Everybody’s got a party going on New Year’s Eve, but January 1 is typically a little dead. If you’re one of those people who likes to keep the party going, head on over to the Beachland Ballroom to see check out some of Northeast Ohio’s burgeoning array of burlesque talent. It’s the 2nd annual Roxy Remembered Gala Extravaganza, honoring the legendary but sadly long-gone bump-and-grind palace on East 9th that was one of the nation’s top burlesque spots from the 1930s-1960s. Today’s re-flowering of burlesque is taking place in restaurants, gay bars, nightclub, and music venues like the Beachland. Performers on the 9 p.m. show include Bella Sin, Constantinople, Twiggy Stardust, Fantasie D’light, Lounging Amy, ventiloquist puppeteer Nate Puppets, and DJ Saint bringing the music. They’ll rejuvenate your party-weary spirits for sure. — Anastasia Pantsios
This article appears in Dec 28, 2011 – Jan 3, 2012.
When I was a highschool kid in the 60’s we would drive to the Roxy from Amherst to see the strip tease which was only a word in the little towns. It was dirty in an exciting sort of way, and even though it was tame by the standards of the soon to be wild late sixties and seventies, it seemed so delightfully sinful then. The funny little old-guy comedians who served as acts in between the girls, were bald and looked like they could be in Gunsmoke with Miss Kitty and Matt Dillion.
The Roxy will always remind me of the adolesent excitement of seeing a woman admit that her body had a sexual attraction for groups of men. But the Roxy had far more class than the 8mm films of the fifties and sixties which were part of stag parties. I remember the first and almost last stag movies I saw in 1967 at the VFW party given by a friends father for his soon to be married son. As we watched the movies and drank beer and the sons and fathers bonded and made disgusting comments, I felt like hell was all of our certain destinys. As the boys and dads made increasingly crude comments, one of the boys asked the groom ‘how he got his future wife to do such films with the German Shepard’. All boys and dads were pretty drunk and the fight broke out right there at the VFW. The groom, defending his future wife’s honor got the commentor down and was ripping at the boys face and saying loud and terrible swears…way worse than those said by Ralphy in The Christmas Story. The fathers were all bonered up too by the blood and the flicks and it was not a pretty sight. It was then that I realized that men were animals of the worst kind and that The Lord of the Flies was about men in general and not just kids. I saw many such things when I went into the military the following year..the boys faces and names were different than the boys of my home town, but they were all the same where alcohol, sex and violence were concerned. Boys will be boys is just another way of saying my kid’s an asshole just like the rest of them.
123111–2000pm
Four more hours and I think I might just make it for the fireworks. Cleveland is soon to have the equivalent of the big ball dropping next year at the Free Stamp monument. Only Cleveland, Ohio could have a giant Free (rubber) Stamp as a camp ground for the Occupy movement. How can anyone not love Cleveland? And not for the usual reasons of feeling sorry for us, but as a unity type of reason. Cleveland was the number five city in the country during and into the middle of the Industrial Revolution.
We have the City Club here in Cleveland where the Occupy Cleveland folks have taken up their first office space. The City Club of Cleveland is the oldest free speech club in the country. If you are not familiar go to their web site. Bobby Kennedy made one of his famous speeches their as well as many others in our history. One of my favorites is when John Glenn gave a speech about ‘never holding a real job’. This speech that John gave is fabulous. Oddly enough there are still the same poiticians saying the same thing about ‘people who have run real companies like the limited or the Distpatch or the a big bank or an insurance company or an investment firm or an oil empire or an underwear business or a widget maker or a holding company or a Wall Street giant or a …and on and on.
@Kenny Jaeger………..do us all a favor and make a New Yeas Resolution to never post here again! Your Pollyanna view of life, and of men, lacks any sophistication and bubbles over with naivete. Try watching Barney and Mr. Rogers reruns. They are more your speed.
testing censorship
joe, I had a good post but it disappeared. Lucky for you. It basically stated that if clevescene tells me in public to quit posting on the news blog and that you are acting as their voice then I will take my stories elsewhere. I am off the PD blog, but I have plenty more who may enjoy my point of view.
@Kenny Jaeger……….Dear Kenny, you win. Blog away. When I want a droll, puerile, jejune point of view, I’ll eagerly look for your post.
I’m sure your words have meaning to some younger folks, but I do not have a clue of what you are saying. I’m just looking for some entertainment in between Mr. Roger’s episodes.
OOPS! it was unfair of me to make comments with Cheryl’s name. Please don’t hold anything I hav said on clevescene against her.
Sorry Cheyl..I did not know I was posting in your name. And Joe, please do not think Cheryl said anything angry towards you. I think she probably agrees more with you than me…and she might even know the words your using…Are you French? Some of my favorite people are Frogs. Once you get to know them they are not as uppiddy as you thought.
joe. are you just going to exit, stage left, and leave our communication opportunity dysfuncitional and without resolve? We need not come to any reasonable agreement, yet we should at least work a little harder to understand each other’s points of view.
*Crickets*
I am disappointed with the ball-less and fuck-faced media of the whole fucking state of Ohio. We have a great history and it makes me sick to see that we have turned into this. Even in the best city in Ohio, Cleveland, I see too much punk-cock-fuck-piss-shit-headededness, and not enough of the stuff we were made of. Bunch of blow-hards. Vote for and kiss the fucking Donald’s ass. I’m done with you. Fucking done with you. I could give a fuck what thumbs up or down you put on what I say. I could give a fuck what the underwear salesman in Columbus and that prick governor say. I could give a fuck what the PD and the whole fucking media says. Fuck em’.
Any one that has stories on the roxy i would love to document them!