Sara Edwards didn’t hesitate when she allowed her only child to accompany his father to visit relatives in Turkey. She had no idea that her husband, from whom she is separated, would tell her after he left that she would never see her son again. Edwards and her husband had only been separated for about three months and had worked out an equitable shared parenting arrangement. “There just weren’t any trust issues,” said Edwards. Then, in March of 2010, Mohammed Kiraz, Eli’s father, abducted 18-month-old Eli. Kiraz told Edwards after two weeks into the trip that he had already ob...
The bright, three-story painting of a tree on an exterior wall piqued my interest, drawing me into the old Norka Futon building on West Market in Akron. There I met Karen Starr, a cheerful, well-spoken woman and half the business team behind Hazel Tree Interiors. Starr, a designer, works with her husband, Jon Haidet, a certified picture framer. Open since last July, Hazel Tree has since attracted national attention, including a recent profile, “Reclaimed Art and Design”, on Apartment Therapy (apartmenttherapy.com). “I fancy myself as an interior re-designer,” said Starr. “We rethi...
The Walking Clampetts Eavesdropping on a recent conversation I had with Mike Hammer of the Walking Clampetts, you couldn’t help but hear the passion he has for music in his voice. A longtime drummer, Hammer played with Akron’s legendary Rubber City Rebels and Hammer Damage bands, and will appear at the Tangier on April 16 as part of The Walking Clampetts. The Clampetts are sharing a bill with the High Plains Drifters and the TwistOffs in the Rubber City Rumble II, sponsored by Buzzbin Magazine. Performing since the 1980s, the Walking Clampetts largely perform covers of British Invasi...
Brawls, a would-be stripper, extramarital affairs, a transsexual, a diaper-wearing man, rednecks, profanity, Jesus, Mary, God, Satan and a group of tap-dancing Klansmen — “Jerry Springer: The Opera” has it all. The production, running through March 27 at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood, isn’t for children, nor is it for the easily offended. In fact, about 150 protesters upset by the show’s crude content showed up at the opening performance, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The protestors’ main complaint was what they called the blasphemous nature of the producti...
By Anne M. Snyder The Red Light is located upstairs from the Northside Bar and Grille, in the same block as Luigi’s. Other galleries and studios line the district, which is also home to Chrissie Hynde’s Vegiterranean restaurant. It’s curated by Bernadette Glorioso, assisted by photographer Jody Hawk. In addition to managing the gallery, Glorioso and Hawk are artists in their own right. Hawk, who specializes in urban landscape photography and teaches at the University of Akron, recently held a showing of her work, “Auto Evolution”, at the Kent State University Trumbu...
“Who Shot Rock & Roll?”, currently showing at the Akron Art Museum, answers the question for both fans of rock music and for those who appreciate photography. (The exhibit opened October 23, 2010 and runs through January 23, 2011.) This is the first major exhibition to highlight photographers’ contributions to a musical genre that is as much about image, as it is about music. The exhibit spanning the years of 1955 to the present, covers photographs from the time of Elvis to the present. The exhibit, organized by the Brooklyn Museum of Art and guest curator Gail Buckland, chr...
