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.

 REALNEO members and visitors will have noticed some technical difficulties over the past few months and especially over the last few days, for which I appologize. This has been the result of a combination of too few people doing too much hard, complex work, and the enormous growth of our community and response of the world - we are now supporting dozens of virtual communities world-wide, and 100,000s of hits a month at REALNEO alone. All this with what has been largely a volunteer corp. Well, all that is now changing for the better, and further growth. To insure a stable future for the community, we are pleased to have the great talent of Derek Arnold back on our team - welcome back and thanks, Derek.

A unique opportunity to explore a piece of Cleveland’s lakefront - As part of an ongoing process to promote an appreciation and stewardship for Cleveland’s ecological systems and natural resources, the Dike 14 Environmental Education Collaborative will sponsor the:Cinco de Mayo Migration at Gordon State Park area of Cleveland Lakefront State Park (E. 72 St. and N. Marginal). Last hike begins at 11:00 AM and ends at noon.

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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:

From  Bill Cohen-Kiraly on Cleveland Web SIG Yahoo Group - I don't know anything about the case in question but find the question this columnist raises about who is a journalist and who is not intriging and worrisome. In an age when publishing, and through podcasts now, broadcasting, are increasingly in the hands of the people and the amateurs, who should be covered under some of the special privileges we give to journalists?

CLEVELAND, OH—High school and college-aged panelists will discuss how and why they use and don’t use traditional and newer media at noon on Thursday, March 15, 2007, at The City Club of Cleveland. Richard D. Hendrickson, PhD, assistant professor of communications at John Carroll University, will serve as moderator for this final in a series of four programs.

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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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Whiskey Island Land Uses - Resolved After Nine Years!

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:

This in today from Cleveland Tech Czar Michael DeAloia and CIA Future Center Director David Moss... their personal invitations to all to join them at Future Center for a reception for artist Guy-Vincent Ricketti's Identity Remix... read on... hope to see you there.

Now Showing : Indentity Remix

Stop into FUTURE Gallery and experience the work of Guy-Vincent Ricketti and the thought-provoking Identity Remix.

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I just uploaded the latest in a series of ultra-low-rez pollution centric "shock and awe" videos.   Surf into Buckeye Sustainability Institute's blog, see the aerial photo of Sims Park, and watch the video of the pollution spewing out of an outfall there, a dead fish, and my 4 year old daughters observations.

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!

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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Help us identify qualified candidates for the Cleveland Arts Prize winners for 2007!

Nominations are open!  Go to our website and nominate the person you think best for the Prize!

Thanks to Susan Miller for pointing out an important article in the 02/03/07 Plain Dealer regarding the war to eliminate lead poisoning in our region by 2010 - an outlandishly aggressive objective, as Cleveland ranks among the top five cities nationally for lead poisoning. In 2004, St. Luke's Foundation funded what has been the most important collaboration ever for the future of Northeast Ohio: the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council (GCLAC), aligning over 80 agencies and organizations at local, regional, state and federal levels toward the common objective of lead eradication in our region within the next three years. On February 1, 2007, St. Luke's brought together the leadership of many other foundations for the expressed purpose of convincing as many foundations as possible to join them in funding the next three years of GCLAC initiative. The article states the objective of raising $3 million from foundations to leverage for far greater support from government sources.

These  Five (5) requests regarding the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority (Port Authority): from Ed Hauser are really worth reading. As soon as today the Cuyahoga County Commissioners may reappoint Carney or hold off - that will be very signficiant. Ed is keeping track of all this and asked me to make sure this letter posted below is very visible.

The following survey results from a BBC poll should not come as a surprise to anyone - the world, including the people of the United States, is unhappy with the US role in the world these days... "among Americans, the number of those who viewed their country's role positively fell to 57% - six percentage points down from last year and 14 percentage points down from two years ago.See a full article on this posted below and linked at BBC News here.

I watch the BBC 11 PM World News, rather than the local Northeast Ohio news, because I want an international perspective on affairs in America and world-wide. To learn what is happening in Northeast Ohio, I use the Plain Dealer as one frame of reference but depend on personal research, involvement in the community and connectedness through networks and alternative media, increasingly found through the Internet, to know what is happening in the region.  The main reason I find it necessary to look outside the US mainstream for news is well documented by a project out of Sonoma State University called Project Censored, "which tracks the news published in independent journals and newsletters. From these, Project Censored compiles an annual list of 25 news stories of social significance that have been overlooked, under-reported or self-censored by the country's major national news media."  Below is their list of stories over-looked and/or self-censored by the country's major national news media in 2007 - how does this fit with your observations on the world as reported by mainstream media in NEO and America?

Thanks to an anonymous donor, East Cleveland has received some excellent equipment to start setting up a pilot proof of concept wireless broadband mesh network in some part of the city - location to be determined. The donated equipment is from a similar proof of concept deployment in Washington, D.C., and includes several commercial wifi antennas and routers and cabling to set up a small multipoint demonstration network, running the open source CUWiNWare mesh application and wifiDOG contained portal application, all routing to the city of East Cleveland's open source Drupal community portal, at http://eastcleveland.org. All this, combined with other digital divide bridge programs there, makes East Cleveland approaches to information technology some of the most interesting in America.

 About three weeks ago, I received the first "Letter to the Editor" in the history of REALNEO. Lots of people send me press releases and event info and tips on cool content, but never has someone sent an opinion editorial to be posted for them (probably because REALNEO is open for anyone to create an account and post content and comments themselves). The letter to the editor was titled "Lead Paint - You Are Idiots" and was received from someone named Kim Falk (he authorized publication of his name) and the email address was from Sherwin Williams. A little googling and I learned he is an employee there - a very enthusiastic and loyal one, to be sure... he was responsible for Sherwin-Williams donating paint to help in the repair of the Pentagon after 9/11. So I was not surprised to read he is protective of his company in defense of them being sued over lead. Still, I was intrigued by the language he uses in his editorial, published below.

Your opinions and feedback are important! Attend this Public Open House to Learn About the Next Steps for the Cleveland Innerbelt Plan. The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) invites you to attend a Public Open House to review the Recommended Preferred Alternative. ODOT officials and their consultants will be available to answer questions.

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