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| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

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./6%-"%2 $%#%-"%2 s 6/,5-% .O 22 Dedicated to Free Times founder Richard H. Siegel (1935-1993) and Scene founder Richard Kabat Group Publisher Chris Keating

CONTENTS

Publisher Andrew Zelman

5PFRONT

Associate Publisher Angela Nagal Editor Vince Grzegorek

Cleveland police under ďŹ re for the usual ineptitude, Nexus pipeline halted for the moment, and more

Editorial Managing Editor Eric Sandy Music Editor Jeff Niesel Senior Writer Sam Allard Staff Writer Brett Zelman Web Editor Laura Morrison Dining Editor Douglas Trattner Stage Editor Christine Howey Visual Arts Writers Dott von Schneider Copy Editor Elaine Cicora Intern Lawrence Neil

&EATURE

Advertising Senior Multimedia Account Executive John Crobar, Shayne Rose Multimedia Account Executive Kiara Davis Events and Marketing Coordinator Maggie Lilac

John Hay’s football team was looking forward to the 2017 campaign. Then their starting quarterback was murdered

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

'ET /UT

Business Sales Assistant/Receptionist Megan Stimac Controller Kristy Dotson

All the events you should check out this week

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Circulation Circulation Director Don Kriss Euclid Media Group Chief Executive OfďŹ cer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating OfďŹ cers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner VP Digital Services Stacy Volhein Digital Operations Coordinator Jaime Monzon www.euclidmediagroup.com National Advertising Voice Media Group 1-800-278-9866, voicemediagroup.com

!RT

Treat yourself to a glorious production of a little-seen O’Neill classic, The Hairy Ape

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Producer Jimmy Jam talks about Janet Jackson’s legacy

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Judith Brandon’s resonant drawings at Kenneth Paul Lesko Gallery

3TAGE

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UPFRONT

THIS WEEK

AT THE BEHEST OF U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver, the U.S. Department of Justice consent decree parties gathered last week to discuss the most glaring source of frustration in the 2015 agreement: the investigation of civilian complaints against Cleveland police.

Hundreds of open complaints remain untouched, dating back to 2014 in some cases. Even with the addition of six temporary investigators at the Office of Professional Standards, which is tasked with processing those complaints, the backlog grows almost daily.

On Aug. 30, by way of illustration, the office had 401 open complaints from the past several years. As of this week, it had chiseled that backlog down to only 383. Matthew Barge, the consent decree monitor, said that the pace was “not even close” to where the office should be right now.

“The problem with OPS [is] it’s not any better than it was two years ago when this process started, and it’s not getting better,” he said. “[This] systemic failure of the city of Cleveland has perpetuated over time, stemming back from the creation of the office in the 1980s.”

Records from 2016 show that most of these complaints involve “lack of service” or “unprofessional behavior.”

One complaint about an improper tow was received Feb. 3, 2016. It wasn’t cleared until Feb. 15, 2017, at which time the complaint was “sustained in part” by investigator Anitra Merritt. And that’s one of the rare closed cases in the hundreds of complaints on the OPS desk.

Leaving complaints uninvestigated or even partially investigated — and thus hanging over individual officers’ heads — creates a sense of public rot.

The word “fester” was used multiple times during the hearing, like when

Photo by Eric Sandy

CLEVELAND POLICE UNDER PRESSURE FOR BACKLOG OF CITIZEN COMPLAINTS

Barge said, “This has been festering for a long time. ... Officers and civilians deserve [a solution].”

The city has maintained that it’s plagued by a lack of resources and by a sudden mandate to conform to new policies and best practices — that the matter of training is taking considerable amounts of time and keeping investigators from the actual work of investigating. But the federal oversight team wasn’t having it; instead, Barge pointed out again and again that the city simply hasn’t

stepped up its game.

He referred to a November 2015 meeting with Damon Scott, who until recently led the OPS. During that conversation, at the outset of the consent decree, Barge and Scott discussed a computerized database that could be used to track and catalog complaints. Barge said the conversation was “in-depth.” But as of today, OPS is still not using that system (which is the same system used by the police department’s internal affairs unit, Barge pointed

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out).

“That’s not a resource issue,” he said. “That’s a will issue. We need will and drive and urgency. ... This is not about resources. This is about leadership.”

The city’s law director, Barbara Langhenry, said that they will prepare to hire a senior investigator via a national search. The city is also hoping to find a permanent replacement for Scott; that job posting went up last week.

“It is our hope that there will not be a backlog this large going into the future,” Langhenry said.

But since Aug. 30, OPS has been tasked with achieving at least 2.5 new investigations per month per investigator (or five “backlog” investigations per month). Even that modest goal hasn’t been reached, with only 38 investigations being closed in that time frame, Barge said. And of those 38, 66 percent of them were “non-compliant” in how they were carried out.

Last week’s hearing had a back-tothe-drawing-board feel to it. Despite Oliver praising certain segments of the consent decree, he insisted that this problem has grown dire.

“If we can’t make more progress than this, frankly I’d be looking for a different kind of hearing — one where we’d be more adversarial,” Oliver said. “And I don’t mean that in a bad way — [but] one where we can be more formal.” He hinted at the potential need for testimony from public safety director Michael McGrath, who was present today.

“I look to the city to take the lead in coming up with standards and resolution of this issue,” Oliver said.

“This has to be one of the highest priorities in the area of the consent decree. This is one that we cannot let fester.”

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| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

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UPFRONT The hearing wrapped up with a plan to meet again in mid-December with a more concrete plan of action. — Eric Sandy

INCREASED FATALITIES AFTER OHIO HIGHWAYS JUMP TO 70 MPH SPEED LIMIT Since July 1, 2013, when the speed limit on portions of six highways in Ohio was increased from 65 mph to 70 mph as part of the state’s budget transportation bill, there has been a 24-percent increase in crashes on those stretches and a 22-percent increase in crashes involving fatalities or injuries, according to a new study. In raw numbers, that has meant 1,928 more crashes, 421 more injuries and ďŹ ve more deaths than in the four years prior to 2013.

In response to that data from the state highway patrol and Department of Transportation, troopers will begin enhanced patrols of those areas.

Tapping into overtime, ofďŹ cers will target a list of dangerous activities including following too closely, improper passing, distracted driving and speeding. SpeciďŹ c areas the Ohio

State Highway Patrol will focus on include I-70 and U.S. Route 33 near Columbus, and I-71 near Ashland.

A $100,000 ad campaign will also debut urging Ohioans to slow the fuck down. Messages such as “Stop speeding before it stops youâ€? and “Obey the sign or pay the ďŹ neâ€? will be seen along highways.

The highway patrol says the frightening trend might lead to a request by the organization to Gov. John Kasich to temporarily dial back to 65 mph.

Limited to stretches of highways outside of urban areas, the increase had been welcomed by many of those traversing Ohio’s rural asphalt. And while those same four years have also seen a rise in distracted driving (see: cell phones), the data compiled by the state showed a 1-percent decrease in crashes and a 3-percent decrease in fatal crashes on all other Ohio roads during that time. — Vince Grzegorek

MAJOR DIGITAL PRIVACY CASE HAS ROOTS IN MICHIGAN, OHIO CRIME SPREE The U.S. Supreme Court will take up Carpenter v. United States this week, turning the judicial system’s eyes toward prosecutorial discretion

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| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

in searching cell phone records in criminal cases.

At issue is interpretation of the Fourth Amendment, which deďŹ nes illegal and unreasonable searches and seizures. In this case, prosecutors culled cell phone data to track Timothy Ivory Carpenter in his role behind multiple electronics store robberies in Michigan and Ohio. Carpenter and others were found guilty; the Supreme Court case is focusing on how prosecutors went after him.

All told, prosecutors used “127 days of records� obtained from cell phone companies. Those data points placed Carpenter in various locations, often very near to the reported robberies; the information, of course, also provided prosecutors with a detailed map of Carpenter’s other daily activities, like where and when he attended church.

Because those records weren’t obtained with a judicial search warrant showing probable cause in the case, the Supreme Court is being asked to determine whether prosecutors crossed a constitutional boundary — and whether American citizens may expect some degree of privacy in the use of their smartphones and other GPSstrapped electronics. “Carpenter could be the most important electronic privacy case of the 21st century,� National Constitution

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SCENE

Center president Jeffrey Rosen told The New York Times.

According to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, “In April 2011, police arrested four men suspected of committing a string of armed robberies at Radio Shacks and T-Mobile stores in and around Detroit. One of the men confessed that the group had robbed nine different stores in Michigan and Ohio between December 2010 and March 2011, supported by a shifting ensemble of 15 other men who served as getaway drivers and lookouts.� (The Ohio hit involved a Radio Shack in Warren on March 4, 2011.)

In 2014, Carpenter, the apparent ringleader, was sentenced to 116 years in federal prison.

While the Supreme Court will hear arguments beginning on Wednesday, a decision on the Carpenter matter isn’t expected for months. — Sandy

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others to come forth.

For some victims, that cultural change has meant speaking publicly, as in the #MeToo campaign, where victims took to both social media and the streets to show solidarity against sexual violence. For others, the process is playing out more privately.

Since the campaign began last month, the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center has seen a 50-percent increase in the number of calls/texts/chats to its rape crisis and support line.

According to center records, they’re on pace to exceed a record 6,000 calls by the end of the year.

“Over the last five years, we’ve experienced an overwhelming increase of calls to our hotline, which reflects the seismic shift in cultural attitudes about sexual assault and more people willing to come forward,” a Rape Crisis Center spokesperson tells Scene.

Sondra Miller, president and CEO of the center, says that while the public accounts have helped, victims need to know that getting

DIGIT WIDGET 27,500 Entries in Ohio Division of Liquor Control lottery for chance to buy one of just 338 bottles of Pappy Van Winkle allocated for public purchase.

506 Percent increase in drug deaths in Ohio since 1999. A new study forecasts another 70-percent jump by 2025.

370 Number of applications the state received from companies seeking to sell medical marijuana. Ohio will grant only 57 licenses.

40 Percent of downtown Cleveland’s 15,000 residents who live in buildings renovated thanks to federal historic tax credits. The tax credit is on the chopping block in the latest Republican congressional tax plan.

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| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

help comes first.

“It’s really important for victims to understand they have no obligation to share their story with anyone,” Miller says. “Telling your story is really about feeling safe enough that you can share your information.”

Like new Clevelander Gabrielle Union, whose recent memoir We’re Going to Need More Wine describes being raped as a college student. The actress, and wife of Dwyane Wade, went public with her survival story in 2014, but it took years of therapy and healing to get to that point.

“Once I shared, others shared ...

I realized I was offering a bridge, a hand, to other people who wanted to share, or who just needed to know, ‘Hey, I’m not alone,’” Union told the Washington Post.

“I do see it as positive momentum.

I think many people who have this experience ... they think they’re the only one this happened to, that there is something wrong with them,” Miller says. “When we have these conversations, the blame belongs with people who committed the crime, not the victims.”

And it’s not just women who are utilizing the Rape Crisis Center’s services. After the Jerry Sandusky scandal hit in late 2011, Miller says the number of men calling for help went from about 2 percent to 11 percent of inquiries. She says that number hasn’t dipped since.

“None of this is new. It’s being revealed,” Miller says.

A harrowing report published earlier this year confirms that sexual assault and rape are far more prevalent than one might think.

According to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three women and one in six men in America will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.

“Prevalence of sexual violence isn’t more now than any other decade, just then it was under reported,” Miller says. “There was so much stigma, and we’ve been gradually chipping away at that.”

Miller says the most important thing friends and family can do for sexual assault survivors is to listen.

“This may seem simple, but telling survivors you are sorry this happened — and that this isn’t their fault — can be transformative,” she says.

The 24-hour Cleveland Rape Crisis Center hotline can be reached at 216619-6192 or 440-423-2020.

— Laura Morrison

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

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| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

Photo by Emanuel Wallace

FEATURE

SEASON OF LOSS John Hay’s football team was looking forward to the 2017 campaign. Then their starting quarterback was murdered.

By Jordan Zirm

JOHN HAY’S FOOTBALL FIELD IS DYING. Sandwiched between a sparkling new high-rise apartment building in mid-construction, the ultra-modernist Cleveland School for the Arts and a recently renovated John Hay High School, the field is a blight, like a pothole on an otherwise freshly paved street. Each blade of grass is a varying shade of yellow by early August. By September, the middle of the field is an oval of dirt and pebbles, with each player’s cleats grinding it up like a thousand tiny rototillers. A razorblade is found at mid-field one afternoon, halting practice until it’s disposed of. The team’s quarterback admits a hesitancy to throw the ball near the sidelines, lest his receivers slip and fall on the sidewalk that tightly encircles the field.

“It’s the toughest, hardest practice field you could ever play football on,” says Raymone Warren, a defensive lineman for the Hornets.

Despite practicing on what more closely resembles the moon’s topography than an earthbound

expanse of turf, John Hay — a magnet school nestled between Carnegie and Martin Luther King Boulevard in Cleveland that plays its football in the Senate League — has been wildly successful. Though often dwarfed by the gridiron supernova that is Glenville, the

Hornets have posted just two losing seasons since the program started fielding a varsity team in 2009.

They boast an 59-36 record since then, making the playoffs for the very first time in 2012, then again the following year.

While winning has become a

common descriptor of John Hay, so too has loss.

In 2009, Brandon Young, a defensive lineman for the Hornets, was struck during a drive-by as he and his younger brother were walking home from a store on East 186th Street. He died in the hospital a week later. Donte McRae, a former John Hay quarterback, died in Columbus in 2012 when the car in which he was riding shotgun swerved off the road, fl ipped over and crashed into a tree.

Then, on July 6 of this year, there was Mike Chappman. Set to begin his senior season as John Hay’s starting quarterback, he was hanging with a friend near Wade Park by Ansel Road and Kenmore Avenue in Hough, just across MLK Jr. Drive from the Cleveland VA

| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

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Hospital, when a gray SUV sped by and opened fire. Chappman was hit in the torso and right arm, and, in a terrifying bout of déjà vu for the school, would succumb to his wounds in the hospital two weeks later.

Now, instead of designing an offense around what coaches refer to as one of the most talented rosters they’ve ever had, the Hornets are left attempting to process the death of a 17-year-old kid. Grief counselors are brought in to address the team, making themselves available for one-onone conversations. Players ask permission to skip practice to corral their emotions. The regular season looms, beckoning a football team that surely isn’t ready for its arrival.

“They’ll never forget this year,” says Rodney Decipeda, John Hay’s head coach. “We are in the fire.”

| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

Decipeda is getting worried.

It’s late August, his team’s first preseason scrimmage is in a week,

and he’s already dealing with players no-showing practice, grade issues for some of the guys, and a growing malaise that’s forced him to boot out a couple of his seniors from practice in an attempt to send a message. He’s been leaning on guys like Raymone Warren, quarterback Tyrese Benson, running back Jalen Boyd and wide receiver Javaughn Williams, all seniors, to set the tone for the season. But it hasn’t happened yet.

“Someone said it was like this last year,” Decipeda says. “I don’t remember it being like this last year. There’s an overall lackadaisical mentality that’s not gonna fly. Once they get smacked in the mouth, we’ll see what happens.”

Decipeda, who also teaches science at the high school, has been at the helm of John Hay’s football team since it returned, brought over from an assistant coaching position at Lincoln-West. Forty-three years old and of Filipino descent, Decipeda is short and compact, with a patch of jet black hair clinging tightly to his scalp and a pair of glasses balancing on his nose. He patrols his practices

with a sort of nervous energy, his head constantly in motion as he barks out offensive plays he wants run on that particular day. He’s stoic without being intimidating, and rarely yells. While some assistant coaches take turns screeching in the type of football-speak that would feel at home in an episode of Last Chance U — “If you’re not ready, you’re going to get your ass handed to you!” — Decipeda prefers to lead with a more subdued voice.

But right now, he isn’t getting through to his players, and it’s eating away at him.

“I’m not sure resilience is a word I’d use to describe our squad right now,” Decipeda says. “But you’ve gotta move forward. You’ve gotta man up. You never forget, but you’ve gotta move forward.”

John Hay’s mission statement is to “rescue boys and transform them into men of excellence who live for the benefits of others,” and Decipeda takes those words to heart as if they were tattooed across his chest. If he’s not describing his players as plants incubating in a greenhouse, he’s referring to them as chess pieces, each one needing to be prodded and pushed in their own specific direction for a specific purpose.

He’s a walking rolodex of neatly

repeatable phrases of pocketbook wisdom — “Leadership is influence;” “Character isn’t a switch that you flip” — that might come off as cliched or cheesy from someone who doesn’t deliver them so earnestly.

Decipeda believes in the power of football as if it were the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit wrapped into a single, stitched-cowhide reliquary.

But the unpredictability of death, both its occurrence and the ensuing ripple effect, is a fissure in the safe haven of structure that football usually provides. When Brandon Young died in 2009, two of his best friends on the team recall having absolutely no idea how to deal with it.

“Once we got the call that he’d passed, it changed everything,” says Tyree Goins, who played wide receiver and running back for John Hay from 2009 to 2011. “Practices were kind of down; no one could really focus. We were young and still in high school and didn’t know how to deal with it.”

Tavonne Jolly, now a team manager for John Hay who was close with both Young and Chappman, felt like he was living out the worst day of his life all over again when he heard about Chappman’s death in July.

“I hate that [his teammates] had to go through [losing Mike],” Jolly says. “I didn’t have anybody to tell me how to cope with the situation.

I was 17, you’re in high school. You think you’re invincible. I had never seen this coming.”

Jolly also sees death’s effect taking hold on this year’s team in the same way it did eight years ago.

“A lot of practices, they come out and they’re emotionless,” he says.

“They don’t really have an edge.

Mike Chappman was an alpha, so he’d be the one to come and get everyone hyped at practice. But now that he’s not there, nobody else has that attitude or that edge.”

Early on, Decipeda and Jolly’s concerns would prove to be prophetic. The Hornets not only drop both scrimmages, but do so in lethargic and uninspiring fashion.

The team’s funk bleeds into the regular season, as the Hornets are dominated in their opener versus Orange, 35-6, then hang close with Brush the following week until a litany of late mistakes cost them the game, dropping them to 0-2.

The offense is a mess, and Decipeda yanks starting quarterback Tyrese Benson, after a half against Orange, in favor of Javaughn Williams, the team’s star wide receiver, who hasn’t

played the position since his Muny League days. That doesn’t work either. Benson is eventually inserted back under center, but the Hornets score just seven points in a loss to Clearview in week 3; then, after a bye week, they are engulfed 53-14 by Glenville.

The Hornets are 0-4, players are grumbling about the play-calling, and the wound that Chappman’s death opened continues to fester.

Javaughn Williams and Tyrese Benson were born on the same day.

The two came up together, landing on John Hay’s football team as freshman. Benson, the physically imposing but soft-spoken quarterback. Williams, the fluid and ultra-talented wide receiver. They describe themselves as “inseparable,” both as key cogs in the Hornets’ offensive machine and as two teenagers navigating high school.

In 2015, when Benson and Williams were sophomores, the Hornets were practicing on a field across the street from Chappman’s house. Chappman had been playing Muny League football while attending Ginn Academy. But by 10th grade, he told his mother, Neicey Bryant, that he wanted to

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17

FEATURE join a team where he could “shine on his own,” instead of joining a stacked roster at Glenville.

The Hornets, an overlooked and underrated Senate League school, offered a situation where Chappman could make a name for himself.

“I went over there to talk to the coaches, and I told them I have a son that’s been playing since he was 6 years old and he’s very good,” Neicey Bryant says. “We walked across the field, and I introduced him. And he ended up playing for John Hay.” Benson and Williams clicked instantly with their newest addition.

Chappman caught passes from Benson on the Hornets’ JV team, and the two strengthened their aerial attack as members of the varsity scout team offense. As the 2017 season approached, Benson salivated over the thought of having Chappman on one side and Williams on the other as he dropped back to pass. Off the field, Chappman was a goofball, the perfect complementary foil to Benson and Williams’ serious demeanor.

“Chappman was my right hand man,” Benson says. “I knew what he was going to do before he did. No one could stop us together.”

Williams, who will attend Kent State next year on an athletic scholarship, remains haunted by the bullets that put a stop to their plans and Chappman’s life.

While the rest of the Hornets were on the practice field, Chappman was working his job at a local rec center, something he did to help support his family. After getting off work at 3:30 p.m., he headed home. A few hours later, his mother asked him to go to the store, and it was on that walk that Chappman ran into a friend, Dwayne McCully.

At 6:37 p.m., multiple shots were fired toward the boys out of a car, according to the police report.

McCully was struck in the left arm, and would be released from the hospital after being treated that same day. Chappman, who had his back to the vehicle, was hit in the arm and torso near his spine. He lay on his back on the ground until EMS arrived and transported him to the hospital.

At the time of the shooting, John Hay’s practice was still going on.

“I kind of felt like it was my fault,” Williams says. “I could’ve asked him to come to practice that day, and he wouldn’t have even been where he was at. I was just crushed.”

18

Javaughn Williams and Mike Chappman in the hospital

Boyd echoes Williams’ pain.

“I could’ve done a better job of trying to get more in contact with him, and tell him to get to practice and come more often,” Boyd says.

Benson has lost people close to him before — his uncle to a stroke and his aunt to cancer — but that was when he was only 8 years old and didn’t fully understand the concept of loss. When Chappman died, he was overwhelmed.

“It hit me more because I understand what’s happening,” he says. “Once I got home (from Chappman’s funeral), I fell to my knees and just couldn’t really move.”

Brandon Kelly is the Hornets’ ferocious cornerback. Though undersized, he plays the game with the intensity of a cheetah stalking a gazelle. On multiple occasions at practice, he’d streak toward a wide receiver, lower his shoulder, and send him sprawling into another dimension with the type of force that shouldn’t be physically or scientifically possible from someone his size. But he wasn’t always as selfassured.

| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

“I was a freshman playing varsity last season,” Kelly says. “I remember this one play against Rhodes. I had gotten beat by like 20 yards. I’m just chasing [the receiver] at this point.

Mike came over top and made the interception. If he hadn’t made that pick, I wouldn’t be playing varsity.”

Chappman not only kept Kelly from possibly getting cut, but he saved the young defensive back from his own fears, molding him from a timid freshman into John Hay’s leader as a sophomore.

“When you see those big guys in pads, and you’re a freshman, and teams know you’re a freshman, they’re going to pick on you,” Kelly says. “Someone’s gotta be there to keep your head up, and that’s what he did.”

Chappman was the glue of the Hornets’ roster. He was also described by those who knew him best as a quick-witted soul who had jokes for days. Benson said Chappman would crack on his deep baritone, saying he sounded exactly like Terrelle Pryor. Even in his final days, as he lay bedridden and

paralyzed in the hospital, Chappman found time to clown on his friends.

“The first time I went to see him, I didn’t know how bad it was,” Warren says. “I thought he was going to be all right, and then they told me he was going to be paralyzed. I was about to cry, and he instantly started cracking on me like, ‘Oh you soft!

You about to cry?’”

It’s those moments in the hospital that Chappman’s teammates speak about with the most reverence.

They’d sit with him and talk about nothing but football, reminiscing over the final game of their 2016 season, when Chappman made an interception to seal the Senate League championship, and watching film of other top high school football programs around the country.

“We’d always talk about him staying up, and not thinking about the negative,” Williams says.

“Staying mentally prepared for what he had to go through to get better. We wouldn’t talk about how he knew he couldn’t play.”

One morning, Chappman called Williams from the hospital with a request. He wanted his best friend to wear his number, No. 10, for the 2017 season. He also asked Williams if he wanted to wear his shoulder pads, too. Chappman wanted to feel like a part of him would be on the field every Friday, even if he couldn’t be there physically. Williams obliged.

“At first I was like, ‘Why? You’re going to be cool, you’re coming back,’” Williams says. “And he said, ‘I just want you to wear them for me.’”

As Chappman lay in his hospital bed, he day-dreamed of walking again, even telling those who would listen that he’d eventually get back to playing football. Chappman’s life revolved around sports, and when the temperature dropped and the football season ended, he’d find his way to the rec center to play basketball. Otherwise, he was cooped up in his house, kicking it with his two sisters, according to his mother, who described her son as a “mama’s boy” and a “homebody.” The thought of never being able to walk again never once crossed Chappman’s mind during his time in the hospital.

“Me not walking, I don’t think about that,” Chappman told Fox 8 during his hospital stay. “I know I’m going to walk again.”

But as Chappman envisioned a healthy future, a piece of the bullet that remained lodged in his torso, too dangerous for surgeons to remove, started to travel. One

| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

19

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day, Chappman started to get some feeling back in his legs. He was ecstatic, but it turned out just to be a cruel trick the bullet was playing on his nervous system, moving off one nerve only to press up against another soon after. One morning, Chappman suddenly started coughing up blood. On July 23, he was dead.

When Williams talks about that day, he takes a deep breath before speaking. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a pain in his voice that ďŹ lls up every inch of the room, and the connection between two teenagers who dreamt of playing football and taking over the world together is as real as if Chappman were sitting right there next to him. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It just hurt knowing that he had a purpose in life, and he wanted to be something,â&#x20AC;? Williams says, before taking another extended pause. â&#x20AC;&#x153;How that got took from him, that hurt me. Everything wouldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been okay because he did something with his life. He couldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve really been something. Nowadays, not everybody has a positive plan for themselves.

And he was a person that did. He just wanted to play football and do right by his family.â&#x20AC;?

A GoFundMe account originally set up to help pay for Chappmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rehabilitation and medical expenses had to be used instead for burial costs. At a vigil for his death, more than 200 people showed up to pay

their respects to a kid who touched countless people in the brief time he was alive. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He brought us together,â&#x20AC;?

Warren says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He just made you feel better. You could talk to him about anything, and heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be real with you.â&#x20AC;?

John Hay is a magnet school, requiring an interview process and a certain GPA for its students to be admitted, but the realities of the world outside those tan walls can be bleak. 2016 was Clevelandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s deadliest year on record, ending with 136 homicides, according to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examinerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ofďŹ ce. There are swaths of the city that players do their best to stay away from, even though their homes or homes of relatives may rest just a block or so away. The intersection of Ansel and Kenmore is one of those areas. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was devastating for me to endure this pain that my son ended up dying the way that I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want him to die,â&#x20AC;? his mother Neicey Bryant says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I tried to keep him out of the streets. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why he played sports. I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want him running the streets because I knew what type of area I was in, and a lot of violence was going on. When my kids walk out the door, I always pray. Especially with Michael being a young black male.â&#x20AC;?

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not the ďŹ rst time one of Bryantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s children have been hit

by a stray bullet. In 2010, her daughter was hit by a bullet that came speeding through the wall of her home. Her injuries were minor, but the shock of it caused Bryant to move her family to the neighborhood they’re in now in hopes of a safer environment for her children.

Chappman apologized to his mother in the hospital for straying into an area he knew was off-limits.

He told friends that something felt off that day, and that he knew he shouldn’t have deviated from his route to the store. But he dismissed that churning in his gut. He was in high school, and he was, as Jolly says, invincible.

“When I was in school, it wasn’t a lot of gun violence going on. There might be fights, but it was never gun violence,” team manager Tavonne Jolly says. “But now I definitely worry. I tell (all the players), control what you can control. But you can’t help where you grew up, or where you live.”

Things slowly started to change after the Glenville game. Though the final score depicted a complete dismantling of his squad, Benson says it was the first time since he

had been there that the Hornets put up points of any sort against Ted Ginn Sr.’s Tarblooders. The Hornets’ schedule softened, too, as the team began in-conference play in the Senate League. After downing John Marshall for their first win of the season, the Hornets dropped a close game to Rhodes before rattling off three straight wins to close the regular season, putting up 55, 43 and 64 points, respectively, and tallying a record of — Neicey 4-5.

Then, the district decided to award John Hay a win in place of its bye week, a mea culpa of sorts for the scheduling mishap that led to its existence in the first place. The Hornets were scheduled to play Collinwood

in Week 4, but Collinwood had double-booked opponents the week prior, scheduling both Rocky River and Brunswick at the same time. Collinwood elected to honor its commitment to Rocky River, which upset Brunswick, who threatened to charge the Senate for the game until they came to an agreement to take on John Hay in Week 4 instead. This threw Decepida into a rage, as Brunswick is a Division 1 school with 105 players on its roster. After complaints from both Bryant Decipeda and multiple John Hay parents, the district relented, granting the Hornets the bye week instead of what would probably have been an automatic loss.

Suddenly, the Hornets were 5-5, sitting in third place in the

“I tried to keep him out of the streets.

That’s why he played sports. I didn’t want him running the streets because I knew what type of area I was in, and a lot of violence was going on.”

Senate. With Glenville once again owning the best record in the Senate, vaulting them into the Division 1 high school playoffs, it left the Hornets and second-place Rhodes to duel it out on Nov. 4 for what’s referred to as the Senate championship, a rematch of their thrilling Week 6 matchup.

The game was an almost tooperfect representation of the Hornets’ season. After scoring a touchdown on the game’s first play from scrimmage, John Hay regressed to the mess it’d been for most of the early parts of the season. Defensive penalties kept Rhodes’ drives alive well past their expiration date. At one point, the Hornets fumbled on four straight offensive drives. They had no business being in the game at all, and yet, thanks to a handful of defensive stands, there they were.

As the fourth quarter wound down, the Hornets, down three, faced a 3rd and 16 from their own 18-yard line. If John Hay was unable to pick up the first down, the game was essentially over. Things looked bleak.

Then Javaughn Williams happened.

Benson took the snap, faked to his running back, then rolled out to his right. With two Rhodes defenders barreling toward him unblocked,

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have a weekly leadership seminar.

I’m reading a book on how to connect and motivate (this generation of kids).

If we don’t change as coaches and Benson had no choice but to catapult mentors, we’re going to lose them.” the ball in the air, getting hit as it Chappman’s death not only left his hands. Williams was running removed a playmaker from the a post-corner route, and got doubleHornets’ lineup, but it became a teamed off the snap. By the time he black hole that enveloped the joy that stopped and looked for the ball at the usually comes with playing high 45, he was triple-teamed by Rhodes school football. defenders. He leapt into the air, his “Sometimes people embellish a arms extended person’s life up above the after they pass,” defenders directly Decipeda says. “I in front and did not anticipate behind him, Mike being the briefly morphed keystone of our into Calvin team this year.

Johnson, and But Mike was a somehow came guy who made down with the you remember rock. why you loved “I definitely this game. blacked out,” He loved his Williams says teammates. He with a laugh. “I loved playing for don’t know what John Hay.” happened. I just For the went up and players, it was came down.” impossible “Once I threw Tyree Goins and Brandon Young in 2009 to ignore the ball, I got before Young was shot and killed in a Chappman’s sandwiched, so drive-by. absence during the pass wasn’t the season. as good as it was supposed to be,” From pregame moments of silence to says Benson. “But I kept looking various reporters dropping by to do at Javaughn as I was going to the stories on his death, Chappman was ground, and I saw him catch it and never far away. fall down on his back with the ball “I ain’t cried about it since the in his hands. And I just said, ‘Thank day (Mike died), but it always has you.’” me feeling sad,” says Williams, who Two plays later, Boyd took a admits he thinks about his friend hand-off and sped into the end zone constantly. for the game-winning touchdown.

There hasn’t been much progress 20-16, Hornets. Remember the Titans in finding Chappman’s killer or couldn’t have scripted a better ending. killers, at least not publicly. (Calls to Afterward, as the team bounced detectives were not returned.) The around the field in jubilation, Cleveland police department released they hoisted their Senate League a video of the car that carried out the championship trophy skyward. drive-by, but that hasn’t led to any “We held it up so Mike could touch arrests. All his mother has heard is it,” Benson says. “That game was a that they’re continuing to “build a gift to Mike.” case.” Cleveland is one of the worst cities when it comes to actually solving homicides, having solved just Coach Decipeda is taking stock of 41 percent of the 71 killings that took what he calls the hardest season he’s place through August of this year, ever been through. He bemoans some according to mayor Frank Jackson. of the early losses, and posits how That close rate pales in comparison different the season could have been with the 61 percent of homicides had the Hornets just beaten Rhodes solved nationally, according to FBI and Clearview, games he thinks they stats. should have won. But as the weather “It’s way worse than when I was cools, so too has some of his belief in growing up,” Neicey Bryant says of his own football scripture. the violence in Cleveland. “The parents “This senior class hasn’t developed in the community have to start as much as past classes, and our coming together to raise these kids as season reflects that,” he says. “And it’s a village again.” caused me to reflect on the structure Meanwhile, life goes on at John of my program. I’m determined to Hay. Williams is anxious to arrive at

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23

Photo by Emanuel Wallace

FEATURE Kent State, and wants to bulk up.

Benson is putting the finishing touches on his highlight reel to send to college coaches. Warren wants to play at the University of Akron and study marketing. Boyd has dreams of juking defenders at Bowling Green. Kelly, who will be a junior next season, has already toured six college campuses. They all have goals, just like Chappman did, hoping to use their athletic abilities to propel them off that half-dirt field and onto the pristinely tended fields of college football programs.

Both Decipeda and Jolly worry about the seniors who will be leaving the cover of their protective wings.

“I lay awake at night thinking about kids that have graduated and where they might be at,” Decipeda says, and what will happen when football is no longer a part of their lives.” If football is a refuge, it’s a temporary one for the vast majority of players who suit up for Friday night lights but never play again.

“I didn’t have that guidance when I was playing,” says Jolly. “So I tell them make sure you know what you’re

24

“Mike is always on our mind. He’s there with us even though he wasn’t there with us.”

— Tyrese Benson

going to school for. Make sure you know it’s bigger than football. Live for yourself, and make yourself happy.”

Chappman won’t get to make those choices. But as they did all season, culminating in their team rallying

| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

cry of “Do it for 10,” his football family will take his memory with them wherever they end up in life.

“Mike is always on our mind. He’s there with us even though he wasn’t there with us,” Benson says. “If the

game is 11-on-11, it’s really 12-on-11, because we have Mike playing the game with us.”

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

25

THE ROAD TO THE ROCK HALL BEGINS WITH THE ROCK OFF

WJW.CLEVELAND

26

| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

GET OUT

everything you should do this week Photo courtesy of the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque

WED

that members of Cleveland’s black middle class established footholds outside the city’s overcrowded, innercity neighborhoods. Both authors speak tonight at 7 at Visible Voice Books.

Admission is free. (Niesel) 2258 Professor Ave., 216-961-0084, visiblevoicebooks.com.

11/29

COMEDY

Cleveland Comedy Festival Playhouse Square will play host to 18 comedy performances today through Dec. 3, during the annual Cleveland Comedy Festival. The fest kicks off today at 5 p.m. with a Comedy Happy Hour at Kennedy’s Theatre. Outcalt Theatre and Kennedy’s will be among several sites for performances that will feature comedians from all across the States. The festival’s feature presentation will be An Evening with Fred Willard. That performance takes place on Friday, Dec. 1, at 8 p.m.

Consult the website for ticket prices and more details. (Jeff Niesel) clevelandcomedyfestival.com.

with composer and pianist Lorenzo Salvagni. Performances take place at 7:30 tonight and at 8 on Saturday night. Consult the website for ticket prices. (Niesel) 11001 Euclid Ave., 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com.

SPOKEN WORD

COMEDY

Cleveland Stories Dinner Party Cleveland Stories Dinner Party is a weekly series that pairs fine food with storytelling. Through it, the folks at Music Box Supper Club hope to raise awareness of the mission of the Western Reserve Historical Society’s new Cleveland History Center. The goal of the Cleveland Stories Dinner Party is to “bring to life some of the fun, interesting stories about Cleveland’s past — from sports, to rock ’n’ roll, to Millionaires’ Row,” as it’s put in a press release. Admission is free, with no cover charge, although a prix fixe dinner, designed to complement the night’s theme, is $20. Doors open at 5 p.m., dinner is served at 6, and the storytelling starts at 6:30. Tonight, as part of the Cleveland Comedy Festival, comedian and Cleveland native Lou Santini talks about this “life in comedy.” The menu includes Cream of Rubber Duck Soup, Woka Woka StirFry and Whoopie Cushion Pie. Santini will perform standup after his talk.

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

Brandon T. Jackson Straight outta Detroit, which he refers to as “the bankrupt city,” comedian Brandon T. Jackson started performing when he was only 14 years old. He’s had roles in numerous films since then; he had a significant role in the terrific comedy Tropic Thunder that helped launch his acting career. Jackson, who relies on urban slang and makes references to racial stereotypes in his routines, performs tonight at 7:30 at the Improv, where he has shows scheduled through Sunday.

Tickets are $20. (Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com.

THU

11/30

MUSIC

Bruckner’s Romantic Symphony Bruckner’s Romantic Symphony features both “subtle romanticism and raw excitement” reflecting the composer’s knack for controlling the orchestra as if it were a single instrument. Tonight at Severance Hall, the Cleveland Orchestra revisits his Fourth Symphony. Arrive an hour early for a pre-concert talk

MUSIC

The Cinematheque kicks off its series featuring Japanese actress Meiko Kaji with Stray Cat: Sex Hunter. See: Thursday.

COMEDY

Tom Papa The funny stuff continues tonight with Tom Papa, the fun-loving guy who used to host the NBC comedy show Marriage Ref. Papa routinely likes to joke about how he misses the day when he didn’t have kids or the responsibility that accompanies them. He likes to reminisce about his young life, and notes how being a dad has him drinking more now. “Daddy is a lot more fun when he gets his magic juice inside of him,” he likes to say, as he ponders the fact that all his daughter’s drawings are of him with a martini glass. But the guy will also switch gears and talk about antidepressants and societal pressures. His talent lies in the fact that he comes off as an average Joe. He performs tonight at 8 at Hilarities, where you can catch his act through Saturday. Tickets start at $23. (Jeff Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.

COMEDY

Stray Cat: Sex Hunter The Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque kicks off its series featuring Japanese actress Meiko Kaji with Stray Cat: Sex Hunter, the youth-oriented exploitation film in which she plays the leader of a tough girl gang that takes on a rival racist male gang. The movie screens at 6:45 tonight and at 9:30 tomorrow night.

Tickets are $10, or $7 for students and Cinematheque members. (Niesel) 11610 Euclid Ave., 216-421-7450, cia.edu.

FRI

12/01

THEATER

Annie With a book by Thomas Meehan, music by Charles Strouse and lyrics

by Martin Charnin, the musical Annie centers on what happens when a billionaire meets an 11-year-old orphan named Annie, and the two develop a friendship. The play opens tonight at 7:30 at the French Creek Theatre in Sheffield Village, where performances continue through Dec. 17. Local actors Kayla Haskins and Ian Atwood play Annie and her benefactor, respectively.

Tickets are $16 to $18 for adults, and $10 for children under the age of 18.

(Niesel) 4530 Colorado Ave., Sheffield Village, 440-949-5200, metroparks.cc/french-creek-theatretickets.php.

Andrea Bocelli One of the few modern-day opera singers to become a household name, Andrea Bocelli got his start singing in piano bars. By the ’90s, however, he had befriended Pavarotti, who helped him launch his career. He continues to regularly tour and record and, if past setlists are any indication, you can expect him to sing songs by the likes of Verdi, Puccini and Elvis Presley. The concert begins at 8 p.m., and tickets start at $75. (Niesel).

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

COMEDY

Jim Gaffigan Jim Gaffigan, one of the world’s highest-grossing standup comedians, embarked on his Noble Ape international arena and theater comedy tour earlier this year. While on the tour, he’s performed in China, Japan, England, Canada, France, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland.

He brings the tour to Wolstein Center at 8 tonight. The slow-talking clean comic also stars opposite Jason Clarke, Kate Mara and Ed Helms in the forthcoming film Chappaquiddick, the story of the infamous event that killed Ted Kennedy’s chance at becoming president. Other upcoming films include Drunk Parents, starring Alec Baldwin and Salma Hayek, and Duck Duck Goose, an animated movie that features the voices of Carl Reiner and Stephen Fry. Tonight’s show should feature plenty of new material. Tickets start at $32. (Niesel) 2000 Prospect Ave., 216-687-9292, wolsteincenter.com.

NIGHT LIFE

SPOKEN WORD

Two Authors’ Perspective on Cleveland In Believing in Cleveland, author J. Mark Souther recounts how Cleveland entered the postwar period as America’s sixth largest city, only to lose ground during a period of tremendous national growth. In Surrogate Suburbs: Black Upward Mobility and Neighborhood Change in Cleveland 1900-1980, writer Todd Michney discusses the creative ways

Holiday Bar Blast Bar Crawl Tonight is the night for Holiday Bar Blast in downtown Willoughby. The holiday-themed bar crawl features stops at downtown Willoughby bars, including Willoughby Brewing Company, the Morehouse Willoughby, the 1899 Pub, Frank and Tony’s Place, Mullarkey’s Irish Pub, Ballantine, the Wild Goose and Nickleby’s Rounder.

Registration begins at 5:30 p.m. at Willoughby Brewing Company. At

| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

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GET OUT

NIGHT LIFE

7 p.m., groups will head out with their captains to one of the eight participating bars. Every 30 minutes, the captain will blow a whistle and you’ll move on to the next bar. The bar crawl is part of a weekend-long celebration that brings the holiday spirit to town, including the Miracle on Erie Street annual tree lighting ceremony. Tickets are $15 in advance, or $20 at the door. (Niesel) sceneHolidayBarBlast.com.

Mix at CMA The Cleveland Museum of Art’s monthly Mix event takes place tonight from 6 to 10. In keeping with the upcoming holidays, the theme is “Illuminate,” and there will be an illuminated dance floor, “dazzling” visuals and glowing lanterns awaiting you. Tonight’s party also serves as a preview of light installations from the CMA’s annual Winter Lights Lantern Festival, which happens on Sunday, Dec. 3. Enjoy performance art and DJ Red-I’s music in the atrium. Tickets are $10 in advance on the website, or $15

at the door. CMA members get in for free. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

tickets are $38 to $50. (Niesel) 182 South Main St., Akron, 330-253-2488, akroncivic.com.

FAMILY FUN

DANCE

The Nutty Nutcracker Ballet Theatre of Ohio proves it has a sense of humor with tonight’s The Nutty Nutcracker, a sendup of the classic ballet it performs each year at the Akron Civic Theatre. Organizers assure us that the performance is family friendly but admit that “parts might be considered adult humor.”

The performance begins at 7 p.m., and

Scuba Claus & the Seas’N of Play Like many local institutions, the Greater Cleveland Aquarium embraces the holidays with special seasonal activities. This year, it presents Scuba Claus & the Seas’N of Play on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 24. At activity stations, you can see how hula hoops, fish-cicles and other toys and treats keep the Aquarium’s residents active and engaged.

Stimulation and “environmental enhancements” include wrapping presents for the tortoises to discover and adding seagrass for the stingrays to explore. Seas’n of Play also features parallel sensory activities such as practicing to aim like an archerfish spurting a stream of water at a moving target. From noon to 1:30 p.m., patrons can see Scuba Claus dive into 230,000 gallons of water. You can even ask him questions while he visits a porcupine pufferfish, green moray eel, goliath grouper and other aquatic creatures.

Children visiting for Seas’N of Play will receive an original Scuba Claus coloring book and a temporary tattoo.

The aquarium is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Check the website for ticket prices. (Niesel) 2000 Sycamore St., 216-862-8803, greaterclevelandaquarium.com.

FILM

Sidemen: Long Road to Glory A 2016 documentary film Sidemen: Long Road to Glory focuses on piano player Pinetop Perkins, drummer Willie “Big Eyes” Smith and guitarist Hubert Sumlin, guys who played alongside blues greats such as Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. The movie makes its Cleveland debut tonight at 7 at the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it screens again at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. Tickets are $10, or $7 for CMA members. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

All neW

NIGHTLIFE

Highlighting 30+ years of induction ceremonies!

The hall of fame pays homage to our inductees through an immersive concert-like experience and a space for fans to share their own stories.

1100 Rock and Roll Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio 44114 • 216-781-ROCK • rockhall.com

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| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

*On general admission when showing a valid ID with ZIP beginning in 440, 441, 442 or 443.

Star Wars Burlesque: The Return of the Tease The local burlesque company Le Femme Mystique Burlesque regularly hosts events in Northeast Ohio. One of its most unique events, Star Wars Burlesque: The Return of the Tease will return to the Beachland Ballroom at 8 tonight. Organizers promise there will be a 7-foot C-3PO drag queen, a Latina “hip-shaking” Captain Phasma and a sexy Lando Calrissian. “Jedi” Ken Schneck serves as the host, and special guests include storyteller Dana

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GET OUT Norris and the Crooked River Comedy Improv group as well. Tickets are $20 for general admission. (Niesel) 15711 Waterloo Rd., 216-383-1124, beachlandballroom.com.

clock strikes midnight, magical things begin to happen. Today’s performances takes place at 2 and 7 p.m. at the Akron Civic Theatre.

Tomorrow’s performance takes places at 2 p.m. Tickets are $38 to $50.

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

FILM

SAT

12/02

FAMILY FUN

The Cleveland Clinic Get Fit Healthy Living Expo While most people tend to start thinking about getting in shape as part of their New Year’s resolutions, the Cleveland Clinic Get Fit Healthy Living Expo gives you a chance to get an early start on a fitness program.

The expo, which take place today and tomorrow at the I-X Center, features group workouts, healthy cooking demonstrations, fitness challenges, obstacle courses, an interactive fit kids zone, a yoga workshop and more.

Hundreds of vendors featuring the latest products and services in fitness, nutrition and wellness will be on hand. Consult the I-X Center website for times and ticket prices. (Niesel) 1 I-X Center Dr., 216-676-6000, ixcenter.com.

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Food Insecurity: A For Freedoms Town Hall Discussion Following a town hall program held earlier this year, MOCA has partnered again with For Freedoms, an artist-run Super PAC founded by artists Hank Willis Thomas and Eric Gottesman and the City Club of Cleveland. The partnership features a two-year residency that includes a series of quarterly events that investigate how art and activism can shape America. This afternoon’s discussion at MOCA will focus primarily on freedom from want. At 1, a panel of local, regional and national leaders working in food production, distribution, access and policy will discuss food insecurity and inequity in our country. For Freedoms’ founder and artist Eric Gottesman will moderate. Admission is free. (Niesel) 11400 Euclid Ave., 216-421-8671, mocacleveland.org.

DANCE

The Nutcracker In the past, Akron Beacon Journal readers have voted the Ballet Theatre of Ohio’s production of The Nutcracker as Akron’s No. 1 holiday show. Set on Christmas Eve, the ballet, as you know, tells the story of a young girl and her beloved doll. As the

Rocky Horror Picture Show It’s the first Saturday of the month again, so tonight the Cedar Lee Theatre hosts a 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.

Tickets are $9.50. (Niesel) 2163 Lee Rd., Cleveland Heights, 216-321-5411, clevelandcinemas.com.

SUN

12/03

NIGHTLIFE

Prohibition Repeal Party Prosperity Social Club’s annual Prohibition Repeal Party will include live music, dinner specials and drinks.

This year’s party is on from 7 to 9 tonight. The event is free, and attire reminiscent of 1930s’ moonshiners, rum runners, trigger men, teetotalers, coppers, gumshoes, politicians and popular entertainers is encouraged.

In addition, Prosperity will serve up classic cocktails and old-school platters like “city” chicken with sweet-and-sour red cabbage. The local vintage blues, swing and jazz act Hollywood Slim will perform as well.

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

MON

12/04

NIGHTLIFE

Wing Ding Doodle Blues icon Howlin’ Wolf famously covered “Wang Dang Doodle,” the old blues tune penned by Willie Dixon.

Prosperity Social Club in Tremont has adopted that slogan, calling its wing night Wing Ding Doodle. The weekly event features specials on Buffalo wings and cold brews. Prosperity will not only serve up substantial, $1 whole wings, but it’ll also offering meatless Monday “wing” baskets for vegans.

Discounted drafts and a playlist of vintage-electric blues and soulful R&B curated by local musician Clint Holley will be on tap as well. Wing Ding Doodle takes place every Monday from 6 p.m. to midnight. (Niesel) 1109 Starkweather Ave., 216-937-1938, prosperitysocialclub.com.

TUE

12/05

MUSIC

Classical Revolution Cleveland The first Tuesday of every month, Classical Revolution Cleveland brings chamber music to the Euclid Tavern.

Performers like the Trepanning Trio, Anime Duo, students of Cleveland Institute of Music and even Cleveland Orchestra members grace the stage in these exciting concerts. Tonight’s free, all-ages performance starts at 8.

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

FILM

From the Land of the Moon Nicole Garcia directs From the Land of the Moon, a French drama set in the 1950s. The film focuses on a sickly woman (Marion Cotillard) who falls in love with a veteran at the spa where she goes to recuperate. The film makes its theatrical debut today at 1:45 p.m. at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tickets are $10, or $7 for CMA members. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

THEATER

On Your Feet Directed by Tony Award winner Jerry Mitchell (Kinky Boots) and featuring choreography by Olivier Award winner Sergio Trujillo (Jersey Boys), the musical On Your Feet tells the story of Emilio and Gloria Estefans’ journey to America to become pop music sensations. The play opens tonight at 7:30 at Connor Palace; performances continue through Dec. 23. Tickets are $29 to $109. (Niesel) 1615 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

NIGHTLIFE

Retro Cocktail Night Tonight from 5:30 to 8 p.m., Prosperity Social Club hosts an “intimate retro cocktail evening” with Stephen Harrison, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s curator of decorative art and design. Harrison will talk about The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s, the current CMA exhibition. Plus you’ll find a special “high society” drink menu inspired by the The Savoy Cocktail Book, by Harry Craddock, a bartender who worked in Cleveland before heading to Europe during Prohibition. (Niesel) 1109 Starkweather Ave., 216-937-1938, prosperitysocialclub.com.

Find more events @clevescene.com t@clevelandscene | clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

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ART OUR ENVIRONMENT, OURSELVES Judith Brandon’s resonant drawings at Kenneth Paul Lesko Gallery

By Dott Von Schneider WALKING INTO THE KENNETH Paul Lesko Gallery, we are not surprised by the sheer size of Judith Brandon’s impressive work in Resonant Drawings, an exhibition that celebrates the artist’s 40-page catalog of the same name. Brandon, who worked out of a space at the 78th Street Studios building, has been steadily creating larger drawings since moving her studio to Rocky River.

“I needed an area to create larger work,” she says, and the results are moving. It should be noted that the grand scale of these drawings, some reaching over 5 feet in any given direction, can be challenging, given that Brandon herself stands at 5 feet tall. Clearly, though, she has targeted and overcome that technicality.

According to the artist, each piece can take up to 36 hours if she is working on it straight through; otherwise, if Brandon is working on multiple artworks at once, it could be up to a month.

Resonant Drawings pulls us into other worlds. As we close in on these sizable pieces, we discover more detail and the notes within. According to the artist’s statement, her work is influenced by, among other factors, having to help her mom empty out the basement in their home from spring flooding; she cautions us to “never by a house at the bottom of a hill.” This experience was the impetus to the artist’s fascination with and research into strange weather patterns, the environment and her resulting technique.

Incised lines and lettering on her preferred support material of printmaking paper add extra gales and gusts — pure movement — within the tumultuous calm for which Brandon’s work is so well known. In “Slumbering Monk,” we see the tracing of an open hand that reaches toward us with the words “evaporate your fear,” something the artist confides that she is working on. Action and form gel as we bear witness to some seemingly wild event, and yet we are comforted.

“Slumbering Monk,” Brandon explains, “came out of a meditation.

Purple and maroon are the Buddhist monk’s robe colors. The purple bubbles are a monk’s resting brain actively

32

Judith Brandon, “Crazy in the Head”

evaporating his or her thoughts about fear.” It is truly a vision to inhale.

If “Slumbering Monk” is the calm, then “Crazy in the Head,” with its hot blood reds and glowing yellows, is definitely reminiscent of synapses reaching, trying to connect the land and the sky. “I have these recurring thoughts of the Earth separating and revealing its many living

a marsh or in the “Barataria Estuary,” an homage to Louisiana’s Barataria Terrebone Estuary after the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. “It was one of the most biologically rich ecosystems in the world and [it was] devastated by the oil leak; what was left is disappearing to this day, each minute. It is a very important part of Louisiana that was

JUDITH BRANDON: RESONANT DRAWINGS THROUGH JAN. 13 AT KENNETH PAUL LESKO GALLERY 1305 WEST 80TH ST., 216-631-6719 KENNETHPAULLESKO.COM

layers,” Brandon says. “It’s a visual conversation with the planet that I’m having. I’m trying to accept that conversation as part of who I am.”

One can imagine being in any of these places, whether in the sea, along

| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

overlooked.” She continues, “I used the image as my business card for years so I could tell people about it. One event years back, I met a fellow from the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and gave him my card and told him what

it was and he stepped back, was quiet for a second, and then said, ‘Shit, I thought you all had forgotten about us,’ and gave me a hug. That’s the kind of connection that makes you feel like everything is going to be okay with the world.”

Brandon’s work is often compared to J.M.W. Turner, the English painter for whom the phrase “Turner sky” has become an art-school staple, and whose sky studies moved the art world of the romanticist and Victorian eras.

The collection of works in Resonant Drawings, however, dives deeper than the folly of Turner. They demand heavy thought on who we are and how we connect with our environment and ourselves. Perhaps now we can look up and finally see the Brandon sky.

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

STAGE HARD MEN AND HARD LIVES Treat yourself to a glorious production of a little-seen O’Neill classic, The Hairy Ape WHEN THE LIGHTS GO UP, YOU feel as if you’ve been dropped into a panel from the mural “America Today”

by Thomas Hart Benton. Bare-chested men are drinking beer and yelling taunts at each other in the belly of an ocean liner, where they’ve taken a break from shoveling coal into the ship’s engine. And among these drunken louts, one man stands apart, clearly not sure if he belongs there. Or anywhere.

Thus begins The Hairy Ape, the expressionist play by Eugene O’Neill written in 1922 that is now being given a vital and imaginative production at Ensemble Theatre.

This none-too-subtle story is about men trapped in the bowels of the 20th century’s burgeoning industrialism, and the debating points are established quickly in this 90-minute piece.

Among the Neanderthals who are yelling and cursing, a fireman named Long (James Rankin) quotes the bible and claims that they are all wage slaves. His opinion is amplified

by Paddy (Allen Branstein), who rhapsodizes about times past when shipmates worked in the fresh air under sail, “… scudding south again with the power of the Trade Wind, driving her on steady through the nights and the days.”

O’Neill’s evocative words paint a lovely picture, but soon those reveries are confronted by the man apart, the alpha male in this pack named Yank, who is just fine with things as they are. Yank doesn’t see himself as a slave, but as the driving force behind the power of a new world. As he says about Paddy in his Brooklyn-accented working-man dialect, “He can’t breathe and swallow coal dust, but I kin, see? Dat’s fresh air for me! … I’m at de bottom, get me! Dere ain’t nothin’ foither. I’m de end! I’m de start! I start somep’n and de woild moves!”

As you can tell, this is a script rife with question marks and exclamation points, but thanks to the precisely modulated, gloriously theatrical direction by Ian Wolfgang Hinz, it never seems oppressive. Instead, the actors give shape and substance to O’Neill’s foaming rants, showing how Yank struggles to find a place for himself, somewhere between the

Photo by Celeste Cosentino

By Christine Howey

THE HAIRY APE THROUGH DEC. 10 AT ENSEMBLE THEATRE, 2843 WASHINGTON BLVD., CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, 216-321-2930, ENSEMBLETHEATRECLE.ORG

animal that others see him as and the human being he aspires to be.

This comes into clear focus when Mildred, the wealthy and adventurous daughter of the shipping magnate, decides to escape from the stultifying protection of her aunt and visit the stokehold where these men sweat and yell. But when she encounters Yank, she declares that he is a “hairy ape” and nearly faints before being helped

off the ship.

Clearly, the playwright has issues of class-consciousness and the strict boundaries of the social order. This contrast is captured brilliantly when the ensemble parades about as the privileged class, wearing white masks and moving like automatons. Yank wants to vent his spleen at the upper crust by going into New York City to confront them as they leave church.

But no matter what he does, he has no effect on the rich folks, who blithely go about their business.

Then Yank attempts to join up with other working-class people at a trade union. But he is so aggressive that his over-the-top antagonisms make him seem like an undercover operative and he is kicked to the curb by the wellspoken secretary of the organization (Keith Kornajcik).

None of this would work as well as it does without a splendid performance by the person who plays Yank. And this production gleams in that regard thanks to a memorable and riveting turn by Joseph Milan.

Whether he’s sitting like the statue of “The Thinker,” with his chin in hand mulling his fate, or battling physically with others, Milan’s Yank is a force of nature on stage. It is, very simply, a marvelously moving performance.

In supporting roles, Rankin and Branstein craft distinct characters on board the ship, while Mary Alice Beck as Mildred’s aunt manages to encompass the offensive superiority of the well-to-do with just a turned head and a sniff. And the production’s ensemble — Whit Lowell, Santino Montanez, Kyle Huff, Aziz Ghrabat, Stephen Vasse-Hansell and August Scarpelli — contribute mightily to the overall atmosphere. In the role of Mildred, Brittany Ganser falls into a mechanical delivery pattern a bit too often and doesn’t quite pick up the stylized vibe of the show.

These players are supported admirably by the designers. The simple set design by Walter Boswell somehow paints the pictures of these various locations with only the barest suggestions. And the lighting design

by Andrew Eckert makes the ship’s stokehold pulse with power and danger.

It is one of the missions of Ensemble Theatre to explore O’Neill’s entire oeuvre, and they have done a fine job with most of his scripts.

But none has surpassed this superb presentation of a play that speaks to the existential isolation all humans feel, stuck in the smoke-filled holds of our own lives.

scene@clevescene.com t@christinehowey

| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

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| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

EAT

Photos by Emanuel Wallace

INDIAN DELIGHTS A new home, and a newly expanded menu, for Taste of Kerala

By Douglas Trattner ONE OF MY FAVORITE MEALS of 2011 took place in the front seat of my car. Following up on a tip, I had landed at Taste of Kerala, a barebones storefront on Mayfield Road.

The “restaurant” had no seating save for the few chairs up front for customers to plop into while waiting on take-out orders, the only type of orders the place offered. My intention was to order one or two dishes and hustle home, but when I looked at the menu — a short slip of paper with a handful of items — I went a little overboard. The front seat of a Honda coupe might not make for the most glamorous of dining rooms, but that meal still ranks as one of my favorite taste memories of the past 10 years.

As a fan of the cuisine, I had eaten at every other place in town, from the pricy Northern Indian staples of the east side to the economical South Indian joints on the west side, but that initial meal at Taste of Kerala made a lasting impression. Puffy idli with sambar, chickpea curry, and a goat biryani that blew the top of my head off with spice. In addition to the electric flavors, diners were rewarded with ridiculously low prices, a happy consequence of the low-overhead operation.

From nearly the beginning, owner Anil Kumar, who hails from the state of Kerala in South India, has spoken of his plans to open a restaurant. After six years of laying the groundwork, that dream came to fruition in October when Taste of

Kerala was reborn as a full-service operation. The restaurant, in the former home of Tomaydo Tomahhdo, sits in the triangle formed by Chagrin Boulevard and East and West Brainard roads. The plan is to reopen the original spot, which is currently closed, following some renovations.

One of the first things diners see at the new place, if they’re paying attention, is an entrance to the kitchen with clearly marked sides for vegetarian and non-vegetarian food preparation. If you’re there for the lunch buffet, you’ll notice also that the vegetarian and nonvegetarian chafing dishes are physically separated, steps that clearly are intended to put observant

like a sponge. For a nice added kick, follow it up with some spicy chutney.

Like those idli, dosas are made from a fermented batter of ground rice and lentils, and they go great with sambar and chutney, but that’s where the similarities end. In the masala dosa ($8.49), a paper-thin, brittle-crisp crepe the length of one’s forearm is rolled around a spiced potato mixture. Idiyappam ($9.99), an intriguing dish we haven’t encountered elsewhere around town, arrives as twin nests of steamed rice flour noodles that are served with black chickpea curry for ladling over the top.

Taste of Kerala’s curries are a revelation. Kerala is often called the spice capital of India, a claim that’s

TASTE OF KERALA 3429 WEST BRAINARD RD., WOODMERE 216-450-1711 TASTEOFKERALAM.COM

vegetarians at ease. Fans of the old spot will also see that the menu has gained considerable weight thanks to new options. Prices edged up too, but they still come in lower than many full-service competitors in the field.

There are few better comfort food experiences than dipping warm pieces of airy idli ($6.99) into tart and tangy sambar, a sort of vegetable stew. The steamed pancakes soak up the flavorful brew

backed up by many of the dishes served here. Black pepper, tamarind, turmeric, cardamom, curry, garlic, ginger and hot chile peppers, whose fury is often tempered by coconut milk, all make appearances. That tropical coconut enriches vegetarian dishes like eggplant masala and vegetable korma and non-veg dishes like beef curry and mutton korma.

Staples like butter chicken ($10.99), chicken curry ($9.99) and tikka masala ($10.99) hit all the right

marks and more. Those prices include basmati rice and naan, by the way.

Kumar’s goat biryani ($13.99) is every bit as a good as I remember.

It’s dark, spicy and studded with tender bone-in goat meat. “Medium” here is a strong 7 on the Richter magnitude scale of heat. Those flames are moderated by dollops of cool, calming yogurt-based raita.

There are other biryani varieties made with paneer, chicken, lamb and shrimp.

A recent lunch buffet ($12.99) was stocked and replenished with three vegetarian dishes, three meat dishes, a few starters like paneer pakora and vegetable cutlet, and sambar, naan and rice. There was no attempt to keep the fried starters warm, the three meat dishes were all chicken, and there was a disappointing absence of chutneys and raita.

Despite those issues, the food was well prepared and worth the price.

It’s clear that management is still getting the hang of this sit-down restaurant thing. Service was warm and attentive during a recent dinner, and our meals came out quickly, but it was also a bit frenetic and uneven. Tables that had been vacated before our arrival sat littered with dishes long after we sat down. While unseemly, it didn’t affect our meal in the least.

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner

| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

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| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

EAST BANK SHUFFLE Flip Side closes in Flats, will reopen as ‘70s-style entertainment venue

By Douglas Trattner GIVEN THAT FLIP SIDE IS A family friendly burger bar, owner Michael Schwartz concedes that perhaps the Flats East Bank wasn’t the best location for the concept. He and partners Tiffany and Shawn Monday will stick with their six other locations of that concept, but recently have shuttered the downtown location.

“We’ve been working on a concept to rebrand the space for many months,” Schwartz explains. “This is an entertainment district and we’re going to become an entertainment facility. We know that our bread is going to be buttered on Friday and Saturday nights because that’s when the business is here.”

When it opens in spring of 2018, Good Night John Boy will be a highly conceptual dive bar dripping with nostalgia. If you’ve always wanted to hang out with the gang in Eric Forman’s basement from “That ’70s Show,” you might soon get the chance.

“We’re going to create a great ’70s party atmosphere — think classy, high-end Basement from the goodold days of the Flats,” Schwartz adds.

“It’s going to be a party in here on weekends.”

During the week, Good Night John Boy will serve diner-style breakfast and lunch items like eggs Benedict, lemon ricotta pancakes, corned beef sandwiches and the like.

The owners are attempting to finagle free parking to facilitate quick, affordable ins and outs at breakfast time. Dinner will only be served on weekends, and it will run until 4:30 a.m.

“We feel there’s a late-night food need in Cleveland,” he says.

Although he admits that Flip Side might not have been the best fit for the spot, Schwartz says he never had any interest in packing it all in.

“We’re doing really well down here with Magnolia and FWD,” says the owner of both of those Flats-based concepts. “We’re vested down here.”

Meanwhile, the team’s other project, Bell and Flower, is currently taking shape in the former home of Rick’s Cafe in Chagrin Falls. That new concept should come online sometime in January.

KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN AIMS TO GET FRIEND BACK IN THE RESTAURANT BIZ “Many of you know and love Ehab Enaia and his former place, Cafe Falafel,” says Diane Sikorski, the gal behind Humble Pie Baking. “When he made the decision to close the cafe last year, I knew I wanted to do something to help him reopen in a new location.

This Kickstarter campaign is the result of that desire.”

The moving short video (from Cleveland’s Purple Films) tells the story of Enaia’s journey from war-torn Palestine to America and, eventually, to Cafe Falafel, which he opened in 2012. That shop in Kamm’s Corners served traditional Middle-Eastern foods and some of the best falafel this side of the Nile. Moreover, the shop became a gathering space for the community.

“Something unusual was going on at Cafe Falafel,” Sikorski adds. “An Arab chef was breaking social and racial barriers through food. Whether Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Atheist (sic), rich or poor, it didn’t matter to Ehab. His passion for feeding people was powerful.”

The small space, loss of parking and welcome news of a new child compelled Enaia to make a difficult decision. To the disappointment of many, he shuttered his shop after four good years. It was only at the urging of his friends that the dream would not be permanently put to bed.

“Cafe Falafel was a testament to Ehab and his personality and the way that he brings people together. His character is precisely what made his restaurant so magical,” says Sikorski.

“On the surface, this campaign is about raising money for Ehab to start a new restaurant, but to me, it has become more than that. We are people who hold open the door for people who come after us. We believe in building a bigger table and that sharing good food and time together brings people together in a meaningful way.”

Find it on Kickstarter and consider helping the cause.

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner

Mon - Fri: 7am - 3pm Sat & Sun: 7am - 4pm | cl clevescene.com lev eves essceenee.ccom m | November N veember No mber mb e 29 29 - December Deecemb D mber er 5, 5, 2017 2017

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| clevescene.com clevves esce cene ce ne.c ne .ccom | November Nove No vemb ve m er 29 mb 29 - December Dece De c mb ce m er 5, 5, 2017 2 17 20

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MUSIC REGAINING A RHYTHM Producer Jimmy Jam talks about Janet Jackson’s legacy JAMES SAMUEL “JIMMY JAM” Harris III and Terry Steven Lewis, the American R&B production team that worked behind the scenes to turn Janet Jackson albums such as Control and Rhythm Nation 1814 into monster hits and reunited with Jackson for 2015’s Unbreakable, first met in the early ’70s at a summer program called Upward Bound at the University of Minnesota.

“We were studying to be peer teachers,” says Harris during a phone interview to promote Jackson’s tour which comes to Quicken Loans Arena at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday. “The concept was that if you learned math you would teach the grade below you math, and it would be easier for the kids to understand. I was always a good student, but I was horrible at math, and I had no clue why they chose me for the program. I was happy that they did. It gave me a better understanding of math. Even better, I met Terry.”

The two stayed in the dorms, and Harris says when he walked into Lewis’ room, he saw his bass guitar and immediately thought they would become friends.

“I think I was 13, and he was 15, and he was that cool kid that everybody wanted to know,” says Harris. “We definitely talked music. I was really into pop music, big time. I was waiting for the Chicago VI album to come out. I said something about it to him. He said, ‘What about the new Earth Wind & Fire album?’ He introduced me to them. I remember the first records. It was Earth, Wind & Fire, Tower of Power and a group called New Birth. He totally turned me onto that. That was our conversation. We went back and forth about music.”

A few years later, the two launched the Time, a terrific R&B/funk band that drew from many of their inspirations. Jackson came to a Long Beach show and initiated what would become a long and creatively fruitful relationship. “[Jackson] was in the front row with her mom and couple of other people,” says Harris. “I remember our show as a little bit risque, but she was jamming and loving every minute of it. Afterward, we got a chance to meet

Photo Courtesy of Live Nation

By Jeff Niesel

her. She was super sweet. She was a huge Time fan and that was very cool to us. That was the first time we met her and then we met her again in the summer of 1982.”

Harris and Lewis would come on board to produce 1986’s Control, an album that fused rap, funk, disco and rock. It would become a huge breakthrough for the singer.

“We did [the record] in

artist. As producers, our best thing is to make the artist sound good and stay out of the way rather than try to dominate with a certain sound and all that. That’s never been our thing. We want to make the artist sound great and give everyone their own sound.”

The duo would also produce 1989’s Rhythm Nation 1814, another huge hit for the singer.

When Jackson reunited with

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Minneapolis, which was great because it was away from the craziness of L.A. and the whole recording scene,” says Harris. “Nobody really cared. It was made in a vacuum. When we asked her to come to Minneapolis, there was no hoopla. The record company wasn’t paying attention, other than John McClain, who did A&R. It was a great way to make a record and a great way to get to know her. And it was a blueprint we’ve subscribed to with any

Harris and Lewis for last year’s Unbreakable, the producers insisted that they work together like they had in the past without any interference from the record label. Jackson agreed.

“We all wanted that,” says Harris.

“A lot of time had passed between us working with her. I don’t by any means disown any Janet record that we were involved with, even the ones we weren’t involved with. They all have their place and their influence.

I feel like the Janet records that were done in the way we would prefer to do records with her stopped at All for You, which was 2001. We were talking 14 or 15 years. In that sense, hindsight being 20/20, it was easy to have conversations and look back at the past potholes, speed bumps and detours and see that we needed to be on a different smooth road. Once it was agreed upon, it was a no-brainer.”

Unbreakable tracks, such as the shimmering “Burnitup!”, find Jackson embracing a funk and hip hop-inspired sound. There are still plenty of slow jams (“The Great Forever” and “After You Fall”), but Jackson sounds re-energized on the album.

The highly personal songs refer to various experiences over the course of her life, including aspects of her childhood and the death of her brother Michael.

“She’s lived a lot of life,” says Harris. “She’s in a place where ‘wise’ is the word I would use. There’s a point in your life when you think you know everything and you’ve learned everything you can learn.

We all go through that. It’s not true.

She’s been through that enough times where her viewpoint on things is that she’s still learning and growing and hasn’t figured it out. There’s no shame in that. I am wise about knowing what I know and don’t know. I think that’s the viewpoint that the album takes. With that as the overall theme, it’s easy to craft songs in that way.”

Harris doesn’t tour with Jackson, but he says he’s come out to “tweak a few things.” He says the singer has put together one of her best shows.

“She has a killer band and amazing singers and dancers,” he says. “When she opened in Vancouver, I went there for a few days to work through a few things.

Because I played everything, I can walk up to the keyboard player and go, ‘This is the lick.’ It’s actually kind of fun. I think it’s the best ensemble creatively that she’s ever had. They’re amazing.”

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

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| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

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| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

43

MUSIC

Photo by Kenneth Kearny

AND THE BEAT GOES ON Moon Hooch continues making people dance, one show at a time

By Laura Morrison IT BEGAN IN BALMY NEW YORK City subway stations. Two guys blaring through saxophones, accompanied by an often-shirtless drummer. Somehow this trio, who’d eventually call themselves Moon Hooch, successfully crafted a fusion of noodly stylized jazz and EDM that made busy passersby not only listen, but move.

“To the everyday person, it was mania,” saxophonist Mike Wilbur recalls. “Old ladies dancing next to homeless men and businessmen dancing with hipsters. All these crazy combinations of people as if we turned a switch within them. It was like magic.”

To their “elitist jazz musician” friends at the New School in Manhattan it was all a big joke; for a while it was for Wilbur, too. But there was no denying how this “silly dance music” made others feel, or how Wilbur and fellow sax man Wenzl McGowen and drummer James Muschler gelled when they played together. The subway performances soon led to shows on real Brooklyn stages and, eventually, a record contract. They quit school and, since their 2013 debut album landed at No. 9 on the Billboard Jazz Albums charts, they haven’t stopped. Moon Hooch rolls through the Beachland Ballroom on Thursday.

In a way, it is a shtick, Wilbur admits: from the beat-up traffic cone McGowen tapes to his sax, thereby

44

lowering the instrument’s tone, to the driving, repetitive melodies and dropping of the beat. “[In the beginning] the music we were playing wasn’t intellectual, it was analogous to music that’s popular today. The original songs were composed to emulate club dance music. It was extremely intentional,” Wilbur explains.

Now the idea is to continue exploring musical complexity while keeping it danceable. They want their music in clubs. They want you out with your girlfriends on a Saturday night getting drunk to their songs.

As heard in 2016’s Red Sky, written and recorded in the winter at an eerily serene Joshua Tree National Park, the band continues to add more electronic techniques (“Rough Sex”)

holiday. “Yes, celebrating the mass destruction of a culture,” he says. The group just got back from Europe, where Manchester crowds were the rowdiest they’d ever seen, while Parisian fans proved more contained, barely swaying to the rhythms. But Wilbur says it’s not about the crowd’s reaction.

“It doesn’t matter to me anymore what people are doing. It’s not on my mind so much,” he says. “When I make art, I’m not thinking at all; I do this to get out of the thinking state. The thinking state is the root of my anxiety and trouble in life. Any chance I have to leave that state, it’s definitely something I look forward to.”

In order to achieve all this, their bodies must be in peak physical

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and vocals (“On the Sun”) to the mix.

“We’d record our improvisations every day, then go back and expound upon the ideas we were into,” Wilbur recalls. “It was the most organic songwriting process we’d ever done.

A lot of the songs are very simple but we did a good job fleshing them out.”

Speaking by phone last week, the now 28-year-old is safely at his parents’ Massachusetts home preparing for the impending

| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

shape. That means laying off drugs and alcohol, especially before shows, and cutting out meat and dairy from their diets (check out their vegan road blog, Cooking in the Cave). For drummer Muschler, who grew up in the Cleveland area and attended shows at the Beachland prior to moving to New York City at 18, that means going shirtless, as playing the drums is a sweaty business. “He actually plays better naked,” Wilbur

says.

And just like the subway busking, the shows are where Moon Hooch shines; NPR even deemed the band’s Tiny Desk Concert one of the best of the series. Live recordings, like Live at the Cathedral, which was recorded in 2015 and dropped this summer, don’t do the band justice.

“I was very unhappy with how long that took,” Wilbur says. “We sound completely different. To say it’s a new live record, it’s not at all new. The music business industry is terrible, full of clogged arteries. Part of me would rather it not be out. I can’t change that it’s out.”

And so they press on, playing nearly 200 shows a year. They’re on the road so much they don’t even have permanent housing. But despite the fatigue and the long hours of traveling, it’s all washed away once the spotlight hits them on stage.

“We flip the switch, and it’s ‘let’s go,’” Wilbur says. “It’s almost like a battle. Sometimes it feels like I’m a boxer, like nothing is going to stop us. It’s super intense. It’s a mindless state of just raw energy and there’s nothing like it. I think athletes are in these sorts of states. Anyone who has done something over and over again.

It’s all automatic.”

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

| clevescene.com m | November 29 - December 5, 2017

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| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

WED

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Brothers Lounge.

Center in Exile/Dead Gumbies/ MourningWagon/Grandvue: 7:30 p.m., $5. Grog Shop.

Joe Hertler & the Rainbow Seekers: 9 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Beachland Tavern.

Eric Seddon’s Hot Club Presents: Trad Jazz In The 21st Century: 7 p.m., $12. Bop Stop.

THU

11/30

Blue Lunch (in the Supper Club): 7:30 p.m., $8. Music Box Supper Club.

The Fast Romantics: 8 p.m., $10.

Musica.

Ghost Noises Weirdo Rap Night: 10 p.m., free. Now That’s Class.

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

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

The Lacs: 9 p.m., $20. Grog Shop.

Light Years/Keep Flying/ heyohwell/Keepsake/Sorry Mom (in the Locker Room): 7 p.m., $10.

Mahall’s 20 Lanes.

Moon Hooch/Gnomedad: 8:30 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Beachland Ballroom.

Vinnie Moore/Gus G: 7 p.m., $20 ADV, $25 DOS. Agora Ballroom.

Joe Policastro Trio: 7 p.m., $12. Bop Stop.

REO Speedwagon: 7:30 p.m. Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park.

Spirit of the Bear/Captain Kidd/ label me lecter: 8:30 p.m., $7 ADV, $10 DOS. Beachland Tavern.

The Ugly Beats/Rainy Day Saints/ Nox Boys: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog.

FRI

12/01

An Acoustic Christmas with Over The Rhine: 8 p.m., $27.50. The Kent Stage.

Drake Bell/Mitchel Madak: 7 p.m., $17 ADV, $22 DOS. Odeon.

Boy Band Review: 8 p.m. House of Blues.

Chil/The Outside Voices/Black Roads: 7 p.m., $10. Musica.

Crave On/Heavenly Creatures/

all the live music you should see this week Photo by Tom Callan

LIVEWIRE

Rocker Todd Rundgren returns to the Kent Stage.

See: Tuesday.

Valley Girls/Istvan Medgyesi/ Idolos: 9 p.m. Now That’s Class.

Cruel Winter Fest 4: 8 p.m., $10 ADV, $15 DOS. Grog Shop.

Sammy DeLeon Latin Jazz Sextet: 8:30 p.m., $15. Nighttown.

The Grievance Club/Forest Green/ forage & wander/An Ongoing Story (in the Locker Room): 7 p.m., $10. Mahall’s 20 Lanes.

Carlos Jones & the P.L.U.S. Band: 10 p.m., $8. Brothers Lounge.

Lords of the Highway’s 25th Anniversary Show/The Hi-Views: 9 p.m., $7. Beachland Tavern.

Mike St. Jude and the Valentines/ Forager/Mild Animals: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. Kip Moore’s Plead the Fifth Tour with Drake White and the Big Fire: 8 p.m. Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park.

Northcoast Jazz Collective: 8 p.m., $12. Bop Stop.

Thor Platter (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge.

Rittz/Sam Lachow/Eric Biddines: 7 p.m., $20 ADV, $25 DOS. The Agora Theatre.

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

Nighttown.

Tom Petty Tribute by Shadow of a Doubt (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $10. Music Box Supper Club.

Womantra: 8 p.m., $5. The Winchester.

SAT

12/02

Circa Survive/Thrice/Chon/ Balance and Composure: 6 p.m., $29.99 ADV, $35 DOS. The Agora Theatre.

Hatebreed: 20 Years of Desire and 15 Years of Perseverance: Way back in November 1997, the hardcore group Hatebreed released its full-length debut,

Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire.

By combining metal and hardcore, the group had a huge influence on the underground sound of the ’00s. Released 15 years ago, Perseverance yielded one of the band’s biggest hits with “I Will Be Heard.” The band’s current tour celebrates the 20 years of Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire and 15 years of Perseverance. The group will play the majority of songs from both albums, along with other “fan favorites” from its catalog. (Jeff Niesel) 6:30 p.m., $25-$35. House of Blues.

Migos: The hip-hop act Migos have been steadily buzzing since their 2013 smash “Versace” rediscovered the power of the triplet flow over booming production. Not unlike the double-time cadence popularized by Bone Thugs-nHarmony and reinvented by A$AP Rocky, the “Migos flow” set into motion a wave that seeped into the cadences of everyone from Drake to Kanye to Ab-Soul. Their widely acknowledged cultural influence even ignited a fiery and only partly in jest “Migos > The Beatles” debate on social media: John Lennon never got a hundred thousand retweets, folks pointed out. Generating a buzz from mixtape singles like “Fight Night” and “Look At My Dab,” which triggered the worldwide “dabbing” craze, Migos shot into the spotlight in late 2016 with the unexpected smash success of “Bad and Boujee;” now they are hitting arenas for this fall tour.

(Lawrence Neil) 8 p.m. Covelli Centre (Youngstown).

Beatles vs. Stones: A Musical Showdown: 8 p.m. Hard Rock Rocksino Northfield Park.

Chromosome Damage/Kill the

Hippies/Shit Blimp/Manswerk: 9 p.m. Now That’s Class.

Debbie Gifford: Tis The Season To Be Jazzy: 8 p.m., $15. Bop Stop.

Keep On Repeat Presents: A Luvly Night: 9 p.m., $10. Musica.

Reggie Kelly/David Thomas Trio: 8:30 p.m., $15. Nighttown.

Key to the Mint/Mapache/Scientific Affair: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. A Killers Confession: 8 p.m., $15.

The Winchester.

Midlife Chryslers: 9:30 p.m., $10.

Brothers Lounge.

The Ohio City Singers: 1 p.m., $15 ADV, $18 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

QTY/Prithee/The Vexies: 7:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes.

Save The Lost Boys/Home Sweet Home: 6 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Odeon.

Uncle James Live: 7 p.m., $20 ADV, $25 DOS. Odeon.

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

Brothers Lounge.

Victor Wainwright & the Wild Roots (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $15 ADV, $18 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

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

Nighttown.

SUN

12/03

Blues vs. Opioids with Travis Haddix Band/Gaetano Letitia & the Underworld/Colin Dussault Band/Sam Hooper Group/ Bluescasters: 2 p.m., $10 ADV, $15 DOS. Beachland Ballroom.

Bill Frisell & Thomas Morgan: 7:30 p.m., $27.50-$40. The Kent Stage.

Janet Jackson: 7:30 p.m. Quicken Loans Arena.

Paul Kovac & Friends: 7 p.m., $10.

Nighttown.

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

The Music of Simon & Garfunkel Tribute by Swearingen & Kelli (in the Supper Club): 7 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Music Box Supper Club.

Party Plates/Weed Whacker/Grin & Bear It: 9 p.m., free. Now That’s Class.

Puddles Pity Party: 7 p.m. House of Blues.

Sad Boys Social Club: 9 p.m., $5.

Bop Stop.

ZooFunkYou/The Cat’s Meow: 8:30 p.m., $7 ADV, $10 DOS. Beachland Tavern.

| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

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

Golden Age Concert: The Baldwin Wallace Musical Theater Junior Class: 7 p.m., $10. Nighttown.

Shit Show Karaoke: 10 p.m. B-Side Liquor Lounge & Arcade.

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

TUE

“ Rainy days seem to wind up sunny”

at Margaritaville

12/05

Todd Rundgren: Master songwriter and producer Todd Rundgren has done much to advance various corners of the American rock world.

His prolific career, which can be looked at from many different angles, has led us to 2017’s White Knight, which features a bevy of guest musicians who intersect with various points in Rundgren’s career. There’s Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen, for instance, and there’s Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross; the latter appear on the mournful breakbeat dirge “Deaf Ears,” which name-drops The Hunger Games.

We imagine you’ll hear a nice cross-section of this new material alongside the classics. We’re partial to Something/Anything?, mandatory listening for the post-Thanksgiving return to the college dorm room or for some nice Sunday morning sounds. (Eric Sandy) 8 p.m., $55$199. The Kent Stage.

The White Buffalo/Suzanne Santo: Jake Smith, who records and tours as the White Buffalo, didn’t intend to become a singer-songwriter.

Smith, who’s benefited from having numerous songs featured on the TV drama Sons of Anarchy, including the chilling “Come Join the Murder,” a track co-written with Sons of Anarchy creator and executive producer Kurt Sutter and music producer/composer Bob Thiele Jr, grew up in Huntington Beach, Calif. and didn’t learn to play guitar until age 19. He comes to town tonight in support of his latest album, Darkest Darks, Lightest Lights. (Niesel) 8 p.m., $18 ADV, $20 DOS. Grog Shop.

Duo Decibel System: 7 p.m.

Brothers Lounge.

Damien Escobar: 7 p.m., $30-$60.

House of Blues.

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| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

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LORDS OF THE HIGHWAY

By Jeff Niesel MEET THE BAND: Dennis A. Bell (guitar, vocals, stompinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;), Matt Sauer (drums, vocals), Action Al (upright bass, vocals) IT ALL STARTED WITH AN AD: The local rockabilly band Lords of the Highway got its start in the early â&#x20AC;&#x2122;90s when a local drummer placed an ad in Scene. He wanted to play some roots rock and singerguitarist Dennis Bell responded to the ad. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We started jamming, and that didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work out so well, but we still played a few gigs,â&#x20AC;? says Bell. â&#x20AC;&#x153;After that, the drummer guy didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to play, so we got another drummer,â&#x20AC;? says Bell. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was kind of rockabilly back then, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s morphed into more rock than â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;billyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; now.â&#x20AC;?

STRAIGHT TO TAPE: The band issued its debut on cassette in 1992. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We sent it off to the press and got about 600 copies made,â&#x20AC;? says Bell. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have maybe four copies still laying around. I havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t listened to it in a long time.â&#x20AC;? The group went through numerous lineup changes and slowly evolved. The first two years, the band played mostly cover songs and then morphed into a â&#x20AC;&#x153;psychobilly with an upright bassâ&#x20AC;? band, as Bell puts it.

WHY YOU SHOULD HEAR THEM: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dirty Girl,â&#x20AC;? a track from last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s High Octane/Low Expectations, features

a psychobilly vibe, thrives on howling vocals and brittle guitar riffs. Right before recording the album, the group went through a lineup change and brought a new bassist into the studio for the album. Bell says they didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t try to do anything too different with the disc. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Every time we do an album, it has a smattering of car songs and girl songs and the typical bad relationship stuff,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The only song that took a little thinking was â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Not Too Old to Fight.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? For the bandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s upcoming 25th anniversary show at the Beachland Ballroom, previous band members like Sugar and the Hissem brothers will play a few tracks with Bell. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll come up and play three to four songs each,â&#x20AC;? says Bell. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sugar will play a lot because she was with the band for the longest. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going to fill up a good chunk of the night.â&#x20AC;? The showâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s second half will feature the current lineup.

WHERE YOU CAN HEAR THEM: facebook.com/lordsofthehighway WHERE YOU CAN SEE THEM: Lords of the Highway perform with the Hi-Views at 9 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 1, at the Beachland Tavern.

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

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51

C-NOTES

Photo by Jan Bünning

Night Demon’s Jarvis Leatherby

A WORTHY CAUSE Night Demon to headline annual Cleveland Metal Holiday Food Drive

By Jeff Niesel SLATED TO TAKE PLACE AT 5 p.m. on Saturday at the Beachland Ballroom, this year’s ninth annual Cleveland Metal Holiday Food Drive will also celebrate the 35th anniversary of organizer Bill Peters’ WJCU “Metal On Metal” radio show, which can be heard every Friday night in Cleveland on 88.7 FM or streamed at wjcu.org.

Reportedly the longest running host of a heavy-metal show in radio history, Peters launched “Metal on Metal” in 1982 and has broadcast live continuously on the same radio station ever since.

This year’s food drive will also feature a national act for the first time.

The Ventura, California-based Night Demon will perform and record a live album. The band will play a special 90-minute set for a forthcoming double vinyl plus CD release, Live Darkness, due out in early 2018 on SPV/Steamhammer in Europe and Century Media in North America.

Tony Alberts from the local Spectrum Sound will handle the live recording.

Mixing will take place immediately following the concert at Mercinary Studios in Cleveland with Jason Vanek engineering.

Over the years, thousands of pounds of food and dollars have been collected at the event to help those less fortunate in Northeast Ohio during the holiday season. Last year’s drive hauled in more than 6,800 pounds of food and $5,000 in cash donations.

In addition, this year’s Cleveland Metal Holiday Food Drive will feature a special appearance by the veteran local metal act Breaker. The original members will reunite for the first time in more than 25 years.

Local metal acts such as Shok

52

| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

Paris, Olathia and Gluttons will perform along with Resistance, Lady Beast, Granicus and RadiatriX. The burlesque troupe the Red Hot Heathens will be on hand, and comedians Cyndi Rice, Brad Bishop and John Hensler will perform.

German-based rock writer Iron Ingo Sthührenberg and Olathia’s Chris Emig will serve as the hosts.

AN AWARENESS BENEFIT CONCERT Five local blues bands will perform at the Blues vs. Opioids Awareness Benefit Concert, an upcoming event at the Beachland Ballroom that’s designed to help fight the opioid crisis.

The concert has an educational element to it as well. Speakers include physician Teresa Dews from Cleveland Clinic Pain Management; Stanley Stone, a former addict who is now an interventionist/drug counselor; Rose Deroia, a pharmacist who lost her son to opioid addiction; Anna Szinko from Ohio CAN (Change Addiction Now); and Maple Heights police chief John Popielarczyk, who will speak and also perform.

The concert will take place at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Travis Haddix and his seven-piece band will headline. The bill also includes Gaetano’s Underworld, Colin Dussault, Sam Hooper Group and the Bluescasters.

Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. All proceeds will benefit five area recovery shelters including Stella Maris, Rosary Hall, Matt Talbot, True Freedom Ministries and Greater Than Heroin.

jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel

SAVAGE LOVE DEVASTATION

By Dan Savage Dear Dan, I’m a straight man in a live-in relationship with a beautiful woman.

There are no sparks in bed, and it’s been more than a year since we’ve had sex.

She says, “I’m sorry, but I’m just not interested.” Sometimes she asks me if I’m disappointed, and I say something like, “I miss sex.” And she says: “Maybe someday. But the important thing is we love each other, right?” Before my last birthday, she asked me what I wanted as a gift. I replied, “A soapy handjob.”

That would’ve been the most action I’d had all year. But when my birthday rolled around, all I got was a speech about how she loved me but was not in love with me. My question: In the year 2017, how does a straight man make it clear to the woman he’s with that sex is important to him without coming across as threatening? If I told her I’d leave her unless our sex life improved — and I have certainly thought about this — she’d probably “put out” to save our relationship. She has abandonment issues, and I fear she would be devastated if I left her. I only want to have sex with someone who wants to have sex with me, not someone I’ve coerced. What do I do? I love her, but a sexless relationship isn’t what I want or signed up for.

— Sexless Over A Perplexing Year There’s being sensitive to coming across as threatening and wanting to avoid even unintentional coercion and being cognizant of the ways women are socialized to defer to men and the ways men are socialized to feel entitled to women’s bodies, SOAPY, and then there’s being a fucking doormat. She isn’t in love with you — she told you so herself — and she’s never gonna fuck you or soap you up to get you off. If you don’t want her putting out to keep you, then don’t give her the option. That means ending the relationship, SOAPY, not entering into negotiations about the terms for remaining in the relationship. (“1. Tell me you’re in love with me, even if it’s a lie. 2. A sad, soapy handjob once a year on my birthday …”)

There’s nothing unreasonable about wanting a romantic relationship that’s both loving and fully sexual, SOAPY, and a man can put his wants on the table without pounding said table with his dick. Your girlfriend’s issue may be a mystery — maybe it’s her, maybe it’s you — but you’re not obligated to stay in an unsatisfactory relationship

indefinitely because your girlfriend will be devastated if you leave.

Also, devastation is a two-way street. If you dump her, SOAPY, her devastation will be immediate, like the impact of an earthquake or a hurricane. But if you stay, you’ll be the one devastated — but your devastation will be gradual, taking years, like the erosion of coastline or the destruction of our democracy. The destruction of your self-esteem and sense of sexual selfworth is already under way. She’s a lot likelier to get over the devastation she’ll feel if you leave, than you are to get over the devastation you’ll experience if you stay.

Your gonads/self-respect/ preservation instinct are in that apartment somewhere. Get ’em and go.

Dear Dan, A man impregnated me about a month into our relationship. He is adamantly against having the kid, as it’s too soon. I really don’t want to have an abortion — I have religious and moral beliefs against it. He states that since one parent doesn’t want the kid, I am wrong for even considering keeping it. Am I wrong? We’re both around 30, and this is my first pregnancy. Do I have the right to continue with the pregnancy? I feel like we’d be great parents. He’s already left me because I wouldn’t make a decision within a week.

It’s tearing us apart.

— Opposing Opinions On Pregnancy Situation I’m going to sidestep the whole no-abortions-for-religious-and-moralreasons-but-premarital-sex-is-not-aproblem issue. This pregnancy isn’t tearing you apart, OOOPS, it tore you apart. He already ended things — he left you — which was a shitty thing to do, perhaps, but within his rights.

It is absolutely within your rights to continue with the pregnancy — it’s your body, it’s your decision. And while he will be on the hook for this kid financially if you decide to have it, no one can force him to do the work/ experience the joy/clean up the vomit that comes with actually fathering this child. Here’s hoping you have the love and support you need to raise a kid if you decide to keep the baby, and here’s hoping he comes around.

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54

| clevescene.com | November 29 - December 5, 2017

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55

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