Decoding the Cleveland prestige machine By Sam Allard
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- !9 s 6/,5 - % . O Dedicated to Free Times founder Richard H. Siegel (1935-1993) and Scene founder Richard Kabat Group Publisher Chris Keating Publisher Andrew Zelman
CONTENTS 5PFRONT
Associate Publisher Angela Lott Editor Vince Grzegorek
The federal immigration crackdown is taking a toll on Cleveland, City Council appoints a new member, and more
Editorial Managing Editor Eric Sandy Music Editor Jeff Niesel Senior Writer Sam Allard Staff Writer Brett Zelman Writer-at-large Kyle Swenson Web Editor Laura Morrison Dining Editor Douglas Trattner Contributing Dining Editor Rachel Hunt Stage Editor Christine Howey Visual Arts Editor Josh Usmani, Dott von Schneider Copy Editor Elaine Cicora Interns Johnny Cook, Lawrence Neil, Colton Faul, Julie Ciotol, Kirby Davis
&EATURE
'ET /UT
Cleveland leaders tout our listable city’s Top 10 Best Most Affordable Neighborhoods for Young Professionals, but there’s more to the story
Advertising Senior Multimedia Account Executive John Crobar, Shayne Rose Multimedia Account Executive Kiara Davis Creative Services Production Manager Steve Miluch Layout Editor/Graphic Designer Christine Hahn Staff Photographer Emanuel Wallace
All the best things to do this week in Cleveland
Business Sales Assistant/Receptionist Megan Stimac Controller Kristy Dotson Staff Accountant Margaret Manzo
!RT
Circulation Circulation Director Don Kriss
Charmaine Spencer on overcoming artistic obstacles and channeling the unconventional
Euclid Media Group Chief Executive Offi cer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Offi cers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner Human Resources Director Lisa Beilstein Digital Operations Coordinator Jaime Monzon
3TAGE
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Alien: Covenant is a slick return to sci-fi horror roots
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UPFRONT FEDERAL IMMIGRATION TAKING TOLL ON CLEVELAND FAMILIES, NEIGHBORHOODS Photo by Eric Sandy
THIS WEEK
MARCOS PEREZ RAN A YELLOW light in Mayfield Heights in 2010. He was swiftly arrested and deported from the U.S., as he did not have proper citizenship documentation. His wife, Elizabeth, was left here in Northeast Ohio to raise their children on her own and to do what she could to secure Marcos’ return to their home. That task has proven nearly impossible, and so Elizabeth will move with the couple’s four children to Mexico in August. Cleveland will lose a strong voice in the civil rights community — and a veteran of the Marine Corps, no less — and the ongoing federal mass deportation policy will alter the course of ever more lives around the country. There will be one more empty home in Northeast Ohio by summer’s end. “Our elected officials are sitting on their hands and not doing anything, and that is wrong,” Elizabeth said this week at an immigration rally outside St. Casimir church on Cleveland’s east side. “One thing I learned in the Marine Corps is that when something is wrong you open your fat mouth and say it right then and there.” Veronica Dahlberg, executive director of HOLA, shared several other stories, noting that most immigrants are unable to identify themselves to the press for fear of retaliation by federal law enforcement and harassment from their neighbors. She invited one woman to tell the story of her impending forced exit from the U.S., and how she must decide whether to leave her children in the in this country or bring them to Mexico, where her young daughter
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will be unable to receive treatment for cerebral palsy. “What will happen to them?” Dahlberg asked. “I want people to know that immigrants are not a problem,” she continued. “They are the solution. They are the solution we need right here in Northeast Ohio. When you talk about empty homes, vacant homes, blight, the opioid crisis, crime — all of that is because we don’t have enough people here. We have to lift up the economy, and we know that immigrants stabilize neighborhoods.” In fact, the neighborhood
BIG BOY RIDES Cavs sign jersey sponsorship deal with Goodyear. Agreement includes clause that Dan Gilbert gets free rides in the blimp anytime he wants — but he can only bring three stuffed animals onboard. | clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
surrounding St. Casimir has a legacy of being a stronghold of Polish immigrants. There are more vacant homes here than there used to be, but the fabric of the community remains intrinsically tied to immigrants’ devotion and hard work. It’s a legacy that can be found in many corners of Northeast Ohio and the U.S. writ large. But it’s a story that’s being erased now with ongoing federal immigration raids, expanded broadly under former President Barack Obama’s administration and floored lately
MAKE 2017 GREAT AGAIN Gov. John Kasich debates Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on CNN. America quietly decides to make this the “real debate” and plans new presidential election for “sometime in June.”
by the zeal of the current president and Departments of Justice and Homeland Security. The net result is a scattered landscape of broken homes in places like Cleveland and — too often — young children growing up in unhappy and desperate environments. “I just know that this is wrong, and I know that I can’t bear to look at another family have to go through what I’ve been through,” Elizabeth said. “I understand how hard it is fi nancially, emotionally; there’s a huge spiritual confl ict within me about me being here
OW-LINE Pants-less man crashes car into Rocky River convenience store, barricades himself in beer cooler before police tase him. Browns coach Hue Jackson tells reporters it was the highlight of rookie minicamp.
QUALITY OF LIFE And still!
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UPFRONT and him being there. I don’t want anyone else to go through that.” The St. Casimir rally served mostly as a reminder of the depth and ripple effects of the federal government’s policies. Dahlberg encouraged everyone to call their elected representatives and urge a more family-forward approach to immigrants.—Eric Sandy
CITY COUNCIL INSTALLS BLAIN GRIFFIN
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Monday, Cleveland City Councilwoman Mamie Mitchell resigned for personal reasons. In accordance with rumors, council unanimously voted to replace her with the city’s community relations director, Blaine Griffi n. “Councilwoman Mitchell has been a dedicated and effective public servant her entire adult life,” said Council President Kevin Kelley, in a press release. “She will surely be missed here at City Hall.” Mitchell represented Ward 6, which includes portions of a number of east side neighborhoods: Fairfax, Larchmere, Little Italy, Woodland Hills, Buckeye-Shaker, University Circle, North Broadway, Slavic Village and Union-Miles. She was herself appointed in 2008 and won re-election in 2009 and 2013. Mitchell has been known to be battling health issues for months. And her resignation — and Griffin’s appointment — so close to a primary election, has Ward 6 challengers irked. Council’s Griffin vote Monday was in keeping with a council tradition to honor the recommendation of the outgoing City Council member. It’s a tradition that effectively controls who gets to be on the body. At the meeting of the Democratic caucus (which includes all of Council), President Kevin Kelley read a letter from Mitchell officially recommending Griffin. Jeff Johnson said he’d “made a few calls” and confirmed that Griffi n was indeed Mitchell’s choice. Both Johnson and Zack Reed clarified later that while they would honor Mitchell’s recommendation, doing so would have no bearing on whom they supported in this year’s election. In comments to council, Griffin said he’s presided, in the Community Relations Department, over some of the city’s most trying
times. He said he ran for city council unsuccessfully in 2001 against “a juggernaut,” Patricia Britt, who is now the Clerk of Council. He said was eager to be “part of the team” because he saw the value of collaborative leadership and because he respected every council member’s passion for Cleveland and making the city a better place. Griffin has worked with the Cuyahoga Department of Justice Affairs, the Hunger Network of Greater Cleveland, the Harvard Community Services Center and the East End Neighborhood House. He is a 20-year resident of the Larchmere neighborhood in Ward 6. His council challengers, several of whom attended the Monday caucus, said afterward that they were frustrated by the entire process. Griffi n has been appointed to this vacancy with less than four months before the September primaries, and most of that time will be during the summer recess, when council meets only once per month. It would have been very easy, challenger Alonzo Mitchell said, to let Mamie Mitchell retire gracefully and quietly at the end of her term and allow for a true Democratic election. Her health issues are a known secret — she is thought to have dementia — but they are not particularly new. Griffin has been the presumed replacement for months. So why now? Griffin, of course, will have to run along with everyone else to win the seat. But Mitchell, challengers Aaron Nichols and Dylan Sellers, and the other Ward 6 challengers are now at an extreme disadvantage. Griffin not only now gets considerable media attention and the name recognition that comes with incumbent status: He’ll also likely receive funding from the council leadership fund, which is used to help finance incumbents’ campaigns. “It’s not a level playing field,” said Nichols, who is a precinct committeeman in the ward. — Sam Allard
CLEVELAND IS HOPING TO CLOSE THE ‘DIGITAL DIVIDE,’ EXPAND INTERNET ACCESS A bevy of local experts and students met with Cleveland City Council last week to discussion the digital divide, that longrunning narrative that leaves certain communities in the U.S.
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UPFRONT with less access to the internet and other digital services than other communities. The hearing came about in conjunction with National Digital Inclusion Week. Bill Callahan, director of Connect Your Community, recognized the importance of getting this hearing together and pointed out the need for ďŹ nding solutions to the digital divide problem. The key, as the hearing went on, returned time and time again to the matter of neighborhood-level development. He began by framing the conversation around digital exclusion to further clarify the extent of Cleveland’s actual digital inclusion. Using maps to show how high-speed internet access is not available in most low-income neighborhoods in Cleveland, Callahan drew a stark illustration for council. For instance, in 2015, 38 percent of Cleveland households did not have a broadband internet access. (31 percent of households did not have access at all.) “Guess who didn’t have access to the internet? Poor people,â€?
Callahan said. “This is very much a neighborhood-tied issue, because poverty is very much a neighborhood-tied issue.� Samantha Schartman-Cycyk, research director at Connect Your Community, discussed an ongoing survey of Cleveland residents’ digital access and internet use. Sharing health and workforce data, Schartman-Cycyk outlined how vital the internet is to daily life (checking medical records, maintaining a social life, seeking employment, gathering new skills online, etc.). Given that the digital divide is so readily apparent in maps, that survey data puts everything in context. Once all of that is recognized, according to Wanda Davis, director of the Ashbury Senior Computer Community Center, the road ahead includes: digital training, affordable internet and device access and ongoing support for technical infrastructure. It’s a collaborative process, as evidenced by the rest of the morning’s speakers. Erika Anthony, senior director of Advocacy, Policy and Research at Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, pointed out the need to get everyone involved not just
as users but as engaged creators. Her organization in part works with neighborhoods CDCs to plan economic development through racial equity and digital inclusion. The socioeconomic disparities that track with low internet access rates also track with poor health, rampant infant mortality rates, profound and documented barriers to employment and housing, low high school graduation rates — all of which are vibrantly on display in Cleveland’s rigidly segregated populations. Internet access is not a panacea, but, like running water, it’s become a staple of an improved and healthy life. Those who are on the wrong side of the digital divide are much less likely to use the array of online services that have been created in recent years (MyChart in the health care world, online job search services, online housing applications). Adam Perzynski, assistant professor of medicine and sociology at the Center for Health Care Research and Policy at MetroHealth and CWRU, underscored the need for his organization to partner with, e.g., Ashbury Senior Computer Community Center, to provide training in conjunction
with MyChart digital health care services. The digital literacy training is vital, and, as he and others pointed out, it must come in tandem with improved broadband access. The opportunity in Cleveland is bountiful. With that in mind, Lev Gonick, the chief executive of DigitalC, drew attention toward his organization’s Connect the Unconnected program, which “cut the ribbons� on a dedicated wireless network pilot program in the Campus District and Central neighborhood on May 11. This network runs on, Gonick said, “the highest speed known to physics.� And training began this month, as well, at places like 2100 Men’s Homeless Shelter and six Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority properties. He underscored the hope that this won’t simply be a “pilot program,� but rather a model for something more aspirational in Cleveland. —Sandy
SLAVIC VILLAGE RESIDENTS ENRAGED ABOUT DIRT BIKE TRACK At a block club meeting last Thursday night at Elizabeth Baptist
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Church, residents of Slavic Village’s Hyacinth block club raged over the city’s proposed dirt bike track at Marion Motley Park. The proposed location for the track directly abuts the neighborhood, yet residents said they were never included in discussions about the proposal. There wasn’t a single community meeting, as there had been in Garden Valley on the park’s opposite side. Residents lashed out at Ward 5 Councilwoman Phyllis Cleveland and members of Frank Jackson’s administration. They felt insulted by efforts to justify the project after it had already been approved (narrowly and questionably) in City Council. “Nobody here wants to hear it,� said resident Scott Denhan, when
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Community Relations Director Blaine GrifďŹ n asked if he could make a presentation on behalf of the city. Denhan kicked off what would be heated back-and-forths between residents and both GrifďŹ n and Michael Cox, the city’s director of public works. They tried to present the proposal but were repeatedly interrupted by neighbors with questions and complaints. The concerns were familiar to those who have been following the issue: For low-income youth interested in dirt bikes, how will they afford to participate? One resident asked. Others asked about noise levels and potential violence. Former mayoral candidate Ja’Ovvoni Garrison asked about upkeep costs: given that the city has never run a dirt-bike track, are ofďŹ cials aware of how much it costs to maintain? A common concern was the ability to enforce a city rule that riders must transport their dirt bikes to the track in another vehicle. Another was whether or not these riders would even want to use the track at all — wasn’t part of the thrill riding in the street, breaking the law? GrifďŹ n vaguely alluded to a new city plan to deal with dirt bike riders in the streets soon. The city’s presentation, by GrifďŹ n, Cox and Matt Spronz, Cleveland’s director of capital projects, highlighted the physical attributes of the park, which will include a BMX track. They gave assurances that safety and noise concerns would be dealt with. The operator of the track would be required to keep noise levels below prescribed decibel levels, they said, (at which residents openly laughed.) Furthermore, the city reps reiterated the idea that the track was as much about job training as it was about recreation. A component of the park will be a garage where youth and young adults can learn about small engine repair. Johnnie Burton, who already repairs dirt bikes and who started a foundation to teach bike maintenance to youth, was in attendance. Seated alongside residents, he argued in support of the project, saying that the park sent a message to youth that there was more to life than “being hard.â€? While some residents sympathized with that idea — some even said they supported a project like this in principle — they wondered why it was being placed so close to residential neighborhoods. Why not even up
the road in the Industrial Valley? Why not along the Opportunity Corridor, where there might be room to expand? One asked if residents in Garden Valley honestly were in support of the project, as Phyllis Cleveland said. “People in Garden Valley would rather hear a dirt bike than an Uzi,” offered Johnnie Burton in reply. One of the biggest issues for residents, though, was the way in which they had been totally excluded from the process. Marion Motley Park is directly adjacent to the homes of many of the neighbors who attended the block club meeting. City officials said a tree line, which would not be touched, would still protect neighbors from noise, but it was little comfort. Phyllis Cleveland took the blame for the city’s failure to reach out to residents during the planning phases. “That was an oversight on my part,” she said early on. Indeed, and it’s the regularity with which the administration has made similar oversights that’s pushing residents toward outrage. Some of the complaints Thursday were ugly and racially charged — Denhan, for instance, threatened to
shoot or run over riders; one woman suggested that “decent children” wouldn’t be participating in these activities — but most of the concerns were perfectly legitimate. Many of the residents might even have been in support of a similar project if they’d been permitted to weigh in or offer alternatives. As it stands, it’s clear that Mayor Jackson’s project, however well-intentioned, is reviled in North Broadway. Councilman and Mayoral challenger Zack Reed, who voted against the dirt bike track and who is following its progress with interest, said the track is reviled elsewhere too. He attended the meeting last night and said he’d seen reactions like it all across the city. “This will be the Mayor’s Achilles heel,” Reed said, in a conversation in the hallway outside the meeting. “I don’t care if I’m in West Park or in Hough. North, South, East, West, everybody hates this dirt bike track.” — Allard
LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST FEDERAL AGENCIES INVOLVED WITH WAYNE NATIONAL FOREST FRACKING As hinted earlier this year,
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FEATURE
ACCOLADE’S LAMENT Decoding the Cleveland prestige machine By Sam Allard “Just last week, USA Today named us one of the top romantic spring getaways! I don’t know how they conducted that survey, but we’ll take it!” —Armond Budish, State of the County address, 2015. THOUGH TRAVEL & LEISURE OR USA Today is unlikely to take note, Cleveland surely ranks among the top cities in the country, if not the world, for the quantity of butter available at press events. Indeed, the butter was in abundant supply last month under the shade of a tent at Edgewater Park, where the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, the Cleveland Metroparks and the city of Cleveland jointly announced that Cleveland would play host to the USA Triathlon National Championships in 2018 and 2019. Nearly 6,000 athletes and 10,000 total visitors would descend upon Lake Erie’s shores, reporters were told, injecting an estimated $6.5 million into the local economy. “You could’ve went other places,
but you chose us,” said Mayor Frank Jackson, addressing the reps from USA Triathlon, skyline at his back. “Our job, our commitment, our purpose, is to ensure that you will have a successful event, that you will be able to say that Cleveland was the best event to that point…. When you come to Cleveland, you will be the centerpiece. We will wrap around you, and you will be the only event that we think about at that period of time.” David Gilbert of the Sports Commission and Brian Zimmerman of the Metroparks also gave brief remarks. Overall, the event was smooth, a real pro job at the hands of seasoned marketing personnel: A packet of information was provided with relevant names and numbers. Local triathletes, in full regalia,
were available for comment. The air’s crispness and the lake’s high-def glisten both felt pre-programmed, Matrix-ish. The butter, to reiterate, was simply over-the-top. But perhaps the most noteworthy portion of this otherwise humdrum announcement was a video that played before the official remarks. This was its public premiere. The video was a co-production of the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission and Destination Cleveland (both overseen by David Gilbert), and it may have been intended to get the reporters in a sufficiently booster-ish mood. Its job, its commitment, its purpose was to showcase some of the lists on which Cleveland has appeared over the past couple of years. Its title on YouTube, very much directly to the point, is: “GCSC Cleveland Accolades Video.” But “accolades” is an interesting term for Cleveland’s appearance on many of these lists (Best Midwest Destination for Group Travelers, Best City to Go Car-Free, Underrated Cities for Art Lovers, Must-Visit Cities for Beer Connoisseurs, etc.), most of which are the result of readers’ polls, freelancers’ whims, or the public relations efforts of Destination Cleveland itself. It’s not that these lists are illegitimate — they are part and parcel of a “high-metabolism” media landscape that preys on consumers, not readers, and caters to their short attention spans — it’s that they tend to be overvalued, speciously “researched” and sometimes misinterpreted. Author Melody Warnick, in a piece earlier this year about Pittsburgh’s presence on “most livable city” lists (a piece that doubled as a concise history
of promotional travel writing), told the City Paper that she felt these “clickbaity” lists were largely for the benefit of the people who already lived in the city. “I think it’s rare that outsiders look at those lists and think, ‘Hey I’m gonna move to Pittsburgh because it’s a great town for beer-drinkers,’ or whatever. I think the people who already live in Pittsburgh, you click on those links, you read those articles because you want confirmation that you’re right. You live in a fantastic city.” David Gilbert told Scene that it’d be difficult to measure how effective the lists are as a tool for attracting visitors and events to Cleveland. “But I look at them from the perspective that they’re nice to have,” he said. “If you have a publication like the LA Times or the New York Times calling Cleveland a Top 10 place to go, there’s definitely some value because there’s such a wide readership. It plants something in people’s mind — ‘There must be something there that I hadn’t known about.’” Gilbert acknowledged, though, that there is indeed additional value for locals. “That’s just as big a piece of the puzzle, and uniquely so in places like Cleveland,” he said. “If you’re in San Diego or Orlando, I don’t know how much that validation really means. In places that have battled with perception issues, that validation means a lot more. Part of the reason — if not the most significant reason — that Clevelanders had been down on their own community for so long is that people from the outside talked | clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
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about what a tough place it was. That took a toll.�
Less so these days. In the Cleveland entry of Thrillist’s “Top 25 Cities to Spend a Weekend,â€? visitors are invited to “walk pockets of town — Lakeview [sic], Ohio City, Tremont, and, perhaps the most literal and longstanding example, Coventry — exploding with new energy and old charm in tandem.â€? In the New York Post’s “15 Best Places to Liveâ€? feature in 2016, we are told that the “formerly industrialâ€? Detroit Shoreway neighborhood has become an arts district, and that Cleveland is “not just for hipsters: The city is also home to one of the country’s top hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic, and Huntington Beach, the cleanest spot on Lake Erie.â€? Groups Today, in awarding Cleveland the “Best Midwest Destinationâ€? award in its annual readers poll, averred that “grit meets sophisticationâ€? in Northeast Ohio, “where experiences include ‌ hearing the world-renowned Cleveland Orchestra perform live in the local hot
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FEATURE
dog joint.� In the freelancer-produced “10 Underrated Cities for Art Lovers� on U.S. News and World Report’s blog, we learn that “there’s much buzz about the recently opened Hilton Cleveland Downtown, which houses some of the most unique locally curated art in the city.� (Alongside Cleveland, this list featured the distinguished underrated art hubs Cody, Wyoming; Des Moines, Iowa; Cape Coral, Florida, and Detroit.) A 2016 Forbes piece, entitled “Why Cleveland is America’s Hottest City Right Now,� written by a freelance contributor and aggregated without fail by local media, claimed Cleveland’s “biomedical and ‘smart’ manufacturing start-ups are quickly luring America’s youngest and brightest away from Boston, Austin, and Silicon Valley... which makes every Saturday night along East Fourth Street just north of Quicken Loans Arena look more like SoHo or South Beach than the ‘Rust Belt’ strip one might conjure up in their mind when someone says ‘Cleveland.’� In virtually every listicle, we hear of Cleveland’s “innovative,� “trendy,� “exploding� culinary scene; we are reminded of the “world-renowned,� “world-famous,� “world-class� Cleveland Orchestra; we are told not to forget about the “beloved� Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame. In many of the listings, we hear about the preponderance of new hotels — the “terra cottaâ€? SchoďŹ eld Building that houses the Kimpton, for example — the unbelievable affordability of the region, and the hip aestheticization of “industryâ€? “gritâ€? and “old-world charm.â€? These characterizations are accurate to varying degrees. But the cumulative portrait is one curated by the travel and tourism industry (a growth industry in Cleveland over the past ďŹ ve years, to be sure. Earlier this month TourismOhio reported 212 million visits to the state in 2016, good for seven straight years of growth). No one regards these lists as “journalismâ€? about Cleveland — these are not “studiesâ€? — but no one seems to identify them as what they more closely resemble: commercials. In them, Cleveland is a place where millennial heart surgeons pound pierogies and sip on microbrews while jamming to Springsteen and Tchaikovsky before playing some sunset beach volleyball and then retiring to their industrial lofts above Michael Symon BBQ joints. And that’s just ďŹ ne if you’re a Destination Cleveland publicist. But it’s odd for the local political leadership to have so fully embraced this picture
as credible evidence of Cleveland’s resurgence, especially when the picture is so generic and the reporting is so imsy. “It’s not just me being the cheerleader,â€? County Executive Armond Budish said in his ďŹ rst State of the County address in 2015. “People all over are starting to substitute a new “Râ€? word for the old one: When they speak of Cleveland, it’s Renaissance, not Rust Belt. Fodor’s, Travel & Leisure, and the New York Times all recognize we’re one of the top places in the world to come to visit and spend some time. And just last week, USA Today named us one of the top romantic spring getaways! I don’t know how they conducted that survey, but we’ll take it!â€? Not knowing how a survey was conducted, but taking it, is a decent representation of how this sort of positive press is received locally. In fact, the USA Today piece Budish mentioned, “Feel the love: Romantic Spring Getaway Ideas,â€? wasn’t a survey at all. Nothing was conducted. Nor did the piece purport to identify or rank “topâ€? romantic getaways. In keeping with the digital imperative for quick, easy, clickable content, the piece merely presented a few harmless ideas. It was content produced for the USA Today network by a freelance writer,
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one who may have been courted by Destination Cleveland. A spokeswoman for the tourism bureau said they were targeting “Tier one publications like USA Today� in a 2015 interview with Scene. In the piece, Cleveland appeared alongside Mendocino, California; St. George, Utah; and Dundee, Oregon. As in other lists, couples were apprised of Cleveland’s “world-class orchestra, stunning art museum and revitalized neighborhoods.� Here, the Westin hotel, not the Hilton downtown, was portrayed as the hottest art space in town, “with more than 1,500 pieces from local artists displayed inside.�
“These rankings are crazy,â€? said Robert Smith, a former economic development reporter for the Plain Dealer who spent two years in the media relations department at the Cleveland Clinic. “And they never make the print edition of these magazines. Forbes, every other month, is calling Cleveland the ugliest or the gloomiest. And you look at the criteria, and it’s bullshit. There’s no criteria at all! What drives me crazy is that then Cleveland.com runs with it, and now it’s on a Google search, and then it’s reality. ‘Oh, Cleveland’s the gloomiest city again.’ And you’re like, ‘Judged by what?’â€? Though Smith referred foremost to lists that put Cleveland in a negative light, he said the digital rankings look even more ridiculous when juxtaposed with thorough, sophisticated reporting projects like the U.S. News & World Report college and hospital rankings. “That thing is huge for the Clinic,â€? Smith said. “And it’s a very good list. The criteria and the metrics are very impressive. Those rankings matter.â€? Not only is the ranking key for the hospital’s prestige and self-perception, much like the city lists, the U.S. News ranking is a powerful marketing tool. Smith said that the hospital’s annual performance in the rankings was among the top reasons why new clients chose Cleveland Clinic, right after doctor referrals and family or friend referrals. And one of the reasons why the ranking was so important, Smith said, is because people understood that there was weight behind it. It’s extraordinarily well-researched. “When I joined the Clinic, the ďŹ rst thing I started to do was research that study because it’s so important there,â€? Smith said. “We sweat that thing. And there’s no easy way to move up in the rankings. US News goes to specialists all over the country and they ask, if you had a
real complicated case, what hospital would you send your patient to? It’s a powerful endorsement. It’s not, like, marketing. It’s making sure doctors are aware of what Cleveland Clinic does. It’s making sure you’re represented at doctor conferences. It’s making sure you’re in magazines that doctors read. It’s kind of a constant effort.â€? David Gilbert would no doubt classify his work to promote the region — “to grow the travel and tourism industryâ€? — as a constant effort as well. Among other strategies, Destination Cleveland regularly pays for travel writers to come to Cleveland, to show off the city and its progress. “For some of these rankings, quite frankly, we’re the cause of them,â€? Gilbert said. “We’ve shown up on lists where we’ve brought a particular travel writer. You can’t pay to be on the list, but that’s marketing. And here’s the thing: We only have a very small amount that we purely spend on marketing. Bringing in travel writers, that’s important public relations. It’s really important for us to extend the message, and to have the ability to spend.â€? (More on Destination Cleveland’s future ability to spend in a moment.) On this issue, there was a minor dust-up back in 2015. Some will remember when Boston Globe sportswriter Dan Shaughnessy penned a column about the Cavaliers’ round one, game one victory over the Celtics at the Q, and the confettiinfused celebration thereafter. “It seemed over the top,â€? Shaughnessy observed of the celebration, “a little needy.â€? Shaughnessy’s depiction of downtown as a “sad spaceâ€? with “many vacant buildings and boardedup storesâ€? and of the local economy — “it feels like it runs on lottery tickets,â€? — missed the mark, perhaps. And his illustration of a long-suffering fanbase had been a cliche for years. But his descriptions weren’t malicious. In fact, he said he loved Cleveland. His sin, as interpreted by local boosters, was that he wasn’t overly enthused about the city’s renaissance, in particular the revitalized downtown. He had the audacity to mention, for example, foreclosures and unemployment. Armond Budish’s ofďŹ cial statement in response (yes, the county executive issued an ofďŹ cial response to a hastily written column by a sportswriter) was just as cliched in its endorsement as Shaughnessy’s column was in its perceived denigration. It could have been ripped from the pages of Travel & Leisure or
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FEATURE Thrillist. “Mr. Shaughnessy, we are so glad you’ve taken the time to take note of the affordability of Cleveland, Ohio,” Budish said. “You’re right, you can buy a $3 beer right downtown. You can also live in a beautiful, inexpensive home in a nice, safe neighborhood and still have a 15-minute commute to work, enjoy the Cleveland Orchestra, appreciate one of the largest theater districts in the nation, and of course, cheer on our beloved sports team. That’s just Cleveland.” (The “cost of living myth” was addressed in the most recent issue of Cleveland Magazine: “Read virtually any promotional brochure or talk to almost any resident about the benefits of Northeast Ohio, and cost of living is likely to rise to the top of the list,” wrote Brad Whitehead. He argued that while home values remain low, transportation costs are high. “Greater Clevelanders typically spend 55 percent of income on housing and transportation combined compared with 40 percent of income typically spent by the nation as a whole,” wrote Whitehead, citing a Center for Neighborhood Technology report.
“And here is the real kicker: We spend a greater share of our income on housing and transportation than do residents of Greater Boston, Greater Chicago or Greater New York.” But, hey, Best City to Live Car-Free, right? To say nothing of the region’s serious problems with public transportation.) But back to Budish: “Just down the way from Flannery’s Pub and Horseshoe Casino,” he continued, mentioning establishments that Shaughnessy had referenced by name, “is an entertainment district we call East 4th. You can visit one of dozens of restaurants, including those run by world renowned chefs like Michael Symon and Jonathon Sawyer. If you took a little bit longer of a walk, you’d see that downtown boasts thousands of residents and an occupancy rate of nearly 98%. It seems we can’t build downtown apartments fast enough for all the folks clamoring to live here! National publications have certainly taken notice. Maybe you missed the articles...” As Scene noted at the time, a travel piece published the previous month in the Globe, “Cleveland Rocks! City Makes a Comeback,” had been removed because the trip that inspired it was paid for by Destination Cleveland. Maybe
Shaughnessy had missed the article, we suggested. The oft-touted 2016 Forbes piece, “Why Cleveland is America’s Hottest City Right Now,” was also written by a contributor whose trip was funded for by Destination Cleveland. (This is not a knock on Destination Cleveland. As Gilbert mentioned, public relations in an effort to boost tourism is the organization’s mission.) But it is critical to recognize that these lists are qualitatively distinct from studies and local reporting about the region’s legitimate challenges: the startling numbers about the number of CSMD high schoolers who’ve contemplated or attempted suicide in the past five years, for example; or the city’s intransigence on lead poisoning; or child poverty rates higher than 53 percent; or infant mortality rates in black neighborhoods that remain at third-world levels. This distinction is especially key for political leaders who cite this publicity as evidence of anything other than successful public relations campaigns. (Those same leaders were recently also all too eager to hack away at Destination Cleveland’s funding as part of the Q deal; the organization stands to commit $44 million toward the renovation
project, money that they’ll struggle to replace, money David Gilbert has acknowledged is essential for making the publicity machine go.) If you’re ready to dismiss the bogus clickbait-y lists that place Cleveland among the ugliest or gloomiest or unhappiest cities in the country; then you must also be ready to dismiss similar bogus clickbaity lists that place Cleveland among the best cities for romantic getaways or for beer lovers or whatever. Or you’ll have to confront the fact that being a hot tourist destination doesn’t correlate with being a good and equitable place to live. That has proven to be a tough hurdle for many Clevelanders. Another distinction, of course, is one mentioned above, about the depth of the reporting. David Gilbert was quick to acknowledge that many of the lists aren’t assembled with a great deal of rigor, and certainly not with the same care and sophistication as something like the U.S. News and World Report’s Best Hospitals. “That said,” offered Gilbert, by way of summary, “we’d far rather be on those lists than not.”
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PRESENT:
The 6th Annual
DOWNTOWN WILLOUGHBY
RIB BURN OFF
Saturday May 20, Noon-11p
SUNDAY May 21, Noon-8p
MAY 26, 27 & 28
Presented by DTW Bar & Restaurant Association & SCENE
Presented by Flats East Bank & SCENE
DTW RIB BURN OFF
TASTE OF SUMMER
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In its 6th year, this event has become the most anticipated event to take place in Downtown Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial kickoff to summer and Taste of Summer is the perfect Willoughby. This two-day event is going to rock this town with three stages featuring live opportunity for people to get outside and enjoy the weather. This event will feature food, local music, plus vendors and a complete kid’s zone plus beer & craft cocktails, and, of course, ribs music, craft cocktails, beer, local vendors, Cavs and Indians on the big screen and activities for all from participating Downtown Willoughby restaurants & national vendors. ages.
Saturday, May 20 Noon-11p & Sunday, May 21 Noon-8p @ Downtown Willoughby
May 26-28 @ Flats East Bank A SCENE MAGAZINE EVENT
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SCENE Magazine presents the third annual Van Aken Beer Garden in Shaker Heights. The second Friday of each summer month we will celebrate the season with music, food, beer, wine, cocktails, retail vendors, and activities for the kids. Admission is free and this event is bike and pet friendly.
You nominated your favorite people and places, where to go for that perfect bowl of pho, the bartender who makes the perfect drink, your favorite sports player and much more. These were then narrowed down, voted upon and now we get to celebrate all of those named the Best Of Cleveland for 2017! Enjoy craft cocktails + music while meeting some of our Best Of winners for this year. Let's celebrate what makes Cleveland the place we call home.
The 9th Annual SCENE Magazine Ale Fest will feature over 100 beers from around the corner to around the globe. The celebration is packed with your favorite porters, stouts, pilasters,ales, wheats, Belgians, ciders, and lagers just to name a few. Ale Fest has live music, interactive games, food booths, local vendors and more.
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| clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
GET OUT WED
everything you should do this week Photo by Emanuel Wallace
05/17
SPOKEN WORD
Cleveland Stories Dinner Parties Cleveland Stories Dinner Party is a weekly series that pairs fine food with storytelling. Through it, the folks at the Music Box Supper Club hope to help raise awareness of the mission of the Western Reserve Historical Society’s new Cleveland History Center. The goal of the Cleveland Stories Dinner Party 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. Doors open at 5 p.m., dinner is served at 6, and the storytelling starts at 7. Tonight, Eric Rivet, the Western Reserve Historical Society Curator of Collections and Exhibits, will speak about how Cleveland became a booming industrial powerhouse by the end of World War I. The menu includes chicken noodle soup, open faced roast beef and apple pie. (Jeff Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-242-1250, musicboxcle.com. FILM
The Daughter Geoffrey Rush, Sam Neill and Miranda Otto star in The Daughter, an adaptation of playwright Henrik Ibsen’s The Wild Duck. The story centers on a grown son who comes home for his father’s wedding only to discover a deep, dark secret that divides the family. The movie screens tonight at 7 at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tickets are $9, $7 for CMA members, students and seniors. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org. ART
Drawing Power Once a month, Great Lakes Brewing Company hosts Cleveland’s Drink & Draw Social Club. The event is organized by the Rust Belt Monster Collective and sponsored by Carol and John’s Comic Book Shop. Drink & Draws are an opportunity for artists of all skill levels to drink, draw, socialize/ network and collaborate in a relaxed and welcoming environment. Events take place at 7 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month, including tonight. At the end of each Drink & Draw, prizes are awarded for various
he jokes about wanting to be black as a kid and wearing a pair of Jordans simply because he bought them after he won a gift certificate from reading the most books in a summer reading program. Because he grew up in the suburbs, he encountered a different set of problems on the mean streets of “Peachblossom Trail” where the city will tow your car if you park on the wrong side of the street. He performs at 8 tonight and at 7 on Sunday night at Hilarities. Tickets are $20. (Bridget Vidal) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com. ART
The Rib Burn-Off returns to downtown Willoughby. See: Saturday.
superlatives. Admission is free. (Josh Usmani) 2516 Market Ave., 216-771-4404, greatlakesbrewing.com. SPORTS
Indians vs. Tampa Bay Rays Playing in baseball’s tough AL East, the Tampa Bay Rays have struggled to compete against powerhouse squads such as the Yankees, the Orioles and the Red Sox. And yet, the Rays have still managed to play .500 ball early in the season. Today at 12:10 p.m. at Progressive Field, they conclude a three-game series with the Indians. Tickets start at $13. (Niesel) 2401 Ontario St., 216-420-4487, clevelandindians.com.
at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, represents more than just an opportunity to get wasted. Rather, patrons actually learn something as the museum’s staff members give interactive demonstrations and talk about topics in science. This month’s event is all about bugs and includes insect robots, live praying mantises, and samples of edible crunchy critters. The “drinking” part is fueled by Platform Beer Co. It takes place from 5 to 9 p.m. Admission is $8, beer is $5 and wine is $6; museum members and Case students get free admission. (Niesel) 1 Wade Oval Dr., 216-231-4600, cmnh.org. FOOD
MUSIC
Sir Doug and the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove Director Joe Nick Patoski will be on hand tonight for the Rock Hall’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. He’ll introduce his film, Sir Doug and the Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove, a documentary about the great Austin-based singersongwriter who emerged as an international rock star while leading the Sir Douglas Quintet. Admission is free for Rock Hall members, $5.50 for non-members. It’s also free with paid Museum admission (if space permits). Snacks and drinks will be available for purchase prior to the screening. (Niesel) 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-5158444, rockhall.com. SPOKEN WORD
Think & Drink with the Extinct Billed as “one of the brainiest happy hours in Cleveland,” Think & Drink with the Extinct, a monthly gathering
Walnut Wednesday Walnut Wednesday is one of summer’s great traditions. Today from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Perk Plaza at Chester Commons — at East 12th and Walnut streets — food trucks gather to serve up lunch to area residents and employees. Follow the Downtown Cleveland Alliance on Facebook for weekly updates on vendors, entertainment offerings and more. Admission is free, but the food will cost you. (Niesel) downtowncleveland.com.
THU
05/18
Ekphrastacy: Artists Talk + Poets Respond Spinning off Heights Arts’ Emergent 2017 exhibition, tonight’s creative duel pits artists versus poets. The Emergent exhibition features the curated work of twelve artists who have recently graduated from area art programs, including the Cleveland Institute of Art, Kent State University, BaldwinWallace, and University of Akron. At 7 p.m., artists will be on hand to discuss their work and processes, followed up by an ekphrastic session by local poets selected by Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate Christine Howey. Catch poems by Breshea Anglen, Dave Lucas, and Mary Turzillo responding to the art at the end of the evening. Refreshments served, no registration necessary, but more info at heightsarts. org. (Lawrence Neil) 2175 Lee Rd., Hts., 216-371-3457, heightsarts.org. DRINK
Happy Hour for the Ronald McDonald House Notable Clevelanders will take over the Barley House as they guest bartend to benefit the Ronald McDonald House. A $25 admission fee includes all you can drink beer, wine, and liquor, all you can eat appetizers, and live music by Judge Michael Donnelly and his band Out of Order. Walk-ins are welcome. The event begins at 5 p.m. (Vidal) 1261 W 6th St, 866-930-4490. MUSIC
COMEDY
John Crist Actor/comedian John Crist plans to stir up some laughter during his time in Cleveland. He cultivates his Christian roots to write wholesome jokes. Crist’s clean-cut humor has brought him national attention and a family-friendly fan base. In one bit,
Haydn’s Miracle Part of the set of symphonies that Haydn wrote on his first trip to London, Symphony No. 96 is notable not only because it is so elegant but also because a huge chandelier fell from the ceiling during its premiere performance; no one was injured, and the piece acquired its nickname, the | clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
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GET OUT “Miracle.” Internationally renowned pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard joins the Cleveland Orchestra for tonight’s performance at 7:30 at Severance Hall. An hour before the concert, composer Anthony Cheung, whose new work, Topos, receives its world premiere at the concert, joins Rabbi Roger C. Klein of The Temple-Tifereth Israel for “Meet the Composer,” the pre-concert talk. Tickets start at $29, and performances repeat at 11 a.m. tomorrow (with a different pre-concert talk, and minus the Cheung piece) and at 8 p.m. on Saturday. (Niesel) 11001 Euclid Ave., 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com.
best selling author, he has starred in his own standup specials and, sitcoms. Last year, the squeaky-voiced comic costarred along, with Zach Galifianakis and Martha Kelly in the hit FX series, Baskets. Showing his range as an actor, he played the family matriarch. Anderson performs tonight at 7:30 and
1991’s Under Full Sail to 2013’s sweetly groovin’ Brij, Ekoostik Hookah have kept their fire burning across time. Check out “Whiskey Woman” for a fine example of the hookah-laden chops still hooked around each of the band’s compositional outings. Given the band’s personal history, rife with
COMEDY
Marlon Wayans One of the best known comics to emerge in the late ‘80s and continue to be active, Marlon Wayans has come a long way since working with his brother Shawn on sit-coms such as the Wayans Brothers and films such as Scary Movie, White Chicks and Little Man. Tonight at 7 and 9:30, performs at the Improv, where he has shows scheduled through Sunday. His latest film, Fifty Shades of Black, just came out in theaters last year so expect to hear some references to it. He wrote, produced and starred in the flick. Tickets are $35 to $45. (Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com.
FRI
“Rolling Stone is not just about music, but also about the things and attitudes that the music embraces.”
FILM
NEW EXHIBIT
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- Jann Wenner
OPEN NOW 1100 Rock and Roll Boulevard, Cleveland, OH 44114 | rockhall.com | 216.781.ROCK
10 and tomorrow night at 7 and 9:30 at Hilarities. Tickets are $28 to $30. (Niesel). 175 E. Main St., Kent, 330-677-5005, kentstage.org.
COMEDY
Louie Anderson A two-time Emmy award winner, Louie Anderson has worked as a comic for more than 30 years now. Comedy Central calls him “One of 100 Greatest Standup Comedians of All Time.” A
Meet-the-Artist Thanks to the generous funding of the Ohio Arts Council and donations from the Cleveland Print Room’s annual Foto Brunch fundraiser last fall, Cleveland and Scotland have partnered to create a new artist residency program. This pilot program brings one artist from Scotland to Cleveland and sends another from Cleveland to Scotland. Meet current AIRconnect artist-in-residence Jonny Lyons of Glasgow, Scotland and see the work he has created during his time in Northeast Ohio during a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. today at the Cleveland Print Room. Lyons’ work includes photographs and videos, as well as ingenious, functioning sculptures used in his photos and videos. Lyons’ work explores the struggle between passionate, reckless youth and the pressures of adult responsibilities. This month, Cleveland-based artist Anna Tararova will spend six weeks working in the print shop at Dundee Contemporary Arts in Dundee, Scotland. Admission is free. (Usmani) 2550 Superior Ave., 216-401-5981, clevelandprintroom.com. ART
05/19
Alive and Kicking Duke Ellington once famously said, “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.” He’s one of several famous musicians referenced in director Susan Glatzer’s documentary Alive and Kicking. The 2016 film tells the story of swing music and dancing and includes interviews with present-day practitioners. It makes its theatrical debut tonight at 7 at the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it screens again at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $9, $7 for CMA members, students and seniors. (Niesel). 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.
ART
MUSIC
Hookahville 2017 The grandfathers of Ohio’s expansive jam band scene — culturally and musically — have always maintained close ties to the Cleveland area. From
| clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
small shows and Hookahville festivals alike, every chance to be a part of the fun is a necessary diversion from life out there. This weekend, the band brings its Hookaville festival to Nelson Ledges. Outlaws I&I and Cornmeal share the bill. Tickets are $70 in advance, $80 at the gate for passes for the entire weekend. (Eric Sandy) 12001 State Route 282, Garrettsville, 440-548-2716, nlqp.com.
Third Friday May’s Third Friday open studios event includes a new exhibition by one of Cleveland’s most prolific living painters. Renowned Cleveland-based painter Matthew Dibble debuts Puzzled Bipeds, a new series of abstract works at Tregoning & Company. Arguably one of the year’s most anticipated local art exhibitions, Dibble’s show features new work re-discovering themes and compositions Dibble pioneered but set aside decades ago. Paying homage to his close friend and fellow painter Scott Miller, the exhibition returns Dibble to a style developed by both artists for the first time since Miller’s tragic death in 2008. Dibble’s exhibition opens during Third Friday from 5 to 9 p.m. today, and remains on view through July 1. Individual gallery hours may vary. On the building’s third floor, Survival Kit hosts free live music at 9 p.m. There’s plenty more to see and do throughout 78th Street Studios. Admission is free. (Usmani) 1300 West 78th St., 78thstreetstudios.com.
SAT
05/20
FESTIVAL
The Cleveland Asian Festival The Cleveland Asian Festival has only been operating since 2010, but it seems like it’s been around much longer than that. The festival, which takes place all
day today and tomorrow, is located in the heart of Cleveland’s AsiaTown (Payne Ave. between East 30th St. and 27th St.) and offers all sorts of vendors, food, live entertainment, and activities. Nearly two dozen Asian restaurants set up as vendors in the festival area, serving everything from banh mi to bubble tea. There are also two main stages that include demonstrations and competitions. Admission to the festival is free, but parking can be a little hairy. There’s free parking at Cleveland State’s magnet lots on East 24th St., but you’ll have to walk a few blocks. (Cook) clevelandasianfestival.org. FOOD
Downtown Willoughby Rib Burn Off The sixth annual Rib Burn Off returns to Downtown Willoughby today and tomorrow. Attended by thousands from all over Northeast Ohio, the family-friendly outdoor celebration provides an opportunity to showcase the bars and restaurants in Downtown Willoughby as well as bring regional and national barbecue vendors to provide a wealth of food options. Drink options include ice cold beer, Best Damn Sweet Tea, craft cocktails featuring Tito’s Vodka, Russel’s Reserve, lemonade from Kirtland Kiwanis and Coca Cola products. In addition, Rib Burn Off includes three stages with live music all weekend long. Two of the three stages will feature local bands and musicians exclusively from the start of the event on Saturday through closing on Sunday night. On the Ganley Auto National Stage, the festival will open with local favorites, Kenny P and Granite Band, followed by double headliners, Jack Russell’s Great White and Firehouse. The event benefits USO and will include representatives from the armed forces with information and fun activities to test your physical and mental strength. There will also be an Activity Zone by The Bar Athletics designed for all ages. Admission is free and the event runs from noon to 10 p.m. today and from noon to 8 p.m. tomorrow. (Niesel) dtwribburnoff.com. FILM
Gymkata Cleveland Cinemas’ Late Shift Series, a program dedicated to the nostalgic cult and camp cinema that we love and cherish even though it’s certainly not Oscar-worthy material, has been a fixture at the local chain of theaters since 2006. The 2017 schedule continues tonight with Gymkata, a movie about a champion gymnast
who becomes a covert operative. It screens at midnight tonight at the Capitol Theatre. Tickets are $6. (Niesel) 1390 West 65th St., 216-651-7295, clevelandcinemas.com. FILM
Jean-Pierre Melville Series The Silence of The Sea (1949) is one of Melville’s first feature films. It is based on a novel about a French man and his niece who must harbor a German lieutenant during Germany’s occupation of France in the Second World War. The film is more dialogue driven and less outwardly stylish as Melville’s 1967 film noir Le Samouraï. Le Samouraï, which focuses on a stoic Italian hitman, is arguably Melville’s most influential film. The cult classic has proven to be a favorite among other directors; 2011 film Drive borrows heavily from Melville’s visual style, and both Martin Scorsese and Jim Jarmusch have both praised the film. The Silence of The Sea plays at 5 p.m. today and at 8:35 p.m. tomorrow. Le Samouraï plays at 8:50 p.m. today and at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets are $10, $7 for students and members. (Cook) 11610 Euclid Ave., 216-421-7450, cia.edu.
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10.00HalOf FF the Marathon
SPOKEN WORD
Rooms to Let Nearly a decade ago, Slavic Village was one of the most devastated areas in the country following the housing crisis of 2008. Now, it’s set to see major economic growth thanks to being selected by the investors of Chain Reaction. In an effort to continue the conversation around vacancy and the current state of Cleveland’s historic neighborhoods, Slavic Village Development presents its fourth annual Rooms to Let: CLE (RTL). The event originated in Columbus with a similar theme. RTL returns to Slavic Village from noon to 7 p.m. today and from noon to 5 p.m. tomorrow. This year’s event includes more than 100 art installations in vacant homes and lots on three streets in Slavic Village. Additionally, the weekend includes live music, as well as interactive and performance art. This year’s curators are Dana DePew, Loren Naji, Dott von Schneider and Omid Tavakoli, and the transformed homes are located at 6627 Lansing, 6808 Gertrude and 5804 Hosmer Avenue. The epicenter of this year’s event is the Polish American Cultural Center at 6501 Lansing Avenue, with an artisan market, live music, food, beverages and parking. Free. (Usmani) slavicvillage.org/roomstolet/. | clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
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GET OUT SUN
05/21
COMEDY
Cleveland Improv Jam The Angry Ladies of Improv has hosted the Cleveland Improv Jam for four years now. The women have some serious experience too. Katie WhiteSonby is an actress who’s performed at Clague Playhouse, Karamu and Kennedy’s Cabaret. Marjorie Preston is an alumna of Something Dada and Rockwell 9 improvisational comedy troupes. It begins at 5 p.m. at Coffee Phix. Arrive early if you want to sign up and perform. Admission is free. (Niesel) 4485 Mayfield Rd., South Euclid, 216-381-5706, coffeephixcafe.com. OUTDOORS
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MAY 5 - 21
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| clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
For the Birds With spring in full bloom, migratory birds are returning to Northeast Ohio and Lake Erie. Inspired by these creatures and their behavior, local artist and professor Michael Loderstedt created a series of photographs taken a short distance from his home on Groveland Club Drive in Cleveland near Lake Erie. Using his immediate neighborhood as a “research laboratory,” Loderstedt’s compositions juxtapose the birds with diminishing ice formations on Lake Erie, exploring his own role as a carbon producer. Entitled Groveland Utopia, Loderstedt’s exhibition remains on view at the John F. Seiberling Gallery at the Conservancy for CVNP through July 28. In conjunction with the exhibition, the CVNP hosts For the Birds today at the CVNP’s Hines Hill Conference Center & Barn from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The day begins at 8 a.m. with a bird walk with Dr. Andy Jones, ornithologist from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. At 9:30 a.m., guests can make custom birdhouses using found and reclaimed objects and items from home with local artist Dana Depew. At noon, Loderstedt will give a bird photography demonstration. Loderstedt’s demo includes instruction on not only how to capture high quality images of birds, but also how to be good “citizen artists.” Admission is $40 for Conservancy members or $45 for non-members. (Usmani) 1403 West Hines Rd., Peninsula, 330-657-2909, conservancyforcvnp.org. FAMILY FUN
Freedom Dog Fest Today in Aurora at the Tails and
Trails Park, the Freedom Greyhound Rescue will host Freedom Dog Fest. The independent organization strives to raise money to find retired racing greyhounds suitable homes. The Fest includes an adoption fair, a pet costume contest, raffles and much more. The event starts at 10 a.m. Admission is free. (Vidal) 841 Page Rd., Aurora, 330-562-4333, freedomgreyhoundrescue.org/freedomdog-fest. MUSIC
John Oates Performance and Book Signing John Oates, one half of the popular duo (he’s the one with the mustache), will make a special appearance at the Rock Hall at 1 p.m. today. The appearance will include an interview and a book singing. Oates has just penned Change of Seasons, a book about his life. During the interview, Oates will discuss the band’s 2014 induction into the Rock Hall and how traditional American folk and blues and Philadelphia soul shaped the band’s sound. Dr. Jason Hanley, the Rock Hall’s vice president of education and visitor engagement, will lead the discussion. After the interview and a short acoustic set, Oates will sign copies of the book at 3 p.m. in the FYE store inside the Rock Hall. Advance tickets are required for the interview and performance. Those tickets cost $10. The book signing is free with the purchase of Oates’ book from the FYE store. (Niesel) 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-515-8444, rockhall.com. ART
Reeds and Geese: Japanese Art from the Collection of George Gund III Beginning in the 1200s, Chinese Chan (Zen) Buddhist monks transformed the visual landscape of Japan by importing visually compelling and useful objects, as well as ink paintings, calligraphy and poetry. The Cleveland Museum of Art pays tribute to this influential cultural shift with Reeds and Geese: Japanese Art from the Collection of George Gund III. Opening in the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Gallery today, the exhibition is the first time since 2000 that a major selection of works from this collection will be on view. Highlights include ink paintings and ceramics associated with tea culture, as well as a rare early Japanese ink painting, titled Reeds and Geese (from which the exhibition takes its name), inscribed by Chinese émigré monk Yishan Yining between 1314 and 1317. Reeds and Geese remains on view through September 3. Free.
(Usmani) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org. FAMILY FUN
The Rite-Aid Cleveland Marathon Celebrating its 40th year, the Rite-Aid Cleveland Marathon and half marathon expects to draw over 15,000 runners and walkers. Participants will pass many of the most picturesque views of Cleveland as they make their way to the finish line. Organizers will donate proceeds to a wide variety of local non-profit charities. While there have been a few minor changes to the course, the starting line remains at the Quicken Loans Arena. The marathon begins at 7 a.m. but pre-registration is required and it’s free to watch the race. After the race, there will be a finish line rock party featuring a beer garden. Consult the website for the schedule of events happening in conjunction with the race. (Vidal) clevelandmarathon.com.
MON
05/22
FAMILY FUN
Monday Night Trivia Do you have tons of obscure music knowledge? Are you a student of fast food menus and their nuanced histories? What say you about the geographic evolution of Scotch whisky? Tonight’s your chance to wow your friends, make yourself instantly more desirable to someone you’re newly dating, and hang with Cleveland’s headiest hipsters and hot dog lovers. It’s the Happy Dog Monday Night Trivia. Starting at 8 p.m., expect themed rounds and general knowledge questions that seem considerably trickier than some of the other live trivia locales in town. Obviously, have a hot dog and a craft brew while you’re at it. And arrive early. (Sam Allard) 5801 Detroit Ave., 216-651-9474, happydogcleveland.com. FILM
Movie Mondays Every Monday, Cleveland Cinemas hosts $5 Movie Mondays. 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, Shaker Square Cinemas and Tower City Cinemas. Unfortunately, additional charges apply for 3D movies. (Alaina Nutile)
NIGHTLIFE
Wing Ding Doodle Blues icon Howlin’ Wolf famously covered “Wang Dang Doodle,” the old blues tune penned by Willie Dixon. Prosperity Social Club in Tremont has adopted that slogan, calling its wing night Wing Ding Doodle. The weekly event features specials on Buffalo wings and cold brews. Prosperity will not only serve up substantial, $1 whole wings, but it’ll also offering meatless Monday “wing” baskets for vegans. Discounted drafts and a playlist of vintage-electric blues and soulful R&B curated by local musician Clint Holley will be on tap as well. Wing Ding Doodle takes place every Monday from 6 p.m. to midnight. (Niesel) 1109 Starkweather Ave., 216-937-1938, prosperitysocialclub. com.
TUE
05/23
FRIDAY, MAY 19TH
ROCK RADIO 7-11PM
COMEDY
The Mike Polk Jr. Show Live If you’ve seen local comedian Mike Polk Jr., the man behind the Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video, the Factory of Sadness video (parts one and two), Last Call Cleveland comedy troupe and his very own show on Fox 8 (aptly called the Mike Polk Jr. Show), perform live, you know he really thrives on having an audience at his disposal. He hosts the Mike Polk Jr. Show Live tonight at 8 at Hilarities. Tickets are $5. (Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com. NIGHTLIFE
Vinyl Night Jukebox owner Alex Budin has described his 1,350-square-foot music-focused bar in the Hingetown ‘hood as “a place where people can expect to hear and learn about music of multiple genres, all of which is concentrated in a constantly evolving jukebox.” In keeping with that spirit and recognizing the burgeoning popularity of vinyl, the club hosts a vinyl night every Tuesday that serves as a listening party for new releases. The place has partnered with Loop in Tremont so that 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.
SATURDAY, MAY 20
AGENDA 7-11PM
SUNDAY, MAY 21
DJ 2-6PM
SHADOW OF DOUBT 6-10PM
Find more events @clevescene.com t@clevelandscene | clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
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Photo by Geoff Baker
ART PLAYING IN THE MUD Charmaine Spencer on overcoming artistic obstacles and channeling the unconventional By Dott von Schneider CLEVELAND: COME FOR THE sports, stay for the arts, because our fair city, thankfully, is lousy with culture. There are galleries, museums, storefronts, pop-up exhibitions, et alia. There are several studio complexes around this city where artists work in their respective disciplines either alone or in collaboration with each other and/or in groups. These are highly disciplined, hard working people, and artist Charmaine Spencer is definitely one of them. Every Third Friday of the month, Cleveland is treated to the art walk at the West 78th Street Studios, which houses over sixty art studios and galleries. The event is free to attend and the city is invited to mingle and meet the artists in their element. Each time I go, I find myself standing in front of Spencer’s third floor studio door. Her work is potent and powerful and I’m intimidated for no other reason than my own social awkwardness. Spencer has an easiness about her, which made it a pleasure to talk about her processes, her thoughts, and her work. “Obstacles come in waves and you need to create your path by forging through them,” Spencer says, “It happens with incorporating new elements into the work, happy accidents, I need this material over that material, or can I afford one material over the other and what can I do with it? This career is heavy on networking, which can also be viewed as a hurdle. You have to spend so much time on self promotion. I’m extremely interested in what people think when they experience my work and I love sharing with them, I’m just not so huge on the administrative side. Social media over art is not what I was imagining when I thought about what it is to be an artist.” Spencer’s motivation comes from finding unconventional materials and contemplating how to use them. “You live with the materials for a while and figure out how to make something else with them. With many of my sculptures, I look at my materials and think, ‘How am I
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going to make a piece out of that?‘ With Revival my first thought was to make a labyrinth, something someone could walk through. The end result of it becoming a wall piece actually came from having to move it and that’s how I came about installing it on the wall. Why does this work have to be on the ground?” Being an artist does not come without a little apprehension in the studio. “Bronze work was an intense kind of work. That was the work that scared me, the myriad of things that could go wrong. I was consciously aware of every step. It was very intense. I do like working with wood and turning my materials into something sacred.” Spencer also makes use of compost, paper pulp, sand, soil, driftwood, electrical conduit, and jute rope as her media. “The idea and concept of taking something that is so important to live, but that is not thought of as a typical art supply, to making it into something you contemplate is exciting.” A graduate of Huron High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Charmaine Spencer received her BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art. As a student she interned at the Sculpture Center as the studio fabricator for Portals from Everywhere, the last sculpture of its founder, the late David E. Davis. Also, Spencer was the woods and metals foundry technician and teaching assistant at CIA and built and installed exhibition framework in the role of assistant at the Reinberger Gallery where she was involved with the arts education outreach programs, as well. Spencer’s largest sculpture, Harmonic, is an undulating landscape of woven reed grass and stainless steel jewelry wire, hanging in between two floors at the downtown Hilton. The work is site specific, meaning Spencer saw where the piece would hang when the hotel was being built, which helped with her decision as to what materials she would be using. The sculpture was created to fit the space. She wanted to do something that incorporated
| clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
Harmonic, second floor view.
the architecture with her concept of Cleveland and her style. She had to engineer a rope net in her studio in order to suspend the work in progress and hired assistants to help her fabricate in order to make the deadline. “There are times in your life that you need certain things” She says, “If I got good advice too early it wouldn’t have worked. That’s a hard thing. Someone told me to learn how to be ok and not be embarrassed or ashamed in asking for help. If I got that advice early on, I wouldn’t had took it. If I had gotten it later it would have been too late. I really do like Harmonic. It was satisfying
to get up early in the morning and work on it all day and night. Getting to know it. The whole experience was what I imagined being an artist is; Making all day long. I first considered myself and artist when I was a baby playing in the mud. I always thought an artist would be like playing in the mud.”
Check out Charmaine Spencer’s work in Studio 302 every Third Friday or her website at www.charmainspencer.net.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
STAGE POET HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT The great poet Wallace Stevens, who worked as an insurance executive, is spotlighted in Things As They Are THERE’S A PLAY GOING ON NOW on the spacious second floor of the Reinberger Auditorium that you should pay attention to, even though it is overly long and full of excesses. It is the world premiere of Things As They Are by David Todd, local playwright and artistic director of Playwrights Local, the company producing this piece. There are several reasons to be interested in this play, not the least of which is its subject, the poet Wallace Stevens. Stevens became well known due to winning two National Book Awards and a Pulitzer Prize in the first half of the 20th century for his sensuous and naturalistic poetry. Aside from his insightful writing, Stevens has always been a curious figure since he spent his entire adult life as a nearly invisible insurance executive at the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company. Indeed, photos of Stevens in his later years show a man who appears to be every inch the insurance guy, without a whiff of what one might consider poetic inspiration. Even his coworkers were surprised to learn that soft-spoken Wally at the end of the hall had become an icon in poetic circles. He was, to many, a “walking imponderable.” In this play, Todd endeavors to wrap his arms around all the glories and contradictions of this man, succeeding marvelously at many times. And director Anjanette Hall adds numerous touches to the script that bring into clarity aspects of the story. But the production lingers too long and too often on incidental staging tropes while some dialog scenes play out with obvious predictability. Among the things that work wonderfully is the visual and sonic landscape that Todd and his design team have created. Eight screens of various sizes hang above the floor-level stage, showing evocative images designed by set and projection designer T. Paul Lowry. Sometimes literal (an office bookcase) and sometimes dreamy (modern art), the projections mesh nicely with the accompanying original music provided by Ben
Photo by Steve Wagner
By Christine Howey
Robert Hawkes (Wallace Stevens) & Tessa Hager (Holly Stevens).
Chasny on guitar and John Elliott on synthesizer. Those element reflects Stevens’ interest in the musicality of poetry, as in his “Peter Quince at the Clavier” which has twice been adapted for music. Into that lush environment step two actors playing Stevens at different ages: Jason Markouc as the younger and Robert Hawkes as the older. Their scenes are interspersed throughout the play, and some work better than others. Markouc is stiff and intense as the young Stevens, and we see him being wooed by a masked chorus, in comedia dell’arte style, as they tweak him into revealing his inner passions. As the elder Stevens, Hawkes embodies
attention to falling (and fallen) leaves and confetti, and a shifting focus on who Stevens was. Not so the second act, which begins with a bracing encounter between the curmudgeonly Stevens (played by Hawkes) and his contemporaries Ernest Hemingway and Robert Frost. It’s witty and lively—if only Act One had started there. No matter where you start, the magic of Wallace Stevens resides in his words, and sometimes those words are not completely intelligible due to lazy diction by some cast members and fuzzy amplification of pre-recorded material. And that’s too bad, because those words are often dazzling.
THINGS AS THEY ARE THROUGH MAY 28, PRODUCED BY PLAYWRIGHTS LOCAL AT THE REINBERGER AUDITORIUM, 5209 DETROIT AVENUE, PLAYWRIGHTSLOCAL.ORG
the stolid and reserved insurance honcho, but attempts at revealing Stevens’ more lyrical side in other ways, including some dance moves, are less effective. Todd’s script struggles to gain momentum in the first act because of too many disconnected scenes, forced exposition, excessive
Take his well-known poem “The Snow Man,” for instance, which is presented in the play complete with a snowman prop. The screens show lovely images of winter trees laden with snow, but Stevens’ spare words in that short and crystalline poem are not given the space needed to absorb them. It is a vexing challenge
to present poetry on stage, since exceptional verse often requires some time for re-reading and reflection. But if that is the task you have set for yourself, the production must do everything possible to achieve it. Happily, three poems (including “The Snow Man”) are provided in the program and help the audience connect with this great man’s gift. Among the rest of the cast, Laura Starnik stands out as Wally’s wife Elsie and Robert Branch adds his quirky presence to several characters, as does Jeanne Task as one of the more impish masked performers. Clearly, Todd and Hall and their team have many ideas at work here, and their dedication to the subject matter is evident throughout. But it would all work better if the extraneous staging effects were trimmed, the audience brought in closer, and the script tightened to concentrate more on Stevens’ works. But this is a great subject for a play and this risk-taking production, even with its substantial wrinkles, is worth a look.
scene@clevescene.com t@christinehowey | clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
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| clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
THE ALIEN FRANCHISE REMAINS the best-looking sci-fi franchise out there, and likely the best-acted, too. In the latest addition to the collection (Alien: Covenant, out Friday), director Ridley Scott follows up on 2014’s masterful Prometheus but returns to the franchise’s darker horror roots. As in 1979’s Alien, the goal in Covenant is not scientific exploration or even colonization: It’s survival. In other words, don’t get too attached to the crew. Plucked from deep sleep by a technical malfunction – recalling last year’s Passengers – the pilots and technicians of the Covenant, a colonizing vessel, begin our story in tragedy. Their captain (wait for the bizarre cameo) has perished. Under the leadership, then, of Oram (Billy Crudup), a deeply religious, if unsteady, second-in-command, they decide to respond to a rogue deep-space communication that sounds human. It’s a recording of a woman singing John Denver, which, even in the late 2100s, a character played by Danny McBride recognizes as such. Daniels (Katherine Waterston) registers her objections. The audio signal was sent from a planet that looks habitable, and Oram doesn’t seem skeptical enough about this unlikely good fortune. He’s got half a mind to forego seven more years of hyper-sleep and set up the colony on this new rock. But if this planet is so perfect, begs Daniels, why had earth’s scientists completely missed it? Something’s fishy. Nevertheless, down they go to seek out the source of the communication. As one would expect, very bad things start happening. Per the franchise, aliens implant themselves in human hosts as either pathogens (or, more overtly, as face-hugging tentacled
creatures) and then emerge from their hosts in what John Hurt made famous as the “chest-burster” sequence, which needs no further elaboration. There are several such bursts in Covenant, two of which include more blood and viscera than any the franchise has yet endeavored to stage. Deeeeee-sgusting. In Prometheus, Noomi Rapace played Dr. Elizabeth Shaw. In that’s film’s most intense (and possibly best) scene, she had to perform an emergency caesarian to remove a face-hugger-esque thing that had implanted itself in her womb. She scampered away, bleeding from her stitches. There is no such ingenuity or Ripley-esque grit on display here. These are merely victims, outgunned from the word Go by Xenomorphs and their various offshoots – aliens in their most formidable physical mutations yet. That’s thanks to David (Michael Fassbender), the android from Prometheus, (an Academy Awardworthy performance, in my book) who here reveals himself as the author of the latest horrors. Covenant features Fassbender as both David and “Walter,” an upgraded edition of the droid with a new persona – this one is less creative, more obedient, and speaks with a Texas drawl. The dynamic between David and Walter, including one Fassbender vis-à-vis Fassbender homoerotic flute lesson, make for weird, but good scenes – motives and origins are explicated. And the early mishaps aboard the Covenant make for rich, tense sci-fi drama. The rest of the film is pure hunter-prey stuff. The sensibility that abides throughout is dread.
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| clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
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LET’S GET IT ON Glitzy new karaoke parlor in Asiatown will rock your world By Douglas Trattner
Photo by Doug Trattner
IF YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH karaoke is limited to being heckled by regulars as you warble in the dark corner of a dive bar on the wrong side of the tracks, you’re in for the surprise of your life when you visit Galaxy Karaoke, soon to be one of Asiatown’s most talked about destinations. Almost a year in the making, this spareno-expense “karaoke box,” as these establishments are referred to in Asia, is likely the most stylish such facility in the state. From the outside, Galaxy Karaoke (1593 E. 30th St.) looks like any other bland Midtown warehouse, its squat brick shell and steel barprotected windows offering no clues as to what’s taking place inside. During a recent pre-opening visit I was blown away when I crossed the threshold. No, not by the belabored renditions of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” or Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” by amped-up guests, but rather by the space around them. Owner Shing Ruan, in partnership with the owners of Voice Karaoke Bar in Columbus, says the area desperately needed a large, modern karaoke bar and he endeavored to build one on par with those he’s enjoyed in China. Ruan, who also owns R&R Gift Shop in Asia Plaza, spent a lot of time and money converting the 4,000-square-foot building into a crooner’s dream.
“In China, there are many places like this, but not in this area,” the owner explains, adding that despite its apparent size, the place would be considered small overseas. “I will do my best to make it great. I am using the best sound equipment. We put a lot of money into soundproofing; we put special stuff into the walls.” Visitors enter into the large main lounge space, outfitted with a small stage and enveloped by a country mile of banquettes, each fronted by low-slung glass-topped illuminated tables. Suspended above the floor is a four-sided Jumbotron-size monitor so everyone in the room can follow along with the lyrics. There is no charge to hang out and sing in the main public space, but guests are likely expected to order a beer or cocktail from the large full-service bar. An additional nine private rooms
out the space, Ruan cut no corners. Banquettes are swaddled in tufted upholstery, walls are covered in attractive but functional acoustical panels, and a dizzying array of LED lights gives the impression that one is inside a Seventies-era discotheque. Each room has its own look and feel, with different design schemes and soundproofing panels. The private rooms feature thick doors and walls that shut out the noise from adjacent rooms and the main lounge. “In every city I’ve been to there is something like this going on,” says Johnny Wu, filmmaker and founder of the Cleveland Asian Festival. “In Asia, karaoke bars are used for birthday parties, graduation parties and company meetings. Like the golf course, they bring business people to karaoke to close the deal.” Each room is equipped with a
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are accessible from the lone hallway, which loops around the entire space. Ideal for groups of people celebrating an event or simply those who prefer to sing in relative isolation, the private rooms range in size and can accommodate groups from small to 30 or more people. When designing and building
touch-screen karaoke system loaded with 200,000 songs that cross cultural borders. To appeal to a wide audience, songs are available in English, Chinese and Japanese languages, with planned updates to up the inventory exponentially. The high-tech consoles control sound, lighting and video, and even feature
call buttons to summon the wait staff for another round of drinks or some snacks. App-ready, the consoles can even be controlled from one’s smartphone. Cleveland’s karaoke scene pales in comparison to those of larger cities, with participants often compelled to partake at fringe spots at off hours. While karaoke is offered at nearby spots like Bo Loong and Szechuan Gourmet, Galaxy will go a long way to propel the popular pastime into the mainstream thanks to a central location, consistent hours and room for literally hundreds. Ewyn Tsang, who was also present at the pre-opening event, is a rabid karaoke fan. She and her friends go almost monthly, she says, and they can’t wait for Galaxy to open its doors for good. “My friends and I really enjoy doing it, but we mainly go to local pubs and bars,” she says. “I typically go with 20 or even 30 people; the bigger the group, the more fun it is. The scene in Cleveland is a little quiet but we’re slowly getting there. This place looks awesome; the music is legit old-school Asian.” Look for Galaxy to open in early June.
dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner | clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
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| clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
GET YOUR CALENDARS AND BELLIES READY A full slate of Cleveland food festivals promises to make this summer delicious by Rachel Hunt IF YOU HAIL FROM THE MIDWEST, you’re familiar with rib cook-offs, homecoming days, and the county fairs that make our region great. Summertime traditions like these belong to the old guard of food festivals, where funnel cakes and sauce-covered ribs were fancy, finger-licking good pieces of nostalgia to be enjoyed under the midway lights. These days, a new ilk of food-centric outdoor events are thriving with new concepts announced for 2017. Kristian Campana has been documenting festivals in Ohio and surrounding states at www. ohiofestivals.net since 2010. He’s personally reviewed over 400 festivals in the area, many focusing on ethnic cuisine. One festival that Campana is especially looking forward to is the Cleveland Asian Festival (clevelandasianfestival.org), scheduled to set up shop in Asiatown May 20-21 with food vendors representing the entire Asian continent and two stages of performances to enjoy. Other classic ethnic festivals that will return this year include the Tremont Greek Festival (tremontgreekfest.com), slated to take place May 27-30 at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, and the Cleveland Russian Festival (clevelandrussianfestival.org), which heads to a new home in Parma July 28-30 at German Central. Expect food, beverage, music and dancing from each respective heritage along with some of the sweetest homemade baklava on the market. Taste of Lakewood (tasteoflakewood.com), which started off as an indoor event held at the Clifton Club and later the Screw Factory, will celebrate its 14th year come June 11 at another new location, Madison Park. This year’s benefit to raise funds for the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce scholarship program will boast new establishments like LBM, Salt and Woodstock BBQ, along with 25 other mainstays from this restaurant-rich neck of the woods. Taste of Tremont (tasteoftremont. com), now in its 15th year, is coming off a strong year when some 35,000 visitors hit up 65 different food and
beverage vendors. This year’s event, billed as Tremont’s neighborhood street festival, falls on July 16. Taste of Summer (scenetasteofsummer.com), a Flats East Bank and Cleveland Scene event, returns May 26-27 and features Alley Cat Oyster Bar, Big Bang Cleveland, Bold Food and Drink, Coastal Taco and Flipside Burger and will turn the East Bank into a stage for entertainment and entrepreneurship. Cleveland VegFest (clevelandvegan society.org) showcases the newest trends in vegan living, attracting more than 7,000 attendees last year. This year, the free event will take place on June 3 at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland. Some of the food participants this year will include Aladdin’s Eatery, Poison Berry Bakery and Helio Terra Vegan Café, among others, with cooking demonstrations and speakers scheduled throughout the day. These classics will join brand new food festivals like the Tater Tots and Beer Festival (tatertotfestival.com), rolling into Voinovich Bicentennial Park on June 10. This national touring event is three hours of all-youcan-eat tots and craft beer. Add this one to the list of single-item food celebrations that also include Cleveland Pizza Fest (clevelandpizzafest.com) June 23-25 and the National Hamburger Festival (hamburgerfestival. com) in Akron Aug. 12-13. Cheese Fest will pair local and international cheeses with wine and music. That event is scheduled for Aug. 11 and is presented by Taste CLE (tastecle.com). Organized by the Hospitality Management Center of Excellence at Cuyahoga Community College, the inaugural Cleveland Eats (tri-c.edu/ cleveland-eats) is poised to become the pinnacle of annual food festivals. Under guidance from some the area’s top chefs, the three-day event will take place in the heart of downtown Sept. 14-16 and feature chef-driven restaurants, food trucks, craft beer and cooking demos and competitions.
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SINCE LEAVING CHEF JONATHON Sawyer’s side at Trentina, Jeremy Umansky has been fine-tuning his modern ethnic delicatessen concept, Larder, while scouting for the perfect location. His search led him all over town, but finally ended somewhere in the middle. After meeting with Graham Veysey, developer behind many of the Hingetown properties, he was shown the old firehouse building that also houses Rising Star Coffee. “It was serendipitous finding the space,” Umansky says. “Right off the bat I thought to myself, this place has the aesthetic, the charm, the romance and allure. And being in the shape it was, we could see that this was going to be a fairly straightforward buildout for us.” Built in 1854, the space in the firehouse has been a variety of things during its lifetime, most recently the main residence for Veysey and Marika Shioiri-Clark. “We’ll have to add refrigeration, deli cases and a hood, but it’s an updated facility in terms of plumbing, electrical and HVAC, so we have a great shot of hitting our target date,” says Umansky. That target is October. When it opens in fall, Larder will be from-scratch Eastern European deli that will utilize many of the practices and techniques Umansky has been refining for years – techniques that include koji culturing, fermentation and foraging. “We’re already 20 months into the concept,” Umansky says of his concept. “Some of the things that we do with our food, whether its koji, fermentation or some of the other
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ancient food practices that we use, are diners necessarily going to care about that? Some may, but the majority are coming in to get a sandwich and a cup of soup. If they are curious, we’re here and we’ve got a great story to tell. But when it comes down to it, we’re a deli and we’re selling sandwiches.” Those sandwiches will include corned beef and the Larder pop-up approved Romanian pastrami, which is koji-cured, braised and smoked Ohio beef navel, which is the traditional cut. For the koji-cured and smoked fish, Umansky is sidestepping popular varieties like tuna and salmon in favor of a more local catch. “We have this wonderful lake right by us that has awesome fish that comes out of it,” he says. “Our smoked fish will be primarily smelt and white bass.” The lox will be made from trout. Like any respectable deli, this one will sell bagels and schmears, knishes and latkes, and babka and rugelach, prepared like all the breads, pastries and confections by wife and co-owner Allie. The chef de cuisine will be Kenny Scott. Umansky is elated to finally have found a home for his long-simmering project, and from the sound of it, he’s sitting pretty. “I think it’s going to be a fantastic spot,” he says. “It’s centrally located, it’s extremely dense in terms of housing, and in that part of Ohio City there isn’t much in terms of food.”
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SUMMER OPENING PLANNED FOR CRUST/VISIBLE VOICE PROPERTY IN TREMONT A little more than a year ago, we shared plans of a possible merger | clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
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between Crust and Visible Voice Books, two separate businesses that would come together under one new roof. In one of the last deals brokered by restaurateur and Tremont dealmaker Sammy Catania before his passing, Visible Voice owner Dave Ferrante purchased the rarely used Komorowski Funeral Home building (2258 Professor Ave.) in the heart of Tremont. Since purchasing the property a year ago, the team has been hard at work transforming the three-level structure into a comfortable multi-purpose space. The main level will be devoted to Crust, which will increase dramatically in size, comfort and efficiency compared to its current home around the corner (1020 Kenilworth Ave., 216-583-0257). The 1,800-square-foot space will accommodate considerably more diners in booths, at tables, and at the bar. Dine-and-dash customers can grab a slice to enjoy at the rail overlooking Professor, where a façade of windows will be open to the street on fine days. “Are you excited to finally enjoy a beer with your pizza?” asks Crust owner Mike Griffin, adding that the bar will feature a 12-tap draft system. While the addition of a liquor license is nice, Griffin is more excited about the brand new HVAC systems, a huge improvement from the fan-anddoor system at the original spot. Crust fans should expect the same great pizza come opening day, Griffin adds. “We’re sticking with our roots,” he says. “We’ll be using the same deck ovens. A lot of people call our pizza New York-style but I think it’s more like Connecticut-style because of its size.” The upper level has been completely transformed thanks to newly vaulted ceilings, windows and skylights. Nearly 1,800 square feet of uninterrupted space will accommodate the new Visible Voice Books, which closed after eight years back in 2014. Ferrante has more than 60,000 books in storage, and feels that the timing and property make coming out of retirement a smart move. “Even when I closed I said that I would potentially be willing to reopen if I found the right opportunity – and I still believe the business model works if you keep your overhead low,” he explains. “I always felt I didn’t have enough room there. This would double the space I had and would allow me to explore a lot more different price points.”
Both Crust and Visible Voice will benefit from a massive back patio and 26-car parking lot. “Parking used to be a little more flexible, but now with Tremont being so busy you can’t even park on the street to pick up a slice of pizza,” says Griffin. In addition to a greatly improved façade with freshly scrubbed stone, new windows and a front patio, the building received a major lower-level transformation as well. The owners carved out a few extra feet from the earth, poured fresh concrete and added windows. “We just thought, at this point, we might as well make it a three-story property while we’re at it,” says Griffin. “As far as the concept, we’ll decide down the road, but we thought, it’s Tremont, let’s be different. We have pizza, we have books, let’s see what works down here.” The current plan is to open Crust in July followed by the bookstore in August. Griffin will have to shutter the business for a few weeks to facilitate the move. “It’s funny, first we move into a strip club,” says Griffin, referring to the new Midtown location in the former Bada-Bing (3000 St. Clair Ave., 216-589-9711), “and now we’re moving into a funeral home.”
PHOENIX COFFEE TO RETURN TO WAREHOUSE DISTRICT THIS SUMMER Phoenix Coffee will return to the Warehouse District this summer, the local coffee company announced last week . It will open in the former home of D’Vine Wine Bar in the Worthington Building on St. Clair between West 6th and West 9th. The Warehouse location will be Phoenix’s fifth. They currently operate two coffee shops in Cleveland Heights, one on East 9th Street downtown and one in Ohio City. Phoenix used to have a shop on West 9th, but closed that location in 2011. Phoenix’s Director of Coffee Christopher Feran noted in a press release that this location will be the smallest of the five, with only about 20 seats inside the location. But Feran said he was pleased to return to the Warehouse District. “It’s truly in the heart of the district and downtown,” he said. “There is a lot of energy and revitalization going into the district. Phoenix can be a major contributor to that evolution ”
dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner
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MUSIC THE YATES STUFF Rapper Tech N9ne brings his multi-faceted multi-media show to House of Blues By By Jeff Jeff Niesel Niesel
LAST YEAR, RAPPER TECH N9NE (Aaron Yates) embarked on what he called the Independent Powerhouse Tour 2016 with acts such as Ces Cru, Stevie Stone, ¡Mayday!, Rittz, Krizz Kaliko. It capped off yet another busy year for the rapper who seemingly can’t stop and won’t stop touring and recording at a feverish pace. “Last year was filled with doing records and collaborations and touring heavy and divorce lawyer talking,” says Yates via phone from an Orlando tour stop that represents the 36th date of a 68-date tour. “We didn’t do a vacation last year [with the family] because we were so busy. This year, we have one planned, but it’s always busy with a lot of touring and a lot of recording.” Yates, who began his career as a breakdancer, started rapping at an early age. He wrote his first rhyme in seventh grade. Even his teachers
noticed his commitment to the art. “My teachers would say, ‘Mr. Yates, if you know your schoolwork like you know that music, you’d be an A student,’” he says with a laugh. “Now look at me. My last years in school, I wanted my rhymes to be smarter, so that’s when I started getting on honor roll. I waited until the end of my school years to buckle down and start doing my work.” Influenced by rapper Slick Rick and a few other old school acts, he developed his unique rapid-fire delivery. “I think it came from listening to other MCs like Slick Rick and Ice Cube and Public Enemy and NWA,” he says when asked about how he came up with his distinctive style. “Those artists really inspired me. When I first started, I sounded like Ice Cube, so I had to find my own voice within that. All I knew was that I wanted my voice to be powerful like that, like Public
Enemy’s Chuck D and Cube. I wanted it to be commanding. I wanted to talk about something as well. I knew I wanted Tech N9ne to be the ultimate MC. I wanted him to do everything. I wanted to do metal and hip-hop. Public Enemy had worked with Anthrax, and Run DMC had worked with Aerosmith. Those were wonderful things. Beastie Boys had that feel to some of their music. I’m glad that was there early because they inspired me to dabble in metal as well.” Initially, Yates performed with various groups from his Kansas City hometown. Those acts would disband, and Yates eventually began a solo career; he and business partner Travis O’Guin founded the Strange Music imprint to release his solo albums. They’d sign other acts to the label as well. Since 1999’s The Calm Before the Storm, Yates has released a slew of albums and constantly toured in
support of them (in our interview, he fondly recalled local shows at the now defunct Peabody’s). After years of working the indie circuit, he’s finally started to reap some mainstream success. In 2015, he had the biggest radio hit of his career with “Hood Go Crazy,” a single from the studio effort Special Effects. The track features 2 Chainz and B.O.B. “I just knew it had to be super elite, musically and lyrically,” he says of the album. “I was trying to prove to the industry that I can do anything as an independent. If I set out to do a song with Eminem, I did it. If I set out to do a song with Corey Taylor from Slipknot, I did it. If I set out to a song with 2Chainz and Lil’ Wayne and B.O.B. and all these people, I did it. I was trying to show the industry that talent still exists. I wanted to show that I could lock these songs down and get them cleared. I showed them that I could | clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
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MUSIC do, and [the artists] didn’t charge me out of respect for the art. That made me feel so special.” Last year’s The Storm also features some high profile guests; Korn’s Jonathan Davis, Boyz II Men and Gary Clark, Jr. all appear on the disc. “With The Storm, I knew if I named it from my fir2st album, it had to live up to it,” he says. “It was hard to do. Some really good music is on that record. We’re still playing it. It’s still relevant. It’s a great body of work.” Now, Yates is back on the road with his Strictly Strange Tour 2017 that includes labelmates Krizz Kaliko, Stevie Stone, and Ces Cru. The tour supports the collaboration album, Dominion, which just came out last month. “It was different,” he says of the album. “With all the other collabos, me and Krizz Kaliko get the beats from Seven. We come up with the choruses and the verses and send them out to all of our artists. This time, the artists got the beats first and they sent them to me. It was wonderful how it came about. I’m glad we did it like that because it gave us more time to do more music. We did 32 songs and there will be a Dominion Part 2. I didn’t choose which songs to include. I just did them. Good thing that I surround myself with elite artists. When they send me the stuff, we just get right to work.”
“Lowdown,” features rappers Darrein Safron and Ubiquitous. The song commences with a chant before sparse breakbeats kick in. “I love how smooth it sounds and how real it is,” he says of the song. “There are a lot of moments on the record I really love. There’s one called ‘Casket Music’ that I love too.” The album opener “Drama” features rattling percussion and allows Yates to really let loose as he spits out his lines with remarkable intensity, rapping about how Missouri’s concealed and carry law now allows anyone to possess firearms without a permit or any training. “It’s a reference to how my life is in the present,” he says. “With more recognition and fame and monetary gain, some things sometimes come at you that aren’t pleasant from people who are close to you or people who don’t know you at all. It’s just something I felt at the time, and it’s still relevant. Drama is there, and I don’t want it.” Yates says he’s never short on ideas. Writer’s block isn’t part of his vocabulary. “Life keeps me writing and living life keeps me hungry for more knowledge,” he says, adding that he’ll put the final touches on Dominion Part 2 and start his next studio project after the tour ends, and he returns to Kansas City. “I pay attention to some things. I will never have writer’s block. I just have style block. I think, ‘How do I want to execute this song?’ The beat usually tells you how to execute it, so I don’t see a block anytime soon.”
TECH N9NE, BROTHA LYNCH HUNG, KRIZZ KALIKO, STEVIE STONE, CES CRU 7 P.M. WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, HOUSE OF BLUES, 308 EUCLID AVE., 523-2583. TICKETS: $30, HOUSEOFBLUES.COM.
Yates says that because the acts on his label think of one another as a family, the album naturally reflects those ties. “We always keep each other sharp,” he says. “There’s a lot of talent on this label, so if you’re a slouch, everybody will know. You can’t rap alongside Ces Cru and not go. You cannot rap alongside Rittz or Krizz Kaliko or Stevie Stone or JL and not go. Mackenzie Nicole is an elite songstress. You have to measure up, you know what I mean?” While Yates didn’t join the artists in the studio to lay down his tracks, he added his bits while touring. The songs sound so seamless, you’d never know he wasn’t the studio with the various collaborators. One standout,
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He’s particularly proud of the current tour. “This is the best show I’ve ever put together in my whole career because I get to be three different people in one setting,” he says. “I get to be the king, the clown and the G. I get to bring them forth after all these years. I first introduced them on my Everready (The Religion) album. They’re all me. We do it very well. It’s stellar. Me and my video and musical team have done a great job on this show, and we have these video screens that make this thing come to life. It’s the best show I’ve ever put together.”
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
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The Revolution Moonchild Cambridge Room Rhymin ‘n’ Stealin’ - Original Beastie Boys Tribute Blackbear w/ ELHAE SOLD OUT B.O.B AFI w/ Nothing, Souvenirs Parkway Drive w/ The Word Alive, Wage War Alvarez Kings Cambridge Room The Four Horsemen (Metallica Tribute) w/ Meccadeth (Iron Maiden Tribute), Maiden Voyage (Iron Maiden Tribute) Chevelle w/ Black Map
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July 11 July 12 July 15 July 19 July 22 Aug. 1 Aug. 2 Aug. 8 Aug. 15 Aug. 20 Oct. 6
Rob Zombie Hellyeah w/ Avatar, Kyng Aquabats Seether w/ Letters From The Fire, Big Story Blue Oyster Cult Social Distortion / Jade Jackson Little Dragon Milky Chance Taking Back Sunday w/ Every Time I Die, All Get Out Atlas Genius Cambridge Room Here Come The Mummies
Buy tickets at HOUSEOFBLUES.COM/CLEVELAND Order By Phone: 800.745.3000 • House of Blues Box Office
| clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
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MUSIC PAISLEY POWER Prince’s backing band keeps the Minneapolis Sound alive By Jeff Niesel AFTER PRINCE PASSED AWAY in April 2016, the Revolution came back together for three special sold-out shows at First Avenue in Minneapolis. Then, after regrouping again earlier this year to perform at Paisley Park on the first anniversary of Prince’s death, the group, which features guitarist Wendy Melvoin, bassist Brownmark, keyboardists Matt Fink and Lisa Coleman, and drummer Bobby Z, decided to take the show back on the road. “You go through the motions and can’t believe what you’re doing,” says Bobby Z in a recent phone interview from his Minneapolis home when asked about what it’s been like to perform in the wake of Prince’s death. The group comes to House of Blues on Thursday. “It’s like trudging through mud. You think, ‘How can this possibly be?’ With our comrades and the fans cheering us on, we figured we were all in the same boat. We were all lost.” But after the Paisley Park shows, the band knew it had to continue to perform. “That was a pretty heavy responsibility,” says Bobby Z. “Every time we go through the effort to put these shows together, it’s one and done. We decided that this time we want to take the train out of Minneapolis. There are other people around the country feeling the same way. We need to spread Prince’s love and our love for him. This is the only way we know how to do it. It’s ambitious.” Originally, the drummer in his brother’s high school band inspired Bobby Z to take up the instrument. “He had an amazing drummer in his high school band, which was pretty rare at that time,” he says. “He wasn’t like Ringo or Keith Moon or anything. This guy had military style training. I was fascinated by the drum coordinating techniques. It’s like learning math at the same time. I took to it right away. I became fascinated with not only the drum sounds but the drum playing and started when I was only six years old.” He describes his first meeting with Prince at a Minneapolis studio as “comical.” “We hung around [recording engineer] Chris Moon’s studio,” he
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says. “That was the beginning of the whole enchilada, if you will. I was walking down the hall. On this day, I heard the most glorious sound. It turned out to be the song ‘Baby.’ I looked in and saw the Afro. I got just side eyes, like we all know now. Not the turn of the head. I’m me, so I walked in and said, ‘What’s going
laugh. It was the best feeling in the world.” Prince was playing with Morris Day but would branch off to start his own project with bassist André Cymone. “André and Prince were so ahead of us in some many ways,” says Bobby Z. “They live and breathe this stuff.
THE REVOLUTION 7 P.M. THURSDAY, MAY 18, HOUSE OF BLUES, 308 EUCLID AVE., 216-523-2583. TICKETS: $40-$85, HOUSEOFBLUES.COM.
on?’ Chris Moon walked in and said, ‘No. This is Prince.’ I was like, ‘What?’ Already he had created an aura around him. You couldn’t penetrate it. I got a couple of laughs out of him. That was the beginning of a 43-yearold friendship. I loved to make him
| clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
We were just trying to play six nights a week and make some money. We were musicians. Prince and André would figure out poses. They took it so seriously. I thought he would make it just because he was so driven. At that point, you didn’t doubt his
songwriting ability. When I heard ‘When Doves Cry’ in the studio it was so powerful. It felt life-changing at the time.” The Revolution would form in 1979. The band played on the Prince albums Purple Rain, Around the World in a Day and Parade; some members also played on 1999. Together, they turned out multiple No. 1 hits, and “Purple Rain” even won a Grammy for Best Original Song Score in 1985. “I was committed to Prince one hundred percent and so was Matt [Fink],” says Bobby Z. “Other people were just in for a time. That wasn’t for me. You can’t go as far as you want to go like that. I was happy when Lisa [Coleman] came and then Wendy [Melvoin], which rounded out his Fleetwood Mac-like vision of the band.” As Prince began incorporating more electronic drums and synths, Bobby Z’s role in the band changed. “I was kind of the first guy who had to take care of the robots,” he admits. “Eventually, me and a guy came up with the first interface to play electronic drums from a machine. It wasn’t even invented yet. I found it fascinating and incorporated it into drumming in a pioneering way. It certainly was a non-traditional role but it came with the job. Now, they can’t sell enough of the machines.” For Bobby Z, who suffered a heart attack in 2010, performing again with the Revolution has been a real blessing and provided fans with a great opportunity to hear “authentic” renditions of Prince’s music one more time. “I think it’s really interesting when you play these old Prince songs,” he says. “Everyone has heard ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ a million times. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not here. There’s a hole in the stage the size of Texas. When you hear the music by his backup musicians, for lack of a better word, in its authentic form, it’s different than what you thought. It’s a song you never thought you’d hear live again. It’s fun to bring that on people and great to watch the smiles come out. It’s amazing. It’s beautiful.”
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
| clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
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MUSIC A FEARSOME FOURSOME Rejuvenated Meat Puppets to revisit their ‘middle period’ for Beachland show By Jeff Niesel RELEASED WAY BACK IN 1982, the Meat Puppets’ self-titled debut made the Phoenix, Arizona-based group out to be nothing more than a group of scrappy, sun-baked kids willing to crank their amps to 11 and scream their lungs out. “If you listen to the 7-inch and that first album you can hear hints of the direction we’re heading in,” says bassist Cris Kirkwood in a recent phone interview. The band performs at 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 18, at the Beachland Ballroom. “There was already kind of a redneck feel. There’s some fingerpicking stuff too.” With its second album, simply dubbed Meat Puppets II, the band turned up the twang and quickly embraced the psychedelic rock and cowpunk that’s now a regular part of its sound. The album caught the attention of a certain Kurt Cobain, who publically displayed his affection for the band when he brought the brothers Kirkwood onto the stage to perform with Nirvana for a special Unplugged session that aired on MTV in 1993. “It was really cool,” says Kirkwood when asked about performing with Cobain and Co. “It’s something you can see the significance of in hindsight more. To be so involved in something like that was great. Our contemporaries were like that. We were part of a youth movement that wasn’t specifically oriented towards commercial music. To see that voice suddenly reach a larger audience was interesting. Cobain loved the shit out of us. He was very gracious. It was just cool. It was a punk rock thing to do to use your newfound extreme popularity as part of the biggest fucking band in the world at the time and shove the Meat Puppets down people’s throats. Now that’s pretty fucking punk rock.” In the wake of Meat Puppets II, the Pups would refine their sound even more, alternately sounding like a punk version of ZZ Top on 1987’s Huevos and eliciting comparisons to Dinosaur Jr. with 1989’s Monsters. Eventually, the group would leave the indie imprint
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SST and sign to London, which released 1993’s Forbidden Places, 1994’s Too High to Die and 1995’s No Joke. Too High to Die yielded the single “Backwater,” the closest the band has come to having a hit, and the album went gold — thanks, in part, to the fact that the video was in heavy rotation on MTV. The band would go on hiatus in 1996, only to reform in 1999. Kirkwood spent some of that downtime battling drug addiction and other personal problems while his brother Curt led the band. “It was the love and support of a lot of people that were very gracious and giving,” he says when asked about what enabled him to
longest stint, but I had been doing time in chunks for quite a while, and I found myself locked up for an even longer time. I was pretty fucking blown away when we did start playing again together.” For this tour, the band, which also includes drummer Shandon Sahm (son of psychedelic rock hero Doug Sahm) and guitarist Elmo Kirkwood, has added music from its “middle period” that includes album such as Huevos, Monsters and Too High to Die to the setlists. “It’s just that we want to show the depth of the catalog and the depth of Curt as the composer,” says Kirkwood when asked about revisiting that time period. “There’s
THE MEAT PUPPETS, MIKE WATT + THE JOM & TERRY SHOW 8:30 P.M. THURSDAY, MAY 18, BEACHLAND BALLROOM, 15711 WATERLOO RD., 216-383-1124. TICKETS: $17 ADV, $20 DOS, BEACHLANDBALLROOM.COM
get clean and rejoin the band. “It was my family, my girlfriend, my girlfriend’s family, everybody, you know? It was my fault. I fucked myself up really bad, and I hurt the people I loved real bad. I regret it horribly. There’s nothing heroic about it. I was locked up the last time for a fucking while. It was the
| clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
so much to choose from. Curt has written a buttload of cool songs. So we just wanted to bring some other stuff into the set. I mean we just play whatever we feel like playing. And it just seemed to be time to bring some of these things in, just that kind of fluid approach a little bit. It kind of works out we just
have a body of songs that work well together. We have ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’ up and at ’em doing a jig across the floor.” Curt Kirkwood has even said that the band sounds better than it ever has in its decades long career. “It’s cool that he thinks that,” says Kirkwood. “We’re at a place that’s interesting to take that overview and see the progression of the band. Looking back now, it was just an interesting period for the band. At one point, we were psychedelic fucking wonder baboons, whatever the fuck. There was a certain period that when that was going and that was unique in and of itself. We started to figure it out and really perform and kind of have a show. The place that we’re at right now is cool and part of that is we’re a four piece now. It’s just taking us to another place. And now we’re taken more seriously. We’re kicking serious bootie. But it’s very musical right now and very satisfying. Now I think it’s a little more easy to ‘get.’ We’re not as intent on freaking ourselves out. It’s a little more chill.”
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
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LIVEWIRE WED
05/18
Cleveland Greats Concert Series: Evelyn Wright: 8 p.m., $15. Bop Stop. Mary Bridget Davies with Ryan Sudick/Ray Flanagan: 8 p.m., $23 ADV, $25 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. DUMP HIM/Heavenly Creatures/ Forager (in the Locker Room): 9 p.m., $5. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Flogging Molly/The White Buffalo/ Dylan Walshe: 7:30 p.m., $38 ADV, $42 DOS. Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park. Hathaway Brown Vocal Music Program: 8 p.m., $10. Nighttown. Chris Hatton’s Musical Circus (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Jam Night with the Bad Boys of Blues: 9 p.m., Free. Brothers Lounge. Jucifer/Dead East Garden/Space Funeral: 9 p.m., $10. Now That’s Class. Kris Kristofferson: 8 p.m., $25-$65. Ohio Theatre. Larchmere Porchfest Announce Party with Kim Haffey & Megan Sullivan/Zell/Mikal Callow: 8:30 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Grog Shop. Mapache: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. Meat Puppets/Mike Watt/The Jom & Terry Show: 8:30 p.m., $17 ADV, $20 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. Mipso: 7 p.m., $13 ADV, $15 DOS. Beachland Tavern.
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Irish rockers Flogging Molly come to Hard Rock Live. See: Thursday.
05/17
10 X 3 Singer Songwriter Showcase: Hosted by Brent Kirby (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Ancient River/Mourning [a] Blkstar/ Cigarette Playdate: 9 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Bluewater Kings Band: 8 p.m., free. Brothers Lounge. Car2n Hooligans/Heavyheds/Theta Waves/Wrecking Crew Red Panda Bears: 8 p.m., $6 ADV, $8 DOS. Grog Shop. Johnny Iguana And The Claudettes: 8 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Bop Stop. Gaelynn Lae/Gretchen Pleuss: 8 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Beachland Tavern. Like Rats/Crypt Rot/Inoculation (in Club Atlantis): 8 p.m., $6. Now That’s Class. Tech N9ne/Brotha Lynch Hung/Krizz Kaliko/Stevie Stone/Ces Cru: 7 p.m., $30. House of Blues.
THU
all the live music you should see this week
Paper Bird/Lowly, the Tree Ghost/ Forager: 9 p.m., free. The Euclid Tavern. The Revolution: 7 p.m., $40-$85. House of Blues. Tall Heights/Henry Jamison/Chayla Hope: 7 p.m., $12 ADV, $14 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes.
FRI
05/19
Chance the Rapper: Fresh off changing the Grammy by-laws and snagging a trio of trophies himself, the inimitable Chance the Rapper brings his one-of-a-kind energy to Blossom on a Friday evening stop of his spring tour. The Southside Chicagoan cut his teeth at open mics and spoken word sessions across the Windy City, growing a local following with his Ten Day mixtape that quickly flipped into an international fanbase with his second mixtape, the criticallyacclaimed Acid Rap. Heavily influenced by jazz, gospel music, and Chicago house, Chance’s unique sing-song floats and stabs with poetic lace over diverse, layered, gorgeously composed production. Rejecting major labels and opting to remain independent despite countless overtures, Chance released his 2016 Coloring Book to universal acclaim. The album – chock full of A-list features from hip-hop and pop’s beating pulse – was the first ever streaming-only album to garner a Grammy award. With three mixtapes and a handful of top-notch features in his repertoire,
| clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
the 24-year-old is sure to light up the Blossom stage. (Lawrence Neil), 8 p.m., $25-$166. Blossom. Ma Holos/Dana/Shagg: We here at Scene have always dug this band and their esoteric name. They’re Cleveland blood, after all, and we can’t get enough of that twisted fuzz psych rock madness. We were spinning Demonduction this week at the office, and got lost in a trance for a while. They’ve got a good sense of dynamics and timing, and the album flows well from downtempo, dreamy verses to aggressive, borderline evil anthems now and then (see “Don’t Curse Me”). It’s the sort of stuff that makes for a heart-pounding live show, and we don’t doubt for a second that tonight is going to get freaky as hell. Joey Nix’s drums are enough to shatter the foundation of any building; bring your safety gear. (Eric Sandy), 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. The Orwells/The Waiters: These garage rockers from Chicago have been compared to a number of high profile contemporaries such as the Strokes, the Black Keys and Arctic Monkeys, just to name a few. The Orwells have carved out their own niche over the past few years and established themselves as gritty troublemakers, which shouldn’t be too surprising — lead singer Mario Cuomo has cited rap group Odd Future as an influence on the band. However, the Orwells have moved out of the garage a little bit on their third album Terrible Human Beings, as the band gets a little more clear-headed and more pop driven.
The distorted guitar screech and two-note lead on “Heavy Head” is reminiscent of Pixies, while “Ring Pop” sounds Weezer influenced. The band has also promised to tone down some of its on-stage antics, like Cuomo frequently removing his pants during shows. Fellow Chicagoans the Walters will open the show. (Johnny Cook), 9 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Grog Shop. 1967 Ironic Year of Rock n Roll with Tim Moon/The Chestertons/Ray Flanagan/Jason Patrick Myers: 8 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. Greg Abate Quartet: 8 p.m., $15. Bop Stop. Conan/North/Contra: 8 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Now That’s Class. Debbie Darling: 8:30 p.m., $15. Nighttown. DJs Seth and Mateo: 6 p.m., free. Happy Dog. Evil Ways: 9:30 p.m., $5. Brothers Lounge. Johnny Fay & the Bel-Aires/David Loy & the Ramrods: 9:30 p.m., $5. Beachland Tavern. Hard Day’s Night: 7 p.m., $14-$22. House of Blues. Jazz Jam Session: 11 p.m., free. Bop Stop. Gladys Knight: 8 p.m., $53.50-$89.50. Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park. Bill March (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Merrick [Rocks The] House with Shout!: 7 p.m., $40. Music Box Supper Club. Oceano/Slaughter to Prevail/ Aversions Crown/Spite/No Zodiac/ Edorra/Sterilizing the Deceased: 6 p.m., $13 ADV, $16 DOS. Agora Ballroom. The Spectators Release Show/The Grievance Club/Los Ojos/Nic Adkins/Homecoming Queen (in the Locker Room): 7 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Moss Stanley: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown. Wedding Crashers! with The Element (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $10. Music Box Supper Club. Xeb/Pinkertones/Brad Ray: 9 p.m., $10-$75. Musica.
SAT
05/20
Brit Floyd: Billed as “The World’s Greatest Pink Floyd Show,” the Liverpool-based act Brit Floyd has sold more than 1 million tickets over the course of a career that
LIVEWIRE stretches back to 2011. The band’s latest venture, Immersion World Tour 2017, features high-definition sound, a million dollar light show and state of the art video. Tonight, the group will pay special tribute to Floyd’s Animals album, which just celebrated its 40th anniversary. (Jeff Niesel), 8 p.m., $25-$55. Jacobs Pavilion. ’80s Night with The Sunrise Jones (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. Album/Mad Anthony: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. Joey Amato (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Black Spirit Crown/Universal Wavelength/Pale Grey Lore/Pillars (in the Locker Room): 9 p.m., $8. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Boondox/Blaze Ya Dead Homie/Lex the Hex Master: 6 p.m., $15 ADV, $20 DOS. Agora Ballroom. Moises Borges: 8 p.m., $15. Bop Stop. Richie Cole All-Star Quartet Featuring Greg Bandy: 8:30 p.m., $20. Nighttown. Gideon/Invent Animate/Ghost Key/ Chasing Horizons: 6 p.m., $13 ADV, $15 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Gordon Lightfoot: 8 p.m., $39.50$69.50. Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park. May in Training with Jared Perez/Stallone The Reducer/ Auscultation/Dream Oil/Kiernan LaVeaux: 9 p.m., $8. Now That’s Class. Proud Parents/Christmas Pets/ Watched Things: 9 p.m., $5. The Euclid Tavern. Rockin’ the Ukulele with Sheela Das: 1 p.m., $15 ADV, $19 DOS. Beachland Tavern. Roxxymoron: 8 p.m., $7. Musica. School of Rock: 5 p.m., free. Brothers Lounge. The Spazmatics: 9:30 p.m., $5. Brothers Lounge. Vancouver Sleep Clinic/Morgan Mecaskey/Matthew Ryals: 9 p.m., $7-$15. Grog Shop. Jackie Warren: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown. Well-Strung/Thorgy Thor: 7 p.m., $23.50-$50.85. House of Blues.
SUN
05/21
Travis Scott/Khalid: 8 p.m., $39-$49. Jacobs Pavilion. Treespeak/The Clock Reads: Funky prog-rock from Kent? Count us in. Treespeak came alive little more
than a year ago, and we’re eager to see the Northeast Ohio jam scene embrace them as they play out more and more around the area. They’ve dropped some tracks online, so do check out stuff like “Fish Tank” and “Taboo Yü,” both of which evince a talented quartet with the sort of chops that lead us to believe we’re in for a treat at tonight’s show. Tune into guitarist Eli Bolick’s nuanced lead work on “Fish Tank,” where he cruises alongside steady rhythms and fresh bass lines that now and then rise to the top of the jam like cream. We’re betting that this is a band you’ll want to keep an eye on this year. (Sandy), 8:30 p.m., $8. Beachland Tavern. Angel of the Night with Barbara Barrett & John Morton: 7 p.m., $20. Nighttown. Borzoi/Obnox/Cotton Ponys: 9 p.m., $5. Now That’s Class. Brian McKnight: 7 p.m., $40-$65. House of Blues. Mike Petrone (in the Wine Bar): 5:30 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra: 4 p.m., $10. Bop Stop. School of Rock: 11:45 a.m., free. Beachland Ballroom. You’re Among Friends/The Chestertons/Gomez Addams: 7:30 p.m., $6. Grog Shop.
MON
05/22
Skatch Anderssen Orchestra: 8 p.m., $7. Brothers Lounge. Samothrace/He Whose Ox is Gored/ Soniq Armada/Helicase: 7 p.m., $12 ADV, $14 DOS. Now That’s Class. Velvet Voyage (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. The Wind + The Wave/Justin Kawika Young/The Native Sibling: 8 p.m., $12 ADV, 15 DOS. Beachland Tavern.
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KentStage The
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@ MIDNIGHT Tom Paxton and The Don Juans
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Fri., May 19
Fri., May 19
Scott Stapp Live and Unplugged
Red Wanting Blue
Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra
Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm
Devon Allman
Thu., May 25
Eric Johnson Electric Band Sat., May 20
Sat., May 27
Wed., May 31
05/23
The Delta Bombers/The Velvematics: 8:30 p.m., $10. Beachland Tavern. Elgar Trio: 8 p.m., $15. Bop Stop. SowFlo/Daddy Longleg’s Homegrown Revival/DJ Packy Malley: 8 p.m., $7 ADV, $10 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. Swingtime Big Band: 7:30 p.m., $7. Vosh Club. Two-Set Tuesday featuring the Elderly Brothers Band (in the Wine Bar): 7 p.m. Brothers Lounge.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
Bruce Cockburn Fri., Jun 2
Al Stewart performs “Year of the Cat” Thu., Jun. 15
Wed., Jun. 7
Mon, Jun. 12
ProgNation & Diamond Dogs present a 70’s Art/Prog Rock Show Sat., Jun. 17
The Quebe Sisters Fri., Jun. 23
ALL SHOWS AT THE KENT STAGE UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED Tickets available at www.kentstage.org or 877-987-6487 GMK [w cw i {{ © a{ B e~ JJHJF | clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
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MAY 22 LOCKER ROOM - CAROUSEL HORSE, DWIGHT SMITH MAY 24 LOCKER ROOM - TOLD SLANT, HELLO SHARK, ANNA MCCLELLAN, LEONARD BAUM MAY 26 MAIN STAGE - CAYETANA, DIET CIG, PETAL, SLINGSHOT DAKOTA MAY 27 MAIN STAGE - UP TO NOTHING, CALL YOUR SHOT, CHIL, TRUSTING OBSCURITY, THETA WAVES, COLORBLIND MAY 28 MAIN STAGE - PET SYMMETRY, RATBOYS, RUNAWAY BROTHER MAY 28 LOCKER ROOM - SPILL, ALCOA, JAKE CLARKE, HELL & HIGHWATER, CABIN FEVER
Photo by Chris Croft
DANA By Jeff Niesel MEET THE BAND: Madeline Jackson (vocals, theremin), Chris Lute (guitar), Val Glenn (bass), Courtney Scott (drums) THE OHIO SOUND: A little over two years ago, Jackson reached out to a guitar player friend of hers and talked about an idea for a band. She was sitting in the parking lot of a pharmacy while she told him about the psychedelic music she wanted to play. “We got to work shortly after that,â€? she says. “The ďŹ rst show we played as a three-piece and did an improv kind of deal. We had a similar sonic starting point. We love Pere Ubu and Stooges and proto punk. There’s a lot of that in our music and a lot of ’90s inuence, stuff like Brainiac. We strive to be among those weirdo Ohio bands like Rocket from the Tombs, Devo and Brainiac.â€? FRAGMENTED THOUGHTS: On its Facebook page, the band cites “custody battles and pissing contests,â€? “that glass prison cell they had to put Magneto in,â€? “gas station chicken,â€? “night sweatsâ€? and “Googling your own nameâ€? as inuences. What the heck? “That’s just how my brain works,â€? says Jackson. “I think in fragmented vignettes. That comes across lyrically. Our songs are about human behavior and interaction and feature tableaus of Rust Belt shittiness.â€? THEREMIN LIES THE ANSWER: Because she didn’t want to play an
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| clevescene.com | May 17 - 23, 2017
instrument that would keep her tethered to the stage, Jackson chose to pick up the theremin. “I something helped me have some sway in the songwriting process and ďŹ guring out what the melody would be,â€? she says. “I run it through a series of effects pedals. I use a tremolo and a Moog chorus pedal just to give some more texture and take the edge off. A little goes a long way. I have fun with it. I can do some soloing on it too.â€?
WHERE YOU CAN HEAR THEM: thereisnodana.bandcamp.com WHY YOU SHOULD HEAR THEM: “Demon Dawg,â€? the single from the band’s new self-titled album, features lacerating guitars and hiccupping vocals and sounds something like PJ Harvey if the Jesus Lizard backed her up. With a recent lineup change, Jackson says the band continues to reďŹ ne its approach. “We’re hammering out how we want it to sound,â€? she says. “I want to get more material going. We’ve been doing this set for a while. With the lineup changes, it feels really fresh. Our previous drummer is now playing guitar, so it’s been a musical chairs type of situation.â€? WHERE YOU CAN SEE THEM: Dana performs with Ma Holos and Shagg at 9 p.m on Friday, May 19, at the Happy Dog.
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
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SAVAGE LOVE ANTI-CLIMAX by Dan Savage Dear Dan, I’m a happily married straight man. My wife, who is 33 years old, cannot orgasm through intercourse since we had our last child. Her explanation is that she has this constant sensation to pee. Now we find other means to please her through toys, oral, etc. Are there exercises or other means to get her to climax through intercourse? Is this common from childbirth? —Climaxing Liberally Is Fun “Failure to orgasm with penile penetration is not a medical condition,” said Dr. Jennifer Gunter, an ob-gyn, writer (drjengunter.wordpress.com), and kick-ass tweeter who practices in the San Francisco Bay Area. “If a woman can orgasm with other methods—oral sex or masturbation or toys—then that means everything is working just fine. Remember, it’s not how she gets to the party that matters, it’s that she got to attend the party.” As all straight men need to be aware, CLIF, only a small number of women—less than a quarter—can get off from vaginal intercourse alone, aka PIV. “Most women require clitoral stimulation to have an orgasm, and often the mechanics of penile penetration just don’t produce the right kind of friction,” said Dr. Gunter. “It’s possible that the subtle anatomical changes post-childbirth have altered the friction mechanics of your coupling. Introducing a vibrator during sex might help.” And while we’re on the subject of clits, CLIF… We abbreviate sign-offs around here, as everyone knows, and like PIV for your wife, CLIF, your sign-off didn’t quite get you there. You could’ve gone with “Climaxing Liberally Is Terrific” or “Tremendous” or “Totally Spectacular,” but you didn’t. Perhaps it was an innocent brain fart—perhaps I’m reading too much into this—but if you
didn’t spot the near-CLIT staring you in the face in your signoff, CLIF, it seems possible that you may have overlooked your wife’s clit, too. Also possible: Your wife wasn’t actually having orgasms “through intercourse” before she gave birth to your last child. You’re clearly invested in climaxing together—just like in the movies and porn and other fictions—and your wife, like many women, may have been faking orgasms to please a male partner. Tired of faking orgasms, your wife seized on the birth of your last child to explain why she “suddenly” couldn’t come from PIV alone anymore. What about your wife’s constant sensation to pee during intercourse? “That’s something to be looked at,” Dr. Gunter said. “After childbirth (and sometimes just with age), women can develop an overactive bladder or pelvicmuscle issues, and these could be exacerbated during penetration, making a woman feel as if she needs to empty her bladder. Worrying about peeing during sex might be holding her back. It might be worth a visit to a pelvic floor physical therapist and/or a urogynecologist if this sensation to pee during sex is bothering her. But if neither the lack of orgasm with penile penetration nor the urgency to pee is bothering her, and she is having orgasms other ways and is happy with that, I would be happy with it, too. After all, it’s her orgasm, and stress or pressure to orgasm a particular way might negatively affect her party.” Follow Dr. Gunter on Twitter @DrJenGunter. Do it: She’s amazing and hilarious, and she kicks right-wing, anti-choice, sexnegative ass up and down Twitter on a daily basis.
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