08.17-08.24.2016 Clean

08.17-08.24.16
Clean

We know how to get our hands dirty. We’re not afraid to dig in and make it happen. We are makers; that’s what defines us. But we’re learning how to leave a clean trail behind us.

Celebrating Cleveland’s Year of Clean Transportation, the Earth Day Coalition’s Clean Transportation Cruise-in promotes biking, walking, public transit and electric and hybrid cars. We’re all in.

Free your mind and a cool city will follow, so we show you the Top 10 places to read in Downtown, plus the Top 5 most clicked links of last week, plus the best place to dance with the Greeks.

We’re polishing up our bowling and dancing skills at Mahall’s, hipping you to a Bloody Mary workshop at Countryside, revealing a Masterful Series on Johnny Cash, savoring the Gypsies at BOP STOP, going public with PechaKucha, and offering you your choice of food trucks at Beats & Eats. Time to clean up. –Thomas Mulready

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Photo by Elisa Vietri

Leave a Clean Trail

Earth Day Coalition’s Clean Transportation Cruise-In, taking place at Edgewater Park. is in its fifth year, but this year it dovetails with Cleveland’s Year of Clean Transportation. So there’s more attention than usual being paid to ways of getting around that leave a lighter footprint on the Earth.

The Cruise-in promotes all the alternatives: biking, walking, public transit and electric and hybrid cars. Plus there are local bands and food trucks. John Benson talks to program director Christina Yoka about the future of transportation. Fri 8/19.

Get on Your Dancing/Bowling Shoes

Bowling and tango dancing might not seem like natural partners, coming from very different cultural backgrounds. But the people who attend the Tango Bowl-a-Thon at Mahall’s, now in its fifth year, mix the two easily. Dance a while, bowl a while, then go to the bar and have some drinks.

Lakewood native/NYC resident Adam Hoopengardner ran tango events in New York before he decided to bring it on home – and mix it up with that Cleveland heritage pastime, bowling. He gives us the scoop on what to expect over its three days. Fri 8/19-Sun 8/21.

Cleaning up your online advertising? Consider CoolCleveland Sponsored Links, Sponsored Features and Sponsored Videos. Info@CoolCleveland.com

SPONSORED: Chances are you have a corner or your garage that’s filled with stuff you just don’t know how to handle. Old paints, oils, can-this-be-recycled boxes? NEORSD’s Healthy Home Handbook has 33 tips, resources and recipes that can help you make sense of your mess while protecting the environment. Read More.

Top 10 Places to Read in Downtown CLE

Half the pleasure of reading is finding the perfect place to do it. Often we find ourselves relaxing with a book on the beach or the veranda of a bed & breakfast when we have a plausible excuse for leaving the phone behind.

But you don’t need to go on vacation to find a great reading spot. There are plenty of them, even amidst the bustle of Cleveland’s city core. Passionate reader and author (as well as our resident winery expert) Claudia Taller shares her 10 favorite places to kick back with a book downtown on your lunch hour. Or make these destinations when you have a spare afternoon.

VIDEO: Get Ready for NEORSD Open House

It’s the number one event in the number two business. Every year, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District throws open the doors to the largest water treatment plant in the state of Ohio.

Listen as Jennifer Elting sets the stage for Sat 9/17 from 9AM to 4PM, when thousands of people will get a chance to tour the plant, experience interactive displays from dozens of community partners, and experience fun for the whole family. You really gotta go! Details.

Stories and Art

Bring the little ones down to the Akron Art Museum to get their creative juices flowing, first with an interactive storytelling experience around the subject of “secret messages,” and then with art-related activities in the lobby. Thu 8/18.

Click here for more CoolCleveland Kids events

The Akron Honey Company, founded by local soul singer Wesley Bright, hosted its AHC Market Day, featuring a gaggle of local entrepreneurs, in June. They’re getting in another before summer end, and Wesley’s promising a big announcement about a new project for his company. Sun 8/21.

* Tomatoes are at their peak, and the Countryside Farmers Market offers patrons a chance to taste a host of unusual varieties. There’s also a Bloody Mary-making workshop – another way to use tomatoes! Sat 8/20.

* BAYarts offers a vegan/vegetarian feast out under the stars, music and a pasta-making demo at Dine in the Park. Thu 8/18.

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

SPONSORED: Nothing compares to a summer neighborhood stroll. Similarly, nothing compares to the frustration of a stroll being distracted by the smell of pet waste. Picking up after your pet benefits water quality! The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District‘s PUP program has the materials to encourage your pet-owning neighbors to act responsibly. DogsCantFlush.org

The Spuds are back in town! DEVO fans will converge on Cleveland for this year’s DEVOtional at the Beachland, a two-day event honoring Akron’s DEVO. Fri 8/19-Sat 8/20

* Highland Square PorchRokr features 130 music acts, artists, food and more, all for free. Sat 8/20.

* The Rock Hall’s 21st Music Master series will focus on the music and career of Johnny Cash. Mon 10/17-Sat 10/22.

* Dolfish debuts a new release with a performance at Praxis Fiber Workshop. Fri 8/19.

* Band submissions are now open for next February’s Brite Winter fest in the Flats.

SPONSORED: Clean Music at The Kent Stage The High Kings, Brewer & Shipley, Talking Dreads, NEOHIO Prog Fest Vol. One, Hal Walker, Fruition, Taylor Hicks, Muldaur, plus more. TheKentStage.com.

Read more of CoolCleveland’s picks for Cool Events.

WED 8/17
Jazz vocal/piano duo Atla & Matt DeChamplain were high school sweethearts. Now, with a raft of music degrees between them, they make music professionally with their debut album as a duo, Pause, released last year. They’ll perform at the BOP STOP.

* Rock Hall’s Summer in the City concert has a country twang with Honeybucket and the Gage Brothers.

Click here for more events on Wed 8/17

THU 8/18
The Greek Festival at St. Constantine and Helen Cathedral in Cleveland Heights is one of the older church ethnic festivals in the area, now celebrating its 59th year. Enjoy Greek food, dance, music, vendors and a tour of the spectacular cathedral. Through Sun 8/21.

* New original play Objectively/Reasonable deals with the community response to the murder of Tamir Rice. Through Sun 9/4.

* Occidental Gypsy plays modernized gypsy jazz at the BOP STOP.

* The High Kings bring upbeat Irish folk music to the Kent Stage.

Click here for more events on Thu 8/18

FRI 8/19
The next PechaKucha, an event where speakers present ideas and information speaking for 20 seconds about 20 slides, takes place in a big, fun, outdoor setting; Public Square. It’s free and all are welcome. Get your feet wet in the splash pad and listen in.

* Cleveland Print Room opens new show Scale3 featuring photographer and two video artists.

* Fashion show and night out at the Agora benefits women-owned businesses.

* 78th Street Studios’ Third Friday offers a couple of closings and a bunch of mid-run shows this month.

* 79-year-old King of the Surf Guitar Dick Dale is back at the Grog Shop.

* Popeye Gallery at 78th Street Studios shows diverse work by three recent CIA grads.

* MOCACleveland’s Loaded series continues with three acts that mash genres.

* Mechanic Street House Concert features Americana artist Eric Bachmann.

* Brent Kirby & His Luck make their debut appearance at Oberlin’s Riverdog Barn.

* Scientists will talk about the value of bats at Bat Night at Lake View Cemetery.

* Rock Hall CEO Greg Harris talks about where the Rock Hall’s been and where it’s going at the City Club.

* Big Splash raffle buoys up Sandusky Maritime Museum.

* Romanian Festival puts a Transylvanian twist in West Park. Through Sun 8/21.

* The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra plays two different shows, one outdoors tonight in Lincoln Park, one indoors tomorrow at the Music Box.

Click here for more events on Fri 8/19

SAT 8/20
Voices in the Fark animal rescue is hosting its “Black Tie and Tails” benefit at Hale Farm and Village, suggesting “creative black tie.” Ask your tuxedo cat for tips on attire.

* Take It to the Lake is an afternoon of kayaking, hiking, birding, yoga and more at Lower Shaker Lake.

* Orquesta La Sonora will have you burning up the dance floor at the Bop Stop.

* Learn how to write an engrossing obituary at a writing workshop at Lake View Cemetery.

* Runway Freedom fashion show aims to raise awareness about human trafficking.

* The slimy and the scaly star at Cleveland Metroparks’ Reptiles, Amphibians & Fun.

Click here for more events on Sat 8/20

SUN 8/21
To raise money for next year’s VegFest and educate people about the impact of what they eat on their health and the planet, the Cleveland Vegan Soiety is hosting a screening of the new film Food Choices at the Capitol Theatre. The filmmaker will do a Q&A afterward.

* Learn about Cleveland’s beer history on a Lake View Cemetery trolley tour. With tasting!

Click here for more events on Sun 8/21

TUE 8/23
If you like to choose your lunch from a variety of food trucks offering different cuisines, then the weekly Cleveland Beats & Eats taking place each Tuesday in August and September is for you. Grab something to eat and catch the local musicians who entertain the office crowd. And since it takes place next door to City Hall you might run into Mayor Jackson or another city bigwig.

Click here for more events on Tue 8/23

WED 8/24
With the aging of both the victims and perpetrators of the Holocaust, time is running short to bring those involved to justice. The Maltz Museum is hosting a panel in prosecuting Nazis in the 21st century, featuring the team that recently won the conviction of an Auschwitz Guard, who is now 94. Come hear their story at Tri-C East’s Mandel Humanities Center.

* Lottery League, that event featuring random musicians thrown together to form temporary bands to perform “The Big Show,” takes place every three years. Five of the bands will reprise their sets at the Rock Hall’s Summer in the City series.

Click here for more events on Wed 8/24

Send your cool events to: Events@CoolCleveland.com

Don’t Boo, Vote

There was some good news for women’s rights advocates last week when an Ohio judge smacked down the defunding of Planned Parenthood passed by our legislature and signed by our governor in May, stripping funds from women’s health program because they also offer abortion, which is legal.

But why did this bill pass in the first place? The politicians behind it were elected in non-presidential years, when turnout is low, especially among Democrats. Now Attorney General Mike DeWine, who spent our tax dollars trying to take rights away from women and LGBT people, wants to be our next governor. He must be stopped. Mark “November 2018” on your calendar!

Wine Snobs

When we began to make plans for the conversion of our BioCellar into a winery, I, only half-jokingly, said to my wife Brenda that I was going to have an artist draw me a life-sized image of a man’s profile. He would have his nose down deep into a wine glass, sniffing…

* How Hillary Wins In the presidential contest that we’re almost at the midpoint of, it appears that Hillary will win for one main reason: It’s because she’s not her opponent….

Read other stories from Mansfield Frazier here