cleveland is not nowhere

Cleveland ice – foto by smith

I’m an anti-social cranky-ass curmudgeon who’s even crankier due to this new cold and lack of grass aggravating old pain. It is truly hard to move from 80 degree sun to 8 degree winter gray. So I apologize to all those I offend, not so much for what I say but for the way it’s taken out of spirit truth need and context. I guess it’s just natural that everyone needs to defend their home city. One person complained I was dissing Cleveland. It’s not dissing, it’s reporting with fresh eyes.

There is MUCH to praise about Cleveland. In the U.S., I’ve lived in 9 states (Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Tennessee, Maryland, Michigan, Arizona, Ohio) and who knows how many cities these past 63 years, and I’ve never come across a better set of people than here in Cleveland – especially among the artists, poets and musicians. The creative level and just basically friendly people here are amazing. We’ve met fantastic people everywhere of course, and of course we know more folk here because we’ve lived here longest, but still the level of intensity in the arts here is unsurpassed in my odd out-of-the-box experiences.

And as for beauty, the great Lake Erie is awesome, looks like an ocean and deeply touches the soul. I feast my eyes on it every time we’re near, and driving back from the east side, I eagerly await coming over the rise and suddenly seeing this great expanse of water before me. It thrills and soothes me every single time I see it. That’s why I poured Cat’s and Mother Dwarf’s cremated ashes on its shore.

Culturally Cleveland has one of the top ten quality museums in the country, and its symphony orchestra is world famous and respected, probably one of the top 3 in the country. We also have the longest artist-run alternative art gallery anywhere–Spaces–perhaps one of the very few left, and certainly the only one who owns their own building.

Cleveland is way cool, always has been. A goodly number of famous musicians first became famous thanks to Cleveland, and as everyone who has ever listened to the radio knows, Cleveland Rocks (“Cleveland Rocks” is a rock song by Ian Hunter from his 1979 album You’re Never Alone with a Schizophrenic).

There’s tons more of course – the Cleveland Performance Art Festival which for ten years was the biggest performance art festival in the world, and Cleveland Cinemateque which is the grandest year-long never-ending film festival in the world.

And not to ignore the down-side, Cleveland is the poorest city in the U.S. of its size, has some of the largest unemployment in the nation, and is among the cities with the fewest days of sun a year.

Like life and everything else in the universe, it’s all constant compromise.

All that said, I’m glad to be back. I already feel the energy here. We’ll be here 1 to 3 years while we get CRIMINAL published, and then hopefully will travel more. We need to live in Thailand for awhile, want to see India, China and Nepal (I also need very much to see Greece). And I think I’d like to live in Peru and New Zealand for awhile. But Cleveland will always be our home.

So no disrespect intended. Besides anyone who knows me knows I’m part PRICKly cactus, part PRICKly porcupine, and addicted to saying what I see. If you don’t like my perceptions, perhaps it’d be best not to read me. I try to be as nice, moral and sociable as I can, but my skill-set is sometimes defective and always limited.

Cleveland / frozen Lake Erie – foto by smith