Scene February 26, 2020

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| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

| cl cclevescene.com evvessce eves c ne n .ccom om | February Februa Fe Feb bbrruuaar y 2266 - Ma Marc March r h 3, 22020 rc 0200 02

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CONTENTS

&%" -!2 s 6/, .O Upfront .......................................5 Feature .......................................7 Get Out! .................................... 15 Dedicated to Free Times founder Richard H. Siegel (1935-1993) and Scene founder Richard Kabat Publisher Andrew Zelman Editor Vince Grzegorek Editorial Music Editor Jeff Niesel Senior Writer Sam Allard Staff Writer Brett Zelman Web Editor Laura Morrison Dining Editor Douglas Trattner Visual Arts Writer Dott von Schneider Stage Editor Christine Howey Copy Editor Elaine Cicora Interns Claudia Ugbana Advertising Senior Multimedia Account Executive John Crobar, Shayne Rose Creative Services Art Director/Production Manager Steve Miluch Staff Photographer Emanuel Wallace Business

Eat ............................................ 21 Music ........................................24 Savage Love .............................. 37

REWIND: 1974

Euclid Media Group Chief Executive OfďŹ cer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating OfďŹ cers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner VP Digital Services Stacy Volhein Digital Operations Coordinator Jaime Monzon www.euclidmediagroup.com National Advertising Voice Media Group 1-800-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com Cleveland Scene 737 Bolivar Rd., #4100 Cleveland, OH 44115

This week all the way back in 1974, Scene reviewed Todd Rundgren’s album Todd.

Check it out in this week’s Rewind on page 46.

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| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

UPFRONT CITY OF CLEVELAND’S INCENTIVE PACKAGE FOR SHERWIN-WILLIAMS TOTALS ~$100 MILLION Photo by Tim Evanson - FlickrCC

CLEVELAND MAYOR FRANK Jackson unveiled an incentive package late last week that includes an estimated $100 million in rebates, tax abatements and gifts for Sherwin-Williams, the paint and coatings corporate giant that has elected to keep its headquarters in Northeast Ohio.

At a press conference, Jackson noted that the incentive package was more or less what’s on offer from the city for other companies as they build or locally expand.

The Sherwin-Wiliams incentives seem so large, he said, because they correspond to the size of the company.

The biggest chunk of the package is the now-standard 30-year nonschool tax-increment financing (TIF) incentive. Through that arrangement, Sherwin-Williams will be allowed to invest what it would have paid in taxes on the increased value of the property in the construction of their new building.

The incentive, which will not affect taxes for the Cleveland schools, has an estimated value of $2 to $2.5 million per year (depending on the total value of the new downtown building), which translates to a $60 to $75 million incentive.

The City will also provide a $13.5 million construction grant — free money! — and a 50-percent income tax rebate for any new jobs created in the city. That rebate may be worth up to $11.5 million, and will be disbursed annually, based on the number of new jobs, over 15 years.

The Plain Dealer has reported that the city of Brecksville, where Sherwin-Williams intends to locate its new research and development facility, has also created an incentive package likely to be worth north of $100 million. The vast majority of the suburb’s package would also come from a TIF incentive. The facility will anchor a mixed-use redevelopment project at a former VA hospital campus in Brecksville. The package also reportedly includes an income tax rebate for new jobs.

These incentives are in addition to a Cuyahoga County grant worth $14 million that would reimburse Sherwin-Williams for various construction and infrastructure costs. The state of

Ohio, through JobsOhio, has also offered incentives, but those remain undisclosed. — Sam Allard

Cleveland State’s Termination Letter to Men’s Basketball Coach Dennis Felton Last Year Includes All Sorts of Nasty Allegations Horizon League reporter Bob McDonald recently discovered that former Cleveland State University men’s basketball coach Dennis Felton has sued the school over his dismissal last year.

The wrongful termination lawsuit itself isn’t very interesting, but the university’s termination letter to Felton, included as an exhibit in CSU’s response, is.

This being Cleveland State basketball, and the Vikings being what they’ve been in recent memory, it’s not entirely surprising that there wasn’t a whole lot of local reporting on Felton’s firing. Sure, he sucked, the team sucked. Terry Pluto had a little information in a July 2019 column, including that players objected to Felton’s conditioning programs, that academic performance had lagged during his tenure, and that Felton couldn’t seem to stop talented players from transferring.

The termination letter lays out those claims, but it includes so much more. In it, CSU athletic director Scott Garrett alleged: That Felton mishandled or failed to report to the Office of Institutional Equity a possible instance of dating violence by a member of the team.

That Felton hired two assistant coaches with previous disciplinary issues with the NCAA. One of those assistants, while at CSU, asked a player for $25,000.

That despite ongoing issues with academic performance, Felton sought commitments from players who were not academically eligible.

That Felton failed to initially report to CSU an incident where student athletes were pulled over by the Ohio Highway Patrol, who found drugs in the vehicle, and that Felton’s eventual report to the university was inaccurate.

That Felton went on vacation

without notifying the athletic director or completing paperwork to document his use of vacation time.

In his lawsuit alleging wrongful termination, Felton says those claims are inaccurate and made only so that CSU might avoid forking over money for the three remaining years of his contract.

In its answer, the university stood by its decision to fire Felton for cause and attached the termination letter as evidence.

Felton is now an assistant coach at Fordham. — Vince Grzegorek

CMSD’S Joseph Gallagher Middle School Chess Team Once Again Making History

Reyosh Biswakarma are anchoring the squad as they conquer new challenges and set new benchmarks.

Gallagher has the highest percentage of Asian students among CMSD schools, and the chess team has been composed chiefly of recent immigrants from India and Nepal.

Coach Ghose, himself an immigrant from India, recruited the students in large part to give them a social outlet because they were struggling to make friends. Their success in tournament play was a bi-product of their close friendships. — Allard

DIGIT WIDGET 49

Coach Amit Ghose and the Joseph M. Gallagher middle-school chess team are once again making history.

Earlier this month, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District K-8 school in Detroit-Shoreway announced that the chess team had become the first middle-school team ever to defeat all the high school teams at the local “Legends Tournament” held at Brush High School.

The feat is only the latest for a chess program that, last year, made waves regionally and nationally with its unprecedented success. (Scene spent time with the Gallagher chess team to document their season of triumphs. You can read that full story on Clevescene.com.)

Last year’s team was led by mostly 8th-graders, who are now freshmen in high schools across the district. And though Coach Ghose said last year’s achievements may never again be replicated, current 8th graders Sunita Magar and

Hours of legislative hearings, with more than 400 witnesses, on the state’s controversial school voucher system.

$335,000 Starting price of the 24 Rocky River condos in the complex that caught fire Sunday evening, closing I-90 while fire crews contained the blaze.

$9.4 MILLION Money that “Democratic” candidate Michael Bloomberg has spent blanketing the state of Ohio in TV ads since launching his campaign in November.

$409 MILLION Money that Bloomberg has spent on his campaign overall, making him, already, the highest-spending candidate of all time.

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene | clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

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| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

HE UNITED WAY OF GREATER Cleveland will announce Wednesday sweeping cuts to the annual funding it provides to area nonprofits, sources have told Scene. Roughly 70 so-called “partner agencies” and nearly 100 individual programs will be affected.

Though United Way would not confirm when asked directly, internal sources say that CEO August “Augie” Napoli is likely to announce across-the-board reductions. All funded agencies, which typically learn their allocation levels in June, are expected to be funded at 50 percent of their 2020 level through the end of the year,

after which the funding picture is totally unknown.

These cuts will drain more than $3 million from the region’s nonprofit ecosystem and will likely cause reduced staffing levels and services in programs that deal with hunger, workforce development, violence prevention, financial stability, kindergarten readiness and housing solutions, all of which have been clustered under United Way’s “community hub for basic needs.”

The dramatic cuts arrive less than a year after the organization’s “pivot point,” announced in June 2019, a masterclass in public relations through which significant cuts

were framed as a paradigm shift in funding that would allow United Way to focus on both the root causes of poverty and its immediate effects.

During that process, the organization managed to slough off nearly $2 million in annual contributions — in the middle of what partner agencies had been told was a three-year funding cycle — and eliminated five “focus areas” for programmatic funding, including the area which, according to the Urban Opportunity Agenda, would have had the most significant impact on poverty reduction in Cleveland: access to transportation.

The newly announced cuts will

disrupt or dismantle a wide range of area programs, from a food and clothing distribution program at the May Dugan Center ($16,000) to a Step Up to Quality (SUTQ) Early Childcare Professional Development Program at Starting Point ($145,000). The plurality of programs currently receive funding in the range of $50,000 to $80,000 per year. But 10 individual programs — including two at the Centers for Families and Children; workforce development programs at Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries and Towards Employment; financial stability programs at CHN Housing Partners and the Legal Aid Society of Greater | cl clev clevescene.com eves ev esce es ceenee.ccom om | February Feebr F ebrua uary ry 2266 - Ma M March rcch 3, 2020 202 0200

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| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

Cleveland; the Earned Income Tax Credit Coalition at Enterprise Community Partners; a housing stability program at EDEN; and a vocational rehabilitation training program at Vocational Guidance Services — all currently receive annual funding above $100,000.

Various explanations for these cuts may be furnished today.

United Way’s top executives have reportedly been cooped up in a “war room” shaping messaging on the topic for some time, and they may attempt to deploy their PR strategy in the coming weeks with the aid of the local press. They may try to portray the current cuts as exciting advancements in Cleveland’s battle against poverty. They may call the cuts something like a “difficult but necessary” decision in the service of a greater good. These lofty messages should be ignored. The story behind them is much deeper and more complicated.

More than 10 current and former employees, including those in highlevel positions, spoke to Scene for this piece under explicit guarantees of anonymity. Many of them said that the United Way, which raises millions of dollars every year through its annual appeal, has been unable to navigate a landscape of reduced workplace giving and renewed skepticism about the role of corporate-tinged nonprofits. They say that Augie Napoli and his team of highly-paid VPs are scrambling to invent “disruptions” in the philanthropic space but are doing so without the appropriate planning, communication or vision.

Moreover, sources say, United Way leadership has been unwilling or unable to grasp the truth: Workplace giving has declined yearover-year for more than a decade — sharply so during Napoli’s tenure — and no amount of buzzwords, algorithms and brand refreshes are likely to reverse that trend, certainly not without a clearer articulation of United Way’s role in Northeast Ohio.

The widely held assumption among staff members is that the funding cuts last year and this year have nothing to do with the performance of partner agencies or the realignment of priorities. It’s because of poor fundraising, ostensibly the organization’s raison d’etre.

Right now, according to employees, United Way’s agenda is whatever Augie Napoli and his VP of development, Aaron Petersal, say it

is. Combating poverty? Championing race equity? Creating a “think tank with a purpose”? Doesn’t matter, as long as it excites the donors.

“Frequently, strategies are developed and then left to die on the vine while we focus on a new flavor of the day,” said one employee. “And then we repeat the cycle over and over.”

The agenda, whatever it may be, is rarely communicated internally or externally. When Crain’s reported in June that Sandy and Sarah Cutler had donated $1.5 million to launch a new United Way venture to “identify and grow solutions to address the root causes of poverty,” it was the first time many on staff had heard.

Among other things, marketing and development employees had no talking points when donors and partner agencies called to inquire about details. The same situation arose, concurrently, when cuts were announced as part of the funding pivot.

“Basically everyone in the marketing department had just been fired when I got there,” said one former employee. “And it was complete chaos. We were brought on to build the new brand — doing social media, commercials — but with all the craziness around the cuts, it was like we became a marketing agency for United Way, if that makes sense. It was very crisis communications, very damage control.”

Much of the PR in the wake of the 2019 cuts, and certainly the theme of Napoli’s remarks at the organization’s annual luncheon last year, was that United Way was actually doing more by cutting funding to partner agencies because they were shifting funding to invest in solving poverty at its roots.

This was meant to be the work of the Impact Institute. Napoli and Petersal have reportedly made rounds in pursuit of major gifts to fund the Institute, in some cases shocking local corporations and foundations with their enormous asks (in multiple instances, $1 million straight up), but its work remains mostly, if not entirely, theoretical. It was supposed to have been “powered by” Unify Labs, an advanced technology nonprofit which itself has lost most of its staff in recent months and never fulfilled its promise to solve poverty with blockchain and AI and so forth. Employees still don’t have the foggiest idea what the Impact Institute is or does.

“But you can’t ask questions,” said one employee, who, like others, requested anonymity. “There is a

culture of suspicion. If you question leaders, you might be labeled a ‘negative person’ or ‘not a team player.’ And you never know how things could play out. Will I be fired?

Yelled at? Belittled? Black-balled if I leave?”

In spite of these fears, multiple employees have quit, often with no new job prospects awaiting them.

The marketing and development departments have hemorrhaged so many staffers since 2016 that when we referenced “a mass exodus” in one recent interview, we had to clarify which one.

Scene asked former employees if we could quote them by name in our coverage, but they all insisted on anonymity. In some cases, they said they feared their new organizations would be blacklisted if they were named in a piece perceived as critical of the United Way. Napoli, they said, wouldn’t think twice about such reprisals. He is known to wield funding like a weapon.

This current atmosphere of secrecy and mistrust has led to rampant rumor and speculation.

Among the more serious rumors: Some suspect that to compensate for reduced workplace giving, United Way has repeatedly dipped into its endowment fund to juke donor

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stats, a practice that may now be causing concern among the board of directors, a who’s-who of the region’s top corporate executives, plus a smattering of directors at prominent area nonprofits. Indians owner Paul Dolan (chair) and Browns owner Dee Haslam (chair of the Marketing & Brand Strategy committee) both sit on the board’s executive committee, to illustrate its regional clout.

Scene reached out to more than 20 members of the board in an effort to substantiate these rumors — they would have had to authorize endowment spending — but without exception, they either ignored our requests, declined to comment or directed us to United Way’s head of corporate communications, Katie Connell, a crisis communications specialist lately of Delta Airlines.

Through Connell, we made multiple attempts to set up an interview with Augie Napoli. We were not granted one, but Connell instructed us to send written questions. We did so, sending 19 detailed questions that covered an array of topics based on our reporting, including those that sought confirmation about the forthcoming funding cuts.

In response, we received the following statement:

“It is our policy to share any agency-related communications or developments with the agencies we work with first. Generally speaking about United Way and our future, we are committed to helping those living in the deepest poverty across Cleveland. Very soon, we will share the final step in our organization’s three-year strategic plan (announced in 2016) to maximize United Way’s impact within the community we serve by targeting specific, measurable goals and outcomes to address the city’s most challenging issues. In fact, in fiscal year 2019, United Way of Greater Cleveland invested $33.2 million in the community, including: 2-1-1 HelpLink and other direct services, the Impact Institute, federated and regional partners, agency grants directed by donors and agency grants determined by United Way’s RFP process. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, we look forward to continuing to invest in meaningful, long-term change across the community through programs such as Right to Counsel and the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition.”

In other words, they chose not to answer any of our questions.

(Connell did use the standard PR/

propaganda trick of referring to something as its opposite. So in the United Way’s language, a substantial funding decrease will maximize impact.)

The state of United Way’s endowment, incidentally, may have nothing to do with Wednesday’s announcement. But employees and others can’t help but speculate. Some partner agencies have also noted in off-the-record comments to Scene that United Way is, at this moment, completing a costly renovation of their downtown headquarters on Euclid Avenue. Was funding slashed to pay for these plush new digs, they wonder?

Who can say?

Just like the organization’s long-term strategy and shortterm decision-making, the factors underpinning the current cuts have not been communicated. This secrecy and/or lack of preparedness is consistent with what employees have variously called a “paranoid,” “fearbased,” “intimidating,” “chaotic,” “hostile,” “miserable” and “terrible” workplace.

“It felt as though they were hovering over you and always checking in on your whereabouts,” said one former employee who left United Way because of what

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| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

they called an “unhealthy” work environment. “It seemed as though there wasn’t a lot of trust.”

Indeed. When Scene published a story about the emerging questionable relationship between United Way and Unify Labs this fall, an enraged Napoli, who employees say is prone to temper tantrums, reportedly prioritized a witch hunt to uncover the “leakers.” And in recent weeks, mention of the forthcoming cuts have been scrapped from meeting agendas “because of questions coming from Scene Magazine.”

Whether it was fear of leaks, fear of repercussions or because the messaging had not yet been shaped, no substantive information about the current cuts has been communicated to staff. Per multiple employees, an all-staff meeting has been scheduled for later Wednesday at which talking points are likely to be distributed.

Just as troubling, and in apparent conflict with Connell’s statement, no details have been communicated to partner agencies themselves. (At least not as of our print deadline).

Eight executive directors who responded to Scene’s requests for comment all confirmed that United Way had not reached out to inform them of funding changes. Two said that they had been notified that they would be receiving information about funding soon.

“This is literally the first I’m hearing about it,” one local executive director told Scene by phone last week. “This is ridiculous.”

“I can’t comment on this because I don’t know,” said another. “I haven’t heard these rumors, but I really hope it’s not the case.”

“Umm no,” said a CEO who receives annual funding from United Way and had programs cut in 2019 as part of United Way’s pivot. “I have not heard about this, but it would absolutely have a major impact.”

“I would like to know what is going on to require this kind of drastic action,” one local executive director wrote via email, after confirming that no one from United Way had reached out to apprise them of forthcoming cuts. “What are the factors? What else are they prioritizing instead? What is their strategy going forward? Why hasn’t there been more communication leading up to this point?”

The most generous response came from an executive director who said that, while they had not

heard rumors or received direct communication from United Way about funding reductions, further cuts “wouldn’t be a huge surprise” because of allusions that Napoli and the board have made to ongoing organizational shifts.

Napoli has certainly foreshadowed deeper cuts. During coverage of the 2019 pivot, he said his heart broke to cut funding for area programs.

“But honestly, we have to do this if we’re going to remain vital to the community,” he told Crain’s.

“Because at the end of the day — this is a controversial statement — we don’t exist to support the delivery system. We exist to support the person who’s living under the thumb of poverty and to continue to retain the trust of the public that gives us the money to support the person in need.”

The logic there is difficult to parse — how should funders support people in poverty if not by supporting those who deliver them services? — but it’s truly God-level tough love when you consider that Napoli makes north of $330,000 and is now enjoying the fruits of a multi-million-dollar office renovation, paid for with donor dollars, while area service providers will be forced to make do with less. Perhaps it’s superfluous to note that Cleveland remains at or near the top of virtually every poverty metric in the United States, including topping all big cities in childhood poverty and, recently, earning the distinction of having the worst educational and economic outcomes for black women.

Existing “to support the person who’s living under the thumb of poverty,” in any case, is something Napoli only started saying in 2018, after a rebranding effort which resulted in the organization’s new central focus. Cleveland.com reported then on what they called Napoli’s “epiphany.” They described United Way’s role as “tapping into its unique power to raise money, to convene the conversation [on poverty] and to condemn the racism that fuels social disparities.”

With or without a grain of salt, we note that Advance Ohio, Cleveland. com’s local parent company, received $140,000 in advertising dollars from United Way in 2017, according to the organization’s 2018 tax filing, and that Chris Quinn was then serving on the United Way board of directors.

He formally resigned in late 2019, when he stopped serving in the dual role of president of Advance Ohio and editor of Cleveland.com.

But back in 2017 and 2018, Quinn could be heard regularly on WCPN’s

Friday reporters’ roundtable praising United Way’s commitment to poverty, often in conjunction with comments about the Cleveland.com series “A Greater Cleveland.”

Two years after Napoli’s epiphany, the organization is raising fewer and fewer dollars and has not yet convened regional conversations on poverty. (Napoli did participate, for what it’s worth, in both the Cleveland Rising pre-summit planning summit and the Cleveland Lead Safe Summit.)

Late last week, employees moved to their newly renovated offices at the Mandel Community Building on Euclid. In texts to Scene, staffers called the updated headquarters “opulent,” “preposterous,” and “a PR disaster.” They described kitchens and dining areas on every floor and flat-screen TVs in the lobby which they quipped would probably soon be playing messages about ending poverty on an endless loop.

The tone was clear: The new office directly undercut the seriousness with which the organization purports to be taking poverty. It’s the latest realization of fears that began to take root when Napoli first arrived in 2016, said one employee: “that United Way of Greater Cleveland had abandoned its philanthropic focus

in favor of a heartless corporate culture.”

That culture, which under Napoli and Petersal has been marked by macho leadership and a fetish for high-tech solutions, has caused many of the remaining employees to ask an existential question: Is United Way raising money in order to fight poverty and champion equity? Or is it merely capitalizing on philanthropic energy around the social justice issues du jour in order to raise money?

One former employee told Scene that a big reason they left was because they were so fed up with companies and donors asking them, “Why should I give to United Way?” and having absolutely no idea what to say.

The publicity of all this would no doubt evoke extreme discomfort among the board of directors, a group sensitive to internal critique and ready to stand guard against external inspection. Though the members themselves have largely changed over since 2016, the memories of the development that preceded Napoli’s arrival remain fresh.

United Way of Greater Cleveland’s previous president and CEO, Bill Kitson, had been permitted to quietly

resign after behavior involving a subordinate employee became impossible to ignore. (In a February 2016 press release announcing the move, United Way said Kitson was moving on “to pursue other opportunities,” though when reached for comment by Cleveland.com at the time, Kitson said he wasn’t prepared to say what those opportunities were, of course. He has since gone on to become the U.S. Western Region director for United Way Worldwide.)

Kitson was replaced in an interim capacity by Simon Bisson, then the VP of resource development, before the board hired Napoli from the Cleveland Museum of Art to take the top spot permanently. Napoli was the art museum’s “Chief Advancement Officer,” in which capacity he ran in high-powered donor circles and was said to be a world-class schmoozer. Regarding his big-dollar fundraising acumen, he reportedly has an ego the rough dimensions of the Terminal Tower.

Kitson had been making $182,000 as the organization’s leader. But the board saw fit, for whatever reason, to compensate Napoli at nearly double that figure: $332,000 in 2017, the latest year for which nonprofit tax filings are available.

Napoli was initially welcomed,

according to former employees, less because of his supposed fundraising prowess and more because of his stated interest in sparking organizational change. But that change almost immediately took the form of severe “reconstruction” policies, resulting in substantial layoffs and mass firings in multiple departments.

His personnel hacking was exacerbated by what sources described as “tantrums,” abusive verbal outbursts that regularly put staff on edge. Furthermore, he surrounded himself with loyalists who not only flattered his narcissism by rarely questioning his judgement, but who often lacked experience in the departments they were hired to oversee.

The most egregious example, said employees, was Aaron Petersal, widely seen as Napoli’s top deputy.

Petersal was an event planner at the art museum under Napoli — he was the brains behind the “Mix” series — and was hired at United Way in 2017 in a newly created leadership position in the office of resource development. He was elevated to VP in 2017 with the departure of previous VP Dan Mansoor.

Napoli and Petersal were cited as the chief sources of fear and

| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

11

FEATURE intimidation in the office. Several former employees said they’d made efforts to shine a light on workplace hostility and discrimination in exit interviews. Scene is also aware of at least one federal complaint against Petersal with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. This culture of bullying, prejudice and hostility, corroborated by multiple sources, was alleged to be a significant cause of the organization’s rapid turnover in recent years.

Under Napoli, Petersal, and marketing VP Bill Winans, United Way has pursued three significant projects in the past three years which have had negative effects on the organization’s finances and staff morale. All reflect poorly on leadership, not only because the efforts failed, which they did, but because employees questioned and criticized them to no avail. In many cases, the only result of voicing concern was getting booted from the organization.

The first was the major “brand

refresh” in 2018 that Winans, who arrived at United Way from the world of for-profit communications with the stated goal of incorporating “e-commerce” tactics, spearheaded alongside Petersal, despite widespread internal skepticism.

Regional workplace giving was not declining because of a “stale brand,” many argued.

The rebranding effort entailed contracts with a number of costly third-party vendors, including the local outfit Flourish, which had made headlines in 2017 for boasting about its wins at the American Advertising Awards with a digital promotional campaign featuring Donald Trump parodies, including the infamous “grab ’em by the pussy” line. That was enough to lose the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center as a client, but not the United Way, whose leaders reportedly thought Flourish was “edgy.” Members of the marketing department felt alienated during the process, they told Scene, and many of those who questioned the value of the rebrand were summarily fired. That’s why the department was composed mostly of new hires during the 2019 funding pivot.

Another calamitous (and ongoing) organizational decision has been

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| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

Petersal’s. He has overseen shifting the electronic giving platform from a provider called Frontstream to a small company called Big River, one founded by a man named Ron Cass with whom Petersal is known to have personal ties. The shift to Big River has been an unqualified disaster, per the development department, with so many glitches and crashes this year that major losses in workplace giving are projected. Scene was shown emails of back-and-forths among development personnel from this fall as they stressfully dealt with broken links, faulty software and angry companies. The transition to Big River has been gradual, with a number of major accounts transferring to the platform this year, but Petersal has insisted that everyone must migrate for the 2020 appeal or face punitive fees, a decision that the development team almost universally regards with confusion and concern.

“Why would we punish companies that are trying to raise money for us?” asked one beleaguered former development staffer. “Why wouldn’t we meet them where they are?

Shouldn’t we be making giving easier for them, not more complicated?”

(A number of other allegations regarding the Big River transition

are not included in this story because we were unable to firmly substantiate them by our print deadline. But we have corroborated, by personally viewing staff emails, the manifold glitches and consequent tension among the development staff as a result of the shift. Multiple employees also stressed that “goals don’t matter” anymore under Petersal. Fundraising numbers are invented every year to appease the board, irrespective of what account managers predict and warn.)

The third and final decision was Napoli’s, and represents the illfated course United Way has been sailing in its effort to transcend philanthropic trends: Napoli has put his faith in Unify Labs, a high-tech “disruptor” that he hoped would rouse the donor base into giving major gifts.

Unify’s VP of communications was abruptly laid off late last year, and the few remaining staff there are restricted by confidentiality agreements, so Scene was unable to confirm the following directly, but the working theory by those with some knowledge of the interactions was that Unify Labs was supposed to not only “power” the Impact Institute but invent an AI algorithm which would revolutionize philanthropy in

Photo by Sam Allard

Cleveland, a promise that set Napoli’s Terminal Tower ablinking.

United Way has previously raised in the ballpark of $40 million per year through its workplace giving campaigns, though that number has declined substantially in recent years. In 2017, contributions totaled only $31.7 million, down from $35 million in 2016 and $40.4 million in 2015. Of those funds, United Way immediately takes a cut (estimated at 15 to 25 percent) to pay overhead costs, including executive salaries like Napoli’s. United Way then passes along the rest to the community in the form of designations and allocations. Designations are “donor-advised,” meaning individual contributors select where they’d like their money to go. The allocations are disbursed by volunteer community impact groups who review requests from partner agencies and decide where local dollars would stretch the furthest. (This is what Connell referred to, above, as the organization’s “RFP process.”)

This has long been part of the pitch when companies ask why they should start, or continue, a workplace giving campaign: You donate to United Way not only because “This is Cleveland,” and it’s part of your responsibility as an individual or corporate citizen, but because with the wisdom and experience of United Way’s community impact teams, your dollars really count.

Unify would have changed the pitch. Napoli had hoped that the ballyhooed nonprofit would create a magic algorithm to determine funding recipients, a magic algorithm that would have obviated the need for volunteer community impact groups, a magic algorithm that would have, ultimately,

eliminated poverty altogether. He had hoped the luster of this magic algorithm, the promotion of which allowed him to say fun words like “big data,” would be enough to persuade local corporations and aging emeritus CEOs to pony up.

But not only has Unify Labs crumbled without producing an algorithm of any kind, its powering of the Impact Institute also remains, in the most generous possible terms, opaque. Major donors have reportedly been skeptical of the Impact Institute, and after the Cutlers’ inaugural gift, Napoli and Petersal have experienced difficulty generating the rest of the $4.8 million they initially forecast in June.

All these failures should expose a fundamental challenge: If United Way wants to be taken seriously, let alone celebrated, as an organization committed to poverty, in a city as impoverished as Cleveland, its actions and performance must be scrutinized with considerably more rigor and skepticism than they’ve sustained to date.

By all accounts, that skepticism won’t be coming from the board of directors. “I would certainly not share anything gossipy about a 100-plus-year-old institution in our city that has done fabulous work for those in need, even if I did know of anything,” one director wrote to Scene when refusing to speak to us for this story. “I have the utmost respect and admiration for the United Way and its staff and all of the good that it does for our community and those it serves.”

Fair enough, but if the board is unprepared to hold United Way’s leadership accountable, or even to entertain the possibility of asking questions, then it falls to the

community to do so. Napoli himself said in 2019 that United Way “must put the WHY of our purpose front and center, and above all, RUN, not walk, in the direction of our TRUE NORTH: the needs of our community.”

Well, donors and partner agencies should inquire, have they done that?

Among other things, is a “think tank with a purpose” led by a coalition of CEOs like the Cleveland Clinic’s erstwhile executive Toby Cosgrove the most effective use of nearly $5 million?

National organizations like the Center for Neighborhood Technology (which recently published the Urban Opportunity Agenda) and local think tanks, like the Center for Community Solutions and Policy Matters Ohio, have produced a rich body of literature delineating urban poverty’s causes and effects, and have even outlined specific tactics to countervail against them — lobbying for a statewide minimum wage increase, for example.

What will Cosgrove and the skeleton crew at Unity Labs add to this conversation? Will $5 million for an executive think tank and a few-odd million for a downtown office renovation retain “the trust of the public that gives [United Way] the money to support the person in need”? Will they retain that trust more than the $3+ million which is now being slashed from local agencies that provide food, jobs and emergency shelter for the region’s most vulnerable populations?

At the end of the day — this is a controversial statement — no.

sallard@clevescene.com t@scenesallard

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GET OUT everything you should do this week Photo by Mindy Tucker

WED

02/26

MUSIC

Blomstedt Conducts Bruckner Herbert Blomstedt, a Swedish conductor known for his performances of German and Austrian composers, leads the Cleveland Orchestra tonight as it performs Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5. The concert begins at 7:30 at Severance Hall, where performances also take place at 8 tomorrow night and Saturday night. Consult the orchestra website for ticket prices.

(Jeff Niesel) 11001 Euclid Ave., 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com.

SPORTS

Cavaliers vs. Philadelphia 76ers Led by star point guard Ben Simmons and star forward Joel Embiid, the Philadelphia 76ers, one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference, come to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse to face the Cavs tonight at 7. In three previous meetings this year, the Cavs are yet to beat the 76ers — so it’s not likely they’ll get the win tonight. Check the Cavs site for ticket prices. (Niesel) 1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com.

SPOKEN WORD

Cleveland Stories Dinner Parties Cleveland Stories Dinner Party is a weekly series that pairs fine food with storytelling. Through it, the folks at Music Box Supper Club hope to raise awareness of the mission of the Western Reserve Historical Society’s Cleveland History Center.

The goal is to “bring to life some of the fun, interesting stories about Cleveland’s past — from sports, to rock ’n’ roll, to Millionaires’ Row,” as it’s put in a press release.

Admission is free, with no cover charge, although a prix fixe dinner is $20. Tonight, local author and scholar James Badal talks about the devastating Collinwood school fire of 1908, the subject of his latest book. Doors open at 5 p.m., dinner is served at 6, and the storytelling starts at 7. (Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-242-1250, musicboxcle.com.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Coral Kingdoms and Empires of Ice Underwater photography expert David Doubilet and his wife,

Comedian Jim Tews comes to Hilarities for two shows. See: Wednesday.

Jennifer Hayes, also an underwater photography aficionado, will speak about their experiences tonight at 7:30 at the Ohio Theatre as part of a special program presented by National Geographic. The event takes place at 7:30, and tickets start at $25. (Niesel) 1501 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

MUSIC

Fatoumata Diawara One of most vital standard-bearers of modern African music, Fatoumata Diawara comes to the Cleveland Museum of Art for the first time ever tonight for a performance that takes place at 7:30. A dynamic performer, she’s become the star of global music festivals worldwide. Tickets cost $35 to $45, or $30 to $40 for CMA members. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

FILM

Film Series: Chuck Berry This new documentary film chronicles the life and times of singer-guitarist Chuck Berry, the very first artist inducted into the Rock Hall. It screens at 7 p.m. at the Rock Hall as part of that institution’s

Black History Month celebration.

Tickets cost $10 for non-members.

It’s free for members. (Niesel) 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-515-8444, rockhall.com.

FILM

The Philadelphia Story George Cukor, James Stewart and Cary Grant star in this classic film about three men who love the same woman. It shows tonight at 7 at the Capitol Theatre as part of the Capitol’s Happy Hour Classic series.

Admission includes a complimentary cocktail or soft drink and light appetizers starting at 6 p.m. Tickets cost $10. (Niesel) 1390 West 65th St., 216-651-7295, clevelandcinemas.com.

THEATER

The Real Inspector Hound Tonight at 7:30 at the Outcalt Theatre, Cleveland State University’s Department of Theatre and Dance presents Tom Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound, its second theater production of the year. This play within a play is “part parody, part farce, part whodunit, and explores the ideology of free will and fate.”

Tickets cost $15, and a dinner option is available for $25. Performances

continue through March 8. (Niesel) 1407 Euclid Ave, 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

FILM

Short.Sweet.Film Fest A few years ago, local film aficionado Michael Suglio was watching a few bands play at Now That’s Class when he realized that hosting a film festival in an informal, clublike 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 five-day period; you can find a complete schedule, tickets and much more information on the website below. (Niesel) 2017 East Ninth St., 216-239-1200, shortsweetfilmfest.com.

THEATER

Sleuth Sleuth, which won the 1971 Tony for Best Play and was adapted to film on three separate occasions, offers “an inventive take on the country-house thriller.” A press release promises that suspense abounds throughout the “fiendishly cunning show” | clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

15

2020 THE ROAD TO THE ROCK HALL BEGINS WITH THE ROCK OFF

GET OUT about a mystery writer fascinated by games. Tonight’s performance, put on by Great Lakes Theater Company, takes place at 7:30 at the Hanna Theatre. Tickets cost $15 to $89. The show runs through March 8. (Niesel) 2067 East 14th St., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

COMEDY

Jim Tews A former Clevelander, comedian, writer, and the man behind The New York Times’ best-selling book Felines of New York, Jim Tews is a rising star in the comedy world. He made his standup television debut on Last Comic Standing and has been featured in an episode of Louie.

He was one of 2011’s “New Faces” at Just For Laughs Montreal and has performed in the Bridgetown Comedy Festival and the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival, as well as at SF Sketchfest. Tews also recently created, co-wrote and starred in The Undone Sweaters web series about “a sociophobic Weezer cover band.”

Funny or Die and Nerdist.com posted the series. As if that weren’t enough for his resume, the prolific Tews also created the HBO Labs’ web series The Opener and recently directed Make Fun, a feature-length documentary about Cleveland’s independent comedy scene. In town to celebrate the release of his new comedy album, Oatmeal, Tews performs at 7 tonight and 10:30 on Friday night at Hilarities. Tickets are $13 to $18. (Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.

THU

02/27

COMEDY

16

| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

Adam Carolla Radio personality and comedian Adam Carolla made a name for himself in the late ’90s as the co-host of the call-in program Loveline. After that show ended in 2005, he dabbled in acting and writing. He’s famous for his rants about “things that drive him crazy,” as it’s put in the press release announcing this tour that brings him to Hilarities tonight at 6 and 8:30. “Carolla started broke and blue collar and has now been on the Hollywood scene for more than 20 years,” reads the press release. “Yet he’s still connected to the workingclass guy he once was and delivers a raw and edgy, fish-out-of-water

take on the world he lives in (but mostly disagrees with), telling all the stories, no matter who he offends — family, friends, or the famous.”

Tickets are $37.50 and $47.50.

(Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.

COMEDY

Michael Colyar Comedian Michael Colyar tells the kinds of jokes that aren’t designed to appeal solely to fans of a certain ethnicity, age or background. He aims at making everyone laugh.

Colyar, who’s just unleashed a Donald Trump impersonation that finds him spouting things like, “Let’s make America white again,” performs tonight at 7:30 at the Improv. Tickets range from $17 to $20, and performances are scheduled through Sunday. (Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com.

FILM

The Grand Bizarre Tonight at 6:45, the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque shows a 35-mm print of experimental animator Jodie Mack’s 2018 film The Grand Bizarre. According to a press release about the screening, it’s “a playful, colorful, cross-cultural evocation of labor and capital, global trade and commerce.” Tickets cost $12, or $9 for Cinematheque members and students. (Niesel) 11610 Euclid Ave., 216-421-7450, cia.edu.

BOOKS

Ross Matthews Gossip hound Ross Matthews, author of the best-selling book Man Up!, brings his book tour/comedy set to House of Blues tonight at 8. Named after his newest book, Name Drop, the tour gives him a platform to relate all the “really good celebrity stories” he usually only tells at happy hour. He’ll likely also plug his new podcast, Straight Talk With Ross Mathews. Tickets cost $35. (Niesel) 308 Euclid Ave., 216-523-2583, houseofblues.com.

FRI

02/28

MUSIC

Big Sam’s Funky Nation Concert Big Sam’s Funky Nation, one of the Crescent City’s most cherished acts, plays a mix of funk, jazz, rock and hip-hop. The group performs a special concert tonight at 8 at the Rock Hall as part of the Rock Hall’s Black History Month celebration.

Tickets cost $15 if you just want to attend the concert, or $40 for the concert and museum admission.

(Niesel) 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-515-8444, rockhall.com.

COMEDY

Chris Distefano An actor and comedian based in New York, Chris Distefano maintains he’s “on a mission to bring some oldschool Brooklyn comedy” back to his beloved borough. In one bit, he talks about how in Brooklyn, no one ever really gets off the block. He recalls how he went to Norway once and was astonished to find the restaurant served reindeer. He performs tonight at 7 and 9:30 at Hilarities. Tickets are $20 to $28. (Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.

continue through March 1, and tickets start at $25. (Niesel) 1407 Euclid Ave, 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

COMEDY

An Evening with Bill Engvall A multi-award winning and Grammy-nominated comedian who can currently be seen in the Tim Allen hit comedy Last Man Standing, Bill Engvall has other television credits such as his sitcom The Bill Engvall Show and Just Sell Him for Parts. A member of the Blue Collar Comedy group, he also hosts the weekly podcast My Two Cents with Bill Engvall. He performs tonight at 7:30 at the Akron Civic Theatre.

Tickets cost $29. (Niesel) 182 South Main St., Akron, 330-253-2488, akroncivic.com.

THEATER

THEATER

Divorciadas, Evangélicas y Vegetarianas Tonight at 7:30 at the Helen, LatinUs Theater Company presents Divorciadas, Evangélicas y Vegetarians (Divorcees, Evangelists and Vegetarians), a play about three women at a crossroads in their lives. The play will be performed in Spanish with English supertitles projected on screen. Performances

Flanagan’s Wake Flanagan’s Wake transports the audience to an Irish wake where villagers tell tales and sing songs for their dearly departed Flanagan.

Finding the humor in life and death, the wake acts as a dark backdrop to an otherwise hilarious show in which alcohol fuels the humorous reminiscing. Sort of like a tragic Tony ’n’ Tina’s Wedding, the

interactive and improvised show engages the entire audience as the guests are treated as the friends and family of the deceased. Tonight’s show starts at 8 and repeats tomorrow night at 8 at Kennedy’s Theatre. Performances continue weekends through April 25. Tickets are $27. (Patrick Stoops) 1501 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

FOOD

Lenten Fry-Days For the past 14 years, Prosperity Social Club has hosted a fish fry on Friday nights during the Lenten season. The big draw is the golden fried haddock with sweet potato fries and slaw; it’s so popular, the restaurant and bar even sells a special Gotta Haddock commemorative T-shirt! But wait, there’s more: Prosperity’s fish dishes will also include a pan-roasted and maple-bourbon glazed salmon with roasted broccoli and sweet potato mashers, and a pan sauteed shrimp piccata in lemon-butter sauce with capers served over linguine. Other menu items include potato pancakes served with apple-cranberry chutney, and farmhouse-cheese and potato pierogi. During Lent, the kitchen opens at 11 a.m. and serves fish-

centric meals until midnight.

Prosperity also offers some smaller dine-in or take-out midday portions to accommodate people who work 9 to 5. Prosperity’s Lenten Fry-Days will take place through April 10.

Reservations are a good idea. (Niesel) 1109 Starkweather Ave., 216-937-1938, prosperitysocialclub.com.

MIND READING

Mentalist Brent Webb Considered one of the world’s leading mentalists, Ohio-born Brent Webb brings his interactive, mind-reading presentation to Hilarities tonight.

According to press materials, Webb’s show is a “breathtaking, dramatic and energetic voyage to the farthest reaches of your mind.” The show starts at 8, and tickets cost $20.

(Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.

FILM

Mrs. Lowry & Son Set in 1930s Lancashire, this 2019 biographical drama centers on the fraught relationship between the British artist L.S. Lowery (Timothy Spall) and his bed-ridden mother (Vanessa Redgrave). The movie, directed by Adrian Noble, screens at 7 tonight at the Cleveland Museum

OPERA THEATER

Mozart’s

In this story of a handsome lost prince, his comic sidekick, a beautiful princess in distress, a commanding high priest and a bitter, vengeful queen, complications and challenges abound, but everything sorts out happily in the end as two loving couples head to the altar.

Wed, Feb 26 & Fri, Feb 28 @ 7:30pm Sun, Mar 1 @ 2pm Kulas Hall TICKETS: cim.edu/magicflute or 216.795.3211

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ADVERTISE WITH SCENE. Call 216-241-7550 for more information.

MARCH 5

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| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

17

this season. Tipoff is at 8. Check the website for ticket prices. (Niesel) 1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com.

Photograph by Ruddy Roye

GET OUT

January 20 through November 2020 A photographic celebration of everyday Cleveland in honor of CPL’s 150th anniversary.

Cleveland Public Library, Main Library, Brett Hall • 325 Superior Avenue, Cleveland OH, 44114

of Art. Tickets cost $10, or $7 for CMA members. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

SAT

02/29

FILM

The 21st Animation Show of Shows Over the course of its 21-year run, the Animation Show of Shows has accrued a pretty good track record.

Twenty of its films have gone on to receive Academy Award nominations and 11 of those have actually won.

At 7 tonight and at 6:30 tomorrow night, 10 animated films will screen at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque as part of this year’s edition. Tickets cost $11, or $8 for Cinematheque members and students. (Niesel) 11610 Euclid Ave., 216-421-7450, cia.edu.

CATS!

CatVideoFest 2020 The internet often feels like it was invented simply to supply gobs of adorable cat videos to the masses.

Hours and hours of footage of cats jumping at the sight of cucumbers or sitting sprawled out like a human have brought endless joy to a world where so much has gone wrong.

Today at 11 a.m., CatVideoFest comes to the Cedar Lee Theater in Cleveland Heights, bringing the biggest (furry) internet sensations to the big screen. CatVideoFest, which roams around the country helping to raise money for cats in need while partnering up with local charities, features a compilation of the latest and greatest family-friendly cat videos. A portion of the proceeds for the Cleveland iteration goes to the Euclid Beach Cat Project. Additional showings are set for 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets cost $12.50.

(Laura Morrison) 2163 Lee Rd., Cleveland Heights, 440-528-0355, clevelandcinemas.com.

SPORTS

Cavaliers vs. Indiana Pacers One of the Eastern Conference teams that’s likely headed to the playoffs, the Indiana Pacers come to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse tonight to take on the Cavs. The Pacers recently got a boost when star guard Victor Oladipo returned from an injury that had kept him off the court for most of last season and the first part of

18

| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

FOOD

Mac ‘N’ Cheese Throwdown Today, the fourth annual Mac ’N’ Cheese Throwdown returns to Public Auditorium, where it takes place from noon to 3:30 p.m. Competitors include Astoria Cafe, Grayton Road Tavern, Hi + Dry, Matteo’s Casual Italian, Melt Bar and Grilled, Landerhaven Executive Catering, Luxe Kitchen and Lounge, Sara’s Place, Sol, the Cleveland Clinic (Aramark), the Great Room at the Cleveland Marriott, the Southside, Tremont Taphouse, Two Bucks, Hatfield’s Goode Grub, Krav, Manna Truck, PastaTivo and OL’Chefskis BBQ. Beverages will be provided

by Distillata Water, the Coca-Cola Company, Rheingeist, Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and Tito’s Handmade Vodka. Additional competitors and vendors will be announced closer to the date. Proceeds from the event benefit the Working Animals Giving Service for Kids (W.A.G.S. 4 Kids), an organization that trains and provides mobility and autism service dogs to empower children with special needs. VIP tickets are $50, and general admission tickets are $30. Children under age 5 are free; however, they must register with the purchase of an adult VIP or general admission ticket. There will be no ticket sales at the door the day of the event. See the website for details and tickets. (Niesel) 500 Lakeside Ave., 216-348-2211, macncheesethrowdown.com.

COMEDY

Tracy Morgan Offbeat New York-born comedian Tracy Morgan caught his first big break when he was cast on Saturday Night Live in the ’90s. After seven seasons on the show, he segued into the sitcom 30 Rock, and he recently began starring in The Last O.G. On what he’s calling the No Disrespect Tour, he comes to MGM Northfield Park – Center Stage tonight at 8.

Tickets start at $37.50. (Niesel) 10705 Northfield Rd., Northfield, 330-908-7793, mgmnorthfieldpark. mgmresorts.com.

MUSIC

Tri-C High School Rock Off Tonight from 6 to 10 at the Rock Hall, you can catch the “Final Exam” of the 2020 High School Rock Off. All the participating bands in this year’s Rock Off will have access to the bookers and marketing directors at House of Blues Cleveland,

the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern, the Grog Shop, Mahall’s and Musica. This “incubator relationship� will give the bands the opportunity to book shows or have a CD release party at one of the sponsoring clubs. Finalists will get to record one original song at Tri-C’s Gill and Tommy LiPuma Center for Creative Arts, and the winning band, to be determined tonight, will receive $1,000 cash and $250 for its high school music program. Tickets for tonight’s show are $12 on the website.

(Niesel) 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-515-8444, rockhall.com.

SUN

03/01

FILM

The Bit Player In a paper he published in 1948, Claude Shannon laid the groundwork for the information age. By using contemporary interviews, archival footage, animation and reenactments, this documentary film provides a profile of the man’s life.

It screens at 8:15 tonight at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. Tickets cost $10, or $7 for Cinematheque members and students. (Niesel) 11610 Euclid Ave., 216-421-7450, cia.edu.

FILM

Frankie Set in the beautiful Portuguese resort town of Sintra, this ensemble drama centers on an ailing French actress (Isabelle Huppert) who convenes her threegeneration family for what might be their last-ever vacation together.

Brendan Gleeson, Greg Kinnear and Marisa Tomei star. The movie screens at 1:30 p.m. today and at 1:45 p.m. on Tuesday at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tickets cost $10, or $7 for CMA members.

(Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

MON 03/02 SPORTS

Cavaliers vs. Utah Jazz Tonight at 7, former Cavs’ guard Jordan Clarkson returns to the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse as a member of the Utah Jazz. Traded by the Cavs earlier in the season, Clarkson has been a great addition

to an already solid Utah Jazz team.

Some critics have proclaimed he might just win the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award. Check the Cavs site for ticket prices. (Niesel) 1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com.

NIGHTLIFE

Shit Show Karaoke Local rapper/promoter Dirty Jones and Scene’s own Manny Wallace host Shit Show Karaoke, a weekly event at the B-Side Liquor Lounge wherein patrons choose from “an unlimited selection of jams from hip-hop to hard rock,� and are encouraged to “be as bad as you want.� Fueled by drink and shot specials, it all goes down tonight at 10 p.m. (Niesel) 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-932-1966, bsideliquorlounge.com.

TUE

M A RC H 18 - 28 // TH E H E LE N

AT P L AY H O U S E S Q UA R E

Ordinary is Extraordinary

MIDDLE TOWN

BY W I L L E N O

D O N A L D C A R R I E R

03/03

COMEDY

Phyllis Smith & Guest Famous for playing Phyllis Vance in the television series The Office, comedian-actress Phyllis Smith comes to town tonight to perform at the Grog Shop. Simply dubbed Phyllis Smith & Guest, the set will likely finding Smith telling jokes and talking about her career that also included a regular role on the Netflix series The OA. The performance begins at 6:30, and tickets cost $12 in advance, or $15 at the door. (Niesel) 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-321-5588, grogshop.gs.

MUSIC

Vinyl Night Jukebox owner Alex Budin has described his 1,350-squarefoot music-focused bar in the Hingetown ’hood as “a place where people can expect to hear and learn about music of multiple genres, all of which is concentrated in a constantly evolving jukebox.�

The club hosts a vinyl night every Tuesday that serves as a listening party for new releases, partnering with Loop in Tremont, so patrons can hear a new album on vinyl. You can bring your own vinyl and spin it too. It all starts at 5 p.m. (Niesel) 1404 West 29th St., 216-206-7699, jukeboxcle.com.

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

T I C KE TS // O N LY $15

| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

19

Scene is Bringing Together NE Ohio’s Best Restaurants to Celebrate Your Favorite Meal of the Week!

' ()& 1s & fiqff g$ The Madison | 4601 Payne Ave. | Cleveland Featuring Savory & Sweet Samples from Area Eateries, Bloody Marys, Mimosas, Beer and Spirits!

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Tickets - scenebrunch.com

| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

EAT GRAB, GO Picnic Hill combines restaurant and market in recently opened Fairmount Circle location

By Douglas Trattner WHEN IT COMES TO MEALTIME, there is no shortage of options for hungry consumers. There are restaurants, of course, along with food-delivery services, food halls and food trucks. On the other end of the spectrum are grocery stores that sell everything from grab-and-go foods down to the raw ingredients needed to make just about anything.

And then there are places like Picnic Hill, which land somewhere between grocery store and restaurant.

Picnic Hill (20621 Fairmount Blvd., 216-795-5660, picnichillmarketcafe.com), which opened in late January at Fairmount Circle in Shaker (and University) Heights, bills itself as a gourmet market, bar and cafe. The spacious 4,000-square-foot property combines the features of a traditional bar and restaurant with those of a retail market selling epicurean food products. For those who prefer not to cook but still would like to eat at home, there is the daily assortment of “take away gourmet,” fully prepared meals that require little more than heat to complete.

The market was launched by partners Shawn Brown and Michael Miller, an education lobbyist and OB/GYN, respectively, both of whom traded in a life on the West Coast for a future in sunny Shaker Heights.

Brown, who hails from Cleveland Heights, says that the desire to open a gourmet market was a mutual one. And doing so in Cleveland as opposed to California made more financial sense.

“After a while, we both decided that we no longer wanted to do what we were doing,” Brown explains.

“Part of my old job was running political campaigns, so we did a targeting based on the demographic profile of where we wanted to be.

That left us with, like, six areas in and around Cleveland that would fit the market that we wanted.”

That niche, not surprisingly, consisted of highly educated, middle to upper-middle income families with an interest in food and the disposable income to support it.

“We wanted families because, if you are like me and Michael were, working all the time, you could

Photo by Doug Trattner

come in to grab something to take home for you and your kids,” Brown adds.

Throughout the day, a deli counter sells an assortment of prepared foods that range from tuna salad on up to square meals built around a selection of fish, beef and pork dishes paired with veggie, potato and pasta sides. Each category has multiple preparations.

A recent “take away gourmet” meal contained maple and Dijon-glazed salmon with prosciutto-wrapped asparagus and twice-baked sweet potatoes with marshmallows.

Items are sold by piece or pound depending on the dish.

Items in the case are made fresh daily and Brown says the goal is to keep things moving.

“We try to have a different menu in the case every day, so not only is the food fresh-tasting, but also so it’s different everyday so customers don’t get bored,” he notes.

For those who prefer to leave the cooking — and even the reheating

— to others, a roomy bar and dining room offers full-service lunch and happy hour. Beer, wine and cocktails like Death in the Afternoon, devised

by Hemingway and starring absinthe, naturally, can be paired with a number of small plates. The kitchen bakes, as opposed to deepfries, chicken wings and then tosses them in a peppery honey-garlic glaze. Other options include trufflescented chicken liver mousse or hot crab dip served with baguette slices, steamed mussels and aioli, and a grass-fed beef cheeseburger. Regular menu items are supplemented by a special feature of the evening, like beer-battered cod with duck fat-fried potatoes; “Birds and Bubbles,” a feast of fried chicken and champagne; or taco Tuesday.

Given the vast dimensions of the space and the fact that open shelving runs the length of the room, the inventory of gourmet goods looks somewhat spare. That’s not to say that there isn’t plenty here to like and purchase. Canned, jarred

and boxed items cover predictable territory like oils, mustards, pickles, cookies, crackers, chocolate, pasta and wine. Drilling down, there are also cocktail bitters, bloody Mary mixes, spice blends and fancy tinned fish. Coolers are filled with cheeses, dips and spreads, while beverage fridges stock chilled wine, beer and soft drinks.

Next month, Brown and Miller intend to roll out brunch service.

When warmer weather drops, the kitchen will offer meal kits that combine all the makings of a backyard barbecue, such as preseasoned steaks, salads, sides and a suitable wine pairing. Come summer, the owners envision turning the sidewalk out front into a lively neighborhood market with seasonal produce, grab-and-go sandwiches, vendors selling arts and crafts, and live music.

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner

| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

21

EAT BITES Falafel Cafe reopening in new Uptown space in March

By Vince Grzegorek TWO LONG YEARS AFTER it closed at the end of its lease with University Circle Inc., Falafel Cafe is set to reopen in March in a new Uptown location at 11454 Uptown Ave.; the space was most recently the home of Simply Greek.

Owner Mae Elassal, who founded and operated the casual University Circle restaurant with her late husband for 18 years before closing up shop, will be bringing back the affordable Middle Eastern fare that made the shop a popular option in the neighborhood.

“We were in University Circle when nobody was there. We’ve witnessed all this change there,” she said. “That’s why I want to go back, because I love my customers.”

The new location comes with

Photo courtesy of Falafel Cafe

a three-year lease from Case Western Reserve University, which owns the property.

“We are pleased to provide Mae the opportunity to reopen her restaurant in Uptown,” Kevin Slesh, the university’s director of real estate, said in a press release.

“Falafel Cafe was a University Circle pioneer, a staple, and we’re thrilled to see its return.”

Freddie’s, a Philly Sandwich and Fry Shop, Now Open in Tremont The former Sesame & Soy spot in Tremont on Professor Avenue has been claimed.

Freddie’s (2173 Professor; 216417-0867), whose menu focuses on Philly sandwiches and “dirty

fries,” has opened in the space.

Manager Strong Chien tells Scene some of the ownership group and a hefty portion of the staff bring experience from Dale’s Deli in Euclid, which shares similar menu items,

Delivery Now Available BEST NEIGHBORHOOD BAR

including those “dirty fries” — basically your preferred Philly style (chicken, steak, corned beef, shrimp, etc.) served over fries. Customers can also get those on top of fried rice, or in a traditional sandwich.

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FRIDAY - NICK AMMONS | SUNDAY - CONUNDRUM 22

| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

4 1 2 9 E 4 9 T H S T R E E T | C U YA H O G A H E I G H T S , O H 2 1 6 . 4 1 7 . 3 1 0 2 | 4 9 S T R E E T TAV E R N . C O M

Freddie’s is open for lunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and 4 to 9 p.m. for dinner; Saturday hours are noon to 9 p.m.; and Sunday hours are noon to 8 p.m. It’s closed on Tuesdays.

La Casita’s New Year-Round Taqueria Nears Opening in New Spot in Painesville La Casita, a Latin grocery store and butcher shop which has dished up some of the best tacos in Northeast Ohio at a seasonal al fresco stand in Painesville since 2006, is weeks away from opening a new year-round restaurant at its new location.

Last week, La Casita closed its store at its previous location at 484 North State St. for two days while it moved to its new digs at 452 Storrs St., where it officially opened last Thursday.

While the expanded and renovated grocery store space is a welcome development, the bigger news is that La Casita will, in two weeks, be launching an adjoined taqueria that will be open yearround and include a bar.

City of Cleveland to Hire Outside Consultant to Examine Changes and Improvements at West Side Market Frustration over the city’s management of the West Side Market doesn’t seem to be subsiding, and as the community and some elected leaders pressure Cleveland to turn over management to a nonprofit or seek another solution to the problems, Cleveland last Friday announced it has issued an RFP for a consultant to evaluate possible changes at the Cleveland landmark.

“We are in search of a consultant that can think outside of the box to enhance the Market’s competitive edge,” chief operating officer Darnell Brown said in a press release. “As the historic institution continues to adapt to the evolving demands of 21st Century customers, the City of Cleveland seeks a consultant who can evaluate and recommend ways to enhance overall customer experience, vendor mix, and quality of products and services.

We also want to create a process

for customers to be able to provide feedback.”

The city had recently announced a set of goals for 2020 that included online purchasing, concierge pick-up, improved tenant relations, improved seating and expanded marketing.

The consultant, once hired, will “help reshape the West Side Market customer experience by evaluating existing practices and developing a strategic action plan to drive change at the Market.”

Results of a customer survey show shoppers support many of the ideas already floated by tenants — changes in hours, utilizing vacant space, etc. — and WSM Tenant Association president Don Whitaker told the Plain Dealer the city is already moving toward executing some changes soon, albeit in predictably Cleveland fashion: After radio silence for almost a year from City Hall on the idea of extending hours into the evening on some days, Whitaker says he was told in early February that the city wanted to institute later hours by Feb. 17. There had been no advance notice for vendors or a firm marketing plan, so both sides agreed to delay the change temporarily.

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Come March, Say Goodbye to the Morehouse in Willoughby and Hello to Nora’s Public House The owners of the Morehouse (4054 Erie St.) in Willoughby have announced that by next month the BBQ and Southern comfort restaurant will be no more.

Citing a glut of BBQ restaurants in Northeast Ohio, the owners will instead transition the space to an Irish pub and bar called Nora’s Public House.

“We all loved the Morehouse and the BBQ menu,” the owners said on Facebook, “but since there are more of those concepts popping up, we decided to indulge in our roots with our Irish culture.”

The new menu will feature Irish fare like bangers and mash, corned beef boxty, and battered fish and chips while keeping some Morehouse favorites like brisket and mac and cheese.

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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28 TH - FRIDAY, APRIL 10 TH

vgrzegorek@clevescene.com t@vincethepolack | clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

23

ODERN AFRICAN SINGER and dancer Fatoumata Diawara says the negativity in the world at the moment makes her think of her current tour as an antidote to the bad news we hear every day.

“At this time, people are a little depressed because of all the information in the world, but after the show, they’re like, ‘Wow,’” says an exuberant Diawara via phone from a tour stop in Italy.

She makes her first-ever appearance in Cleveland at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 26, at the Cleveland Museum of Art. “I’m happy because this is how I see the music. It’s supposed to make people happy, and it’s working now.

People talk about my smiling. It’s something totally natural to me. I smile and welcome [my audience] because you are you, and I am me, and we are one. [My approach] just says, ‘I love you guys.’”

Born on the Ivory Coast, Diawara grew up in Mali and began to absorb the country’s musical traditions at an early age.

“The culture of Mali is totally

different to the Ivory Coast culture,” she explains. “It’s super-diverse and very spiritual. We are still connected to our traditional instruments, and we respect them. I’m very proud of that. That’s what I bring to my show. It’s like when you listen to the sitar, and it takes you to some place you have never been. You know it comes from somewhere you don’t know. It makes you curious, so you want to know more about it.”

Originally, Diawara wanted to act and moved to France to try to find movie roles. That turned out to be a good decision, and she got a part in the 1999 feature film Genesis and in the musical Kirikou et Karaba.

“I continue to be an actress. I really love it,” she says. “But music is really me. It’s my opinion about the world and what’s going on. It’s about my generation and about my feeling about women. It’s really personal. I love acting because you can transport yourself to be somebody else. You can be crazy, and you can smoke and do stuff you don’t normally do in normal life, and I love that too.”

Diawara started putting out records

in 2011, and she says the transition from collaborating with other artists to making her own album was a seamless one.

“Before I made my first record, I had collaborated with people before that,” she says. “I was doing a lot of collaboration with a lot of people.

I was feeling good, and it was natural and normal [to go into the studio]. It’s a language to speak in music.”

For her latest album, 2018’s Fenfo (Something to Say), she expands her musical range.

Bass- and drum-driven grooves propel songs such as “Kokoro” and “Ou Y’an Ye,” and Diawara capably adopts a somber tone for ballads such as “Mama” and “Takamba.”

“I’m very open with the music,” says Diawara. “My collaborations weren’t just Mali collaborations. I played with other artists. I played with jazz musicians. I try to bring all those experiences to my

know that you weren’t born a migrant. You become a migrant, and it’s people who make them a migrant. They should not lose their dignity because of this. They deserve something more than this. We drink coffee, and we have families who love us. People should know this. The song is about how to respect migrant people. It’s important. Behind this, there is a lot of love and people can feel that.

I want to speak to love and nothing else. Just peace and love.”

While it still features traditional instrumentation, the punchy “Bonya” comes across as a significant departure on the album.

“It’s a pop song,” she explains.

“When my manager listened to this, he asked, ‘Where did you get this? It’s so different. Did you transport yourself?’ My songs are so different, but it comes naturally. Music is music. There is no boundary and no nationality.

It’s just one family. You respect me, and I’ll respect you. The song is about how to respect each other. I’m a human being. Let’s

FATOUMATA DIAWARA 7:30 P.M. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 26 CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART, 11150 EAST BLVD., 216-421-7350 TICKETS: $33-$45, CLEVELANDART.ORG

SIT DOWN WITH YOUR GUESTS.

ADVERTISE WITH SCENE. Call 216-241-7550 for more information.

26

| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

music — jazz, folk and reggae. I’m experimenting with all these styles.

I’m just trying to adapt each record and the spirit of the music to nowadays. Music is going this way.

It’s something totally natural.”

Because she was on the road for such long stretches, Diawara recorded the album at many different studios.

“I was on tour when I was recording,” she says. “I really like being on stage. It’s one of my favorite things. So when I had an inspiration, I would say to my manager, ‘Let’s go now.’ We were looking for places before the soundcheck to see where I could go to record. It was like a pregnancy.

I would tell him, ‘Now, now.’ When I ask him to go, he knows we have to go.”

With the album’s opening song “Nterini,” a track that features a bluesy electric guitar riff, Diawara makes a statement about the global migrant crisis.

“It means ‘My Friend,’” she says of the track’s title. “It’s about how we can try to respect all these people who are traveling from the boats. I want people to

stop making each other suffer for nothing. We should not suffer for nothing.”

Diawara continues to collaborate with musicians outside of the African music scene. “Ultimatum,” a song she did with the electronic dance music act Disclosure, shows her range.

“They are big friends of mine,” she says. “They listened to my music and called me to make a collaboration with them. How could I say no? I love those guys. It was my pleasure. This summer, we want to do some shows together.”

For the live show, Diawara performs with a backing band that she refers to as “family.”

“We spend a lot of time together,” she says. “We love each other. We are super excited to go on tour. They are my second family. We play with a lot of energy because I like dancing. It’s one my passions. We play and I just dance and sing.”

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

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Dayglow Cambridge Room SOLD OUT The Wonder Years w/ Free Throw, Spanish Love Songs, Pool Kids COLORS WORLDWIDE PRESENTS: R&B ONLY w/ Dauché and Jabari March 21 Social House w/ Colby O'Donis Cambridge Room CANCELLED March 24 Hippie Sabotage w/ ilo ilo March 27 COIN w/ Wanderwild, Sure Sure – Presented by 91.3 The Summit March 28 Grieves + The Holdup w/ P. MO, Back Alley Sound Cambridge Room March 31 beabadoobee w/ Eliza & The Delusionals Cambridge Room SOLD OUT April 4 Lauren Sanderson Cambridge Room April 5 James Arthur – The YOU Tour w/ Delacey

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Sepultura w/ Sacred Reich, Crowbar, Art of Shock G Herbo w/ King Von, Lil Loaded, Shaun Sloan, Pretty Savage DATE CHANGE Jade Novah ‘Stages Tour’ Silverstein w/ Four Year Strong, I The Mighty Eli Young Band w/ High Valley The Glitch Mob w/ Ivy Lab *in association with Cumulus Hot Chelle Rae Cambridge Room The Infamous Stringdusters w/ Upstate In Association w/ Beachland Ballroom Trevor Hall & Brett Dennen Organ Grinders Ball 25

HOUSE OF BLUES: 308 Euclid Ave, Cleveland OH 44114 masoniccleveland.com / houseofblues.com

| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

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| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

MON 8/3

BIG THIEF

BEYOND THE BLUES Singer-bassist Danielle Nicole transcends genre with her latest album

By Jeff Niesel Photo by Jacob Blickenstaff

SINGER-BASSIST DANIELLE NICOLE had a good run with Trampled Under Foot, the blues-rock band she formed with her two brothers, singerguitarist Nick Schnebelen and singerdrummer Kris Schnebelen, back in 2000.

But when Kris Schnebelen left the band in 2013, the group just wasn’t the same.

“Kris quit the band, and Nick and I did a farewell tour in 2014 to celebrate some of the best clubs we played,” says Nicole in a recent phone interview from her Kansas City home. “It didn’t feel natural. It didn’t feel right. To me, it wasn’t Trampled Under Foot.

Being in the situation where you start a band from the ground up with the same people and you’re in it for over a decade, I didn’t want to go through the heartbreak of building something from the ground up again with another group. I wanted to make all the decisions, right or wrong, and trust my gut.”

Nicole hired Brandon Miller to become her guitarist and launched her solo career in 2015.

Touring in support of 2018’s Cry No More, she brings the band to the Beachland Ballroom for a

performance that takes place at 8 p.m. on Saturday.

“Over the years, we’ve gone down to a trio and have had interchangeable drummers while we looked for someone who can fit our sound,” she says. “Brandon has been there from the beginning. We’ve been playing together for five years. I couldn’t imagine this project without him.

He’s a founding member of it. Our drummer Cameron [Tyler] started playing with us in August, and he was the missing piece of the

To hear Nicole tell it, launching a solo career proved to be challenging.

Many of the songs on her solo debut, 2015’s Wolf Den, stemmed from her Trampled Under Foot days.

“The ones I had written with Trampled Under Foot had that really heavy blues sound,” she explains.

“Some of the songs I had written for the new record. I personally felt there was a conflict in the sound of those tunes. I’m proud of the record, and I hold all the time I spent working on that album with [producer] Anders

DANIELLE NICOLE, THE MORNING BIRD 8 P.M. SATURDAY, FEB. 29 BEACHLAND BALLROOM, 15711 WATERLOO RD., 216-383-1124 TICKETS: $18 ADV, $20 DOS, BEACHLANDBALLROOM.COM

puzzle. It’s like this is the sound I’ve been searching for. We’re out of the honeymoon phase. We’ve been touring ridiculously. August through December of last year was just brutal.

Everyone still had a positive attitude and was ready to start 2020 out. We’re ready to take over the world, and it’s such a great feeling.”

[Osborne] and [drummer] Stanton [Moore] dearest to my heart. I learned so much that I applied on the Cry No More album. It’s nothing against any of the musicians or anyone who created the album itself, but just my songwriting was like night and day. There was a huge transition happening. I love it but it didn’t

represent who I was at the time.”

With Cry No More, she says she had “a clearer path” to what she wanted to do.

“With Wolf Den, I was just trying to finish the album and get enough songs for it,” she says. “With Cry No More, I really took my time. I wrote half of it and the songs I did choose to cover meant something personal to me. There’s more of a story to be told through the album. It’s not just a gathering of songs. It’s not necessarily a concept album, but I was more conscious of the content of the songs.”

Songs such as the gritty “Crawl,” a track that finds her snarling, “crawl if you want love,” and the blistering “Burnin’ For You” have a particularly sultry feel to them.

“It’s a little bit less about stories of love lost, which is more of the traditional blues theme,” she says.

“With songs like ‘Bobby,’ which I wrote about my father growing up without a dad, the stories are more personal and the concepts of love are a little more positive. Even with ‘Cry No More,’ which is about moving on and getting past it rather than dwelling in the darkness, I was better prepared | clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

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KentStage =HGÍM FBLL MA>L> @K>:M LAHPL MB<D>ML HG L:E> GHP

Shuicide Holla

15-60-75 The Numbers Band

We Banjo 3

Fri February 28

Sat February 29

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UT SOLD O Rocky Horror Picture Show

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Eric Johnson

Sun March 8

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ICKET

LOW T

Dave Mason iw cw y~ M

The Howard Jones Trio Tue March 10

ALERT

Christone “Kingfish” Ingram

Robert Cray

John Waite

Fish Grease 2: A Juke Joint Tour Thu March 12

Sat March 14

Fri March 20

DON’T MISS EVENT!

Janis Ian

&

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| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

MUSIC [for the recording session]. The songs were more written, so we could spend more time recording the songs rather than developing them in the studio.

This process was really smooth, and it was fun, and that let me let loose in my performances without going overboard.”

One album highlight, “Save Me,” features Kenny Wayne Shepherd. He was getting ready to leave town for eight weeks for Europe but made time to stop by the studio and lay down his bluesy solo before leaving for his tour.

“We’re not buddies, but we’re cool,” Nicole says when asked about Shepherd. “He knows me when we’re on the road, and we get to jam, and that’s really cool. It was really sweet of him to take the time to do that.

He said, ‘The world needs to hear your voice.’ It’s really nice to get that encouragement from peers rather than getting the attitude, ‘they’re trying to take my spot, and I don’t want to help them out.’”

“Pusher Man” comes off as a particularly aggressive number. Nicole wrote the song during a session with Nashville songwriter Johnny Black.

“I went to his house, and we messed around with some ideas,” she says. “He had a couple of ideas. He played the riff to ‘Pusher Man’ and had come up with that chorus, ‘I wanna be the one you call.’ He said, ‘I don’t know. Would your love interest be the Pusher Man or would you be the Pusher Man?’ I said, ‘I would be the Pusher Man. I have no problem being the Pusher Man of love, baby.’’”

Nicole says her live show has evolved to the point that her “sound is just really on a different level.”

“We know what we need musically on stage to push each other,” she says. “There’s a real intimate communication level now. [Drummer] Cam [Tyler] really loves the New Orleans feel. Being from Kansas City, we cultivated swing. New Orleans swing and Kansas City swing are very different, but they’re the oldest types of swing. We have a natural love for that feel. It’s hard to describe the show now. It’s intense and grooving, but it’s not over-the-top. It’s morphed into a full experience. It’s so much fun.

It’s really rockin’. It’s hard to put that blues label on it. You’ll be on your feet the whole time. If you’re not feeling it, then there’s something wrong with you.”

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

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| clevescene.com m | February 26 - March 3, 2020

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| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

LIVEWIRE

all the live music you should see this week Photo courtesy of the Kent Stage

WED

02/26

Bambara/Nature: 8:30 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Beachland Tavern.

Cam’ron/Tribe Untitled: 8:30 p.m., $25 ADV, $28 DOS. Grog Shop.

Coolzey/C-Level/DJ Etch (in the Locker Room): 8 p.m., $7.

Mahall’s 20 Lanes.

Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: 7 p.m., $20. Nighttown.

Nektar/CSC Featuring the Cuda Bros.: 8 p.m., $25 ADV, $28 DOS. Beachland Ballroom.

YSU Jazz Studies Presents Alla Boara: $10. Bop Stop.

THU

02/27

DOOMSQUAD/FREAKwents/ Ghost Noises: 8:30 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Beachland Tavern.

Hands of the Healer/Eric Bond/ Sarah Cuturic (in Mahall’s Apartment): 8 p.m., $5. Mahall’s 20 Lanes.

Annie Hart/Key to the Mint: 8 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Now That’s Class.

Pulse Quartet: 7 p.m., $15. Bop Stop.

We Were Promised Jetpacks/ Slaughter Beach, Dog: 9 p.m., $16 ADV, $18 DOS. Grog Shop.

FRI

02/28

Theron Brown Trio: 8 p.m., $15.

Bop Stop.

Dopapod: 8 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Beachland Ballroom.

Eric Everett Jazz Quintet featuring Charlene Smythe: 8:30 p.m., $15. Nighttown.

An Evening With Fred Eaglesmith Starring Tif Ginn: 7 p.m., $20 ADV, $22 DOS. Beachland Tavern.

Killer of Sheep/Malibu Stazi/Kill the Hippies: 8 p.m., $8. Now That’s Class.

Lil Baby & Gunna: 8 p.m. Wolstein Center.

The Million Dollar Quartet: 7 p.m., $35-$65. MGM Northfield Park.

Neil Diamond Tribute by the Diamond Project: 8 p.m., $15 ADV, $18 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

Shuicide Holla: 8 p.m., $10. The Kent Stage.

15 60 75 (The Numbers Band) celebrates its 50th anniversary. See: Saturday.

Space Jesus/Tsuruda/tiedye ky/ Onhell: 7 p.m. Agora Theatre.

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

Nighttown.

Who’s Bad: 8 p.m., $15 ADV, $18 DOS. House of Blues.

Youth Pallet Release Show/Sure, Machine/Joy Ceiling (in the Locker Room): 8 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes.

SAT

02/29

15 60 75 (The Numbers Band): Local rockers 15 60 75 (The Numbers Band) have pursued a singular vision of blues, rock and jazz for 50 years, and they continue to maintain a busy live schedule and to write new material. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the band will perform tonight at the Kent Stage, and at the Beachland Ballroom at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 14. Founder Robert Kidney has recorded and toured with Anton Fier and his Golden Palominos. He and his brother Jack have toured Holland twice and played in London. The entire band went to London to perform at the Royal Festival Hall in 2000. At tonight’s show, ticket holders will have exclusive opportunity to purchase the new

Numbers Band release, Endure: Outliers on Water Street. The release date of the album is still to be determined. (Jeff Niesel) 7 p.m., $25. The Kent Stage.

Cyrille Aimée: 7 p.m., $30.

Nighttown.

E5C4P3 – The Journey Tribute/ The Tony Lang Band: 8 p.m.

Akron Civic Theatre.

The Floozies/SunSquabi/Late Night Radio: 7 p.m. Agora Theatre.

Gaelic Storm: 8 p.m., $25 ADV, $30 DOS. House of Blues.

Carlos Jones and the PLUS Band: 9 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Grog Shop.

The Legendary Ladies of Country Music (in the Neon Room): Expect to hear some of the most notable songs from Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton at this tribute to the “Legendary Ladies of Country Music.” The group, a nationally acclaimed tribute band, will perform hits from three decades of country music. (Niesel) 8 p.m., $35-$40.

MGM Northfield Park.

Justin Moore/Tracy Lawrence/ Lainey Wilson: 7 p.m. Wolstein Center.

Danielle Nicole: 8 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Beachland Ballroom.

The Stolen Faces: 8:30 p.m., $12 ADV, $14 DOS. Beachland Tavern.

Van Morrison Tribute by Nitebridge & Colin Dussault: 8 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

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

Nighttown.

Dan Wilson Quintet: 8 p.m., $20.

Bop Stop.

SUN

03/01

Prism: 7 p.m., $15. Bop Stop.

Radical Face/Axel Flovent: 8 p.m., $22 ADV, $25 DOS. Beachland Ballroom.

MON 03/02 The Obsessed/Goosed/Nodge: 8:30 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Now That’s Class.

TUE

03/03

The Brook & the Bluff: 8 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Beachland Tavern.

Hayes Carll/Allison Moorer: 7:30 p.m., $25 ADV, $30 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene | clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

33

BAND OF THE WEEK ACE OF WANDS

By Jeff Niesel Photo courtesy of Ace of Wands

COUNTRY REDFORD &RIDAY -ARCH TH s PM TO AM

MILLER LITE BOTTLES $3.00 All Night ROOKIES SPORTS BAR AND GRILL PARMA ROOKIES SPORTS BAR AND GRILL PARMA HEIGHTS

MEET THE BAND: Lee Rose (vocals,

guitar, bass pedals, violin), Anna Mernieks (guitar), Jody Brumell (drums) THE POPPY SIDE OF INDIE ROCK: This

Toronto band started in summer of 2017. Rose had toured with Brumell in another band and had written tunes with Mernieks prior to that.

“I had written a ton of music, and I wanted to put it out there,” Rose says. “We clicked and it morphed into this big project that now takes a lot of our time.” Lee says she describes the band’s music as Gothic rock pop.

“My main influences are PJ Harvey and Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Kate Bush,” she says. “I like the more poppy indie sound. When I was growing up, Arcade Fire was really popular in Canada, and they’re a big influence.

Our live show is loud and in your face, but there’s a nice of mix of softer stuff too.”

A CLASSICAL CASE: Rose started studying violin at age 10 but let the classical influence fall by the wayside as she segued into rock. Now, that classical influence has returned with Ace of Wands. “The violin has crept back into my everyday music, and it’s the instrument I feel most connected to,” she says. “It adds a spooky vibe to our music too. We’re hugely into horror music soundtracks.” With her bass pedals, Rose can play two instruments at once. “We have a lot of depth as a three-piece,” she says. “It’s like we’re a four instrument band with three people.”

AN ACTIVIST APPROACH: A commitment

to mental health activism through a system of what the band refers to as “examining socio-economic challenges, artistic expression and

34

| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

community-based healing” drives the group’s music. “Through musical expression we are able to formulate these concepts into cinematic soundscapes driven by psychedelic guitars, synth bass, violin and drums,” reads a press release about the band’s approach. “For that twoyear period leading up to the release of our last record, I was in this terrible depression,” says Rose. “I was struggling to get out of bed everyday and make a living. I was finding that if I couldn’t do anything else, I could play music and write songs. It was this amazing form of catharsis, and I felt a strong calling to share that with as many people as possible.”

WHY YOU SHOULD HEAR THEM: Simmering with intensity, “Lioness,” a song from last year’s debut, recalls The Lion and the Cobra-era Sinead O’Connor. With its shimmering guitars, “Grown from Good” possesses a more ethereal feel as the band channels Cocteau Twins with the tune’s lush instrumentation.

A folk-y ballad, “Tarot Cards” also features the violin up front in the mix, and “Winter Wind” has a compelling balance of strings and distorted guitars. In addition, the band has a new single that’ll come out on March 13. It’s the first track from a new record that’ll come out later this year.

WHERE YOU CAN HEAR THEM:

aceofwandsband.com.

WHERE YOU CAN SEE THEM: Ace of Wands

performs with Garter Shake, Faces of Belmez and Baroque Monody at 8 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 28, at the Westside Bowl in Youngstown.

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

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| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

35

REWIND

HALF HOUR FREE

46 YEA R S AGO ON TH I S DATE THIS JULY, CLEVELAND Scene will turn 50 years old, and in advance of the occasion, we’ve decided to dig into the archives on a weekly basis to republish something that appeared in the paper on that date (or thereabouts) during Scene’s first decade.

This review of Todd Rundgren’s Todd by Mark Kmetzko appeared in the issue that came out on Feb. 21, 1974. It featured the headline, “Hello, It’s Me, Todd Rundgren and my new album is reviewed on page 6” on the paper’s cover.

*** Real Singles, Real Fun...

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| clevescene.com | February 26 - March 3, 2020

Todd Rundgren is; and always has been, for that matter; THE rock ’n’ roll schizoid. Half of him wants to croon pretty, sensitive songs and the other half wants to blow out the ears of 3/4 of the world’s population with one screaming guitar lick. Up until his last album, the latter was suppressed and almost always was tempered with a little of the former. Then, with WIZARD, TRUE STAR, the raw, unchained and tasteless stood on its own, thus shocking a lot of people.

Now that the shock is over, those people should be glad for TODD, which persists in exploring the “heavy metal” sound, but also alludes to some of the old Rundgren knacks for beauty and good song-writing.

TODD is a double album (his first since SOMETHING/ ANYTHING) and like most double sets, there is some dead air here. The project probably could have been edited to one super-strong album, but in actuality the bad material here does not surface near as often as does the sublime. You can thus forget the junkiness of “In And Out The Chakras We Go” of “Everybody’s Going To Heaven,” as you immerse yourself in the spaciness of “The Spark of Life” or the simple beauty of “Useless Begging.” As was the case with earlier albums, Rundgren does most of the work here himself.

On only six tracks does he have assistance and even then it’s so minimal that TODD qualifies as a

solo effort.

Suffice it to say that the material here is for the most part a combination of WIZARD and SOMETHING / ANYTHING. The instrumentation and approach are like those used on WIZARD, but a little more of the easy side of Rundgren (with which SOMETHING/ANYTHING was brimming) is on display here. There are many cuts here that simply lay me out, but as for choices, I have I’d go with “Number 1 Lowest Common Denominator” and “Sons of 1984.” The former is an auditory definition of the term “heavy metal,” but is careful not to avoid a fine sense of music. “Sons of 1984” (the record’s closing number) is a very melodic piece made irresistible by Rundgreri’s vocals and the ex-Dreams horn section of Randy Brecker, Mike Brecker and Barry Rogers.

If “Hello, it’s Me” is why you’re considering the purchase of this album, the closest you’re going to get is “Useless Begging” or maybe “Don’t You Ever Learn.”

But even these are rough compared to “Hello, It’s Me.” You’ve got to realize Rundgren is beyond that now, and with a little effort you may be able to empathize with his choice to leave it behind.

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

SAVAGE LOVE SPIT AND POLISH

by Dan Savage I’m a 31-year-old cis bisexual woman. I’m hetero-romantic and in a monogamish relationship with a man. We play with other people together. I’ve never liked giving blowjobs because I was taught that girls who give blowjobs are “sluts.” Phrases that are meant to be insulting like “You suck,” “Suck it,” “Go suck a dick,” etc. created a strong association in my mind between blowjobs and men degrading women. (Men take what they want, and women get used and called sluts.) As such, I never sucked much dick — and if I did, it was only briefly and never to completion. I also find spit and come kind of gross. Even when I get really wet during sex, it’s a bit of a turnoff, and I hate that it makes me feel gross and wish I could change my thinking around it. Early in our relationship, my husband noticed the lack of blowjobs and confronted me, saying they were really important to him.

At first I felt a little insecure about being inadequate in this area, but then I decided to do some research, because I honestly thought it wasn’t just me and most women don’t like giving blowjobs. (Because how could they? It’s so demeaning!) But I learned lots of my female friends enjoy giving blowjobs — they like being in control, giving a partner pleasure, etc. — so I googled ways to start liking blowjobs and I’ve started to get into them! It’s great!

Except I still don’t like when he comes in my mouth or if a blowjob gets super spitty. But my husband loves sloppy blowjobs; he says the lubrication feels good and he enjoys the “dirtiness” of it. If I know he’s getting close to coming or if it gets super wet and I have spit all over my face, my gag reflex activates and it’s hard to continue. I feel like I’m at an impasse. I want to give him the blowjobs he wants, but I don’t know how to get around (or hopefully start enjoying!) the super-sloppy-through-to-completion blowjobs he likes. Do you have any advice?

— Sloppy Oral Always Keeps Erections Drenched You play with other people together, SOAKED, but have you

tried observing — by which I mean actively observing, by which I mean actually participating — while your husband gets a sloppy blowjob from someone who really enjoys giving them? If someone else was blowing your husband while you made out with him or sat on his face or played with his tits or whatever might enhance the experience for him … and you watched another woman choke that dick down … you might come to appreciate what’s in it for the person giving the sloppy blowjob.

Most people who were taught that girls who give blowjobs are sluts were also taught that open relationships are wrong and women who have sex with other women are going to hell. You got over what you were taught about monogamish relationships and being bisexual years ago, SOAKED, and recently got over what you were taught about women who enjoy sucking cock. While some people have physical limitations they can’t overcome — some gag reflexes are unconquerable — watching someone enjoy something you don’t can make you want to experience it yourself.

But even if your observations don’t trigger a desire to get down there and get sloppy and swallow his load yourself, your husband would be getting the kind of blowjobs he enjoys most and you would be an intrinsic part of them.

If you set up the date, you’d be making them happen, even if you weren’t doing them. And if you were into the scenario and/or the other woman — if the whole thing got you off, not just off the hook — then there would be something in it for you, too.

And take it from me, SOAKED, to be kissed with both passion and gratitude by, say, a husband (ahem) who’s really enjoying something someone else is doing for/to him — whether or not that something is something you also enjoy doing for/to him from time to time — is really fucking hot. So even if you never come around — even if sloppy blowjobs are something you have to outsource permanently — you and your husband can enjoy years of sloppy blowjobs together,

with the assistance of a series of very special (and very slutty) guest stars. And you can always get those blowjobs started — the nonsloppy, non-spitty initial phase — before passing the baton off to your guest star.

*** Married 40-year-old gay guy here. I hate beards — the look, the feel, the smell — and I miss the good old days when the only beards gay dudes had were metaphorical. When I got back from a long business trip, my hot, sexy, previously smooth husband of many years was sporting a beard. Unsurprisingly, I hate it and find it to be a complete turnoff.

However, he says this is controlling behavior on my part, it’s his body and his choice, and he’s hurt that I’m rejecting him. He also says I’ll get used to it and he doesn’t plan to keep it forever. I agree that it’s his body and his choice, but I think he should still take me into consideration, and that it’s actually him who’s rejecting me, by choosing the beard over me. What’s your take?

— Spouse’s Hairiness Averts Virile Erection I’m with you, SHAVE, but I’m also with him. It is his body, and growing a beard is something he can choose to do with the face section of his body. But that my body/my choice stuff cuts both ways: Your body is yours, and what you do with your body is your choice. And you can choose not to press your body against his — or press your face against his — while he’s got a beard. If long business trips are a regular part of your life, maybe he could grow his beard out in your absence and shave when you get home. (Full disclosure: I have a pronounced anti-beard bias, which means I’m not exactly impartial.)

relationship — with a hetero cis man — began when I was 28. He was my first sexual partner. I fell in love hard, but he broke up with me after almost two years. Months later, I know I’m not ready to fall in love again, but I have a high sex drive. I masturbate frequently, but when I think about playful/ romantic sex, the only memories I have are with the ex, which makes me sad. So I watch rough porn, which keeps me from thinking about the ex. But watching bondage videos alone isn’t the sex life I want. Should I Tinder or Lex up some rough casual sex?

Get drunk and get some more memories in the mix? (I don’t think I could get out of my head enough to do this sober.) Assuming I minimize the risks of pregnancy and STIs and partners that are bad at consent, what’s the risk of going for it? How does it compare to the risk of getting stuck in this nowhere land and never finding a new love/sex buddy? Or maybe I need to get drunk and jerk off alone without the porn and just feel all my feelings and avoid any risk of crying on some poor stranger?

— I Need A Plan Today Do it all, INAPT. Masturbate to kink porn and feel dirty, masturbate to your memories and feel sad, and put yourself out there on Tinder and Lex and see if there isn’t someone who intrigues you.

But stop telling yourself you can’t find romance with a partner you first met up with for rough sex. I know lots of people who first met up with someone for rough sex, clicked on a deeper level, started dating, and have since enjoyed years of sex that’s both rough and loving. Finally, booze has a way of intensifying feelings of sadness — so if you don’t want to wind up sobbing on the shoulder of some poor stranger, don’t get drunk before that hookup.

On the Lovecast, all things weed with Lester Black: savagelovecast.com.

*** I’m a 30-year-old queer cis woman and a late bloomer. My first

mail@savagelove.net t@fakedansavage

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