6K'18

This sort of revelry had been done for centuries in Slovenija before Ash Wednesday, especially on the Tuesday prior. In Cleveland, it is the Saturday prior (this year the 10th of February). After World War II, a more pagan version was done up large in the oldest settlement in the nation, at Ptuj. People lived there before the Slavs came, before the Romans came, and further back. To promote Cleveland's oldest formerly Slovene neighbourhood, the idea was imported. [2014 click]

Not a good day. Freezing rain and damp almost foggy air. The parade route was reduced (it was scheduled to be shorter than other years), the parade was smaller, construction barricades interrupted, sidewalks were not shovelled, but the police were less visible. This is the third time i went, once the weather was too snowy and windy to get there. People with telephones were photo bombing everywhere, constantly five feet or so from subjects, and some made themselves tandem to the parade. I do not believe they were getting good pictures, but they were excelling in preventing others to get clear shots. It was difficult to frame a good shot. I used two cameras, and they would not always focus. I took way too many pictures, and mostly bad shots. A high percentage of fotos were deleted. 

After the parade i went inside the auditorium, went into the balcony, and had a good view of the dancers. One woman in particular, or her hands and her stinking phone, were in the majority of those fotos. Came home cold, wet, and in bad temper. The celebration follows a movable feast, so next year it is on the 3rd of March.

The entire time it was twenty-nine with freezing rain.

The parade began with Austrian St. Nicholas' Day characters, the bishop and the krampus devils. This is also a masquerade, people can come as other characters, often only a papier-mâché mask.
 
The Art Museum had a quartet of demon Afro-Caribbean demon cattle.

A kurent and two devils. Included in the duties of a kurent is to chase away winter. First the concept has to become familiar to an American audience. Not many neighbourhood residents come out to watch.

A Slovene folk dance troupe did two fine group dances.

return visits to two closed churches

I visited two closed churches to-day. First Methodist had its second open house this morning. It's third open house is Thursday, 15 February, between 10am and noon. It is worth seeing.

To-day was the 2nd of three open houses at 1st Methodist, good opportunity to foto. The pipe organ doesn't play, but the artwork and the big pipes are still beautiful.

 This coffee cup was there last week too.

A little surprise after opening a door in the basement. The rest of the building had been used by the Cleveland Metropolitan School District until the new year. This dummy was left behind. 

The second church i visited was Nativity of Mary (Slovak) Cleveland. I wanted to see the basement, not possible, roof fell into stairwell. The vandals were excessive. The pews are largely gone (they were there in December), more stuff trashed, one spot had poop. This is what can happen to an abandoned Catholic church in Cleveland (after it changes hands a couple of times). This parish was closed in late December 1992. The bishop would no longer assign a priest there. The church was in excellent physical and financial health. For a few years, it was a Catholic outreach center. Then it was sold to a religious minister of some sort. The man died. A woman started a ministry, and she called herself a bishop. She had her wedding in the church, and never did get around to getting rid of the Catholic stuff on the walls and ceilings, which bothered her. I heard her on you tube. She had some interesting terminology. "The pulpit" was the entire sanctuary (which in Catholic terminology, would be everything under the apse, and behind where the communion rail had been). 

 

This is new to the choir loft. There was one in the nave already.

up for auction

 from East 30th, a gargoyle and a spire of Indiana limestone

First United Methodist Cleveland is up for auction on February 22nd. The first three Thursdays of February, from 10 to noon is an open house. For some three years, the property has been for sale.

The origins of the congregation goes back to 1827. The Methodists had circuit riding ministers then, and a resident clergyman came in 1860. The congregation built their first church in 1841, another in 1865, and in 1874. The last two being on Euclid and Erie (now East 9th), that property would have the Cleveland Trust Rotunda, which was once the 6th largest (in deposits) bank in the nation. In 1905 they moved into the present building. The architect, Milton Dyer, was a student of L'ecole des Beaux Arts. This Beaux-arts design was used by him on Cleveland City Hall, and by others in several prominent buildings in the city's center, including on the Episcopal cathedral nearby First Methodist. These two grand churches were also in the style of late gothic. First Methodist, as was Collinwood High, had a central tower in English perpendicular gothic.

Dr. Kenneth Chalker became pastor of First Methodist Church of Cleveland in 1986, and of Epworth-Euclid United Methodist Church in 2009. The two congregations merged becoming University Circle United Methodist Church or Church in the Circle in 2010. He retired Sunday. 

this photo is from 2010, as are some in this essay

Both churches are very impressive buildings, but costly to maintain. There is much water damage to the plaster, and paint in the church for sale. It seats 1200 and has a tall tower, the radiators were on to-day, and heating is an expense for this large space. [The University Circle church had extensive smoke damage from an electrical fire starting with a faulty corded coffee pot.] First Methodist has the decorated pipes of a large pipe organ in front (the console is gone) which makes the place look a lot like a picture palace.

Rev. Chalker wanted both churches in active ministry. He was quoted in Cleveland's daily before the merger, "There are a lot of possibilities. Unlike what's happening to the Roman Catholic churches, which is about, 'How do we close?' What we're doing is about, 'How do we keep it open?'"

 

By misfortune, First Methodist did have a tenant soon. Euclid Avenue Congregational Church burned to the ground in 2010, and held services at First Methodist until 2014, and then moving into St. Margaret Mary South Euclid, which, Cleveland's Catholic bishop, had closed. Just ending in December, Cleveland Metropolitan School District was using the attached office building [of First Methodist] as classrooms.

Broadway Methodist had closed and changed ownership, and it too was a beautiful church. Churches of long standing of several denominations have been closed, and sold, and usually sold to a downscale customer. Urban churches, of important history, and beauty of architecture have difficulty in maintaining membership. The bonds of community are weak in contemporary America, but megachurches of little depth and beauty have succeeded, sometimes with Elmer Gantry preachers.

 inside of the tower is a subject that can be photographed at different angles

First Methodist has three of these 5 lintel vignette windows with tracery. I like these stained glass, and hanging lamp shots.  These windows are from Franz Mayer Munich studios. St. Stephen, St. Adalbert, St. Joohn the Evangelist , and other Catholic churches have windows from Mayer. Some scenes, have the same models, it is easy to compare, and to recognise.

Here is something almost unique, here is a thin piece of marble over a clear leaded glass window, i think i can see the cames (lead frames). First Methodist Cleveland.
___________
postscriptum: 22 February, the auction was held, Tony George bid was $445,000. He plans to use it for wedding banquets.

Cuyahoga Falls

Lake Anna Barberton has a pair of white swan (Abra & Cadabra). A graveyard in Cuyahoga Falls has a pond of fowl, including a pair of black swan. I wonder whether this counts as a 'life bird' on a birder's list.

Cuyahoga Falls is Akron's largest suburb. It was named for the falls that had been here. The dam has created a lake, which has engulfed much of the old falls. This is in Gorge Summit (Akron) Metropark.

Gorge Akron Metropark has boulders and ledges of Sharon conglomerate, some called puddingstone. Conglomerate is like concrete, where lime cement has pieces and chunks of harder rocks embedded, and sandstone. A few of the boulders have many little cavities, like pockmarks--mini potholes.

2018 Miscellany #2

Often during Saturday and Sunday mornings there is very little traffic downtown (unless there is a marathon or biking event, and then it's all detours). There is still some stuff to see. The city of Cleveland is doing its damnest to eliminate on street parking. Parking meters are covered up and verboten (parking is free on weekends), other open spots have also become verboten, even on streets that have little traffic on weekdays. On the way to the library, these two people were employed and incognito:

  underneath the spiral staircase in the new library building

Apollo's fire children concert Joseph Gascho harpsichordist

I was having a conversation about picture taking, i said that light is the most important. The best light is in the morning before coffee time (for reference, i was on a job once, and someone asked "when's coffee?"; someone answered, "at 9.30, like its been for the last fifty years in this local"). This morning the light was good on St. Colman. My friend said, "the angle", he had seen some of my fotos.

the ice cross up and melting

 
Usually, i would have the angle showing Vladimir's first, but Good Shepherd Methodist still has some of its Christmas stuff up.

 Above the 'A' and 'C' of Peace, and on the far right, drips can be seen.

 

The Baptism of Jesus is January 6th, well on the old calendar that was yesterday. To-day it is sunny, and it was in the low 40s when i went by St. Vladimir's (Parma), which has a southern exposure. They put up an ice cross for the holiday, to-day it was melting at a noticeable drip.

Revisiting Nativity of Mary Cleveland

Just recently, i visited Nativity of Mary Cleveland [click], [click]. In a short time it has gotten worse. The scrappers and vandals made progress in three weeks of mostly arctic weather. When they attack, to destroy, it can be done quickly.

 When this this was a Catholic church this is the mural work that was done during a 1958 remodel.

 This "artwork" is from the new year.

 The plastic tops of the spray paint cans are conveniently in reach.

 

  The pews are neither floating or cantilevered, the sides have been taken.

 

This cupola has all is copper sheathing gone. There are fotos of the atomic bombings in Japan, where the metal skeleton is all that remains from the dome of a (if i remember correctly, i could search) church.

 There is little copper to steal on the other cupola.

2018 Miscellany #1

Sunday, we were in arctic chill. A warm spot in town is Rockefeller Greenhouse. The sun was causing the snow to slide down the glassy roof, and snow and clouds overlapped in view.

 Orange tree in fruit, in Cleveland, the middle of January.

A few feet away were some garish ornaments saved from an old railroad station.

 Old St. Mary Romanian Orthodox is part of Cleveland Public Theatre.

Nativity of Mary has a very strong balcony/choir floor, but the building can not stand for long.

St. Casimir had a Christmas Pageant (Jaselka) performed by children form Polish school.

On a cold and snowy Monday went to the early show at the pictures. They had a pretty good crowd, people applauded during the movie. Meryl Streep's Katharine Graham reminded me of her Florence Foster Jenkins role. Tom Hanks chewed a little scenery. The best actor, i thought, was Bob Odenkirk as Ben Bagdikian, “Ben, I might have something”, and “It’s just...government secrets”. The movie begins in the jungle of war in Viet Nam, and ends in the Watergate break-in. In between is the publication of the Ellsberg papers [and Graham's leadership in maintaining the paper in business]. It hit Ben Bradlee...“the lies...the lies...”. 

Some have this as the best movie of the year. I thought Dunkirk was better, but this may be the most important movie of the year.  “The only way to protect the right to publish is to publish”. “70% (of the reason we stayed in Viet Nam) was to avoid the humiliation of an American defeat.”

There were a few fun points. [unfortunately, i am not sure of the wording] “Well if you were a reporter, and not a novelist, when would it be ready?”. The girl who delivers the shoe box is the director's daughter, “Are you somebody important?”.

“I have the best words”

On some journal posts [click], i wrote about words (language, semantics) and their relation to truth and reality. Accuracy, and honesty are important. What passes on local television as speech is dumbed down into advertising language to tease (the use of some words are nearly always wrong: “even”, “unthinkable”). Now we have another problem in quotation and translation. Donald, contrary to his stated “I have the best words”, certainly does not. His speech is middling elementary school. It is also publicly crude. His latest bon mot would not have been printable. Other men holding his current office, would use this language in private. When the Nixon tapes came out, the transcript was full of “expletive[s] deleted”. At the time, i had to go to the dictionary for “expletive”.  American journalism is almost forced to quote Trump verbatim. Non-English speaking countries are having to use equivalent terms: “agujeros de mierda”, “pays de merde”, “drecksloch”, “Bongoland”.  BUT, everyone knew this before the election.

3 Kings

Matthew begins the second chapter of his Gospel, "When Jesus therefore was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of king Herod, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem.  Saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to adore him."  This is one of the epiphanies. The name and number of the wise men are not given by Matthew. Tradition has three: Gaspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, and their holy day is the 6th of January. This afternoon Saint Casimir had a Pasterka(Shepherds) Mass for the greater Cleveland Polish community. Three men of the parish stood in for the kings. Pasterka Mass is usually Christmas Eve, by having one on Epiphany Sunday the three kings can join the pageantry.