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| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
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Kim Kardashian West has heard about Kevin Keith. Have you?
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UPFRONT DNA MAY FINALLY REVEAL WHO KILLED BARBARA BLATNIK Photo courtesy of James Renner
AT APPROXIMATELY 10 A.M. ON Dec. 20, 1987, a young woman’s body was discovered along the shoulder of O’Neil Road in Cuyahoga Falls. She was nude, with nothing on her body except a class ring. She’d just been strangled to death. When investigators pulled the ring off her finger, they found her name written on the band: Barbara Blatnik. Seventeen years old. A kid from the city, 30 minutes away. Someone had beaten her, murdered her, left her body on this narrow access road leading into Blossom Music Center way out in the country, near Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Thirty-twoyears later, we still don’t know her killer’s name. But that might change in the coming weeks. Cuyahoga Falls police have announced that biological material found under Barbara’s fingernails will be sent to a lab for DNA testing. The goal is to extract enough genetic data from the sample that it can be used by forensic genealogists to track down the killer using the same method that identified the Golden State Killer last year. A new nonprofit — the Porchlight Project — will pay for the independent tests and the genealogists’ time. (Full disclosure: I’m the founder of the Porchlight Project.) I met Barbara’s sister, Donna, at a Panera on the west side a couple of weeks ago. She has this tattoo on her arm. It reads: Tu me mangues. I ask her about this and she tells me that the French have a different way of feeling loss. They don’t say “I miss you.” They say, “You are missing from me.” That class ring they found on her sister’s body? She wears it on a necklace around her neck like a talisman. Donna takes care of people. She worked as an activities director in a longterm care facility. Inner city. She married the boy who lived next door. Raised two kids. But the past and the details of it all are murky. “I think I have PTSD,” she says. “I hardly remember anything from high school. It’s hard to remember anything from when we were kids.”
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Barbara Blatnik
Everyone called her sister “Barbie.” “She was so pretty,” says Donna. “White, porcelain skin. Piercing green eyes. Twenty-sixinch waist. Gorgeous, with blonde, feathered hair. She could walk into a room and connect with everyone. The kind of person everyone is drawn to. But she had her demons.” Barbie liked to skip school. She ran away. Got into fights. Had to switch to a private school. She smoked Marlboros. And pot. But so did just about everyone they knew in Garfield Heights back then. Donna was the preppy. Barbie was the burnout. They ran in different circles. Donna remembers how Barbie once hitchhiked from Garfield Heights to the Coliseum in
| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
Richfield to see Angus Young. Barbie worked her way down to the front row. She loved AC/DC too. And Led Zeppelin, of course. Dec. 19, 1987. Donna was busy planning her wedding; Barbie would have been the maid of honor. A typical day, everyone looking forward to Christmas. And Barbie was out partying again. She started the day hanging out on the west side, with her friends Michelle Trodden and Sheila Salmon, according to Donna. Later, they visited Orzack’s bar, where they could be served underage, before making their way back to Garfield Heights to visit Philip Null. Donna didn’t know this part until recently, when Phil reached out to her on Facebook.
“Barb and I were close friends in junior high,” says Null, when reached by phone. “I miss her like crazy and think of her often.” According to Null, Barbie arrived at his place after dark, between 7 and 8 p.m. He believes she came in a cab with Michelle and Sheila. “We were all drinking, having a good time. But Barbie said she couldn’t stay.” Barbie and her friends wanted to make it to a Christmas party at the bicycle shop on Turney Road, a short walk from Phil’s place. “We were supposed to get together the following day,” says Phil. “I kept calling and calling over at her house, but nobody answered. I found out on Monday that she’d been murdered. I was
UPFRONT totally oored. It had to be more than one person who got her. She would have fought. She was a tough little broad, you know what I mean?� The bike shop on Turney was run by the Tretera brothers, Jimmy and Jeff. Jimmy was already deep for trouble, with a rap sheet that included attempted murder, though it’s unclear if Barbie knew this at the time. Regardless, after the party, according to her friends, Barbie asked to be dropped off at the corner of Warner Road and Grand Division so that she could walk to her boyfriend Jerry Stead’s house (it was easier to drop her off at the corner than pull into the driveway). That was the last reported sighting of Barbie Blatnik. This
wants answers. She wants to know who killed Barbie and why. It’s the not-knowing that causes sleepless nights. And there’s one other thing Donna wants. She wants her sister’s hand back. The coroner cut it off, she says, so that it could be sent to another lab in an attempt to identify what was written on her palm (likely the cab company’s phone number). It has since gone missing. The Barbara Blatnik mystery is the ďŹ rst cold case that the Porchlight Project has taken on. We will pay for DNA tests and forensic genealogy by Colleen Fitzpatrick and her team at IdentiďŹ nders International. The Porchlight Project was founded earlier this year in order to provide assistance to the families of the missing and murdered in Northern Ohio. Its board members include area lawyers, private investigators, journalists including Scene editor Vince Grzegorek, and former law
“I was totally floored. It had to be more than one person who got her. She would have fought. She was a tough little broad, you know what I mean?� would have been around 2 or 3 a.m. Jerry said he never saw her that night. Her sister, Donna, wonders what Barbie would have done if she couldn’t get into his house. “If he doesn’t answer the door, what does she do?� Maybe she tried to hitchhike. Or maybe she walked to her friend Gina’s house. Gina lived just down the street with the Marek brothers — Porky and Mouse — who had a couple felonies between them, including assault and breaking and entering charges. Trouble at every turn. But if it was a local, Donna wonders, why drive all the way out to Blossom to get rid of the body? There were plenty of places to dump a body in town back then: the tracks, the dump. The next morning — Dec. 20 — Donna and her mother went Christmas shopping. It wasn’t odd for Barbie not to be home. So, when the police called, their father was alone. He drove out to identify the body alone. And then he had to come back to share the tragic news. Thirty-two years later, Donna
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enforcement ofďŹ cials. If you have any information about the murder of Barbara Blatnik, please contact Det. Dirker or Det. Hursh, at the Cuyahoga Falls Police Department Detective Bureau, 330-971-8334. — James Renner
RTA Smart Cards on the Horizon, But Fare-Capping Still Several Years Off The grassroots transportation advocacy organization Clevelanders for Public Transit and members of the RTA board of trustees have called on RTA to terminate its contract with a company that was supposed to have provided “smart card servicesâ€? in Cleveland. Conduent, a Xerox spinoff that offers digital platforms for businesses and government agencies, has installed fare boxes and other ticketing machines as part of its contract with RTA, ďŹ rst signed in 2007. But it has failed to introduce smart cards, the reloadable credit card-style fare cards that other transit systems
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UPFRONT have been using for years. That will soon change. Conduent and RTA say that the company is prepared to fulďŹ ll its contractual obligations, and that RTA riders will be able to use smart cards by next summer. Board members Justin Bibb and Valarie McCall nevertheless questioned the Conduent contract at a committee meeting earlier this month. And CPT has noted that Conduent’s smart card system is already obsolete. If RTA doesn’t opt for newer-generation fare collection technology, the organization said in a press release, it will fall even further behind peer transit systems, especially in its commitment to fare equity. “For years, peer cities like Milwaukee and Pittsburgh have had smart cards,â€? CPT’s Chris Stocking said, in a statement provided to the media. “Now smart card systems in places like Indianapolis and Columbus are implementing fare-capping. It is time for RTA to join the 21st century, or ridership will continue
to decline.â€? A fare collection study based on rider surveys presented to members of RTA’s board of trustees earlier this month was consistent with recommendations that CPT provided in its “Fair Faresâ€? report last year. RTA’s study found, among other things, that low-income and minority riders tend to overpay for their trips because the majority of them purchase single-trip fares instead of ďŹ ve-trip fare cards, all-day passes or monthly passes, which provide better discounts for frequent travelers but have a higher upfront cost. The key solution to this problem is a policy known as fare-capping, which was ďŹ rst introduced in Portland and is now being rolled out in other markets with newer smart card systems that can tabulate rides and purchase histories. The gist of the policy is that riders’ fares are capped so they always get maximum value on their purchases. In Cleveland, an all-day pass is currently $5.50 (though RTA’s study recommended reducing the cost to $5), and a single ride is $2.50. With a fare-capping system, riders would be charged $2.50
for their ďŹ rst ride and $2.50 for their second ride. But if they took a third ride, they wouldn’t be charged the full $2.50, as is currently the case. They’d be charged $0.50, meaning their total cost for the day would be the equivalent of an all-day pass. They would pay no additional fares for rides that day. Fares would be likewise capped for monthly passes. According to CPT, farecapping is the “best solution to restore equityâ€? to RTA’s fares, and should be “one element of a broader vision to win back riders, reverse the death spiral and restore public support for RTA.â€? But for fare-capping to be implemented, newer generation smart cards will ďŹ rst have to be introduced, and that’s still a ways off, according to RTA’s director of service management, Joel Freilich. Freilich told Scene that RTA is planning to continue its contract with Conduent so that riders can have smart cards within a year, a process that he says will speed up boarding times. These cards won’t have built-in fare-capping, but they’ll provide roughly equivalent functionality as RTA’s mobile app, and can be used by all riders.
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That’s a critical improvement, Freilich said, for riders without credit cards or smartphones, or those with limited data plans. Freilich estimated that the newer generation fare-capping smart cards could be expected in “about ďŹ ve years.â€? But he said that terminating the Conduent contract wouldn’t hasten that time frame, which he characterized as a complicated, if familiar, bureaucratic process involving requests for proposals, vendor selection, contract negotiations and product testing and delivery. “We are not postponing our long-term plans just because this [Conduent] smart card is coming,â€? he said. “We’re not giving up short-term success to succeed in the long term.â€? — Sam Allard
This is the Dawning of the Age of the Scooter Speaking of transit news, word arrived from City Hall this week — and was instantly conďŹ rmed by looking out our downtown ofďŹ ce windows — that e-scooters are now available for rental in Cleveland.
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| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
DeWine Signs Order Creating Ohio School Safety Center to Combat School Shootings
— CINCINNATI CITYBEAT
9,000 Average number of evictions per year in the city of Cleveland, 60 percent of which involve households with children .
1,641 Ohioans who have voted since 2015 who were erroneously sent notices saying their voter registration would be canceled due to inactivity.
$1.3 MILLION Cost of housing defendants on Cuyahoga County Judge Joe Russo’s docket. He has 13 defendants who have been awaiting trial in the county jail for more than 400 days, the highest by far among 34 judges in the Court of Common Pleas.
13,430 Number of members in the Cleveland vegan and vegetarian group, which someone on Reddit
in existence, which is good enough for us.
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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced last week the creation of a new division of the state’s Department of Homeland Security charged with preventing school shootings and other violent acts. The Ohio School Safety Center will work with local law enforcement personnel and school districts to proactively detect threats against schools before mass shootings happen, DeWine said, and will use technology to monitor social media and other sites for potential danger. DeWine has signed an executive order creating the safety center. The division will be housed in Ohio’s Department of Public Safety and staffed with members from that office. Beyond trying to mitigate threats to others, the division will also work to find and treat students contemplating self-harm, a leading cause of death among young people. DeWine’s executive order also creates the Ohio School Safety Working Group made up of public safety, education and mental health professionals that will generate a yearly school safety report for the state. The center is part of a larger, 17-point effort to address gun violence and mass shootings, DeWine said. Some of the other efforts already proposed by the governor, however, such as a potential “Red Flag” law that would allow courts to take guns from those deemed dangerous to the community, could face opposition from Republican lawmakers.
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should be up and running soon as well. Under the city’s safety guidelines for the first six months, vendors are required to deactivate their scooters overnight (from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.), so bear that in mind as you try them out. The city advises that all scooter users wear a helmet, stay alert, follow traffic laws and avoid riding erratically. — Allard
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As fate would have it, it’s Bird, the very same e-mobility company that dumped e-scooters on city streets last summer and ignited the local debate — and ultimately the local policy — about micromobility, who is first out of the gate. City Hall said that Bird was first of four vendors selected for a six-month demonstration period to have completed its permitting process, which includes establishing a local physical location and hiring a local staff. The other three vendors, Lime, Spin and VeoRide, won’t be far behind. When Scene spoke with a representative from Lime last week, the company said they were planning a safety demonstration over the weekend and expected to have rentals ready to go by the end of the month. The others
Learn more at circleofrenewal.com/woman-becoming ȱ ȱ ȱ ȱ ȱŗŖƖȱ ě
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| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
FEATURE THE TURN Kevin Keith has more attention on his questionable 1994 murder conviction than ever before. So, what comes next? By Eric Sandy Photo by Eric Sandy
IN MAY 2018, CHARLES KEITH appeared on The Breakfast Club on Power 105.1 in New York City. The man from Canton, Ohio, had traveled to the big city to tell the same story he’s been telling for 25 years — how his brother, Kevin, was wrongfully convicted of three murders in 1994 and sentenced to death. In the studio, the hosts seem incredulous. Charles understands this. And why not? Through husky baritone and well-worn turns of phrase, the story he’s telling is one of broad abuses of local political power, deep trenches of concerted police coverups and the dramatic consequences of structural racism in the American criminal justice system. “They tried to use the death penalty to commit judicial murder,” he tells Charlamagne tha God, as he’s said for years to anyone who’d listen. If it weren’t for the trove of public records and circumstantial evidence uncovered in the intervening quarter-century, the story of Kevin Keith would be nearly impossible to believe. Charles was joined in the studio that day by Lori Rothschild, a documentary filmmaker who runs Big City TV in Los Angeles. She’s been heavily involved in the story since late 2017, when a Scene feature skipped across her inbox and the compelling tension in Kevin’s case drew her into the intrigue of rural Ohio criminal history. She’s developing a 10-hour series called Proving Innocence: Kevin Keith vs. The State of Ohio. Production is under way, but questions remain. What exactly happened in this case? And how’s it going to end? (Kevin’s sentence was commuted in 2010, and he has been incarcerated at the Marion Correctional Institution ever since.) The Breakfast Club airtime delivered perhaps the largest singleevent audience that Charles had secured in his 25-year effort to bring his brother’s case to the public. Indeed, for Charles and the team of attorneys who’ve worked to uncover evidence and keep Kevin’s name in the judicial consciousness, the curve of public attention on this case is
Kevin Keith in 2017.
beginning to turn sharply upward. Then, of all the possible twists in this dirgeful drama, Kim Kardashian West walked into the story. In mid-July, Kardashian brought the force of her celebrity onto Kevin’s case with a series of social media posts: On Twitter and Instagram, she shared the Scene story along with updates about the documentary and the research that Rothschild’s team had developed over the past year and a half. This is no small thing. This is a global endorsement to pry open the doors and give this case a thorough look-see from the curious masses. “I heard about Kevin Keith’s case last year & the more I learn about it, the more I believe the world needs to hear what happened to him! He was on death row & came w/in days of execution before the governor of Ohio commuted his sentence to life w/o parole,” Kardashian tweeted. She has joined Proving Innocence as an executive producer.
The story of what happens to Kevin now is one of both mass media — the documentary, The Breakfast Club, Kim Kardashian’s celebrity — and of incremental notches through the courts. Through it all, Charles’ message is constant. “It’s not about him,” Charles tells The Breakfast Club hosts, referencing his brother. “It’s about how the police set it up and allowed it to happen.” Kevin, 55, is once again in federal court — an astounding feat for a team of attorneys that has gathered more and more evidence over the years and pounded back against the state’s stubborn unwillingness to reexamine an old conviction. With each new chapter, it seems, more people are following Charles down the rabbit hole that begins in Bucyrus, Ohio, circa 1994. “I had to investigate for myself that I could actually take this on,” Rothschild tells Scene. “Usually when you look into wrongful conviction
cases, and I get a lot as a crime producer … I usually would look at it and the rabbit hole would go dark very quickly. And I couldn’t find my way out of it. In Kevin’s case, every time I dug there was another hole that opened up. “It’s also important to know that we have the opportunity, sitting here in 2019, to have the entire story in front of us,” she says. “When Kevin got convicted and sentenced to death within 100 days, Charles started with nothing. He started with: ‘How the heck did that happen?’”
*** The story of the Bucyrus murders has lurked just beneath the surface of 25 years of judicial careers and political maneuvering in Ohio. This state isn’t exactly short on dubious convictions and formal exonerations, but Kevin Keith’s case has remained an enduring question mark on the great narrative of Ohio power. People
| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
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Photo by Eric Sandy
FEATURE who travel in this world are familiar with Kevin Keith. And so, if the weight of the justice system means anything, then why all the hand-wringing and secondguessing from respected public officials and legal experts? We laid out the shape of the criminal case and its tangential Crawford County history in our 2017 story, but here’s the briefest of summaries again: On Feb. 13, 1994, a man shot and killed two women and a young girl in a small apartment in Bucyrus, Ohio (west of Mansfield). A man and two children survived. The victims were related to a known drug informant who’d been working for local detectives tasked with overseeing a sprawling pharmacy burglary ring. The ringleader of the pharmacy breakins, who’d go on to be convicted the following year, said he’d been given $15,000 to “cripple” the snitch behind a recent drug bust. The detectives knew this, and yet they showed up at the Bucyrus apartment on the night of the murders and began mixing Kevin’s name into the nighttime conjecture. Two days later, police officers arrested Kevin Keith. “What we have is some evidence that we have collected that we hope we will be able to link him to the crimes,” Bucyrus police chief Joseph Beran said Feb. 16, 1994. Through years of court records, judges have repeatedly attested that no physical evidence ties Kevin to the crime; however, no alternate suspects were ever identified or investigated. It’s not common in our warp-speed digital media environment to find the space in a newspaper to examine the incremental movement of a civil case in federal court. After Scene published its lengthy feature on what had happened in Bucyrus in 1994, it was clear that the story would continue. Here’s the story we’ve been working on, but, okay, what comes next? This question haunts journalists, and it’s rarely answered satisfactorily. If the criminal justice system is conveyed to the public as a Byzantine network of personalities and institutions — the creative morass of an occasional 5,000-word feature story in the paper — well, then the post-conviction criminal justice system often isn’t conveyed at all. Kevin has filed four habeas petitions — legal documents used to reexamine whether a conviction
12
The Crawford County Courthouse
and subsequent incarceration is lawful, often in light of new evidence that may not have been available (or shared with the defendant in the first place) at the original criminal trial. Habeas corpus means “You shall have the body” in Latin. In 2008, in response to Kevin’s second habeas petition, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals laid out the five points of “core evidence” supporting the conviction — the pillars of the case that Keith’s habeas petition would need to impeach. These points included: 1.) Surviving witness Richard Warren’s testimony, provided under duress; 2.) Bucyrus Estates neighbor Nancy Smathers’ testimony, in which she had identified Kevin on her third conversation with police (and only after seeing Kevin on TV); 3.) The “043” segment of the license plate imprint left in a snow bank by the getaway vehicle, which numerals appeared in both the pharmacy burglary ringleader’s license plate and in Kevin’s girlfriend’s grandfather’s license plate; 4.) A bullet cartridge found outside a McDonald’s that Keith was
| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
known to frequent; 5.) The January 1994 drug bust that connected Keith (and eight other individuals) with known snitch Rudel Chatman (the likely intended target of the murder). Five points. That’s the state’s prosecution of Kevin Keith. In his 2008 petition, Kevin filed evidence that had been withheld from him during his 1994 trial. That evidence included documents that pointed to an alternate suspect and records that showed how police guided Warren in his testimony against Kevin. In his 2018 habeas petition, Keith focused his claims on the state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations forensic scientist Michele Yezzo, whose career was cast into doubt when a separate lawsuit against the state of Ohio uncovered damning evidence against her integrity and professionalism. Keith also used his 2018 petition to zero in on a 1994 subpoena for Bucyrus phone records — police station call logs that would have discredited the police investigation. They were found to have “Ignore for now” written on them. “The state did not provide any of this evidence to Keith prior to
his trial,” the Sixth Circuit threejudge panel wrote last year. “Yezzo’s testimony was particularly important because no physical evidence linked Keith to the murders.” “This new evidence goes to the ‘core’ of the government’s case,” the court writes. “The ‘core of the case’ can safely be said to be the ‘evidence as a whole.’” Now, Kevin is awaiting word from Judge Solomon Oliver. This could mean a new trial or something else altogether — or nothing at all. The petition could be dismissed outright. But one thing’s for sure: Kevin’s never found himself in this position before.
*** This sudden spotlight on a 25-year-old murder case in Ohio is not Kardashian’s first foray into the American landscape of questionable criminal convictions. On June 6, 2018, President Donald Trump commuted Alice Marie Johnson’s life sentence and set her free. Johnson had spent 21 years in prison for her role in a cocaine trafficking ring. Kardashian’s advocacy on this matter was widely
credited for the president’s relatively swift action. (Johnson’s commutation was part of a broader series of events that led to the bipartisan First Step Act, a bill that assists non-violent federal inmates reentering society.) The headlines were jarring, in a way. Kim Kardashian was involved? Donald Trump did what, again? This summer, Kardashian is working not only with Kevin’s case but also with a man named Kevin Cooper — a Death Row inmate in San Quentin. Cooper was convicted of killing four people in 1985. His case has garnered skepticism over the years, and new DNA tests have pushed his cause into the public eye in the past 12 months. No doubt, stories like Cooper’s, Johnson’s and Kevin Keith’s are part of a broader wave of national interest in true crime drama and political corruption: human tragedy boiled down to a televised understanding of right and wrong. To further hone her criminal justice inclinations, Kardashian has been apprenticing with attorneys in California. In that state, law school isn’t required; regular citizens, even the most world-famous of them all, can work under professional attorneys and study for the bar exam. Earlier this year, she took the state’s “baby bar exam,â€? a mandatory sort of practice run for the full test. “I knew that by bringing on someone like Kim with her interest in this space of criminal justice reform, I knew that it would give the case the attention that it deserves,â€? Rothschild says. “Kim is nothing that I thought she was going to be and everything that I thought she was going to be at the same time. She and her family, obviously, are an open book to the world, that’s just the way that they operate. And what I’ve always admired about her family and the brands in general, is that it’s always blood is thicker than water: family ďŹ rst. And that always rang true for me with Charles and Kevin Keith as well. So, when I approached Kim, I knew that she would be intrigued by the case, because she really does appreciate cases like this and gets involved in them. But I also knew that she would see it for what it was, where there was this brother ďŹ ghting for his brother.â€? For now, late in the summer of 2019, Rothschild’s team is continuing to collect material for the documentary on a daily basis. Crawford County residents have come forward to share details of the case with her. The team is on the phone and on the ground, recording audio and video for the project and building a deep investigation into
what really went down in Bucryus 25 years ago. “It’s really been an ongoing production,â€? she says. But while certain platforms have expressed interest in the series — including Netix, Oxygen and OWN — executives haven’t yet committed to anything. “The reality is: Everyone wants an ending,â€? Rothschild says. “They want to know how it’s going to end.â€? That’s the rub. As Kevin’s attorneys plow through the incisive legal work of the habeas case, the only way for the general public to understand a case as complex as this or any other murder case is to explain the full story through journalism and, perhaps, a little documentary drama. When Charles says, “It’s not about him,â€? what he means is that there’s a story here that has nothing to do with his brother. Kevin took the fall, but a thick web of police ofďŹ cers and drug dealers set in motion a violent vignette of rural Ohio life. It’s a story. “What my research staff can do is dig into little facets of the case that investigators either didn’t have the time to do, or it doesn’t really pertain to Kevin’s innocence at this moment,â€? Rothschild says. “So, you can really understand the environment that these people were living in, during that time in 1994 — what it felt like to be in Crawford County, what it felt like to grow up in Crestline and why the relationship between the police ofďŹ cers and these locals was strained and how that all worked. You can have that conversation in a longer documentary piece.â€? The latest movement on the federal court docket is an Aug. 16 motion for an evidentiary hearing. After an all-out paperwork war over this most recent habeas petition, Kevin’s attorneys are seeking a chance in court to suss out the factual undergirding of the charges alleged in the stack of papers. “While there are a signiďŹ cant number of issues on which the [state] and Keith disagree, those issues likely can be resolved by looking at the record evidence,â€? Kevin’s attorneys write. Now, after 25 years of questions, more people than ever before are looking at the record evidence. With this latest motion ďŹ led in federal court and awaiting an answer, it’s up to the state to look deeply at what’s come before and what comes next in the story of Kevin Keith.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
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| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
TETRAD Jazz Concert
Heidi Burson Original Soul
Royal Wood In Concert
Photo by Senior Airman Alexander Cook
GET OUT everything you should do this week
The Cleveland National Air Show returns to Burke Lakefront Airport. See: Saturday.
WED
08/28
THEATER
Disney’s The Lion King Some 90 million people around the world have seen Disney’s long-running musical The Lion King. The play has won six Tony Awards, and it brings to life the story of a lion and the cub who’ll inherit his father’s kingdom. The musical features the work of Tony Award-winning choreographer Garth Fagan and some terrific songs by Elton John and Tim Rice. Tonight’s performance takes place at 7:30 at the State Theatre. The play runs through Sept. 1, and tickets cost $49 to $199. (Jeff Niesel) 1519 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org. FOOD
North Union Farmers Market North Union Farmers Market returns to U.S. Bank Plaza today with an urban-desert oasis of fresh and sustainable local farm foods. Come and stock up on the season’s best fruits and vegetables from 4 to 7 p.m. This NUFM
location will be up and running each and every Wednesday through Sept. 4. Find out more on the website below. (Niesel) northunionfarmersmarket.org. FILM
A Streetcar Named Desire Marlon Brando stars in 1951’s A Streetcar Named Desire, an adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Gone With the Wind’s Vivien Leigh co-stars as Blanche du Bois, a woman struggling to hold onto her concept of Southern gentility in the face of her brother-in-law Stanley’s (Brando) badgering. The terrific cast also includes Kim Hunter and Karl Malden. The movie screens tonight at 6 at the Capitol as part of the Capitol’s Happy Hour Classic series. The price of admission includes a complimentary cocktail or soft drink and light appetizers. The event begins at 6 p.m. Tickets cost $10. (Niesel) 1390 West 65th St., 216-651-7295, clevelandcinemas.com. MUSIC
Uptown Out to Lunch Series At today’s Out to Lunch concert,
on Toby’s Plaza in the Uptown District, you can grab lunch from your favorite Uptown eatery and have a seat at the great picnic table while listening to local bands. Today, the Chris Burge Trio performs from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The free concert series continues through Sept. 11. The schedule is on the website. (Niesel) 11440 Uptown Ave., universitycircle.org. FOOD
Walnut Wednesday Time is growing short to make a stop at Walnut Wednesday, one of summer’s great traditions. But today from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Perk Plaza at Chester Commons — at East 12th and Walnut streets — food trucks once again gather to serve up lunch to area residents and employees. Follow the Downtown Cleveland Alliance on Facebook for weekly updates on vendors, entertainment offerings and more. But remember, the series concludes on Sept. 4. As always, admission is free, but the food will cost you. (Niesel) downtowncleveland.com.
THU
08/29
SPORTS
Browns vs. Detroit Lions Given the anticipation for the upcoming season, it’s no surprise the Cleveland Browns have been limiting the playing time of their star players in preseason games. Not sure if quarterback Baker Mayfield will be on the field for tonight’s game against the Detroit Lions, but the Browns played well earlier this summer without him in a preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. at First Energy Stadium. Consult the Browns site for ticket prices. (Niesel) 100 Alfred Lerner Way, 440-891-5000, clevelandbrowns.com. DRAG
GlamGore Monthly Drag Show Each month, GlamGore, a drag show at the Grog Shop, features a variety of performance artists under one roof. The shows include everyone from “beauty queens” to “drag monsters.” Tonight’s show theme is Drag Me to Detention with performers Aura Tannen, Stixen Stones, Sarah Tonin and special
| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
15
BEER
GET OUT guest Envy Green from Columbus. Tickets cost $10, or $12 for VIP tickets that give you early bird access to the Grog starting at 8 p.m. and a special photo opportunity/ meet-and-greet with the cast. For general admission ticket holders, the doors open at 8:30 p.m. DJ Zoë Lapin will attend to the turntables. (Niesel) 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-321-5588, grogshop.gs.
Cleveland Oktoberfest The 15th annual Paulaner Cleveland Oktoberfest kicks off today at Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds. The fest features more than 20 different types of Oktoberfest-style beers, 15 German and European restaurants, 20 bands from all over the world, more than 100 vendors and local artisans, a daily beer stein-holding contest, the largest glockenspiel in the country, wiener dog races,
and receive $3 off admission at the box office. Consult the website for a schedule and hours of operation. (Niesel) 19201 East Bagley Rd., Middleburg Heights, 440- 243-0090, clevelandoktoberfest.com. MUSIC
eCLEctic: Made You Look MoCa Cleveland’s eCLEctic series, Made You Look, returns tonight and features a conversation with
and film in the world of hip-hop. A Cleveland native, Caple Jr. has become one of Hollywood’s most sought-after filmmakers. He recently directed the smash hit Creed II, a drama starring Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone and Tessa Thompson. Local music video directors Santino Cash, Josh Teplitz and Scenematix will also join the discussion. The event begins at 7 p.m. Advance tickets cost $15, and student tickets go for $10. Tickets at the door will cost $25. (Niesel) 11400 Euclid Ave., 216-421-8671, mocacleveland.org.
COMEDY
FESTIVAL
Dave Landau Last Comic Standing has introduced us to dozens of incredible comedians, but none quite like Dave Landau. Sharp, dark and sarcastic, Landau’s standup act is standup for the cynic. He puts a new twist on the typically goofy nature of live comedy. He likes to joke that Halloween was a fun holiday for him as a kid. “I was poor and I used to have to wear a garbage bag and go as a raisin,” he jokes in one bit. He performs tonight at 7 at Hilarities, where he has shows scheduled through Saturday. Consult the website for ticket prices. (Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.
Night Market Cleveland Taking place on the last Friday of each month during the summer, Night Market Cleveland is part farmers market, part art/makers’ market, part concert series and part food festival. Occurring only four times a year, the market includes more than 200 retail and food vendors and numerous bands and performers. Located on Rockwell Avenue near the heart of Cleveland’s Asia Town district, Night Market Cleveland was inspired by a tradition in several Asian cultures, and designed to connect the diverse people of Cleveland’s Asia Town, St. Clair Superior neighborhood and Campus district while “energizing an often-overlooked corner of Cleveland.” It goes down tonight from 5 to 11 p.m. Admission is free. (Niesel) nightmarketcle.com.
COMEDY
J.J. Williamson Nearly 20 years ago, comedian J.J. Williamson won the Bay Area Comedy Competition in Oakland, thus launching his career as a standup comic. He likes to joke about the things he goes through every day. He frequently jokes about dating. “I am not a baller — I’m an outlet baller,” he says in one bit. “I’m a baller on a budget.” He performs tonight at 7:30 at the Improv, where he has shows scheduled through Sunday. Tickets start at $17. (Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com.
FRI
SEPTEMBER 20, 2019 • STATE THEATRE 1999 Inductee Mavis Staples - Live In Concert Join us for a night of soulful song featuring Mavis Staples, whose breathtaking voice powered one of America’s most celebrated family bands, the Staple Singers.
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
AT PLAYHOUSESQUARE.ORG
08/30
YOGA
Believe in CLE Yoga 2019 Inner Bliss Yoga Studios has organized today’s free yoga party on the Rock Hall’s main plaza. You can arrive as early as 5 p.m.; the event begins at 6:30 p.m. There will be live music and food on the plaza after the work out too. Bring your own mat. Register at innnerblissyogastudio. com. (Niesel) 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-515-8444, rockhall.com.
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a Miss Oktoberfest contest, a 5-K race and entertainment for all ages. More than 70,000 people are expected to attend the event. It begins at 4 p.m. today and continues through Monday. Tickets are $13 at the box office. Parking is free. On Monday, Ohio Lottery Day, bring a non-winning Ohio Lottery ticket
| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
Steven Caple Jr., a panel discussion with Cleveland-based music video directors and a musical performance from Case Bargé. The program celebrates artists, musicians and entrepreneurs in Cleveland, with each event focusing on a different element of hip-hop culture. Tonight’s event will explore the role of video
MUSIC
Summerdance 2019 This Labor Day weekend, Nelson Ledges Quarry Park presents the 12th annual Summerdance, an EDM-themed festival featuring three nights with Lotus. In addition to Lotus, Summerdance will offer redhot regional and national EDM/jam acts like Start Making Sense, Moon Hooch, Cut Chemist, Paris Monster, Luke the Knife, Wax Future, Patrick Richards, Kitana and Mike Greenfield. Admission is $160 ($140 presale) for today through Monday, $100 ($85 presale) for Saturday through Monday, or $65 ($55 presale) for Sunday and Monday. Thursday arrivals are an extra $20 at the gate. Group passes are also available. There is no extra charge for camping. (Niesel) 12001 State Route 282, Garrettsville, 440-548-2716, nlqp.com. FILM
The Sundance Film Festival’s Short Film Program The Sundance Film Festival’s shorts
program has helped launch the careers of folks such as Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Andrea Arnold, Damien Chazelle, Debra Granik, Todd Haynes, Spike Jonze, Dee Rees, and Taika Waititi. Tonight at 9:10, the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque screens seven international films in this touring program. Expect to see fiction, documentary and animation. The program screens again at 7:10 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets cost $11, or $8 for CMA members and students. (Niesel) 11610 Euclid Ave., 216-421-7450, cia.edu. FILM
Walking on Water Walking on Water captures celebrated installation artist Christo as he constructs a pedestrian walkway (covered with yellow fabric) on top of Italy’s Lake Iseo. The piece was first conceived decades ago by the artist and his longtime partner JeanneClaude, and the film shows just how complex its construction was. “It’s a very, very demanding project — it’s like a huge garden, and you have to keep everything in good order,” he tells his team at one point in the movie. It screens today at 1:45 p.m. at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tickets cost $10, or $7 for CMA members. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.
SAT
08/31
FAMILY FUN
Cleveland National Air Show A Labor Day tradition in Northeast Ohio since 1964, the Cleveland National Air Show regularly attracts 60,000 to 100,000 visitors to Burke Lakefront Airport, making it one of the region’s largest annual events. This year’s show will include a lineup of military jet demonstrations, including the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, F-35A Lightning II and A-10C Thunderbolt II. The event will also feature vintage WWII warbirds including a B-25 Mitchell Bomber and B-17 Flying Fortress. The U.S. Air Force Thunderbird pilots will put their jets through a choreographed performance each day at speeds up to 500 miles per hour. The F-35A Lightning II demonstration will highlight the aircraft’s speed, agility and “high-G turning.” Cleveland is one of only 15 cities in North America to host these demonstrations. Advance general admission tickets cost $23 for adults and $14 for children ages 6 to 11. (Prices are $2 more
at the gate.) Admission is free for children 5 and younger. Consult the website for a complete schedule and for other ticket options. (Niesel) clevelandairshow.com. DANCE
Silent Disco Dance Party Attending a silent disco should be on everyone’s summer bucket list, and today is your final chance to check it off. Grab your friends and head down to Playhouse Square this evening to dance about in silence while wearing wireless headphones. Tonight’s theme: Adult Prom. Wear your old prom dress or tux and be prepared to hear the best power ballads and line dances. You can even get a photo with your “date” in front of a special backdrop. The disco takes place from 9 to midnight on U.S. Bank Plaza. It’s free. (Niesel) East 14th St. and Euclid Ave., 216-771-4444, playhousesquare.org. COMEDY
Christopher Titus Comedian Christopher Titus has been through a lot in his life: getting stabbed by a psycho girlfriend, getting fired from a suicide hotline, drunkenly falling into a bonfire, and all the while being told to “quit being a wussy” by his uber-militaristic dad. This guy doesn’t just tell jokes; he tells full-on stories and they are hilarious. He takes the stage at Hilarities at 7 and 9:30 tonight and at 7 tomorrow night. Consult the website for ticket prices. (Liz Trenholme) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.
SUN
09/01
FILM
Casual Water Cleveland filmmaker Jacob Koestler set his film, Casual Water, in a shuttered, century-old Oakwood country club and its golf course that borders Warrensville Center Road in Cleveland Heights and South Euclid. A meditation on history, landscape, impermanence and memory, the film premiered at SPACES this past spring. Koestler, who teaches photography and video (and documentary film) at the Cleveland Institute of Art, will answer audience questions after the screening, which takes place at 4 p.m. at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. Tickets cost $10, or $7 for Cinematheque members and students. (Niesel) 11610 Euclid Ave., 216-421-7450, cia.edu. | clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
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Join SCENE for our Leinenkugel Friday Summer Bar Tour! Catch us at a different location from 6-8:30 pm every Friday all summer long! Grab a pic with the promo team and enjoy an ice cold Summer Shandy!
GET OUT FILM
The Reports on Sarah and Saleem Maya Alayan directs The Reports on Sarah and Saleem, a tense thriller about how an extramarital affair between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man begins to have implications for the local security forces in Jerusalem. The movie makes its local premiere at 1:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it screens again at 1:45 p.m. on Tuesday. Tickets cost $10, or $7 for CMA members. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org. BURLESQUE
See you at our last tour stops of the summer: This Friday Aug. 30 Ivy (downtown) Burgers 2 Beer (Solon)
Toxic Burlesque Eighth Anniversary Party Over the past eight years, the folks at the local burlesque promotion company Toxic Burlesque have thrown a number of events at Brothers Lounge. According to promoter Frank Ian, who runs the company with his wife, there’s been a “packed house every time.” For tonight’s show, they’ll celebrate the company’s eighth anniversary. Carmen M’Knoxide, Miss Fever Blister, Rubi-Nesque and drag sensation Samantha Echo will all be on hand. Hosted by Gilgamesh Taggett, the show begins at 7 p.m., and tickets are $15. (Niesel) 11609 Detroit Ave., 216-226-2767, brotherslounge.com.
MON
09/02
SPORTS
PROVIDING DAILY YOGA CLASSES, MEDITATION, HEALING ENERGY-WORK AND MASSAGE APPOINTMENTS AVAILABLE BY APPOINTMENT. We also offer aerial silks and circus training, infrared sauna, continuing education including yoga teacher training, and a holistic wellness shop with local retail.
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FILM
Meditation, Yoga & Aerial Silks Classes Available. (Visit website for more information.)
1395 W 10th St #120, Cleveland, OH 44113 | 216-621-7085 18
Indians vs. Chicago White Sox The Cleveland Indians remain in the hunt for a playoff spot and could even win their division, so each and every game carries lots of weight. Tonight, the Chicago White Sox, a team with no hopes of making the playoffs, comes into town for a four-game series. The first pitch gets thrown at 7:10, and tickets start at $15. (Niesel) 2401 Ontario St., 216-420-4487, clevelandindians.com.
| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
Movie Mondays Every Monday, Cleveland Cinemas hosts $5 Movie Mondays, where film fans can catch up on the latest Hollywood flicks for significantly reduced prices. Bring your friends and family and make Movie Mondays a weekly tradition — many theaters
even offer discounted concession stand items. Participating theaters include Apollo Theatre, Capitol Theatre, Cedar Lee Theatre, Chagrin Cinemas and Tower City Cinemas. Unfortunately, additional charges apply for 3-D movies. (Alaina Nutile) clevelandcinemas.com.
TUE
09/03
FILM
American Heretics: The Politics of the Gospel This documentary film dives into the buckle of the Bible Belt where a group of defiant ministers, congregations, and community leaders started a church that features a “Gospel of Inclusion.” Labeled as heretics for their beliefs and actions, the church leaders began marrying gay people long before it was legal and work to protect the rights of immigrants. “Our focus is to save people from real hells in this life,” says one preacher. The movie screens at 7:30 tonight at the Capitol Theatre. Tickets cost $9.75 for adults. (Niesel) 1390 West 65th St., 216-651-7295, clevelandcinemas.com. MUSIC
Open Turntable Tuesday Tonight from 6 to 9, the Winchester hosts its weekly Open Turntable Tuesday. Jason Gokorsch will book guest DJs and offer slots to people who want to bring their own vinyl and spin their favorite songs or deep tracks. First time DJs are encouraged, and equipment is provided. Patrons can also bring records for the night’s DJ to add to their set. Sign up on Northeast Ohio Vinyl Club’s Facebook page. (Niesel) 12112 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216-600-5338, facebook.com/ TheWinchesterMusicTavern. FOOD
Truck Stop Tuesday Crocker Park in Westlake is home to Truck Stop Tuesday, a weekly food truck gathering that takes place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., through Sept. 24, on Main Street. Needless to say, admission is free, but the food will cost you. You can find a lineup of upcoming food trucks on the website. (Niesel) 189 Crocker Park Blvd., Westlake, crockerpark.com.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
convergence-continuum presents
a wild and unrestrained adaptation In a repressive Catholic boys’ boarding school, four students discover the forbidden text of Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet and secretly enact the play, taking turns reading the play aloud. The words and story are thrilling to the boys, and they become swept away in an athletic deluge of adolescent agitation, anxiety, and fierce desires that parallel their own lives. Although they had been taking turns playing all the parts, two of the boys eventually emerge playing Romeo and Juliet exclusively, bringing a whole new dimension to the proceedings.
Directed by Cory Molner with actors Zach Palumbo, Michael Emery Fox, Joe Soriano and John P. Cox Opening Fri, August 30 and running Thurs-Sat through September 21 Tickets: Fri & Sat: $20 general admission, $15 seniors (65+), $10 students. Thurs: $15, $12, $8 at convergence-continuum.org and 216-687-0074 All performances at 8 pm.
N OPE DAY W I NO Y FR OR F R EVE NOON H AT LUNC
SUMMER HOURS:
MON - THURS: 5:00PM - CLOSE | FRI - SUN: 11:00AM - CLOSE
LABOR DAY WEEKEND! ENJOY LIVE ENTERTAINMENT ALL WEEKEND LONG! FRIDAY, AUGUST 30 8P-12A
NITEBRIDGE
SATURDAY, AUGUST 31
At convergence-continuum’s LIMINIS THEATER 2438 Scranton Rd, Cleveland 44113 the the historic Tremont neighborhood.
BARCODE
TED RISER BAND
CUSTARD PIE
OUT OF EDEN
8P-12A 2-6P SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 1
8P-12A 2-6P LABOR DAY! MONDAY, SEPT 2
ALMOST FAMOUS BUTCH ARMSTRONG 1-5P
7-11P
www.facebook.com/whiskeyislandstillandeatery www.whiskeyislandstillandeatery.net | clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
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STAGE WE COULD BE VILLAINS Lobby Hero at Blank Canvas sparks important inner dialogue By Gwendolyn Kochur Photo by Andy Dudik
AS CHRISTOPHER VOGLER ONCE wrote, “every villain is a hero of his or her own story.” Sometimes we do the wrong things for the right reasons — or at least that’s what we tell ourselves. Each and every one of us has developed a set of core principles that, if followed, classifies us as a “good person.” Some of them are simple: Don’t lie. Don’t cheat. Don’t harm others. But what happens when egos, personal ambition and emotions threaten those principles we hold so dear? This question is explored by four conflicted blue-collar workers in Kenneth Lonergan’s play Lobby Hero. With fine direction and authentic acting, Blank Canvas Theatre’s production of the show is a poignant commentary on how the choices we make in response to harsh realities of the world make us the heroes or villains of our stories. The four blue-collar workers in question are characters whose job it is to keep others safe. Two are apartment building security guards and two work as cops. One of the former, Jeff, is a 27-year-old with tons of ambition and, according to others, lots of potential. But his ambition doesn’t coincide with his progress. His well-to-do boss, William, has his life together. He manages the security team of a middle-income, high-rise New York apartment building, the lobby of which is realistically rendered by designer Patrick Ciamacco. Along with the checkered lobby floor and sliding elevator door, Ciamacco also designed the New York soundscape that backs some of the action. William’s life is stable until his brother is arrested for murder and falsely claims he was with William on the night of the crime. William explains the situation to Jeff, placing them both in a sticky situation. The story becomes more complex when the married, veteran cop Bill frequents the building to spend time with, shall we say, “a special friend.” He does this on the clock, forcing his rookie partner, Dawn, to wait in the lobby with Jeff and question the ethics of others in her profession. Playwright Lonergan, who won an Oscar in 2017 for penning Manchester by the Sea, excels in narratives that focus on the everyday person faced
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with an ethical dilemma. Dreams, musings, stories of the past and aspirations for the future are sprinkled throughout the dialogue. This is handled well under the direction of Anne McEvoy. Her cast delivers lines in a wonderfully realistic fashion, resulting in a show that pulses with an underlying current of authenticity. Benjamin Gregg plays Jeff with a young and innocent mentality. Jeff never knows when to shut up, and due to the lonely nature of his position, he
against African-American men, further complicating William’s decision. Lobby Hero also touches on other societal prejudices, such as sexism. Kelly Strand plays the young, eager rookie cop Dawn, who encounters sexism daily. Her coworkers and the citizens she’s sworn to protect, including Jeff, see her femininity before they see her navy-blue police uniform that’s supplied by designers Katie Simón Atkinson and Jill
LOBBY HERO THROUGH SEPT. 7 AT BLANK CANVAS THEATRE, 1305 WEST 78TH ST., 440-941-0458 BLANKCANVASTHEATRE.COM.
takes every chance he has to speak with others. With small outbursts, self-deprecating jokes and sarcastic remarks, Gregg brings humor to the stage. His portrayal of a boy in a rut that he desperately wants to get out of is incredibly endearing. Darius Stubbs is just as believable in his role as security captain William. Stubbs is both stoic and empathyworthy. This is especially true when William contemplates lying for his brother, something he would never consider were it not for his brother’s overworked court-appointed lawyer. Other ethical complications arise because of the prejudices aligned
| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
Kenderes. Strand plays Dawn with a doe-eyed naïvete and goodwill that is slowly hardened and replaced by ferocity. Her partner, Bill, is played by James Alexander Rankin. Bill sees Dawn as a small, helpless girl who would benefit from being under his wing, under his thumb and in his bed. The mustachioed and fantastically authoritative Rankin is at one minute trusted and in the next despicably manipulative. The small Manhattan lobby and the space on the sidewalk just outside transform from the commonplace to a space where ethical issues are
confronted. With the exception of Bill, the characters of Lobby Hero are genuinely good people who become involved in a sticky web of lies and compliance that mostly aren’t of their own making. The play was originally performed off-Broadway in 2001 and received a short-lived revival starring Chris Evans and Michael Cera in 2018. The show’s discussions of sexism, racism and police abuse of authority is sure to feel more resonant in 2018 and 2019 than it would have in 2001. The issues raised in this show are close to home — for some more than others — and need to be addressed. What Lobby Hero does so well is establish real-life, believable characters. When they’re suddenly faced with an ethical dilemma, you will begin to ask yourself, “What would I have done?” Blank Canvas’ show is sure to spark a thoughtful inner dialogue. In Lobby Hero, we see that the lies we tell ourselves can be powerful. And when faced with making a decision that questions our core principles, it’s much easier to believe we’re doing the wrong thing for the right reasons than to think we’re the villains of our stories.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
ART CLOUD COVER Dan Miller’s Steadman-esque Some Disassembly Required at Waterloo Arts By Dott von Schneider Photo courtesy of Dan Miller
THERE’S A BLACK CLOUD HANGING over Dan Miller’s artwork, literally. As we walk into the Waterloo Arts Gallery, cumulus masses float ominously, spray-painted between Miller’s exquisitely raw mixed media pieces. Miller’s current exhibition, Some Disassembly Required, is a collection of 15 wall works that expose the artist’s battle with depression, his lifelong relationship with bipolar II disorder and traumatic events that occurred over the past four years, including a divorce and the loss of his father. On the day we met at the gallery, Miller revealed to us that it was the anniversary of a gruesome motorcycle accident illustrated in one of the displayed works. “PTSD,” pictured, is one of Miller’s mixed-media vignettes that pulls us intimately into his lived experience. It illustrates the location on I-90 westbound where he nearly died. “Even after the accident, I drive past there every day,” the artist tells us. Using splatters and frenetic fine lines, the scene is a frightening reminder of what could have been. Salmon pink, electric blue and acid greens dominate his palette as another black cloud looms nearby. ‘This is where my heart always skips,’ Miller has written on the left. ‘This is where I should have died,’ he has etched on the median. A blue car passes nonchalantly, unaware of the horrific scene that occurred one year ago. Each of the works on display is layered in every sense of the word. Using wood panels for the main support, Miller employs spray paint for background and then acrylic paint on top of the panel. The top layer is wet media acetate, which we mistook for a high gloss varnish. The gloss really adds depth to each piece. “The clouds are on the back and the drawing is on the front, and the color is watercolor paper on the back of the acetate,” states Miller. “I wanted to get a certain dimensionality by utilizing watercolor technique with acrylic. I tried to balance the bright colors
PTSD, by artist Dan Miller, records the scene of a frightening accident.
with the morbid nature, because I could’ve gone full morbid, but most of my work has dealt more playfully with darker subject matters.” Miller taps into subjects nobody wants to talk about by revealing what he went through each day while preparing for this exhibition about depression. “I’ll Get to It Tomorrow” is based on a photograph of the artist’s actual kitchen. The sink and surrounding countertop are overflowing with dishes. Anyone who has battled depression must certainly have had this experience. “It gets so overwhelming, and
There’s a lack of motivation. You just don’t want to do anything. It’s easy to be depressed because you don’t want to do anything.” “Obsessive Avoidance” addresses that same lack of motivation. ‘I haven’t left the couch in days’ is scrawled on the wall, surrounded by empty beer cans and remnants of half-eaten food in containers strewn across the coffee table around his laptop. There’s something about Miller’s line work that brings to mind the great Ralph Steadman, the artist famous for his collaborations with Hunter S. Thompson in Rolling Stone. With his heavy blotches of ink and
SOME DISASSEMBLY REQUIRED THROUGH SEPT. 21 AT MARIA NEIL ART PROJECT @ WATERLOO ARTS 15605 WATERLOO RD., 216-692-9500, MARIANEILARTPROJECT.COM
you should be doing [the dishes]. And that feeds into the cycle, and the avoidance gets worse,” says Miller, regarding the mental paralysis that leads to feeling overwhelmed. “Logically it’s stupid. I should be able to function, to just be happy. One of the things about depression is that it makes you feel isolated, and talking about it can be validating. There are a lot of things we feel overwhelmed aboutdoing.
scratched letters, we can almost hear the sound of Miller’s pen as he records his desperation. We land in front of the artwork titled “Something about a Fake Smile” as Miller describes the scene. “This is based on a photo after the accident. I was healing and went to a going-away party for one of my coworkers. I was delirious with pain, but it was important to be there. It was
hard because even though I was bandaged, other people were like, ‘You should smile,’ and I was like, this is impossible. And I thought, I just can’t win.” The artist is depicted with a television for a head. By all accounts, the television should be working. Instead, it is heavy on the shoulders and the screen is blank. The grouping of works highlights Miller’s need for balance. “I’ve always played with size,” he says, “the fight between large format and small subject matter, so letting these [three mixed media works] be grouped on their own on the wall, with the black clouds, you can see they are connected. But on their own they are isolated.” “The Thought You Can’t Admit (pt. I-III)” show the artist, again as television head, in the midst of a suicidal fantasy. There is a deep intricacy in Some Disassembly Required. Miller successfully brings us into his isolation to the point where we must talk about it. In fact, Maria Neil Art Project @Waterloo Arts will be holding an artist talk at the gallery on Sept. 11, starting at 6 p.m.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
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| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
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MOVIES TASMANIAN DEVILS The Nightingale is harrowing sophomore effort from Babadook’s Jennifer Kent Sam Allard Photo Matt Nettheim/IFC Films
AUSSIE WRITER-DIRECTOR Jennifer Kent was already working on her new film, The Nightingale, back in 2014, when Scene interviewed her about her much-talked-about horror debut The Babadook. She described The Nightingale as a “revenge story about the futility of revenge … about the ridiculous nature of an eye for an eye.” Kent said then that she thought it would be difficult to make a straight drama about grief and sorrow and darkness, which is why she incorporated surreal and psychological elements into The Babadook. She said she believed they would make that film’s themes more universal. But there is nothing surreal about The Nightingale. It is less a psychological thriller than a brutal frontier drama. But make no mistake: It is also about grief and sorrow and darkness. It continues its run at Akron’s Nightlight Theater this week and expands locally to the Capitol Theatre. Set in 1820s Tasmania, the sparsely populated island off Australia’s southern coast, the film begins on a military outpost under the command of one Captain Hawkins (Sam Claflin), the absolute poster child for toxic, violent, entitled white masculinity. Relegated to a backwater, alongside scoundrels
and drunks passing for soldiers, he takes his fury out on the region’s aboriginal people and the prisoners in the penal colony he oversees. One of them, a young Irish woman named Clare (Aisling Franciosi, who played Lyanna Stark in Game of Thrones’ final seasons), has completed her sentence, but Hawkins refuses to release her permanently to her husband and young child. He views her less as a slave than as a pet: his little nightingale. After a shocking act of violence — the film comes with a trigger warning about rape, which we hasten to reaffirm; it’s among the tensest and roughest scenes we’ve ever watched — Clare ventures out into the Tasmanian wilderness in pursuit of Hawkins and his men, who are en route to the big city, Launceton, where Hawkins intends to plead his case for a promotion. Clare brings along an aboriginal tracker, a man named Billy (Baykali Ganambarr), who in many ways becomes the film’s most important character. Through Billy’s eyes, Clare sees the savagery of settlercolonialism, the same monstrous behavior that typified the settling of the American frontier. In both America and Tasmania, the chief characteristic of colonization was a violent disregard for indigenous lives. Claflin’s Hawkins is one of
magnetic as they inhabit the grief and rage of their characters. All told, this is a gripping and harrowing film that packs either the strongest or second-strongest gut punch of the year. As a side note, Franciosi bears a resemblance to both Alicia Vikander and Emilia Clarke, the latter of whom starred alongside Claflin in 2017’s godawful tearjerker Me Before You, and if you’ve seen it, you may experience moments of bizarre dislocation throughout.
the purest representations of this abominable inclination. After days in pursuit, and yet another brutal act of violence, vengeance comes to seem ever more futile in the grander scheme of injustice. (Kent was right about that.) The Nightingale nevertheless powerfully acquaints audiences with the pain of victims and with the desperation and rage for which vengeance can often seem like the only antidote. Clare and Billy’s evolving relationship, forged by tragic loss, is one of the more memorable we’ve seen in years. Franciosi, Ganambarr and Claflin are individually and collectively
sallard@clevescene.com t@scenesallard
SPOTLIGHT: ONE CHILD NATION CHINA’S ONE-CHILD POLICY, a population control measure that made it illegal for couples to have more than one child, ended in 2015, but Chinese citizens still grapple with the aftermath of its enforcement. Award-winning documentarian Nanfu Wang (Hooligan Sparrow, I Am Another You) and Jialing Zhang take a long, hard look at that fallout in their well-crafted new film, One Child Nation, which opens Friday at the Cedar Lee. Wang and Zhang uncover one shocking human rights violation after another. The interview subjects talk about abandoned newborns, forced sterilizations and abortions, and government
abductions. “It was really fucked up,” says one city official rather bluntly. Wang also shares her own experiences as a new mother and provides firsthand accounts of her upbringing with archival propaganda material that shows how the government tried to instill the one-child policy in children before they could even speak. Fearlessly interviewing government officials and former human traffickers, Wang also shows how theatrical performances and even children’s songs were used to promote the one-child policy. The policy had its detractors. Peng Wang, a visual artist, was among those who resisted it. In the film, he talks about how he
began exploring its atrocities in his artwork in 1996. He recalls finding a fetus in a trash heap that he photographed. It was wrapped in a yellow plastic bag that read “medical waste.” He found it truly disturbing and as he photographed more trash heaps, he uncovered more fetuses. “I wanted to gather these fetuses to show the fragility of life,” he explains, adding that “the most tragic thing for a nation is to have no memory.” A journalist exposed how some city governments were complicit in selling abandoned babies to orphanages that worked with human traffickers to make the children available for adoption. He wrote an expose for a Chinese newspaper and
then was promptly fired and moved to Hong Kong to escape censorship and write a book about his findings. While the film focuses on China’s one-child policy, its strength comes from how it exposes the way the country manipulated public sentiment and enforced patriarchal values, “taking away women’s control of their own bodies,” as Wang puts it. Given that we live during a time when propaganda runs rampant and women’s rights can’t be taken for granted, the film feels particularly relevant. — Jeff Niesel
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
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| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
EAT WESTSIDE PIZZA CENTER Ohio City Pizzeria pairs good food with great cause By Douglas Trattner MONTEPULCIANO MIGHT BE FUN to drink, but it is absolute murder to pronounce. The six-syllable Italian tongue-twister can strike fear in all but the most sophisticated sommeliers, so it was completely forgivable when our server, while repeating our wine order, failed to stick the landing. But instead of turning into an awkward moment, it developed into a spontaneous sing-along, with the entire group crooning in unison, “maan-tuh-pulchee-ah-noe,” until the phrasing was impossible to forget. The last time we had this much fun with a server was at EDWINS, which is no coincidence given the fact that Ohio City Pizzeria now operates under the watchful eye of Brandon Chrostowski, that organization’s founder. Chrostowski was brought in by the West Side Catholic Center (WSCC), the new owner of the business, to help reshape the food, service and setting at this decades-old westside spot. Now functioning as a nonprofit, Ohio City Pizzeria benefits the community by providing employment to WSCC clients while generating a new revenue stream for essentials like meals, shelter and clothing. Step inside OCP 2.0 and you enter a diorama-like space that could double as a theatrical set for an off-Broadway play that takes place in an Italian-American restaurant. The highly embellished decor is cliched, corny and absolutely perfect, a heartwarming slice of Little Italy in Ohio City. The red-and-white checked tablecloths instantly signal to diners that this joint welcomes all backgrounds and budgets, an ethos at one with the restaurant’s benefactors. Those tables are quickly graced with baskets of soft, fresh Italian bread and cruets of good olive oil. Pitchers of cold water are always at hand and silverware is replaced between most courses. Ohio City Pizzeria was always adored for its pizza (if not its atmosphere) and those pies still fly out of the kitchen with the predictability of a metronome. Crispedged, golden-brown and suspended above the table on a stand, the pizzas sport a buttery crust sturdy
Photo by Emanuel Wallace
enough to support toppings like the diced meatballs, mushrooms, green peppers and fresh basil that crown the Wildcat ($19/$24). Build your own or choose from a list of a halfdozen or so pre-designed pies. An appetizer of stuffed banana peppers ($8) featured blistered peppers unzipped to reveal wellbrowned sausage set against a blaze of tomato sauce. Together, the flavors present themselves in waves of sweet, spicy and savory goodness. Bruschetta ($6) is topped with diced ripe tomatoes buoyed by hits of fresh
dice-size croutons and plump Sicilian anchovies. Chrostowski’s acumen was relied upon to craft a menu that simultaneously satisfied neighborhood diners on a budget while still carving out space for a $32 steak to go with that Tuscan Montepulciano ($42). Old-school calzones can be had for as little as $6, bountiful pasta plates for $12, and meat-based entrees for a few bucks more. A multi-layered lasagna ($12) is like a warm hug, a comforting slice of noodles, meat
OHIO CITY PIZZERIA 3223 LORAIN AVE. 216-281-5252 OHIOCITYPIZZERIA.ORG
lemon and herbs. A longer toast would have provided some welcome textural contrast. OCP first fries and then sautes its calamari ($12), a worst-of-both-worlds process that results in a soggy, saucy, heavy product. We had nothing but high praise for the Caesar ($9), a refreshingly tart, tangy and garlicky salad, spared from the sort of over-thetop creamy dressings that sink so many. This one also benefits from fat shavings of quality Parmesan,
sauce, tomatoes and cheese. The chicken Marsala ($15) is an umami bomb starring earthy mushrooms, sauteed chicken and a tangle of al dente fettucine. Other pasta-based dishes include bucatini Bolognese, cavatelli with meatballs and fettuccini Alfredo. Seafood seekers have just two main selections from which to choose: linguine with clams in a white wine and butter sauce and branzino with lemon-butter sauce and roasted potatoes.
For dessert there’s tiramisu, cannoli and a ricotta cheesecake ($7) gilded with Super Punch, a nearcultish cordial from Italy’s Abruzzo region. That liqueur is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the broad and deep beverage program at Ohio City Pizzeria. From a small but cheerful bar at the back of the room flow feisty cocktails like negronis and manhattans, silken dessert pours such as Sauternes and Vov, an Italian eggnog, and delightful digestifs like imported limoncello made from the peels of sun-kissed lemons grown on the Amalfi Coast. And then there’s the 100-bottle wine list, which might seem like overkill for a 30-seat pizzeria on Lorain — but we certainly aren’t complaining. There are labels hailing from the regions of Tuscany, Abruzzo, Piedmont, Sicily, Puglia, Umbria and Veneto — not to mention New World picks from the States — each hand-picked by Chrostowski, a certified sommelier. Glass pours and beers round out the selection. I can’t imagine a better recipe for success than good food and joyful service dished up in a convivial dining room with proceeds going to a great cause.
dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner
| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
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EAT BITES Imperfect Produce to bring oddly shaped fruits and veggies to Cleveland subscribers
a new menu every day. LUNCH DINNER BRUNCH HAPPY HOUR FRESH & LOCAL
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CLEVELANDERS CAN NOW HAVE wonky fruits and vegetables ferried directly to their front door. The national company Imperfect Produce, based in San Francisco, launched its services in the Cleveland area last week, taking “ugly” leftover fresh produce from farmers, purveyors and growers around the country and sending it to the homes of people who subscribe to the service. As Imperfect Produce reports, “20 percent of all fruits and vegetables grown in the U.S. do not meet the strict cosmetic standards of grocery stores, which results in 20 billion pounds of produce being unharvested or unsold each year.” Imperfect Produce instead looks to “save” these unwanted items by making people pay for them — at prices they claim are about 30 percent less than at the grocery store. And while this all sounds warm and fuzzy in theory, some in the food industry aren’t convinced that people purchasing misshapen cucumbers and the like will actually do anything to solve the world’s food waste problem, as farmers are still over-producing their crops. As the Atlantic reported in January, the positive impact of do-good startups like Imperfect Produce is hard to prove in such a complex and broken food system. Imperfect Produce has listened to various arguments and theoretical solutions to the food waste problem, but maintains that they are saving food from landfills. “Our mission to eliminate food waste and build a better food system for everyone is not a side-project or afterthought; it’s our reason for being,” company co-founder and CEO Ben Simon said in a statement. (Simon was first inspired to tackle food waste as a student at the University of Maryland.) The company says that since starting in 2015, they have recovered 40 million pounds of ugly fruits and vegetables. Imperfect Produce subscriptions start at $12. You can learn more on the website, imperfectproduce.com. — Laura Morrison
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| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
Barrio is Coming to Strongsville, Whether Strongsville is Ready or Not Cleveland’s beloved Barrio is expanding once again. This time, the choose-your-own-tacoadventure concept will be heading to Strongsville. While every other Northeast location is set in a high foot-traffic area — Tremont, downtown, Lakewood — this southern suburb isn’t exactly known for its walkability. However, wherever a Barrio is built, people seem to come. Have you tried that queso? Barrio is also opening a location in Kent soon and has plans to open one on the Michigan State University campus this fall. The Strongsville location will be the restaurant’s 10th. — Morrison
Erie Island Coffee Co. Opens New Location Downtown Clevelanders now have one more location to get their caffeine fix. On a downtown stretch of Euclid Avenue, where Playhouse Square gives way to Cleveland State University, Erie Island Coffee Co. has set up shop on the ground floor of the Edge (1750 Euclid Ave.), the “premium student housing” facility that opened in 2017. This is Erie Island Coffee’s fourth location, joining shops in Rocky River, Elyria and the original spot on East Fourth, which opened in 2009. The new menu is sure to include some of the things customers have come to know and love, including expertly crafted lattes, cappuccinos and even tea. Food options should include things like soups, salads and sandwiches. — Morrison
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
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| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
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| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
B
ACK WHEN JAZZ GUITARIST Pat Metheny started performing on the Kansas City circuit in the early ’70s, he looked to the city’s older musicians for inspiration. “I really learned about music on the bandstands of Kansas City with many of the best players in town of that era: Gary Sivils, Paul Smith, Tommy Ruskin, Russ Long and many others who might not be world famous but remain among the greatest musicians I have ever known,” he says in a recent email exchange in advance of Friday’s concert at the Kent Stage with Side-Eye, a side project featuring keyboardist James Francies and drummer Marcus Gilmore. “I know Cleveland has had a similar community of players over the years who are great and just never chose to leave. It was on the job training for me. I was really lucky to have that experience as a young teenage kid and will forever be grateful for it.” Metheny had the good fortune
to grow up in a very musical family. His father played trumpet, his mother sang and his maternal grandfather was a professional trumpeter. “I was lucky,” he says when asked about his upbringing. “The emphasis was on quality musicianship. And there was always a lot of great music on the stereo, so even in the middle of rural Missouri, I was exposed to really good notes.” He got his first guitar when he was 12; he proceeded to teach himself to play. “The good part was that since there were no teachers around, the only thing I could compare myself to were the things I was hearing on records — and compared to that I was terrible,” he says of learning how to play and developing his own musical voice. “So I had my work cut out for me. All of my favorite musicians had a sound. That was clearly the goal. I am still puzzled by the generation that immediately followed me. Fortunately, the
Photo courtesy of the Kurland Agency
MUSIC
| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
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MUSIC generation after that one was back to it.” Metheny launched his career with a bang. In 1974, he appeared on an album with pianist Paul Bley, bassist Jaco Pastorius and drummer Bruce Ditmas. He didn’t even know the session he played was being recorded. But he left a lasting impression and would release his debut album, Bright Size Life, in 1976. “The foundation I had from Kansas City was the key to everything that followed [Bright Size Life],” Metheny says. “Joining Gary Burton’s band at age 18 was like joining the Beatles for me. Each step followed the next. But in the end, whatever the music has wound up being has fostered whatever happened.” His unique improvisational style that blends “the loose and flexible articulation customarily reserved for horn players with an advanced rhythmic and harmonic sensibility,” as it’s put in his bio, quickly turned him into a sensation. There’s a vibrancy to his playing that’s apparent
is the best of everything up to this point.” Metheny says he’s always had “a bunch of different things going musically” at any given point in his career, so Side-Eye shouldn’t be seen as an anomaly. “I have presented [music] in different guises to somehow distinguish the general musical destinations that I was going to focus on for that period,” he says. “This has generally been useful, but in truth everything I do functions in basically the same way in that I try to find the best musicians I can who I feel can help me to get to the best version of what is interesting to me at the time. In that sense, regardless of what I call it, everything is essentially the ‘Pat Metheny Group’ in that it is about coming up with a setting that is unique and inspiring and resonates with my sense of how I am hearing things at that particular moment.” He says he always tries to “create an environment where whoever it is I choose at a particular time can also shine and get to the things that they do best.” Side-Eye continues in that tradition. “This particular version of that platform is set up, so I can draw
PAT METHENY SIDE-EYE WITH JAMES FRANCIES AND MARCUS GILMORE 8 P.M. FRIDAY, AUG. 30 | THE KENT STAGE, 175 EAST MAIN ST., KENT | 330-677-5005 TICKETS: $62-$77 | thekentstage.com
on Pat Metheny Group’s self-titled debut, which came out in 1978. The complexity of tunes such as “Phase Dance” and “Jaco,” which feature the electric guitar prominently, suggest his prodigious talent. Over the decades, Metheny has performed with everyone from Steve Reich to Ornette Coleman and Herbie Hancock. Last year, Metheny launched a project he calls Side-Eye with keyboardist James Francies and drummer Marcus Gilmore. “I continue to be a big fan of the music,” he says when asked about how he met Francies and Gilmore. “I follow the scene closely and have a pretty good idea who the best new players are as soon as they become active on the scene. The challenge for me is to find people who can play simple. It is pretty easy to find lots of people who can play some fancy stuff. Both James and Marcus fit that bill. I have known Marcus since he was a little kid — he is Roy Haynes’ grandson. And James immediately captured my interest — I don’t think there has been a James before. James is an original. Marcus
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| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
from the best of some of the younger players around who have impressed me,” he says. “Many of those musicians have grown up listening to my stuff as part of their broad interest in this music and have absorbed the details of it in a way that is really interesting to me. This is a chance to explore some of the older music through that prism, and also for me to write some new things to feature the aspects of their relationship to that language that might lead to something special. So far, it has proven to be a total blast both looking at earlier music and also doing some of the newer things that I have written just for these players.” Metheny says the upcoming show at Kent Stage will feature “a bunch of new tunes.” “I have a wide variety of material that works well in this setting,” he says. “I hope we will cover a wide range of things that folks will enjoy.”
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
@masoniccle @hobcleveland
@masoniccleveland
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| clevesc clevescene.com cenee.com m | August Auugust 28 28 - September Sept ptte ber 3, ptem 3 20199
WATSON TWINS
MATT & KIM
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Photo courtesy of Unknownphrazes
A LOCAL PRODUCER, DJ AND singer-songwriter, Unknownphrazes came to Cleveland from Mexico when he was 10. He started creating his own beats and writing his own songs shortly after the move to Northeast Ohio as a way of coping with being a stranger in a strange land. “I started making music when I was 13 just to deal with the fact that I had moved from a whole different country,” he says. He performs at 9 p.m. on Thursday at Touch Supper Club at a show that will serve as a release party for his new EP, It Was All an Illusion. “I am self-taught. I taught myself to engineer and record my own music. At that time when I started, I was listening to the earlier Drake. I was also into 50 Cent and Eminem, and I was a big of fan of [producers such as] Dr. Dre and the Alchemist.” When he was still a teenager, Unknownphrazes, then simply known as Phrazes, joined up with the local hip-hop collective Common Ave., a group that featured people he knew from high school. Phrazes and rapper Jordan M. started working together first, and then they brought “the kid” Stoke into the mix. As Common Ave., they dabbled in beatmaking, production and graphic design. That group released a few singles and EPs before dropping Aurora Borealiss, its first official release, in 2014. The album represented the group’s attempt revamping the ’90s and echoing the positivity of the Native
Tongues movement. “We just started making music,” says Unknownphrazes when asked about the time he spent with Common Ave. “I had a great time making music with them. It was a learning experience. It gave me a lot of knowledge on being able to perform and how to release music. It was a good run. It was all good.” That group broke up in 2015, and Phrazes took a year off before returning as a solo
local rapper Case Bargé. Unknownphrazes put out a demo last year, but he says he’s put more energy into his new EP, It Was All an Illusion. “The whole EP is inspired by a moment I had,” he says. “I thought of the entire concept during that moment, and the next day I woke up and recorded the entire project. The theme is realizing that I didn’t know if that moment was real or not, to be honest. It could’ve been fake. It was
UNKNOWNPHRAZES 9 P.M. THURSDAY, AUG. 29 TOUCH SUPPER CLUB, 2710 LORAIN AVE., 216-631-5200 TICKETS: $8, TOUCHSUPPERCLUB.COM
artist and rechristening himself Unknownphrazes toward the end of 2016. “I used to go by Phrazes and there’s this album by Julian Casablancas g, and there called Phrazes for the Young was always a lot of confusion between my name and that project,” he says. “I added the ‘unknown’ to it to describe how there can be more phrases to describe music.” At that point, he also joined ALOOF, a local group of musicians he describes as “a creative group that does events.” “It’s really more of a movement,” he says of ALOOF, which also includes
like a dream, and it definitely inspired me.” The three-song EP commences with “Silhouette,” a track that has an R&B feel thanks to the soulful intro sung by local DJ Pxzka. “I wrote the poetry for her,” Unknownphrazes explains. “That song serves as my introduction to this sound. I have another release coming up called Lavenderr. This EP is the pre-project for it. That’s the sound I will identify myself with even more on Lavenderr.” The electronica-influenced “Nightmare” serves as an interlude. “The song is really soft and shows
how I’m definitely inspired by electronic music,” says Unknownphrazes. “I incorporate that with the theme of the album. The other background vocals are me singing. I’m a big New Age electronic fan. I like a lot of current stuff. I’m a big fan of the Soulection brand and a lot of the producers from the Cali scene.” The album’s final track, “Illusion,” features deep-voiced backing vocals that makes it comes off as something truly psychedelic and trippy. “That’s me singing those background vocals too, but I did those on a song from about six years ago. When I recorded the actual lyrics, I was trying to find something that fit the hook,” says Unknownphrazes. “I came across those vocals and threw them on this track and mashed them with the song, and it worked perfectly.” Unknownphrazes says his upcoming show at Touch will mirror the album’s theme. “I’m going to do everything live from the beats to the vocals with a real intimate mood,” he says. “We’ll do a lot with the lights and have a lot of projections on the wall. When you go to a rap show, there’s a DJ between acts, but I want this to be more of a musical event. I’ll be making the beats live and performing them live. I want it to be something extra and out of the ordinary.”
jjniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
| clevescene.com m | August 28 - September 3, 2019
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Thu September 5
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An Acoustic Evening with
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Robert Randolph & The Family Band
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| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
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all the live music you should see this week Photo by Piero F. Giunti
WED
08/28
Brackish/Two Hand Fools/Varsity Pinball: 9 p.m., $5. Now That’s Class. Scott Hanson & Friends (in the Supper Club): 6 p.m., free. Music Box Supper Club. Night Terrors With Chris Bober: 8 p.m., $7. Bop Stop. The Skull: 8:30 p.m., $15 ADV, $18 DOS. Grog Shop. Why Don’t We/EBEN: 7 p.m., $39.50-$59.50. Jacobs Pavilion.
THU
08/29
Australian Pink Floyd: 7:30 p.m., $32.50-$59.50. MGM Northfield Park Center Stage. Kofi Baker’s Psychedelic Trip (in the Supper Club): 7:30 p.m., $15 ADV, $20 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. Cave Curse/The Missed/Jaite: 8:30 p.m., $6. Happy Dog. An Evening with the Insiders: 8:30 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Beachland Tavern. Honey Pocket: 8 p.m., $7. CODA. Mac Sabbath/Okilly Docilely/ Playboy Manbaby: In today’s flooded world of tribute acts, an original schtick sometimes sets a band apart from its cloning peers and makes up for mediocre musicianship. California’s Mac Sabbath has found the most original and hilarious gimmick ever — dressing up like warped McDonalds characters and playing Black Sabbath parodies. The unique show has generated viral press around the country. Expect to hear bastardized Sabbath McNuggets. “Iron Man” aborts into “Frying Pan,” “Children of the Grave” into “Chicken for the Slaves” and so on. Singer Ronald Osbourne is a great frontman who’s got all the Ozzy mannerisms down. (Joe Kleon) 8:30 p.m., $20. Beachland Ballroom. Time Cat/Part Time Lover: 8 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. Jackie Warren: 7 p.m., $15. Bop Stop.
FRI
08/30
King Buu Album Release/The Dreemers/Leaf Borbie: 8 p.m., $7. CODA.
Los Lobos performs at E.J. Thomas Hall. See: Friday.
Michelle Lordi: 8 p.m., $20. Bop Stop. Los Lobos: With the mantle of TexMex zydeco rock ’n’ roll gracing their legacy, Los Lobos have been infusing the American scene with a South-of-the-order flair for more than four decades. They’ve dropped many albums, including 2015’s Gates of Gold, which keeps pace with David Hidalgo’s head-nodding, rhythmic songwriting and the allhands-on-deck knack for getting listeners dancing and thinking. Everything from the upbeat “Made to Break Your Heart” to the downtrodden “There I Go” is of a piece on this one, and one would do well to rewind a bit and revisit the band’s classics, as well. (For my money, their best tune is the haunting “When the Circus Comes,” which details the pain and agony of a relationship fading into the ether.) They’ve just returned from a swing through Europe. (Eric Sandy) 8 p.m., $45-$55. E.J. Thomas Hall. Pat Metheny Side-Eye/James Francies/Marcus Gilmore: 8 p.m., $62-$77. The Kent Stage. The Original Waysiders: 9 p.m., $8. The Winchester. Saved By the ’90s: 9 p.m., $13 ADV, $15 DOS. House of Blues. Jackie Warren: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown. Z107.9 SummerJam with Gucci Mane/DaBaby/Megan Thee Stallion: $40-$110. Wolstein Center.
SAT
08/31
Eve Minor/Glendale/Apostle Jones Band: 8 p.m., $10. CODA.
Fab Four: The Ultimate Tribute: 8 p.m., $32.50-$38.50. MGM Northfield Park Center Stage. Gabriel’s Horns: 8 p.m., $15 ADV, $20 DOS. Bop Stop. Heavenly Creatures/Forager/ Strobobean/Sweepyheads: 9 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Grog Shop. JiMiller Band — Grateful Family Affair (in the Supper Club): A veteran local group, JiMiller Band “blends together blues, country, Cajun, old rock ’n’ roll, jazz and bluegrass into a musical Americana that is both fresh and timeless.” Like the Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers before it, the band has a tendency to jam, something that will undoubtedly be on display tonight at the Music Box where it’ll pay tribute to the Grateful Dead. The show will feature Paul Perme of the Gila Monsters, Mike Miller of Vibe and Direct, and members of Jerry’s Little Band. (Jeff Niesel) 8 p.m., $15. Music Box Supper Club. Signals Midwest Record Release Show/Sure, Machine/Old Souls/ Pigeon: With more-than-earnest songwriting, mid-song breakdowns, and sing-along choruses, Signals Midwest, a band that formed in Cleveland in 2008, has contributed to the indie-punk/emo revival of the past few years. Over that time, the band has crafted a more mature sound and introduced more complex pop hooks and punk melodies. Even though the band still books its own shows, its growing popularity suggests a much bigger following could be on the horizon. Tonight’s show serves as a release party for its new album, Pin. (Johnny Cook)
8 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Now That’s Class. Tomorrows Ghosts: 9 p.m., $10. The Winchester. Jackie Warren: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown.
SUN
09/01
Direct Hit!/Blacklister: 8:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Grog Shop. Escape From the Zoo/MettaGov/ Off Course/Mike Defendant + Katrina: 8 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. The Winchester. Reggae Sundays: Carlos Jones & P.L.U.S. Band (in the Supper Club): This special Reggae Sunday Happy Hour Concert series began earlier this month and continues through today, Sept. 1. The indoor/ outdoor concert takes place rain or shine with live music from 4 to 7 p.m. Music Box will also offer food and drink specials exclusive to the series. Today, the local act Carlos Jones will perform. The show marks the end of the summer series. (Niesel) 4 p.m., free. Music Box Supper Club.
TUE
09/03
Cinghiale (Ken Vandermark & Mars Williams)/Steve Marquette: 8 p.m., $20. Beachland Tavern.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
35
WE OFFER EXCLUSIVE GROUP RATES! Groups of 10 or more may receive EXCLUSIVE FREEPLAY ® incentives & discounted ticket rates! For more details contact the MGM Tour & Travel Team. Email tour-travel@mgmnorthfieldpark.com or call 330-908-7761
BAND OF THE WEEK PRONOUN By Jeff Niesel Photo by Shervin Lainez
8/31
THE FAB FOUR The Ultimate Tribute
9/20
GORDON LIGHTFOOT 80 Years Strong Tour
9/21
BLACKBERRY SMOKE + THE RECORD COMPANY Till The Wheels Fall Off Tour
10/5
LEWIS BLACK The Joke’s On Us Tour
10/11
GEORGE THOROGOOD & THE DESTROYERS Good To Be Bad Tour: 45 Years of Rock
10/12
JOHNNY GILL & RALPH TRESVANT
10/13
TOTO 40 Trips Around the Sun
10/16
DEEP PURPLE The Long Goodbye Tour
9/6
BUCKCHERRY 8PM
9/27
HOTEL CALIFORNIA A Salute to the Eagles 8PM
AN EMO-ROCK-POP HYBRID: Vellturo
10/18 DANE COOK
Tell It Like It Is 8PM
10/20 HERB ALPERT & LANI HALL
WARD ANDERSON FEATURING LARRY XL
9/27 9/28
THUNDER FROM DOWN UNDER
9/13
GRUNGE DNA
9/20
MATT JOHNSON’S DUELING PIANO FIASCO
9/14
STONE PONY
9/6 9/7
7PM & 9:30PM
90’S ROCK & GRUNGE TRIBUTE 8PM BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY TRIBUTE 8PM
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MEET THE BAND: Alyse Vellturo (vocals, guitar, drum programming, bass programming)
| clevescene.com | August 28 - September 3, 2019
grew up listening to lots of hip-hop before gravitating to indie rock. “My transition into rock was the Strokes,” she says. “I worked at a record store, and they would pay me in CDs. I used to grab all the rap albums. But the first Strokes album had just come out and the cover caught my eye. I then started to listen to bands like Dashboard Confessional and Third Eye Blind and stuff like that. It was emo-rock-pop.” FORMALLY EDUCATED: Vellturo attended Berklee College of Music prior to starting her band Pronoun. “It was super interesting,” she says. “Everyone there has to audition to get in. Your prerequisites are classes on harmonies and things like that. No matter what you were majoring in, you had to do jazz theory and classical theory. I hadn’t had any formal training. I had no experience recording, and I learned about microphones and how to record. It was great.” About four or five years later, she started writing and recording as Pronoun. Her first EP, there’s no one new around you, came out in 2016. “If you listen to it, it’s pretty simple,” she says of the EP. “It was fun to make. To me, the coolest thing that has ever fucking happened is that it even came out.” She followed it up with this year’s i’ll show you stronger, another terrific release of synth-pop indie rock. FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES: Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional recently tweeted about her, and the two have
become friends. “I got a Twitter notification on my phone, and he was calling out new emo music he likes and mentioned me. I internally freaked out. He is a pretty big story about why I wanted to start making music. I sent him a message and said, ‘Thanks.’ I played Nashville recently, and he came to the show, and we hung out.” WHY YOU SHOULD HEAR HER: “You’re not trying at all,” the synth-driven opening track on i’ll show you stronger, features layers of beautiful vocals that almost give it a Cocteau Twins feel, and shimmering guitars bring “run,” a song that finds Vellturo adroitly alternating between singing and speaking, to life. Vellturo’s raspy vocals on “Sadie” recall the Psychedelic Furs’ Richard Butler, and the undulating “some people” features whispered vocals. “The lyrics ended up pouring out but it took a while,” she says of writing the songs on the fulllength. “In some places, I don’t think it sounds as good as it could. I think that’s part of what makes it different … so I’m happy with how it came out. It took forever and then came together quickly in the end. It’s not really a breakup album, but the songs are about finding yourself after a breakup and getting on with your life.” WHERE YOU CAN HEAR HER: musicpronoun.
com. WHERE YOU CAN SEE HER: Pronoun performs with Real Friends and Keep Flying at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 30, at Mahall’s 20 Lanes in Lakewood.
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
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SAVAGE LOVE COME THE REVOLUTION by Dan Savage I’m a straight woman and have been sexually active for about six years. I’m in my mid-20s now and about ready to become a “man-hating feminist.” I feel like I can figure out what a guy wants in bed pretty easily. I cannot remember a single time when I’ve had sex with a guy that he has not had an orgasm. I, on the other hand, have never had an orgasm. Quite the opposite! I’ve barely even been aroused lately when I am having sex because it’s easy to tell when the guy I’m with just wants to come and that is the only thing on his mind. This makes me want to just get it over with. I’ve become really angry with the male population and their lack of care for pleasing a woman. Will it take a Women’s Pleasure Revolution for men to realize that their female counterparts have needs, too? Granted, I’ve had sex with only five guys — but in my mind, Dan, that’s five too many. I also have girlfriends in the same boat. Men skip foreplay, they don’t return the favor when it comes to oral, and they’re so eager to get their penises in my vagina, they barely touch me before doing so! THIS MAKES ME FEEL USED. I’m a giving woman by nature, but I feel like men just take. I don’t hate men. I actually really like men. In fact, I was madly in love with one of the five. — Really Enraged/Vexed Over Lazy Turds
Plenty of straight men are turned on by the fantasy of their wives being with other men ...
“Lots of foreplay, mutual oral, enough touch to get me going or, better yet, get me off at least once — all of these things have to happen before we fuck.” Practice saying that in a mirror, REVOLT, and then say it out loud to the next guy you sleep with. Say it and mean it. And if those things don’t happen — if he skips the foreplay or won’t go down on you or refuses to touch you with anything other than his dick — then he doesn’t get to fuck you. Get up, get dressed, and go. The sooner you walk out on guys who don’t want to do those things, the sooner you’ll find yourself in bed with guys who do. So no more having sex to “get it over with” (GIOW), no more sticking around for shitty GIOW sex that leaves you feeling used. Some guys will be happy to see you go. Given a choice between a woman they can’t treat like a crusty tube sock and an actual crusty
disappointing male partners who have already disappointed them; too many women slap on a smile and fake an orgasm to spare the feelings of dudes who don’t give a shit about their feelings or their pleasure. You say you were in love with one of the five guys you had sex with, REVOLT, which I hope means you didn’t fear him and could talk to him. Yet every single time you had sex, you allowed this guy to essentially masturbate inside you. You didn’t stick up for yourself, you didn’t advocate for your own pleasure, you didn’t say, “Here’s what you need to do to please me.” Take a little personal responsibility here: You let Mr. One-In-Five get away with it. He let you down — he should have been more proactive about pleasing you — but you also let yourself down. No more. Insist
tube sock, a statistically significant percentage of straight guys will choose the crusty tube sock. Don’t waste your precious time or pussy on guys like that. And don’t waste a moment of your time or any of your pussy on guys who will engage in a little half-assed foreplay or go down on you for 30 seconds before they try to stick their dicks in you. Only fuck the guys who enjoy foreplay and are excited to eat your pussy before fucking you — or instead of fucking you. The revolution you want isn’t going to come because some homo ordered straight boys everywhere to start engaging in foreplay and eating pussy. The revolution is only going to come— you’re only going to come — if you and your friends and all women everywhere stop settling for GIOW sex. Now, some women have GIOW sex because they’re afraid a guy might react violently if they withdraw consent. They fear male violence, and that’s a sadly reasonable fear. But too many women have GIOW sex to avoid
on more and better from here on out, REVOLT, and you will get more and better. P.S. If what you meant by “I have never had an orgasm” is that you’ve never had an orgasm at all, ever, alone or with a partner, then you need to start masturbating right now. You’ll enjoy partnered sex more if you know what it takes to make you come and you can show your partners exactly what that looks like. And whether you’re already masturbating or not, please get your hands on a copy of The Vagina Bible, Jen Gunter’s new book on everything vaginal, vulval, and clitoral.
*** I’m a straight woman in my mid30s. For most of my adult life, I’ve gotten off on fantasizing about my boyfriends fucking other women. So far it’s been fantasy-only, but I’m intrigued by the prospect of a real cuckquean scenario. However, I’ve always been reluctant to share my kink. It’s not that I fear rejection or
judgment. I think most guys would be into it, including the lovely man I’m currently in a committed relationship with. Rather, it’s my own discomfort with a kink that I fear stems from an unhealthy emotional place. Insecurity, avoiding intimacy, and difficulty trusting men are all issues I’ve struggled with, and the cuckquean kink plays right into all of that. I’ve worked with therapists over the years and gotten into a somewhat solid place emotionally. Alas, my kink remains, and has gotten stronger to the point where I’m imagining my guy fucking someone else about 99 percent of the time in order to come. I wish I could get more enjoyment from “normal” sex. I’ve read your column long enough to know that I should probably just embrace my kink and enjoy it. But while I’m trying my damnedest to be sex-positive, I can’t get around the
nagging feeling that there’s something “unhealthy” about this fantasy. If my kink is based on specific insecurities/ fears, do they get even more hardwired into my brain with every orgasm? — This Reluctant Cuckquean Two quick questions: (1) How much more hardwired could something possibly become if you already have to think about it 99 percent of the time in order to climax? (2) What if imagining your guy fucking other women is “normal” sex for you? A lot of people’s kinks are essentially eroticized fears: the fear of being humiliated, the fear of being exposed, the fear of being cheated on, etc. Not everyone eroticizes these fears, of course, but so many of us do that it really should be covered in sex-ed courses. In your case, TRC, your erotic imagination took something that scares you — being cheated on — and turned it into something that arouses you. The difference between your worst fear and your ultimate turn-on is control. If your man fucks another woman, it will happen because you wanted it to (you gave him permission) and there will be something in it for you (it will get you off). Which is not to say you ever have to act on this. You don’t. Plenty of straight men are turned on by the fantasy of their wives being with other men but know they couldn’t handle the reality of it, so they enjoy it as a fantasy only. But they don’t — or the healthy ones don’t — deny themselves the fantasy, whether it’s just playing it out in their heads or their monogamous partners indulging them with a little cheating-centered dirty talk during sex. We can’t will kinks away, TRC, we can only embrace and accept them. Again, that doesn’t mean we have to act on them — some fantasies can never be realized for moral reasons — but to beat ourselves up about our kinks is a waste of time.
On the Lovecast, rival advice columnist E. Jean Carroll: savagelovecast.com.
mail@savagelove.net t@fakedansavage
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