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.

In what is more of a PR blurb than news article, Crain's Business today reported that "Port study completion docked until summer". As I recall, there had been plans for Cuyahoga County to fund a port study, for $100,000, and the Port was planning their own study, so I am curious which this is. More important, I wonder why the new director would choose to delay gaining professional, independent insight to help him "evaluate the port and its operations"... I'll be interested in Ed Hauser's take on this, which I'll post here shortly. 

First let me start off by saying that worms are one of the keys to hands sustainability education.  Capable of imparting lessons about landfills, organic waste landfill diversion, benificial reuse, food chains, composting, recycling, global warming etc etc etc, worms are an underutilized and cost effective resource for education. 

A growing share of municipal waste contains electronic or electric products. E-waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams and makes up approximately 4 per cent of municipal waste in the European Union. In the US, between 14 and 20 million PC’s become obsolete every year. The picture is similar all over the world and e-waste is increasing steadily.

As a core group of innovative urban planners and developers move forward creating a new way in East Cleveland, it is exciting to look back along the main street that brought us to today, and that will take so many deserving citizens past those with little insight who have driven so much of this region into poverty. Looking back, and forward, here is a powerful set of perspectives from CIA graduate and Kent Urban Design graduate student Joe Stanley, of NEO Main Street, from two years ago, under a former administration. Now, under Mayor Brewer and his staff, redevelopment of this community is underway  - thanks for your vision and keeping the faith, Joe!

"ITS A NEW DAY IN EAST CLEVELAND"

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:

Looking forward to presenting innovative solutions for the future of development.  I'm so there.  Let's present the following in mind-blowing, art-form fashion:

This is the vision for :  A Sustainable Future - my exhibit to be first presented at Ingenuity Festival this July 19-22.   Don't miss it!  These also happen to be four ideas to spark regional economic evolution.  Here are some key ideas to change the world - starting with East Cleveland and NEO...

CBS 60 Minutes, March 4, 2007

Comptroller Says Medicare Program Endangers Financial Stability

    Like an Old Testament prophet, David Walker has been traveling the country, urging people to "wake up before it's too late." Medicare is just the biggest of the problems. There is nothing like putting our children into a black hole of debt. Find article here.

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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In response to the  “Blog Talk, Blog Tech" promoted last week on Realneo and held last Saturday at Arabica,  the following blog enthusiasts took the time to attend:

During the Transit Oriented Design presentation at CSU’s Levin College last week, one of the RTA personell – Mr. James DeRosa  jderosa [at] gcrta [dot] org  - presented a few RTA owned properties as development opportunities.  One of the properties is 6611 Euclid, the 7 story mill style building in the photo above. 

Look here to read the Buffalo News and their Feb 21, 2007 article on the 8 Clipper turbines which are going into the defunct Bethlehem Steel slag dump in Lackawanna, just west of downtown Buffalo.  The blades are made in Brazil,

 

I just found on Case Management Professor Sandy Piderit's blog, concerning the branding of Case, AKA Case Western Reserve University, that acting President Eastwood has declared that "that Case Western Reserve University by any other name does not smell as sweet to many people". Several years ago the university hired an out of state identity firm to remake the brand, which included shortening the name to Case and adopting a new logo that is described as a fat man carrying a surfboard. They spent $ millions, including for new signage, letterhead and brochures, cards, and all the other identity stuff out there in the local and global community - a bigger thing than it seems at first. The response was from indifferent to hostile - especially about shortening the name, as many alumni went to Western Reserve and loved that brand. See below the relevant excerpt from President Eastwood's letter to alumni announcing that "The University's official self-identification program should acknowledge Western Reserve as an equal partner with Case and formally represent itself in the market as Case Western Reserve University." Also in the letter, "In the coming days, the university will form an implementation group which will be charged with developing and implementing a process for recreating and adapting the university's graphic identity guidelines at minimal cost."

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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Who Says That Solar Panels Have To Be Ugly???

I was asked to post a photo of my house in Cleveland Heights where I put up some solar panels (solar shingles) last summer: 

 

This was tucked away in the Cleveland Plain Dealer Business section today, straight out of Associated Press, without any local perspective - yawn, how boring is this subject. Well, over the next few months expect to see it is not so boring!

    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.

        Sarah Taylor (via Fletcher Miller)  just brought this news to my attention.  The Toledo Regional Growth Partnership  has an application submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory to design, construct and operate a facility capable of testing wind turbine  blades up to 100 meters in length. 

George Nemeth was good enough to include a link to this wonderful write-up of Hunter Morrison' meeting with "The Bloggers" at the Midtown Brews activity earlier this month. I thought it said a lot. From: http://shoutyoungstown.blogspot.com/2007/06/polder-model.html

>Pondelok, február 12, 2007

If you have the time one evening or weekend, please listen to it.

The marketing and advertising industry is constantly teasing us with trendy, cool and largely superfluous products. To judge by investment in advertising, it takes more and more to achieve the same effect. With all that stimulation it is an effort asking just what we stand to gain.

 

In what represents significant progress with a very positive trend, the Cleveland Institute of Art has announced their selection of one of the world's most respected hip young architecture firms, MVRDV, to design the new campus for CIA. Based out of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, the new CIA design will be MVRDV's first work in North America. Add this to the selection by MOCA of Foreign Office Architects of London, for their new museum and we have two of the hot creative properties in the world focusing their best efforts on two of NEO's most important institutions and design projects, both located within strolling distance in the University Circle redevelopment area called "The Triangle." 

 

For the second consecutive year, East Cleveland Mayor Brewer met with Meet the Bloggers today for a very candid and fascinating discussion recorded on audio for Meet the Bloggers podcast, and on video for other Internet release in the future. I was pleased to participate and found the discussion and Mayor Brewer's insights remarkable. I believe the other participants agreed. I'll post a comment here when the podcast is posted on Meet the Bloggers and you should be certain to listen! For now, some thoughts from this morning...

George Nemeth and Tim and Gloria Ferris of Meet the Bloggers are sitting down with East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer tomorrow to capture what no other media outlet even attempts, being news in the words of newsmakers. Feel free to join them at East Cleveland City Hall at 10 AM February 16, 2007

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