It's All in How You Look at It

Having grown up on the American Prairie, I'm fond of pretending, while driving on the flatland, that those banks of thunderclouds in the distance are actually mountains. Suddenly the harsh prairie seems cocooned, as though those mirage mountains up ahead constitute some sort of buffer against the elements.

Another different point-of-view comes via a comment from Chuck K. in Southern California, who chimes in now and then on your announcer's Facebook page. He suggested that "Barrel-ioz" in the photo below looks like "The Hat without the Cat."

Earthquake!

Cleveland's Public Square shook yesterday when a 5.0 earthquake hit about 1:45 EDT yesterday. It was centered in Canada, but no trembling occurred here at WCLV, which is located southeast of downtown in Warrensville Heights.

On the other hand, when you spend your workday in soundproof studios, who knows what is going on out there?

Sunlit Serenity

Looking skyward at a cemetery along Chagrin River Road north of Mayfield Road. Today's forecast predicts severe thunderstorms, with hail and damaging winds. Best not to take shelter under trees like this until the storms pass.

The Scenic View

Taken yesterday from the Chagrin River bridge in Gates Mills, looking north.

If you didn't know you were in Cleveland, and didn't know that it was laid out by folks from Connecticut, you might think you'd landed in New England. Towns have picturesque downtowns, gazebos, and traffic circles, aka "roundabouts." Many communities, like Gates Mills, look like Vermont villages. But aside from the layout scheme, nature itself gives this part of Ohio a New England-y look. Lots of hills, rivers, and trees. When the Chagrin River at Gates Mills is high, fishermen in waders stand in the river waiting for paydirt when the fish tumble over the falls.

"Kismet" at Ohio Light Opera

How many theater gift shops sell yarn? The gift shop in the lobby of the College of Wooster's Freedlander Theater sells yarn, theater posters, children's items and mugs. You can have ice cream at intermission (eat it outside, please) and on the season's opening day yesterday, the audience enjoyed an after-show reception of popcorn, lemonade, iced tea, and cheese and crackers.

What a treat to meet so many WCLV listeners who won tickets to "Kismet," the production that opened the season yesterday afternoon. "Kismet," which is based on music of Alexander Borodin, is set in Bagdad.

It was so hot yesterday that those loose, cotton costumes worn by the cast seemed like a good idea. Perhaps it's time to bring out that burnous.

Barrel-ioz

Finally, WCLV has its own orange barrel. We call it "Barrel-ioz."

It's Stormy Outside...

...Which is why I posted this view of sunny roses. The flowers in the Radio Ranch garden aren't quite this splendid -- yet. Sea pinks, daisies, zinnias and sunflowers haven't started blooming. The tomatoes, peppers and chives have. The basil, arugula and mesculun will be picked long before they flower and set seeds.

The plan is to hang the really big, heavy sunflower heads on the fence and trees this fall so the birds have plenty of food.

Surprises: English daisies have re-appeared this year after a being absent for several seasons. We've had "volunteer" strawberries for the last couple of years, but they've never produced fruit until this month.

The Winners Return

In the first row of Severance Hall's dress circle last night, I asked the young women seated next to me, "Do you think she'll change her dress for the second half?"

Pianist Martina Filjak, the sultry Croatian beauty who won last year's Cleveland International Piano Competition, wore a sparkly, sculptural, strapless gown in the first half of last night's "Winners Return" concert. From our vantage point, it was difficult to tell whether the dress was beaded or whether the sparkle was embedded in the fabric. The color from that distance was debatable: Was it grey or silver?

But the clothes discussion was gravy. It's the music that galvanized everyone. Along with 2007 winner Alexander Ghindin, the two presented the kind of relaxed virtuoso performances that are riveting and fun.

Ghindin played Chopin's "Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise" along with Busoni's reworking of Liszt's "Fantasia on Two Themes from Mozart's 'Le Nozze di Figaro.'" Filjak (pronounced FEEL-yak) performed Chopin's fourth ballade and Balakirev's "Islamey."

After intermission, Filjak changed gowns, and the performers together played selections from Rachmaninoff's first suite for two pianos, excerpts from William Bolcom's "Garden of Eden Ragtime Suite," and Gregory Stone's two-piano arrangement of Gershwin's "An American in Paris."

In contrast to Filjak's femme fatale, Ghindin (pronouned GEEN-deen), conceals a light sense of humor beneath his courtly, reserved manner. During a pause between movements, a cell phone went off, and after the second ring, Ghindin amusingly held his hand up to his ear, as if to signal that someone should get the phone. He also has a charmingly unassuming gait, as though he's a trench-coated detective in a Peter Sellers movie.

Filjak's second-half gown? A charmeuse v-neck sleveless number in a mysterious color: Navy? Eggplant? Smoke? We'll never know.

Social Gadfly

Table 12 was the raucous one at Saturday night's Cleveland Play House's annual benefit, held at the soon-to-be-transformed Allen Theater at Playhouse Square. Your announcer, released from the confinement of Master Control, regaled Table 12 with Tales from Morning Drive, including "The Nude Marchers of Silverlake" and "The Man who Didn't Think Marches were Music." All while wearing a simple plum crinkle rayon column gown and a white organdy wrap with appliqued and embroidered flowers.

The black-tie occasion featured a dinner of greens and berries, herb-stuffed chicken breast with potatoes and asparagus, and a dessert buffet.

Red-maned Maureen McGovern, wearing a beaded and fringed voided velvet coat over black, presented one of the best sets in recent CPH benefit memory. Beautifully accompanied by pianist Jeffrey Harris, McGovern chose her program largely from the Great American Songbook. She revealed that she recorded her big hit, "The Morning After," in Cleveland. She invited the audience to sing along in the evening's last song, the Gershwin Brothers' "Love Is Here to Stay."

And even better, the audience KNEW the words.

You Talkin' to ME?

If you woke up to this face, what would YOU think? Our summer intern, Steven, snapped this paparazzi shot of his beloved Snickers, who was lying on his napping owner's chest. Steven says that despite the cat's expression, Snickers is a very good-natured kitty.

Steven, a grad of Lakeland Community College, is now attending Kent State University. Snickers, we hear, has graduated from dry food to canned.

La Vie en Rose

This rose turned out to be a bit blurry, but some days, I am too.

Thunderstorms in Cleveland are turning gardens into rainforests. Tomatoes that were seedlings last week are now outgrowing their pots.

The Radio Ranch garden at WCLV teems with mint, grasses, wildflowers, and new this year, Sea Pinks. While driving near the radio station recently, I saw a yard in which masses of tiny, brilliant pink short-stemmed flowers were growing. I stopped and asked the owner what kind of flowers they were. She said they were "sea pinks," a perennial, and would I like some? She sent me off with a potful, which are now establishing themselves among the chives and pineapple mint.

For the Birds

Taken Sunday, May 30, 2010, at Willowick's Lakefront Park, where the Purple Martin houses dot the ridge above the shore. It's one of the loveliest Lake Erie views around Cleveland.

The park is maintained by the city, which has offices nearby. The city presumably has installed the camera trained on the west parking lot. Is it intended to ticket speeders or to observe un-parklike behavior? The birds don't care.