Pittsburgh, PA

This summer in the parks around Pittsburgh, Comcast is showing free movies outside. I have not attended one yet so I have no idea how this will work. I can just imagine that there are people everywhere and it’s hard to see or hear the movie. But you never know, it could really turn out to be something nice and it’s free so it’s not like you losing out on the deal.

Here is the description found on Pittsburgh’s website:

“Stretch out on your blanket during a warm summer evening and enjoy some great movies at “Comcast Cinema in the Park” series. This year’s line up includes Charlotte’s Web, Lady in the Water, Pursuit of Happyness and many more movies sure to please everyone in the family.”

You can also find the schedule and a list of the parks on the site too. Some of the movies they will be showing don’t look that bad, so I might have to check this thing out one night. I might get lucky and Comcast will be there that night, with free popcorn!

parks, pittsburgh, Schenley Park, Riverview Park, Grandview Park, Arsenal Park, Brookline Memorial Park, East Liberty or West End Overlook, free movies, popcorn, Cinema in the Park

This past Monday, Pittsburgh’s graffiti task force set up a panel discussion on what to do about the increasing annoyance of graffiti in the South Side area. The task force is getting more attention after they arrested MFONE a couple of months ago, whom because of their arrest, is facing up to $500,000 worth of damages. They, as well as other Pittsburghers, feel that his arrest will set a precedent for graffiti artists that are caught and will help to deter the crime in the first place.

Yeah right.

I don’t really want to get into why I used to wish these kinds of arrests happened more often, but I will say that my opinion has changed. As soon as I stopped being the girlfriend of one, I started to see it as less of a problem; at least in my life. I didn’t have to worry about him getting arrested or hurt anymore and no one was personally tagging my property, so no worries for me.

Now, I can see how it effects other people…mostly residents who are sick of having their property destroyed. However, my problem isn’t with all of the graffiti artists, it’s just with the really crappy ones. The good ones add something to a building or a sign or whatever; the bad ones make everything look worse than it already is. Yuck.

Now I’m not advocating doing this at all, because of course I like to stay out of jail, but I thought this was a good idea for some:

Go to Design Crack’s website for more details on what to do with the report card.

If you want to check out the original article that inspired this post, go to the Trib’s website here.

graffiti, South Side, Pittsburgh, report card, art, street art

Creative TreeHouse, a new facility that’s both a community for Pittsburgh-area artists and a creative resource for local businesses, is hosting an open house on Saturday, June 30th to celebrate its official opening. The evening will commence at 6pm at 517 Lincoln Blvd., 2nd floor in Bellevue and will include live painting, music, photography, poetry, podcasts, and a gallery show of current TreeHouse members’ artwork, much of which will be available for purchase. The open house is completely FREE to attend and food and beverages will be provided.

What: Open House featuring live painting, music, photography, poetry, podcasts, and a gallery show, free food and beverages provided. BYOB.
Where: Creative TreeHouse, 517 Lincoln Blvd., 2nd floor, Bellevue, PA 15202
When: Saturday, June 30th, starting at 6pm
Cost: FREE to attend, artwork for sale and donations accepted

For more details about the open house and more information about the Creative TreeHouse go to www.CreativeTreeHousePgh.com.

pittsburgh, open house, creative treehouse, live art, music, bellevue, art show, photography, poetry, podcasts, gallery show, free food

No, not at the same place!
For my fellow imported beer lovers, the Sharp Edge is hosting a Great European Beerfest this weekend at their Friendship location. The fest takes place in sessions, with today’s going on from 3-6pm and 7-10pm and then on Sunday, a session from 2-5pm. There will be over 101 European and Belgium beers, so that’s exciting.

The price is the only thing keeping me from going though…$40 for admission, which does not say that includes alcohol and if it doesn’t, I can’t imagine justifying that price just to drink in a parking lot. It would be nice trying all of the beers, but I could do that in the bar itself. Speaking of which, I met someone last weekend who is interested in going to these kinds of places with me, so yay. Further reviews of relevant places should follow.

Sharp Edge’s website.

If the European Beefest isn’t in your budget, then the I Made It! Sunday Market sure is since it’s free.

It’s a crafts show that features the works of 60 different artists with a wide variety of crafts and projects for sale. It starts at 12, ends at 5 and takes place outside of the big church that FLUX was held at in Braddock a couple of months ago.

For google mappers, it’s at 416 Library Street, Braddock Pa and if you know how to get to the Edgewood/Swissvale area you should be fine.

Here’s the flyer they made:

For further details, make sure you check out their Myspace. I will be there before my frisbee game…can’t wait!

Sharp Edge, beer, Belgium, European, imports, Beerfest, Pittsburgh, Friendship, crafts, I Made It!, Braddock, art, vendors

There is a lot of events going on this weekend and I hope to make it out to some of them. It’s going to be hard since I have a friend coming in from CA and there’s events going on north of Pittsburgh I have to make it to as well. But enough about my busy schedule; here’s two events you should check out this weekend.

Tonight is the Gallery Crawl downtown, where you can check out up and coming artists, hear local bands and eat and drink for free. You can’t beat that.
The Crawl will be taking place in various galleries, including the Wood Street Galleries, SPACE, Show Here, 707 Penn Gallery, Future Tenant and more. You can check out the map in this week’s City Paper, or at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s website.
It starts at 5:30 and ends around 9pm this evening. There is also a couple of afterparties at places like Trilogy and on the Theater Square’s Parking Garage Rooftop. I’ve never personally been on that rooftop, but sounds kind of interesting.
I hope to make it out tonight after I hit up a Community Days out in my hometown, but if not, I will definitely be at WYEP’s Summer Music Festival.

The Summer Music Festival starts this evening at the World Cafe, featuring Jon Check and Kim Richey at 6pm and 8pm.
Then on Saturday, the Ike Reilly Assasination, Moe. and Sinead O’Connor will be at the Cafe, however both Moe. and Sinead O’Connor are already sold out. Ike Reilly Assasination starts at noon.
If you’d still like to see Moe. and Sinead O’Connor, head to the outdoor festival on Saturday at Allegheny Landing in the North Side, by Isabelle and 6th Street. I know I am extremely curious to see Sinead O’Connor perform live; she actually has some pretty decent songs.

Here’s the schedule for Saturday:
Jon Check: 4-4:40pm
Ike Reilly Assassination: 5:05-5:55pm
Kim Richey: 6:20-7:10pm
An Acoustic Evening with Sinead O’Connor: 7:30-8:45pm
moe.: 9:15-10:30pm

Blankets, picnic baskets, children and dogs are all welcome according to WYEP’s website, where you can check out the details.

WYEP, Summer Music Festival, Pittsburgh, downtown, North Side, Sinead O’Connor, Moe., Ike Reilly Assasination, Jon Check, music, art, Gallery Crawl, SPACE, Wood Street

Today is the second annual National Dump the Pump Day for Pittsburgh. It’s a initiative sponsored by the American Public Transportation Association, which aims to cut pollution and to encourage ridership on public transportation in cities nationwide.

Being that I do not own a car and have to frequently go downtown because of school and various jobs, I am, whether I like it or not, a loyal bus rider. I usually do like riding the bus; all of the crazies amuse me and if I ever become a real writer, I should have plenty of material just from riding the bus. However, some days I just want to scream.

I am also all for people switching to the buses instead of driving all of the time. They cut buses and schedules because of the people who refuse to switch! And I think it’s only going to get worse if more people don’t start riding the bus.

Besides possibly raising the rate, they’ll also have to cut more schedules and employee’s jobs. Where else will ex-convicts with a passion for recklessly driving a hulking machine go then?? Not to mention, I almost had to quit my job this past month, because of the cuts, but luckily my bus made it, but I highly doubt it will the next time. Who, besides me, even goes to East Pittsburgh anyways? I’m always the only one left on the bus at the end.

But anywho, go public transportation!

A fellow enthusiast in Pittsburgh has even devoted some of her free time to making bus t-shirts. Designs include the 500 (my personal favorite and long time bus), 54C (my new bus), 61C, 28X, 71C and the EBO. Go to her Myspace for more info.

Go to Port Authority’s website for schedule info, changes and more.

Port Authority, Dump the Pump, bus, public transportation, Pittsburgh

Carnegie Mellon builds a robot car that drives better then most 16 year olds. They even made it go through a drive course and it passed. Here is a quote from the article:

“Boss — the robotic car that Carnegie Mellon University’s Tartan Racing has developed — cruised a test course like a 16-year-old with a driving permit, avoiding traffic, stopping at stop signs and swinging around cars parked in its lane.” –read more…

Just think, maybe in a few years we will not have to drive anymore. It would be nice on a long road trip, to be able to take a nap or eat a Baconator without having to try to drive at the same time. They already have a car that parks itself; I guess this would be the next step. I wonder how long it’s going to be until Carnegie Mellon makes “Transformers” a reality.

I don’t think a summer can be complete without at least one visit to the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. If you haven’t been there in a while, this would be a good time to check it out. They have installed a new polar bear exhibit called Water’s Edge. It allows you to walk through an underwater tunnel to watch the polar bears. I haven’t seen it for myself yet but it sounds pretty cool. You can find out more on their website at www.PittsburghZoo.com.

I was looking at their website and found something very interesting in their safety guidelines section.

Alcoholic beverages are not permitted on Zoo grounds during regular operating hours.

It sounds odd to me how it says during regular operating hours. Doses that mean the zoo will open up at off times and allow drinking? I never heard of this all night dance party at the zoo. I am going to have to keep my eye on the zoo and see what the heck they’re doing over there.

The last weekend of the Arts Festival was amazing. If you remember, a few weeks ago I posted about Flux. Well I attended the event on Saturday and let me just say that it was better than the first one I went to. It looks like they had everything more organized this time around and the music was a lot better. One stage had nothing but punk music while other stages had more low key stuff and DJs. The night flew by, as you checked out the art and listened to music on the two floors of the Brooks Brothers Building, Downtown.

On Sunday I went back to the Arts Festival to see Swoon. Emily talked about them in her post about the last weekend of that Art Festival. They were scary and relaxing to watch at the same time. I am sure if you do a search on the all mighty Google you can find more pictures of them. Also, I wish I had a Swoon pole so I could fly around. It looked like a good time.

So as you can see, Pittsburgh really pulled through this year in making the Arts Festival a good time even with Point State Park under construction. I can’t wait to see it again next year.

swoon!, pittsburgh, arts festival, downtown, punk music, point state park, flux, pfunkt

Well, it’s already the last weekend of the Art’s Festival, so you better go while you can! There are still plenty of things to see and do Friday-Sunday and here’s the schedule for anyone who is interested:

Friday
-Swoon!: description follows below; shows at 12:30 and 5:00
-Bands such as 9th Ward and Great Ants playing at Market Square at 5:30, Jackie Greene at 7:30 at the Stanwix stage and Steel N’ Jazz featuring music played on steelpan drums at 8pm at 121 7th St, sixth floor. $5 cover
-American Humbug: a politically fueled satirical play that’s been ongoing at the festival at 8pm at 937 Liberty. $5 cover

Saturday
-Swoon! performances at 12:30, 2:00, and 3:30.
-Bands at the Stanwix stage include Lohio at 6pm and Rickie Lee Jones at 7:30pm.
-Lime: A Mixer Caribbean Style, featuring steelpan drums, jazz, food and drinks. $5 cover and it’s at 121 7th Street, 6th floor.

Sunday
-Swoon! performances at 12:30, 2:00 and 3:30pm.
-And to close off the performance, Rodney McCoy and Spyro Gyra will be playing at 5:30 and 7:00 pm at the Stanwix stage.

I highly suggest you make it out to see Swoon!
I know I’m rearranging my schedule this weekend just to witness this show.
According to the Art’s Festival’s website, the show features “four daredevils” who “tell a spectacular story of love, loss, joy and freedom up on high. Through a whirlwind of dance and movement on 12 foot high flexible poles, the vibrantly costumed couples transcend past, present and future as they move together and apart.”

downtown, Pittsburgh, Three Rivers Arts Festival, art, music, Swoon!, 9th Ward, Great Ants, Jackie Greene, Steel N’ Jazz, Lohio, Rickie Lee Jones, Rodney McCoy, Spyro Gyra, circus

I know Roethlisberger would like everyone to stop talking about this, but I don’t think this could be a Pittsburgh blog without mentioning it. Yesterday, June 12th, was one year after the big motorcycle accident.

I remember the day it happened; time in Pittsburgh stopped and everyone was preparing for the bad news. Then, to everyone’s surprise there was nothing majorly wrong with him. Which was a relief to Steelers fans everywhere; our super bowl dreams were not crushed. The city was alive again with excitement for the coming season.

I guess Roethlisberger had an interview with the media yesterday; here is a link to the Post-Gazette story.

“Everyone’s forgotten about it except the media,” Roethlisberger said. “So, hopefully, now that the year is over with, everyone will forget about it.” – PPG

Maybe if he played for the Penguins, more people would forget about it. Ben needs to understand Pittsburgh loves football and will never forget. Just look at how many past Steelers players we still talk about and the books about them. I bet if they offered a class at CCAC about Steelers history, there would be a waiting list to take it.

Penguins, CCAC, Steelers, Roethlisberger, motorcycle accident, Pittsburgh, football

Well it looks like controversy hits the Arts Festival this year, with an installation piece that featured nudity. It was located in PPG Place, where just about anyone could see it. Here is a quote from the article.

“A nude video installation by a local artist proved to be a little too risqué for the Wintergarden at PPG Place. It was covered, unplugged, then moved to another site as part of the Three Rivers Arts Festival” –Trib

I find it funny that people were trying to cover it up and unplug it. I can just imagine some lady after viewing it, running around, hands waving in the air looking for the plug. I didn’t get a chance to see this for myself, but from what that article said it was done tastefully. But I guess I will never know since it was taken down.

My right to view the art piece was taken away because it offended someone. What these people don’t understand about art is, if you don’t like it, don’t look at it. No one was being forced to look at it, but now we are being forced not to.

Pittsburgh, art, art fest, PPG Place, nudity, Trib, Downtown, Events

In Pittsburgh’s weekly City Paper there was an article about the Casino and Traffic problems. It seems that a lot of the local companies on the North Side, including the Steelers and the Pirates are not happy with the added traffic the Casino will bring. Here is a snippet from the article.

“Most of those who testified were lawyers for the various parties involved and traffic planners hired by the sports teams. But the Steelers and Pirates have already voiced disappointment with the process so far. Hired lawyers and traffic planners argued that the casino had yet to submit a full traffic-impact plan, which they contended was essential. And they groused that speakers were given only three minutes to speak — not enough time, they complained, to express the full scope of their concerns.” –PCP

I do not support the Casino coming to Pittsburgh. I think it’s a bad move and will just make things worse. But this argument about traffic pattern is a little off base. If you get to the end of the article, there is a comment by a reader that makes a pretty good point. Here is a portion of the comment.

ALL Steeler games and ALL Pirate games create huge problems, not only on the North Side but also in Downtown Pittsburgh. Bridges are closed, traffic is re-routed and delays are constant. Where are the sports teams’ concern for traffic congestion here? – poropatichb

That’s a good question. To my fellow haters of the Casino, you’re going to have to find a better argument then traffic to stop this thing, but thanks for trying.

Steelers, Pirates, traffic, casino, North Side, Downtown, Pittsburgh

Ok so I didn’t realize how much was going on at the Arts Festival this weekend, so this is the second of two posts about it just so the list doesn’t look overwhelming and you get scared and don’t go.

Saturday
-Jaggerbush Junction deserves it’s own post, but this will have to do for now.
Jaggerbush is a a large scaled installation and interactive event that Unicorn Mountain is putting on, which Mosley previously talked about. They will be transforming Market Square into an “indie comic wonderland” according to the Art’s Festival website. Centipede E’est and Wax Fang, play from 5:30-7:30 and Oxford Collapse will close the show with a performance at 9. The exhibit will be from 12p-11p and I highly suggest you check it out.

-For the blues fan, the Willi Tri Blues Band will be performing at 7 on the Stanwix Street Stage, followed by the Grammy Award winning, Chicago native, Koko Taylor! According the Art’s Festival’s website, “during the course of her 50-year career she’s sung with the likes of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Robert Plant.” Fantastic!

Well, that’s it for now. While you’re there, make sure you check out the Artist’s Market and good luck finding a parking spot! Best bet parking garage wise would be the Ft. Duquesne & Sixth Street Garage: 3 hours - $7.50, After 4:00 p.m. - $2.00 - $5.00, Weekends - $2.00 - $5.00, Daily Max Rate - $10.00 or any of the garage’s that feature $5 flat rate parking.

Pittsburgh, Three Rivers Arts Festival, Koko Taylor, Willi Tri Blues Band, Oxford Collapse, Unicorn Mountain

Just thought I’d highlight a couple of the events happening at the Arts Festival this weekend in case anyone was thinking of going there, which you should! I wish people would go to and support more local art events in Pittsburgh, but I’ll take what I can get.

Friday
-Circuits of Steel Showcase, featuring Grand Buffet, Rein[Forced], Discuss, Hotness, Michael Johnsen and Margaret Cox, tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE, syne_lapse_variate, and Catacomb 9.re with performances starting at 5:30-7:30 and between 8:30-11pm.
The showcase celebrates the release of the second Circuits of Steel Compilation, which features local musicians from the electronic music scene. All performances are in Market Square and I’m almost positive that Grand Buffet starts at 10p, because I plan on being there.

-Cowboy Junkies sponsored by Point Park University at 730p at the Stanwix Triangle Stage.
WYEP is always talking about this band on the radio and I can’t remember if I like them or not, but I trust WYEP and have for years.

-Therman Statom… Imagine Glass exhibit continues, featuring work by the internationally known glass artist Therman Statom and the works of local middle and high school students. A reception will be held tonight for Collective Fusion as part of the Glass Art Society Conference gallery crawl on Friday, June 8.

Pittsburgh, Three Rivers Arts Festival, Therman Statom, Cowboy Junkies, Grand Buffet, Circuits of Steel