My friend and all-around pundit, Lissa (she speaks Italian), pointed this out to me--the Cultural Gardens are alive with song this summer.  

Last week, the kids were treated to a magic show from a fabulous neighbor in Brooklyn Centre.  Now, I have more than one "seer" in the group of kids in this neighborhood, but one family, especially,  has become the resident "genius" family in the 'hood ranging from little Lily on up to her brainiac brothers, their mechanically-inclined father and their fierce supermom, the defender of the clan. 

Today, Gloria, Tim and Rudy really deserve credit for trying to make the obvious apparent to our collective political machine with the workshop they organized for NOACA's Liveable, Walkable Communities. 

Bo Diddley died yesterday.  We should all appreciate people before they die, but his was a great life and I can say that I appreciated his life lesson.  He came to perform at Miami University, while I was in college there and I worked on the student program board, so I saw a bit of the off-stage persona, as well as the on-stage persona. 

Where do the tracks take us?  Pondering the fate of trains in America.  My Aunt just told me about the Hiawatha Trail in Idaho.  Interesting to see how it is financed.

This shot was taken in Frostburg, MD, with a simple, plastic box camera--no gizmos.

More shots attached.

 

And, I am not talking cigarettes, here.  I am talking this year's
Cleveland Arts Prize: recognizing men in aprons--Michael Symon and Michael Ruhlman.

The parking lot at the Metroparks Zoo was filling up to capacity as I rode my bike over the Brighton-Brooklyn Bridge today.  I was intrigued to note that some of the pedestrian crossing signal changers were gone--notably the street level boxes that allowed pedestrians to cross at Denison, ALDI's and Archwood.*  I looked up and saw the sign advertising the new program at the zoo.  The sponsor is TCP. 

SMART publishing! Really SMART--Capitalize on our biggest asset.

Kids like to tell stories.  You hear them every day and, sometimes, we call them lies.  Why not tap into that energy and make an artist?  Here is a shout out to Bobby Norfolk. I would call him a genius.

Why didn't I just use an alias like everyone else?  I don't like the look that I got tonight from Eugene Sanders at the Cleveland Metropolitan School District meeting tonight. 

Awhile back, Roldo mentioned that the newspaper still has relevance. Today, this article proves it.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008

My father always said that the Catholic Church put on the best show in town, but after Vatican II, he migrated to the second best show in town the Anglican/Episcopal church.  Father Tim delivers his epistle to the diocese.

Vote for Alex Pavloff for USG Arts & Science Representative.  He is a human: not a zombie.

This is where a photo sure would come in handy.  The sign is posted on the Designated Smoker Sign near the Veale Convocation Center and penciled in to the sign in parentheses is the comment (and a smoker).  Apropos.

What a waste of potential and so typical of our leadership.  Sheryl Harris again proves she is one of the most balanced voices out there.

RTA will soon join cities around the world that have teamed up with Google to provide on-the-spot assistance with public tranportation. 

http://www.google.com/transit

Will I ever understand the male species?  I know that I share some of the same aggressive tendencies, so who knows where I fall in terms of classification.   I know that I will get no sympathy for my sympathy for Terrence Hough, the firefighter who took the lives of three people last summer over loud noise.  If I kept a loaded gun in my house, who knows what I might do on my bad days. 

Can we lead a citizen charge to clean our house by making Kathleen Barber County Executive?

I have always found Kelly Blazek's job stream to be one of the most worthwhile efforts in this town. 
Since she extended the invitation to join, I am posting it here:

Feel free to forward this to job hunters you may know - and have them

How would you change the boundaries of this map?

Does bread become the new luxury item? April's  Northern Ohio Live talks dough.

This will segue nicely to my next post on Romanian cinema, but in the meantime, pay close attention to the future star/campaigner pictured below:
 

Three year old Owen clinches Pittsburgh as the site for the 2009 G-20 summit with a high five. 
 

AuthentiCITY--Mrs. Seifert at City Hall puts the REAL in RealNEO.   I have to love this woman who answers the phone for the City of Cleveland.  She knows her job and she does it well.  I called to comment about the recycling program was patched through to the Mayor's Action Line and patched through to Nicole in Public Service.  I felt like I was heard today.  Thanks to Nicole, too.  The whole transaction took 5 minutes.  No music, no endless button-pushing.  Results.

One of my neighbors  builds ROBOTS (I won't out you Michael). 

So, what does the future look like for me?  Homeland Security just stopped by to check me out.  I would rather have the REAL agent, who showed up for our interrogation and relocated here from LA with his family to live next to me (he chose Olmsted Falls).

Last night, I woke up as I do on many nights to a bad dream.  A dear friend was trapped in a windowless cell, but he would not see the tunnel afforded him under the bunk of his bed.  I tried to show it to him, but I had to confess that looking down the narrow tunnel afforded me no comfort.  I woke up with chest pains.  Fear for myself and fear for my friend.  Do we stay in our cells, because of our fear of the unknown?  We choose the hell we know over the unknown?  Phillip Morris' column today reminds me of my bad dream. 

When can we all wake up?

In today's hard times, we can all feel that hand on the neck - Phillip Morris

I remember the first time I witnessed a killing. I was 6. The poor guy had his neck snapped in two. But he was a stubborn brawler. He refused to go down without a loud and bitter ruckus.

Pilching this poignant image from the NYT article Susan cites: