While hard to compare to shootings and murder, I can't think of a worse development for NEO, local arts and culture and my neighborhood than the news I recieved just now - Gallery 1300 is closing. I don't know enough details to know if it is "our" fault - not enough money flowing from the community to the gallery and artists - or just that the smart, great people who have made 1300 a core part of the NEO scene have other opportunities to pursue, but I know we all owe it to their team to really put out for them in their closing months. More to come on this as I learn details... for now: the Press Release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE           

Title of the Exhibit: Leave ‘Em Wanting More – The last shows of 1300

Opening Reception: 

5 - October 20, 7-10 – Grant Smrekar, Paul Sydorenko, Bill Rupnik

The 7GEN development team of Phillip Williams and myself are thrilled to work with the important Cleveland Club of Washington, DC, to provide technology to their leadership and members. From their new Drupal website, found at http://clevelandclub.org: "The Cleveland Club of Washington, D. C., founded in 1957, is an association of Washington men and women who share a keen interest in Cleveland. Most of the more than three hundred members are former Clevelanders or graduates of its universities. Participants include United States Representatives, judges, prominent federal officials, journalists and others of diverse background and occupation."

Cleveland Plain Dealer Architecture Critic Steven Litt is really stepping up to lead the march for a better designed Cleveland, as he has been the lone mainstream voice for intelligent redevelopment of the I-90 bridge and is the lone voice at all for saving the landmark Breuer Cleveland Trust Building on East 9th, between Euclid and Prospect, which for 15 years Jacobs demolished by neglect and now Cuyahoga County Commissioners want to demolish by force, all to build a replacement building for their offices, at great cost to taxpayers... this is the Jacobs Coast Guard Station fiasco X 1000, and community leaders are letting this one slide too.

Around 3:30 AM last night, I went to visit the Edgewater Deli where, a few hours earlier, Salim Alsoliman, 54, was murdered. A home-grown bouquet of flowers memorialized the site - I added some mums from my garden, to express my sadness for the loss of a neighbor and champion of the region. While I was there, some shocked friends of Salim and the other shooting victim of this senseless crime pulled up - recent immigrants to Cleveland, it seemed, as were the victims, I believe... the details are still not available.

I got back home to West Side Cleveland tonight about the same time a neighboring businessman, who clerks at Edgewater Deli, died at Lakewood Hospital, of a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Rest in peace, Salim Alsoliman, 54. This senseless murder has been declared a robbery, with the murderers fleeing by car. I sometimes shop at the Edgewater Delicatessen, on Lake Avenue at West 87th Street, which had another clerk killing last year... so I've probably talked to the latest victim before. I remember, after the last Edgewater Deli killing, of Saleem Muqdady, 28, the owner of another convenient store on Fulton near Bridge, in Ohio City, installed bullet-proof glass at the register...which made Ohio City feel less safe. That owner doesn't usually hide behind the glass, but I'm sure he will now, at least until they catch the freaks who killed the latest of his brothers.  I've always considered Fulton and Bridge and the area of Lake and W. 87th very nice, but they are each near freeway on-ramps and so quick get-aways... just like my street of W. 45th, a block from another senseless murder in my neighborhood. It is sad to realize the reasons for senseless murder can be as simple as poor, sick, dirty dogs with guns, cars and good freeway access... very American Dream, really.  So sick. More about the Alsoliman murder below...

This weekend the Toronto arts and culture scene was world-class beyond belief, featuring the final weekend of the Toronto Film Festival, the opening of the new Four Seasons Opera House (premiering Wagner's Ring Cycle), many smaller community arts festivals, and two major arts festivals – the Queen West Arts Crawl, featuring over 500 artists and galleries along mind-blowing Queen Street) and the august 11th Annual Canadian Art Gallery Hop. The Queen West Arts Crawl was way cool, but I stayed in Toronto an extra day for Software Freedom Day and the Canadian Art Gallery Hop, as that featured a free “Glocal Live Roundtable” of many of Canada's arts leaders. “The term GLOCAL fuses global with local and points to the meshing of macro and micro realms of experience in the contemporary world of Internet technologies and instant information. The speed and collapsing distances of this new reality hold challenging implications for traditional identities and communities, along with promising opportunities.” The roundtable was astounding... see below for detailed notes of interest to all concerned about arts, culture and the economy, local to anywhere in the world and global.

Imagine a day when the NY Times writes about NEO not just because of great real estate visionary David Perkowski but for political visionaries like in California. NEO leaders talk of how large our regional economy is, and the world knows how large a producer of greenhouse gases we are, so we should be ranked with New York and California in addressing greenhouse gas emissions. In the NY Times today there is an excellent article digging deeper into programs in California, developed by their democratic legislature and republican governor, addressing California's role in the global pollution crisis, and their respnse. We have an election coming up in Ohio in November to choose a new governor and a bunch of other politicians and the number one question of candidates should be how are you going to put Ohio on the same high level of global consciousness about global warming as has California leadership. We must raise the consciousness on this if we are to develop a new economy here, ever... here's how the Times writes of California... "This is the state that in the early 1970’s jump-started the worldwide adoption of catalytic converters... this is the state whose per capita energy consumption has been almost flat for 30 years, even as per capita consumption has risen 50 percent nationally... California, in fact, is making a huge bet: that it can reduce emissions without wrecking its economy, and therefore inspire other states — and countries — to follow its example on slowing climate change." Read more about CA's brave public leadership and the highly-paid, cowardly energy industry lobbyist-attornies below...

Welcome to new realneo member Sarah Taylor who has this brilliant idea. I am posting this for her today, but we look forward to her future posts as her newfound tech experince grows. Sarah says:

You think SAFMOD’s cool? Check out this guy who actually pays homage to the master of multimedia dance construction. Uh, that would be the late Alwin Nikolais who pioneered this stuff when he returned from serving in WWII.

Philippe Decouflé

(1961- )

And I would know, I grew up there. Only the developers of Crocker Park and such -- and their supporters -- would pretend this sculpture represents real art and culture in Westlake. Promoting it as such is part of an insidious plot I see developing. See the PD article Monday September 11th. The abstract stainless steel sculpture by Balazs is definitely an anomaly in Westlake. Westlake should be very proud to have had some hand in producing a nationally acclaimed sculptor, and at $30,000, I think they got a good deal, too. See the article on the dedication in the Westlife newspaper.

http://www.artsalive.ca/en/dan/mediatheque/videos/videosDetails.asp?mediaID=487
Makes me wanna go see this... the netherlands are pretty far though...
This Canadian site is pretty deep if you are interested in watching dance video shorts.

This article about Hyacinth Lofts from the NYTimes sent to me by my sister who lives in New Hampshire and is jealous of the urbanity of my inner ring suburban walkable neighborhood. I missed it. She caught it. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/realestate/10nati.html?_r=2&oref=login&oref=slogin

At the Meet the Bloggers benefit last week, at Tower Press, I hoped I would see NEO's top filmmaker Bobert Banks, who has his studio in the Tower Press. Robert showed up, as is his style. Not only did I learn it was his 40th birthday (happy b-day... shush) but that he was having a filmfest birthday party today, 09/10/06... not to be missed, to celebrate a great man and artist's b-day and enjoy some retro film of Robert's choice. As Robert was born in 1966, and Star Trek was apparently invented then, the evening started out with some crazy Star Trek film that I suppose was the pilot of the series, and was totally freaky... rampant green dancing aliens, booze and sex.

I've totally appreciated Convivium 33 Gallery in Josaphat Arts Hall since I first heard of its creation - one must love people who resurrect an abandoned church on West 33rd Street in the unblessed heart of Detroit Superior, and pump a ton of money into it, and make it into a major showcase for art (equal love must go out to the Saltzmans for operating a great Dave's Market a block away). While lots of economic development dreamers talk good talk about transforming midtown and developing the arts economy, here it is happening day in and out. So I was thrilled to learn an old friend Clarence Van Duzer is showing there this month

Yesterday, I got an email from Voices and Choices providing feedback from the Choicebook I completed online in July, in preparation for the community meeting they are holding next weekend. Did you complete a choicebook and get your results? Based on the data, showing at best only around 539 other people completed choicebooks, I assume you did not. That means you do not have a voice in how the establishment will steer $100s of millions in "Fund for the economic future" foundation and public money and attempt to steer our economy over the coming decade.

I found this quote. It is one of my favorites. I wanted to give Norm a chance to remember it or hear it for the first time. It is from the NOVA Convention. You might have been a teen then, Norm.

"If we see the earth as a spaceship and go further to invoke the comparison of a lifeboat, it is of course of vital concern to everybody on the boat if the crew or the passengers start polluting their supply of food and water, distributing supplies on a grossly inequitable basis, knocking holes in the bottom of the boat, or worst of all trying to blow the boat out from under us." William Burroughs

An interesting street culture gaining popularity in small-town Brattleboro, Vermont (population 15,000) may have some potential for NEO... teens are taking their clothes off and hanging out naked in public. The town officials call it a form of rebellion. This would offer a nice change from the sagging pants urban street culture and the exposed butt-crack fat plumber suburban  culture popular in NEO today, and public nudity would certainly increase tourism and make more people want to live here. In fact, the Spencer Tunick Naked NEO shoot (below) brought around 10,000 (correction, 3,000) people together in Cleveland (on a freezing morning) to get naked and real about our communiity, so I know this concept has potential. What do you think, PD?

More on the latest street culture in Vermont below... this from the the Boston Globe:

When I was researching how Masumi Hayashi was known on the Internet, following her death, I was really impressed by a posting on her work at a very avant garde site called Cold Bacon... I'll let you explore it for yourself. I contacted the creator of the site and learned he served some time in Cleveland and he's featured images of here on the cover of his book and has others on his site. As he's no longer here, but haunted, I thought folks from here would be interested in his work, from the extended NEO community, check out this nicely produced photo gallery (flash) and read his vision on the work of Masumi here and below... the most sincere write-up on the artist and her art I've found...

One thing I love about Ohio City is seeing so many people of every sort riding about on bicylces. I see 100s of bicyclists go by my home an hour, during the day and evening, from entire families, to parents with their children in tandem, to clearly down-and-outs with all their Earthly possessions strapped on board. Good for them, and the environment... a core benefit of livable cities.

The 09/04/06 Plain Dealer has a blurb about an important step forward in the fight against blight in NEO, writing that "Starting tomorrow, Cleveland Municipal Housing Judge Ray Pianka will order that every abandoned house in foreclosure on his docket carry a sign identifying the owner and the owner's phone number. The name and number of the mortgage company also will be listed, along with the court case number and a contact number for someone at the court. "These owners and mortgage companies have anonymity now. Well, OK, if the case is before the court, now everyone will know who is responsible.""

The high profile murders of John Jackson and Masumi Hayashi, and now Detective Schroeder, have made me more aware of violent crime in NEO, and in my neighborhood. In reviewing PD coverage of the Jackson/Hayashi kllings, I saw Allen T. Jones was killed a block from my house... from the 08/14/06 PD: "A 23-year-old man was killed Friday on the West Side. Allen T. Jones of Montgomery, Ala., was shot in the abdomen about 3:45 a.m. near the corner of West 48th Street and Detroit Avenue.

So much pain in the world.   The swirling hellishness of these past three weeks brings only one realization--Be an agent of creation not destruction.   The human condition is torn between these two forces.  It is easy to destroy, but not to create.  Do not give up. CREATE.