So here I am sitting in
Cleveland, Ohio sheltering from the storm that's been taking out
trees, lampposts and worst of all people over the last 24 hours
across the mid-west. The finishing line for my trip is now in sight
and that would be fine if it wasn't for the fact the cooperative I
most wanted to visit on this trip are refusing to respond to any of
my enquiries. They're called Evergreen and are based here in
Cleveland. I even doorstepped them today, well at least tried to and
didn't even manage to get them to answer the door. Still I can't get
too hung up on it, my stay here has been excellent otherwise with my
host David making sure I've been able to see all aspects of this
somewhat paradoxical city.
Yesterday between
finishing articles for my website that is almost ready for launch we
visited the City Art Gallery here. We arrived via a park that was
built around the same time by the guy who masterminded the design of
this Central park in New York. The milder weather here than back west
in Chicago meant the leaves still bore their autumnal canopy and as
with central park the naturalistic contours draw the eye across green
lawns garnished in the golden leaves, yet to mulch up and fade to
brown. The gallery is one of the best I've ever visited and included
a ton of my favourite artists work including some really great
Picasso, Manet, Miro, Dali and many, many more. The gallery and the
other museums in the area tells the story of this city. They were for
the most part built when the town was rich with industry and tycoons
saw fit to bequeath their wealth, at least part of it in the noble
cause of the arts. Building a natural history museum, planetarium,
botanical gardens and a few other palatial buildings of one sort or
another. But rather than reflecting the city's more recent demise
these buildings represent its response. The gallery we visited has
been wrapped in a new building with a now vast atrium that housed
some really cool Ai Weiwei sculptures of the zodiac animals and a
sweeping glass ceiling. Its not entirely unreminiscent of the great
courtyard in the british museum. There's also a nearby Frank Gehry
building and a gallery of contemporary art called Mocca designed by
Zia Habib. It all feels a long way from my first impression of the
city on arrival a few days ago. The city's centre feels hollowed out
and I suppose this is the same thing that's happened more infamously
in Detroit, maybe just not quite so catastrophically.
Before my arrival here in
Cleveland I spent a few days in Chicago and though I enjoyed my stay
there wasn't a whole lot of time to adjust to the city's rhythm (I
think it takes a more time the bigger the city) not helped by the
schedule of work related stuff that ate up most of my time. Not that
I should complain as the visits and interviews I conducted with New
Era Window Coop were some of the best I've conducted to date. And I
still managed to spend a day walking around the centre of town taking
in the skyline and heading up Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) and
enjoying its views across the city and east over lake Michigan. Wish
I had more to say about Chicago but like I said I just didn't feel as
though I had the time to properly absorb it.
Here in Cleveland another
little revelation has been a couple of visits I've enjoyed to one of
David's favourite hangouts his friend's bookshop and 'zine archive
called The Guide to Kulchur. Its owned an operated by his friend and
poet, novelist, artist and all-round creative RA Washington. He and
David are the sort of friends who its nice to observe in full flow,
they're both very different in may regards but share a deep sense of
compassion for humanity and more importantly one another. Last night
we attended a book, well two book launches in the basement of the
store where there's a super cool performance space. One of the books
was RA's latest novel which I think had a pretty auto-biographical
streak and was read with a a great deal of gusto (good gusto before
and definitely not the more pompous flavour). After a rather
avant-garde local band performed a couple of songs the other launchee
read a few of his short stories. They were like nothing I've known
and a sufficient description evades me right now. I expect I'll have
to buy his book and spend a little more time digesting them...
Anyway, next stop NYC and
the smiling faces of Bandguy, Stacey and their brood.
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