Taking Down the Disco Ball

Photos by Jenn Stoneking

The Electric Roller DiscoTech turned a vacant East Side warehouse into a vibrant, happening space for one evening. More than 400 people skated, boogied, socialized, checked out the views, watched Xanadu and retro pop commercials and listened to great music..

In the days leading up to the event, I was trying to imagine how many people would attend, but I never dreamed the turnout would be so large. I can only guess that the event resonated with Clevelanders who remember how fun skating is, or who were just looking for something funky to do on a Friday night.

The best part of creating this event was all the great people we worked with: St. Clair Superior Development Corporation, Pop Up City, Alexandra Underhill, All Go Signs, Plant Kingdom Bakery, Hooper Farm and Progressive Arts Alliance.

Countless people have asked when the next roller skating party is going to happen. People want to know if we can host a weekly skate in the Leff Warehouse, or if we'll pick a different vacant spot next time. We've officially "graduated" from the Cleveland Exeuctive Fellowship; this was the final 2008/9 event, but we are considering doing another skating event indpendently. In the future, I think we'll need some financial sponsors, and to provide skates to lend to those that don't have a pair. I'd love for the event to remain free and family friendly so that all Clevelanders can come and join in the fun.

Almost Ready

Decorating, sweeping and organizing has the Cleveland Executive Fellows tired out, but we're almost ready for the Electric Roller DiscoTech.

The final touch? Hanging the disco ball.

Inspiration

Inspiration for the upcoming Electric Roller DiscoTech

DIY Decorating

The Cleveland Exeuctive Fellows' next challenge in preparing for the Electric Roller DiscoTech is to make a cavernous warehouse into a disco fabulous venue. I solicited advice from artist Alexandra Underhill to help us get started.

She showed us photos of some projects she created re-using objects normally bound for the landfill or the recycling bin: Defunct CDs and DVDs, plastic bottles, plastic bags, bubble wrap, plastic construction fencing and zip ties. Alexandra was generous with her time, advice and her basement full of materials. We left Alexandra's house with a Corolla-full of supplies to get us started including an old army parachute, lots of plastic sheeting, old sheets, light sticks and other materials.

We'll be at the Leff Electric Warehouse tomorrow to begin the daunting task of lighting and decorating two rooms and a hallway.

Does anyone have a disco ball or some twinkle lights we could borrow?

Behind the Scenes: Electric Roller DiscoTech

The Cleveland Executive Fellows have spent the past couple of weeks working unglamorously on the Electric Roller DiscoTech. Armed with advice from Pop Up City's Terry Schwartz and crew, we set about setting up.

The behind the scenes action included getting estimates for portable toilets, water stations and security; booking a DJ and finding food vendors. We had to look critically at our budget and refine our event to make sure it will be a good fit.

I am pleased that Santina Protopapa director of the Progressive Arts Alliance will be spinning some vinyl. There will be food to purchase from Hooper Farm and Plant Kingdom Bakery.

David Jurca and Gauri Torgalkar of the Kent State University Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative created a great post card that will be hot off the presses tomorrow. In the meantime, we've been promoting this event online through email, social media and event listings. Jeff Schuler is creating a website and event details will be listed there soon.

Today the Fellows spent all day sweeping, vacumming and ventilating the warehouse space. With some help from the Leff Electric manager and the maintenance man, we managed to get electricity working on half of the 2nd and 3rd floors. Logistically this will make our event so much easier because we won't have to rent, fuel and supervise generators.

The Cleveland Museum of Art's recent party featured red pool noodles in a public art display. Chuck at All Go Signs saved them from the landfill and he is letting us use them for our event. They'll become benches in the Roller Rink Room.

We started removing winterizing plastic from the windows today because ventilation is crucial to a skating party and the views from Leff are phenomenal.

Next steps include more cleaning, decorating and lighting.

Electric Roller DiscoTech

Save the date! The Eletro Roller DiscoTech is a free event on August 28th, 6-11pm at the Leff Electric Building.

The Cleveland Executive Fellows are partnering with Pop Up City and St. Clair Superior Development Corporation to host this temporary use of the 2nd floor of the Leff Electric Warehouse.



When the fellows went to Duisburg and Stuttgart, Germany, we focused on post-industrial re-use. Typically the final Fellowship event is a conference, but we realized that a conference isn't the best way for us to share what we learned with Northeast Ohio. We also know that there are already folks in Cleveland doing that same thing like Pop Up City and All Go Signs.

So, instead of talking about post-industrial re-use, we decided the best thing for us to do is to partner with folks, put into practice what we learned and then share with the community.

The DiscoTech is still in the planning phases, but we'd like to use the term Roller to apply to all non-motorized wheeled devices: bikes, scooters, rollerblades, rollerskates, unicycles, skateboards, etc. Of course, there'll be a DJ, some food and drink, and a fannypack decorating contest. We are still seeking out partnerships to enliven the space and reach other networks.

Keep your eye out here for more information about the event and our process as we learn the ins and outs of temporary use.

Dill Pickles

I got a fermentation crock for my brithday from Jeff. I made my first ever batch of dill pickles tonight from the recipe in Sandor Katz's book, Wild Fermentation.

I bought and bartered a bunch of City Fresh pickling cucumbers and garlic; picked backyard dill and grape leaves; and purchased pickling spices from Narrin's Spice and Sauce at the West Side Market.

I placed cloves from 2 heads of garlic, pickling spices and grape leaves in the bottom of the crock (the tanin in the grape leaves is supposed to keep the pickles crisp during fermentation).

I piled in clean, whole pickling cucumbers. I poured enough brine solution in to cover the cucumbers fully at 3/8 cup salt per 1/2 gallon of filtered water.

Next, I added the weighting stone and made sure that the brine covered the top. The last step was to put the lid on and fill the lip with water to make a water seal. The water seal lets gas bubbles from lactofermenation out, but not air or molds in. In about 2-4 weeks, we should have crunchy dill pickles.

Re-Programming

My immediate future may include a period of un/underemployment beginning in September. I've been looking at my spending habits to see where I can reduce expenses and I'm fairly pleased that there is not too much to cut. By design and by luck, I've been gradually becoming more frugal and self-sufficient.

However, I still go into consumer automaton mode: consumaton

In order to break out of consumaton programming, I brainstormed a list of words I can use to replace "buy", "purchase" and "shop". My plan is to see if the other words/actions are a good substitute before heading to a store or restaurant.

Here's my list:

Barter

Scrap

Grow

Construct

Make

Repurpose

Borrow

Trade

Do Without

Cook

Brew

Forage

If you've got any more I'd love to add them to my list.