10.16-10.23.2019 Dark & Fabulous

10.16-10.23.19
Dark & Fabulous

We can embrace our darkness without fear. Our artists will show us how.

We can do better when it comes to representing women in our culture, so the Akron Symphony is focusing on women composers this season with their project Stand Beside Her, recognizing that 2020 is the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment, kicking off this week with British composer Ethel Smyth. Stacy Abrams narrowly lost the recent Georgia governor’s race and has since become an activist for fair elections, and she speaks at the SEUI Local 1999 Hall in AsiaTown this week.

Akron native Neil Zaza is an internet sensation and has millions of followers around the world, so when he brings his One Dark Night… back to the Akron Civic, he’s featuring a few well-known friends and collaborators. Dancing Wheels, the world’s first dance company to work with both “stand up” and “sit-down” dancers, is embarking on a tour to Beijing’s Luminous Festival, then returning to moCa in a few weeks. BOP STOP celebrates 5 years of rebirth with sax player Chris Coles’ Nine Lives Project, which confronts racism. Dark? Maybe. But we tend to look on the brighter side. –Thomas Mulready

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One Dark & Fabulous Night

Twenty seven years ago, guitarist Neil Zaza walked off stage for the last time with his band, and walked into a career as an instrumental rock guitarist that’s taken him to China, South Korea, Taiwan and all over Europe. Last year he treated his hometown, Akron, to One Dark Night…, a Gothic spectacular featuring an orchestra, choir, actors, video, lighting and special effects.

He’s reprising the show this year at the Akron Civic Theatre with most of that – and more. He’s revamped the lights and video, and he’s got new collaborators: Verb Ballets and ex-Judas Priest/Iced Earth vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens. Described as “a terrifying orchestral exploration of all things evil and dark from the world’s greatest composers reimagined,” the show will feature rocked-up arrangements of works by Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Prokofiev and Saint-Saens. Sat 10/19.

Reigning Rock Everywhere

For the past two years each November, music photographers Joe Kleon and Anastasia Pantsios have done a big, one-weekend-only show of their work. This year they’re trying something different with Reigning Rock. The work will be up for a month from Fri 10/18-Fri 11/15 at 78th Street Studios’ Survival Kit Gallery and they’re planning some special events.

On Sun 10/20 in the gallery music manager David Spero will interview Michael Stanley for an oral history taping, and there’ll be a large display of Stanley & MSB photos through the years. And on Sat 10/26, The Classic Metal Show will broadcast from the gallery, where they’ll be interviewing Cleveland metal musicians past and present.

Standing Up for and Beside Women

The Akron Symphony Orchestra has long had a commitment to programing music by underrepresented or unjustly neglected composers. And no group includes more of the latter than women. It’s why they’re focusing on women composers this season in a project called Stand Beside Her.

“What I was noticing, in addition to there being a lot of women composers coming to the floor in our planning 2020, is the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment,” says ASO violinist/development manager Kimia Ghaderi. “So it’s the perfect year to feature more women composers and composers from diverse backgrounds.” It starts this week with 19th/20th century British composer Ethel Smyth, whose The Wreckers’ Overture they’ll play ay at E.J Thomas Hall. Sat 10/19.

Itching for a Fair Fight

No policy issue is more important to a democracy than fair elections. It’s the gateway to all other issues. Gerrymandering has cost Ohioans balanced representation in the legislature and Congress, and voter suppression almost certainly cost Democrat Stacy Abrams the Georgia governor’s race when her opponent, who was running the election, engaged in tactics aimed at preventing African-Americans from voting.

Since that election, Abrams has become an activist on fair elections issues, traveling around the country helping people arm themselves to fight for equal access to the ballot. She’ll be speaking in Cleveland at the SEUI Local 1199 Hall in AsiaTown. Go be inspired to defend voter rights. Sat 10/19.

When Cleveland’s Dancing Wheels was founded in 1980, there wasn’t anything like them – a professional dance company that seamlessly blended “stand-up” and “sit-down” (wheelchair) dancers in unique choreography. Since then, they’ve acquired a reputation for the high quality of their work.

They’ve travelled nationally and now internationally: this coming weekend they’ll perform at Beijing’s Luminous Festival, its first-ever festival to feature disabled artists. Clevelanders will get to learn all about it when they choreograph dances inspired by their experiences after they return home, which they’ll debut in a performance at moCa Cleveland December 12.

The BOP STOP celebrates the 5th anniversary of becoming part of The Music Settlement, with sax player Chris Coles’ Nine Lives Project which confronts racism in the U.S. TMS says it’s in keeping with their mission to show “how music has the power to culturally, morally, and emotionally influence our society in a positive way.” Fri 10/18.

* Michael Stanley will be interviewed live at 78th Street’s Survival Kit Gallery for an oral history taping. Sun 10/20.

* Canton musician couple Marti Jones & Don Dixon play the Kent Stage. Tue 10/22.

* CityMusic Cleveland introduces new music director Amit Peled at its season opening concerts. Thu 10/17-Sun 10/20

* Rock Hall screens local rock & roll movies donated to its archives on “Home Movie Day.” Sat 10/19.

* Apollo’s Fire opens its season with Echoes of Venice from the 17th century. Thu 10/17-Sun 10/20.

* Jazz trumpet player and NE Ohio native Curtis Taylor comes home to the BOP STOP with a new album. Sat 10/19.

WED 10/16
As part of the Cleveland Photo Fest, one of its co-founders, Herb Ascherman, will talk at Cleveland Heights’ Foothill Galleries about the history of photography and how antique processes from the 19th century are being reinterpreted by contemporary photographers.

* The Refresh Collective releases “Project of Shared Humanity” at the BOP STOP.

Click here for more events on Wed 10/16

THU 10/17
This month’s Film Cafe topic at the Music Box is Secrets of Specialty Film Exhibition. Who do you THINK they got to be the speaker? Of course, it’s John Ewing, who founded the CIA Cinematheque, which he still programs, along with curating films at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

* Artist Dana Oldfather talks at YSU’s McDonough Museum about her current show there.

* Three veteran local musicians share their songs at J. Pistone in Shaker Heights.

* Solve a murder mystery at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Think & Drink with the Extinct.

* Terrestrial Brewing hosts “Consume and Conserve” event to protect the spotted turtle.

Click here for more events on Thu 10/17

FRI 10/18
Lakewood’s Screw Factory is still an industrial building on the ground floor, but its upper floors are filled with artist studios. Today and tomorrow they hold an open house featuring more than 50 artists and makers, both residential and visiting.

* Cleveland Burlesque holds two horror-themed shows this weekend, tonight at the Alex at the 9 and tomorrow at the Beachland Ballroom.

* Grateful Dead fans gather for Networking Is Dead event with The Garcia Project at the Music Box.

* NO EXIT New Music explores electronic music at Appletree Books.

* Summit County’s Magic Theatre Company mounts beloved children’s story Harriet the Spy, through Sun 10/27.

* Cleveland Guitar Trio mixes jazz, folk, pop and classical at the Stocker Center tonight & tomorrow and Nighttown on Sunday.

* Dobama midwest premiere Wakey, Wakey urges appreciation of life. Through Sun 11/10.

* Akron rapper Floco Torres talks about Flow at Creative Mornings CLE at the 5th Street Arcade.

* Convergence-continuum production looks at young gay urban romance, through Sat 11/9.

Click here for more events on Fri 10/18

SAT 10/19
Need a kick in the butt to get started on that writing project you keep postponing? Literary Cleveland is hosting a Write-a-Thon at the Cleveland Public Library where you can sit in a room for up to seven hours, with coffee and people offering encouragement.

* Dogs are on the march – in costume – at Lakewood’s Spooky Pooch Parade.

* Learn to plant and care for trees at Mitchell’s ice cream in Strongsville.

* Meet celebrity cat Lil BUB at Tails from the City fundraiser in Rocky River.

* Talespinner Children’s Theatre hosts its annual Harlequinade benefit.

* Honor Slavic Village’s heritage at the Fleet Avenue Kielbasa Cookout.

* Burning River Baroque’s Cleveland Heights concert features 17th-century mad songs.

Click here for more events on Sat 10/19

SUN 10/20
Seems like everyone is jumping on the vegetarian thing. So the Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds is hosting VegBash with local caterers and food trucks serving vegetarian & vegan food, plus music, kids’ activities and a “cruelty-free” bazaar with more than 100 vendors.

* Local comedian Jerry Jaffe will rant about science and religion at 78th Street Studios.

* The Countryside Public Market in Akron’s Northside Marketplace celebrates its first anniversary.

* Circle the City With Love returns to Public Square to spread positive vibrations.

* See where food comes from at Wholesome Valley Farm Fall Feast & Farm tour.

Click here for more events on Sun 10/20

MON 10/21
Michigan author Caitlin Horrocks’ novel The Vexations takes known facts about the life of French fin de siecle composer Erik Satie and imagines a narrative behind them. She’ll talk about the book at Mac’s Backs on Coventry, where one of Satie’s pieces will be played live.

* Jazz organist Brian Charette performs new electronics-enhanced music and hosts a jam session at the BOP STOP.

Click here for more events on Mon 10/21

TUE 10/22
Mushrooms are fascinating to some and repellent to others, objects of myth and fairytale. The movie Fabulous Fungi, which screens at the Capitol Theatre, reveals how they’re beneficial to our health and our ecosystem. Mushroom experts will host a discussion afterward.

* Jerusalem String Quartet plays music by Mozart, Korngold & Shostakovich in Shaker Heights.

* Maelstrom Collaborative Arts recreates Dante’s Inferno in a Gordon Square Warehouse, through Sun 10/27.

* Learn how to be an advocate for the arts at the Scranton Road library.

Click here for more events on Tue 10/22

WED 10/23
From 1969-1973, music manager/producer Michael Friedman photographed such stars as Janis Joplin and the Rolling Stones – and rediscovered the negatives after 40 years. He’ll open a show of his work at the Rock Hall tonight and host a Q&A there.

* Funky Winkerbean artist Tom Batiuk tells his Cleveland stories at the Music Box.

* The Thirteen Choir brings music across the ages to St. John’s Cathedral.

Click here for more events on Wed 10/23

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Who Killed Joshua Brown?

Controversy is in the making in Dallas and it will never be settled. Decades from now people will still be debating it, similar to the Kennedy assassination. The killing of Joshua Brown is turning into a conspiracy theorist’s dream since some people are never going to believe the “official” police version…

* I’m Glad I was Wrong in the case of Joshua Brown, who testified in the Botham Jean/Amber Guyger murder trial only to end up dead two days later, I, like many other people, quickly speculated that someone on the Dallas police force, or dark forces connected to it, had a hand in the killing. It’s now come out that the killing of Brown was merely a drug deal gone wrong…

* The Time for Vigilance Is Now For the last six years, I’ve been verbally locking horns with right-wingers of every ilk and stripe on my radio show. But after tRump was elected all kinds of disgusting and creepy characters slithered from under the rocks…

Read other stories from Mansfield Frazier here