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.

A Spring Suzuki Workshop will be held at the Windermere United Methodist Church on Euclid Avenue, from April 9 - 13th, in East Cleveland. Our guest faculty will be Arvilla Rovit.

  Arvilla Rovit has Bachelor's and Master's degrees from The Juilliard School where she studied with Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory and Hsin-yun Huang.  A graduate of the internationally acclaimed School for Strings Teacher Training Program (New York), a two-year apprentice program in Suzuki Pedagogy, and having attended numerous Teacher Training Workshops, Ms. Rovit is Suzuki Teacher Certified to teach violin and viola.  Her Suzuki viola teachers have included William Preucil, Sr., and Betsy Stuen-Walker.  Upon graduating from Juilliard Arvilla was awarded a Special Award for Achievement by Drs. Marilyn Pearl and Norman Roland.

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

3rd Annual Art Fur Animals Benefit & Auction, all proceeds go directly to the care of animals at the City of Cleveland Kennel.
I went to this even last year and it was a lot of fun. Various artists painted about 30 ceramic dogs that were sold by auction. There were other types of art (prints, photos) being auctioned too. The low admission price brought in a fun crowd. There were free appetizers and a cash wine bar. I liked how the whole event was done at a very low cost allowing most of the money to go to the animals. But, what I enjoyed most was seeing all that creativity. I bought a dog with scenes of the Mediterranean painted on serveral areas of his anatomy. This year should be no less interesting!

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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.

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

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Always one of the most important arts events of each year, in NEO, the Cleveland Institute of Art Student Independent Exhibition (now in its 61st year) proves, as promoted, "Tradition doesn’t always have to be stodgy". Far from stodgy - this show is always exciting, in your face, over the top, fun and inspiring. It is also one of the best places in the world to see what art and artists are influencing this region now and will continue to change the world throughout our lives.

Dana Schutz, Relic, 2006
30 x 22 inches, #28 of 100

While chatting with my parents the other day, my dad mentioned they had just bought the above print by globally-hot NEO/CIA trained artist Dana Schutz, who blew the NEO art scene wide open this Fall with her fantastic exhibition of paintings that drew international acclaim and such massive crowds the MOCA gift shop sold out of everything on hand... here's a write up about this print from a Dana Schutz fan in Houston, and gushing praise about the show and MOCA from a visiting arts champion from Detroit (who I quote, about MoCA/Cleveland: "For me MOCA in Cleveland was bittersweet.  It was great to see that places like Detroit can build up and become something and even support young artists.  It is hope that Detroit ,too can have a contemporary.  But it was also a sad reality check that we are a city lacking a fertile art environment.  Let's hope that the talks of Detroit getting a contemporary will actually go somewhere.  Maybe we can kidnap some of the city planners from Cleveland????"). I hadn't heard anything about this important print (or any Schutz prints on the market), which my parents said Dana donated to MoCA to raise funds for them, so I asked my parents how they had heard about it and they said they believed they read about it in the international arts magazine ArtNews - not anywhere in NEO. They sought it out - bought it - and MoCA made money. There are more for sale... more money to be made for MoCA (at $2,200 a piece, making good money for MoCA)... more great arts investments to be made by arts patrons, here or elsewhere.

Go "Citizen" Ed Hauser. Doing good to do good, so all may do well! Here is his latest mapping of the landscape of redevelopment of NEO as abstracted by the powers who be to do well for themselves and their friends. Reply requested! I agree with Ed's conclusion:

How many people in NEO could have an uplifting, inspiring and positive documentary film made about them - how many people in NEO would come out looking all good... great? "Citizen" Ed Hauser is surely unique to Northeast Ohio, having stood up to many other "citizens", including NEO community and government "leadership", in a 9-year fight for what Ed felt was best for all in the community. The documentary "Citizen Hauser", about Ed's battle, which officially led to victory on March 02, 2007, has aired on public television in Northeast Ohio - an outstanding work by Blue Hole Productions - will be featured with other short films at the Cleveland Film Festival, as posted below.

Let's make this a victory party!

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This in today from Cleveland Tech Czar Michael DeAloia and CIA Future Center Director David Moss... their personal invitations to all to join them at Future Center for a reception for artist Guy-Vincent Ricketti's Identity Remix... read on... hope to see you there.

Now Showing : Indentity Remix

Stop into FUTURE Gallery and experience the work of Guy-Vincent Ricketti and the thought-provoking Identity Remix.

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A limited palette and an intimate, close up view of nature make this an arresting modern work. In January of 1885 Monet experienced weather something like what we had in Cleveland just two weeks ago. Temperatures in France that month were unusually cold, averaging around 21 degrees and snow altered the landscape close to Monet's home in Giverny. Winter scenes were popular among the Impressionists and Claude Monet had painted his first in 1865, very early in his career.

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.

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(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.

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    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.

Photo: Max Pucciariello

MOMIX is returning to Cleveland to perform their newest magical multimedia piece Lunar Sea. The astoundingly creative mind of Moses Pendleton triumphs again with this exploration of the Lunar Sea and the other worldly creatures that inhabit.

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