JULY 2015 • VOL 1 • ISSUE #10 • THEDEVILSTRIP.COM The Devil Strip FREE ture Akron Music, Art & Cul in this issue "We need to remember what 's important in life: The Devil Strip friends, waffles, work. Or waffles, friends, work. Doesn't matter, but work is third." ture Akron Music, Art & Cul - Leslie Knope I have a large appetite. “no discount for kinfolk.” A velvet painting of the to find my Honeybear’s in Akron, my Cox Café, my CONTACT US: In my family, this was Last Supper watched over a jukebox that hadn’t Ron & Cheng’s Kitchen—those places that say more Office: some kind of measure worked in a long, long time. The tables were about Akron than words can. (330) 842-6606 of manliness. My dad stocked with pepper sauces and at least one out- and uncles ate platefuls of-date bottle of teriyaki sauce marked with stickers One that really feels like Akron to us is Urban General Info: so I trained myself to from Big Lots. One visit to that now-shuttered place Eats. It isn’t necessarily the menu, which is always [email protected] do the same, leaving no told you more about the city of Macon than any changing, but rather Liz, Jason, Max and Maya taters behind. Over Sunday dinner, my folks joked guidebook ever could. who are steadfast in their love of the city. It shows Advertising: I had a hollow leg while I headed back for my in the way they push for, support and promote [email protected] unnecessary thirds, ignoring the fact I was the cool things that come their way. Like The already full. This “clean plate club” thing is to Devil Strip, of which they were very early (like Distribution: me what the Hulk is to Bruce Banner. Yeah, I pre-print) fans. [email protected] can “Hulk smash” a cookout, but damn—there are consequences. It’s also in the way they show their love for their customers, like my 4-year-old daughter ONLINE: As we wrap up this issue, our 10th (double Madeline. The first time I took her to Urban Website: digits, yay!), I’m in Las Vegas with my wife and Eats, she fell for Liz, who gave her crayons www.thedevilstrip.com kid visiting my in-laws. Generally, we stay off and a pizza box to color, which later appeared The Strip where people reach for authenticity on their social media. From there, we joked Facebook: but leave smiling with photos in front of a about an art show but Maddy took it seriously, Facebook.com/thedevilstrip fake Statue of Liberty with fake showgirls making piles of art and inviting people to her then get dinner at a fake Eiffel Tower. This art show. So Liz said, “Why not?” Now we Twitter: time, with Grandma volunteering to babysit, have a date. On August 1, while you’re out @akrondevilstrip we pretended to get away, embracing the for the Downtown Art Walk, please join us at Vegas-ness of it all, which included indulging Urban Eats to celebrate Madeline Olivia Horne’s Instagram: at a buffet. Of all the places, this is where it first art exhibition. (Yay!) @thedevilstrip finally occurred to me that the quickest way to _______________________________________ a city’s heart is through your stomach. In closing, don’t expect this issue to be a Publisher >> In Macon, there was this one soul food joint Chris Horne // [email protected] Maddy has a thing for art museums. named Honeybear’s. It sat on the seam where (Photo: Daddy Mermaid von Braun Horne) Art Director >> abandoned houses and abandoned factories Alesa Upholzer met. Once, I sent an intern there to get photos for a story and Honeybear herself caught him Aside from my family and friends, the food is what comprehensive look at Akron food. Like the Illustration and Design >> taking pics of the exterior then pulled a shotgun I miss most about my hometown. It’s one part music and art issues before it, this is a start, a Bronlynn Thurman, Chris Grady, Jacob Luther on him, demanding the film from his digital because of the food itself—burgers and shakes commitment to the exploration itself. As always, camera. Hers was a windowless, wood-paneled at The Rookery, pizza at IVP, coastal seafood at I’d love to hear what you think and where you Photographers >> room where the kitchen was just a stove and an Jim Shaw’s, etc.—but it’s two parts the intangible want this paper to go, so shoot me an email or a old white fridge. You scribbled your order on the quality that means we can’t find *this* anywhere message. Mail me a letter. Fly us a pigeon. Send us Svetla Morrison, Paul Hoffman, freebie notepads pharmaceutical reps give doctors but Macon, Georgia. And that’s what I’m hunting smoke signals. Say hello in person. I’ll listen. Bronlynn Thurman, Ilenia Pezzaniti, but whatever Honeybear wanted to fix you is what in Akron. The reason I asked y’all which restaurants Shane Wynn you’d get. There were two signs near the register: you consider the “Most Akron” is so I could turn “no credit to movie stars, inlaws or outlaws” and your responses into a checklist for myself. I want Thank y’all, Chris Contributing Writers >> Ben Arrington, Holly Brown, Jenny Conn, Jessica Conti, Susan Covey, Madison Cummins, Katelyn Gainer, M. Sophie Hamad, Noor Hindi, Katie Jackson, Jecca, Chris Kessinger, Isaac Kelley, Greg Milo, Eric Morris, Christopher Morrison, Brittany Nader, Ilenia ABOUT THE COVER Pezzaniti, Scott Piepho, Audrey Quinn, Roger Riddle, Sarah Stubbs, Bronlynn Thurman, Katie Wheeler, Joanna Wilson We received more than 100 responses from our friends and fans on social media to our nosey questions. Which local restaurant to you miss most? What are the most Interns >> overlooked dishes in Akron? Which local eatery do you consider the “Most Akron” for Madison Cummins, Sarah Stubbs, Audrey Quinn breakfast, for lunch and for dinner? The answers were fantastic and so we used them _______________________________________ in this issue and culled the names for this cover. One stood out because it kind of made me sad that I never got to experience it: Dodie’s Highland Café. By an almost The Devil Strip is published bi-monthly by Random Family, LLC. Akron Distribution: The Devil Strip two-to-one margin, that’s the restaurant folks said they missed most. Googling is available free of charge, limited to one copy per for answers about what happened to Dodie’s, I came across—and was soon reader. Copyright: The entire contents ofThe Devil Strip are copyright 2015 by Random Family, LLC. mesmerized by—this lovely photograph by the generous and immensely talented Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Publisher Tim Fitzwater, who graciously let me share it here. does not assume any liability for unsolicited Thank you, Tim manuscripts, materials, or other content. Any submission must include a stamped, self-addressed (CREDIT: Tim Fitzwater) envelope. All editorial, advertising, and business correspondence should be mailed to the address listed above. AKRON MUSIC, ART & CULTURE JULY 2015 • VOL 1 • ISSUE #10 / THE Devil Strip | 3 the agenda ICYMI News n’ stuff, in case you missed it The Lead : UA’s President Business changes mind about $50 fee; violates ‘no take-backsies rule’ After taking flack in public from a state legislator, Academic Partnerships. This company uses the presidents of several other Ohio universities, and reputations of real-life universities to sell online the faculty, staff and students at the University of courses for students around the globe, operating Akron, Scott Scarborough is rolling back on his under a university’s name despite condensing the plans to charge upper-classmen a $50 per credit curriculum and providing its own instructors. While hour “fee.” This outcry will likely die down as it did Scarborough was at DePaul, that university sold the when the “name change” was packaged by the "academic assets" of Barat College to Academic administration as a “rebranding.” Small victories Partnerships. An article by the Texas Observer, can be dangerous distractions. titled “Randy Best Is Going to Save Texas’ Public Universities, Or Get Rich Trying,” noted that while Losing the fee hike is good news but Scarborough’s Scarborough was at the University of Toledo, he plan means the baseball team will still get tried to bring in Academic Partnerships but failed dismantled. As former faculty union president because of a “faculty uprising.” Walter Hixson wrote in an ABJ editorial, the program costs $700,000 while former UA president So, what’s it say that a year into his UA job he’s Luis Proenza pocketed $500,000 for his year-long already contracted with Academic Partnerships? sabbatical. UA could have saved baseball between They will run an online RN to Bachelor of Science in that and the $375,000 spent to renovate the Nursing degree through UA, according to a memo current prez’s rent-free house (Scarborough was posted at OhioHigherEd.org. While this means reportedly allergic to Proenza’s cats so…). And, 215 UA may get a boost in enrollment, much of the people in our community will still lose their jobs. profit from the online courses ships back to Texas. The chances are slim that Scarborough wants to The bigger problem may ultimately prove to be the stop there. But let’s stop here and say it’s a great connection, outlined in a report by the Chronicle of idea—maybe even the future of higher education.