You read that right. One of my friends recently misread one of my texts about the Lunar New Year (hi Lo!) and the Year of the Fire Horse and I can’t stop thinking about it. According to the Chinese Zodiac, last year – the Snake – was full of shedding old and unwelcome behaviors, setting this year up as a year of action.

It’s only been a day since we welcomed in the Lunar New Year, but I’m hoping that the rumors are true.

In this week’s newsletter, you’ll find a story about one of my favorite Cleveland artists – Chayla Hope – and her latest EP, plus some tea about the goings on in the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office. And of course, as always, a list of pop culture recommendations to help you get through the politics of it all.

Happy reading,
Dakotah

P.S. Thanks so much to those of you who sent tips last week. Every little bit helps, and if you’d like to send $$ in support of this project, you can through either (venmo) dakotah-kennedy or (cashapp) $dakotahsoperandi. 

A theme emerges! This week’s pop culture recommendations are all over the map: from Ireland to South Africa, and even “Chicago.”¹ If you’re familiar with any of these, or have checked out any of my previous recommendations, send me a note letting me know what you thought!

If you liked Derry Girls, you might want to check out Lisa McGee’s latest series: How to Get to Heaven from Belfast. The show follows a group of childhood friends whose past has just caught up with them. It’s equal parts dark comedy and crime thriller, as three friends – now grown adults – travel to a friend’s funeral following her sudden and somewhat mysterious death. 

Although the girls had not seen each other in more than 20 years, we quickly learn that they were all involved in something sinister. There are a lot of badass women characters who live in the moral grey area (kind of like Killing Eve, but… funny?), so it’s something a bit different. Looking back, nearly all the primary characters are women.

How to Get to Heaven from Belfast is only eight episodes, and a second season has not been confirmed. Honestly, I was surprised to hear a second season was being considered, as I thought the eighth episode provided a satisfying conclusion to the many mysteries the show introduced. You can watch the show on Netflix.

This book is the perfect blend of history and comedy. Born a Crime is a memoir about Trevor Noah’s experience growing up in South Africa during apartheid. Embarrassingly, I didn’t know much about that part of history, so the combination of the dark and racist history of apartheid plus Noah’s hilarious anecdotes about his childhood provided for the perfect learning environment.

If you haven’t read it yet and are okay reading on a screen, I found a PDF version of the book. Noah also narrates the audiobook, and I’ve heard that it’s wonderful. There are a number of different languages spoken in South Africa, so it’s pretty cool to hear everything pronounced by him.

His Netflix special, Son of Patricia, also covers a lot of the same ground as the book. The whole thing is really a love letter to his mother, and I loved both.

This time, I’m actually recommending the soundtrack instead of the movie. Over the weekend, Pretty in Pink, starring Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy and Jon Cryer, celebrated its 40th anniversary. I had a chance to see the anniversary screening on Saturday and have some thoughts, but mostly that the fashion and the music aged better than the film itself.

I’m fairly certain it was the first time I’ve ever seen the movie all the way through, despite being super familiar with other John Hughes’ movies such as Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles and even St. Elmo’s Fire. Just like its predecessors, Pretty in Pink delivered an incredible mix of pop artists, plus an iconic scene set to Otis Redding’s “Try A Little Tenderness,” and it made me miss the art of a good movie soundtrack. Shockingly, that song is mysteriously absent from the official soundtrack.

A few things I learned in the spoiler-ridden “documentary” before the film started include:

Last Friday, Cleveland musicians Chayla Hope and Other Animal released their first collaboration titled “Raspberry.”

After an 18-day deep freeze in Northeast Ohio, “Raspberry”, featuring Chayla Hope and Other Animal, arrives as a breath of fresh spring air. Recorded at Peppermint Studios in Youngstown, the song is marked by a vintage aesthetic that could only be captured at one of the oldest analog studios in the country. 

The EP is available through Wax Mage Records digitally and on seven-inch vinyl in limited colorways, a signature style of the local company. Prior to turning to music full-time, Hope pressed vinyl by day at Gotta Grove Records and performed at Bounce by night. She still often presses her own vinyl, as was the case with her previous albums, “Damn, Feelings” and “Mess of a Woman.”

Nearly four years after reintroducing herself as a solo artist, Hope remains steadfast in her ability to set herself apart by narrowing her lane to powerful pop anthems. From “Alone” to “Delusional,” Hope has further solidified herself as the city’s pop princess with the release of this EP.

“While we were collaborating, I started to write a little bit and Joe [Tomino from Other Animal] kept offering us raspberries, like, all day,” Hope said about the song’s inspiration. It’s about difficult female friendships and how someone can be “more sour than sweet,” she said, quoting the lyrics of the song. “I don’t know why I keep them in my life, but I love them from afar.”

“[This was] a lot different for me. It’s totally organic and we played live in a room with all these amazing players,” Hope said. “We all played at the same time and it is such a different vibe than what I normally do.” 

Accompanying “Raspberry” is the EP’s B-side, “If I Can’t,” also written by Hope. She wrote the track a while ago, and it happened to perfectly balance out the project as a whole. The two tracks feature local musicians like bassist Joe Botta, background vocalists Wesley Bright and Christine Fader, baritone saxophonist David Kasper, keyboardist Marcelino “Mars” Quiroz, trombonist William Washington (Mourning [A] BLKstar), and trumpeter VanDarrel Woods.

Hope, who previously belonged to Cleveland’s indie rock band Seafair, has been making music locally for most of her life. She’s always wanted to make music with Other Animal, and considers herself “very lucky” that they contacted her for the project.

In terms of what’s next, Hope has her hands in several different cookie jars, including a ballad version of 2025 power-pop anthem “Keep You” that she recorded in her personal studio. 

“I’m not going anywhere, let’s just put it that way,” she said.

Numerous attorneys currently or formerly associated with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office, including Michael O’Malley himself, have turned in paperwork to influence future Democratic party endorsements as part of an obscure but powerful committee. 

Since getting re-elected in 2024, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley appears to have reversed course on an office policy that prohibited employees from running for partisan positions. In the case of the county’s Democratic Party, nearly 30 people currently or previously affiliated with the prosecutor's office have filed to run for an obscure but powerful Central Committee.

In Ohio, it can be hard to remember that most of the county’s elected officials are Democrats. This has been the trend even in historically conservative strongholds, such as Rocky River, Strongsville, North Royalton, and Gates Mills. Most elected officials in this county have gone through the process of seeking endorsement from the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, which prints, mails, and hands out hundreds of thousands of sample ballots for their endorsed candidates for every single election.

Specifically, the Central Committee is made up of almost 900 people across the county, with one person elected from each voting precinct. Central Committee members do not directly vote on endorsements but control the rules of the process and govern the county party’s operations. These elections are held every four years, with the next one set for May 4. As part of the process, voters elect nominees to state legislature, county council, as well as statewide and federal offices. Candidates had until Feb. 4 to file their paperwork. 

Historically, it’s been difficult to recruit people to run for the committee as people need to live in specific – but different – places, a current committee member said. This year, a large portion of the candidates have one thing in common: they either work or have recently worked for the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.

At least 28 non-incumbent candidates who have filed Central Committee candidate petitions share names with attorneys who have appeared on behalf of the prosecutor’s office, according to records reviewed by Upbeat Nonsense. While this may not seem like a large number in the grand scheme of a 900-person committee, current committee members have said that it would represent “one of the largest single shifts in the composition of the committee in recent history.”

On the campaign trail in 2024, O’Malley did not provide a direct answer on the office’s policy against employees running for partisan positions, such as these types of committees or even judicial seats. When asked if he had overturned the policy, O’Malley said the ban on running for central committee was still in effect, and that he hasn’t “pushed politics” in the office, “perhaps to my own detriment.”

With O’Malley himself one of the 28 candidates who has filed to run, and multiple supervisors in the office on the list, it appears that the ban has been lifted.

Which leads to questions such as: Why would Prosecutor O’Malley, now well into his third term, lift a ban on political activity that he touted just two years ago? What is an office that is tasked with representing the community doing by diving into partisan politics? And what is the effect going to be on the endorsement process over the next four years?

Upbeat Nonsense has reached out to Cuyahoga County Democratic Party chair David Brock and the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office for comment. This story will be updated with any comment.

I’m not proud to admit this, but I did watch the takedown docuseries of America’s Next Top Model, Reality Check, on Netflix. I grew up with the series and rewatched it recently like everyone else, apparently, but yikes. Some of the unseen footage was brutal, including the treatment of winners such as Season 6’s Danielle. 

Lowlights include: Putting models in Black and Brown face (twice), traumatic dental surgeries, emotional and physical abuse, plus the re-framing of one model’s sexual assault into “cheating.”

It’s very bad, and Tyra Banks is wild for evading nearly all accountability on camera. Some have called it rage-bait, and maybe it is, but it’s also a decent sociological study into the early days of reality TV.