Here is a thought--from one of the founding fathers of NEO--John G. White:

Geneva, May 21, 2010 - PR/2010/643

On the occasion of the International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB) on May 22, WIPO Director General Francis Gurry underlined the Organization’s commitment to ensuring that the intellectual property (IP) system plays a positive role in safeguarding biodiversity, the sustainable use of its components and the sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources. 

I received a Facebook Group invitation from a computer programmer Facebook friend in town that led me to his Facebook account and the following message - "10 years in one job then one day, out of the blue, unemployed. What's a person to do? Easy, open a Head Shop in Cleveland's up & coming art district on Waterloo. Close to the Beachland, straight off the freeway. Opening day is June 6th."

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Aspire Auctions-We are proud to announce an important auction from the collection of the late Ellen Gries Cole. This will be an exclusive auction, with items only from Ms. Cole's estate. Highlights include rare etchings and lithographs by Marc Chagall, Pierre Bonnard, Auguste Renoir and Edouard Vuillard. Paintings include William Merritt Chase, Ben Austrian and Leon Kroll, furniture by Paul Sormani and an extensive offering of fine export porcelain and armorial pieces.

I was saddened to learn today one of the most powerful and exciting sculptors of my lifetime, Louise Bourgeios, passed away May 31, 2010, at age 98. Certainly best known in Cleveland for a series of massive spiders she had exhibited in Playhouse Square, in 2002, her influence on artists and contemporary art was felt worldwide, and her work shall be loved forever.

In order to start the process of integrating our property around treehouse into the street-scape and moving towards a green-scape down the main street of tremont; you're invited to walk, mingle, bring chairs to sit and converse with neighbors and friends and enjoy the day on the space on june 6th without vehicles impeding that enjoyment. We just ask that you pick up after yourself when you leave. There may be many residents and new friends to be made and exchanged.

I’m writing to invite you all to the opening of an exhibit by three Cleveland photographers about three refugee families from Burundi, Burma and Nepal/Bhutan who are living in our area. The same night, you can also enjoy the premiere of a video about the families.

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Both long stayed and new residents as well as businesses interest and support for creating a green scape proposed by me for the the property is very high. I feel that this is the most appropriate and positive solution that would benefit all equally without sacrificing additional parking spaces. Creating a huge tar surface with a sea of vehicles (even with some landscaping) right in the center of such a beautiful and historic district would be unconscionable.

In the current online auction conducted by Aspire Auctions, there is a dedicated category to The Cleveland School. A group of local Northeast Ohio artists, these men and women thrived during a period from 1910-1960 and was renowned for watercolor painting, printmaking, sculpture and ceramics. It was so named in 1928 by Elrick Davis, a journalist with the Cleveland Press. Artists of the Cleveland School were involved with the founding of the Cleveland School of Art (now 

I turned my Nexus One to Pandora tonight to stream some free music while I work. It launched to my Pere Ubu radio and the first track that played seems so fitting for this week - "Chinese Radiation". I just heard Pere Ubu play it live at their performance of Modern Dance, at the Beachland, but I can't find any place to stream the song to you from on-line... here is a sample on Pandora - so you will have to just read the lyrics below and imagine the rest of the tune in your head... the song does not remain the same, but the story does, 32 years since 1978... buy Modern Dance:

He'll be the red guard
She'll be the new world
He'll wear his grey cap
and she'll wave her red book
He'll tell her
One way?
I want you all ways
One way

Join Phil Metres and Robin Pease-Kerr for an evening of poetry, stories and discussion Saturday, May 22nd at 7:30 pm.

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The variance appeal for treehouse to expand has been withdrawn, due to the support, unity and vigilence of concerned residents, businesses and political organizations. We now have a grand opportunity to create a most unique greenscape in the heart of tremont. A format for the neighborhood which both residents and businesses can share in pride without adding to the parking congestion of the neighborhood and further solidifying  it as a vibrant , progressive and sustainably oriented neighborhood. A win win situation for all.

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An old brick garage, the roof long ago collapsed, shards of glass remain in the broken widows. Trees over grown, the remains of a cultivated flower bed by the side door of a house. Plants grow in cracks in the driveway. A slow return to nature.

Friends of Charlie Mosbrook (seems nearly everyone in Cleveland) have been concerned for his sudden health issues this year, and gladdened to see him back up, around, and performing stronger than ever. Featured above is a video from Charlie's website - inspiring, as is all his work - and he has many events upcoming - two in Lakewood may interested realNEO readers (we have lots of traffic in Lakewood)...

Music video by The Clash performing Rock The Casbah.
(C) 1982 SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT (UK) Limited

One report I read today estimates that an Exxon Valdez worth of oil may be spilling into the Gulf of Mexico every two days, 50 miles off the shores of Louisiana, in what is in my mind the worst environmental catastrophe (besides war) in human history - and that may continue for months (no end in sight, at all). All happening 2 miles under some of the most treacherous seas in the world - I've known deep rig divers to confirm that - and they don't even know what caused this blowout. Bottom line, a huge area of the Gulf of Mexico and its shorelines are now probably dead for our lifetimes and generations to come, if not forever. Where the oil will invade beyond is to be determined by Mother Nature, in response. Man shook the Etch-a-sketch of the environment for eternity in an area spanning many states and international boundaries... ending the global sustainability movement forever.

It's 1969 all over again... America's rivers are burning... time for the punks to take charge!

A Moment in Time (or, F.A.Q. on U.T.C.)

FROM THE NY TIMES - AN INTERESTING INITIATIVE - NO REASON NOT TO PARTICIPATE... YOU KEEP ALL OWNERSHIP OF YOUR IMAGE... IT COULD BECOME VALUABLE!

Attention: everyone with a camera, amateur or pro. Please join us on Sunday, May 2, at 15:00 (U.T.C./G.M.T.), as thousands of photographers simultaneously record “A Moment in Time.” The idea is to create an international mosaic, an astonishingly varied gallery of images that are cemented together by the common element of time.

I was driving through one of my favorite neighborhoods in the world yesterday and noticed a rare and important thing has taken bloom there - in University Circle - this Spring - Phase II of the Cleveland Museum of Art expansion is already visible and suddenly the seemingly-boxy, incomplete Rafael Viñoly transition has taken new bloom - and a roof.

Just some I-beams so far... ?!?! Not at all.

I was watching the Pere Ubu "We Have The Technology" video over and over today and I was thinking why doesn't everyone in NEO appreciate David Thomas like they appreciate LeBron James. Not in tennis shoe sponsorships, but with pride and celebration. Do area residents realize the king of ubu projex is from Cleveland and still makes this his home court? Very few places in the world may make such an important claim to modern cultural significance, and David Thomas is in his prime.

I noticed a few days ago that the City of East Cleveland website is now a Drupal site. It is a big improvement from the most recent previous website, which looked more like the website for an Eric Brewer fan club than a city website. It is a good start to improving IT in East Cleveland -- now lets get more citizens online!

I've been asked what our traffic looks like over time, so I pulled a few quick charts of the number of visitors to realneo since we started using Google Analytics, and what they have visited, to measure performance of this site - and we've grown by pretty much all counts I've considered important by 30-100% since then - in some cases by 1,000s% - in less than a year-and-a-half.

I just received great news from our friend Max Eternity - very inspiring developments for him in Atlanta, including saving a Breuer (why we all met Max in the first place)... CONGRATUALTIONS AND THANK YOU MAX!!!!!!!!!!!!

Family, Friends and Colleagues:

 

When I was asked the other day to be interviewed by Architects + Artisans, it caught me by such surprise that all I could do was laugh.  You see, in the last several years I've spent so much of my time thinking, talking and writing about others--advocating for various causes--that it had become unfamiliar to actually have someone want to write about who I was, my art, and what I was doing personally.

 

For a piece entitled "To Write, Paint and Save a Monument", the Editor of A +A, Mike Welton, who has written for The New York Times, Interior Design Magazine and Dwell Magazine, writes in part:

 

Now that he’s saved Marcel Breuer’s last building from the wrecking ball, Max Eternity has returned his attention to the things that really matter, like painting and publishing.