05.18-05.25.16
Ruin & Restoration
Don’t pay attention to the haters. We’ve been ignoring them for 14+ years. More if you know my history.Rooms To Let: CLE lets artists take over decaying homes to turn them into art. Sublime, transformative artistic statements. Art Fur Animals, the cool party to help support the Friends of the Cleveland Kennel, transforms the lives of our furry friends and our community at the same time.
Peninsula is ground zero this weekend, what with CVNP celebrating our National Parks’ 100th b-day and the 6th installment of Fairy Days at Heritage Farms. Melt celebrates a decade with a cool new video and Melt’s graphics whiz John G. joins Derf in a rare appearance. That’s enough to restore your faith in humankind. –Thomas Mulready
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Photo by Elisa Vietri
Cleveland’s once-thriving Slavic Village became known in the last decade as ground zero for the national foreclosure crisis. It’s finally beginning to recover, and now for the third year, local artists are staging Rooms to Let: CLE, taking over abandoned, decaying homes and turning them into temporary art installations for a day.
That day is also a festival to celebrate the neighborhood’s revival with music, food and more. John Benson fills us in on how the artists and residents are working together to explore the area’s history and its future. Sat 5/21.
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SPONSORED: Rock and Strings Recital on Sun 5/22 at noon. Enjoy BOP STOP with the whole family! In performance will be our Rock and Blues Academy, Centennial Strings Orchestra, and Cleveland Montessori Rock and Blues, under the direction of Alfredo Guerrieri and Ethan Sheils. Enjoy a fun afternoon of music. Free & open to the public; food and drinks may be purchased. TheMusicSettlement.org.
The Cleveland Kennel is deluged with abandoned animals and saddled with a tight budget. That’s where Friends of the Cleveland Kennel, founded 13 years ago, comes in. The group raises money to care for animals until they find new homes.
Their signature benefit is Art Fur Animals, where artists paint fiberglass dogs that are auctioned off and donate work for a silent auction. And it’s always a great party – last year more than 750 animal devotees attended. John Benson talks to Friends executive director Becca Britton to get the lowdown. Sat 5/21.
The Capitol Theatre is hosting a Ladies Night event on Wed 5/25. Sponsored by the Friends of the Capitol Theatre, the fun will start at 6PM with a pre-film party in the Gordon Square Arcade located next to the Capitol Theatre. Following the party, enjoy the Oscar-winning film MOULIN ROUGE at 7:30PM in the historic main auditorium of the Capitol.
Admission includes two drinks, complimentary valet parking, appetizers and desserts from some of the neighborhood’s favorite eateries, a live DJ set by Rollergirl and an Ambiance gift bag. Tickets and more info here.
The U.S. National Park Service turns 100 this year, and all across the country, parks are marking the occasion. In our own backyard, that means Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which has events planned all summer.
This weekend, it’s joining other parks around the country for BiolBlitz, a 24-hour event where scientists and volunteers will descend to identify as many types of flora and fauna as possible. And the Biodiversity Festival in Howe Meadow will give visitors a chance to celebrate them. Fri 5/20-Sat 5/21.
SPONSORED: X-Treme Astronomy The most explosive events in the Universe typically produce prodigious amounts of X-ray radiation. Examine solar flares, exploding stars, and colliding galaxies, along with the X-ray telescopes that reveal their eruptive power. Catch this exciting program Wednesdays at 8PM, and Saturdays and Sundays at 2Pm, through 5/31. CMNH.org.
Indulge your kid’s fascination with fairies at the 6th annual Fairy Days at Peninsula’s Heritage Farms. There kids can come dressed as fairies to join in a fairy costume parade, explore the woods for these elusive creatures, and engage in a variety of crafts, games and other fairy-related activities. They’ll learn about protecting the environment as well so that fairies (and kids) will have a safe, healthy world to live in. Sat 5/21-Sun 5/22.
Click here for more CoolCleveland Kids events
“What is MELT? That’s a very funny question…” Owner Matt Fish and a supporting cast of characters tell the story of Melt Bar & Grilled and how it has grown from a unique craft beer bar in Lakewood, Ohio offering creative grilled cheese sandwiches to one of the most talked-about restaurant brands in the Midwest!
Featured on national television shows such as Man vs. Food and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and even inspiring almost 700 people to emblazon themselves with its logo, Melt is more than just a restaurant… it’s a way of life! With seven locations so far, thousands of fans daily enjoy the Melt experience. Why not join them and see what all the buzz is about in this brand-new video? MeltBarAndGrilled.com.
Read more of CoolCleveland’s picks for Eats and Drinks.
SPONSORED: Great Music Never Goes Out of Style at The Kent Stage featuring Scott Stapp, The Voice of Creed, Ricky Scaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Richard Nader’s Doo Wop and Rock N’ Roll, Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, Terry Sylvester, The Vogues, The Crests featuring Tommy Mara, JD Souther, Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, The Weight Band: Members of The Band and The Levon Helm Band performing music of The Band, Hayes Carll, Emily Gimble, The Mulligan Brothers, Yonder Mountain String Band, plus more. TheKentStage.com.
The hat Aretha Franklin wore to perform at President Obama’s 2009 inauguration (pictured) is not the most incendiary political statement you’ll see at the new Rock Hall exhibit Louder Than Words: Rock, Power & Politics, which opens this week and runs through December. It surveys political rock from Dylan to Pussy Riot. Fri 5/20
Read more picks by Anastasia Pantsios here
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SPONSORED: Think and Drink TONIGHT! Raise a glass and increase your knowledge of the natural world at one of the brainiest Happy Hours in the region. Think and Drink with the Extinct is back on Wed 5/18 and you can sip a beverage while gaining exclusive access to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s professional staff and researchers. Urban Farming is the theme, so join in on interactive demonstrations, unique perspectives while noshing on complimentary light snacks and a cash beer/wine bar. CMNH.org.
WED 5/18
Cleveland’s Little Italy has a host of stories to tell – of immigrants, gangsters, entrepreneurs, restaurateurs and artists. The Western Reserve Historical Society’s Italian American history curator Pamela Dorado Dean will be at the Music Box Supper Club to tell some of them as part of its Cleveland Stories series.
Click here for more events on Wed 5/18
THU 5/19
Stanford University-based hip-hop therapist Tomas Alvarez III (pictured) and Cleveland poet/educator Daniel Gray-Kontar will be the speakers at the latest program in CPAC’s Creative Intersections series, taking place at Slavic Village’s Bohemian National Hall. It will address the topic of empowering youth through the arts.
Click here for more events on Thu 5/19
FRI 5/20
South African artist Blessing Ngobeni has been in Cleveland for the last few months as a Cleveland Foundation Creative Fusion artist. The work he made, combining the urban sensibilities of Cleveland and Johannesburg, goes on view at the Cleveland Print Room.
Click here for more events on Fri 5/20
SAT 5/21
Cleveland’s Asian population has grown explosively and diversified to represent a multitude of cultures. All of them are represented at the seven-year-old Cleveland Asian Festival which features food, vendors, contests, performers of all types, and information on cultural activities and organizations.
Click here for more events on Sat 5/21
SUN 5/22
Bike for Beck offers bicycle enthusiasts the chance to have fun, get exercise, see some scenery and contribute to Beck Center’s arts programming. The festival taking place back at Beck offers everyone a sampling of that programming.
Click here for more events on Sun 5/22
MON 5/23
Now-retired music professor George Vassos started what’s now the Baldwin Wallace Art Song Festival 30 years ago. He kicks it off hosting a master class today. There are more master classes and recitals all week long by stars like mezzo-soprano Susan Graham (pictured), culminating on Sat 5/28 with a recital by 10 up-and-coming vocal/piano teams picked by national auditions.
Click here for more events on Mon 5/23
TUE 5/24
The Strawbs were one of the pioneers of the traditional British folk movement of the late 60s and early 70s. They’ve stayed together in various forms with only a brief early 80s hiatus, branching out into electric music. Now on the road, co-founder Dave Cousins is joined by three 70s-era Strawbs members to play the band’s 1974 album Hero and Heroine in its entirety, along with fan favorites. They’ll be at the Music Box.
Click here for more events on Tue 5/24
WED 5/25
The Balkan Strings Trio is a father and two sons from Belgrade, Serbia, who embrace music across the often contentious boundaries of Eastern Europe, and blend in music from other parts of the world also as they play their three guitars. They’ll be performing at Nighttown.
Click here for more events on Wed 5/25
Send your cool events to: Events@CoolCleveland.com
Sometimes it seems like the Ohio legislature spends most of its time trying to solve nonexistent problems. One of those is keeping polls open beyond closing time in cases of equipment malfunction, weather issues, power outages etc, which requires a court order.
The state senate has introduced SB 296 which it claims “standardizes” the process for seeking an order to keep polls open. CoolCleveland commentator C. Ellen Connally explains how it creates hurdles citizens won’t be able to navigate and could make Ohio’s elections the butt of national ridicule once again.
Kamau Bell calls himself a sociopolitical comedian. On his new CNN show, United Shades of America he thought it was amusing to hang with hooded Ku Klux Klan members and treat their history of lynchings, cross burnings and other forms of violence and intimidation as a joke, even asking them what wood they used to make crosses.
CoolCleveland’s C. Ellen Connally asks why terrorizing people standing up for equal rights is funny, and wonders if his next stop might be Germany to ” yuck it up with some old Nazis as he strolls around Auschwitz and engages in mindless banter about how they gassed up the ovens and gas chambers.”
The primary thing to be kept in mind when debating the pros and cons of raising the minimum wage in the City of Cleveland to $15 an hour is this: If business owners had their way – if there were no laws governing minimum wages – they would pay people $2 an hour, and then expect…
Read other stories from Mansfield Frazier here
A look back at the last week
Submit your own review or commentary to Events@CoolCleveland.com
PHOTOSTREAM: Walkabout Tremont by Anastasia Pantsios
PHOTOSTREAM: Plant Sale at Holden Arboretum by Carol Drummond
PHOTOSTREAM: Rockefeller Greenhouse Plant & Sale by Anastasia Pantsios
THEATER REVIEW: CoolCleveland’s Roy Berko Does Broadway
VIDEO: One Last Look at the Looks of Fashion Week Cleveland 2016 by Dru Christine
Read and comment here: http://www.coolcleveland.com/blog
Most clicked
Here are the Top 5 most clicked links from last week’s issue, with one more chance for you to click.
1) MANSFIELD: Another Mistake in the Making?
2) Tremont Reboots Its Long-Running Art Walk as Walkabout Tremont
3) Vote for Quarterfinalist Cedar Lee Districtin the National American Main Street Contest
4) Couple Launches Kickstarter to Take Over 77-year-Old Mitchell’s Chocolates
5) New Sign Points Jazz Lovers to New Vibrancy at BOP STOP
Keep restoring,
–Thomas Mulready
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