I Hate This (blog)

Circa 2004.

It has been nearly a decade since I began blogging. At that time I believed the exercise of keeping a regular online journal was a fad which would pass very quickly. Maybe I was right and I never noticed.

The I HATE THIS blog began when the show was tapped for the 2003 Minnesota Fringe Festival. There wasn't much to share apart from the festival itself ... I mean, if the blog was dedicated to the progress of the production of a very personal play about my experiences with stillbirth, then what else would be appropriate to put there? I tried adding articles of relevance, but those were few and far between.

There was the 2004 New York Fringe, Chicago in 2006 and Great Britain in 2007. It was all hit-and-miss, because by that point I had started other specialty blogs -- it was never my intention to blog about my daily life, my feelings, what events I was attending. Those things were mentioned, sure, but it's not what the blog was for.

The last activity for the I Hate This blog was the 2011 production at Cleveland Public Theatre. Last week I was a featured speaker at a bioethics grand rounds at the Cleveland Clinic, but I didn't feel I had anything to add to that blog about it. It's there for people who are searching for connection after a loss, it's easy enough to get in touch with me through that.

At present, there is this blog, which began as a research project on Cleveland history, and has become my default playwriting blog. Then there's Daddy Runs Fast, which is about running, about physical and mental health. And two blogs is enough for anyone.

Alhambra Theatre

The Alhambra was at 10403 Euclid at the corner East 105th Street. Built in just after the turn of the 20th century as a vaudeville house, legend has it the young Bob Hope was taken there by his parents when he was a boy. The young lad also hustled pool next door. In 1907 a church organ was installed, and they billed the place as "The House With the Organ." This was when the One-Oh-Five was called by some "Cleveland's Second Downtown."

As motion pictures took hold, the Alhambra became a movie palace. The place seated 1,100 in the mezzanine, with another 400 in the balcony.

The Hough and Glenville riots cemented the end of white Clevelanders relationship with the 105th Street district and it fell into steep economic decline. One black real estate developer, Winston E. Willis purchased a number of properties, opening small businesses to raise the level of opportunity in the neighborhood. However, the city took possession of property throughout the area by eminent domain to provide to the ever-expanding Cleveland Clinic.

1976

2011
Sources:
CinemaTreasures.org
Cleveland Historical.org
Cleveland Memory Project