Hotel Bruce

Welcome to the Bruce blog—a weekly update on news, events and issues affecting life in Cleveland. Reporting as it happens on transit, development, planning, environment and arts & culture.

Basically, we write about creative ideas forming, talk to the people who have an inside track on the issues, and sometimes offer a commentary of our own. (For disclosure purposes, Bruce blog is a local, independent writer who also works part-time with nonprofit organization EcoCity Cleveland. The opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of EcoCity or any other organization).

In today's New York Times, David Brooks rightfully argues that Katrina has focused a spotlight on urban poverty. But, he obfuscates the solution in wishful thinking. Brooks wants to disperse New Orleans' poor urban residents into middle class neighborhoods, but fails to acknowledge the void of affordable housing in our middle-class suburbs for the working poor.

Two fine printmaking events are happening in the next two weeks. First, this Thursday, September 8, fill up the tank and head out I-480 East for Pressing On: Alumni Artists Create Master Printshops at the Kent State University School of Art. There will be a panel discussion with master printers starting at 4:30 pm followed by an evening reception. Also, see where the magic happens as the KSU print shop (across the parking lot from the reception) opens its doors.

Many speaking on the panel are former Golden Flashes, including John Greco, founder of Josephine Press in LA, Robert Blanton and William Wygonik of Brand X Editions, Robert Beckman and Ian Short, founders of Artists Image Resource, an artist-run, non profit printmaking studio. Many of the shops are celebrating 10 year anniversaries, including Curlee Raven Holton’s Experimental Print Institute, established in 1996 at Lafayette College and finally Cleveland’s own beloved Zygote Press, started in 1995 by Elizabeth Maugans and Joe Sroka, joined later by Bellamy Printz and Kelly Novak, to provide print facilities for artists interested in creating fine prints. All events are free and open to interested students and public.

Shops like these provide artists with something that can be difficult to find once we have left the “nest” of well-funded academia, offering open studio and collaborative environments.

Speaking of Zygote Press, it hosts an opening reception for Erotic Expressions, prints and drawings by Michelangelo Lovelace on Friday, September 16 from 6-9 pm. This year's Artist-in-Residence award recipient, Lovelace's show was produced in collaboration with Zygote artist-printmakers. The A.I.R. program (sponsored by the OAC) was created to attract artists of different disciplines to express their ideas through the printmaking processes.

Clevelander Lovelace states: "This series of prints and drawings is inspired by the sexual interaction of human figures and how they connect in expression.”

He attended the Cleveland Institute of Art but is mainly self-taught and has exhibited widely throughout the Cleveland area including SPACES, MOCA (when it was the Center), Ursuline College and the Cleveland Artist Foundation. His work has also been shown at Keny Galleries in Columbus, the Springfield of Art in Springfield, Ohio and at the Outsider Art Fair in New York.

At least one local broadcaster is hoping to chip away at the dismal oligarchy of commercial radio by adopting a fast company attitude. WKSU, Kent's public radio station, is beefing up its online offering, launching three broadcast streams and has lured talent from WCPN, including Chris Boros and the station's former news director. The new additions include an all-news stream, a classical music stream with Mark Pennel, and Folk Alley.com. And the station is paying to wire music clubs like Beachland Ballroom with ISDN lines (and pay the $80/mo. service fee) in order to record all live concerts, Bruce blog has learned.

Bruce blog recently wandered into La Bella Vita ( 2013 Murray Hill Rd) in Little Italy and was both inspired and awed by the variety of cool and exclusive selections there. Don’t let the amateur website fool you, this is a store that combines classy and fun in ways you don’t want to miss.

Reminiscent of Abigail and Annie’s— lately of Shaker Square, who packed up shop and left for the suburbs— La Bella Vita combines old world charm with fun décor that borders on kitschy, with a touch of ethereal imagination that results in a wholly unique and feminine store. From flowing scarves in the deepest hues of the ocean, to delicate fairies perched on wire stands, to fake pizza dripping over a shelf, La Bella Vita evinces the beautiful life in loving detail.

Owner Barbara Strom—a former chain store executive— understands the need to live creatively, but also understands that we aren’t all interior designers, and offers in-home as well as mural design. And for any ladies who may be hearing wedding bells in their future, La Bella Vita offers an exquisite bridal registry.

File this under fun urban ephemera to which Cleveland isn't yet hip but soon will be.

Multimedia graffiti is showing up on walls in American cities, as self-promotion, artistic expression or even interactive history lesson. Grafedia is a service offering cell phone carriers text messages or digital images linked to email addresses scrawled in paint on a wall.

Another service, Yellow Arrow, encourages people to plaster adhesive arrows—each assigned a unique code—to physical landmarks or even other people (Yellow Arrow encourages posters to get permission before placing stickers on private property.)

Passers-by who see an arrow can send a text message to a phone number with the arrow's code. The reply message contains information about the place or person.

Some of the arrows simply designate someone's favorite cafe or restaurant ("Best breakfast in town"). Others mark a place where something significant took place.

Live/work artist galleries The Hodge School on Cleveland's east side is hosting Beautiful East, a fashion event to benefit AIDS charities in Cleveland such as AIDS Taskforce from 6-9 p.m. on Saturday, September 10. The lawn event features an auction of fine art & furniture, food and beverages, DJs and a fashion show. Email for more info.

Heaven is a Place Where Nothing Ever Happens: An exhibit featuring Julie Langsam & Charlotte Becket curated by William Busta at HeightsArts Gallery ( 2173 Lee Rd, Cleveland Hts). Opening reception Saturday, September 10, 6-9 pm

Together, their works explode conventional interpretations of landscape and the machine age. Langsam moved to Cleveland from NYC in 1996 to teach full-time at the Cleveland Institute of Art; Becket is a 2002 CIA graduate living and working in NYC.

CitiRama 2005 – Experience the revitalization of one of Cleveland's most storied neighborhoods - this year's Citirama is focused in Glenville. Tour 11 show homes just built between E.100th & E. 101 and Superior featuring the latest in urban design. September 10 from 10 a.m.– 6 p.m. For more information.

Jazz at Rockefeller Greenhouse – Happening at the same time and minute north of the CitiRama 2005 is the 3rd annual JAZZ at the Rockefeller Greenhouse. The free concert on 9/10 from 1-3:30 pm, features the Bobby Selvaggio Quartet. Tour this stunning 100-year old greenhouse and its gardens and dig the sounds at an outdoor concert by a local jazz great. Lolly The Trolley tours of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens also available. All free and open to the public.

Global Change and Human Stewardship of Planet Earth: Dr. William Schlesinger, biogeochemist on Friday, September 16, 7:30 pm at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Schlesinger, who is James B. Duke Professor, Biogeochemistry and Dean of The Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University, explores the history of human relations to the environment, the causes and consequences of ongoing global climate change, and the ethics of human stewardship of our planet. He draws on examples from his early environmental education at the Museum and his 30 years in environmental chemistry, as well as the latest findings from his current experiment, which involves exposing an entire forest tocarbon dioxide levels expected in the year 2050.

ClevelandBikes, a two-year-old nonprofit working to advance cycling interests, safety and education, hosted Bike to Work days on the final Friday of the month all summer (the last is one is coming up at the end of September). About 30 to 40 riders gathered downtown on the mall for a pre-work breakfast.

ClevelandBikes was joined by several staff members from Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell's administration, including the Health Director Matt Carroll, Planning Department staff Marty Cader, Sustainability Manager Andrew Watterson and others.

The day also included a raffle for a Breezer, one of the most exciting new commuter bikes on the market. Marty Cader, a cyclist with the Cleveland Planning Department was the lucky winner of the random drawing. Marty rode in from the westside, joining riders who commuted along routes from all points of the city, with rides led by ClevelandBikes volunteers. For more information about ClevelandBikes and cycling in Cleveland.