This pan was taken during a stunning East Cleveland snowfall, in Lakeview Cemetery. I was drawn to the cemetery to take these photos of a remarkable sculpture and the winter beauty, and came away realizing the dead would vote for Obama, knowing what they know now.

There is no hiding the pride felt by Michigan Representative to Congress John Conyers, Jr., as he speaks of Barack Obama. A 21 term US Senator, Chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary, and leading Obama supporter, Conyers traveled to East Cleveland, Saturday, February 23, 2008, to share his pride with over 100 volunteer organizers assembled at The Inner Circle to canvas area neighborhoods for “our next President of the United States”.

Change may be the theme of this campaign, but pride is the operative word.

Michael Chattem, Semen is Thicker Than Blood. Blood, ink, marker

One of the greatest times when the Cleveland School May Show is the Cleveland Institute of Art’s Annual Student Independent Exhibition, now in its 62 year. Drawing from a huge, diverse body of work in every imaginable media and medium - this year, including semen?! - from an awesome pool of talent, connected by a world-class arts college, in a great arts community, the SIE always delivers an inspiring, mind-expanding experience of genius.

Jessica Jurca, Reliquary to the Brontosaurus. Enamel on Copper, pine.

A page 1 article in the February 2, 2008, Cleveland Plain Dealer, "Dogged security guard caused quite the stir", makes light of international concern over a dog photographed sitting alone in the window of an abandoned, boarded-up house in Cleveland, with the caption "Dog Days: Left behind as foreclosure crisis pounds U.S.", which was published in the Toronto Star, leading to local action in Cleveland to rescue the distressed animal, which turned out to be imprisoned by real estate speculators to protect their shit. They don't even own the dog... the article doesn't care who owns the dog... the article is pointless, yet surfaces pathetic flaws in the character of so many in our region.

Star Neighborhood Development has assembled a community of outstanding, localized resources interested in historic preservation and economic development in our neighborhoods of Cleveland and East Cleveland.  For financial services, Huntington mortgage banker Rick Williamson and Personal Banker Dave Meredith, and their many associates at the Fairmount Circle and University Circle branches, have supported the renovation of 1894 Roxbury and are enthusiastic to provide additional banking services throughout the surrounding neighborhoods.

If one knows where to look, there are amazing people and experiences to be found in Cleveland - like some hard-core union trades-folk cutting loose with great music and times in a gathering-place known as Club 75, not to be found around E75 and St. Clair, late the NEO-warming January night of the 10th, 2008. These back-street socialites, led here by Crazy Marvin on blues harp and Bobby Fox on fiddle, meet regularly for Urban-Iron Chef cookoffs that Lola and Lolitta would love... making NEO real.

Happy New Year 2008 to all the top-through-under dogs of Northeast Ohio. My resolution is to question everything.

Global warming will bring an end to white Christmas and winter as we've always known in, here in NEO, so during the first real snowstorm of this season, December 16, 2007, I went in search of a visual symbol of NEO, in my neighborhood, strong enough to stand out in white-out conditions, and I came to the Breuer! Not the Breuer Tower, of global controversy, but the Breuer Museum wing of global celebration, design elements of which are featured in the latest additions to the Cleveland Museum of Art, shown on the left here, now evolving form in the hands of Vinoly.

Derek Hess showcased his latest work in a one-night exhibit at Kelly Randall Gallery, in Tremont, December 14, featuring new prints and original illustrations and collages that continue growth and demonstrate innovation in this fine artist's work. His work makes powerful statements in form and message, and Derek's message is stronger and more on-target than ever, in these troubling times.

After what seemed like quite a lapse in postings, Northeast Ohio's original b'logger (billboard logger), Harry "X" Sysack, recently put on-line what he promises is "the truth & the whole truth your overpaid teachers & benighted college professors never teach you". Sysack's line is on the RTA, on his private property where W.25th forms Pearl, and his "truths" begin with "Yo, students" and include "What is Christian America all about? Everybody is fuckin' everybody & everybody is lyin' about how they're fuckin' everybody. All politicians are evil & dishonest...". And, one of my favorites, "All lawyers are legal ho's."

The Cleveland Institute of Art is extraordinarily important to Northeast Ohio and the world for the great artists and designers educated there, and for the great artists and designers who are the educators, and staff. Each year, the work of the diverse CIA faculty is showcased in an exhibition not to be missed... the reception for 2007 was last Friday, December 7, and a great event, as always... perhaps the last ever in the historic Gund Building Reinberger Gallery space, as the CIA moves in total to Euclid Avenue.

As part of the Star Neighborhood Development planning for the Star Complex and surrounding one mile radius, I have been planning the redevelopment of the current Cleveland Institute of Art Gund Building and land, on East Boulevard in Cleveland, shown below (full size image here).

November 28, 2007, renowned architect Carl Stein, FAIA, Principal of elemental architecture, llc, of New York City, shared his valuable understanding about the environment in Northeast Ohio and the world, focusing on the energy of buildings and a specific analysis of the Breuer Cleveland Trust Tower, in downtown Cleveland. This is the only high-rise by revolutionary architect Marcel Breuer, and it is globally appreciated as a masterpiece of modern design and construction... yet it is planned for demolition by Cuyahoga County Commissioners Dimora and Hagan.  Stein worked with Breuer for many years, including when Breuer built the Cleveland Trust Tower, and Stein's conclusion is there is no rational excuse for demolishing the Breuer. As Stein states, "just that Breuer and this building are so important is enough reason to preserve the Breuer"... although Stein gives many other reasons!

One environmental fundamental is NOT consuming the wrong things wrongly or unnecessarily - when you must consume then do so as smartly, locally and close to good sources as possible. In that sense, buying from artists and crafts people can't be beat, and there are many opportunities these days to buy local arts and crafts for gifts for the "holiday" season (when all are encouraged to over-consume at all levels). One very cool such shoppening, that brought a huge crowd together at E4th and Prospect, this weekend, was the Bazaar Bizarre... featured on today's header (full size here).

No Idea who came up with this one or what it means, but there is a star strung between the toxin-belching smokestacks of one of Mittal's cancer factories in the Cuyahoga Valley Superfund Site, known as The Flats. Perhaps this is a public service to educate area residents on what they would see in the sky if they lived away from the pollution of Mittal... stars.

Susan Miller had mentioned a strong statement on cell phone use at Dewey's Coffee House, on Shaker Square, in Cleveland, and I happened to be here tonight and saw this posted on their front counter... it is thought provoking, and Dewey's is an excellent place... latest Sunday night free wifi coffee house I know in this part of town (10 PM).

Having promised to Susan I would bring more angels and sunshine to REALNEO, I set out today to find flowers, in Cleveland, in the end of November, after first snowfall... so I sought harsh conditions where survival in winter was nothing compared to surviving in day to day environmental crisis... the Flats. It didn't take long to come across some strapping sunflower-looking blossoms still holding the hopes of life at the end of an especially toxic year.

I love animals and always enjoy the company of dogs... here is my current pup, shown at around 8 and 14 weeks. She's a Cane Corso so will be big and eat more than the scraps my family will produce. I know having a dog raises environmental issues, including what to feed it. I don't know of any local dog food sources, or good dog food sources of any sort... there is the transportation, and to the extent you feed dogs what people need, or what harms the environment to produce, you are putting a dog before a human, which may not be wrong. In any case, I'm interested in finding a locally-sourced, healthy, organic food for my beast... anyone know af any solutions or want to join in creating one, if needed?

I wanted to enjoy and capture a last glimpse of Fall 2007 so stopped by the second most important battleground in the history of the environmental movement in NEO, after Whiskey Island, being the Shaker Lakes Nature Center, above (see full size here). Were it not for 11 exceptional women from Shaker, including REALNEOan Martha Eakin's mother, a seriously crude, corrupt, foolish Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Chairman, former Cuyahoga County Engineer Albert Porter, would have driven freeways through this exact spot in the Shaker Lakes. The scenario is very much like we have in NEO today, with seriously crude, corrupt, foolish political bosses attempting to do seriously crude, corrupt, foolish things to our region, like demolishing the Breuer, over-bridging and retrenching I-90, and likely the "Opportunity Corridor", which is driving far more than 11 exceptional women to take on the latest generation of seriously crude, corrupt, foolish leaders... and, like the Shaker 11, we are winning.

Rockefeller / MLK Drive is as beautiful a place to enjoy nature - these days, fall colors - as any place on Earth that has been touched by man.  As I've been thinking about the Native Americans of this land, and Indians of India and America, and the current hostility in this county of past invaders against all others who want to live here too, I was drawn to the Indian Cultural Garden, today, and it was spectacular (full size image here).

I stood there alone, in one of the world's most beautiful places, as commuting suburbanites whizzzed by, and I thought of the last photos I took near here, of the demolition of historic apartment buildings on East Boulevard, that were part of this park's historic fabric and culture, quietly demolished for parking lots, for the whizzzzzing commuters (Full size images: above and below).

It is interesting to reflect on "Cleveland" as a "shrinking city", with 100,000s in declining population, 10,000s of abandoned residential, commercial and industrial lots and buildings covering 1,000s of acres of land, and a failing tax base. Simply put, much of Cleveland is free to the taking, and taxpayers will even pay to get taken by their leaders - the land that is being freed up in this latest Savings and Loan "crisis" is worth $ billions and is being given to the friends of politicians for long term speculation and short term enrichment... what is bad for the poor is very good for the rich, who can buy low (can't beat free, with public subsidy). I'd say all this foreclosure hoopla is as fraudulent as was the housing bubble itself, being pure voodoo economic bullshit media spin to steal from the poor and give to the rich - the "Developed Nations" way and a NEO leadership specialty. I'd like to propose a completely different spin on dealing with our shrinking city crises, which is to give back to the Native Americans what we stole from them in the first place, since we destroyed it and supposedly it is now a burden to we settlers in our cowardly New World.