July 3, 2011

Hi,

Happy Fourth of July to you all.  It is Koko the gorilla’s birthday (she’s the gorilla at the San Fransisco zoo that they taught sign language to), Stephen Foster’s birth anniversary (1826), Calvin Coolidge’s birth anniversary (1872) and Ann Landers (1918).  It is also the anniversary of Booker T Washington’s Tuskegee Institute (1881).  His students built the school, dorm and chapel out of bricks they fired in their own ovens.  Quite the upgrade from the shanty Mr Washington started his classes in at the abandoned plantation he purchased.

I think I was insulted today.  My good friend Myra that’s opening The Stone Manse Inn in New Cumberland (Harrisburg) sent me an e-mail that said she had her first official guests this past weekend.  I went to that Innkeepers conference in the spring and stayed at her lovely Inn.  But I wasn’t a “paying” guest.  🙂  Check out her web site, it’s really a gorgeous property.

July’s quite the busy month, we had 65k fans for Kenny Chesney last night, the Three Rivers Regatta runs through Monday, Kid Rock & Sheryl Crow are performing at First Niagara Pavilion in Washington County on Wednesday.  Butler County is having their fair through July 9 at the Butler County Fair Grounds.  Next Saturday, Phipps Conservatory is having Discovery Garden and the National Aviary is having a Lories birthday party.  We have the Mennonite convention yesterday through Saturday at David Lawrence Convention Center (part of their mission is go “give back” to the city hosting their convention, so you may see them around cleaning up areas around the city).  We have American Frontier Rifleman Tall Tales & Truths running through October 30 at the Fort Pitt Museum in Point State Park.  We have the Society of American Magicians convention here July 12 – 16 at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh an performances in the Byham Theater Downtown.  Peter Frampton is going to perform at the Trib Total Media Amphitheater July 13 followed by Boz Scaggs on Saturday, July 16.  Lucinda Williams will be performing at State AE on July 17 and Mary Chapin Carpenter will be at Hartwood Acres the same day.  Pittsburgh’s Vintage Grand Prix returns to Schenley Park July 20.  the Pittsburgh Blues Festival returns to Hartwood Acres on July 22, Vans Warps Tour will be at the First Niagara Pavilion on the same day.  Lil’ Wayne will be at the Pavilion the next day and Slayer and Rob Zombie will be at Stage AE.  Motley Crew with Poison & New York Dolls will be at State AE on Sunday, July 24.  The much anticipated U2 Concert at Heinz Field is Tuesday, July 26 and the Goo Goo Dolls will be at Stage AE the next day.  Meat Loaf takes the stage July 28 Trib Total Media Amphitheater at Station Square.  The month will close out with Tim McGraw at First Niagara Pavilion on July 30.

The world’s largest annual high-tech scavenger hunt is coming to Western Pennsylvania this coming weekend.  It starts out with a camp fire and story telling at the Warren County Fairgrounds on Friday.  And the hunts begin the following morning.  This group uses GPS to locate items listed on various web sites like geocaching.com that list hidden items.   They expect some 5,000 participants (3,000 have already preregistered) and they are coming from Alaska, Germany, Sweden and Asia.  I have a wedding, so you won’t be seeing me.

Again, have a great holiday,

ed