They just don’t riot like they used to in 1974, when Ten Cent Beer Night set the standard for stupidity in sports promotion. CoolCleveland correspondent Liv Ream interviews Eric Olsen, whose Freakish History podcast kicks off with an eight-episode series on the chaos that ensued. At the other end of the spectrum, Steve Traina’s new book on the legendary La Cave traces its history from folk gathering place to underground mecca. Meanwhile our region gears up for a blackout while jazz emerges from radio silence.You can roll to the polls with Bike Cleveland (election day is Tue 3/19!), score a pop culture find at the Winchester Flea, attend a gala to benefit Cleveland’s largest community garden, build a birdhouse to attract bluebirds, and create your own musical adventure at the BOP STOP’s Outlab Jam.
Rebecca Cross opens at HEDGE with painted silk, the all-woman Artemis jazz ensemble appears at Finney Chapel, CPT mounts a Requiem with Peter Lawson Jones, large performers dominate at No Class, and a woman baseball star is honored at the Baseball Heritage Museum.
On the bright side, CoolCleveland correspondent and filmmaker Bruce Checefsky’s new and old films are being screened at Youngstown’s McDonough Museum. Meanwhile, he reports on the latest in arts funding: Chris Ronayne’s recent appointments to the CAC board still don’t satisfy the legal requirement, while qualified artists who applied are ignored. Something’s still out of whack.
CoolCleveland Correspondent Liv Ream got a history lesson she wasn’t expecting from Eric Olsen, author and podcast host of Freakish History. Cleveland Stadium’s Ten Cent Beer Night was a night to remember for baseball. If you like piña coladas, fighting and explosives, there’s more where that came from.
The long-form version of the story can be found on the Freakish History podcast, a deep-dive exploration of what took place on June 4, 1974. But for CoolCleveland, in ten minutes, Olsen paints a picture of chaos, debauchery and more nudity than expected at a baseball game, resulting in one of the most famous riots in sports history. Read more.
After the early 70s, Cleveland had a number of showcase rooms where touring bands and songwriters just starting out could play. But in the 60s, that role was taken entirely by La Cave, which existed from 1962-69. It started out as a folk club, booking a host of legendary 60s folkies (Judy Collins, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Tom Paxton, John Hammond), and later on, brought in cutting-edge 60s bands such as Iron Butterfly, Blood Sweat and Tears, Procol Harum and the Velvet Underground.
WRUW-FM folk show host Steve Traina snuck into the club as an underage kid, thanks to his older sister. But it was after connecting in 2009 with La Cave’s spark plugs, manager/bookers Stan Cain and Larry Bruner, that the seed was planted for his new book on the club’s rise and fall. Thanks to their copious archives he’s written a detailed history of its life and times. He’ll be at the B Side Lounge in Cleveland Heights on Saturday March 16 to talk about it. Read more.
Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne has nominated Leonard DiCosimo and Gina Vernaci to serve on the five-member board of Cuyahoga Arts & Culture (CAC) replacing Charna Sherman and Nancy Mendez, and reappointed board member Karolyn Isenhart.
“These new leaders have a passion for the arts and a strong commitment to enriching the community, which perfectly aligns with the mission of Cuyahoga Arts & Culture,” said Ronayne in a press release. “They possess the essential qualities necessary for cultivating a dynamic cultural landscape throughout our region.”
The problem is that of the three, only DiCosimo is a working artist, and neither are the two board members Ronayne appointed last year. The language in the Ohio Revised Code that created CAC states that at least two members of the board of trustees “shall be persons who devote a major portion of their time to practicing, performing, or teaching any of the arts.”
And it appears that of the nearly two dozen artists who responded to the county’s call for applications, few if any were even contacted, let alone interviewed. Read more.
While WCLV has been broadcasting jazz overnight, on February 26, Cleveland jazz lovers finally got back a full-time jazz channel, JazzNEO, part of WCLV’s parent company Ideastream media. With noted local hosts hosts Dee Perry, Dan Polletta and John Simna and programming that will draw on the area’s vibrant jazz scene, JazzNEO should live up to its name. List on your radio (if you still have one) or online. Read more.
Photographer Barbara Bosworth is entranced with the raw material of photography: light. She especially likes to lug her 8 x 10 camera outdoors and look at light from the skies — and light on earth. Her show Barbara Bosworth: Sun Light Moon Shadow is currently on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art, tying in with the total solar eclipse we’ll be seeing on Monday April 8. Read more.
Students of Cleveland’s jazz history may remember or have read about Lindsey’s Sky Bar. Opening in 1934 and located at 10551 Euclid Avenue, it was the city’s first jazz club to bring in nationally known performers on a nightly basis. An appearance by famed blues singer Billie Holiday in 1951 helped to enhance the club’s struggling reputation.
The final year of Holiday’s life is the focus of a new biography entitled Bitter Crop – The Heartache and Triumph of Billie Holiday’s Last Year by Paul Alexander. Alexander has had a long and distinguished career as both a journalist and an author. In the past he has chosen a wide variety of subjects, ranging from political guru Karl Rove, former Secretary of State John Kerry and award-winning author J. D. Salinger. Read more.
