Current location:	7 Stories Above Cleveland
Current mood:	awake
Current music:	Oh, Me - Meat Puppets

Ingenuity
I am now living in Cleveland. I have an apartment and a bed and a TV and a guitar and everything. I had some initial concerns that I was going to have a hard time finding friends or things to do here, but those are melting quickly away. I seem to have more or less struck gold both weekends I've been here, and met a bevy of interesting folks.

This weekend seems to be a particularly lucky weekend to be a newcomer to Cleveland. They are holding the Ingenuity Fest, which is pretty much just a showcase for regional technologists and artists to show off things that they've been working on. Last night I walked into a showcase in which enthusiasts about anything could should 20 slides and get 20 seconds to talk about each slide. Highlights included an art gallery owner giving a rapid social diatribe about Andy Warhol, pop music, the Gap, contemporary art, and McDonalds; a photographer presenting his Mythology series (examples below); and the city's composting crusader talking about the web of life and showing off pictures of worms going through their life cycle (including worm sex)! Also pretty cool was a group of "urban lumberjacks" who go into homes slated to be demolished, cut out all the old growth wood, and then "upcycle" it into beautiful furniture. (I'm shocked to have learned sustainability lingo in Cleveland that I didn't learn in Seattle.)

Anyhow, I found out that a lot of the neat stuff happening in the city is organized by a cabal of young architects, and they taught me the secret handshake. I'm looking forward to seeing what else they get up to.

Tonight I go to see Dante's Inferno done with paper puppets and "handmade special effects inspired by Victorian-era toy theater."