When discussions about East Cleveland redevelopment turned to local food and community gardening, the obvious expert to call was Maurice Small, "Action Hero" of City Fresh, New Agrarian Center. So I'm pleased to see Meet The Bloggers has scheduled a meet-up with Maurice for March 21.

Read More to attend...

National Park Centennial Initiative Listening Session Description: You can help to shape the future of America's national parks! Please come to this listening session to share your ideas. Meeting Directions: One mile west of SR 8

Beach at Sainte-Adresse, 1867

Renowned Impressionist and Monet scholar, and professor at the University of Massachusetts,  Paul Tucker lectures at the CMA as part of the Monet Lectures series accompanying the exhibition "Monet in Normandy". Paul Tucker has written many scholarly books on Monet and has curated several Monet exhibitions.

Untitled (from the Silueta Series, August 1978,

Photograph, 8 x 9 15/16"

Wednesday, March 28 there will be a free screening of short films by Ana Mendieta that document her performances from the 1970s and 1980s, notably her earthwork/body art siluetas.

Carl Topilow conducts works by Dvorak and Stravinsky, with cellist Chia-Ling Chen. Don't miss hearing some of the best young musicians in the United States, many of whom will soon be playing with the world's great symphonies. Free, tickets will be distributed 30 minutes before the concert.

This week's edition of Dee Perry's arts & culture television program Applause!, on WVIZ, features a segment on REALNEO... so I'd like to invite all the friends of realneo to join us for a screening party for the first broadcast of the program, Thusday, March 29, from 7:30 - 8:00 PM, at the great A.J. Rocco's Cafe, at 816 Huron Road, by East 9th Street. As a special treat, I was pleased to learn that A.J. Rocco's had already planned a very cool and complimentary event for that evening - Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman will be the guest bartender from 6-8 PM.

From Groundworks: "a must-see performance". I know my friend Marjorie Talalay is very big on this troup so I believe this must be a must see... I'll try to see... learn more at Cleveland Public Theater... check it out... press release below...

• General admission $10
• 60+ Adults, Case Faculty and Staff $7
• Students $5

The Case Western Reserve Department of Art History and Art will feature Maurizio Seracini, an art diagnostician who has spent the past 30 years using scientific techniques that incorporate new space technologies and medical/surgical advances to study works of art in non-invasive fashion.

Stephen Marley (son of reggae legend Bob Marley) play the House of Blues.
Visit Stephen Marley's website to hear his music and learn more.

A film not to be missed by Stanley Kubrick fans: COLOR ME KUBRICK: A TRUE...ISH STORY (Britain/France, 2005, Brian W. Cook) This amusing new movie tells the incredible true story of Alan Conway, a small-time British con man who passed himself off as the famously reclusive filmmaker in 1990s London. As played by John Malkovich, Conway is a gay man of many accents and an eyebrow-raising wardrobe who scored lots of drinks, dinners, cash, and companions with his extended ruse. The movie's witty allusions to Clockwork Orange and 2001 are attributable to the fact that both the writer and the director worked for Kubrick for many years. "A sly, enormously entertaining romp." -Variety. Cleveland theatrical premiere. 35mm. 86 min. www.magpictures.com

Steve Litt and CUDC Director, Christopher Diehl will discuss the recent vote to demolish the Breuer Tower on 90.3 WCPN on The Sound of Ideas. Tune in and call in!

You Are Invited:  Cleveland Clean Air Century Campaign Working Group Meeting

Kevin Rosseel , U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (Climate Change Division), Communications Director will be the keynote speaker at Cleveland Clean Air Century Campaign's quarterly meeting on April 4, 2007.

Hollis Clayson, Professor, Northwestern University, lectures at the CMA as part of the Monet Lectures series accompanying the exhibition "Monet in Normandy". This lecture is free and held in the Recital Hall.

TRUE ART GALLERY presents Michaelle Marshall, Jeanetta Ho and Laurel Herbold, April 6 – 30

OPENING RECEPTION, FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2007, 6-10 P.M.

"Absence as Presence: Exploring a Fundamental Representational Mode in Chinese art and Visual Culture"
Wu Hung, distinguished professor of art history, University of Chicago, and associate curator, Smart Gallery, presents the 18th annual Harvey Buchanan Lecture in Art History and the Humanities in the CMA lecture hall. Free and open to the public.  Sponsored by the Department of Art History and Art, Case Western Reserve University.

The great NEO-roots arts Champion David Thomas - driving force behind the amazing Pere Ubu, Rocket From The Tombs, and all things Ubu Projex - brings his Two Pale Boys to Cleveland for their only show in the United States. REALNEO will be there to share the excitement... see some brief notes from my interview with David Thomas from his last RFTT tour through Cleveland here. Make your plans now to turn out for this remarkable event and support the most innovative musical genius ever to rise from our region... and support the Beachland! More below:

 
DAVID THOMAS AND TWO PALE BOYSPERFORM ONE U.S. SHOW ONLY - at the Beachland

David Thomas and two pale boys continue to support their last release
titled, 18 Monkeys On A Dead Man's Chest (Smog Veil).  The album is the
group's fifth release and their third studio album.  It takes the group's
extraordinary sonic lexicon, the trademark soundscaping of  electronic
trumpeter Andy Diagram and guitar/synthesist Keith Moliné, and injects it
with a furious rock urgency. Check the zigzagging riffs and knife-edge
angularity of the blistering "Numbers Man."  There are no drums on this
track and no drums at all during the band's live performance of the material
from the album.

April 10th
at Beachland Ballroom
in Cleveland, Ohio
9:30 pm set time

18 Monkeys On A Dead Man's Chest contains the following nine tracks 1) "New
Orleans Fuzz," 2. "Numbers Man," 3. "Little Sister," 4. "Habeas Corpus," 5.
"Brunswick Parking Lot," 6. "Nebraska Alcohol Abuse," 7. "Sad Eyed
Lowlands," 8. "Golden Surf" and 9. "Prepare for The End."

"Ceaselessly inventive"
- Sunday Times

"Twisted and inspired, it is like everything and nothing you've ever
heard...beautiful and haunted stuff in which to both lose and find
yourself."
- Time Out

"His otherworldly, slightly deranged voice...bears comparison with no other
voice: child-like, full of guilt, pitched somewhere around, although not at,
falsetto, but - and this is the fulcrum of his appeal, around which his
whole oeuvre pivots - it has a serene, mournful quality. Nick Drake and Ian
Curtis had that quality too, but Thomas's palette is broader, his
inclination more avant-garde."
- The Guardian

John House, Professor, Courtauld Institute of Art, lectures at the CMA as part of the Monet Lectures series accompanying the exhibition "Monet in Normandy". This lecture is free and held in the Recital Hall.

The question "Am I possible?" is the beating heart of Get Rid of Yourself, and it echoes throughout Bernadette Corporation's existence on the borders of fashion and art.  The group is influenced by Vivienne Westwood, Malcolm McLaren, and Jean-Luc Godard. They are also interested in new immigrant cultures surrounding their loft "headquarters" on the Bowery in New York City. Bernadette Corporation's interventionist projects function as a critique of our global culture, which constructs identity through consumption and branding.

Digital Media & Strategic Doing: Bringing Ideas to Life

THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2007, 11:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M.

Come See the New Documentary Film
 
An Inconvenient Truth
--Best Documentary Oscar 2007
by Al Gore
 
Learn about Global Warming-Climate Change and how people can play a part to benefit our planet

FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 2007 7:30 A.M. to 7:00 P.M.

SPITZER CONFERENCE CENTER/STOCKER ARTS

It is my greatest honor to invite all people of NEO who are interested in regional economic development transformation and education to attend the 2007 Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council 2007 Annual Meeting, titled "Lead Poisoning and Education: How Lead Poisoning Challenges School Performance". This will be one of the most insightful experiences of your life - spread the word and register immediately, as we will exceed the capacity of the Cleveland Natural History Museum! Read on...

I'm pleased to say that REALNEO is participating in the upcoming defrag conference at Lorain Community College - a series of powerful sessions on " Digital Media & Strategic Doing: Bringing Ideas to Life" organized by iOpen, LCCC, Case, CIA and others. The session we will participate in, led by our techie Derek Arnold, is on social computing, with a focus on developing a shared calendar for Northeast Ohio, by leveraging the wealth of open source technology we and other social networks in town use to connect together the people of the community... here is the write up - more on defrag follows and is found here, along with a link for registration (which you should do asap)...

• Practices in Social Software Technology: Gateway solutions to regional calendaring, Green City Blue Lake, REALNEO, Meet The Bloggers, Lakewood Observer, Shout Youngstown, and others

3rd Annual Art Fur Animals Benefit & Auction, all proceeds go directly to the care of animals at the City of Cleveland Kennel.
I went to this even last year and it was a lot of fun. Various artists painted about 30 ceramic dogs that were sold by auction. There were other types of art (prints, photos) being auctioned too. The low admission price brought in a fun crowd. There were free appetizers and a cash wine bar. I liked how the whole event was done at a very low cost allowing most of the money to go to the animals. But, what I enjoyed most was seeing all that creativity. I bought a dog with scenes of the Mediterranean painted on serveral areas of his anatomy. This year should be no less interesting!

Be A Champion of Life

Dear Friends,

We're happy to announce some upcoming programs designed to give you the success tools you need, and give you the lasting results you desire!

SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 2007 9:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M.

SPITZER CONFERENCE CENTER/STOCKER ARTS

Be A Champion of Life

Dear Friends,

We're happy to announce some upcoming programs designed to give you the success tools you need, and give you the lasting results you desire!

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon will be the guest of Cleveland Public Library’s Writers and Readers Series, Sunday, April 15,at 2:00 p.m. Free and open to the public, the event will take place at the Main Library, Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium, E. 6th Street and Superior Avenue.

Chabon emerged on the literary scene with his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh , which was originally written for his master’s thesis at UC Irvine and became a national bestseller. His second novel, Wonder Boys , about a frustrated novelist, also reached bestseller status and was made into a film starring Michael Douglas and Tobey McGuire. But it was his third novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay , which depicts an illustrator and writer in the comic book world of the 1930's and 40's, that won him fame and the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, among other notable awards.

Majorie Williams, Director of Education, The Cleveland Museum of Art, lectures at the CMA as part of the Monet Lectures series accompanying the exhibition "Monet in Normandy". This lecture is free, open to the public and in the Recital Hall.

To All

 
Planning for the Towpath Trail as it will extend from lower Harvard Avenue to Canal Basin Park has begun. 

E4S Third Tuesday Network Event
An E4S Network Celebration

In the last several years we have seen a tremendous change in the sustainability landscape in Greater Cleveland. How have things changed? What is still missing from the picture that is needed to encourage more to embrace sustainability as a key transformational design strategy for our region? To participate in this discussion, register now for the next E4S Third Tuesday Network Event in Cleveland.

Speakers will include:

Public Meeting-

E. 120th Street

Public Meeting-

E. 120th Street

Inner Belt cluster First, the Ohio Department of Transportation decides to close exit ramps on the Inner Belt rather than enforce speed limits, causing local businesses to go ballistic.

Don't miss the new documentary about Ralph Nader's life, An
Unreasonable Man, premiering Friday, April 20, 2007 in
Cleveland and Columbus. Click here to watch a quick preview.
 On opening night and Saturday, April 21 in Cleveland,

"I think Cleveland is a good place. Inner city is rough, but the outskirts is real beautiful, and great schools there. Plus my family, my mom and my sisters, they're all in Cleveland, so it's easier for me to be there than anywhere else." This quote, from an excellent Free Times interview with Charles "Wish Bone" Scruggs, of Cleveland-roots, Grammy award winning, multi-platinum rap trailblazers Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, sings the woes of a place branded as a "Shrinking City", where even the urban hard-core Thugs chose the 'burbs over the 'hood. The result of such out-migration, and downright defection, as is the case with all the other members of Bone, is the subject of a series of art exhibitions and related events taking place over the next month, all over town... which event sponsor Kent Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC) introduces by pointing out: "In 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that Cleveland had lost nearly 20,000 residents in just five years. The city’s population of 458,684 was the lowest in nearly one hundred years." Starting Friday, April 20, 2007, at 4:30 PM, with a lecture at CUDC, explore what it means when a city loses its Bones...

Don't miss the new documentary about Ralph Nader's life, An
Unreasonable Man, premiering Friday, April 20, 2007 in
Cleveland and Columbus. Click here to watch a quick preview.
 On opening night and Saturday, April 21 in Cleveland,