despite the heat advisory, I brought my son to swim. ninety-four degrees on July 4th and Cleveland has been grilling ribs since 9AM and bottle rocket blasting since June 15th. My son runs off – but Antonio, thumbprinted mark of Cain beshouldered, ever-belligerent, redmopped stutterer with metal-backed teeth – comes to spit self-conscious impudence. He may [...]

Today I wrote my 50th poem in my Poetry 4 Free project. It’s been great fun so far; despite the heavy mocking from my coworkers and the obvious & unspoken doubtfulness from certain folks I know, it has fulfilled, at least in part, all of the goals I had in mind when I started this [...]

This summer, at the very least, I’ll be erratically planting myself in various semi-populated places around Cleveland where there is foot traffic with a sign that says “Poetry 4 FREE” and a typewriter. I’m hoping that folks will stop and ask me for a poem. They give me the subject and I write it for [...]

Here’s how Cleveland is better than wherever you live. Only here can I imagine the ease with which one can go from a planning session on increasing local government transparency (replete with excellent, locally produced, ethnically accurate Arabic food)(and awash with qualified, motivated, well-intentioned folks from all walks of life) to a ten minute drive [...]

On the first day we’re free to be together, on a beach that won’t be sand anytime soon, I’m sifting weathered bits of glass from the scree. A shadow beside me, you pick at pebbles. We hunker over everything together. A BLAST from the last lift bridge presses air around each leaf on Whiskey Island. [...]

On Thursday evening I had the opportunity to see the world-renowned Cleveland Orchestra perform two works by Béla Bartók and a couple of bonus works by Japanese composers. The tickets were free on the condition that I write about my experience. It was Blogger’s Night. I had a great time the last time I had [...]

The longer I spend in Cleveland, the more like Cleveland I become. This first manifested itself years ago, when I started appending “or whatever” to the end of my conversations. Having successfully broken myself of that habit, I’ve now noticed that I’ve internalized, to some extent, the Cleveland tendency to find things to complain about, [...]

I went to the 2010 Cleveland Dragon Boat festival with Bram on Saturday. We had a tough time getting there because I forgot just about all of the bridges in the Flats are closed, so we missed part of the opening ceremonies. And then we ended up leaving early because I got an inch long [...]

Last week, I posted on the following on Facebook: Cleveland and LeBron should be two, responsible, consenting adults, and if it is time to move on, the last thing Cleveland needs to be is the co-dependent, I’ll-debase-myself-if-only-you’ll-stay, undignified, crazy ex. I’m not going to debate the merits of whatever decision LeBron makes. That’s up to [...]

Yesterday Bram and I spent most of the afternoon at Whiskey Island, flying an owl kite, and getting the little bear comfortable playing in the waters of Lake Erie. He enjoyed his “swimming” lesson. The dude is also a chick magnet, as evidenced by the following photo. I took Bram to Train Day today. I intended [...]

On 13 May 2010, I went to the Front Room Gallery for John G‘s Caveman Diaries 7 ‘zine release; Megachurch‘s album release & show with Clan of the Cave Bear and Swindlella. Great crowd, great exhibition by John G, and great music. Unfortunately I forgot my earplugs. Fortunately, I got my mitts on CMD7, the [...]

Das Schnitzel Haus Udupi East Coast Original Custard Korea House (The Bibim Bam is as awesome as I remembered) Punk Rock Softball Caveman Diaries/Megachurch CD Release (more to come) Paint upstairs apartment Eat southern-roasted turkey, polenta and roasted red onion & avocado salad with neighbors Jack Frost Donuts (I’ve had the donuts plenty of times, [...]

Yesterday I went to the Sachsenheim for Cirque Imaginaire, a traveling art gallery. There were a lot of arts & crafts packed into the hall, and I squeezed through the throngs with a giant mug of beer. Two booths really caught my eye, the t-shirts from Psycho Reindeer, and Erin Carek’s science-fiction collage work. I [...]

On Thursday, after work but before I went to my Applied Quantitative Statistics class at CSU, I spent 3 hours at the Cuyahoga County Ombudsman’s Office making phone calls to Charter Transition volunteers. Along with other members of the Public Engagement Committee, I was calling volunteers that we’d identified as likely to not have heard [...]

This was the opening weekend for the eponymous Bắc, the new Asian food place in Tremont. I’d spent most of the day yesterday tramping around Cleveland in the snow, so it was a welcome change of pace to spend some time in a warm room with great atmosphere and cute wait staff. The change in [...]

Just about every Saturday morning, early, I take Abraham to Dave’s to do the weekly grocery shopping. Just about every Saturday morning, Dave himself is there, and never fails to greet the kid and I with a nice word and a smile. It isn’t really Dave Saltzman in the flesh [that would be gross]. The [...]

The easiest way to get people who live in Cleveland and have a bad opinion of Cleveland to have a better opinion of Cleveland is to get them to pay attention to different things, and to prioritize that attention. This evening I could have dwelt upon how empty the downtown was, but instead I marveled [...]

Today I would have had three great photos if I’d had my camera with me. The empty-socketed windows of the Schofield Building on East 9th and Euclid, (it looks nothing like this anymore), a sodden couch and smashed bigscreen TV sitting in the middle of a vacant lot next to a shuttered porn shop on [...]

Pretty much right after I shut down Tremonter, I was contacted by a local guy who was interested in starting a new weblog for the Cleveland area. He brought me on board for several reasons: my familiarity with WordPress, my passion for Cleveland, my knowledge of the local blogging community and my writing ability. I’ve [...]

I was invited, along with a bunch of other bloggers, to liveblog a dress rehearsal of Opera Cleveland’s Falstaff. Debbie is here with me and will be posting some updates while I run around like a certain opera chicken with my head cut off taking video and pictures. We’ve never been to an opera production [...]

My adventures with the 23 continue. Last week I essentially raced it home every day. Three consecutive days I passed it at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario and caught up with it on the other side of the bridge. I’ve got no pseudo-math to throw at this experiment, but my gut tells me that, [...]

While I was watching the Celtics/Bulls game, someone set fire to the abandoned building just catercorner from me on Holmden Court (the alley behind my house). Either the fire started back up around 3am or the arsonist came back to finish the job because the street was clogged with fire trucks. This is the second [...]

A month or so ago I was talking with Pultz about all of the things two bearded, over-educated, Cleveland transplants are likely to talk about when forced by necessity to drink in a bar they normally wouldn’t frequent. I admit to my snobbery. One of the topics that came up was the impending Saint Patrick’s [...]

I went for a run for the first time in a dog’s age today. Put in a little over 3.5 miles at 11 minutes a mile. Not so good, but not that bad for a 28 year old with an arthritic knee, a 9 month old, and a year plus of mostly sedentary living. My [...]

Times are tough. Compared to millions of Americans, times aren’t that bad for my family; but in some ways we’re poster children for the social, infrastructural and economic challenges that the country currently faces. For instance: My home has decreased at least 15% in value since I purchased it due to the foreclosure crisis. Refinancing [...]

I’m sensing new kinds of life in Cleveland; or at least coming out of my year-long infant-induced social hibernation. In the past couple of weeks I’ve gotten my mitts, mugs and mallei prepositioned by all kinds of various NEO.neo-creativity. Of course, I’m sure behind the times with a bit of most of it. My schtick [...]

I smelled smoke just a bit ago yesterday and saw quite a bit blowing past my window. Turns out a fire had just started in an almost empty house a block south of me. The downstairs residents had vacated a week earlier, and the upstairs fellow got out before the fire started. The address is [...]

The best RTA route in Cleveland is the 23. This is my third year riding it, and I could set my watch by the morning bus; if I wore a watch. The drivers are friendly, deft and will put on the brakes if they see someone hoofing it after them, and the bus doesn’t stop [...]

The most common semi-smarmy question I get about riding my bike to work is: “How many MPG do you get with that thing?” So I decided to do more bike math. There are 2080 calories in one gallon of 2% milk. Using the calories burned count from last year [220 calories per day [6.6 miles [...]

This year it seems like it is taking forever to warm up. I was riding to work earlier this week, heading northbound on West 25th when I noticed that the flags on my side of the street were blowing at me. Which is normal since I usually ride into the wind on my way to [...]

There are some good interactive utilities out there for determining housing affordability based upon various metrics. The Center for Neighborhood Technology has a Housing + Transportation Affordability Index and the New York Times has a calculator that determines whether it is better to rent or buy based upon selectable criteria. There’s also WalkScore, which determines [...]

Not only did my crazy yelling neighbor get evicted, but the dude that lives upstairs, a relaxed and friendly guy, just got taken away by the cops on suspicion of gun possession. Based on what his distraught girlfriend was yelling from the balcony, someone gave a false report about it and she blamed the folks [...]

While most of the rest of the county focuses on the vote counts tonight, I’m up late with a few fellow crew-members making sure that the website runs smoothly and doesn’t crash. Looking at the same page but seeing different stories. Really, I’m the least critical night-owl, I just have to make content updates if [...]

$110 will get you approximately 250 items of secondhand baby clothes. No one needs to buy us anything resembling a baby cloth for at least the next 9 months. The Bobby website accessibility validator is no longer available online. It is now bundled into a piece of IBM software for purchase only. This makes it [...]

I pissed off a cop today. He was sitting at the intersection of West 20th and Lorain at the light and chatting with a car in the other lane on West 20th. I was two cars back. The light turned green and they just kept talking, so I honked my horn. The car in the [...]

These signs have been around Downtown for a month or so now. I still don’t quite know how I feel about them. I don’t know how bad the homeless/panhandling situation is here in Cleveland, and whether or not it warrants a campaign with this level of bluntness or scope. It is supported by The Homeless [...]

This past Friday was an event that I’d been looking forward to for several months. Tower Control Records’ CD Release Party for The X Bolex and Jerk. 12 bands, $5 cover and free food pre-show. It was super-well organized, no chance to miss a band’s performance and just enough time in between them to snag [...]

I was talking with an employee at the Steelyard Best Buy over the weekend and was told that they’re doing much worse than corporate had set for them, about $10k-less-than-estimate-per-week it sounded like. I was also told that other businesses down there are hurting too, they’re all waiting for Wal-Mart to open in the hopes [...]

I got an unexpected free haircut today from the ladies who run the Gentlemen’s Barber Shop in Tremont. Apparently they’ve gotten some business from my Tremonter posting about the place. I tried to talk them out of it, but there was no dice. They wouldn’t even take a tip. I’m just glad to know that [...]

On my walk to work today I saw that another business on Euclid Avenue is closing. Before long the only things that are going to be open along Euclid are the House of Blues and the bowling alley.

Downtown is interesting. For the most part Euclid Avenue is reminiscent of an empty tomb, just about every building-front is empty and dirty, with trash collecting where the wind blows it. There is also a constant of homeless people, they’ve each got their own territorial corner and they tend to place themselves right where it [...]

Almost a year ago I made my first Google Map for the redesign of the TWiFi site. I didn’t touch the API again until I finally started redesigning Tremonter a few months back. The idea for creating a neighborhood map for Tremont had been rattling around in my head since I first started the site, [...]

This was another ridiculous weekend of music, art and poetry in Cleveland. Last night I went to C-Space and listened to a few local women poets followed by the double-barreled feature shotgun that is Alixa + Naima [MySpace page]. The poem Being Human [read it here], made me tear up. I snagged their CD and [...]

Here is the link to the ballot [PDF] I’ll be voting on in the upcoming election. Here is how I’ll be voting on the issues and why: Issue 1: Referendum on Workers’ Compensation: Although I might be missing some nuances to this legislation, especially in light of Bill Peirce’s stance against BWC, it appears to [...]

On Friday I spent about 5 hours on the ArtWalk, including judging a Muttsquerade, and on Saturday and Sunday I spent much of my time on the redesign of Tremonter. The design itself is pretty much finished, and now I’m just tweaking the configuration, adding more content and a bit more functionality. If I can [...]

When I first moved to Tremont almost two years ago I only knew two people in the neighborhood. They’ve since moved to New York City, greener pastures, and better opportunities. As I’m not very good at making friends, I decided that a good way of meeting people in the neighborhood would be to start a [...]

I swung on up to Ohio City last night for some sushi from Kimo’s before going to the last night of interviews for this round of Neighborhood Connections Grant-making. Kimo’s was closed again. The third time in a row this has happened to me. I know he does the sushi for the Indians, and that [...]

The night before last I met a relatively new Tremont resident for beer and tacos at the Lincoln Park Pub. We spent nearly two hours chatting about the various places we’d lived in Indiana, job prospects and how to fix Cleveland. Yesterday I was going to write more about this, but due to a power [...]

Last evening was the second night of interviews for the seventh round of Neighborhood Connections grant-making. We had six interviews on the schedule, but one cancelled due to illness. The other interviewees presented on beautification programs, safety programs, and educational programs. One thing that I’ve started to notice, from attending the Tremont Strategic Investment meeting [...]

I’ve got so much web-based work to do that I’m considering dropping the $50/mo it would cost to have internet access at home again. The redesign of Tremonter is moving fitfully, I’m having to teach myself much mySQL, and Drupal‘s documentation assumes a certain level of developer expertise that I’m just now getting. The interactive [...]

The first night of interviews for Round VII of the Neighborhood Connections grant program was last night. I didn’t have to haul ass out to Mt. Pleasant this time, since my group was meeting at St. Ignatius. We were supplied with coffee and tea which was great since I was fighting some sinus stuff. We [...]

Since I know a bunch of people who do Meet The Bloggers they asked me to come to their silent auction and read some poetry along with 10 other folks. The space was in the amazing Tower Press building, which also houses Artefino. The first floor artist spaces are reduced rent [$625/mo], but for the [...]

The Neighborhood Connections grant-making committee met again last night to start the fall round of grant discernment. We had delicious food from Luchita’s. This round only had about 60% the number of proposals compared to the spring round. This is, apparently, typical. But it means that you have a better chance of being funded if [...]

I had a full and excellent weekend, full of superlatives. I had sushi at Pacific East because Kimo’s was closed for the Indian’s game, watched A Murder of Crows by Mac Wellman at The Liminis and had a Pisco Sour and Bourbon Daisy at the VTR. A Murder of Crows [I'm probably going to go [...]

Last night at The Church I saw three bands. Slackjaw [soon to be Early Girl] was a folky-moving-toward-rock band from Cleveland that put together a decent sound but I seem to have caught them in the awkward part of the transition. The vocals are still folky and get overwhelmed by the music. Amy Kasio was [...]

So it looks like I’m not going to be able to afford a house in Tremont. With only one exception, every house that I researched [about 2 dozen] would sell for significantly more than what I can get a mortgage on. There was one house on Auburn, purchased in 1997 for $13k, that was sold [...]

I went to the Grovewood Tavern last night to meet Chas Rich and finalize the site design for his reincarnated Pitt sports weblog: Pitt Blather. George Nemeth showed up as well and hooked me up with the CDs I won at Bloggapalooza and in trade I finally got rid of gave him my lava lamp. [...]

I went to the Grog Shop last night to see my friend’s band Humphry Clinker and Tim Fite and Tarantula A.D. and drink a few Newcastle’s. HC put on a good show, but the surprise of the evening for me was Tim Fite. He’s got a passionate Southern feel to his music, a bit of [...]

I was asked a good question yesterday. How well do you deal with ambiguity? Which probably only seems like an ambiguous question to someone like me. It is clever in its self-reference. I think I answered well enough, and even moreso if the questioner realized that I applied my way of dealing with ambiguity in [...]

It was almost like a weblogger meet-up last night. Quarrel With The World came up from Akron to go see the curated show by Erie Effusion where we ran into the Ferris’s, Beer and Clothing and a redhead with a MySpace account. Later, we went to the Lit where we ran into What’s in the [...]

My 4th of July would have been dead all day if it weren’t for Tremont businesses who were open. I dropped off Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World at the Library and ran in to Steve and Kathy Smith and Steve Goldberg on the way. I stopped in to Scoops and got a Wild Cherry-Cranberry smoothie [...]

I got up early this morning and rode my bike from Tremont to the Memphis Drive-in for the flea market. I killed about an hour and a half browsing through all the booths, eating some soft-serve and shooting the breeze. I ended up buying Dr. Mario and Pro Wrestling for my NES for $5. Then [...]

My contract with Verizon Wireless is almost up, and since I’ve had consistently bad experiences with them when I got my contract two years ago I switched to T-Mobile. Not only did Verizon not send me the rebate for my phone, they fudged up my number transfer and had ridiculously crappy customer service. Oh yeah, [...]

•The Cleveland Planning Commission has this awesome interactive map that I was shown last evening while planning the 2007 Cleveland Leadership Summit. If you like playing with statistics, or trying to get an overview of basic city situations, this is the site for you. • Here is a 2004 pdf from Juvenile Court with data [...]

I just called the Cleveland Municipal School District to request some pretty general data about the district; specifically, the number of schools in the district and how they breakdown between elementary, K-8 and high schools. I need this data for some of the preparatory work for the 2007 Cleveland Leadership Summit. The receptionist who answered [...]

I got sauced this weekend, since I organized and followed through with a tour of all the ritzy drinking establishments in Tremont. The Velvet Tango Room was by far my favorite, and I’m going to have to stop in for their complimentary sushi on Tuesdays. All the reviews start here and plenty of pictures are [...]

I just spoke to the board of Neighborhood Housing Services Cleveland [whoa 1994 site design!] about my trip to Nashville. They footed the bill so it was only right that I tell them about it. The board has folks from all kinds of Cleveland services as members and the City Council Chairman Martin Sweeney was [...]

I went to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo this weekend and took a bunch of pictures. For just $1 extra on the ticket price I got to see the Touch exhibit and feel up some rays and sharks. Did you know that the zoo is free to Cuyahoga County residents on Mondays from 10:00 until 4:00? [...]

I’m home now, and I’ve finally managed to upload all of my pictures. You can view the set here. On Sunday the Cleveland Contingent met to create an action plan for a project here in town. We didn’t have very long to work, but we decided to structure a survey to be submitted to Cleveland [...]

A group of folks from all over the country was in town learning about the small grant program sponsored by The Cleveland Foundation. You know, the one I’m on: Neighborhood Connections. A few of the committee members [and one lucky alternate] were asked to go along for a neighborhood tour yesterday and then share dinner [...]

Despite the fact that at any given time there are around 10 security-enabled WiFi connections, one can in fact get free WiFi by Claes Oldenburg’s FREE stamp if you hold your mouth just right. Thanks CaseGuest! You can also watch the lake and the plane from Burke promoting Christie’s Cabaret.

Apparently they’re called gingerbread persons now. Pretty girls in Tremont run early in the morning, not in the afternoon like I do. Little boys named Mateo will magically appear every time you’re at the library and annoy the ever-living shit out of you while you apply for jobs. I love giving people directions to places [...]

Since the local media is going through its monthly “Cleveland has a self-esteem problem” schtick, I thought I’d point out something that makes me wrysmile every time I see it. Cleveland stop signs provide a subliminal negative message. They all say “Stop Cleveland.” Yes, the “Cleveland” is very very small, but that only makes the [...]

I received over a ream of Neighborhood Connections grant proposals by courier yesterday. I have a week and a half to review 41 proposals from Clevelanders who have ideas for improving their neighborhoods. And here I thought I was running out of stuff to read. I think I know what I’ll be doing this weekend.

Recently I’ve been doing my laundry in the evenings, and there is always a very old lady playing lottery with scratch off tickets the entire time I’m there. It doesn’t matter which day, or what time, she’s there. She only scratches off one ticket at a time, then leaves the table in the laundromat, goes [...]

I’m currently at the Phoenix on Lee [Where is Jeff Hess?] applying for jobs. Ever since George posted my frustration, I’ve gotten quite a heartening response from folks in the area. I just finished a meeting with a fellow blogger about applying to his company. You people are the reason I love Cleveland. I’m starting [...]

I feel a bit mercenary doing this, because money isn’t the only reason I’m seeking a non-dead-end job. But while I’m crafting my online Statement of Ambition as it pertains to my career, I might as well dish out some basic metrics for what certain salaries would mean to my lifestyle; at least in Cleveland. [...]

Life in Cleveland is becoming increasingly unfulfilling for me. I have spent the last 9 months looking for another source of employment in this area, and have been most unsuccessful. This is my third Cleveland winter, and in the time I’ve been here I feel that I have offered plenty of myself to Cleveland through [...]

Girl and I had dinner at Opa! over the weekend. It was both a tasty and nice time. We started out with an Octopus Salad which was a bit too smoky and olivey for our tastes and I had Pulled Lamb over Penne and Girl had Cherry and Apple glazed Pork, both of which were [...]

I watched just over half of the Super-boring Bowl [complete with lame-ass commercials] and then headed over to the Beachland Tavern to hear a few bands. I saw two locals, The Driven High and my friends Humphry Clinker and a band from Boston called The Beatings. All three bands had chick leads, which was nice. [...]

The house across the street from my apartment is for sale for $50k. The house payment would be cheaper than my rent, but upon looking at the inside I estimated another $50k would need to be invested just to make it livable. I don’t have the time, money or inclination to do that kind of [...]

In which Adam receives notice that he has been selected as an alternate to a Neighborhood Connections Grant-making Committee.

A poetry night recap.

In which another entry is made into the annals by our hero concerning poetry, pot and deliberate word abuse.

In which Adam reviews his life during 2005.

In which Adam describes an evening spent learning about air pollution.

In which Adam reproduces for posterity a Craigslist post he made.

In which Adam tries to figure out where he can dispose of dead batteries.

In which the author, for the grillionth time, ruminates. Specifically, on movies shot in Tremont.

In which a bunch of webloggers get together and mouth off about litigation, helping NOLA folks, tips for new bloggers, copyright, hit counts and sundry other thingers.

In which Adam attends a local open mic night, runs in to a bunch of neighbors and ruminates on community.

There is too much to do around here. Seriously. Things I would like to do this Labor Day weekend: Ingenuity Festival Taste of Cleveland Cleveland Air Show St. John Cantius Polish Festival Pat’s in the Flats 60th Anniversary Bash Notre Dame Game Watch at The Blind Pig I can probably manage to get to two [...]

When I went to get my laundry out of the dryer at the laundromat, raw sewage was floating out of the main doors. And the guy that manages the places what squeegeeing shit down a drain. Bonus.

If you go over to Tremonter you can check out the progressively drunker reviews I did for all the places in Tremont that have Guinness on tap. This post links to all of ‘em. I was alone for most of the tour, but Jeff Schuler caught up with me at The Treehouse. He’s a cool [...]

Last evening was the perfect evening to be outside. So I hopped on my bike for a nice leisurely ride, intending to explore Ohio City. I never made it out of Tremont. I ran into Lou Muenz, coming from the Lincoln Park Pub and their $1.25 taco night. We rode around the neighborhood a bit, [...]

Last night was some sort of weird art nirvana in Tremont. For the 150th ArtWalk no punches were pulled. I started out at Inside-Outside where I ended up buying a small painting, then I headed over to the Scranton Gallery for some poetry readings, then I stopped by the park for some Summer Shakespeare, then [...]

In my ongoing quest [previous reviews: Heck's; Swenson's] to find the best burger in Cleveland, I took a trip out to Euclid with Five Dollar Beer last night to check out Stevenson’s Hamburgers. We learned about this place from the honorable FoodGoat. This was a damn good hamburger, definitely the winner from the three burger-centric [...]

I’ve been spending a lot of time hanging out at the local ice cream place. I killed a couple of hours there early Friday evening, shooting the shit with the folks that work there and a couple more hours yesterday, where one of the workers directed me to the site of her semi-nude photos. [!] [...]

Being bred a Hoosier, 4th of July fireworks in Indiana typically aren’t anything all that impressive. Most of the cool ones are illegal, so my childhood was filled with those little snappy buggers and those growing snake thingys, with a wimpy fountain thrown in now and then. As I grew older, my uncle and cousin [...]

Where in Cleveland are men’s clothing stores? I need to buy some black pants before Wednesday. I’m picky. I want flat fronted, heavier-than-dress-pants material, black pants. I was at ExpressMen and Kohl’s the other day [which is where I usually shop for clothes] and they didn’t have anything even approximating what I wanted. I realized [...]

I had lunch at Swenson’s Drive-In in Seven Hills. It was unlike Kunkel’s Drive-in in Connersville, they didn’t have the old boxes to call inside, instead you turn on your lights. The carhops run to and from the vehicles, I imagine they stay in good shape doing this. One of the carhops looked like she [...]

I got invited to attend three days of community leadership training and last night was the first night. We did a lot of discussion on what makes a community, what makes a neighborhood, what makes a stakeholder, what makes a leader. Since I’ve been to several leadership workshops, camps and all that it was a [...]

From a Plain Dealer Editorial: There’s much to criticize about Wal-Mart’s business practices, but let’s be honest: Wal-Mart is already in this market. City residents regularly trek to its suburban stores. Why shouldn’t they be able to shop closer to home – in stores that employ their neighbors and pay taxes to support city services [...]

The Blogger Meetup was last night, and when we got most of the gossip out of the way, we started in on Wal-Mart and possibly using this issue, which a few of us feel quite strongly on, to test our efficacy as a blogging community. See if we can’t make a difference instead of just [...]

I’m heartened by the initial response I’ve gotten with Tremonter. I’ve received an email from a professional photographer who would like to take some pictures for me, an email from a Tremont resident who has B&W photos that she’s willing to have posted, encouragement from fellow bloggers and most importantly, visitors I’ve never heard of.

I ate at Johnny Mango’s. In my complicated inner ratio of quantity and taste versus price they score very highly. It also helped that I’d not had much to eat beforehand. I plowed through my plate like those dogs in kibble commercials. Well, maybe not that bad. I got the Mushroom, Tomato, Garlic Burrito Big [...]

I went salsa dancing with a friend for the first time last night. We went to Modä and took advantage of the the offered lessons we discovered through clevelandsalsa.com. I think this is something I could become addicted to, seeing as I woke up this morning with the salsa beat still churning through me.

Well, I’m finished putting together my Tremont specific weblog and bulletin board. I was going to wait till May to tell everyone, but since I’m only left with the neverending “adding of content” phase, I thought I might as well get it over with. Now I’ve just got to get the word out around Tremont. [...]

Nothing glamorous happened at the weblogger meetup last night. We talked a bit about putting together a Cleveland Wiki, but other than that we just schmoozed, which, while not glamorous, was still important. We can build a better rapport with each other if we know each other more personally. The Terminal Stout at Rock Bottom [...]

The Auburn Block Club is a whole different beast than the Professor-Thurman-Valley View club. I guess my initial confusion as to which I belonged to was well-founded; My building sits right on the dividing line.

The weekend is here and in celebration, I’m going to put together as much Cleveland Poetry [and perhaps a bit of music] information as possible. Maybe you can catch something on the flip side.

This was a big meeting last night and the upshot of it is that I finally discovered which block club I’m supposed to be going to, officially. It ain’t this one. No big deal though, because both block clubs have stuff to do with my street and I’ll take any excuse to visit Lucky’s.

I had dinner with Five Dollar Beer last night. We went to Heck’s Cafe over on Bridge Avenue, because they apparently have the best burgers in town. The burgers were good, but if they are the best burgers in town then Cleveland sorely needs a really good burger joint. Something akin to CJ’s out of [...]

I went to the Cleveland Film Festival on Friday for a showing of six short films. Short reviews of each, and spoilers of course, past the jump.

The combined blogger/podcasting meetup last night was the best yet. There were so many people there that we broke up into three small groups: one for podcasters, one for bloggers and one for people to discuss with Denise Polverine [who paid for the beer!] how cleveland.com can incorporate more blog content into their site. I [...]

These are a few of the fine folks that were at the rather huge blogger/podcasting meetup. The list is incomplete, as some people might’ve signed up after I left. If I misspelled your name I apologize. Mike Baker @ Cleveland Yucks Tim Bakke @ Geek Zen Will Kessel @ Collision Bend Bruce Kratofil @ Bugblog [...]

I just got back from the March Professor/Thurman/Valley View block club meeting. Councilman Cimperman was present to listen to our concerns and to tell us a bit about what is going on with Steelyard Commons and other items of Tremont interest.

The Cleveland Art Museum is slated for a $258M expansion in the coming year. I’m glad that they’ll have a chance to get more of their large collection on display, but I can’t help but think that $258M dollars [and the $8M chipped in by the state] could do a lot more good elsewhere. Yes, [...]

Today is the first day that people in the Midwest [including Ohio!] can take advantage of The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003. You can now get a free credit report on yourself once a year. Just make sure you print it out right away, at least from Equifax. They only give you [...]

Now that I’ve opened my eyes and started looking around, I’m really amazed at how much there is to be involved in around the Greater Cleveland area. It makes it hard to choose. I’ve gone to a couple blogger meetups and they have been quite eye-opening in regard to economic development in this area. While [...]

The February 2005 Cleveland Blogger Meetup was last night. Most of the group was different than last time, although Will Kessel, Jeff Hess and I, not to mention George, were all there again.

I went to a block club meeting for Tremont residents last evening. It doesn’t matter which block club because apparently I can go to any block club I want to go to and everyone will welcome me. As expected, most of the members there were older, the youngest probably being in the late 30s to [...]

BFD posted a notice for The Daniel Thompson Poet Stone Fund benefit that is happening on February 12, in Little Italy. Here are some of his poems and some other press. The event is free, billed as “an evening of poetry, polemics, and performance,” and the rest of the details are past the jump. I’ll [...]

After spending three hours at H&R Block on Saturday, figuring out my taxes with the guy there, I needed a nice bit of relaxation. I also needed a haircut. So I finally tracked down this heretofore unnamed but very well recommended barber shop on Madison in Lakewood and when I went to The Greatest Barber [...]

Awhile back a friend of mine told me how I could sign up for the Northeast Ohio Performing Arts Listserv [NEohioPAL]. A gentleman named Fred Sternfeld maintains it, and members of the listserv send in events in which they are involved, auditions, casting calls, free or discount shows, you name it. It is heavily theatre-centric [...]

I had The Great Lakes Brewing Company‘s latest concoction last night, the Blackout Stout. I don’t know much about beer, but stouts are my favorite, and I truly appreciate a place that can pour a good pint of Guinness. Here is a link to people who seem to actually know what they are talking about [...]

I went to the Cleveland Blogger Meetup last night. It wasn’t quite what I expected it to be because it exceeded my expectations. I was, of course, the youngest buck there, but the discussion that took place has inspired me to mildly but significantly change my present style of blogging into something a bit more [...]

On Friday I went to a Cool Cleveland event and then saw the Momix dance group put on a modern dance performance entitled Opus Cactus. I’d never been to a dance performance before and this particular one was a good cherry-popper.

I received a haircut yesterday. I think the barber was drunk. I’d never been to this place before. Joe’s Barbershop in Lakewood. Right next to the crappiest fencing club in Cleveland. I walk in and the place is dead quiet. Empty.

Wednesday evening was the annual company ‘event.’ Since no one really knows if it is a Christmas dinner or a fall party or what, it is just known as the ‘event.’ It was at the Crawford Auto Museum, so I pretty much only went to see the antique cars. I saw an electric car from [...]

Over the past year I’ve done quite a bit of bitching about my apartment. That will all soon end, since I now have a new apartment elsewhere that is loads better than my present leaky shoebox. Rejoice ye children of Ctown. Verily I say unto thee, w00t! Anyway, on with the description.

Finally picked up my Spencer Tunick print from MOCA Cleveland this weekend. Now I just have to get it framed. If you can find me in this photo you are lying since I’m nothing more than a little splotch way up in the distance. Click the pigs for some context. Click the people for a [...]

Baseball is near the pinnacle of boredom but I’ve gone to two games in five days and not had a terrible time.

I went to Jimmy Daddona’s for dinner somewhat driven by this review in the Free Times. It wasn’t very good at all. Now, I’ve gained a little knowledge at the ways of foodie-ness just by having proximity to Five Dollar Beer, so I am using some of his criteria in this review [or, what I [...]

I went to Half Price Books on Friday and managed to not buy the whole store. Instead I bought three illustrated books of fables and folktales. All brand new and all rather cheap.

Help me write my formal letter of complaint to my apartment building. I’ve got the gist below, but it needs some tweaking.

I have absolutely lost every last smidgen of patience when it comes to dealing with integral businesses and their business hours. Let me tell you about the title bureau. Pretend it is Andy Rooney speaking.

There was a Metafilter meetup this Saturday over on the east side. There was a grand total of 3 of us there, which is about what I expected judging from the number of MeFis nearby. It was pretty laid back. I sorta felt like I was talking too much but I suppose if I really [...]

Took the day off from work yesterday and celebrated the holiday with Liam and Mike, who were seniors when I was a freshman. I got my mop chopped at some weirdo wig salon [the hair looks fine thankfully] and then skedaddled over to Liam’s apartment for a breakfast of eggs and Jameson. I had to [...]

I went to the Cleveland Auto Show today and checked out what is going on the in the world of automobiles. Boy was it a zoo. I don’t like crowds that consist of myriad groups of people all going in different directions with attentions not necessarily directed in the direction they are directing themselves, all [...]

I’m somewhat back in the saddle when it comes to filmmaking. For the next two weeks, as my schedule allows, I am going to help out on a Super 16mm film called Saves the Day, which concerns itself with a boy who thinks his older brother is a superhero. I’m just a PA, and the [...]

I went to the Cavs/Knicks game last evening with Liam and Anne, and Amy. This was my first time actually being present at professional basketball game. We bought the tix from a scalper for 20 bucks a pop [they were regular priced at $65] and I am sure glad I didn’t pay full price. The [...]

cleveland has been good for the muse. in the approximate month i have been here i have written around 5 poems and have jotted down a ridiculous amount of random things that sound cool. words have begun to lose their meanings for me again, and this is most definitely good, because i’ve to remember what [...]

1. I ran my car into a tree. 2. WCSB is a helluva good college radio station. They stream too. 3. Come hell or high water, Glazen Creative will hire me. Believe it or not all of these are related. I was driving my reel to Glazen and listening to WCSB as I was exiting [...]

i am moving to cleveland. thus forcing myself to become gainfully employed. then, i will cease being that guy who lives at home with his mother. the apartment is known as an ‘efficiency’ which i believe is a synonym to microscopic. but it is all i need. apart from a job that is. but that [...]