05.17-05.24.2017 Renewing

05.17-05.24.17
Renewing

It’s in the air. A chance for redemption after a respectably long winter. Now we’re in for longer days, longer nights, another remarkable season.

How can you fit six wineries and good eating into two days, just a stone’s throw away? How do you turn “Ground Zero” for the foreclosure crisis into a restored and renewed neighborhood? What kind of photography can we expect from professional musicians?

What happens when a top chef grows much of what he serves at his restaurant in our nearby National Park? Where would you host an Inter/Urban Street Festival? And what happens with the old Nature’s Bin property in Lakewood? Sounds like you may need some renewing yourself. –Thomas Mulready

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Photo by Kelli Finnegan
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Drinking, Eating and Exploring

They call it “cabin fever.” It’s that feeling you get after a long winter indoors (although this one wasn’t that bad) when you just have to get out and go, even if you don’t go very far.

Just in the nick of time, our winery maven Claudia Taller has taken a little jaunt out to Ashtabula County to explore not just its wineries, but its scenery, restaurants and places to stay. She provides a blueprint for a weekend in NE Ohio’s most northeastern county and tells you how to fit six wineries and some good eating into two days of relaxed traveling just a stone’s throw away.

SPONSORED: Early Bird Month for Content Marketing World + Prizes! For all of the cool Cleveland marketers registered for Content Marketing World during May, you’ll have a chance to get a refund on your main event pass! Early bird pricing, plus our COOLCLE additional $100 off, plus a chance at a main event refund – now is the best time to register! Visit the blog on the CMWorld site: Register now.

Restoring and Renewing

Cleveland’s Slavic Village has famously been dubbed “Ground Zero for the Foreclosure Crisis.” About 15 years ago, it collapsed from a frayed old ethnic neighborhood to a virtual wasteland.

But that’s changing as new entrepreneurs move in. Sonny Day Development, founded by Slavic Village native Anthony Trzaska, bought several area buildings including the Nash, and is bringing them back to life. He talks to John Benson about how Slavic Village is moving forward. See for yourself at this weekend’s arts-based festival Rooms to Let: CLE. Sat 5/20-Sun 5/21.

Crossing Sound and Sight

Them!, which opens at the Transformer Station this week, features the work of six photographers who are also musicians. But only two of them have been in bands you’d know and most don’t take pictures of the music scene. All are academically trained artists.

Instead the show asks viewers/listeners to focus on the idea of how different disciplines inform each other, and how music does -or doesn’t – relate to the visual work, both photography and video, that these artists create. Fri 5/19-Sun 8/13.

SPONSORED: Holden Arboretum Plant Sale Shop a variety of perennials, annuals, herbs, woody plants, and garden accessories from dozens of area nurseries and gardens, as well as propagated and grown wildflowers from Holden Arboretum’s own nursery. Also featuring on-site plant and soil experts, as well as garden tool and knife sharpening. The Holden Arboretum Plant Sale takes place Sat 5/20 & Sun 5/21 from 10:00AM-4:00PM. HoldenArb.org.

A Happy Homecoming

Dancer Diana Yohe got her start at City Ballet of Cleveland. She trained at the Joffrey Ballet before moving to Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, where she was recently promoted to soloist.

She’s coming home to appear as a guest artist in City Ballet’s annual recital, dancing the pas de deux from Flower Festival of Genzano. Our dancer writers, Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas, catch up with her to learn about where her dance journey has taken her, what roles she’s been performing and how life in Pittsburgh has been going for her (very well!) Sat 5/20.

SPONSORED: U.S. Bank KidBop, the Place for Kids U.S. Bank KidBop is the place for kids at Tri-C JazzFest, presented by KeyBank, 6/22-24 in and around Playhouse Square. Are crafts, scavenger hunts, face painting, puppets and meeting musicians your thing? KidBop is free from 3-6:30PM on Fri 6/23 and Sat 6/24 indoors at the corner of Euclid Avenue and East 13th Street. Tri-c.edu

Fluttering in the Hedgerow

You don’t have to actually believe in fairies to have a good time at Fairy Days at Heritage Farms in Peninsula. Kids will still have a great time dressing up, dancing to music, doing crafts and visiting with the Flower Fairy, the Bubble Fairy and, of course, the Tooth Fairy. Sat 5/20-Sun 5/21.

* All aboard! Families can go for a train-ing day out with Thomas the Tank Engine at the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, now running again. Sat 5/20-Sun 5/21.

Click here for more CoolCleveland Kids events

VIDEO: New Melt Location at Cedar Point

Halfway down the Midway, in Planet Snoopy, underneath the towering Gatekeeper is Melt Bar & Grilled’s new ninth location. If you’re a thrill seeker, coming for family fun, or a grilled cheese enthusiast, this one’s for you! Melt is now at Cedar Point.

CoolCleveland’s Stephan Haluska visited Melt’s new Cedar Point location to chat with Melt owner and founder Matt Fish. With 16 signature sandwiches, appetizers, sides, 12 beers on tap, cocktails and trademark holiday decor, as soon as you walk in the door you know this is the real deal at Cedar Point.

Spice Kitchen’s chef/owner Ben Bebenroth is known for his holistic approach to food. Part of that included leasing one of the homestead farms at Cuyahoga Valley National Park to grow much of what he serves. Spice Acres Farm invites families to come out for a “Toasting of the Fields,” to sample some food and drink, play some games and see what’s coming up. Sun 5/21.

* When the long-running Nature’s Bin in Lakewood closed last October after more than four decades, it took away a beloved outlet for healthy, natural foods. Now comes word that Nature’s Bin has sold the building to locally owned Constantino’s, which has stores in the Warehouse District and University Circle.

Read more of CoolCleveland’s picks for Eats and Drinks.

SPONSORED: The Kent Stage welcomes Tom Paxton and The Don Juans, Eric Johnson Electric Band, Scott Stapp – Live and Unplugged, Red Wanting Blue, Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra, Bruce Cockburn, Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm, Devon Allman, Al Stewart performs “Year of the Cat” & The Empty Pockets, The Quebe Sisters, JJ Grey & Mofro, Jonny Lang, The Gine Blossoms, Ana Popovic, X- 40th Anniversary Tour, plus more. TheKentStage.com.

Cleveland pop-punk band the Spectators are dropping the latest in a series of EPs, albums & singles they’ve released in the last four years, titled It Is, and That’s All, at show at Mahall’s locker room stage. Fri 5/19

* Underground Classical presents a Latin jazz dance night at Praxis Fiber Workshop. Fri 5/19.

* CityMusic Cleveland closes its season with Prokofiev, Mozart and Beethoven. Wed 5/17-Sun 5/21.

* Vocalist Evelyn Wright is feted at Cleveland Greats concert at the BOP STOP. Thu 5/18.

* Larchmere Porchfest will announce this year’s lineup at Grog Shop event. Thu 5/18.

Read more of CoolCleveland’s picks for Cool Events.

WED 5/17
Kids adore dinosaurs. . For adults who want to revisit that childhood enthusiasm, this month’s Think & Drink With the Extinct at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History will revolve around those giant prehistoric critters.

* Chicago’s Johnny Iguana & the Claudettes will be rocking’ and shaking’ at the BOP STOP.

* Glenn Petranek talks about photographing the abandoned at CVNP’s Happy Days Lodge.

* The Cleveland Museum of Art’s curator of photography Barbara Tannenbaum talks about collecting at the Hudson Library.

* Colorado’s Breckenridge Brewery brings its Breck Trek to town with a Lakewood pub crawl starting at Melt tonight and an evening of music at the Euclid Tavern tomorrow.

Click here for more events on Wed 5/17

THU 5/18
From 1936-1966, the Negro Motorist Green Book told black travelers where they could stop while on the road. A program at the Cleveland Heights Library will let people simulate trip planning in an era when not all Americans could travel freely.

* The Akron Art Museum offers special incentives to visit on National Art Museum Day.

* The Cleveland Orchestra plays two Haydn symphonies and a world premiere by a young composer. Also Sat 5/20.

* Get your claws into bargains at the Stay-a-While Cat Shelter sale. Also tomorrow.

* The Book N Bloom sale in Hinckley lets you get your plants and reading material at the same time. Through Sun 5/21.

Click here for more events on Thu 5/18

FRI 5/19
The Inter/Urban Street Festival in Ohio City is a giant mural-painting party sponsored by Market Garden Brewery where festivities will be taking place and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, which will provide literary themes for the murals.

* Visiting Scottish photographer shows his local work at the Cleveland Print Room.

* 78th Street Studios Third Friday is packed with big openings this month.

* Leave the car at home on National Bike to Work Day.

* Creative Mornings Cle talks about serendipity on Public Square.

* The Cleveland Pops Orchestra salutes America with a military flair at Severance Hall.

* There’re more weird characters and magical realism on state at convergence-continuum in Massacre, through Sat 6/10.

* Veteran folksinger/songwriter Tom Paxton brings his deep catalog to the Kent Stage

* You can polka till you drop at North Olmsted’s Donauschwaben Center.

Click here for more events on Fri 5/19

SAT 5/20
Are cat people really crazy? It doesn’t matter, as long as they’re among their own kind. And they will be at the 2nd annual Crazy Cat People party at Millard Fillmore on Waterloo, which celebrates all things feline.

* Start your summer shopping at the Cleveland Bazaar at Market Square Park.

* BAYarts’ Bike Fest caters to cyclists of all ages and levels.

* The Akron Portage and Paddlefish makes waves.

* The Cleveland Asian Festival is back for a weekend of pan-Asian culture and fun. Also tomorrow.

* RiverDay straightens out the Cuyahoga as volunteers clean up and celebrate the river.

* Guitar virtuoso Eric Johnson and his Electric Band make at stop at the Kent Stage.

* Activists March Against Monsanto at Market Square Park.

* Photographer Steve Mastroianni holds an open house at his new Slavic Village studio. Also tomorrow.

* Use your green to buy some green at the Holden Arboretum plant sale. Also tomorrow.

* Six Shooter Coffee celebrates new Flats location with athletic games.

* Ambient singer/songwriter Vancouver Sleep Clinic performs at the Grog Shop.

Click here for more events on Sat 5/20

SUN 5/21
There’s a day for everything, and today is World Turtle Day. That gives Summit Metropark’s Liberty Park Nature Center a peg to offer an afternoon of turtle-themed educational programs, games and crafts.

* West Park goes to the dogs with Pups in the Park.

* John Oates will be signing his new memoir at the Rock Hall.

* The ambient soundscapes and electronic beats of Earthen Sea will fill Maple Lanes.

Click here for more events on Sun 5/21

MON 5/22
CWRU’s Gabriella Celeste is known for the research she’s done in the field of juvenile justice and rehabilitation. She’ll talk about how to change the juvenile justice system for the benefit of both offenders and society as part of Preterm’s monthly community outreach events.

* The food trucks are back at Legacy Village on alternate Mondays.

Click here for more events on Mon 5/22

TUE 5/23
One of the community outreach aspect of the annual Hessler Street Fair is its poetry competition, with submissions collected in an anthology. But poets also compete for prizes and the chance to read at the fair June 3 & 4. They’ll do that tonight at the Happy Dog at the Euclid Tavern.

* Two local cantors perform Broadway & Great American Songbook classics to benefit the Maltz Museum.

Click here for more events on Tue 5/23

WED 5/24
Apart from the glitzy events and championships that have some raving about Cleveland’s “comeback,” there are underlying real estate trends that point to the city’s future. A panel of plugged-in local experts will talk about these trends and what they’re indicating at MOCA Cleveland.

Click here for more events on Wed 5/24

Send your cool events to: Events@CoolCleveland.com

Almost Framed

Do the actions of police detective Page amount to criminal conduct? That’s not for me to say since I’m not a member of the legal community. But it’s clear that Judge Russo is seriously looking askance at the behavior of Page….

Read other stories from Mansfield Frazier here