08.29-09.05.2018 Fantasy

08.29-09.05.18
Fantasy

What if it was all a dream? Except, no, we’ve got the evidence.

The Phantasy may be closing. Or maybe not. The King of Pop’s gone for sure, but the Rock Hall’s still gonna party. Summer is just about over, but Larchmere’s sidewalk sale welcomes the fall. Arts in August is over and done, after one more evening of indie pop in Tremont.

Kids aren’t supposed to make a mess. Except when they are, like this weekend at the AAM. Blue Lunch isn’t exactly jazz, but they fit in just fine at BOP STOP. Parma is host to both the Slovak Festival and the Hungarian Scout Festival.

You’re not dreaming. The Women’s Air and Space Museum celebrates two decades, the Made in Ohio Art & Craft Festival returns to Hale Farm, and Cleveland Culinaria brings together chefs and artists. And now it’s time to register so you can vote in the November election. Just like in your wildest fantasy. –Thomas Mulready

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Photo by Thomas Mulready
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Are You Registered To Vote in the November Election?

Only 70 days until the election! So your first order of business is to check if you are registered to vote. The recent Ohio Supreme Court ruling states that you could need to register again if you haven’t voted in 2 general elections. Check if you are registered at the official Secretary of State page here.

If you are NOT registered, then register to vote at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections site here, or at a local voter registration location on that page.

Then, you can get training to be a volunteer to help your neighbors register to vote. For example, there’s a training session this Fri 8/31 at Cleveland State University hosted by the non-profit Northeast Ohio Voter Advocates (NOVA). Other volunteer training sessions can be found on this handy calendar. Get registered, then get active.

Come to an Art/Food Feast

Two years ago Heights Arts mounted At Table: Cleveland Culinaria. It put together teams of artists and chefs to create dining areas/place settings around themes. The show was such a huge success – the biggest draw in the organization’s history – so it’s doing it again with new teams of creatives.

Not only is it installing four themed areas that visitors can see at the gallery, it will host an evening/dinner around each on Sundays in September and October. “Cooking is an art, and it’s just sort of translating that into the visual arts,” says Heights Arts’ executive director Rachel Bernstein. “The artist working with somebody who is not really a curator, but is acting as the curator, can be inspiring to them to see how food applies to everybody.” Fri 8/31.

SPONSORED: HURRY! Content Marketing World is next week! Is your FOMO kicking in yet? #CMWorld would love to see you there. Learn from some of the brightest in the business, including many from right here in Northeast Ohio. Don’t forget: code COOLCLE saves $100 – so register today!

Time to Say Goodbye

In its 40 years as a Cleveland venue, the Phantasy complex (the Phantasy Nite Club, the Phantasy Theatre, the Symposium, the Chamber) has been a local stronghold for many music scenes: punk, college/alternative rock, metal, industrial, goth and electronic music among others. It hosted big-name acts from Iggy Pop to, um, Loverboy.

Most famously, it was the site of Nine Inch Nails’ first-ever gig. With a closing show this weekend featuring two bands that played there in the 80s, the Floyd Band and Death of Samantha, Michele De Frasia, co-owner of the family business reflects on what it all meant. Sun 9/2.

Behind The Beatles’ Revolver and The White Album

You may know Thomas Mulready as the publisher of CoolCleveland. He’s also become known for his assiduously researched and highly entertaining presentations on artists such as David Bowie. Now he turns his focus on two of the supreme works of the most celebrated band of all time: The Beatles and their albums Revolver on Fri 9/21 and The Beatles (known as The White Album) on Sat 9/22.

Get your tickets now as these shows are sure to sell out in the intimate and comfortable BOP STOP. Revolver is rapidly overtaking Sgt. Pepper as the critics’ choice for best Beatles album of all time. And The White Album tops most lists of the best double album ever. Learn the backstories, their innovations in the recording studio, the cultural context, the drugs they experimented with, and their personal anecdotes as Mulready presents rare video, needle drops, trivia and fun contests. Both shows feature a blistering live music set by Vanity Crash featuring a couple Beatles tunes and their own original material. Don’t miss out!

Old Things Made New

Aspiring theatrical director/producer Miles Sternfeld has New York-sized dreams for Cleveland. Only five years out of Orange High School, the 23-year-old has worked on Broadway but he’s also founded a group called the Cleveland Musical Theatre, a nonprofit professional company to produce new and/or re-imagined productions with emerging talent.

Next up for the fledgling company is a reworking of the “musical drama” Jane Eyre, which had a short NY run in 2000. It debuts at Tri-C East’s Mandel Center this week, and Sternfeld hopes it has more lives – perhaps a commercial production or streaming. “We have lots of ideas,” he says. Fri 8/31-Sun 9/9.

Turn Your Event into an Artistic Experience

Your job as an event producer is a tough one. Catering, entertainment, the venue, and a million and one details. But what will your guests remember, and talk about the next day? Inlet Dance Theatre specializes in creating stunning, memorable event experiences for corporate and non-profit clients.

That’s why everyone from Progressive Insurance to the Cleveland Clinic to the Cleveland Museum of Art has called on Inlet to create magic at their private parties, corporate events and civic engagements. Year after year.

See how they do it in their new video, and talk with Inlet’s Event Services team today. Then book them for your upcoming holiday or corporate event before someone else does. More info.

Get Messy!

Let your kids soak up some art in the galleries and then take that inspiration back to the museum’s studio to make their own art at a pair of workshops – one for toddlers, one for kids 6-10 – at the Akron Art Museum. Sat 9/1.

* Talespinner Children’s Theatre is known for the puppets that are part of its colorful multi-disciplinary, multi-media productions. Kids, adults and families can learn how they do it and make their own at SPACES Gallery. Sun 9/2.

Click here for more CoolCleveland Kids events

Local reggae pioneer Dave Smeltz succumbed to addiction for many years before getting clean 15 years ago. When he did, he dreamed of helping others on the path to recovery and founded Clean House. He’ll debut his new ensemble tonight at the Grog Shop, at a benefit for Clean House. Sun 9/2

* Cleveland’s underground music scene is celebrated in pictures by two photographers at Doubting Thomas Gallery. Sat 9/1.

* Tremont Arts in August series in Lincoln Park closes with a night of indie pop/rock from three local bands. Fri 8/31.

* The monthly noise lunch at Now That’s Class is dedicated to “Music for Plants.” Sun 9/2.

* Blue Lunch rocks the BOP STOP with special guest, blues/soul vocalist/guitarist Billy Seward. Fri 8/31.

Read more of CoolCleveland’s picks for Cool Events.

WED 8/29
Thirty-five years ago you could’t step out of your house without hearing music from Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the all-time megahit by one of music’s all-time wunderkinds. He’d be 60 today if he hadn’t died in 2009. The Rock Hall is celebrating with a Thriller-themed party on the plaza. Expect zombies.

* Miranda Dawn and Chris Hawkes, a folk-infused acoustic duo from Austin, Texas, play at Oberlin’s Riverdog Barn. Also tomorrow.

* Colombian-American band M.A.K.U. performs a City Stages show at the Glenville Arts campus.

* Summer’s flying away! Catch a midweek break outdoors on the piazza at Gervasi’s Vineyard with food, drink and live music.

Click here for more events on Wed 8/29

THU 8/30
The Geauga County Fair adds the word “great” to its name, and it IS pretty great. If you’re not into fair stuff like prize-winning pumpkins there’s plenty else going on: music, rides, demolition derbies, pig racing, dogs doing tricks and raccoons stealing stuff. Through Mon 9/3.

* Dawg Pounded (the play) caters to football fans at Vosh. Through Thu 10/18.

Click here for more events on Thu 8/30

FRI 8/31
Blank Canvas Theatre has done some amazing work on its tiny stage in 78th Street Studios, performing musicals such as Sideshow (pictured). Tonight and tomorrow it’ll be doing a concert-style performance of Jekyll and Hyde as a benefit for itself, with a pre-show reception each night.

* The Cleveland Orchestra accompanies Star Wars at Blossom Music Center, through Sun 9/2.

* Do some outdoor yoga to kick off the Rock Hall’s Believe in CLE party.

* Corks on the Concourse celebrates 20 years of the International Women’s Air and Space Museum at Burke Airport.

* Hale Farm’s Made in Ohio Art & Craft show is a picturesque way to shop local. Through Sun 9/2.

Click here for more events on Fri 8/31

SAT 9/1
With fall coming on, you might be in the mood for something new – to wear, to look at, to decorate your house. Get it at a bargain at Larchmere Boulevard’s Labor Day sidewalk sale, featuring intriguing finds from the street’s unique boutiques.

* With the Phantasy (possibly) closing after this weekend, those who have played there are saying farewell with the Tap Dance Killer Cabaret in the Symposium tonight and a final dance party with DJs Dark Nave and Cable in the Chamber tomorrow.

Click here for more events on Sat 9/1

SUN 9/2
Hudson’s First and Main shopping district is bustling today and tomorrow when the Taste of Hudson fills it with food trucks and stands by local restaurateurs, crafts and other vendors, live music, magic shows and costumed superhero figures for the kids to pose with.

* Slovaks celebrate their heritage at St. Anthony of Padua in Parma.

* And just up the road, at Parma’s German Central Park, the Hungarians will be celebrating their at the Hungarian Scout Festival.

Click here for more events on Sun 9/2

MON 9/3
The annual Labor Day parade started 47 years ago by Congressman Louis Stokes is still going strong, now under the auspices of his successor Marcia Fudge. After the massive parade wends its way down Kinsman, people gather in Luke Easter Park to picnic, shop vendors, and enjoy entertainment including a face-off by the area’s top high school bands. Also, folks from the Board of Elections will be there and you can register to vote.

* Celebrate the holiday on the dance floor at St. Sava’s Picnic Grove in Parma at the Cleveland Polka Association party.

Click here for more events on Mon 9/3

WED 9/5
Cleveland writer Chris Johnston has penned a fact- and proposal-loaded book about how to make medical and law enforcement bureaucracies more open to victims of sexual assault. Florida creative writing profession Terri Witek (pictured) has tackled the same subject – in poetry. Both will be speaking at the CH-UH Heights Library’s Coventry Road branch.

* Photographer Danny Lyon taks about his life and work at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Click here for more events on Wed 9/5

Send your cool events to: Events@CoolCleveland.com

Prison Strike

American prisons do two things exceedingly well: They warehouse humans like cordwood due to overcrowding, and they manage to stay out of the public eye and consciousness…

* Doing the Perp Walk It’s interesting that the argot of the underworld is now being used by the occupier of the White House and his bumbling mouthpiece Rudy Giuliani as they describe the cast of characters…

* Good Riddance to Silent Sam The bronze statue of “Silent Sam,” a young Confederate soldier carrying a rifle while facing north as if preparing to defend the South against that despicable invading horde…

Read other stories from Mansfield Frazier here

Don’t Be Like the King and Queen of Soul – Make a Will

Amidst all the tributes that accompanied Aretha Franklin’s recent passing (even Trump managed to say something, awkwardly), few noticed among the news stories the fact that she didn’t have a will. Our columnist Ellen Connally, who is a lawyer, points out that while this may not be complicated in her case, since she left four children, settling the estate will incur increased costs.

But in the case of someone like King of Soul James Brown, who died in 2006, it was more complicated. With three ex-wives, a woman he may or may not have been married to when he died, nine children and someone claiming to be his child, his fortune dwindled as they fought it out. Prince, Picasso, MLK and even President Lincoln died without wills. They may have all had admirable traits but don’t copy this one!