Thursday, October 29, 2009

Look Away, Cleveland Lovers!

Sometimes I think that I'm too hard on Cleveland. And then I come across something like this, courtesy of Cleveland Bachelor, and I think "no, I am exactly right about Cleveland and its effect upon people."

How does (if at all) Cleveland influence your work and/or art?

Cleveland is a city of indeterminate and unabated potential manifested intermittently in brief, but intense bursts. When you love such a city, as I do, the promise of that potential sits at the heart of your attraction. Relationships based on a one-sided attraction to intense, but infrequently manifested potential must surely tend towards the passionate, painful and demoralizing. Long term devotion to such a relationship might even produce a kind of bitter resolve that stubbornly agitates for realized potential, accepting enough brief manifestations to get through the day, while ultimately suspecting that all is lost. It might also make you a bit of an asshole.

Maybe this what non-Clevelanders mean when they talk about a “Cleveland attitude.” If it is, then I’ve got one.

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