Monday, December 7, 2015

Hi,

Today is Pearl Harbor Day, remember our vets who have given so much.  Tomorrow is the birth anniversary of the cotton gin inventor Eli Whitney (1765), The Door’s lead singer Jim Morrison (1943), Popeye creator Elzie Segar (1894), artist Diego Rivera (1886) and entertainer Sammy Davis Jr (1925).  It will be the anniversary of John Lennon being shot (1980), NAFTA was signed (1993), the Soviet Union was disolved (1991) and the American Federation of Labor was founded (1886).

I’m adding a new page to my website, it should be live next week.  Befores and afters, if you are interested it will be under the About Us tab.

Dorothy, the peregrine falcon that’s called the Cathedral of Leaning her home for the past 15 years seems to have passed on.  She was ancient by peregrine standards, they normally live to about 12 in the wild and she was 17.  She had fledged 43 offspring.  The assumption that she has passed is because her husband (E2) has been seen courting a new female (peregrine’s mate for life).

The Beehive, the coffee shop on Carson Street is celebrating being open 25 years this year.  I lived on the Slopes when it opened and frequented it.  It was right up my alley with mismatched china, tables and chairs.  And the most eclectic group of customers, from older locals, the hip and cutting edge youth, street people and runaways.  I never realized their logo was created by my friend Rich Bach, the metal artist that did my Aztec sun calendar that sits on the Courtyard wall, deflecting the dusk to dawn sodium vapor light from my neighbor’s house.Rick also did all the metal art work for the Mad Mex restaurant chain.  Another regular at the Beehive is Jenn Wertz of Rusted Root.  Co-founders Scott Kramer and Steve Zumoff have several other Southside establishments like the Lava Lounge, the Tiki Lounge and the Double Wide Grill (the architect Val Zarro who worked with me in getting The Parador open designed the Double Wide, I think that was Val’s last Pittsburgh project before semi-retiring to New England to focus on sustainable architecture). If you’ve never been to the Beehive, stop in sometime for a cup of coffee, a very interesting place.  Here’s the Aztec Sun Calendar:

Kennywood is returning Noah’s Ark to it’s past incarnation. Built in 1936 they expect to have the renovations completed this spring in time for it’s 80th anniversary.   They remodeled it in 1998 and tried making it more cutting edge with electronics and other modern aspects.  They took the beloved entrance where you would walk through the mouth of a whale on a squishy rug that looked like a tongue out and are putting it back.  Last year, Noah’s Ark was for the sixth year in a row named The Best Fun house/Walk Through Attraction at the Golden Ticket Awards Ceremonies by amusement publication Amusement Today.  I loved Noah’s Ark as a child, even though it didn’t have the thrill of the Jack Rabbit, which as soon as I could slip through past the Henry was the cartoon charrictor for the big rides and Howdy Doody was the cartoon character for the small rides, stand as tall as I could.  And would ride it time and again.

Construction Junction has a new installation, calling for recycling Knock Knock Who’s There.  It’s a whimsical look at the child’s jokes painted on reclaimed doors.  There’s a number of them at their Point Breeze facility and four of them will be at First Night in the Cultural district. One of the doors with a bird theme that will be at First Night has a permanent home waiting for it at The National Aviary.  Speaking of the Aviary, the pen   They are planning on stalling dozens of these doors throughout the city and place them in the Arts Festival next summer.  Constructionnction estimates it’s kept 48,000 doors out of landfills.  If you’ve never been to Construction Junction, you should visit, you’ll find some very interesting stuff there, I love it.

About a year ago, Tony Hsieh CEO of Zappos, decided to eliminate all bosses.  He calls it Holacracy, where all employees work in groups that supervise themselves.  He sees this as a strategy, not an experiment.  At the age of 23, he founded LinkExchange and two years later sold it to Microsoft for $265M.  A lot of these high tech companies have budding genius/entrepreneurs in them.  And they develop a new idea, find some backers and start a new company with their innovation.  He’s trying to create an environment where they stay and develop their ideas in his company.  He’s trying to develop more of a business incubator model as opposed to a bureaucracy.  He acknowledges that no all employees would be comfortable with such an open environment, many need more structure to function.  He’s hoping to retain the ones that would develop new ideas using the resources available through his company.  Kind of a novel idea.

Ryan Lammie is an artist that moved to New York to pursue his artistic career and decided it was too expensive to work.  He came to Pittsburgh, settled in Lawerenceville  and found Radiant Hall, the former Polish Social Club. It was much too big for his needs, but the structure and location appealed to him.  So he created a non-profit that subdivided the space into individual “studios” that he rents for around $175 a month.  He plans to expand his concept first to Homewood on Susquehanna Street (that is the street East End Brewery started on) and the space is even bigger than Radiant Hall with 17 “studios”.  Next he plans to open in the former Connely Trade School right next to where the igloo used to stand.  Connely is now known as Environmental Innovation Center after it’s $37M renovation.  He plans on 7 “studios” there and 6 co-working spaces.He also plans to move into the new Nova Place here on the Northside (the former Allegheny Center Mall).  Faros Properties from New York bought the 1.4M square foot former Allegheny Center Mall.  They are in the midst of a $100M renovation of the property.  Eilene, one of my regulars from Texas works for a tech company on Galveston Street right down from me, they are planning on moving into Nova in the spring.

Here’s the latest of The Sausage aka Rayzette with her big brother RJ.  He’s full sized at 84#, she’s 8 months at 80#.  She’s the one sitting up, RJ’s laying down:  She looks so say, but she’s such a happy girl.  🙂  She can’t just walk, she has tow wiggle her butt whenever she moves.

That’s it for today, have a great week,

ed