Hi,
Tomorrow is the anniversary of the New York Subway’s first trip (1904), Turkmenistan Independence Day (1991), Theodore Roosevelt’s birth anniversary (1858), discoverer of Australia & New Zealand James Cook’s birth anniversary (1728), pop artist Roy Lichtenstein’s birth anniversary (1923), the 225 anniversary of the publishing of the Federalist Papers and Hurricane Mitch that killed 7,000 people in Honduras in 1998.
October 26 and 27 and then again November 2 and 3 at 9 pm, Midnight Radio, a production of Bricolage Production Company will be performing The Haunting at there center on the corner of Smithfield Street and Liberty Avenue. This quirky performance is based on a reproduction of the 1940’s radio shows with stories of suspense, vintage sound effects, musical guests, fake breaking news, game show segments and spoofy commercials. All around fun entertainment. More at their web site or by calling 412.471.0999.
Rusted Root, the band that won’t go away (I say that in the kindest of terms). 🙂 Every time they release an album, I hear they are breaking up and going there own way. Well, The Movement is due to be released Tuesday. I understand that it’s less experimental than some of their more recent releases. More in line with the Latin/African influences of the two smash albums Cruel Sun and When I Woke. With the general state of the economy and their diverse interests, cash was a little tough to get this album cut, so they turned to a Kickstarter kind of financing they called Fortunate Freaks Unite. They collected enough donations from this from fans, family, friends to have the album recorded. One of the things that always amazes me about Rusted Root is it seems like anyone you talk to in Pittsburgh is either friends with one or several of them or knows someone that is. November 10 they will be performing at The Palace Theater in Greensburg and on December 21, The Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland.
Harry Clark’s massive Indian Creek Valley Railroad Display has been under cosntruction since just after World War II. The project started in his kitchen and eventually moved to his garage. Most recently, it was at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, but it had to be moved so the resort could build their Lady Luck Casino. Terry Shallenberger bought his friend’s display had this 25′ x 50′ model railroad in storage until this past weekend when they closed bridges and streets to squeeze the display into the center of Connellsville (where they also still make glass for the Tiffany company). Mr. Shallenberger, of Shallenberger Construction paid for the move. Mr. Shallenberger built the walls of the display’s new home on a concrete pad a Stone and Company donated. The display was lowered into this building by a All Crane Rental Company that donated the use of the crane. The building’s metal roof should be completed this weekend. The building will look like the old Connellsville B & O train station and it will have a Canteen Cafe and gift shop. Hopefully the proceeds from both will help keep the project afloat.
London born, Pittsburgh based project photographer Brian Cohen came up with the idea of chronicling the impact of Marcellus Shale drilling and quickly came to realize it was probably a bigger project that one person could cover. So he approached Laura Domencic, the director of the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts who quickly saw the value in this project and they recruited several more photographers for this year long project. Instead of a Michael Moore kind of documentary (not that that’s necessarily bad), this collection of photographs really speak for themselves. Marcellus has been a boon for many people in royalties, construction and construction jobs, local housing, apartment rentals, restaurant and retail sales in a lot of rural areas normally missed by other projects. On the other hand, known side effects of polluted water spills, vehicles too heavy for rural roads decimating the roads, destruction of habitat and other negative results of this industry. Add to that the unknown effects of potential ground water pollution and other less obvious side effects of Marcellus and other new oil/gas extraction methods is having all around the world makes this a topic that needs to be seriously studied. The 220 page paper back book is available for $25 and the photographs printed in editions of five to ten are available with prices ranging from $300 to $3,000. However you weigh in on this topic, some of these pictures are VERY powerful. Marcellus continues through January 6 at 477 Melwood Avenue, Oakland. Hours are noon until 7 Monday through Thursday and noon until 6 on Fridays. Admission is free and more info is available at PGH Center for the Arts web site or by calling 412.681.5449.
Michael Henrichsen is having the birthday of a lifetime. After a two year campaign trying to get Billy Idol to come to his part, he finally succeeded. This 26 year old from Seattle decided two years ago to get Billy Idol to play at his birthday party. He got a friend to create a web site www.playmybirthdaybillyidol.com and started a campaign to convince the rocker to play at his birthday party. Michael has done all kinds of antics to get Billy’s attention and was officially turned down last year. So Michael started a campaign to get stars and celebrities visiting Portland to pose for a video shot plugging for Billy to play at Michael’s party that he added to his web site. Tonight, Billy is playing for Michael’s party. This shows what persistence will do. Ask me about when I started college with for Vet buddies and how I got PHEAA and they didn’t not because of persistence. The success of The Parador in Florida with income of $4k a month and bills of $8k per month was because of persistence. I’m a BIG fan of persistence.
Well, this is about it for today, have a great night, wonderful tomorrow and Go Steelers on Sunday.
ed
Alex loves ‘Rusted Root’. Must say I enjoy listening to ‘Ecstasy’ every now & then. And I’m thankful for your persistence Ed, you are my inspiration!
I really enjoy their more “tribal” influenced songs. Most of which are on their two big albums. Actually, I had both of them in the CD player with my other Reggae albums when I had that CD player that took 300 CDs (never had 300 CDs). 🙂 Persistence is huge in business, particularly small businesses. I have always been “persistent”. I remember Gina, the purchasing clerk at Resorts Casino in Atlantic City told my boss that I would “badger” her. Just another word. 🙂