If Tuesday’s Grand Buffet concert at the Beachland isn’t the week’s biggest show, it will definitely be the funniest. Other big nights out include jazz-guitar great Bill Frisell, the Canadian indie rock of Stars, and grimy metal from Devil Driver. Click MORE for a full rundown of the week’s concerts, complete with a cheat sheet. – D.X. Ferris
In their ongoing quest to blowtorch your wallet, then stomp it to death while doing Cherokee war cries, Cuyahoga County commissioners may have fashioned their worst deal yet to build a new convention center/medical mart in Cleveland. In an ongoing series, Ace Reporter Lisa Rab breaks down the absurdity of the deal for those of you scoring at home:
Councilman Mike Polensek is feeling a bit miffed these days. He has this crazy notion that since the new convention center is going to be built in Cleveland, the city should have some say in the deal. This is especially important, he notes in a recent letter to Council President Martin Sweeney, because, um… the city already has a convention center…
Well, looks like the city has finally given up the fight against pot holes. This weekend, drivers going north bound on Martin Luther King had to swerve into oncoming traffic to avoid an orange cone placed inside a gaping pot hole in the middle of the road. It seems like the city is trying its best to create a Mario Kart course out of this curving stretch of road.
Drivers beware: This pot hole comes out of nowhere. It took the air out of a Volkswagen Beetle last Saturday. But as of this morning, the cone was missing. A lonely hub cap sat nearby as a tribute to its departure. And the pot hole, who we affectionately named Carl, grows deeper and deeper by the minute. It sneaks up on drivers like a man-hole without a cover. We expect a Ninja-Turtle to crawl out at any moment…
Country-singer-turned-blue-eyed-soul-diva Shelby Lynne played the Beachland Ballroom Sunday night. Scene photographer Walter Novak was there to shoot some pictures. But in the middle of her first song, Lynne gave Novak the “stop” hand (as you’ll see in the accompanying slideshow), cutting short his snapping madness.
Novak believes that because aging Lynne is often sold as a sexpot – and is beginning to show her years on the road – she didn’t particularly want him shooting with a long lens. He did get some pretty good photos of her working that first song, however. Enjoy. -- Michael Gallucci
Less than 18 months after Gerald Levert’s death, word comes that brother Sean died last night in a local jail.
He was there for the past week after not ponying up for child support. So far, there’s been no official word as to how the 39-year-old singer died. An autopsy is scheduled. -- Michael Gallucci
There’s been quite the brouhaha over the Vogue cover featuring LeBron James and Tom Brady’s current flame that was shot by Annie Leibovitz. The not-so-subtle King Kong reference has given rise to a furious debate over the depiction of black athletes, with pundits far and wide hoping to set the new land-speed record for sphincterism.
But did you know that LeBron has been appearing in racially insensitive cover shots since high school? That’s right. The guy is practically a walking advertisement for the Klan. Here are some of the other controversial covers you might have missed…
It’s really nice having friends in high places. Just ask the Summit County Republican chairman, Alex Arshinkoff. He’s sued Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner for refusing to reappoint him to the Summit County Board of Elections. The suit is now before the Ohio Supreme Court, where he’s loaded up with important friends.
Take Justice Maureen O’Connor. Last week, Scene brought you the tale of her incredible war chest and how it affects her rulings. Of course, O’Connor wouldn’t be rolling around in all that dough if it wasn’t for her trusty mentor, Daddy Arshinkoff…
With President Bush’s approval ratings hovering at -18 degrees, evangelicals are starting to worry that they’re about to lose their grip on power. Recent polls show that most secular Americans believe that evangelists are mostly concerned with opposing abortion and gay marriage. Technically, this may be true, but they’re also concerned with stuff that matters, like the environment and poverty, according to The Sojourners/Call to Renewal, a D.C. evangelical group.
So in an effort to readjust the evangelical image in the public eye, the group will host a number of “justice revival” seminars, starting in Ohio on April 16, to demonstrate to America that they’re not as scary as previously thought...
The first Saturday of every month, Cedar Lee Theatre (2163 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights, 440.564.2030) plays a different cult flick at 9:30 and midnight. It’s their “Cult Film Series," and it can get intense; the cult fans, mostly drunk or on their way there (Cedar Lee sells reasonably-priced beer), often wear movie-appropriate costumes and yell at the screen...
Over a decade ago, a man with a big white hat made a promise to Ohioans that he could educate at-risk children better than the public school system. It didn’t turn out so well.
Hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars later, David Brennan, the owner of White Hat Management, has actually managed to produce a school system that performs worse than Cleveland’s schools…
This week’s Screaming Into The Void award goes to Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis. For the past year, he’s been using a surplus in delinquent tax collections -- known as DTAC -- to keep some county families from losing their homes in foreclosure.
Rokakis’ program offers families $3,000 loans, but they don’t go to just anybody. In order to qualify, people must show they can keep making their payments…
Shelby Lynne released one of the decade’s best blue-eyed soul albums, I Am Shelby Lynne, at the top of the ’00s. Since then, she’s recorded one blah album after another.
First, her record company tried to make her a cooing sexpot. Then they tried to make her a beer-swilling hard-ass. Then they just threw their hands up in frustration and let her do what she wanted. After all, Lynne’s earned that right. She’d been making records for more than a decade when she won a Best New Artist Grammy in 2001…
In their ongoing quest to blowtorch your wallet, then stomp it to death while doing Cherokee war cries, Cuyahoga County commissioners may have fashioned their worst deal yet to build a new convention center/medical mart in Cleveland. In an ongoing series, Ace Reporter Lisa Rab breaks down the absurdity of the deal for those of you scoring at home:
Whenever civic leaders want you to pick up the tab for a new project, they inevitably trot out claims that thousands of new jobs will be created. Remember Gateway, when they told us it would create 27,000 new jobs? Or how about the fabulous Euclid corridor project, where a miracle bus route is supposed to create 9,000 jobs? …
Every Friday, Scene calendar editor Cris Glaser provides a random but reliable sampling of things to do this weekend. For more options, log onto entertainment.clevescene.com. And check back Monday for C-Notes' Picks of the Week.
Friday: Broadway bombshell Bernadette Peters gets her gay-friendliness on, when she duets with the North Coast Men’s Chorus in a benefit for the 100-homo choir at Playhouse Square. Accompanied by the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, Peters will share stage time in a rendition of Stephen Sondheim’s “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” before she launches into a one-hour solo set. The curtain goes up at 8 p.m. at the Allen Theatre, 1501 Euclid Avenue. Tickets cost between $10 and $105 by calling 216-241-6000...
You already know about Saturday’s Classic Hip Hop Extravaganza. Mick Boogie and Terry Urban’s monthly jumpoff in the shoebox basement of Touch Supper Club (2710 Lorain Ave; 216.631.5200) has long been Cleveland’s best party. The Rowdy Bald Heads spin tunes that might be played at a really cool kid’s bar mitzvah in 1996 -- everything from classic Bone Thugs to Outkast to the Digital Underground to Kriss Kross, culminating in anthem rock ballads by the time everybody’s too drunk to notice.
There’s been a twist added: Local hip-hop production duo The Kickdrums, winner of 2007’s Best Beatmakers award, will be hosting a record-release party on the ground floor for their new artist, Verbal...
