Blogs

Here lie two baked-fresh press releases -- one from Village Voice Media, Scene's soon-to-be-former owners, and one from Times-Shamrock, its soon-to-be-new owners. Long story short: Cleveland will soon be a one alt-weekly town. Some number of fine newspaper folks will be out of work sometime soon. And, finally, does anyone know when Little Bar opens? ...

(Press releases after the jump. PD's story is here).

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What’s a summer weekend without a couple cold ones and some juicy hotdogs? But no need to fire up the grill. Lakewood’s Buckeye Beer Engine is standing by, with brews aplenty and some kick-ass dogs, to boot.

True, food hasn’t always been a priority at this casual Madison Avenue watering hole. In fact, when brewmaster Garin Wright first popped the top on the tavern last spring, his focus was strictly on the suds, a remarkable roundup of 27 beers on tap and 120 in bottles that he likes to describe as "breakouts, hot stuff, and things you've never seen before in your life." ...

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Tom Petty leads the list of the weekend's shows, but read on, 'cuz plenty of the best local bands are unleashing new CDs this week. Read on for a full list of everyone playing everywhere, and why you should see them. -- D.X. Ferris

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In alt-rock, one thing is certain: you can’t count out that bloke in the Ruby Woo MAC lipstick and frightwig ‘do. Robert Smith has led The Cure – arguably one of the greatest alt-rock acts of all time – over the course of 30 years and a dozen studio albums. His band’s induction into the Rock Hall is inevitable, even if the supporting cast playing behind the long bum-rapped Gloomy Gus hasn’t been.

No matter. Smith and his current Cure lineup – Porl Thompson (guitars), Simon Gallup (bass) and Jason Cooper (drums) – proved themselves serviceable last night at Cleveland State’s Wolstein Center. They managed to cater to the tastes of hardcore Cure fans and the Come-Latelys, and without the alienating, “backward-looking” greatest-hits show that artists seem to lean on once they hit 40. ...

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We read Kevin O'Brien so you don't have to ...

Column: The terrorists get their day in court.

Topic: Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that terror suspects will get their day in court. Kevin-- steel yourself -- doesn’t like the idea.

Kevin's Sanity Level Today: 38 percent

What Your Head Would Feel Like if You Read it Yourself: A mayfly buzzes around your ear. You try to smack it, but in a freak occurrence, the sudden hand movement creates an air pocket that pushes the insect through your ear canal. It flutters around in your cranium, tickling your cerebral cortex and causing your eyes to cross. Also, you’re wearing a baseball hat that’s 3/8 of a size too small. A Yankees hat, to be precise.

Charting Kevin's Logic:

1. In case you forgot, Kevin’s totally into the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A bit more surprisingly, Kevin also loves the Constitution. Honest. In his diary, he ranks it third behind only Lee Iacocca’s biography and the Forum section of the Plain Dealer in his list of America’s most vital documents. He’s also a fan of the Geneva Convention—specifically its use of the word “uniformed.” By the way, isn’t foreshadowing nifty?

2. Terrorists don’t wear uniforms. And no, dressing like the bad guy from The Mummy doesn’t count. You need to have, like, patches, to fall under Geneva’s protection. That’s why boy scouts shouldn’t be detained indefinitely, or tortured. Also Burger King employees.

3. Plus, terrorists don’t believe in the Geneva convention. And they use copies of the Constitution for AK-47 target practice. So when we capture them, it would be silly to follow the Geneva convention, or the Constitution. See how that works? If you don’t, you’re basically Al Gore in a kufi.

4. Thanks to those liberal loosies over at the Supreme Court, all those jihadists currently bronzing in Guantanamo now get to enter the cool confines of U.S. court. But how does he know they’re jihadists, you ask, if they haven’t yet been to court? Shut up, jihadist!

5. You see how unfair this is? The terrorists get to cut our heads off after just a few ooga-boogas in front of a video camera. But we don’t even get to lock them in a cage forever without first going through the hassle of proving that they’re terrorists. And does this mean we can’t even electrocute their nipples? Just a little? Bogus!

Dethlok plays House of Blues (308 Euclid Ave.) tonight, with Soilent Green and hometown metal heroes Chimaira. The group started as a joke and became the biggest death metal band in the history of the Billboard album chart.

With a simple but esoteric premise, Cartoon Network’s Metalocalypse seemed guaranteed to create a cult hit with a rabid fanbase of hundreds: What if the world’s biggest band -- Dethlok -- was an extreme metal group, who live a reality of guts and gore that the genre’s musicians (usually) only sing about. And what if they had fanatical legions who lived -- and died -- for the group? ...

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Go behind the scenes with Giuseppe O'Connell at Brothers Lounge at clevescene.com/slideshow/.

We get lots of press releases touting events in support of good causes. But we don’t get many as clever as the one sent recently by Giuseppe O’Connell, cantankerous GM at Brothers Lounge, and subject of our recent feature.

How’s this for a fundraiser? Buy a chance to dunk O’Connell – the self-proclaimed “most inhospitable guy in the hospitality biz” – and get the double satisfaction of supporting breast-cancer research at the same time. ...

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"What? There's no direct flight to Shaker Heights?

In an election year, celebs who ordinarily couldn’t locate Lake Erie on a map suddenly seem to find our humble swing-state mecca irresistible. A few months ago, Don Cheadle stopped by to support Barack Obama, and even Sean Penn has stopped by, to lend some Hollywood credence to Dennis Kucinich regularly scheduled ego-stroking. Next week, it’s Al Franken’s turn.

Franken, known for his comic genius as Stuart Smalley on “Saturday Night Live” and his progressive radio show on Air America, has finally switched over to the dark side of politics, officially making him way less funny than he used to be. He’s running for a U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota, and quickly learning that trying to be a politician is way harder than just making fun of them. ...

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Tom Petty’s coming to town on Sunday. Again. Seems like the dude plays Blossom every single summer. It’s gotten to the point where we’re sorta taking him for granted. Sure, that’s easy to do, especially with recent crappy albums like The Last DJ and Highway Companion. But go back and revisit his Greatest Hits album, and you’ll realize how durable the guy is. So go see Petty for the rock legend he’s become. Here are his Top 5 songs – perfect for that pre-concert mix you’ll be making.

5. “Even the Losers” – Almost every song on Damn the Torpedoes is killer. It’s his most consistent and best album. But this super rocker – about smoking cigs and coming out on top – is archetypal Petty: tough and to the point.

4. “Don’t Come Around Here No More” – Southern Accents is Petty’s most underrated album, a concept record about the south. Dropped in the middle of all the songs about rebels and broken-down trucks is this psychedelic mind-fuck produced by Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart.

3. “The Waiting” – A jingle-jangle love song that sounds like summer. It’s got a killer hook and still shows up in Petty’s live sets a quarter century later.

2. “American Girl” – Petty’s first great song pretty much set his standard: cool opening riff, solid verse-chorus-verse, and terrific guitar solo by Heartbreaker Mike Campbell. It still rocks 30-plus years on.

1. “Free Fallin’” – Petty’s biggest album and most popular song come from his first solo album without the Heartbreakers. It’s about L.A. vampires, wide-open spaces, and some girl who really digs Elvis. It doesn’t get more American than that. --Michael Gallucci

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers play Blossom Music Center (1145 West Steels Corners Road in Cuyahoga Falls) at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 22. Tickets range from $29.50 to $95, available by calling 216-241-5555. For a preview, listen to “American Girl” below.

Beat it.

Death Cab for Cutie played the Plain Dealer Pavilion over the weekend. You may have already read our review. Now you can look at some pictures taken by Wanda Santos-Bray. Check out her slide show. –Michael Gallucci

It’s a good thing we never participated in one of those celebrity death pools. Although we’re pretty sure British soulstress/black-tar-heroin-fan Amy Winehouse isn’t going to make it through the summer, our track record might suggest otherwise.

Take Alex Arshinkoff, for example. The Gayest Straight Guy Ever™ has ruled the Summit County GOP with an iron (and diamond-studded) fist for three decades now, using his unnatural gifts for fundraising and back-room political chicanery to keep Republicans afloat in heavily Democratic Akron. ...

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"Hosing your dad's career is educational and fun!"

Something tells us Peter Joseph has been grounded indefinitely. Perhaps even had his driving privileges revoked.

The son of Highland Heights sergeant Mark Joseph, Peter gave Dad an early Father’s Day present a few weeks back when he posted on his facebook page that a schoolmate had attempted suicide. To make matters worse, the kid divulged his source unprompted, prefacing the info with, “As many of you may know, my father is a police sergeant in the city of Highland Heights and he gets the whole scoop on most things.”

Yo, son: stop snitchin’. ...

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For a concert that’s as calm as the still waters of an empty pond, you sure don’t expect a crowd to be trembling with excitement. And with Jack Johnson’s reputation as one of the most relaxing acoustic musicians of the decade, you’d certainly anticipate a laid-back live show. But somehow, the most chill dude ever managed to incite screams and ear-to-ear grins from a Blossom Music Center audience that ranged from tweens to grandparents.

It must be Johnson’s magic touch – an ability to turn a cold, rainy Cleveland night into a sunny Hawaiian paradise – that gives his fans an instant happy-go-lucky vibe. As if his songs about living life to the fullest weren’t enough to warm the hearts of every fan, he brought along six TV screens that beamed photos of waves, birds, and palm trees behind him ...

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Unless you recognize a comedian’s name as That Girl From that Movie or the Dude from That One HBO Special, it can be hard to tell whether a stand-up is worth seeing. Lucky you: C-Notes did the legwork, and the skinny on this week’s big comedy shows, video included, is just a click away. -- D.X. Ferris

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One measure of a restaurant’s soundness is how well it can cope with the loss of key team members. The best-run spots have clear contingency plans for such losses, and an in-house talent pool to draw upon. The others? Well, let’s hope you aren’t left holding an unusable gift card.

As we reported in last week’s Side Dish, executive chef Matt Mytro has left dual posts at Paladar Latin Kitchen & Rum Bar and Boulevard Blue, in order to plow new ground with Crop Bistro’s Steve Schimoler, in food-product R&D.

Will this be a problem for the popular boîtes? Apparently not. ...

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