33

Touring Warhol’s Space, and 32 Other Art-History Sites - New York Times -- Of the 33 NYC places where artsy and hip started, bloomed, and flourished, the "33 spots around the city where art history was made", I wonder how many had tax-abatement, got county dollars by harnessing smokers, or were intentionally located in preexisting, institutionally ordained art districts. What do you think? Which is the tail, which is the dog? What's wagging around here? If I recall, back in the day it used to be enough for a place just to be cheap, cool, and relatively hassle-free.

peripatetic dialogues, total mobility, affordable pricing

The Little Projectors That Pack a Punch - New York Times -- Lately, with our MTB community dialogues, I've been thinking a lot about the peripatetic method of discourse that comes to us from Aristotelian times. It's becoming increasingly important to have knowledge you can lug around with you, knowlege you can use and share. We're all fairly accustomed to laptops, PDAs, and wi-fi, the things that are for intake and for personal use, but now it's time to start thinking about small scanners, printers, and projectors, the things that are for output, sharing, and dissemination. This NYT article touches on the projectors considered novelties--I'm thinking of them as mainstream accoutrements for the way I want to do business.

Humble Pie - 30 Days in the Hole

We drove by the Fulton Road Bridge protracted demolition late this afternoon, thought of the animals that were kept in the hole during the extended blasting fiasco, and decided we'd dedicate this to them, until the smoke clears.

this weekend, another plus: freaks and geeks

LGBT Cleveland :: Clevelands's Official Tourism Site -- Travel info for your Cleveland excursion - Cleveland Ohio - Convention & Visitors Bureau - CVB -- I notice that this weekend, the CVB tells me, the Wyndham is hosting the Cleveland Leather Awareness Weekend (CLAW! -- whatta name -- plus me, hard!). Obviously, the CVB has gaydar.

A few streets over, NOTACON at the Holiday Inn Lakeside offers what we expect will be somewhat different fare. I don't think the CVB has the geekfest on their radar, for whatever reason. We already have advance tickets for NOTACON, so we won't have to be torn making difficult choices.

I wonder how much crossover there will be between the two conventions? Is this something Valdis should map?

another plus from The Cleveland Leader: Plus the Magic Dragon Saves Downtown Cleveland

The Cleveland Leader -- Eugene's blogspace doesn't allow for comments, so I'll have to give him a big "Plus you very much" over here, at my place. His idea may seem sort of off the wall, but Singapore does something like this using RFID technology: It gives money or credits to people coming into Singapore in cars during off hours but takes money or credits from people using cars in Singapore during times of high congestion. It rewards use of public transit somehow, as well.

Perhaps then our sentry at the gateways to the city can be called Plus the Magic Dragon. Plus giveth, and Plus taketh away--you get the incentive, and then the traffic cameras strip you of the incentive, plus. Perhaps Plus can even be made out of retrofitted traffic cameras, plus. The possibilities are boundless--which means "not plusless." Get with the program. Get behind it. Tell people you're from The Big Plus.

I think I'm liking this new Cleveland+ campaign--I'm far from nonplussed.

Have you stopped to think, too, that "plus" can be the local verbal tic of the new milennium, replacing other verbal tics like "y'know," "really," "you see what I'm saying," "man," "at the end of the day," and the many permutations and combinations of the f-word, as in a takeoff on my old drill sergeant's "out-plussing-standing."

Plus you!

Plus me. Plus me dead!

Don't write off the Cleveland+ campaign. There's a certain perverse magic there.

Let's have some fun with it.

plus-size me, please

Cleveland+ chosen as 'brand' for region -- Well, I guess that says it all. Let's get back to work.

Verizon patent litigation extorts Vonage for 5.5% royalty

Vonage Wins Permanent Stay in Verizon Patent Litigation --Bruce Perrens, whom we met recently in an MTB session, gave us the catchphrase, "If you can't innovate, litigate," and that's what Verizon's been doing with Vonage lately. Today, Vonage obtained a permanent stay, so it can go about it's business almost as usual, with the modification of paying a 5.5% royalty to Verizon and posting a $66 million bond. This is similar to the AT&T situation with the Ohio SB117, where an uncompetitive and hidebound older company tries to gain market share of a market in which they aren't in the least competitive, using their pawns in the state legislature to extort the companies that created the market. There's honest and forthright competition, and then there's the cheater's game played by AT&T, which might be rephrased as, "If you can't innovate, legislate," especially if you have cooperative "operatives" like Bob Spada and Lance Mason. Am I being too harsh, too unfair?

Bill Callahan's been giving this SB177 thorough and balanced coverage for the past month, and I guess Matt Zone testified today down in Columbus.

SB117 and Matt Zone, now on BFD

Brewed Fresh Daily » Cleveland City Councilman Matt Zone’s testimony to the Ohio Senate on SB117 -- Last Friday morning, I once again took time to participate in a MeetTheBloggers session about Ohio Senate Bill 117 at Gypsy Beans. From what we learned, our recently elected representation, in this case co-sponsors Bob Spada and Lance Mason, have lost no time in linking arms across the aisle and proceeding to sell out the public interest to their goombahs at AT&T. They think they're players. Listen to the whole thing. It's sickening.

We must take our government back from these careerists. Our imposition of term limits has made it so these guys early on form unholy alliances that either get them campaign funds to get on to the next government level or else line up good private-sector jobs after elected office ends. Harbor no illusions; we are compromised by those whom we just placed in office.

This bill is fast-tracked to slide by under our noses, and we'll find ourselves sold down the river, paying exhorbitant prices for a newly installed but already obsolete utility infrastructure. The television commercials, I am told, talk about choice and competition. Turn off the TV. It's lying to you. Keep it off. Your life will improve.

We can easily bypass this AT&T attempt at staying alive, staying in the game. Bring on the beefed-up broadband wireless. Disrupt the utility franchise.

And don't let AT&T put one more of those old-fashioned refrigerator-looking things on one more tree lawn. They lower property values.

And don't forget to read Matt Zone's testimony over on BFD.

in the new-to-me category of "Strange News"

cleveland.com: NewsFlash - Armed Miss America 1944 stops intruder: Just today, on www.cleveland.com, I noticed a category named "Strange News." Here's my one I couldn't pass up, once I read the part about balancing on the walker and the snub-nosed .38. Don't miss the link at the end--it adds a lot of depth to the story, depth you don't have room for in a print edition of the news. As it turns out, this is actually an amazing lady--

"WAYNESBURG, Ky. (AP) — Miss America 1944 has a talent that likely has never appeared on a beauty pageant stage: She fired a handgun to shoot out a vehicle's tires and stop an intruder. Venus Ramey, 82, confronted a man on her farm in south-central Kentucky last week after she saw her dog run into a storage building where thieves had previously made off with old farm equipment.

Ramey said the man told her he would leave. 'I said, 'Oh, no you won't,' and I shot their tires so they couldn't leave,' Ramey said.

She had to balance on her walker as she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-caliber handgun. 'I didn't even think twice. I just went and did it,' she said. 'If they'd even dared come close to me, they'd be 6 feet under by now.'

Ramey then flagged down a passing motorist, who called 911.

Curtis Parrish of Ohio was charged with misdemeanor trespassing, Deputy Dan Gilliam said. The man's hometown wasn't immediately available. Three other people were questioned but were not arrested.

After winning the pageant with her singing, dancing and comedic talents, Ramey sold war bonds and her picture was adorned on a B-17 that made missions over Germany in World War II, according to the Miss America Web site.

Ramey lived in Cincinnati for several years and was instrumental in helping rejuvenate Over-the-Rhine historic buildings. She returned to Kentucky in 1990 to live on her farm.

'I'm trying to live a quiet, peaceful life and stay out of trouble, and all it is, is one thing after another,' she said.
___
On the Net: http://www.missamerica.org/our-miss-americas/1940/1944.asp "

we just registered for NOTACON

NOTACON - presented by FTS Conventures -- Madame Gloria and I just preregistered for NOTACON, here April 27th through April 29th--the first tier pricing is sold out, but we got in on the second tier. This looks to be one of the finest opportunities to see why this region is the future, made manifest now. Stoke up on the stuff of the Third Wave, the new knowledge economy. Look at this list of speakers, the games and events, and the schedule overall. If you're intent on accelerating your business, show up.