Documentary films are supposedly objective looks at a topic, a controversy, an event, a social phenomenon—but that doesn’t mean they can’t have a hero. Watching Andrew Rossi’s “Page One: Inside the New York Times,” the hero emerges in the grizzled persona of David Carr, a media and culture columnist for the Times. Carr is a former cocaine addict whose wry, almost shamanistic commentary on his colleagues, his paper and his entire profession nearly derails the focus of the documentarians, who often seem more interested in him than in the story of the Times. Ultimately, however, Carr ...
When I first saw the trailer for “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” this summer’s reboot of the late 1960s franchise, I thought, “Who’s that actor who looks so much like James Franco?” After all, surely Franco, whose acting chops appear critically acclaimed films like “Milk” and “127 Hours,” would scoff at leading this flick, a pretty silly premise taken from a pretty hokey movie, artificially inflated with pretty excessive digital effects. Franco is getting a PhD from Yale, people. This is a man who acted in a movie about cutting his own arm off. This is a man who once atte...
If your idea of dinner doesn’t involve much more than scissors, a plastic packet of powder and instructions on the back of a box of Easy Mac, this is the cooking site for you. No close-up photos of some glossy berry-topped custard or directions on how to baste your 168-hour braised pork roast. No demands for ingredients like crème fraiche or julienned kohlrabi. Just you, your pathetic fridge and Supercook.com, where you can enter whatever ingredients you have on hand (beer, mustard, more beer) and the site will generate idiot-proof recipes using those items. You can even arrange for the ge...
8/5 Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest (Cedar Lee & Akron Civic) Veteran actor Michael Rapaport (“True Romance”) takes a turn behind the camera in this documentary focusing on New York hip-hop legends A Tribe Called Quest. With footage of interviews and their headlining performances at the 2008 Rock the Bells festival, Rapaport traces their journey from Queens to stardom and their fourth, ambitious album, “Beats, Rhymes & Life,” which hit number one on the Billboard 200 in 1996. Terri (Cedar Lee) This indie dramedy debuted at Sundance, whe...
When Stephen McNulty, curator at the Joseph Saxton Gallery of Photography in Canton and an accomplished conservation photographer in his own right, enrolled in New Zealand’s University of Canterbury to study biology last February, he was hoping for an earth-shattering educational and cultural experience. Then, when a 6.3-magnitude earthquake devastated Christchurch, the university’s city, two days into the classes, that expectation became chillingly literal. “I got in on Thursday, Monday I paid a ridiculous amount for tuition, on Tuesday went to one class and the earthquake hit,...
With much fanfare, beer and glitter, the Massillon Art Battle drew to a close on Saturday, July 30, as Michael Skaggs bested Bili Kribbs in the final fight of the months-long event. Like previous battles, this one drew a huge crowd to Bender’s in downtown Massillon — a sign that this may be the beginning of an annual affair. The hour-long battle on Saturday was presided over by the biggest celebrity judge to date: Honorable Judge Edward Elum of the Massillon municipal court. The judge, alongside the two regular judges, determined the theme for the night’s battle: law and order. Ult...
After months of battle, dozens of brushes and gallons of beer, the Massillon Art Battle will culminate in a final fight this Saturday, July 30 at Bender’s in downtown Massillon. The final pair of contestants, Bili Kribbs and Mike Skaggs, each defeated two other artists during preliminary and semifinal rounds, leaving them to duke it out for the victory. (A promotional video for the final was posted on YouTube, can be found here.) Initiated by local artist (and Buzzbin cartoonist) Ryan Lynn, the art battle challenged pairs of area artists to create a piece of art on the spot in one hour. E...
There are a few reasons why you might decide to move hundreds of miles away from home — a job change, enrollment in school, a newly serious relationship. But ask guitarist Colin John what drew him to Hawaii’s Big Island, and it’s a little less conventional. “I ended up in Hawaii because I love the slide guitar, actually,” he said when we caught up with him during a current spate of appearances in the area. Still, the reasoning is pretty characteristic of John, a Northeast Ohio native whose fascination with a sundry mix of musical genres has taken him all over the world. He m...
Yes, this is a totally indulgent exercise in ego — and we love it. When you visit Intel’s Museum of Me page (intel.com/museumofme/r/index.htm), you can connect the site to your Facebook page and allow it to access your information. Then, the site uses those photos, status updates, videos and more to create a video tour through the galleries and exhibitions of your virtual life. It’s a visual interpretation of your social network, complete with friends, video clips, satellite maps, photo collages and fun, simple Matrixy effects. Oprah is leaving! For those of you who had no idea that t...
We round up the best places for vintage produce and fresh furniture Forget the Goodwill and the Wal-Mart grocery aisle: When it’s summertime, everything — even bargain-hunting — needs to happen outside. Here are our picks for great area flea markets for deal hounds, as well as our favorite farmers markets for fresh locally grown or produced foods. Hartville MarketPlace & Flea Market Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. 1289 Edison St. NW • Hartville www.hartvillemarketplace.com The marketplace is the indoor area of this shoppers’ bonanza; the flea m...
Wanna be the next Errol Morris? Think you’d like to be a (less obnoxious, please) new generation’s Michael Moore? Opportunity is knocking: The Canton Film Festival has issued a call for submissions for their 2011 event, to be held October 13-15 at the Canton Palace Theatre. The festival will screen short films from independent directors across the country in addition to hosting several guests. Filmmaker Bill Schotten, whose Hubbard, Ohio-based production company was responsible for indie horror flicks like “Bloodlock” and “Silver Cell,” will screen one of his screamers; Megan Aref...
When I meet Push, the anonymous Canton-based street artist whose vivid graphic designs pepper Northeast Ohio, he’s wearing a shirt with the slogan “Built for Destruction.” The phrase is a little ironic on an artist best known for his deliberately non-destructive art: In the fall of 2008, Push entered the street-art scene with designs on some spare vinyl material, which he cut to the size of luggage tags and zip-tied onto signs, guardrails and other places. “The great part was that it wasn’t defacing any property,” he said. “It was the least destructive way to contribute, so th...
Arts for Alzheimer’s Promotes Mythical Show If we told you that a group of trolls would be strolling the streets during Canton’s First Friday events, you’d probably sit us down and ask us to please stop doing so much research on our beer section. But as much as we love our beer section, the trolls are true: The Troll Troupe, a group of auditioned local residents playing the parts of trolls, will be roaming local events as part of a campaign to raise awareness and support for research on Alzheimer’s and dementia. Sponsored by the Arts for Alzheimer’s organization, the Troll T...
When most people go through their rebellious young-adult phase, they usually dye their hair, date people in their 40s and start smoking cloves. Sometimes they decide to major in the dramatic arts. Sometimes they get their heads pierced. In her rebellious years, Elizabeth Cook decided to get degrees in accounting and computer information systems, then get a job in corporate America. Cook’s parents had already gotten a jump on her, as far as alternative lifestyles go: Her mother was what Cook calls “a hillbilly singer,” playing mandolin and guitar and performing on local radio programs...
Sure, you love Twitter, but sometimes coming up with 140 characters all by your little self can be taxing. (Actually, maybe just coming up with a thought is the taxing part.) Anyway, we have the solution for you at yes.thatcan.be/my/next/tweet, a site that uses phrases and words from your past tweets to generate entirely new ones. It can either be hilariously nonsensical or eerily appropriate — and be warned, it’s addicting. (A remixed @buzzbin tweet: “Check out TODAY!”) The endless hipster quandary: You love music, but you hate paying for it. You want to support the artists, but yo...
The Midwest is a pretty decent place to live if you love beer. (And if you don’t, you’re likely not welcome here anyways.) Think about it: Eberhard Anheuser and Adolphus Busch were from St. Louis. Milwaukee is practically synonymous with the stuff, once home to the world’s four largest breweries — Schlitz, Blatz, Pabst and Miller — within its limits. Hell, they even named their baseball team the Brewers, which plays in Miller Park. We’ve got Goose Island in Chicago. Motor City in Detroit. Three Floyds, home of the Dark Lord, in Indiana. Bell’s and Founder’s in Michigan. And ...
Three years ago, Canton law director Joe Martuccio was sitting in the Akron Canton Airport waiting for his wife. To pass the time, he was reading the script of “Twelve Angry Men,” and considering the possibility of staging the play with a cast of local attorneys to celebrate Law Week in early May. Then Ed Begley, Jr. walked by. Begley, the “St. Elsewhere” actor and environmentalist, who was passing through town. Begley, whose father, Ed Begley, Sr., played Juror 10 in the famous 1957 film version of “Twelve Angry Men.” “I thought, ‘Well, this is a sign,’” laughed Mart...
Pulling up to the house in Jackson where The Big Sweet is holding their weekly practice, we can hear echoes of rim shots and bass from the driveway. “I told them to turn it down,” apologized Nick Regas, the father of lead singer and guitarist Sam, who met us at the door. “I don’t think they did.” And frankly, they won’t: The Big Sweet’s star is still rising, and there’s no telling how high the parabola will go. The four-piece indie-pop group is intimately familiar with the Northeast Ohio venue circuit, having played at Musica, House of Blues and the Tangier. They’re sta...
What would you do for a beer? Help a buddy move? Send your eight-year-old to the corner convenience store? Buy admission to an industrial park in Munster, Indiana? For those willing to do the last — and there are thousands — there’s Dark Lord Day, a festival celebrating the release of Munster-based brewery Three Floyds’s acclaimed Dark Lord Russian imperial stout. Now in its third year, Dark Lord Day began as a way to dispense the wildly in-demand brew: Would-be drinkers purchased “golden” tickets that permitted them a number of bottles. Those lucky few attended the fes...
Filters, folders, firewalls and freeware — it’s amazing how many lines of defense those male-enhancement ads and virus-infected links can barrel their way through to your inbox. If you’re sick of spam, here’s a fun way to play with it before hitting Delete: Go to SpamRecycling.com. This German site allows you to send your junk (or any, really) emails to spam@spamrecycling.com, and then uses the text to create a piece of art, with a whirling vortex of words that eventually transforms into a cosmic-looking design. Use the controls to change the color or shape of the form, then download t...
