First, enjoy our copious access to fresh water this week, whether you experience Collision Bend’s Riverfest or the Water Lantern Festival on Berea’s Coe Lake, or the Cleveland Blues Society’s annual Blues Cruise on the Goodtime III.Learn a lot about our region’s rock and roll legacy by visiting the Rock Hall’s new show on the World Series of Rock, taking a closer look at late local rocker Johnny Dromette at a celebration of life taking place at the Beachland, and enjoying the AIDS Task Force of Greater Cleveland’s benefit at Near West Theatre featuring a performance of The Beverly Hillbillies, The Musical.
Or soak up the torrent of interesting and enlightening events like celebrating LGBTQ+ culture at Akron Pride (catch Vanity Crash on Saturday!), or breathing deeply at Shaker Square’s Garlic Festival, or learning more about the anti-gerrymandering Issue 1 (vote YES!) at a Happy Dog talk with organizers, or stretching your legs at the 10th annual Cleveland Fundo, offering camaraderie for cyclists and a much-needed fundraiser for Bike Cleveland.
Finally, maybe we have a little too much political corruption, as CoolCleveland’s Anastasia Pantsios details how Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is trying to influence the upcoming anti-gerrymandering Issue 1 (vote YES!), and CoolCleveland columnist C. Ellen Connally asks why former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora is sentenced to 28 years in the federal penitentiary and Speaker of the Ohio House Larry Householder is convicted of accepting bribes from First Energy, while U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas gets a pass while admitting that he accepts gifts to supplement his meager $274,009 annual salary. They must be under the illusion that Ohio voters suffer from an abundance of stupidity. Maybe it would help to vote YES on Issue 1 in November to stop gerrymandering in Ohio.
Single event tickets are on sale now for the William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage series at the Maltz Performing Arts Center. Authors coming to the 2024-2025 season include Bridgerton creator Julia Quinn, filmmaker/author Miranda July (All Fours), Dr. Abraham Verghese (Cutting for Stone, The Covenant of Water), Shelby Van Pelt (Remarkably Bright Creatures), Tommy Orange (There, There), Kaveh Akbar (Martyr!) and Erik Larson (Devil in the White City, Demon of Unrest).
Presented by the Cuyahoga County Public Library Foundation and its academic partner Case Western Reserve University. Read more.
One of Cleveland-based The Musical Theater Project’s signature events is its The Song Is You! series, in which it tackles different thematic aspects of the Broadway musical with live performances, narrative, images and film clips. it will open its season Sat 8/24 and Sun 8/25 at the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre with Great 21st Century Musicals, a sampling and celebration brand-new musicals.
Co-host and program author Sheri Gross calls it “a glance back at some new works from composers that have been covered before and fit into the timing.” Gross and musical director Nancy Maier chose songs from such contemporary musicians as Tony Award-winning The Outsiders, Water for Elephants, Suffs, The Notebook, and The Days of Wine and Roses, as well as Merrily We Roll Along, Come From Away, The Producers and Wicked.Read more.
Violin and viola students at the Strongsville School for Strings learn to share in the joyful music making experience. More, their approach empowers students with essential life skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, time management, leadership, perseverance, poise, creativity, respectful communication, and teamwork.
The artist faculty, Carol Ross and Dr. Julian Ross, are among our region’s most experienced educators. Both have taught students from beginning to collegiate levels and beyond.
Fall registration has already begun for Suzuki and traditional lessons as well as for chamber ensembles. Empower your student to experience the joy of making music. Contact CarolRoss@StrongsvilleStrings.com and read more here.
Desperate people do desperate things. And right now, the Republicans in Columbus, led by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, are desperate. They’re desperate to hold onto their illegitimate, outsized power, seized by increasingly extreme gerrymandering each decade since the 1990s. After Ohioans collected a record number of signatures for the Citizens Not Politicians anti-gerrymandering issue earlier this year and it was certified for this November’a ballot, LaRose, supposedly the administrator of nonpartisan Ohio elections, had a meltdown, complete with MAGA slogan-spewing.
Now he’s done just what we predicted he’d do: the language he wrote to go on the ballot is packed with lies, distortions and confusing statements. It’s basically an argument urging a “no” vote. Of course it was approved by the GOP-majority state ballot board, but it’s so outrageously misleading that a legal challenge was almost immediately filed. Whatever ends up on the ballot: vote YES on Issue 1 for Citizens Not Politicians to undo Ohio’s one-party rule. Read more.
Cleveland, brace yourselves for a mouthwatering celebration of tacos, music and family fun as the highly anticipated Cleveland Taco Festival launches at Jacobs Pavilion Fri 8/30 – Sun 9/2!
Featuring more than 30 of the finest taquerias, taco trucks and other eateries, this culinary adventure doesn’t stop there: enjoy hours of action-packed entertainment, including Lucha Libre Wrestling, hot sauce and taco eating competitions, a family-friendly Kids Zone, and live music all day on two stages, featuring some of the best local bands like Apostle Jones, LoConti, Da Land Brass Band, Lilieae, and much more. See the full lineup, watch the cool video, and get your tickets here.
In June we received the heartbreaking news that Cleveland artist/educator Tina Cassara passed away at age 75 a few months after suffering a traumatic head injury. She was married to filmmaker/photographer/journalist Bruce Checefsky who writes about arts and culture for CoolCleveland.com. Tina was known for her distinctive textile-based work, her explorations of the American labor movement, the inspiration and encouragement she provided her students at Cleveland Institute of Art where she taught for almost four decades, her activism and idealism. Praxis Fiber Workshop will host a memorial event Sun 8/25. Read more.
John Thompson aka Johnny Dromette emerged on the local punk/underground scene in the mid ’70s and became its greatest champion, promoting scene legends such as Pere Ubu and the Pagans. His Drome record stores at three locations were hubs for the scene; he also put on events and was a talented graphic artist and photographer who helped the bands shape their images. He passed away in July at age 72; the Beachland will be hosting a memorial event in his honor Sun 8/25. Read more.
TUE 8/27 Making Ohio Fair Again
After opposing the 2021 extreme partisan gerrymander, retired Ohio Supreme Court Justice Maureen O’Connor led the reform issue, which will be on the ballot in November. She’s part of a panel that will discuss it at the Happy Dog tonight.* Learn to plant an herb garden at the Parma Powers Library.
WED 8/28 Al Fresco Sounds
Gigs on the Green at Public Square offers a free concert by one of the area’s most interesting bands, Alla Boara. The group, featuring some of the area’s top jazz musicians, plays jazzy interpretations of traditional Italian folk songs.
In 1973, 18-year-old Jimmy Dimora landed his first job at the Bedford Heights waste-water treatment plant. Urban legend has it that the youthful Dimora literally fell into a pile of fecal matter on one of his first days at work. When he complained to his bosses, they told him “Tough shit — do your job, kid.” Dimora was so outraged that he decided to run for office so that he could be the boss someday.
In 2012, Dimora was convicted of 32 charges including racketeering, bribery, conspiracy and tax charges and sentenced to 28 years in the federal penitentiary. On the Republican side, Speaker of the Ohio House Larry Householder was convicted in 2023 of racketeering after a jury found he was part of a $60 million bribery scheme to pass legislation favorable to First Energy.
Dimora and Householder have the same thing in common. Juries found that they received money and gifts they only got because they held a political office. Had Dimora still been working at the waste treatment plant or had Householder still been an insurance agent, his job before he sought political office, none of the fat cats who lavished gifts upon them would have given them the time of day. For their sins they went to jail. That’s how it works in our system. That is, unless your name happens to be Clarence Thomas. Read more from C. Ellen Connally.
