Tuesday, June 21, 2011

CLEkends

Cleveland is a sports town through and through; we live and die with our sports teams. But most young professionals hardly get to see our professional athletes perform because the prices generally, well, price us out. So when the chance to start off the weekend by catching a Tribe game for a reasonable amount of money presents itself, YIC jumps at it!

The game Friday night was the first in a three-game series with (and eventual sweep of!) the Pittsburgh Pirates. The group outing of about 20 people was organized by our friend and web designer extraordinaire, Nick, in celebration of his birthday. He managed to get us all sitting together for $10 a piece, which coupled with Dollar Dog Night to make the game incredibly affordable for us! Put that together with a brilliant performance by Josh Tomlin and Co., as well as a fantastically nostalgic 80's themed postgame fireworks show, and you have all the makings of that rare beast known as a successful night in Cleveland sports.

After the Indians game YIC followed our friend and fine web developer on his birthday mission to the always fantastic Eddy & Iggy's for some $10 buckets-O-beer. Eddy & Iggy's holds a special place in our hearts as graduates of St. Edward, but it also never fails to provide an enjoyable experience due to their wonderful staff and innovative and affordable drink specials. If you're on the west side of Lakewood, it’s a must try for a sports bar. Or, just stop by on Thursday nights for karaoke, where local legends are born.

Saturday, "B" started off the day by biking over to our friend’s house then walking down to the Clifton Arts Festival. A yearly must in the Cleveland festival scene, the festival blocks off part of Clifton Ave. and allows people to saunter around and stop by the numerous artist booths. This is one of the most low key festivals you can attend over the summer. Like most festivals, there is some music, from drummers to easy listening rock. Food is available from local restaurants, and the admission price is non-existent. However, nothing really stands out about the Clifton Arts Festival, and I only found two vendors truly interesting. One was selling laptop bags made out of olds suits and the other crafted sand sculptures. Normally I would be the first to admit that my opinion on matters of the visual arts is far from expert, but I was vindicated in that my compadré, who is an artist (and a good one - check out her Etsy site), agreed that none of the vendors were selling any must-haves. All and all, this was a nice way to spend an hour by walking along Clifton, and it was definitely family friendly because there was a clown. (FREE!)


After the arts festival we did what any good red-blooded Americans should on a beautiful summer Saturday: we grilled meat! Now, it wasn’t traditional suburban grilling (sorry, "suburban," is never how B rolls…), because we just don’t have that kind of money to spend on a gas grill. But a little charcoal grill on a porch on the west side does just fine, and rounding the night out were some fantastic friends and a 90’s power hour.

After the grilling, "A" headed back to that local hotspot mentioned earlier, Eddy & Iggy's, for a bit of live music by a local Cleveland singer/songwriter. Tom Evanchuck is a folk artist in the vein of Tom Petty (at least A thinks so!) and is fresh off his release of two albums (one electric, one acoustic) last month. Evanchuck played an acoustic set first, followed by an electric set with some friends of his (that sorely needed a bass player!), and concluded with a set featuring Tom and his cousin Anthony (on the drums). Overall, he put on a great show which was made better by the intimate nature of the venue, but was unfortunately not well attended. Note to you readers: get out and support Cleveland's music scene by checking out one of Tom's upcoming shows! (FREE!)

From start to finish, Young In CLE had a pretty great CLEkend, with more to come as the summer progresses!

1 comments:

Welcome to the CLE blogging world! Excited to follow your adventures! Oh, added you to my blogroll too :-)

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