Cleveland Yuppie

This weekend, for me, was spent almost entirely at Ingenuity Fest.  Luckily, the fun occurs just down the street from my apartment, so it’s pretty easy to bounce around.  As I mentioned in my previous post, the boyfriend James and I also got weekend passes for the Screaming Tiki convention, which was small but had some pretty cool stuff going on.

Friday

So let’s see… Friday night James and I had a quick dinner at home and ran out to the festivities ASAP.  We started at Screaming Tiki because we knew that we’d be meeting several people throughout the weekend at Ingenuity who were not going to the convention as well.  We basically just walked around the dealer hall, which had some really neat geek memorabilia, vintage toys and tons of comics.  I was in Buffy/Angel and Dr. Who/Torchwood heaven, and had to refrain myself from spending too much money on kitchy items that I do not need. (Slayer Kendra action figure, anyone?)

We met up with some friends and had a few drinks at our apartment, then ran back outside and down the street to Ingenuity.  We caught bits and pieces of several performances, including the amazing Lisa Lock’s Agua Dolce (ballet in the Halle lobby fountain), an eco-fashion show (sponsored by Revive Fair Trade) and the Tesla Orchestra.  I think we all fell in love with the ALLGOSIGNS area and gallery.  One neat think they were doing in the gallery: Raw Umber transformed an old cigarette machine into an art vending machine.  You insert $5, pull a tab and out comes a surprise piece of local art.  How can you turn that down?  Put $8 in a standard machine and you get cancer sticks, but $5 in this one got me a little framed photo.  Win.

Saturday

Saturday was a new beast because my parents came out to experience Ingenuity with us for the first time.  It was actually my dad’s Father’s Day gift from James and I, to come spend the day with us and check out our favorite Cleveland Festival.  I was a bit nervous that it would be a little too out there for them, and some things probably were, but overall they really enjoyed it.

Once again, we started at Screaming Tiki and explored the dealer hall.  We bought this crazy Japanese soda and some comics.  In the artists area, we found a lady that draws superheros as fetuses.  This is a lot funnier and less crazy than it sounds.  I now have a “Bat Fetus” sketch hanging on my fridge, which was drawn on-the-spot and purchased for $1. We also ran into a friend that works for a local comic company, Mask and Cape, and bought a couple of their comics.

A few Ingenuity highlights from Saturday:  36 Views of a Bridge (time-lapse photography exhibit exploring areas surrounding Cleveland’s Veterans Memorial Bridge) and the Asterisk gallery, which we missed on Friday.  I love going to Asterisk any time I go to the Tremont Art Walk (free event that takes over Tremont on the second Friday of every month) because the work they show is electic, interesting, sometimes fun and sometimes a bit disturbing.  I think some aspects of Asterisk were a bit much for the parentals, but overall I think they liked it.

We had dinner at Otto Mosers (no Website – it’s a deli in the theatre district), which is always tasty, reasonably priced and overall great for what it is.  Peronally not my favorite place — I’m mostly vegetarian and there is one sandwich on the menu that is meat-free — but for my reuben-loving dad, it was perfect.  And I have to admit, they make a damn good grilled cheese.

We also checked out the Tech Center more thoroughly on Saturday, which had some cool NASA stuff and a neat art exhibit, Material Matters, showcasing blown up images of metals at high magnification.  Sounds strange, but some of them were really pretty!

After the parents left, we went back out to try to catch my friend Andy’s awesome rock band, Ghost Town Trio, but the schedule I has was wrong, so I missed them.  Sad.  Instead, we opted for some of Tim Miller’s Lay of the Land, a one-man show on his experiences in the gay community.  LGBT issues are near and dear to me, so I really enjoyed the content of Tim’s show.  What I couldn’t handle for more than 20 minutes, however, was the fact that he frequently had to catch an audible breath mid-sentence.  Not cool.  I left.  Sorry, Tim.

Sunday

Sunday started out as the day to catch everything we missed, but by about 3 we puttered out.

Our day started, once again, at Screaming Tiki for a couple events.  The good: Movie Trivia game full of sci-fi flicks.  The bad: 70 Years of Marvel Comics panel that featured one former employee of Marvel that was there for about 16 of those 70 years.  One more look around the dealer hall and we were back to Ingenuity.  We bopped around there for a bit, but started feeling like we had seen it all (even though we hadn’t).  So we bought a bloomin’ onion and headed home for a movie. (I tried to continue the Ingenuity theme, at least, by watching Repo: The Genetic Opera.)

Things I wish I’d seen:

The Wheel of Mashup.  You know the image I posted in my last article from Ingenuity 2008?  That was Thimbletron.  The crazy DJs at the Evolution Control Committee’s project this year was the Wheel of Mashup, and I missed it due to simultaneously running events and my Sunday laziness.

MorrisonDance Ingenious.  I do now know why I missed this, but I did.  And I wish I’d have seen it, because I’m sure it was beautiful.

My favorites of the weekend:

Joe Day, one of Raw Umber’s artists featured at Ingenuity.  Joe, if you are reading this — your work is amazing.  When I have more money to spend on real art, I will be purchasing one of your pieces.

Lisa Lock.  I fell in love with Lisa’s work at Ingenuity 2007, but this year she really stepped it up with Agua Dolce, along with Brian Murphy.  Laura (my fellow author here) and I ran into Lisa on the street on Friday, and I felt like a total fangirl.  I’m pretty sure I stammered a lot about how strong she is and how beautifully she moves, but I was pretty nervous and didn’t know what to say (and was also maybe a little tipsy).

Red Tie Products.  This small company out of Pittsburgh had a table at Screaming Tiki.  They also have a t-shirt and bag line called Grammar Matters, with grammatical sayings and cartoons on them.  They’re pretty funny and clever, and I probably would have bought a shirt if they made them in women’s sizes.

So, who else went to Ingenuity Fest last weekend?  What were your favorite moments?  What did I miss?  Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Filed under: Cleveland festivals Tagged: | ingenuity fest, screaming tiki