Brewed Fresh Daily

After many trials and tribulations, and at least 10 minutes of driving, they finally came to 3030 Superior Avenue on a Saturday morning. But a powerful wizard must have hidden the entrance, for they could see the sign but no way to go in! Fear not, our heroes bravely walked around to the back parking lot on E.31st and discovered the True Path. Inside, a wise man concocted the precious drinks -- a Coffee Mocha, and a Purple Delight (taro-flavored). They waited anxiously; Ladygoat considered a spoiler for her Honda Civic while Foodgoat contemplated a biohazard sticker for his VW Jetta.

Symantec should have been more aggressive in informing customers of a potential security problem, a top company executive acknowledged Friday. Customers who used the company's online Security Check service before June 24 may have inadvertently opened a security hole on their computers.

Notes of a Possessed Brother was the title of an autobiography written by an African American man back in the 1970's to protest and bear witness of his experiences of an African American man in a hostile world. One can, in this life, be "possessed of many things," of passion, of inspiration, of determination, of hope and a belief in change, among other things. In my case, I am possessed by the desire to act and speak to those issues and concerns that strike the heart and consciousness, the mind and soul, rights and wrongs. Rwanda and Bosnia, Eucild Corridor and Homelessness, civlc change and neighborhood isolation and economic dislocation. I'm reminded of article in the 1980's in the Journal of American Medical Association (AMA) journal -- that the life expectancy of African American males in Harlem were worse than in Baneladesh. I am possessed by the need to collaborate with agents of civic, artistic, humanistic and social change. There you have it. Welcome to a very small perspective of my world; those intellectual curiosities and passions that occur from a Cardic kid, a survivor, that has returned to Cleveland to bear witness -- who shares just as passionately with you about civic and social change network dynamics. Hope you enjoy the journey.

Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, (NEOCH) in conjunction with Creative Impetus Gallery, (CIG) will present Face to Face: Portraits of Homeless People in Ceveland, an exhibition of photographs by Cleveland-based photographer David Hagen. Unlike many pictures of homeless people, that capture the dark desolution of their plight, Face to Face presents a collection of portraits of homeless people taken in the warm light of the studio that are full of life and color. Hagen�s talent for engaging and getting to know each subject before shooting exposes the real person under layers of protective armour. Each deeply moving portrait challenges our comfortable assumption that homeless people are somehow different than us � their homeless condition is due to their own shortcomings, not ours. But as you look into the eyes of the men, women and children in Hagen�s portraits, you see the essence of each person. Hagen�s work provides the viewer with a unique opportunity to truly see homelessness, face to face. The gallery exhibit will open with a reception on Fri 6/27 from 5-8PM and will be free and open to the public. The people who are the subject of David Hagen�s portraits will be present to share their stories and their smiles.

Our blog is a newly formed collaborative designed to provide electronic music and art fans with a one stop shopping source. As it stands now... the electronic art consumer is required to shop at several promoters, galleries, and artists sites to get the scoop on what's cooking. In order to stream line this process..... Several people with a variety of backgrounds are being identified with the intent of granting access to the blog. The blog is primarily for posting events, reviews, details of local artists in the electronic art genre (music, digital arts, digital performance art etc).

To stay ahead of trouble, IT managers need to take a proactive approach to hot spots: They should teach users how to securely access corporate resources and should develop and enforce hot-spot policies that are in line with those in place for remote access.

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust, 1871-1922, French novelist

"Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it." - Henry David Thoreau

Natalia runs a blog (short for weblog), which is the cyber-equivalent of a diary, which means the rest of the world now has peeping rights - and she does it all from a laptop in her bedroom outside Washington. She's been blogging for years, and she is not alone. Weblogs are known as the indie rock of the Internet; thousands of teens claim one for their own. They need no corporate might to sponsor their musings, doodles, or homework, and they need no permission to publish.

Without a guide, Internet users seeking enlightenment from Web logs, or blogs, may come away dumber than when they started looking. Many online diaries are just places for diarrhea-of-the-mind rants that only a handful of friends will really enjoy reading. But Cleveland's elite bloggers are churning out worthwhile thoughts on everything from the economy to Cleveland's night life.

A new Web site that's making the rounds is Supportcleveland.com, which wants to help local businesses connect with one another and "closely watch, report and expose" businesses that send money and jobs outside Cleveland "without good reason." It includes ways to find local businesses, a list of success stories and a "Shame Report" on businesses that aren't helping their hometown.

Cleveland's Computers Assisting People Inc. wipes out data on the hard drive three to seven times in accordance with the U.S. Defense Department's specifications, said CAP Inc. organizer Dan Hanson. CAP will also accept a computer without a hard drive as long as you haven't removed other components like RAM and the processor, Hanson said.

Instead of spending a fortune trying to position Cleveland to be something that it can't, maybe Cleveland would be better off spending the money on real community problems like the inadequacy of Cleveland's schools. For example, the Plain Dealer ran a story the other day about how some Cleveland School children are given four squares of toliet paper to use the restroom. Cleveland schools don't have toliet paper in the restrooms because they can't afford it. Teachers bring in and pay for their class's restroom necessities. Why not divert a couple million dollars from this convention center idea to fixing up the deplorable state of Cleveland's schools?

Larry Doby's immense contributions to the Cleveland Indians' 1948 World Series victory, despite facing daily racial hatred.

Online scribes are starting to meet face to face. The Northeast Ohio Bloggers Meetup, a gathering of authors of online diaries (aka Blogs), will hold a social gathering at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Starbucks, 12405 Cedar Road, Cleveland Heights. The organizers would prefer it if you would RSVP. So if you are interested in going, get more information and register at blog.meetup.com.

[O]ver the past year of being hammered with the phrases "Richard Florida" and "Creative Class", the popularity of the book has begun to trouble me. It seems that Florida's approach is most powerful with those who need the market to tell them whether the content of their souls make a good product. I ask: Do we really need to know that dignified, inclusive, adventurous lifestyles are good for the economy? Do we need permission from the Department of Commerce to be our best selves?

There were no peasants waving torches or pitchforks in this crowd, no procession up a winding, eerie mountain road to flush out the monster who'd been terrorizing their town. The mob that gathered in Manhattan on Tuesday night was looking for something they referred to (without explanation) as a "Love Rug." Or at least that's what the couple of hundred people who gathered in Macy's department store told a bemused salesman, who may or may not have believed he was dealing with a commune of carpet-craving eccentrics. The crowd of people was participating in the Mob Project, an e-mail-driven experiment in organizing groups of people who suddenly materialize in public places, interact with others according to a loose script and then dissipate just as suddenly as they appeared.

On Thursday, June 19, hundreds of entrepreneurs are expected to join in a party "celebrating creativity and innovation and the courage to start and grow new businesses in NE Ohio," said Jim Hummer, one of the organizers of the party. Mr. Hummer is chief executive of Whole Health Management and one of the organizers of the NEOpreneur Exchange. NEOpreneur is an initiative to promote and foster entrepreneurship in the region. "We want all entrepreneurs or would-be entrepreneurs to come, make connections and help their companies grow," Mr. Hummer said. The party will be held on the old Superior Viaduct, overlooking the west bank of The Flats and downtown Cleveland. Dan T. Moore, chief executive of the Dan T. Moore Cos., said the party would feature the 3 Bs - beer, barbecues and bands. The party will begin at 5:30 p.m. and cost $20 to attend.

Interesting to see which industries get spammed the most. On a related note, "The Christian Coalition and Sen. Charles Schumer have clashed in the past, but on this they agree: When it comes to spam, the devil is in the e-mails."

For those of us who live here, and for those of use who were raised in this great city...the time is now to take action! We have lived with our pervasive and stifling citywide low self-esteem for too long. The time is now to wrench away the slow, plodding, backwards conservatism that is clotting the arteries of this city's cultural and economic cardiovascular system. Are we a city of grey-haired ex-banking executives and sports team owners? Are we a city of doomsayers content to watch opportunity after opportunity slip away to other regions, states and countries? Let me ask you this: what have YOU done to help revitalize our home, our city, our Cleveland? Unless you are proactively seeking solutions, you may as well be a part of the brain-drain. Go ahead and move somewhere else...the rest of us don't have the time or energy to combat your negativism and doubt. Those of us who believe we can move this city forward must focus every bit of energy toward that goal. In the coming weeks and months, we must seize every opportunity to support Cleveland...in every decision large and small. We must keep industry, culture and housing both viable and attractive options. We have an overwhelming wealth of underutilized talent and capacity. We must keep work in our city. We must develop and create and support. We must be heard. Write something. Say something. But more than that, do something.

The Buddha replied, "My teaching can't help with the eighty-three problems, but perhaps it can help with the eighty-fourth problem." "What's that?" asked the farmer. "The eighty-fourth problem is that we don't want to have any problems."

The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of getting free food donated every day to abused and neglected animals. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "feed an animal in need" for free. This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.

SupportCleveland.com has two main functions: To help local businesses locate other local businesses in hopes of keeping our growth right here in our own town. To closely watch, report and expose businesses who choose to send their money and jobs outside Cleveland's community without good reason.

really enjoyed the port of Cleveland plans, that called for a laid out convention center all on the lake front that connected to the waterfront line. The design color and feel of the design rang true with the recent Cleveland Browns Stadium design and the Rock Hall look and feel. My idea was that if this was the site developed that perhaps the city would see fit to do away with the useless Burke Lakefront Airport and perhaps develop that into a thriving recreation area with hotels, shopping, recreation, and even get this DOWN TOWN HOUSING imagine if people actaully wanted to live down town? Wow what a boom that would bring. Maybe we could even keep some of our most prominent graduates from Case, John Carrol, & CSU. I think developing this waterfront could really create a boom greater than the opening of the Gateway complex. What does everyone else think?

It's no mystery why so many talented artists are leaving Cleveland in search of other cities that will embrace their work. Why must it be such a struggle to create in this city? I, like many artists I've spoken with, feel the grim mood the arts in Cleveland seem to be experiencing. This makes me sad, but also motivates me to ask myself what I can do as an individual to help improve the situation... I do know I truly admire and enjoy working with the multitude of artists and organizations throughout the area. I'm proud to be part of an artist community that sees the potential in this town and keeps working hard to push through the "red tape" to make this city "get with it." I believe one of Cleveland�s greatest appeals for an artist is that we have the advantages of a major city, but it's small enough to know or know of each other.

"If I had to identify the constraint that currently holds our own system back, my gut points me to our waning social capital. Yet we seem to never directly attack that issue. Instead, we decry the region's rust belt image while spending more and more time in front of TV, in our cars, and in other pursuits that isolate individuals from each other."

The mission of PAA is to provide experiences in the contemporary arts that stimulate critical thinking and promote progressive thought.

You must realize that what is at stake here does not reside in words and phrases: it is like sparks from struck flint, like the brilliance of flashing lightning.

In a marriage of science and art, three astronomers have pinpointed the precise time and date of a painting by Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh based on calculations of the moon's position in the picture. Van Gogh's painting depicts a field of haystacks in Provence, France, with a bright orange orb partially showing over a bluff. The vivid picture was known to have been painted sometime in the summer of 1889, toward the end of the most productive, but troubled, period of the artist's life. However, the precise date of its creation has vexed art historians for many years. Even the subject matter was in doubt. For most of the last century the painting was assumed to show the setting sun, not the rising moon. Originally untitled, the painting was known only by its catalog number, F735. It has subsequently been called Rising Moon: Haycocks.

When James Garfield - later the 20th U.S. President - served as president of Hiram College in Ohio, a hurry-up father burst into his office with an urgent request. He wanted to know if it was possible for his son to graduate in three years instead of four so that he could get into the marketplace faster. "Well, it all depends on what you want to end up with," Garfield replied. "If you want an oak, it takes seven years. But squash will take only three months."

The purpose of Socrates Cafe is to create a forum for exploring ideas and beliefs. The goal here is not to persuade, but to understand. We start each meeting gathering suggested questions. Past questions have included "What motivates people?" "What is the difference between good art and bad art?" "Must there be stress to have progress?" "What is love?" We choose one question, then spend about two hours digging into it - trying to explore it from as many perspectives as we can, uncovering new questions behind the answers. And that's pretty much it. The discussions are open to everyone. People generally leave with new things to think about and a growing sense of connectedness. Also - it's a fun evening.

"It was a very profound event for me, calling forth my appreciation of everyday life as art, for those who are able to see art as perspective rather than product." - Jack Ricchiuto

Levy saw it as his mission to bring cultural enlightenment to the city of Cleveland. To that end, he established the Renegade Press (later called Seven Flowers Press), "printing sometimes 8 to 16 hours a day for days and days." In addition to his own work, levy printed works by Charles Bukowski, Ed Sanders and others; he also produced limited (pirated) editions of classic texts which influenced him, works by Rimbaud, Camus, W. Y. Evans-Wentz, Artaud, etc.

We who live here need to get past the "Mistake of the Lake" mentality -- how often have you seen or heard that phrase used in the media? In particular in the "Letters to the Editor" section? Cleveland, and the region, has much to offer creatively. There are creative people living here. There are urban designers who can create great visions for Cleveland, why do we bring in design teams from elsewhere? There are architects who can design great buildings that live right here in Northeast Ohio, why do we import architects from outside? There are creative people with vision living right here, yet why does City Hall bring someone from outside to enhance the region's vision? And we've only touched the surface. When will we who live in the region finally see for ourselves what everyone else already seems to know--- that Cleveland is a creative place?

"I was disappointed that there was no chance for a Q&A or open discussion time. So, I never met or talked to any journalists. I honestly don't know how many showed up, and how interested they were in blogging. Or their general feelings -- intrigued? dismissive? dislike? fear the competition? I don't know. I haven't noticed any other bloggers mention discussing blogs with journalists at the event. I did not, however, talk to any"

[O]ur city leaders are putting hot dogs on the hook when they should be using caviar.

"Trepia has released an IM client that automatically populates itself with people who happen to be around you... This could have potentially revolutionary social effects."

We have launched a petition to build support for the Public Domain Enhancement Act. That act would require American copyright holders to pay $1 fifty years after a work was published. If they pay the $1, the copyright continues. If they don't, the work passes into the public domain. Historical estimates would suggest 98% of works would pass into the pubilc domain after 50 years. The Act would do a great deal to reclaim a public domain.

Street Performers Auditions on Thursday, June 5 Appointment only Looking for music/dance/other performance during Cleveland's on Fire, June 20 While 24 artists are painting fire hydrants on Euclid Ave. 11 am - 9 pm Pam Menhenett 216.685.1698

On 18 May, for example, one Geoffrey Nunberg fulminated in the New York Times about the fact that whenever one does a Google search on any topical issue, the top page rankings often go to blogs rather than established media sources (such as the New York Times ). This was, according to Nunberg, A Bad Thing. After all, most bloggers are not professional journalists, but rank amateurs! He was not the first hack to articulate this whinge. In fact, he seems to have picked up the idea from an earlier piece in the Register, an online publication. But the mindset he represents is widespread in Big Media, so it is worth devoting a few moments to unpacking the prejudices behind it. First, there is the contempt for 'amateur' writers, endemic in professional journalism. Hacks are always astonished by anyone who writes for no pay, so upwards of half a million such amateurs now publishing blogs leaves the pros speechless. It also leads them to deride blogs as an epidemic of vanity publishing rather than the glorious outbreak of free expression it actually represents.

At a certain point of the Day sunrays bathe the brass parts, Still hot to the touch, stacked Next to my machine. This time of day The light sheen shining of brass Time of day Is coming progressively later.

As the new associate pastor, I was preaching my second sermon. A ten-year old boy sat on the front pew, swinging his feet. I tried to remember my sermon but was mesmerized by his swinging feet. After a while, I gave it up and had the people stand for the benediction. That chubby little guy came up to me afterwards and said, "Brother Bill, how about coming to our house and having lunch?" I thought, Well, he owes me that. So I went, and met his family. I returned to college and forgot the incident. Until a couple of weeks later, when I went to my mailbox and pulled out a letter with loose contents. As I opened it, out fell 57 cents in pennies, nickels, and dimes, plus a letter from that boy. "Dear Brother Bill," it read, "I'm sending you my egg money to help you go to school to learn to be a better preacher."

Does anyone else think like me in saying that Dick Feagler should just retire? Really, haven't we all heard enough of his Midwest A. Rooney impression? Not that the man can't write, far from it. He was midly entertaining I'm sure years ago. But now, for Cleveland's sake, does it make sense to have a cantankerous old fuddy-duddy spouting such great useless old time analogies like...'In my day, a mouse was a rodent, not a device!' Cough, choke.