The Cleve and I

Make no mistake, I am a Pittsburgh man through and through. As a sixth generation Pittsburgher, I will always call this city home no matter where I may ultimately end up. Accordingly, I am an active participant in our local pastime of hating on anyone and anything relating to our neighbor to the North, Cleveland. Last weekend, however, I entered the belly of the beast as it were to visit a good friend from Brown who lives there, and truth be told I wasn't expecting much. But, I have to give credit where credit is due, and I suppose that Cleveland is... somewhat deserving.

I won't go into details about the entire weekend because frankly that would bore even myself while proofreading, however I'll start by saying that I was very impressed by the Cleveland Museum of Art. With a rare original casting of Rodin's The Thinker out front, the museum has an enormous permanent collection. Pieces ranged from African and East Asian to Modern (the lot of which I find equally uninteresting), but the collection's high point for me was the impressive assortment of 19th Century European art, including an astonishingly beautiful Turner (The Burning of the House of Parliament), works by Frenchmen such as Gros, Ingres, David, and Millet, of the Barbizon School, and a very fine collection of paintings by the most notable Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masters, including a preliminary sketch by my personal favorite, Georges Seurat. If you have any fondness for art, or would like to gain some, the museum is a must-see.

That probably sounded pretty pretentious if you're not that familiar with art, so to move on, another highlight was the public beach we visited. I was able to lay out in the sand, swim in the relatively warm water, get sunburned, and do all the other stuff that I love to drive 500 miles for every summer, which I definitely did not expect to find in Cleveland. The skydeck atop Terminal Tower downtown afforded great views of the city and surrounding area, and of course the many attractions within the Rock and Roll H.O.F. need no introduction. Contrary to the very informative tourism video on youtube, which can be viewed by searching just that, I found most of the Cleveland neighborhoods I visited fairly pleasant, as opposed to looking like 'Scooby-Doo ghost towns', and crippling depression was at a (visible) minimum. One thing I was particularly surprised at was the vibrant nightlife I noticed downtown while going to see Greg Morton of Comedy Central at a club. By the time we left town at around midnight, the streets were still crowded and clubs were going full-tilt.

So, I suppose that Cleveland isn't so terrible after all. I had a good time at least, which is all I was looking for. Does it beat The Burgh though? Well, as Bryce Harper would say, "Thats a clown question, bro."

P.S. It was also great to get back to Pittsburgh because I missed my awesome girlfriend Lisa Liu. There's your shout-out, happy? :)