The week ahead, 2/15-2/21

Before I begin the task of reminding you how awesome next week can be, let me tell you how awesome this past week has been for me. One of my very best friends (who was also a college roommate and co-worker) has been in for a 10 day visit, taking his vacation from Illinois to Cleveland. I don't know how sane that is, especially in the winter, but regardless I'm super glad to have him here. Especially since he's my very first visitor since moving to NEO in August 2007.

Anyway, to help me rub it in, I'll steal a page from Dave Letterman's book and do a top ten.

10) Enjoyed great conversation and a couple glasses of wine at Visible Voice.

9) Discovered a new bar in my neighborhood I've not been to before, but is destined to become my new favorite.

8) Designed and executed a brief Cleveland Cinema Walking Tour, which featured stops at the reception hall and church featured in The Deer Hunter and The Christmas Story House. We tried to go to the grocery store where Meryl Streep worked in the former film, but it alas is no longer. It does, however, now house the delightful chocolate/fancy beer emporium Lilly, so I'm not too upset.

7) Picked up my blank Munny. I had so much fun making one for Shoparooni's 2008 contest, I've been wanting to do another one ever since. The 2009 contest finally forces me into action. Even though I was, without a doubt, the very worst Munny designer to submit last time, I don't give a shit. Mine will probably be even worse this time, since I won't have an army of artistically-inclined children to help me with the painting. So what.

6) Enjoyed a rib-sticking lunch at Sokolowski's, which included being hooked up with a free plate of pierogies when the owner found out my pal was visiting from Chicago. Also, the chocolate pie there is so crazily wonderful I'll never be able to eat another dessert.

5) Managed to justify treating myself to several little presents while I showed my visiting pal my favorite joints in town, including a copy of the new Giant Robot and a strange poetry volume at Mac's Backs, a copy of Yeasayer's cd at Music Saves, and a bar of Squeaky Queen's Jurassic Amber soap at Shoparooni.

4) Had the best Melt experience yet (which is REALLY saying something), which involved my friend and I each ordering our top choice, and then switching halves. I don't know that I'll ever be able to do it a different way again.

3) Received confirmation that my trip to Austin next month will indeed feature the opportunity to make a short film my other best friend and I have been talking about doing for more than a year AND the opportunity to record some tracks for a "band" he and I have fooled around with for even longer. Hopefully we'll be able to give away some mini-EPs soon. Or at least put something on myspace. Which means, of course, one of us is going to have to lose the battle of wills and actually make the myspace page.

2) My visiting pal had about a dozen pieces in a gallery show this weekend, and the whole thing went wonderfully. It was a lot of fun and a lot of learning and, hopefully, will prove to be a lucrative effort for him, too. Even if a dime is never earned, I think it makes the trip to Cleveland more than worth it for him.

and...

1) Today I bought a new jeep. I had one during college and part of grad school, but gave it up to get something "responsible" and under warranty. I've missed my 87 Wrangler ever since. This time I traded in the "responsible" car for an 01 Wrangler that has a humorous yet awesomely Cleveland custom paint job. Anyway, I'm happy.

But the real point of this post is what you can be doing next week to make it a great one. Sunday starts things off right with brunch at the Beachland with some friends followed by a quick jaunt to the Cleveland Museum of Art with my visiting pal. Hopefully, we'll be able to get into the Low Life and/or ArtsCollinwood galleries while we are on Waterloo, as both places have shows up that are interesting.

Monday is my pal's last full day in town (I think), so we are going to send him out on a high note with a return trip to Melt. (Hey, any excuse, right?) While we are on the west side we'll probably also consume beverages at the places I want him to visit but we haven't had the chance to yet, such as bela dubby in Lakewood and Edison's in Tremont. Depending on when we get back, we might pop over to the Cedar-Lee to take advantage of the 3rd Monday dealz.

Tuesday will be the black mark of the week, as my pal will leave AND I have a long work-day scheduled already, and usually Monday emails find me with even more things added to my Tuesday schedule.

Wednesday's another office day, but an easy one, plus one that promises to be better if a quasi-planned lunch trip to PJs Luncheonette downtown materializes (pork chop day, folks!). It'll also be a nice night in as I rest up for Thursday's Obi Best/Muttering Retreats show at the Beachland, which will follow another extra-long day at work.

Friday is a "to be determined" day, as the only thing I'm certain to do is check out the new wave classic, "Six in Paris," at the CIA. Afterwards, I'm likely to hike down to the Barking Spider and take in Jane Dough's performance, but I might head west-ward for the Pink Eye Magazine release at Now That's Class. Saturday is equally up in the air. My grad school university's NEO alumni group (yep, there are enough of us folks up here to have one) are meeting up for back-to-back televised basketball games, and I might check it out. Other options include the poem-rock of Split Pea/ce at Barking Spider or a cool Lakewood pop show at the Beachland. Never know. Stay tuned to find out, and holler if any of the above sounds cool and you want to check it out, too.