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M A R C H 2 - 8 , 2 016 • VO LU M E 4 6 N O 3 5

Dedicated to Free Times founder Richard H. Siegel (1935-1993) and Scene founder Richard Kabat Publisher Chris Keating Associate Publisher Desiree Bourgeois Editor Vince Grzegorek

CONTENTS

Upfront

6

Framed

12

News

14

Feature

16

Get Out!

23

Art

28

Stage

29

Film

31

Dining

35

Music

43

County prosecutor frees man busted by corrupt cops, RTA debates rate hike, and more

Editorial Managing Editor Eric Sandy Music Editor Jeff Niesel Staff Writer Sam Allard Writer-at-large Kyle Swenson Web Editor Bliss Davis Dining Editor Douglas Trattner Contributing Dining Editor Nikki Delamotte Stage Editor Christine Howey Visual Arts Editor Josh Usmani

Our favorite photos from the past week

Advertising Senior Multimedia Account Executive John Crobar, Shayne Rose Multimedia Account Executives Kiara Hunter-Davis, Joseph Williamson

Neighborhood busybody Henry Senyak is at it again

Creative Services Production Manager Steve Miluch Layout Editor/Graphic Designer Christine Hahn Staff Photographer Emanuel Wallace

Back to the future with The Cleveland Press, which envisions our city in 2021

Business Asst. To The Publisher Angela Lott Sales Assistant/Receptionist Megan Stimac Circulation Circulation Director Don Kriss 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

Dozens of events spanning the next week in Cleveland

www.euclidmediagroup.com National Advertising Voice Media Group 1-800-278-9866, voicemediagroup.com

This month’s Walk All Over Waterloo may be most exciting to date

Cleveland Scene 737 Bolivar Rd, #4100 Cleveland, OH 44115 www.clevescene.com Phone 216-241-7550 Retail & Classifi ed Fax 216-241-6275 Editoral Fax 216-802-7212 E-mail scene@clevescene.com Cleveland Scene Magazine is published every week by Euclid Media Group.

Verifi ed Audit Member Cleveland Distribution Scene is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader Copyright The entire contents of Cleveland Scene Magazine are copyright 2016 by Euclid Media Group. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Publisher does not assume any liability for unsolicited manuscripts, materials, or other content. Any submission must include a stamped, selfaddressed envelope. All editorial, advertising, and business correspondence should be mailed to the address listed above.

Subscriptions $150 (1 yr); $ 80 (6 mos.) Send name, address and zip code with check or money order to the address listed above with the title ‘Attn: Subscription Department’

Well-to-do assholes are dropping like flies in And Then There Were None

Journalist Kim Barker discusses how her memoir became the basis of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Westlake native Jason Wise to debut new wine documentary in Cleveland

Local rapper Vice Souletric takes a DIY approach on his socially conscious new album

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| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

5

UPFRONT MAN BUSTED BY CORRUPT EAST CLEVELAND COPS FREED

THIS WEEK

KENNETH BLACKSHAW — HIS six-foot-something frame in orange prison scrubs, hair shot through with grey, hands bound by cuffs — was led into Judge Maureen Clancy’s courtroom last week on the 20th floor of the Justice Center.

News cameras pointed from the jury box. After the East Clevelander had finished shuffling to his seat at the defense table, Blackshaw’s lawyer Terry Gilbert turned to the bailiff.

“Does he need the handcuffs on?”

Gilbert asked. “He’s getting out today.” From across the courtroom, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty jumped to his feet, gliding up personally to the court guards to explain they needed to unshackle Blackshaw.

That cooperation was more than symbolic this morning.

After two years and change into a five-year run at the Lake Erie Correctional Institute on drug charges, Blackshaw was released.

His indictment and subsequent guilty plea were the product of some cowboy East Cleveland detectives currently waiting for federal sentencing on corruption charges.

The gears are working toward clearing two other men linked to the same bad cops, who federal prosecutors say stole money and extorted drug dealers.

In short, the three cops -- former Sgt. Torris Moore and former officers Antonio Malone and Eric Jones -- joined forces in a conspiracy to commit illegal searches and seizures in several drug trafficking and possession cases in their East Cleveland jurisdiction. The officers have pleaded guilty in federal court to charges relating to fabricating evidence and using false, confidential informants to obtain search warrants to enter the private

6

homes of suspected drug dealers and taking property for themselves.

After illegally taking money and property from private residences, the officers kept the goods “for their own enrichment,” U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach said last fall.

“They were nothing more, according to the indictment, than thieves.”

Now, Blackshaw’s case stands as a proud talking point for McGinty’s administration. The three East Cleveland cases are the first motions to vacate pushed forward

by McGinty’s Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), an internal team at the prosecutor’s office responsible for exploring claims of innocent. As Scene recently pointed, although the prosecutor formed the unit in April 2014, until last week they had yet to recommend an exoneration.

Flagging the importance of the occasion, McGinty was on hand in Clancy’s courtroom, flanked by Jose Torres, the CIU’s head man. In a brief hearing, the county prosecutor addressed the judge himself.

“We move the court to vacate the conviction and set aside the sentence for the reasons in our brief,” McGinty said, explaining that the move was for “the sake of justice.”

He added: “We seek justice, which is the release of this individual.”

When speaking to the court, Blackshaw’s attorney acknowledged that although the defense had known about the indictments of the East Cleveland cops since last fall, McGinty’s office worked with the defense to untangle Blackshaw’s case.

“I would like to extend my appreciation to the county prosecutor and the court,” he said “It’s not often that defense lawyers and prosecutors work together . . . it worked out pretty well.”

The work of the Conviction Integrity Unit played out publicly last week

The three East Cleveland cops netted in the corruption scandal, meanwhile, have pleaded guilty to corruption charges in federal court. The bad cops’ fingerprints, however, are still all over two other convictions — John Wallace and Hosea Lock. Following the hearing, Joe Frolik, a spokesman for McGinty’s office, told Scene motions were going forward to vacate those

SELL!

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Large rat seen behind bar at Rumor in viral video. At least three styles of “Rumor Rat” T-shirts now available from local makers.

Long-awaited ESPN 30 for 30 doc on Cleveland sports to premiere at Cleveland International Film Fest. Attendees will just walk from Tower City to Jimmy Haslam’s office and cry for an hour.

Indians home opener sells out in 40 minutes. One fan tells Scene: “The family loves Happy Dog, but they don’t serve disappointment as a topping at their bars. So we bought Tribe tickets.”

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

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convictions as well.

Establishing the CIU was one of the top priorities for McGinty after the former judge first settled in behind the big desk at the prosecutor’s office. To date, the unit has fielded 88 requests for review.

Of those, 16 moved through the initial screening, and eight were pending as of two weeks back. The three cases tied to East Cleveland

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rogue cops no doubt were counted in that tally.

CIUs are popping up all over the country, contributing to the overall pattern of increased national exonerations. Still, the allegation aimed at many is that they’re more window dressing than actual goodgovernment: half of the 24 CIUs in the country have not even pushed forward an exoneration. Cuyahoga County now has moved out of that category — which is good.

Still, you’ll have your skeptics about the unit’s current batting average. While McGinty and Torres spoke to a clutch of media types following the hearing, two lawyers, unaffiliated with the case and just passing through, grumbled as they headed for the elevator. “’Conviction Integrity Unity’,” one snorted. “How about the We-FuckedUp-Bad Unit,” the other chimed in.

REGGIE RUCKER TO SERVE TIME FOR EMBEZZLING NONPROFIT FUNDS Reggie Rucker will likely serve 21-27 months in prison for embezzling money from two local nonprofits. Rucker pleaded guilty last Wednesday.

Rucker, the former Cleveland Browns wide receiver, used the bank accounts of his violence-interruption organizations to pay for his mortgage, meals, entertainment and travel expenses between 20112015. A U.S. Attorney’s Office report said he specifically sought funding from local foundations to pay off big gambling debts as well.

Rucker entered into a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office Wednesday and will be sentenced on May 23. Cleveland.com reports that he won’t be in custody while he awaits his sentencing.

Last month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that Rucker was being charged with one count each of wire fraud and making false statements to law enforcement.

He was characterized by acting U.S. Attorney Carole Rendon, in a statement, as having used the account of his local charities as a personal ATM. Rucker was in charge of both the nonprofit Amer-I-Can Cleveland and the Cleveland Peacemakers Alliance, which employed “violence interrupters” to “work the streets,” especially during moments of

citywide unrest.

But the donations Rucker solicited were largely used to fund his own lifestyle, not to pay his staff of violence interrupters. On several occasions, Rucker wrote himself checks shortly after receiving foundation support and immediately forwarded that money to Las Vegas casinos, where he’d racked up excessive debts.

In January 2013, January 2014 and September 2014; Rucker incurred debts of $20,000, $25,000 and $20,000, respectively, all of which he paid with foundation grants.

In total, Rucker withdrew more than $500,000 from the Amer-ICan account (which also housed the Peacemakers’ funds) between 2011 and February 2015, when he was questioned by federal investigators.

STATE AUDITOR DAVE YOST WOULD ‘BREAK RANKS’ WITH REPUBLICAN PARTY IF TRUMP WINS NOMINATION In a Facebook post earlier this week, state auditor Dave Yost proclaimed that he would “break ranks” with the Republican Party were Donald Trump to receive the presidential nomination later this year. It’s a significant stance, given Yost’s visibility as a high-ranking Republican official in an electoral battleground state like Ohio and his future political ambitions. Read a portion of his open letter here: “In spite of his powerful, legitimate criticisms, Mr. Trump’s candidacy is about only one principle: power. He has changed his positions on abortion, Syrian refugees, the flat tax, Afghanistan and more in his pursuit of power.

“He wants that for himself, though he says he will use it on our behalf. But in the decades he has possessed power by virtue of his wealth, he has wielded it for himself.

“Every political candidate has flaws, because they are human. Mr. Trump is not merely flawed -- his thirst for power at any cost makes him unfit for public trust. What would he not do with public power?

“The Republican Party is about freedom -- a free people who can worship and speak and live without interference from the government.

It’s about free markets where anyone with hard work and a vision can make their own way.

“I cannot support a man who will change any belief and associate with any evil in order to gain power, or who will use the power of

government to silence his critics, or who is dismissive of people he doesn’t like. Everybody counts, or nobody counts.

“Nor can I support a man who steals the clothing of Christianity but claims to have never had a need to repent of anything.”

Yost notes that his stance, should Trump win, will likely cost him dearly. But Yost has rarely shied away from harsh but honest words.

You might remember, for instance, in the infancy of Responsible Ohio’s push to create a weed monopoly in the state, Yost asked what’s next -“12 monopolies for whorehouses in the 12 largest counties?” Actually that question might still be relevant if Trump wins.

Solemn RTA HunkeRS Down foR CommuniTy engAgemenT on fARe Hike, SeRviCe CuTS At an RTA board meeting Tuesday morning, CEO Joe Calabrese once again apprised the committee of the whole of the transit agency’s stark financial realities. In December, 2015, the board voted on a 2016 budget which included a fare hike and service cuts. But the

implementation has been stalled while the RTA gathers public input.

In February, Calabrese called the decision to briefly postpone the fare hike a “very, very heartfelt decision.”

Tuesday, Calabrese admitted that there was “no easy answer.” He presented a graph illustrating the decline in state public transit funding: Since 2000, state support for all transit agencies has dipped from $43 million per year to about $7 million per year.

The only way that a fare hike wouldn’t be implemented is if the state ponied up. Calabrese suggested that were Ohio to provide 10 percent of the RTA’s budget (or roughly $30 million), all these discussions wouldn’t be happening.

But alas. Calabrese laid out a plan for public hearings through the month of March -- a plan that got significant blowback from board member Valerie McCall for a few inhospitable afternoon start times on the east side -- and presented options for fare hikes and service cuts.

The service cuts were the most striking. Calabrese presented a list to the board -- “it’s like a

menu,” he suggested -- from which potential routes would be excised.

The Waterfront Line after 7 p.m., The Green Line after 8 p.m., the Cedar Road bus route on evenings and weekends, a weekend route to Brecksville, and two loops on the #81 Tremont route were all mentioned and hotly debated.

It’s very clear that the preference is not to cut any of the aforementioned routes. But as board members questioned the wisdom of cutting certain among them -- Didn’t we just add the #81 loop after meetings with CMHA? Don’t a lot of people use the Green Line for Cavs games? What about St. Patrick’s Day? -- Calabrese said that for every route taken off the list, another must be put on.

He said they’d be listening intently to public comment throughout the month.

“There’s a perception in the public that we already have our mind made up,” Calabrese said.

“But we don’t. We’re constantly listening and adjusting.”

scene@clevescene.com t @cleveland_scene

digit widget 23.5 % Office vacancy rates in downtown Akron in 2015, up from 11.9 percent five years earlier.

$29,000 Median home sales price in Cleveland last year.

5 Number of fingers on typical human hand. Says Browns Head Coach Hue Jackson amid quarterback research: “Is hand size important? Yes it is.”

1 Statewide ranking received by Solon School District, out of Ohio’s 609 districts.

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

11

FRAMED!

our best shots from last week Photos by Emanuel Wallace, Joe Kleon*

FIGHT @ Wizard World Comic Con

“With great power...” @ Wizard World Comic Con

Bbrraaiinnss.... @ Wizard World Comic Con

Busted @ Wizard World Comic Con

Putting it bluntly @ Lil Wayne in Youngstown*

Honor @ Tribute concert for Francois Fissi Bissi Okrakongo

In memoriam @ Tribute concert for Francois Fissi Bissi Okrakongo

Jam dynamos @ Warren Haynes at House of Blues*

The Boss @ Bruce Springsteen at the Q*

Huge @ Bruce Springsteen at the Q*

Max! @ Bruce Springsteen at the Q*

Attack @ Wizard World Comic Con

Illustrators on display @ Wizard World Comic Con

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Never miss a beat!

See more pics @ clevescene.com Awakening @ Wizard World Comic Con

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| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

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13

Scene Archives

NEWS THE FUN BURLGAR

Two Ohio City businesses just the latest targets of Henry Senyak’s obsession with out-of-date ordinances

By Sam Allard HENRY SENYAK, THE FEARED Tremonster with encyclopedic knowledge of codified ordinances, has recently complained to city officials about permit violations by businesses on the near west side. These complaints are Senyak’s M.O. He was Loren Naji’s chief antagonist in 2014, when Naji’s Studio Gallery was shut down for various violations, and he is presumed to relish his self-appointed role as the near west side’s zoning authority and moral North Star.

Now, Senyak’s at it again. This time he’s badgering the building and housing department to enforce assembly regulations at Canopy Collective, a gallery on Lorain Avenue, and Weenie A Go Go, the hot dog spot on West 25th.

Senyak has been vilified by neighbors and the press, characterized as a hostile element in a community happily marching forward and up. Responding to an email from an assistant fire chief in the wake of a complaint earlier this month, Councilman Joe Cimperman called Senyak’s latest effort a “bullying, brazen, bellicose, and bizarre attack on the neighborhood.”

The prevailing thinking on Senyak is that he’s a curmudgeon, a sort of detail-obsessed Rottweiler; that he’s an asshole; that he fails to grasp the organic magic of the community vis-a-vis extemporaneous concerts and so forth; and that he’s maliciously subjecting well-intentioned entrepreneurs to the quagmires of zoning law -- a subject on which the well-intentioned entrepreneurs were never even briefed. (Scene previously chronicled one of Senyak’s other obsessions -- cataloging and reporting burnt out streetlights to Cleveland Public Power, back in August 2010.)

Senyak’s nom de guerre (assigned by unfriendlies on Facebook) is the Fun Burglar.

Due to Senyak’s latest push, Canopy has canceled most of its programming until proper permits are obtained. Dan Ball, from the City of Cleveland, said that Canopy owner Erika Durham submitted her application for a new permit on Feb. 22 and its initial zoning review should be completed this week.

14

In early February, Senyak, in emails sent to upward of 27 city and state officials, as well as some media members, complained about Canopy’s live entertainment and alcohol service.

“They are even charging a cover charge tonight at Canopy. $5.00 a person. I wonder what comes with $5.00? Alcoholic beverages?”

Less than a week later, Senyak beamed out another note.

“Your staff may think this is appropriate and not a priority to investigate this and hopefully your inspector can read and review the Facebook page of Canopy.”

His badgering worked.

Durham has attributed the predicament to some very old laws and a lack of understanding and communication. She told Scene at a “cash mob” event Sunday afternoon that when she got the place, she was under the impression that she had everything she needed on the permits front. With respect to Senyak himself, she said that she couldn’t direct all her frustrations at him because what he’s doing is technically legal.

“It sucks that he chooses to spend his time this way,” she said, “but our efforts should be on changing these laws.”

Durham said she intends to work with Joe Cimperman’s city council replacement to help craft new, sensible legislation for business owners like her.

Jessica Johnson, who owns Weenie A Go Go, told Scene she was dismayed

by Senyak’s complaints. She said they felt personally vindictive and that she thought Senyak might even be targeting female business owners. At any rate, she didn’t understand why he was so focused on her open mic night, which was the genesis of his complaint in Ohio City: Johnson wasn’t permitted to have live music at her establishment.

“It’s like he thinks music is some festering, evil thing,” she said. “I’ve been to Portland and Seattle, cool places where open mics and acoustic nights happen all the time. We’re the rock and roll capital of the world and we’re not supposed to have any music?”

Johnson moved to Cleveland in

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

Henry Senyak

March of 2015 and opened Weenie A Go Go in January of this year. She said she saw Senyak on the Thursday after the Super Bowl, when she hosted an open mic from about 7 - 10 p.m.

“He was there with his face in the window,” she said. “A few people were reading poems. I played the guitar. Nothing was plugged in. I just don’t get it -- are we supposed to go after Mariachi bands at Mexican restaurants?”

If you ask Senyak (which we did), the answer is yes, assuming the theoretical Mexican restaurant’s A2 assembly permits aren’t in order.

But Senyak rejects his portrayal as a music hater, or even as a harassing antagonist of small business owners.

He was on a committee that helped modify occupancy laws for four years and said he personally insisted, in 2011, on a stipulation that would permit coffee shops and galleries to have “acoustical performances.”

“Musicians went crazy,” Senyak told Scene by phone. “They thought I was trying to ban entertainment, when it was already banned.”

Senyak admitted that the laws on the books are “outdated and arbitrary,” but that if they’re enforced at all, they ought to be enforced consistently.

“When you see businesses in a neighborhood doing something that other business had to jump through a legal hoop to do, and they’re not doing it, it becomes an issue,” he said.

After all, Senyak doesn’t only target artsy establishments; he helped rid Ohio City of “Envy Nightclub,” recognized pretty universally as a blight on the neighborhood, in 2011.

“But then these troublesome bars have argued with the City of Cleveland that they’re being picked on,” Senyak said, “because bars in trendy areas are doing the same thing and getting

away with it.”

Councilman Joe Cimperman, who will remain in office for the remainder of March while he interviews potential replacements for the council seat he will soon be leaving, scoffs at that justification.

“If there’s something that’s genuinely hurting the community or causing pain for the people who live there, you absolutely understand the need to try to stop it,” he told Scene by phone. “But these are people who live in the community who are making it a better place.”

Cimperman said he’s not even convinced the laws need to be rewritten.

“Does it make sense for us to say, ‘This is building community, no one’s dying, let it be?’” he wondered. “[Senyak] is a person with a vindictive personal agenda creating a total headache for everyone at City Hall because these complaints legitimately take people off of viable threats and concerns. I’m sure as hell not gonna sit here and let these [business owners] be viciously attacked by someone who’s agenda is to point out that they’re not perfect.”

Cimperman said he has worked with Senyak for 18 years (Senyak served on the board of the Tremont West Development Corporation) and that they’ve agreed and disagreed on various issues. They worked together to close down bars “where young people were getting shot,” but Cimperman said he’s always baffled by these occasional neighborhood blitzes -- brazen, bellicose, bizarre, etc.

“You don’t need your nuclear arsenal,” Cimperman said, “every time you see something you disagree with.”

sallard@clevescene.com t@scenesallard

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

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The Cleveland Press

SCENE EDITION

The Newspaper That Serves Its Readers

March 2, 2021

$1.00

JACKSON PRESS CONFERENCE LEAVES CITY PUZZLED ABOUT POSSIBLE FIFTH TERM AS MAYOR

By Stephen Peterson MAYOR FRANK JACKSON, addressing the press in the Red Room on Tuesday, made a string of vague pronouncements that provided little clarity on whether the 75-year-old will indeed run for an unprecedented fifth term in office.

“It is what it is,” Jackson said at the beginning of the press conference, before going silent.

A dozen direct inquiries asking the mayor if he would seek a fifth term yielded a jumbled monologue that left even City Hall staffers curiously cocking their heads sideways.

“It’s a process,” Jackson said, “There’s a process and it’s been a process so far, and processes are really what it’s all about. There’s also

legacies, of which processes are an integral part. You can’t have a legacy without a process, and you can’t have a process without a legacy. It really is what it is.”

While Cleveland has seen improvements in recent years, the city has also been beset by lingering problems including yet another investigation by the Department of Justice into troubles with the Cleveland police department and the controversial income tax increase lobbied for by Jackson, portions of which were used to buy each city employee a complete anthologized collection of the Hardy Boys series.

“I have been mayor for many years,” Jackson said. “Years are

made up of months and days, even hours. You string them all together and you get years. You put years together and you get terms. I have been mayor for many terms.

The same thing goes for books.

You put letters together and you get sentences. Put those together and you get paragraphs and then chapters and then books. You have more than one book and you have a series. I love the Hardy Boys.”

No possible challenger has yet to signal any intention of entering the fray against Jackson, and insiders say there’s a solid chance Jackson will simply stay in his office until someone tells him to leave.

During a lull in questions,

DOWNTOWN HILTON UNVEILS INDOOR ENTERTAINMENT COMPLEX

By Nancy Tims JUST IN TIME FOR SPRING, the Hilton Downtown Cleveland has unveiled its much-ballyhooed, taxpayer-funded, $220 million indoor entertainment complex —“The Slag Heap,” in cynical parlance.

At a star-studded opening gala Tuesday night, county executive Joe Roman and Hilton Worldwide CEO Christopher J. Nassetta rhapsodized about the “state of the art” facilities, which include a skate park, a 12-screen Regal Cinemas, a “boutique-y” concert hall, an expanded gymnasium with basketball courts, an Olympic-sized pool and a rowing facility for the Foundry’s winter training programs.

“What’s so unique about it is how vertical it is,” said Roman. “It’s not just vertical; it’s tall vertical too. This is the way, right here, that public-private partnerships can work. This was an example of that.”

Hilton spokesperson Linda Tipsarevic boasted to The Press

16

last week that even with the late construction of the rowing facilities, “only 12 additional rooms” were removed from the hotel’s latest floor plan. That brings the total number of available rooms at the downtown Hilton to 29. That number includes, of course, the six suites that David Gilbert was revealed to have been booking every night since 2017 in order to pad the occupancy numbers.

Even after the practice was identified

by Crain’s reporting intern George Rodrigue, Gilbert continued the nightly ritual.

“This is Cleveland,” he said at the time.

The taxpayer-funded Hilton Cleveland Downtown once housed 600 rooms, but famously was only ever fully occupied on three occasions, twice during the 2016 RNC, and then once later for Michael Stanley’s public funeral services.

In 2018, 140 rooms were excised when the city of Cleveland and REI

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

(Recreational Equipment Inc.) built a multi-story rock gym inside the hotel.

Ever since then, bits and pieces of the building have exchanged hands irregularly, and more and more rooms have been taken offline.

The Slag Heap was officially announced last year. To fund the project, voters passed the infamous 5-year “Instagram shots of the Terminal Tower” tax. “People really love taking pictures of that building for some reason,” said Mayor Frank Jackson at the time of the tax’s passage. “I understand it’s a process, and we figured we’d make some money off it. It’s a legacy.”

Hilton stopped short of saying that they could guarantee 100-percent occupancy and as of press time, the 29 rooms were still not filled.

Most of the celebrities who attended the shindig — Boobie Gibson, Drew Carey, special guest Shania Twain — were rumored to have spent the night at the Marriott across the street.

Jackson declared, “I think that speaks for itself,” before putting on a plush robe and leaving the room.

TROY SMITH

NAMED EDITOROF CLEVELAND.COM AMID WALKING DEAD-BASED REBRANDING

By Andrew Wolf NOTED WALKING DEAD blogger Troy Smith was named the editor of Cleveland.com today during an announcement that the former tabloid-style news blog would become a Walking Dead forum. The entire website will be devoted to Smith’s brand of Walking Dead coverage.

“We’ve tried everything: Lists, videos, enterprise stories, sending Chuck Yarborough to the lake to interview seagulls. Nothing’s really sticking,” says Tim Knight, newly appointed president of Undead Midwest, formerly known as Forward Buckeye, formerly known as Advance Ohio, formerly known as Northeast Ohio Media Group. “But Troy’s really tapped into what people want: Long-winded explanations of what happened on a television show. He even gets the spoilers right there in the headline!”

As editor, Smith will continue to write about the Walking Dead even though the show is no longer on the air. He has said that he’ll focus on recaps of his previously published recaps, as well as fan fiction.

Much of the newsroom staff will be laid off, though Knight and Smith tell The Press opportunities will still exist for a few former sports reporters to ask professional athletes if they’ve ever watched the show.

Metro

March 2, 2021

RESULTS OF SECOND ANNUAL ‘BEST NEIGHBORHOODS’ SURVEY RELEASED

By Cleveland Press Staff THE NUMBERS HAVE BEEN crunched, Clevelanders. We’ve tallied the totals from our annual “Best Cleveland Neighborhoods” survey and it’s time to share the results with you. There are quite a few familiar names on the 2021 list, but a few surprise entries as well! See if the neighborhood you call home has cracked our coveted Top 10.

10) Hingetown Graham Veysey and Marika Shiori-Clark’s responsibly redeveloped neighborhood on the fringes of Ohio City has become, in the past several years, an even livelier and more globally conscious intersection. Want an earthy beer?

Check out Jukebox Tavern! Want a Valentine’s day bouquet? Check out Urban Orchid! Want a hand- or jar-ful of authentic African soil?

Check out Soil Yourself, the World Soil distributors and home-farm consultants in the former home of Rising Star.

9) Uptown Uptown is no longer merely the social district and living quarters of Case Western’s wealthiest upperclass imports. It’s now one of the city’s premiere culinary districts, with ABC Uptown, Happy Dog East, the Corner Alley, Lolalita, Crop Redux, SOHO Uptown, Sokolowski’s (Case Western Reserve) University Inn, Momocho Junior, and Lolololalitaita all calling it home.

8) Gordon Squarespace, Presented

by Squarespace The four corners of Gordon Squarespace, Presented by Squarespace have given this artsy neighborhood on the westside its

OPPORTUNITY CORRIDOR CLOSES JUST DAYS AFTER OPENING; NO TIMETABLE ON REPAIRS

By Angela Fisher DAYS AFTER THE LONGdelayed grand opening of the Opportunity Corridor, a “complex subterranean” issue has closed the eastside boulevard indefinitely.

The Opportunity Corridor steering committee called the issue “unexpected,” but promised that it would be dealt with soon.

“Our priority is not to get this resolved quickly. It’s to get it resolved correctly,” an ODOT spokesman said. “And you won’t hear us apologizing for that.”

The corridor has been under construction since spring 2015 and has so far cost $400 million, approximately $70 million over budget.

An engineer close to the project who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the issue was really more like a “disaster,” requiring huge portions of the boulevard to be completely rebuilt and, in many cases, reconceptualized. He said he’d be surprised if a functional Opportunity Corridor would be

ready for use any time before 2030.

When presented with the 2030 date, Greater Cleveland Partnership media liaison Dexter Crull laughed and said he wouldn’t be discussing completion dates. What he would discuss, he said, was how excited he and others are about the exciting opportunities this presents for economic development.

“This is a challenge, but it gives us a chance to be really intentional about the type of development we want,” Crull said. “It’s almost a godsend, to be perfectly honest.

There’s so much energy around this project, we just want to make sure that we’re getting a full range of businesses and investment along the Corridor.”

The Opportunity Corridor, long billed as an “economic driver,” has yielded zero long-term jobs.

In 2019, three businesses did open their doors on the Corridor, with huge tax incentives, in preparation for the opening. All three have since relocated or shuttered.

enduring spunk and stability.

Gypsy Beans and Bakery, Brewnuts, the Superelectric Pinball Parlor (and the Capitol Theatre), and Liberty Income Tax Service all help make Gordon Squarespace, Presented by Squarespace a local favorite.

7) North of Lorain (NOLO) Situated in Ohio City on Lorain Avenue, NOLO has continued to exist despite few to zero residents knowing it exists, which made it surprising to many when NOLO started clocking in votes. “We don’t even know where the boundaries are,” said one business owner, “or for that matter what it is.”

6) Shaker Squarespace, Presented

by Squarespace Century homes! Quaint boutiques! Dewey’s Coffee! The Shaker Squarespace Presented

by Squarespace Cinemas! What more could you want from a neighborhood? This eastside area is a hallmark of The Press’s annual Top 10, and it’s got refreshingly old-school charm. Unlike a lot of newer Cleveland neighborhoods, Shaker Squarespace, Presented by Squarespace has resisted corporate influence and the influx of generic chains and sponsorships.

5) Flats East Bank The Flats East Bank is more than Cleveland’s plushest place to eat, drink and live. It’s now got the best views and quickest access to Flats North Bank, Cleveland’s newest and most electric social district. Flats North Bank is the island constructed (in a landmark financing deal) by Stark Enterprises, the Wolstein Group and Forest City. It maintains its cool and exclusive factor by charging visitors $50 to walk on its sidewalks, which makes the East Bank the best and most affordable chance for the average Clevelander to get a view of the action.

4) West East Cleveland (W.E.C.L.E. / “Weakly”) After East Cleveland was annexed by the city of Cleveland and became its 18th ward, city

councilman Gary Norton, before his most recent trial, tried to market Weakly as an overflow residential option for folks who love the museums, but can’t afford to live in the high-priced University Squarespace, Presented by Squarespace. Last year, in a coup, six breweries set up shop near the Windermere rapid station. Once two or three more breweries arrive, Weakly is poised to skyrocket into our Top 3. East East Clevelanders, who by and large voted against the annex, are still not getting their garbage collected though.

3) University Squarespace, Presented by Squarespace Cleveland’s Cultural Mecca, home to museums, ritzy condos, and everyone’s favorite annual family-friendly party, Parade the Squarespace.

2)Sam McNulty’s Spare Bedroom (SMSB / “The Boudoir”) This nano-micro-neighborhood is of course just the AirBnB unit that McNulty rents out in Ohio City. Still, the SMSB board of trustees managed to hire an executive director for its community development corporation, and in a statement last month, said they’re excited about the opportunities for synergy, collaboration and placemaking with other (admittedly less hip and prosperous) neighborhoods of the near-westside.

The new director has already hinted that a brewery may indeed be coming online in The Boudoir by 2022.

1) Global Center for Proms, Presented by American Commodore Tuxedo New residents and young Clevelanders are coming in droves to the Global Center for Proms.

Older residents might remember the building used to be called the Med Mart and/or the Global Center for Health and Innovation.

In recent years, however, it’s being touted as the best place to shop for prom dresses, limos for prom, photographers for prom, and location to host your prom. | clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

17

Arts&Culture

March 2, 2021

Artist Loren Naji Christens Second Time Capsule After Henry Senyak Destroys First

By Joshua Reines TELLING A CROWD OF MORE than 100 that “we have to move forward,” local artist Loren Naji installed a new time capsule in Ohio City last weekend. He used the same plot that had previously held another time capsule — meant to be opened in 2050 — until neighborhood “watchman” Henry Senyak burned the wooden sphere and all of the contents.

“Yeah, I came out here the other day and found a horrible burn site,” Naji said. “I just don’t get it. The time capsule is just a fun thing to bring everyone together. And it was sanctioned by the city and completely up to code.”

The new capsule contains a handful of notable local items and will be opened in 2076. A two-way mirror with a camera monitoring all comings and goings has replaced the wooden sphere.

Senyak seemed undeterred.

“I don’t like what that Naji fellow is up to,” Senyak told The Press. “I drove by his place at 10 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. today: Each time I saw three people inside. I will catch him. Wait, are you talking to me while driving, Mr. Reporter? I hear that. You’re talking and driving. Where are you?

Please pull over and wait until the authorities arrive.”

Cleveland T-Shirt Companies Announce Launch of “2021” Collaboration T-Shirt

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| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

Kent, OH 44240

FOURTEEN OF CLEVELAND’S 37 T-shirt companies came together on a special project recently. The result, the commemorative “Cleveland 2021” T-shirt, will go on sale this week.

Simply an orange T-shirt, it will retail for $135.

“It was a real team effort on the design,” said Genna Yolo of Cleveland Cleveland Cleveland Designs. “The orange is a nod to the color orange and the shirt is a wink and a nod to shirts that people wear.”

As to the meaning of the year

2021, Laurie Palmer said, “What?

There’s a rule that big dates have to end in 0 or 5? Someone mentioned it was the 30th anniversary of the Browns drafting wide receiver Michael Jackson, so that very well may be the inspiration.”

Pre-orders are already rolling in.

“We thought about putting 216 or CLE on the front,” said Yolo, “but we really wanted to keep it artistic and minimalistic while also staying true to the mission of the city.”

WKNR and 92.3 The Fan Announce Format Changes

By Tony Lina AFTER YEARS OF DUELING HEAD to head for ratings, the two sports talk radio stations announced this week they would be shifting gears completely in cost-saving measures.

Gone will be the usual hosts and voices that have graced the airwaves for more than a decade. Instead, station management said, 850 AM and 92.3 FM will be opened up for callers from each station to dial in and argue with each other 24 hours a day.

“We really couldn’t justify paying Greg Brinda to talk about hot dogs any longer,” said WKNR program director Aaron Goldhammer.

“I gave up listening years ago,” said the GM of The Fan. “So I can’t really say we’re losing much.”

Segments will be broken up live on air and on the live stream by commercial segments that will not feature a single advertiser but instead, mirroring the programming change, will feature local car dealerships arguing over who owns the title of No. 1 auto dealer in Northeast Ohio.

It’s a safe bet for the revenue stream after some public hiccups — including the revelation that Joe Bee had been peddling bee pollen pills that were actually small marbles.

RETWEET THIS: Joe Cimperman’s Engaging One-Man Show Sees Him Reciting His Twitter Archive for Four Hours

By Pam Crendus AFTER TWITTER ANNOUNCED a formal ban on former Cleveland city councilman Joe Cimperman’s account for exceeding a tweets per minute threshold — “too myopic, with a perverse amount of backslapping,” the company’s security team later added — other social media networks followed suit. First Facebook, then Vine, then Peach.

Venture capital firms who have yet to fund as-of-yet-to-exist social media sites promise Cimperman will be banned from them whenever they’re created as well.

Cimperman, telling The Press that there’s still room in this world for photos of American flags in downtown Cleveland and proclamations of love for “our city’s historic and sexy buildings,” opened a one-man show at Cleveland Public Theatre this week. The script involves the actor reading through his Twitter archive. “#Cleveland you inspire us to be, do, love more — thank you,” a visibly quaking Cimperman bellowed before collapsing onto the stage to conclude the performance’s first act. (There were 10 acts.) A slideshow of his twitpics looped in the background, featuring selfies taken with some of Cleveland’s finest chefs and photos of Lake Erie, devoid of context or meaning.

The performance, which brought Cimperman to a hard sweat by intermission, was curious and disconcerting. But he knows how to please a distracted crowd; at one point in the sixth act, Cimperman began distributing samples of House of Blues’ coconut cream pie, calling the dessert “surreal” and “OMG incredible.”

He refused to begin the next act until everyone, including CPT staff, had sampled the dessert. There was thus a 30-minute delay in the proceedings “To be honest, we got free tickets from the radio station. We thought Cimperman’ was a weird indie band or something,” Ty Regus, 23, said after the show. “We did like the pie, though.”

The show runs for the next three months at CPT.

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| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

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Sports

March 2, 2021

PROGRESSIVE FIELD ANNOUNCES OPENING OF WEST SIDE MARKET AT PROGRESSIVE FIELD, OTHER ATTRACTIONS

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optically enhanced internet access, and unlimited streaming privileges at Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime and HBO Now. The goal, say front office execs, is to simulate the home-watching experience.

“Our thinking was: Let’s make the live baseball game experience as family-friendly as possible,” Indians Chief Marketing Officer Kayla Tiernan told The Press. “And what the market really demands is the comforts of home. A baseball game is super long, right? Sometimes you need a fifteen or twenty minute break from the action to catch up on Brooklyn Nine-Nine or whatever.”

Tiernan says that the price of general admission tickets have risen only slightly, but that “for her money,” the new Progressive Field experience is worth every penny.

“I mean, have you had a Steve’s gyro?” she said. “Wow.”

JIMMY HASLAM PLEDGES NEXT BROWNS HEAD COACH WILL BE “THE RIGHT GUY”

By Rachel Hamilton

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WITH THE 2021 SEASON JUST around the corner, Progressive Field has announced several major upgrades to its facilities including a blockbuster addition: the opening of a West Side Market inside Progressive Field.

“We’re really excited to bring a local favorite like the entire West Side Market and all that trail bologna and ground chuck and stuff to Progressive Field for Indians fans to enjoy,” said owner Paul Dolan. “We really just looked around and asked what Cleveland really actually loves and that’s what we came up with.”

The plan is to build an actual replica West Side Market in the bowels of the stadium.

But that’s not the end of the upgrades. Fans at all home Indians games will now be able to rent Google Chromebooks and Beats by Dre headphones. The Chromebooks will come equipped with fiber-

BELEAGUERED BROWNS OWNER Jimmy Haslam faced the assembled press yesterday and promised that, with the help of the internet, the Browns will make the right decision with the team’s next head coach.

“We’ve had a rough stretch, that much is clear,” Haslam said.

The Browns have had 17 head coaches in the past 10 years. Most recently, Josh Cribbs was fired last

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

1/4/2016 2:49:42 PM

week.

Haslam said the team will post the 20 finalists online sometime this weekend. Voters must fill up at a Pilot Flying J to acquire a voting code.

“We also have some good deals on two-for-one Diet Cokes and 20% off bags of Joe Thomas’ elk jerky, so check those out at participating locations too,” said Haslam.

Sports

March 2, 2021

WALTON FIRED; MIKE BROWN APPOINTED AS

INTERIM COACH FOR CAVALIERS’ STRETCH RUN

By Brandon Gallagher IN SHOCKING NEWS, CAVS head coach Luke Walton has been fired. Though Walton led the team to two consecutive NBA finals, and though the Cavs currently own the

Eastern Conference’s best record in 2020-2021, Cavs’ owner Dan Gilbert released an open letter Tuesday that began, “Do you like rockets? Yes? Do you like rocket poop? No? Neither

do I, and Walton was rocket poop.”

Former Head Coach Mike Brown has been appointed, on an interim basis, for the remainder of the 2021 season. That’s also a surprise, given

that when Walton considered taking a year off to “reconnect with the earth” last year, assistant coaches Ira Newble and Anderson Varejao were thought to be next in line.

Food

CLEVELAND CHEFS LEND A HELPING HAND, FILL IN POTHOLES WITH SOUP

By Jose Crey NOTICING AN OPPORTUNITY to address a chronic civic problem and to drum up a feverish local trend, Cleveland chefs have begun filling the city’s many potholes with delicious soups.

“This is a chance to bring the dining scene even closer to the neighborhoods,” chef Steve Schimoler tells The Press. “These potholes will feature the same dynamic, local ingredients that Clevelanders expect in our restaurants.” Schimoler is currently serving a carrot ginger soup out of a pothole on Bridge Avenue near West 28th.

A particularly nasty crater on Rocky River Drive was filled with a fine tomato bisque on Monday.

Already, a small collective of artisanal bakers have opened pop-up shops next to the pothole. The lunch rush produces an astonishing 45-minute line. Selfies abound.

“Everyone’s been talking about these soup holes on Instragram this week, so I had to check it out,” Jessica Helph, 28, told The Press after an early lunch on Bolivar Road. “I think this one was made with Christmas

Ale? It’s incredible! This is why I love Cleveland.”

The city’s service department had no plans to fill in the potholes this winter, and director Joe Pell has stated privately that this culinary trend is a

“genius distraction.”

The Press has also learned that plans are in the works to build a few permanent potholes into Walnut Street, to accentuate the Walnut Wednesday offerings in the summer.

MICHAEL SYMON DEBUTS MICHAEL SYMON’S BERTMAN’S BALLPARK MUSTARD

By Serena Gutierrez ADMITTING THAT IT’S REALLY “just a bottle of Bertman’s with my face on the label,” celebrity chef and Cleveland icon Michael Symon today debuted his line of Michael Symon’s Bertman’s Ballpark Mustard.

The new product, which is not

new or novel in any sense of the word, comes as eager diners await the opening of Mabel’s BBQ, which will feature a Bertman’s-based barbecue sauce.

“Bertman’s is a Cleveland hallmark. It’s what this city is made of — literally,” Symon said

Monday. “I just decided that, with Mabel’s BBQ coming online, we needed an update. People like seeing my face on things.”

When asked for a specific timeframe, Symon pinky-swore that Mabel’s would be “opening soon.”

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GET OUT WED

everything you should do this week compositions. Tickets are $30 to $45. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

3/02

MUSIC

CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program Now in its fifth season, this monthly concert series places young musicians from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University in the galleries of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The series features “mixed programs of chamber music” for “a unique and intimate experience.” The concerts begin at 6 p.m. and they last for about an hour.

Admission is free. (Jeff Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

SPOKEN WORD

Keep Talking Keep Talking is an exciting storytellers program where locals can share their real-life experiences on a theme. This month’s theme is “Out of Place.” Stories range from the insightful and sad to the funny and bizarre. Held in the Happy Dog’s basement, the Underdog, the series is your chance to grab a drink and a dog while listening to some of your Cleveland neighbors amuse you with their tales.

Tonight’s edition starts at 8 and costs $5. (Patrick Stoops) 5801 Detroit Ave., 216-651-9474, happydogcleveland.com.

SPOKEN WORD

Cleveland Immigration History Cleveland Immigration History, the Happy Dog at the Euclid Tavern’s monthly series of conversations about Cleveland’s history of immigration, explores the story of the various ethnic groups that have migrated to the city. Topics include why they left their home countries, what drew them to Cleveland, where they settled, what they did once they got here, where they’ve moved, and what they’re doing now. Each month will focus on a different nationality or neighborhood. The lecture begins at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

(Niesel) 11625 Euclid Ave., 216-231-5400, happydogcleveland.com.

SPOKEN WORD

Cleveland Stories Dinner Parties The Music Box Supper Club plays host tonight to Cleveland Stories Dinner Party, a weekly series that pairs fine food with storytelling. The series aims to help raise awareness of the mission of the Western Reserve Historical Society’s new Cleveland History Center by “bring(ing) to life some of the fun, interesting stories about Cleveland’s past — from sports, to rock ’n’ roll, to Millionaire’s Row,” as it’s put in a press release. Each week will feature a guest speaker and a custom prix fixe menu – a full three course meal for only $20. (The talk is free, with no cover charge.) Dinner is served at 6 p.m., and the storytelling starts at 7:30 p.m. Tonight, sports writer Dan Coughlin will divulge the secrets of the clubhouse. The dinner menu includes popcorn bisque, a

THEATER

The annual Short. Sweet. Film Fest. returns to the Alex Theatre. See: Friday.

kielbasa Polish boy and fries, and a banana split. (Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-242-1250, musicboxcle.com.

FILM

The Emperor’s New Clothes Comedic actor Russell Brand narrates The Emperor’s New Clothes, a documentary from director Michael Winterbottom (The Trip to Italy). The film documents the disparity in wealth as Brand, much like activist/filmmaker Michael Moore, tries to confront some of the U.K.’s most overpaid executives and ask them to justify their exorbitant salaries. The movie makes its theatrical debut tonight at 7 at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tickets are $9. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

MUSIC

Imagine Dragons In Concert Fathom Events, CinemaLive and Eagle Vision have teamed up to

present Imagine Dragons In Concert: Smoke + Mirrors, a concert film featuring footage from the band’s recent arena tour. This particular concert takes place in Toronto in front of 15,000 fans.

Expect to hear catchy tunes like “I Bet My Life” and the Grammy Award-winning track “Radioactive.” The event takes place tonight at 7:30 at area theaters.

Ticket prices vary by theater; find more info online. (Niesel) fathomevents.com.

MUSIC

The Jack Quartet The experimental-minded Jack Quartet concludes its two-night residency tonight with a 7:30 concert at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium.

The group, which operates as a nonprofit organization devoted to the “performance, commissioning and spread of new string quartet music,” will present the world premiere of two Cenk Urgen

A Night with Janis Joplin Bluesy singer Janis Joplin became an overnight sensation when she emerged in the late ’60s and started performing at festivals such as Monterey and Woodstock.

Tonight at 7:30 at Connor Palace, Tony Award nominee Mary Bridget Davies and an incredible cast present A Night with Janis Joplin, a celebration of the singer’s incredible career. Tickets start at $10. (Niesel) 1615 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

ART

Project Snapshot In conjunction with the Ohio Arts Council, the Cleveland Print Room hosts Project Snapshot, an exhibition of photography by students at Saint Martin de Porres. Project Snapshot is the first gallery exhibition for students of the photography club at this St. Clair-Superior neighborhood high school. The works will be for sale, starting at $10. The Cleveland Print Room hosts an opening reception from 5 to 8 tonight, and the works remain on view through March 5.

Admission is free. (Josh Usmani) 2550 Superior Ave., 216-401-5981, clevelandprintroom.com.

COMEDY

Andy Woodhull Clean-cut comic Andy Woodhull jokes that after 10 years of marriage, he only had one fight with his wife. The argument centered | clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

23

GET OUT on his attempt to bring another woman’s dishes into her home when he moved in. “I’d like to remind you that my wife has two daughters: I don’t think I’m being unreasonable. My dishes don’t kind of look like my ex-girlfriend or go to my ex-girlfriend’s house every other weekend and talk about how much more fun it is to be in her cabinets.” The clever comic performs at 8 tonight and at 7 on Sunday night at Hilarities.

Tickets are $18. (Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.

will enjoy a private meet & greet with the band and a souvenir lanyard. (Douglas Trattner) 2247 Professor Ave., 216-274-1200, coda.danteboccuzzi.com.

ART

Two Special Events at MOCA Cleveland Tonight, MOCA Cleveland hosts two special events. At 5 p.m., filmmaker Elle Flanders and architect Tamira Sawatzky, collec-

3/04

At Table: Cleveland Culinaria With At Table: Cleveland Culinaria, Heights Arts celebrates Northeast Ohio’s rich culinary scene by transforming the gallery into five unique, themed installations that explore the art of food through the materials we use to eat and drink. The show features the work of 27 visual artists. You can attend the free opening reception from 6 to 9 tonight. In conjunction with the exhibition, Heights Arts has organized several multicourse food events and a friendly neighborhood mixology contest, ARTinis & Creative Cocktails.

At Table: Cleveland Culinaria remains on view through April 16. Find program details on the website. (Usmani) 2175 Lee Rd., Cleveland Heights, 216-371-3457, heightsarts.org.

COMEDY

Mike Bonner Call the sitter. Comic Mike Bonner takes the stage at the Improv tonight for a parent-friendly routine. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s kid-friendly. Bonner has made a name for himself as a relatable, down-to-earth comedian who understands the everyday struggles of being a father. From dirty diapers to his daughter’s first boyfriend, the BET comedian explores the small joys and annoyances of parenthood through a sardonic lens. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. at the Improv. Tickets are $12. (Brittany Rees) 1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com.

FILM

Tickets on sale Feb. 26 at Ticketmaster.com, all Ticketmaster locations or 1-800-745-3000.

MUSIC

24

FRI ART & FOOD

THUR 3/03

Jack Russell Last year, a small gathering of lucky music fans got to enjoy the music of Ed Kowalczyk from the band Live as he played an intimate set to open Dante Boccuzzi’s new subterranean club Coda in Tremont. That concert became the first entry in the Coda Underground Concert Series. The second concert takes place tonight.

Jack Russell of the band Great White will perform an acoustic set, with his guitarist, of all the classic songs Great White did on MTV at that time. Great White is best known for hits such as “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” “Rock Me” and “Save Your Love.” The $85 ticket includes a welcome drink, dinner and the show. Dinner will be a buffet with salad, pasta, pizza, beef, and sushi served upstairs at Next Door. For $125, music fans

tions are required. See the website for details. (Usmani) 11400 Euclid Ave., 216-421-8671, mocacleveland.org.

1100 Rock and Roll Boulevard, Cleveland, OH 44114 | rockhall.com | 216.781.ROCK Sponsored by:

To Benefit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Educational Activities.

COMEDY

Mike Polk If you’ve seen a live performance from Mike Polk Jr., the man behind the Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video, the Factory of Sadness video, Last Call Cleveland comedy troupe and his very own show on Fox 8 (aptly called The Mike Polk Jr. Show), you know he thrives on having an audience. He performs tonight at 8 at Hilarities.

Tickets are $13 to $18. (Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

tively known as Public Studio, will discuss their socially engaged projects, including Visit Palestine: Change Your View and Zero Hour; the program is free. At 7 p.m., the museum hosts It Runs Like Clockwork: Automatons, Artificial Hearts and Machines of Medicine in partnership with the Dittrick Museum of Medical History. Brandy Schillace, Ph.D. will discuss history’s most precise innovations and the men and women behind them. This program is free with museum admission, but reserva-

A Ballerina’s Tale Critic Nelson George directs A Ballerina’s Tale, a documentary about Misty Copeland, the first African-American to be named principal dancer of the American Ballet Theatre. “I’m a black dancer; that’s who I am,” says Copeland, who discovered ballet when she was 13. Even though she didn’t “fit the mold,” she triumphed as a dancer. The film makes its Cleveland theatrical debut tonight at 7 at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tickets are $9. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

ART

BAYarts Openings The latest exhibitions at BAYarts include their Annual Juried Exhibition in the Sullivan Family Gallery, featuring works in all mediums; and Pattern & Design, a special show in the Diane Boldman Education Gallery, inviting artists to explore and document the patterns and visible “threads” found throughout their work.

BAYarts hosts opening receptions for both shows tonight from 7 to 9, and both exhibitions remain on view through April 1. Admission is free. (Usmani) 28795 Lake Rd., Bay Village, 440-871-6543, bayarts.net.

art

CAN Journal Launch Party From 5 to 8 p.m. today, the Bonfoey Gallery hosts two simultaneous events: the opening reception of Ron Barron’s new exhibition, Gleanings, and CAN Journal’s Spring 2016 issue Launch Party.

Barron’s latest body of work is a series of digitally scanned compositions of materials found washed ashore from Lake Erie and Long Island. The exhibition also includes a documentary of the artist’s process by Richard Hahn and Megan Barron. Today’s reception for both events is free. (Usmani) 1710 Euclid Ave., 216-621-0178, bonfoey.com. food

Fish Fry-Days Through March 25, Prosperity Social Club hosts Fish Fry-Days every Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.

The special Lenten menu includes the Big Fish Fry, a seasonal staple that features a generous portion of haddock covered in a fluffy blanket of beer batter and complemented by homemade coleslaw, house tartar sauce and old-schoolstyle mac and cheese. New this year: a pan-seared tilapia dressed in chimichurri sauce and served with sauteed spinach and coconut rice. As a bonus, Platform Brewing’s Palesner will be on tap.

(Niesel) 1109 Starkweather Ave., 216-937-1938, prosperitysocialclub.com. art

Free Admission at MOCA Thanks to a gift from PNC, admission to MOCA Cleveland is

film

The Man Who Fell to Earth The late, great David Bowie stars in Nicolas Roeg’s 1976 film The Man Who Fell to Earth, a sci-fi flick that the movie studio edited for its U.S. release. Tonight at 9:20, the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque shows the complete uncut original. The film follows an alien (Bowie) as he lands in the American Southwest and then tries to build a corporate empire. The film screens again at 7:50 on Sunday night. Tickets are $10. (Niesel) 11610 Euclid Ave., 216-421-7450, cia.edu.

Lorain County Metro Parks & TrueNorth Cultural Arts

Mainstage Production

Transformers & He-man H

Belt’s Unbuckle Bash The alt-folk band Maura Rogers and the Bellows will perform two sets of music, and Mansfield Frazier, RA Washington and Matt Stansberry will read from their works, tonight at Unbuckle, a benefit for Belt magazine. There will also be a raffle for “some wonderful locally made swag and arts-centric prizes,” including donations from Rising Star Coffee, Shel Erba Yoga, Big Fun, Mac’s Backs, Wine Spot, Heights Youth Theatre and many more.

The event takes place at 7 p.m. at Packy Mally’s. Tickets, which include one drink, are $20 for current members of Belt and $40 for general public. (Niesel) 15335 Waterloo Rd., 216-255-2875, facebook.com/packymalleysbar.

free on the first Saturday of each month. Stop in today and enjoy current exhibitions including Stranger, an international group exhibition exploring the imagined figure; Xavier Cha’s abduct; Oliver Larc’s untitled animated installation; and Teenage Lontano, an immersive sound installation by Marina Rosenfeld. Today’s hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Usmani) 11400 Euclid Ave., 216-421-8671, mocacleveland.org.

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Cash for Old Toys, Legos, Star Wars, GI Joes, Transformers, Hot Wheels, NINTENDO, Pokéman Rock Concert T-shirts

WE BUY & SELL OLD TOYS 1814 Coventry Road | Cleveland Heights (216) 371-4386 Facebook: bigfunfans | www.bigfuntoystore.com

LeGo H sTar Wars H GI Joe

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art & music

February 26 March 13 Fridays & Saturdays at 7:00 PM and Sundays at 3:00PM

Sit down with your guests.

TICKETS Youth $10 / Adults $16-$18 To order call (440) 949-5200 x221 or visit www.TNCArts.org

Advertise with SCENE. Call 216-241-7550 for more information.

TrueNorth Cultural Arts 4530 Colorado Ave. (Rt. 611) Sheffield Village, OH 44054

art

Mix at CMA This month’s Mix Happy Hour at the Cleveland Museum of Art is on the theme of Femme, a celebration of femininity and women’s contribution to art and music.

You can explore groundbreaking artworks by female artists on guided tours, and you can also craft collaborative stories inspired by works of art from the collection with Flash Writing, an activity led by writers Paola Amaras and Paul Kraly of Scribes Unlimited. Mix runs from 5 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door. It’s free for CMA members. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org. comedy

Charlie Murphy A regular on Chappelle’s Show, comedian Charlie Murphy used to helm a segment called “Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories,” during which he would portray celebrities. In one funny skit, he pretended to be Prince; in another he portrayed Rick James.

The older brother of Eddie Murphy, Charlie Murphy is particularly good at taking on a variety of personas, something he chronicles in his book The Making of a Stand-up Guy. His comedy touches on contemporary events and he

Unwritten History: A Grays Lecture Series

Chapter 10:

Paul Landis

from my house to the White House Former Secret Service Agent Paul Landis recalls his five year journey thru history, beginning in October 1959 & ending in June 1964. Hear what life was like behind the scenes for the first families he watched over and protected, where he was that fateful day in Dealey Plaza when he witnessed JFK’s assassination and why he left the Secret Service. Paul’s time spent protecting the families comes with many fun and anecdotal stories that have to be heard to be believed.

Seating is limited

MARCH 14 • 7:00PM at GRAYS ARMORY MUSEUM 1234 Bolivar | Cleveland, OH 44115

Please RSVP by March 8th to 216-621-5938 or grays1837@yahoo.com Brought to you by:

The Cleveland Grays and Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. | clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

25

GET OUT especially enjoys making fun of celebrities. He performs tonight at 7:30 and 10 p.m. at the Improv, where he has shows scheduled through Sunday. Tickets are $30.

(Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com.

com. Tonight and tomorrow night, bands will perform once the screenings end. And once again, many of the directors will be on hand to answer questions during short sessions held after their films screen. Tickets are $22.09 to $43.19. (Niesel) 2017 East Ninth Street, 216-239-1200, alextheatercleveland.com.

FILM

COMEDY

Rob Schneider SNL alum Rob Schneider can lay claim to having been on SNL before the show started to suck. He relives many of those glory days in his standup routines, where he often talks about backstage shenanigans with Adam Sandler, and recounts his experiences on the set of films such as Waterboy and Grownups. He performs tonight at 7:30 and 10 at Hilarities. He also performs at the club at 7 and 9:30 tomorrow night, but those shows are sold out. (Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.

MARCH 18–20 FIRSTMERIT CONVENTION CENTER OF CLEVELAND

COMEDY

SEE THE DYNAMIC-DUO OF HOME IMPROVEMENT, DREW & JONATHAN SCOTT, OF HGTV’S HIT TV SHOW PROPERTY BROTHERS ON SATURDAY ONLY. APPEARANCE SPONSORED BY:

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Rondell Sheridan Comedian Rondell Sheridan likes to joke that everyone in a relationship has thought about killing his or her partner at some point.

Sheridan, who describes men as a “penis and a pair of eyes,” often explores romantic relationships in his routines, which rely on observational humor. The fasttalking comic performs tonight at 7:30 and 10 p.m. at the Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park’s Club Velvet, where he has shows scheduled through Sunday. Tickets are $13 to $18. (Niesel) 10705 Northfield Rd., Northfield, 330-908-7793, hrrocksinonorthfieldpark.com.

FILM

Short.Sweet.Film Fest A few years ago, local film aficionado Michael Suglio was watching bands play at Now That’s Class when he realized that hosting a film festival in an informal, club-like atmosphere was a good idea. In 2012, he successfully launched his Short.Sweet.Film Fest at Ohio City’s Market Garden Brewery. This weekend, Suglio brings an expanded festival to the Alex Theater at the 9. He’ll screen a slew of shorts over the three-day period; you can find a complete schedule at shortsweetfilmfest.

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

5562_Cleveland_HRexpo_4.55x12_PropBro-AbsoluteRoof_SPACES.indd 1

2/19/16 9:31 AM

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Fewer than 20 theaters around the world will show Star Wars: The Force Awakens on 70 mm film, and the IMAX theater at Great Lakes Science Center is one of them. Today at 5:30 and 8 p.m., the center will screen the movie on its IMAX screen. Screenings will run through April 1. Several sequences of Star Wars: The Force Awakens were filmed using IMAX cameras, meaning the screening will give a one-of-a-kind vertical view. On top of the scenery, the movie will be shown in HD. Tickets are $11 for adults and $9 for kids 12 and under. Center members’ ticket prices are $9 for adults and $7 for kids 12 and under.

(Bliss Davis) 601 Erieside Ave., 216-694-2000, greatscience.com.

SAT

3/05

DANCE

Pinocchio by Ballet Excel Ohio Colorful characters like the Fox, Cat, Cricket and Blue Fairy add a “fantastical magic” to the story of the wooden puppet Pinnochio. In this particular production, Ballet Excel Ohio will incorporate music from George Gershwin and Benny Goodman as well as from traditional composers Tchaikovsky, Glazunov and Grieg. Special guest artists include the locally based Youth Excellence Performing Arts Workshop (YEPAW). Performances take place today at 2 and 7 p.m. at the Akron Civic Theatre.

The performance repeats at 2 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets start at $10.

(Niesel) 182 South Main St., Akron, 330-253-2488, akroncivic.com.

MUSIC

Speedbump Fest Jaclyn Wright, the organizer of Speedbump Fest, a memorial concert to friend Garrett Janos, a suicide victim, says she would like to think of the event as “aimed at not only celebrating his life but

Carlton Vickers Gallery Concert Tonight at 8 at Heights Arts, internationally renowned flutist Carlton Vickers delivers a one-man show featuring avantgarde works by Brian Ferneyhough, Jason Eckardt, Marc Yeats and James Erber. Seating is first-come, first served. Admission is free, but a $10 donation is suggested. The concert is presented in partnership with the third annual NEOSonicFest.

(Niesel) 2175 Lee Rd., Cleveland Heights, 216-371-3457, heightsarts.org. beer Fest

Winter Warmer Fest 2016 The 10th annual Winter Warmer Festival happens today at Windows on the River in the Flats, with more than 40 Ohio breweries featuring winter, seasonal and limited edition beers. Among the breweries, you’ll find Fat Heads, Thirsty Dog, Platform Beer, Columbus Brewing Company, Willoughby Brewing Company and plenty more. There will also be live entertainment from blues artist Austin Walkin’ Cane and singer-songwriter Chris Allen, and eats from local food trucks including Streat Mobile Bistro and Fired Up Taco Truck, among others. Hours are 2 to 6 p.m., and general admission is $45 in advance or $55 at the door. Designated driver tickets are $12 and include a cupcake.

There is also limited $85 VIP admission which includes early entry, a swag bag, official shirt, special tastings and more. All attendees must be 21 or older.

Get tickets and details on the website. (Davis) 2000 Sycamore St., ohiocraftbeer.org.

3/06

FilM

Purple Noon In the wake of the success of the Todd Haynes film Carol, which is based on a novel by American crime writer Patricia Highsmith, the Cleveland Museum of Art presents The Talented Ms. Highsmith, a series devoted to film adaptations of her novels. The series starts today at 1:30 p.m. with a screening of Purple Noon, a 1960 film about a young man who kills his friend so that he can adopt his identity. Tickets are $9. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

MON

Appearing at Playhouse Square THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC!

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3/07

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Food

Wing Ding Doodle Blues icon Howlin’ Wolf famously covered “Wang Dang Doodle,” and 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 offer meatless Monday ‘wing’ baskets for vegans. Discounted drafts and a playlist of vintageelectric blues and soulful R&B curated by local musician Clint Holley will be on tap as well. Wing Ding Doodle will take place every Monday from 6 p.m. to midnight.

1109 Starkweather Ave., 216-937-1938, prosperitysocialclub.com.

TUE

TM & © 2016 CBS. © 2015 Paramount. All Rights Reserved.

also building trust and an openness to our community. ... We have done some fundraising and my hope is that this will grow into a larger event in the years to come and continue to honor Garrett,” she says in a press release. She’s recruited six punk rock and metal bands, including Rhomer, Rabid Reason, Nullum, Smash N Grab, FYPM and Feral Children, to perform. The event starts at 9 p.m. at Annabell’s in Akron. Tickets are $5. (Niesel) 784 West Market St., Akron, 330-535-1112, myspace.com/annabellsbarlounge.

StarTrekUltimateVoyage.com

March 11

ON SALE FRIDAY!

June 10

3/08

theater

Mamma Mia! This smash-hit musical features ABBA’s greatest hits, including tunes such as “Dancing Queen,” “S.O.S,” “Super Trooper,” “Take a Chance on Me” and “The Winner Takes It All,” and “an enchanting tale of love, laughter and friendship.” The musical even spawned a commercially successful film. The play opens tonight at 7:30 at Connor Palace. Tickets are $10 to $80.

Performances continue through March 13. (Niesel) 1615 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

Find more events @clevescene.com t@cleveland_scene

A Night with Janis Joplin March 2

216-241-6000 Group Sales 216-640-8600 playhousesquare.org

PostSecret: The Show March 13

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons April 30-May 1

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

27

Photo courtesy of NAP

ART ALL IN

This month’s Walk All Over Waterloo may be the most exciting one yet

By Josh Usmani WITH A PARADE, PUBLIC VOTING on $120,000 in community-based art projects, opening receptions for several new art exhibitions, the grand opening of Waterloo’s first coffee shop and more, March’s Walk All Over Waterloo is shaping up to potentially be Collinwood’s largest and most exciting to date. It all takes place this Friday from 5 to 10 p.m.

(Individual venue hours may vary.)

Friday’s event marks the start of voting on Northeast Shores’ Ballot Box Project, Ohio’s first “participatory budgeting” project, which allows the community to actively participate in efforts to improve their neighborhood. Thanks to $120,000 from ArtPlace for arts placemaking efforts, no public money is at stake. All residents and employees of Ward 8 are eligible to vote for their favorite project.

“We are so proud to be launching this movement and cannot wait to see the positive impact it will have on our community,” says Brian Friedman, executive director of Northeast Shores Development Corporation. “We hope to see everyone at the parade to celebrate and support the Collinwood neighborhood! Nothing like this has ever been done in Cleveland. This is really a fantastic opportunity for the public to have a direct impact on their community, and to support local artists, the community, and make a difference.”

Candidates for the Ballot Box Project are divided into four categories: Collinwood History candidates include Ali Lukacsy, Loren Naji, Jeanne Coppola, Stephen Bivens, Maura Rogers, Benjamin Smith, Lauren Sammon and Timothy Cornett.

Vacancy candidates include Grace Summanen, Jessica Pinsky, Dairoll Medrano, Michael Hudecek and Seth Beattie.

Healthy Eating candidates include Lori Kella, Kevin Scheuring and Linda Zolten-Wood Youth Engagement candidates include Coyan Smith, Christen

28

Duvernay, Carla Carter-Lovejoy, David Henniger, Brittany Quinn, Danny Carver, Ray McNeice, Bill Wade, Jimmie Woody, Margaret Craig, Daniel Gray-Kontar, Cindy Barber, Jerry Schmidt, Bridget Caswell, Anthony Velez, Megan Lee Gargano, Scott Hudson, Valerie Salstrom and Doug Wood.

The Democracy on the Move parade takes place from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., departing from the Collinwood Recreational Center (16300 Lakeshore Rd.) and culminating at the Slovenian Workmen’s Home (15335 Waterloo Rd.), where voting will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Waterloo’s Brick Ceramic + Design Studio will be giving away handmade Ballot Box ceramic mugs to voters during Walk All Over Waterloo. The Ballot Box voting process will be conducted using voter enrollment information from the Board of Elections, and is designed to encourage unregistered residents to register before November’s presidential election.

Voting for the Ballot Box Project continues through March 9. From 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, voting will be open at the Collinwood Recreational Center. Next week, stop by the Euclid Beach Villa (125 East 56th St.)

Waterloo Arts willl host the National Arts Program Exhibition.

place from 5 to 9 p.m., and the show remains on view through March 24.

“Until you walk in and see your work on a gallery wall, it is hard to know how affirming that is; but every year I get to see it in the faces of the 200 artists who come to the National Arts Program exhibit and find their work in the wide swath of colors and textures lining the gallery walls,” says Amy Callahan, Waterloo Arts executive director.

“Anyone attending will enjoy the full array of ages, styles and experience levels represented in the work” The Maria Neil Art Project hosts an opening reception for Darius Steward’s Pressure. Steward studied drawing and painting at the Cleveland Institute of Art before receiving his MFA from the University of Delaware in 2010.

WALK ALL OVER WATERLOO WATERLOO ROAD FACEBOOK.COM/WATERLOOARTSDISTRICT

from 2 to 4 p.m. on Monday, March 7, or the Salvation Army (17625 Grovewood Ave.) from 4 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 9. Children 14 and older will also participate in the voting process at Collinwood High School. Organizers hope to encourage students who will be 18

by November’s election to register to vote.

Waterloo Arts hosts the annual National Arts Program Exhibition, a juried exhibition open to residents, employees of the city of Cleveland and their families and students of Cleveland schools. Jurors award a number of prizes at various skill levels. The opening reception takes

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

In his first solo exhibition since receiving a Creative Workforce Fellowship, Steward directly addresses the “pressures” facing African Americans in today’s society through imagery of daily life, including casual encounters, moments of solitary reflection and societal challenges. Steward’s work includes drawings, watercolors and oil paintings. Pressure remains on view through April 17.

If you missed last month’s opening reception for Royden Watson’s exhibition, Fair, you’ll have another opportunity to view it in Praxis Fiber Workshop’s gallery during the art walk. Watson earned

his BFA from the Pratt Institute and his MFA from Kent State University.

In 2006, he participated in the Ohio Dresden Residency Exchange in Dresden, Germany. Watson is Praxis’ first artist in residence, and Fair remains on view through March 25.

Second-generation local sculptor Jerry Schmidt has maintained his studio on Waterloo longer than any other artist. In order to accommodate upcoming commissions for the new downtown Hilton, Schmidt is hosting a liquidation sale in his Waterloo 7 Studio Gallery. Stop by to peruse the studio for special deals and learn more about his upcoming commissions for the Hilton.

This Friday also features the much anticipated grand opening of Six Shooter Coffee, Waterloo’s first coffee shop. A ribbon cutting at 6:45 p.m. will be followed by live music from Liz Kelley (7 p.m.), Aaron Civil War (7:30 p.m.), Alyssa & Bill (8 p.m.) and Dolfish Music (8:30 p.m.).

Additional special refreshments will be available courtesy of Poison Berry Bakery, Cleveland Bagel Co., Lucy’s Sweet Surrender Bakery, Instant Whip Akron, Bearded Buch and 46and2Brewing. The grand opening takes place from 6 to 9 p.m.

Loren Naji’s Satellite Gallery presents its latest exhibition of artwork and installations. Ground Control includes new works from Laszlo Gyorki, Dina Hoeynck, Sean Kelly, Don King and Nico Pico Train.

Stop by to explore all of the artwork in and outside this former single family home.

jusmani@clevescene.com t@cleveland_scene

STAGE LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH & DEAD

Well-to-do types are dropping like flies in And Then There Were None

by Great Lakes Theater

By Christine Howey Photo by Roger Mastroianni

BY THIS TIME IN THE WINTER, even a relatively mild winter such as this one (so far), a person begins to long for the joys of warm weather.

One of those is the pleasure of biting into an ear of steaming, freshly buttered, sweet corn on the cob.

Our world permits only a few such moments of unalloyed bliss, so we must seek them out when we can.

And if you’d like to take a delicious bite of something really corny right about now, open wide and devour And Then There Were None, now presented by Great Lakes Theater.

This warhorse by the British crime novel maven Agatha Christie (no relation to the New Jersey governor, we assume) is the very essence of corny. It is pretty predictable, unsophisticated and old-fashioned, and its inexorable march to the conclusion often feels like a déjà vu recollection of a previous déjà vu moment.

Yes, the structure of this story — a group of strangers gathered in an isolated house with one being a serial killer — has been employed numerous times since Christie penned her original novel in 1939. True to a popular song of the time, the original racist title of the book was Ten Little Ni**ers; then it was changed to Ten Little Indians and finally to Ten Little Soldier Boys. That nursery rhyme is central to the story, the last five lines of which comprise the current play’s title. Indeed, the poem is displayed on stage, above a collection of toy soldier statues.

Those statues thin out as the people, invited to vacation at a luxurious home on the shore of the aptly named Soldier Island, begin to die off. None of these guests appear to know each other, or their host.

They each were invited by a man named U.N. Owen and his wife under different pretexts, most of which involve a substantial sum of money.

So the gullible folks arrive with their luggage in hand, ready for a relaxing and remunerative stay on this rocky isle.

But this ain’t Fantasy Island, folks.

And even though all the invitees

Laura Perrotta (above, as Emily Brent) and Laura Welsh Berg (seated, as Vera Claythorne) keep suspicious watch for the killer among them in And Then There Were None.

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE

THROUGH MARCH 20 BY GREAT LAKES THEATER, 2067 EAST 14TH ST., 216-241-6000, GREATLAKESTHEATER.ORG

are well heeled, Mr. Roarke and Tattoo aren’t about to show up and make their secret dreams come true.

Actually, the owners of the house are nowhere to be found: As we are informed, U.N. Owen can also be pronounced “unknown.” (Mwah-haha!) Still, after the first death, the apparent result of choking, everyone seems to think it was just a tragic accident.

But once the second person is found dead, and then the third, even the dimmest among the group know

they are not guests, they’re targets.

And thanks to an ominous recorded “greeting” from Owen, they know they have been singled out because of deaths they were responsible for earlier in their own lives. In an egalitarian gesture, even the two hired servants, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers (dutiful M.A. Taylor and hard-as-nails Maggie Kettering, respectively), are included as part of the doomed 10.

The reason this corn is so fresh and buttery toothsome are the performances by the GLT cast, as

tightly directed by Charles Fee. Each character is a nicely chiseled type, each with enough sharp edges to qualify as the heinous murderer.

A bright and rather sultry Laura Welsh Berg is Vera Claythorne, hired sight-unseen to serve as Mrs. Owen’s secretary. She draws the attention of handsome Philip Lombard, played by Nick Steen with a sheen of excessive self-esteem.

Then there’s Laura Perrotta, giving Emily Brent a school-marmfrom-hell turn and deftly cadging laughs from her pinched portrayal.

As the judge Sir Lawrence Wargrave, Tom Ford keeps his usual bag of comedy tricks holstered and gives this justice a Scalia-like snark.

Jonathan Dyrud contributes energy as the fast-car loving free spirit Anthony Marston, and Aled Davies takes on the role of a Cassandra in the person of General Mackenzie, who foretells doom for them all and wants only to be reunited with his dead wife. Rounding out the victims is an amusing David Anthony Smith as the voluble William Blore and Dougfred Miller as the haunted Dr. Armstrong.

This is all staged in scenic designer Russell Metheny’s to-diefor living room, complete with an ocean view visible through the glass walls. As opulent as it seems, with the gunmetal gray upholstered furniture and marble fireplace, the stark rocky cliffs of the island impinge on both sides of the room, providing a claustrophobic feeling that resonates perfectly. Not to mention the percussive, ominously thunderous music provided between scenes and acts by sound designer Joe Court.

This play also adopts the play’s “new ending” which is actually the ending of Christie’s original story.

It was brightened up for audiences who attended the show in England during the dark days of World War II. But this is 2016, baby, and political correctness is out the window. So buckle down for a play that faithfully lives up to its title.

scene@clevescene.com t@christinehowey | clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

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MOVIES

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

CONFESSIONS OF A WAR CORRESPONDENT How journalist Kim Barker’s memoir became the basis of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

By Jeff Niesel WHEN THE NEW YORK TIMES reviewed journalist Kim Barker’s 2011 memoir, The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it noted that she depicted herself as a Tina Fey type of character in the book. In a recent phone interview, she admits she indeed had Fey in mind as she wrote about her experiences in New Delhi and Islamabad from 2004 to 2009 as she served as the South Asia bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune.

“She was one of the people I was channeling,” Barker says. “I think she’s hilarious and really smart. I loved 30 Rock. I like Kristen Wiig and any of those people. Nora Ephron is another example of a woman who uses humor effectively with real life. Sometimes, I would write things that were too serious, and I tried to make them funny. But sometimes there were things that weren’t, and I would just let them be serious. War is obviously very serious.”

Tina Fey read The New York Times review, picked up Barker’s book and enlisted Saturday Night Live pal Lorne Michaels to help her finance a film based on Barker’s book. Fey even offered to star as Barker in the resulting movie, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. It opens areawide on Friday.

“I found out the night of my book party in New York that they were optioning it and that she was going to play me,” says Barker. “It all seemed theoretical at the time.

I have a lot of friends who that’s happened to. I didn’t think it was going to happen. It’s Hollywood, you’re talking about doing M*A*S*H 2.0. The odds were not high that this was actually going to work out.”

But it did work out, and Fey plays the part perfectly, balancing the drama and dark humor found in the book, even if Barker has been transformed from a writer to a TV reporter.

“In this film, I think she shows her range in this role that she hasn’t necessarily shown before,” Barker says. “She’s done some dramatic roles. It’s rare for her to do a role that’s funny and dramatic. I think she shows her range here. I’m not saying this just because it’s me, but I think it’s her best role.”

Much like Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22 or Robert Altman’s film M*A*S*H, Whiskey provides social commentary while delivering caustic humor. It tackles everything from women’s issues to the ethics of being a foreign war correspondent.

The film’s final scenes take a swipe at Barker’s old boss, Chicago Tribune owner Sam Zell.

“It was very difficult going on as Sam Zell bought the newspaper and the emphasis became more local,” she says. “He has no clue as to how journalism works. For whatever reason, my name and the fact that I was in Afghanistan became a real

target for Sam Zell. It was very frustrating. You felt like what you were covering was so important and so much blood and treasure had been spent there, you wanted people to read about it.”

She says she understands that the public has tired of hearing about war. But she says that makes it all the more important that media coverage doesn’t dissipate.

“I get it; there’s a sense of war fatigue,” says Barker, who now works as an investigative reporter at The New York Times. “There’s still a real sense of war fatigue.

That’s why I was trying to write this in a darkly comedic way. I wanted to find a way to make people pay attention to everything that had happened in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

SPOTLIGHT: ZOOTOPIA ERNIE PETTI, THE TECHNICAL supervisor on the latest Disney animated movie Zootopia, which opens areawide on Friday, took a circuitous route to the world of digital animation. Petti, who went to Saint Ignatius High School and attended John Carroll University, initially started working in aerospace.

“I majored in physics,” he says during a recent phone interview. “I knew I wanted to do something related to computers but didn’t know what. My first job in aerospace helped me to figure out what I liked, and what I didn’t like.

Having that visual quality [to digital animation] interested me.”

He initially started at Disney in the software side of things and then got more directly involved in the creative part when he started working on 2005’s Chicken Little.

“My first job was generating furry characters and populating the world with lots of little things,” he says.

Given that Zootopia centers on a bunny police officer (Ginnifer Goodwin) and a fox con artist (Jason Bateman) who live in a modern world

where they drive cars and live in apartments, Petti proved to be well-suited to the project. The film’s two characters become friends as they seek to find out what’s turning so many seemingly peaceful animals into feral beasts.

“I think it’s the first movie where we have lots of furry characters with pants,” he says.

“They’re all wearing clothing. There are thousands of creatures and lots of different species. You have to make it convincing, that it’s really a modern world. We didn’t want them to feel like stuffed animals. It’s about finding that balance between the animal side and the modern world.”

Some crew members went to Kenya to do research; others went to the Natural History Museum.

“We wanted to get a closer look, sometimes even under a microscope,” says Petti.

It would all be for naught, if the actors doing the voices weren’t up to the task, but Goodwin and Bateman give strong performances in the lead roles.

“They bring a lot of warmth and heat to the characters,” says Petti. “They exemplify the

different viewpoints of the characters in that world. It’s ‘you can be whatever you want to be’ versus ‘we are what we are.’ Their personality brings that into the characters.”

As Petti implies, the movie has a message to it as it addresses stereotyping; the creatures must learn to accept their differences, whether they’re naturally prone to be prey or predator.

“I think just starting out when we’re making movies, the primary goal here is entertaining — it’s for a broad range of audience,” he says. “We want to make sure there are a lot of layers so it can entertain on many different levels. It looks at predators and prey and the overwhelming number of predators. Hopefully at the end, it’s high comedy and entertainment with all those extra layers to really reach out to the audience.”

Petti says it’s always a thrill to see the final product.

“When you start out early on, you have to take a leap of faith that it’ll come together,” he says. “As someone once said, it’s like jumping out of an airplane with all the pieces for the parachute and you build it on the way down. To see it all turn out is really thrilling.” — Jeff Niesel | clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

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EAT LOCAL VINTAGE Westlake native Jason Wise to bring new wine documentary to Cedar Lee for Ohio debut

By Douglas Trattner

FOR HIS LAST DOCUMENTARY, Somm, filmmaker and Westlake native Jason Wise tackled the cabalistic topic of sommeliers, following a small clutch of wineobsessed pros as they prepare for the grueling Master Sommelier exam. Wise has now followed up that successful film with Somm: Into the Bottle, a much deeper dive into the world of wine; like the first, it has surprisingly broad appeal.

The film will make its Ohio premiere on April 17 at the Cedar Lee Theatre, a limited-seating engagement that includes a post-flick meet & greet with Wise, and wine and snacks at the Wine Spot. The film also can be downloaded through iTunes.

I understand you’ve been doing non-stop publicity since the world premiere in November.

Every single one of these screenings feels like maintenance to me, but the Cleveland one I’ve been fighting so hard to have because it’s the one I really, really, really wanted.

From the moment I got a driver’s license, I was at the Cedar Lee at least three times a week for seven, eight years. That theater literally is the reason I wanted to make films.

It’s an amazing honor to have my film play at that theater and to be there for it.

The widespread appeal of Somm, a documentary about fanatical sommeliers, took a lot of

people by surprise.

When I made the first movie, all I had were people telling me that it was a niche within a niche within a niche: Nobody’s going to care about this film. And now I can’t fashion somebody to have that opinion.

Everybody is like, “I told you what a good idea it was to do this thing!”

It’s hilarious.

Did you run into the same sort of resistance with this second, more penetrating analysis of wine?

All my distributor and everybody else were saying was, “Who is going to relate to this?” Like with the first film, we’re finding the opposite is true. Their girlfriends or boyfriends or husbands or wives are dragging them into the theater and they’re walking out going, “Holy crap, I didn’t know it was going to be about war, or that Osama bin Laden would die at the end.” Not only has it worked, but most of the reviews that have come out have called it way more accessible than the first film, which is the craziest thing in the world to me.

Seeing as this second film focuses on a much broader topic — wine itself — was the order of the films reversed?

Nobody would have sat down to watch the second movie had the first movie not come out. The first film was like a pill wrapped in bacon.

And with the second film, the bacon

is in the pill. This quote-unquote sequel to Somm was risky, and hard as hell to put together, because of it.

What did you hope to accomplish by drinking on screen some of the world’s rarest and most expensive wines — other than to make a lot of people jealous, of course?

We try to humanize the wine, and we do that by jumping into different topics, like this family that has been making wine for 16 generations.

Since 1481 there have only been three years when they couldn’t make wine. One was when Napoleon burned down the entire region, the other was when Nazis came through and killed everybody, and one was related to weather.

In this film you shine a bright, and sometime unsympathetic, light on various facets of the industry.

I think people made an error with the first film thinking that I loved sommeliers. That’s funny because it’s not like I really portrayed them as these golden gods. This film is the same in a lot of ways, but it’s a different rhythm. I get into sommeliers and how much bullshit that whole thing is and I get into critics and how much bullshit that whole thing is. But in order to say things are bullshit, you also have to show their merits.

How do you feel about the whole wine-critic-as-arbiter-of-good-taste concept?

There is no ability to clock

wine from any kind of a quality standpoint. It’s impossible, and anybody who thinks you can is full of shit. But we also don’t say those critics are worthless. A lot of these sommeliers who love wine wouldn’t have even started getting into it if folks like Robert Parker hadn’t been writing about it. The people who say Robert Parker is full of shit are full of shit themselves.

You cover a lot of weighty topics, and the film at times is dense. But it’s also lush, beautiful and visually breathtaking.

Thanks. We worked very hard to shoot this thing. It was like the Planet Earth of wine. It was our goal to do that without narration, and that’s a tricky thing. Wine regions are really beautiful but they’re often hard to shoot in because they have very harsh light.

What is the key concept that you hope viewers walk away with?

We get into why people like wine, why it’s important in our culture.

The movie goes through all the wars, all the religion, all of this and all of that — some pretty heady stuff — to get to the final point that wine is supposed to be opened at the table, and if it doesn’t get you laid, or end the fight you’re in, or close this deal, it’s pointless and doesn’t matter what anybody said about it.

dtrattner@clevescene.com t @dougtrattner | clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

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| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

FAMILY MATTERS

For 62 years, J & J Czuchraj Meats has been at the West Side Market

By Nikki Delamotte JAROSLAV AND KLARA CZUCHRAJ, both from Ukraine, met by chance and fell in love in the Lincoln Park area of Tremont. In 1954, the couple opened Czuchraj Meats (jandjmeats.com) in the West Side Market, where they sold fresh kielbasa and ham and, perhaps, a handful of other products on any given day.

Days spent at the market are some of the earliest memories held by son Jerry Chucray (he’s changed the spelling of his name). He began working the stand at age 10, continuing well into his teen years, when he trudged back and forth from Saint Ignatius High School before and after the bell rang. When he was 24, his dad fell ill, leaving him and his young wife Jill with a tough decision.

“We could just let everything that has gone on for 30 years go down the tubes, or we could give it a try,” he recalls while seated in a booth at the West Side Market Cafe.

Jump ahead 32 years and J & J Czuchraj Meats now runs two market stands that sell more than 40 varieties of meats. Each day they offer approximately eight types of jerky, seven types of smokies, five types of smoked kielbasa, 10 types of raw chicken sausage, 10 types of pork sausage, and homemade corned beef.

Jill is the face of the business, while Jerry handles production at a West 25th Street smokehouse that the family purchased in the 1960s from Brookside Foods. Deliveries come in every morning at 7. The meat is mixed, blended with spices and pushed into the brick-lined smokers filled with a blend of hickory and cherry woods.

Smokies and kielbasa go in for about three hours, beef jerky sits overnight for 15 hours, and pastrami takes about 18 hours.

Of course, those options are vast departures from Jaroslav and Klara’s original classics. But Jerry and Jill field constant requests for new tastes and flavors as younger shoppers

discover the market. The grab-andgo nature of many of their products has benefited from the growing swell of sports fans who swing by before games and bar hoppers crawling through Ohio City.

“You always have to stay on your toes; you can’t be complacent,” says Jerry. “People ask you to make something, go ahead and make it.

Things change. From 30 years ago, it’s a 180-degree turnaround. If we did what we were doing 30 years ago, we’d be out of business.”

That’s how bacon jerky, pepperjack smokies and scorching ghost pepper smokies and jerky have worked their way from the tastes of emerging foodies to the stand. The biggest seller is a white bratwurst made with lean pork and veal and mixed with garlic and white pepper, which, through a deal with Great Lakes Brewing Co., is now sold at Progressive Field. Their andouille sausage can be found in dishes at the Bourbon Street Barrel Room and Flying Fig. But customers also are requesting the products they grew up with, like Slovenian sausage and Hungarian kielbasa.

“You see people from generation to generation and they’ll come up to me and say, ‘Can you get me what my grandmother used to make or buy?’” says Jill. “It’s something for them to remember them by.”

Though she refers to homemade smoked meats as a dying art, Jill says the tradition won’t be leaving the family anytime soon. Both of their daughters grew up at the West Side Market, and Amanda, an Ohio University graduate, came on full-time last fall.

“It’s like coming back home,” she says. “Everyone at the market knows each other and knows each other’s kids. It’s like one big family.”

scene@clevescene.com t @cleveland_scene

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Crust, and possibly Visible Voice Books, to open in former Tremont funeral home on Professor

By Douglas Trattner SINCE OPENING IN TREMONT three and a half years ago, Crust (1020 Kenilworth Ave., 216-5830257) enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with Visible Voice Books. When the tiny pizza shop filled up, as it did most evenings, waiting diners would kill time across the street browsing the shelves or enjoying a beer or glass of wine in the picturesque courtyard.

When guests at bookstore events wanted something to eat, they made the short trek over to Crust.

That mutually beneficial relationship ended when Visible Voice owner Dave Ferrante made the tough call to shutter his 8-year-old bookstore in late 2014. But if everything works out as planned, the two businesses will be enjoying an even chummier arrangement in the near future.

Ferrante recently purchased the Komorowski Funeral Home building (2258 Professor Ave.) in Tremont, which is located next to Banyan Tree and across the street from Dante and Next Door. The spacious three-level structure not only has room for both Crust and Visible Voice, says Crust owner Mike Griffin, but also front and back patios and an unheard-of-inTremont 26-car parking lot.

“We’ve got six or seven different sets of plans we’re working with for the funeral home,” explains Griffin, who along with Ferrante is working with architect Brian Fabo. “I think what we’ll do is combine Visible Voice with Crust in one building. I think it would be good for Tremont to get the bookstore back, and to get more space for Crust.”

The initial plan calls for a main floor Crust and second-floor — possibly with an open mezzanine layout — Visible Voice Books. Visible Voice will bring along its beer and wine license, and Crust will expand its offerings to feature more food options, especially in the dessert and pastry department.

Griffin’s seating will increase exponentially to approximately 60 inside and more on planned front and back patios.

But while the Crust part of the equation is all but a certainty, the Visible Voice element is still very much a work in progress.

“I’m excited about it, but at the same

time it’s a long planning process,” says Ferrante. “The Crust piece is definitely going to happen and I would like to complement it with doing the bookstore again. But I’m going to be

very deliberate about how I go about it.

There are so many opportunities with that building it’s unbelievable. One of the things I liked most about the [former] bookstore was the courtyard

and there’s plenty of room to put some sort of courtyard there.”

Ferrante has more than 60,000 books in storage, relocated from his former bookstore, a building he

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

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still owns. Despite his reasonable apprehension, reopening the bookstore is something he not only wants to do but thinks is a smart business decision given the right circumstances.

“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.”

Griffin, who owns the building in which Crust currently operates, says he will begin entertaining offers from potential tenants with creative ideas for the space. Given its off-thebeaten-path location, he says the space requires a unique approach.

Griffin estimates an 8- to 10-month build-out on the new space.

CURRENT CAFE MIAMI OPERATOR TO LEAVE AND OPEN SABOR MIAMI IN NEARBY LOCATION Last Sunday was the final day that Mariela Paz functioned as operator of Cafe Miami (4517 State Rd., 216661-3739) in Old Brooklyn. Since resurrecting the shuttered business, one that previous owner Larry Fields operated for close to 20 years, Paz has been adding her own Latin-inspired touches and dishes, a considerable departure from the shop’s modest American-diner roots.

But while the response by customers and neighbors has been positive, the changes have not been sitting well with Fields, who says that Paz was merely a temporary steward of the business while he recovered from a stroke. The changes, he said, “confused diners.”

That rocky relationship ended last week, with Paz heading to a new address just a mile away. There, she will open Sabor Miami, a Latin-themed eatery that expands on what she was dabbling in over at Cafe Miami. Diners can look forward to creamy caramelscented cafes con leche, Mexican-style huevos rancheros with crispy tostones, flaky fried empanadas filled with chopped ham and cheese, and pressed Cubano sandwiches filled with roast pork, thin-sliced ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard. Expanded hours and a fresh interior also will be part of the package.

The new location, 4848 Broadview Rd., most recently belonged to the

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| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

Salvadoran-run Katarina Pupuseria.

That business relocated last year to the former Mexican Village building at 1409 Brookpark Rd. No word yet on the future of Cafe Miami.

10TH ANNUAL WINTER WARMER FEST SHAPING UP TO BE BEST YET This year’s Winter Warmer Fest, to be held this Saturday from 2 to 6 p.m at Windows on the River, is shaping up to be one of the best gatherings of Ohio craft beer ever. The annual event, a fundraiser for the Ohio Craft Brewers Association, will feature the liquid assets of 52 Ohio breweries. On offer: winter-themed, limited edition and other flagship brews.

“Ohio Craft Beer has come a long way from our first to our 10th annual Winter Warmer Fest,” says Mary MacDonald, executive director of the Ohio Craft Brewers Association. “We started out with a cadre of Northeast Ohio breweries bringing their winter seasonals to share in camaraderie with the Cleveland craft beer community.

We’ve grown to 50-plus breweries from around the state bringing their beers to an even larger and alwaysappreciative Cleveland craft beer scene.”

The popular event also features live entertainment and food provided by a convoy of food trucks.

The 21-and-over general admission tickets cost $45 (DD tickets are $12) and include a souvenir glass and tasting tickets for 20 samples. VIP tickets are $85 and include early 1 p.m. admission, a limited edition T-shirt, swag bag and special beer tastings.

PIZZAFIRE NOW OPEN IN WOODMERE PizzaFire opened a new location for its “fast-casual” eatery on March 1 in Woodmere, giving Northeast Ohio yet another glorious entry in a recent spate of pizza joints opening around town.

Pizza is fast anyway, but PizzaFire pumps out pies in three minutes thanks to an 800-degree Italian oven.

(A note: No delivery, but the quick turnaround makes for easy pickup.)

PizzaFire already has four locations in Northeast Ohio: downtown Cleveland, Akron, Rocky River and Cuyahoga Falls. And they’re planning on more expansion: Expect a PizzaFire to head your way if you live in Kent or Strongsville.

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner

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| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

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| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

MUSIC THE EDUTAINER

Rapper Vice Souletric takes a DIY approach on his socially conscious new album

By Emanuel Wallace AT A TIME WHEN REAL ESTATE mogul Donald Trump has positioned himself as a viable candidate for President of the United States, another candidate looks to gain some public support. Vice Souletric, a hardworking Average Joe from Small-Town USA, is trying to make a difference.

The rapper/producer is poised to lay down the planks of a platform that present him as the right man for the job, playing unheard songs like “T.A.M.I.R.” and “There’s No Tomorrow Til You Wake Up” from his latest release, Vice for President 2.

“I’m just an artist in the purest sense of the word,” Souletric says as he sits at the console of his in-home studio. “Musically, I’m a producer, I’m an emcee. I actually started rapping first. I only started making beats because I couldn’t find anybody to make the type of beats that I like. So it kind of forced me to learn the style and the rhythm because I always had an East Coast kind of influence in the stuff that I liked and the stuff that I wanted to do. What a lot of people don’t know is that behind the scenes, I do everything. I do my own artwork. I do my own CD art. I do my own web design. I’m pretty much like a one-man show. The only thing I don’t do is my final mix. I’ve got a cat in Germany who does that. He’s off the hook, so I let him handle that. It makes it easier when you’re working on a solo project, like the last two that I’ve done.”

If elected, Souletric already has his cabinet selected in the form of his United Grind collective.

“We actually have a website, UnitedGrind.com, that is a blog supporting independent hip-hop and gives independent hip-hop advice to artists,” he says. “It consists of myself, G. Huff and HiJinks. We’re all artists as well as bloggers. We’ve been in the game for so long and we have so many different experiences that we try to help other artists out.”

While Souletric was born in Louisville, he’s called Lorain home since the age of 1. He acknowledges a small town can have its limitations, but he’s thankful for it all the same.

“Lorain is your typical small town,” he says. “And with growing up in a small town, you have a lot of small town mentality; but I’m that cat who comes up in a small town with bigger

town aspirations. It’s almost like being a big fish in a small pond. But the small town environment is what keeps me humble. It’s what keeps me grounded. And what keeps me laid back. I guess I can appreciate that.”

Souletric and his crew were late bloomers and didn’t really get serious about their craft until they were in high school. In fact, Souletric says he didn’t create his first beat until he was 21 years old.

“I first got into rapping by just being in the back of art class freestyling,” Souletric says. “We would just crack on each other for the fun of it, then we would go over to

Johnny’s [HiJinks] house after school and freestyle and that turned into us getting a little more serious. It was me, Jinks and another friend of ours by the name of Dwayne; we were in a group called Play Havoc [in which Souletric rapped and produced under the name Ill Advice]. We actually did shows in the Cleveland underground hip-hop scene for a while in the early 2000s. We did our thing, so a lot of people met me through those Play Havoc days. Then it ended up being just me and Jinks after Dwayne ended up quitting. Then after that, it was just me. As far as the production, when we first started rapping, once we got to

the point where we were going into a studio and making music, we figured out that we couldn’t find anyone to make the type of beats that we wanted to rhyme to. We were big into DJ Premier, Pete Rock and that kind of stuff and we couldn’t find anybody around here making that kind of stuff. We couldn’t even find anybody with a MPC or an SP-1200 [sampler].

I took it upon myself to invest in the equipment.”

The investment seems to have paid off as Souletric has collaborated with the likes of Talib Kweli, N.O.R.E., and KRS-ONE, among others, both as a rapper and producer.

Photo by Emanuel Wallace

Rapper Vice Souletric puts a message into his music.

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

43

MUSIC “With Vice for President, that was like the debut album for me as a solo artist,” he says. “That was the first time where it was just completely me and my project from beginning to end. Before that, most of the features that I would have would be pretty much doing the production. A lot of the stuff I did when I was working with people was production, but everything you’re hearing from me now as far as features is me rapping.”

One of Souletric’s career highlights up to this point would be the collaboration with Talib Kweli on his latest single, “Return of the Black Man.” He describes making the connection with Kweli’s management as a “shot in the dark,” but Souletric and G. Huff would find that they had just enough skill and talent to hit their target.

“I’ll never forget the day I got the email [containing the track] back,” Souletric says. “We had company over here, and I went into the bathroom like, ‘I gotta listen to this now’. So I put on my headphones and I was in the bathroom rocking and thinking ‘He killed this!’ I couldn’t even believe it. The other thing is that when you’re working with somebody and it’s not really their project and they have no stake in it, it’s hard to get the best out of them. I made sure that we had sent him a reference of the song with me and G. Huff’s verses already

just wanted to make noise because I feel like a lot of hip-hop artists are dropping the ball as far as speaking about what’s going on. It’s cool to rap about whatever you rap about, but I think a lot of the big names are dropping the ball as far as talking about the things that’s relevant to what’s going on right now.”

Even with that, Souletric insists that there’s something for everyone to enjoy on Vice for President 2.

“I love hip-hop, so I just put everything into it that I think hip-hop should be about,” he says.

“Partially, it should be about coming with a message. I don’t think everything should be preachy. I think hip-hop should show lyrical skill. You should be able to show that you can really rap and come up with clever metaphors. I also feel like hip-hop should be like feel-good music. You know, people should be able to vibe to it. It should be a party atmosphere.

You should be able to put your song on and people don’t have to pay close attention. Like ‘Return of the Black Man’ is a song where you have to listen because there’s a lot of stuff we’re talking about, but ‘Stayin’ Out the Way’ is more of a jam where it’s like riding music. I try to incorporate all of that in the album so somebody can’t necessarily say, ‘Oh, he’s one of those conscious rappers’ or ‘He’s trying to be like Little Brother.’ No. I’m influenced by all of that stuff, so that’s what comes across in the music.”

Vice for President 2 comes out

VICE SOULETRIC CD RELEASE SHOW 9 P.M. , SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 201 EAST 29TH ST., LORAIN. TICKETS: $10, CLUBOURSPACE.NET

on it so he could get a feel of what we were really trying to do instead of just sending him the beat. I think he was able to vibe off of that and he gave us honestly one of the best verses I’ve ever heard him spit.”

Released on February 1, “Return of the Black Man” speaks with frustrated voices from the point of view of some black men living in today’s society.

“Probably with everything that’s going on in society, it sort of just hit me,” Souletric says. “As far as putting Kweli on it, me and Huff already knew that we were gonna go in and we were thinking something like, ‘If we got somebody, who would be the only person in the industry?’ And we couldn’t honestly think of anyone better than Talib Kweli to put on it.

So that’s how that came about. As far as the concept of the song, we

44

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

tomorrow and can be pre-ordered on Bandcamp. Souletric says he’s looking forward to addressing his supporters live in a house party-like atmosphere.

“I’ve got my release party, on March 5,” Souletric says. “It’s going to be at a spot called Our Space. That party is going to be a ’90s hip-hop house party type of thing. It goes back to where we were talking about hip-hop starting off as just music to vibe to. The way we’re doing it is in the format of a regular party.

We’re not going to have a “stop and perform” type of situation. He’ll just bring my beat in and I’ll grab the mic. It’s something different, but it’s something I always wanted to try.”

ewallace@clevescene.com t@mannywallace

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| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

45

MUSIC SEEKER BY THE SPEAKER

Keller Williams continues his quest for musical freedom and fun

By Eric Sandy KELLER WILLIAMS WANTS TO dance. He often does, you know, onstage while he’s playing guitar or looping fantastical melodies into a frenzied funk soup. The movement is part of the music.

Lately, Williams is wrapping that urge around his new band and infusing his material with a danceable vibe. Given the songwriter’s penchant for the upbeat and groovy, it’s working out pretty well so far.

“It’s fun to get into a dance music formula, but with acoustic instruments,” Williams says. “It’s really interesting.”

For more than 20 years, Williams has been hanging around the country’s expansive jam band scene, cutting dynamic albums and making friends with some of the most inventive musicians on tour.

He’s known mostly for his top-notch solo shows, where he often runs a galaxy of instruments through a phrase looper. But that’s just part of the story.

“From the beginning I’ve always wanted to play in bands with people,” Williams says. “And the solo thing went well in the beginning, so I just followed that. In the past decade or so, I’ve been able to get back to the original vision, which was making music for humans.”

Williams is on the road these days with the Keller Williams KWahtro, a dynamic outfit comprising Gibb Droll (guitar), Danton Boller (bass) and Rodney Holmes (drums). The band started as a trio a little while ago, and soon grew to this current line-up. (“It starts with me as a fan — with me admiring from afar these musicians and getting to actually play with them,” Williams says.)

Based on the time they’ve spent touring so far, there seems to be a clear sense of fun and chemistry among the four musicians. The opportunity to play with guys on that level also allows Williams to root around his impressive catalog for pieces he’d like to dust off and rearrange.

“We can go out and improv a whole show, but there are so many songs that I want to play with these amazing players and their minds and

46

Photo courtesy of LiveLoud

For the past 20 years, Keller Williams has been a fi xture on the jam scene.

their prowess,” Williams says. “I want to utilize some of my arrangements, and sometimes that takes a lot of rehearsal.”

Last year, Williams dropped Vape, his 20th album. There’s less of a clear hook with this one. (In the past, Williams has dropped albums centered on motifs, in a sense: bass, bluegrass, children’s music, etc.) It’s a smoky album, though, rife with Williams’ touchstone willingness

taking some of the older tunes that haven’t really made the rotation in my live set. I’m kind of conducting more of a dance music formula — not so much in the repetitious realm, but just in the overall formula of the buildups and the drops and the releases and the disco that drops into halftime. Things like that. I’ve just been listening to dance music for so long, and it just seems natural to insert that into some of these old

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to explore the obscure corners of melodies. “Mantra,” for example, is a splendid, airy meditation on the practice of zazen, which features woodwind and strings criss-crossing like playful birds in the sky.

The KWahtro is certainly flexing some of those newer tunes, but there’s also a strong desire to check out more distant corners of Williams’ canon.

“Newer tunes evolve on their own, naturally,” Williams says. “I am

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

tunes and breathe new life into them.”

Williams has brought back “In the Middle,” from 1994’s Freek, among other throwbacks. It’s a gentle acoustic number that contemplates the passage of time — or the apparent lack thereof as our lives trip onward. That tune, like other classics such as “Freaker by the Speaker,” are getting turned on their heads onstage these days. “Freaker” might be cloaked in jazz one night,

reggae on another, he says.

Bottom line, it’s clear that Williams’ work with the KWahtro is fueling his creativity as he looks backward and forward. His career arc has run broad and deep, and he’ll continue to illuminate that unique path as the shows keep coming.

The last time we talked with Williams, in 2013, he mentioned a goal of kicking around some upright bass in future performances. “I’ve always really dug the upright bass, the real acoustic upright bass mixed in with some super funky drums,” he said. Well, here we are. Boller’s work on the low end blends sweetly with Holmes’ exciting percussion work throughout these recent live shows.

Given his catalog, it’s clear that Williams both sets and achieves these sorts of goals, identifying musical worlds he’d like to inhabit and then creating them. Up next? It’s anyone’s guess, really, but Williams tells us he’d like to spend more time with vibraphonist Mike Dillon. (And he will in May, and perhaps a bit more throughout the year.)

“And it would be fun to turn the KWahtro into the SynCo,” Williams muses. “And that would of course be spelled S-Y-N-C, right? Sync?

And then capital-C-O-dot — Sync Company. But we’d pronounce it ‘Cinco.’ This is an exclusive. You’re hearing this first. But now we’re full ahead with the KWahtro.”

Keller Williams has been a fixture in the jam scene for 20 years or so, and both he and the community are thriving. Festival season is right around the corner, you know. If you’re looking for a positive sense of direction in this weird country, look no further than the unbridled creativity of one of our most innovative musicians. Right now, in a dorm room somewhere in America, it’s a sure bet that some addled journalism major is hitting “play” on the iconic “Doobie in My Pocket.”

Curious roommates will congregate around the funky bass line, and the planet will continue to spin justly.

esandy@clevescene.com t@EricSandy

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

47

MUSIC

The pop band R5 sounds more like an alternative group on its latest album.

A FAMILY AFFAIR

R5 opts for a more mature sound on its latest album, Sometime Last Night

By Jeff Niesel THE LOS ANGELES-BASED POP band R5 had so much success with its major label debut, 2013’s Louder, that the group’s initial tendency was to try to replicate the album’s sound and vision with its sophomore effort.

It had completely recorded a followup album when it decided it made more sense to go a different route.

“We had the album cover and everything was done,” says drummer Ellington Ratliff via phone from a Memphis tour stop. “But it was the same situation as Louder, and we thought we shouldn’t do that again.

We weren’t happy with it. It didn’t represent us well. We canned it but kept some of the songs and made them into bonus tracks. We had to go back to the studio.”

Ellington says the group, which also features four siblings — singerguitarist Ross Lynch, singer-bassist Riker Lynch, singer-guitarist Rocky Lynch and singer-keyboardist Rydel Lynch — decided to keep things “in house,” both literally and figuratively.

Band members rented a house in Southern California where they worked on writing the songs without any interference from the record label.

“We brought friends in instead of people that the label sets up, where it can be awkward for a few days and you may or may not get a song out of it,” says Ellington. “We brought in people we liked and brought them to our garage. A lot of the songs were written by the band and it was a much better experience. We could

48

wake up, grab a cup of coffee and go to the studio and just write. It was the best experience recording we ever had.”

The album commences with the shimmering “All Night,” a song with call-and-response vocals and a percolating synthesizer riff. Songs such as the funky “Let’s Not Be Alone Tonight” and the hyperactive “Doctor, Doctor” follow a similar pattern. The songs sound more like something by the alternative act Imagine Dragons than, say, the boy band One Direction.

“We love alternative music,” says Ellington. “That’s my first love. We try to put in the classic rock influences too, even electronic influences. We drew from [hiphop producer] Jiggy Hendrix when we were writing the song

lead vocals. She adds a certain sass to the tune.

“It originally had Ross’ vocals on it,” says Ellington when asked about the tune. “She liked that song and that would have been on the previous album, but with Ross singing. That would have been on the scrapped album. We had to transpose it and I had to do backing vocals in one day.

Her vocals are more piercing than his. I loved that song because the solos are tight and we don’t normally have kickass solos like that.”

For Ellington, who grew up in what he calls the “the cliched Los Angeles scene,” acting seemed more like a possible career than playing in a band, even though he played in garage rock bands since he was in middle school. When he met the

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‘F.E.E.L.G.O.O.D.,’ which has more of a house sound to it. Right now, we’re listening to Chris Stapleton so maybe we’ll do a country song. I doubt it, but you don’t know what’s going to come up in your brain when you’re writing music. That’s ultimately what you do.

You put these things in your blender and shoot it out, and that’s what the music is.”

Originally slated to be on the album that was scrapped, “Lightning Strikes” enables Rydel Lynch to take

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

Lynches in high school, he ditched his previous bands to play exclusively with them.

“I was friends with them for about a year before they asked me to play in the group,” he says. “Me and Ross and Rocky and Ryker jammed out to some classic rock like ‘Smoke on the Water’ and AC/DC — the classics. We started playing shows from there.

We booked shows every weekend. I ditched my other band because the Lynches were more fun to be around.

I just went with my gut and realized I didn’t have time for the other guys.

We got more recognition and got on TV shows and got signed and have been touring ever since. It’s been pretty wild.”

When it comes to drumming, he says he learned to tap dance at a young age and that gave him a good sense of rhythm.

“I had a more natural tendency to figure out rhythm than to figure out what chords were and what scales were,” he says. “My mom played me Zeppelin when I was little, so I was naturally into them. Any drummer Jack White has, I’m a big fan of. I like Daru Jones. I also like gospel drummers. They’re insane.

You should check out Aaron Spears and Thomas Pridgen. They’re the craziest. You go on a drummers’ blog and they’re the ones that people are talking about. There’s also this German guy Benny Greb. He always comes up with this crazy stuff and does some African drumming.”

Ellington says the band intends to take a bit of a break after the current tour, the second outing in support of Sometime Last Night.

“When we’re done with the tour, we’ll start on some other project,” he says. “This will be the last tour we’re doing for a while. We’ll maybe write some songs for other people. We want to take a little break without making it a real break, if that makes sense.”

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

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| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

49

LIVEWIRE

all the live music you should see this week Photo by Eric Ryan Anderson

WED

3/2

U.F.O.: One of the heavyweights riding the British Heavy Metal wave in the late 1960s, UFO stands tall in the canon of rock ‘n’ roll. We’re partial to Phenomenon, an early album that opened the floodgates for UFO’s heavier sound — their identity. (Eric Sandy), 7:30 p.m., $35-$50. The Tangier.

10 X 3 Hosted by Brent Kirby (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge.

Kofi Boakye: 8 p.m., Free. BLU Jazz+.

Greyhounds/Go’on Gunslinger: 8:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Beachland Tavern.

Joe Rollin Porter/Boho Mojo: 8 p.m.

Barking Spider Tavern.

Bryson Tiller: 7 p.m. House of Blues.

The Word Alive/Fit for a King/Out Came the Wolves/Along Came a Spider/It Lies Within: 6 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Agora Ballroom.

THU

3/3

Jorma Kaukonen: Known mostly for his work with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, Jorma Kaukonen — an Ohio boy! — boasts a long and dynamic solo career. He’s an excellent storyteller and guitarist, renowned among fans and fellow musicians for his thrilling fingerpicking and his penchant for drawing upon international musical traditions (southern Asia, India).

(Sandy), 8 p.m., $30 ADV, $35 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

The Ark Band: 7 p.m., $5. Grog Shop.

Blu Jazz Big Band Residency with the Sam Blakeslee Large Group: 8 p.m., $10. BLU Jazz+.

Cradle of Filth/Butcher Babies/Ne Obliviscaris: 6 p.m., $25. House of Blues.

The Faceless: 6:30 p.m., $13 ADV, $15 DOS. The Outpost.

For the Love of the Mambo: 8 p.m., $10. Nighttown.

Chris Hatton’s Musical Circus (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge.

Helloween/Them/Sunless Sky: 7 p.m., $35. The Agora Theatre.

Jam Night with the Bad Boys of Blues: 9 p.m., Free. Brothers Lounge.

Microwave/The Spectators/The Traveler/Hell & Highwater/ Creature Comforts (in the Locker Room): $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes.

Piano Bar with Lounge Kitty (in the

50

The indie pop act Jukebox the Ghost returns to the Beachland. See: Friday.

Supper Club): 7:30 p.m., $7. Music Box Supper Club.

Mike Sopko & Ryan Scott Long Duo: 9 p.m., $5. The Euclid Tavern.

Spyder Stompers/Avin Loki Baird – The Imaginary Outlaws/Troy Petty: 6 p.m. Barking Spider Tavern.

The Keller Williams KWahtro featuring Gibb Droll, Danton Boller & Rodney Holmes/The Accidentals: 9 p.m., $22 ADV, $25 DOS. Beachland Ballroom.

FRI

3/4

Jukebox the Ghost/Mainland/Polars: Back in 2014, the band signed with Cherrytree Records and hit the road in early 2015 for a North American tour that became the subject of the new short documentary film “Long Way Home.” The current tour supports Jukebox the Ghost (Cherrytree Deluxe Edition), a re-release of their self-titled LP that comes with a bonus disc of Thornewill’s “reimagining” of the songs as improvised piano arrangements. The guys cut the album over the course of several months, working with producer Andrew Dawson (fun, Kanye West) and producer Dan Romer (Ingrid Michaelson, the Woes). A song characterized by its perky piano/ synthesizer riff and choir-like vocals, “The Great Unknown” poses the question about the afterlife. It’s one of the album’s standout tracks.

(Niesel), 8 p.m., $16 ADV, $18 DOS. Beachland Ballroom.

Sunflower Bean: The seductive singing of bassist Julia Cumming carries many of the songs on Sunflower Bean’s debut album, Human Ceremony, but the New York trio really shines when her voice

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

contrasts the shimmering riffs of guitarist Nick Kivlen, who founded the band with drummer Jacob Faber around 2013. The overarching mood of their album is hard to pin down, as the band bounces from the dreamy jangle of its opening title track to the spunky throbbing of “Wall Watcher” to the soft cuteness of “I Want You to Give Me Enough Time.” In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the 20-year-olds of Sunflower Bean name-dropped Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and T. Rex in a debate about which band had the best debut album. It’s hard to say if Sunflower Bean’s debut might be similarly adored by teens 40 years after its release date, but the album’s lush soundscape firmly establishes the band as an exciting new name in indie pop. (Jacob DeSmit), 8 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes.

DJ Lawrence Caswell: 6 p.m., Free.

Happy Dog. Brandon Coleman Quartet Featuring Noah Preminger: 8 p.m., $12. BLU Jazz+.

The Crooked River Band: 9 p.m., $5.

The Euclid Tavern.

Florist/Small Wood House/Curtail/ Key to the Mint (in the Locker Room): 7 p.m., $8. Mahall’s 20 Lanes.

Mitch Frohman/Sammy DeLeon Latin Jazz Sextet: 8:30 p.m., $20.

Nighttown.

Euge Groove: 8:30 p.m., $45-$92.50.

The Tangier.

Happy Feet Night with Secret Soul Club/The Britemores: 9 p.m., Free.

Beachland Tavern.

Jukebox Heroes: 9:30 p.m., $5.

Brothers Lounge.

George Kahumoku Jr., Led Kaapana & Jeff Peterson: 8 p.m., $25 ADV, $28 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

Dennis Lewin: 10:30 p.m., free.

Nighttown.

Lowly, the Tree Ghost/The Gage Brothers: $5. Happy Dog. Christine Marie (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge.

Oozing Wound/Rectal Hygenics/ Rubber Mate/Meanderthal: 9 p.m., $5. Now That’s Class.

Frank Sinatra Tribute with Michael Sonata (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $10. Music Box Supper Club.

Smokin’ Fez Monkeys/InGroovement/ George Foley & Friends: 5:30 p.m.

Barking Spider Tavern.

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes: 8 p.m., $29.50-$57.50. Hard Rock Rocksino.

Tri-C Jazz Fest Presents Soundworks: 8 p.m., $15. Bop Stop.

Whiskey Daredevils/Texas Plant: 9 p.m., $8. Musica.

SAT

3/5

Motherfucker/Goldmines: The title of Motherfucker’s first full-length might be Confetti, but the music is better suited for a Grand Theft Auto soundtrack than a sweet 16 party.

(Bethany Kaufman), 9 p.m., $5.

Happy Dog. Shivering Timbers/Shitbox Jimmy/ Sleepykid: Akron’s Shivering Timbers is husband-wife duo Jayson and Sarah Benn with former street drummer Daniel Kshywonis.

Then-local rockstar and friend Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys liked the innocent lullabies that the Benns composed for their young daughter so much that he came on board to produce their first album, 2010’s We All Started in the Same Place.

Vacillating between thoughtfullyembellished folk ballads and infectiously groovy blues rock, songs such as “The Mopping Floor,” “Crooked Old Man” and “Nose Nose Nose” emulate Jack White’s whimsical revival of roots music.

(Kaufman), 8:30 p.m., $8. Beachland Tavern.

Rachel Brown and The Beatnik Playboys: 8 p.m., $10. Bop Stop.

City Limits/Kismet: 9 p.m., $5. The Euclid Tavern.

Tony Cuda’s Jazz Cats: 8 p.m., $12.

BLU Jazz+.

The Four Horsemen: The Ultimate Tribute to Metallica/Maiden Voyage/Meccadeth: 7:30 p.m., $12.

House of Blues.

Hard Day’s Night — Beatles Tribute Band: 8 p.m., $15 ADV, $18 DOS. The Kent Stage.

Austin Jones/Run 2 Cover/Josh

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Saturday March 5 Rio Neon 8:00 (folk, jazz, rock) Bill Lestock 10:00 (bluegrass, folk)

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| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

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| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

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Taerk: 6 p.m., $15. Musica.

Carlos Jones: 9 p.m., $5. Vosh Club.

The Kinsey Report (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

Bill Lestock/Rio Neon: 8 p.m.

Barking Spider Tavern.

The Modern Electric/Cities & Coasts/Jivviden: 8:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Beachland Ballroom.

The Spazmatics: 9:30 p.m., $5.

Brothers Lounge.

Jojo Stella: 10 p.m., $8. Music Box Supper Club.

Sultans of String: 8:30 p.m., $20.

Nighttown.

Tribute to Rush by Distant Signals: 8 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

Jeff Varga (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m.

Brothers Lounge.

Jackie Warren: 10:30 p.m., free.

Nighttown.

SUN

3/6

Coco Montoya/The Brickhouse Blues Band: 7:30 p.m., $16 ADV, $19 DOS. Beachland Ballroom.

Laurin Talese Presents: Gorgeous Chaos (in the Supper Club): A Cleveland native, jazz singer Laurin Talese recruited some major talent to accompany her on her debut album, Gorgeous Chaos.

Produced by Adam Blackstone (Justin Timberlake, Rihanna) and Ulysses Owens, Jr. (Christian McBride, Kurt Elling, Wynton Marsalis), the album includes appearances by Robert Glasper, Christian McBride, Christian Sands, renowned soul/R&B singer Vivian Green, and longtime collaborator Eric Wortham (Adele, Jill Scott). Other notable artists featured on the recording include: Yesseh Furaah-Ali, Erskine Hawkins, Jamar Jones, Josh Lawrence, Anwar Marshall, Ben O’Neill, Steve Tirpak, Joe Truglio, The Millennial Symphony Strings and Dontae Winslow. On the track “Winter,” Talese sings in a hushed voice over busy bits of piano and horns and in “Forgive and Forget” she shows off her vocal chops.

Expect plenty of friends and family to be on hand for tonight’s CD release show. (Niesel), 7 p.m., $10.

Music Box Supper Club.

We Banjo 3/Pat Mulloy of Marys Lane: An award-winning quartet out of Galway, Ireland, We Banjo 3 has become a festival favorite

since forming some five years ago. The band plays “Celtgrass,” a distinct style of music that draws from Irish folk, Americana and bluegrass. Expect to hear plenty of songs from the band’s latest album, last year’s twangy Gather the Good. (Niesel), 4 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

Conan/Serial Hawk/Black Spirit Crown: 9 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Now That’s Class.

George Foley and Friends: 6 p.m.

Barking Spider Tavern.

March Noise Lunch with Xome/ Boar/Killed in Prison/Dissilent/ Xterminal/Ghost Bread/Black God/Stephan Haluska/Karl Vorndran/Dog Lady Island/ Baaldavar: 4 p.m., Free. Now That’s Class. The Music of Getz/ Barron: 8 p.m., $10. Bop Stop.

Mike Petrone (in the Wine Bar): 5:30 p.m. Brothers Lounge.

Rivers & Rust/Jason Patrick Meyers: 7 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Beachland Tavern.

Round2Crew/Spencer Sutherland/ Alyssa Shouse/The Stolen: 7 p.m., $15-$65. Musica.

Story Time: A Storytelling Open Mic: 9 p.m. Barking Spider Tavern.

MON

3/7

Skatch Anderssen Orchestra: 8 p.m., $10. Brothers Lounge.

Debbie Darling Duo: 7 p.m., Free.

Nighttown.

Velvet Voyage (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge.

TUE

3/8

Guerilla Toss/Fertile the Drip/Fake Species (in the Locker Room): 10 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes.

Mr. Clit & the Pink Cigarettes/ Swirly & the Fryer/Kill the Hippies: 9 p.m., Free. Now That’s Class.

Victor Samalot: 7 p.m., $7. The Bevy in Birdtown.

Shaker Heights High School Bands: 7 p.m., $5. Nighttown.

Tuesday Night Blues Party with Chris Antonik: 8 p.m., $10. BLU Jazz+.

Two-Set Tuesday (in the Wine Bar): 7 p.m. Brothers Lounge.

Dan Zola Orchestra Big Band: 7:30 p.m., $10. Vosh Club.

Radiation City/Deep Sea Diver/By Light We Loom: 8:30 p.m., $12.

Beachland Ballroom.

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

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Akron Apex of ENTERTAINMENT

THURS., MARCH 3

Jack Russell of Great White 9PM

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LOWLY, THE TREE GHOST

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MAR 5

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MON., MARCH 7

Open Jam Night

MEET THE BAND: Andrew Arbogast (vocals, guitars), Emily McKitrick (vocals, keyboards), Laura Simna (violin), Joe Piedmonte (bass), and Alec Schumann (drums)

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NOT JUST A ONE-MAN BAND: In 2009, singer-guitarist Andrew Arbogast relied on some longtime friends and Craigslist postings to transform Lowly, the Tree Ghost from a oneman bedroom project into what he’s described as a “more inclusive lineup.” The band benefits from male and female vocals, something Aborgast says has been a real strength. “When I first started, I was just playing songs by myself after my previous band broke up; I was the lead singer in that group, and I never had a girl in the band or had worked with anyone,” he says. “Emily [McKitrick] was a long-time friend and I knew her from other bands; I enjoyed her voice and knew she was a good keyboard player.

When we started playing together, it made things that much better. I never had too much confidence in my own voice and I don’t think I’m that great of a musician, so I hold her to a much higher standard.”

A BAND YOU CAN BRING HOME TO YOUR MOTHER: The band’s mix of pop and rock melodies comes off as particularly palatable. On the group’s Facebook page, Arbogast even jokes that Lowly, the Tree Ghost is a “band you can bring home to your mother.”

“It’s the best description of our music,” he says. “I enjoy playful lyrics and descriptions that have storytelling to them. I like illustrations of old kids’ books that I grew up with. I never swear in my lyrics. We play to a lot of families and I don’t think they would want me on stage swearing and talking about a bunch of ridiculous things like some bands do. It’s not very poetic either. Poetry is important to me when it comes to the lyrics.”

54

Courtesy of Lowly, the Tree Ghost

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

WHY YOU SHOULD HEAR THEM: The band’s second full-length, From the Ground, features exuberant folk-pop.

The album opens with “Whale Calls,” a song distinguished by its mix of piano and strings that accompany harmonized vocals. “Jeremy Fisher Part 2” comes off as a pure folk number, complete with some vigorous fiddle and drums just right for swing dancing. An a cappella outro makes you realize just how well band members can harmonize too. “Twin Peaks, Wa” sounds like something 10,000 Maniacs might’ve recorded back when Natalie Merchant was in the group. “This is our sixth drummer,” he says. “We jokingly say we’re the Spinal Tap of indie rock. We started writing music with the new drummer. It felt like a whole new band. We’re really proud of it. This past new year, I invested in home studio equipment and it’s opened a whole level of freedom when it comes to recording. We never had positive experiences in studios in the past, not because of the studio or the people we worked with. We just didn’t get to explore different sounds.

With this album, we were free to do whatever we wanted when we wanted and not have that restraint on us. It’s our second album but feels like the first thing we ever put out.” For its upcoming CD release show, the band will play the entire album.

WHERE YOU CAN HEAR THEM: facebook. com/lowlythetreeghost.

WHERE YOU CAN SEE THEM: Lowly, the Tree Ghost performs with the Gage Brothers at 9 p.m. on Friday, March 4, at the Happy Dog.

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

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| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

55

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| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

“Coolest local live band venue I’ve seen in a long time” - Slash

THURSDAY, MARCH17 ST. PATRICK’S DAY

C-NOTES local music news

Photos by Emanuel Wallace

Local musicians assembled at Mahall’s to honor the late Dwayne Pigee, a local artist and musician.

MAHALL’S HOSTS MEMORIAL FOR THE LATE DWAYNE PIGEE ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 22, LOCAL artist, musician and poet Dwayne Pigee was shot and killed in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood. The circumstances that led to the shooting are unknown and the shooter is still on the loose. On Friday, several musicians, poets and artists held a concert at Mahall’s in his honor.

In His Name: A Tribute Concert for Francois Fissi Bissi Okrakongo was hosted by Kisha Nicole Foster and featured performances from the likes of Vigatron, Obnox, Archie Green, FreshProduce, Muamin Collective, Ngina Fayola, Redstrypah, Will Blaze, Nick Holmes and many others.

ChaderOne and Dakari of Lab Cabin Cleveland painted images of Pigee in his honor.

There was a silent auction going on with proceeds to benefit Books 2 Prisoners and vendors sold shirts bearing the meaning of G.O.R.K. — God Only Really Knows.

Guide to Kulchur’s Ra Washington has set up a GoFundMe campaign to help with Pigee’s funeral expenses. It’s at www.gofundme.com/znqnyc7k.

— Emanuel Wallace

COMMITTED TO A CAUSE Cleveland-born singer-songwriter Nicole Marie recently teamed up with New York-based hip-hop producer Vinny Idol on her new single “Days Are Harder,” a catchy soul/R&B tune about perseverance. The single, which just came out, represents years of hard work.

Marie started performing locally

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at age 7 and even auditioned for Star Search at age 10. One of the runners up for Fox 8 Cleveland Idol, Marie has also performed on New York’s Rock Me TV. She recently formed a partnership with the Cleveland City Mission, and will donate all proceeds from the song to the City Mission to help provide food and shelter for people in need.

“We are making a difference with music,” she says. “It’s my mission and passion to help people, and I am so happy I can do it through music.”

Additionally, she just released a new music video for “Days Are Harder.” Her first-ever music video, it was filmed in Cleveland and opens with a shot of the Rock Hall.

— Jeff Niesel

BUNBURY LINEUP ANNOUNCED Now in its fifth year, Bunbury Music Festival, which takes place in downtown Cincinnati’s Sawyer Point and Yeatman’s Cove from June 3 to 5, has become one of the state’s best music festivals.

The 2016 lineup features national, regional and local acts including the Killers, Florence and the Machine, and Mudcrutch, the Southern rock band featuring Mike Campbell, Tom Leadon, Randall Marsh, Tom Petty and Benmont Tench that predates Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. — Niesel

scene@clevescene.com t @cleveland_scene

Check out our second location

Club 1245

1245 E. Tallmadge Ave. Akron, OH 44310 Mon-Sat 4pm - 2:30am. | Closed Sundays | clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

57

58

| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

CELEBRATE

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THURSDAY 3/17

STOP IN FOR A COLD BEER & CORNED BEEF ON OUR NEW PATIO !

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| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

59

SAVAGE LOVE FOUR WORD LIMIT

By Dan Savage

Find your happy hour.

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Dear Dan, Are you incapable of concision?

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| clevescene.com | March 2 - 8, 2016

Dear Dan, I’m 30, happily married, with my husband since I was 17. First boyfriend, kiss, etc. I never had sex with anyone else. This never bothered me because I wasn’t really into sex—but there have been big changes in the last year. I guess I am having a sexual awakening.

My sex drive increased, and I’ve started reading erotica and fantasizing about getting kinky. I’ve also been having very strong urges to fuck someone else.

As someone who always had strong values and opinions when it comes to sex and marriage and cheating, these feelings really confused me! So I found a safe and harmless outlet: Second Life.

I created a hot avatar and have been role-playing, talking dirty, and banging people across the world for six months.

I love it. I get to experience scenarios I fantasize about but would never do in real life. Before your readers start pulling the cheater card: I have talked about this with my husband, and I have his blessing. He knows I have an SL account and I’m having cybersex. Here’s where it gets murky. Most of my SL friends haven’t asked if I’m taken in RL, and I haven’t told them that I am. I flirt as if I’m single, though, because I’m worried people will treat me differently if they know I’m married. I do not wish to meet or have RL sex with anyone I meet on SL, and I make that clear to everyone. I don’t do photos/voice chat/ Skype. But if someone asks me if I’m married in RL, I always tell the truth.

I’m writing because I’m worried about this one guy. The cybersex is super hot, and he’s sweet. He’s my go-to guy, and I’m his go-to girl. He knows I have cybersex with other people in SL, and I have told him he is obviously allowed to have sex with others too. But I’m worried our SL relationship has become

a bit more. He leaves me messages when I’m not online, telling me he misses me and “loves being with me,” and I’ve said the same to him. I’ve also made it clear I have no intention of meeting anyone from SL in RL, ever. Regardless of my intentions, I’m worried that I’m crossing the line and being unfair to my husband. I’m also worried that I’m being unfair to my guy in SL, because I’m sure he must think I’m single, even though he has never asked. Am I crossing the line and at risk of hurting my husband/SL guy? Or am I just having some harmless fun that helps me satisfy this strange new itch that’s driving me crazy?

Second Lifer And Spouse Haver P.S. It’s important to note that SL has not negatively impacted my RL sex life and, if anything, has made it better.

It has also made me happier and less cranky at home.

You’re doing nothing wrong, SLASH.

Dear Dan, My husband and I met our “soulmate parents” at our daughter’s preschool a few years ago, i.e., that rare couple with a kid the same age and the same artistic interests and political values. Our kids instantly bonded and are now BFFs. They have sleepovers, go trick-or-treating together, sled together—little girl heaven. Early on, the guy called my husband and they had a hard-drinking lunch. The guy spilled his guts about a painful previous relationship. It was weird, but we wrote it off. Three years of normal interactions and a kid later, we’re really good friends with the wife, while the guy stays in the background. I decided to start up a FetLife profile for fun—my husband and I are monogamish, and this is with his okay—and I find the guy’s profile, which clearly states that his wife does not know he’s on this site.

What do I do? Pretend I never saw it?

What if the wife finds out I knew? Do I tell him that I know? Most of all, I worry about the strain this would place on my daughter’s friendship. Her heart would be broken.

Has Evidence Louse Parent Making Arrangements Mind your own business, HELPMA.

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