Scene August 9, 2023

GET READY TO SQUASH: MORE SPOTTED LANTERNFLIES FOUND IN NORTHEAST OHIO

WHEN TREVOR LYONS FIRST saw the red bug with white spots and black wings while working in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood last week, he nearly went into a panic.

There, near the intersection of East 65th and Hawthorne, was a group of spotted lanternflies, the notorious invasive species that has been devastating East Coast agriculture since the summer of 2020.

Lyons, a copy technician who works frequently on the east side, exited his truck on his lunch break

last week to get photo evidence. He’d been in Pittsburgh when lanternflies covered cars and lampposts, and gone on a squashing spree himself.

“I thought, ‘Oh shit! I never realized they were here,” Lyons, 37, told Scene. “I’d been taking it upon myself to keep an eye out constantly, and be out on the watch for them. And now they’re here.”

The bugs, which were first discovered on a Pennsylvania construction site in 2014, have grown into an infamous cultural phenomenon and a threat to agriculture in the past few years.

In Pittsburgh and New York City, for example, millions of dollars have been spent on ads urging the public to “Kill it! Squash it!” while hundreds of millions more in damage has been surveyed by grape and hops growers across the Eastern Seaboard.

And now, as confirmed by the Ohio Department of Agriculture, the flies are here in Cleveland.

Jonathan Shields, an inspection manager, said that, in the past week, the department has received some “5 to 10 reports a day” of lanternfly sightings, “a lot more”

than when lanternflies made their first appearance in Ohio in 2021.

“In Cleveland, they’re just now starting to become adults,” Shields told Scene. “We’re at the part of the life cycle where they’re much more visible.”

Citing recent sightings in Columbus and Toledo, Shields maintained a sort of neutral tone as he predicted the outcome in Northeast Ohio. Because lanternflies feed on tree saps and fruits, the most glaring impact is economical, save for the visual nuisances that could shape one’s

Photo by U.S. Department of Agriculture

walk in the Metroparks.

“Remember that the Ohio wine industry is a $1 billion a year industry,” Shields said. “I mean, when the population gets high enough, you really won’t be able to see the bark on a tree.”

Though it’s hard to quantify the impact on Northeast Ohio’s crops, reports from Pennsylvania could tell of similar hardships. One report from 2019, though disputed by experts, suggests that the lanternfly caused a $325 million blow to the state economy.

It’s precisely why Gene Sigel, the owner of South River Vineyard in Geneva, Ohio, has been abreast of all the latest reports of lanternflies in his neck of the woods.

Sigel knows of other vineyard operators spraying insecticide, or slashing the Tree of Heaven (a go-to meal for the bug), but is skeptical that such methods are only ignorant buyers of time. He knows what happened to vineyard owners in Berks County, PA., back in 2016, when vine-sucking lanternflies led to $16.7 million in costs.

“There’s really not a lot that we can do, frankly,” Sigel told Scene. “The best way I once heard a farmer describe it was that it’s a slow-speed trainweck.”

As of early August, City Hall and Cuyahoga County does not have any major public awareness campaign

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to alert the public—like in New York—of what to do if the bugs appear in their front yards. The Metroparks has been surveying its land for impacted Trees of Heaven and its bugs since 2020, according to its website. (It doesn’t advise its readers to kill lanternflies, but to merely report a sighting.)

Shields, along with a spokesperson for the county, pointed to the Ohio State University Extension, which is apparently in charge of gathering report data and executing surveys of growing adult fly sightings. The same advice goes for the Asian Long-horned Beetle, a threat to Ohio hardwood trees, or the Gypsy Moth.

“Stomp them when you see them, kill them at your home,” Shields said. “Hey, there’s always an element of surprise when you discover a new area of infestation.”

It may be hard to calm down Lyons. Since his own sighting last week, Lyons has armed himself with a spray bottle filled with white vinegar, dish soap and water. (His own method of extermination.) He’s posted alerts on social media, texted friends messages in the form of PSAs.

A general frustration almost overwhelms Lyons when he thinks of the potential damage to Metroparks trees. An avid hiker with an electric longboard, Lyons gets angry when he transplants those images of Pittsburgh’s infestation—those covered lamp posts—in his own backyard.

“I really don’t want these things here. The parks and the environment are such a big part of my life,” he said. “It frustrates me to think of us looking back 10 years from now, saying, ‘Oh, if we only would’ve done more! I wish we would’ve done something!’” – Mark Oprea

c ontributed to disproportionate death rates of registered Republican voters after vaccines were made available to adults during the pandemic, according to a study conducted by Yale University researchers.

Analyzing the deaths of more than 538,000 people aged 25 years and older in Ohio and Florida between January 2018 and December 2021, researchers found that excess mortality was “significantly higher” among Republican voters than Democratic voters after the vax rollout.

“The differences in excess mortality by political party affiliation after Covid-19 vaccines were available to all adults suggest that differences in vaccination attitudes and reported uptake between Republican and Democratic voters may have been a factor in the severity and trajectory of the pandemic in the US”, the study found.

Excess mortality or excess death refers to the number of deaths during a crisis period that exceed normal death rates.

For both groups, excess death rates were at a baseline of approximately 0%. As Covid-19 ravaged the world through 2020, both parties’ registered voters saw similar trends in excess deaths. Likewise, as fatalities increased through the winter and the start of 2021, Republican and Democratic voters both saw a rise in excess death rates.

That began to change by the summer of 2021, after vaccine rollout made the shot widely available. The gap between Republican voters’ and Democratic voters’ excess death rates grew through the summer and continued to widen in the autumn and winter.

gap between Republican voters’ and Democratic voters’ excess death rates grew significantly.

“After May 1, 2021, when vaccines were available to all adults, the excess death rate gap between Republican and Democratic voters widened from −0.9 percentage point…7.7 percentage points (95% PI, 6.0-9.3 percentage points) in the adjusted analysis; the excess death rate among Republican voters was 43% higher than the excess death rate among Democratic voters,” the study found.

Researchers also found that the gap was most pronounced in counties with lower vaccination rates — particularly in Ohio.

In order to define political party affiliation, researchers used party registration in Florida. In Ohio, they used participation in primary elections within two preceding calendar years. Despite careful analysis, the study has some limitations.

The study didn’t analyze independent voters, third-party voters or non-voters. It also relied on excess mortality rates, which are useful metrics to help researchers comprehend the overall impact of a crisis because they account for deaths indirectly caused by the pandemic or deaths that were not confirmed to have been caused by Covid-19.

However, it is important to note that the excess death rate does not examine cause of death. The study also does not account for individual vaccination statuses. Additionally, other factors like preexisting conditions, health insurance coverage, race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status aren’t examined in the study, although researchers did note that, “one alternative explanation is that political party affiliation is a proxy for other risk factors.” – Maria Elena Scott

Matthew Ahn to Challenge Michael O’Malley in Race for County Prosecutor

As Cleveland stares down a summer crime wave, Matthew Ahn, a progressive Democrat, is set to begin his campaign for Cuyahoga County Prosecutor.

Study: Excess Mortality Rates Higher for Ohio Republicans Than Dems After

Covid Vaccine Rollout

The politicization of coronavirus vaccination efforts may have

The data reveals dramatic partisan differences. The excess mortality rate for Republican voters was 15%, nearly three percentage points higher than that of Democratic voters. Analyzing deaths after vaccines were publicly available, researchers found the

“I would say the reforms I’m looking for are largely evidencebased, common sense reforms,” Ahn said. “These are the kinds of things that are actually going to promote safety long term.”

Ahn, 32, is eyeing down what

Number of vehicle thefts in Cleveland so far this year.

86

Percent of Ohio’s large rivers that now meet water quality standards, according to recent state testing.

2024

Year the RTA Waterfront Line will return to full service, though it will reopen in September for Browns home games.

$8 Million

Cost of ongoing upgrades to the historic Masonic Auditorium from owner TempleLive.

The excess mortality rate for Republican voters was 15%, nearly three percentage points higher than that of Democratic voters. Analyzing deaths after vaccines were publicly available, researchers found the gap between Republican voters’ and Democratic voters’ excess death rates grew significantly.

may be a political mountain. After his official campaign launch at Rockefeller Park on August 10th, he will wrangle together a team of dozens of volunteers, and staffer Ellen Kubit, to door-knock his way to the summit: unseating Michael O’Malley, the 59-year-old Democrat who’s been in office since January 2017. (O’Malley won a re-election in 2020 unchallenged.)

A professor of law at Cleveland State and former public defender for the U.S. District Court, Ahn carries a suite of various legal philosophies that have charged his fight for the prosecutor’s seat. After three years of writing release memos for the post-convicted— many who were seeking “compassionate release”—Ahn first explored the viability of facing O’Malley in January.

Seven months of groundwork have turned into a platter of progressive changes to what Ahn labels O’Malley’s “outdated ideas”: reducing what’s called discretionary bindovers, or the prosecutor’s decision to try a minor as an adult; curbing overcrowding of the 1,600-plus person jail by replacing cash bail with a sort of binary system— bond or no bond; and ramping up services for those awaiting trial.

“Part of the improvements we need to happen is to make sure that there are more support for the folks out on bonds,” Ahn said, making reference to the county’s 99-bed Diversion Center on East 55th St. But yet still the onus reaches back to the judges. “People want certainly, and certainly is very difficult.”

As is proving, Ahn said, the worth of capital punishment. Cuyahoga County has long been a leader nationwide in death penalty cases, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Ahn cites the case of Michael Buhner, who, after twenty years imprisoned, was exonerated in July, as further proof that executions could always result in moral and judicial regret. (And apparently cost the state millions of more in legal fees.)

“It does not work,” Ahn said. “It is prone to errors, prone to bias. It’s too expensive. It is not necessary. We do not need to seek the death penalty in any case.”

A native of North Royalton, Ahn spent his childhood and teenage

years as a kind of Northeast Ohio wunderkind. At 13, influenced by his professorial parents, he was admitted to Case Western Reserve to study chemistry and piano. Four years later, at 17, Ahn was composing on a graduate level at the University of Minnesota.

After switching to law in his mid-twenties, bent on “fixing public school funding equity issues,” Ahn relocated to New York to work in a string of firms.

Back in Northeast Ohio during Covid-19, Ahn worked as a public defender for the Northern Ohio District Court, writing “dozens and dozens” of sentencing memos for guilty-plea clients, the majority of whom encountered the justice system when they were tweens.

It’s such cases where Ahn grew his compassionate eye for the roots of crime.

“If we had found those folks back then,” he said, “they would not have been on that track to continue committing crimes. And end up in federal prisons.”

Following Ahn’s official campaign start next week, he will begin ramping up his volunteer base in time for March’s primary election. So far, he’s raised $182,000, mostly from his personal network, in-state and out-of-state.

As of early August, Ahn currently has no competitors in his bid to out-seat O’Malley, who when reached for comment told Scene, “He’s only lived here the last two years, so I’m not certain how much he can know about me or the [prosecutor’s office].”

“He just got his law license in Ohio in June 2022 and formed his exploratory committee only six months later,” O’Malley said. “He’s never practiced in a courtroom in common pleas in Ohio. He’s the least experienced candidate to ever run for county prosecutor, maybe not just in Cuyahoga, but the entire state. Have you ever handled a case in common pleas? Have you ever handled a case in muni court? Does he think his platform of defund the police — which he’s supported on social media over the years — is appropriate given the level of violence we’re seeing in our community?” – Mark

Oprea

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WAIT THE

WAIT I N G

Two years after the chaotic mass evacuation of Afghanistan, asylees in Cleveland are still in limbo

By Mark Oprea

This was Kabul, August 15, 2021, the day many Afghans considered, like Bahadori does, one of the worst in their lives. At the building where Bahadori processed checks in the Afghan National Army’s finance department, panic slowly erupted.

“We know you work with the army,” a commander told Bahadori in a phone call. “Your life is in danger.” Bahadori stood up immediately, covering her upper body in a niqab to evade Taliban harassment, and headed straight for the Kabul International Airport. With no family, no belongings, nothing. “I was crying all the way,” she said.

Meanwhile, Bakht Moqbel, a 39-year-old man originally from Kabul, was walking onto a C17 U.S. Army jet with his wife, four kids and 270 other Afghans and anxious American expats. Like others crammed on the jet, Moqbel’s blood pressure was particularly high. As an employee for USAID, he had spent years aiding women’s rights organizations. He had spent weeks in flak jackets, survived the 2017 American University bombing, had witnessed two relatives’ deaths at the hand of Taliban insurgents.

If they recognize me, Moqbel was

thinking while ushering his family through Kabul International, they will definitely shoot me.

As Moqbel’s plane was bound for Qatar, Shukria Zafari was in Kabul’s traffic jam trying to make her supposed flight to Turkey. At least she thought it was Turkey. It could’ve been Qatar, like others, or to Pakistan, which she feared.

As flag-waving Taliban roared down the streets in their Humvees, Zafari worried about her girls, Sidiqa, Zarah and Fatima. Just that summer, she had escaped the Taliban takeover—“They were all over the place trying to kidnap soldiers”—of Jowzjan, a province of 540,000, a quarter of the land covered by mountains. She’d taken refuge in Kabul at her sister’s house, hoping to give her girls a better life on a tailor’s salary, despite her brother escaping to Pakistan, despite the father of her children fleeing to Arabistan.

And now, like 70,000 other Afghans would be at some point, she was shoulder-to-shoulder, knee-toknee on a C17 jet to Istanbul. And, as Zafari is pained to recall to this day, without her youngest. Should I go back and get Zarah or stay here?

Zafari thought. Or should I just leave and figure it out afterwards?

Boarding the plane, she made up her mind: “If they can take me out of Afghanistan, I don’t care where they drop me,” Zafari recalled. “So as long as they take me out of Afghanistan, I’ll be fine.”

Almost two years to the date of the fall of Kabul, and one of the largest mass airlifts in history, its refugees seeking asylum in the U.S. are near a steep breaking point. Although President Biden and the Feds granted the 70,000 or so humanitarian parole, or the select few, a Special Immigrant Visa, such refugee legalities are nearing a potentially lethal deadline: Either the U.S. government enacts policy to renew Afghans’ temporary stay, or, as some immigration lawyers fear, most if not all of the 17,000 who haven’t already sought protection could be deported.

That is to say, back to Afghanistan. Such reality has created a sudden hierarchy of privilege for the Second Wave of Afghan refugees: those on an SIV, a fast-lane towards an American green card, given to Afghans who’ve been on U.S. payroll; and Afghans still seeking asylum, a sluggish system rife with suspicions of terrorism, endless biometrics, and complications if, on an applicant’s application, i’s aren’t dotted, t’s aren’t crossed. Or, like in the case of thousands of Afghans who fled Kabul with just the clothes on their back—if they have any retrievable documentation

at all.

“The problem is that it’s twofold,” Joe Cimperman, the president of Global Cleveland, a nonprofit that’s helped in the resettlement of roughly 850 Afghan asylees, told Scene from his office in the Hanna Building, in April. “The first one is the [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] isn’t working quickly enough. The other thing is that they’re trying to push up certain Afghanistan folks to get their visas.”

President Biden’s Afghan Adjustment Act has the potential to wholly renew pending visas, and streamline the greed card application, but it’s so far stalled in the U.S. Senate. “We haven’t heard anything complete to lead us to believe that will happen,” one attorney told Scene. Global Cleveland, with assistance from Legal Aid attorneys and Catholic Charities USA, assembled visa clinics last June to try to aid, en masse, the $575 parole applications—and requisite document gathering—for some 950 Afghans. But a year later, as of this July, according to interviews with four Legal Aid attorneys, requests for parole renewal have still gone unanswered. “Everyone’s starting to call me in a panic,” Lisa Splawinski, a lawyer for Legal Aid, said. “And I understand their panic, because I feel the same way—as their attorney.”

Cimperman’s tone sharpens. “There’s no clear path in sight, when August comes, what’s going to happen? What are we going

IT WAS AROUND NOON ON A Sunday, her usual lunch break in the payroll office where she worked, when Kamela Bahadori knew she would never see Afghanistan ever again.

Shukria Zafari, 32, in her home in Cleveland’s Little Arabia, in July. MARK OPREA

to do? Deport them back home to Afghanistan?” His hands flailed in the air. “They’ll get killed!”

Since September 6, 2021, Zafari and her two daughters here in the U.S. have oscillating feelings of hope and despair. In an interview in Legal Aid’s offices in July, Zafari, a 32-year-old woman with a round face and light brown eyes, talked about life off West 117th, where she’s been living with her girls since the end of 2022.

Besides the distraction of work— Zafari’s a tailor for an upholsterer— and caretaking of Sidiqa and Fatima, Zafari fights to keep her mind on American normalcy, despite the pangs of Taliban-ruined Afghanistan.

“I still have those old memories,” Zafari said in Dari, through a translator. “And they are with me here. Sometimes it comes in my mind, or arises in my dreams, that somebody will come and break in my house.”

Pondering the what ifs, Zafari leans into dark humor on the what if, say, her parole status isn’t renewed in October, or she doesn’t get asylum. If she’s forced back. She allowed a slight smile thinking of the scenario: “When they put me on the airplane, I’ll probably jump out into the sky,” she said, through bouts of nervous laughter. She covered her mouth, readjusted her hijab over long parted hair. “But yes. I am not going back there,” Zafari said. “No matter what.”

“MY NAME IS WAHIDULLAH

Muhammadi, son of Mohammadullah, former resident of a remote and dangerous region of Nuristan,” begins the 34 year old’s declaration for U.S. Citizen Immigration Services. “I was born on November 15, 1988.”

But that’s not what his documents say. When Muhammadi received his parole identification back in September of 2021, his birth year was accidentally 10 years off—1998. All of his documents were confiscated after Muhammadi applied for a driver’s license at the Parma BMV. FBI agents interrogated him at his house on West 115th. He was denied medical coverage.

“If everything expires, I will not be able to get a job or get any work,” Muhammadi said in June. “I have no idea what’s going to happen to me or my family.”

Eight years before Muhammadi’s birthdate became his personal and legal source of hell, he was a 26-year-old guard for the U.S. State Department manning security watch at the Fenty Operating Base

in Jalalabad, the fifth largest city in Afghanistan. Muhammadi’s duties were relatively straight-forward: keep Taliban insurgents away from U.S. personnel, suss out possible suicidevest attacks, incoming firefights. Occasionally, Muhammadi would join a Humvee patrol of neighboring mountain villages, aiding the bullhorn-led evacuation of residents’ homes, hoping to find covert Taliban sympathizers to arrest before him and his crew were shot.

Surprisingly, even to Muhammadi, a stoic, plainspoken man, he had not been gravely injured in the decade he had worked protecting troops from Taliban intervention. Close calls surrounded him since 2007, his first year as a soldier for ANNEX, an international branch of the U.S. Department of State. That year, suicide attacks on both civilians and U.S. troops had quadrupled since President Bush made an alliance with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. “I was always worried about the safety of my family,” Muhammadi told Scene, through a translator. “Taliban would say that those who worked with U.S. Army would be hunted down.”

That was in September 2013. Two years later, Obama had set the intention of removing all U.S. troops from Afghan soil, after clocking $444 billion spent with 1,800 Americans dead. But that September was extremely personal

for Muhammadi. He had relocated to Jalalabad as a safer haven for his family when he received news that his uncle and brother were attacked just outside Nuristan.

“They were stabbed and beaten,” Muhammadi said. “My brother’s arm was fractured.” An hourlong gunfight erupted from hillside to hillside. Three Afghan soldiers would die at the end of it. “My family would’ve been killed had they not been interrupted by the National Army, who arrived just in time.” Days later, Muhammadi’s house was set on fire. He moved to Jalalabad, but continued to receive death threats over the phone, or letters posted on his door. “We would not dare walk freely in the streets,” he said.

In 2017, Muhammadi got a job doing security with a unit of soldiers called Zero 2 on a base owned by the Special Forces of Jalalabad. It was good pay, and Muhammadi felt pressed, almost philosophically, to keep Taliban and their corrupt version of Sharia Law away from his daughters. Standing guard at Zero 2, Muhammadi escorted a convoy inside the base, as traffic came regularly from Kabul to the north. This one was different: a suicide bomber had pulled a Trojan Horse. He sped to a tower overlooking the entrance. He saw the insurgents, so Muhammadi ran down the turret’s stairs to get a better shot. He was met with a grenade. “It blew

up,” he said. The resulting shrapnel injury led Muhammadi through months of surgery. “But I’m okay,” he said, showing his right leg where scars remain. He said almost defiantly, “It wasn’t that serious.”

That year, after Donald Trump won the presidency, the U.S. recommitted to the Afghan War. The following January, Trump launched air attacks on Taliban-run opium fields—their main revenue source— and slashed aid to Pakistan, which had been accused of harboring terrorists. By November of 2020, after the U.S. and Taliban leaders had their most intense peace talks in the two decades since the World Trade Center towers crumbled, the Pentagon looks to solidify a “gradual” release of the 5,600 troops still fighting, still training Afghan security forces.

“After consulting closely with our allies and partners, with our military leaders and intelligence personnel, with our diplomats and our development experts, with the Congress and the Vice President, as well as with [President Ashraf] Ghani and many others around the world,” President Biden announced from the White House Briefing Room, on April 14, 2021. “I have concluded that it’s time to end America’s longest war. It’s time for American troops to come home.”

“We will not conduct a hasty rush to the exit,” Biden added. “We’ll do it

Zafari’s uncle, Safi, and her interpreter, Rafiullah Albari, at lunch, three months before Zafari’s parole is set to expire. MARK OPREA

responsibly, deliberately, and safely.”

On August 15, 2021, safe might not have been the word to detail what the U.S. called Operation Allies Refuge. The day Zafari, Moqbel, Muhammadi and Bahadori rushed their families to KIA to prevent certain murder-by-Taliban is now often considered one of the most chaotic U.S.-led evacuations of its kind. As cold-faced Taliban with M4 rifles scoured streets in Humvees and set up checkpoints on major throughways, frantic Afghans lined up at ATMs, hoping to withdraw their savings before it was frozen. The poor flooded parks. Helicopters descended over a smoke-filled U.S. Embassy, as staff inside burned sensitive documents. And at KIA, thousands of Afghans stormed the tarmac, running after C17 jets, leaping on wings, climbing the ladders of jetways, doing anything to escape the sure ire of the leaders of the Afghanistan terrorist coup.

“We are trying to solve the issue of Afghanistan with the Taliban leadership peacefully,” Karzai said in a video posted on Facebook. Surrounded by his three daughters, Karzai said he was still in Kabul, waiting to finalize the transition. Later, those on Twitter discovered Karzai shot the video from Pakistan.

At the end of August, after 120,000 people were evacuated, and 13 were killed by an Islamic State bomb outside KIA, Biden defended the decision of him and his advisors: We, the U.S., had done enough over two decades to train the Afghan National Army to handle its own protective duties. “I was not going to extend this forever war,” Biden said, affirmatively. “And I was not extending a forever exit.”

JOE

CIMPERMAN LIKES TO

call the concept “brain waste.” It pains him, but Cimperman sees the shameful underusage of immigrant intellect in almost every phase of American asylum seekers: in the Vietnamese in the wake of the 1970s; in the Polish of the 1920s; in the Ukrainians after Vladimir Putin kickstarted a mass exodus of 271,000 refugees since last spring.

And Cimperman sees this clearly, maybe too clearly, with the 950 or so Afghans in the recent wave of immigration. He sees National Army office workers, like Bahadori, taking dishwasher gigs in Chinese restaurants. He sees skilled soldiers and intelligence officers, like Muhammadi, settling for employment at Midwest Direct, sorting mail on the late shift. And he sees people like Moqbel, who worked in senior level roles for

the U.S. Agency for International Development, delivering for Amazon.

“It’s a story time memorial,” Cimperman said. “You see the guy working in a blood lab somewhere in Damascus, or working in healthcare in Baghdad. And we’re here at a point where we’re seeing people who could be doing jobs specific to their expertise, but doing others because it’s just easier for them to get them.”

Though a thorn in the side of every asylum seeker eyeing an American life, the reality of brain waste was eating at 39-yearold Moqbel for months after the evacuation. Moqbel has four children, and the immediate, yet necessary, choice to settle in Cleveland—and make the same money he made in Afghanistan— clawed at him. He applied for 165 jobs with not one interview. In the fall of 2021, he took a job in manufacturing, at a cement and drain maker called Oatey, for $13 an hour, yet felt severely underutilized. After all, Moqbel had an MBA. He had spent years evading scary Taliban checkpoints to construct women’s health organizations. “I was just looking for work. I just needed money. Supporting my parents back home was on my shoulders.”

“Bakht is fluent in, like, five languages. His dad was in the Air Force,” Cimperman, who met Moqbel at a visa clinic in late 2021, said. (The two now regularly meet up for lunch on the West Side.) “And we’d hear often from companies, ‘We’re looking for workers.’ ‘Well, we’ve got a guy.’ And they’d actually say, ‘We’re actually looking for other people.’”

In early 2022, after ten months of witnessing his ailing job search, Cimperman hired Moqbel as a settlement case manager for fellow Afghan asylees. It was, in a way, helping those precisely in his exact position months previous, yet those that weren’t granted SIV status. “I’m lucky,” Moqbel said. “I’m very lucky.” The tasks revolved around basic needs: finding apartments, getting healthcare. “We were giving them different kinds of trainings,” Moqbel said. “How to use the bus, how to get a driver’s license, how to sign up for ESL classes.”

Somewhere in his case management work, Moqbel befriended fellow Afghan Ahmad Farid Aria, who had also come over to the U.S. on an SIV. The two bonded almost immediately. Come 2023, the duo formed the base of the soon-to-be Afghan Community Center, a cultural hub that Moqbel wants to formalize by the end of this year. He said he needs roughly

$300,000 to buy and rehab a vacant church on Pearl Rd. in Parma, a sort of node where Afghans living in West Park’s Little Arabia (“Little Kabul,” as Moqbel calls it) and the 45 families in Parma Heights’ North Church Tower could convene.

“Actually to be honest, like almost 90 percent of newcomers have a kind of anxiety or depression,” Moqbel said one recent afternoon at a diner on Euclid Ave. A short, relatively quiet man in a dress shirt, Moqbel speaks with a muted confidence about his future. Though Moqbel said his life’s improved since scoring a full-time job in development at Esperanza last October, and pursuing the Community Center project, he’s still faced with past shadows.

“I’m seeing a therapist. I’m taking one capsule, which I need to take for 90 days. And, of course,” Moqbel added, looking out the windows of the diner, out to Euclid, “the anxiety level always increases in the winter.”

IN THE MIDDLE OF JULY, roughly three months before her life could be upended yet again, Shukria Zafari has her Legal Aid attorney, Corrylee Drozda, her interpreter, Rafiullah Albari, her uncle, Safi, and Scene over for a Sunday lunch. Zafari said her anxiety dreams had flared, but summer break has allowed her to plunge into her strongest defenses against apathy –her job and her children.

But, on that Sunday, from her airy second-story apartment off West 117th, you would be remiss to catch any despair in her eyes. “She’s on her phone too much,” Zafari said, wide-eyed. She nodded to Sediqa, 13, whose face is absorbed by TikTok. She smiles. “I’ve thrown three phones out the window so far.”

After an hour or two of cooking, Zafari lines every inch of her dining table with a smorgasbord of Afghan cuisine: four bowls of lamb kofta, plates of chickpea-topped mantu dumplings, bowls of raspberries and apples and salads, with cans of Coca Cola and yogurt and cucumber dhoog to drink. In the center, a gargantuan helping of kabuli palao, the national dish of Afghanistan. “That’s all you’re gonna eat?” she questions in Dari, when the second spoon of rice and raisins hits the plate. “We will finish the rice!”

Safari is still waiting, as she has since August 22, 2021, for her parole status to be re-approved. And if it goes smoothly, she still has to figure out how exactly she’ll get daughter Zarah over from Afghanistan, just like Moqbel will with his aging parents.

Bahadori is still pending approval, and has recently taken up a second job to occupy her free time in Little Arabia.

In late May, Muhammadi received SIV status, and should, if a biometrics appointment goes well, score a green card in September. He will no longer have to worry about bank withdrawals, about keeping his job. “That was a game changer,” Agustin Ponce de Leon, his lawyer, told Scene. “A turning point for him and his family.”

As for the others: “I have 31 other cases,” he says. “Still pending.”

The lunch passes, and the group retires to Zafari’s living room, where a gilded platter of nuts and dates is served with cake and mountain flower tea. As Zafari and her daughter help clear the table, the small coalition the Afghan evacuation has brought here together begins to talk about the situation at hand. Albari, a truckerturned-entrepreneur who has a build like a Crossfit trainer, talks about how the U.S. immigration at the Canadian border once asked him if he gave money to the Taliban. “I told him, ‘Ask me what I had for lunch, as I have a better response for that,” Albari says, in typical defiance.

“Those questions are pretty standard,” Drozda says. “They’re mental. They’re a total mind game.”

Zafari returns from her kitchen, which is shrouded by a gray curtain, and sits next to her uncle, Safi. “So many questions!” she says in Dari. “Why are there always so many questions?”

“Every time he goes to the interview he comes back with a headache.”

With Zafari and Albari’s encouragement, Safi goes into his own story of evacuation and reluctant immigration. His story, like Cimperman says, is time memorial. He had a business near Kabul, he made money, he was forced to flee, after August 2021, and chose Cleveland. Zafari followed. “And it took me two months for an asylum interview,” Safi says. “Two months! And nothing.”

A silence came over the living room. “It’s really hard, mentally, living here,” Safi said. “It is really a mental battle. Yes, we are happy here. But sometimes I’m not sure about myself. I have a permit. I can work. I am not sure if my asylum will be approved or not, after two years.”

“In two months, I go again.” Safi says. “We will see.”

scene@clevescene.com

t@clevelandscene

GET OUT Everything to do in Cleveland for the next two weeks

WED 08/09

Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End Cleveland Play House presents this play about famous writer Erma Bombeck. Tonight’s performance takes place at 7:30 at the Outcalt Theatre, where performances continue through Aug. 20. 1407 Euclid Ave, 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

Cuyahoga County Fair

The 126th Annual Cuyahoga County Fair runs today thru Sunday at the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds in Berea features everything from Family Dance Parties to Demolition Derbies. There will be Sanctioned Harness Horse Racing, Puppy Pals Comedic Stunt Dog Show, a OneMan Circus strolling the Midway and fireworks.

19201 East Bagley Rd., Middleburg Heights, 440.243.0090, cuyfair.com.

Six

The six wives of Henry VIII take the mic to remix five hundred years of historical heartbreak into what press materials describe as “an exuberant celebration of 21stcentury girl power.” Tonight’s performance takes place at 7:30 at Connor Palace, where performances continue through Sept. 10. 1615 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

THU 08/10

The 11th Annual International Ohio Burlesque Festival 2023

This annual burlesque event returns to the Beachland this weekend. It kicks off with tonight’s rock ‘n’ roll opening event that takes place at 7:30. Performances continue tomorrow and Saturday as well. 15711 Waterloo Rd., 216-383-1124, beachlandballroom.com.

Fun Home

Adapted from Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel memoir, this play explores the “haunting pull of memory and its power to shape one’s identity,” as it’s put in a press release. Cain Park Artistic Director Joanna May Cullinan directs the Cleveland premiere of the play. Performances take place at 7 tonight, tomorrow night and Saturday. A 2 p.m. performance takes place on Sunday. Weekend

performances continue through Aug. 27.

14591 Superior Rd., Cleveland Heights, 216-371-3000, cainpark. com.

Taste of Black Cleveland

This annual event featuring Black chefs of Cleveland takes place from 6 to 11:30 tonight at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. More than 20 local Black chefs and a handful of Black mixologists will be on hand for the festivities.

One Center Court, 216-420-2000, rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com.

FRI 08/11

The Art Shop at 818 Studios

More than 20 artists will showcase their work at 818 Studios throughout the entire summer during Walkabout Tremont. Expect to find fine art paintings, handmade jewelry, artisan, soaps and handmade gifts. The gallery is open tonight from 5 to 9 p.m. 818 Jefferson Ave., merrittphoto. com/818studios.html.

Browns vs. Washington Commanders

The starters aren’t likely to receive much playing time tonight when the Browns take on the Washington Commanders during a preseason game that takes place at Cleveland Browns Stadium. Kickoff is at 7:30. 100 Alfred Lerner Way, 440-8915000, clevelandbrowns.com.

SAT 08/12

Mozart in the Meadows

Nicholas McGegan conducts the Cleveland Orchestra plays a special program of Mozart tunes that includes Overture to The Marriage of Figaro and Clarinet Concerto. Clarinetist Afendi Yusuf guests. The concert begins tonight at 7 at Blossom.

1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls, 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com.

RuPaul’s Drag Race: Werq the World Tour Asia O’Hara, Daya Betty, Kandy Muse, Lady Camden, Rosé, Naomi Smalls and select RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 finalists are unknowingly trapped in the Netwerq in this fun-filled show presented by the fabulous RuPaul. Tonight’s performance takes place at

8 at the State Theatre. 1519 Euclid Avenue, 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

SUN 08/13

An Evening with Audra McDonald

Tonight at 7 at Blossom, Audra McDonald –- star of CBS’s The Good Fight and HBO’s The Gilded Age –joins the Cleveland Orchestra to play Broadway favorites by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, George Gershwin and many others. 1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls, 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com.

Funk It Up

A celebration of farmhouse style beer and fermented foods, Funk It Up takes place today at noon at Butcher and Brewer. Expect to sample saisons, sours, wheats, fruited beers and ciders at the event. 2043 East Fourth Street, 216-3310805, butcherandthebrewer.com.

TUE 08/15

Outlab: Experiments in Improvised Music Musicians are invited to bring instruments or any sound making device (drum kit and keyboard provided) that can be

used to explore collective group improvisation. Please bring your own amps if needed. The monthly session begins at 8 tonight at the Bop Stop. Admission is free. 2920 Detroit Ave., 216-771-6551, themusicsettlement.org.

WED 08/16

Artrageous

Initially, this troupe began as a group of friends doing street theater in Vancouver. Together, they started the All and Everything Theater, a non-profit children’s theater focusing on children’s entertainment, street theater and life-sized Bunraku puppetry. That group then morphed into Artrageous. The group performs at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. today at Cain Park.

14591 Superior Rd., Cleveland Heights, 216-371-3000, cainpark. com.

THU 08/17

Guardians vs. Detroit Tigers

The Guardians kick off a four-game series against the rebuilding Detroit Tigers, a division foe that has struggled to stay in the AL Central race this season. The game’s first

The fair returns. See: Sunday, Aug. 9. | Erik Drost/FlickrCc

pitch is at 7:15. Progressive Field, 2401 Ontario St., 216-420-4487, mlb.com/guardians.

FRI 08/18

Ralph Barbosa

The 2019 winner of the Funniest Comic in TX Competition in 2021, Ralph Barbosa also won the New York Latino Film Festival Stand Up Competition and is an upand-coming comic. He performs at 7:30 and 10 tonight and at 6:30 and 9 tomorrow night at the Improv.

1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com.

Third Friday

From 5 to 9 p.m., many of the 78th Street Studios resident artist studios and galleries will be open as part of this monthly event. There will be live music, and Local West, a Gordon Square sandwich shop, will serve food. BARneo will have a selection of adult beverages as well. Admission is free.

1300 West 78th St., 78thstreetstudios.com.

SAT 08/19

Beachland Flea

A good number of local vendors will exhibit both inside and outside the Beachland Ballroom today to sell vinyl records, vintage clothing, unique artwork, music memorabilia and more. The sale runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Beachland Flea Market adds to the rejuvenated Waterloo Arts District. Many businesses have popped up or expanded in the last couple of years, and the Beachland’s flea puts an exclamation mark on the improvements. Admission is free. 15711 Waterloo Rd., 216-383-1124, beachlandballroom.com.

Fujita Plays Tchaikovsky

Mao Fujita became an international sensation when he won the Silver Medal at the 2019 International Tchaikovsky Competition as an unknown 20-year-old. Tonight at 7 at Blossom, he makes his Cleveland debut performing Tchaikovsky’s iconic piano concerto.

1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls, 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com.

PorchROKR

Local bands will converge upon people’s porches in the Highland Square neighborhood today for the

annual PorchROKR festival. The local pop-punk act Detention will headline the affair and record its set for a forthcoming live album. The group’s latest single, the catchy “Peachy Keen,” has garnered more than 130k views on YouTube. Check the event’s Facebook page for more info.

facebook.com/porchrokr/.

SUN 08/20

Concerts at Lake View Cemetery

Concerts at Lake View Cemetery series offers locals yet another great opportunity to catch a free outdoor concert this summer. The threeconcert series takes place on the Garfield Monument lawn, making it one of the most unique settings in the city; each concert showcases some of the city’s best jazz acts, and Sammy DeLeon’s Latin Jazz Sextet performs today. Hours are 4 to 6 p.m. Admission is free. And if it rains, the concert will be delayed by a week.

12316 Euclid Ave., 216-421-2665, lakeviewcemetery.com.

MON 08/21

Memorial Monday

Every Monday through Sept. 25, Fort Huntington Park hosts food tracks and live music between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. for this special event. Admission is free, but the food will cost you. West 3rd St. and West Lakeside Ave. downtowncleveland.com.

TUE 08/22

Guardians vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers, a team many pundits think could win it all this year, make their one-and-only regular season visit to Progressive Field this year this week for a threegame series that begins tonight. First pitch is at 7:10 p.m. 2401 Ontario St., 216-420-4487, mlb. com/guardians.

Updating

This New York-based live dating and comedy puts two singles on blindfolded first dates in front of live audiences. Dubbed “the most raw dating show in existence,” the show comes to Hilarities tonight at 7:30. 2035 E 4th St., 216-736-4242, hilarities.com.

scene@clevescene.com

t@clevelandscene

MOVIES

ANOTHER LATE 20S ASSHOLE MANCHILD

Despite its cliched protagonist, Randall Park’s debut is a film worth seeing

By Kayla McCulloch

IF YOU TOLD BEN (JUSTIN H. Min) to grow up, I imagine he’d respond with an unrelenting string of deeply personal insults kept locked and loaded in the back of his mind since the day he met you. Of course he’s grown up. Why would you even suggest otherwise? He works in the film industry (which would be nothing without movie theater managers, no matter how low the audience turnout is lately). He watches films from the Criterion Collection (on DVD, presumably because they’re more affordable than Blu-rays — God forbid 4K discs). He has his own apartment (that he rents from his girlfriend’s dad). He even has a college education (at least in part — he walked away from academia a couple years shy of completion). To Ben, it doesn’t get more grown-up than that. But what he doesn’t understand is that there’s a difference between growing up and maturing.

For people like Ben, there’s a chasm that divides approaching 30 and behaving like it. More often than not, such arrested development can’t be escaped until they hit rock bottom.

When we meet Ben at the start of Randall Park’s feature directorial debut Shortcomings, he’s in free fall, even if he doesn’t realize it yet. His long-term relationship with Miko (Ally Maki) is at a breaking point. Ticket sales have slowed to a crawl. Best friend Alice (Sherry Cola) is the only real constant in his life, and even she seems to be itching for some substantial change that isn’t coming. Ben would rather things stay as they’ve always been: Wake up, work, watch a movie or two, sleep, repeat. When did everyone get so ambitious all of a sudden? And why does that feel so personal to Ben? With any luck, he can dig his heels in hard enough for the three of them and keep everybody where he wants them.

More than two decades after the birth of the mumblecore subgenre, the Late 20s Asshole Manchild is as common a trope in American independent cinema as the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. That’s exactly what Ben is, to be clear: a Late 20s Asshole Manchild. Shortcomings is not beating these accusations,

I’m afraid — no matter how fresh screenwriter Adrian Tomine’s take on this particular archetype is. Adapting a comic book series he penned between 2004 and 2007, Tomine adeptly updates his story of an Asian-American male living in the mid-aughts for the 2020s. Contemporary activities such as social media stalking and debating identity politics play an intrinsic role, and it all feels quite natural — a testament to both the authenticity of the source material and the skill of the writer.

The part of Ben might as well be on the opposite pole from Min’s exceptional turn as the titular android in Kogonada’s After Yang (2021). He excels just the same. Viewers spend a lot of time with this guy, and on paper, he doesn’t seem like the best company. Sarcastic, stalled, selfish, stunted, shameless… It’s hard work making the unlikable come off as tolerable (let alone actually likable), but Min is bravely up for the challenge. Same goes for Cola, Maki, and supporting players Tavi Gevinson and Debby Ryan: four somewhat underdeveloped female foils that would threaten to teeter over into one-note territory under less capable guidance from the talent. Each exists to personify a different path

SHORTCOMINGS

DIRECTED BY RANDALL PARK.

WRITTEN

Ben could follow at this crossroads in his life, not so much to embody a three-dimensional lead. (A glaring shortcoming in a film that, to be fair, promises such flaws in the title.)

For what the film lacks in nuanced characterization, it more or less makes up for with a strong overall voice. Shortcomings wields a clever blend of intelligence and bitterness throughout, taking jabs at everything from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Crazy Rich Asians to white guys a little too into martial arts. There’s a selfawareness to the whole thing, but it’s never that showy, winking, Ryan Reynolds-y brand of meta humor better suited for a cell phone commercial. (You know the kind. So smug in its acknowledgment of the fact that you’re watching an ad.) Rather, Shortcomings utilizes its perceptiveness to position the project within a larger conversation about Asian American filmmaking. Instead of patting itself on the back

for simply existing, it takes a hard look in the mirror — recognizing how far Asian filmmakers have come in America, but addressing how far they’ve yet to go to reach representational parity.

The film is the directorial debut of Randall Park, and among this new generation of increasingly common actors-turned-directors (see also: Patrick Wilson, Jordan Peele, Olivia Wilde, Bradley Cooper, Greta Gerwig, Regina King, Sarah Polley, John Krasinski, Elizabeth Banks, et cetera), he has one of the most subtle approaches. This is not a weakness, to be clear. I never once had the feeling Shortcomings was doing too much — something that cannot be said for obnoxiously stylistic works from one or two of the aforementioned names. Instead of striving for distinguished auteur status, Park proves perfectly content disappearing into the director’s chair and letting the actors and script do the heavy lifting. An admirable move, and one that nevertheless makes him a name worth looking out for on future credits. For a movie about a callow twenty-something, Park’s Shortcomings is remarkably grown.

BY ADRIAN TOMINE. OPENS AUGUST 4.

Ben (Justin H. Min) and Alice (Sherry Cola) confront the difficulties of growing up. | COURTESY SONY PICTURES CLASSICS / JON PACK

NOSH, SIP, STAY

At Patron Saint, a charming all-day cafe has you covered morning, noon and night

By Douglas Trattner

IF RECENT STATISTICS ARE to be believed, nearly half of all employed Americans work remotely at least part of the time. And what do we do when the walls start closing in? We escape to those tried-and-true third places where the Wi-Fi is as strong as the java and nobody cares how long we camp. But where do we go to escape the cacophony of the coffee shop and the banality of the local library? Increasingly, the all-day café.

As the trendline for gig workers continues to climb, so does the appetite for creating welcoming nooks for neighbors to work, meet, eat and drink despite the hour of day. These transitional places roll from morning coffee and pastries to wholesome midday lunches to happy hour meetups to spontaneous dinners cobbled together from a mess of small plates. These are the types of spots that anchor a boutique hotel in Soho, a quiet alley in Madrid or a booming block in Ohio City.

Open only since early June, Patron Saint feels like it’s been an essential part of this community for years. It helps that the café is set in a historic space that seems ripped from Rome thanks to graceful arches, 15-foot ceilings, 100-year-old tile flooring and walls clad in various shades and designs of pigmented glass. For 20 years, this building was home to a fine art conservation firm, but before that it was a showroom and warehouse for Vitrolite tile.

“I walked into this space with all of these arches, with all of this character and you can’t build that, you can just build upon it,” says owner Marie Artale.

Artale softened the interior with sound-dampening textiles, warm woods and chic banquettes. Guests can elect to sit at the fullservice bar or in the dining room, where “elevated counter service” is the order of the day. This hybrid model relies on smartphones and QR codes but sidesteps disposable everything in place of attractive stemware and tableware. A doubleedge sword, the system is great for ordering what you want, when you

want it, but not so great when you have questions about the food or drink and you have to flag down a human.

Patron Saint is the kind of place where “a quick glass of wine” can cascade into a tipsy two-hour feast. Thanks to light-handed beverages like bubbly Lambruscos, sunny spritzes and broody amari, it’s easy to indulge in “one more round” without getting plotzed. Aperitivos range from the classic Aperol or Campari spritz to the herbal, sweet Contratto fizz. Nearly a dozen amari – such as the earthy, smoky Sfumato ($8) – can be served neat, on the rocks or blended with tonic and lime. Even the cocktails go easy, with summery gems like the Blueberry Jammer ($10) that pairs amaro with blueberry jam, lemon and soda. Want to go even lower? There are no-alcohol “coffee cocktails” that offer a booze-free boost.

Artale tapped chef David Kocab to craft a farm-to-table regional Italian menu that leans light, wholesome, seasonal and satisfying. In the morning, guests can pair their Ready Set! cappuccino or cortado with a continental breakfast ($13). A square meal in a round platter, the pitch-perfect brunch includes thin-sliced cured meats, cheese, fresh fruit, a jammy egg, focaccia toast, compote and preserves.

Lunches are flush with bright salads and creative sandwiches. The earthy and crisp beet salad ($11) features strawberries and dollops of dreamy Italian blue cheese. It’s tossed in a sweet, citrusy vinaigrette and topped with crispy quinoa. On its own, the chickpea piadina ($10) is somewhat meek, but the vegetarian pressed sandwich comes alive when dipped in the accompanying aioli and savory eggplant puree. I’ll go back just for the broccoli melt ($11),

a sesame seed hoagie filled with broccoli, provolone, giardiniera and chili aioli.

While not a traditional restaurant, Patron Saint’s all-day menu offers enough variety and heft to cobble together a lovely dinner. We snacked on kettle chips and dip ($6) and honey-drizzled salami ($6) from Tuscany. We moved on to plump roasted shrimp ($7) with vegetables and fresh herbs and juicy pork meatballs ($15) served atop a polenta cake. To clean our plates, we tacked on orders of extra focaccia ($4). And to finish, we devoured a slice of fragrant olive oil cake ($8).

Ordering a la minute via smartphone has its pros and cons. Dishes are ordered as they’re desired. They land on the table with remarkable efficiency. Tabs can be kept open throughout the meal. And settling up is done without the need of a server. As for the con: these sorts of meals can add up quickly, turning a casual happy hour into a pricy splurge.

Photo by Tiffany Joy Photography

BITES

Doinks Burger Joint now open in Waterloo

By Douglas Trattner

AT 4 P.M. FRIDAY, JULY 28, the brown craft paper was stripped from the windows, the front door swung open, and the first official Doinks Burger Joint (15519 Waterloo Rd.) burgers hit the hot griddle. It’s been about three and a half years since the first Doinks smash burger landed on the griddle in owner Bonn Rassavong’s garage, when he and partner Peter Brown collectively mused, “What the heck, let’s start a burger pop-up.”

“We were both sitting and thinking that we had to do something to keep paying our bills and we decided to start selling burgers and fries out of my garage on 185th,” says Rassavong. “We sold out every weekend for months straight.”

For the past seven months, Rassavong and Brown have been converting a long-vacant storefront a few spots down from Six Shooter Coffee, also owned by Brown, into a burger bar with a modern diner feel. The 1,200-square-foot, 25-seat restaurant features a long bar, some booth seating and a communal table.

At the far end of the space is the open kitchen, which has a counter and a few stools for diners eager to watch and chat.

“We like to keep it super-open because it kind of mimics what we’ve been doing at our pop-ups,” says Rassavong.

The menu is a straightforward mix of burgers, sides, drinks and one dessert. Guests order and pay at the bar and grab a seat. The food can be enjoyed inside or out on the back patio.

The original Doinks burger is a double smash cheeseburger with shredded lettuce, pickles, sauteed onions and special sauce on a Stone Oven brioche bun. Other burgers include a kimchi burger and a banh mi burger topped with pickled veggies, jalapenos, fresh herbs and spicy sauce. Doinks uses an 80/20 blend of Certified Angus Beef for its 2.5-ounce patties.

Sides include french fries, onion rings, kimchi fries, kimchi mac and cheese, wedge salad and Thaistyle spicy pickle salad. For dessert there’s ube cheesecake.

To drink, there are four housemade hard seltzers on tap in flavors like Margarita, Penicillin and Transfusion plus a few beers and basic cocktails.

Rassavong says that the buzz surrounding the opening has been steadily increasing with each passing month.

“I can’t walk down the street without having three, four people asking me when we’re opening or to tell me that they’ve eaten the burgers before – and not just here, but randomly around the city,” he says. Doinks Burger Joint will be dinner only Tuesday through Saturday.

Parilya, the Popular Filipino Food Truck, Will Add Brick-and-Mortar Spot in Olmsted Falls

More great news for Filipino food fans. Parilya, Cleveland’s first and only Filipino food truck, will be opening a brick-and-mortar business in Olmsted Falls. The storefront at the corner of Bagley and Columbia will help support the food truck and serve as home base for the catering side of the business while giving customers a reliable place to track down their favorite foods. Guests can expect a casual 20-seat eatery.

Roger San Juan launched Parilya food truck in 2019. Dubbed “A Taste of the Philippines,” the truck has earned a large following by offering

dishes like lumpia, pancit, chicken tocino, BBQ chicken and rice, grilled chicken skewers and other delicious items. Food fans can look forward to an expanded selection of offerings – including desserts like ube cheesecake cookies and spicy candied nuts – at the new shop.

When Parilya opens in late summer, it will join the recently opened Tita Flora’s Filipino restaurant in Independence, giving Filipino food fans another reason to celebrate.

Guanaquitas Restaurante Now Open in Former Big Egg Space in Detroit Shoreway

The former Big Egg spot (5107 Detroit) is vacant no longer as Blanca Hernandez, owner of the four-year-old Pupuseria y Antojitos Guanaquitas (2998 W. 25th St., 216862-1082) restaurant in Clark-Fulton, last week opened the doors to her second restaurant, appropriately called Guanaquitas Restaurante 2.

Unlike Pupuseria y Antojitos Guanaquitas, which serves strictly Salvadoran foods like tortas, tacos, pupusas and carne asada, this latest restaurant will offer a blend of traditional Salvadoran and Spanish items alongside American diner-style foods.

The full-service restaurant will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner.

In the morning, guests can dig into platters of huevos rancheros,

enchiladas with pinto beans, pancakes, waffles, and bacon, eggs and hash browns. The rest of the menu is fleshed out with grilled chicken salads, BLT sandwiches and a handful of Salvadoran staples.

“The tacos and pupusas are too popular to not move over,” Hernandez says.

Boss ChickNBeer to Open Shop in Cuyahoga Falls This Fall

Location number four is in the works for Boss ChickNBeer, the justly praised chicken and beer restaurant owned by Heather Doeberling and Emily Moes. The pair opened the first shop in Berea back in 2018, added a spot in Bay Village in 2021, and expanded to Seven Hills the year after that.

Next up is Front Street in downtown Cuyahoga Falls. The restaurant will be located in the recently approved DORA district, which allows pedestrians to walk around with alcoholic beverages.

“Cuyahoga Falls is exactly the type of tight-knit community that the Boss Chicks look for when scouting new locations,” says Doeberling. “Cuyahoga Falls felt like home from the very beginning and we are overjoyed to be working with Testa Companies and their revitalization of the Downtown Cuyahoga Falls area.”

Doeberling says that the recent DORA legislation was the icing on the cake given their craft beer selection.

“The approval of the DORA is an exciting adventure that we can’t wait to embark on,” she adds. “There are only a couple in our state, and Boss ChicknBeer seems like a perfect fit to spread the word about the best local beer in northern Ohio.”

The new restaurant will be open sometime this fall. When it does, it will be the largest location to date, with seating for 48 indoors, a 24seat patio, and the signature pennytopped bar.

Bonn Rassavong

MUSIC

IN THE PRODUCER’S CHAIR

Inaugural Frank Amato Showcase to feature eclectic local acts

By Jeff Niesel

VETERAN CLEVELAND

singer-songwriter Frank Amato and his wife, former WMMS DJ Lisa Dillon, might be one of the city’s top rock ’n’ roll power couples. Together, they own Amalon Entertainment, which Amato describes as a “mobile entertainment company.” Each week, they host a slew of karaoke parties and DJ special events.

“[Amalon] is our two last names put together — Amato and Dillon,” Amato says one afternoon over beers and appetizers at Great Lakes Brewing Company. In addition to DJing and playing with the locally based Cleveland All-Stars, Amato also records bands at the studio he’s built into his home. On Saturday, Aug. 19, the Beachland Ballroom will host the first official Frank Amato Producer’s Showcase. Amato will MC the event and join locals 6 Turning 4 Burning, Dreamstreet and Gracie Olivia on stage to sing harmony vocals. “I wanted to call it Dilmato, but she didn’t like that. It would be great for a ketchup company or canned tomatoes.”

Born in Cleveland, Amato grew up in a musical family. His father, Frank “Papa” Amato, was a recording artist on Dot Records. Known as “The Singing Fireman,” he opened for Elvis Presley back in the ’50s. Amato, who started a covers band when he was still in high school, developed an affinity for production after he took audio engineering classes at Agency Recording. All the while, Amato played in a number of local rock bands. Beau Coup, arguably the most successful of the bunch, became the Buzzard house band, playing Listener Appreciation concerts for WMMS. One such show with John Waite drew an audience of more than 40,000 to Mall C.

When Beau Coup wasn’t touring and recording, Amato worked as an audio engineer for Westwood One Networks under the guidance of his mentor, Arnie Rosenberg, whom he met at Agency Recording, where he worked with such bands

as Jimmy Buffett, Brian Adams and Joe Walsh. In addition, Amato helped Bart Koster build his Right Track Studios and worked there as an audio engineer, joining staff members Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Steve Cox of the Dazz Band and Pete Tokar.

Initially, Amato and Dillon, who married in 1992, began hosting karaoke nights in the early ’90s when they filled in for the late Vicki Sue Winston, another WMMS alumnus, who used to have a karaoke gig at a bar by Great Northern Mall.

“It was pretty cool,” says Amato. “Back then, it was these big Pioneer laser discs. [Winston] asked us to fill in for her. The two of us just started doing karaoke, and it blew up. We did all these bar gigs. It morphed from karaoke to a full-blown DJ company.”

There was a time period in the mid-’90s when the couple moved to Detroit so that Dillon could work for what Amato refers to as the [former WMMS morning show DJs] Jeff and Flash of Detroit. She worked at the classic rock station.”

While in Detroit, Amato worked at the Detroit Recording Studio with owner/producer RJ Rice. He then became an audio engineer at the Southfield studios, working with the likes of Slum Village, J. Dilla, Janet Jackson, A Tribe Called Quest and Shaquille O’Neill.

After returning to Cleveland, Amato started seeking out the city’s local talent; he touts the talents of the three acts who’ll perform at the upcoming showcase. Dreamstreet and 6T4B are both rock bands that draw from different musical wells. Psychedelic rock inspires 6T4B; Foreigner and Journey have inspired Dreamstreet.

“6T4B’s influences are the Doors, Grand Funk Railroad and Pink Floyd,” says Amato. They started as a three-piece prog rock band. They have songs that are 10 and 11 minutes long. They’re all about recording organically with live drums. Dreamstreet is the same

thing. They’re very AOR, melodic ’80s-into-the-’90s influence. They’re all about recording with live drums in a studio too.”

Amato actually met Olivia through his dentist.

“I met her a couple of years ago; her father is musician and a dental specialist,” he says. “I’m sitting there for a root canal, and the dentist says my insurance won’t cover the whole thing. It’ll be 1800 dollars more. I asked him to trade recording time. He agreed, and he brought his daughter, who’d been writing songs since she was 8 or 9. She plays multiple instruments and sings and writes. I started recording her, and she was really good.”

“The Moment,” the most recent track Olivia cut with Amato, is a beautiful piano ballad with hushed vocals that sounds like something

Amato, who also puts together a special Christmas show every year with a group he calls the Cleveland All Stars, says he devotes some of the proceeds from everything he does to Autism Society of Greater Cleveland, a charity devoted to raising awareness about autism.

“I have autism in my family,” he says. “My grandson, who is my stepson’s son, has autism. My youngest son Derek has Asperger’s. He’s on the spectrum, and it’s mild. I think it really makes him more of a genius, though he doesn’t like it when you say that. He’s pretty damn smart. And so, I try to do as much as I can for autism.”

from Billie Eilish or Michelle Branch.

FRANK AMATO’S PRODUCERS SHOWCASE WITH 6 TURNING 4 BURNING, DREAMSTREET AND GRACIE OLIVIA, 7 P.M. SATURDAY, AUG. 19, BEACHLAND BALLROOM, 15711 WATERLOO RD., 216-383-1124. TICKETS: $15 ADV, $20 DOS, BEACHLANDBALLROOM.COM.

Frank Amato. | Eric Hanson

LIVEWIRE Real music in the real world

THU 08/10

Gojira and Mastodon

These two terrific hard rock bands bring their co-headlining tour to Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica. Known for albums such as 2012’s L’Enfant Sauvage and 2016’s Magma, Gojira returned in 2021 with Fortitude

Last year, it released the anthemic single “Our Time Is Now,” a tune featuring highly technical guitar work and menacing vocals. Not to be outdone, Mastodon has had its music appear in Game of Thrones and in DC Comics films. Its most recent album, Hushed and Grim, yielded the frenetic single “Pushing the Tides.” Lorna Shore, a group known for its intense live performances, opens. The concert begins at 6 p.m.

2014 Sycamore St., 216-861-4080, jacobspavilion.com.

FRI 08/11

Outlaw Music Festival

Willie Nelson headlines this

traveling country/alt-country festival that will also feature performances by John Fogerty, Kathleen Edwards and Particle Kid. Fogerty recently bought back the publishing rights he rescinded to Fantasy Records during the band’s heyday in the late 1960s and early 1970s when his former band Credence Clearwater Revival landed five top 10 albums on the Billboard 200, so expect to hear a few classic CCR cuts when he performs. The show starts at 4:30 p.m. at Blossom.

1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls, 216-231-1111, livenation.com.

Rüfüs Du Sol

This electronic dance music group had a hit right out of the gate with its 2011 self-titled debut EP and has continued to a force in the EDM world. The current tour supports the 2021 album, Surrender, which finds the group trying to get emotional on songs such as the treacly “Next to Me” and “Alive,” tunes that channel Depeche Mode with their heavy synths and anthemic vocals. The

group performs tonight at 6:30 at Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica. Channel Tres opens with a DJ set. 2014 Sycamore St., 216-861-4080, jacobspavilion.com.

Three Dog Night

Songs by this classic ‘70s blueeyed soul band have appeared in movies such as Boogie Nights and Guardians of the Galaxy, helping to keep the group relevant even though it hasn’t had a hit in decades.

Founding singer Danny Hutton leads the latest iteration of the group. The act performs tonight at 8 at MGM Northfield Park — Center Stage.

10705 Northfield Rd., Northfield, 330-908-7793, mgmnorthfieldpark.mgmresorts. com/en.html.

SAT 08/12

Alison Brown

This singer-songwriter started playing in the Southern California bluegrass scene when she was still a teenager. Guests such as Steve

Martin, Kronos Quartet, Sharon Isbin, Anat Cohen, Sierra Hull, Stuart Duncan and members of the Alison Brown Quintet appear on her latest album, On Banjo. Brown performs tonight at 8 at Cain Park. The Adam Ezra Group opens the show.

14591 Superior Rd., Cleveland Heights, 216-371-3000, cainpark. com.

LL Cool J — The F.O.R.C.E. Live Old school rapper LL Cool J hosts this special tour featuring performances from rap acts such as DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ Z-Trip, SaltN-Pepa, Queen Latifah, Rakim, Common, MC Lyte, Method Man & Redman, Big Boi, Bone ThugsN-Harmony, Ice T, Juvenile, Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick, De La Soul, Goodie Mob, Jadakiss, Rick Ross and more. Performances will be interwoven within one continuous musical set with the Roots acting as the house band. The show starts tonight at 8 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

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

Goo Goo Dolls bring their Big Night Out tour to Blossom. See: Sunday, Aug. 20. | Claire Marie Vogel

WED 08/16

The O’Jays

This classic R&B/soul group formed in Canton way back in 1958 and became a successful national act after signing to Philadelphia International in the 1970s. On what they have said is that their last tour, the Rock Hall Inductees perform tonight at 8 at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown.

229 East Front St., Youngstown, 330-746-5600, covellicentre.com.

THU 08/17

Pentatonix —The World Tour

The vocal group that famously won the third season of NBC’s The SingOff, brings its current trek, simply dubbed World Tour, to Blossom. The group’s most recent album, Holidays Around the World, came out last year and became the group’s ninth Top 10 entry on Billboard’s Top Holiday Albums Chart. Since it’s not the season for Christmas music, expect to hear songs from its extensive catalog of originals and covers at tonight’s show, which begins at 8. 1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls, 216-231-1111, livenation.com.

FRI 08/18

Grandmaster Flash

With his Quick Mix Theory, which he perfected in the 1970s, Grandmaster Flash paved the way for DJs to scratch records. As a result, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five became the first hiphop group to be inducted into the Rock Hall. The hip-hop icon comes to the Rock Hall tonight at 8. 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-5158444, rockhall.com.

Steven Page

A former member of Barenaked Ladies who wrote some of the band’s biggest hits (songs such as “Brian Wilson,” “If I Had a Million Dollars,” “What A Good Boy,” “It’s All Been Done”), Steven Page has become a successful solo artist. He comes to Cain Park tonight at 8. 14591 Superior Rd., Cleveland Heights, 216-371-3000, cainpark.com.

SAT 08/19

Buddy Guy

The blues elder statesman who’s now in his 80s has announced that the trek that brings him to Jacobs

Pavilion at Nautica tonight will be his last. Not one to rest on his laurels, Guy just released a new studio album, The Blues Don’t Lie, last year. The album commences with the exuberant “I Let My Guitar Do the Talking” and doesn’t let up. Guy performs tonight at 6 at Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica. Jimmie Vaughan and Samantha Fish open the show.

2014 Sycamore St., 216-861-4080, jacobspavilion.com.

SUN 08/20

Goo Goo Dolls — The Big Night Out Tour

When this alt-rock band first formed in Buffalo in 1986, its music sounded harsher, perhaps reflecting the city that band members called home. The group would eventually refine its sound and go on to sell truckloads of albums in the ‘90s when it delivered radio Top 10 radio hits, including “Name,” “Slide” and “Iris.” The veteran alt-rock band performs tonight at 7 at Blossom. 1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls, 216-231-1111, livenation.com.

TUE 08/22

The Offspring with Simple Plan and Sum 41: Let the Bad Times Roll Tour

Formed in 1984 in Garden Grove, CA, the Offspring has sold more than 40 million albums during its career. This year marked the 15th anniversary release of 2008’s Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace. The punk stalwarts also recently launched their brand new podcast, Time To Relax… with The Offspring, The band headlines this tour featuring Simple Plan and Sum 41. It rolls into Blossom tonight at 7. 1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls, 216-231-1111, livenation.com.

Joss Stone

Influenced by classic soul singers such as Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield, UK soul sensation Joss Stone performs tonight at 8 at Cain Park. Stone’s current tour celebrates the 20th anniversary of her 2003 album, The Soul Sessions

14591 Superior Rd., Cleveland Heights, 216-371-3000, cainpark. com.

scene@clevescene.com

t@clevelandscene

SAVAGE LOVE FAMILY TIES

By Dan Savage

Hey Dan: I’m a 25-year-old gay man. My parents have been divorced most of my life, and my dad came out to me as gay when I was 15. I came out to him and everyone else when I was 18. We’ve always had a good relationship, but we don’t see each other that often because we live on different coasts. We’re probably more open with each other about sex than most fathers and sons, but not in ways that I think are inappropriate. For example, on a recent visit we shared which hookup apps we were on so we could block each other. He’s also made sure I’m being safe about things like casual sex, drugs, and PrEP. As a result of these conversations, I know he’s kind of kinky and into bondage, but don’t have details on what he enjoys.

On my latest trip to see him, a friend of my dad’s came over to pick him up. My dad didn’t refer to it as a hookup beforehand but when the guy arrived, I could tell that’s what they were planning. Before they left for the other guy’s place, my dad’s friend started to flirt with me, which I didn’t take seriously. But as they were leaving the friend said it would be hot if I joined them for an incest scene. Then my dad made a joke about how it be “father/ son bondage time — I mean bonding time!” I didn’t think that was funny, but I laughed and then said I wasn’t interested, and they left. I stayed for two more days, and my dad never said anything else that made me uncomfortable, and we never discussed this guy again or the joke.

I really don’t think my dad wants to fuck me and he probably would have freaked out if I acted like he was serious and said yes. I know it was just a bad joke, but ever since I’ve been dealing with intrusive thoughts and trying to not think about it only makes me think about it more. I like light bondage and want to continue doing it, but now I can’t even think about it without thinking about my dad tying me up, something I do not want and do not want to think about. There are a couple of older guys in my life that I regularly meet up with for casual sex that I like to call “daddy.” That word has never made me think of my own dad until now. The last time I said it during sex I lost my erection

and told my fuck buddy I didn’t feel well and left.

How do I get over this? Should I say something to my dad? Or would that make it worse? I’m sure he’d apologize, but since he didn’t intentionally put these thoughts in my head then I don’t think an apology would make them go away. I don’t want to give up bondage, which I enjoy, and “daddy” is such a common term in gay circles that I’ll never get away from it even if I stopped using it myself. I’ve never been in therapy, but is that what it takes to get rid of unwanted thoughts?

Stupid Humorous Remark

Involving Nasty Kink

“I definitely think SHRINK should talk to his father about what happened,” said Dr. Joe Kort, a sex and relationship therapist and the author of Cracking the Erotic Code: Helping Gay Men Understand Their Sexual Fantasies. “From what SHRINK writes here, it sounds like his father has been appropriate and protected him from the inner workings of his sex life, just as he has protected his father from the inner workings of his own sex life. They’ve both done a great job.”

Until your last visit.

“I think SHRINK’s dad most likely felt just as awkward as SHRINK did when his dad’s friend said what he said,” said Dr. Kort, “and then his dad made that unfortunate joke.”

You think your dad made a stupid joke, Dr. Kort thinks your dad made an unfortunate joke, and I think your dad made an unforgiveable joke. But why would your father make a joke like that?

Your father was probably trying to avoid embarrassing his friend. Your dad’s fuck buddy said something wildly inappropriate, SHRINK, and instead of prioritizing your feelings by shutting his fuck buddy down — which is absolutely what your father should have done — your dad opted to make the worst dad joke in the long, sordid history of dad jokes. To spare his friend the embarrassment of being made to feel like the creep he is, SHRINK, your dad lunged at a stupid play on words (bondage/bonding). He

could have made that same joke without implicitly endorsing his fuck buddy’s suggestion of an incestuous threesome (“Sorry, but that’s not the kind of father/son bonding we’re interested in”), but the tension of the moment led your dad — and I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt here — to go with the first (and worst) version of the joke that popped into his head.

And in that moment your dad put you — his own son — in the awkward position of either having to confront him or laugh it off.

“SHRINK needs to let his father know how he felt when it happened and that he didn’t care for it and that it made him feel uneasy,” said Dr. Kort. “It isn’t about getting his dad to apologize or explain, it’s about SHRINK letting this go, at least metaphorically. SHRINK has been carrying this since it first happened, and he should imagine that by telling his father how this made him feel, SHRINK will be freeing himself from having to carry this around any longer.”

I disagree with Dr. Kort. I think your dad owes you an explanation and an apology. Even if you’re sure your dad didn’t approve of what his fuck buddy was doing (and here’s hoping he didn’t), and even if you’re absolutely sure your dad wasn’t being serious (and here’s hoping he wasn’t), you need to hear that from your father. There’s some unfinished business between you and your father — there are things you need to say to him, there are things he needs to say to you — and you’re going to be be plagued by these intrusive thoughts until you finish that business.

And while you don’t mention being turned on by these thoughts indeed, they seem to have cost at least one erection — things that shock us or gross us out sometimes creep into our sexual fantasies in ways that can feel like an additional violation.

“It isn’t uncommon for something that causes us anxiety to become eroticized,” said Dr. Kort. “Sometimes an idea is so gross and disgusting that our minds create a turn-on to cope with how uncomfortable we were. And then, the harder we fight thoughts of this fantasy, the more it comes to dominate our thoughts.”

So, whether these thoughts are turning you on (and I don’t think they are) or turning you off (ding ding ding), SHRINK, don’t blame yourself. You didn’t invite these thoughts into your head; your dad’s idiot fuck buddy and your dad’s idiotic response crammed them in there. Whatever you do, they’ll very likely fade with time, but I promise you they’ll fade faster after you get the explanation and apology you’re owed.

“SHRINK needs to have a little compassion for himself,” said Dr. Kort. “He was faced with something very cringy and these intrusive thoughts are the understandable result. He shouldn’t have to give up bondage or dirty ‘daddy’ talk during sex as a result. It might help if he thinks about all the other guys out there, with and without ‘daddy’ issues, who are still saying ‘daddy’ to their partners. Calling an older man ‘daddy’ doesn’t mean anything incestual. It’s not about anyone’s real dad.”

As for therapy, SHRINK, a little could go a long way. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been proven to help people who struggle with intrusive thoughts. After a few sessions you may find yourself enjoying light bondage and nonbiological fathers again.

Follow Dr. Joe Kort on Twitter @ DrJoeKort and learn more about his work at www.joekort.com. questions@savagelove.net t