NY: And the birds sang along

July 30, 2011

Cleveland is a nice city. It seems some cities have an unfairly bad rep, mostly from people who have never been there. I live in Kansas City (on the Missouri side); I do recall my mother expressing surprise on her first visit that Kansas City “has a real airport”. When my father visited he brought groceries with him, in case he couldn’t find a store nearby. And I’m sure both of them half-expected to see a cow wandering down Main Street.

Does Cleveland suffer from the same assumptions? I imagine if you said you were going to Cleveland, the response would be, “Really? Why?” Does size matter? – is it that these cities are on the smaller side? How much stuff do people need to do, anyway? I’ve lived in Kansas City for 30 years, and I don’t take advantage of all there is to do here. You should visit; I’ll show you around.

Anyhow, in the morning we schlepped the laptop to Panera for some real coffee and a bagel, since our no-frills hotel only had non-dairy creamer. I’m sorry, but life is too short. We planned our day and headed out. Up 77 north to the West Side Market.

This market made me wanna move to Cleveland, no kidding. It’s one of the few remaining enclosed farmer’s markets in the US. Sturdy old building with just the right amount of ornament, with aisles and aisles of glass cases with people hawking meat, produce, cheese, baked goods, juices, prepared foods, ohmigod it was colorful and noisy and just smelly enough. We bought poppy seed Russian Tea Biscuits for a nosh, as well as some freshly ground horseradish (double X!) and some fresh coarse Dijon mustard to lug home. I would be at that market weekly if I lived there. –sigh- The funny thing is, if I had chosen the Cleveland College of Art and Design over KCAI, I might live there now...

Then east to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Under a ton of construction but they steered us along with cool signage. Visited a Japanese / Korean exhibit of calligraphy that didn’t hold our respective interest, but a photography show and a breeze through their contemporary collection did the trick.

Headed due north to see the Lake (Erie), just because it was there, and the Rock and Roll Museum because I.M. Pei designed it. They want $22 a pop. The Art Museum is free. As Jon put it, as big a fan as he might be of Tina Turner, he doesn’t care about seeing her dress.

Back to the no-frills but functional hotel for a snooze (the first of the week. Impressive stamina, I think, and I am a Big Napper). Then to Blossom Music Center for a concert by the Cleveland Symphony. Jon said they are one of the best in the country; Blossom is their summer venue. Blossom is the name of the big donor, isn’t that serendipitous? A nice evening, if a little steamy at the start. Birds inside the pavilion competed with the solo violinist but nobody seemed to mind. An all-Russian program – Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Stravinsky… A long program but not too.

Here’s a sweet thing: they started with a performance of Sibelius and Prokofiev by students in the Kent/Blossom Summer Institute. Then for the last piece (Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky), the students came back out and were stand partners with the orchestra musicians. Some of them fought back grins during the performance. How cool is that. What a memory that will be. Jon said, “One of the best endings”. He meant the Mussorgsky piece, but it was a nice ending to a good day. And yes, in Cleveland.