Kendall Embrescia’s greeting cards get to the point of the sentiment -- but usually not in the traditional way. As chief creative officer and “head skootcher” at Squirt & Skootch, Embrescia produces cards that are edgy, funny, off-the-wall and well received.
 
The idea for Squirt & Skootch was originally conceived in 2009 by Embrescia and a friend who wanted to start a business that united their love of writing, creativity and travel. The peculiar name is based on their childhood nicknames.

“One of the universal things I found when I traveled was mail,” recalls Embrescia. “No matter where I was I would send a postcard.”
 
So, in fall 2009, "Squirt" and "Skootch" gave their cards a trial run at the Tremont Arts Festival. Boasting sayings like “I have a heart on for you” and other spicy sentiments, the cards were very well received.
 
Then Squirt moved on and Embrescia’s friend Sandy Hridel joined the team. The two hit some stationary shows and developed a full line of cards, covering categories that ranged from Love and Sex to Holiday and Encouragement. Embrescia and Hridel formally formed an LLC in fall of 2010, hired Embrescia’s niece Kendra Kwasniewski to illustrate the cards, and got a crash course in running a business.
 
“We started identifying places that would sell our cards, cold calling people and walking into stores to sell our cards,” says Embrescia. “I’m a really creative person and learning the business stuff was really intense.” But the hard work paid off. Today, Squirt & Skootch can be found in stores around Northeast Ohio, as well as in Pittsburgh, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Colorado.
 
The company plans on hiring a web developer and some salespeople to go after mid-sized retailers. “Growth is certainly key,” says Embrescia. “We’ve been able to be creative and build an infrastructure, but now the emphasis is on growth.”

 
Source: Kendall Embrescia
Writer: Karin Connelly

Supporters of the late, great comic book writer Harvey Pekar are trying to raise $30,000 to create a fittingly iconoclastic memorial to his life and work at the Cleveland Heights-University Heights main library. The bronze sculpture will serve as a living monument to the power of comics to transform everyday life into art.

In the planned sculpture, the cantankerous, working-class hero steps out of one of his own comic book pages. Beneath is a desk where individuals can thumb through one of Pekar's favorite books or, perhaps, pen their own masterpiece. On the back there's a blank slate where budding auteurs can sketch comics or tributes to Pekar.

"This is a statue about making comics," says Joyce Brabner, Pekar's wife and kindred spirit, in a video that was created for the project's Kickstarter fundaising campaign. "What we're talking about is celebrating the comics rather than his celebrity. No other statues have Greek or Roman gods holding an autobiographical comic book about working class life in Cleveland -- or a comic book at all."

Ironically, contrasting Pekar's portrait with the stately busts one might find in a museum, Brabner has dubbed it "Cleveland's ancient Jewish god of file clerks."

Justin Coulter, a sculptor and bartender who designed the memorial, says he can easily identify with the perennially struggling artist. "He was an everyday man who had to work to support his art, and I am definitely doing the same thing."


Source: Joyce Brabner, Justin Coulter
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Since the Capitol Theatre at W. 65th and Detroit reopened in 2008 as a state-of-the-art, three-screen movie house, it has incrementally grown its audience by hosting special events and screening must-see indie films. Yet this week, the hottest attraction at this restored vaudeville theatre will be its striking new blade sign.

This Thursday, a holiday-themed lighting ceremony will celebrate this iconic piece of street art. The "Bright Night" event begins at 6:15 p.m. with the lighting of the sign. A street party will follow. The area's unique indie retailers and restaurants also will be open for the occasion.

"The new sign is a near exact replica of the original blade sign that was installed at the theatre in 1921," says Marilyn Mosinski, Director of Economic Development with the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization (DSCDO), the group which has spearheaded the $50,000 project over the past three years.

Needless to say, after such a long wait Mosinsky and her cohorts are ready to celebrate. Adding to the festivities is a trio of pop-up shops that are opening for the season this week in the Gordon Square Arts District. In recent years, the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood has become known for its one-of-a-kind holiday shopping options.

Valerie Mayen of Yellowcake is setting up a temporary apparel shop at the corner of W. 65th and Detroit. The Gordon Square Holiday Market is also set to open in the Near West Lofts Building at W. 67th and Detroit.
 
Finally, a new gallery called Double Feature is also popping up in the district. Located in a two-room space on W. 65th next to the Capitol, it will host artwork, a unique shop and an array of events throughout the season.

Bright Night is a part of Yuletide on the Near West Side, a series of holiday events in the Detroit Shoreway, Ohio City and Tremont neighborhoods.


Sources: Genna Petrolla, Marilyn Mosinski
Writer: Lee Chilcote

"I often say that Cleveland taught me more than I could ever repay," Esquire writer at large Scott Raab tells Fresh Water. "It taught me lessons about resilience. You know, all those clichés about heart, about not giving up, not pointing fingers, but to move forward to carve out a life, to do the right thing when people give you shit. Cleveland taught me all those things. It’s a wonderful place to be from."

Jared Rube has a love for both photography and technology. As a third year photography student at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rube got his feet wet in the entrepreneurial world as an intern at Shaker LaunchHouse before creating True Frame Media, which provides video content creators with the ability to standardize work-flow and produce films through online pre and post production processes.
 
Out of True Frame Media came CinaMaker, a cloud-based collaborative environment for producing films online. The company is a marriage of Rube’s two loves.

“It started as marketing and storage, and grew into editing,” recalls Rube. “Then it grew into ‘Why don’t we make it collaborative?’”
 
Running a startup business while going to school full time has not been easy. But Rube has gotten a lot of support from the RIT faculty, LaunchHouse, friends and family. And he’s enjoying every bit of the experience. “It’s a really cool learning experience,” he says, “Doing it all, learning how to run a business.”
 
CinaMaker is quickly growing. Rube has one “unofficial” business partner, one programmer and one designer. He plans on hiring subcontractors to help with the programming. He foresees soon having five to eight programmers and two designers on staff. He also has been working with local and overseas production companies and fellow LaunchHouse company Tiny Giant Studio.

“It’s really moving fast,” he says. “I’m just trying to keep up with it.”

 
Source: Jared Rube
Writer: Karin Connelly

The odyssey that led Deba Gray and Serena Harragin, the couple behind Gray's Auctioneers, to Cleveland is as fascinating as the work they do. The journey, which ends in Lakewood, meandered through Key West and Chicago. It includes a career change in New York, a heart-wrenching epiphany, and the convincing of a reluctant partner.

According to Live Cleveland, there are over two dozen city neighborhoods. But which one is right for you? For urban pioneers, who hope to hit that sweet spot between value and convenience, the answer often is the "emerging neighborhood." Blessed with affordable property, short commutes, and multicultural diversity, these areas possess authentic appeal. And the one ripest for plucking is…

Cities, suburbs and neighborhoods alike often have slick promotional materials that advertise yearned-for amenities such as good schools, low taxes, desirable homes and nearby shopping. What they choose to include offers a glimpse into what the community values. Yet very few of them can boast a giant, colorful wall of books that frames the entranceway to their community.

The Larchmere-Shaker Square neighborhood of Cleveland would be the one exception. To enshrine the east side community's love of books and recognize its rich diversity, local artist Gene Epstein has installed a 74-foot-wide mural of a virtual bookshelf on the side of Loganberry Books, an independent bookstore that has been a mainstay of the eclectic business district since the mid-1990s.

The vividly depicted book spines include "Some Things that Stay" by local novelist Sarah Willis; "The Life and Death of Great American Cities" by oft-cited urban planner Jane Jacobs; and a book about barbering, which was chosen to reflect the growing number of barber shops in the immediate area. Epstein painstakingly photographed each title, then installed the highly visible mural on the east-facing wall of Loganberry.

"The criteria we had was that the books should be 25 percent children's literature, 25 percent related to the Larchmere community, 25 percent representing the businesses, and 25 percent about Cleveland," explains Epstein.

The books were nominated by community members and culled by a committee of residents and shop owners to reflect the area's true diversity. After the mural was printed on vinyl-coated polyester and mounted on sections of plywood, Epstein spent about two weeks installing it in 12-foot-tall sections, much to the wonderment of passers-by and employees of nearby businesses.

Now that it is finally complete, Larchmere-Shaker Square has a work of public art that celebrates what it has already become known for: art and community.


Source: Gene Epstein
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Luther Heggs has been a roadie, sound engineer and lighting technician for rock and roll bands from the juke joints of Nashville to the splashy clubs of Las Vegas. He also had stints as an on-air personality for local radio stations. Yet when his kids were born, he switched to wiring studios as his way of earning a living. Still, he often longed for the excitement and drama of the rock and roll shows of his younger years.

That's why he created the Heggs House of Horror. For 15 years, Heggs has transformed the yard of his Old Brooklyn bungalow into a delightful, homemade scare-fest that is a tribute both to rock and roll and the Halloweens of his youth.

"He loves to put on a show, and this became an outlet," says Luanne Bole-Becker, a local filmmaker and personal friend who is creating a documentary about the so-called Master of Scare-a-Monies. "He builds these characters in his yard from all kinds of stuff, whether it's oscillating fans or stuff he finds at garage sales."

The Heggs House of Horror began modestly with a paper mache witch and a giant spider web. Today, the entire yard, driveway and side yard of the house are filled with an artful, ghoulish display that attracts thousands of visitors from Northeast Ohio and beyond each year. Some of the characters include Gene Simmons of Kiss, Freddy Krueger and classics from Heggs' childhood such as Ghoulardi.

"It's become sort of like a block party with a Halloween twist," says Bole-Becker. "Other families get together at Christmas, but his family hangs out at Halloween. Now there are other people on the street decorating their houses, too."

Ultimately, Bole-Becker says that the Heggs House of Horror is not intended to compete with more commercial fare -- Heggs spends his own money on the display and doesn't charge admission. It's designed to bring people together.

"For baby boomers like me, it reminds us of the Halloween of my childhood, when the neighborhood became magical," says Bole-Becker. "It sort of feels that way. This really plain bungalow all of a sudden becomes this odd wonderland."


Source: Luanne Bole-Becker
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Dave Fleischer loves to draw. As a self-described “lifelong animator,” the creative director and president of Tiny Giant Studio has dreams of growing into a full-service animation production studio. And he’s using his passion to attract local talent to his company by hosting a speed-drawing class at Shaker LaunchHouse.
 
The class, held on Thursday nights, is designed to help potential animators hone their skills. Actors from the CWRU theater department silently act out a skit -- holding each pose for two minutes -- while participants sketch out the poses. The sketches are then transformed into an animatic skit using animation software.
 
“The more comfortable you are about drawing fast and not really caring about any one drawing, the better you will be as an animator,” explains Fleischer. “It’s a wonderful tool for building animation skills.”
 
While local animators sharpen their skills, Fleisher scouts out local talent. “Our goal is to grow in size as an animation studio,” he says. He currently runs Tiny Giant with five of his former Cleveland Institute of Art students. “The best way to grow talented people around you is by planting a seed and nurturing it. If I spot really talented people, they can freelance with us or, if they’re young, they can intern.”
 
About 15 people attended the first speed-drawing event held in October. Fleischer plans to continue to host the event twice a month.

 
Source: Dave Fleischer
Writer: Karin Connelly

Concord Music Group, a major independent music label that employs nine marketing staff in Northeast Ohio, recently moved to new offices in Beachwood. The company's new address is right across the street from its old one, yet it offers a few much-needed amenities, including a custom-built mastering studio and extra suites to accommodate future growth.

"Building the studio was quite a mountain to climb, but the landlord was willing to work with us to do the build-out," says Jason Linder of Concord. "It had to be acoustically treated so that the engineer could be sure that what he was hearing was true, and it had to be soundproofed from our offices."

Concord Music Group first came to Cleveland in 2005 after it bought Telarc Records, a company that was founded locally in 1977 as a successful purveyor of jazz, classical, blues and world music. Concord has continued that tradition, and its Cleveland staff market these genres.

Although Concord's local presence has actually shrunk in recent years, Linder remains hopeful about the music industry's future. He says it has seen modest growth this year thanks to new marketing strategies that are reaching tech-savvy consumers and a smaller number of new releases. Concord's new office is a sign that the firm is committed to maintaining a presence in Cleveland.

"Cleveland does not have very many record labels, but it's a very active music town," he says. "If you enjoy live music, there are so many venues and types of shows."

Linder is looking forward to the upcoming Grammy Awards, where he expects Concord artists to snag a few wins. He knows they probably won't top last year, however, when jazz artist Esperanza Spalding won Best New Artist.

"It was a huge deal to have a jazz artist win the award," Linder says. "Especially when she was competing against Justin Bieber."


Source: Jason Linder
Writer: Lee Chilcote

The I-X Center has launched plans to invest $25 to $30 million in renovations that will enhance its ability to host consumer mega-shows such as the Fabulous Food Show and International Beer Fest. Planned improvements include upgrading food and restroom facilities, adding a third lane to the main access road, and expanding the paved parking areas.

“Our goal is to grow attendance and become even more of a destination venue,” Robert Peterson, President of the I-X Center, said in a release. Peterson noted that the I-X Center has invested more than $75 million over the years.

The I-X Center, which was originally built as a B-29 Bomber plant and later became a tank plant, has become increasingly active in producing its own shows. One example is the Food Show, which draws visitors from as far as New York and Florida to see nationally renowned chefs, including Cleveland's own Michael Symon.

Other successful new shows include the International Beer Fest, Trick or Treat Street, and the Great Big Home and Garden Expo, which returns in February.

The construction of the Medical Mart and Convention Center in downtown Cleveland will only add to the region's ability to draw visitors and generate exciting events, Peterson said. The two facilities serve different market niches.

The I-X Center is one of the largest trade show and exhibition centers in the country, and employs nearly 1,000 people for its shows and events.


Source: Robert Peterson
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Jacobs Entertainment is pumping $70 million into the world-class Greater Cleveland Aquarium, which is set to open early next year and draw upwards of 480,000 annual visitors. The watery attraction will employ 40 people while generating an economic impact of roughly $27 million per year. But since this is Cleveland, where everything unfolds with a twist, the new aquarium will be housed in a very old building.