03.13-03.20.19
Beat
Pick up the beat. Downbeat downtown. Beat down. Beat you to the punch.
Stick around, it won’t be long now. Our shoulder seasons can be the most fun. Not too cold, but far off from summer’s heat. The perfect time of year for tasting at the Grand River Valley Ice Wine Festival. Or check out Cleveland’s best PODCAST and hear from Vicki Kotris, one half of the CLE Cookie Dough food truck, pairing with Sibling Revelry Brewing just in time for St. Pat’s. Speaking of all things culinary, we talk with chef Zack Bruell about Cleveland Restaurant Week, running from the 18th-30th with the largest independent group of chefs and restaurants in the country offering tasty discounts.
We reprise our 2006 video interview with super beat maker Hal Blaine, the first sideman to be inducted in the Rock Hall, in honor of his passing this week. You can catch rising artist Antonio DeJesus at Third Fridays at 78th Street Studios. As he says in our exclusive interview, “It’s not wrong to be really really passionate about something.” –Thomas Mulready
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Photo by Anastasia Pantsios
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Vicki Kotris, owner of CLE Cookie Dough, joins us this week ahead of its St. Patrick’s Day pairing event with Sibling Revelry Brewing on March 16th. She talks about flavor development, staying motivated in an increasing competitive landscape and how Cleveland and its businesses help her remain successful.
And we have new music from Cleveland’s The Chestertons and B O O T H. Plus you can vote for Cleveland’s best podcast.
Antonio DeJesus is just 21, so he hasn’t really settled on his preferred creative avenue yet – he just knows he needs to create. The multi-disciplinary artist has done a lot of acting and singing but recently he picked up a Polaroid camera and started recording his extended community. The result is Cuyahoga, Ultra, opening at 78th Street Studios Fri 3/16.
He says his photos are very spur-of-the-moment, “things I have taken at parties and bigger events and just hanging with people, catching them when they’re not paying attention.” The double exposures give his shots a feeling of time passing, of experience layered upon experience – very apt for where DeJesus is in his life.
Are you one of those people who complains about NE Ohio weather? In fact, the area’s unique geography is responsible for some good things, such as its abundance of vineyards. And those early freezes bring us a rare type of wine not found in every wine-grape-growing region: ice wine. It requires harvesting the grapes within a very narrow window – within a few hours of the first freeze.
For a short period of time, you can taste these fleeting, labor-intensive treasures at six area wineries during the Grand River Valley Ice Wine Festival. Spend the afternoon visiting all six and take the time to notice the nuances in the wines due to different kinds of grapes, the Earth (or terroir) it’s grown in and the length of time spent aging. Sat 3/16.
Although both had extensive ties to the Akron/Kent music scene, musicians Abby Rose (formerly with Kent/Akron band the Speedbumps) and Kent native David Mayfield, who’s toured with the Black Keys, didn’t know each other until they met at an open mic night at Akron’s Uncorked Wine Bar.
But something clicked and now they’re they Cave Twins and, according to the title of their just-released debut album, Best Friends for Now. With Mayfield providing the lyrics and Rose adding the melodies, the duo offers an album of rough-edged folk rock Americana, they’ll share at two shows at Akron’s Rialto Theatre. Friday’s is sold out so there’s an added show Sat 3/16.
Cleveland baroque ensemble Les Delices hits three branches of the Cleveland Public Library this week as part of its outreach program. They’ll perform short, informal concerts and gladly entertain questions from kids about the music and their period instruments. Wed 3/13-Thu 3/14.
* The Akron Art Museum hosts two sessions of “KidFlix”. screenings of short films, one for 3-7 year olds and the other for ages 8 and up. There are hands-on art activities too. Sat 3/16.
Click here for more CoolCleveland Kids events
Zack Bruell is one of the area’s most successful master chefs and entrepreneurs, operating a number of popular restaurants serving satisfied customers in the region. So he’s the right guy to ask about the state of Cleveland food culture, the benefits of eating local, and the pressing need for good talent.
Chef Bruell also outlines how he participates in Cleveland Restaurant Week, offering a 3-course $33 prix fixe menu. Most of the 80+ local chefs and restaurants that are members of Cleveland Independents are participating in Cleveland Restaurant Week, taking place March 18-30, 2019. We’ll toast to that!
The latest in the plethora of local restaurant weeks is Cleveland Restaurant Week, hosted by Cleveland Independents, which represents locally owned and operated establishments. Best of all, this “week” lasts nearly two. Mon 3/18-Sat 3/30.
Read more of CoolCleveland’s picks for Eats and Drinks.
After cutting 39 (!) Number 1 hits, drummer Hal Blaine, who worked with everyone from Elvis Presley to Brian Wilson, became the first sideman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Blaine passed away this week at age 90. His family posted, “May he rest forever on 2 and 4.” CoolCleveland conducted this interview in 2006.
As a member of The Wrecking Crew, so-called because they “wrecked” the business for the blue blazer-bedecked studio musicians who came before them, Hal Blaine invented the architecture for the emerging rhythms of rock and roll as the backing band for Phil Spector and other seminal 60s and 70s tracks.
The Lakeland Jazz Festival, the oldest jazz festival in Ohio at 47, features two days of student adjudication, a concert tribute to John Coltrane by the Ralph Moore Trio (pictured) and a Sunday big band matinee. Fri 3/15-Sun 3/17
Read more picks by Anastasia Pantsios here
WED 3/13
Francis Poulenc’s powerful opera Dialogues of the Carmelites explores the ideas, beliefs, fears and conflicts of a group of nuns facing potential martyrdom on the guillotine during the French Revolution. Oberlin Opera Theater presents four performances of the work, tonight and Fri 3/15-Sun 3/17.
Click here for more events on Wed 3/13
THU 3/14
The annual Maltz Museum Stop the Hate contest invites students in grades 6-12 to submit essays addressing intolerance, injustice & bigotry and how to fight them. The winners are announced tonight at a public event at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Click here for more events on Thu 3/14
FRI 3/15
moCaCleveland unveils its spring shows tonight, including Lee Mingwei’s You Are Not a Stranger, which blends photography, installation and performance. It also unveils a new initiative: to make the museum more open and inclusive, it’s now free to everyone all the time.
Click here for more events on Fri 13/15
SAT 3/16
We’re going to be hearing a lot about the famous Cuyahoga River fire this year, its 50th anniversary. As part of the Cleveland Humanities Festival, Literary Cleveland is hosting a series of readings about the fire, today and tomorrow at the CSU Student Center Ballroom.
Click here for more events on Sat 3/16
SUN 3/17
The St. Patrick’s Day Parade steps off from the corner of E. 18th & Superior at 2:04pm (instead of the usual 1:04) and if the weather, which has ranged from white-out blizzard to balmy shorts-and-tank tops temperatures, is at all decent, half of Cleveland will seemingly be there, bedecked in green and shamrock tchotchkes.
Click here for more events on Sun 3/17
MON 3/18
When Yale went coed in 1969, its singing clubs weren’t open to women – so a group of them started their own. That ensemble, the New Blue of Yale, records and tours in the U.S. and abroad. As they celebrate their 50th anniversary, they make a stop at Nighttown.
Click here for more events on Mon 3/18
TUE 3/19
Tim Richards was a photographer, an insurance guy and a retiree when he participated in a writer’s conference at Cleveland State and became a writer who has penned poetry, prose and plays. He’ll be the guest at this month’s Poetry+ at Lakewood’s Art on Madison.
Click here for more events on Tue 3/19
WED 3/20
The lighthearted 1952 musical film Singin’ in the Rain featured singer/dancer/actor Gene Kelly (who also co-directed) with young Debbie Reynolds as his love interest. It’s the next offering in the Capitol Theatre’s Happy Hour film series, which kicks off with a cocktail party before the screening.
Click here for more events on Wed 3/20
Send your cool events to: Events@CoolCleveland.com
We know these attempts at name changing, while appearing well-meaning, are the tips of the spears of the gentrification of our communities. If we no longer know the names of the communities we live in, then what do we have to protect…
* “Not for Us.” Really? On a number of occasions since the new grocery opened, I’ve heard someone in the community make the absurd statement that the new Dave’s is “not for us.” Really? Then who is it for?…
Read other stories from Mansfield Frazier here
A look back at the last week
Submit your own review or commentary to Events@CoolCleveland.com
THEATER REVIEW: School of Rock @ Playhouse Square by Laura Kennelly
THEATER REVIEW: School of Rock @ Playhouse Square by Roy Berko
Read and comment here: http://www.coolcleveland.com/blog
Catch you on the upbeat,
–Thomas Mulready
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