Scene february 8, 2017

East Cleveland residents have been complaining about the health hazards of a dump on Noble Road for years.

Is anyone listening?

MOUNT DOO M

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F EBRUA RY 8 - 14, 2017

Publisher Chris Keating

Upfront

Editorial Managing Editor Eric Sandy Music Editor Jeff Niesel Senior Writer Sam Allard Staff Writer Brett Zelman Writer-at-large Kyle Swenson Dining Editor Douglas Trattner Contributing Dining Editor Rachel Hunt Stage Editor Christine Howey Visual Arts Editor Josh Usmani Copy Editor Elaine Cicora Interns Johnny Cook, Lawrence Neil

6

Clevelanders extol the city’s unity, and we introduce our new mayoral campaign column

Feature

13

We travel to Noble Road in East Cleveland, where a giant landfill is raising health concerns

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

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A new exhibit at the Akron Art Museum showcases iconic art magazine Hi-Fructose

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A morbidly obese man drowns his sorrows in food, but the emotions are slight in The Whale

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UPFRONT

CLEVELAND WELCOMES THE WORLD At protests and celebrations, locals show support for immigrants, refugees HUNDREDS OF NORTHEAST Ohioans gathered at Market Square last Friday to protest President Donald Trump’s recent Muslim travel ban executive order. It easily ranks as one of the largest political or social demonstrations in recent Cleveland history, next to the Women’s March on Cleveland last

month and, possibly, the March to End Poverty during the RNC). It was invigorating as hell.

The crowd, clocking in at a cool 1,000 or so — just eyeballing it — began marching down West 25th Street at 5 p.m., right as the work week spilled onto city streets, and brought hundreds to the

federal courthouse and, ultimately, City Hall. The mayor may have been inside the building; maybe not. Either way, his silence on the question of immigrants and refugees in Cleveland has been a startling backdrop to both the national Constitutional crisis and his own bizarre campaign announcement.

Photos by Eric Sandy

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| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

The call for last week’s demonstration, of course, came in the wake of the utter chaos at international airports around the U.S., prompted by near-unilateral decision-making from the new presidential administration. A Cleveland Clinic medical resident was forced to leave the country as soon as she landed at JFK, threatened, in fact, with deportation if she did not comply. (She has since filed a lawsuit against the president.)

An event originally planned for earlier in the week was postponed due to the weather; still, people braved below-freezing temperatures to gather and chant and, in the words of one speaker, “build community.” Free hand warmers were offered by one congenial protester.

One speaker, self-identifying as an undocumented immigrant, urged Mayor Frank Jackson and Gov. John Kasich to pursue “sanctuary” policies. The governor has, at the very least, spoken out against the travel ban. He toed the line on the question of sanctuary cities while on the campaign trail.

And while protest and dissent have become powerful forces in this country lately, the other dynamic at work last Friday was a sort of celebration: About 20 local residents gathered at the federal courthouse Friday morning to welcome newly

THIS WEEK

naturalized immigrants to the U.S., and, in talking with organizers around Cleveland, plenty more events are planned in the near future to celebrate the city’s rich history of embracing its immigrant population.

The naturalization ceremony was a really terrific platform for people to join together in support of something bigger than the current headlines. These sorts of ceremonies take place at Ohio’s Northern District federal courthouse every other week; the public is always welcome.

Judge James Gwin, beaming over the virtues of citizenship, said that his court recently naturalized a 97-year-old Mexican immigrant. “I think that spoke very strongly about the importance that immigration has for our country,” he said on this morning.

The whole event offered a fairly stirring scene. As courtroom officials read off the name of each new citizen, they also mentioned their country of origin. Gwin was quick to point out that this was often his favorite part of these ceremonies; people had immigrated to the U.S. from all over the world, including Ethiopia, Cameroon, Iraq, France, Canada, Colombia and Greece, to name just a few from this day. Men, women and children waved small American flags and snapped photos of their family members receiving their certificates of citizenship. (One man raised his flag high as he left the courtroom and shouted, “Go Team America!”)

Outside the courtroom, about 20 local residents gathered with signs reading “Thank you” and

WHAT I MEANT WAS...

Michigan GOP official abhorrently calls for “another Kent State” in the wake of Berkeley student protests. In clarifying remarks, Dan Adamini swears he meant “another kegger at College Fest.”

“We’re glad you are here” in various languages spoken around the world.

Organized by Rebecca Maurer, the group gathered at the courthouse “to show support for and cheer on those being sworn in at the ceremony.”

Elsewhere, representatives from Global Cleveland greeted new citizens and pointed them toward an array of resources, including voter registration sheets.

Jaspreet Reen, from India, told Scene that he particularly enjoyed Gwin’s brief history lesson on American independence. King George of Great Britain at the time barred American colonies from naturalizing new settlers.

The Declaration of Independence condemned the king for his stance, thus paving the way for some 241 years of this grand experiment in

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

State Treasurer Josh Mandel announces support for bill banning “sanctuary cities.”

Aides confirm that Mandel felt he had no other recourse after learning about the Bowling Green massacre.

rule.

“That kind of made my day,” Reen said with a smile. — Eric Sandy

CLEVELAND CONFRONTS ONGOING CRISIS IN AFTERMATH OF ALIANNA DEFREEZE’S MURDER The discovery of Alianna DeFreeze’s body in an abandoned home on the city’s eastside on Jan. 29 staked a brutal end to a dayslong search for the missing girl.

Somewhere between home and school, she fell victim to a monster.

The city reeled in anguish, and, for the umpteenth time, found itself having to confront the oft-ignored problems for many who walk these dangerous streets.

Beginning Tuesday morning,

JUNIOR BACON Lakewood now seeking developers for former Lakewood Hospital site.

Mayor Michael Summers says that city is eager build on Detroit Avenue’s “burger restaurants and dollar stores” motif.

QUALITY OF LIFE Listening to the Outsiders all week.

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local clergy members are walking with young students to their schools or their bus stops. A growing fear in some Cleveland neighborhoods admits how easily this crime could have taken place; DeFreeze needed to take two city buses to get to her school, leaving her home at 6:30 a.m. often in pre-dawn darkness.

According to reports, she was walking alone when she was taken on Jan. 26.

The home where DeFreeze was found is just two blocks away from the Fourth District police department headquarters.

Christopher Whitaker, 44, meanwhile, was charged with aggravated murder. His bond was set at $3 million last week. As Prosecutor Mike O’Malley described the crime: “The allegations are that the defendant followed a child from the bus stop, kidnapped then savagely and brutally assaulted and murdered her, taking the life of a beautiful, little girl. These actions, along with this defendant’s extensive criminal history, are strong indicators that a high bond is necessary, and that he is definitely a significant threat to the safety of the community.”

Indeed. Whitaker’s criminal past stretches back more than 20 years. In 2005, he was charged with sexual battery, rape, attempted murder, kidnapping and two counts of felonious assault. A plea deal dismissed most of those charges, leaving Whitaker with a sexual battery charge and one count of felonious assault; he was sentenced to four years in prison. Later, theft charges landed him an additional year in prison.

During that time, several other teenage girls were found murdered near the home where investigators found DeFreeze. In the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 29 discovery, Councilman Zack Reed began stoking fears that a serial killer was on the loose around the East 93rd spine of Cleveland’s eastside.

During a press conference, at least one frenzied reporter made sure that Police Chief Calvin Williams addressed the idea that Cleveland should be bracing for another Michael Madison-type problem.

He told the media that police officers are always aware of the possibility of connections among homicides, though he did not back up Reed’s now-disproven claim, which incidentally was repeated as

“sourced” information in reports from Fox 8 News and Cleveland 19 News. — Sandy

AMANDA BERRY JOINS FOX 8 On the subject of missing teenage girls, Amanda Berry, one of Cleveland’s three most famous missing persons, will be joining Fox 8 News. Berry was, of course, captured and imprisoned by Ariel Castro before her dramatic escape in 2013.

In an interview Monday morning with the effusive morning news team — Wayne Dawson, Stefani Schaefer, Kristi Capel — Berry announced that she’d be part of a new missingpersons segment to be known as the “Missing Project.”

“We’ll be working with law enforcement and anyone who needs our help,” she said.

Berry said that given her family’s arduous and often lonely struggle to obtain information in the aftermath of her own disappearance, she feels uniquely qualified to advocate on

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UPFRONT behalf of missing persons, especially children.

Which she is. Berry has been working with the Center for Missing and Exploited Children in D.C. ever since her escape, and no one would argue that she is a passionate advocate whose singularly hellish ordeal has fueled her advocacy.

But the Fox 8 crew, mindful of Berry’s local fame, could hardly contain themselves as they gushed about the positive feedback on their social media channels. Schaefer told Berry that her presence at Fox 8 would help raise “so much awareness” about the missing persons issue, an issue currently on the minds of local parents after the murder of 14-year-old Alianna DeFreeze.

No doubt. But beyond the fact that it will begin airing soon, details about the new segment were in short supply. Much of the interview, billed as an announcement of and an elaboration on Berry’s new role, focused on Berry herself: her family and her daughter (they are happy and healthy); her memories of

Seymour Avenue (she tries not to go down the path of negativity); and her communication with Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight (it is ongoing, if sporadic, and rarely about the past).

While the content of the upcoming segment is important stuff — and was explained more fully, Fox 8 news director Andy Fishman told Scene, during the 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. hours — Berry is merely a celebrity being used to brand that content.

To pretend otherwise is, at best, quaint. It’d be as if Joe Thomas were brought on to host a segment about concussions in sports. Only it’s worse.

Celebrity attachments aren’t necessarily bad things. They likely do generate greater awareness, and viewers may indeed value Berry’s contributions because of her decade of captivity (and because they’re rooting for her). But the whole setup was frankly pretty gross. It’s clear Fox 8 knows that there is something their viewers value even more than content about missing persons, and that’s content about Amanda Berry.

This was evident in their 10-second Super Bowl spot Sunday, and in the several teasers during the 8 a.m. morning broadcast.

Having Berry “join the team”

means Fox 8 will get exclusive interviews for the duration of her contract — not interviews that Berry conducts (it’s not like she’s a trained reporter) but ones that she sits for.

Fox 8 will get to chronicle the next stage of Berry’s life as she ostensibly participates in a news segment, a segment that may become more about her than about the region’s missing persons.

“You can’t have her!” joked Schaefer to the cameras (and to the other local news stations). The impression was that Fox 8 had secured a commodity that had been up for grabs. Fox 8 wins! Fox 8 is the best! Indeed, the interview drifted, finally, into explicit selfpromotion (self-promotion that had been implicit throughout): “Tell everyone,” Kristi Capel instructed Berry, “how much you love us!”

— Sam Allard

70 OPIATE OVERDOSES IN CUYAHOGA COUNTY THIS YEAR SO FAR At least 70 people have overdosed and died in Cuyahoga County so far this year, according to new data from the medical examiner’s office.

Six of those deaths occurred just

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this past Saturday in a particularly alarming 24-hour span.

The medical examiner’s office reports that there are still several cases awaiting fi nal toxicology results, and that the number could — and, based on our observations, likely will — increase.

The news follows the 2016 numbers, still not 100-percent finalized, that showed more than 500 people had fatally overdosed across the county.

Scene, in attempting to profile men and women in recovery last year, ended up meeting with one man during the last few weeks of his life before he relapsed and overdosed. We insist on returning to a quote from that story, one that sums up the monstrous scope of the problem before us. Aaron Marks works with the Heroin and Opioid Task Force led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Ohio. He laid out the case in stark, unforgettable terms.

“This is the crisis of the generation. People don’t realize it, but it’s going to wipe us out,” Marks told us. “It’s touching every aspect of society, and it’s going to wipe out an entire generation of people.” — Sandy

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TWO MOMENTOUS NEWS ITEMS loudest critics of the city’s rising to report in this, the most pivotal homicide rates over the past three election year in the City of years.

Cleveland’s recent memory: Mayor But for now the front-runners Frank Jackson announced last are assuredly Jackson and Johnson, Tuesday evening, in an understated with Chrostowski presenting an ceremony at unconventional Tri-C, that he’d alternative. Social be seeking an media was autter unprecedented with rave reviews fourth term when Chrostowski and will be threw his hat doing so with in the ring, but the equivalent sentiment will of a shrug. He likely evolve in said he’d been lockstep with his preparing a ledger campaign. Six yu Su l pd and had amassed additional a at e o or n t h e M ay ďŹ ve full pages of candidates reasons not to have ofďŹ cially run. declared, but they have yet to make “I only had one reason for public announcements or ramp up running,â€? he professed, “and that is campaign activities. the people you see behind me.â€?

The young Ja’Ovvoni Garrison, Jackson, who said he neither 27, however, is an intriguing particularly wanted nor needed the candidate. He’s a bold thinker with job, downplayed the competition. He ties to community development said that if a “sincere or qualiďŹ edâ€? organizations and a background candidate had entered the race, in skateboarding. He has ofďŹ cially he wouldn’t have felt so compelled declared — he even has merch — to continue the work of his and spent much of the past week administration. He views himself as waging small ideological wars on the only viable candidate, in short. social media, most of them relating But not so fast, say contenders. to perceptions of poverty and Public In an unexpected turn, Brandon Square. Garrison should be lauded Chrostowski, the Edwins Restaurant for his civic engagement and his impresario, announced to Scene last idealism, but his strategies seem Thursday that he’d be entering the to lack grounding in a knowledge fray. Chrostowski, whose politics are of scale: He has said, for example, unclear, declared his plan for the that he hopes (in fact, expects) to future was better than Jackson’s. raise $10 million for his campaign “I’m not going to knock the job — an outlandish number. One of his [Jackson] did,â€? Chrostowski told central policy ambitions is to enact Scene. “He’s a great shepherd. But a four-year levy speciďŹ cally to fund I believe my ideas can be stronger the RTA: The goal is to make public for Cleveland than the current transportation free for all. ideas. These are ideas, but they are A noble goal, make no mistake, ideas that are more than possible, but as a political novice with littleotherwise I wouldn’t be doing this.â€? to-no experience or cred, it can Chief among Chrostowski’s be difďŹ cult for many to take him visions: adapting his business model seriously. When asked by Freshwater at Edwins to turn incarcerated Cleveland last week why he is people into income-generators (that running for mayor instead of, say, a is, taxpayers) for the city. city council seat, Garrison said that In an editorial following that wouldn’t cut it.

Chrostowski’s announcement, “I just need to get into ofďŹ ce,â€? he Cleveland.com’s Mark Naymik argued said. “I could run for council, but that Jackson could not be a “reluctant knowing the top-down, I’d still be in candidateâ€? if he intended to win. square one. The whole ecosphere in “Chrostowski’s entry into the race Cleveland — change could happen will likely force Jackson to refocus now. But everybody knows how his campaign rhetoric,â€? Naymik difďŹ cult it is to do something in wrote, “which as of Wednesday this city, whether it’s skateboarding, seemed to be directed exclusively at opening a business. And these Cleveland councilmen Jeff Johnson people, in their positions, are not and Zack Reed.â€? doing enough. I just have to try.â€?

Reed has not yet declared his — Allard candidacy, but is expected to. He’ll likely run on an anti-violence scene@clevescene.com campaign. He has been one of the t @clevelandscene

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Photo by Eric Sandy

FEATURE

MOUNT DOOM East Cleveland residents have been complaining about the health hazards of a dump on Noble Road for years.

Is anyone listening?

By Eric Sandy

A COLD DRIZZLE COVERS EAST CLEVELAND ON a January afternoon, and that’s a blessing for Willie Morrow: Rain helps tamp down the fumes oozing out of the dump across the street.

“It’s gonna be hell when the weather gets nice,” he says with a gentle drawl.

From behind a pair of bifocals, Morrow’s glance indicts the four-story mountain of dilapidated housing materials that rises behind his neighborhood, and he can do nothing but sigh, his breath condensing briefly.

It was 43 years ago that Morrow moved into his home on Noble Road.

His front porch was for some time a gathering spot for neighbors and friends, conversation unfolding below too many setting suns to remember.

Now the porch boasts a vista of rolling foothills of drywall and tires, fiberglass and the jagged remains of refrigerators. In the heat of summer, he says, the gym-bag stench of demolition debris is just too much to bear. Morrow doesn’t spend much time on his porch these days.

Three years ago, former Mayor Gary Norton and city council unanimously authorized Arco Recycling to buy the property, tucked immediately behind homes on Noble and Euclid Avenue, from the city for $125,000. Norton repeatedly insisted that the sale was necessary to cover impending payroll shortfalls, what

with perpetual budget deficits and annual, ignominious recognition from the state auditor as a city under fiscal emergency. Within a few months, Norton would be begging the state to take “a leap of faith” and issue a loan to East Cleveland.

That loan wouldn’t come and East Cleveland’s financial problems grew. So did Arco’s mountain.

The company “dumped and dumped and dumped,” as one neighbor says, and for nearly three years the residents of Noble Road watched with concern. They started tracking the dump truck deliveries and their own phone calls, rarely answered or returned, to local and state politicians.

Their complaints piled up like the asbestos in their backyards.

All along, city officials have insisted that there are no hazardous materials on the site; that there is no sulfuric smell wafting among the row of three-story houses; that, when it comes down it, what’s happening on Noble Road is a great and important improvement to the community.

“Those are adjectives they

use,” Morrow says. “Behind those adjectives is poison.”

Just last month, Jim Riffle of Hudson-based Auburn Environmental gave evidence to those claims. He released a 37-page report that details the array of hazardous chemicals found on the vinyl siding and rooftops of garages and homes lining Noble Road. Among them: hydrogen sulfide, the byproduct of gypsum drywall materials left out in the rain. Inhaling that stuff can produce an encyclopedia of health problems, ranging from eye irritation and nausea to paroxysmal convulsions and death.

Riffle’s report coincided with the state’s own investigations. On Jan. 17, the Ohio EPA gave Arco’s owners two weeks to comply with an order to shut down operations. As of Feb. 6, Arco has not filed compliance paperwork, and the alps of construction and demolition debris have not decreased in size. (From the street, though, one can watch employees coating the heaps with “fines,” or woodchip materials, obscuring what’s beneath.)

With no public compliance to date, the Ohio Attorney General’s office is now getting involved as an enforcing agent.

Nothing new for the Noble Road set: Residents are still left wondering why the city hasn’t stepped in to stand down the mysterious company that’s polluting its neighborhood.

With the city reeling in the aftermath of a mayoral recall and tilting toward near-total financial

collapse, Arco Recycling has become a proxy in a long-standing feud over the direction of East Cleveland. After a while, you hear enough people complain about the toxic dump and you begin to wonder if they’re talking about the Arco facility or City Hall.

The Arco Recycling folks arrived in East Cleveland two years into the city’s “fiscal emergency” with the state auditor’s office (continuing to this day) and with little to no inspection from a council that spent its Monday meetings at that time arguing about its public-access television channel.

The dump purchase slipped by almost unnoticed.

A man identifying himself as Mike Riley appeared before an East Cleveland City Council executive session on March 3, 2014, claiming to be the owner of Ohio Rock Industries.

Ohio Rock LLC is registered in Ohio by a man named Michael E. George. (Multiple sources have insisted to Scene that Michael E. George is an alias of George Michael Riley Sr., the operator of Red Rock Services, a local demolition company in East Cleveland, also known simply as Mike Riley.)

Arco Recycling itself did not yet exist; it would be registered with the state more than a month later.

Riley was pressed by councilman Nathaniel Martin that day on what, precisely, would be recycled at the property the city was considering | clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

13

selling. Riley responded, according to meeting minutes, that “only construction debris that was nonhazardous” would be recycled on the premises.

The next day, March 4, 2014, city council convened for a full session and vote on the sale. Martin asked Norton “what is going on” just prior to the vote. The mayor explained that “this will be the site for a recycling business.” And with that vigorous debate and inspection, the sale of 1705 Noble Rd. was unanimously approved.

Among the contract legalese, the sale declared that the purchaser, in addition to “recycling” housing materials from Cuyahoga County Land Bank demolitions, would also be “demolishing the dilapidated structures [on the former General Electric site], remediating environmental matters to the extent required by law, and preparing the property for development.”

Additionally, the city was promised 30 local jobs.

Noble Road residents, whose requests to see Arco’s permits and records have gone unfulfilled, tell Scene that there is no such recycling

14

Photo by Eric Sandy

FEATURE

Area residents gather and speak out against what is being called enviromental racism.

occurring at the facility. The housing debris looms over the homes lining its perimeter, and there’s only been more of it as the years have gone by. Records of complaints to the Ohio EPA and the Cleveland Division of Air Quality stretch back almost to Arco’s opening date in July 2014. And the matter of remediating the environment on site?

Nope.

As recently as November 2016, some council members were still trying to figure out what is really happening at 1705 Noble Rd. “Within

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

the contract, he’s supposed to have beautified this property by July 2016,” says council member Joie Graham.

She was referring to a 2003 city ordinance that essentially locks in Cuyahoga County Land Bank property transactions, mandating that they are held to certain standards within two years of any sale. (Prior to the city’s sale to Ohio Rock, it had obtained 1705 Noble from the Land Bank.)

But here’s where things went awry: On July 14, 2014, Norton signed a “satisfaction and release of mortgage”

form that dropped the property from the jurisdiction of the Cuyahoga County fiscal officer. Riley — or George or Mike or whoever is running the Arco Recycling facility — was no longer bound to beautify it. And no one has.

Across the street from Willie Morrow lives Harry Drummonds. Been here since 1973. His property abuts the fencing around Arco Recycling, and he’s propped a ladder against

| cl cclevescene.com lev eves eessce cen nee.ccom om | February Feb ebru ruaarrryy 8 - 14, 1144, 220 2017 01177

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FEATURE his garage so that curious visitors can take in the sprawling vista of the Arco grounds. On several visits to Drummondsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; place in January, Scene watched employees or contractors toiling beneath the piles of debris.

Drummonds says that, most days, a cavalcade of dump trucks begins arriving around 5:30 a.m., like the worst sort of alarm clock. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Day after day,â&#x20AC;? he adds.

According to neighbors up and down Noble Road, many of whom have long documented their communications with city and state ofďŹ cials, there has never been any ofďŹ cial interaction between Arco Recycling ownership and the residents. (A man whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been identiďŹ ed to Scene as George Michael Riley Sr. is seen in several videos on YouTube caught up in extremely heated arguments with East Cleveland residents through the chain-link fence.) â&#x20AC;&#x153;For over two years, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been held hostage on our properties,â&#x20AC;?

Drummonds says. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s slumped onto a squat stack of three plastic lawn chairs in his driveway; he only spends time outside these days to bring reporters and neighbors to the property line. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not like those chairs are being used for relaxation, he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That is a luxury, not a necessity, but they cut off all avenues to that. I bet you the director of the Ohio EPA sits in his backyard. I bet you he barbecues with his family.â&#x20AC;?

A central contention for the past few years is that all this stuff was obvious to anyone with functioning senses; you didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need a canary to know something was wrong. Why it took so long to get action from state leaders (to say nothing of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s indifference, many argue) is difďŹ cult to understand.

In the summer of 2014, the Ohio EPA approved three air pollution control permits that â&#x20AC;&#x153;require the facility to limit fugitive dust emissions from the sorting line, storage piles, paved roadways and parking lots,â&#x20AC;? according to Ohio EPA Director Craig Butler. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The permits also prohibit the processing of any regulated asbestoscontaining materials.â&#x20AC;? Facilities like Arco need state-issued permits to be able to do the sort of work that involves potentially dubious materials.

The invitation for RifďŹ&#x201A;e to study the area was not without cause; Arco had been ignoring the permit requirements. Government agencies were quietly taking note, too.

On May 19, 2015, for example, three representatives from the Cleveland Division of Air Quality visited Arco

and noted that â&#x20AC;&#x153;some fugitive dust was observed.â&#x20AC;? According to the report, Riley told the representatives that the company does not maintain all of their permit-required records. On June 11, the CDAQ reported that â&#x20AC;&#x153;it is highly probable that asbestos is contained in the debris piles.â&#x20AC;? The very next day, a CDAQ investigator reported that â&#x20AC;&#x153;asbestos is located at the site.â&#x20AC;?

In June 2015, the CDAQ and the Ohio EPA issued a notice of violation against Arco ownership.

Soon, though, with no real action resulting from that notice, and at the urging of Noble Road residents, highranking public ofďŹ cials began asking questions. Sen. Sherrod Brown and U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge, for example, communicated directly with the Ohio EPAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Butler.

On Sept. 15, 2015, Butler wrote to Fudge that, â&#x20AC;&#x153;No asbestos violations have been identiďŹ ed in past inspections.â&#x20AC;?

Fudge shot back in October 2015: â&#x20AC;&#x153;While test results for asbestos may be negative,â&#x20AC;? she wrote, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I worry that the Arco site may pose additional health and safety risks to nearby residents that cannot be adequately reďŹ&#x201A;ected in an environmental report. This includes the presence of other potential pollutants, sleeplessness due to noise pollution, dirt and soot which coats the neighborhood homes and cars, and the constant stress brought about by the siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s operation. Many area residents have even taken to wearing surgical masks during their daily routines to prevent excessive dust inhalation.â&#x20AC;?

Meantime, the dump truck procession rolled on.

As 2016 came to a close, former mayor Eric Brewer returned to his old city and decided to get involved.

Drummonds, a longtime friend of Brewer, joined with other neighbors to get something on the books in their ďŹ ght against Arco.

Brewer and the group contacted Jim RifďŹ&#x201A;e of Auburn Environmental â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the guy who gets called to do chemical testing for Fortune 500 companies â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and brought him up the road to East Cleveland. (RifďŹ&#x201A;e lives in Boston Heights.) â&#x20AC;&#x153;I thought the place looked more like a landďŹ ll than a recycling center,â&#x20AC;?

RifďŹ&#x201A;e told Scene when asked about his ďŹ rst impressions. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The waste streams seemed to be co-mingled, where everything just seems to be mixed together, instead of segregated.â&#x20AC;?

He listed what he saw: old building materials, rooďŹ ng materials, sheet rock.

Using standard â&#x20AC;&#x153;dust samplingâ&#x20AC;? methodology, RifďŹ&#x201A;eâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work turned

Photo by Eric Sandy

Harry Drummonds doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t spend much time outside these days, except to meet with reporters and allies in the ďŹ ght against Arco.

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up a whole spectrum of nasty stuff, ranging from hydrogen sulďŹ de to ďŹ berglass, concrete dust, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chromium and various other toxins lining the outside of Drummondsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; house and garage. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I get involved in projects like this all the time, where something is affecting either an industrial, commercial or residential property,â&#x20AC;?

RifďŹ&#x201A;e says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The unique thing about this is the close proximity of the Arco site to residential properties. The close proximity of the site to residential neighborhoods is concerning. And the sheer volume and height of the piles is a major concern, because any time you get wind that blows across that construction debris or blows any gas off that landďŹ ll itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s obviously going to end up on houses or even in houses.â&#x20AC;?

RifďŹ&#x201A;eâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s report comes at the tail end of two years of Ohio EPA and Cleveland Division of Air Quality investigative reports. Both his work and the Ohio EPA order lend Noble Roadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s residents some semblance of public awareness beyond their own city. Multiple residents compared this plight to the Flint, Michigan, water crisis, which played out quietly before receiving a wellspring of national attention, perhaps too little, too late.

The New York Times labeled Flint a prime example of â&#x20AC;&#x153;environmental racism,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;the result of poverty and segregation that has relegated many blacks and other racial minorities to some of the most industrialized or dilapidated environments.â&#x20AC;?

Similar phrasing came up in many conversations in East Cleveland. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This has been a horrendous experience so far,â&#x20AC;? one neighbor told us (many residents didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want their names used in this or other stories). â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a little bit leery now. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really

know whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s running this organization.

And I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to start running my mouth. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not a scared person, but at this point Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m beginning to feel that way.â&#x20AC;?

Their fears might not be unfounded.

On Jan. 18, according to a Boston Heights police report ďŹ led by RifďŹ&#x201A;e, two men were seen standing next to a black BMW that was parked in his driveway. RifďŹ&#x201A;e â&#x20AC;&#x153;made contact with the men and they took off running.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been advised not to talk about that,â&#x20AC;? RifďŹ&#x201A;e tells Scene.

On Jan. 17, 2017, with news of Brewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s involvement and RifďŹ&#x201A;eâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s report marinating in the local news cycle, the Ohio EPA issued an order for Arco Recycling to stop accepting materials and to begin shutting down operations within two weeks. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Arco was not operating consistently as a recycler of this material, which is an unregulated activity, and therefore is considered to be illegal open dumping, and this is why Ohio EPA acted quickly to shut the facility down and demand it be cleaned up,â&#x20AC;? Ohio EPA spokesperson Heidi Griesmer tells Scene.

But residents knew better than to be optimistic. The deadline passed without so much as an acknowledgement from Arco. â&#x20AC;&#x153;To comply with the order, Arco needed to cease acceptance and disposal of [construction and demolition debris] at the facility and complete the removal of all processed and unprocessed [construction and demolition debris] in a lawful manner,â&#x20AC;?

Griesmer says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It also needed to provide documentation of compliance

by Jan. 31, 2017. Arco is no longer taking material but they failed to provide documentation of compliance.

The case has been referred to the

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Located less than one mile from the Bedford Reservation singletrack bike trail | clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

17

FEATURE

Photo by Eric Sandy

Arco employees have been covering the housing debris with woodchip materials lately.

Ohio Attorney General’s office for enforcement.”

Locally, East Cleveland City Council is stuck in the same disarray that’s been present for years. Norton was recalled on Dec. 6, 2016, along with former council president Thomas Wheeler (in whose ward Arco operates). That advanced Councilman Brandon King to the position of mayor.

The remaining council members appointed two residents to fill the vacant seats, but King soon overrode those appointments and brought in his own choices. Council has yet to issue a formal resolution on the present state or future of the Noble Road facility.

For now, residents continue to debate how to take back their neighborhood.

“It’s sad that any citizen would have to go through what we’ve gone through,” Drummonds says, the dull throb of heavy machinery backdropping his voice. “It’s an assassination attempt on my family and neighbors. The people who put dump sites in a neighborhood don’t give a damn about human life.”

After Brewer lit up Facebook with long, detailed op-ed-style pieces on the Noble Road situation, reporters from the Plain Dealer, Cleveland 19 News and WCPN converged on the story.

The Ohio EPA order hit email inboxes across Northeast Ohio. Riffle’s report underscored the dangers lurking

18

in the neighborhood. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine was tapped for assistance.

In many ways, there’s more action than ever on the problem. In other ways, Morrow says, it’s a lot of talk.

And the neighborhood is almost talked out by this point.

On Jan. 23, Cleveland Heights’ Councilman Michael Ungar insisted his city become more active in efforts to completely shut down the Arco Recycling facility. Certain neighborhoods in Cleveland Heights are within a few thousand feet of the property. “Noble Road” means a lot of things these days, and it’s not just confined to Noble Road.

Cleveland Heights’ Mayor Cheryl Stephens is also the director of acquisitions, dispositions and development for the Cuyahoga County Land Bank. She told a Cleveland.com reporter that, “This was sold to me by the mayor of East Cleveland. And I’m very concerned also.”

Reached by Scene and asked about that quote, Stephens said that she would get back to us. She did not.

And so despite the Ohio attorney general now stepping into the yearslong struggle, cause for celebration is scarce on Noble Road. Drummonds told a Plain Dealer reporter on Jan. 17, “I am so elated, I could dance in the street on Noble Road.” When Scene met him in his backyard just three days later, elation was in short supply.

“They dump and they dump and

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

they dump,” he says, visibly frustrated.

“They don’t recycle a damn thing.”

On Jan. 27, he and Morrow joined their neighbors and watched about 20 local residents gather on the corner of Euclid Avenue and Noble Road. A Pan-African flag flapped in the cold rain, and an inverted American flag stretched across the view of passing motorists.

Devin Branch, appointed to East Cleveland City Council in December and since kicked off by Mayor Brandon King, joined the demonstration and march. As we walked down Noble Road to once again congregate at Drummonds’ place, Branch explained that the Ohio EPA order is, if anything, just the beginning.

“We have to remain vigilant,” Branch says. “We have to remember that there’s a huge, huge journey between now and the actual completion of the removal of this dump. We have to make sure that we insist on the hasty removal of this dump, but in a manner that protects the health and welfare of the people of the city of East Cleveland and the people of surrounding communities.”

Across the street, the foundation beneath Morrow’s house has slipped noticeably in the past few years, he points out. His front door used to glide open each day after work; now, he has to wriggle the thing out of it off-kilter frame whenever he comes or goes. He says the vibrations from the trucks

have disturbed the structural integrity of buildings up and down Noble Road.

There’s a whole spectrum of problems that rest outside the view of places like downtown Cleveland and, much closer, the booming expansion of University Circle. Morrow says he’s seen seagulls skiffing across the lowlands of the dump, seeking out what must only be the presence of food. Last year, he says, neighbors reported coyotes in the area. Rats converge on the neighborhood in the warmer months, and the warmer months will be here soon.

Ballparking the timeline ahead, Morrow says it’ll probably take another two years to get rid of the dump, if they start now. And then, he asks, “What about all the toxic shit over there?”

“A whole lotta hell gonna break loose. Everybody is running scared,” Morrow says. “We don’t even sit on our front porches in the summer anymore.

We can’t. We can’t take it. We do not enjoy our homes, because of all this crap that’s going down. We’ve been after our own city ever since they approved this, and a lot of us have been sick over the years.

“All you need is a fucking fire over there. You get a fire over there, and it’s over. This city don’t even have [fire] trucks.”

esandy@clevescene.com t@ericsandy

| clevescene.com m | February 8 - 14, 2017

19

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| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

everything you should do this week

GET OUT WED

02/08

BEER

Hoppin’ Frog Hoppy Hour Much like the Fat Head’s tasting room in Middleburg Heights, the Hoppin’ Frog tasting room in Akron is in a non-descript strip of storage facilities and warehouses. But step inside and you’ll find a cozy tasting room with a huge array of the brewery’s wonderful libations. The place features “hoppy hour” every weekday from 3 to 7 p.m. Tonight, the brewers visit the tasting room from 5 to 7 p.m. While they don’t fill growlers, you can drink bottles on site or take ’em to go. The place also offers a “Hoppin’ Frog Rare & Vintage” list as well as a guest bottle list. And you can order from a limited food menu too. (Jeff Niesel) 1680-F Waterloo Rd., Akron, 234-525-3764, hoppinfrog.com/ tasting-room.

The Cinematheque premieres the campy feminist thriller The Love Witch.

See: Thursday.

FILM

Portrait of a Garden Rosie Stapel directs Portrait of a Garden, a 2015 film about a Dutch gardener and his pruning master.

The two discuss everything from the weather to fruits and vegetables in this documentary that chronicles them and their team of gardeners during a four-season period. The movie screens tonight at 7 at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tickets are $9, or $7 for CMA members, students and seniors. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

FILM

Wayne’s World Based on the Saturday Night Live sketch of the same name, the 1992 movie Wayne’s World centers on Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey), two metalheads who broadcast a talk-show on local public access television. Directed

by Penelope Spheeris (The Decline of Western Civilization), the movie grossed $183 million in its theatrical run, placing it as the 10th highestgrossing film of year and the highest-grossing of the 11 films based on SNL skits. In celebration of the film’s 25th anniversary, SpectiCast and Paramount Pictures will host theatrical events tonight at 7 at area theaters. The special events will include a screening of the movie as well as an exclusive introduction

by Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers and a videotaped chat with the director and cast members.

Consult the website for ticket prices and times. (Niesel) waynesworld25.com.

THU

02/09

COMEDY

Jeff Blanchard Comedian Jeff Blanchard has attitude to spare, and nothing is out of bounds for him. Topics of humor include kiddie porn, some pretty hilarious John McCain impressions, ragging on the Browns and the lovely town of Elyria. Some of the things he says are slightly offensive, but it’s all in good fun as this Cleveland native brings in that trademark ironic sense of humor.

(You have to be tough, after all.)

He takes the stage tonight at 7:30 at the Improv; tickets are $15. (Liz Trenholme) 1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com.

ART

Constructions Harris Stanton Gallery’s Cleveland location opens its first new exhibition of 2017 with Constructions, a twoperson show featuring the work of Lynn O’Brien and Meaghan Reed. As the title hints, both artists

“construct” their works using an eclectic variety of materials. Better known for her intricately detailed paintings of imaginary birds, O’Brien’s new series of whimsical bird constructions are created using a combination of acrylic paint, handpainted collage papers, wood cutouts and colored pencils. O’Brien studied at the University of Arizona. Her work was won numerous awards and is in many public collections, including the Tucson International Airport. After receiving her master’s degree in fine arts from Kent State University, Meaghan Reed returned to KSU, where she currently teaches. For her portion of the exhibition, Reed has created two-dimensional assemblages using vibrant layered paper. Inspired by molecular-level imagery, the artist says her juxtaposition of new and found materials reflects early and contemporary ideas in science. The opening reception is tonight from 5:30 to 8, with a gallery talk with the artists taking place midway through the reception. Constructions remains on view through March 18.

Admission is free. (Josh Usmani) 1370 West Ninth St., 216-471-8882, harrisstantongallery.com.

HISTORY

History on Tap From 5 to 8 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month, the

Cleveland History Center at the Western Reserve Historical Society hosts History on Tap, an event that features happy hour refreshments, light hors d’oeuvres and handson activities. Each event focuses on a special theme inspired by Cleveland’s past. This month, that theme is Black History: Beautiful Reflections. The night includes rarely seen artifacts related to African-Americans in Cleveland and an exclusive look at the extensive Louis and Carl Stokes Collection.

Tickets are $7 in advance, $10 at the door. Tickets for WRHS members and students with ID are only $5.

Add $25 to your ticket price if you want to stick around for the Beats, Eats and Brushes art session. Details are online. (Niesel) 10825 East Blvd., 216-721-5722, wrhs.org.

ART

Likeness The artists in Heights Arts’ first exhibition of 2017 capture a deep sense of personality and character in their portraiture through a wide variety of media. Organized by guest curator Sharon Grossman, Likeness showcases the work of several portrait artists from Northeast Ohio. The exhibition includes Sarah Curry’s paintings, Susan Gallagher’s ceramics, Bernadette Glorioso’s paintings on | clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

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This annual party will be hotter th han ever before, and now includes an exciting fashion sho ow and even more vodkas to sample from! Also enjoy the e sweet musical stylings of Clevelandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hottest DJs.

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| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

which includes 5 drink tickets and fashion show. which includes VIP hour starting at 7pm complete with hand passed hors dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;oeuvres by The 9, exclusive cocktails and VIP gift bag plus 7 drink tickets and fashion show.

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

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GET OUT repurposed fabric, David King’s mixed media drawings, Daniel Levin’s photography and Mary Ann Tripple’s fiber arts. Additionally, one wall of the gallery is dedicated to the artists’ self-portraits. Tonight from 6 to 9, Heights Arts hosts Ekphrastacy: Artists Talk and Poets Respond. Invited poets Dianne Borsenik, Kisha Nicole Foster and Jayce Rennertoto join artists from the exhibition for a discussion on the inspiration and interpretation of the works on view in the gallery.

Likeness remains on view through Feb. 26. Admission is free. (Usmani) 2175 Lee Rd., Cleveland Hts., 216-371-3457, heightsarts.org.

FUNDRAISER

Let’s Make, With Love at Zygote Zygote Press has planned a benefit event, Let’s Make, With Love, around its current exhibition, Chido Johnson’s Love Library, a group exhibition by local artists inspired by classic romance novels. Let’s Make, with Love takes place tonight from 6:30 to 9:30. The event offers a variety of ways to support the organization, including chocolates

by Sweet Designs, hennas by Alexis Hedderson, massages by Gina Matteucci and more. Zygote invites guests to join in the love-making with opportunities to print T-shirts, Valentine’s Day cards, coasters and more, as well as a chance to write sonnets with Cleveland Arts Prize award-winning poet Dave Lucas.

Music for the event is provided by artist and deejay Marcus Brathwaite. Admission for members is $20 per person ($34 per couple), and $28 per non-member ($50 per non-member couple); the cost includes a box of candy hearts, a Love Library bookmark and a drink ticket. The Love Library exhibit remains on view at Zygote Press through Feb. 25. (Usmani) 1410 East 30th St., 216-621-2900, zygotepress.com.

screens again at 9:40 on Saturday night at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. Tickets are $11, or $8 for CIA members and students.

(Niesel) 11610 Euclid Ave., 216-421-7450, cia.edu.

MUSIC

Mahler and Schubert A huge symphony of a song, Gustav Mahler’s “The Song of the Earth” represents one of the Austrian

Black History Month

VaLerIe JUnE

FEB 10 at 8PM $5.50

Hip Hop 2020: Where it Started & Where Its Been & Where its Going

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Rock Hall Film Series:

Take Me To The River

DJ Sets & Roundtable Discussion w/CLE industry insiders

Celebrating the inter-generational and inter-racial musical influence of Memphis

FEB 15 at 6:30PM

FEB 23 at 7PM

Free w/RSVP

$5.50

Rock Hall Film Series:

The Big Beat: Documentary on Fats Domino & the Birth of Rock & Roll FEB 26 (shown continuously 10am- 4pm)

Included with a Rock Hall admission

FILM

The Love Witch Anna Biller, the director of 2007’s Viva, explores gender issues with her latest movie, last year’s The Love Witch, a film that centers on a femme fatale who heads to a remote California town to start her life over.

Shot and printed on 35-mm film stock, the movie references the 1960s and ’70s European and American color exploitation films. It makes its Cleveland debut tonight at 8:30 and

Tonight at 7:30 at Severance Hall, the Cleveland Orchestra will play it along with Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony. An hour before the performance, Rabbi Roger C. Klein of The Temple – Tifereth Israel gives the pre-concert talk, “Symphonic Song, Unfinished Business.” Performances continue through Saturday, and tickets start at $29. (Niesel) 11001 Euclid Ave., 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com.

Winter Soul Concert Featuring Franc West and more MAR 3 at 7:30PM $15 Adv; $20 Door

rockhall.com/onstage to purchase tickets or RSVP. 1100 Rock and Roll Boulevard, Cleveland, OH 44114 | rockhall.com | 216.781.ROCK

composer’s most emotionally complex works. He started to work on it shortly after being diagnosed with a fatal heart ailment; he hoped it would sustain him. “I am thirstier than ever for life and I find the ‘habit of living’ sweeter than ever,” he wrote at the time.

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

NIGHTLIFE

Mix: Expression February’s Mix event at the Cleveland Museum of Art celebrates “Expression” with a party from 6 to 10 tonight. It’s also a chance to check out the museum’s new exhibition, Basquiat: The Unknown

Notebooks by exploring the power of words and imagery in art. The evening includes an open mic hosted by poet DL Ware in the gallery, and guests are encouraged to share their poems and stories throughout the night. Additionally, artist, deejay and music producer Terry Urban will be performing a live art demonstration, and DJ Forrest Getemgump will provide the evening’s soundtrack of ’80s and ’90s hip-hop in the atrium.

Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door or free for CMA members.

For more information and to purchase advance tickets, visit the CMA’s website. (Usmani) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

SPOKEN WORD

The People: Poetry Slam and Open Mic What goes with hot dogs and tots?

Poetry, of course. On the second and fourth Thursday of each month, including tonight, Happy Dog at the Euclid Tavern hosts Cleveland’s official poetry slam. This live event features a mix of vocal styling, inventive writing and performance art. You can read your work at the open mic that precedes the competition; however, if you want to perform in the slam, you’ll have to sign up ahead of time. Alternatively, you can just hang out and enjoy the unique self-expression that comes from a slam. The competing poets are local writers and performers who present original work in each slam.

The open mic begins at 9 p.m., with the slam following shortly thereafter.

It’s $5 at the door, or $3 with a student ID. (Johnny Cook) 11625 Euclid Ave., 216-231-5400, happydogcleveland.com.

FRI

02/10

COMEDY

Bill Engvall A blue-collar comic whose career started in the ’90s, Bill Engvall recently completed season 17 of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. He even made it to the finals. Engvall’s first album, 1996’s Here’s Your Sign, held the top position on the Billboard Comedy Chart for 15 straight weeks.

He likes to joke that stupid people should have signs around their neck telling others that they’re idiots.

And when someone asks a dumb question, he says he’ll happily give them a sign to wear if they lack one.

Engvall performs tonight at 8 at the Akron Civic Theatre. Tickets are $35 to $59. (Niesel) 182 South Main St., Akron, 330-253-2488, akroncivic.com.

THEATER

Flanagan’s Wake No one knows grief and mourning like a Catholic, let alone an Irish Catholic. In its fifth year running in Cleveland, Flanagan’s Wake transports the audience to a wake in Ireland 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. A sort of 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. The show starts at 8 tonight and plays again tomorrow night at 8 at Kennedy’s Theatre. Tickets are $26. (Patrick Stoops) 1501 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

ART

Lunch on Fridays For more than 70 years, the students at the Cleveland Institute of Art have independently organized every aspect of their annual Student Independent Exhibition (SIE), from selecting the jurors and organizing artwork drop-off to designing the postcards and installing the selected works. Although the 71st Annual Student Independent Exhibition won’t open to the public until Feb. 17, today CIA hosts a special edition of its Lunch on Fridays weekly lecture series with this year’s jurors: Cyanide & Happiness creator Shawn Coss, CIA alumnus Adam Holtzinger and Cleveland native Julie Schenkelberg. During their panel discussion, jurors will discuss their careers as well as their thoughts on this year’s student entries. Lunch on Fridays is free and open to the public. The 2017 SIE Jurors Panel Discussion begins at 12:15 p.m. and includes free pizza and beverages on a first come, first served basis.

(Usmani) 11141 East Blvd., 216-421-7000, cia.edu.

SPORTS

Monsters vs. Manitoba Moose The Monsters, our beloved minor league hockey team, had a rough January during which the team lost more games than it won. Tonight at 7, the team tries to get back on track as it takes on the Manitoba Moose. The two teams face off again at 3 p.m. on Sunday. Tonight is 3-2-1 Fridays, so there will be $1 Pepsi products, $2 Sugardale hot dogs and $3 beers. The first 3,500 kids 14 and

under receive a special edition Ryan Craig figurine. On Sunday, the first 1,000 kids age 14 and under receive a free day pass to Castaway Bay. Kids can also purchase $6 Monsters Kids Meals (hot dog, chips, and a soda), and there is a postgame skate.

Tickets to both games start at $10.

(Niesel).

1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, theqarena.com.

convergence-continuum in association with

THE NORTHEAST OHIO MASTER OF FINE ARTS PROGRAM s 35(6(176 two world-premiere plays by area graduate-student playwrights Thu-Sat, Feb 9-11 at 8 pm

The Darkness

by Katie Wallace, Renee Schilling and Rob Daniels.

FILM

To Have and Have Not The late, great Howard Hawks directs To Have and Have Not, a 1944 film about a charter boat owner (Humphrey Bogart) who reluctantly offers to help transport French resistance fighters in the French colony of Martinique. The movie also focuses on the romance that develops between the boat owner and Marie “Slim” Browning (Lauren Bacall), a woman he meets at a hotel one night.

A 35-mm print of the movie screens tonight at 7 and again on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Museum of Art as part of the museum’s Bogart & Bacall series. Tickets are $11, or $8 for CMA members, seniors and students. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

A darkly comic fable following the travails of Duncan as he journeys through a circus, suburbia and a sinister office building.

Duncan is a believer in The Light, an organization which may or may not be a cult.

As he attempts to convert human cannonballs and cookie-baking housewives alike, he discovers the true light may rest in the restorative power of Phil Collins’ songs, pink lemonade and whoopee cushions - but not necessarily in that order.

Thu-Sat, Feb 16-18 at 8 pm

Sexual Politics

by JC Cifranic.

Deputy Mayor of Vienna is trying to cleanup the morals of the city. When Isabella’s gay brother is arrested, she has to rely on unlikely friends to keep him out of jail in this topical, modern adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure.

Liminis Theater 2438 Scranton Rd, Cleveland 44113 | in the historic Tremont neighborhood

Tickets: $10 general admission, $5 students at convergence-continuum.org and 216-687-0074

POP-UP SHOP

Valentine Party/Shopping Event A vintage clothing and designer pop-up shopping experience that takes place several times each year, Re:Collection celebrates Valentine’s Day today with a special event in the showroom of Ohio City Moto. Clothes from all decades, starting with the 1950s, will be represented alongside “past and current top designers and sought-after labels.” The sale takes place from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. today and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow.

Admission is free. (Niesel) 2515 Jay Ave., recollection-cleveland.com.

SAT

02/11

MUSIC

Sixth Annual Sweetheart Showcase Valentine’s Day is all about celebrating romance. The organizers of the Sixth Annual Sweetheart Showcase tonight at 7:30 at the Beachland certainly know that. They plan to celebrate the holiday with tonight’s show. This Show is So Gay’s Ken Schneck will host the burlesque showcase featuring headliners Vivi Valens, Noella Deville and Bella Sin. The evening will also feature special performances from Fever Blister, Samantha Echo, Cece Noir, Trick | clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

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GET OUT Diction, Ginger Breadhaus and the full cast of Le Femme Mystique Burlesque. Tickets range from $15 to $30. (Niesel) 15711 Waterloo Rd., 216-383-1124, beachlandballroom.com.

feature Ferguson’s arrangements.

The concert begins at 8 at the Ohio Theatre. Tickets are $35 to $55.

(Niesel) 1501 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

SUN

02/12

COMEDY ART

The Business of Art for Artists The Artists Archives of the Western Reserve presents a new six-week series of instructional lectures and workshops on professional practices for artists with Mary Urbas, gallery coordinator and exhibition curator at Lakeland Community College.

This free series is specifically designed to help artists turn their studio practice into a business by marketing and promoting their work beyond the walls of their studios.

Urbas brings more than 35 years of experience as a gallery owner, curator, educator and consultant.

The series begins at 1 p.m. today with a session on establishing goals and making plans. Seats are limited and registration is required. For more information on the series and to sign up, call the AAWR offices or visit the website. (Usmani) 1834 East 123rd St., 216-721-9020, artistsarchives.org.

SPORTS

Cavaliers vs. Denver Nuggets After rebounding from a few tough losses to beat a very good Oklahoma City Thunder team, the Cavs took a step back when they lost to the lowly Dallas Mavericks. Tonight at 7:30 at Quicken Loans Arena, the team takes on another mediocre Western Conference team as they face off against the Denver Nuggets. Despite their losing record, the Nuggets still have playoff hopes, so tonight’s game should be a tough one. Tickets start at $91. (Niesel) 1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, theqarena.com.

MUSIC

WJW.CLEVELAND

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| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

Cleveland Jazz Orchestra: Tierney Sutton Sings for Lovers Led by Paul Ferguson, the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra seeks to promote jazz in its “historical and contemporary forms.” The orchestra hosts concerts and aims for “worldwide recognition in cooperation with guest artists and looks to shepherd young musicians toward the future of jazz.”

Jazz singer Tierney Sutton joins the orchestra tonight for an event billed as “an evening of romantic jazz standards and love songs” that

The Center Stage Comedy Tour Veteran comedian John Witherspoon likes to joke “you got to coordinate” your outfits so you look like you put some time and thought into dressing yourself. That catchphrase is just one of his many one-liners.

Witherspoon, who has worked alongside famous comedians such as Ice Cube, Adam Sandler, Eddie Murphy and Chris Tucker, might be best known for voicing “Grandad” on the animated series The Boondocks. He joins fellow comedians Sommore and Tommy Davidson for the Center Stage Comedy Tour. The concert takes place at 7 tonight at the State Theatre. Tickets are $62.75 to $104.50. (Niesel) 1519 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

COMEDY

Cleveland Improv Jam The Angry Ladies of Improv has hosted the Cleveland Improv Jam for four years now. A few years back, Scene described the show as “fierce, formidable and very funny.”

The women have some serious experience too. Katie White-Sonby is an actress who’s performed at Clague Playhouse, Karamu and Kennedy’s Cabaret. Marjorie Preston is an alumna of Something Dada and Rockwell 9 improvisational comedy troupes. The event begins with a short-form set of improv games, followed by a longform improv set. It begins at 5 p.m. at Coffee Phix. Arrive early if you want to sign up and perform. Admission is free. (Niesel) 4485 Mayfield Rd., South Euclid, 216-381-5706, coffeephixcafe.com.

MARKET

Galentine’s Day Today from 2 to 7 p. m., the punk rock club Now That’s Class hosts Galentine’s Day Market, a day of “pampering.” Vendors of homemade bath and beauty products will participate as will tarot card readers, hair stylists, nail artists, vintage clothing vendors, and “any other product or service which will help people feel their best.”

You can expect to find cocktails

Saturday, March 11 Downtown Willoughby, 7-Midnight SECOND ANNUAL

Tickets: $10 Guests receive a shot glass, koozie, Light apps at registration! Drink specials! sceneshamrock.com

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

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GET INNOVATIVE GARDENING AND LANDSCAPING TIPS AT THE PETITTI GARDENING STAGE WITH DAILY SEMINARS FROM LOCAL EXPERTS.

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FOOD

Gospel Brunch The monthly Gospel Brunch has been a spiritual Sunday staple for years at the House of Blues. Curated by famed gospel singer Kirk Franklin, the recently reinvigorated show puts a bit more emphasis on the music.

This week, the local artist Lafayette Carthon and Faith performs. The all-you-can-eat musical extravaganza features Southern classics like chicken jambalaya, biscuits and gravy, and chicken and waffles. It takes place at 11 a.m. Tickets are $40.

(Niesel) 308 Euclid Ave., 216-523-2583, houseofblues.com.

MON

02/13

FOOD

Industry Brunch Brunch isn’t just a Saturday/Sunday thing. Over at Mahall’s, you can grab a great brunch on Mondays as the club caters to industry folks who have the day off. Not that you have to work in the restaurant industry to indulge. The menu features items such as Chicken and Donuts, a dish that features three pieces of fried chicken along with two Old Hushers doughnuts. Other staples include the Everything Pretzel and the Creamy Egg Sandwich. A live DJ from WCSB will be on hand to spin cool tunes too. It runs from noon to 4. (Niesel) 3200 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216-521-3280, mahalls20lanes.com.

SPOKEN WORD

DISCOUNT COURTESY OF: CREATE THE PERFECT GETAWAY SPOT WITH INSPIRATION FROM THE WEAVER CABINS WITH A LUXURY LAKE LIVING THEME. LANDSCAPING PROVIDED BY CORNERSTONE LANDSCAPING.

too. Admission is a $1 donation with all proceeds going to Preterm Cleveland, an organization that provides sexual health care including abortion care, birth control options, STD testing and treatment and wellness exams. (Niesel) 11213 Detroit Ave., 216-221-8576, nowthatsclass.net.

DISCOUNT TICKETS ALSO AVAILABLE AT DRUG MART LOCATIONS.

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

Science Cafe On the second Monday of each month, Music Box Supper Club hosts Science Cafe, an informal lecture series that brings scientists from throughout the region to the club so they can talk about science topics. Tonight at 7, hear Emily Feldenkris, a forensic scientist at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, speak about the process of analyzing sexual assault kits to catch and prosecute criminals. Admission is free.

(Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-242-1250, musicboxcle.com.

TUE

02/14

NIGHTLIFE

Candlelight Bowling As an alternative to more conventional Valentine’s Day events, Mahall’s 20 Lanes in Lakewood tonight will host a special candlelight bowling session.

Expect to bowl on lanes lit only by the glow of hundreds and hundreds of battery-powered candles. For $35 per lane, lovers can bowl and receive complimentary glasses of champagne and “sweet treats” in the lover’s lounge located in the venue’s Locker Room.

Reservations are required for the event, which runs from 8 p.m. to midnight.

(Niesel) 13200 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216-521-3280, mahalls20lanes.com.

COMEDY

The Mike Polk Jr. Show Live If you’ve seen a live performance from local comedian Mike Polk Jr., the man behind the Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video, the Factory of Sadness video (parts one and two), Last Call Cleveland comedy troupe and his very own show on Fox 8 (aptly called the Mike Polk Jr. Show), you know he really thrives on having an audience at his disposal. Tonight, see just how funny he can be, even when performing in the context of a variety show. He hosts the Mike Polk Jr. Show Live tonight at 8 at Hilarities. Tickets are $5. (Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.

MUSIC

Vinyl Night While sales of CDs continue to decline, vinyl has seen a resurgence. In fact, the recent Jack White album became the fastest-selling vinyl album since Nielsen Soundscan began compiling vinyl sales figures in 1991. Jukebox owner Alex Budin has described his 1,350-square-foot music-focused bar in the Hingetown ’hood as “a place where people can expect to hear and learn about music of multiple genres, all of which is concentrated in a constantly evolving jukebox.” In keeping with that spirit and recognizing the burgeoning popularity of vinyl, the club hosts a vinyl night every Tuesday that serves as a listening party for new releases.

The place has partnered with Loop in Tremont so that patrons can hear a new album on vinyl. You can bring your own vinyl and spin it too. We love the concept. It all starts at 7 p.m. (Niesel) 1404 West 29th St., 216-206-7699, jukeboxcle.com.

Find more events @clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

Presented by SCENE & THE 9

VODKA VODKA scenevodkavodka.com

Presented by Scene Magazine and The 9, Vodka Vodka returns for its fourth year as Cleveland’s premier vodka tasting party. Enjoy local cuisine, inventive cocktails and dance the night away. Vodka enthusiasts and vodka-curious will join us on March 11th at The 9 from 8-10:30p (VIP 7p) to taste an assortment of both local and international vodkas.

This annual party will be hotter than ever before, and now includes an exciting hair and fashion element and even more vodkas to sample from! Also enjoy the sweet musical stylings of Cleveland's hottest DJs. Mix it up!

Saturday, March 11, 2017 AT THE 9 • 8-10:30pm (VIP 7pm)

Presented by SCENE

SHAMROCK BAR CRAWL sceneshamrock.com

Sat., March 11 Downtown Willoughby 7-Midnight

TICKETS: $10 Guests Receive A Shot Glass, Koozie, Light Apps At Registration.

Drink Specials!

sceneshamrock.com

Don’t miss Downtown Willoughby’s 2nd Annual Shamrock Bar Crawl, Willoughby’s most spirited pub crawl.

Join us as we drink our way through Downtown Willoughby bars, starting at Willoughby Brewing Company and continuing to 1899 Pub, Ballantine, Frank & Tony’s Place, Mullarkey’s, The Morehouse, Nickelby’s and Wild Goose.

Registration will take place at Willoughby Brewing Company with light appetizers served. This event sold out in its first year so don’t wait to grab your tickets!

Saturday, March 11, 2017 DOWNTOWN WILLOUGHBY 7PM-Midnight

F I N D O U T A B O U T T H E S E E V E N T S A N D M O R E AT C L E V E S C E N E T I C K E T S . C O M | clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

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ART SWEET STUFF Akron Art Museum exhibit pays homage to iconic art magazine

By Josh Usmani FOUNDED BY ARTISTS ATTABOY and Annie Owens 12 years ago, HiFructose is arguably one of the most popular quarterly art magazines in print. Today, Hi-Fructose is well known as a reliable source for discovering new, emerging artists, as well as showcasing the latest works by renowned contemporary artists.

Rather than focusing on a specific genre, the San Francisco-based magazine showcases artists who transcend mainstream categories or trends. Despite this lack of specificity in its coverage, the magazine has established a clear yet eclectic, genrebending brand. After more than a decade, Hi-Fructose has become synonymous with cutting-edge contemporary art.

To celebrate its achievements, HiFructose and the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art have collaborated on a touring exhibition of work by artists featured in the magazine’s pages. Last May, Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose debuted at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. Now it makes its first and only stop in the Midwest with a visit to the Akron Art Museum.

To celebrate, the museum hosts a free opening-night party from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. this Friday, Feb. 10, including a performance by internationally

renowned, New York-based artist Olek.

As diverse as the artists themselves, the works vary greatly in both media and subject matter, influenced by everything from art history and pop culture to globalization and current politics. Turn the Page allows viewers to experience these works beyond the paper or digital screens upon which they are typically presented by HiFructose.

“This exhibition offers the opportunity to experience those original artworks directly—to see the glittering surface of Camille Rose Garcia’s painting, the ornate frame around Mark Ryden’s painting, textures in a work by Shepard Fairey or the minute detail in Kris Kuksi’s sculpture,” says Akron Art Museum’s assistant curator Elizabeth Carney.

“In person, the artists’ skill and the richness of these contemporary paintings, drawings and sculptures are even more evident.”

Turn the Page features work by 51 artists from throughout the U.S., as well as around the world. A worldclass exhibition, Northeast Ohio is

like Kehinde Wiley, Beth Cavener and Shepard Fairey, to say this show is “worth the drive” to Akron would be a severe understatement. Not just for the

HOSTED BY WEIRD REALMS, Shiner Comics officially unveils the highly anticipated sixth issue of The Lake Erie Monster with a release party from 6 to 9 p.m. this Friday, Feb. 10.

Created by John G., Jake Kelly and Liz Valasco, the sixth issue is designed to be enjoyed by both new and returning readers. While the first five issues featured episodic installments, the latest release includes three selfcontained, “one-and-done” stories — one by each of the issue’s creators: John G.’s “Wolves of Birdtown,” Kelly’s “A Girl in a Garbage Truck” and Valasco’s “Young Skin.” With an ever-growing fan base, the creators have doubled the print run from 1,000 to 2,000 copies.

“Readers can expect three short, self-contained horror stories set in a spooky, eerie version of their world.

Jake and I both have stories, and we’ve brought on Liz Valasco this issue to

add a third voice to the series,” says Lake Erie Monster co-creator John G. “She knocked it out of the park.

It’s drastically different in style and tone; it was rendered in pencil, rather than the stark ink-work that Jake and I do. I colored her story, using a monochromatic pallet that slowly blends across the color spectrum. It fits in perfectly with the series. I really want to stress that you don’t have to have read The Lake Erie Monster issues 1 through 5 to get this issue.

This was always the plan, that the series would be ongoing after we finished the comics ‘adaptation’ of the fake The Lake Erie Monster movie, and just become an anthology of all-new self-contained horror stories every issue.”

These stories are presented by “The Commodore,” a zombie version of Cleveland’s own Commodore Perry,

who makes an additional appearance in a new one-page history lesson, “The Commodore’s Cleveland.”

“I would also like to stress that this is the start of another era for the book,” adds co-creator Jake Kelly, whose custom mural is on view at Weird Realms. “It is now an anthology series of self-contained horror stories,

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The Ghost of G Sharp Seven, 2013, acrylic and glitter on wood panel, Camille Rose Garcia. Courtesy of the artist and Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles. Photograph by Karl Puchlik, ©Camille Rose Garcia.

extremely fortunate to be hosting this special collection of artwork.

With work by contemporary artists

TURN THE PAGE: THE FIRST TEN YEARS OF HI-FRUCTOSE Akron Art Museum 1 South High St., Akron, 330-376-9185, akronartmuseum.org

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

LAKE ERIE MONSTER RELEASE PARTY Weird Realms, 11508 Lorain Ave. 216-694-8525 weirdrealms.com

and this was our plan for the book from the outset. After a slight hiatus to work on other things, we’ve turned our focus back to the Lake Erie Monster, our weird, scary baby. I feel like this issue spans every nook and cranny of the horror genre. There’s black comedy, crazy monsters, dream-like

typical art crowd and historians, Turn the Page features work that is not only skillful and thoughtful, but fun and accessible to everyone.

Following Friday’s free opening night party, Turn the Page remains on view through May 7. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for students and seniors (65 and older) and free for members, children 17 and under and Blue Star Families. Admission is free every Thursday, and a discount is available for Metro riders.

strangeness, bleak survival-horror, and more. I think we’ve put something together that will resonate with a wide audience of folks, not just gorehounds and horror freaks. These are stories that any Rust Belt survivor should appreciate.”

New to The Lake Erie Monster?

Missing an issue or two? No problem.

Earlier issues of The Lake Erie Monster, as well as Kelly’s 420page book, Flyers: 2000-2015 and A Race Anthology: Dispatches From a Segregated City, will be available for purchase during Friday evening’s party.

The issue also will be available in select stores and through shinercomics.net the following week.

jusmani@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

STAGE DELICIOUS PERFORMANCES, EMPTY CALORIES A morbidly obese man drowns his sorrows in food, but the emotions are slight in The Whale WE’VE ALL SEEN THE PHOTOS of those people who are morbidly obese. They pop up on the internet and in tabloid newspapers now and then, and we all gaze in ghastly wonder at how someone can live within so many mounds of flesh — and what caused them to become so overweight. These are the people we rarely see in person, since they hide themselves away.

But playwright Samuel D. Hunter brings us up close and personal with an enormously fat man in The Whale, now at None Too Fragile Theater. The 600-pound (or so) Charlie is ensconced on his sofa in a dank apartment in Idaho, from where he web-tutors high school students on expository writing while waiting for his ever-increasing heft to end his life. Much like its protagonist, this play contains a wonderful entity struggling to fight its way out of the smothering confines in which it finds itself. And this production only succeeds in fits and starts.

Charlie himself appears to be a bright and caring person, as he gently guides his unseen students by speaking to them through his headset. But his life has been a downward spiral since his boyfriend, a Mormon named Alan, died some years before. Tormented by the conflict between his love for Charlie and the strict moral barriers set up by the Church of Latter Day Saints, Alan stopped eating and began wasting away until he expired.

It is perhaps a bit too neat to have Charlie then acquire a pathology that is exactly opposite to his lover’s by eating himself into oblivion. But Robert Ellis brings a gentle gravity and simple gentleness to couchbound Charlie, making us feel for him in significant ways. Particularly appealing is the way Charlie speaks memorized snatches of the essays his students have written, in his oftenwheezing voice, finding in their plainspoken words a beauty he can’t access in any other way.

During the course of the almost two-hour play (without intermission), Charlie is visited by some other people each of whom have their own agendas. His closest friend appears

Photo by Brian Kenneth Armour

By Christine Howey

Actors Jen Klika and Robert Ellis

to be Liz, a nurse who is also Alan’s sister, who brings him fast food while checking on his heart rate.

Clearly conflicted — is she feeding Charlie in a twisted attempt to nourish her sibling who starved himself? — Liz is portrayed with bracing directness by Jen Klika.

Another important visitor to Charlie’s confined universe is his 17-year-old daughter Ellie, a teenager with a smart mouth and a short temper. She is a little ball of anger since she hadn’t seen her dad for more than a decade, and

dedicated to bringing this huge man some religious solace. Charlie encourages the young man, since Charlie thinks he can ferret out some information about what happened to Alan when his former flame was dealing with the homophobic precepts of the Church.

Demonstrating a tendency to not leave well enough alone, playwright Hunter works in repeated literary and biblical references to Moby Dick and Jonah, which begin to feel a tad obvious. And once Charlie’s ex, Mary (Rose Gabriele), shows up, it feels as

THE WHALE THROUGH FEB. 18 AT NONE TOO FRAGILE THEATER, 1835 MERRIMAN RD., AKRON, 330-962-5547, NONETOOFRAGILE.COM

she makes that clear by smashing each of Charlie’s entreaties back in his face. Ireland Derry is faithful to the one-note portrayal of Ellie that the playwright has crafted, with precious few hints of an actual person beneath the snark.

As if that wasn’t enough baggage to load onto a dying man, here comes 19-year-old Elder Thomas (a credible Jon Heus), a Mormon missionary who lands on Charlie’s doorstep and soon finds himself

if our plate has been piled with a few too many emotional entrees.

Aside from oversimplifying the possible causes of obesity (Charlie was sad so he ate himself fat), the play never digs deeply enough into the relationships that matter. This is because the ancillary characters are forced to tiptoe around the heaving presence of Charlie, conscious of his fragile physical condition and unwilling or unable to confront him in ways that would be more

theatrically satisfying — not to mention true.

It is only toward the end of the play that a couple characters begin to speak honestly to Charlie.

But at that point, the characters begin weeping and blubbering, burying what might have been some revealing confrontations in a teary, maudlin pile of facile emotion.

Director Sean Derry’s deft hand is on display here early, in a series of short scenes that end with a pleasing twang. But as the play winds down, he allows easy feelings to take precedence over crisp storytelling, and the impact of the play is lessened.

In a final, possibly pretentious fillip, the actors do not take a curtain call. This is a gesture unbecoming the talented folks who run None Too Fragile, since it could send the message that they believe the emotions released on stage were too monumental to allow for such congratulations. Hey guys, it’s a play, these are actors. Share the experience and take your bows.

scene@clevescene.com t@christinehowey

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

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INVITE YOU TO EXPEREINCE ONE OF MANKIND’S GREATEST WONDERS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15 7:30PM CINEMARK VALLEY VIEW

For your chance to win a pass to the 3D advance screening, visit tinyurl.com/ TheGreatWall Cleveland THE GREAT WALL HAS BEEN RATED PG-13 FOR SEQUENCES OF FANTASY ACTION VIOLENCE. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. While supplies last. One entry per person. Seating at the screening is first-come, first-served and is not guaranteed. Please arrive early. Winners will be chosen at random. Winners within the past 30 days are ineligible.

IN THEATERS FEBRUARY 17 THEGREATWALLMOVIE.COM

2017

City Guide

Music & Arts Bars & Nightlife City Life

High End, Stand Alone, Glossy Guide Limited Space

75 REASONS TO LOVE CLEVELAND For this year’s City Guide we opted for a major change. This guide will include personal recommendations, essays and explorations of 75 reasons to love Cleveland from our writers, editor and even members of the community. From an essay paying homage to a great local entertainer to a reported piece about downtown’s art movement to our restaurant critic’s tribute to the eatery that’s changed how we’ll eat in 2017. One of only two glossy guides printed and distributed by SCENE Magazine each year. The City Guide provides complete coverage of what makes Cleveland great beyond just our food.

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clevescene.com

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| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

MOVIES LEGO BATMAN MOVIE FALLS TO PIECES Spinoff is faster, louder, dumber than creative original

By Sam Allard THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE IS an interminable onslaught of popculture references and indecipherable action. Broadly, it betokens a dark future of branded film franchises, endless (Brand Name) (Subject) movies modeled after this putative trailblazer, a nerd-tastic exercise that tends to rely on the wit of its creative team to disguise the fact that the whole thing’s one big ugly experiment in corporate advertising. Though the antic editing and warp-speed pace might be optimized for the attention-spanless, mobile-device-scrolling, 21st century zombie pre-teen, this doozy from Warner Animation Group ain’t much fun for kids or adults. It opens Friday in wide release.

From the opening image — “Black.

All serious movies begin with a black screen,” intones Batman (Will Arnett) — we get the same genre of winking meta commentary that we endured in last year’s Deadpool. These jokes can certainly land, but become tiresome quickly. The intro signals the humor stylings of the film at large: nonstop reference and self-reference and parody and irony that make for a fleeting laugh here and there but amount to nothing in toto. What you’ll get, just like in Deadpool, is an occasional impression of amusement but zero lasting emotional impact.

First up, story-wise: an action sequence so frenzied and off-the-wall it appears to have been scripted and edited by someone on very potent

cocaine and then played at six to eight times normal speed. It’s apparently an introduction to the movie’s central conflict — Batman vs. Joker — and has the whiff of a Marvel or D.C. climax, but it turns out to be bafflingly incoherent. Joker (Zack Galifianakis) is setting off a bomb beneath Gotham and has enlisted the totality of Batman villains, plus a handful of nonsensical extras like Condiment Man, who emits ketchup and mustard from handheld guns in sad gastric spurts.

Batman defeats all of them easily, admitting to the Joker in the process that he doesn’t even hate him (gasp!).

We then see Batman as the parody of all other Batman incarnations before him, the brooding reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne. Alfred (Ralph Fiennes) is his moral compass, and he tells Bruce that he’s seen this before, “in 2012, and 2008 and 2005 and 2003 ... .” Et cetera. Swiftly onward we go, through other Batman tropes and characters:

the adoption of a young orphan, Dick (Michael Cera); the collision with Gotham’s new police commissioner, Barbara Gordon (Rosario Dawson), daughter of Jim; and then the film’s real climax, after Batman has banished Joker to the Phantom Zone, a galactic cloud where the universe’s major bad guys now reside — the Lord of the Rings’ Sauron, Harry Potter’s Voldemort, King Kong. Joker enlists that crew to destroy Gotham. Batman comes to the realization that he can’t fight them all alone.

While retaining the look of The Lego Movie, the Batman spinoff has dispensed with just about everything that made the original, well, original.

Chiefly, its third-act moralizing is as rote and banal as it gets. While the first film at times leveled clever attacks on corporate hegemony and social homogeneity — attacks all the more salient given the innate Lego branding and the fact that Legos

themselves couldn’t be any less rigid or rudimentary — Lego Batman ends up talking about togetherness and cooperation. It comes close to commenting on police brutality, but it’s a very poor man’s Zootopia.

Barbara Gordon says she wants to try a new approach to policing, one that emphasizes compassion and statistics.

It’s almost as if she’s armed with a consent decree! Batman’s vigilante violence, she suggests, should be a thing of the past. But the film quickly reverts to just that, in the all-hands-on-deck superbrawl that results in the destruction of Gotham’s physical infrastructure.

Early in the movie, Batman drives to Gotham City’s orphanage to shoot all the kids with a “merchandise gun.” The intent is surely wry and self-referential — Haha! Merch! — but its effect is gross. And not only because it pretends to sneer at the advertisement of Batman products while actively advertising Lego products. Also because the story is destitute of novelty and creativity in both the emotional and physical realms — it’s just more guns and explosions — and as such, it serves as an entree for the PG crowd into the mindless spectacle of Hollywood’s biggest military-grade vehicle, the superhero movie.

sallard@clevescene.com t@scenesallard

SPOTLIGHT: I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO Hyper-aware of the extent to which James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript Remember This House remains relevant, veteran director Raoul Peck creates a compelling documentary with his latest film, I Am Not Your Negro. The Oscar-nominated film opens on Friday at the Cedar Lee. A personal account of the lives and successive assassinations of three Civil Rights-era activists — Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. — Baldwin’s book features his complex observations about racism. Written while Baldwin lived overseas, Remember This House includes his reaction to seeing young black Dorothy Counts confronting a large, aggressive, white mob by herself on her way to

attend her first day of school. Baldwin also talks about Sidney Poitier’s role in Hollywood movies and in the entertainment business. Peck does a terrific job of using vintage footage that matches Baldwin’s prose.

In one clip from The Dick Cavett Show, Baldwin compassionately speaks about how Christianity has only worked to further segregate blacks and whites despite its philosophy of treating others equally. Narrated by actor Samuel L. Jackson, the movie uses Baldwin’s elegant prose as its sole narrative and includes archival photos and videos from both then and now. No talking heads appear in the movie, and they’re not missed.

Ultimately, the film reflects Peck’s artistry.

According to the press notes, he “changed not only the framing of his images, but their traditional use and their ‘editing’ as well,” as he altered backgrounds and added visuals in the attempt to “deconstruct” the original clips that he includes.

The film includes references to contemporary events as well and even features a sound byte from Donald Trump, a presidential candidate at the time of the film’s making. With images from Ferguson and the Obama inauguration, I Am Not Your Negro makes connections between the Civil Rights movement of the ’60s and more recent race-related issues, suggesting the degree to which Baldwin understood the complexity of racism and the struggle for equality. — Jeff Niesel | clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

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IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CHICKEN AND OUR 14 GOURMET SAUCES

★★★★★ “Worth the stop & future excursions from the Near West Side in the future.I can’t find one thing wrong with V’s and the woman taking care of us was just the nicest and personable person ever. For all the food we ordered it was very reasonably priced and held up well on the ride home/ Stopping here in the near future is in order as it puts lousy KFC’s, Popeyes, etc to shame in terms of quality, price, and customer service.” - Jesco D. ★★★★★ “I went here after the good reviews and I was impressed. I had the regular/mild batter. The chicken was light, crispy and delicious. The rice and greens is ingenious! They have a little kick to them but quite tasty. They were buttery and lightly sweet. I enjoyed my meal and will return in the future.” - Ladonna G.

★★★★★ “This is some Seriously delicious chicken. I have lived very close, and almost drive by there daily.

Thought it was part of the convenient store, so I would not go there. After reading the reviews and being extremely hungry, I took the plunge, and I am more than glad I did. I will be coming here so much more.” - Stephanie L. ★★★★★ “It’s no joke, best fried chicken in Cleveland.

They’ve got plenty of sides, but don’t kid yourself, it’s all about the chicken. While there’s a variety of flavors the staff might not give you many clues past identifying the individual flavors. Luckily there’s a brief explanation of them at the restaurant.” Noah F. ★★★★★ “Oh my gosh this place has the best food.The chicken is superbly trimmed and seasoned to perfection. Normally I always get the fried chicken but tonight I went with the fish dinner for the first time and can’t stop jumping up-and-down with joy. Make sure you get the honey biscuits and at least try the greens and rice. Thank you for such great service and the culinary gift you’ve given us.” - Sarah J.

“Five Stars aren’t Enough! This is 10 STAR FOOD!!

LOVE THOSE HONEY ROLLS!! It’s my dinner tonight shrimp, slaw, fries and corn muffin. SO YUMMY” Lonnie R.

“I absolutely love the food here! Best fried chicken I’ve ever had. People should stop in and grab a family chicken dinner instead of spending cash at KFC or any other fast food chicken chains. Best chicken ever!” - Bunny Marie L. “I absolutely loved this place! I will be back soon!”

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15418 LAKESHORE BLVD. | CLEVELAND vsgourmetchicken.com 34

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

Photo by Emanuel Wallace

EAT TEAR, BUNDLE, EAT, REPEAT The joys and flavors of Ethiopian cuisine are on full display at Zoma

By Douglas Trattner FOOD CRAVINGS CAN BE INTENSE, debilitating even. Once you get that sushi fixation, for example, it’s not going away until you demolish a platter of tuna, yellowtail, salmon roe and uni. Same goes for fried chicken, pho, barbecue brisket and spicy Szechuan shrimp. Well, in my case anyway.

Here’s one that I never thought would enter the repertoire: Ethiopian food.

Most of us arrive at restaurants with suitcases full of expectations, but when it comes to Ethiopian, those bags are often completely empty, save for a few pitiless jokes. Like many adventurous diners, I’ve sampled the cuisine during a teenage trip to Washington, D.C. and right here at home at the lovely Empress Taytu, which opened a staggering 25 years ago.

But after reviewing that local eatery more than a decade ago, I have yet to return, which says more about my job than the job they do at that fine eatery.

It took Zoma, a new restaurant in my own backyard, to awaken an obsession I didn’t realize existed. This is the kind of food that worms its way inside your soul. A cuisine that has no peers.

It’s easy to make fun of a place that employs no silverware, but that practice really gets to the heart of what makes Ethiopian food so fun, social and indelible. Diners eat with their hands (hand, actually; the right one), pinching off pieces of flatbread to scoop up small bites of food. Meals are served communally, with all the food artfully arranged on a platter, around which the diners sit, socialize and, well, commune. Replace the food with a jigsaw puzzle or Scrabble board and

absolutely nothing changes.

Those colorful mounds of food consist of cold salads, spicy stews and savory stir-fries. Like Indian curries, the dishes are rich, complex and deeply satisfying. Some are spicy, others well-spiced. Many are crafted with blends 25 ingredients strong.

Meat-based items are built around beef, chicken or lamb. Vegetarian dishes elevate humble lentils, peas, chickpeas, cabbage and potatoes to exciting new heights — and that’s not hyperbole.

The most natural place to begin your experience if you’re a novice is by ordering one of the combination dishes. Both vegetarian and

the injera, the flatbread used to shuttle food from plate to pie hole. The spongy, stretchy, crepe-like pancake lines the platter and fills another basket, so you never run out. Its flavor is mild and nutty, with the slight tang that comes from fermentation. When every bite of food includes some bread, you quickly run out of room in the tank.

Before long, the movements become automatic, rhythmic. Tear, bundle, eat,Munch repeat. There’s cool and crunchy tomato, pepper and onion salad next to a warm and warmly spiced cabbage and potato mixture. Snow-white crumbly fresh cheese is flanked by garlicky chopped greens and tender

ZOMA ETHIOPIAN RESTAURANT 2240 LEE RD., CLEVELAND HEIGHTS 216-465-3239 ZOMACLEVELAND.COM

vegetarian-and-meat versions are available in smaller and larger sizes.

Prices range from $16 on up to $33.

When the food arrives on its silver platter, just a collection of petite heaps, it looks as though it wouldn’t satisfy even the tiniest of appetites. But damned if it isn’t bottomless.

Of course, the big reason these meals are so deceiving is because of

yellow peas. Spicy chopped beef stew, garnished with fresh jalapeno and rosemary, is joined by mild beef stew and a chicken-based brew. There also are spreads built around chickpeas and red lentils. If certain dishes stand out as favorites, they can be ordered on their own on your next visit. If the server doesn’t automatically deliver a dish of awaze, an earthy Ethiopian hot

sauce made with berbere spices, ask for it.

Zoma, given its home in an aging strip on restaurant row in Cleveland Heights, could be cozier. Gracious owner Zeleke Belete has done what he could to warm up the space, including the addition of a few mesobs, the traditional tables built of woven straw, and a spot for coffee ceremonies. And the service could be less prickly and abrupt, especially necessary when dealing with a concept foreign to most of its diners. But it took Empress Taytu months, if not years, to iron out its kinks, and look how long they’ve lasted. If you hope to dine on the weekend, do everybody a favor and make a reservation. Management said that Saturday nights have been slammed.

The irony surrounding this millennia-old cuisine is that it has never been more in step with modern food trends. These days, all the buzz is around small plates, vegan and vegetarian options, and experiential activities. If those don’t describe a night with friends around a large platter of interesting Ethiopian foods, I’m not sure what does.

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner | clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

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EAT NUEVO CLEVELAND Amazing Views of Cleveland’s Lakefront

Behind the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 1000 East 9th St., Cleveland, OH 44114

Emma Scheer, pastry chef at the Union Club

(216) 737-1OOO

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WHILE STUDYING FOR HER undergrad degree in political science, Emma Scheer got into a heated argument with a professor over anti-feminist remarks. “I wound up storming out, went home and started baking,” Scheer says. “I baked all weekend, and at the end I realized I was using it to make myself feel better.

That day I researched culinary schools and I was there within five weeks.”

She enrolled in the patisserie and baking culinary arts program at Le Cordon Bleu in Minneapolis. “I was that super-nerdy kid that got home from school and kept reading books,” she explains. “I kept pushing and trying to learn everything there was.”

Despite her eagerness, after graduation she found herself in the same position as many other recent grads in her field: underemployed.

“It’s hard to walk in and show them a degree, because everybody wants you to already have experience with pastry, but it’s easy to walk in and be a line cook. My first three or four jobs out of culinary school were 90-percent line cooking and just a little bit of baking.”

In 2013, Scheer found a pastry chef position at Humble Wine Bar, where she was able to feature items like the Chocolate Tower, a desert she says she’ll never live down. “I still have people who ask me about it,” she chuckles, adding that the dessert is a simple layered chocolate mousse cake with butterscotch, warm caramelized bananas, and crunchy peanut butter ice cream.

Soon she took on dessert production for Humble owner Dan Deagan’s other nearby venture, Deagan’s Kitchen. “I finally convinced them to let me work out of one location, but then I started absorbing other responsibilities,” she says. After working almost 90-hour weeks as a stand-in sous chef, Scheer left Lakewood for what she hoped would be greener pastures at Press Wine Bar. Owner John Owens had ambitious plans for that Tremont business,

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DESSERT DREAMS

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

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which included building a bakery and sandwich shop, but it never panned out. In the meantime, Scheer made desserts for Press, Market, South Side, and Wine Bar in Rocky River.

Now Scheer works as pastry chef at the Union Club (1211 Euclid Ave., 216-621-4230, theunionclub.org), a members-only operation established in 1872 that offers lunch, dinner and catering for special events.

“I tell people that I work for the illuminati, because it’s easier to explain,” she jokes about her current employer.

As head of the baking program, she’s tasked with desserts, bread and breakfast pastries for the entire facility. With three deck ovens, Scheer is expanding her skill set to include catering for special events and weddings. Recently she has participated in the Dinner in the Dark series, concocting a Meyer lemon semifredo with amaretto cream, ginger spice cake, candied tri-citrus peel, white chocolate curls, toasted almonds and handmade mini marshmallows.

“I hate to say that I have one thing I do really well,” she notes. “The thing I’m good at is taking familiar flavors and presenting them in unfamiliar ways.” As an example she points to a funnel cake sundae with caramel corn ice cream and candied apple peel. If you’re not a member of the Union Club, Scheer’s deserts can be found at the newly opened Tavern of Independence (5530 Brecksville Rd., 216-264-4344, tavernofindy.com).

Looking ahead, Scheer would like to explore opening a place of her own within the next five years.

“I don’t want to move around to a lot of different restaurants; I’m past that point in my career,” she says.

Until then, she’ll continue to take on challenges as they come.

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

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| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

Working Class Brewery and taproom coming to Kamm’s Corners “IT’S FULL-STEAM AHEAD right now,” Richard Skains says about Working Class Brewery (17448 Lorain Ave., 216-965-2569), a new brewery and taproom that he’s opening with partner Carmen Rusoniello.

The former Cleveland teacher and band director is currently building out a 3,600-square-foot space in Kamm’s Plaza. The rear third of the property will be home to the 10-barrel brewhouse and six fermenters. The front two-thirds will be the site of the 70-seat taproom.

There will be no kitchen; guests will be invited to bring in food from area restaurants if they wish.

Skains says that as an avid homebrewer with summers off, he began working part-time at local breweries like Rocky River and Fat Head’s. He ended up staying on for five years.

“I’m at the age where I’m transitioning from one profession to another and it really only makes sense to be an owner,” he says.

Working Class initially will produce five year-round styles, as well as seasonals and experimental one-offs. Beers will be sold onsite, but also canned and kegged for regional distribution. Customers can look forward to West Coast red, blonde, fruit beers and an IPA to start.

“I have to design my beers around what’s going to be available on the hops market,” he explains.

“I’m not going to go design a beer around scarce and pricy hops. I don’t want my recipes changing every few months because something isn’t available.”

After considering spots in Ohio City, Skains said that he decided to go where he would be the only game in town (at least for the time being).

“There are two ways to go: You open up where there is a lot of foot traffic from people who are looking for craft breweries, or find your own area to work,” he says.

Skains takes delivery of his equipment in mid-February. The hope is to be pouring beer before the end of March.

10TH ANNUAL DOWNTOWN CLEVELAND RESTAURANT WEEK TO RUN FEB. 17-26 For the 10th year, Downtown Cleveland Alliance is promoting Downtown Cleveland Restaurant Week, during which many of our favorite local eateries will be offering special prix fixe lunch and dinner menus. The annual event runs from Friday, Feb. 17, through Sunday, Feb. 26.

This year more than 40 independent restaurants will be participating, offering special $15, $30 or $40 lunch and dinner menus.

At Mabel’s, $30 buys you a half-slab of spare ribs, a half pound of brisket, or a half pound of turkey, two sides and dessert. At Parker’s Downtown, two can eat lunch or dinner for just $40, complete with a choice of salads, entrees and dessert. At 811, $30 lands a diner a choice of salad, entrees like seared flank steak or spinach and ricotta dumplings, and dessert. District is offering a $15 lunch with a choice of seasonal salads, mains like fish and chips or lentil falafel stroganoff, and dessert.

On Thursday, Feb. 16, a special kickoff event will take place at the Hyatt Regency Cleveland at the Arcade. More than 30 participating restaurants will showcase menu tastings while competing for awards that include a Judge’s Choice award. The event runs from 5 to 8 p.m., includes a cash bar, and costs $25 per person.

During the 10-day Restaurant Week, participating shops also will be competing for titles such as Restaurant of the Year, Best New Restaurant and Best Dining District, all selected by Downtown Cleveland diners.

CLEVELAND COUPLE TO OPEN ‘CLEVELAND-STYLE’ EATERY IN SARASOTA This spring, a pair of Northeast Ohio expats will open Cleveland Kitchen (2539 Lakewood Ranch Blvd.), a “Cleveland-style” restaurant in Sarasota, Florida. The full-service 80-seat eatery will offer a full roster of iconic Cleveland comfort foods, many with Eastern European roots.

“We’ve been met with a lot of

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

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Lovers Seafood Valentine’s Day Celebration...

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Spreading love around the world one sub at a time. | clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

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| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

EAT enthusiasm because there are so many Clevelanders down here,” says owner Cindy Novak. “They can’t wait.”

Cindy and husband Steve have been working on the concept and design for two years. Both were born and raised in Northeast Ohio and worked for decades in the local restaurant industry. They relocated from Cleveland to sunny Florida about three years ago.

On the menu will be a little bit of Hungarian, Polish, Irish and Slovakian.

“We’re talking kielbasa, pierogis, stuffed cabbage rolls, prime rib and chicken paprikash,” Steve reports.

The duo already has plans to ship in Frank’s Bratwurst, Bearden’s hamburgers and Whitey’s famous white chicken chili. They also have partnered with a local sausage producer to recreate Steve’s mom’s recipe for rice sausage.

Even the decor harkens back to the great North Coast. The couple repurposed some vintage theater-style seating for use in the waiting area.

“Because Cleveland has the second largest theater district,” notes Cindy.

“So when you’re waiting for a table you can be seated in theater seats thinking about Playhouse Square.”

This being Sarasota, there also will be plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables and seafood, they assure future diners. But it’s the comfort food that really has people talking.

“Where we are located, there is not a diverse menu of restaurants,” Steve explains. “There’s a lot of corporate and franchise-type restaurants, but not a lot of mom-and-pop-type places.

You can’t get good comfort food. People who are from Northeast Ohio and even the Midwest know this type of cooking and will walk in and feel great that they can get it here. And the people who don’t know about that style of cooking, we’re going to educate them.”

Since announcing their plans to open a Cleveland-style eatery, the couple has been inundated by people eager to hear (and share) their story, including Sarasota Magazine and Creative Loafing. Given their Midwestern roots, the sentiment and attention does not go unnoticed by Steve and Cindy.

“We’ve been excited about it for a long time and it’s nice to see other people be as excited about it as we are,” Cindy notes.

Look for an April opening. And if you happen to be in the neighborhood, stop in and say hello.

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner

815 Jefferson Ave., Cleveland, OH 44113 (216) 664-1000

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2017

City Guide

Music & Arts Bars & Nightlife City Life

High End, Stand Alone, Glossy Guide Limited Space

75 REASONS TO LOVE CLEVELAND For this year’s City Guide we opted for a major change. This guide will include personal recommendations, essays and explorations of 75 reasons to love Cleveland from our writers, editor and even members of the community. From an essay paying homage to a great local entertainer to a reported piece about downtown’s art movement to our restaurant critic’s tribute to the eatery that’s changed how we’ll eat in 2017. One of only two glossy guides printed and distributed by SCENE Magazine each year. The City Guide provides complete coverage of what makes Cleveland great beyond just our food.

FEBRUARY 28, 2017 Space Reservation 02/21/17

F O R A DV E R T I S I N G C A L L 2 1 6 . 2 4 1 . 7 5 5 O c l e v e s c e n e . c o m | clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

43

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MUSIC

A BIGGER BANG Up-and-coming country act the Cadillac Three takes advantage of a second chance

By Jeff Niesel THE GUYS IN THE NASHVILLE country rock act the Cadillac Three grew up listening to a wide range of music. Sure, they liked all the country that came out of the Music City in the ’80s and ’90s, but as “rowdy” teens, they also gravitated toward the hard rock that was popular at the time.

“When I was a kid, I was growing up on ’80s country and then got into classic rock and metal stuff,” says steel guitarist Kelby Ray during a recent phone interview. “[Singer-guitarist] Jaren [Johnston] is the same way. He grew up on ’90s country and loved Metallica and Rage Against the Machine and Skynyrd and all that stuff.

[Drummer] Neil [Mason] too. We like the same things.”

The guys all played music since their middle-school days and would play in a variety of bands before forming Bang Bang Bang in 2005, a group they’d rechristen American Bang after signing a record deal with Warner Bros. Thanks to a killer

live show, the band had crossover potential. It played at alt-rock festivals such as Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo.

But the folks at Warner Bros. didn’t back the hard-rocking approach, and band and label eventually parted ways.

“It was a good learning experience,” says Ray. “It was five to six years of going through our first record deal and touring in a van and really getting out there. We were changing tires and replacing transmissions and as far as the record label stuff goes, we had to learn to stand up for ourselves.

During that time period, people were pulling us in different directions.

They were telling us to write songs like this or that. When it ended, it was a mutual thing. Politics is why we left the record label. We learned a lot and just started over.”

In the wake of its dissolution, the trio reconvened to form Cadillac Black, which they’d then rechristen the Cadillac Three when they signed

with Big Machine Records in 2011.

The group issued its self-titled debut in 2012 and followed it up with last year’s Bury Me in My Boots, an album that shows off Johnston’s songwriting chops.

Both albums have become hits, and the group recently garnered an American Country Music Event of the Year nomination. Johnston also recently earned Grammy nods for songs he wrote for Dierks Bentley and Tim McGraw.

“Big Machine couldn’t be more on our side,” says Ray when asked about the band’s reincarnation as the Cadillac Three. “They let us be who we are and do what we want to do.

Now, we’re on a tour bus, which is better than the van. We rebranded the band, and now we’re doing what we’ve wanted to do since the beginning. I guess it’s working. Now, we’ve been doing the Cadillac thing for as long as we’ve done the Bang thing and now we have just moved on in our own direction.”

Ray says the band didn’t

intentionally intend to mimic ’70s Southern rock but says that some songs certainly came out that way.

“We just decided we would do what we wanted to do,” he says. “If one song sounds more Southern rock, that’s cool, or if one has a Metallica riff, that’s cool. If one sounds like an old country song, that’s cool. I think that’s why we have such a wide fanbase and why people keep coming back. Our live show has grown. We have a new stage setup and lights and we keep everyone wanting more. We have people who are 17 to 70. We have the ZZ Top and Skynyrd fans and the people who saw us on tour with the Florida Georgia Line, so they’re all over the place.”

Ray says he’s not surprised that Johnston has become a sought-after songwriter.

“He has a unique voice and has learned how to craft a song in his own way,” he says. “It’s turned into something that people in Nashville want to be a part of. I told him | clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

45

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when he ďŹ rst started learning to be a songwriter that he was the one knocking on everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s door trying to write a song with them, but that eventually heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be the guy where everyone was trying to knock his door down. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exactly what happened. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s practice. He and Neil [Mason] do a lot of songwriting on their own and we do a lot together.

Those guys grind it out every day.

Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve learned how to craft a song.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not as easy as you think it would be. He just developed his own style.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s deďŹ nitely cool and different. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just something that everybody wants to be a part of.â&#x20AC;?

According to Ray, the band only spent about a week recording its ďŹ rst album. So when it came time to cut the followup, band members wanted to take more time. Having spent countless hours on the road as both American Bang and the Cadillac Three, the band drew upon its touring experiences for some of the tracks. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A lot of the songs came from experiences on the tour bus and doing the next level of rock â&#x20AC;&#x2122;nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; roll,â&#x20AC;? says Ray. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about growing up and getting a little bit older. Some of the songs are a little bit more mature.

[Mason and Johnston] have learned so much about crafting songs. If you look at songs like â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;This Accentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;White Lightning,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re different songs. And yet, there are still party songs like â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Party Like Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; to keep

hit record. We pieced it all together over a few years. We didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go in and do it all in one big chunk.â&#x20AC;?

With its distorted vocals and snarling guitars, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Buzzin,â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? one of the highlights on Bury Me in My Boots, has a real eerie feel to it. â&#x20AC;&#x153;[Johnston] brought it in the studio one day,â&#x20AC;? says Ray. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We listened to the demo and did our own take on it.

I think we did that one with Dann Huff. It was a cool, vibe-y thing. We wanted it to sound like Damn the Torpedoes, or at least like a really old, cool Tom Petty song. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the inspiration behind the sound of that one. That one is fun to play live. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a drinking song but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also a love song too. Pretty much all of our songs are love songs wrapped around drinking songs. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s country music, right?â&#x20AC;?

For the anthem â&#x20AC;&#x153;The South,â&#x20AC;? a tribute to the bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s roots, the group teamed up with Florida Georgia Line, Dierks Bentley and Mike Eli, all of whom provide the raucous backing vocals. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That was a lot of fun,â&#x20AC;? says Ray. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That was one of the ďŹ rst ones we did with Dann Huff. We started throwing around ideas, and we thought it would be cool if we got a couple of people on it. We shot some text messages out. Mike Eli happened to be next door in the next studio.

He came by. Jaren and Dierks are friends, and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been friends with the Florida Georgia Line guys since they became a band too. Thomas Rhett wanted to be on it, but he was out of town that day, and it was the only day we could do it. He was very

5:00-10:00 BAD BOYS OF BLUES JAM NIGHT 9:00

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

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the core fans happy.â&#x20AC;?

The group recorded the album in bits and pieces. It started with â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Southâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;White Lightning,â&#x20AC;? the tracks that would become the ďŹ rst two singles. â&#x20AC;&#x153;About half of it we did with Dann Huff, whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a super cool guy,â&#x20AC;? Ray says of the producer whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worked with acts such as Keith Urban, Hunter Hayes, the Band Perry and Cassadee Pope. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a chilled out guy and a great guitar player too. Him and Justin Niebank, who engineered and mixed it, did half of it. We also did half by ourselves with an engineer who just pressed the buttons. It was cool to do a little bit of both. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how we did the ďŹ rst album. We went into the studio by ourselves with an engineer and just

upset he couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do it. It was a lot of fun. They showed up at the studio, and we opened up a bottle of tequila and did some shots. It was a fun day and was just a funny idea, but the stars were aligned that day. We close the live shows with that song each night. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a huge sing-along.â&#x20AC;?

After the unfulďŹ lled promise of American Bang, Ray says heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happy to see the Cadillac Three succeed. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kind of like our second marriage with the same dude,â&#x20AC;? he says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;for lack of a better way of explaining it.â&#x20AC;?

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

47

MUSIC AN AUSPICIOUS DEBUT Indie rockers Lemuria revisit their prickly first album

By Jeff Niesel TEN YEARS AGO, THE BUFFALObased indie rock act Lemuria issued its promising debut album, Get Better.

A collection of prickly rock tunes that showcase both drummer Alexander Kerns and guitarist Sheena Ozzella’s abilities to sing, the album established the group, which sounds a bit like the Juliana Hatfield-led Blake Babies, as part of the burgeoning indie rock circuit.

Now the band has issued a special edition packaging of the album with new artwork, an essay reflecting on the album’s creation and a bonus 7-inch including the outtake tracks that didn’t make it onto the album. For their upcoming Grog Shop show, the band will play the album in its entirety along with a few rare tracks and some new tunes.

Kerns recently spoke to us via phone and talked about each track on Get Better.

“PANTS” It’s more of a crush song than a love song. It’s about how something never came out of a relationship. Even though it’s the first song, it was an oasis when we were writing the album because a lot of the songs are darker.

We thought, “Let’s just kick the album off with it and then move on to the miserable songs about death.”

“YESTERDAY’S LUNCH” Right before the album came out, my dad had died, so a lot of the songs are about that and the unexpected things you have to deal with. You don’t just get to mourn. You have to deal with family issues. My dad came from a big family and had nine siblings and there are a couple of stinkers in there. Those people just showed up out of nowhere. The song’s opening line is “You were only there because you shared the DNA.” It’s a fair-weather family. They showed up for the funeral, and I’ve never heard from them again. I don’t think they even know I play in a band.

“LIPSTICK” That one can be interpreted a lot of different ways. Sheena wrote some wild guitar notes that are layered on top of each other. And for this tour, we have a fourth member playing with us and it really works live on this tour.

48

“BUZZ” It’s just an anxiety song about being in a band, and turning to drinking and drugs was the worst thing but so tempting because it was all I was around. I thought I’d temporarily fit in and adapt to the situation. Usually, I try to get Sheena to sing every song because she has a better voice. But if it’s too personal, like this song, she prefers that we sing it together.

“WARDROBE” That’s similar to “Yesterday’s Lunch” in a way. The setting is

“LENGTH AWAY” Sheena wrote it and it was about being in a long-distance relationship while you’re in a band. You never get to see each other. That’s the life of playing in a band. It’s difficult.

“DOG” That’s all Sheena playing guitars. I think it’s also about struggling to be in a relationship.

“DOGS” It’s a continuation of “Dog.” I came in and wrote my take on the topic.

They kind of blend together.

LEMURIA, CAYETANA, MIKEY ERG 9 P.M. THURSDAY, FEB. 9, GROG SHOP, 2785 EUCLID HEIGHTS BLVD., CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, 216-321-5588. TICKETS: $12 ADV, $14 DOS, GROGSHOP.GS

around my dad’s funeral. It and “Hawaiian T-shirt” are similar too.

They’re about ... it’s cleaning stuff out and deciding what stays and what goes as far as clothes and furniture go. It’s about the aftermath.

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

“GET SOME SLEEP” Sheena wrote the music for it and our old bass player wrote half the lyrics and I wrote half the lyrics. It’s about looking for tomorrow and realizing the sun is going to rise and

that sometimes when thing go badly, you just have to start fresh.

“HAWAIIAN T-SHIRT” My dad had lots of Hawaiian shirts.

The last time I saw my dad, we went to Hawaii for two weeks. He was so into drugs and drinking, so it wasn’t the best trip because I was a bit of a babysitter.

“FINGERS” It’s hard to describe. It’s about how as you get older, you whittle down your friendships to your core group. There were people who were so negative and there’s a line in the song about gossipy adolescent behavior and trying to separate yourself from that.

“MECHANICAL” I’m pretty sure it’s about the same guy from Sheena’s other songs. From the lyrics, you can tell she just wants him to shut up.

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

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| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

49

MUSIC STEP INTO THE FREEZER Holly Holly Bowling Bowling revamps revamps Grateful Grateful Dead Dead and and Phish Phish tunes tunes as as a a solo solo pianist pianist By

By Eric Eric Sandy Sandy

Photo by Jessie Bell

FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS now, the music of the Grateful Dead has inspired musicians around the world.

In the mid-1980s, four nerds from Vermont got together and changed American rock history in much the same way, in that same spirit of community-based freedom. That band was called Phish. One of their most iconic songs is about cellular biology.

Holly Bowling, a pianist from San Francisco, is one of those musicians who’s been struck by the power of those two bands and their respective roles in our shared culture. She took that inspiration and flipped it around, arranging songs to fit her work on solo piano. For bands whose legacies are bent on reinvention, it was a great and unexpected move.

“It seems like a pretty unlikely combination because most people would not throw solo piano and classical piano with Phish and the Dead into the same mix,” Bowling tells Scene with a laugh. But ever since she was kid, she’s been playing piano. Her parents filled their home with the music of the Grateful Dead, and Bowling grew up thinking about music through the lens of that band’s unique style of songwriting.

“Then I got really into Phish in high school,” Bowling says, referencing Trey Anastasio’s penchant for deeply involved compositions.

“These have all been big parts of who I am and strong loves for me, musically,

50

for a large portion of my life. In that sense, it feels like a very natural combination for me.”

As Bowling was growing into her voice as a musician, she continued going to Phish shows and applying those lessons — highly intricate compositional narrative paired with fluid, experimental improvisation — to her own take on the piano. Then something important happened — not just to Bowling, but to the entire Phish community. It was a lightning bolt of mysticism that touched down in Stateline, Nevada, in July 2013. It was the Tahoe “Tweezer.”

Briefly: Phish returned from a five-year split after calling it quits in a muddy Vermont field back in 2004. It’s a long story, but the band has been important to an untold number of people around the world, including Bowling, and there was

jams in modern Phish history.

Bowling was at that show, and she was deeply inspired. “I went home and spent the next year or so writing the Tahoe ‘Tweezer’ out, note for note, and then arranging it for solo piano,” she says. “I ended up loving how the music translated to my instrument, and this whole thing started to take shape.”

For the most part, Bowling’s sets these days revolve around studio compositions from Phish and the Grateful Dead. A recent show featured “Taste,” “The Curtain With,” “Help Is on the Way,” “Slipknot!” and “Dark Star.” With respect to that last one, Bowling mentions how she’s developed the two-minute studio track into her own 27-minute version that’s sort of similar to how the Dead would reinvent it every time. Another recent show featured the Glens Falls “Twist,”

AN EVENING WITH HOLLY BOWLING: THE MUSIC OF PHISH AND THE GRATEFUL DEAD REIMAGINED FOR SOLO PIANO 8 P.M. WEDNESDAY, FEB. 8, THE BOP STOP, 2920 DETROIT AVE., 216-771-6551. TICKETS: SOLD OUT.

every compelling reason in the book for them to get back together once the time was right. From 2009 onward, they worked hard to regain their smooth mastery onstage; the Tahoe “Tweezer” was far from the first flash of post-Coventry brilliance, but it remains one of the most talked-about

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

for instance, written and performed in its entirety and showcasing how Bowling deals with the open-ended nature of Phish and the Dead’s music.

“One of the things that I love about these bands is the music that’s totally improvised and unpredictable and created in the moment,” Bowling

says. “I’ve taken that and written it down and made it exactly the same every time I play it, turning it into a classical-style thing. It’s kind of a weird way to flip it on its head.” She calls those works “jam transcriptions.”

Lest ye be confused by some of the terminology here, Bowling says that her shows have attracted a fairly wide spectrum of people. She’s run into a lot of Deadheads who never really gave Phish a chance and couldn’t tell “Taste” from “Waste,” and she’s been heartened to find out how much they enjoyed the crossover. She’s also found a nice bridge between her stuff and the classical music crowd in a given city.

As far as what’s next? There are hundreds of other songs in both bands’ repertoires for Bowling to explore — especially the Dead catalog. (One Scene writer feels compelled to note, for the record, that “Sugaree” would be a lovely choice.)

Her new album, Better Left Unsung, features some great Dead stuff, like “Bird Song,” “Row Jimmy” and the “Terrapin Station” suite.

And Bowling is also planning on performing some of her original work along the way too. She’s been writing a lot lately. “It’s going to be an exciting year,” she says.

esandy@clevescene.com t@EricSandy

| clevescene.com m | February 8 - 14, 2017

51

LIVEWIRE WED

02/08

Delicate Steve/Cereal Banter: For his new album, This Is Steve, indie rocker Steve Marion, aka Delicate Steve, did even less prep work than he did for previous releases. He cut the thing in a mere 11 days, writing the songs as he was in the studio recording them. As a result, the tunes have a real immediacy.

On the twangy song “Winners,” his guitar sounds like some kind of electric kazoo as the song features a fun, Tom Petty-like vibe. Expect to hear the tracks, highlights in Steve’s repertoire of instrumental tunes, at tonight’s show. (Jeff Niesel) 8:30 p.m., $12. Beachland Tavern.

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

Judy Collins: 7:30 p.m., $48 ADV, $55 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

The Cookers: 7 p.m., $40. Nighttown.

An Evening With Holly Bowling: The Music of Phish and The Grateful Dead Reimagined for Solo Piano: 8 p.m., $12. Bop Stop.

Free Peace Ohio/Ghutty Mac/ Ba$h/Castle/BST EVR/ UnknownPhrazes: 8 p.m., free.

Grog Shop.

THU

02/09

Black Tiger Sex Machine/Dabin/ Kai Wachi/Slave: 9 p.m., $20 ADV, $22 DOS. Beachland Ballroom.

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

Kristine Jackson Band (in the Supper Club): 7:30 p.m., $7. Music Box Supper Club.

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

Lemuria/Cayetana/Mikey Erg: 9 p.m., $12 ADV, $14 DOS. Grog Shop.

Locker Room Unplugged Featuring the Katy (in the Locker Room): 9 p.m., free. Mahall’s 20 Lanes.

Mayor Wertz/Tim Cornett/Dave Flynt/Kris Wernowsky: 8:30 p.m., free. Beachland Tavern.

Monster Energy Outbreak Presents the Cadillac Three: The Black Roses Tour: 7 p.m., $18. House of Blues.

Moody Blues Tribute by Time Traveller: 7:30 p.m., $15 ADV, $18 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

52

all the live music you should see this week Indie rockers STRFKR perform at the Beachland. See: Friday.

FRI

02/10

Colin Dussault’s Blues Project (in the Supper Club): While local singersongwriter-harmonica player Colin Dussault has appeared as a guest/ sideman with other acts over the last few years at the Music Box Supper Club, tonight’s gig represents his first weekend show with his own band. A 29-year veteran of the local scene, Dussault says the band will perform “older originals” as well as some blues and songs from the band’s most recent releases; it currently has two discs out, one electric and one acoustic. (Niesel) 8 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

Valerie June: Singer Valerie June’s career stretches back to the early 2000s when she performed with her then-husband Michael Joyner in the duo Bella Sun. She launched a solo career in 2006 and teamed up with Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys for 2013’s Pushin’ Against a Stone. Now, the soulful singer finally appears to be getting the credit she deserves. “Two Hearts,” the single from the forthcoming studio effort The Order Of Time, features a bit of ominous-sounding Hammond organ that gives the tune a stark beauty.

June has described the album as a “meditation on mortality and family,” and its songs certainly have weight.

(Niesel), 8 p.m., $5.50. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

STRFKR/Psychic Twin: With another fine album in the books as of last fall, STRFKR continues to pick up a great following in the electronic world. Being No One, Going Nowhere presents an upbeat collection of tunes that we’re pretty sure will shine onstage tonight. Check out “Satellite,” with thumping bass syncopating against shimmering strings. Frontman

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

Joshua Hodges slips into some slacker-fuzz vocals, keeping this dance tune from losing its chilled-out appeal. Elsewhere, “Maps” provides a slower, more sweeping sense of STRFKR’s capabilities. A while back, they covered Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” which picked up some nice press and still holds up well as a super fun dance tune. (Eric Sandy) 8:30 p.m., $17 ADV, $20 DOS. Beachland Ballroom.

Homesafe/Life Lessons/Chase Huglin/Up To Nothing/Elbow Room/Long Shot: 6:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes.

The Best Cleveland Albums of 2016: Heavenly Queen/Harvey Pekar/ Matthew Leeb/Beach Stav: 8:30 p.m., $8 ADV, $12 DOS. Grog Shop.

The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra with Special Guest Tierney Sutton: 8 p.m., $22 ADV, $25 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

Diamond Dogs/ProgNation: 7 p.m., $12. House of Blues.

Patti LaBelle: 8 p.m., $65-$99.50.

Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park.

Master Servos/Jon Finley/Steve Wright: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. Nellie McKay: 8:30 p.m., $30.

Nighttown.

Mourning [A] BLKstar/Muamin Collective: 9 p.m., $5. Now That’s Class.

Erin Nicole & the Chill Factor (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge.

Players Club: 9:30 p.m., $5. Brothers Lounge.

Shout!: 8 p.m. Vosh Club.

Moss Stanley: 10:30 p.m., free.

Nighttown.

Twizted/Boondox/Blaze Ya Dead Homie/G-Mo Skee/The Roc: 6 p.m., $25 ADV, $30 DOS. Agora Ballroom.

Who Hit Me/Two Hands/Flipcoin: 9 p.m., $5. The Euclid Tavern.

Dan Wilson Group With Voices: 8 p.m., $15. Bop Stop.

SAT

02/11

High School Rock Off Round 3: When the annual High School Rock Off launched some 20 years ago at the Odeon, the promoters at the locally based Belkin Productions (now Live Nation) saw it as a way to reach out to area high schools and provide students with the kind of outlet that they might not have. Two decades later, the event, which takes place again this year at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, continues to thrive.

This year’s incarnation will feature 41 acts. There will be a total of 156 band members and seven solo artists from four states. In all, the performers will represent 62 schools.

Expect the competition to be fierce.

(Niesel) 6 p.m. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Punch Drunk Tagalongs/The Cadence/King Buu: We last saw Punch Drunk Tagalongs when they opened for Rubblebucket not too long ago. The pairing was apropos, which might give you a small sense of their sound. Veering from contemplative verses and atmospheric guitar work to head-bobbing, raucous choruses, the Tagalongs command an exciting stage presence. Frontwoman Alisha Stahnke has a fantastic voice for this music, and the band that’s assembled around her seems to be really gelling as they play more shows around Northeast Ohio. Their 2016 debut EP is a four-song romp that we highly recommend; “Alice” is an incredibly cool song that involves a lot of movement in its frenzied five minutes. (Sandy) 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. Billy Clarksville and the Sinsations: 8 p.m., $10. Bop Stop.

Easton Corbin: 8 p.m., $27.50-$49.50.

Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park.

Elvis Tribute Show with Tribute Artist Frank Worley: 7:30 p.m.

Vosh Club.

The Four Horsemen — The Ultimate Tribute to Metallica/Meccadeth/ Live Evil: 7:30 p.m., $12. House of Blues.

Archie Green/Amani.Cove/Chelsea Pastel: 9 p.m., $5. The Euclid Tavern.

Albert Lee: 8 p.m., $25. The Kent Stage.

Nellie McKay: 8:30 p.m., $30.

Nighttown.

Miss Macy & the Low Pay Daddys/ Michelle MacBridge/Jason Patrick Meyers/Ryan Manthey: 9 p.m., $8.

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| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

SCENE

Grog Shop.

Pepper/Less Than Jake/The Bunny Gang: 7:30 p.m., $25 ADV, $30 DOS. The Agora Theatre.

David Russellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 40th Birthday Bash with the Fed/Limbs Bin Trio/Actual Form/Moth Cock/ Witchbeam/Emcee Marcia Custer: 9 p.m., $5. Now Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Class.

That 80s Band: 9:30 p.m., $5.

Brothers Lounge.

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

Nighttown.

WCSB BeneďŹ t Show with the Rumbling Spires/The Nox Boys/ Exploding Lies: 9 p.m., $10.

Beachland Tavern.

SUN

02/12

Bach Haus: 7 p.m., $20. Bop Stop.

Brosemight (Phish and Pink Floyd Tribute): 9 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Grog Shop.

Bumpinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Uglies/Turkish Royals/The Catâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Meow: 8 p.m., $7 ADV, $10 DOS. Beachland Tavern.

Dominick Farinacci Sextet Featuring Shenel Johns: 7 p.m., $30. Nighttown.

Sunday Matinee with Cigarette Playdate/Pack Wolf/Trunkweed: 4 p.m., free. Mahallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 20 Lanes.

Ventana/Psychostick/As Summer Dies: 6 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Agora Ballroom.

WinterStar Fairie Ball with Morticiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Chair/Brian Henke: 12 p.m., $5-$20. Beachland Ballroom.

Yacht Rock Night: 8 p.m., free. Happy Dog.

MON

02/13

Skatch Anderssen Orchestra: 8 p.m., $7. Brothers Lounge.

Grassroots Bluegrass Jam!: 7:30 p.m., free. The Euclid Tavern.

Hubbâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Groove with Mariama Whyte & Myron Davis: 7 p.m., $20.

Nighttown.

Meat Wave/Absolutely Not/Pack Wolf: 8:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Beachland Tavern.

Shaggy 2 Dope: 6 p.m., $15 ADV, $20 DOS. Agora Ballroom.

Valenrhymes Day with Esther Fitz/ Talk Chicken$/J Leschelle/Snoopy Symon: 9 p.m., $10. Grog Shop.

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

TUE

02/14

Hed Pe/Motograter: Once a pillar of what one might call the nu-metal

scene in the late â&#x20AC;&#x2122;90s, then very soon moving to the fringes of that movement, Hed Pe are still a pack of real shitkickers in a community thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s long since outgrown its roots.

We here at Scene were devotees of the bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s debut, along with the well executed duo of Broke and Blackout; and while the band has moved into a more streamlined version of its former self â&#x20AC;&#x201D; less inventive riffs, more screaming from frontman Jared Gomes â&#x20AC;&#x201D; thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still plenty of hooks to get down and mosh to.

If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never been to a Hed Pe show, then you should take this opportunity. While you wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get to see DJ Product 1969 running around in a frantic mood (arguably the heart and soul of the band for many years), youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll still get more than a few kicks once they take the stage. (Sandy) 6:30 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Agora Ballroom.

Nobunny/Tonawandas/Brainwave: Are you left with â&#x20AC;&#x153;nobunnyâ&#x20AC;? to cuddle with on Valentineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Day? Maybe itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s because you frequently forget to change your underwear and you smell like rock â&#x20AC;&#x2122;nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; roll.

If so, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be in good company with Goner Records garage rocker Nobunny. A staple among fans of the slightly smutty â&#x20AC;&#x153;A.B.C.â&#x20AC;? bubblegum rock of Hunx and His Punx or The King Khan and BBQ Show, Nobunny breeds a mangy variety of garage-rock love songs. With titles like â&#x20AC;&#x153;Your Mouth,â&#x20AC;? a sugary song about sucking face, or â&#x20AC;&#x153;Boneyard,â&#x20AC;? an ode to the hottest date spot outside of town, Nobunny is sure to scratch your itch for sticky-sweet romance. (Bethany Kaufman) 9 p.m., $10. Now Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Class.

Cigarette Playdate/Key to the Mint/ Pleasure Boy/DJ PARTYSWEAT: 8:30 p.m., $5 ADV, $8 DOS. Beachland Tavern.

Hubbâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Groove with Stephen Fowler & Sarahâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Girl (Stacey Crawford): 7 p.m., $20. Nighttown.

Ma Holos/The Sight/Meanderthal: 9 p.m., free. The Euclid Tavern.

Pop Evil/BadďŹ&#x201A;ower: 7 p.m., $25-$35.

House of Blues.

Neil Sedaka: 7:30 p.m., $55-$85. Hard Rock Rocksino NorthďŹ eld Park.

Two-Set Tuesday featuring Al Mazur (in the Wine Bar): 7 p.m.

Brothers Lounge.

Charlie Wilson with Fantasia & Johnny Gill â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A Valentineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Day Celebration: 7 p.m., $48-$103.

Quicken Loans Arena.

Dan Zola Big Band: 7:30 p.m. Vosh Club.

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

| clevescene.com m | February 8 - 14, 2017

55

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KRISTINE JACKSON

By Jeff Niesel MEET THE BAND: Kristine Jackson (vocals, guitars, bass, beat-box) STRAIGHT OUTTA ELYRIA: Wellknown on the local blues circuit for years as a trumpet player, Jackson switched to guitar and vocals in 2004. “I had been writing some music and I wanted to play my own music instead of just playing trumpet in some of the blues bands around town,” she says. “I was inspired by everything. You name it. I like Latin stuff and straight blues and rock and hip-hop. Cleveland has a fantastic live music community.

I really honed my craft on jam nights on the local stages.”

TAKING HER TIME: Jackson says her latest album, By Your Side, has been a work in progress. The finished product shows off her musical range. “I decided to take my time and make the album that has been in my head all these years,” she says. “I never had the time or the funds to do that. Some of the songs were written just for the album and some of it was a collaboration of songs from the past that I never had the time to record the way I wanted to.” Local hero Pete Tokar engineered the disc. He also played keyboards on the album and co-produced it.

WHY YOU SHOULD HEAR HER: The album includes a bit of everything. “Always There” is a hard-driving rocker, and “Change My World,” a tune that features a cameo by Hardstone, embraces roots reggae. “Those are just my influences,” says Jackson.

“Most of the songs were created in my basement. I had a microphone hooked up to a loop machine and I would beatbox different rhythms.

That’s how many of the songs started. I would put the rest of the song together with a guitar.” The album includes contributions from local musicians such as Austin Walkin’ Cane, Mike Petrone and Colin Dussault. By Your Side came out last fall. Jackson says she’s regularly in the studio working on new stuff too, though she says she won’t release any new material in the immediate future. For her upcoming show at the Music Box, she promises to have “all the bells and whistles” you hear on the album.

WHERE YOU CAN HEAR HER: musicbykj.com WHERE YOU CAN SEE HER: The Kristine Jackson Band performs at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 9, at the Music Box Supper Club.

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

57

C-NOTES A SOURCE OF PRIDE

Up-and-coming singer-songwriter Valerie June performs at the Rock Hall this week.

Black History Month events commence at the Rock Hall

By Jeff Niesel EACH YEAR, THE ROCK & ROLL Hall of Fame celebrates national Black History Month with a series of special events and programming.

Highlights from the past 20 years include conversations with artists such as Solomon Burke, HollandDozier-Holland, Ruth Brown, Al Green, Bobby Womack, Bootsy Collins, Chuck D, Rahiem, and Little Anthony and the Imperials.

This year’s festivities kick off on Thursday with a performance by blues/pop singer Valerie June, who performs at 8 p.m.

At 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 15, in the Foster Theater, the Rock Hall presents the lecture, Hip Hop 2020: Where It Started + Where It’s Been + Where It’s Going. Radio, deejay, and production experts will discuss the development and growth of hip-hop over the past four decades.

58

The event will also include short sets

by DJ Yulissa, DJ RoadRunner, DJ Ellery, DJ Walk and Corey Grand.

At 7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 23, the Rock Hall will screen Take Me to the River, a feature film celebrating the inter-generational and inter-racial musical influence of Memphis in the face of pervasive discrimination and segregation.

Following the screening, director/ producer Martin Shore, Hall of Fame inductee Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads, Grammy Awardwinning producer Boo Mitchell (“Uptown Funk”), Academy Awardwinning rapper Frayser Boy (“It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp”), 2017 Grammy nominee Bobby Rush and Critics Choice-winning rapper Al Kapone will participate in a panel discussion.

On Sunday, Feb. 26, the Rock

| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

Hall will celebrate the 89th birthday of 1986 inductee Fats Domino by showing The Big Beat: Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock ’n’ Roll, a 90-minute documentary film that will play on loop all day in the Forest City/RMS Theater inside the main exhibition hall.

And finally, at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 3, Franc West and other Cleveland-based soul singers who have toured with national acts will play as part of a Winter Soul Concert. That takes place at 7 p.m.

Some events are ticketed.

Consult rockhall.com for more info.

INDUCTION DETAILS The 2017 Rock Hall inductions that take place on Friday, April 7, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn will include the inductions of Joan Baez, Electric Light Orchestra, Journey, Nile Rodgers (of Chic fame), Pearl Jam, Tupac Shakur and Yes into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Last week, the Rock Hall announced a few details regarding the ceremony.

Jackson Browne will induct Joan Baez, Neil Young will induct Pearl Jam, and Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson will induct Yes. Additional performers and presenters will be announced at a later date.

The Rock Hall will also open a special exhibit about the 2017 inductees in conjunction with the ceremony. Items from Baez, ELO, Journey, Pearl Jam, Rodgers, Shakur and Yes will be on display when the exhibit opens on March 31.

Tickets to the inductions are currently on sale.

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

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| clevescene.com | February 8 - 14, 2017

SAVAGE LOVE WILBUR & RENSSELAER

by Dan Savage LAST WEEK, I SPOKE AT THE Wilbur Theater in Boston and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Audience members submitted their questions on tiny cards, allowing them to remain anonymous while forcing them to be succinct. Here are some questions I didn’t get to at both events.

Dear Dan, My girlfriend wants to explore her sexuality with another woman but be “heterosexually exclusive” with me. She wants me to have equal freedom but doesn’t think it’s fair for me to be with another woman. I am a heterosexual man. How can we achieve sexual equality?

An open relationship for her but a closed-on-a-technicality relationship for you? Yeah, no. Want to achieve sexual equality? Explore your sexuality with other women — as a single man.

Dear Dan, I am a 50-year-old queer man who never really came out — except to people I’m cruising or fucking. Oh, and to my wife. Is there any social or political value to coming out now, in the shadow of a Trump presidency?

There’s tremendous social and political value to being out, whoever the president is. There’s also social and political risk, whoever the president is. If you’re in a position to come out — and you must be, otherwise you wouldn’t be asking — not coming out is a moral failing.

Dear Dan, I’m a 31-year-old straight female. I have an intermittent sexual relationship with a married polyamorous friend. Each time we hook up, he says he regrets it. But several months later, he will contact me and we will hook up again. Should I say no? What do you think is up?

Your friend’s head is what’s up — up his own ass. Stop letting him stick his dick up yours. (P.S. His regret has me wondering if his marriage is actually open or if he’s cheating on his wife. If you’ve never discussed their polyamorous arrangement with her, that’s probably what’s up.)

Dear Dan, Why are liberals okay with people self-identifying their gender but not their race? Aren’t both considered social constructs?

“If race and gender are both social constructs,” Evan Urquhart writes at Slate, “and if both have been built around observable biological traits, then what is the crucial difference that makes a felt gender identity a true one, but a felt racial identity fraudulent?

The short answer is that most trans people and their allies suspect that transgender people are born that way.”

Dear Dan, We just legalized weed here in Massachusetts! Yay! How can I, as a consumer but industry outsider, help to ensure more diversity in the legal selling business?

Before the shops open, get in the face of your elected officials to make sure licenses are made available to pot entrepreneurs of color. Once legal weed shops are open, go out of your way to patronize pot shops owned by people of color and insist all legal weed shops employ people of color and pay a living wage. And once the profits start rolling in, demand that pot activists and shop owners stay in the fight to demand that people convicted of possessing or selling pot in the past — primarily POC — get full pardons and restitution.

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Dear Dan, Please elaborate on your suggestion that an open relationship could save a marriage.

Here’s an example: married couple, together a long time, low-conflict relationship, good partners. Spouse #1 is done with sex — libido gone, no interest in taking steps to restore it — but Spouse #2 isn’t done with sex.

This can play out two ways: (1) Spouse #1 insists on keeping the marriage closed, and Spouse #2 opts for divorce over celibacy. (2) Spouse #1 allows for outside contact — they open the marriage up — and monogamy is sacrificed but the marriage is saved.

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| clevescene.com | February 8 14, 2017

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