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CONTENTS
&%"25!29 s 6/, .O 32 Upfront .......................................5 Feature .......................................9 Get Out! .................................... 17 Art ........................................... 22 Stage ......................................... 23 Dedicated to Free Times founder Richard H. Siegel (1935-1993) and Scene founder Richard Kabat Publisher Andrew Zelman Editor Vince Grzegorek Editorial Music Editor Jeff Niesel Senior Writer Sam Allard Staff Writer Brett Zelman Web Editor Laura Morrison Dining Editor Douglas Trattner Visual Arts Writer Dott von Schneider Stage Editor Christine Howey Copy Editor Elaine Cicora Interns Claudia Ugbana Advertising Senior Multimedia Account Executive John Crobar, Shayne Rose Creative Services Art Director/Production Manager Steve Miluch Staff Photographer Emanuel Wallace Business
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REWIND: 1974 As Scene barrels toward its 50th anniversary in July — 50 years, you guys! — we’ll be highlighting some old covers and coverage in every issue. We start with the cover from the ďŹ rst week of February 1974, featuring Lou Reed. Check out page 40 for our original review of his album Rock ’n’ Roll Animal.
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| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
UPFRONT COUNCIL REDUCTION ISSUES PULLED FROM BALLOT AFTER SUSPICIOUS AGREEMENT JUST LIKE THAT, TWO BALLOT measures to reduce the size and pay of Cleveland City Council have been pulled from the March ballot after an agreement between the group organizing the measures and a local coalition of clergy. Because the decision came after the legal deadline, issues 3 and 4 will still appear on the ballot, but the votes will not count. The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has said that it will post signs at polling locations to alert voters of the change. The announcement Friday came as a surprise. Westlake businessman Tony George, who funded petition circulators for the ballot measures, told Scene that meetings with City Council had been ongoing for more than a month but that a deal could not be reached. Clevelanders First, the group supporting council reduction, then agreed to allow a local university to produce a study on the most effective ways to reform council. After the press conference Friday, council president Kevin Kelley said he was grateful that the issues were being tabled, but would not commit to honoring the suggestions made by the study. (To do so would be “unreasonable,” he said.) Tony George claimed that his only motive for funding the initiatives in the first place was to hold city government accountable. Sources in City Hall are convinced that the council reduction measures were drafted out of spite after George failed to win a utilities contract in 2017. The Cleveland Clergy Coalition has appeared on the scene before. It stepped in to “save” the Q Deal in 2017 after the Ohio Supreme Court sided with referendum seekers and allowed a vote to go forward in the city of Cleveland. After the Clergy Coalition’s intervention, the petitions were pulled by the Greater Cleveland Congregations. Most recently, the Clergy Coalition’s executive director, Aaron Phillips, sounded off about not receiving a personal invitation to Cleveland Rising. Phillips is a former assistant county prosecutor and remains a local power broker. “[Phillips’] political consulting firm, Engagement Consulting LLC, is regularly contracted for service, especially by white west-side
judicial candidates without bona fide crosstown community connections,” wrote local journalist Richard Andrews after the press conference. “His ability to get these candidates in front of black preachers adds to his credibility, if not necessarily to that of the ministers.” Phillips portrayed the council reduction issue in racial terms. He said that he and other ministers were concerned that the ballot measures would lead to an “East-Side West-Side split.” Pastor E.T. Caviness echoed that sentiment. He told Ideastream that the ballot measures would “cause harm to our city in terms of East and West, black and white, and we did not
want that.” These concerns were voiced without evidence of any kind. (Anecdotally, Scene has heard some of the most vocal support for council reduction from eastside wards, constituents who are fed up with representatives like Ken Johnson and view the reduction measures as the most direct way to hold poor leaders accountable. As far as we know, there was no polling on the issue. Sudden experts materialized on social media anyway to claim that the momentum was swinging in City Council’s favor.) The announcement came only days after it was revealed that Kevin Kelley and his assistant Steven Rys had claimed the names “Clevelanders
First” and “Clevelanders 1st” with the Ohio Secretary of State and filed paperwork with the Board of Elections to create political action committees with those names. Had the ballot measures gone forward, the result would have been that the opposing campaigns would be calling themselves the same thing. The most generous interpretation of that move is that Kelley and Rys are savvy political operators who exploited an oversight. They swooped in and reserved the names to complicate their opponents’ fundraising (to the extent any existed, beyond Tony George’s personal checkbook) and obstruct them legally. Kelley said that he might send the | clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
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UPFRONT George-funded Clevelanders First group a cease and desist letter over what is now an illegal use of the name. Rys told Scene that “every dollarâ€? the George-funded Clevelanders First group claims to have spent after its hold on the name expired in November “is a lieâ€? and should be considered election falsiďŹ cation, a ďŹ fth-degree felony. Kelley and Rys no doubt believed that in a political dogďŹ ght against a rich, bad-faith actor like Tony George, any means to reduce his inuence and chances of victory should have been pursued, even if it meant confusing the electorate. We’ll never know for sure, but the strategy might have backďŹ red. At a moment when council members should have been communicating their value and trustworthiness to constituents, they were busy doing a bunch of things their constituents hate. (Take, for example, the story below: the news that councilwoman Dona Brady would be vacating her seat and appointing a lawyer, who lived in Lakewood until very recently, as her replacement.)
Or take this Kelley and Rys maneuver. However they justify it, they look like teenagers opportunistically hoarding internet domain names. (Cuyahoga County BOE conďŹ rmed that the “Clevelanders First/1stâ€? PAC creation was “just like that, yeah,â€? when we made the comparison.) And they reveal themselves to be the same characters who have reveled in subverting other forms of democratic action: by erroneously claiming a citizen-led referendum drive was invalid because it would violate the U.S. Constitution, for example, or by refusing to certify petitions because they lacked properly worded election falsiďŹ cation warnings. Just imagine — imagine! — if Kelley and Rys had claimed the names “CLASHâ€? and “Cleveland Lead Advocates for Safe Housingâ€? early last year to thwart the efforts of the coalition pushing for solutions to childhood lead poisoning. The shittiness could not have been overstated. (Here, the George-backed Clevelanders First group is much less public-spirited. But the effect of the Kelley-Rys maneuver is nevertheless to create sympathy for that group’s members. “It’s a political move to confuse the voters,â€? one of the group’s leaders told Ideastream.) It sure seems that way! Especially
because Kelley and Rys didn’t appear to have stolen the names as a tactical “eff youâ€? to George. They were not simply squatting on the name, in other words. They actually intended to coopt it, to call themselves “Clevelanders First.â€? It should go without saying that that would have been extremely confusing. Since 2018, the group in favor of council reduction was called “Clevelanders First.â€? Now the councilled group against reduction would be calling itself the same thing? Can there be any realistic explanation other than that this was a deliberate effort to sow confusion among voters? The move actually might provide some insight as to why Tony George caved. Council leadership may have threatened George with legal action if he did not pull the petitions. The racial concerns of the Cleveland Clergy Coalition might merely have been cover for the continuation of a petty personal conict. — Sam Allard
Dona Brady Names Attorney Brian Mooney as Council Replacement in Ward 11 In a letter to her Ward 11 constituents, councilwoman Dona
Brady ofďŹ cially announced that she’d be stepping down and said that she was appointing attorney Brian Mooney as her replacement. Mooney is a resident of the ward and serves as safety coordinator for Westown Development Corporation, the CDC that serves Ward 11. Previously he’s served as an assistant in the ofďŹ ces of the Ohio attorney general and the mayor of Lakewood. From 1996 to 2006, according to his LinkedIn page, he worked as an assistant prosecutor in the county prosecutor’s ofďŹ ce. In the letter to residents, Brady, who’s been on council since 1999, said she struggled with the decision, but that she felt it was time to move on to pursue “some of [her] other interests.â€? She said she would remain a resident of Ward 11 and planned to be active in civic affairs. Council voted on Monday night to approve Mooney. This issue was sent to press before the meeting but, as council’s own press release on the vote noted, Mooney was “sure to be appointed,â€? illustrating, unintentionally, the starkly shitty process whereby tradition dictates that other members vote for whomever the departing member decrees. Residents of Ward 11 will next
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| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
get to decide who represents them in 2021. Brady’s selection of a male heir means that city council will now have only two female representatives (Ward 5’s Phyllis Cleveland and Ward 14’s Jasmin Santana) on the 17-member body. Incidentally that’s as many women as there are white men named Brian. — Allard
Chill Out About Coronavirus, Folks
with coronavirus were isolated Jan. 25 after reporting flu-like symptoms upon their return from China. That isolation lasted a week while the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta conducted tests to determine if they had the virus, which presents symptoms very similar to the flu. “These students did everything right,” Butler County health director Jennifer Bailer said at a news conference. “They took very, very prompt action in reporting their symptoms to student health services just as soon as possible.”
100 OFF
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— Staff Reports
Two students at Miami University who visited China last month did not contract the coronavirus, officials announced Feb. 2. The new virus detected in December has made international headlines as it spreads quickly through parts of China and, so far, more slowly to other parts of the world. Cleveland.com has nevertheless seen fit to splatter every scrap of news about the disease prominently on its home page. The United States has confirmed nine cases of the disease so far. There have been zero confirmed cases in Cuyahoga County. The virus did not become a serious health concern in China until after winter break began at Miami University and so the school did not warn students about travel to that country at the time, university officials said. The students potentially infected
DIGIT WIDGET 67 PERCENT Solve rate of 2019 Cleveland homicides (84 of 126) by Cleveland police homicide detectives, up from about 50 percent in the four previous years.
14 Active Cleveland homicide detectives for much of 2019.
23 Number of Cleveland homicide detectives recommended by the Police Executive Research Firm in a 2016 report.
54 Cleveland homicides in the final four months of 2019.
3-31-20
Cuyahoga County Public Library Once Again Ranked Best in Nation Hot on the heels of an agreement between the union representing Cleveland Public Library workers and the library administration on a new contract that avoided a strike comes more good news for the area’s library systems. The Cuyahoga County Public Library once again topped the rankings for large systems in the Library Journal’s Index of Public Library Service for the 10th year in a row, netting another five-star rating and an overall score of 2,063 points on the ranking system. Key numbers indicate how CCPL fared against the competition: first in per capita circulation of physical materials, first in number of visitors per capita, second in e-circulation, and second in public computer use per capita. “To have received the Library Journal Index’s highest overall score for 10 consecutive years is a tremendous achievement for our library system,” CCPL executive director Tracy Strobel said in a news release. “Our consistently high per capita usage is a strong indicator that we are providing the kinds of relevant materials, programs, resources and services that keep county residents coming back again and again. I am exceedingly proud of our staff. Ten years at the top could not have happened without their unmatched commitment to providing excellent services to our communities. I truly feel we have the best library staff and library supporters in America right here in Cuyahoga County.”
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| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
CAUGHT BETWEEN
HERE AND THERE Cuyahoga County sent Octavius Williams to prison in 2011 for attempted murder. Eight years later, the Conviction Integrity Unit process found him innocent. Prosecutor Michael O’Malley disagreed.
Photo by Emanuel Wallace
By Eric Sandy
“YOUR NAME’S TAY TAY, RIGHT?” It was shortly after midnight on Nov. 1, 2010, at the abrupt end of a Halloween party gone wrong. Drunken backyard arguments became gunshots and blood loss, and now the cops were here. Dozens of friends and assorted cousins were fleeing into the neighborhood by the time Fourth District police officers Michael Keane and John Mullin responded to calls of shots fired, calls that brought them to a four-unit house on East 104th Street in Union Miles where Octavius Williams’ father lived. Casing the perimeter for an active shooter, the officers soon encountered Dennis Cole, a gunshot victim presently slumped against the side of the house, howling in pain.
The officers radioed for backup. Only a few people remained outside: Two men stood with Cole as he inspected the bullet hole in his chest. He fingered his back for the spot where the second shot had entered his body. A black Monte Carlo was parked behind the house, grazed by handgun rounds and left with a shattered window. Keane and Mullin tried to pry information from the man with the wounds. So, what exactly happened here? Later, at the hospital, Cole would record a 0.27 blood alcohol level. Now, he was screaming. More officers showed up, and Cole joined the other two men in a flurry of simultaneous chatter, turning the madness of the evening into a babble of play-by-play pronouns and verbs.
“[I] asked if he knew the names,” Keane said in court the following summer. “He knew them because they were all there for a party. Meantime three guys were talking at once. I got like the lady whose apartment it was, her boyfriend — her boyfriend’s son shot him, nicknames, stuff like that. … They said the guy’s name that live there, his girlfriend lived there, was Ardy, Ardy’s son. I know at some point I learned Tay Tay. I don’t know if it was right then or later on, so … .” When Keane went upstairs to see about “Ardy’s son,” this Tay Tay character, he found a living room full of young children huddled near the window, watching the surreal nighttime activities below. Among them he saw an obviously taller
male, standing out from the crowd of kids. He fit the vague description that Keane had jotted down from the ramblings out back: “juvenile, black male, tall, thin, maybe no shirt.” “Your name’s Tay Tay, right?” Octavius Williams recalls Keane asking him. The kid was 17 at the time. With little else to go on and a long night of undercover robbery and burglary detail still ahead of them, the officers arrested Williams and led him to a station car out front. A gunshot residue test applied on-site turned up negative, but the boy was nonetheless driven to the police department and later booked into Cuyahoga County’s juvenile detention center. Based solely on the blurted | clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
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FEATURE identification from Cole, an ID that was contradicted by other witnesses who insisted Williams was upstairs at the time of the shooting, the kid was indicted. In July 2011, concluding a fiveday trial, Williams was convicted of one count of attempted murder, two counts of felonious assault and one count of having weapons while under disability. Cole had spent three months at MetroHealth Medical Center, recovering from wounds so grievous that physicians simply left the bullets in his body. He testified in court from his wheelchair. The gravity of the Halloween party’s startling end was not lost on Judge Deena Calabrese, who sentenced Williams to 15 years in prison. “It reminded me of an oldstyle Hatfield and McCoy sort of a shootout, a fight between two families that ended up — and I think that if Mr. Cole hadn’t been injured so significantly, maybe none of us would be here right now,” the judge said on the final day of Williams’ trial. “Maybe things would have just been
forgiven and forgotten, but ultimately his injury was so significant and I think he was so frightened as a result of being shot the way he was, that here we find ourselves now.” Williams walked out of prison on Dec. 17, 2019, not by early release for good behavior but by catching the good fortunes of a joint investigation by the Wrongful Conviction Project of the Ohio Public Defender’s Office and the Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office. Enough palpable doubt had crept in since the jury convicted Williams that release from prison was the only move available to those pulling the strings of Williams’ criminal case. What we’d learned since Halloween 2010 was that Williams’ older brother, Ricky, had run away from the party by the time police officers arrived that night. Everyone who played a role in Williams’ convictions — except for Cole, mind you — said that it was Ricky who fired the shots in question, who committed the attempted murder, the felonious assault. It was Ricky who got caught up in the escalating arguments out back. Shortly after Williams’ 2011 trial, in fact, Ricky finally came forward and confessed to shooting Cole. He submitted written affidavits and reiterated his
confession on at least three more occasions. In late 2019, wrapping up several years of investigative work on the story behind Williams’ conviction, the CIU’s internal review board cast a majority vote in favor of what the criminal justice system calls “exoneration,” or “actual innocence.” The CIU’s independent external review panel concurred with a unanimous vote: Williams was innocent. Prosecutor Michael O’Malley, who has the final say on these issues, no matter what the CIU boards vote to recommend, disagreed. “You’ve got to use your human intuition and life experience to come up with the best decisions,” O’Malley says. “What is justice in this case? I think in this particular case, we did the best we could. I think we did what was right.” Williams walked out of the Justice Center in downtown Cleveland and into an area as gray as the Brutalist building itself. He was free to go, O’Malley having decided there was ample evidence he shouldn’t have been convicted, but not enough to declare his innocence. He wasn’t guilty, but he wasn’t not guilty. The agreement that the system calls “judicial release” means that,
technically, if we’re playing by the books here, he’s still guilty: In the eyes of the general public and the courts, he remains a convicted felon — and good luck landing a job or a rental agreement with that hung around your neck. Williams was strapped with an ankle monitor and a 30-day curfew (get back home by 8 p.m.), as well as a two-year stint on parole. Any wrong move in that time will send him back to prison for the remainder of his original sentence, a sentence that nearly everyone involved except for O’Malley thinks he should never have faced in the first place. Williams served 3,091 days of that sentence before this turn of events, this turn of fortune that doesn’t quite scan as a full 180. He was a teenager when a man was shot at a Halloween party in Cleveland, and he was tried as an adult because he turned 18 before his trial began. In prison, he drifted through those nine years on the top bunk of prison cells that could never be home. Now, at 27, he’s back home, yes, but robbed of his past and handcuffed for his future. So, what is justice in this case?
*** At 17, Williams’ life was basketball. He was playing on his high school
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| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
team, angling for a dream job in the NBA in the mold of his hero, Kobe Bryant. He could shoot one hell of a three-pointer. It served him well enough in the yard once he landed in prison, but, he still wonders, where could that shot have taken him? What did life have in store for him? In October 2010, his father, Arden Terry (“Ardyâ€? to friends and, apparently, in court transcripts), told the family that he’d be throwing a Halloween party. Costumes. Good food. DJ on the turntables. He and his girlfriend gathered the kids from both families and set up a big bash. This wasn’t unusual; Ardy’s house was a hangout spot, as several families members explained in court. Williams stayed at his mom’s place back in those days, but he fairly split his time between both houses on the near-eastside of Cleveland. School and hoops were an equal distance either way. “Basketball was like my life, for real,â€? he says. “It didn’t matter if it was raining or if it was slushy snow on the ground, I’m always outside bouncing the ball. That’s how to get your handles up. My mother was like, ‘Tay-Tay, get in the house! You’re going to get sick!’ I’m like, ‘All right, ma! Just give me 10 more minutes!’ I loved it with a passion. I still do love it with a passion.â€? The party was by all accounts unremarkable for a while. Everyone was having a good time until it became a bad time. Williams’ sister, describing in court the rapidly developing tension at the party, said that she could see some of the guys gathering out back. Voices getting louder. Accusations. Something involving the younger women at the party? Then: Her own brother, Ricky Williams; Demarcus Thomas; and Larry Johnson all shooting at one another. A man named Cedric Johnson took a bullet in his leg. Then a man named Dennis Cole, apparently approaching the shooters in an attempt stop the violence, took one in the front and one in the back. “Everybody was scared,â€? Williams’ sister said, describing her retreat deeper into the house. Williams helped round up the younger kids and herd them into the living room, placing several walls between them and the alarming climax outside. Keane and Mullin arrived, followed by more police ofďŹ cers. They found Cole, bellowing, his own blood pooling around him. Men and women dashed into cars and tore off into the neighborhood. Upstairs, they found Cedric Johnson nursing his leg; some of the ofďŹ cers helped get him down to an EMS vehicle. Then, Keane encountered their suspect. “Your name’s Tay-Tay, right?â€?
Downstairs, the police ofďŹ cers administered a gunshot residue test not only to Williams but also to fellow party attendees Darnell Calloway and Demarcus Thomas. In Thomas’ case, the test turned up positive. Williams’ test results — negative — didn’t dissuade the ofďŹ cers from tagging him as the suspect. By then, the house was silent. Cole was on his way to the hospital. Williams was on his way to the police station. His brother, Ricky, was on his way out of the narrative entirely, having ed the house right as the cops ďŹ rst arrived. The party was over. As the next few months slogged onward, little happened in the way of a meaningful investigation. Detective Joel Campbell reportedly had Ricky Williams in mind as an alternate suspect, but it’s unclear what came of the vague leads he was picking up. “I received some voicemails,â€? he said in court. “I never really spoke with anyone in that regard. I believe there was some family members, and that I was never able to contact them concerning that or never developed any evidence in that regard. ‌ Through his father I indicated to him that I would like to speak to Ricky, if he wants to contact me at some point, and I never made any contact with him.â€? The jury didn’t have much to work with. Keane admitted in court that he hadn’t known that Ardy had multiple sons. Without asking the pertinent questions, why would he know such a thing? When he gathered his information from Cole and placed it next to the stray nickname that fell into the conversation, that was more or less the end of it. Fifteen years. Gavel. Weeks later, Ricky ďŹ nally spoke up. “Shortly after the party ended an argument occurred outside the apartment complex between my father Arden Terry and Larry Johnson,â€? he wrote in jagged cursive in 2011, soon after his brother’s conviction. “They had a few words back and fourth but once the argument reach the back of the apartment I was right in front of the back door and all of a sudden Larry Johnson started shooting towards me and my father’s direction and shortly after Dennis Cole ran at me and punched me in the eye and I pulled out my gun and shot him out of fear for me and my families lives because shots were being ďŹ red at us ďŹ rst.â€? Ricky went on to confess to the crime at least three more times, including during a lengthy interview conducted in 2017 by Jose Torres of the CIU and Joanna Sanchez,
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FEATURE Williams’ attorney for the past three years. After he began to tell his side of the story, he soon picked up his own case. In 2013, Ricky was convicted in a separate case of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated riot after pleading down from aggravated murder and felonious assault charges in Cuyahoga County. He’s been in prison ever since.
*** The National Registry of Exonerations at the University of Michigan lists 2,549 exonerations in the U.S. since 1989. Of those, approximately 29 percent are tied to some form of mistaken eyewitness identification. These cases prove particularly troubling in how the courts evaluate claims of wrongful conviction. In some instances, DNA evidence can cut clearly and persuasively through the past with certainty. But placing witnesses back on the record to recant testimony or change their interpretations of events isn’t as simple in convincing judges to rewrite convictions. “While history has afforded us the luxury of clarity over the participants and their actions at the fabled O.K. Corral, the same cannot be said of the events surrounding the situation arising on October 31, 2010, in the backyard of a Cleveland area residence,” a three-judge panel wrote on behalf of the Eighth District Court of Appeals in 2012, upholding Williams’ conviction. “The case ultimately rests on Cole’s identification of Octavius as the shooter. After weighing the evidence and considering witness credibility, we cannot say, based on a review of the entire record, that the jury clearly lost its way and created such a manifest miscarriage of justice that the conviction must be reversed.” Cole was the only witness to name Williams as the shooter, but the circumstances don’t provide the clarity that the Eighth District judges may have been seeking. On the night of the shooting, Cole recorded a blood alcohol level of 0.27. When questioned by Keane and Mullin, he stated only that he knew who shot him. At MetroHealth, after sublimating into consciousness once again, he was presented with several photo lineups: two containing Octavius’ photos and one containing Ricky’s photo. Neither lineup contained photos of other men from
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the party. He picked Octavius and remained the only person to do so. “He knew who I was, out of all the rest of my brothers,” Williams says, telling Scene that he was the one brother who hung around his dad’s place the most, who ran into Cole often in the months leading up to the party. “He knew who I was, because I was always there. To this day, I still feel like that’s the only reason he said my name, because I was the only name that he knew.” At the trial in 2011, the other gunshot victim, Cedric Johnson, reiterated that he never knew who shot him. (When Johnson was presented with a photo lineup, he picked Ricky.) Three other people insisted that they’d been sitting with Williams upstairs while the arguments reached a fever pitch
In prison, Williams filled out the Wrongful Conviction Project’s application. In 2014, he heard back from the office, when an investigation into his case began. The Ohio Public Defender’s Office dispatched a law student to follow up on the case — reading through the details on the record and retracing the steps of any previous investigation. This included conducting new interviews with Williams and other family members who’d been at the party, like his brother Ricky. Sanchez took on full representation duties for Williams in 2017. “We’re certainly thrilled that Octavius is home, but we very much view that as just the first step in this process,” she says. “We take cases where we believe the person is absolutely innocent, and we
Photo by Emanuel Wallace
Octavius Williams wore an ankle bracelet for 30 days following his Dec. 17, 2019, release from prison.
below. The overwhelming opinion of those at the scene was that Williams was in the house, far from the source of the party’s horrific gravity. In October 2010, as Halloween ticked coolly into November, Joanna Sanchez was in her last year of law school at the Ohio State University and working as an intern with the Wrongful Conviction Project, part of the national Innocence Project. She’d harbored an interest in criminal law since her days as an undergrad at Ohio University, studying psychology and sociology and learning the human mechanics of how local government decides who is guilty of what.
| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
believe that in Octavius’ case. We do intend to keep fighting for his full exoneration.” This is the first time that Sanchez has had to wade into the gray area between judicial release and exoneration. The disparity between the CIU’s votes on Williams’ case and O’Malley’s presentation of it to the court is not easily understood, and it engendered disappointment in the prosecutor’s office, sources tell Scene. “The overarching thing that’s emerged for me as I’ve done this work is the human factors that lead to wrongful convictions,” Sanchez says. “Our criminal justice system is a system run by humans, and
humans are fallible. We make mistakes. We have our biases. All of these things impact how we act within the system. When you look at the causes of wrongful conviction, it’s human errors. It’s mistaken eyewitness ID. It’s perjury. It’s faulty forensics. It’s things like that — and it’s people acting in ways with their own motivations that come into play. You’re dealing with that same thing when you’re trying to overturn a wrongful conviction. It’s hard to see our own mistakes and it’s hard to see our own errors, and so there are a lot of obstacles when you’re trying to overturn one of these wrongful convictions to getting the relief that you’re seeking.” On Jan. 21, 2020, Sanchez revived Williams’ September 2011 motion for a new trial. (As of Feb. 3, the state had not yet filed a response.) At the time of the original motion, the state’s attorneys had filed a response and opposed the motion. The following month, in October 2011, Williams’ defense attorney was suspended from practicing law in Ohio. The key in asking for a new trial, as in this case, is that new evidence must not merely contradict evidence that has come before. A new confession that takes a jab at what someone said 10 years ago isn’t going to fly. But new evidence that aligns with the story painted by the defense — new evidence that would tilt how a jury sees the course of events playing out — that’s where attorneys like Sanchez can find an opportunity to return to court and reignite the state’s litigation of someone like Williams. Here, that evidence is Ricky’s confession. All three of them, to be specific. In 2015, he wrote a more detailed narrative in a certified affidavit: “On Oct. 31, 2010, I Ricky Williams attend a family party. We all was having fun until Larry Johnson came in the house party all drink. Larry was tryin to start fights with people in the house. So my dad told Larry to go outside and get some air wen Larry went outside he seen my uncle outside talkin to his older neice. So Larry got mad and pull out a 22 caliber gun and started to shoot at my uncle so my dad heard the gun shoot’s and he run outside so when my dad got out there he seen Larry Johnson shootin at his brother that wen my dad told Larry to put the gun down by Larry said No and point it the gun at my dad and he started to shoot again. That wen I pull out a 32 caliber and started 2 shoot at Larry. Because me and my family like was in danger. That wen Dennis run up on me and hit me with his hand in
my face as I was shootin and that how Dennis got shoot. He run in the bullets. I never attend to shoot Dennis and when I heard Dennis was shoot I had left. “Only way why I haven’t came forward is because I was scared to go to jail for something I never meant to do. I never meant to hurt no one. Now I’m comin forward to help my lil brother get out of jail for something he never did.” Williams didn’t find out about any of this until later. “Them people came and talk to me and I told them everything so you should be good lil bro,” Ricky wrote in a 2015 letter to his brother. “But anyway they mail run slow down here that’s why you haven’t heard from me and I been tryin 2 fight my case etc. and I love you and miss you bro.” As the wrongful conviction investigation got under way, Williams was advised against reaching out to Ricky and communicating in any way that could compromise the research into who did what at the Halloween party — and who said what in the years since. “I’m close with all my brothers, and I’m still close with him,” Williams says. “I was upset that I couldn’t write him, because that’s my brother. I know what he’s going through. The reason why is because I was in there too.”
*** Michael O’Malley was elected prosecutor in 2016. Not for nothing, he was the only candidate to file for the March 17, 2020, primary ballot, all but ensuring another four years of uncontested rule at the helm of the county’s prosecuting authority. In 2014, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office started its Conviction Integrity Unit, part of a growing trend in county jurisdictions across the country. “All of us in the criminal justice system have an obligation to seek justice and to seek the truth. We want to convict the guilty, not the innocent,” former prosecutor Timothy McGinty said as he announced the unit’s conception. “So if we learn we have convicted the wrong person, we want to correct it. We always want to have open ears on the subject of innocence.” The CIU functions as an extrajudicial arm of the prosecutor’s office that may reach into the past and determine whether a defendant caught a fair trial. Did something go wrong? Is there a legitimate opportunity to revisit a trial court’s decision? What we can do to fix this? The unit evaluates cases differently than the courts and, when presented with compelling reasons to re-
evaluate a case, will conduct a further investigation. (The downside, at most CIUs, is that staffing is nowhere near the level necessary to tackle the volume of cases that need addressing, nor to do so in a prompt manner.) After the investigation, when a case is cleared for some sort of decision from the CIU, the internal conviction integrity board and an external independent review panel take votes on the question of “actual innocence.” The CIU board comprises eight attorneys (most of them being assistant prosecuting attorneys from within the office). The independent review panel comprises at least four members, “including, but not limited to, accomplished lawyers, community leaders, civic leaders, residents, business leaders, clergy, and/or legal scholars/experts,” according to CIU documents. The county prosecutor has the final discretionary say on whether the board’s or panel’s recommendation is pursued. The investigation into Williams’ case spanned “at least 14 months,” Russell Tye, the attorney who heads the county’s CIU, said at the Dec. 17, 2019, court hearing. “We are in agreement with this motion that was filed by Ms. Sanchez, and we don’t have any opposition to it whatsoever. And in fact, we are in agreement by way of compromise, as the court puts it.” The compromise lands somewhere between Williams’ efforts toward full exoneration, including the CIU’s internal and external panels’ votes, and the current result offered by O’Malley in December 2019. He did not oppose Williams’ judicial release, but he chose to stop short of declaring him innocent. Unusual territory for all involved. O’Malley admits that each case passing through CIU territory is different, a unique set of circumstances that must be met not only in a criminal justice capacity but in an almost philosophical capacity: “Oftentimes, it’s difficult to ascertain without additional evidence exactly what occurred,” he says. “Oftentimes, what you’ll have in these cases is people changing statements from what they said 10 years earlier. You try to do the best you can in the interest of justice.” All told, the Cuyahoga County CIU has vacated three convictions since 2014, with Tye drawing a sharp contrast between that phrase and the phrase “exonerated three individuals.” Each of those decisions has come under O’Malley’s tenure. In 2017, the county vacated Evin King’s 1995 murder conviction, using DNA evidence to right a wrong. In 2018, RuEl Sailor was set free from his 2003 murder conviction, a case
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FEATURE that partially involved mistaken eyewitnesses testimony. Sailor’s case rings familiar now, with the CIU outwardly expressing support for his claim — and then delaying the decision for months. (“Stop giving him the run-around!” one protestor shouted outside the Justice Center in 2017. “How long does someone have to sit in prison once you’ve found out they didn’t do the crime?”) Hemming and hawing may not be part of the CIU policy, but it’s a part of the process. “In the end, I think we’re all better off,” O’Malley says. “I think in this particular case, we did the best we could. I think we did what was right. … I’ve also learned that there is a growth industry of attorneys who are trying to harvest wrongful conviction claims.” And so, when O’Malley asks, “What is justice in this case?” in a case like this, one answer is: incremental. And, one could argue, that justice is incremental because of prosecutors like O’Malley who express some tepid opinions about wrongful conviction cases, despite saying most of the
right things, and who represent the system’s reticence to correct its mistakes. He says that Tye tracked down Cole and discussed extensively the implications of Williams’ judicial release while he, the shooting victim at the heart of this case, continued to maintain his insistence that a kid named Tay Tay shot him. Cole “wasn’t jumping for joy,” the prosecutor says, but “he understood.” This, O’Malley and Tye say, is the tension that the CIU must navigate. “I’ve got a victim who maintains that he’s the guy who did it,” O’Malley says. “I wanted to be progressive as far as these types of issues, but I can’t be naive.” The National Registry of Exonerations paints an unclear picture of how successful the 59 CIUs in the U.S. have been. Just over 50 percent of those units have recorded any exonerations at all. “The proliferation of new CIUs in the last year gives us reason to believe that the trend will continue, and that we will see even more prosecutors’ offices undertaking efforts to identify and correct wrongful convictions that occurred in their jurisdictions,” according to a 2018 report published by the National Registry of Exonerations.
“Some are likely to continue to serve as little more than window dressing, but many show signs of serious commitment to robust conviction review.” With each case that crosses Tye’s desk at the CIU in Cuyahoga County comes another shot at clarifying that picture. He points to those three cases in Cuyahoga County as a way of illustrating that each case is unique and, while we’re on the topic, talking in absolutes isn’t the intent here. “The traditional definition of exoneration is not what guides the unit,” he says. When he says in court that the state and the defendants’ attorneys “are in agreement by way of compromise,” that’s as close to a conclusion as the CIU is taking the case right now. Everyone else made up their mind a long time ago as to who shot whom at that Halloween party in 2010. Williams says he kept his sanity from that day on only by telling himself that he shouldn’t be here. In prison he’d recite his mantra: “‘I’m not supposed to be here.’ I said that everyday in there. I don’t know how many times I said it a day. I wouldn’t say it out loud. I said it to myself. I probably said it over — I don’t know how many times. I know it’s past a billion.” In the interim, the prosecutor’s
office and the Cleveland Division of Police placed the burden of elucidating the truth on a frightened family — Octavius, Ricky, their little siblings who watched through windows as their world shifted uneasily — and, one could argue, punished Williams for what other people failed to say at the right time. O’Malley stakes the bottom line for us: “Is Octavius Williams exonerated? No.”
*** When Williams walked out of the Cuyahoga County Jail on Dec. 17, 2019, he walked into a cold, blustery evening on Lakeside Avenue. His attorneys from the Ohio Public Defender’s Office in Columbus watched him draw a deep breath of fresh air and asked: Well, how are you feeling now? “About 100 times better than I did in there,” he said without hesitation. He’s still better, obviously, but better in a way defined and limited by how he was released, which is to say not fully. Lately, Williams has been playing basketball at local rec centers, keeping his three-pointer as clean as ever — even when the ankle monitor gets in the way. But there are a lot of small moments that make up a day,
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Octavius Williams walks out of the Justice Center on Dec. 17, 2019.
and not all of them are fun. When his aunt accidentally slammed a door at her house, he ashed back to lockdown: Clang! “I’m trying to get over all that stuff, but I can feel myself getting nervous when I’m around a lot of people now,â€? he says. “It’s like — it’s still new to me. But as far as the holidays went, it was good. It was great. I deďŹ nitely enjoyed it.â€? He speaks in a rapid clip, almost rapping with a rhythm in his lilt, and he points out that this heightened sense of alert is a byproduct of his time in prison. The elongated stare. When he’s watching you, his peripheral vision is doing work on the rest of the world, too. When he snaps awake in bed at night, he needs to remind himself that he’s back in real life, and what does that feel like again? In the ďŹ rst hour after he left prison on that crisp Cleveland evening in December, he came home to a big pan of lasagna his mom had cooked for him. “That’s my favorite meal,â€? he says. “I ate the hell out of it, too. It was crazy.â€? And if that’s Williams’ ďŹ rst task — setting a series of realigning actions to break the grip of prison on his mind — then it’s a real chore to slot in time for the rest of life. Jobs. Housing. The baseline comforts of friends and family. “Going through all that stuff, being put through hell the way I was, I didn’t deserve none of that,â€? he says. “Let alone with this felony on my name. That’s a big stop sign for a lot of jobs.â€? Williams is staying at his mom’s place, back where he grew up, and he bounces around family members’ houses throughout the day. He has plans, he says, to visit Ricky in prison after he’s formally exonerated by
Cuyahoga County. As for when that will be ... “I’ll never turn my back on my brothers,â€? he says. “That’s just how I’ve always been.â€? On a recent Sunday afternoon, he’s hanging at his sister’s Garden Valley apartment before following up on a job lead at a construction company on East 93rd. An interview at McDonald’s on Broadway Avenue went nowhere fast. The manager probed him on past job experience. He had none to speak of in the food service industry, but he cited some under-the-table work from when he was younger, breaking down houses as a teenager on the east side before he went to prison. He had a frank discussion about why he landed behind bars and what it was like to piece together a life after that. “She understood,â€? he says. “I don’t know if she’s going to call me back.â€? A major issue here is the felony convictions dangling from Williams’ name whenever he begins the process of applying for a job or seeking housing. This is what trails all former inmates, the criminal record. But in Williams’ case, his judicial release is part of a broader story that gets a bit complicated when he tries to explain himself. The story isn’t over yet, and it’s hard to ďŹ nish what you’re saying if you don’t know how it ends. “I don’t have no kids,â€? Williams says. “I could have been done with high school, and I could have had at least two kids by now. Or I could be playing basketball. It doesn’t matter. It would have been something of mine. Being in prison was not mine.â€?
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The Ultimate Whodunit! JANUARY 25 – FEBRUARY 23 ALLEN THEATRE based on the Paramount Pictures film written by JONATHAN LYNN written by SANDY RUSTIN | directed by CASEY HUSHION additional material by HUNTER FOSTER & ERIC PRICE adapted from the board game from Hasbro, Inc. produced in association with Work Light Productions, The Araca Group and Michael Barra/Lively McCabe Entertainment
216.241.6000 clevelandplayhouse.com TICKETS START AT $20! 16
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GET OUT everything you should do this week WED
02/05
THEATER
Anastasia Featuring a book by playwright Terrence McNally, a new score by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, with direction by Tony Award-winner Darko Tresnjak, Anastasia rolls into Conner Palace with plenty of hype. The show switches time periods and locations and takes place both in the twilight of the Russian Empire and the euphoria of Paris in the 1920s. It follows a young woman who’s pursued by a ruthless Soviet officer determined to silence her as she enlists the help of a con man and an ex-aristocrat. Tonight’s curtain is at 7:30; the show runs through Feb. 23. Tickets start at $39. (Jeff Niesel) 1615 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org. MUSIC
Chamber Music in the Galleries This monthly concert series at the Cleveland Museum of Art places young musicians from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University in the CMA galleries, for “a unique and intimate experience.” The performances often feature instruments from the museum’s keyboard collection. Tonight’s concert begins at 6 and lasts for about an hour. Admission is free. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org. SPOKEN WORD
Cleveland Stories Dinner Parties Cleveland Stories Dinner Party is a weekly series that pairs fine food with storytelling. The goal is to “bring to life some of the fun, interesting stories about Cleveland’s past — from sports, to rock ’n’ roll, to Millionaires’ Row,” as it’s put in a press release. Admission is free, with no cover charge, although a prix fixe dinner, designed to complement the night’s theme, is $20. Tonight, local author Rick Porello talks about Shondor Birns, Cleveland’s “notorious Jewish mobster,” someone he profiles in his new book, Superthief – A Master Burglar, the Mafia, and the Biggest Bank Burglary in U.S. History. Doors open at 5 p.m., dinner is served at 6, and the storytelling starts at 7. (Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-242-1250, musicboxcle.com.
Rapper and educator Jahi comes to the Rock Hall. See: Friday | THEATER
Clue Based on the cult 1985 Paramount movie and inspired by the classic Hasbro board game, this theatrical production of Clue at the Cleveland Play House promises to be the “ultimate whodunit that will leave you dying of laughter and keep you guessing until the final twist.” Tonight’s performance takes place at 7:30 at the Allen Theatre, where performances continue through Feb. 23. Tickets start at $20. (Niesel) 1407 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, clevelandplayhouse.com. SPOKEN WORD
Keep Talking Keep Talking is a monthly storytellers’ series that offers attendees the chance to grab a drink and a dog while listening to some of their Cleveland neighbors tell tall tales. Tonight’s show features the theme, “Dating.” The hosts are Adam Richard and Zachariah Durr. The program starts at 8 p.m. sharp at the Happy Dog and will repeat at 5:30 p.m. on Monday at the Collinwood branch of the Cleveland Public Library. Admission to each
event is free. Want to be a storyteller at a future session? See details at Facebook.com/KeepTalkingCLE. (Niesel) 5801 Detroit Ave., 216-651-9474, happydogcleveland.com. SPORTS
Monsters vs. Rochester Americans As part of the Cleveland Monster’s season-long Hockey Hoppy Hour, tickets to today’s game against the Rochester Americans features a $12 lower-level ticket and one free drink. The game begins at 7 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. The promotion will be in effect for Tuesday night’s game against Grand Rapids too. That game begins at 7 as well. (Niesel) 1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com. MUSIC
Rock Hall Nights This month at the Rock Hall, Rock Hall Nights focuses on Mardi Gras and offers patrons the chance to “step inside the exhibits and experience the museum in a whole new way.” There will be live music and you’ll get a “special look” at an artifact from the Rock Hall vault.
Photo courtesy of Jahi
Rock Hall curators and educators will be on hand to engage, teach and inspire fans. The event runs from 6 to 9 p.m. Admission is $21, or free for Rock Hall members and residents of Cleveland. (Niesel) 100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-515-8444, rockhall.com.
THU
02/06
COMEDY
Dominique Comedian Dominique thinks about the weighty things in life: what her funeral will be like and what Jesus would want her to do in certain situations. She learned in church to pray about things that bothered her and then let them go — so that’s exactly what she did when she got that big credit card bill in the mail! Dominique tells it like it is, and that’s why she’s funny. She performs tonight at 7:30 at the Improv, where she has shows scheduled through Sunday. Tickets are $17 to $20. (Liz Trenholme) 1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com. | clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
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GET OUT FILM
Little Joe This sci-fi flick from director Jessica Hausner centers on a genetic engineer (Emily Beecham) who breeds a new species of flower that has the ability to change the mood of a human being. The movie makes its local debut tonight at 6:45 at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque, where it shows again at 9:30 tomorrow night. Tickets cost $10, or $7 for Cinematheque members and students. (Niesel) 11610 Euclid Ave., 216-421-7450, cia.edu.
Sibelius’s First Symphony as well as Knussen’s Violin Concerto. The concert begins at 7:30, and the program repeats at 8 p.m. on Saturday. Case Western Reserve University’s Eric Charnofsky delivers the pre-concert lecture an hour before the concert. Consult the orchestra website for more info. (Niesel) 11001 Euclid Ave., 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com.
Chocolate Harmony, Mitchells Fine Chocolates, Nina Lau’Rens Cakeballs and Cakepops, Sweet Allure, Sweet Bean, ZuZu Chocolates and others will be on hand for the event. Adult Swim admission is $40 ($30 for Greater Cleveland Aquarium pass holders) and includes food samplings, 20 tasting tickets and a souvenir tasting glass. A $20 nondrinking “designated driver” option
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
MUSIC
Midwinter Blues and Other Tunes In an attempt to beat back the wintertime blues, the Akron Art Museum has launched a new winter concert series, dubbed Midwinter Blues and Other Tunes. Once a week, including tonight, the museum presents an evening of local music along with art activities, live artist demos and additional musical performances in the galleries. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the headliners take the stage at 7 p.m. Tonight, the Lemon Quartet headlines; advance tickets are $8 for museum members and $10 for non-members. (Admission at the door is $9 for members and $12 for non-members.) However, admission to the museum galleries and lobby is free and open to all. Weekly performances continue through Feb. 13. (Niesel) 1 South High St., Akron, 330-376-9185, akronartmuseum.org.
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INTERVIEW & BOOK SIGNING FEBRUARY 19 @ 7PM • $15
AN EVENING WITH JAHI
HIP HOP CULTURExEDUCATION INTERACTIVE PRESENTATION FEBRUARY 7 @ 7PM • FREE
FRIDAY NIGHT DANCE PARTY WITH
BIG SAM’S FUNKY NATION LIVE PERFORMANCE FEBRUARY 28 @ 8PM • $15
FILM
Scandalous: The True Story of the National Enquirer This documentary film from director Mark Landsman provides a behind-the-scenes look at the infamous tabloid and its “impact on American culture and politics while examining our collective obsession with the rich, famous and powerful.” The film shows at 8:50 tonight and at 7:30 tomorrow night 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. MUSIC
Sibelius’ First Symphony Susanna Mälkki conducts the Cleveland Orchestra tonight at Severance Hall as it takes on
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FILM SERIES 10 NON-MEMBERS • FREE MEMBERS
$
AMAZING GRACE FEBRUARY 12 @ 7PM CHUCK BERRY FEBRUARY 26 @ 7PM
ROCKHALL.COM/PROGRAMS-AND-EVENTS to purchase tickets or RSVP 1100 Rock and Roll Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44114 • 888 . 764 . ROCK (7625 )
FRI
02/07
is also available. (Niesel) 2000 Sycamore St., 216-862-8803, greaterclevelandaquarium.com.
SWEET TREATS
Adult Swim: Wine & Chocolate Tasting In advance of Valentine’s Day, the Greater Cleveland Aquarium hosts an Adult Swim: Wine & Chocolate Tasting tonight from 7 to 10. Chocolate shops such as the Bom,
| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
MUSIC
Amadeus Live At 7:30 p.m. today and at 2 p.m. on Sunday at Severance Hall, the Cleveland Orchestra will play the score to Amadeus while the film
screens. Winner of eight Academy Awards, the film celebrates the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce) and one man’s plot to destroy him. Consult the orchestra website for ticket prices. (Niesel) 11001 Euclid Ave., 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com. MUSIC
Eli Degibri Quartet Regarded as one of the world’s top jazz artists, Israeli saxophonist Eli Degibri will perform at 8 tonight at Nighttown as part of a Tri-C JazzFest lineup announcement party. (Slated to take place from June 25 to 27 at Playhouse Square, JazzFest will feature nine musical acts.) Degibri has recorded and performed extensively since the mid-1990s. JazzTimes calls him “an exceptionally melodic improviser with a big, bold tenor tone.” The quartet that’ll back him includes three “young and promising” Israeli musicians — pianist Tom Oren, bassist Alon Near and drummer Eviatar Slivnik. The group will play music from Degibri’s recent release, Soul Station, a tribute to the late, great Hank Mobley. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online or by phone. Tickets will also be available at the door on the night of the performance. The lineup announcement party will kick off a series of events and community concerts leading up the festival. (Niesel) 12387 Cedar Rd., Cleveland Heights, 216-795-0550, nighttowncleveland.com. THEATER
Flanagan’s Wake Flanagan’s Wake transports the audience to an Irish wake where villagers tell tales and sing songs for their dearly departed Flanagan. Finding the humor in life and death, the wake acts as a dark backdrop to an otherwise hilarious show in which alcohol fuels the humorous reminiscing. Sort of like a tragic Tony ’n’ Tina’s Wedding, the interactive and improvised show engages the entire audience as the guests are treated as the friends and family of the deceased. Tonight’s show starts at 8 and repeats tomorrow night at 8 at Kennedy’s Theatre. Performances continue weekends through April 25. Tickets are $27. (Patrick Stoops) 1501 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org. THEATER
Getting Near to Baby Tonight at 7:30 at the Helen Theatre on Playhouse Square, the Cleveland
Play House presents Getting Near to Baby, a play that centers on 12-year-old Willa Jo Dean and 7-yearold Little Sister Dean, two kids struggling to cope with the death of their baby sister. Performed by the CPH Theatre Academy class, the play runs through Feb. 15. Admission is free, but a ticket is required; get it on the website. (Niesel) 1407 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org. BLACK HISTORY
The Intersection Between Hip Hop Culture & Education Presented as part of the Rock Hall’s Black History Month celebration, tonight’s lecture, dubbed “The Intersection Between Hip-Hop Culture & Education,” provides “an interactive dialogue and discovery presenting hip-hop as a world culture with life affirming principles using videos, audio, narrative, demonstration and performance.” Jahi, a rapper who’s originally from East Cleveland, will give the lecture, which draws from his new book, The Microphone Journeyman. The event begins at 7 p.m. Admission is free, and you can RSVP through the Rock Hall website. (Niesel) 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-515-8444, rockhall.com.
ARTY PARTY
Mix: Cupid The first Friday of each month, the Cleveland Museum of Art hosts its popular Mix at CMA event. The museum stays open later than normal for the occasion, which features dance, drink and a themebased program. Tonight’s event celebrates the new exhibit Proof: Photography in the Era of the Contact Sheet.; it also offers attendees a chance to hear the sweet and/ or scandalous love stories behind some of the art in the museum’s permanent collection. Tickets are $10 in advance, or $15 at the door. CMA members get in for free. The party runs from 6 to 10 p.m. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org. SPORTS
Monsters vs. Binghamton Devils Tonight at 7 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, the Cleveland Monsters kick off a two-game series against the Binghamton Devils. As part of a regular season promotion that takes place each Friday, there will be $1 Pepsis, $2 Sugardale hot dogs and $3 select beers. Sunday’s game is Family Day and the first 2,000 kids under the age of 12 will receive a Castaway Bay day pass. That game
begins at 1 p.m. (Niesel) 1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com. FILM
Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project Radicalized by the civil rights movement, Marion Stokes recorded television newscasts relentlessly from 1979 until her death in 2012. This documentary chronicles how she amassed a collection of 70,000 cassettes but also became alienated from her family. It screens at 7 p.m. today at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tickets cost $10, or $7 for CMA members. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org. COMEDY
Sklar Brothers Twin brothers, the Sklar Brothers have had a long career that includes notable roles as actors and comedians. They’ve appeared in a range of TV shows, including CSI, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Entourage and Grey’s Anatomy in which they played the conjoined twin brothers Peter and Jake Weitzman. The sarcastic comics do a great impersonation of comic Andrew Dice Clay, with whom they’ve had a beef, and they have a funny bit about magician
Criss Angel and his incredible abs. Their ability to volley quips (and finish each other’s jokes) is really remarkable. They perform tonight at 7 at Hilarities, where they have shows scheduled through Saturday. Consult the website for ticket prices. (Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com. COMEDY
Chris Tucker Best known for playing the role of Det. James Carter in the Rush Hour film series with Jackie Chan, comedian Chris Tucker regularly appeared on HBO’s Def Comedy Jam in the 1990s and became hugely popular after starring in the 1995 cult classic film Friday alongside rapper and actor Ice Cube. Tucker performs tonight at 8 at MGM Northfield Park – Center Stage. Tickets start at $65. (Niesel) 10705 Northfield Rd., Northfield, 330-908-7793, mgmnorthfieldpark.mgmresorts.com. DRINK!
Vodka Vodka Tonight from 7 to 10 at Red Space Gallery, Scene presents Vodka Vodka, its annual vodka tasting party. Regardless of how you like
MARCH 5
Call 216-241-6000 Group Sales 216-640-8600 playhousesquare.org
| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
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area, including Kelly’s Grief Center. Tickets cost $10. (Niesel) 175 East Main St., Kent, 330-677-5005, kentstage.org.
GET OUT your vodka (neat, dirty, on the rocks or with a splash of soda), the best way to enjoy it is at this party. Taste an assortment of local and international vodkas, plus check out a fashion show featuring local designers, stylists and boutiques. Vodka Vodka is the tastiest way to interact with brand ambassadors, who’ll offer their unique descriptions, perspectives and insights on many different products. VIP admission starts at 6; general admission starts at 7. Consult the website for ticket prices. (Niesel) 2400 Superior Ave., scenevodkavodka.com. COMEDY
Suzanne Westenhoefer Comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer likes to refer to herself as a “sacrificial lesbian” because when she started doing standup comedy years ago, there were so few openly gay comics. “I’m old and I’m gay,” she often jokes. Her matter-of-fact style of delivery and self-deprecating sense of humor distinguish her routines. She performs tonight at 8 at the Akron Civic Theatre. Columbusbased comedian and activist Brooke Cactus opens the show. Tickets are $25. (Niesel) 182 South Main St., Akron, 330-253-2488, akroncivic.com.
SAT
02/08
FUNDRAISER
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| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
GNL Benefit Concert for Suicide Awareness, Education, and Prevention Held to remember Gabriel Nicholas Lopez, who died of suicide on Oct. 15, the GNL Rocks Music Benefit that takes place at 4 p.m. today, at the Kent Stage, aims to “join family and community members whose lives have been tragically impacted by loss as a result of suicide and this concert is dedicated to the memories of every tragic loss by increasing suicide prevention, awareness, and education.” The lineup includes local acts such as Joe Culley, Nick Ashbaugh, Guy Pernetti, Jim Zeller, Ray Flanagan, the Dave Smeltz Trio, Dump Cake, Librarians With Hickeys, Mount Ratz, the Tufted Puffins and Hey Mavis. There will also be poetry readings and “educational and touching messages of hope from people who care.” All proceeds will benefit counseling and suicide education agencies in the
FILM
The Room Thanks to The Disaster Artist, the James Franco movie about the making of the cult classic The Room, the film’s popularity has soared. The film, which features writer, director and star Tommy Wiseau, screens at 10 tonight at the Cedar Lee Theatre. Tickets are $6. (Niesel) 2163 Lee Rd., Cleveland Heights, 440-528-0355, clevelandcinemas.com. MUSIC
Tri-C High School Rock Off Tonight from 6 to 10 at the Rock Hall, you can catch Round 2 of the 2020 High School Rock Off. All the participating bands in this year’s Rock Off will have access to the bookers and marketing directors at House of Blues Cleveland, the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern, the Grog Shop, Mahall’s and Musica. This “incubator relationship” will give the bands the opportunity to book shows or have a CD release party at one of the sponsoring clubs. Additional rounds of performances are scheduled for Feb. 15 and 22. The “final exam” is Saturday, Feb. 29. All performers must be enrolled in 12th grade or lower, and at least half of the band members must be high school students. Finalists will get to record one original song at Tri-C’s Gill and Tommy LiPuma Center for Creative Arts, and the winning band will receive $1,000 cash and $250 for its high school music program. Tickets for tonight’s show are $10 on the website. (Niesel) 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-515-8444, rockhall.com.
SUN
02/09
SPORTS
Cavaliers vs. Los Angeles Clippers Led by perennial All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard, the Los Angeles Clippers, one of the best teams in the Western Conference, come to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse today for their one and only game in Cleveland against the Cavs. The game begins at 7:30 p.m. Consult the website for ticket prices. (Niesel) 1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com. COMEDY
Nate Craig Famous for playing Phil in the Netflix series Maniac, comedian Nate
FILM
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Marilyn Monroe plays a husbandhungry showgirl in this 1953 film directed by the great Howard Hawks. The film shows as part of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Marilyn x 4 series that serves as a tribute to the sexy star and connects to the new exhibit Proof: Photography in the Era of the Contact Sheet. The movie screens at 1:30 p.m. today and at 1:45 p.m. on Tuesday. Tickets cost $10, or $7 for CMA members. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org. FILM
Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace April Wright’s documentary film serves as a “love letter to the lavish movie palaces built in cities across American during the teens, twenties and thirties.” Wright makes the case that they’re still important to our cultural life. The movie screens today at 2:45 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. MUSIC
Pierre Réach Slated to give a free recital today at 2 p.m. at the Cleveland Museum of Art, internationally acclaimed pianist Pierre Réach performs as part of the 2019-2020 Performing Arts Classical Piano Series presented by Cuyahoga Community College. The program will celebrate the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth. His performance is the third of four Classical Piano Series presentations in the College’s 2019-2020 Performing Arts season, designed to “bring a world-class artistic experience to the Greater Cleveland community.” While admission is free, seating is “open,” which suggests you’d better get there early if you want to sit down. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.
MON
02/10
FAMILY FUN
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.
2020
Craig also starred on TruTV’s World’s Dumbest. He was also recently featured on Season 2 of Comedy Central’s Roast Battle. Craig likes to joke about the fact that he supports abortion because he’s paid for one and that if men could get pregnant, they’d be having abortions at a rapid rate. He performs at 7 tonight at Hilarities. Check the website for ticket prices. (Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.
THE ROAD TO THE ROCK HALL BEGINS WITH THE ROCK OFF
NIGHTLIFE
Shit Show Karaoke Local rapper/promoter Dirty Jones and Scene’s own Manny Wallace host Shit Show Karaoke, a weekly event at the B-Side Liquor Lounge wherein patrons choose from “an unlimited selection of jams from hip-hop to hard rock,” and are encouraged to “be as bad as you want.” Fueled by drink and shot specials, it all goes down tonight at 10 p.m. (Niesel) 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-932-1966, bsideliquorlounge.com.
TUE
02/11
MUSIC
Open Turntable Tuesday Tonight from 6 to 9, the Winchester hosts its weekly Open Turntable Tuesday. 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. MUSIC
Vinyl Night Music-focused Jukebox hosts a vinyl night every Tuesday that serves as a listening party for new releases, partnering with Loop in Tremont, so patrons can hear a new album on vinyl. You can bring your own vinyl and spin it too. It all starts at 5 p.m. (Niesel) 1404 West 29th St., 216-206-7699, jukeboxcle.com.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
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ART TRUTH UNDER FIRE New contemporary metal-art show at Kent State University commemorates the 50th anniversary of the brutal student shootings By Laura Morrison WHEN ANDERSON TURNER first came to Kent State University in 2005, he was tasked with finding the school’s Commemorative Medallion marking the May 4 shootings. Somehow the artwork, given as a gift, had been misplaced. Two years later, while up in a rickety loft in the old KSU art building, Turner found the piece wrapped in dusty cloth, still in its neat hickory box with a purple cushion. “It was very safe. It probably had been up there for 30 years,” says Turner, who is the director for the School of Art Collection and Galleries. “I wondered though, ‘What are we going to do with this?’” Now 50 years after the brutal day that changed the university’s legacy forever, the medallion is on display, along with 10 other contemporary metalwork artists’ pieces in a new exhibition called Constructed Answer. “This event is the first time I’ve shown it outside of the context of the [school’s] collection,” explains Turner, who co-curated the exhibition with Andrew Kuebeck, head of the university’s jewelry/ metals/enameling program. “It hasn’t been hiding these last few years, it’s just such a unique and precious thing.” When I visited, the pair were readying for the opening reception, pasting lettering and artwork descriptions onto the white walls of the Center for the Visual Arts’ CVA Gallery. They’ve placed the medallion, which looks like a mix between a religious artifact and a statement necklace Cher would wear, near the entrance to catch people’s attention right off. As Turner explains, the piece was designed and created by seven seniors from what was then known as the Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts) right after the shootings in 1970. “As I understand it,” Turner says, “they were walking to meet their professors to plan their thesis shows when they heard about the shootings at Kent State. They then decided as a group to do this instead of an individual thing, and then gift it to us. And, yes, they still graduated.”
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Photo courtesy of Kent State University
This May 4 Commemorative Medallion sparked the new exhibit at KSU.
Much of the design is based on sets of four: the date of the shooting and the number of students who were killed by the National Guard. The grape-size pearl at the heart of the medallion is banded with a cross of metal and is set on an octagon. Each link of the barbed wire-esque chain has four sides.
a jumping-off point to highlight metalwork, an art form that doesn’t often get its own exhibition. The other pieces in Constructed Answer, made by artists from all around the country, deal with loss and tragedy and violence, but not necessarily May 4. “We felt very free to do what we
CONSTRUCTED ANSWER THROUGH FEB. 28 AT THE CVA GALLERY CENTER FOR THE VISUAL ARTS 325 TERRACE DR., KENT, 330-672-1379. KENT.EDU/GALLERIES/CVA-GALLERY
“I can’t imagine pulling this off,” Kuebeck says. “Metal work is kind of a solitary task. It’s a huge accomplishment for a group of people to come together with something that has that much resolve.” While this is not the only work given to the university to commemorate the tragedy, the co-curators used the medallion as
| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
wanted curatorially in the pieces we selected,” Kuebeck says. “We touched on a lot of interesting topics that might deserve their own shows — from issues about body image and terrorism, to feminism and gay rights and gun violence — but I think we were able to put them in one cohesive show that made sense.” The artists included in the exhibition, whom Kuebeck says are
all well-known in their field, are Boris Bally, Taehyun Bang, Marilyn DaSilva, Holland Houdek, Keith Lewis, Michael Nashef, Marissa Saneholtz, Stephen Saracino, Mel Someroski and Renée ZettleSterling. Each piece is deeply personal, showing, as Kuebeck says, everything from the destruction of one’s home to one’s homeland. “I always tell my students they have to figure out how to make something as personal as possible,” Kuebeck says. “When people are in school they start off making things that are a little bit safe and generic and more universal. But I think universal artists aren’t the ones you remember; those who dig deep and make things that address their own experience are the ones who are more impactful.” After two years of planning, Kuebeck and Turner say they hope this exhibition can help continue the conversation about the shootings with the community and continue to promote healing. “The legacy of May 4 is to ask a broader question: As a university, how do we handle something that horrible?” Turner says. And through KSU’s May 4 Visitors’ Center and multi-tiered programing planned for the coming months, Turner says they aren’t shying away from the 50th anniversary. “I think the university realizes it can’t forget that aspect of the past,” Kuebeck says. “They have to figure out ways as an educational institution to show a modern audience how it happened, why it happened and to make sure it never happens again.”
Upcoming artist talks at the Center for the Visual Arts include Renée Zettle-Sterling at noon on Feb. 7, in Room 165; and Holland Houdek at 2 p.m. on Feb. 28, in Room 140.
lmorrison@clevescene.com t@lowesays
STAGE LOW-CALORIE LAUGH Clue at Cleveland Play House is low-stakes whodunit fun By Christine Howey Photo by Ken Blaze
IN THE AMERICA OF 2020, IT’S hard to believe anyone would want to see a farce on stage. It would seem that the absurd (and terrifying) antics in our state legislature and in Washington, D.C., might be enough to sate even the most slapstickhungry farce aficionado. And yet, here we have Clue at the Cleveland Play House, a 90-minute play based on the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn for the eponymous 1985 flick, which itself was based on the board game. In that game, players try to accurately triangulate suspects, locations and murder weapons to suss out who killed a victim in a spooky old house (Colonel Mustard did it in the kitchen with a wrench, etc.). Yes, you remember: That’s the game that you up-ended when you were 10 years old, sending all the pieces flying and wailing, “It’s not fair!” every time your mom won. Perhaps that’s the reason why CPH inscribes the subtitle, “A new comedy,” prominently on the cover of the program. Don’t want anyone to think we’re revisiting childhood trauma here. As written by Sandy Rustin, with additional material by Hunter Foster and Eric Price, the script lays out a standard farce structure featuring a butler and French maid, switched identities, ridiculous deceptions, sight gags, slamming doors, and a sprint to a loony conclusion. It doesn’t help that most of the gags are so far past corny they have decomposed into high fructose corn syrup: “Is there a ladies room?” “Oui, oui, Madame.” “No, I just have to powder my nose.”) To be sure, the elements are in place for a juicy farcical romp, and this tightly synchronized production often succeeds, albeit in fits and starts. It begins with the butler Wadsworth welcoming the evening’s house guests, none of whom know exactly why they’ve been invited, or by whom. The first misfire happens when there are references to the 1950’s House on UnAmerican Activities hearings, chaired by the execrable Sen. Joseph McCarthy. It’s not exactly a boffo premise on which to base this frothy entertainment,
The colorful cast of Clue, now at the Cleveland Play House.
since the HUAC hearings were a political monstrosity that ruined many lives and careers. On the plus side, that theme is mostly jettisoned as the energetic cast uses fast-twitch timing to lay out an ever-multiplying gaggle of plot points and misdirections. It seems the colorfully named visitors — the aforementioned Mustard, Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock, Prof. Plum, and Miss Scarlet — have all been invited to dinner by their serial blackmailer, the owner of the house who bears the comedically useful name of Mr. Boddy. You see, each of the guests has committed a ghastly deed of one sort or another, and Mr. Boddy is there to make them pay. Shortly after Boddy gives each of the guests a different
is as dim-witted a military stuffed shirt as you would want, launching his malaprops with the confidence of a man who knows nothing and is proud of it. And Alex Mandell is amusing as the ambiguously gay and somewhat mysterious Mr. Green. Some of the others, including White, Plum and Scarlet, have little to do, but the actors — respectively Donna English, Michael Kostroff, and Eleasha Gamble — handle their tasks well. However, to make this material soar, a couple roles must be delivered with spectacular skill. And in this production, those two actors swing mightily but don’t hit home runs. Mrs. Peacock is a daffy older woman with a penchant for booze. In short, it’s a character crying out
CLUE THROUGH FEB. 23 AT THE ALLEN THEATRE 1407 EUCLID AVE., 216-241-6000 CLEVELANDPLAYHOUSE.COM
weapon as a gift (a fun party-favor idea; try it at your next soiree), his dead body is found. I won’t trouble you with the profusion of Boddy/ body puns that event inspires. Suffice to say, the hunt for the culprit is on. Under the direction of Casey Hushion, there are ample gobs of frivolity to divert the audience. As Colonel Mustard, John Tracy Egan
for the kind of over-the-top, inyour-face acting that makes a farce memorable. While she’s quite funny at times, Kathy Fitzgerald doesn’t show the full range of comedic colors that her character name implies, too often leaning on predictable schtick instead of creating something surprising and fresh. In the linchpin role of Wadsworth, Mark Price starts off exceptionally
well as he efficiently orchestrates the evening as the omniscient butler. But when he is called upon to present that staple of many farces, the retelling of the story from beginning to end at breakneck speed, he comes up a bit short. That is a juicy task that requires an actor who can sharply capture the essences of all the other characters in a nanosecond while keeping the narration flowing. Instead, Price employs only vague characterizations of the others and he doesn’t totally exhaust himself and the audience in the process, as he should. The proceedings are enlivened by Lee Savage’s scenic design featuring hidden rooms that roll and swing out, then disappear as needed. And the lighting design by Ryan O’Gara helps keep the potentially confusing action trackable and understandable. In truth, this Clue is essentially dinner theater without the dinner. If farce is supposed to be indulgent, the dessert course of all stage offerings, this production isn’t exactly a chocolate-glazed Boston Cream Whoopie Pie. But it is a tasty little fruit compote.
Christine Howey, a former stage actor and director, is executive director of Literary Cleveland.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
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| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
MOVIES VIOLINS ON SCREEN Tim Roth and Clive Owen star in redemptive classical music saga By Sam Allard LAST WEEK, THE WORLD celebrated the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The date, Jan. 27, is now formally recognized as Holocaust Remembrance Day. With more than one million people murdered at Auschwitz, the camp is inarguably the poster child for the scale of Nazi atrocities during WWII. The 2015 film Son of Saul, by Hungarian director Lazlo Nemes, is perhaps the most vivid and haunting depiction of the atmosphere there. It chronicled the experiences of a man forced to serve in the sonderkommandos, (slave-labor units made up of Jews who were tasked with disposing bodies in mass graves, among other things) and his quest to give his son a proper Jewish burial. It was a gripping and emotionally pummeling drama. Treblinka, located just outside Warsaw, was the second deadliest of the Nazi concentration camps. Between 700,000 and 900,000 people, virtually all of them Jews, were killed in the gas chambers there. In order to document the thousands of the dead, a small group of Jewish elders composed a song to remember their names and committed it to memory. The performance of the song was said to take five full days. That is the song referenced in The Song of Names, a film about a Jewish violin prodigy named David Eli Rapoport whose family was sent
Photo by Sabrina Lantos / Sony Pictures Classics
to Treblinka while he was studying music in London when war broke out. The film is a fictionalization, based on the 2002 novel by Norman Lebrecht, but it feels akin to any number of true Holocaust survivor tales. It opens on Friday at the Cedar Lee. The film begins in 1951, the night of a debut concert by Rapoport (Jonah Hauer-King), a rapturous private recording of whom had met with enthusiastic critical acclaim in the classical music world. But the 21-year-old Rapoport, for reasons unknown, misses the concert and then disappears from London. Thirty-five years later, Martin Simmonds (Tim Roth) picks up the trail of his lost adopted brother and
goes searching for him, a quest that takes him across England, Poland and the United States. When he finds David (Clive Owen), he has radically changed, having become a devout practitioner of Orthodox Judaism, though he had renounced his faith in the presence of Martin as a young man. The thrust of the film is Simmonds’ search for Rapoport, intercut with vignettes from their boyhood, and it lacks a certain investigative thrill. Moreover, the two child actors (Luke Doyle and Misha Handley) have neither the script, direction nor the chemistry to enliven their scenes with the sort of specificity (awkward sexual energy) or trajectory (the refutation
of Jewish stereotypes) that we saw in Jojo Rabbit, another WWII film with a childhood friendship at its center. While some are more touching than others, these brief scene-lets are often generic. But when the older David finally explains why he missed the concert, and the abrupt change in the direction of his life based on a chance encounter, the film’s final act — and David’s final performance — rescues earlier narrative bumps. Though its context is mournful, the film’s central story is about a complicated relationship colored by jealousy, anger, forgiveness, redemption, grief and peace. Aided and abetted by the compositions of Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings), Canadian director Francois Girard has added another classical music film to his already substantial resume. He is perhaps best known for his biopic 32 Short Films about Glenn Gould, about the Canadian classical pianist, but local audiences might more readily remember The Red Violin, the 1998 drama which won an Oscar for Best Original Score. Extra props here to Clive Owen. Though he’s only in the final 30 minutes of the film, he worked tirelessly with a private violin instructor to prepare, which facilitated the graceful editing of the
sallard@clevescene.com t@scenesallard
SPOTLIGHT: FROM DARKNESS RETURNED THE LOCALLY BASED production company Fly-ByWire Films has teamed up with Cleveland’s Distillation Studios to release its newest short fi lm, From Darkness Returned. Produced for the 48 Hour Film Horror Project, the fi lm has been selected to screen at two upcoming local film festivals, the Fun Mill Film Festival that takes place on Sunday, Feb. 16, at Atlas Cinema Lakeshore in Euclid; and the Short. Sweet. Film Festival that takes place
from Friday, Feb. 28, to Sunday, March 1, at the Alex Theatre at the 9. (From Darkness Returned will screen at 7 p.m. on Feb. 28 during the Local Filmmakers Program.) A “chilling tale of a religious cult performing ritual sacrifice in order to bring demons into this world,” the film won Best Use of the Line and was nominated for Best Writing at last year’s 48 Hour Film Horror Project. Director Rémy Gareau (Nessie’s Wild Ride) and producer Kara
Mann ( You Can Run) worked together to deliver what the press release calls “a fast-paced, visually stunning and uniquely original horror film that fits somewhere between Rosemary’s Baby and Hostel.” Cinematographer Bryan Robinson (Secret Ingredient) provided the “breathtaking visuals” and musician and composer Jacob Kirkwood (ITEM) did the score. “This was our final 48 Hour Film Project. Murphy’s law was defi nitely in effect that weekend,
and this was without a doubt our most difficult project to date,” says Gareau in a statement. “But, once again, our amazing crew and this incredibly talented cast overcame everything, and we ended up with something really cool that we’re all proud of. It even went on to get nominated for some awards.” — Jeff Niesel
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel | clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
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EAT DOWN THE MIDDLE Char offers pretty solid, unsurprising tavern fare By Douglas Trattner THE AVERAGE DINER DOES NOT leave his or her home in search of adventure. Many hungry folks on the prowl seek not to have their perceptions challenged, their boundaries pushed. What most people crave is a meal that offers few curveballs in terms of food, drink and service, dished up in a generally agreeable space for a reasonable amount of money. If that sounds at all like you, consider penciling in a visit to Char Whiskey Bar and Grille, which opened at the tail end of 2019 in the former Sweet Melissa spot in Rocky River. With a backwoods cabin full of rustic reclaimed wood, artfully handlettered chalkboard menu and nearencyclopedic catalog of brown booze, Char nails with precision the design aesthetic of the “trendy restaurant circa 2012.” An American tavernstyle menu offers up softballs like beer-hall pretzels, creamy mac and cheese, over-stuffed sandwiches and meat-on-meat burgers — essentially a lunch menu save for the fact that Char is dinner-only most of the week. That’s not to say that Char is without its appeal; the beefy threesided, 24-seat bar that commands a full third of the dining room is a great place to meet a friend for a cocktail, especially during happy hour when the house cocktails are discounted a couple bucks apiece. Then again, it’s difficult to ascertain if that’s a good deal or not considering that the drinks menu intentionally omits prices, another outdated “trendy restaurant” quirk. The woodsy Maplehattan ($11, $9 during HH) is layered with flavors of nuts, spice and heat, and the garnish — a half dollar-size waffle, served warm — could not be cuter. Mescal lovers should give the Mezhattan a twirl as it is complex and wellbalanced, with the aggressively smoky notes of the mescal tamed by Cointreau. Craft beer drinkers, too, are well looked after, with a number of top local and regional breweries represented both on tap and in the bottle or can. It’s the winos who pull the short straw owing to an anemic by-the-glass list headlined by Dreaming Tree, a label better known
Photo courtesy of Char Whiskey Bar and Grille
for its high-profile owner, Dave Matthews, than its finesse. Predictable doesn’t necessarily mean disagreeable. A trio of freshbaked pretzels ($10), each the size and shape of a demi-baguette, goes great with a cold beer. The soft brown buns are served with, you guessed it, whole grain mustard and silky cheese sauce. Apart from containing no visible “lump crab
with blue cheese and tomatoes, portabellas and truffle, and short rib and bourbon sauce. Diners can swap out the pasta for roasted cauliflower to fashion a delicious and gluten-free alternative. That mushroom and truffle variety ($15) featured savory sauteed shrooms and well-caramelized, nicely textured cauliflower in a light truffle cream sauce.
CHAR WHISKEY BAR AND GRILLE 19337 DETROIT RD., ROCKY RIVER 216-712-4591 CHAR-ROCKYRIVER.COM
meat” as advertised, the crab cakes ($15) served here are better than most of the ones sold at area nonseafood restaurants. We barely managed to make a dent in the goat cheese appetizer ($13), an embarrassingly large log of chalky cheese sprinkled with crushed pistachios and served with wedges of naan. Sure, there’s honey and jam on the side, but it doesn’t much help. A selection of mac and cheese dishes includes versions gilded
Char’s sandwiches are safe and solid choices. A BLT ($11) is assembled atop soft, thin naan, making for a lighter meal that still packs in the flavor. Likewise, the Italian ($11) on ciabatta bread is stacked with sliced meats, cheeses, veggies and dressing and pressed until dense and warm. Crispy wafflecut chips are included. The balance of the bill of fare offers few surprises, except for those of the unpleasant variety. We
expected top-notch burgers given that they claim a sizeable amount of menu real estate, but burgers ordered on two separate visits — including the namesake Char — arrived woefully over-cooked. That Char burger ($15) was saved by a topping of tender shredded short rib and a ladle of cheese sauce, but the spice-dusted Black and Blue ($13) went back for a re-do. It returned a perfect medium-rare, capped with blue cheese and rashers of thick-cut bacon. A couple nightly features built around seafood and steak round out the offerings, but the kitchen was out of one or both options during each of two visits. There is a fine 10-ounce sirloin ($22) on the regular menu that arrived with the correct internal temperature, but would have benefited from a more substantial char, no pun intended. It’s a pretty solid deal considering that the price includes a large salad and a choice of sides.
dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner | clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
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ADVERTISE WITH SCENE. Call 216-241-7550 for more information.
BUSINESS PARTNERS CHRIS Brauser and Stephen Stopko believe they have the formula to succeed in a spot that has seen more than its fair share of turnover over the past few years. Since 2012, this Battery Park tavern in Detroit Shoreway has been home to Reddstone 2.0, Graffiti and Battery Park Pub, some ventures lasting as long as three years, others as brief as 11 months. Of course, many old-timers remember this building as Snicker’s, a joint that lasted (under various owners) for almost two decades. Brauser and Stopko, who got the keys to the building in early October, appear to have put in the time, money and attention to create a space that looks and feels like a new business as opposed to a simple retread of operations past. All Saints Public House (1261 West 76th St., 216-9997074) offers up the atmosphere of a warm, welcoming and polished neighborhood pub. “We focused on bringing the building back to its prime era,” notes Brauser, adding that the building dates back to 1909. “Over the years and different restaurant concepts, the character got stripped away, as did the bar’s position in the neighborhood.” Following months of work, the main barroom has reclaimed much of its turn-of-the-century elegance: an intimate space for 45 anchored by a handsome mahogany bar and capped with a pressed tin ceiling. Warm lighting, soft seating and a wall decorated with photos of local boxer Johnny Kilbane combine to create an appealing spot that feels like it’s been here all along. Back in the day, the corner tavern served as the company bar for employees of the Union Carbide plant. For All Saints to thrive, says Brauser, it
once again has to serve the immediate community. “We are a neighborhood bar that bridges the divide between new and old,” he states. “For this place to have success, it has to be the place that the neighborhood loves.” Chef Cody Heppler will put together a menu of approachable but well-crafted items that will include wedge and Cobb salads, pulled pork sliders, grilled cheese sandwiches served alongside tomato bisque, beer-battered fish and chips, smoked beef Reubens and a grilled sirloin steak. Those dishes will be supplemented by nightly specials. “I don’t even want to use the term gastropub, because that sounds too fancy,” Brauser explains. “This is solid pub fare.” The upper level received equal attention, turning an underutilized overflow space into a clubby but attractive lounge with a more casual vibe. Comfy couches, multiple largescreen TVs and a second bar make the space more conducive to groups, private affairs and events like trivia or comedy nights. “The way I describe it is, if I meet a girl and have a first date, we’ll eat downstairs,” Brauser says. “On the weekend, when I’m with my friends watching sports, upstairs is where I’m going to hang.” Out back, the patio will also get a much-needed refresh. Come spring, guests can look forward to a patio space that is leveled, relit and refurnished. Look for All Saints Public House to open in mid-February.
dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner
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| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
HEN THE LUMINEERS FIRST FORMED to be added was ‘Angela,’ and that was the last to be added and last to be written. It became one of our in New Jersey in 2005, the band struggled favorites. After it, I had a much better appreciation to get gigs at some of New York’s better for why the sophomore slump exists. There were small venues. In fact, playing clubs in the people who had rooted for us, and others who had city turned into such an ordeal that the guys almost bet against us. People said this kind of music was called it quits. dead.” “It was difficult to crawl out of that and grow,” In the wake of Cleopatra, which wound up going says singer-guitarist Wesley Shultz in a recent phone platinum in the States, the band decided to try interview from Asheville, North Carolina, where the something more ambitious for its third album. band was rehearsing for its tour in support of its Initially, the guys thought they’d make three EPs new album, III, which brings it to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Saturday with Mt. Joy and JS Ondara. that could stand on their own. “It felt like a merry-go-round. I was working a few “When I started to write the songs, I began jobs, and [drummer Jeremiah Fraites] was finishing to look for themes that ran through them,” up school, and we were commuting back and forth says Schultz when asked about III. “It felt very superimposed. Once we had these Sparks family between New York and New Jersey. It was at a characters — there was Jimmy and Gloria and breaking point.” Junior — it became an exciting thing.” Schultz decided he wanted to leave New York/New While the Sparks family members may be Jersey, so he had what he describes as a “heart-tofictional, they’re modeled on real people. Schultz heart” talk with Fraites, and the band called it quits has a relative who’s battled mental illness and during that phone conversation. addiction and is currently homeless. Fraites’ But Schultz didn’t want the band to end, so he brother died of a heroin overdose. suggested the group just relocate. In another unique twist, each song on the album “I pitched [Fraites] on coming to Denver,” says has an accompanying video, and the videos work Schultz. “I thought if we had tried to make things together as a feature length film. A few weeks work on a long-distance basis, it would never work ago, the film even showed at out. He agreed. We went out to the Toronto International Film Denver. People thought we were Festival. finished, but we were just getting THE LUMINEERS “For us, the ability to tell the started. We made our way back to MT. JOY | JS ONDARA story in a movie form and get it New York where we tried to play 7 P.M. SATURDAY, FEB. 8 to be accepted into film festivals places like Mercury Lounge and ROCKET MORTGAGE FIELDHOUSE has been great,” says Schultz. “I Rockwood and all these places. ONE CENTER COURT, 888-894-9424 imagined it as a movie but with We couldn’t get into them when TICKETS: $35-$299 no dialogue because the music is we lived in New York. After we ROCKETMORTGAGEFIELDHOUSE.COM the dialogue.” moved, we got into all of them. Schultz says he aims to We went to Denver on instinct, empathize with the characters in and it just worked out.” the songs rather than cast blame. The band recorded its first album at Bear Creek, “It’s painful to love someone like this who a famous studio in Seattle. Walking into the place, doesn’t know how to get out of their own way,” Schultz knew the band had taken a big step forward. he says. “I think addiction is like standing in “It was amazing,” he says. “Walking into that the ocean where you don’t appreciate the power studio was life changing. Up until that point, we had of Mother Nature unless you’re standing in the either snuck into studios or turned a room in our ocean. What’s really humbling is when you get house into a recording studio. It was just guerrillastyle recording. We even went to the practice studio at pummeled and thrown on your ass by something you thought you could handle. A lot of the album Jeremiah’s university to record piano and a few other is telling the story of the addict and not just things. We would bring in laundry baskets that had making it a one-sided story.” microphones and all this gear to make it look like we Given the opioid and mental health crisis, were doing laundry. For us, [Bear Creek] felt like we the album comes at a particularly significant had graduated to some other place or level.” Released in 2012, the self-titled album delivered a historical juncture. And yet even though the songs hit with the careening “Ho Hey,” a folk-y tune that all possess a somber tone, tunes such as “Life in features softly strummed mandolin and call-andthe City” and “Gloria” still provide that uplifting response vocals. energy for which the band is known. With its Given the debut album’s success, there was a working-class imagery, “Jimmy Sparks,” one of the certain amount of pressure for the group to deliver album’s highlights, possesses a Springsteen vibe. an equally successful followup album. “The director of the music videos was adamant “In some ways, there was underlying pressure, but about how within these songs there’s so much I felt confident that if we knew the songs were right, love,” says Schultz. “It’s similar to a song about things were going to happen, and it didn’t matter heartbreak. It’s because you love the person. You what kind of success preceded it,” Schultz admits might hate what they’re making you feel, but when asked about the band’s second album, 2016’s it’s all derived from love. It was an unexpected Cleopatra. “We were confident. We were pressing a lot outcome. We didn’t think we were committing in the beginning but once we got going, it was fine. career suicide, but I didn’t think [III] would be as enjoyable to play live as it has been. It’s been really We started with ‘Ophelia’ and one of the last songs
W
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| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
MON 8/3
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Songwriting as Catharsis Sarah Shook and the Disarmers embrace their own version of success By JEFF NIESEL
RAISED IN A STRICT CHRISTIAN family, singer-songwriter Sarah Shook wasn’t allowed to listen to secular music while growing up. If the music wasn’t Christian or classical, it’s likely she didn’t hear it. Naturally, that didn’t last. Once Shook got her own car, she began listening to the radio, and a whole new world opened itself up to her. “I had this beat-up old Mazda Protégé,” she says via phone from her North Carolina home. She and her backing band, the Disarmers, perform with Thor Platter Band at 8:30 p.m. on Friday at the Beachland Ballroom. “It didn’t have a CD player. I think it might have had a tape deck. It definitely had a radio, and my parents couldn’t be in the car with me all the time. That was my first foray into exploring new music.” She describes the experience as “pretty jarring.” “I was 17 or 18 at the time,” she says. “I wasn’t allowed to listen to a lot of music with drums. Hearing some rock ’n’ roll rhythm section where the bass was amped to 11 and the drums were crashing was awesome and exhilarating for me. Most people would think it’s ho-hum because they grew up with that, and it would seem normal to them.” Despite (or, perhaps, because of) growing up in such a restrictive environment, Shook managed to teach herself to play piano. She also started writing songs when she was about 8 years old. “Being homeschooled and
sheltered, I’m sure all the lyrical content was about Jesus and God,” she says. “When I was 16, a friend from our church lent me a guitar. I spent a lot of time outdoors as a teenager. And though I liked piano, I wanted to go outside to write a song on an instrument. To have a standard six-string acoustic was great. That was what I needed. This was before the free YouTube tutorials and the million ways you can teach yourself guitar now. I had one of the giant old-school posters on my wall that had all the chords. I would sit on the floor with my guitar, and that’s how I learned to play.” After absorbing some old-school country thanks to a boyfriend who
genre. After that Johnny Cash vinyl moment, we started playing songs together.” She then recruited Phil Sullivan to play lap steel with her. Next, she asked Eric Peterson, a terrific local player, to sit in on electric guitar for a few gigs. He wound up joining the band too. At that point, the group morphed into the Disarmers. And if it weren’t for Peterson, the band might still be playing small bars and clubs near its North Carolina home. But Peterson insisted the group make an album. “I always felt like music was something I did for fun,” says Shook. “Songwriting was catharsis. Playing with my bandmates at local
SARAH SHOOK AND THE DISARMERS | THOR PLATTER BAND 7:30 P.M. FRIDAY, FEB. 7 BEACHLAND BALLROOM, 15711 WATERLOO RD., 216-383-1124 TICKETS: $15. BEACHLANDBALLROOM.COM
had good musical taste, Shook’s first band, Sarah Shook and the Devil, came together in 2010. “I was dating this guy who had a small but really good collection of all the country greats on vinyl,” Shook says. “Early on, we were sitting on the porch drinking PBRs. He put on Johnny Cash. Immediately, I was like ‘What is this?’ It was the kind of music that I had been writing in terms of the song structure and the kinds of chords. It was so wild to know that there was a name for this
bars was a good way to socialize. I don’t care about fame or celebrity at all. I’m actively against that. When Eric pushed for that, my knee-jerk reaction was that I didn’t realize he wanted more out of this than what we were doing. Even at that point, he was with for us for so long that I had to listen to him. I knew we needed to get a record out, and if we wanted to tour more, I knew we had to talk logistics. It all came together over a period of time. I’ll never forget going to shows and taking three vehicles
because we didn’t have a van.” The group released Sidelong in 2015 and followed it up with Years in 2018. Songs such as “New Ways to Fail” and “The Bottle Never Lets Me Down,” both of which can be found on Years, put Shook’s hiccuping vocals up front in the mix and possess a cowpunk punch thanks to Peterson’s gritty guitar work. “I decided that when I went in to do the tracking for Years that I would be sober and wait to start pounding whiskey until I got home and started thinking of all the mistakes I had probably made,” she says, adding that she’s completely sober now. “[Becoming sober has] helped me get my head on straight in terms of where we’re going as a band and what our version of success means to us.” Since the group’s first two records provided such an incredible outlet of emotion for Shook, does she have anything left in the tank for the band’s forthcoming third album? “The thing that’s hardest for me is figuring out how to write songs sober,” she admits. “It was very different when I would sit down to write songs with a whiskey or two. I was uninhibited. My subconscious would put things together in a way that made linear sense. [As I’m writing the next record,] I’m trying to get to that point of mental relaxation.”
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel | clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
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LIVEWIRE
all the live music you should see this week Photo courtesy of Atlantic Records
WED
02/05
The Bad Man (in the Locker Room): 8:30 p.m., $8. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Cleveland Tapes Presents the Dozens: 8 p.m., $10. Bop Stop. V.D.W.M/QDAJUICE/Nipps/T.Fonz/ ST Real/Megadon: 8 p.m. Grog Shop.
THU
02/06
Skatch Anderssen Orchestra With Ralph LaLama: 8 p.m., $20. Bop Stop. Buffalo Wabs & the Price Hill Hustle/JP & the Chatfield Boys: 8:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Beachland Tavern. Eric Clapton Tribute by Slowhand: 7:30 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. Madeline Finn/Apostle Jones/Jul Big Green (in the Supper Club): 7:30 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. Stephen Lynch: 8 p.m., $37.25 ADV, $42.25 DOS. House of Blues. Niiice./Mover Shaker/Drag Daze (in the Locker Room): 7:30 p.m., $10. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Northeast Ohio Drum & Music Jam: 9 p.m., free. Beachland Ballroom. The Slap Frost Revue/Equipto/ Michael Marshall/Z-Man: $15. Grog Shop.
FRI
02/07
Brat Curse/Joey Nix Band/ Joyframe/Xanny Stars: 9 p.m., $8. Grog Shop. DJ LDC’s Soul Music & Other Music for the Soul: 6 p.m., free. Happy Dog. Fa2 Featuring Kenia: 8 p.m., $20. Bop Stop. High Totals/Born Deprived/Lorain Skum: 9 p.m., free. Now That’s Class. Jazz Jam Session: 11 p.m., free. Bop Stop. La Gran Fuga: Two Turntables and a Conga: 9 p.m., free. Now That’s Class. Bill March & Friends/Wild Angels Quartet (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $10. Music Box Supper Club. The Nick Moss Band featuring Dennis Gruenling/Kristine Jackson: 8 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Beachland Tavern. Roddy Ricch: With his label debut, Please Excuse Me for Being
Rapper Roddy Ricch comes to House of Blues. See: Friday.
Antisocial, L.A.-based rapper Roddy Ricch makes a major statement and collaborates with acts such as Meek Mill, Gunna and Ty Dolla $ign. Throughout the album, Ricch raps over sparse beats, and he effectively alternates between rapping and singing on tracks such as “Moonwalkin” and “High Fashion.” On the percolating “Bacc Seat,” he and Ty Dolla $ign trade R-rated rhymes. Expect a high-energy performance from the young star-in-the-making. (Jeff Niesel) 8 p.m., $25 ADV, $30 DOS. House of Blues. Sarah Shook and the Disarmers/ Thor Platter Band: 8:30 p.m., $15. Beachland Ballroom. Jackie Warren: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown. ZYGRT: 8 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.
SAT
02/08
Anthony B/Ms. BBC/Conscious Eye: 9 p.m., $18 ADV, $22 DOS. Grog Shop. Rachel Brown and the Beatnik Playboys: 8 p.m., $15. Bop Stop. Michele Edwards/David Thomas Trio: 8:30 p.m., $20. Nighttown. (Hed) P.E.: 6:30 p.m., $17. Odeon. The Iron Maidens/Olathia: During hair metal’s glory days, the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles was the place to be. At that time, Linda McDonald (aka Nikki McBurrain) played in the Los Angeles-based metal act Phantom Blue. In 2001, that band would become the Iron Maidens, a group that bills itself as
“the world’s only female tribute to Iron Maiden.” McDonald currently plays drums with the act. The Iron Maidens even include Maiden’s zombie-like mascot Eddie in their very entertaining live show. (Niesel) 8 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. The Lumineers: Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Matoma & Two Friends/Win and Woo: 7:30 p.m. Agora Theatre. Roots of Creation’s Grateful Dub/ Grav: 8:30 p.m., $15. Beachland Tavern. Sylmar/King Buu/Paper Morning: 9 p.m., $8. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Totally ’80s Live with the Motels/ Bow Wow Wow/When in Rome II: 8 p.m., $20 ADV, $25 DOS. House of Blues. Jackie Warren: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown.
SUN
02/09
Alba Trio: 7 p.m., $15. Bop Stop. The Allman Betts Band/JD Simo/ Jackson Stokes: Singer-guitarist Devon Allman and singer-guitarist Duane Betts originally met in the late ’90s and have played together numerous times since then, but they only formally assembled the Allman Betts Band within the past year or two. In 2017, Allman organized a concert at the Fillmore in San Francisco to honor the music and memory of his father, founding Allman Brothers Band keyboardist and singer Gregg Allman, and also to debut his new band, the Devon Allman Project.
The show marked the beginning of a partnership with Betts, son of founding Allman Brothers Band guitarist and singer Dickey Betts. The group recorded its latest album, Down to the River, at Muscle Shoals with Matt RossSpang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price, John Prine). Album opener “All Night” features gruff vocals and wailing guitars as it evokes the classic rock of the 1970s. With “Shinin’,” another classic rocksounding track that features a touch of organ, the band writes about overcoming hardship. Expect to hear these songs at tonight’s show, a make-up for last year’s cancellation. (Niesel) 8 p.m., $35 ADV, $40 DOS. House of Blues. Jim Carr & Laura Webster Quintet: 7 p.m., $15. Nighttown. CJ Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band: 7:30 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. Dilla Day Featuring Doja/Holy/A/V/ Corey Grand/DJ Eso: 8:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Grog Shop. Gost/Johnny in the Grave: 7 p.m., $15 ADV, $18 DOS. Beachland Tavern. Machine Head: 7 p.m. Agora Theatre.
MON
02/10
Jacques/DC Young Fly/Jacob Latimore/FYB/Bluff City: 8 p.m., $35 ADV, $40 DOS. House of Blues.
TUE
02/11
Afton Showcase Featuring Neon Claws/HEEM GANG/DiTa TrUtH/ Dee Dorsey/CarterClouud/Eggrolls in Tokyo/Cloudythagreat/ Msfthakid & Friend/Sean Frost/ Clipso & Guests: 7:30 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Grog Shop. Collegiate Jazz Blow Out: 7 p.m., $10. Bop Stop. NGHTMRE/Kompany/Effin/Black A.M.: 8 p.m., $30 ADV, $35 DOS. House of Blues. Tall Heights/Victoria Canal: 7 p.m., $13 ADV, $15 DOS. House of Blues Cambridge Room. Whitney/CHAI: 8 p.m., $25. Beachland Ballroom.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene | clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
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BREAKING NEWS...
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OUTLAB: EXPERIMENTS IN IMPROVISED MUSIC
D-MAN BY JEFF NIESEL
MEET THE BAND: D-Man (vocals)
IN THE HEIGHTS: Originally from
Chicago, local rapper D-Man listened to a wide range of music while growing up in Cleveland Heights, where he moved in 2006. “Hip-hop has been my entire life,” he says. “My father had me listening to Biggie Smalls and Tupac and Master P, and my mother’s side is more R&B and Whitney Houston and gospel music. I had diverse taste in music.” In school, he took honors English and started writing poems in a composition book at age 16. “Writing was always an escape,” he says. “I then started to putting those poems to a beat, and I was mixing music and fashion and getting edgy and getting my own personal style.”
WHY YOU SHOULD HEAR HIM: Album
opener “To the League” features rapid-fire lyrics as D-Man boasts “counting cash is what I do.” The rapper shows off his flow on “Catch a Play” and “For the Dolla$,” more pensive tracks that allow him to flex his lyrical skills; the slow jam “Ain’t Change” has an R&B vibe to it. “Everything about my music is original from how I organize the lyrics to the stories I tell through them,” he says. “My music speaks to those who look for motivation to get up and get after their dreams.” D-Man recently returned from Los Angeles, where he filmed a video for the track “Catch a Play.” He’s also prepping to shoot another music video for the track “1 of 1.” WHERE YOU CAN HEAR HIM:
49dman.com. RECORDING ON THE FLY: D-Man
recorded his debut, I Said What I Said, at his home and strived to bring an immediacy to the record. “My engineer came here, and it was like an instant thing,” he says. “He played the beat and I instantly had some lyrics. It didn’t take a long period of time.”
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| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
WHERE YOU CAN SEE HIM: D-Man performs at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 5, at Lotus Lounge.
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
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REWIND
46 YEA R S AG O O N T HI S DATE THIS JULY 1, CLEVELAND SCENE will turn 50 years old, and in advance of the occasion, we’ve decided to dig into the archives on a weekly basis to republish something that appeared in the paper on that date (or thereabouts) during Scene’s first decade. This review of Lou Reed’s 1974 album Rock ’n’ Roll Animal by Crocus Behemoth, the pseudonym that local musician David Thomas used when he wrote for the paper, ran in the Scene issue dated Feb. 7, 1974, with the headline “Lou Reed’s ANIMAL Kills!” and the subhead “Live recording of Reed’s new band is an ‘r&r orgasm.’”
***
SIT DOWN WITH YOUR GUESTS.
ADVERTISE WITH SCENE. Call 216-241-7550 for more information.
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Lou Reed introduced his new band to the Midwest in November at the Akron Civic Theatre two guitarists, keyboardsman and rhythm section. He had them dressed in matching black outfits — leather pants, silver belts, body shirts. A death squad out of some cheapo sci-fi movie. He also wore black — leather pants and jacket and a silver chain hanging from his waist. Chic street punk. The band was cooking for the first time on what was then a young tour and Reed was obviously happy about it as he jerked awkwardly around stage, guitar-less, occasionally knocking into mike stands and tripping over cables. Yeah, clumsy, but he was happy. During one extended instrumental he wandered over to a monitor and leaned his head into its speaker, merrily keeping time by beating his thigh with the chain. A picture of rock and roll bliss. Reed and his band stunned the near sell-out crowd in Akron. It’s hard to say what the audience had expected. Maybe another anemic, warmed-over version of The Velvet Underground, the kind of thing served up by Reed’s previous band, The Tots. Maybe a wimpo “Walk On the Wild Side” pop poop show. Maybe whatever. They certainly didn’t expect the obvious. Reed walked on stage with his band and unleashed a
| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
rock and roll overkill. At a similar concert in New York City a month or so later, Reed and his band were recorded and the result is ROCK N’ ROLL ANIMAL. A 40-minute sustained rock and roll orgasm. The ultimate rock and roll concert recording. The most important rock and roll album of the 70’s. On and on. Make up anything. It’ll be true. ROCK N’ ROLL ANIMAL is, as critics like to say, a momentous album. First off, it’s the most intense rock and roll album released in this young decade. If the damn thing doesn’t make the adrenalin in your body churn your innards to mush, you’re dead people. Secondly, it’s the most accessible album Reed has ever recorded and if future releases maintain some of this quality Reed is finally gonna make it as a Big Star. A lot of credit has got to go to Reed’s new band. For the first time in his career he’s got himself a real-live, cooking rock and roll band. They’re good, real good. Especially guitarist Steve Hunter. In Akron they put on the best rock show I’ve seen in three years. For all The Underground’s rawness and intensity, these new guys make ’em sound like wimps. Even the technical aspects of the album are exceptional. The sound quality of the instrumental tracks is so clean it’s hard to believe ROCK N’ ROLL ANIMAL is a live recording. It actually sounds better than a number of studio albums I’ve heard. Only the vocal tracks, for some reason, are weak, though that may have something to do with Reed’s habit of ignoring the mike. Four of the five songs on ROCK N’ ROLL ANIMAL are old Underground material, almost the Very Best of The Underground — “Sweet Jane,” “Heroin,” “White Light/White Heat” and “Rock And Roll.” The way they’re performed here, however, they sound sparkling new. The Underground’s primal dynamics have been supercharged by a strong dose of rock and roll. It’s like a mad dog let loose. The dynamics have been
so hyped up that listening to the thing is practically an electric sex fantasy. A pretty and seductive intro opens Side 1. It’s really an extension of the intro that precedes the original recorded version of “Sweet Jane.” Hunter’s guitar emerges from a double guitar riff and flows through an enticing and teasing lead that magically segues into the piledriver chords of “Sweet Jane.” “Heroin” follows. Thirteen minutes of a maddening tease that finally releases you to a frenzied rock and roll orgasm. Four times the tempo and intensity build to the point of no return, the tension becomes unbearable and you only want the band to break loose and four times the bastard denies you, cuts it off, returns to a slow, quiet melody. Each time a higher plateau of anticipation is hit and a higher threshold established until, finally, when you just can’t stand it anymore, the band gives it to you full in the belly — a shuddering, bestial come of squelching guitars and a frenzied beyond-control beat. The raw “White Light/White Heat” opens Side 2 with another bombardment. In concert, glaringly white lights blast across stage, part of the very effective light show designed for Reed by the people who do David Bowie’s lighting. “Lady Day,” a haunting song from the BERLIN album, brings down the energy to a saner level, which is a relief. It’s only a brief breather, however. The anthem “Rock and Roll” follows to end the album on a high level. Some fluid and powerful guitar leads motivate the track and a funky guitar break starts out calm and builds relentlessly as bass and drums emerge and all burst into a final mad climax. ROCK N’ ROLL ANIMAL isn’t a nice album. It doesn’t do pretty things for you. It kills. Turn up the volume all the way — it turns you into a beetle scuttling across the floor.
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
SAVAGE LOVE CAM WHAT MAY by Dan Savage I started reading your column when I was a 20-year-old kid. Now I’m an old married lady with 20 years of (more or less) blissful married monogamy behind me. My oldest daughter, who is 23, just came out to me as a sex worker. She’s been making a slim living as a cam girl. She recently graduated with a marketable degree, but she hasn’t been searching for a job in her field because, as she puts it, “It’s hard to want to apply for a minimum wage job when I make the same working from home.” I’m finding this very hard to process on a number of levels. First, and I hope you will believe most importantly, it’s very hard for me to see her giving up what used to be her dreams. But that’s not the part I think you can help me with. I used to be a sex worker. For three years in the early ’90s, I was a dancer at the Lusty Lady on First Avenue in Seattle. That was before the internet really existed, but I think the job is actually fairly analogous to cam work: nudity and masturbation for the pleasure of others, with no actual physical contact. I found sex work to be corrosive to my personal goals. As a heterosexual woman, I hoped to fall in love with a man and have a family, and for me, the longer I did that type of work, the more impossible those goals seemed. I saw men at their worst 40 hours a week. As time went by, I felt myself withdrawing more and more from the possibility of any kind of affectionate relationship with a man. Quitting for me was an act of selfpreservation. I did my best to react nonjudgmentally when my daughter confided in me, but truthfully I’m really unhappy about it. I worry about the effect sex work will have on her future — both her intimate relationships and her professional goals — and while there are people working to reduce the stigma attached to sex work, that stigma still exists. I worry that she will become mired in poverty, barely getting by, and I worry that she will not be able to find loving relationships with men who value her worth. What do I do, Dan? Do I stand back and love her? Do I try to give her the benefit of my
experience, even if that seems shame-y? Is this even any of my business, given that she’s older now than I was when I gave birth to her? — The Cam Girl’s Mom Your daughter made this your business when she shared it with you, TCGM. So my advice would be to lean in (not stand back), love your daughter, and share your own experiences with her. But the goal shouldn’t be to get your daughter to stop doing sex work — that’s not the “benefit” you’re after — but rather to open the lines of communication and keep them open. Zooming out for a second … The kind of sex work you did decades ago at the Lusty Lady was different in important ways. (I visited the Lusty Lady a few times in the early ’90s, TCGM, which makes you one of the few letter writers that I might’ve seen naked who didn’t enclose photos.) The women who danced at the Lusty Lady were behind Plexiglas walls, men pumped quarters into slots to lift partitions that allowed them to see the women, and there were private booths for solo shows. But while you saw men “at their worst” (men can and have done worse), your daughter doesn’t have to look at the men she’s performing for. Her clients — her fans, if she has a following — aren’t on camera themselves. They may send her messages, and she may interact with them via DM, but she doesn’t have to watch them jack off. And unlike a performer in a peep show, your daughter can block guys who give her the creeps or who are in any way pushy or disrespectful. But while she doesn’t have to see men leering at her or watch come drip down Plexiglass walls, she does have to worry that someone out there might be recording her sessions and posting them online. And unlike the Lusty Lady (R.I.P.), the internet is forever. But the stigma around sex work is decreasing — Elizabeth Warren recently said she’s “open to decriminalizing” sex work (a tiny step in the right direction) — and with people of all ages furiously
sexting each other, we’re quickly reaching the stage where everyone has nudes out there somewhere. Pretty soon it won’t be in anyone’s interest to punish or harass people whose pics or videos go big or viral because you could be next. Something else to bear in mind: You worry that doing this kind of sex work — roughly the same kind you did — may make it impossible for your daughter to fall in love, create a family, pursue her professional goals, or even make a decent living. But you fell in love, created a family, and presumably make a good living yourself. And while it’s possible that doing this kind of work delayed achieving those goals, TCGM, you weren’t derailed or destroyed by it and your daughter doesn’t have to be either. (And is less likely to be with her mom in her corner.) Also, your daughter may not want the same things you did. Not everyone wants one committed, long-term partner, and not everyone wants kids. And while you’re understandably distressed that she isn’t doing anything with her degree at the moment, it’s possible your daughter’s ideas about what she wants to do with her life have changed since she picked a major. Working as a cam girl may give her the time and space she needs to figure out a new dream for herself. And as crazy as it sounds to some … there are women and men out there whose dream job is sex work. Your daughter opened a door when she shared this with you, and there must be a reason she shared it with you. Hell, it’s possible she may want to be talked out of doing it. So don’t hesitate to share your experiences and perspective with her. It’s not shaming to tell her you did this kind of work and found it dehumanizing and corrosive. That’s the truth of your experience. But after you share your perspective, TCGM, listen to hers with an open mind. And as all parents of adult children know or soon learn, TCGM, your kid gets to make their own choices and quite possibly their
own mistakes. And sometimes what looks like a mistake to a concerned parent turns out to be the right choice for the adult child.
*** I am a heterosexual male. My wife has been dating other men for the past year. When she started dating her first boyfriend, she told me she wasn’t ready for me to date other people but would process through it and then we could open up the relationship for me, too. After about six months, her first relationship ended and we both started looking for other partners. She found another guy pretty much right away and it took a few months before I started dating. I had a couple dates with this woman and then kissed her at the end of our second date. When I told my wife what happened, she got jealous and angry. A day later, my wife stole my phone and sent a message to the woman I’d been dating ending our relationship, and then she blocked the woman from my social media accounts and deleted her number from my phone. She broke up with her boyfriend and is insisting that our relationship is closed now. I love my wife, but I feel violated in so many different ways and I’m unsure what to do. — Married A Dictator Your wife should’ve married a cuckold — a man who wants to remain faithful to a woman who fucks around on him and dates other men — and you should’ve married a woman who isn’t a controlling, manipulative, unhinged hypocrite. Luckily for you both, MAD, a divorce that would allow each of you to find a new partner — a cuck for her, a sane person for you — is still an option.
On the Lovecast, Talking to boys about sex with Peggy Orenstein: savagelovecast.com.
mail@savagelove.net t@fakedansavage
| clevescene.com | February 5 - 11, 2020
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AKRON
1004 Kenmore Blvd. 330.753.3600
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536 W. Tuscarawas 532 Park Ave. West 419.522.1695 330.753.0500
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16 N. State St. 330.545.8131
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32888 Vine St. 440.942.8668
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832 Broadway 440.242.4080
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326 Buffalo Rd. Coming Soon!
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