Home (?)

Easter Sunday was spent in Roger's Park, visiting friends, having brunch, discussing miscarriage, freezing our butts off on the shores of Lake Michigan (several days of pitch-perfect weather had come abruptly to an end.) We had been home from London for about nine days before leaving for Chicago, Toni heads off on Friday for Vermont. Whether or not Zelda goes with her is up in the air at the moment.

Will we move to Chicago? That's the unanswered question right now, but it sure is asked alot. I hesitated making it so obvious here, but apparently it's already an open secret. One artistic director in town, who shouldn't know anything about it, asked if it was true, and so I guess I am a person who is talked about. It's been fun pretending I am not. I guess everyone is talked about.

And you know what Oscar Wilde said.

I was in a kitchen yesterday, lamenting the state of the nation. Americans are inherently selfish. The whole rights of the individual thing, there's little sense of responsibility, it's all about entitlement. The more people spread out, miles from the center of any collective activity, driving, driving, driving, away from others. Away from any social responsibility. No taxes, no public schools, no centers of culture - it's like that theater I saw in Elmhurst, some people are trying like hell to bring good, professional, interesting theater to the suburbs. And it's so hard, and why? Because you moved. The good stuff is downtown, but no one wants to go downtown.

I had a conversation with a woman after a performance of DARK LADY in a suburb of Akron (that always makes me laugh, "suburb of Akron") and she was telling me how much better it would be if GLTF toured their mainstage shows - why don't we take our professional Shakespeare to where she is, we'd get a much bigger audience.

And you wonder why Cleveland is dying. She wants to see what it has to offer, but she won't. She wants Cleveland to go to her. Pffffffftttthhh.

I know how to save Cleveland. Amazing no one has suggested it before. It's so simple.

First: Get one or two major corporations to move their headquarters to downtown Cleveland.

Second: These large corporations will employ people locally, who will be encouraged not only to work, but live and play in downtown Cleveland. Real jobs with good pay, not this cleaning up after a**holes from Medina at the Q garbage.

Third: The taxes paid by these large corporations (because you weren't thinking they'd get to make billions of dollars here without paying their fair share of taxes, did you?) would pay for strong schools, infrastructure, reasonable mass trasnit, etc.

Fourth: The people living working and playing in the city center would expect art and entertainment, and would frequent downtown movie houses, galleries and theaters, as well as shops, restaurants and other businesses. And the schools would be so great people might send their own kids there.

That's it. Easy peasy. And that's capitalism, too, none of that corporate or public welfare crap. That's all we have to do.

What? Can't happen? Crazy dreamer? Well sh**, why don't we all just hang ourselves and get it over with?