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Menomena's third appearance here in Pittsburgh was their best so far. They were tight as usual, but the Moose Lodge's acoustics were fantastic. I was surprised at what a great venue that place is. Hopefully, it continues being a venue.
It was great seeing the trio from Portland again, and I wish them the very best. They deserve all the press they have been getting. I hope they make it back to Pittsburgh again and again.
Photo courtesy of Craig Biertempfel
Here are some upcoming shows in Pittsburgh. I'm going to as many as I can:
So you own a business where you let your customers choose to smoke do you? Well, a group of fourteen county council members in Allegheny County have taken that choice off the table. The ordinance has some legal hurdles to jump, but I'm sure the health nazis will prevail in making everyone's lungs safe while they damage their livers with alcohol or clog their arteries with trans fats.
Wait, trans fats are bad?!? The health nazis are already on it. New York City seems to set the standards for nanny state politics so don't be surprised if guilty pleasures are replaced with celery sticks and peanut butter. Hmm, on second thought peanut butter may be a bit too fatty.
I'm a non-smoker and this decision by the busy bodies of the county council makes my blood boil. Freedom of choice is under attack and people seem to be blind to that fact as long as their preference is held as the healthy choice. Welcome to the choiceless world of a paternalistic healthy utopia.
Oh joy, Disney is eyeing Pittsburgh for a film project if they can get their greedy hands on a $2 million state grant for funding the film. Lord knows they need it, Pirates of the Caribbean has only raked in $360 million thus far.
But what is $2 million in the grand scheme of things? Hell, taxpayers are paying nearly a half billion for a 1.2 mile extension to the light rail system here in Pittsburgh. (Thank you Porkmaster Santorum.) Now that is money well spent. I guarntee this project will end up costing the taxpayers close to $1 billion when all is said and done.
I do a lot of complaining about the lack of musical acts that play here in Pittsburgh. The sheer volume of bands that continue to skip over my fair city is very frustrating. I've lived here for three years and have grown accustomed to not going to see many live shows, but for two straight Fridays in September that will not be the case.
On Friday, September 22 Australia's own Wolfmother will grace the stage at Mr. Smalls. One week after that, on Friday, September 29, Built to Spill will return to Mr. Smalls after their April show was postponed due to medical reasons.
Mr. Smalls continues to be the only reputable venue in this area. Oh yeah, and Sonic Youth is playing there on August 29.
Enough of this baby stuff. The Man, Steven Seagal, is going to be playing some blues music at the Rex Theatre in the Southside on June 20th. Get your tickets now or you'll miss out on some serious kung fu blues action. Who says Pittsburgh's music scene sucks?
This article documenting the bids for the light-rail tunnel to the North Shore is infuriating.
Apparently, the money taxpayers foot for the two stadiums on the North Shore isn't enough to spur economic development. Weren't those stadiums supposed to be a boon to the city of Pittsburgh? Now the construction of a pair of twin tunnels underneath the Allegheny River "is considered a key to continuing development between PNC Park and Heinz Field."
The project will cost an estimated $393 million (mostly in federal funds) and we all know that it will end up costing a hell of a lot more. Already, the lowest bids for digging the tunnels are coming in well above the estimated cost. The pork that Sen. Santorum proudly bestowed upon Pittsburgh is a wasteful project that will serve as nothing more than a people mover for Steeler games eight times a year. Walk across the bridges you fat asses.
3:30 - So Harrison Ford has to share the billing for his new movie with the Chrysler 300?
3:34 - Jake Plummer fumbles!
3:40 - So this Love Monkey show...its a rip-off of the movie High Fidelity, right?
3:41 - Touchdown Stillers*!
3:50 - Mike Hickey calls me and says he won't be stopping by. He tells me that a commentator on a Steelers pre-game show said that he hopes the Steelers use "trickeration" to beat the Broncos.
3:53 - As hard as CBS may try, Jenna Elfman is not very hot.
3:56 - Hee hee, Ford Commercial just said, "Super Duty."
4:01 - The Broncos cornerback Domonique Foxworth can't cover anyone.
4:13 - Enough with the Chunky soup commercials featuring Donovan McNabb's "mom."
4:17 - Touchdown Stillers!
4:20 - I've never watched a Pro Bowl.
4:21 - Jake Plummer interception.
4:26 - Touchdown Stillers! This may be a laugher. Roethlisberger should never do that celebration "dance" again.
4:32 - Halftime. Broncos fans are booing. Mike Shanahan is as tan as George Hamilton.
4:59 - This game may be over. Did I just jinx the beloved Stillers?
5:04 - Just prepared a bath for the pregnant wife.
5:12 - Broncos are showing signs of life.
5:15 - Touchdown Broncos!
5:27 - Big field goal by the Stillers.
5:29 - Another Survivor?
5:30 - Ugh, obiligatory face painter shot. Oh, another Jake Plummer INT.
5:33 - Did you ever notice Phil Simms doesn't say "him" he says, "heem."
5:45 - Touchdown Broncos with 7:52 left.
5:46 - AC/DC's Rock n Roll Ain't Noise Pollution is used to sell Nikes.
5:54 - Eating chili cheese fries. Mmmmm.
5:56 - Another Jake Plummer turnover. This may be it.
6:01 - I just grossed out the wife with monster burp as Roethlisberger scored on a bootleg. Game over.
6:06 - "Wow, so Pittsburgh's going to the Super Bowl?" - My wife.
6:12 - Game over... Stillers 34 Broncos 17.
* Stillers =Yinzer for Steelers.
I can't figure out which fight song is the worst, but I challenge any of you to listen to all four of them all the way through. They are awful.
Today I went on a walk today through Friendship and Bloomfield. The amount of Steelers flare was impressive. There is no way the Steelers will lose with the all the yinzers decorating their houses and cars with black and gold crap. As I walked through the narrow streets of Bloomfield all I could picture was a lonely yinzer in a black and gold wig holding on to hope that Big Ben and The Bus will shine some light into his dark and drunken life.
On another note, my beloved Lions are on the verge of signing their next victim head coach. His name is Rod Marinelli and in about three or four years you will never hear from this dude again. The Detroit Lions will destroy this guy forever.
Man, the Pittsburgh media is obsessed with Big Ben's knee. I guess KDKA needs to fill their three straight hours of news in the afternoon with something. Yeah that's right, KDKA has three hours of news from four to seven Monday through Friday. So you can only imagine what kind of coverage they dedicate to Roethlisberger's knee. They interviewed people on the street, a doctor, and the knee itself.
Other quarterback news has Joey Harrington taking over the reins of the Lions woeful offense. God help us Lions fans.
I found these jars of mystery goo over a month ago. The contents were a mystery to me. My uneducated guess is that they were remnants of a street liposuction. Your guess is as good as mine.
Just found out about a much needed new venue in Pittsburgh. It is on Penn Ave. somewhere near Main St. I guess it has a bar and restaurant in it. It was formerly Penn Cafe Nooners and for a short time Zooty's. Not sure how big it is, but the Black Angels are playing there this Friday, and I'm not going to be able to make it.
The Black Angels (Austin, TX) currently only have an EP released at this time. Listen to Black Grease from their self-tilted debut.
Other upcoming shows that I dug up while surfing the ol' internet (Brillobox has no website, yet) are some Pittsburgh locals Dirty Faces and The Working Poor. Also, psych-pop vets Elf Power take the stage on November 16. Nice to see they are getting some national acts already.
Read the Pittsburgh City Paper article on this new space.
A friend of mine is going to be in a skateboard video trashin' around Pittsburgh and some other cities. Is "thrashin'" cool skaterboard talk? I don't know. Anyway, his name is Mike Hickey and from what I've seen he's pretty good, but what do I know?
The trailer for the upcoming video looks cool. They use an ultra-hip track from CYHSY and Hickey almost kills a toddler.
Forest Hills mayor arrested at Steelers game
Monday, September 26, 2005 AP
The mayor of suburban Forest Hills was arrested outside the Steelers game yesterday.
Raymond J. Heller Jr. was charged with public drunkenness and defiant trespass, authorities said.
Police said Heinz Field security refused to let Heller into the stadium because he was drunk and arrested him when he refused to leave the property.
Heller could not immediately be reached for comment.
Larry has the Robert Pollard kick down to a science, but he did pull a hammy in the process.
From the New York Times:
Your Land Is My Land
By John Tierney
PITTSBURGH — Two questions I'd like to ask candidates for Sandra Day O'Connor's job:
1. Does the Constitution forbid the government from seizing your home and giving it to someone else?
2. If you're not sure, would you be willing to tour Pittsburgh before taking this job?
Justice O'Connor had no problem with the first question. Noting that the Fifth Amendment allows property to be taken only for a "public use" like a road, she rejected arguments that it could be given to a developer just because the public could benefit from new jobs and tax revenues. By that logic, she argued in one of her last opinions, no one's home or business would be safe from anyone with a better use in mind for it.
But her side was outvoted, 5 to 4, by justices not inclined to be too literal about the Bill of Rights. They were pragmatists, arguing that land grabs like this had previously been allowed, which is quite right. And that's why I recommend a trip to my hometown to see the long-term effects.
Pittsburgh has been the great pioneer in eminent domain ever since its leaders razed 80 buildings in the 1950's near the riverfront park downtown. They replaced a bustling business district with Gateway Center, an array of bland corporate towers surrounded by the sort of empty plazas that are now considered hopelessly retrograde by urban planners trying to create street life.
At the time, though, the towers and plazas seemed wonderfully modern. Viewed from across the river, the new skyline was a panoramic advertisement for the Pittsburgh Renaissance, which became a national model and inspired Pittsburgh's leaders to go on finding better uses for private land, especially land occupied by blacks.
Bulldozers razed the Lower Hill District, the black neighborhood next to downtown that was famous for its jazz scene (and now famous mostly as a memory in August Wilson's plays). The city built a domed arena that was supposed to be part of a cultural "acropolis," but the rest of the project died. Today, having belatedly realized that downtown would benefit from people living nearby, the city is trying to entice them back to the Hill by building homes there.
In the 1960's, the bulldozers moved into East Liberty, until then the busiest shopping district outside downtown. Some of the leading businessmen there wanted to upgrade the neighborhood, so hundreds of small businesses and thousands of people were moved to make room for upscale apartment buildings, parking lots, housing projects, roads and a pedestrian mall.
I was working there in a drugstore whose owners cursed the project, and at first I thought they were just behind the times. But their worst fears were confirmed. The shopping district was destroyed. The drugstore closed, along with the department stores, movie theaters, office buildings and most other businesses.
You'd think a fiasco like that would have humbled Pittsburgh's planners, but they just went on. They kicked out a small company to give H. J. Heinz more room. Mayor Tom Murphy has attracted national attention for his grand designs - and fights - to replace thriving small businesses downtown and on the North Side with more upscale tenants.
The city managed to clear out shops and an office building to make room for a new Lazarus department store, built with $50 million in public funds, but Lazarus did not live up to its name. It has shut down and left a vacant building. Meanwhile, the city's finances are in ruins, and businesses and residents have been fleeing the high taxes required to pay off decades of urban renewal projects and corporate subsidies.
Yet the mayor still yearns for more acquisitions. He welcomed the Supreme Court decision, telling The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that eminent domain "is a great equalizer when you're having a conversation with people." Well, that's one way to describe the power to take people's property.
But I think a future Supreme Court justice would have a different view of eminent domain after touring Pittsburgh's neighborhoods, especially those that escaped urban renewal: the old-fashioned business districts with crowded sidewalks and the newly gentrified neighborhoods with renovated homes and converted warehouses. The future justice would quickly see what sets the success stories apart from Gateway Center and East Liberty. No politicians ever seized those homes and businesses for a "better use."
So I'm watching the evening news last night and the lead story on KDKA-2 is the police presence at a local music venue. There are not many music venues in this town so it turns out to be Mr. Small's. Uh oh, this isn't good. A bunch of punks spilled into the street after the owner of Mr. Small's kicked them out for being too violent at a "hardcore" show. Whatever hardcore means these days?
Anyhow, the story immediately turns to local Millvale yinzers pleading for the club to be shutdown. Yinzers proclaimed that the club doesn't belong in a residential area and should be moved to the Strip District.
The club probably won't last the Summer. Hooray for Pittsburgh's ever shrinking music scene! Not that Mr. Small's was pulling in many shows anyhow. They booked a Dave Matthews tribute band for June. How lame is that?
No, it wasn't a bum digging through my garbage it was a city worker. I guess it was only a matter of time before the recycling police made their way into my neighborhood. This morning, a Pittsburgh environmental worker was digging through my trash to see if I was being a good recycling citizen. I don't recycle and I'm sure I'll get some kind of a warning in the mail.
If you have some time, read Eight Great Myths of Recycling. Full PDF version here.
In case you missed this story from a few days ago, I'd like to highlight one man's attempt at brightening his co-worker's day. Unbeknownst to his co-workers, a Latrobe man handed out some oatmeal raisin cookies that included a special surprise. They were baked using marijuana butter. A woman who consumed one of the cookies later found herself extremely disoriented. She had to call her daughter to pick her up and the stoned woman was eventually treated at a local hospital for marijuana intoxication.
Hey, it could have been much worse.
From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Four men stole, killed and butchered a goat so they could trade its meat for crack cocaine, police said.
Police charged four Connellsville men with theft, receiving stolen property, cruelty to animals, and criminal conspiracy yesterday for the Dec. 24 incident in Bullskin Township, Fayette County.
Back in May a wild turkey flew into the side of my house. Today, I look out my window to see two lost deer walking on the train tracks. Are they hobo deer?
Forget about the fact that property taxes are out of control in this city. Forget about the depressed job market. Forget about the tax increases and the cuts to public transportation. Forget about all of that and enjoy the advertising that will lure young people to this fair city.
I was taking my daily walk through the neighborhood and was surprised to see two white men tackling a younger black kid in the middle of Copeland Street. I wasn't sure what the problem was, so I stopped and asked, "What's going on?" They didn't pay attention to me and they started to prod the kid with questions about what he had stolen. Apparently, he had shoplifted something from one of the stores on Shadyside's Walnut Street.
The police were there seconds after they took him to the ground. A female and male officer got out of the cruiser and handcuffed the individual. The kid started to seize and shake. He was screaming about not being able to breathe. The female officer made the observation that, "He's high on something." I'm not sure if he was or not, but the most shocking part of this incident was about to take place.
As I proceeded down the one way street that was now blocked off because of the police presence, a woman rolled down her mini-van window and asked me matter-of-factly, "Is that guy up there dead or under arrest?" It really didn't hit me until I got home how warped this woman's question was. She could care less about this guy/kid, as long as she got to Pottery Barn as quickly as possible.
So the three of us wanted to visit some bars in Lawrenceville, some bars that we had never been to before.
I'm not really sure what one should expect from a bar when a sign on the door advertises the following: Hardboiled Eggs are Back! 3 for $1. We didn't see the sign until we left the bar after one drink. The crowd seemed quite angry that we had decided to have a drink at this fine establishment. The DJ in the corner was spinning some hip-hop while he played video slot machines. I doubt he could have named any of the songs that he played. He looked like he preferred Ratt rather than Jay-Z.
After leaving the angry bar we moved on to a bar that was featuring Saturday night karaoke. Damn was it loud and obnoxious. A wall of "celebrities" was featured next to the taps. One of the celebs appeared to be Sam Kinison. Not quite. It was a Sam Kinison impersonator who goes by the name "Screamin' Sammy." The highlight of the karaoke had to be someone's attempt at "Devil Went Down to Georgia." It eventually dissolved into a chant of "Here we go Steelers!"
It was the best night of my life.
In the cash strapped City of Pittsburgh, city officials have some odd priorities. Apparently, recycling has come to the forefront as one of Pittsburgh's top priorities. In a city that is going to run out of cash, it seems kind of odd that city government will pay public works employees overtime to root through city residence's garbage to see if they have their cans and bottles in the approved blue plastic bags. One can only hope that this bug will fly out of the city's ass sooner rather than later.
I went to a beer tasting last weekend at Ray's Marlin Beach Bar & Grill, and to my surprise The Devil was in attendance. Believe it or not, Satan's Earth name is Larry.
A few blocks away from my house, construction is underway on a new Apple Store. Thank God it isn't another coffee shop.
I took this picture at precisely 2:43 PM.
Minutes ago, something hit my house. Living in a city (Pittsburgh), I just figured that it was some punk kids throwing rocks. I ran downstairs out the front door and to my surprise I saw a wild turkey running down my street. A woman witnessed the flight of the giant bird and she said it flew right into the side of my house. She then asked if there are a lot of turkeys around here. Uh, no.
WWSSD?: I couldn't help but think, "What would Steven Seagal do?" I'll tell you what he'd do. He'd go break that bird's neck. So I'm off to do some neck breakin'.
Going to my favorite bar tonight. The Polish Hill mainstay known as Gooski's. Haven't been there for a couple of weeks.
Beautiful weather finally worked its way into the city of Pittsburgh. After three straight days of rain and below average temperatures the weather finally broke. While I was on a walk I admired one of Pittsburgh's many beautiful churches.
I took a photo of this odd graffiti on a fire hydrant. I respect the art of some graffiti, but this serves no purpose at all. Are they trying to mark their territory?
