Walk and Roll Reminder...Sunday, August 24th

Walk and Roll
Sunday, August 24th, 2008
Rockefeller Park, Cleveland, OH
11am - 6pm

In Rockefeller Park and The Cultural Gardens. This is our signature event where we open the park to people by closing the street to cars. Bring your talent, your music, your art or your group and join the day

resources:
map and list of events

City Xpressions 2008

City Xpressions
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008
Market Square Park (located at the corner of West 25th Street and Lorain Avenue, across the street from the West Side Market)
10am - 7pm

A full day of music is hosted by Q Nice and includes performances by:
Forrest Getemgump
DJ Doc
Go-Live Grizzlies
Endika
Heartbeat Africa
Camouflage Finesse
RA Washington
Tut Besto

The bboy/bgirl battles will be hosted by Dre Live of Illstyle Rockers Presented by Scion City Xpressions Street Art Festival celebrates urban and street art in its dynamic and eclectic forms. Inspired by the miles of graffiti exhibited along Cleveland's public transit routes, the festival brings aerosol and other street artists out of invisibility by providing a public space for the creation of their beautiful, controversial artworks. In its seventh year, City Xpressions continues to evolve with the voices of the artists leading the way.

via: ClevelandPublicArt

Local legacies drive our blue collar lust for things that go

While at the most recent Lakewood Car Kulture Show I felt a little guilty. All these examples of gas guzzlin' and throat clearin' and power and paint made my inner enviro a little guarded. What were we doing here? Did we expect to see an old gas sipping BMW Isetta among the 424's and Mustang Mach 1's? We did.

Well, it was easy to determine that my love of the internal combustion motor (moving parts, grease, grime and scraped knuckles) does not entirely go against my love of the environment. The simple fact is that the Car Kulture show was a fantastic reason to shut down an under used city street and bring the community together. Sure, exploitation of petrol burning motors may rub some the wrong way with the brouhaha over offshore drilling and rising/falling/rising gas prices but these cars and bikes are not your typical daily drivers. They are loved family members, cherished memories and guarded dreams. They don't represent consumption gone wild, they represent the exact opposite. Squeezing every bit of life out of your old cherished possessions. As I watched the MarJ peer in windows and point out fun customizations I realized that while one can hate the idea of personal cars there is a deliberate history that allows one to love the expressive freedom and identity of the classic car. They represent unbridled hope and dreams and a foray into a exploration of a relative young technology and all the promises to mankind that they allow. Even literature of the Dymaxion House allows for the potential of every homeowner owning their own auto (count the driveways). Argue the sprawl and the pollution, but it comes down to not knowing any better. Well, now we do.

I also stumbled across a fine flock of Templars. The Templar Motor Company was a car manufacturer based right here in Lakewood, Ohio and turned out some fine motor coaches with what have to be the longest running boards I have ever seen in person on a car. That sent the gears in my head spinning. Cleveland once was a blue collar manufacturing giant. Born on the shoulders of people willing to take chances and invest in their dreams, sacrificing their time and hard work to turn a vision into a reality. I found it eerily prophetic of the direction Cleveland may have to take again. Reinventing itself as a manufacturing town, building on it own interest and invention. Damned if I didn't feel a bit hopeful again. Maybe we need to reinvent the electric car. Maybe we need to redesign the city to accept those fleeing the suburbs for the density of the urban core. Maybe we need to look at the success of others and adopt it to fit our own mindset. A mindset of doing things the hard way, the right way, the blue collar way.

As you mull that over, here is a list of Cleveland based car manufacturers. Wikipedia had a decent list of OH auto manu.

*in no particular order...
Baker Motor Company
Winton Motor Company (1897)
Stearns Automobile (1898)
The American (1902)
Royal Motor Car Company (1904)
Brew Hatcher (1905)
Baker Materials Handling Company - electric cars
Templar Motors Company
White Motor Company
Peerless Motor Co.
HAL
Jordan Motor Car
Willys who acquired Stearn...

Moment of silence for Tubbs Jones

Stephanie Tubbs Jones --- passed away today at 6:12pm.

She was an inspiration to many and will be sorely missed by those of us who have hope for our region. As the first African-American woman elected to the United States House of Representatives from Ohio, Tubbs Jones was a resident of Ohio's 11th district (which was never profiled on the Colbert's Report "Better Know a District as the Fighting 11th", which is a shame because it probably would have be great).

She fought well for her constituents which, since Cleveland represents a pretty decent cross section of American life, means she fought well for most of the country. We have lost a friend and a crusader.

1/3 Movie Night - Skateboarding with Simmel

Thursday, August 21st, 2008
Bela Dubby
13321 Madison Ave. Lakewood, OH
7.30pm until it ends!

How would you collect data on a space you only catch a glimpse of? What happens when you design solely from the perspective of the subjective viewer? When is too much information, too much? Can relationships of urban interventions be disseminated without illustrating them in the classic form of plan, section and elevation?

Ted thought so otherwise he wouldn't have spent so much time on his thesis about experiential design. Come and check out the series of videos that he put together hoping for some sweet, sweet validation from Kent State's School of Architecture. Its alright not to get it right away. That's basically the entire point.

brought to you by Rockitecture and those kids at LAUNCHcleveland.

ps. cake