Check Out -- Woody Restoration Arts Incubator Project (Phase 1) Donate Go Fund Me _ Southeast Cleveland OH / Harvard AVE

Woody Restoration Arts Incubator Project (Phase 1)

Go Fund Woody 

Southeast Cleveland OH / Harvard AVE

Need Part-Time Retail job income, in downtown Cleveland, Ohio?

Need some Part-Time Retail job income? Shopping discount and a good crew to work with on the campus of downtown Cleveland, Ohio 44115 at Tri-C (Cuyahoga Community College) Metro Campus Bookstore [textbooks, trade books, electronics, clothing, more including a Starbucks Cafe....

apply at BNCOLLEGEJOBS.COM

Press Release: NEW EBOOK "EXTRA CLEVELAND" FOR LATE SPRING 2015 RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT:

Neale Sourna

PIE: Perception Is Everything

216-772-1302

ns@pie-percept.com

www.PIE-Percept.com

NEW EBOOK "EXTRA CLEVELAND" FOR LATE SPRING 2015 RELEASE

Cleveland, Ohio, May 19, 2015  -  Film Extras are the unsung heroes. They normally receive no applause or recognition, whether they answer the call to duty by Marvel Studios, The Cleveland Film Commission or a local independent or student filmmaker. They get a thank you, snacks, and sometimes get paid a bit of cash. And bragging rights.

Neale Sourna tells you some of the fun and discomfort of being a film extra; whether in the Midwest or elsewhere. Would you like to spend a day shoot in a local neighborhood in the cold Cleveland OH winter standing for months May and August for a cable TV film straight from the horrific news about found kidnapped women Michelle Knight, Gina DeJesus, and Amanda Berry, with a half a day’s notice? Or decide to go on a local independent shoot through your Facebook Cleveland Extra group at a local landmark theatre for a time travel film? Or do a week’s worth of employment sitting or sunburn and disaster and running for a full day for the first union of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, and her man Hawkeye. Oh, and Nick Fury and Agent Coulson and Maria Hill? And work with a star come to earth?

EXTRA CLEVELAND: A FILM EXTRA’S GUIDE TO BEING PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND [in PDF ebook, other formats coming] is for people who want to be or are working film extras who want to improve their knowledge and comprehension of the craft, its requirements, and possible problems through active author / publisher Neale Sourna’s past experiences and researches. Readers should receive illumination in what to expect and how to be a better Professional Film Extra and how to grow their own career or one shot chance in being a film extra. From Neale Sourna (www.neale-sourna.com) through PIE: Perception Is Everything (www.pie-percept.com).

ABOUT PIE: Perception Is Everything

PIE: Percept publishes fiction and nonfiction for adults, all by award-winning author Neale Sourna. PIE: Percept was founded in 2001 and published Sourna’s first novel’s, HOBBLE, first edition in 2002. At PIE: Perception Is Everything we believe in: "Doing for the mind, what the body shouldn't" and "Thoughtful Entertainment You Can FEEL."

- END -

PRESS RELEASE

Actor Auditions

Tri-C student films have screened in film festivals throughout northeast Ohio and graduates have established successful careers within the local and national film and video production industry.  Tri-C is proud to present the following student films for production this spring.

“Becca Gets Her Sea Legs”

It is 1688 in Stuart England, at war’s end, and out to troubled, deep seas, in what should be a romantic tryst, a general’s runaway bride, noblewoman Becca is utterly seasick, in Irish pirate Aidan’s ceaselessly moving ship.

S E Reynolds (dba Neale Sourna) is a Tri-C student directing an online promotional book trailer for her novel (working title BECCA THE BUCCANEERESS). www.romantic4ever.com/romantic-fiction/index.html

As a student film all compensation for performers and crew members is being waived.


“Marshmallows and Fire”

An eccentric grandfather with a flare for story telling is asked to chaperone his grandsons’ sleep over, which he views as a grand opportunity to tell one or two of his over the top, not so accurate tall tales. His daughter who is very concerned with the not so accurate aspect of her father's stories makes him promise not to tell any. But with the help of his equally eccentric friends and the demands of his captive audience of children he finds away to tell the story while keeping his promise.

Robb Scott is a student filmmaker working on his thesis film, a short film entitled "Marshmallows and Fire." This is a short student film that will be shown in film festivals, and online on Vimeo.com. This is an unpaid opportunity. Cast will receive a copy of the complete film for their reels and an IMDB credit.

Auditions for both the films are Saturday Jan 25th 9 am - 6 pm on the Metropolitan Campus MLA 101 located at 2900 Community College Ave and E. 30th St. Cleveland, OH 44115.

Please allow 45 minutes to an hour and a half for your audition.  Call backs may be scheduled later the same day.

To read character descriptions and to schedule an audition for the student films listed above please complete the audition request form by clicking here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ZFgrt7E4liWTh2bcPEVovYrDwl7quM9dh2rkEA_ONgg/viewform

Simone Barros
Adjunct Faculty, Media Arts and Studies & Journalism and Mass Communications
P. 216.987.4333 ext. 1097 | simone.barros@tri-c.edu
Cuyahoga Community College | Where Futures Begin

A note to a friend and coworker at Horseshoe Casino Cleveland

A note to a friend and coworker:

Let the guys at work know that if they want to be sure to use their benefits before, well, in case they get that quickie final goodbye, use them ASAP.

Horseshoe Casino Cleveland cancels your major med the SAME day they terminate you, and neither cigna nor HCC notifies you. You find out when you're using it.

----

So much for making us wait 90 days, keeping us working over 40 hours per week with no time hardly to do extra stuff, like go to the doctor. Then, yank the rug out ASAP. So much for the "we've got your back" speeches.

To all my friends at Horseshoe Casino Cleveland, you know...

To all my friends at Horseshoe Casino Cleveland, you know this fits:

"Whenever we're afraid, it's because we don't know enough. If we understood enough, we would never be afraid."

— Earl Nightingale: was an American motivational speaker and author

Tips on casino etiquette for novices

Tips on casino etiquette for novices

By Thomas J. Sheeran
Associated Press

 
Click to enlarge

(AP) — You have a pocket full of money, you’re feeling lucky and you’re headed to one of Ohio’s new casinos in Cleveland and Toledo. Now what?

The etiquette on the fast-paced casino floor may be unfamiliar to the novice gambler who hasn’t been traveling to glitzy Las Vegas or Atlantic City, or for that matter to Detroit and Erie, Pa.: how to bet, tip, draw another card and more.

The inaugural casino experience in Ohio had its share of etiquette missteps.

You can wear just about anything at a casino — within limits. Three weeks after the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland opened in May, it imposed a ban on saggy pants and shirts printed with offensive images. The “code of conduct” also bans firearms, loitering and running.

Karen Elliott, 47, of Cleveland, who had been to a casino before Cleveland’s opened, noticed novices unfamiliar with rules and manners, such as jostling for open slot machines. “They don’t know too much what they’re doing,”

Poker player Robert Smith, 26, of Cleveland, said he hasn’t seen too many glazed-over stares from rookies but thought that’s because the games he favors draw experienced gamblers.

“The poker players know what they are doing,” he said. “It’s really self-explanatory. The rules are on the table. You can read how to play the game. They shouldn’t sit down to play if they don’t know how to play.”

For novices, here is some advice from casino experts:

Q. I’m confused about the casino games: what should I do?

A. The same as looking for something in the hardware store: “Don’t be bashful. The best thing you can do is ask,” said Brad Hirsch, assistant general manager of the Horseshoe casino in Cleveland. “It’s funny, sometimes in the casino, people who are maybe unclear on how to do something, they revert to not asking and are afraid to ask.”

What’s up with the blackjack players using hand signals?

Blackjack players must signal by hand if they want another card to make the decision clear for the overhead surveillance camera. Swiping the palm toward the player means deal another card and the back-and-forth “safe” signal means hold.

The dealer is moving fast: is it bad form for a rookie to slow it down?

No, according to Walter Thomason’s “Blackjack for the Clueless.” “The rapid pace of play can be especially intimidating to a novice player. If this occurs, you can reduce the speed of play by taking a bit longer to signal.”

Should I tip the dealer?

Yes. Jill Vangen, owner of the Ohio School of Casino Dealers in suburban Cleveland, said dealers rely on tips for a significant part of their income. “If you don’t tip, they don’t eat,” she said.

If I play blackjack all night, when and how much to tip?

Mark Pilarski, a Reno, Nev., casino veteran and now a syndicated columnist, suggested tipping every dozen hands or so, or at least when leaving the table. How much? Like a restaurant server, it depends on the quality of the service, Pilarski said. Vangen thought 10 percent of a $50 blackjack win was appropriate.

Is it bad manners to give advice to others players at the table?

“Mind your own business,” Thomason says. Some players insist on telling others how to play “even when their advice is neither asked for nor appreciated.”

Can you reserve a slot machine for a friend’s restroom break?

Yes, writes Darwin Ortiz in “Casino Gambling for the Clueless.” “You should respect this claim unless you want to risk having some irate woman belt you with her purse.”

Is it OK to cheer at the craps table?

Sure, according to Vangen. “If you’ve got everyone cheering, that means the table’s hot, so it isn’t bad etiquette,” she said.

Can I take photos to show my friends how a cherished art-deco department store became the Cleveland casino?

Yes, photos are allowed, just not at the tables.

What’s the best advice for casino rookies?

Same as the veterans, according to Pilarski: know when to quit. “Have fun, expect to lose and only money you can afford to lose. It is fun if it’s money you can afford to lose. But if it’s not, it’s no fun at all.”

3D Ceremony_Horseshoe Casino Cleveland officially opens, lines of people file in

Horseshoe Casino Cleveland opening ceremony

‘Marvel’s The Avengers’ earns glowing reviews By Meriah Doty | Yahoo! Movie Talk

Yeah! I'm IN THIS: NY Street panics (Cleveland Film Extras) and the Bank. Look for a brown and pattern African scarf and sleeveless dress.

The scene in the pix is E. 9, Cleveland OH.

http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/glowing-reviews-marvel-avengers-172544149.html

Photo: Walt Disney Pictures

The reviews are starting to descend upon the planet and the resounding response is glowing: "Marvel's The Avengers" is sizing up to be the next must-see action blockbuster this year.

Landing in theaters on May 4th, the timing couldn't be better—as box office enthusiasm for "The Hunger Games" will have presumably finally waned by then.

"Avengers"-watchers so far seem to agree the action sequences are astounding in 3D. Most reviews offer high praise of writer-director Joss Whedon for making a film that will please both comic book geeks and general audiences alike.

Here are the highlights, which include praise and some criticisms:

"Pays off in extravagant fashion... escapism of a sophisticated order... Production is technically immaculate."

—Justin Chang, Variety

[PHOTOS: 'The Avengers' Los Angeles premiere]

"...not only does this eye-popping 3D display of visual effects fireworks feature an enormously high proportion of action scenes, but director Joss Whedon has adroitly balanced the celebrity circus to give every single one of the superstar characters his or her due."

—Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

"...the inspired manner in which writer-director Joss Whedon springs the element of surprise is the trump card of the picture..."

—Leigh Paatsch, The Daily Telegraph

"...a successful amalgam of skilful actors, witty banter, top-of-the-line effects, bigger-is-better action sequences and giddy good cheer. Though overlong and inevitably burdened by the need to juggle so many protagonists..."

—Tim Grierson, Screen Daily

"As serious as the stakes get, Whedon's never afraid to let a joke out... and it gives the film a light, bouncy tone that makes it such a pleasure to watch."

—Oliver Lyttelton, Indiewire

[RELATED: Will 'The Avengers' assemble again for a last-minute scene? ]

"With so many characters, it's somewhat inevitable that someone get shortchanged and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) is notably underused here."

—Eric Goldman, IGN

"...overall Avengers Assemble [the film's title in Britain] is by far the most spectacular superhero ever made in terms of a visual extravagance, and is truly something that has been worth waiting for..."

—Jay A. Ottley, Movie Web

"...smart, funny and dramatic, but with all the trappings of a sci-fi action movie presented fully intact."

—James Hunt, Den of Geek

"I have never been to a film that brought out so much enthusiasm from the audience, engaging with them on a level that brought out true emotion."

—Yahoo! Movies resident comic-book-nerd-turned-movie-reviewer Galen Sturgess, who attended the Sydney premiere

Watch 'Marvel's The Avengers' Clip:

Cleveland's Horseshoe Casino looking to train 100 more card dealers, makes job offers to 700 for non-gaming positions

Published: Thursday, February 02, 2012, 6:23 PM Updated: Friday, February 03, 2012, 10:38 AM

By Dave Davis, The Plain Dealer
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View full sizeChuck Crow, The Plain DealerVeteran dealer Jerry Shields demonstrates the proper way to shuffle a deck of cards at Caesar's Table Games Service Academy at Thistledown.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The operator of a Las Vegas-style casino in the Higbee Building is making job offers to hundreds of people and has re-opened the door to people who want to deal cards and run table games in Cleveland's Horseshoe Casino.

Officials with Caesars Entertainment Corp. are looking to add 100 people to a class currently training at a 12-week card dealer academy at Thistledown in North Randall.

Applications are being accepted online only at www.horseshoecleveland.com.

The move became necessary because some people who had been attending the academy since December at their own expense dropped out. Some didn't like the dealing cards; others wanted to apply for jobs elsewhere in the casino or found another job altogether. And a few failed the drug test.

About 600 are currently training at the suburban horse racing track, which is owned by Caesars and has been turned into a makeshift casino for the off season.

"We've lost a few people," said Karen Kaminski, the casino's head of human resources. "The table games are going to be a very busy area of the casino. We want to make sure we have the right amount of staffing."

Caesars will oversee the day-to-day operations of the casino, a $400 million project on four floors of the former department store with 2,100 slot machine, 63 table games, a dedicated 30-table poker room and 400-seat buffet restaurant. The casino is being developed by Caesars and Dan Gilbert's gambling company, Rock Gaming LLC.

It was exactly a year ago Friday that Gilbert and Caesar's Chief Executive Officer Gary Loveman announced, at a gala press conference inside Higbee's, that they would build a casino inside the former department store under the Horseshoe brand.

In addition to the new openings dealing cards, Caesars is still accepting applications for 39 other types of jobs, everything from surveillance supervisors to security guards, bartenders to bakery chefs, facilities mechanics to financial controllers. You can apply for those jobs online at the casino web site.

Even though the Cavaliers were away on a road trip to Orlando, Quicken Loans Arena was buzzing this week as 3,300 people who had applied in December for mostly non-gaming positions were interviewed on Wednesday, Thursday and today. Caesars officials are making job offers on the spot to 700 candidates. The offers are contingent on passing a drug test and background check.

But exactly when everyone will start is still up in the air as state officials are a couple weeks away from naming opening days for the new casinos in Cleveland and Toledo.

With the Higbee renovation nearly complete, Caesars officials said Thursday that most people offered jobs can expect to go on the payroll for training and orientation a couple of weeks before the casino opens.

"There have been a lot of tears of joy, just a lot of great big smiles coming out of our job offer room," Kaminski said. "When they get the conditional job offer in their hands it's like winning the lottery for them."

View full sizeChuck Crow, The Plain DealerPeople at Caesar's Table Games Service Academy gather around a gaming table on the first day of class in December. Caesars is accepting applications once again for 100 more people to attend the 12-week training class.

All this is good news for the city of Cleveland, which will receive income taxes from employees along with several million dollars a year in casino revenue tax once doors open to gamblers, probably by June 1.

City officials Wednesday credited the income tax paid largely by construction workers at the casino, the convention center and medical mart with creating an unexpected $10 million windfall by last year's end. That money will help cushion a 2012 budget proposed by Mayor Frank Jackson Wednesday that calls for recalling 20 more laid-off police officers, giving city employees 3 percent raises, and restoring cuts in recreation services.

As of Dec. 31, the casino developer had awarded construction contracts totaling $98.8 million -- 46 percent, or $46 million, going to firms owned by minorities or women.

Those firms include M Rivera Construction, Aster Elements, Relmec Mechanical, RA Strauss Electric Supply, Safeguard Associates Inc., and McGarry & Sons, according to Rock Gaming officials.

The developer isn't required to award contracts to minority or women-owned businesses since no public money is involved in the project, but officials say doing so fulfills a pledge Gilbert made to Mayor Jackson and the public in 2009 when voters amended the Ohio constitution to allow to casinos in the state's four largest cities.

Natoya J. Walker-Minor, Jackson's chief of public affairs, noted Thursday that the developer had exceeded the city's goal of 30 percent inclusion.

"They've invested in the city through these small firms, so we're thrilled and excited about that," Walker-Minor said. "They have defied the myth that investing in minority and female businesses costs more. They're on time, on budget, with 46 percent minority and women-owned firms."

Related topics: caesars entertainment corp., rock gaming llc, rock ohio caesars

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2012/01/the_carpet_is_installed_and_cl.html

The carpet is installed and Cleveland's Horseshoe Casino is ready for slot machines: (video)

Published: Wednesday, January 25, 2012, 7:00 PM Updated: Thursday, January 26, 2012, 10:17 AM

By Dave Davis, The Plain Dealer
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Higbee casino tour Jan. 25, 2012 Jeff Cohen and Nate Forbes, principals in Dan Gilbert's Rock Gaming LLC, say they are nearly ready to install slot machines at Cleveland's Horseshoe Casino. They expect construction at the Las Vegas-style casino in the fomer Higbee's department store will be completed by March. Watch video

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Move over Toledo, you've got nothing on Cleveland -- casinowise, that is.

Just five days after officials at Toledo's Hollywood casino indicated they ought to be the first casino to open in Ohio because construction was pretty much complete except for the carpet, their counterparts at Cleveland's Horseshoe casino upped the ante by showing off a nearly finished casino, complete with new carpet.

During a tour Wednesday, two partners in Dan Gilbert's gambling company unveiled what they've done to transform the former Higbee's department store into a full-fledged casino complete with 2,100 slot machines, a 30-table dedicated poker room and 63 table games.

"We're ready to go," declared Jeff Cohen, a principal in Rock Gaming LLC who's overseeing the Higbee construction. Rock Gaming has joined with Caesars Entertainment Corp. to build and operate voter-approved casinos in Cleveland and Cincinnati

"We will be ready to be the first casino to open," added Cohen, who built the Cleveland Cavaliers new practice facility and renovated Quicken Loans offices in Detroit. "Hopefully, in three to four weeks they'll be delivering the slot machines."

View full sizeJohn Kuntz, The Plain DealerCleveland's Horseshoe Casino in the former Higbee's department store may be the first in the nation to have windows in the main gambling area. Higbee's huge display windows will be clad with sheer gold fabric panels that will allow people outside to discern lights and figures but not see faces.

At stake in the back and forth between the two developers, Rock Ohio Caesars in Cleveland and Penn National Gaming Inc. in Toledo, is the honor to be the first of Ohio's four Las Vegas-style casinos to open, which is expected to bring an overflow of customers for at least the first couple of weeks for whomever wins the competition and is the only casino open in the state.

Officials at the Ohio Casino Control Commission recently scrapped Cleveland's planned March 26 grand opening, saying that they needed more time to complete background investigations on owners, major investors and vendors. Toledo had been scheduled to open a week later.

JoAnn Davidson, chairwoman of the Ohio Casino Control Commission, said Friday that the commission might set a date range for the casinos openings, rather than a specific date. She added that a week between openings was not enough time for her staff.

"Two casinos cannot open that close when you only have one regulatory body that has to cover both of them," Davidson added. "There will have to be a couple of weeks between the openings."

Though the two developers teamed up for the successful passage of a 2009 constitutional amendment that okayed casinos in Ohio's four largest cities, the projects are worlds apart.

View full sizeJohn Kuntz, The Plain DealerJeff Cohen, left, and Nate Forbes talk about construction at Cleveland's Horseshoe Casino on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012. Cohen and Forbes are principals in Rock Gaming LLC, which has joined with Caesars Entertainment Corp. to build casinos in Cleveland and Cincinnati.

The $300 million Hollywood Casino Toledo is being built from the ground up on 44 acres off I-75 outside downtown. It's a theme casino, the 12th in Penn's Hollywood brand, and executives say convenience and "red carpet" customer service will draw people away from casinos in Cleveland, Detroit and Indiana.

"We're right off the highway," general manager Richard St. Jean said Friday during a tour, the first public look at the nearly completed casino. "We've got a great parking garage and easy access."

In Cleveland, Rock Ohio Caesars is spending about $480 million to transform four floors of the landmark Higbee Building into a casino with an eye for keeping the historic details.

Officials with the developer, at Gilbert's insistence, picked a downtown location off Public Square they say with the hope that the casino will feed off of the city's unique character and attractions and play a role in its revitalization.

The Horseshoe Casino Cleveland is keeping the story-high display windows, but is cladding them with sheer gold fabric panels that will allow people to discern lights and figures inside but not people's faces.

View full sizeJohn Kuntz, The Plain DealerDecorative wood panels with an art deco feel, a nod to the building's days as a department store, cover the base of the massive columns that line the gambling areas of Cleveland's Horseshoe Casino.

The brass-enclosed entryways off Public Square and Prospect Road will be familiar to generations of Higbee shoppers. The cast iron handrails and much of the woodwork, including decorative panels that wrap around the bottoms of the huge columns, gives the casino an art deco, 1930s department store feel.

"We've done everything we can to maintain the integrity of the historic building," Cohen added. "It's a tough task to take an old building and try to renovate it and maintain the character," he added. "You have to blend design elements of today with design elements of the past.

"And all the while meeting current (building) codes," said Nate Forbes, a developer and Rock Gaming principal who is know for high-end projects including The Mall at Millenia in Orlando.

"It has an old-world feel, yet hopefully people will feel comfortable," Forbes added. "We think it's something that people are really going to relate to."

Related topics: hollywood casino toledo, horseshoe casino cleveland, penn national gaming, rock ohio caesars

Cleveland Film Extras and Marvel's The Avengers Trailer 1!

Most explosions and running and mayhem and heroes looking thwarted or cool in action, yes, in Cleveland.

_Neale Sourna, extra via Cleveland Film Commission

Baseball: Breaking down barriers, one pitch at a time

By Tim Brown, Yahoo! Sports Feb 21, 2011

Justine Siegal delivered pitches to the Indians and her message to the baseball world. (photo)
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GOODYEAR, Ariz. – The girl on the field spent her 13th birthday last week attending the Justin Bieber movie. She wears multi-colored sneakers with mismatched laces. And she once tried to be serious about baseball, only to discover a diamond was a more wonderful place to chase butterflies and sketch infield pictures with the toe of one of those sneakers.

While Cleveland Indians hitters launched baseballs into an empty outfield, the girl on the field sat cross-legged and pushed her cap back on her head and fiddled with her iPhone, wondering just how long she’d have to be here.

Every few minutes she’d lift her head, study the scene on Field 2, then drift away again.

Her mom was throwing batting practice, something no woman had done before in a major league setting, as far as anyone knew.

“Yeah, I’m proud,” Jasmine Siegal said. “Thing is, I can see her pitch any time.”

Thirty-one years since she first held a baseball with some kind of intent and almost 20 since giving up her dream of becoming the next Orel Hershiser, Justine Siegal, 36, continued her fight Monday to persuade and allow girls of any age to play the game she loves. The game they love.

Just like the boys.

Or, as the case may be, to pursue butterflies.

Just like the boys.

She calls her ideal (and her website) Baseball for All. And after spending her prime stubbornly refusing to go away, Justine Siegal rolled her baseball pants to her knees, rubber-banded her hair into pigtails, stood on a back field, palmed three balls in her left hand and aimed, in her words, “To throw a four-seam fastball straight over the top and right over the plate.”

The Indians, the team of her youth and her father and her grandfather’s youths, were kind enough to grant her the stage, a platform behind an L screen maybe 50 feet from home plate. She wore a dark blue jersey, No. 15, for the day in February her daughter, Jaz, was born. The team had committed to a kind of tryout, allowing Siegal to give it a go against a handful of minor leaguers in shorts and T-shirts.

Turned out she did, indeed, throw like a girl. Like a strong, loose-armed, athletic girl who’d been doing this forever. Half hour later, she was re-warming in a game of catch with Indians manager Manny Acta and then pitching to big leaguers, throwing strikes and getting hammered like any good BP pitcher should.

As she strode to the mound, Indians general manager Chris Antonetti said to outfielder Chad Huffman(notes), “She was good earlier.”

“She was?” Huffman said.

“Yeah, she was good.”

“That’s great. I love it. Got a little swagger to her, too.”

Minutes later, catcher Paul Phillips(notes) stepped from the batting cage and said, “Is it bad when you’re going into a round of BP and you’re thinking, ‘Don’t strike out?’ ”

The goal was to hit as many bats as possible. The mission is larger, borne of Siegal’s own experiences growing up in the Cleveland suburb of Cleveland Heights, for years pitching (and occasionally playing third) for whomever would give her the ball, then as a coach for male teams, both for Springfield (Mass.) College and later the independent Brockton Rox.
----
Justine Siegal says, "If you tell a girl she can't play baseball, what else is she going to believe she can't do?" (photo)
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Her organization is non-profit. Her message is about choices, and the freedom to make them. Whether her own Jaz ever caught the baseball bug or not, whether any girl did, Siegal believes they should have a place to play, a team around them and a way to earn it, regardless of gender.

“What I want is girls’ baseball across America,” she said between batting practices. “So when I throw, now all of a sudden we have a dialogue [about] how much girls and women love baseball and how they want to be a part of it.”

Beyond that, she said, “I think it’s fairly simple. If you tell a girl she can’t play baseball, what else is she going to believe she can’t do?”

To her uniform sleeve, Siegal had duct-taped a patch honoring Christina-Taylor Green, the 9-year-old girl killed in last month’s Tucson shooting. Green was the only girl on her Canyon Del Oro Little League team.

As Siegal pitched, she calmed her nerves and dried her palms by singing to herself, a song by U2 called, “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own.” And she thought of all the people who should have been on the mound beside her: Grandfather Alvin, who’d turned her on to the Indians of Municipal Stadium, father Michael, who loved the game like she did, and Jaz, whose precociousness, well, had to come from somewhere.

“At the same time,” Siegal said, “I feel all those people who told me ‘no’ are with me, too.”

She’ll throw more batting practice Wednesday, for the Oakland Athletics. In the meantime, Justine and Jaz almost certainly will find other things to do. On a rainy Sunday, they’d spotted a rainbow over Scottsdale, and through the puddles chased the end of it in their rented Volkswagen bug.

They got close enough for Jaz to take a picture on her iPhone, which she held up with a grin, her brown eyes sparkling.

There’d be time for baseball later.

“We should do and be whatever we want to be,” her mom said. “If baseball’s it, then go for it.”

Tim Brown is a national baseball writer for Yahoo! Sports. Follow him on Twitter. Send Tim a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

Cleveland's Franklin Castle named one of the most haunted homes in the United States

Colleen Seitz, NewsNet5/WEWS-TV

It's been known to be the most haunted house in Ohio and now MSNBC.com has given Cleveland's Franklin Castle a new distinction -- one of the top-10 most haunted homes in the United States.

The 9,000-square-foot home on Franklin Avenue on the city's west side was built in 1864 by German-born banker Hannes Tiedemann. He spared no expense building the 28-room, 80-window castle with a ballroom, spiral staircases and secret passages.

"Finally, a haunted home that really looks haunted," notes MSNBC.com. "Complete with a tower, turrets, balconies, stone outcroppings, gargoyles, wrought-iron fixtures and fences, this imposing, Gothic-style Franklin Castle is said to be Ohio's most haunted home."

There have been several mysterious deaths in the home over the years. And there have been numerous sightings and sounds of ghosts. Footsteps, babies crying and doors slamming have been heard.

NewsNet5.com has put together pictures from a visit inside the Franklin Castle. Take a tour and learn more about the history and ghosts in this real haunted house. Click here for the photogallery .

The castle is currently owned by a woman who hoped to turn into a bed and breakfast, but a fire in 1999 halted her plans. MSNBC.com says that there are rumors that Franklin Castle will be on the market soon.

You can read more about the most haunted homes in the country at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39745803/ns/business-real_estate/

========

I traveled by there for two weeks once, while job training and hadn't paid the place any serious attention, until I had nightmares the entire first week--no, not because of the job training--before realizing I must be zipping past the Franklin castle and a derelict's half-way house beside it. I hadn't even known exactly where it was, because I'd always thought Franklin was the owner not the street. Either way...Ick.

--Neale Sourna

Cleveland City Club--Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from..

CLEVELAND'S CITY CLUB FORUM

April 16, 2010 featuring Douglas A. Blackmon, Author and Pulitzer Prize Winner.

Douglas A. Blackmon, Author and Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in the General Nonfiction category, speaks about his award winning book "Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.

http://www.cityclub.org/Media/Audio/CityClubPodcast-100416.mp3

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00:56:31 Published: Fri, Apr 16, 2010 12:00:00 -0500

The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Music history finds a new home inside Rock Hall's library and archives at Tri-C's Center for Creative Arts--John Soeder

Music history finds a new home inside Rock Hall's library and archives at Tri-C's Center for Creative Arts
By John Soeder, The Plain Dealer
February 28, 2010, 6:30AM

PHOTO. andyleach.jpgLisa DeJong, The Plain DealerAndy Leach is the director of the Rock Hall's new library and archives in Tri-C's Center for Creative Arts. "We want this to be the world's preeminent research center for rock 'n' roll," Leach says.

In the conservation lab, a movie poster for "Love Me Tender" starring Elvis Presley in his big-screen debut ("Mr. Rock 'n' Roll in the story he was born to play!") is unfurled on a table, awaiting inspection. Around the corner, a worker pulls a "We Are the World" album off a stack of LPs as she takes inventory for a computer database. In another room, pallets are piled high with boxes containing everything from David Bowie and Jefferson Starship videos to a vinyl copy of "Gary Puckett and the Union Gap's Greatest Hits" -- a fresh shipment of history, ready to be processed.

Welcome to the attic of rock 'n' roll heaven, otherwise known as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's library and archives.
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Rock around the archives

Here's a taste of some of the cool items in the Rock Hall archives:

# Buddy Holly's diploma from Lubbock Senior High School in Lubbock, Texas.

# Jimi Hendrix's handwritten lyrics to "Purple Haze," originally subtitled "Jesus Saves."

# Record mogul Ahmet Ertegun's 1969 appointment book, in which the evening of May 26 is blocked off for an Incredible String Band concert.

# Documentation from Alan Freed's 1959 payola trial, including testimony from promotion manager Bernard Friedlander of United Artists, which paid Freed to play its records on his radio show.

# Jim Morrison's death certificate, which lists the cause of death as "Unknown, pending Doctor's statement."

# The passport of Joseph Vernon Turner, aka Big Joe Turner, the blues singer whose hits included "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and "Corrina, Corrina."

-- John Soeder
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The facility won't open to the public until November or December, but staffers are hard at work there already.

"We want this to be the world's preeminent research center for rock 'n' roll," said Andy Leach, director of the library and archives.

The new digs occupy approximately one-third of the four-floor, 75,000-square-foot Center for Creative Arts on Cuyahoga Community College's Metropolitan Campus, two miles away from the Rock Hall itself.

Through a capital campaign, the nonprofit hall raised $12 million for its stake in Tri-C's $35 million building. The college footed the remainder of the bill with state funds.

Rock Hall and Tri-C officials hope the library and archives will establish Cleveland as a hub for the study of rock and related genres of popular music.

Rock music "should be studied like any other serious art form," said Joel Peresman, president and CEO of the New York City-based Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, which runs the Rock Hall in conjunction with a Cleveland board.

"To do that, you need a serious place where people can sit down and go through materials," Peresman said. "This is going to be the only place where you can go to dig really deep."

That goes not just for scholars, but for the general public, too. In a special reading room, under supervision and amid tight security, you’ll be able to peruse material from the archives, although in the case of certain highly valuable items -- Jimi Hendrix’s handwritten “Purple Haze” lyrics, for example -- you might have to settle for studying a digital scan or a color copy of the original.

The foundation's $8 million pledge to the Rock Hall's capital campaign includes $3 million for the library and archives.

The area designated for such a repository in architect I.M. Pei's original blueprints for the Rock Hall never materialized. It was appropriated for offices when the space-crunched museum opened in 1995.

The hall considered other options, including housing the library and archives in a proposed connector between the museum and the Great Lakes Science Center, before announcing its partnership with Tri-C five years ago.

"It's extremely important to have the Rock Hall's library and archives in Cleveland," said Tri-C President Jerry Sue Thornton, a Rock Hall trustee.

In addition to providing unique educational opportunities for students at Tri-C and other colleges and universities, the library and archives will be a big draw for music scholars, Thornton said.

Ground was broken in October 2007 for the Center for Creative Arts, whose 27-foot-by-24-foot digital billboard is clearly visible from Interstate 77. The building was designed by the Cleveland firm of Robert Madison International. The college's side of the center has been open since August, complete with state-of-the-art multimedia facilities and classrooms.

The Rock Hall signed a 50-year lease for its part of the building.

The windowless, climate-controlled archives are spread over two floors. Twin HVAC systems keep the temperature at 68 degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity at 45 percent.

"Good for materials, tolerable for people," Leach said as he led a recent tour of the inner sanctum.

He joined the Rock Hall in January 2009, after eight years at the Center for Black Music Research in Chicago, and moved into his new office in the Center for Creative Arts in December. His staff includes three other full-time employees, with four more positions expected to be filled in the coming months.

Leach, 36, strikes you as the kind of guy who is equally at home in academia or in the front row at, say, a Wilco concert. He has a bachelor's degree in music and a master's degree in library science. He plays guitar and pedal-steel guitar, too.

PHOTO. In the archives, high-density shelving provides 12,000 linear feet of storage space.

Even when all of the materials housed in the Rock Hall's off-site facility on Cleveland West Side are transferred here, only one-tenth of the available capacity will be filled.

"If we were to take everything offered to us, we'd fill these shelves in one year," Leach said. "We have to be selective."

The archives will hold personal papers, business documents, photographs, song manuscripts, posters and other items from rock's movers and shakers.

Already on the shelves are dozens of boxes from the late Ahmet Ertegun, a founder of Atlantic Records and the Rock Hall. The collection includes correspondence between Ertegun and everyone from Mick Jagger to Henry Kissinger.

The Rock Hall has obtained similar collections from other record-company executives, including Clive Davis, Mo Ostin and Seymour Stein, as well as Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed and numerous artists, including Jim Morrison, Curtis Mayfield, Jimi Hendrix, Art Garfunkel and Eddie Cochran.

Visitors will be able to don gloves and examine items from the archives in a special library room. In the library, they'll also have access to music books, dissertations, periodicals, sheet music and extensive audio and video recordings, including footage from the Rock Hall induction ceremonies and various museum events.

In recent months, the Rock Hall has stepped up its collection efforts. The challenge is convincing donors that their collections belong here and not in the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress or any given university.

While Leach took pains to emphasize that the Rock Hall isn't competing with other institutions -- "As far as I'm concerned, we should all work together," he said -- he was happy to talk up the strengths of the hall's repository.

"If you're a recording artist or someone in the music industry in another capacity, your materials are going to be in the right context here," Leach said. "In a facility where rock 'n' roll isn't the focus, your materials could be lost in the shuffle."

PHOTO rochellelemaster.jpgLisa DeJong, The Plain DealerVolunteer Rochelle Lemaster stacks Rolling Stone magazines from the 1970s in the Rock Hall library and archives. The issue on top is from September 1974, with Tanya Tucker on the cover.

Now that the library and archives are a reality, "the floodgates will open," said guitarist Lenny Kaye of the Patti Smith Group.

"Every rock 'n' roll artist has a box in their basement . . . that might get lost to history," he said.

Kaye also is a member of the Rock Hall's nominating committee, co-author of Waylon Jennings' autobiography and compiler of "Nuggets," a seminal garage-rock anthology.

When Kaye inherited a collection of live cassettes recorded in the '70s and '80s at CBGB, the landmark Manhattan club where the likes of Smith, the Dead Boys and Talking Heads used to pack 'em in, he passed along the tapes to the Rock Hall's archives.

"When I go to various libraries looking for rock-oriented material, it's very haphazard," Kaye said. "At most institutions, rock is regarded as some kind of a backwater. . . . My hope is these archives will be a place where the music's legacy is safely preserved."

The Rock Hall's facility could fill a void for researchers, said Ruthann McTyre, president of the Music Library Association.

"It's going to be a good central location for compiling a lot of material in one place," McTyre said. "It's getting to the kinds of primary source materials that they'll have there that really brings research alive."

Rock Hall President and CEO Terry Stewart personally has been courting potential donors on behalf of the library and archives.

"I honestly get the chills when I walk around there," Stewart said. "Much of the material that we've collected will reside there and be exposed to the world in a very different way than you see at the museum."

Ideally, the library and archives won't appeal only to scholars, but also to local residents and Rock Hall visitors seeking a deeper immersion in the music's back pages, Stewart said.

"I don't want it to be solely an ivory tower," he said.

"It's primarily an educational facility with a scholarly function, but if music floats your boat and you just want to submerge yourself in it, this is a place where you might want to spend an afternoon.

"It's rock 'n' roll, and the music will live there every day."

IMDB Francis X. Bushman Update RE: Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0124279/ Francis X Bushman at IMDB

IMDB Francis X. Bushman Update RE: Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

Silent film idol, Francis X. Bushman, supposedly was the model for the fifteen foot tall sculptured figure, "Energy in Repose," by 1923, which stands in a sidewalk nook of the main access entrance [Euclid Avenue, downtown at East 6] to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

It is a colossal, nude male figure dressed only in a heavy work apron seated on a rock holding a hammer in his proper left hand. His facial expression is calm and intelligent. He has large, well-defined muscles developed through hard physical labor, representing man at the fullest of his physical powers and symbolizing physical energy guided by intelligence.

Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventory of American Sculpture (IAS) files contain a related news article from the Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), April 13, 1974 and an excerpt from "Federal Reserve Notes" entitled "The Architectural Sculpture of the New Building," by Henry Hering, pg. 16-18.

IAS files also contain an excerpt from a publication entitled, "Integrity and Security: The Building of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland," prepared by Benjamin D. Rickey & Company of Columbus, Ohio, March 1993, pg. 71-78, which provides a description of all of the bank's artwork and notes that Hering's contract included designs for most of the carved stone ornamentation on the bank's architecture as well as several plaster models to guide the craftsmen executing the work.

The sculptor's fee was a pricey (by 1923 standards) $46,000 which included designing the statuary and overseeing the design and production of the architectural ornamentation.

Statue image http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/ohio/cleveland/fedreserve/0008.jpg
Reference: http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!298726!0

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0124279/ Francis X Bushman at IMDB

--Neale Sourna

Listen to Cleveland Author Neale Sourna on Tony Kay's Show at www.ArtistFirst.com June 17, 2009 at 9pm EST

Neale and Tony will talk on his online radio program about her new nonfiction hit:

Neale Sourna's CuntSinger

Cunnilingus: How to Give Head (Oral Sex and Eating Pussy), for Giving Women Orgasms of Cuntlicious Joy!

Read: CuntSinger-Sample.htm / CuntSinger-Sample.pdf

and about much more!

I write for the delicious "feel" of it, how about you?

It is our Independence Day, or at least mine. And this is my official declaration of intent to remain independent, of all the negative dross which can drag a creative writer down. [Oh, yeah, and "Pan's Labyrinth" is paused on the DVD.]

This is the thing.

It really settled on me the other day while revisiting the past at the Cleveland Art Museum's reopening, and after asking myself a bunch of silly questions of why I should continue to write and publish--why me, what is my importance.

And simply, the true basics of it all is that I write for the delicious feel of it. It takes my emotions everywhere, making me happy, or sad, or whatever "they," "my" characters, are emoting about. I actually "feel" it within me. It's as profound as time travel, teleporting, being in love, being in hate, or being indifferent. Whether I'm experiencing it in space, in Victorian England, or as an African vampire.

It's on the page, simple paper and ink, tiny pixels of daydreams and nightmares, but it makes, causes an actual "shift" within me, that is tangible. Not unlike the peculiar and shocking feeling I once had when a certain person looked at me at a party, and I "fell" inside. I had the distinctive feel of falling through soft space, which I remember all too clearly.

So, why is love for a person easier to remember than love personified in the body of a novel, script, or short story? Because it's easier to explain, probably.

But the feeling, THAT feeling. I take if for granted, and have pooh-poohed it to some extent because it is such an inherent part of me. But if I can craft this and have it make me feel this way, I should remember that others have told me so in their own way, or that even more others will feel it too, just by reading what I've written.

So then, who the heck am I to be so bourgeois and forgetful of this and to pooh anything? True feelings are precious and shared ones even more so, so those of us who write naked.

Don't lose the feeling my friends, and don't ever forget it, neglect it, or push it aside to die in hiding. Write and publish.

This is my official testimony. Do you feel it too?
__________________
Neale Sourna

www.Neale-Sourna.com
www.PIE-Percept.com / Remember--PIE: Perception Is Everything
www.ProjectKeanu.com
www.Writing-Naked.com

RE: Times Square Gossip's SINCERE APOLOGY TO KEANU REEVES

Duh. Our perception of the "rich and famous" is perverse, and stupid, and more perverse--until the cops and media want our photo and our name to kick around, too. Think people, how stupid are you to think and believe such highly stupid things BLINDLY, without balanced reasoning?

I recently justified myself with another celeb, a Cleveland Cavalier Zydrunas Ilgauskas was a no show for a basketball game--and everyone went ballistic. It was said his wife was in hospital, which to me said he was a good man to go to her, not a game. But that's just me.

Their stillborn twins says it all, or should.

I never once assumed he was blowing off a game or grandstanding, and I don't really like him all that much as a player, or person--but I don't really know him personally, and yet I believed, with limited facts, that his reasons had to be just.

So, for me, it's not just who I like, it's about the balance of justice, reasonable doubt, and respect for another human living this human's life, just like me.

--Neale Sourna
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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

SINCERE APOLOGY TO KEANU REEVES

With regard to a story published on Keanu Reeves altercation with a paparazzi, which we got from news services we have since learned the real facts.

Mr. Reeves did not “run over” Mr. Da Silva nor did he even “hit” him with his car.

At worst, if Mr. Reeves’ vehicle even came into contact with the photographer, it is possible that Mr. Reeves may have slightly grazed Mr. Da Silva as he was attempting to slowly and carefully maneuver his car away from him (in a slow, rolling manner) while Mr. Da Silva brashly and carelessly planted himself directly in front of Mr. Reeves vehicle and continued to take rapid fire flash photos of Mr. Reeves as he started to pull away from the curb.

Mr. Reeves certainly did not “go after” Mr. Da Silva “like he wanted to kill him”, nor did he start driving away from Mr. Da Silva only to return and “drive straight at him”.

The fact was, that Mr. Reeves was barely going one mile per-hour. Prior to slowly beginning to inch away from the curb, Mr. Reeves backed up and twice drove forward slowly, in an effort to indicate his intention to leave and expecting the paparazzo to move away, but to no avail.

Mr. Da Silva continued to stand directly in front of of Mr. Reeves car blocking his way and snapping photos even after Mr. Reeves’ specifically told him to “move out of the way.”

Mr. Reeves also did not attempt to “flee the scene”. To the contrary, as soon as Mr. Reeves heard Mr. Da Silva calling out about “his knee,” he immediately pulled into the nearby driveway, got out of his car and went to the photographer to make sure that he was all right.

In fact, it was only after Mr. Reeves turned his car into and parked in the nearby driveway that he saw Mr. Da Silva fall down on the ground which certainly seems more likely to be posturing and feigning injury than the result of a low speed collision at 1 mph, slower than walking speed.

We highly apologize to Mr. Reeves.....