This past Wednesday evening, September 27th, Gloria and I had just returned from a long day in Columbus when we dropped by the Café Miami to kick back and introduce George to our friend Larry Fields. The Café Miami is located at 4517 State Road in Cleveland, near where Cypress runs into State, close to I-480. We got to know Larry during Gloria’s political career last year and we’ve kept on going there because it’s comfortable, and we always feel like we’re coming home. The décor is eclectic, to say the least, and it must be experienced—that’s all there is to it. The one thing constant about it is that it changes. Larry runs the restaurant to support his artistic enterprises, of which you’ll find out more in the podcast.
Larry Fields is a Cleveland native who has lived all over, had a family, owned and run businesses, and now is fulfilling his calling to be an artist. We talked about the whole left side of the menu of life, to include Shaw High School, Shaker Heights, his time in the service with the USAR (United States Army Reserve) 155th Light Maintenance Battalion, his formal-wear shop on Chagrin Boulevard, his sister as the pioneer of sculptured nails, their competitiveness, fish fries, rent parties in New York City, getting by, knowing neighbors and looking out for each other, then and now, Sandusky, his collaboration in Marie’s Restaurant on Superior, his eclectic collections at the Café Miami, PeeWee’s Playhouse, new media, the cliques of Cleveland, being 54, how the restaurant feeds his creativity, how “people give me inspiration,” the artistic or creative process, being totally open, his old Jackson Pollock profit centers in the West 6th warehouse district, digital photography as the new basis of his work, marketing yourself, “people make me do things,” how Miami goes on sheer talent, how Cleveland doesn’t and why the market’s not there, the Miami Convention Center and Lincoln Mall, Chris Butler of Cleveland and New Jersey, William Gibson of Seattle, the effects of having lots of European influence, thinking out of the box, censorship and the cutting edge, Pete Scimone and American Commodore Tuxedo, Sixth Street Under Jazz Club and the bar business downtown, Hilarities, authentic jazz in Cleveland, USA Today picking up on the jazz club before the PeeDee and running a huge spread, the West Coast knowing before locals were ever aware, the 1995-2000 concerts at the zoo, the role of theory and philosophy in culture and education, how so much depends on parents, his quiet home, how people seemed to be happier then and more in love, falling in love before falling into bed, ruinous credit, cellphone addiction, making the world smaller and not bigger, how change makes you excited, how reading is essential, being too small and too opinionated, weekday and weekend hours, which are, by the way, Monday through Friday 7 AM to 2 PM and Saturday and Sunday, 9 AM to 2 PM.
We delved on into wealth, social capital, how a business enables an artist to have supplies and a stable environment in which to work, creativity, how “life drags you into those arenas,” the flip side of artists, computers and computer literacy, “hackers not crackers,” David Byrne of Talking Heads fame, the Rhode Island School of Design and PowerPoint, the accidental side of the artistic process, the Katrina disaster, “How can you not take care of home first?”, asking the questions, Congress and perspective, how “life drags you around” and “you try to get an answer out of it.”
Part 1. Time: 9.35
Part 2. Time: 14.06
Part 3. Time: 16.02
Part 4. Time: 17.42
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