The great NEO-roots arts Champion David Thomas - driving force behind the amazing Pere Ubu, Rocket From The Tombs, and all things Ubu Projex - brings his Two Pale Boys to Cleveland for their only show in the United States. REALNEO will be there to share the excitement... see some brief notes from my interview with David Thomas from his last RFTT tour through Cleveland here. Make your plans now to turn out for this remarkable event and support the most innovative musical genius ever to rise from our region... and support the Beachland! More below:

 
DAVID THOMAS AND TWO PALE BOYSPERFORM ONE U.S. SHOW ONLY - at the Beachland

David Thomas and two pale boys continue to support their last release
titled, 18 Monkeys On A Dead Man's Chest (Smog Veil).  The album is the
group's fifth release and their third studio album.  It takes the group's
extraordinary sonic lexicon, the trademark soundscaping of  electronic
trumpeter Andy Diagram and guitar/synthesist Keith Moliné, and injects it
with a furious rock urgency. Check the zigzagging riffs and knife-edge
angularity of the blistering "Numbers Man."  There are no drums on this
track and no drums at all during the band's live performance of the material
from the album.

April 10th
at Beachland Ballroom
in Cleveland, Ohio
9:30 pm set time

18 Monkeys On A Dead Man's Chest contains the following nine tracks 1) "New
Orleans Fuzz," 2. "Numbers Man," 3. "Little Sister," 4. "Habeas Corpus," 5.
"Brunswick Parking Lot," 6. "Nebraska Alcohol Abuse," 7. "Sad Eyed
Lowlands," 8. "Golden Surf" and 9. "Prepare for The End."

"Ceaselessly inventive"
- Sunday Times

"Twisted and inspired, it is like everything and nothing you've ever
heard...beautiful and haunted stuff in which to both lose and find
yourself."
- Time Out

"His otherworldly, slightly deranged voice...bears comparison with no other
voice: child-like, full of guilt, pitched somewhere around, although not at,
falsetto, but - and this is the fulcrum of his appeal, around which his
whole oeuvre pivots - it has a serene, mournful quality. Nick Drake and Ian
Curtis had that quality too, but Thomas's palette is broader, his
inclination more avant-garde."
- The Guardian

Location

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

(This opening was rescheduled because of the blizzard February 13th)
The opening reception for “PROCESS IN ART:
ACCUMULATION AND TRANSITION" is tomorrow night (Tues.
Feb 27th) at The Cleveland Foundation from 5-7pm.

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.

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.

Location

I heard a fascinating, heartwarming and inspiring story on WCPN's Weekend America early this afternoon. It was about a fantastic sculptural building in Brooklyn called Broken Angel, the life's work of a unique romantic visionary, Arthur Woods. Outsider architecture might be a term used to describe his style. Woods is a self-trained architect and painter.

Curated by:
Ofri Cnaani
Rotem Ruff

Artists:
Dan Acostioaei, Romania
Karina Aguilera Skvirsky, New York, NY
Francisca Benitez, New York, NY
Gautam Kansara, New York, NY

Location

University Circle Celebrates MLK Day - JANUARY 14 & JANUARY 15
Celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in University Circle. On Sunday, January 14, and Monday, January 15, many University Circle institutions will offer free or discounted admission and special programming for visitors. UCI will provide free shuttle buses on January 15.

Location

Location

It is always a pleasure and privilege to see the Cleveland Orchestra perform at Severance Hall, but their presentation of Gustav Holst's "The Planets" was unique and special. This is a great creative set of compositions, being composed in 1914-1916 as highly expressive, at times avant-garde voyages to each of the planets known at the time, long before man had physically probed space, and no man has probed space more aptly than did Holst. And, I doubt any men and women could probe the complexities of these compositions more ably than does the Cleveland Orchestra.

Cleveland Public Library's Staff Chorus will perform the free and open to the public 10th Annual Holiday Concert on Friady, December 8, 12:00 Noon in the auditorium of the Main Library's Louis Stokes

Location

1st Anniversary Exhibition - Convivium33 Gallery at Josaphat Arts Hall in cooperation with the Bonfoey Gallery presents: CHRISTOPHER PEKOC- EVOLUTION 1964-2006

Christopher Pekoc, whose mural Night Sky in the main hall of the downtown Public Library is a Cleveland landmark, will be staging a major retrospective [that charts the technical and expressive evolution of his work over the last four decades and that highlights the ways in which photography has remained a constant creative stimulus for his work.] The exhibition, at Convivium33 Gallery in Cleveland will feature over 40 years of work as well as major pieces that have not been seen in decades, such as his grand-scale Kent (State) Triptych, based on his eyewitness experience of the shooting of unarmed student protesters by the National Guard in 1970.

Location

Wow -  I just realized Pere Ubu is in town tonight for a concert promoting their rave new album, "Why I Hate Women" - 10:15 PM at the Beachland Ballroom, with the New Lou Reeds opening at 9 PM. I had seen a glowing review of the new album in CoolCleveland this week but didn't notice about the show, which is a must see.... wee need a better way to spread word about arts and culture in NEO. Luckily, there was a feature in the Plain Dealer Friday section today, which gives the new album huge props too.

Location

This should be a great, quirky, unique show for holiday shopping (I quote ceramist Gina DeSantis here). I went last year and it was my favorite of the holiday art sales. It is also one of 1300 Gallery's last events.

Location

A friend sent me the folllowing article from the Wall Street Journal, suggesting it may be an excellent model for Northeast Ohio. I'll plan to make a visit and report further some time I'm passing through Erie, which is frequently. In the mean time, this article paints the picture well, and makes a good case for "Rembrandt in the Rust Belt"

Over the past few months, Phillip Williams and I have been working with one of the world's most important art galleries, Material Matters Contemporary Glass Gallery, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to develop their virtual community. The site has been up for about a month now, and has generated lots of global traffic (and congratulations to the gallery on that), and this weekend the site really paid off, as we can attribute a first major sale of art by Material Matters to the fact the new website exists - the buyers (from Cleveland, as a matter of fact), saw two major works by an amazing Canadian glass artist they otherwise would not know, and they bought his only available work I know of in the world. The Canadian glass artist made money, the gallery made money, Phillip and I made money, and the collectors in Cleveland got two amazing works of art (for a great price), shown in their new NEO home above. This is just a small beginning for Material Matters' virtual community, which already represents the greatest glass artists of Canada, as they are in the process of going glocal in many important ways, in the process improving Toronto's Glocal arts economy. NEO arts leadership may learn more here...

Only adding to the excitement surrounding the art auctions of the last few days, Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, a blue period painting by Picasso from 1903 was withdraw from Wednesday's auction, its provenance clouded claims that it  should be counted among the art looted by the Nazis. Andrew Lloyd Webber's charitable foundation is the current owner and consigner. The British composer bought the painting for the foundation in 1995. He had hoped  the funds from  the auction Wednesday would benefit the foundation. A Federal Judge in Manhattan, Jed Rakoff decided that the Federal court has no jurisdiction over the case and the auction could go on; however, the man who claims to be rightful owner, Julius Schoep, heir of a Jewish baker and art collector living in Berlin, plans to take his claims to the lower court. Andrew Lloyd Webber's foundation willingly withdrew the painting. Hopefully these claims, which sound spurious will not hurt the value of the work.

I can't think of an artist more deserving of this award! Please read on ...

President Bush Announces Viktor Schreckengost as 2006 Medal of Arts Recipient
Washington, D.C. – Cleveland resident Viktor Schreckengost has been named one of 10 National Medal of the Arts recipients for 2006. President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush will honor him in an Oval Office ceremony at the White House Nov. 9th.

The Story of the Apple reveals the solution to a long-standing puzzle: where did the apple come from, and why is the familiar large, sweet, cultivated apple so different from all the other wild apple species with their bitter, cherry-sized fruits? It was long assumed that the apple of our gardens and supermarkets is the result of a complex history of hybridization and selection. But the true story turns out to be even more interesting, involving earthquakes in the mountainous Tian Shan and the spreading of deserts in Inner and Central Asia, the eating habits of bears and horses (and perhaps dung beetles), the Silk Roads and other ancient trading routes, the discovery of the horticultural technique of grafting, and the multiple virtues of cider. (Check out this website for more information on Mabberley and the book he co-authored)

Location

Visit CIA's departments of Enameling and Jewelry + Metals (Gund Building 108, 112 & 113), meet current students and faculty, and see their completed work and their works in progress. The evening will also include ongoing slide shows, refreshments and more. This is a great opportunity for alumni to reconnect with their departments and professors as well as chat with students. The event takes place on November 16th from 6:00-9:00 p.m.

Location

Exhibition opening at Spaces Gallery: "Misdemeanor". Described as "skewed views of the everyday and mutations of real and imagined form." Includes photography, video, sculpture, installation, ceramic and mixed media by 11 local and national artists.

Location