THEN AND
NOW
Cleveland’s downtown population is rising in ways not seen for decades. But what’s next? By Eric Sandy
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016 T:12 in
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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F E B R UA R Y 3 - 9 , 2 016 • V O L U M E 4 6 N O 31 Dedicated to Free Times founder Richard H. Siegel (1935-1993) and Scene founder Richard Kabat Publisher Chris Keating
CONTENTS
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Associate Publisher Desiree Bourgeois Editor Vince Grzegorek
Upfront
Editorial Managing Editor Eric Sandy Music Editor Jeff Niesel Staff Writer Sam Allard Writer-at-large Kyle Swenson Web Editor Bliss Davis Dining Editor Douglas Trattner Contributing Dining Editor Nikki Delamotte Stage Editor Christine Howey Visual Arts Editor Josh Usmani
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Mayor proposes income tax hike, CPC members whine about workload, and more
Framed
10
News
12
Feature
15
Get Out!
21
Art
26
Stage
27
Film
28
Dining
31
Music
41
Savage Love
60
Our favorite photos we’ve shared with you this week
Advertising Senior Multimedia Account Executive John Crobar, Shayne Rose Multimedia Account Executive Kiara Hunter-Davis, Joseph Williamson, Savannah Drdek
A mother awaits justice for her son, killed in Tremont five and a half years ago
Creative Services Production Manager Steve Miluch Layout Editor/Graphic Designer Christine Hahn Staff Photographer Emanuel Wallace Business Asst. To The Publisher Angela Lott Sales Assistant/Receptionist Megan Stimac
The population boom in downtown Cleveland is very real and very good. But how long can it continue?
Circulation Circulation Director Don Kriss Euclid Media Group Chief Executive Offi cer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Offi cers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner Human Resources Director Lisa Beilstein Digital Operations Coordinator Jaime Monzon www.euclidmediagroup.com National Advertising Voice Media Group 1-800-278-9866, voicemediagroup.com Cleveland Scene 737 Bolivar Rd, #4100 Cleveland, OH 44115 www.clevescene.com Phone 216-241-7550 Retail & Classifi ed Fax 216-241-6275 Editoral Fax 216-802-7212 E-mail scene@clevescene.com
Dozens of events spanning the next week in Cleveland
Modern Sexuality exhibition kicks off new series at Canopy Collective
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Three movie hopefuls face plant in Pure Shock Value at None Too Fragile Theater
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is, well, it’s self-explanatory
Warren’s Spirited Kitchen is the latest modern addition to Burton
Country singer Wynonna Judd and husband Cactus Moser talk tour
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
MARDI GRAS CRAWL Saturday, February 6 th, 12 pm - 6 pm Tickets $10 (plus processing fees)
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Photo by Sam Allard
UPFRONT MAYOR SEEKS INCOME TAX HIKE
THIS WEEK
MAYOR FRANK JACKSON proposed an income tax increase Monday -- a proposal that Plain Dealer’s emeritus scribe Brent Larkin signaled last month -- saying a boost from people who work in Cleveland is necessary to stave off service cuts and major staff layoffs. He’s hopeful to get the issue on the ballot in November of this year or March of next. The proposed hike would raise the current 2 percent tax to 2.5 percent and would, Jackson said, generate an additional $83.5 million for the city. All that extra money is required, Jackson said, to pay for the costly Consent Decree and to sustain the city’s current level of service (which would be impossible otherwise, due to funding cuts from the state). Jackson told cleveland.com reporters and editors in a private meeting that if voters do not approve the measure, city residents can expect a “devastating decline” in quality of life. A devastating decline? “In short, more potholes, more blight,” cleveland.com wrote, “unplowed snow and slower police response.” Though the city income tax hasn’t been raised since 1981, and though some city councilpeople -- Zack Reed, notably -- say they’d support the increase if for no other reason than to get more police officers on the streets, Jackson’s language is surprisingly threatening: “The choice people will have is, do you want a structurally balanced budget that increases capacity to deliver services, or do you want a budget that is balanced but reduces service and lays off people?” Jackson asked his receptive audience at cleveland.com. It’s distressing that Jackson felt compelled to frame it as an either/ or proposition, especially because it’s not like his administration has done everything in its power to maximize efficiency. (And that doesn’t just
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mean layoffs.) The division of waste collection, for instance, was last month revealed to have consumed 274 percent of its budgeted overtime because workers were chronically absent, even when they were clocked in. Shouldn’t it be incumbent upon Jackson, when he’s asking residents to pony up yet again, to prove that a tax increase is a last resort?
POLICE COMMISSION WEARINESS AND WOE Per the Consent Decree, one of the specific line items for which the city must budget is the Community Police Commission (CleCoPoCo). That’s the 13-member body tasked with making recommendations for police reform and apprising the public of progress. The CleCoPoCo made news last week because the local chapter of the NAACP asked the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association (CPPA) President Steve Loomis to resign. One representative from each of the city’s three police unions sits on the commission. The NAACP was spurred into action after Loomis’ fiery public comments in the wake of the city’s decision, last week, to fire six police officers, including Michael Brelo, and suspend six others for their roles in the 2012 police chase and shooting that resulted in the deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. NAACP chapter president Michael Nelson called Loomis’ remarks “inflammatory and divisive,” and said that his position on the Commission represented a conflict of interest. Loomis essentially laughed off the resignation request, telling Scene that he’d only resign from the Commission if three other members, including cochair Dr. Rhonda Williams, resigned as well. When asked if another member from the CPPA might be a less controversial rep, he said that as the Union President, choosing
CHUCKLEBAIT
Comedian Mike Polk Jr. gets a column in The Plain Dealer. Says editor: “We’re really trying to keep up with the laugh-a-minute writing they do on the digital side.” | clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
#JFF
Mayor Jackson is suggesting an increase in the city’s income tax.
a representative was entirely his discretion. “And I picked me, because I wouldn’t subject one of my members to that farce of a commission,” he said. “We [the police union reps] went in there with an open mind, but they’ve accomplished nothing.” The NAACP intended to deliver the resignation request to Loomis in person at last Wednesday’s CleCoPoCo public meeting, but Loomis was not in attendance. He was dealing with the fallout from Tuesday’s news, setting up a GoFundMe campaign to help support the six fired officers and so forth. But on Wednesday, one member did resign: Max Rodas, a local Latino civic leader and Executive Director of Nueva Luz Community Resource Center. He told Scene that the work of the commission was vital, but he simply hadn’t anticipated the time commitment. “I think more people on the Commission would lighten the load,” Rodas said. His announcement came two days after co-chair Craig Boise, Dean of CSU’s Marshall Law School, submitted a letter of resignation to Mayor Frank Jackson. Boise, however, was persuaded to stay by “Consent Decree stakeholders.” CleCoPoCo co-chair Mario Clopton (there are three co-chairs) told Scene
Browns fans are attempting a Johnny Manziel blackout on social media. More than a few folks take it to mean slamming champagne all night and snapping selfies on an inflatable swan.
APT
Consent decree monitor submits first-year report on how to reform Cleveland Police Department. First 30 pages are just the word “poop” repeated thousands of times.
in an interview Monday that progress has indeed been slow and frustrating, but that much of it has to do with the early stages of any group establishing its internal operations. “We were sworn in on September 8, and our first due date was the bias-free policing recommendations 90 days later. We didn’t have time to make sure our house was in order, so to speak,” he said. “While we were trying to get our mandate work done, we were also trying to get our infrastructure in place.” Clopton said that that process will be made immensely easier once they hire four full-time staffers, funded by the City of Cleveland. For the past several months, they’ve been aided by the Cleveland Foundation and the Community Relations Board to reserve space for meetings and deal with administrative issues. The City has budgeted $755,000 for 2016 for the Commission.
DEVONTA HILL’S CONFUSING CRIMINAL TRIAL SET TO BEGIN Wednesday morning over at the Justice Center, a criminal trial was scheduled to kick off in the courtroom of Judge Joseph Russo. Devonta Hill is facing a hefty stack of criminal charges — including murder, felonious assault, involuntary manslaughter, and aggravated riot.
QUALITY OF LIFE Six more weeks of whatever the hell this weather is lately.
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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DIGIT WIDGET
But unlike most of the courtroom business unfolding downtown, what makes Hill’s case such a standout is that no one with their head screwed on right thinks the 23-year-old should be in this position. That’s because the case against Hill is over the 2012 shooting death of Kenny Smith — a death that came at the hands of a Cleveland police officer, a death that a federal jury last year determined was the police officer’s fault, not Devonta Hill’s. To recap: in March 2012, local rapper Kenny Smith was at a downtown club when the room cleared after a brawl. Shots were reported. The police were called. In the melee, Smith was separated from the friends he’d driven with. Instead, he jumped in the car of an older acquaintance — Devonta Hill. The car was stopped by Cleveland Police officer Roger Jones. At some point in the next moments, Jones shot Smith in the head. The officer later claimed Smith lunged for a gun in Hill’s car. The driver was taken into custody and charged with Smith’s death. Over the next three years, Smith’s family filed a federal lawsuit against the officer involved while Hill’s own criminal case was left stalled out on the court docket. Now, with a federal jury verdict nailing the blame for Smith’s death directly to Rogers, Hill’s attorneys are asking Judge Russo to toss out the criminal case. “At this point, the argument is that the state has failed to prepare their case and present their case,” Michael J. Downing, Hill’s attorney, told Scene last week. “We’re asking the judge to dismiss, and if it is dismissed, it could be dismissed without prejudice, which means he can be re-indicted. But now it’s up to the judge. This has gone on long enough.” Coincidentally, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office is also trying to pump the breaks on the case. In court filings, the office has asked for a continuance because the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department is currently investigating Jones’ role in the shooting. “After the federal case concluded, Prosecutor McGinty asked the
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ALIZA SHERMAN’S ATTORNEY CHARGED IN CONNECTION WITH MURDER
was supposed to meet Moore at his Erieview Plaza office. She was stabbed 11 times outside the building by an unidentified suspect. Moore had sent text messages to her phone before and after her murder indicating that he was in his office. Phone records and additional analysis show that he was not actually in his office at that time. He later lied to police about this fact. Based simply on court records, Moore certainly has a shifty relationship with the legal system. Those terroristic threat charges? Those caught up to Moore after a series of bomb threats he called in back in 2012 -- to county courthouses on the days that various trials of his were set to begin. He’s like a wayward sixth-grader who pulls the fire alarm right before a math test.
LAKEWOOD HOSPITAL REFERENDUM POSSIBLE The ngoing saga of Lakewood Hospital continues, in spite of City Council’s unanimous vote in December that cleared the way for eventual closure. Save Lakewood Hospital, the grassroots group that has campaigned heavily against the Cleveland Clinic’s proposal to shut down hospital operations as they Photo by Eric Sandy
UPFRONT
Sheriff’s department to do a review of the case to see if there was any fresh evidence,” office spokesman Joe Frolik said last week. “We are still waiting for that report.” But how serious is that investigation? It’s impossible not to weigh the Smith shooting without considering the jumbled conclusions of the Tamir Rice investigation, or to not see the legal-system slapstick of having a federal jury laying liability for Smith’s death with a police officer while the prosecutor’s office charges forward against Hill. You got to wonder: who is thinking clearly here? On that note, according to Terry Gilbert, the civil attorney representing Kenny Smith’s family, none of the family’s experts or witnesses have been contacted by the sheriff to share the evidence or analysis that lead to the federal jury decision. “We never got any kind of confirmation that indicated they were actually doing anything,” Gilbert told Scene last week. The attorney, however, sees the Hill situation for what it is. “This guy shouldn’t be under charges. They should dismiss it.” The trial was originally slated for Monday morning, so we’ll update this story at clevescene.com if and when everything actually does get off the ground.
Aliza Sherman’s divorce attorney, Gregory Moore, was indicted last week on charges relating to her unsolved 2013 murder: tampering with evidence, telecommunications fraud, possessing criminal tools, obstructing official business, falsification. (Unrelatedly, he was also slapped with charges -- three counts of terroristic threats and six counts of inducing panic -- stemming from bomb threats phoned in to county courthouses in 2012. More on that in a sec.) Moore will be arraigned Feb. 11. Few leads have trickled in over the years since Sherman’s murder. This indictment signals at least some movement in the case. On March 24, 2013, Sherman
7TH
“Place” earned by Gov. John Kasich in this week’s Iowa caucuses. All along, though, Kasich has been focused on New Hampshire’s Feb. 9 primary.
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
3 PERCENT
Parma Heights income tax rate, the highest in the county.
press time on Tuesday.) The deadline for this issue to land on the March ballot is Feb. 9. SLH submitted its signatures to the city on Jan. 21; the apparent delay and the impending brush with the legal deadline has left members frustrated. “It’s a tight timeline,” Kevin Young, SLH spokesman, tells Scene. “And [at Monday night’s council meeting] it didn’t seem that anybody on council understood what the deadlines were or understood exactly what they needed to do next.” It’s no secret that City Hall isn’t pleased with this extra-innings campaign to keep the hospital open. And despite public pressure -- more than 3,000 signatures supporting the referendum -- there’s no obligation to seal this deal in time for the March ballot. Here are the options, once the board of elections returns the petitions to the city: Repeal the ordinance that set in motion the hospital’s closure or approve the referendum for March or, if they miss the deadline, November’s ballot. “If [the vote] is in November and [the hospital deal] gets overturned, you know, look how far things have unravelled already,” Young says. “Why wait? Get it on the March
Lakewood Hospital’s fate remains up in the air.
exist today, recently submitted ballot language for an up-or-down vote on the matter. As of press time, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections is working on verifying the group’s petitions. The board hopes to have that process completed by the end of this week, at which point the next step is council review and approval. Any official business would require a special meeting of council, likely on Feb. 5 or Feb. 8. (No meeting is scheduled as of
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Years that Cavs went winless in Indiana until Monday night’s overtime win.
ballot.” The underlying point is that a public vote to “save” the hospital would require just that: saving the hospital. With the Clinic’s plan already in motion, that would prove to be a far more difficult task in late fall than in the spring. We’ll be watching for whatever turns this process takes within this next week.
scene@clevescene.com t @cleveland_scene
$27 MILLION
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FRAMED!
our best shots from last week Photos by Emanuel Wallace, Jon Lichtenberg*
Bag it, tag it @ Hashtag Lunchbag at Liquid
Loading up @ Hashtag Lunchbag at Liquid
Inked @ Cleveland Tattoo Convention
Brunchin’ @ United We Brunch
Serving deliciousness @ United We Brunch
Bloody @ United We Brunch
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Intense @ Graveyard and Spiders at Grog Shop*
All in @ J.R. Smith’s private screening of “Race”
Calf tat @ Cleveland Tattoo Convention
Never miss a beat! See more pics @ clevescene.com Croonin’ @ Graveyard and Spiders at Grog Shop*
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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NEWS RADIO SILENCE
Brandon Cartellone was killed in his Tremont apartment five and a half years ago. His mother is still waiting for justice By Kyle Swenson ON A SUN-WASHED JULY afternoon in 2013, about 60 people — friends, family, classmates — trekked the tree-lined streets of Tremont. They wore all white, a photo negative of funeral mourning. Some hands clutched clumps of white balloons, others flapped handwritten signs reading, “Justice for Brandon.” The group pooled together before a brick two-story building on Professor, steps away from Michael Symon’s Lolita. With a signal, the balloons took off, heads bent upward as the bobbing white shapes were swallowed up by the blue above.
Brandon Cartellone
For the event’s organizer, Lynn Cartellone, the rally was an attempt to corral attention back to the death of her 21-year-old son Brandon, murdered two years before in a nearby apartment. Although it was one of 88 homicides tallied by the city that year, the death stuck out in a lot of local memories: a grisly murder, dead-center in Cleveland’s trendiest gentrifying neighborhood. But Cartellone quickly learned that in a city with rising body counts and gruesome spectacles of violence, one murder can easily get kicked to the back of the priority list. And
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today, five and a half years after Brandon’s death, Cartellone is still trying to redirect focus on her son’s unsolved whodunit — even going so far as digging personally into possible suspects. “I basically feel like I’m my son’s ambassador,” she said recently. Brandon was a third-year student at the Cleveland Institute of Art. He studied industrial design. The Valley Forge High School grad had two internships, multiple side jobs as an artist, and hauled pizza around on the weekends. “He was really trying to pay his way through school,” Cartellone says. “Unfortunately, it was not all kosher,” she adds with a resigned laugh. Brandon was selling pot, apparently growing his own product from three plants police would later find in his apartment. No kingpin or don, his modest operation was enough to pay car bills, but also may have attracted unwanted attention. “He did put himself in a very vulnerable position,” his mother says. On July 26, 2011, Brandon’s girlfriend found him in his second-floor apartment in Tremont around 1:30 am. He was bound to a chair with belts and duck tape. There was a suspicious gash on his abdomen. He’d been strangled to death. “He was severally beaten,” Cartellone says. “It had to be more than one person.” The police were knocking on her door before dawn that morning. A trained nurse, Cartellone’s mind immediately began churning with critical thinking, trying to grab hold of the pieces of the situation. “I was on the phone every day and sometimes multiple times a day,” she says. “I did have to drag information out of them.” Cartellone learned that police had a suspect, someone who had been communicating with Brandon up until his death. “He had been texting Brandon all day trying to come over to buy some pot,” she says. “The very last text from that person was the last time that my son ever used his phone.”
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
The suspect, however, clammed “These suspects lived in Tremont up when approached by police. at the time, and still do,” she says. Cartellone says other aspects and “I’m told they are currently repeating avenues of her son’s case seemed similar crimes, like breaking and to be ignored by the police at the entering and theft. That’s what I’m time. When Cartellone was finally told.” allowed to enter her son’s apartment, Along with Brandon’s girlfriend a neighbor approached and said and another friend, Cartellone spent she’d seen several men arguing with four hours deep-diving through Brandon at his apartment door. “She social media accounts, stringing saw them leave, she saw them come together the connections between the back,” Cartellone suspects. She says. The printed out the mother had to information and tell police about handed it over the witness; she to Cleveland was eventually detectives. “I interviewed and told them I was identified photos putting a bow on of suspects. “The it,” she says. only reason Then, more — Lynn Cartellone that happened radio silence. is because I Six weeks presented the information.” Another back, Cartellone launched another neighbor who witnessed the front barrage, hitting not only police door propped open was also ignored, officials with certified letters, but Cartellone says. Mayor Frank Jackson, Prosecutor Part of the reason for the lack of Tim McGinty, and local media. She movement: The detectives working apparently finally made headway, Brandon’s murder were also busy because phone calls and meetings with the Anthony Sowell case, which were soon set up with Cleveland was then in trial. Cartellone kept at P.D. officials and members of the it, nudging the detectives relentlessly prosecutor’s office. about their progress. “This case remains an open “I hate to sound so judgmental, investigation,” Cleveland police but as citizens we’re not receiving spokesperson Sergeant Jennifer justice, we’re not receiving a proper Ciaccia told Scene recently. “There is no new information available for investigation,” she says. “It makes release at this time.” you wonder.” Cartellone is hopeful. At the same The pace continued to be glacial. time, she’s tired of having to basically Relentless letter writing and public poke and agitate for results. “It’s a events like the 2013 rally failed balancing act,” she explains. “I want to spark any momentum on the attention, but I don’t want to piss investigation. them off. Then, this summer, Cartellone “But I’m mother bear. I’m not stumbled on her own break in the going to stop.” case. Although she’s tightlipped with the information now, she will say that a friend approached her with names scene@clevescene.com of possible suspects who have boasted @cleveland_scene about their involvement in the crime.
“I was on the phone every day and sometimes multiple times a day.”
t
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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FEATURE THE DOWNTOWN LOWDOWN
The population boom in downtown Cleveland is very real and very good. But how long can it continue? By Eric Sandy
“If Cleveland over the next five years can prove to people that it’s worth it to own, that’s when you’re really going to see things take off. I don’t think you have stability until you have ownership.” Photos by Eric Sandy
THE PLACE IS ON THE SIXTH floor. Two bedrooms, two and a half baths, 1,800 square feet all told, with exclusive rooftop patio access. In fact, the place is the entire sixth floor. It’s been on the market for under a month by the time we show up to have a look. By the time you read this, it’s long gone. “We had to move the kitchen over a little bit and run the stairwell up to the deck,” Rich Cicerchi says. He owns the East Fourth Lofts, where we are now, and he’s got this one open unit available. It’s primo real estate, overlooking the main nerve of Cleveland’s dining scene. Below, diners flock to Greenhouse Tavern and The Butcher and the Brewer in after-work droves. Cicerchi is joined today by Amit Patel, CEO of local “apartment search concierge” service Quo. Patel hooks up interested renters with people like Cicerchi — people who hold the keys to the New Cleveland Life and who are eagerly listing modernized apartments all over downtown. Patel says business is going exceptionally well. The steady barrage of Downtown Cleveland Alliance statistics and residential development headlines would concur. See, downtown’s residential population boom — a 97.6-percent occupancy rate with apartmentcomplex waiting lists that extend for “years” in some cases — is a social and economic behemoth unlike anything the city has seen in a long time. It’s a new Cleveland identity entirely. It’s upscale. Moving the kitchen wall in this sixth-floor unit was a good move, it would seem, since the rooftop alone is a thing of beauty. Up top, we scan the Gateway skyline and take in a different view of this bustling city. The brickwork whispers: This could be your world. “I wanted to show you something unique,” Cicerchi says. “I could show you high rises, but you’ll never get access to something like this.” He’s absolutely right, and so that’s one important thing to bear in mind:
There’s still something very novel about the experience of living in downtown Cleveland. It’s a thrill. Who’d have thought that 10 years ago? Briefly, the history of downtown Cleveland as a residential neighborhood goes like this: There were very few people living here, and then there were lots of people living here. A downtown address calling card — “I’ve got a place at The 9” — quickly became a point of status. Millennials, mostly, filtered through urban studies theorist Richard Florida’s wellresearched “creative class,” arrived.
— Jesse Howells The apartment building we’re checking out today anchors East Fourth Street, which for many years was little more than a half-shuttered retail alley. This building was once a light manufacturing warehouse of sorts — a holding center for theatrical equipment, mostly — meaning there was a lot of empty space arcing across thick concrete floors. Good for redevelopment into high-end lofts. This one’s a beauty. Cicerchi bought the place in 2006. The plan was to make it into condos, but when the market tanked a few years later he decided to “finish it and
rent.” He started with Wonder Bar on the ground level, and then worked his way up, floor by floor. This unit at the top was completed about two years ago. “[People] want proximity to downtown, but they really want modern amenities: central air, brand new furnaces — brand new everything,” Cicerchi says, rattling off the work he put into this place. So that’s what happened here. It’s still happening, too, all over the city: Old buildings becoming new again. Rents will go up as downtown continues to grow. Personally, Cicerchi | clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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FEATURE
“We are on the early edge of this fifth migration, and our explosive millennial population growth is changing the face and trajectory of Cleveland.” — Lillian Kuri sees another 10,000 people moving downtown in the coming years. There’s no reason to doubt that. “Downtown” is closing in on some 15,000 residents, up 70 percent since 2000. (And in 1990, the downtown population was 4,651.) As of last fall, the Downtown Cleveland Alliance stated that, “275 apartments are currently under construction and another 4,000 are in various stages of planning.” Coming online in the next few years: major residential developments on Public Square and Johnson Court, at the May Company and Halle buildings, at the imminent nuCLEus project across the street from Quicken Loans Arena, and elsewhere, scattered like beacons in a city that’s beginning to stir itself out of bed. When they open, the inevitably upscale units will greet the thousands of tenants waiting to sign leases downtown. There’s no end in sight. Demand is soaring. The Cleveland rental renaissance is here.
“Although the downtown residential population is over 13,000, downtown Cleveland is still only scratching the surface of meeting demand for downtown living.” That’s the header from the Downtown Cleveland
16
Alliance’s third-quarter 2015 report. Only scratching the surface. All those folks are packed into approximately 6,665 housing units across downtown’s 3.2 square miles. Of those, only 880 are owner-occupied. That leaves 5,785 rented units downtown: 87 percent of all housing units. There’s reason to discuss the longevity and the sustainability of the downtown housing market — if not express outright concern for it. The same conversations are quietly taking place every time a new hotel project is announced downtown, for instance. “How can we fill those rooms each night?” Concern like that is not a good look for a city hellbent on a positive image, a city careening into the Republican National Convention and beyond, but it’s healthy and necessary. In this case, though, the growing worry has more to do with a residential market being built on the backs of leases and tax abatements. Let’s run the numbers. From late 2012 to late 2015, the number of housing units for sale downtown dropped from 936 to 880. Square-foot pricing increased from $159.83 to $181.06 (with total unit price dropping from $249,132 to $197,112). Meanwhile, in that same period,
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
the rental market jumped from 4,636 total units to 5,785. In tandem, square-foot pricing bumped up from $1.14 to $1.33. The average monthly rent is $1,107, according to the DCA. Occupancy now hovers above 97 percent. Waiting lists in some buildings range from “40 to 100” prospective tenants per unit type (one-bedroom, two-bedroom, etc.), according to one broker. The DCA says 1,700 people are waiting to move downtown at any given time. In all, 18 new residential buildings have been built since the 2007 boom. Another six are currently in the midst of renovations. At least 10 more are “planned.” The DCA insists that 535,042 residents in “greater Cleveland” could afford downtown living. That’s 30 percent of our five-county region. Meanwhile, median household income in Lorain, Medina, Lake, Geauga and Cuyahoga counties dances around $57,000. Based on conversations with a number of people plugged into the market, one would need to pull in $70,000 to, preferably, $80,000 yearly to live comfortably downtown. (For $35,000 or so, you can get by in the neighborhoods.) So who’s moving in? Cicerchi and Patel agree that the
two main demographics flowing into downtown find themselves at two distinct stations in life: before kids and after kids. Mainly, downtown is seeing young professionals under 35 taking up residence at any of the fine and enticing apartment complexes in the heart of the city. Also, there are plenty of empty nesters — 55 and older —either moving in wholesale or picking up a property to enjoy on the weekends or rent to whomever. Those buyers, however, are outliers in the growth story of downtown Cleveland. And that may be an issue worth confronting in the years ahead.
Jesse Howells, CFO at Howells & Howells Enterprises, has been living downtown since what he terms the “Wild West” days of downtown life. In 2007, he says, his father purchased the Park Building and Southworth Building on Cleveland’s Public Square. That move helped return Howells to the North Shore to begin working with the family’s development company. Cleveland had yet to fully transform. He’s familiar with the growth Cleveland has experienced since then, and he celebrates it. As downtown settles into a new identity — and
quickly, amorphously — he’s among many who are unsure of how solid that footing really is. “The top-line, for-sale market is pretty well baked at $300 per square foot,” Howells says. (In Chicago, for comparison, the same sort of supremely high-end properties might draw $600 to $1,000 per square foot.) From acquiring a building, running through a full gut and rehab job, and selling, developers are looking at a break-even proposition. That’s not a terrific backbone for the housing market here. “The only way to make money on these deals is tax credits,” Howells says. Developers can pick up 25 cents on the dollar through the state and 20 cents on the dollar through the feds, then couple that with, say, a fiveyear tax abatement through the city of Cleveland. Once approved, projects can skate through the build-out process and open the floodgates to easy rental revenue. Michael Cosgrove, Cleveland’s director of community development, says that there’s been a general increase in tax abatement issuances over the past 10 years or so. (Tax abatements allow property owners and developers to lock in a tax rate that will not increase with time — say, for the next 15 years.) “We’re seeing the new construction certainly increasing,” he said. “A lot of what you’re seeing downtown is market driven. Now, that market is helped by the tax abatement certainly, but a lot of it is the character of millennials and empty-nesters. The tax abatement certainly, I think, is still needed to incentivize development, not only downtown, but throughout the city.” And incentivize it has. Between 2010 and 2014, downtown saw $4.5 billion in residential and commercial development, much of it helped along by the city’s policies. Howells says Cleveland has been “aces” in terms of its public handling of downtown development. Still, he says that others in the private sphere — others in his shoes from around the city — should begin discussing longer-term implications. “Thousands of apartments coming online in the next 12 to 18 months are all going to be rentals for the next five years,” Howells predicts. “What happens in year six?” There’s the central question. Everything after year five is gravy, insofar as developers simply recouping their costs. The whole framework of renting property is rather non-committal on both sides of the table, really. Always is. “It’s something fairly obvious on the surface, but something that no
one talks about,” Howells says. Part of the issue — the vague concern downtown — is that the market is shifting into high gear at a weirdly fast pace. And while the pure employment tax numbers in the city make for great news each year, there hasn’t been a moment to catch our breaths and reorient our civic identity. Consider this: When LeBron James announced his return to Cleveland in the summer of 2014, and the Republican National Convention was bestowed on Cleveland around that same time, Howells sold six units that he had been sitting on for two years. Just like that. (The term “LeBronomy” is asinine, but it holds water here. This is real movement.) But as Howells and others look around, and as the downtown rental narrative inflates further into 2016, his fear is an exodus in five years, leaving behind a ton of inventory downtown. That happens if nobody is committed to downtown through ownership. To tackle that central question, one runs into a chicken-or-egg scenario. Does mass ownership prompt the lifestyle amenities that make a neighborhood a neighborhood? Or does it really take a Heinen’s and a Geiger’s to begin signaling to people that ownership — a hard stake in the community — is valuable? Howells, for one, points out that the addition of a local grocery store in the heart of downtown is a game-changer. (“You ask me that even two years ago, and there’s no way,” he says of the revelatory 2015 Heinen’s opening.) “It’s those incentives that get the smart money to buy,” Howells says. “If Cleveland over the next five years can prove to people that it’s worth it to own — that type of New York mentality — that’s when you’re really going to see things take off. I don’t think you have stability until you have ownership.” Two years ago, when downtown Cleveland’s population was soaring — though still far off from where we’re at today — DCA president Jay Marinucci told The New York Times that a downtown population closer to 20,000 would light up the neighborhood in “a truly round-the-clock” way. Imagine: Pedestrians flowing through the city’s streets at all hours, living, working and playing. The arc is bending in that direction. What those thousands of new residents do with the city’s character will be a show worth watching.
Scanning the market as it unspools around downtown Cleveland right now, there’s ample opportunity to rent. On one hand, according to | clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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recent reports, only between 20 and 30 housing units are selling per quarter. But rentals? The second a unit becomes available, property managers hit up the waiting list and begin talking with prospective tenants. It’s not hard to move an apartment unit like that in the city’s core. This is Cleveland, for now. Amit Patel, the CEO of Quo, helps people get acquainted with the vast inventory in Cleveland. He does most of his work online — chatting and emailing with clients as they tour apartments around the city — but he’s walked these buildings and he knows which lifestyle niches are satisfied by which address in town. The most common and widespread now? Luxury. “I’m noticing a lot more are opening up their pockets, banks are lending more, and the demand is there,” Patel says. He looks sunnily toward that inevitable year six — a time when he sees property owners ponying up for whatever facelifts might be needed and a time when the ongoing population boom surges to keep those properties inhabited. Rents will surely go up. Demand, it’s expected, will remain in sync with the growing supply. Patel joins us as we tour the Bingham on a bustling afternoon. Downtown Cleveland at midday is a throbbing neighborhood in action: friends gathering for lunch; workers dashing down the street to run errands between meetings; Uber drivers threading through the buses and trolleys and delivery trucks of Euclid Avenue, then shepherding riders westward into the revitalized Flats. This is the delightful streetlevel consequence of having so many people down here now. We’re hoping to get a sense of what it’s like to apartment-hunt in Cleveland these days, and Patel points us to the well-regarded Warehouse District building. This is one of the most popular buildings in the city. We find out very soon that if you’d like to move in, you’ll have to get in line behind upwards of 100 other people. This is not unique to the Bingham, though this place has never found itself below 95-percent occupancy. Here, a one-bedroom place will cost $1,258 to $1,575. The upper end of the three-bedroom tier, for comparison, hovers around $2,750. These are all certainly nice places, we see, but if you’re trying to sneak
into a downtown address for under $1,000, well, tough luck for the most part. The market is pushing quickly past that point. “West Sixth has some studio lofts are under $1,000 — barely under $1,000,” Patel says. “I mean, nothing is available right now; but yeah, there are some units up there that you can get for under $1,000.” Both anecdotes and data point to that $70,000 to $80,000 income range again as a baseline for entry to the downtown life. It’s becoming part of the downtown identity — more so than ever before — and part of a further wedge between the city core’s economic outlook and the city’s outlying neighborhoods. As income inequality becomes clearer in Cleveland, there’s surely no sign that the willing customer base for upscale downtown rentals will slow. “[Property managers] are really studying what their tenants are wanting,” Patel says. “Yoga is a big thing now in Cleveland. So they have a yoga studio up there. Tenants don’t have to go anywhere else for certain things. They’re paying attention. It’s not just about collecting rent.” And it’s about a lot of things, actually, because the context of Cleveland’s reinvention is a tapestry. This resilient city is humping the positive trends into a completely new and uncharted future. Housing, of course, plays a major role in how we’ll define ourselves. It’s the story you can’t escape: the evolution of Cleveland. Among the most shared stories of this so-far young year has been Cleveland’s national ranking at No. 8 in terms of attracting millennial professionals. Eighth! Cleveland! Perhaps the growth simply points to more apartments — bigger, nicer apartments with crisp lake views and hot yoga studios — hitting the market with higher, more New Yorkian rents. Maybe, as Howells might hope, we’ll see more ownership flood downtown in the next five or 10 years. “We are on the early edge of this fifth migration, and our explosive millennial population growth is changing the face and trajectory of Cleveland,” said Lillian Kuri, program director for arts and urban design at the Cleveland Foundation. “We need to understand its impact on the city and the neighborhoods, and rapidly harness the local and regional resources to sustain this momentum.”
esandy@clevescene.com t @ericsandy
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
19
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A Grays Lecture Series
Ohio’s Resistance To The Fugitive Slave Law Join us as Ron Gorman; docent, blogger and researcher for the Oberlin Heritage Center delivers a talk on Northeast Ohio’s role in the Underground Railroad, Abolitionism and Fugitive Slave Law. Ron is a skilled speaker delivering multiple presentations on this subject matter and is also a 2015 Member of the Year of the CivilWarTalk.com discussion forum.
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
everything you should do this week
GET OUT WED
2/03
Blue Man Group returns to Playhouse Square. See: Friday.
he focuses on an Indonesian optician who confronts the right-wing thugs responsible for the death of his older brother during the country’s anti-communist purge of the 1960s. It’s compelling stuff. The movie screens tonight at 7:30 at the Cedar Lee Theatre. Tickets are $9.50. (Niesel) 2163 Lee Rd., Cleveland Heights, 216-321-5411, clevelandcinemas.com.
MUSIC
CIM/CWRU Joint Music Program Now in its fifth season, this monthly concert series places young musicians from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University in the galleries of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The series features “mixed programs of chamber music” for “a unique and intimate experience.” The concerts begin at 6 p.m. and they last for about an hour. Admission is free. (Jeff Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.
MUSIC
SPOKEN WORD
Keep Talking Keep Talking is an exciting storytellers program where locals can share their real-life experiences on a theme. This month’s theme is “Dating: The Agony and the Ecstasy, Part 2.” Stories range from the insightful and sad to the funny and bizarre. Held in the Happy Dog’s basement, the Underdog, the series is your chance to grab a drink and a dog while listening to some of your Cleveland neighbors amuse you with their tales. Tonight’s edition starts at 8 and costs $5. (Patrick Stoops) 5801 Detroit Ave., 216-651-9474, happydogcleveland.com. FILM
Make Fun In the past few years, Cleveland’s comedy scene has taken off. A slew of terrific comics work the local circuit, while hometown comedians like Ramon Rivas bring big-name talent to our stages. Make Fun, a new documentary film, chronicles the regional scene through vignettes, interviews and footage to expose some of the best local talent. It screens tonight at 7 at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage at an event booked in partnership with the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival. Tickets are $6. (Niesel) 2929 Richmond Rd., Beachwood, 216-593-0575, maltzmuseum.org. COMEDY
Ritch Shydner Famous for playing Al Bundy’s co-worker on Married with Children, comedian Ritch Shydner has worked as a comic for 30
years. Over that time, he’s written material for everyone from Jeff Foxworthy to Kenny Rogers. He likes to joke about his age, claiming the aging process has resulted in strange injuries. “When you’re young, you know how you got hurt,” he says. “I would only know if a train hit me.” He performs tonight at 8 at Hilarities; shows are scheduled through Saturday. Tickets are $18 to $27. (Niesel) 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.
“it’s about crossing boundaries.” The film, which includes clips from various musicians, screens at 7 tonight and Friday night at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Tickets are $9. (Niesel) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.
THUR 2/04 FILM
Joe Torry The host of Russell Simmons Def Comedy Jam, Joe Torry also has had small roles on TV shows such as E.R. and NYPD Blue. The quick-witted Torry often likes to make fun of the people in the audience, ridiculing their hairstyles and fashion choices. While his comments can be harsh, he has an uncanny ability to improvise. He performs tonight at 7:30 at the Improv and has shows scheduled through Saturday. Tickets are $20. (Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com.
Hitchcock/Truffaut Way back in 1962, up-and-coming writer-director Francois Truffaut spent eight days interviewing veteran writer-director Alfred Hitchcock at Universal Studios. Director Kent Jones recently decided to revisit that interview, which was recorded but not filmed. His documentary, Hitchcock/Truffaut, came out last year, featuring interviews with Wes Anderson, David Fincher, Paul Schrader, Martin Scorcese and Richard Linklater. It makes its Cleveland premiere tonight at 8:20 at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. It screens again at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets are $9. (Niesel) 11610 Euclid Ave., 216-421-7450, cia.edu.
FILM
FILM
The Wandering Muse The Wandering Muse, a documentary about the music of the Jewish diaspora, follows several musicians as they discuss why they’d rather stay in the diaspora than move to Israel. Director Tamas Wormser interviews a slew of musicians before concluding that
The Look of Silence Director Joshua Oppenheimer raised eyebrows with his 2012 documentary The Act of Killing, a film about the Indonesian killings of 1965–66 that Oppenheimer has called “a documentary of the imagination.” In last year’s companion piece, The Look of Silence,
COMEDY
Ravel and Debussy Masters of Impressionistic music, Ravel and Debussy might have much in common when it comes to their music, but their personalities differed greatly. Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major has been described as “a truly lovely piano concerto [that’s] delicately nuanced ... light and brilliant, with a finale that incorporates the fire of jazz à la Gershwin.” Debussy’s Images, however, has been called “unrestrained ... rich with lush orchestration, sensuous melodies, and thrilling, exotic Spanish dance rhythms.” The Cleveland Orchestra plays both pieces tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Severance Hall. The concert also features a work by French composer Marc-André Dalbavie. At 6:30, guest speaker Eric Charnofsky, an instructor in the Case Western Reserve University music department, delivers the pre-concert talk “Images from France.” The concert repeats at tomorrow at 7 p.m. (minus the Dalbavie piece) and Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $29. (Niesel) 11001 Euclid Ave., 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com. SPOKEN WORD
Theology on Tap A concept first introduced by fantasy writers and men of faith C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Theology on Tap is “pub theology,” started when the two would meet in the local pub near Cambridge University and discuss “all things literary, religious, spiritual, and other, in a space that was inviting, informal, and open to all.” You need only bring your “ideas, your questions, your imagination, and an a spirit of openness.” The Euclid Tavern’s approximation of the event takes place at 5 p.m. today. Admission is free. (Niesel) 11625 Euclid Ave., 216-231-5400, happydogcleveland.com. | clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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GET OUT FRI
advance, $10 day of event and free for CMA members. (Josh Usmani) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.
2/05
ART
An Opening Reception From 7 to 9 tonight, BAYarts
tion in vernacular photography, with Wilkins altering the surfaces to reconstruct the photos’ form and reconstruct the images, and Carlson creating accompanying paintings and drawings inspired by these found photos, but reinterpreting their creators’ original
THEATER
Blue Man Group Nearly 25 years ago, the Blue Man Group began as a unique mixture of comedy, theater, rock concert and dance party. The group’s latest theatrical tour, which comes to town tonight for a three-day run, will showcase classic Blue Man favorites, along with “new music, fresh stories, custom instruments and state-of-the-art technology.” The group performs tonight at 7:30 at Connor Palace and has shows scheduled through Sunday. Tickets are $10 to $70. (Niesel) 1615 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.
#SonicSesh
in 2003 and is now in 800 cities worldwide, PechaKucha gives local creative types a chance to showcase their work to the general public. Each speaker presents just 20 slides, documenting their ideas, thoughts, works, or passions in a short presentation that lasts for less than seven minutes. While the format was originally designed to rein in long-winded architects, today’s PechaKucha speakers come from diverse backgrounds: Students, professionals or anyone who wants to show and share their work in a relaxed and fun atmosphere. At tonight’s PechaKucha event, which takes place at 8 p.m. at the Akron Civic Theatre, you can expect to hear speakers with backgrounds in art, music, law, architecture, fashion, photography and science. Admission is free. (Niesel) 182 South Main St., Akron, 330-253-2488, akroncivic.com.
THEATER
MUSIC
Flanagan’s Wake No one knows grief and mourning like a Catholic, let alone an Irish Catholic. Now in its fifth year in Cleveland, Flanagan’s Wake transports the audience to a wake in Ireland where villagers tell tales and sing songs for their dearly departed Flanagan. Finding the humor in life and death, the wake acts as a dark backdrop to an otherwise hilarious show in which alcohol fuels the humorous reminiscing. A sort of tragic Tony ’n’ Tina’s Wedding, the interactive and improvised show engages the entire audience as the guests are treated as the friends and family of the deceased. The show starts at 8 tonight and plays again tomorrow night at 8 at Kennedy’s Theatre. Tickets are $26. (Stoops) 1501 Euclid Ave,, 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.
Rat Pack Fridays Earlier this year, the Symposium launched a special event dubbed Rat Pack Fridays that serves as a tribute to the great American lounge and jazz singers of yesteryear. The dance club takes on a different decor for the event, placing table-clothed tables throughout the club. The music starts at 8 p.m. Drink specials include $2 16-oz. cans of beer and $3 well drinks. Expect to hear plenty of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin as a DJ will spin old-school tunes. Admission is free. (Niesel) 11794 Detroit Ave., Lakewood, 216-521-9696.
FRIDAY, FEB. 19, 2016
7 PM Doors • 8 PM Show
COMEDY
with LMNTL TICKETS: $ 5.50
NIGHTLIFE
Mix: Mask February’s Mix Happy Hour at the Cleveland Museum of Art celebrates Mardi Gras with Mix: Mask tonight from 5 to 9. Guests will have the opportunity to explore masks from around the world in the museum’s galleries, enjoy performances by students from the Cleveland Humanities Collaborative and even create their own Mardi Gras-style mask. Additionally, guests will have a chance to check out the CMA’s current exhibitions, Silent Poetry: Masterworks of Chinese Painting and Imagining the Garden. Tickets are $8 in
22
(including fees)
On sale now at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame box office, or online at rockhall.com
1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., Cleveland, OH 44114 hosts opening receptions for its latest exhibitions, Timothy Joyce’s Facing Forward and Shari Wilkins and John W. Carlson’s Destruction of Form. Joyce repurposes discarded materials to create his abstract portrait and figure drawings. Destruction of Form was initially exhibited at the Cleveland Print Room last year. The exhibition includes both collaborations and individual work by Wilkins and Carlson. Both found inspiration for this exhibi-
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
intent. Facing Forward remains on view in the Diane Boldman Education Gallery through Feb. 25. Destruction of Form remains on view through Feb. 29 in the Sullivan Family Gallery. Admission to tonight’s receptions is free. (Usmani) 28795 Lake Rd., Bay Village, 440-871-6543.
Larry Reeb Comedian Larry Reeb is creepy. Dubbed “Uncle Lar,” this guy likes to talk about watching porn at the library and the unfairness of bestiality being illegal while hunting is not. His politically incorrect jokes and odd antics can be pretty funny though, and his insights on reality TV are golden. He performs tonight at 7:30 and 10 at Hard Rock Live’s Club Velvet and performs again at the same venue at 7 and 9:30 tomorrow night. Tickets are $13 to $18. (Liz Trenholme) 10705 Northfield Rd., Northfield, 330-908-7793, hrrocksinonorthfieldpark.com. THEATER
SPOKEN WORD
PechaKucha in Akron A program that started in Tokyo
The Three Tenors (Who Can’t Sing) A popular theatrical draw from the ’90s, the Three Tenors fea-
tured three of opera’s biggest stars. The Three Tenors (Who Can’t Sing), on the other hand, features Vic DiBitetto, a guy who calls himself the “godfather of comedy.” Richie Minervini and Fred Rubino join DiBitetto as the trio “stands up” and then “sits down” to have a round of drinks and spin some stereotypical Italian-American stories about their misspent youth. The show begins at 8 p.m. at the Ohio Theatre. Tickets are $30 to $50. (Niesel) 1501 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org. ART
Walk All Over Waterloo February’s Walk All Over Waterloo is filled with plenty of cool art and events. Zygote Press’ INK House hosts a Free the Ink event with current artist-in-residence Sarah McKenzie to view the work she’s making while in Cleveland. The Beachland Ballroom hosts its annual Fundraiser for the Lottery League Showcase at 8 p.m. Waterloo Arts continues to exhibit Fandom216 (also on view at Zygote Press and Hedge Gallery) and Jen Craun’s Inherent remains on view at Maria Neil Art Project. Additionally, Dru Christine Fabrics & Design offers 50% off any one item (except custom orders, alterations or Greek merchandise). Tickets to the Lottery League Showcase are $10 in advance; $15 day of the show. All other events are free. It all takes place from 5 to 10 p.m. today, although individual gallery hours may vary. (Usmani) waterlooarts.org.
SAT
2/06
FILM
Arabian Nights: Volume 1 — The Restless One Portuguese director Miguel Gomes started making movies about 10 years ago with his first feature, The Face You Deserve, a film about a children’s entertainer who struggles with coming to terms with his 30th birthday. Gomes’ latest effort, Arabian Nights, clocks in at 381 minutes, so the director has broken it into three parts. The film centers on Portugal’s struggles with European leaders who don’t understand its people or culture. Part 1 makes its Cleveland debut tonight at 6:45 at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque. It screens again at 8:15 on Sunday night. Tickets are $9. (Niesel) 11610 Euclid Ave., 216-421-7450, cia.edu. NIGHTLIFE
Chippendales: The 2016 Break the Rules Tour Chippendales, the infamous male stripper show, has been on the circuit for what seems like an eternity. The guys bring their six-pack abs and toned physiques to House of Blues tonight as part of a multicity tour. According to the official press release, the guys intend to create “a fun, party-like environment where women can let loose, have a great time and appreciate the fantasies played out on stage.” Sounds like the bachelorette party from hell. The show starts at 9 p.m. and tickets are $25 in advance and $28 at the door. (Niesel) 308 Euclid Ave., 216-523-2583, houseofblues.com.
COMEDY
Marlon Wayans Two of the best known comics to emerge in the late ’80s and continue their fame into the present, Marlon and Shawn Wayans have come a long way since working together on sit-coms such as the Wayans Brothers and films such as Scary Movie, White Chicks and Little Man. Tonight, Marlon Wayans delivers a standup set at Hard Rock Live. His latest film, Fifty Shades of Black, just came out in theaters so expect to hear some references to it. The show tonight starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $40.50 to $60.50. (Niesel) 10705 Northfield Rd., Northfield, 330-908-7793, hrrocksinonorthfieldpark.com.
ART
Contemporary Artist Lecture Series The Cleveland Museum of Art’s Contemporary Artists Lecture Series brings artist and activist Zanele Muholi to Cleveland for the very first time for a special presentation on her work. Muholi explores the lives of black lesbian women living in South Africa through photography, installation and video. Muholi’s work seeks to raise awareness of the contradictions of these women’s lives in a country where same-sex marriage is legal, but is also plagued with intolerance and hate crimes. Muholi’s lecture begins at 2 p.m. in the CMA’s Recital Hall. The lecture will be followed by a reception and book signing in the Recital | clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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GET OUT Sit down with your guests. Advertise with SCENE. Call 216-241-7550 for more information.
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Hall lobby. Admission is free, but registration is recommended. To reserve tickets, call the ticket desk at 216-421-7350 or visit the museum’s website. (Usmani) 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org. MUSIC
Heritage Concert Series Presented by the National Park Service and the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the Heritage Concert Series aims to celebrate the cultural legacy of the Cuyahoga Valley with a series of folk and roots rock concerts at the Happy Days Lodge. Tonight’s concert features the Americana act Way Down Wanderers. Attendees can enjoy light meal options featuring soups, snacks and sweets prepared for sale by the Conservancy Canteen. In addition to food, the venue offers local, alcoholic and non-alcoholic handcrafted beverages. Single concert admission is $17 for adults, $12 for conservancy members and $5 for children ages 3 to 12. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the concert begins at 8 p.m. (Niesel) 500 West Streetsboro Rd., Peninsula, 330-657-2909, ConservancyforCVNP.org. FESTIVAL
Kurentovanje Kurentovanje (koo-rahn-tohVAHN-yay) is evidently the most popular carnival event in Slovenia. The central figure of the carnival, the Kurent, is believed to chase away winter and usher in spring with its supernatural powers. The Kurent, by the way, is like something freakish and mammalian out of Parade the Circle: a massive sheepskin creature with bells and beads and all sorts of birdlike, pagan-inspired ornamentation. The Slovenian National Home, St. Clair Superior Development Corp. and Sterle’s Country House partnered with local businesses and institutions to bring a piece of this cultural event to the St. Clair Avenue neighborhood. Today’s event starts at 11 a.m. at East 64th Street and St. Clair Avenue. It runs until 6 p.m. It’s free. (Sam Allard) clevelandkurentovanje.com.
FEB 6
ORRIN EVANS TRIO Musica: 51 E Market St Akron, OH 44308 | liveatmusica.com
Blu Jazz: 47 E Market St Akron, OH 44308 | blujazzakron.com
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FOOD & DRINK
Beer Tasting Soiree From 8 to 11 p.m. today at furniture-maker Rustbelt Reclamation’s showroom, New Belgium Brewing
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
hosts “Lost in the Woods,” a sour beer “soiree” that celebrates the brewery’s passion for sour beers and highlights its expanded wood cellar. The event will feature the 2016 Transatlantique Kriek, a wood-aged sour cherry ale brewed in collaboration with Belgium’s Oud Beersel brewery. The event will also feature New Belgium’s 2016 La Folie, the award-winning sour brown that launched New Belgium’s wood beer program back in 1997. That beer received a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival when it was first released. Local butcher shop Saucisson will provide the food. Musicians David Wong and Mistar Anderson will provide the tunes. The event costs $35, with a portion of ticket proceeds going to Minds Matter Cleveland. To purchase tickets, go to LostintheWoodsCLE. eventbrite.com. (Niesel) 1427 East 36th St., 855-641-1919, rustbeltreclamation.com.
original cast member from Stomp, provides the choreography. We’re promised it’ll be “an exhilarating evening of song unlike anything you’ve ever seen or heard, live on stage.” The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Ohio Theatre. Tickets are $10 to $49.50. (Niesel) 1501 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org. FESTIVAL
Rocky Horror Picture Show Because it’s the first Saturday of the month, the Cedar Lee Theatre will host a midnight screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the 1975 film 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, levelandcinemas.com.
Winter Reggaefest Since opening late last year, Packy Malley’s Bar on Waterloo Road has become an epicenter for all things reggae. Today the club hosts Winter Reggaefest, which takes place on what would have been reggae icon Bob Marley’s 71st birthday. Cleveland’s I-Tal and Southwest Florida’s Sowflo headline the event. Debuting way back in 1978, I-Tal lays claim to being one of the very first reggae bands in the United States. A modern rock/ reggae band that’s fast becoming a national act, Sowflo draws its influence from bands like Sublime. The event will also feature Jamaican food, art and crafts, and Bob Marley movies. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 on the day of the show. Doors open at 8 p.m. A free Reggae Party Bus will debut the night of the reggaefest, making the rounds between three bars: the ABC on West 25th Street, the Ontario Street Cafe on Public Square and Packy Malley’s. (Niesel) 15335 Waterloo Rd., 216-255-2875, facebook.com/packymalleysbar.
ART
FITNESS
A Roundtable Discussion In celebration of the closing of its current exhibition, Works on Paper, 2731 Prospect hosts a roundtable discussion with the artists featured in the exhibition at 2 p.m. today. The artists will discuss their diverse approaches to the medium, from traditional print processes to cutting-edge digital tools and experimental media involving paper. Following the roundtable discussion, the gallery will host a closing party. It’s free. (Usmani) 2731 Prospect Ave., 888-273-1881, 2731prospect.com.
Yoga & Music The Music Box Supper Club has had great success pairing music with yoga. That’s right: We said yoga. At tonight’s “workout,” your favorite Cleveland yogi Shari Carroll leads a vinyasa flow session while guitarist Thom Pope provides the tunes. Afterward, enjoy $5 off a specially chosen wine flight and complimentary admission to see Bossa Nova Night with Luca Mundaca. The event starts at 5:30, and tickets are $15. (Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-242-1250, musicboxcle.com.
THEATER
MUSIC
Vocalosity Artistic producer Deke Sharon (Pitch Perfect, The Sing-Off) conceived Vocalosity, a live concert event that takes a cappella music “to a whole new level.” The production features 12 vocalist who take on some of the biggest contemporary hits. Sean Curran, an
SUN
2/07
DANCE
7th Day Sweat The “seventh day” tends to be a day of rest for many folks. But not for the party hearty people who run B-Side Liquor Lounge, the popular dance club located
below the Grog Shop. Dubbed 7th Day Sweat, their weekly Sunday night soiree features DJ White Rims spinning “today’s hottest dance hits,” so you can “sweat it out” every Sunday. Admission is free but you must be 21 or older. It all starts at 7 p.m. (Niesel) 2785 Euclid Hts. Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-932-1966, bsideliquorlounge.com. FILM
Louisiana Story Considered the father of the documentary film, director Robert J. Flaherty made a number of significant films before he passed away in 1951. With the film series Return of the Naive, a special program featuring four features and four short films by Flaherty, the Cleveland Museum of Art has been providing a retrospective of his work. Today at 1:30 p.m., it screens the final installation in the series, Flaherty’s 1948 film Louisiana Story, a documentary about a Cajun boy who lives peacefully in the bayou until an oil rig disrupts his life. It shows on a restored 35mm print from the Library of Congress collection. Tickets are $10. (Niesel)
11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.
clevelandprintroom.com.
ART
Super Bowl 50 Party & Chili Cook Off Before you kick off your own Super Bowl 50 party today, stop by Waterloo Arts from 2 to 4 p.m. for their Super Bowl 50 Party & Chili Cook Off. The event is in conjunction with Fandom216, a Cleveland sports-themed exhibition currently on view at Waterloo Arts, as well as at Hedge Gallery and Zygote Press. Fandom216 remains on view at all three galleries through Feb. 20. Admission to today’s Super Bowl party is free. (Usmani) 15605 Waterloo Rd., 216-692-9500, waterlooarts.org.
Pinhole Camera Workshop Since the explosion of Instagram and cell phone camera technology, it seems as if there’s more interest in photography than ever before. While this increasingly complex technology continues to make it easier and easier to capture dynamic imagery, more and more professional, amateur and student photographers are reverting back to film and falling in love with the darkroom. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. today, the Cleveland Print Room presents the return of its popular Pinhole Camera Workshop. During the day, you’ll build your own pinhole camera, take photographs, and then develop and print them in the darkroom. No experience is necessary, and all equipment and materials will be provided. The workshop is $30 for members and $35 for non-members. Space is limited; be sure to call to prepay and make your reservation. It all takes place in the Print Room’s facility in the ArtCraft Building. (Usmani) 2550 Superior Ave., 216-401-5981,
ART
MON
2/08
SPOKEN WORD
Science Cafe The second Monday of the month, scientists from across the region descend upon the Music Box Supper Club on the west bank of the Flats to discuss various deep thought-invoking issues over a beer, in a casual riverside setting. Tonight, Dr. Ron Conlon and Dr. Insoo Hyun deliver the lecture, “A CRISPR Way to Alter the Genome.” The event begins at 7 p.m. and
admission is free. (Niesel) 1148 Main Ave., 216-242-1250, musicboxcle.com.
TUE
2/09
NIGHTLIFE
Partigras Tonight, Packy Malley’s Ballroom launches what organizers hope will become an annual tradition. Daddy Longleg’s Homegrown Revival will play its distinctive funk brand of New Orleans’ party music as part of Partigras, an event that promises to combine the festive feel of both Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras. Stilt walkers, dancing girls and face painters will be on hand. There will also be a live feed from Bourbon Street and plenty of gumbo and Cajun food to go around. The event begins at 5 p.m. and tickets are $5. (Niesel) 15335 Waterloo Rd., 216-255-2875, facebook.com/packymalleysbar.
Find more events @clevescene.com t@cleveland_scene
$85
Dinner & Show
or
$125 VIP
THURSDAY, MARCH 3RD 7PM DINNER | 9PM SHOW PRE-SHOW DINNER @ DANTE NEXT DOOR VIP Includes: Dinner, Private Cocktail Party, Meet & Greet Plus Show.
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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Photo by Adam Jaenke
ART
LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX
Modern Sexuality exhibition kicks off new series at Canopy Collective Canopy Collective will host a new exhibition on sexuality this month.
By Josh Usmani
WHEN CANOPY COLLECTIVE opened its doors at 3910 Lorain Ave. last spring, we told you to expect big things. Over the past year, Canopy has continued to evolve beyond simply retail and consignment sales with innovative and engaging programming, quality exhibitions by talented, emerging local artists and exciting special events. This weekend, Canopy begins a new chapter with the first of a series of themed group exhibitions. Canopy co-founder Erika Durham has chosen Modern Sexuality as the first theme in this ongoing series. The exhibition opens with a free public reception on Friday, Feb. 5, from 6 to 10 p.m. “The series of group shows is going to be interspersed throughout the year with solo exhibitions,” reveals Durham. “Each Canopy group show will feature artists who show their work in the Canopy shop. We will have an annual themed show at the beginning of each year that is open to all artists we work with (currently 70-plus). The shows that follow during the year will feature smaller, curated groups of four to six artists.” The theme of Modern Sexuality was chosen for its ability to both intrigue and discomfort. From this starting point, the artists were free to express themselves in any way they wished. The works range from
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intimately personal to universally applicable. While some artists have created serious work, others approach the subject with humor and absurdity. Through these different lenses, the artists examine the subject from virtually all angles. As a result, the artists explore and illuminate the complexity of their theme. Modern Sexuality is designed to encourage a dialogue of a subject some may find uncomfortable. Durham hopes the exhibition will initiate a discussion that will carry on far beyond the gallery walls. “With the Modern Sexuality show, I am hoping to create, along with the other artists, an environment that will encourage conversation and debate on the topic. Sexuality is something all of us experience, and in many cases can be an enormous part of
by nearly 40 artists who regularly sell their work through consignment at the Canopy shop in the front half of the space. These artists have created an eclectic array of artwork, including photography, painting, sculpture, illustration, woodworking, glass, apparel and more. “Canopy has an incredible diversity of artists showing their work in the shop,” Durham explains. “The goal with the group shows is to give those artists further opportunities to have their work be seen, and to challenge them to create something that may be outside of their norm. Canopy’s mission has always been to create more chances for more people to expand the reach of their art, and to foster the beautiful community of people who have come together because of a shared love for their
MODERN SEXUALITY CANOPY COLLECTIVE, 3910 LORAIN AVE., 216-309-1090, CANOPY-COLLECTIVE.COM
our lives. The more opportunities we have to confront it with openness and acceptance, the better understanding we will have. Everything else aside, sexuality is just that: sexy. It’s a mysterious and alluring topic and I can’t wait to see what all of these amazing artists create.” Modern Sexuality features work
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
craft.” Participating artists include Abbey Blake, Adam Jaenke, Ali Phillips, Allyson Humbert, Amber Esner, Andrew Gabriel, Angela Oster, August Antoinette, Brittany Barnhart, Caitie Moore, Christophe Kochheiser, Domenic Fiorello, Erika Durham, Erin Costello,
Erin Elizabeth Wehrenberg, Haley Morris, Jason Look, John G., Jordan Wong, Julie Schabel, Katy Kosman, Lisa Paulovcin, Lauren Feighan, Marjorie Harris, Martha Clark-Plank, Micaela Colleen Barrett, Michael Hudecek, Mike Sobeck, Nikohl Gallas, Patrick Jenkins, Phoebe Thomas, Rob Benigno, Robert J. Knauer, Skip Streeter, Spare Parts, Steve MacAdams, Steve Simmons, Todd Feichtmeier and Two Foxes Taxidermy. Additionally, Canopy promises a special interactive element for visitors on opening night. “I’m going to keep the interactive element a secret because I’d like for people to be surprised with it,” Durham says. Modern Sexuality remains on view at Canopy through Feb. 19. The next show in this ongoing series will take place in March. Although the date, title and theme have yet to be announced, the show will feature new and recent work by Alan Dunn, Erika Durham, Gabby Cryer, Todd Feichtmeier and Adam Jaenke. Canopy Collective is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and for special events.
jusmani@clevescene.com t@cleveland_scene
STAGE LOSERS IN LA LA LAND
Three movie hopefuls faceplant in Pure Shock Value at None Too Fragile Theater By Christine Howey IT’S ABOUT AS CLASSY AS A boner in sweatpants. That’s something people might say about the play at None Too Fragile Theater, if it weren’t too on-the-nose. Fact is, there are multiple boners in sweatpants in Pure Shock Value by Matt Pelfrey. There isn’t much elegance to this tale of three young Hollywood guppies who fancy themselves industry barracudas in the making. There is a reference to pedophilia, some exotic drug use, and other serious felonies afoot. But Pelfrey’s quicksilver dialogue and Sean Derry’s fearless direction keep this manic, frequently hilarious, and often too-predictable comedy afloat just long enough to arrive at an ending that will leave you tumescent with joy ... or limp from shock. Tex is an aspiring screenwriter whose claim to fame is a selfproclaimed ability to craft fart jokes (hey, listen, Hollywood careers have been built on thinner skill sets). He and his director pal Ethan have been trying to get their flatulencethemed movie “Barking Spiders” seen by someone, anyone, at the major studios. And they’re brimming with optimism until Ethan’s girlfriend and sometimes producer Gabby returns to Ethan’s crib from her meeting with a studio player. Turns out the “player” was just an intern, an unusually mature-looking high school sophomore at that. This is a fact she learns after she consents to give him a hummer in the studio parking lot. Getting desperate, Tex convinces the other two that they have to come up with a startling, un-ignorable hook for their flick, preferably made up of humor and “pure shock value.” If this sounds like a crazy plan, just consider the shock value that many current films utilize, such as the bear-on-man ghastliness in Revenant and the unhinged carnage in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. Speaking of that, a Tarantino avatar shows up in Pure Shock Value, like a gift from the movie gods. Stumbling around and moaning in Ethan’s backyard, he’s dragged inside by the trio who suppose he’s a homeless man on crack. Turns out he’s a world-famous director on
Pure Shock Value
crack (or PCP, or both). He is the very Tarantino-like Julian Quintana, a massively successful director of pureshock-value films. This triggers one of the funnier sequences in the show, as the three movie buffs try to categorize, in industry terms, the good fortune that has fallen in their undeserving laps. Referencing the meltdowns of movie stars Margot Kidder and Robert Downey Jr., who both wound up dazed and confused on suburban
Even though the story line is familiar to the point of exhaustion — another plot about Hollywood assholes? Really? — playwright Pelfrey deploys plenty of sharp interchanges. (One character puts down another’s hopeless idea by saying, “You’re like a cat trying to bury a shit on a marble floor.”) And he has some dazzling moments of inspiration. One of those is Tex’s brainstorm of doing a movie titled Fisting Spielberg. But Gabby demurs,
PURE SHOCK VALUE
THROUGH FEB. 13 AT NONE TOO FRAGILE THEATER, 1835 MERRIMAN RD., AKRON, 330-671-4563. NONETOOFRAGILE.COM
Los Angeles-area properties, Tex and company decide their situation is “a Kidder with Downey overtones.” Once the intrepid trio figures out who the strung-out wastrel really is, they quickly forge a scheme. They will bring him back to consciousness with a cocktail muddled with massive amounts of uppers and Viagra, show him a rough cut of their film, and sign a huge contract. In short, it’s a fantastical, ejaculatory orgasm of a deal that even a short-fingered vulgarian would envy.
pointing out the marketing challenges that might arise from “doing a film about ass-banging the maker of E.T.” This play is a fast and messy affair that could easily go flying over the guardrail of farce into the oblivion. Thankfully that doesn’t happen because it’s anchored by Alanna Romansky as Gabby. Adopting a cute Portuguese-ish accent and a gum-chewing, fuck-you savoir faire, Romansky is both sultry and sublimely amusing — a tough feat to pull off. She even manages to make
Gabby’s intermittent soul-searching reveries work, despite the clumsiness of the writing in those patches. As Tex, Benjamin Gregorio fairly jumps out of his skin with livewire intensity, and it often works splendidly. However, since his highs and lows are fairly indistinguishable, due to the charged nature of his performance, he doesn’t strike as many notes as he could. Brian Kenneth Armour’s mellow Ethan kind of fades into the woodwork with all the fireworks going on around him. One of those cherry bombs is Robert Branch, who trembles, foams and seizes for a long time before he begins to speak as Quintana, beset by his curiously raging hard-on. Once he does utter meaningful words, Branch conveys the personality of this Hollywood prick in a few short, devastating strokes. Of course, nothing can quite match the ending of this play, which boldly mounts a comical precipice few would ever straddle. It’s at that final moment when you fully understand what happens when black humor is married unequivocally to Pure Shock Value.
scene@clevescene.com t@christinehowey | clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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MOVIES
in theaters
JANE AUSTEN’S WALKING DEAD Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is self-explanatory By Sam Allard THE ANIMATING CONCEIT IN Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, when it arrived from Quirk Books in 2009, was a mashing up of Jane Austen’s famous novel — published in 1813, therefore in the public domain — and elements of fan fiction. Writer Seth Grahame-Smith added zombie and ninja subplots to the text, and was pleased to discover a hospitable backdrop. “You have this fiercely independent heroine, you have this dashing heroic gentleman, you have a militia camped out for seemingly no reason nearby, and people are always walking here and there and taking carriage rides here and there,” Grahame-Smith said in an interview at the time. “It was just ripe for gore and senseless violence.” Indeed. The film adaptation of the book adaptation, starring Downton Abbey’s Lily James as Elizabeth Bennett and Maleficent’s Sam Riley as Mr. Darcy, transports the onetrick-pony parody to the big screen. And until the final act, which revolves around preparations for a pivotal battle between the living and the undead, the zombie elements are little more than window-dressing on an otherwise unchanged Pride and Prejudice. As such, those elements
tend to work fine. They can be enjoyed in roughly the same way that you enjoy a “modern” take on Shakespeare — 10 Things I Hate About You, for instance. In this alternate history, young women must prepare not only for courtship and marriage but for the mortal peril of the countryside. (The production designers merrily armored the estates of Britain in Mordor-esque wrought-iron.) Within their garters and corsets, the Bennett sisters stash assorted weapons. They gossip about their romantic prospects not as they drink tea and biscuits, but as they spar. They are tutored not only in etiquette but in combat, and in fact are sent to the Orient (per custom) for martial arts training. Class lines are drawn based on where one was trained: Japan connotes a lower social standing than China, FYI. But when the zombie elements overtake the story, as in the final act and the series of silly revelations surrounding the swarthy Mr. Wickham (a former Mr. Darcy associate for whom Elizabeth Bennett falls), the parody becomes jumbled and much less fun. Its extemporaneous action — senseless plot, you might say — echoes the priorities of a lot of fan fiction.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Lily James and Sam Riley are serviceably type-cast as the romantic leads, though both pale in comparison to their BBC forebears (Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth). It’s the supporting cast who’ll win you over: Game of Thrones’ alums Charles Dance (Mr. Bennett) and Lena Headey (Lady Catherine de Bourgh); Bridget Jones’ Diary’s Sally Phillips (Mrs. Bennett); and, most especially, Matt Smith, of the BBC’s Doctor Who (Mr. Collins). They revel in the juxtaposition of the novel’s original language and the outlandish zombie context. Smith’s Mr. Collins is as unsubtle as they come, but it’s nonetheless an
inspired comedic turn. For the devotees who don’t consider the parody an utter debasement, most will probably chuckle at the inside jokes and references to iconic moments from the 1995 BBC miniseries. Others will watch in horror and contempt, lamenting a creative landscape so impoverished that 19th-century novels are now not being reimagined but merely cannibalized, in the service of a pop genre that’s by all indications trending down.
sallard@clevescene.com t@SceneSallard
SPOTLIGHT: 45 YEARS WRITER-DIRECTOR ANDREW HAIGH WAS editing his film, Weekend, when he received a collection of short stories. The David Constantine story In Another Country particularly struck him. It centers on a British couple as they prepare to celebrate their 45th anniversary. Something from the husband’s past comes to light and casts a shadow on the celebration. Haigh thought it would make a good film and wrote a screenplay based on the story. The resulting movie, 45 Years, debuted in the U.K. last year; it opens at the Cedar Lee Theatre on Friday. It focuses on Kate Mercer’s (Charlotte Rampling) discovery that Geoff (Tom Courtenay) was once engaged to a woman who dies in a hiking accident. “Weirdly, the more you’re in a relationship, the harder it can be to talk about certain things because you have more to risk,” says Haigh via phone from Los Angeles where he’s editing the finale of Looking, the HBO series about gay
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
friends living in San Francisco. “If you don’t talk about these things in the early formation of the relationship, it becomes very, very difficult. You define yourself in those early days.” Haigh describes the film as “an existential crisis movie.” The flick, however, has a twist because it involves two elderly people. And Haigh emphasizes the female perspective. “Of course, a woman can have an existential crisis too,” he says. “I found it was interesting that [the discovery] was something that hadn’t happened to her, and yet it was unraveling her whole life. The things that disrupt the understanding of ourselves can come from very strange, unknown places that don’t make sense and shouldn’t be a threat but end up threatening things.” The film features terrific performances by both Rampling, who was recently nominated for an Oscar, and Courtenay. “They bring so much to the film,” says Haigh.
“It’s the first time I’ve worked with actors of that kind of experience. There’s a lot of silence in the film. You need people who can express themselves physically through their eyes and gestures. You want somebody to bring the story to life. Both of them did that for me beautifully.” He says he intended to make a movie about senior citizens that doesn’t sentimentalize the subject matter. “Whenever there are older people in films, they’re used for comic effects or they don’t treat it seriously,” he says. “There’s this notion that once you reach the age of 50, everything is set in stone and sorted. That doesn’t make any sense to me. The older people I know aren’t like that and I don’t feel like I will become like that. It was important to me that they’re two people searching for the answers. In many respects, the older you get, the more important that search becomes because you’re getting close to the end.” — Jeff Niesel
AND
INVITE YOU TO ENTER TO WIN
ATTENTION ALL REALLY, REALLY RIDICULOUSLY GOOD LOOKING PEOPLE
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
EAT THE TIMES, THEY ARE A’CHANGING Warren’s Spirited Kitchen is the latest modern addition to Burton By Douglas Trattner WHEN MANY OF US THINK OF Burton, images of quaint Amish buggies, log cabins, impossibly high snow drifts and sticky maple syrup immediately come to mind. This small town in Geauga County often is referred to as “Pancake Town, U.S.A,” after all. But what doesn’t typically come to mind are trendy amenities. Instead, scattered around the picturesque town square are family friendly restaurants dedicated to hearty, home-style cooking, homespun shops that peddle quilts, nut butters and local jams, and the usual assortment of pizza, sub and burger spots. “Times are really changing,” local resident Craig Bednarek tells me. Bednarek points to a flush of new businesses in the area that are more reflective of the shifting demographics. Pricey boutiques and salons, fresh-roasted coffee and wine shops, and contemporary furniture and art galleries — all things, he says, that are making Burton an even more desirable place to live. Yet, despite the advances, his community still lacked a progressive place to eat. “Being from around here, and seeing how busy and hustling and bustling the Burton and Middlefield area is without having an upscale place in town for the residents and travelers, we saw the perfect fit,” he says. After three decades working for other restaurant owners, Bednarek jumped at the opportunity to open a place of his own while simultaneously attempting to plug the dining gap in his backyard. He and his wife spent months converting a shuttered restaurant on the village green, one located a quick one-minute walk from the historic Burton Log Cabin, into Warren’s Spirited Kitchen. They did a remarkable job transforming a former ice cream shop into a stylish American pub with an understated hunt club theme. The focal point is the newly constructed bar, a feature that gives this 70-seat restaurant its buoyancy and life. Warren’s, indeed, is a spirited place to eat. Given the wealth of small farms in the region, Bednarek knew that local and seasonal was the direction
Photos by Emanuel Wallace
Fried Chicken and Funnel Cake
he wanted to go in the kitchen. Management also knew they needed a chef who was creative enough to pivot with the calendar, concocting contemporary dishes built around an ever-changing shopping bag. He found all of the above, he says, in
in-house because they change so often, he explains, a point proven by the fact that this week’s version is different from the version I held in my hands just a few weeks prior. Lucky for you, the walnut soup ($8) hasn’t gone anywhere. Built on a
WARREN’S SPIRITED KITCHEN 14614 EAST PARK ST., BURTON 440-273-8100 WARRENSSPIRITEDKITCHEN.COM
Vince Thomascik, an enthusiastic, experienced chef who worked alongside pros like Jon Sawyer and Brian Goodman at the Greenhouse Tavern. Bednarek prints his menus
base of vegetable stock and ground walnuts, the creamy bisque-like brew is nutty, earthy and perfect on a cold winter’s night. That bowl is one of a handful of eclectic starters that range from silky chicken liver
Seared Salmon Scallops
pate ($9), served with seasonal fruit, pickled veggies and thin toasts, to a wide crock of crispy charred Brussels sprouts ($7) lifted by fresh mint and sweetened with, what else, maple syrup. In stark and pleasant contrast to those rich appetizers is a bowl of thinsliced hot peppers ($6) in a shallow bath of olive oil, that when spooned onto hunks of the grilled bread offer a grassy, fruity kick. In truly modern but not altogether welcome fashion, the menu hops from small plate to bigger plate to main course for little objective reason. An entree-size dish of seared salmon scallops ($13), so called for their scallop-size shapes, lands under the “bigger bites” section, while a pitchperfect beef tartar and frites ($17) — perfect as a table-sharing starter — lands under the main courses. Despite its designation as a “bite,” anybody can (and should) make a meal out of the crispy, juicy and crave-worthy fried chicken and funnel cake ($14), a twist on the popular soul food combo that draws inspiration from the annual Geauga County Fair. Thomascik manages to make a decadent dish, the bechamel-drenched grilled ham and cheese known as a Croque Madame ($15), even more indulgent by tucking buttery pork belly slices into the stack. A pepper relish cuts the richness while a “yolk jam” stands in for the customary fried egg. Service here is as warm and unrushed as one might expect to find in Smalltown, U.S.A., with the owners making a point of touching every table, perhaps to recommend a great wine or beer. But while the new restaurant is being almost unanimously well received, even adding daily lunch service as of last week, Bednarek understands it’s not for everybody. “We have people who walk in, look at the menu, turn around and walk out,” he says. “We don’t have kids’ menus, high chairs or booster seats. That’s fine; there are plenty of places like that around here. But the ones who stay are usually thrilled.”
dtrattner@clevescene.com t @dougtrattner | clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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DUCK ISLAND ADDITIONS
Western Reserve Meadery and Duck-Rabbit Coffee make a home at Forest City Brewery By Nikki Delamotte
2/20
Learn More At www.agostinos.events
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
Delicious Italian Cuisine & Fine Wine Selection 2181 Murray Hill Rd | Cleve, OH 44106 216.231.5977 • NoraCleveland.com Tuesday-Thursday: 5:00pm to 10:00pm Friday-Saturday: 5:00pm to 11:00pm Sunday: 5:00pm to 9:00pm
EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW again at the ambitious Forest City Brewery project (2135 Columbus Rd., forestcitybrewery.com) in Duck Island. Embedded within the historic 1915 building on the site of the former Atlantic Beer Garden, the forthcoming Duck-Rabbit Coffee and Western Reserve Meadery add to the anticipation of Forest City as a craft beverage destination. Both Columbus Road storefronts plan to wrap up construction in February. Duck-Rabbit expects to be open by the end of the month and a spring opening is planned for the Meadery. In the midst of mead’s recent explosion, Douglas Shaw and Jason Andro of Western Reserve Meadery (westernreservemeadery.com) are primed to continue the renaissance of their fermented honey-based imbuement. “I remember reading about mead in Beowulf,” recalls Shaw. “Now you’ve got Game of Thrones and Skyrim putting it front and center of popular culture.” Shaw and Andro, who started as home brewers, already have garnered accolades from WineMaker magazine. In 2014, they earned a bronze award in the fruit mead category for their fig mead made with blueberry honey. Specialty small-batch varieties will include oak-aged buckwheat and cherry, which is on the dry side, and an upcoming date mead. A summery mead will include apricot, clover and hops as a sort of cross between cider and beer with a distinct floral flavor. “I think we’re both intrigued with the fruits that aren’t tart, but more savory,” says Shaw. Because bees pollinate more than one type of plant, creating mixed
flavor notes in the honey, no two varieties will be the same. That’s all the incentive folks need to visit the shop often, where the small bar will offer tastings. “That’s part of the mystery and romance of it,” says Andro. “Once you have the honey from that year, there is nothing in the universe that will make that exact combination again.” Meads will be available to take home in 375 mL and 750 mL bottles. Only footsteps away, Duck-Rabbit (duckrabbitcoffee.com) will serve up coffee. Keeping pace with the coffee world’s recent obsession with light roasting techniques, proprietor Cal Verga uses a vintage early-’80s Probat G-12 that was manufactured and refurbished in Emmerich, Germany. The shop will sell its beans retail, and there will be seating for about a dozen. A small selection of local pastries will be offered. Verga, a Lakewood native, spent the last handful of years learning the coffee-roasting ropes in the Bay Area, a West Coast coffee mecca. “I feel like I got my start in the perfect place,” says Verga. “The Bay Area was super collaborative.” In that tradition, he recently teamed up with Forest City Brew to create a stout using a Rwandan roast with dark berry notes. Restore Cold Press uses his cold brew in its nut mylk. On deck is a project with Brick and Barrel. The final element will be homebrewed coffee workshops. “Encouraging and empowering people to brew at home is a big focus of what we’re doing,” says Verga. “We want people to be excited about coffee.”
scene@clevescene.com t@cleveland_scene
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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OPENING SOON:
Market Garden’s production brewery, tour and tasting room By Douglas Trattner THE BEER BREWING PROCESS begins in the milling room, where the grains are weighed and crushed. Then it’s off to the three-vessel brewhouse where those grains are steeped in hot water, strained and the resulting liquid boiled. When cooled, the liquid is inoculated with yeast and stashed in a fermentation tank. When ready to drink, the beer is popped into a keg or bottle. When the Market Garden Brewery production facility opens to the public in the coming weeks, visitors will get an up-close and personal look at every step along that path. The Ohio City brewery was custom built to maximize the visitor experience, with elevated catwalks guiding guests on a delicious loop from mill to bottle fill. More than a year’s time — and “a few million dollars” — went into the construction of this modern, sun-soaked brewery in the heart of Cleveland. It wasn’t easy converting the largely unused Culinary Arts Building, tucked behind the West Side Market, into the large-scale brewery, but the owners wouldn’t have had it any other way. “You toy with the idea of going to a small parcel of land in an industrial park, and how much money you’d save with little to no construction and less investment,” says co-founder Mark Priemer. “It teases you. But this was a chance in a lifetime to be right here in Ohio City, right by the West Side Market, next to our restaurant, so the decision was made.” Located on an acre of land in one of Cleveland’s oldest neighborhoods, the site was not without its challenges. Co-founder Sam McNulty whips out an old residential map from the 1840s showing the houses that once existed beneath our very feet. “It looked like an archeological dig,” McNulty says of the site. “There were hand-cut sandstone foundations; there was an old German cellar.” The exposed brick wall of one of those houses still stands in striking contrast to the modern stainless steel brewing equipment. This is the sixth brewery that head brewer Andy Tveekrem has had a hand in building. His beer-brewing resume stretches back to Great Lakes Brewing Co. and Dogfish Head, before
starting with Market Garden and then Nano Brew. With each new gig, he says, he’s gotten smarter about building a better brewery. It starts, literally, with the floor. Every square inch of the production facility has radiant heating, which
in addition to being cozy on the toes happens to be a lot safer. Brewery floors are constantly being hosed down, and warm tile floors dry considerably quicker than cold ones. The brewing equipment was designed and built in Germany by
Esau & Hueber and shipped over. But it didn’t come alone. The 90-year-old company also sends over an assembler, who works onsite for three weeks. That person is then replaced by an electrical controls technician, who also sticks around for three weeks, all the
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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Find your happy hour. Download SCENE’s official happy hour app today! clevescene.com/happyhours
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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way through first test brews. Tveekrem, who stands 6-foot-4, had the company customize his brewing equipment so it stands higher off the ground than what is considered standard, providing easier access to the valves, pipework and motors that typically sit just above the floor. “It’s important to have the brewhouse customized to the brewer,” he says only half-jokingly. “If you try to do maintenance on them, you’re literally laying on your back in a puddle of dripping-hot stuff. It’s a nightmare.” The new production facility brews 35-barrel batches of beer compared to the 10-barrel batches next door at the brewpub. But that doesn’t tell the whole story when it comes to brewing capacity, the brewer explains. “The capacity is determined by the fermenters we have,” he says. “Right now we have enough for about 7,000 barrels per year. But we’ve got room for two more rows of larger tanks, so we’ll be able to do about 20 or 25,000 barrels in the fermentation hall that we have.” Down the road, when the back half of the building is put into play, the capacity can ultimately reach 80 to 100,000 barrels per year in the 44,000-square-foot complex. “We’ve invested a lot up front in the ability to expand fairly seamlessly,” adds Tveekrem. “We really wanted to think this through and make the brewhouse fit the building.” As visitors make their way out of the fermentation tank room, they’ll pass a row of labs, which Tveekrem refers to as “the pilot house on the ship.” He designates them, in order, as the analytical lab, microbiological lab and sensory analysis lab. “The back of the house is every bit as important,” explains McNulty. “We’re making sure that every beer that we send to market is the best possible beer we can brew. It may not be sexy, but it tells the story of how obsessed we are with making sure this is beer we’re proud of.” This week, the very first batch of beer was brewed at the production facility. It was the Prosperity Wheat, which will soon be joined by batches of other Market Garden flagship brews, Progress Pilsner and Citramax IPA. In addition, seasonal beers like Hella Mango IPA, which, like all the beers, started life as an experimental brew at Nano, will be brewed and released. “We also have the Nano Series, single batches that we’ll drop a few times per year that scratch the itch of
the beer geek,” says co-founder Mike Foran. Think Trouble Honey IPA and Wallace Tavern Scotch Ale, he adds. As early as April, Market Garden beers that are bottled and kegged in the onsite packaging room will be distributed by Superior Beverage throughout Cuyahoga County. They’ll be showing up in bars, restaurants and retail stores, something the company couldn’t do prior because of demand and capacity issues at the brewpub. Tours end in a sunny tasting room that overlooks the heart of Ohio City. Through the massive two-story windows, guests have views of the West Side Market, Market Garden brewpub and a wide swath of West 25th Street businesses. Here, visitors can sip fresh beer and purchase beer to go at retail. In addition to six-packs, customers can call and order a keg, which will be loaded directly into one’s car via the curbside pick-up system. Leaning against a temporary railing, owner Mark Priemer tells the small group, “This is where we all started in the neighborhood, maybe 11 or 12 years ago with Bier Markt. Being here is absolutely being part of the neighborhood. Having that view onto what is our home — Ohio City, the Market District — is so important for us. Putting our best face forward to the neighborhood.” Earlier, brewer Tveekrem echoed those sentiments. “It’s what we want to give to the area.” he says. “I want people to say hey, we’ve got to go down to West 25th and check out the brewery, and go to the market and hit some of the bars and restaurants and bring it all together.”
CLEVELAND BAGEL TO OPEN PETITE RETAIL SPOT IN OHIO CITY One can never claim that Geoff Hardman and Dan Herbst do things the conventional way. When they launched the Cleveland Bagel Co. (216395-7723, clebagelco.com), they did so around a product that was wholly (or is it holey?) original, a sort of mash-up of styles commonly enjoyed in New York and Montreal. Cleveland Bagels are made with malt, hand-rolled and boiled prior to baking, giving them a satisfyingly chewy texture. Since launching in 2013, Cleveland Bagel’s bagels have been available around town at coffee shops like Phoenix and Pour, and restaurants like Graffiti and Cafe 55. They are produced in the commercial kitchens of Ohio City Pasta, located in, obviously, Ohio City. What the bagel boys lacked was a retail presence, a place where
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customers could pop in to pick up a dozen fresh bagels or a simple bagel and a schmear. That retail space will take shape by early spring, says owner Herbst, but it’s anything but typical. “It’s literally a doorway between a nail shop and the dog shop — a stairwell with the stairs removed,” Herbst explains, adding that the final dimensions will be a not-soroomy 4-by-14-feet. Located just down the block from the production kitchen, the retail outlet will serve as a small presence for the growing foods company. It will also serve as the proverbial (and, perhaps, literal) foot in the door in terms of future growth. “This will make a nice jumpingoff point for us until we get our own official shop and production facility,” Herbst says. Look for the wee shop, on the same Hingetown block as Jukebox, this spring.
store and bringing it to Tremont,” Kubovcik says. “Location is everything.” The spot, across the street from Fahrenheit, will provide easy access for scores of urban gardeners. Kubovcik intends to stay open late on Artwalk nights, with open houses and workshops on urban farm topics like container gardening. “It’s beautiful on the inside,” he says. “The only thing left to do is fill it.” The endeavor might sound like a departure for Glazen, who is best
known (these days, anyway) as the man behind popular bars and taverns like ABC the Tavern, XYZ Tavern, and Ontario Street Cafe. But the same efforts and skills he used to set up restaurant owners could be applied to other disciplines as well, he says. He’s calling his new organization Glazen Urban, and Kubovcik and Tremont Farm & Market are its first beneficiaries. “I came to realize that I don’t really run bars or restaurants, Randy [Kelly] and Linda [Syrek] do,” Glazen explains. “I looked back and saw that what I’ve really done
is take properties — nine different properties — and by my investment, and getting somebody else, we turn those properties into good places in the city. And I’m going to continue doing that. “This turns really deserving business people, who were never going to get anywhere equity-wise, now to own their own business without penalizing them for not having the money.”
dtrattner@clevescene.com t@DougTrattner
TREMONT FARM & MARKET TO OPEN IN APRIL Detroit Shoreway-area home, garden and pet owners likely are familiar with Grace Brothers Nursery (1907 West 65th St., 216513-3262), a wonderful shop loaded with essential home and garden products. Since it opened four years ago, the shop has been managed by Kevin Kubovcik, the resident expert on all things urban farming. In April, Kubovcik will partner with Alan Glazen to open a similar style operation in the heart of Tremont. Tremont Farm & Market will be in a sunny storefront at the corner of Professor and Jefferson, a building owned by Glazen. The location features a 1,600-square-foot main floor plus a large yard for a nursery. “I’m very excited about it,” says Kubovcik. “It’s such a wonderful opportunity.” When it first opened, Grace Brothers had a few staple products like dog food, chicken feed and plants. In the intervening years, Kubovcik continued to grow the inventory, adding tons of local food products like eggs, milk, cheese, meat and fermented products. Books guide readers through the finer points of urban homesteading. And Grace Brothers has become the No. 1 spot for chicken owners and beekeepers (including this writer). “I’ll be taking the best of that | clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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THE GROG SHOP PRESENTS AT
CLEVELAND MASONIC AUDITORIUM
THU 3/10
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Tancred Adjy
MC
TUE 4/5
SUN 2/14 FRI 3/11
UNWRITTEN LAW FENIX, TX
LIONIZE CRAW
The Shadow Division MURDEREDMAN The Hax The Great Iron Snake
The Missing
SAT 3/12 WED 4/6
THU 2/18
MC CHRIS THE FALCON Nathan Anderson
SEERESS Harvey Pekar
WED 2/17
members of ALKALINE TRIO and THE LAWRENCE ARMS
MC Lars Worriers • The Lippies
Wolf Teeth
DAVID CROSS
MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! THE GROG SHOP PRESENTS AT
FRI 2/19
BEACHLAND BALLROOM SUN 3/13
THE QUEERS CHOMP SCARFACE ICON TOUR
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Restless Habs FDA Music • OG Grip Who Hit Me
Presented w/ Beachland
TUE 3/22
SAT 2/20
HUNTER VALENTINE Early Girl
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Audi(o)holic
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
WHERE’S THE BAND TOUR
CHRIS CONLEY (SAVES THE DAY) DAN ANDRIANO (ALKALINE TRIO) MATT PRYOR (THE GET UP KIDS) ANTHONY RANERI (BAYSIDE) ANDY JACKSON (HOT ROD CIRCUIT) FRI 4/8
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Tue 2/16 Band Practice Open Mic w/THESE KNEES Tue 2/23 Band Practice Open Mic w/SHAWN & SHELBY Fri 2/26 MOJOFLO • Wildlife Soundz Sat 2/27 NEW MOON RISING Pura Vida EP Release Sun 2/28 EARTH CHIEF • Deathcrawl • Toro Blanco Thu 3/3 Workingman’s Reggae w/THE ARK BAND Mon 4/4 THE EXPENDABLES • Passafire • Jon Wayne & the Pain Thu 4/7 BONGZILLA • Black Cobra • Kings Destroy • Lo Pan Fri 4/8 AUTOLUX Thu 4/14 DUNCAN TRUSSELL Sun 4/24 MURDER BY DEATH • Kevin Devine & The Goddamn Band Fri 4/29 CASH’D OUT • Texas Plant Sun 5/1 ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER Wed 5/18 SAVAGES Thu 5/19 WEEKEND NACHOS • Homewrecker • Vice Thu 9/1 RIVAL SONS
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HOUSE OF BLUES
MON 2/29 SAT 4/16
BEACH HOUSE ANDREW BIRD
MUSIC THE HEAD AND THE HEART
Country singer Wynonna Judd and husband Cactus Moser talk about the concept behind their Stories & Song tour By Jeff Niesel Photo courtesy of MSO PR
Wynonna Judd and the Big Noise are like “one big family.”
DRUMMER/PRODUCER SCOTT “Cactus” Moser, who anchors Big Noise, the country band that’s currently on the road with his wife, country singer Wynonna Judd, has fond memories of watching Judd do soundcheck back in the 1990s. At the time, Moser played in the country act Highway 101. The two would eventually date and then marry in 2012; they’re currently on a Stories & Song tour that brings them to Hard Rock Live on Feb. 4. Back in his Highway 101 days, Moser was struck by how great her voice sounded during rehearsals, when she would improvise and show off her vocal range. “I thought that was one of the most amazing voices,” recalls Moser in a recent conference call with Judd on the line as well. “She would play with the songs a lot more during soundcheck. I would say, ‘That girl can sing amazing things we don’t even get to hear. She can sing anything.’ When you get to working together, it’s always fun. It’s a gift for me to produce a record and
then work with the person.” “I waited 30 years for this man,” says Judd, adding that they collaborate particularly well together. “I loved him since I was 20, when we toured together in the ’80s. He’s the head, and I’m the heart.” Not that it’s all been peaches and cream. The two have experienced their share of hardships. Three months into their marriage, Moser crashed his motorcycle and had to have his leg amputated. “We went from the marriage bed to a medical facility,” says Judd. “Our bedroom became cotton and alcohol swabs. It was standing in the shower while he needed me to hold him up. When you go through crap like that, it bonds you or breaks you. I watched him go from not being able to hold a drumstick in his left hand to playing like he does on stage. I have a respect for him and an appreciation for his life that you can’t get in any other way. Until you’ve had a near-death experience, you take so much for granted. You don’t get that kind of joy
and celebration without going through this crap that we’ve been through. We’re Ricky [Ricardo] and Lucille [Ball]. We have the best time. We laugh and fight and argue, but we resolve it, which is something I can say I haven’t done much in the past because I’m an alpha.” Particularly proud of their new album, Wynonna & the Big Noise, Judd and Moser say they intended to make something that sounded modern yet vintage at the same time. “When you’re working with an artist, you make all these great tracks and record the music and then you have to do vocals,” Moser explains. “We have done that in the past. With this record, we made this one basically live. That’s what we got. We wanted modern-day stuff that references Frank Sinatra and Hank Williams and those people who just played.” The album certainly could be classified as country, but other musical styles are represented as well. “When we [started to make the album], I felt like it’s a process,” Judd
says. “I go through this process. It’s like opening the heavens and I say, ‘Okay, god. Let me know what you want to do. I want to your blessing.’ I get songs that come in the most unusual of ways.” One day, before sessions for the album had started, she and Moser were riding in the car, and Moser put on the Poco song “I Can See Everything” and blasted the radio at full volume. “And he was singing and playing every part,” says Judd. “It was so obnoxious. I looked out the window for a few minutes. He was singing every vocal part. He’s playing the drums and playing the guitar. I just looked at him like he was so full of himself. That song kept ringing in my head. Next thing we know, we’re playing that song [in the studio] and I love it. Next thing, we had [Poco’s] Timothy [B Schmit] singing on it. I thought there was no way. Every song happened in a very unique way. It was very authentic. They’re all parts of my history from when I was 15, listening to Jimmie | clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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MUSIC and Stevie Ray [Vaughan] in the kitchen to hanging out with Bonnie Raitt at 16. These songs are every bit as honest and part of the background of my life story.” Moser agrees there are “a lot of varied things” on the album. “What we decided to do was literally make a great, honest, heartfelt record of music we loved as opposed to premarketing and pre-thinking it,” he says. “We didn’t want to pre-think what the singles would be. It usually costs you. You out-think yourself. She and I would talk. We were conversing about where to go musically at this point in life.” He says that instead of seeking out the hot Nashville songwriters, he and Judd tried to find songwriters who were “off the beaten path.” As a result, they ended up collaborating with guys like alt-country singer-songwriter Jason Isbell. “Most publishers are pitching stuff you hear on the radio,” Moser explains. “I started calling my friends who were writers. I knew guys and girls who would resonate from the same place as where our stuff was coming from. I was panicking that I needed to get to all these publishers. They gave us the stuff we need. People
for. We wanted it to be as personal as it could be. And we wanted it to sound like it was outside the music business.” A killer blues track co-written by up-and-coming country singer Chris Stapleton, “Ain’t No Thing” features some grunge-y guitar riffs. It pairs Judd’s soulful vocals with raspy-voiced Susan Tedeschi. “Susan Tedeschi is such a perfect match for Wy to sing with,” says Moser when asked about the song. “And [guitarist] Derek [Trucks, who plays on ‘Keeps Me Alive,’] is probably the finest living soloist, and the guys in the Big Noise are like a family band to us. I’ve known a lot of them, and Wy has known a lot of them. These were the only people that it made any sense to bring in.” Judd has so many great songs in her back catalog, it’s gotta be difficult to find a way to play both the classics and the new tracks. “This is what I’ve decided as a 37year veteran of being on stage,” says Judd. “I should be up there doing ‘Only Love’ and some of that stuff. Here’s what I’ve done. I’ve gone in and picked a few of those. ‘She Is His Only Need’ is important because it was a marking of my solo career. It was my first single that went to No. 1. I mark the show with those moments. Those are important to me as an artist and vocalist.” But she says the new songs are “so
WYNONNA & THE BIG NOISE: STORIES & SONG 7:30 P.M., THURSDAY, FEB. 4, HARD ROCK ROCKSINO NORTHFIELD PARK, 10777 NORTHFIELD RD., NORTHFIELD, 330-908-7625. TICKETS: $29.50-$57.50, HRROCKSINONORTHFIELDPARK.COM
will believe Wy, and she can emote these words because they come from a different place.” Despite the many collaborators who contributed to the album, Judd says she and Moser sought to make it sound “cohesive.” “When you get a Bonnie Raitt record, you listen from first song to last song and there is this flow,” she says. “We went for the whole. Nowadays, we’re so singles driven, it scares me and makes me uncomfortable as an artist. I love the idea of a movie with a beginning and middle and end. We did this live. There are so many tracked vocals on there that I could have changed very quickly. But Cactus said, ‘No. This is honesty.’ ‘Things I Lean On’ is so tender and from the heart. ‘Keeps Me Alive’ is like I’m 18 years old and back in Appalachia, and I member the smell of snow in the air. For Jason Isbell to come down to our shed and sit there in his ballcap and just sing like we’re neighbors was exactly what we went
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
full of life” that she has to give them their due. “They’re like living waters, quenching the thirst of the fans,” she says. “There might be a guy who hasn’t seen me before. They don’t know any better. It’s great. Then, there’s the fan who’s been with me who’s bringing her daughter. She’s going to get to hear the classics and the present and the future because there are a couple of things that I do that are very off the beaten path. There’s nothing missing in terms of that. People do want the hits, and I get that; but this music is so resonating with the people that I think it’s interesting. When I was on Twitter, [fans] weren’t saying they wanted to hear this song from 19-whenever. They’re so loving the new music. It’s almost as if everything I’ve done has led me to the place where I am today.”
jniesel@clevescene.com t @jniesel
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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Photo by Miss Jill PR
MUSIC
WHAT SHE SHRED Singer-guitarist Samantha Fish gets ‘personal’ on her new album
By Jeff Niesel
Samantha Fish breaks free from genre with Wild Heart .
WHEN SHE WAS STILL IN HER teens, singer-guitarist Samantha Fish started hanging out at the Kansas City blues club Knuckleheads. While there, she met many of the big-name blues acts when they came to town. “Seeing people at Knuckleheads inspired me,” she says via phone from her Kansas City home. “[Blues singerguitarist] Popa Chubby was the first show I ever saw. I was blown away. He’s a rock star and making a living touring. It’s not such a shot in the dark. For me, I woke up and realized it’s something you have to work for. It’s not impossible. When I told my parents and everybody that I wanted to become a musician, it scared the hell out of them. They always said I should go to school. Growing up, you always think it’s impossible.” But the “impossible” would soon become the possible. Fish, who initially played drums, made the switch to guitar and never looked back after establishing herself as a formidable blues player. “This desire to sing and play and be a front person was there even though I was a shy kid,” she explains. “I would have never in a million years picked this for me, even though there was a part of me that always wanted that. I started on drums because I thought drums were really cool, but I really connected with the guitar and singing. It helped me come out of my shell when I was younger. Playing music helped
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me bridge that gap and become a little more outgoing. It let me become me.” With her new album, Wild Heart, she emphasizes roots rock over the blues for which she’s known. It’s a terrific effort that benefited from collaboration with songwriter Jim McCormick and producer Luther Dickinson of North Mississippi AllStars fame. Dickinson also played the various stringed instruments (guitar, bass, mandolin, lap steel) on it, recording the album at Royal Studios and Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee; at Zebra Ranch in Coldwater, Mississippi; and at Blade Studios in Shreveport, Louisiana. “For me, it was the third studio solo release, and it was the first time
Her manager wanted her to try co-writing and see how she liked it. She took a few song ideas, maybe a song or chorus, and connected with McCormick in Nashville, a guy who’s written some “huge contemporary country hits.” “He’s a word doctor and a lyricist,” she says. “We just really clicked. Getting another perspective with somebody who just focuses and works on that alone, I learned a lot. We came up with some good stories. The ideas were there and we developed the stories. I grew up on guys like Tom Waits. I like imagery more than storytelling, but I think a good story connects with people. I went to Nashville for a few days. We met up a
SAMANTHA FISH, THE PARK BROTHERS 8 P.M., THURSDAY, FEB. 4, BEACHLAND BALLROOM, 15711 WATERLOO RD., 216-383-1124. TICKETS: $15 ADV, $18 DOS, BEACHLANDBALLROOM.COM
I was like, ‘I’m not going to worry if this fits within what we’ve been doing and what everybody thinks we should be doing,’” she says. “It came out really naturally. We didn’t mind the genres so much. It was more personal. Anytime you do something that’s more personal and it’s received well, that’s a success.” Prior to recording the album, she had had several songs that were mostly finished or half-finished.
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
few times and worked in person. That was cool. He has an office on Music Row. Getting to go out there and write in that historic place was pretty cool in and of itself.” Fish says she’s been a fan of Dickinson for a long time. In particular, she cites the North Mississippi Allstars’ album World Boogie is Coming as an inspiration. “I thought it sounded so good,” she says. “The quality of the recording
was great. It had all the great tonal qualities I would want in an album. It sounded so full. I’ve been a fan of his guitar playing. He’s such a big figure in our industry. He works with all these people and puts out so many great albums. I threw his name out there. A few weeks later, they reached out and he was interested. It was a shot in the dark. I thought that was pretty cool. Luther had set it up [that we could record at multiple studios]. It turned out really cool. It was like a pilgrimage. We’re so lucky it came together the way it did. Everyone gelled well. It could have gone really wrong. It could have gone really badly if we didn’t work with one guy. But Luther put together a great team of people. When we went to Memphis and worked with the Norman Sisters. He just picked the right people for the project. He just knew who would be a good fit.” The opening tune, “Road Runner,” a song about a man who loves and leaves women, comes off as particularly gritty as Fish unleashes fierce solo after fierce solo. “That’s based on a couple of different people, to be honest,” she says. “I try not to incriminate anyone. Nobody tells you the hardships of being a songwriter. I’ve got my dad taking things personally. My mom is pissed. It’s rough. My fiance is pissed at me all the time. He thinks I write horrible songs about him. They’re not about him. They’re just stories.” A pretty ballad that features acoustic guitar, “Go Home” allows Fish to show her softer side as she sings about wanting to overcome “nights of heartache.” Sisters Risse Norman and Shontelle Norman-Beatty provide the cooing vocals in the background. “That’s a song about watching a few friends go through some bad stuff,” she says. “Overall, it’s a song about being a hypocrite and not practicing what you preach. It’s about not having all the answers and not following through. I think we can all relate to being a bit of a hypocrite.” The popularity of the blues seems to come in spurts, but Fish says the genre currently sits “in a good place.” “It depends on the fans and the industry letting it grow and evolve,” she says. “For me, I felt like I had to fit within a certain category or box to be accepted. I feel like you have to get away from that a little bit. There has to be some exploration and making it your own and that’s what has to happen for it to take off and for young people to get involved.”
jniesel@clevescene.com t @jniesel
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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Photo courtesy of Groove On Music
MUSIC BACK IN ACTION
Jamgrass favorites Cornmeal twist up another chapter in their rock ‘n’ roll history By Eric Sandy WHEN WORD DROPPED THAT Cornmeal was finally getting around to that new album, fans took it with several grains of salt. Due to any number of personal obstacles and challenges, the impending studio cut was subjected to false starts over the years. Who knew when it would really happen? Last year — finally, indeed — the band dropped Slow Street, their first studio album in nearly 10 years. Most of the material had originated with a previous line-up, leaving the newly assembled Cornmeal to brush off the dust and kick these songs up a notch. Fans were thrilled. “The time between studio albums was a long time for the band,” guitarist and singer Scott Tipping says. “And I think the thing that’s interesting is that once we got Slow Street out, we were promoting a lot of the new songs; but in that process a bunch of new songs came out and they’re kind of becoming staples at the shows.” Tipping says that the band is already gathering plans to return to the studio for the next album. This time around, it shouldn’t take as long. To understand why the band is feeling more confident than ever, we need to rewind the tape a bit and chart the Cornmeal musical trajectory. The early- to mid-2000s saw this Chicago-based bluegrass outfit rising steadily in stature among college radio stations and regional and national festivals like Telluride Bluegrass and Wakarusa. Their tight, practiced sound always blended the historical legacy of gin-yoo-wine bluegrass with the contemporary jam band ethos. Every show was unique. Every show was an opportunity to build a new world. One world was the band’s annual Holiday Ramble. They’d bring guests
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A retooled Cornmeal comes to Cleveland on Feb. 3.
along for sit-ins and everybody would throw down some deliriously fun jamming. Tipping, who used to play in another band and who essentially grew up alongside Cornmeal, joined them for some Ramble action. Around this time, late 2012 and 2013, Cornmeal was dealing with the departures of their founding guitarist and drummer. After a round of auditions, it was clear that Tipping was connecting well with the band’s anchor members. There was also the matter of filling the permanent fiddle position, which went to Phillip Roach. From there, Cornmeal, in rebuilding mode, began playing more and more shows. “I feel like we had a natural chemistry, but, you know, tour dates develop that,” Tipping says. “Even when you have something that’s kind of cool and natural, you gotta take it out on the road.” With time came the sense and
to the public that everything was back in place and ready to go,” Tipping says. “It also really showcases a lot of the genre-bending that Cornmeal is known for doing.” As a product of the studio, Slow Street certainly sums up the Cornmeal experience quite well. It’s a different album than its predecessors, and the new guys’ fingerprints are all over it. Tipping, in particular, shines as lead singer throughout the piece. The new tunes, and the tunes they’ve written together in the past year, also keep a foot in the door for plenty of open-ended improvisation onstage. The band takes advantage of that constantly. “I notice that a lot of what Cornmeal does is based off of jamming, so when we’re on the road a lot you have to keep it fresh every night,” Tipping says. “One of the things that I really love about every musician in the band is everybody’s
CORNMEAL WITH SPLITROOT 8:30 P.M., WEDNESDAY, FEB. 3, BEACHLAND BALLROOM, 15711 WATERLOO RD., 216-383-1124. TICKETS: $12. BEACHLANDBALLROOM.COM
certainty that the band would rise from this fleeting nadir. The band had accrued a number of songs from earlier, back when all the founders were together. With the new line-up in place, they began hauling out the old stuff and revamping it for the studio. After years of misfires on this one, Slow Street came out in 2015. “I think there’s something that, when the album came out, solidified
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
always listening and reacting. There’s no phoning it in. I guess the thing that I enjoy about it is every night is a new experience.” For instance, a live take on “All Things Must Change,” recorded as part of the Second Story Garage video series, landed on Youtube last year. It’s a great rendition, demonstrating a number of very important elements that go into this band’s jamming style.
The song, which appears on Slow Street, begins with a gently loping rhythm, Tipping’s chords brushing in between an unforgettable riff as Wavy Dave Burlingame picks heartily on the banjo. After departing the foundational song structure, Burlingame leads the band into deeper waters as the other musicians steadily ride a crescendo into full-on jam territory. Tipping picks up the lead role and shreds his hollow-body into an extremely psychedelic frame. At around 6:30 in the video the band shifts moods suddenly and descends into bluegrass noir. Roach slides his bow up and down the fiddle’s strings, swirling angsty blues into a frenzy and leading the band, once again, back into upbeat rock improv. It’s a pretty solid beast — four movements in about 15 minutes — and it gets right to the heart of what these guys do best. “As a result of that [jamming technique], it just naturally makes you a better player,” Tipping says. “As a soloist you’re constantly trying to push boundaries and have the musicians act in a different way, which hopefully the audience gets into. “I don’t see how you couldn’t improve being a musician while being in this band, just because every night it’s 110 percent and every night it could go somewhere completely different, because this is what we live for.”
esandy@clevescene.com t @ericsandy
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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LIVEWIRE
all the live music you should see this week Photo by Michael J. Media Group
WED
Caspian/O’Brother: Captain of the SS Moody Melody, Caspian has always demonstrated a particular ability to coil gentle, ethereal strings work around tight percussion — all instrumental. The band is one of the more notable post-rock groups still touring these days, and last year’s Dust and Disquiet shows why that is. Caspian is still writing really engaging music, even while sticking to its roots and resisting the growing inclination to anchor the genre with modular synthesizers and stuff like that. Take “Rioseco,” which wraps itself like kudzu around your headphones and builds to a heavy, drawn-out climax. This is Caspian’s bread and butter. Tune in. (Eric Sandy) 8:30 p.m., $14 ADV, $16 DOS. Grog Shop. Kid Cudi — Especial Tour: Last summer as he announced the release of his latest album, Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven, rapper Kid Cudi tweeted, “There are no synths or electronic sounds on the album. It consists of all guitar and bass played by myself.” While the former Clevelander took a similar approach on his rap-rock album WZRD, he embraces indie rock on this effort, channeling the Pixies and Nirvana on tunes such as “Confused!” and “Man in the Night.” A better rapper than singer, Cudi struggles to make the songs here palatable. But he’s a hometown hero who’s become a popular cultural icon. He should draw a large crowd to House of Blues tonight. (Jeff Niesel) 8 p.m., $55 ADV, $58 DOS. House of Blues. 10 X 3 Hosted by Brent Kirby (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Cornmeal/Splitroot: 8:30 p.m., $12. Beachland Tavern. Hot Djang! (in the Supper Club): 7:30 p.m., $7. Music Box Supper Club. Joe Leaman: 7 p.m., free. BLU Jazz+. Dan Wilson Organ Trio: 7 p.m., $10. Nighttown.
THU
2/04
The Ark Band: 7 p.m., $5. Grog Shop. Blue Devils (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $7. Music Box Supper Club. Blu Jazz Big Band Residency with the Sam Blakeslee Large Group: 8 p.m., $10. BLU Jazz+. Samantha Fish/The Park Brothers: 8
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Christine Marie (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Mass Gothic/Mazed/The Village Bicycle: 9 p.m., $8. Grog Shop. Rhythm Room Revival: 9 p.m., free. The Euclid Tavern. Sinatra Night with Michael Sonata (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $10. Music Box Supper Club. Sunrise Jones: 9 p.m., $5. Vosh Club.
2/03
SAT
The Badfish boys return to House of Blues. See: Thursday.
p.m., $15 ADV, $18 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. Gage Brothers/Jordan Kirk: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. 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. Little River Band: 8 p.m., $50-$92.50. Tangier Cabaret. O.A.R. — You Pick the Set Tour: 8 p.m. Packard Music Hall. The Rat Pack featuring Frank, Dean and Sammy: 7 p.m., $5. Vosh Club. Smooth Hound Smith/Ray Flanagan: 8:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Beachland Tavern. Wynonna & the Big Noise: Stories & Songs: 7:30 p.m. Hard Rock Rocksino. Badfish: A Tribute to Sublime/ Shrub/Tropidelic: The legacy of ska-punk act Sublime lives on with Badfish, a popular tribute act that pays homage to the late, great Bradley Nowell et al. Formed at the University of Rhode Island in 2001, Badfish has recorded three live albums, performed with musical heroes the Wailers, and shared the stage with members of Sublime, including saxophonists Todd Foreman and Tim Wu, and original drummer Bud Gaugh. For tonight’s show, the band will perform Sublime’s 1996 self-titled album in its entirety. (Niesel) 9 p.m., $20 ADV, $23 DOS. House of Blues.
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
FRI
2/05
One Days Notice CD Release Show: This local punk band’s new album, Blackout, opens with the Offspring-like “All That I Know” and then delivers one hard-rocking tune after another. High-pitched yelps distinguish “Riot,” a tune that serves as a vibrant call-toarms. With this offering, the band intentionally returns to its roots and offers something more true to the pop-punk of Blink 182 and NOFX. It’s a solid release, and the songs promise to translate well live too. (Niesel) 7 p.m., $8 ADV, $10 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Becky Boyd and the Groove Train: 9:30 p.m., $5. Brothers Lounge. Breaking Benjamin Unplugged/ Starset: 7 p.m. House of Blues. A Concert For Open M with Half Cleveland/Freezeburn/the Twanglers: 8 p.m., $10. Musica. Alvin Frazier: 8 p.m., $12. BLU Jazz+. Keigo Hirakawa Trio: 8:30 p.m., $10. Nighttown. Dennis Lewin: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown. A Live Band Tribute to Saturday Night Fever by Nitebridge: 8 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. The Lottery League Fundraiser with Hiram Maxim/Shale Satans: 8 p.m., $10 ADV, $15 DOS. Beachland Ballroom.
2/06
Ekoostik Hookah: The grandfathers of Ohio’s expansive jam band scene — culturally and musically — have always maintained close ties to the Cleveland area. From 1991’s Under Full Sail to 2013’s sweetly groovin’ Brij, Ekoostik Hookah has kept its fire burning across time. Check out “Whiskey Woman” for a fine example of the hookah-laden chops still hooked around each of the band’s compositional outings. Given the band’s personal history, rife with small shows and Hookahville festivals alike, every chance to be a part of the fun is a necessary diversion from life out there. The band isn’t working on a new studio album but will likely play a few new songs at tonight’s show. (Sandy) 8:30 p.m., $15. Tangier Cabaret. Patrick Sweany: Producer and engineer Joe McMahan helmed singer-songwriter Patrick Sweany’s new album, Daytime Turned to Nighttime, a low-key collection of tunes that suggests the former Northeast Ohioan’s mellower side. With its cooing background vocals and twangy guitars, album opener “First of the Week,” for example, has a laid-back vibe to it. For the album, Sweany assembled a really funky rhythm section, enabling him to expand upon the garage blues sound for which he’s known. (Niesel) 9 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. The Trews/Oldboy: Inspired by late ’90s alt-rock acts such as Pearl Jam and Tragically Hip, the Trews, one of Canada’s most popular hard-rock acts, have released five consecutive Top 10 studio albums in its native Canada.That streak includes House of Ill Fame (2003), Den of Thieves (2005), No Time for Later (2008), Hope & Ruin (2011) and The Trews (2014). The live albums House of Ill Fame — The Live Cut (2004) and Acoustic — Friends & Total Strangers (2009) complete the
THIS THURS. FEB. 4
SUN. FEB. 14
Aussie Rockers
Bay Area Funk
Little River Band
ConFunkShun Featuring
Michael Cooper
“Lonesome Loser” “Reminiscing”
TWOWS SHO
R & B Legends
Ekoostik Hookah
Dailey Double w/Pat Dailey
Love Affair 40 Year Reunion
All Original Members 1980’s hit “Mama Sez”
The Reese Dailey Band Ben Dover & the Screamers
SAT. MARCH 26
Wish You Were Here
APR. 22 & 23, 29 & 30
Michael Stanley
The Sights & Sounds of Pink Floyd
TWOWS SHO
Ultimate Jam Band
SAT. APRIL 16
FRI. FEB. 19
The Whispers THIS SAT. FEB. 6
SAT. MARCH 12
and the Resonators
SAT. FEB. 20
1964 The Tribute #1 Beatles Show
SUN. MAY 1
FRI. FEB. 12
FRI. APRIL 1 Tribute to Rock Icon David Bowie
Gerald Albright Smooth Jazz Sax Man
WED. MARCH 2
British Hard Rockers
Robin Trower British Guitar God
Diamond Dogs
U.F.O.
FRI. MAY 13
SAT. APRIL 9
SAT. FEB. 13
Akron’s Favorite Son
FRI. MARCH 4
David Allan Coe Euge Groove American Smooth Jazz Saxaphonist
BLUE OYSTER CULT
Average White Band
Classic Soul and Funk
American Hard Rock Icons
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LIVEWIRE
Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Velvet Voyage (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge.
band’s discography. A total of 16 of the band’s singles have charted in the Top 10 in Canada. The band recently announced a deluxe reissue of Friends & Total Strangers Live Acoustic in Canada; it arrives in the U.S digitally prior to the upcoming North American tour. (Niesel) 8:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Beachland Tavern. Album: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. All Keyed Up Dueling Pianos: 9 p.m., $5. Vosh Club. Eddie Baccus Sr. Quartet: 8:30 p.m., $15. Nighttown. Bossa Nova Night (in the Supper Club): 8 p.m., $7. Music Box Supper Club. Orrin Evans Trio: 7 p.m., $20. BLU Jazz+. Festivus: 9:30 p.m., $5. Brothers Lounge. Grizfolk/Max Frost/Polars: 9 p.m., $10 ADV, $12 DOS. Grog Shop. Lottery League Draft: 8 p.m., $5. Beachland Ballroom. Mike Mains & the Branches/Royal Vasa/Take Off Charlie/Keys & Corridors: 7:30 p.m., $12. Musica. The Obsessives/I Love You. I Know./La Gnar/The Scuzzballs (in the Locker Room): 7 p.m., $10. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Timbara Band: 8 p.m., $5. The Euclid Tavern. Tropical Cleveland: 9:30 p.m., $10 ADV, $15 DOS. Music Box Supper Club. Jeff Varga (in the Wine Bar): 8 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Jackie Warren: 10:30 p.m., free. Nighttown. Zoso: The Ultimate Led Zeppelin Tribute Band: 8 p.m., $20. Akron Civic Theatre.
SUN
2/07
Irish Sunday with Crawley, Crusty & Taylor: 4 p.m., free. Music Box Supper Club. Mike Petrone (in the Wine Bar): 5:30 p.m. Brothers Lounge.
MON
2/08
Skatch Anderssen Orchestra: 8 p.m., $10. Brothers Lounge. Ezra Furman/Sister Smirk and the Rainbow Babies: 9 p.m., $5. Happy Dog. Grassroots Bluegrass Jam: 7:30 p.m., free. The Euclid Tavern. Chase Huglin/Will Deely (in the Locker Room): 7 p.m., $8.
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
TUE
2/09
Reel Big Fish: Celebrating 25 years as one of the greatest ska bands of all time, Reel Big Fish just may be embarking on one of their greatest tours ever. With promises of the band’s wide-ranging classics and more than a few surprises along the way, tonight’s show is sure to prompt righteous skanking. Pull out your copies of Turn the Radio Off and Why Do They Rock So Hard and trip backward down the numberline into ’90s groove heaven. Reel Big Fish throws down — always has — and anyone looking for a dance fix is sure to find it at the HOB tonight. (Sandy) 7 p.m., $22 ADV, $24 DOS. House of Blues. Tauk/Vibe & Direct: We’ve raved about the last few Tauk shows in Cleveland, and tonight should once again deliver the goods. The instrumental jam-funk band from New York City has been lighting up the national touring circuit, slinging open-ended musical odysseys via tight onstage chemistry. Put simply, they’re good. 2014’s Collisions remains the go-to for anyone seeking entry to the Tauk sound. Songs like “Friction” and “Mindshift” demonstrate a willingness to explore unexpected hollows and push rhythmic boundaries at every turn. We recommend particularly that you tune into drummer Isaac Teel’s skills. He’s incredible. (Sandy) 9 p.m., $12 ADV, $15 DOS. Beachland Ballroom. Band Practice Open Mic Night: 9 p.m., free. Grog Shop. Defeater/Flying Free/The Grievance Club/Choir Vandals (in the Locker Room): 7:30 p.m., $13 ADV, $15 DOS. Mahall’s 20 Lanes. Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras Party with Eric Seddon’s Hot Club: 8 p.m., $12. BLU Jazz+. Gordon Square Community SingAlong: 8 p.m., free. Happy Dog. Mardi Gras with Madison Crawl (in the Wine Bar): 7 p.m. Brothers Lounge. Mardi Gras Masquerade Party with Mo’ Mojo: 8 p.m., $20. Brothers Lounge.
scene@clevescene.com t@cleveland_scene
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
contact: harvesttownmusic@gmail.com
CHRIS HATTON’S MUSICAL CIRCUS
ALL GENRES • ALL STYLES
Photo courtesy of Mike Quain/Quainphoto
SY SMITH By Jeff Niesel MEET THE BAND Sy Smith (vocals) YOU GO-GO, GIRL Smith, who grew up in the Washington D.C. area, studied classical piano from the time she was 7 until she was 15. “I was a later bloomer when it came to singing,” she says. “I didn’t start singing until I was in sixth grade and I did the choir circuit. I was really into the choir then and competed in classical vocals.” She graduated from Howard University with a psychology degree and continued to sing choir. “I didn’t have the guts to go into Fine Arts in college,” she says. “I was afraid to audition and didn’t know if I could stand next to the kids who had been training all their lives.” She joined the all-girl Washington D.C.-based go-go band In Tyme; and after moving to L.A., she toured with Kenny Lattimore before getting gigs singing backup for acts such as Usher, Eric Benet, Me’Shell NdegeOcello, Ginuwine, Brandy and Whitney Houston. She also regularly appeared on the Fox television show Ally McBeal. In 1997, she inked a record deal with Hollywood Records, which issued her first single “Gladly,” and in the early 2000s, she hosted B!tchcraft, a monthly showcase for musical acts and comedians. She also worked as the lead singer for British funk outfit Brand New Heavies, joining them in the studio at one point. “I didn’t go on tour, but I wrote and recorded some songs for their record,” she says. “Nobody knew that I did that. It was cool. They weren’t trying to replace [singer] N’Dea Davenport. We even spoke on the phone while we were recording.” BACK FROM THE BLUE NOTE Smith just completed a New York residency with trumpeter Chris Botti. “I think he’s the most popular instrumentalist right now,” she says. “Every year he does an annual residency at the Blue Note. Usually, it’s 21 nights. This year, it was 28. Two shows a night. And on New Year’s Eve, I did a solo show, so I
did 57 shows. I think he holds the record on consecutive ticket sales there. It’s nice to be in one place for that long.”
WHY YOU SHOULD HEAR HER Her 2012 effort, Fast and Curious, features a fantastic collection of funk- and soul-driven tunes. “Let the Rain Fall Down” includes soulful vocals that are delivered over jazzy rhythms punctuated by percolating percussion. Smith sounds simply sensuous on “The Ooh to My Aah,” a tune that finds her practically whispering over cooing background vocals and shimmering synths. “That was the first album I’ve done where I just had one producer,” she says. “The direction of it is very clear compared to some of my other albums. I wanted to do an electric/ electro/electronic soul record, whatever that might mean to someone. I wanted it to be based in dance, but not what we called EDM; more like the soul roots of electronic music, like when you had Herbie [Hancock] and Stevie [Wonder] playing that style of music.” When she performs in Cleveland, she’ll perform with backing from local musicians and one supporting vocalist, Nicholas Ryan Gant, who she’s bringing to town from New York. WHERE YOU CAN HEAR HER sysmith.com. WHERE YOU CAN SEE HER Sy Smith performs at 10 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 6, at Touch Supper Club.
jniesel@clevescene.com t@jniesel
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
53
LIVE ENTERTAINMENT
b a r k i n g s p i d e r t a ve r n . c o m
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NO COVER
HAVE A PICNIC, RELAX & ENJOY
Thursday February 4
Thurs. February 4
Kate Kooser 8:00 (singer/ songwriter) Spyder Stompers 10:00 (americana, blues)
THE RAT PACK FEATURING
FRANK, DEAN & SAMMY
Friday February 5
7:00pm
Swap Meet 8:00 (americana, jazz) Terrain 10:00 (rock)
Fri. February 5
Saturday February 6
SUNRISE JONES
Prime Directive 8:00 (jazz) Xe La Cutty 10:00 (alternative, rock)
Sunday February 7 Nostalgia Factor 3:00 (jazz)
SUPER BOWL SUNDAY Close at 6:00 11310 JUNIPER RD., CLEVELAND • 216.421.2863
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Phil Turk 8-11pm Friday, February 5
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School of Rock 1-4pm Monday, February 8
Open Jam Night 9:00pm Sun. February 14 • 7:00pm
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216.274.1200 www.coda.danteboccuzzi.com
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
Clevelander Earl Phillips designed ABSNFC’s artwork.
eu
Fri. February 12
FORMER CLEVELANDER Chad Bilyeu moved to Amsterdam in August of 2009. He now works there as a freelance photographer and writer. “I wear a lot of hats,” he says in a recent Transatlantic phone interview. But he hasn’t forgotten his Cleveland roots. He now represents ABSNFC – or Another Bullshit Night From Cleveland – a multimedia studio/apartment based in Amsterdam that delves into art, music, nightlife and publications. It’s also home to Bullshit Night Records, the label he started three years ago. “We did a party over here with the same name,” he says when asked about the origins of ABSNFC. “We had friends from various parts of the world. I came up with the idea of putting out original music.” Initially, the label put out a beat tape with Rio the Mechanic. It followed that release with a mixtape from Cleveland-based MFKNRMX, who now goes by Bang Messiah. He’s currently promoting the label’s first physical release on cassette, Another Bullshit Night From Cleveland’s The Bullshit Night Cassette Tape, which he describes as “a very diverse array of mostly instrumental songs from musicians located around the globe.” Earl Phillips, “OG Cleveland sign painter,” provides the cover art. “His work is literally everywhere, particularly in the Eastside’s Black neighborhoods,” says Bilyeu. “I thought it was the most Cleveland thing we could do for the cover.” “Sonically, the album gracefully travels through hip-hop, electro, techno, cloud rap, house, punk and psychedelic rock,” he says. “This diverse sampling of genres is a testament to our love of music, untampered by categorization.” Noteworthy artists include Baltimore’s eu-IV, Cleveland’s aLiVe and OBNOX, Seattle’s Martis Unruly, East Oakland’s OSØ, Berlin’s RzumA, and J-Baggs and Leo Luxxxus from Finland. The cassette is currently
Chad Bily
Thursday 1/28
Valentine’s Day Weekend Rossi & Romano
By Jeff Niesel
ur tesy of
ALL KEYED UP
DUELING PIANOS
AMSTERDAM CALLING
Photo co
Sat. February 6
C-NOTES local music news
being stocked at Loop in Tremont, a place that Bilyeu says has a “great commitment to the arts.” The mixtape includes a series of Cleveland-centric samples too. “That Browns clip is from the last decade,” says Bilyeu. “I used to record a bunch of dialogue on a mini disc. I wanted it be representative of the town. It has a lot of flavor and a feel for that.” While distribution from overseas has been challenging, Bilyeu has enlisted aLiVe of Muamin Collective to help circulate the cassette around town. “I don’t want to be a downer but I spent three weeks in Berlin and got it into four stores in Berlin,” he says. “I’ve been trying to get it into stores in Cleveland, but it’s been difficult.” Next, the label will release gangsta rapper Martis Unruly’s DISTANT (Seattle, UDF) in February. Bilyeu says the album is dark and like “highconcept druggie rap.” The label will also issue Muamin Collective’s first live album in June. Bilyeu says the talented local hip-hop outfit’s album will be well-suited to summer. It will be released digitally and will arrive on cassette as well.
scene@clevescene.com t @cleveland_scene
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
55
BOP STOP 15335 WATERLOO | WEST OF BEACHLAND
OPEN BOCCE BALL
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2015 Scene Magazine Best Jazz Club & 2014 Fox 8 Best Nightspot
ALL DAY SATURDAYS
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IRISH NIGHT
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FRI. 5
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8pm | $15
2/16
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BaTTle Of The sexes 8pm | $10
9pm| free
BOB MARLEY
hayDen arp anD eChOes
2/18
CAJUN DANCIN’ EATS! GIRLS!
8pm | $20
“So Many SongS about Love”
2/14
8pm | $25
CELEBRATION
DeBBie giffOrD:
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Opera
I-TAL (Cleveland) SOWFLO (Florida) Marley Movies Jamaican Food
“hellO mr. Basie”
8pm | $10
WINTER REGGAEFEST upstairs
2/12
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sam Blakeslee’s inTernaTiOnal QuinTeT 8pm | $12
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2/20
2/20
les DeliCes Ches smiTh/ maT maneri/ family Craig TaBOrn COnCerT 3pm | free
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Bar sales directly support The Music Settlement and its many programs. Food provided by Cleveland Culinary Launch and Kitchen!
You and a Guest are invited to a special screeninG MondaY, FebruarY 8th 7:00 p.M. please visit wbtickets.coM and enter the code
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OFF ONE FREE ANY10% DVD, GAME OR VHS
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purchase of $25 or more. Expires 2/13/16
Rated R foR sexual content and stRong language thRoughout. Please note: Passes are limited and will be distributed on a first come, first served basis while supplies last. No phone calls, please. Limit one pass per person. Each pass admits two. Seating is not guaranteed. Arrive early. Theater is not responsible for overbooking. This screening will be monitored for unauthorized recording. By attending, you agree not to bring any audio or video recording device into the theater (audio recording devices for credentialed press excepted) and consent to a physical search of your belongings and person. Any attempted use of recording devices will result in immediate removal from the theater, forfeiture, and may subject you to criminal and civil liability. Please allow additional time for heightened security. You can assist us by leaving all nonessential bags at home or in your vehicleleaving all nonessential bags at home or in your vehicle.
in theaters FebruarY 12
howtobesingleMovie.com #howtobesingle soundtrack available now.
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
57
Check out our second location
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1245 E. Tallmadge Ave. Akron, OH 44310 Mon-Sat 4pm - 2:30am. | Closed Sundays
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
59
WISH SAVAGE LOVE YOU THE WILBUR THEATRE WERE HERE. By Dan Savage
MISSED EVENT? We’reANhiring. CATCH OUT UP WITH SLIDESHOWS. CHECK OPENINGS ONLY AT CLEVESCENE.COM AT CLEVESCENE.COM SCENE
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
A LARGE CROWD BRAVED A snowstorm to come out to Savage Love Live at Boston’s Wilbur Theatre last week. Questions were submitted on index cards, which allowed questioners to remain anonymous and forced them to be succinct. I got to as many of them as I could over two long, raucous, boozy hours. Here are some of the questions I didn’t have time for in Boston … .
What do you think of poop play? I think of it rarely. How long should I keep my partner locked in male chastity? Until Rick Santorum is president. What exactly causes relationships to end? Relationships end for all sorts of different reasons — boredom, neglect, contempt, betrayal, abuse — but all relationships that don’t end survive for the same reason: The people in them just keep not breaking up. Sometimes people in relationships that need to end never get around to breaking up. I was in an open relationship once and was heartbroken in the end because my partner broke the rules we made. My current partner wants to make our monogamous relationship open, but I am hesitant because of my previous burn. How do I get over this and become comfortable with an open relationship again? Rejecting nonmonogamy because your last nonmonogamous relationship failed makes about as much sense as rejecting monogamy because your last monogamous relationship failed. If people applied the same standard to closed relationships that they apply to open ones (“I was in one that failed so I can never enter into another one!”), most of us would’ve had two relationships in our lives — one open, one closed — and then either taken a vow of celibacy or pledged to stick to
NSA sex for the rest of our lives. Our choices are informed by our experience, of course, and you had a bad experience with an open relationship. Open relationships might not be for you. But it’s also possible that the problem with your last relationship wasn’t the openness but the partner.
Advice for happily child-free people in a baby- and parentworshipping world? You could take comfort in your free time, your disposable income, and your vomit-free wardrobe. You could also see baby and parent worship for what it is: a desperate attempt on the part of the busy, broke, and vomit-spackled (and the people trying to sell stuff to us) to make ourselves feel better about the consequential and irrevocable choice we made to have kids. Magnum condoms are just marketing, right? Wrong — but you don’t have to take my word for it. Just spend 10 minutes on Tumblr and you’ll see for yourself. I accidentally told my dad about your podcast when teaching him how to use iTunes. I called home a couple of weeks later, and Dad told me he’s been listening and Mom yells, “I’m not gonna pee on you!” It could’ve been worse. Mom could’ve yelled: “We can’t talk right now! I’m peeing on your father!” We’re both over 40, married 10 years. He wants a threesome, and I’m ambivalent. He says +1 girl, I say +1 boy. What do we do? Upgrade to a foursome with +1 opposite-sex couple. Thanks to everyone who came out to the Wilbur! I had a blast!
ADULT MASSAGE SET YOURSELF FREE WITH ME I will put you at ease. 38-d 5’8” 135IB 24/hr IN/OUT Alecia 216-240-3254
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Your premier choice for classy & fun entertainment providing firstrate entertainment for all occasion, including a wet & wild bachelor parties, divorce parties, birthday celebrations & retirement parties! Whatever the reason is that you request our services, rest assured that we have what you’re looking for! Our carefully selected adorable playmates cater to any occasion! We offer a diverse selection of exotic, classy, sophisticated & gorgeous ladies for you to choose from.
| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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Merchandise For Sale
WE BUY YOUR LEGOS & NINTENDO GAMES!
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1814 Coventry Rd, Cleveland Hts. 216-371-4386
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Bulletin Board WANTS TO PURCHASE
minerals and other oil & gas interests. Send details P.O. Box 13557, Denver, CO 80201
Legal Notice
THE OCEAN CORP.
10840 Rockley Road, Houston, Texas 77099. Train for a New Career. *Underwater Welder. *Commercial Diver. *NDT/Weld Inspector. Job Placement Assistance. Financial Aid available for those who qualify. 800-321-0298.
BROOKSIDE OVAL APARTMENT Located on Park Fulton Oval near the Cleveland Metroparks! 216-351-6936 Choose from any of our newly remodeled 1 & 2 bdrm apartments, all w/ modern kitchens & bathrooms. All feature air-conditioning & Garage parking also available. Brookside is located close to I-480, I-71, and I-90, just minutes from downtown Cleveland. Come home to the beautiful park-like setting of Brookside Apartments! You’ll be happy to call Brookside home.
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ELBUR
Located on a private tree lined street, 1BR and 2BR suites available. Off-street parking available. Heat included. 216-392-5384.
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PARK PLACE Spacious 1BR and 2BR suites available. Steps from Edgewater Park. Heat included. Off-street parking available. 216-392-5384
Real Estate Services
EDGECLIFF
Large, upgraded suites. Heat included. Overlooking the metro parks. Free off-street parking available. 216-392-5384
NORTH
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Cleveland
216.912.2222
For other local numbers:
18+ www.MegaMates.com
T-Mobile is proposing to install LTE antennas on the top of an existing building at 11745 Rosa Parks Boulevard. T-Mobile is seeking comments from all interested persons on the impact of the proposed tower on any districts, sites, buildings, structures, or objects significant in American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, or culture, that are listed or are eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. All questions, comments, and correspondence should be directed to Mr. Sheldon McLeod, at 520 South Main Street, Suite 2531, Akron, Ohio 44311, or smc@gpdgroup.com.
T-Mobile is proposing to install LTE antennas on the top of an existing building at 306 S. Washington Avenue. T-Mobile is seeking comments from all interested persons on the impact of the proposed tower on any districts, sites, buildings, structures, or objects significant in American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, or culture, that are listed or are eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. All questions, comments, and correspondence should be directed to Mr. Sheldon McLeod, at 520 South Main Street, Suite 2531, Akron, Ohio 44311, or smc@gpdgroup.com.
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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| clevescene.com | February 3 - 9, 2016
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Legal Notice T-Mobile is proposing to install LTE antennas on the top of an existing building at 1563 1st Street, Detroit, Michigan 48226. T-Mobile is seeking comments from all interested persons on the impact of the proposed tower on any districts, sites, buildings, structures, or objects significant in American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, or culture, that are listed or are eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. All questions, comments, and correspondence should be directed to Mr. Sheldon McLeod, at 520 South Main Street, Suite 2531, Akron, Ohio 44311, Phone # 330-572-2284, or smcleod@ gpdgroup.com.
T-Mobile is proposing to install LTE antennas on the top of an existing building at 200 W. Big Beaver Road, Troy, Michigan 48084. T-Mobile is seeking comments from all interested persons on the impact of the proposed tower on any districts, sites, buildings, structures, or objects significant in American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, or culture, that are listed or are eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. All questions, comments, and correspondence should be directed to Mr. Sheldon McLeod, at 520 South Main Street, Suite 2531, Akron, Ohio 44311, Phone # 330-572-2284, or smcleod@ gpdgroup.com.
T-Mobile is proposing to install LTE antennas on the top of an existing building at 15000 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 48205. T-Mobile is seeking comments from all interested persons on the impact of the proposed tower on any districts, sites, buildings, structures, or objects significant in American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, or culture, that are listed or are eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. All questions, comments, and correspondence should be directed to Mr. Sheldon McLeod, at 520 South Main Street, Suite 2531, Akron, Ohio 44311, Phone # 330-572-2284, or smcleod@ gpdgroup.com.
Career Opportunity!! Window Nation Now hiring Outside Appointment Setters for our Cleveland and Twinsburg, Ohio locations. This is a Full Time 40 hours per week position, must be able to work weekends early shift. Base salary plus bi-weekly bonuses usually average 600$ to 900$ per week. Full Benefits (401K,medical, paid vacation and holidays)
Call Bill at 216-903-1744 for immediate interview or email resume to Careers@windownation.com
Get fit. Get paid.
McKenzie Apartments 1310 W. 116th Street
For part-time Package Handlers at FedEx Ground and Home Delivery, it’s like a paid workout. The work’s demanding, but the rewards are big. Come join our team, get a weekly paycheck, tuition assistance and break a sweat with the nation’s package delivery leader.
Part-time PACKAGE HANDLERS Qualifications: • Ability to load, unload, sort packages •18 years or older • Part-time, 5-days week $10.10/hr plus benefits to start, scheduled raises •Must pass background check Sign Up For Sort Observafion
www.watchasort.com 330-659-2518
Vintage Building with all the Modern Amenities. This McKenzie Apts. has been completely renovated while maintaining it’s classic architecture. The suites feature all new wall to wall carpeting, new kitchens w/dishwasher, new bathrooms, new mini blinds, lighting, ceiling fans, double pane vinyl windows, etc. Walking distance to everything: grocery, café, restaurants, public transportation, parks, banks, etc., These are a Must See!
Call Today - 216-288-2485
FedEx Ground 3201 Columbia Road, Richfield, OH 44286
Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer (M/F/D/V) Commited To A Diverse Workforce.
Fedex.com/us/careers
*FREE I-Pad Mini and One Year of Netflix
Studios Starting at $475 1 BR Starting at $550 www.WinwoodProp.com *w/12 Month Lease for well qualified applicants