The Devil Strip - March 17, 2015 - Issue 1, Vol. 1

MARCH 2015 • VOL 1 • ISSUE #1 • THEDEVILSTRIP.COM

The Devil Strip Akron Music, Art & Culture

Questions with musician

Jessica Hernandez

Meet the Most Interesting

Person We Know

The best of our first-ever "You're So Akron If..."

contest

MARCH 2015 • VOL 1 • ISSUE #1 / THE Devil Strip | 3 AKRON MUSIC, ART & CULTURE

This issue

Awesomeness was completely funded (and

then some) in less than a day.

I thought, when I quit my day job, this was

something I could do alone if necessary. I was

wrong. Maybe I could have written everything,

learned layout, shot photos, etc., but it took

dozens and dozens of people to make it this

distinctly Akron.

The real miracle, if you ask me, is that there’s

no way any of this would have happened

without Heather Braun, my wife. She could

have, and maybe should have, slapped the shit

out of me when I said, “Hey, I’d like to quit my

well-paying job, eat through our savings and

start a print magazine during the ascent of the

digital age.” Instead, she listened, helped me

plan and then pushed me to do it.

So if you like The Devil Strip, if you’re glad it

exists, you really have Heather to thank.

Publishing this paper is a privilege I’ll never

take lightly. I know I’m lucky to be in this city

at this moment in its history beside so many

other Akronites who are ready to christen the

next era here. So, I’m here to do my part in the

hope I can repay, in some small measure, the

support I have already received.

Thank you, Chris

This time last year, I was a ghost. Weekdays at

2:30 a.m., I woke up, showered, made a half-

gallon of coffee and drove to Newschannel5

in Cleveland where I worked in digital for the

morning show. Despite being surrounded by

good, talented people, I was far from where I

wanted to be. Not just my bed and my family,

but far from the two things I love doing most:

telling stories and building community.

Since my day job offered little opportunity for

either, I quit last October with my sights set on

starting this arts and culture paper.

The process has been much easier than I had

any right to expect it could be. I blame you

Akronites—with your collaborative spirit and

welcoming attitude. Example: There are 16

contributors to this issue and almost twice as

many in the stable, gearing up for issues

to come.

There are also those who didn’t write or take

pictures but contributed metaphorical mortar

between the bricks, whether it was introducing

me to other good Akronites, providing honest

feedback, buying or selling ads, or telling me

to keep pushing. Several times, when the

going got rough, I borrowed their faith. Thanks

to these people, before we put a single issue

to bed, we’ve already accomplished some

impressive stuff. Unbox Akron is a Knight Cities

Challenge Finalist (crossing our fingers) and

the Kickstarter Campaign for Newspaper Box

Welcome toinside this issue

Arts, Culture & Entertainment ........................... 5

Saying "devil strip" ........................................... 8

Knowhere ......................................................... 8

Only in Akron ................................................... 9

The Most Interesting Person We Know ............ 10

New / Native ................................................... 11

Dina’s Days ..................................................... 12

Cover Story: You’re So Akron If… ................... 13

The Dish ......................................................... 16

In the Kitchen with… ...................................... 17

The Wanderer ................................................. 18

Film & Feast .................................................... 19

A Day in the Life... .......................................... 20

Music/Concerts Spotlight ................................ 21

8 questions with Jessica Hernandez ................ 23

Band Spotlight ................................................ 24

Comic strips and Puzzles ................................. 25

Your Turn ........................................................ 26

The Devil Strip Akron Music, Art & Culture

4 | THE Devil Strip / MARCH 2015 • VOL 1 • ISSUE #1 WWW.THEDEVILSTRIP.COM

Contributors

MEET THE TEAM

Aaron DeBee is a freelance

translator and language

consultant from East Palestine,

Ohio, who worked from 1993

to 2005 as an intelligence

analyst and cryptologic linguist for the

Department of Defense. He graduated from

the Defense Language Institute Chinese

Program, from the University of Akron with a

B.A. in Speech-Language Pathology and

Audiology and from Case Western Reserve

University with a M.A. in Cognitive Linguistics.

Alesa Upholzer is an

award-winning freelance

graphic designer who is

responsible for The Devil Strip

looking as good as it does

despite all the ways Chris tried to foil her. She’s

a dedicated team player with a reputation as

an efficient and organized designer with a

knack for creating exceptional designs. You

can find—and even hire—Alesa at auDesigns.

com, her full-service graphic design company

where she has helped both large corporations

and small businesses to create powerful

marketing pieces, overflow, outsourcing and

assisting clients in reaching their deadlines.

Andrew Evans keeps busy in

both the artistic and athletic

worlds. In addition to

illustrating the cover of The

Devil Strip’s first issue, he’s

training for triathlons and getting ready to

compete in his first Ironman. Keeping a

healthy balance of life with all aspects and

exercising have always been important to the

way he maintains composure and a clear mind.

He values designing and being creative

because it allows him to produce something

that gives back to the world. You can find

Andrew online at aevansdesign.com, email him

directly [email protected] or follow @

aevansdesign on Instagram to see what new

idea he comes up with next.

Bronlynn Thurman is a writer

and illustrator from Akron,

Ohio. Her time is spent

traveling (and eating) while

weaving stories from her

experiences. Connect with her on Twitter and

IG: @_bront_

Eric Morris is a NE Ohio

native and a UA graduate.

He has lived in Akron for nearly

ten years.

Chris Kessinger is the Film Freak, a film

reviewer and restaurant frequenter born

and raised in the greatest city in the world,

Akron, Ohio. It’s his mission to dissect the

best and worst that Hollywood offers, while

recommending the most delicious food to pair

with every screening.

Dina Younis is the

communications manager for

the GAR Foundation but is

perhaps best known for her

blog, “Dina’s Days,” which

showcases her love for thrift stores, flea

markets and “any place that requires digging

through boxes and shuffling through chaotic

racks.” She has a self-confessed streak of

Blanche Devereaux in her and loves making old

things new again. After growing up in the

Middle East, Dina is now a full-fledged

Akronite who helps organize the Akron2Akron

group tours.

Elizabeth Tyran is a whirlwind of activity,

and co-owner and manager of Urban Eats in

downtown’s historic arts district. She’s an art

history grad who has embraced Akron with

open arms, as you can probably tell from her

column, Only In Akron.

Holly Brown currently lives in Akron with her

toothless, claw-less, meow-less cat, Hedwig.

She is a poetry candidate at the NEOMFA. She

loves many things, notably: food (both cooking

and eating it), reading everything, painting

with a lot of color, elephants, bees and the

color yellow. She also thoroughly enjoys

adventures of any kind and hopes to spend her

life exploring, and then writing about it.

Jaclyn Geier is currently a

Creative Nonfiction Writer in

the Northeast Ohio Master of

Fine Arts program. She lives in

the Akron area with her

husband Alex and their two rescue pets: a

nervous dog named Mia and a confused cat

named Nora. She loves reading, yoga, thinking

about Tina Fey, The Lockview’s grilled cheese

sandwiches, tea, and exploring the national

parks with Alex and Mia.

Jason Segedy is the map-loving Director

of Transportation Planning for the Akron

Metropolitan Area and a native Akronite

whose blog, “Notes from the Underground,”

you can find online at thestile1972.tumblr.com

Jenny Conn is a writer. When she was a kid

she knew she wanted to either climb trees for

a living or be a writer. So she got an English

degree and became a reporter. She wrote

news for a few years for weeklies, dailies and

trades, which she enjoyed immensely. She then

went back to school to earn another degree

so she could teach. Now she is a writer for The

Devil Strip who teaches writing to university

students. She loves all of it.

Joanna Wilson is the

co-writer of “A Is for Akron,” a

co-founder of Akron Empire

and an organizer of Dance

Dance Party Party-Akron, as

well as the writer of several books that

combine her academic background in film

history and philosophy with insightful

commentary on pop culture of all kinds. She is

a widely acknowledged expert about Christmas

television and film who has been interviewed

by the New York Times and has appeared on

the History Channel’s “Real Story of

Christmas.” Her upcoming book is about

Archie the Snowman.

Katelyn Y. Gainer is the arts

columnist for The Devil Strip

and an art history graduate

student at Kent State who

works as a gallery assistant for

a small arts nonprofit. She loves promoting

Northeast Ohio’s thriving arts community. You

can find her on Twitter at @katelyngainer

Katie Wheeler was born and raised in Akron,

and she’s extremely excited about bringing

awareness to the area and retaining the talent

that’s already here. She’s passionate about

being active and puts that to good use at

Movable, the Akron startup where she works.

A triathlete, explorer and adventurer, you can

find her playing on the water in the Portage

Lakes or running and biking in the Cuyahoga

Valley National Park. She loves connecting

people, which she gets to do through

organizations like Torchbearers, Portage Lakes

Young Professionals, Ohio-Erie Canal Coalition,

Portage Lakes Running Club and Portage Lakes

Triathlon Club.

Maxarmando Rivera is a

photographer in Akron who

loves hummus more than any

other food and whose favorite

movie is “The Goonies.” He

stumbled upon photography accidentally a few

years ago thanks to his smartphone camera.

He has a deep love for color, contrast and

authenticity, which shows in his work, which

will be featured regularly as photo essays in the

pages of The Devil Strip.

Boys & Girls Clubs of the Western Reserve

5:30-9 pm at Tordaro’s Party Center

1820 Akron-Peninsula Rd., Akron

More info: wrkids.org/aspire

Benefitting the Boys & Girls Clubs of the

Western Reserve, honorary chairs Mark and

Shelly Allio join sponsors, the LeBron James

Family Foundation and Infiniti of Akron, in

putting on Aspire! which features dinner and

drinks, live and silent auctions, their famous

“Dessert Dash,” a Wine Pull, artwork by Boys

& Girls Club members and Mission Possible—

the high impact after-school programs for

over 800 at-risk youth. All proceeds go

toward the programs offered at Boys & Girls

Clubs. There’s a VIP Pre-Party at 4:30 pm for

event sponsors and patron level reservations.

For more information, call 330-773-3375 or

visit wrkids.org/aspire.

Aspire! Boys & Girls Clubs Signature Event

Celebrating more than 30 years of providing premiere youth development programs

non-profit notice


OngoingFILM: “LEVIATHAN”

The Nightlight

30 N High St, Akron

Runs through Thursday, Mar 26, 2015

Lauded Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev

won Best Screenplay at Cannes for this

painterly, primordial tale about a proud

patriarch fighting to protect his family home

from a corrupt local official, a story whose

near-primordial themes have their roots in

Thomas Hobbes and the Book of Job. Visit

nightlightcinema.com for showtimes.

EXHIBITION: BEAUTY REIGNS

Akron Art Museum

1 S. High St., Akron

Runs through Sunday, May 3

A showcase of the exoticism, exuberance and

optimism found in the work of 13 painters

working in studios across the United States.

Tuesday, March 17THE BIG BIG MESS READING SERIES

featuring Mathias Svalina, Noah Eli Gordon,

Patrick Culliton, Joshua Marie Wilkinson

7 pm at Summit Artspace (FREE)

140 E. Market St., Akron

bigbigmess.tumblr.com

The Boiling Point: Beat Generation

Akron's alternative play reading series tackles

Beat Generation hero Jack Kerouac.

7 pm at The W.O.M.B. (FREE)

915 E. Market St., Akron

Wednesday, March 18JAZZFEST 2015: HORNSPIRATION

Featuring special guest Howard Johnson

7:30 pm at EJ Thomas Hall,

the University of Akron

198 Hill Street, Akron

Runs through Friday, March 20

Universally recognized for the jazz tuba (and

as adept on baritone sax), Massillon native

Howard Johnson is at home whether playing

commercially or for the avant-garde. Johnson

broke in with Charlie Mingus, played with

Taj Mahal and Paul Simon, conducted the

Saturday Night Live band in the late 1970s,

recorded with The Band and Levon Helm and

spoke with John Lennon on the night he died.

Thursday, March 19SLIDE JAM: BEAUTY REIGNS

6:30 pm at the Akron Art Museum (FREE)


Part of the ongoing “Beauty Reigns” exhibit,

this event features six fun, moving, unexpected

and accessible talks about beauty from artists

and designers around Northeast Ohio.

Arts, Culture & Entertainment

AREAEVENTS

I wasn’t sure what to expect as I walked up

the snow-covered driveway to the home of

Jennifer Davis, owner and facilitator of SmART

Studio Akron, or as she calls herself, “The

owner, the educator, the boss of

the applesauce.”

As I passed her mailbox—bowling pins sticking

out of it—making my way to the blue building

behind her home on Payne Avenue that

SmART occupies, I remembered first noticing

the studio on social media. The more of their

posts I saw, the more I wanted to meet the

person behind them. I could tell immediately

she was my kind of people.

Jennifer greeted me at the door and as I

walked in I instantly fell in love. My eyes darted

around the room, jumping around from one

piece of visually-stimulating art to another, and

more—to crafts, books, art supplies and the

colored paper cut-outs that adorn the ceiling.

There’s something incredibly comforting about

this small studio. Despite being where she

makes art with her students, it feels like home

as soon as you sit down.

She currently instructs 20 students, ranging

up to 64. Some are just 4 years old and still

learning to color inside the lines, which

Jennifer says is a “blast.” Her older students

come in for more of what she calls a

“therapeutic” experience.

Before opening SmART, Jennifer, a licensed

visual arts educator, earned her bachelors in

art education from the University of Akron.

From 2008 to 2013, taught visual arts for

kindergarten through fifth grade.

Certain frustrations led her from the classroom

to her own studio. “I could always see the

faces of students who really want to learn.

They really wanted that enrichment,” she

says. “On the flip side, I also saw students

that might struggle in more tradition learning.

I saw those students really find success in

the arts—not only art but music, dance and

theater. I think part of the reason I left teaching

at the time, you’re just not able to serve all the

students. Your teaching is strained in a sense.”

SmART allows her more freedom in the way

she teaches. “In this arena and space, I

differentiate instruction for each individual

student. I’m able to help the students make

those connections.”

Part of that process—helping students make

connections—is just a matter of getting them

to play with the tools of the trade.

“You can learn so much just about by using

the tools, using the material, coloring, painting

and getting messy with the clay—that is

so much of a learning process instead of

thinking about whether the end product is

exactly perfect, or in your mind’s eye what you

expected. I think you can learn more about

the process.”

Many arts organizations offer art workshops

but hers are different, she says.

“This is more of a niche, this is the

opportunity to provide instruction from a

teacher that has taught and is certified.

I’ve had that real world experience but

also a more individual and intimate setting.

For most of my students, this is private

instruction. I think the environment, too,

is different than a regular classroom. It’s a

more intimate setting.”

If someone is interested in taking classes with

Jennifer, there’s a survey for new students

before they can begin.

“What is your favorite part of art? What do

you like to do in your spare time? I’ve had

students give me answers like I’m really into

cats, so I give them instruction that revolves

around cats—let’s see how we can make a cat:

by painting a cat, sculpting a cat, drawing a

cat. It’s all about making that connection to art

which I think is an authentic experience.”

For more information, visit smartstudioakron.

com or contact Jennifer Davis directly at

[email protected]

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My personal philosophy on art is it’s all about the process.”

WWW.THEDEVILSTRIP.COM


“ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL”

RUBBER CITY SHAKESPEARE

7:30 pm at Summit Artspace (pay-as-you-like)

Preview performance of “All's Well That Ends

Well,” a play about the low-born Helena

who falls in love with Bertram, the son of the

Countess, who does not return the affection.

For details or tickets, visit

rubbercityshakes.com or call 234.252.0272.

Runs through Sunday, March 29.

MAIJA DI GIORGIO

The Funny Stop Comedy Club

1757 State Rd, Cuy Falls

Appearing through March 21, Maija Di

Giorgio is a multi-media talent whose career

has carried her stages shared with Dave

Chappelle, Kevin Hart, Louis CK and Wanda

Sykes. She started in radio as Ed Lover’s

co-host on New York City's famed Hot 97.

Her one-woman shows, "The White Person's

(Guilt-free) Guide to Black America" and

"RATS!"(six modernized Shakespearean plays

set in a musical about love) have garnered

rave reviews. She’s also the director of “Bitter

Jester” with appearances by George Carlin,

Whoopi Goldberg and Richard Pryor. Make

reservations by calling 330-923-4700.

Friday, March 20“FINDING THE GOLD WITHIN”

CIFF: Knight and Day in Akron

7 pm at Akron-Summit Co. Public Library

60 S High St, Akron

A documentary that follows six young men

from Akron as they work to create new

stories for themselves, moving to college from

Alchemy Inc., a program that combines adult

mentoring, traditional African drumming and

the art of storytelling and myth to create a

safe and open forum for young black men.

Details at clevelandfilm.org/akron

SELF & OTHERS: THE PHOTOGRAPHIC

PORTRAIT

Through May 2, 2015

5-8 pm at Summit Artspace

140 East Market Street, Akron

A new exhibition featuring local

photographers including Peter Larson, Anna

Young, Ed Suba and Don Parsisson, will

be showcasing their interpretations of the

contemporary portrait. Summit Artspace

urges the viewer to participate by emailing

their selfies to [email protected] to

be printed and displayed alongside the

curated exhibition.

SILVER AND BLUE GALA FUNDRAISER

Friends of Akron School for the Arts

6-9 pm at BLU Jazz+ (tix $55-$100)

47 East Market Street, Akron

Find auction pieces, one of a kind art, gift

bags, hors d'oeuvres, dessert and a cash

bar at this fundraiser for the Akron School

for the Arts. Features music by Acid Cats.

bluesilvergala.com

Saturday, March 21RUBBER CITY BEER FEST

3-7 pm at Lock 3 (tix $30-$35)

This first-year celebration of craft breweries

from the Greater Akron and Northeast Ohio

area is hosted by the Society of Akron Area

Zymurgists, which is a word I can’t say even

before sampling the brew. In addition to the

breweries’ normal offerings, some will feature

cask-conditioned ales. Visit saazakron.com

for more information.

RACE AT THE RAFFLE

CANAPI

5:30-10 pm at Tangier (tix $100)

532 W. Market St., Akron

Benefitting HIV+ and LGBTQ communities,

Race at the Raffle features “entertainingly

narrated” horse races, a reverse raffle,

sideboards, 50/50 raffle and both silent and

live auctions. Horse sponsorships including

naming are available for $20. For more

information, visit canapi.org/events

“TRAFICANT: THE CONGRESSMAN OF

CRIMETOWN”

CIFF’s Knight and Day in Akron

6:20 pm at Akron Art Museum


This documentary depicts the turbulent career

of Youngstown politico Jim Traficant, from

his days as a high school quarterback to his

fall. Features archival footage and extensive

interviews with Youngstown natives Ed

O’Neill (“ Modern Family”) and boxing champ

Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini. Also showing:

Family Shorts at 12 pm, “A Royal Hangover”

at 4 pm and “The Creeping Garden” at

8:30 pm. Visit clevelandfilm.org/akron for a

schedule of films playing at The Nightlight.

RUBBER CITY ROLLERGIRLS

5 pm at John S. Knight Center ($5-$13)

This diverse group of women deliver hard

hits and speed at the John S. Knight Center

in the heart of downtown in family-friendly

bouts suitable for all ages. Next following

home bout: April 11. For details and ticket

information, visit rubbercityrollergirls.com.

Sunday, March 22HAPPY HOUR WITH CHRIS HAMAD

3-7pm at The Tangier ($40)

532 W. Market St., Akron

A celebration of Rockne’s owner Chris

Hamad, who has been diagnosed with

pancreatic cancer, hosted by a group of

friends hoping to raise awareness of this

awful disease.

Tuesday, March 24WEEKLY TECH BREAKFAST

7-8:30 am at Akron Family Restaurant

Akron.io hosts a casual, weekly get together

for members of the local tech community for

non-structured chats around tasty

breakfast food.

MUSICAL: “JEKYLL & HYDE”

7:30 pm at Akron Civic Theatre (tix $37-$47)

182 S Main St, Akron

An enthralling musical based on Robert Louis

Stevenson's classic story about a brilliant but

obsessive scientist whose alter ego wreaks

havoc across Victorian London—set to a

thrilling pop rock score. Visit akroncivic.com

for details.

The Artist as an Entrepreneur Institute is an award- winning business training program for visual, performance, literary, media and design artists. This results-oriented program is led by an outstanding faculty of working artists, business leaders and entrepreneurs who will teach you the fundamentals of how to start, grow and maintain a financially healthy creative career.

Presented by: Sponsored by:

Finding Financial Successin Your Creative Career

Join us for all eight program sessions:Summit Artspace, 140 East Market Street, Akron, OH 44308April 13 – 16 and April 20 – 23. 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. | Cost: $100*

Space is limited – Register today:akronareaarts.org/aei | 330-376-8480

Questions? Contact us at: [email protected]

* Total program cost is offset in part by our generous sponsors.

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top two finishers in each of several categories.

Advance registration ends online May 3

at 11:59 pm. For more information, visit

summitmetroparks.org or call 330-865-8065.

AKRON MARATHON’S RUBBER CITY

RACE SERIES

1m/8k – June 27

10k/13.1m – August 15

13.1m/26.2m – September 26

For more information, or to register, visit

rubbercityraceseries.org

YOGA FOR ATHLETES (FREE)

Saturday, March 28

9 am at Lululemon

More info at facebook.com/

lululemonakronshowroom

4TH ANNUAL MOTHER’S DAY 5K

Summit Co. Metro Parks Foundation

Sunday, May 10

8 am at Monroe Falls Metro Park

521 S. River Rd., Munroe Falls

This “stroller-friendly” course travels twice

around the scenic lake with awards for the

It’s 5:45 a.m., and I’m standing at

the end of my street in the pitch dark

getting snowed on. I can literally feel

the hairs in my nose freezing and I’m

pretty sure the only other thing awake

in my neighborhood is the stealthy ninja

raccoon that just gave me a heart attack.

Luckily, the headlamps that I’m watching

bounce back and forth across the road

aren’t too far away, and even luckier still is

that they belong to my running group.

People ask us all the time why we do a

lot of the things we do as runners. When

I get asked these questions, my answer

is usually the same: I do these things

because I like to hang out with

kick-ass people.

It was this very reason that led me to

Lululemon’s Akron showroom for their

Running Club Happy Hour. The purpose

of the event was to bring local running

clubs together, not only with each other,

but with those who are looking for a

group to train with. Those who weren’t

enticed by giveaways from the Akron

Marathon and Second Sole were drawn

in by brews from Akron’s own Thirsty

Dog Brewery. Runners don’t usually turn

down free gear OR beers.

Lululemon is mostly known for its yoga

attire and events, but this year they

are making an effort to get back to

supporting all types of athletes, and they

have runners on their radar. They already

offer complimentary community yoga on

Saturday mornings, and they have plans

to incorporate a run into that program

soon. There will be opportunities for area

running clubs to partner with the Akron

showroom to host a run and then join

in for yoga after. They have a lot of cool

things coming at you, including a birthday

month full of goodies in April.

Representatives from the Akron Marathon

were on hand and happy to talk about

their new Rubber City Race Series that

culminates with the Akron Marathon in

September. Second Sole was on-site with

advice on running form and footwear.

There were also several running clubs

represented including the Green Family

YMCA and the Portage Lakes

Running Club.

I have been talked into more miles, more

insanely early wake-up calls, and more

crazy-themed race attire than I care to

admit, and it’s all because I really love the

group that I run with. There are plenty of

great running clubs around Akron, and

Lululemon’s partnering with them would

be a great place for you to meet your

group of “crazy.”

Saturday, March 283RD ANNUAL ROCK FOR A GOOD CAUSE

Fairlawn and Hudson Schools of Music

4-9 pm at Musica ($5 donation)

51 East Market St, Akron

Young music students ply their craft to benefit

the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank’s Harvest

for Hunger with a goal of raising $1,500 which

would provide 6,000 meals locally. Bands

include Rock N’ Royalty, Farfetched, Ava &

The Hitmen, No Name Tuesday, Three Legged

Chairs and No Expectations. Instead of paying

admission, guests will be asked to donate $5

or 10 non-perishable food items.

MUSIC: NATALIE COLE

8 pm at Hard Rock Live (tix $47-$85)

Northfield Rocksino

Yup, that Natalie Cole, the neo soul-singing

daughter of crooning jazz great Nat King Cole.

Akron AbroadMUSIC: SHIVERING TIMBERS

8 pm on Thursday, March 19

Music Box Supper Club

1148 Main Ave, Cleveland

The final show in this Akron band’s club

residency. Your ticket includes a free Shivering

Timbers cocktail. Doors open at 6 pm. Details

at musicboxcle.com

DOCUMENTARY: "STELLA WALSH"

Ohio Shorts Program 2

9:20 pm at Tower City Cinemas

230 W Huron Rd., Cleveland

Written, directed and produced by Rob Lucas

and Steve Felix, two of the people behind

Akron Film+Pixel, which gave birth to the

Nightlight Cinema, “Stella Walsh” tells the

story of one of the most celebrated female

athletes on the planet. She won a gold medal

in the 1932 Olympics but was killed in a

robbery, which led to the discovery she had

ambiguous gender. Learn more at

stellawalsh.com

Outdoor/AthleticAKRON BIKE PARTY #12:

PARROTS & PIRATES

Friday, March 20

7 pm at Lock 3 (FREE)

200 S. Main St., Akron

A fun, festive 10-mile ride through downtown

Akron to build community through cycling.

CYCLING

Saturday, March 21 (FREE)

9 am at Lululemon

More info at facebook.com/

lululemonakronshowroom

WAKE-UP SPRING: HIKE & BREAKFAST

Summit Co. Metro Parks

Saturday, March 28

8-10:30 am at Goodyear Heights Pavilion

Shake off winter and join us for spring's highly

anticipated hike and breakfast. Advance

registration is required. Call 330-865-8065

for details.

Thursday, March 26FILM: “THE VANQUISHING OF THE

WITCH BABA YAGA”

7 pm at Akron Art Museum (FREE)

From a crop of films curated by the Nightlight

Cinema comes a story about the mythical

witch Baba Yaga, a sinister source of fear

for generations of Slavic peoples. Visit

akronartmuseum.org for details.

LAUNCH LEAGUE’S LAUNCH PARTY

7 pm at OSC Tech Lab

12 E. Exchange St., 2nd Floor, Akron

Join startup founders, investors, and startup

resources to celebrate the founding of Launch

League, Akron's startup community. Lite apps

and drinks will be provided.

PLAY: “A DELICATE BALANCE”

7:30 pm at Weathervane Playhouse

1301 Weathervane Ln, Akron

Runs through April 12

This dark comedy follows two complacent

suburbanites whose lives are thrown into chaos

by their family and friends over the course of

one eventful weekend. Good news: Due its

adult language and themes, “the play is best

enjoyed by audiences ages 16 and older.”

Friday, March 27FILM: “IT FOLLOWS”

9:15 pm at The Nightlight

30 N High St, Akron

Runs through Thursday, April 9

A smart, indie horror flick that seems to delight

in the idea that what you think is your worst

case scenario is nothing compared to what

could happen. Like, being pursued by a legion

of malevolent, lumbering phantoms who’ll

follow you everywhere forever because you

had sex with the wrong person.

MUSIC: ACID CATS, SCARLET & THE

HARLOTS, JOVAN WILDER AND

THE WILD THINGS

8 pm at Jilly’s Music Room (FREE)

111 N Main St, Akron

Guess which of the three describes themselves

as “Hard blues driven rock n' roll with a sassy

red headed belter out front.” Scarlet & the

Harlots, which is probably my favorite name

for a local band. In fact, this night may be the

best for local music in Akron all month. It’s

certainly got to be the most eclectic. Consider

the rock-infused acid jazz of Acid Cats and the

soulful, groove-oriented funk of Jovan Wilder

and the Wild Things, and you should feel guilty

for seeing this all for free.

TRAIN RIDE: DINNER ALONG THE

CUYAHOGA CUYAHOGA

VALLEY SCENIC RAILROAD

7 pm at Akron Northside Station (tix $75)

27 Ridge St, Akron

Sample five Robert Mondavi wines with

specially-prepared food catered by Creekside

Restaurant as Mike Hillman of Constellation

Brands speaks about each of the wines. Details

at cvsr.com


This is why I run in the snow

Katie Wheeler

out and about


community

WHAT DOES SAYING

devil stripSAY ABOUT

Akronites?A LINGUIST LOOKS AT THE CITY’S MOST UNIQUE PHRASE

Aaron DeBee

You can still catch the flinty reflection of

Akron’s hardscrabble grit lurking behind the

darkened windows of the city’s old brick

factory buildings, splayed in the asphalt-

dotted icy slush beside the curb and sliding

along the friction-polished tops of its rusty

rails. Though the Rubber City brims with

new life now, these industrial artifacts find

subtle ways to remind us of Akron’s blue

collar beginnings. One inconspicuous way is

in the vocabulary of the Akronite.

In particular, the phrase “devil strip.”

Given the proximity to Cleveland, Akronites

sport the influence of the Great Lakes

shipping lanes in addition to a mixture

of Midwestern America and the inland

Northeast. This means Akronites have

adopted a milder version of the Northern

Cities Vowel Shift. The most prominent

and easily recognizable examples of this

phenomenon are the raising, tensing and

lengthening of the short “a” sound (which

can make “cat” sound like “kyet”) or the

unique short “o” sound (which can make

“John” sound like “jyan”).

However, not all of the linguistic

characteristics of Akron descended from

the Cleveland area. That’s one reason “devil

strip” stands out. It’s much less evident in

the greater Cleveland area and has long

been closely associated with Akron’s

specific dialect.

In 2012, Akron Beacon Journal columnist

Bob Dyer attempted, unsuccessfully, to

definitively discern the origins of the phrase.

While its geographic origin remains a point

of contention, it appears clear “devil strip”

was primarily used in blue collar industrial

communities around northern Ohio, as well

as a few other outlying areas.

The point here is not so much about the

exact origin of the phrase as what its

connection to Akron tells us about the

people who’ve lived here for decades.

This thin strip of lawn between the sidewalk

and street is called, in most places around

Ohio, a “tree lawn.” But not in Akron.

Here, perhaps, the blue collar backbone is

so dominant it defied the socio-economic

diversification that seemingly weakened

the industrial influence in larger cities like

Cleveland. That is, the term “devil strip”

itself suggests a raw and wary mindfulness

that more privileged communities may have

found less appealing than “tree lawn.”

If it’s true that the “devil strip” was

menacingly named to keep children from

playing near the streets, then you can

imagine how industrial-era Akronites

may have viewed their homes as a place

of comfort and safety away from the

dangerous world that existed just past their

sidewalks. In this way, the term is as much

about the steely toughness that lies at the

heart of Akron as it is the focus on family

and home.

By comparison, it’s possible “tree-lawn”

communities were more concerned with

comfort and aesthetics than a “devil

strip” community like Akron, which was

necessarily more preoccupied with survival.

So for Akronites, perhaps, “devil strip”

lingers as a reminder there’s still a thin line

that divides Akron comfortingly from the

world beyond.

KnowhereThis random, blue, metal

palm tree isn’t in the tropics

by a beach. It’s in Akron...by

a highway. But do you know

where exactly? Be the first

person to show off your deep

knowledge of all things local

by tweeting the answer to

@akrondevilstrip or emailing it

to [email protected] and

you’ll get you picture in the

next issue.


only in akron

Glendale has everything I could want in a cemetery.

That may sound morbid but I have found in my

adult years that cemeteries can be as peaceful

and pleasant to walk through as any park.

Glendale Cemetery’s landscape, history and

charm make it my favorite in Akron.

Last month, I convinced a friend to make the

short walk there from where I live downtown.

Our winter stroll began with my spontaneous

urge to make a snow angel in the parking lot

so, in true Liz form, I did.

As lovely as Glendale is covered in snow, I’m

looking forward to the special events the

cemetery hosts, such as a free outdoor movie

night or live performances on the sizeable

open lawn. I even have fond memories of an

evening gone wrong a couple summers back

when my friends Nikki and Julie and I tried to

attend a dance performance there.

Nikki is the kind of person I refer to as

“classic.” The things she does and says, and

the circumstances that seem to inherently

surround her are unabashedly hilarious,

through no intention of her own. She’s

probably 95 lbs. soaking wet. She has

dreadlocks that look like they weigh as much

as her torso and when she has them all piled

up on top of her head, you kind of wonder

how they don’t throw her off balance. At

any rate, my beautiful friend has this dog.

Neisha. They’re kind of tight, like mother

and daughter, or besties, or kindred spirits or

something, point being she likes to take Neisha

everywhere she can.

So Julie and I waited for Nikki, who was not

only super late, but had no way for us to get

in touch with her since she—at the time—

was a no-cell phone/no-social media modern

day phenomenon. She’s going on about 20

minutes late when Julie and I decided to just

go in. And that, of course, is when we saw

a faint and shadowy figure on a bike, with a

dog on a leash at her side, emerging in the

darkening twilight.

Yay! She’s here. We can all go in together now.

Nope, not so much. The security guard put the

ka-bosh on that, crossing his arms as he said,

“Sorry ladies, no dogs allowed.” Ugh. Great.

Not that we blamed the cemetery for the rule

or the guard for upholding it.

We hustled to put her bike and Neisha in our

truck so we could race them back to Nikki’s

and then get back to watch the show. After

returning to Glendale, we proceeded to walk

up the paved cemetery road to where the

action was and found some seats, excited to

finally settle in. Between performances, as

former deputy mayor Dave Lieberth spoke on

stage, Nikki busted out some homemade bread

for us to share. It was the least she could do

(just kidding).

Boom. Rain. It started lightly at first so dancers

actually got on stage and began their routines.

But soon the stage was slick with rain, which

gradually started to come down a little heavier

before they had to call the whole thing off.

That hint of rain turned to an all-out downpour

as we walked back to the car. Truth be told

I couldn’t wait to come back to attend this

uniquely whimsical event in the cemetery, and

I’d even bring Nikki.

Glendale is as lovely covered in snow as it is

in spring blossoms, perfect summer grass, or

autumn leaves. No visit is complete however

without paying my respects. I often stop to

read many of the headstones, taking note

of something specific about each memorial

and wondering more about the person, their

family and what their life in Akron was like.

Other than some lingering thoughts and faint

footprints, I leave the grounds just as I

found them.

(Minus one snow angel in the parking lot,

or course.)

N O R K A B E V E R A G E C O M

TM TMTM

follow NORKABEVERAGE

Tastes BetterSINCE 1 9 2 4

Caffeine FreeVERY LOW SODIUMNATURAL FLAVORS

CANE SUGAR

You’re so Akron if…YOU GO TO GLENDALE CEMETERY FOR THINGS OTHER THAN FUNERAL SERVICES.

Elizabeth Tyran


“It’s going to get sticky,” he said, walking into

his house ahead of me. Pausing, he turned

around, smiled and added, “I’m just

warning you.”

Someone had told me his name is Ian but then

Gmail labeled his emails from “Brent” and

by the time we’d arranged to meet, I’d heard

most folks know him as Wesley. When I asked

for clarity, he responded, “Wesley is fine.”

Yeah, okay. It’s fine, but is it your name?

That was going to be my first question when

we met. Then I found myself in the cold with

tens of thousands of bees between us, and

only one question came to mind so that’s what

I asked instead: “How in the world did you get

into this?”

The “you” is Brent Ian Wesley and he wears as

many hats as he has names. Maybe more. In

his knit hat and zipped-up, logo-embroidered

hoodie, he’s Brent, the founder of Akron

Honey Co., which last summer successfully

raised more than $15,000 on Kickstarter—

almost double his stated goal.

Without a hat, but decked-out in a razor-

sharp, perfectly tailored suit with a throwback

edge, he’s the eponymous wiggling singer and

leader of soulful six-piece Wesley Bright & the

Hi-Lites. If you’ve seen him live—or watched

their energetic performances online—it’s hard

to believe that guy is the same one explaining

the brilliance of bees in his hidden-in-plain-

sight apiary.

It’s as stunning that these are his avocations,

side passions instead of jobs. He is by day, a

manager for Verizon, where he applies the

same philosophy of life that led him to open

Akron Honey Company. That is, he’s motivated

by other people’s welfare. He wants people—

and places—to be better off than when he

met them.

This makes sense in context of his day job—he

has to be good with people—but the rest?

From the outside, it just looks like music and

honey and bees, which is fun stuff but hardly

seems like it’s making anything better. More

fun, sure, but better?

A few months ago, the apiary was just an

empty lot Brent passed on his way to work.

He’d noticed the house that was there, noted

its decline and then its demolition. The vacant

lot made him wonder. He didn’t daydream

about what it could be as much as what he

could do with it. He wasn’t trying to start a

honey company when he brought those first

hives to the property on the outer edge of

Highland Square. It just seemed like a neat

thing to try.

Hey, bees. Why not?

He refers to this process as “activating

spaces” now after accompanying a group of

community leaders assembled by the Knight

Foundation to explore some of Detroit’s most

promising revitalization projects. There he

met people who were reclaiming the empty

and forgotten, ignored and neglected places

around the once-thriving Motor City. This gave

him more focus. What he once did practically

by accident, he would soon start repeating

intentionally.

Thus, the Kickstarter expansion plan.

A former high school football standout, Brent’s

team now is the Akron community. He thinks a

little like a lone wolf, but he’s passionate about

the greater good. As he talks about Akron

Honey’s future, he says it boils down to what

the people of Akron wants. He’s not trying

to build a business that will sustain him so

much as he’s trying to find ways to be a better

Akronite. “You don’t lose if you do good,” he

says. “You can’t.”

This is his off-day, but he’s nowhere near done

yet. The Eye Opener is expecting an order

and he sells out every time he offers packages

online. Even when he finishes with this batch,

there’s more to do.

The deal for the new property has closed and

it won’t be long before he’s building that

“Hobbit house” and making plans to bring

people out to Middlebury, a part of town few

would consider a destination despite being

older than Akron itself.

But that’s part of the plan, which he sees more

clearly by the day. “It’s a very specific vision,”

he says, grabbing a frame from the extractor,

“and I don’t want anyone to derail me.”

A viscous rivulet of honey clings to his arm

as he hoists the honeycomb up to the light,

checking to see whether it’s completely spent

yet. In this moment, I’m reminded of his music,

which is as hard won and sweetly rewarding

as the honey. I hear his talk of the “intangible

benefits” of this kind of life and I picture him

on stage, the crowd dancing and moving to

the punchy sway of the horn section. Much

like I wanted to dance when I had my first

taste from the honeycomb.

It’s easier now to see how the different sides of

this man fit together.

A few moments passed in quiet. I had no

more questions so I grabbed the camera and

snapped away. Brent looked up briefly and

smiled, as he often does, then got back to

work, sliding the frame back into the extractor

for another spin, hoping to wring a little more

of this sweet nectar from its home.

The Most Interesting Person We Know

The Secret Life of BeekeepersHow does a guy raised near Cleveland go from college football in Pennsylvania to a Kent State

business degree and pro dodgeball tryouts to moonlighting as the front man in an old school soul band and shilling honey that tastes distinctly like Akron, which is to say delicious?

Chris Horne

“People are my thing. Always have been,” he says. “We have to take care of each other. That’s what we’re supposed to do.”


New / nativeAn out-of-town poet brings an NEA fellowship to Akron and

a native Akronite resurrects a fabled local soda brand.Jaclyn Geier & Chris Horne

New

Name: Mary Biddinger

Age: 40

Hometown: Born in Fremont, CA.

Raised (mostly) in Chicago, IL

Neighborhood: Castle Park

Occupation: Poet, editor, English professor

Who do you wish was on more

Akronites’ radar?

Local artist and graphic designer Amy Peck

should be on more Akronites’ radar. Why?

Because every household in Akron needs at

least one mustache pillow. Find Amy’s work

at events like Crafty Mart. She’ll be the one

shepherding the boisterous herd of

mustache pillows.

What is your favorite local cultural asset?

Definitely the Akron Art Museum. One of the

difficult things about migrating from Chicago

to Akron was leaving behind many of my

favorite museums. The collections and exhibits

of the Akron Art Museum have never stopped

surprising me. Furthermore, the building itself

is a marvel. The vaulted expansiveness of the

lobby is a borderline religious experience

in itself.

When did you fall for Akron?

I fell for Akron when I first arrived here for

my campus interview with UA in the Spring

of 2005. I’d expected a landscape much like

the flatlands I inhabited as an MFA student at

Bowling Green State University, and instead

got a spectacular Midwestern paradise with

interesting architecture, quirky independent

businesses, and ravines. Ravines! Akron has

the perfect mix of the down to earth and

the otherworldly.

Where in Akron do you like to escape?

I love to escape to Cascade Valley Metro Park.

I’m a city girl at heart, but I need my tree fix,

and the Metroparks have much to offer.

Why should everyone try your favorite

local restaurant?

When you roll up and see a bunch of smokers

(the slow cooking kind, not the puffing

Camel Lights kind) in action, you know that

it’s a serious place. My favorite Akron dining

establishment is Edgar’s. It’s a super-chill

restaurant with friendly wait staff and an

atmosphere that is at once sophisticated and

comfortable. I highly recommend the seafood,

particularly the scallops.

How do you think Akron will be different

in five years?

Akron is getting more and more awesome.

People are starting to find out about it, too.

I think Akron will be just as awesome in five

years. I’d love to see fewer empty storefronts

on Main Street. I’ll be crushed if it ever loses its

trademark strangeness.

Native

Name: Michael William Considine

Age: 37

Hometown: Akron, Ohio

Neighborhood: West Akron

near Highland Square

Occupation: Founder & President,

NORKA Food & Beverage LLC

Who do you wish was on more Akronites’

radar?

Liz Scott (iMMiX STUDiO, Lovely Somethings)

Liz is one of the most talented, brilliant,

inspiring and creative people I’ve ever

worked with. Feel very lucky to have had the

opportunity to work with her on

reviving NORKA.

What is your favorite local cultural asset?

The Akron Civic Theatre. To me this is one of

our town’s most iconic venues that brings the

power of music, art, dance, and performance

together for the community to enjoy.

When did you fall for Akron?

(And what was it? Where was it?

What did it feel like?)

I think I fell for Akron the 1st day of school

at King Elementary. Have so many great

memories and friends that all started with

King school.

Where in Akron do you like to escape?

This is an easy one, I love to golf so for me

it’s definitely 9 holes at Valley View Golf

Course. Followed by dinner/drinks at

Rockne’s on Merriman.

Why should everyone try your favorite

local restaurant?

Rockne’s on Merriman for Max the Knife &

Fries. Great people and great food!

How do you think Akron will be different

in five years?

In five years, it will be the same great hard-

working people with a strong sense of

community and Akron pride. What I want to

see continue is the development of downtown

Akron. So many great venues downtown now

that I’m excited to see the trend continue on

Main Street and throughout the area.

community


dina’s days

Regular reader Katie challenged Dina to

recreate a casual chic outfit she found on

Pinterest, featuring distressed boyfriend jeans,

a white blazer, and a gray tee.

Here’s what happened:

Surprisingly, a fitted white blazer was harder

to find than the sequined skirt I wore in the

previous challenge. In fact, three challenge

participants said the same thing. I found

striped blazers for days, but it wasn’t until my

third visit to the thrift store that I found a

fitted white one. Although the mission behind

our Thrift Challenge is to prove that you can

shop with an idea in mind, sometimes it takes

a little patience to find what you’re looking for.

Same goes for any store though. How many

times have you gone to the mall looking for

something specific just to turn around and

go back home? The only difference is when

you finally do find the item you’re looking for

at the thrift store, the reward is even greater

because you scored it at a ridiculously

low price!

I decided to modify the challenge a bit by

not distressing my boyfriend jeans. I also

tried something new and wore my

belts backwards.

To see more, including reader challenge

submissions, check out Dina’s Days at

www.dinasdays.com

Blazer / NY&Co. / Village Discount Outlet ...................... $2

Tee / Goodwill Akron ......................... $1

Belts / Target / Goodwill Akron ........... $2

Jeans / Gap / Goodwill Canal Fulton ....................... $6

Pumps / Aldo / Salvation Army ........... $2

Sunglasses / Vintage / Salvation Army .............................. $0.75

Bracelets / Village Discount Outlet ...... $2

Watch / gift .....................price unknown

TOTAL: ...................................... $15.75

ThriftChallenge Casual Chic

Fashion blogger and thrifting expert Dina Younis is sharing the best tips and advice

from her popular blog, DinasDays.com


Community

You order a salad at Luigi’s just for

the cheese. — Jeff L.

Every visiting out-of-town guest insists on one

meal at Luigi’s, one at Swenson’s and a grocery

trip to DeVitis Italian Market. — Robert S.

IT’S AN AKRON THING… YOU WOULDN’T UNDERSTAND YOU’RE SO AKRON IF…

You clearly get upset when you get lumped

together with Cleveland.

— Theresa Attalla

Someone tells you to do the “Wobble” and

you say, “Yeah, I played in WABL.”

— Mike D.

You know that Stan Hywet isn’t a person.

— Jason Chitwood

Over half your wardrobe comes from Rubber

City Clothing. — Jeremy Lile

You fought in school over whether Goodyear

or Firestone was better. — Bill Hall

You vacation in Florida wearing only a t-shirt,

shorts and flip-flops in 60 degree weather.

— Diane S.

It’s “St. V” rather than “St. Vincent-St. Mary.”

— Jason S.

Your bra was on the wall at Frank’s.

— Sue Knapp

You grew up with a rubber tire shaped ashtray

prominently displayed in your living room.

— Jackie Mc. (also Jenny C.)

You and Archie the Snowman are on a first-

name basis. — Ed Haas

You cut through the Glendale Cemetery to get

to school and back. — John Zofchak

Either you are a Lone Star or you have partied

with them. — Anthony Hall

You’re on time for parties. — Bridget A.

You lift your feet on a Sunday drive through

the creek at Sand Run Park so they don’t

get wet. — Diane S.

People elsewhere look at you as if you have

three heads when you mention jojos, devil strip

or cream sticks. — Erin F. Grady

Every time you try to move away, something

keeps pulling you back to the AK. — Colleen I.

LET’S EAT! YOU’RE SO AKRON IF…

You carry around your checkbook

just in case you have a spontaneous

Luigi’s craving. — Alison Caplan

You’re soAkron if...

Anyone willing to scratch beneath the surface here knows Akron is unique. In fact, you don’t even have to be willing to scratch beneath the surface because Akron might just scratch you first. We’re talking about a city that spawned the greatest basketball player of his generation, multiple world-touring musicians, an astronaut, a US Poet Laureate, Alcoholics Anonymous, hamburgers, a Nobel Prize winner, actors and filmmakers, Quaker Oats, a heavyweight champion, the toy industry, the “Edison of Our Age,” Thomas Edison’s wife,

two serial killers, professional women’s mud wrestling, the way your church is probably laid out and the most famous dirigible on the planet.

And that’s before you get to the food — sauerkraut balls and jo-jos, oh my!

This issue is dedicated to all our collective quirk (and then some)—announced, celebrated and dissected by you, the people who make this city great. What does it mean to be a real Akronite? It’s certainly more than a matter of mere geography. I think my friend Bridget Ambrisco summed it up best: “You’re so Akron if you recognize how authentically weird this town is ...and you love it.”

Enjoy.

You turned your brother’s old soap box derby cars into dangerously awesome go-carts. — Jenny C.


Cover story

You’ve considered getting a job at Swenson’s

to help you train for the Akron Marathon.

— Jeff L.

You wear a Swenson’s lanyard at work but

have never worked at Swenson’s.

— Monte Chris DeCarlo

Your parents fought over whether Swenson’s

or Skyway is better. — Karen W.

You’ve eaten at both Swenson’s and Skyway in

one day. — Colleen I.

You consider sauerkraut balls our

official food. — Becca B.

You call El Rancho “Mexican Yoconos.”

— Shane Wynn

Anything fried in lard automatically makes you

think of Barberton chicken. — Karen W.

You’ve bought chicken and jojos from more

than a dozen pizza carry-out places.

— Amanda S.

You plan your summer around the appearance

of your favorite Strickland’s flavor.

— Linsy Biege

You eat cream sticks and drink pop,

not soda. — Vicki Owens

You believe hamburgs are the reason we’re the

home of the Inventors Hall of Fame.

— Rick Stockburger

REAL AKRONITES DON’T STOP TO ASK FOR DIRECTIONS YOU’RE SO AKRON IF…

You know Exchange Street and Market Street

meet twice. — John Zofchak

“Driving through the Valley” means taking a

short cut. — Brian Harrell

Someone says “down in the Valley” and you

know exactly where they mean. — Jason S.

You ever went sledding down Cadillac Hill on a

trash can lid. — Jim Kormanik

You describe Akron to people as North Akron,

South Akron, East Akron and West Akron,

instead of just Akron. — Wesley Ian

Instead of saying you live in Akron, you say

you live in Wallhaven, Merriman Hills, Highland

Square, the Valley, Summit Lake, Firestone

Park, Goodyear Heights, etc. — Katie L.

You know at least four routes from Montrose

to Chapel Hill. — Chris Pelrine

You judge every place you go on the quality

and proximity of their parks. — John Craig

You know the difference between the Innerbelt

and Interbelt. — Dana W.

You’ve dined via boat on PLX. — Diane S.

You know every mile the blue line. — Brad H.

You consider your college years in Kent as

leaving home. — Michael McKeon

You know about the bricks. — Lilly Alexander

SIX DEGREES OF THE RUBBER CITY YOU’RE SO AKRON IF…

You get upset when people say LeBron is from

Cleveland. — Jeff L.

Your dad was LeBron’s teacher in 4th grade at

Portage Path Elementary. — Anna Hauenstein

Dan Auerbach’s mom was your French teacher

in high school. — Lauren Brady

You go to church with Pat Carney’s dad and

Dan Aurebach’s mom was your French teacher

in high school. — Molly Hauenstein

You know Zippy is a female.

— Tim M. (also Katie L.)

You’re David Giffels. — Chris Drabick

EPONYMOUS QUIRK YOU’RE SO AKRON IF…

You know what a devil strip is.

— LeAnn Greer

(also: Amanda S. and Alicia Wagner)

You don’t know there IS another word for

“devil strip.” — Jason S.

ART FOR AKRON’S SAKE YOU’RE SO AKRON IF…

You recognize all the references in “My City

Was Gone” by the Pretenders.

— Angie Miskell Haprian

You’ve done the math to figure out what year

The Black Keys will be eligible for induction

into the Rock Hall. — Jeff L.

You couldn’t wait for Ghoulardi’s Friday night

Shock Theater. — Jenny C.

You were an extra in the movie “The Dead

Next Door.” — Darlene Miller Faris

You’ve listened to the “Akron/Canton

Hometown Song” at the Karl and

Bob’s Taj Mahal. — Noel D.

When visiting a museum shop in another state,

you instantly recognize work from both Don

and Leandra Drumm from across the room

(and you know whose is whose

without checking). — Allison C.

Cover Story

You wear black-rimmed nerd glasses, right David Giffels? — Angie Miskell Haprian


Cover Story

IT’S A BIRD, IT’S A PLANE… IT’S AN AIRSHIP? YOU’RE SO AKRON IF…

You hear a low roar and run outside to see

the blimp. — Rick Stockburger

You know the sound of the blimp and only

casually look up to verify. — Brad H.

You’ve seen multiple Goodyear Blimps flying

together over the Rubber City.

— Julie Plaufcan DiVitto

Your parents met working at the Goodyear

Air Dock. — John Zofchak

You know that the Goodyear Airdock has its

own atmosphere with rain and clouds.

— Karen Hornick Sloan

You’ve tried to shoot down the blimp with a

BB gun. — Jen B.

You don’t need to qualify which blimp you

are talking about when you say “the blimp.”

— Jason S.

THE GOOD OL’ GOOD OLD DAYS YOU’RE SO AKRON IF…

You remember the smell of the rubber

factories in the 60s. — Jan Patetta

You walked to school and back with Wonder

bread plastic packaging inside your boots.

(And stopped at Forest Lodge to skate before

going home.) — Janet Sattler

You danced on the tables at the Bucket Shop.

— Tim M.

You danced on the walls at the Bucket Shop.

— John Zofchak

You remember Scott’s Five & Dime’s

Sloppy Joes. — Cyndi McVan Dicintio

You remember the Carousel Dinner Theater.

— Dan Pavlovich

You remember Dr. Feel Goods &

the Sun Lounge. — Willie J. Paige, Jr.

You dressed up to go school clothes shopping

at O’Neils and Polsky’s downtown.

— Jan Patetta

Your grandma still gives you Halle’s boxes

for Christmas. — Lauren Brady

You saw Rock Hudson and Paul Anka

at the cool downtown Soap Box

Derby parades. — Jan Patetta

You attended high school football games at

the Rubber Bowl. — Becca B.

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THESE PEOPLE MEANT YOU’RE SO AKRON IF…

Airdock, Rubber Bowl, Quaker Square,

Thursdays, West Point Market, Indian Statue?

You don’t “live” somewhere, you

“stay” there.

You used to drive past a building with a big

bright red sign that says “BJ” and didn’t

immediately think dirty thoughts.

You don’t even notice THAT smell in

the Valley.

You’re so Akron if you don’t need to consult the menu when you pull into Swenson’s or Skyway.

You already know what you want—you have the list of burgers and sides memorized, right? Akronites are divided between their loyalties to the two rival drive-in burger joints in town. We all have established firm opinions about our taste preferences between the Galley Boy and the SkyHi. I’m not even sure I’ve ever met anyone around here who doesn’t claim to love one burger over the other—or foolishly bold enough to suggest neither drive-in is a favorite spot.

You’re so Akron if you know precisely which time of day provides the safest opportunity to drive W. Market Street/Rt.18 from Fairlawn into Montrose.

We all know how difficult it is to drive the gauntlet of Rt. 18—cars, trucks, and buses are pulling out in front of you, cars merging into and from the center left lane, others quickly turning left in front of you, and every traffic light signal changes to yellow as you approach it. Making matters worse, I swear it’s always snowing or raining when I decide tonight is the night I’m brave enough to turn left into the plaza with my favorite store. Have you even, like myself, taken the 77 north expressway, exited above Montrose and driven back towards Summit Mall just to avoid the horror of all the busy intersections? I know, that doesn’t work either—the traffic is as bad one direction as it is the other. So what about knowing the best time to drive Rt. 18? It’s a trick! Morning, noon and night, it’s always a traffic nightmare. Every Akronite knows that.

You’re so Akron if you’ve ever stood in line to speak with Archie the Snowman.

Sitting on Santa’s lap may be an annual event, however, it doesn’t replace the experience of chatting with the 20-foot friendly behemoth made of unmeltable “snow.” Akron’s talking Christmas attraction began in the late 1960s and stood tall at Chapel Hill Mall for 36 years. The mall’s new owners took him down in the mid-2000s until enough Akronites

demanded his return. In 2012, Archie was re-constructed in downtown Akron at Lock 3 for the next generation of our city’s children. Then, last Christmas, Archie was moved back to the center court of Chapel Hill Mall. Whether you stood in line when you were a child, brought your little ones, or maybe even accompanied your grandchildren to stand in line and gaze up at the two-story, “frozen” wonder, a real Akronite appreciates that some traditions in this ever-changing city are worth bringing back. Don’t get me started trying to make sense of the fact that Archie once had glowing red eyes--perhaps some of us loved a little terror in our Christmas traditions too!

You’re so Akron if you play“Six Degrees of Akron Celebrities.”

For reasons that aren’t always clear, Akronites love to publicly account for their close connections to national celebrities that used to live here. It doesn’t matter if your connection is through The Black Keys, DEVO, Chrissie Hynde or LeBron James; the object is to identify the lowest number of degrees connecting yourself to a favorite Akron celebrity. A perfectly acceptable competitive game move is “I used to work with a woman whose cousin sat behind Patrick Carney in study hall at Firestone High School.” That, my friends, is three degrees of the Black Keys. Another acceptable move is “My husband attended every St. Vincent-St. Mary’s varsity basketball home game during LeBron’s junior year in high school, and when LeBron came back to Akron in 2014 and spoke at Akron U., the great one looked into the crowd and made eye contact with us when he said the word ‘Akron.’” This would be a winning move in nearly every version I’ve heard played. Maybe identifying this nearness is a way we can feel inspired to succeed in our daily lives? Or maybe it’s a game of one-upsmanship in which we try to glom from someone else’s superstardom and in turn, bolster our own self-identity. Or, just maybe it’s a game of shoot-the-shit, best enjoyed while downing Thirsty Dog brews and not looking for any larger meaning behind it.

You think every logo would be better with a blimp in it. — Jeremy D. Lile

Just how Akron are you?

Joanna Wilson


AppetizersMacaroni and cheese bites, served with

Sriracha ketchup. (The Lockview)

Goat Cheese with spicy marinara and fried pita bread. (Bricco/Pub Bricco’s)

Popcorn with bacon and cheese. (Jilly’s Music Room)

B.O.R.I.S. brisket nachos (Tasting Room at Hoppin’ Frog)

Seasoned nuts. (Baxter’s)

Soups & SaladsRoasted beets salad with pears, ricotta,

walnuts, bacon and a champagne honey vinaigrette. (Crave)

Pulled pork Cuban salad with black bean and corn salsa, goat cheese,

guacamole, garlic and cilantro vinaigrette (Edgar’s)

Mushroom & brie bisque in the bread bowl

(Rockne’s)

Coconut milk soup with Chicken or Tofu

(Cilantro)

Soup of the Day, tomato and goat cheese

(Nuevo)

EntreesJaffar’s Pitza, pita pitza with vegetarian

chili, cheddar cheese, scallions and tahini yogurt dressing (Aladdin’s)

Mojo Burger, custom blend of beef, pork and Cajun spices with cheddar cheese and

jalapeño coleslaw bacon (The Rail)

Tandoori Malai Kabob, chicken breast marinated in cream cheese and ginger.

(Saffron Patch)

Chicken saltimbocca, Italian panko-crusted, prosciutto, provolone, sage, whipped potatoes, spinach and

roasted tomato in a madeira cream sauce (The Office)

Pan-seared diver scallops drizzled with applewood bacon brown butter

(Wise Guys)

12 oz. double-cut, bone-in pork chop with mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables

(The Merchant)

DessertsS’mores bread pudding (Pub Bricco)

Angel food cake, secret family recipe. (The Merchant)

DrinksThe Fashionable – Jim Beam, honey syrup,

orange, maraschino cherry, bitters, ginger ale (Jilly’s)

Velvet Frog – Grey Goose, Godiva White Chocolate and a dash of Chambord

(Beau’s Grille)

You’re so Akron if…

THIS IS YOUR KIND OF MENU.

Some of our favorite dishes from around the Akron area

Compiled by Jecca

where was this served?

Chinese food is never this good.

Actually, it’s Cantonese and

all the sauces are made from

scratch--duck sauce, sweet and

sour, hot mustard--you name it. Can you

guess where this plate of spicy garlic shrimp was served?

Be the first to tweet the answer to @akrondevilstrip or email the

answer to [email protected] and you’ll get you picture in the next issue.

the dish

United Way is a champion for healthy food for all in Summit County. We believe that nutritious food should be available to everyone, regardless of income. So we partner with many nonprofit organizations to promote equal access to healthy, high-quality food.

Join us at the table. Volunteer.

If you have a passion for healthy food education, access and policy, connect with the United Way Volunteer Center to find ways to get involved with amazing programs and people in your community. Whether you have just one evening to help out a community garden, want to volunteer weekly at a farmers’ market or can spend some time in an office supporting a program, you can become a part of the solution.

Current volunteer opportunities:1. Help with planting, weeding, watering and harvesting at

an urban farm or community garden2. Lend support to a weekly farmer’s market3. Organize a healthy food drive4. Deliver meals to seniors in their homes 5. Mentor kids on nutrition and exercise

Many more projects are available! Contact the United Way Volunteer Center at [email protected] or 330.643.5512 for a complete list of opportunities or search our online volunteer project database at uwsummit.org. Click VOLUNTEER, and then click the quick link for food-related opportunities. Nonprofits – contact the Volunteer Center to add your project.

beCause Great thinGs haPPen When We liVe uniteD.

United Way of Summit County

uWsuMMit.orG

What this PlaCe neeDs is healthy fooD for eVeryone.

What this PlaCe neeDs is healthy fooD for eVeryone.


The recipe for success at Pierre’s Brooklyn

Pizza and Deli is almost comically simple,

but expertly precise: “You make good

pizza, everyone comes to you,” the shop’s

eponymous owner says.

As simple as it may seem, it’s proven true for

the two-person operation—Pierre and his wife,

Mireille—whose regulars popped in and out,

while Pierre, looking curiously out the window,

predicted each patron’s order with

stunning accuracy.

On the streets of Akron’s Kenmore

neighborhood, the store looks transplanted

from its namesake city of Brooklyn. However,

Pierre’s shares more than its recipes and charm

with New York. The small shop is tied tragically

to NYC, its people and scars that have never

completely healed.

Before moving into a red brick storefront on

Kenmore Ave, before his made-from-scratch

sauce and dough brought customers from

around northeast Ohio, Pierre Sahlani was

working in his family’s grocery when two

commercial airplanes crashed into the World

Trade Center. While panicked bystanders

fled from the rubble and chaos, Pierre and

his employees left their shop and rushed to

Ground Zero to help.

“They left without thinking,” Mireille says. “It

was just a reaction. They had to go.”

Afterward, the city was depressing. The luster

was gone. The place was no longer the same

for them. They’d lost friends and customers,

and counted how many firefighters in their

borough left and “never returned.”

To cope, Pierre returned to his native Lebanon.

While he was away, three of his friends went

on a hunting trip they’d invited him to join.

When Pierre returned to the states, Mireille,

who stayed in New York, had to tell him his

friends were killed when their car rolled. “He

was supposed to be with them,” she says.

It was time, they decided, to leave the New

York; time for a new life. So the two natives of

Lebanon left Brooklyn for Akron, where Pierre

had family. Here, he found a pizza shop that

was going out of business at 964 Kenmore

Blvd, a place they would call home for the next

six years as they moved into the apartment

above the store.

Their menu runs the gamut from ten-topping

pizzas to sub sandwiches that rival an actual

submarine in size, layered thick with lunch

meats and lettuce.

“You ever see a pizza like this?” Pierre asks,

pulling out a pie the size of manhole cover. As

he bags an Italian for one of his regulars, he

gestures with the sub, which looks like it could

possibly feed a family for a week, and says,

“This is our sandwich.”

Presently, they’re recruiting family to join them

in Akron, but their New York roots are obvious.

One wall in the pizza shop is dedicated to

their former city, including a black and white

photograph of the Twin Towers overlooking

the Hudson River and a star-spangled fireman’s

helmet once worn by former-NYC Mayor, Rudy

Giuliani.

Mireille and Pierre go about their business in a

city they’ve come to love. In Ohio, the weather

is much the same. Even now, she still loves

the snow. And Pierre, being the responsible

restaurateur he is, embraces it too because, of

course, the snow, he says, kills the germs.

Pierre’s BrooklynPIZZA & DELI

One man’s mission to eat at every pizza joint in townEric Morris

“You ever see a pizza like this?”

964 Kenmore Blvd.Akron, Ohio 44314

(330) 745-7900

Pierre's

Brooklyn

Pizza and Deli

In the kitchen with...the dish


I’m an Akron transplant. I haven’t been here

long, but I’ve learned a few things. Firstly,

whenever you tell an Akronite that you just

moved to Akron, be prepared to answer the

question: “Why?” Also:

“Have you ever had sauerkraut balls?”Well, I have.

The first time, I was starving. After a day of

running errands over what felt like all of Ohio,

there was only one thing on my mind when I

finally sat down at Rockne’s: food.

“I think it’s time you try sauerkraut balls,” my

friend said from across the table.

Initiation time, the moment I’d learn exactly

how “Akron” I’d really become. I was ready

to give this northeastern Ohio delicacy a whirl,

despite not being a huge sauerkraut fan, but

life experience has taught me that everything

deep fried is good.

I just didn’t expect sauerkraut balls to be that

damn good. There’s something about the

paradox between the texture and flavor. The

crunchy, deep-fried shell filled with mushy

sauerkraut—that mushy-ness anything but

the flavorless mush you expect—tangy, a bit

aggressive, unable to be ignored.

So why do I love Akron? For much the same

reason I fell for the sauerkraut balls.

This city is unlike any place I’ve ever been. It

is as welcoming as it is hardened. It presents

challenges, then talks you through them. It’s

the people; there’s just something about them.

And, the food. It doesn’t have to be particular

to Akron for Akron to do it particularly well.

Like, grilled cheeses. The Lockview forces you

to pick from 13 delicious types of gourmet

grilled cheeses. Do I want artichokes on my

sandwich tonight? Perhaps mashed potatoes

and gravy? Each is served with a side of

my all-time favorite childhood (also, post

night-out-drinking) snack: Goldfish. If you’re

feeling adventurous, have sweet potato fries

with some of that sriracha ketchup. They

even garnish your grilled cheese with a tiny

umbrella. When that gooey masterpiece is

placed before me, I am seven years old again,

home sick from school, lying on the couch with

a blanket and a lunch that my mom made for

me. Then I remember, I’m eating goat cheese,

Swiss cheese, portobello mushrooms and

caramelized onions—the very same things that

would have caused my seven-year-old self’s

nose to crinkle.

How about chicken and waffles? A modern

American staple that Crave serves with

cinnamon, sage and maple foam as well

as syrup. Or go for some upper East Coast

comfort food. Being from New England, I

take lobster very seriously so pairing it with

pineapple tarragon vinaigrette in a salad? I

jumped at the chance. Forever a Boston girl,

my heart may be back home but my tastebuds

were happy to be here.

A true spirit of adventurousness still requires

tough choices, which is exactly what I face at

Urban Eats every time. Their menu changes

monthly so just when you pick a favorite, a

new set of choices appears. The sandwiches,

soups and paninis are as eye-catching as the

pop art on the walls, and you’re guaranteed an

international flavor every visit.

Mr. Zub’s Deli has a sandwich literally stuffed

with mac and cheese and bacon, and named

Hightower after Bubba Smith’s character in

the movie “Police Academy.” It’s the kind

of sandwich I want to spend the rest of my

life with—that is, a sandwich that almost

transcends being a sandwich, a sandwich that

says, “Hey, I can put whatever the hell I want

between my slices and you can just deal

with it.”

Swenson’s drive-ins deliver what may be the

epitome of good ol’ American comfort food:

the Galley Boy, a cheeseburger smothered in

some delicious mystery sauce and stabbed with

a green-olived toothpick. Want fries with that?

I’ll take my down home American potatoes as

teezers, filled with cheese and jalapeños. Plus,

the whole time I get to sit in my car and watch

young guys race each other across the parking

lot to feed me. A dream come true.

The irony is that when you answer the

“Why Akron?” with your gushing about

all these culinary delights—and the bars,

neighborhoods, people, events, etc.—

Akronites heartily agree with you. That

question doesn’t come from a place of

insecurity but perhaps a sense of honest

surprise that you discovered their secret. You’ll

hear how happy they are that you love it, that

they’re glad you’re here and feel at home,

that you seem like you’ve been here all of your

life—and that, hell yeah, this place is pretty

damn good, now that you mention it.

They aren’t messing with you; they really mean

this stuff. Akronites are proud of what makes

Akron, well, Akron.

Which leads me to the next thing you should

prepare to hear if you’re new: More food

recommendations. Fortunately, I’m a girl with

a healthy appetite and I could talk about food

for days. Days.

So, I’m going to level with you. I think Akron

is just like one big sauerkraut ball. Deep-fried

homey goodness. Hard around the outside and

filled with a punchy, fermented bite—but still

soft, warm and inviting. Comfort with an edge.

Food/Fun

MORE SAUERKRAUT BALLS, PLEASE!

A newbie tackles Akron’s tastiest secretsHolly Brown

FILM: “The Way Way Back” (2013) In a tweet: Directors Nat Faxon and Jim

Rash, take us back to the legendary

summers where life tasted the

sweetest when it was floating by

too fast.

What it’s really about: A funny

and poignant coming of age story

about 14-year-old Duncan’s (Liam

James) summer vacation with his

mother, Pam (Toni Collette), her

overbearing boyfriend, Trent

(Steve Carell).Having a rough

time fitting in, the introverted

Duncan finds an unexpected

friend in personable grown up

Owen (Sam Rockwell), manager of the

Water Wizz water park. Through his funny,

eye opening friendship with Owen, Duncan

slowly opens up to and begins to finally find

his place in the world. During a summer

vacation he will never forget.

Why it’s good: There’s something that hits

close to home when it comes to Faxon and

Rash’s script. It feels like an accurate summer

account at a point in our lives when we all

feel immortal. The movie makes us feel like

anything is possible with a little help and

guidance. That is a lost art in modern film.

Who you’ll remember: This is a comic

coming out party for Rockwell. His sarcastic

wit in the script’s dialogue is something

that deserves to be seen by everyone.

Carrell gives an unlikely antagonist turn as

the metaphorical fork in Duncan’s road to

happiness. It’s a rare opportunity to see a

different side of the usually comedic Carell.

How it’ll surprise you: There’s a touching

message hidden softly underneath the

surface. Sometimes we just need a little

motivation to show our true colors.

Bonus Points: The script is a perfect mix of

drama and comedy that uses both genres

effortlessly well in its attempt to showcase

the psychological harm that is keeping this

boy bottled up.

Feast: Luigi’s

While at the video store, order from one of

Akron’s most prominent downtown eateries

for Italian nirvana, Luigi’s. Complete with a

colorful array of tasty wines and delicious

Italian foods, this almost 70 year old Akron

institution is a favorite among Akronites

stories and legends. Daytime specials like the

slice and salad, pasta fagiole and soup du

jour will have you planning future visits even

before you get home.

Film Freak’s Suggestion: Start with a

cheese salad. It’s a perfect addition to the

complimentary homemade bread that’s

warmth will melt butter instantly. The special

salad dressing alone will have your mouth

watering, and sets the perfect precedent for

a main course. The entrée—what else? Pizza.

I personally recommend the large pepperoni

and mushroom pie to share with a friend or

significant other. Your facial reactions will tell

it all in an edible transformation to a time

when Akron was discovering it’s personality

for great Italian. Close the deal with a red

wine. The rich aroma of a Pinot will set you

in the perfect mix of edible satisfaction and

liquid relaxation. A must experience for

every Akronite.

dinner & A Movie

AKRON’SINDIECINEMA NIGHTLIGHTCINEMA.COM

3/20-4/2Families reckon with occupying Jihadists

TIMBUKTU

3/14-3/26Cannes’ Best Screenplay winner

LEVIATHAN

3/27-4/9A 19-year-old is haunted by a persistent pursuer

IT FOLLOWS

4/3-4/16Misfit Kumiko is on a quest

KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER

The Way Way Backand Luigi’s

Chris Kessinger, the Film Freak

Dinner& a Movie


A Day in the Life of…

Commitment &The Good Life

Commitment is a beautiful thing.

Commitment over time is much more beautiful.

Something about perseverance stri-kes a chord in mankind.

Believing in some “thing” so much that you’re willing to risk it all to see that “thing” succeed.

This type of commitment is beautiful.

I believe Jeremiah could live and work in a much bigger city, making a lot more money but he stays in Akron because he believes in Akron. Instead of complaining about what Akron is not, he busts his ass to help Akron become the kind of place he desires to live. This is uncommon, I think. This is rare.

These are some of my personal favorites from my day...

Photographer’s notes: Every month I want to display a series of photographs that share a similar story and/or theme. This time, I spent the day at my friend Jeremiah Currier’s shop, Good Life - Body Piercing + Fine Jewelry. I didn’t make any promises; I didn’t stage any shots. I just walked around with my camera and observed.

Maxarmando Rivera


Music & COncerts

Wednesday, March 18JACKIE WARREN

7 pm at BLU Jazz+ (FREE)

47 E Market St, Akron

A cornerstone of the Cleveland jazz & salsa

scenes, is one of the most in-demand pianists

in the area and has rightfully earned the

nickname “Cleveland’s First Lady of Jazz.”

More at blujazzakron.com/shows

THURSDAY, MARCH 19KEVIN JUNIOR / ACOUSTIC THURSDAYS

8 pm at Annabell's

784 W Market St, Akron

MAGICALLY DELICIOUS

8 pm at BLU Jazz+


This dynamic group of professional musicians

based in Columbus, Ohio focuses eight on the

arrangements and the original compositions of

its accomplished members.

Friday, March 20MOUTHS OF BABES

CVNP Canteen Concerts

8-10 pm at Happy Days Lodge (tix $5-$17)

500 W. Streetsboro St., Peninsula

While you munch on locally-sourced cuisine

from the Conservancy Canteen, Ty Greenstein

(Girlyman) and Ingrid Elizabeth (Coyote Grace)

will apply their undeniable chemistry in a

performance that is equal parts celebration and

blues, folk and soul. Visit conservancyforcvnp.

org/events for details.

DUSTCRUSHERS, WHITE LIGHTNING

& THE BLACKOUTS AND BROKEN MUGS

10 pm-1 am at Annabell’s

784 W Market St, Akron

Akron post-rock noise band Broken Mugs joins

Kent’s DustCrushers and White Lightning & the

Blackouts for a show that’ll weird-out the old

folks. Not that there’ll be any old folks there.

This is loud, dirty music that makes your PBR

feel good.

THE LIVING WITH INDUCING PANIC

8 pm at Chuck’s Steakhouse

456 E South St, Akron

The Living coming straight outta Canton… for

fans of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Nirvana,

Foo Fighters and Alice in Chains.

Nikki Revolver, Devilstrip &

Take Off Charlie

11 pm at Empire Concert Club

Co-headliners Nikki Revolver and Devilstrip

rock The Empire on the strength of their

recently released CDs that put their Akron and

Canton pride front and center. Akron's own

Take Off Charlie joins the mix with Circle of

One out of PA.

Saturday, March 21JESSICA HERNANDEZ & THE DELTAS ($8)

8 pm at Musica

This band of Detroiters brings their body-

moving sound—self-defined “Carny Soul”—

back through Akron before heading overseas

for their first tour of Europe. See “8 Questions

with Jessica Hernandez” for more. Visit

akronmusica.com for details about the show.

JUSTO SABORIT


1305 E Tallmadge Ave, Akron

A native of Havana, Cuba, guitarist Justo

Saborit has crafted a distinctive style out of

studying and performing classical, blues,

jazz, rock & R&B, which he’s blended with

influences from his homeland.

AHI-NAMA

8 pm at BLU Jazz+


Salsa, timba and Latin Jazz by way of northeast

Ohio, founded by native Alex Hoyt

XTRA CRISPY WITH MAY DAY RIOTS

AND THE SAID SO



Wednesday, March 25THE RECORD PARTY

6-8 pm at Jilly’s Music Room


Consider it a fun hump day happy hour for

folks who have to get to bed for work the next

day. Expect obscure retro tunes and lots of

danceable music by a trio of vocalists.

JOE HUNTER

7 pm at BLU Jazz+


A first-call pianist, Joe Hunter has established

himself as one of the cornerstones of the

Cleveland and Columbus jazz circuits. Visit

blujazzakron.com/shows for details.

Bars / Nightlife

Music and Comedy Nights atJilly's Music Room

Musica


Bars / Nightlife

SUPER BOB


1305 E. Tallmadge Ave., Akron

This four-man rock band invades the A-K

Rowdy from the Washington, D.C. area, one of

the 240 shows they play a year in support of

their three full-length records.

Friday, March 27MUSIC: ACID CATS, SCARLET & THE

HARLOTS, JOVAN WILDER AND THE WILD

THINGS

8 pm at Jilly’s Music Room (FREE)


Guess which of the three describes themselves

as “Hard blues driven rock n' roll with a sassy

red headed belter out front.” Scarlet & the

Harlots, which is probably my favorite name

for a local band. In fact, this night may be the

best for local music in Akron all month. It’s

certainly got to be the most eclectic. Consider

the rock-infused acid jazz of Acid Cats and the

soulful, groove-oriented funk of Jovan Wilder

and the Wild Things, and you should feel guilty

for seeing this all for free.

THE GIGGITYS AND SUPER AWESOME

MACHO WITH PUNK WILLIE

9:10 pm at Annabell’s (FREE)

From the ashes of northeast Ohio's legendary

punk band The Nimrods come The Giggitys,

fronted by Ric Nimrod hisself. Super Awesome

Macho plays true rock roots stuff mixed up

with punk and surf that itself plays like the love

baby of the Dead Kennedys and Dick Dale.

Youngstown’s Punk Willie makes their Akron

debut.

CHRIS COLES QUINTET

"Tribute to Coltrane & Cannonball"

8 pm at BLU Jazz+

Exciting Cleveland-based saxophonist leads

all-star band in a special evening honoring

the music of jazz legends John Coltrane &

Cannonball Adderley.

Saturday, March 283RD ANNUAL ROCK FOR A GOOD CAUSE

Fairlawn and Hudson Schools of Music

4-9 pm at Musica ($5 donation)

51 East Market St, Akron

Young music students ply their craft to benefit

the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank’s Harvest

for Hunger with a goal of raising $1,500 which

would provide 6,000 meals locally. Bands

include Rock N’ Royalty, Farfetched, Ava &

The Hitmen, No Name Tuesday, Three Legged

Chairs and No Expectations.

Instead of paying admission, guests will be

asked to donate $5 or 10 non-perishable food

items.

TALL HEIGHTS W/ DARLINGSIDE

CVNP Canteen Concerts

8-10 pm at Happy Days Lodge (tix $5-$17)

500 West Streetsboro Street, Peninsula

Vocal harmonies drive a folk-inspired

accompaniment of cello and acoustic guitar in

Tall Heights, while Darlingside’s four distinct

voices draw from strains of bluegrass, classical,

and even barbershop.

HUBBS GROOVE

8 pm at Akron Civic Theatre

Expect a tour of jazz, soul, gospel, classical

and R&B music when Hubbs Groove plays this

cabaret-style show at Akron’s most beautiful

venue. For details, visit akroncivic.com

Monday, March 30MELODIME & RYAN HUMBERT


1305 E Tallmadge Ave, Akron, Ohio 44310

Ryan Humbert, one of Akron’s hardest-

working singer-songwriters, takes the Empire

stage with Melodime, a DC-area band that

layers bittersweet melodies and rich vocals

atop a bed of Southern-flavored alt-rock.

Tuesday, March 31BONZ, FEAT. BONZ OF STUCK MOJO



The band is BONZ—all-caps like that—and it’s

fronted by Bonz, who formerly fronted Atlanta-

based rap-metal rockers Stuck Mojo.

Plan AheadJEREMY HAHN’S MEMORIAL SHOW

Saturday, April 4

6 pm at Chuck’s Steakhouse (FREE)


To honor Jeremy Hahn’s memory and his

passion for local music, his friends are doing

his “Punk Meets Metal” thing with an

"outlaw" twist, featuring a lineup that includes

AJ DeJulius, May Day Riots, Dead Again, The

Said So, Ties That Bind, Last Days Pay and

Flames Burn Black.

Anchor the Moon at Empire Concert Club

Weekend at Musica

Art & Ale (Courtesy of Akron Art Museum)

Better Block meeting at the Akron Civic Theatre

(Courtesy of Dale Dong/The Akronist)

MARCH 2015 • VOL 1 • ISSUE #1 / THE Devil Strip | 23

When Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas come

to Akron, it’ll be their second time through and

their second-to-last US date before heading

overseas for their inaugural tour of Europe.

Though they’ll be opening for legendary

California punk rockers Social D, Jessica grew

up in Detroit listening to the Spice Girls and

No Doubt. In high school, she fell under the

influences of a wide-ranging bunch from

Tammy Wynette and Patsy Cline to Tom Waits

and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. She’s an eclectically

affected old soul whose borderline bubbly

personality masks any hint of the “Secret Evil”

promised by the title of her debut full-length

album. Somewhere in all that, it makes sense

that she has applied labels to the band’s sound

like “Carny Soul” and “Motown Circus.” The

most surprising, not surprising thing out of

the whole interview is that whether she quits

music or rockets on to stardom, she’s probably

going to open a Cuban restaurant with her

dad. Enjoy. – Chris Horne

� CH: When you’re touring around the

states, how different does it feel when

you get outside the Rust Belt—out West

or down South—or, does it feel

different at all?

JH: I think it’s more similar than it seems.

It’s strange because one of the things about

touring is realizing how similar we all are.

Maybe it’s because you’re only seeing the small

percentage of people that are coming to your

shows, or involved in the music scene—and

that subculture in the US is pretty small and

there’s some sort of like-mindedness, or at

least something that connects all these people.

� CH: In an NPR interview, you said,

“In a smaller city, it’s about community,

not trampling on the people around you

to get where you want to go.” Do you

feel like you have a responsibility to

that community?

JH: Yeah, for sure. I think that as much as the

band wants to better itself, you’re also really

trying to help out the city where you come

from and trying to give people a different

perspective on it, a positive one instead of the

negative publicity, which seems to be most

of what’s happening lately, nationally. Yeah, a

sense of responsibility, of bringing something

positive to it and then also, as we grow,

being able to help grow the music scene and

introduce other artists and help them any way

we can—that’s definitely part of what we want

to do.

� CH: In that same interview you did

one of the most endearing things I’ve ever

heard another adult do when you started

singing “Mama’s cooking pork chops”

about providing an impromptu soundtrack

to everything as it happened in your home

growing up.

JH: (laughs) Music was such a big part of it.

I mean, I’m just such a goofy person; I was

always making up songs to everything. My

parents are both super musical. They were

always just really big into the music scene, so

I was always waking up to my dad playing his

records or my mom putting on whatever she

was listening to, so it just became a big part

of my life. And then I was a choir kid and a

theatre kid. I was, you know, the nerdy theatre/

choir girl in high school. It’s funny because all

the guys in my band were like that too: the

band dorks. We always laugh because we are

still that way. Being part of that theatre/choir

culture at such a young age—always making

stories up, making songs up.

� CH: So listening to your mom’s and

dad’s records, is that how you got into

Tammy Wynette and Patsy Cline and Tom

Waits and Wanda Jackson and all that?

JH: My great uncle passed away when I was a

senior in high school and his wife gave me his

entire record collection, and it was a lot of old

country, a lot of old soul then Motown, jazz;

just anything and everything. It was hundreds

of records. I started digging into his record

collection and that’s when I discovered a lot of

the old country female artists that I really, really

like. I think that really influenced a lot of my

songwriting—songs like “Cry, Cry, Cry” is one

in particular I think was really influenced by a

lot of those old female country artists.

� CH: You taught yourself how to

play guitar, keyboards and drums—

how does that influence the way you

approach songwriting?

JH: Because I get bored easily, I’m always

finding something. Whenever I write I always

want to change it up and start the songs from

a different instrument. One day I’ll start the

song from drums and I’ll work on a beat I really

like and record that and then build upon that.

…If I’m just writing on an acoustic guitar, it

might be more of a Patsy Cline kinda vibe, or

if I’m writing on an organ, then it might have

more of a Tom Waits kind of vibe.

� CH: If you weren’t touring this much—

or at all—what do you think you’d be

doing with your life?

JH: Music was always #1 on my list, since I

was really young, but it doesn’t scare me to

not be doing music. That’s probably because

I’m so close with my family and they’re such

a big part of my life that I always wanted to

open a Cuban restaurant with my dad. That’s

always been in the back of my mind: Well,

if this music thing work out, I’m opening up

my restaurant and then I’m going to do my

clothing stuff.

� CH: The loyalty you have for Detroit,

is that common among you and your

friends? You seem to wear Detroit on

your sleeves.

JH: Yeah, I think a lot of people from there

do. I don’t know what it is about the city but

it seems everybody that’s from there gets a lot

of drive from being from there. I think despite

all the bad press that Detroit gets, I think that a

lot of people have a lot of respect for the city.

� CH: I have a reader question. Jasmine

wonders what’s been your favorite and/or

the strangest gift you’ve received from

a fan?

JH: We get a lot of funny gifts. We get a lot

of coffee—I guess people know we all like

coffee. We’ve gotten clothes and moonshine

gummy bears. Yeah, those were amazing.

Those were among my favorites. We get a

lot of cool gifts but my favorites though are

letters. Those usually end up being my favorite.

You know, you’re having a crummy day and

then someone gives you a letter and you open

it and they tell you the music makes their week

better. Totally turns your day around.

8 questions

Questions with singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist

Jessica Hernandez


They may not have witnessed the birth of rock

in the forties and fifties—or experienced its

plaid phase in the nineties—but Ava and the

Hitmen have soul stemming back from far

before they were born.

On a recent Monday evening, I went to check

out their rehearsal, expecting the coolest,

cutest thing I had ever heard.

In his neon-shoes and khaki-colored corduroys,

11-year-old keyboardist Lawrence Saltis looked

cool standing casually behind his Casio. Way

cooler than I did at 11—perhaps way cooler

than I do now, actually.

“I like being with drummers, guitarists, and

jamming around, maybe doing a little blues

sometimes,” Saltis said.

The band was the brainchild of nine-year-

old drummer Luke Konopka and 11-year-old

guitarist Eric Goldstein, both students at the

Fairlawn School of Music, where they met and

were rehearsing this evening.

Goldstein was tinkering with his pedal board.

His baseball tee read: “RELAX,” in all caps.

Noted, I thought.

Proud parents were all over the place,

dropping their kids off, waiting in their cars

in the parking lot. The pint-sized, 10-year-old

front woman for the band, Ava Preston, was

adjusting her mic as I spoke with her mom.

“She’s been singing since she was two or

three,” Lisa Allison told me. When I asked

if Lisa, herself, was musical, she adamantly

claimed she was not the source of her

daughter’s musical talent.

Katie Carver Reed, programs director of the

school, warmly ushered me around.

“This is an actual garage band,” she said of

Ava and the Hitmen, leading me into their

rehearsal, “because this is actually a garage.”

The repurposed room was warm and clean,

but maintained the minimalism and grit you

would expect out of any young musician’s

practice space.

Last to join Ava and her tiny musical henchman

was 12-year-old bassist Fritz Dannemiller, the

newest member of the team.

The Fairlawn and Hudson Schools of Music

offer both group and private lessons in a

variety of genres. When students show interest

in teaming up, the schools and their coaches—

successful musicians in their own right—are

eager to give the children the technical

instruction and real life lessons they need to

make it as a band. This is how Ava and the

Hitmen became a functioning unit.

Coaches Natalie Grace Martin and Jack

McFadden looked in their element as they

helped this mob of 9-12 year olds rehearse

Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know.”

I was a little taken aback by all this. I knew it

would be cute but I wasn’t expecting it to be

excellent. Every cymbal hit. Every guitar riff.

Every note Ava attempted and then conquered.

This was a rock band and these were real

musicians—just a bit shorter than most. Old

pros at a young age.

On my way out, I told Ava, “You’re like a little

Grace Slick, you know that?”

She smiled. “Thank you.”

Learn more about Ava and the Hitmen at

www.the DevilStrip.com

Fairlawn School of Music presents

their 2nd annual Rock for a Good

Cause, which benefits the Akron-

Canton Foodbank’s Harvest for

Hunger campaign.

If they raise just $1000, they can

provide 4,000 meals locally. You

can chip in by attending to hear

student bands like Ava and the

Hit Men.

Rock for a Good CauseSaturday, March 28 Show starts at 4 p.m.

Musica51 East Market Street, Akron

Call 330-576-6527 or visit fairlawnschoolofmusic.com

band spotlight

on stage with... Ava and the Hitman

These youngsters with soul are ready to rock for a good cause.Maria Varonis

Here is the space to add the description of the image you place below/above bigger.


Comics & Puzzles

Crossword Puzzle Set by Alberich

ACROSS1 Horse and trap for a fairy (6)

5 Erect principal feature of a wall (4-4)

9 Opener hit runs, returning after disastrous

debut (2 ducks) (8)

10 One following Parisian woman? – one

briefly loved by 24 (6)

11 Mobile rang and spoiled start of drama –

like Mousetrap (6-6)

13 Setter devours books – what a fairy! (4)

14 Writer's surrounded by old flames –

thereby things can get heated (4,4)

17 Outlined short comedy piece to

journalist (8)

18 Section of Plato is about Greek

character (4)

20 Pure uranium, untreated with aluminium,

goes into meltdown (12)

23 The weaver's an ass (6)

24 Greek 22 bewitched by 5 (8)

25 Characters not of the standard height will

remain at base (5,3)

26 King gives orders to soldiers

retreating north (6)

DOWN2 Raised wolf for money once (4)

3 Toils hard, raising support for

educational aid (9)

4 In which 2 would be 10 (6)

5 Puck heartlessly stealing food is running

around like chicken that's headless (5,10)

6 Greek 22 who was well heeled? Hardly (8)

7 Greetings heard from Scottish town (5)

8 Make Holy See contract indefinitely to be

unorthodox (10)

12 Being watchful, observing through the

window (7,3)

15 In money matters, a European is doing

nothing (9)

16 In short, a man and a woman have love for

nightingale (8)

19 Lieutenant with 23 i-in company (but not

in the same company as 23) (6)

21 Takin' out member of chivalric order (5)

22 Leander's love is a bird with no 23 (4)

alberichcrosswords.com


Confessions of a Rust Belt

Orphan(How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Northeast Ohio)

Jason Segedy

As near as I can tell, the term “Rust Belt”

originated sometime in the mid-1980s. I

originated slightly earlier, in 1972, at St.

Thomas Hospital in Akron, Ohio—Rubber

Capital of the World.

My very earliest memory is of a day in the

summer of 1975 when my parents, my baby

brother and I went on a camping trip to Lake

Milton, just west of Youngstown. I was three.

To this day, I can still remember looking at the

green overhead freeway signs along the West

Expressway and taking in the overpoweringly

pungent smell of rubber wafting from the

smokestacks of B.F. Goodrich and Firestone.

My mother explained that those were the

factories where the tires and the rubber and

the chemicals were made. They were made by

hard-working, good people—people like my

Uncle Jim.

When I was a little older, I would hear that this

was the smell of good jobs, of hard, dangerous

work—the way of life that built this quirky

and gritty town. It was the smell that tripled

Akron’s population between 1910 and 1920,

transforming the canal-town into the 32nd

largest city in America. It is a smell now laced

with melancholy and nostalgia—for it was the

smell of an era coming to its end.

On the way to the campground, we stopped

by my grandparents’ home in Firestone Park

where my grandmother had a box of Barnum’s

Animals crackers waiting for me. She was

always kind and generous like that.

My grandparents were Akron. Their story is

Akron’s story. My grandfather, George Segedy,

was born in 1916, in Barnesboro, a small

coal-mining town in Western Pennsylvania,

somewhere between Johnstown, DuBois

and nowhere. His father, a coal miner, had

emigrated there from Hungary nine years

earlier. My grandmother, Helen Szabo, was

born in Barberton, in 1920.

They were in factories their entire working

lives—jobs like that weren’t called “careers”

back then. My grandfather worked at the

Firestone Tire & Rubber Company. My

grandmother worked at Saalfield Publishing,

which was once among the world’s largest

producers of children’s books, games and

puzzles. Today, both plants form part of a

gutted, derelict, post-apocalyptic moonscape

in South Akron between that same West

Expressway I remember from childhood

and perdition.

The City of Akron plans to revitalize this former

industrial area, and should, but there are

ghosts there…

My grandparents’ house exemplified working-

class Akron in the late 1970s and early 1980s:

lots of cigarettes and ashtrays, “Hee-Haw,”

“The Joker’s Wild,” fresh tomatoes and

peppers, Fred and Lamont Sanford, Archie

and Edith Bunker, listening to Herb Score and

Indians baseball on the front porch, hand-

knitted afghans, UHF/VHF, channels 3, 5, 8

and 43, cold cans of Coca-Cola and Pabst Blue

Ribbon, the Ohio Lottery, chicken and galuskas

(dumplings), a garage floor you could eat off

of, a meticulously maintained 14-year-old

Chrysler with 29,000 miles on it, a refrigerator

in the dining room because the kitchen was

too small, catching fireflies in jars and all being

right with the world.

More often than not, when we visited my

grandparents, my Uncle Jim and Aunt Helen

would be there. Uncle Jim was born in 1936,

in West Virginia. His family, too, had come to

Akron to find work that was better-paying,

steadier and relatively less dangerous than

the work in the coal mines. Uncle Jim was a

rubber-worker, first at Mohawk Rubber and

then B.F. Goodrich. Uncle Jim also cut hair

over at the appropriately-named West Virginia

Barbershop, on South Arlington Street in East

Akron. He was one of the best, most decent,

kindest people that I have ever known.

Once, I asked my mother why Uncle Jim never

washed his hands. She scolded me, explaining

he did wash his hands but because he built

tires, his hands were stained with carbon-black,

which wouldn’t come out no matter how hard

you scrubbed. I learned later, that it would take

about six months for that stuff to leach out of

your pores, once you quit working.

Uncle Jim died in 1983. He was killed in an

industrial accident on the job at B.F. Goodrich.

He was only 47. The plant would close for

good about a year later.

It was a tragic event at a singularly traumatic

time for Akron.

That is what the late 1970s and early 1980s

were: the end of one thing and the beginning

of something else. In retrospect, it’s obvious.

The machine runs until it breaks down, then

it is replaced with a new and more efficient

one. It was a machine made up of unions

and management and capitalized sunk costs

and supply chains and commodity prices and

globalization. Except it wasn’t really a machine

at all. It was really just people. And people

aren’t machines. When they are treated as

such, and then discarded as obsolete, there are

consequences.

You could hear it in the music. From the

decadent, desperately-seeking-something pulse

of Disco to the nihilistic and fatalistic sound of

Punk and Post-Punk. It’s not an accident that a

band called Devo came from Akron, Ohio—De-

evolution, the idea that instead of evolving,

mankind has actually regressed.

As an adult, it’s all the more poignant when

you realize that the “end-of-an-era” is just

a transition to something else. The middle

ground between “golden age” and “existential

struggle” is large. In fact, this time of transition

is its own era. For those of us who were

kids when The Great Unraveling began, we

watched the Grand Old Days narrative, which

we were socialized to believe, go up in a puff

of smoke.

We tend to construct our identities, especially

as children, on the places we live. The identity

I’d built was as a proud Akronite. This is the

RUBBER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD! We—Real

Americans doing Real Work—make lots and

lots of Useful Things for people all over the

world, some of whom even come here to

make a Better Life for themselves.

Well, that all got yanked away. I couldn’t

believe any of those things anymore. They

were no longer true, and I knew it. I could

see it with my own two eyes. When the place

you believed you lived in turns out not to

match reality, it’s jarring and disorienting, even

heartbreaking.

I use the phrase “Rust Belt Orphan” because

that is what the experience of coming of age

at the time of The Great Unraveling feels like at

the gut-level.

So where does this leave us?

The Rust Belt, which has been in a collective

period of mourning for the better part of four

decades, must make peace with our past. The

best way out is always through. We should

grieve—not to wallow but to gain a better

understanding of who we are by getting

comfortable with the messy and confusing

historical cycle of boom-and-bust, of evolution

and de-evolution, of creation and destruction

and reinvention. That’s the world as we

actually experience it, and the one in which

we live. Thus, “moving on” is our refusal to be

paralyzed by the past so we can live up to our

present responsibilities.

Akron has begun doing this—and may

be ahead of the rest of the region, if the

anecdotal evidence is to be believed.

But I don’t think we can—or should—“get

over” the Rust Belt. The very phrase traffics in

denial and an estrangement from one’s roots.

The region is littered with countless attempts

to “get over” the Rust Belt: short-sighted

economic development projects and public-

private pyramid-schemes. We don’t have to

be—and can’t be, of course—something we

are not. We do have to be the best place we

can be.

Our economic development and public

investment should be hyper-nimble, hyper-

scalable, hyper-neighborhood-focused and

ultra-diverse. Sometimes these “little plans”

are exactly what we need because they

often involve fundamentals and are easier to

pull-off while helping inspire hope and build

relationships.

Maybe this means we are a smaller, relatively

less-prominent place, a step down from the

Grand Old Days. It also means being a much

better-connected, more cohesive, coherent and

equitable place.

We are the only people who can stop us from

becoming that place.

Those of us that stuck it out and still live here

know where we came from. We’re under no

illusions about who we are or where we live.

So, let’s have our final elegy for the Rust Belt.

Then, let’s get to work.

————————————————————

This is an abridged version of a longer post you can find under the same title on Jason’s blog at thestile1972.tumblr.com

my turn

A BAROQUE SENSIBILITY

beautyreigns

IN RECENT PAINTING

One South High | Akron, OH 44308 | 330.376.9185 | www.AkronArtMuseum.org

Through May 3, 2015

Gallery HoursWednesday – Sunday: 11 am – 5 pm | Thursday: 11 am – 9 pmFree Admission Every Thursday

The Devil Strip - March 17, 2015 - Issue 1, Vol. 1

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Transcript of The Devil Strip - March 17, 2015 - Issue 1, Vol. 1