Arts

The Womack Family Band move a Sisyphus Stone.

"Sometimes you paint a song, and sometimes you want to start off with every color there is, you just want to put everything on the canvas and then take it away, because that's one thing you can do with music," says Tony Schaffer of The Womack Family Band.

A work by a local artist helps residents find closure after a devastating explosion.

“This installation captures the compassion and emotion of residents who are committed to their community and helping each other heal."

An artist explores the connections between chess and life.

Because of the connection between chess and his father, Black started seeing the entire world as a possible chess board and began constructing strategies for how to deal with life through the ways that different chess pieces move on the board.

Regional art worlds collide in the PNC SmartHome.

"Everything that went into the home went through the lens of sustainability, whether it was through materials, process or theme," says Red Dot Project's Christy Gray.

How Lamont 'Bim' Thomas proclaims I'm Bleeding Now.

The recording is deliberately crude, dotted with Blaxploitation-worthy dialogue samples, and the unscripted nature of it captures the fun to be had in playing music with friends, of sweltering summer days in Cleveland, and the foggy memories they invite. It's visceral, gritty and affecting...

A Cleveland jazz legend pays tribute to another North Coast luminary: Harvey Pekar.

Unlike the gregarious and loquacious Krivda, Pekar was not that social: “Harvey was not a club goer. He liked to listen to records. Clubs, of course, were social situations. I don’t believe he drank. He didn’t go into clubs, (because) in my opinion he couldn’t suffer fools at all, so he didn’t even want to take the chance he would encounter one,” says Ernie Krivda.

Cleveland-raised, Broadway performing actor Rory O'Malley gets to the point.

Here, O'Malley reflects on being nominated for a Tony, working with the creators of South Park, growing up in Cleveland, the lows of being an actor, the highs of being on stage and coming out for gay rights...

Living Stereo turn up the volume, "Live From Bad Racket."

"I think Cleveland is about to really have something happening. There are a few new bands who are doing great things, and if the public decides to latch onto it, there might be no stopping us..."

Carlo Wolff finds refreshing newness in Derek Hess' old issues of Playboy.

Hess, whose first Busta exhibit in the mid-‘90s featured his rock ‘n’ roll posters, updates Playboy magazine covers from the ‘60s and ‘70s, maturing an iconography that in its time seemed liberating but now seems dated, if not quaint.

Ivan J. Sheehan meets the band behind one of 2011's most dynamic releases, Dreamtiger & Other Tails, as they perform "Live From Bad Racket."

"As a local band, when you're first starting out, you know nothing," says singer Shanna Delaney. "No one really tells you, and you just figure it out along the way as you go along..."

Ivan J. Sheehan reviews The Commonwealth's Souvenir EP.

Souvenir demonstrates great potential for a fleshed out long player, though provides a fittingly halcyon soundtrack for the summer months ahead.

Parsons Dance brings its exceptional athleticism to PlayhouseSquare.

Called "athletic, entertaining and mesmerizing" by The New York Times, Remember Me combines East Village Opera Company's signature operatic arias with Parsons' choreography to create a modern retelling of a tragic love story. 

Why artist Matthew Richards spent two decades in Japan before discovering Cleveland.

"His name is Yutaka Tsuji. He is now 56 years old and was 38 at the time I met him, if my math is correct. Why did he take a liking to me? I am not sure. We just became good friends..."

Billy Delfs shoots Cleveland.

"I look for the positives in Cleveland. Many people talk down on the city, but I find a wealth of strength and determination from the people here..."

Cleveland comedian Bill Squire wants to be taken hilariously.

Squire's sardonic wit and crude brand of humor – as with most standout standups – is born of experience, guaranteed to offend and roundly unapologetic... 

Carlo Wolff learns how to mix Hot Chocolate with Cleveland funk.

The Cleveland Hot Chocolate performed from Pensacola, Florida, to Montreal and “almost every state in between,” says Lou Ragland. “Everything east of the Mississippi, we probably covered. The 'chitlin’ circuit,' as they called it.”

A legendary Cleveland musician plays from the heart at a historic landmark.

With Cleveland as its epicenter, the performance was a nuanced, optimistic and stylized rendering of life on the North Coast, each player binding impeccable technique to a strongly emotional narrative approach.

Nick Zuber performs "San Franciso" at Bad Racket Studio.

"All my lyrics come from personal experience. It's so much easier to write that way. I feel if I write a song and I'm not being honest with me, not only can I tell, but everyone else around me can as well."

Carlo Wolff finds a French jazz orchestra exploring British psychedelic musician Robert Wyatt's catalog at Cleveland's Rock Hall.

On the last gig of a week-long, three-date tour, these fearless and sophisticated French musicians transformed the songs of English rock eccentric Robert Wyatt into the elegant, the alarming and the surprising.

Herzog's Search gets a long overdue re-release.

Tolar builds an impressive guitar-driven series of soundscapes that undulate over 11 tracks and 35-plus minutes, drowsily drifting, blurring notes in a wash of resplendent noise that will make more than a few listeners happy that music like this is still being churned out in bedrooms (or anywhere, for that matter).

Verb Ballets kicks off DanceWorks 2011.

Artists are paired together and given finite time in the rehearsal studio, requiring them to push the bounds of their creativity and produce work incorporating multiple art forms.

An illustrated guide to an Illustrious exhibit at Wall Eye Gallery.

"This show gives the viewer just about everything: comic book art, fine illustration in paintings, posters, prints, traditional drawings and even toy designs and prototypes. It's a seriously solid exhibition."

Columbus' Times New Viking chart a new course with Dancer Equired.

Whereas earlier efforts were sneering, unyielding musical dervishes, spinning raw ratcheted-up racket of the highest order, Dancer Equired has shelved some of the crude character. 

José Feliciano Jr. goes global in Northeast Ohio, with three don't-miss concerts.

Expect an abundance of Polish pride, food, live polka bands, multiple sets by DJ Kishka and undoubtedly plenty of beer.

Ivan J. Sheehan listens to Bethesda's Dreamtigers & Other Tails.

The varied instrumentation and delightfully curious orchestration are bound by a talent for colorful narrative that speaks of scattered ashes, farmer's hands, river banks, cattail whips, Mother, hearts, empty halls and handwritten letters, dreamers and lovers.

Cleveland's legendary Alarm Clocks play Live From Bad Racket.

"I think that's kind of unprecedented for any '60s band. Usually, those bands went on from playing through the '70s and '80s, and changing their direction… when they try to go back and play the old stuff it doesn't sound right; too much nostalgia. These guys never learned how to play any other way. They never played after the '60s."

OhioAuthority interviews David and Goliath director George Zaverdas.

I actually wrote the short after a survivor of the Holocaust 10 years ago told me this story that I never forgot.

José Feliciano Jr., Warhol films, Dean & Britta music and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

One of the most stirring performances of the evening came during screen test featuring Ann Buchanan, who holds the same blank stare for the duration of her piece. I first thought it was simply a loop; yet Ann ultimately sheds a few tears trying to remain stone faced and solemn, not blinking.

A discussion with CIFF filmmaker Nancy Kelly.

Some of the most exciting and educational parts of the Cleveland International Film Festival are the FilmForums - moderated panel discussions that offer audience members the opportunity to learn more about the issues brought up in the film they have just seen.

Carlo Wolff discovers a horror movie unfolding in real life.

Defined by Heikki Farm’s stately cinematography, Into Eternity unfolds slowly, and it’s talky. Some might say it raises more questions than answers, and it’s telling that the authorities involved – from nuclear safety gurus to theologians to blasters to governmental policymakers from Finland and Sweden – traffic in trust more than certainty.

Two movies, two very different countries, one sex.

Not only did he give manhood a bad name (stabbing the first of seven wives isn’t a plus), he almost singlehandedly generated modern feminism, trivializing even the notion of infidelity.

Another record-breaking year for the Cleveland International Film Festival.

The festival continues to grow in numbers every year, and this year, it hit record attendance highs for every day of the week. Overall, more than 78,000 people attended.

Carlo Wolff reviews the latest from acclaimed Run Lola Run director Tom Twyker.

The sex in 3 is earthy, passionate and spontaneous. Simon and Adam, too, eventually make love after an amazing scene in which Adam restores Simon’s potency, awakening Simon to his own bisexuality...

A sweet story to remind you of your seven-year-old self.

Anyone who has fallen out of touch with - or recently rediscovered - their childhood self will love this film.

OhioAuthority interviews Outside the Wire director Anthony Hornus.

We're inundated with the casualties of war, which is reality, of course, but we're not seeing the good that is being accomplished… It was my job, it was my duty to go over and tell the other side of this, the human story.

Andrew Samtoy peels back the layers of the Cleveland Play House's latest main stage production.

You would be forgiven for thinking that My Name is Asher Lev is simply a play about a young, gifted Orthodox Jewish artist who is caught between his artistic ability and the Orthodox community.

Elizabeth Weinstein goes back to school, CIFF style.

It’s impossible to see every film that is showing – to do so would require a Time-Turner device like the one used by Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter books.

Polka! fails to hit all the high notes, according to Carlo Wolff.

There’s plenty to cover, from the history of the Slovenian migration to the U.S. in the 19th century to the taxonomy of Slovenian gathering places like the Polka Museum, social halls and old-age homes. In addition, there’s musical history to explore, showing how the smooth Cleveland style of polka draws on jazz, pop, even Broadway musicals.

Carlo Wolff reviews a gripping documentary about Cleveland.

These people do good, incomprehensibly difficult work in a building at East 105th Street and St. Clair Avenue in Collinwood...  It details how she hired a gang to beat Tyree up, prompting him to bring a knife to E-Prep, prompting the school to kick him out for weapons possession.

Elizabeth Weinstein flashes her credentials at a screening of Vincent Wants to Sea.

What would happen if three patients in a mental institution – one with obsessive compulsive disorder, one with Tourette’s Syndrome, and another with anorexia nervosa – decided to make a run for it and drive a stolen car cross-country, in search of the sea?

Carlo Wolff finds the amusing side of sex toys in Beijing.

When Shunzi’s wife cuckolds him and throws him out of the house, he goes to stay with his elderly parents, so sexually insatiable their sounds keep him up at night. Shunzi hooks up with old buddy Jiang, a smooth sex toy entrepreneur who introduces Shunzi to Mr. Iggy

OhioAuthority interviews My Kidnapper director Mark Henderson.

"When I was released, I was approached by a lot of companies wanting to make a documentary about the story, and I wasn't that interested in doing it… then I get an email from one of my kidnappers."

Carlo Wolff reviews two tales of suffering – and hope.

Two movies: More To Live For and The Redemption of General Butt Naked. The first will tear your heart out. The second will wrack your brain to boot.

Elizabeth Weinstein talks her friends into a hostage situation at the Cleveland International Film Festival.

Carlo Wolff reviews the true story of Danny Greene.

The material is sensational, the film dynamic. After Greene, Kovacic is by far the most interesting character, “sort of” a friend of Greene’s, a man who could have been his conscience. 

Writer and film buff Elizabeth Weinstein's reviews and observations from the Cleveland International Film Festival.

For me, the festival is the perfect way to say goodbye to the final throes of winter – from the warmth and comfort of a movie theater – and emerge from this cinematic cocoon to find the beginning of spring. 

Carlo Wolff tries to make sense of Aardvark.

Why do he and Andris smash windows in an abandoned warehouse? Does Larry subdue Candy Jiu-Jitsu style or rape her, as her screams indicate? What the hell is that scarlet bar behind the upholstery warehouse on Lee Road where Larry goes to find out who killed Darren? Why did the little girls in the final scene not jump out of their skins?

Carlo Wolff reviews a trophy crop of jazz musicians tackling the works of Albert Ayler at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Some say Ayler couldn’t navigate the changes and chords any professional jazz musician must know. Others rank him with contemporaries like Ornette Coleman and Coltrane, less divisive but still controversial jazz pillars. His death remains unexplained. His music, meanwhile, marches on.

Cellar Door Records celebrates another collection of fresh favorites.

Realizing they were experiencing firsthand a music scene many never see, Markert and Fike decided to establish tangible evidence of their venue's eclectic roster, and Cellar Door Records was born.

Carlo Wolff shares a preview of best bets at this year's Cleveland International Film Festival.

Bracketed by films about athletes who overcome daunting hurdles, replete with ones about the ever-unfolding complexity of World War II, the 35th annual Cleveland International Film Festival promises a smorgasbord of cinematic delight. If that sounds fatuous, no apologies.

Elizabeth Weinstein reviews Esperanza Spalding's performance in Oberlin.

Then, to the tune of hushed string music by Spalding’s supremely talented backing musicians - her “Chamber Music Society” - a small lamp was lit, revealing the singer/bass player/composer slouched on an oversized chair, barefoot and sipping a glass of wine with her eyes closed. So much for a grand entrance. 

Carlo Wolff reviews Kill The Irishman.

Jonathan Hensleigh’s film about Danny Greene, the legendary Irish criminal from Collinwood who proved so hard to kill, is a solid B movie, and Ray Stevenson, as Greene, gets an A. The link between Sean Connery and Liam Neeson, Stevenson is better than the movie.

The king of Brit Pop returns with his Beady Eye.

The whole package is arrogant, rife with boyish bravado and unapologetically derivative. Yet, in the face of overly polished, disposable studio-manufactured pop icons and indie darlings who trend unique by sounding alike, Different Gear is refreshing and sounds new.

José Feliciano Jr. launches into March with the sound of music – the month's best music.

Ivan J. Sheehan reviews Cleveland's Suede Brothers' The Night.

Andrew Samtoy reviews Twice Told Tales of the Decameron, a clever presentation of Shakespeare's oft-reference source material.

Nicky English and his band take the stage "Live From Bad Racket."

Ivan J. Sheehan learns the story behind a Cleveland-born silver screen gem, being presented for the first time in more than 40 years.

Chris Davis reviews the hype surrounding Cleveland's Dylan Baldi and his latest Cloud Nothings.

Carlo Wolff finds being a big man in a small economy can be a tight squeeze.

Carlo Wolff finds Blue Valentine tough and compelling.

Carlo Wolff learns how one musician turned a near tragedy into Fortune.

Peter Chakerian's "Fresh Start" is a little but country, a little bit something completely different.