Temporary Overflow Shelter Reveals a Growing Homelessness Problem in Cuyahoga County
Last night, 10 women and 21 children slept on the floor of the gym at The City Mission, a charity organization that runs a men’s shelter located at East 55th and Carnegie. Mattresses and cots were pulled up against the wall, and the families huddled under blankets for a another nightly respite from the ongoing…
Cleveland Law Group Creates Defense of ‘James Franco and Me’ Playwright, Who Received Cease/Desist from Franco, With Original Play
Kevin Broccoli’s satirical comedy “James Franco and Me” was to be staged by the Peoples Improv Theater in New York in August. The two-man play written by the playwright and actor features Broccoli as himself in a waiting area outside his dying father’s hospital room. He’s visited by James Franco — well, someone playing James…
Ohio Bill Would Target Harassment, Vandalism Outside of Abortion Clinics
[image-1]Harassment and violence against abortion clinics is on the rise, and some Democratic lawmakers are arguing that Ohio’s facilities are not adequately protected. It’s never an easy task to pass civil rights legislation in this state, but a proposed bill “would make it a crime to impede access to a reproductive health care facility and…
New Book Reveals the Mysteries of Cleveland’s Franklin Castle
It stands looming above an Ohio City intersection where the eyes of its stone children have watched over the neighborhood from the front door frame through prosperity and poverty. It has inspired countless ghost stories evolving into urban legends through the years. Simultaneously impressive and intimidating, our city’s own castle holds the majesty and mystique…
5 Concerts to Catch in Cleveland This Weekend
FRIDAY, SEPT. 29 Rise Against/Pierce the Veil/White Lung On Wolves, the latest effort from the veteran hardcore band Rise Against, tunes such as the title track and “Welcome to the Breakdown” make allusions to presidential election and the band’s outrage at the results. With its beefy guitar riffs and bellowing vocals, the album’s title track recalls…
‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ Fails to Soar at Beck Center
This play takes place in a psychiatric ward, a fact that some young people may find confusing. In the 55 years since this play first appeared, the United States began closing down such hospitals, preferring to see potential mental patients enter the field of politics. How’s that working out for us? Ken Kesey’s novel was…
Someone Stole Trevor Bauer’s Drone
#SaveMyPinky isn’t the hashtag we thought we’d be talking about today but here we are. Trevor Bauer’s drone, affectionately named Iron Man, it seems, was stolen from Clague Park. This has upset the Indians’ pitcher, whose passion for drones is widely noted. In addition to pleading for Iron Man’s safe return and any and all…
Great Lakes Brewing’s Christmas Ale is on Tap in One Month
For the 25th time, Great Lakes Brewing Co. will once again release its popular seasonal Christmas Ale. The tapping party goes down Thursday, Oct. 26 (yes, days before Halloween even hits) during the annual First Pour Christmas Ale event at the brewery’s Ohio City headquarters. Expect plates of Brewnuts, a DJ, people in Santa costumes…
Destination Cleveland to Promote Cleveland’s Craft Beer Scene at This Year’s Great American Beer Festival
Northeast Ohio’s craft brewing scene, which dates back to the founding of Great Lakes Brewing Co. in the mid-1980s, has thrived to the point that it now includes nearly 50 brewers. Some 19 breweries have opened in the region since January 2016. The folks at Destination Cleveland have just announced that they’ll spread the good…
Say Goodbye to Cleveland’s Old Payphones
Cleveland City Council passed an ordinance Monday night that could dramatically alter the city’s physical landscape. Maybe not dramatically, but certainly symbolically! The legislation provides a funding mechanism for the demolition of payphones across the city. Ord No. 1074-17, which you can read in full below, authorizes the city’s director of finance, Sharon Dumas, to…
After Sunday’s Protests Geauga County Sheriff Prohibits Employees From Working Off Duty At Browns Games
In a letter addressed to his employees and posted to Facebook yesterday Geauga County Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand announced he will now prohibit staff from working off-duty during Browns games. This comes after Hildenbrand attended Sunday’s game in Indianapolis where 21 Browns players took a knee during the National Anthem to protest social injustice and after…
Delly Got Married this Summer and the Wedding Hashtag was #thedelLOVEdovas
It’s NBA media day, which is the perfect time to check in with former beloved Cavs players. Matthew Dellavedova, for instance. Delly got married this summer, to his longtime girlfriend Anna, in Milwaukee. Former Cavs guard Joe Harris was in the wedding party. So was the Boston Celtics’ Aron Baynes, who competes alongside Delly on…
LeBron on Trump: ‘The People Run This Country, Not One Individual, and Damn Sure Not Him’
At Cleveland Cavs media day this afternoon LeBron James wanted to clarify his comments over the weekend regarding President Donald Trump, which had come in the form of a tweet and a video about the President’s attacks on athletes such as Colin Kaepernick and Steph Curry. Here’s what LeBron had to say: “I salute the…
With New Research Center, Cleveland-Marshall Will Be Nation’s Hottest Destination for Space Lawyers
[image-1]Cleveland State University has announced that the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law is creating a Global Space Law Center. It will be the first law school research center of its kind in the U.S., that is, one dedicated exclusively to the study of the law of outer space. “The Center will seek to train the next…
First Look: LBM in Lakewood, on Pace to Open in Early October
A year ago last week, the close-knit crew behind LBM got the keys to the future home of their Lakewood cocktail bar. They would spend the next 12 months clocking in 12-hour days to turn the blank canvas into a “Viking drinking hall” inspired by visits to Scofflaw bar in Chicago. “When I went three…
Beachland to Host Benefit for Cleveland Navy Reserves Veteran
For the past three years, Navy Reserves veteran Shay Kelleher has been unable to walk, drive or work due to a condition known as Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy, an autoimmune, neurological disorder similar to MS. Local musicians have rallied to her assistance and the Beachland Ballroom will host a special benefit from 10:30 a.m. to…
Cleveland Graham-Cassidy Opponents Deliver Waffles to Senator Rob Portman
Activists from a number of local groups demonstrated outside Cleveland’s Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building Monday afternoon, wielding signs and waffle products to criticize Ohio Senator Rob Portman. Frozen waffles, waffle chips, waffle cones. The concept demonstration was a brainchild of Organizing for Action’s local chapter, in response to a recent Plain Dealer editorial that…
Amid Hurricane Devastation, Donations Will Be Shipped from Lorain to Puerto Rico This Week
With the island’s electrical grid completely destroyed and its crops almost totally decimated, Puerto Rico is absolutely reeling from last week’s landfall of Hurricane Maria. “There will be no food in Puerto Rico,” plantain farmer Jose Rivera told the New York Times. “There is no more agriculture in Puerto Rico. And there won’t be any for…
Health Advisory in Place for Toledo’s Maumee River as Algae Bloom Problem Grows Worse
The city of Toledo and residents along the Maumee River are four days into a public health advisory prompted by the worsening algae blooms growing out of Lake Erie’s western basin. Photos and reports from Toledo are echoing the state of affairs in 2014 that led to a three-day ban on water use. WTOL meteorologist…
Cleveland Orchestra’s ‘Vixen’ Revival is a Second Chance to See a Remarkable Production
One distinguishing trait of great art is its sense of inevitability. After seeing the Cleveland Orchestra’s encore production of Leos Janáček’s “The Cunning Little Vixen,” it’s hard to imagine the opera being staged any other way. Janáček’s folksy, modal score uses extensive orchestral interludes between scenes. For opera, a medium as theatrical as it is…
New KMFDM Album Takes Aim at the ‘Total State Machine’
When band leader Sascha Konietzko launched the industrial rock outfit KMFDM (originally Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid, which loosely translates as “no pity for the majority”) in Hamburg in 1984, the music scene there was “bland-ish,” as he puts it. “The intention was to do something that was more fun than what was around,” he…
Jimmy and Dee Haslam Issue Statement Calling Trump’s Comments Divisive, Expressing Support of Players
The owners of Cleveland Browns this morning joined a host of other teams around the league in issuing a statement on Donald Trump’s recent and repeated comments calling for players who have protested social injustice and police violence, who he referred to as “sons of bitches,” to be fired. Attributed to Dee and Jimmy Haslam,…
LeBron James Calls Donald Trump a Bum, Defends Steph Curry’s Decision to Skip Possible White House Celebration
In what even for Donald Trump could be considered a whirlwind 24 hour news cycle, the President followed up his attacks last night at a campaign rally on NFL players who have engaged in protests (calling for owners to fire them, naturally) with a verbal attack, via Twitter of course, on Steph Curry this morning.…
Pixies Bassist Talks About the Challenges of Operating Without a Setlist
When bassist Paz Lenchantin joined the Pixies a couple of years ago and took the place of Kim Shattuck, the replacement for original bassist Kim Deal, she had make a few adjustments. Most bands rely on set lists when they play live. Not the Pixies. Rather, singer Black Francis will shout out the names of…
Cleveland’s Puerto Rican Community Gathering Items for Victims of Hurricane Maria
Via News Channel 5, the Cleveland Puerto Rican community is gathering and soliciting items to send to the U.S. island territory ravaged by Hurricane Maria. The Clark-Fulton neighborhood is Cleveland’s Little Puerto Rico. It is one of the nation’s most densely populated Puerto Rican neighborhoods. There, at the San Lorenzo Club — 3415 Clark Ave.…
CDC: Ohio Water Park Employees Got Sick Because Patrons Peed in the Pool
If you’re not reading the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report — and boy, are you missing out on some joyful reading if you’re not — you probably missed the organization’s dispatch on a urine-plagued indoor waterpark in Ohio. (They don’t name the park or the city it’s in, so feel free to hazard a…
Blue Arrow Records to Host Release Party for ‘Dead Boys 1977: The Lost Photographs of Dave Treat’
The Dead Boys emerged from Cleveland in the late 1970s and would go on to achieve national (and even international) acclaim before quickly imploding. Photographer Dave Treat captured the band during that time period. Dead Boys 1977: The Lost Photographs of Dave Treat, a new book edited and designed by locally based writer and graphic designer…
RTA’s New MetroHealth Line (Route 51) Will Get Branded Buses
The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) announced yesterday that the new MetroHealth-branded Route 51 bus lines will get 20 new, specially designed vehicles fully branded with the MetroHealth logo. Additionally, more than 400 bus stop signs and 37 shelters will display the MetroHealth logo. Routes 51-A, 51-B and 51-C connect the MetroHealth medical campus…
Nexus Pipeline Receives State Water-Quality Certificate in Incremental March Toward Construction
[image-1]Inching along the piecemeal approval process, the Nexus pipeline won an Ohio EPA water quality certificate this week. It’s not a huge surprise to observers, but it’s another step closer to pipeline reality after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission greenlit the project last month. The certification process assesses how the pipeline construction and operation will…
‘Family Feud’ Auditions Come to Northeast Ohio
Your Northeast Ohio family could soon be the next contestants on the Steve Harvey-helmed Family Feud. That’s right, Family Feud auditions are coming to Kalahari Resort in Huron Township this October, the Sandusky Register has confirmed. But, naturally, there are some stipulations. -First, your family can’t just show up Oct. 28 and 29 and expect to…
The Babys Have Built a Solid Following Since Reforming Five Years Ago
Drummer Tony Brock has seen some wild times across the many decades that he’s been making music. His 12-year stint behind the kit playing drums for Rod Stewart in the ‘80s and early ‘90s left him with plenty of stories. “There’s nothing to top some of those shows,” he says during a recent phone conversation…
New Ohio House Bill Would Ban Sexting For Those Under 21
A new Ohio House bill prohibits anyone under 21 from sexting. Or, as the bill puts it: purposely creating, distributing, posting or possessing “through a telecommunications device any sexually explicit digital material.” While there are already laws on the books banning the sending or possession of explicit materials involving children, this new bill aims to…
Video: ‘Don’t Stop Believeland’ is the Awful, Maybe Wonderful, Song Tribe Fans Need Right Now
Without further adieu or any real introduction, here’s “Don’t Stop Believeland,” a Tribe fan song to the tune of “Don’t Stop Believing,” celebrating the team’s 22-game win streak and the imminent arrival of playoff baseball at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario. It… it is certainly something.
Roger Waters Delivers Anti-Trump Message During Epic Concert at the Q
Given the anti-authoritarian themes that circulate through Pink Floyd’s music and founder Roger Waters’ solo albums, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Waters doesn’t support President Trump. At last night’s epic three-hour show before a near-capacity crowd at the Q, he directed some of his ire at the country’s arrogant leader during a visually…
‘Simply Simone’ at Karamu Misses the Magic and Essence of Nina Simone
Nina Simone was an awesome talent and an even more compelling personality. She became “The High Priestess of Soul” almost against her will, since she grew up as a piano prodigy and really only wanted to become the world’s first black classical concert pianist. And along the way, back in the 1960s, she became a…
Champagne and Browns Pain — The A to Z Podcast With Andre Knott and Zac Jackson
Andre and Zac talk DeShone Kizer, Kevin Durant and the Indians celebrating the AL Central Division title.
‘The World Needs Us to Step Up,’ LeBron James Tells Bloomberg Global Business Forum
“I was asked to start this meeting to set a tone to talk about leadership, but I don’t think anyone needs me to set a tone,” LeBron James said in the Bloomberg Global Business Forum’s opening video yesterday. The forum brought together global heads of state and successful business people like Bill Clinton, Emmanuel Macron,…
Veteran Hardcore Act Rise Against Takes Trump to Task on Its New Album
The Chicago-based melodic hardcore band Rise Against was in the midst of writing songs for its new album when Donald Trump became president. Shocked, the band retooled its songs to reflect that polarizing shift in the White House. As a result, the songs on its latest effort, Wolves, have even more of a sense of…
Cleveland’s Dirt Bike Park Won’t Be Built at Marion Motley Park After All
Mark Naymik probably wasn’t the only person wondering why Frank Jackson hadn’t been talking about his pet-project, a $2.4-million dirt bike park, during the mayoral campaign recently, and thankfully for the rest of us he did hounded Jackson until he got a response. Earlier this week Naymik chronicled the frustrating but common experience of reporters…
House of Blues Announces Details for Annual Carnival of Horrors
For the third year in a row, House of Blues will present its annual Carnival of Horrors. This year’s Halloween-themed event will feature a costume contest with a $1000 cash prize. It takes place at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28. There will also be a carnival sideshow, and DJ Flaco Flash, DJ SB and…
5 Concerts to Catch in Cleveland This Weekend
FRIDAY, SEPT. 22 Brad Paisley/Dustin Lynch/Chase Bryant/Lindsay Ell Veteran country singer Brad Paisley has won numerous awards over the course of a career that stretches back to 1999, when he had his first No. 1 single, “He Didn’t Have To Be.” All told, he’s had 23 No. 1 songs to date. Love and War, his…
Hurricane Harvey Dogs Up for Adoption in Parma
When Hurricane Harvey ravaged the Houston area last month, many Texans were separated from their pets. Local animal shelters — many already at capacity — didn’t have enough room for the creatures left behind. Now many shelters around the country are easing that burden, including the Northeast Ohio SPCA Shelter in Parma. Eighteen Texan puppies…
Matchbox Twenty and Counting Crows Tap Into Nostalgia for ’90s Rock at Blossom
Matchbox Twenty hasn’t put out an album in five years, and Counting Crows haven’t released a new studio effort in three years. But that didn’t stop thousands of fans from jamming into Blossom last night for the groups’ A Brief History of Everything Tour. The place looked to be about three-quarters full, and the two…
Ohio EPA Raises Fines on Rover Pipeline to $2.3 Million, Company Still Refuses to Pay
The Rover pipeline, which will carry natural gas from Appalachia to Canada and the Midwest, spilled an estimated 2-million gallons of drilling fluid into Ohio wetlands in April shortly after construction began on the $4.2 billion project. Energy Transfer Partners, the company that owns Rover Pipeline LLC, acknowledged the spills but downplayed them as “inadvertent returns…
State Senator Wants to Raise Ohio’s Minimum Marrying Age
After a shocking investigation by the Dayton Daily News earlier this month which revealed that more than 4,400 girls younger than 17 had been married in Ohio between 2000-2015, State Senator Kenny Yuko (D-Richmond Heights) is sponsoring new legislation. “Ohio’s child marriage law is antiquated and out of step with 21st century values,” said Yuko,…
Welshly Arms Will Appear on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ Oct. 3
We enjoy seeing Cleveland’s own get some nice national media attention — not the sort of listable glurge that our civic leaders love so much, but rather the ascent of local artists to an actual sense of prestige, of arrival. With that in mind, we’ll be tuning in Oct. 3 to see Welshly Arms perform…
Upcoming Music Box Concert Represents a Homecoming of Sorts for Indie-Folk Act 5j Barrow
Eryn Murman, who sings in the indie folk act 5j Barrow, grew up in Lakewood; she says her upbringing in “a really creative, very supportive of the arts family” gave her the motivation to pursue a career as an actress and singer. The band performs with locals Maura Rogers & the Bellows at 7:30 p.m.…
Advance Ohio Launches New Lakefront-focused Website, Rockthelake.com
Cleveland.com Editor Chris Quinn was pleased to announce this morning a new venture for Advance Ohio: rockthelake.com. It is the brainchild, we’re told, of local software guru John Stahl and his LeanDog beer summits. Cleveland.com’s Laura Johnston will edit the site. “She plans to cover sailing, fishing, paddleboarding, kayaking, boating, patio dining, open-water swimming, sea-glass-collecting,…
Tributes Roll in After Cleveland Radio Legend John Webster’s Death
John Webster passed away this week at the age of 74. He’d been living in Florida and recovering from a recent hip surgery when Hurricane Irma left him without power at his house for a week. His stepson, Jason Fox, told WTAM, “I think, just like all these people they were finding in these nursing homes…
Free Screening of Cuban Drama at Capitol Theatre Tonight
Todos Se Van (Everybody Leaves), a Cuban drama about a young girl and her family’s strife under the Fidel Castro regime, will screen tonight at 7:30 at the Capitol Theatre in Detroit-Shoreway. The screening, which is free and open to the public, is part of the Baldwin Wallace Latin American Film Festival. Two additional films,…
A Revival of the Stunning ‘The Cunning Little Vixen’ From the Cleveland Orchestra and Five More Classical Music Events Not to Miss This Week
Cleveland’s French Baroque ensemble Les Délices occasionally ventures into different territory, as Debra Nagy and her colleagues did in their recent “Songs Without Words” program, which combines 17th-century songs for instruments with 20th-century torch songs and jazz standards arranged and improvised by the ensemble. You can watch the group rehearse the program on Thursday, September…
Second Annual Speedbump Fest to Take Place on October 7
Jaclyn Wright, the organizer of last year’s Speedbump Fest, a memorial concert to friend Garrett Janos, a suicide victim, has said she would like to think of Speedbump Fest as “aimed at not only celebrating his life but also building trust and an openness to our community.” For the second annual rendition of the festival,…
Get Out: Everything You Should Do This Week (Sept. 20-26)
WED 09/20 Dance of Oppression Hosted by the Shaker Community Gallery, Art of Dissent remains on view through Oct. 7. This group exhibition showcases the work of Cleveland-based artists known for expressing their dissatisfaction with the status quo and issues such as economic inequalities, polarizing politics and an abusive culture. Participating artists include Laura and…
‘The Lego Ninjago Movie’ Presents a Rote Coming-of-Age Story
Like its predecessors, 2014’s The Lego Movie and this year’s The Lego Batman Movie, The Lego Ninjago Movie makes inventive use of the famous plastic toys and remarkably constructs an entire world (in this case the city of Ninjago) and cast of characters out of the things. But while The Lego Movie and The Lego…
Legendary Concert Promoter Mike Belkin on His Life Around Music’s Biggest Names and Making Cleveland Rock
By the early 1970s, Belkin Productions, the concert promotion company that Jules and Mike Belkin launched from their father’s clothing store on West 25th Street, had become synonymous with rock ‘n’ roll in Cleveland. The company that booked the World Series of Rock concerts at the old Municipal Stadium brought all the biggest rock tours…
Savage Love: Dicks Deluxe
Dear Dan, I am a 35-year-old straight guy. I met a nice lady through the normal methods, and we hit it off. I think we are both considering “taking it to the next level.” We are on the same intellectual wavelength, enjoy the same social experiences, and have a lot of fun together. So what…
‘Stronger’ Could Be Jake Gyllenhaal’s Oscar Ticket
What has lingered, in the days following my viewing of Stronger, the Boston Marathon bombing drama from director David Gordon Green that comes out Friday, are images of Jake Gyllenhaal and Tatiana Maslany in emotional crisis. Here is Gyllenhaal, as bombing survivor Jeff Bauman, crawling through a parking lot, howling into the night. Here is…
Xinji Noodle Bar is a Master Class in Ramen in a City That Could Use a Lesson
I trust my own judgment when it comes to ramen, but I’m not above soliciting the opinions of diners around me, especially when one of those guests happen to be Michelin-starred chef Dante Boccuzzi, whose noodle-slurping history reaches back to his time spent living and working in Japan. Like me, he was checking out the…
The Cast of Theater District Dining Options is Ever Growing and Improving
Shakespeare in Love is playing to rave reviews at the Allen Theater. In mid-October, Waitress will kick off Playhouse Square’s annual Broadway series. And there’s that new Lin-Manuel Miranda musical you may have heard about. While you might have to pledge your firstborn child to get tickets to Hamilton, at least it will be a…
Band of the Week: Dan McCoy
MEET THE BAND: Dan McCoy (vocals, guitar) HIS PUNK ROCK PAST: Local singer-songwriter Dan McCoy embraces an alt-country sound but that wasn’t always the case. “With the first few bands I was in when I was a teenager, we did covers but we did originals too,” says McCoy, who grew up in Willoughby. “We were…
Nikki Woods Explores High Style and False Impressions in ‘Regrets Only’
Juicy colors and high luxury are the first impressions gathered from Nikki Woods’ latest two- and three-dimensional work in Regrets Only. A gold-trimmed chandelier welcomes us into the gallery, and like Rosalind Russell’s Auntie Mame, its sparkling personality looms large. The light fixture hangs directly over a mid-century modern table peppered with porcelain slipcast Jell-O…
It’s the Bard Without All Those Funny Words in ‘Shakespeare in Love’ at the Cleveland Play House
Do you want a cookie for being a good theater-going person and attending various Shakespeare plays over the years? Well, here’s a chocolate chip confection the size of your head. Shakespeare in Love is a Shakespeare-like play for those who sit in the audience of real Shakespeare plays and often wonder: What the fuck are…
Mike Belkin On Four of the Biggest Shows He Ever Saw in Cleveland
ELVIS PRESLEY: All Wrapped Up When Elvis Presley played Cleveland’s Public Auditorium on June 21, 1974, Mike Belkin was a guest of Presley’s California promoter. That evening, when Belkin was offered the opportunity to meet the legendary performer before the show, he eagerly accepted. “The King,” now in the late years of his reign, was…
