This Thursday, June 14th at the Forest Hills park, community volunteers will be working with the KaBOOM! organization to build the children of East Cleveland their first playground!!  KaBOOM! is a national organization dedicated to creating a place to play within walking distance for every child in America.  They collaborate with The Home Depot, and are working with the Community Development and Parks and Recreation departments in East Cleveland on this playground. 

With this June 15, 2007, Inner Circle Open House, it is safe to say the NEO Excellence Roundtables are back, as this week we will feature a very unique discussion and performance by Cleveland Orchestra violist Eliesha Nelson, who is in the middle of a sophisticated recording project at George Lucas' Skywalker Sound, in Marin, California. Eliesha will discuss with us how she decided to get into the "recording business" and how the community can help her project succeed - and the purpose of this roundtable is to help Eliesha's project succeed.

I'm pleased to invite you to another in our series of open houses at The Inner Circle. This Friday, June 22, we will open the restaurant with an expanded food service, being planned by Hot Sauce Williams' Greg Williams and The Inner Circle's Edwin James - I'll post details shortly. But the big news we'll be discussing at The Inner Circle this Friday is literally the "news", as we are about to launch a print newspaper for East Cleveland - 4-color, 24 page - 20,000 free copies (advertiser supported) to be distributed door-to-door and made available all over East Cleveland, University Circle and in the area, and of course on-line. You are invited to help write and produce it!

Sometimes a sliver of an image, a hint of fragrance, a word or a small gesture has the power to transcend time and space where intimate collections of buried imagination are stored.

Such is the work in Storage Space (Jun 22-Aug 3, 2007), the artists invest the art with pathways to real or imagined histories.

7 lush Cleveland Heights gardens plus Heights Youth Club Tour by members
Private nature park, glacial escarpment, lakeviews, historic formal garden and more ...
Gardening demos on site (vegetable, roses, perennials, shade, ...)

FREE Film screening & Panel Discussion
“Cleveland: Confronting Decline in an American City”
Time & Date: 6:00  - 8:30 pm, Wednesday, June 27th, 2007
Location:  Cleveland Metroparks Zoo Auditorium
3900 Wildlife Way Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio 44109
Call:   216-459-8400 for further information

This Thursday, June 28th, we'll continue The Inner Circle tradition of sharing great music experiences, this afternoon featuring a Caribbean vibe, with Jamaican steel drum performer Calvin Wilson. Calvin will offer a steel drum workshop focused on kids, at 3:30 PM, and will perform for all from 4:00 until around 6:30 PM - Edwin James will mix it up as well. Please feel free to swing by for a visit and a cool drink - we'll have some Hot Sauce Williams deserts on hand for any sweet teeth, as well... after all, it is my birthday. Come celebrate! Not to miss a chance to leverage a gathering of great people for a greater good, we'll use this opportunity to also share with you the latest news of developments in East Cleveland, and that means talking real estate.

The Cleveland Arts Prize is pleased to announce the winners for 2007. They are:

Budweiser Renewable Energy and Wildlife Conservation Research Prize
Budweiser and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (Foundation) are currently accepting applications for the 2007 Budweiser Renewable Energy and Wildlife Conservation Research Prize. This new research prize will be awarded under a competitive process and will recognize and support a single innovative project that advances new technologies or practices that contribute to making renewable energy a practical energy alternative. The $100,000 total prize will be awarded in consideration of a project’s ability to develop or evaluate new cost-effective renewable energy technologies for industrial application while demonstrating the measurable benefits such practices can have in advancing wildlife conservation.

This program does not include a pre-proposal round.

Preproposal Date:
Full Proposal Date: 06/29/2007
Notification Date: 10/31/2007

• Eligibility for the research prize is limited to accredited post-secondary academic institutions with preference given to those working collaboratively among different departments within an institution(s), and with public agencies and nonprofit organizations.
• Funds may be used for items such as:  salaries and benefits, student stipends, travel, publication expenses, and supplies.
• Funds may not be used for: Political advocacy or litigation of any kind, shortfalls in government agency budgets, or general administrative overhead or indirect costs.

Saturday, June 30th — Play until Dark @ Wendy Park: Get the Towpath to the Lake Cleveland’s only Sport and Recreation festival benefiting Wendy Park Foundation initiatives including getting the Towpath to the Lake! Advance tickets available online for $5.00, at the gate price is $8.00. Kids under 10 free.
• Registration Form

Yes, we will have a happy hour at the Inner Circle today, starting around 4 until 7 or so - with Edwin mixing in some tropical tunes to cool the day. Please stop by if you have time and learn the latest developments with Star Neighborhood Development, the Inner Circle, and in the neighborhood... we may have our WiFi hot sopt up by then, if I can figure everything out.. Hopefully, we'll have closed on our house by then, too, and we may welcome you to come by and check it out and offer renovation advice... we'll have an open-house whether we close or not - if you are thinking of moving any time soon you should check this out.

My wife and I are big fans of NEO artist Gina DeSantis - I started buying her functional ceramic pieces when she first showed at Buzz (we love her rice bowls designed with chopsticks in mind). When Buzz closed, we hunted Gina down to continue buying her work. So, when she announced Level Three Gallery it was such good news... be sure to check Level Three Gallery and Gina's work (above) out at their upcoming show, described below...

I received this today from the Ohio City Bicycle Co-op:

I'm doing an unprecedented thing for me, and sending this to everyone I
email (Sorry if you consider this "spam") because I think it's
important that folks get together on this -- especially after reading Al
Gore's Op-Ed in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/opinion/01gore.html

Some of you are not in Cleveland, but look at this invitation anyway,
please, and if you're not, I think you can find an event near you by
clicking on the "find an event" at the top, by "event central"...
I feel strongly that we can all learn something from this kind of
event, so here's the boilerplate from Live Earth, and if I don't see you
(with your bicycle, I hope !) at Great Lakes Brewery on Saturday, I hope
you will attend an event near you if you can:

You've been invited to attend Audubon Party for the Planet. Go to
http://www.joinliveearth.org/page/event/detail/wxy#rsvp to RSVP.

I hope you'll do something fun and meaningful for the planet this
Saturday -- if not by attending a Live Earth party, then by riding your bike
somewhere!

Jim Sheehan

7GEN is pleased to provide a Drupal virtual community for the historic Cleveland Club of Washington, D. C., and they have used the technology very well - visit their clean, effective site here. If you frequent D.C., or have friends or family there with a "keen interest in Cleveland", connect with club President Brooke Stoddard at their online presence here. Their next event is this private tour of the U.S. Capitol, July 11, 2007, which will be exceptional.

2007 Midtown Brews Series: Midtown Brews connects innovative thinkers with global perspectives on our regional economy. Join us for our next conversation...Thursday, July 5