It recently came to my attention that one of the most serious sources of pollution in Cuyahoga County is literally in my back yard. Less than two kilometers upwind from my home are the coal and natural gas fired external boilers at the power plant shown above, at University Hospitals, operated by Medical Center Company (MCCo), polluting the surrounding neighborhoods since the 1930s.

 Cleveland, OH/Pittsburgh, PA: The auction of the collection created by Muriel and Noah Butkin grossed $1,052,664.00 last weekend at Aspire Auctions. The auction benefits the Cleveland Museum of Art.  

For the 30+ years of my life spent in Northeast Ohio, in childhood and as an adult, University Circle has been at the center of my universe. What Place is at the Center of Your Universe?

®press release - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Location

 It's said that every piece of art tells a story, and Muriel Butkin certainly knew her art.

Now, with an online auction of much of what she and her husband, Noah, had collected, the public will see a greater glimpse of this very private couple's story, through the fine furniture, art and rare decorative objects they accumulated over their lifetimes.

Muriel S. Butkin was an important benefactor and philanthropist to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Together with her husband, the late Noah Butkin, they donated many works to the art museum over the years including an extensive collection of French old master paintings and drawings. In addition, Mrs.

 Aspire Auctions, Inc. presents property from the estate of Muriel S. Butkin, prominent art collector and philanthropist, to be sold for the benefit of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The first lots will be offered in an estate sale to be held Friday July 10th, 9-4, and Saturday July 11, 9-4, at Aspire Auctions, Inc., 12730 Larchmere Blvd. Cleveland OH 44120.

Location

Over the past 20 years, I've spent most of my "professional" time as an entrepreneur, with world-class expertise conducting multi-dimensional, multi-client relational comparative data and best practice analyses of any aspects of the world's largest and best global enterprises, environments and systems, and developing and consulting on innovations and total quality improvement. This work has generated a wealth of knowledge on large general systems, with a unique expertise in information systems and telecommunications. REALNEO is a product of this highest level expertise, drawn from the best practices of the best organizations on Earth. What REALNEO has developed for Cuyahoga County - what has been generated out of the REALNEO-generated Real Cooperative - takes general systems innovation to a whole new level of making us the brightest greenest place on Earth. So, we really do have a purpose to Cuyahoga County owning the Breuer, and the vision is beautifully expressed in this great rendering above, to be REAL COOP citizen headquarters of the open source capital of this brightest greenest state of Earth.

How an artist sees the world ...

ITS PREVIEW TIME!

Gray's Auctioneers will be holding an auction this Saturday, May 2, 2009 at 1 pm (please see the link for the catalog. Auction preview dates and times are as follows:  Thursday April 30,  12pm - 8pm, Friday May 1, 12 pm - 7pm and last minute preview May 2, 11:30 am - 1pm.

Location

The Twentieth Annual Harvey Buchanan Lecture in Art History and the Humanities

Location

BMW Welt , Munich 2008

Mark your calenders for the first Saturday in April next year -- this is one of the most fun and delicious annual events in Cleveland!

There is plenty of opera in Cleveland, though not all of it is live. Now technology allows us see and hear MET performances, almost as if we were there. Severance Town Center is no Lincoln Center, but the tickets are a lot cheaper.

I would like to give someone in NEO Two Free Tickets to a Metropolitan Opera performance of La Sonnabula (The sleepwalker) music by Vicenzo Bellini, Italian libretto by Felice Romani.
Pre-recorded and screening Wednesday April 1, 7 pm at

When I arrived at the Cleveland International Film Festival Sunday afternoon for the 2:15 PM showing of THE TOUR, directed by Goran Markovic, Tower City Cinemas was packed! I quickly took a place in the long line for my film. I later learned that yesterday's attendance broke all previous records; 9,500 had attended. With many of Sunday's films on standby by the early afternoon, the last day of the festival promised to be a record breaker too. The gentleman who introduce THE TOUR also told us that the fund raising goal of $33,000 had been surpassed. By Saturday evening $45,000 had been donated. CIFF staff were optimistic that the total would exceed $50,000 by the end of the festival.

I thought I'd post this since we have had some very interesting dialog in the past on graffiti and art. This tag appear recently on the steps of the Mildred Putnam Sculpture Garden on East 118th Street near Euclid Avenue.

SHALL WE KISS directed by Emmanuel Mouret

HERB AND DOROTHY directed by Megumi Sasaki
&
SCHOOL PLAY directed by Eddie Rosenstein

My first pick, at 11:45 am, was Dancers, by the Danish director Pernille Fischer Christensen.

Her second feature length film, it is part of the CIFF series titled  “Scandinavian Screenings.”

Dancers plays again Sunday March 22 at 9:20 pm. I highly recommend this film!