Pittsburgh Dish

Crafty Burghers wanted

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Call for Art and Craft Vendors - North Side Celebration in the Park

Celebration in the Park 6, on the city's North Side, is looking for local artists and crafters. The festival will take place on July 26, 2008 from Noon to 5pm. The table fee for vendors is $25. For more information and an application, contact Robin Rosemary Miller of the North Side Chamber of Commerce at 412-231-6500 or nsccrobin@hotmail.com. The deadline is June 1, 2008.

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From those crafty folks at Handmade Arcade:

It's already time to mark your calendars for Handmade Arcade 2008! Thanks to our awesome vendors and everyone who came out last November. Our two-day event was a huge success! HA is going to be a weekender again in 2008. We'll be announcing the specific dates, time and location details as soon as they are finalized.

Applications for HA:08 will be posted in late July and due at the end of August. You will be able to submit your application online or through the mail, but the only place to score your application form is at www.handmadearcade.com. Look for a future email announcing the open application dates.

Want to sponsor Handmade Arcade 2008? We have several sponsorship levels with numerous opportunities to promote your business to the thousands of Pittsburgh shoppers who join us every year. Contact info@handmadearcade.com for more information.

If you haven't already, make a point to check out www.handmadearcade.com. We've made some changes to the website to make it better, stronger, faster and even prettier! It's easier than ever to find exactly the information you need about Handmade Arcade. We'll be making regular blog posts to let you know about new developments for HA:08. There are links to our FAQ, recent press, 2007 vendors and sponsors, and our contact information. You will also find a link to our Handmade Arcade Flickr page, where you can view photos from Handmade Arcades past and our appearances at The Sprout Fund's annual HotHouse event.

Potluck poetry & art

Bring a dish, dig some art

Dispatch from Beleza Community Coffeehouse in the Mexican War Streets:

This coming Friday, April 4th at 6:30 p.m., we will have our next art opening potluck:

Chronicles: Collages by Richard Schnap

Schnap's simple, thoughtful collages are sometimes social commentary, sometimes simply intriguing. Browse his work here. Come this Friday with food, family and friends to see some new art!

"I use surrealist and pop methodologies to create what I feel are like stills from imaginary films where viewers are encouraged to create their own impressions from the works ranging from the specific to the abstract," said Schnap.

Also, come this week to Beleza to experience a poetry BLITZ! April is National Poetry Month and thus, Beleza has poems covering her walls, tables and trash cans. Stop in and read your heart out.

For more information on our events, go to our website belezacoffee.com

The celluloid Burgh

Local filmmakers selected for Pittsburgh Neighborhood Narratives

by Alice Marks

The sometimes unwelcome influence only “Mombies” (the maternal cousin of zombies) can have over two single 30-somethings; a Jewish/non-Jewish romance set to music and dance; a homeless man who demonstrates his own worth; a mysterious letter from the past and the moral battle it provokes; and the unlikely appeal of the Pittsburgh bus system’s crazy offspring.

This is just a smattering of what the ‘burgh can expect from Pittsburgh Neighborhood Narratives, set to debut this fall.

When Andrew Halasz and Kristen Shaeffer called on Pittsburgh filmmakers to help them craft their cinematic salutation to Pittsburgh – officially titled “Greetings from Pittsburgh Neighborhood Narratives” – they couldn’t have asked for a more eclectic lineup of stories. A bizarre mix of funny, sad, farcical, romantic, musical, sentimental tales – all set frighteningly close to home. Together, these short films will tell the story of Pittsburgh.

“We had a tough time choosing,” Shaeffer (photo below) told the selected filmmakers and writers gathered for the March 6 kickoff meeting of Pittsburgh Neighborhood Narratives, held at the Sprout Fund in Garfield. “But we were looking for personal stories that speak to the experience and character of a given neighborhood, and we felt that your treatments really resonated with that.”

Of the approximately 30 story treatments that were submitted, 12 made it to the final cut. The following are the neighborhoods and individuals chosen to give a voice to Pittsburgh:

• Squirrel Hill -- Todd Schachter
• Regent Square -- Nelson Chipman / Jeremy Braverman
• Strip District -- Ray Werner
• South Side -- John Rice
• Bluff -- Julie Mink / Alexa Casciato
• Homestead -- Matthew J. Fridg / Jenn Golling
• Downtown -- Justin Crimone
• Bloomfield -- Jason Georgiades / Sean Carroll / Russell Brandom / Chet Vincent
• Lawrenceville -- Sam Turich / Gabrielle Reznek
• Oakland -- Justin Francart
• Hill District -- Tim Hall
• Mt. Oliver – Matt Stidle

As introductions made their way around the room, Pittsburgh Neighborhood Narratives began to take shape, progressing from a very cool idea to a viable, realistic project. The filmmakers hailed from all different backgrounds, ranging in age, experience and ethnicity. Their stories were a reflection of that diversity.

“We were looking for people stories – stories that focused more on characters in their environment rather than the environment itself,” explained Halasz.

Jenn Golling whose fictional narrative is set in Homestead, is excited for the opportunity to showcase a neighborhood that was once such a booming part of Pittsburgh’s industry, a neighborhood that is now largely defined by the Waterfront.

“It’s interesting because when I was in high school, Homestead was this scary place to go to,” she said. “And then Sandcastle came in, and it became a little more open. And then of course the Waterfront came …”

Visually, Golling hopes to capture all the disparities of Homestead in her film – from the stark remnants of a once-thriving Main Street to the bright and vibrant oasis that is the Waterfront to lesser known historical landmarks such as the museum and library.

While Golling will handle all the writing, Matt Fridg, her collaborator on the project, brings an extensive film background. For both of them, the opportunity to get involved with Pittsburgh Neighborhood Narratives was too good to pass up.

“Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one more traveled by,” laughs Golling, who majored in technical theater at Slippery Rock University and ended up on a different career path. “This came along and it really speaks to that other road I never took.”

Ray Werner also looks forward to reconnecting with his artistic side through the project. His story unfolds in the Strip District where he used to run an advertising agency.

“It’s a story of friendship,” said Werner, whose main character is a homeless man that panhandles in the Strip.

Werner hopes the film will not only provide some insight into a lonely, often misperceived lifestyle, but also allow viewers to “get a sense of the Strip” as they follow the main character around.

After having spent a considerable amount of time in the advertising business, producing commercials and exercising his creative talents, Werner is eager to make a contribution to Pittsburgh Neighborhood Narratives and “represent the Strip.”

“You take things as they come along,” he said, referring to the project. “There’s a rhythm in your life, and there are moments and they keep happening. I believe in the pursuit of these things.”

And apparently so did the other 18 filmmakers/writers gathered at the Sprout Fund. Excitement was high as each divulged a teaser of their film’s plot and why they chose that particular setting to bring their story to life.

John Rice’s narrative takes place in the South Side, calling attention to generational differences as two neighbors, who couldn’t be any less alike, battle over a coveted parking spot. When Rice joked about the challenge of casting these roles, a fellow filmmaker jokingly countered with “I’d be more worried about finding an empty parking spot in the South Side.”

For a first time meeting, there was a natural chemistry in the room that spoke highly of Halasz’s and Shaeffer’s instinct for talent. And it was rewarding for them to watch their project grow from coffee shop material to a true work in progress.

“It’s cool,” said Halasz, commenting on the excitement and passion everyone brought to the meeting. “We’re psyched by the enthusiasm of the filmmakers.”

While the meeting allowed everyone the chance to get to know each other, it was also an opportunity to go over some of what Halasz referred to as the “nitty-gritties.” Filmmakers left the Sprout Fund armed with all the necessary information, paperwork and contacts for producing their films. They also bounced ideas off one another, anticipating what Halasz expects will be the biggest challenge of all … obtaining funding.

While Pittsburgh Neighborhood Narratives has already received a grant through the Pittsburgh 250 Grassroots Community Connections project, Halasz and Shaeffer will do their best to secure additional funding for the filmmakers. They felt very strongly that participants not only have the opportunity to make a quality film for the benefit of the ‘burgh, but also for their own personal growth.

“This isn’t our [Halasz’s and Shaeffer’s] project,” Halasz emphasized, indicating that individual films will belong to the filmmakers. “We want everyone to have ownership in this.”

Photos by Timothy Hall

See this show

Dagnabbit!

Dish editorial cartoonist Karl Huber's artistic works are nifty. And he's a peach. Find out this Friday evening at his opening reception. Click on the image for details.

Exhibit opens this Friday at moxie DaDA

Small gallery features big talent

An opening reception will be held this Saturday for 'Unveiling 08', an exhibition featuring over a dozen of moxie DaDA's artists. The collection of styles and media range from painting to sculpture to photography, even to furniture design. The public reception will be held  from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The artists featured:

Bruce Berman
Shawn Farester
Robert Huckestein
Matthew Kinsey
Corey Lechat
Denise McMorrow
Maria Napoli
Robert Newell
Cory Rockwood
Jaci Ross
Mark Traughber
Carla Valenti



moxie DaDA gallery
1416 Arch St
Pittsburgh PA 15212
412.682.0348

Manteca sale on again

Reese releases plan to neighbors

Photos by Frank Kownacki

North Side resident Henry Reese, co-founder of the City of Asylum/Pittsburgh, is expected to finally purchase the troubled Manteca bar located at 1410 Monterey St. in the Mexican War Streets. Reese, a Sampsonia Way resident, balked at purchasing the property last year, leaving neighbors frustrated. A nusiance bar task force has been in place and Zone 1 detectives were collecting testimonies from neighbors affected by violence emanating from the bar.

Reese declared his future intentions for the Manteca and an adjacent building in a letter that he slipped through Monterey mail slots yesterday. The letter, along with a liquor license application posted on the front of the bar, affirms the impending demise of the sometimes violent bar. Update 3/13/08: Shots fired outside the bar

He thanked residents for their patience in the never-ending waiting game.

He calls his newly formed limited liability corporation "Ripen" a name chosen in the "hope that it can spur a surge of good things on the transformation of the Monterey Jacksonia corner begun by the Mattress Factory." The MF is located around the corner from the bar on Sampsonia Way, next to many City of Asylum owned properties that were rehabbed for visiting writers. The MF owns a building on the corner of Jacksonia and Monterey that is used for gallery space.

It is also the spot of a drive-by shooting last summer where the intended victim was seen running into the Manteca.

Reese plans to "create a complex with a bar-restaurant-bookstore and literary related activities." He will establish a "space for poetry, fiction readings, intimate theatre, small scale music and workshop spaces, etc."

His personal goal is to form a place "where all have access to ongoing cultural activity that can inspire and change lives." Reese also hopes to create a source of income to continue the City of Asylum project.

Details still being worked out, Reese wrote. No project schedules are in place at this time. Earlier, Reese purchased two properties north of the Manteca to be used as parking for Ripe. The homes were destroyed, upsetting some neighbors who say that city zoning regulations prohibit the property from being used for parking.

Update 3/13/08:Shots fired outside the bar and how city and state official's ignored a judge's warnings about the bar 13 years ago.

Monster's Ball this Friday

The kooky world of Karl Huber opens at ModernFormations Art Gallery

Karl Huber, painter, illustrator, bon vivant, will unveil his latest gaggle of goofy monsters this Friday at 7 p.m. as he will be ModernFormations' featured monthly artist.

Huber's "monsters" are hardly the frightful beasts kids fear looming under their beds. "Troll," a chubby, racoon-eyed, toothy fellow tries to look dukes up but his attempt fails, much like a balding 60 year-old riding a brand new hog. All of Huber's creatures thumb their noses at the traditional notion of the child-eating bogeyman. What's so chilling about a snarling mutant who needs bridge work?

Huber sold every painting at his Beleza Community Coffeehouse show last May (in photo), so hop to it. The exhibit closes on Feb. 29.

ModernFormations Gallery
4919 Pen Ave.
412-362-0274

Hours: Thursday 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Sat. 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. or by appointment.

Photo by Frank Kownacki

Scoop du Jour: Beleza & the Benedum

Art, food on stage

ART OPENING POTLUCK for Assemblages, this Friday, Jan. 18 from 6:30 to 10p.m. at Beleza Community Coffeehouse (1501 Buena Vista, North Side, 412-321-4210).

Assemblages will feature works from our neighborhood's very own Nathan Nissim, an avid collector-turned-artist who creates unique and often humorous assemblages from anything and everything. For those unfamiliar with the term, Wikipedia explains that "Assemblage is an artistic process in which a three-dimensional artistic composition is made from putting together found objects. Assemblage is the 3-dimensional cousin of collage." These pieces combine new and old, tacky and beautiful, strange and common; ultimately composing intriguing little works of art.

Bring food, friends and family and check out some great local art!

Read about Nissim here and here.

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Muriel’s restaurant (856 Western Ave., Allegheny West, 412-322-0476) will host their first Dinner & Theater event on Wednesday, Jan. 30, for "The Lion King" at the Benedum.
This package is less than the cost of an individual ticket. Check out the seating chart.

$125.00 per ticket will include:
1. Ticket to the show.
2. House salad
3. Choice of any entrée on the menu.
4. Coffee/tea Service.
5. No corkage fee.
6. Limousine to the Benedum
7. Pick Up after the show.
8. Coffee and dessert at Muriel's après theater.
9. All taxes and gratuities

The following seats are available…….
EE 21, 23(Sold)
FF 21, 23 (Sold)
H 101 (Sold), 102 (Sold), 103 (Sold), 104 (Sold), 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110
M 113, 114, 115,116
P 115, 116

The tickets for this event must be pre-paid by cash or credit card when they are ordered. Muriel's will accept your phone order. Send Muriel’s an email with your phone number if interested.

Also, Muriel's delivers lunch to several North Side neighborhoods. Visit their website for details.

The young and the crafty

Reporter Alice Marks explores Pittsburgh's growing indie craft scene

Okay, so maybe you don’t care whether so-and-so is sporting a real Coach purse or a fake. And maybe you don’t care because, regardless of its authenticity, everyone has some version of the overrated handbag which, though undeniably sturdy, has built its business on addicted shoppers that swap it out so frequently, it need not last more than a couple of weeks anyway.

So if Coach bags by the thousands don’t excite you, and flattering sweatpants with unflattering words (i.e., ‘Princess,’ ‘Hottie’ or ‘Abercrombie’) printed on the butt actually offend you, then maybe you are, in reality, an ‘I Made It!’ shopper.

I Made It! is Pittsburgh’s local version of the Handmade Arcade, a vagabond craft fair traveling from one unexpected part of the city to the next. But these crafts, and their crafters, have nothing to do with popsicle sticks and painted berries. Or maybe they do. That’s the appeal with browsing tables at an I Made It! show … you never know what you’re going to find. But rest assured, you won’t find it anywhere else.

To the frustrated consumer, fed up with cookie-cutter stores and overwrought trends, I Made It! is a sea of unique, handmade goods, offering individuality at a fair price. To the local crafters, it’s an opportunity to share their art in a creative, receptive environment.

When I Made It! opened its doors to holiday shoppers at the Homestead Owls Club and the Steel Valley Arts Council on December 8, variety did not disappoint. Scattering the tables was everything from mosaic tile ashtrays and reconstructed frames to vintage handbags and knitted scarves. Each vendor had their own distinct style. Even the jewelry, which seemed to be a popular item, dressed itself in a wide array of natural stones, semi-precious gems, brightly-colored glass beads, silver and more.

Zora Hoch, local jewelry artisan, specializes in semi-precious gems and sterling silver. Her interest in jewelry-making began several years ago, originating in broken necklaces, amber beads and eBay. After educating herself on the various types of stones and reading books like ‘Beading for Dummies,’ Hoch soon found herself with a rather large jewelry collection. Wisely, she decided to start selling.

"I use the beads like paint,” says Hoch. “There are so many different colors and textures, it allows me to really be creative with it.”

Hoch first learned of I Made It! from an article in the paper and was eager for the opportunity to share her work. “There’s a different variety of crafters here than other craft shows I’ve been to,” said Hoch, referring to her fellow I Made It! exhibitors. “A lot of younger people.”

As one of the younger crafters, Anna Montano, founder of Pin-Up Girl Designs, also appreciates the diversity of I Made It! “There are new people coming in to every show,” she says.

Montano is a self-taught sewer, having developed a fondness for shoes and handbags at a young age. “Eventually, I got a sewing machine and started tinkering around.” Her current product line consists primarily of vintage-inspired jewelry and handbags.

“I love vintage. I used to be a vintage store junkie,” confesses Montano. But her purses, which are also sold at ‘Bling It On’ in the Southside, are an interesting mix of old and new. “I make it a little more modern. My stuff is super bright and fun, really girly and frilly.”

Montano is a self-declared artist, spending hours each day after work experimenting with different fabrics. During the day she works with autistic kids, which is why ten percent of Montano’s proceeds go to Autism Speaks, the world’s largest autism advocacy organization.

With a trend that seems to be growing, I Made It! allows crafters to bring their trade from a virtual marketplace to a live one. Internet sites such as MySpace and Esty are flooded with local artists, and the network is rapidly expanding. But craft fairs provide a more tangible outlet for vendors to sell their handiwork.

“It’s a great way to meet a lot of other crafters, trade tips, and offer your own ideas and insights,” says Montano. “Hopefully, we’ll inspire others who want to get involved.”

Christopher Tracey recently joined the crew, selling reclaimed and reconstructed picture frames under the brand name ‘Pancake Drawer.’

“I saw a flier somewhere, went to the craft show and thought it was interesting,” says Tracey of his introduction to I Made It! “I wanted to get my act together and sell my stuff in a more formal setting.”

Ecologist by day, crafter by night, Tracey’s love of the environment manifests itself in his recycled artwork. In fact, the idea to create something new from scrap wood first occurred to him while remodeling his kitchen.

But Tracey’s wares extend beyond frames. He also drew attention at the craft show for his license plate flowers … which are exactly as their name suggests. Using reclaimed license plates, Tracey manages to capture the look of a flower on a long, thin wooden stem.

Of course, I Made It! is not only beneficial to artists like Montano, Hoch and Tracey, and the people who purchase their crafts, but also to the neighborhoods whose local venues house those crafts. I Made It! has traveled to underdeveloped neighborhoods like Braddock and Homestead, reminding locals that there’s more to their hometown than the Steel Mill and the Waterfront.

“We go to a different community every few months,” said Montano. “People are starting to hear about it.”

Many of these and other Pittsburgh crafters, as well as information about upcoming markets can be found on I Made It!'s myspace page linked above.

Also check out Pittsburgh Craft Mafia

Draw for a cause

Dr. Sketchy wants you

Tis the season to sketch scantily clad models at Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School. Warm up at our Space Age Bachelor Pad aka Zombo Gallery.

When: Saturday December 15th 8:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m.

Where: Zombo Gallery, 4900 Hatfield Street, Lawrenceville

What: It’s Dr. Sketchy, where artists and their ilk draw, sketch and otherwise capture the exotic beauty of our Dr. Sketchy Girls. Not your run of the mill models. Quirky and unique. The Dr. Sketchy girls will be modeling in the latest 50’s space age fashion Special guest models and featuring our lovely spokesmodel Miss Ashley Stone. As always games, prizes and liberal libatations to limber up your creativity. Bring your sketch book and supplies. Feel free to dress the theme, smoking jackets always permitted.

Hosted by cartooning character Wayno. Tunes provided by Pittsburgh’s hippest hipster DJ Zombo!

Costumes provided by Spotlight Cotume.

Cover charge of 10 bucks supports the ToonSeum Gallery, Pittsburgh’s museum of cartoon arts.

Liquid inspiration will be on hand for an additional donation. Must be 18 to attend, must be 21 to embibe.

For more information visit www.myspace.com/drsketchypgh or email joe@drsketchypgh.com

RSVP reccommended as space is limited!

Of course this means Warhol

Andy and Norman, Together Again

by Christopher Arnott

If there’s a ‘60s icon heaven, I’m sure they’ll have a hell of a coffee table book collection. Norman Mailer died last week. It’s become my mission in this column to connect every known person, place and thing throughout history to Pittsburgh’s pasty pop art deity Andy Warhol. Mailer’s an easy one, and not just because of the handy celeb-unifying dance floor at Studio 54.

In fact, John Homans, in his online memorial for New York Magazine here has beaten me to it:

"It in fact, as an artist, Mailer's accomplishment has as much to do with that of Andy Warhol as with his fellow novelists, in the sense that a large part of his artwork was his existence in the world.

But where Warhol emptied his persona of any human agency, achieving a kind of shimmering weightlessness, Mailer always revealed the human mechanics that drove him. They were co-inventors of modern fame, two sides of a coin."

Go, Homan! Andy and Norman’s personalities were worlds apart—Pennsylvania vs. New Jersey, Factory vs. desk, mumbling effeminate fly-on-wall versus blustering brawler—but they both ruled cultural corners of New York, and they both hit their creative peaks during the ‘60s. Despite their differences, they both were so well suited to that era that you could easily imagine them co-starring in one of the biggest hit plays of that time, The Odd Couple:

Norman: There! I’ve thrown the plate of spaghetti against the wall!
What do you think of that?!
Andy: I like the lines and colors. Now could you smash the bottle of tomato sauce so the label sticks up there? Mmmmmm.

The real-life exchanges between the two were stranger than fiction. A blogger named Palladian, responding to a Mailer obit post at althouse.blogspot.com, writes:

Mailer always makes me think of this passage from Andy Warhol's POPism:

"One Monday afternoon at the Factory, [Mark Lancaster] told me that Mailer had walked over to him at a party over the weekend and punched him in the gut.

I was impressed. "Norman Mailer actually punched you?" I said. "How great.

Why?"

"That's what I asked him. He said it was for wearing a pink jacket."

Norman Mailer was one of the few intellectuals that I really enjoyed."

We may in fact have Warhol to blame for such outlandish self-aggrandizing Mailer films as Maidstone. That act of cinematic abuse not only followed Warhol’s anyone-can-act ethic, it was made in the wake of Valerie Solanas’ attempt on Warhol’s life, not to mention the assassination of Bobby Kennedy, and is those kneejerk artworks about inhumanity and its discontents.

The invaluable website www.warholstars.com features this Mailer commentary on Warhol’s kitchen-sink drama Kitchen, as related in George Plimpton’s oral history Edie:

Norman Mailer: "I think Warhol's films are historical documents. One hundred years from now they will look at Kitchen and see that incredibly cramped little set, which was indeed a kitchen; maybe it was eight feet wide, maybe it was six feet wide. It was photographed from a middle distance in a long, low medium shot, so it looked even narrower than that. You can see nothing but the kitchen table, the refrigerator, the stove, and the actors. The refrigerator hummed and droned on the sound track. Edie had the sniffles. She had a dreadful cold. She had one of those colds you get spending the long winter in a cold-water flat. The dialogue was dull and bounced off the enamel and plastic surfaces. It was a horror to watch. It captured the essence of every boring, dead day one's ever had in a city, a time when everything is imbued with the odor of damp washcloths and old drains. I suspect that a hundred years from now people will look at Kitchen and say, 'Yes, that is the way it was in the late Fifties, early Sixties in America. That's why they had the war in Vietnam. That's why the rivers were getting polluted. That's why there was typological glut. That's why the horror came down. That's why the plague was on its way.' Kitchen shows that better than any other work of that time."

Troy Patterson, at www.normanmailersociety.org, mentions these two kindred cinematic spirits in the same breath, as a way to explain a (vastly superior, I’d say) third:

What's your take on Cassavetes? Here's mine: The filmmaker is one of three avant-gardists who readied America for reality television and the cult of pop personality, and his highly wrought psychodramas are an essential template for every loosely scripted, boozily delivered Real World screaming match. You will surely agree that one of his co-forefathers is Andy Warhol, whose Screen Tests made one giant leap for voyeurism and whose Sleep perfected the art of nothing happening. Do you need convincing that the other is Norman Mailer?

The grandest connection, however, is when Mailer wrote his own self- mocking obituary, in 1979 at the request of Boston Magazine (dug up and posted here), he quoted Warhol in it:

“I always thought Norman kept a low profile. That’s what I liked about him so much.”

Pittsburgh Neighborhood Narratives

Documenting Pittsburgh, non-documentary style

by Alice Marks

Pittsburgh. Free association might leave us with steel, smog, sports, college, yellow bridges and a brief encounter with the nickname "shitsburg" (dubbed so by one of Hollywood’s finest). But for those who have ever made the commute from Braddock Hills to downtown, strategically avoiding route 376 and her faithful band of fluorescent-vested friends, Pittsburgh recalls much more than the industrial revolution and Iron City beer.

Why? Because Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods are as contrasting as they are charming. From the Victorian elegance of Shadyside to the historical intrigue of Wilkinsburg, towns close in proximity belie distinctly different personalities. And while those outside of the ‘burgh may not yet realize its full potential as a mélange of architecture, culture and history, (and those who have lived here their whole life may unknowingly take it for granted), local filmmakers Kristen Shaeffer and Andrew Halasz (pictured) are well aware of the city’s charm.

Inspired by the film ‘Paris Je’taime,’ Schaeffer and Halasz sought a similar way to celebrate the diverse neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, weaving what Halasz refers to as "a fictional fabric that represents our city as a whole."

Their venture is called Pittsburgh Neighborhood Narratives and, much like its Parisian muse, summons the creative genius of several aspiring filmmakers. Ultimately, Neighborhood Narratives will be a series of short films portraying the experience, character and stories of the neighborhoods collectively referred to as "the‘burgh."

So as Pittsburgh gets ready to celebrate its 250th birthday, Halasz and Shaeffer invite local filmmakers to submit story treatments highlighting one of the city’s unique neighborhoods. An advisory panel (comprised of notables from the Pittsburgh film community) will then select the stories that best capture the spirit of their respective setting.

"We want people to know what it feels like to live in one of these communities," said Shaeffer.

A handful of candidates will be engaged to write a script and begin production, leaving their 10-minute mark on what promises to be a fascinating portrait of Pittsburgh. But the best part is that while these filmmakers are immortalizing their hometown (or at least a town they spent some portion of their life in) and adding another bullet point to the old resume, artistic vision need not surrender itself to homogeny.

As a filmmaker, media artist and instructor at Chatham University, Shaeffer has found that "a narrative is much more interesting when it pulls from a diversity of voices." She and Halasz had originally toyed with the idea of producing all the material themselves, but, in the end, decided against it. "… not only for the integrity of the project," laughs Halasz, "but also for a more accurate portrayal of Pittsburgh." While the dynamic duo may end up contributing a short or two, the bulk of the project will be a collaborative effort among members of the Pittsburgh film community. Halasz and Shaeffer both agreed that in painting our fair city, the more perspectives, the better.

It is for this reason that the nominated filmmakers will be heavily involved in the production of their shorts. "We leave everything to the filmmakers," said Shaeffer. While her and Halasz will oversee the logistics of the project, participating filmmakers will exercise complete creative control, casting, directing and generally shaping the course of the film.

Like Shaeffer, Halasz is also a media artist and an instructor at Point Park University. Having only moved to Pittsburgh two years ago, he is amazed at how much the city has grown on him. "There really is a thriving cultural scene here," he says, a pointed compliment from someone who has spent time in both New York and Paris. With Neighborhood Narratives, Halasz and Schaeffer hope to draw attention to the eclectic, often overlooked, side of Pittsburgh.

And to ensure that no good story gets left behind, the deadline for submission has been extended to January 1, 2008. Pittsburgh Neighborhood Narratives has already piqued the interest of several local filmmakers and, if all goes well, Halasz and Shaeffer anticipate a completed film by early next fall. The screenings will ideally take place at venues in neighborhoods from which the stories originated.

"We’d like to make it something of an event," said Schaeffer. "This is a great way to connect educators, students and artists, not only with each other, but also with their local communities."

Wanted: Reel people

Hooray for Neighborwood

A Call for Artists

Neighborhood Narratives will be a series of short narrative films by local filmmakers, each portraying the experience of one of the diverse neighborhoods of Pittsburgh.

They are currently looking for filmmakers to participate by submitting a treatment by December 1, 2007. Filmmakers whose stories speak most strongly to the personality of their community will then be engaged to write a script and begin production.

The completed shorts will be compiled for screenings throughout the city as a way to celebrate Pittsburgh's 250th year in 2008.

Visit their website for more details and check out their myspace page.

Welcome to Pitts(hic!)burgh

The Pittsburgh Whiskey Festival takes place this Friday at Heinz Field (tickets are steep). Pair that with the art of Mitch O'Connell (pictured) at Zombo Gallery in Lawrenceville on Saturday (free). 

Of course this means Warhol

Worth the trip

by Christopher Arnott

While Pittsburgh’s Warhol Museum continues to display Andy’s small-screen ventures, the city where those shows were produced, New York, is hosting a series of Andy’s much better known, and much better period, short films. “Warhol’s World” runs Oct. 20 through Nov. 11 at the Museum of the Moving Image. The program includes all the early hits, in all their 16mm glory:

Oct. 27: 46 minutes of the eight-hour Empire, Vinyl, Kitchen, Beauty #2, Camp, the 1965 Velvet Underground and Nico live footage from the Factory, Paul Swan and Hedy.

Oct. 28: Poor Little Rich Girl (just the first reel) and I, A Man.

Nov. 3: Outer and Inner Space (a Dual Projection experiment starring Edie Sedgwick as a girl struck by the screen presence of Edie Sedgwick), plus Lupe and More Milk Yvette. Then the classic Chelsea Girls.

Nov. 4: My Hustler, Loves of Ondine, Bufferin, Ari and Mario, Nude Restaurant.

Nov. 10: Since, Salvador Dali, Bike Boy and screenings of new documentaries about Warhol hangers-on Danny Williams and Candy Loving.

Nov. 11: Lonesome Cowboys. Mrs. Warhol (starring Andy’s mother) and Sunset (soundtracked by Nico’s voice reciting her own poetry).

I’ve been stunned lately by the exquisite DVD collections of Kenneth Anger’s films (released by Fantoma; volume two just came out, with a 48-page booklet). Anger vs. Warhol is grist for another column, but just on a packaging and scholarship level the Anger sets are so amazing that I went looking to see if Warhol’s gotten a similar treatment by anyone. Amazingly, there seem to be no domestic DVD of Warhol’s cinematic works, just a few European imports.Theater-bound festivals like these are your only hope. Strangely, I think Kenneth Anger works better on a big screen, with a live audience (the main reason to get the DVDs is his bored-sounding commentary about the horrible deaths and suffering many of his collaborators faced), while Warhol’s stuff loses very little on the small screen, and the multi-hour Empire and Sleep might even benefit from being left on the screen like that yule log at Christmastime. Until someone rises to the challenge, you have to don your NYC cineaste garb and sit in a filmic museum to get your Blow Job fix.

Pictured: Viva in Nude Restaurant.

Look Back on Angry

Twelve Angry Men come to Heinz Hall

by Christopher Arnott

I saw the tour of Twelve Angry Men, coming Oct. 23-28 to Heinz Hall, last year in Connecticut when the guy who played Norm on Cheers was sharing star billing with Richard Thomas (the only “name” left in the cast). In a smallish role, George Wendt nearly crowded everyone else off the stage. The cast might actually be better balanced with his absence.

Richard Thomas was a hardy theater actor long before and after The Waltons, a real risk-taker. He starred in Ibsen’s Peer Gynt at Hartford Stage, where he also did such challenging, typecast-busting roles as Richard II and Brother Julian in Albee’s Tiny Alice. He was a member of outré director Peter Sellars’ American National Theatre company in Washington D.C. in the mid-’80s, starring in The Count of Monte Cristo. Now he’s exercising another acting muscle—the one that makes him a Henry Fonda for our time. He’s not doing John-Boy here, but he is playing upstanding and earnest and straightfaced, and he’s darn good at it. Hell, before he was doing The Waltons, he was doing Butterflies Are Free in summer stock, and Barefoot in the Park besides. All the sensitive, supportive parts.

A guy has died in Twelve Angry Men, but the tour won’t. It’s the remnant of a powerful and carefully cast Roundabout Theatre production that starred Boyd Gaines and featured one of my favorite- ever character actors, Tom Aldredge (Carmela’s dad on The Sopranos). The touring version I saw, and which has apparently changed a bit since then, wasn’t as canny in its casting, but still came off as a credible, snappily paced revival of a play that’s been beat into a sluggish pulp by too many overwrought community theater productions.

It’s a thrill to see a seemingly irredeemably dated drama like this one done up right. Not reinterpreted, not modernized, not reimagined, just neatly staged with a consistent tone and rhythm.

Twelve Angry Men began as a TV drama, and you can still see how its key physical moments were designed for camera close-ups. It certainly isn’t the ensemble piece it could be. But it’s an American equivalent
of a good Sherlock Holmes story: a mystery solved patiently through sober deduction, despite the yammering distraction of well-meaning naysayers. There are personal breakthroughs galore (“I’m a bigot!” “I’m a bad dad!”) to make this a “modern,” psychiatric potboiler. But the pleasure’s in the old-fashioned dramatic storytelling—and seeing Richard Thomas in a part he’s now had a year or more to make his own.

$19.50-$45.50. Tue.-Thu. At 7: 30 p.m., Fri. at 8 p.m., Sat. at 2 & 8 p.m., Sun. at 1 & 6:30 p.m.
(412) 392-4900.

The World on a String

by Christopher Arnott

As titles go, the Black Sheep Puppet Festival is pretty redundant. Puppetry is the bastard performance artform, presumed by most casual partakers to be a haven for rank juvenilia, created by craftspersons so socially backward that they have to hide behind dolls. Black Sheep indeed.

I’ve endured the egregrious misunderstandings about this endlessly innovative artform myself. My father was a world-class puppeteer, author of a key work on the subject (Plays Without People, published
in 1962 and dedicated to a baby-sized me). On more than one occasion I’d be at one of his shows where 2- or 3-year-old children were being turned away, to the bitter complaints of parents who were appalled that the tots would be denied entry to a “puppet show.” It didn’t deter them that the performances in question were of Oedipus Rex, a classical Greek tragedy during which a monarch tears out his own eyes. My father, a classical scholar using his own translations and research, found marionettes a perfect medium to perform plays by Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes and others, since the size of the wooden performers in a standard auditorium was similar to what an audience might see if sitting in a Greek amphitheater looking at human-sized actors.

Puppetry’s an amazing medium for political theater, social satire, Latin American-style literary fantasies, horror, burlesque and melodrama. Such range and power is epitomized by the Black Sheep
Puppet Festival, whose ninth annual edition begins with a party at the Brew House (2100 Mary St.,412-381-7767, thebrewhouse@gmail.com) Friday Oct. 19.

Another artform which, like puppetry, gets short shrift because it seems to be merely a shrunken-down form of a supposedly higher art will also be regularly on view during the Black Sheep fest. That
unfairly maligned instrument of entertainment is the divine, misunderstood ukulele, equally capable of quaint savage-breast soothing and punk vigor. Liz Hammond strums original “ukulady” tunes at Friday’s opening, and Buddy Nutt (an eclectic singer- songwriter who moved to Pittsburgh’s shores just recently and is as adept on kazoo and didgeridoo as on uke) performs Pickleville, his “tragicomic opera for pickle puppets” among the featured festival performances on Oct. 26 & 27.

Other performers in the more-than-week-long fest include Indicator Species (“Dinner’s Ready”), Skin and Bone Theater (“The Errorist”), Major Arcana (“The Monkey’s Heart”), Body Invisible (“On TV”), Udienetta (“Secnarf Pool”), Joann Kielar (“Worlds for a Better World”) and The Ubuists, who present their inflatable adaptation of one of the landmark works of outré puppetry, Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi. All of the above can be found on the main performance program Oct. 26 & 27.

In its base form, Ubu Roi is as harrowing as anything in Oedipus Rex (or Macbeth, on which it’s loosely based). Bring young children to see it and face the glare of my imperious father looking down from
heaven with puppeteerial scorn.

There are all-ages programs for the kiddies, after all, on selected afternoons. The Black Sheep Puppet Festival also features lectures, demonstrations, special events at Tom Sarver’s Tom Museum, workshops with Sarah C. of Toronto’s Stranger Theatre, Pittsburgh puppetry icon Gregory Knipling showing off puppets from his collection, and an assorted of other diminutive yet grandiose delights. For a full schedule, stick your hand up http://www.blacksheeppuppet.com.

Photo: Buddy Nutt

Moveable feast

Nomadic artists travel to Braddock

Click image to enlarge

I Made It! is a nomadic marketplace showcasing the best in the Pittsburgh DIY movement. Their next event
will be held on Saturday, Oct. 28 at the former Presbyterian Church, 416 Library St., Braddock from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.

In September, I Made It! drew 50 local vendors to market their wares at the Brew House. Vendors featured handmade items including: plastic dinosaur jewelry, t-shirts, mix CDs, vintage inspired handbags, mosaics, hand-knit accessories, upcycled paper goods, ceramics, handmade books, hand blown glass sculpture, handmade lamps, kitchenware, dollhouse furniture, screen printed clothing, digital photographs, vegan baked goods, reusable coffee clutches, natural bath products, kimono wrist cuffs, custom sewn children’s goods, magnets, stickers, pendants, zines, finecrafted woodcuts and etchings, babyslings, greeting cards, wheel thrown porcelain, repurposed clothing tote bags and more.

For more details go here.

A Mitch in Time

Pink elephents and poodles at the new Zombo Gallery

by Christopher Arnott

Poster art shows are perfect for Pittsburgh, which still has a street-flier mentality and a lot of abandoned warehouse walls to paste paper on. Starting with a reception Nov. 3 at 5:30 p.m., Lawrenceville will get a dose of what a truly great poster can do, when the new Zombo Gallery at 4900 Hatfield St. hosts “Never Forget to Get Drunk: The Art of Mitch O’Connell” through Dec. 1.

As poster propaganda goes, that title slogan only scratches the surface of O’Connell’s oeuvre, which ranges from the demonic to the kittenish, rendered in a kitschy cool style that’s retro-seeming but actually is richer and raunchier than the ‘50s/’60s tone it exudes. His celebrity caricatures, monsters, big-eyed children and
overexcited businessmen have the shading and colors and thick black lines of an era when average color printing was more basic and illustrators knew what to emphasize. But the Chicago-based delineator’s stuff is also distinctively his, a generation beyond the Rat Fink, Hannah-Barbera, Hot Stuff, Liddle Kiddles and Famous
Monsters and Barbie doll imagery it evokes (to name a hip few).

One of the more amusing things about O’Connell’s art is that you could hold an exhibit of his work yourself, picking from thousands of images, and not even have to pay him or tell him. That’s because for most of his career, while he creating hipster-demimonde masterpieces with one hand, he was churning out clip art (those freebie illustrations used to brighten up cheap newspapers and Tag Sale ads), much of it easily recognizable as his work.

So it’s nice to see Mitch O’Connell getting his name out there, and showing the young turks what it’s like to be able to create the sort of sex-kitten and swinger’s-circus imagery that most of us have to rip out of old magazines.

The Zombo exhibit will apparently include O’Connell’s drawings as well as his poster art. At the opening, the artist will also be signing copies of his new book, which collects hundreds of examples of yet another accessible art form he’s mastered: tattoo designs.

He really gets around, this guy, and doesn’t even need a stretched canvas. Unless tattooed beer bellies count.

Art showdown this weekend

  It's Iron Chef minus the ham

ART OLYMPIC THEATRE AT THE NEW HAZLETT THEATER

On October 6th at 7:30pm, the New Hazlett Theater will host three teams of artists who will compete to build winning sculptures out of secret materials (read: junk to be unveiled at the event). The only supplies that the teams may bring with them to the challenge are the contents of one suitcase.

Conceived by Tom Sarver of The Tom Museum, winner of the Mayor’s Award for Public Art, Art Olympic Theatre brings the drama and spontaneity of reality TV and sports straight to the public in the form of an arts event. Tom was particularly inspired by the Food Network cooking show Iron Chef while developing the idea. The event launches a series of Art Olympic Theatre events sponsored in part by a Seed Award from the Sprout Fund. Future events are planned for March and July of 2008.

The night will also feature food, beverages, audience participation games, and music by Mr. Funky and DJ Mary Mack. The theme of this Art Olympic event is sculpture. West Virginia University Sculpture Professor Doug Loewen has been invited to compete against Pittsburgh team leaders Morgan Cahn and Chris Kardambikis of Encyclopedia Destructica.

Sarver, Mike Cuccaro, Liz Hammond and Buddy Nutt will host the event in an evening that promises to be part reality TV show, part art opening, part construction site and part theatre extravaganza.

New Hazlett Theatre, Allegheny Square East, Pittsbugh, PA 15212; Doors open at 7pm; Tickets $10 at the door or call the Mattress Factory at 412-231-3169.

Toons; See ‘em

Cartoon art exhibit debuts at Children's Museum

by Christopher Arnott

Museums and drawings have gone together since the dawn of chalk. But some sorts of drawings have taken a bit longer to get institutional support. Cave scrawlings are cool, but more modern cartoons tend not to get their own exhibitions. In Pittsburgh particularly, a city which had a major stake in the comics-driven pop art craze of the 1960s, this is a shame.

The shame subsides with the opening this month of the Toonseum, a new gallery at the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum. It’s curated by Joe Wos, whose prior museum-friendly cartoon gigs include a stint as resident cartoonist at the Charles M. Schulz Museum in California.

The Toonseum’s first exhibit is a moving tribute, “From Illustration to Animation: Picture Books Come Alive Through Animation.” That’s some long-winded title, but that’s what legitimacy gets ya. Wos’ own work, seen at www.onceuponatoon.com, is decidedly lowbrow and fantasy-filled, and he’s done cartoon demos at the Children’s Museum for years, but his gallery’s clearly going to be touching on some mature topics in upcoming shows like “Drawn in Black and White: The Portrayal of Minorities in Cartoons,” announced in a press release but not yet on the official schedule. Local color will be provided January 2 through March 31 with “Plot Threads: Storylines by Great Lakes Cartoonists.”

Also planned is an exhibit where kids can see how kids are portrayed in comics, which may cause an uprising if today’s youth takes offense with the age-old stereotype that all youngsters must wear striped shirts, short pants and beanies. It’s unlikely that the Toonseum will ever reach the sociopolitical level of the exhibit American Caricature: An exhibit of political cartoons, which runs through Oct. 20 at Three Rivers Arts Festival Gallery on Liberty Ave. and includes and Andy Singer image of Disney characters in army duds invading a small country in the name of capitalism, but it’s a start.

What local talent could the Toonseum conceivably draw from? Well, the Great Lakes chapter of the National Cartoonist Society includes everyone from Topps Kids baseball card illustrator David Coulson to Archie comics writer Craig Boldman to underground cartoonist Wayno to legendary “Wordless Workshop” and “Laugh-In” comic strip artist Roy Doty.

The grand opening of the Toonseum is Oct. 13 at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, 10 Childrens Way; details at www.toonseum.com.

We’ll see how long this latest stab at museum-approved cartooning lasts. The Toonseum’s only scheduled to be part of the Children’s Museum through October 2008, after which the project hopes to become its own non-profit in its own location.

Neighborhood awash in arts & junk

House Tour, jazz & poetry, yard sale on tap in the Mexican War Streets

Update: Event at Beleza tonight

Festivities abound this weekend in the Mexican War Streets. Here's a line-up of events:

TONIGHT

Mattress Factory

India, New Installations, Part II Opening Reception
Friday, September 7, 2007
6PM-9PM
Admission $10/$5 with valid student ID/MF members FREE

India: New Installations, Part II, includes artists Anita Dube, Raqs Media Collective and Hema Upadhyay.

Beleza Coffeehouse, 1501 Buena Vista, 412-321-4210

Opening Potluck 7 p.m.
Celebrate a new art show featuring the paintings of Moshe Sherman. Moshe will be present, and hopefully so will you! Bring food or drink and friends or family to this event, it would be great to see you
there. The event will run until we close at 10 p.m.

SATURDAY:

Preceding City of Asylum’s annual jazz concert, Writers-in-the-Gardens is a literary event staged in the cozy and eclectic public gardens of the Mexican War Street area. Starting from four different gardens on the North Side, small groups of ten people will be led on a tour, from garden to garden. Stationed in each garden will be a different poet or short-story writer who will read for 5-10 minutes for each group. All gardens are within easy walking distance of each other. The event starts at 4 p.m.

The "garden tour" is limited to 40 people. It’s free, but by reservation only.

Email coapgh@yahoo.com for reservations

Free Jazz-Poetry Concert
7:30 pm to 9:30 pm
Sampsonia Way -- North Side

Sampsonia Way will be closed to traffic, and a stage will be erected in the middle of the street. To accommodate an expected crowd of 700 people, sound equipment and a giant video screen will be set up. The event turns a tiny alley on Pittsburgh’s North Side into a site of world-class performance spanning the disciplines of art, literature and music. The event promotes awareness of increasing global repression of literary writers, and showcases inter-cultural, multi-disciplinary collaborations with multi-cultural perspectives. For this day, Pittsburgh is the center of the world, when it comes to defending and exemplifying free expression.

SUNDAY

Mexican War Streets Socirty Annual House & Garden Tour 2007

The Mexican War Streets House & Garden Tour is the oldest and finest house tour in the city of Pittsburgh.

During the 38th annual event, held from 11 am to 5 pm on Sunday, September 9th, visitors will be treated to a leisurely self-guided tour of 14 homes throughout our historic neighborhood. Homes on tour represent beautiful restorations and some that offer a glimpse behind the effort that goes into a work-in-progress.Every home is unique; expressing each homeowner’s personal taste and style.

The House Tour will also showcase a midway of vendors, along with a Restaurant Tasting that will feature Atria’s, New Moon Fusion Restaurant, Muriel’s and The Monterey Pub. Food tickets will be available for $4 each.

Tour tickets are available in advance for $18 per person, or $20 per person on the day of the tour at the ticket booth on the corner of Monterey Street and West North Avenue. To purchase tickets, use the the online order below or phone 412.323.9030.

Yard Sale

About 15 households will participate in a yard (or street) sale on Filson Street (between Palo Alto and Resaca streets) from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. All sorts of treasures will be up for grabs including clothing, books, posters, bric-a-brac and vintage stuff that Mr. & Mrs. Dish need to unload.

Writer departs the War Streets

Exiled poet exits to the Exit State

Dissident writer/painter Huang Xiang, considered to be “China’s Walt Whitman,” has left Pittsburgh after completing his two-year term with City of Asylum/Pittsburgh.

Huang and his wife, Zhang Ling, moved to New Jersey to be closer to family. While in Pittsburgh, Huang spoke little English and relied on his wife to translate.

City of Asylum/Pittsburgh, which is part of The North American Network of Cities of Asylum, provides sanctuary to writers exiled under threat of death, imprisonment, or persecution in their native countries. The program, which receives no government money, provides housing, a stipend, medical benefits, legal and translation services and job placement should they want additional income.

During his stay in Pittsburgh, former mayor Tom Murphy declared Sunday, Nov. 21, 2004, 'Huang Xiang Day.” In celebration, Huang painted poems on his Sampsonia Way wooden house in the Mexican War Streets on the North Side.

Huang’s writings clashed with Chairman Mao’s Communist propaganda and spent more than 10 years in jail. He arrived in the U.S. in 1997 and moved to Pittsburgh in 2004.

Huang will return to Pittsburgh next month to take part in City of Asylum’s Free Jazz-Poetry Concert on Sept. 8.

Horacio Castellanos Moya, Huang’s former Sampsonia neighbor, is City of Asylum’s current writer-in-residence. Moya, who was exiled from El Salvador after receiving death threats for exposing links between the country's political and military rightist leaders and organized crime, has written eight novels, five short story collections and one book of essays. His novel “Senselessness” is now being translated into English for a Spring 2008 release. He will also read at the event.

Moya has no plans to move to New Jersey.

Photo above by Frank Kownacki: (l to r) Starving artist Karl Huber; An animated Mr. Dish; Horacio "Why am I eating with these ninnies?" Moya

Art cart draws neighborhood kids

A morning of art

Photos by Frank Kownacki. Click images for larger views.

About 60 kids participated in Citiparks Roving Art Cart summer program this morning in Allegheny Commons Park on the North Side. Two artists were on hand to guide the tykes in art projects. Their masterpieces will be displayed on a wall to be located along One Wild Place.

According to the city's website: "The Roving Art Cart visits neighborhood parks, playgrounds, community festivals and citywide special events throughout the City of Pittsburgh. Beginning in late June and concluding in mid-August, the Roving Art Cart visits one site each Tuesday through Friday (10 a.m. – 1 p.m.) and special events on the weekends."