HI,
Tomorrow is the anniversary of Three Mile Island nuclear melt down (1979), Libya celebrates the British removing their bases (1970) and the first show of the combined Barnum & Bailey circuses first performance as The Greatest Show on Earth (1881). Birth anniversaries include Humphrey Bogart’s agent Irving Lazar (1907), child star Freddie Bartholomew (1924) and the first male American to be canonized Saint John Nepomucene Neumann (1811).
With all the warmth we’ve had lately, I was able to clean out the pond and get the fountain up and running for Easter, although it looks kind of naked without any growth:
At least I have some daffodils in the garden right next to it:
And my guests are greeted with daffodils and crocuses flowering in the back of the parking lot:
Dutch artist Allard van Hoorn saw Market Square and it reminded him of an old school record player from the view in Google Earth. He competed with 80 other artist for an installation work for this year’s Market Square Public Art. Last year’s winner, an Asian, woman installed bare trees and updated them periodically to reflect the change of seasons. He installed 960 feet of LED strips that respond to the music generated by the computer in a torpedo looking master control box (similar to the knob that stuck up on an old record player that secured the record on the surface). Allard collected music in Pittsburgh from tap dancers at Point Park University to the steel drum band at Urban Pathways Charter School. You can select the music to be played. His website doesn’t have a preview of this work.
Greensburg native and Stage Right theater school co-founder Anthony Marino wrote the musical “Tink” a prequel to Peter Pan. His group has been performing it at the Palace Theater out in Greensburg and it was selected as one of the finalist for inclusion in the New York Musical Festival this July. the NYMF is frequently the spring board for entry into Broadway or Off-Broadway productions. Because of the high cost of producing a play in NYC, the festival is paying for much of the production costs, Marino has started a Kick-Stater campaign to help raise the additional $60, he needs. Home town team does good!
Next weekend is the South Hills Home Show at the Iceoplex at Southpointe. Admission is free. In addition to the vendors, they will also be having a number of clinics and workshops, also free. Details on times and admission, Oh that’s right i already told you admission’s free.
Renewable energy hit a record $286B last year and for the first time it was led by emerging economies, mainly China with a $103B investment. Even with all this investment, renewable s still only accounted for one tenth of power generation. At least we are moving in the right direction. One of the many road blocks to increased renewable sources is called “net metering” which is when you create extra energy and sell it to the local electrical provider. In your electric bill is a fee for transition line maintenance and improvement. If you are not paying an electric bill, the electrical provider is not collecting that money. i would love to add solar and possibly wind energy options at The Parador. And would be willing to pay a reasonable,b minimal fee for this. Another problem is storage of electricity generated from solar panels for use when the suns not up. There’s huge investment in new battery storage options. Tesla even has a home storage battery just for this called the power wall.
Among PIttsburgh’s firsts was we hosted the first flight in 1899 sorry North Carolina. Not really 🙂 This is chronicled by John Schalcosky in City Paper. He runs a Face Book page that explores Pittsburgh’s weird history.
The long time Cathedral of Learning resident peregrine falcon Dorthy passed away last year and her long time companion E2 picked up a new mate Hope last year as well. E2’s new mate, Hope (formerly nested under the Tarentum Bridge) laid a clutch of eggs atop the Cathedral a week ago and then E2 was found dead in a year in Swissvale. Apparently Hope has picked up a new mate and they are predicting a new clutch of eggs. Something I didn’t know was the eggs don’t have to be incubated right away. Both clutches can be incubated at the same time. You can watch Hope and her new companion live on a webcam provided by the National Aviary. And if you’d like to watch the Hays eagles on webcam, here’s the link. I think two have hatched, one of the little guys just popped out from under mom, so cute with it’s black eyes bobbing around. Soap opera have nothing on our peregrines. :
Much to the chagrin of da kidz, I feed the squirrels. I put a small shelf on the shed right outside the window in front of my desk and put the peanuts on a plate which I place on that shelf. They didn’t eat many peanuts yesterday. I put more out this morning and apparently they’re hungry. Mom crawled down the shed roof and was looking at me through the window. So I made da kidz wait inside and put a hand full of peanuts on the plate, she’s fallen off the roof three time and the roof’s not even wet. The last time she fell, she jumped on my window sill, looked in (saying thank you?) and then scampered up the side of the window and jumped onto the roof for a peanut.
August Wilson’s play Fences is starting up production here in Pittsburgh, directed by Denzel Washington.
I’m guilty, I stole a plant from the Everglades while in Florida and it’s done so well, I now have three that grow uncontrollably, I will find 8 foot growths from all three plants if I don’t keep a close eye on them. They will sneak behind the wooden shelf one of them sits on and grow and grow. I sent a picture of them to my good friend Tony at Penn State, he’s a botanist or horticulturalist, not sure which. 🙂 He identified it as epiphytic catyi a non native species to Florida, so I don’t feel so bad about taking it. Take a look at the flowers it should get, I think I need to take them down into the basement for a couple of weeks to make them flower. The flowers are absolutely amazing!
I just wanted to take a minute and remember Razor who left us a year ago Saturday, I miss him, but it was his time. The vet was surprised he had gone to sleep before she administered 1/2 of the solution for his weight, he had given up:
RJ, you have some big shoes to fill, do you remember when you met Razor?
That’s it and Happy Easter,
ed
