Steven Wright at the Ohio theater, February 20, 2011

"If you shoot at mimes, should you use a silencer?" - Steven Wright

   The show started at 7:00 P.M. and lasted till about 9:00 P.M. We'd previously only seen him on YouTube  and I think he's best experienced live like many comedians. Currently ranked # 23 on the Comedy Central 100 Greatest Standups of all Time, he made his case for that ranking. The audience covered the age spectrum and laughed at most everything he said, although sometimes after a pause because he likes to make you think. Example: "What's another word for thesaurus?" Delivered with his trademark monotone and deadpan face, you can't help but laugh. 


His website

Tall Ships Preview: Round Two

Okay, so I'm full of crap! Yesterdays post was erroneous at best and just possibly an outright lie! Neither of the 2 ships I spotted yesterday were the U.S. Brig Niagara (reconstructed, home port: Erie Pa.) because it came in a few hours later. The first 2 names and origins remain unknown. So I was wrong. But, so was the Plain Dealer! On the front page article from the June 15 edition it clearly stated and I quote: "this Wednesday, you won't be able to board the Niagara, who's home port is Erie Pa. - you will have to wait until the festival to do that".  Well, you don't get pictures like the one to the left without being on board the ship, so there! The festival they refer to is the "Cleveland Tall Ships Festival" which runs from July 8 through July 11th, a Sunday at the port of Cleveland.  Tickets are $12 in advance and $14 day of. More info at playhousesquare.org and 216-241-6000 or 866-546-1353. More pictures are here! And you can win tickets to this event here! And the Niagara's page is here!

Tall Ship Preview

The Plain Dealer reported, rather inaccurately, that one of the "Tall Ships" would be visiting Cleveland on Wednesday, the 16th. Actually two just sailed into Cleveland at about 4 o'clock or so. They arrived from the East and were visible from Wildwood State park to the 55th Street Marina area. The last I saw of them, they were holed up at the Lakeside Yacht Club, a "members only" establishment, behind a chain link fence. So, they'll rest there overnight and probably party till dawn and then wake up and proceed to shoot their cannons off in Cleveland Harbor. Follow up links are: Channel 5's story and the home page of these two ships is here.

Waterloo 7 Art Gallery

Yesterday we went to the 1 year anniversary of Blue Arrow Records and went across the street to visit the Waterloo 7 art gallery. Even if you spend a few hours there I would recommend coming back because I don't think you can take it all in at once. Several different artists are represented including Jerry Schmidt the owner, his son Tyler and ERU, a local artist. Mainly sculptures, but with paintings, blown glass, photography and hand crafted jewelry, the world of art is well represented.

We are planning at least one return visit on April 10, 2010 6 to 9 P.M. for "The 1st Annual Wine Tasting Charity Event to support Battered Women of Northeast Ohio". The cost is $20/ticket and a portion of the proceed will be donated to The Domestic Violence Center of Greater Cleveland.
This is just one more in a series of fundraisers and community events that Jerry either hosts or participates in like the upcoming fundraiser he's hosting at Waterloo 7 for the NCFCP (North Collinwood Feral Cat Project) on May 22, 2010.

Beginning March 16 through June 25 Waterloo 7 is having a liquidation sale to clear his gallery and facilitate a move to a better location (still in the Waterloo area).

Lets feed the Christians(Browns) to the Lions!

The title is not so much a statement but a joke, and not so much a joke but a statement. As a joke, it's the eleventh week of the regular season, and to many Browns fans, it's a regular season. It's what we are used to. Losing. Losing is a disease, aah, but curable! (Okay, I'm channeling "The Natural", but with a point) and the point is, the team will win again. Just not now and that's what's unacceptable to the fans with a special thanks to our brilliant sportswriters who fan the flames of discontent no matter what happens. The Browns are going through a rebuilding process and I think we should realize this. More to the point, the entire organization is rebuilding, almost continually, before our eyes and we need to give it a chance. Al Lerner died in 2002, the Browns third year after being reborn. Randy Lerner was thrust into the spotlight as team owner and though it's been seven years, hasn't gotten it right yet. By comparison, the Rooney family has had the Steelers for 76 years. When somebody has an episode, a failure of health, a suspected heart attack, it's common to hear someone say "okay, everybody step back, give him some room, let him breathe!" then they loosen his clothing and let him relax. This team has had an episode and is trying to recover, there's still a pulse, a heartbeat. The team isn't just what we see on the field, it's like an army where for every 1 guy on the field there's ten providing support. Some of those ten should be us, the fans. Acting like a pack of wild dogs, the fans and media have pursued the Browns and nipped at their heels for every misstep they have taken. Sometimes I have to wonder who's side they're on. After watching the Lions lose to the Vikings this past weekend in something resembling style, and recalling the Browns taking the Bengals(who now lead the division) into overtime for a hard fought loss, should we really feed these christians to the lions, or support them even if they lose?

What's the Mather?

On Saturday, Mary and I toured the Mather, sans dog (Mutzi). The Mather is a former Great Lakes bulk freighter. It was interesting and cold!

Our tickets were complimentary from our sailboat excursion in July and we dragged our feet until now. A word of warning, there's no heat or air conditioning, so if you go, plan for that. We enjoyed ourselves and would recommend the tour.

One thing we liked is that it's self guided. Sometimes on guided tours, you don't have the time to fully check things out and get the full experience you paid for. We liked the view from the deck of the ship (you walk from stern to stem, or aft to bow? O.K. I'm not BoatBoy) you see Browns stadium and downtown from an angle and height you're not used to.

We would go back and do it again, but it would be cool if you could get something to eat or drink (like hot chocolate, it was like 40 degrees). If I owned it and had Bill Gates money, I'd cut holes in the sides of the hold and put a decent restaurant in the there, with heat and air conditioning and valet parking and definitely serve those little ears of corn.

Littoral Combat Ships - U.S.S. Freedom

I saw this Yahoo article about the Navy's newer ships and recalled that Dan and I visited the U.S.S. Freedom when it passed through Cleveland on its way to the Atlantic seaboard. It was a one day visit and we waited hours to see it. It was well worth it to actually get on board something just built and cutting edge. My gallery is here on Pikshures. I started digging and came up with this from Lockheed Martin and this, their Flickr gallery.

Euclid Creek photo shoot

After work I went to to Euclid Creek with Dan to take some pictures. While we were there, we saw a woman I've seen in the past who feeds the chipmunks that seem to be concentrated at the east end of the the park. We talked to her for awhile and she said she feeds them peanuts in the shell and sunflower seeds.

I looked through my pictures and found some from 2008 that I took of her and her Friends.

Azman Quality Meats

Friday afternoon, before I went down by Wildwood, I was hungry and hadn't been to Azman's in awhile. I wanted, I needed, smokies. So, to Azmans I went. To my horror, there were no smokies hanging on the rack. The nice lady asked if she could help, and I said, "there's no smokies, I guess not". She said "hang on, hon" and yelled down the stairs. She said "hold on, hon, they're just coming out. You ever had 'em hot, hon"? I said, no. At that moment, the butcher came up the stairs and said the same thing, "he never had 'em hot"? Feeling kind of dumb, here.

Well, nice lady broke off a hunk of smokie and said, "here, try this". Nirvana, or close to it. Usually, these things are hanging there with that shriveled (ahem) kind of look, a day or so old, but these were plump, juicy and hot, right out of the smoker. Let's just say they never got cold.

654 East 185 Cleveland, Ohio
216-481-0826
link

USS Cod tour

Went with the boy's from work(Jim, Dan, Joe and Norm) yesterday and toured The USS Cod, a world war 2 era submarine located in between Burke Lakefront Airport and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

After that we walked about a half mile or so along East 9th down to Vincenza's (reviewed here and here) on Prospect by East 4th and had lunch. Everybody agreed the food was good.

When we were done, we walked out the side entrance into the Colonial Marketplace next door and oohed and aahed.

Since we were already acting like tourists we headed down East 4th past the restaurants and Pickwick and Frolic to Euclid Ave. took a left, went past the House of Blues and hit Public Square. More pictures can be found here (Norms) and here (Mine) and here at Dans site.

Walking the dog

Took Mutzie and us for a walk today at Squires Castle. We Did about 3 miles the day before at CVNRA and you can tell we are pushing her limits. Squires Castle is a Cleveland, Ohio landmark of sorts, because most everybody has heard of it, but nobody knows how to get to it!