Best wishes for an improved 2009. Happy New Year, all!

In the Late Fall of 2003 Norm Roulet, at the invitation of Ed Morrison, introduced the REALNEO social media concept using the open source Drupal platform to a crowd at REI in the Peter B Lewis building at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio. Until Norm’s introduction of Realneo, the REI forum had been (trying) to use wikis for their internet communication.

I happened to be in that audience, and I logged onto Realneo as user No. 53 - four years and four weeks ago.

I made a comment at the end of a long discussion on the role of critic to choreographer and audience at Downtown Dancer, a blog in the holler of Manhattan's dance mecca. I add it here as a way to keep track (personally) and to share my thoughts on dance with the NEO dance interested community.

I wrote this review of Joe Goode Performance Group when they visited Cleveland in 2007. It was published in Coolcleveland. Here it is gathered with my other dance musings to add to the file.

More great dance like this in NEO, please.

Jeff Buster's poll on REALNEO asking "If Peter Lawson Jones immediately withdrew his support for the Medical Mart Convention Center would his public career benefit?" motivated me to spend the time to explore the probability the MedCon is already dead, and our leaders will let us know that when they return from their vacations... and get the nerve. What do you think?

How do you choose between shelter and a best friend?
This is the impossible decision pet-lovers face when
losing their homes. Since most shelters don't allow
animals, homeless people with pets often elect to stay

Hot Home Wind Turbines You Can Actually Buy, Plus One You Wish You Couldby Ma

Piece of Political Art my Neighbor Georgiann Franko picked up during Tremont Art Walk in October.

In today's news we learn of the end of an era - Jim Mazurkeiwicz retires and Potter Mellen closes its doors.

Here's a sample of Jim's work from the still live Potter Mellen website:

The Cleveland Social Media Experiment

• Posted by Michael DeAloia on December 28, 2008 at 3:58pm

As the days wane on 2008, it is becoming ever more evident that Cleveland and its civic leadership must work with fervor to develop new business and industry. I am constantly reminded of Cleveland’s strong lineage of disregarded life altering opportunities to; instead, stay on the tried and true. Have you ever heard the stories of Cleveland donning serious consideration for NASA’s Mission Control headquarters? Can you imagine the radical change to the NASA campus and its influence on Cleveland if it were to have a mission control here? This could have happened. I suspect you are all aware of Progressive Insurance wanting to build an “eye-opening” corporate headquarters in Downtown Cleveland, only to have the civic leaders in Cleveland politely say, “No thank you.” Shameful.

While on the subject of cities, some analysts look to the nation's economic woes, it's impact on tax receipts for cities and foresee municipal bankruptcies growing at alarming rates.  Cities may need to look to municipal bankruptcy, chapter 9 of the bankruptcy code, to protect themselves and taxpayers. We haven't seen this since the Orange County bankruptcy in 1994, which lost over $1.5 billion.

I never thought Councilman Mike Polensek was a bad guy, maybe a frustrated, burned out, partially-jaded reformer facing difficult tasks in Cleveland, but not a bad guy. However, in my mind, you can't justify the latest problem involving his asking a local development nonprofit organization to buy a house for him while he secured financing.  He can say he gave the nonprofit a modest profit for helping he can say it was only a short-term thing and he can say he only did it for his mom, but....

Black shiny shoes... laced up FBI shoes - the ones that got Ken Kesey... remember? in Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test?

Black shiny INS shoes are now rounding up immigrants (like all of us Americans who are not native to the US lands) and putting them in jails - rounding them up for deportation. It’s big business and it’s a growth industry in a failing economy.

This is a re-post from my blog: Ohio City's Bodnar Funeral Home applied for a zoning variance on December 22nd to build a crematory at 3929 Lorain Avenue. Ward 14 Councilman Joe Santiago is in support of the building addition and expansion of the funeral home’s on-site services.

What better way to see Cleveland--10 a.m. -12:00 p.m. for all upcoming dates listed here. 

January 3rd The West Side Market 1979 W. 25th Street Bring in the new year by sketching the Saturday activity at the market. With the enclosed produce section and the impressive indoor market space...it is the perfect winter locale!

Cleveland is New Orleans, where the foreclosure crisis, like Katrina, is just a perfect storm for corporate greed and local corruption run amok. 

I need some I/T help.  Yes, I know I posted that I used to be in I/T, but I had such a bad experience with local government that I walked away.  And left all my geek skills behind me.

So, I'm in dire need of help.  I have a computer at the shop that needs more memory... in a bad, urgent way.

I also have a laptop that's MS Registry is bad.  I need to save my data and have the instructions to do so, it's just over my head these days and I have a million other things to do...

Any referals? 

After reading one of Henry Senyak's September 2,  2008 post on Tremonter it appears, from the article written by Chuck Hoven, that the Tremont West Development Corporation had paid staff members canvas the Tremont neighborhood and develop a list of structures which the staff members claimed had building code violations..

This memory makes me smile and appreciate the struggles with my home.  I was working at Edison's and one of my regulars came in and found out which house I was renovating and he proceeded to tell me stories about the old candy store.  I love the stories of the Tremont old-timers and when I went home from work that night, I posted a blog about the conversation which was much more than a story about my home.  So, in the spirit of the holidays, sharing may make someone else smile as well...

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

We wanted a real tree for the holiday, this year, but Evelyn and I don't like the idea of growing and cutting down and then transporting and throwing away a tree just for that. The carbon footprint, any way you do it, just seems a waste.