Veterans Memorial Bridge and Subway Tours

Veterans Memorial Bridge and Subway Tours

This Saturday, September 2nd, there is a FREE tour of the Veterans Memorial Bridge given by the Cuyahoga County Engineer's Office. Tours run from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. More information is here.

Welcome Henry

Welcome to the world Henry Owen Tovissi.
Born Monday, August 14 2006
Congratulations Lisa and Doug! He's great!

Summer Wedding

Some shots from Jamie and Alex's wedding
July 15, 2006
East Calais, Vermont
Photos courtesy of and used with permission from cousin Andrew

A rare shot of the men in my family: Jamie, my father, and me (notice the suit jacket struggling to stay buttoned)



Indigo summoned us to the hillside with his beautiful cello playing...


When Alex, accompanied by her parents, Pauline and Tony, came over the hill and the ceremony began...


Charlotte read a poem written by e.e. cummings...


And then my brother, the groom, struggled through his vows.


Ladies and gentleman, husband and wife (and Phinnaeus too!):


To the party! The Low family hosted the reception:



Kris filmed the event, including my tipsy toast to the bride and groom:



Even Phinnaeus got in on the action!


My mother had a great time, as did my cousin and her family


And apparently I thoroughly enjoyed the food


The Starlight Rhythm Boys took us through the evening with honky tonk, r&b and rockabilly music until we said goodnight...



Congratulations Jamie and Alex! Thanks for including me.

New York City

We went to NYC last weekend!

Our trip revolved around food, food and food, with an occassional visit to a museum, bridge (like the Manhattan Bridge on the right here, shot from the Brooklyn Bridge), or historical immigration site. I think we packed about two weeks worth of walking into three days, but it's worth it. In my opinion, no trip to New York is complete without a bagel from Ess-A-Bagel , a stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge ending with a pie and a beer at Patsy Grimaldi's , and some cheap eats at Dojo.

We were fortunate to be in New York for the MOMA's "Free Fridays" night, which is extremely crowded but absolutely worth it. One of my favorite paintings in the museum is Magritte's "Emperor of Lights"

Saturday afternoon we went to the Tenement Museum - an incredible place dedicated to educating people about the experience of the Lower East Side's turn-of-the-century tenement dwellers. We toured through an apartment set in 1916 - the home of the Confino Family where an actor portrayed 14 year old Victoria Confino, a Sephardic Jewish Immigrant from Turkey. For the tour, our group was actually a newly arrived family to the United States, and we were talking with Victoria about life in New York City in 1916 - where we might live, what life is like and what we might expect as newly arrived immigrants to the US. The tour was followed by a fascinating discussion about contemporary immigration in a kitchen setting in the tenement. I would highly recommend this museum if you find yourself in the city.

We spent Saturday night with an improv comedy troupe called Gotham City Improv - not bad and for 7 bucks a head, probably one of the best deals on live comedy in the city. However, the Upright Citizen's Brigade is FREE (9:30 show) on Sunday nights, which I wish I knew before we made plans - next time...

Sunday, we took in more information about immigration when we took a boat ride to Ellis Island, where our tour guide told us about the history of the island and the experience of immigrants coming through this processing station. The island itself is mostly fill from the construction of New York City's subway system, but in earlier incarnations, it served as a food source for Native Americans (called Oyster Island at one point), a failed bar, a military fort and an ammunition storage facility before becomming a processing station for steerage class immigrants sailing the U.S. in the late 19th / early 20th century.

A walk over the Brooklyn Bridge took us to Grimaldi's for some of the best pizza in the world. The bridge is a huge structure and it is exhausting if you tack it on to the end of your day, which we did...Here, Kris is exhausted, resting at the half way point, dreaming about tasty pizza:

And here's Wes and I before, during and post-tasty-pizza:


Thanks, New York! See you sometime soon...

Did someone say Rock and Roll?

Did someone say Rock and Roll?

Wednesday September 6th, Beachland Ballroom, Shellac
Friday September 15th, Beachland Ballroom, The Woggles
Monday September 25th, Beachland Ballroom, Calexico

If you have to pick just one and you've never seen the Woggles live, do yourself the favor.

Cleveland Colectivo

There was a Cleveland Colectivo meeting last night. This is such a fun, smart, energetic group of people and I'm so glad I found them. I highly recommend attending upcoming meetings, which are (generally) the third Wednesday of each month. You can learn more by clicking here.

At last night's meeting, year 1 grantees came in to present on their projects. The grantees were City Wheels Cleveland, a car-sharing company; Building Bridges Mural Program, who are working on a mural at W. 25th Street and Detroit Avenue in Ohio City; The Tremont Urban Learning Garden at Lucky's Cafe; and the "Mommy and Me" program at the Westside Refugee Family Center.

I think what is most exciting about this group of grantees is hearing about how the little bit of funding we were able to provide has inspired future plans and expansion. For example, the Learning Garden at Lucky's provided not only fresh produce and a cool environment, but employment for teens in a way that provides both a benefit to the community and an awareness of the greater environment. They want to expand the garden next year and create more opportunities for youth to be involved. In addition, Lucky's seems to have become a real hub of community engagement: there are relationships with City Fresh, the Botanical Gardens, and it sounds like a farmer's market will set up in the lot across the street from Lucky's to share the season's harvest with Tremont residents. To think that a small $750 grant helped make this all possible is truly amazing.

Hat's off to all of the grantees and I'm excited for next year's applicants!

Today's Zefrank "The Show" post:

Good Stuff

Would this work in Lakewood?

I grew up in Burlington, Vermont. Burlington is a small city, privileged in many ways: a major University sits on the hill overlooking Lake Champlain, which is largely open and accessible to residents and visitors alike; the Green Mountains rise to the east while the Adirondack Mountains form the horizon to the west; a thriving downtown commercial district hosts year round community celebrations and opportunities for gathering, socializing and community building in general. You’ll find similar scenes in Ithaca, New York and Boulder, Colorado. There’s not much, living in Lakewood, that we can do about the benefits of certain natural resources (can we write a grant to install a mountain range?), but I wonder what we as a community can really do about creating a thriving downtown commercial district?

Looking around Lakewood, I see a lot of development happening along side of vacant storefronts. It creates a real paradoxical situation: how can we sustain new residential and commercial development when we’ve had a difficult time supporting what once was? I am supportive of the development that is going on – don’t get me wrong – but I fear the “out with the old, in with the new” style motivation. We, as a community, already said “No” to this kind of thinking a couple years ago. Other communities have not, and the results have been the “Crocker Parkification” of Cleveland’s outer-ring suburbs and exurbs. These simulacra, though expensive and arguably annoying, do appeal to something in us that we long for: an experience that combines the out-of-doors with our need to gather socially and have a place to spend a little money, too. There’s nothing wrong with this. In fact, my wife and I were surprised one day when we found ourselves at a big bookstore adjacent to a newly-developed mega-mall, bumping into several people we knew from Lakewood and Cleveland, sitting outside, talking, having lunch or a cup of coffee. The question I couldn’t stop asking myself was this: why isn’t there an opportunity to do this in a real downtown, like Lakewood?

I’m sure that everyone envisions the idyllic when thinking about how to improve life in his or her own community. I’m no exception, and so I propose this food for thought:

Close off a 2 or 3 block long section of Madison Avenue and create a “pedestrian –only” (walk your bikes; pick up after your dog) zone. This section should be near enough to the 117^th Street Rapid stop that people could commute from points east and west by train, be served by the shuttle busses, and have bike racks installed (temporary or permanent) for those who ride. It should also be wheel chair accessible. This should happen 4 times next summer, once each in June, July, August and September. For the sake of discussion, let’s say that Madison Avenue from Bela Dubby west to around where B-Ware Video used to be is blocked off. People can park in the municipal lot on the east side of the zone, on the streets, at the RTA station, etc.

So now we have a time frame, a physical space and we have several ways to get there.

Now imagine this: it’s a hot summer day. Malley’s has a scoop cart set up and is selling ice-cold ice cream cones. Tables are set up along the sidewalks, and people are having lunch at Sullivan’s, sitting outside. More tables are set up outside of Bela Dubby and folks are passing the time over iced coffee and the evil IPA. The parking next to Bela Dubby has a stage set up and a Lakewood band is setting up for an outdoor gig. Animal balloon makers, guitar-players, magicians and face-painters traverse the street, engaging children and adults alike. Benches are filled with people, neighbors, swapping stores about summer vacations, gardens, planning for the future and traveling down memory lane with one another. Various interest groups from around Lakewood have information tables set up eager to share their views on the needs of the city, the county, the region, the country… Voter registration tables make sure all eligible residents are registered for the upcoming elections. Local artisans and craftspeople show off and sell their wares. Lakewood’s ethnic and historical heritage is highlighted in a variety of displays around the street. A farmer’s market sells fresh fruits and vegetables. Additional local businesses are tapped for their offerings: fresh flowers, antiques, smoothies and sandwiches. The Lakewood Public Library runs a book sale satellite station. People pour in from Cleveland, Rocky River, Westlake, North Olmsted, Avon, Shaker Heights, Cleveland Heights…

Is it a street fair? A festival? How about “Lakewood Days?” Or, is it something that could become a permanent part of our social, physical and economic fabric?

Think about the empty storefronts in that strip. Wouldn’t it make sense for a bookstore, boutique, art gallery, or a (gasp) souvenir shop to move in? Can you picture a sculptural fountain centerpiece where kids splash and play (have you been to Millennium Park in Chicago)? Can you picture an outdoor concert series, in addition to the one at Lakewood Park, that focuses on Lakewood musicians? How about outdoor movie screenings for families?

What would you like to see? What can you contribute?

If you’ve answered those questions, how can we continue to build a Lakewood that reflects the preferences of those who live here? How can we continue to build a Lakewood that addresses the needs of those who live here? I know that, if I was looking for somewhere to move, I would rank very highly how well a community is aware of its own identity and what it does to cultivate and celebrate that. We identify with where we’re from (what does a New Yorker bring to mind, for example) so why not be from somewhere genuine? I think one of the biggest problems of ‘redevelopment’ is the yearning for something, or someone, that is not there. You know how when you are talking to someone and it’s clear that, even though they are in front of you, they are really cranking their neck to see if there’s someone else in the room that they should be standing by, instead of engaging in the conversation they are actually in? That’s what this ‘Creative Class’ model of redevelopment reminds me of; building something because it’s ‘cool’ does little more than isolate the people in town who don’t identify with that version of ‘cool,’ and attracts people from out of town who contribute to that kind of isolation. If everyone in town likes chocolate and strawberry but you focus on selling vanilla because you can sell it for more to the people who live in another town, that’s disingenuous. If you celebrate what is great about chocolate and strawberry, then you appeal to the home team, and the people who prefer vanilla may very well become interested in learning what’s so great about chocolate and strawberry. Similarly, there will be some people who like chocolate and strawberry who will want to spend some time exploring what the vanilla people love about vanilla. Eventually, you have some new, exciting flavors to work with.

I’m not accusing Lakewood of heading down the vanilla highway, I just fear the temptation to do so. I think there is something alluring about being the first kid on the block to host a highly recognizable idea or brand. But then you are just competing with other towns that can build the same thing, only bigger and better. By focusing on what is unique about our town and building along those lines, no one can compete with us; who could build a bigger, better Lakewood?

FREE things to do in Cleveland!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Last night was Tim's bachelor party. We were a small group of folks singing, playing guitars, drums and tambourines while drinking beer and eating cake on the back patio at the Lava Lounge. I met a lot of interesting new people: a sculptor, a teacher, several guitar players, a Saab technician and a hip-hop artist. Best bachelor party I ever attended, indeed.

Tomorrow is the Lakewood Arts Festival! Should be a lot of fun and we'll have an opportunity to promote the You Are Here project, too. There is also a book sale at the Lakewood Public Library, and then we're off to a baby shower for our friends Mike and Danielle, who will be proud parents come September. Lisa and Doug, however, may be transforming into proud parents as I write this.

Sunday, I think we'll head over to the closed-off MLK Boulevard and partake in the festivities.

Kris has several new paintings and felted cloche hats at the Local Girl Gallery, and a sample of the Collectible Escalators catalog is available there as well (Mike Uva, Machine Go Boom, Goodmorning Valentine, Zapruder Point, Short Hand). The gallery is at 16106 Detroit Avenue in Lakewood.

Coming in September

Me and My Monkey will be the online home of You Are Here*. We will regularly post photographs and transcripts of interviews relating to the You Are Here* photo-documentary project. Check back often for updates!

You Are Here* is a project that highlights what Lakewood residents feel about their city. We feel that a project like this shares a great affinity with many of the community efforts beginning and ongoing in our city. Walking around Lakewood, it’s hard to miss the transformation that is underway: structures and spaces are emerging that appeal to our intellectual, physical, recreational, commercial and social needs. In many ways, the catalyst that was “Issue 47” engaged a community that, several years later, has not allowed itself to recede into apathy. Rather, we are witnessing the emergence of an engaged, pro-active and committed community dedicated to creating the kind of place that they want to live in. But the question remains: who are you? To that end, we would like to use this project as a forum to meet as many Lakewood residents as possible. We would like to photograph you in your favorite place in Lakewood and discuss with you what you feel makes Lakewood a special place. These biographical vignettes will regularly be published in the Lakewood Observer. Publishing them in the Observer means that you get to share, and other people get to learn about, who you are and what you feel makes Lakewood a special place. Ultimately, a quilt of individuals and experiences will be available to all who live here, and those who do not live here yet, strengthening the sense of community that is Lakewood, Ohio.