Freedom of Speech murals

On Collinwood High's Gymnasium annex is Chris Darling's "Dialogue, Diversity, Democracy". Darling died in June.

Donald Black Jr.'s "Your silence will not protect you" is on the (Harvey) Rice Branch of Cleveland Public Library.

Free Speech Week this year was 22-28 October. Free Speech Week was created by The Media Institute in 2005. City Club of Cleveland commissioned three murals. Cleveland artist Elmer Brown (*1909. 1971☨) painted "Freedom of Speech" in 1942 for the City Club's Auditorium.

April Bleakney's mural was the first of the three put up, and it is portable.  It faces an ongoing construction project on East 17th and Euclid. Its future ability to be visible is questionable.

Art on a rare sunny November day

The old St. Luke's Hospital has a Walter Sinz 1929 statue carved by the Gandola Brothers. This was also a fountain at one time. People drive by and do not notice how many figures are there. Saint Luke the Evangelist is standing center, on one side there is a nurse, and the other side a woman and infant...and behind him a winged ox (the icon for St. Luke). There is a similar ox on the steps of St. Colman's church.

To-day was the first sunny day with near normal temperatures in more than a fortnight. It was a good day to walk and take pictures.

Baker Mayfield is fading away. Outside the Art Museum there was a chalk festival two months ago, even with all the rain there has been, the outlines of several drawings can be discerned.

David Deming. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones. 2010.

Yesterday the temperature ranged from 26 to 28 degrees Fahrenheit, and the last warm day before that was Election Day (6 November). The scarf warms the sculpture.

arts of thanksgiving

 symbols of the Twelve Tribes of Israel

Dirshu Hashem b'himatzo kra'ahu v'hu karov.

Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found: call upon him, while he is near.  — Isaias lv.6.

B’nai Jeshurun Pepper Pike was the site for the arts of thanksgiving. This multi-faith, and multi-cultural celebration of performances was inherited from InterAct Cleveland (East Side Interfaith Ministries). B’nai Jeshurun has hosted this in 2015, 2012, and 2011. This is meant to be an annual event, but sometimes it is not.

In the Jewish sanctuary a passage of the Koran was chanted, and a Sikh sang some verse accompanied by an harmonium. Antioch Baptist Mass Choir sang two songs beautifully. An American Indian sang an Eagle Honor Song with drum. They and a few dance, and music groups performed well. 

The only gripe is "Christian rock". White Evangelical culture gloms onto whatever is current. Even in earnestness, it is usually artistically deficient. The first song was too aggressively 'sectarian'. As a guest in a Jewish house of prayer, it was not the best number to perform. Very easily, it could have caused discomfort to people.

 Lincoln West High School Global Studies — Nepal, and Africa

 Cleveland Kiltie Band

 Yin Tang Dance Company — Paper Cut Doll

prayer shawl—tallit

Succession of presidents

There was some question in historical analysis and commentary, was gwbjr America's worst president? Some compared him to Harding, no Harding knew he was not up to the office, and died before completing a term. Then to go back before the War of Southern Secession/War to Preserve the Union, Buchanan and Pierce are brought up; but if they were more competent, aware, energetic could they have prevented it anyway? Seeing recent events, no, the desire to keep racial slavery was too strong. Politically, there were the Compromises of 1820 & 1850; and still the tension was to spring. 

gwbjr was the worst president in US history up to 2009. Then came Barack Obama, who was and is being mercilessly attacked by partisans and racists. That smear campaign began the morning after the election of 2008, and has not ended. No, gwbjr is no longer the worst president; that which is there now is. I know many people who have said how horrible Obama is; if they were honest, and most of them are not, they would not say that Obama is "an embarrassment", or he is "terrible", or whatever...they would say, "I hate that a black man is president", or in some cases, "I am so brainwashed, that, i cannot stand for a Democrat to be in office". History will, history is treating Obama kinder. If he did nothing at all, he would be a giant standing between two gobs of _____.

Armistice Day

 "The War to end all Wars" ended one hundred years ago to-day, Armistice Day. It is not being much remembered here. One outstanding exception is at the Church of the Covenant (Presbyterian), Euclid Avenue. They will have a bell tolling one hundred times at 11 o'clock, and concerts. This is a big deal in France. Leaders from some sixty countries came to commemorate. From the United States a grand insult came, and shew forth. Even in France, it is not always a sunny day.

 

 Yesterday in Ottawa, Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau spoke:
"As we sit here in the rain, thinking how uncomfortable we must be these minutes as our suits get wet and our hair gets wet and our shoes get wet, I think it's all the more fitting that we remember on that day, in Dieppe, the rain wasn't rain, it was bullets,".

2018 Miscellany #13

   Edward has clipped a flamingo

 

   Guitarrón strung with harp strings

An expeditionary force has landed

good use of neon

American oil beetle, a blister beetle

 security

 on Fleet, there is also a pig nearby

last alarm

one of two smoke stacks of the former Industrial Rayon Corporation, later Metallurgical Inc
Driving along West Boulevard, there is a change of direction in the road, and for a bit, a large chimney is in the center of your vision. Driving past, one sees a brick sign. Walking past, one sees the sign is a memorial.

 Last Alarm

A magnesium explosion on August 4th 1966 killed four fireman, the deadliest day in the history of the Cleveland Fire Department. The factory processed aluminum and magnesium. The metallic dust is combustible. A fire broke out, and the workers could not contain, or put it out. When the explosion came, the four men on the roof were killed. Eight other firemen were injured.

color at Lake View

Yesterday would have been better, regarding leaf color.  This year, autumn leaves came late. High color came after the fourth week of October, and rain continued for days. Yesterday had that rare combination of sun and comfortable temperature. To-day, the rain was ended by dawn, and the temperature started out as warm, and there was continuous wind. The leaves falling was accelerated. Lake View Cemetery was still in very good color, maybe not to-morrow.

 

Haserot is a frozen food company. Someone left a pumpkin, perhaps for All Hallows.

Cassius demonstrates that black is colorful.

Quo Vadis America?

Procesión de calaveras y esqueletos

Cleveland has a Día de Muertos celebration. Ofrendas y altares (offerings and altars) were set up. Robin VanLear of Cleveland Art Museum decorated the main altare, which was the iconostasis of old St. Mary Romanian Orthodox. See previous: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013.

This year, the weather in the afternoon was good: sunny and 47 degrees. Last year, it was wet, cold, and windy, and this was the first cold day of the season. This is about the last event of the year, in which i would like to go out and get pictures. This summer, i missed a bunch of events because of physical discomfort; this began on the return from a Memorial Day parade. My right knee, and by extension the leg was often in pain; also the heat on some days was too much. There were several patches of heat waves, including mid to upper 80s from October 6 to the 10th.

Día de Muertos is both melancholy and happy. When Spanish Christianity came with the conquest of Mexico, the belief in an unending human soul was already there. The indigenous traditions merged with All Saints', and All Souls' Days. Now, yes, we live in a Protestant culture, and one that is very boisterous in its 'Evangelical and Pentecostalist' components, which are not amused by this. Also in secular culture, we have an attraction to the macabre. This can be playful or fearsome. Then we have a death, terror, and gore lust fascination. Día de Muertos is far superior to a zombie crawl.

  people entering the church

 some patiently wait

 

 applying face paint

Right before the parade, and near the old St. Mary's Romanian Orthodox campus (now Cleve. Pub. Theatre), the spectators were in a good mood. The police were incompetent and/or lazy. It was thick with people on Detroit Avenue, just a few minutes before marching began, and the cars kept going through. Very easily, one or several people could have been hurt. Right next to me, a man pulled back one of his chilren, whose back was too close to traffic. Councilman Matt Zone was there, if any of you know him, send him a message.

The procession of skulls and skeletons made a stop at a funeral home. The canopy reads "Dignity", and the two flags are of the most populous countries in North America.

 Mariachi de Santa Cecilia

Some parade participants like greyhounds. Cassius enjoys the attention.

 mariposas monarca

 Pick up Stix stiltwalkers

 next to one of the altares