'The Mouthwatering Taste of Success' by Brendan Whitt

Ethan and Indians Co-owner Paul Dolan

Anyone who has ever been successful in anything had to have one key character trait, perseverance. Whether it’s LeBron going to the gym before most of us have hit snooze, Jay-Z knowing that a drug dealer could become an all time great rap artist and business mogul or President Obama fighting his way to the White House as a black man. Perseverance will always get us through the rough and uncertain patches in life.

When I first heard of Ethan Holmes and his story I was inspired. I saw a guy who looks like me, is from my city and was on his way to the top. Ethan has always had a passion for business. He and a friend had a lemonade stand as children which they later made mobile and he even sold chocolate bars to classmates at Shaker Heights High School.

Then at 15 the idea hit him. “Why not start an applesauce company?” he thought. The market wasn’t saturated and he didn’t like the taste of Motts and other brand’s applesauces. “They’re flavors were just sugary and bland” he said. Ethan had been inspired by businessman Farrah Gray’s Book ‘Reallionaire’ given to him by his godmother.

“I never read a lot but his book just sparked my interest,” Ethan said. “He did it right.” Gray had made over a million dollars by the age of 14 after starting his own food related business. Ethan knew he had the hustle, he just needed a little push. After never fully committing to his dream Ethan finally found the moment to take his business seriously in 2014.

“I was working in Hiram’s cafeteria making sandwiches where I was making about $8.75 an hour and saving up for a clunker.” Ethan had stacked his checks and had over $1,000 saved up for his future bucket. It was then when his girlfriend Janae pushed him to finally take his applesauce business seriously. He started off by making applesauce in his kitchen and struggling to get vendors to put his product on their shelves. “There’s beauty in the struggle” he said.

Every year the Counsel of Small Enterprises, or COSE, hosts a competition where small business owners vie for the chance to gain additional resources for their businesses. “I applied every year for about three or four straight years and got denied every time. They didn't take us seriously.” Ethan’s company failed to even reach the first round. In March of this year Holmes Mouthwatering Applesauce took home first prize and $20,000.

Holmes Mouthwatering logo

There surely was beauty in his struggle as Holmes Mouthwatering Applesauce has grown into a budding success. Their applesauce is available in original and cinnamon and is now sold in over 60 locations in Ohio and Illinois in stores like Heinen’s, Zagara’s, and Giant Eagle. Ethan and his company are also looking forward to having their applesauce sold in Whole Foods and Marcs.

While his business success is surely something to be admired, it’s the personal sincerity that he injects into his company and brand. Unlike Mott’s and those other “sugary and bland” tasting applesauces, Holmes Mouthwatering cares about their consumers. Each 16 oz. jar is made from all natural products and  contains only 6g of sugar and 40 calories. Ethan has also made the conscious decision to donate 10% of all proceeds to fighting childhood obesity.  Ethan and his company are also looking to have their applesauce distributed in Columbus schools.

But it all isn’t peaches and cream or Apples and cider (dum dum tshhh).Even though he’s had success there are still struggles that plague him. Ethan says the hardest part about running a business isn’t managing product but managing people. “I was banned from hosting demos at Heinen’s for a while because people would leave early or not clean up properly.”

Holmes Mouthwatering summer interns

During this past summer Ethan worked with local Black and Hispanic teens. They learned about small business models where Ethan had them create their own mock Lemonade stands. He taught them necessary business management skills while they volunteered in his space at the Cleveland Culinary Launch and Kitchen. His time with the teens has inspired him to start his own non-profit called the Young Entrepreneur Initiative. Ethan also spends time as a consultant with the Cleveland State Small Business Development Center in Cleveland Heights.

Ethan wants to especially thank his girlfriend Janae for all of her love and support. He knows that his company can grow into a national and even global brand over the next five to ten years.
No matter how you dress it up Ethan has won and looks to continue to keep winning. He’s confident but not cocky, easy going but a go getter and stays busy. He’s just a normal guy with a bunch of apples and a plan.

Feel free to visit their site: http://holmesapplesauce.com/

Blought # 12: Don't be so Insensitive Bro

Social media has become a staple of our everyday lives. Just like we brush our teeth, put gas in our cars and go grocery shopping we have to stay connected.

We update our status, post photos and share videos or links that we find interesting or entertaining with others. Social media is a place where we humans now congregate for networking, promotion or just to tell our family member in California "I love you" (Hey Jacob!).

Sadly the social media world, much like the real world, is a place where ignorance and insensitivity is prevalent. The opposition of removing the Confederate flag this past July reminded us all that racism is still very much alive. If those guys won I'd probably be a slave somewhere in Alabama making smart phones or laptops, who knows?


The main point to be made is this. Just like a person would hold their tongue in public (racists, homophobes, etc.) they should also do the same on social media. Now if your page or profile is private and the only people viewing your status updates are like minded individuals then spew all of the hate that you very well please. But if you comment on a public post about a touchy subject shut it!

We understand the 1st amendment. Sometimes it's best to keep your views to yourself (Ben Carson). Conservative middle white America, you aren't slick. 

Any adult with half of a functional brain can see the subtle racism in your Facebook comments. You live in communities where the demographics say "95.7% White or Caucasian" and your children know little to nothing about life outside of the social shell you have placed them in. 

On top of all of that you pass down your prejudiced and lopsided views grooming a future hateful white middle American conservative. You’re the oil at that won't mix with the water in the faux American melting pot.

The story about NFL referee Ed Houchli allegedly refusing to give Carolina Panther's quarterback Cam Newton a call because he wasn't "old enough" has sparked debate for various reasons. Being an avid sports fan since I was four I know this kind of thing happens all of the time. 

My problem was all of the comments from people who look like Houchli downing Cam who looks like me. They called Cam a bum and a crybaby who should man up. Well Cam went 20/31 passing, 315 yards and three total TD’s this Sunday.

Sounds a lot like the sentiments shared when Mike Brown and Eric Garner were killed. Comments like "listen to the cops and you won't get shot". Coming from a white boy in a camouflage hat from Georgia sounds like subtle 21st century racism to me. 

A former history teacher of mine, Aimee Grabski, made a comment on Facebook unrelated to this blought but I think they can correlate.

"Monday rant: When you're having an online 'discussion' about an important issue and someone comes along and says that the whole thing should be deleted because 'some people have nothing better to do than fight online.'... 

Sorry, but there are some things that are worth discussing, worth educating people about, worth trying to get people to change their views. Lives have already been lost because of the intolerance of others and any time you think you can change one person's opinion, it's worth it."

Close mindedness to me is a form of insensitivity. You refuse to hear the other side and understand it. You don't have to change like Aimee alluded to, but at least try to understand the other side. 

My comments on the Cam Newton story ruffled feathers and I know the people who replied are probably subtle racists. I didn't read anyone's comments in opposition of my point bacause I knew they wouldn't understand where I was coming from.

And a bit of advice, know your audience and act accordingly.

Blought #11: The Evolution of Cartoon Network

Boy were the 90’s a time to behold. Just like the forty something to be generation did with their nostalgia of the 80’s, us millenials are doing the same with the 90’s. He-Man, GI Joe and Jelly bracelets are now artifacts worthy enough of enshrinement in the Smithsonian.

For me the 90’s was WWF, action figures and occasionally a little elementary school thrown in there somewhere. One of my favorite past times as a child was watching cartoons. A hobby of mine I am still active in today. Back when Adelphia was the go to cable provider for the Cleveland area their channel selection was somewhat limited. They did however carry the kiddie essentials of the time which were Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel (I've never regularly watched the latter).

During the summer of 1997 I spent eight weeks in Dayton, Ohio with my grandparents. I don’t remember their cable provider at the time but what I do remember is the first time I saw Cartoon Network. For those of you who don’t remember Cartoon Network’s programming in the early and mid 90’s was pretty much Boomerang’s programming in the 2000’s. I would spend hours watching shows like Swat Kats, 2 Stupid Dogs and old Hanna Barbera reruns.

The stars of Cartoon Cartoon Fridays

It was also around that time that Cartoon Network would launch probably the best cartoon block in American television history, Cartoon Cartoon Fridays. Friday was the day you sat down in front of the TV and watched premieres of shows like Power Puff Girls, Johnny Bravo, Dexter’s Lab and Ed, Edd n Eddy. It was a great time for Cartoon Network.

Cartoon Network flourished during this time, Dexter’s Lab garnered three Primetime Emmy nominations three straight years from ‘96-‘98 and The Powerpuff Girls earned five nominations from ‘99-’01 and again in 2005 winning twice for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 2000 and 2005.
Several shows including Dexter’s Lab and Power Puff Girls were nominated for and won Annie Awards, the highest award in the field of animation. The shows were imaginative and fun to watch as a child. I can watch Dexter and PPG to this day.

Of course the good times didn’t last. As the 2000’s (which in my opinion is the worst decade ever) rolled in and so did the trash that hampered and hurt Cartoon Network. ‘Sheep In the Big City’ was a show that never really found it’s legs. The humor was too advanced for child viewers like myself at the time and the jokes just weren’t that funny. You can barely find it online these days. ‘Time Squad’ had a great concept but failed to deliver and ‘What Ever Happened to Robot Jones’ was, well I don’t want to talk about that train wreck.

By the time I got to high school Cartoon Network’s programming was dead. Chowder and Ben 10 were the only new cartoons I could enjoy and the live action programming was pretty terrible. Today Cartoon Network has revamped it’s look and approach. Cartoon Cartoon Fridays sadly ended in 2007.


One thing that upsets me is my peers who call the new lineup trash or say it just isn’t very good. Well here’s my take. It takes a special
kind of adult to thoroughly enjoy cartoons. You have to have an imaginative and a have a pretty diverse sense of humor (only enjoying Jon Stewart and the Onion is not a diverse sense of humor). Most adults lose their imagination in their 20’s when life gives us that first backhand of reality.

Cartoon Network's current logo

For me a grown ass 24 year old kid, I LOVE cartoons more than most live action shows. The new cartoon line up features Emmy winner ‘The Regular Show’, Annie winner ‘The Amazing World of Gumball’, Emmy and Annie nominee ‘Steven Universe’ as well as the beloved and Creative Arts Emmy nominee (and one of my personal favorites) ‘Clarence’.

All of the above mentioned are smarter than the shows I watched as a youth with the exception at of ‘Dexter’s Lab’. The humor is adult but still childish enough that a parent should feel safe allowing their children to watch. If you really want to be progressive watch the ‘Clarence’ episode ‘Jeff Wins’ where it is reveled that the character Jeff has lesbian mothers.

Today’s Cartoon Network lineup is progressive, beautifully animated and critcally acclaimed. From humble beginnings in 1992 to the esteemed past and current lineups, Cartoon Network to me is the golden standard of children’s animated programming for past, present and future generations.

Blought #10: 'Young Langston Arrives'

The name 'Young Langston' to me means creativity and legacy. It's a Cleveland brand of a legenday name and future representation.

This new banner is the perfect way for me to describe my writing. The black is simple while the font style shows the natural flow a writer feels while writing.

I don't want to be him, I'm me. But I can use him as a template for my digital reincarnation of what I believe is Cleveland Literature.

"Crows on the Line" Photo by Daivon Shepherd

‘When the Crows Come Home’ is a collection of my thoughts of the hood from a more humble and grown up Brendan.  The book opens with the line “There will always be blood on the leaves as long as there are crows in the trees". This was a play on the lyrics of Billie Holiday’s 1939 song titled ‘Strange Fruit‘.

The song was originally a poem written by a teacher by the name of Abel Meeropol. The poem was published in 1937 during the era of Jim Crowe when the lynching of African Americans was a regular occurrence especially in the southern states.

As I finished the short collection I struggled to find inspiration for a cover. Almost naturally I thought of finding a picture of an actual crow. I never liked that idea and decided to ask a child hood friend of mine to help me find an inspiration. Then my vision became realized.


My friend and photographer Daivon Shepherd had taken some photos earlier that morning. When he came by later that day he showed me several photos that were stunning to say the least. There was one particular photo of  a deer standing in front of the brick frame of an old and decayed three story apartment building located in an abandoned area of East Cleveland. The building was covered in vines and looked like the set of  an episode from AMC‘s ‘The Walking Dead’.

I was in awe as he continued to flip through all of his pictures until I saw the one of several pairs of sneakers thrown up on power line. The symbolism of the image was obvious to me. In urban America throwing a pair of sneakers onto a power line is a symbol of remembrance. The shoes usually belong to a deceased member of the community commonly caused by black on black violence.

The ideas are related to the sentiments that the effects of Jim Crowe have created the societal factors symbolized by the many themes explored in ‘When the Crows Come Home’.

Strange fruit in the trees as described by Abel Meeropol are black men or crows in my case. The blood on the leaves is from the crow. The tree symbolizes all of the societal traps the hood can ‘hang’ a crow by. As long as the crows are in the trees there will continue to be blood on the leaves. And in remembrance of the fallen crow his shoes are tossed onto a power line.

Blought #9: 'Damn, Shit Done Changed'

A bout a week back I ran across a meme on Facebook that had Biggie sitting down in a chair with his head leaning up against his arm. Biggies natural sleepy expression was used to convey the message of the meme that said something to the tune of “How it feels listening to Hip-Hop today”. I classify myself as a lover of various forms of Hip-Hop. I can listen Rick Ross, Common, Pharcyde, Lil B (yes, the Based God entertains me), Joey BadA$$, Mac Miller and just about any other major or underground rapper out there. Hell even G Eazy has a song I enjoy.

For some reason some faux black elitist crowd has begun to surface around social media over the past few years. They disregard the most current urban of Hip-Hop like Rick Ross and Lil Wayne and call it trash. What they fail to realize is that Hip-Hop is entertainment.


My comments on the photo were as follows:

“This right here, bullshit. Old heads piss me off hatin on present day rap. If you don't like it don't listen. New music isn't suited for you. Its for the 13 to 21 demo who actually drives the market. A true lover of Hip-Hop love it all from Kool Moe Dee to Weezy F to Drake to even Lil B. If you a old head STFU and keep bumpin Del or L or whoever. Hip-Hop don't grow up but people do. Let the youngins enjoy the Nae Nae. Just cause you reminisce over Yo! MTV Raps and the baggy ass pants doesn't give you the right to hate on the younger generation. Cause the same niggas you hail is the same askin the new cats for a beat or feature cause they style got played. Love the art and culture, not just a time period.”

My older cousin Vern dropped a rather lengthy comment in response to my conversation with a Facebook friend over the matter. I consider Vern the Dr. Dre to my Eminem when it comes to my taste in Hip-Hop. The bond we shared over early Kanye, who is Vern’s age, gave me an understanding of the art, culture and history behind this beautiful black art form. His comments were as follows:

“There is an interlude on the beginning of 'Things Fall Apart" (I believe), where a dude talks about black music, and Hip hop being sold as a disposable product to the masses, and not consumed like a product that has staying power, or art that lasts. I feel a lot of current music fits that description. Hip-Hop seems to do this more so than any other genre. I listen to hella new artists if they can pass my test of quality, lyricism and beats. Many of which Brendan has put me on to.

So I truly do love when a Joey BadA$$, or Underachievers, or Alex Wiley, or Chance, or Mac Miller does his/her thing. I love the way some of these youngins' are doin new shit while giving a nod to old heads like me. I also love me some Drake, and a few other mainstreamers on certain tracks as well depending on my mood. Mainly because I was a teenager during the mid 90s when lyrical and more musically complex hip-hop took off, that's what I tend to and tend to gravitate towards so I still enjoy goin' to Raekwon, Souls, & Del shows.

But back to my first point about the quote on the Roots album. I feel as though hip hop is pushed out in such a high volume today that it is not given a chance to be consumed like 'art' or quality product just like so much other music today. It seems like it's all about "What's hot now" or for the next 3 weeks before whoever drops next. Drake's 'Back2Back' was some of the coldest diss bars I've heard in a while. In a month, people won't speak of it again.

Not to get all 'Phonte-on-A-Rap-Bulletin-board' but back in the 90s you wouldn't bat an eyelash if your favorite crew or rapper took 2-4 years to drop their next joint. Once you would get it you'd bask in that release and listen and memorize, accordingly. Now I know itunes, Spotify and digital distribution has changed the way we listen to music, but when cats are putting out so much music at such a high rate it becomes disposable.

People don't have to cherish it anymore because something new is going to come out soon. To paraphrase Jimmy Iovine, "The game was changed when CDs allowed you to put 80 minutes of music onto one disc. NO ONE has 80 minutes of good music in one span of time..'. When I first started following Hieroglyphics, I listened to and memorized every bar of '93 til Infinity, because that was all I had growin' up in Cleveland Heights. Four years later when I stumbled upon a used copy of Del's 'No Need for Alarm' It was like I was Kim Jong Un finding some Yellow Cake Uranium. It was literally treasure.

Now that we can have whatever we want when we want it, music is simply different. Sadly Hip-Hop seems to be the most affected. I will never trash Hip-Hop over all. And I have never said or felt like it's "dead". It is evolving and must evolve to survive. We can't only say it's only "young music", because then it's relevance will surely die just as people age. If there's whack shit out there I just don't listen. But I know there's a place for it. All of it fits into the ecosystem. Plus without whack rappers, there'd be nothing for the Beasts to feast on.”

Let me wipe my eyes. That was fucking beautiful. *Sniff Sniff*

Somewhere between the monopolization of the music industry and the commercializing of Hip-Hop, the culture grew exponentially as the music began to lag behind. Now every rapper sees himself as an entrepreneur versus an artist. J. Cole gets so much love because he’s extremely passionate about his craft versus getting a shoe deal or big brand endorsement. There’s nothing wrong with running that knot up but like the Beastie Boys said, “Too many rappers and still not enough emcee’s.”

Black Skateboarders Pur Ohio on the Map by Brendan Whitt (Courtesy of Call & Post Cleveland)

Local Clothing Designer's art goes from 'Lame" to Fame by Brendan Whitt (Courtesy of Call & Post Cleveland)

'Papers' from 'When the Crows Come Home'

When the crows come home
We get high my nigga

When the crows come home
We drink dark French liquor

When the crows come home
It’s like fam got back together

When the crows come home
My heart feels better

When the crwos come home home
Lil niggas got they pops

When the crows come home
We need a red carpet for the block

'Gotta Do Better' from 'When the Crows Come Home'

You shouldn't yell" free my nigga"
Instead we should be promotin "teach my nigga"
Take yo son hand
And not a key my nigga
Now we wearin orange jumpsuits
Cause the lick was sweet my nigga
I understand the man don't like us niggas
But why we gotta keep addin to the problem
Cause then we gon keep bein niggas