Tisha Nemeth: I'm noticing an alarming trend in Cleveland: lack of risk taking. I understand there are losses involved in taking this perspective, but living this way also has its own compensations. The immediate need in this area involves publication risks, since very few media outlets are taking up the challenge. I'd rather see writing that breaks every rule, which fits into one of my favorite sayings - "no risk, no reward." I'm examining the risks of writing on your own terms; it's more natural to write for yourself instead of the masses, but when we put out articles that are thought provoking or analytical, it may appeal to me, but that doesn't mean it's easily received by audiences....

Deb Remington: There are risk takers in Cleveland - they're the ones who defy convention and then usually get driven out of town! I'm discovering a few subcultures operating under the radar, because that is the only place they can remain true to themselves in their work or art without having to deal with all hassle that mainstream society throws at them. Perhaps that's why Cleveland is at a stand still? Provincial thinking has dramatically slowed down the creative process; if you examine history, you'll find that the artists, inventors, philosophers, etc. pushed the envelope and defied conventional wisdom...they are the ones who have made a significant impact on our lives.

TN: Historically speaking, it's been the risk takers who affect society to the tipping point where it alters culture. Look at writer and libertine Percy Shelley, who had a greater impact on society because he lived and wrote on his own terms; he explored revolutionary thinking and ways of living that clashed with the mainstream sensibilities of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. His risk taking was so influential that 180 years after his death, he's still got audiences reading (and reeling) as a result from his non-conformist ideologies. You've got 20th century writers, such as Walt Whitman, on his death bed asking Robert Lowell, "Was I as good a poet as Shelley?" Percy Bysshe Shelley's intellectual achievements were heightened by his abandonment of conventions and traditions, which delivered a significant payoff in the literary arena. Not taking risks professionally (or personally) is the real risk. We've made efforts to integrate into CC a risk taking mentality from the beginning, because we've seen how predictable ways of thinking, writing and working dilute the true potential of society; living the risk by expressing it through art, work and creative thought is what defines our culture and enables it to rise above the mediocrity of those who shy away from breaking the rules. My recommendation: Work and live to satisfy yourself, not others, take risks frequently, and while you're at it, break some rules along the way...

DR: Cleveland has a way of latching onto the predictable and taking on the course of the norm, it's a stubbornly dominate theme whether it's in the media's lame content they feed to audiences, or in our community at large, and it's slowing our region's creative growth. It directly affects how Cleveland operates and how it is perceived by others who live outside of Cleveland...

TN: Steering off the course of the norm is a personal and professional choice (and I highly recommend it); going against the norm is normal for us, we're disrupting the media and its backwards publication standards. We've been running for almost two years without advertising dictating our content, which is fairly risky when it comes to taking creative energy and communicating it on our own terms. You could say we are attracted to unexpected topics, if only to take readers out of their comfort zone and place them on a level of thinking that enlarges their mind. In this way, we want to change everything about Cleveland, and be positive while we're doing it. This doesn't happen within the standards of sanitized "journalism," which is no where near our publication policies; our desire is not to fit in with how everyone in Cleveland (or anywhere else) does publication/journalism. We're a collective of unsanitized, immediate ideas and raw responses; it's a whole world away from traditional media environments. I guess you could say we are breaking every rule.

DR: Are you sure you're through? Speaking of journalism, I'm amazed to learn that a large local, traditional print media feels the need to threaten advertisers not to support alternative media (and you know who you are). If that type of acknowledgement means that we at CC are making an impact on the Cleveland readership, I guess we're doing what we set out to do.

TN: Well, you know how I feel about that...it encourages me to put out more incredibly off-beat writing and hardcore content that is the polar opposite type of content generated from the wonderfully mainstream and powerfully lame newspapers we've got in town.

DR: So let's move on...I want to discuss why there are so many business/educational groups in Cleveland that "dissect" the community through studies and research, and then worry about political posturing? What's wrong with taking action instead of talking and endless meetings? When are business and political groups going to start DOING something beyond having meetings?

TN: There's always the "paralysis of analysis" thing going on; businesses and especially those working within academia often are not confident enough to follow through with creating new programs without spending an obscene amount of money and time to "prove" that their ideas can work...perhaps they're just academically challenged...hence the necessity for an infinite amount of meetings, and a fear of developing new ideas because new endeavors are tantamount to mounting risks...

DR: Risk taking again! Why are people so afraid of failure? Sometimes great ideas, inventions and programs come from failing. We don't allow anyone to take risks any more: children, teachers, businesses - it'd be great to see them operate more like artists. When artists are involved in the creative process, they don't even think of failure, they continue the process, moving away from the piece and examining it from all different perspectives until they have completed the piece, and then they may come back to it later and change it some more. The creative process is always evolving - never finished - but never considered a failure. Failure is only possible when one stops considering the possibilities. And may I add, standing still and remaining the same is not moving forward, it is actually moving backward.

TN: I just love dangerous topics...

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