SUNDAY in the Park

Submitted by lmcshane on Sat, 07/11/2009 - 06:18.
08/09/2009 - 06:00
08/09/2009 - 20:30
Etc/GMT-4
"Opera in the Italian Cultural Garden"
Free Concert !
 

 Italian Cultural Garden - East Blvd. entrance
 990 East Blvd. Rockefeller Park

This free performance is presented as part of the Italian Cultural Garden Foundation's "Viva! La Cultura Italiana" cultural series with support from the Cleveland Cultural Garden Federation.

200 chairs provided - but bring you own to ensure a seat...

or bring a blanket to sit on!

Pack a picnic and bring your family and friends for a free concert in the beautiful Italian Renaissance garden.  Well known songs from famous Italian operas.

Location

990 East Blvd. Rockefeller Park
Cleveland, OH
United States
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Balalaika

  Today was an unbelievably beautiful Sunday in the Park with a free concert sponsored by the Cleveland Hungarian Cultural Garden.  Stay tuned for Opera per Tutti next week--Sunday, August 9th 6:00 p.m.  See information listing above.
 

Laura, Absolutely Right

It was a geat day in the Cultural Gardens, an area that doesn't get the care and attention it deserves as a real regional asset.  People care about their place, their history and their arts and culture contribution.  Today shows that many people care very deeply about "Cleveland," the concept, which is more than the geographical boundary. 

Kevin

Kevin--I saw you yesterday...but didn't get a chance to say hi.  Sometimes, I wonder why we travel halfway around the world to experience different cultures, when we have so much right here in NEO?! 

Well, at least some of us know how to enjoy our Sundays :)
 

Healing

 

Some one has also lovingly tended the Hebrew garden next to the Hungarian Garden.  I felt a wave come over me today.  If only we could heal ourselves and come together. Music heals. 

Perseids, Parents, Tomatoes, and appreciation

Ok, Gloria and Laura (and me) we as kids all failed to appreciate what our parents were so graciously trying to provide us.  Laura, I remember you had tomato fields near your childhood home, and you used to (probably throw tomatoes? I threw lemons.).   
 
Parents never get their due appreciation until they are underground.   But parents understand that time schedule. They may not like it, but they have to understand it.
 
Our job as kids (of our parents) is to try to accelerate generational adsorption of wisdom.  
 
 From the normal 25 year generation to a 5 or 10 year generation (not of offspring production but of wisdom production).  Laura does this everyday in her library job. The kids- and adults - she helps – none her kids – may understand their biological parents efforts to be mentors sooner.
 
So rejoice at the sparking deep night Perseid’s meteor showers, and rejoice with the  balalaika in the sunny Hungarian garden.    
 
Parents – even dead - love that their children have learned from them the joie de vivre to REJOICE!
 
Life’s objective is sadness, seriously….I can’t accept that….

Parents..No Regrets- Let them know how important they are today!

   

      As a youth, I probably saw way too much tragedy to outline herein, but I learned young to appreciate my family-even when we don't agree, when we are distanced, and when we are together. I feel beyond blessed to know that when my mother died unexpectedly from choking on a piece of pizza-(HERE TODAY, GONE TOMORROW!).... that the last words we shared were our "I LOVE YOU's". 

   At her funeral, I cannot tell you how many folks came to me with their regrets about "could've, should've, would've statements". Ultimately, I couldn't take another person outlining their own regrets because I didn't understand them at all. The truth was, my mom loved all of them in her own special forgiving way. She didn't hold many grudges in life....She loved with all of her heart, she yelled with every breath in her soul and she shined a light on everyone in her world with her shining Irish Blue Eyes... Blessed were we all to have had her in our lives... And I didn't ever hesitate to hug her, tell her I loved her, or even kiss her feet to show her my respect for how great I thought she was! 

   I share this because I never had secrets from my mom and dad. We shared it all...not matter how significant or insignificant. We cared about each other despite our fights (which all families who really care about each other are going to have!) And life is life... I don't have regrets with my relationship and lifespan with my mother. We forgave each other for any fight we had, we progressed past our differences, we appreciated our moments, and we knew that we were loved more than words could say by one another...because we communicated regularly. My mom would get drunk and call me at 1 am on a Sunday morning just to tell me that she loved me....just like she did hours before she choked on that pizza... and my 4 year old daughter was the one to find her grandmother dead with a blue face.

     So....treasure your people. Enjoy your moments, for God does not promise tomorrows. Tell the folks you love how much you love them. Don't hesitate to share the how much you care with anyone.... Have no regrets... Let the things you cannot change go! ByGones! Change the things you can... Hug the folks you can... be glad that you woke up breathing! 

I was blessed to have a no hold's barred relationship with my mother... brutally honest we were with eachother. There's no way to explain it anyother way. I appreciated her more than life itself and I told her regularly. After she died, I found hundreds of notes, cards, and letters she had framed throughout life from me telling her chronically how much she meant to me! 

Yes, I have shared many tears about missing my best friend, my mom... but I don't have thoughts about regrets...my mom wouldn't want that for me.

Now, dad is still here and we sustain daily communications. We don't hesitate to talk-Plain talk to each other and address all issues across the board with brutal honesty. I feel blessed all the same on this level. I hope not to have regrets if something were to happen to him. I try to email him, talk to him, and never hang up the phone without telling him that I love him. 

God Bless Everyone! May you be blessed with those you love...but more importantly...may they know just how much you love them without question! 

Always Appreciative,

ANGELnWard14

dwebb, angel14, realneo has a lump in its throat

And tears in my eyes...

thanks

OK back to business: let's take the power and prowess of this internet medium and whip NEO into shape!

Like NOW!

Inspired

Jeff, 12 years ago I took my elderly mother, a neice and her newborn out at 2:00 AM to look for the Perseid shooting stars. While I always seemed to be looking in the wrong part of the sky, I have often thought of the four generations together that night looking at what has been happening before we were born and will go on after we all die.

I just visited with these same people tonight, and while my Mom is now blind, your posting as inspired me to try again this year with this family group. Maybe after I am gone, my greatneice will carry with her offspring the mid-night shooting star gazing.

Throwing Tomatoes!

Jeff, you and Laura aren't the only ones who threw tomatoes.  A story from the hills.  Our old clapboard house sat upon a little hill side and we had this big tomato patch out in front - there was an apple tree and then a big drop off where some of our relatives (a hateful great aunt) had a little store.  A short distance out from the store was the outhouse - the door opened up and faced up hill toward the apple tree.    My brother and I used to gather up all the overripe and rotten tomatoes and evertime we saw somebody go in the outhouse, we would keep 'em in there by throwing the tomatoes.  Sometimes a long time - when we thought they'd had enough we would hide behind the apple tree, watch and listen to an explosion of words we weren't allowed to say. 

Just the memory has me laughing my head off.  Of course, sometimes we ended up at the end of an Iron Wood Switch (if we got caught). 

 

Crab Apple Trees in Ward 14...Absolutely priceless story-JERLEEN

That's awesome! 

My folks used to shoot at eachother in the backyard under the crab apple tree! They'd run cars into the yard trying to run each other over... and when they were fighting outside a bar and a cop tried helping my mom-she hit the cop for interrupting their fight! 40 years later...she died in their bedroom...they fought til the day she died... and they loved more than any 2 folks I've ever met in my life! The fighting Irish...boy could I tell you some stories! 

Sometimes...the love of fighting...for what's right, for people's rights, and for others comes from a long history of watching 2 of the most awesome parents in the world fight for the people that they loved... the helpless, the weak, and the powerless... Their spirit is undying...

God put each of us here on this earth and gave us some great skills.... tools...and hearts so that we could pass it forward! You all are awesome all the same! What hasn't killed us-has only made us passionately stronger to build us all to this stage today...and unite us so that we can kick some behind in this community we love so much! 

ANGELnWard14---United We Stand! 

Thanks, your family sounds

Thanks, your family sounds like mine.  Man, I guess big families fight.  I'll tell you a really good one - about a month ago, my brother (51) and my sister (45) got into a know down - drag out fist fight), I mean kicking, pulling hair, the whole deal in my mother's kitchen downstairs.  The egg pan was flying, the eggs ended up on the floor,  utensils were flung through the air.  We had a awful time getting them apart - the police showed up - hauled both their asses off to jail in the same car, mind you, once they got there, they both refused to press charges against each other, so they kept them for a few days - they ended up turning my brother loose first - and he didn't want to leave without my sister - he wanted to bail her out so she could go home too.  Could have kept them as far as I was concerned.  I did not have any sympathy, empathy or any other feel sorry emotions for these two.   

When they both got back home, these two idiots hugged, cried and said how they sorry they were for the pump-knots and bruises they gave each other.  I thought they should be "horse whipped."  At least, we had a couple days of peace. 

 

 

 

(Siblings)Brothers...got to love them...Mine...

Wow! Sounds like a fight I once had with my dad! SMILES...

So...as of this month, my disabled brother owes me like $10,000+++ in rent  over the last year or so... he has a wife who's on oxygen and 4 kids...2 of which are disabled. I have to put them on the street. The home they live in was in A-1 condition when I rented it to them in 2006...

The other night, a friend of my brother's asked me how he was? I grimaced and said-You know, right now I hate him for everything he has put me thru, but don't let that overshadow that he's still my brother and I love him twice as much as I hate him....despite the fact he's making some horrible decisions that adversely affect me... Then, some guy overheard me talking with the friend about my brother and said, "that's your house? It's DESTROYED!" 

Inside, I wanted to cry....I had already anticipated this issue. However, the pending eviction that is putting them out will enable me to recover the unit and progress forward out of this nightmare that 'my family' cost me.... Ultimately, I made a bad decision to rent to family.

Prayerfully, I'll be able to recover from this situation that has exhausted me and diminished my desires to own a property, invest into the community, and keep smiling amidst the messes that I clean up when other folks are being abusive.

But, on a lighter note...my dad is here visiting today...and for this...I am blessed! 

That's just it - you love

That's just it - you love them.  Some of my brothers and sisters are more like my children that my siblings.  I was the oldest and my mom had 11 more after me - I think that from number 6 down, as they came along, they got handed over to me.  One I even delivered when I was 16 - they still needed a good whoppin." 

La Dolce Vita

  A few images of the garden before and during the performance.  A beautiful (HOT!) evening in the City of Cleveland.  Many REAL photographers were there, so expect more images soon.  Get out!  Enjoy your beautiful city parks!
 

Apologies for the poor video and sound quality--in advance.  But you can get a feel for the evening.  I was stuck to my chair...hot.

Wonderful opera in the Gardens

It was great to see you at the Opera, Laura. I'll share some photos in the coming days, and Real Coop partner Russell Johnson, from Raw Media, filmed the entire concert in high definition as a content project for our County initiatives, so expect to see the entire performance streaming in HD, on-line here, in a few days.

Thanks to the artists, organizers, supporters and Director Joyce Mariani for this wonderful event - one of the best of real NEO, for certain.

Disrupt IT