Viva Austin!

It's vacation time!

Some of you may be saying "What's this guy talking about - hasn't he been on a blogging vacation for like 6 weeks now?"

I would say to you: Point scored, Federer.

To the rest of you, I'm super happy to note I will soon be departing for the sunny climes and rockin' good times of Austin's annual sxsw event. It is one of my favorite things of the year, and when I get home my favorite Cleveland event of the year - the Cleveland International Film Festival - will be in full swing.

Until then, however, I have the rock to focus upon. And focus I will. I've been cobbling together a schedule of sorts and am bound and determined to see as many of the following acts as I can:

Abe Vigoda
Admiral Radley
The Antlers
Bear Hands
The Besnard Lakes
Best Coast
The Bewitched Hands on the Tops of our Heads
Califone
Camper Van Beethoven
Cheap Trick (at an in-store no less!!!)
Danielson
Everybody was in the French Resistance ... NOW!
Floating Action
Freelance Whales
Harlem
Lawrence Arabia
Liars
The Lovely Eggs
Man or Astroman?
The Octagon
Oh No Ono
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
Paleface
The Rural Alberta Advantage
Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Small Black
The Smith Westerns
Suckers
Summer Cats
Surfer Blood
This Moment In Black History
Titus Andronicus
Jessie Torrisi
Yellow Fever

That's just a preliminary list, though, so if you have any tips on who else to see down there, please let me know!

TONIGHT!

I've been doing a little brainstorming with Jacob Wesley Lang about ways to simultaneously encourage active engagement with artists in our shared Collinwood neighborhood and help market some of the available storefronts to small business owners looking for potential retail space.

I'm proud to announce our first endeavor, a pop-up effort dubbed the J Galt Galleries project. As you might have guessed, the name was inspired by Ayn Rand's character, one who Jacob appreciates for his dedication to self-empowerment and whose mission speaks to him on an artistic level. My thoughts on Rand are less charitable, but I got it when Jacob explained his vision to me and wasn't going to let quibbling over hyper-capitalist literature get in the way of doing something good for our neighborhood or city.

So here we are. Pop-up #1 at the former Shoparooni space. Stop in TONIGHT for a one-night only event.

Are you ready for the CB March show of the month?

I sure hope you are, because I'm not. And, well, it is TONIGHT!

I totally dropped the ball on this one, folks, but fortunately John G banged out a killer poster (as per usual) and a number of folks blanketed the city with them on my behalf, thanks to Melanie at Music Saves managing the situation.

Speaking of Melanie and Music Saves, they have a bunch of cool stuff going on up and down Waterloo Road this evening, so come out early to check out the goodness and stick around for a show I'm super excited about (my ball-dropping is most definitely NOT a reflection of the bad assness of the line-up).

Tonight Australia's Summer Cats are playing, with an opening effort from City Center (made up of fellas from the much-lauded Saturday Looks Good To Me), and locals Lowly the Tree Ghost and ... AFTERNOON NAPS!!!!! Come on out. You'll find plenty of reasons to smile this drizzly Saturday.

A Message from Salty Not Sweet

My newest Waterloo Road neighbor comes in the form of a new boutique run by Candra Squire and called Salty Not Sweet. She sent out an open house invite that I thought was simply too charming not to pass on, so check out what she has to say and then, more importantly, check out what the handmade and letterpress operation has to offer!

Greetings!

Come Celebrate our grand opening Alice in Wonderland style! Buy yourself an UN birthday gift and have a delicious cupcake by the Cleveland Cupcake Company.
You'll find all kinds of handmade treasures at Salty not Sweet from jewelry to tutus and everything in between.
Come on inside and have a nice cup of tea with us!


Candra Squire

March 6th 6pm

Salty not Sweet
15613 Waterloo Rd.
Cleveland, OH 44110

Pardon the slack

Lately, folks, this blog of mine has been a bit of a ghost town. I've been super busy with work - busier than I've ever been, quite literally - and the time has come out of everything else, particularly here. I'd like to say that's going to change soon, but it isn't likely to, at least not for a few weeks.

I'm not going on hiatus, though, or anything like that, just letting you know that things are gonna be light for a minute. But know this - come a break in the action, I'm gonna rock your world, e-style.

Not really.

This Friday!