Spring is right around the corner, and if that isn’t welcome news for your frost-addled soul, then this week’s Fresh Start is sure to thaw you out and warm you up. Some of our personal defrosters kicked into high gear with last month’s Forbes magazine critique of Northeast Ohio; we can’t help but think if perennial Forbes lemonface Kurt Badenhausen experienced a real weekend here, he’d have to can those sour grapes. Assuming he would agree to such a weekend, we’d get Badenhausen to some great food and nightlife, the requisite tourist traps and some of the region’s best kept secrets. Along the way, stops at a rockin’ anniversary party, an exclusive Native American art exhibition and an annual horticultural reverie would be mandatory. You’re right, why waste the effort. We’re guessing it wouldn’t change Badenhausen’s mind, but it would confirm who the real #1 on the “most miserable” list should be.
The Modern Dance
This weekend, the Beachland Ballroom in Collinwood celebrates its 10th anniversary weekend, with a rundown of rare melodic treats sure to rock your gypsy soul. Cleveland’s legendary Pere Ubu, post-punkers This Moment in Black History, and psych-rock iconoclast Roky Erickson headline the affair, with deftly dizzying support from Sun God, Short Rabbits, The Alarm Clocks, JJ Magazine, Living Stereo and more. Ubu, fronted by the ever-compelling David Thomas, will perform their album The Modern Dance in its entirety Friday, March 5 at 9PM, while conjuring cogent woe and cinematic psychosis. Texas native Erickson performs Saturday, March 6 at 9PM, and will tap his 13th Floor Elevators catalog and work from his Okkervil River co-piloted album, True Love Cast Out All Evil. It’s his first album of new work in 14 years. The weekend also launches the new This Moment in Black History record.
In Bloom
Every year, the Cleveland Botanical Garden finds the art and meaning found in one of the world’s most exotic plants: the seductive orchid. The Garden’s Orchid Mania celebration ushers in spring with a bevy of programming, displays and a plant sale that can’t be missed. This weekend, the Garden honors the enchanting plant and its flowers by bringing in the region’s best orchid growers for their Vendor Weekend Saturday, March 6 and Sunday, March 7. A vast array of orchids and growing supplies available will be available for purchase, along with access to the Garden’s resplendent celebration of said floral species. Orchids are symbols of love and beauty, elegance and luxury, virility and perseverance. In Cleveland, they symbolize a change of seasons and a lift in mood for residents.
Native Tongue
Native American art enthusiasts are sure to thrill at the exhibition objects arriving at the Cleveland Museum of Art starting this Sunday, March 7. Cleveland is just one of three cities offered a rare glimpse at The Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection from the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York. It’s one of the art world’s most elusive collections of treasures and has been raved about by The New York Times as an indispensible document of Native American art achievements before (and after) our country’s colonization. At its heart, Thaw triangulates cerebral, spiritual and cultural significance behind the works with stunning clarity. The CMA exhibition runs through the end of May.
