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From The High Plains Wine Growers Association:

The first ever High Plains Winegrowers Wine Music Festival
will be held at the Mallet Event Center in Levelland on June 14 15. The Wine Music Festival includes wine
tastings, a trade show, wine appreciation classes, Texas Country Music, and
more.

Attendees will enjoy tasting Texas wines
from Texas Wineries as well as a Go-Texan food court promoting Texas grown and
Texas made foods. In addition to fine
Texas wines and foods there will be an IBCA sanctioned BBQ Cook-Off with $5,000
in cash prizes to be awarded; categories include ribs, chicken and brisket and
a jackpot category: beans.

The trade show will be held in the Expo
Hall of the Mallet Event Center. The
expo hall will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday and from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on
Saturday. Admission is free to the
public. The Expo features vendors from
ag machinery, vineyard supplies, wine making equipment, to men’s and women’s
fashions, landscaping and patio ideas, and much more.  There is truly something for everyone.

Wine appreciation classes will be held on
Saturday June 15. The first class, WINE 101, is a great introductory wine course that focuses on terms
and concepts, wine making, sensory components in wine and proper wine
evaluation. The second class, TEXAS vs THE WORLD TASTING, is a head-to-head
varietal comparison of wines made in Texas, by Texas grown fruit compared to
that same varietal in a wine from another world-class growing area. This
tasting is intended to be relaxed, social and fun; and a great way to
experience the great wines being made in Texas. Both classes are taught by
Executive Sommelier and GUSTO Tastings founder Daniel Kelada. Cost: $12 per session or $20 for both. (Typically these cost $50/person)

Entertainment at the event includes an
incredible lineup of Texas Country artists. Friday night gets started at 6:30 p.m. with entertainment from Mark
McKinney and is headlined by “The Outlaw” Charlie Robison. Mickey The Motor Cars and William Clark
Green will heat up Saturday night with performances from 6:30-11:30 p.m. Ticket prices range from $30-60 – please see
highplainswinegrowers.org for information and ticket purchases.

Most observers would agree that the words “iconic” and “architectural masterpiece” don’t belong in the same breath with Cleveland’s new convention center and Global Center for Health Innovation.

But that’s not to say the two interconnected buildings are a failure. Far from it.

The $465 million project, amazingly finished slightly under budget and three months ahead of schedule, has given Cleveland a new convention center and medically-focused exhibit hall that are big, smoothly functional, crisply organized and very easy to navigate.

The two buildings, which open officially tomorrow with a ribbon-cutting, followed by free public tours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, project a solid image of Cleveland as a city able to complete large projects in a timely, efficient manner. That’s a welcome change for a community with a historical reputation for dysfunction that’s fighting poverty and decline.

If managed well by MMPI Inc. of Chicago, the new buildings have a decent shot at attracting scores of conventions that will boost the city’s economy and justify the quarter cent increase in the county’s sales tax that financed the project.

In terms of aesthetics, the success is more muted – at least at this point. County Executive Ed Fitzgerald and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson announced last week that they plan to leverage $93 million collected from the sales tax — an amount higher than expected — to finance up to $350 million in additional projects that will enhance to convention and innovation centers.

Those additional elements would include a new, 650-room convention center hotel, and a walkway spanning railroad lines and the Shoreway to connect the convention center to lakefront attractions at North Coast Harbor.

A redesign of Public Square and landscape enhancements to the downtown Mall, which doubles as the green roof of the convention center, are also part of the package.

What happens next is critical to the overall design success of the project, and whether it wins public affection. Additional landscaping on the Mall, now essentially a series of Spartan grass rectangles, will be one of the major public benefits of the project.

For now, it’s highly unlikely for now that either of the new facilities will supplant landmarks such as Severance Hall, the Terminal Tower or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum as beloved symbols of a new Cleveland.

Yet there’s a good deal to admire about the two new buildings. That’s because they reflect compromises and tradeoffs navigated with an eye on a bigger prize: that of helping to complete without serious harm the city’s historic Group Plan District, laid out in 1903 by Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham.

Burnham, the progenitor of America’s City Beautiful movement in city planning, persuaded a half dozen American cities at the turn of the 20th century to bulldoze large portions of their downtowns to make way for clusters of government and civic buildings designed like ancient Greek and Roman classical temples.

The Group Plan District is one of the largest intact examples of the style, and is a national treasure. Its major elements include the three-block Mall, which is framed by Cleveland’s Public Library, City Hall and Board of Education Building, plus the Cuyahoga County Courthouse and the federal Courthouse and Post Office Building, now the Metzenbaum U.S. Courthouse.

In the latest round of construction, a design team led by LMN Architects of Seattle, working for Cuyahoga County and its private sector partner, MMPI Inc., of Chicago, inserted two gigantic structures in the heart of the Group Plan District without substantially changing it.

That’s amazing when you consider that the convention center encompasses a 20-bay truck dock, 230,000 square feet of exhibit space, more than 90,000 square feet of meeting rooms and a 32,000-square foot ballroom.

A collection of ingeniously-designed, back-of-house spaces connect a huge underground kitchen to the ballroom and all the meeting rooms.

Materials throughout the interior, from aluminum handrails and wall panels, to glassy balustrades and backlighted directional signs, look crisp, handsome, durable and high-quality.

Also impressive is the muscular engineering of the gigantic steel “column trees,” spaced 90 feet apart, that support the convention center’s roof. 

Yet it’s all virtually invisible from surrounding streets because the new center, like the older, outmoded city-owned facility it replaced, is almost entirely underground and largely invisible to anyone who isn’t actually using it. It’s located beneath the 12.5-acre, grass-covered roof forms that northern two thirds of the Mall.

At Lakeside Avenue, the green roof swoops up 27 feet higher than the sidewalk to reveal a glassy, 300-foot-wide convention center lobby with escalators leading down to the main exhibit floor below.

The lobby appears to erupt from underground, and it interrupts any sense of the Mall as a continuous park extending three blocks from Rockwell Avenue to the northernmost section overlooking Lake Erie. That’s somewhat of a loss for those who remember the Mall in its earlier state.

But to be fair, the insertion of a large exhibition hall beneath the middle section of the Mall in 1964 also elevated the surface of the park above surrounding streets, forever altering Burnham’s concept of a smooth, level space.

The virtue of the upward fold in the new convention center roof is that it creates as an artificial hill that could function as an outdoor amphitheater that offers spectacular new views of Lake Erie and the other sections of the Mall.

From its summit, you get a better sense than ever before of the Mall as a great public space framed by the original Group Plan buildings and the BP America and KeyCorp. skyscrapers, which also overlook the space. The effect is deeply stirring, not the least because it shows how generations of architects who came after Burnham have honored his core idea.

That’s certainly true of the four-story, 235,000 Global Center for Health Innovation, which rises west of the Mall between St. Clair and Lakeside Avenues. It’s a boxy, clunky-looking structure wrapped in an eccentrically patterned skin of precast concrete and glass, with a gigantic, four-story atrium winding facing east onto the Mall.

The building’s unusual window pattern is intended to evoke high-tech images of DNA sequences, but the reference is too subtle to communicate anything other than the idea that the center is a special place unlike downtown’s modern office towers, with their shiny, graph-paper window grids.

The building’s main virtue is that it frames the west side of the Mall in a manner similar to the large, neoclassical Public Auditorium Building on the east side of the space, which is also connected underground to the new convention center.

Like Public Auditorium, the innovation center appropriately plays a supporting role in a larger drama without trying to grab too much attention for itself.

This is not the kind of approach that wins global accolades for wildly original buildings that at best can serve as the logo for an entire city and at worst lead to broken budgets and financially shattered institutions.

But it’s the approach that made sense here. It has left a portion of downtown Cleveland substantially improved — and ready to get even better.

In 2010, Jackson appointed a new Group Plan Commission, comprised of civic and business leaders, to develop plans to enhance the basic landscaping of the Mall, and to find ways to fund the project.

They’re working with consultants from the non-profit Cleveland firm of LAND Studio and landscape architects from the Seattle firm of Gustasfson, Guthrie, Nichols to refine and complete those plans.

LAND Studio and the city’s Downtown Cleveland Alliance, another non-profit group, are working with the leading American landscape architect, James Corner, to develop plans for Public Square predicated on closing Ontario Street as it runs through the square to make it greener and more beautiful. Those plans are being coordinated with the designs for the Mall.

Taken as a whole, the developing ideas for the Mall and Public Square represent the biggest burst of attention to public space in the city in a generation. It has been motivated by the momentum created by the convention and innovation centers, and it’s terrific.

But it can’t stop there. Public space needs love, attention, money and ongoing maintenance. If you’re inviting the world to your doorstep, you had better pave it nicely, power-wash the winter salt, put out some flowers, add lighting, safety patrols and make it all come alive numerous outdoor events.

The successful completion of the convention and innovation centers seems to have triggered a new understanding that it’s never enough to sprinkle a city with great attractions. You have to weave them together with great streets and strong neighborhoods. If the new projects downtown truly ignite that spirit, they will have given the city far more than place to hold conventions.

GLENBURN, Maine — A local man is planning a motorcycle ride to raise money in hopes of building a permanent memorial to Nichole Cable in Glenburn.

Tim Munson, a longtime friend of Cable’s mother and stepfather, Kristine and Jason Wiley, is hoping several hundred motorcyclists will come out Saturday to honor the memory of the 15-year-old girl who was killed in May. Police have charged Kyle Dube, 20, with murder and kidnapping in connection with her death.

A temporary memorial has stood at the end of Spruce Lane, near where Cable had been living with the Wileys, since she disappeared on May 12. A week later, police found her body in Old Town.

“It’s spread through our community, it’s hurting all of us,” Munson said Thursday, explaining why he felt the community needs a way to keep Cable’s memory alive through a memorial.

The motorcycle convoy will depart from Glenburn School, 991 Hudson Road, at 10:30 a.m. The group will ride to Milo before turning onto the Argyle Road and heading toward Old Town. The procession will end at Old Town High School. Registration will be held from 8 a.m. to 10 or 10:30 a.m., according to Munson. There will be a $10 registration fee per motorcycle.

Munson said Kristine Wiley will ride with him on the lead bike.

Munson said he’d like the memorial to be located near the public beach at Lakeside Landing, and he is working with town officials to see whether that could be a potential site. He said he’ll look for a local landscaping company to design a memorial with a flower bed of some sort.

Any money raised in excess of what’s needed to complete a memorial will be donated to the Nichole Cable Memorial Fund, Munson said.

Wiley has said she will use her daughter’s memorial fund to spark education and outreach efforts. She is considering several ideas, such as self-defense lessons, seminars to teach parents and kids about online safety, or to support organizations such as the Shaw House or Spruce Run but details haven’t been finalized, she said Thursday.

Among the major holidays, Father’s Day ranks way up there at Casa Bogeyman.

The definitive list might go something like this:

1. Christmas

2. Birthday

3. Tax Refund Day

4. Father’s Day

5. Hug-A-Bear Day.

The last one comes each November and makes the Top 5 because we don’t have a bear, which officially takes ol’ Bogey off the hook for that day.

But to be sure, Father’s Day has a special place in the golf community as a whole and for a couple of reasons. First, it’s a sports activity a father and his kids actually can participate in together. And it usually isn’t very long before the kids get the best of it.

The other reason is more self-serving. Fact is, Father’s Day kind of sneaks up on most of us. To that end, golf provides the ultimate “get out of jail” card. When you are lost, out there without a gift-giving clue, look to golf for your salvation.

A lot of dad’s dig golf and they dig golf stuff. So to help out n these waning moments, here’s a few golf-related Father’s Day ideas for those playing catchup:

First Crack

Basically, there are two things fathers like to improve, one is their physical well being and the other is their golf game. Back Neck Care Center of Sunset Hills has a Father’s Day special of $49 for an introductory evaluation and treatment that might accomplish both.

Dr. Tobin Lingafelter has the rare qualities of being a chiropractor and teaching golf professional. He can help manage your pain, in either of those categories. Call 314- 842-8884 for the information.

Need The Eggs

The new Wilson Staff Duo golf balls recently were hot-listed by Golf Digest. It is the lowest compression (40) ball on the market and claims to be for players “who are seeking distance and accuracy.” There just might be a few dads that fit that description.

As a bonus, Wilson recently launched the high visibility yellow version of the ball, which looks good in landscaping if you put one near the clubhouse. In addition, you can have these golf balls personalized for good ol’ pops.

They go for $19.99 at Dick’s Sporting Good, Golf Discount, Pro Am Golf and other such stores.

Go big or go home

If you’re going for a “wow factor,” a golf trip to French Lick hits the hole. A 3 ½ hour drive from St. Louis, the resort in French Lick, Ind. is a hidden gem that features two top-notch hotels and three spectacular golf courses, including the Pete Dye Course, the Donald Ross Course and the new Sultan’s Run Golf Club.

The resort, which also has a casino, has a number of golf packages, including one for Father’s Day weekend. If I may be so old, excuse me, I mean bold, ol’ Bogey might suggest the “Double Play,” or a getaway for two.

The package includes overnight accommodations at French Lick Springs Hotel, a day of golf at The Donald Ross Course and a day on Sultan’s Run. The prices start at $239 per person, per room based on double occupancy. You can add an overnight stay and day of golf for an additional $150 per person.

Smartphone video holster

The MVP Sport Smartphone Video Holster captures your swing on video using your iPhone. You can shoot video and review instantly, upload to the internet, email, or watch on your computer screen.

It doesn’t get any better, no matter how you look at it.

This baby works works with your phone’s front and rear camera and shoots in portrait (vertical) and landscape (horizontal) mode. Bogeyman suggests vertical, it will make you look thinner.

The gadget sells for $16.95 at Golf Discount and other places.

Tom Watson’s Lessons of a Lifetime Instructional DVDs

A two-DVD set produced by the eight-time major championship winner, it provides 44 lessons averaging 4 minutes each of comprehensive instruction. In a recent survey – conducted by Tom Watson Productions – 93% of those polled said the DVDs improved their game. Another 78% said the DVDs were the best instruction program they had used.

Keep in mind, it wouldn’t take much to improve ol’ Bogey’s game. Pretty much any instruction might be beneficial, even directions from the parking lot.

But for $49.95, this has potential. A number of stores carry it, including Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Club Fitting

The big fella deserves a lot better than those 1979 Walter Hagens. There’s no better way to get dad up to speed than a proper club fitting. Almost all the golf outlets in town offer a driver fitting for less than $100. It gets a little pricier as you start going through the bag.

One suggestion is to call John Kelly. He was a club fitter before it became hip to be a club fitter, and has been recognized as one of “America’s Top 100 Club Fitters” by Golf Digest. Kelly handles almost all the manufacturers, and then some. He does club repairs, adjustments, etc.

For an appointment, you can reach John Kelly at (636) 349-1123 or jkelly@sunsethillsgolfcourse.net.

Drive for dough

TaylorMade essentially has taken over the equipment world. After all, when you can sell people on a white driver, which the company did last year, you can make it rain.

While white was right for a lot of people, the company is now introducing an all-black version of the R1 driver. It features the same technology contained in the original white R1, including 168 possible adjustment settings, a 12-way adjustable hosel and a sole plate that facilitates seven face angle adjustments. This thing might even make Julienne fries.

The black R1 costs the same as the white, $399, and should be arriving in various stores this week, in limited quantities.

Like a glove

SensoGlove is a golf glove with built-in sensors that constantly read grip pressure. Purportedly, practicing with it will teach you the correct grip pressure for a consistent swing, which of course leads to greater distance, accuracy, lower scores … you know the rest.

Light grip pressure is something that gets talked about a lot, but it’s tough to identify exactly what it is. For instance, the Bogeyman often asks his boss to get a grip on himself. Maybe this would help.

The glove goes for $59.99 on www.intheholegolf.com and can still be ordered in time for the Father’s Day.

Milton Canadian Champion

Colourful, eclectic and memorable easily define the works that are on display at the Milton Centre for the Arts Holcim Gallery this month.

Group of Twelve — Tuesday Painters who are members of Fine Arts Society of Milton (FASM) — have their works on display until June 23.

Years ago when FASM was in its infancy, some of the artists began a weekly paint-in. They wanted to provide mentoring for people who wanted to learn more as well as paint in company. That group became the Tuesday Painters who meet at Grace Anglican Church every week for painting time and a friendly lunch. They also help each other regularly by exchanging ideas and critiques.

“I defy anyone to go over there (Holcim Gallery) and not find something they like,” said Neil McCormick, show organizer, who has five works on display. “I’m pleased with the outcome…there’s some abstract, some landscaping, some street scenes – a really eclectic selection.”

The show features artwork by: Shirley Dills, Suzanne Garceau, Cristina Garza, Joan Hatten, Merv Kaye, Helen Lennon, McCormick, Janice McDermott, Roisin Nelson, Jean Rivers, Donna Sanderson and Diane Will.

“I think we all share a love of what we are doing,” McCormick said. “The artists come from all over — Guelph, Georgetown, Burlington, Port Credit and of course Milton.”

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Coun Rebecca Blake is consulting residents about the Edward Street area. Picture by Marcus Mingins 2413013MMR

RESIDENTS are being urged to have their say on how they want a run down area of Redditch Town centre to be transformed.

Rebecca Blake, Labour’s Parliamentary spokeswoman for Redditch, has decided to kick-off the debate about the area around the railway station amidst rumours developers and supermarket giant Asda are looking at the site.

She is hosting a survey on her website to encourage residents and businesses to give their views on what should happen in the area.

Ms Blake said she decided to act after a number of people contacted her with concerns.

“The train station is a gateway to our town. Despite many recent improvements in the area, including the pedestrian access, landscaping and artwork more needs to be done,” she said.

“I am sick of the sight of the derelict buildings next to the station, on Bromsgrove Road and Edward Street.

“They give a negative image of our town and what’s more some of these factories are part of our industrial heritage, yet have become a complete eyesore. Last week we hosted the national bike tour and this is not how we want to greet our visitors.

“For all of my life, many of these buildings have been in disrepair and this has been allowed to continue for far too long.”

The Edward Street site, which contains the derelict Abel Morrall and later Clive Works needlemaking building, has long been identified for redevelopment. It is currently classified as a strategic site suitable for any town centre use ranging from offices, retail, leisure and residential.

The land has also been identified as a priority project in the Town Centre Strategy.

Residents’ views will be passed on to Redditch Borough Council for consideration in developing planning policy.

To complete the survey visit www.rebecca-blake.org.uk/survey or for a printed copy call 07529 964 840. Surveys should be submitted by 5pm on July 11.

When asked about the rumours Oliver Jones, communications manager for ASDA, said: “While our customers tell us they’d love to see ASDA’s famous low prices in Redditch, we don’t have any concrete plans at the moment.”

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RAYMOND — A free guided garden tour with horticulturist Tom Heyer will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 15, through the private gardens at Garden of Eder Nursery, 5300 Highway K.

The property features a waterfall and many full-grown rare and special trees. The tour is suggested for conifer lovers or anyone looking for gardening/landscaping ideas.

A scavenger hunt will be held be held at 11 a.m. and free hot dogs will be given away.

Weeks after parts of Lincolnshire flooded following heavy rains, village officials want local residents to help them develop a prevention and response plan for the future.

Organizers especially want to hear from people who experienced flooding at their homes, whether it was due to water accumulating in their backyards or the Des Plaines River or a local creek overflowing its banks.

“We want to find out from everyone what they think we did right, what they think we did wrong and what they think we can do different,” Mayor Brett Blomberg said.

An inaugural meeting is set for 7 p.m. June 20 at village hall, 1 Olde Half Day Road. The meeting will be open to any Lincolnshire residents or business owners, as will any future gatherings.

The goal is to develop a flood hazard mitigation plan. The team will identify steps that can be taken to prevent flood damage and ways to improve safety during a natural disaster, officials said.

Blomberg is particularly interested in landscaping ideas that can help people keep their homes dry, such as adding bushes or berms.

“You’re building a mini levee around your home (with a berm),” Blomberg said.

Such steps could reduce the need for emergency sandbagging, too, he said.

As part of the undertaking, village officials will consider landscaping changes on town property, Blomberg said.

A public information program also will be developed. That effort will be designed to better inform people about the steps they need to take to protect themselves before, during and after a flood.

A flood insurance promotion strategy will be developed, too, officials said.

Village officials are not considering buying homes in flood-prone areas, as has happened in other communities along the Des Plaines River.

“We’re nowhere near that,” Blomberg said.

For more information and updates, visit village.lincolnshire.il.us.