plain dealer charity shoe toss
2008 (c) Copyright. Mark Stueve. All Rights Reserved.
Plain Dealer Editorial humorist, Kevin O'Brien, has volunteered in the spirit of holiday 2008 to be on the receiving end of the first annual shoe toss to benefit the falling fortunes of the local newspaper that employs him.
Sighting falling arches as cure for falling revenues, the plain dealer will set up a podium at their Superior Avenue Plaza which O'Brien will occupy while participants paying ten dollars per shoe will be allowed to toss their foot ware at hack O'Brien's physical form in a fashion resembling President George Bush's recent Iraq media dodge.
No limits will be placed on shoe sizes or features, though ice-skates, baseball shoes, and other athletic foot ware will be featured at a later event with plain dealer sports writers Bill Livingston and Bud Shaw occupying the podium.
The third shoe toss is a woman's only event with plain dealer editor Susan Goldberg and her pets, Regina Brett and Connie Schultz taking the podium to be on the receiving end of a woman's only shoe toss. The subject of stiletto heals is still under discussion, so check with the plain dealer before sharpening your shoe points.
It appears that this shoe toss should gather sufficient funds to help pay for the inflated salaries of the plain dealer employees participating as well as giving local readers a means of expressing their true feelings for these sycophants.
Plain dealer publisher Hammond Egger III will be O'Brien's alternate.
A run on used foot ware has already occurred in local thrift stores much to Egger's delight.
"I smell the stench of profit, finally!" Egger quipped.Labels: Cleveland Ohio, plain dealer
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OH CLEVELAND, MY CLEVELAND
ROLL ON BIG CLEVELAND, YOU PHUCKING PLUMB
By Muggles 'I Wanna Be Like Chief Wahoo When I Grow Up' Greenwood
2008 (c) Copyright Mr. Clovis Shea and Mr. Mark Stueve. All Rights Reserved.
As I sat outside the train station of Cleveland, Ohio, waiting for the sun to rise to the west, I realized, 'wait ... what? hold on ... wait a minute! which direction is east?'
Just because I traveled to here from the east -no, correct that! I was traveling east -I came from the west -which means it is quite possible that I'd been looking to the east (thinking it's west) the whole time.
And that is my point exactly. I've always heard critical words used to describe Cleveland, specifically, and Ohio, in particular. However, I have come to believe that the City of Cleveland, itself, is a true testament of deep seated love. A deep seated love for something that has un-intentionally come to embody everything backwards -lopsided -and upsidedown.
This is a place that puts up neon lights reading 'Fifth Third Bank' on one of its seven silly skyscrapers and then fails (or refuses) to grasp entirely how someone ... not from here ... might fail to take it seriously ... or instead, find it almost comical.
This is a place that names its baseball franchise the 'Indians' and then uses a cavalry charge for its late inning rallies. This is a place that trades all of its best baseball players to league rivals and then expects its fan base to believe that a World Series victory sometime, either in this century or the next, is, perhaps, entirely plausible.
And so I continue waiting for the sunrise. Not knowing exactly in what direction to look, and thinking all the while, 'so this is how Moxie Axolotl and Old Mother Olmstead felt all those so many wonderful years ago.'
In my childhood, I always wondered what the hell was Moxie Axolotl talking about, anyway? And what exactly is a 'Whiz Bang?' But, when I dared to ask, she invariably gave me some round about answer that described an eclectic compilation of images and concepts that had little to nothing in common except for the fact that they were both unintentionally beautiful and unintentionally wierd. This is exactly how she described Cleveland. And, it brings me back to my original point (assuming, of course, that I actually had one).
Now, Moxie Axolotl always loved the Arcade. And she always made a point of re-acquainting herself with the building everytime whe came back from California to visit her beloved hometown. Me, on the other hand, I grew up in California, so I have a much more narrow minded view of art, and very little patience with the practice of admiring architecture. When I look at the Cleveland skyline and I see this historic landmark building, I can't help but to ask myself 'why would a city obscure the view of such a beautiful old building with a monstrosity skyscraper shit-ball replica of the empire state building?' [The answer being exactly what Moxie Axolotl would say, 'yes dear, we know, you're talking about two entirely different places and you're just a little bit confused.']
But, the real answer is simple. It is Progress, my friends. And not your ordinary typical everyday forward moving social progress, folks. No, this is a different breed of progress, entirely. This is a progress that defies all logic and prevails solely on the notion that if you keep doing the same thing wrong, over and over again, eventually you will wear down the laws of the universe and the logic of the cosmos until it reaches a point where everything you did will be right and exactly as you think it should because you convinced yourself that you planned it that way all along. In sum, it is progress because it says it is progress. It is, my friends, orchestrated chaos -without a conductor. Cleveland is the little train that could -but most likely won't, anytime soon, or in our lifetime; with the possible exception of some parallel universe where 'things are exactly as they seem' and Cleveland actually does 'Rock.'
But for its inspirational influence as a comedic one-liner, Moxie Axolotl's 'Whiz Bang,' its smog-filled majestic skyline, or its perplexing idiot wizardry, Cleveland, Ohio, is nothing inevitable and always something that some unknowing outsider (even someone such as myself -one generation removed) would easily mistake as being wrong. But, it isn't. And they're the ones who are wrong. And that's my point exactly, I think.
Cleveland is the little train that could have easily just given up. But it didn't, and it doesn't, because it can't. Even though it knows full well it is never going to make it up that hill. Shit, it could have packed it up and sent it back to the banks for liquidation so many times. But, it didn't. It could have simply set the lake on fire and called it a bay (on the North Coast, of course). But, it didn't. It could have accepted the fact that the Browns were probably better off in Baltimore. But, it didn't. I could have embraced the notion that the sunrises to the east, and not the west. But, I didn't.
Oh hell, why don't they just call it the 'Fifteenth Bank' and be done with it? Or better yet, how about the 'Fifth Reich Bank?' Well, the answer is simple. They don't because they didn't. And they didn't because they don't.
Besides, its like Old Mother Olmstead always said whenever Moxie Axolotl would start up with her California Prankster Shenanigans, "there are some things we just don't do here, in Ohio, dear."
Never mind the part where I ask the obvious question, 'what happened to the Third Third Bank or the Fourth Third Bank?' Because I already know that I won't get an answer. And I already know that there is no logical answer available. Because, the truth is simple: Nobody can ever conclusively prove to a Cleveland refugee, once removed, such as myself, that the sun won't maybe sometime actually rise in the west; and that the Browns won't always continue to win, maybe, except when it either seems inevitable or actually matters.
Why don't they call it 'Third World Bank?' Or better yet, reverse that and you've really got something 'World Third Bank.' In the early 1990s I drove past a Thai Restaurant named 'Phuc Yu.' I knew better to stop and eat, and Old Mother Olmstead never approved of such language. Besides, I've lived in California for over thirty years! I don't come to Cleveland for chinese cuisine!? I come here for its amazing autumn changing of the color of the leaves and its wild north coast western sunrises.
Oh phuc it. Sunrises are usually overrated anyway. Roll on Big Cleveland, you phucking plumb.Labels: Cleveland Ohio, Comedy, Muggles Greenwood, Old Erie Street Bookstore, Parody, Satire
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One That Got Away
A calm evening and the shank end of a holiday weekend conspired to find the cheeze and myself out in our canoe , bobbing about Lake Erie at dusk plugging away with our # 3 mepps spinners looking to the waters good graces to provide piscatorial thrills and our angling skills to perhaps catch a fine fish or three for dinner. Half way through the 2008 baseball season , and it is still difficult to forgive manager Wedge from his post season 2007 choke , against the Boston Red Sox. Now our Cy Young award pitcher C.C. Sabathia is headed for Milwaukee and a chance to play for the new York American League team next season , and I believe that the wrong player in this baseball travesty is being shipped out of town , to a New York American league farm club at that. General manager Shapiro and his bench lackey Wedge have held reign here long enough. Time for their bobble heads to roll along Carnegie Road and out of town for good.These two are the logical candidates for departure , not C.C. Sabathia. We kept meaning to get out fishing in June , though the Lake has been rough , and events have conspired otherwise. Thus , a calm night in July found us two hours into our casting about , with a single rock bass , and a undersized small mouth bass that spit out the spinner mid air as our only strikes while on the water. As we fished around a previously good bass spot along the shoreline , we passed numerous post fourth of July revelers that still found the combination of Lake Erie waters and food and beverage a good bet for their Sunday evening party minds , and a fair number of these folk were perched on a deck hanging over the water when the fish hit my spinner. A fair amount of fish weight is an easy read to gauge by the tension felt on hands and line , and this particular finned customer was no small potatoes. Hitting at some distance away , and bending line and pole gave me an idea that I was in for a fight. I was not disappointed in this department. As I reeled the fish towards the canoe I had already notified the cheeze , and he was ready with the net. Visions of fishy fleshpots most have dulled my senses , and it was after a few minutes strenuous fight that I felt the line go slack , and no fish was meant for our chops this evening. I felt bad enough loosing this battle , though in true Cleveland fashion a rousing chorus of boos and hisses greeted my flub from the near bye deck on the shore.Typical behavior of the native tribes mucking about these days. I laughed out loud at the irony of these events , and the cheeze and I had not another fish even approach our humble offerings for the remainder of our voyage. Some poor fish is now swimming about with a lure stuck in it's craw , and for that I am sorry. We had been fishing out at our dear friend's farm pond , a couple weeks ago , and I had not inspected my tackle prior to this canoe trip. My fault , plain and simple. Oh well , another day , another fish. Not so however for Wedge and his 2007 post season choke. Wedge let a real big fish get off his hook , and this 2008 baseball season is testimony to his sad managerial skills. Just ask Brandon Phillips? Eric Wedge did not see talent in Phillips , nor did Wedge get along with Mister Phillips.Phillips had the last laugh and his play against the Cleveland American League team this season said it all. In your face Eric Wedge. I only wish we could have at least caught a glimpse of the fish that got away? Walleye ? Small mouth ? Sheephead ? Never will know? Just like that 2007 choke by Wedge. Never will know if the Cleveland American league baseball team would have gone the distance and brought home Cleveland's first world series championship since 1948. Good bet we would have captured the flag however . Now , with the wrong player leaving the clubhouse in C.C. instead of Eric Wedge , it will be sometime before we will get another chance.Perhaps if Shapiro had traded Sabathia for Brandon Phillips , this whole baseball joke would be more palatable. As for fishing , we get another chance this evening , and I hope to land tonight's catch not fall victim to the boos , jeers and invectives again. I am saving my personal bile , jeers , and invective for that loser Wedge , and plan to give him my own version of the Lake Erie raspberries when fishing season is over , and it is time again to watch the 2008 Cleveland baseball team imitate the 1950 Saint Louis Browns .Labels: Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Ohio, Cleveland Sports, Fishing
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Steve Ferguson R.I.P.
Steve Ferguson born December 10, 1943 in Knoxville , Iowa died in his sleep with his loyal cat Lena by his side this June 29Th at his residence on Cleveland's near west side. A solid human being of large frame and four square hard working and thick shouldered features , with ever present bifocals riding down his nose Steve was the former editor of the great swamp erie dada boom underground newspaper during the late nineteen sixties , contemporary and friend of poets d.a. levy and Tom Kryss . Mimeograph artist . Water colorist.Creative artist and writer of great gift. Fond of playing piano for the elderly , and at weekly Church services. Ferguson was last employed at the Dave's Supermarket on Bridge Avenue and West 26Th Street , where he worked in the Bakery department. The oldest of six boys who were raised in a close knit family in Cherokee , Iowa , in the 1950's . Steve often pined aloud for the home cooking and daily fresh pies created by his Grandma Elsie's at her Cherokee , Iowa Dinner Bell Cafe. Steve worked here as a young man , and once intimated to me that he never forgot the kindness and simple nature of those days which he numbered among the best times of his life. Nor did he easily forget his radio roots , and often turned to WHO Radio AM 1040 , Des Moines when reception in Cleveland was possible after dark. Steve was a regular at the Wednesday afternoon poker games at Old Erie Street Book Store for many years and was always an honest active player as regular as rain. It was ta these games that Steve bonded with my Uncle Doc Hucek , who hired Steve one summer to paint his one story home. Doc remarked that Steve was the most intelligent man that he had ever had the occasion to meet , and was impressed with his ability to work the New York Times crossword rapidly , and amazed at Steve's capacity for unfiltered camel cigarettes , and plenty of vittles. Both smokes and food being part of Steve's Tom Sawyer like bargain with Doc along with a ridiculous tiny amount of money [ thirty five dollars I believe for a week's work in the year 1990] that he asked for his time. Steve explained it to me as a desire to spend time with Doc , who being born in 1904 reminded him of those old timers that used to warm stools at The Dinner Bell Cafe back in Cherokee, Iowa. Steve served as editor on the first underground newspapers that I wrote articles for , as well as a harsh critic and often thorny muse. Many people took offense to Steve's straight forward ways. I always enjoyed his candor , and we never spent much time picking bones due to this meeting of minds. Recently I had taken to visiting Steve at his place of work on Wednesdays and talking over plans to go fishing at a farm pond or Lake Erie. He worked hard at his labor at Dave's market , and was fond of telling me his joy in having a roof over his head , a meal in his belly , and the good graces of playing piano a few times a week. Tom Ferguson and James Ferguson two of his brother's that I have had the pleasure in meeting on prior occasions showed up at the book store door today , at exactly the old appointed hours for poker playing bearing the news of Steve's demise.Ten years ago at Uncle Doc's for a New Years football afternoon , I cooked two ducks and all the trimmings. We were eating along at the roast birds and as I stood up to fetch more gravy i felt Steve's hand circle my wrist in a rather strenuous fashion. He wanted more duck gravy , and it was all I could do to wrest the gravy boat away from him long enough to make it the stove for more. Later our mutual friend Sloop John B , quipped that " gravy must be considered a beverage in Iowa". Having enjoyed a friendship for nearly forty years with Steve his passing is yet the end of another chapter of local history. We enjoyed intellectual discourse as well as fishing , golfing , and poker.Listening to his tales concerning his late cat Moses to whom he was quite attached was always a pleasure .Steve was a true character in many ways and will be missed.Labels: Cleveland Ohio, d.a levy, great swamp erie dada boom, Old Erie Street Bookstore, Steve Ferguson, The Old Erie Street Book Store, Tom Kryss
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six steps down / Book Store on West 25th street closing
and today Sunday June 22 , 2008 will be an auction of contents in their storefront six shops north of the west side market on West 25Th street. For over thirty five years Mike O' Brien and a rotating staff of helpers have served the lower West side of Cleveland quality books at affordable prices. A visible erosion and failure of the rebirth of the retail nature of this commercial strip is apparent. When Mister O' Brien opened at this location in 1979 , his commercial neighbors had a daytime face and among them were a Department store , drug stores , five and ten cent stores , hardware's , furniture stores , banks , dry cleaners , shoe stores , haberdasheries , counter restaurants , and ethnic groceries. Now this once vibrant shopping area has been yuppified to a sickening degree , and is a regular night time tangle of bars and fancy white tablecloth dining joints. Just what Cleveland , Ohio does not need . Yet another commercial strip dedicated to the tastes and fancies of the gentrified high and mighty , and their suburban kin based around alcohol and food. Bars and culinary grift joints will be the death of this fast disappearing city. Mike O' Brien has served in an unofficial capacity as the street's social worker and go to person for the many low income and mentally disturbed citizens who reside near bye. A natural social worker who lead with his heart and came across for those he served. A humble man from Louisville , Kentucky who did not leave his gentle manners at the southern Ohio border , Mike will be missed in a very large fashion. It is business's such as this very bookstore that are supposed to be the winners , not losers when a neighborhood such as the West 25Th street district near the west side market is gentrified. Not so in Cleveland , Ohio. Booze and greasy fleshpots are all the rage. Can vomitoriums be next? Literary affairs and basic civilization is in severe decline here in Cleveland , Ohio 2008 and it is with great sadness that I report this loss of a unique institution that should have been celebrated not ignored by the local hipsters and their poetic kin. More later on this subject. By the way Mister O' Brien informed me that rumour has it that another lower west side book store is planning to apply for a beer and wine license. A sardonic twist to an allready sordid west side tale.Labels: Bookstore On West 25th Street, Cleveland Ohio
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Downtown Cleveland M.I.A.
Mandatory Inibreation Area that is . Just in time for he summer tide of important tourist visitors from Indiana and Kentucky , the grand gizmo's at upyoursezclevele.spam have decided to charge a two drink minimum for all non Cleveland residents entering the downtown area between now and Labor Day 2008. Grand gizmo numero uno Tomas Jabberbloski , announced that starting June 21 , 2008 that kiosks set up at all entry points manned by upyourssezclev.spam jackboot stormtroopers will be collecting ten dollars per tourist to enter the city. " We can't shake them down and rob them outright like the parking lots and criminals are able to , so we decided that charging a two drink minimum was good for business". said Jabberbloski while stumbling about and burping up the remnants of a seemingly stale shorts beer. " High time has come to get in line with other venues who charge upfront fees for the privilege of reeling about drunk and loitering on downtown Cleveland streets." A no refund policy is in effect as well. " Under no circumstances will anyone walking around downtown Cleveland sober be tolerated between now and Labor day." "Get with the program or be gone from Cleveland's downtown ". Jabberbloski quipped.Labels: Cleveland Ohio
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Some fresh new ideas
Cleveland and its sister city Detroit's downtown skyscraper canyons are mostly on the nod these days by all accounts and observations garnered. While recently immersing myself in a rather sedentary and scholarly life as opposed to the wretched comatose meanderings of yet another loose cannon with a bad case of typewriter keypad itch, I have rediscovered the dirtiest pair of words in my meager vocabulary:
“Idle Thought.”
Considering myself always a proper and forward thinking citizen in search of some fresh new ideas, lately what has crossed my mind concerns the adaptive reuse of our empty downtown cities streets. I have noticed that the lack of human bodies found on downtown Cleveland and Detroit streets affords a vibrant sonority when the human voice is expelled in a yodel or song like fashion towards the heavens.
Loud and clear I say, with tremendous echo effects.
Most major American cities are unable to provide these perfect fertile grounds conducive for the new opportunity of building yodeling competitions to be held in the cities empty canyons due to having in their possession a civilized population that lives within their boundaries.
Not a real problem for our great lakes twin cities. Attracting participants should prove easy.
Being that both cities downtowns resemble massive outdoors beer gardens these days. -- --- Both cities being in possession of loud and rabid sports fans prone to blowing hard and aloud for their "home teams".
Cleveland, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan are natural cities to use local arts funds collected via yet another tobacco tax to study and advance this primitive notion of found sound that adds a lively voice to these moribund and near empty buildings found in their empty downtowns.
A sister project celebrating the joyous unbound and unfettered voice conducive of attracting tourists building yodeling competitions to be held in the cities empty canyons. Outdoor echo karaoke is another novel idea sure to be a tourist pleaser.
Both cities already resembling large public beer gardens, the urban fabric of our two cities would benefit to hear any voices other than those currently raised in salute to cold suds and tepid sports.
Held in conjunction with the ever popular pizza eating contests and Slovenian style yodel polka events, the inclusion of a sing und yodel with the local yokels event held in the twin cities warm weather months would prove tourist positive if not a bit thrilling in a understated fashion.
Not currently having the means to attract a true local musical hero like Bruce Springsteen to host this event should not prove a problem. Cleveland's current number one Slovenian musical star should suffice.
One Michael Stanley Gee.
Since the death of Frankie Yankovic, Michael Stanley is number one in Cleveland! Michael Stanley has a rather popular local band and is really a natural at serving as judge, ringmaster, and host to all future Building yodeling and echo karaoke events to be held in downtown Cleveland due to his long career in music and his superstar status.
Michael Stanley currently is employed by a radio station on the very short stretch of Huron Road between Euclid Avenue and Prospect Road which is the natural empty building canyon to hold the Cleveland found sound events in.
I walk down this short corridor on a daily basis and it is more often than not than I can hit all the notes from white rabbit or rosewood bitters at the top of my lungs and bounce with an echo every note off the top of the rooftops of the halle Brother's building were Gee Stanley is employed as radio jockey.
Truly art events waiting to happen.
Who knows?
Perhaps a world famous Euclid Avenue Karaoke Corridor Project will emerge, or in the case of Detroit a mobile version of karaoke yodels held on the "people mover."
Or a slicker sophisticated version held during the Detroit grand prix.
Either Jeff Daniels or Tim Allen would make great Detroit echo karaoke or building yodeling event hosts .Believe me , any events save more bad sports and the artsy posturing of visiting suburban types a few evenings a year would serve to improve the dead zones currently encountered in Cleveland and Detroit downtown quarters.
Time has come for the artsy fartsy types to forget about painting their precious little ingenious pictures on the empty storefront windows once a year on their annual loutish stroll through downtown Cleveland streets. Instead consider hiring our resident homeless population to sit around and live in these currently empty and void windows as human mannequins.
Your ingenious and soulless artsy types could dress up storefronts and homeless alike and film the whole enchilada and peddle it as yet another bad reality television event, or pawn it off as some queer form of " performance art" or other such kitty litter encrusted " art happening."
The Euclid Avenue Corridor project promises to deliver a quick bus path from the east end of Euclid Avenue , out near the croakerville homes of the mad scalpels of the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospital, into empty streets and spaces known as downtown Cleveland.
Perhaps if on schedule for later this year?
The RTA deadline is November 2008 , and just in time for a winter's tale of snow and weather that makes a Clevelander long for an empty belly, loaded gun , and the streets of Port a prince, Haiti as a winter alternative to the new beauty of Euclid Avenue 2008.
Seems that in the comprehensive planning and attention to every little marble sidewalk and rider courtesy the Euclid Avenue Corridor entails, one large item may have been overlooked in the sea of concrete and rubber trees that is this much vaunted and touted private bus line built at taxpayers expense.
SNOW!
Good luck to you RTA in removing the often heavy load of snow that piles up on Euclid Avenue in a winter's space of time.
Take for example the famous November 1950 Thanksgiving blizzard that dumped 23 inches of wet precipitate in a few short hours. Streetcars were buried on their tracks; nothing seemed to move save the snow squalls.
Wonder how RTA plans to plow the fancy bus and curvy automobile lanes the next time a blizzard sets down here?
Time will tell.
Book selling Time! Relive the fond visual memories of Cleveland, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan when these once great cities still had streets with people on a daily basis up to more good than evil. We offer today George Condon's YESTERDAY'S CLEVELAND and Frank Angelo's YESTERDAYS DETROIT. Both of these volumes are packed with lots of historic photographs and little textual copy.
Perfect for today's book market. Buy 'em both and save a buck.
No kidding around here, both of these swell pictorial volumes are available now, and worth the odd few dollars you might spend on gas or groceries.
Take a bus!
Take a hike!
Get lost!
But if you do take a hike, bus, or get lost do not forget to take a little something with you for protection save your johnson.
Preferably take a fistful of ripe pecorino cheese to toss at any would be artsy writer types that infest cities throughout the world today. Do not worry about repercussions, these insidious wannabe scribes and poetic types are often lazy and hungry simultaneously and certainly not adverse to bending over to swipe someone else's cheesy ideas tossed at them and then reselling it as their own.
Cleveland and Detroit are full of these types these days, as are most American cities form Hoboken to Half Moon Bay. More often than not scratching what itches, looking for some fresh ideas, and attempting to create something of value from their idle thoughts.Labels: Bruce Springsteen, Building Yodelling, Cleveland Ohio, Detroit, Euclid Avenue Corridor, Frankie Yankovic, Ingenuity Festival, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stanley Gee, Tim Allen
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Round up the usual suspects
It is Monday morning and time to round up the usual suspects. You , over there. Yes you , the fatuous one located at East 18Th and Superior a.k.a . da p.d. , da pee dee , or whatever pathos in newsprint you fancy these days. Line up against that wall and shut up already. The Sunday April 6 ,2008 editorial Put It On The Map ,is another great reason why the publisher of a daily newspaper should not sit on the board of director's of a major local institution as in this case the Cleveland clinic. The plain dealer shilling for the Cleveland clinic may be considered business as usual by the slap happy editorial board gang at da p.d.. Others of us find it more to resemble business as unusual at the very least. This editorial makes yet another unashamed plug for a proposed three mile highway linking Interstate 480 with the Cleveland clinic. Dubbed the " opportunity corridor" , one begs to inquire ... Whose opportunity? Yes , the correct answer students is the very Cleveland clinic who da p.d. publisher Terrance Egger sits on the CC Board of Directors of. As we said here some months ago when da p.d. ran an earlier editorial begging for this same self serving road. We said just say no! Governor Ted . Keep saying no to this selfish little land grab. Governor Ted Strickland represents eighty seven other Counties in Ohio as well as Cuyahoga , and in all fairness , short of succeeding from the other eighty seven , the other counties need the public infrastructure funds as well as Cuyahoga does. Last time I looked the entire State of Ohio is looking seedy , aged , and way frayed at the cuff. So consider the rest of the State of Ohio's political opinion concerning the proposed future of basically a private road in Cuyahoga County Ohio? Not very much interest I would guess , and da p.d. should at least be bright enough to admit to this fact. The plain dealer boast in this skewed editorial is " Cleveland can't and won't wait." Suggesting that da p.d. will go negative on Governor Strickland , and work against him politically . To quote this Superior Road gang's own words. " and if Ted Strickland can't promise results ,, it may be tough for Northeast Ohioans to promise votes for this bond plan." Scary kids , scary. OOOOH Scary OLD PAIN DEALER. A hollow threat from the weak and slack jawed jowls of da paper tiger that is da p.d. 2008. ............wcpn the yawning midget of public radio in our listening area should check it's sad self into a hospital to see if they possess a beating pulse much less a heart? Well , no news is old hat at wcpn so line up against the wall you phony " idea stream" cheerleaders. This morning 's nine to ten a.m . gambit was yet another public relations dog and pony show toutin' and shoutin' and placing a positive spin on the 200 million rta Euclid avenue corridor project. No subjective or critical examination needed of the corridor project and the adjoining land usage according to wcpn. Just a jolly good old public relations lovefest...Noted journalist Roldo Bartimole seems to believe differently in that a series of speculative real estate transactions featuring both public and private concerns , and the a list downtown players roles in real estate transactions along the downtown part of the Euclid avenue dedicated bus line is worthy of examination and critical reporting. Roldo's Point of View on this matter is a well described and documented read on the political and private business transactions occurring at the southeast corner of East Ninth and Euclid . Yes , that corner the one with the significant architectural truck in a International stature in the form of the Marcel Breuer Cleveland Trust Tower. This historic corner should be celebrated , as well the remaining buildings on the south side of Euclid Avenue eastward to the point at Huron street. These historic Euclid Avenue buildings are all worthy of rehabilitation . Comprising a nice slice of older commercial buildings perfect for apartment , loft , or condominiums . This building cluster should be included on any Cleveland citizen who is architectural preservation minded map and radar screen, concerning the pending $35 million Willoughby based development plan currently pending transaction with Cuyahoga County. History is at stake here. Short of building the second Breuer Tower on the site , saving these older structures gives a nice model window of what a handsome block of rehabilitated buildings with all the original interior trimmings can be...What is at stake here is a real crosstown intersection for any hospital workers who care to live or relocate to a residence downtown , as option to current suburban digs and the daily drag of an automotive commute. Calabrese of the RTA outfit promises a ten minute trip on the quick side of time between downtown and UC via the " silver line". As little as five or seven minutes in quickest imagined time spent in a simple commute. A new bus leaves the station every five minutes. That is an upside in any event , and only time will tell if any of the proposed developments will really have much impact in terms of retail growth , business start ups , and a critical mass of citizens living close enough to this bus line to fall out of bed and into a bus on the EAC. The true test of social justice will be East Cleveland's share of the project as it continues on to it's eastern point at the Windemere Rapid station. The happiness boys on hand at wcpn received only six telephone calls during the allotted hour , and the final call was from a man in East Cleveland who identified himself as Ojo , and claimed he was a constant caller always given short shrift by wcpn. Guess what? Ojo was once again given short shrift , and his critical comments concerning issues of poverty and employment on the rta silver line ledger were given a cursory kiss off by the wcpn gang. It is not just downtown and the University Circle neighborhoods that this Euclid Avenue corridor bus line should concern itself with. The neighborhoods that border this project have needs that need to be addressed as well. These neighborhoods are unfortunately all victims of terminal poverty ,and are as follows. Hough , Fairfax , and Central. It would be an original "idea stream" , if perhaps one of the Einstein invalids in the wcpn news department could see there way clear to have representatives from these three Cleveland neighborhoods plus East Cleveland , Ohio comment and discuss the impact that the " silver line" might have on their citizens lives. Stay tuned..... It is easy to see that spring is in the air , and perhaps the two news sources discussed above should open their stultified windows and air out some actual Cleveland citizens real time public interests. The proposed " opporotunity corridor ' , is merely a means yet another land grab for the Cleveland clinic , and would do more harm to any hopes of improving the current neighborhoods that it proposes to tear through than help. If the Cleveland clinic is serious about having their workforce closer to theie Euclid avenue campus , perhaps they should consider building housing along the Euclid Avenue corridor. Yet another highway is only a means for automotive futures , not feet on the pavement urban lifestyle futures. Da p.d. seems to only jump as high on their editorial page as the Cleveland clinic asks them to. That is tragedy , and should be addressed from an neutral ethical viewpoint before this matter of an "opportunity corridor " , receives even a lousy penny in Ohio tax funds. If this road is so damn important to the Cleveland clinic and the parasitical pee dee , let them build it.Labels: Cleveland Ohio, da p.d., Roldo Bartimole, RTA, Transportation, wcpn
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Plywood Cities
Walking a gritty few miles around our fast crumbling northeast Cleveland neighborhood this ominous penultimate March morning , the skies laced fast with tenebrific clouds. I am served reminder of two factoids in a very clear fashion. One , Bud Selig must live in the subterranean beer cellar in Suds City , because he sure does not possess a clue about Cleveland weather in late March. Two. There is sure a lot of dog shit on the street. Take the second factoid in whatever manner you wish ? As I amble past the boarded up Pizza Hut , Ponderosa Steakhouse ,Goodyear Tire Company , and a gross of other plywood encrusted storefronts , these grim visages do nothing to promote the idea of exercise that has gripped my aging psyche. Instead this brisk walk rapidly becomes a game of eyes down dodge the doggy doo doo , and hum a happy little tune in attempt to negate the ugly abandoned place this once lively neighborhoods retail district has become. Corporate abandonment! The worst vision on this stroll along the Boulevard however is the boarded up former K-Mart and more recently a former Big Lots store who abandoned retail efforts here due to changing demographics , now sits empty . Dangerous , and mouldering while awaiting an uncertain future as a proposed City recreation Center. Now as the signage for the former Big Lots store has been removed , leaving me with only a chuckle when remembering the letter "L" in the Big Lots sign was burned out for the last few years of the store's existence. A not so funny sight gag , that speaks more than less about contemporary life in Cleveland ,Ohio.Corporate bigots! Now , this massive former blue light special space now turned rancid taunts and mocks all of us who pass it daily.An eyesore! Yeah , yet another corporate invader species , in this case KMart from Detroit , Michigan , deciding that they wanted no part of our neighborhood, so they blew the property off and we are left with an ugly empty building as reminder of there Collinwood kiss off , complete with a pot holed parking lot designed now to bust your axle first and ask questions later left behind for good measure. I suppose some Ohio corporations , say perhaps the former office supply joint out on Warrensville Center Road in Shaker Heights , ditched stores in Detroit. Touche. Far as I am concerned Cleveland , Ohio and Detroit , Michigan are about in the same shape and often it proves difficult to discern any visible or demographic differences between the two cities. We Clevelanders are up here on the south shore of Lake Erie and right across the water lives our friends from Ontario , Canada. Lots of melons amid the hoser strains lay ahead on the other side of these Erie waters. Melons , I said . Sadies rule! Back here in Ward 11 our City Councilman , Mike Polensek proves daily he is a well intentioned sort. Prone now in the late stages of a rather lengthy career as city councilman to fashion himself as a sage and experienced leader , whose twenty nine years spent in Cleveland City council chambers gives him the right to comment upon a large number of Cleveland issues. You bet! Councilman Polensek received some national media attention for his chastising and dressing down of a local Collinwood youth that Polensek witnessed tossing litter among the streets he is entrusted as elected official to represent. The young man was rather blase in his response to our councilamn and there is the story. Councilman Polensek acted in a strong pseudo parental fashion in the hopes of advancing this young man's social graces and imparting to him the negative lesson of public littering . Or loitering? Does not matter. Any society is only as good as the sum of it's parts. Yu go Mike Polensek! I concur and applaud your efforts and agree with this cleanliness cause. As I said earlier Councilman Polensek is a well intentioned sort ...I last observed Mike Polensek at a Euclid , Ohio Democratic Party for Obama rally that featured Carolyn Kennedy as a principal speaker held prior to the Ohio primary at the Euclid Community Center earlier this year. Councilman Polensek took the podium early on in the affair and in addressing the issue of foreclosure in our region said he was " sick and tired of being sick and tired" , concerning the incidents of foreclosure and the dire effects they have on our communities. Well put , councilman. Polensek then sat in stern studied silence facing the crowd with a Ohio For Obama , sign flashed towards the crowd of 150 or so attendees for the remainder of the evening . A good soldier for a good cause... Collinwood has no recreation center , and the abandoned KMart on Lakeshore Boulevard has been the proposed site of one for as long as I can remember. The closest City of Cleveland recreation center is the Glenville Recreation Center on East 113th street , under ten miles in distance , yet worlds away in regards to youthful politics. Glenville is Tarblooder territory , Collinwood is Railroaders turf. An invisible boundary exists between these adjoining neighborhoods , and rivalries in high school sports and other more street like matters involving commercial boundaries and illicit activities , run high. It is an unfortunate fact of life that many of our youth are witness on a daily basis to the street crimes of drug sales and prostitution that occur in Cleveland neighborhoods. Most of the customers for these illicit criminal enterprises are drawn here from the five or so Counties that surround Cuyahoga ,and it is easy to spot these low life visitors as they amble about in their hoopty automobiles doing their dirty deeds here in Cleveland .Plenty of crime exists in the rather cross eyed outbacks and dirt trailer types sequestered deep into a surrounding rural county. Often these bad boys are related to some distant parish or township politicians who creates law not observes law , and to quote a phrase "the beat goes on." These so called victimless crimes do have their victims however. Our youth who are doomed to live amid this traffic. These emerging Cleveland youth would be well served with a recreation center as a means of building enough athletic skills , and social graces to perhaps deter them from choosing the easy entrepreneurial skills that have dire long term consequences.To date Councilman Polensek fights hard to deliver this Recreation Center for Collinwood citizens . Keeping an item like this alive is to keep it in the news and in the public eye. The Collinwood neighborhood is among the better off of others in the scheme of events which Cleveland , Ohio is comprised of today. Hanging on by the slightest of margins to a fading dignity is Collinwood , Ohio 2008. An important Cleveland neighborhood to study intensely and often. How goes the future of Collinwood so goes the city. I do not have to elaborate on the positive benefits of exercise for adults , and children alike. Nor does it take a genius to figure that if a household is troubled and chaos exists within it's fabric that youth spending time away from a dysfunctional home situation is a positive , not a negative. The message at the Obama rally was to imagine and embrace the ability to dream and imagine positive change.If we can deliver candidate Obama to the oval office perhaps more funds will reach the tired streets and neighborhoods of Cleveland ,Ohio and Detroit, Michigan. hopefully resulting in more recreation centers and social services? The chant at the Euclid community center rally for Obama ended with the crowd chanting " Yes we can, Yes we can" over and over again. Time has arrived to make some choices , perhaps Obama can make the difference.Today the shame of the empty Cleveland Browns football stadium , built with public funds for private profit, stands on our lakefront empty 355 days a year while our Cleveland youth suffer from a paucity of recreation facilities and their lives become a gamble against the odds of prison or death on Cleveland's mean streets. Thousands of well fed Mothers and Fathers and their off springs many from far off suburbs will attend the 2008 Cleveland American League baseball opener today , spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on beer and food , trophy t-shirt souvenirs and the like. Most Cleveland residents and youth never even get a sniff of this corporate oxymoron ballyard/billboard newly named " progressive field". Calamity field is more apt a name for the baseball yard that the progressive insurance company paid twenty million to name! How many recreation centers would twenty million build?! Hell, the Cleveland AL baseball team even remodeled the right field kids playground at the jake into the new calamity field " party deck". Hell of thing society and it's priorities. We were all children once , and how we treat all children speaks miles about who we really are.Obama knows that fact well. As does all concernedr parents worthy of their salt. Now the time has come to act as if we are entering the 21st century as opposed to entering the 19th century in our current backward ways. Obama has decent odds to pull us out of the mess we as Americans are dug into. Bet on it! The amount of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is pledged and in conversation with Councilman Polensek says is ready and available for an engineering study at the proposed KMart Recreation site on Lakeshore Boulevard. Councilman Polensek says senior fitness from local high rises should be first imperative. The Humphrey Athletic baseball fields behind the proposed site should remain ballfields forever. Historical evidence proves play on that site since the site was cleared years . This former farmland once used to grow the exotic hybrid Humphrey's popcorn used in the famous and delicious popcorn balls and bags of popped corn sold at Euclid Beach Park , East 105th and Euclid , and from a stand on Clevelands public square. Back when popcorn counted for something other than the great garnish it serves with soups or stews.Then as a parking lot until the amusement parks closing after the 1969 season. Flying turns fields forever! Yes we can!Labels: Cleveland Ohio, Collinwood, Detroit, Sadies. Obama
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They Remained Others Fled
Joc O Sot lies sleeping the final bone yard dirt nap in the shadow of the right field light towers perched way above East Ninth Street across from his tidy little digs in the necropolis his skeletonic remains occupy. High ground. The spirit of Joc O Sot dreaming onward and into the future. "A Distinguished Chief" , reads his headstone. I believe those three simple words as if it is the very rapier of truth. Older law. Old Bones. Laughing back from his grave. "Got you were we want you now Cleveland American League Baseball Team". "We are going to curse you for to settle an old lingering score." Uggh! "Cuyahoooga to you!My old partner Charlie Bread always was quick to tell the world that Cuyahoga translates to roughly " crooked" in the ancient tongue. So Charlie Bread often yelled Cuyooooggaaa , at those in passing that he did not fancy. Charlie spent most of his adult life on East Ninth Street in downtown Cleveland Ohio. First in the old Art Deco beautiful sentry at East Ninth and Euclid's northwest corner The Bond's Clothing Company. A few doors south of the old Roxy Burlesque Theatre . Charlie fit out the strippers outfits every Monday evening , and was so close to so much beauty and tragedy wrapped up in a tight little pocket. Accordingly. Some rubbed off on him. Jelly that is. Composition and form. Ignored my own advice. Old bones molder away in this rapidly draining swampuserium. A stroll about the grounds of the cemetery down the block . Produces an early settlers tombstones inside the east ninth street gates that have been " effected" by some form of primitive Earth movement recently. A Terra firma belch or gaia fart perhaps? Rocks! Not the low ball fecal laced crackler gas emitted down the hill near the old pier the clothing pin bin or whatever that odious anti aesthetic graveyard of bad taste is up near the ditch.Yeah , that ditch! The one down by the east ninth street pier and that ugly pointy mausoleum for old rock and roll rags. Our high ground local cemetery tombstones more likely than not victims of a shifting of the local earth 2006 style. Heavy tombstone just inside the East Ninth Street cemetery gate grew legs and moved it's three hundred or so hunk of chiseled rock form a few feet?The Carter family headstone got the tombstone blues . Got up and trucked off it's ill conceived home of the last two years .Knocked off it's weighty perch atop the original faded early nineteenth Century head stones just inside the gate on Erie Street." Effected By The Early Settlers of the Western Reserve ." A crushing modern weight placed top the original early nineteenth century headstones in a less than Historically or aesthetically pleasing manner in the year 2006 , and a source of bewilderment anytime I have viewed this invader headstone. . " When others fled fever and ague The Carters stayed" . "They Remained Others Fled". Looks like some real live humans perhaps conspiring to lift and pry this hunk of stone off to the hypothetical wet headed creature dreaming of a big junkyard payoff from some scrap dealer.Just who could you imagine to rob a graveyard? What sort of desperate human is deranged enough to violate the dead? This is the realm and mater of horror comprised. "Effected". A justified deed. "Effected" like the competition with Detroit , Michigan and the surrounding suburbs for mostly all the wrong reasons in these early years of the twenty first century. Growth often comes attached with some form or other of pain , of varying degree.Picking on an old bone. Like a set of saliva dripping canine jaws wrapped about a distinctively piquant yet recently discarded bovine soup bone. How did this city of Cleveland ever get the notion to become more as Detroit , Michigan than Toronto , Ontario? Ask the recent urban planners of this odd automotive Nation. Government hit men . Using bulldozers and politically motivated Urban renewal plans as weapons against the fabric of the American urban landscape in the second half of the twentieth century. Definitely effected behavior served up with profits diverse and crooked as the easily purchased American City and County governments and transit authorities bought off by the well documented consortium of oil , auto , steel , and rubber industries who replaced the historical veins in the urban American corpus, with interstate highways , high rise ghettos , and all forms of ugly empty parking lots created from the once occupied tenants of diverse interesting North American cities. Cleveland , Ohio and Detroit , Michigan are examples of botched surgical experimentation of the most heinous stripe. Cheap ripped and torn shells of their former urban glory , Cleveland and Detroit are the De facto examples of American cities in decline. Cleveland politics can be proud by in comparison to the sad , immoral examples set recently by some of the Mayors of Detroit ,Michigan.The current Cleveland mayor is not the problem . The prolific graft , pillage and plunder equation that becomes a day to day living scandal which has brought Cleveland , Ohio and Cuyahoga County to the low place that it resides today . Oh yeah , the politicians and corporate types have had there way here for better than two centuries now , and it is difficult not to be sadly swept up in their waning causatum . Sadly enough the very infrastructure of this part of the post industrial metal badlands comprising the botched Great Lakes former industrial works is now kaput. The urban fabric of these rusty deserted places are rotting away. Citizens , housing , and commercial concerns included. The damned Great Lakes region is a rancid and decrepit cesspool of abandoned lives and industrial wastes of all shapes and stripes. Erie , Pa. Buffalo, N.Y. or any other of the void and null grim places in the post industrial vat of human stew meat and fabula anima mundi that makes one cringe aloud today seem to me the same street merely another city. Deranged news items often of such heinous stripe , emerge from these parts as if lifted from the pages of a history or chapter of events more akin to a third world country. Sordid tales of human depravity . Family warfare. Violent deaths carved out of disputes concerning low gambling games , or perceived slights while all parties are high as hoot owls , under the influence of some " bad shit". Yeah , some evil dope dumped in the hood by way of some foreign soil and rife for to cause mayhem and ugly affairs in all quarters it enters. Government sponsored and aimed to keep the oppressed down closer to the ground. { to be continued in a nauseous fashion I am afraid}Labels: Cleveland Ohio, Detroit, Great Lakes, Joc O Sot, Michigan, Roxy Burlesque, They Remained Others Fled
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Rocket science? Grovewood Tavern
Lake Erie is in the news. The United States Navy missile cruiser Lake Erie that is. Launching a missile to cripple and destroy the failed ultra secret communications satellite . " Mission accomplished" , to quote the funny little bushman in Africa representing the interests of these United States of America....This missle smack down of US property gone bad in our skies is purported to be due to the potential dangers of the satellites hydrozine fuel tank. Do not bet on this as being the actual reason however....China knocked down an errant weather satellite in 2007 , and I suppose this could be our reaction to China's previous action..... Over 800 satellites currently roam and orbit our skies , over half of them belong to the United States of America and American interests. A great number of these flighty devices house our various defense systems , communication , and entertainment concerns. Some are military , some commercial in nature and purpose. All need and require protection. That question appears to be the great military one of the 21st century. Just how do we protect them satellites? Read between the lines for a minute here , and figure that the China weather satellite smack down occurred at over 400 miles into space , ours at 215 miles. Bet our next shot is at least near five hundred miles out . Communications devices such as the one the US military knocked down today are important to destroy and not to fall into the hands of other superpower nations. We are currently as a Nation experiencing rather tepid though very sick and codependent foreign relations with a fair number of Nations including China, Russia and a few notable others. If ever a treaty is needed it is one now for the errant discharge of missiles into space whose purpose is to knock out old satellites. A moratorium on anti satellite missal launches until the cause effect of the space junk created by these events warrant further serious study... A cold winter with more to come I fear? The Grovewood Tavern is Cleveland hospitable civilization personified. ... Had dinner the other evening with Rudy Shakes-Moore at the Grovewood Tavern in Cleveland's Collinwood neighborhood. Rudy is just back from Habana ,a nad is sporting the fit , tanned , and rested looks that a human should after kicking a hole in a Cleveland winter by way of a few weeks spent in the Caribbean.Rudy returned to Cleveland at about the same time Fidel stepped down in Cuba. Connection there? Are you kidding. No way. Mister Shakes-Moore did connect with some fine Habana hand rolled cheroots. Double corona Cohiba's at that! We supped on fine plates of braised short ribs of beef with orzo mac and cheese at the Grovewood. Steamed crisp vegetables. Grovewood's beef and pasta combination sure is the best comfort food to be found on Cleveland's East side . Real sure cure for the winds howling at your door. We washed the mess down with liter bottles of sparkling water cut with the platter of fresh limes and lemons our friend and server Thadeus provided with a studied flair. Mopped up the pan gravy with Grovewood master baker Vicki's homemeade bread. What bread!Topped the meal off with Ms. Vicki's lava cake . What cake! Pure civilization ! We then retired to a secret cigar chamber off premises to enjoy the Cohiba and converse about the Cleveland American League baseball team for 2008 , and it's chances for success. Opening day is around a few corners yet , but my friend Rudy Shakes- Moore shared his kindness and vacation plunder and it sure felt like spring on Grovewood Road Tuesday evening.Labels: Cleveland Ohio, Cleveland Sports, Grovewood Tavern
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Jim Jones R.I.P.
Longtime Cleveland resident, friend , artist and photographer , and noted International musician Jim Jones is dead at the age of fifty seven, a few weeks shy of his Fifty eight birthday.
Known by many , loved by all. Jim passed away in his comfy chair at home on the evening of Monday February 18th.
Jim's health had been in severe decline these past few years... A familiar figure on the Cleveland and global musical scene. Jim was a creative force in such noted bands as Pere Ubu, and The Easter Monkeys...
I first encountered the peace loving Mister Jones in the late nineteen sixties when he was an employee of the downtown Cleveland Record Rendezvous store located at 300 Prospect Avenue. Jim was a full-time member of the Cleveland underground scene. At that time Jim wore his locks long and appeared to be the doppleganger for the Dutch Boy paint poster boy with longer flowing locks, and seemingly jumped off the paint can into life. I was employed at the time by Kay's Bookstore a few Prospect storefronts away.
We would often visit each others place of employment on lunch hour. Jim having a keenly developed appreciation for all matter of aesthetics pertaining to cinema , literature, and a consummate bibliophile.
We often attended many of the same rock and roll events and after parties. Sitting together in the last balcony row of Cleveland's Music Hall for David Bowie's initial United States concert September 22nd, 1972.
We were both happy to be there courtesy of RCA records, and often joked afterwards for years how that with all the hype and media juice poured into the Bowie concert launch , that the event was over before it began... Indeed, rock music was over for quite sometime the following year with the release of The Stooges RAW POWER , which was recorded in London, England during that very September 1972 week while Bowie premiered Ziggy Stardust in Cleveland"s Music Hall.
Year's later, Jimmy introduced me to English music critic Jon Savage who proceeded to play for the three of us the freshly produced 1997 version in Jimmy's kitchen music nook. We were blown away by the Iggy version as opposed to the muddy 1973 Bowie produced version of RAW POWER... When Captain Beefheart played Cleveland's Club in the early 1970's we were there.
[Ry Cooder opened this Warner Brothers sponsored small venue tour.]
Ditto Jones was in the tent for many of the Musicarnival shows , including the notable theater in the round Mothers of Invention tent show in 1970.Jimmy was fond of bestowing crafty self made cd mix tapes of various musical artists as gifts , and his kindness in this chapter of his creative life the material of legends....Such diverse musical taste did JJ possess.
Richard Thompson and Marianne Faithfull from stem to stern, all forms of worldly worthy music. A clever palate of Middle Eastern ragas and guezels, served up with African and Latin flavors, musical stews from Jamaica, and Island ska for kicks.
Jim Jones was a musical scholar of no small talent. Truly an encyclopedic and intuitive genius and artist. A gracious host. Polite , well-mannered man. Story teller of retail days spent with fellow clerk and full processed soulful brother Cecil Stewart.
Carnivalesque outrageous full process hairdo Cecil baby. Leo Mintz, who is said to have first coined the phrase "rock and roll" , was the balding , cigarette in the chops , hard drinking owner that assigned the vue tasks , putting away orders , working the counters and his prowess spawned the ancient wooden 78, 45, and 33 and 1/3 listening booths.
It was still a do at the vue to spin a 78r.p.m. jump blues record from the nineteen fifties in the year nineteen eighty!
Jimmy could imitate Leo's gravely camel-throated husky blasts to a turn. The vue was located between two Greek bar and food joints: The Clock and The Columbia.
We drank copiously and ate decent sit-down fare along the lines of meats, potatoes, and salads at both restaurants. Leo Mintz drank at both Clock and Columbia, amid giant plumes of smoke and shots of strong libation being quaffed by all who could afford.
The street flower vendor trade met every working evening at the clock to settle up and hand off the leftover limpid flowery dollar and down trade ending in bars closing hours , and then the after hours. Nightlife people. Jimmy walked with understanding among the street circus characters of lower Prospect and around the Central Market for many years.
Jimmy told all kinds of great stories about many aspects of his life. His powers of memory very sucinct. We were fortunate to have Mister Jones as a member of the Old Erie Street Book Store staff in the nineteen nineties.
His great ability to organize and hand-sell books was a pleasure to witness. Working with Jimmy was a pleasant study in his calm intelligent humble presence with clients -- Many of whom still inquire concerning him to this day.
His ability to catalog and describe books for sale came natural. If I had the presence of mind to take the book business online in the late 1990's as Jimmy suggested, we would be better off today. Yes, Jimmy was that kind of human. A class act in the old school fashion.
Mister Jones always in possession of an active mind and acerbic wit tempered with gallows humor...
Our Mother's cooked from the same Betty Crocker cookbooks during our formative years in the nineteen fifties and early sixties, we discovered years later. Jimmy was often a visitor to our home for meals around the Holidays , and was a favorite of our Family ... Now those of us who knew and loved him will find a darker visage to great our days. Jimmy was not a fan of the modern changes that occurred in downtown Cleveland and was vocal in his criticism.
He preferred Otto Moser's on East Fourth Street not Playhouse Square . Felt that Captain Frank's seafood restaurant belonged on East Ninth Street, not the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
He pined for a breakfast again at the former Nahra's Restaurant once located at East Second and Prospect. Describing Nahras as "complete with steaming vats of corned beef and potatoes boiling away in its windows alone were enough to take the chill from a cold and windy Cleveland's day".
Jimmy's had a special love for canine's and always kept a hound or two about.
His latest pair "Sammi the meathound ' , and the confused canine " Rollo" , both survive him..... Now we face a number of cold and sad days without the staid comfort of Mister Jones friendship and place in our collective lives. I will admit to deep sadness with Jim's passing.
Believe me folks it hurts to lose one of your own . A chill wind blows down Prospect Avenue today , The VUE is shuttered , most of the old familiar places and faces have left town. Our world is a bit sadder today. Jimmy takes his great tales with him, and though a few of us may attempt to account some of them. Jimmy told them best! A gentle pisces , whose passage occurred within his astrological season.
A service and tribute will follow. May Jimmy now rest in peace. He will not be forgotten.Labels: Captain Beefheart, Captain Frank's Restaurant, Cleveland Ohio, David Bowie, Jim Jones, Kay's Bookstore, Nahra's Restaurant, Pere Ubu, Record Rendevous, The Old Erie Street Book Store
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What's news?
In this day and age of immediate gratification of all matters ,in a New York City instant at that , it makes good sense that the gathering and disemination of news follow this modern model. Immediate and accurate! In Cleveland , Ohio 2008 , we still approach this instantaneous news model as if we are the early twentieth century model T automobile , slowing down traffic in all lanes , all the time. Propaganda or perish says da p.d. In the sad case of da p.d. pausing only long enough from their propaganda anticts to slander and villify whatever target they choose , instead of concentrating on the real time business of objective reporting. Take the sad case of da p.d. and Dennis Kucinich as example ...... Having stopped the other evening to visit my pal the cheeze , and grab a cup of his dark brew coffee , prior to reporting to work the midnight trick .I was seated amid a small group of intimate souls at his public house , sipping my cup of joe when some young feminine Broadwview Heights resident bearing a close resemblence to Ann Coulter in eyeglasses brought up the subject of Dennis Kucinich. She was bad rapping away at Dennis , while a few chairs down the cheeze was attempting to introduce a writer who was in the process of self publishing a rather hillarious themed lavendar fictional series of letters as an account of a gay Confederate Civil War regiment and their sacrifices on the battlefield at Gettysburg. One word here shoud suffice. Weird! Perhaps salable , but nonetheless weird. The split screen was maddening to my ears. Here is some funny little bearded fellow in a tiny odd brimmed second hand hat , carrying on about printing a series of gay themed letters involving Confederate Civil war losses , and at the same time and space the spexy Ann Coulter wannabe telling all who would listen how embarrased she was to have to put up with the likes of Dennis Kucinich and his flying saucer tales......The coffee I was sipping kicked in and I asked the spexy one if she read or subscribed to da p.d.? "Of course" , was her reply. I shook my head. Enough said , said I. It was perhaps the information you gleamed from da p.d. that could be considered your source of opinion formed concerning Mister Kucinich? I queried. Spexy waffled , coughed a bit , and then spit it out. " Yes , but of course , I read all about how embarrassing Dennis Kucinich is to Cleveland , Ohio in the plain dealer , I really despise him and his flying saucers." I chuckled and told her I did not know which was funnier , the buggery Civil War letters concocted from the little odd hatted fellow , or the insipid lies printed as half truths in da p.d. concerning Dennis Kucinich...... So whats news? Da p.d. has been out to cook Kucinich's goose since the late 1970's. I see reruns in my head of da p.d. as the wily coyote figure that is constantly attempting to trap or harm Kucinich , and Dennis as the roadrunner just ducks the " acme brand " traps set by da p.d. every last time and escapes with a little " beep , beep" , and takes off victorious. Just as Dennis will prevail in the up and coming Democratic Primary for the tenth congressional seat he serves as incumbent. The real gallows humor here is that for all the profligate efforts to discredit Mister Kucinich that da p.d. has extended to date , it has it's desired dire effects caused on the opinions formed concerning Kucinich's character in the mind of our spexy Ann Coulter type. Da p.d. continues to hammer away at Kucinich , while propping up a candidate headed for a certain loss in the likes of Joe Cimperman. Cimperman will take this loss and like it. Happy with the fact that near $300,000 , will have been spent on negative television advertisment in an attempt to discredit Kucinich and create a candidacy for Cimperman. As for the funny little guy with his Civil War tales , like the tar baby , he " said nothing". Personally , I believe that Harvey Pekar is an embarrassment to Cleveland , Ohio. My opinion , formed no doubt by the likes of having read da p.d.'s accounts of Harvey on the David Letterman show some years ago. I do not repeat that thought often however , after acknowledging the source of my media inspired opinion. Only when the likes of gay Civil War letters and Dennis Kucinich flying saucer tales are being knocked about over late night coffee and in the thread of the same conversation would I blurt out the dirt on Harvey. Wonder what was in that coffee anyway? Sure was strong. Book Selling Time! William Clarke Quantrill ws a Confederate Civil War antihero whose murderous exploits during the battle for the Republic are well documented in Duane Schultz's QUANTRILL'S WAR . Three hundred thirty eight pages , and quite a bargain at $5.90! I promise no civil war confederate lavendar brigades will show up in these pages. No nasty half truths about Cleveland area politicians either. As for da p.d. and it's current approach to seling news. Good luck! Newspapers are hemmoraging double digit fiscal losses yearly , and the dead tree printed media faces an uncertain future at best amid the younger generations. Perhaps if da p.d. concentrated more on objective quality reporting instead of dabbling in politics they would find some journalistic success. If not send out for the guy in the funny hat with his gay Civil War letters. his fictitious letters are certainly on par with da p.d.'s humorous attempts to discredit Dennis Kucinich in print these thirty plus odd years. Beep , beep your ass p.d.!Labels: Cleveland Ohio, Dennis Kucinich, Harvey Pekar, Media
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da p.d's Litt serves up placenta as Rebirth , Brian Cashman goes gnats
Da p.d.'s architectural writer Steve Litt , once again shows his penchant for churning out advertising copy disguised as news, via his Sunday Febuary 10 , 2008 [ above the fold on the front page none the less! ] article entitled The Rebirth. Litt's delirious gushing travesty disguised as journalism concerning the expected success of the massive $200 million plus Euclid Avenue Corridor project , is indicative of the , long on graphics short on copy , variety of pharisaical hyperbole common to the printed efforts produced at 1801 Superior Avenue today. Mister Litt should sleep fit every evening secure with the knowledge of future employment in the field of writing advertising copy for either the Regional Transit Authority or Cleveland Clinic should his sad reportorial skills at da p.d. be terminated. My favorite laugh out loud part of this article are the two out of focus amatuerish before and after photographs used to illustrate the messy project on page A9. This pair of obfuscated images say it all . Not much discernable difference before or after on the " silver line". The Euclid Avenue Corridor boondoggle appears to date no more than a corporate welfare project for The Cleveland Clinic and University Circle , and the downtown corporate hotels and entertainment activities that will be served by it's riders. Rebirth occurs sometime after a project is completed . Let us then examine this project then with resolute scrutiny. After it's completion and with a cold calculating approach to actual losses and gains , not the lamentable posturing of a for hire civic cheerleader disguised as a reporter............Spring has arrived in Florida's Everglades region , moving northward at a fifteen mile per day clip. Baseball's spring training is just around the corner. No better way to celebrate the approaching season than to savor again the Cleveland American League Teams 2007 brighest moment .A snipe at our most hated baseball rivals from the Bronx. The New York American League baseball franchises general manager Brian Cashman was quoted recently in the New York Times sports pages on Febuary 1 , 2008 in an article by Tyler Kepner . Cashman said " his team was not mentally tough enough to withstand the bug swarm in Cleveland in last fall's division series." Who would have guessed that the once mighty , now flighty NYAL team is still looking for an excuse for their post season failure against our Cleveland American League team ? I would! Blame it on the bugs? Hardly! NYAL pitcher Joba Chamberlain choked mightly tossing two wild pitches in the critical third game Cashman refers to , and the NYAL team batting average after game three was a meger .121. Cashman's efforts as NYAL general manager are laudable , and the teams successfull record speak for itself . Always in contention is the operative goal and NYAL baseball standard. Having to work under the likes of owner George Steinbrenner , and now Steinbrenner's boys Hank and Hal would be enough to give any GM a case of major league willies. Though I must admit to being suprised that a class act like Cashman would resort to such a humiliating description of his teams " not mentally tough" post season play , versus the lack of hits and runs that comprise the games bottom line and box scores. Gnats aside , the Cleveland AL team outplayed the NYAL team . The Cleveland choke against Boston that followed in the AL Championship series , made the victory over the NYAL team for the Division championship the high water mark of Cleveland sports in 2007. As always , anytime that a Cleveland sports team defeats a New York team post season is time to celebrate. It is such ruminations concerning this buggy event that help keep the hot sove burning offseason , and a warm place in our collective Cleveland baseball hearts...... Now for the real hot stove. Culinary moment in time. Simple is best!Baked brisket of beef is a winter favorite , and remember simple is best. Purchase a three to four pound beef brisket placing it in a covered glass baking dish and marinate it with a cup of red wine , a shot of soy sauce , splash of worchestire sauce , some garlic and onion powder , and an assortment of ground white and black pepper. Place the brisket in your refrigerator and turning it over on the half hour for four or five hours , thus coating the brisket. Chop a half of dozen small onions into rounds and cover the bottom of a roasting pan. Add to this a healthy squirt of tomato paste , and the contents of a 12 ounce Boylan soda of your choice. The Boylan cola is the most traditional , though if you are into exotics let your mind roll on. [ It is important to note that using a Boylan soda , or any equivalent soda that has cane sugar , not , corn syrup as a sweeting source is imperative] Place the brisket in the roasting pan with the marinade , cover the baking pan tightly with alluminum foil , and bake for three to four hours in a preheated 325 degree oven. No peek! And I do mean no peek. Leave the roasting pan tightly covered for the duration in the oven for the alloted cooking time! Remove the roast , and let set for a few minutes. Slice crossways against the grain of the meat , and serve with the cola / marinade as a gravy of sorts on the side. I prefer to serve this dish with mashed root vegetables: your choice and combination of ; potato , turnip , rutabaga , parsnip , beets .Braised red cabbage or oven baked bacon and brussel sprouts go well as vegetables. Dijon mustard , a large container of horseradish , or fresh grated horseradish root should be provided as condiments. Fresh baked seeded rye bread , and plenty of cold beverages.....Book Selling Time! Baseball in New York City is a full contact sport in the areas newspapers and their reporters. It is two such reporters in Bill Madden and Moss Klein that covered the NYAL team in the 1970's and 1980's and teamed up to pen ," DAMNED YANKEES, A no- holds barred account of life with " Boss" Steinbrenner". What better way to while away a winter's evening than to read of the surreal accounts of " King George Steinbrenner" , and his affected behavior concerning his beloved NYAL team. Brian Cashman should be given battle pay for working under such an odd over involved baseball owner as Steinbrenner , and his kin ..... I truly hope a silver lining exists for the RTA Euclid Avenue Corridor project silver line. Da p.d.'s Steve Litt I suppose is just doing his job. Hyping up the fiscal figures to fit the criteria of success of the Euclid Avenue Corridor project. Litt was talking to most of us Cleveland lifers when he quoted $4.3 billion in investments as " one big positive number is sure to impress all but the most hardened cynics." Yeah , I admit to be such a hard boiled case of cynicism walking and talking daily.A lifetime spent around Cleveland , Ohio digesting the crackpot lies disguised as journalism served forth by the likes of da p.d. makes one into that very misanthropic , satirical citizen. As for all the big plans that Litt shills about in his Rebirth article, I have a rather ordinary plan that I project as accomplishing everyday that finishes on time and with a mighty flush and flourish.Labels: Boylan Soda, Brian Cashman, Cleveland Ohio, Cleveland Sports, Culinary, Euclid Avenue Corridor, New York American League baseball, RTA
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Of corned beef and kings
In Cleveland , Ohio for the majority of the twentieth century a decent corned beef sandwich was as easy to locate as a politician with his hand extended in an outward fashion. I remember one such juxtapasition at the old Flat Iron Cafe in downtown Cleveland's flats in the early 1970's. The Flat Iron Cafe at this time was owned by the fine old Cleveland Chambers family . On any given lunch hour the joint was swarming with all manner of citizenry , many ironworkers , dockworkers , and laborers , along with downtown office workers , and the likes of us regular Cleveland long haired freaks. The inclusion of politicians in the Flat Iron mix usually meant that an election was at hand and the politico at hand posessed an agenda. George Voinovich and his rather gargantuan front man Ed Richards were working the lunch hour crowd one autumn Wednesday afternoon..... Having walked downtown with some friends from the area of West 65Th and Detroit , we were hungry and thirsty. Beer was our balm and Wednesday was also the day when corned beef and cabbage or corned beef sandwiches were the daily special. The Flat Iron cafe at that time was more steeped in the nineteenth century than the twentieth. Upon entering the smoky large dining room , get in line and send your pals to grab a table after taking their order. At times grabbing a place at one of the long tables that were shared with whoever decided to sit next to you at any given time. An empty spot at a table was game for any chow hound to plop into to get his grits down his gullet. A lost tradition this notion of shared seating , though a perfect position for a politician to ambush you from . Food was ordered and served from the back of the room by white aproned elderly women. These matronly women took your order , only a few simple delicious choices so no head scratchin' allowed , and handed back through a large open French doored kitchen , your tray heaped with whatever you ordered. Friday fish fries here were among the best in the city. Ditto the corned beef sandwhiches piled high with meat on crusty New Heights Bakery rye bread ,, and a large serving of cole slaw and hand cut french fried potatoes to go with them. Serving hundrds of lunches to many blue collar and other time clock workers meant quick service and hot food , which was always a winner. So we had grabbed our corned beef sandwich platters , started to glug our long necked Strohs from the bottle , when the far door opened and this giant of a man Ed Richards , in a thick black overcoat , entered with a dapper , diminutive , and youthful George Voinovich decked out in a trendy modish green suit following him , raincoat slung over his arm. Voinovich was running for Cuyahoga County Auditor , and Richards was going up and down the line at all the tables introducing himself handing off a political flyer and explaining that the candidate Voinovich was right behind him looking for your vote. Big Ed and little George made a rather odd Mutt and Jeff routine at any event...... The Flat Iron was a frequent watering hole for West and East side politicians alike , and this sort of campaigning was business as usual. Voinovich to his credit introduced himself , shook hands , not minding the errrant horseradish or stadium mustard stains of our collective mitts , asked for our votes ,and worked his way down the line..... I often think of those afternoons now , the large steaming fragrant kettles of corned beef giving off a strong pickling spice whiff , mixed with the yeasty odor of better than a centuries worth of fresh beer. The constant whirring of a mechanical slicer , run with exacting care by a white aproned biped with a steady set of hands. No such places still exist in a city that was once filled with unique old restaurants that were frozen in time and busy taking their deserved hallowed place in the local myth called " history". Otto Moser's , and the Rathskeller both formerly located on the west side of East Fourth Street between Euclid and Prospect , , are still in business today at other downtown locations , though with changes of address , they left the better part of their histories behind. People about town tell me of the great corned beef at Slyman's restaurant on Saint Clair in downtown Cleveland .Though I have enjoy their corned beef it strikes me best served with eggs or grits.Thus removed from the disgraceful soft rye bread it is served on in it's ubiquitous sandwich form. Ditto all of the other downtown sandwich shops , Slyman's cousins at Danny's Deli down the block on Saint Clair , or the Superior Restaurant a few blocks away. Counter joints that peddle corned beef on rye are very common throughout the inner city of Cleveland's east side. Every last one serves quality meats on spongy Orlando Bakery restaurant rye bread. Better no bread than this pasty crustless rye...... Slyman's may serve all forms of politicians and celebrities when they visit Cleveland , though politicians and those that seek attention are drawn by the crowds , not the bread. Slyman's knows from corned beef and crowds , not from sandwiches. I once observed Al Gore while he was vice president eat a absurd Cleveland version of a Pittsburg style sandwich made famous by Primanti's in the strip district off Penn Avenue. Gore ate the whole mess , french fries cole slaw and all. Al Gore survived long enough to lose the Presidential election , though eating in public in an incessant fashion cannot promote good health...... To really find a true satisfying corned beef sandwich in Cleveland today it is necessary to leave Cleveland and travel east up Cedar Road to Jack's Deli and restaurant, at the corner of Cedar and Green , or head southeast to Corky and Lenny's Deli and Restaurant at Chagrin Road and the intersection of interstate 271. Jack's and Corky's both know from corned beef . Their sandwiches are served on crusty slighly sour hand formed seeded rye loaves. Corky's bakes their own. Jack's buys theirs half baked from the nearbye Pinkus bakery and finish baking the loaves on site . Both Corky's and Jack's also have chopped liver on their menus as well , for a great complement on your next corned beef or pastrami sandwich. Upon entering these delis a bowl of pickled pepeers ,cukes , and sour tomatoes are placed in front of you along with bread or rolls and butter. Orlando's bakery to their credit does bake a number of crusty Italian loaves , sold mostly on weekends , and they are fine and without fault....Book Selling Time!Politicians like bread , and so do most of us bipeds. most of us prefer the green paper script " bread " used to purchase the ingrediants to make the yeast risen edible bread. So be it bread. If you care to get a rise out of life while , " loafing around" , you might consider a purchase of Ursel Norman's A BASKET OF HOMEMADE BREAD. Most of us have little enough time these days to bake our own bread , and prefer to let others do it for us. If you have a strong desire for a loaf or two of your own consider this tome as a guide to your rise in baking.[Chuckle and drum roll rim shot]. I will throw in a sure fire and pug simple winter season corned beef brisket recipe for kicks tomorrow. As for bread , pickled meats , and politicians use your own judgement. Mix these ingredients in a word jumble and see what ya' get? Pickled politicians tossing meat while taking bread. Hmmmmm? I suppose that might describe the variety that are caught with their pants down in all form of fashion depraved and otherwise. Not to forget to mention the other type of politician who tosses bread around to pickled wholesale meats inspectors for a messy profit........ George Voinovich on the other hand always seemed sincere in his initial quest for the Cuyahoga County auditors office in the early nineteen seventies. His handler " Big Ed " ,much later got in to some type of trouble , though I do not remember it reflecting on Voinovich in a direct fashion. That day in the Flat Iron thirty seven years ago with Big Ed leading the youthfully long haired , burning proud with his "full Cleveland look " flying way out .George was dressed complete with a multi colored ultra wide tie , loud lime pastel green suit with wide lapels and yellow and purplish highlights in stripes . Buffed nad polished to a gleam white shoes finished off his look. The whole strange magilla. More likely than not Diamond Brothers or Robert Hall clothing off the rack. Which any of us locals recognized as thrifty rags and identified with the percieved frugal nature of George Voinovich. Walking around pumpin' on paws , not seemingly affected by some real nasty mitts in the crowd . While his handler introduced him as " George is looking for your vote" was the only time I ever encountered him about Cleveland, Ohio. Mister Voinovich now lives in Washington , District of Columbia , and is as most of you realize a multiple term United States Senator.Labels: Cleveland Ohio, Corky and Lenny's, Culinary, Flat Iron Cafe, George Voinovich, Jack's Restaurant, Politics, Slyman's
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wcpn confused again about Cleveland
Yet another romp around the park on the nine to ten a.m. " sound of ideas" slot this morning on wcpn radio. I smell bacon burning not ideas more often than not while listening to this hour long travesty of radio news gone rancid . Today being no exception due to the constant bloviation of the guest Bill Sheil of the local fox television affiliate . Sheil's windy opines must be better suited for television than radio , though his conspicuous error in describing Dennis Kucinich's crossing political boundries in coming to the aid of the closing of " Saint Vincents" , was factually incorrect , in that it was Saint Alexis Hospital in Cleveland's Slavic Village that Kucinich came to the aid of NOT Saint Vincents hospital which is very much still in business as of this morning. Facts be damned and business as usual on wcpn. Host Dan Moulthrop , did not possess a clue in this local news department gaffe , though I suppose he can be given a pass along with da p.d. State Government reporter Aaron Mitchell who spends his time in Columbus , Ohio , and Mister Sheil as well given his Tulsa, Oklahoma roots. Mister Moulthrop is of relative short residence in the Cleveland , Ohio area , thus making him a natural for an important local radio show host. Having no real sense of the " back stories " that are critical to understanding the historical pathos of local politics , helps Moulthrop become the perfect host for this local news slot , where the " back stories " , are more often than not intregal in regards to the current breaking stories . Mister Moulthrop is more often than not naive and otherwise mallable as host of this radio hour. Just the two characteristics that the local corporate and media powers expect in a public radio station host who deals with sensitive political issues on a regular basis. Keep 'em in the dark like a potato in a root cellar says wcpn. The third guest Jay Miller , from Crains Cleveland News , should have known the difference between the two hospitals , though if he did he did not comment. Once again the arrogance and ignorance of the hired suburban voices heard discussing Cleveland affairs , prove indegestible. Telephone calls from listeners are scarce , and these whole hour long affairs beg for a whiff of the air that is in the wcpn studio , as the host and on air guests often seem to be giddy as if under the influence of nitrus oxide , while peddling to the listeners chloroform....... Being no stranger to bloviation myself , on a daily basis none the less mind you. I must pause and reflect upon the true local masters of bloviation in print da p.d. and it's awe inspiring ' duh editorial board '. Yes , ' duh' , replaces 'the' in the case of this editorial board ,due to the constant chunks and nuggets of spittle and vitriolic nonsense found on da p.d. editorial pages. 'Duh' , being the guttural noise uttered by most of da p.d.'s readers in response to the outrageous stabs at journalism between it's pages. By the advertising copy tone of most of the editorials cranked out from this quilting bee , it would appear that da p.d. editorial men folk grab their loud pink , purple , and bright green pimpin' garments from Mister Albert's clothes on Prospect Avenue downtown . Duh p.d. editorial women folk gussy themselves up in cheerleading outfits to help pump up whatever corporate cause they get behind. In any event JUST SPEND THE EXTRA SEVENTY FIVE CENTS! and purchase the New York Times instead of the insipid likes of duh p.d.......Patzki Time! This past weekend found me out East in Lake County with my destination being Reider's Market on State Route 44 , just south of Interstate 90. This nifty little food market harkens back to the day when grocers took pride in the wares they offer. Reider's still does today. A tremendous fresh produce section equivilant to the Miles Farmers Market. [ Reider's Market purchases their fresh produce from Miles farm Market] A fresh meat and seafood counter which never disapoints in terms of selection or freshness. Do not miss the fresh , ten to fifteen count , wild Gulf shrimp that Reider's feature , or the shrimp and corn fritters they offer. Reider's meat counter has a wide variety of house made sausages on hand , with a staggering varirty of flavors and tastes. Call ahead for varieties at hand. Reider's in house bakery featured Patzci , fried yeast donuts , as their weekly special. We called ahead and special ordered a dozen with poppyseed filling. The dozen poppyseed Patzki were so heavy that they barely fit into their boxes. Delicious , plump, and filled to the top with poppyseed! Now that I have completed such a shameless piece of huckstering in print for Reider's , I invite you to visit them yourselves. Reider's delivers the goods! Good foods that is!.....Book Selling Time! The next time you are faced with the decision of wasting a good hour of your life on the week day morning nine to ten a.m. slot on wcpn or cooking breakfast choose the later. If you need a little local color and help in your food preperation have a look at The Cleveland Ufology Projects OUT OF THIS WORLD COOK BOOK. Yes folks , this is a well illustrated , plenty of ufo's and their peoples , cook book placed for sale by the Cleveland chapter of The Unidentified Flying Object Project often associated with one of it's founders a local character , now deceased , named Earl Neff , who has provided the cover illustration. Two hundred thirty four pages of all forms of[ ouch ] " out of this world" recipes , for your culinary pleasure. This unique Cleveland cook book was published in 1980 . I am certain that like the flying saucers that hover about around here taking notes on our strange behaviors , the saucer pilots can tell the difference between Saint Vincent's hospital and the former Saint Alexis hospital at a glance.Labels: Cleveland Ohio, Dennis Kucinich, Media, Patzki, Reider's Market, wcpn
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Cimperman versus Kucinich , round three
Or simply put by a far better brand of bard , " Much To Do About Nothing".... The Sunday January 27 , 2008 op ed piece in da p.d. simply entitled , "Joe Cimperman" , proves to be far more an indictment of Dennis Kucinich than an endorsement for Joe Cimperman. Comprised of twenty two paragraphs and taking a full one half page , such banal verbosity and windy prose is usually relegated to a Sunday sermon , not a serious editorial column. Of the twenty two paragraphs , a full thirteen toss dirt at Dennis , one paragraph pays Dennis a back handed compliment , six paragraphs are the veritable equivalent of " fellatio in print " with Cimperman being the recipient . Only three paragraphs of the twenty two even bother to discuss the other candidates for the Democratic Party nomination for Congress representative in the Ohio March 4 , 2008 Primary election. For the record they are Barbara Anne Ferris , Rosemary Palmer , and Thomas O' Grady. None of these three have a ghost of a chance in winning the primary , though their presence in this race serves to help Kucinich and hamper Cimperman's cause . Why you might inquire is da p.d. out to " wag the dog" , so early on ? Truth is that the actual election might be in November , 2008 , but the November victor will be decided in the March Democratic primary , with the Cuyahoga County Republican party needing to exhume no less than Abraham Lincoln's long mouldering bones to have a chance of beating any of the five candidates that might emerge victorious from the March 4Th primary. My pal the cheeze , confides in me that the negative television advertisements that the Cimperman campaign is running will do Kucinich less harm than they will Cimperman. The cheeze is a veteran of many political campaigns and has long canvassed the rather odd backwaters of this States eighty eight counties , and I believe him when he confides in me that Cimperman is " cutting his own throat" , by means of his childish negative advertisements that portray Dennis Kucinich as long gone from Ohio , and derelict in his duties. The cheeze also serves a practical warning to beware of the potential for a behind the scenes pay off to one or all of the three other candidates to withdraw from their campaigns by the highly motivated anti Kucinich forces behind the Cimperman campaign. Cheeze also offered the figure of $300,000 , as the amount that the offensive and possibly self sabotaging anti Kucinich television advertisements are purported to cost. In any event we know whose side da p.d. is on. The vitriol that da p.d. pumped into this editorial exemplifies the ignorant and desperate state of affairs that exists in the vilification of the competent incumbent Kucinich. Who by da p.d."s own admission " has never given a whiff of personal scandal". In this modern world where corporate white collar crime , sordid tales of bankers more likely than not resembling gangsters , and crooked politicians from coast to coast of all colors and stripes doing time for their crimes . Kucinich should be applauded , not vilified for picking his dancing partners with caution , and remaining true to his own honest system of belief. We were all taught about honesty in our homes , and classrooms growing up. Some citizens like Kucinich internalized this concept , other citizens prefer to bend , shape , and temper honesty via their business or for the purpose of personal gains. Print journalism today in the form of the daily newspaper is about as far from the concept of honesty , integrity , or objectivity than any other period of time since it's inception. The numbers grow of convicted newspaper publishers and editors now serving time for their white collar crimes. Dennis Kucinich does not seem to possess this dishonest streak , and if seeing an unidentified flying saucer is as bad an act as one can find to cajole him about , he has good political company. See our previous post, for a list of other politicians and American Presidents that have " seen the saucers"....Book Selling Time! The daily quilting bee that poses as a newspaper , da p.d. , serves forth a regular thrashing of Dennis Kucinich as one of it's inherent rights , and seems to be as much sport as news. Seeing da p.d.'s sports section is often found on it's editorial pages , and visa versa, why not go whole hog and call the prejudiced Kucinich coverage by da p.d. one of the SPORTS OF OUR TIMES. The book we offer today is that very title , though all be it a volume of sports columns by former New York Times sports writer Dave Anderson on all forms of sports from Baseball's Henry Aaron, to the Olympics. Check it out! The insipid nature of da p.d. 's indictment of Kucinich disguised as an endorsement for candidate Cimperman shows how low the tail of the beast is dragging around the corner of east 18Th and Superior these days. Like a toothless old tiger , da p.d.'s swipes at candidate Kucinich reflect more about their inability to retain any dignity and sense of fairness when they choose to go hunting. Better da p.d. take up some form of water sport , given the fact that they constructed their new space port building on a rather well documented quicksand belt that runs along Superior Road downtown. Good luck to all the candidates in the tenth district primary , and please if you must bicker and quibble in public treat one another with courtesy and dignity.Labels: Cleveland Ohio, da p.d., Dennis Kucinich, Media, Politics
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Central Market site chosen for downtown Cleveland, Mule Trekking comes to Cleveland
As all of us civic minded souls realize , within the web of any city worth it's salt in the world a vibrant central market exists. Cleveland , Ohio had in it's downtown design such an area for over two hundred years , until it was spirited away in a shady election fueled by the ignorant local fish wrap propaganda mill , da p.d. , and replaced by a faux intimate baseball stadium and indoor sports arena. All over the world , markets similar to the late Cleveland Central Market are being celebrated and given the dignity that they deserve. See Mimi Sheraton's New York Times article of November 18, 2007 " Markets as both Feast and Spectacle" , for an idea of the reverence and acclaim that public markets are in receipt of throughout the civilized world today. A tiny public space exists today between the corporate arena and corporate baseball stadium , comprised of a bench illustrated with some art works that commemorate the Central Market. A small insignificant homage to a rather large piece of Cleveland history. The powers that ran Cleveland into the current sad state of affairs that it is today from their cozy suburban digs , did not like the colorful Central Market , and made it their dire business to first run into the ground and then finish off by choosing it's grounds as the site for their corporate welfare plans involving publicly financed sports stadiums. Our loss as citizens , turned into a major gain for the vested powers that be , and those they serve. The Central Market and it's vendors were shipped east to George Forbes Glenville neighborhood , and existed in a diminished form at a new location at East 105Th and Saint Clair Avenue until closing for good in 2007.... Time has come to build a new Central Market in downtown Cleveland , Ohio. A legal end run was committed in the haste to destroy the old Central Market , and build the stadiums. Part of the land that the current baseball stadium is built upon had been donated in perpetuity as a site for a public market by it's previous owners who donated this space to the City of Cleveland with this proviso. Some foot gazing , gee whizzing , and shuffling of papers done , with the result being the ignorance of the benefactors wishes for a permanent Central Market in downtown Cleveland near the intersection of Carnegie and Ontario Streets. It seems that today in the year 2008 , just such a parcel of unused land exists in a triangular fashion at that very intersection of Carnegie and Ontario Streets. Perfect for a small Central Market to serve the burgeoning aesthetic tastes of new downtown citizens , chuckle loudly here, and the visitors to the baseball stadium alike.Just imagine the healthy alternatives of fresh fruits and vegetables that could be carried into the baseball stadium by the sack full , to augment the current slew of greasy meats and nacho cheese dishes served currently to the customers indulging in our National Game. Not to mention the ultimate end usage of these perishable fruits and vegetables in case the home team receives a bad call from an umpire , or a visiting teams player becomes obstreperous. Fresh barrel roasted truly hot peanuts , a variety of smoked meats , and fresh cheeses would be available as well. The honorable city of Baltimore , Maryland has six public markets that are City run and managed , and prove an integral part of the old world charm that graces that City. These markets are dotted throughout Baltimore and are open six days per week. A larger privately run market the historic Lexington market exists in downtown Baltimore and is the comparative size of our West Side Market. The Lexington Market has a great number of prepared food stands as well If you visit the Lexington Market be certain to visit the J.W. Faidley Seafood Company , faidleyscrabcakes.com, and sample their stupendous homemade lump crab cakes. One taste of this crab cake and you will be spoiled for life when ordering a similar knock off in any other City. The proof is in the crab cakes simple fresh preparation using Maryland shore blue crab backfin meat , and Faidley's does it best. Faidley's for local raw oysters as well. Just ask my pal Slipsy JR , who is a first class gourmand and trencherman of some repute. Visit the Baltimore Public Markets Internet home page at bpmarkets/markets.html , for a better view of these proud facilities and a glimpse of what could be in a truly , sic , progressive , Cleveland.....And what could possibly be more awarding than a nice vacation to Cleveland , Ohio and the opportunity to take your family mule - trekking around our fair city ? I have heard from a reliable source that the currently vacant East Ninth Street Pier , former home of the ultra fabulous Captain Frank's Seafood Restaurant, will be developed as a state of the arts stable building for a herd of mules to be used in our tourist trade sometime in early 2009. Some arguement is being tossed about by the adjoining tourist activities , rock and roll hall of fame , and Cleveland oranges football stadium. Seems that they are fighting over the scraps left over from the mule stalls. As if they do not have enough of their own! Mule trekking is quite the international rage , and acknowledged as a great family tourism event , why should we be denied of such a progressive activity here on the south shore of Lake Erie? Currently the mule trekking stable plans are tied into the potential jet boat pavilion and customs house planned to house the water ferry to Canada, and we will avail you of more information concerning these exciting downtown tourist attractions as it becomes available to us. Mule trekking routes are in their nascent planning stages , with routes to historic League Park via Superior Avenue and Payne Avenue onto Chinatown slated as a logical first choice. Future plans include 20 mule team wagons for the longer journey to University Circle , and our cultural institutions on Cleveland's east side , including a luxurious hay and straw station planned for the corner of East 18th and Superior. For more information concerning current mule trekking events visit www.muletrekking.com. Oh boy I can't wait for the mules to return to the street level in Cleveland , and crawl down from those lofty peaks they currently occupy. Book Selling Time! All this talk about mules , crabs ,and Baltimore , maketh me hungry. We offer today a copy of a famous cook book entitled MARYLAND'S WAY , The Hammond Harwood House Cook Book. A bargain at $5.90 , exactly .90 more than it was sold for when published in 1963. I will throw in my recipe for crab cakes for free. The first and most difficult task for cooking up qualitry crab cakes is to locate native blue crab meat these days. Living in Cleveland , Ohio presents a problem , so if you know any person travelling to our East Coast who can procur a few pounds please have them pick you up a pound or two of lump backfin meat , or claw meat if the lump is not available. The current one pound cans of fresh crab meat are rather oxymoronic in that they originate from southeast Asia , and are pasturized for safety purpouse , and lack any real flavor. When I resided in North Carolina thirty years ago , we would often take our crab traps , wire trap baskets with a long piece of rope attached , and find a piece of costal water and trap our own blue crabs for dinner. A fairly easy way of fetching your dinner> Using a mullet ,or other cheap fish attached to the traps bottom with fish line , merely drop the trap into the water , where the trap opens , wait for a crab[ s] to scurry and crawl into the trap and pull the rope up , closing the wire basket around the crabs. Heave ho , repeat process until a basket is filled, boil water with crab seasoning and a little vinegar , cook a few minutes and go to work with nut pick and hands , bib around your neck of course. Cold beverage optional but recommended. Natty Bo was our fave back in the day. Lets get back to the crab cakes at hand. I have found Asian markets to carry fresh blue crabs when they are in season , and it is work , but picking over three or four pounds of blue steamed crabs will provide a pound or so of meat for cakes , if you can stay focused on the task at hand , and not eat the catch prior to the cakes.Recipe on! Take a pound of native crab meat and combine it with a shot of Worcestershire sauce , salt and pepper , paprika , and dry mustard , old bay seasoning , to taste and a few slices of torn and lightly oven toasted commercial soft white bread that you have removed the crusts from and soaked in a quarter cup of whole cream or half and half. Combine all of these ingredients along with some melted butter and a small dab of commercial mayonnaise in a mixing bowl , and form by hand lightly into cakes. You should have mostly crab meat and spices staring back at you , not the dry bread crumb cakes that you are familiar with at your local restaurant. Take these cakes and place one or two to a low pie tin , and after dotting with a bit more butter place under your pre heated broiler for a maximum of two minutes or less.By using buttermilk or whole cream instead of the ubiquitous egg , you are able to taste more of the crab in the crab cake , not the egg flavor that requires frying the cake. If you have steamed and picked the crabs yourself , the meat is already prepared , so reheating it in cake form is merely introducing the crab meat to its natural friends butter and cream and spices. It has been a good many years since I have visited Baltimore , Maryland and the Chesapeake shore , yet I have amazing fond memories of this old and wise American country. Reading Shirley Povich baseball and sports columns in The Washington Post , spoiled me for life in that department. So di the great flavors of Baltimore, Maryland. Life provides kind moments , and it was not that many years ago , perhaps twelve or so, when a stunningly beautiful fair young woman wandered into this Book store and within the course of conversation mentioned that she was native to the Chesapeake shore . She also mentioned that her Father was an oysters man , and that by my description were the very oysters that I had purchased in previous trips to Baltimore at Faidley's market. How could I tell , you might ask? The oysters that this Maryland gentleman sold were tonged out by his very hands in ages old fashion and were the last to be received at Faidley's put up fresh in glass mason jars. Wouldn't you know it , but later that spring she returned bearing a glass jar that her Father had tonged the very day and sent her back to Cleveland with to give me as a present. I about broke into tears for the beauty of that moment , and it is that very sort of human kindness that now seems so rare and distant in this modern Internet age. Those very oysters came from this man's private beds , and he made for me the greatest of all gifts. Wild food , hand harvested , and no more process than sliding them into a cool glass jar , and sending them my way with his strikingly petite and gorgeous daughter. That my friends is life at it's best , and a true story to boot!Labels: Baltimore, Central Market, Cleveland Ohio, Culinary, Faidley's Seafood, Lexington Market, MD, Mule Trecking
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True Art Heist, Have a heart!
" We wuz robbed" , goes the fan's old saw concerning an umpire's errant call in baseball. So wuz the True Art Gallery on East 156th Street near the intersection of Waterloo Road in the North Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland , Ohio. Robbed of what you might ask ? Sure enough , the computer , and telephones , and the galleries stereo system . Though wait a cotton pickin' minute. The thieves also disassembled an entire art show that was hanging on TrueArt's gallery walls.The paintings , their price tags and printed descriptions. All gone. If I did not know one of the galleries owner's Joanie Deveney well I would expect an inside job or some form of absurd dada art prank. As difficult as book's have become to sell in this modern world , the original works of art , such as the one's stolen from TrueArt make selling books seem a walk in the park in comparison to selling a new artists works. Ms. Deveney has a great heart and spirit , is a fine Mother , and creative artist in her own respect , which makes this all the more of a dilemma for her, having no insurance to cover this theft..... Our Cuyahoga County Government has made it their business to establish via an earlier sin , [ cigarette ] tax to provide funds for a County wide arts and cultural initiative. It appears that most of the initial taxes collected from this arts oriented sin tax have been forked over to " major arts organizations with multi - million dollar budgets" , who would have imagined that combining politics and the arts would have gilded the already fat lilies of those that have in the arts ? Be this as it may , it would sure be a pleasure to see some of this " arts and cultural initiative money" , come to the aid of TrueArt , or any other nascent art gallery , community arts center , or any street level art or cultural organization willing to stick their necks out for the good of a community and it's citizens. I suppose that while we are at it the near west side book store Six Steps Down , just six storefronts north of the West Side Market could qualify for some of these " arts funds". Six Steps Down is a non profit , and it's principal worker Michael O' Brien , has served twin occupations as social worker for west 25Th streets needier cases as well as it's only retail book store. Ms. Deveney and her partner James Tomko of True Art Gallery are tacitly a for profit enterprise , though the North Collinwood neighborhood they exist within has more than it's share of crime and negative street activity on a regular basis than it's councilman Michael Polensek would have you believe. In an article by da p.d.'s Karen Sandstrom from Septemeber 29 , 2007 entitled " Can Waterloo Road be Cleveland's next Tremont?" , Polensek is quoted referring to the perceived nature of crime in the Waterloo neighborhood , " The neighborhood is one of Cleveland's safest , but it's still an urban neighborhood." Polensek made that bold statement when True Art Gallery had been broken into the first time in mid - September 2007 , a few days prior to Ms. Sandstrom's article. Barely four months have passed and another break in occurs at the same said gallery , this time with more dire consequences than the first heist which resulted in the theft of power tools. Councilman Polensek might brag on North Collinwood being one of Cleveland's safest neighborhoods , though in the context of Cleveland being one of the top ten least safe major cities in America on a perennial basis , he ain't saying that much! As for the thief or thieves that stole the artworks. Good luck in fencing these works of art! You thieves would have been better off stealing bags of frozen catfish or authentic logs of processed cheese from the local big box store instead. At least you could have been eatin' for your cheatin'.... Time has arrived for us small fry citizens who do care about the efforts of the true human spirits that make it their business to open and operate art galleries such as True Art , or book stores such as The Book Store on West Twenty Fifth Street to speak out to the political types who hold the purse strings for public funds ostensibly used to fund the " arts". Write a letter to your County Commissioners with your suggestions. I make my suggestion that True Art Gallery and The Bookstore on West 25Th Street be assigned some of these arts funds on a basis to allow them to continue to operate as storefronts in a city whose storefronts are as often as not empty and lacking any activity.Cultural assets they are. Assign some of these " arts funds " , as well to the children of Cleveland , Ohio and it's suburbs as an after school diversion program featuring arts activities as an alternative to drugs, crime, and the streets that currently encourage those activities. Perhaps a benefit of sorts to help out the True Art gallery cause would be in keeping with this enlightened " arts" spirit. We will be happy to donate books for a benefit if it comes to pass. In the meantime give with your heart to the owner's of True Art . Ms. Deveney surely would not ask , so I will on her behalf. Perhaps the other art galleries doing business in Cleveland currently would help one of their own by organizing donations for a benefit auction to help the plight of True Art and their plight. Most artists that enter into the gallery business lead with their hearts not their business acumen. Time has come for the Cleveland arts community to aid one of their own who is hurting and in need. Book Selling Time! A large volume we offer today by Huntington Cairns , entitled THE LIMITS OF ART. one thousand four hundred seventy three pages of prose and poetry , compiled by Cairns for the acclaimed Bollingen series of books published by Princeton University Press. Setting all that aside , this thick tome covers the gamut of verse from classical to modern times , and would serve as great companion if stranded on a desert island , or stuck in the likes of a fallen city such as Cleveland , Ohio today.Labels: Bookstore On West 25th Street, Cleveland Ohio, True Art Gallery, True Crime
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Cimperman versus Kucinich , round two
More surreal editorial comment by da pd in it's op ed piece for Monday January 21, 2008 " Incumbent Paranoia" . Referring to Joe Cimperman's intrusive and invasive negative campaign tactics [ see OESB post Cimperman versus Kucinich , Round one ]as " an aggressive campaign".Appears da pd left of the first word , passive. No problems in this department for the six time incumbent Kucinich , he is savvy enough to stay on the moral high grounds that he rightfully defends. Perhaps da pd should assign their boxing writer , Joe " Kid Action" Maxse , as Cimperman's corner man. " Incumbent Paranoia " is the very editorial bile that I refer to in round one of this missive. Until then let me borrow the good social graces and wicked pen of Lewis Carroll to best describe this mess to date in his poem entitled ; The Dutchess' Lullaby . "Speak roughly to your little boy, And beat him when he sneezes; He only does it to annoy , Because he knows it teases"......... Book Selling Time! We offer today a copy of a hard cover book whose value is diminished as much as the newspaper it is written about. $7.90 will buy you our copy of Archer Shaw's THE PLAIN DEALER , 1842 - 1942 , One Hundred Years in Cleveland. Once upon a time Cleveland , Ohio had a rich vein of newspaper journalism , which included the Plain Dealer , among other notable Cleveland dailies , The News , The Press , The Leader , and The World. Alas , all are history with the exception of da p.d. , which might be mistaken as brain dead or severely addled these days , do to the reckless nature of their op ed page , lack of in depth news coverage , and especially running tripe in print such as the above mentioned hatchet job on Dennis Kucinich. Paranoid indeed. Let those who dwell in glass houses such as the myth in print , dead tree space port , and quilting bee that passes for a daily newspaper at 1801 Superior take some of their own advice imparted in " Incumbent Paranoia." It seems that boys will be girls , and girls will be boys , but all potential politicians take note and show up with a handful of flyer's and a video camera and demand to see da p.d.'s editorial staff at 1801 Superior if you have the desire to knock off a little video clip action to post on your you tube site. The editorial staff at da p.d. seem to feel it fairly harmless in a likewise fashion for a candidate to show up at a political rival's home to drop off a political flyer. Taking this notion one step further I suppose that it is to be understood by such a tacit editorial approval of these law breaking intrusions committed by Cimperman , that due to the implied nature of da p.d's liberal position concerning Cimperman's actions , if a candidate seeking to draw attention to their potential election to a political office wishes to approach a p.d. editor at their home to play political trick or treat delivering a handbill while letting the video cameras roll it is allright with da p.d. gang. Fat chance! It appears that da p.d. editorial staff carves and jabs at Dennis Kucinich with every diminishing ounce of their fading strength , while embarrassing themselves a little more with every weak punch glancing off Mister Kucinich who has the wisdom and moral turpitude to retain his ethical footing and not rise to the cheap weak swipes da p.d. tosses at him. In this 2008 Presidential election obsessed nation , the outsider candidate Mister Kucinich remains the one distinct fresh and candid voice amid the bellow , smoke , and blather of the rest of the pack , save perhaps the outsider Republican candidate Ron Paul. Neither Mister Kucinich or Mister Paul have a serious chance to gain their parties nomination in 2008 , yet that is not the point. Both of these candidates have legitimate opinions and even if their function in the 2008 is to serve as contrarian voices to their fellow candidates , their viewpoints and political beliefs serve as necessary ballast to the business as usual hyperbole that is tossed about like so much stale baled hay. Do yourselves a favor folks , boycott the bunkum merchants at da p.d. starting today. If you need to purchase a daily newspaper JUST SPEND THE EXTRA SEVENTY FIVE CENTS, and purchase the New York Times. Vote with your pocket book on this matter , spend the extra change and read a real newspaper. The sad level of propaganda pitched regularly by da p.d. is embarrassing to both Cleveland , Ohio and the entire region it exists within. Just say no! If you must consume this local rag pick a used copy up of a coffee shop floor , snatch a day old copy from a trash bin , or read it at the Public Library. No news most days is good news in any case.. No news is what you get if you purchase a copy of da p.d. on any given day!Labels: Cleveland Ohio, da p.d., Dennis Kucinich
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A few simple suggestions
Free parking on all downtown and neighborhood non rush hour streets in the City of Cleveland after two p.m. daily. If we really wish to attract people back to the City give them reason to visit without fear of being mugged with a twenty dollar parking ticket , or strong armed by a parking lot attendant for the same amount.....If the groups of people that pretend interest in the growth of downtown Cleveland , Ohio are serious they would consider offering land opportunities for young people to purchase and invest in that are not already designed and built out by the usual cast of speculators and developers. Today's potential individual that is considering relocating to Cleveland from suburb or foreign city expect more personal input and less cookie cutter designed for market housing starts. Individual investment , choice of style , and ownership as opposed to leasing a developers idea is the key to long term growth and the potential rebirth of this moribund corpse Cleveland 2008.....Our prayers and best wishes for a quick recovery for Jim Cappetto , the brave South High School teacher who sustained a broken neck while attempting to break up a fight earlier this month. Jim is such a dedicated soul that he plans to return to teaching if possible when he recovers. We should all possess the verve and commitment this man has concerning life and it's rough roads we travel....Times are tough all over so to speak in America today. As comforting as food is for all of us , we should tighten our belts a notch and give a bit more to Community food pantries , and other grass roots agencies providing help to those who have less than we do. A trip to a favorite dining spot can be replaced by an evening homes cooking , and toss the monies saved into the charity coffers....Ditto your clothing budget , make do with whaaat you have at the risk of becoming a " dude' or worse yet a "fop". The extra duds you might have hanging about your closets can sure be of use to some man , woman , or child that has no clothing budget. Get a jump on spring and clean out a closet now , sending the donations to a charity that can put them to use. Saint Herman's House of Hospitality on Franklin Blvd. Cleveland , Ohio can always use men's underwear and sox , for the community they serve. Buy a few extra pairs with the money you save by giving up a favorite activity and go to Saint Herman's , visit their facilities , and if you are not touched by this most human and humble of all Cleveland , Ohio street level centers you have no heart beating in your chest......Book Selling Time! All that preaching and it is not even Sunday. Hope and trust that I take my own advice concerning diet , and sharing my old clothing . I will donate five dollars from the sale of each copy of the following book to Saint Herman's House of Hospitality if you dear readers are kind enough to purchase copies of Mary Peale Schofield's LANDMARK ARCHITECTURE OF CLEVELAND , OHIO. At $6.90 per copy you will still not find a better architectural guide to Cleveland , Ohio today , and the brand new underwear and socks for the men will help them better survive the brutal cold of winter that is fast upon us. Best wishes to all Family and friends.Labels: Cleveland Ohio, Saint Herman's House of Hospitality
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Cimperman versus Kucinich round one
In an attempt to gain media attention and paint seated tenth district Congressman Dennis Kucinich as absent from his district while campaigning for the office of the United States president , Cleveland city council Representative and 2008 Democratic Primary challenger for Kucinichs congress seat managed to play the fool instead. Barging into Kucinichs Lakewood Congressional office on January 3 ,2008 with a camera toting aide along to capture his buffoonery , Cimperman did everything except put his foot in a water bucket , slip on a banana peel , and perhaps should have attired himself in a clown suit to truly capture the flavor of his media gaff. Instead of the quick " you tube " media bite that he desired , Cimperman has already managed to brand himself a neophyte water boy in this early campaign strategy gone south. Kucinich to his credit did not rise to Cimpermans bait , instead relied on his office to post a letter to the Federal Protective Service , the law enforcement component which works in compliance of The United States Department of Homeland Security providing protection to Federal Government offices. The Department of Homeland Security decided to investigate Cimpermans sophomoric antics serving him notice that he was in violation by bringing a camera without prior permission into a government office. It is not difficult to see where this primary campaign is going if Cimperman continues on this path. Starting off negative will not gain Cimperman much credibility within the Tenth Congressional district which by all accounts Kucinich has served well enough to exist as a six term incumbent. The local fish wrap , da p.d. lets their bias against Kucinich fly like bile from a disgruntled editor's spleen every opportunity they get. Fat chance for objectivity in the daily printed media , one newspaper town that is Cleveland , Ohio today. Stay tuned for round two , which should erupt any time now. A debate is planned at the City Club for the primary candidates for the Tenth Congressional seat. Here's hoping that all the Primary candidates are given equal measure in rostrum time , not just Kucinich and Cimperman. It would behoove Councilman Cimperman to take the moral high road in his future dialogues with Kucinich while vying for the Democratic Primary vote. We Clevelanders and Cuyahoga County residents have suffered enough embarrassment recently and real time issues need to be examined and discussed . Leave the school boy pranks alone , and pay attention to the serious matters that we all face together.....Enough of all this political nonsense. Time to check the tread on the Nevada candidates buses as they flit around the sparse deserts conjuring up votes the usual way. "Smoke and mirrors"! Election years are tough enough to stomach , and it did not surprise me to hear that the major candidates in the upcoming Nevada primaries are taking their windy business to the High School gymnasiums and small town auditoriums , just like they did in their youth when running for student council. So much of what passes for politics in this country is nothing save insipid reruns of popularity contests. Blow hard candidates one and all. All your promises made today will more apt than not prove impossible to deliver after inauguration 2009. So save your wind for some offshore ecological windmill energy gathering effort instead.Book Selling Time! Dennis Kucinich has grown up since the publication of Estelle Zannes CHECKMATE IN CLEVELAND , The Rhetoric of Confrontation During the Stokes Years. Confrontational politics seem to have been around most of my life in Cleveland , and it is time to lay down political swords and work instead towards a better understanding of the process that ensures the ultimate consumers , a represented officials constituents , receipt of services and work for the voting public , instead of working the corners like a cunning pugilist. Grow up one and all of you student council cheerleader types.Labels: Cleveland Ohio, da pd, Dennis Kucinich
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Odds set here for Wolstein , Stark , and Medical Mart
Gold and oil prices are up. Our United States economy is down. Seems that you need a scorecard locally to see who is currently winning the land grab wars in downtown Cleveland. More about this sport later. First up..... Let the New Year begin now that Ohio State University has lost yet another National Collegiate Football Championship .Who really cares about the nfl games that will follow? Nothing super about the super bowl , save the super amount of money that will be wagered on the remaining nfl scheduled playoffs and the gaudy super bowl. For this fan football is over until autumn 2008 . Thanks be for that. The Ohio State University versus Louisiana State University game last evening spoke miles for itself concerning who has the better collegiate football team.LSU hands down. The real test of a modern great State is in the number of major elected public officials currently incarcerated for crimes committed while holding public office.Let us examine how Louisiana and Ohio fare in this department. Just as in the Collegiate championship football game victors , the State of Louisiana wins hands down over Ohio in the number of elected officials serving time for committing crimes while holding public office , or their implicit involvement in fraud , bribery , and other politically related crimes. A short list of Louisiana politicians serving time currently , or facing time includes former Louisiana Governor Edward Edwards and his son Stephen Edwards , Orleans Parish School Board President Ellenese Brooks - Simms , former Louisiana Congressman Bill Jefferson , New Orleans City Council member at large Oliver Thomas , Judge Allan Greene , former Louisiana State Senate President Michael O' Keefe , and for good measure a sinner of the old fleshy school variety former Senator David Vitter. Whew! The list just goes on. No room here to document all the swampy political criminals that disgrace the great State of Louisiana. Huey Long would be proud of 'em , one and all! As in collegiate football , Louisiana has Ohio beat in the corrupt politician category hands down! Best Ohio can muster is the pitiful three stooges currently serving time for their white collar crimes : former congress Representatives James Traficant and Bob Ney , and the convicted " coingate " felon and former White house insider Tom Noe.How about them former politicos ?, Louisiana , and Ohio both appear to have terminal flaws in the respective Capital cities of Columbus , Ohio and Baton Rouge , Louisiana. Plenty of soap and water needed to clean up these disgraceful politicians! Game over... Let the local game of handicapping the players who use downtown Cleveland as a real estate scrum begin! For the year 2008 we will make book on which perspective real estate / development projects will actually get of the ground. Using race track logic , the long shot of the proposed projects is developer Stark's Warehouse District dream of one of his suburban " Legacy Village " , type developments , you know the faux little town square types complete with high end retail , big box stores , and a few residences proposed by Stark to fill the damnable empty parking lot space which now comprises fifty percent of the physical space that is referred to as the Warehouse district. I give Stark credit for attempting to fill in the long standing joke that the parking lot district that is also known as Cleveland's " Warehouse District" , is today via buying out the parking operators interests and filling it in with dense Urban development as a progressive City like Cleveland could have in it's design. Good luck however, money will be tight due to ongoing Federal credit problems , complicated by the Nationwide housing slump , and foreclosure mess. Corporate America is pretty strung out on borrowing large amounts of money to fund itself , and will be forced to tighten it's collective belt due to the likely event of a recession this year. Banks will be dreaming of dollars and shitting out nickels this year. Odds at Stark getting off to a 2008 start 85 to 1...... Developer Wolstein and his grand plans for the east side of the downtown Cleveland banks of the Cuyahoga River area known as the " Flats " , fares better to break ground in 2008 , though you can smell the taint of his slapping up an office building in true Cleveland " put the horse before the cart" fashion and poaching existing office leases from other downtown buildings prior to constructing any of the residential , or retail that Wolstein promised for the Flats site. Odds for the office building 10 to 1 , all other aspects of this Flats plan even coming close to getting started in 2008 , 70 to 1..... Now the big enchilada of developments , the more complicated Medical Merchandise Mart / Convention Center project currently having the public side funds collected via a sales tax increase that was generated in late 2007 by vote of the Cuyahoga County Commissioners. This project is racking up millions already via the tax levy , and stands the best chance of breaking ground due to the fact , if for no other reason , that money has been gathered and that usually translates to as much as spending it on your land baron friends , not putting funds aside for some sensible infrastructure improvements that would serve all of Cuyahoga County , not just the vested land grab players in this development ; Cleveland Clinic , University Hospital , the Corporate mess of hotels that is downtown Cleveland today , and most important the local land baron of choice ; Jacobs Group or Forest City that is recipient of the Medical Merchandise Mart / Convention Center location. Odds for this deal breaking ground in 2008 , 25 to 1. None of these projects really have the interests of the citizens of Cleveland or Cuyahoga County in mind via their designs. Unless of course you measure progress in the new service class jobs that these projects may attract when and if completed. Hard to believe , but we have yet to hit bottom in terms of population loss , tax revenues lost , and the ability to attract jobs to this region that are not the mop, bucket, and broom variety. If perchance all three of these projects fail so be it.Perhaps then more attention could be paid to real time problems that face our citizens daily , City services , Schools , and increased Safety forces among the many and diverse Urban problems that complicate life in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County..... Book Selling Time! So Ohio State football flames out in the Superbowl again. No problem! Coach Tressel seems to be a great fellow , and he is pretty secure in his job as long as he continues to manage to extract victories against " that team from up north". Read and listen to some of the best momenst in Ohio State Football history via your purchase of Eric Kaelin's BUCKEYE GLORY DAYS , THE MOST MEMORABLE GAMES OF OHIO STATE FOOTBALL. Last evening's Ohio State defeat for the National Championship is not included in this volume , though it will be considered highly memorable to the Tigers of Louisiana State University and their loyal fans. Louisiana politicians not currently under indictment for white collar crimes included. Best wishes to Kim and John , my family and friends.Labels: Cleveland Ohio, Louisiana, LSU, Media, Ohio, Ohio Stae University, Politics, Sports, True Crime
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Shaker Heights , Ludlow gang beating not much news on wcpn
This mornings nine to ten a.m. slot on wcpn was dedicated to discussion concerning the tragic beating incurred by a Shaker Heights attorney who was out walking in his neighborhood on New Year's eve , and severely beaten by a gang of seven youths , with an iron pipe no less , traumatizing and hospitalizing him with severe injuries , resulting in the surgical placement of pins and plates in his legs. A rather sad and sinister state of affairs for a pretty stable suburban neighborhood . Though this man's recovery in a psychological vein will cause this poor victim shock and pain for sometime to come as well as those in his Shaker Heights Ludlow community that feel his pains and admire his courage. Present for the hour were Shaker Heights mayor Earl Leiken , Shaker Heights Council member Al Foster , and a member from the Ludlow Community Association named Chudzinski. The wcpn moderator initially confused the Shaker Heights councilman foster with being the Cleveland councilman , a rather embarrassing moment to be certain , and indicative of the less than stellar preparation that occurs in regards to this time slot. The Shaker Heights mayor elected to introduce himself , and proceeded to carry on concerning the recent Federal crime figures that show a marked decrease in crime in Shaker Heights. Unfortunately for the victim of the Ludlow beating , the gang that assaulted him were not included in this statistical abstract. Councilman Foster stated the obvious need for parental involvement , and claimed that race was not an issue. The victim is Caucasian , the juveniles Afro American. Both of these elected officials seemed sincere and to genuinely care about the fate of the City they represent, though neither had much to offer in the form of suggestions to prevent such occurrences from happening again. The Ludlow community representative Chudzinski expressed optimism , hoping that this was a wake up call for more vigilant neighborhood involvement. A matter of pulling together , not ripping apart his message. What is truly sad here is that no acknowledgement of the obvious sad social condition that acted as a precursor for this criminal condition , " baby childs" , there I said it , received any mention. Yes , " baby childs " , these youth who ganged up on our unfortunate victim were in the age range of fourteen to seventeen years of age , and it is more likely than not that perhaps some of these young men were conceived by young mother's perhaps not prepared to accept the responsibility to raise them . According to 2005 statistics for the City of Cleveland birth records , twenty percent of Mother's giving birth residing in the City of Cleveland were between eleven and nineteen years of age. Not a race issue , as much as a youth pregnancy issue. The usual two thousand ton elephant in the room , youth pregnancy ,was kept cowering in the corner by the participants and callers alike. What can one say in defense of children conceiving children save that it is time to break the cycle. Now! An Akron caller mentioned being robbed and pistol whipped on December 27 , 2007 near Shaker Square. Though this same Akron caller was cut off quickly by the wcpn host when she critically pointed out that the " big football stadium downtown was all good and well , though not of much use when it came down to urban brass tacks such as public safety". A Shaker Heights resident named Steve called in to report purchasing a taser. I think that Steve is a bit light in his expectations of self defense in this choice of weapons. Some small amount of time was spent in mentioning the education of parents concerning their off springs , though the obvious in this matter of parenting is to begin with breaking the cycle of teen childbirth. No more or less. Juvenile gangs again were not mentioned , though much has been written on this subject , and it is human nature that draws together children in a world , and a rereading of William Golding's LORD OF THE FLIES is all it takes to begin to understand the sad and sometimes cruel rites of passage that comprise adolescence. Oddly enough the one time that da p.d. should have been present at a wcpn , in the form of editorial columnist Dick Feagler , whose Sunday January 6 , 2008 dealt with this crime and the cultural reality of such events as urban flight and offered this advice via his conversation with a Shaker Heights police officer on walking in Shaker Heights " Go in two's , or get a big dog and walk it. Or take a cell phone with you pre-dialed to 911". Sounds like stern ,stellar and apt advice. Especially the cell phone particular. Police response in Shaker Heights is quick , and had the victim had a cell phone it may have made a difference.It would have served the listeners well to have been able to comment on Feagler's Sunday article , which walked the line between racism and modern urban real time life. Bordering a City such as Cleveland , presents Shaker Heights residents with some odd quality of life issues that can lead to becoming quandaries such as the unfortunate victim of this heinous and violent Juvenile gang crime. Shaker Heights is also around the corner from North Randall , Ohio , and it is only this past Friday evening January 4 , 2008 , that a multiple shooting occurred in a motel in a Northfield Road Motel located in North Randall , Ohio resulting in five men being shot ranging in age from eighteen to twenty years of age. In 2007 Cleveland , Ohio had a rash of violent crimes committed by a South east side , Slavic Village , gang who called themselves " The Goonies" , and beat and robbed many elderly victims. Our Ohio jails are filled to over capacity with these sad young cases of Juvenile / adult crimes. Our maternity words are swollen with children conceiving children. As for solutions , it seems that few quick fixes exist. Keeping the plight of such crimes front and center in our minds and having open dialogue concerning such modern dilemmas as teen pregnancies , and Juvenile crime is a great start.I only wish that I was kidding concerning being pinned down on New Years eve by random gunfire in our East side neighborhood. Staying well put instead of milling about the rather uncertain mean streets of Cleveland , Ohio that evening seems the norm not the exception these days. Perhaps if our political officials worked harder at the social ills of our Cities , and less at the corporate welfare issues that occupy their time , we would fare better collectively. I received a distress call the other day from a visitor to Detroit , Michigan a few days after the New Years. She was worried about taking public buses in Detroit after a middle aged woman was shot in the face for the crime of not having any money to give the assailant that committed a robbery upon her as she disembarked from a Detroit , Michigan Department of Transportation bus. My Friend purchased a second hand purse , and placed ten dollar bills in it to give up quickly if accosted in a similar fashion. What a way to have to consider to live in modern America ! Join a community group or block watch organization. Volunteer some of your hard earned time to participate in inner city youth programs. Sacrifice your nfl football sunday's and become a big brother or big sister. Hell , I do not even begin to know were to offer advice in this terrible matter of Juvenille crime. Start close to home , keep those that you Love and respect in good form , and look out for one another. We are only as good as our collective efforts. Book Selling Time! You guessed it 1 William Golding LORD OF THE FLIES. Most all of us have read this volume at sometime in our life , and the message of the cruel and sometimes violent and difficult adolescent passage has never been better addressed to my knowledge. Best wishes to all victims of terrible crimes such as the one suffered by the Shaker Heights Ludlow resident.Believe in Love and take a moment to care for those that you do. Pass it on.Labels: Cleveland Ohio, da pd, Detroit, Dick Feagler, Ohio, Shaker Heights, The Goonies, wcpn
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wcpn renames local "regional roundup" morning news slot "benign hour"
Greetings from an eastbound passenger train, passing the Collinwood yards this early morning. "Hope springs eternal."
Only three days into the new year and wcpn is up to the same old tricks that have allowed them to take the public out of public radio on a daily basis. First a two odd minute teaser and hype for a newbie's online site with the moniker "advancenortheastohio.org". Sounds like a cheerleader's sideline chant.
"On Wisconsin," "Advance northeast Ohio" or some other form of drollery.
Rah, rah, arh!
A visit to this site seems to feature more of the usual wcpn sanctioned regular suspects, a link for Cleveland Plus, a "brain gain" section , and an overall cheery, upbeat, naive, head-in-the-sand view of the current sad state of affairs that is contemporary Cleveland, Ohio and the surrounding region that it represents.
My favorite little bitty sidebar section on this site is one entitled "transplanted."
I know, begs for jokes about the medical fiscal machinery located here, but trust me, this is comedy at its best when it comes to living in this region. The hallucinatory writing began with a visit to San Francisco and the nerve of the writer to suggest that San Francisco's Mission District reminded him of "Tremont."
Now having spent considerable months in the City of San Francisco for the past forty years, one could never confuse a vibrant dense multi-racial neighborhood such as San Francisco's Mission District with Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood.
No way on this Earth do they share much common ground.
The Mission has density in its population mix, aided by two Bay Area Rapid Transit [BART] stops, which serve a bustling Hispanic, Caucasian, and Asian American population. The diverse merchants on Mission and Valencia Streets, the Mission's retail business streets, are comprised of bookstores, groceries, antique stores, and all the service businesses that comprise a neighborhood: banks, dry cleaners, coin laundries, etc .
(Tremont does not even have a grocery store!)
Restaurants of all stripes and forms fill Mission and Valencia Streets and the side streets that connect them. The legendary burritos rolled in the areas many Mexican restaurants have great girth and authentic fresh flavors. A number of personal friends, I know you are surprised I have many, reside either in the upper Mission or the adjoining Portrero Hill neighborhood, and I have walked this neighborhood for hours during the daytime, preferring it to the evening and its nighttime club scene, I don't drink, and visible Hispanic gangs.
The mere inclusion of such unchecked urban comparison between Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood and San Francisco's Mission district only gives this Clevelander's naive vision street cred, only if he fesses up to imbibing in some Bay area LSD, and wandering about mumbling far out man, Cleveland looks just like this here place, duh....
perhaps while under the influence of psychedelics?
Tripe soup, make that menudo, once again served daily by the make believe public radio station with the call letters wcpn. A virtual link to yet another cheer leading agency for the local lost cause.
Let's send a reminder to this advancenortheastohio bunch that politics here are corrupt in an over the top fashion, and that you can throw all the money, just like manure, at pet political projects that are recipients of corporate welfare, University Circle and Downtown Cleveland to be exact, and like putting a dress on a pig, doesn't make it less of a pig, just one that has had a pile of money tossed at it!
As for the weekly regional roundup radio program that aired this morning from nine to ten a.m. the radio gang that is wcpn should consider changing the name of this weak hitting hour to "the benign hour," given the flavor of news served to date.
The local daily fish wrap, da p.d., was of course in the wcpn house. Two other players present as well.
One half hour was spent in discussion of the variety of possibilities and challenges presented to voters due to the mishandling of voting machinery. Not much here was concluded save the obvious need to fix what is broken. Murder and crime and its relationship with regards to public safety and Cleveland Police layoffs, was handled well by da p.d.'s Joe Frolic, and even better by the retired policeman who called in wisely stating the obvious: no leadership in politics, no jobs or way out for low income residents, and that fewer police on the streets equals more crime.
A little blast at Dennis Kucinich and his UFO tales, and we are out of here on wcpn, with not much said for the hour's effort at news from this region. The flavor conjured in this less than stimulating hour of gas was truculent and impacted. Just like that pseudo public radio station wcpn.
A benign hour it was...
Keep thinking about that eastbound train, and what exists on the other end of the line?
New horizons?
Make no mistake of it, the majority of the domestic books we sell online are to zip codes on either coast. Very few to the heartland of this country. Seems to be a lesson here?
Perhaps this dense man will figure the problem out someday soon?
Welcome to the Iowa Caucasus. First stones tossed this evening! Good luck to anyone out there naive enough to still believe in the current state of politics in America, or sanity claus for that matter. Better you go to the race track and look into betting on the favorite horse running.
More times than not that nag has the most money on him, and even when he doesn't win doesn't finish out of the money either. Horses run just like politicians. In the money! Today's Iowa candidates attract and spend money in a major fashion, and believe me when they take money from a contributor they owe a favor. Political life in the good old USA goes on unchecked and more resembles your high school student elections, than any real attempt to affect actual social change it in a fashion that does not come with favors attached to and owed to the players who contribute to campaigns.
I wonder how the majority of these politicians sleep at night?
Book Selling Time!
What better fashion to produce a great evenings sleep these frigid Cleveland winter's nights than curling up with a copy of THE DICTIONARY OF CLEVELAND BIOGRAPHY? - 545 pages comprising a veritable who's who of Cleveland history from the cities inception to the book's publication in 1996.
Do not look for exciting reading here, though pound-for-pound it will provide more excitement and usable content than the regular cast of people that peddle the notion of news on wcpn radio today. If ever a local institution needed a house cleaning and new face this impacted bunch does. Sad fact is the perceived notion of the word "public" mentioned in the same sentence with the call letters wcpn.Labels: California, Cleveland Ohio, da pd, Mission District, San Fransisco, Tremont, wcpn
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Glenn Schwartz is alive and well
and still playing regular gigs around Cleveland, Ohio. I have been listening to Glenn Schwartz play electric guitar live for forty-one years, beginning with his James Gang days in the mid 1960's, and following him right along to this very day.
I caught his homeboy gig at the Beachland ballroom this very evening and as usual was rewarded immensely by his style of play.
Glenn and his bass playing brother Gene are Collinwood natives and raised not far from the Beachland Ballroom on Waterloo Road. I make no bones about my belief that Glenn Schwartz is one of the top ten electric guitarists working today. Period.
Sure, the stories are the stuff of legend and yore. Jimi Hendrix did request Glenn to play guitar at his final birthday party before his tragic early passing. Glenn did perform for Hendrix, and his ascended style of fretwork gave him truck with a wide variety of fellow blues inspired guitarists the likes of Beck, Clapton, and Page among others. Brother Gene served as both bass player and automobile driver to the late great Robert "Junior" Lockwood, who held high opinion of Glenn's guitar playing.
His Beachland Ballroom gigs are polite affairs, not to be confused with the often drunken crowds who trade barbs and act in a confrontational fashion concerning the often preaching style of Glenn's raps and rants while playing his weekly Thursday evening show at Major Hooples bar on Cleveland's west side.
Glenn plays in a unique blues style, completing the task of playing intense, sonic lead riffs and runs simultaneously, while accompanying himself with stiff rhythm chords for effect. -- Truly amazing stuff.
Equivalent to the amazing way a Bert Blyleven curve ball would break over home plate in baseball parlance. Combining the basic blues with psychedelic melts, and then runs at precise rhythm and blues, makes for an exiting evenings listening.
Glenn is a born again Christian, and often relates in an honest heart-felt manner his sometimes graphic vision of our next world and common fate. Calling the media out on their collective lies, referring to the television as the "gooftube" and warning us away from its ill affects also a part of Glenn's rants and raps.
He speaks of going twenty days without food and having to shoulder quarters of beef for delivery while working driving a truck at the NOFT at Fortieth Street and Orange Avenue, just east of downtown Cleveland.
This is so common in America today or yesterday, give our true artists and musicians chain saws, power tools, knives, and meat hooks and tell them to earn a living with their hands.
Glenn talks about his gigs at Cleveland's Warrensville Workhouse, Coolie's Farm, where the "black people called me slide," and Glenn breaks out his slide and works out a few musical numbers using this piece of round steel for incredible bent notes and explosive rapt points.
When Glenn plays the slide guitar, I close my eyes, and can here the industrial noises of the former Coit Road Chevrolet plant that was formerly on Coit Road in Collinwood until the early 1980's.
As a nod to the season Glenn, Gene, and their drummer played a magnificent version of the Christmas classic Holy Night. Unique and authentic was their read of this hymn.
When we were young men we would visit the fields at the edge of town, take all the wmms buzzard t-shirts we could find, placing the t-shirts over and around stumps, or with the t-shirts fastened to propped up logs, we would kick back, load up our guns, and blast the living shit out of the stinky buzzard rags, leaving them pocked with holes, perforated strips of cotton cloth flapping in the breeze.
It was only in this rather inert fashion that we could achieve any real satisfaction and cathartic response from the radio oppression that that lousy bunch of east coast pirates were peddling in our home town.
Revenge is best taken cold. We once appropriated a buzzard statue and dragged it along to our shooting site, though it only took a few shots from our guns to reduce it to plaster and dust. Big deal, the lousy image of the wmms buzzard was swiped from the Kansas Jayhawk likeness, and always seemed just as phony as that tasteless radio station wmms was in the day.
Iron Gut alert.A Middle Eastern Buffet is serving up an all you can eat spread on west 117Th street north of Lorain. We attempted this fare twice with mixed results. The meats are mostly back of bird chicken, utility lamb, and ground beef, and fairly uninspired stews of these meats combined with various vegetables:
eggplant and beef: oily yet surprisingly fine tasting
squash and beef: mealy
lamb, ribs and okra: slimy and chewy
potato and chicken: mushy
chicken with lemon: dry
No fish in sight.
Salads are standard fares
humus, babaganoush, tabbouleh: predictable.
plenty of plain white rice and pita bread for starch. pickled radishes, turnips, cucumbers, and a sparse green salad rounded out the mess. Beverages are extra, and if you desire water bring your own.
Desert was limited to a single philo-dough based cheese pastry. Tea, coffee, and sodas are available as well. My bride suffered mightily from the effects of the beef meatballs and cold falafels.
I had stomach pains for twenty four hours after eating at this spot.
Most food seems to suffer from sitting around on the steam table a bit longer than it should, and when we arrived at six p. m. on a Tuesday night we were only joined by one other couple while we supped.
Would have preferred to boil the wmms buzzard and serve it back to the buffet folk instead of ever consider eating there again.
Book Selling Time!
As remedy to the bad buffet , and to acknowledge Glenn Schwartz's wisdom considering the merits of a good appetite and the fine tasting and comforting food we are provided in substance with while dwelling our short time on planet Earth may we suggest a copy of the Time Life MIDDLE EASTERN COOKING.
This finely illustrated and historically accurate cook book will cure any ill effects from a local iron gut buffet.
Thanks again to Kim, John and my Family.
If you can pass or forward this post to a friend. Glenn Schwartz and the Beachland Ballroom are a great combination. Come out the next time that the Schwartz Brothers Band plays and make an evening of it. The Beachland Kitchen puts out a great dinner these days. telephone ahead for choices. And please support these two great Collinwood institutions and their unique symbiosis.Labels: Cleveland Ohio, Collinwood, Country Music, Culinary, Glenn Schwartz, Kansas Jayhawk, Schwartz Brothers Band, wmms
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Boxing day 2007
And the streets of downtown Cleveland are as empty as those in Nagasaki Japan after the explosion of the atomic bomb sixty two years ago. No people are visible in either direction the length of East Ninth Street at eleven a.m. This traditional post Christmas holiday was always an exiting and busy day filled with commerce , folks visiting downtown Cleveland for a day of shopping and adventures. No more people visit this moribund, has been , forlorn place of emptiness and sorrow downtown Cleveland , Ohio today..... So nobody shows up for work the day after a holiday. Hmmm? The evil elves still collect the parking meters , and all of the homeless people are still working the edges of this sick hick town. ...Time was , and not so many years ago. Six to be exact , when we still could open our doors to an eager and grateful book loving public and not be insulted with the large sucking noise of this anal cavity evacuating that is empty downtown Cleveland this boxing day. Thank you politicians and civic players for helping create this loud annoying emptiness. Your pockets are lined , and we have empty streets to show for your larcenous efforts.........The little fat twerp from the make believe historic district office waddled out of his SUV at about noon , more likely than not just taking yet another air. For sake of familiarity we will refer to him as Mister Jablon Gutlessman . This character Gutlessman's nickname , as so many Clevelander's is "ski", in this case due to his love of the downhill winter sport of skiing. I can only figure that those employed in such an odious and distinctly pedantic career such as our companion Gutlessman , must take in great gulps of hot air as to possess the means to expel the digested hot air as propaganda or some form of mediocre press activity such as public relations..... This particular bird brain is so much a tool for the interests he does bidding for that he has forgot or misplaced whatever ethical and aesthetic senses he was once , if ever at all , in possession of while in his youth. Now middle aged , fat from rich food , pock marked from bouts with booze and beer , this lumpy form of distasteful human flesh , travels to the local ymca for a steam and clean , then off to play tag with the secretary and phone tag with everyone else save his handler.......... This twerp Gutlessman would get on his knees and beg if need be to gain approval of his corporate boss and political handler.....This same moron years before had walked about bragging about the great job and services he provided in renovating buildings in these supposed historic districts. Meanwhile the cranes disposed of plenty of the historic buildings that the district was to have contained by it's original plan designated by Laurence Halprin. Who in this clueless City is even aware of the Halprin plan ? The Halprin plan called for the renovation and preservation of the Historic central Market District , not it's slaughter and replacement with subsidized sports facility and a corporate welfare program to boot!... Gutlessman's pants were often covered with white stains from rich food stuffs and who knows what else.Yet another cruel joke played out upon the historic structures that once comprised an actual vibrant market district in downtown Cleveland , Ohio. Let us destroy this district and then refer to it as historic , who that is citizen in this poverty ridden , underpowered place will notice? Thus Gutlessman's work was done , and the stench of this political mess sold as wealth instead of the malodorous insider trading and crimes that in reality it will someday be noted as such when examined objectively years from now. Noted as a bleak period of local history for Cleveland, Ohio.....My childhood friend Lady O , appears this boxing day , requesting the usual kisses and the overall royal treatment. I am momentarily tempted to refer her to the historic district headquarters and the boot licker Gutlessman that represents the vested interests.... I bite my tongue instead.....Lady O has brought along her royal mutt , and we proceed to romp about the final digs of the former Leibing and Case remains located down the block.....We cross and arrive. " They Remained , Others Fled". My autobiography. Moses Cleaveland new what was up when he fled these parts shortly after his arrival here to survey the swamp in 1796 .Moses blew this rancid swamp off , and headed back East to civilization...... The Erie headstones are mostly kicked down now . The level of abuse now evident at all City cemeteries is criminal in it's neglect. Yet the corporate interests downtown still are on welfare , and collecting like a Las Vegas slot machine jackpot ringing it's bells and spitting cash while paying off.......The bush that Slipsy Junior and I buried the hawk is torn up now , and a naked splotch of soil stands in place of the bright flowering bushes foot print that once filled this garden space.....Lady O reads aloud a soliloquy of sorts concerning the lame and vacant nature of the surrounding streets , and notes the piles of automobile glass from the kicked in windows of those who believed in the notion of " free parking ' as advertised on the adjoining cemetery streets signage. Two hour free. Automobile glass replacement and hassles fixing up car . priceless. Priceless that is for the crooked parking lot gangs that stiff and bully the sappy visitors of this ill begotten place..... One more reason to flee , without thought of returning. Having sent for reinforcements , Joc O Sot's here for the long haul.....Lady O would make a grand companion for the historic district tool Mister Jablon Gutlessman. Always ready for the costumed spotlight , Lady O would float along to the tripe that passes for society in this flea bitten backwater burg. Say perhaps a simulcast of the induction of the rock n' roll hall of fame shenanigans , complete with ordinary catered food stuffs not even still in existence on more worldly menus. Qualifying here as hip and entertaining. Bacon wrapped shrimp , frozen egg rolls , spinach dip and the like. In these parts , hot mustard or wasabi are reserved for the ballparks and banquets only. The likes of Jablon Gutlessman could treat Lady O to a lively evening of the local coiffed up rock n' roll a list of local losers at play , which is actually no list at all , and as for play thank the heavens for Viagra and Geritol cocktails served at these cheezy events.....It is with great mystery I question the pride exhibited by da pd , and the local politicos in having the rock n' roll hall of fame gang host another , what do they call it?, er draft party?, gee whiz they had it here way back in 1997 , I should remember ? Oh yeah' . "Induction ceremonies". Almost forgot! So did the folks from New York City who would rather cross the river to some armpit new jersey town , than consider visiting the likes of this boondocks poisoned place of Cleveland , Ohio. You see New Yorkers and the music biz peoples have been voting with their feet for the last decade. Avoiding Cleveland , Ohio as a viable destination for obvious reasons. And we are supposed to be happy that the New York crowd will now visit here every three years , "or so" , to hold an induction ceremony? Give us our Lake front back and move that moth ridden leaky clothes closet , the rock n' roll hall of fame , out of this town already! And while we are on the subject of aesthetics , would someone explain to me what business John Melon Cougarhead has being inducted into the likes of the rrhf? I truly do appreciate the inclusion of Leonard Cohen , but Mister Cohen , the bard from Montreal, in my book would have been in the first group admitted , well ahead of most who proceeded him , and certainly not tainted by his entrance with the likes of John Melon Cougarhead ! A true independent sophisticated City would have told the New York rock and roll gang to kiss the City of Cleveland's ass and take a hike with your insipid clothes closet sometime ago. There is always hope that leadership will emerge and the sycophantic chorus of non native money changers tossed from our Lake Erie shores ! Book Selling Time ! Seeing that the New York City rock and roll mob avoids us in a physical nature , perhaps they will be kindness enough among them to purchase this perfect post Christmas Boxing Day gift. SHEPP'S NEW YORK CITY ILLUSTRATED , published in 1894 . This large and heavily illustrated volume is a perfect gift for any person with an interest in New York City history , and serves as a great photographic documentation of this truly American city near the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century. Plenty of people on those Gotham streets. Life , light , splendor. Opposite found here in muttsville , Ohio in 2007. We can hope and pray , though somehow I have a feeling this rancid place has yet to hit bottom. Stay tuned.Best wishes to all of our family and their friends this Holiday season. Thanks again to Kim and his great Family. The second shnecken arrived just after the last crumbs of the first were consumed. Remember kids , Moses Cleaveland left here after less than one year , and they even named the joint after him!Labels: Central Market, Cleveland Ohio, da p.d., Moses Cleaveland, Rock n' Roll Hall Of Fame
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wcpn puts the con
in the convention center/medical mart project slated for downtown Cleveland by stacking the deck with two shills from the metaphorically challenged organization positively Cleveland? , dismissing any objective discussion concerning this tax spun project which aired Tuesday December 18 ,2007 on their nine to ten a.m. slot.
Yet another heated make out session between the gutless radio batch that commands our so called public radio for Northeast Ohio and a civic cheer leading organization such as positively Cleveland...
Under the guise of seeking public input for what this convention center should include and it's possible location this dog and pony show dragged on for its entire hour without even a single outside telephone call amounting to any substantive input or value.
One caller suggested that Cleveland would make a great destination as a bird watching venue, some sort of ornithological tourism?
Perhaps this is what will save this mess of an urban disaster, bird watching?
The suggestion to have the caller ride most of the city RTA lines and observe the fellow passengers crossed my mind. Business as unusual per the norm at the live flea circus at playhouse square which passes as a public radio station...
The perfect location for this proposed project would be the property that Cuyahoga County previously purchased, and over paid for, at East 93rd Street and Quincy Avenue, were some actual economic impact might occur that would have a tacitly positive affect on Cleveland and Cuyahoga County citizens...
What was for certain is that for all the blather of the hour we can be certain that whatever is built here in terms of a convention center will be small potatoes, and on a par with small market cities such as Indianapolis, Indiana, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio.
What's the point?
To compete with small market venues a few hours away, not learn from their mistakes in building these moribund convention centers in the first place.
If you are interested in why the modern convention center is not the economic generator that it is painted as such by outfits such as positively Cleveland merely Google the academic source of study undertaken by Doctor Heywood T. Sanders at the University of Texas who has made studying the building and usage of contemporary convention centers his business.
As for the medical merchandise mart that is proposed as part of this deal please refer to Roldo Bartimole and his article concerning the potential conflict of interest in this matter posted earlier this year.
Do you really believe for one precious moment that the Chicago medical merchandise group that is driving this project forward in Cleveland will be naive enough to slide many convention events on our plate instead of keeping the events and monies in Chicago?
Ask yourself as a potential National group seeking a convention venue which city you would prefer as a site?
Perhaps once, though Cleveland, Ohio is not a very exciting place unless compared to Indianapolis or Columbus, so perhaps this small town logic is not as flawed as it seems. Cleveland, Ohio has once again set the bar low in terms of competition and forget constructing a convention center to compete with Las Vegas, New York, or New Orleans.
Truth be told a single urban block in New York City provides more excitement than all of Cleveland has to offer. Ditto New Orleans and Las Vegas.
Do not bother touting the trifling rock n' roll hall of fame as a tourist attraction. One visit to this clothes closet in a lifetime is plenty for any visitor.
Our museums are fine, and we have most professional sports teams in place, save professional hockey. Yet so do the cities we will be competing with for convention business.
As for the actual location of this convention center/medical merchandise mart, if it must be built please consider the large parking area owned by the city of Cleveland that is currently used as a drunken zone prior to Cleveland Oranges football team, also known as the browns.
Take this party lot and turn it into a true Lake Erie view destination complete with RTA rail access. This current under used parking lot as a convention center location seems to make the best sense from a political viewpoint.
Why?
None of the usual competing interests, Woolstein, Forest City, or Jacobs properties come into play... As for the question proposed for the public use of the convention center when not occupied with events, should provide plenty of time, please consider giving back to the citizens of Cuyahoga County who will have paid for this structure access to this facility on a regular basis for meetings, youth cultural and sports activities, geriatric programs, and any community needs that will trump the profit motives set upon us by the greedy likes of positively Cleveland.
It really is a shame when your public radio station is anything but public. Even a scrap or nod at objectivity would be appreciated.
Bad enough that the for profit and civic agenda laden p.d. has their hooks into wcpn in such a large fashion , though stacking the deck with two public relations types and calling the event newsworthy is merely indicative of the lost cause of public radio in contemporary Cleveland.
Book Selling Time!
A true reason for any convention to visit Cleveland would be an evening spent in Severance Hall listening to the Cleveland Orchestra. We offer Robert Marsh's 1967 volume THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA, which captures with great clarity the first fifty years of this world class orchestra.Labels: Cleveland Ohio, Cuyahoga County, wcpn
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Heads and Tales
Writing as a daily practice is habit for me since the early 1970's. The following tale is about some bovine heads and tails tumbling down a chute from the fifth floor of an abattoir at the corner of west 65Th and Storer Avenue. My original story is securely lost in my personal papers , the buildings and bloody enterprises that the area plied long gone.......Cleveland's stockyards district was a working wholesale area for the slaughter of live cattle , sheep , and pigs from the nineteenth century until the late 1970's . The west side of West 65Th street between Clark and Storer Avenues provided this fertile killing ground , and if you look around those parts today you will still see some of the vestiges of this trade 's buildings that remain in reuse today. At the northern edge of west 65Th street stands the stately building the offices of The Cleveland Union Stockyards , with it's animal heads in relief , and affording a solid business like presence to those who enter. The parking lot for the K-Mart and the K-Mart itself the actual former penned areas for the routing of the animals awaiting slaughter. Actual urban cowboys on horseback worked the animals paths to the chutes from the adjoining railroad tracks to the pens. Fairly exciting viewing replete with the animal noises and often a very heavy odor of a variety of manures to complement the experience......The entirity of West 65th street on it's west side ws comprised of slaughterhouse concerns. DiCillo, Krasny , weinberg , among many others. At the southern edge of West 65Th street stood the largest of all the local slaughterhouses Gibbs Meats. One sunny morning I was walking from up near lake Erie down West 65Th street taking in the sights and sounds of our still bustling city. At one side of the Gibbs plant was parked a large stake truck , and I was quite amused by the sounds and sights that greeted my eyes and ears. A long terrible mooo!followed by a loud pop as if a gun exploding , then first a severed cow's head , then tail down a long chute and landing with a audible thud into the trucks body. I had missed the event of the cattle being led up the ramps to the killing floor , though it ws not to hard to figure out how and why they arrived. Where these spare parts were headed was still a mystery. Perhaps to another rendering plant near bye for further processing. Being no stranger to beef tongue , I assumed that this part of the head had been prior removed. The tails and area about them , often synonymous with a biped politician , a larger mystery? What does one do with the severed chunk cow's ass , tail attached ? I am aware now that these less than appetizing beef chunks are trimmed and turned into hamburger...... The east side of West 65Th street was comprised of packing houses , most of which purchased the killed and dressed carcasses from the slaughterhouses across the street and turned pigs into bacon or chops, lamb and beef into the many and diverse meat products consumed by Clevelanders. All the major national packers were represented , Swift , Cudhay, and Morrell to name but a few. The POC and Standard breweries plants were on the northern edge of this district along Clark and West 65Th , and the spent grains were sold as feed for the animals awaiting slaughter..... All of this is but memory now , and the feedlots are many States away and these animals are now killed and processed by the tens of thousands per hour instead of a a day. Beef tasted better back then , and I do miss the stockyards! Book selling Time! Clay Herrick's CLEVELAND LANDMARK'S will suffice for today. A well produced volume documenting Cleveland architecture. No stockyards photographs , alas. Best wishes to all my Family , John and Kim , Get well Orley!Labels: Cleveland Neighborhoods, Cleveland Ohio, Stockyards
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Christmas past, Christmas present
Three major department stores still opened their door's daily downtown in downtown Cleveland in 1980. We had earlier positioned our book store on East Ninth Street near the corner of Huron Road , within a quick walk of Public Square, home of May Company and Higbee's, and Playhouse Square which was home to the flagship Halle's Department Store. All three of these king sized multiple floored department stores served as " anchor stores" for downtown shoppers. Many of us small retailers hoped to complement these diverse retail giants offerings , by merit of displaying for sale our unique specialties, and in turn found some success in the crowds of shopper's drawn downtown to the big three department stores..... Our early years as booksellers required us to reinvest our receipts into expanding our inventory in classic mom and pop fashion. We did not shop often at the downtown department stores , save the holiday season for family gifts , preferring thrift stores and estate sales for our personal needs. Fresh food and groceries were purchased at the near bye Central Market , and a number of small ethnic groceries that were neighbors in the Central Market district. Life was simple .The USA was in a period of economic downturn in the early 1980's , and I remember the meager sales of those early years as we worked hard to establish our business. Frugal and prudent decisions made then ultimately paid off in increased trade and expansion into and through the 1990's. Success was enjoyed , hard work rewarded.............Holidays downtown were an enjoyable season until the closing of the three department stores , and the destruction of the Central Market district . The Central Market was replaced with two larger than scale sports stadiums and in turn attracted the cheap drunken crowds who now barf and lunge about downtown in place of the retail shoppers.......Though we closed our book stores doors a few years ago to the public due to the inclement retail conditions due to the poor planning of downtown we retain great memories of all the many holiday seasons that we were open and the fine customer base we served prior to the retreat of downtown into the drunk zone that it is today. We also remain in our now crowded digs of all these many years , without much hope in ever seeing a true revival of any activity here that resembles Christmas past. We ship a fair amount of books around the world every week. Some outsiders would say that is great and peachy keen , though it does not come close to the function of hand selling books to eager clients. This business of retail book selling downtown is not possible in any event due to the time management and size constraints placed upon us while we service our internet / mail order book business. Receipts are tougher to lash together into profit these days , and it would be nice to have a retail option downtown and increase our sales , though no reasonable space is available to us at this time. The formula of " cheap rent" as a bottom line requisite is a very real consideration for any party engaged in the buying and selling of used items such as books and antiques. Rents are no longer " cheap" downtown , and thus no new retail activity is found around these parts today. All the hot air and ballyhoo pitchmen and development big shots that paint downtown as an up and coming place of business seem to forget that a start up retail business needs affordable rent, or the ability to purchase a building and invest as incentive . No incentives are given to the smaller interested concerns , so downtown Cleveland remains void of new retail start ups save the greasy food and cheap booze variety that resemble the hellish drunken and debauched vision of " Potterville" as portrayed in Frank Capra's ultimate Christmas film It's A Wonderful Life"...... Crime downtown is another concern. To the naive visitor attracted to the "free" ,two hour parking down the block near the Erie Street Cemetery , remeber you get what you pay for. Plenty of those attracted to this free parking get their automobile window glass kicked out , and the salable contents of their automobile swiped , or their car stolen. And this is merely property crime. Plenty of homicides occur downtown as well. As do assaults , rapes , and armed robberies. Do not take my word for it , just monitor the television news or inquire via the hard statistics gathered by the United States Government. If you want a pretty and cleaned up fictional tale that downplays the true crime statistics downtown inquire with one of the downtown boosterism organizations that have sprouted up like warts in these parts. Professional liars telling prospective clients convenient and professional lies...... And do not forget the scam known as daily or event parking downtown. Downtown Cleveland's physical footprint is largely comprised of surface parking lots , and the bandits that run them are not opposed to charging whatever the market will bear to the rural or suburban visitor that might be in need of parking their automobile. Twenty to twenty five dollars per vehicle seems the going rate these days for any event of consequence downtown , whether near Playhouse Square or for some sports shindig. Only the minor league hockey games get a cheaper rate , due only to low attendance.Many of these parking lot " opperators" collect the customers monies and then depart , leaving all safety concerns to the party they collected parking funds from. Easily the largest single negative influence in downtown Cleveland in need for correction is the scam known as surface parking. The ugly surface parking lot must be reformed or go away all together before any positive retail growth can occur ! ..... We derive some joy now from keeping a small stack of childrens books near our front door , and " gifting" some of these volumes to potential visitor's to our book store that we have to turn away. Always asking parents permission , we prefer to give a children's book to a young visitor , and see the actual appreciation of receiving a book as a gift. Most of us as youngsters learned to read via some form of children's book , and it is nice to know that this is one tradition the internet has yet to interfere with. This simple exercise never seems to fail to produce a smile on the child's face , and I hope that someday we will find larger quarters and be able to open a retail space once again. Right now , the corporate interests have taken over most of what was once a vibrant interesting downtown Cleveland , replacing it with fewer , though more odious , and certainly more expensive choices ground level. I remember an early Christmas eve thirty odd years ago just after opening our book store , walking a few blocks to the Italian food store near the Central market at East Fourth Street and Huron , which is now an empty lot, and being so grateful to have sold enough books earlier in the day to purchase the meager gifts of dried fruits , cheeses , salamis , bagged pistachio nuts , imported confections, and jugs of wine to provide as gifts to friends and family. Did not have much time or funds to provide with , so this unique food store was both business neighbor and a friendly down to earth place to shop. Barrels of olives adorned the entrance , and the rich odors of ripe cheese , cured meats , and fragrant herbs gave this humble merchants space a quiet dignity that is lost in the marketing mania of today's business world downtown. These places and events are but memories today , and I can only hope for a complete meltdown of the current sad circus that is downtown today , so that from the rubble might rise again a spirit of a saner future. Book Selling Time! Only one downtown Cleveland Department store really sticks out in my mind as worthy of a book treatment of it's history , and you can purchase a copy of Christpher Wood's HALLE'S MEMOIRS OF A FAMILY DEPARTMENT STORE from us for a great Christmas gift. Wood's large and illustrted history traces the Halle retail concern from it's inception as a furrier near Public Square in the late nineteenth century to it's sale to Marshall Field's and eventual closing in 1982. Seems just like yesterday! Best wishes to my Family , John and KimLabels: Central Market, Cleveland Ohio, Halle's, Old Erie Street Bookstore
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MODERN MANNERS
In keeping with the seasonal Holiday tradition that is now upon us , we will attempt to be full of good cheer and light , spreading abject joy and whimsical folly about as if constructed with aid of " sugar plums and candy". Who has been naughty? Who has been nice? Who really deserves the decade old defrosted carp pieces in their stockings?......For the Cleveland Browns Stadium crew increased business for 2008 .Plenty of tractor pulls , miniature automobile races , circus and carnivals acts , music events , softball tournaments , rooster fights , paper airplane toss competitions , watermelon seed spitting contests , rodeos , horse shows , new age meditation / levitation groups , motorcycle rallies , horseshoe toss , dwarf toss , corn hole player toss , pro rasslin' , boxing matches, [so kid action joe's bartender can eat], and most important of all international football { soccer} matches to increase the annual use of this facility that is currently occupied sixteen of the three hundred sixty five days of the year that it is available. Just imagine the extra glee the casual tourist from say , Iowa or Indiana , will feel when offered an additional tourist attraction that involves big engines , tires , warm beer , greasy food ,and yet another mindless activity to complement the big Cleveland vacation experience. Cleveland has turned over it's downtown lakefront to tourism so let the big canine house woof , goof ,and rock all summer long! Remember , a full house is a happy house , especially when playing poker......While we are in this neck of town we can't forget the main tourist trap downtown in our seasonal wishes. For the rock n' roll hall of fame we provide an unlimited supply of clothes hangers and laundry soap to do the wash and clean up the sordid aesthetics that plague this creatively impacted edifice. If our budget allows , a high colonic for this institution and those who occupy it daily would be in order. Everyone agrees that a clean house is a happy house...................The American daily newspapers are having a terrible year financially in 2007 , I thought of our tepid little propaganda mill at 1801 Superior , da pd , and thought that if they were sick and not doing so well perhaps they should see a doctor and get well. Surgical removal of this dying dailies foot from it's mouth a fitting gift. Perhaps then with this obstructions removed it might find it's voice again. Always brush your teeth and gargle after every meal . Antiseptic gargle required at the quilting bee located 1801 superior ...... We will continue these kind gifts to those naughty or nice enough to receive them into next year. Book Selling Time! Have a good look at our fine old symbol of downtown lakefront civic pride when Cleveland was still a major city . James Toman and Blaine S. Hayes CLEVELAND STADIUM SIXTY YEARS OF MEMORIES.Profusely illustrated and well researched , and an excellent choice for the true honked off lifer Cleveland sports fan who remembers the year 1964 and the Cleveland Browns NFL title game victory , and as well the last time any Cleveland sports team won a definitive championship. I listened to that December 1964 game in the kitchen of our family home via the ageless medium of radio. The television coverage was blocked out here in Cleveland. A warm roast cooking in the oven , my father's stoic response and our mutual reverence for # 32 Jim Brown .That time and inherent memories seems every bit as long as the forty three years that have since passed. Cleveland Stadium was built in 1932 , and still in fine shape when offered for slaughter to the modern demigods of the nfl as partial payment for a new old franchise here to replace our original Cleveland Browns. I visited the new cleveland browns stadium just once at half time courtesy of our friend Kim's kindness. Within the space of the single third quarter of play we observed in the stands a man fall head first while sitting up in his seat woofing , splitting open his head and bleeding profusely. Another near rabid fan was removing his clothing and was in turn removed by the stadium police. The whole experience of the fans was not in watching the game on the field , instead that grand old local sports tradition of getting shitfaced drunk and obnoxious. Somethings never change! Best wishes to my family , Kim and John , Get well soon Orley!Labels: Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Cleveland Ohio, pd, Rock n' Roll Hall Of Fame
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NatWest Three
deserve the ball and chain treatment for their trans Atlantic collusion and involvement in the criminal sacking of Enron Corporation in 2002. These three British bankers ; Giles Darby , David Bermingham , and Gary Mulgrew just now pleaded out to guilty for one count of wire fraud apiece , instead of the seven counts per they stood accused of, in Federal Court in Houston , Texas. They faced 35 years per man at seven counts , and it looks like they will skate with just 37 months per. This is a travesty of our justice system , and it is time to set a stern example to those not citizens of this country just what dire consequences white collar crime committed against citizens of the United States will hold! These three criminals are English citizens , and in the year 2002 conspired with former Enron chief financial officer Andrew S. Fastow , who is now serving six years in Oakdale Louisiana for his part in the Enron swindle. These three Brit Bankers flipped a phony Enron shell company for a quick 7.3 million dollar personal profit with the assistance of Mister Fastow. The comparison between bankers and confidence men is a long standing reality. These three pinstripe gangsters , all the age of forty five years , deserve a diet of bread and water and the hard labor that a chain gang provides for their crime on our soil. Ultimately the Enron rank and file workers and stockholders suffered economic hardships , lost jobs , and terrible consequences from the criminal activity of these three banksters. Let the punishment fit the crime. The NatWest Three harmed a multitude of good American citizens by there criminal actions , let them pay a stiff price for their greed! Send your letters to the Federal Court in Houston , Texas expressing your desire to see these limeys get their due! While we are at the subject of banksters in America , do not forget that the largest lobby in Washington, D.C. belongs to the banking industry. Yes , the same banking industry whose greed plays a major role in the current loan business resulting in both the credit meltdown , and housing foreclosure travesties that curse American economy today. Time has come to scrap out k street , and dole out a severe policy curtailing the mixing of bank bribes to our elected politicians for the purpose of influencing our laws and increasing their profits.Let these three pay mightily for the crimes they have committed! ................. We honor the kind request of Matthew Lewis who has asked us to post via this site the notice for the First meeting of the GK Chesterton Club in Cleveland's first meeting on December 2 , 2007 at 2:00 p.m in the John Carroll University Library . I will be unable to attend due to a previous appointment , though I do wish this GKC Club the best of luck and recommend your attendance!............... This is it for November musings , so lets leave it were we began on the sunny side of the street. In this case the street is Payne Avenue just East of downtown Cleveland and the attractions to this most international of all Cleveland neighborhoods. Plenty of Oriental flavors here . Today I will recommend those at the intersection of East 37Th street and Payne. Great unique sweet and savory buns and festive bubble teas and other treats daily at the Koko Bakery. No shnecken , but do not miss the barbecued pork bun , or the raisin filled sweet " Mexican Bun". Most of these treats are under one dollar per , and serve as a great treat after having lunch at the Garden Cafe next door. The Garden Cafe is your standard Mom and Pop Oriental Restaurant , with nice box lunches and a full Oriental menu towards dinner time. Clean , freshly prepared , and generous servings the rule here! Across the street is the Seoul Hot Pot Restaurant , a Korean establishment that gives you the feel of sitting in the kitchen of a friends home. Cleveland has only a handful of Korean Restaurants and the SHP is in a converted pizza parlor , which still bears the interior signage of the previous red sauce regimen. Do not be put off by the lack of ambiance. This food is real , the service is a bit slow but steady, and certainly always worth the wait................. Book selling Time! G.K. Chesterton remains a unique and large literary and Religious figure of the first half of the Twentieth Century. A large man in girth as well, 6'4' , 290 plus pounds , and perhaps is best known today for his great Father Brown mysteries. Gilbert Keith Chesterton was a prolific writer of diverse scope , eighty plus books published, and the kindest compliment that I can pay him is that his works remain challenging and refreshing to this day. Let us not forget salable as well! John Carroll University in it's wisdom has a fine private collection of Chesterton materials in it's special collections at Graselli Library. Attend the December 2ND meeting and enjoy a tour of this important and unique collection . We offer his 1932 volume of COLLECTED POETRY for your enjoyment.......Labels: Cleveland Neighborhoods, Cleveland Ohio, Enron scandal, G. K. Chesterton, Garden Cafe, International district, Koko Bakery, NatWest Three, Seoul Hot Pot
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Seasonal tonic
Penultimate November fades , and a short list of seasonal rules appear. 1] Ignore all major media . 2] Do not enter any shopping malls. 3] Thrift stores and house sales suffice 4] Take great care in observing all forms of wheeled transportation due to the sordid tendencies of seasonal inebriation. 5] Long holiday weekends and family projects often seem a task for those not used to them , so beware the angry sports displaced American male who is finally completing a household project put off since spring 6]In laws? Enough said. 7] Office parties seem the greatest of misnomers 8] Consider a short out of town vacation 9] Make like your house animal and curl up in a warm corner 10] Fall in the catnip and doze off until January 3rd.................... Books concerning libations are pretty fair sellers this year. Could be the war or the economy or a combination of the two/ Drink up America. The nixon years are here again , and the cheese is getting stale on k street. Time to clean out the cat box , and send out for another pizza. Yeah , suppose that all the air travel we have been up to is a bit of a drag on the ecology. All that pretty contrail purple skies. Near twenty percent of our atmosphere. Time for replacing with lighter than air transport. Moratorium on commercial air traffic is the only real cure . Subversive? Not really , more or less Gaia positive logical thought. Potable water is scarce. Population shift back to the Great Lakes are only a matter of time , or another region's lack of water. So drink up America ! It is later than any of us would like to imagine! As a youth on the south shore of Lake Erie right past the flying turns and Bratenahl curves the ICBM missiles at the NIKE SITE , posed with full priapic regalia , next to the Gordon Park rock crudely spray painted " Help Me I'm Dying" , a cryptic ecological cry for the city of Cleveland today . In the distance past the ICBM missile the entirety of skyline Cleveland's Terminal Tower loomed only a few miles to the west , returning the salute. His cowboy mind was a washing the blood off the hotel room walls last evening, laughing aloud counting demons on both hands. So have another drink America! Let off some steam. Sure , size means something. All those mini penile unit Spurt Uncouth Vulgarities that the hicks go for. Proves the old adage that the smaller the penis the larger the truck. Opposite applies for the fairer gender. Honk , honk. Get that parking space! ...............Book Selling Time! In keeping with the spirit of the amped up and over imbibed clucked up freaks who start to jabber away in some foreign language when greased way up to the gills on sauce , we offer. O'DELLS BOOK OF COCKTAILS AND FANCY DRINKS IN ENGLISH AND JAPANESE. Published in Yokohama , Japan in 1932 , a very scarce and desirable volume . Perhaps if the diplomatic cores of both Japan and the United States of America would have paid a little more attention to these drink recipes we could have skipped the mess at Pearl Harbor..... Hate to bring up a sorry subject but here goes. Due to that old scoundrel nixon and his China expedition we are repeating today a few economic and strategic mistakes that our political elders erred on in the pre world war two 1930's.We are shipping our scrap metal today to China in the year 2007. We shipped a lot of our scrap metal to Japan prior to WW Two . Poet e.e. cumming's said it best , referring to the Japanese receiving our scrap metal; " We shipped them the second avenue el , they sent it back to us at a higher velocity".Touche! Banzai! We are shipping the Chinese our scrap today and they are sending us back cheap plastic toys laced with lead paint , tacky dollar store items , and poisonous foodstuffs. Thank you very much k street and the entire political circus that conspires to bring us daily the bought ,told, and sold circus known as contemporary America. An ugly political climate , and no fun with the European and Middle Eastern nuclear mobsters wheeling and dealing to any rogue nation wishing to take a swipe at the good old USA. Yeah man! Drink up America! Dig a hole in the sand and stick your cranial orb between your legs and kiss your...... Hey , have a drink for me, I prefer sarsaparilla. Actually the Philly Red Birch Beer manufactured by the Boylan Soda Bottling Company is my favorite carbonated beverage. Check some out!Labels: Boylan Soda, China, Cleveland Ohio, e.e. cummings, ICBM Missles, NIKE SITE, scoundrel nixon
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Bus Ride!
James Robert is out of money again , seems the notes that he is entitled to from our Federal Government never seem to stretch out the month. Last evening with the north west wind cutting knife like up and down Cleveland , Ohio avenues. James Robert spent his evening enjoying not an evenings sleep bedded down , instead James found himself taking a " bus ride!" . Ashamed to say that our house cat slept warmer and ate better than James last evening. Caught up with James today at the chili parlor , and was able to shift enough notes his way to ensure him cover until Uncle Sam's eagle flies past and drops some script in his account to help him survive.......What could the local buncha swells that administrate the Downtown Cleveland Alliance , been thinking of when they started there , " Don't Give When It Can't Help" campaign to discourage citizens from giving money to the homeless , and contribute the money to DCA instead? In typical feckless political fashion , The Downtown Cleveland Alliance managed to spend five thousand dollars on this campaign designed to discourage panhandling , while receiving just one hundred dollars in response to their anti human campaign. Who would have guessed that with such negative copy emphasising " Don't give" , people noticed and didn't give. No surprises here ! That five thousand dollar sum could sure go along way towards providing folk like James Robert a little ease from the pains of living on our city streets! I know , these downtrodden human beings that do not smell so sweet , and have the look about them of living under a bridge offend the white table cloth patrons that the downtown interests would prefer as representative of it 's new privileged downtown. Wake up and smell the vomit left on downtown sidewalks by the sports fans that hunker around these parts acting the fool on any game day. Spend more time and effort discouraging the drunken displays of the well fed suburban knuckleheads that flock here to do their damage and depart , instead of depriving some of the unfortunate humans down on their luck a few dollars ............... Not difficult to notice the street level storefront vacancies that abound in shoddy downtown Cleveland today. If real estate is so precious why does so much go unused? Speculation! Reminds me of the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem that begins " Water , water everywhere , not a drop to drink". From the Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner. Nobody buying. Nobody renting either. The bottom has yet to fall out of the current real estate market here , and before it does , some of these speculative types should take heed. When the corporate ghouls that have occupied our downtown hotels and buildings cut their losses and hit the exits , what appears to be speculative gold will turn a darker shade of brown on your plate and in your greedy hands!.................Book selling Time! If you look around the park across from the West Side Market , located at West 25th street and Lorain Avenue , you will often see men and women milling about or sitting on benches , either waiting for busses or perhaps your spare change left over from a day's shopping at the West Side Market across the street. Men like james Robert sit here , sometimes talking to themselves , or perhaps just passing time and wondering how their lot in life came to pass? Remember them! The West Side Market is the poor cousin d of Cleveland's former Central market , and the one remaining City run public market in Cleveland , Ohio. An old friend named Paul Bova who sold quality fruit at the Central Market used to admonish those unfortunate enough to shop for fruit and vegetables at the West Side Market by muttering the statement that the produce vendors at the West Side Market " Are undertakers, Mark, undertakers! " , referring to the near dead or past prime produce sold there. Not always , but often the truth. A few old time West Side Market quality merchants remain outdoors , The Calabrese family still does a fine job of selecting and selling fruits. " Caveat emptor" ,is the operative phrase here . Inside you will fare much better , with a great selection of meats , fish , cheese , bakery , and the like. If you desire a read concerning this Market's fabled history , we suggest Joanne Lewis TO MARKET , TO MARKET. Thanks to John and Kim , and my family.Labels: Central Market, Cleveland Ohio, Downtown Cleveland Alliance, West Side Market
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Cyber Monday
 My friend Kim's ears must be ringing. I no sooner mentioned the word schnecken and one of these buttery loving hand-crafted sweet dough cinnamon raisin breads appear. Thanks to the folks at the Virginia Bakery downstate for baking up these beauties. This kind treat given to us by Kim and wrapped with his imaginative collage of color and black and white portraits of Sidney Greenstreet, Jack Johnson , Otto Graham ,Don Mossi, A Mexican masked wrestler, Sonny Liston in a hoodie , 'Harmonica' Frank Floyd, Willie Pep, Lou Groza ,Luke Easter, Humphrey Bogart , Tris Speaker , Peter Lorre , The famous ' dingus' , Joe Perry, 'Senor' Al Lopez ,Early Wynn , Rocky Marciano , Herb Score , Archie Moore , Roy Campanella , Cookie Gilchrist , Joe Nuxhall , and a few more figures inclusive of a spitting mad desert rodent whose resemblance to a middle-linebacker is uncanny. Kim pasted all of these images on one very colorful and entertaining gift wrap box which inside contains his gift of a wax paper wrapped schnecken from Virginia Bakery. A kind human being, Kim is old-school humble, and a decent family man who enjoys life and a few unique hobbies. What surprises me more often than not upon receiving a kind parcel from Kim is that I recognize most of the people he has chosen to travel with as kind craft paper hitchhikers to guard the bakery, book or disc that he sends. Very entertaining and easy on the eye. I never discard one of Kim's unique wrapper art works, though if you were to ask Kim if he was an artist he would more likely than not demur. I was so surprised at receiving the mail today, after not picking up any mail since before Thanksgiving, and finding a schnencken aboard that I chuckled aloud with glee at the serendipity of the universe is capable of. Write about something one day, shows up the next. Food for thought? Kim included on his wrapper art an old comic bookmark image that we used to advertise Old Erie Street Bookstore some years ago, prior to the advent of Cyber Monday and Black Friday. Black Friday was simply referred to as the day after Thanksgiving for the majority of my life, and always a great retail day for sales at our book store. This comic image shows the glowing face of anticipation of a customer inside OESB his palms open and face smiling looking at a glowing book amid a stack of volumes. Serendipity! No longer am I witness to this retail activity within our closed downtown bookstore. Nobody comes to downtown Cleveland to shop any longer, and those daily workers that are able to take off, never work the day after Thanksgiving. I did attempt to visit down town to retrieve the mail on Black Friday, though found the mail drop locked at noon. So it goes in today's inclement climate and hostile workplace known as downtown Cleveland, Ohio 2007! The post Thanksgiving Friday was always a favorite for the good run of years we enjoyed at Old Erie Street Book store from 1976 to 2001. Realizing that other cities might provide a better environment for an open book store such as ours, I keep an ear to the ground, and no longer entertain any false illusions concerning any positive reform occurring in downtown Cleveland. Yet another season of lager louts, insipid suburban trash vomit creatures, not to mention the usual corrupt self interest gangs of suits letting what’s left of Cleveland's downtown go to hell in a hand cart. We had a great run! Old Erie Street Book Store did not leave. The City of Cleveland did a vanishing act instead, and the fat lady has yet to yodel! Last one out please turn out the lights. Cyber Monday however is a different story. A gray gulag vision greets dawn. I close my eyes and click on the Brasiliana tape of warm Portuguese voiced Brazilian music, roll over and go back to sleep. The mambo and samba beats are the only musical cure for these cold rainy seasons of autumn and winter in the post industrial hitherlands of Ohio. 120 days of darkness are upon us, and let the warm psychedelic samba riffs that leap with a glow from Os Mutantes rule the airwaves. Bossa Nova rules! 'Bat Macumba eh', eh' Bat Macumba Ola'. The five albums released by Os Mutantes, from 1968 to 1972 remain among my all-time favorites, and we do not need to go into anything further concerning the underwear drawer emptied into I.M. Pei’s joke on our lakefront, just know that I have magic markered a nice round rock with the words OS MUTANTES, and they are getting into the rock n' roll hall of fame via catapult or sling shot this coming spring! So bring on the mighty fecundity of cyber Monday, the internet version of black Friday. Oh boy, can't wait to get downtown and check the e-mails for orders. Er, one order alas is all to be found. Such is the fickle business of bookselling in the year 2007. We list near 20,000 fairly interesting titles for sale on three internet sites, and we receive but one order on cyber Monday. Should have stayed in bed! Schnecken worth the show, and now is the time to return home for a warm cup of cafe noir and a slice of the schnecken. Bookselling Time! Slim's old sage M.F.K. Fisher is more forgotten today than remembered in this testosterone fueled era of competitive cooking. We offer a sure fire cure for any of the ills cyber Monday may deal you in her WITH BOLD KNIFE & FORK. 318 great pages, including 140 plus recipes. Unfortunately no recipe for Schnecken. Better ask Kim for that one, or get lucky and find the location of the Virginia Bakery. Thanks to all! Labels: Cleveland Ohio, Old Erie Street Bookstore, Os Mutantes, Sports, Virginia Bakery
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Turning one into 287
A sign spotted on a delivery van in downtown Cleveland ; AROUND DOWNTOWN CATERING - CATERING TO YOUR SCRIPT . Perhaps the Cleveland Clinic and the p.d. should adopt this piece of copy to better explain their symbiosis.............. The radical surgery as urban renewal practiced in Cleveland in the last fifty years has left it closer to cadaver than city............... I am fortunate to find old copies of newspapers , Press , News , plain dealer , in my travels about town. A secret pleasure is in the reading of these older news documents for content and form. Across the board the profession of quality newspaper journalism slips in content and form , as it has yearly since post world war two , and the advent of television s a news source. A sorry state of affairs today , and for fun sometime visit CPL and pick a year and read for yourself via microfiche an earlier example of Cleveland newspaper history.Quality work compared to today's puerile ballyhoo and blather disguised as news.......................Though , earlier newspapers were no different in the department of public influence peddling from the editor's bully pulpit. The Cleveland Press while under the editorship of one Louis " Mister Cleveland" Seltzer , a great example of treachery in the name of public welfare. The Cleveland Press was the major front page water boy for the 1961 ERIEVIEW Urban Renewal Plan For downtown Cleveland . Prepared by the firm of I. M . Pei and Associates , the same firm awarded the construction of the public eyesore rock n' roll hall of fame . The Erieview Urban Renewal Plan conveniently provided the Cleveland Press with strategic railroad access to the New York Central lines providing the Press the ability to unload news paper rolls directly into it's then new Lakeside Avenue building , which is now occupied by Jones Day. Louis Seltzer used the Cleveland Press and it's pro Erieview editorials as a means of influencing public opinion to achieve his property goals for a new building on Lakeside Avenue. A pretty selfish affair , seeing that the majority of the boisterous project remained unbuilt for decades , causing a lamentable massive expanse of street level parking lots where buildings were promised to be constructed. 595 various businesses and 150 different dwellings were misplaced by this " urban renewal " project. Among the structures that housed citizens were small and large apartment houses , hotels , and mostly multi - family homes . Many multiple storied " loft style " structures , now popular as rebuilds were torn down as well. Within the Erieview boundaries for renewal 287 parcels that were separately owned suddenly became one authority................. Two hundred eighty seven individuals owning land parcels become one. Sounds like a massacre or a land grab. Both in this case , and Erieview remains a template for all failed urban renewal projects to follow in Cleveland to this day. Corrupt Cleveland politics manages to put the horse in front of the cart every time. Allowing developers to grab and acquire large parcels of land on speculation of their elaborate plans , which for the most part are never completed. A gold lining does exist in this greedy business in the profits accrued from parking cars on the demolished buildings sites. Note the still empty quadrant of Public Square that remains a profitable parking lot and not the bank building proposed fifteen years ago. Shame! Wonder if the new ambitious Wolstein flats land grab will be built in a timely fashion , or simply another case of putting the profitable horse before the cart? .................While on the subject of downtown Cleveland , a great new way to help attain a healthier downtown Cleveland would start with turning one into two hundred eighty seven. Return the city grid to usable parcels on a human scale and watch earnest development occur. Start by electing reform oriented government. Break up the land grab gangs . Open up individual ownership and development of smaller zoned lots to the intelligent public and private entrepreneurs who prefer ownership to leases. Establish within these zones a variety of districts based on types of usage. Traditional retail , food and beverage , light wholesale , antiques . The emphasis here is in creative ownership and investment , not on leasing someone Else's idea of a planned space. many of the renovated structures in existence downtown today are without ground floor tenants due to a variety of problems that start with the words "lease only"...........Another form of progressive reform government would take away the ugly street level parking lots by eminent domain from the grifters who operate them. Surface level parking lots are legitimate eyesores , and often homes to much criminal activities. Opening these acquired surface parking lots to be offered again as for sale parcels and used to attract the permanent urban dwellers that make a downtown interesting and invest able. The City of Cleveland should consider building large parking structures south of Jacob's Field on the old Broadway Avenue produce yards that are now empty Wolstein property. Connecting by loop bus , trolley , and the RTA rail line that serves the flats to a a similar expanded parking structure on the site of the currently underutilized Cleveland municipal parking lot , were the strange orange football fans party , north of the New York Central rail tracks. Thus done , the downtown area might stand a chance to attract some new blood into it's tired self. Two massive City run parking lots would result in great parking revenues for the coffers if indeed the current eyesores that pass for public parking lots were invested into and built upon. Sounds like a plan. A plan that would restore ownership to individuals and remove some of the land grab gang from power .............Any Clevelander over thirty five should have a clear memory of our famous though now out of business Hough Bakery and it's many Cleveland locations. Everyone has their favorite Hough memory. Mine was the lemon frosted white layer cake that was a yearly birthday treat in my youth. Hough bakeries were clean and bright civilized outposts replete with humming bread slicing machines , egg noddles on the counter , cookies , cakes , breads , incredible coconut squares and poppy seed pastries , and always without fail had a hygienic clean flavor to the premises they occupied. Hough bakeries main plant was located just north of Euclid Avenue near the intersection of Lakeview Avenue on Cleveland's east side , and for years I would visit the outlet store with an eye for a marked down day old bargain. If you wish to experience an authentic Hough Bakery product today call on Archie's Bakery , located at east 150th and Lakeshore Boulevard. rchie is a former Hough baker and will reduplicate your favorite Hough recipe from his location. Telephone ahead for his hours , and while you are in that vicinity push on a bit further to stevenson's restaurant for one of their great sandwiches. BOOK SELLING TIME! Hough Bakery also had a catering department , and it produced quality recipes for social events that I attended for many years. We offer a copy of the Hough owner Robbie Pile's MENU PLANNING FOR EVERY OCCASION. This 368 page author signed volume great view of this once indiginous Cleveland enterprises fine work. Thanks again to my Family , Kim and John , Ask Kim about another bakery downstate way and it's annual Christmas "shnecken".Life does'nt get better than bakery!Labels: Archie's Bakery, Cleveland Ohio, Cleveland Press, Erieview Urban Renewal Project, Hough Bakery, p.d. CPL, stevenson's
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skid row cities
Time was ,not so many years ago that the " skid row" , or a visible and often distressed place of decline and public poverty , was a contained area of older buildings and sad faces and stories found often geographically on the older commercial edge of a City's downtown. Down around the rail yards. Wholesale produce districts. Cheap single room hotels. Funky , smelly old bars. Cheap hash house and chili parlor restaurants. Small retail stores featuring thousands of useful items for the laborer to purchase. Including. Splits of fortified wine with names like wild irish rose, thunderbird , pluck, and the like. Blister wrapped baloney . Smoked meats. Yellow cheese. Tins of mackerel or sardines. Sliced sunbeam white bread. Tobacco of all variety , pipes , papers , work gloves. nudie magazines. cold beer. playing cards. that lady sitting near the store's office door was for sale , or at least for rent.Recreational drugs no problem. Tiny bottles of hair oil , olive oil , tooth powders ,condoms, dice. Amazingly , every last item for sale was behind the store's counters. The store's ancient shylock clerk capable of just about any cash or credit transaction. In some skid row hotel's every floor served a function. Bootlegger in room thirteen. Floor three was for gambling ,y poker and barbut played with a heavy house cut and house armed protection provided . Never no questions asked! Problems with the police department , are you kidding? Fat envelopes of juiced cash with plenty of vig action slipped to the hotel's night clerk. The Old school pawn shops. Labor pools. Salvation Army thrift stores. Junk shops. Used furniture stores. Grocery stores with weathered vegetables and the acrid meat which hit your nostrils as soon as you opened the door. Fabled old neighborhoods , high and low victorian architecture. Federal style architecture. Weathered buildings and poverty apartment houses. //// Cleveland , Ohio and Detroit , Michigan are now skid row Cities. Not a very pretty site for the eyes. Mile after mile of abandoned lives and properties. East side and west side. North and South.Troubled affairs. Desperate people engaged in the pathos of living out lives that present ethical and moral quandaries . Rule not exception. Hunger visible and hang dog gaunt visage. The physical nature of the buildings and social environment are form fit to this raw stew of existence known as life in modern 21st century Cleveland , Ohio and Detroit , Michigan. Nothing much romantic or poetic found here save the waters of Lake Erie , the Detroit River , and the tragic and ironic souls of the survivors of these abandoned and destitute places. An old school bust out by any stretch.A sad state of affairs found today.Not that very long ago Cleveland , Ohio was a city described as having no major or quality hotels. Now corporate hotels dot the landscape , and we have no city. Poor judgement on the part of the politicians and what passes for leadership in contemporary Cleveland. The city of East Cleveland lies to the east and west of the City of Cleveland borders and should serve as a stern example as to how the mighty can tumble and fall. Described widely as a sister city to Lakewood , Ohio which is an inner ring suburb developed concurrently with East Cleveland at the turn of the twentieth century , Lakewood , Ohio survives as a viable place of residence to this day , and though the buildings and residences were constructed at the same time in history , once proud East Cleveland is now ravaged by years of neglect and crime and serves as great example of a contemporary skid row city. Similar elements and conditions at play in Cleveland, Ohio are working hard to insure at joining East Cleveland in this miserable ghetto existence . The true heroes are the brave and true law abiding citizens that remain committed to Cleveland and East Cleveland. Those said citizens who choose to remain and not flee to the beckoning further afield suburbs. These same citizens who might work a bit harder to help out a neighbor less fortunate. Crime always an issue. Detroit , Michigan has experienced a similar decline as Cleveland's , only on a larger scale , and for a longer period of time . Detroit is always a favorite city of mine. Difficult to perceive much hope for it's future , any more or less than Cleveland's own. Murder is a reality both places , and desperate people take extreme measure to settle disputes. Detroit , Michigan is the current " deadliest city in the United States of America" , according to a report issued by the FBI and Federal Government this past week. Cleveland, Ohio is seventh "deadliest city ". Cleveland , Ohio was once referred to reverently as the " Sixth City" in the 1920's , when at the same time Detroit , Michigan was the automotive and industrial giant of America. Both Cities have prospered previously , and are in great decline today in spite of political efforts to keep them alive and vibrant today in the 21st century. Not much positive hope in sight for either! A pair of post industrial 21st century stumble bum joker run politically incompetent cities . Both bleeding from crime and population loss today. No tourniquet seems to heal the open wounds. Detroit had a great skid row downtown , and as a youth in the sixties we would drive the two hours in search of fun of one form or another. We found what we were looking for in Detroit! Burlesque theatres with filthy comics and tawdry strippers. Bootleg bourbon whiskey . Grande Ballroom on Grand River. Rock and roll music with Stooges , MC5, Rationals , Up , Suzie Quatro and Bob Seger. Pale blue Motown sound abounding. Clang of the street level motor vehicle plants reminded us of Cleveland in a friendly fashion. Baseball games at Tiger Stadium when it was painted green and Kaline roamed the outfield. Years later we followed the Rick Manning era Cleveland Indians to Tiger Stadium to burn his rabbit ears with a sour chant of "Rickieeeeeeeee! " , while perched in the old section of the second tier grandstand in right field. Rick Manning had a great affinity for hitting into rally killing ninth innings 4 - 6 - 3 double plays. I believe the one Cleveland Indians record that Rick Manning owns is for hitting into game ending outs. After viewing his less than illustrious career , Manning is perhaps the most representative Cleveland Indians player of the late 20th century. Terrible baseball! Detroit on the other hand had damn good baseball teams , and it was always about going to an Indians game to watch the quality talented players on the opposing team. Having players like Manning in the starting lineup ensured a loosing season! Skid row baseball in Cleveland, Ohio. Well in all fairness they still made Cadillac's in Detroit back then. Cleveland made Ford's and they broke down a bunch. Professional baseball is healthy in both cities today , though not many citizens of Detroit , Michigan or Cleveland , Ohio can afford the price of admission to the baseball stadiums. Poverty budgets do not allow for paid admission to professional sporting events ., For all the public assistance that has been heaped on these baseball franchises , the least the Indians and Tigers organizations could do is to allow inner city geriatrics and youngsters free admission after the fifth inning. Children and their elders go first in a fit society that is able to imagine a healthy population of more value than mere profit. Not in the skid row cities of Detroit and Cleveland! Detroit and Cleveland politics share a sordid secret. Corruption at critical levels of their elected and appointed political positions . Unfit leadership. International perceptions of Detroit and Cleveland are dire. Note the former " devil's night" in Detroit as a model for the trash tourism that both cities have failed to embrace to date . Sordid sells! Detroit has embraced this trashy tourist notion more than Cleveland due to it's casino culture and international border . [ Always suspected that Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes only good idea that was not self serving was his proposal to build a bridge from Cleveland to Canada ] . A gambling culture promotes crime , as well as more negative than positive social behavior in the urban communities that reside within Detroit and Cleveland borders. Citizens of both cities historically have had access to municipal government sanctioned mob run versions of casinos . Detroit is sin city for the rest of Meeeshegan. Cleveland is the northern most part of the American south. Just above the Mason Dixon line. A blue Northern orphan city in a renegade county . Perched in anoxiated style on the south shores of Lake Erie, a sea of rednecks in the eighty seven counties below that comprise the hicksville that is the remainder of the State Of Ohio. Detroit and it's relationship to the remainder of the State of Michigan in geographically opposite fashion. With the Uppers and jackpine savages that inhabit the Michigan wilds above Detroit the addled equivalents of southern Ohio residents. Bookselling Time! Both Cleveland and Detroit have books that represent better days , and two of these visual documents are YESTERDAY'S DETROIT , and YESTERDAY'S CLEVELAND. George Condon the noted Cleveland journalist and author did a great job composing the Cleveland volume. George is a great writer , fine fellow , and you as readers should be familiar with his great wit and ironic sense of humor.Labels: Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, Tiger Stadium
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Bring back Captain Frank's Restaurant
and please tear down that ugly old fake and big mistake the rock n ' roll hall of fame.I admit that while set up in my invisible magic psychedelic swirling tent perched next to the aptly named sculpture FREE STAMP located next to Cleveland City Hall , on the bluff overlooking the former perch of Captain Frank's Seafood Restaurant on the East Ninth Street Pier near Cleveland's downtown lakefront and tawdry rrhf. Confession time.Yes I admit to having sold baseball shaped rocks plucked from Lake Erie waters and embellished by felt magic marker with the musical artist of one's choice then loaded into my rock launching catapult and aimed at the glass roof of rock n' roll hall of fame below at water's edge from this shelter of shady sculpture. Psst? Hey buddy , wanna get your favorite rock and roll act in the hall of fame? Follow me. Sold two NRBQ rocks that locked and loaded in for a glass splitting thrill. Then another dollar crossed my palms , MC5 whizzed in with a righteous crash , Sun Ra and all his arkestras followed , then Captain Beefheart and His Magic Bands, and our perennial hometown favorites Pere Ubu , then The Meters and Doctor John the nighttripper flew in with mojo poppin' and crashin'.Breaking roof glass . Wetting up the oh so hush, hush very secret stained and soiled rock stars underwear collection. Stuck in ditty bags inside the ffhf buildings gothic eaves. Rocks land with a thud near the slumbering night clothing clerk whose job is to guard the secret underwear stash . Hell , I even sold some sucker from down in the mashed potato belt south of our city near North Royalton , a rock with south side johnny and da jukes scrawled upon it. south side johnny is from new jersey and very popular with the southwest side of cleveland types. Medina as well goes for the south side act. The new jersey rock bounced off the roof .No way did south side jersy penetrate the glass ceiling. Many other weak acts failed to gain airborne entrance this year. I will set up my swirling tent again this coming spring . You see the question posed here is aesthetics? Aesthetics be damned! Money is the issue here. I admit to whoring out and selling the southside johnny rock , with no regrets. The inclusion of talent a foreign thought when considering the amount of recorded product sold as the primary criteria for entrance via the election process that opens the artist to the dubious inclusion of enshrinement into the rrhf. Hell , we always snuck into rock shows in Cleveland via fire escapes and rooftops , why not climb into the I.M. Pei napkin holder building in the same fashion? My catapult rocks the real deal! If you want a read on what the rrhf is all about have a look see at opening time any morning between now and April 15, 2008. The pigeons , rats , and propped up ugly guitars that loiter around it's entrance will out number any live humans seeking entrance . If it were not for the school busses and children fed" lies , damn lies , and statistics" , from the career incompetents that staff the rrhf , very few people would actually visit this moth ball laden rag museum. Ho Hum! Waters around the back end of rock n roll hall of fame are murky. A Voinoditch to be exact. Their creepy and phony little back waters is were Captain Gobi chums for the special three eyed glow in the dark catfish once caught with great regularity all along Cleveland Harbor and especially at East Ninth Street Pier . Captain Frank's was great fun to visit . Drinking at Captain Frank's tiny ten stool bar a must when attending an event near the lakefront downtown. Within it's narrow confines often could be found an inebriated Jim Backus type , who was so loopy on booze that he would continue to buy rounds for the bars patrons until he plunged into the sauce headfirst. We would drink and eat at Captain Frank's , before and after Cleveland Indians games at the old and glorious Cleveland Municipal Stadium , never failing to find a parking meter at any hour of the day or night. The East Ninth Street pier was also a fine and handy spot for fishing 24 hours a day , 365 days per year. In importance of quality of life Captain Frank's was a better fit for the city that lies to it's south. The rrhf is a greasy little back water joint that looks like a paper napkin holder .The rrhf possesing the aesthetic sense of a mute , and all the exiting qualities of a corporate fun house for sweaty old clothes , with some busted up and worn out musical instruments tossed in for weak flavor. Captain Frank's allowed for dining until three a.m. or later seven days a week , and was a true beacon of life and safe harbor for the citizenry of Cleveland for many years until the rock n' roll hall of fame gang rode in from new york and shut the East Ninth Street Pier down. What a lousy location for a tourist attraction, and part of a major problem with Cleveland's lakefront and the rest of it's downtown. No connection between the two exists save the laborious and dangerous hike up and down the hill over the railroad tracks , and across a very busy automotive intersection. Not very bright place for an amusement attraction , and believe me not at all connected with the remainder of downtown Cleveland. It is lamentable that I have read recently that the rrhf gang would like to attract a restaurant to serve the visitors of this used clothes and skivvy collection that is the rrhf.Seems we had a great year around public accessable restaurant in Captain Frank's . Perhaps just recreating Captain Frank's complete with a facsimile of it's major nautical tack neon sign of the Captain at the wheel would serve us citizens better. I resent the lack of common sense and crooked politics that removed our public access top the East Ninth Street Pier , and the urban lakefront flavor that it was. The greedy craniums of the rrhf gang and it's new york city corporate sponsors stole our pier! Of all the promise this facility offered to a challenged city such as Cleveland , every last detail concerning the creation and delivery of this overrated flea circus of moldy rags and greasy pickups is flawed. Location , location , location. The annual induction ceremonies are seldom held here , robbing those locals who might benifit fiscally by it's absence, so why not refer to this phony joint as the small town gyp joint that it is. Would have preferred the rrhf designed as a large promotional record with cash falling from it's jacket , or perhaps a building desinged as an open brief case stuffed with cash and promotional records , drugs , and chits for prostitution falling from it's purse. Later man , time to fold my tent. Sold out all of the rocks I had for sale today , and will probably not return until sprigtime due to the rough winter's weather. In the meantime folks , do yourself a favor and help us boycott this loser of yet another ill concieved and corrupt Cleveland place of business! Perhaps if we get lucky we can cut it loose from it,s moorings and it will float off to Canada and be put to some use. If not retrofit the rrhf into a card room or budget casino. /////////////////For a real Cleveland tourist attraction observe the surreal dogpound located on West 63rd street between Stock and Storer Avenues , on the cities southwest side. A howling good time! Streaming video will follow on this site!/////////////// Bookselling Time! Save your gasoline , and the time you would waste visiting Cleveland and it's ugly little clothes bin , the rrhf , purchase instead the classic well illustrated history of cloth in rock and roll , Mablen Jones' GETTING IT ON : The Clothing of Rock and Roll. Thrill to the book's cover featuring photographs of a bloated, bathrobed and seriously debilitated Ozzy Osborne , a ridiculous Mick Jagger in clown gear , and a spike haired , c guitarist named Lita Ford stabbing Ozzy in the jewels with her priapic guitar neck. Purchase this doozy between now and Christmas and we will toss in a music book of our choice free of charge on all domestic orders. Such a deal! A whole lot better of a deal than the citizens of Cleveland received from the rrhf. Bring back Captain Frank's !Labels: architecture, Captain Frank's Restaurant, Cleveland Ohio, Free Stamp, I.M. Pei, MC5, NRBQ, Pere Ubu, Rock n' Roll Hall Of Fame, Sun Ra
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Of knives and other sharp items
Water in Lake Erie recedes. Giving away ground. As well the declining corporate music business , and it's bosom friend in the soft entertainment industry , your basic dead tree and typeset companions in the publishing fields of books , slick magazines , tabloids , and the doubtful American daily newspaper are going the way of the model t ford. And this is the dire news that is never really told by the twin industries that spin their fortunes from nickels , dimes , and bold faced lies. Fiscal bad news is perceived as not fit to print , lest it mess up the hair of it's financial agents and investors , or wake up further the smoldering public sentiment for fairness and honesty in reporting which is immediate , free , and far more interesting to consume today in the streaming on line sphere that many of our lives are lived within today.///////// Suffering double digit fiscal erosion every year the recorded music end of the entertainment industry is in a free fall. Technological savvy Internet users and a diminishing market are the one - two combination that stagger the kneecaps , causing audible knocking under it's hood and the dead timber bunch sent head over heals to oblivion and beyond. All right, I did not go for the obvious play on words , dead timbre , though I sneak it in 'hear' for my own amusement. As for the temporary reprieve granted the contemporary version of the daily newspaper , most will be but a printed dead tree memories in the scant space of a few years to come. It is an impossible task to read the local version of newspaper mediocrity , the plain dealer , and derive anything of intellectual value or stimulation . No candor , wit , or objectivity spring forth from the keypads of it's " writers" , these days. A dumbed down amateur air seems to be the flavor of it's style book , the lack of any in depth reporting is painfully obvious , daily, weekly , and monthly , year in year out. I do like the editorial cartoonist who works on the p.d. op-ed page , Egan the fishing and racetrack writer on the sports page as well, Photographer Lynne Ischaey , and some others employed are talented in the limited aesthetic fashion of news gathering and it's dissemination conspired by the business and political goals of the cleveland plain dealer and it's companion lower tier newspapers that dot the print journalism landscape of a USA today universe. Even if you posses meager artistic talents , as most of us do, you are apt never to have a means of using them to anywhere near potential while employed by a contemporary news or media concern such as the Cleveland plain dealer. Pathetic. The syndicated news efforts are far better than the locally gathered variety. I prefer to read quality 'stringers' such as Christopher Maag , write about Cleveland , Ohio news via the pages of The New York Times , than the Cleveland plain dealer version. In the New York Times a higher level of authentic news and opine appear in a news article , and a better " style book" demands better writing and reporting of news. On the positive side , today's online edition of the plain dealer featured a one minute streaming video news clip of chef Michael Symon's coronation as iron chef. A tip of the high white hat to Michael , and in the realm of Cleveland plain dealer front pages news for the past two days which I did not read , proved all I needed to view and understand of this culinary circus event. Perfect! This clip from the plain dealer online version is a good example of why modern streaming news is today's authentic news , and these clips will only get shorter and more pared down as the attention spans and demands upon future humans space available within their collective minds is an issue to chew upon. Minimal perfection of the light weight news of the passing hour , minute , second , fractional seconds. With the advent of the hand held video and photography devices , add stroke of a keypad , upload and bingo instant news. The textual efforts in the online plain dealer proved succinct but unreadable as news , so minute in content or news value as if to make television news appear to contain more viable content. A universal law should exist prohibiting the use of the words television and news in the same sentence . Yet the plain dealer online " breaking news" reads as if the news offered was compressed and composed for the eyes of a third grade child. Leaving the classified ads section as the only reason to purchase the plain dealer and I would have nothing to do with the p.d. at all if it were not for this advertising section . Far better to spend the extra .075 cents daily and buy the New York Times . Possessing a nose for news and a more discerning pall ate , the New York Times , International Herald Tribune , or any other well written and edited newspaper left standing in the world today printed in the English language is more to my taste . The New York Times , though not without many faults and biases , provides a more discerning and erudite printed news flavor , and is closer in aroma and strength to the coffee I imbibe every morning . Few and far between these days these newspapers of worthy note , and the p.d. is merely a near extinct old species fish , washing up on a dying lakes shore in a diminishing market of readers and consumers , and now is forced to compete a little leaner every year in terms of it's new hires , and looks to it's corpulent staff of writers for meat and is given cheap hamburger in it's printed place. The politics of this newspaper are well documented by my old Friend Roldo Bartimole in his well written , Point Of View columns over the past forty years , and it is due to Roldo's fine and dogged efforts to keep the politics and goals of the "pee dee " as actual news and under public scrutiny that I have an appreciation for the low aims and skulduggery that the current plain dealer represents in Cleveland , Ohio. ///////// File transfers and digital downloads are the death knoll for the recorded music business , or a return to it's budget origins . What once was a physical salable product in the form of a vinyl record album , compact disc , or magnetic tape of recorded music is now a .99 cent musical download and the equivalent of a Internet jukebox that allows the dollar to spit back to the user a metaphorical penny to be chalked up against the .098 cents due for the tune purchased and downloaded. The recorded music industry started over a century ago , selling single tune cylinder recordings and then .78 r.p.m. recorded discs for dimes to dollars, and this same music business in one hundred years time has returned to it's low rent origins in a modern 21st century market that demands custom designed immediate gratification via it's fickle custom blending digital consumers. ///////////////////// Factor in the effects of the hyperbole merchants employed by these industries in public relations , advertising , and the business of ballyhoo, vitriol , and blather created by the newspaper and entertainment industries . No wonder today's critical , picky youngsters will have nothing much to do with this coven of bad actors and professional liars. Witching hour approaches for these flawed and vulnerable industries and those employed by them. Heads are rolling wholesale , and add to this fray a National writer's strike , and let those left standing sort events out. The media ship is lilting in it's traditional safe harbor waters , and taking on water fast. The propaganda newspaper merchants and electrical entertainment peddlers will be moving in together on some low rent flop where their .99 cent and .50 cent products will die a lonely corporate death. Good riddance! BOOK SELLING TIME! Ernest Hemingway FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS . First American edition. Eleven eleven is the chosen day to celebrate Veteran's Day in the United States Of America. I am old enough to remember the hoards of street seller's with pin on red poppies for sale , to benefit the less than fortunate homeless or otherwise suffering veterans of previous American wars , and all news sources that disclose that a significant number of homeless men in these United States of America today are veterans of the Vietnam War. As a nation we treat our pets better than our less than fortunate veterans and homeless human beings. Many others homeless in America are either mentally ill , handicapped or crippled in some fashion. Find space in your life for these fallen fellow humans. The season is upon us to find space in our collective and individual hearts for others not as fortunate. Spend some of our most precious commodity , time , in your busy life to help provide some basic needs and attention to one who is less fortunate. Take a tip from my pal John , who sent me a pair of boat sized tennis shoes for my old baseball pal James to wear. A random act of kindness , that will be appreciated by this still worthy human life that deserves better than he receives , and does not complain . You will not have to look far these days. Poverty is a scourge upon this land , and the mounting fiscal woes that foreclosures and a society that chooses to live in great collective denial,debt , and fiscal peril occurs will certainly produce more casualties , not to mention the impending shake out in the entertainment and dead tree industries. We here at Old Erie Street Bookstore soldier on selling books the best we can in a world market where demand is far out stripped by supply , and the pressure price wise is downward not up. A second hand player in the entertainment and dead tree industry , I give book selling another decade or so prior to it's extinction, save some unique printed items that might appeal to antiquarians and art mavens. The Hemingway offered is without a dust jacket and not a top collector's grade edition , though I expect it has good value based on the prices of comparable new volumes of fiction or literature today. That we will sell this volume prior to the Year's impending calendar end is likely. Be the first on your block to take a Ernest Hemingway first edition as your office party or retirement gift for than newly unemployed person in the entertainment or news industry.////////// Culinary Bites! My old pal and original skillet man Slim , who burns porcine hash and slings root beverages at his public chowhouse and science project down Kentucky way , aptly named SLIM'S, and just a tad North of the queen city of the South and I both agreed , Michael Symon is the new iron chef. News only because we both figured it out well before it was filmed ,Slim and I both concurred at the announcement of the series some months back that Michael was to win.Results are in and no place to place a bet! Sounds like a new sports book with all the odds and evens factored in , should be established for the outcome of future culinary match ups for those who wish to wager on such competitions.Make note , I only mention this culinary crowning of the victor in the name of a sports championship coming to Cleveland. Cleveland beats New Orleans in the culinary world series . " Hey Rube!". " That's Entertainment".Labels: Cleveland Ohio, Lola Restaurant, Michael Symon, Music, Old Erie Street Bookstore, pd, Roldo Bartimole, Slim's, Sports
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Cleveland's political vegetables
Hero's have changed mightly since my youth's passage. Presently the two mature adult Afro - American men dressed in cast off clothing , pushing an appropriated supermarket cart past my doorway at two a.m. while in search for cast off aluminum can's qualify.Whatever sustains them against a bitter November's weather proves to me the true grit and spirit in our eternal quest for survival far more than any professional athlete's endeavors possibly could. A bunch of hapless men and a few women live the year around huddled in the confines of near bye Erie Street Cemetery. Hammocks slung over tree limbs during the summer months , building makeshift tented structures with building materials under bridges during colder months. These nomadic folks are survivors. Television clowns posing as such brave creatures while playing a reality game" , fall short. The former would consider eating insects as means for survival , the later for amusement and profit. Combining a homeless tribe of American citizens and a culinary reality show could be in the works? A morbid reality culinary big game three ring circus replete with contestants hunting , gathering , and ...... ? I suppose you can can fill in the blanks concerning this fictitious matter. Sadly , a morbid success would occur , and a new window into the narcissistic American " foodie " movement unfold as well. My current cooking heroes are the men and women that serve those less fortunate by donating their most precious resource , time , in volunteering in a soup kitchen. The real culinary art is to make fresh ingredients of a common or utility nature sing with flavor and feed a multitude . Stews , soups , chowders , salads , grains , tubers , thick with fresh vegetables , rudimentary proteins ,and the occasional sharp edge provided via very fresh spices the trick. . Fresh ingredients and scratch preparation the operative words. This form of work , given freely by those that have to those who do not , a great gift for all involved. Like those two men pushing the scrap metal gathering grocery cart up and down city streets until they gather enough for the scrap dealer. Real survivor's in today's America might live under freeway bridges on the edge of your downtown area. Thirty years ago Cleveland , Ohio had a terrible bitter cold winter , that barely saw any above freezing weather from early December through April 1978. That June of 1978 in old Cleveland Municipal Stadium , I witnessed snow in the air while attending a Indians game. Point is that it remained cold for quite sometime that spring. That same winter a number of homeless men had taken up residence in a abandoned multiple level parking structure on East Second Street between High Street and Huron Avenue , in the Historic Central Market district. These men had built human nests a few stories above the street and within the airborne spaces designed for the automobiles . Imagine a honey comb of multiple colored cloth American male human beings wrapped in cardboard boxes and attempting to survive such a brutal sub zero streak of weather with winds that drove the temperature into double digit " chill factor " territory. We stayed awake most evenings playing cards and drinking in the apartment above the Italian food store next to the homeless men in their parking lot suspended above the food store. I was always amazed by the resilience of these true " survivors" , and how they were able to still function after spending a night in a cardboard cocoon? One cold evening we were interrupted from our games with the loud wail of fire sirens. Seems that one of these men had built a fire for warmth and it got a little out of hand and caught a citizen's attention. Pretty weird on the eyes at three a.m. People that work long and hard at providing children with stability and education in the face of poverty and social ills of life in contemporary urban America are my heroes as well. Athletes and entertainment figures who give back to the world via a charitable pipeline to those with less on their plates are heroes as well. By the way , after the winter of 1978 I moved to North Carolina swearing off the absurd graven politics and darker nature of Cleveland , Ohio. Not to mention the rather frigid gulag winter's. Sworn never to return to Cleveland , Ohio again . Weather passed , and I returned to Cleveland in time for most of the 1980's , hoping against hope that a multi cultural progressive renaissance might occur. It never did. Hey Cookman! Here is a great way to clean out your vegatable drawer and feed a crew of hungry bipeds. In a large cast iron or non stick skillet over medium low heat shake in some olive oil or other fat. Add in this order the following combination of vegatables , chopped onions , peeled and chopped garlics and shallots , green , yellow , and red peppers , chopped , peeled , seeded , and devained. Any variatle squashes , members of the cabbage family , and whatever other non tuborous vegetable matter in your icebox. Season with fresh and dried herbs , including a large palm full of smoked parika , a shot of commercial hot sauce , and whatever flavor you personally find simpactico! Turn down the heat to low , cover , and simmer , turning occasionaly until done to your taste. Serve with a fresh loaf of crusty bread , pasta , or any starch of your choosing. Yes , you can add tomatoes in season or out , and a simple green salad is also a fine complement to this simple meal. Cleveland's Central Market district was a great asset to downtown, drawing customer's from both sides of the city drawn to it's fresh meats , fish , groceries , and especially quality fruits and produce. The Central Market served as a citizen freindly historic and festive public food market site downtown for over one hundred years until being dismantled for the short sited construction of the non historic district that is called today " gateway". Gateway is an example of corporate welfare that occured in the construction of the non descript " cookie cutter" baseball stadium called " Jacob's Field " for the Cleveland Indians , and the indoor sports facility " Gund Arena" for the Cleveland Cavalier's basketball interests. Ignoring an expensive 1970's urban plan executed for the City of Cleveland by Lawrence Halprin , which recommended preserving and embracing the Central Market District as a new urban residential area , the cabal of career corrupt politicians , and usual suspects in the media created enough ballyhoo and blather to pass a countywide tax by less than one half of a percentage in favor of establishing a sin tax to pay for these corporate sports facilities at the expense of the historic Central Market District. Less than one half of a percent! A recall should have been an immediate event , though when your media is merely the propaganda wing of government , you gets what you gets. In this case the citzens of Cleveland , who voted against the tax , lost valuable property now assigned to corporate professional sports interests got screwed mightly. This single political debacle has left downtown Cleveland the ghoulish creepy ghost town that it is now most days and evenings of a calendar year. A renevated public or municipal market with historic cache such as Cleveland's Central Market the dream of a contemporary City planner anywere in the world today. Destroying the Central Market District yet another Cleveland , Ohio mistake on a grand and profound level. The very wooden pear crates that hold the books inside the confines of Old Erie Street Bookstore are from the graces of a few kind freinds at the Central Market , and in choosing the location of this bookstore in 1980 much was based on the potential of a renovated Central Market District. Fast forward to 2007 , this booksotore is closed to the public due to lack of economic street level retail activity. Booze , cheap beer , and vomit are found in these parts instead. My old hero's the homeless men and women who lived and survived around the Central Market were polite and corteous compared to the coarse well fed drunken bums who gravitate around here currently. Bookselling Time! All this blather concerning vegetables , and not even a politician in sight. A scarce compendious tome is JANE GRIGSON"S VEGETABLE BOOK. If you are to own one volume on the subject of vegetables this would be a fine choice. Smartly researched and penned , this delightful volume won the prized 1978 Glenfidich Writer of the Year Award in England.Labels: Central Market, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Cleveland Ohio, Culinary, Erie Street Cemetery
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Driving 45rpm in a 78rpm zone
Another strange day on the coastal boondocks hard upon the south shore of Lake Erie.
An old graduate of Cleveland's bad boy high school, Thomas Edison, Lester Russaw now aged seventy-four, who says he performed as a young man with a musical group known as The Coronets, who in 1953 recorded a rhythm and blues song NADINE, the writing credit assigned to a later payola scandalized Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed, and released by Chess records of Chicago, Illinois, reaching number three on the national Rhythm and Blues Billboard charts.
You can bet that the Chess brothers Leonard and Phil made a lot of money on this record and that Russow and his band mates did not.
Alan Freed made a lot of money as well. Larry Russow was not as fortunate and was pulled over by Wickliffe, Ohio police for driving 50 mph in the fast lane of Interstate 90, just a shuffling away in his silver 2007 Chrysler Sebring, after committing the crime of robbing a near bye bank of $9,203 dollars.
Russaw receives $360.00 in Social security a month and was behind in his bills.
Afro- American men and women musicians in 1950's America were the true pioneers of the nascent original rock and roll music which was often purchased cheap by record industry heavies, and I mean heavies in the b- movie sense , and then repackaged and sold cross over to Caucasian audiences.
Really folks, Elvis Presley would not have enjoyed musical success without the influences of the Afro - American musicians Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, and Willie Mae “Big Mamma" Thornton.
Arthur Crudup became so fed up with not receiving his musical royalties that he ceased recording it, turning instead to bootlegging whiskey, and working as a laborer instead of suffering the emasculation and misery of being robbed by the criminal music industry.
The remnants of this same music industry today are dying a slow fiscal death and I do not feel even an iota of sympathy for this bunch of corporate pirates that walked all over and then penalized men like Arthur Crudup and many other vulnerable artists of all colors and stripes of their purse by patently refusing to pay royalties on their recorded or penned music.
Lester Russaw had no right to rob a bank, brandishing a firearm while committing a robbery is truly a crime and he should be punished accordingly. Though the white collar gangsters that ran the music business in 1950's America were criminals also, and hired plenty of gun packing, knee breaking “muscle”, when they felt it necessary to enforce any business pursuits or royalty claims that went contrary to their selfish monetary policies. It appears that the wake that is left in the water by such fraudulent and nasty business is still being felt today some fifty plus years later.
Examine the HBO series THE SOPRANOES and the character" Hesh”, for a cleaned up read on this moral dilemma.
Fountain pen?
Pistola?
Sometimes it is pretty difficult to tell one robber from the other robber, though Lester Russaw should have known better than to be caught driving 45rpm in a 78rpm zone.
Book selling Time!
Not quite a bestseller but perhaps the very book that Lester Russaw should have consulted before leaving home the other day, Gunnar Karlsson's scarce 1987 publication, A PHENOMENOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGICAL METHOD: THEORETICAL FOUNDATION AND EMPIRICAL APPLICATION IN THE FIELD OF DECISION MAKING AND CHOICE.
In keeping with the rather odd account of Mister Russaw's less than fortunate choice we offer the following new title for your reading pleasure.
I am not positive that anyone could find pleasure in reading this title, though if you can or know someone who has have please send have them a review or synopsis to this site ,d I will provide a free book of my choice postpaid.
By the way… “could somebody tell me what diddy wah diddy means?"
For my Father who actually taught at Thomas Edison High School in pre World War Two Cleveland, Ohio and who had the wisdom to refer to Thomas Edison High School as a “bad boys school," and scare the bejabbers out of me as a youth.
Thanks to John and Kim, Goodnight and hats off to Hank Thompson, and Willie “Willie Tee" Turbinton, both superb musical talents who recently have passed away.
They will be missed!Labels: Alan Freed, Arthur Crudup, Chess records, Cleveland Ohio, Elvis Presley, Lester Russaw, Music, Payola, True Crime
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An education of sorts
was found at the downtown campus of Cleveland State University in the early to mid nineteen seventies.
As an undergraduate student wavering between the arts department and the social work department, working towards a bachelor's degree was a luxury that was second fiddle to my greater education via the streets, alleys, and avenues, and the responsibility as a member of a household, wife, and children.
The real education was in the utter disrespect that CSU had for the neighborhood downtown that it was encroaching upon, and its serial demolition of quality urban structures in its insatiable quest for expansion.
These buildings that were destroyed and slaughtered wholesale, only to be replaced with CSU parking lots , vacant speculative lots , and the ugly brutal buildings that are the architectural bell weather of this pug ugly campus.
For a visual idea of the type of structures that existed prior to the 1970's urban destruction , via the filmed on location in Cleveland, Ohio in 1966 by Billy Wilder, starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, THE FORTUNE COOKIE, the apartment scenes , both exterior and interior were filmed on a quality apartment building on East 19th Street between Euclid and Chester Avenue, one building in a solid block of brick ten story turn of the century luxury buildings that CSU demolished into rubble and replaced with an inferior and brutal addition to their campus.
THE FORTUNE COOKIE, was described as being filmed in "grimy black and white”, and resulted in a best supporting actor for Matthau's role at the 1967 Oscar awards.
This block destroyed and the five hundred or so residents displaced are the very type of citizens that the inept Cleveland planning commission, and the political knuckleheads that built CSU would like to attract back today to reside in the new planned " college town", that CSU intends to create in the next few years.
What a joke!
Destroy what is real and replace it with yet another ersatz phony planned community, selling the sizzle again and not the pork steak. It has been said that CSU should not be allowed to teach any courses, or even possess an Urban Studies Department, until they can apologize and rectify their destroying a viable urban neighborhood in pursuit of their greedy land grabbing goals.
Replacing citizens with parking for their suburban student base, and desecrating historic structures in the pursuit of academic mediocrity their modus operandi.
This wholesale destruction of properties adjoining CSU continues to this day, and the sprawling ugly mess that is CSU just grows uglier by the day. What would one expect from a second or third tier State University, such as CSU?
I spent my hard-earned money in attaining a degree from that gyp joint diploma mill, and threw the diploma into a file cabinet after receiving it in the mail, and I have offered many times to scratch out my name and allow some other sucker the use of this cheap piece of academic paper.
I would have been better off waiting until 2007, when answering today's telephone messages, a faux cheesy English accented coot left a hilarious offer to purchase a diploma for one hundred dollars via an 800 number and a credit card.
Should have waited and saved my money!
It was always such a great disappointment to see the wrecking ball knock down yet another solid brick building in the city of Cleveland, and my graphic black and white photographs of many of these now destroyed structures will be available as prints at a later date.
Just what were the culprits that conspired to this desecration of a city thinking about when they dismantled this city during the 1960’s, 1970’s, and 1980's?
The 1990's brought more of the same urban destruction as a political means of citizenry removal , and what we have to show for these actions is a decimated population , and a sad urban scene.
Bookselling Time!
A new offering just listed today, and certainly a book that any politician or University president should be required to read, an 1874 treatise on etiquette, and manners entitled THE BAZAR BOOK. Thanks to all fellow students and citizens who have survived the greedy machinations of the destructive planners and politicos.
My mother and family, Kim and John!Labels: Cleveland Ohio, Cleveland State University
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Ain't my "Boss"
Bruce Springsteen was in town once again. B.S. and his e-street band are still peddling warmed over retread Phil Spector spins since 1973.
A constant source of embarrassment while residing in Cleveland during the 1970's, was witnessing this vastly overrated new jersey musical import being hyped up and tossed into the Cleveland radio market via the grease merchants from Columbia records and delivered willingly to the airwaves on wmms fm .
How disgusting it is to still encounter the fascination with Springsteen's music by the naive local crowd to this day. By all accounts Bruce Springsteen is a decent human being and I can positively identify with his non musical political beliefs, I have attempted to sample his offerings over the years but his musical message is lost somewhere in NEBRASKA.
Speaking of bosses, the daily fish wrapper, aka p.d. ,offered forth their new editor , one Susan Goldberg , for an hour of softball repartee via the airwaves of wcpn on their Monday morning November 5th "ideas stream ?" program, which aired from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m.
Never has so little of consequence been said in such an allotted time.
The stench of self-serving palaver clogged the public airwaves for an hour and served to attract no real critical callers. One nice elderly woman called from Lakewood, Ohio, to express her son’s p.d. reading joy when he visits home from a southern Ohio city.
No wonder, if you believe that a quality newspaper is lacking here in the "best location in the nation"; try finding a newspaper down interstate 71 a piece! The p.d. seems to have open access to the public radio station's programming at the expense of any true public criticism, or inclusion of any contrarian or challenging thinkers derived from the public it purportively serves.
The ongoing relationship between the for profit and highly politically motivated pd and our so called " public radio station " wcpn is so cozy as to beg for a third party chaperon to be present to break up their on air petting and make out sessions that occur whenever one of the serial sycophants from the pd crawl into the wcpn radio stations friendly on air confines.
When Ms. Goldberg mentioned "the p.d. and journalistic ethics" I had to excuse myself from breakfast for purpose of an inspired prodigious creation of a malodorous purgative. Welcome, Ms. Goldberg to Ohio's largest newspaper, spaceport, and the ever so predictable quilting bee located at 1801 Superior.
In keeping with the loosely themed subject of writer's, it appears that the Hollywood branch of The Writer's Guild of America may be on strike for awhile.
Along with California oranges, one of our prime American exports is entertainment, and I wish these dedicated hacks the best of luck and success in their pursuit for residuals. In the meantime, perhaps Bart Simpson will pick up an old cigar butt of Winston Churchill's, and we can clone some political diplomacy for the world again.
Or when O. J. Simpson makes his date with the jailhouse he can find solace in Marge Simpson, and Martha Stewart as his main rappes.
If you are venturing a bit east of city limits check out Stevenson’s bar and grill , established 1920 along Lakeshore Boulevard in Euclid , Ohio. A great curative for the political upheaval in Euclid's bloody knuckled recall election tomorrow , Stevenson's is always the same great place for lunch or late dinner seven days a week, great hamburgers, fried baloney, homemade soups, handcut fries , and other comforting foods.
Plenty of cold beverages, and sports on the twin televisions that flank the long bar. The ambience here is the beauty of a restaurant that is charming, family run, and always a popular destination to take a visitor from out of the area.
Never have had anything less than a great meal, served up friendly and cooked to perfection every time. Try their loaded up fish sandwich.
Perfection!
Bookselling Time!
For an early holiday chore why not look no further than a copy of Mary Peale Schofield's LANDMARK ARCHITECTURE OF CLEVELAND, this enjoyable reliable history published in 1976, remains the most accurate and usable guide to date.
You the user will have to overlook the missing buildings that did not make the aesthetic or political cut, and have been taken down since the books publication.
You can always visit the vacant lot as a consolation prize. Such is life in historic preservation architecture starved Cleveland, Ohio.
Thanks to John and Kim, and my Family. Go Oranges! I mean Browns! Those NFL uniforms and all this orange cloth worship has got to go!
Ugly!Labels: architecture, Bruce Springsteen, Cleveland Ohio, pd, stevenson's, wcpn, wmms
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What's to like about Cleveland?
Plenty!
Lake Erie and life that revolves with the seasonal flux of this proud body of freshwater.
Walking through the Northern Ohio Food Terminal vibrant with color and life while visiting the commission houses in search of a box of limes or avocados at five a.m. All the great dedicated people who choose to reside here.
Buying fruit or seasonal vegetables from the kind gentleman farmer from Northeast, Pennsylvania who sets up shop from his truck bed next to the Middle East Bakery and Saint Maron's church on Carnegie Road every Sunday morning during harvest.
This farmer's marketing is unique in that the length of nearbye Woodland Avenue was formerly a curbside market stretching eastward from the old Central Market to East 55Th Street, for the majority late nineteenth and early to mid-twentieth century and his stand is the last link in a time honored tradition.
All items for sale are home grown, and last Sunday produced late season tomatoes, a variety of apples, peppers, kale, parsley, and a stunning variety of colorful eggplants. The great swatch of urban greenery that comprises still the tree's that gave name to Cleveland as "The Forest City."
The restored majestic theatres of Playhouse Square and the robust life they provide for an otherwise drunk and addled sports oriented downtown.
The interesting International district along Payne, Saint Clair, and Superior avenues east of downtown, naively referred to as "Chinatown" by the local media, which is a unique blend of Oriental, Occidental, and Hispanic populations and the flavors they are comprised of. Stopping on a Sunday morning to listen to and take in a lively storefront church service whose sanctified chorus stills the heart and gives truer meaning to the word religion.
Hot fresh hand twisted breads from Presti's bakery on Mayfield Road.
Corbo's Bakery across the street on Mayfield Road for cassata cake, lemon ice, or any sweet treat. Smoked meats from Zagreb meats on Saint Clair Avenue, do not miss his smoked pork tenderloins!
A stroll through the City off Cleveland greenhouses just east off Martin Luther King Blvd. south of the Interstate 90 exit.
Fishing off the rocks behind the old Cleveland Public Power plant on the North Marginal Road.
The Seven Roses Delicatessen on Fleet Street in the Slavic Village neighborhood. Music and good times at The Beachland Ballroom in North Collinwood, the most creative, unique, and well run music venue in the State of Ohio, and one of the finest clubs in operation in The United States of America.
The downtown Cleveland Public Library and its great collections spanning two buildings and multiple floors.
Can't say enough good words about CPL, with the Cleveland Museum of Art closed for remodeling check out what this biblio treasure house has to offer. Open Sundays thru the springtime.
All the great citizens of this struggling city and their hopes and dreams! The charming old school ambiance of The Bookstore On West 25th street, just six storefront steps north of the West Side Market along West 25th Street.
Hot dogs, chili, and coffee at the Old Fashioned Hot Dog on Lorain Road, open late most evening!
Book selling time!
November is here already and if anyone out there would like to get a head start on the Holiday season we can offer a slew of suggestions, including a seasonal title by Charles Dickens, his A CHRISTMAS CAROL, this volume is quite rare, and has been avidly collected since its publication.
Hats off to John and Kim, and all my family.Labels: Beachland Ballroom, Bookstore On West 25th Street, Cleveland Ohio, Corbo's Bakery, CPLy, NOFT, Old Fashioned Hot Dogs, Prestis Bakery, Zagreb Meats
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Tremont , a Cleveland neighborhood
was quite a scary place to live or pass through in the late 1960's and 1970's.
Today being October 31st and All Hallows Eve, reminds me of many scary tales of Tremont.
Seedy housing and acrid polluted air ruled this neighborhood, perched just southwest of downtown Cleveland, and full faced into the constant blasts from the steel mills and industrial flats in the valley just below.
Not a pretty site at all back in the day, and from a pollution standpoint not much better today.
Lincoln Park was a twenty four hour illegal drug supermarket, infested to boot with a legion of drippy nosed paper bag glue-huffers, whose main avocation in life was to stumble up and down the Scranton Road hill to Train Avenue and the giant vats of chemicals available for these toluene tortured souls to zombie up on.
Most of the apartment buildings surrounding Lincoln Park were either shooting galleries for the junkies, or shady dens of ill repute of one form or the other, including the usual gamut of illicit activities such as after hours joints, gambling and prostitution.
Arson was a free form Olympic style event, with sirens shrieking away most evenings, and a much despised "Tremont arsonist", available for hire when a home or apartment building could not be sold , or a landlord wished to evict a tenant without using the court system.
Both daily newspapers wrote feature articles concerning this heinous criminal activity of arson and it's affects on the Tremont neighborhood, though this was a part of the city that in the 1970's, more resembled an out of control lawless free for all , than a nice place to raise a family.
Needless to say the drop in population in Tremont was dramatic.
The 1920 census shows a population of 36,000 residents of which only 8600 remain in the 2000 census figures. The construction of a large interstate highway divided the Tremont neighborhood, contributing to it's population loss, and to this day a direct walking route to downtown Cleveland is a feet of navigation involving a detour into the neighboring Ohio City via Abbey Avenue, or a grimy stroll through the industrial flats.
Tremont today still suffers the highest cancer rates, along with its East rim neighbor Slavic Village, in the entire city of Cleveland.
Now filled with trendy restaurants, art galleries, and ice cream parlors, contemporary Tremont has managed to capture the fancy of a young Cleveland crowd despite its obvious shortcomings.
Most of Tremont's housing stock is comprised of late nineteenth century single and two family homes without much architectural character or charm. These cheap homes were built to accommodate the waves of mostly Eastern European immigrants whose families migrated to Cleveland for work in the steel mills, most of the original families that occupied them moved into the suburbs post world war two, and they were then occupied by waves of Appalachian Americans, Puerto Rican, and Afro American families working hard for success and to duplicate the "American dream."
Now these same said homes are fine starter homes for single Clevelanders in their twenties and thirties, but like those before them they will move into the suburbs with great haste when faced with the dilemma of the current state of Cleveland schools, and the problems of raising their children in a marginal neighborhood like Tremont. Crime is still a major deterrent to any long term growth, and the visible scars of the arson activity of the sixties and seventies are visible today in the numerous empty lots that remain.
I have never understood the fascination of the contemporary set with this ugly smelling place known as Tremont.
Its citizens and businesses are a distinct positive contribution to life in today's Cleveland, the stench and belch of the fetid industrial valley below enough to keep me away.
Not to mention the scary hangover that remains from stepping around Tremont in my youth.
Book selling time!
In keeping with the spirit of Halloween, we would like to offer you the works of Clark Ashton Smith, DARK CHATEAU, GENIUS LOCI, and THE ABOMINATION OF YONDO.
These volumes were purchased from a crumbling neglected home in the adjoining Duck Island section of Tremont some years ago, and are looking for a scary collector to take them home.
We feature many other ARKHAM HOUSE titles as well for your holiday of haunted souls.
Best wishes for a safe and happy Halloween. All of my family, John and Kim, and all the costumed celebrators of this witchy old holidayLabels: Arkham House, Clark Ashton Smith, Cleveland Neighborhoods, Cleveland Ohio, Tremont
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Beam Cleveland up Dennis!
Dennis Kucinich is in the news again, in a soon to be released book penned by Shirley MaClaine, entitled "Sage-ing while Age-ing" MaClaine accounts that while visiting her in her Washington state residence in the late 1980's."
He saw a giant triangular craft, silent, and observing him.
It hovered for about ten minutes or so, and sped away with a speed he couldn't comprehend. He felt a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind." Perhaps this reference will become the silver lining in regards to his 2008 presidential campaign.
After all , many assorted political beasts of American stripe have spotted a ufo, including recent presidents Ronald Reagan , and Jimmy Carter , both while serving as Governors of their respective states , California and Georgia.
I recall in 1973 when John Gilligan was governor of Ohio; he experienced a UFO sighting that was well documented. Ditto Arizona Governor Fife Symington. I am positive that other political types serving in our House of Representatives and Senate have had similar UFO moments.
I sure as hell hope that whoever is manning the spacecraft keeps a sharp eye on any of the politicians, seems due to varied consistent varied forms of media reports dating back to the beginning of humankind that using the words politician and trust in the same sentence can beget volatile and potentially hazardous results.
The one vote that I cast in my life that helped make a difference was my vote registered against the recall of Dennis Kucinich as Mayor of Cleveland in 1978.
My vote was one of 236 that saved Mayor Kucinich's term as mayor of a total of 60,014 total votes cast. Dennis was outspoken as Cleveland's mayor, taking on the very power structure of George Forbes and Cleveland City Council, labor unions, both the Democratic and Republican parties, two daily newspapers, corporate interests, and banking concerns that hoped to defeat him via the recall that hot Sunday August 13, 1978 election day.
After emerging victorious from doing battle with such a legion of political and business thugs, what's to fear from a mere UFO sighting? Dennis is still running for President, and he has my vote whether nominated or not.
The local fish wrapper disguised as a daily paper of record a.k.a. The Plain Dealer chose to lampoon Dennis in their op-ed page of October 29, 2007 via a rather uncomplimentary picture of Dennis and eighth odd lines of sophomoric attempts at humorous text.
What would one expect from Ohio's largest newspaper these days? The current pd seems to be run more akin to a quilting bee than a newspaper of note.
The problem with dedicating part of your op-ed page to such a hack piece of below the belt whimsy is that your readership might begin to take whatever you place before them as opinion to be as biased and self serving as this pd anti Kucinich missive.
A.J. Liebling, a fine example of a journalist as ever has lived and worked said years ago the "The power of the press is limited to those who own one."
Never could this be as true as the state of one horse, one newspaper towns such as Cleveland, Ohio today.
Book selling Time!
In keeping in the spirit of politics and ufos we offer two titles for your choice. The first is a tasty Epicurean compilation by The Cleveland Ufology Project entitled C.U.P.'S OUT OF THIS WORLD COOK BOOK, with a great picture of a spinning ufo on it's cover , and containing some other interesting flying saucer and alien themed tasty recipes.
Done in the spiral bound style of a Church cook book, the usual territory is covered by local ufologists. Nothing that strange about UFO sightings in Cleveland, Ohio, in fact the building at 1801 Superior Avenue is a well known alien spaceport.
Relive the not-so-glorious political days of Cleveland, Ohio and the cast of players involved, including a young Dennis Kucinich, in Estelle Zannes, CHECKMATE IN CLEVELAND, The Rhetoric Of Confrontation During The Stokes Years.
Read about Carl and Louis Stokes, Ralph Perk, George Forbes, and all the political players working over the citizens of Cleveland during the late 1960's and early 1970's.
Whew!
Much can be said of Carl Stokes administration while serving as the first Afro-American
Mayor of a major city and Estelle Zannes account of these times are accurate and done in a fair unbiased spirit. I have had the pleasure to have met both Carl Stokes, and Dennis Kucinich and both seemed to be fine men of character and dissimilar to most other politicians I have encountered.
Hats off to all the Cleveland citizens who voted to keep Dennis in office in 1978, and those who might still consider him a worthy presidential candidate in 2008.
Best wishes to my Mother, and family. Thanks again John and Kim. Time to go fishing down near the spaceport on Lake Erie where all of those three eyed winged glowing catfish are caught!Labels: A.j. Liebling, Carl Stokes, Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Ohio, Dennis Kucinich, George Forbes, Ralph Perk, Shirley MaClaine, ufo's
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Bookselling sure has changed
in many diverse ways since opening my first used and rare bookstore in 1976. Time was when opening the door for business and having enough desirable inventory on hand to sell to those passing by was enough to earn a decent living.
Downtown Cleveland was still quite alive throughout the 1980's and most of the 1990's, before retail stopped on a dime a few years prior to the dawning of the 21st century.
Advertising in the telephone book, word of mouth, and good customer service all helped grease the wheels of commerce, and allowed us growth and stability in this time honored trade of bookselling.
On the rare book side of the ledger, only a few hundred of us antiquarians plied our trade in the United States of America, and we knew each other well enough for sizable purchases amongst ourselves to transpire with a handshake or telephone call.
Good luck today in this matter.
The internet has managed to make every last rag picker, and housewife a budding A.S.W. Rosenbach or William Targ, and with no training or apprenticeship of any sort these parasitical neophytes are instant booksellers.
The temerarious nature of these part-time, house bound biblio-peddlers is horrifying to one who has spent the better part of a lifetime paying on a lease and considering bookselling a career, not a profitable hobby.
I go on record as supporting any person who possesses the temerity to start up an open door bookstore in this day and age.
This bricks and mortar approach to bookselling was always an option, and the charm and value of the education an open door shop surely offset any of the rewards garnered by the "specialist" or catalog only booksellers working from their homes.
The postwar Cleveland, Ohio of my youth had a great downtown bookselling community, and the seven to ten odd bookstores that it was comprised of formed enough cache to draw clients from the surrounding area to around the world in their day.
When I was employed by one of these firms, Kay's Bookstore, in 1970 we had open evening hours on Mondays and Thursdays, and customers did visit and shop. Publix Book mart was another fine open shop, and like Kay's had an interesting mixture of used, antiquarian, and new books for sale.
An assortment of used stores existed in lower rent areas of downtown, and a few true world class antiquarian book concerns existed street level as well. Other American cities had similar bookstores, and a great days fun was often spent visiting these retail stores for fun and profit.
A great way to finance a small vacation or trip abroad was to match one's book knowledge against the field of play consisting of a bookseller's open store and its contents, often resulting in the acquisition of a gem or two and a tidy profit.
Needless to say the internet has changed this style of book gathering once and for all.
The internet has spawned a new variety of biblio-sleuth, one who flits about with a battery run hand held device, checking titles and bar coded ISBN numbers to the physical book, waiting for the machine to spit back it's fiscal verdict while the party holding the device possesses no more of an iota of knowledge or care for it's content save the monetary result.
It is due to this prevalent modern book hunting climate that I no longer have much interest in opening the door to this bookstore to such sordid characters, and when I do see these hand held devices in the paws of their holders in a public space I am moved towards nausea of a physical and existential nature.
I encountered an old colleague the other morning and the subject of library discard sales came up in conversation.
She mentioned that she had thought of me when attending one of these affairs recently and she was told by the holder of one of these afore said hand held devices that he was reserving a large trove of books running the length of four six foot tables for this electronic scrutiny while they volumes in question while the books were still stacked below their for-sale tables, unsold and just for this greedy biblio morons scrutiny.
I no longer attend these sales due to the fact that such scavenger beasts would not fare very well in my opinion, and push come to shove, I would find his position of review before purchase unacceptable and act accordingly.
The other reason not to attend such functions as these library sales is that most all of the offerings are pre-picked and purchased by the volunteers who work them. Ditto, the thrift stores, charitable sales, flea markets, and most of the other second hand public sale repositories.
We have a plethora of books to choose from and make available for sale, and prefer selling books to buying books these days.
-- Bookselling time. --
Seeing that the basis of this article concerns commerce and economics, we are proud to offer a copy of one of the most important books of twentieth century intellectual thought by Freidrich Hayek, THE ROAD TO SERFDOM.
Don't take my word concerning this book's importance; both the New York Public Library and The London Times listed this book as one of the 100 most influential books of the twentieth century.
The copy we offer is neatly signed by Hayek, and would prove to be a significant addition to any bibliophile's library.
Hats off to all you brave booksellers who open your doors to the public and have the verve to earn a living the old fashioned way.
The Hayek title we offer seems to mirror to some extent the fiscal climate of the contemporary bookseller. The modern bookseller is serf to the internet and a percentage partner, often only by choice of the internet outfit who steers the sale towards the bookseller.
One of the reasons I choose bookselling instead of another career, was the freedom it offered, the daily stream of knowledge it provides, and the laissez faire nature of commerce that it provided prior to the internet.
Chances are great that due to the rather ugly nature of life in downtown Cleveland, Ohio these days, and the sad and pervasive poverty that afflicts the citizenry we will not be opening our doors to the hand held devices of the modern biblio-putz and putzettes of the world anytime soon.
Old Erie Street Bookstore remains on the sidelines, waiting to get called onto a level playing field in a city that is choking to death from it's excessive bad planning, and inability to hold it's brighter youth or attract any venture oriented entrepreneurs due to the greed and stupidity of the current roster of bad civic actors and greasy politicians that pose about town telling their glorious self serving tales.
Best wishes to John and Kim, all my Family and you the faithful customer who has helped me learn and survive to date in this bookselling trade.Labels: Bookselling, Cleveland Ohio, Kay's Bookstore, Old Erie Street Bookstore, Publix Bookmart
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Cleveland victim of wal - mart invasion
Tomorrow morning Wednesday October 24 , 2007 the cavernous and predictable bigger box retail mutant, wal - mart opens for business a few miles south of downtown Cleveland on land reclaimed from the old Otis Steel Works, and now renamed " Steelyard Commons".
This opening marks the first entry into the city of Cleveland proper, and will spell the demise of many independent retailers of both hard and soft goods that will be unable to compete with this monster retailers prices or the multitude of services available wal mart offers under their 217,000 square foot roof.
Wal mart is the number one employer in the State of Ohio and vehemently anti - union and legendarily cruel to their employees.
Not my type of neighbors to say the least, and any current Cleveland bricks and mortar retailer that plies similar wares as wal- mart are certain to feel the sting from the introduction of this vicious invader species into our stream of life. Time to sell a book department.
If a country ever was in need of examination of its bedrock political theories it is the United States Of America early in the twenty first century. An antidote for our current wal-marting of America is found in two books we offer as an alternative to invasive corporate bullies and the havoc they may bring to your town , and offer courage to those who will stand up to their tyranny.
Fredric Howe's THE CONFESSIONS OF A REFORMER, and former Cleveland mayor Tom L. Johnson's MY STORY, remain still relevant as critical sources of "business as usual "in America.
Hats off to all the small and large retailers that rise and shine every morning and work hard to earn a living in spite of the big box retailers interference with their fair trade. Look around at all the empty storefronts in most inner cities and small towns alike , and the growing number of empty strip centers , and malls in the suburbs , and you are certain to find the big box at the edge of town that emptied out their lives.
It is a dangerous principle in business when a concern as large as wal- mart has an unfair advantage in regards to their purchasing power in wholesale markets versus the smaller concerns.
It is high time that reform occurs in these wholesale goods markets, with an end result of parity and a keener sense of competition allowing more individuals to compete.
Support your local hometown merchants!Labels: Cleveland Ohio, Frederic Howe, Tom L. Johnson
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Post mortem for Cleveland baseball
With apologies to Ernest Lawrence Thayer.
But there is no joy in muttville.
Chief Wahoo hangs in effigy.
For Eric Wedge mismanaged our Tribe
He choked and lost all three.
"Say it ain't so?"
Afraid the 2007 baseball season with all it's promise is as dead as "Kelsey's nuts". Or perhaps as brain dead as Eric Wedge's 2007 post season ALCS managerial efforts. Back to school on you Eric Wedge! Bone up on your three B's. Bench , Bunt , and Bullpen.
Twenty five players suit up for your games, and you fail to utilize their talents. Shame on you Wedge! It took you until the eigth inning of the seventh and final game to have Grady Sizemore leading off lay down a bunt for a single. Sure wish you might of thought of utilizing the speed on your bench by bunting and running hard against Curt Schilling in game six.
C'mon, a forty year old pitcher on the mound for Boston and you miss the opportunity to make him field his position? Instead you turned game six into a boxing match and the Boston hitters delivered the knockout combination early on and put your team away.
No excuses for not having your bullpen up and ready in the three final games from the fourth inning on. Just what were you saving their arms for? Did you really believe C.C. Sabathia when he told you he still had gas and you sent him out to start the seventh inning in game five? Sabathia was well over one hundred pitches and it did not take a baseball Einstein to figure out he was heading for the showers.
And poor Travis Hafner having to suffer your obdurate and reckless inclusion of him as the three hole hitter while he is mired in an 0 for fourteen slump!
Give Travis a break and bat him down in the lineup and put your hottest hitter in the three slot.Mix up your lineups for heavens sake. Your predictable style of filling in your lineup card played right into Terry Francona's hand. Take up chess over the winter. All this is now water over the dam , and yeah I listened to your pathetic Wedge self offer to the tv talking head after loosing three straight , that Boston had lost three straight to begin the series. No shame Wedge , you and the Wahoo got to go.
Have a great winter , go take a long walk in the woods and consider a more cerebral manner of baseball management for next season. Your efforts expose you as the rube and boob of this post season. Shave off that ridiculous Popeye beard and stop using whatever is causing your nose to twitch like a rodent.
More than a few of us are fed up with your stodgy managerial style and it is high time you are called out on the carpet. In the baseball off season or "hot stove league" as it was once known, a great way to while away an evening while dreaming of spring training is curled up with a book in your lap.
We can suggest two that can help chase away the off season blues. First Lee Allen's THE HOT STOVE LEAGUE, or if you are in the mood to celebrate the last Cleveland American League World Series Championship Franklin Lewis THE CLEVELAND INDIANS, will fit the bill.
In all fairness the 2007 Cleveland baseball season was more than it promised in its snowy April infancy. The post season victory over the New York American League team featured great pitching and play worthy of celebration.
The Boston Red Sox choke difficult to swallow.Those of us born in Cleveland since 1948 have never had the occasion to celebrate a World Series championship season with the Cleveland baseball club. 2007 seemed as good a chance as any for this rare sporting occasion.
Tough to be left at the altar , and tougher to suffer an embarrassingly complacent manager in Wedge , not even strong enough to argue Kenny Lofton's being tossed "out" by Manny Rameriz in the critical early innings of game seven. Chemistry changes from season to season on a baseball team , and I do not see the Cleveland American League team returning to the post seson anytime soon.
Hats of to Zagreb Meats on Saint Clair Avenue, Milan, Sue, Larry, Rie, Drew , Deb, and all the other faithful. John, Kim, and Slim. My wife Deb , my brothers and our Mother, and all the other Cleveland baseball fans who felt that 2007 could have been a special year.Labels: Baseball, Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Ohio
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News from Cleveland, Ohio
could be much better these days. A fourteen year old student shot up four people yesterday while attending his high school "Success Tech Academy" , in downtown Cleveland .
A small reminder of the chaos that is Cleveland , Ohio today.
After decades of benign neglect , overachieving theiving politicians , and haphazard attempts at urban renewal , Cleveland is on its knees begging for it's very life.
Recent Federal statistics have placed us in the top United States major cities in poverty, foreclosures, as the murder rate is soaring while the population continues to bottom out. Not a very pretty picture.
The president and publisher of the local daily paper of record sits on the board of directors of the second largest employer in the city , so looking for objectivity or on the level reporting on a variety of germane subjects is nill.Journalistic ethics be damned.
Seems that every Cleveland player has an agenda. No, not the citizens of Cleveland mind you, instead their supposed leaders, movers, shakers, politicos, land developers , and the propagandist press and public relations campaigns that serve as an attempt to create a silk purse from the sows ass that this dangerous, moribund Cleveland , Ohio has become.
The citizens of Cleveland are some of the finest people you might imagine, and a brave lot of survivors one and all. My cousin while waiting to land into Cleveland Hopkins airport this past summer overheard two passengers on his flight conversing about the resemblance of Cleveland to Baghdad. A point well taken, and with more than an iota of truth. Thousands of homes and commercial buildings slump and crumble in our neighborhoods. Many citizens live behind fortified doors and windows in constant fear, and are terrorized by gangs of hoodlums when attempting to complete ordinary tasks.
Not many people are found outdoors after dark.
A kindly, older, white-haired gentleman in the Slavic Village area of Clevelands southeast side told me the other day that the only offer he received on his sturdy , well-maintained house was $2500.
Pretty sad.
Work hard all your life, raise children, retire, and find your dwelling is not even worth maintaining. Abandonment of property is common, foreclosure auction signs dot the landscape, and large heaps of evicted citizens belongings are commonplace on sidewalks throughout Cleveland.
As you might imagine it is difficult to imagine much hope in the near term for this city in decline. Those of us that remain soldier on, look for the bright side of events in a microcosm littered with the residue of years of graft and abuse. Alcohol and drug abuse takes its toll on many, prostitution is rampant , and the criminal nature of State sanctioned gambling carves a hole into peoples lives that they can't seem to recover from here in "The best location in the Nation".
Time to attempt to sell a book department. Read about the glory days of this once proud, prosperous , and civic minded city of Cleveland, Ohio. In 1950, the year of publication of William Ganson Rose's CLEVELAND THE MAKING OF A CITY,the population of Cleveland, Ohio was near one million, and his volume does a credible chronological history of events from it's inception to the mid-twentieth century mark.
Look for a close seven game ALCS series between the Tribe and the Boston Red Sox.
Go Tribe!Labels: Cleveland Ohio, Politics
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Silent autumn
near perfect day. Sunshine and seventy five degrees. Tribe advances to 2007 American League Championship series by way of hardscrabble Bronx Indian trail. Ball yard in the Bronx good for one last postseason pennant chase in 2008, then reduced to a sad rubble pile as new New York stadium opens in 2009.
Victor Martinez hit the game winning home run in the 2007 all star game and with the AL victory in this event comes the home team advantage in the 2007 World Series.
A best of seven series between the Tribe and the talented and dangerous Boston Red Sox will determine the AL Champs and who will progress to the West in the 2008 World Series chase. Boston's two aces in Beckett and Schilling match up well with the Tribe's Sabathia and Carmona. Boston the edge on paper with a powerful offense, and recent WS rings.
Tribe batters no slouches in postseason run production however, and look for relief pitching and managerial capability from both teams to factor in the ALCS outcome. Hunch it will go the full seven games and be some damn exiting baseball. High time for Victor Martinez and his Tribe to claim the 2008 World Series home field advantage by claiming this tater prize.
Go Tribe!
Hey Cookman!
Hard to believe the weather up here on the south shore of Lake Erie in early October. A veritable unseasonal heat wave. Tomatoes planted on Memorial Day still giving ripe fruit, and a great way to serve these heirloom tomatoes is in a bit more sophisticated version of a shrimp cocktail. 1. Procure two pounds of fresh not frozen 10 - 16 to a pound wild , not farm raised shrimp and steam them in one cup white vinegar, a shot of Tabasco or commercial hot sauce , and one cup fresh cold tap water with a good measure of commercial crab or shrimp boiling spices , until done , about three to five minutes.
2. Drain, peel, devain and chill the shrimp, leaving tails intact.
3. Easiest choice for spices is to grab a can of Old Bay Seasoning.
4. Dice or quarter your fresh tomatoes and combine with a generous amount of horseradish, to taste, and yet another shot of hot sauce.
5. Drape chilled shrimp in a fancy fashion over the edges of a crystal or glass serving bowl placing the tomato and horseradish sauce in the bowl, shrimp with their tails at the ready for the greedy food snappin' fingers that will follow.
6. Serve with ripe haas avocado sections, celery spears, oyster crackers, lemon wedges, hot sauce, and more horseradish to taste.
7. Serve with a cold beverage, close your eyes, and feel summer creep back into a silent early autumn day. Rachel Carson along with Aldo Leopold did more to raise the postwar ecological conscientious in these United States of America than any other citizens. Both served early alarm warnings concerning the human impact on Natures realm, and the inherent consequences of our collective actions.
When I spot an American Eagle wild in nature around these south Lake Erie shores we can thank Rachel Carson in her ground breaking SILENT SPRING, for her examination of the use of pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides and their effect on the fabric of species of flora, fauna, avian, and all other natures living web of life that an industrial society can interact with.
A decrease in the domestic usage of ddt allowed the American Eagle Deb and I spotted this spring in an old growth tree on the north side of Euclid Avenue across from the Cleveland Clinic to fly around this urban street corner looking to establish a rookery.
Having never viewed an Eagle in the wild in the southern Lake Erie region until well into the 1980's, and being familiar with their form from viewing them in California and the American west I can now offer this advice.
Look up sometimes while near a body of water and you might be fortunate to spot this reestablished white cowled avian wonder. Symbol of our National pride, viewed while perched or hunting is always a good omen.
Perhaps we should rename the Cleveland American League baseball team THE CLEVELAND EAGLES, sure sounds a whole lot sexier than gnats, Tribe, Naps, or Spiders!
Send your suggestions!
A tip of the fedora to all the bald eagles out there , John , Kim, and Slim , and a good night blessing to my recently deceased friend Harry Barber, a true gentleman of the old school, wisecracker of jokes , trencherman with a prodigious appetites for meats and potatoes, veteran of world war two, Dear Father of my lifelong friend Cindy Barber, all around good egg and sport.
You are missed Harry, and in our thoughts daily!Labels: Baseball, Cleveland Ohio
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Welcome to old erie street book store
and please watch this space. On Turning Fifty will post soon. I promise just a few words concerning the fiftieth anniversary of Jack Kerouac's ON THE ROAD, a gentle hype towards the collectible 1957 first edition copy we have for sale. A few tales concerning a recent half century literary artsy soiree.
Drat' even a cheezy four line poem if the mood strikes. A short book review.
Stay tuned.
Hats off and a big hello to the queen city of the American south , home of John , Kim , and their great families, my old school pal Slim , and his hopped up roots beer. Better get sum goetta.
Goodnight to Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Bull Moose Jackson, Albert Ayler, and Tadd Dameron. All never to be forgotten immortal musical heroes of Cleveland, Ohio origin.
Perhaps it would be better for all concerned to be absent from the" Best Of All Time, Greatest Clevelanders Ever Music", section in the October 3-9 issue of the 'free times', and all the other sections as well.
A lack of aesthetic sense and historical perspective of the writers entrusted to select the best all time Cleveland musicians for this article seems to rule the day. Ayler, Hawkins, Jackson, and Dameron's musical talents speak to the world daily, and should not be so easily overlooked. |  Screamin' Jay Hawkins |
On the literary side of the 'free times best of' pathos reigns supreme with the predictable inclusion of Daniel Thompson , much to the chagrin of the smoldering poetic bones of Cleveland born Hart Crane and d.a. levy who were not selected as local Cleveland scribes of lasting artistic merit according to the free times unique selection process. Just what was the criteria used to judge any of the categories they covered?
This ' Best Of' fiasco only gets worse. Joe Siegel and Jerry Schuster , creators of the seminal American superhero comic book Superman while still students at Cleveland's Glenville High School , are absent.
Of no importance as Clevelanders of origin?
While we are on the funny book pages, I really would like to hear the explanation for the inclusion of Harvey Pekar and the exclusion of Siegel and Schuster? Contemporary Cleveland cartoonist Derf is nowhere to be found either?
Again, what conceivable reasoning for including Pekar and leaving Derf behind as Best Of candidates? I suppose the logic is that Deaf is a real talent. Continuing on the literary path notable Cleveland authors Edward Dahlberg and Herbert Gold are nowhere to be found either.
Nor is Margaret Hamilton in the performing arts section, Cleveland reform mayor Tom L. Johnson is given no nod for his 'Public Service'. Nor is Dennis Kucinich. The rest of the free times ‘Greatest Clevelanders Ever articles' proceed along similar lines. Glaring omissions the norm in every category.
Overall a weak cum journalistic effort and a true waste of printers ink.
Just like plenty of books we have for sale. I will sadly note that an eighty page book has been printed entitled DRUMSTICK SPINOLOGY and is now joining the stream of knowledge available for the modern English speaking world. This volume is not available from Old Erie Street Bookstore, and if you see a copy in someone’s hands run in the opposite direction.Labels: Albert Ayler, Bull Moose Jackson, Cleveland Ohio, D.A. Levy, Derf, Hart Crane, Harvey Pekar, Jack Kerouac's ON THE ROAD, Jay Hawkins, Tadd Dameron, The Old Erie Street Book Store
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Welcome to The Old Erie Street Book Store Blog!
Welcome to The Old Erie Street Book Store!
Contact Information:
Old Erie Street Bookstore
2128 East Ninth Street
Cleveland, Ohio
44115
United States
Phone: 216-575-0743
Email: olderiestreetbooks@sbcglobal.net
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Labels: Cleveland Ohio, contact information, The Old Erie Street Book Store
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Contact Information:
Old Erie Street Bookstore
2128 East Ninth Street
Cleveland, Ohio
44115
United States
Phone: 216-575-0743
Email: olderiestreetbooks@sbcglobal.net
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"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."
~ Groucho Marx
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"When I get a little money, I buy books. And if there is any left over, I buy food."
~ Desiderius Erasmus
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