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This weekend through next weekend, the Lake Metroparks Penitentiary Glen Reservation will be hosting Woodland Halle Days. You can check out the memorabilia from the former downtown Halle's Department Store from 11am until 5pm, Friday, December 19th, through Monday, January 5th. (The exhibit will be closed on Christmas and New Years days, but open from 11am until 3pm on Christmas and New Years Eves.) Admission is only $1.
The Lake Metroparks Reservation is located at 8668 Kirtland-Chardon Road in Kirtland.
Next Tuesday, December 23rd the Beachland Ballroom will be celebrating the season with a free show consisting of local bands Viva Caramel, Brian Straw (featuring members of Six Parts Seven) and The Perfect Guy. The show starts at 9pm. The Beachland Ballroom is located at 15711 Waterloo Road on Cleveland's East side. Call (216) 383-1124 for details.
This Sunday, December 21st, Commander Greg will be hosting three hours of your favorite '50s and early '60s Christmas music. His show is The Golden Age of Rock & Roll and it's on 88.3FM WBWC every Sunday from 6:05pm until 9pm.
Do the remainder of your Christmas shopping in downtown Cleveland this year! The Winterfest 2003 web site lists downtown hotels, holiday activities and attractions.
If you're downtown on a week day, stop by one of Cleveland's many excellent delis for a hearty sandwich.
There are very few seats left for the final weekend of the Cleveland Orchestra's Christmas Concerts -- just a few prom seats (against the back wall) and some seating in the back rows of the boxes. To order your seats for this Saturday and Sunday, December 20th and 21st, call the Cleveland Orchestra box office at (216) 231-1111. The concerts will feature Handel's Hallelujah chorus, Anderson's Sleigh Ride and other traditional Christmas favorites.
If you're not able to make this final week of Christmas concerts, don't worry -- WCLV will be broadcasting former Cleveland Orchestra Christmas concerts at 6:25pm Monday through Friday this week, and Monday and Tuesday of next week.
One of Cleveland's premiere college radio stations, 89.3FM WCSB, will be hosting their Benefit Show this Friday, December 12th, at the Beachland Ballroom. The show starts at 9pm and will feature a variety of local bands, including Viva Caramel and ex-Revelers, Andrej Cuturic & Joel Kaufman.
The Beachland Ballroom is located at 15711 Waterloo Rd, on Cleveland's East side. Call (216) 383-1124 for more information.
This Sunday, December 7th, from 1 until 6pm, University Circle will host their tenth annual Holiday Circlefest. It's a free open house where you can explore the noteworthy museums, churches and other institutions of the University Circle area. There will also be refreshments, entertainment, family activies and much more -- including a free Holiday CircleFest shuttle to transport you to your many stops. For further information, call (216) 791-3900.
Come see WRMR radio personalities Carl Reese and "Peppermint" Patty at Malley's Chocolate Factory this Saturday, November 29th, from 10am until 1pm! Like last year, they will be there to kick off the Christmas season and Malley's special collection of old-time department store window displays. Malley's is on Brookpark Road right off I-480 -- just look for the huge Sterling Lindner-sized Christmas tree!
This weekend and next, November 29th and 30th and December 6th and 7th, the Cleveland Metroparks will be putting on their annual Christmas at Frostville. You'll be able to tour old Olmsted farmhouses, and a General Store gift shop with old fashioned holiday treats. Frostville is in the Rocky River Reservation, off Cedar Point Road, which you can get to from Columbia Road in North Olmsted. For more information, call (440) 884-8844.
My favorite Christmas craft fair is this Saturday! November 29th, the Donauschwaben's German-American Cultural Center will be hosting their annual craft and food bazaar from 8:30am until 5pm. Admission is only $1.
The Donauschwaben Cultural Center, also known as Lenau Park, is located at 7370 Columbia Road, in Olmsted Township. Call (440)235-2646 for details.
Kudos to residents of Shaker Heights, for fighting thoughtless (and tasteless!) development! Eleven residents are standing up to Randy Ruttenberg and Adam Fishman's company, CenterPoint Properties, which wants to disregard an established deed restriction. This restriction was put in place to guard against just this type of bullying by a big company coming in and taking land from the citizens.
Incidently, Fishman and Ruttenberg's CenterPoint Properties is also one of the developers involved in the eminent domain abuse controversy in Lakewood.
The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra will be preforming at Severance Hall this Sunday, November 23rd, at 3pm. The program includes Humperdink's Hansel and Gretel and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5. Don't let the "Youth" part of their name fool you, this group is very professional; their talent and high standards are evident in the quality of their performance. For further details or to puchase tickets, call (216) 231-1111.
After over three-quarters of a century of operation, Cecil's Trackside Diner (located a little over 30 miles south of Cleveland) will sadly be closing its doors. This landmark diner, made by Goodell Hardware of Silver Creek, N.Y, was the last of its type still extant. In the '40s it was known as Hazel's, and then became Carl's in the '50s.
Fortunately, Mike Engle of American Diner Museum has arranged to have it moved to Gilbertsville (about 58 miles south of Syracuse, NY) where it will be restored and reopened.
According to Newsday, about 20 diners are still operational in Ohio and, of those 20, 8 are in the Cleveland area.
Saturday, November 22nd, at 9pm, the Cleveland Cinematheque will host its annual 2003 Avant-Garage Film & Music Festival. The festival features local bands accompanying obscure silent films.
Over the next two weeks, the Canal Way Coffeehouse will be hosting an exhibit of Jennie Jones' photographs of Slavic Village. The photographs of this neighborhood are featured in the book Slavic Village: Coming Home to the City. (The book is available for purchase in the Metroparks gift shop.) The exhibit will be from 9am until 5pm beginning today, November 17th and continuing through Sunday, November 30th.
The Canal Way Coffeehouse is located in the Metroparks' Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation at 4524 East 49 in Cuyahoga Heights. For details, call 216-206-1000.
On Veteran's Day, November 11th, at 4pm the Cleveland Grays Armory will be honored with a historical landmark and public ceremony. This castle-like structure was founded by an independent militia in 1837 and it pre-dates the Civil War. In the 1970s it was declared a Cleveland landmark and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It is located at 1234 Bolivar Road, right in downtown Cleveland.
The Cleveland Institute of Music's CIM Opera Theater (directed by Jonathan Eaton and accompanied by the CIM Orchestra) will be performing Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro next week. Tickets are only $15, or $10 for students and seniors (where else in Cleveland could you see The Marriage of Figaro so inexpensively?) and performances begin on Wednesday, November 12th, and continue through Saturday, November 15th. Since all shows begin at 8pm and the opera runs a little over 3 hours, the weekend seats are filling up quickly; call the CIM box office now -- (216)791-5000, ext. 411 -- to order your tickets! (more details)
A thought-provoking letter to the editor printed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on November 4th, discusses phony "new" urbanism vs. authentic urbanism.
Election Day is here and there are many important local issues to vote on. Check your city's Web site to determine where voting will take place in your ward.
One very important issue for the citizens of Lakewood -- that will ultimately effect us all -- is Issue 47. The threat of eminent domain being un-Constitutionally abused to take away residential property, and give it to globalist developers for private profit, is a national issue.
This Sunday, November 9th, is St. Rocco's famous annual spaghetti dinner! Dinner will be served from 1 until 5pm and you can buy tickets at the door. The spaghetti sauce is homemade by the parish, using the recipe (and guidance) of an 87 year old woman parishoner who makes, it's said by some, the best sauce in the world!
For more information, call St. Rocco's at 216-961-8331. It's easy to get to ... Just take I-71 to the Fulton Rd. exit, then go north on Fulton about 1 mile to the church.
A Memorial service for the highly respected Cleveland newsman Hugh Danaceau will be held tomorrow, October 31st, at 11am at the Zeis-McGreevey Funeral Home. Zeis-McGreevey is in Lakewood at 16105 Detroit Avenue. (death notice)
Cleveland lost a great man yesterday. Respected reporter and editorial-writer Hugh Danaceau passed away on Sunday, October 26th. Mr. Danaceau had been the news director at WCLV FM/WRMR AM. and had been a Cleveland newsman since 1959. Mr. Danaceau was the only news reporter that didn't make me cringe when listening to his reports ... a rare voice of reason in Cleveland media.
RIP Hugh Danaceau...
This Saturday, October 25th, St. Hedwig Church will be celebrating Polish Heritage Day from 9am until 6pm. St. Hedwig's is located on Madison Avenue in Lakewood, OH. (map)
This Saturday and Sunday -- October 25th and 26th -- Columbia Station's Red Wagon Farm will be celebrating Halloween and the Autumn season with their annual Pumpkin Festival. The festival begins at noon and features wagon rides, corn mazes, a farmers market and, of course, pumpkins! For more information, call (440)236-3007. (map and directions)
This Saturday and Sunday -- October 25th and 26th -- is your last weekend to partake in the Cleveland Metroparks Fall Hayrides. Hayriders meet at Strongsville's Chalet Recreation Area at 16200 Valley Parkway. For more information, call (440)572-9990. (map)
Tonight at 6:30pm, the Canalway Visitor
Center will be remembering the 90th anniversary of the
devastating 1913 Great Lakes storm with a free presentation
by story-teller Bette Lou Higgins together with her Vermilion-based Eden Valley
Enterprises and the William
G. Mather Museum.
The Canalway Visitor Center is located at
4524 E. 49th St. in Cuyahoga Hts. (map)
This Friday, and every Friday, the Cleveland
Maennerchor dining room is open to the public! This German
society -- whose name translates to "men's choir" -- dates back to the
late 1800s. Between 5:30 and 8:30pm or so, stop by and
experience their delicious homemade German meals, fish frys and
imported German beer on tap.
This is one of my favorite fish frys in the Cleveland area -- the
prices are reasonable, and the quality is high!
Also, congratulations to the Cuyahoga County Public Library system for placing third in the HAPLR rankings for libraries in the over 500,000 population catagory.
MarCal clam bakes include the usual clam bake fare -- 1/2 (honey roasted) chicken, (your choice of) potato, corn-on-the-cob, a dozen top neck clams and broth, soup and salad. If you dine on a Friday or Saturday, stop by the lounge -- worth seeing for its noted Spanish Modern design -- for an after dinner cocktail and your favorite lounge tunes, as performed by MarCal's impressive house entertainer, Gary Ryan. map
Note: According to their site, "The tour does not mean that Steve & Eydie will be retiring; they are just eliminating the rigors of the road from their varied activities within the show business spectrum."
The Port Authority is sponsoring a study to test demand for a Cleveland to Canada ferry. The ferry would dock at Port Stanley, Ontario which is about 2.5 hours from Toronto. The last Cleveland to Canada ferry ended service about 50 years ago.
Olmsted Falls' Donauschwaben German-American Cultural Center's annual Sommer Oktoberfest festivities begin on Friday, August 16th, at 6pm (keg tapping at 7:30pm) and continue through Sunday, August 18th.
A rare chance to see the von Trapp children! The great-grandchildren of the original singing family who fled their Austrian homeland because of the Nazis, as immortalized in The Sound of Music, will be performing at Cain Park in Cleveland Heights this Sunday, July 27th.
This summer, Lakeview Cemetery will host both trolly and walking tours every Wednesday at 6:00PM.
Happy Birthday, Cleveland! On July 22, 1796, General Moses Cleaveland founded Cleveland, Ohio.
Legendary Cleveland DJ Bill Randle is ill. The voice behind WRMR's Big Show was hospitalized last Thursday and is undergoing sugery tomorrow, July 22nd.
You can send your cards and well wishes to:
Bill Randle / WRMR
26501 Renaissance Parkway
Cleveland, OH 44128
Stone Reader, the film about Dow Mossman's 1972 novel, the "lost classic" called The Stones of Summer, has its first (and only?) Cleveland showing this weekend at the Cleveland Cinematheque:
Saturday, July 19, at 9:00pm
and
Sunday, July 20, at 7:00pm
WRMR 1420AM has a new website! There's biographies of all the DJs, and also a message forum ...
Don't miss the St. Rocco's festival this Labor Day weekend (August 30th - September 1st)!
St. Rocco's was the first Italian parish on the West side of Cleveland and the Canal-Fulton area has been enjoying this parish's street fairs since the early part of the 1900s. The festival is easy to get to ... Just take I-71 to the Fulton Rd. exit; go right on Fulton about 1 mile to the church.
Lakewood's handing over of residents' homes for private profit makes the Scene Magazine: "Lakewood uses bogus stats to make its case."
The article exposes the fact that Lakewood's adult population (ages 20-64) actually increased between 1980 and 2000, and other little tidbits that you won't hear from Lakewood's mayor or council.
On a related note, according to the Lakewood Buzz, the "blighted" Scenic Park area is having a block party and everybody in Lakewood is invited. It's this coming Saturday, July 19th (noon 'til sunset), at end of Graber and Gridley Streets.
From what I understand, the discontinuation of the popular Jack Purcell style shoe is not affiliated with Nike Corporation's buy out of Converse. Converse, which was established in 1908, is known for manufacturing the oldest, most popular and best selling sneaker of all time.
Some links of interest:
More information about this weekend's Cleveland Harborfest and Tall
Ships festival is at www.clevelandharborfest.com.
For more information about the various Tall Ships events around Ohio,
including ports in Huron, Vermilion and Sandusky, see www.tallshipsohio2003.com.
Gregory Peck was listed on the AFI's "Top 100" actors
list. My favorite of Gregory Peck's
performances were in Hitchcock's Spellbound and with
Audrey Hepburn in Roman
Holiday.
Our alternative weekly, the Cleveland Free Times, is in
operation once again after being bought out by Village Voice Media and
subsequently shut down by a two-million
dollar deal made between the New York City-based Village
Voice Media and NT
Media, the Phoenix-based corporation that now owns Cleveland's
older weekly Scene Magazine.
And, this time, the show is being run from a Cleveland office
... just like the old days!
It's no surprise that "Newspapers across the country repeatedly
scooped The Cleveland Plain Dealer on an unprecedented
multi-jurisdictional, federal antitrust investigation into the illegal
closures of the Cleveland Free Times and New Times Los Angeles." Check
out the rest of the Free
Times' coverage of this story. And here's
more coverage by the Los Angeles
Times, who kept its readers abreast of the DOJ antitrust
case as it happened.
Anything
Goes, the music of Cole Porter, is playing at the Great Lakes
Theatre Festival.
Winterhurst is open every evening of the
week and has skating with live organ music on Monday and
Thursday evenings from 8:30-11:00pm!
[The official Converse
website.
[original Chuck Taylor
factory back when the company was known as "Coverse Rubber
Shoes."
[A list of
actors who have appeared
in two or more films and/or television series wearing Converse All Star
Chuck Taylors
[Chuck Taylor, the man
himself.
[Ode
to a [Converse] shoe
July 11, 2003
This weekend, Cleveland will be kicking off the world-wide 2003
Tall Ships cruise downtown on Lake Erie.
June 30, 2003
Lakewood's despotic mayor Madeline Cain and council's
Un-Constitutional eminent domain abuse makes local and national
headlines
[ The Institute for Justice is
a DC-based law firm that defends Constitutional rights and has agreed
to take up the case of Lakewood's eminent domain abuse.
"The abuse of eminent domain has become a national plague,
and the Institute for Justice is fighting to end it." The Boston
Globe
[ Cleveland
Scene:"It's un-American"
[
NBC's Fleecing of America segment on Scenic Park
[
Christian Science Monitor: "Eminent domain and private gain"
[
ABC News carries CS Monitor story (above)
[
Realtor Magazine also warns against abuse of eminent domain:
"Abusive Trend: Eminent Domain, Private Gain"
[
New London Day (Connecticut): "Eminent Domain Is Truly State's 'Despotic
Power'"
[
Boston Globe: "Battle lines drawn on eminent domain"
[
Washington Post
June 30, 2003
RIP
Katharine Hepburn
On Sunday, June 29, the "first lady of American cinema," Katharine
Hepburn passed away at the age of 96 in her Old Saybrook, Connecticut
home. Miss Hepburn's career spanned over six decades; she won best
actress Oscar four times -- in 1933 for Morning Glory,
1967 for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, 1968 for The
Lion in Winter and in 1981 for On Golden Pond. One
of our personal favorites was 1938's Holiday
co-starring Cary Grant. The lights
will dim on Broadway at 8pm tonight in her honor.
Links of interest:
[Filmography]
[Biography]
[Google's
Katharine Hepburn directory]
[Katharine Hepburn
webring]
June 13, 2003
RIP Gregory
Peck On June 12th, Gregory Peck passed
away at the age of 87.
June 9, 2003
Only one man from the original group who planted the Sandusky time
capsule had lived
to see it unearthed last Friday. The capsule was buried by WLEC
1450 AM and its contents included a taped message, a record, and other
everyday items of the day ...
June 6, 2003
On June 6 of 1953, Sandusky radio station WLEC buried a time capsule in
the ground outside the Erie County Courthouse, to be opened in fifty
years. Be there for the unearthing at 12:30pm, same place, same day --
half a century later!
May 29, 2003
Bob Hope turns 100! His former hometown of Cleveland honors him
today by renaming East 14th Street downtown, between Euclid Avenue
and Prospect Avenue, to "Bob Hope Way - Memory Lane."
February 13, 2003
January 7, 2003
Winterhurst, (216) 529-4400, 14740 Lakewood Hts Blvd (at the
Intersection of I-90 and Warren Road), Lakewood OH 44107
