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| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
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| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
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UPFRONT LEAD LEGISLATION PASSES! CLASH SUSPENDS SECOND PETITION DRIVE Photo by Sam Allard
Councilman Anthony Brancatelli representing the only NO. That vote will surely be a dark mark on the councilman’s record. His justification — that the legislation was rushed, that council had designed a spaceship without figuring out how to land it — is among the more risible he could’ve come up with, given the body’s penchant for emergency legislation. -SAM ALLARD
DIGIT WIDGET 36
CLEVELAND LEAD ADVOCATES for Safe Housing (CLASH), the coalition of activist organizations that has made lead poisoning prevention a marquee civic issue, suspended its second citizen petition drive with the passage of lead legislation last week. While the many amendments that CLASH proposed to Cleveland City Council’s landmark law were not accepted — among them, a provision that would have made daycare centers subject to a lead-safe mandate — the coalition’s members plan to support the law and work toward getting amendments added as they continue educating citizens. “We have finally taken a significant step to ending a public health crisis in Cleveland,” said CLASH member and former city councilman Jeff Johnson, in a statement provided to the media. Johnson was the city council sponsor of lead legislation in 2017 that was roundly ignored by his colleagues. “For too long inaction and inattentiveness prevented the protection of our children from lead poisoning. Let this first step of a new law, a new approach, keep us committed to our children and to their futures.”
CLASH attorney Rebecca Maurer celebrated the efforts of activists who have pushed the lead issue into the spotlight and kept it there. But for their relentless pressure on City Council, the city-led Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition likely would have never emerged. “It is a victory for community organizing, a victory for good public policy, and — most importantly — a victory for Cleveland’s children,” she said in a statement. “Did the City’s bill have everything I wanted?” She wrote in follow-up commentary on social media. “No. But true north is protecting kids from lead poisoning. With a preventative framework on the books, I believe the best thing we can do to protect kids is engage whole-heartedly in the enforcement and implementation of the law.” In June, after Council’s legislation was first introduced, CLASH said that they would not suspend their petition drive. Speaking from his experience at City Hall, Jeff Johnson said that legislation can be changed significantly from introduction to passage, and CLASH was worried about the bill being delayed or watered down. CLASH’s first petition drive had been squashed
by council on a technicality — the petitions failed to include a required all-caps disclaimer about election falsification. Milo Korman, a CLASH member representing the Cleveland Democratic Socialists of America, said then that CLASH had made a promise to the people of Cleveland: “that we would not stop fighting to stop lead poisoning until we had a law that was in place and on a path toward enforcement.” CLASH now feels that the city law, which moves from a reactive to a pro-active prevention approach by mandating a “lead-safe” status for all rental units built before 1978 in the city, is on that path. The city will begin enforcing the lead-safe mandate in 2021. All units must be certified by March, 2023. Echoing comments from City Council, CLASH celebrated the law’s passage but regarded it merely as a first step. Funding, implementation, education and enforcement will all require persistent efforts from both public and private partners over the next several years. The law’s passage was nearly unanimous Wednesday, (15-1), with Ward 1 Councilman Joe Jones absent and Ward 12 (Slavic Village)
Number of Cuyahoga County Jail corrections officers who called off on the first shift on June 15. Twentysix called off for second shift. The following day, 27 called off on first shift and 23 on second. State inspectors found the jail experienced prolonged red-zoning during those two days, among other issues that have been slow to be corrected.
$550,000 Amount the county prosecutor’s office will receive to hire outside lawyers to defend former jail boss Ken Mills and former jail warden Eric Ivey in lawsuits over the jail.
44% Year-over-year increase in rent for a one-bedroom apartment in University Circle, according to a Rent.com study. It was the highest jump of any Cleveland neighborhood.
4,400 Number of citations issued by the city of Cleveland to residents for violating trash rules since the twoyear moratorium on fines ended. Many of them have gone unpaid (2,536 of the 4,440 citations), including $ 320 owed by Drew Carey for fines at his Old Brooklyn childhood home.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene | clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
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2019 Schedule of Events: FRI, August 2 @ 7pm – Cleveland Public Theatre’s STEP SUN, August 4 @ 7pm – Cleveland Shakespeare Festival FRI, August 9* @ 8:30pm – Inlet Dance Theatre SAT, August 10* @ 8:30pm – Verb Ballets SUN, August 11 @ Rain Date for Dance FRI, August 16 @ 7pm – Papo Ruiz y Delzura de la Salsa SAT, August 17 @ 7pm – ContempOpera SUN, August 18 @ 4pm – Erie Heights Brass Ensemble
$UWV LQ $XJXVW is a special time of year in Tremont. The community gathers in Lincoln Park for artistic performances using professional lighting and sound to bring magic to Tremont. All Arts in August events are FREE and are held in Tremont’s Lincoln Park. Please visit tremontwest.org for up to date information, rain locations/dates and program details, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @artsinaugust Bring a picnic, order take-out from one of our Tuesdays in Tremont participants listed below. You definitely want to bring a chair or a blanket to sit and remember you are in a park at dusk, so you might want to bring bug spray too!
*7:45pm - OnStage* A creative movement class with performance improvisation for kids of all ages will take place on the stage prior to the performance!
FRI, August 23 @ 7pm – Summer Music Mix (Sugata Chatterjee with Amit Chatterjee, Global Connections, The Village Bicycle)
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| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
A Hudson megachurch, a beloved pastor and the international sex abuse scandal they’ve tried to hide.
F
OR A MAN WHO PURPORTS TO BE so boldly committed to truth, American missionary and Christian pastor Tom Randall has been at the center of – in fact, may be the chief architect of – a long and wicked deception. Randall is a gregarious man with an earnest, unsophisticated preaching style. He stands 6’5” and ambles about with the busted-knee hitch of a former serious athlete. He has never fully conquered his Rs, but the speech impediment has endeared him to friends, colleagues, golfers on the PGA Senior Tour,
where he served for several years as chaplain, and megachurch congregations nationwide. To these audiences and others he has told versions of the same story about himself: He grew up as a thief on the inner-city streets of Detroit and was shepherded to Christ by a college basketball coach. These days, the 65-year-old Randall lives in Stow, Ohio, with his wife Karen and preaches from time to time at the nondenominational Hudson megachurch Christ Community Chapel, where he has been on the payroll since 2014, shortly after he returned to | clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
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Photo YouTube screen grab / Free Tom Randall
FEATURE the states from a brief and highly sensationalized stint in a Manila detention center. The Philippines. That’s where Randall lived as a missionary for years, purportedly playing professional basketball and spreading the word of God “through sports, recreation [and] competition.” In January 2014, Randall was back in the Philippines on a semi-regular mission trip when he was arrested during an early morning raid of Sankey Samaritan Orphanage, the children’s home he founded in 1998. Randall, the facility’s Filipino manager Toto Luchavez and Toto’s son Jake were handcuffed and taken into custody. The Filipino National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) had received credible reports of physical and sexual abuse at Sankey, and all three men were charged with crimes related to sex trafficking. Nine of the 31 children and young adults living there then gave sworn statements corroborating the alleged abuse, what the arrest affidavit referred to as “a pattern of continuing sexual abuse and exploitation” and “a continuing and pervasive threat of violence and intimidation.” Randall, who was arrested on lesser charges – criminal negligence and obstruction of justice — was released after 22 days. Throughout his incarceration, he accrued a massive social media following. Thousands of Christians in Northeast Ohio and all over the world were led to believe that he had been unjustly detained. U.S. Senator Rob Portman interceded on Randall’s behalf, applying pressure on the American embassy to secure his release. Scene and the Akron Beacon-Journal both reported on the story at the time. During the past five years, Christ Community Chapel (CCC) and its lead pastor Joe Coffey have enlarged and inflamed Randall’s story in language familiar to Christians. Randall was persecuted, in this version. The abuse allegations at Sankey were just that: allegations; nothing more than “gossip and slander” from a “rival missionary” with a “personal vendetta” named Joe Mauk, who happened to have been Randall’s best friend for decades but for reasons unknown “went bad.” This is the version that Randall himself has propelled, providing shifting details of his ordeal at speaking engagements across the
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Tom Randall, proselytizing via basketball
country. In Randall’s account, he is the victim, not the young people who testified to being beaten and raped for years – young people to whom Randall refers, incidentally, as his sons and daughters. Randall’s elastic relationship with truth is well-known to close listeners of his talks. Some have reported to Scene that his facts are wont to change, that his personal history, and indeed, the story of his tribulations in Manila, have a foggy and even improvised quality. Your “weirdo meters go up,” when you hear him talk about the Sankey case, said one current member of CCC. A missionary in the Philippines who was present at the raid and throughout the ensuing legal battles in Manila was even more explicit in a 2014 conversation with Scene. She called Randall’s account of his detention a “total fabrication.” Randall has nevertheless been mythologized by close friends like Joe Coffey – his life story is “more like Jesus than anyone I’ve ever been close to,” Coffey wrote in 2017– and Randall seems to enjoy being a mythic figure. “I kind of assumed he was a [Christian] celebrity because of the way he presents himself,” a blogger who goes by Truth Seeker told Scene after hearing Randall speak in 2018. “But he’s not. He just acts like he is.”
| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
Sarah Klingler is part of a core group of local advocates now pushing for an independent thirdparty investigation of the Sankey abuse and CCC’s handling of it. She told Scene that Randall is not only persuasive and charming, but also a master of “partial truths.” He has used these partial truths, she said, to weave together bigger lies. Another advocate said Randall’s stories were full of “embedded truths,” which made them difficult to untangle, much less to refute. Randall’s partial and embedded truths may be habits born of proselytizing, the need to tinker with personal anecdotes to more effectively dramatize biblical themes. Or perhaps it’s a pathology. In 2002, Randall was interviewed by The Oklahoman about his role as chaplain for the PGA Senior Tour. He recounted to the reporter, as he often does, the tale of his conversion under Judson University basketball coach Dick Helm. During the conversation, he said – or hinted; the material was not a direct quote — that he was drafted into the NBA. Randall was among the national leaders in scoring and was drafted by the NBA’s New Orleans Jazz. He was on an exhibition tour overseas when he received word of the Jazz’ interest.
“I just thought, ‘Why would I go home and go through that when I’ve got a great thing right here I loved?’” Randall said. “Plus, they already had Pete Maravich. There was just no way. The guy was a legend. You’ve got to be realistic. I don’t think I was being negative. There was just no way. “Plus I loved travel and cultures. I’ve learned a number of languages. I loved the people of the Philippines and how anxious they were to have me play there.” As presented, the above is absurd. Randall claims that he chose to forego a lucrative professional basketball career in the U.S. because the Jazz … already had Pete Maravich? The implication is that he preferred to be a big fish in a small, exotic pond than ride the bench in the NBA. Except he wasn’t drafted. No player named Tom Randall, nor any player from Judson University, was ever drafted in Jazz franchise history. Maybe this is one of Randall’s partial truths. Maybe he was playing on an exhibition tour overseas and maybe the Jazz really did express some interest. Maybe the Jazz encouraged him to enter the draft? Maybe he has told the story so many times that it gradually became,
“I was drafted by the Jazz and turned them down.â€? This of course makes his decision to play in the Philippines much weightier. Much more deliberate. But his career in the Philippines is also suspect. The 2002 story above, and dozens of others in 2014, referenced Randall’s career in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). In Scene’s ďŹ rst story on the subject, we referred to Randall as a “former professional basketball player in the Philippines and longtime missionary there.â€? But shortly after the Sankey raid, a Filipino journalist contacted a veteran PBA statistician, who couldn’t ďŹ nd any record of Tom Randall in the league’s annual manuals, dating back to 1975. Maybe he played in the Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA), a precursor to the PBA, the story surmised, but even that wasn’t clear. “Actually I called several oldtimers, which included former MICAA players, ofďŹ cials and senior scribes, but no one remembers Tom‌â€? the statistician said. “I think he played with a missionary team that visited Manila and guested in the MICAA.â€? If that’s the case, it’s a far cry from The Oklahoman’s proďŹ le. This tangential historical matter is relevant only insofar as it illustrates the signiďŹ cant ways facts can evolve in Tom Randall’s hands. He exaggerates. He misremembers. He uses partial truths to tell bigger lies – that is, to tell better stories. Turning down an NBA career to play pro ball in the Philippines, where the nation’s people were “anxiousâ€? to have him participate, is a much more compelling narrative than playing gloriďŹ ed rec hoops with a traveling missionary team. In the same way, growing up as a thief on the streets of Detroit makes for a more dramatic tale of Christian conversion than that of a young man who’d already decided to attend a “conservative, Evangelical Christian Universityâ€? like Judson. And in the same way, a moody teenage girl who claimed to have been kissed by Toto Luchavez but then recanted (CCC’s version of the Sankey abuse allegations) makes for a more palatable scandal – certainly a much more Christian one – than the repeated instances of sodomy, oral sex, other “lascivious actsâ€? and physical beatings that were documented in charges against Toto and Jake Luchavez and the sworn testimony of the orphans. Randall’s stories have proven to be hits not only with megachurch
congregations but with wealthy evangelical donors, whom he has courted for years to fund his nonproďŹ t World Harvest Ministries. That organization, which paid for Sankey Samaritan Orphanage (named for donor James K. Sankey), was folded into Christ Community Chapel in August 2014, at which point its signiďŹ cant ďŹ nancial assets were no longer searchable. When CCC members recently asked to review the church’s ďŹ nances – including its continuing expenditures in the Philippines – they were denied. Randall’s truthfulness requires scrutiny in the context of the Sankey abuse allegations because Pastor Joe Coffey trusts Randall unconditionally. That means that Randall’s version of events in 2013 and 2014 has been the version communicated to CCC’s large, wealthy exurban congregation. The overwhelming majority of the CCC community has been content to accept this version, though several current and former members are now agitating for transparency and accountability. Only due to recent pressure from this group of advocates and national Christian bloggers has CCC agreed to an “internal reviewâ€? of the case. That review is currently being conducted by a woman named Suzanne Lewis-Johnson, a former FBI agent and member of CCC who runs a nonproďŹ t called RAHAB Ministries that receives ďŹ nancial support from both CCC and the Sankey Family Foundation, (a fact that has been scrubbed from RAHAB’s website). CCC had kept the identity of Lewis-Johnson and its ďŹ nancial relationship with RAHAB Ministries conďŹ dential until it was exposed by a Christian watchdog blog. Several of the local advocates have told Scene that because of this relationship, they believe the internal review is likely to produce biased and incomplete results. But momentum toward truth is now on the advocates side, they feel. Scandals at Christian churches in the past year, including an abuse scandal at Chicago’s Willow Creek Church, and disclosures of widespread abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention, all on the heels of the broader #metoo movement, have awakened a desire for more open, rigorous, independent investigations at religious institutions like CCC, where hierarchical governing bodies usually insist on, and biblically justify, the handling of these matters in-house.
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allegations, and CCC Executive Director of Operations Stacey DiNardo told Scene that Coffey and Randall would not be available to answer our questions until the completion of Suzanne Lewis-Johnson’s review. When we disclosed that the Mauk daughters’ allegations against Randall would be included in our story and warranted a response from Randall or CCC, DiNardo reiterated that they would not comment until after they had read and discussed the review. Lewis-Johnson told Scene in mid-July that she hoped we would be able to see her review soon. “Wishing I could write faster,â€? she wrote in an email. The full story of what Tom Randall has done, what happened at Sankey, and how Christ Community Chapel has distorted the story has not been widely disseminated. Scene conducted more than a dozen interviews over the past three months, reviewed hundreds of pages of court ďŹ lings, emails and media reports and revisited audio ďŹ les of our reporting in 2014, along with recorded conversations between Tom Randall, CCC personnel and the local Justice
FEATURE “Everyone knows about the abuse scandals in the Catholic Church,â€? said Dee Parsons, whose Wartburg Watch blog documented CCC’s hostility to one of its members in 2018. “But the Christian church needs to confront these cases as well. When I saw what was happening at CCC, when I saw the church go on the offensive the way they did, my red ag radar went way up. I don’t know how people with half a brain can sit in that congregation and not believe that there’s something really, really bad going on.â€? Another explosive development arrived this spring, when Dee Parsons published, for the ďŹ rst time, allegations of misconduct against Tom Randall himself. These were not allegations by the orphans at Sankey, but by Priscilla Leighton and Miriam Bongolan, both daughters of Joe Mauk – the “rival missionaryâ€? with a “personal vendetta.â€? Neither CCC nor Tom Randall has publicly responded to those
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for Sankey advocates, in order to assemble a record of the complicated case. Current members of CCC spoke to Scene on condition of anonymity, fearing backlash and citing church “covenantsâ€? they signed – membership agreements, basically – which are legally binding. “The bottom line is that among the church leadership, there’s total trust in Tom Randall and his account,â€? one current member said, “so truth — quote unquote — is being ďŹ ltered through Tom’s perspective, which we’ve come to see as being incredibly warped.â€? Cari Gintz, an advocate whose email correspondence with Pastor Joe Coffey was featured on The Wartburg Watch blog, and who has been discredited as “disturbedâ€? and “unchristianâ€? by CCC leadership, told Scene that she’s now convinced there’s something rotten at CCC. “It’s not just Tom Randall. I don’t let Coffey off the hook either,â€? she said. “There’s no way he skates away from this and pretends he didn’t know what was happening. They all know there’s a problem, and I think they’re afraid. Christ Community
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Two * * * Miriam Bongolan got married in 2013 in California, only months before the Sankey abuse allegations ďŹ rst leaked. Tom Randall ofďŹ ciated the ceremony. He was her father’s best friend and a ďŹ gure so close to the family that the Mauk daughters called him Uncle Tom. Many people in the Philippines called Randall “Uncle Tom,â€? Miriam told Scene, but for the Mauks, this was a special honor. Randall and his wife Karen were regulars in the Mauks’ life. Miriam and her older sister Priscilla were the youngest of ďŹ ve, and as girls, Randall doted on them. He was known for always having cash on his person and spending freely, buying gifts for his “childrenâ€? at Sankey and special extravagances for his “princessesâ€? – a term he reserved for young girls of whom he was especially fond. Both Miriam and Priscilla were princesses. In the years following the Sankey raid, Miriam and Priscilla reexamined their childhood experiences with Randall and recognized much of his behavior as
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| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
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Photo Courtesy Priscilla Leighton
FEATURE sexual grooming. In late 2018, they decided to go public with allegations against him. In an interview from the Philippines earlier this month, Miriam told Scene that while these allegations were reported past the statute of limitations, and while she was “100-percent aware” that they would be twisted or dismissed out of hand by CCC, she and her sister felt it was important to be fully transparent in a case that has been marked by misinformation. “We hope our stories help people realize that Tom shouldn’t be trusted with his version of events in the Sankey case,” Miriam said. The allegations involve, among other things, unwanted touching. The most invasive instances were in the form of what Randall termed “medical massages.” As a former athlete, he professed expertise in this sort of treatment. This was in addition to a general handsiness, which — much like his over-the-top generosity — was rarely seen as unusual by others, including Miriam and Priscilla’s parents. “He created a culture where that was normal,” said Priscilla Leighton (Mauk), in an interview with Scene. “He gave big gifts, he handed out money. But you can do that in the Christian community. It’s ‘God’s generosity,’ you know? There were times when I was uncomfortable, but I never thought it was wrong.” After a car crash when Priscilla was a sophomore in high school, Randall visited her multiple times at her home to provide “medical massages,” visits sanctioned by her parents. “He was allowed in my room and would close the door all but an inch,” Priscilla wrote in the account first published on the Wartburg Watch. “My bed was behind the door. Before coming in he would tell me to take off my bra and prepare myself. I laid face-up while he massaged my stomach and chest under my t-shirt. I felt terribly uncomfortable but thought it was normal. I had never had a massage before so this must be what they are like, and people just love massages. He massaged around and around my breasts, touching everything but my nipple— therefore I thought nothing was wrong.” Randall told Priscilla that she was his “favorite princess.” He carried around a photo of her in his wallet, bought her “whatever [she] wanted,” (including a horse), and once pulled
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Priscilla Leighton and Miriam Bongoloan
up her shirt to examine a new bra she was wearing. On her prom night, Priscilla wrote, Randall paid for a hotel room for her and her friend and stayed at the room overnight with them, without his wife present. This excessive attention occurred while Priscilla was in high school. Once she went to college in the U.S., Randall’s interest faded. Priscilla stressed to Scene that at the time, the shopping trips and the touching didn’t faze her. That was just Uncle Tom being Uncle Tom. She remained close enough with him that he officiated her wedding, too, in 2005. Miriam, five years younger than Priscilla, was another one of Randall’s princesses. She said that he tended to treat only select girls that way, and, from her recollection, only when they were between the ages of 12 and 17. “The Sankey girls were all his ‘daughters,’” Miriam told Scene. “There was only one who was a ‘princess.’ We think that’s maybe where it crossed a line into targeting in a sexual sense.” Miriam described one instance – also recounted on her Facebook page – of Tom Randall buying her a $100 Barbie set on the condition that Miriam give him “five hugs
| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
and five kisses,” which he collected throughout that day. “I haven’t forgotten every time you played with my hair during a movie (Soul Surfer, 2006), massaged my legs (Jurassic Park, 4th grade), handed me money, and forced me to hug and kiss you in order to get a gift,” Miriam wrote in the March post. “I know that is grooming now, but back then you made it normal because you did that with all of your princesses. You were my second father. My inspiration. I believed Christians could do anything because of your amazing stories.” Miriam said that even after she and Priscilla had discussed Randall’s behavior privately, they hesitated to come forward for several reasons. In the first place, they knew how the allegations were likely to be received. “CCC’s only official response that they like to use is, ‘Nothing on the internet is true,’” Miriam said. “We’ve already [supposedly] forged court documents. My family is a criminal family. I am emotional and overdramatic. This would just be, ‘Oh, Joe Mauk is using his children to destroy a rival missionary.’ And they’d say it didn’t come out until now because we’re grasping at straws.” Secondly, Miriam said they
were concerned about the orphans at Sankey, most of whom are now grown adults. All but six of them are still living under the protection and financial support of Tom and CCC. Their education, housing, food and living expenses have been paid for by Tom, World Harvest/CCC and private donors in Australia for years. Furthermore, whenever Tom visits, he lavishes cash and gifts upon them – an arrangement that a missionary in 2014 didn’t hesitate to call “bribery.” Miriam said that the orphans, in addition to being fearful of repercussions from Toto Luchavez, tacitly understand that the money from Tom is an inducement to stay quiet, to support the narrative that no abuse occurred at Sankey. After she came forward with her allegations, Miriam told Scene, two of the girls under Tom and Toto’s umbrella reached out to her and said that what she described wasn’t abuse. This was just “fatherly affection,” they said, and Tom and other visiting missionaries treated them that way too. “Despite the manipulation and control, they really do love Tom,” Miriam said. “And we knew that our stories could be painful for them. He was making a lot of mistakes
that were obvious, but we wanted to protect [the kids] from this side of him. But then we realized that by trying to protect the kids, we weren’t allowing people to have the full story. And we also could be putting other children in danger.” Priscilla said that, in addition to these considerations, she simply didn’t have the understanding and vocabulary to recognize her situation for what it was until she was an adult. “But it was absolutely textbook,” she said, noting that for most perpetrators of grooming and molestation, cases rarely happen in isolation. Her primary motivation for speaking out, then, was to protect future victims and to empower past victims to do the same. She agreed with Miriam about the main reason it took so many years to come forward. “It’s obvious,” she said. “Nobody believes us. We got bus-chucked for saying Toto was a scumbag. Can you even fathom what would happen if we said anything negative against precious, Godly, chosen Uncle Tom?” She said the result of going public has not been what she expected. Instead of being discredited or dismissed, her account has been almost entirely ignored. “Guess who I’ve heard from?” She said. “No one.” (She amended her statement later, saying that she did receive a single email from a pastor in California who read the account and said his church would no longer be partnering in ministry with Tom Randall.) Miriam said that for her, accountability means a third-party investigation at CCC. Like the local Justice for Sankey advocates, she suggested the services of GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment), a known and respected outfit for this specific work. “A third-party investigative service would bring closure to the case,” she said. “They could determine what sort of care is required for the victims and ensure that safeguards are in place so this doesn’t happen again.” Miriam Bongolan said that learning and spreading the truth was important both for the victims in the Philippines and for the congregation back in Ohio, but that truth couldn’t be fully uncovered unless people were willing to confront it. “If we’re going to call ourselves Christians, we have to be honest,” she said. “People should be able to speak the truth. Children should be able to speak the truth. And when people in power start restricting the truth, it becomes a very dangerous and spiritually abusive situation… [CCC] is actively putting lies out there,
deceiving their own community, pushing people out for disagreeing. That’s unsettling whether you’re a Christian or not.” Suzanne Lewis-Johnson, the former FBI agent, wrote in a letter to the CCC congregation that the church’s investigation should be entrusted to another law enforcement official with “extensive experience” interviewing child abuse victims and interrogating child abuse subjects. But when she and CCC leadership found no one qualified, she said she reluctantly took on the Sankey review herself. It is unknown if she has conducted interviews with victims in the Philippines as part of her work. She did not respond when Scene asked specific questions about the review, including whether or not the allegations against Tom Randall would be included. She also did not respond to a request for an interview to speak about her findings before the review’s publication.
Three * * * When Tom Randall returned from the Philippines in 2014, riding a warm wave of good will, Pastor Joe Coffey lamented the rampant misinformation about the Sankey case then in the press. There had been a strain of coverage that reported, based on shreds of early inaccurate information, that Randall was himself charged with abusing the orphans at Sankey, and that the children’s home was a front for sex trafficking. “But time and truth go hand in hand,” Coffey told the CCC congregation. “The first part of time and truth going hand in hand is after 22 days, all the charges were dropped against Tom and he was set free. The second part of the truth that’s coming out is that the charges against Jake and Toto have been downgraded and they’re out on bail ... Now what we’re praying for is for all the truth to come out. Period. Whatever it is. Let all the truth come out. And then we pray that the press will cover all the truth, as well as what they’ve covered so far.” But the press was unable to do so – and didn’t, and hasn’t – in large part because Randall and Coffey were in control of the narrative. In September 2014, Coffey Tweeted that at long last, all charges had been dropped against Toto and Jake and that the January raid at Sankey had been deemed “completely unjustified” by a judge. He closed his message with the hashtag: #timeandtruth. When Scene asked Coffey his
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Photo Courtesy Sarah Klingler
FEATURE source of the information, he said that word had come directly from Tom Randall, who had spoken with his lawyers in the Philippines. By that point, World Harvest Ministries had been folded into Christ Community Chapel, so Randall’s lawyers were lawyers that CCC was paying for – three attorneys from the Manila corporate law firm Martinez Vergara Gonzales & Serrano (MVGS). As on-the-ground sources in the Philippines, including Joe Mauk, told Scene at the time, charges had not been dropped at all. In fact, nothing of substance had been discussed in the courtroom. The lawyers for Toto and Jake Luchavez were merely challenging the legality of the January arrests. “This is the old technique of seeking to get valid charges tossed out over a legal technicality,” Mauk told Scene. “Even had it been successful, [CCC and Coffey] are not being truthful. A failure to proceed to trial on a technicality is not the same as all charges being dropped! The truth of the charges was never examined!” The truth (and the scope) of the charges have still not been examined: not by a courtroom, not by a government agency or independent investigator, and — until Suzanne Lewis-Johnson’s current “internal review” — not by CCC. In 2017, after years of delays and legal maneuvering by the defense, the Sankey victims who were still willing to testify decided to drop the case. They had been informed that a trial could drag on for 10 years or more, and, recognizing the power and wealth of Toto and Jake’s legal team (paid for by CCC), they made the decision to move on with their lives. Sources in the Philippines told Scene that this timeline was not uncommon. “It explains why the wealthy and connected in the Philippines rarely see jail time,” Joe Mauk wrote in a 2016 email. According to Tom Randall and Joe Coffey, this outcome is synonymous with exoneration. It means that no abuse of any kind ever occurred at Sankey. The charges, they maintain, were merely the result of “gossip and slander” from Joe Mauk. The only incident of alleged abuse they have mentioned publicly was a girl’s claim that Toto Luchavez had forcibly kissed her.
16
Cari Gintz and Sarah Klingler outside Christ Community Chapel in June
Coffey and Randall both say that the girl made that story up. “Joe [Mauk]’s original charge was that a worker at the orphanage had kissed one of the girls,” Coffey told his congregation in a January 2014 sermon, (though this was hardly Joe Mauk’s charge.) “That ended up to be untrue. The girl recanted the story and said she made it up because she was angry that privileges had been taken away as discipline.” Randall’s version is much the same. “Even the girl who accused our staff member of a kiss has asked forgiveness from him and Karen and me,” he wrote in a 2017 blog post on the eve of another mission trip to the Philippines. But these accounts are demonstrably false. In the first place, there were two girls, not one, who made the initial allegations of being kissed by Toto Luchavez. They smuggled letters out to Miriam Bongolan in 2013 so that Joe Mauk could alert Tom Randall about abuse at Sankey with the support of documentation.
| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
Coffey and Randall have, in other instances, acknowledged that two girls accused Toto of kissing them. The most detailed explanation is Randall’s, from a Dec. 2018 meeting held with the local Justice for Sankey advocates, (audio from which was provided to Scene). “I talked to [the girls] and both of them recanted and said, ‘We’re sorry Dad. We got our phones taken away and we were mad at Toto, so we did this,’” he said. “They said we don’t want to make any trouble. We’re sorry we did that… They were in tears.” But this must be a lie. The girl who has been most public about her accusations has not recanted. She described three discrete instances of being kissed by Toto in a 2014 interview and, as recently as last fall, posted a video to Facebook calling for a proper investigation. In addition to misrepresenting these allegations, Coffey and Randall have never once acknowledged the far more serious abuse recounted in the arrest affidavits, the criminal charges and the orphans’ sworn
testimony: that Toto Luchavez, Tom Randall’s best friend and former golf caddy in the Philippines, did “with lewd design and by means of force, threat and intimidation” commit lascivious acts against minor children; that Jake Luchavez, Tom Randall’s godson, sodomized multiple minor boys, committed lascivious acts and did insert his penis into the mouths of victims against the victims’ will; that a third man, a “dorm parent” at Sankey made a victim perform fellatio with mayonnaise; that the orphans were regularly and violently disciplined; that Toto openly brandished a firearm to threaten them; that at least three of them were raped. The blogger who goes by Truth Seeker wrote, in a post earlier this month, that Tom Randall was surely aware of these facts – “Anything else would be gross negligence” – and surmised that there were three logical possibilities about the dilution and distortion of the story in Ohio: 1) Coffey lied, 2) Randall lied or 3) Coffey misunderstood. A fourth possibility is that both Coffey and Randall lied, that they both knew the situation at Sankey in crystalline detail and conspired to deceive their flock, an Evangelical Christian herd who had been conditioned to respect and obey authority figures; and who, in posh Hudson, Ohio, were both unlikely and unable to probe allegations of abuse on the other side of the world. One of the most outrageous deceptions was the putative conditions in which Randall was detained after the raid. Details of mortal danger and deprivation were used to solicit prayers and support from American Christians, the fervor of which support helped secure Randall’s release. If not the explicit goal of these details, the effect was to create the illusion that Tom Randall was the victim. The wronged man. The martyr. The absolute center of the story. In America, the scandal became a missionary’s wrongful incarceration, not sexual abuse at the orphanage he founded. Far from being a “partial truth,” sources in the Philippines (in 2014 and this year) told Scene that the story of his detention was brazenly false, a “total fabrication.” Coffey communicated to the CCC congregation and watchers on social media throughout January 2014 that Randall was confined in an overcrowded cell full of murderous thugs, that riots and turf wars were ongoing; that food and medical care were forbidden; that Tom was beaten savagely with 2x4s. In
correspondence with Cari Gintz in 2018, he said that Tom had been in counseling “for PTSD, to deal with the night terrors he has had at least 5 times per week for the last 5 years from the beatings he took from the NBI while in jail.â€? Randall still talks about his detention at speaking engagements, and he can be counted upon to pepper in (presumably wholly ďŹ ctional) details about his cellmates. Take, for example, this unbelievable characterization from a talk he gave to an Illinois church crowd in 2015: “There were four Muslims [in my cell], two of which were from Iran. The Iranian built the bomb and the other Muslims blew them up: one on a bus, the other at a business.â€? A missionary who visited Randall’s detention center at the time told Scene that the facility was a “big NBI compound between two parking lotsâ€? and that Randall was never with more than 7-10 people, including Toto and Jake. His wife was there regularly. “If he was ever sick, he would’ve been taken to an inďŹ rmary like anybody else,â€? she said. Priscilla Leighton told Scene that the joke among local NBI agents was that Tom Randall “becameâ€? gravely ill whenever he had visitors. To those who have questioned these and other details in the Randall/Coffey narrative, or provided evidence that supports an alternate account, the response from CCC has generally been hostile. Two current church members told Scene that the CCC elders – 10 senior members, all male, who function as a board of directors – have been “heavily pushedâ€? not to look at anything on the internet about the case. Coffey has accused local advocates of not handling the matter “biblically,â€? which means (via Matthew 18:15-17) addressing conict in person and in private. But when local advocates confronted Tom Randall in December, Randall got more than he bargained for. The Justice for Sankey advocates had done their research and asked a series of pointed questions that forced Randall to present his account in detail. He made several admissions that would be shocking, if true. He said, for example, that not only Senator Rob Portman but former President George W. Bush called the Philippines to negotiate his release. He also said that he had never read the afďŹ davits of the orphans — his children — though he questioned their legitimacy regardless. He suggested that the authorities, (or perhaps the Mauks?) wrote the
afďŹ davits for the children, and that the children signed them because they “just wanted to go home.â€? When the advocates asked about a third-party investigation at CCC and suggested GRACE, Stacey DiNardo, who was in attendance, said that the investigative group they’d assembled was more qualiďŹ ed than GRACE. She said the investigators did not have a ďŹ nancial relationship with CCC. “There is a loose association with one individual, who honestly reached out to us, who is in correlation with [the investigative group],â€? DiNardo said. “But that is why you have other individuals as a part of this
AUG
03
group that have absolutely zero association.â€? (As was later disclosed, the internal review was being conducted by Suzanne Lewis-Johnson alone, who did indeed have a ďŹ nancial association with CCC.) The meeting came to an abrupt and riotous end when Cari Gintz, one of the local advocates, said that Christians all over the world had been praying for Randall to receive the “gift of repentance.â€? “The evidence clearly shows, almost beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there was a cover-up of horrid atrocities against orphans. Horrible
atrocities of sodomy, of rape,â€? Gintz said. “Based on what,â€? Tom Randall responded, “your research?â€? CCC ‘Next Generation’ Pastor Jimmy Kozy noted that if there had been any evidence of that kind, it would have shown up in court. “This is the end of the meeting,â€? he said. “Cari, this is the end of the meeting. It’s over.â€? “Your challenge is with a Philippine Court,â€? Randall exclaimed, “not me.â€? “You guys believe it’s ďŹ nished,â€? Gintz responded, as voices in the room shouted over one another. “Let
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the chips fall where they may. But I will tell you, this is Willow Creek incarnate.� “Great!� Randall fumed. “You can write everybody in the world on the internet. Create anything you want. It doesn’t change the truth!�
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also really strong – kids love it there – and pretty quickly, I found my niche in a small group that became kind of like a family.â€? Another current member said CCC was akin to a university setting in that you don’t experience the most intimate fellowship at Sunday worship, where there’s generally 1,000 or more people in attendance. It’s the small group gatherings, the bible studies and so forth, where you can really ďŹ nd like-minded people. There are communities of youth, young professional singles, young professional married couples, middleaged divorcees, etc. “But it’s really like The Truman Show,â€? the CCC member said, “in that it has this perfectness about it. Some of that is good, but some of that makes it go towards more cult-like characteristics. Because
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| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
Tom Randall ofďŹ ciating the wedding of Miriam Bongolan
real faith. Whether you’re wondering who God is, following him faithfully, or questioning his very existence, there’s a place for you here.� The non-religious religious experience that CCC creates is served up, on Sundays, in high-octane worship services complete with a seven-piece Christian pop-rockcountry band. The drummer and his kit are encased in Plexiglass. If you enjoy singing, and are any good at it, the words of such classics as “I am Washed in the Blood of the Lamb� are displayed on huge HD screens, so you can sing with your face uplifted instead of buried in a hymnal. The harmonies are arranged to permit you to belt at the absolute pinnacle of your vocal range. “For me music is really important,� one current CCC member told Scene. “And they have amazing music every Sunday. The children’s ministry is
everyone wants to stay in that perfect environment. Because it seems like basically the perfect church.� Cari Gintz arrived in Northeast Ohio ten years ago, and what drew her to CCC, she told Scene, was Pastor Joe Coffey. She described him as the “spitting image� of her father. Gintz was gay at the time – she says she has been “healed� from homosexuality – and because of a memoir she wrote about her struggles with sexual identity, she became something of a celebrity at CCC, a “poster child.� She had developed a close relationship with Coffey and reached out to him in November, 2018 after she was sent information about the Sankey case by the local advocates. “I wrote directly to Joe,� she told Scene. “I said, Joe, I think you really need to listen to this. I think these girls are telling the truth. No one
would make this up. Something doesn’t feel right… Then Joe popped a cork.” “This is absolutely NOT true,” Coffey responded in an email. “Joe Mauk seems like he is increasing his efforts to smear Tom and CCC. It’s crazy. Social media is so dangerous and evil at times. Anyone can say anything. The case was investigated for four years by the child services and the government authorities of the Philippines. All charges were dropped. Tom was never charged with anything. Joe Mauk, who triggered the raid, has lost all credibility in the Philippines and is desperate to try to exonerate his actions.” Their exchange continued through November, with Coffey getting increasingly exercised. He claimed that the church had hired a “group of trained professionals” to conduct an investigation; he claimed that CCC did nothing to help Toto and Jake “except to provide legal counsel for them”; he claimed that he had spent “hundreds of hours” personally reviewing the case; and he delved into financial details meant to implicate Joe Mauk, (details that Mauk contended were misrepresented). In general, Coffey’s tone was one of incredulity: How could Gintz believe these lies without consulting primary sources and
speaking to Tom and Karen directly? “You of all people should know that Satan is most effective when he weaves some truth with some lie,” he wrote in a lengthy email on Nov. 18, unwittingly echoing comments that local advocates had made about Tom. “You are reading partial truth and partly lie and you are willing to believe it. Do not go deeper into this terribly dangerous mixture without talking to Tom and Karen.” When the advocates did meet with Tom and Karen, it ended poorly, without the biblical reconciliation that all had hoped for (see above). Gintz sent a follow-up email to Coffey and founding pastor Jim Colledge describing her disappointment – “the past five weeks have been nothing short of horrifying and disturbing,” she wrote, reiterating many of her concerns about CCC’s handling of the abuse allegations. Why had the church bent over backwards to pay for the defense of Toto and Jake but not paid a dime for the legal representation of the orphans? If the church had nothing to hide, why were they so resistant to a third-party investigation? This was no way to address her spiritual leaders, she was told. She was instructed to stop contacting Tom Randall – an about-face from
Coffey’s earlier directives – and was invited by Colledge to a meeting with the elders where they could address her understanding of the church covenant she signed. The church elders, Colledge clarified when Gintz sought more details about this meeting, had no interest in discussing anything related to Sankey, World Harvest Ministries or Tom Randall. They were concerned about her. “Your demonstration of mistrust and disrespect for the spiritual leadership of Christ Community Chapel is astounding,” Colledge wrote. “For some reason, unbeknownst to me, you have determined that you have authority to discern the spiritual health of the local church. This is a dangerous position for anyone to assume.” This behavior from CCC leadership is what Dee Parsons referred to in her coverage as “spiritual abuse.” Gintz told Scene that she’d had enough. This spring, she left CCC. “There just came a point where I said, ‘Why am I here? I hate this.’” She has nevertheless continued to spread the word about JusticeforSankey.com, a site that the local advocates have created to publicize the issue and provide a home base for much of the
documentation surrounding the case. Gintz disagrees with the Justice for Sankey advocates on one important point: She is convinced that the internal review by Suzanne LewisJohnson could be a positive and productive thing. “This is a former FBI agent, a woman of tremendous integrity,” Gintz said. “And she’s no dummy. I think to myself, what if she tells the truth? The impact of having an internal review that goes against the CCC story would blow this thing to the heavens. That’s what I’m praying for.” Priscilla Leighton told Scene that the members of CCC may be going through what her family went through back in 2014, where they were stupefied that Tom Randall — “You know, Jesus Christ incarnate,” — could be so blind, convinced that if he just learned one more crucial detail or just saw one more important document, he would see the truth. “And then you realize something,” she said. “Abuse only gets that far when the people on top already know the truth. They’ve known it all along.”
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GET OUT everything you should do this week
Mali’s BKO will perform at the Transformer Station. See: Wednesday.
WED
07/31
MUSIC
Against the Current You can now head to the Rock Hall plaza on Wednesday nights to see the “bands you need to hear right now.” Part of the Rock Hall’s Summer in the City series, the free concerts begin at 7 p.m. on the PNC main stage. There will be an onsite All-Access Cafe, a bar and food trucks, and the weather turns, portions (or the entirety) of the event may be moved inside, delayed, and/ or cancelled at the discretion of the Rock Hall. Today, indie rockers Against the Current will perform with singer-songwriter Milan, who’ll open the concert. (Jeff Niesel) 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-515-8444, rockhall.com.
offer hands-on art-making activities, pop-up drawing classes and other family-oriented art projects from 5 to 9 p.m.; the music begins at 7:30 p.m. Food and drinks will be available for purchase from on-site food trucks. (Niesel) 1460 West 29th St., 216-938-5429, transformerstation.org. FAMILY FUN
Fin Fest You can learn about sharks, the misunderstood masters of the deep, at Fin Fest, at the Greater Cleveland Aquarium, today through Sunday, Aug. 4. There will be scavenger hunts, crafts, photo ops, storytelling, a shark tooth identification game and interactive art throughout the week-long celebration. Check the website for hours and ticket prices. (Niesel) 2000 Sycamore Street, 216-862-8803, greaterclevelandaquarium.com.
MUSIC
BKO The Cleveland Museum of Art’s City Stages, a free summer concert series that takes place in front of the Transformer Station, returns tonight with BKO, a group that combines two of the West African nation’s most well-known traditions. CMA Studio Go will be on hand to
SPORTS
Indians vs. Houston Astros The Cleveland Indians get a good test tonight as the Houston Astros, one of baseball’s best teams, come to town for a three-game series. The Astros, as you recall, swept the Tribe out of the playoffs last year and have played really well in the first half of
Photo Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
this season. The game begins at 7:10 p.m., and tickets start at $15. (Niesel) 2401 Ontario St., 216-420-4487, clevelandindians.com. FOOD
North Union Farmers Market North Union Farmers Market returns to U.S. Bank Plaza today with an urban-desert oasis of fresh and sustainable local farm foods. Come and stock up on the season’s best fruits and vegetables from 4 to 7 p.m. This NUFM location will be up and running each and every Wednesday through Sept. 4. Find out more on the website below. (Niesel), East 14th St. and Euclid Ave., 216-771-4444, playhousesquare..org.
FOOD
Walnut Wednesday Walnut Wednesday is one of summer’s great traditions. Today from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Perk Plaza at Chester Commons — at East 12th and Walnut streets — food trucks once again gather to serve up lunch to area residents and employees. Follow the Downtown Cleveland Alliance on Facebook for weekly updates on vendors, entertainment offerings and more. The series continues through Sept. 4. Admission is free, but the food will cost you. (Niesel) downtowncleveland.com.
THU
08/01
MUSIC
Uptown Out to Lunch Series At today’s Out to Lunch concert, on Toby’s Plaza in the Uptown District, you can grab lunch from your favorite Uptown eatery and have a seat at the great picnic table while listening to local bands. Today, Ray Flanagan Band performs from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The free concert series continues through Sept. 11. The schedule is on the website. (Niesel) 11440 Uptown Ave., universitycircle.org.
FAMILY FUN
Asian Lantern Festival Taking over parks and zoos across the country, the traveling Asian Lantern Festival shows off thousands of colorful handmade paper lanterns in open, green spaces. This year’s Cleveland edition, which runs through July 28 at the Metroparks Zoo, brings 40 brand new light-up displays. The event also includes authentic bites from local spots Li Wah, King Wah and | clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
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GET OUT Thai Thai, an interactive zone, openair market and live performances. Running after zoo hours, the lantern exhibit is open Thursday through Sunday only, from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Same-day tickets are $20.50, or you can score four for $60. (Kids age 2 and younger are free.) Those purchasing tickets early get a discount. (Laura Morrison) 3900 Wildlife Way, 216-661-6500, clemetzoo.com.
and honorary chair Ilene Shapiro, Summit County Executive will celebrate the Gay Community Endowment Fund’s impact in the community and invest in the next generation of LGBTQ+ students and allies. The event will include the most recent grant recipients and feature a performance by the North Coast Men’s Chorus Coastliners and
FILM
COMEDY
Grateful Dead: Meet Up at the Movies Grateful Dead singer Jerry Garcia passed away years ago, but the band remains popular. An annual event, the Grateful Dead Meet Up at the Movies features the screening of a special concert film. Tonight, you’ll see an unreleased complete June 17, 1991 concert from Giants Stadium
Greg Hahn A favorite on the Bob and Tom Radio Show, comedian Greg Hahn likes to joke that he spends more time in the weight room “chalking up” than actually lifting weights. Though his observations aren’t particularly sophisticated, the bit gives him the opportunity to show off his physical approach to comedy. A loudmouth guy who yells and claps fervently during his routines, Hahn screams and shouts so much, you gotta think the late Sam Kinison inspired him. He performs tonight at 7 at Hilarities where he has shows scheduled through Saturday. Tickets start at $18. (Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.
FAMILY FUN
BAYarts Farm & Art Market There will be local food, artisans, garden essentials, home decor and demos at today’s BAYarts Farm & Art Market, a seasonal favorite. Admission is free, and it’s dog friendly. There will be a pie-baking contest, cupcake wars, “yappy” hours, goat yoga and more. It runs from 5 to 8 p.m. (Niesel) first Thursday of every month. Continues through Sept. 12. 28795 Lake Rd., Bay Village, 440-871-6543, bayarts.net.
FESTIVAL
MUSIC
Edgewater Live Time again for Edgewater Live, the Cleveland Metroparks’ extremely popular series of Thursday-night happy-hour concerts held at Edgewater Beach. In addition to live musical performances, you’ll find yoga, standup paddleboarding and cornhole. Those ubiquitous food trucks will be on hand, of course, and the Beach House will sell drinks and food as well. Hours are 4:30 to 9 p.m. Admission is free, but bring some bucks for food and drink. (Niesel) 6500 Cleveland Memorial Shoreway NW, clevelandmetroparks.com.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 9TH • 8PM
ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME 1100 ROCK & ROLL BLVD, CLEVELAND, OH
TICKETS ON SALE AT ROCKHALL.COM NOW INCLUDES ADMISSION TO THE MUSEUM
The Ninth Annual International Ohio Burlesque Festival 2019 A burlesque, drag, vaudeville, variety, sideshow and aerial festival, the ninth annual International Ohio Burlesque Festival features a range of performers, including Lou Lou La Duchesse De Rière, a member of the Mohawk Nation in Kahnawake, Canada. The event, which takes place at the Beachland Ballroom, will also celebrate the release of The Rustbelt Burlesque: A Softer Side of a Heavy Metal Town, a 196page full color book that provides a history of the modern and old burlesque in Cleveland. One of the book’s contributors, photographer Bob Perkoski, will show images not featured in the book at Space Rock Gallery tomorrow and Saturday, where the book will available for purchase. Tickets range from threeday passes to general admission tickets, and VIP and reserved seats are available. Festivities commence at 8 tonight. Consult the Beachland website for more info. (Niesel) 15711 Waterloo Rd., 216-383-1124, beachlandballroom.com.
MUSIC
An Evening with Henry Gross of Sha Na Na Henry Gross co-founded Sha Na Na and would become the youngest performer at the Woodstock Festival. In conjunction with the current exhibit celebrating Woodstock’s 50th anniversary, he speaks at the Rock Hall tonight at 7. Admission is free, but reservations through the Rock Hall website are required. (Niesel) 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-515-8444, rockhall.com. FUNDRAISER
ExhALE: Advancing Lived Equality, GCEF’s 2019 Annual Celebration Gay Community Endowment Fund
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COMEDY
a scene from The Laramie Project by grant recipient Millennial Theatre Project. Proceeds support the GCEF Scholarship Fund, which awards academic scholarships to LGBTQ+ and allied students in Greater Akron. The event begins at 5 p.m. at the Akron Civic Theatre. Tickets start at $45. (Niesel) 182 South Main St., Akron, 330-2532488, akroncivic.com.
| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
that’s widely considered one of the greatest shows of the band’s final decade of performing. The film represents the first time the Bruce Hornsby and Vince Welnick line-up has ever appeared on the big screen. It screens at 7 p.m. at the Cedar Lee Theatre. Tickets cost $12.50. (Niesel) 2163 Lee Rd., Cleveland Heights, 440-528-0355, clevelandcinemas.com.
Gary Owen Comedian Gary Owen has been entertaining audiences across America for more than a decade. He’s not limited to the stage either, as he’s had roles in the film Think Like A Man and in Tyler Perry’s show House of Payne. Owen says he was always the class clown growing up and it has followed him into his adult life. Ebony magazine proclaimed him to be “Black America’s Favorite White Comedian.” Owen’s set mainly focuses on his personal life and racial stereotypes. Catch his performance tonight at the Improv at 7:30. Tickets are $35 to $50, and
performances continue through Sunday. (Martin Harp) 1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com.
SAT
08/03
DRINK
FRI
08/02
MUSIC
Euclid Beach Live This live concert series offers great music, delicious food and fun for the whole family. The setting couldn’t be better either: The site overlooks the scenic Euclid Beach State Park on Lake Erie, and the 285-foot rebuilt pier gives the events a throwback feel and harkens back to the glory days of Euclid Beach amusement park. The fun takes place tonight from 6 to 9. The series continues through Aug. 2. (Niesel) Continues through. 16301 Lake Shore Blvd., 216-635-3200, clevelandmetroparks.com. SPORTS
Indians vs. Los Angeles Angels A tough homestand continues today as the Los Angeles Angels come to town to take on the Cleveland Indians. The Angels started this season slow but have climbed into the playoff race and will likely put up a good fight for this three-game series. Tonight’s game begins at 7:10, and tickets start at $15. It’s Dollar Dog Night so come hungry. (Niesel) 2401 Ontario St., 216-420-4487, clevelandindians.com. FILM
Lost & Found Today at 7 p.m., the Cleveland Museum of Art screens Lost & Found, an Irish dramedy that tells the story of a seven different people who live near a train station in a small town. A real lost and found story inspired each one of the narratives. Tickets cost $10, or $7 for CMA members. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org. MUSIC
Summers@Severance: Mozart’s Great Mass Tonight at 7 at Severance Hall, the Cleveland Orchestra takes on one of Mozart’s finest works and plays his Mass in C Minor. Part of the orchestra’s special Summers@ Severance series, the event features specially-priced happy hour food and drinks and an after party on Severance Hall’s scenic outdoor terrace. Consult the orchestra website for ticket prices. (Niesel) 11001 Euclid Ave., 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com.
All Gold All the Time The punk/indie rock club Now That’s Class isn’t above a good gimmick. Tonight, the club hosts All Gold All the Time Night. Come to the venue wearing gold of any kind and you’ll get half-price drinks and pay only $1.50 for 12-ounce beers from 10 p.m. until midnight. In addition, the person with “the best look” will win a $25 gift certificate. The event is free, and it starts at 9 p.m. (Niesel) 11213 Detroit Ave., 216-221-8576, nowthatsclass.net. MUSIC
Beethoven’s Emperor As part of the Blossom Music Festival, celebrated pianist Francesco Piemontesi teams up with the Cleveland Orchestra tonight at 8 to perform Beethoven’s most famous concerto, Piano Concerto No. 5, which he dedicated to his patron and pupil, Archduke Rudolf of Austria. Zemlinsky’s the Mermaid is also on the bill. Check the orchestra website for ticket prices. (Niesel) 1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls, 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com. FESTIVAL
Lakewood Arts Festival For the annual Lakewood Arts Festival, Lakewood will close Detroit Ave., between Belle to Arthur Ave. The free day-long juried festival will feature more than 180 regional and national artists and makers displaying paintings, prints, photography, art glass, ceramics, jewelry, sculpture, fiber and more. Originally founded in 1978 to bring artists to the city for a street festival, the festival funds an annual scholarship for Lakewood seniors continuing to art school. The event also funds grants for arts education and programming in the city. Musical acts such as, Punchdrunk Tagalongs, Senegalese drummer Assane M’baye, Luca Mundaca with Alexis Antes, Chris Allen, Ki Allen Jazz, Ballinloch, Cats on Holiday will perform, and a food court will be located in front of Lakewood Library on Detroit. The event begins at 10 a.m. and continues until 6 p.m., lakewoodartsfest.org.
N OPE DAY W I O N Y FR OR F R EVE NOON H C T A LUN
SPRING HOURS:
MON - THURS: 5:00PM - CLOSE | FRI - SUN: 11:00AM - CLOSE
WHISKEY ISLAND MUSIC SERIES Every Wednesday Evening Wednesday, July 31 6-10pm
MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER WEEKEND ENTERTAINMENT FRIDAY, AUGUST 2 8P-12A
CUSTARD PIE SATURDAY, AUGUST 3
SCHOOL OF ROCK
BREAKFAST CLUB
2-6P
8P-12A
SUNDAY, AUGUST 4 • 2-6P
BILLY MORRIS
FAMILY FUN
PAWsitively Pinecrest The first-ever PAWsitively Pinecrest event featuring a canine carnival and official Guinness World Record attempt will take place from noon
www.facebook.com/whiskeyislandstillandeatery www.whiskeyislandstillandeatery.net | clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
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Join SCENE for our Leinenkugel Friday Summer Bar Tour! Catch us at a different location from 6-8 pm every Friday all summer long! Grab a pic with the promo team and enjoy an ice cold Summer Shandy!
GET OUT to 5 p.m. today. The event will offer on-site dog adoptions in partnership with the Cleveland Animal Protective League, Geauga Humane Society and Lake Humane Society. It will also feature an official Guinness World Record attempt for most dogs in a single photo, and there will be a dog playground, a pet caricaturist, doggie dessert stations, and a vendor village featuring pet merchandise, services and giveaways. Participating dogs must be registered in advance and can do so online. Admission is free. (Niesel) 200 Park Avenue, Beachwood, 216-535-2100, socialpawscle.com. FILM
See you: This Friday August 2 Corner Alley & Parma Tavern Next Friday Aug. 9 Wild Eagle (downtown) & Paradise
Rocky Horror Picture Show It’s the first Saturday of the month again, so tonight the Cedar Lee Theatre hosts its usual midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the 1975 cult classic that still draws an exuberant, costumed crowd that likes to throw rice and dry toast and sing along to the songs in the movie. In addition, locals act out a floor show that mimics the movie, turning the event into a veritable party. Tickets are $9.75. (Niesel) first Saturday of every month. 2163 Lee Rd., Cleveland Heights, 440-528-0355, clevelandcinemas.com. THEATER
Small Town Murder Comedians James Pietragallo and Jimmie Whisman bring their hit podcast, Small Town Murder, to the Ohio Theatre tonight. Each week, they look at a small town and examine and a murder that took place there. The event takes place at 8 p.m. at the Ohio Theatre. Tickets start at $30. (Niesel) 1501 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.
SUN
08/04
FILM
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| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
If the Dancer Dances The documentary film If the Dancer Dances follows New York-based choreographer Stephen Petronio and his contemporary dance company as they work to re-create RainForest, a 1968 work by the late Merce Cunningham. Petronio feels it’s important to stage the dance to “keep it alive,” but it’s a difficult piece to reenact, and plenty of
drama ensues as the troupe enters rehearsals. The movie makes its local debut today at 1:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tickets cost $10, or $7 for CMA members. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org. DRINK
Sloppy Sundays in the Sun On select Sundays throughout the summer, Now That’s Class will host Sloppy Sundays in the Sun, an event that appeals to day drinkers. Bartender Juliet will serve up her special Aperol Spritz and Pimms cocktails, and both patios will be open. The club will even set up an outdoor basketball hoop. The bar opens at 3 p.m., and happy hour takes place from 5 to 8 p.m. It’s free. (Niesel) 11213 Detroit Ave., 216-221-8576, nowthatsclass.net.
MON
08/05
SPORTS
Indians vs. Texas Rangers When the Indians played the Texas Rangers earlier this season, they split a four-game series. They’ll be looking to win this three-game series that begins tonight at 7:10. The Rangers have gotten better as the season has progressed and should be a formidable foe for the Tribe. Tickets start at $15. (Niesel) 2401 Ontario St., 216-420-4487, clevelandindians.com. FAMILY FUN
Lunchtime Trivia Today from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on U.S. Bank Plaza, Last Call Trivia hosts a live show that allows teams to compete for prizes by answering trivia questions. Last Call games also incorporate a distinctive point wagering system, giving teams the ability to choose their own strategy which ensures every team has an equal chance to compete. Teams can range from 1 to 8 players and prizes are awarded to the top teams at the event’s conclusion. (Niesel) Continues through Aug. 26. East 14th St. and Euclid Ave., 216-771-4444, playhousesquare.org. FAMILY FUN
Monday Night Trivia Do you have tons of obscure music knowledge? Are you a student of fast food menus and their nuanced histories? What say you about the geographic evolution of Scotch whisky? Tonight’s your chance to wow your friends, make yourself
instantly more desirable to someone you’re newly dating, and hang with Cleveland’s headiest hipsters and hot dog lovers. It’s the Happy Dog Monday Night Trivia. Starting at 8 p.m., expect themed rounds and general knowledge questions that seem considerably trickier than some of the other live trivia locales in town. Obviously, have a hot dog and a craft brew while you’re at it. And arrive early. (Sam Allard) 5801 Detroit Ave., 216-651-9474, happydogcleveland.com.
DRINK
Tiki Tuesday To celebrate the warm weather, Music Box Supper Club launched a special Tiki Tuesday event earlier this summer. All tiki drinks are just $6 and some of the food specials are $6 too. There’s even a playlist of classic Caribbean music from the ‘40s and ’50s. The party takes place from 4 to 8 p.m. (Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-242-1250, musicboxcle.com. FAMILY FUN
MUSIC
Shit Show Karaoke Local rapper/promoter Dirty Jones and Scene’s own Manny Wallace host Shit Show Karaoke, a weekly event at the B-Side Liquor Lounge wherein patrons choose from “an unlimited selection of jams from hip-hop to hard rock,� and are encouraged to “be as bad as you want.� Fueled by drink and shot specials, it all goes down tonight at 10 p.m. (Niesel) 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-932-1966, bsideliquorlounge.com. FILM
Movie Mondays Every Monday, Cleveland Cinemas hosts $5 Movie Mondays, where ďŹ lm fans can catch up on the latest Hollywood icks for signiďŹ cantly reduced prices. Bring your friends and family and make Movie Mondays a weekly tradition — many theaters even offer discounted concession stand items. Participating theaters include Apollo Theatre, Capitol Theatre, Cedar Lee Theatre, Chagrin Cinemas and Tower City Cinemas. Unfortunately, additional charges will apply for any 3-D movies. (Alaina Nutile) clevelandcinemas.com.
Cuyahoga County Fair To call the Cuyahoga County Fair a local tradition would be an understatement given that it’s now in its 123rd year. This year’s incarnation will feature the Swifty Swine Pig Races, midway rides and three nights of ďŹ reworks. Up-andcoming country singer Ashley McBryde is slated to perform, and there will be truck racing and a demolition derby. The fair runs through Aug. 11. Check the website for hours and ticket prices as well as a complete schedule of events. (Niesel) 19201 East Bagley Rd., Middleburg Heights, 440- 243-0090, cuyfair.com. FAMILY FUN
Dancing Under the Stars Time again for Dancing Under the Stars at U.S. Bank Plaza. Beginning at 6, staffers from Viva Dance will dish the salsa lessons; then it’s on to the dance party, with live music provided by Orquestra Sonora. The dancing begins at 6:30 and continues until 9 p.m. Admission is free. The weekly dance party continues through August 27. (Niesel) East 14th St. and Euclid Ave., 216-771-4444, playhousesquare.org. FOOD
TUE
08/06
FILM
Veronika Voss In Veronika Voss, director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s reworking of Sunset Boulevard, a movie actress popular during the Third Reich struggles to come to terms with the end of her career. Living in Munich, she’s regressed and become an addict. Part of Fassbinder’s BRD Trilogy, it screens today at 1:45 p.m. at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tickets cost $12, or $9 for CMA members. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.
Truck Stop Tuesday Crocker Park in Westlake has launched its seasonal Truck Stop Tuesday, a weekly food truck gathering that takes place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Main Street. Needless to say, admission is free, but the food will cost you. Truck Stop Tuesdays continue through Sept. 24. You can ďŹ nd a lineup of upcoming food trucks on the website. (Niesel) 189 Crocker Park Blvd., Westlake, crockerpark.com.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
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cedarfairmount.org | clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
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| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
MOVIES MY BIG FAT CHINESE FUNERAL Awkwafina shines in lead role in The Farewell By Sam Allard AWKWAFINA, THE NEW YORK City rapper and comedian known for her 2018 turns in Ocean’s 8 and Crazy Rich Asians, shows off her range in writer-director Lulu Wang’s masterful family comedy The Farewell. Its subject matter, a family’s collective decision not to tell the matriarch that she’s dying of cancer, doesn’t seem particularly suited for hilarity, but Wang creates a marvelous film that’s often laugh out loud funny as it explores both geographic and generational divides. It opens Friday. Awkwafina is Billi, a 30-yearold writer living in New York City struggling to find work and pay rent. Her personal and professional prospects seem dim, and when she gets a rejection letter from the Guggenheim Fellowship, one senses that she’d put most of her eggs in that risky basket. On the other side of the world is her grandmother, whom Billi and the family call Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen). In an opening hospital scene, Nai Nai gets a CT scan. Her sister is told that Nai Nai has cancer and limited time to live. In order to spend time with Nai Nai, the family converges
on her home in Changchun, in Northeastern China, on the auspices of celebrating a wedding for Billi’s only cousin, Hao Hao (Han Chen) and his Japanese fiancée (Aoi Mizuhara), neither of whom speak Chinese. The wedding is a ruse. In truth, the family is gathering to secretly bid Nai Nai farewell, but have agreed that she musn’t be told about her impending death. It’s for that reason that Billi’s parents have instructed her not to come. Billi is close with Nai Nai, and everyone is convinced she’d spill the beans. Predictably, Billi disregards her parents’ orders. The logistics of setting up a wedding and getting in an appropriately festive mood, all in the knowledge that the matriarch is terminally ill, make for splendid moments of awkwardness, confusion and emotional displacement, as when the family trundles to the hospital when they learn Nai Nai has gone to the emergency room with a cough. Billi and the doctor, who was schooled in the UK, openly discuss Nai Nai’s illness and the ethics of lying to her, in English, in front of everybody.
Photo by A24 Films
Nai Nai can’t understand, but she winks at Billi and tries to set up a date. “Tell me, Doctor,” she says, “are you married?” Billi is torn. She wants to honor the family’s wishes but doesn’t think it’s right to keep her grandmother in the dark. That decision is complicated by the fact that she is torn between China and America, where she has lived since she was six. In the emotional climax of the film, she comes clean to her mother about
how scary and difficult it was to adjust to life in the U.S. Wang’s script pinpoints and unearths not only the comedy but the humanity in these dark circumstances, and she absolutely nails the tone. The Farewell will be on a number of ‘Best Of’ lists by year’s end, and it oughtta be.
sallard@clevescene.com t@scenesallard
SPOTLIGHT: A SCORE TO SETTLE NICOLAS CAGE HAS TURNED in so many over-the-top performances over the years that when he tries to dial things back, like he does in A Score to Settle, a gritty by-the-numbers revenge flick, it’s hard to take him seriously. As a result, A Score to Settle struggles to become the compelling drama it aspires to be. The film opens at AMC Solon on Friday and arrives on Video on Demand on the same day. The movie opens in the middle of things with a torture scene. A group of goons pummel a guy into a bloody mess while an operatic tune plays on a portable boom box. Frankie (Cage) takes the fall for the man’s death and
winds up in the can for 19 years. Because Frankie suffers from a fatal ailment that makes his vision blurry and forces him to stumble around in a half-baked daze as he witnesses flashbacks that make it difficult for him to distinguish what’s real and what’s imagined, the state has decided to release him early from prison. Yes, it’s a pretty flimsy premise. Frankie immediately digs up his secret stash of cash and tries to reconnect with his son Joey (Noah Le Gros), a recovering drug addict. To impress Joey, he buys an expensive watch and a fast car, and, against Joey’s wishes, he tries to track down
the men for whom he took the fall because they didn’t live up to their end of the deal and watch over his wife and child while he was doing hard time. The scenes with Frankie and Joey don’t work particularly well here. Cage tries too hard to come off as a repentant father, and Le Gros doesn’t successfully turn Joey into the sympathetic character he’s meant to be. In one particularly awkward scene that might or might not be designed to be comedic, Frankie tries to get his old pal Q (Benjamin Bratt) to help him track everyone down, carrying on the conversation with the man while sitting at a piano and
singing an off-key rendition of “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows.” If this were a campy action flick, that’d be fine, but A Score to Settle isn’t poking fun at the revenge movie, so it seems out of place. By the end of this forgettable movie, you really don’t care whether or not Frankie succeeds in getting payback against the guys who let him rot in jail. It’s too bad. Cage has a good track record of starring in cult classics, but he doesn’t deliver here. — Jeff Niesel
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
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Happy Hour Specials Tuesday-Fri 3pm-7pm $3 DBL Well Liquor Only $2.50 Domestic Beer
Daily Food Specials Tuesday $2 Taco Wednesday $5 Burger Thursday $7 Spaghetti Bowl
Daily Swai Fish Dinner $8.50
Karaoke Friday 7pm-1am
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| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
EAT FRESH FALL ARRIVALS A dozen new openings await Cleveland diners before the year is over By Douglas Trattner Photo courtesy Juan Vergara
IF YOU’RE THE TYPE OF DINER who’s eager to sample new places, you’re in luck. Cleveland will welcome a handful of fresh spots over the next few months. On the front burner is a pair projects from two well-known Cleveland chefs. First up is Jonathon Sawyer, who will open Sawyer’s at the Van Aken District in early fall. The James Beard Award-winning chef describes the venture as “a more polished” version of Greenhouse Tavern. At just 80 seats, the space is small, sharp and exquisitely tailored. A central dining platform will offer seating on leather banquettes, while a 12-stool white terrazzo-topped bar holds court in a quiet corner. The kitchen will be anchored by a custombuilt wood and charcoal fueled grill that will turn out veggies, seafood, meats and other creative fare. Next up for Fire Food and Drink chef Doug Katz is Zhug, a full-service, 80-seat restaurant that will open this fall in the Cedar Fairmount neighborhood of Cleveland Heights. The bistro will have a full bar and feature a smallplates menu showcasing foods from various Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cultures. As for the name, Katz explains, “In most Israeli restaurants, zhug is the ultimate flavor, the main condiment that you add for spice.” The goal is to be open by mid-October. The family that launched three Barroco Arepa Bars around town is busy transforming a former walk-up ice cream shop into an “L.A.-style Mexican taco stand” called Hola Tacos. When it opens in late August, the full-service outdoor café will serve authentic tacos from various regions around Mexico. During the colder months, the spot will rely on business built around take-out, delivery and possibly drive-in service, where runners cater to car-bound customers. Down the road, a seasonal enclosure with heaters might be installed. For the past year, Angie’s Soul Café has been renovating the former Hot Sauce Williams building at Carnegie to prepare it for a fall opening. The new restaurant will be brand new inside and out, but will
serve a familiar lineup of soul food classics like fried chicken, freshly fried fish, daily specials like meatloaf and Salisbury steak, and irresistible sides like black-eyed peas, collard greens and macaroni and cheese. The new restaurant will facilitate takeout orders with dedicated parking spots, curb service and, soon, an app for ordering and payment. Vince Morelli worked at the redhot Roberta’s Pizza in Brooklyn. Now he’s building out a pizzeria of his own in sturdy brick building on the eastern edge of Detroit Shoreway. Slated to open in the next couple months, Cent’s Pizzeria (short for Vincent) will feature wood-fired pies made with naturally fermented doughs and topped with housestretched mozzarella and a wide variety of creative toppings. To wash it all down there will be cold beer and natural wines. Next door in Ohio City, Arsenal Cider is busy building out a local version of its popular Pittsburghbased cidery. Located on the ground floor of the Go Media building, across the street from Forest City Shuffleboard, the 30-seat taproom will boast a rustic, woodsy vibe similar to the original. On tap will be a selection of semi-sweet and dry ciders brewed in house or imported
from HQ. Look for Arsenal to open in late summer. Meadville, PA-based Voodoo Brewery has its sights set on Cleveland Heights, where it is transforming a roomy double storefront into a taproom and restaurant. When it opens this fall, the locally owned and operated “brewery” will feature a large selection of draft ales and lagers that are brewed at the production facility in Western PA. In addition to the fresh suds, Voodoo will offer wine, cider, cocktails and pub grub like pretzels, pizzas and tacos. A small patio will be added out back. Most folks agree that the region’s first Mexican restaurant was La Fiesta, which opened in 1952 at the corner of W. 25th Street and Walton Avenue. In the mid-1970s, that pioneering eatery relocated to Richmond Heights, where it has been ever since. In the coming months, it will relocate once again, this time to Beachwood. The familyrun Mexican restaurant will soon take up residence at Richmond Plaza, the small commercial strip across the way from Red and Blu restaurants. Lakewood Truck Park will take shape at the corner of Detroit and Edwards avenues in that city.
The 19,000-square-foot lot will soon accommodate two distinct but attached buildings and a large year-round courtyard. The smaller structure will house an indoor bar, while the larger one will be a “four-season” room that opens up on all sides. Roughly three to four food trucks will park directly on the property, rotating almost daily. The grand second-floor hall of the Heights Rockefeller Building in Cleveland Heights will soon house five top-of-the-line golf simulators offering up digital excursions to some of the best golf courses in the world. ProXimity Golf Lounge will also have a full bar and kitchen serving pub grub. Also on our radar are projects like Goma, a Japanese fusion concept by chef Dante Boccuzzi that will open at Pinecrest, Pins Mechanical Co., a 28,000-squarefoot entertainment complex coming to Ohio City, Casablanca Urban Cantina, Latin American-inspired concept from the Barroco folks, and Nashville-style chicken purveyors Hot Chicken Takeover, which is bound for Crocker Park.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
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EAT BITES Changes afoot at Ohio City Galley, with two chefs on the way out By Douglas Trattner IT’S BEEN ABOUT NINE MONTHS since the Ohio City Galley, a contemporary food hall and bar concept, opened its doors in that neighborhood. Located in the renovated Forest City Bank Building at the corner of W. 25th Street and Detroit Avenue, the galley is home to four different chef operators who had initially planned to remain for at least 12 months. Now we’re learning that two will be departing sooner than expected. Rice Shop will be exiting the building in a week and a half, while the regional Mexican spot Poca will continue serving until early September. In the case of Rice Shop, chef-owner Anthony Zappola, who also operates Lox, Stock and Brisket (13892 Cedar Rd., 216-4718175) in University Heights, the demands of running two different spots on opposite sides of town
have become too burdensome. “I signed both leases around the same time, but I had no idea how quickly Lox, Stock and Brisket would take off,” says Zappola. “I can’t keep up with this pace. I decided that I need to regroup and focus on one and Lox, Stock and Brisket is that one.” Fans of Rice Shop can hold out hope for a possible Rice Shop 2.0 somewhere down the road, he adds. Galley Group founder Ben Mantica says that the changes are all part of the adjustment process. This particular learning curve includes getting to know the market and then providing it with the appropriate products. “I think, given our style of service, that we are above the pricing that people expect for a fast-casual environment,” Mantica explains. “We need to do a better job finding operators who are
able to execute their concept in a specific price range that meets our guests’ expectations for fast-casual service.” In the case of chef Mike Nowak’s Poca, for example, it was pretty clear early on that it wasn’t a great fit. Diners looking for two-dollar tacos, over-stuffed burritos and nachos glistening with Cheetoscolored cheese instead discovered braised pork shoulder with green mole, chicken thighs with black mole, and tacos swaddles in handmade corn tortillas and drizzled with chef-made salsas – all bearing prices proportionate with the quality of the food. “It’s important to make the adjustments needed to achieve the goal of making people feel comfortable here,” Mantica adds. “We have to adapt; I get it.” It’s very likely that the Rice Shop space will become a gourmet
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sandwich and flatbread concept, while the Poca home is still open to new ideas. The other two operators, Tinman and Sauce the City, will remain until the end of the year as planned, at which point they will be swapped out with new eateries. Mantica admits that Ohio City Galley is still finding its audience, something that takes time, but also pointed out challenges he did not anticipate, such as perpetual construction outside, upstairs and all around the building, limited parking, and no patio, things that were not originally planned for. Still, when the dust does finally settle, Mantica thinks that the Galley is bound for glory. “This neighborhood is rapidly changing,” he says. “In 18 months, it will be a whole different area.”
dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner
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wo bands that look back to classic rock for inspiration, Seattle-based Thunderpussy and the New York act Hollis Brown have hit the road together this summer in support of terrific new albums. Sylvia Massey (Tool, System of a Down, Red Hot Chili Peppers) produced Thunderpussy’s self-titled album that dropped last year. Hollis Brown’s latest effort, Ozone Park, shows off the band’s sharp songwriting skills and draws from roots rock acts such as Tom Petty and Credence Clearwater Revival. Hollis Brown drummer Andrew Zehnal, who grew up in Cleveland, and Thunderpussy guitarist Whitney Petty recently spoke to us about their respective bands in separate phone interviews. The two groups perform with Time Cat at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 2, at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights. How do the bands know each other? Zehnal: The bands don’t know each other at all. It’s just through out booking agency that paired us up. I think it’ll be fun. Petty: We don’t really know them, but I listened to their music, and I love their records. What do you consider your influences? Zehnal: I think collectively we like American songwriters. We just like good songwriting. That’s kind of what we all love. That’s pretty much the reason we do it. Growing up in Cleveland, I absolutely listened to WMMS and Michael Stanley and all that stuff. Cleveland loves classic rock for sure. Led Zeppelin was a huge thing for me as a kid. Motley Crue came on and they were cool too. I love those bands. Still do. Zeppelin is probably one of my favorite bands of all time. Petty: [Singer] Molly [Sides] and I have similar influences. I’m definitely into classic rock, but I grew up listening to country in the early ’80s and ’90s. My first concert was Tanya Tucker, and I really love that music. My mom got me really into the Highwaymen. I had a softball coach that played me some Def Leppard. I was like, “What the hell is this? This is sweet.” I got into Aerosmith and Tom Petty and I got into the blues via Elmore James. All those things are a melting pot for what’s become Thunderpussy. I’m from Marietta, GA, and I moved to Seattle to be a deckhand. It was on the shortlist of things I wanted to try when I was a kid. I got a gig on a small passenger cruise ship. I was trying to come back to the Northwest. I had worked on trials in Eugene, and I fell in love with the landscape. It was so different fro the gentle rolling hills of Appalachia. I was like, “What are these volcanoes and these cliffs and these oceans?” I fell in love with Seattle. It’s a great city. There’s a statue for Jimi Hendrix in my neighborhood, and we just played at the Volunteer Park Amphitheatre where he played and at Washington Hall, where he also played. There’s a lot of history here. How important is it to put on a high-energy live show? Zehnal: We translate better live. It’s more of a visceral experience than our recorded music. We like to stretch out in certain places on tunes. We have some good soloists
Thunderpussy | Hollis Brown | Time Cat 8:30 p.m. | Friday, Aug. 2 Grog Shop | 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd. | Cleveland Heights 216-321-5588 | Tickets: $12 ADV, $15 DOS | grogshop.gs
in the band. Jon [Bonilla] is a great guitar player. It’s nice to let him shine, and it adds to the whole show experience. You feed off the crowd and play the room. We’re the kind of band that can lean on our prowess as musicians and utilize that. Petty: My thing with music has always been about the look and the mystique as much as the music. The blues and rock ’n’ roll lend themselves to that. I think they’re inseparable. You can’t play the blues without having some aura of mystique, and you can’t play rock ’n’ roll without the energy. Even when I was still listening to country and I got my first guitar but didn’t know how to play it yet, I jumped on the bed and looked into the mirror. I could care less about whether I could play it or not. I just wanted to get some moves down. We’re just animals when we get in front of an audience. You can’t get away from it. After our first show, we just knew it was magic. Did you try to do anything differently on your latest album? What was your approach? Zehnal: We wanted a more modern sound, and we wanted to trim the fat. I was listening to a lot of Tom Petty at that time. Incidentally, he passed away while we were in the studio, which is weird. I was listening to his production and the driving quality of the drums. It was really simple with less crash cymbals and less fills. I wanted to just drive it. That was the approach rhythmically from the drums. We wanted to add more modern synth sounds. We’ve been pegged as an Americana band, and that’s not really what we do. We wanted more of a now sound. We added synth sounds and more pop-minded overtones. Petty: When you make your first record, some of the songs are five or 10 or 15 years old, so you have a very specific thing in mind for them. We had been searching for the right producer for over a year. We found Sylvia [Massey], and it just clicked. We had this specific vision for the record. We wanted to make a classic sounding record that had a vibe and as an album-oriented rock style record with different songs to take you different places. We had all these ideas. When we go in the studio, we’ll do a lot of writing in the studio on the spot and see what happens. You’ve been known to throw a few cover songs into your sets. Anything you’ve got that’s ready to go for this tour? Zehnal: We’ve been playing [the Jimi Hendrix tune “Castles Made of Sand”] lately. We have a bunch of them we can pull out. The Hendrix thing is something we can pull out. We do some Credence Clearwater Revival, which is rootsy American rock. We like that. We probably won’t pull that out on this tour. We’ll probably push the tunes that are on the record, especially the ones we like playing live. Petty: Well, I hate to give anything away, but the first show of the tour was [Pearl Jam’s] Mike McCready’s inaugural Peak to Sky festival, and for that show, we learned a bunch of covers and got to play them with real rock stars, which was really cool. We took some things from that set, and let me just say that I’m a huge Aerosmith fan, so we’ll do some of that stuff.
jniesel@clevescene.com | t@jniesel | clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
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| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
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MUSIC
ALEX SCALLY, HALF OF THE dream-pop duo, Beach House, could not be more excited to play the Agora on Tuesday. “It’s really hard to find new places to play when you’ve been doing it for so long,” says Scally via phone. “We’ve played the House of Blues like a million times.” The soft rock indie band formed in Scally’s hometown of Baltimore in 2004. “We were so lucky not to start in 2010 or 2011,” says Scally. “I’m glad that we were just before the big social media time because we got to grow in this natural way, without being under scrutiny. We got to have lots of bad shows that nobody recorded and put up on YouTube saying, ‘This band sucks.’” Over the past 13 years, Beach House has released seven full-length albums, each one picking up a bit more traction than the last. The duo’s newest work is simply titled 7. Scally and his musical partner, singer Victoria Legrand, don’t say more than what needs to be said. Beach House’s philosophy of letting the music speak for itself extends to its interaction with fans. “We believe pretty strongly that who we are as individuals has nothing to do with our art,” says Scally. “So we don’t go around and show our personalities
on our social media pages. Our physical bodies, or faces, our actions throughout the day, that sort of bending of reality that a lot of people show on social media…we don’t believe that has anything to do with our art.” The band has never done meet and greets and doesn’t plan on changing that. “These people are fans of our music not us, and we don’t believe in blending the two,” says Scally, “It’s not out of disrespect for our fans. We have a huge amount of love and respect for the
“I believe that our show now, visually and musically, is the best it’s ever been. It evolved over a long period of time and it’s a vison now. At first it was just an idea, but now it’s an experience,” says Scally. “We want to make people leave themselves. Any good artistic experience is like that. You’re looking at a painting or you’re reading a book, or you go to a movie, and you get lost. Everyone has some form of an intense experience. We created our show to do that as much as we can control that.” After 15 years with Legrand, Scally
BEACH HOUSE | HELLP 8 P.M. TUESDAY, AUG. 6 AGORA THEATRE, 5000 EUCLID AVE., 216-881-2221 TICKETS: $29.50-$45 ADV, $35-$45 DOS, AGORACLEVELAND.COM.
people who have made our career exist.” Beach House is famous for its visualheavy live shows that elevate its trippy sound to a new level, and Scally believes that playing live music is the best way to connect with fans. The band’s innovation in tour décor began with light boxes with disco balls in them that Scally and Legrand made for their first tour. Now, Beach House’s show is full of higher-budget lights, but it’s still on brand.
says neither one of them could have made it this far alone. The duo met in Baltimore through a mutual friend, and right away, they knew that a musical collaboration was in the cards for them. “We met and there was just instant chemistry. The kind of stuff we liked was really similar. When we started making music there was this very natural way that we fit into each other’s shape. Where I don’t have a lot of musical sensibility, she has plenty and
vice versa,” says Scally. “I have friends who are really good musicians, but they’ve never been able to make it work. I think, often times, it’s because they haven’t found the right partner. A lot of us just have components of [creativity], and it’s through interacting with other people that we are able to create a unified, beautiful thing.” There’s plenty of those “unified, beautiful things” on 7. “Girl of the Year,” Scally’s favorite track on 7 began as a simple chord progression then evolved into the electro-meets-indie lullaby of a melody that is now is. The band’s history of playing up the melancholy and staying in its lane of mellow dream-pop has caused some listeners to complain that each record sounds the same. But Scally doesn’t concern himself with the expectations of others, while creating. “It doesn’t feel conducive to creativity. Trying to think about what someone might want or not want or think or not think is the opposite of creativity. Creativity should just happen,” he says. “Everyone’s ears are different. There’s no right way to hear things.”
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene | clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
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| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
THU 11/7
KISHI BASHI
LIVEWIRE
all the live music you should see this week Photo courtesy of Universal Records
WED
07/31
Hellyeah/Nonpoint: 8 p.m., $34.50 ADV, $40 DOS. House of Blues. J.S. Ondara/Jamie Drake: 8 p.m., $13 ADV, $15 DOS. House of Blues Cambridge Room. Prism: 7 p.m., $15. Bop Stop. Joe Robinson: 8 p.m., $17 ADV, $20 DOS. The Kent Stage. School of Rock Allstars/The Jazz Band Rejex: 6:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Grog Shop. Sowflo/Dutty: 9 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Beachland Tavern. Royal Wood (in the Supper Club): 6 p.m., free. Music Box Supper Club.
THU
08/01
Sue Foley (in the Supper Club): 7:30 p.m., $18 ADV, $22 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. A Giant Dog/Cross Brothers/Hex Girls/SafeWords: 9 p.m., $8. Happy Dog. Junkyard: 8 p.m., $15. The Winchester. The Lighthouse and the Whaler/ Holden Laurence: 8 p.m., $12. Beachland Tavern. Pat McGee: 7:30 p.m., $22 ADV, $28 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. Nekrofilth/Hep Z/Cider/Lacerate: 9 p.m., $8. Now That’s Class. Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators/Dirty Honey: 7:30 p.m., $45-$85. MGM Northfield Park – Center Stage. Howie Smith and Joe Tomino: 7 p.m., $15. Bop Stop. Still Woozy: 9 p.m., $12 ADV, $14 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Yellowman / Ras T Dubflex Int / Ms. BBC / DJ Packy Malley: 9 p.m., $20 ADV, $25 DOS. Grog Shop.
FRI
08/02
‘90s Kickback Concert with Ginuwine/Next/Case/H Town/ Shai/702/Michel’le/Adina Howard: $49.50-$199.50. KeyBank State Theatre. DJ LDC’s Soul Music & Other Music for the Soul: 6 p.m., free. Happy Dog. INTRA/Terrain: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. Jazz Jam Session: 8 p.m., free. Bop Stop. Jesse & the Spirit/SuRAH Orchestra/Buck McDaniel: 8 p.m.,
Singer-songwriter and producer Jon Bellion comes to Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica. See: Saturday.
$6. Now That’s Class. The Legendary Shack Shakers/JD Pinkus: 8:30 p.m., $25. Beachland Tavern. Marion Meadows: 7 p.m., $40. Nighttown. Motown & More: Divas Edition (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $10. Music Box Supper Club. Brad Paisley/Chris Lane/Riley Green: 7:30 p.m., $30-$79.50. Blossom. Elijah Rock: 7 p.m., $25. Bop Stop. Thunderpussy/Hollis Brown/Time Cat: 8:30 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Grog Shop. Waco Brothers: A member of kick ass indie rock acts such as the Mekons and the Waco Brothers, singer-songwriter Jon Langford is also a visual artist. He created all the logos for the Music Box Supper Club, and he also did the artwork you see on the stairs as you walk up to the Concert Hall, so it makes sense he’d bring the Waco Brothers
to town tonight as the Music Box Supper Club celebrates its five-year anniversary. Their most recent album, 2016’s Going Down in History, offers country-rock with punk rock attitude in songs such as the twangy “Diybyob.” (Jeff Niesel), 8 p.m., $20 ADV, $22 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. Jackie Warren: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown.
SAT
08/03
3 Doors Down: 8 p.m., $55-$65.50. MGM Northfield Park – Center Stage. ‘80s Dance Night Live Footloose FT. Summer School / DJ DiamondDave: 11 p.m., $10. Grog Shop. Jon Bellion/Marc E. Bassy/ Lawrence: Singer-songwriter Jon Bellion got his start by recording a series of mixtapes featuring
his original songs in his parents’ basement. His studio debut, 2016’s The Human Condition, was a huge hit thanks to the infectious single “All Time Low.” Last year, Bellion followed the album up with Glory Sound Prep, an album that includes collaborations with Grammywinning producer Quincy Jones, Roc Marciano, RZA, B. Keyz and Travis Mendes. With its acoustic guitar and soulful vocals, “Good Things Fall Apart” has helped propel album sales even if it’s not as memorable as “All Time Low.” (Niesel), 7 p.m., $29.50-$49.50. Jacobs Pavilion. The Blue Drivers (in the Supper Club): 7:30 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. Shirley Cook & Company: 7 p.m., $20. Bop Stop. Deadbeat Beat/Ma Holos: 9 p.m., $6. Happy Dog. Kirk Franklin/Koryn Hawthorne: 7:30 p.m., $37.50-$54.50. Lakewood Civic Auditorium. Little Fevers/Ouster/Soft Copy (in the Locker Room): 9 p.m., $7. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Marion Meadows: 7 p.m., $40. Nighttown. Red Wanting Blue/The Trews/ Falling Stars: 8 p.m., $28.50 ADV, $33 DOS. House of Blues. The Regrettes/Hot Flash Heat Wave/Forager: 7:30 p.m., $15 ADV, $17 DOS. Grog Shop. The SteelDrivers/Roanoke: In the mid-’90s, fiddle player Tammy Rogers and guitarist/mandolin player Mike Henderson played around Nashville with the Dead Reckoners, a ragtag group of country session players. The group didn’t really set the town on fire, but it did get Rogers and Henderson to start collaborating and thinking outside of Music City’s conventional country musical boundaries. In 2008, Rogers and Henderson recruited singer-guitarist Chris Stapleton and formed the SteelDrivers, a bluegrass band that sought to bring a bit of soul and R&B into the mix. Grammy nominations and critical praise have followed. For 2012’s Hammer Down, it recruited Gary Nichols, a singer-songwriter living in Muscle Shoals, to take Stapleton’s place. Though Nichols’ voice isn’t quite as raspy, the band surprisingly doesn’t miss a beat and sounds sharp on both Hammer Down and 2016’s The Muscle Shoals Recordings. | clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
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(Niesel), 8 p.m., $30-$40. The Kent Stage. Stick To Your Guns: The Pure Noise Tour: 6 p.m., $20. Phantasy Nite Club. Jackie Warren: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown.
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| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
08/04
August Noise Lunch: 4 p.m. Now That’s Class. Ace Frehley/Like It: Space Invader, singer-guitarist Ace Frehley’s 2014 solo album, continues the successful comeback story for the former KISS guitarist who scored a Top 10 debut on the Billboard charts when the album was released. The chart debut added another milestone to Frehley’s career, as he became the first KISS member to have an album debut in the Top 10 as a solo artist. Anomaly, his previous solo album, released in 2009, peaked at No. 26 on the album charts and Origins, Vol. 1, a 2016 album of cover tunes checked in at No. 23. He comes to town tonight in support of Origins, Vol. 2. (Matt Wardlaw), 7 p.m., $37 ADV, $42 DOS. House of Blues. Heart/Joan Jett and the Blackhearts/Elle King: Three years ago, Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson went their separate ways after Ann’s husband, Dean Wetter, assaulted Nancy’s teenage sons. But with that incident behind them, the Hall of Fame inductees have patched things up and decided to hit the road again together this summer on what they’ve dubbed their Love Alive tour. Ann Wilson possesses one of rock’s most distinctive and powerful voices and will undoubtedly bring tracks such as “Crazy on You” and “Straight On” to life at Blossom tonight on a bill that features fellow Rock Hall inductee Joan Jett and singersongwriter Elle King. (Niesel), 7 p.m., $29.50-$129.50. Blossom. Johnson/ Selvaggio/ Thompson/ Zaleski: 7 p.m., $15. Bop Stop. Kidz Bop: 4 p.m., $35-$95. Jacobs Pavilion. Reggae Sundays: Dave Smeltz (in the Supper Club): This special Reggae Sunday Happy Hour Concert series began earlier this month and continues every Sunday through Sept. 1. The indoor/ outdoor concert series will take place rain or shine with live music from 4 to 7 p.m. Music Box will
also offer food and drink specials exclusive to the series. Today, singer-songwriter Dave Smeltz will perform. (Niesel), 4 p.m., free. Music Box Supper Club. Stick Men/CuDa Schief & CuDa: Even as a rejuvenated King Crimson hits the road again (the prog rock band comes to Cleveland in September), Crimson bassist Tony Levin has continued to find the time to devote to Stick Men, a side project that includes Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto and guitarist Markus Reuter. Three years ago, the group issued Prog Noir, an album that shows off the band’s songwriting as much as it shows off the group’s chops. The eerie title track features Bowie-like vocals and distorted vocals. In the wake of the release of Prog Noir, the Stick Men have also released the digital only live album, Roppongi - Live in Tokyo 2017, which also features Crimson saxophonist and flutist Mel Collins. (Niesel), 7 p.m., $22 ADV, $25 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. Twista/Mann/Trapboi Manikin/DJ Yomi Yom: 8:30 p.m., $25. Grog Shop.
MON
08/05
Apathy & Celph Titled/Vice Souletric: 9 p.m., $15. The Winchester. Azerash/Distort Hope (in Club Atlantis): 9 p.m., $7. Now That’s Class. Dirty Streets: 8 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Beachland Tavern. Wizzerd/Artemus Ward/Black Spirit Crown: 9 p.m., $7. Now That’s Class.
TUE
08/06
Beach House/Hellp: 7 p.m. Agora Theatre. Breaking Benjamin/Chevelle/Three Days Grace/Dorothy/Diamante: 5:30 p.m., $29.50-$99.50. Blossom. The Faint/Ritual Howls/Closeness: 8 p.m., $20 ADV, $23 DOS. Grog Shop. Future Thieves/Hardcastle/ Ottawa: 9 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Grog Shop. A Special Evening with John Mayall: 8 p.m., $35. The Kent Stage. Torn the Fuck Apart/Mortal Torment/Atoll/Limbsplitter: 8 p.m., $8. Now That’s Class.
scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene
| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
43
Photos by Claire Marie Vogel
BAND OF THE WEEK THE REGRETTES By Jeff Niesel
MEET THE BAND: Lydia Night (vocals,
LIKE GOING TO SUMMER CAMP: The
guitar), Genessa Gariano (guitar, backing vocals), Brooke Dickson (bass guitar), Drew Thomsen (drums)
group teamed up with producer Mike Elizondo (Eminem) for its full-length debut, 2017’s Feel Your Feelings Fool!, and Night likens the experience of making the album to going to summer camp for five weeks. “Mike [Elizondo] is like a second dad to me,” she says. “He became that through this process. I had to go in early. I went in at 9 a.m. every day for five weeks and then everyone else came in. It was the same thing every day, but it was so much fun. I had never recorded in a studio like that. His studio is so beautiful and there were people who would help us with everything. If I forgot my pick, they would have a giant box of every pick ever.” Elizondo was again at the helm for the forthcoming, How Do You Love?, a concept album featuring what Night refers to as “confused love songs.”
SHE LOVES ROCK ’N’ ROLL: Night, 18, says she can remember listening to the Ramones and Joan Jett when she was just a child. Both acts left a lasting impression. “I was really obsessed with [Joan Jett] when I was young and would put on Joan Jett performances,” she says. “Those are the big two that I know had a lot to do with me being a musician. I saw the Donnas play when I was 5, and that’s when I made the fullon decision that that was what I wanted to do.” Night formed her first band, LILA, when she was only 7. After that band called it quits, she would then start up Pretty Little Demons, and that band would morph into the Regrettes in 2015
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| clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
WHY YOU SHOULD HEAR THEM : How Do
WHERE YOU CAN HEAR THEM:
You Love? shows off Night’s melodic sensibilities. She has a fondness for ’60s girl groups, and that influence comes across in songs such as “Pumpkin.” Night’s husky vocals and driving guitars give “California Girls” and “Dress Up” real power, and the frivolous, catchy “I Dare You” could pass as a Gwen Stefani song.
theregrettes.com. WHERE YOU CAN SEE THEM: The
Regrettes perform with Hot Flash Heat Wave and Forager at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 3, at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights.
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
SAVAGE LOVE HARD TRUTHS by Dan Savage I’m a woman who married young (21) and I’ve been with my husband for seven years. Within the last year, I’ve realized that my falling libido probably comes from the fact that I am not turned-on by our boring vanilla sex routine. I get so little fulfillment that I’d rather not even do it. I’ve tried talking to him, but he says he prefers sex without foreplay or a lot of “complicated stuff.” I had some great casual sex before we met but it turns out I’m into BDSM, which I found out when I recently had a short affair. I’ve kept the secret and guilt to myself, but I have told my husband I’m into BDSM. He wants to make me happy but I can tell he isn’t turned on doing these things. He denies it, because he’s just happy to have sex at all, but a butt plug and a slap on the ass does not a Dom make. I’ve tried to ask him if we can open up our relationship so that I can live out my fantasies. I would like to go to a BDSM club and he isn’t interested at all. He was very upset and said he’s afraid of losing me if we go. He also felt like I was giving him an ultimatum. But I told him he was allowed to say no, and that I wouldn’t leave if he did. When I was younger I thought there was something wrong with me because everyone else wanted monogamy but it never seemed important to me. I’m not a jealous person and I wouldn’t mind if he had sex with other people. In fact, the thought of it turns me on but he says he isn’t interested. I know he loves me and I love him. At this point my only solution has been to suppress this urge to have BDSM sex, but I don’t know if it is a good long-term solution. What should I do? Keep my fantasies to myself? Have another affair or ask him to have an open relationship again? We have a 3-year-old daughter so I have to make our relationship work. Want The Hard Truth Two quick points before I bring out the big guns: First, marrying young is a bad idea. The younger two people are when they marry, according to a veritable mountain of research, the likelier they are to divorce. It makes intuitive sense: the rational part of the brain—the prefrontal cortex—isn’t fully formed until age 25. We shouldn’t be picking out wallpaper in our early twenties,
WTHT, much less life partners. And second, basic sexual compatibility (BSC) is crucial to the success of sexually exclusive relationships and it’s a bad idea to scramble your DNA together with someone else’s before BSC has been established. And with that out of the way… “WTHT might be surprised to hear she is just a normal woman being a normal woman,” said Wednesday Martin, New York Times best-selling author, cultural critic, and researcher. “Like a normal human woman, she is bored after seven years of monogamous sex that isn’t even her kind of sex.” You mentioned that you used to feel like there was something wrong with you, WTHT, but just in case you have any lingering “what’s wrong with me!” feelings, you’re gonna want to read Untrue: Why Nearly Everything We Believe About Women, Lust, and Infidelity Is Wrong and How the New Science Can Set Us Free, Martin’s most recent book. “We know from recent longitudinal studies from Germany, Finland, the US, the UK, and Canada that among women only, relationship duration and living together predict lower desire/boredom,” said Martin. “In fact, the Finnish study found that even when they had more/better orgasms, women in monogamous relationships of several years’ duration reported low desire.” A straight man’s desire for his longterm, live-in female partner also decreases over time, but nowhere near as drastically as a woman’s does. “Contrary to what we’ve been taught, monogamy kills it for women, in the aggregate, more than it does for men,” said Martin. So that’s what we know now— that’s what the research shows—but very few people in the sex-adviceindustrial complex have wrestled with the implications. Most advice professionals, from the lowliest advice columnist to the most exalted daytime TV star, have chosen to ignore the research. They continue to tell unhappily sexless couples that they’re either doing something wrong or that they’re broken. If he would just do his fair share of the housework or if she would just have a glass of wine—or pop a “female Viagra,” if big pharma could come up with one that works, which
(spoiler alert) they never will—they’d be fucking like they did the night they met. Not only isn’t this advice helpful, it’s harmful: he does more housework, she drinks more wine, nothing changes, and the couple feels like there’s something wrong with them. In reality, nothing’s wrong. It’s not about a more equitable division of housework (always good!) or drinking more wine (also but not always good!), it’s about the desire for novelty, variety, and adventure. Zooming in for a second: The big issue here is that you got bored. No foreplay? Nothing complicated? Even if you were 100 percent vanilla, that shit would get tedious after a few years. Or minutes. After risking your marriage to treat your boredom (the affair), you asked your husband to shake things up—to fight sexual boredom with you—by incorporating BDSM into your sex life, by going to BDSM clubs, and by at least considering the possibility of opening up your marriage. (Ethically this time.) And while he’s made a small effort where BDSM is concerned (butt plugs, slapping your ass), your husband ruled out BDSM clubs and openness. But since he’s only going through the BDSM motions because he’s just “happy to have sex at all,” what he is doing isn’t working for you. And it’s probably not working for him, either. At bottom, WTHT, what you’re saying—to me, if not to your husband—is that you’re gonna need to do BDSM with other people if your husband doesn’t get better at it, which is something he might learn to do at the BDSM club he refuses to go to. Which means he has it backwards: he risks losing you if he doesn’t go. “She once put her marriage at risk to get BDSM,” said Martin. “WTHT’s husband doesn’t need to know about the affair, in my view, and he doesn’t need to become the world’s best Dom. But he owes her acknowledgment that her desires matter. Get to that baseline, and other things tend to fall into place more easily. The discussion about monogamy becomes easier. The discussion about needing to be topped becomes easier. Working out a solution becomes easier.” I’m not suggesting that an open
relationship is the solution for every bored couple, and neither is Martin. There are lots of legitimate reasons why two people might prefer for their relationship to be or remain monogamous. But two people who commit to being sexually exclusive for the rest of their lives and at the same time wanna maintain a satisfying sex life—and, open or closed, couples with satisfying sex lives are likelier to stay together— need to recognize that boredom as their mortal enemy. And while the decision should be mutual, and while ultimatum is a scary word, in some instances, bringing in reinforcements isn’t just the best way to fight boredom, it’s the only way to save the relationship. Now a couple of weeks back, I told a frustrated husband that his cuckolding kink may have to be put on the back burner while his children are young. The same goes for you, WTHT. But at the very least your husband has to recognize the validity of your desires and put more effort into pleasing you. “In straight culture, people tend to define sex as intercourse, because intercourse is what gets men off, and we still privilege male pleasure,” said Martin. “But seen through a lens of parity, what WTHT wants is not ‘foreplay’ or ‘complicated stuff.’ It’s sex, and the sooner her husband lets go of this intercourse = sex fetish of his, and acknowledges that her pleasure matters as much as his does, the sooner he’ll be a real partner to his wife.” For the record: a relationship doesn’t have to be open to be exciting, BDSM doesn’t have to be crazy complicated to be satisfying, and date night doesn’t have to mean dinner and a movie. Date night can mean a visit to a BDSM club where your husband can learn, through observation alone (at least for now), how to be a better Dom. You can find Wednesday Martin on Twitter @WednesdayMartin. You can find her books, blog posts, videos, and more at wednesdaymartin.com. On the Lovecast—All Hail Satan! with Satanic Temple founder Lucien Greaves: savagelovecast.com.
mail@savagelove.net t@fakedansavage | clevescene.com | July 31 - August 6, 2019
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