Located in the heart of the historic Hough Bakeries Complex is the Inner Circle, a weekend club and reception facility operated for the past 7 years by the Hot Sauce Williams family. Starting shortly, operation of the Inner Circle will expand to extended hours every day, featuring a cybercafe, meeting space, computer terminals, free wifi, independent film, the Linux Cafe, art, culture, and great food, coffee, and even wine tastings, via a broader partnership of friends. This pan is from the deck and patio area, and features Guyanese chef and reggae performer and DJ Edwin, who will help operate the Inner Circle, shown with Hot Sauce Williams founder LeMaud Williams, as well.

I recently received an email from ClevelandSGS giving props to realneo, with a link to the ClevelandSGS space on Flickr. I hadn't heard of ClevelandSGS so I checked it out and was awed - it is an amazing assemblage of scanned historic documents and current photos of signage and scenes in Cleveland - a significant community asset in those respects - and a powerful gallery of "Mash-ups" not to be missed. But I still don't know what is ClevelandSGS. Do you? It is the Art of the Day, so read on

As a contrast to yesterday's Header of the Day, of Beechwood Place Mall, here's a new pan from a shoot at new Cleveland Big Box Mall Steelyard Commons, still in development, on April 20, 2007.

I had the annoyance of going to Beechwod Place Mall today for a meeting. What an astounding celebration of sweatshop labor and wasted resources. This pan is the first floor corner by some silly place called Nordstom, where not only does the coffee shop not provide wifi but the barista doesn't know what wifi means.

One of the great creative forces to ever come from Cleveland, Ohio, Philip Johnson was an innovative architect and arts intellectual who was commissioned by the Putnam Sculpture Collection to install this landmark work on the CWRU campus. Part of the Turning Point group of sculptures, this mesh seating area has a wonderful playfulness that bridges nature and structure, place and purpose - take your laptop here and pull in some wifi and work in a world-class work of art - this is a great spot to experience NEO art its unique best.

One of my favorite works of public art in NEO is "Merging", by Athena Tacha, which is a large scale stone and water installation on the campus of Case University, nicely positioned near the Gehry designed Peter B. Lewis Building. The sculpture is part of the Putnam Sculpture Collection, and additional information and other images of this work are found here. This panorama was taken on a beautiful, brisk, sunny spring day, May 18, 2007, from the top of the sculpture.

I've always been uncomfortable with fluoride so now it is very exciting to see that an extract of one of my favorite substances on Earth - cocoa - is better at fighting cavities than flouride. Imagine the joys of childhood (and adulthood) if you had to be certain that every night before bed you ate your chocolate... as suggested by this research from my alma mater, Tulane...

It is always exciting to see powerful uses of the technology we use for realneo - Drupal. Derek recently pointed out that the New York Observer uses Drupal for their web presence and I just found a posting on the website of the originator and keeper of the Drupal flame, Dries Buytaert, that Ozzy uses Drupal - his label Sony uses Drupal. I'd heard that about Sony, but hadn't connected it with any of their sites before... this...

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It is good to see just released the latest research report from Policy Bridge, which explores: "How Anti-Education Messages in Media, at Home, & on the Street Hold Back African-American Youth". They contend "that institutional policy changes cannot succeed without addressing lifestyle factors that derail far too many black youth – boys in particular – from the surest path toward economic well-being: education." Policy Bridge is a think tank directed by Timothy Goler, who I got to know when he was acting economic development director in East Cleveland. This report is found at their website, here. It seems to do a good job of surfacing many issues and proposing solutions not now part of our dialog. There are other similar issues that make education more complex than it seems.

Cleveland is globally important in a way that few cities may be: we are a huge, decaying industrial city. In the post-industrial age, what we now view as blight, like abandoned warehouses and factories, will make Cleveland an international attraction. Already, Cleveland is attracting the world's experts in planning of cities - especially "Shrinking Cities" - into town.

I went down to photograph the Breuer and the Rotunda Sunday evening, as I have this feeling the Breuer is the best building down there - better than the Rotunda.

While Post was a good American architect, this is actually a relatively minor example of his buildings. It is quite old and inefficient - maintenance and renovation costs will be high - it doesn't seem well suited to the intended use.At 100 years old, the Post is well depreciated, although most raw materials and artistic elements of the building can be reused.

$millions spent - outside advertising firm brought in - focus groups of kneeling cheerleaders and deer in headlights conducted - press conference in airplane - check, check, check and check. "NEO" leadership did it again. Another Case of mistaken identities, being those who hired those using outdated formulas to decide how to market our city to us and the world. Every identity mistaken, as plusers ask us to believe in them, and Case re-begets CWRU.

Interesting perspectives on economic and community development from Coral's Peter Rubin, from the Villager Newspaper Online. I think Rubin makes some good points, and the reality is that we are overbuilding the Cleveland housing market, and other amenities, and that will make Cleveland a more powerful residential draw. As more of Cleveland becomes more "livable", more people will chose to live here. Add good schools and free city wide wifi and watch out. Clevelaqnd first will draw people from other parts of the region - empty nesters from the xburbs, students and young professionals from the inner heights - it will be cool and good to live in Cleveland again. That will attract people from other regions and parts of the world, and they will grow the economy - you need a critical mass of urban housing and culture to be a player and we aren't even near that yet - time to keep building and innovating in Cleveland housing! Now for the chair half there, with Rubin:

Buzzing Hong Kong is better known for keeping lights on all night and the air conditioner running full blast, not saving energy. But engineers in the city have introduced an innovative wind energy technology than can help both rural and city residents protect the environment and cut down on energy costs - without having to spend a fortune on an expensive device. Claudia Blume reports.

Claes and I were picking up Evelyn at the University Circle Arabica Sunday around 5 and I heard one of my favorite sounds flowing over from my favorite area spot - the Barking Spider - roots jazz. I knew who I would find there... the finest roots jazz musician I know in town, George Foley... so we headed right over. George plays and sings, solo and with many area musicians, in every imaginable combo, all over town, and it is always a fun, uplifting and inspiring experience.

One important benefit of the cold, grey, dismal NEO Winters is that they are followed by Spring, when the many flowering trees across the region explode with beauty and color - like this spectacular work of art found on MLK Boulevard at the Ukranian Cultural Garden.

Johnny Mango World Cafe and Bar is a love at first and each sight, bite and margarita restaurant for me - creatively well decorated, eclectic environment, friendly staff, and always a great crowd... whether just a few tables of regulars or packed with anyone or everyone in town (generally on weekends... especially when the weather is great and sidewalk patio is open). The reason is a fresh juice bar, meaning some of the best drinks and smoothies possible, along with a great selection of Tequila... along with Momocho (which is next door), they have the best margaritas in town... along with a "world-cafe" menu of fun, unusual foods, cooked fresh, with fresh ingredients, in the open kitchen... and location, location, location in beautiful, vibrant Ohio City.

It has always bothered me to see full page ads in the Cleveland Plain Dealer for the traveling "Collectibles Buyers" who come into town for a few days to prey upon the most desperate citizens of our region, setting up shop in some seedy motel to buy jewelry, coins, watches, etc... the family treasures... from anyone they can scam. Recently, a local TV investigator did a segment on this sad practice, showing that the brokers offer their victims low values only the most pathetic fools would accept.

Proud to see my parents support this exciting expression of the arts in NEO, hosted at the Main Branch of the Cleveland Public Library - thanks to Charles Burkett for pointing out this notice about the show on the CPL website. - it is worth checking out this exhibition, organized by the very cool Elmer Buford

Timing and participating in the World are everything. I was awed to be pulling out of the Hough Bakery complex parking lot in East Cleveland today, listening on WCPN to one of my favorite media sources on Earth - BBC's World Have Your Say - and hearing something like "broadcasting from the East Cleveland Public Library". U-TURN!!!

Here is the first video dance I've seen packaged up with promo sponsor ads at the beginning and on the player - so, if this funds good content, is that bad? We'll see this tested more and more every day... for now, see what you think of what the sponsors like...

As my first post since realneo.us became realneo.org, I'd like to propose a program of Intergenerational guitar classes, I believe Charlie Mossbrook will be happy to instruct. There should be a suggested payment for the class, to compensate Charlie. I'd love to see the classes held in East Cleveland - perhaps the Helen Brown Center or MacGregor, or both. The class would be open to all ages from say 12 up. I believe the only other thing we would need is guitars - so I guess we will need to ask for donations.