the other michelangelo

This one's last name is Lovelace.  He paints Cleveland, scenes of the life on its streets, and the aspirations he has for it.   Michelangelo picked up the name early in life because he was always drawing stuff, even though no one around him thought art was a real option. Yes, he did attend the Cleveland Art Institute for a year, but he couldn't afford to finish.  He met the Rev. Albert Wagner, Cleveland's most notable outsider artist, and found the inspiration he needed.

Michelangelo's subject matter includes everything from P-Funk concerts drive-n movies to cdrugs, crime, city politics and the Obamas.  We managed to get everything we needed done with him just in time for the big Cavs-Pistons playoff  game, which he and the rest of the city were anxiously awaiting.

That game was being played downtown, just a few blocks from the House of Blues.  We'd weaseled our way in there earlier in the day to look over the art.  Like all the HOBs, it's decor includes lots of work by people we've met over the years--Jimmie Sudduth,  Ab the Flagman, Missionary Mary Proctor, the Baltimore Glassman, et al.  Their collection also includes some top-notch paintings by Peter Wood, a local boy who's now based in California.  Tracey Glenn, the lady who handles tours and classes let us wander at will and pepper her with stupid questions.  For that, and the inadvertent groping she endured due to her "microphone problems," Tracy definitely earned her commemorative shirt.

We had entered  Cleveland via Lakeshore Drive, where the houses of what we presumed to be "Robber Baron Row" left us more than a little slack-jawed.  As the rain alternately stopped and started all day, we did actually manage to catch a glimpse of Lake Erie with sunshine on it. Then it rained some more, much as it had earlier in a beautiful stretch of Concord Township. That's where we found, despite some bad directions from a website we won't name, a Flintstone House nestled back in the woods.  If a car with no floor had been parked in the garage, we wouldn't have been too surprised.  No Rubble on this one, it was Bedrock's best, to be sure.

Music In the van--"Days Like This" Van Morrison, "Bootleg Sesssions, Vol.8" Bob Dylan

Don's found $2.61 to date, and still can't figure out what weird stuff was going on with the camera today.  We just hope it doesn't do it tomorrow!