There is a core group of really cool people in NEO committed to developing a great intellect and quality of life here, and they turned out in force this Thursday evening in two very different but interrelated ways. Free speech enthusiasts gathered for a poetry-laced fund-raiser for social consciousness catalyst "Meet the Bloggers", at Tower Press, and other free expression enthusiasts turned out for "Street Repairs" at Spaces... between the two, perhaps 1,000 of Cleveland's finest turned out, showing NEO at its best.

CLEVELAND, OH—Ronald “Ronn” Richard, president and CEO of The Cleveland Foundation, will speak on the topic “Revitalizing America’s Post-Industrial Cities: Some Lessons from Cleveland” at noon on Friday, September 8, 2006, at The City Club of Cleveland.

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I always thought there was something innately good about Cleveland Tech Czar Michael DeAloia but didn't know why or what, and then I learned he's a poet, who has published a book of his work and is now participating in area poetry reading for good causes. That enough tells me he is special, but no way to tell how without reading or hearing the poetry. So I asked him to send over a few works to post with him as this Poet of the Day, for us all to preview... and tomorrow, September 7, we all can experience the complete poet Michael DeAloia as he reads more of his work at a fundraiser for Meet the Bloggers. Thanks for the good words for Cleveland, Michael. Read on, and be there, you all!

The Jazz Influenza

The high sounds of strings

Are teased by petite one-sixteenths

Infecting my soul,

Making me want to dance.

A whole note engulfs my sense of style.

My fingers snap!

Sweat rains on my forehead.

I perish under blue fever.

There rests my anger

On a lofty quarter note.

High….

Buzzing sounds of life

Are being played by a maestro,

By a drug addict,

By a man with a matter-of-fact life.

Ready your souls for cheap brass.

Rich men play money.

Poor men drums.

And I fly away riding on an eighth-note, waving.

Launching the academic year, each fall, the CIA faculty show is always one of the most dynamic art exhibits in Cleveland... eclipsed only by the showing of student work at the end of the school term, in the spring. The annual faculty show will be held from September 8-October 14 in Reinberger Galleries, 11141 East Boulevard, Cleveland, Ohio. Exhibition free and open to the public Monday-Saturday 9am-5pm. Be sure to attend the Artist’s Reception Friday, September 8, 6 pm – 8 pm.

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An interesting street culture gaining popularity in small-town Brattleboro, Vermont (population 15,000) may have some potential for NEO... teens are taking their clothes off and hanging out naked in public. The town officials call it a form of rebellion. This would offer a nice change from the sagging pants urban street culture and the exposed butt-crack fat plumber suburban  culture popular in NEO today, and public nudity would certainly increase tourism and make more people want to live here. In fact, the Spencer Tunick Naked NEO shoot (below) brought around 10,000 (correction, 3,000) people together in Cleveland (on a freezing morning) to get naked and real about our communiity, so I know this concept has potential. What do you think, PD?

More on the latest street culture in Vermont below... this from the the Boston Globe:

When I was researching how Masumi Hayashi was known on the Internet, following her death, I was really impressed by a posting on her work at a very avant garde site called Cold Bacon... I'll let you explore it for yourself. I contacted the creator of the site and learned he served some time in Cleveland and he's featured images of here on the cover of his book and has others on his site. As he's no longer here, but haunted, I thought folks from here would be interested in his work, from the extended NEO community, check out this nicely produced photo gallery (flash) and read his vision on the work of Masumi here and below... the most sincere write-up on the artist and her art I've found...

DESCRIPTION: A Food Co-op is a cooperative of people who come together to buy food, in order to benefit from lower bulk and wholesale prices. They usually specialize in health and organic food and are run democratically with each member having an equal voice to decide overall management of the sotre which is open to the public. Food Co-ops are alternatives to large chain grocery stores both in their management and often in the offerings of food and, thus, represent a local way citizens can control their own food decisions. Sponsored by the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee.

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Bike4Peace is coming to Cleveland again. Last year Bike4peace was hosted by a welcoming party at the Ohio City Bike Co-op and we'd love for you to come join us again! This cross-country bike tour is again arranging a meetup and bike ride in Cleveland Square with a welcoming gathering afterwards!

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One thing I love about Ohio City is seeing so many people of every sort riding about on bicylces. I see 100s of bicyclists go by my home an hour, during the day and evening, from entire families, to parents with their children in tandem, to clearly down-and-outs with all their Earthly possessions strapped on board. Good for them, and the environment... a core benefit of livable cities.

The 09/04/06 Plain Dealer has a blurb about an important step forward in the fight against blight in NEO, writing that "Starting tomorrow, Cleveland Municipal Housing Judge Ray Pianka will order that every abandoned house in foreclosure on his docket carry a sign identifying the owner and the owner's phone number. The name and number of the mortgage company also will be listed, along with the court case number and a contact number for someone at the court. "These owners and mortgage companies have anonymity now. Well, OK, if the case is before the court, now everyone will know who is responsible.""

The high profile murders of John Jackson and Masumi Hayashi, and now Detective Schroeder, have made me more aware of violent crime in NEO, and in my neighborhood. In reviewing PD coverage of the Jackson/Hayashi kllings, I saw Allen T. Jones was killed a block from my house... from the 08/14/06 PD: "A 23-year-old man was killed Friday on the West Side. Allen T. Jones of Montgomery, Ala., was shot in the abdomen about 3:45 a.m. near the corner of West 48th Street and Detroit Avenue.

As the Cleveland Plain Dealer assigns blame for the plight of Cleveland as the most impoverished city in America, they target the black poor. I find this highly disturbing, especially as they completely white-wash the greatest flaw in our economy, which is a century of cow-towing to industry causing and perpetuating toxic contamination of our people and neighborhoods in our urban core.

As I drove from the site of the murder of Detective Schroeder, on West 98th Street, I passed the park dedicated in the honor of the murder of John Jackson and Masumi Hayashi on West 65th, and it occurred to me that there must be a similar park dedicated to Detective Schroeder. This is a fitting way to memorialize the victims of murder, and all violent crime, in our city, as it replaces death with life, and sorrow with joy... it gives people young and old a place to move on in the most healthy possible ways. I do not believe the people of Cleveland want to brush away such tragedy, but rather they want to have a remembrance of those who we lose, and a bright spot to remember that... and they want their neighborhoods to grow stronger so there will be less tragedy there in the future.

The vigil for Detective Jonathan "A.J." Schroeder was punctuated by flashing police lights blocking West 98th Street, which was lined with Cleveland police cruisers and Cuyahoga County Sheriff SUVs. The cause for mourning brought together the detective's brothers and sisters of law enforcement and caring neighbors, young and old - perhaps 100 were still around the site when I attended, around 7:30 PM.

I am just as saddened and horrified by the murder of Detective Jonathan "A.J." Schroeder as of Masumi Hayashi and John Jackson, and the other victims of senseless crime and violence in Northeast Ohio, and I felt a need to visit the site of the shooting and experience the spontaneous memorial growing there, on West 98th Street, and share some images and preserve them here. While I was there, in the rain, an elderly gentleman rode up on a bicycle, stopped, and briefly prayed, in a moving demonstration of the caring of this community. Caring warm-hearted people like he make this a special community, and show our foundation for improvement.

It astounds me in this day and age there are still products regularly handled by children that contain lead at all. One product that contains lead that blows my mind is soft PVC children's lunch boxes... a fact brought to the public's attention when the Center for Environmental Health tested a TARGUS lunchbox featuring "Angela Anaconda" that tested positive for 56,400ppm, 90 times the legal limit of 600 ppm of lead (why should any lead be found?). As it turns out, other lunchboxes containing dangerous levels of lead are made by at least the following... Generation Sports, Frozen/Ingear, Roundhouse, Crayola, American Studio, Igloo, Sanford, Fast Forward, Arizona Jean Company, JC Penny, Lisa Frank, Animations/accessory Network, Holiday Fair, Mischief Makers, Extreme Gear/Romar, Subzero/Global Advantage, Chill, Big Dogs, Childress baby bottle carriers, Innovo, East End Accessories/Worldwide Dreams.

I highly recommend joining in with this great group: see last week's write up here!

green. :: a vegan and vegetarian potluck

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I'm pleased to promote a friend and great Cleveland community leader Michael DeAloia as poet of the day. From the website where his work of poetry may be purchased is a description of his work... below that is an invitation to a fundraiser featuring Michael reading some of his work...

Michael DeAloia "Roses on the Gates of Hell" is author Michael DeAloia’s first published book of poetry. His collection forms an imagistic journey through the intensely personal and transforms a decade of personal experiences and textured observations into feats of creative imagination with clarity, precision and acuity. Crafted with a thoughtful and cadenced approach, the poems in this collection reach lofty heights while being grounded in the everyday. DeAloia’s meditative, and at times confessional, poems explore the wonder and torment of life, the impropriety of men and the inconstancy of women. DeAloia explores a range of topics: his subject matter varies from spirituality to social commentary to brooding introspection. The results are accessible but not trite, insightful but not pretentious, and well crafted but not overly flamboyant. DeAloia relies heavily on imagery, which becomes the cornerstone of the entire volume, and his verbal facility brings such a polish to these poems that the reader is left feeling that this book once opened must be finished. Michael DeAloia is a poet and essayist originally born in Dayton, Ohio but resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He holds a graduate degree from Case Western Reserve University and an undergraduate degree from Xavier University.

I just got the following invitation from my favorite economic development leader in NEO, Cleveland Tech Czar Michael DeAloia, and I am intrigued he is not only a technology visionary but a poet. It will certainly be worth checking out the next event where he is reciting his poetry, as this is also a good cause of a group of other great NEO community leaders who operate "Meet the Bloggers". See more about the event below, and more about the poet Michael DeAloia in our feature of him as poet of the day. From poet Michael DeAloia, you are invited...

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Arrangements for Detective Jonathan "A.J." Schroeder include: A viewing from 2 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at A. Ripepi & Sons Funeral Home, 18149 Bagley Road, Middleburg Heights. A Mass at 11 a.m.

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Arrangements for Detective Jonathan "A.J." Schroeder include: A viewing from 2 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at A. Ripepi & Sons Funeral Home, 18149 Bagley Road, Middleburg Heights. A Mass at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. John Cathedral, East Ninth Street and Superior Avenue, Cleveland. Burial will be in Monroeville, Pa. Donations The Cleveland Police Credit Union is collecting donations for the Jonathan Schroeder Memorial Fund. For more information, call 216-861-3535 or go to www.cppa.org.

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The host, he says that all is well
And the fire-wood glow is bright;
The food has a warm and tempting smell,—
But on the window licks the night.

Pile on the logs... Give me your hands,
Friends! No,— it is not fright...
But hold me... somewhere I heard demands...
And on the window licks the night.

The disturbing juxtapositioning of social unconsciousness in NEO, reflected by the billboards above, found on Detroit at W. 28th Street, says it all about what is wrong with America today and our economy. Raw selfishness championed by the baby-boom generation has corrupted core, co-conspiring, selfish Gen-X leadership, placing Cleveland and human existence in jeopardy. In a quote from a 20/20 program today on the end of life on Earth, a scientist said "our children and grandchildren already tell us we ruined everything" and that is so correct. I apologized this weekend to my 12 year old daughter for today's leaders destroying her planet, and challenged her to focus her life on saving Earth, as the future clearly depends upon her and the next generations. After an hour and half of the 20/20 program "Last Days on Earth", exploring what may end human existence, from comets and pandemics to nuclear war, the program's conclusion was that we are already destroying the planet through CO2/pollution, and climate change will end human existence in less than 100 years, without significant change in human behavior and global leadership.

There's an interesting, very colorful new installation of public art right at the W. 28th on-and-off ramps for Highway 2, by Detroit Avenue. While you can get a fair glimpse of the overall work from the road, that does not do it justice at all, as the greatest importance is in the details. For this work, Cleveland Institute of Art graduate Emily Acita collaborated with the Children of Lakeview Terrace Community Center, which is located right down the road from the mural location, explaining the unusual site selection, being where these children and their families pass-by daily on the way to work, school and play.

I went to the Beck Center for the first time for the Masumi Hayashi memorial. I was interested to see the place, as it has sufaced in controversy as the Beck Chairman of the Board wants to move it to Crocker Park, and the media and arts powers that be agree. What I found was a very expensive, expansive, high quality arts facility, as ugly as sin, on the skin, and poorly managed in obvious ways, but far from beyond redemption. That the regional arts leadership is ready to demolish this solid facility is beyond belief and shows how disposable our leadership finds our core and inner-ring community.