What a great evening for the Cleveland Museum of Art and the city of Cleveland. Kudos to the staff of the CMA who put on one of the best parties I’ve seen in a long time.

The list of performers and DJs alone was impressive; Hot Club of Detroit, Balloon Bass Trio, Slavic Soul Party!, DJ Dan Deacon, NYC’s DJ Rekha. The crowd, like much of the music, was a melange of old-world types, monied museum patrons, well-healed suburbanites, hipsters, ravers, and in-betweeners.

But the best part (the surreal part, you might say) was seeing the museum’s galleries filled with people well past midnight on a Saturday in June. The energy was simply electric.

My friend Matt Moran and the band Slavic Soul Party! on stage at the CMA.

Part of Mark Reigelman’s “Wood-Pile” installation using 18,720 recyclable pool noodles and stretching 470 feet.

If I manage to get my act together over the next 24 hours, I’ll be going to Playhouse Square to catch Goran Bregovic and his brand of brass and percussion ecstacy.

Bregovic, a Balkan music legend whose been on the scene for four decades, led the most successful and popular Yugoslav rock band, Bijelo Dugme, in the 70s and 80s. Since then, he’s composed music for movies, including “Underground”, the winner of the 1995 Palme d’Or at Cannes.

Check out the article in the PD here

Video on YouTube:  Mesecina

The I-480 bridge.

The CSX railroad trestle above the trail near the I-77 overpass.

A red-winged blackbird along the canal by Canal Rd.

The Plain Dealer reports this morning that the city of Parma (my fair inner-ring suburb) has cancelled its July 4th fireworks display. The $50K price tag (25 for the fireworks plus another 25 in overtime for police, fire and other departments) was just too much. “The bottom line is we can’t spend money we don’t have” says Mayor Dean DePiero.

Hopefully, Cleveland hasn’t cancelled its fireworks show.

Last night’s bizarre orange storm:

The best bumper sticker in Texas:

Some photos from the small 1890s boom town of Guthrie. The town is on the National Register of Historic Places for its near-perfect collection of late 19th/early 20th century architecture.

Some pics from yesterday in Wichita, a thoroughly enjoyable little burg.

Taking in some hiking along the trails at the Great Plains Nature Center.

Walking trails and public spaces along the Little Arkansas River in downtown Wichita.

Pedestrian bridge over the Little Arkansas.