The Week Ahead: 9/27-10/3 (CB Moving Week Edition)

So much going on this week and next, and yours truly has been bailing and will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable short term future. This week has been packing week and next week is moving week (as well as switching utilities, having old and new homes cleaned, and throwing out my back carrying heavy book boxes week). So, in other words, all the cool stuff you see mentioned below will likely not be attended by me. For those of you hoping for an anonymous CB sighting, I'm sorry. That just isn't going to happen this week. For those of you who have similar cultural tastes as I do, but avoid me like the plague (hey, it happens), you can feel secure in the knowledge that you'll be able to check all this cool stuff out without worrying about me mouth-breathing and judging you. So there's that.

Sunday, 9/27 - For a Sunday, you got a bunch of good choices. Obviously, the afternoon default choice is to watch the Browns play the Ravens at 1. If you can't take that after an hour, though, you can get your high culture fix by catching screenings of either The End of the Line (1:30 PM) at the Cleveland Museum of Art or Director Robert Dornhelm's filmic recreation of Puccini's famous opera La Boheme (2:PM) at the Cedar-Lee.





Whatever you do during the day, be sure you remain seated as much as possible, conserving energy for the sheer rockage you are in store for Sunday night at the Beachland Ballroom. Seminal yet forgotten African-American proto-punk band Death has reunited the living members and gone on tour in support of the 2009 release of a long-lost album recorded in the 1970s. These guys are getting freak-out level endorsements from the highest places, including a swooning Jack White and Mos Def (the latter of which recently announced plans to make a film about the Detroit/Vermont band), so prepare yourself for the nice kind of shock and awe. Better yet, local ass-kickers This Moment in Black History will be opening. This show is gonna rule. (Check out this NYT article for a little background on Death - if your eardrums could salivate, they'd be doing so after you read that piece.)

Monday, 9/28 - Go to the Indians game. I have it on good authority this is the only game they will win between now and the end of the season. You want to see that, right?

Tuesday, 9/29 - CSU's Schwartz Library is hosting a Banned Books event to coincide with Banned Book Week. Expect liberals and, well, literates to be there celebrating cultural victories over the knee-jerk right-wing mom squads while republicans and philistines scour the shelves for the latest nominees for the burning pile, uh, I mean, banned book list.

Wednesday, 9/30 - A couple good shows and they are both at the Beachland. In the ballroom, you'll find Brazilian psych-pop big boys Os Mutantes, while on the Tavern side you'll be treated to Amazing Baby and The Entrance Band. Tough choice, but I'm confident you'll make the right decision for you.



Thursday, 10/1 - Four good options tonight - let's go after them bullet style:
* Chicago conscious rapper Common appears at the House of Blues (Get there early and hit up the happy hour first!)
* Poets Mark Doty and Paul Lisicky present their work at CSU thanks to the university's Poetry Center
* Last chance to see Dead Snow at the Cedar-Lee. Please don't be the kind of person to pass up an opportunity to see a zombie Nazi flick.
* The Windmill Movie screens at the CIA Cinematheque



Friday, 10/2 - The undisputed highlight of this evening is theWoven Hand at Akron Musica. David Eugene Edwards didn't just drink the Jesus Juice, he turned it into Fire-Breathing Almighty God Whiskey and drank the whole barrel. This guy is about the only religious musician I can stomach, other than perhaps Daniel Smith (certainly not that Sufjan Stevens dip). These dudes RARELY tour the US, so miss this at your peril. Even if you haven't a clue about the band, check it out - this absolutely merits a road trip to Akron. Think old-world rock as conceptualized by Jonathan Edwards. We're all going to hell right after an angry Old Testament god kicks the shit out of us, and in the meantime, lets get dark and nasty and frightful as David Eugene and his pals rip up the stage. This shit will leave you with goose bumps, I promise.



If that doesn't get your blood pumping, there are a couple good gallery openings to feast your eyes upon. William Rupnik Gallery presents the work of John Ryan, one of my favorite artists in the region, while the Annex at Shoparooni presents a hype-worthy exhibit featuring Johnny Yanok.


Saturday, 10/3 - I'm not much for short story fiction, but when I'm in the mood, the first writer to come to mind is Etgar Keret. OK, not the first - that's probably Flannery O'Connor and sometimes even Raymond Carver (and, once in a blue moon, Herman Mellville), but Keret is the one I usually end up picking up. The author of wonderful collections like The Nimrod Flip-out (so, so good) and The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God, the Israeli writer is fast becoming best known for the inspired films others have created from his written work. For example, 2007's insanely delightful Wristcutters: A Love Story came from his work, and now we are treated, courtesy of the CIA Cinematheque, to two screenings of the latest Keret adaptation, $9.99. You simply gotta check out the trailer below - it is, in a word, wonderful. (Check out a recent NYT review here.)



Other stuff to keep your eye on the following week:

- 10/5 - Yo La Tengo @ Beachland
- 10/6 - Mofro @ Beachland
- 10/7 - Loren Cass screens at the Cleveland Museum of Art
- 10/8 - Japandroids @ Now That's Class
- 10/9 - BB King @ House of Blues
- 10/9 - Noel Quintana and the Latin Crew @ CSU
- 10/10 - Birthday Party @ Shoparooni!
- 10/10 - Kurt Vile @ Oberlin
- 10/10 - OU graduate program exhibit @ Asterisk Gallery
- 10/10 - Low Life Gallery Spooktacular exhibit opening
- 10/11 - Asobi Seksu/Loney Dear/Anna Ternheim @ Grog Shop
- 10/11 - Black Angels/Disappears/Pierced Arrows @ Beachland