"Self-identified evangelicals provided roughly 40 percent of George W. Bush's total vote in 2004." This startling statistic, from a thorough overview of the role of religion in US foreign policy, published in an article in the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs titled "God's Country", makes clear the shift in power in American politics and foreign policy leadership in America today. Further, this article reports, "Evangelicals have been playing a major role in congressional and Senate elections as well, and the number of self-identified evangelicals in Congress has increased from around 10 percent of the membership in both houses in 1970 to more than 25 percent in 2004."

The disturbing juxtapositioning of social unconsciousness in NEO, reflected by the billboards above, found on Detroit at W. 28th Street, says it all about what is wrong with America today and our economy. Raw selfishness championed by the baby-boom generation has corrupted core, co-conspiring, selfish Gen-X leadership, placing Cleveland and human existence in jeopardy. In a quote from a 20/20 program today on the end of life on Earth, a scientist said "our children and grandchildren already tell us we ruined everything" and that is so correct. I apologized this weekend to my 12 year old daughter for today's leaders destroying her planet, and challenged her to focus her life on saving Earth, as the future clearly depends upon her and the next generations. After an hour and half of the 20/20 program "Last Days on Earth", exploring what may end human existence, from comets and pandemics to nuclear war, the program's conclusion was that we are already destroying the planet through CO2/pollution, and climate change will end human existence in less than 100 years, without significant change in human behavior and global leadership.

I took the rapid transit from Shaker Heights to the Terminal Tower last night and rather than continue home to Ohio City by bus or train I decided to walk across the Veterans Memorial Bridge and see the public art there, and enjoy the spectacular views of the flats and city by night. It was the first time I ever walked across the bridge and knowing it was a place community leaders invested much time and effort I was hopeful it would offer a good NEO experience. What I found was good art and facilities on the bridge, but a tragic disconnect created in the delivery of the experience to the public. While the bridge now features cool lighting and public art installations, a wide pedestrian sidewalk, a bike lane, seating and even a bike rack, the good experience was entirely obliterated by an oppressive 10 foot tall wall of metal spikes set, about three inches apart, from one end of the bridge to the other, not only destroying the experience of enjoying the bridge and art, but obstructing one of the most dynamic views in America. Who is to blame?

I went to the Beck Center for the first time for the Masumi Hayashi memorial. I was interested to see the place, as it has sufaced in controversy as the Beck Chairman of the Board wants to move it to Crocker Park, and the media and arts powers that be agree. What I found was a very expensive, expansive, high quality arts facility, as ugly as sin, on the skin, and poorly managed in obvious ways, but far from beyond redemption. That the regional arts leadership is ready to demolish this solid facility is beyond belief and shows how disposable our leadership finds our core and inner-ring community.

As a largely grey and blue crowd of arts and peace lovers assembled in Lakewood to think and talk about renowned contemporary artists John Jackson and Masumi Hayashi, now living only in spirit and retrospect, a young and multi-colorful crowd gathered in the "Market Square" pocket park at W.25th and Lorain (across from the West Side Market) to give props to scores of nameless contemporary artists that live on in the streets of Cleveland's urban core, through their art of aerosol paint, rap, scratch and break... otherwise known to the establishment as counter-culture, noise and pollution.

Today the bleak Beck Center for the Arts had a heart pounding inside, to the beat of a Masumi Hayashi retrospective... that is the power of art, even when the artist is dead. 100s of friends of slain artists Masumi Hayashi and John Jackson consoled themselves and those who joined them, with staged remembrances to the memorial gathering, which were broadcast throughout the center and had great impact. There were places to read some of the articles that have been written about Masumi over the years... mostly since her death... and a project of having attendees write messages to the artists on tissue paper and tying them to cords strung in front of the center, in what was described as a Japanese tradition.

During a gathering tonight of 100s of Clevelanders, promoting peace and honoring the lives of artists John Jackson and Masumi Hayashi, at the West Clifton Park and labyrinth at W. 65th Street and W. Clinton Avenue, now dedicated in the artists' honor, the heavens shed tears in a light, cleansing rain... followed by scores of uplifting tributes to the artists and other lost lives, numerous musical selections, the play of dozens of innocent children, in a coming together of good souls with love in their hearts.

Leave it to a great artist to know great artists, and to a great publication to get the right words out. In this week's Free Times, one of my favorite artists from Northeast Ohio, and our finest arts journalist, Douglas Max Utter paid tribute to John Jackson and Masumi Hayashi, and finally shared true insight about these great artists and their work, characters and visions with the world.

When I saw The Redhead's posting on REALNEO for "green :: a vegan and vegetarian potluck :: every sunday!" I knew this was a good thing and decided to invite some friends and attend. I'm certainly glad I did. Not only did I have the best meal in recent memory, from good homes and hearts, but it turned out to be a real "NEO Excellence Roundtable" where I met a bunch of awesome people making NEO special... we all even learned lots about vegan baking, from an entrepreneurial pro chef... all on a beautiful Summer's eve, in a setting hard to beat, on the shore of Lake Erie, at Lakewood Park. Learn more about all of this, and plan to join in next week... read on!

An especially exciting project 7GEN Canada is undertaking is the transformation of the premier gallery of the glass art of Canada, Material Matters, into a virtual community. In doing this, we are taking a physical gallery at 215 Spadina Avenue, in Toronto (which 7GEN also calls home), and transforming that into a community of all Canada's glass artists, and a global marketplace for their art.

Lisa Wuohela in front of Material Matters, the premier gallery of Canadian glass art in the world.

The August 14, 2006 REALNEO header (included below) has great meaning, as it introduces a new initiative of 7GEN, LLC, the organization formed by Phillip Williams, Evelyn Kiefer and myself following the attempted theft of REALinks, LLC, property by my former partner, Peter Holmes. This header is of a great NEO art collection, of my parents, Doctors Ann and Norman Roulet, which Phillip, Evelyn and I are documenting on-line as a first service of May Show for the NEO community... in the future, my parents and other NEO art collectors and art dealers and artists may show the world the art they create, sell, collect and exhibit here in Northeast Ohio. The May Show portal being developed by 7GEN, LLC, will be the only interface in NEO to so well document art and make it available to the public, far eclipsing capabilities of even our beloved Cleveland Museum of Art. But that is not the most exciting development for 7GEN I have to share with NEO today, as we are basing future operations at the location shown above, on Spadina Avenue in Toronto, Canada. Read a brief introduction of what, how and why 7GEN will operate in Canada below.

Welcome to the home of Material Matters, and now 7GEN Canada, at 215 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Canada

It is summertime and hot, and Cleveland feels it. As REALNEO has been feeling too hot for comfort, as well, it is time for a cooling down period this August. Over the next few months, the team supporting REALNEO is creating an organization for moving forward with our social network, and our lives, so we'll all be posting as we may... please feel free to post as well.

The area in the city of East Cleveland and Cleveland that is most certainly blighted is the corner bounded by Euclid Avenue on the North and Lake View Cemetery on the west and south, which is a serious dead end in two ways. One is the lack of flow through of traffic and healthy human activity. The other major issue is that the most remote inner corner of this dead end happens to be in Cleveland, isolated in East Cleveland away from the rest of Cleveland by part of Lakeview Cemetery (it's just east of the gates on Euclid). So this corner does not get good Cleveland police and other services and has deteriorated into a very rundown and unhealthy area - the impact zone extends about four or five blocks east into East Cleveland. At that point, the neighborhood becomes lovely, with large historic homes that tend to be largely well kept. Investment in helping this historic zone really fix up their homes and heighborhood would really pay off for homeowners and the city.

You may have noticed REALNEO was off line some Sunday and on Monday, for the first time since we moved to our current server. We apologize for the longer-than-anticipated down time. We literally relocated the physical server where REALNEO and lots of our other sites are served to fasted bandwidth (this is all in California). So now that is done and we should be up and running again for another many years without interruption

There is a very interesting article in the NYTimes on line today observing "one of the most striking shifts in human existence — a change from small, relatively weak and sickly people to humans who are so big and robust that their ancestors seem almost unrecognizable." The lengthy article, found here, concludes: "Today, Mr. Keller says, he is big and healthy, almost despite himself"... "Maybe it was his good fortune to have been born to a healthy mother and to be well fed and vaccinated." "I don’t know if we have as much control as we think we do”.

I find the point of the article is that we as society can do much to control the lifelong health condition of our community members, if we focus on controllable factors like prenatal environment and health care - especially addressing pollution exposure for pregnant women. While leaders and citizens of NEO hate to think and talk seriously about such issues as pollution and our environment (hell, the powerful Ohio coal industry lobby still challenges the finding there is human behavior related global warming),  the NYTimes article cites research that indicates Northeast Ohio is a place where lifelong good health and longevity of life are especially controllable, as we have a most unhealthy environment and so more, higher risk factors than most regions of our country. From the City Mayors website: "Parts or all of 11 Midwest cities (in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin) rank among the 25 worst for year-round particle levels, while six also rank in the 25 worst for short-term particle pollution."

New research from around the world has begun to reveal a picture of humans today that is so different from what it was in the past that scientists say they are startled. Over the past 100 years, says one researcher, Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago, humans in the industrialized world have undergone “a form of evolution that is unique not only to humankind, but unique among the 7,000 or so generations of humans who have ever inhabited the earth.”

I'm very appreciative of REALNEO members who responded to my posting "Recommendations for taking this old house solar, and better...", for responding to my challenge: "Can anyone recommend a short path on how to get solar potential assessment of a property and suggestions for other alternative energy and conservation approaches."

Based on this experience, the region's truest champion of social computing and alternative energy visioning in action is Bill MacDermott, of Cleveland Solar and Wind, who John MacGovern referred to my challenge (thanks again for stepping up, John). At John's suggestion, Bill contacted me by email about the challenge with specific suggestions, and made a point to drive by the properties I may influence to go green, and today met with me and my parents to investigate the potentials at their old Shaker home, show some solar products in action, and educate my family about how solar works in this marketplace and context - I call this a personal NEO Excellence Roundtable and it offers lessons to learn for this community (Bill also added valuable content to REALNEO, directly providing knowledge to the community at large). I'll definitely plan a full NEO Excellence Roundtable for Bill to share his broad expertise more directly with a concerned audience, but here are my observations from our discussion today.

I returned to Northeast Ohio, over two years ago, to help drive forward progress with regional economic development and arts and culture, focusing on helping the community leverage free and open source software (FOSS) and social computing to transform how we collaborate, communicate and operate. For nearly 10 years, my belief has been if we, as a region, focus on using the best available information technology (IT) in the most effective ways possible, that will provide us with competitive advantages. My intention for REALNEO has been to demonstrate that purpose.

I am now more certain than ever that is the case, but I have found it personally difficult to bring people together around a collaborative strategy to make that happen. Just as critics of economic development progress in NEO claim the leaders of the economic development space do not collaborate well in some ways, I find they are not open to collaborate on sharing information technology purposes... perhaps from a sense of competitiveness, lack of understanding of next generation IT, lock-in and loyalty to legacy IT solutions and providers, resistance to change, and the unfamiliar purposes and intentions demonstrated by FOSS and social computing.

To address all these challenges, consider an outcome of two fascinating on-line REALNEO discussions with a member in the UK - one on collaboration and the other on NOLA Lessons Learned for NEO - which developed a formula for collaboration that may be applied to this situation and open doors for a remarkable outcome for this community:

collaboration=dialog+inclusion+knowing+intention+purpose

To Clevelanders who missed RFTT at the Beachland - oops. To Pittsburgh and the rest of the tour, see Rocket From The Tombs... more to post when my ears stop ringing...

I was really thrilled to get access to photograph the Rocket From The Tombs show tonight at the Beachland Ballroom (if you are reading this before 10 PM - get over there now and read the rest later) - but when I got a call this afternoon from their publicist Ilka saying if I wanted to drop by the soundcheck at 6:30 to do a quick interview with lead singer and founder of RFTT and Pere Ubu and all sorts of other art music projects that I love, I was exstatically intimidated, as I've seen both RFTT and Pere Ubu (many times) so know in every way David Thomas is larger than life - and his music and words foretell a seriousness and directness that doesn't give the sense this is an easy person to chat with... and I was right. But nothing worthwhile is easy, so I took my chances and Evelyn and I hit the Beachland for the treat of hearing a seminal musical force tune their sound, and then be intimidated by the man Pere Ubu in person... well worth the punch.

The sound check was clearly a challenge - David and band belted through core works to force into submission a sound system ill-prepared for the force of the Rockets, in a room not easily yielding to the range of rock blasting forth. Just hearing these talented artists work through the challenges of honing their sound was a great experience to behold, and with the right adjustments the show is set to rock very hard and loud tonight... more on that later.

That David Thomas would still sit down for 15 minutes, after an exhausting sound check, shows he is not a man to be feared - but he is a massive artistic force with an intellect to be respected, and addressed with great respect - super-smart, precise, articulate, certain of himself and his work - uber-artist I wish I had a better opportunity to learn from and observe in action... I'd follow the tour if I had the time and money - I will follow up with the other band members later to get more persectives on their whole phenomenum as it is all so impactful - this is a rare group of talented masters of their arts and the art of music.

Here are a few quick notes from my discussion today with Thoms, which I'll clean up and fill in more as I have time to think about what we discussed, and after the show that starts up in less than an hour... your your sake, I wish you would be there... I'll share photos and insight as I'm able to grasp what I may.

It was terrific to see Cleveland Foundation President Ronn Richard write an opinion column in the Plain Dealer today expressing his vision for developing an alternative energy industry in Northeast Ohio. This has been a topic of considerable discussion in Cleveland for two years, going back to several excellent Tuesdays@REI, back in the day, and more recently wind has become a visible promise on the horizon of Cleveland, with the installation of a turbine in front of the Great Lakes Science Center.

Ronn clarifies below what are his objectives for wind in NEO, which is not just to take as much of the region off the traditional electric grid as possible, but to build alternative energy technologies here, as a workforce and industrial development for the future. There is not doubt that is an excellent strategy with strong support in the region, and absolutely no opposition.

At the end of his column, Ronn writes "We're pressing for a move to advanced energy as an imperative for national security, local economic security and a healthier planet. Won't you join us?... Call Richard Stuebi at the Cleveland Foundation to get involved: 216-685-2011." There is also an opportunity to hear Mr. Stuebi speak at Case tomorrow - see http://realneo.us/SURES-RICHARD-STUEBI.

I took the picture at the top of this posting from Ronn Richard's office at the Cleveland Foundation, several months ago, and he spoke with complete confidence in his ability to make the alternative energy industry a strength of this region, so I am completely confident this will occur - those interested in that outcome should read Ronn's complete column below and follow through on his request - contact the Cleveland Foundation and get involved!

How would you describe (Rocket From The Tombs) show to someone that has never seen you playing live?

It is truly one of the great rock experiences you will have. We wouldn't bother otherwise. The people in this band do not belong together. Touring with this band has been the most miserable experience of my life. The only reason I do it is because what we do on stage is so satisfyingly hot.

RFTT have been described as one of the godfathers of punk, a kind of a bridge between the Stooges, hard rock and a more arty sound. What's your opinion about that?

RFTT was, in my opinion, not a punk band. We were a logical step along the progression and evolution of rock music. Our roots seem very obvious. People say the music is so angry you must be rebellious. Yeah, I don't know. It seems to me, as I remember it, what we were angry about was ordinariness. The mainstream rock bands who played in all the clubs were SO ordinary and unambitious, were satisfied with so little when there so much that could be done. That's what I remember. That doesn't seem too punk to me. But I'm not a chicken-hawker either.

What kind of reaction from the crowd did you get while touring? Which kind of feedback from your performances?

Audiences were stunned and extremely happy.

- David Thomas, of Rocket From The Tombs, Pere Ubu, and Cleveland

These quotes, from the liner notes from the 2004 RFTT Rocket Redux release of luminary Cleveland-honed, UK-based David Thomas, founder of globally significant Rocket From The Tombs (RFTT) and Pere Ubu, offer Clevelanders just a hint of what is in store for them tonight, July 26, 2006, at the Beachland Ballroom - the first show of RFTT's 2006 fast-track blast across the USA...in other words:

I had the pleasure of joining a group of East Cleveland residents of Ward 2 (the neighborhood nearest to University Circle), hosted by Ward 2 Councilwoman Barbara Thomas, where she gave citizens the opportunity to discuss their issues and seek insight and solutions - one of the things I love about East Cleveland is this small-town form of government... you need to experience it. One topic was trash, and that led to recycling, and I know realneo members love that! So... who wants to plan some more recycling?

In today's Plain Dealer was what appeared like an exposé on economic development organizations in Northeast Ohio, but really just showed lots of big salaries and highlighted the obvious about our regional economy that was summed up in one line - " Has it worked? Not yet." I've had good experiences with two people in economic development in NEO - Cleveland Tech Czar Michael DeAloia and I-Open leader Ed Morrison, quoted in the PD article saying: "There's not strong enough leadership looking out, picking their head up out of the weeds and saying we need to be heading this way,"... "He argues we lack the civic skills to grab opportunities, make decisions and move on." I agree, and have found the ivory tower efforts for the region are not for me or my interests. They are for others, and traction is being made in some areas, like health sciences (hard to avoid, with the $ millions in health related R&D at Case and the Clinic alone... the Clinic just took a medical company public last week). But in the small business and IT spaces there is little support available, and there are real obsticals to progress, to some extent caused by the community belief there is a support structure in place to help entrepreneurship here, which there is not. One hopeful sign for the future is that Case has disposed of the dean of their business school, and so that institution may again add value to the region through a good replacement... we'll see. Otherwise, it is worth considering the insight Don Iannone shared on his blog in response to the PD article, which offer some good lessons learned by a good local economic development professional... a few highlights below... my favorite being "our regional economic development culture (that includes everybody and not just the faces and names in the Plain Dealer series) is combative, secretive, blaming, insular, and small-minded":

Oh my God, I just saw an interview with Steve Case, the former CEO of AOL, that pathetic fork in the road toward an information economy, who in 2005 started Revolution Healthcare to "entrepreneurise" healthcare, and the vision he presents is highly disturbing, being that he sees healthcare as the big industry (along with "energy technology") and is planing to be the world's healthcare portal and Patient Record Management system and provide clinics in WalMarts and on and on, and his investors are Barksdale (Netscape) and Powell (5 star General), and they will build many big companies, bigger the AOL, and it is clear this man is sick.