Earlier this week, I saw the movie “Food, Inc.” It’s a documentary about the food industry in this country and how it has all gone terribly wrong for us, the customers, and fantastically well for the handful of large corporations that essentially supply what we eat.

Truth be told, if you’ve followed the growing food awareness movement for any length of time, much of what the movie shows isn’t really new. Authors Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, which I wrote about here) make appearances in the movie. What the movie does do, through some graphic imagery which meat processors don’t want the public to see as well as interviews with these authors and even some organic farmers, is send the message that each of us should care where our food comes from and what we are eating.

Check out the trailer at the movie’s web site and then go see the movie.

So there I am, pouring a glass of water in the kitchen when I hear a knock at the front screen door. It’s two 20-something kids dressed in shirts and ties, holding clipboards, and trying to work up big salesguy smiles for their 20-hour a week summer sales jobs.

“How are you today, sir?” (Sir. I love it when they call me Sir…)

“Oh, just fine. And you?” I ask, knowing they want to get to the sales pitch ASAP.

“Great!”

After we’ve established that I’m the primary homeowner, the lad doing most of the talking hands me a laminated sheet of paper illustrated with various home improvement projects, like window replacements, air conditioning updates, that sorta thing.

“Which one of these would you say you’re most likely to do soon?”

I laughed a hearty, belly-shaking laugh and said “Well, to be honest, the project I need to do the soonest is find a job.”

“Oh, right, sorry to hear that” they kind of mumble.

Now I’ve got them on the ropes. So I go in for the knockout punch.

“Yeah, people are always wondering what I’m doing home on a Monday. ‘Day off?’ they ask. ‘More like a LOT of days off, if ya know what I mean’” And I keep it up, stringing together word after word at a maddening pace, while they just stand and stare, growing more uncomfortable with each passing second.

I pause just long enough and when I do, they’re wishing me all the best and backing away from the front steps toward the sidewalk.

And I walk back toward the kitchen and my glass of water thinking “That’s it! I’ve found the secret to getting rid of annoying salespeople.”

Tell them you’re unemployed. Start babbling about your problems, give off the look of being a little unhinged, then watch them squirm and run for the hills.

Brilliant.

Hard to believe it’s been a year of blogging already. For everyone who’s stopped by in the past year to browse or leave a comment, a hearty THANK YOU!

Stay tuned. More is on the way…

One of the worst buzzwords to emerge during the summer of 2008 was the dreadful “staycation.” For me, there was nothing “stay” about my “cation” last summer, considering that I logged well over 30,000 air miles jetting across the globe from Australia to Asia to Europe and back again to the U.S. of A.

This year, however, things are a little different. Which brings me to this installment of Sign of the Times; let’s call them a series of (mostly) One-tank Trips (in a nod to Neil Zurcher’s long-running series of the same name.)

Back in May I drew up a list of Buckeye state attractions I’d always wanted to visit but for some reason or other never did. So, the plan was to visit as many of these places as I could this summer. (Like, for instance, Amish country. I know, I know… what kind of Ohioan am I, right?)

First on the list (and closest to home), the Money Museum at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland on the corner of E. 6th and Superior.

Anyone who’s spent time downtown has certainly noticed the Fed building. It’s one of the city’s most beautiful buildings and was modeled after the Medici-Riccardi palace in Florence (yes, those Medici).  The walls of the lobby are covered in marble from Siena, Italy and the vaulted and domed ceiling is simply breathtaking.

Built in 1923 during the Roaring 20s (when Cleveland was the 5th largest city in the country), the place has a fortress-like feel with security in every direction, including hundreds of security cameras inside and out and gun turretts at the base of the two statues on the west side of the building by the E. 6th St. entrance. Once you get past the metal detector at the uber-secured entrance, (which was added only after 9/11, when the public could still walk in and buy U.S. savings bonds at teller windows), you get a full view of the magnificent lobby.

Here are some photos from the Money Museum inside:

One view of the lobby

Part of the ceiling listing the 12 cities with Fed banks

Some of the ironwork in the lobby

Slang terms for money on a wall inside the museum

The money tree

Why does Jovan Jovanovic “Zmaj” look sad? Because he’s on a worthless 500 billion dinar note printed during the insane inflationary period in Yugoslavia in 1993-94 when the monthly inflation averaged more than 1,300%(!)

Two weeks ago, the day after the Cleveland Museum of Art’s hugely successful Summer Solstice Party, I gushed about it here.

Well, the gushing continues. In an op-ed in today’s PD, Charles Michener waxes about the party and how it was significantly different from the other events in University Circle as well as other happenings in and around town. The most salient observation, I think, was how  the party managed to create a spirit of togetherness and that, for once, it didn’t involve any of the city’s professional sports teams.

Take note, Clevelanders.

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.