The Blurgh

Frank and I had a wonderful time hosting Christmas this year, but that’s not to say that we didn’t heave a giant sigh of relief when everyone had made their way back to the places they live. And to celebrate our renewed solitude, we decided to head out with thousands of other fans and catch last night’s Pens-Flyers game at the arena.

I have been a huge Penguins fan since I was a kid. When I was little, I played street hockey with my brothers and cousins and got totally hooked on the sport. This naturally progressed into following the Penguins, and I try to attend games whenever possible. (Living downtown definitely helps – it’s nice to be able to leave for the game at 6:45 and be in your seat at 7.)

Anyway, the Pens are doing really well this year. This is the second year that Sidney Crosby’s been the head coach of the team – he was an amazing hockey player back in his day, and after he retired the Penguins asked him to join the coaching staff as an assistant coach. Last year, he took over the head coach position and the team has just seemed really inspired ever since. Crosby is just the most amazing person. He was drafted by the Pens when he was just 17, and he’s stayed here ever since. I love seeing that kind of dedication from such a gifted athlete – it really shows his character.

We had a great time at the game. We wolfed down Primanti’s sandwiches like there was no tomorrow and washed them down with Iron City beer (regular for Frank, IC Light for me). And – best of all – the Pens won in a shutout, 4-0!

Sorry for the lack of posting during the last week, Gretchen and I have been busy entertaining family. We convinced everyone to meet in Pittsburgh like we did over Thanksgiving, although it was a little more difficult this time around because the Florida and California family were scared of the snow! The big event was held at my parents’ house, and it went really well. It really was big, too–besides immediate family, a good chunk of both of our extended families came to town.

On Christmas Eve, we all went down to the Strip for the annual activities. Most of the extended family that came hadn’t been in Pittsburgh for decades, and they were amazed at all the differences. They really enjoyed taking the train to different places, and they kept commenting on how they don’t remember seeing so many people out, especially so many families with young children. The Strip was a madhouse, but everyone there was in such a good mood that it felt more like a party. There were a couple people playing music in the streets, including a guy playing an accordian, and Gretchen and I had a little fun and started polka-ing. After a little bit a few more couples joined us, and our families started snapping a crapload of pictures, many of which I’m sure will embarrass!

One thing about getting together with family is that you get the inevitable questions on what you’re doing with your life. I’ve always hated those, but now that I’m a senior, the questions seemed a little more pointed. When I’d try to give the old answers of, “Oh, I’m not sure, maybe I’ll go on to grad school,” they just didn’t seem good enough, and I guess when it comes down to it, they really aren’t. I’ve been trying not to freak out about graduating, but it’s starting…what the hell am I going to do? I feel like I should have a good idea of what I want to do if I’d go to grad school, and even if I did want to apply for next fall, I’m already late. I hope having a few days off to think about it before the semester starts will help.

A couple days ago, Gretchen and I went to the second of the Finals Week competitions, this one in theatre.  It was held downtown, and in order to keep the competition from taking all day, each school/team put on a 15-minute one-act play.  The whole thing was a about 2 and a half hours long, and during the intermission, the Culinary Institute of Pittsburgh held a competition among their students of who made the best hors d’oeuvres.  It was a new feature, but I’m thinking they should do something like that for all the competitions!  If they advertised it too much, though, there would be a standing-room only crowd.  College students are attracted to free food very much like moths are attracted to light.

The plays that different students came up with were fascinating.  There was a comedy about a college kid going back in time to the nineties, a few dramas about life and all that can go wrong, a sci-fi one based on Isaac Asimov’s “I, Robot”, and then my favorite, a short excerpt from Hamlet, but performed in Pittsburghese.  It’s fair to say that I have no taste.

The “I, Robot” play won the competition, and it was deserving. After the show, Gretchen and I passed on the after-party and returned home to do some more studying.  If there weren’t any finals, finals week would be really sweet.

Last night, some friends were over at our apartment, eating cookies and laughing at our cats trying to bat ornaments off of our Christmas tree, when someone suggested that we go ice skating over at PPG Place. I love ice skating there - it’s so cool to be in the middle of a city with all the skyscrapers and seeing everything reflect off the glass of the PPG buildings and watching families circle the big tree in the center. We immediately finished our cookies, bundled up and set out for the rink.

As we walked, we passed the small businesses in Market Square and admired their window decorations and stopped in a few of the stores to buy presents for people. Frank bought a toy food set for his younger cousin that included traditional Pittsburgh foods, like pierogies and kielbasa, at a store that only sells toys made by artists from Western PA. We popped into Jay’s Bookshelf (a new branch of the Jay’s Bookstall that’s been operating forever in Oakland) so that a couple people could buy books for people on their lists. And of course, no trip to Market Square would be complete without a quick stop in Chocolatiers, this small chocolate shop that opened a few years ago. The owners are immigrants from South America who import chocolate from around the world and make their own creations from all the different kinds they have.

After these little excursions, we arrived at the rink and rented our skates. I even managed to get Frank in a pair of skates and I think he even enjoyed skating (although I’m sure he’d deny it - he’s not the world’s biggest ice skating fan). All in all, a lovely December Pittsburgh afternoon.

It’s been common knowledge for quite a while that there are several very accomplished arts programs at the universities in the area. Each school has their specialty, but overall, a lot of quality art, music, dance and theatre emerges from these programs every year.

Five or six years ago, a couple graduates from the various programs in town got together and had a great idea. Most of the various classes related to the arts have performances/shows as their final projects, but most of them are sparsely attended and largely ignored by the rest of the student body and surrounding community. To change this, the graduates used various connections in their respective schools and organized competitions between related disciplines to take place in the stead of multiple small performances. From the outset these have been wildly popular, and they’ve gone a long way in creating better connections between the universities and the communities that surround them.

Last night was the first in this series of competitions, and it was in music and dance. What I loved about this is that instead of holding separate music and dance performances, the organizers decided to combine them both. This not only drew a larger crowd, but also encouraged more internal cooperation between the music and dance departments within schools. And who prefers canned music over live, anyway?

There were several performances that covered many genres of music and dance, and they were all awesome. My favorites were Point Park’s Modern Dance to classic Pittsburgh Jazz and the Pitt African Drumming Ensemble. In the end, I voted for Pitt (I guess I do have some school spirit after all!), and they ended up winning the show!

It was a sweet performance, and I’ve enjoyed coming to the performances every finals season…which hasn’t been particularly helpful grade-wise! Later on this week I’ll tell you about the other competitions and how they went.

If you have nothing to do tonight, head on down to the Blank Walls in East Liberty. They’re having a live graffiti battle, and the winner will get to do his or her magic on one of the new public art walls being put up by the city. There’ll also be a band and refreshments, and it starts at 8 pm.

This is the second time that Blank Walls has held this kind of event–the first was right after the public art walls (which were Mayor Conway’s idea, btw) were approved by City Council 6 months ago. They are still in the process of being constructed, but the idea is to provide a place for graffiti artists to show their creativity in a safe and beneficial way rather than forcing them to do it illegally. Every month the walls will be painted over, and a new set of artists will be able to put up their work. Blank Walls and a few other galleries around town have volunteered to host events to pick the artists, and so far they’ve been a big hit.

I’m getting ready for finals, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make it yet. Drop me a line if you’re planning on going though…it just might persuade me!

I’ve mentioned it before, but Cheeks in Uptown is one of my favorite bars of all time.  Not only is it walkable for Gretchen and I (especially when we have our beer shoes on), it also serves only beer from Western PA.  The owner, Cheeks himself, decided to one-up that this year by having a Pittsburgh-only beer-off yesterday.

I knew Pittsburgh had a lot of local breweries like Iron City, Penn Brewery, and East End Brewing Co., but Cheeks decided to give the big brewers a run for their money by inviting local brew-clubs to join the competition.  They brought a ridiculous amount of specialty brews that sometimes seemed to defy logic and/or the laws of physics.  There was a cherry pie beer, an apple strudel beer, a curry beer, all kinds of different winter lagers…the list went on and on.

My favorite, I must admit, was regular ol’ Iron City.  It might not be the sexiest beer around, but I can’t help it–it just tastes like home.  Gretchen, though, loved a new beer by the East End Brewing Co. which was the hoppiest beer I’ve ever tasted in my life.  We wish we could’ve tasted more of the specialty brews from the local brew-clubs, but they could only bring a limited quantity.  The overall winner?  The Brookline Beermeisters, which is a brew-club.  I think the big brewers were a little jealous; they vowed to up the ante next year by working on a secret brew that won’t be unveiled until the next competition.  That exchange brought a huge smile to Cheeks’ face–it looks like he started a new Pittsburgh tradition!

And if you’re looking for the perfect holiday gift, it’s hard to go wrong with beer!

Gretchen and I decided to be a little adventurous this Thanksgiving and do something we’ve never done before–have both of our families over to our place. Not only was it the first time our families did Thanksgiving together, but it was also the most people we’ve ever cooked dinner for. My parents volunteered to make dessert at their house and bring it over, which helped a lot, and Gretchen’s family helped us a lot with the turkey and stuffing. It got a little cozy in our one-bedroom apartment, but in the end it was a great time.

Gretchen’s parents flew up on Tuesday, and if it weren’t for the yellow line, we would have been stuck on the Parkway for over an hour. Instead, we caught one of the express trains and arrived only a few blocks from our place downtown in less than 20 minutes. Gretchen’s parents still get a kick out of taking the train…it’s cute.

Today we’re planning on heading to the Strip to enjoy the sights. About 10 years ago the business owners in the Strip and Lawrenceville came together to organize “Black Friday on Penn & Butler,” which is a several mile-long street festival going from the Strip all the way through 60th street open only to pedestrian traffic. Besides the shopping, there are tons of street performers, great restaurants, games and other assorted ridiculousness.

My grandma is especially looking forward to it, and she promised me that she will FINALLY try a sandwich at Primanti’s–somehow she’s managed to live in Pittsburgh for almost 50 years and she’s never been there, which has to be a record. I’ll let you know what she thinks!

When Andi called me the second I turned off my work computer and gathered my November-cold clothing (scarf, but a light one; coat, but not a parka), I was ready for whatever she was going to throw my way.

“You wanna go to Murphy’s? 9 o’clock?”

You better believe I wanted to go to Murphy’s at 9 o’clock. Murphy’s is this ridiculously odd little bar nestled between a furniture store and an art gallery on Federal Street on the North Side. It is unabashedly dedicated to all things 90s, which I find pretty hilarious. My mom grew up in the 90s and a few months ago, during one of her visits, I brought her there. The bar’s named for the guy who was mayor of Pittsburgh during most of the decade - some people like that, some people hate it, but the owners don’t really care. They just want you to have a good time. There are posters of bands ranging from Nirvana to the Spice Girls on the walls, the servers dress in their preferred 90s fashions (some people choose to invoke Cher from Clueless, others prefer the grunge look), and, best of all, they have only-90s karaoke on Monday nights.

I asked Frank if he wanted to come along, and he couldn’t resist. One of his fondest memories is of his mom and dad singing Salt N Pepa’s “Let’s Talk About Sex” at a neighborhood barbecue to the general mortification of Frank and his siblings, so he always sings that song at 90s karaoke. My signature song is Hanson’s “MMMBop,” in honor of my mother who had the biggest crush ever on Taylor Hanson back in the day. Andi’s parents had a thing for Oasis, so she always sings “Champagne Supernova.” And any songs that we don’t cover are sure to be done by the other people.

Anyway, it was just what I needed after a long day at work. I love going to these little bars in Pittsburgh, especially the ones that really fit in with their neighborhoods. The North Side is such a weird, funky place that it makes sense it would have a kitschy bar that you can goof off at next to a hoity-toity art gallery and a family-run furniture store. I freaking love it.

So last night I was hanging out with my Dad at his recording studio (it’s called Washie’s, btw, and it’s in East Liberty), and as the night went on, more and more random people just started showing up. I haven’t talked about my Dad much on this site, but he’s an interesting fellow–probably about as laid back as one can safely be. He knows a lot of people in the local scene here, and he’s done a lot to promote local bands and to help them with getting their albums cut. Only a couple of bands/performers he knows have gotten more than regional popularity, but as he says, it seems like every year he’s busier, and that every year there’s more stuff going on.

So as I said, all these musicians kept coming in, sitting down, and chatting with my Dad and the other folks there. Some of them brought instruments, which they started pulling out, and the ones who didn’t were looking at the instruments my Dad had lying around. My Dad always said that it’s dangerous to get into music, because soon you end up with a room-full of instruments and no money!

As the night went on, people started cautiously playing little riffs and licks on the instruments, and slowly, the music overcame the talking. By that time, there was a full-blown jam session going down. My Dad plays a little bit of everything, and as he was walking over to his favorite bass guitar, he looked at me and gave me a smile and a nod, which I knew meant for me to go to the recording booth. Since I never showed any real interest or special talent for playing music, my Dad taught me from a young age how to operate all the equipment in his studio, and every now and then I help him out with a recording.

There’s an understanding among all the musician’s in the area that you could always go into Washie’s and jam, but that recording light would probably be on at the time. My Dad has never done anything with the recordings, but a couple of the musician’s have come back to listen to them and incorporate some things into their songs. I’ve always respected how my Dad just started doing what he wanted to do, even before there was a real tangible “scene” in Pittsburgh…it’s kind of reminds me of a chicken and the egg kind of thing. Did the success of Washie’s help create the scene, or did the scene enable Washie’s to succeed? I guess it was a little of both…