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 just figure out how to get the latest version of Drupal to import MovableType content, I’ll probably just go ahead and launch it. I might have to convert from MovableType to WordPress to Drupal first.

The downside to this is that the extra step will mean that the old MT links won’t redirect to Drupal like they do in previous versions of the conversion. Currently it looks as though there is no way to port phpBB forums into a Drupal installation, so I’ll just have to lock down that DB once the integrated functionality of Drupal goes live.

I also had dinner on Sunday at La Tortilla Feliz, which was delicious, although just a little bit more expensive than the quality/amount of the food would suggest. Patrick told me this well over a year ago. I’ll probably stop in often when I get the craving for fried plantains though. Man those things are delicious. Please share any plaintain recipes that you have.

Artwalk Photoset, Muttsquerade Photoset, La Tortilla Feliz Photoset.

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 weblog and forum that would provide residents and visitors with a space in which to interact. Thus, amid spring rain and mud, was born Tremonter. Little did I know the impact it would have, or that I would become a nationwide contact for neighborhood websites and a nationwide ambassador for my neighborhood.

But that sort of laudation is a distant second to the true benefit that I have derived from the site. Through it, I’ve made connections with Lou Muenz, Matt Wascovich and R.A. Washington: independent soldiers of the Cleveland art and music. These guys are the ones who bring me out of my grim moods after a day in my cubicle and make me want to stay up late on weeknights, even if they don’t know it. These guys are my friends.

When someone messes with my friends, I get pissed. The night before last, The Cleveland Church, The Church of Ayler, The Best Unsung Music Club in Cleveland was shut-down by the Second District Vice Squad for an occupancy violation. Nevermind the rampant reports of theft, nevermind the crack-dealers and knifings, The Cleveland Police Department has bigger fish to fry.

Including, apparently, a struggling music venue like The Church.

THE HEAD VICE DETECTIVE ACTUALLY SAID, “I GUESS SOMEONE HAS A VENDETTA AGAINST YOU.�

This is not the first time that a vendetta has resulted in the closing of a Tremont institution. The Starkweather had been a bar at the corner of Starkweather and Scranton for years. In the first year that I moved to Tremont it was completely restored to the beautiful brick building it is now. They had the best dart boards in the neighborhood and poured a good pint of Guinness. But one man with a vendetta managed to hassle and keep them closed just long enough for them to run out of money.

This must not happen to The Church. First off, they have no money. The Church is not around to make a profit. They are around to provide young Cleveland residents with music they like at a price they can afford. Tickets are never more than $5, and it is a lucky month where they make enough to pay rent or fix the PA system. The Church makes no more noise than the Guatemalan Pentecostal Church that had occupied the space previously. At least The Church of Ayler keeps its doors closed during its services.

The Church provided a venue for bands whose experimental nature and emerging sound would not be accepted at places like The Grog Shop or the House of “Blues”. Unsigned bands, touring on their own dime, knew they could play at The Church and crash on the floor after the show. Steve Goldberg had his first reading as a featured poet there. Transgendered and feminist bands were welcome, bands with homemade instruments, bands with no instruments, bands from around the country and international knew of The Church as a place where they would be welcome. Tremont was revitalized exactly because of places like this.

This is the exact type of space that Cleveland needs. This is disruptive innovation at its heart and soul. This is economic development. And it has been shut down because of a vendetta and lack of vision. It sets a bad example and a bad precedent as well. Hundreds [and I'm not kidding] of young Cleveland residents now hate their city a little bit more, will be a little more likely to leave Cleveland, have a little less faith [as if there was any to begin with] in justice among city government. Other people will be less inclined to provide a venue for fringe bands both national and international to play. These bands will have no place to play in Cleveland and will drive on through to play in Chicago or Detroit or Columbus or Pittsburgh or Buffalo. Cleveland becomes poorer.

R.A. Washington is DJing tonight at Lava Lounge in the hopes of raising enough money to reopen The Church. Please stop in if you can. If you can offer assistance dealing with the mad wall of bureaucracy that is City Hall, please do. If you love The Church, help keep it open. If you love Cleveland, take a stand.

Apologies for the purple prose. You can see all my pictures from The Church here.

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 a two-piece electronic outfit with poppy lyrics and a fun attitude melded with serious intent. The singer played with inflatable instruments, which to me seemed an effective send-up of traditional male posturing in metal and rock. I especially enjoyed the song “Blow Up the Ice Cream Truck” which you can listen to on their myspace page.

The Shondes [official site] headlined the show. Brooklyn-based hard rock or power-punk or who cares, because they put on an awesome show. I found myself wanting to throw metal horns a few times because the guitar and bass got so raw. The violin was a welcome addition too.

Incidentally, shondes is a Yiddish word that means “outcast, disgrace, monster” basically any person who doesn’t abide by what society defines as right. All the bands that played could be considered shondes because they lead [emphasis on that word] lives outside of the mainstream as either/and queers, transgendered, anti-occupation Jews, and unilateral unequivocal supporters of human rights.

I always find myself drawn to folks who are empowered and engaged in a righteous cause against Attacks of The Stupid™, and when they play music that rocks, well slap me and call me Sally.

Pics from the show start here.

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 while I checked my email on their WiFi. Later, I went to The SouthSide, where I had the most delicious Tremont Burger. I can’t remember exactly what the sauce was on it, but I think it was sun-dried tomato aioli. Other fixins included a carmelized onion, bacon, lettuce, tomato and provolone. The fries were good too. Defintely better than anything you could get at Heck’s, but a different sort of beast than a Stevenson’s. I think in my quest for the best burger in Cleveland, I’m going to have to start categorizing things.

After eating I killed some time riding around on my bike. Tremont was like a war zone, bottle rockets flying overhead, fountains in the middle of the street, those mortar ones making big booms to send dogs barking. I ended up watching the ‘works on University Road, along with several hundred other people. The mosquitos feasted, so if there is a sudden outbreak of West Nile, I bet it started there. You can see the rather crummy pics I took of the fireworks here.

[You know, I just realized that my camera has a fireworks setting. The pics would have been much crisper if I had remembered that 17 hours ago.]

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 here.