On Friday August 31, 2007, while Air Show jets stalled out conversations and blasted ear drums,  Susan Miller and I visited the “open house” at the Post designed Cleveland Trust Rotunda building which sits on the corner of Euclid and 9th next to the Marcel Breuer designed Cleveland Trust Tower in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.   Lee Trotter had announced this open house at the County Commissioners meeting the day before and the Dirty Dealer had carried the news a few days prior.   I wondered, why is the County doing this? 

I grew up and lived in Cleveland and, other than school, stayed here until I moved away for about ten years. Since coming back home, one distressing thing I've noted is that decision-makers, at all levels, closely guard information, almost as if a Captain who would rather go down with the ship, than loosen up and perhaps not go down at all.  The Medical Mart non-debate has all those strange dynamics.  Is it possible, I wonder, if a true, public-private partnership on a Medical Mart/Convention Center/Urban Design District might actually make sense after all?

Once again, Cleveland's daily is excited about the latest “drive-by shooting” of the film industry, reporting that 'visitors to the Rock Hall got an extra treat — watching Rainn Wilson, chief geek from “The Office,” shoot scenes for his upcoming movie “The Rocker.” Once again, however, we are missing the big picture ... literally.  While one day's shooting in Cleveland warrants the media attention, the “The Rocker” will be shooting forty-five days in Toronto, Ontario.

'Make it Your Own Awards' by The Case Foundation

The Case Foundation is looking to award grants up to $35,000 to individuals
or teams working to connect people to discuss what matters, find smart
solutions, and take action.   Any individual, 14 years and older, is
eligible to apply (individuals cannot apply on behalf of organizations).
Application deadline is August 8.   For more
information on the 'Make it your Own Awards' please visit the Case
Foundation Website at http://www.casefoundation.org/make-it-your-own/awards.

Who Can Apply

We're looking for passionate individuals, or individuals working with small, local organizations or groups, who reside in one of the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, or Puerto Rico, to submit an idea for one of these same locations (no international projects). Applicants must be 14 years of age or older.

Location

My friend Katrina will be guest bartending with Thomas Barbric' the regular bartender at Light Bistro (formerly Parker's) on Thursday, June 26th from 4:30 - 8:00 (Happy Hour) all tips will go to the Cleveland Animal Protective League.  There will be complimentary Tapas as well as a few other appetizers for $5. 

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If the world hasn't caught on yet, some of the ideas I presented this weekend as exhibitor during the Ingenuity Festival held here in Downtown Cleveland have caught the distinct attention of our Pope and President, among others.. and though Mr. Bush is now under the duress-caress of a legitimate censure threat he, like so many others has to know a great thing when he sees it.  Who doesn't ?  The key now is to work collaboratively and cross-sectionally to manifest those ideations and innovations particularly and proactively preventative of Biblically-briefed, Catastrophe-causing and Armageddon-averting measures so we can assure a sustainable future for us all.  It is my belief we have five years until a pivotal time in history, and this is indeed a Messianic age - one which is facilitated by what spiritualist Eckhart Tolle and so many others refer to as the frequency holders (Findhorn Retreat)..   So perhaps polytheism returns, and we will all be gods ?   .   And as I jest, in part,  I am simultaneously serious - this isn't enigmatically expansive, or bucolic bipolar banter but rather real and rugged rapture we're talking about!

Introduction :  Ingenuity Fest 2007 :  A Sustainable Future

 

Here is a refined draft for the A Sustainable Future exhibit to be curated by yours truly at the Nance School of Business July 19-22 along with the other Technology hubs.  Sustainability will be the 'glue that binds' in many respects, the various other hubs encompassing the wide array of technologies - from Fuel Cells to Nanotechnology to advanced Bioscience. It is only fitting that Technology be given such prominence this year at the Festival of ART and TECHNOLOGY and the timing is perfect for this to be the true coming out party for an epic festival !  
see: www.ingenuitycleveland.org

Last Wednesday, we opened up The Inner Circle Restaurant and historic Hough Bakeries complex for a public tour, planning discussion, and great Hot Sauce Williams BBQ buffet, and that was a great success - there's a write-up here. Your next chance to join The Inner Circle, explore The Hough, participate in planning this neighborhood and enjoy some great BBQ is this Friday, June 1, 2007. More on the Open House and pictures are found at http://realneo.org/Next-Chance-to-Join-The-Inner-Circle. More on the Hough Bakeries complex at http://realneo.org/hough-bakery-becoming-the-star.

Location

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.

Friday night I attended a reception and lecture at SPACES Gallery for select Cleveland organizations with interest in urban planning and sustainability. The current exhibition at Spaces, Shrinking Cities, explores strategies for post-industrial urban areas and should be of great interest to anyone interested in urban planning and sustainability. Terry Schwarz, Senior Planner at the Urban Design Center of Northeast Ohio, was to give a tour of the exhibition. My affiliation? I am an energy ambassador at Case. I am also an art historian, and although there are some witty, beautiful and innovative works represented in the exhibition the theme and the messages of the show truly over power the aesthetics. One could easily forget they are in an art exhibition.

We live in "Forest City" so Arbor Day should be an important holiday in Cleveland. Here is one idea how you might celebrate ...

Location

 

I was pleased to be invited to participate on the steering committee for developing the Cleveland Municipal School District Arts Education Strategic Plan, which is a fairly large workgroup of many CMSD arts educators and administrators and other community representatives, that is working with consultant Ms. Dawn Ellis, the facilitating consultant and writer of our strategic plan. We had our first orientation today at 3 PM, at Trinity Commons, and it was a well facilitiated and enlightening activity. The format was very interactive, with Dawn surfacing key issues, themes and opportunities and driving participants through structured brainstorming. 

"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...

Location

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.

Location

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

Location

I was quite honored to be contacted, a few weeks ago, by the producer of one of my favorite television programs, Dee Perry's "Applause", asking for information about REALNEO. Seems he was doing research on the spectacular Convivium 33 Gallery, which we have featured extensively on REALNEO, covering Christopher Pekoc here and Clarence Van Duzer here (photos from which were featured in Cleveland Magazine), so REALNEO came up in search results. The producer saw REALNEO as in interesting source of insight on arts and culture in NEO and suggested to his staff doing a segment on Applause about REALNEO. Even though we scheduled the interview, this seemed very abstract until I just saw a promotion on WVIZ for the show, featuring a scrolling view of the REALNEO home page.

The list of states considering or adopting film production tax incentives continues to grow.  More than 30 states now offer some form of tax or production incentives, with a few more states preparing to create or expand their incentive packages.  I've previously pointed to Louisiana's success. Tax incentives have helped the state rise in the ranks and Louisiana is now third in the US for film production (behind only CA and NY).  With the hard, diligent work of the Cleveland Film Commission, Ohio took a modest step forward last year, but can we take another step forward to provide stronger incentives to make films here?  The state of Ohio is trailing, while other states continue to move forward.

Spectrum – the Undergraduate Gay-Straight Alliance of Case Western Reserve University – and Case’s University Programming Board are pleased to bring the “Sex Workers’ Art Show” to Case on February 26, 2007.

Location

    Claude Monet's paintings are pretty. For this reason some people love his work and other dismiss it as decorative and superficial. "Monet in Normandy", the exhibition on now at the Cleveland Museum of Art, brings us over 50 works by one of the world's best known painters and presents them in an intellectual manner that may even make you see those water lily tote bags and umbrellas in a different light.

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