We're getting a new park in Cleveland. It is being prepared at East 9th and Lakeside across from City Hall and adjacent to the Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building - a General Services Administration Building.

It'll be a Plaza WITH TREES - LOTS OF THEM. The site will be designed by Richard Fleischman Architects with artist Pae White.

"Successful plazas have 4 key qualities: They are accessible, people are engaged in activities there, the space is comfortable and has a good image, it is a sociable place: one where people meet each other and take people when they come to visit." AND THEY HAVE TREES - A LOT OF THEM.

And there are a lot of questions to answer: "Can you see the space from a distance?

Is it used by people of different ages? Are people in groups? How many different types of activity are occurring-people walking, eating, playing chess, relaxing, reading? Which parts of the space are used and which are not? Are there choices of things to do? Is there a management presence, or can you identify that anyone is in charge of the space? Is it clean, safe and is there a place to sit? Does it make a good first impression? Who is responsible for maintenance? What do they do and when? Does the area feel safe? Is there a security presence? What do these people do and when are they on duty? Are there photo opportunities?" ARE THERE TREES?

They looked at topography, shadow during all times of day throughout the year, wind speed and its effect on pedestrians, and they came up after several iterations with this leaf concept.

And they hired artist Pae White to design some art for the space.

Today we walked morning and afternoon, my dog and I. Round the corner and into the new world as the sun crested over the buildings to our east. The day was cool and young; it was moist. Slick brown patches of mud greeted us, and we spotted a few buds here and there as we rounded another corner and another. Crocuses were pushed up and blooming in the slanted light.

At first we thought he was a little wacky. Later we knew he was totally whack. My brother Stephen Kirby Miller passed away alone in his home somtime in late October 2007. Above and below are some of his artworks I just happened to be perusing this evening.

There is someone we have not had the pleasure of seeing here in NEO, but her work has been seen on film here, and with the spring upon us, I happened on these excerpts...

How the corner of Prospect and East Ninth could look in the near future.

Here's the release:

The K&D Group Announces New Details of Its $200 Million Redevelopment Plan for East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue in Downtown Cleveland

click the image above to see the "big plans"

New Requirements to Protect Children from Lead-Based Paint Hazards

"Outside the Jaffa Gate: Man carrying two wooden doors on his head while talking on cell phone and smoking cigarette."*
*See no. 4 in this post. Image courtesy of The Columnist Manifesto.

Well, if it's not one thing it's another.

Mobile phones 'more dangerous than smoking

1-2-3 What are we fighting for?
Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn. The next stop is Vietnam.
5-6-7 Open up the pearly gates.
It ain’t no time to wonder why. Yippee! We’re all going to die.

In this bit of "news" we find that it's not over til the fat lady sings - again. This reminds me of an old theater joke about encores. The opera finishes and the audience stands and applauds. Someone in the balcony shouts, "encore". The singer obliges and again he shouts "encore". Well, this continues ad nauseum and finally the singer says, "I just can't do it one more time". The guy in the balcony shouts down, "You'll do it until you get it right!"

In today's New York Times, I found this article (Did Your Shopping List Kill a Songbird?) about the fact that what we purchase in the grocery is killing songbirds. Yeah, it is, and it's killing more than songbirds. It's killing the whole ecosystem where these dangerous chemicals are used, and it's killing the people who eat the "Green Revolution's" products. Thank you Ford Foundation, Hailey Ashton Foundation and Gates Foundation.

As I read this sad story, I thought about Rachel Carson and her battle against the dangerous chemicals we dusted on our crops. I remembered reading Silent Spring while riding in a car along I-90 where I could glance up and see how the edge of the road had been "killed off" by a generous dose of herbicides.

Grosse Fuge excerpt from Kinok

This woman gets the architecture of music and dance. Her dancers get it, too. The stage at Mershon was raked. This is an old theatrical architecture. Now audience's sit in a raked auditorium rather than having the dancers and actors work on a slanted surface. This, by the way, is the explanation for upstage and downstage - they literally were up and down.  So in this bit in the film, when you see the dancers roll downstage, they were literaly rolling downstage toward the audience.

Rosas: choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker

more work by de Keersmaeker

You gotta see this - there are much much better things coming out of Texas than GW Bush and Texas crude.

Watch this video: Recycled Houses

OK, OK! I have to post this once again! It is driving me crazy!

I wondered if it wasn’t a really bad Cleveland Accent, but apparently this is not a regional issue.  Let's learn the difference between "then" and "than".

Here's the entry from Wikihow on then and than. Why am I roused about this? Here you go...

 I began by reading about architecture in the NYTimes, but went surfing.

Here's the journey:

This is the Gibson Inn in Apalachicola, Florida. My sister bought a house in Apalach several years ago on a dead end street called Apaco. It is off a short also deadend street called Shadow Lane. Shadow Lane is so named because all along it there are these 200 year old water oaks laden with Spanish Moss - it is one of those canopied roads you imagine from stories of the deep south. This is where I retreat. This is where I go to relax and breathe in the salt air, bathe in the salt water and slow down to a southern pace.

Where is this photo taken in downtown Cleveland?

This just in from Archinect: (how one learned community loves and respects their Breuer)

REMINDER....all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies tomorrow and you will start to receive sale calls and you will be charged for these calls.

Back in the summer while researching the history of Cleveland Trust, I came upon this fascinating chapter in Carl Stokes' book Promises of Power: A Political Autobiography. Thank you Cleveland Memory!

I am listening to a podcast of Bill Drayton talking about Social Entrepreneurship. Check it out. The Citizen Sector Transformed

Article 19 just sent me a wallop of good dance video. Thanks Neil!

Let's begin here with Hofesh Schecter