that distinctive blend of giddy oblivion and free-love depravity fueled by political dissatisfaction and fear of nuclear war. In fact, they’re significantly more complex — powerful illustrations of how closely that older era…
Bases Loaded
Howard Stern Show regular Artie Lange summarizes Artie Lange’s Beer League as “what would happen if the Bad New Bears grew up and became insane alcoholics and joined a softball league.” The movie, which opens today, follows the exploits of a ragtag team of players who are more interested in tapping kegs than fielding grounders.…
Teaching Mr. Dreyer
Mark Dreyer’s name hangs like a specter over Robert Jamison School. The long, low-slung brick building at E. 149th and Harvard teems with more than 750 returning K-8 students. They might as well be shipping off to Kabul. “I always tell everyone it’s like walking into a war zone,” says one teacher, who requested anonymity…
Desert Isle Discs
Brian Marsh, guitarist for Broke by Monday, picks his five essentials. 1. Tommy Fox, Reggae CD It’s a burn CD that WCSB DJ-musician Tommy Fox made of what a reggae band should ultimately cover. This thing has been played at least once a week for the last year. 2. Part One Tribe, Live 2005 Friends…
Dead Moon
A textbook example of “They’re big in Europe,” Dead Moon ranks for us Yanks as the quintessential cult band. Leader Fred Cole started his musical hitchhike in the ’60s (his fourth band, Lollipop Shoppe, appears on the first Nuggets boxed set). After masterminding some heavy gutter-psych combos and even taking a stab at punk (the…
Turning Tricks
I Am a Sex Addict (IFC) Caveh Zahedi has made a movie of our times — a strange mix of self-absorption, shamelessness in the pursuit of fame, and sex. Most shocking of all is that it works. Part fiction and documentary, confessional and comedy, the film traces the history of Zahedi’s addiction to sex with…
A Fine Bess
There’s a good reason why Porgy and Bess isn’t staged as often as other 20th-century theater classics. “It’s such a gargantuan effort,” says Scott Spense, who directs the Beck Center’s production of the George Gershwin musical, which opens tonight. The musical’s setting is in a black fishing village, where the notorious Bess hooks up with…
Bitter Chocolate
On a recent Saturday night in Sandusky, the reigning Miss Cleveland International sashayed across the stage of Club Ex wearing a short, sparkly silver dress that could have come straight from Vanna White’s closet. “Good evening,” the heavily mascaraed drag queen purred to the audience. “I’m the often imitated, never-duplicated Hershae Chocolatae.” Although the name…
‘Rama Time
New York indie-rock sensation Matt Pond PA will headline WRUW-FM 91.1’s 25th annual Studio-A-Rama, one of Cleveland’s signature concerts. Ranging from underrated alt-rocker C.D. Truth to the retro-metal outfit Lick the Blade, seven popular local bands will play the free show. “The Matt Pond PA bio says, ‘Matt Pond PA are, and shall remain, pleasantly…
Saint Andrew
Former Knifedance-Stepsister guitarist Saint Andrew went all Dylan on his solo debut, but stayed punk by keeping it as lo-fi as possible. The rattling platter of blues harp and acoustic guitar was a little hard to take, so he paid extra attention to sound quality on its follow-up, Live. Recorded at Wilbert’s in April, the…
Our top DVD picks for the week of September 12:
Ballets Russes (Zeitgeist) The Batman: The Complete Second Season (Warner Bros.) Beavis and Butt-head Do America: Special Collector’s Edition (Paramount) Bottoms Up (Sony) Disney Princess Stories, Volume 1: A Gift From the Heart (Disney) The Girls (New Yorker) Goal! The Dream Begins (Disney) Grey’s Anatomy: Season 2 Uncut (Buena Vista) Headspace (Freestyle) Las Vegas: Season…
The Mourning After
Be sure to pack some Kleenex before heading out to the opening of David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole at the Cleveland Play House tonight. “When I saw it in New York, there was not a dry eye in the house,” says director Michael Bloom. “People were moved.” The two-act, 10-tissue play is about a family coping…
Invisible Lawyer
Martiese Head was desperate. The 36-year-old mother of four had just come out of bankruptcy, but she was about to lose her East Side home. She considered it gone — until the letter arrived from Foreclosure Solutions. “KEEP YOUR HOME!” it announced, offering a “FREE” consultation with a “REAL” person. A Foreclosure Solutions representative was…
D Is for Destiny
Kyle Gass is a triple threat: actor-musician-stoner. When he’s not playing as one half of Tenacious D — the self-proclaimed greatest band on earth — Gass moonlights as lead guitar in his side project, Trainwreck. It’s almost surprising that he finds the time, what with Tenacious D’s ongoing quest for world domination. He and Jack…
Dr. Teeeth
The extra E in “Dr. Teeeth” stands for “effort.” The Cleveland trio doesn’t hit a single note gently on its debut album, playing swinging alt-rock that would have sounded good in 1956 or 1983. Without extra studio trickeration, bassist James Burge Jr., drummer David Horton, and guitarist Russell Boyer III hit old-fashioned three-part harmonies in…
Monkey Trials
What could be more fun than monkeys trapped in plastic hamster balls? That’s the strange philosophy of Super Monkey Ball, a puzzle series that debuted in 2001. Much as with Marble Madness, the goal here is to cross the finish line without falling off a floating platform. Except that this game has monkeys, and they…
Play One for the Gipper
Despite their name, the Reaganomics aren’t right-wing rockers. “We’re far from anything like [that],” says singer and bassist Sully. The only thing the band has in common with the dead prez and his politics is the decade. The Columbus quintet plays cover songs from the ’80s, including songs by the J. Geils Band, R.E.M., and…
Fun With Sex Laws
Last month, Ohio became the first state to make that whole innocent-till-proven-guilty thing optional in its crackdown against perverts. The new measure is modeled after Megan’s Law, which requires convicted sex offenders to register their addresses so neighbors know about the sick bastard down the street. But this being the Ohio Legislature (motto: Where no…
The French Kicks
In the pathologically trend-obsessed milieu of indie rock, the desire to separate your band from whatever sound or scene invigorated you in the first place is the community’s brand of hubris. It hangs over everything the French Kicks do. It’s not exactly their fault. They had the misfortune to have Strokes-like sway when A&R weasels…
When the Light Is Mine . . .
This DVD of R.E.M.’s ’82-’87 tenure at I.R.S. Records is an archival trove that — due to its “odds and sods” nature — is probably best suited to dedicated fans. There’s plenty to pore over, from the previously unreleased video to “Wolves, Lower,” which appears to have had a $5 budget, to Left of Reckoning,…
Here are the week’s best releases from the pop-culture universe:
CD — Pogues reissues: All five studio albums by Ireland’s greatest export since Van Morrison get the deluxe treatment with these expanded reissues. Loads of bonus tracks will delight old fans, but it’s the classic albums — like 1985’s Celtic-punk masterpiece Rum, Sodomy & the Lash — that shine. And they’re not just for St.…
Grandma Flambe
Stand-up comic Greg Giraldo thinks Americans should take a cue from Europeans when it comes to caring for the elderly. “We need to treat our old people the way they do,” jokes the former host of Comedy Central’s Stand-up Nation. “Like leaving them alone to die in the heat, while we go on vacation. Old…
After the Massacre
The Beacon Journal deserves its fate: Denise Grollmus reports that the Akron Beacon Journal is going down the shitter [“Beacon Massacre,” August 30], to which I say: “So what?” The ABJ has only itself to blame for its shrinking revenue and circulation, by never caring that it has alienated many potential readers and advertisers by…
Strike Anywhere
Since its 1999 formation, Strike Anywhere has fought the good fight, hardcore style. The impassioned quartet from Richmond, Virginia, has never strayed from a steadfast DIY aesthetic and socially aware sing-along messages. The live shows spew a furious chunky sound as singer Thomas Barnett bangs his head and twirls his dreads like a helicopter rotor.…
The Velvematics
Always up for a good time, this Akron quartet rocks like a latter-day Cheap Trick. Their rugged, hook-heavy riffs mine the rumble of garage (on the Jet-biting “Be My Girl”), raid the rock-and-roll storehouse of Chuck Berry rave-ups (“Take a Chance”), and plug in the power-pop jangle (“She’s the One”). Singer-guitarist Jonnie Vincenzo’s sneering delivery…
Spock Speaks
The second-annual Akron Reading Festival opens today with Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, addressing bookworms and nerds alike. Over the next three days, the festival will feature workshops, lectures, and puppet shows at various venues. Writers like Jason Fagone, Tom Oliphant, and Connie Schultz will be on hand to share the joy of reading with…
They Suck More Than Me
Debate proves unenlightening Date: September 7, 2006 Topic: After Sam watches the Blackwell-Strickland debate, he comes to the bold conclusion that in the scripted world of modern politics, no one says anything interesting. Coming from Fulwood, that’s like Idi Amin calling Pol Pot a butcher. Originality: 0/10. Reporters have been complaining about dull quotes from…
Hatebreed
Connecticut’s Hatebreed comes out of that whole late-’80s/early ’90s Youth Crew, “We’re all about unity and positivity, and we’ll kick the ass of anyone who says different” mind-set fostered by the New York and Boston hardcore scenes. It has managed to bash out four albums of monochromatic metalcore — the latest being the brand-new Supremacy…
Teeth of the Hydra
Teeth of the Hydra do the Celtic Frost thing about as well as Celtic Frost — sometimes better, in epic eruptions of black sludge, thundering doom, and drums shrouded in darkness. The band’s long-awaited full-length debut doesn’t quite deliver on the unstable promise of a previous round of demos and recordings; while Greenland deserves your…
Delizioso!
Today’s Taste of Little Italy features food from more than 40 restaurants, including La Dolce Vita and Mama Santa. You can sip more than 200 different Italian wines as live music plays onstage — the Cleveland Opera even stops by for a performance. Plus, you can bid in live and silent auctions for restaurant gift…
Boy Scouts 1, Buckeyes 0
Before Ohio State put a whupping on Texas in its season opener, the Buckeyes tuned up by pounding the Boy Scouts in a preseason warm-up. For years, OSU welcomed boys from across the state to serve as volunteer ushers at home games. Each was rewarded with a ticket for that day — though they happily…
Rhys Chatham
If you’re at all hip to New York City’s no-wave legacy of the ’70s and ’80s (or, at the very least, have read Please Kill Me), chances are good that the name Rhys Chatham rings a bell or two. Chances are also good that you’re not entirely sure why, but let’s be serious: That’s nothing…
Power Thai
Last time we occupied a table in this tiny Tremont space, back when it was known as the Flying Pig Barbecue Company, we felt like the loneliest diners in town. On two winter visits, we had the folksy, kitsch-filled joint to ourselves as we chowed in almost utter silence. But on this summery Saturday evening,…
Splatter Cinema
Part Deliverance, part David Lynch mindfuck, the Belgian thriller Calvaire (The Ordeal) puts every late-night traveler’s nightmare onscreen. After his van breaks down in the sticks, lounge singer Marc Stevens is forced to spend the night at a rundown inn. Soon he discovers that his host lost his mind. And, as it turns out, the…
Tax-and-Spend Tom
Uncle Tom Blackwell has been trying to smear Ted Strickland as a tax-and-spend liberal, but when it comes to blowing money, the Secretary of State has few peers. During his tenure, Blackwell has raised spending in his office by 80 percent. Now he’s helped blow $1 million in Lake County. Back in 1999, the county…
Yellowcard
Yellowcard distinguishes itself from the caffeinated beats and sugary hooks of its punk-pop contemporaries, thanks to the contributions of Sean Mackin, whose violin adds depth and ballast. While the songs hurtle forward with a predictable slashing guitar, an insistent pulse, and the soaring heartfelt croon of singer-guitarist Ryan Key, it’s Mackin who really gives the…
Fried D’oh!
Crisp and golden outside, pillowy soft within, a properly made beignet is a taste of deep-fried heaven. But short of a trip to Paris or New Orleans, these puffy little wonders — served fresh and warm, beneath a drift of powdered sugar — have been as hard to find here as truffles on a treelawn.…
The Spill of Victory
Scoundrels bartender Marcy Burns offers a tip to tonight’s Beer Pong contestants: Don’t throw the ball directly at the cup. “You’ve got to have an arc on it,” she says. “Otherwise, it’s gonna bounce off.” The club hosts tournaments every Monday; two-player teams that make it through preliminaries will play at the December 4 finals.…
Up in Arms Again
Can the franchise on Superior handle another brown-bag meeting? A week after we published our story on The Plain Dealer [“Wounded Giant,” August 23], in which we attempted to sympathize with beleaguered Editor Doug Clifton, Punch received an anonymous letter from “a veteran reporter.” Somebody’s pissed. “Management is running the paper into the ground,” writes…
Sound Tribe Sector 9
If funkmaster Isaac Hayes ever decided to join post-rocker Tortoise, they might sound a lot like the psychedelic dub of STS9. Mixing metaphysical interests like Maya mysticism with jazz aesthetics and electronica, the Georgia five-piece is identified with a spacey jam-band rock that’s original, danceable, and completely captivating. Cosmic guitars, crackling laptop effects, robotic drums,…
Ghost World
A film noir directed by Brian De Palma from the novel by James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia is a cop story that unfolds in late-’40s Los Angeles, somewhere between the neighborhoods of Chinatown and Mulholland Drive. The premise involves one of L.A.’s most notorious unsolved homicides. In early 1947, the naked corpse of a 22-year-old…
