Fun

Brain Games

By Kathryn Kilpatrick

Upgrade Your Memory Fitness Routine

WORD SEARCH

Make a word using one letter from each of the sets of letters. Do not change their order.

Examples                             Answers

W V       O K      N E               WON

H  Y       U  E      S C                 YES

————————————————————————————————————-

M B      L A     PI                           MAP

F S       O W    U R     S K                                                      FORK

K W     R A      L F      L I               WALL

B G      I N       R O    U L                                                      GIRL

E Z       R L       B I      K O    F W    ELBOW

A G     R W     S E     A I     T L                                             GREAT

P T      E A     R O    P Z     L  F     I  E                                   PEOPLE

A C      G A    O S    T M    R L     E Y    CASTLE

Memory Tip
If you want to remember something you read, look away and repeat it. Go over the information again. The key to remembering something you read or heard is repetition.

This puzzle and memory tip is provided by Kathryn Kilpatrick, a speech-language pathologist. She is available for Memory Fitness and Keep Your Brain Sharp programs and private consultations. 

Entertainment

Live Theater Preview

There’s Plenty to Enjoy This Season in Northeast Ohio

“Winnie-the-Pooh” and “The Importance of Being Earnest” will be performed at The Fine Arts Association in Willoughby this season.

Photo courtesy: The Fine Arts Association

By Marie Elium

Nothing’s quite as appealing when the weather turns cool as sinking into a comfortable theater seat.

Autumn’s blustery weather chases many of us indoors — and into one of Northeast Ohio’s theaters for live performances.

This theater season is gearing up to be another good one. We’ve got big productions in little theaters and even bigger productions in some of our finest showplaces. Here’s a roundup of what to see and where to see it.

Beck Center for the Arts

Beck Center for the Arts is more than a nonprofit organization that combines professional theater with arts education. It creates art experiences and is committed to doing so for all ages and abilities. Beck Center offers over 200 award-winning classes, programs and lessons in dance, music, theater, visual arts, early childhood, outreach and Creative Arts Therapies, serving more than 60,000 annually. Beck Center is at 17801 Detroit Ave., Lakewood.

Here’s the theater production lineup:

“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Sept. 15-Oct. 8

“Waiting for Godot,” Oct. 6-Nov. 5

“Disney’s The Little Mermaid,” Dec. 1-31

“Hair,” Feb. 9- 25

“My First Time,” March 30-April 29

“Bent,” June 1-July 1

“Gypsy,” July 6-Aug. 12

The Fine Arts Association

The Fine Arts Association in Willoughby produces a full season of outstanding community theater featuring musicals, comedies, dramas and family shows.

Fine Arts also produces a Senior Matinee Performance Series on select Wednesdays. Season subscribers save 20 percent on individual ticket prices and are guaranteed choice seating. Discounted group pricing is also available.

Visit fineartsassociation.org/performance or call 440-951-7500, ext.

Some of the most original and acclaimed performing artists from around the world are featured in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s 2017–18 Performing Arts Series.

Again this year, the series showcases the talents of performers and composers with a variety of styles and influences, ranging from 1920s jazz and music for gamelan and kayagum to Surrealist film scores.

“We’re excited for another season of performances celebrating the remarkable range of classical music and global music traditions. They are sure to appeal to a wide range of audiences, and we are privileged to have the opportunity to bring all of these talented artists to northeast Ohio,” said Tom Welsh, director of performing arts.

Tickets for individual performances are on sale now. Special student rates are available for select performances. Tickets and more details are available by calling the Cleveland Museum of Art ticket center at 888-CMA-0033 or online at clevelandart.org/performingarts.

2017–18 Season

All CMA performances take place in the museum’s Gartner Auditorium unless otherwise noted. Programs are subject to change.

Butler, Bernstein & the Hot 9

Wednesday, October 11, 7:30 p.m.

$43–$59, CMA members $38–$53

In conjunction with The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s, Butler, Bernstein & the Hot 9 is a rip-roaring combo led by the remarkable pianist Henry Butler and the irrepressible trumpeter Steven Bernstein, who first worked together in 1998 in the Kansas City All Stars. They reunited in 2011 for a concert in New York City, and the material they performed—including the classic blues of Bessie Smith and the first-generation jazz of Jelly Roll Morton—resonated in a way neither had expected. According toThe New York Times, “Their collaboration is both historically aware and fully prepared to cut loose.” With a nod to the Hot Five and Hot Seven bands of Louis Armstrong, the Hot 9 takes the early jazz of the 1920s as its starting point.

Individual concert tickets for The Cleveland Orchestra’s 2017-18 Season and 100^th year of concerts go on sale on Tuesday, August 1, 2017, online at clevelandorchestra.com, by phone at 216-231-1111, and in person at the Severance Hall Ticket Office.  The season marks the launch of the Orchestra’s Second Century and is the 16th year of its acclaimed partnership with Franz Welser-Möst.

BOOM!

Pop Culture Chronicles

Bat Out of Hell

The Cleveland Connection

By Mike Olszewski

Boomers are big on anniversaries, and I’ll get to “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in a bit, but let’s look at another landmark album that turns 40 in October.

Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out of Hell” sold 43 million copies on Cleveland International Records, the brainchild of the late, great Steve Popovich.

Popovich worked at Columbia/Epic and eventually started Cleveland International. I say this with the greatest respect, but sometimes he looked like he slept in his clothes.

Then you went into his office and there are the photos with Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, and on and on. Popovich told Columbia Records to sign Michael Jackson as a solo artist, and there was a photo with him, too.

He insisted that my wife, Janice, and I come out to see this 9-year-old kid singer he was promoting; it was Hunter Hayes. This guy had a Midas touch and was generous to a fault.

Something’s Fishy

There was an ethnic bar on the west side that was famous for its fish fries. A bunch of us, eight or nine radio and record people, were knocking back beers and eating like kings when the door opens and it’s Steve. He came in for take-out, and while he was waiting he sat with us.

When his dinner came he looked at me and said, “Michael, ask me how’s business.”

All right, I’ll bite. “How’s business Steve?”

“Don’t ask.”

He picked up the whole table’s tab and wrote “business conference” on the receipt — the most expensive fish fry he ever bought.

He knew rock ’n’ roll, but he loved polkas. Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople (“Cleveland Rocks”) was on his label and was sitting in his office one day.

Farm Market Fresh

Summertime in a Basket

You can keep your chlorinated pools, air-conditioned resorts and jammed amusement parks.

For our money, the best place to spend a few hours in the summertime is at one of Northeast Ohio’s farmers markets.

Summer’s slog through our humid, hot weeks is almost perfectly measured through the colorful fruits and vegetables that show up in vendor booths each week.

The season starts with crisp greens, fresh flowers and strawberries in June, then moves to squash, raspberries and blueberries in July. August’s bounty comes in quick succession: tomatoes in odd and expected colors, zucchini, sweet corn, melons. Did I mention zucchini?

By September, we’re a bit jaded by summer’s plenty. That’s why it’s a perfect time for the season’s heavy hitters: fragrant, sweet grapes, bushels of apples and the look-at-me pumpkins and gourds with their crazy shapes and colors.

Careful observers, mindful of the season’s rainfall and temperatures, can guess within a week or so how far into summer we’ve gone and how close to autumn’s chill we’re getting.

If you’re not a seasoned farmers market shopper, we’ve got a few hints to get you started. An old hand? Consider checking out a different market or two in another community.

Despite its sprawling suburbs, network of highways and big time sports teams, Northeast Ohio remains, at its heart, farm country. Why not eat like it?

Your Guide for a Fruitful Farmers Market Visit

By Breanna Mona

Do you just squeeze the produce and hope for the best?

Wait, can you even touch the items at all? How do you know you’re picking the best? Is the professional shopper in the straw hat and yoga pants rushing you along?

Take a breather and take in these tips straight from the horse’s mouth — or should we say farmer’s?