November 14, 2007
Sew? Knit? Apply within
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Last month's market in Braddock was a hoot. Handmade everything from soap to squids. Pick up unique cards and gifts for the holidays, all reasonably priced and crafted in or near Pittsburgh. If you haven't stupidly sewn your skirt to a placemat you were making to earn a Girl Scout badge (like Mrs. Dish, despite her mom being an expert sewer) and have quality stuff to sell, contact I Made It!
I Made It! for the Holidays
December 8, 2 - 8 pm
Homestead
I Made It!, the Steel Valley Arts Council and Artspace 105 present a Holiday Market
Join us from 2 - 8 pm at the Homestead Owl's Club, 108 W. 8th Avenue, Homestead, directly across from the Homestead Grays Bridge for holiday shopping, socializing, crafting fun, food, drinks and more...
Ample onstreet parking on 8th Avenue and across the street on 7th Avenue under the Homestead Grays Bridge
Now Accepting Vendors. To apply, starting Sunday, November 11 at 8 pm, send your name, e-mail address, phone number, business name, URL and a short description of your craft to: imadeitpgh@gmail.com
First 50 vendors to apply will be accepted.
For more information, visit www.myspace.com/imadeitpgh
November 14, 2007 in Cool stuff | Permalink | Comments (0)
October 17, 2006
Frankie Capri: The Man, the myth, the costume changes
Pittsburgh's legendary one-man Vegas act.
by Sports Editor Jody DiPerna
If you can't write about this, then you're no writer," said my friend Cindy at the St. Benedict the Moor/Epiphany Church Nationality Food Festival on Saturday, October 14th. We were watching Frankie Capri and I may not be a writer, because the Frankie Capri experience is pretty hard to describe.
Any Pittsburgh hipster of a certain age (i.e., those of us old enough to remember the old Liberty Bell on the South Side before it became the Lava Lounge) probably spent more than a few Friday nights at the Liberty Bell, crushing Rolling Rocks, donating to Frankie in an old coffee jar carried around by his wife, donning hats and masks in big boxes next to the stage, and just feeding into the rollicking lunacy of Frankie Capri. Cindy and I have been trying to track down Capri for a few years now. Heck, we worried that he was dead. But the Bloomfield native told us that he's taken his show on the road, working mostly in New Jersey these days, but he is anxious to find regular gigs back in Pittsburgh.
What Capri does is part Elvis impersonation, part Frank Sinatra homage, multimedia performance art. He combines the diction of Michael Stipe (the early years), the phrasing of Jimmy Durante, a smidgen of polka legend Frank Yankovich, and the joi de vive of Tom Jones. And that doesn't even do justice to Frankie Capri, Pittsburgh's oldest and greatest lounge act. He often forgets the lyrics, but it doesn't matter, because he just comes in late or whenever he feels like it. It all works because he has more fun than Sienna Miller at a movie opening where she's guest listed on the red carpet.
That's only the beginning. Frankie's stage set includes an American flag, an Italian flag, a giant lighted palm tree and beach umbrella, and dolls and toy monkeys that move to the beat, including a stuffed, chained gorilla that Frankie tugs on to dance to the beat with him from time to time. With the beat of an early '80's synth-pop machine backing him, he plays the organ or the accordion, which is how I remember Capri from the Liberty Bell days. He's updated with the times and he often comes out from behind his set and "plays” the guitar or the ukulele or even the trumpet. See, the thing is, he uses a tape, just like karaoke, and fake strums his guitar while crooning to Elvis or Johnny Cash.
Oh, did I mention the costume changes?
Capri starts with slim black trousers, black boots with a Beatle-esque heel, a white short-sleeved dress shirt and a black belt with a large silver buckle. For the Elvis numbers, he dons a black leather jacket; for Frank, a traditional trench coat, vintage '50's Sinatra; for the Don Ho numbers, an Hawaiian shirt and lei; for Bobby Darin, a dinner jacket. Since the last time I saw him, he's also added Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" to his repertoire and it's worth the price of an Imp an' Arn just to hear that song, for which he wears a vintage denim and brown suede blazer.
Maybe what's so special about Frankie is the complete unaffected fun and almost child-like nature of his shows. It's as though he invited you to step back in time to his 8-year-old bedroom where you get to watch him play air guitar and sing along to an old tape deck, while he wears his father's suit jackets to match the material. Didn't we all do that in our bedrooms? The material may be different, I but I remember many days singing along to the Stones, one of those candy cigarettes dangling out of the corner of my mouth, strumming a play guitar purchased at the Five & Ten and singing along with Keith Richards to "Happy."
Thank God Frankie Capri still lets us relive a bit of that. It's even better now that we're grown, because we get to do it with beer.
October 17, 2006 in Cool stuff, Jody Sez, Music [1], Weekend Fun | Permalink | Comments (5)
October 13, 2006
48 Ahrs-0-Fun
Your weekend guide to the Burgh, brought to you by Dish pal Patrick Kent over at I heart PGH.
Friday, October 13 Scitech SpectacularShore Side
“Ride a Freakin’ Segway!” is what this one boils down to. Oh, ok, those guys that did the Mentos/Diet Coke dancing Waters thing are gonna be there too this weekend, (I hope accompanied by a tape of Claire De Lune) but really, this is all about the opportunity to look as White & Nerdy as possible, captaining the device that was supposed to “change the way cities are built” around an obstacle course in the best possible time. If there aren’t prizes, there damn well should be. I dunno, pocket protectors or something… Gold-plated 20-sided dice maybe...
The Scitech Spectacular is full of cool things to do beyond the Segway, like the Rinspeed Senso, a car that "senses the driver" and looks like the kind of thing you’d hop into to chase down people running away from Carousel. There’s a Hi-Tech (their spelling, not mine, some sort of marketing thing, I think) Sports and vehicles show, river education tours (Like, you get educated, not the river. The river was home-schooled and anyway, it don’t need your education, it don’t need your thought control), and all manner of other events, but allow me to reiterate: Ride A Freakin’ Segway. End of story.
Sound Bytes, 9 p.m., Wood Street Galleries, Dahntahn
Wood Street Galleries continues it’s Sound Bytes series, a mixture of Art and Music with Natura Nasa, who are described as sounding like “something like a nightmare and a flying dream”. Gotcha, I dig it. I love flying dreams, personally. Hell, I just enjoy dreams. Like… Anyone else have that dream where you see yourself standing in sort of sun-god robes on a pyramid, with a thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you? No?
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Saturday, October 14
St. Benedict The Moor/Epiphany Nationality Food Fest/Frankie Capri
2 p.m., Uptahn
This weeks winner of the prestigious “Longest Item Title” award…
I received the following important communique from Jody at Pittsburgh Dish…
The man, the myth, the legend, Frankie Capri is performing at the St. Benedict the Moor/Epiphany Food Fest this Saturday from 2-5. Heck, I thought he was dead. If you haven’t seen Frankie before, it’s a once in a lifetime experience. Ethnic food and the complete and utter lunacy of Mr. Capri. What’s not to like?
I couldn’t have said it better myself, which is probably why they’re what I like to call “writers” and I’m more of a scribbler. Or a typist with a gift for googling local events. Whichever. The Fest runs all weekend and also has a Tiki Lounge. One more thing, and I have saved the best for last: they will be serving free beer during the Steelers game on Sunday. Lemme say that again: FREE BEER. Do I have to draw you a drunken picture? ‘Cause if I do, it’ll be a charcoal rendering of Sienna Miller. In the style of Renoir, if you know what I mean. Yeah!
Speaking of which, Sienna, baby doll, you never wrote to me. What’s up wit dat? My sweet limey love muffin, you’re only in town for a couple more days, and we need to make the most of it. I can get you into Folinos, no problem. They know me there.
OUTrageous Bingo/Flaming Fall Frolic
6:30 p.m. and whenever, Goodwill Industries Building, Sahsside, then The Sideways 8 Club (aka 5801 Video Lounge) Shadyside
“Drinking For A Cause” makes a strong return this weekend with two events that serve as fundraisers for the Shepherd Wellness Community, a local AIDS outreach program. First on the fabulous docket is something called “OUTrageous Bingo”. Allow me to quote from the release: “A very VERY gay old time with a drag show at intermission.” I’m not sure about the booze level at this first one, since it’s at Goodwill, and I don’t think they’ve got a liquor license yet, but it’s located on the Sahsside, so it’s only a matter of time, really. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., games start at 7:30. $15 at the door. Tickets available in advance are $12 and can be purchased at:
A Pleasant Present
Banner Coin Exchange
Klavon’s Ice Cream
Tuscany Cafe
And after you’ve had your fill of giggling like Beavis and Butthead every time “O 69″ gets pulled from the old ball bucket, (I went to one of those Sunday Night Catholic Church Bingo bashes once, and there was an older lady there who had New Years Eve noisemakers just for when O 69 was pulled), head on up to the Ol’ Sideways 8 Club, which is real life is called the 5801 Video Lounge on Ellsworth (formerly New York, New York just to fully confuse the issue) for the "Flaming Fall Frolic," where you’ll enjoy $1 off all drinks, free appetizers and the piano stylings of Al Snyder.
Drink and Draw: Burlesque Style
5 p.m., Brillobox, Upper Larryville This one will give me the chance to brush up on my charcoal rendering techniques in advance of my session with Sienna. Brillobox is hosting drop-in model sessions for artists beginning in October, and this is the first one. How it works is, you pay a fee to get in, bring your art supplies, and draw (or paint) the models that will be on hand to pose for you. This session’s theme is burlesque, drawing inspiration from the vaudeville queens and their outrageous costumes. Short description: two models, one in feathers, the other in satin and Lace. No photography or oils, dry mediums and water-based paints acceptable. If the one wearing feathers looks at all like Sally Rand, let me know so I can get up there and propose marriage immediately. Any further questions, call them at 412.621.4900. (Thanks to Susan for sending this one in… ) .......................................................................................................................................... Sunday, October 15 Gold Diggers of 1933, 8 p.m., Regent Square Theater, Regent Square (Duh.) I ain’t sayin’ she a gold digger… This is a film that was shot in the five year period between the advent of talkies and the enforcement of the Hays Code, so it’s something of a groundbreaker and historical oddity. Filled with sex, money, power, it’s the story of how far a good girl can go before she becomes a bad girl. (Short answer: The Firehouse on a Saturday Night) The opening scene is chorus girls wearing giant gold coins. Sold. Long Ago And Far Away, 8:00 p.m., Manchester Craftsmens Guild Billed as “an original interactive performance created by Kim Nazarian of New York Voices”, Long Ago And Far Away doesn’t have anything to do with Star Wars, from what I can gather, but it still seems to be a good thing to do of a Sunday Evening, and the Steelers will be done by the time this starts. (Hell, they might be done done by the time this thing starts if the offense can’t get something going.) .......................................................................................................................................... Got an event planned? Would you like a whole flock of yinzers with disposable income to show up? Let Git Aht know by sending the electronic mail to gitaht@gmail.com.
Help support I heart PGH--Buy their nifty stuff here.
October 13, 2006 in Arts, Cool stuff, Film [1], Patrick Kent, Weekend Fun | Permalink
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Welcome to Pittsburgh, All Star game visitors. We're damn glad to have you. Nice town, this is. Dish is here to make your visit more enjoyable and, as a gesture of goodwill to you (or as some say around here, "yinz") out-of-towners, let us make this offer: Allow us to be your guide.
July 6, 2006 in All Star Game, Beer, Cool stuff, Food and Drink, News , Pirates, Sports Teams | Permalink
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by Christopher Arnott, Warhol guy .................................................................................................................. Reed lived in New York City in the early ‘60s, played acoustic guitar, wore denim, aped not just Dylan’s shades-and-jeans couture but his nasal voice and even his bleating harmonica style. And though it’s clear that Reed’s refreshingly rude awakening was largely his own doing (or a result of his collaborations/corruptions with established avant-gardist John Cale, or an electroshock side effect), Warhol may have been the guy who pushed his and the Velvets’ city-dwelling, street-dealing experimental pop-rock over the edge. For a former farmboy who cut his artistic teeth in a city surrounded by hills and Amish folk, Warhol oozed urbanity. I’m beginning to believe that he had more influence over the Velvets than he’s given credit for. His favorite songs of theirs was “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” and his sponsorship of the band came when they were establishing themselves not as popsmiths but as social hooligans whose elongated feedback jams would clear clubs. Warhol was a commercially inclined climber who designed department store windows and applied lessons from the industrial revolution to modern art. He was not a coffeehouse denizen; he trained his camera on skyscrapers and fallen high-society waifs. When he sucked the Velvet Underground into his world to soundtrack it, Maureen Tucker’s drum sound no longer seemed tribal; it was mechanical. And the band’s rough edges weren’t folky but edgy and spit-on-the-sidewalk confrontational. However it happened that Lou Reed slithered from Village bohemian poses to leather and sneers, Eric Andersen’s pale, bluesy and utterly empty rendition of “Pale Blue Eyes” (and, lest we forget, Cowboy Junkies’ cover of “Sweet Jane”) show how much better off we are thanks to this abrupt transformation. Patricia Wettig’s play My Andy apparently finds its own Warhol dichotomy: According to a Hartford Stage press release, “examines the complex relationship between the pop culture icon and his deeply religious, Old World mother.” You know, folk pop.
October 11, 2005 in Arts, Christopher Arnott, Cool stuff, Current Affairs, More Opinion, Observations, Of Course This Means Warhol, Opinion, Seen & Heard, Theater, Warhol | Permalink
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by Christopher Arnott, Warhol correspondent That’s the approved euphemism for the 600+ random boxes of Warholiana which were preserved and catalogued after the artist’s death. Don’t know what exactly’s in Dia’s portion of the stash, but generally we’re talking about ashtrays, salt shakers, kewpie dolls, keychains, and other amusing tchotckes that Warhol wasn’t inspired to paint or frame or otherwise purloin for his own art. So they remain unique art objects in themselves, pure kitsch that has been double-kitsched by virtue of being rubbed by a pop genie’s fingers. Andy’s was a Midas touch, a dross into gold transformation, worthy of a gallery retrospective. See the crap that Andy Warhol tossed in a box! Let’s hope the curators stop digging before they get to the dirt from his ancestors’ Pennsylvania farmland. The title of the exhibit is even more pathetically capitalistic. With “Through the Lens of Patronage,” Dia’s crowing about its longstanding support of Warhol and its gleeful acceptance of any new avenue of Warhol worship. This celebration of obsequious suckerdom is centered around repetitive paintings, filmed “screen tests” and wallpaper patterns. The show runs through next April at 3 Beacon St., New York, (845) 440-0100, www.diabeacon.org, and has already been highlighted in the New Yorker and elsewhere. Mrs. Dish grew up in Beacon, New York, once a decrepit factory town along the Hudson River in Dutchess County. Dia, which has added an element of cache, cash and Soho snootiness to the village, is located in an old Nabisco plant where Mrs. Dish's uncle Jim assembled Ritz cracker boxes (very Andy). Should you make the trip to this lovely township, please read Chronogram, a news & arts weekly published in Kingston, New York. Contact Dish as well, for an insider's guide to the area (you know, bars). ........................................................................................................................ It debuted to fanfare in 1972, had an even more successful run in the early 1980s following the publication of George Plimpton & Jean Stein’s oral history Edie, and had a celebrated 30th-anniversary DVD release (by Plexifilm) in 2002. Ciao! Manhattan is a better movie than it has any right to be. Sure, there’s nothing particularly original about its sit-and-mope, lives-of-the-bitch-and-flame-out scenario, but such stories never do go out of style (witness Gus Van Sant’s recent Cobain-drain). The amazing thing about the film is the willingness of co-directors/screenwriters John Palmer and David Weisman to accept Edie Sedgwick as an actual celebrity and movie star, not the distanced Warhol-filtered sardonic approximation of one. Maybe there’s hope for the Dia:Beacon gallery and its grab-bags yet; you just have to believe. But what got me grabbing Ciao! Manhattan off the shelf is not the anniversarEdie, but a vague memory that Allen Ginsberg had a cameo role in the thing. I’d just seen Ginsberg rear his ugly mug in PBS’ American Masters Bob Dylan documentary and was marveling at a what a social butterfly Buddhist he turned out to be. Besides his own poetry readings, you could find him on talk shows, fronting punk rock bands, posing for magazine spreads, and hovering around any film, book or comic strip based on the 1960s. Honestly, when did this guy ever find the time to cross his legs and mumble mantras? He seems an unlikely member of the Warhol circle, but of course there he was, just as he was with Beats, the hippies, the folkies, the West Coast rockers, the academics, the street artists, the journal editors, the fanzines, mainstream newspapers and late night radio. Ginsberg wasn’t a Zelig; he looked geekily out of place in all these milieus. I could use this space just as easily to chronicle the diffusion of Ginsberg in American culture as Warhol. But Andy had much better hair.
October 6, 2005 in Arts, Christopher Arnott, Cool stuff, Current Affairs, More Opinion, Opinion, Seen & Heard, Warhol | Permalink
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SALVO will hold their third annual Festival of the Salvage Arts at Construction Junction on Sat., Oct. 8 from noon to 10 p.m. and Sun., Oct. 9 from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $6 per person/$1 for children under 10. Art and recycling aficionados from all over will gather to celebrate using salvaged materials as inspiration for artistic creativity. The festival will feature two days of salvage art workshops, music, poetry, food and drink. There will be room to let your imagination run free and activities to inspire children and adults of all ages. Art has always had the ability to ignite passion and serve as a catalyst for change in society. In a culture where progress is consistent with gobbling up the earth's natural resources, we must create meaningful ways to improve our relationship with the land. With faith in this belief, SALVO was established over two years ago as a project of Construction Junction to foster a community of salvaged-based artists in Pittsburgh. With so much of Pittsburgh's infrastructure providing surplus material for a growing number of area artists, SALVO has an opportunity to make Pittsburgh a national center for the salvage arts. CONSTRUCTION JUNCTION is a nonprofit organization that promotes conservation through the reuse of building materials that would otherwise be discarded. While the majority of donated materials are sold to renovating homeowners, items that can’t be reclaimed for this purpose find life in the salvage arts. Just part of the line-up for this year's festival (all activities free with admission) will include: Artist workshops Art exhibit, auction and juried competition A salvage wear fashion show Live performances by Zany Umbrella Circus, Mark Dignam, the Steel Pan Combination Band, and more To volunteer your time or talents for the festival or to request additional information, individuals should email salvoarts@aol.com or phone Barbara Nicholas at 412-638-3390. All volunteers will receive a $15 store credit in gratitude for a four hour volunteer shift. Volunteers are needed for set-up, clean-up and to assist artists with their workshops. We also need volunteers on Friday October 7. As western Pennsylvania's first non-profit for used and surplus building materials, Construction Junction operates a retail store selling used, surplus and vintage building materials. Since its founding in 1999, Construction Junction has received more than 250,000 items donated by 2,300 individuals and companies. Construction Junction is located at 214 N. Lexington Street in Point Breeze.
October 6, 2005 in Arts, Cool stuff, Current Affairs, Rebuilding Pittsburgh | Permalink
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Words that rhyme with “Andy”: Handy, sandy, gandy (as in gandy dancer), bandy (as in bandy about), shandy (a British mix of soda and beer) candy and Hollywoodland. Then there’s the Dandy’s boas-and-nudity fashion sense, very Factory. Third, there’s the heroin chic and the laissez-faire attitude. Warhol’s a much greater muse to other rockers: Reed and Cale, obviously, who did a concept album about him, but also bands as diverse as the Cars, Super 8 and all those disco divas who got cover stories in Interview magazine.The Dandy Warhols, like the Mr. T Experience and even their Dig! rivals The Brian Jonestown Massacre, have a name which is ultimately distracting and misdirected. Sonically, they might as well be the Ddavid Hockneys, the Droy Lichtensteins or the Dleroy Neimans. .................................................................................................................................................... Last month I had the pleasure of talking with Peter Zaremba, lead singer and head hip-swiveler for New York’s power rock vindicators The Fleshtones. In the course of our discussion (portions of which appear in the Sept. 10 issue of the New Haven Advocate), guess who came up? “We knew Warhol to the degree that we played on this TV show he had, 15 Minutes. We were on the last show. A guy like him, who feigned not to know what was going on around him—so that he could function in the world—really knew what was going on.” The Fleshtones’ memorable collaboration with Ian McKellan, who reads a Shakespearean sonnet to their impromptu musical accompaniment—was an outtake from that broadcast. ..................................................................................................................................................... “I believe in bluejeans too.” “The ones made by Levi Strauss are the best-cut, best-looking pair of pants that have ever been designed by anybody. Nobody will ever top the original bluejeans. They can’t be bought old, they have to be bought new and they have to be worn by the person. To get that look. And they can’t be phoney [sic] bleached or phoney anything. You know that little pocket? It’s so crazy to have that little pocket, like for a twenty-dollar gold piece.” “French bluejeans?” “No, American are the best. Levi Strauss. With the little copper buttons. Studded for evening wear.” “How do you keep them clean, B?” “You wash them.” “Do you iron them?” “No, I put fabric softener. The only person who irons them is Geraldo Rivera.” The talk of bluejeans was making me very jealous. Of Levi and Strauss. I wish I could invent something like bluejeans. Something to be remembered for. Something mass." “I want to die with my bluejeans,” I heard myself say. --from The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, Band 1: How Andy Puts His Warhol On (Harcourt BraceJovanovich, 1975) Alas, Warhol did not die with his jeans on, nor his boots. Perhaps some enterprising medical-outfit designer will be inspired to silkscreen a soup can onto surgery patients’ gowns.
July 06, 2006
MLB picks New Yorkers over locals as All Star Game guides
Pittsburghers not savvy enough to point out interesting and entertaining things about Pittsburgh.
Dish is given to understand that many of the locals who volunteered with Major League Baseball to help guide guests around Pittsburgh have been replaced by New Yorkers with some sort of friendly relationship to MLB officials. You know, it's one of those situations where the MLB folks are throwing chums and underlings a bone by flying them out here for the game, putting them up in a hotel and such. Dish is told they will guide visitors by using a little cheat sheet crafted for that purpose. Good for them. Not so hot for you.
Be assured, you will be sent to one of three places: Station Square (Don't go—except to take a Just Ducky Tours ride—the place stinks. Though it does have a store dedicated to socks. Good times!), Carson Street on the South Side (which can be fun ... if you're under 30 or looking to sleep with someone under 30. Good times!), or the Strip District (Clubs and such. It isn't what it sounds like. Though there is one of those places on Penn Avenue. Great times!).
There's a lot more to our fine little town than that. Drop us a line at editor@pittsburghdish.com. We'll suggest a restaurant that's not Morton's or Ruth's Chris (both are fine, but don't you want to try something local?), a bar that's not a teenybopper/frat-jackass haunt, or a diversion that's not sanctioned by MLB. Dish knows things. We could probably suggest some shopping as well (no sales tax on clothes
in Pennsylvania).
A few Pittsburgh ground rules:
* There may be french fries on your salad. Don't be alarmed, we do that here.
* If you drive, you will get lost. Downtown's shaped like a triangle and the city fathers tried to lay it out as a grid. This begets some confusion. The rest of the city is sick with hills and rivers, which can be disorienting. Just ask Mike Pinto who came here from
Connecticut for Mr. and Mrs. Dish's nuptials.
* Turn signals are rarely used.
* A local will almost always help you if you get in trouble, lost, etc. If you insult the Steelers, however, you may be pummeled.
* In terms of local beer, Penn Brewery's products are invariably excellent. Iron City isn't so hot, but truth be told it's no worse than Bud, so give it a shot. Try a Straub if you can. Or East End Brewing.
* We've had some bad heroin going around lately. Bring your own.
* Yes, the accent is silly. What of it?
Thanks, and be in touch. We're glad to help.October 11, 2005
Of course this means Warhol...
From Hartford, Conn. to the Velvet Underground.
Hartford Stage, a major regional theater in Connecticut, just held their annual Brand:NEW Festival of New Works, and one of the highlights was a new script about our Warhol called My Andy, penned by former thirtysomething actress Patricia Wettig. I didn’t attend the reading, but Holly Woodlawn did, of course, as the guest of honor at a post-reading party entitled DRAMA! (What level of the celebrity netherworld have you entered when you are reduced to being seen at parties which are theatrical recreations of parties you were at over 35 years earlier?) The Sept. 17 bash attempted to combine aspects of Warhol’s Factory life with his later, sparklier Studio 54 side; it was held in what was once the landmark Hartford department store G. Fox (in photo), and an actual Studio 54 DJ, Nicky Siano, manned the turntables.
Haven’t seen Martin Scorsese’s Dylan doc yet, but was reflecting happily that Lou Reed made it onto PBS’ American Masters series years before Mr. Zimmerman. Then I remembered what a Dylan dilettante Lou was on those demo recordings which fleshed out the Velvet Underground box set. And then I heard iconic Greenwich Village ‘60s folkie Eric Andersen’s cover of Reed’s “Pale Blue Eyes” on Andersen’s new all-covers CD Waves: Great American Song Series Vol. 2. And I thought to myself, who do we thank for stripping all those annoying folk pretensions out of Lou Reed?October 06, 2005
Of course this means Warhol...
Cheese & Edie.
Yard sale season is over, but nobody’s told Dia:Beacon in New York (in photo). As part of its current exhibit “Dia’s Andy: Through the Lens of Patronage,” the gallery is displaying the contents of four Andy Warhol “time capsules.” 
This waning year marks the 40th anniversary of the rise of Edie Segwick from society girl to Warhol superstar. Tennessee Williams and Lester Persky made the introductions, bringing Edie to a Warhol Factory event in 1965. Her crowning achievement, the feature film Ciao! Manhattan, was begun in 1967, revisited in 1970 and edited throughout 1971, the year that Edie died from over-Edie-ing. Junk yard art fest this weekend
Please recycle this press release after reading. September 30, 2005
Of course this means Warhol...
Landy sakes! The Dandy Warhols have a new album out! The band has about as much to do with the artist for whom they are named as the Rolling Stones have to do with the poetry of Robert W. Service, but there are a few slight connections worth mentioning. First, the band’s debt to the Velvet Underground resonates in long jams like “Love is the New Awful” and “Everyone is Totally Insane.” 
Here’s the real stuff all those fashion journos should have been planting in their features about the Warhol Foundation licensing Andy’s name and designs for a new line of Levi’s Jeans:
September 30, 2005 in Arts, Christopher Arnott, Cool stuff, Current Affairs, Fashion, Local Celebrities, Music [1], Of Course This Means Warhol, Seen & Heard, Warhol | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 29, 2005
Attack Theatre in knots
Set designer Abigail Hart Gray wants you to network.
But not in the business suit cheese 'n crackers kind of way. The fiber artist has designed a curtain for Attack Theatre's upcoming production of Games of Steel (Oct. 7 through 16) which requires the knotting of strips of fabric to resemble, or represent, steel chain links.
"It is an easy weave," says Hart Gray. "Sort of like some friendship bracelets kids make at camp."
The artist welcomes any interested needlers to participate in a "training session" this Saturday (Oct. 1) at 10 a.m. at the Attack Theatre studio (4805 Penn Ave., 412-441-8444).
Games of Steel "combines the athletic dance of Attack Theatre, steel sculptures from Red Star Ironworks and original live music." Performances will be held at the former Dykema Rubber Band Factory.
Photo: Sarah Higgins, Design courtesy of Rob Henning Design.
September 29, 2005 in Cool stuff, News , Seen & Heard, Theater | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 28, 2005
Wood fixes willie in Newfoundland
Dish is tending to Dish business today (i.e. begging people for ads, hiring sales reps, feeding the cat) but we felt it our duty to leave you with this.
The Willie Stargell statue at PNC Park will never look the same.
(P.S. If you'd like to sell ads for on a commission basis, please contact editor@pittsburghdish.com. You must be over 21, have a valid driver's license and like to drink beer.)
September 28, 2005 in Cool stuff, Current Affairs, News , Pic of the Week, Seen & Heard, Tee Hee | Permalink | Comments (0)
September 12, 2005
The War Streets Up Close
Jeff Glagowski saw different kind of beauty on the North Side. Far beyond the historical and architectural perfection on display during the Mexican War Streets Hour & Garden Tour held yesterday.
The Connecticut-based graphic designer, photographer and friend slipped away from Dish headquarters one morning three weeks ago with no compass, tourist map or pre-conceived notions about the Big Bad North Side. With camera in hand, he wandered around the neighborhood in search of nothing in particular. About 45 minutes later Glagowski returned with images of things that may seem ugly, mundane or offensive. It didn't take him long to discover the beautiful imperfections of an imperfect neighborhood. And find humor along the way.
What follows is Glagowsi's photo essay of the North Side.
All photos by Jeff Glagowski© are available for purchase. Contact him at JRGlagowski@comcast.net
September 12, 2005 in Arts, Cool stuff, Current Affairs, Observations, Photography, Profiles, Seen & Heard | Permalink | Comments (1)
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