Playing Catch Up...Cleveland Police Auction, Mi Pueblo, Urban Exploration, Cranky's

Last Saturday, beautiful weather to go out and hang out all over the city.  I heard about the Cleveland Police auction so I got up early to check it out.  Can I tell you I had to take the most fucked up detour to get down to this thing since the bridge was out?  You normally would get down to West 3rd without an issue by hooking a left before the Carnegie Bridge.  Well, the bridge down that desolate industrial parkway is closed for repairs.  I had to take a 20 minute detour just to get down there.  I was "mother fucking" the whole way down there, and got lost twice.  The detour signs SUCKED.  When I got there I found out it was cash only.  It is doubtful I would have bought anything, but still I was willing to write a check.  I mean seriously who would give a bad check to the cops?  

The auction consisted of various junk, and a lot of it.  Broken lawnmowers, old computers, cameras, TV's, tools and bikes.  It was like a hillbilly garage sale for the most part.  I am sure some folks got some good deals, but it is total buyer beware.  You have no idea where this stuff came from, did it work, did it work well or is some drug dealer taking down your license plate number to come back and get his shit back.  The building itself is very nondescript.  I probably drove past it countless times not even knowing what it was.  Now I know never to mess with breaking in there at the very least.  

So as that was a bust I drove around the post industrial wasteland of the city and over to the flats.  There are tons of great places to take pictures if you are into the urban exploration sort of thing.  However the area was crawling with cops for whatever reason.  Without a lookout I was kind of limited to what I was able to pull off.  I have mentioned this in the past but some of my photo shoots are not necessarily 100% legal from a trespassing point of view.  I have been run off by cops in the past but from a safety perspective I don't like going into this buildings alone as you never know who or what you might run into inside of some of this creepy abandoned buildings.  For the most part I stuck to the main drags, railroad tracks and various bridges which are all in abundance in that area.  

After a couple hours cruising the desolate ruins of the once vibrant Flats area I had enough and headed over to pick up dinner for later in the night from Mi Pueblo.  As far as Mexican dining goes the restaurant is one of the best options in the Cleveland area.  The grocery store attached is wonderful for grabbing some takeout, fresh meats, guacamole and various other Mexican favorites.  They have wonderful to go tamales, pork or chicken at basically a buck a piece.  Well worth the $12 for the dozen.  The chicken ones are good but the pork are out of this world.  I picked up some seasoned skirt steak that awaits becoming a soup one of these days in my freezer.  Aside from the food they sell various other items including cds.  So I went through the cd rack, looking for the guys that looked the best in their coordinated suits and picked that one up.  No idea who they were, still couldn't tell you the name for them.  It is a wonderful cd though, don't get me wrong.  I just don't speak Spanish in the least.  

So after eating way too many tamales we headed over to Visible Voice Books over in Tremont to shoot the shit with the guys there and look for some reading material.  Visible Voice is a great local independent book shop.  It's small, they have a patio, and the serve wine.  I think that is something the chains can't offer.  They offer new releases, a section of used and a great local section.  It honestly is a great little pitstop or a lazy afternoon kind of place to hang out.  It's pretty quiet there but it really has a charm to it that makes it a hidden treasure in the area.  The house next door to it?  Well, that is another story completely.  Let's just say it kind of adds to the fun of the shop.  They are harmless but well I don't know what else to say about it.  Just go check it out for yourself.

We headed over to Cranky's Manatee, the former Matinee over on 25th to check out Afternoon Naps, Very Truly Yours, and Trouble Books.  Honestly I knew the Afternoon Naps, the others I had no clue.  The night started off with Akron's Trouble Books who were just a nice ambient kind of shoegazer indie rock 4 piece.  I really enjoyed their sound.  It was ust really different.  Hard to explain really, but worth checking out.  One thing I would have liked to see was a bit more harmonizing on the vocals from them.  They sounded great singing alone but when it came to backing vocals for each other it sounded a bit off.  Was it supposed to sound that way?  No idea, so no offense if that is what you are going for.  I still really enjoyed the sound of these guys and gals overall.

Next up was the 5 piece Very Truly Yours out of Chicago.  I dug these guys in that Yo La Tengo kind of way.  Just nice subdued indie rock.  By the time these cats were done the place was packed so for the most part we just listened to Afternoon Naps out on the patio.  It was a nice night for patio drinking.  A little chilly and the patio is so-so at this joint but we made due with what we had.  Cranky's isn't a bad little place honestly.  They have some old school video games to play, but they seem to have way too many shitty beers for my liking.  There were some decent choices too but tall boys of cheap crap were the crowd favorite.  They could stand a few more liquor choices too. I think you really need to cater to the crowd and their crowd appears to like large volumes of cheap beer.  They serve some sandwiches and wraps which I did not witness myself.  

The bar itself looks very nice, ample seating, long bar and a damn good bartender, who I suspect is the owner as well.  One guy being able to handle a packed house is a huge plus in my book.  Sound system had some hiccups, but I am sure that will work itself out in time.  They have a small area with a pool table, however it was blocked off with gear cases from the bands.  It was a Saturday, I know, but the 10:30 start on a 3 band bill was a little late for my liking.  One big "watch out" though.  Watch out for the first step going in.  It is poorly lit at the entrance and had I not looked I probably would have fallen on my ass.  A big plus is the parking.  They have their own lot which provides a lot of space.  They have a patio bar now that was not open when I was there.  Like many of the bars in the area there is that "funk" smell about it that will hit you in the nostrils from time to time especially in the downstairs bathrooms.  Honestly I hope this place does well as I think they are doing a lot of good for the local music scene.  It is new, there are some kinks to work out but I think they are moving in the right direction.