Yinzer in the Shire

If you have yet to see Amanda Palmer's latest music video for The Bed Song kindly do so now.  No worries, I will wait for you.  Here, I will even post it so you don't have to go searching.  Now hurry up, my food is getting cold... I first heard the Bed Song last Thursday, Valentine's Day, when it premiered and it has stuck with me for the whole week.  Amanda's lyrics have a way of leaving you vulnerable and broken.  It's not just a song about a sexless marriage, but rather a lack of intimacy.  Sex and intimacy often go hand-in-hand, but they are not exclusive of each other.   There is nothing worse than being in a relationship and feeling utterly alone and yet I'm certain it has happened to us all at one time or another.  Sometimes it's just for a season, for others, life. No relationship ever begins emotionally distant, at least I should hope not.  How do you keep the passion alive, the communication flowing?  And if you cannot...

"Are you taking pictures of empty chairs?" Yes. "Is this an internet thing?" No, I just like the eclectic nature of the chairs "…it's an internet thing." The great thing about being an adult is, you get to do all the things your younger self was denied; as a wild and rebellious teenager I was constantly asking to go to shows at Garfield Artworks to see bands such as The Hormones perform.  Garfield's reputation being what it is, my parents always ignored my pleas.  Flash-forward eight years later and there I was shivering outside a very locked building at seven in the evening.  A tall, slender man in a cowboy hat came out of the shadows and pointed towards a flyer in the window: "Doug Mains & the City Folk, with Western Pennsylvania and The Marbits…8 pm." Ugh.  In the light it was obvious the slender cowboy was Jeff Betten of Western Pennsylvania, what luck!  We headed over to Spak Brothers Pizza to warm our toes and meet his part...

Party-goers viewing "People+Places"  Note: This entry is a bit late as I got caught up in life this past week and was unable to post.   Precisely a week ago the Carnegie Museum of Natural History held CAKEitecture in honor of the opening of their exhibit,  20/20: Celebrating Two Decades of the Heinz Architectural Center . Obviously the "itecture" comes from the "architectural" bit, but the "CAKE", well that part was rather ingenious.  Architects and designers were paired with local bakeries to create amazing works of edible architecture.  These confectionary marvels were then put on display for party-goers to vote on.  There were five cakes in all from the following teams: 
The Design Alliance and Gluuteny 
Loysen + Kreuthmeier Architects and Prantl’s Bakery
 Springboard Design and Sugar ‘N Spires Perkins Eastman and Madison Ave Cakes 
Young Architects Forum (YAF) and Dozen Bake Shop The cakes were absolutely gor...

Wow, Friday, what a day!  The morning found me quietly making my way to CMU for the Kids+Creativity Network Primer .  I chose to walk instead of dealing with the hassle of campus parking and it was a glorious decision.  The morning was perfect with just the right amount of rain and a sense of calm. The primer itself was very well attended, McConomy Auditorium was filled to capacity and yet everywhere I looked was another familiar face.  K+C used the first hour of the event to share the amazing work those in the network are doing as well as announce the launch of their Hive Learning Network .  After the talking was done we migrated up to Rangos Hall for networking and muffins.  I find the most enjoyable part of any K+C event to be the booth visiting, oh so many free pens!  I kid, I kid.  Though it is nice to pick up free loot that isn't what keeps me interested, rather it is the opportunity to visit with old friends and make new ones, to explore...

This morning I was inspired to revisit my past posts, I am so very thankful I did.  Some people and recent events had me starting to believe the notion that I am a generally sad person, looking back on my old posts from 2009 - 2010 remind me that this is not true.  The most notable post is Friday, June 26th, 2009: "Success" . A lot has changed since that post and yet a lot has stayed the same.  I left my job cleaning toilets to for a part-time position as Head Librarian at the Pittsburgh Filmmakers Library.  My librarian job allowed me a great amount of freedom, but also a great amount of responsibility.  I thought the best part would be the books, but it turns out what I loved the most were the people.  Librarians don't just direct patrons to resources, they are a resource.  Many days I spent running between the library and the editing suites, helping patrons having issues with Final Cut Pro 7.  I get a certain thrill from that type of stress...

Danish by the lovely Angelica Writing this blog from my first ever Stitch and Bitch, not much Stitching is taking place, no Bitching either really.  I demand a refund!  Though on second thought, there are plenty of puppy kisses and homemade maple danishes so perhaps I rescind that statement. -  At work we have teamed up with a local school, training students in an eleventh grade English class how to create a short documentary.  Today I was asked to join one of the groups as they ventured over to City of Asylum for their preliminary meeting with Israel Centeno.  City of Asylum is located on the North Side, they offer long-term residency for exiled writers, allowing them a safe space to transition into their exile while continuing their work.  Previous writers have included, Huang Xiang , Horacio Castellanos Moya , and Khet Mar .  Mr. Centeno has been with City of Asylum since 2010 when he was exiled from Venezuela.  He was exiled ...

'Twas a busy day today between church, devil stick practise, trips to the market, and cooking new foods. Devil stick practise seems to be progressing nicely, nevermind neither of us can technically keep the devil sticks up in the air for more than a minute.   We are quickly becoming pros at flower sticks though.   The hope is that by this time next year we will be advanced enough to run away and join the circus, or perhaps the ren faire circuit, we aren't picky.   The company that made my flower sticks has since gone out of business, but you can purchase wonderful juggling supplies from Ben at Serious Juggling .   Today's practise mainly involved duo juggling, think passes and steals.  Actually, no need to think, just check out this video:                                 ...

I abandoned this project back in 2010, but now I think it is time to revive it with a new purpose. I began this year with a list of places I wanted to visit, things I wanted to do, and new skills I wanted to learn.  So far I am well on my way, already taking up robotics and computer programming, in addition to visiting the Carnegie Museum of Natural History more times than is really necessary.  This blog will reflect my adventures and mishaps while hopefully providing some educational and informational bits about our city. Within the next year you can expect to read about the following: Kennywood Phipps The Carnegie Museums Children's Museum South Oakland Mary Shine Zoo Highland Park CLP Main Mattress Factory Assemble Film Kitchen Luna Park Historical Pittsburgh HackPGH The Union Project Mr. Roger's Lost Episode "Conflict" Gardening Cooking Center for Post-Natural History Unblurred Technical Conferences Robots Tiny Houses Art All Night ...